A Message About CPGN

Hello! It's been a while, hasn't it? Apparently, I still get 200-300 views a month which is incredible considering this blog is slowly decaying into nothingness. Today, I'm going to explain why I abandoned CPGN and what's next for this site.

In December of 2017, I joined Gamelust - an established video game news and reviews site that is frequently updated. I write there. I write a lot. You should check it out and you can do so here. Because I'm busy writing there, It's been hard to here hence why in February I made the silent decision to stop publishing content here completely. I've also made the decision to keep this blog up because I want to preserve my terribly short writing for anyone who wishes to trace my origins.

I'll still visit every now and then but I strongly recommend you visit Gamelust if you want to see decent content from me or decent content from some of the most talented writers I've worked with.

Thank you to the 24,316 people who discovered this blog and thank you to those who continue to.

How Youtube Has Become One Big Reality Show

Last night at 2 AM in the morning, I called my friends on Discord and we all sat down to watch the Buddhism Hotline, a Youtube show where three 'buddhists' take calls from listeners who can become a buddhist after chanting a mantra given to them. The show first appeared online 2 years ago and ever since 4chan has been constantly raiding the live stream with offensive slurs and pro-gay comments (which is wrong according to the host Jonathan Hills). 

Of course they play along with it since they get donations almost every minute. Excited for season 5 of the show, me and my friends watched as the hosts fought amongst each other, desperately trying to keep the show as kid-friendly as possible however 2 hours in a user by the name of Truebuddhist donated $5 (when you donate you get to enter a something which is read out by text to voice). Suddenly the show went offline. Confused, I went to the official Discord server to see what had happened. 

According to the moderators TrueBuddhist had leaked the real names of the show hosts. It was then I reliased that Jonathan Hills, Mathias Miles and Gregory Pecks were all fake names.

I thought about it and the more I did I noticed how there was a massive amount of these reality shows on Youtube. Ricegum, The Paul Brothers and KSI are the best examples of this trend and it makes me wonder if Youtube is becoming one massive tv show that gets new episodes every day from multiple different angles. You've got the main contributors (like the names mentioned before) who record the footage of their daily lives. Then you have the reactors like Keemstar and H3H3 who react to what is happening, giving their views on the situations.

 

This kind of Youtube is racking up millions of views. Of course you still have other content like gaming and memes which still get views but nowhere near the amount Jake Paul gets for putting his brothers dog up for sale on Ebay. 

Buddhist Hotline is obviously not part of the reality show Youtube has created but has instead made its own and it makes them enough money to keep it going.

YouTube Star Angry Grandpa Dies at the Age of 67

A famous YouTube star Angry Grandpa has died at the age of 67.

Charles Marvin Greene Jr who was notorious for his for his videos smashing items of value, Angry Grandpa amassed 3.4 million subscribers. Yesterday a video was uploaded to the channel titled RIP Angry Grandpa. 

In this video the son of Charles explained how his father passed away after beating a short battle with cancer in 2016. The family then found out the next year that Angry Grandpa had been diagnosed with cancer again but unfortunately this time he was not able to beat it. He passed away on December 10th 2017.

Memorial videos and tweets have poured in with famous YouTubers like Keemstar and Boogie making videos. Our condolences are with the family of Charles Greene.

Help Save the Internet

The internet is a free place. People can express themselves freely and its often how people make money but what if the government started to commercialise the internet? 

That is the situation that is happening right now. The head of FCC Ajit Pai is about to pass a law in December that will end Net Neutrality. The very law that has kept the internet from becoming a capitalist dystopia.

Net Neutrality stops internet providers from being able to accept money from companies to slow up their service. For example Facebook could pay more to Comcast just for Facebook to be faster than other websites. It could also lead to providers using packages, blocking out websites or slowing them down.

Fortunately we can stop the government going through with their plans by writing to congress. Even if you don't live in the US this is extremely important as it could easily become a worldwide issue.

Support the internet here.

10 Games we Recommend to pick up in the Autumn Sale

The games on this list were based off editors choice and uniqueness.

The Autumn sale this year has brought us many games for a low price. here's a list of the top 10 games we recommend to buy:

10. Car Mechanic Simulator 2015

Yes we know, what an odd game to kick our top 10 list off with however this game pleasantly surprised me and at £1.49 it's a steal. Fixing cars has never been as fun and even though the 2018 edition came out recently this version stands out for its easy to learn gameplay and modern UI. You can get Car Mechanic Simulator 2015 here.

9. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege

After the recent free weekend Rainbow Six has seen an increase in players and with the basic edition costing only £5.99 It's a price you can't pass up. 

Rainbow Six Siege pits you against other players in a 5v5 match where teamwork and thinking is key. As the defense you must protect the room where the item of interest (whether that be a hostage or a bomb) is hidden from the offense team. Use barricades and hold out for as long as you can or kill the enemy team. 

As offence you must infiltrate the building and defuse the bomb or rescue the hostage. At the start of the round you are given less than a minute to find enemies and the item of interest with drones. The defense team can shoot your drones however.

Rainbow Six has been a known tactical shooter for nearly two decades however siege is no doubt the best installment in the series so far. You can get the game here.

8. Unexplored
A game that we've been covering since its early days, Unexplored is a game that takes procedural dungeons to the next level. Countless traps, weapons, items, enemies and levels all make the game unique every run and with a neat character creator it has everything you ever need from a roguelike RPG. 

Since our beginnings last year we've been praising Unexplored and we honestly can't recommend it enough. You can get Unexplored here.

7. Slime Rancher
Ever wondered what it would be like to care for cute slimes on a farm? Slime Rancher lets you do just that and with a 33% discount it's a great game to wind down with. You take the role of Beatrix LeBeau, a young rancher who traveled from earth to the far, far range to start a new life looking after slimes.

You can get Slime Rancher here.

6. Borderlands 2
Shoot and loot Borderlands 2 is hands down the best game in the Borderlands series. The game takes you to Pandora once again and pits you against all sorts of enemies. Play as 4 (+2 DLC) characters with millions of procedural guns.

You can get Borderlands 2 here.

5. Guts and Glory
Guts and Glory is effectively Happy Wheels in 3d and it's great. We did a review a few weeks ago and gave it a solid 10 for its addictive gameplay. There really is no explanation for this game so we thought we'd put a video here:

You can get Guts and Glory here.

4. Payday 2 Ultimate Edition
Payday 2 is the only heist simulator you'll ever need. Customize your heister and take him/her through countless heists all the way from a basic bank robbery to a skydive from a plane. This game has it all and the Payday 2 Ultimate Edition includes all DLCs for a mere price of £15 in the sale.

You can get Payday 2 Ultimate Edition here.

3. Counter Strike: Condition Zero
For years Counter Strike has been a world wide success and to this day people still play the old Counter Strike to this day and for only 69p it's never been a better time to relive those old memories of rushing B.

You can get Counter Strike: Condition Zero here.

2. Streets of Rogue
GTA meets roguelike in this 2d RPG. Pick the playstyle you want and progress through procedural cities by doing missions. The game has many characters (and a character creation system) each with their own skills.

You can get Streets of Rogue here.

1. Windward
It was hard to choose between this and Streets of Rogue however in the end Windward came out on top. Explore procedural islands with towns that grow corresponding to how you interact with them. Trade goods or do quests or fight against (or with) factions and pirates. Complete with RPG mechanics Windward gives you the best adventure on the seven seas for a cheap price.

You can get Windward here.

So that's it! What did you think of our list? We sure missed a lot of games however that's what the comments section is for! Don't forget our second annual CPGN awards will take place on the 31st December of this year.

Steam Autumn Sale brings Discounts on Thousands of Titles

The Steam autumn sale has officially begun with near 6,000 titles having discounts. 

Along with the sale comes the second annual Steam awards. Gamers can vote for games to nominate in 13 categories (and one they could make themselves) and receive a badge at the end. The games that were picked the most would be sent to the finals in December where players would vote once more from a short selection of games. The same is happening this year and will surely be an event you won't want to miss.

The sale runs through till the 28th November here. In the meantime check out our top 10 games we recommend to pick up in the sale.

World of Warships comes to Steam

Wargaming.net, the people behind the hit free to play World of Tanks have brought their naval installment to Steam. The game has been out prior since 2015 but the move to Steam on the 16th November has already seen some issues. 

Players have reported issues of not being able to log in with their Wargaming.net accounts and it was not long before the devs responded that new accounts had to be made and all progress on the standalone client was not transferable. This of course made many users angry and they took to Steam reviews giving the game an overall mixed rating.

Wargaming have released a statement in the form of a Steam forum post. The post is titled frequently asked questions. This is what they have to say on the account issue:

Q Can I use my Wargaming.net account?
A: Unfortunately, not. World of Warships wasn’t initially designed as a cross-platform project. That means that if you've played the game already you would want to keep using the original client. If you log in using Steam, you automatically create a new game account, which binds to your Steam account. Important note: all updates to the game installed using Steam client will also be downloaded and installed through Steam. Same is true for the original client: you can not update a Game Center or launcher installation through Steam and vice versa.

Receiver Review

CPGN was given a key For Receiver from Wolfire Games.

Receiver is a short and sweet FPS at heart and was originally created for a 7 day FPS challenge. The premise of the game is simple; Collect all eleven tapes and you've completed the game but acquiring all tapes is not easy. You have to manually reload the gun and we don't mean pressing R.

There are 3 guns in the game. A revolver, a P250 and a Glock. Each of them have a different reload style. For example for the revolver you have to open the cylinder, empty the chamber from the leftovers of the fired bullets then load the new ones in. Help is given at the side with a list of hotkeys. 

To add to the difficulty of manual reload, enemies can kill you in one shot which means that the game is all about reaction times. The tapes themselves reveal the weak spots of enemies amongst other recordings explaining the lore of the game. There are two types of  enemies; Drones and turrets.

Overall Receiver delivers a challenging yet fun experience and for less than $5 it will keep you entertained with its rogue like charm.

Also you can watch me try to beat the game every Friday for the next few months here.

CoinPot and the Rise of the Cryptocurrency

Right now i'm earning dogecoin. I use an online mining service called CoinPot which allows me to trade my CPU power for either Bitcoin, Dogecoin or Litecoin. These are all forms of Cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin has become recognized in the stock market as a tradeable commodity and is being used everyday. Most online stores accept Bitcoin and this all happened in the space of just under a decade.

But in order to acquire Bitcoin you either need to mine it or buy it which can cost up to $2,000 however there is another option, faucets. This is where you complete Captchas every so often and claim a set amount of satoshi (which is what Bitcoins are made up of). This will not make as much as mining but all faucets are linked up to a website called CoinPot. From here you can manage what you've made and withdraw it to a Bitcoin wallet. The faucets themselves are a waste of time but the mining option of CoinPot can gain a hefty profit if you have a decent CPU. 

Overall it's a great way to make some extra cash for online-related purposes. You can check it out here.

Guts and Glory Review

CPGN was given a key For Guts and Glory from HakJak Productions and tinybuild.

Remember Happy Wheels? It was a fun game about getting your character (or characters, depending on who you chose). Traps tried to stop you from reaching your goal and over time thanks to its addictive mechanics and promotion from Youtubers like Jacksepticeye Happy Wheels became a sensational hit. Today I may have found the new Happy Wheels; This is Guts and Glory.

Guts and Glory is a game made by HakJak and published by tinybuild. It is a casual racing indie game. The goal of every level is simple; Get to the end of the level in the fastest time possible but it's easier said than done. Traps are in your way to try and stop you. Crossbows, cannons and spikes are just some of the things you will have to deal with when going through a typical level in Guts and Glory

The game takes place on a vehicle. So far there are 7 playable characters however some levels are restricted to using only 1 or 2 but sometimes you can use all of them (especially in workshop maps). The controls feel nice and responsive which surprised me as most new games today fail to give that experience; Did I mention this game is in early access? 

The game gives you an option to play or create. You can select from five official campaigns with roughly 5-10 levels each. Completing these will give you a place on the leaderboard depending on how fast you've completed it. There have been people who have completed the level in 0 seconds and this could only mean one thing, hackers. This ruins the whole point of scores and will need to be addressed before launch.

The game has a questionable UI however as it feels very basic with its bland and standard white box. The graphics on the other hand are very good and lean towards the style of Goat Simulator and Rust.

Now the best thing about this game is the workshop. Users can create levels and share them to the Steam Workshop. The in game Workshop browser is a feature I appreciate and makes up for the bland UI. Speaking of user-made levels the level editor is very easy to learn and anyone can make a decent level even without tutorials. New levels are uploaded daily and with over 2,000 already uploaded this game will keep you entertained for a very long time.

To conclude:

Pros:
Great steering mechanics
Well-thought community levels
Good selection of vehicles
Hats

Cons: 
Hackers ruin the leaderboards
UI is simple
Not many achievements

Final score: 10/10 

Solid gameplay with some great mechanics.   

Steam Link at an Incredible $1 Price but there's a Catch

Steam has made a surprise decision to price their Steam Link at only $1 but there's a catch.

The ICEY bundle gives you the option to buy the game ICEY which is just under $10 and with it you get the Steam Link which means you can't buy just the Steam Link which is normally $40.

Regardless it's still a great offer and with shipping it comes to around £15 for the UK which means you get a game and a console for cheap.

If you don't know what a Steam Link is it's exactly what it says on the tin. The box links up with your computer via Ethernet and streams games to your TV. All you need is a decent internet and either the Steam, Xbox One or Xbox 360 controller. You can get the link here.

CS:GO Gets a Revamp of Dust 2

Today an update for CS:GO was released that brings a retextured version of the map, De_Dust 2. 

The modern version of the popular Counter Strike map had been avaliable in a public test branch this week but it made its way into the game today.

Along with the remake the update contained a few changes fixing issues primarily about sound.

Humble Bundle has been Brought by IGN

Yes, you're reading that title correctly. Ziff Davies has acquired Humble Bundle through IGN. Although this won't make any major changes this might be better off for Humble Bundle as IGN is a big company who can provide support for the Humble Bundle team however IGN have announced they want to keep Humble separate from their editors.

Jeffery Rosen, CEO of Humble Bundle released this statement, "I can't think of a better partner than IGN to help Humble Bundle continue our quest. This could mean that the company was suffering financially although no details on how much they were brought for has been revealed yet.

For now the site hasn't changed and you can still check out the Humble Endless RPG Land bundle which features all three main Borderlands games for less than $10 among other great games.

Help us Beat Cancer

We've partnered with Cancer research UK to help beat cancer. Donate to our page here to help the fight against cancer. All profits go to Cancer Research and in return we are going to be streaming every week from now up until Christmas to show our support.

Our channel can be found here.

A New Overwatch 'Project' is in the Works

Tonight the new Overwatch Halloween event drops but last night a position was listed on job websites at Blizzard for an artist intern. The interesting part about this is that they are looking for some one "knowledge and understanding" of the Overwatch universe. 

Speculation has begun that Blizzard are working on a new Overwatch experience. Some believe that a mobile game will be on its way while others have said that a whole new spin off game is being developed. Another popular theory is that this job is creating a campaign mode for Overwatch.

Either way the job is only temporary (hence why they are employing interns) and will take place in the summer of 2018. Until then you can check out the Halloween Terror event running through until the 1st of November.

Celebrating One Year of CPGN

Okay so this is about a month late but back in August of 2016 CPGN was founded. Since then we've grown from a hobby into profession. This is our accomplishments:

186 articles to date
25 games reviewed
1 interview
1 CPGN awards
14 GFMSL articles
34 weekly roundups

It's no secret we haven't been posting articles in the past few months but this is about to change. This article will go through what's to come and will clear up some confusion you may have about social media accounts etc.

Reviews
Since our first review of Unexplored I have been getting an endless stream of keys being given for review purposes. This means it's hard to keep on top of all the reviews. From now to Christmas most of my efforts will be focused on writing reviews however I will release them over time. Below is the list of games that I still have to review:

Streets of Rogue
Fur Up
Prime Arena
Balancity
Dog Gone Golfing
Legends of Azulgar
Sudden Strike 4
Gunducky Industries
Gun-Running War Dogs
Emmerholt: Prologue
Biosupremacy
Bohemian Killing
Darknet
Spectrum
My Mom is a Witch
Cranga!: Harbor Frenzy
Techwars Online 2
Operation Warcade VR
Tokyo 42
Deceit
Exit
War for the Overworld
Jump Stars
Team Racing League
Offensive Combat: Redux!
Myworld
Don't Open the Doors!
A Quiver of Crows
Woodle Tree 2: Worlds
Dungetris
Fall of Civilization 
Pixel-Warfare: Pro
Fatal Theory
Optika
Drive Megapolis
Metrico+
Zombie City Defense 2
Last Will
Ray Gigant
Gone in November
Looterkings
Crawlers and Brawlers 

This list is quite big as you can see but I would like to stress that these reviews will take time to make and I will be producing normal news in between these reviews.

Social Media Accounts
Over the past few months we've been trying to drop out of Triple Monitor Gaming but joint accounts made it difficult. As a result I've made a new Twitter account and a Discord server is on the way.

Quality of Content
There's no doubt that the quality of my articles have increased since I first started however this doesn't mean they're perfect. Every year this blog will improve, and you'll be part of it.

The Original Star Wars Battlefront 2 now has Multiplayer Again

Disney made a surprising move this Monday by updating the classic Star Wars Battlefront 2 to enable multiplayer once more. 

The game is now registered on Steam under the name Star Wars Battlefront 2 (Classic, 2005) in an effort for the game not to be mixed with the soon to be launched Star Wars Battlefront 2. 

Along with a name change was an update that reinstates multiplayer, a feature that's been missing from Battlefront 2 for quite a while now. The announcement came in the form of a Steam discussion post that reads:

Star Wars fans rejoice! Multiplayer support has returned for Battlefront II. Now you can draft your friends to the 501st legion and join up to 64 other players in a heated online battle for control of the galaxy.

The post has over 6,000 up votes and near 4,000 comments.

Some if not most people have been having trouble with getting the multiplayer. Constant time outs and connection errors are ruining players experiences.

It's unclear whether Disney will continue to update the original Battlefront 2 however if you want to experience a taste of the new sequel you can play the open beta until the 9th here.

Fortnite is getting a Battle Royale Mode and its Attracting Attention

This week PUBG creators Bluehole Studios have criticised Epic Games of 'copying' Player Unknown Battle Grounds.

Fortnite is a co-op sandbox survival game but next it will be getting a battle roayle mode available to everyone for free. This game mode is very similar to PUBG and even has you get dropped from the sky into the map

Bluehole's VP Chang Han Kim published this statement: "After listening to the growing feedback from our community and reviewing Fornite Battle Royale's gameplay for ourselves, we are concerned that Fortnite may be replicating the experience for which PUBG is known."

This statement raises the question whether Bluehole Studios will take legal action but EPIC have not responded to the situation.

Gearbox CEO Says Borderlands 3 is not Something that can be "Just Cooked up Overnight"

Borderlands 3 is no secret at this point but Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox came out this week about the status of development.

Randy Pitchford spoke with IGN about if Borderlands 3 was coming he said that he "the easiest thing in the world would be for us to churn out a lot of Pre-Sequels". 

Fans have started speculating that Borderlands 3 will release coincide the new claptrap toy designed by Todd McFarlane. If this is true then Borderlands 3 will be set for a spring 2018 release which is already mentioned in the 2K financial report.

You can check out the video and interview here.

Steam Blocked by Malaysian Government

The government has blocked Steam after a game was released letting you fight Jesus.

The game, Fight of Gods was deemed 'offensive' and in result the Salleh Said keruak (Malaysia's communications and media minister) requested for the game to be removed in a day or "further actions would be taken"

The game was not taken down and therefore Steam was blocked in Malaysia. On September 8th Steam removed Fight of Gods from the country's Steam store and it was unblocked.

The publishers of Fight of Gods came out and said they were not contacted by any officials to remove it beforehand.

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