Monday, December 31, 2012

Interview with ALEXROCKS911!

Greetings Roblox News readers! Today I bring you the second gift interview. Today I caught up with ALEXROCKS911 and talked to him about the 2012 Giftsplosion! Enjoy!

alexrocks911

1) Out of all the gifts released this year, which do you believe was most worth it, regarding the achievement needed? 

I think the "High Frequency Trading Gift" was most worth it.

2) How many gifts did you obtain in total this year? How many did you buy and how many did you earn through the gift achievement? 

There was 9 gifts. I got 7 gifts. I earned all of the gifts that I have.

3) Which gift do you think was the easiest to obtain bar the ROBLOX Newshound Gift?

The "Festival Gift of Group Fundraising" was the easiest.

4) Which gift do you believe had the best item inside this year?

I think the "High Frequency Trading Gift" had the best item. "Profit Vision Goggles" came out of it.

 5) Before the Hollywood Shutter Shades came out of the Razzle Dazzle Hollywood Star Gift. What were your ideas of the items that might have lay inside? 

I thought it might have been a trophy, shades, or some kind of ROBLOX Director's hat.

6) What was your favorite gift to earn this year? Why? 

 My favorite gift to earn this year was the "Razzle Dazzle Hollywood Star Gift" because it was the most challenging. I would have the "High Frequency Trading Gift" as my favorite but it was pretty obvious because it was given out how to get it sometime in the ROBLOX Blog. Everyone had so many good guesses of how to get the Razzle Dazzle Hollywood Star Gift. 

7) What was your favorite gift item of all time on ROBLOX? 

 My favorite gift of all time was a Halloween 2012 Gift. The name of the gift was, "Surly Gift of Sorcus II : Still Surly" and I got it. It was 777 robux and a "Sorcus' Chair" came out of it. The Sorcus' Chair looks boss and is boss. I like it.

8) Do you enjoy completing tasks to earn gifts? What type of task is your favorite? 

Yes, I enjoyed completing tasks to earn gifts. I enjoyed getting the Razzle Dazzle Hollywood Star Gift. It was a pretty tough challenge but I earned it.

9) Overall, do you feel that the gifts were more or less expensive this year compared to 2011? 

I personally think they were expensive. Especially that the "Coolest Gift" was 40,000 robux and the 2011 big gift was 35,000 robux.

10) If you were to design a texture for a gift released Christmas 2013, what would it look like? 

It would be a light blue gift box and would have blue snowflakes and Christmas trees on it. The bow on the top of the gift would be colored red or green.


-Arbirator
Editor of Roblox News

Gear Review: Korblox Flying Oblivion Horn

Hello, Pajke here with a review about the Korblox Flying Oblivion Horn




This gear was added to the catalog on Thursday, 12/27/2012. Honestly I was surprised, since it wasn't friday, but it's a good item nonetheless.



Abilities: Practically, what this item does is call forth a personal army of undead skeleton birds. Upon activation of the gear by clicking it, your character blows the horn, summoning five Korblox Wraiths. The birds, shoot purple fireballs at any approaching enemy. Leaving the gear equipped will give a bonus to the birds damage and fire speed. So, 15 damage without the gear equipped, and 25 damage with it. You can control the movement of the birds , and they can even slow your enemies. They last for a full minute, and then fly away. Easily countered by items such as speed coil, or items that make you fly7/10



Appearance: The gear itself looks like a trumpet with a few spiky enhancements. The inside of the horn is blue, and it has a few ice spikes on it. Not really much to say. The birds however, they are beautiful. Just look at that glorious creature. Blue glowing eyes on a skeleton is always creepy. Purple fire matches it perfectly. Just like on the gear it has ice spikes on it's back. It's wings are well made, but in my opinion it could use a bit more fire on the edges. It also has a tail. 8/10





Pricing: Icy Arctic Fowl and the Phoenix give you one bird for 500 robux. This gives you five times the amount of birds, for twice the price. Other comparison is the Korblox Skeleton Wraith which came out of a 2012 Halloween gift and it costed 1000 robux, it only gives you one skeleton bird while this horn gives you x5 for the same price. So this is a pretty good price for this item. 10/10

Overall I'll give this gear an 8/10, it's very good and worth the buy. 

Fun fact: The texture and mesh of this item were uploaded by an account called SquareWoot.


Sunday, December 30, 2012

Double Decker Gift of Roblox News Fan!

Greetings gift collectors! The Double Decker Gift of Roblox News Fan has been released to commemorate the support, you - the fans, have given us over this past year. Solely down to the fans, we have reached 449,317 all time page views and have smashed our page view record of 2011. As a little token of thanks, please take this collectable gift which can be shown off to others in years to come. It will be on-sale until the new year.



We hope you all had a great Christmas with your family and friends and wish you a happy new year! We would love for your continued support of our blog and encourage you to continue posting on the group wall and the comments sections of our articles and pages. Your suggestions and criticisms are very welcome and are a key to our success. 

We will be hiring new staff for the new year, so keep your eyes peeled for posts announcing vacancies. 

Also, a new contest will be launched some time in January so make sure to look out for that! 

Thanks,

-Arbirator
Editor of Roblox News. 


Interview with BlazingxD!

Welcome to the first gift interview of 2012! Today I talked with BlazingxD an avid LMaDer. Enjoy!

BlazingxD

1) Out of all the gifts released this year, which do you believe was the hardest to obtain bar the Coolest Gift? 

I think that the Lucky Gift of Sevens was the hardest gift to obtain without buying. I could see everyone in the LMaD forums overpaying to get a #7, as they didn't already have one. Some were giving like 10k items for a 2k item with a serial number of #7.

 2) How many gifts did you obtain in total this year? How many did you buy and how many did you earn through the gift achievement? 

 I achieved all nine Christmas Gifts this year. Out of the nine gifts which I achieved, two of them were achieved and seven of them were bought. I didn't really take risks by relying that to obtain a certain gift you had to do that thing. Many people tried to achieve the #7 gift as they thought it would cost 7777 R$, but it actually cost 777 R$. I'm glad that I didn't take risks for that reason.

 3) What do you think the easiest gift was to obtain this year was? Why?

I think the ROBLOX Newshound Gift was the easiest gift to obtain this year; it was kind of like a free gift for everyone. ROBLOX told everyone how to achieve it for free. If that wasn't enough, then everyone was helping each other out on their party chats, PMs, forums and games!

4) Which gift do you believe had the best texture this year? 

I loved the Coolest Gift's texture, it was quite simple but nice. I think that would be the best texture this year.

 5) Before the Dual Illumina came out of the Coolest Gift. What were your ideas of the items that might have lay inside? 

I was definitely thinking that a HAT would of came inside; probably a Black Iron Domino Crown, the Blizzeria or a Red Ice Crown.

6) What was your favourite gift this year? Why? 

My favourite gift was the Coolest Gift as it was the most surprising gift. Some people liked it, some people hated it. I'm one of the people who love it!

7) What was your favourite gift of all time on ROBLOX? Why? 

I haven't been on ROBLOX for long. I joined on another account in 2010 for about a day, then left. A year later in 2011, I checked it back again with this account, and I decided to stay. My favourite gift of all time on ROBLOX was the 'Dominator'. A Dominus Messor came inside, and I loved the colour schemes, textures and gradients that ROBLOX used with it.

 8) Do you enjoy completing tasks to earn gifts? What type of task is your favourite? 

I love tasks where you don't know what you have to do. It's a mystery finding out, and you have a sense of self-gratitude when you do find out!

 9) Overall, do you feel that the gifts were more or less expensive than those in 2011?

I think that the gifts were more expensive than in 2011. This was probably because ROBUX is becoming easier and more popular, so ROBLOX needed to make the gifts a little more expensive to make the challenge similar.

 10) If you were to select an achievement for yourself for the 2013 Giftsplosion, what would it be?

My gift achievement for the 2013 Giftspolosion would be to achieve more gifts, while obtaining all of them!



-arbirator
Editor of Roblox News


Saturday, December 29, 2012

Place Review: Work at a Pizza Place

'Ey guys, Theovert here coming in with a pizza delivery for you. Let's see, you wanted pepperoni, pineapples, anchovies, and a place review on the side? That will be 15 robux please.

Work At a Pizza Place by Dued1

Reviewed by Theovert

Work At a Pizza Place is a classic ROBLOX game from 2008 that was popular when I first joined (2009). It became an instant classic due to its straightforward yet addicting gameplay, and working as a team to be able to get pizzas door-to-door on time. Each player can assign himself to a different job, which makes for some varied gameplay. Let's run down all the jobs your character can have in-game.


Cashier: You're the dude who takes the orders for the Chef so he can make pizzas.
Chef: You're the main man who bakes the pizzas for the Boxer.
Boxer: You put the pizzas in the box for the Delivery Boy.
Delivery Boy: The dude with the food who delivers the pizzas, always hot & fresh.
Supplier: Every pizza needs ingredients. You gotta deliver it to the pizza place.
Manager: Like a boss, this guy can give you a raise or give you a break from your job.
Not Working: Self-explanatory.

Gameplay: 7.5/10

The gameplay is somewhat nonlinear. There's no real way of "Winning", but I guess delivering a pizza kinda counts. You play through as your job and try to get as many pizzas delivered as you can. There's a meter that tells you how many pizzas were delivered total on the server so you can keep track on how well you're doing. Sometimes it can get a little out of hand if you're missing an employee or an employee is doing terrible at his job, but overall, this place has great, addicting gameplay that will keep you entertained and will keep making you coming back for more.

Creativity: 9/10

There aren't very many pizza place simulators on ROBLOX, one of the most notable examples being Uploader's "Pizza Shop". The idea of each player having individual jobs is great, and I love being able to own a house and buy furniture, being able to become the "Employee of the Day", and the day/night cycle (with changing seasons, too!) Work at a Pizza Place is a very original game, and the creator, Dued1, has never ceased to amaze the community. Oh, and that ghost customer is pretty cool too.

Effort: 9.5/10

Pretty much everything in the game was made from scratch. I can't find a single free model in sight. The game is well-built and everything looks very nice and functions very nicely. Dued1 put a lot of effort into making, scripting, and building this game, and for this reason it's still one of the most popular games on roblox, getting around 40 thousand visits weekly.

Overall: 8.5/10

A very well-made game that offers lots of different things to do and lots of ways to keep a player entertained. There isn't really anything to do once you become manager, get your house furnished, and so on so on, but it's still really fun, addicting, and a recommended play. Also one of my all-time favorite games, too.

Link to the place 

Gear Review: 2013 Firework


Today I'll be reviewing the yearly firework gear, the 2013 Firework.

2013 Firework

Abilities: 8/10

The 2013 firework is like any other firework: you click to launch it up and it explodes to create an effect, but I found this one pretty unique. When it explodes, one of 4 designs is created out of flames, rotates 360 degrees, and then falls. The 4 designs are pictured below.

Hi

2013

:)

Heart

While a very cool effect, it gets boring quickly because there are only 4 effects. They should've added 8-10 effects for variety, but that is just my opinion. If multiple people fire off the 2013 firework at the same time, though, the effect is pretty amazing.



Design: 7.5/10

I thought the design was really good. The tip on the firework is solid blue with light/dark blue stripes on the body. The center is a strip of silver going around the entire firework with "2013" in blue letters.
The reason I rated the design 7.5 instead of 10 is that they stuck to just one color besides the strip of silver in the middle. The tip is blue, the body is blue, the letters are blue. Some variety would've been nice.

Still, the design is definitely less sloppy than most of the past fireworks...

Price: 9/10

I thought the price this year was pretty good, only 100 robux. One year they released 3 fireworks, each with a price of over 300 robux, very unfair. It should have been 10 tickets or something along that price so that NBCers could celebrate new years, but they do have the magical character-shrinking sparkler.

Overall: 8/10

If there's an item you'd like me to review that hasn't been already, feel free to send me a message! I'm Axelthehedgehog on Roblox.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Random Gear Review: Helen The Hiphipapotamus






       Why, hello there! As you may have noticed from the title, this review will be a tad special. "Random Gear Reviews," as I have just now dubbed them, will be... (wait for it)... gear reviews of completely random gear items! Basically, this means that I'll pay a visit to Catalog Heaven, click the "Random" tab in the Gear section, then test out whatever item first appears on the page. Today, the gear I'll be looking at happens to be "Helen The Hiphipapotamus." Now, from the name alone, I can infer that this particular hippopotamus is probably quite hip. Is it hip enough for our tastes? Let's find out! (Really, though, who uses the word "hip" anymore?) 


Abilities/Effects: It does everything you'd expect a stuffed hippo to do... which isn't really saying much. Yeah, the gear item does practically nothing. When you click it, it'll hug you and repeat either a hippo-related pun or some sort of phrase, which I can't make out seeing as the audio quality isn't really that nice. Not much more to go on about in this category. 5/10.

Appearance: The nicest thing I can say about the item is that it's got an original mesh, and that's only because it's the only hippo-related thing in the entire Catalog. It's purple and when you wear it on your avatar half of it's kind of awkwardly molding itself into part of your arm. There's nothing particularly bad about the item, but that being said, there's nothing that terribly good about it either. I suppose I'll have to give it an OK score. 7/10

Pricing: Unless you're explicitly out looking for a purple, buck-toothed stuffed hippopotamus, I'd recommend using your money towards something else, seeing as this item is in the Catalog for 200 ROBUX. If it were at a price of, say, 10 ROBUX, or even 50 ROBUX, I'd deem the amount reasonable, but 200 ROBUX? Why spend that money here when you could save up 50 more and get a katana instead? Hmph. 6/10.

Overall: 6/10.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to follow me on twitter! @Ulquiorra98RBLX

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Place Review - Survival 303 by Davidii2

Hey everyone, PeerPants here. This is my first post for Roblox News, so I hope you enjoy it. I would like to thank everyone for the warm welcome, especially the Roblox News staff!


 Survival 303 (DOUBLE EXP)
Place reviewed: Survival 303


Gameplay: 9/10

I visited this place a few years ago, but I never fully got into it, as I didn’t know what to do. I decided to give the game another try a few days ago, and I was not disappointed. When I joined the game, I spawned on an island with a few trees, and bushes. The toolbar came with ‘Forge’ and ‘Craft’ tools. After playing around with the tools, I discovered that I could use items from around the game’s map, like logs and rocks, to make items. The game includes a GUI which shows stats, like Construction and Swimming, and doing more of the activities will make your level go higher. After playing for a couple of hours, and gathering enough materials, I was running a small village on an island, complete with a refinery, huts and even a windmill, so I could make bread with the wheat I had gathered. If building a town doesn’t appeal to you, you can craft your own weapons, and a boat, and sail to other islands, killing the island’s community and stealing/burning their items! Also, you can form a team and invite other players to your team, then assign roles to them. The game also includes a handy private chat feature, where you can make a message only visible to one person, or to your team. The game also keeps track of your hunger and thirst, so if your hunger, or thirst, gets down to 0, you will die.

Creativity: 9/10
I have never seen a survival game with this much effort put in. Yes, the map seems a little outdated, but who cares? It is a classic game, and after being around for so many years, it still gets around 25 thousand visits weekly! I love the fact that there are lots of materials you can use to make different types of vehicles, and war machines like catapults. In addition, when you go in caves, the screen goes really dark, which is realistic, whereas many other ROBLOX games don’t alter the light when you go in caves, or underground. Everything works perfectly, after a lot of playing around with all the GUIs, I found no faults, and there are no major building flaws in the island.

Effort: 10/10

This game has definitely taken its creator, Davidii2, a lot of time to make. The time he spent on the game is definitely worth it. Although some people may say the map more belongs in the ROBLOX past, as the trees are like this. I definitely disagree with this. Adding more items to the game would create lag, something this game is without. I tested this game on most of the computers in my house, and even the worst computer had no problem running the game. The GUIs look like a lot of time and effort have been put into them, as the team function works flawlessly, and the stats GUI never goes wrong.

Overall 9.5/10

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Arbirator's Gifts 2012!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all received fantastic presents this year. Have fun with your copy of Black Ops 2, Assassin's Creed 3, pair of headphones, pony tooth brushes, speakers, game consoles, gaming rig or whatever else you got under the tree.


As my tradition, I have been releasing gifts throughout the day (picture above). Some are easy freebies, and some are harder and a whole lot rarer. They are listed below with hints as to how to obtain them:


Gift of the Apocalypse Survivor
Gift of the Apocalypse Survivor
'Congratulations, you fought off the zombies and survived the apocalypse of 21/12/12. You had better get ready for the one next year - you know what the internet is like. -Sigh-'

This gift is free to all until the 26th of December.




Snowflake Gift of Base64
Snowflake Gift of Base64

'So I heard you like decoding clues?VGhlIGdpZnQgd2lsbCBiZSBhdmFpbGFibGUgZm9yIHRoZSBmaW5hbCB0aW1lIGF0IDg6MDAgUE0g R01ULCAyNXRoIERlY2VtYmVyLiA='

This gift was made available at 3 different points in the day (GMT Timezone): 4:00 PM for 15 minutes, 6:00 PM for 30 minutes, and finally 8:00 PM for 15 minutes.



Temporal Gift of the Void
Temporal Gift of the Void

'Many of those who enter the void do not return. The unlucky individuals who survive their endeavour will never be the same.'



Twitter Gift of Social Network Addict
Twitter Gift of Social Network Addict




'Tweeting like there's no tomorrow. Literally.'

This gift will be put on sale at random points on the 25th December. When the gift is on sale it will be announced by @arbirator on Twitter. 




Golden Ribbon Gift of Christmas Spirit
Golden Ribbon Gift of Christmas Spirit



'Oh boy, look at those Christmas decorations!'

This gift is freely available until the 31st December.



Thanks for reading, happy hunting and Merry Christmas!

-arbirator
Editor of Roblox News

Snowball Mania, by crazyman32, Review

It is the time of year when we all come out from our computer rooms and enjoy some quality bonding time with our families. We exchange wonderful gifts, except for the ugly sweater Aunt Allie always gives to you, and play games which are not videogames. If you live in a colder area which has snowfall, you've played snowball fighting with your friends before. And this game by crazyman32 tries to draw back on that experience with some rather awesome twists in Snowball Mania. Even if you have not experienced snowfall and snowball fights, its a pretty simple concept (trust me).

When the game is first started, stats screen with your points, kills, and deaths greets you as well as an upgrades button. It looks rather dull as 90 % of your screen is filled with an empty white space. There is not revolving camera around the map of any sort to establish atmosphere, no background image which shows you what you are going to experience. Nothing. Which really seems disappointing.



When you finally push the start button, you will be sent into a most-likely flat white map. Selecting the snowball tool will allow you to start tossing small balls at your enemies, which you have no idea who they are because the game does a poor job of explaining to you what team you are on. In fact, there is no indication of team colors besides the name tags above players, making long range engagements harder than they already were.

After getting yourself acquainted, you will surely encounter your enemy quite soon and will try to throw snowballs at him. The engagement is one which you will surely lose, as Snowball Mania falls into the same problems as Base Wars: The Land. The players with time already invested into the game acquire upgrades which will allow them to easily best you in a duel.

The snowballs, unless upgraded extensively, have really, REALLY poor accuracy which gives new definition to the phrase "spray and pray." Most of the time spent fighting in game will result in you spam clicking that left mouse button while standing near a snowball pile to stock up on ammunition in order to out spam your opponents.

The combat system is somewhat saved by crazyman32's genius idea of including a mounted machine gun into the game, and it is well executed. When operated, it puts you into a fixed camera view where you can control the gun with your mouse and it moves on your screen, sort of like the arcade game Duck Hunt. The guns are fitted with a neat reloading and ammo count GUI and has a nice firing sound to it. Although it suffers from the low accuracy spam just like the snowballs you throw, it is acceptable as it is a MACHINE GUN! I like my heavy weaponry. 


Pew! Pew! Pew! with the turret!
The user interface though is really sleek and simple. I've already mentioned the lack of a good welcome screen, but the rest of the interface is well designed. The upgrade bars, the time and ammo display, and the stats screen all have uniformed colors and style, offering togetherness to the game.

But perhaps more importantly, the snowball effects are really lacking. Sure there is a sound which plays when the ball is thrown, but that's it. Getting hit by a snowball doesn't blind you with snow particles like many of the Roblox gear does, no, it just plays the default damage screen. Similarly disappointing, the snowballs hitting the terrain just sticks there. It sticks there like a piece of gigantic white gum.

The maps themselves are built quite nicely and look very natural. The use of different materials, shapes, and colors contribute to the atmosphere of the snowball fight. However, having a well built map doesn't mean it is a well designed map. Nearly all maps are composed of two well covered bases with a plain, flat, and coverless mid section. The no-man's-land maps promotes even more of the spammy gameplay as players wildly jump around everywhere due to the lack of any sort of useful cover. And a skilled machine gunner will keep the enemy away from your base and force more spammy gameplay.


Blue fort. Notice the nice use of wood.
Overall, it feels as if your skill in this game is based on a random number generator. As well as the game looks with its sleek GUI and detailed buildings, the gameplay is just lackluster. If you are willing to spend time grinding it out with the spammy weapons, you will eventually escape this and get more accurate weapons. But be warned, this will take a long time as upgrade costs scale dramatically.


Rating:
7/10


Poor combat and unfair upgrades, made up for partly by the machine-gun turret and the awesome GUIs.

Gear Review: Dual Illumina

Dual Illumina

Hello readers! Chubbs21 back with a special holiday gear review! Today we are reviewing the "Big Gift's" (The Coolest Gift) prize! Dual Illumina!

Mesh: 7/10
The mesh is the exact same as the original Illumina, except there is 2 of them. It is a basic sword mesh that many other swords use. It has the basic look of the sword, the "ball" at the bottom, the handle, the "spikes" off the handle, the long sharp blade. Classic is all it is. From a first glance when looking at your character, one might think you have the original Illumina. ;)

Texture: 7/10
There is no texture on this gear, but it does have a cool look. It has some reflectance with a grey color. It also has pink sparkles to give it a better look. It would be pretty dull without the sparkle. Nothing else really can describe the looks of this sword. It seems kind of plain to me, I don't know about you but the staff could have done a better job when they made the first Illumina.

Controls & Abilities: 10/10
This sword when touching someone does 50 damage.
 When clicking on someone, it does 100 damage. (1 hit KO.)
You can "spam-click" and press Z to spin, then it makes an "Illumina Tornado" that deals 100 damage
The things these swords can do is well worth the cost.

Cost: 10/10 
For 2 Illuminas, 40,000 robux was an amazing price. One Illumina cost 2M currently, but is priced about 1M. And don't forget, you basically get 2 Illuminas. I'd say if you got this, you should be happy. There were only 408 people who received the gift along with it's prize. Pretty rare if I say so myself. 

Overall: 8.5/10
This is a great gear that has awesome abilities and an amazing price. The mesh and "texture" is ok. If you have this gear, you will look rich. (That is, if not everyone is wearing it.) I do say if I got the gift along with the dual Illumina I would be pretty happy. Even though most were expecting an Ice Crown or Domino Crown retexture like I was, It was a good gift prize. Happy Holidays everyone!

~chubbs21

Monday, December 24, 2012

Candy Cane Launcher Gear Review

Hio, pajke here, I'm not really good at introductions so I don't plan on writing a long one. Just a quick hello. This will be my first article on this blog. First of all, I'd like to thank arbirator for creating it, and everyone on the staff for writing amazing articles throughout the last few years. It feels good to be part of the team.



Now, down to my review. I will be talking about the Candy Cane Launcher. It's a LimitedU item, released on Friday, 12/21/2012.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Staff Bio: Theovert

'Ey guys, it's Theovert (Pronounced Theo-Vert, or The-Overt like everyone else calls me).

Like PeerPants down below me (take a look at his fancy fedora and antlers), I'm one of the newly-hired Place Reviewers. I'm gonna be submitting a christmas themed review in a while, so stay tuned. Now, let's cut to the chase and let me tell you a lil' bit about who the heck I am and what the deal with my shirt of the guy going :0 is.

I joined Roblox a little too late in some opinions. May 2009. Of course, I still believe the prime years of roblox are 2007 to early 2009, so I didn't miss very much. The community was slowly deteriorating (yet still good in some parts, and Jaredvaldez4 didn't ride to power yet, back then it was STHXX), and things were slightly going downhill. But hey, I was 9 at the time and I just wanted to see things blow up into smitheroons.

I also, ah, stayed way more obscure than my fellow comrade PeerPants did. My favorite game at the time was Terrain Tourney (it used to have like 250 more cars back then), and I tended to just goof around with my friends LEGOLOCO321 (currently RobloLego) and Turbozester (Shout-outs!) most of the time. I helped out a little by contributing fanmade cars to Turbo so we could race 'em and stuff.

Fame was never really my thing. No matter how many times I've tried to make a decent game with my poor knowledge of scripting, I have never surpassed the admittedly mostly free-modeled paradise of Palm Springs Skate Park, which gained over a measly 1,434 visits. Still, I was the kind of guy who, if I noticed I suddenly got an extra ticket, would quit whoever he was doing and immediately head to PSSP and join whoever was there so he/she'd have someone to play with. (I was running ads at the time, and I'm talking early '10, back when Skateboards were just released and they were essentially silent 2x6s with wheels on them. Still, they were pretty radical.)

I tried my luck by making a short-lived group called United Fighting Breakfast Foods, a breakfast-themed war group. It had about 20 members in it before I quit it. Then I made the 'Yellow Vortexes', a Roleplaying group. It died early on too. Then I decided to join a group. Cyco Clan. It was perfect, a group where I finally wouldn't get judged for suggesting that we make Flaming Lemon Shotguns standard issue in the Cyco Clan Military.

An old Anti-Stealing poster I did for Turbo.
2011 soon came and I was playing Minecraft A Familiar Blocky Mining Game most of the time. I still played Roblox though, and during this time I met someone who soon became one of my greatest Friend-Enemies. MeAreMe, aka AdmiralCardboard, aka Hryed, aka a million other aliases he came up with literally every day. I attended Roblox Rally back on August 1st (i was the kid with the blonde ponytail, blue polo, and blue fedora with "BOX NINJA" sticker on it). It was a blast. After that, I stopped playing Roblox for some reason until January '12 came along. Then I started playing again.

I tried to kickstart my sudden comeback by making a new concept, Surrealist Combat, which was essentially a BrickBattle where you had to FIND all your weapons, but you would get something absurd like a "Taco Blaster" or a "Toy Foam Cutlass". It was my attempt at making a game like MattyDeepFire's Ultimate Battle because I liked it so much. It never became successful, and most of it was conceptual anyways.

(If I had a dollar for every game I wanted to make but never had the time/knowledge/scripting abilities to make it, I would be richer than freakin' Merely.)

And here I am today, typing these words on this text editing program on Firefox. I don't know what actually productive things I've done in my time on Roblox, but hey. I've had a blast doing nothing but being the true, childish little noob I am today (and pestering my arch-rival Crystal55 sometimes). And I vow to give my opinions on the popular Roblox games so that people will know if the place I reviewed is COMPLETELY EPIC AND AWESOME or if it SUCKS.

Also, guys, thanks for all the support. Me and my bro Peerie couldn't have done it without you guys. Additional shout-outs to some good friends of mine: Komonoto, Froof41, DarkKyraki, Moflaffle, Jellyrolljhi111, Jimpy, Anyone I forgot, and you, the reader(s), and that one fortunate Roblox ad I saw on YouTube that one day that made me finally click.

So, yeah. Peace out, and you get +1 charisma for reading this huge text wall I just built to keep the Zombies, Noobs, and JaredValdez4 out.

-Theovert, Place Reviewer

( ͡° ͜Ê– ͡°)

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Staff Bio: PeerPants!


PeerPants
Hey everyone, it's PeerPants here.

You’ve probably heard that I am one of the new place reviewers. I am going to tell you a little bit about myself so you can get to know me.

I joined ROBLOX in 2007, when games were laggy but the community was great! Since then, I have managed to get over 400,000 place visits. You’ve probably heard of my cousin, Voxhall, who I introduced to ROBLOX in 2008. I also founded The Vox Empire, which I managed to get to 4,000 members before deciding to give it away.

When I have free time, I like to check out what players have been making, and I forum in ROBLOX Talk. I am really happy that I have been accepted as a place reviewer, and I will work my hardest to bring the best quality reviews I can. I am looking forward to publishing my first place review, which I will work really hard on and make as amazing as possible.

I would like to thank the staff at Roblox News for giving me a warm welcome, and to the fans and readers of Roblox News, and I promise I will try my hardest to bring amazing content.

-PeerPants
Roblox News Place Reviewer

Christmas 2012 Giftsplosion Summary

Before I begin this article, I just want to say it's a honor to be a part of the Roblox News staff. I've always been a fan of this site and now I can post articles of my own. Thank you, arbirator. I look forward to my time here.

Alright. The 2012 Christmas Giftsplosion, as far as I know, has come to an end. All the gifts have been given out, sold, and opened. I'll be giving a basic summary of the gifts and the items they contained.

Gift 1: ROBLOX Newshound Gift

Opened ROBLOX Newshound Gift

To get this gift you had to have your account verified with a legit email address, and you had to check the box underneath saying that you wanted to receive ROBLOX newsletters/updates.

Price: 50 Robux

Prize: Newspaper Shades

Newspaper Shades

For a gift that was basically a complete freebie, these shades were a pretty great prize. They applied the newspaper texture well to the shades.

Gift 2: Commissioner's Gift of Commissions

Opened Commissioner's Gift of Commissions

To get this, you had to get 10 or more commissions. A commission is when somebody buys a gear from your place, and you earn 10% of the money spent on it. There was lots of spam during the few days this was available from people asking others to buy ninja stars or other such cheap gears from their games.

Price: 250 Robux

Prize: The Commissioner

The Commissioner

I personally find this hat pretty funny, especially the mustache. I say it was about worth 250 robux.

Gift 3: Razzle Dazzle Hollywood Star Gift

Opened Razzle Dazzle Hollywood Star Gift

To get this, you had to upload a video thumbnail to one of your games, which costs 500 robux to do.

Price: 550 robux

Prize: Hollywood Shutter Shades

Hollywood Shutter Shades

I found these extremely cool looking. Solid gold shuttershades with a diamond-studded rim. I'd say that's definitely worth 550 robux.

Gift 4: Self-Referential Gift of Referring

Opened Self-Referential Gift of Referring

To get this you had to have somebody refer you when they joined BC in the 30 days before the gift was given out.

Price: 300 Robux

Prize: Candy Cane Antlers

Candy Cane Antlers

I was really excited when I saw this on my Hat Notifier. A retexture of Silverthorn Antlers, a classic hat and one of my favorites of all time. This is definitely worth more than 300 robux.

Gift 5: Festival Gift of Group Fundraising

Opened Festival Gift of Group Fundraising

To get this you had to create an item for a group and have at least one sale on it.

Price: 75 Robux

Prize: Paper Money Hat

Paper Money Hat

I thought this was really cool. A hat made entirely out of money from such a cheap gift. Definitely worth it.

Gift 6: High Frequency Trading Gift

Opened High Frequency Trading Gift

To get this you had to have 8 or more successful trades with other users.

Price: 5,000 Robux

Prize: Profit Vision Goggles

Profit Vision Goggles

This hat was pretty unfortunate for owners of the limited item Night Vision Goggles. When placed on an avatar, you can't tell any difference between Profit Vision Goggles and Night Vision Goggles.

Avatar with Profit Vision Goggles

sinisterblac10

Avatar with Night Vision Goggles

Teamracers

Unless you look really, REALLY closely, you can barely tell a difference. The value of Night Vision Goggles will probably drop shortly. There was also a rumor spread throughout the forum that the prize would be a Green Sparkle Time Fedora, because of the color of the gift.

Gift 7: Ticket to Ride Gift

Opened Ticket to Ride Gift

To get this you simply had to sell one Game Pass for one of your own games.

Price: 300 Robux

Prize: Conductor's Gold Pocket Watch

Conductor's Gold Pocket Watch

This hat looks unfortunately small on your avatar

Axelthehedgehog
 but it is a pretty cool hat anyway.

Gift 8: Lucky Gift of Sevens

Opened Lucky Gift of Sevens

To get this, you had to own a limited U item with the serial number 7. Obviously not many were awarded.

Price: 777 Robux

Prize: 7 Jeweled Circlet

7 Jeweled Circlet

This hat looks pretty amazing. A crown of colorful, shiny crystals circling your head definitely makes for a nice hat combo.

The Final Gift: The Coolest Gift

Opened The Coolest Gift

The ultimate gift of 2012's Gistsplosion. Awarded to the owners of the top 100 most popular games of 2012. There were high expectations for this gift because it had the highest price of any gift ever sold, 40,000 robux. Needless to say, there was a lot of donation spam when it was being sold.

Prize: Dual Illumina

Dual Illumina

If this isn't a bargain, I don't know what is. According to the selling chart of the original Illumina, it has sold 2 times in the last 180 days. One for 200,000, and one for 1,000,000 robux. It has also been traded for many high-valued items such as Red Grind, Azurewrath, Lord of the Void, and Sparkle Time Fedora, many with other items added. And the owners of the Coolest Gift got 2 of them for only 40,000 robux.

Well, overall I'd say the gift prizes this year were really amazing and for great prices, and I can't wait for next year's Giftsplosion.

Hope I did alright with my first blog post. Leave some comments and let us know what you thought of this year's gifts and gift prizes!