Friday, February 28, 2014

Announcing the new additions to the Roblox News team!

Back in January, we announced we were looking to refresh the Roblox News team with some fresh talent! The day has come for us to finally announce the lucky four individuals joining our team. Whilst I know this announcement is long overdue, please bear in mind that I (arbirator) have been extremely busy lately, and have had little time for ROBLOX, or indeed Roblox News. Apologies! 

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Gear Friday Review: ITS BACK!

Yeah, Gear Fridays are back! We got two gears on Friday last week, but I'm pretty sure that Gear Fridays have returned, seeing as how we got the usual 3 nonlimited, 1 limited gear thing this week. This is a really lucky thing, because I started to think that they would be lost forever like Tix Tuesdays. So yeah, I'm very excited with all the gears, because luckily, they're all amazing. The gears this week were randomly themed, but ah well. Two swords, a mace, and an axe. Luckily, we did get a limited, which was one of the swords, but I'll get into that later.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Single Player Games: What's the deal?

Skydiving without any air to fall through, or gravity to propel you.

Lately, I've seen more single player games on Roblox, of which have gained some popularity. The four popular titles I have in mind are Space Fall UniverseDistilledFlow, and my favorite, Tilt. You can see most of these are popular or were/will be, and most are puzzle games.  I myself like the idea of single games, but there is one problem: they are way too hard to make. I talked with the creator of Tilt, and he put it like this: "All physical objects are a descendant of the Client's Camera, placed there by a LocalScript."  So Each player makes his/her own game upon entering. Pretty neat, huh? This is done by every single player game created before last week. This is a huge hole for roblox to fill; I myself love puzzle games and I'm sure it there would be tons more selections with the new player-count feature.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

President's Day Sale: Days 3, 4 and 5

Aye, I'm back to sum up the end of this awful sale. Days 3 and 4 were full of nothing good, except for 2 things, and Day 5 was full of nothing until later at night, so people in some different time zones missed out on it, but there was nothing good, except for a nice retexture by TREVOR818730.

Hat Review: Sparkle Time Cheese Hat

Sparkle Time Cheese Hat
Sparkle Time Cheese Hat
Mesh/Texture: 8/10
The Sparkle Time Cheese's mesh is different from the original Cheese Hat's mesh. For one, it's much bigger. The holes in it are in different positions and are smaller. Compare the two for a better idea of their differences. I think the texture was very well done. The sparkles look very good and detailed making this hat look well worth its high price. Whilst the texture is almost flawless, the quality of the mesh begs some questions. Again we see a lower polygon count than usual with smooth edges not clearly defined. This a minor bugbear of Arbirator's and does dock some points from this score. The hat itself looks a bit strange on your character, but it's sparkle time, so who cares?

Price: 8/10
Even though this is a sparkle time item, and sparkle time items are usually extremely high-priced or increase in value exponentially over time, I think the price was a bit excessive. The Sparkle Time Cheese Hat was 2,500 Robux and was on sale for exactly 12 hours. Even though the price was high and the President's Day Weekend Sale was just beginning, the cheese got 559 sales which surprised me. I doubt it will do well if it goes limited, but if you're an offsale collector this is an excellent hat to own.

Overall: 8/10
Although the price was somewhat excessive, I feel like most aspects of this hat were done pretty well. It looks good on your character, it sold a good amount for its price and time onsale, and it's sparkle time! Congratulations to the lucky few people who got this hat before it went off sale.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Dual Hat Review: Earl of the Federation vs Duke of the Federation

Duke of the Federation    V.S.   Earl of the Federation


     Hello readers! TheInnovative here with a Dual Hat review! Today I will be comparing the Duke of the Federation (DotF) and the brand new Earl of the Federation (EotF). I'm not going to be biased because at the time of writing this, I owned both hats. The Duke of the Federation came out on August the 31st, 2013 and the Earl of the Federation came out on February the 16th, 2014. 

Looks:
     The DotF is a gold crown with rubies in it or whatever gem you want it to be. It is similar to the Lord of the Federation, except the sapphires in the LotF are rubies in the DotF. The EotF is slightly different. The crown itself is silver and contains emeralds (Emerald is in the texture name). The crown itself is the same exact mesh: A royal looking crown, gems around the side, a jewel star on the front which beholds silver stars, and four crescents near the jewel star. Color-wise, it was a good idea to change the gold to silver in the EotF. Gold goes well with blue and red, but silver goes better with green than gold does. Overall, I think the Duke of the Federation wins the competition concerning looks. The gold makes it seem more royal.

Price & Stock:
     The price and stock of the Federation series is quite interesting. In the original Lord of the Federation, the price was 250,000 with a stock of 10. Note that if you take the price, 250,000 and multiply that by the stock, 10, you get 2,500,000 (That will come up again). This made the crown very valuable and profitable, but it took forever to sell due to the price-tag. The DotF was substantially lower, either because the Lord of the Federation took to long to sell or because the rank of "Duke" is lower than "Lord". The DoTF was 100,000 robux and the stock was 25. Again, if you multiply 100,000 by 25, you get 2,500,000. The EotF was even lower. The rank "Earl" is lower than "Duke" and "Lord" thus the price goes even lower than DotF. It sold for 50,000 robux and it's stock was now 50. This of course is more affordable to more people. And once more, if you multiple 50,000 by 50, you again get 2,500,000 showing that the pattern is the price goes lower and has to equal 2,500,000 when you multiply it by the stock. Who has the better and more profitable Price/Stock ratio? DotF is the clear winner here.

Trading/Selling Value: 
     The value of DotF is stable while at the time of making this post, the EotF is not stable at all. That is known as a limited's "Hype". The DotF has a RAP of about 860k which is the second highest RAP of any limited ever, behind the Domino Crown. The demand for DotF isn't that high but it is still a rare and expensive limited. According to LMaD's whacky values, its trading value is around 2,600,000. EotF is a bit unstable, but I can say the demand is pretty good right now and it's current RAP is about 160,000. LMaD's whacky values are not clear on this one as it is being fought upon at the moment, but it's most likely around the range of 400k-700k. Some say this crown will raise to around 1,000,000 after a few months and stabilize there. Of course, DotF has the better value, and wins this round.

Overall Value:
     The overall value of the two crowns is pretty good in my opinion. The DotF makes you perceived by the public like a royal and the crown is very profitable and expensive. The EotF makes for lots of neat clothing and hat combinations and is still pretty profitable considering the starting price is quite lower than what it's trading and selling for. It isn't nearly as expensive as the DotF though. Both crowns are very neat to have. I personally like having crowns as it just gives you that feel of "I em da mastur of da univurse!11!1!!!" If you have the money to get both, DotF is the overall winner.

Thank you for reading this Double Hat Review! If you would like to check out the hats, the links are here:

Click one!



~TheInnovative

Sunday, February 16, 2014

War-Group Reviews: United Assault Regiment

Hello there again, Zakkeh here. Got a rather different type of review from me today, I'm reviewing a war-group, known as 'UAR'. This group contains over 400 members, and is very active. But, to know what a war-group is like inside, you have to join, don't you? So I did. And I liked it, however there are ups and downs. Allow me to elaborate in an in-depth review.

When I first joined UAR, I found it to be very reasonable, promotions aren't handed out like flyers on the street, and take some time to earn, (unless you are really, really ninja like my nan). The higher-ranks are rather friendly with you, but, sometimes if the supposed high-rank is annoyed with you, it can be very hard to get them to be your acquaintance again rather than your enemy.

Like most war-groups, this group has regular trainings and practice-raids. The trainings on UAR are fun, but they can be hard to attend, as there are never notices an hour or so before telling you that there will be a training soon. Which makes it hard to attend every training that is hosted.

The training place, known as the '[UAR] Holo Training Center', is a nice concept, I like how the group has it's own colour-scheme that is also implemented into their main-places, and uniform. This allows other war-groups to identify what enemy or ally it is depending on their popularity.

Although I enjoyed the fun and joy that I got out of killing fellow enlists, there were numerous arguments, based around other players, one of which I joined in, because some of the high-ranks issue punishments to people who have done nothing, and that shouldn't be the case, in my opinion I believe that the higher-ranks should examine all the facts, and then decide who is innocent or guilty.

Elaborating on what I said before, I would find it pretty cool for UAR to have their own 'courts of justice' to give people fair trials before they are punished, that way more members would not leave and get annoyed with the group and all it's enlists. Which would give the group better publicity and strength.

In conclusion, I like this group, despite all the arguments it beholds, in general it is a nice group, with reasonable staff members. I would recommend you to try this group out, however some people may not agree with the group and won't join. So I'd say, try it out for a week; if you don't like it, leave.

UAR

Thanks for reading,

Community Manager
Zakkeh

Got any suggestions or places/groups you want me to review? Tweet me @RBX_Zakkeh, or PM me on ROBLOX at my username Zakkeh.

President's Day Sale: Day 2

On day 2 of the President's Day Weekend Sale, some items were discounted, two of the previewed items went limited, a couple new hats came out, and three items that were part of previous sales went back on sale. Overall though there was nothing special.

Bionic BeatbotCoolest Founding Father

The first thing to happen was that two new items came out: Bionic Beatbot and Coolest Founding Father. The Bionic Beatbot is nonlimited and is 125 robux, a cheap price for a hat. The Coolest Founding Father however, is the first limited of the sale and originally costed 100 robux. This hat has 1776 in stock and is currently worth around 300 robux.

Alpine FedoraThunder God Headdress

Next up two hats were discounted: Alpine Fedora and Thunder God Headdress. The Alpine Fedora is currently 250 robux, a 33% discount from its original price of 375 robux. The Thunder God Headdress is now 3000 robux, a 40% discount from its insanely expensive original price of 5000 robux.

Cyberforce DetectiveSorcus' Chair

After those discounts, two of the previewed items went limited: Cyberforce Detective and Sorcus' Chair. Cyberforce Detective was sort of a surprise, but it has raised from its original price of 100 robux to 400 robux. Sorcus' Chair (as predicted by many to go limited) is currently worth 2000 robux, a huge profit from its original price of 707 robux. However be aware that this does not mean that these two items are the only previewed items that will go limited; Shaggy still has a chance to go limited.

Wizards of the Astral Isles: PegasusBluesteel AntlersNoobTube

After that, three previous sale items went back on sale: Wizards of the Astral Isles Pegasus, Bluesteel Antlers, and NoobTube. The Pegasus was a gear released during last year's President's Day Sale, and it was later put back on sale during the Labor Day Sale, making this the third time it has been on sale for 2000 robux. Bluesteel Antlers, the overpriced 20000 robux antler retexture, was only released a few months ago for Black Friday yet for whatever reason it is back on sale. NoobTube went on sale for last year's President's Day Sale as well, and is once again now back on sale for 250 robux. I'd hope that at some point during this weekend, an offsale item that has not been involved with a previous sale would go back on sale (such as Teakettle, the Dark Reaper, etc.). 

Coatp0cketninja's Tiger Mask

The last thing to happen on day 2 was another new hat was released; Coatp0cketninja's Tiger Mask. This hat currently costs 150 robux.

So far it looks like this sale has been somewhat lacking compared to last year's Presidents Day Sale. However, not all of the sale previews have happened yet and we still have yet for the bigger items, such as the new federation, to come out.

- NonstopEpic, Catalog Manager

President's Day Sale: Day 1

Ello, pbjms here to review the first day of this amazing sale! The first day of the President's Day Sale was filled with, er, well, nothing very good. At all. It was Valentines day, so of course we got some Valentines stuff, then later in the day the sale started with some discounts, but no limiteds.

Valentines Day
Valentine's Day Cap 2014Heart Break CakeLovestruck RobotRose LauncherLove to Party Shades
Valentines day was filled with non-limiteds, seeing as how all of the other valentines items came out days before. Not much came out, but we did get the Valentine's Day Cap 2014, which is a nice addition to the collection of many other caps. We also got a Heart Break Cake, which is an amazing gear. You can throw the cake at your foe and they become madly in love with you, pressing it by vomiting all over the place then throwing their arms up and doing some weird dance, lol. To continue with the Valentines hats, we got the Lovestruck Robot, which is pretty ugly. The second gear that came out was a nice little Rose Launcher, which shoots roses like that Candy Cane Launcher thing, but the roses apparently have invisible thorns that do extra damage. The last item was the Love to Party Shades, created by everybody's favorite ROBLOX News creator, Arbirator. The shades are amazing, though they were a bit overpriced at 1,000 Robux. Oh well.

Discounts
Commander Crow's WingsAmerica's SweetheartDarkAge Ninja SwordpackExponential Rocket LauncherGuardia in ExileSnake Sniper
When you think of a sale, you think of discounts. Well we got discounts, and I'm very disappointed with the community as to what exactly got discounted. Commander Crow's Wings was the first item to be discounted, from 750 Robux to 325. Eh, not bad, but I don't like the hat so no thanks. Next discounted was America's Sweetheart... wow. Just wow. 50 Robux to 10 Robux, SUCH A DEAL. Whoever voted for this to be discounted is just... ew. Next up we got the DarkAge Ninja Swordpack, okay. Popular item, went from 200 Robux to 100 Robux, this I approve, kind of. Snake Sniper and Exponential Rocket Launcher are two useless gears that I'm not even going to bring up because they come back basically every sale.. Last to be put on sale at a discount was Guardia in Exile, inferring that the whole community doesn't already have this. Oh well, it was 50 Tix, so at least something this sale was in tix.

Limiteds
Golden Headphones
I lied. There was one. Golden headphones were originally 9,500 Robux, and apparently aren't forgotten since they were voted for limited, even though, like 90% of items that go limited nowadays, it instantly failed. It's now selling for 8,000 Robux, which I find kind of hilarious.

Other
Sparkle Time Cheese Hat
The Sparkle Time Cheese is a big no. A huge, giant no. It's not even funny how no this is. It was 2,500 Robux and timed for 12 hours. It's ugly, the mesh is gross, low polygon count, it's just no. It's ugly and overpriced. The ONE THING that I love about this is the description, so props to Brighteyes for this masterpiece: "What happens when Sparkle Time and Cheese Time are the same time? This."

Overall
Day one wasn't great, no amazing things back on sale or discounted, no good items except for Arb's beautiful shades, and nothing good in the limited department. Within the coming days I expect to see some good limiteds, and that nice ol' Lord of the Federation retexture coming out soon.

~pbjms~


Thursday, February 13, 2014

President's Day Sale Update: 2/13/2014

Today a notification went out across the ROBLOX site previewing some of the President's Day Sale items. This preview mentions various candidates for some of the popular sale categories, and like usual sale previews, not everything listed in the preview will actually be part of the sale. Here are my predictions regarding this preview.

At least two of these items will be discounted at some point during the holiday weekend: 




Commander Crow’s Wings
Hidden Star 
Father Time 
Justice of the Thief 
Mad Cow 

I'm pretty sure all five of these hats have been discounted in sales in the past, so there really isn't any obvious "winner" among the five. The Mad Cow does stand the best chance at getting discounted; it is the most expensive out of the five hats, costing currently 3,333 robux.

At least two of the following items will become limited at some point during the holiday weekend: 



Shaggy
January Camo Chicken 
Sorcus Chair 
Gravity Coil 
Cyberforce Detective 
Icy Arctic Fowl 

I'd say that it is pretty obvious here as to which two items have the best chance of going limited; those being the Shaggy and Sorcus Chair. The original Shaggy is a 50 tix hat that gained notoriety for being a "popular ODer hat" as referred to be the community, and is also referenced with trolling. Thus, it would make sense if many trolling users put "shaggy" in the sale poll for the limited hat. The Sorcus Chair also stands a good chance at going limited; it is the only off-sale item out out of the six items listed. Sorcus Chair was released in 2012 for 707 robux as a Halloween gift. It is one of my favorite gears because when riding it, it moves super fast and trips over users. The January Camo Chicken going limited does not make sense, as that was released only a month ago. Neither does the Gravity Coil, Cyberforce Detective, or Icy Arctic Fowl make any more sense. Then again, we have seen strange oddities in sales, such as Naval Brigade going limited and W's Top Hat going limited a few weeks after it went back on sale.

At least one of these items will go back on sale at some point during the holiday weekend: 



Leopard Fedora 
Dark Reaper 
Alien Airbreather 

The best bets on this one would be the Dark Reaper, as both Leopard Fedora and Alien Airbreather have temporarily gone on sale before in the past for sales. However, it should be noted that there is still a good chance that Leopard Fedora or Alien Airbreather gained many sale votes from users who didn't obtain those items in the sales they were associated with.

It is worth noting that at the end of the notification, it mentions that a new federation hat will be coming out, probably as the big limited. Most users are guessing that it'll be around 50k robux with 50 in stock, and probably win. The color of this federation hat is most likely either green, purple, or pink. It should also be noted that in the beginning of the notification it says "We’re not quite ready to let the cat (or fowl, or cow) out of the bag yet" which could be a hint referring to Mad Cow, Icy Arctic Fowl, and Leopard Fedora. Either way these results are probably not the best thing that users were hoping for, but be aware that this preview notification does not detail the entire sale and that there will probably be better deals not mentioned in the notification.

- NonstopEpic, Catalog Manager

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Staff Commentaries - The Winter Games

A week ago, me, Arbirator, Rayman36 and TechTeam911 decided to make a commentary in the Winter Games, and as you can see, we enjoyed interrupting Arbirator. People had a slight problem remembering their titles in this commentary, or so it may have seemed.


Thanks for watching,

Zakkeh - Community Manager

Monday, February 10, 2014

Like Flappy Birds? Check out Flappy Blox!

Hey guys, the game Flappy Blox isn't very popular yet, but I hope it gets there!

Flappy Blox is a game based on the new addicting app, Flappy Bird. Although Flappy Blox isn't exactly like Flappy Birds, it comes close. It was created by Worsen, who also made the game Territory Conquest which has over 2 million visits.

The Thumbnail for Flappy Blox


Flappy Blox has almost 7000 place visits, but even in it's early stages it is extremely professional looking. It has plenty of Guis which make it look hi-tech but when you get right down to it, it's just a bird going through pipes.

I have found that it is easier than the app Flappy Bird, but not by much. My high score is 22, and I have played over a hundred times, but then again I am not too great at Flappy Bird either. When you first get on to the game, you have 3 Options:
Spectate - Watch other people play Flappy Blox
Play - Play Flappy Blox
Customize - Choose whether to be a Chicken, Bunny, Snowman, Penguin or Dino

Both Spectate and Customize are extras that aren't included in Flappy Bird itself, so it is good to see that the owner decided to take the game a step or 2 further.
Spectate is a good way to maybe pick up how fast other people click, and when they click.
Customize is going to include new colours soon, but right now it has those 5 choices. The Chicken is the starter and the Bunny, Snowman, Penguin and Dino are all Gamepasses that you can buy (They only cost 25Rs each).

The chicken or Dino or whatever you choose will be your character, unlike some other Flappy Bird games on Roblox, it isn't animated but instead looks just like the packages, except at a side angle and without legs.
Just a little view of the game, the helper is 1funnygame2
There isn't much else that I can add except maybe, PLAY NOW!

To view the Creator's Profile, Click Here
To view the game, Click Here

Thank you for reading,

-Prolixen

Sunday, February 9, 2014

ROBLOX Catalog Weekly Recap: 2/9/2014

This week in the ROBLOX Catalog, a couple of new themed and timed items were released a week before the President's Day Sale. Among these items are Groundhog Day hats, Chinese New Year items, a Bluesteel Birthday Cake, a new Chicken of the Month, and some new Winter Games hats. (Note: These weekly recaps will not happen every week, these will only cover weeks where interesting items come out that are not sale-related.)

I <3 Groundhog Day Groundhog FriendGroundhog Head

For Groundhog Day, three hats were released: I <3 Groundhog Day, Groundhog Friend, and Groundhog Head. The latter two of the three hats got only around 400 sales before all three hats went offsale, probably because they're ugly hats (apologies owed to groundhogs reading this). 

New Year Horse MaskHappy New Year Horse

Soon after Groundhog Day, ROBLOX released two Chinese Year of the Horse inspired items: the New Year Horse Mask, and the Happy New Year Horse. Both items are retextures of existing items; the New Year Horse Mask is a retexture of I'll Have Another (a horse mask released last year that was part of  Kentucky Derby-themed hats) and the Happy New Year Horse is a retexture of Magical Rainbow Pony (a gear that came out of ReeseMcBlox's Mystery Pony Pinata). The Horse Mask got around 3000 sales before going offsale, and the New Year Horse got around 2000 sales.

Bluesteel Birthday Cake

A day after the Chinese New Year items came out, the Bluesteel Birthday Cake was released. This retexture of the classic Cake Hat was most likely released for Shedletsky's birthday, and it costed 310 robux. There was some suspicion that the hat would go limited after going off-sale since it is bluesteel-themed but that has turned out to not be the case. In my opinion, the original Cake Hat looks better than this retexture. It is unknown as to if this hat will replace the Cake Hat going on-sale for admin birthdays, or if this was just a one-time thing.

CotM: February Love Bird

The second Chicken of the Month, the February Love Bird, was released a week before Valentine's Day. This retexture by Scribbos costed 200 robux, a 100 robux price jump from the January Chicken. If this trend continues, you can expect to pay a total of 7800 robux if you want to get all the chickens. Next month's chicken is likely to be St. Patrick's themed and 300 robux.

Winter Games 2014 HeadphonesWinter Sports StyleWinter Games 2014 Snowman Domino King

The final themed hats released this week were more Winter Games apparel that you can buy in the catalog (not earnable). These hats are the Winter Games 2014 Headphones, the Winter Sports Style, and the Winter Games 2014 Snowman Domino King (that name is quite the mouthful). These hats were all released on 2/8/2014, three days before the Winter Games are supposed to end (2/11/2014). The most interesting of these three hats is the Snowman Domino King, a hat which was leaked a week or two ago and from popular belief was going to be awarded to the top 100 Winter Games players. However, that seemed to not be the case. This domino crown spin-off was 25000 robux and was timed for a couple hours. Many investors think that the hat is a failure, and could potentially be the second Lord of the Magma. There has also been rumors going around that the hat will go limited soon after the Winter Games are over. Both of these theories may have been the reason the hat to get only 95 sales before going off-sale. While it could potentially not fail due to it's rarity, the hat does not have much demand at the moment. My personal opinion is that it was meant to be a robux-remover a week before the President's Day Sale, and might go limited next year (when it has more demand).

As you can tell it has been quite the interesting week for the ROBLOX catalog. Next week is the President's Day Sale, and here's some things that we can expect to happen (these are all just guesses based on previous sales).
  • From the President's Day Poll we already know the following:
    • Many hats are likely to go discounted again like usual.
    • Some hats will go limited; some potential candidates are:
      • Black Iron Bucket of Ultimate Pwnage
      • Doomsekkar
      • Dominus Aureus
      • Blizzaria
      • Bluesteel Sombrero
      • Bluesteel Antlers
      • Brilliant Bombastique
      • Some hat that is popular among users that doesn't deserve to go limited (see Naval Brigade, Sk9r Boi, Valkyrie Helm, etc. It's inevitable.)
    • A hat or two is going to go back on sale for a limited time.
      • Likely to be an old offsale hat, some potential candidates are Teakettle, Bighead, or a return of Biggerhead.
      • It's possible though that a recent offsale hat might go onsale again; such as Sk8r Boi.
    • Some gears will be discounted.
      • Likely that Fallen Artemis Bow will be discounted for the third time in a row.
    • A gear item or two will be going limited.
      • Spec Beta Biograft Energy Sword has a good chance of going limited.
      • Some random gears could be going limited as well.
    • Some offsale gears will be going back on sale.
      • Probably going to be forgotten gears that haven't been on sale in a long time.
    • Some packages will be discounted
      • Candidates for this are all packages that cost above 1000 robux
      • The most likely candidate is the ridiculously expensive Korblox Deathspeaker which currently costs 17000 robux.
  • The only thing that the poll does not confirm is user retextures.
    • Likely that we might be seeing a user retexture or two published.
    • Like the previous sale, it'll be chosen based on admin approval, NOT adbombing.
    • Could Gusmanak's Top Hat see a return?
      • The texture of it was leaked for last year's sale but it wasn't published.
  • There will probably be admin-made retextures as well.
    • Retextures might be based on popular hats.
    • Continuation of current (popular) hat series
      • Such as a new Xanwood or Bluesteel hat
  • The "big item" will be some sort of retexture (either admin-made or user-made)
    • It will probably cost 50000 robux like previous big items.
    • Does have a chance of failing; we haven't had a profitable big limited in months.
  • Some new gears/faces might come out.

- NonstopEpic, Catalog Manager


Chicken of the Month: February

Woohoo another Chicken of the Month that is only on sale for one day!!! This one is made by scribbos, and it's Valentines Day themed. Except.. it was made on the 7th of February... and went off-sale on the 8th... which isn't Valentines Day? Wha..?

CotM: February Love Bird
"'Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild.' February's Chicken of the Month."

Appearance: 9/10

As the January Chicken of the month was, this is also amazingly textured. The mesh, as the other chickens, has a hole in the mouth for your head, and a mo-hawk looking thing up top, along with two large eyes. This chicken's mo-hawk is pink, it's beak is dark pink, and the main head is pink with light and dark pink hearts. It's very well done, good job scribbos, and congrats on the publish.

Price: 8/10

This chicken was priced at 200 Robux, which is double the price of the last chicken. I'm guessing the prices will continue to raise by 100 Robux, so that'll be a lot of robux in the end. Anyways, I think the price fits the chicken, though I think last month's was better. Oh well.

Time on-sale which basically ruins the hat: 2/10

Sorry for ranting, but wow. It's called "Chicken of the month," not "Chicken of the 24 hours." Also, it's a Valentines hat. Why was it not made on or around Valentines day? It was made a week before that.. aahggh. I don't like this. At least we got another chicken, I guess.

 Overall: 6.5/10 

 The chicken looks great, but the price is a little bit much. And the time it's on sale is just insane. Agh. 




~Pbjms~






Friday, February 7, 2014

ROBLOX Winter Games: The Guide

Hello again! Pbjms here, and as many of you probably know, I wrote a semi-full guide for ROBLOX's past event, The Witching Hour. Well, I'm back, and this time we've got Winter Games, with universes (and tons of prizes) (but even more disappointment). In celebration of this huge event consisting of different places, not only will I be writing this, but some of the ROBLOX news staff will be joining me! In this guide We'll be going over the two main aspects of the event, the Games and Badges (all are linked with Prizes).

Note: This is an extremely long article, just "ctrl-F" to search for whatever aspect you want to find.

This image, and the other images are by ROBLOX.

Games

This event is much different than the others. The community was asked to create different games, and so they did. Each place is built entirely by a community member, lead creators include Merely, Simoon68, Asleum, asimo3089, badcc, radiogamer, and alexrocks911, and their teams, if they had any. In this section, we'll go over a guide for the games and then give it a short review.

The ROBLOX Winter Games (Lodge)


The main lodge
Ah, the lodge. Cozy. It's a great build, asimo3089 at his finest. Besides the lifts. Nothing gets worse than the lifts, but I'll get to that later. You start off on a frozen river, that if you plunge into, you die. You follow the path, and come to a crossroads. Go left, and you go to a fire pit with a global leader board. Go right, and you can go to the lodge. The lodge is very cozy, with posters of the games on the walls, along with some bedrooms upstairs. Outside is a ski-lift, where, for the first few days of the event, the main Winter Game took place: Ski Lift Failing. Basically, you would get on a lift and hope that nobody flips it over and gets you stuck before you take off and head to whatever game you chose. That's all fixed now, but it was pretty fun before. Just kidding. It was the worst experience I've ever faced in the history of my life. Nah, not that bad, but yeah. It wasn't fun.

Moving on to something more interesting.. In the house, there is a secret room. Where? Well, I'll tell you. Just kidding, that ruins the fun. But it DOES involve a usually transportation system from Scooby Doo and other mystery movies, bookcases. The room is basically a credits room for the entire lodge, it's pretty neat.

Winter Karts


Mario Kart is a good game by Nintendo.
Never mind.. I'm giving this one up to Catalog Analyst, Rayman36.

"Hello readers, RayMan36 here with a reason to go outside and get frostbite. I’m talking about the winter games.
Yes, we know the Winter Games are bad. But I sort of like them; they are bad published roblox games, but kind of fun regular games. I have probably made the mistake of playing a game and writing a review randomly, because I chose the game most of you probably, well, hate. I’m talking about Road Rage Simulator 2014, or as most of you call it, Winter Karts.


I. Gameplay
Not a very hard game, but some of its parts just lack. It’s mario kart with more 2D GUIS and very annoying music. So drive around, use the powerups, and try not to yell in anger too much.


II. Awards
The real reason I played this the most was that it’s super easy to get awards if you play it long enough. If you drive fine and don’t hit anything, you’ll get first. The medals are simple enough, as well as getting Yeti Headphones if you score first. My problem is with the Blue Bird prize; I have never seemed to earn it, even when I drive into my own fake block. I’d probably do that in a race, not a game mode."

Tips:
-Try to hit all of the boosts to stay ahead.
-Unless you feel like trolling and getting hated, don't run into other players.
-Every power-up is fairly useful, just make sure you throw bombs away from you and don't run into your own shells.

Snowball Fight

You know.. I really don't like to rant but.. heh, kidding. I love to rant. This game is awful. "Why is it awful, it looked fun in the trailer?" Well, to start things off, you can team kill. That basically ruins the WHOLE place, which is supposed to be war themed. The building is terrible, it looks like it was thrown together in like 30 minutes. The only useful gear isn't even made by the creator. One of the prizes is a GUI in the corner of your screen. There are NO ROUNDS. The medals in this place are for the first, second, and third to get 35 points, which is pretty tough if rounds and stats don't reset. Oh, and both of the prizes for the place don't even look good. A scarf and a beanie. Yippee..


Tips:
-Don't play it.
-Take advantage of team killing to get prizes and medals.
-Don't use the snowball, use the gun, the snowball's 'curve' in the air is awful.



Winter Snowboarding


I like to explain Winter Snowboarding in three different stages. The beginning, the terribly awful, and the better (but still not very good). Sorry badcc, I'm not a fan.

Okay, in the beginning of this game, there were plenty of excited people ready to go play a snowboarding game. When they got there, they thought it was intermission. They thought the rounds were long. "Wow, this must be a fun event," exclaimed Jimmy. Well, Jimmy, you're wrong. It's broken. Completely broken. 100% BROKEN.


Stage two consists of an actual working game, but there's one issue.... there are tons of cheaters. Jimmy is curious as to how a fully tested event can have so many glitches and available cheating paths! Well, Jimmy. So am I. Anyway, this is now patched, so have a watch at what you COULD do (video to the right).

Stage three is basically a fully functional game, with invisible walls blocking off cheats, and checkpoints that you have to pass in order to finish, which kind of fixes things up, besides the fact that the game is terribly glitchy and I still fly up all the time and miss checkpoints. As I like to say in cases like this, Blame John.

Tips:
-Use all of your power-ups, even if they do nothing.
-If you find some way to cheat and still win, use that for your advantage.


BreezeKrieg


BreezeKrieg probably has the most effort put into it, but when you combine effort and ROBLOX.. you get a broken game. Yeah, for the first few hours of the event, this game was broken. Yeah, two broken games in one event, don't you think ROBLOX would've checked for this stuff first? Anyways, after it was fixed, it became my favorite game in the event, but still, It's not bad. Basically, you spawn as a tank. There are a few rounds, either capturing flags, territories, or murdering the other team. You can buy upgrades for your tank in the shop, and in order to shoot and place blocks to build, you need to collect snow patches on the ground by driving over them. So basically, It's pay to win. Without upgrades, It's not easy to do well. Oh, and, you can just buy points for robux but.. oh wait, no you can't, because that's broken too..

Tips:
-Collect as much snow patches as you possibly can, and always keep your meter more than half full if possible.
-Upgrade your tank whenever you get the chance, soon you will find good combinations and become very strong.
-Don't play it on your mom's 5 year old computer. It lags, as you may be able to guess.

Snowblox

Going to send this review over to Site Journalist, FiniteBlox.

"Definitely my favorite, it exhibits wonderful quality. With minimal lag as compared to the other games, it is fun to play as well. The only downside is the wait time, which can reach two minutes at times between rounds. When the round begins, it loads one of several maps and you are spawned behind a wall. Instead of having about 5 studs of space like Winter Snowboarding, you are given plenty of room to move about. The countdown begins, the wall lowers, and the race is on. If you run into obstacles, you are slowed down. This nice feature makes the game require a touch of finesse and skill. The boost panels can be found throughout the map, and activate the speed boost feature that is found on a normal snowboard. There are no checkpoints and the walls are completely vertical (no cheating!)."


Tips:
- Hit as many speed boosts as possible.
- Before the countdown begins, instead of ramming into the wall, back up quite a bit, wait for the countdown to start, and if you time it correctly you'll be flying out of the starting line.

- Do whatever you can not to hit obstacles. They slow you down a lot.



Badges

Each game, including the lobby, has two different badges. The prize is a virtual item that you get to put on your ROBLOX Avatar, they are only available during the event, and some may become limited in the future. In this section We'll mainly be covering how to get each badge, along with giving some tips for the tougher ones.

Medals

With the medals, TheInnovative is just going to be giving tips for each of the games to help get the medal, then of course, I'll review the actual medals, but the reviews will be all in one, because they're basically the same hat, just different colors. All of the information here is for Gold medals, use the same tips here to get Silver and Bronze.








"SnowBlox: To get the Gold Medal in SnowBlox, it's fairly simple. You have to win one race. Just one. To do this just be ready to start the race right away, use all the speed boosts you can, and don't crash. It may take a few tries.

Breezekreig: To get the Gold Medal on Breezekreig, it's fairly hard. You need to be the highest scorer in the game, so make sure you've upgraded your tank a lot and are ready to kill some tanks.

Winter Snowboarding: To get the Gold Medal in Winter Snowboarding is the exact same as to get it in Snowblox. Be ready, use all power ups, don't crash, and just win one race.

Snowball Fight: This is the hardest one to get a Gold Medal (in fact, any medal). As of now, the only way to get a gold medal is to be so lucky and be the first to get 35 points in a server. You get 5 points for every kill. Soon after this post, there will be a round system so points reset. This means you constantly have chances each round to get 35 points once the rounds start.

Winter Karts: Getting a Gold Medal in Winter Karts is decently easy. Be first place in one race or battle. A race is self explanatory, and you can use some power-ups to knock people out for a good 3 seconds. For battles you have to use power-ups to knock people out. For every person you trick, you get one point. The person with the most points wins."
2014 Winter Games Gold Medal
Ah, the medals. Every Olympics has to have medals. Usually they're circles, but oh well. Squares are fine, I mean, it is ROBLOX. On the medals is a ROBLOXian under the word ROBLOX along with what looks like a stack of something (medals, stairs, gold, robux?). The medals fit nice on your character, and work well in other hat combos because, well, they're necklaces. Nothing will usually cover/block them. The one thing I don't like is how there are only three medals around the 5 places, I know this isn't like the real Olympics, but I was expecting different medals for different games. Oh well.



BreezeKreig Arctic Adventurer (BreezeKreig Adventurer)

Going to hand this one over to Catalog Analyst Manager, NonstopEpic.

 "To get this hat, you must simply collect 1000 or more snow patches in BreezeKrieg. One might say in response to this, "but my tank can only hold 370 snow!". You do not need to have 1000 snow at once, you just need to collect 1000 snow patches. Also, the amount of snow you have is not what the game tracks for this badge; the game tracks how much snow you have (each snow patch yields more than one snow for your inventory)."

Tips:
- Clean out your snow inventory via methods such as shooting snow when it starts to get close to full so you that you are still able to collect snow.
- The best time to get the most snow patches is at the beginning of a round.
- Grab every snow patch in the area that you are in; don't ignore any of them
- The game will sometimes generate more big snow patches, which you can collect.

BreezeKreig  Adventurer"The hat has an excellent color scheme and looks very winter-esque. The snow marks on it make for great detail and make the BreezeKrieg Adventurer great for winter combos. This hat is definitely a must-get out of all the winter games prizes."

BreezeKreig Ski Cap

To win this badge, you just have to be on the winning team in BreezeKreig. It's basically pay to win, because it's a lot easier to win with an upgraded tank. Before the game was fixed, this was simple to win, you just had to wait for it to be the territory round, then trick the other team to cross the line, but now you actually have to try. Ugh, effort.
Tips:
-Always have over half of your snow gauge filled.
-The freeze ray is probably the most powerful and annoying weapon, so with that note, it's the best. Use it.
-Health of your tank is the most important stat.

BreezeKreig Ski Cap
The hat awarded is this fancy green cap. On it is a set of goggles. Eh, not a bad hat. I'd prefer if it was either just the goggles, or a hat with goggles being separated. This isn't bad though, but It's not something I'd wear.

WinterKart Winner (Yeti Headphones)

Another straightforward badge. As you may be able to guess, you just have to win a round of Winter Karts. If you had a childhood full of Mario Kart, this badge will be easy for you. If not, you should practice. After a few games, you will get lucky with power-ups, know the map, and be able to win.
Tips:
-"Practice makes perfect" - John Adams and other people 
-Get lucky with power-ups "But pb, I'm not lucky!" Well too bad.
-Try to hit every boost.

Yeti HeadphonesThe prize awarded is probably one of the best. It's a pair of headphones, a retexture of the 8-Ball Headphones (I think). Instead of 8's on the muff things, there are yeti heads. White background, blue face, large white teeth. Looks fantastic. One of the three must-gets of this event.
Faked Yourself Out! (Blue Snow Bird)
This badge has been prescribed by 9/10 doctors, leaving comments like "LOLNOPE YOU'RE TOO UNLUCKY TO GET IT, OUT OF MY OFFICE, BEGONE!" But yeah. I spent like, an hour on this. It's not even hard. You just have to get lucky enough to actually get the fake box thing. Silly Sorcus, always making chance rates for badges like this like "1 out of every ∞ power-up boxes will yield a fake box lol!" 

Blue Snow BirdThe prize you get is not worth the time. It's.. a.. bird.. that sits on your shoulder. What? Why would a bird be that friendly? Why would a bird be THAT PERFECT SHADE OF BLUE, and lastly, WHY WOULD A BIRD BE WEARING A SNOW CAP THAT LOOKS BETTER THAN THE PILE OF MASHED POTATOES BELOW THIS (ALONG WITH A SCARF)????????
Deep breath. In... Out...
There we go..

Snowball Slinger (Snowflake Snowboarder Beanie)

To get Snowball Slinger, you basically have to do the same exact thing that you have to do in order to get any medal: Get 35 kills. Except this doesn't involve being the first, second, or third, to do so. It's simple, especially with team killing currently possible.
Tips:
-Don't bother trying.
-Team-kill untill it's fixed.
-Use the gun, not the ball.

Snowflake Snowboarder BeanieThe hat you get from this badge is probably the ugliest thing I've ever lay my eyes on (after Blackvalk, of course). It reminds me of the mashed potatoes at my school, except it's white with snowflakes on it and a little ball on top, APPARENTLY it's a beanie, but I see no resemblance. This is definitely the "must-not-get" prize of the Winter Games. I want the bird's cap, not this.. thing. :( (I wouldn't wear either but it's just the principle, ya'know?)

You Found It! (Midnight Blue Winter Scarf)

Midnight Blue Winter ScarfWhen you think of a hidden gift box, you'd think of something hidden around the map. LOLNOPE. It's in the top left corner of your screen. Pathetic hiding spot. Oh well, free scarf. The scarf is free. No effort needed at all (except for getting on the lifts). It's just a Blue version of the Crimson Winter Scarf, most likely just a recolor or something. Oh well, it looks good.
                                     Dang. Short review, that's why I did two in one!

SnowBlox Victory (Red Ski Hat)

Okay, another "Win _____" badge, who would've guessed? I would've, hopefully you would've too. Ah well, just win. Win, win, win, then win some more. Kidding, this isn't Arb's retexture. Win once. It's not hard. It's easy. Unless you have no hands. Or you're just a blob.
Red Ski HatHallelujah. A hat that looks good, and it isn't something 'expensive.' They made a ski hat look good. Dang. It's red. Or as the french say, "C'est rouge." It looks great, has grey and orange goggles, or as the french say, "gris et orange." Time to stop quoting French stuff and get on with the review..
Wait, what? Oh. It's already done. Okay.

Speed Booster (Red ROBLOX Scarf)

I'm not a fan of this badge. You get it for hitting 3 speed boosts in a round of Snowblox, but I mean.. some maps don't even have speed boosts. It's pretty stupid, but a bit challenging, actually. Unless it's that ice spiral map thing, there's like 50 boosts there.
Tips:
-It would be a good idea if you hit speed boosts.
-It would also be a fantastic idea if you don't fall off the map or screw up and get stuck/flung/stuck/whatever else is possible with ROBLOX physics.

Red ROBLOX ScarfYay, last review I have to write. Why I wrote in this order, I have no idea. Oh well. This scarf is another ugly scarf that ROBLOX comes up with. This scarf is a retexture of the ROBLOX Catalog Maker Gift thingy-ma-bob prize thing. Eh. The scarf doesn't work well in red, I prefer blue. Oh well, as us ROBLOXians like to say...           "ITS FREEEEEEEEEEE"

Snowboarding Expert (Expert Snowboarder Helmet)
Congrats Arbirator!

Going to hand this one over once again to Catalog Analyst Manager, NonstopEpic.

"This retexture by arbirator is probably the hardest hat to obtain in the Winter Games (not counting the prizes that will be given out to the Winter Games high scorers) this is practically impossible to win unless you've been playing the games non-stop epic every day. Pun intended.)" Pun intended indeed. "To get this hat you must win 20 games of Winter Snowboarding. This does not count getting in the first three places; this counts only for getting first place. If you're going for this badge, it will take you a while"
Tips:
- The only useful power-up in the game is the speed power-up. If you get multiple speed power-ups, use each one to their fullest until you slow down, then use the speed power-up again.
- Cross every checkpoint.
- Don't fall off the map.

Expert Snowboarder Helmet"The Expert Snowboarder Helmet is a good retexture by arbirator, the main man here at ROBLOX News. What makes this retexture great is the awesome mountain reflection on the goggles and the strap with the ROBLOX "R" on it. My only complaint with this hat is that besides the goggles, the helmet itself is not spectacular; its just blue and doesn't have much of an interesting texture."
Powered Up (Blue Bandit)

Another freebie, basically. In Snowboarding, just collect 5 power-ups. If you are unable to do this in a real game, which you should be able to do, just go to the first set of powerups and drive back and forth through them until you have 5. Very, very, very, VERY, very, simple.
Blue BanditYou get Blue Bandit from this badge, which is a fantastic hat. It's the bandit hat. but recolored so it's blue. It's fantastic for hat combos, especially with other blue hats, fedoras, top hats, etc. It's probably my favorite prize in this event. Meh. The games are awful, but the prizes are good. Fine with me. Like the BreezeKrieg hood, this is a must-get hat from this event.

Keep calm and keep warm (BLOXikin #33 Snowman)

This badge is probably my overall favorite in the event. As the badge before this, it can be found in the lobby. When you first spawn, follow the path to the left to a giant bonfire. Sit on a log, and get nice and cozy. After about a minute, your head will catch on fire. "AHHHH!" No. Don't panic. Sit there and wait it out, nothing bad will happen. After about 5 minutes, your head explodes. Yeah, a bit much? Anyways, you get this badge after your head explodes.


The prize given by this badge is coincidentally a snowman. It's a BLOXikin, too, to go along with #1-31 from the Witching hour, then #32 as a Christmas gift present. This one is #33, and it looks really good. Unlike the other BLOXikins, it doesn't have a distinctive torso, legs, and arms, it's just a snowman. ROBLOX did manage to accomplish making this look cute, just like every other BLOXikin out there. Good job on this one.


Gondola in the Wind (BLOXikin #34 Polar Bear)

I don't need to really explain how to get this. Go on a gondola. Bam. You got it. There ya go.
Review time!
The item given by this badge is the 34th BLOXikin, a polar bear. Like the other BLOXikins, it's a ROBLOXian in a costume, but this time It's a polar bear with a scarf. Of course, it's cute, nothing new there. It has little claws because, well, It's a bear. Dang. There really isn't much to say for this badge. (Oh well.)



OVERALL MUST READ TIP THAT WILL SAVE COUNTLESS COMPUTERS SMASHED DUE TO GONDOLA RAGE (Credit to Nonstopepic for this one):


Don't play it.

Or as Rayman36 concludes,

"Sochi > Winter Games"


Thanks for reading!!

~pbjms~
~Nonstopepic, FiniteBlox, TheInnovative, Rayman36~