ROBLOX Catalog: Fall/Winter 2013

ROBLOX 2013 Fall/Winter Catalog Events

          Hello! Chubbs21 here not with another review, but an article covering events coming up as the year is now half over! I will be covering expected and upcoming events coming soon!

Fall

August + September:

These months aren't very packed with events, but good limiteds are for sure. Last year, limiteds like Lord of the Federation came out and were amazingly successful. There might be a sequel limited to Lord of the Federation, Angel of Destruction, that was found in BrightEyes's models a few months ago. Seeing that limited quality has gone down in the past few months, it's not positive that they will be as good as 2013, but that doesn't put my hopes down. I also expect to see a Labor Day Sale, with the two Dominos possibly going limited!

October:

This month is definitely event-packed just like December, but I'll get to that later. First, we have Halloween-themed hats! A lot of these look great especially for a spooky costume! And too add on, some spooky limiteds may arrive! :) 

Next up, gifts! Throughout the month of October, 13 gifts will arrive in the catalog. This will include a "Big Gift" that will cost 31,000R$ and inside will include either a Dominus, Domino Crown, or something else like a "flock of bats" or "icky spiders" (which never came out, so expect a Dominus or Domino Crown). I certainly plan on saving up my robux for this one, seeing that 2 years in a row it has been a Dominus. I expect to see a Domino crown, possibly one like this which was rumored around last year. (I sure hope I get it, it would look rather neat on me.)

Winter

November:

November is also a pretty good time in the catalog, especially for the investors. There may be a Veteran's Day Sale, which again may include the two Dominos possibly going limited. 

Then, there may be a few Thanksgiving hats here and there to fit some nice native costumes. Or Turkish costumes. (Haha, get it?.....) 

Next up is the big Black Friday sale! Tons of limiteds and items going limited will appear in the Catalog along with many discounts. And don't forget, the usual Black Friday Retexture.

December:

December is just like October, lots of gifts. Expect lots of holiday-themed hats for your holiday-themed costume! 

As for the gifts, there will be about 24 of them, usually 3 at a time. Towards the end of the month, they will open with more interesting hats! There will, again, be a "Big Gift" costing 20,000R$-40,000R$ with a bit more unknown item inside. 

The first year of the "Big Gift" there was a Red Domino Crown, along with a free Dusekkar which I can only imagine owning (until it goes limited that is ;)... ) 

The next year was a Bluesteel Domino Crown which was pretty neat. Just to say, I plan on getting a Black Iron Domino Crown instead as Black goes good with everything. That is, if it comes out; possibly this year's Holiday Big Gift? 

The next year was an unexpected turn in things, a Dual Illumina gear costing 40,000. What I'm getting at here is they may continue this Dual SFOTH gear theme this year which leaves me wanting the Halloween Big Gift instead. Rumors have it that there will be a Dual Windforce or Dual Ghostwalker, as they somewhat have Holiday colors, costing 80,000 robux (Based of a +20,000 pattern with Dual Illumina and Dual Darkhearts). You never really know what will happen until it does.

Again, the two Dominos will possibly go limited. 

In Conclusion:

These are just expected rumours, ROBLOX may change up a few things, but a lot of these things will be true. I'm chubbs21, and you have been filled in on the Fall/Winter expected events!

Roblox News: Summer Interns 2013!

It's that time of year again; Summer! For the past two years Roblox News has run a successful internship programme. We select a handful of promising applicants and introducing them to the world of gaming journalism. Last year we had a fantastic batch of fresh writers - three of which are now permanent staff members here at Roblox News: zakary99, chubbs21, darkfish900! They enjoyed the experience so much, they wanted to stay!

How do they work?

Each intern will be assigned to a specific member of staff called a 'mentor' to 'shadow' them. They will observe the staff member's role on the blog; learning about the articles they publish and how they can produce articles of the same high quality. From the staff member, the intern will learn job specific skills. The intern will be focussed on one section of RN's site, whereas a staff member may be performing several different roles at the same time. This gives the intern the ability to study their area closely and develop experience relevant to it. It will be the mentor's responsibility to private message their shadowing intern after each one of their posts with four positives points and one target to improvement in the next. This is important so the intern can build on their skills, but mentors can also practise responsibility and leadership skills through the programme.


How do you apply? *Deadline 12:00am PST Friday 2nd August*

This year we are running the exact same programme (with the exception of the mentor's new duty) and will hopefully be accepting even more interns! Anyone who wishes to take on an internship here at Roblox News must send an application to robloxnewshelp@live.co.uk. Applicants should have fairly good experience and knowledge of the ROBLOX site, including the games, catalog and forum sections, and should have competent English skills.

The application should include:

• Your favourite aspect of the ROBLX site
• Your ambition on ROBLOX
• Why you want to become a summer intern at RN
• Which staff member you wish to shadow and why

Optional:

• A sample article of your choice - anything to do with ROBLOX. Place reviews and item reviews are often a favourite among applicants, but you could try something more adventurous! 
• What new type of article you would like to see on RN, and why. 

Internships are a great way of helping people deepen their knowledge as well as giving them experience with other staff members and developing social skills. RN interns are likely be asked to stay on as full time staff after the programme finishes.

Thanks, and good luck!

-Arb

Editor of Roblox News 

Kestrel - high quality clothes or overpriced shoddy clothes for the pretentious?

Taken at the Trade Hangout by Merely.

Kestrel a fairly old clothing group which currently has the owner Ojo1234, has recently gained quite a lot of fame with the construction of it's new stores which are set in famous place such as Paris, Venice, Dublin, Washington and many other famous cities. With all of it's success like most things it always has his controversial problems such as the high prices of Kestrel's clothing. Suits can be up to 18 Robux as shown below.

Many complain the clothing it to simple for such high prices however many do disagree, Kestrel seems to be everywhere now. From your friends wearing it, to ads everywhere, to stores even being in some of your favorite social places. As their slogan is 'Clothing at its best', but would everyone agree?

~EZroboxpolice.

Review: Mystery City

Now with a cover I whipped up in 20..ish minutes?

The "long awaited" Mystery City review is finally here, after all of that teasing and ~mysterious~ banter, here we are. Before we start, I will not be sugar coating this review, like all of mine, I will not be giving a numerical rating, which you already know. That's about all I have to say as far as regular banter goes, etc.

Mystery City is a sort of follow-up/spin-off of the Mystery game series by the same creator, Christopher Mysteries (the games are a little outdated but they're still fun). Now this time, Ptah70 is back with a brand new game, but he's not alone on this one, his cousin Mario5422 joins the ride to help with development of Mystery City. So, what is a "mystery game", per say? It mainly revolves around the player walking through an expansive map looking for NPCs to talk to, or just scouring the map for interesting secrets, you have to examine the badge descriptions to really get the story though. While they may not appeal to all, I generally enjoy these types of games mainly because they require the creator to make up an interesting story instead of just relying on a ton of flashy visuals (although they help too).

Gameplay

Onto the game itself, entering will bring you into a lobby with a greeter/generic help NPC, a map of the city, some game passes for sale, and some adverts, etc. Before I move on though, there are 18 mysteries in the game in total,  not counting the "finale". Now, there is a paid mystery which is NOT required for the finale access thankfully, only the first 17 are. There is also a "Mystery Guide", which can be found in the game and will pretty much spoil every mystery if you're that lazy. But back on topic, once you actually get into the game you'll be teleported next to a waffle house and "apartmeny" buildng, I'd recommend you head over to the (Wo)Mansmart first and talk to the owner, I'll leave you off there without spoiling anything.

As I'd explained before, the game revolves around talking to different oddly similar characters around the city and seeing what their problems are and finding out what to do next, although it can get confusing at points you can always aimlessly run around the city and go back to that mystery later, although something to note first.. stay away from the seeds, do not go near them, do not talk to them, do not even make eye tcatnoc htiw meht

Building

The building, although basic gives me a good "minimalist" vibe going, yes I know I've said this word a ton of times in the past but it just gets me here. Yes, free models are used but they appear to not be mis-purposed which is always good, the place has a lot of decals that all seem to work and be in order, although lag is an issue even on my computer so I'd recommend toning it down some.

Creativity
This, is where I feel Mystery City shines best, from the different supernatural forces at work within the city, to the oddly clad troubled citizens. While they don't ooze with character, they do a decent job for what limited time you interact with them. There is kind of a story, which you'll oddly find in a few certain mysteries through cryptic banter and strange figures. While this will likely be expanded upon more in the Sequel you should attempt to pay attention when you come upon these.

Overall
Man I must be losing my head, in a nutshell Mystery City is a rare breed of game, no overly done gimmicks, just good old dialogue, teleporters, and a few free models scripts along with some creativity. I simply recommend it just because it's different and you may find some inspiration out of it. So go play it, go on, goooooooooooooooooo

Disclaimer: No I am not going insane, this was just done for fun to add a little bit of incentive to the game to make people want to go check the game out. If you really feel I should make a serious review then here's my thoughts in a few words;

Mystery City is not a perfect game, although it's strengths lie more in the thought put behind the characters and design. If Ptah and Mario could somehow enhance the game with some scripting magic that would be interesting to see what they could do with it, although there's always next time.

Well that's this put down, what would you guys like to see done next? I'm kinda out of ideas besides the generic front page game or rant.

Game Review - Gun Run

Hello there everybody! This is Robloxer032 and I'm here with another Game Review!

Also, sorry for the incredible amount of time I was inactive, but my computer was being annoying and I couldn't load any games at all. However, I got a new gaming computer some days ago and I can write reviews again!

Well, on to the Review!

Today I'm reviewing Gun Run, a recent game made by Hikia. The place sky-rocketed to the top of the frontpage just minutes after its publishing and currently holds a stable position on the first to second pages of the Games section.

What you first see when you enter the game is a big, white, semi-transparent box. A box in which you spawn in. Now that I think about it, the lobby is really dull and boring, not like the colorful lobbies with bouncy balls and stuff. Oh wait, those are boring too.

Moments after you spawn, a voting GUI appears. The purpose of this GUI is, of course, to vote on which map to play. When everyone has voted, the game chooses the map and the shooter, who is given an insta-kill Sniper Rifle. Then, everyone else is teleported to the start of the map, which is esentially a box, too. 

After some seconds pass, the door to the outside opens and you're finally able to play. The purpose of the game is simple; Just run to the other side of the map without letting the shooter kill you. It is actually easier than it sounds. When you make it to the other side, you trespass a translucent green wall and enter the "Safe Zone". What this green wall does is prevent the shooter from shooting you.

And that's all this game is about. Essentially a simple concept, but it sure is a lot of fun.



Now, on to the Ratings.



Building: 6/10

Even if the lobby is as simple as I explained, the maps are very well done, with some basic CFraming here and there.



Scripting: 7/10

The only script in the whole game is the randomizer script, which has been seen in many types of games across all genres. It is still hard to implement.

Creativity: 6/10

This type of game hasn't been done that many times. However, I remember there was once a game with this same concept but wasn't as popular as this one is.

Effort: 8/10

As I said, the maps are really well done, and fit really well with the game.

Fun: 10/10

The game is as fun as it can get. It is also very amusing when someone on your side is killed by a shot meant for you.


Overall: 7/10



Suggestions:

     Make up game modes which retain the concept but use it in a different way
     Use more than one shooter in certain maps to increase difficulty
     Make the AFK button work
     Try inserting an anti-hack script



This was a short review by Robloxer032. Thanks for reading.


--Rob

Paper ROBLOX 2: Beyond The Fold - Review.

Paper ROBLOX 2: Beyond The Fold is an adventure game created by the amazing Explode1, with a giant map and endless places to explore and things to do. The map is your regular classic Blox adventure map, that is well coloured and is giant. Explode1 has also created the famous Brickbattle map: Waterfall Fortress. 

Gameplay - 6/10.

Maybe it's just me but sometimes when playing the adventures I get lost and it's not clear where I should go next. Sometimes I even manage skipping a few levels without even knowing it. But it is a great game. When starting in the lobby you have the chance to RP (Roleplay) by changing your character into a paper character. There are many characters to choose from when changing your avatar into paper. You also get points after adventures when finding objects like crumpled paper which can be rewarding after an adventure by yourself or with a friend. There is NCP in the game which you can talk to and ask about mission which gives it a very nice feel.

Map - 10/10.

Truly a spectacular map, everything about this map to me is perfect. He perfectly nailed the towns, forests, beaches, islands, deserts, mountains and all the places to explore, there's a train station to get to other parts of this beautiful world. In one mission I noticed there is a parallel universe of the town you start off in, all of Explode's effort has clearly been put into the map of this game. If you've never seen the first Paper ROBLOX it's map is also excellent but this one brings it to a whole new level! You'll zoom out and look around and be amazed at the clear skill and talent added to the map.

Over all - 8/10.

Great game over all, great place to visit and come back to! For all you adventurous ROBLOX players out there, this is the perfect game for you. Visited over 121k times and favorited over 6k.

~EZroboxpolice.

Hat Review: Webbed Wings

Hello! Pbjms here with another hat review. Today I'll be reviewing an okay looking pare of wings made the other day - Webbed Wings.

Webbed Wings

Mesh: 7/10

The mesh looks like an average pare of deadly dragon wings, fit to the back of your ROBLOXian's torso. There are two wings, each with a main vein stretching through the wings, kind of looking like claws. Inside is what I called the webs, filling in the vein parts to help the dragon fly. The wings really don't look THAT great, I could see ROBLOX doing better. I think the wings deserve a 7/10 for the mesh.

Texture: 6/10

The texture isn't that nice, and fails to makes the mesh look good. The web parts are green, with some shadows, while the veins are black, also with some shadows. There are - what looks like - some orange/brown veins that I really don't like, I don't even understand the purpose of them. The texture isn't the worst I've ever seen - but I'm sure that the staff could do better. I'm giving it an 6/10.

Price: 6/10

Webbed Wings are priced at 750 Robux, once again, another flaw with the item. It's overpriced - as most hats nowadays are. Only about 150 sold within the past day -  and they really don't look too bad. If I were to price things, I would price these wings in the 250 - 500 Robux range, the wings really aren't worth that much - as they don't even look that good. The wings are too expensive, so I'm giving them a 8/10 for the price.

Compare to.. ( 6/10)

DJ Headphones (Better)

These headphones look really nice, and fit great on your ROBLOXian's head. They also go well with plenty of caps, top hats, and fedoras.

Tempest Blades (Better)

Tempest Blades is a gear that lets you use dual blades in places where it is allowed. I really like the idea of dual swords, and it's a really powerful weapon, defiantly worth the 750 Robux, unlike the wings. 

Awesomesaurus Rex (Better)

As the name suggests, this package is pretty awesome. It's a scaly dinosaur, green with red spikes and claws. It's probably one of my favorite "you can't wear clothes" packages out there. 

Overall: 6/10

Overall, these wings really aren't fantastic. They don't look great, and are a little overpriced. Compared to other items at the same price, they don't really stack up.

~~pbjms~~

~~Tweet me @pbjmsRBLX if you want to request a hat for me to review~~

Review: Possession by Narutoworl

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I'M A GHOST

I can easily say it's very unlikely I actually scared anyone with that, gimmicks aside, today we're taking a look at a game that recently sprung onto the front page, by the name of Possession. Now, the creator of this game in particular has done some interesting things in the past, a Team Fortress 2 Demake, one of the first, I think, Pokemon roleplays, and a few other things but those two I listed you could say are recommendations

but onto the actual review! The game has also met a somewhat mixed reception, and you shall find out why later on.

Gameplay

Upon clicking the play button, you're teleported into a dining room of sorts with strangely built chairs, random portraits, and floating spheres in an attempt to spice things up. Now, before I continue, just by the description you can tell this bears a resemblance to a famous counter-strike gamemode/roblox demake.. (this totally doesn't mean i'll be doing a re-visit review of that place) 

Although this place has kind of the same premise, it's at least a little bit different, basically one randomly selected player is the "Ghost", while the rest are "Survivors", the Ghost most possess all of the players one by one, slowly killing them off. The survivors on the other hand, armed with zappers, must determine who the ghost is, and kill them. Now, what makes things interesting here is that the entire game, even in the lobby, is bubble-chat only so you can only see talking from a very limited distance. The screen will also "flash" every time someone is possessed, and killed, the ghost will take on the appearance of whoever was killed and continue to roam among your allies until you all or him are dead.

A "karma" system is also utilized, every time you kill an innocent player, you and them are teleported into the lobby, and whoever killed will be given -5 to -15 karma or so, if you get enough karma you can apparently be kicked from the server, although high karma means you have a bigger chance of being the ghost and all that. As far as I see, the karma system's main benefit right now is just a higher chance of being the ghost, zapper damage, and if you're kicked.

But the thing is with this version of "TITT", is that it gets boring, very fast. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of the game, the karma system is cool, but there's just not enough variation, none of the maps have interesting gimmicks, there is no shop, and when you finally do get to be the ghost, you're probably going to leave before you get a chance from boredom.

Building

Maps are decently sized, they kind of like to repeat a bit too often as far as I see, there are.. 5 i'm sure, a castle, haunted house, graveyard, and 2 forest maps I think.

At the very least, they work.

Creativity

The idea behind Possession probably hasn't been done like this before, but it's essentially Trouble in Terrorist Town with one person instead of-- actually it reminds me of another source mod.. The Hidden, which pits all of the players against one superpowered, and mostly invisible foe. Yes, this is basically The Hidden+Trouble in Terrorist Town.

Overall

Possession has the potential to be a great game, it just needs more things to spice it up because as i've said before, there's just not enough variation to keep someone invested in the game for long, while I do praise Narutoworl for trying and the cool map design, it's gonna need more than just a karma system to stay popular for more than a few more days.

Also, if you're interested in a Hidden demake, try The Stalker, by CloneTrooper1019 or better yet go try to play the actual Source mod, you'll most likely find it on Garry's Mod or Team Fortress 2, which both have their own versions.

But that'll about do it for this review, leave feedback below if you'd like and next up is one of my personal favorites I've been waiting to do for a while, Mystery City, should be up by Thursday, again, thanks for reading and have a good day.

Roblox Outlines: Not-so-clever

As many of you may have been notified; reminded of, ROBLOX have now implemented an outline for every brick and terrain on the graphical side of ROBLOX. These updates can, to an extent, annoy many of us users who prefer the normal, signature style of the graphics ROBLOX possesses.

ROBLOX have been trying to make a style of graphics that gives the site a unique 'identity'. For example if you see an advert on the Television you would instantly tell it is ROBLOX because the graphics; style is the normal look you are used to. In my point of view, the new outlines aren't a necessary update; I could think of many updates that could take it's place: fixing the dynamic lighting & shadow lag; a new personal messaging system; fixing the online system so that as soon as the person signs off, their status is set to offline. Things like that are needed, unnecessary outlines that are completely irrelevant to the classic style of ROBLOX are certainly not needed.

Here is a picture of this not-a-clever-move update:

As you can see, this update is a lot of the time unnoticeable; on this picture I enlarged it so if you look carefully - you can see the outline. Personally I think it's like something that ticks away in your sub-conscious, but either way it will still get on your mind. Sometimes it is a lot bigger and a lot more noticeable. That's why many people are fed-up with updates that aren't helping us view things on a different level.

While I can see why they added this aesthetic update - individuals can clearly identity the graphic style as being a ROBLOX game, ROBLOX is about letting the users build whatever they want. Restricting the style of bricks is counter-intuitive to this ideal. Plus, if you're going to put the time into making a visual upgrade to the game to create a form of site identity - at least make it noticeable (to, you know... identify the product).

I went on Trade Hangout, and I went to the kestrel shop. When you are looking at a plastic building or a building with Block Meshes in it, it is very well visible; I do not find it possible to ignore the lines, it's like my fathers HDTV, it has a line through the middle of the screen.

Thanks for reading my view and rant about the new ROBLOX outlines.

~Zakary Wilson

Edited by arbirator

BLOXCon Item Reviews!

BloxCon Item Reviews!

Hi, RayMan36 again. Today I'll be reviewing all of the Chicago BloxCon items, other than the Hackathon prizes. I'll review those later.

I wanted to make sure that all of the items were actually in the catalog before I reviewed them.

These items are only the ones that you can get from going to BloxCon, not like the hat The Windy City.

Let's Begin!

1. Chicago Bloxcon Black Fedora

This is the bloxcon hat for anybody who ordered their bloxcon tickets early. The mesh is nice; it fits nicely on your character. The texture is alright, for the colors are nice, but the little pictures look like a 3 year old stuck stickers to a fedora. The band also looks a little strange - a block colour would look more effective. I give it a 7/10, also because it is slightly rarer then the white fedora

2. Chicago Bloxcon White Fedora

This is a nice bloxcon hat for any Chicago ticket buyers. The mesh is just like the other one. The texture, in my opinion, is better; It looks like a JJ's white fedora. Another reason why I like the texture is the outlines of the little Chicago pictures are gone. I give it a 9/10.

3. ROBLOX Pinstripe Fedora

This is a fedora that you could've bought at the merchandise booth. I do not believe you got it  from only buying the actual fedora; you had to buy it separate. The mesh is ill- fitting on your character; it is too flat, and a little small. The texture is good; a nice pinstripe with a roblox pin. It does represent the actual fedora, here's a picture (credit to Ray for Modeling) 

Thanks, Ray.

So I give this fedora a 7/10.

4. Chicago News man

This is my favorite package. You got it by buying $50 worth of roblox merchandise at the booth. I thought, hey, why the heck, it's not like I'm going to be here next week! Sure, it was a little expensive (about 38 pounds at the London BLOXcon) but this is a major step up from The Crook Package. I like the idea of having packages for bloxcon, and the London one looks great. Anyway, the only thing I don't like is that the skin tone on the hands is a little too pale for any of the head colors, and I would've liked to see the hands transparent. The fedora and everything about it is , so I give this a 10/10.

Agree with me? What's your favorite? Tell me in the comments!

   

-RayMan36