Hi all,
This week I take a look at Sniper Elite 4, a game which doesn’t deviate much from the tried and tested formula, but my god is it fun!
You can read my full opinion on the game over at VGChartz.com using the link below:
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/267404/sniper-elite-4-pc/
I hope you enjoy the review, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter or down below!
Until next week,
-Dan
Hey all!
This week was going to be a review on Lego Jurassic World BUTTTTT I managed to get a review copy of Halo Wars 2, so proceeded to review it ASAP for VGChartz.com.
Soooooooo you can read my thoughts on the latest console RTS at the link below:
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/267440/halo-wars-2-xone/
Hope you enjoy the review and it either tides you over into buying the game, or putting you off it. Regardless of how you feel, I hope it helps you make a good purchasing decision.
Until next week!
-Dan
Mirrors Edge was a strange old bird. Released at the height of EA’s attempt to get on gamers side, it received mediocre reviews but managed to spawn a cult following, given it’s uniqueness and style. critics across the world moaned about it’s linear story, and that the core mechanics got old fairly quick.
Fast forward 8 years and here we have another Mirrors Edge, albeit this time we’re taking control of Faith in the past, before the events of the first game. Considering how the first game ends, it’s no surprise, but does a more advanced, mature Mirrors Edge fix the flaws of the first game? Unfortunately not.
Now, I’m not saying Mirrors Edge: Catalyst is a bad game, not by any stretch of the imagination. As I’m going to explain, the game does a lot of things right, so much so that I ended up putting in over 15 hours into the game whilst completing all side content. It’s just that in trying to fix the issues of it’s predecessor, Mirrors Edge Catalyst introduces some new issues into the formula, which results in another mediocre outing, which is neither fantastic, nor bad.
Story wise, it was always going to be difficult to make a prequel to a cult favourite, but EA Dice have actually managed to make an ok prequel. Characters motivations are laid bare, giving you an in-depth look into what life in this weird and wonderful world must be like, whilst story moments are immersive enough to make you want to see things through to their logical conclusions. There are some annoying tropes, with the drama at time a little too over the top, but overall I commend EA Dice on managing to make some believable moments, something I didn’t think could be done.
Graphically, Mirrors Edge catalyst is all over the place. I played the game on XBOX one, and could not stop noticing how blurry the image quality was at all times. I believe the game’s downscaling to 720p or even lower at times, resulting in a negative experience when you’re meant to be taking in the city and all it’s splendour at multiple times throughout the campaign. Graphical quality aside, the aesthetics of the world are sublime at times, giving a real sense of deja-vu when running through splendid prestige houses that I genuinely wish I could live in. It’s just a shame that the blurriness detracts so much, Mirrors Edge Catalyst has a lovely world to explore.
Did I say exploration? Yep, one of the major gripes from Mirrors Edge has been solved here, with Faith being able to explore an open world from on the rooftops. Whilst there’s a guide to help you get from point A to point B, you can proceed to explore these rooftops until your heart’s content, although EA Dice have unfortunately locked large swaths of land to explore behind story-lockable content (e.g. New abilities allowing you to reach previously unreachable locations).
Where this open-world falls apart is in it’s structures causing issues with your mobility. There were many occasions throughout my time with the game that I’d fall from a piece of geometry that I could have sworn I was on, or landed a jump that was apparently too high, making me respawn in another location. Being able to freely explore the world could have been bliss, but the way it irritates the control scheme, or causes you to a fail state multiple times really drives the point home that the control scheme can (and will) be buggy.
Side-quests and collectibles can be found whilst exploring the open world, but other than an xp bonus, there’s no real reason to actually collect or do any of them. The only reason I did was because I’m a whore for collectibles. Give me any game that puts a carrot on the stick in the form of a maximum number of items to collect, and I’ll be hunting until the end of days – an annoying habit I have, especially given how little free time I have to myself as of late.
Combat too is just as irritating as ever. Even more so since Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst does away with the ability to pick up guns of any sort. The story explains this away in a cutscene, showing that Faith is afraid of guns after having killed a man when she was a little girl, but never actually says this in anyway during the tutorials or text throughout. This means that should you happen across a bunch of guards, you’ll either need to run away, or stick around and take them all on, one by one. Fully upgrade Faiths abilities and this will eventually become trivial, but it’s still annoying that we have to do this, especially when Mirrors Edge gave us the choice to pick up an enemies weapon and use it against them if we were ever in a pickle (for example when you’re in the subway waiting for the train and holding off waves of enemies). As such, every time enemies would appear it’d be extremely tedious and irritating, something you never want when trying to evoke a feeling of immersion as you jump around.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Mirrors Edge: Catalyst. As I’ve said throughout this review, whilst some issues with the original have been solved, others have been introduced, making for a game that doesn’t get hype, but doesn’t get many criticisms either. It’s telling really that many reviewers never even thought about Catalyst when discussing last years GOTY awards; a perfect analogy, if any, to Catalyst’s mediocre showing.
3/5
Hi all!
So, it’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a game for VGChartz.com. This hasn’t been intentional, there just hasn’t been many new games to review, and no publishers/developers willing to give me a review copy.
Thankfully, that all changed this week when Wales Interactive reached out to me and asked if I wanted to review Knee Deep, an adventure game from Prologue Studios. Having seen the game at EGX in the past and being intrigued at the premise, I said hell yes and proceeded to play through the game.
If you want to read my thoughts on it, by all means click the link below:
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/267270/knee-deep-xbox-one/
If you wanna shout at me for this review, or have any thoughts/feelings on my critique of the game, you can always reach me over on Twitter: @caesoose
As always, thanks for visiting!
-Dan
I finally done it. After months of hearing fellow gamers and journalists talk about Superhot, I finally bit the bullet and bought the game to play through it in one night.
And truth be told: I’m underwhelmed.
Not to say Superhot is a bad game, not by any stretch of the imagination. Far from it in fact. I just believe that maybe gamers across the world have maybe shouted superheats praises a little too much, making my time with the game not feel as epic as someone playing it with no prior knowledge.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself here, so lets start from the beginning.
Superhot is a First Person Shooter whereby time doesn’t move until you move. From that one sentence you can already tell this isn’t like normal FPS’s, and as a consequence, you could also call super hot something of a strategy/puzzle game.
The game starts out by presenting you with a PC, with it’s own custom operating system. From here, you’re able navigate around all the files and folders, and open up chat messages with some unknown contact. They send you a build of a file called “Superhot.exe” and from there, when you click or enter it, you’re able to play the main campaign.
Starting out, you’ll undoubtedly want to mess around with the time mechanics until you have a firm grasp on what you can, and cannot, do. Looking around the environment causes an extremely minimal amount of time to pass, with picking up weapons or punching enemies making chunks of time pass relatively quickly. Distinguishing how much time is left before a punch occurs, or a bullet hits you, can take some getting used to, especially when you’re looking around to find a way around a bullet heading right for you.
Each level throughout the campaign is tiny, but sets up an elaborate scenario whereby you’ll always feel epic for having overcome the challenge on offer. One level for example starts you in an elevator, with 3 enemies pointing their guns at you ready to fire. The second you start you need to punch your way around, as one wrong move will result in a bullet in the head. It’s challenging, but once you see your full speed replay at the end of the level it makes the scene feel truly epic, like something out of the matrix.
Once you’ve mastered the first few levels you’ll then proceed to get more chat logs with the “friend”, and download further levels to take part in. The story starts to show here and there, as you start to realise this world is more than just a game, with you in fact having an actual influence on the real world. I won’t spoil the ending, but considering I went into Superhot not expecting too much of a story, it left me impressed.
The issue is, there’s just not enough of the game. It took me an hour and a half to complete Superhot, with the challenges extending that time for a few more hours. Given my upcoming criticisms of the gameplay in a minute, this could be seen as a good thing, but I just can’t help but think that the high price for low amount of game time is a bad deal. Granted, the gameplay is super polished and feels like something a Triple-A studio could produce, but it just doesn’t feel like *enough* for how much is paid.
My other issue is the gameplay: it’s a one trick pony. Like I said at the start of this review, maybe it’s because of how much journalists have been raving about the gameplay for the last year, but I couldn’t help but feel that it becomes old, fast. Yes, the replays at the end look good, but the limited amount of guns, and situations you’re put into make for a game that’s figured out extremely fast, losing it’s puzzle attributes fairly fast. Some could argue that the campaign ends before the mechanics get boring, but I would counter that the developers could have extended the gameplay by giving more options, more variations, more enemies. Anything but the same would have sufficed.
There’s nothing to speak of in regards to music, with some of the only sounds you hear throughout the game being the constant chanting of “Super Hot” between each level. This isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but there are times that the action could feel a bit better with the right soundtrack going on in the background.
Hype is such a strange thing in video games. It has the potential to give a studio millions of sales with relative ease (I’m looking at you No Man’s Sky), but in the same vain it can also cause a loss of feeling towards a given product when it doesn’t meet it’s lofty expectations. Super Hot is one such game for me, as the hype surrounding its release has been so high that it could never fulfil my expectations.
Super Hot is a good game, there’s no denying that. But I don’t believe it was a contender in my own top 10 games of 2016. It’s short campaign, lack of content, and one core mechanic soon become old, fast for me. Get Super Hot if you can get it on sale, but I wouldn’t recommend paying full price for it.
4/5
Whilst I believe that the Gears of War series was one of the defining experiences of the previous generation of consoles, I never 100% got into them. Yes, their “press Y to look at this thing we want you to look at” and cover mechanics defined an entire generation, but they just never felt right to me. Maybe it was the overwhelming odds that the group faced, as they consistently survived with no issues, or maybe it was the fact that the attempts at horror fell flat when the game was constantly making you feel like a hero, interjecting humour wherever it could. Regardless of the reason, I still continued to play every single one, and proceeded to enjoy my time with the series whilst playing co-op with my friends, enjoying, but never loving, the series.
So here we are, with a new generation of consoles to play the game on, and a new story. With Gears 3 destroying all the locusts (the main protagonists of the series), we find the world of Gears a very different place to be. Humanity is trying to repair itself, building cities using hulking robots (that are now a new enemy – more on that later), and proceeding to remind women the world over to have as many children as possible to replenish the dwindling population. this new world is weird, and in some respects, welcome. The previous game’s dreary underground segments were what defined last generations “murky” games, so the chance to explore a new world with less destruction and actual daylight was always going to be a nice change. The problem is, that change doesn’t last long, with Gears 4 soon turning back to it’s tried and tested formula of jokes, laughs, and dreary dark narrow hallways
You see, not only are there new enemies in the robots that are controlled by the CoG (the governing body post-war), there’s also a new type of gruesome enemy that’s kidnapping people and taking them underground. Throughout the course of the campaign you’ll learn that these new enemies are simply re-skinned locusts that have managed to evolve due to their to prolonged exposure to imulsion and 25 years of being left alone in pits across the world. With Marcus (the protagonists father) being kidnapped, you spend most of the campaign fighting in the dark trying to find him, along with kait’s (a sidekick) mother.
These underground and ruined locations that you’ll progress through unfortunately don’t look too dissimilar to previous games. The only difference I could discern is that stages now have brand new colour ranges thanks to the new HDR support, meaning leaves and blood look more vibrant thanks to the new hues that can be produced. Otherwise, for the most part, you’re still seeing the same buildings, same murky walls, and weird architecture. Don’t get me wrong, this looks and feels like a Gears of War game, but I just couldn’t get over the over-reliance on underground and building scenarios. There are moments that stand out and shine above the rest, like the beginning area where you observe a city being built from scratch in broad daylight, but these moments are few and far between.
My other issue is one of tone. After the first act of fighting robots in a day-lit city, you proceed to spend the rest of the game in the dark. This is fine: the developers at The Coalition are obviously trying to set up some elements of horror with the new “Swarm”, the issue is, it just doesn’t sit right with the constant jokes and playfulness of the characters. At one point in the campaign we have a grieving and upset sidekick, alongside an annoyed protagonist, and both of them are cracking jokes all over the place about not saying a place is “all clear”, as it jinxes them. It’s all fine and good having humour here and there, but I can’t help but think The coalition straddled too close to the line as to whether the game was a horror, or funny, shooter.
I didn’t mind the story too much, but it did feel like a setup to a trilogy rather than a standalone game in it’s own right. Half of the acts are finding out what threats lay in the world, with the final few being running away from said threats or trying to find your way from one town to another. The campaign was longer than I anticipated, totalling around 8 hours, but it ends so abruptly that you can’t help but think the developers cut some content from the end of the game.
Graphically, I wasn’t impressed that impressed. When Gears of War first released on our xbox’s 10 years ago, it was a technical achievement, one that showcased the dawn of a new era of machines, and one that would take years to beat in regards to visual fidelity. Gears 4 on the other hand feels out of date in comparison. There are times when the amount of detail on screen can look lovely, stunning even, but for the most part it looks like a slightly more polished Xbox 360 title with slightly better textures. Not exactly a revolution in graphics, more of a refinement, and that just doesn’t hold ground anymore when every other developer is making better looking games.
Like my opening paragraph alluded to, I still enjoyed my time with Gears 4, it’s a fun game that continues to delight as you play through. I just want something new from the series after it’s mechanics have been picked up by most other games over the last decade.
3/5
Oh The Order: 1886. It’s been many years since your first trailer when Sony announced the PS4, and holy shit were gamers the world over blown away by your visuals. Then you finally got released after many delays, only to get shit on and end up in the bargain bin for £12. Was it gamers expectations that let you down, or was the criticisms against you valid? Well lets take a look as over the course of the last week I finally managed to play through this gorgeously astonishing game.
One thing can be said about The Order from the offset: it’s aimed high in it’s setting. You play as sir Galahad, a knight of a secret order that protects Great Britain and all it’s domains from mythological creatures that see fit to kill innocent people. Set in 1886, the world is going through turbulent change, with the British empire ensuring rule over India, all whilst trying to get the upper hand over America. It’s alluded to many times throughout the campaign, but knights of the order are a lot older than they first appear: some are rumoured to be so old in fact that they used to rule alongside King Arthur.
This mix of elements seems like a genuine thrill from the offset, with the stage and setting a true wonder to behold. It’s a shame then that the story never quite pans out as you’d hope, with the setting of 1886 rarely actually being used. Throughout the campaign you see glimpses of this wonderful world, with streets looking gorgeous, signs looking authentically victorian, and even photographs and items looking authentic, but for the most part you’re confined to corridors, sewers and back alleyways; never a great way to fully explore a fantastic setting like the victorian era.
The reason I say that criticism is two-fold: 1. It takes time away from the absolute marvel that is The Order’s graphical fidelity 2. It affects the gameplay when you’re constantly in small corridors fighting off waves of enemies. Onto the first reason, the graphics. Holy shit is The Order a sensation to look at! Every nook and cranny of the aesthetic seems to have been meticulously fawned over, so much so that even when I completed the main campaign, I came back just to show my other half the splendour that is The Order’s graphics.
Snippets of the victorian error look absolutely sublime in some area’s, with lighting, textures and models all combining to something that you could swear was real-life at times. It’s a shame then that, like previously mentioned, you spend a great deal of time in linear corridors or sewers. I understand the complications behind making a fairly open world: the amount of assets that would have had to be made would be staggering, even with the support of Sony behind a team, but even so, to have so many reused and boring locales is annoying and down-right shocking considering these segments don’t make use of the setting. 1886 was a fantastic year that the developers could have genuinely shown more of, instead we’re left with a game that really could have been set in any time period: for the most part you wouldn’t tell.
Then there’s the gameplay, which turns into a simple case of running to the next area down linear corridors, ducking behind cover and killing endless hoards of enemies until you can move on again. At least when this is done in Gears of War the developers mix things up by giving you multiple ways to take on enemies, where as The Order sticks you in a confined area, a nuisance in later levels when enemies start bombarding you with grenades. Then there’s the fact that these small environments don’t leave much to be discovered. If entire houses were modelled we really could have explored this beautiful and fantastic victorian setting: instead we’re given stones and tiles as far as the eye can see, with multiple doors that can never be opened.
I will say that one criticism levelled against The Order 1886 wasn’t deserved: it’s length. Many reviews and gamers online said that the game could be completed in 5-6 hours, making the game extremely short and poor value. I noticed that in my play through, which was fairly rushed, I completed it in 8-9 hours. Granted, this isn’t much more time than others were quoting, but it felt like just the right length, not too short, but not over-staying it’s welcome.
Gameplay again was a little annoying when it comes to mythological creatures. For a game all about the knights of the round table and lycans, you’d expect there to be a lot of creatures to kill. Not so I’m afraid, with the vast majority of the game encompassing you taking out many, many human foes. There are a few warehouse scenes whereby you take on lycans in a confined area, but these are few and far between, and don’t do much to change up the gameplay. It’s a shame, as the lycans and other creatures could have helped in mixing up the core combat loop, with some enemies maybe charging you or flying overhead at times. It would have certainly made the combat more engaging, and if anything, made the game as a whole more replayable.
So as a whole, The Order 1886 unfortunately did deserve many of the criticisms levelled at it. Whilst the setting was interesting, and the graphics absolutely sublime, the rest of the game falls apart when stretched to 8-9 hours. I hope the developers at Ready at Dawn get another chance to make another The Order, as there were hints of greatness here, the rest of the game just needed the same level of polish the graphics had.
3/5
I have a confession to make fellow readers: I never played the original Ratchet and Clank’s that came out for the PS2 many many years ago.
Whilst that’s not a massive confession, it does have its reasons. Growing up me and my family were never playstation fans. We had the consoles, but we also had the gamecube and xbox, and as such, never sided with just one console’s exclusive. Given the plethora of different titles we could choose from on all consoles, we missed out on some exclusives from each respective platform.
Regardless of this, having played through Ratchet and Clank on the PS4, I can safely say I’m annoyed I didn’t play this series of games when they were first released.
Being a reboot, most elements are stripped out of the original series and brought into modern sensibilities. The graphics, for example, is absolutely stunning, with the PS4 Pro and 4K TV being an absolutely fantastic combination for playing the game. The story too has had some changes, with a quick google search showing me that whilst the plot is mostly the same, the characters and their key plot points are changed ever so slightly to align with the recently released Ratchet and Clank film.
One of the first things that caught me off guard whilst playing the main campaign was how hooked I became whilst playing the story. I’m not usually into platformers, as I feel they can get repetitive and easy far too fast. Not so with Ratchet and Clank, where I was playing the game all day everyday until I eventually finished the campaign and started the “New Game +” mode, at around 13-14 hours. There’s just something about the RPG-lite gameplay of the game that lends itself well to also being a platformer, meaning that I kept re-visiting already completed planets just to make sure I got everything that was available, and finished every objective.
The story is charming and all told from the point of view of Captain Quark, the once head of the Galactic Rangers, which is now in prison due to what happened throughout the course of the campaign. This method of story telling results in some rather humorous scenes, especially when Ratchet and Clank do something the captain wasn’t expecting, resulting in some fourth-wall breaking moments. There’s not really any character development to speak of, but when the gameplay is so addictive and fun to play, there’s no reason to want a better story.
Playing through ratchet and Clank is equal parts third person shooter, third person platformer and beat-um up. You control Ratchet, who has clank on his back (most of the time) and proceed to jump around the environment defeating enemies either with your melee weapon (a crank) or your myriad of crazy and awesome weapons gained throughout the course of the campaign.
This combination of gameplay is fantastic in action, and makes for a challenging and varied experience. I found myself dying quite often, even on medium difficulty, rethinking my strategy on how to take down a new crowd of enemies with different combinations of weapons or even new ways of attacking. Then there’s sections of levels which are entirely dedicated to platforming, meaning you’ll need to jump at the right time or find the right route in order to get a piece of treasure at the end. It’s fun, and always kept me on my toes, resulting in an enjoyable time throughout my playthrough.
Each weapon you acquire is both entertaining to use, and also upgradable, resulting in many quirky and awesome side-effects. The pixelator for example is pretty nifty, and once fired, results in enemies becoming their old PS2 models whilst also being pixelated. The boogie ball was also fun and hilarious: shoot it into a field of enemies and laugh as they all stop fighting you to take part in dancing around the ball. It’s fun, and actually made me invest in my weapons a great deal, so much so that I ended up finding every collectible in the game in order to upgrade them.
The collectables throughout the stages are fantastic, and help to keep you involved in the game. 28 Gold studs are hidden throughout the whole campaign, with each one unlocking new cheats, or even aesthetic changes to be used. These rewards for exploration may seem trivial, but when they help in speeding up or slowing down the game they become extremely useful. Then there’s the trading cards you can collect from hidden spots on maps or by killing so many of a certain enemy. Each set that’s collected give’s buffs in the game, for example giving me +100% damage when meleeing enemies, certainly a great buff I’m sure you’ll agree. It meant that everything to collect contributed to the enjoyment of the game, meaning nothing ever felt meaningless or without warrant. I know I certainly enjoyed it so much that I proceeded to collect everything Ratchet and Clank had to offer.
The only thing that could be seen as a bad thing about Ratchet and Clank is the rate at which you obtain studs throughout the world. These studs are used as currency within each level, allowing you to buy ammunition, or even new weapons. Trouble was, studs come out of every enemy you defeat and every obstacle you destroy, meaning throughout the course of the game I had so many that I never had to worry.
So overall, I’m glad Ratchet and Clank was remade. This story, as well as graphical fidelity, harkens back to a by-gone era, one where the point of a game was to have fun and nothing else. With the increased visual fidelity (thanks to the PS4 Pro) and updated gameplay, I can certainly say that Ratchet and Clank is one of the best PS4 exclusives I’ve played since it’s release, and one that you owe yourself to own should you have a PS4.
5/5
N.B. Ratchet and Clank is one of the first games I’ve played that’s truly a 4K HDR title, and my god does it shine. The colours, and aesthetics throughout are so slick and gorgeous that you could be forgiven for thinking you were watching a movie. 4K HDR games are really going to ensure artists’ work is shown how it was originally intended, making for an exciting and enticing future in Video games, especially for ones that don’t strive for realism, and have a art direction that takes advantage of every pixel on screen.
It’s that time of the year again!
Like previous years I’m going to list of my favourite games of 2016, which will also include games released in previous years. I do this so that I can get across what I’ve personally liked playing this year, as not everyone has the chance to play every 2016 release.
Without further ado!
Surprisingly, despite most critics claiming the first black-ops was the best, I found that the third was my favourite. Don’t get me wrong, it was odd breaking away from the continuity of the previous two, but it was still an enjoyable game in it’s own right, and easily just as good (if not better) than advanced warfare.
Should you be able to get the game on sale, do it. You don’t need to have played the previous black-ops games to play this one, so give it a go! Great fun and thoroughly enjoyable.
A brilliant little indie game that can be completed in a few hours, but one that has a lovely little story and has a brilliant puzzle mechanic. You should seriously give this game a go.
8. Captain Toads Treasure Hunter
Easily one of my favourite puzzle games of all time now, Captain Toads Treasure Hunter is a charming and enjoyable puzzle/platformer that as simple as it is gorgeous. Find diamonds and treasure across a tiny, hugely detailed island, and proceed to solve puzzles. It’s so fantastic in fact that I want to make a game based on the same formula!
One can only hope it comes out for the Switch when that’s released.
From start to finish I could not stop laughing at Manual Samuel. Whilst it sucks that I didn’t get the achievements on my own Xbox profile (screw you craig!) I still enjoyed the game so much that I ended up playing through it multiple times.
A genuinely funny game that should be played by anyone that wants a laugh.
Holy crap the amount of hours I put into Enter the Gungeon was insane! I’m not gonna do another review on it, as you can read my thoughts on the game by clicking the link above, but holy crap, Enter the Gungeon took what made the binding of isaac so good and ran with it.
If you like roguelike’s, and have been itching for a new game that’ll take over your life for dozens of hours, Enter the Gungeon is where it’s at.
In all my years of playing Battlefield games, I’ve never thought they were actually *that* good. I mean, I can see why people enjoy their multiplayer, but as a whole they were always a bit too “free” for me to consider that great. I mean, it’s good that maps are that big, but unless you’re competent with the game or play with friends that know what you’re doing, you can feel a little overwhelmed.
Suffice to say, with Battlefield 1 appearing on my GOTY list, most nuisances I had with the previous incarnations have been rectified, so much so that I keep coming back to Battlefield 1’s multiplayer, even though I’m playing alone.
The theme, the slowed down combat, and general feel have all made sure that this is one of the best FPS’s that I’ve played in 2016. If you can get it on sale, do: you won’t regret it.
Abzu Abzu Abzu. For quite a while after completing Abzu all I could think about was it’s flaws and lack of originality. Everytime I mentioned the game to friends or family I would use the sentence: Like journey only underwater. Looking back, that’s underselling Abzu’s fantastic design, and genuinely gorgeous story.
If you have a few hours to dedicate to a game, and want it concluded in those few hours, you cannot go wrong with Abzu. One thing’s for certain, I cannot get over how beautiful it is at times.
I fucking loved Titanfall 1. Having played the game for a grand total of 112hours, believe me when I say it was one of my favourite online multiplayer games of the last decade. Whilst Titanfall 2’s tech test concerned and worried me, I’m glad Respawn went back to the drawing board, because the results speak for themselves.
The campaign, whilst short, is actually really enjoyable, and results in many memorable moments with your titan companion. The multiplayer too is fantastic, and manages to take the strengths of Titanfall 1 with *almost* none of it’s shortcomings.
It’s a shame the game hasn’t sold too well on PC, as matches are getting a little hard to find, but man oh man is this a fantastic game.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT.
Unlike most reviewers, I actually liked Doom 3. Maybe it was because of my age when the game was released, or maybe it was because I was just into graphics and nothing else. Whatever the reason, I didn’t necessarily need DOOM to be fast like it’s predecessors.
Saying that, I’m so glad it did. The gameplay in DOOM is astounding, constantly pushing you to move forwards using it’s glory kill mechanic, and ensuring you never take cover. DOOM has shown FPS’s in 2016 that it’s ok to break the mould and invent new mechanics, and holy shit am I glad it exists.
Regardless of whether you owned the originals or not: You owe it to yourself to play DOOM.
Close friends and family know how much I love open world driving games. With my purchase of the Xbox 360 at University, all I ever played was Test Drive unlimited; a game I so fondly remember that I wish to one day drive on Hawaiian islands with an Enzo Ferarri.
Forza Horizon 3 manages to take that formula I love so much, and expand on it in every department (graphically, gameplay wise, car range), that I ended up spending days exploring all of it’s roads, and every race it had to offer. I loved it so much that I ended up buying the season pass, which wasn’t cheap at all. One things for certain about Forza Horizon 3; I cannot wait for the next piece of DLC to drop.
So that’s it for 2016! I hope you all have a wonderful new year, and I look forward to seeing you in 2017!
Hi all!
I hope you had a fantastic Christmas, and are looking forward to an amazing New Year! My GOTY articles will be published tomorrow, with my New Years Resolution article published New Years day.
Regardless of that, time for review number 52/52! So to read my thoughts on Dead Rising 4, click the link below:
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/266706/dead-rising-4-xbox-one/
Overall it was an OK game, but not by any means is it a Dead Rising game. I think Brad Shoemaker said it best in Giant Bomb’s weekly podcast: “It’s a generic RPG”.
Regardless of how good or bad Dead Rising 4 is, I thank you for visiting this blog to read my thoughts, and thank you for a weird, if not wonderful 2016.
I look forward to seeing you again next week!
-Dan
Hey all!
Well, what a weird 2016 that was! Outside of the constant celebrity deaths and crazy political landscape we now find ourselves in (WW3 is looking more and more likely by the day), I had a productive year when it came to games. Whilst not all of my resolutions were successfully completed, I made headway in some and have learned from my mistakes in others, so can proceed with some experience on 2017’s resolutions.
Watch out for those on January 1st, but for now, on with 2016’s results:
Green = Completed
Orange = In progress
Red = Not started
Well, if you check back, I’ve certainly been keeping to this resolution! I have to say, even when everything else in my life starts to fall apart, or time flies by, I will always make sure to keep to this resolution as it gives me a sense of fulfilment. Should you want, you can see a list of every game I completed below (I didn’t review EVERY title I played, so a few titles may be missing a link):
Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX
A Story about my Uncle
Paper Mario 3DS
That Dragon, Cancer
Pneuma, Breath of Life
Super Mario 3D Land
Coffin Dodgers
6180 The Moon
140
Firewatch
Sound Shapes
1010
Unravel
Teslagrad
Captain Toads Treasure Hunter
The Walking Dead Michonne 1
Qube
Tembo the badass Elephant
Downwell
Counterspy
Super Time Force
GTA V
Splatoon
Hyper Light Drifter
The Walking Dead Michonne 2
Enter The Gungeon
Hyrule Warriors Legends
The Walking Dead Michonne 3
Wailing Heights
The Room 3
Table Top Racing
Doom
Lumo
Ryse
Animal Crossing: Party
Cibele
Her Story
Horokum
Call of Duty Black Ops
Mighty No. 9
Pull Box World
Furi
Inside
Call of Duty Black Ops 2
Nidhogg
Mortal Kombat X
Abzu
Call of Duty Black Ops 3
Finn and Jakes Epic quest
Attack on Titan
ReCore
Forza Horizon 3
Pacman CE edition
Unbox
Klang
Aragami
Manual Samuel
The Beginners Guide
Battlefield 1
Titanfall 2
Sunset Overdrive
Dead Rising 4
Stereo Aereo
I succeeded! I read the following this year:
Halo: Broken Circle
Halo: New Blood
Halo: Shadow of Content
Making of Volume
Death By Video Games
The Martian
Burma Chronicles
Halo: Initiation
An Astronauts guide to life on earth
The Maze Runner
The Scorch Trials
The Death Cure
Halo: Cryptum
Halo: Primordium
Halo: Silentum
Why Don’t Penguins Feet Freeze?
World War Z
The God Delusion
C# Programming for beginners
Halo: Glasslands
Halo: The Thursday War
Halo: Mortal Dicta
Halo: Smoke and Shadow
Barbarians: How Baby Boomers, Immigrants and islam screwed my generation
This has been on my mind for a while now, especially with friends and family constantly telling me how good it was. So at the start of the year I managed to watch all seasons of this fantastic TV show. Having watched the latest (terrible) season, I’m awaiting its return next year.
Now that I have a bit of savings behind me, and with future ambitions to emigrate to America, I should really get on with getting braces so that I can straighten out my teeth. I’ve been putting this off for far too long, especially with my 30th birthday fat approaching next year.
Unfortunately, whilst I began working on this project:
I soon stopped. This was due to myself talking with third parties and asking if they could edit my videos. I also had a few articles prepared, but due to them containing a lot of content relating to interviews with people in the industry (that never got back to me), it all fell over. I’ll start this back up again soon, but for now I can certainly say I failed to produce one video article a month.
Unfortunately, whilst I started work on this new title, it never came to fruition due to time constraints with Twixel’s launch on Steam. I postponed work with the talented artist until after Twixel was released.
This was far too easy. You can see a list of what I watched below:
Horns
Spongebob Movie
Mad Max
Indie Gaming Movie
Night Crawler
Kingsman
Spectre
Kickass 2
Ex Machina
Ronin 47
Hercules
The Martian
The Machinist
Insurgent
The Maze Runner
San Andreas
Mockingjay Part 2 (hunger games)
The Amazing Spiderman
Captain america: Civil War
Legend
Blazing Saddles
Fantastic Four
The Secret Life of Pets
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Suicide Squad
Blue Brothers
The Good Dinsaur
Only Yesterday
Finding Dory
Zootopia
The Lobster
This was fantastic, and was done at the same time as I travelled to Bratislava with my other half. Due to how close Bratislava is to Vienna, we stayed in Bratislava the whole time (which is extremely cheap) and just took a cheap €5 bus to vienna twice. This was a fantastic holiday, and I’m sure it’s not going to be the last. I have plans to visit Norway and many other places before the end of the year.
Unfortunately, with Twixel’s Steam release taking up most of my spare time towards the end of the year, I didn’t get as much time to work on massive video projects. With the new year coming up, I’m going to try to start doing more videos, especially ones where I show off a game without a script.
Whilst it’s been my dream to visit the famed conference for years, after speaking with my editor and other writers at VGChartz, I found that if I wanted to attend I’d have to fund the entire trip myself. This, along with the fact lots of companies have pulled out of E3, pushed me into deciding not to attend the awesome games conference. There’s always next year…..
I done this and it was great as always! You can see my articles from the conference below:
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/265955/yooka-laylee-is-hitting-the-right-nostalgia-notes/
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/265954/games-to-look-out-for-from-egx-2016-part-1/
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/265956/games-to-look-out-for-from-egx-2016-part-2/
The conference was great, and as a result I managed to write the following articles:
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/263901/games-to-watch-out-for-from-egx-rezzed-2016/
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/263900/manual-samuel-hilarious-and-challenging-in-equal-measure/
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/263892/furi-takes-titan-souls-to-its-extreme/
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/263897/bears-cant-drift-oh-yes-they-can/
So… I’m becoming a nightmare for not actually making up my mind on what I want. There’s too many designs but so little arm space! Next Year I DEFINITELY WILL!
All in all I feel I’ve done well, especially given that I’ve successfully released my first game on Steam, something that wasn’t on my list of things to do.
Next year I may do what other’s have tried: rather than 1 static new years resolution that can’t change to meet different needs, I do 2-3 resolutions, so should anything come up (like Twixel’s Steam release this year), I can adjust my targets to account for it.
As always, thanks for reading this, and by all means tweet or email me your new years resolutions, it’s always great to find out how others are doing 🙂
-Dan
Hi all!
For this weeks Weekly Gaming, I take a look at EA/Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall 2. Whilst I don’t want to spoil the review too much, I should say that the game is absolutely sublime, and it’s a bloody shame that it hasn’t sold well at all.
You can read my full review below:
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/266335/titanfall-2-pc/
If I don’t speak to you beforehand, have a bloody fantastic Christmas, and I’ll see you back here again same time next Friday.
-Dan
Hi all,
For this weeks Weekly Gaming I take a look at Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom, published by Koei Tecmo and developed by Omega Force. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the game, and whilst the lack of any new story was a bit of a downer, the game in it’s entirety felt like a refreshing take on the Attack on Titan universe. The combat was also great, which was surprising, especially since the simple mechanics (in previews) looked like it may have been the biggest flop.
You can read my full review over at VGchartz.com below:
http://www.vgchartz.com/article/265619/attack-on-titan-wings-of-freedom-xbox-one/
As always, thanks for visiting, and I’ll see you next week!
-Dan
Where oh where do I start with a game like Finn and Jake’s Epic Quest? OK, first off, why I own the game. I personally love the Adventure Time universe; I love that for a children’s show it has so many dark themes that it could just as easily have been made for adults. Characters work together so well, and everyone who ever watches the show is bound to have their favourite.
I was gifted the game as it was on my Steam Wishlist back in 2014, but with life being so busy (and the Steam library increasing dramatically all the time) it hasn’t been on my list of things I must play. Fast forward to today, and I decided, you know what, the game’s only meant to take 6-7 hours to beat, may as well hammer it out in one night.
Having completed the game, all I can say is: I wish there was a way to turn back time and get those 7 hours of my life back.
I genuinely feel that Finn and Jake’s Epic Quest was made as a cash grab based on the Adventure Time name. Not only does the game feel like it was made by some interns in their spare time, but the game from start to finish add’s nothing to the Adventure Time world, and if anything, tarnishes it’s brand identity.
Finn and Jake’s Epic Quest is a top down isometric dungeon crawler where you take control of Jake or Finn, as you proceed to look for 8 mystery artefacts so you can save your lost friend, BMO, all whilst grabbing as much booty as they possible can.
Each dungeon is a relatively plain floating island, with the only noteworthy unique environment variable being the enemies themselves, which are taken straight from the show and copy/pasted hundreds of times. These enemies are simple, and have no AI to speak of, simply walking towards you and attacking until you die or they do, whichever comes first. Whilst these two set backs wouldn’t necessarily be bad by themselves, they contribute to a hugely boring game, one which has no unique qualities to speak of.
The only thing that could be considered entertaining is the spells you’ll find throughout the world as you traverse. These spells can be purchased or found, and allow Jake and Finn to have a myriad of different abilities, from summoning princess unicorn, to even wearing Jake as armour. These abilities are cool, but due to their lacklustre effects could be considered merely side mechanics, things that aren’t really integral to the story or gameplay, but are good to see/use occasionally regardless.
Then there’s the story, which is so lacklustre you could be forgiven for thinking the game doesn’t even have one. Apart from a simple 10 second cutscene after killing each boss, nothing else happens, with the dungeons themselves merely being time sinks in which you can endlessly kill enemies and find loot. the story could be summed up to: BMO’s missing and has been taken hostage; It’s up to Jake and Finn to find 8 artefacts and give them to the baddies holding BMO. That’s it; no interactions between characters, no extra stories to make this feel unique, nothing.
Animations are janky as all hell, and the combat has nothing to actually get you hooked. Run up to an enemy, mash x, and you’re done. The sound effects from Jake and Finn are authentic, coming from the real voice actors themselves, but since it’s all flavour text for each thing you interact with (a spell for example) you’ll soon get sick to death of hearing the same things being said over and over again.
Oh and the bugs that are still present after the game’s been out for over 2 years are insane! There were multiple occasions where I would have to exit back to the title screen and start a dungeon again just because my character would get locked in an animation that would never play out.
If I haven’t made it clear over the last few paragraphs, I did not enjoy my time with Finn and Jake’s Epic Quest. The game is literally made to be a time sink, requiring little thought and little attention, you should only play the game should you have the mind of a 5 year old. Avoid Finn and Jake’s Epic Quest like the plague; there’s nothing good to be had from playing it.
1/5
There was one question I just could not stop asking myself throughout my playthrough of Activisions latest Call of Duty shooter; why on gods green earth is this game branded with the moniker “Black Ops”?
Obviously, this is the third in the series, but for some odd reason, Black Ops 3 has no connections to the previous two, and seems to never actually warrant the Black Ops title. Granted, some may say that this is a trivial matter, but I for one think that it perfectly encapsulates the differences (both bad and good) of this latest in a long line of Call of Duty games. Let us proceed to unravel why.
First up the story, which, whilst being completely unrelated to the previous two games, is actually quite a departure from traditional COD games. The year is 2065. Augmentations and robotics are rife across the world, with many people now having brand new DNI’s implanted into their minds, allowing them to interface with robotics and technology the world over.
If the plot sounds familiar, that’s because it’s been done many times before in other forms of media: Ghost in the Shell springs to mind for example. Where Black Ops 3 deviates though is in the philosophical applications of DNI’s. Very early on in the game you’re taught that you can interface with another person’s DNI, allowing you to see everything they’ve ever thought. Doing so will make them brain dead, and it’s through this moral ambiguity that Black Ops 3’s story actually stands tall.
You see, whilst it’s a nuisance that there’s no relation to the previous two games, Black Ops 3’s futuristic story manages to carve out an extremely believable and unique world. The use of DNI’s to interface with peoples imaginations and memories allows for dramatically different and crazy landscapes, with the stylised future feeling fantastic, even going so far that it would feel right at home in a Deus Ex game.
With an AI intent of never dying eventually making its way into the plot, the moral ambiguity starts to increase a notch or two. The characters that take part can at times feel like stereotypical caricatures, but overall they help to give the story more believability, showing how different personalities can help in truly showing a devastating force. Overall, by the end of the 8-10 hour campaign I was left feeling hugely satisfied with what I had just taken part in, something I can’t necessarily say for other Call of Duty games (I enjoyed the previous Black Ops games, but don’t take too fondly to their stories).
This isn’t an understatement when I say that the futuristic setting helps to add more to the gameplay than any COD game before it. Your suit not only has augmentations that allow you to do things like hack enemy AI, or cause explosions at a distance, but also allow you to traverse the environment at tremendous speeds. Wall running, double jumping and sliding are all present, and they add such a sense of speed that it’s going to be hard to go back to previous Call of Duty games I haven’t played before (e.g. COD Ghosts).
About those augmentations: they’re fantastic at changing up the “strategy” (I use that word lightly) of a traditional Call of Duty game. In the past you’d run from encounter to encounter, shooting down everything you saw without thinking. With the new abilities to hack, destroy and paralyse enemies you’re given greater freedom to take any challenge that is thrown at you how you would like to. For my part, I admit I relied on the instant kill robot feature a little too much (especially when it’s upgraded and can explode other surrounding robots), but the versatility of different options to mess and tinker with is truly astonishing, and weird in a franchise that’s become accustomed to pushing out the same features year in, year out.
The addition of a new “Hub” world base between each mission is also another weirdness that truly sets Black Ops 3 apart from anything that came before it. During each level, you’ll pick up and find collectibles, as well as modification kits that are earned through levelling up. Back at the base you can choose to use these kits to upgrade your abilities, make new guns, or simply upgrade existing weapons. The collectibles you find can also be showcased on your walls, along with any accolades that you’ve learnt in tough missions. It’s odd and small, but all of this makes your playthorugh feel personal: you get to choose what you want to do and what you want to showcase within your base, making everything, from load outs to mission completions feel rewarding and personalised, with a sense of progression which is always present.
The new enemy types were a welcome departure from constant humans being able to just hide behind buildings and objects in the environment. Robots march towards you without hesitation, which are first seems really simple (just shoot them right?!?) but soon becomes a challenge in itself when you also have to worry about other enemies firing at you. Then there’s the big enemies; these monstrosities can be seen as bosses, as they require a lot of rockets, and a lot of bullets to be taken down. There’s also drones, which are weak but high in number, and finally bullet-proof humans. All this variety makes for a challenging experience, especially when you have multiple enemy-types homing in at you at once. If anything, the enemies on display push you more and more into using your augmentations, which results in a splendid gameplay loops of running, firing, hacking and repeating, all whilst trying to stay alive.
Graphically, Black Ops 3 is an absolutely stunning game. I took so many screenshots throughout my play through that at times I would die from taking in the scenery rather than actually playing the game. Characters brim with life, environments look just as stunning as anything you’d ever see within a Crysis game, and for the most part my 1070 GTX was well and truly put through it’s paces. There are times where you can see that Treyarch are still using the old COD engine, all with glitchy AI and the same animations as previous games, but these times are few and far between.
Finally, the music, which for the most part was ignorable. You’re not really going to come to a COD game for it’s music, especially with so many explosions and so much gunfire going off at all times. On that note, the explosions were just as explosion-ey as ever, with guns sounding like what you’d expect a future model of an AK-47 to.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Black Ops 3. The changes made since the last Black Ops were significant enough to keep me more than entertained, with the new augmentations and hub world helping me feel that this was my own personalised experience. The only thing I just cannot get my head around is the use of the Black Ops name. There are so many changes, such a different story, and overall no relation to previous games that I don’t see a need to use the moniker at all. For a title as fantastic as this, Black Ops 3 deserved its own franchise name, God knows it deserves it for how much of a departure it is from the tried and tested COD formula.
5/5
