Tesla vs Lovecraft - Review

We’re reviewing another game brought to you by 10Tons, and this time it’s Tesla vs Lovecraft.

Tesla vs Lovecraft is a twin-stick shooter which on closer inspection after playing the game for a bit it is just like Crimsonland, you collect weapons and power-ups to defeat hordes of enemies.



The game starts off by introducing you to the story which is Lovecraft not approving on Tesla and the introduction of electricity, saying that Tesla doesn’t know what he’s messing with.

When you start the first levels, the game takes you through the very basics, letting you know which buttons do what basically, and then when new elements get added to the worlds, it will pop up to let you know what these do or how to use them. The tutorial is basic, but it does the job and helps you get to grips with the game and get into the action.



The game has lovely graphics and each area is well designed and thought out, giving you options at every turn, helping you strategise your next moves. The controls of the game feel nice, the movements are smooth and responsive and the game feels brilliant when playing and making your moves.

When playing the game, areas can get overwhelming at times, especially if you’re unable to get to the spawners to destroy them, this is where the strategising comes into play and using one of the features which is teleporting over short distances. However you can only use this a few times, then you have to wait for it to charge back up. There are times when you die within the game and it does start to feel like a very cheap death, and you question how it was possible, however, what I liked about the game was that the deaths weren't frustrating, you can sort of feel a reward for going back and trying again and I know on the times I died, I went back and did it the next go, I was able to change the strategy that I was using and learn from the first attempt.



During each level you will find a lot of useful items being dropped in, different weapons will start to appear and you will shortly learn which is your favourite, from a pistol to automatic rifle and the trusty shotgun. Sometimes it is best to try and mix it up a bit, different enemies are taken down quicker by certain guns, or when it starts to get a bit too much, getting the auto rifle out and mowing down enemy after enemy. Satisfaction.

Another feature which you get after a short while in the game is the mech armor, and I had so much fun playing as the mech. During each round you have to pick up 6 pieces of mech to get the armor, you then activate it and go to town on the horde in front of you. It’s so much fun and I couldn’t wait to get another go, sometimes extending plays in each round just to keep getting the mech.



The modes available within the game are enough to keep you entertained and there is also a co-op mode within the game where you can get up to 3 friends to join you on your quest.

Overall the game is a pleasant little shooter to play, I know there are plenty available on the PS4/Xbox One, but the satisfaction and reward this game gives you is worth a few hours of your time.

8/10

 

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Middle Earth: Shadow of War - Review

Ever since I played Shadow of Mordor, I’ve always wanted another game in the series, I love the middle earth lore and setting, I think of it as one of those games that I can sit and play for hours and it can take me away, I’m not in our world anymore with all my troubles of work and life, I’m slaying orcs and Uruks with my Wraith sidekick.

That’s something that I don’t see from my office window, it’s something that I can’t relate too in real life…. ‘Oooh, bobs annoyed the Uruks across the street again, the caragors on the loose’… It doesn’t happen, that’s why I love these type of games. Don’t get me wrong, something like GTA, Watchdogs etc that I have the potential to see from my office window, are excellent, no denying it, but drifting to a fantasy world and forgetting all those problems is just bliss.

Shadow of War continues where Mordor finished off, Talion and Celebrimbor are creating a new ring to help them take on Sauron, however, Shelob comes in at the start and takes the Wraith hostage… She wants the ring, Talion agrees to give it to her for Celebrimbors release. Which all goes well here, Celebrimbor is released but not happy that the ring they just created has now been given away.



This is where the game starts. As with the first game you have to take on Uruk captains dotted throughout the world to try and bring down Sauron’s Army. From the start when you get into the world you can see how impressive this game is, the setting, the area, the detail that has gone into it is simply stunning. Especially the lighting when you’re in Minis Ithil, that skyline is jaw-droppingly beautiful and the detail that have gone into the entire area, from the mountainous backdrop to the town itself is brilliant and the world is alive and well with plenty to do. What makes this better is that using photo mode you can capture all these beautiful backdrops and use them for your background on Xbox or Playstation.

There are lots of Uruks/Orcs that populate the world and when you fall into a stronghold you can find yourself in a spot of bother, as they just keep spawning and piling out of nowhere. I’ve found myself numerous times being surrounded by 100’s or Orcs/Uruks, and when you think you’re making a dent in the numbers, more will pour out, does seem like a losing battle at times, so I usually find myself running away and waiting for it all to die down (with a pint at the Winchester – Shawn of the Dead reference for those who didn’t know ;)). I will usually go back there after a while, especially if I had been looking for something such as an Ithildin Door or Shelob memory.



These are part of what you can collect within the world. Ithildin doors are located in the barrows and are sealed by a poem. You have to collect the missing words from around the world and then put the words in the correct order to the poem. The door will then open to give you a legendary piece of armour.

Shelob’s memories are as they say on the tin, once put back together they show you an image of…. Shelob's memories… I don’t really know how else to say that….

There are also little quests within the worlds that you can complete once you have opened up certain skills. These are more of a trainer for when you unlock the skill through a skill point and need to learn how to use it effectively. I will say my life in the game completely changed when I unlocked Elven Rage…. I love it when it’s fully charged and I can go full on at enemies, although I save this more for captains etc as they are harder to beat, so it makes it a little easier to get through them.

Skill points can be earned when doing quests or when Talion levels up. You can use these on whatever skills you have unlocked, and some of these skills will be unlocked automatically by completing story missions, others by ranking up Talion by doing in world missions/quests.



One thing I liked about this game is that it didn’t throw everything at you within the first world. It allowed you to go at your own pace and learn the game in your way, then when you moved on to other locations more was to be thrown at you, which again was the same, it allowed you to learn and master this section before adding more when moving on.

Mechanically, the game plays very well, fighting waves and waves of Orcs/Uruks can be immensely satisfying, especially when you get a string of hits and blocks together, it just feels and flows so smoothly, a trait that I loved about the first game as well. It does have its moments where I’m trying to run away and want to jump up onto a building and Talion decides he’s going to roll instead, but other than that, it’s an irritant that I can live with.

I love being able to get new weapons and armour, upgrade the ones I have if I get a legendary and want to keep hold of it. It adds a bit more depth to the game, giving weapons and armour a purpose, knowing that the further I get into the game that I’m going to have to get higher ranked weapons if I want to compete effectively. Also, being able to add gems and forge them into the weapons and get extra benefits such as 15% better damage or loot is a good little addition.

Just like the first one though, the game can get a bit repetitive especially after doing the main missions within an area, you're left on clean up missions of memories and ithildin door words. Like I said earlier, new things are added which kind of helps, but they do also just add to the grind, which can put people off from fully exploring a world and just doing the main missions.

Shadow of War is a very good game and is a step up from Shadow of Mordor, it’s beautiful and plays very well. There are repetitious elements to the game, but I think a lot of open world games like this have that element to them. If you’re into your Middle Earth and loved Shadow of Mordor, I would highly recommend this. Even if you weren’t and wanted to try something different, give this game a go.

9/10

Deponia | Review

Deponia is a point and click adventure that occurs funnily enough in the world of Deponia. In the game you play as Rufus who is trying to make one last attempt at leaving Deponia for Elysium, the reason being is that Rufus can’t wait to taste the pleasures that Elysium has to offer and get away from the garbage planet of Deponia…. No really… There’s garbage everywhere!

I have to admit that the writing and narrative for the game is very strong, and this follows the tradition with point and click adventure that they tend to have a very strong narrative. I loved the comedy elements within the game, there were times it would remind you of a carry on film, especially when Rufus thinks he’s saving the girl but ends up sending her down a garbage chute… Which in fairness did save her, but probably not in the fashion she would have wanted!



As good as the narrative was, I did come across an issue which did bug me a bit and that was that there was a lack of options available that affected the story. Rufus has the option to answer how he wants within the story, but it doesn’t really impact the story at all as the game will simply default to what should be said, which was a bit disappointing, as if you picked anything else then Rufus will just say he’s joking or something like that and another option will have to be picked.

The voice acting and sound within the game is top notch and I loved how this was able to play out through the game and bring the comedic elements to it.

When it comes to point and click adventures the main thing with these games are the puzzles, this is what makes and breaks a game, whether the puzzles fit the bill and are strong enough to keep people enticed, are too hard or just a walkover. It’s more than likely though that different gamers will see these puzzles in a different way. Those who are very comfortable with the genre will probably do them with ease, whereas someone who is new may end up struggling with them.



I found myself in the middle of this and even though there are a lot of puzzles that I was OK with, there were some that were quite hard to do and understand what to do. You can talk to different citizens in the area to ask for help and get tips, but one question I do have is how do you make Cappuccino without coffee beans and clean water?

Examining and putting items together is what you will find yourself doing a lot, however understanding what to put together is a whole new ball game.

The game is pleasing to the eye, it’s not your typical looking game, but the overall style and use of colours and are is nice to look at as you’re playing through. I love the hand drawn style as it brings out the characters personalities more as well, which makes them more enjoyable to play as and interact with. However, I did find the protagonist annoying which I guess is meant to be how it is, are you meant to like the bad guy?!



One final issue that I had with the game is the replay factor. It really isn’t there, once you’ve played through the game once, you’re not really going to want to play it again.

This is a very fun game for those who are wanting to put their brain to the test while having a little fun and a laugh at the same time.

I would recommend the game, but not at full price I’m afraid as the replay factor just isn’t there. But the charming story and characters that it portrays are well worth investing in, even if it is just once.

6/10

 

Skyrim: Special Edition | Review

I had always wondered how to start this review, a game as big as this, how could I start it? When you have so many main quest lines and options within the game, going from the beginning gets a bit of a blurry line, especially after 50+ hours playing on Xbox One and going through my second play through on my PS4 Pro.

What I'm going to start off with is the performance of the game on both consoles. I played the game on an Xbox One S and a PS4 Pro. In terms of the way the game looks it does look fantastic on both consoles and the screenshot below will show how good the game actually looks. With the PS4 Pro upgrades, I can't really comment as I don't have a 4K TV (That is going to be next years purchase) but the game does look very impressive on both consoles.

[caption id="attachment_13708" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Alchemy Tower from House in Falkreath[/caption]

I love the distance rendering on the game and how far you can see and just think to yourself that you can actually get over there and see what there is to do. The best example of this is when you're stood on the Throat of the World (The highest point in the game) and you look across and see the world below. Simply amazing.

In terms of performance the PS4 Pro is the winner. With the Xbox One S version I had numerous crashes which ended up me being kicked back to the dashboard and losing sometimes a rather lot of progress through a dungeon. I will say that my wife has a copy as well and plays on her OG Xbox One and she also experienced these crashes, and sometimes it was a lot more than me. There were times it would happen at least 3-4 times in an evening and I would end up just turning the Xbox off and walking away till the next day. It got so frustrating at times, but with the PS4 Pro I haven't had any of that happening. Another that I have noticed on the Xbox One version of the game, that I am yet to notice on PS4 is that when in third person mode there can be quite a frame rate drop and the game becomes quite stuttery and off putting. The only reason I haven't noticed it on PS4 is that I only play in first person mode, whereas the wife prefers third person, this was the main reason that I managed to notice the difference.

[caption id="attachment_13709" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] View on the path from Riverwood[/caption]

The strange thing about this was that when she went into first person, the stuttering stopped and there was no noticeable drops. Unfortunately, I can't compare between the original release and the special edition as I never played the original release back in 2011.

The game starts off in epic fashion with a dragon attack just as you're about to have your head chopped off, and the only reason you're about to get your head chopped off is because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

There is so much in this game to see and do, I love just following the paths and discovering each area of the game and what it has to offer, and it is also a good way to get new missions and side quest as there are times that people will just run up to you and start talking to you which ends up in another mission.

[caption id="attachment_13696" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] View over Whiterun[/caption]

However, the one annoying thing that I did find with the game was that there were times you were speaking to one person and listening to the details for a mission, but another NPC would walk past and start talking to you, so you would have both people talking, and I found that really off putting, it was like, 'excuse me, bit busy here'.

One of the things that I do love about this game is how varied the missions are, yes you get a lot of missions that are in similar looking dungeons, but there is so many different type of missions around from the Dragonborn story to the Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood and more that each storyline will keep you engrossed in this game, and across both consoles I must have played around 80+ hours and I still can't get enough of the game. All the missions give you something that keeps the game fresh and alive.

The ranking system within Skyrim is good and allows you to concentrate on the items which you would like to increase first, while maybe upgrading other areas as and when they are used. Again, there are plenty of things to do in this area as well, as there is Alchemy, Enchanting, Smithing, Magic and loads more to do, so there is a route for every type of player to take, and that is one of the things I love about this game, it is versitile so even if you're not into magic, or being a warrior, there is always something for you.

[caption id="attachment_13694" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Lovely Aurora Over the Mountains with Dragon[/caption]

Skyrim isn't all about missions and quests though, it's also about family and life as in the game you can get married and adopt children. Not only that, but you're allowed to buy houses and plots of land, on which you can build your own house and add your own different rooms and design it how you want. In which your family can then move in, however you can have them live in any of the homes you own across Skyrim whether it be in Falkreath, Whiterun etc.

One thing that let's the game down is how glitch filled it is. I've noticed missions that have failed to start, I've been locked out of my house in Whiterun with my family inside and non of them show outside when I wait at the house, there are issues with the sound effects at times, especially when doing an execution move, the sounds go quite tin like and don't sound like they should.

I have to be honest, for a first play through, I didn't expect to clock the 80+ hours in the game, I haven't been this invested in a game for a long time, and it has been such a nice change of pace to be engrossed in just one game and play through it.

However saying that, there is no excuse for the glitches and problems that are in the game. Skyrim gets an 8/10.

WatchDogs 2 | Review

When the original Watchdogs game was announced and released a few years ago, it piqued a lot of people’s interest. In an ever growing, ever expanding digital world, Ubisoft brought the subject of hacking to their new IP.

The game received mixed reviews and reactions and in some cases left quite a bad taste in the mouth. Personally, I thought it was a good start to a new IP, there were limitations and a lack of depth and character to it in places, but it had the foundation in which a series could be built on, and here we now have Watchdogs 2. The main question here is, did Ubisoft learn from the first game?
In some cases the answer to this is yes and no. The depth of the game in terms of what you can do and the options available are there. There are side missions available which you can get from a variety of situations, from reading emails and texts to listening into conversations over the phone.

What wasn’t learned from the first game – Well this is a yes and no answer for this, and it is to do with character introductions and development. The game for me for the first 2 hours or so seems really slow and drags along, there is little in the way of character introductions and set up and after the first mission you’re kind of thrown into the fold of everything and it’s kind of a 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye.



I found that there was very little if any background information on the characters, how did they become part of Dedsec etc. This is what was lacking from the first game, although this was introduced throughout the game, however you still didn’t get much in terms of Aiden’s background, only the tragedy that had occurred and led him to revenge… so to speak.
As I’m only around half way through the game, this may change later on, however for me this is a little bit too late in the game, it should have been introduced towards the start.

Graphically, the game is a looker. Vast distance rendering and the world is phenomenal to look at. Even with the changing weather conditions from a beautiful sunny day to lashing down with rain, the world looks simply brilliant, and the changes in weather are subtle enough that it starts with simple drips of water to what can be a full blown downpour. One thing I do love about the world is how alive and vibrant it is with so many people around just going about their daily business, as well as the random events that occur as you're travelling around. Travelling around as well is one thing I have enjoyed doing, just to try and see as much of the city as I can.

I have come across one little issue with the world so far, and it has only happened once, but I am keeping an eye on it. The issue was that I was running away from the police, so my initial thought after 5 minutes of being chased was to head for water…. So that’s what I did… I drove my car off the edge of the bridge in true Thelma and Louise style… SPLASH! I hit the water, the escaping signal came up… SUCCESS!! NO! I suddenly found myself falling through the world… I could see all the buildings above me, car driving along, but I couldn’t move… I was stuck in the Watchdogs Twilight Zone…. However, I had escaped the police… or Security services… Not sure which it was… However… Partial Success!!



My issue now was that I couldn’t move and get out of this so called twilight zone…. I tried shouting at the people who were walking above me, but nothing… Stuck. My only answer then was restarting the game and praying I didn’t lose any progress, and be permanently stuck in the twilight zone. Luckily, I wasn’t stuck. I had respawned back on the banking and everything was cool. Ordeal over.

Speaking of the police and security services in the game, they are brutal. If you step into a restricted area, there is no warning telling you to get out, they just start shooting. I’ve been knocked into a restricted area on my way to a mission and I got brutally attacked. This for me needs to be patched, it is far too aggressive and in the real world I don’t think people would just start shooting without a warning first.

Mechanically the game feels smooth and even more so than the first game. You can string together a nice run and seamlessly glide and jump over objects as well as climb buildings. There are times when the flow gets randomly disrupted but I just put this down to me and my controlling of the character. I will keep an eye on this though as it does get annoying.

There is one point of the mechanisms that I am not particularly pleased with. This would be the car driving, which I have found to be particularly poor with most of the cars on offer. The bikes have been fine and find them more enjoyable to drive (when I'm not fast travelling).



Hacking within the game is a lot more complex than the first WatchDogs game, as in this game, you have to hold the left bumper button down before pressing an option that's on screen, now when you have only a split second to make a decision, especially when driving along it can make for a momentous f**k up! As I have found out on numerous occasions where I would simply blow my self up on floor grates in the road because I pressed the wrong button in a panic. Just wandering around and hacking is fine as you have the time to make the decisions, but if you're in a police chase and are going at high speed, it becomes a whole different ball game. However, I will say this that there are far more options available than in the first game, which provides for a much better experience.

The skills tree has returned for WatchDogs 2 and it is pretty much the same as the original game, just tweaked for the additions that have been included in this game. One addition which I have loved is the RC. That little guy has got me out of so many sticky situations by either distracting security or doing the hacking for me.

Overall the game feels like it has evolved with the times and technological advances of the world. The sophistication of hacking as well is shown throughout the game and the topic is well on point for me. There isn't anything too extravagant that would you think... Really?... Each mission in the game is something that I would honestly expect to find or be achievable. Good work Ubisoft, I have had hours of fun and would count this as one of my if not my Single Player game of the year. It's definitely up there!

8/10

Where are Sony coming up short?

Sony had dominated hardware sales for months and months, however over the last 2 months (July & August) the Xbox One has dominated sales and taken the top spot.

This is more than likely down to the new hardware release of the Xbox One S and I am pretty confident that September will show the same result, especially as newer models of the Xbox One S are being released again with the 500GB and 1TB versions releasing towards the end of September.

However, are there other components that could potentially be making PS4 players switch to Xbox One?

I am going to look at a few of these variables which I personally feel have had or will have an impact on Sony’s PS4 sales.

The first thing I’m going to look at is the PS+ Subscription versuus Xbox Live Gold. The quality in terms of service and what you get for the service lies totally with Xbox Live, the whole set up and model that they have is just right. The network very rarely has to be taken down for maintenance, and when it is it is usually only for a couple of hours, if that. Sony on the other hand, I’ve noticed that every month they have scheduled maintenance and the network has to be taken down, which is all very well and good, but why every month?

Is their network in such a state that it has to be taken down every month? I know they had the infamous PSN hack (see what I did there…) a few years back and they had the network off for over a month to sort it out, but surely they should have made it as secure as it needs to be…. Which again, it should have been that in the first place, but I’m not going to get into that.



My point to this is, how often do you see Xbox Live being taken down for maintenance? I don’t think I have ever seen it been taken down voluntarily. I have seen it taken down by hackers, such as last Christmas, but then again it was only down for a few hours… PSN was down for a few days. I know in this instance that Sony did give customers free games, but that is beside the point isn’t it?

The point is, why did it then take several days to get the network back up and running properly when Xbox Live was back up in a few hours? To me it just doesn’t make sense, are the engineers at both companies that different? Is PSN more complicated to fix when something goes wrong? If that’s the case, maybe a look at the network as a whole to see how the process to fix and repair can be simplified while keeping security measures up should be looked into?

The funny side of this for me is that Sony have introduced a price increase for the PS+ subscriptions, which I think is only in North America at the moment, but I can see it being implemented across the board gradually.

Is the service worth the money that you pay to justify the increase in price? For me it really isn’t. The quality of games that you get with the subscription isn’t worth it. Months and months go by and we’re still getting substandard games being brought into the program, and you then look at Microsoft, and you can see that there are poor months with this as well, but there are some months where there are some quality games being brought in, such as EA’s Need for Speed and Ubisofts ‘The Crew’.

Which takes me onto another section, which is the amount of games you get per month and the reason for this. The reason is quite simple, the backwards compatibility programme on Xbox allows gamers to download not only the 2 free games a month for Xbox One, but also to download and play Xbox 360 games straight to their Xbox One.



Unfortunately due to the way Sony has gone about this with their rather diabolically expensive PlayStation Now service. The service which costs £12.99 a month, gives you unlimited access to any of the PS3 games on the service. Now, if you own an Xbox 360 game on disk or digital and it becomes backwards compatible, then this game will now show up in your Games Library. Simples…. Who needs to pay £12.99 to play a game they’ve already bought once? Oh wait… PS Now subscribers….

One last thing that I am going to talk about is EA Access. I have had this service since the start, and I personally think it is a fantastic incentive to be able to play EA games. £20.00 a year and you get early access to try a full game before buying, which also gives you access to the achievements as well. There is also a Vault where with the subscription you get to play any game that is placed in there by EA. At the moment there are a lot of games in there, and as long as you have the subscription you will be able to play any of these games and any more that then get added further down the line. This for me does provide value for money, because it’s not games from a previous gen, although they have just started adding Backwards compatible games, but at the moment 99% of games are new games that are out for this gen.

To top the service off, there is also a 10% discount for EA Access members when they purchase any participating game.

Why would Sony turn down the opportunity to have this on their console? There excuse was apparently 'it didn’t represent value for money'. Sorry…. Value for money? And £12.99 a month to play PS3 games that people already own is Value for money?  Bad form Sony, Bad form.



There are some genuine concerns that have come from me writing this. In terms of business practice, there are some things that Sony need to look at, the PS Now service for me needs to be scrapped, and a true Backwards Compatible way needs to be introduced.

To be fair, the above are the reasons for me why my Xbox One is my console of choice. I watched the conference for the announcement of the PS4 Pro, and to me it seemed bland, uninviting and rather awkward to watch. Andrew House looked like he could barely hold onto the PS4 Pro when showing it off to the crowd at the end of the event.

As good as the games looked, I think that I would need to play them for myself to see the true difference. I may get a PS4 Pro in November, just to be able to experience some of the games coming out, because there are some brilliant games coming out, and I can’t fault some of the exclusives and the studios as a whole. The work they're doing to bring such awesome games and stories to PlayStation is amazing, but Sony’s service and how they take a stance on what they think gamers want, isn’t really what they want, and there are some decisions that have been rather strange or simply bizarre.

 

Ghostbusters | Review

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The Ghostbusters franchise is one that started the year I was born. I grew up watching the films and Cartoons and loved every minute of it, and I can't even begin to tell you the amount of times I have watched the films, especially the second one, which in my opinion was the better film.

27 years after the second film was released and we finally have the 3rd instalment in cinemas, and with this comes the latest instalment in the Ghostbusters game series.

The game has a really nice cartoon design to it with a top down style, which reminds me a little bit of Diablo III.

The first thing that you will notice is that the game which launched with the film doesn't include the characters from the film, therefore showing that it's not a tie in to the film and more likely just a cash in.

Secondly, when you start playing the game, you will notice just how linear it is. To get through the game, all you have to do is just follow the paths around and eventually you will find or run into something. There are a few off shoots within the levels for you to find extra ghosts to battle, but if you wanted to you could just plow through the level to get to the end and get your reward.

At the end of each level you are rewarded skill points based on how you did in the level and these can be used to upgrade things such as movement and weapon cool down. The overall system is very simple to get to grips with and kind of flows through from the levels, to after level report and then onto the next. So you could really say that the game is designed pretty similar to the levels. No getting lost of confused here.



Each level consists of a different area, the first one you visit is a very short tutorial level letting you know the buttons and get used to things. You then move onto other areas, which to be honest if you plow through them you could probably do them in around 15-20 minutes. It took me about 30 minutes to do each one as I was looking for some of the extra Ecto to collect. The levels are nicely designed and the cartoon style compliments them well, the problem that I had with them was that they were too easy. There were no puzzles or mysteries about them, it was just simply walk through the levels, fight ghosts until you got to the end and then happy days, level over. This is where the game is let down a lot, the depth to it just isn't there, you can just plod along take care of the ghosts and the job is done.

There is no sense of achievement about it, I never once finished a level thinking that I had been made to work to get there, no once! Even the pace of the level for me was off, it was all or nothing, you either had hundreds of ghosts spawning at you, or there was nothing... There also didn't even seem to be any atmosphere to the game, the graveyards felt tame, museums felt non existent, and the main culprits didn't seem to give up much of a fight. Rolling out the way made it too easy to avoid any of there attacks, and this wasn't because they were poor, it was because there attacks were slow, and the only way anything got slightly hairy is when you got over run by them due to poor AI not attacking properly and stupidly using grenades and standing there, or characters not doing anything because they glitched up against a wall....

Another bit that kind of annoyed me was the whole catching ghosts bit. I felt that there was a lot going on there for something that could have been so simple. First your pressing LB to get your proton wand ready, then your firing with RT, then you have to hold the right stick in a direction to build up a meter which you then have to slam the ghost with LT and do this 3-4 times, before pressing A to release the trap.... I'm tired just writing all that out... There is no need for all that, they could have done it by using your proton wand with RT, build the meter up and then release the trap... No need for all this slamming...



There are 4 Ghostbusters to play as and each has there own individual skills that bring to the table. I'm going to be honest here, and admit that I've only played as one character as I wanted to see how effective the ranking up system was. Ranking system was OK, the amount of points you accumulated was dependant on how you did through the level you just finished, so this would have been calculated by whether you needed reviving, the amount of ghosts busted, and team assists. (Team assists are basically when someone throws a grenade, blinds, slimes, electrocutes a ghost and another team member gets the kill)

I mentioned a little bit above about the AI and I have to admit that most of the time, I found them rather redundant. When it came to the stats at the end of the match, I found that I had gotten 3 to 4 times the amount of kills that they had got, so I seemed a bit pointless them being there to an extent.

There is some chemistry there and there, but there isn't much of it for me. Bland dad jokes fill the cut scenes between calls, and I will give an example - There is one person who is asking for help and one of the ghost busters goes back and says 'Don't worry, we'll lift your spirits'.... Ugh.... Painful.

To be honest, I really wanted to like this game, I really did, I love the franchise and wanted this to be something that kept me going back for more, but really I don't think I will. The lack of depth to the game, how linear the levels are, the cringeworthy chemistry to the characters, and the fact that the only link to the series was the original theme tune being played at the end of levels.

Ghost busters gets busted with a 4/10

No Man's Sky | Review

Synopsis:
No Man’s Sky is a game about exploration and survival in an infinite procedurally generated galaxy.

 

Review:

Ever since No Man's Sky was announced in 2013, the hype train has been getting faster and faster as the launch got closer and closer, and I know for me that with every trailer and video that was released I have been looking forward to getting my hands on this game and seeing it and playing for myself.

The true vastness and scale of the game is one of the things that interested me the most. Could a game really be of the size they were saying? What would essentially be a never ending story? If you wanted to check out each solar system, galaxy and planet there was, there would be no chance any single person would be able to do it in there lifetime.

When you start the game off, you ship has crashed on a random planet (one the game decides for you at random) and you have to find the materials on the planet you're on to be able to fix it up and fly off to another planet and explore some more.



There is a small tutorial that takes you through what you need to find and how to survive on the planet, these are the very basics just to get you sorted and on your way. With each planet being different in terms of atmosphere and how the planet is made up. From the 4 galaxies that I have been too, I have only come across 1 maybe 2 planets that have a stable atmosphere and don't burn, or freeze your gentleman sausage or lady garden off after a couple of minutes of trying to explore. I found that No Man's Sky was very quick to pick up the controls for, they feel good in the hand when using a PS4 controller, however my complaint here is that you are unable to adjust the controls, so if they don't feel comfortable to you, then unfortunately you are stuck with what you got.

Exploration pretty much every planet is vast, and when I say vast I mean there are counters that say that if you were to walk to your destination on the planet it would take you around 20 to 30 minutes to get there on foot. My first thought was 'screw that' and I jumped in my ship and away I went. The only problem with this method is that each take off uses 25% of your launch thrusters, meaning on a full charge you have 4 take offs and then need to re charge and there is so much to see and do on each planet that you need to keep yourself stocked up on supplies to be able to refill, which isn't a major issue as there are plenty of different elements around for you to mine and collect.



Inventory space has also been an issue for me, you will find that when you are collecting different things that you're inventory does stack up quickly and you will soon find the annoying robot voice telling you that you have no space left in your inventory. The only problem I came across was when I was on a harsh planet, if it was for example a snowy world, I found that there were a lot of snow storms that would drop the on surface temperature to -138.08.... Chilly! This would normally mean that you would either have to camp out in a station if you came across one, or a cave system as these would keep your temperature up, you stood no chance of being out in the storms as your thermal protection would deplete within a minute. I have found though that this is absolutely brilliant, planets shouldn't be a walk in the park, you should have some which don't cause too much issue, but the majority as I have found have had some kind of extreme survival element to it, which you have needed to be careful of and keep an eye on the situation.

There was one issue which I came across, these extreme conditions did hinder exploration of the planet, for me it was all well and good just jumping out of my ship and after landing right next to the station, monolith etc I was looking for and claiming those discoveries, but what about the rest of the planet? There could have been hundreds if not thousands of things to see, and I only scratched the surface of those planets, all because I couldn't stay outside very long. I did give it my all and tried, but when you run out of cave systems and you can't use up the precious resource you have on blowing holes into the world, it get's tricky and you will find yourself stuck. This will also make it a lot harder to 100% the planet and find all the wildlife and fauna etc that it has to offer.

I have had a bit of a laugh when it has come to the landing sequence with the ships. Landing is done automatically for you when you press square.... As you can see from the following picture, it does land you in any old spot at times. I even blasted the tress from under it and it still stayed in the air.... Jet pack to the rescue :D



I mentioned above about the lack of space you may find yourself having within your inventory. Well, it's not all doom and gloom as there are drop pods which you can find on planets, and these will grant up an upgrade and give you an extra slot, although they do cost, gaining funds throughout the game isn't hard. There are traders throughout the planets and on space stations, so any excess goods that you find or are given you can easily trade them in to get some money. A lot of the important stuff that you are going to need such as a warp drive you can either by one from a trader, but at some point on a planet you will find or be given a blueprint to be able to fill up your warp drive. Without your warp drive you will be unable to go along to the next or random galaxy. As you improve and get better ships with a better warp drive, you will be able to travel further, where as at the start of the game with the bog standard warp drive, you can only move along to the next galaxy in your solar system.

Wildlife on planets as you would expect is very random, some will be nice, others you will find out to be very very hostile, so much so that they will chase you back to your ship and wait outside for you to emerge, where you have to either fly off and be a pussy, or grow a pair and face them, which unless there is a big hoarde of them, then you should be fine. One thing that I would suggest is that if you have 100%'d a planet, I would not suddenly leave because of it. The 100% simply means you have discovered all way points and wildlife... But there is so much more to each planet with Monoliths, Factories to explore and get loot from, as well as meeting up with Aliens and learning all about the lore and language.



This is one of my favourite parts of the game, and I have been learning so much about one race and learning there language that I have still barely scratched the surface, as when I have a conversation, there are still loads of words missing that I haven't learnt. What would be good is if there could have been a log book in the game so that conversations and responses could be kept and looked back on at different times. There are so many conversations to be had, that I contradicted myself some times and got a slap for my trouble too, but if I could have looked back on the responses I had given, I could have maybe remembered something and chosen a different answer.

The graphics for the game are absolutely wonderful, there is so much colour and depth that is in the game, every planet is an absolute wonderment to see. The game play is also absolutely fantastic, I've found the game to be so smooth when playing, not noticed any drops in frame rate and I love the fact that there are no loading screens and everything just loads as it goes on. It seems incredible that a game this size doesn't require any loading screens. What an age we live in!

This game has been a long time coming and for me it has been worth the wait. It's depth, detail and exciting changes from planet to planet are brilliant. For a game the size it is, I'm hoping my review has done it justice. All I can say to PS4 owners is that for me, if you love your Sci Fi then this is a brilliant game to place.

9/10

 

Steamworld Heist | Review

Developer	Publisher	Platform Reviewed	Available on
Image and Form International AB	Image and Form International AB	PS4	PS4, 3DS, XB1, PS Vita, Wii U, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Linux, Mac OS

In Steamworld Heist you play as Piper Faraday, a space pirate who loves to pillage other ships, and in Steamworld Heist this is exactly what you do with the help of your crew. This game does remind me of the TV show Firefly as it's pretty much the same theme in what happens. Pillage and Plunder is the main theme.

Steamworld Heist is a 2D Platformer which is turn based for the most part. When you are on your ship or at one of the stops you're free to run around, however within missions it is turn based between your crew and the enemies.

This turn based part can be slightly annoying, because there are times that to achieve greater distance in your move you have to forego any opportunities you have to take a shot at the enemy. I found sometimes though that this couldn't be avoided and the extra distance was required, you just have to be careful that this doesn't leave you open and vulnerable to attacks.



Mission structure and enemies faced throughout the game are pretty similar for each ship that you adventure too, the only difference is that each ship is randomly generated, so you never know what you're really going to get on a mission to mission basis. The structure is similar so you will know what to do and that will be the same to everyone else, but the ships will be different person to person playing. It's not to say though that you won't get the same levels as someone else but there more than likely not going to be in the same order.

There are exceptions to this where the levels do stay static and these are the boss fights that you take up. The boss do tend to be quite a challenge when they come to it and you are going to need a strong crew as well as a strong strategy for everyone to be able to get out of them unscathed.

Completing missions does mean as well that you will be able to rank up your crews experience (as long as they have made it out alive) to be able to grant them further abilities or give them extra health and movement room.



Another thing that can be earned from missions are rep stars, these will allow you to hire further crew members and improve your chances when you start getting to the harder levels.

I mentioned above about being able to shoot your enemies, shooting within the game is done manually, you select where your shooting by using the thumb sticks. However, your shots have to be accurate, as there is no percentage guide to tell you for kills etc, you just gotta make sure that during your turn you make your shots count, otherwise you could find your self in a big pile with no way out of it.



There are some annoyances with the shooting as sometimes you're having to scroll back and forth across the screen to make sure that the shot you lining up is accurate. It would have been nice to maybe have a zoom out feature for this to make sure that the entire shot is in view, this would have saved a lot of pain.

During missions you will also find a lot of loot to....er.... loot. There is a plentiful amount which is good for trading in and using to get supplies, I would highly recommend trying to get as much as possible during the mission and not just the amount that it tells you (if there is extra available). This will be vital to getting those weapons as well as crew members to make your team the unstoppable machine they can be!



I was pleasantly surprised by the length of the game, it clocks in at around 12 hours, so there is lots for you to do. I was also surprised by how fresh the game was kept in terms of the missions. These type of games I have found in the past to get quite repetitive and boring, but Steamworld Heist was kept fresh and always though of bringing something new to the table, which was a nice change and kept the interest peaked within the game. I think this is something that other Devs could take note of. Platformers I have played over the years, haven't really offered anything new after a couple of hours and the remainder of the games has ended up boring and I have found it hard to finish them, so it is nice to have something that keeps my interest peaked.

The final bonus that I found with this game is that is it a cross buy title, so when you purchase it, you will get it for both PS4 and Vita, and while I haven't tried it on Vita, this does seem the perfect game to play handheld.

A very good game that is kept fresh throughout with lots to do. 8/10

 

 

Kill Strain | Review

Synopsis

The Strain has emerged in our world and mankind is keen to exploit its power. Mercenaries and Mutants take sides in an epic confrontation. Will you help protect our world from the Strain, or exploit its resources in the name of power and personal gain?

 

Review

Kill Strain is a top down action/shooter that brings into play a 3 way fight. When the match starts there are 2 human teams and 2 mutants. The mutants aim is to take over as much of the map as possible, where the humans have to try and destroy the strain, while fighting each other.

As you can probably guess from that, it gets a bit hectic in the 20 minute matches that you have. The one twist though is that human players can also be turned into mutants to help the mutant cause.

The first couple of matches I had on Kill Strain, I wasn't really sure what was going on, mainly because the mutant players had quit the game, leaving only the 2 human teams to battle it out, and as there really wasn't anything to describe what was going on and what had to be done and how to finish the match, both human teams were just going out and killing each other repeatedly without going for the strain.

Got a bit confusing for those first few games, until more people had downloaded the game and we were having the mutants staying in the game, then I understood what the objective was. However, should I be having to work out the objectives of a game for myself? Surely (don't call me Shirley) There should be some form of on screen display to say what the overall aim of the match is. This would make it a lot more easier for new players.



When you first start the game up, you go through a tutorial which takes you through the basic controls of the game and how to control your character. The game does use a twin stick system where you move your character with the left stick and the right stick is used for more accurate aiming. The tutorial is basic, however it does get you prepared for what's coming. The only problem I had, was that there was no tutorial for the mutants, so when I got turned into a mutant for the first time, I didn't know what to do, was my aim to kill the others, spread the strain? Was all very confusing.

Also, when I've played as a Mutant, I found them severely under powered. I'm not sure if it was because I was playing the mutant the wrong way, but my attacks barely did anything to players, and when I was laying the strain down, it didn't seem to do much to human players as they would just mow through it, but when I was the human player in this situation, it took me ages to destroy any of the strains in the world.

Graphics for the game as sub standard in all honesty. For a game on a PC architectural system, I feel it should be better, there not too bad though and I have to admit that I have seen worse. The only thing I would say, is that I found some of graphics to be a bit lacklustre and not very crisp, this for me is what is letting the game down.



Technically and Mechanically, the game is fine and plays well, it was smooth to move around and I found the twin stick system good to use, also the servers were smooth, although there was a couple of occasions that I did get sudden drops and kicks back to the main menu. But when I have played through games, there hasn't been any frame rate drops etc.

A pretty big problem I have with the game in it's current state is that there is only one game mode that you can play through. Which may change in future updates, but at the moment, the game is probably going to get boring very quick as you can only play through the same modes.

During games you have different missions to complete, these come in the form of getting so much XP during the match, or it can be to complete a number of matches or to get so many kills. Either way there is always going to be something for you to aim for during the match other than the win.

I found that when you die, the respawn timer is far to long for my liking. 15 seconds sat there while waiting to get back into a game feels like an age at times and I think the timer should only be around 5 seconds maximum. You want to get back into the match as quick as possible and don't want to me hanging around waiting to play. After all you're there to play the game and not watch a timer, and it can get annoying if you are dying in the game, I know if it was me it would be really off putting having to watch it time and time again.



With the game being free, there are a lot of micro transactions within and you can find everything for this in the store. You can buy credits which range from different prices dependant on how much you want. You can use the gold to purchase a variety of things from Characters in the game and XP boosts.

I have to admit, that I do like this model for a game, it gives you the opportunity to play a game for free while putting whatever money you want to. So if you want to spend a couple of ££/$$ on a character and give yourself an XP boost at the same time to help you rank up through the first so many levels just to help yourself out, then that's all fair game.

What I don't like about it is people who plough loads of money into and I'm not talking £20/£30 here, im talking hundreds just so they can get the best character and be the best first. To me, I don't see the achievement in doing that. There can't be surely? (Again, don't call me Shirley) Being that much better than everyone else that there like Ants under a foot? You can't be seriously telling me that's fun?

Overall, I did like the game, I thought it was good, but with there only being one mode to play in the game, I can see it becoming tedious after a little while, or a game that you would only play one or 2 rounds of before moving onto something else.

I'm going to give this game a 6

Song of the Deep | Review

Insomniac Games have been very busy bees lately with all the different games that they're bringing out and also the ones that are still to come like Spiderman for PS4.

This time though, Insomniac have brought us something different in the form of Song of the Deep.

The story is about a girl Merryn whose father doesn't come home one night after going out on his usual boating trip. Merryn has a vision of her father trapped in the depths of the ocean, she then decides to build her own submarine out of the scrap that her father had pulled from his previous adventures and try and find him.

The first thing I am going to say is that the narrative is wonderful, it's such a lovely story, and for once in a 2D platformer that I have played, there is a voiceover, telling you of the story and the importance of each part. This is one of the things that I had been looking for in one of these genre of games, something that is going to help me and tell me what the story is. It's also good that at the beginning it mentions about how Merryn's father told her these stories of wonderful things that happen and what is out in the deep oceans, and I love it that this is brought into the game, with the narrative and voice over mentioning whenever you get near something that was told as a story to Merryn. I like the story within the game and I find it very simple and eloquent.

When you start the game, there isn't a tutorial, it's straight in, lets do this. The game does direct you as you go along letting you know of new features as you get them, which is a pretty good way of getting used to the game, as it's more of a slow introduction and lets you get used to the controls more easily, and gives you time to remember what buttons do what.



The artwork and design of the game is very nice, beautiful colours and the cut scene animations are to die for. Absolutely love how the cut scenes have been done, and I have to admit that I found them immaculate. I did find the map very extensive and also found the there was a good range of puzzles, some which were very challenging to work through, however I did find this to give a sense of achievement when completing them, especially if you had been sat there for a while trying to figure out how to do them.

The worlds are wonderfully designed, and although they help you to go through, it doesn't hold your hand entirely, there are parts where you have to look and judge what to do, there are also elements that you pass which you might need later on in the level, so you have to remember that they are there and to go back for them at the right time.

You have items to collect in the world, mainly coins which you can use with traders to upgrade your skills or your submarine. Example of this would be that you can upgrade you submarine to heal quicker or to have a stronger claw/weapon.

I did find the AI enemies on this a little too easy to dodge and move out of the way of, and this was just on normal, so I have no idea how easy beginner level is and how difficult the harder level is.



Again, the question for me comes down to has this brought anything to what I feel should be a dying genre. Again, the answer for me is no. OK, with the type of game that it is, there have been opportunities to use every inch and more they can. All axis' have been utilised as with a standard 2D scroller, you normally just use the X Axis and have the character running on the horizontal, but with this, as the submarine is able to go pretty much anywhere underwater, the use of the Y axis has been utilised and it does mean that the world has been designed rather extensively and made full use of the space available.

If I'm going to be honest, Song of the Deep is a very good game, it has gorgeous well designed worlds that will give you several hours of enjoyment. I just still don't think this has brought anything technically to the genre. I know I say this every time, but it's how I feel about a genre that pushes and pushes more games out when there are other types of games that I feel we should be seeing a lot more of. If this type of genre is going to pushed out constantly, then I want someone to grab it by balls and shake things up a bit. I want a 2D platformer to wow me. I want to be proved wrong and at the moment it feels like it's not going to happen any time soon.

This is such a beautifully and well narrated game, just the 2D scrollingness of it lets it down. Put this in a 3D open world and I think you could have a 10 here. But alas I'm going to give it a 7.

 

The Division + Underground DLC | Review

Underground DLC Review: Published 13/07/2016
Underground is the very first DLC for The Division which comes as part of the season pass.

It always made me think of how they could expand with the DLC, but the way Ubisoft has done it, makes other ideas possible now.

Underground basically utilises the Underground train network that lies beneath Manhattan. When you start missions you board the train and this takes you to the area that you need to go to for the mission.

The basic aim of the Underground DLC is to set up operations and to complete them. Simples. You can change the difficulty of the missions and so on which i'll go onto later.

This could be anything from rescuing JTF officers to retrieving highly sensitive documents. Each mission can be split into single or multiple stages, this will obviously determine the amount of time it takes to complete a mission which can range from 15 minutes for a single mission to any where up to an hour for the multiple stages.

You can also add directives onto your missions which will give you a little more beef to it, but the rewards will be much greater dependant on which directives or how many directives you place on to it.



I actually really like this DLC, not only does it add to the overall story of the game, but it was a subtle addition to the game and a very smart one I felt. If they couldn't add to the overground area, build under. This also gives the scope to expand as well and make the underground absolutely massive and up how varied the missions are. That's not to say that there not varied now, but with a larger area this can give the option to maybe do something that a smaller more narrow area can't provide.

The Underground DLC also introduces an Underground Rank, and as usual the higher the rank the more that is unlocked for you. Ranking comes from finishing missions as well as the standard killing enemies and getting XP that way.

There are vendors in the underground, in the main underground base there is one vendor who you have to use Phoenix Credits with so unless you have 300+ you probably won't be able to get anything from them, however I have found that the Caches you get from the missions do contain some really good stuff, and I have had a couple of gear items come from these. Tidy! (As the Welsh say)

There are other vendors before the main stairs in the middle part between the underground and base of operations, which sell your usual weapons as well as some blueprints, however again these cost Phoenix Credits, so unless you are loaded with them, you're not going to get anything. I say this, but you do get Phoenix Credits from finishing missions and you get a fair few if you are doing missions on Hard or harder than hard...

This is a very good content and builds on an already very good game. For me, if this is what each piece of DLC is going to be like, then it was worth the £30 paid for it. :)

Original Review: Published 10/03/2016
Ah The Division, a game which has been teased to us for what seems like a millennia. E3 after E3 would pass and we would get a glimpse of it, with no release date in sight, and after 2015’s the same happened again, there was no release date and it seemed like it would never come, that was until Ubisoft announced the March 8th release date and cue the excitement from a lot in the gaming world.

The question was though, so many years in development, and so many years teased, has the game lived up to expectations?

There is a slight difference in what we originally saw when the first gameplay videos were released to the final product, but this is kind of standard these days, developers seem to see how good they can get the game looking, then play around with the rest such as animations, combat and other things that might happen on screen in greater capacity that can take up resources and affect the frame rate, and then to level out at a playable rate they will dumb the graphics down so that everything is steady and playable.

However, even though the graphics are slightly lower than what was originally shown, the game is still fantastic looking and the lighting effects are brilliant. The day to night cycle transition is so smooth, I love seeing the effect of the sun going down, especially when you can see the light coming through the buildings within Manhattan and then changing to night.

Another thing I loved seeing is again the seamless change in the weather, the change from a nice but cold sunny day in Manhattan to a snowy blistering evening is again seamless, seeing a couple of flakes of snow, to then have it get heavier and heavier and seeing the floor and surroundings change with this is brilliant. Also wandering around the city and hearing jazz music to it suddenly changing to Silent Night… That was kind of eerie, but again gave me chills and another reason to love the game, such diversity as you move around.



Each district within the map has a recommended level that you should be at before exploring and taking on the missions. In some ways I would take notice of this, as i decided to go into an area which was recommended for levels 10-15, and I was only level 5, I came across a group of people who were within this level, and needless to say I didn’t survive the encounter. I think if i had had other people with me it would have been a different outcome, but on your own it is a trickier world to navigate, which is where the game shines, for those who do like to go Lone Wolf, you can but you will have to work hard as you progress through the world. On a personal level after having one of my friends back me up I do prefer to have someone there with me, which I think this game wants you to do. I think it would prefer for you to have someone or a group of people there with you, especially when it comes to the dark zone, which i’ll talk more about later.

There is plenty for you to do within the world with lots of side missions, and encounters to take on as well as the main story missions. You also have a lot of random events that pop up from time to time and things that happen around the city which you can help with, such as civilians in need, so you can give them food items, or energy bars which you can find around the world, or help someone who is getting mugged or beaten up. I also love in the game how side and other missions are added to your map as well, you read a board and they get downloaded straight onto your map for you to see. This happens at each safe house within the area and when you ask for a updates, these will show as added, and when you open your map they should be added on there for you to see. Brilliant!

There is so much versatility to the game, with so much to do, this is going to be one of those game which is going to take up a lot of your time.

One thing that has disappointed me with the game, is the character creation. There really wasn’t much choice in what you could make your character look like. It would have been nice to try and make my character at least look like me.



There are plenty of options available for things like different items of clothing, so people look different in that way, but it would be nice to have a the face of the character more customisable. If i’m going to be honest from the similar models used in other Ubisoft games, this isn’t something that has surprised me, I just feel like it’s a missed opportunity to broaden the game more.

You have perks and abilities which you can link to your character to use with them, such as being able to revive other players, unlocking things like sticky bombs etc. Nice variety there, and I can see it getting a bit of a headache as things start to unlock and not being sure of the combination to use. Which for me is always a nice headache to have, i’ve always found it’s good to experiment and see which combo work best, and which ones don’t suit your style of play. There is something for everyone within the game and I think it’s just down to your preferences. :)

I’m now going to talk about the Dark Zone. The Division’s PvP section, and also the place where you can get the best loot. The Dark Zone is very hard, as when you find something truly awesome, you still have to extract it, which means minutes of survival as other players in the zone target you and try to take your items for their own. Brutality ensues as no one can be trusted, I wouldn’t even trust the buddy you’ve gone in with as they can easily turn on you.

It’s a brilliant mode and a change of pace to the other stuff you do in the game, it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea but I would highly recommend trying it at least once and going in with a couple of friends to try and see what you can come out with.



Overall The Division has been a long time in coming but for me it was worth the wait, its a game which is going to keep me occupied for a long time and i’m sure some of the friends I have on Xbox will be doing the same, so there’s opportunities for me to join people and take Manhattan by storm.

I’m going to give The Division a 9

Game reviewed on Xbox One

7 Days To Die | Review

When I found out that 7 Days To Die was coming to consoles I got rather excited. A grown up Minecraft. After all the game is, you can't blame people for comparing the 2. Just because they have very different styles, doesn't mean to say that the principles behind the game are fundamentally the same.

You start off the game by doing the tutorial. This part takes you by the hand and shows you how to craft certain objects such as Stone Axes, showing you the materials you need, however, when I say that it takes you by the hand, its more like holding on to the pinky as it doesn't actually tell you how to craft anything, just shows you the items you need and you have to work it out yourself. Great Success. Its easy enough to do and with much prowling of the land you will be fine and get through this.

However, after the tutorial finishes, that pinky is let go and you're on your own with the slap of the ass. Touching. The tutorial does set you up for what's to come and shows you the basic mechanics of the vast crafting system that the game has to offer, which I will go into more detail later.

The early stages of the game do feel a little underwhelming as you are only really walking around looking for places as well as collecting the basic stuff. You may find some good stuff along the way, but 90% of the time you won't be able to use it yet until you have something else.



Now, being a post apocalyptic zombie hoarding game, there is one thing you would expect this game to have in abundance and that is Zombies. Well, if I'm going to be honest, outside of the towns and cities, there aren't that many roaming about and it does give you a chance to collect resources such as wood, fibres etc. If you do end up coming up across Zombie(s) my first instinct if I see them from a distance is count how many there are and whether or not you have your big boy balls on, because I have to admit that any more than 3 and I would ignore them and if you have to go in there general vicinity then try and walk around them. You do have the option to just run away, so check your stamina and if you are good to go I would generally run away.

1 normally doesn't cause a problem, however I have noticed that it can take a fair few hits to get them to the ground and then another few hits to kill them while they are on the floor. This is even with headshots, so I thought it did take rather a lot of hits to get a kill, especially with headshots. If you get that sweet shot though, off comes the head.... beautiful!

If you have just skinned an animal and have some meat in your pack, this can attract zombies to you as they will be able to smell it, so it's best to get that stuff away sharpish.

The world in general for me feels a lot like Fallout 4. Very sparce with towns/places every now and then, and you might be forgiven for thinking that a little quest might be there to do. Save someone, do this , collect that, but nope, you've got a derelict building to play with, and if you're really lucky,  you might just find a pet zombie inside to kill. There could have been a lot more done with the world in my opinion.

There are treasure maps that you can find on people or ones lying in the road, and these are the only types of missions that I have found.

I love the crafting within the game, it is so expansive and there is so much to do craft and do, you can literally create anything and this is out of anything as well. Something that you might pick up and think is junk and it unusable, I would check first to see if it can be made into anything or scrapped to give other materials.



The weather within the game is weird, you could be in one spot getting overheated, move a block over and then its pouring down. So random and confusing, especially as the sounds seem really weird at times and out of place, it's either that or the distance sometimes isn't right, such as a zombie could be a fair distance from me, but it sounds like its right near me, but I can see it in the distance, but that then makes me panic thinking there is one near me. So confused!

I have also suffered some frame rate issues in the game as well as the game crashing when going to collect water, hopefully this is something that can be fixed.

The graphics aren't anything to shout about within the game, flat vectors for the grass and rather lacklustre detail at times. The zombie models within the game are also few and far between as you can tell sometimes that the same model is sometimes chasing you. I'm never a fan of this 'couple of models' malarky that game companies band about in there games. Just seems a bit lazy for me, I love to see variety within a game and I don't mind the same models being used, but I hate to see the same one as different zombies attacking me at the same time.



When I was playing this game on my own, I did enjoy it, but it was so much better doing it with friends, and having decent friends who shared the loot and put there share of the work in. Accomplished so much more.

Overall, I am very much enjoying this game and it is one that I will go back to time and time again, especially if friends are playing. There is so much to do and craft, and although the first part of the game is quite slow I would advise people to stick with it as the higher rewards and loots are worth it.

8/10

 

Game purchased at retail price and reviewed on both Xbox One and PS4

Dead Island: Definitive Edition | Review

[alert type=red ]Please be aware that I never played the original so this review is based on my first experience.[/alert]

I never got to play the Dead Island games the first time round so I was excited that I would get the opportunity on my PS4. What intrigued me about it was that it was made by Techland, the same people who brought us Dying Light, so I was interested to know whether there were any similarities between the 2 and whether some of the style from Dead Island had been brought over to Dying Light.

There are loads of similarities to the games. The feel and movements within the game, the collecting items, blueprints and crafting. The main difference with Dead Island is that you can't run and jump parkour style.

When you first start the game and get out of the hotel and go to the lifeguard tower, what you will notice is the wonderful graphics and beautiful the game looks. This is no meager 360/PS3 upgrade, no sir, this has had the full treatment and Techland have done a wonderful job of it.



There's a crispness to the world that I saw in Dying Light, the detail and effort that has gone in shows this was a labour of love and not just a cash cow for the company. The lighting flow brilliantly through the trees and reflects off the water giving you the sense that you are indeed on a beautiful tropical island, that you could just pull up one of those sun loungers and chill out... If it wasn't for the hordes of zombies around that is.

I love how the game feels, when playing there is a fluidity moving around the world, you don't feel lumbered just plodding around, I'm not sure if that was just the character I was using and I'm not sure whether other characters do feel the same when moving as I only used the chinese lady... My theory for this was that she has heels on those shoes... Kick a zombie with a heel when down.... Straight through the face.... Dead... Not sure if works that why though, but it's nice to think of :D

Weapons within the game are varied from Automatic Weapons to a Boat Paddle. The good thing with the weapons are that you can upgrade them easily which ups the level required that you need to be to use it, or you can create something different with it by using the blueprints you have collected.



I love the sharp objects, and mainly the machetes within the game, I've managed to change my Machete into a Blazing Rod as well as one that is electrified... All good! What is best with sharp weapons too, you don't even have to get that close and personal to the zombies sometimes, especially if there is a horde. You can just through sharp weapons at them and it is so satisfying getting that instant kill.... However you will need to retrieve your weapon, which if you come up against a big thug, and it wasn't a first shot kill, your weapon is more than likely sticking out of him... Issues...

Which now brings me onto the combat section, and the different Zombies within the game. From Dead Island to Dying Light you can see there hasn't been much in the way of evolution of types of zombies that are within the game. From your normal slow plodding zombies, to the runners, exploders and huge thugs. It does annoy me sometimes when developers do this and you can clearly see that there pretty much 98% designed the same in 2 games and do exactly the same in both. Obviously this works back that Dying Light's zombies weren't as imaginative as we thought, and probably for this game was breakthrough for it's time.

You also collect XP within the game which goes towards levelling up your character and adding extra perks/skills from the menu. There are 3 different sections which you can level up from which is Combat, Survival and Fury. Fury is basically your full retard mode, anger ensues and you can just go wild and take out zombies. Combat and Survival is basic, it allows you to get extra perks to help with extra stamina on kills and other things such as that.



There are way points within the game to help you find your way to the next mission, however I have found these to be a little unrelaible and a bit stupid as times. I was driving to a mission and I had to go past the petrol station at the bottom of the lighthouse, now, instead of telling me to drive around in the tank/armoured vehicle I was in around the petrol station, it asked me to drive through, which there wasn't enough room for me to get through, so I nearly got the vehicle I was in stuck, which I would have messed up the game, and would have had to re load the check point.

So there are times where it doesn't seem to take into account that you are in a vehicle and whether that vehicle will fit through the gaps its telling you as there are some pretty tight spots with the way the other crashed cars etc have been laid out in the game.

I have noticed this happening a fair bit, you'll be following the way point, and suddenly it will change and send you on a wild goose chase. Annoying.

I found that co-op in this game is very fun, and also quite helpful, played a lot of the game with a friend of mine and it is very smooth gameplay still, you may think that it might be a bit jumpy at times, especially with up to 4 people in the game and hordes of zombies coming after you, but nope, all was good and didn't really notice anything that affected the gameplay. Nice!



One thing I felt that did let the game down where the side missions. Some of them could have been better, some of them I don't think should have been there and there is a lot of back and fore with the game. It's the same for all the different areas, lots of back and fore between places getting items for people. Variety was a bit lacking.

In the first area, there are a couple of people with missions, one is to get water and the other is to find a girls teddy bear... Now this girl looks in her 20s... Why am I getting her teddy bear? Then the girl im getting water for, its a continuous mission so you can go back and back and back just giving her water... Got bored and annoyed so didn't go back after a couple of go's. :D

Overall, the game is a good one, bit repetitive in places but the wonderful world you get to play in will have you aching for that summer retreat to lay on the beach... Without the zombies!

8/10

 

Our E3 Verdict/Thoughts

Another year and another E3 has been and gone and I have to say that this year it was a pretty laid back affair; companies have been focusing on games, games and more games. Other than the Xbox One S being announced as well as Microsoft finishing off with Project Scorpio, it was again all about games and getting the best games out there.

There were a lot of games shown and there is a lot that I am excited for and I can’t wait for what I call the games season (Sept-Dec) to kick in. The only disappointment that I really saw other than the lacklustre EA and Bethesda conferences was that only 2 of the games that Sony showed had a solid release day or release period. The rest were just described as being ‘in development’ where as in comparison, most of the games that Xbox showed are going to be out this side of Christmas, and some as soon as September.

I really don’t see the point in showing games that we’re not going to see for another year or so. I’m hoping that there will be more solid dates at Gamescom in August.

I was disappointed with the EA and Bethesda briefings; I felt they were quite boring and flat. The main thing for me from the EA briefing was Battlefield 1 which I managed to watch the live gameplay for and also Titanfall 2, which when the multiplayer gameplay trailer came on my internet froze and I missed, so had to catch up on that after it had all finished, but was worth it and I’m really looking forward to the game releasing.

I have said above that I felt that the presentations were a bit flat and boring, and that I stand by, however I think the presentations are not even half of it, its how the games are brought across and what the developers shows us from the games and I have to admit that I cant wait for some of the games that have been announced. Forza Horizon 3, Days Gone, God of War, State of Decay 2, Deadrising 4, Detroit, and Horizon Zero Dawn just to name a few of the games.

I was quite surprised as well at the announcement of Project Scorpio and that they announced it will ship in Fall 2017, as well as announced the specs for it. Phil Spencer has said that this was so Dev’s can have time to get games ready for the console, which for me is a very good idea, it allows them time to get used to the spec and work on the games and make sure there utilising the power properly.

Personally, I will be getting an Xbox One S, the console looks lovely and for it to be 40% smaller, it’s going to make a difference to the space being used on my desk, and it sit nicely with my PS4.

I am so excited now for EGX, I’m looking forward to trying out lots of games on my 2 days there. Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, Days Gone will hopefully be there to name a few, but I can see me being very busy from September with reviews.

This year I’m not going be buying Call of Duty, the series is getting stale and this year’s iteration by Infinity Ward still looks stale, and the setting just looks uninviting to me, I think I’ll be sticking with BF1 and TF2 for my FPS’ this year.

With Gamescom in August we could still be in for a few more surprises and I am looking forward to what the next 6 months is going to bring us in terms of games. Microsoft provided us with a lot of solid release dates for games, which for me is brilliant, cannot wait for them, but on the other hand with Sony, I think there was only 2 games out of all the ones they showed that actually had release dates. The rest of them just said 'In development'. Which is quite disappointing, especially for games like Horizon Zero Dawn which was shown at last years E3 as well as Detroit. I can understand not saying a rough date like a month in which it could come out, but they didn't even advise of a year, and so it makes me wonder how far within development the games are. I know Kojima's new game Death Stranding has only began development within the last few months, so that might not even be released until 2018.

Hopefully though we will start to get a little more information on releases and the games when it comes to Gamescom in August, then hopefully I will be able to get to play them when I'm covering EGX in September.

What did everyone else think of E3? Happy with it? Disappointed? Would love to get your thoughts in the comments below.

Plague Inc: Evolved | Review

Ever since I heard the concept of this game it has had me hooked. It reminded of a board game that I have called pandemic.

However, Plague Inc is the opposite to Pandemic. In Pandemic you have to try and get rid of the disease, where as Plague Inc you have to try and infect the world and ultimately wipe out humanity.

The game itself is such a simple one, but at the same can be quite complicated. It can take a lot of thought and planning to work out how you want your disease to go, right from how people catch it, to how it affects them and how fast it spreads. There are plenty of options to pick from within the game to be able to design your disease the way you want to. Speed can be key to the game, as you want the virus/disease to spread quickly, so calculating the best way to get it spread it is crucial, and one of those could be by Birds during migrating season. They will then take it from country to country, or you could choose to infect through water during the summer months.... Or both.... Why not add in an air bourne component as well so air travel will be affected too.... Being evil has never been so fun....

When you start the game and are creating the type of disease you want, complete with added genes and it's own name, your then thrown into the main part of the game where you see a map of the world and all different cities marked out. Your choice from here is to decide where to pick for the disease to start from, your choice will also affect the way in which the virus spreads and how effect and early the cities can get working on a cure. I tested a few of these out for myself and when I started my disease within a third world country I found it far easier to for it to spread before any one decided to start or get momentum on a cure. Where as starting in say the UK, US or Australia would be much harder at getting the end game, which ultimately is ending humanity.



There are different difficulties to try with and the harder you go, the smarter you have to be about how your virus gains momentum and making it harder for the cure to established. This is all very well and good, but the AI will go full on to get a cure and that cure bar will start to go up faster, so mutation is very important when trying to beat the game on a higher level.

There is one issue that I came across, and that is as your disease develops and you need to spend more of those precious DNA points, you find yourself just sat waiting around for those to accrue while just click RT every now and then when a country is infected or research needs slowing. Also the data from the game is very basic, you're unable to see country by country infection rates and other data such as this. It would be nice to be able to see this information, as I would love to know which countries my disease has infected and who they mainly passed it over to, or was it quite even? Geographics and all that... It would be very interesting to see!



The music within the game gives off a very 28 days/weeks later type of vibe and matches the game perfectly. The Eerieness to the music is perfect for the mass pandemic you are about to cause upon the world.

Overall I have had a hard time putting this game down, mainly due to the fact I've wanted to try different combos of a disease that I can, and see the affect that it makes on the game, and whether there are more successful ways of infecting the world, but so far there have been nothing noticeable and it's just down to how you build your disease.

I would highly recommend this game if you can get passed the moral aspect of the game. But its dark theme really shows out and is worth picking up. :)

8 from Joon