The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset Isle Review

[Updated with Summerset Isle Review - 03/08/18]

I have played the Elder Scrolls Online quite extensively since its launch, not so much recently but when Summerset Isle was announced, it peaked my interest a little bit. From what we were shown the upcoming addition looked absolutely stunning and I knew that it would be something to get my teeth into.

Having played through the quests, after having to get reacquainted with my character, I felt that the Summerset Isle story was good, it kind of reminded me of Queen Ayren’s storyline a bit, it had that similar type of quest to it.



One thing that did annoy me was the too-ing and fro-ing with the quests. You were constantly having to head back to Artaeum to get the next quest, which if I’m honest became a bit annoying. There didn’t seem to be any flow to the story and it felt a little stop start for me, I understand that the story allows you to travel and get to see more of the new island to unlock new areas and way shrines etc, but when it’s going to one place, and back, to another place and back, it gets a little annoying. I had hoped that the story would have been freer flowing and allowed me to go to other locations more fluidly than having to return to Artaeum after every quest.

Another thing that slightly bothered me was that when I entered one of the cities (I can't remember it's name) the graphics for the buildings and other items wouldn't pop in. Some of the design wouldn't show properly (as seen in the below screenshot) and it left what would have been a beautiful location looking washed out. This also hindered us in one of the quests where you have to find Raz um Dar by the etchings on the wall, well, because the layers hadn't popped in, the graphic for the etchings didn't so we couldn't tell where we were going. After much looking, we did manage to find him. Hopefully this was just a server issue as I haven't been back to the location since it happened.



Summerset isle is an absolutely gorgeous place, its style reminded me of Auridon with all the greenery and trees, and it kind of had a similar sort of landscape. I found that I was taking quite a few screenshots of some wonderful views while I was playing. Sometimes stopping in my tracks while heading to a quest just so I can get the perfect shot.

There is loads for you to do in Summerset Isle, along with the main quest line which took me around 8-10 hours to complete there are plenty of side quests available for you to find within the area. I haven’t managed to do many of them, but there are enough there to keep you busy. Also, if you’re willing to test yourself out, there are delves and groups dungeons available for you to attempt, and I have to admit that I haven’t attempted the group dungeon yet, mainly because there is only me and my wife playing together and it is definitely something that you’re going to need a full 4 people for.



We’ve completed the delves within the world, a lot of the time doing them in passing while on the way to a quest. This is kind of a theme of things with this game, there seems to be a lot of things that you sort of get side tracked by, or go after while on the way to the quest… Well me and my wife did anyway as we had the idea of ‘Well, were here now, we might as well go for it.’
Summerset Isle is a perfect addition to the game, the new area is massive in size and a lot bigger than the Morrowind update that we received last year. There is plenty for you to do and see in what is an absolutely gorgeous world. I can’t wait to see what Bethesda has in store next for Elder Scrolls online and whether any other new areas will be coming to the game.

If you’re a fan of Elder Scrolls Online then I can’t recommend this highly enough to enhance your ESO experience.

The Elder Scrolls Online has recently become available on Xbox Games Pass, so if you haven't played the game before, now is a good time to check it out if you have a subscription.

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This is a game that has been on my radar since it was released, however when it was announced I had no intention of buying it due to the subscription that was required. Don't get me wrong it wasn't because of the subscription, but mainly because I couldn't afford to pay that amount of money out each month, and I don't think that I was the only one. However, I was drawn back to the game when they announced that they were no longer going to be doing the subscriptions and it would be a simple 'Buy the Disk and play the game' model... With your standard Micro transactions. Again, I don't think I was the only one who changed their mind when this was announced.

One of the many things I love about this game, is after doing the initial prologue etc you are free to go where ever you want, you can roam the lands to your hearts content, although if you're just starting out I suggest doing missions and levelling your character up, stick to a region and do the missions there first before venturing to other areas. Because there is a very good chance you will cross the border into another area and find yourself as a level 10-15 facing a horde of level 35-40 monsters... As Joon did... Didn't end too well... Brave Sir Robin moment was needed.... Saying that though, if you are in a Guild with Friends, and you're all out adventuring together, there can be safety in numbers against certain higher level beasts... However, some higher level beasts will destroy you all....



This games open world is vast... and I mean HUGE! I have only tickled the surface of the world in Auridon and Grahtwood and a little bit in Cyrodill for the PvP... Which i'll get onto a bit later in the review.

I think I must have played this game for at least 30+ hours and have only just done most of Auridon (the stuff that's showing on the map anyway) so the content and missions are there to play, and another thing I love about this game is that everything can be done with your Friends. Each of the missions (other than the solo quests) in the game are playable with Friends or anyone else for that matter who is at the same stage, or at least mission as you. You can see other players in the world which gives the settings a nice sense of atmosphere. The towns are beautifully designed and the houses/buildings have that wonderful medieval feel to them. They kind of remind me of the houses from Bowerstone in Fable 2.

There is good variety when it comes to missions within the game, some are short and easy and it's just speaking to people, others can be more demanding with clearing out caves/mines, so there is a good variety within the game meaning that there is always going to be something different to do... Unless you speak to 2 people who have the same type of mission one after another :P

The dark anchors within the game are a very good way to get some good new gear for your character as well as some XP along the way. Each anchor within the game is a different level and will give you items for that level. However, I will advise to never try and take on an anchor around or above your level when there is only 2 or 3 of you. Evils come thick and fast and you will quickly find yourself over ran. The basic idea behind the Anchors are that you take on wave after wave of bad guys and earn some good stuff, normally when these start if you are in a surrounding vicinity you will hear the sounds of the horns going off and you will see the main frame of the anchor in the sky so they are not hard to miss.



Along with Anchors there are Group Dungeons and Group Bosses for you and your Guild to take part in. Dungeons usually contain 3 stages each of which has a boss at the end which does require teamwork and coordination as these bosses are hard... When you complete them though it is very satisfying and there is a sense of achievement.

Another thing I like with this game although it can be annoying is that when you have a marker set and its showing in your compass, 9 times out of 10 an as the bird flies route wont suffice... mainly because you will have a big mountain in front of you which you can't climb and have to walk around. So you have to plan your journeys to make sure you know where you're going and how to get to the marker. Or if you are like me, just wing it and see if you can get there on blind luck... Might take you a lot longer, but who cares? Just enjoy the scenery... Also, I would highly recommend getting a horse... If you haven't unlocked Wayshrines in different areas it can make for a very long journey and horses can help with this!

I have found the PvP in the game to be quite annoying. This is an element that I want to enjoy and play regularly but I have come across problems with it that I find when getting into combat make it unplayable and quickly find myself going back to do missions in another area. What I have found when getting into combat is that people have been able to hit me from a distance they shouldn't be. I will be several metres away from an opponent and they have been able to swing their sword and hit me even though they are no way near me and it gets frustrating. I think I'm going to have to level up a bit more and get some better armour and I'll review the PvP side of things properly.



There have been other issues that I have come across with the game as well, such as he constant message of 'This maybe an unusually long load time' and being booted from the servers, this I'm hoping will get better as things stabilise with the servers, but it is kind of annoying, especially when you're trying to respawn and you're sat there for up to 5 minutes waiting to load back in... (Yup, I have waited 5 minutes before... Maybe even longer at times...)

There have been people who I have seen compare this game to Destiny, and I think that there have been some comments that have been quite right, and I feel that there are elements of the game which you can compare. Such as the Anchors being similar to the public events....The one thing I will say in regards to this game to Destiny, is this is far better planned out. Specially when it comes to the Anchors, each time an anchor starts off it will have different enemies spawning so it makes it different each time.

I have found that the looting system within the game is brilliant as well and not like the aforementioned game above. Everything is always different when it comes to the weapons and is useful. There is always things that are the same such as health, magicka and stamina, however these are useful and I find there isn't much of this type of item that I am destroying or selling.



The emotes in the game are absolutely fantastic. There is such variety with the different things that you can do, from the different dances from the races, to doing push ups and playing the lute... Makes for such enjoyment in an already enjoyable game.

In conclusion I find this to be a brilliant game, however there are some glaring issues within the game from NPCs not showing and you being unable to speak to them or they start attacking you and you fight back. There are also problems as stated above with being hit when you shouldnt, but other than that the game is brilliant and there is plenty for you to do in such a vast open world.

Joon is going to give Elder Scrolls Online an 8.5. Brilliant game, but there are some issues.

[yasr_overall_rating]

State of Decay 2 - Review

I enjoyed the first State of Decay game, yes it was rough around the edges, but there was potential there. There was definitely room for Undead Labs to build upon this, so when State of Decay 2 was announced way back at E3 2016, my interest peaked, mainly to see how the game was going to be improved upon over the first outing.



Fast forward to 2018 and the second iteration of the game has now been released, and in terms of content, the game has vastly improved, there is plenty for you to see and do in this game as well as plenty of places to raid and loot. One of my only issues when it comes to raiding and looting buildings is that in the world that I am in all the buildings are one floor buildings, apart from a ladder on some buildings to get onto the roof there aren’t any multi story buildings available. Which for me would have added a lot to the game.

Can you imagine, having events in which you could raid a hospital or police station for meds, weapons, ammo and have hoardes of zombies to get through to find the stuff on multiple floors. This would add a whole new dimension, tie this in with the new co-op game play that was introduced and you could use this as events for the game. Invite in friends and take on hoards in special locations. I think that would have been an epic way to help introduce the new co-op feature to the game.



As just mentioned, one of the new features to State of Decay 2 is the co-op feature, inviting friends into your world to help you salvage things and beat zombies, maybe even the hearts that are dotted around the world. I can see the idea where they were going for this and I have to admit, that I like it a lot, but I think overall the execution of it is rather poor. One of the worlds basically acts like a host, this will depend on who invited whom to the game, but overall for the person who has been invited to the game, it can be quite limiting. There are other issues that I came across with this, whenever I played the game with my wife and joined her game, there were massive frame rate spikes, which at times caused me to zip all over the place and made it unplayable for a up to a minute at a time, at which point my wife whose game was fine was having to stand there and defend me in case zombies came up, as I couldn’t move properly due to the issues encountered. This wasn’t just a one off thing either, it happened quite often and at one point, I restarted the game and it was still the same, I restarted my entire Xbox and went back in and it was still the same. I even went as far as restarted our router and both of us restarting the game and trying again… Alas, nothing seemed to sort it.

Another issue that I came across with the co-op mode is that you can feel like a lemon at times. This is mainly due to the fact that you’re unable to split up and each do separate missions, you’re unable to drift too far apart from each other. This kind of makes me feel that the co-op element was just tacked on to include something new for the game, and wasn’t really thought up properly. However, at least there is a form of co-op within the game which I guess is better than nothing being included at all.



How does the game look? It’s not bad, it’s not the best, but the style Undead Labs have gone with adds to the charm of the game, it gives us a gritty sort of look to the game which adds to the overall atmosphere. I have seen people saying how bad the game looks from watching on streams etc and there was a fair amount of comments about it, so I felt a little apprehensive about what I was going to see, however, to me the game looks perfectly fine. It has an edge to it that I like and can’t really complain about this at all.

Now, the next thing that I am going to talk about are the characters. I have found that they are quite hard to actually care about, not because they were horrible people, but just because they were so plain and didn’t really have any personality. This kind of made the permadeath situation more bearable, there wasn’t going to be any tears lost here. I will say, I still haven’t had any one killed… Yet. Been close and I was slamming on the A button and my character had a Doctor Who style regeneration and was given a small portion of health back in which I used this to run away from the situation I was in. Another thing with the characters that I found was the voice acting seemed out of place, as though they didn’t care, it didn’t seem to reflect the situation that they were in and a lot of the comments were quite throwaway in that they didn’t seem to have an effect on the group. One instance being that it came up saying that someone had started a fight or argument for whatever reason. Now, you would think that this would have caused the group morale to drop right down into the red… Nope no change. You could switch to that character and pick the person they fought or argued with and they would be happy to go out together. Now if that was me, no chance. I wouldn’t be out with the person I just fought or argued with, they might try to kill me, leave me for dead… Anything.



There is some variety to the game to mix things up for you, with Plague Hearts, Looting, helping others and base management, there is a lot of things to keep you occupied. The only annoyance is how often the game regenerates things for you to do. Especially when it comes to base management, it seems that there is always something to do to get morale up. It asks to clear infestations, so you do it, but it doesn’t seem to do any good because in the blink of an eye there are more and more. It seems like a never ending cycle which means other things don’t get done. Personally I don’t go after them as often as I used to, mainly due to the fact that there are more important things for me to be doing within the game. (In my opinion, everyone will manage their games differently)

Overall there is a lot of things that have to be done to this game, performance wise and glitches/annoyances do need to be addressed. What’s a little more disappointing to this is that the developers have just released a massive near 20gb patch, however there are still some of the same issues remaining.



I can see the appeal for those who love open world survival games, especially when mixed in with base management. I would recommend this game to anyone if you love that sort of thing, if you didn’t play the first one though I think you’re going to be highly disappointed in the state the game is currently in.

State of Decay 2 is available on Xbox Games Pass for you to try, and I would highly recommend you try it through that before buying the game. I personally like the game, it has its annoyances and issues, which I am willing to overlook because they are something which can be patched, it’s just a shame they are still there after the recent patch.

Stay - Review

When I started Stay, I didn't know what to expect, I wasn't really sure what the story behind it was or what I was going to do. I didn't look at any gameplay videos for it because I wanted to go in with Fresh eyes and from looking at screenshots, that didn't really give much away, which was good, however, it did add to the intrigue.

Stay is a puzzler, the story bases around Quinn who has been kidnapped and placed in a room in which he has to get out of. When he wakes up all he has is a computer with one person to talk to.... you...



The idea of the game is to speak with Quinn and help him on his way, help him get through the ordeal and find his way out. There are several options when you're speaking with him, you can be a caring soul asking about him, see if any of that links up to why he has been kidnapped, or you can be as cold as ice and basically not care about his many many ramblings and tell him to snap out of it and find a way out, which he isn't thankful for a lot of the time, but can be grateful for the push back to reality as he kind of loses his way in his ramblings.

As your speaking and decide on the course of action to take with Quinn, there are different puzzles which you have to figure out, these range from moving books, fixing broken plates, or trying to get a lock undone through moving blocks around. What I really liked about the game was the relationship I could build with Quinn, there are many ways in which you can go with this, and it was another reason I liked this game so much, is that there are several branching ideas going on which depending on how the game plays out, you could end up with 1 of around 7 endings I think. This makes the replayability of the game very good because when you're playing through you can think 'Oooh, what if I had said that or asked him to do something differently, how would it have played out?' - In the one play through that I did, I only killed Quinn once, and this was because I asked him to break a door down which crushed him... Pretty heavy door!



The design of the game is Pixel art, which is very nicely done, and to be honest it suits the game down to the ground. The game bases around a chat room, which is how you're communicating with Quinn, there are also stats that you can switch to see how your relationship with him is going and how much the trust level is between you. This seems to be quite important as the more he trusts you, the more inclined he is to go with the suggestions you're making.

This game really shocked me, I didn't think I was going to like it very much from what I originally saw from the screenshots of it, but after playing it and going through the emotions and different topics that the game brings to light, it can hit home quite hard, especially if you've suffered from depression or anything else the game brings up.



All in all, an excellent game and one that I would highly recommend.

Sea of Thieves - Review

This was one of the Xbox One exclusives that I was looking forward too, after playing Assassins Creed Black Flag, having a dedicated pirate game where I could sail the seas with my friends in search of treasure, figuring out riddles and battling monsters from beyond the deep was a match made in heaven.

The trailers promised lots, with vast fortunes and quests aplenty. The realism is that when you first start the game there are hopes and aspirations of having a massive amount of gold in chests and bling hanging from your character, but it really isn't like that at all. The islands are empty and lifeless, other than a few chickens, pigs, snakes or skeletons and after a visiting a few it starts to get tiresome. There is nothing to collect other than the essentials for your boat such as bananas, wooden planks, cannonballs etc, these lie within barrels around islands and are easily picked up, but my question was that if a skeleton comes at me with a sword or a pistol and I kill them, why am I unable to pick this up and use it for myself? Why aren't the weapons skill based so that the possibility of finding common or rare weapons on islands, or as mentioned above, picking up from a skeleton means that you could find better weapons to help you on your journey?



There are apparently lore books lying about different islands, which I have come across one... I would have thought that I would have come across a lot more in this time. In which we managed to find and cash the chest in... The number of islands we have visited and the amount of hours played you would have thought we would have come across more than this? In the latest update, Rare have said that there was meant to be more Lore books placed into the game, but I have still yet to come across another.

I've read that people have said that you have to make your own fun with this game, that is very well and good, but when the islands are empty, there is nothing in sight to collect or find an adventure with, where does the fun start and stop? Because there were times I have to admit I had some real fun with Sea of Thieves, and there were other times I just got plain bored, and the game has been boring more times than it has fun, and again it comes down to the fact that there is simply nothing on the islands in terms of collecting, or warranting going to any of them, only when a voyage warrants it.



A voyage is where you can collect a mission type event from a merchant at an outpost, most of them consist of finding a certain variety of chicken or fighting skeletons. Spawns are random on the game so not every island will have what you're after, and after visiting around 5-8 islands for one variety of chicken, it does start to dampen the spirits a little bit.

There are other events which occur at fortresses which I haven't tried yet, mainly because of the constant bombardment from the skeletons on the island and also the other ships in the area, my little vessel would not last 2 minutes. However, those who are willing to give it a try and go for it, the rewards are brilliant... apparently.

There are several merchants on each outpost, offering to sell weapon varieties, clothes and stuff to make your boat look pretty, however, the prices are very high for most of the items and I haven't been able to buy anything for my boat... This is mainly down to the above of not being able to find anything or the voyages not paying a lot, or because of the below.



Other players: Every single time I've managed to find a chest (which isn't many times) I've been unlucky enough to come across other players, who as soon as they see you will just blast you out of the water, or board, kill you and take your chest(s). Now, there is nothing wrong with this, far from it, it's all part and parcel of the game, however when I've spent hours and hours trying to find this said chest, finally find it, get it back to my boat, it would be nice to be rewarded for my what is very hard work. However, 9 times out of 10 you are going to get screwed over, mainly because it's only me and my wife on our little sloop and everyone else seems to be in massive boats with a full crew... This is probably why we're targeted a lot. The one thing I would love to see from this game is an offline mode, where I can play with my wife without my arse cheeks clenching for the entire time in fear that our hard work is about to go down the pan. I did come across one group, who did message to say, we're cool, don't kill us, which is what I would like to see more of, instead of everyone just shooting or attacking for the sake of it, which most people on this game seem to do. I did leave them cause they had a hell of a lot of chests, and that would have taken hours to find, so they deserved their reward... Me... I had a chicken to cash in... Opposite ends of the spectrum.

The one thing I really liked about the game was how it looked, the use of colours both in the day and night cycle is fantastic, and especially at night when you look upon a clear evening and see the stars and an Aurora Borealis is there as well. Sometimes I do like to drop anchor and head up to the Crows Nest just to see the view from around (while also keeping an eye out for other ships).



The atmosphere of the game as well is spot on, going to outposts and into taverns hearing that music playing, makes you feel like you're at home, it's just a shame at any point, someone can come along and kill you and sink your ship while you're enjoying a nice tankard of grog.

Despite the game looking beautiful and the atmosphere being on point for outposts, the game seriously lacks elsewhere, the islands feel dead, skeletons don't seem to be a problem to handle, and there is isn't anything to find out on the open sea. Sea of Thieves doesn't hold you by the hand and expects you to jump into the deep end, however, I've found that this type of approach can alienate some players, especially those who would want to play on there own. Trying to sail even a sloop on your own is hard work, and if you're on your own and come across a massive ship, you're screwed. No other words for it, some serious content update and changes need to be made to the game to make it more enjoyable. More items to find on islands, picking up weapons or being able to find weapons on islands as well.

If you have a couple of friends who have this game, then it can definitely be a blast, but single players are alienated and I think this is where an offline mode could come in handy.

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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

Xbox Games Pass - Value for Money?

Microsoft recently announced that all Xbox One exclusives will be coming to Xbox Games Pass on their release date. So Sea of Thieves, State of Decay 2 and Crackdown 3 will all be coming to Games Pass when they release with Sea of Thieves being the first of those 3.

My thought was, does this represent value for money? Have Microsoft struck gold with this plan? There’s a couple of things to look at here from both sides of the spectrum. Both of which points to the very good in terms of what’s on offer.

From a gamer’s point of view to me this is a very good offer, brand new games being put on the service from the day they launch. As long as you have the subscription, you can play it as much as you want, as many times as you want. I don’t see the negatives from this, to be honest, plus not only do you get the new games, there are lots of other games to try as well. The downside is, you don’t own the game, so if you were to get rid of the subscription then you wouldn’t be able to play the game anymore, however, this is where it plays into Microsoft hands.



If you’ve played a game that you’re enjoying, you don’t have the subscription anymore but really want to continue with your game, then you’re more than likely going to buy the game, money in Microsoft’s pocket. I guess it’s one of those where you even if you still have the subscription you might want to purchase the game so that you have it as yours anyway. Again, for Microsoft, this is a win-win situation.

It’s also enticing for those who don’t currently have a subscription, such as myself I have recently taken the subscription out based on this, but luckily for me there were other games there that I haven’t played such as Re core and others, so it’s still making the money worth it for me, and with games changing in it, there will probably always be something for me to try.

Is this consumer friendly and value for money? Yes, very much so, being able to try and play a FULL game, for £8 a month as well as playing 100’s of others that are there as well is very much value for money. Thing is as well, if you only wanted to play one or 2 games and haven’t used a month’s free trial, then you can easily get a free code from somewhere and play that game for free…. I have taken out the full thing as there is going to be plenty to play over the coming months. Also, with games pass I can try a game risk-free without having to ‘pay’ for it, then if I do like it, there is the option to buy it and own, so as mentioned above, if I no longer want Games Pass, I’ll still have access to it.



The value of Games Pass over Sony’s PS Now is a massive difference. I tried PS Now with a few games and because it was a streaming service, didn’t get the same experience as I have from Games Pass. Mainly because the games are downloaded straight to your Xbox so you don’t need to have an internet connection when playing them…. Unless they’re an online game of course.

There is value for money with Games Pass and I have to admit that I would implore anyone to try it, whether it was just the 14 day or month trial. I’m sure there’s game on there to suit everyone. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but for me, it’s worth the try. After all, it’s not going to cost you anything to try it.

When it comes to Microsoft’s point of view, you have to look at the fact that, even with increases in revenue from Games pass, is it going to be enough to cover development costs? Are they heavily relying on conversion sales and getting people to buy the game after trying? There must be logic to the madness, but to me, it still doesn’t take away from the fact that to me, gamers are winning with this.



Another aspect that you have to look at is the retailers, how must this be affecting them? Is it a drive to digital-only sales? There must be a knock on effect in terms of Xbox game sales for retailers. I know a lot of high street retailers such as Game sell digital games, but the prices are so high its enough to put any savvy shopper off purchasing them, even the ones that allow trade-ins, you don't get much bang for your buck so you usually have to trade in 3 or 4 games just to get anything decent to go towards a new one. So there isn't really any value for money doing that, so when you see new exclusives being added on their release date, can you blame someone for paying £8 that month to get to play and try it before buying, or even playing it and finishing and moving on, then if they want to cancel there pass, happy days they can do. They've then just played the full game which to buy was £50.00, for just £8.00.

Whichever way you look at it, you can't deny that the service is value for money and Microsoft adding new exclusives to it is gamer friendly and giving you your monies worth.

Forza 7 - Review

One exclusive we can seem to rely on for Xbox One is the Forza series, now swapping each year with a different iteration from the track based to the Horizon open world game. As I have stated previously I do enjoy racing games a lot, they are a go-between for me when I want to get away from other games and play something different and have a race around tracks, or in Horizon’s case the world it’s set in.

This year we were brought the track based Forza 7, which if I am honest, I do prefer the track based style, rather than the open world. Take nothing from the Horizon series, they add some depth and bring something different to the table, it’s just the ruggedness of the tracks suits me better.

Now, where to start with Forza 7? I'm playing this on my Xbox One S with 4K upscaling and I can't fault how it looks. The lighting that has been used on the tracks with the sunlight poking through the clouds and the sunbeams hitting the tarmac is amazing. I’m actually flabbergasted how I managed to drive and pay attention to the world, but there is something about it that will draw your eye line away from driving, you just can’t help it. The tracks have been superbly done and look amazing.

Add into the above the dynamic weather feature that is present in the game and again, the experience goes to a whole new level. Racing on Brands Hatch on a cloudy day and then 2 laps into a 5 lap race it suddenly starts to pour down, the wipers are going mental to keep the windscreen clear,
puddles are now appearing on the floor and this can cause aquaplaning which will cause the grip on the car to sometimes go when flying along at high speeds and cause the car to spin out, which can as you can imagine, ruin your race.

This is one reason why I love the Forza franchise, the detail that goes into the game is done with a fine tooth comb, right down to the little details of the puddles and the effects that they have on the races. The addition of the dynamic weather is fantastic and it is one thing that I wished GT Sport on PS4 had shipped with.



How does the game play? Very well, I love how smooth it plays, which I have to admit is a set thing with Forza games, I have never had an issue with any Forza game in terms of how it has played. Which to me again shows how well polished the game can be. As we see with patches, there are
tweaks that need to be done with certain aspects such as Drivatars, but overall, the build and release quality is spot on.

Speaking of Drivatars, I love the system and what it does for the game, and I can’t really have any gripe over them in terms of how they drive as this is based on how people drive in their own game, so that is down to them. But I have noticed a lot of time when people have been included in my races, that it’s people who haven’t played the game. Not sure if this was just me or others, but I found at times that people who had been included in races and not played the game, or had one race on their friends copy to try the game are a quite erratic in terms of driving, which can be a bit
offputting, especially when I’m in the middle of the pack and I’m wanting to try and push my way forward, I just never know how they are going to react, as one false move and I could be off the track or spinning out, and there is nothing worse when going past someone and they just follow along the line, clip your back end and you’re gone, out of the race. Frustrating.

There is plenty to do within the game as well, you have your normal free play mode, where you can set up a race to your own needs, the tracks, weather, laps, and type of cars to be driven etc. There is a Forza cup mode, which is basically playing through different cups. You earn points with each race you play and once you have enough points you can move to the next cup. Each cup brings with it new challenges and trying out new cars.



There is a multiplayer element to the game where you can race against others and put your skills to the test. There is also an auction house where you can sell and buy your cars, which is really easy to set up and go through. I do have one quite big gripe with the game and that is the loading times when loading a track, and the way the menus work with it. The loading times for me are terrible, absolutely terrible and it takes far too long to go between races. Once the track is loaded it then shows a preview screen of the track but then takes you back to the menu you were on to click ‘Start race’. Why isn’t that start race button on the track preview screen instead of taking you back? This part we’re only talking a
couple of seconds, but that makes a lot of difference to the overall experience.

Overall, my experience with Forza 7 has been very good, and I look forward to putting a lot more hours into the game. The game is well polished and plays brilliantly, the only downside really for me is the loading screens take far too long to load the next track.

9/10

Soma - Review

Review

Soma is touted as a sci-fi horror survival game, so I started it expecting to discover an experience similar to other survival horror titles such as Evil Within and Alien Resurrection to name just two. I was however pleasantly surprised at the story that unfolds as you play. There are sections of the game, where the lighting and atmospheric music that is present throughout Soma, that gets the heartbeat racing and the mind wondering what is around the next corner. I will say now that I played the game in 'safe mode' which allows you to play the game without fear of the various monsters actually killing you. This in no way detracts from the fear and suspense as the jump scares are still there to surprise you, it's just that this mode allows you to play through the story without the annoyance of getting killed and having to restart at the last checkpoint. I have no shame in playing the 'safe' version and can confirm that it is still creepy as hell in places.

The story starts you off as a character called Simon, you begin in your apartment and the backstory is played out through voice messages and e-mails that are available to you. Exploration of the surroundings is also introduced here as you are prompted to search for your medication, after you have discovered what you're looking for then you go to the doctors office and the strangeness begins. I can't really say much more about the story without spoiling it, so I'll stop here and instead talk about other aspects of the game and post a few screenshots to whet your appetite.



As I said previously the lighting and music that Frictional have used for Soma is excellent, each section has numerous rooms to search and you can interact with pretty much everything that isn't nailed down. This comes in handy at various points where you have to gain access to a locked door and can see no way to unlock it, have a look around and see if there is anything heavy to pick up and if there is, then throw it through a window and gain access to the room that way. I have to admit to just picking random things up and throwing them around.......just because I could.



There are numerous audio files to be played and e-mails to read that add to the story and it's quite fun to have a good old root around the rooms and very satisfying when you find something useful. At various points there are puzzles to solve before you can advance and thankfully they are not too taxing although, as I said, I was in safe mode so I can imagine they would be harder if you had the risk of imminent death hanging over you.

Graphically Soma hits the nail on the head in what it's trying to portray, a dark, dank atmosphere that keeps you on edge thinking what could be in the shadows around the next corner, exploration is a big part of the game and I can't think of a time when I thought ' well they could have done this better' . The mood is perfect throughout and after completion( took me around 8 hours) you are left contemplating what has just happened and also thinking 'well how far away in reality is all this from actually happening' The underwater sections in particular are very very well done and you sense the solitude of being alone on the ocean floor and the vastness of your surroundings is apparent. Even is safe mode it is possible to die here if you wander too far from the path and fall into the abyss, so care is still needed.



I'm not usually a fan of the jump scare games but Soma was a joy to play from start to finish and I'm glad I had the chance to play it.

Frictional have done an excellent job here and I highly recommend taking a look.

I give Soma a well deserved 9/10.

 

Code for review was provided by the publishers and as always we thank you.

 

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

Xenoraid | Review

Description

Xenoraid is an exciting shooter game with classic action and modern features. Intercept the alien threat in missions that play out differently every time. Pilot skillfully to line up devastating bursts of fire. Switch between four fighters during combat to bring in the best weapons for each situation. Upgrade, repair and enhance your squadron between missions. Bring down huge alien capital ships in hectic bossfights. Put your skills to the ultimate test in three endless survival missions with online leaderboards!

Review

I have to admit that these type of games aren't really my thing. I find them quite one dimensional in terms of how they play and what there is to do.

Xenoraid is just like a new age Space Invaders, all you are doing within the game is facing wave after wave of enemies, and after a little while it gets quite boring. Sure, there are additions to each 'mission' that you play through, however I couldn't help part way through thinking 'when is this going to end'. The game got a bit tedious as there wasn't much of a change in what was going on. It was simply beat the enemies that come at you until it says mission complete.

Xenoraid feels very much the same right the way through each level. The only thing that changes are the enemies that you face, and even then there isn't much variation in these. You mostly find yourself facing bigger enemies of the ones that you are currently facing, and at the beginning in the first couple of missions, I have seen the same enemy 3 times, just in different sizes. There could at least be variants in colours, but nope, there all pretty much designed the same.



A few extra things also come into play the more you get into the game such as asteroids which you have to avoid. You can blow these up and some of them will give you credits and other items to collect.

You can collect credits within the game to purchase upgrades for your ships as well as repair them. You get a healthy bonus to start off with with the game giving you around 1000 credits. However, as your going through the game, you will find that this generosity wasn't so very generous. As repairs for the ship increase every time you need to do a repair, and if one of your ships is destroyed, that's it, you've lost your ship and will have to buy a new one. It is ideal to have 4 ships on a level with you as I found the health of ships went down quite quickly.

A lot of the dialect in the Xenoraid story was rather confusing. I found especially that the first lot of dialect within the game was especially confusing, mainly because you go through the first mission and when you get back it comes up saying something along the lines of 'the enemy must have been scoping us out'.... I will tell you now, there was nothing scopy about it... It was an all out assault on us and if they think that that was scoping us out, I would love to see there idea of an all out assault..... I reckon it would probably be a friendly warning....



The game worlds are designed nicely, but are still a bit bland and could do with being a bit more vibrant. However, when playing through, each brings its own sort of atmosphere to the game, this accompanied with a fitting soundtrack does improve the game, and makes it bearable to play.

Technically the game is OK, the shooting mechanism could be better as it did seem a little laboured and rigid. The ships movement though was good, and if you were in a tight spot with enemies you were able to quickly move yourself away from danger and re-position yourself with ease.

The game for me was more of time filler than something that I would just sit there and play through for hours, and if I did happen to play it through for hours, it would only to play it once and then probably uninstall it from my Xbox One as I wouldn't have any further use for it.



Which is probably why it is more suited to playing it in short bursts by only doing a mission or 2 at a time. There is a local co op option in the game which you can play with up to 4 friends (or 3 if you count yourself). Unfortunately, I have no friends so was unable to test this out, but it would probably make a good time killer if you've got your friends around and your waiting for the latest and greatest to install.

Unfortunately, I am not sure as to whether or not I would recommend the game or not. I think this is more of a Marmite type game, if you're into this genre, then you are going to love it, however, if you are unsure or not really played this genre before, then I have a feeling that 90% would probably not enjoy it.

6/10

The Bug Butcher | Review

ABOUT THE BUG BUTCHER

The Bug Butcher is an intense action shooter, wrapped in stylistic 2D art, and smeared with juvenile humor where timing and fierce reflexes are paramount in protecting your fragile squishy body! The gameplay has an extremely simple chore mechanic that is easy to understand, but hard to master. Plus, who doesn’t love a universe where you wield a beefy arsenal of military grade weaponry that lets you slice through bugs like a hot knife through soft, melted butter.

PERKS CUSTOMIZATION

Extra speed…extra combo…extra juicy.

LEADERBOARDS

Leaderboard Systems that will show the world and your friends you in all your glory or utter shame.

UPGRADE YOUR GAME

Numerous upgradeable Weapons and Power Ups to make any trigger happy player smile.

ACHIEVEMENTS

21 Different Achievements to acquire as you battle your way through the floors.

Review

The Bug Butcher is fun..................lots of fun...............annoyingly fun in fact. It has that 'one more go' factor that turns a quick 10 minute blast into a full on 3 hour session.

You play the role of Harry, a Bug Butcher who is called to help a scientist at a futuristic research facility on a distant planet that has been overrun by......bugs.

These bugs come in a variety of shapes and sizes and their sole aim is to kill you before you kill them. Your weaponry is varied and upgradeable via coins that are collected during gameplay. You also have power-ups that do differing things ranging from rapid fire to laser beams and also the ability to freeze the pesky alien bugs in place for a short time.



Harry can only move left and right and can only fire up in the air.......this is handy as that's where a majority of the enemies appear from. Some do come from the side and below but they always end up in the air as viable targets. The bugs have ways to damage Harry that include firing energy bolts at him and also by bouncing on top of him.

There is a good range of bugs and they have differing methods of causing Harry problems, some of the big round ones split into smaller bugs upon being hit, some spit out smaller versions of themselves until you kill them all and on some levels there are spidery bugs that have the sole aim of capturing the scientist and sucking him up into their maws.



The only small niggle I have is that sometimes the screen is FULL of so much that it's difficult to determine what is going on.

That's the game really in a nutshell..........fast frenetic gameplay for 30 levels of the story mode. There is also a Panic Mode where the aim of the game is to get the highest score and survive an endless wave of nasty bugs. Scoreboards are here too, which is always a big plus for me as I like to see how I shape up against friends and even where I sit in the world rankings.

Visually Bug Butcher is very nice to look at and has a sharp crisp cartoon style that fits perfectly with a game that doesn't take itself too seriously. The soundtrack is quite upbeat too and ramps up the speed when the screen is full of enemies which gets the pulse racing. Harry and the scientist do have dialogue but it's not actual words that you hear, instead you get a garbled sound that lets you know that they are speaking and if you want to know what they are saying you have to read the screen. The actual gun sounds are very satisfying and the 'plink plink' of the coins being picked up is very similar to Sonic the Hedgehog (remember him kiddies ?).

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this game and for less than 10 quid for some mindless fun you really can't go wrong.

Happy to give The Bug Butcher 8/10.

 

Thanks to Triangle Studios for providing the code for review.

Titanfall 2 | Review

Synopsis

In single player, an aspiring Pilot and a veteran Titan combine forces to uphold a mission you were never meant to carry out. Multiplayer offers brand new Titans, expanded Pilot abilities, and deeper customisation to elevate the fast-paced and exciting game play fans expect from the series.

Review

The newest addition to the Titanfall franchise is the single player campaign. Titanfall 1's 'campaign' was built around the different online modes that were available. This time round there is a dedicated single player to play through, and I have to admit that I absolutely loved the addition.

You play as a pilot in training who is suddenly brought into the deep end of things when his mentor is killed in battle. Before dying, the Titans controls are passed over to you and you are made a fully fledged Pilot. After taking control of your Titan (named BT) you then have various missions to do to fight in the war that is currently going on.

What I loved about the story was the relationship that you build throughout with your BT. The more you seem to use him to bigger the bond grows and even though it is man and machine, it is lovely to see the bonds that can be made with good narrative.

The narrative within the game is wonderful as well, it is such a wonderfully told story and I think this is going to be the very rare occasion that I go back for another go at the story to mop up some achievements. The overall feel that the game gives off as well is fantastic and it keeps that Titanfall ethos.

I love the fact as well that you have choices when it comes to what you say within the game, and again linking in with that bond you have with BT, there are times that you ask if he's OK and not damaged and he does reciprocate the sentiments too. Lovely touch.

The game play and mechanics are still Titanfall esq, the game feels like your playing Titanfall, however it has that continuity and progression that you would expect in a sequel. The mechanics are so smooth in the game and I've been having an awesome time playing it.



The worlds within the single player campaigns are wonderfully designed and flow very smoothly. If you're not a fan of single player campaigns in FPS's I would high recommend playing this one! Simple brilliant. The wonderful game play is accompanied with beautifully atmospheric music.

With the multiplayer side of things, again the game does feel wonderful to play, and there has been some progression made, but unfortunately with the good comes the bad.

Burn cards that were prominent in Titanfall 1 have now been removed and have been replaced with Boosts. This is one of the good changes in the game for me. Reason for this was because I found that the Burn Cards got a bit obsolete when you got to the higher levels, especially when it came to the extra XP ones.

There are now a lot of customisation options available or your pilot and Titan in Titanfall 2's multiplayer. You can customise the skins for your Pilot and Titan as well as a badge for your Titan. There are lots of options available, but as normal, you have to rank up and complete challenges to be able to unlock and use them.



One of the biggest changes for multiplayer is the use of weapons and the choices you have. There are a lot of weapons available, however instead of like Titanfall 1 where you had a primary, secondary and an Anti Titan weapon, you get your Primary weapon, but you can only choose between either a secondary or an Anti Titan. Which does make a bit of a difference in game as not everyone is after you with grenade and rocket launchers when you're in a Titan. This does mean more strategic approaches and I have to admit, it has lead to an increase in Titan Rodeo. I have a feeling that this was anticipated by Respawn as most of the Titans have Electric Smoke ability. (I say most as I haven't tried all of the Titan chassis yet)

There is one part of the customisation that I really like and this is the execution style for your Pilot. There are several to pick from and each one is as satisfying at the last. These range from a good ol' neck snap to stealing your opponents pistol and shooting him with it. I highly recommend giving these a look. Titans also have execution moves, which I absolutely love doing.... Yes... I am that guy. Instead of just ripping off arms and smashing the opponent Titan in the head, each Titan still has there own execution but these are far more satisfying and you can see a video below of a few different executions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ5qbEBjr7k

The overall setup is slightly similar to Titanfall 1 were you can set a tactical skill to your Pilot. The tactical skills are varied and there is a fair amount of choice to pick from, and they come from anything ranging between Cloaking to Stim, which TF1 players will be familiar with. However, the newest addition to this section is the Grapple, which I found to be immensely fun to use, especially when you get swinging and get a couple of moves together, it feels so smooth and there is a sense of satisfaction when you get a flow of moves going.

As I said earlier, with the good comes the bad. With Titanfall 2 they have changed the way parties work, and this is for the worse for me. This is now called networks and when members of your network are online they will show in the Multiplayer menu and you can invite them to games. Simples, yes? However, once the match is over, your party will get disbanded and the matchmaking will continue without your party in it, you will all end up in different games, which is really weird and I hope gets fixed, because it is a bit annoying having to back out of matchmaking and invite everyone back in again.



I have found the map designs to be lacking in TF2, this is one of the few areas that lets the game down for me. The TF1 maps felt natural, good to play, but in TF2 I don't get the same feelings for them. Maybe I need to get asserted and learn the ways properly, but even the ones I have played over and over and know, I still don't get the same feeling from them. There are 1 or 2 which I love and enjoy playing, just the rest haven't really grown on me yet. Hopefully in time they will grow on me, but at the moment I am not too sure.

One last thing I have found disappointing with the game as well is the lack of statistics. I'm not sure if they are going to be added later on, but the absence of them is rather a let down. The amount of detail that went into TF1's stats was brilliant, and I loved looking at each of the different sections.

Overall the game is wonderful and I am having an absolute blast playing it. The single player is a wonderful addition and with the beautifully told narrative it is a joy to play.

The multiplayer feels like the multiplayer from the first game, but with the update and progression it needed, which keeps it fresh and new.

A wonderful game which I will enjoy for a long time! 9/10

White Twin Docking Station by Venom Gaming | Review

Product Description (Taken from Venom Website)

• Dock, store and charge


• Rapid recharge cradle for 2 Xbox One® wireless controllers


• Keep controllers fully charged and ready to use


• Supplied with x2 Nimh rechargeable battery packs


• Charges whilst on standby


• Matte White finish to match controllers


• Red LED charge indicators turn to green once controllers are fully charged


• Up to 18 hours gameplay


• USB powered (included)

Keep controllers fully charged and ready for action with Venom’s smart Twin Docking Station. The rapid recharge cradle enables you to power up two wireless controllers without needing to leave your Xbox One® on. Featuring a polished white finish to match your Xbox
One® controllers, red charging LED indicators turn green once fully charged. Two powerful NiMH rechargeable battery packs provide maximum power for gameplay of up to 18 hours.



Review

The wonderful guys over at Venom Gaming have been kind enough to send us there new Dual Charging Dock, which is now coloured white and compatible with the Xbox One S.

The first thing you will notice when you remove the dock from the box is the lovely design. It sits there in the packaging just looking up at you begging to be used. Although it is just in a rectangular shape, it does have body to it which looks good and this is where the controllers sit.

The Charging Dock comes with 2 battery packs to go with the 2 controller spaces that it has, and I have to admit that with the white Xbox One S controller these do look very neat when plugged in.

The controllers sit in the docks very nicely and sit flush with the Dock, showing excellent design and compatibility. The controllers don’t need to click into place, they simply glide nicely into the section and the lights shine to show that the controller is connected. Smooth!

Now, I’ll go onto the lighting on the Dock. During the day when I plugged it into the console and connected my controller, all was good, the Dock looks nice and the lights gave a nice aura to it. Then it came to night time, I went into my man cave in the evening to play a bit of Xbox and as I opened the door I can only describe that my room was lit up in true red light district style and it got me thinking that I hoped the neighbours didn’t get the wrong impression… Don’t get me wrong, I loved this, my room had a wonderful glow to it, and when the controllers were charged it gave off a nice green glow, one that may let the neighbours think that I’m being abducted by aliens. But again, for me this was all good. It made the room seem peaceful and gave a charm to the man cave, something that I had felt had been missing, but now not only can I charge my controllers, I get a wonderful glow which lights my room wonderfully.



The charge time on the Dock isn’t too bad as well, done within an hour or so and this has given me around 15 hours’ worth of game play, so it is very economical when it comes to play time. Better than constantly buying batteries that only last a few hours.

The fact as well that this Dock holds 2 controllers means that when one is on its last lefts and low on battery power, you can simply place it on the dock and get the other one to continue your journey in whatever game you’re playing. If you only have the one controller, at least you don’t have to wait long for it to charge up again, although I found that leaving it to charge overnight would leave you enough play time to last you through the day, then you can just reconnect it on an evening/night and it would be ready for you again the next day!

I absolutely love this little gadget, it’s something so simple, yet helps so much with gaming life, and I can’t recommend it enough.

If you are looking for a plug and charge kit or something similar then I would highly recommend this for you. You can check the product out here on the Venom Gaming website - https://venomuk.com/get/twin-docking-station-white/.

Grade A!

Battlefield 1 | Review

Synopsis

Fight your way through epic battles going from tight urban combat in a besieged French city to big open spaces in the Italian Alps or frantic combats in the deserts of Arabia, in large scale battles as infantry or piloting vehicles on land, air and sea, from the tanks and bikes on the ground, to biplanes and gigantic battleships.

Discover a new world at war through an adventure-filled campaign, or join in epic multiplayer battles with up to 64 players, and adapt your tactics and strategy to the earth-shattering, dynamic environments and destruction.

Review

Battlefield 1 has been one of the games that I have been looking forward too since it was announced and the main theme of the game was announced.

For several years I have been wanting a developer to grab the FPS genre by the balls and go back to some all-out war fare. None of this futuristic stuff that has been pumped out over the last however many years, so I guess you can imagine my excitement when EA Dice said that Battlefield 1 was going back to World War 1.

In terms of history, this is what I loved to study, it was my bread and butter, the different parts of the world in which the war was going on, and mainly for differing reasons. You had the Central Powers which included Austria-Hungary who declared War when there heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, this period also saw the downfall of the Ottoman Empire who had also joined forces with the Central Powers, although this had started to come into play before World War 1, the downfall was complete by the 1920’s.

There is a point to my little history story above, these different little stories that are a part of the War, are also how the games main story line is played out. Battlefield 1 doesn’t incorporate one big story line campaign, however this is broken up in 6 different story lines dotted around the war. From the blitz on London, to taking down the Ottoman Empire in the deserts.



As I played through the story I got more and more encapsulated with them, I found this an absolutely fantastic way to do the campaign. Sometimes one long campaign can drag along, breaking it up in this way meant that you could take a break from it without losing the flow for the stories, you can just do the one scenario and maybe go off to play some multiplayer or just leave it there.

What really stands out for me as well is how well the game replicates the scenarios of war, how intense it was, and even at the start of the game it says that you are not intended to survive the experience, and right from the off that is true. As you take on the first part of the stories in the campaign, as you are going through the fields, and trying to hold positions at churches with the British army, you find that the German army will be on you very quickly, and with the vast amount of space there is available in the game area, you will find that there are enemies on all sides of you, and yes, that warning at the beginning holds true. I found myself dying several times due to being overwhelmed by the enemy. What was brilliant, and a bit upsetting was that when you died, It brought up the name of the solider you were playing and how old they were, and there were some that were only 18-19 years of age, which was quite upsetting. Although again, later in loading screens it does mention that a soldier’s age can be determined in hours, due to how many died in the conflict.

One element that I did find annoying was the flying element, and I think this was mainly down to the controls. To steer and fly the plane, you used the right stick, while the left one was used for throttle to speed up or slow down. A lot of the time I would either get them mixed up or I would try and combine the two sticks and not get very far… I crashed a lot. I think these could have been simplified a little more by combining the 2 sticks and using the right trigger for throttle, the guns on the plane could then have been shifted to the shoulder buttons.

This was my only reserve from the campaign stories, in terms of graphics, I can’t complain. The game is absolutely stunning, the lighting and effects for the different areas, whether you’re in no man’s land or in the desert, each area has been captured in its own beauty and the atmosphere that has been placed to it is amazing. The cut scenes and animations are smooth and the AI seems well placed and doesn’t randomly run in stupid areas when alerted. They always seem to place themselves smartly to defend which ever base/area they are in.



The sounds within the game and the atmosphere that these create on the battlefield are wonderful, when I had my headset on, the realism that this created to help me get into the game. Especially when you are creeping through the trenches, trying to keep a low profile to get back to your own side of no man's land, how you have to creep through narrow trenches and open fields trying not to be spotted. Making sure that your footing when going down embankments is right, as the slightest wrong step could cause anything to fall and make a noise, alerting the enemy. Which I found when it happened to me wasn't to bad as not many seemed to be in the area that I was in, but I'm betting that there are worse areas I could have done that in.

The sound of the guns as well, which was something I noticed when I had my headset on, as there are so many people, there are literally hundreds of guns going off at the same time, flashes everywhere and grenades being thrown. These sounds for me were breathtaking, and because they were all around my headset replicated that, so I didn't know whether I was coming or going at times, and if there weren't markers on the screen, I wouldn't have know where I was getting shot from at times as there were so many sounds going off. Which by all means isn't a bad thing and I can only think that this is what soldiers at the time went through.

I haven't played enough of the multiplayer to review it yet, but I will hopefully get this done soon.

Overall the game is a very good one and for me the right step in the series, I love the setting and how the game has been played out and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

9/10