Rainbow Six Siege | Xbox One1/1/2016 Patience is, apparently, a virtue, and something arguably essential to success in Rainbow Six Siege. Fans of the series have had to show plenty of it, with Rainbow Six Patriots cancelled in 2014 after an expectant reveal in 2011, making the previous game released in the series 2008’s Vegas 2. With the online multiplayer only offering a few different modes across a handful of maps, it’s difficult to feel that the game isn’t light on content. Siege at its best is entirely reliant on good communication. Much like Evolve, the effectiveness of a team relies on how unique skills are used together. The depth of the game comes in your choice of characters, or operators, and how you use them. Following the completion of basic tutorials at the beginning of the game, you’re given enough renown (reward currency) to unlock your first operator. With 10 attackers and defenders to choose from, it might sound like a varied roster, but as different players quickly find their strengths in one or two specific operators, you’ll quickly find pickings become slim in an experienced team. There are eight new operators still to come post-launch, as well as an unspecified number of additional maps and modes. All will become freely available following a period of exclusivity for season pass holders, so as not to split up the community. Each of the characters has their own brief introduction video, some of which do a better job at highlighting how they should be used than others. In addition to the standard stream of solo Situations, it would have been nice to see character-specific ones and get chance to practice with your freshly-unlocked character before jumping online and being a liability to your team. Unfortunately the game doesn’t offer this sort of support, meaning you have to work out how each operator’s special abilities work as you go along. Choosing the right operator not only for the right game variant, but also to complement your team composition is a difficult thing to master, and is really only feasible when communicating with your teammates. Siege at its best is entirely reliant on good communication. Much like Evolve, the effectiveness of a team relies on how unique skills are used together - there’s no point in trying to put down Bandit’s electrified wire at doorways to counteract enemy drones if Mute has already placed a jammer, for example. Once you do get into a good flow with a team, there can be some fantastic examples of tactical gameplay, all leading to an immense sense of satisfaction following hard fought and well earned victory. Unfortunately, the other side of the experience is a disappointing one. This falls down to the simple fact that - as of now, even a few weeks after launch day - the matchmaking is unreliable at best and teeth-grindingly poor at worst. Often entering into matchmaking, even with a full party, can result in failing to find an opposing team or getting stuck at some point in the process, forcing you to not only quit back to the menu, but even restart the game to make sure everyone gets pulled into the next attempt. While some technical issues with online play are expected, even tolerable, to be experiencing it this regularly and to this extent grinds any momentum built up by a previous strong win to a halt. The problems don’t end once you’re in the game either, as inaccurate hit detection and bafflingly inaccurate killcams can lead to cheap deaths and even arguments as the team is presented with a fictitious rendition of your round-ending game experience. In theory, the premise of the game makes sense. It builds on the team on team action forged by games like Counterstrike and the gadgets and tools do make you think about the best way to get into the opposing teams stronghold, or defend your own. The lack of campaign isn’t a problem, also in theory, as the format of the game lends itself to short game sessions of only a few minutes. Trying to weave those situations naturally into a narrative could be jarring or forced, though probably possible. The issue is that it’s so stripped down and basic that when you inevitably do get bored, there isn’t anything else to function as a break from the instant action element of the game. If you’re looking for something to play with a group of friends now and then that captures and condenses parts of what makes Rainbow Six a cherished franchise for many, then this can be a tense, exciting and thoroughly enjoyable experience. As more than that though, it’s difficult to see how it will have the staying power to keep players coming back for more in a year’s time. Pros
Cons
7/10 Halo 5: Guardians | Xbox One1/1/2016 Sci-fi has a habit of not always making sense. Sure it’s aspirational, imaginative and a lot can be explained away by technological mumbo-jumbo, but when you want to take an audience on a journey - to 'Hunt the truth' in this case - then it can help if they know what they are fighting for. If you ignore the story entirely though, the campaign itself is up to series standards, and certainly is more endearing than that of Halo 4. The Prometheans return with a few tweaks that thankfully make them and their allotted arsenal more bearable, and the nonsensical battlecries of the Covenant’s Grunts have been returned to endearing English witticisms. Familiar game modes give way to a new approach to multiplayer overall, with much more of an E-sports feel than Halo has ever had. Gameplay is markedly less clunky than 4 overall, in fact. It feels as though 343 Industries have finally got their head around the franchise, after inheriting it from the formidable legacy of Bungie. The improvements to movement range from the simple, such as the ability to clamber up ledges, to the deadly, such as the immensely satisfying and effective ground pound, which sees you hover in mid air to charge, before delivering a knockout smash to enemies below. In multiplayer these abilities make the most impact (often literally), injecting speed and versatility into matches, whilst conveying the true feeling of being a super-soldier. It’s a shame that the current map selection makes only limited use of all of the opportunities presented by the changes, serving up but a few obvious ground pound or spartan charge (a hefty forward thrust) locations. Familiar game modes give way to a new approach to multiplayer overall, with much more of an e-sports feel than Halo has ever had. Your first 10 matches in each game mode of the competitive 4v4 mode Arena (offering a grab bag of ‘standard’ modes, as well as playlists for Slayer, Breakout, SWAT and Free-for-All) will be assessed to give you a rank from bronze to platinum. Each tier has six levels and you subsequently go up or down depending on wins and losses. Only top players will rise above platinum to two additional, even more specific tiers. The idea is to make matchmaking more accurate, meaning matches are challenging whilst balanced. We were placed in the gold tier after a pretty good performance across our initial matches, and did find games after that were stretching enough to provide a fun challenge. While series mainstay Big Team Battle is gone (until it is eventually added, post-launch), there is a brand new mode here to replace it - Warzone. In this mode two teams of 12 players battle for map control, whilst also swatting AI-controlled enemies for extra points. Going into a Warzone match is intimidating at first; instinct will likely compel you to run straight into the fray, since it’s virtually essential in Arena to keep your spartan charge ability ready at all times. You should, however, take a minute to apply some tactics to the game, which is where Warzone really starts to shine. It can prove extremely challenging to get into a rhythm without a few Xbox Live friends along who you can easily communicate with, but you will find players actually using voice chat on occasion, which is something of a rarity in online FPS these days. One way 343 has tried to liven up the game mode is to strip back weapon and vehicle spawns across the map, giving you access to them through the new Requisition or REQ system. Gaining levels in multiplayer unlock packs of cards which are either one-use or permanent items to enhance your game. As you might imagine, more powerful weapons are harder to come by, as well as being locked away until your team has made some significant progress in the match to unlock the higher REQ levels. It can be difficult to get to grips with at first, but after a while it nicely varies the way you play. Maps in Halo multiplayer are really what make or break the experience though, and while there are three Warzone playgrounds to choose from, none of them feel as memorable as levels like Blood Gulch, Valhalla, or Sandtrap from previous games. Thankfully, 343 has said future maps will be free to all players, with DLC revenue coming from selling access to REQ packs instead, so at least everyone will be able to play together when the experience expands over time. It’s also reason enough to praise microtransactions - who’d a thunk it? That doesn’t stop it feeling a bit thin on the ground at the moment of course, and it is a shame when there are so many interesting objective modes in the franchise’s history to restrict them to occasionally popping up via Arena, rather than having their own playlists. In all though, there is still plenty of fun to be had with Guardians. It pushes past all of the problems players found with 4 to deliver the strongest all round experience since Halo: Reach, with (thankfully) a robust matchmaking system to match - though it could be a bit snappier. In return it offers only relatively minor niggles and a thirst for more content. Microsoft promised to reinvent Halo with this release, and it’s certainly done that. It might not be enough to turn around the console race (honestly, what could at this stage?), but it’s certainly a game which those who defected to PS4 after the 360 should miss dearly. If you’re still in two minds whether to shell out for this instalment, then think about what your priority is for a Halo game, if it’s campaign then you could probably catch up with this one on YouTube and not miss too much, but if you long for multiplayer, then 343 has put together a strong package with the promise of more fun still to come. Pros
Cons
8/10 “Another re-release?!” we hear you cry, amid eyerolls and exasperated sighs. Sadly, yes. The fact that this 2013 title has taken so long to make its way to next gen is disappointing, but really it’s a marvel that it made the jump at all. Although Dante begins with a fairly rudimentary move set, with the speed at which the game introduces new moves and upgrade points – which you can spend on skills of your choice – you always feel like you are making progress. There’s a plethora of difficulty levels to beat too, from Human (Easy) all the way up to the brand new Gods Must Die mode (Very Very Very Hard), which sees all enemies spawn with power-ups and you lose the ability to use health. Vergil’s Downfall is a really interesting aside to the main game and accessed as a separate choice on the main menu, as you get to control Dante’s twin brother Vergil instead. His moveset is similar to Dante’s, with a few differences in the way that moves are carried out, even if they have the same effect. The DLC uses noir-esque graphic novel frames for cutscenes, about one notch up from the original Max Payne on the complexity scale – presumably to save on budget – but they serve to really separate the experience from the main game. Disappointingly though, the transition in and out of cutscenes feels a little jarring as a result. The variety you see in the levels as you go through the game is interesting, particularly with the juxtaposition of the limbo areas, which almost play like dream sequences and often see you traversing increasingly jagged and separate platforms to continue onwards. There’s replay value too, since many areas in early levels can’t be unlocked until you have certain skills. A particular highlight is the Aquila (or ‘eagle’ in Latin) – a pair of tri-bladed frisbee-like weapons which can cripple enemies at a distance with great speed. Best of all you can send them flying and then leap into the fray while they whip around and tidy up any stragglers The characters are fairly straightforward, but not boring. There’s the odd misstep when the villain’s writing descends into an expletive-hurling match, but these are few and far between.
Enemies get challenging quickly as well, since every time you learn a new ability there’s one which you specifically need to use that move to take down, and as you begin to build up your skills you’ll find ways to combine them to be more effective (and, more importantly, stylish). One of the toted differences about this version of the game specifically is the inclusion of a manual targeting system, which brings up a reticule over enemies when they are in the line of fire. In practice though, this doesn’t make too much difference except adding a bit of clarity to fighting -–generally you are zipping around between multiple enemies too much to really need it. If you’re short on time you can also try Turbo Mode, which makes the game 20% faster - but that includes enemies too, so beware. To keep you busy once you’ve finished the main game is the Bloody Palace, a wave-based challenge arena which pits you against the game’s deadliest foes in an ever-increasing scale of difficulty. Oh, and there’s some alternate costumes to get your mits on, if you’re in to that sort of thing. When it comes down to it, whether you should buy this game or not depends on whether you like this sort of game in general, and whether you have played it before. For returning sons of Sparda, there’s not much to shout about here. A visual tune-up to 1080p and 60FPS is nice, and the game already looked pretty good, but some cutscenes make the transition better than others. The DLC is great to include too, and the price means that it’s not as steep as it would be to reinvest in Grand Theft Auto V, for example. Unlike GTAV though, this is a purely single-player experience – and a fairly linear one as well. The 20 missions are substantial, and should give you a decent amount of game time for a single playthrough (roughly nine or 10 hours), but there isn’t much beyond that aside from the challenges, which will only appeal to the more skilled players. If you haven’t played the game before though, it’s a different story. This iteration of DmC is easy to pick up and play, leads you in nicely without being patronising and actually has a half-decent story and characters too. It might be a bit black and white, good vs evil, but the simplicity is its charm – you can sit down with this and have a good time, with no horrible difficulty spikes or dud levels either. Missing out on something like this won’t destroy your gaming pedigree, but for a game which failed to storm the industry when it was announced it still holds up very well. Plus, did we mention Dante duel-wields pistols with infinite ammo? ‘nuff said. Pros
Cons
8/10 Shovel Knight | Xbox One1/1/2016 The start screen says '2015', but it feels like 1990 all over again. Starting up a console capable of playing games that look more like films and playing a game that looks like it should be on the NES or Master System seems folly, but it's something gamers seem to be in love with. Luckily, there are regular checkpoints throughout the levels (if you're anything like me, this will be your saving grace) and because each level is around 20-30 minutes, which is a lot of ground to recover if (when) you die, you'll be thankful they're there. In terms of death and retrying, Shovel Knight takes some cues from newer games, too – when you fall in a pit, impale yourself on spikes or get killed by an enemy, you drop gold. You have one chance to get back to that point and recollect everything you dropped. That's assuming, of course, you can get back to it without dying again first (yes, I died. A lot). Oh, those sounds. The plinky-plonky music of gaming past. Honestly, they seemed so much more bearable then. But now, in a generation of gaming where we're more accustomed to full scale orchestral scores alongside our games, it begins to grate after a while (admittedly, this may just be me). There's nothing wrong with the music, really, it just feels a bit... twee, after a while. Shovel Knight has been created with diversity, humour, and more than a little eccentricity. Shovel Knight has been created with diversity, humour, and more than a little bit of eccentricity. As you traverse the levels and meet new characters, you'll realise this isn't a game that takes itself too seriously. From the Goatician (half goat, half magician) to the Troupple King (half trout, half apple. He performs a kind of dance ceremony...thing, then spits out ichor that has special effects for you to use), you'll not be short of 'what the....' moments or memorable characters. Like horse-people in purple dresses.
Of course, the question remains if there's really enough merit in making games that purposely look 25 years old, but that's another debate entirely. But one thing is certain – Shovel Knight does what it set out to do, and all things considered it does it very well. It is definitely a game worth buying if you like platformers, and will stand as a favourite in the digital collections of many. Pros
Cons
Score 8/10 Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition is a, well, enhanced edition of 2014 PC release Divinity: Original Sin, available as a free update to previous owners and for the first time on console. These foibles were easily fixable in a short space of time by restarting with our newly gleaned knowledge, but it’s testament to the writing and VO that despite our laziness in sticking with the botched creations, we began to grow attached to the pair and find humour in the perpetual-back-patting-echo-chamber that was the dialogue. Of course, it’s also testament to the game that we could forgive such monumental misdirection. The story may have been rewritten, but the main quest line remains largely unengaging. That’s not to say it’s bad - there’s a complex murder mystery and a huge bloody dragon threatening to end time itself, for God's sake - exploration and side quests just happen to be the stars of the show. Wandering the world of Rivellon is a treat, a plethora of interesting diversions awaiting around every corner, with an eclectic cast of eccentric characters to meet along the way. We stumbled across more highlights than we can share whilst pottering about, but a few include: stealing soiled underwear for an excitable dog to smell and deduce whether the garment’s owner was responsible for a murder; a clairvoyant revealing our future in rolling the game’s credits early; and four elemental demons devoted to preventing a cave’s contents from ever escaping. What horrors lay within? A harmless wizard speaking only in rhyme, you’ll want to re-trap him for the rest of time. Unfortunately, the quest system doesn’t really make these moments easy to come upon and is a little obtuse on the whole. There’s no way to know who has a quest to offer, actively track quests, know if you’re appropriately levelled to tackle a quest, or differentiate between main and side quests. Whether that’s a good or bad thing depends wholly on the player and how they feel about the game necessitating devotion of their full attention and the thorough reading of all materials (notes, books, diaries, etc.) in order to make good progress. Yes, it can be frustrating and obstructive, but given time to blossom, Divinity is a moreish adventure with incredible depth. The humour, slow pacing and lovely ambient music otherwise create a really chilled out experience, but that illusion’s further shattered when you partake in bouts of tactical combat along the way. They’re a challenging, partially luck-based chess match akin to the likes of XCOM: Enemy Unknown that’ll have you praying to RNGesus in no time. Allies and enemies alike alternate turns in which they can move, use skills and take actions; each task costs a set number of Action Points (AP) that generally limit a turn to one large movement, a small movement and one action, or two actions without moving. This keeps a brisk combat pace, whilst still allowing time to engage your brain and achieve great tactical depth. The element of randomness can definitely be irritating, you might lose a battle despite perfect positioning because inexplicably your attacks miss and your enemies land successive critical hits, but it’s just part and parcel of the genre. Don’t let that put you off, however, as Original Sin features an “Explorer” difficulty mode for those just wanting to come along for the adventure. On the flip side, there’s “Honour” mode for the clinically insane people that fancy playing on the hardest difficulty setting with one save slot and permadeath that’ll wipe it clean when your party fall. If even dropping the difficulty isn’t enough for you, you’re able to bypass some combat by fleeing, though we know that isn’t your style, right? Well, for the Solid Snake and Big Boss wannabes, you can stealthily don a barrel/rock/bush/whatever’s to hand and tip-toe around enemy vision cones to escape scot-free. Sneaking serves more purpose than simple combat avoidance, however. You might use it for combat initiation - sneak into a group of enemies and plant an explosive barrel, before sneaking out and igniting it with a fire spell - or you might distract an NPC by talking to them with one character, switching control to another and ransack their home without them ever knowing. Those starchly North-facing on the moral compass need bring magnets, as sometimes breaking and entering to ‘borrow’ items just has to be done. Freedom of approach also permeates questing, with many offering multiple routes to completion. As with everything else in Divinity: Original Sin, these options aren’t spoon-fed to you as a list of choices, but must be found independently by acting upon subtle hints. In one instance, we were tasked with eliminating a robot created by a specific NPC - rather than setting straight off for battle, we went to talk with its creator. He was kind enough to gift us the machine’s remote control, but with no idea how to work it, we had to find and read the misplaced manual. After doing so, we were simply able to disable what we knew upon arrival to be a devastating, electricity-spewing, mechanical behemoth and dread to think what would’ve happened if we’d tackled it head-on. Of course, that was an option regardless, as was using the three levers around the room to cut-off its power-supply amidst the barrage of attacks. Victory granted some tasty rewards in the form of loot, as it always does, equippable by any party member with the stats to use it. You’ll be spending a lot of time in menus, managing up to four (your maximum party capacity) character inventories at any one time. After picking up an item non-applicable to one character, you’ll need to manually transfer it over to the inventory of whomever it is (if anyone) - the process works just fine on controller, but is a laborious one regardless. Before long you’ll drop that hoarder mentality, taking only what need be taken, and the search mechanic works wonders in accommodating this. Holding A on the Xbox controller will search your immediate surroundings and return a list of the items held within ordered by priority, so key items, weapons and chests place above typical RPG junk items. This quickly and easily allows you to never miss valuables and never clog your inventory with crap. More games need it. Whilst Original Sin makes strides of its own in that department, its inspirations are clear and it borrows quite liberally from them. Genre stalwarts like Baldur's Gate are obvious ones and overall, Divinity serves as a love letter to them, but some more modern games also receive a nod of the head. In setting, narrative, characters and systems it’s reminiscent of Dragon Age: Origins, whilst the humour and combining of elemental magics reminded us of the Magicka series (good things by all accounts). These inspirations and the initial release make the developer’s PC lineage evident, and it’s refreshing to see that features typically reserved for that platform make the transition to console unscathed. A multitude of save-slots with quick-save and quick-load capabilities, the option to toggle movement to a point and click mouse-like format and an in-depth options menu home to the best voice audio slider in gaming - put that quote on the box - all make welcome appearances. It’s just a shame high-end PC grade graphics don’t also feature; Original Sin isn’t necessarily an ugly game, but it’s far from a looker and riddled with frequent pop-in. The Divinity series has been a mixed bag over the years, but you shouldn’t let previous entries put you off what is very much a step in the right direction and a game narratively welcoming to series newcomers. Yes, it can be frustrating and obstructive, but given time to blossom, Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition is a moreish adventure with incredible depth, full to the brim with memorable quests and characters. It's an easy recommendation for fans of the genre and the best game of its kind currently available on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Pros
Cons
8/10 Guns, Gore & Cannoli | Xbox ONe1/1/2016 It ain't just a balanced I-talian meal, ya follow? It's an attention grabbin' title for a game that snuck its way onto the Xbox store as well. All's for answerin' now is whether it's the cat's pajamas, or in need o' rubbin'-out. The game boasts a pleasing cartoon aesthetic, well-animated characters and detailed environments with a real sense of depth. Despite that we couldn't shake the feeling that it was eerily reminiscent of a browser flash game - it certainly perform like one too, with regular framerate dips during more action-heavy sections. It all makes the £7.99 asking price akin to undercooked cannoli - a little hard to swallow. Those detailed environments are many, though an uninspired bunch. You'll find yourself traversing docks, a construction site, a strip club, sewers, rooftops, back alleys - I could go on. We've seen these places many times over in games and Guns, Gore & Cannoli does nothing to set its versions apart; whilst they may have been used self-reflexively for the purpose of parody, it doesn't make them any more fun to trudge through. That said, one exception sees Vinnie joined by an AI partner in a seemingly helpless attempt to overrun a military base, all set to the backdrop of 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home'. Epic. Unless you have real world friends willing to come over and play up to 4-player split screen, storming the aforementioned base is as close as you'll get to playing cooperatively. Unfortunately there's no online functionality and it undoubtedly hurts the product as a whole. Enemies fall somewhat into the same trap as the level designs do, in that parodying existing types just makes Guns, Gore & Cannoli part of the problem for further perpetuating them. Zombies run the usual gamut of fat exploders, muscular tanks, legless crawlers, poison spewers, gun wielders, chargers, and of course, projectile throwing airborne leprechauns that dangle upside down from balloons... wait. You'll also tackle human adversaries that possess the sense to take cover, but otherwise share much the same behaviour, whereas giant moonshine exposed rats are a more aggressive and pack based threat. The three factions don't particularly get along and can be played off against one another other to buy yourself time to blast them in the back, blow the clustered pack to pieces with a well placed grenade, or simply hightail it outta there. Running is a tactic you'll likely come to rely upon (at least if you're this guy) as the difficulty significantly ramps up in later levels. There's no life system and checkpoints are frequent, each providing cannoli for Cannoli to cannibalise for health. It never becomes aggravating as a result, but if you're having real trouble the difficulty can be changed at any time via the pause menu. Now you didn't hear it from me, but you can cheese a few achievements with that little trick, kapish? Guns, Gore & Cannoli lives up to its name, providing each in varying quantities. The game provides a few simple hours of fun and nothing more - but that's not always a bad thing - if ever you're in the mood for some mindless action to disengage your brain, you could do worse than checking it out. Pros
Cons
7/10 Devil's Third | Wii U1/1/2016 Well, well, well, what a strange, curious game Devil’s Third is. Created by the revered Tomonobu Itagaki’s (Ninja Gaiden) new studio Valhalla Games, Devil’s Third has been through development hell. The frame-rate also stutters, huffing and puffing constantly, and although that certainly isn’t game-breaking (many of our favourite retro games are filled with this) it is disappointing considering we’re in 2015. The gunplay feels so overpowered in comparison to the melee-combat that when able you’ll often find yourself backing away from fisticuffs to find cover and pick enemies off with your gun instead. Occasionally, the developer forces you into hand-to-hand combat with a gaggle of goons suddenly appearing from behind a door, but it all feels so contrived, and ultimately, unsatisfying. The online aspect of the game runs and plays a lot better than the single player campaign, thankfully! Drill mode offers players several gameplay options, from the usual battle royales and team deathmatches, to stranger chicken collecting and fruit-tossing modes. Once you’ve levelled your character up sufficiently, Siege mode becomes available - here you join or start your own clan and face-off against other clans around the globe. New weapons and attachments can be purchased with in-game dollen and golden eggs (these can be purchased with real life coins of the realm). There are two main problems here though; the real lack of people online and the shoddy aiming sensitivity (even when you toy with the settings nothing much changes). The general art style and level design also caused us to doze off on the gamepad. A dark colour palette rules for most of the game, occasionally being juxtaposed with garish reds and blues (in the Havana based mission) to make for a mirky, ugly aesthetic on the whole. This wouldn’t matter if the missions were well designed and paced, but they are so banal and tedious you’ll be praying for the end of the campaign. Pretty much every mission follows the same structure: engage in gunfight with baddies > run through bland empty corridor/crawl through ducts filled with bats > engage in gunfight with baddies > rinse and repeat. A few basic puzzles or stealth segments could have broken this up and made the game that little bit more interesting. lingerie is obviously the best attire for killing bone-headed action "heroes" The boss fights are a mixture of the game’s most enjoyable moments and most hellish of frustrations, as you face off against over-sized, Schwarzenegger-esque guys and under-dressed gals (lingerie is obviously the best attire for killing bone-headed action “heroes”). Most of the bosses are best tackled with melee combat, which is strange as you don’t really practice it during the preceding and following segments. It’s a shame as they play pretty well for the most part, and provide a good challenge - but the dodgy camera and often sketchy button command translation can result in what feel like unfair deaths. There is some fun to be had here, specifically the Japan-based level, which is actually quite good fun and even looks OK-ish too. Here the pacing and blend of melee and gun based combat work, and combined with the lovely colour scheme and lighting make for an enjoyable mission. Unfortunately though, this is the only part of the solo campaign where we felt Itagaki-San’s vision of a hybrid melee-shooter actually works, which is one of the biggest issues facing the game. The gunplay feels so overpowered in comparison to the melee-combat that when able you’ll often find yourself backing away from fisticuffs to find cover and pick enemies off with your gun instead. Occasionally, the developer forces you into hand-to-hand combat with a gaggle of goons suddenly appearing from behind a door, but it all feels so contrived, and ultimately, unsatisfying. The online aspect of the game runs and plays a lot better than the single player campaign, thankfully! Drill mode offers players several gameplay options, from the usual battle royales and team deathmatches, to stranger chicken collecting and fruit-tossing modes. Once you’ve levelled your character up sufficiently, Siege mode becomes available - here you join or start your own clan and face-off against other clans around the globe. New weapons and attachments can be purchased with in-game dollen and golden eggs (these can be purchased with real life coins of the realm). There are two main problems here though; the real lack of people online and the shoddy aiming sensitivity (even when you toy with the settings nothing much changes). In closing, we’d have to say that at its current price,Devil’s Third is definitely a no-go. There are just too many issues, and as much as we can enjoy senseless shooters (and we really wanted to like this one), this is just one step too far into the realm of stupidity. The online portion is OK, but really nothing more than that. If you have a PC you can play Devil’s Third online for free, although it’s filled with backside-sweating micro-transactions, the scourge of modern gaming. Let’s hope Itagaki-San and his team learn something from Devil’s Third, because this is the kind of game only pre-pubescent boys could truly enjoy, where shirtless chain-smoking men and bikini-clad women kill each other, and our patience. Pros
Cons
Score 3/10 Grand Theft Auto V | Xbox One1/1/2016 It's not often that working and socialising allow the time to play games these days, unlike at university where Mass Effect was played instead of completing a weeks 'revision'. As each story progresses, they ultimately overlap with each of the other characters. It works beautifully and allows the entire campaign to stand out as one of the best in the series. Grand Theft Auto is a series that has always had another character in the form of the game world, with Rockstar Games crafting immensely detailed worlds time and time again. GTA V is no exception, it offers a world bigger than the largest GTA game; San Andreas, the previous game; GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption put together with room to spare. It is split up into a massive, incredibly detailed fictional version of LA, a picturesque countryside with mountains to climb, a desolate desert area littered with towns and the ocean, whose floor is completely mapped and filled with secrets. All of them are treated to HD textures, better lighting and other effects that make GTA V the prettiest game on current consoles. The inhabitants of the world are treated to extra definition which allows you to sometimes forget you're playing a game due to the immersion created through watching the most mundane of activities- bin men go about their daily routine and you can cheerfully stalk them to find out just how detailed the game gets - spoilers - very detailed. Even toying with pedestrians can be a game of its own, chucking coffee cups at them a personal highlight, and the physics allow for lots of fun with road 'accidents' or first person stab-athons, which are incredibly fun and ridiculously brutal, probably a good time to remind you that the game is strictly for adults I hear there is even a strip club somewhere in the game. I wouldn't know anything about that though..... In GTA V the shooting, driving and walking physics have been improved from GTA IV and are incredibly simple to use and feel just right, though walking around can still take some getting used to thanks to the natural motion physics. The next generation version includes a fully functional and game changing first-person viewpoint that effectively overrides any perceived faults in movement by emulating the controls of first person shooter games. Everything works smoothly, and you notice much more detail within the game, even the simple act of walking down the street makes it a more personal world, with a completely different feeling. Replaying missions offers a new challenge to veterans of the third person view, whilst driving with more limited views and more realistic damage can lead speeding to be fatal sometimes. It is probably fair to say the new viewpoint is a feasible selling point for the game for customers who bought the original release in 2013. Along with a new viewpoint Rockstar Games have included new missions, challenges, vehicles and... well lots of random stuff like Peyote plants that send you on hallucinogenic trips where you control a cat. All of these are great additions but are not going to persuade you to part with your cash. ...it's GTA V with plenty of new features to keep fans entertained and blow the socks off newcomers... phenomenal It's worth noting GTA V has a vast amount of talent powering it as well. All the main performances are believable and probably better than in some films. Then you have the 17 radio stations with likeable hosts, an eclectic and quality selection of tracks providing around 240 songs, with over 100 new tracks added compared to the previous version. To put that into context; that's more extra tracks than most games entire soundtracks. It's not all good news, one of those is The Backstreet Boys. The original score is fantastic too, setting the mood in quieter moments or during missions, with extra music done for the update too.
So it's all good gravy then, right? Well, there is still the problem of overzealous police, to the point that you're questioning why the real police aren't this good. It can be incredibly difficult to survive after a pedestrian ran into your car, but somehow it's your fault and instead of a warning the police try to arrest you or even shoot you. Then you decide to lob some C4 at them for the cheek of it and before you know it the army are after you, who are both accurate and efficient. We’ve all been there. In GTA V it can be quite hard to survive at times and might be a little frustrating for some if you don't like being arrested even simply trying to lose the police can be fatal (or maybe it's just me). You would be forgiven for thinking the only way to have possibly made GTA V better is by having a new character with a new story to explore the world with, or a new perhaps a new area altogether. As it is though, this is not merely an updated version of Grand Theft Auto V, with plenty of new additions to the already sizeable content, and the new First Person viewpoint, there is more than enough here to keep returning fans entertained and blow the socks off newcomers, which is phenomenal really when you stop to think about it. This does, however, beg the question of just what Rockstar Games can do in the future. Have they set the bar too high for themselves? Pros
Cons
Score 10/10 Geometry Wars 3 | Xbox One1/1/2016 You have probably heard of Geometry Wars, though you might not know the game began life as a simple mini-game inside Project Gotham Racing 2, and its various iterations have been improving on the original formula ever since. Simply, the game challenges to you to to pilot a tiny ship around a finite area and avoid and/or destroy various enemies - all of which are simple 2D objects. There’s plenty of content to be found here at least, with adventure mode initially offering 50 levels of increasingly taxing shape-based destruction, littered with boss fights which push your patience even further (like the arcade games of old the title was no doubt inspired by). On top of that there’s classic mode, which drops you back to two dimensions to tackle each of the game’s modes exclusively in a never-ending, relentless assault. There’s certainly a knack to it, and one which can take a while to kick in, and as you attempt to gain the number of stars necessary to move forward, the irritation of dying from something almost too small to see can begin to grate. Leaderboards pit you against your Xbox Live friends (though they do occasionally lose connection for no apparent reason and are then blank, rather than just showing the last set of numbers displayed, which is odd), but they can be a double-edged sword as you find yourself both spurred on to beat another’s score and sitting, close to tears in disbelief that such a high number actually exists.
Really the biggest drawback to the game is that it suffers from a lot of the difficulty spikes found in an entire generation of games, a style which many love. For others used to recharging health and generous checkpoints, it could find the limit of your patience quite quickly. It’s not a game for everyone, but it does its job well albeit simply riffing on a single theme. Pros
Cons
Score 8/10 Disney Infinity 2.0 | Xbox One1/1/2016 In 2013 Disney gave us their answer to the ever popular (and money-consuming) Skylanders - Disney Infinity. Boasting a huge array of instantly recognisable characters from Disney past and present, it was a hit with not just children, but adults too. Once you’ve finished staring at the characters in awe, and making them act out scenes from the films, you're obviously going to want to jump straight in, and this is where the starter pack is a little lacking in comparison to that of Infinity 1.0. It isn’t long before the lack of choice begins to grate - where 1.0 gave us three worlds to explore and a character for each, 2.0 is just one world - Manhattan. The upside of that is, of course, that all three characters work in one world, so those who like to play the levels co-op can do so without the need to buy extra figures first. Manhattan itself is a city expansive enough to make for an interesting and diverse game world - or at least, it should be, but Infinity doesn't quite seem to pull it off. The fun gameplay and half-decent storyline are stuck in a mire of repetitive quests and scenery, and the enemies along the way are all the same, bar a few upgraded, more powerful versions with different weapons and shields. There's fun to be had, sure, especially if you're playing with a friend, but it feels like something is missing. At first you can't quite put your finger on what it is, and then it hits you - there isn't enough to do. There's no laying traps à la Monsters University, or shooting toilet paper guns, and there's just not enough incentive to keep exploring, apart from the tokens you can collect to allow other characters into the world - you can collect 10 to play as Rocket Raccoon, for example. Infinity isn't mindblowing or perfect... But sometimes it's good to just game for the sake of gaming Worry not however, because it isn't all bad news. With the addition of more playset pieces - at a price, naturally - you can extend your gameplay into much more interesting worlds and environments. The combat feels a marked improvement, with different characters displaying a variety of new abilities, complete with skill trees. The perks in each tree aren't massively different, however they are tailored to the hero in question, making use of their own powers and strengths. For the record, Rocket's quantum cannon is amazing. As the game’s name suggests, the possibilities are endless thanks to the inclusion of another mode - Toy Box. This is where Infinity really comes alive, taking Skylanders and Hulk Smashing it into the ground with glee. Here you can build your own worlds, your own levels and let your imagination take over. With hundreds of props and options to extend and expand your creations and your own house to customise - called an INterior (see what they did there?) - and the ability to link all of your different worlds via doors, you can play for hours and still be finding new things to do. The mode has been made far easier this time around with more aids and a better sense of being taught rather than just handed a load of tools and left to it. So, Infinity isn't mind-blowing or perfect. It doesn't give you amazing, lifelike graphics and there aren't any in-depth stories, but that's kind of the point - It gives you the tools to make those for yourself. The game is decent, solid entertainment and the replay value is fantastic. You can really indulge your inner child with Infinity, (playing with my seven-year-old son opened my eyes as to how limited we let our imaginations get as we get older - Ed) and honestly, sometimes it's good to just game for the sake of gaming.
And just in case you're not quite convinced yet, there's also something immensely amusing about seeing The Hulk run around with a magic wand. Pros
Cons
Score 7/10 |
READ MORECategories
All
Archives
December 2023
|
Pass the Controller |
|