Community round-up | Week of 21/10/1628/10/2016 "I think they're dead." If not, Metalrodent, they are certainly going to be in a lot of pain. I was hoping for a different screenshot to be sitting up there but it appears that Plasma Wing hasn't got around to beating Rodent's Halo challenge... Yet. He's working on it though, don't you worry. If Halo isn't your thing, feel free to challenge someone at another game. If we get enough friendly rivalries brewing we could even start a leaderboard. If only to give Sam something else to boast about. That being said, us mortals may have a chance. Our Deputy Editor is still battling his way through a pile of PSVR games so huge that no-one has seen him for days. He crawls out from amongst the mess of game cases every now and then to post a review and complain about the lack of a decent UI in real life. This week, EVE: Gunjack was taken for a quickie and Tethered was given the full review treatment. Sticking with reviews, Liam shared his thoughts on Gears of War 4 and is hoping to beat wave 50 of Horde mode. If you want to join him, Timmeh and Plas for a run, pop into the PTC Nights thread and let them know. Liam has also been attempting to show off his might once again in Mount and Blade: Warband. Did he manage to fare better than last time? If at first you don't succeed, "Just get the great heavy warhammer (or something like that) and kill entire armies singlehandedly." I think that's how the old adage goes. Of course, it's not always the case that one battle can decide a war. Unless you're playing XCOM 2. Every battle, nay every move, can completely turn the tables. Something our Editor, James, is familiar with as he has started a Let's Play entitled "PTC takes back Earth." You might notice a few familiar names pop up here and there. James will be trying to keep as many of you alive as possible, but it's not an easy task and there will be casualties. I've already asked to be fitted with the best weapons and gear that money can buy, however, my incessant emails went unanswered. Sour news this week as it was announced that Turtle Rock Studios will no longer be supporting Evolve. I'll add a third shame to that as I too was looking forward to trying out the free-to-play version. Free things are the best things. There was good news, though. Fans of Borderlands can download and play The Handsome Collection for free this weekend, as part of the Multiplayer All-Access event. Apropos of nothing: The Handsome Collection was the original name for Pass the Controller, for obvious reasons. A hurrah goes to MrkDhn this week who has unpacked his Gears of War themed Xbox One S! Just need to grab a 4K tv now - have seen a few at John Lewis so will get around to researching them in the next few weeks. I would also recommend taking a look in this thread, where 4K has been discussed in length. My personal Clip of the Week is a short love story. After the demise of Jam at the hands of Rodent, Ninja Dan decides it's too much to take. It's almost like Romeo and Juliet, just without all the tedious build-up. We leave you with a song from Guitar Hero 3, Suck My Kiss by Red Hot Chili Peppers. That's it from us. If you have something to share, you can get in touch via Facebook, Twitter and the forums. Have a great weekend!
When it comes to vehicular combat there's only one king, Twisted Metal, you can shove Carmageddon up your exhaust pipe. Despite what you might think, it’s a genre that includes a wide range of titles and even a diverse mixture of styles. Micro Machines plays very differently to Destruction Derby, with Mario Kart and its ilk kind of fitting somewhere in the middle. The obvious distinction being that nobody had their shoes filled with water and popped in freezer for a few hours after beating me at Micro Machines or Destruction Derby. Twisted Metal is a tournament that’s held every year, much to the chagrin of the people who live in the area and would like to continue doing so. The man behind it, Calypso, promises the winner anything he or she desires. Their prize needn't be anything physical, or indeed anything plausible, Calypso has powers beyond human understanding. Each of the playable characters - complete with their own unique vehicles - have entered the tournament for different reasons. Playing through the campaign with any given one will unlock their unique ending, in which they claim their prize from Calypso. Calypso, however, is a colossal dick that only gets more sadistic with every sequel. He frequently twists the words and corrupts the wishes of the winner. Outlaw, for example, is a hard working cop who’s had enough of the violent competition and the chaos it brings, so he wishes to live in a world free from Calypso and his devastating tournament. In his ending, that wish is granted, though not in the way you might think. As he drives out of the garage he finds himself floating above the Earth, in a world entirely unaffected by Calypso's games. See? Dick. Even without knowing the ins and outs of each character's story arc, there's still a full suite of mayhem to enjoy.
I don't. I have no idea what I'm going to do until it's already happened, and I doubt I'm the only one. Insanity doesn't take consequences into account, though. Insanity just does things and makes a round of shoe-pops if it all goes to hell. Many games reward unpredictable behaviour, like landing a clean combo if you catch your opponent off guard in a fighting game. Shooting straight down the middle in a FIFA penalty shoot-out means you’ll beat me every single time. It may be infuriating, but whatever, you win. Enjoy your frozen shoes. Twisted Metal rewards insanity. Charging at great speed into a monster truck may not seem like the best course of action, regardless of your chosen vehicle, but a lot of the time you'll do enough damage to win. Of course, sometimes you'll end up scattered around the level in many flaming pieces. Insanity doesn't take consequences into account, though. Insanity just does things and makes a round of shoe-pops if it all goes to hell. You can totally turn your brain off and switch to autopilot for this. It doesn't matter how bad you are at driving games, you still have a chance to win by just pressing all the buttons in a random order. You can forget you're even driving a car, it's just a mechanical thing that moves really fast and shoots death. If you've not played Twisted Metal (or any of its sequels) you owe it to yourself to have a go. You could play with a friend and take on the role of Calypso himself, telling them that they'll win a very cool prize if they can beat you. Pro tip: if the water keeps draining out, put the shoes on a baking tray first. If you know a game that you feel is underappreciated, share it with us in the forums or comment below.
Make sure to check out Sam's choice - Earth Defence Force, and Emily's - Beyond Eyes. Taken for a Quickie | EVE: Gunjack23/10/2016 EVE: Gunjack is little brother to EVE: Valkyrie, foregoing multiplayer dogfights in favour of stationary shooting galleries. Join us in taking the PlayStation VR launch game for a quickie and we’ll see if the trade-off was worthwhile. Does it actually benefit from being in VR?
Yeah, it does. There’s a tremendous sense of scale as you look to either of your sides and realise you’re a tiny part of a machine that’s larger in scale than you can comprehend. The novelty of head tracked aiming is also a large contributor to the game’s fun factor. Good to know. Being a stationary shooter, does it get repetitive quickly? It doesn’t really last long enough to get repetitive; there are twenty standard and two bonus stages that’ll take around two to three hours to finish. We did them all in one sitting and easily got the three available stars on each of them, leaving any additional playtime reliant on your individual interest in high score and achievement hunting. Would you recommend a purchase? Gunjack is a pretty good time while it lasts, and doesn’t take itself too seriously, so with an asking price of just £8 it’s definitely worth a look if it sounds like your bag. ... Speaking of sound, whilst it’s far from damning, it’s worth noting that the audio cut out a couple of times during our playthrough. Simply re-launching the game fixed the issue. Community Round-up | Week of 14/10/1622/10/2016 "Some is good. More is better." Liam's philosophy on turrets will surely go down in history as one of the more memorable gaming quotes, rubbing shoulders with Fallout's "War... War never changes," and Sam's "Not all people on Xbox Live are arses." I'll have to take your word for it, Sam. Would you like to see Liam's turret farm in action? Well, you'll have to wait. Now is not the time for such things. Will the plucky Yorkshireman rise to the challenge, like the delicious puddings his clansmen are known for? Or will he land just shy of the target, like a wet teabag flicked at the bin with a lack of force? If we all make an effort to harangue the poor bloke we might get to see him be crowned The King of Halo. Mr. Wing has been busy with Overwatch in the meantime, along with Liam, James and Sam. The fearsome foursome attempted the Halloween horde mode but didn't have much luck. Sam and Plas kept at it, undeterred, long into the night, managing not only to beat it on normal with the objective taking no damage, but also on hard. What a shot, indeed. Take a look. At the end of the match, all of the votes went to... drum roll, please... Sam! This happened twice (three times actually, the third just wasn't captured. Ed.), with Sam even voting for himself. He was just that good. Now, time for the big news. "Well, looks like the new Red Dead is about to be announced based on their website and all the social media accounts." Correct, Timmeh! BAMozzy was feeling it too, "As a Map leaked months ago and was rumoured to be revealed at E3 and a few other events since then, I would be surprised if a new Read Dead game wasn't announced in the near future..." It's very exciting but, as you can see, some folks are unaware of the whole story (as such they are placed on the Naughty List, and banned from social encounters until this less-than-satisfactory situation is remedied). Admittedly, that shouldn't be too much of a problem if my prediction is right. I'm saying prequel. That voice near the end sounds a lot like Dutch to me. John Marston used to run with Dutch's Gang and was known for robbing banks, amongst other things. It could be the wild west equivalent of GTA V's heists. Hopefully we won't have to wait a year this time, Rockstar. That other big news story was of course the unveiling of the Nintendo Switch, which prompted Rodent and Plas to simultaneously chime, "It looks pretty interesting," and Heavyarms_Kai to exclaim, "If nothing else it could become the definitive gaming tablet." That almost sounds like a compliment. If Nintendo price it right, JohnBhoy is game, citing certain exclusives and the nifty looking console itself as his reasons. Liam is of a similar frame of mind, but may hang back to see if "an XL version" rears its head, after being burned one too many times by previous Nintendo hardware. ImmaturityRules feels it looks like a Wii U, but does acknowledge: "The tablet looks a lot sleeker than the clunky Wii U gamepad, and a Micro SD slot plus heavy Virtual Console support would make it a Nintendo fan's wet dream." Sam is decidedly less of an initial fan, opining, "I didn't like the trailer to be honest. Whilst focusing on Skyrim shows off third-party support, why would you lead with a game that most people played five years ago? And people will have had the remaster for months come March, so they'll be late again." He went on to criticise the fact that, "Some of the situations to take it out in seemed a stretch as well." Before finally letting loose on the tech; "On the hardware itself, I think the stand and controllers look pretty ugly, whilst the screen is fine." Of course, our Deputy Editor has been a little busy with PSVR this week, trying to turn over as many pieces as possible. Take a look at the various experiences in VR Worlds, before getting the verdict on arcade shooter Super Stardust Ultra VR, and finally settling down for a good old fashioned on-rails horror shooter with Until Dawn: Rush of Blood. I have to say the latter sounds absolutely terrifying, but very addictive. Keep an eye out for a Quickie on EVE: Gunjack tomorrow (Sunday), as well as much more PSVR content to come. Well, looks like it's tanks o'clock! Rodent can take on all comers in World of Tanks and not even break a sweat. Have a look. That would have been my personal Clip of the Week, had it not been for Liam's barrage of turrets that I mentioned in the intro. It was worth the wait. There's just something so satisfying about seeing automated turrets shred your enemies to pieces. That's almost it for this week, but we leave you with Born Unto Trouble, from Red Dead Redemption. If you want to get involved, you can get at us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or find us lurking in the forums. Beware: Anything you say can, and will, be used in a future round-up.
Have a great weekend! Community Round-up | Week of 07/09/1615/10/2016 At the time of writing, there were no screenshots again this week (why does this only happen when I'm doing the round-up?). Thankfully you've been spared from having to contemplate my artistic ineptitude (for now) thanks to Sam, who managed a fairly definitive win after four hours of Monopoly. He didn't mention if he and any of the other players were still on speaking terms but it's hard not to resent someone after being on the receiving end of such a trouncing.
Gabriella also got involved in the shooter madness, sharing her thoughts on PSVR's Farpoint. One of those fancy headsets has already found its way to Sam, so be on the lookout for more VR related articles. That is, if our Deputy Editor can find the time in-between his heavy work schedule and disappointing the good ladies of our fair country. I don't want you to think that's exactly how it went down; Sam is, of course, a gentleman and would have been much more tactful. Tactful doesn't get many laughs though. When it comes to TV shows, Metalrodent and Crippyd agree that while Go 8-Bit is entertaining, some of the games are a strange choice and all of the players are embarrassingly bad at them. As Rodent pointed out, they did have Battlefront, but not a single contestant could have bettered Liam. Congrats go to Bezza and Crippy who have both completed the very first Halo on legendary and are now working their way through the rest in Halo: The Master Chief Collection. They aren't attempting this together, as Bezza is enjoying spending quality time with his brother (rocking it old skool with split screen) and Crippy is going for a solo run. Best of luck, fellas. Another Xbox console exclusive, Gears of War 4, has released and BAMozzy has been enjoying it despite it missing something. "The gameplay is very 'Gears' but the story doesn't as yet feel right." If you own Gears and are wanting friends for Horde mode, hit up Timmeh in the PTC Nights thread and leave your Gamertag. While we're on the subject of Gears, an appropriate video. A staple of the community round-up has been, sadly, missing from recent instalments. Not only is this my Clip of the Week, it's also the return of the Plas Fail! Classic Plas. Although he did exactly what was suggested, he still bought the farm. Glad to have you back. A big talking point this week has been what needs to change for next gen. Johnbhoy69 has quite a list of gripes about the state of the industry. Ridiculous day one patches that rival the size of the game itself, announcing a game way too early, pre-ordering, season passes, and false advertising are all things that John would like to see go. ImmaturityRules added remasters to the list of woes, Sam laments the lack of innovation, and Plasma Wing has issues with the quality of DLC. All understandable complaints, however, BAM is happier with the way things are than most. Even after his "40+years" of gaming (I noticed he wasn't dubbed "old-man BAM") he is still excited and doesn't see a lot of the previous points as major issues. Pop into the thread and share your thoughts with us. It wouldn't be a proper round-up without a tank, so here's Rodent's latest acquisition. It cost almost all of his free XP, so let's hope it's worth it. I know I said that there were no screenshots this week, but I'd already written the intro. Do you expect me to re-write it? You think I'm made of intros? Get out of here. We leave you this week with a song from Forza Horizon 3, Fall Back Down by Rancid. If you like what you hear, check out Rancid's official website.
That's it from us. If you've anything you'd like to share, you can find us on Twitter, Facebook and in the forums. Have a great weekend! You may have read why Chris won’t be playing this year’s big shooters, but I’m not quite ready to trade my holster for a pipe and slippers yet. I’m still holding out hope for a couple of big shoot-‘em-ups, so allow me to offer a brief rebuttal. As for the season’s big players already mentioned by Chris, I’m firmly in Infinite Warfare’s corner. The Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 betas cooled my anticipation for their respective releases, which piles pressure on the shoulders of the unexpected underdog to fly the FPS flag on my console this winter. Like many others, I dropped out of the CoD scene once I’d had my fill of the Modern Warfare trilogy, and I’ve since been hoping one of the franchise’s many developers would come up with something to pull me back in. It’s a series that provided - much like in Chris’ case - my first experience with an online shooter, and one that holds some of my fondest gaming memories as a result, so it hurt to have left it behind. Popular as it may be to hate on Infinity Ward’s latest effort, Infinite Warfare looks to be that game. It has a lot of potential; the ability to pick and choose missions whilst commanding your very own starship sounds like just the type of innovation the franchise was crying out for, and the future setting allows for some outlandishly fun weapon, gadget and narrative design.
The addition of Modern Warfare Remastered in the Legacy Edition is also a nice bonus, of course. No, I don’t buy into the controversy surrounding it. But that’s enough of me trampling old-man Brand’s freshly mown lawn… Now it’s your turn! Will you be picking up any of this year’s big shooters? If so, which one(s)? Let us know in the comments or head on over to the forums and share your thoughts with us. This year, the two heavyweights of the first-person shooter genre will once again face off against each other, in what absolutely no-one is calling The Fight of the Century. There could possibly be a third dog in this fight - Titanfall 2. Aside from the fact that this would make my boxing references unsuitable, it is not yet a proven quantity. Titanfall had a great debut; winning numerous awards at 2013's E3 and gaining largely favourable reviews upon release. Most of the criticisms levelled at Titanfall were due to the lack of content. With no single player campaign, few multiplayer game modes and a dearth of available weapons for both Titan and Pilot, it could quickly get stale. Respawn Entertainment attempted to remedy this with extra maps and game modes but it was a case of too little, too late. If it really wants to compete in the pro circuit, it needs to take a win from one of the undefeated champions (and that devastating left hook in the third round brings us firmly back into the world of boxing). I can't out-gun an 18-year-old with lightning-fast reflexes; my reactions are slower than an underwater Tai Chi instructor on his day off. It may seem like I have nothing but disdain for these shooters, which isn't true at all; Titanfall 2 appears to be ticking all the right boxes. The inclusion of a single player campaign is a huge plus, whilst more Titans, weapons and customisation options can only be a good thing. The beta boasted the freedom of movement and feeling of speed that was a highlight of its predecessor. Modern Warfare 2 was the very first online game I played and I fell in love with it instantly. Since then, Call of Duty's visuals and audio have vastly improved and the gameplay is tighter than ever. The franchise that introduced me to the world of Xbox Live - and, unfortunately, the unwanted discovery of my mother's apparent licentious carnal activities - will always have a place in my heart. The Battlefield 1 open beta felt immediately familiar, in a good way. The weapon handling was pleasantly meaty and was fairly well suited to the era in which it’s set. I found that the air vehicles were, predictably, impossible to control with any degree of accuracy (not that it dissuaded me from jumping into one with gusto at any given opportunity, much to the detriment of my squad, my team and the overall war effort. These things aren't cheap, you know. Others managed to swoop around the heavens like metallic birds of prey, obliterating anything in their path. They were clearly trained pilots, like every other team I've faced. The reason for my seemingly apathetic outlook has nothing to do with ennui or oversaturation. It's age. I don't mean that I get tired of reading about the promiscuities of various family members through a collection of numbers and letters that, when pronounced phonetically, sound like actual words. No, this is about my reactions, or lack of them, if you want to get technical. As a 30-year-old man (or as close an approximation as I can manage), I can't out-gun an 18-year-old with lightning-fast reflexes; my reactions are slower than an underwater Tai Chi instructor on his day off. When playing the aforementioned twitchy shooters I can be, at best, a middling team member and, at worst, the shithead who keeps crashing all the planes. My current shooter of choice, as some will know, is Rainbow Six: Siege. A much slower paced game where tactics and strategy often trump reflexes and reaction time. If you can get the drop on someone, you don't need to be fast, you just need to be there. Shooting someone in the back may not be honourable, but if gets my team a plus on the scoreboard they don't mind and neither do I. Even playing a supporting role can provide your squad with enough of a leg up to get the win, regardless of your shooting prowess. This leisurely, methodical approach allows me to consider my actions and succinctly discuss tactics with my team mates. If things don't go quite as planned there's often enough time to change tactics on the fly and formulate a new plan, safe in the knowledge that I won't ambushed by 16 snipers whose sole purpose in life is to perforate me, multiple times.
So, that's why you won't see me on the battlefield in any of this year's big shooters. Now, get off my lawn! PSVR and Farpoint | First Impressions10/10/2016 The funny device you see me holding in the picture below is the PlayStation Aim, which really complements Farpoint, as it will other first-person shooters I'm sure. Shots had a satisfying stability despite reliance on your own intuition and accuracy, and this was largely down to the Aim and its impressive receptiveness. Ammunition was scarce here, and I often found myself running out relatively quickly, so being able to shoot with precision was imperative in these combat situations. Weapon switching is accomplished through tapping the Aim controller behind your shoulder to mimic the action we've all seen on-screen a million times, but there's a simple pleasure in acting it out yourself. At times throughout the demo, I found myself strafing at peculiar angles to often regain a straight path, as trying to combine head and Aim tracking in tandem proved challenging at first. Eventually, this became second nature, despite my panicked bullet-spraying when overrun with hoards of spiders. A cool, calm and collective composure is necessary. Unfortunately, during this particular demonstration the intrigue that Farpoint built in encouraging me to explore its world was for nought, because I was instead thrust between different locations and my immersion was routinely broken. The game may still in beta, but my general consensus is that Impluse Gear have only scratched the surface with what they want to achieve. If you're are a fan of an arcade-y style of game, you may want to keep a close eye on this one. It has the foundations to be a strong anchor for PSVR providing we see something fresh over the coming months; be it new weapon types, explorable terrains, or perhaps new enemy types. At this stage of development, It faces criticism of becoming repetitive too early, and soon the novelty of VR will wear off, and Farpoint will need to offer more incentives to maintain the player's intrigue. The platform itself is a perfect way to accelerate your gameplay experience, literally offering your own virtual playground. The headset has a solid and substantial design, with an adjustable focus lense and head support for comfort and stability whilst you play. What's reassuring, is that the headset is relatively comfortable to wear and does not restrict your manoeuvrability whilst playing, provided your time spent playing is moderate. Although the weight of this headset isn't drastic, I feel it may become uncomfortable if used for longer than an hour or so at a time, but this will vary from player to player, and PlayStation do suggest that this is not intended for long sessions. Headaches are not a good consequence! In addition, Motion Sickness was a brief side effect I encountered. This lasted only a few minutes just after I'd started playing, but I feel this is something you will need to consider before purchasing, especially if you're particularly susceptible. In light of this, Sony have said that PSVR will run with a 120hz refresh rate which will help, but the more I found myself playing, the more I became accustomed to it. There are many advantages to PSVR including its price, accessibility and design. I feel like it will make a solid entry into the PlayStation repertoire, and a fantastic addition to your gaming set-up, but, essentially, it is not a necessity. PlayStation have recently announced locations in the UK where you'll be able to try PSVR for yourself before release, so if you're keen, keep an eye on the website for more details regarding these locations soon.
PSVR is set to release on 13 October this year, whilst Farpoint doesn't yet have a release date. Are you excited about them? Let us know in the comments, on the forum, or via social media. Community Round-up | week of 30/09/167/10/2016 Seeing as ImmaturityRules was the only person to post a screenshot this week, he gets the honour of having his image take pride of place at the top of the round-up, and what an image it is. It’s been a long time coming, but he’s finally managed to get a naughty word past Letter Quest’s “fun-free censorship”. Kudos to you, sir. After going back and forth between Samsung’s KS8000 and KS9000 models, Sam eventually went for a 49” curved KS9000 (I’m not jealous…) and it sounds like he’s very happy with the purchase. “…the upscaled resolution was very noticeable, and the superfast response time in game mode also makes a notable difference. The curve worked brilliantly with this particular game, as travelling at high velocity applies a kind of speed distortion to the edges of the screen and gives a real sense of depth, like you're actually travelling into the screen.” What game is that? We’ll never know, due to it being one of the games Sam is currently testing, (I’m definitely not jealous…) although we can safely assume it’s not the latest Earth Defence Force, a title Sam thinks is very much Underrated and Underappreciated. One game that we can chat about is Mafia 3, which released this week. Johnbhoy69’s New Bordeaux adventure didn’t get off to the best of starts - “Started Mafia 3 this evening and not even an hour in and it's crashed on me... Doesn't bode well but I'll see how it goes.” Early technically hitches aside, Johnbhoy seems to be having good time save for a specific type of mission. “One problem I've experienced is in the missions where you have to reduce a rackets income to zero. First you go to the place where an informant is, get info, head to the racket main operating area… You cause some damage and then you head off to take out some enforcers to lure the main guy running the racket out. But he appears in the main racket area, the area you just trashed... This has happened twice so far and not only did I have to fight my way through these areas twice it got boring fast.” If racketeering isn’t your thing, then maybe Paladins: Champions of the Realm will take your fancy, a game PTC Crisco describes as “basically a free-to-play Overwatch clone from the developers of SMITE”. News of it's impending arrival on Xbox One and PS4 piqued the old SMITE crew’s interest, with Metalrodent, Sam, and Plasma wing all signing up for the console closed beta, which seemed to please Chris - "It'll be just like the old days!" Speaking of the old days, MrkDhn10 has been enjoying a remastered blast from the past in The Bioshock Collection. “Just finished The Bioshock Collection. Infinite is definitely much better than I remember. Still great games, even when you know how they end. Only downside was Infinite's frame rate. At times it was truly abysmal.” I still need to play those games at some point, but with Gears of War 4 releasing next week I probably won’t be able to give them the proper time they deserve. BAMozzy is going all out for The Coalition’s first effort in the Gears series, and has purchased the limited edition Xbox One S bundle. “Just accidentally pre-ordered the Gears of War 4 limited edition bundle from Amazon for my Birthday.... OOOPPPSSS!!!” What a lovely gift, although Rodent didn’t seem to think so. I have to agree with Sam on this one, Rodent, that bundle looks awesome. I think I’ll stay on topic and make this week’s duke box selection the main them from Gears of War 2, aka, ‘Hope Runs Deep’. Just before I go, let me pass on my congratulations to the three lucky winners of our Awesomenauts Assemble! competition - Filipe Cristiano Freitas, Bart Vincke and crippyd - each of whom walked away with a copy of the game.
Our forces have now dwindled and we pull back to regroup, The enemy has multiplied and formed a massive group, We’d better beat these bugs before we’re all turned to soup! With a B-movie cast of giant insects and invading alien forces overrunning the planet, all hope lies on the shoulders of humanity’s most advanced military force, the EDF. With that, all hope is undoubtedly lost. They’re a dense bunch with little concern for strategy, choosing instead to charge headfirst towards danger whilst bellowing medieval-era war cries and chanting the EDF acronym. You most certainly can’t beat them, so embrace your inner buffoon and join their lovable, knuckle-dragging ranks. Property, civilians and teammates are all collateral damage amidst the large-scale chaos; outlandish weapons level buildings - at least briefly, before they sink into the ground as though they were never there - whilst jettisoning comedy rag dolls in all directions. The ridiculous action is accompanied by a stoic, orchestral soundtrack that stands in such a stark contrast it can only be taken as parody. Dreadfully written and painfully delivered dialogue often cuts through the bedlam to meander around incredibly simple story concepts, which are presumably laid out as plainly as a toddler’s storybook because the EDF share the same mental capacity. There has to be a level of self-awareness there, but it’s impossible to say for sure. It’s in constantly straddling this line between bemusement and amusement that Earth Defence Force becomes so memorable. Still, quirks alone a great game do not make, so it’s a good job the series also plays damn well! The latest iteration, PS4 and PC’s The Shadow of New Despair, runs at a smooth and responsive 60FPS even with hundreds of enemies quite literally filling the entire screen. They look like crap - albeit shiny, 1080p crap - but it’s still impressive that a game bursting with budget charm can stand fast during some of the most frenetic moments we’ve seen in gaming. Each main mission takes the form of a simple fight for survival, essentially a wave in another game’s horde mode, yet they're surprisingly playable solo. Naturally they’re at their best in co-op with friends, synergising classes and loadouts to achieve the ultimate in bug hunting efficiency, but there’s also a very active online community if your pals don’t do comical kaijū. It looks like crap - albeit shiny, 1080p crap - but it’s still impressive that a game bursting with budget charm can stand fast during some of the most frenetic moments we’ve seen in gaming. With hundreds of these missions on offer, all of which completionists will need to conquer as each class across all difficulty levels, the budget price tags are more than justified. Its vast longevity makes EDF perfect to dip in and out of on a whim… Speaking of which, I’m suddenly taken by the urge to lead a charge. Sing it with me: To save our Mother Earth from any alien attack, From vicious giant insects who have once again come back, We’ll unleash all our forces we won’t cut them any slack! The EDF deploys! What games do you feel are underappreciated? Perhaps there’s a game from your past that you remember fondly, but nobody else recalls? Let us know in the comments below or on the forums.
For Emily, one such game is Beyond Eyes. |
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