Games Season: Destiny

   Yes, it's that time of the year again, heading in to Christmas where everyone has to launch all of their games at once. That means to all of us gamers out their that's it's time to put a stop to working, eating and sleeping and play as fast as we can (that sounded dodgy).
   The first release is arguably the biggest too (or at least most marketed) in Destiny. Bungie split off from Microsoft and the Halo franchise that made them famous to do their own thing, which turned out to be a sci-fi FPS. Wait, what? Yes, they broke free of their Halo shackles and decided to stick on that same route, I suppose you could argue stick to what you do best but after having just had a long running franchise they have signed up to a 10 year deal with Activision to make Destiny in to a video game behemoth and to me it seems like they're retreading old ground.
   The marketing has been through the roof, you certainly can't fault Activision on that side because you can't turn your head without seeing and/or hearing something about Destiny (At least I can't seem to). They already have Call of Duty remember, one of the most successful video game series of all time (financially, game wise...) so they must want to take the FPS market over and corner it themselves. Of course COD won't require much marketing, just put an advert for the new game in the old one and people will get that, but Destiny is a new beast, Halo wasn't like COD where everyone and their dog plays, it was more of a gamers game series rather than the more casual style of COD. Maybe then they're trying to catch both sets of game buyers in 2 games then?
   Anyway, enough of this random speculation, let's get to the meat and potatoes of it, the game. So, as well as being an FPS it's also supposed to have RPG and MMO (look these up yourselves if you don't know what they mean) elements but for me this turned out to be a disappointment. I'd be the last player to get in to an MMO, but coming in knowing there were light elements of it was cool, but they turned out to be so light that I have to question if it's worth having it in there at all. Basically, while you're strolling around the maps doing missions or whatever you'll see a handful of other players going around doing their own thing. But that's it really, it's not like people are just going to start randomly teaming up with others and leaving whatever they were doing, people (gamers especially) aren't like that, everyone secretly hates each other and hidden behind the mask of a controller and screen you can bring this to your forefront (or is that just me?). To assume that people would do this seems crazy to me, you're not going to be getting people who played WoW or such to jump over to this, it's just going to be console gamers and Halo fans. The MMO factor also means that you can't pause the game, even if you're playing a story mission alone and for someone who drinks literally dozens of cups of tea a day (really literally) this is extremely annoying as I have to wait to finish a mission before I can make another (or y'know, if you need the loo/ get an important phone call/ someones at the door/ a million other better reasons to pause a game over wanting cups of tea).
 

   As for the RPG elements I'm pretty disappointed there too. Don't get me wrong I wasn't expecting Oblivion or Fallout levels of RPG-ish-ness but I was expecting something along the lines of Borderlands, and this is a long way off that. So, in Borderlands it's all about crazy loot drops, if you have had the same anything equipped for more than 1 mission you'd be insane, enemies drop loot, there's loot chests everywhere and sellers everywhere. In Destiny though, about 1 in 100 enemies drop something, and normally this stuff isn't even good enough for when you're level 15 (the level cap is 30 BTW), there are just a handful of loot chests around, all trading is done in 1 area and the main way to get better weapons and armour are to even pull off difficult co-op missions or strikes (or go them alone if you're nuts (I wouldn't recommend that)) as well a going to the Crucible and doing some PvP (we have to call it 'PvP as it's an MMO rather than just 'online multiplayer' or 'shoot the scum').
   So, the crucible is pretty disappointing too with only 4 game modes and a handful of maps, I'm sure more will come on the future as Bungie are heavily supporting this game post release  but right now it's frustrating. There also seems to be a huge advantage to the people playing with better weapons as they'll kill you in seconds where you seem to need considerably longer to do so. Now, I remember this argument happening about COD long ago (probably still does) but personally I never found that. Not that I wish to toot my own horn but I'm pretty good at FPS' and I managed to do better than most very highly rated players on COD on line due to stealth tactics and smart thinking as the knife kills and mines, grenades etc. would be one shot kills, but they're not on Destiny and furthermore all enemies show up on the radar at all time so it's not like you can be stealthy, it's either snipe or charge in.
   The story as well, oh dear. They have set up a good lore here but the game never does more than scratch the surface of this and if you want to know more you have to collect Grimoire cards, go to the Bungie website, sign up and read dozens of small paragraphs on cards to get the story. They barely tell you any of this plot backstory throughout the course of the game and they've got Peter Dinklage, Lance Reddick, Bill Nighy, Gina Torres and more doing voice overs for this game! If they wanted it to be more of a multiplayer, non-story experience why bother having more than a 1 minute start cut scene and just a couple of small time charlies in the voice recording booth.? With a cast like this though they have got to do more with them.

With all this criticism why play it at all then? I'll tell you. The game play is damn well phenomenal. Bungie knocks this one out of the park, using the experience from years of Halo and adding a bit of that iron sights current day style that's popular these days they have created something really special. Killing enemies is just so much fun. There's plenty of different types of weapons to choose from and you can carry dozens at a time so you're prepared for anything and they're all great. Whether you're pulling off a head shot with a sniper rifle from miles away on a high powered enemy to put them down, flying over an enemy and gunning him down from above his head or just shotgunning (is that a word? probably not) some smegger who has just leaped out in front of you I really can't explain how great the gun play is without you playing it. It's like Halo meets COD meets Bulletstorm. Not just the guns though, there's a vehicle ready to spawn between your legs (oo-er missus) whenever you want, you have a jet pack that can give you the ability to make some serious distance off the floor and you're chocked full of different specials. Now, I only played through as the Titan class, and as I have said many times before, I don't do games twice, so that's all I'll ever be, but speaking from this experience you can get a ground thump that blows away anything near, a huge running punch that makes you feel like a bad ass when it connects (especially if you're running head on in to a guy shooting at you, you're about to die but just before he can fire that last bullet you punch him 10 feet in to the air and you can just stand there and be all like 'yeah' *nod to yourself*) and multiple types of rechargeable grenades. There's plenty of motivation to get levelled up to level 20 as well (I know I said that 30 was the level cap before but between 20-30 you level up in a non-traditional way where better armour gives you more 'light' and this levels you up somehow) as you unlock abilities that makes these special moves even better (note, after you get past level 20, you still seem to gain xp to level these things up independently of what it says your level is, so the way I see it, after level 20 doesn't really tell you who has the best character, just who has been committed/lucky enough to get the good loot drops).
   This game is supposed to be here to stay, and there certainly seems to be a fan base committed to doing this and fair play to them. I'm not saying I won't play it again, I might jump on line with some friends and do a co=op strike or some PvP again but I'm not going to spend 100 hours playing it in attempt to complete the raid of glass (look it up).
   So a score? lets go 7/10. It may have been higher had it not been made out to be the most anticipated thing in the history of anything and maybe it's unfair to lower the score of a game based on hype and not just it's merits. However I disagree. This one was supposed to be one for the ages but turned out to be merely good. Still, there's life signs here and if they really want to build a new franchise out of this game they could have done a lot worse than this to have started it, it's definitely got a chance to 'do an assassins creed' (news that Alberto Del Rio is sure to appreciate). Good luck to them and I'll see Bungie for Destiny 2.

Toot Toot.

Indie Watch: Super Time Force

   Before I got started on this whole winter of games thing I wanted to make sure I could write a review that wasn't just a spoiler-filled walk through of the plot, thus ruining the game for anyone who read it. That isn't to say that's why I played this game, I just thought of doing this as a trial run when I was already deep in to the game. The real reason I played it was because it was on the 'games with gold' deal that Xbox offers where they offer you a free game a few free games a month if you've got a gold subscription. I didn't have much to do yesterday so i figured I'd give it a whirl, after all I'd heard many good things about it.
   So, it's an old style platform shooter, think Metroid, Mega man or kid Chameleon. That's quite a standard to live u to, but in it's own way, it does. The twist here is that you can go backwards in time, at your own will or when you die and go back and help yourself while the ghost of your yet to die future self still fights on until he meets his demise. This is where it gets more complicated (well, it sounds complicated but it all makes sense when you play it).
   Okay, first I'll point out that there's multiple characters (more on that later) with their own specific skill set. The trick is to use the ability to have many of yourself on the screen combined with their individual skill sets to get through sections in the fastest time possible (there's a level timer by the way (more on that later too)). You get the added bonus that if you defeat whatever killed one of your former selves before he is able to do 'em in then you can collect them as sort of a 'second heart' if you catch my twist with the added bonus that their weapons combine with your current ones while you have this added protection, allowing you yo do extra damage. Get it? Got it? Good.

   As you can see it's not the greatest looking game, but it's supposed to be that way with indie gaming breeding almost a retro revolution as in general indie studios could by now way keep up financially with the big publisher owned studios, so making them look like this is in their best interest as if they challenged them to a war of graphics or deep gameplay mechanics they would lose due to massive budget differences (that said Hello games look like they're going for it with the game that will probably make me buy a PS4 in No Mans Sky). As a gamer bought up mainly on the Mega Drive I have no problem with this, but I do at times wonder what younger gamers think of these kind of titles.
   As I mentioned earlier there is a level timer, and this wound me up to no end at the start and nearly led to more broken-controller syndrome that I've suffered so many times before. I thought I couldn't carry on, but I forced my way through (I didn't really have anything to do yesterday afternoon) and I'm glad I did.The times is integral to the game, without it you could take your time and it would be so easy, but the urgency that the timer gives the game make it far more action orientated and manic which leads to that much more fun. There are collectibles and unlockable characters throughout the levels as well, and even though I did get all the characters (that you can find), I'm not one for meaningless collectibles (even if they do come with delicious achievement points AND more unlockable characters). Plus when you finish it there's an ultra hard mode (or something like that, I didn't bother as I'm not one for playing games twice (as you will notice in the winter games coming up when I don't play GTA V or the Master Chief collection)) so there is plenty for you to do in this game, if you want it.
   The story is loose but fun, and the whole game is based on reference based comedy which you may have noticed by now is something I enjoy. Characters are named things like 'Melanie Gibson' (a woman) and Dolphin Lungren (a dolphin). As you can guess a lot of these references are to action films, but classics so it's fine. Every level starts with a pun about what day and time of day it is and your ship crushing some poor defenceless type. There's a repetitious style of comedy in this (at times) which is heavily featured in the final cut scene and if your a fan of Stewart Lee (or the many, many other comedians/ Comedy shows of the same style who I forget) then it's right down your comedy-bone-alley.
   So, you travel through time fun inane reasons which keeps it fresh as your always in some crazy location with some ridiculous enemies and in a great touch, aside from the first and last levels, you can play them in whatever order you want (and re-visit old levels for collectibles you missed and etc.) which is a nice touch that just doesn't happen very much. This makes you feel like there's no real advance in difficulty, and that's probably true. If anything the game gets easier as you get more of an idea what you're doing and eventually start figuring out how to use the time differences to your advantage and not just using it like a quick re spawn on any other platformer (which was how I was doing it at first, probably hence why I got so annoyed), and you had better get used to it by the time you get to the last world/zone/set of levels.

   Oh right, I never mentioned how it played. Well, perfectly well, it's hardly the greatest gameplay style ever made, I mean, it could let you control your aiming with the right stick or shoulder buttons or something as well as letting you duck (which I kept trying to do and forgetting you couldn't) would be nice. It's good though, and it's more of a way to get you to play this insane game that's brilliant and insane in it's execution. Some great ideas were put in to this game and  at times you feel like it's just a pubes' width from brilliance and if there was to ever be a sequel it would probably be a 'home run' as the Americans would say.
   I don't want to do a score, read it for yourself and figure out if you want it (pretty sure there'll be you tube videos too). It's £11.99 on Xbox one, 360 and Steam (Steam's has extra content too) so you're hardly forking out a fortune, plus, if you have an Xbox One (who doesn't after all...) it's free with Gold until the end of September.

So, I know this wasn't my usual standard of hilarious, but I'll try better in the game I'm 'Destined' (wink) to play next.

The Walking Dead (the game) season 2 finale

Spoilers are coming, so I'll drop in a picture so you don't accidentally see it without scrolling down

   There, aren't I nice, don't let any bastards tell you otherwise. So, Oh My God, I killed Kenny!? Apparently I could've not done so, but he had become a jerk anyway, just because he lost his son, woman and eye, sheesh, get over it.
   Lets cover what had already happened in the season then. After Lee's death, you meet a new group who are trying to get away from some evil leader guy named Carver. You find Kenny and co, then get Captured by Carver. You kill him and escape, shoot some Russian and lots of people die in the process.
   So, this episode starts with the slaughter of the Russians, helped by Jane's timely return to knife one in the neck. That leaves just the Russian bait left. Needless to say I wanted to kill the dick, as did Kenny but everyone else was too nice, and he said he had shelter to take us to, so yeah, let's just go with the guy who tried to have us all killed why not? So they do, but Kenny is pissed, rightly so, because I am too. So, we find it's really far away and have to stop a night at a power station (as you do) where we see that Jane and Luke are in love just cause they had sex 1 time for 10 minutes, because that's definitely how love works. Jane is a bad ass though so won't admit her feelings while Bonnie tells Luke how hot he is, and You (as Clem) have an option to say this too, but even with my own warped mind I couldn't go down some paedophilia route, no siree, I'll just stick to getting the small child drunk and smoking thank you very much. Meanwhile, Kenn is looking after the baby, named 'Alvin Junior' after who may have been his Dad (can't remember if it was ever confirmed or not) seeing as he had to shoot it's zombie Mum. He's getting far to protective of 'AJ' (what a cliched name, urgh) due to the stuff I mentioned earlier and it gets a bit creeps that he seems to protect this kid like his own while simultaneously hating everyone else and losing his marbles. Meanwhile, Arvo (the Russian knob (BTW, I'm not saying all Russians are knobs (I'm not WWE), I'm sure the overwhelming majority are nice, but this one is) doesn't want anything to do with the group. \probably has something to do with us slaughtering his group, but they started it.
   So, next day we carry on to this house, but oh no! It's across a frozen lake. So, instead of walking around it like a sensible person would do, they decide to go slowly, one at a time. However, by slowly one at a time, they mean slowly, 2 feet away from each other (idiots). That's when some zombie scum start coming after you, an those fools don't know to walk carefully, and they keep falling in like the bunch of mugs they are. But then the ice cracks underneath Luke (Also, he got shot earlier, so his walking isn't so great), so he looks pretty screwed, but I go to rescue him anyway, fall in, he saves me but wounds up getting drowned while Clem escapes (thankfully this all happened under the ice so no one knows it's your fault, as ever) for the first of many sad moments in the game.
   Anyway, forget him, he's dead, he's hardly the first, despite the fact Clem had a childhood crush on him. So, you make it in to the cabin, which turns out to be a dump with 2 tins of chili in it (hardly the bounty promised), which, combined with Luke's death pushes Kenny over the edge and he lays a smackdown on Arvo (that's the Russian kids name) that everyone is disgusted at, except me, I wanted to kill him right off the bat. So, he sees the mercilessness in my eyes and decides to hate me, so the feeling mutual now.

   Kenny decides to fix up some truck now, and being the only person who is still his friend (apart from a 2 day old baby) and doesn't think he's crazy for wanting to kill the kid who wanted us dead (even though there are mounting other reasons that he's becoming a nutter)  I have to go and help him. After a while it's fixed, an after some calming him down, Kenny agrees to wait until morning to leave, and they can argue about the location then.
   Shocker though, Bonnie, Arvo and that other guy who's so unimportant I can't even be bothered to look up his name get up in the night an go to steal the truck and escape, Arvo shoots Clem in the shoulder an she blacks out. Sad moment number 2 now as there's a flashback to season 1 when you're having a nice chat with Lee about how to kill Kenny's zombie infested son (I guess you have to play it yourself to make it sad). You awake in the back of the car with Kenny, Jane and the Baby speeding off down the highway. God I hope they killed those back-stabbing arseholes. Of course argument ensues, Kenny being a mentalist and Jane being a bad ass no-shit taker there was always going to be a clash of personalities and Kenny's weird love for this baby isn't helping. So, they argue over where to go but as they're about to come to blows (sensible while driving) they come to a bunch of cars, which Kenny decides to look for some gas in. It's filled with Zombies though, and there's lots of snow, and you all get split up. After you wander around aimlessly for a while, headshotting some zombie scum you come to a rest stop and find Kenny. Then Jane arrives, baby less (she had the baby last). Kenny loses it, blaming her, and they begin their always inevitable fight to the death.
   Now, I've read that there are 3 multiple endings from here, so I'm not even sure how season 3 is going to work, but I'm just going to go through what I chose. So, I shoot Kenny because he's insane, and, sad moment number 3, he thanks you for doing it as he'd gone nuts. Then Jane shows you she'd hid AJ to prove that Kenny was crazy, so basically you'd just shot your oldest living friend cause this bitch wanted to prove a point. So, do you shun her or forgive her? Under most circumstances I'd shun her, but, as she's a badass I thought it best to forgive her as she could protect me from the horrors whereas what choice are you going to have alone? So, we head to Carver's now abandoned camp full of bodies and set up home there, an start to build a new community and invite some dodgy looking other survivors to join us.
   So yeah, it was a really good ending. This season was obviously a step down from season 1, but it was still good and had a great final part with tears all over the shop, If you haven't played any of it, play it (though I will have just ruined it for you).

Something for you all to look forward to then. It's that time of the year again when all the games come out (bloody Christmas) so I'll be trying to get through them at some speed (or at least give them a go) so that I can tell all you super interested people just what tiny gripes I have with them and, if you're lucky I might tell you if they're any good to. The question is, which one am I looking forward to the most, hmm?