Games Season: Forza Horizon 2

   It's been a while since I played a racing game, and even longer since I really got in to one, probably PGR4, which apparently I last played in 2009. This however has taken over that mantle and even though I've now finished the main game, there's still more to do and I'm definitely going to go back and do at least some of it.
   It's an open world racer (I remember Test Drive unlimited doing this first (badly)) which means you can drive around, seeing sights, doing side mission (side races I guess really) and generally messing about. It's set in a fictional section of Europe involving France and Italy, which does add to the nice look of things too. There are a lot of tournaments though. There are 6 locations you go around to do the races in, with 9 main car categories and 26 (I think) sub categories of car. That means there's 26 tournaments of 4 races each in 6 locations making some 624 tournaments races in total. And to finish the main story you only have to do 60 races (as well as a huge 20 minute final) which leaves me with a further 524 tournament races yet! So, that's why I'll go back and do some of it, but I can't imagine I'll be doing all of it.
   How does it play then? It's definitely an arcade racer over a sim and it has lots of fun off roading and none of the courses are crazy difficult (It can get tough during the rain mind you). You get xp for skills like drifting, drafting, over taking, jumps and loads of other stuff, which combine to help you unlock perks like cheaper cars from the showroom and more xp per skill. There is a further xp gained from winning races and such that gives you a chance at a 'wheelspin' (I see what they did there) much like Wheel of fortune but instead of real, tangible prizes you get in game credits and cars. It's a fun way of getting rewards and you can pretend you're on a TV quiz show while it's happening.

   The AI cars are interesting as they are done from 'driveatars' (I see what they did there also) which are based on what other players of the game did in the same races and free roam situations, or so they say... Right, so it's a great theory, but either I'm the only guy in the world who plays racing games like a mentalist, overtaking other cars by ramming them in to walls, cutting all the corners and so on, or they are highly modified from what other people have actually done. I'd be tempted to say that they merely don't use the data from people who play like me but I keep getting free credits from where my Driveatar finishes in other peoples races, so that Can't be true (also, most people online seem to drive like me, but more on that later).
   Now, car selection. I always compare car selection in games to that of gran Turismo 1 and 2, due to the fact that at the time they were released they were both revolutionary and I was really in to cars (despite being about 10). We all know GT is famous for having a load of cars and FH2 (Forza Horizon 2) has something like 170 (with more available through DLC (which, BTW they are pushing so heavily that you'd think this was a free to play game where they had to sell DLC to make money (It isn't))) which isn't bad at all, especially when you can tune your cars and put on liveries of your own designs, from simple paint to insane designs which you could spend hours on. You can then upload these designs to the world for other people to use themselves on their own cars as well as showing up on the driveatar of the person in question. Now, no question this is great for people with creative minds of lots of time on their hands but I just can't be bothered. On top of this the cars are obviously split in to sub categories that each tournament involves, and even though some tournaments will give you the choice of 20+ cars, there are some which only have 3 or 4 cars to choose from and you have to think maybe they could have combined a few of these categories to give a wider array of cars in them and cut down a few of the crazy amount of tournaments at least.
   Speaking of GT1 and GT2 there are plenty of cars for me to enjoy based on that, especially in the 90's rally section where you can get mid 90's Imprezas, Lancers and Deltas as well as the likes of Skylines and Minis (there are loads more but I can't think of off the top of my head). Unfortunately though the car that I found the coolest in my childhood, the Ferrari F40 is disappointingly slow and barely makes 150mph (I guess I'm not getting those in game credits back).
   There are other things besides tournaments, like barn finds where you can find 10 beaten up wrecks in barns and get them restored and add them to your garage; speciality story events like racing against cargo plains, the stupidly named 'Bucket list' where you do 'dream' car things like drive a McLaren F1 really fast and other smaller things such as xp boards and speed traps which are all nice things to mix it up a bit from just the tournaments. Then there's online.

An example of the bizarre livery designs people will spend hours making

   Online seems okay in theory, obviously people online are a lot more challenging to race against and there are some neat road trip based concept races and mini games like Virus mode (Timesplitters fans rejoice, it's the same thing). There are problems though. I got quite a lot of lag and the cars do not match up great. There are 6 categories of car in the game (performance wise) you see, D,C.B.A.S1,S2. Each has a rating system and as with all things online people have the highest possible performance setting for each tournament, something I didn't appreciate, so my car somewhere in the mid A range got slaughtered but the opposition which were all inches away from being S1. It's not that I have a problem with this, it just seems like you really have to commit to playing online by spending loads of credits on the right upgrades for the right cars. I'll just stick to single player then I guess, though I can appreciate what the online has to offer for dedicated players.
   There are a few issues mind you. of the 26 categories of car, 5 of them are muscle cars, which we all know suck. Also, the host of this tournament and guy that holds the loose story together is the epitome of the word 'douchebag'. Add to this the typical in game boring radio stations (with no funny adds either!) and somewhat annoying menus and there are some minor frustrations in it.
   Overall though, it is a fantastic racing game that may well replace my use of FIFA as a game on the side to play when I want a break from whatever game I'm actually playing. I'm not the racing genre's biggest fan though and there always seems like there's something missing for me in a racing game and that I want to do more. Maybe shoot someone, have a cool story, be able to punch someone off their bike or have a bit of humour in it. I'm not saying I can't appreciate how good the racing is, but I'm going to have to give in an 8/10.

Games Season: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

   A lord of the rings game? Isn't that out about 10 years too late? I mean, there's the Hobbit films but does anyone care anywhere near as much for them as they did for the original trilogy? It's got Tim from the Office sure, but it's also a highly stretched out story based on a franchise that was hot the aforementioned 10 years ago. Maybe had they made 1 Hobbit film the year after the LOTR trilogy finished then it could've been successful but surely they've left it too late now? Sure, I've seen both of them but they were pretty meh, I wouldn't have missed much had I not seen them. Also, the dragon had a stupid voice.
   That's what I thought when I heard of a LOTR based game coming out, but to be fair to it, not only are the Middle-Earthy bits of it pretty light (only really showing Gollum and the creation of the rings of power) but the game is also amazing. This will be quite tough for me obviously as I clearly much prefer to criticise and pick holes in things rather than praise them, but I'm gonna go for it anyway.
   It's kind of a cross between Assassin's Creed and the Arkham series but with more gore. It has great but simple combat mechanics and some good stealth too. There's plenty of (actually fun) side quests all of which can help make the main story easier not just by helping you gain more xp and hence more abilities but also taking out captains.
   So, what's a captain? Basically, each Uruk (more bad ass than regular orks apparently) unit is lead by a captain which is in a chain of command upwards right up to the war chiefs. Wipe out or control more captains and the war chiefs will be easier to take down as they will have less protection. It's not as complex as I may have made it sound but it's certainly something new. This adds a nice extra element to the game and more to do on the side than just regular side missions, which are fun anyway. There's 4 types of side mission, 1 relating to all your weapons, sword (melee), dagger (stealth) and crossbow (ranged) as well as slave freeing missions which are more of a choice of doing it your own way. What's more, I finished them all! I can't remember the last game I played where I finished all the side missions. There are also hunting and herb collecting side missions (which I didn't finish, after all, where the hell do your find a dire Caragor?) that help you boost your stats.
 

   As far as the main missions go there tends to be many ways to complete them without forcing you down any one path, which is always nice. For instance, attacking a base? Why not sneak around, take them all out one by one? Or you could let free some Caragors, brutalise some enemies and drop some flies then mop up the left overs. You could stand afar and take them out with the bow. Try going all swords blazing and chop those mothers to oblivion. Try branding (mind controlling) all the archers an let them loose to do most, if not all of the work for you. These are just some options (my preferred methods) but there are more to pick from. It's a game with a lot of choice and everything to do with it is fun and you get a nice sense of accomplishment when a mission goes exactly how you wanted it to. I love it when a plan comes together.
   Of course, as you level up, the powers become great for chopping through the hordes or sneaking around or whatever. The melee combat becomes easier and cooler, though it was always pretty satisfying anyway, countering,  slicing and chopping through, but when you're executing, blasting away, and taking over minds every few strikes it becomes a blast. They also help with the stealth, with abilities such as the afformentioned branding and going invisible making you even better than before.
   Now, time for my favourite bit, the negatives! Sometimes, stealth can be a bit dodgy. Most of the time as long as you're holding the crouch button you can walk right past an enemy without being spotted. Yet, using a shadow strike kill (sort of a teleport forward kill) always gets you spotted despite enemies not looking your way. There's also the question of Gollum (who always annoyed me in the films anyway) and what he is actually doing in the game as it's hinted that he'll be a large part of the game, but he isn't. The biggest tragedy of all though is the final 2 bosses which are so easy it's farcical. Additionally, the big twist at the end is kind of strange and Torvin (you) gets upset about something that I'm pretty sure no one that really exists would. These are not major issues though (well, the final boss thing kind of leaves a bitter taste in your mouth at the end but try and remember the good times, yeah?) and the game is still fantastic.

   It almost seems pointless now to say how good the game looks, maybe I should just point out when a game looks bad from now on. So, if you have ever liked the Assassin's creed series and/or the Arkham series (seems like everyone does the latter) plus loads of gore then, as a famous man once said; 'this is for you'.It may seem harsh comparing this to two other games rather than letting it stand alone, but it takes the best elements from both, adds some of it's own stuff and blends them together to make a stand out game. This is the one to beat so far this 'games season' 9/10.

Games Season: FIFA 15

   Or should that be IFAF 15? It should be England but that's a debate for another time. The latest installation of the EA sports giant hit the stores last week with it's crisper than ever graphics and Lionel Messi's face all up in your own, but the ultimate question is what changes have they made this year and how do they improve it? If I had to give a one word review it would be 'Dissapointing', 3 words 'A step backwards'. You can see where this is likely to go.
   There are 3 major things that are notable to me that have been changed (in the gameplay) this year. First is the most talked about; improved goalkeepers. Sure, this is great, it makes it harder to score and in online play makes for lower scoring games. However, offline against the AI it proves to be a nightmare. The opposition goalkeeper will pull off string of spectacular saves and prove unbeatable whereas your own 'man between the sticks' will concede about 2/3 of the shots against him. This, as you can imagine is infuriating. I'm well aware that football games down the years have made difficulties harder by seemingly just make it so that nearly every time the AI has a shot, they score, but never has it been made so hard to score yourself. I often wound up having 3 or 4 times as many shots as the AI opposition would against me in career mode and yet still wind up on the losing side due to this.
   Number 2 is the passing. What has happened here? It seems that about 1/4 passes just decide to go wherever the hell they want by their selves. Maybe this is a problem that only I seem to be finding, but it is so annoying. You've built a nice move forward, you're one pass away from playing in the breakaway attacker and oh, it goes to the right back. Or you're bringing it out of defence (not clearing it mind you, you're not Sam Allardyce), you try to play it across to the centre mid in acres, but instead it goes to your centre half, who has an opposition striker standing in front of him and all of a sudden you've given a goal away. This isn't the only problem with the passing though. They've also done what I like to think of as 'the PES trick' where they have simulated more difficulty when you start the new instalment by changing pass powers so now you have to hold the pass button down much longer than you would have in last years to make the same pass. It just seems like they put this in here to make it seem tougher when an experienced FIFA player first launches the new game.

   The third however is the worst and the online cardinal sin. Last year they did something amazing and made pace count for less and strength mean so much more. This put an end to the shower of arses who played online and played constant lobbed through-balls to their intentionally chosen fast strikers to run in and score.. You still got the odd few who tried it, but unless you weren't paying attention you could usually deal with it and romp to victory because these players didn't actually know how to play football and thought that was all you did (probably American (or Birmingham City fans...)). This year though it's back. They have reinstated the pace difference and once again you're dealing with having to lose online to inferior players who just hoof balls over the top and run in behind to score while you're trying to build nice team moves. Sure, you can counteract this in online seasons by not being top teams an hence not getting matched against teams full of fast strikers but in ultimate teams online? Forget about it. That's my favourite mode ruined then.
   And another thing, The commentary. It's a series of old lines from many FIFA's past (Rio Ferdinand is so quick...?) and talk of the World cup just gone. How old will that be come January? They'll need to use the window to transfer in some new lines. I normally play with the sound on for the first couple of months but after 4 days I already had it on mute listening to music. Plus, as an added bonus there seems to be a lot of issues with the game getting stuck, I've now twice had full time and not be able to do anything and the players just stand there and I've had to forfeit the match to get out of it, where's the patch?
   Something positive is needed I suppose. There is still a great depth of game modes (though that has been the case for years now anyway) and the smart online matchmaking with similar team and player levels matched up is far better done than anything you see anywhere else. Also, it's the first game (that I'm aware of) that has had Villa park in it since Actua Soccer 3 (let's play in the snow!). Gameplay wise though, they have blown it for me. Looks like it's back to Pro Evo for me this year. 4/10.