Games Season: WWE 2K15

   The WWE games have always been pretty samey with the in ring action and the fun has always been in all the editing and options but this time around they've reversed it (somewhat).
   Okay, so as with every year it's a wrestling game that's built around creating your own content and battling it out in the ring. The usual universe mode is in there as well as exhibition and online with new additions of '2k showcase' (which is historical feuds (well 2 of them, with more coming as DLC)) and career, which is more like the story modes that used to be in the game years ago.
   The in ring work has defiantly been improved, with stamina a big factor, meaning you're often crawling to the ropes to drag yourself back to your feet or reaching an arm out for a desperation cover. There's more OMG moments than ever and no longer do opponents just get up after a few seconds from the big moves, if they're hit hard, they're staying down for a good while (though this can lead to easy count out victories). The one issue I do have is the tie ups at the start of a match which take form of a rock paper scissors mini game then a thumb stick rotating mini game and gets tedious after the first couple of times, but you go through it in every singles match. Still though, they've ultimately made the wrestling better than for a long time, although they've not exactly reinvented the wheel.

   So, the game modes. The 2k showcase is pretty good, though is just another way of doing the attitude era and history of Wrestlemania modes from the last couple of games. You get some nice history of the feuds (CM Punk vs. John Cena and Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels) with the pre PPV match hype videos being shown and match objectives to try and repeat from what happened in order to unlock more stuff. Career mode is pretty disappointing though in that you can't change the difficulty. In 2K showcase you can change the difficulty so coupling the hardest difficulty setting along with trying to hit all the match objectives can actually be quite challenging. In Career mode though, you're stuck on normal, and after the first 10 or 15 matches once you've boosted your stats enough so that your guy isn't out of stamina after 2 moves then it gets far too easy. It's straight up not fun to play because it's so easy and you can zone out to it. Also, it takes forever, it took me over 7 hours to get to being on Smackdown and after a few more I'm still not on Raw or even at a mention of getting a shot at the title.
   Online causes some problems too where you can't search for matches like you used to be able to and would make sense but you have a background search on that connects you to any random match (despite me setting that I didn't want any 1 on 1 matches, yet still that's all I seemed to get put in to) and there's still lag, a problem that has plagued this game series ever since it got online capabilities, which is crazy 'cause it seems like the perfect game to play online. Universe mode is basically the same as before as is exhibition.
   The problems then. The roster has been slimmed back, and though I personally appreciate the NXT guys being in it, I'd imagine that more players would prefer the types of extras they had in the last couple of years from the annals of Wrestlemania or the attitude era, they don't even have some of the current main roster (though not the biggest names but still show up a fair bit) like Zack Ryder. Some of the models are terrible (as ever) and (also as ever) the characters are very outdated. The Shield broke up in May, right? The game didn't come out for another 6 months but those characters are still in shield attire, group, entrance theme, move set, commentary lines and everything. Maybe it's just me but I feel if sports games like FIFA can update players clubs and stats weekly based on performance (and even create new players if a youngster has broke though or has been signed from a club not in the game) all for free, maybe Yukes could do a couple of updates with at least attire, music and videos changed, even if they can't change the commentary lines or create new move sets. (after all, who listens to the commentary anyway, and you can change the move sets yourself).
   The match creation modes have been trimmed too. A couple of years ago a great idea was implemented in to this series by having basic matches to choose from and then loads of options to modify from there on to make whatever match you want, whether it be ever likely to happen or not. This has gone now and we are back to what we had before with more rigid match options and no room to modify them.

      The biggest problem of all is the create a wrestler. Yukes have always strived to add more and more content every year to the CAW mode, but they appear to have gone backwards this year. Many clothing, hair, face and other options are out as well as classic wrestler entrances to choose from, create a finisher and create an entrance video. To no fault of their own as well you can no longer upload your own songs for entrance themes, so they could have at least added a wider selection of choices rather than just generic ones that someone has sat at a computer for 5 minutes making. This has always been one of, if not the strongest staples of the WWE game series but it's suddenly been stripped down.
   Talking of music the menu has become boring. Maybe I'm the only person sad enough to want entrance themes in the menu, but last year another good feature was added (that has also been taken away this year) where you could turn on and off which themes you wanted in the menus and create your own play list. This year we've been stuck with a soundtrack of music that John Cena (yes, that John Cena) himself chose to curse us all with. It didn't take me 2 minutes to turn them all off so now I have silent menus.
   So, the game may have improved in the ring, but all the creative things that had made it fun in the past have gone, and they've not made any big leaps forward with online or graphics for their big release on the next gen systems (or are the current gen by this point? It has been a year after all). That's why this is going to have to get a 5/10. Must do better. Finally now I can get to the game I've been waiting for! O

Games Season: Costume quest 2

   So, during my wait for the the games coming out this week (Sonic Boom etc.) I thought I'd play some Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Turns out it doesn't work properly (at least not yet) so I didn't bother buying that one. Anyway, I'd heard some great things about the first Costume Quest and with it's sequel out only a couple weeks ago, (on console anyway) I thought I'd give it a go.
   It's a light RPG game that in many ways reminds me of South Park: the stick of Truth in so much as it's mostly free roaming and there are lots of puzzles to solve outside of battles (of course, it's not as funny or offencive as South Park). The good news here is that you can all play it as it's landed on last gen, current gen and PC, so if you wanted it you could get it. The bad news is, the combat is boring.
   Let's start positive though, and you drop straight in to a weird and fun menu at the start and begin your crazy journey through time to stop the evil dentist from stopping Halloween 'cause sweets = bad teeth. I won't ruin any more of the story because it's easily the best part of the game, it doesn't take itself too seriously but really makes the characters dread of 'the end of Halloween' come across so well that I began to wonder if this is what American children really think of it. I hope not (actually, I don't care).
   Lots of the game involves trick or treating to collect 'candy' to get other characters to do things for you as well as you having to do what at first seem like side missions, but turn out to be story integral. It's a nice way to give you something different to do, after all, who wouldn't want to perform in a jazz band with a clown horn.
   The name of the game and what I've mentioned about Halloween implies it already, but the game is all about collecting new costumes that have both in and out of battle uses. Outside of battle many have special abilities (e.g the pterodactyl costume lets you blow away piles of leaves) that help you both advance the story and go back and get hidden collectibles that you couldn't get to before. See, the whole world is open to you once you've unlocked all the areas, it can just be a pain getting around because the map system isn't great (you have to buy them from some dodgy guy selling cards from his long jacket to kids in exchange for sweets (hmm...)) and then they don't show you where you are on it, so you have to figure that out, which can be a pain when you're running around trying to match your location to the map then run in to an enemy and have to battle him which is an issue because...

   It's too simple. There's 1 attack choice and a special move that you build up towards by nailing your attacks and blocks. That element of timing your attacks, blocks and counters do add something a bit extra but it's easy to get them dead on anyway. If anything it was more annoying because I kept miss timing them whilst trying to have a drink of tea!) The other options are 'run' (you can figure that one out)' or using a 'creepy treat card', which are cards you collect throughout the game that give you boosts during battle, 3 of which you can have active at one time, and hence select in battle. Thing is with those, you don't need them, I think i used 2 throughout the game, and the first time was just to see what the deal was with them.
   There is an attempt to add extra depth to the battle by having slightly different types of monster that are stronger/weaker against different costumes, but you can't tell what enemies you'll be facing when you start a battle (apart from which general group they'll be from) and so can't adjust accordingly, and there's no way to swap your costumes mid battle to change it, so that seems mostly pointless to me. There are certain costumes that make your special heal your cohorts instead of them being an attack, but if you need to do any mid battle healing you're playing it wrong anyway (the battle AI is pretty bad). While I'm being negative I just also want to add that the post game is disappointing as you get to walk around your neighbourhood seeing how you've change time and made everything better, but I had some unfinished side quests I wanted to go back and do, but Couldn't, which annoyed me.
   Off my high horse now and try to be more positive again. It has a fun cell shaded visual style (as seen above) and seeing the transformation of kids in costumes to full fledged versions of what they're representing is fun (especially the hot dog which becomes some weird 3 headed (hot)Dog (additionally, the werewolf does the thriller dance for victory)).
   To summarise then, Costume Quest 2 is a small RPG with a fun story, imaginative quests and some good lighthearted humour, but with such a tedious battle system that from about halfway through the game I did everything I could to avoid getting in to them. Unfortunately, this is a major part of this type of game, just think Pokemon or South Park (or your turn based RPG game of choice) and remember that you enjoyed the combat and that it wasn't a drag, like it is here.

5/10

Games Season: Sunset Overdrive

   A new Xbox franchise that I had high hopes for arrived, a game about the Apocalypse, fun and jokes, but how has this come together?
  An introduction then; it's the apocalypse in Sunset City and the new energy drink, Overcharge XD (not sure why the drink is called Overcharge but the game Overdrive) has some problems where it turns all of its drinkers in to mutants known as the OD (overdosed I assume). Your job is to get out of the city and warn the rest of the world what happened before it's too late, but of course it's not that easy as the evil Fizco (makers of Overcharge) need to keep it a secret.
   The game is essentially a third person shooter but with an interesting movement mechanic where you need to bounce, wall run and glide on edges to get around. If you run on the floor it will be slow and you will die (there's enemies everywhere at all times). This would be a good point to mention that it's a free roam game so you can just travel around, picking up collectibles and doing challenges and so on if you desire and the movement is by far the best part of the game.
   Another great part is the character customisation. There's plenty of options of what you want to look like (man or woman) and clothing options and loads more items of attire to unlock throughout the story and side missions. This is probably the best create a character model I've ever seen outside of a WWE game and it makes it feel like you have more control over the game as the hero of the hour looks how you want them to.

   There are problems though and unfortunately the shooting is one of them, I'll put it simply, it's repetitive. There are 3 enemy classes (OD, scabs (humans taking advantage of the situation) and Fizco bots, and there's loads of weapons, but it's just a case of figuring out which weapon suits which enemy best, then just shooting them. That's pretty much it for every mission in the game, travel to an area and kill some bad guys. The weapons aren't as exciting as they were promised either (the nuclear sword is frustratingly taken away from you nearly as soon as you get it), even though they have fun names and sparkly colours they're nothing new. Towards the end of the game I found myself using my jumping melee attack to kill everything as it was my powerful, and fun attack (as if I timed it right I could leap back high in the air after (but annoyingly couldn't do another melee attack from the resulting drop (to be fair though, this would've made the game really easy))).
   Speaking of such things, the upgrades system. Now, there's loads to upgrade, stat boosts, weapon add ons and etc. but they don't really seem to make a difference. Granted, occasionally some of my enemies would turn to ice due to one of my weapon 'amps' but not enough that I couldn't have done without it (BTW, the way they go on at you about 'amps' at the start of the game, it's like they're trying to hook you on drugs) and the grim reaper assistant seems to do all his assisting in the form of standing cutting in to empty space while all the enemies run straight past him (the king of darkness indeed...)!
   Lets talk the comedy now, which was made a big deal of in the build up to the game. The problem is, it's very hit and miss, it can be genuinely funny at times, but more of the time it's bad, using tired cliches and bad puns. There is some reference comedy in there (which I normally love) but they only take it as far as shoving famous lines in to the script without it sounding natural at all (maybe someone at Insomniac should watch Spaced). To be fair though, the re spawn animations are fun (I like the Portal and Dr. Who ones especially).

   Credit to how the game looks though, which is great, the city is bright and colourful and designed really well with all the movement options so you never really have to touch the floor (except for getting mission and etc.). There's also plenty of fast travel points around so you're never spending 5 minutes getting to the start of a mission.
   As far as the start of a game series goes, it's worrying. It's got some great ideas and everything around it is great, but unfortunately the key element of the game, the thing you do in every mission again and again is dull. They have got to work on this for next time because I won't be able to go mindlessly through another one of these, getting more excited about what clothes I've unlocked than actually playing the game. Also, they should hire a comedy writer.

6/10