Robot Wars, Episode 1

   I'll get to Sonic, someday. Hey, they've announced 2 new Sonic games, one 2D named 'Sonic Mania' (yeah, that's a terrible name) to come in the spring that looks like it doesn't have a homing attack, so it might not be terrible. The other, a AAA game coming in Autumn 2017, which traditionally leads to bad news for Sonic games, but it is being made by the Sonic generations team, but they said it's not a Sonic Generations sequel, but the trailer showed the 2 Sonics together like in Generations, so I guess we'll see.

   Spoilers Coming. Robot Wars returned after 13 years away much to my excitement. Obviously I loved Robot Wars as a child, and then a couple of years ago I watched it all through again (yeah, pretty sad, even for me), and I've watched a few of the old semi's and finals in the last couple of weeks to get myself ready, and now it's here.
   I actually liked it, it wasn't the same, which I didn't expect it to be, and probably isn't as good as the old version seemed to me, most likely for 2 reasons, firstly, I don't like change, and secondly, obviously I enjoyed it more as a child and when I re watched it the nostalgia was there for me as I'd seen it many years before, but this was new with only a few memories attached. Despite this issue, and despite the fact I was cautious going in, I genuinely enjoyed it.
   The set up then, they have a new arena that seems basically the same except that the pit isn't very deep. They got rid of all the lame latter series house robots like Cassius Chrome (oh dear) and returned to the classics slightly modified, although, not Sgt. Bash!!! What the hell? Yeah, it sucked, but come on.

   I was happy with Dara and the other one, no looking down at anyone for what they're doing as had been the case in the early series' of the original, and they looked happy to be there. Johnathon Pearce returned on commentary, which is classic and fine, although he has to get off Match of the Day as he annoys me on that. In the second round of the show now, instead of straight knock out they implement a mini league, which not only gives you more matches but also leaves the chance for comebacks, as was the case on this first show. While on the league system, I like that judges decision wins give you 1 less point than win by KO (is that the right term for it?) as it should encourage a more attacking method and stop any Stinger clones appearing (worst robot ever).
   I'm also Happy they told us the turnaround time for repairing robots between battles as I'd always wondered, but now I'm wondering if it was also 2 hours in the original show or if that's new here, and if so, what was it before? they answer one question and I two more straight away. My one issue with the set up, they've extended the show to an hour from 45 minutes, and sure, there's more battles now due to the aforementioned league, but there seems to be more time talking to the people back stage, sure, this was always a vital part of Robot wars so you could figure out who were the arseholes and who were the ones to root for, and now they have previously filmed team trailers for if they make the second round and many, many backstage chats, far too many.

   Right then, the event. 3 classics returned, Behemoth, Terrorhurtz and most notably, Razer (I was somewhat disappointed by the very minimal amount of discussion about all 3's past success). So Razer, talk about a let down, sure, it was mostly the new opponent, Kill-E-Cran-E who decided to make their own personal suicide pact with Razer without discussing it with them and took them in to the pit with them while Razer tried to drop them in. At least they had their sausage rolls. Meanwhile in the same battle terrorhurtz advanced after showing the kind of control that you would expect that someone who has been driving one of these things for so long, as well as the 'we're hear to have fun' Nutz, which, btw had mini cluster bots, and if you're to take the rules applied to Gemini many years ago, as soon as one of them is down, you're out, but that rule doesn't seem to apply here. At least get someone to tell me what the rules regarding cluster bots are now, please. Meanwhile in the other fatal 4 way, Behemoth advanced after also showing good control along with the dangerous carbide, that reminded me of Fluffy from the original series with it's sort of spinning sideways hammer type weapon.

   You fools Razer. So, on to the group stage, which already has offered more excitement than any Euro 2016 group, after the turn around pulled off by Carbide. After they lost in their opening battle against Terrorhurtz due to it's solid armour, they were very down on their chances of advancing, but they came back to top the group by winning their remaining two bouts. Meanwhile, Nutz unsurprisingly lost all 3 battles, including getting smashed to bits by Carbide. Both returning competitors in Behemoth and Terrorhurtz got a clear win, and a judges decision win to leave them both on 5 points. However, due to the head to head results, where Behemoth had come out victorious, they advanced to the final, although I'm sure they said earlier in the show that they would have to face off to qualify for the final, which sounds like a better idea, but no.

   So, the final, The impressively damaging Carbide against the classic Behemoth. Interesting Behemoth fact, apart from their very first appearance in series 2, it never again made it past it's heat in the original series, despite competing in 6 of the 7 series (as well as both series of extreme) and being remember fairly well and making both console videogames, and in fact, being amazingly good on said games. So, could they advance from a heat at last? No. At this point I should say it's where the second round league system loses some of it's appeal as it means that no matter what happens, it will always just be a rematch of something you've already seen just minutes earlier. The final itself was all but over fairly quickly, Carbide got a couple of good hits in, Behemoth seemed to have lost one of it's sets of wheels and then accidentally drove themselves backwards in to the pit when all of a sudden the other wheels started working again. Carbide, the newcomers advanced in a heat with 3 returning robots, while Behemoth continued it's impressive streak of losing in heat finals.
   I am not convinced of Carbide's chances in the final though. The weapon did seem dangerous but when it came up against the well armoured Terrorhurtz it struggled to make any more than cosmetic damage. Based on the assumption that if you're making the final you should be of a high standard. I guess we'll have to see how effective it is then.

   I know I've written far too much here and I really didn't mean it to be. If I do this every week like I'm currently planing to in my head, then it should be shorter as I wont need to talk about the set up and stuff at the start, I think. Also, Sonic ranking will happen, one of these days.

Mighty Number 9

   But even firster (before Sonic, after Inside (read the last one)), I've player mighty number 9, despite being told not to. Now, I'm not a megaman fan, in fact, I think I've played megaman games for a combined 15 minutes in my entire life so I figured that the 'this isn't like megaman' aspect of the game wouldn't bother me, and I also heard it was fast paced, so I was thinking hmm, sounds like an interesting cross between megaman and Sonic. Well...

   Okay, the basics first. Incase you don't know this was the first high profile game that was funded by Kickstarter. A spiritual successor to megaman by it's creator Keji Inafune (a much respected creator in the video games industry, and not just for megaman (in case you were wondering, he couldn't just make a new megaman game as he pissed Capcom off)) and other members of the team, including using the same developers as the much loved (by 'classic' megaman fans) megamen (megamans?) 9 &10 which were 8 bit sequels to the originals released in 2008 and 2010 respectively. So this couldn't help but be good right?
   The only way to answer is to talk about the actual game. So, as I said, megaman fans don't think it's like megaman (top tip to the average man, it kinda is) and it's at quite a fast pace. The game itself doesn't actually play too badly, the shoot and dash destruction of enemies is a fun high score chase. That's about all the good I have to say though.
   It's a budget game, or so it seems. It would not look out of place on a PS2. The graphics and overall art direction is bland as anything. The voice overs are terrible and their attempted animated cut scenes don't even have moving mouths. Not to mention the crazy loading times on such a simple game. When you're trying to get back in at a boss and have to wait an entire life time for it to load back up, it's annoying to say the least.
   As for the game, it is a lot like megaman, in the worst ways. For example, the instant kill moments where you only learn by trial that doing this specific thing will kill you, and when you only have limited lives (and I'm not complaining about that at all) and you have to restart long levels over again when you die a couple of times (though you can fiddle with the settings and give yourself 10 lives, so top tip there), this is extremely annoying, and this is straight out of the megaman handbook.
   Bosses. Now, I've spoke about my dislike plenty of times, but here the boss battles are actually okay, learn the pattern and you should win, SHOULD win. The bosses have about 5 times more of a life bar than you, and you have to dash attack them to drain their health otherwise it comes back, so in many cases it can be very difficult to do actual damage that counts without hurting yourself in the process.
   It's not the worst game it really isn't. If it had came out 15 years ago, it would've been pretty good, but it's 2016 here. People still make games for Dreamcast, maybe they should've just put it on there. If you have anything more recent than a Dreamcast though I'd give it a miss.

Still though, you may 'also like':
                                                    Sonic Colours

Inside

   Happy 25th Anniversary to my childhood videogame hero, Sonic the Hedgehog, as of last Friday. This is a not so subtle of a hint at what I mentioned in passing last time that I have ideas, so look forward to some Sonic the hedgehog based posts coming soon. What more could anyone want? I've been trying to get through a few of the Sonic games I'd never played before or only in passing, but I can tell you right now it won't be every single game ever, there's not enough time in the world, no matter how fast I gotta go. That's still to come though, because I had to stop right now to talk about Inside. This is going to be a short one in order to avoid spoiling anything but I'll try and encourage you to play it. Warning, no more jokes coming (though it's arguable if there ever are any).

 I hope you've played Limbo before because Inside is the second game made by Playdead (the developer) which has arrived 6 years after Limbo, and even though it's only 3 hours long, it's been worth the wait. Much like Limbo, it's an atmospheric puzzle platformer but they seemed to have learned some lessons from Limbo, which itself was a great game, but they've fixed some of the very few minor issues (some frustrating puzzles with hidden objects got really annoying at times in Limbo) and perfected the art form.

   At different parts of this game it can feel creepy, scary, sad and joyous through the change it atmosphere with a deep story told without a single word of text (written, spoken or otherwise). The main thing to expect though is an unnerving atmosphere, as you're never specifically told what's going on, but you know it's something very wrong, and you just know, with everything that's going on in the game that the unnamed protagonist is ultimately going to fail in his quest, at least to an extent, though it's never clear what that quest is (so I guess he might have succeeded).
   I am not trying to spoil this game, honestly. It really is best to play it for yourself. I don't want to say more than 'fantastically atmospheric puzzle platformer' in order to describe the game. You really have to play this for yourself to appreciate it (also so I can discuss it as I doubt I know anyone else who will), unfortunately (for most people (me not included)) it's console exclusive to Xbox one, though it is available on Steam as well, so there's really no excuse. You need to play this like I need to play the Witness (downloading now), so what are you waiting for?

   New idea for a section. With every 'review' if you wish to call these that, I will include a recommendation or two from me as to what you may also like based on the game in mention. I won't just be googling and copying and pasting, nor recommending games I haven't played, nor sticking to the same exact genre, developer, publisher or so on. Also nor will I say the answers you could obviously figure out for yourself. For example in here I could put 'Limbo' and 'Portal' and have done with it, but I wont. (also, I might go and add these to some of my most recent 'reviews' as well as I have no desire to play Mighty Number 9. (top tip, it's bad) while I wait for this download to complete) With that in mind...

You may also enjoy:
                                Thomas was alone
                                Transistor

Games with Gold June 2016

   Normally if I'm talking about free games for a month. I talk about PS Plus. Now, I'm an Xbox guy (an Xbot if you will) but I (obviously) have a PS4 as well, and as a whole, ps plus is infinitely better than games with gold, but not this time. Actually, that's probably no even true. Gone home is an amazing game, but I already played it when it came out on Steam a short 3 years ago. I also hear that the nba 2k series is probably the best sports game franchise out there. I however, have no interest in that sport whatsoever, so have no plans on playing it. These 2 for games with gold though are games I wanted to buy in the past, but never did.

Goat Simulator

   So, this was always supposed to be a simple game. A sandbox where you're a goat doing ridiculous things like flying jet packs, going to space, sacrificing humans to the devil and more. There isn't really a game here beyond wondering around and finding silly things to do. It's full of bugs but the creators don't want to change it as they find it part of the fun.
   The whole thing is ridiculous and it's a case of wondering aimlessly around until you find something silly to do or another bizare easter egg. I wouldn't pay for it, but as it's free why not go and look around. You could however just see clips of the silliest things on Youtube, I ended up having to do that to try and get some of the achievements.

The Crew

   Okay, this is the one I really care about. You may have heard of this one yourself, it was marketed enough to burn your eyeballs out at the time of release, but the mediocre reviews and online bias put me off, but now it's free! The real hook in this one is the condensed map of America. It's an open world racer and you can drive from one end of America to the other, sort of. Okay, so they've fit it all in to 70-80 miles, which still takes a hell of a long time to drive across in a videogame (don't worry, there's fast travel (after you've already been there before..)) but has all the landmarks and areas of country. There are the main cities that make up the basis of the game, New York, Chicago, Miami, Detroit, Las Vegas and LA, but there are smaller representations of many of the other cities of America, like New Orleans, Dallas, Bosston Seattle and others (as an English person I don't really know which are more important than others off this secondary list). You can travel up the Rockies, through the everglades and the sort of deserty bits where nothing really is (like around Vegas) It does make for an interesting setting for a game.
   The gameplay is pretty good as well. As the game advances from city to city you get new types of car, from street racing, to off roading, performance cars and more (that's as far as I've got so far), all of which handle differently. That said, they all drift too much. Apart from just the drifting, something else that impacts on the generally good control of the game is the traffic. It seems to just pop in when you're in the middle of a street race and wipes you out. Thankfully you can make up for it with the ridiculous levels of rubber-banding in the game, though of course if you're ahead that's some bullshit right there.
   I'm not sure why the game got such bad scores really, on top of the good things I've explained before there are challenges around the map that give you parts to improve your car, landmarks to see, hidden car parts to build classic cars and a nice array of customisable cars to buy and mod (but more importantly give the most ridiculous paint job to). On the other hand, there's multiplayer all up in your face. The game desperately wants you to play in a team of 4 the whole way though, but I can't, this isn't 2008 anymore when me and my friends had all the time in the world, life moves on and I'm the only one left strongly clutching on to the gaming stick (not a metaphore for a penis). Nearly all the achievements in the game (unfortunately I do care about them, yes) are tied around you doing things in groups. If you are to play it alone like I am, you'll find it's got a story that couldn't be any less engrossing. someone killed your brother and framed you for it, and your out for revenge. Sure, sounds interesting but it's presented terribly, so I've skipped it since the first hour. While I'm on a similar subject (not really, but whatever) why has no car based open world game had a good soundtrack since GTA San Andreas. All I needed in that game (and Vice city for that matter) was the in game radio, I can't remember the last time I thought that about a game. Has anyone else seen the Watchdogs 2 trailer? The soundtrack makes me want to kill myself!
  On top of this, it seems like there's been a large DLC pack introduced in to this game at some point that isn't included as part of the free deal that games with gold offers. Now, that's fine in theory, but the game doesn't tell you that things aren't actually in the version you have, challenges, garages and more appear on the map as if you have access, only to turn out you need to buy dlc to access it. On top of this, some of the cars you have on offer to buy are ridiculously expensive and unless you want to spend the next year of your life doing challenges, you mwill have to do microtransactions. This wouldn't bother me so much were the game just straight up free, but these were in here when the game was new. In my eyes it's an absolutely piss taking way of trying to get more money out of someone who would have already paid full price for the game, just like Fifa before it (and no doubt many others), it's becoming a situtation where an already full price retail game is trying to dupe unsuspecting parents (and just general morons) out of money. Boo to you Ubisoft (and EA in Fifa's case).
   Ignoring my anger about that, as long as you don't spend any money on this you can have a fun time. If you're young enough to have friends available to play games you could probably have a fantastic time. It's a decent racing game, especially for free and I'm glad I've played it, but I'm unlikely to finish it, give it a go though, it's pretty good. (that was convoulted).

Right, come on England, I've still believed since 1998

Doom

   During all this time the Euro's have been on and I haven't had time to write any of these for all you lucky people, I've filled myself with ideas for it. More on all of that later, as I'm here, almost 2 months late, to talk about Doom. You can mostly blame that on Uncharted (which I can't even be bothered to talk about (other than to say I don't get the hype)) and the Euro's, but with Portugal vs Austria in the background, here I am.

   I'd hope you would know what Doom is, but in case you don't, it's basically the game that launched the FPS genre (yes, I know it's not the first one, but it's the one everybody jumped on and has fond memories of) in the mid 90's, Yes, there has been sequels, but Doom 3, the last major game in the series was initially released 12 years ago mow, so, they're back, without a number in the title (which is the 'in' thing right now) with a new offering, and it looks like they haven't played an fps since Doom 3 came out, and that is a fantastic thing.
   Before I explain that weird sentence I'll give a brief overview of the plot (potential spoilers, but they're not that important). You are the Doom slayer, awoken from being frozen by Samuel Hayden in a facility on Mars to end the invasion of demons from hell which they have been using as an energy source, but whoops, Olivia Pierce, one of the researchers looking to help improve the situation has turned heel and now more hell is being raised (literally) that Stone Cold Steve Austin in the 90's. Luckily the Doom slayer feels alright in the noise and the light of mars and hell, and slaying demons lights his fire.
   Okay, what I meant before was this is a classic FPS. I myself didn't play Doom, or Quake, or Unreal, or Goldeneye, or Wolfenstein, or perfect dark, but what I did play, to an insane level, was Timesplitters (and Timesplitters 2 &3). This had the same qualities that Doom 2016 (not an official title btw) is offering though, and that's how my nostalgia was peaked. That's because there's no regenerating health and no ducking and covering. Just charge down your enemies and blow their faces off. In this game, classic controls play the ultimate roll in gameplay, and I didn't know how much I missed it, and loved it (and still do), and that's what lights MY fire.
   What is it that differentiates it from the likes of COD, Battlefield and so on. As i said, ever since Halo we have expected to have regenerating health, and hell, I'm happy with that, games are so, so much easier than when I was a kid, with limited lives, no saves and game overs, which wound up in many broken controllers for me and still would today were it still the case (btw, there is unlimited lives in this, thankfully (unless you play the hardest level)). What was I on about? oh yeah, so, health pick ups, yes, there are a few around, but it's all about the glory kills on enemies, with some beautifully gruesome actions (achieved by finishing an enemy with a melee attack) that give you the big payout in health, shields (also not regenerative) and ammo (the bigger the enemy, the bigger the payout). Couple this with the run and gun style that this game wants you to play and it's made to go together, charging around the battle areas and wiping out what you can, towards the end of the game you're facing enormous amounts of enemies, with a high amount of them being extremely hard to kill, I kept thinking it was getting too much, but I knew I was lying to myself, It made me feel like a badass.
   Some other added elements, light RPG elements where gear is advanced through kills and weapon challenges, but mostly through exploration, which is interesting at times, and I did it a fair bit, but found no where near all of the secrets, so if you want everything, you're going to be at that for a while. There's the nostalgia there for Doom fans as well. All the classic enemies and weapons return, and I did have fun googling images of enemies from the original and comparing them to now (seems like a good point to add that I love the artistic direction of this game) which is interesting. There are bosses though, and you know my thoughts on them. They weren't too bad here to be fair, and there's only 3 (or was it 4?) in the game, and though sometimes it didn't seem right, and wound my nerves up with continual restarts, mostly it came to waiting to figure out the best time to use the BFG (top tip, save your ammo for that for when you really need it). Hmm, long paragraph.
   The multiplayer is very forgettable unfortunately, and right around the time of Overwatch so can't see anyone playing it for any reason beyond getting a few achievements/ trophies (that's the only reason I tried it), but that's not what I bought it for anyway. If you just want to go around shooting things in the head, you're in here. Sometimes it seemed tough but i couldn't get enough of it, it scratched an itch I didn't know I had, and if you remember any of these 90's FPS' and have any love for them, you have to play this. Doom 2016 kicked ass, and that's the bottom line.

PS Plus May 2016

   Exactly one year on from when I last talked about that months PS plus offerings, I'm back to do it again. Wondering why? Well, several times before I've wondered what many of the games on PS plus or games with gold (the Xbox equivelant) are about, and how good they are. That leads me to scouring my favourite gaming sites and searching through Youtube to find some game footage without having to listen to some arsehole chatting shit. These things can be useful, but I would like some sort of service from a large gaming site of popular gaming youtube channel that tells you what these games are like all now, how they hold up (if they're old), and if they're worth playing based on what games are out this month. Now, I can't do the latter as I haven't played Doom yet, and have little interest in (the most overrated game series of all time) Uncharted. But the rest I'll give a go.

Tropico 5

   This is the game I'm really writing this for, as this is what I really wanted to know about. I've heard talk of Tropico for many years now, since 3 came out on 360, but I've never been interested enough to buy it, now it's free though, it was time to try (sorry Haemimont games).
   You might be wondering what kind of game this (or maybe not based on the above picture). It's a city builder (remember Sim City) but with a twist that you're on a Tropical island. Although it is an interesting twist on the classic formula of such games, in reality it just leads to different types of buildings to the classics, even though they serve basically the same purpose. The other difference, rebels. If you're performing badly, like having too many homeless (even though there's loads of apartments with spaces but for some reason people aren't moving in), or more likely, don't let your citizens vote, you're likely to get an attack by rebels or an uprising of the population. I'm already terrible at these types of games, hell, I'm playing it on the easiest possible setting (don't think I've ever done that before in my life, even as a 5 year old) and it still takes me some time to get the economy sorted. My point is, as it's hard to really get started on each mission (yes, there are missions to play, of course there is a sandbox mode too), and you have to do things that focus on making money rather that pleasing citizens in the early game, it often leads to rebels attacking and destroying many buildings, which are very hard to build back as you don't have the money to do so at the time, and they tend to destroy the building that make you money, which starts a visious cycle.
   Overall though I'd say it's a competent world builder, but with no new ideas (and that's without having played one since 2010's Sim City 4). If you like world builders of any type, from Sim city, to theme hospital, Roller coaster tycoon and beyond then give it a go, it's free after all. It's not the greatest example of all time, but it's very playable, if not damn hard.


Table Top Racing: World Tour

   I can understand why you may think this game is trash and not worth playing, mostly based on the fact that it's an indie car game that's gone straight on PS plus on release with little fan fair. But so did Rocket league. Obviously it's not that good, very few game are, but don't make this assumption without giving it a chance. It's an interesting idea here. Part micro machines (in so much as you're a toy car playing around large snooker balls and all the other cliched micro machines items), while also sharing much of the gameplay with karting games, like Crash teems racing, Sonic and Sega all star racing transformed, modnation racers, M&M's cart racing, Digimon racing... feel like I'm missing one out there. There is a shade of more traditional, speed based racing games in here as well, like Need for speed, Juiced and so on (I'm not making another list). This is done by having karting like weapons while also focusing on modding your cars to get them as speedy, and drifty (is that a word?) as you can.
   It is fun to play, honestly. There's the main game mode, challenges and online modes which can last you many, many hours. There's coins to collect so you can buy better cars, upgrades, decals and rim jobs (wheels, yeah), all of which makes you want to play more. There isn't a large amount of locales, but each one has several variations on the tracks so there's plenty of choice. At times though this can lead to getting lost when you see a new part of a track that you thought you were familiar with for the first time.
   Now, my favourite part, criticism. Maybe it's me, but I sucked at drifting on this. I've seen Youtube videos where people seem to breeze though it, but I'm not one, it's a nightmare that you can't skip. Playing online can be painfull too, getting in to a match that actually starts can take a long time, and as I found out yesterday, there's no local multiplayer. Come on guys, it's perfect for it.


   Apart from the fact that all PS plus games are free (assuming you have it) so why wouldn't you download them all anyway? (seriously, I don't understand why you wouldn't, yet so many seem to not do so, why???) these are both worth a shot. Not the greatest of all time, but don't write either of them off, provided they're your bag.

Ratchet and Clank

   So, some news from the hospital has told me to play less games for a couple of years which is a pain in the arse, but it just means I'll have to replace a lot of gaming time with TV time, but I'll live with it, rather than sitting around mindlessly playing Rocket League for hours on end I'll have to watch some meh TV show instead (plenty of tipping point to watch). I'll still be playing some games, mostly just games I'm excited about rather than just anything (though if my next post is what I'm planning then you might question this self promise). Added bonus, Euro's are soon so that will be most of my free time gone, but in a good way (none of this is answering why I just bought 6 games of Steam, 1 of which I'll ever invest more than 5 minutes in to). Before all of this started though, I played, and completed (the remaster/ re-imagining/ remake) of Ratchet and Clank.
   I've never played a single Ratchet and Clank game before. Back when the PS2 was out and I was a mid-teenager trying to pretend I was too adult to be playing games skewed towards kids, despite how I'd spent many previous years playing Sonic the Hedgehog, Crash Bandicoot, Gex, James Pond, Ri-star, Cool spot, Zool, Rocket Knight, Earthworm Jim, Decap Attack, that awesome, but extremely difficult Lion King game, Odd world and so on. Obviously I look back and realise what a fool I was, very few games are children only, and many of the games that are skewed towards kids are more straight up fun and riddled with hidden adult jokes mixed in. This has both.

   As I have been constantly prattling on about, I'm getting bored of the same types of game over and over but it was so refreshing just to play a game that doesn't take itself seriously and is just straight up fun without being repetitive (well, it is, but not not in a boring way). This is just fun, no mucking about and how games seemed to be to me when I was younger and why I got in to gaming in the first place.
   here are some of the reasons why. Firstly, the weapons. They are varied and somewhat crazy, but there's a job for every occasiton. Whether it be the Pixelator, a shotgun that turn the enemies in to 8 bit sprites. The groovitron that makes all the enemies dance (each enemy has their own unique dance) or Mr. Zurkon, a wise cracking bodygaurd, and so on (I'm not going through them all but they're all good and all have their purpose). Another good reason is the fully upgradable weapons. Every weapon has 5 levels which are built up by use of the weapon (which encourages you to try every weapon out and mix up your arsenal). On top of that as you gather up bolts throughout the levels you can buy upgrades for the weapons as well, like more damage, faster reloads, ammo and all the usual stereotypes as well as secret upgrades.
   Good thing number 3. Short missions. Most worlds have multiple different missions on them, and even if you live up to the collectathon nature of the game you can get most missions done in 15 minutes or so. There are plenty of these missions so don't worry about the length of the game, but I enjoy that the missions are done quick so if you have a spare few minutes in your day you can crack one out (I mean a mission of course) or as many as you want if you have a lot of time on your free hands. 4. I don't hate the bosses. Yes, it's a miracle. The bosses are challenging as in most cases with their vulnerabilities but the easy to enjoy game play and the trial of your weapon set to see what is the most effective. Even the final boss is ok, just shame about the thrown in extra enemies that are a constant in games to make bosses fake harder.
   5. it looks like a Pixar film. Drop dead just like one. this might be because this is a game of a film (just released this week) of a game, so there was some animation to share with the film. What ever way it was done, short cuts or not (I honestly have no idea) it is stunning.
6. Not awful 3D platforming. Obviously this is something that Mario had perfected long before even the original Ratchet and Clank, but there are many more poor examples of this. Not here though, It's definitely more Mario Galaxy than Sonic Adventure when it comes to that part of the gameplay. Hell, there's even hoverboarding races in here that are fast and fun.
   There are many more great things about this game but I'm running out of extra things to tack on to my points to make them seem more thought out than they actually are, that last one was just a bad way to talk about the cool hoverboard races. There are a couple of things I wasn't so keen on in here, but try not to let these detract you as they are small and insignificant in the grand scheme. For one, the save points are spread fairly far apart. It's not as bad as one per each mission but it is enough to be somewhat annoying if you die right up close to the next one. That's the main gripe, but another small issue is the hit and miss element of the jokes. Some are funny. but a lot of them are cheesy (and not in a good way (and yes, I know which ones are aimed and kids and which aren't)).
 

   So I guess that I am coming up to a score and a time where I wish I did .5's, but I try not to. Because of that I'm going to round it down to a 8/10 (sorry maths). If I were to say what my game of the year was so far, this would be it. There's still 2 thirds of it left yet though, and lots of other games that I'm looking forward to. No Mans Sky... Probably some others I guess.

   Don't worry about me reviewing Uncharted in a couple of weeks, in my mind it's one of the most over rated games series I've ever played (see my review on Quantum break to see my view on 3rd person shooters). Doom might be another matter, but this is all a couple of weeks away, and whatever it is after I've finished what I'm on right now will have to be done in my limited time before the Euro's start (ooooh, 5 weeks today). 

Quantum Break

   A big Xbox exclusive release from last week, a time travelling third person action game, that's what it is, and here's what I think.
   Before I even talk about the game I've got to mention the TV episode portion of the game, which has been much talked about the past couple of years since it was first revealed. Between each of the 5 acts of the game there is a 20-30 minute filmed episode based slightly on decisions you have made. There's some actual actors in there as well like X men's Ice man, Little finger, that scrawny one off lost and not Idris Alba (it's not racist, they're both in the Wire). Obviously their likenesses are then made in to the video game characters as well and it makes it seem weird at times to be playing a game as a recognisable actor and trying to kill other recognisable actors. I don't necessarily have a problem with the idea of acted sections but it feels really off putting to me to see the same characters and locations from the game in real life, with the sets not really matching the detail in the game.
   I have to talk about Remedy (the developer) because I don't have a good history with them. I really wasn't that keen on Alan Wake despite how many other gamers seemed to love it. Wow, this woman on Tipping point just thought the second world war started in 1914... The only Max Payne I'd played was 3, which wasn't made by them I'll give you, but it was their original series and according to the ultimate source of nowledge, Wikipedia, they oversaw development, I wasn't a big fan of that either.
   I'm pretty sure I've mentioned in the past my lack of interest in 3rd person action games as well. Why did I play this? Well, I'm beginning to wonder now. The shooting sections are okay, it's fun to be able to use your time abilities to defeat enemies but from about half way in the enemies are immune to most of them and it turns in to a pretty standard shooter. Then there's the platfroming sections. Every part of every act (or so it felt) had a section something like 'the door is locked, however shall we get in?' so you have to jump up a bunch of conveniently placed skips, portable toilets, cranes, trains, automobiles and so on, which doesn't control well. This is a mild frustration at the start but when sections come in where you need to use time control abilities to not get crushed at the same time it becomes very laborious and nearly (in my case) controller smashing. Wow, that woman went through as well.

   Before I go any further I should same the game looks fantastic, just like every game in this genre seems to, although as previously mentioned it feels weird looking like the actors . She got through to the head to head now, I might be able to win on this! It's also a 10-12 hour single player game, which is what I crave now that I don't have all the free time I used to. The story then. I'm going to try and avoid spoilers past act 1, but we'll see. Essentially, your friend creates a time machine, goes back to 1999, creates an evil corporation who are indifferent to the fact that time will stop forever despite that they could stop it and you have to save the universe yourself (with your brother, a couple of security experts and a protester). The story is okay, no real complaints but for a game that seems like it's put more time in to style than substance you'd think the story would be fantastic, but it isn't. Well acted though, as you'd expect. There is also the unnecessary story stretch that seems to turn up in all media now where you finally get to your target after hours of searching only to realise you've left your hob on or something so a whole act is spent going back to fix that. Just because it seems to happen in everything now that's not an excuse for lazy storytelling.
   So, if you like third person action and style in games this may be for you, or maybe if you see something in Remedy games that I don't, but for me, average gun play and terrible platforing makes a disappointing game. 5/10. Ha, she lost, stupid bitch.

12 weeks, 12 games, year 3, week 12

  Another extra week late again, don't worry though, I did stop 2 weeks ago to meet my self imposed rule. It's over at last, I can stop having to check how long a game is before I start it for this little read blog, Oh the life I lead. It's going out with a whimper as well, didn't even finish

Broken Age

   It's a Tim Schafer adventure game. If that means nothing to you, think Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Maniac Mansion, Grim Fandango (chachalala) and you get the idea. Now, adventure games really aren't my bag, walking around clicking on everything until something works isn't my idea of a great time, but it was a PS plus game a few months ago and I heard it was good, so I gave it a go. This game was originally released in 2 parts, you may wonder why am I saying this, but you'll see. Spoilers are coming.
   The first few hours were pretty damn good, I was really enjoying it, didn't have to use a guide (unusually for me and adventure games) and the story was building nicely. One boy, living on a spaceship being overly parented but with no where to go, meanwhile a separate story about a girl living in a town trying to escape her fate as a potential victim for an honoured monster feeding. Obviously the 2 stories combine, but I don't want to spoil it too much for you (I probably will though). I do like how you can switch between story at any time, so you can mix it up a bit or if you get stuck, step away to the other character for a while and come back fresh (or you could just turn the game off and come back later I guess). Things start to kick off, the boy is encouraged by a stow away bad wolf to help 'rescue' beings, while the girl wants to kill the monster that everyone worships. Stuff goes wrong though, and the boy and girl end up swapping places.
   That is where the story kicks up a gear and the original second part of the game begins. It's also where the game gets much harder. The puzzles seem much less intuitive and I got to a point where I was just word for word following a guide, and though the story was really interesting, I began to wonder why I was bothering to play essentially a puzzle game by reading what all the solutions were. I did that for a couple of hours, determined to get through it (because of this blog), then finding out there was another 3-4 hours of this, so I stopped. I can always just find a video of the story (not that I have yet). If you're a lover of puzzle games then you may be better at figuring this out than I was, then again, you'd probably already have played it. So, unfinished in the end, but I still made over the 12 game aim.
   Sorry, that was a pretty poor one. I might do a look back at this like I did last year, but it seems more likely that I'll write something about Quantum break (2 weeks late) which I'm going to be starting now. And, GO!

Completed

Transformers: Devastation
Unmechanical
Pneuma
Killzone: Shadow Fall
Killer Instinct
Teslagrad
Defy Gravity
Cibele
Oxenfree
Out There Somewhere
Breath of Death VII
WWE 2K16
Gears of War 3
The Deed
Her Story
Gauntlet
Xcom 2
Woolfe - The red hood diaries
Firewatch
Saturday Morning RPG
Far Cry Primal
Broforce

Incomplete

Xeodrifter
Broken Age

12 weeks, 12 games, year 3, week 11

   whoops, fogot to post this a week ago! I've noticeably slowed down, I'm well aware of that. I've swapped Pro Evo for Fifa so I've been playing a lot of that to get up to a level of ability where I can blast past opponents on line (don't worry, I've reached it). Add to that House of cards and my general lack of energy so I've slowed to a crawl. Thankfully, I've already met my self imposed target of 12 games (as if anyone cares) so I'm done really, but there's weeks to fill and a lack of ideas to blog about. Anyway, 1 this week

Broforce

   This one is a retro looking side scrolling 2D platfromer (my favourite) with guns (or maybe not). It's based on 80's action movies with a tongue in cheek take on many of those heroes (or villains). Comparisons to Super time force are easy, so there will be many. That was also a retro looking run and gun platformer based on action movies, which I preferred to Broforce frankly, but there is enough in here to make it fun on it's own terms. I do like the fully destructible environments I must say. You can tunnel underneath enemies to get by easily, or use the environment as a weapon. The characters are varied as well. The different weapons are useful in different situations, even the one that, up until that point had been useless (the one that shoots below) turned out to be an awesome weapon against the final boss. I like how you get the extra lives too, rescuing POW's off the level, which will then change you to another character, which can add a tactical level to the game, as you may already have the perfect character for the environment, so do you gamble your character on that extra life. Oh, character's are randomly selected btw, probably should have said that earlier.
   It plays well, is fun and lighthearted, so why don't I like it as much as Super Time Force? For one, there's definitely the element of I played that before (scroll back down here a couple of years to see thoughts) so that set the standard for this (as far as I know) 2 game genre. Also, bosses. I know, I go on and on about my dislike of bosses, but that's because it's a big thing for me. I probably spent as long trying to defeat the penultimate boss than I had the entire game up to that point. I red the final boss was a nightmare as well, so considered giving up, but no, I fought on and didn't even break a controller (nearly though). Thankfully, turned out the final boss was nowhere near as hard as the Internet told me. After the 3-4 hours I probably spent on the previous boss, I knocked this mofo out in 10-15 mins. Youtubers are idiots.
   My advice, if you have a PS4, it's on PS plus right now, get it and play it. It's one of those where I probably wouldn't recommend paying for it, or not at full price anyway (Steam sales come around frequently enough if you're a PC gamer), but for free, I enjoyed it enough.

Completed

Transformers: Devastation
Unmechanical
Pneuma
Killzone: Shadow Fall
Killer Instinct
Teslagrad
Defy Gravity
Cibele
Oxenfree
Out There Somewhere
Breath of Death VII
WWE 2K16
Gears of War 3
The Deed
Her Story
Gauntlet
Xcom 2
Woolfe - The red hood diaries
Firewatch
Saturday Morning RPG
Far Cry Primal
Broforce

Underway

Xeodrifter

Should probably remove Xeodrifter now, it's never going to happen, and I don't just mean this last week, I mean ever.

12 weeks, 12 games, year 3, weeks 9 & 10

   Yes, a twoffer. I was playing a game that took over a week and the last time I split one game over 2 weeks (see last year and Wolfenstein the new order) I barely had anything to say in the second week, so I figured better to leave it a week and do it all in one. And that game is...

Far Cry Primal

    I already have good vibes towards far cry games, as 3 and 4 were some of my favourite shooters of the last few years (though I feel 2 is shockingly overrated as the road corner outposts re spawn enemies as soon as you turn your back) so I had mixed feelings going in here. On one hand, I knew Far Cry was always good, on the other, doing something different could be a mistake (no, I never played Blood Dragon), but, on the third hand, as I've been talking a lot about during these 10 weeks, I'm getting pretty fed up of the same games over and over and over and over (continue for another 50 lines) again, so it is refreshing to see a different take on a well established game, even if it is a risk. In my eyes, it paid off, I loved it.
   Obviously I feel Far Cry is a good basis to start a spin off on, as they've always been fantastic to play and really invented (or at least perfected) the free roaming FPS. I also appreciate how they've not gone to the oh so overdone Dinosaur route and have stuck to cavemen, sabre tooth Tigers (not involving Tommy Oliver), Mammoths, Beavers and so on. All the classic Far cry exploring, side quests, forts, question marks (?), levelling up, weapon upgrading and so forth are all there to give the feeling of a far cry game while the game play is quite the opposite. No shooting, of course, but the bow and arrow remains, although without many of the bells and whistles (and scopes) that it had been appearing with in recent Far Crys. The bow and arrow works well though along with it's melee focused new friends of the spear and the club (though you can throw them). Of course there is a (questionable) excuse to include grenades in the form of 'bee bombs' (essentially throwing a bee hive), 'beserker bomb'(a poison bomb that turns enemies against each other) and a 'fire bomb' (not sure how cave men made them), plus 'not shurikens' in the form of 'throwing shards' (throw sharp bits of rock) and beserker shard (pretty much the same as the beserker bomb). They're the weapons you're handed, add to that your tamed beast of choice and you're all set to take on the land of killer animals and feuding clans. The plot is very week, there isn't really a story beyond having to take out your 2 rival tribes. There isn't an ending to go with it either, just millions of quests of plenty of different variety to do, but I figured beating the leaders of both rival tribes is essentially it.
   I would definitely recommend this one, especially if like me you like far cry and also, if like me, you're itching for something different. There is another AAA cave man game in 'Wild' coming out later this year but Far Cry beat it out the traps, and comes with a name attachment that I personally trust in. There could be hundred of hours in this if you want me to be, but I had defeated the enemy tribes and completed all the big side quests in about 25 (while also spending time getting specific animal pelts and types of wood (not as boring as it sounds)).

   I've started Bro force, but if I write about that now not only will I be a hypocrite (in my own eyes at least) but I'll also have nothing to write about next week

Completed

Transformers: Devastation
Unmechanical
Pneuma
Killzone: Shadow Fall
Killer Instinct
Teslagrad
Defy Gravity
Cibele
Oxenfree
Out There Somewhere
Breath of Death VII
WWE 2K16
Gears of War 3
The Deed
Her Story
Gauntlet
Xcom 2
Woolfe - The red hood diaries
Firewatch
Saturday Morning RPG
Far Cry Primal

Underway

Xeodrifter
Broforce

12 weeks, 12 games, year 3, week 8

   Back to running behind again, been shattered from work and stuff. I'm ready to go now though, I've eaten my chips, got my tea and my Aston Villa 97-98 season review tape (not enough Lee Hendrie) and I'm set. I've not actually played any games for this list (as Rocket League isn't really completable, and if it was, it would have been finished a long time ago) since about Wednesday last week (which is inclusive in week 8), Far cry Primal is waiting to be started but it seems like an effort. Maybe tonight I'll make a start. Point is, I probably won't write one at the end of this week as it's unlikely I'll have finished by then, or even got very far. Oh, there's Lee Hendrie scoring just now (in 1997).

Firewatch

      Wow, old channel 5 Uefa cup coverage was terrible. This game though, is great. It's a 'walking simulator' (as the genre has unfortunately been branded despite games such as gone home, the Stanley parable and so many more being so great) where you shrug off your mentally ill wife to live in the woods and keep an eye peeled for any fires. The main part of the game is the relationship between your character and your boss who you talk to on a walkie talkie. The relationship is very much down to you, you can communicate as much, or as little as you want (well, you have to talk 6 times) and be as nice or mean as you want. Ooh, there's a lovely feature on this tape about our away game against Athletico Madrid, strolling around a field, Dwight Yorke getting held up at the airport, Gareth Southgate chatting shit and so on.
   The only problem I found in the game was the other story in the game, I just didn't care about the guy I replaced or his son. It's overlookable (that's one word, right?) though because of the great character relationship, and of course the gorgeous world that there is to explore. It's about 3-4 hours long but you can add more time if you want to explore all the nooks and crannies, finding tortoises and so on, but that is about the perfect length for me anyway. It didn't seem like I missed much not finding many of the extras, it might be just a nice bit of icing on top. If you like story based games with little actual gameplay (which I do, that wasn't supposed to be sarcastic criticism) then this is definitely worth picking up.

Saturday Morning RPG

 

   If one thing can be said about John Gregory, it's that he knew how to get the 'best' out of Julian Joachim. I heard about this game a while ago and then I noticed it was 60p on the Steam lunar sale, so I went for it. It's a very simple RPG that's split in to separate episodes (as if it were a TV series (also, they weren't all released at once but over time)) like a kids cartoon. It's very 80's themed, with so many references that I can't even. Turns out though, the last episode was never completed for whatever reason so it left me on a cliffhanger. The game itself is fine, it's a basic RPG with the main attraction all the humour and references. The weapons you pick up are all based on something, like the Simon Says machine where you have to complete the sequence to do your attack, or the single glove that deals out a Moon Walk slap. There's scratch and sniffs that boost your stats and 80's movie tie-ins all over the place.
   Gameplay wise it's fine, it's nothing new. It reminds me in many ways of South Park the stick of truth, in that it's a simple but funny light RPG. It's nowhere near as good as South Park mind you, but it was fun for what it was Might have helped if I were about 5 yers older though, it's really for kids of the 80's. For 60p, get it. For full price? depends how much you like the 80's (or RPG's). Can we get Ian Taylor back in the Villa team?

   Right, time to start Far Cry Primal, maybe.

Completed

Transformers: Devastation
Unmechanical
Pneuma
Killzone: Shadow Fall
Killer Instinct
Teslagrad
Defy Gravity
Cibele
Oxenfree
Out There Somewhere
Breath of Death VII
WWE 2K16
Gears of War 3
The Deed
Her Story
Gauntlet
Xcom 2
Woolfe - The red hood diaries
Firewatch
Saturday Morning RPG

Underway

Xeodrifter

12 weeks, 12 games, year 3, week 7

   Back out of time again, just the way I like it. I'm not going to stick to anyone's schedule though, especially not my own. If I had to do such a thing there's no way I'd be able to sleep for 12 hours, get up at 2pm, then be back in bed by 5, living the dream.

   Xcom 2

   So, I meant to take my own screenshots of this, and indeed all games on Steam as it's pretty easy to do that. I haven't though, I forget. Moving on from where I left off though I was getting towards the end of the game, which picked the momentum back up again, at least it felt that way to me. Firstly, it got harder again. I was getting concerned that I was breezing through the game after I'd set it to easy but towards the last 5-10 missions, I failed a couple of missions and was losing at least 2 soldiers a fight, which lead me in to the final mission with only really 3 squad members worthy of being in the fight (out of 7). Secondly, more story missions. I cared so much more when the mission was actually important or counted towards the advent. When I was trying to do some research or gather some intel then I'd be flashed up with some annoying guerrilla mission, urgh... just let me get on with it!
   Point is, the last few missions were a real pick up at the end of the game and left me with a warm and happy feeling when the credits rolled, where I might not have felt that without those last few. Only problem I had with the ending is, even though it showed some stats throughout the game, they weren't comprehensive enough for me, I do love stats. Overall opinion though is that it was a really good game, but as I'm finding more and more these days, wasn't all that much of an improvement on the 2012 original, so I'll most likely be ending my interaction with this series here, much like I am with so many these days as sequels seem to be becoming rehashed stories of old games that are of little substantial difference. This is a deeper worry for me that I wish to go in to right here, but the future of games is not looking bright to me. That's one for another time though.

Woolfe - The Red Hood Diaries

   Picked up on the cheap on the Steam lunar sale after I'd put it on my wish list some time ago for a reason I'm not sure of, as the average review was thumb across, whereas I'm more of a thumbs up guy (though if I should know anything by now, it's don't trust people). Anyway, bought it now. It's a twist on the little red riding hood fair tail and I was hoping that I'd be able to compare it to Alice: Madness returns, which was a great game (and a twist on a fairlytale). A problem though, this game was not great, or good, or average. It was bad. Style over substance all over the place. It looks great, I'll give it that, but the story was nothing, the gameplay simple and buggy, and the 3D platforming so silly you could jump off the front of the screen like some 1995 PS1 launch game (that's the right year, right?). Point is not much to say really, don't play it, it's bad. Sorry. Under any other circumstances I wouldn't have finished it, but I've done it for this under the foreknowledge that it was short, for no sensible reason. I guess you can trust people after all.

   I've played Firewatch now btw, but technically it's in week 8, so nothing there yet, despite the fact that I'll probably remember it better now than I will come whenever I actually come to write it. Where to go next though? Far cry primal looks very interesting and is out this week, I already have Just Cause 3 staring at me from my shelf and the Witness looks awesome. I don't know which to go with, granted I'll probably play them all eventually, but probably not within these 12 weeks (as they're all big games and this tends to be for shorter games). Quick one this week, things to do (not really, more laziness), for now though...

Completed

Transformers: Devastation
Unmechanical
Pneuma
Killzone: Shadow Fall
Killer Instinct
Teslagrad
Defy Gravity
Cibele
Oxenfree
Out There Somewhere
Breath of Death VII
WWE 2K16
Gears of War 3
The Deed
Her Story
Gauntlet
Xcom 2
Woolfe - The red hood diaries

Underway

Xeodrifter

12 weeks, 12 games, year 3, weeks 6.

   Ah, half way. Before I go on to this weeks games, I've got to look to the future, and beyond the games I talked about last week (Witness, Far Cry, Just Cause). Turns out this week both Unravel and Firewatch came out to much aplomb. That's 2 games almost perfect for this as they're small contained games and both very good (or so I read). On top of that there was a Steam sale last week so I picked up a few games on there as well (most excitingly (for me anyway) Saturday morning RPG for 66p after I was going to pay £5 for it, deal of the week!). Plus of course The division is out in a few weeks (though I've not made a decision on that yet) and however many other potentially dozens of games that will leap out at me and not forgetting PS Plus and Games with gold of course. Where is the time supposed to come from?

Xcom 2

   After so much excitement it finally arrived, but of course it was always going to be difficult to live up to all the hype I was giving it. So first things first, I'm terrible at this. I got about 10 hours in at great pains and got well and truly stuck. I will be the first to admit that strategy games aren't my forte, the first game in this series (the 2008 re-boot, not the 1992 original) was the first turn based strategy game I ever played for more than an hour, and I loved it. Since then I've played the likes of Chroma Squad, massive chalice, X-Com enemy within and maybe more so I figured I'd be pretty good at it by now, but no. When I look back at it now I remember how difficult I found the original but I'd forgotten that before I picked this up.
   Point was though that I restarted it on easy. I realised which upgrades I should be picking and made all the right decisions and started flying through, so much so in fact hat it seemed too easy. However, It has got more challenging now so I've been proven correct about restarting because I assume it would have gotten impossible for me when I'd gotten to this stage on medium. There is a major issue with restarting though and that's the added time. If howlongtobeat.com is to be believed (as I often do) I should've finished by now with the combined play time. You might wonder why this is annoying me but I'll tell you. As touched upon a few weeks ago I'm starting to enjoy shorter games more and longer games with a constantly repeating gameplay loop get boring to me after a few hours. I'm now at a stage where every random encounter that pops up while I'm trying to do some research is like a hot poker in my buttocks. I was enjoying it, I really was, now though, I'm bored.
   Oh right, what is it? Turned based strategy where you have to reclaim the Earth from alien invaders who have taken over (like the NWO). To do this you have to find gear, research upgrades and budget manage. It's some tricky resource management to say the least as there's constantly something you want and as soon as you've got one thing you want, another 3 pop up that you want, and then a UFO crash lands and you have to recover it which drags you away. There is a lot to do, arguably too much all in 1 go. You get the point I hope. As I said, I was loving it but got bored after 30 or so hours (It could be argued I could play it less intensely than 30 hours in 6 days but, meh). If you're more patient than me then get it, but be warned, it's a long one (again).

   I finished Gauntlet as well btw. That winded up being alright while having half of my attention elsewhere on music, podcasts or whatever. That last boss though, my God. Yet again, I hate bosses, always have, and this one took multiple playthoughs that got infuriating. I managed to snatch a win from the jaws of defeat when I was about to die. Thankfully it's over now though but it left a sour taste from a game I'd enjoyed up to that point.
   That was it for this week though, we'll see how Xcom goes, see which of the Steam games I potentially start or maybe one of the others mentioned in the first paragraph, we shall see.

Completed

Transformers: Devastation
Unmechanical
Pneuma
Killzone: Shadow Fall
Killer Instinct
Teslagrad
Defy Gravity
Cibele
Oxenfree
Out There Somewhere
Breath of Death VII
WWE 2K16
Gears of War 3
The Deed
Her Story
Gauntlet

Underway

Xeodrifter
Xcom 2

12 Weeks, 12 Games, Year 3, Week 5

   A week of anticipation. I know oh so well that Xcom 2 is out Friday (hey, that's today!), as well as me wanting to play The Witness and Just Cause 3 looking menacingly at me from my shelf as well as Far Cry coming very soon there's a whole heap of stuff to play, but I know the time commitment in the those, so Xcom first, then I'll get on to the rest of the list. Anyway, I needed something else while I waited impatiently for Xcom, and so that leads us here (omg, Unravel is out next week as well).

The Deed

   If I was questioning if the 2 hour games were questionable to count off then this takes the biscuit. 31 minutes. To be fare though, the idea is to try and complete it in all the ways possible, and I did play it twice, to no avail. This is definitely an RPG maker game, fact, and it's about a guy going back to visit his arsehole family to kill his arsehole sister to get the inheritance he deserves for being the only at least semi normal human being in the family (I think that's the idea, yeah?). It's kind of like an interactive version of Cluedo, instead of guessing it's the maid in the drawing room with the candlestick, you can make it the maid in the drawing room with the shard of glass and well positioned panties. Actually, you can't. That's the scheme I played out the second time after initially getting the 'unknown murderer' ending so even though I got away with murder, no inheritance. I tried to set it on the maid and their none existant lesbian relationship, but that got the same ending. Did I even properly finish it? Well, I got away with murder so I'm going with yes. Especially given the fact I totally did the obvious set up to the maid, fuck that bitch.

Her Story

   This one kicked up a big fuss last year as everybody loved it. It's a database game on Steam where you are trying to solve a murder by watching interview clips with the above woman, then based on what she says get some key words to search the database to get more information. There's hundreds of different clips, ranging from a couple of seconds to a few minutes long and even though there's not anything that tells you the ending it's pretty easy to figure out, provided you get enough of the clips and don't assume what it is, because my initial thought was wrong.
    Point is, even tough I like the idea of the game and am always a fan of new ideas in games, what actually happened is ridiculous. I'm not going to spoil it here, but it seems like the kind of plot that got The Bill cancelled (I assume, I haven't seen it since I was 8). Good idea, stupid story. Top tip, get some of the clips from the final session as it reveals all. Oh the wind and the rain...

Rise of the Tomb Raider: Baba Yaga Temple of the Witch

   Okay, so this is DLC so won't be included in the count but it's the best damn thing I've played this week. You may already know my love of the game as it was in my nominees for game of the year, as was its predecessor in 2013 so I was expecting good things, and it delivered. I don't want to talk about the gameplay or those things as I've been there already. The story is delivered brilliantly though. They aim to go down a horror route to separate it from the main game before pulling that all away to reveal the truth behind the mind altering drugs to make sense of it. Then they add it all in again as you run out of antidote. It's a great way to add in some crazy scenes and frankly one of the best boss battles I've ever played (though you should know how I feel about those by now). It may only be a couple of hours long but it's a near perfect piece of downloadable content, if you loved the main game like I did, then, just like L'oreal, it's worth it.

Gauntlet

   Speaking of co op centric games (I was last week anyway) we move on to Gauntlet. A remake of an 80's classic that I rented on several occasions from the infamous 'Oscars video' for my Sega Master System some 25 years ago. The spirit lives on here in many ways. They try their best to pay homage to the original games, repeating the enemies, the keys to continue the game, eating Turkey to heal and I appreciate all this. The biggest issue I have though is how anti single player it is. I've had to set it to easy now (how embarrassing) as I got to a point where I was dying enough times to have to restart the level (though I can't figure out where it says how many lives you have) and for me, repeating 15 minutes you've just played isn't my idea of fun. I'm so glad we've moved on from that now. Anyway, this one is a long way from finished yet, but it seems like a game to play on the side while listening to music or podcasts or whatnot, if I can force myself away from Rocket League that is.

   Anyway, Xcom 2 is out now and if I can't run it I'm going to lose my shit. Expect much on that, and that only next week

Completed

Transformers: Devastation
Unmechanical
Pneuma
Killzone: Shadow Fall
Killer Instinct
Teslagrad
Defy Gravity
Cibele
Oxenfree
Out There Somewhere
Breath of Death VII
WWE 2K16
Gears of War 3
The Deed
Her Story

Underway

Xeodrifter
Gauntlet

12 Weeks, 12 Games, Year 3, Week 4

   I'm just held over in anticipation now. Xcom 2, which I'm so hoping will play on my Laptop is out next Friday, on top of that I got Just Cause 3 the other day, the Witness has come out and Far Cry Primal is out in a couple of weeks. Point is, there's an array of great games out now, or about to be, but they're all long games that are not at all conducive to this rushed game completion style that I'm going with right now. I want to do Xcom first though, so I'm not doing the others before and I have been/ will be going through some of the rest of the backlog first. It must be said the perceived standard of game for this week I'm writing about here is better than last, but I'd argue whether or not they actually are.

Breath Of Death VII

   But first we go back to the 19p Steam games. This was part of a 2 pack by the same developer along with it's sort of sequel 'Ctulhu saves the world' for 39p total. I'm pretty sure it's an RPG maker game and I'm basically playing this to get in to the mood for Undertale. That's for later though, for now though I had to get through this first. It was a very simple RPG that I was paying half attention to whilst watching TV, there was really no need to pay full attention. It's pretty obvious what to do if you've played any RPG before, if Pokemon was baby's first RPG then this is for the sperm.
   Some of the humour in it though was quite good and bought out by the setting. The human race is over and the undead, monsters and so on rule the Earth. You come across some interesting enemies and fun conversational lines that give this game some character beyond its simplicity. The only real issue with it is that I got to a point in the middle where I had to stop from advancing through the game and grind for an hour. This is a thing that's put me off so many RPG's in the past and in a game that took me less than 5 hours this is a significant time period spent there. As far as buying this one, yeah, why not, it's fine for 19p again, though maybe a bit longer than necessary. BTW Richard Herring, I've now seen a Bigfoot.

WWE 2K16

      Glass breaks. There are 2 main modes to complete in this game, which I was originally going to do, that is until I realised the career mode takes hundreds of hours so I figured I'd forget about that, not mention it here so no one knew I was cheating (whoops) and just go through the Austin 3:16 story mode. I'm pretty sure I don't need to go in to too much depth about this one as whether it was No Mercy or something more recent everyone has played a WWE game at some point. The main part about the story though is that it follows Austin's career from WCW up until his retirement playing key matches in his career and lots of video packages telling you the story in between.
   Weirdness in this comes from having to achieve certain moments in the match that happened in 'real life' and getting the cut scenes to explain out the story. It really separates the matches out in to sort of match segments where you don't really have to fight to get a win as generally most matches are ended by cut scenes, no pin or submission. Another issue, Austin, as a brawler is pretty boring to play as, I get that he was a big star and had a high profile career but in the ring to play as it's pretty dull. Still though it's an interesting look at the story of his career and when you get used to the 'match segment' style it becomes more fun. It's good once you get in to it, and that's the bottom line...

Gears Of War 3

   If you think Gears of War 3 is the most repetitive game you've ever played give me a hell yeah... Oh, wrong game. A bit of back story on why I played this one then. Back in 2006 I got GOW on 360 and didn't like it at all, I thought it was really boring after less than 1 chapter and had no interest in playing any more games in the series. some 9 years later I got ultimate edition, a remake of the first game on Xbox one and really enjoyed it. I figured that my tastes must have changed or I was crazy or something. Anyway, some point in that time in between GOW 3 became available on games with gold and this winter it became playable on Xbox One with backwards compatibility so I had a chance to play it at last. Seems now though that I was right 9 years ago and not so much 6 months ago, it's so boring to play, shoot, cover, shoot, cover, shoot, cover and repeat, for 12 hours.
   I have no idea why I played this to completion (well, I do, because of this stupid blog (not a word, according to the spellcheck on this blog)) but I wish I hadn't. More fun could have been had watching tea stains dry. It probably didn't help with the 'emotional' story having skipped the game in the middle and only reading the wikipedia synopsis. I didn't care that Dom died or anything to do with Marcus Fenix as he's a knob. I can see that it's made for co-op, it's pretty obvious, but playing it by myself really made me question why anyone would like this game. So, get off the Cole Train at the next station and avoid.


   Now it's just a question of what to get through before Friday when Xcom comes out, assuming I can play it of course, I'd damn well better be able to! Also, how great is tipping point? What a ridiculous idea for a quiz show! Yay, I've passed 12 already a third of the way through time-wise, probably a good thing as they're going to be slowing down pretty quickly now.

Completed

Transformers: Devastation
Unmechanical
Pneuma
Killzone: Shadow Fall
Killer Instinct
Teslagrad
Defy Gravity
Cibele
Oxenfree
Out There Somewhere
Breath of Death VII
WWE 2K16
Gears of War 3

Underway

Xeodrifter

12 weeks, not 12 games,year 3, week 3

   I'm catching up, just 6 days behind at time of writing, so, with any look, by week 4 I should have caught up (as I suggested in the last post). It should be warned though that week 4 so far is lining up to be a bit of a stinker though, not in the AAAnes (haha, anus) of game, but in the actual quality of said games, critism on it's way. For this week though, there's a lot of shorter games, which is somewhat disappointing given I was off work, but I've been spending more of my time watching Dead like me, which isn't even that good. There's only really 1 game that I care about this week too and all I want to write about in honesty, but given that I'm trying to reach that goal of 12, which I'm already close to by the end of this, I'll talk about them anyway, in order of played too (tip, game 3 is what I'm referring to).

   Defy Gravity

     Oh yeah, 2D platformer, just like I've always loved. Finally I've got access to a computer, as I unnecessarily bought a new one, which I don't even think as is good as my new one, I'll get my old one fixed anyway but, honestly, I might return this one (if I can) and stick with the old one (if it's got enough RAM to run Xcom, which this has). The point I'm getting at is this is one of my 19, or maybe 39p (I can't remember now) Steam purchases, which I wasn't really sure I'd ever play, and who can turn that down, especially since I bought it with those pointless Steam trading cards that I don't even understand the existence of. Oh yeah, I was supposed to be talking about the game, not stewing bullshit (or was I?).
   So, 2d platformer as I said, it's about  1 1/2 hours long (a bit of a cheat I know) and it's passable at best. Essentially you get a gravity gone, one that sucks and one that blows gravity wells. You use this to climb walls. dodge bullets and solve simple puzzles. Your character moves as well as Marcus Phoenix and you can run of flippin' ammo (god this Jagermeister and Robinsons squash is awful (who'd have thought?)) and doesn't have a counter to how many shots you've used, which can be mighty annoying hen you can't jump the very last wall (top tip developers, put a shot counter in). As I implied. it's not hard and very short, but for the price I can't really moan but I'd recommend you give it a miss even at that price, sorry.

   Cibele

   Speaking of 19-39p short Steam games that suck, meat Cibele, a half live action, half awful playable game.   Heck, she's, only even even average looking (sorry actress), which I'm not saying is a bad thing (I wish I was average looking (not looking for sympathy btw)) but given the dialogue it really doesn't fit. It's about young love and it's trash. What's worse is that it's created by someone who worked on Gone home, which is an outstanding game, so even though that sets a high expectation, this doesn't live up to it.
   I'm noticing I'm just talking about how crap this game is without really explains what it is, so better do that. The main idea is that an online MMO has swept the world (almost as big as WOW), which you even get to play (that's the gameplay element), which is simply walking around a map and hitting things that don't even hit back, which frankly is a relief as I could barely stand it for the whole 61 minutes I played it for (according to Steam) and didn't want to add more time replaying after deaths. You also have to manage this girls social media by pressing the 'reply' button every 2 minutes, but this doesn't actually impact the plot in any way. That plot being you've met some guy who also plays this game and you fall in love, though he's not really bothered about meeting you, despite you saying you love each other a million times.
   That paragraph was getting long so I figured I start a new one even though this is going to carry straight on. The cut scenes are essentially you watching her on the phone to this guy talking to him, which just happens during the gameplay anyway, and watching her sitting at her computer playing the game, which you're thankfully not in control of. Anyway, ending is (spoilers (oh no!)) you meet after months of talking, bang, then he leaves and says he's not really in love with you, and never wants to see you again. that's it, cool story bro (or sis in this game). I way prefer criticising games than praising the, it's way more fun, shame about what's coming up next then. Here's a picture of the gameplay anyway, but it doesn't do any justice to how awful it is, an yes, those pink things are the enemies. Tip, it's not worth 19-39p, in fact, I should have been paid to play it!

   Oxenfree

   Here's the much talked about 3rd game, and it's actually a new game this time! It's an adventure game is the first thing to say, where the game is essentially making a series of conversation decisions while exploring an island. The thing that makes it so special is the insane story. It's full of evil spirits, alternate dimensions and time loops and more along those lines. Your conversations do matter too, despite the fact you're going to the island to get hammered with friends (it's just off the coast, not like some Lost island) you can really mess up your relationships with them which leads to some bad mojo and deaths galore. The story is branching of course, with a great array of endings (looked the others up) that leave just enough to your interpretation.
   I've never been a big adventure game fan, I've never played any of the loved early 90's array like Monkey Island, day of the tentacle, leisure suit Larry and so on and on and on. It doesn't matter here though. It's hard to really explain the game without spoiling it so I don't want to go in to too many details here, but that is making it hard to sell to you because I really think you should get it.

   Out there somewhere

   Back to the 19-39p 1 hour games (this is really starting to feel cheap now (as in time, not price (who cares about price, a games a game no matter the price (sounds like I'm defending the length now, which I sort of am, just criticising I'm including it as it looks like I'm trying to boost numbers)))) but there's a difference, it is worth the price this time. Sure, I wouldn't recommend it if it's £5 (ooh, back up to full price now, 79p!) but for the price that it was (and is), you should consider it. The mechanic here is teleportation, which is actually used quite well in a semi puzzle platformer way (like Defy gravity) but with a good mix of regular platforming in it too.
   It was a lot harder than I expected, and given that it took me 78 minutes to complete (again, according to Steam) you can understand as they have to up the difficulty pretty darn (trying not to swear (despite the fact in RL ever third word is a swear word)) fast to make it challenging at all. The quick plot (obvs) is that you crashed your ship, on a planet inhibiting by mean bugs and friendly worms and have to get new power sauce (Ref Dwaft reference not a typo (though series 8 so hmm)) to get home. It plays fine, not spectacular, it's fun and there's even some not well hidden collectibles which could add another 20 minutes if you really wanted (where's the insert button on this thing, ballsed is up (ah, found it but nothings changing weirdly (could be bad for writing Oxenfree as I've actually wrote this first))). Give this one a go, why not at that price, it's above average.

   My god I hope I can run Xcom 2, I'm 'psyched' for it but not sure my graphics card is up to snuff. There's week 4 first though, which as I referenced is full of frankly disappointing games. Still, just because of this blog I'm going to finish them anyway for some pointless reason, which I'd have given up on normally, and it's not even very often I give up on games anyway so shows the high levels of disappointment here. Oh, I also started the WWE 2K16 showcase this week but only played for about an hour (best of a bad bunch so far btw) so, as I'm already a ways in to this week I'll write up next week (yes, fixed the insert problem by refreshing the page so I won't have to leave in all the spelling and grammar errors, yet I'll leave the chatter in as it's seems like the mythology (yeah, excited for X files return) of this post. I wish I could get to sleep btw, I got about 4 hours sleep last night and now it's gone 1AM but can't get to sleep, stupid brain surgery, completely swapping directions from a week ago from a week or so ago where I was sleeping 12-14 hours a day (top tip, don't have it, it sucks, more info here http://andy8472.blogspot.co.uk/2015_10_01_archive.html and I'm still getting seizures, what a waste of a scarless head!). Oop. out of Jagermesiter and blackcurrant squash, better get another!

Completed

Transformers: Devastation
Unmechanical
Pneuma
Killzone: Shadow Fall
Killer Instinct
Teslagrad
Defy Gravity
Cibele
Oxenfree
Out There Somewhere

Underway

Xeodrifter
WWE 2K16