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).