12 weeks, 12 games, year 2

   Well, the Royal Rumble sucked. Onwards though. After the 'success' of this last year I figured I'd do it again and hell, I was off for a week last week too so I figured I could make a big dent into the number right off the back, and I did.

   So, First up the game that comes off the back of the comment I made at the end of my last post referring to a new aid to get this done. The Aid, A PS4 ('cause I had more money than I needed (amongst other things)), the game, Transistor. It had made many peoples GOTY list last year and despite it not really looking like my bag, I figured I'd give it a go and I liked it too! It's a lot like their previous game, Bastion (apparently, I never played it) where it's got an Isometric view and you have to battle an array of robots with the the help of your trusty talking sword best mate (the Transistor) and you can pause and pre plan attacks that will then be executed for you and is a lot easier than straight up fighting as this happens mega quick. There's a nice death mechanic too where you don't actually die, just lose your most powerful attack for a couple of charge stations, and then the next one and so on, so there's not a lot of annoying replaying of areas. People these days complain that games are too easy but I find nothing more annoying in gaming than having to do the same bit more than 2 or 3 times (hence why I'll never play Demon Souls, I'd break more than 1 controller on that no doubt). I'm not advocating making games really easy but this seems like a nice compromise to me and I really liked that touch.

   Now, I'm not a 100% sure what the plot was, it was pretty crazy but it had something to do with a  robotic future, where they just decided to take over a city for some reason and steal a singers voice (that's you (fun note, you can join in with the background music at any time as she will hum along to it with a spotlight shining down on her from the heavens, that was unusual)) and there's a sword that keeps the souls of people it's killed in it. Okay, maybe not souls, more the mind but no body and inside it seems to be like a genies lantern or something where there's a world inside this soul sword. Weird plot aside, it was really good and I'm glad I gave it a try.

   From there back to the Xbone and a game that came free with games with gold in Worms: Battlegrounds, I've always liked worms as a multiplayer game, who hasn't? (also, British!) The single player has always been an excuse to let you play against the AI though, but it never really mattered because it's not what the game was about. This was different though (sort of). There was a plot (albeit a weak one about breaking in to a museum to stop some guy being able to control the minds of worms worldwide) and missions more than normal face offs. They even splashed the bucks and got Katherine Parkinson (IT Crowd's Jen) to do the VO (no shouting though thankfully). The missions were a mix between badly planned stealth, traversal, puzzle solving and classic worms fights. They were okay even though it was an odd direction to take and hell, it even had a boss at the end. It's not these things I have a problem with so much though as that it took the AI a year to make a move for some reason and the checkpoints (that you had to get lest ye have to go all the way back to the start of the level because the AI, after doing nothing all game pulls off the most audacious shot that no actual person would ever be able to make and takes out your whole team in one go) were always directly facing a group of opposition worms, who would then blast that guy to pieces. There's also different classes of worms now (1 can move quicker, 1 does more damage, there's some others) which I don't know why they changed. Apparently that happened in the previous one to this and I guess they wanted to change it up a bit as not much has changed since the short lived jump to 3D. I say if it ain't broke don't fix it, just add more fun weapons and put back in a map editor. It's still fun multiplayer though.

   Then, on to the Stand Alone DLC (so yes, I'm counting it) for Saints Row 4; Gat out of hell (haha, pun). I don't know why Saints Row 4 got so much hate. I loved it's complete change from the previous formula. GTA V was coming out not long after it and I think making it a superhero game was a great move to mix things up while still including the same old Goofy Saints Row humour that made it feel like the early GTA's were back in the first place. Gat out of hell was an interesting Idea for a plot where Johnn Gat and Kinzie have to go in to hell to rescue your protagonist from the main game after he's kidnapped playing with a Ouija board to marry Satan's daughter. The game is set in hell then (though it looks like some random city only with corpses walking the streets, a bizarre array of cars which, just like in the main game, you don't need and demons for police) and you get wings and can fly around and stuff. You get to meet up with some old deceased friends/ enemies from previous games and even Ultor plays a part. We also get Satan with a South Park style evil goatee and a Disney esque song in the middle (too early though as I new it was coming and I was looking forward to it and felt it should've come nearer to the end). Unfortunately though the game is nearly all side missions as you're just looking to build Satans Eyre towards you so he will face you off in battle, obviously winding him up by doing things like the insurance fraud mini game and flying speed runs.

  There is plenty to do though, you don't have to do anywhere near all the side missions to finish the game (though I did anyway) and there's the '7 deadly sin' weapons to collect (I got 1) and there's the classic collectibles to hunt for everywhere which, to be fair, do help you improve your special powers. Still, I didn't even get half of them and after about half way through I was already too overpowered for any enemy so it's not like you really need them unless your a completionist (I'm not). Also, for a game that has been released on next gen systems, it doesn't look very good, which is a shame because it had a cool style.

   Then I hit a roadblock. After sitting in my drawer fir 6 months or so I figured it was time to give Wolfenstein: The new order a go. Obviously this is a franchise with a big history in videogames but I'd never played one before. I'd heard good things (can't have been that good though or it wouldn't have been sitting there for so long) so it seemed only right to give it a go. Frankly it reminds me a lot of Metro: Last light which I played for this same 12 weeks 12 games last year in that it has a good plot and continual story, but the the gameplay is passable. There's not a big problem with it but it's one of those where once I've put it down I wont think about it again, and, just Like Metro it's too long. How long to beat says it takes about 12 hours but based on how long I was playing it for and apparently am not through a third of the missions it seems like it'll take longer (I do keep dying a lot mind). Now I'm getting older and time is more precious I really struggle to play mediocre games, it's okay if they're short because I'll just get on with it, but when it's long it seems like such a daunting task of having to sit there for hours being at best mildly entertained. There's plenty of TV shows I could be watching of other games to play, but I know what I'm like, I've started so I'll finish. Before I end here for today I'd be re missed if I didn't make reference to the fact that even in a game set in the 60's it has Polish people leaving their country for another. I'll speak more what the game is like next week when I've (hopefully) finished it, but I know I can't be bothered tonight.

Completed

Transistor
Worms Battlegrounds
Saints Row: Gat out of hell

Underway

Wolfenstein: The new order.


   BTW, if there's even more spelling mistakes than usual my new Laptops keyboard seems to be trash.

Game of the Year 2014

   Last year I had GTA V, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider and the eventual winner, The Last of Us on the list. 2014, as I previously mentioned, Wasn't anywhere near as good and there is no way any of these upcoming games would've won last year, let alone even be on the list. Nevertheless, there's got to be a winner (well, there hasn't, but there's gonna be), so here we go...

FORZA HORIZON 2

   It's been many years since I have enjoyed a racing game so much, you're probably talking GT2, released a mere 15 years previously (a time when I was in to cars (despite being 12), little did I know I'd be epileptic and thus unable to drive), which says a lot about how much I care really. Anyway, this was a gorgeous open world racer with a good mix of race types and cars, a nice environment and some fun side quests (are they quests in racing games?). 'Driveatars' meant that the opposition was more human and, unlike in GT2, the cars didn't just follow a pre set path, many of them took their own routes and went at the race differently. Of course, the unfortunate truth of it is that it's just a racing game, that may seem harsh but it's always going to be hard for it to stand alongside the greats. Still, give the game it's due, as far as I'm concerned it's the pinnacle of racing games.

SOUTH PARK: THE STICK OF TRUTH

 
   A game years in the making and eagerly anticipated by myself (and many others, but this is about me damn it) for a long time. It's very rare for a game, but it was hilarious, the combat was simple enough to not take you out of the light hearted nature of the game but had enough depth to keep it from being repetitive. It had a lot of nice references to old episodes so South Park fans like myself had some nice bonuses too. It looked just like the show too (though, you would expect that due to the power of the console and the crappy look of the show). It was written by Matt and Trey (one of the main reasons it took so long (also, THQ went under)) so you knew it would be good going in and it has a cohesive story (as cohesive s a South Park story ever can be anyway). The only thing I can say against it really is that it was too Short. I like a lot of meat in my RPG's, but this clocked in short of what I'd like, especially given how long it was in development.

MIDDLE EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR

    As I mentioned before, where did this game come from? Who brands a game after The Lord of the Rings now. I know there's the Hobbit films but there's just nowhere near the excitement around those as there was in the original trilogy. Anyway, this was a game that took the best things from Assassin's Creed and the Arkham series and melded them together fantastically. Great Combat, good stealth and of course the mind control and nemesis systems. You could get control of the enemy armies by controlling the minds of their leaders, which could turn in to great advantage on the battlefield. There was the nemesis system too where an enemy might kill you, get promoted and you'll see him again later, stronger. Alternatively they may escape, and the next time you see them they'll be damaged, and come a half dozen times he'll be horribly deformed. There were some problems though, the story was forgettable and it had Golem in it, who always annoyed me in the films. Additionally, in the first half of the game the area was all mud and looked awfully bland.

So, what's the winner. Ultimately they were all good games, but there is only one that would have made it on to the aformentioned  list, and that is... South Park, The Stick of Truth. It had to win inevitably, as I'd been looking forward to it for years, and anticipation always makes me feel like games are better, but to be fair, it definitely lived up to my hope (though that didn't work for GTA V last year).

Now, on to 12 weeks 12 weeks, 12 games year two (starting from tommorow (19/1/15)), and I've got a new aid to do it

2014: year in review (gaming)

   Let's start with the most (over)hyped game of the year; Destiny. Plenty of people love Halo to a ludicrous extent, so when Bungie announced they were handing over the reigns of Halo to go and pursue their own new ideas, people were buzzing with anticipation. Finally it's coming to PS4, it's an MMO, it's an... FPS. Shocker. All jokes aside though people were amped because we all knew Bungie were good at them, so let's give them the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately it wasn't all that exciting. It didn't really have a story and was all about doing an array of side missions to level up to get to the later added 'raids' which you could only do with 5 friends online anyway. I suppose that is the idea of an MMO really but I was hopeful that there would be more to it (for more go: http://andy8472.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/games-season-destiny.html )It could have been worse though, because as it turned out i would be one of few AAA late year releases that wasn't plagued with bugs. Driveclub embarrassingly didn't work for months, NBA2K15's create a player faces melted, EA servers crashed, Call of duty had it problems connecting, but of course the best one was

   No faces on Assassin's creed Unity. Now, as someone who didn't play it, I found it hilarious but for the guys at Ubisoft who had done so much to get a beautiful looking world on the next gen systems, they must have been well miffed to say the least.
   It wasn't all bad for Ubisoft though, as they released the much anticipated (by me) South Park: The stick of truth, the JRPG style comedy game that was incredible and is on my list for game of the year (so I won't talk much about it here). They also cranked out 2 good smaller games in Valiant Hearts and Child of Light that were fun little adventures and both worth a play. Also not forgetting the second most (over)hyped game of the year in Watchdogs, which I thought was alright despite what some others may say. Not forgetting Far Cry 4 (which incidentally came out in that late 2014 period but didn't have any horrific bugs (seem like that and Destiny book ended the 'problem period')) and a few more, so I'd say it was good for them in 2014 (ACU aside).
   Who remembers Titanfall? The big online only shooter on Xbox one. That game was marketed like crazy and pushed down out throats with all it's armoured mechs and Parkour. It was fun for a while, but as I find with anything if I'm playing a team online game by myself (which I'm always forced to now) then I quickly lose interest. Seems like most of the rest of the world did too and Call of Duty came in and stripped it for parts.
  While on multiplayer games lets talk Nintendo with Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros. As I have mentioned a billion times before I was a Sega kid so none of these franchises meant anything to me before the Wii (the only Nintendo console I'd had before that was a Gameboy ('cause, Pokemon)) so when I jumped in to both on the Wii after I was told how great they would be although my inner child wouldn't let me believe a game about a bunch (shudder) Nintendo characters could come together and have a good game. Of course it tuned out they could and they were great. Fast forward 8 years. I'm not at university anymore and now there aren't a bunch of people with nothing better to do several days a week, nor does the Wii U have an Ethernet port. This led me to playing both of these games briefly very briefly and moving on because they're just not something you play alone and the time of my life for gathering people together to drink and play videogames for hours has long gone (unfortunately, still sounds like an awesome night to me)).
   Speaking of multiplayer being ruined it looks like I wasted £40 on FIFA. After my perhaps harsh review of  this years instalment ( http://andy8472.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/games-season-fifa-15.html ) I played it some more and got more used to it to where I was ready to go back in and change the score  (not that anyone would've noticed), but then I couldn't play online. I'd connect to the EA servers, but when trying to get in to a match after about 20 failed attempts and eventully joining one I'd get kicked off the EA servers. I've tried several times since but only one time did it work. It looks like I'm not the only one experiencing this problem, but it is a small minority of people so EA probably don't care (after all they don't seem to be doing anything about it) but I'd probably lower my score now as that's the only real reason I play it. Oh well, Looks like it's back to pro Evo for me this year (a Small joke there for you but you have to work for it).
   Ports, what's all that about? I know really, money, yeah. It just annoys me that so many games are getting ported over from the last consoles to the new ones, especially Tomb Raider and The Last of Us which only came out last year anyway. I've heard arguments that it lets developers get used to the new consoles, but I'm sure they could do that while making a new game. Come on guys.
   There was definitely some games that snuck up on me last year, especially Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. Here was me not caring about anything Lord of the Ringsy since 2003, and here this came. Anyway, that's in my game of the year nominees so no more on that. The same can be said for the aforementioned Child of light though, which despite scepticism from me going in turned out to be pretty damned good. It's another small JRPG style game, like South Park, but more heartwarming than funny and definitely worth a go. Super Time Force was pretty great too if you like 2D platformers (which I do), because it looked like there was too much going on to me as I went in but it turned out to be awesome. As did Lego Marvel Superheroes. I'd got sick of Lego games a long time ago, and even though the main story missions were of a similar ilk to the stuff I'd played many years ago on Lego Star wars there was just so much to do in the open world and it was bulging with collectibles/ unlockables and it made it more than it had the right be.
   Sneaking wasn't all great this year, 'cause you know who else sneaked? Snake. A very much glorified demo tat you had the privilege to pay for, that was a tiny chunk of what the main game will be, and frankly I didn't like it either. As I spoke about before.
( http://andy8472.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/week-6.html ) The AI seems ridiculously good and they could spot you from miles away, even in the pitch black. I don't think this is criticism that I found it too hard, it was just ridiculous. Plus, Kiefer Sutherland replaced David Hayter? I was Just hearing Jack Bauer the whole time and repeating the joke 'huh, what was that noise' in my own head every time he spoke. It makes me Long for PS 1 demo disc that had the first couple of levels from the original on MGS on it (and Total soccer!).

   Frankly, It's been a disappointing year after a great 2013 with devs squeezing the last they could out of the PS3/ 360 an now they're getting used to the new ones and frankly with so many standout games that year, 2014 was always going to have a hard time keeping up the pace. Still, I'll always try to look on the bright side and look forward to next year and the games coming out, like the Witcher 3, Batman Arkham Knight, Tomb Raider (2?), No Mans Sky and many more. And BTW, my other GOTY (Game of the year) nominee from me is Forza Horizion 2. More to come on that in the coming days.

Belated Games Season: Far Cry 4

   Well, that took a long time. Still, Christmas and all that got in the way and I kept getting distracted by side missions, Worms and a bunch of films, but I've finished it now, just a mere 2 months after it's release. Wow, I'm good at doing reviews in a timely manner (sarcasm).
  A brief history of the Far Cry game series and me, Far Cry 4 obviously being the next in this series, which  really hooked me with number 3. I never played 1, but I did play 2, and I didn't like it. The guard posts at basically every road junction really annoyed me an I kept catching Malaria so I wasn't going to play number 3, despite how much one of my friends kept talking it up to me. Then, It came free on PS Plus (a service I only got to get a nice Vita library (a console which I used probably a dozen times, put it aside for about 6 months, then, when about to leave on holiday started it up to install the couple of games I'd bought especially to play on the plane and the screen was bust. Oh well, £120 well spent) but a service that helped me play the likes of Far Cry 3 and Metro last light (which I wouldn't have given a chance otherwise)) and I played it, and I loved it. The great open world with so much to do, enemy bases to conquer, a fun story, random animal attacks and of course, great gameplay (gamplay is King after all). Fast forward a year and a half (based on when I played 3, not on when it came out) and Far Cry 4 hit the shelves and I couldn't wait. Reviews by real reviewers said it was more of the same but why fix what isn't broken?
   So, what wild opinion do I bring to the table? I'd say that yeah, it is more of the same, Far Cry 3 was excellent. It's added on to that game, but in the 2 year gap with the likes of GTA V redefining open world gaming (perhaps a harsh comparison as that was developed for around 3 times longer) and the leap to a next generation of hardware I'd say ultimately it's a bit of a let down. That is not to say It's bad by any stretch of the imagination. Far Cry 3 would have been a 10 from me (had I been doing this then) so it already had pretty high expectations from myself. It's hard to really expand upon the point that it's a just a new coat of paint on the old game but I'll try.

   That picture definitely brings up a major positive. Elephants are bad ass. Whether you're riding it or sending it in to attack on your behalf, nothing is more effective than an elephant, and it's great fun too charging through enemy strongholds, wiping out enemies that stand in your way whilst picking off the ones hiding behind cover with my trusty grenade launcher. Speaking of weapons I definitely took a different approach to this game, weapon-wise than to how I approached number 3. In 3 I used the bow all the time, and only as a very, very last resort would I change it. This time, did I have my bow in my regular load out? Sure, but I was happy to change as soon as I'd inevitably been spotted and had to start shot-gunning people in the face (I'm not sure why I didn't do this in 3 as it was a lot easier). Don't forget luring wild animals in to enemy outposts with bait too. Why attack yourself when you can let a Tiger do the work?
   Speaking of Tigers, there's a nice variety of side missions here, from stealth missions in the Himalayas (though they never ended stealthily when I was playing them) to drug filled dreams/nightmares and on to stories about heaven (this is where the tiger comes in). Welcome to Shangri-la (urgh, how cheesy), where you fight off demons to ring bells to remove a big bird (not the one from sesame street) with the help of some White-Ranger tiger power (A white tiger (but that wouldn't have been as funny)) At first, I wasn't a fan of the Shangri-la missions, in fact, I hated the second one, but I thought I'd give the 3rd a go, and low and behold, Elephants! Then the final one gave you the only true boss battle of the game (and it was good too).
   There's a good story in here too, with you ultimately having to decide the fate of the country in a tradition v revolution face off between rival group leaders Sabal and Amita. Your father and mother came from Kyrat (where the game is set, you see) and helped build the Golden path, and, assuming you don't finish the game in 13 minutes, a very interesting tale about your parents unfolds involving Amita, Sabal, the Golden Path and Pagan-Min (the antagonist). I wont ruin it for you but it's worth sticking around for.

   So, speaking of (and visualising) Pagan-Min, as you may well have heard, he's just not in it enough. He's a very interesting character (insert Troy Baker comment here) but just isn't involved that much apart from the opening and closing scenes of the game, which ultimately made the ending feel a little hollow to me as it revolves around him so much.
   There are some minor gripes I have too, such as being attacked by wild animals when trying to stealth in to an area and giving your position away is annoying, as is being spotted by and enemy vehicle then being chased for miles while all you were trying to do was drive to a mission start point as well as your vehicle disappearing after you've parked it when you have gone into a cut scene. News flash Ubisoft, I still need to get to where you're telling me to go.
   But the ultimate failing of the game is repetition. Not just from Far Cry 3 but from itself. The main reason the game took me so long to finish is that the middle act dragged so much because (even though the story was still interesting) all the missions were basically the same. Go to location x, and kill all the enemies. When I started the game I was flying through, I probably put in 10 hours in the first week (a lot for me due to my work hours and other commitments (TV)) and was completing all the side mission in the area and flying through the progress ranks. Now here I am 6 weeks later, game completed with 20 hours put in. It's sad to say but it becomes such a drag in the middle that I couldn't motivate myself to play it. Sure, the game still plays well, but, as with most fps' it can get so samey that I lose interest.

   This all seems a bit mean to me now that I've wrote it because the beginning was great, and it really picked up again at the end. The gameplay is great and it's made some improvements over 3 (though there should have been more). It's a tough one to give a score to because I know it's good but it could have been so much more. Let's say 8/10.
BTW, I didn't play the multiplayer

   A 2014 year in review and game of the year are on their way so stay tuned for that (though don't sit staring at your monitors pressing refresh cause you'll be doing it for a while (actually, do that because it will make it look like I've got loads of viewers so I can put some ads on here and get some bonus cash)). I'm just waiting for Smash Bros. to arrive as it's the only really important game left of 2014 that I feel I need to play to make judgements (he says looking at Borderlands and Wolfenstein in his drawer). Until then x.

Games Season: WWE 2K15

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

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

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

Games Season: Costume quest 2

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

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

5/10

Games Season: Sunset Overdrive

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

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

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

6/10