by lucien21
Showing 1-10 of 23 items
02/04/2016 Tom Clancy’s The Division 65 hours played Level 30 The Division is very Destiny-like. It is a third-person shooter with MMO and RPG-lite qualities. Set in Manhatten NY after a biological terrorist attack. You are a Division agent sent in to help the locals and restore order from the groups that have taken over. Pros * Real world setting is cool. I caught myself looking for areas I visited in real life to see how they looked in game. It is also seemless to move between areas and into buildings etc with no loading unless you die or fast travel. The main missions are usually set in one of the main NY landmarks. The first main mission is in Madison Square Garden for example. * Addictive combat. Having damage numbers and health bars on the enemies totally feeds into the OCD of tweaking your stats so that you can make those numbers higher. I spent a lot of time managing my load out of weapons to twease out the best armour and DPS numbers. * Co-op with mates is great. Team up on the main missions or just wandering the world. Most of my playtime was played single player which if you level up regularly and do the zones in order of difficulty you find that you are always over each areas recommended level. * Collection items like phone messages, tactical info, echoes etc provides a lot of atmosphere to the world with individual stories of normal citizens as the virus spread. * The Dark Zone is the multiplayer section in the middle of the map. Entering here allows you to team up to extract higher level items, but watch if someone turns on the team and steals all your hard earned loot. it was cool for the little I played it. * Loot, loot and more LOOT. Is this sniper rifle better than the one I have, what if I add these mods how is my DPS (Damage per second). What if I craft this backpack, it increases my DPS, but reduces my Tech score and Health…..decisions decisions. Even better it’s the Diablo colour coded system, I need to get more purple and gold drops. Cons * Side missions can get a bit repetitive. A lot of defending supply drops, initiating virus scanners and drug busts. * Main Story is a bit thin. There are a lot of radio chatter and videos at the end of main missions, but it’s pretty forgettable and doesnt really go anywhere. * You can still see the UBISOFT open world template shining through. Access Safe houses in each area to Synch your map and highligh where all the missions are. * Enenies can be very bullet spongy. Given the setting shooting someone in the head multiple times and still seeing them shooting back is a bit distracting. Overall I had a lot of fun with the game and once you hit the level cap and complete the final mission it opens up the end game, Daily missions are currently live and with the next upgrade the first Incursion mission is unlocked. (Basically Destiny Raids). It has yet to be seen if it has the legs of Destiny, but regular upgrade and new contect could see me coming back to it in the future. 4/5
10/04/2016 Quantum Break Playtime - 8hs 48 mins Completion - 97% Is it a game or is it a TV show? As it happens it is a bit of both. The lastest game from Remedy is a paradox in more ways than one. It is a third-person cover shooter Where you play as Jack Joyce (Shawn Ashmore - Xmen) who gets caught up in a time travel adventure where you are trying to stop the “END OF ALL TIME”. While visiting your brothers old friend you decide to help him out with a science experiment. Of course it goes wrong and *Kablooey* time is fractured and you seem to have developed some new time powers. The game part is pretty standard cover shooter mechanic, but the time powers allow you to do a lot of cool things with the word time slapped on the front of it. Things like Time dodge (short sprint to avoid bullets), Time Stop (freeze an enemy in a time bubble and shoot it a lot so they get hit with them all at once when it unfreezes), Time Blast (basically an explosion of time ???), Time shield (blocks bullets), Time Vision (basically Detective Vision from Batman)....oh you get the idea. So combining these powers with the range of weapons you get can make for some fun combat, if a tad easy. On normal level this game is a cake walk. The TV part.. well at the end of each act there is a short interlude where you play as the bad guy. This ends in a binary choice of how he is gong to respond to what you have been doing in the main game parts. It then is followed by 20-25 mins of a TV show which you just sit and watch. It is an interesting idea, but it breaks up the game play more than a Kojima game. It does flesh out a couple of throwaway side characters as the main actors barely appear in it, but in the end it has no bearing on the storyline. There are some minor things you do in the game that lead to slight changes in the show, but blink and you will miss the mention of that item you interacted with being talked about. Pros * I give them credit for trying something new with the TV show aspect. * The combat and powers can be fun to use, but I wish they could be combined more. * The graphics are great. * I do enjoy a good time story and this one was ok. Gets a bit timmey whimmey head hurts occassionally. * Acting is generally decent with a number of the actors being faces I had seen before. * Puzzles were ok but could have done with some more. Cons * Movement is a bit swimmey. There is a slowness and awkwardness to the character movement that can be frustrating. * The cover mechanics and shooting are very hit and miss. There is no cover lock, it is automatic. Stand near cover and he auto moves ito position. Then stands up like an idiot to shoot. No blind fire at all…weird. Guns also lock onto target, but frequently taget the wrong thing or just plain miss. * The platform sequences are hideous. * Combat is waaay too easy on normal level. * TV show is streamed so make sure your connection is fast enough otherwise you will have to download about 75 GB of video. (mine was ok for the most part) Overall it’s not a complete disaster, but neither does it completely work. Neither the game nor the TV show stands out for me and it ends up all being a bit middle of the road. 3/5
01/05/2016 [strong]Ratchet & Crank (2016) - PS4[/strong] So this is a game based on a movie that is based on the original 2002 game. It's "I am my own grandpa" the game :). A 3D action platformer made by Insomniac games sees you play as Ratchet, a Furry cat like creature called a Lombax and Clank a small failed war robot. Together they set out to defeat Drex and his army of robots and the Blarg. [strong]Pros[/strong] * Georgous Pixar like graphics. Everything from the level design, animations and attention to detail is very polished. * The script and in game announcer voicework is hilarious. *Mr Zurkon is Bored* * Choice of weapons and gadgets is pretty large. Everything from your standard monkey wrench to the Groovinator (makes your enemies dance to disco) or the Sheepinator (turns them into Sheep :S ). Gadgets also range from magnetic boots to jetpacs. * Variety of levels allow you a decent challenge. The Clank levels are puzzley while Ratchet gets all the action including rail grinding, space battles, Jetpacing around or doing race events on a hoverboard. * Once you have defeated the game and collected hidden gold nuts. You can customise the game to you hearts content. It even has a built in cheat menu that you can unlock. [strong]Cons[/strong] * Can be frustrating at times esp towards the end where getting knocked off a platform mid fight can make you scream at the tv. * When battles get frantic the amount of particles flying around (nuts, bolts, gunfire, parts of enemies etc) can obscure the screen making it difficult to know if everyone is dead. Overall it was a great nostalgia trip, a great remaster and a pretty decent movie tie in. [strong]4/5[/strong]
15/05/2016 Played this very short game on the ipad while I was away for the weekend with no Wifi or Phone signal. It was a well written little fun game. Pros * Fun characters * Neat little notebook puzzles and it doesn’t hold your hand Cons * Very short * Linear
22/05/2016 Uncharted 4 - A Thief’s End Finished the game in just over 17 hours. Pros * Stunning to look at. Everything from the character models to the environments is beautiful. Must be one of the best looking games ever. The character models are uncannily lifelike. * Although not as many big set pieces as in previous games the pacing is spot on. I liked the many quiet and puzzle sections just as much as the climbing and combat bits. * Great cast with some superb voicework. The new characters of Sam, Nadine and Rafe are welcome additions to the cast. * Great story that neatly wraps the series up, although it wasn’t the ending I expected. The amount of great character moments was unexpected from a rollercoaster blockbuster type game. * Used the Last of Us Buddy system to great effect although occassionally it felt like it was lifted from that game. There was one level with the brothers that felt a bit like the Last of Us DLC level. * The more open world combat and driving sequences made the game feel slightly less linear. The new mechanics were a lot of fun. Stealth felt right and the rope made for some fun impressive takedowns. * Monkey Island Easter Egg for the win. Also noticed how similar one of the later levels was in play style to the PS1 easter egg at the start of the game. Is Uncharted really just a HD Crash Bandicoot in the chase sequences Cons * Can sometime feel a bit easy with the climbing etc being a tad automatic. * Scotland level .... not any part of Scotland that I know. * No more Uncharted Cry Not as good as UC2 or LofUs, but still an amazing game. 5/5
04/06/2016 Playtime 18:18 on "Hurt me Plenty". Reboot of the classic shooter series after Doom 3 stank up the franchise for 15 years. You are Doomguy the legendary Demonslayer. [strong]Pro[/strong] * Looks and sounds gorgeous. Martian vistas and Hell levels all have appropriate sights to behold. Appropriate rocking tunes keep you pumped and motivated. * Moves like grease lightning. Your mobility as you circle strafe and leap around the levels is superb. Unlike most modern shooters this kept you moving constantly to stay alive, constantly on the edge of death. * Level design is great. Reminicent of some of the best levels in the original games they flow neatly around and now have a lot of verticality missing from the old games. The design gives open spaces and tight areans allowing you to dodge and avoid the enemies, find hidden secrets and find new ways to get the drop on the demons and avoid getting cornered. * Nice variety of new designs for the old enemy types. All the old favs are back. All the classic power up are still there as well. Quad Damage being the most fun. * Dry sense of humour right from the start. I wish I could hit cancel on that demonic invasion in progress bar. :) The data logs are really funny so make sure you read them. * They have done a nice job of integrating modern items into the mix. Challenges, collections, upgrades to weapons and Armour etc are all there. While it keeps the health and ammo packs and general feel of the shooting from Doom 1 and 2. * The new Glory Kills are varied enough and built into the strategy of the shooting seemlessly. Shooting the enemies until near death activating the melee kill or Glory Kill will replenish your health so can come in really handy in tight spots. There are multiple animations so they never felt that repeditive to me. * So many nods to the old games in the way it plays and the sound design that constantly reminds me of the good old days playing ID games of old. [strong]Con[/strong] * Multiplayer is a bit MEH. Overall this is a fantastic single player game which is so much fun to play. Best shooter in years. [strong]5/5[/strong]
11/06/2016 Dreamfall Chapters : Book 1 Never got round to finishing one of these episode due to my decepit PC not being able to run it at anything other than a crawl. To be fair the PC was 8 years old and had a Geforce 220 graphics card and was constantly crashing. So with the help of a ton of overtime at work I splashed out on a new i5 PC with 16GB of ram and a Geforce 970 graphics card. It now runs dreamfall on Awesome levels. Got Chapters from the GOG sale and started playing. Pros * Looks very nice. Not top of the range textures, but the lighting, shadows and other effects are good. * Voice work is great. * Sh*tbot Laughing * Script is pretty decent so far. Setting up the new storylines for each of the protagonists. Cons * Game seems a bit buggy with character models vansishing, walking on the spot etc. * Really slow to get going * Switch off the Lens Flare. Was this directed by JJ Abrams. * The City was overly confusing to get around and finding locations meant a lot of wandering in circles. Looking forward to what comes next , but this hardly blew my socks off. 3/5
16/06/2016 Dreamfall Chapters : Book 2 Book 2 was an improvement on the opening chapter. The pace seemed better, there were less glitches (although I did still have some) Pros * Still Looks very nice. Not top of the range textures, but the lighting, shadows and other effects are good. * Voice work is great. * Some new characters like Queenie and whatever that little blue boys name was. Enu was the highlight and I hope we get more of her going forward. * The "mysterious" Anna.. * Script is kicking up a gear. Consequences are starting to unfold. Cons * Game still a bit buggy with character models vansishing, walking on the spot etc. However it was less frequent * Both Cities are overly confusing to get around and finding locations meant a lot of wandering in circles. This game would have benefitied from a map in hand rather than the signpost maps. * Wishing there was more interaction with the world and it's characters. * Wishing Kian had more personality Getting more into the story and enjoyed a better split of time between the two main characters. 3.5/5
16/06/2016 Dreamfall Chapters : Book 3 This episode seemed pretty short, probably took about half the time of Chapter 2. I’m starting to get into this. However I wonder if it would have been different waiting for each episode rather than binge playing it like I am. Although I hated the interlude (Finding 10 paintings hidden in the environment isn’t that enjoyable). Saga’s character may be interesting, in where I think it may be heading, but the HOG-lite sequence doesn’t really do anything to forward the story apart from the last few minutes. Overall though it is a strong if short episode. 4/5
17/06/2016 Dreamfall Chapters : Book 4 Ok i’m officially over the innuendo jokes I get it….“Rooster and Kitten”, “The Salty Seaman”, “Fingerlings”. They were funny once. It’s strange how in last episodes the cities were confusing to navigate, but they have been gradually “fixing” this by narrowing the size of the area by blocking off portions. However in this episode they just made you just follow Crow around just as I no longer need to as i’m familiar with the locations. Yeeaaah! Also remember the dream powers you had back at the start of the game and then they were never used again. Now they are suddenly back for some reason in a boss battle. That’s bad design. This is a weaker episode than the last one which is disappointing. There was next to no puzzles which is a shame because the last one in the episode with Saga was probably one of the best puzzles so far. It is easy to complete by brute forcing it, but if you solve it the right way it gives insight into the characters while you were puzzling it out. The rest of them seems to just be handed to you by NPC characters telling you how to solve things. Like Blind Bobs appearance and timly mention of a character etc or following a bird to the next area. Kian’s side mission to “Auschwitz” seemed a bit pointless and heavy handed. Skulls on shelves, suggestions of genocide etc. Ah Well onto the last ep (Downloading as I type) I hope it wraps up the story neatly or it will be another 10 years before we get any answers. 3/5
