Destiny [Xbox One] - Next Gen Review

If you've lived under a rock for the past 18 months, you probably haven't heard about the new big kid on the block. His name is Destiny. Created by Halo's original makers - Bungie - and Call of Duty's Activision, Destiny is a new creation that supposedly incorporates open-world styling in a first person shooter setting. Think about Defiance but on a fairly restricted scale. But what is it?

Continuously we were bombarded with messages saying that this game had huge and expansive open areas for you to explore and fight enemies within. However this is not the case. These big areas are just CoD maps. You cannot just wander and explore the world, you follow a set path. You have to go on "Patrol" to really explore these worlds yet we have no inclination to actually do so. Its not open world. With very little to actually find on the surface, why should I bother spending ages looking about for some chests that are in vastly limited numbers when I could be getting on with the story?

This is were it gets funny. The story is almost non-existent. Thrust into this war to save the traveller (giant floaty ball), you must defeat its enemies that have come to claim it. You go all Master Chief

This time I chose the Warlock. Very Star Lord

and go kill everything in your way. You meet new races and your only reaction is to kill them. Each planet have their own race of fighters mixed in with the "Fallen" that fight each other...for some reason...Its simply not engaging. Riding off of the success of CoD and Halo is all that this is doing with a few vocal talents thrown in for good measure. I can't quite tell if the story is so convoluted that its just dull or that it suffers from CoD syndrome and lacks any substance other than "BLOW HIS FUCKING FACE OFF!"...

I'm playing on the Xbox One. With all they hype of graphics for the game, I felt my next gen console would grant me far superior visuals than my 360. Although I cannot speak for the PS4, the game does look good. Visuals are sharp and the landscapes do look great. The Guardians also look wicked. One thing I've enjoyed is finding new armour and weapons that look cool and improve my general look. But wait...Wasn't there talk of customization? Sure, there was. At the beginning, you choose the race, type and colour of your guardian but you won't see this often enough to actually care in the long run. If you wish to customise armour, you aren't in luck. Trying to create something that doesn't look like you're planning a gay pride parade across Mars, Venus and Earth is a huge pain in the ass. Simply because you need to actually find things that both improve and match. If its vastly better for defence, you don't want to hold onto something that just looks good but will hurt you in the long run. You can however get shaders. I have one. I can't use it yet as I'm not level 20 and I only got it because I pre-ordered the game alongside the upcoming CoD. Finding others are a mystery to me so I've left it down to looking a bit like a gay Star Lord.

Gameplay. What we all want to hear about. "How does it play?" I hear you asking. Well...Its alright. Aiming is rather slow and feels as if you're moving through glue. The rest of the shooty stuff is fine. You would expect it to be considering the developer combination. Moving is just a huge problem. Running about and shooting in chaotic areas means you cannot see where you are going. Often you end up getting stuck in a gap and then the game has a fit. Unable to jump out of this hole, all your character does is panic and appears to have some sort of seizure until he finally shakes out or you're shot dead because you can't turn around. When you play with other players, it can also be a huge pain in the ass when they continually push into you or walk into the line of fire causing you to waste rounds into the back of their skull. While also playing online with randoms, you will suffer. Continually I have suffered with it. Almost always finding people who are either inactive or inept.

This big fucker made life rather difficult

Just prior to writing this, I completed a strike mission with over 100 more kills than my team "mates" without being downed in the final attempt. Even worse is the fact that those inept are actually higher levels and will often try and grief you. From annoying humans to stupid AI's. Within the Beta testing, many complaints were raised about the Spider Tank and its incredibly high power for its level. Although I didn't have such a problem with it myself (Hide under the bridge and snipe it through the gap) it was substantially nerfed for release. Further into the game upon approaching several other bosses, these were also incredibly OP on their own or had continuous support respawning that you couldn't take him out without being surrounded by 2 dozen hostiles. The other issues is that many of the enemies don't know what to do with themselves. You can either find them hidden behind cover without moving or attacking or you will see them simply standing out in the open with little desire to do anything. The only other thing to really talk about is The Crucible. Online matches for those who get bored of the story. A mix of Captures and TDM's that do little to entice or excite me in the slightest. If you get bored of the story or feel you can't be bothered, they probably are the better place to go but in reality, we have plenty of other things we could be playing.

Perhaps my expectations for Destiny were rather high. Perhaps I caved in to the over generated hype by all the outlets and marketing campaign but is this really an excuse when Bungie and Activision were at the forefront of creating such a storm? I don't think so. The game is a huge disappointment. Already packs are being mentioned and are on pre-order in the hope to pad out the game in the long run but when you buy a game for upwards of £40, you want something with meat on. This was always the case before DLC became such a money-spinner and it angers me that I have to wait and pay more money to understand what the hell is going on with the story or get new game modes/maps. Being so utterly disappointed by Destiny, my only aim is to complete it, get some achievements and put it back on the shelf to look at in the future. Would I recommend buying it? Probably not until its on sale for a tenner. This grand piece of art only turned out to be CoD on a bigger scale. My rating for this feels like a 6/10. Maybe 7 if I get bored.

What did you think of Destiny and do you think DLC 'extras' are something we should embrace?

I'm just going to sit here and think about all the money I just wasted

Call of Duty - Vengeance DLC 3 - Review

Today, we had the long awaited release of the new Call of Duty DLC pack, including 4 new maps and an addition to the world of the zombies. So below, we have COD's description of each of these maps and I shall add my opinions after.

Cove
"The stage is set for all-out conflict on this small, forgotten island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, where players battle it out amongst the wreckage of a jet that crash-landed during a smuggling operation gone wrong."
Cove appears to be a small map, everything leads to the same spot. No dead ends, no sniper sight lines and plenty of shrubs to catch out the unsuspecting. With a circular shape, it fits a high-speed SMG or a mid-range assault Rifle. You will have little time to react, and the likelihood of surviving continually would be very unlikely.


Detour
"Players fight amongst the scattered vehicles, exposed iron and collapsed pavement of a destroyed suspension bridge, high above this East Coast waterway where the action can play out on multiple levels."
This bridge in NYC is a 2 platform small map. Another small map which you will need an SMG or assault rifle. You have to be wary on the top level about holes in the road. These holes can lead too the lower or off the map, so keep visual.






Rush
"Fast, close-quarter engagements are assured in this paintball course turned full- combat arena, giving players new opportunities and challenges to use the cover to their advantage." 
Probably my favourite map. It's a bit bigger and is reminiscent of the skate park. It would have been nice to see a little more thought going into the map. The inflatable barriers should have punctured when you shoot them, or the whole thing could have been a paintball match. You have some sight lines for snipers, but I imagine seeing more "quick-scoping" than the real use of such a weapon.



Uplink

"In this re-imagined adaptation of the fan-favorite Call of Duty®: Black Ops multiplayer map Summit, players clash deep in the rain-soaked jungles of Myanmar, high atop a hi-tech mountain facility." 
Essentially, a map re painted with the removal of a few ladders to stop a notorious camping spot. Re-imagined maps should be given for free rather than running out of ideas and copying & pasting an old map. Plenty of sight lines for snipers and still corners and rooms for people to hide in. The collection of rooms were always notorious for camping and will be trouble for online play. Keep moving, SMG's will be good in the tight rooms but an assault rifle will be best for survival tactics.


Buried - Zombie Cowboys!
"Players will be challenged to face their deepest fears, trapped inside a long-forgotten subterranean Old West mining town infested with swarms of the undead."
Processing is the main map for the zombies maps. It is chaotic and disorganised, rooms lead to dead ends and can cause huge trouble when you are running about on your own. A few new additions have been added, one being the upgrade of the Ray Gun and a few more guns mixed in with some environmental additions which add some new and interesting aspects to the game.

New Call of Duty!?

Digital Spy has just reported that Tesco may have just given the whole world the idea of the next instalment
in Activision's Modern Warfare series.

Ghost is the name, war is the game. Following the death of the most popular character in MW2, it can be assumed that we are going to follow the rise of ghost and get a deeper understanding into his character. But as we know, COD games never really focus on story, only the shooting of people online.

Also rumoured to be exclusive on the next generation of consoles. This however doesn't really fit with the new cover photo. Let's just hope that when it comes out, we don't have to pay a fortune for a console to play the game!
For the full story, follow the link below.


[Source - http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a475997/call-of-duty-ghosts-leaked-by-tesco-picture.html]

Call of Duty Black Ops 2 - Uprising DLC! REVIEW

As you can tell, this is about the new DLC for Call of Duty!
Within this DLC pack we have 4 new maps, a new zombie mode with some new guns to blow stuff up!

To avoid me tearing my hair out when playing online, I created a private match and just went through to critic the maps on my likes and dislikes.

First map on this list is.....ENCORE
The map is alright, it's supposed to represent an actual concert but seems way to small for such an event... The map doesn't really stick out and grip you to your seat but I can bet it will get your blood pumping when you have a round of free for all with your friends alongside some sub machine guns. But first, make sure your friends aren't campers, otherwise you're gonna have a bad time! The description for the map talks about sight lines, yet they are incredibly small and really ruin the whole sniper aspect of the weapons system. However, COD players tend to enjoy quick-scoping rather than the simple and realistic methods...

The next map is MAGMA
Right, so we are now in Asia, a big volcano has gone off and there is lava everywhere. There are no invisible walls to stop you from exiting the map, just hot magma that kills you instantly when you step on the cooling sections...Further around the map I start to watch the lava roll down the hill and I know it's hard to make it look like the lava is flowing but it just doesn't look right in the parts that require detailing to get right. Some of the fire effects are poor and a lot of stuff is simply copied and pasted from other maps. This map is nothing spectacular but the lava is a nice touch to keep you on your toes but more campy spots found!

Now VERTIGO
Vertigo is eerily reminiscent of Highrise for MW2. With medium length stretches and small rooms, combat is well varied, however a lack of sniper high points make the map look fairly level or flat. The map was dragged straight from the game making you wonder why it wasn't part of the online on release day, but we know that game companies, most notably the cod franchise; like to get their hands on more money. It also seems that they run out of map ideas and just threw this one in there as they already had it all set up.

Finally STUDIO
This map is my personal favourite from the maps. The original map (Range) was also good fun in the original Black Ops but why they couldn't have made these free when they are from previous games, it really makes me wonder. On spawning into the map, I noticed barrels, explosive barrels which can quite easily spawn kill you if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time!
The T-rex and other mechanical robot things move and make robotic motion noises, but lack a roar or a screech (in the case of the Alien thing) when you walk past it, which could be created with a simple trip switch. The varied sections liven each area up and make it obviously identifiable when calling for help in certain areas. "HELP ME!, I'M STUCK IN THE ALIEN WORLD" will certainly make life easier when you are a tad stuck. Once again though, COD didn't have the decency to make a new map, just take the remains of a map which became campers map shortly after it's original release.

MOB OF THE DEAD!!!

Upon opening the zombie world you are given 2 areas to select from, Cell Block [Grief] or Sunset Strip [mob of the dead]. Mob of the dead is the first zombies map to actually let you escape from the island, but you need a lot of skill, patience and team work. But as always, my partner and I were dropped in with some retards that would ditch you at the smallest sign of trouble, making this game very difficult with anything less than 4 players. Once you select the Mob of the dead you become a ghost and you go to revive yourself to start the game off. It's a cool little feature but you cannot choose which character you want to be. The ghost aspect of the game opens tunnels that give you extras, power and parts for the escape plan, but in the heat of battle you can revive yourself in certain circumstances while teleporting zombies away.  I only played one game, so I'm yet to experience new weapons and the true extent of the game but a lot of detail was put into this with little

pep talks to yourself if you are truly close to death, which is actually quite deep and meaningful. Plus it's one of my favourite eras, so the accents and the gangster mannerisms of the characters are pretty damn funky.

Overall, the DLC is good, maps are lacking and are simply to grab a bit more money out of everyone's already tight pockets. If you want them, I recommend getting the season pass. It is cheaper in the long run and you get a couple of extras along the way.
Maps - 6/10
Mob of the dead - 8/10  (May change once I get a really solid go at it!)

Time to try and sleep. Here come the zombie nightmares! xD