Fallout 4 - War Never Changes - Xbox One Quicky Review - MINOR SPOILERS

One of the biggest games of the year has dropped. We are back in the Wastelands of Boston. A lone Vault Dweller on the hunt for their son, armed with an arsenal of guns and some rusted power armour. We are a pre-war relic who watched the bombs drop on the US. We fled to the Vault and were lured into cryostat chambers that froze us for over 200 years until one day we wake, in a daze we watch as our wife/husband's casket is opened and the baby ripped from their hands and a bullet lodged into their skull and then we freeze again. Waking up again, we manage to escape and witness the effects of the experiments created by Vault Tech industries and we stagger out into the open to see what happened to our home. Now, this is as much as a can say without dropping some big spoilers but considering I've only logged in about 25 hours of gameplay so far and 5 of those are in the actual quest line, what little I have experienced so far is fascinating and incredibly engaging.

My experience with Fallout is very limited. I've watched gameplay footage from the first game and played a few hours in Fallout 3. I enjoyed the experience but I got frustrated when I ended up wandering the wasteland in zones way to big for me. So much so, I got lost and never managed to make it back. Since then, I've matured (a little) and have experienced the ever amazing Skyrim and find myself more than competent to progress through this. So I'm not fully versed into the narrative of the world but I know the lore behind the Vaults and the effects its had on the world and the mutated wildlife that has taken control of the environment.

Obviously as a company they would have cut a few corners to make them optimum for next generation consoles and this has been done by utilizing various parts from previous titles such as the animations from Skyrim. Now this isn't too much of a problem. For something so large scale, I tend to be a lot more lenient but a little variation wouldn't go a miss. Now here is the big issue that people raised prior to launch and that was the visual quality. Trailers made it look a little cartoonish but dropping in myself, I think its a gorgeous art style for a world ravaged by radiation for 200 years and it is much easier on the resources available. Now this hasn't stopped the game from loosing frames rapidly when loading areas and in combat situation and that comes down to poor optimization across the consoles which could have been resolved had it been play tested correctly. Otherwise it looks fantastic and the quality is fantastic. Sure, its not Square Enix levels of detail with incredible hair physics but its good enough.

As it stands, I had no idea what to expect from this. With the rate of triple A titles dropping that suck and the bombardment of early access games supported by industry giants that really don't live up to their own hype and run when shit gets difficult, faith in the industry is a little fractured, just look at the PC port of Arkham Knight. I had prepared myself for the worst. I worried about wandering off into the wasteland and never coming back home armed with nothing more than a kitchen knife, but I was wrong. I love it. I was hooked within the first 20 minutes. The opening sequence, War Never Changes is one of the most striking cinematics I've ever seen (Click the link to watch Sip's playthrough and experience the opening cutscene and some gameplay). Its a gorgeously filmed and animated piece that shows you the events that led up to the "Great War" that created this lawless world as narrated by our lead man. As the cutscene disappears, we are greeted by our narrator and his wife looking in a mirror readying themselves for the day ahead, this is our character customisation and creation. The customisation is a bit of a fiddle but its extensive and deep enough that you could almost create yourself. All the way through the process, both of the characters chat, little bits of information around items you've just changed from witty quips to cute interactions that made them feel so human, so real and then you begin your day. Walking to the crib of your new born to say morning,greeting your robot babysitter that does all the dirty jobs around the house and living the daily routine while the news chatters away in the background. We all know the bombs are dropping and shit goes wild, I won't ruin anything from here for you but its such a touching experience that gives the characters an incredible amount of story in such a short space of time, even if the baby does look like its farther was actually an alien...

How about its core mechanics? The shooter aspect is very clean, weapon variation has been fairly limited and buying weapons is pretty much a definite no no. Modification of the weapons is the best way to increase your chance of survival and they're giant, from tons of saw blades too new receivers and various other pieces that physically change the aesthetic of the weapons too. Alongside the classic VATS system that now slows time down, means you have to make on the fly choices on where to hit and the estimated damage can significantly drop by the time you accept your desired choices. One of the biggest talking points is the power armour. The Fusion powered heavy armour that gives you a huge level of strength and protection is great fun and getting it from the start of the game allows you to survive the harsh environment a lot more effectively, however, its cumbersome to obtain the Fusion Cores to run the armour as they either cost a fortune or you have to find locations and caches out in the world. I, however, stole a ton because the guides online were actually wrong for my playthrough. If you were playing the Fallout Shelter app that released earlier this year on the reveal of the game, you'll love this next section. You can have bases. You craft items, make sure your people have beds, food and defences to protect them. Its a cathartic experience that I've spent an unhealthy amount of time and effort working on. It doesn't have much of a purpose yet but its a typical thing that would appear in such an environment. As for the rest of the core mechanics, many are derived from Skyrim. Slight differences in skill management but the typical dialogue tree is very basic and doesn't allow for a variety of choice dependant on skill.

To sum it up in the briefest ways possible, we are back in Skyrim. They've taken something successful and implemented it into one of their other titles and added a load of extra little features.  If you enjoyed Skyrim, its a guarantee that you'll love this. The Music is phenomenal and side quests are really where your time is going to be spent, whether you mean to or not. Its a game that is going to last. Not a 6 hour campaign with so many hours of multiplayer that is a literal repeat, over and over again. Its varied and probably has a good hundred or so hours crammed in that are immersing and engaging. Its taken pieces from other titles, albeit bearable, there is no variation between them and that really knocks it out of you and characters have no facial expressions with very little mouth synchronisation in conversation which is fairly poor for new titles. Considering that is is highly addictive and I'm shooting through this, just so I can get back to playing it is testament enough to how enjoyable it is (I've hardly been on ARK too!). At £40, its value for money. Its not often that you get hundreds of hours playtime with very little bugs and glitches. There are a few glitches, one has surfaced in the last few days that can crash the game completely across all consoles and I've witnessed mutated bears moonwalking up trees but for the current gaming era, its got most of its shit together and thoroughly deserves..

8/10!
PS - Deathclaws be scary

 

Halo 5: Guardians - The gift that doesn't give - Xbox One Review

Let's get straight to the point, I'm no Halo fanatic. In fact, I didn't care very much for him. I picked up the series from 3 and just enjoyed shooting stuff. Even more so when I probably paid £20 for the lot making it worth the investment. Now I thought I'd change that and jump onto the pre-order bandwagon for Halo 5. Was it worth it? Hell nah

For anyone who has read previous articles, you'll be well aware that I enjoy story. Halo's trailers depicted a rogue Master Chief being chased down by another Spartan called Locke; a hench dude with a a beard that looks like he's drawn it on with a whiteboard marker. Surrounded by rubble, the 2 variants features both characters in vice versa roles drawing their weapon to shoot the restrained one. The whole world appeared to be mourning the death of Chief and the whole thing looked very distopian. Jump into the game and its dramatically different. There is only one confrontation between the characters and this is just over the halfway mark in the game, so about 3-4 hours in and lasts a mere 30 seconds. Chief isn't dead and the world has a far different threat to deal with. SPOILERS - Its Cortana. She's gone batshit crazy and is now planning to police all of the known worlds with some crazy machines. Here is the problem, after 6-8 hours of gameplay, the story isn't actually finished. The credits roll, the game is over and you're left wondering why you spent a fortune for something that wasn't even complete and drags a story so dull and lacklustre on for another instalment. I've played indie games for longer that were cheaper and far more enjoyable. It's the perfect depiction of a cash cow and it'll become another yearly game that bleeds money from its consumers because some mechanics are slightly different and the multiplayer maps have changed - aka Call of Duty.


Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my experience of shooting stuff on platforms, moving on and rinse and repeat a hundred times, but I'm a different kettle of fish. I'm not there for multiplayer, I'm here for lots of fun and I didn't get that. We've established that the story was pulled from the inner rim of a public toilet but lets talk about everything else wrong with it.

• Its recycled
• Characters and Voice acting were rather dull (Sorry Nathan Fillion, you don't sell it)
• Weapons lack diversity, power and ammo. Seriously, how the fuck does it take a full magazine to kill one enemy!?
• No diversity in enemies. They're dropped in from the beginning and they never change so levels don't ramp up in difficulty, they just add more
• Repetitive zones and boss - Literally, its all the same
• God awful boost mechanic which moves you about 3ft at a time

Its not a long list, sure. Yet its a big list when the only things I can draw from it that are actually good are the visual cut scenes,general graphics and the sound effects. Many people worry about triple A games and the reviewers who cover them for the big publications and so far, these big guys have talked up and marketed these titles as some of the best games ever. I simply cannot agree and with complaints and rumours of paid promotions and reviews by these publications, its not looking good.
I'm currently debating selling or returning this item because it was honestly a bleed on an already tight purse that didn't give its customers what they really deserved - A game for the people, not for the bank account.

6/10 - Tune in next time to see the gradual decline of triple A games in record time

Look at the flowers, Treyarch - Call of Duty Black Ops 3 - REVEAL TRAILER

The biggest disappointments in gaming are back with another CoD. Treyarch really don't know when to stop with all of this. The extreme suckyness that is the Black Ops series some how is being continued. It may have worked for Modern Warfare, lads but they started good...

So yeah, have a glimpse at the biggest reskin of Titanfall you have ever seen and try to enjoy the last breaths of Treyarch before the community hopefully put it down. But y'know, as I'm a sucker for something to do, I may just buy it because I need something to fill in until Titanfall 2 actually rolls in.

Here is the worst game trailer you've seen for a triple A title in years!

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

Far Cry 3 Quicky Review! -SPOILERS-

I finally managed to play it! I've had this for at least a month with the intention of giving it a go, it was a good thing I got it free!

After the previous Far Cry, I didn't really care for the series and we can still see many of those

annoyances coming through in this follow-up. I played 10 minutes of Far Cry 2 and then dumped it as it was so annoying, so I came into this one with little expectations apart from the raves reviews that came out around the time of its release.

Altogether, I did enjoy playing the game. There were flaws that would appear, simply to piss me off but some I managed to ignore. The sandbox world of Rook Island is amazing, the quality of the landscaping is brilliant and is one hell of a sight when you are using the gliders to travel. The thick jungles hide vicious creatures that want to use you as a new toy, which is bloody scary when you don't know where they are coming from! However the land can be annoying, when you cannot climb a slope over a certain degree or drive your 4x4 up it you wonder why you bother trying. Alongside this one of the missions detailed for you to jump from a bridge and use your wing suit to fly away, I happened to miss the chance to pull the chute, hitting the water and escaped off the map completely so my character drowned as he couldn't get back into the map world.

Story wise, the game is really simple. You go out with all of your rich friends and brothers to then get stuck on Rook Island after you went off course while skydiving. Rook Island is inhabited by mercenaries, pirates and general innocents. You end up causing a lot of shit towards the mercs and pirates while you rescue your friends. The campaign is approximately 12 hours long and can get really far fetched. With the introduction of magic items about half way in, it seemed stupid when the game was positioned in a fashion that's more like a survival game and doesn't reflect the true gritty

Part of the badass tattoo!

style. Alongside the whole magic tattoo stuff which was really odd but is part of some cultures and does look pretty badass. The characters are really frustrating, your older brother who dies at the start was probably the most bearable seeing he was only about for 5 minutes. The rest of them are just douche bags, especially the stoner. Character development is little, if any. Jason (you) is also very boring. You see none of the stress he would go through, but you see him go from innocent teen to a mass murderer with a machete and an SMG with an ability to sponge bullets and damage from everything apart from a 10ft drop! His change was to drastic and never really made you engage with him.

Weapons in the game are fairly varied and the use of the bow is great fun. The bow and a scene at some rice fields really showcase the ability of it but also blow you back to the most recent instalment of Rambo! With the huge size of the map, you will have enemies all around you and you constantly need to maintain a supply of weapons and ammo which is fairly cheap and easy to come across. Once the campaign is done, you have the whole world to play in. Liberating the island is a big task but good fun when you go in like a ninja cutting the alarm and single handedly popping all the enemies off from a mile off with a nice sniper round to the cranium. Then you have the ones just just play up and enemies find you from an impossible angle which would get on my tits.

Finally the bosses. Vass and Hoyt. Using Vass on the front cover was a mistake, he appears a few times until you get to kill him, all being for a few minutes and then disappears. Bigged up as a huge psycho nut job, you would expect to see him more often and truly see this, but you don't. You get little samples and then it's over. Hoyt was much the same as Vass but you could see what he was planning for you from the moment you first met (as long as you actually looked around his place properly). His plans were so evident that they could have cut to the chase instead of making Jason look like an idiot. Finally we have the boss fights which just suck. You suddenly hallucinate, kill everyone in the room and are put through quick time events to kill Vass and Hoyt. It lacked any substance to really grip you and stress you out.

Overall the game was alright, I haven't covered everything as I'm still hungover but I believe this game deserves a 7/10. If only they could sort a few little bits out and I would be happy, such as the AI's and driving.

Gears of War Judgment REVIEW -SPOILERS-

Well hello everyone!, Sorry I haven't been able to do much apart from the odd trailer. Essays ain't fun!

Anyway, as you can already see, this review is about Gears of War Judgement (4).  On hearing about a sequel to Gears of War 3, I couldn't understand what they would be able to do when the Locust swarms were defeated and human society began rebuilding. However, we start a few weeks after the great war that the COG's fought in the Pendulum War's against other nations and in the aftermath of Emergence Day. Here we follow a younger Lieutenant, Damon Baird and his team 'Kilo Squad'. To set the scene, Kilo squad are dragged into a large complex while being labelled as war criminals, each character the reports to the leader of the Onyx core (Elite soldiers) in a tribunal hearing while Locusts fight the defences outside. As each character explains what happened, we play through their experience leading up to the 'crime' that they committed.

An interesting introduction and plot that managed to keep me involved. Yet that isn't hard when the main campaign took me approximately 6-7 hours of playing - Yes, I'm tired after playing till 2am but it just didn't feel long enough. For a game that costs up to £40 with an even higher RRP, you would expect to get a lot for your money. They even dropped in an extra campaign which is called Aftermath, this only took 1-2 hours. In this we follow Baird and Cole in Gears of war 3 as they go find a ship and some reinforcement for the final assault. This should have been a DLC pack or part of the story for the game it is involved in. It leaves me to think that this game was simply an opportunity of get some extra cash out of fans like myself.

Very little has changed in the world of COG's. Visuals are astonishing, with vast landscapes that need to be on a nice big 1080p screen! With new games, I will always look at their fire effects. This is my indication on whether a game is well made and well funded or vis versa. Gears had this effect which is brilliantly demonstrated with the first few minutes of game play, with a tree engulfed in flames filling the sky with a black fog. All the standard controls are back, no change there. They are still a little fiddly to start and can be a slight annoyance when you want to turn around sharply to smack a dude upside the head with your Lancer-chainsaw combo. Cover based shooting is always good but annoying when you try to switch between cover. I have also never understood how they are still alive when they hulk over any of the cover, but you know, it's only a game.

I've yet to test the online game play for this but seeing I have some time before the release of Bioshock, I should be able to give it a little poke. I know the standard games are back with all new maps. From my previous experience, online games can be really fun and do require a lot of team work between players to win matches like Horde, where you are bum-rushed by tons of the slimy gits.

Overall, the game is great fun. I'm a big fan of Gears and a big fan of excessive violence in games. As much as this is an unnecessary follow up to a game which ended quite clearly, the story was gripping and helped to describe a deeper look into Baird's background before he meet Dom even when it appears to be a way to get some extra cash, but we all know big corporations wouldn't go doing that now...Wink wink, nudge nudge...

 For this game, I will give it 7.5/10
(Because I can!, that's why!)