Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 - WHEN WILL IT STOP!? - Xbox One Review

About 6 years ago, I began my foray into the Call of Duty series with Modern Warfare 2 for my brand new Xbox 360. MW2 is the most beloved and coolest CoD game to date, ever since, I've made sure to get my hands on them and play them but nothing lived up to Infinity Ward's quality. The game took a huge hit with Black Ops. It's quality was naff and it's general gameplay and story were duller than a blunt kitchen knife. It seemed a trend but does it stop here?

Well...Not really. We are 40 years after the events of Black Ops 2, subtle references to the villain of the past give reasoning to the huge amount drones and their constant reliance on something so easily manipulated, as we keep finding out. We are a nameless character, male or female with the ability to choose from a selection of facial pre-sets. The male voice is played by Farscape's Ben Browder and the female by Abby Brammell. We are also joined by a whole host of faces and names throughout from Christopher Meloni, Neal McDonough, Ron Perlman, Robert Picardo, Jeff Goldblum, Tony Amendola and the legendary Nolan North to mention a few. Its not only their voices, many of them have their faces digitally mapped into the game much like Advanced Warfare's Kevin Spacey and Troy Baker to create another selling point. Now sure, they look good and it was cool to see a few familiar faces but it didn't add much, especially when you watch the movement of the faces during dialogue and all you see is an empty black hole into the abyss. I wouldn't have been surprised to have seen someone's hand and a couple black lines from the side of the mouth too their chins. As for the general voice acting, its was alright. Now we shift to our character. The need to even create one is rather obscure, you only see yourself in a few transitions prior to levels and in game cutscenes, so its general need could have been fulfilled in a far more practical manner - AKA, not have it at all. The quality of our face is also far less than that of any other character so its difficult to justify why they simply didn't use their voice actors like every other character. Typically, as ever, there is a bad guy. We need to find them and kill them. This time however, its a "complicated" story of AI, CIA and biotech enhancements on your squad. Rather than spoil anything, you have a chip in your brain that allows you to control certain aspects of the world around you and give you advantages on the battlefield. But, we never started with this. In fact our first mission is us diving into Egypt to save a high ranking official. Upon rescuing him, we are treated to a rather impromptu massage from a defective masseuse that pulls a couple limbs off and uses them to beat me into oblivion. But all is not lost! Rescued by an elite group of operatives fitted with biotech chips, top of the line prosthetics and Meloni at the helm, the very same organisation that we join in return for saving our life. Now as a story, its lives under its own guise of "oh so complicated" when in actual fact, its a very basic story that decides to throw some of its Nazi zombie features in for no apparently reason other than, "eh, fuck it". Character development is non-existent and the attempted love/relationship story arises from nowhere and vanishes quicker than a fart in the wind.

So what else is there? Anything new you may be asking?. Well there are a couple things. One is the biotech chips which give you a select amount of abilities that can control the flow of enemies and remove threats more effectively. Some allow remote hacking of devices for control purposes while others garner the ability to fuck shit up and implode combat drones. They've also reduced strafing

abilities from AW, only giving you a forward slide which is a faff in general as its only engaged while running at a certain speed so its a little bit annoying for sliding between cover. It's also taken another leaf from AW but we all know that this leaf came right from Titanfall and that is the wall running ability, but this time you have to unlock it with points rather than it being part of your super solider get-up and its a really clunky affair. Its not smooth and its hardly used. Unless you're like me and it suddenly appears that you need it to cross a gap for 1 section and you didn't unlock it because it was already part of your training and you presumed you still had it!...

Visually the game looks sharp. Some textures aren't perfect and as I've already mentioned, faces lack a good form of animation and suffer from looking like clay or wax models. But its not all bad. The UI HUD is fantastic. Very simple and easy to use and the tactical elements included give some great guidance throughout and reveal kill zones and enemy locations. However, when setting my safe boundaries, loading screens prior to levels completed ignored that and cut the majority of the level names out which was a rather infuriating issue that bugged me consistently. The music is okay. Nothing dramatically amazing that sticks to mind but the sound effects need toning down. I was playing with the stereo output via the controller with my Razer Kraken Neon Pro's at a decent level but voices were often distant and the explosions were physically painful.

 Now, multiplayer. The only reason anyone buys these games? Probably. My experience is short and it'll stay that way with Fallout 4 on my lap, Tomb Raider on the back of a truck on route to me and Star War Battlefront so soon after. I opened it up to be greeted by a selection of classes. Typical destroyers and abilities were attached to them which would have certain effects within the game, their genders can't change but they have a variety of customisable pieces. So, jumping into my first game, I've already been kicked out of 3 and joined lobbies where nothing happens at all. Team balancing takes an age and starting and getting into a game is just agonisingly long when you just want to play a single round. Perhaps its the Xbox's awful wifi receiver connection or perhaps its the CoD servers being rammed or more than likely, a combination of both. Levels gained in the campaign also do not affect the online multiplayer meaning that it is useless to have such an unnecessary mechanic. But considering I finally managed to make in into a game, lets talk about it. Bearing in mind it was one map and my only match so far, it was alright. I fell off the high-rise building a few times and often got myself lost looking for people who blended into the environment making them rather difficult to see. Upon entering the round, we are greeted by a League of Legends (Maybe Dota, I don't play it) player roster that details the enemy players and what class they are running, once again, a pretty useless addition that tries to give the illusion of strategy to then round out the match with a podium finish of those who performed the best that features a short bit of dialogue from the top character. Honestly one of the most cringy experiences I've ever had to witness in a game. Now here is my biggest gripe. I can hear where the enemy team is. Not because of their footsteps or movement but because the characters are screaming and shouting. In close quarter situations, its becomes a cluster of shouting that draws more and more people in and any element of surprise is removed when some bell shouts "Enemy down!" at the top of their lungs. 

Now has the game changed? No. Not at all. If you scrap all of the tiny little additions of the player rosters and the "new guns" You'll probably see the lifeless corpse of Treyarch's World at War and Infinity Studio looking back in disgust at the desecration of the classic Call of Duties that made the series such a big hitter in the market. Now, I don't think we've seen the end of it. In fact, I'm sure it'll continue for a few years now with the same dull and boring story with minute mechanic changes because its audience so wholly digest it, they cannot actually comprehend that the series is simultaneously fucking them while gradually feeding them more content so they keep their mouths shut. We are left with a series that is watching its audience become self-aware (perhaps that's what the story was really going for) and see what they're paying for year on year.

Use Cara Delevingne as much as you want. It ain't going to make the game good! 6/10
Buy it cheap, play it for a few hours and watch as the map packs destroy and displace the player base.

Pacific Rim - Review -SPOILERS-

If you have been following me on Twitter, you are sure to have noticed my excitement over this film. If you haven't been following my Twitter, go ahead and follow, Its free!
Here is a collection of reasons why I fan girled over this movie:
1) Giant monsters
2) Idris Elba
3) Carnage
4) Massive fights

A general overview of the story is an alien invasion via the Pacific ocean by an alien race using giant monsters. We spend most of the time in Hong Kong, which isn't a surprise after the whole Godzilla incident.  To defend against the incoming assaults, the human race bands together to fight the ugly bastards. So looking at the basics of the story, we can find it to be a little simplistic or basic yet it follows a few little sub stories throughout. One is the research team, which takes you onto the streets of Hong Kong and into its dark underworld ruled by Hannibal Chau (Ron Perlman). Another is the story behind the damaged Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) which explains her connection to Idris' Stacker Pentecost. The little stories inevitably collide and aid the final event, but it is nice that it jumps between them and doesn't overplay the action scenes.

Speaking of actors and the action, both were brilliantly executed. The crazy researchers were both irritable but comedic in their own style which makes their performances stick out vividly in my mind, but the main man for me was Idris Elba, whose ability to switch between anger to a calm silence

which makes you shiver in anticipation for his next move. As you see in the trailer, Idris has a prominent speech to raise morale. A well written speech, well performed with a vigour that makes his character even more believable. I do have a couple of bones to pick with acting though. A scene which entails a young Mako Mori is disturbing and wrong on so many levels. Good child actors are hard to come across, but when she moans like she's in an Asian porn movie on repeat, it turns a few heads and should have been toned down to avoid such incidents.

As one of the only giant monster movies in recent years, its safe to say that it has enough to compensate for the years the genre has been non existent. In true Hellboy fashion, monsters are big, stunning to look at and violence is plentiful, splashed with wisps of humour. The action and fight scenes were incredible and great fun to watch. Shots are erratic and hard to track but immerses you into the settings while disorientating you like our heroes. If you are anything like me, you would have been giggling and laughing like a little kid at the sheer carnage and the severe beatings that were being rained down by both sides.

Just looking at the scenes, it is obvious that the film had a huge budget and FX specialists worked day and night to create some of the best visual effects that I have ever seen.  Everything looked real; the scales on the beasts, water rippling at every move, glass twinkling in the Hong Kong's neon and the general scenery which was flawless all the way though. Even set pieces were gorgeous. The blending of so many colours, lights and debris was stunning and is the perfect example of what the area would look like. We also have the costumes which were a mix of many different style. From a Sci-fi white to a badass carbon fibre armour, the suits are simplistic, yet elegant. It's also nice to see that the women aren't sexualised throughout with skimpy armour and little clothing. You will also notice Hannibal's distinctive golden armour plated shoes which are just crazy and would fit well in my collect, so if you know where I can find them, be sure to comment below!

I'm still pumped from seeing it and want to get my hands on anything and everything in relation to the movie (Already got the soundtrack!), which will most likely be a badass poster and maybe my first collectable statue. But anyway, the movie is a must see blockbuster hit. Certainly one of my favourite films of this year and is a good summer smasher, so this movie shall be getting a 8/10 simply for its generic story and a few little niggly bits throughout.