Gears of War 4 - Review

Back in 2006 Epic Games released a new third person shooter called Gears of War, due to it's popularity it later went on to create a whole franchise.  The series had it's highs and it's lows but overall it was pretty good.  For me I feel the series peaked with Gears of War 2, it had a great story, the gameplay was much improved over the original and it introduced horde mode which was really awesome.  Gears of War 3 was okay but the story wasn't great and horde mode was not as much fun.  Gears of War Judgement was interesting but sometimes the gameplay felt a little unbalanaced especially on higher difficulty settings.  Naturally when Gears of War 4 was announced I wasn't exactly foaming at the mouth to play it.  I noticed it the other day in CEX for under €20 and thought let's give it ago, how bad could it be?


Calamari anyone?  The relationship I have with calamari is a difficult one, I don't love it but I don't hate it.  I like some seafood, I like things that are battered, combining the two just seems natural.  Strangely though each time I have had it I feel conflicted, never commiting to it fully, I should either like something or I shouldn't.  Playing Gears of War 4 I found myself asking was I loving it, hating it?

Story


The introduction is interesting and starts with a commemoration ceremony, you get to see flashbacks from before, during and after emergence day.  For those of you not familiar with series emergence day is when the enemy know as the locust popped out of the ground and started slaughtering everyone.  The war with the locust is long since over but that doesn't mean there aren't still battles being fought.  There are also people disappearing and nobody knows by who or where they have gone.


The protaganist is JD Fenix, son of Marcus Fenix from the original series.  He basically looks like a heavier set version of Nathan Drake but nowhere near as funny.  There is his punk rock, hipster girlfriend Kait and of course who could forget Del?  Yes, Del the third wheel that doesn't get many lines or much character development.


The story starts slows but does find it's feet,  well for a while anyway.  The pacing feels a little off, a lot happens in the last act that could have happened earlier in the game and the story feels a little drawn out especially considering the pay off.  To me it felt like just a set up for a new series, which annoys me because the focus should have been to get this game right before worrying about potential sequels.

Visuals


The last Gears of War game was released on the XBOX 360 so naturally it was a step up, Gears of War 4 looked good but it certainly wasn't amazing.  The game is as bloody and gorey as ever and was very much in keeping with the series, which I really liked.  The environments seemed to be a lot more detructible then in previous games which looked great along with creating some intersting gameplay.  I can't go into too much detail about the enemies (spoilers and all) but one I liked and can mention are the pouncers.  The name says it all, they pounce on you and you have to beat them in the head to get them off you.  They have both up close and personal attacks along with ranged ones which make them a formidable enemy.  One of my favorites areas was the mountain side retreat in Act 1, it was very picturesque and a scene not generally seen in the Gears of War series.



Music


Listening to the score again there is certainly a familiarity to it but at the same time it has a very different sound to the rest of the series.  There is the classic guitar riff that is played whenever you clear an area of all enemies, which is always nice to hear.  I felt the score itself had an underlining sound that felt like it was constantly building up to something which created a real air of intesity, it was something I quite enjoyed.  The creator of this familiar yet new sound was:


Ramin Djawadi who is an Iranian-German composer who has worked on many Films and TV Series and is best known for his work on Game of Thrones.  Some of his other works include; Iron Man, Pacific Rim, Person of Interest and Westworld.


If you have not had the chance to listen to Ramin Djawadi's work I would highly recommend heading over to Spotify and checking out some of his work.  Overall a really solid score with many short but great pieces, my favorites included; 'Anvil Gate', 'Taken', 'Night Terrors', 'Rise of the Swarm', 'Wind Flare' and 'The Storm'.

Gameplay


Onto the meat!  The first thing I noticed in the campaign menu was that there was an option called Ironman.  Unfortunately I could not play as Ironman, instead activating the option meant that if you die, even once you have to start the game from scratch.  Interesting but very punishing.  Horde Mode is back again, if you are curious about it all you have to do is play the main campaign which gives you the chance to try it out in a smaller way.


The controls are pretty much the same as the rest of the series which was good thing.  There were old and new weapons, some good and some...well bad, very bad.  Greats examples of this would be the Retro Lancer and Marzka MK1, both feel inaccruate and underpowered.  The classic Lancer was great and the only thing better than shooting a load of enemies is using your chainsaw to cut them into little bits.  The new buzzkill weapon was a lot of fun, basically it shoots out saw blades that can, if you are not careful rebound off the environement and end up hurting or killing you.


There are some fun new enemeies like robots and...well really I can't say more without spoiling the game for you (reading that would really want to make me play it).  There were certainly some interesting and fun moments in the game.  Riding a bike through a forest was both cool and nerve racking.  The new fabricator that allowed you to...well you get the idea from the name was interesting.  Later on in the the game there are sack like things which look like giant zits, which if you keep popping them the other characters give out to you which is the kind of dark humor that the series is know for.


The gameplay as a whole was fairly solid, with the exception of a few weapon issues and some enemies that were a little annoying.




Final Thoughts

After 10 hours of gameplay how did I feel?  Confused and uncertain.  There were moments in the game where I was fully engaged and could not wait for the next section but there were other times where I wished everything would just hurry along.  The story has interesting parts to it but as a whole it was not fantastic, especially if you take away Marcus.  The visuals were good but not amazing, the music was really good.  The gameplay itself was pretty good but felt a little lacking in some places.  Will I play Gears of War 5 when it is released?  Probably, but I know I won't be rushing out to get it either. Overall Gears of War 4 gets a rocky 3 out of 5

Sonic Mania - Review

Ah, Sonic just saying the name makes me smile.  One of the first games I played and owned was Sonic The Hedgehog on the Sega Master System.  That's right, for most people they played it first on the Sega Megadrive but not me.  In fact, I played Sonic 1 and 2 on the Sega Master System and Sonic on the Sega Game Gear before playing it on the Sega Megadrive.  Each console offers a very different experience but I enjoyed them all.


It is the 25th Anniversary of Sonic and to celebrate Sega in association with Christian Whitehead,
Headcanon and Pagodawest Games released Sonic Mania which I was very giddy to play.  Lucky enough I have an awesome girlfriend (shoutout to the Starfish) who bought it for me as an early Christmas present, not only that but she got the special edition which comes with a Sonic statue mounted on a replica Sega Megadrive.  When you power it on it says 'Sssssssseeegggggaaaa (currently grinning like a Cheshire cat).  Anyhoo onwards to the food analogy followed by a review.


I grew up on Kinder Surprise Eggs (don't worry my parents also gave me real food too), low in cost, containing both milk and white chocolate with a little container inside featuring a toy you had to put together.  When I used to get my pocket money I would buy a Buster comic and a Kinder Surprise, if I was really lucky the comic would come with free sweets too.  Every now again I revisit my childhood to see what they are like now and while the chocolate is pretty similar the toys for the most part really suck and are often assembled.  Playing Sonic Mania I found myself asking was this something that looked good and had something great inside or was it filled with disappointment?

Story

The story for Sonic Mania is quite interesting, it turns out buried beneath Angel Island (Knuckle's Home) is the Phantom Ruby.  It has the power to disrupt time and has endless power, this attracts the attention of both Sonic, Tails and Knuckles along with Dr. Eggman.  Their mission is to retrieve the Phantom Gem and thwart Dr. Eggman's plans.

Since Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles Dr. Eggman has been feeling a little bored and created the Hard Boiled Heavies robots that all look like him (maybe for a little company).  Either due to boredom or the Phantom Gem, they have gone a little mad and gained their own personalities.  You will get to battle them along the way, some are annoying and some are not so much so.  That is pretty much the story in an eggshell (see what I did there...forget it).

Graphics

Sonic Mania while looking retro did not go for the classic Sonic 8-Bit or 16-Bit look of the Sega Master System and Megadrive.  Instead, they have gone for a mixture between those consoles and the MegaCD which still gives it a nice retro look and feel.  I like that they updated the look but did it without destroying the overall design of Sonic, unlike Sonic Boom (shaking my head at this moment).

The game includes many of the classic zones like Green Hill, Flying Battery, and Chemical Plant all with a little twist along with the newer zones like Titanic Monarch, Oil Ocean and Mirage Saloon.  My favorites zones had to be; Green Hill, Flying Battery, Studipolis and Oil Ocean.  Green Hill is the classic first act in most Sonic games and just reminds me of my childhood along being terrified of robotic crabs that walk deep inland like it's no big deal.  Chemical Plant has a very industrial look and there are chemicals everywhere, some of them can make you bounce and others kill you (just like real life).  I really like the look of Oil Ocean as it reminded me a little of Sonic CD and just looked like a polluted mess.  It was also a subtle way for the designers to show kids the devastation of what oil can do to the ocean in a similar way as they did in Sonic CD.  Also if you get the Fire Shield and go down the oil slide it sets on fire, it's the little things in life.

Music

The game was created by Sega along with big-time fans of the Sonic franchise and listening to the music the passion and love they have for it is clear.  There are the classic Sonic sounds blended seamlessly with something new that feels like the original.  The music is upbeat and moves between pop, electronic and a chiptune style sound well apart from the boss music which always has a slightly darker tone.  The composer behind this music is:

Tee Lopes, born in Portugal and move to the United States when he was a child.  For years he has been getting recognition for the remixes of Sonic he has posted on YouTube.  He now works for Pagodawest Games helping create music for indie game, some of his works include; Major Magnet,

Circle Frenzy and Fling all available on Andriod and iOS.

 Additionally, Hyper Potions created the opening animation music for Sonic Mania along with the tracks 'Checkpoint', 'Time Trails' and 'Friends'.  Hyper Potions are Ian 'Sushi Killer' Tsuchiura and Kevin Villeco, who have an awesome logo - go check it out.  They are an American band who produce Electronic Dance Music.  They have created many tracks and remixed a number of songs, their works include; Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice, Gotta Go Fast - Sonic Tribute, League of Legends 

and Mischief Makers Remixed.

The score runs at just under two hours and has many great pieces of music, I can see myself in the near future buying the record from Data Discs (check it out below).  There were quite a few pieces I really enjoyed including:

Green Hill Zone Act 1

Chemical Plant Zone Act 1

Studiopolis Act 1

Flying Battery Zone Act 1 and 2

Hydrocity Zone Act 1

Mirage Saloon Zone Act 1

Lava Reef Zone Act 1

Titanic Monarch Act 1

Blue Spheres Bonus Stage

Hi Spec Robo Go!

Final Boss Theme

Gameplay

The gameplay is classic Sonic, most of the techniques and items are the same with a few additions, the classic TVs are all there including; lightning, fire and bubble shields along with the new Hyper Ring.  The Hyper Ring collects all your rings together meaning if you get hit it's easier for you to catch them all.

There are multiple games modes that can be unlocked by playing the game and by completing bonus stages successfully.  There is a Debug (cheat mode), Time Attack and Competition Mode.  Like Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles you can play as Sonic, Tails or Knuckles and later Super versions if you collect all the Chaos Emeralds. 

Sega and associates put a lot of nostalgic moments from the series into Sonic Mania including; Mean Bean Machine Boss, Metal Sonic from Sonic CD, original Sonic Bosses from the Megadrive along with Heavy Shinobi who is basically Shinobi from the series but in robot egg form (I know that it's not technically from the series but is still cool).

There are some great zones throughout the game and some not so great ones.  My favorite zones to play were; Metallic, Mirage Saloon and Studiopolis.    Metallic was really great as Sonic is already cool and cute, how do you make him cooler and cuter?  Use a shrink ray on him, then get him to take on miniature versions of bosses.  Mirage Saloon had an interesting desert cowboy feel along with some weird enemies plus you get to stand on top of a plane for Act 1 looking badass.   I was slow to warm to Studiopolis as it had too much of this Hollywood feel but after a while, I got into it and I really liked the silhouette effect that occurs when you go behind glass.  There were two zones that chapped my hide, Oil Ocean Zone and Titanic Monarch.  Oil Ocean Zone looked good for the most part but later on, there is black smoke that builds and you have to pull chains to clear it if you don't you lose rings and die.  Was not a fan of this and is it was very out of synch with the classic Sonic gameplay.  Titanic Monarch Zone, the acts were quite long but became longer with those damn gravity balls.  Purplely, pinky orbs that you have to almost break the analogs sticks to get yourself pointing in the right direction to reach higher locations.  Of course, I could deal with one or two but both acts are littered with them and they are super annoying.

Final Thoughts

After six hours of play, how did I feel?  Happy.  While I felt Sonic Mania was not as good as the original games it does do a fantastic job of paying homage to them along with creating something new and special.  In recent years few Sonic games released have really felt up to the mark but this one felt just right and I look forward to tackling it again in the future and maybe collecting all the chaos emeralds.  This one gets a solid 4 out of 5

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 - Review

Since Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 was released I have played it every year with the exception of last year.  I am not the biggest Call of Duty fan as a whole, mostly due to the fact I am not big into multiplayer and also some of the games are just not that good.  With a lot of first-person shooters, especially nowadays I feel the studios create a single player campaign as an after thought which really bugs me.  To me playing games is about your own singular immersive experience which I simply don't think you can achieve with multiplayer.  I think its's good to have the option of multiplayer but I feel along with many others that there should be more focus put back on the single player campaign.  First-person shooters often seem to blend into each other, why?  Because while there are some variations in the multiplayer experience they all feel too similar.  The one way to set them apart from each other and stand out is by having a solid story.  It worked in Bio Shock Infinite, Black OPS, Crysis, Far Cry, Half Life and The Darkness to name but a few.  I could talk about this stuff for hours but time to refocus, my point is Modern Warfare 2 has a great and engaging story which is why it stands out from the others and why so many people want it remastered.



Pies, pies, wonderful pies, they are a whole meal encased in pastry whats not to like?  With so many variations there is something for everyone (note to self buy some pies).  When I was growing up there were a few pies I really liked, one of them was steak and kidney.  It's not the nicest sounding or the best looking but it was damn tasty.  I tried one a few months ago and it was still good but not as tasty as I remember.  Playing Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 I found myself asking was this is tasty as it used to be?

Story


The game is set five years after the original Modern Warfare and the world sees a new enemy rise up after the death of Imran Zakhaev, his name Vladimir Makarov.  He has no allegiance, no political agenda and isn't afraid to commit murder or even genocide, he is one bad guy.  You get to see the story unfold from many characters perspectives including; Private Joseph Allen, Private Ramirez,
Captain McTavish and Sergeant Sanderson.  There is nothing more I can tell you as it would spoil the story.


This story has it all, betrayal, revenge, loss, war and lots of guns. It still holds up to the test of time and is a great story with a really good ending.  The game had me hooked as soon as I heard the intro, Captain Price saying 'what the hell kind of name is Soap anyway?', which is a call back to the first Modern Warfare.

Graphics


The game is starting to look dated but that isn't saying it looks poor either, it does however show that it does need to be remastered (hopefully in 2018).  The cut-scene at the beginning looks great and helps provide a recap from first Modern Warfare.  I know it's only a map showing illuminated green lines jumping all over the globe but it does look good.  There are some stand out places in the game, my three favorites were; Firebase Phoenix (where you first start out), The Boneyard and Cliffhanger missions.  Firebase Phoenix is a living breathing place, there are soldiers carrying out repairs, a few playing basketball, some training and others just hanging out. The Boneyard looks amazing especially all the old planes, half a fuselage here, a wing there, even a few rows of seats out in the open.  I also like the contrast between old and new, you have all these forgotten wrecks and then there are a ton of soldiers with up to date equipment fighting around them. The Cliffhanger mission is awesome for many reasons but one of them are the visuals.  At the start it has Captain McTavish causally smoking a cigar near the edge of a mountain, you get to look at the ice and snow capped mountains surrounding you and it just looks fantastic and that is just a taste of what the mission has to offer.



Music


The score for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is simply epic, it has the feel of a really good pulse pounding action movie and it really creates an intense atmosphere.  The two people responsible for this are:


Hans Zimmer who created the Main Themes in Modern Warfare.  The man needs no introduction and has worked on and created musical masterpieces for many films, TV series and games.  Some of his works include; Gladiator, Inception,  Black Hawk Down, The Rock,  Lion King, and The Darknight Returns.

Lorne Balfe is a Scottish born composer and created the main score for Modern Warfare 2.  He has varied background, some of his works include: Terminator Genisys, Assassins Creed 3, Crysis 2
and Ghost in The Shell (2017)


The soundtrack runs at just under an hour which I found to be a great length considering how long the campaign is.  There were many great pieces, my favorites were; 'Ordinance', 'Extraction Point', 'Guerrilla Tactics', 'Onwards' and 'Safeguard'.

Gameplay


On to the good stuff!  Let's talk about shooting mechanics, as a whole they were okay throughout but there were times I thought the aiming was off or the weapons were not as balanced as they should.  It wasn't enough to spoil my experience overall but it did throw me off a couple of times.  Everyone one has weapons of choice, mine were the UMP45, M14EBR and the combat knife.


My biggest concern when reviewing a game is that I will give away too much and spoil the experience for those reading it so I will try not to give away too much detail about the missions.  I will however provide some cliff notes.  The cliffhanger mission is great for people who love snow, snowmobiles and mountain climbing. The Gulag missions offer a varied pace which helps keeps you on your toes plus who doesn't like a prison break?  The Boneyard is chaotic fun and encourages you to choose flight over fight.  Then there is the mission Loose Ends, this is a tough one to talk about as it brings up a lot of emotions for me, so like any regular male I am going to keep quite and say nothing (it still hurts).


The campaign is short and depending on what difficulty you decide to play it on you could have it finished in as little as five or six hours.  It might be short but it certainly is sweet and even though some people complained about it I thought it was the perfect length.




Final Thoughts


So after fifty hours or so (well just under six hours this time) how did I feel?  Awesome, I really enjoyed playing it again and getting to experience the thrill of it all.  I am hoping next time I go to play it that it will be remastered as at this point it is really needed.  This one was easy to score and gets a 4 out of 5

Dishonored 2 - Review

I remember when the original Dishonored game was first released, everyone was raving about it so eventually I decided to play it.  After playing I felt underwhelmed, it wasn't bad but definitely wasn't everything it was hyped up to be.  When I heard they were releasing a sequel I was mildly interested, mostly because this time you had the choice of playing as either Corov or Emily and the early gameplay looked good.  Lucky enough my favorite technician and buddy Siniša (kidding, you are all my favorite) loaned me his copy so I could give it ago.


Let's talk about soup.  It's healthy, can be tasty and is great if you are not sure what else to eat.  There are hot and even cold soups, why there are cold soups I don't know but they exist.  There are simple soups and more complex ones.  For me the most basic soup is tomato, nothing wrong with it but it's not really my soup of choice.  Add a little chili or another ingredient and yeah it can be nice but by itself, meh.  Playing Dishonored 2 I found myself asking was this just a plain tomato soup or was it something more exciting?

Story


The story is set fifteen years after the first game and Emily is now Empress after her mother Jessamine was assassinated.  Her father Corvo stands by her side as her Royal Protector, but don't be fooled Emily can handle herself.  The game starts on the anniversary of  Jessamine's death,  naturally a great way to dishonor her memory is to stage a coup.  Things get intense fast and you have to choose to play as either Corvo or Emily.


The story is about revenge which is great as I like revenge stories, but I did feel Dishonored 2 shared a little too many similarities with the first game.  Clearing your name for a crime you didn't commit, saving someone you love and helping to clean up the corruption by kicking asses and taking names. While the story isn't bad I wish the studio had been a little bit more adventurous, while there were some interesting characters it just felt a little too familiar for me.

Graphics


This time around the game is visually more impressive and features a lot more detail especially the interiors of buildings, however like the first game it suffers with something I can best describe as the 'unfinished painting effect'.   Some people have said that the game is visually impressive, I would argue that point.   I was speaking to a friend of mine about it recently who made a really good point about it, the Borderlands Series has a very distinct art style that is purposeful and works well with the style of gameplay it offers but with Dishonored it feels out of place as the gameplay has a darker and more serious tone.  There is a clear foundation of something that could be really special but instead just feels unfinished, the colours often feel very basic and some parts of the background look half completed which stops the world feeling organic.


All the visual bashing aside there were some areas of the game that looked great and stood out for me.  The two that come to mind are; the journey out to the Addermire Institute and the Clockwork Mansion.  Travelling out across the water to the Addermire Institute is great as you really get to focus on your surroundings, the building itself looks like the setting of a horror movie, it gives a real feeling of isolation.  The Clockwork Mansion was hands down my favorite area, pulling levers in the house completely changes the structure and layout of rooms and feel likes a real feat of engineering.



Music


The score moves between two very distinct tones, somber and foreboding.  These sounds are conveyed through the harsh use of percussion and stringed instruments.  Listening to the score again it really gave me pause as I became so used to the music in the game I almost didn't notice it.  While I know that sounds very negative I actually mean it as a positive, with many other games I have played the music almost feels like a separate entity rather than being intertwined as it was in Dishonored 2.  Perhaps it is an oxymoron to say the music was distinct but also subtle but I think with this score it really does settle comfortably between the two.


The creator of the sound was American composer Daniel Licht who sadly passed away earlier this year.  He worked on films, TV series and games, some of his works include: Dexter, Amityville: A New Generation, Hellraiser: Bloodline, Silent Hill: Down Pour and the Dishonored Series.


Outside of this there were a few additional people who contributed to the score including;
Ravi Krishnaswami creative director at COPILOT Music + Sound, Raphael Colantonio founder of Arkane Studios and one Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac.  John Benthal, Lev Zhurban and Brian Slattery were the musicians who helped create the sound of the Serkonos group who can be found playing in different parts of the game.

A very enjoyable soundtrack and I really liked the additional pieces of music, my favorite included; 'Dishonored 2 Main Theme', 'Corvo Trailer', 'Void Theme', 'Delilah's Theme (Combat)'
'The Coup' and 'Silver and Dust'.

Gameplay


Onto the meaty goodness that is the gameplay.  As noted earlier you get to play as either Emily or Corvo, as I had played as Corvo in the original I wanted to mix it up and see what Emily had to offer.  Dishonored 2 is a first person, stealth, action, open worldish game.  The combat, weapons and abilities are pretty good and sometimes a little weird.  The combat for the most part works well, the swordplay can be a lot of fun and choking someone out mid-combat never gets old.  If you want to take the non lethal approach then you will likely need a lot of sleep darts and stun mines, there are buffs and abilities you get later in the game that will help you minimize the amount you use and save you money. There are a lot of abilities you can unlock in the game, my favorites were; shadow walk and mesmerise.  Shadow Walk allows you turn into a ghostly looking shadow and knock out enemies which looks really weird.  Mesmerise allows you to distract people for a time, which ends up looking like a moth gravitating towards a flame, funny and useful.


There are upgrades for your weapons in the form of blueprints but the downside is you can't make them.  Basically you find the blueprint, pay to get it made and then you can buy it on the black market.  This bothered me a little because you were paying for the item to be made and then paying for it again once it was made along with going to the effort of finding the blueprint in the first place.  I feel they should have either allowed crafting of items or just be able to buy them in the shop day one. Sorry you can craft bone charms and runes which I found playing on normal difficulty did not come in that useful as a whole.


Similar to the first game there is an otherworldly element,  it is definitely more present this time around. The mechanical heart appears again and is used to track down runes and talisman that will help you on your journey.  Playing Dishonored 2 I couldn't always figure out if the studio wanted to make a serious stealth game with otherworldly elements or an otherworldly game with some stealth elements. Overall though the gameplay was pretty solid and had some interesting moments.




Final Thoughts


So after nearly twenty hours how did I feel?  The experience was better than expected but overall it wasn't amazing.  The story felt a little rehashed, the visuals were better than the original but still not quite there.  The soundtrack was great and there was some good gameplay.  I think like tomato soup Dishonored 2 just wasn't for me.  Scoring this was one was tough but in the end I could only give it 3 out of 5

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War - Review

Can you believe it's already November?  There are still so many games I want to play and the year is nearly over.  I have played through and reviewed thirty-five games so far this year (including this one), I would love to make it a round forty but not sure if that will happen with so little time left. What's a gamer to do?  Anyway enough lamenting and onto the review!  Back in 2014 Monolith Productions release Middle-Earth Shadow of Mordor and it was awesome, great story and great combat.  The moment I heard they were releasing a sequel I got pretty excited about it and could not wait to play it. 


Have you ever tried dry salt chili spare ribs?  If you haven't you should try because they are damn tasty.   The name pretty much says it all.  A little warning though to any of you with sensitive taste buds they can be a little spicy but to me it all adds to the tastiness.  Generally speaking they are an appetiser, a small portion of them are good but if you have say a little extra or decide to have double then you may end up with some bad results.  Playing Shadow of War I found myself asking, was this the perfect portion or was it too much?  Was I left satisfied or was I left with a sore stomach, tender behind and the desire to never try it again?

Story

The opening of the game provides a slight recap of the first along with showing the current state of play for our protagonist or is that protagonists?  There is Talion the ranger who was not great at being dead so decided to come back to life (sort of) and Celebrimbor a self righteous angry dead elf.  They don't always share the same view points but overall they both agree that Sauron needs to be stopped.   How can they stop him though? They probably need a powerful ring but Bilbo still has that in the Shire, what to do?  Oh yeah it turns out Celebrimbor crafted the rings of power, may as well let him make another. 

The main story is pretty engaging throughout with the exception of a few minors bumps.  One of  the many things I really enjoyed about the game were the smaller stories especially those focusing on Shelob, Carnan and Bruz.  I felt they really helped show the shear vastness of world and that there was so much more going on than just the battle for middle-earth.

Visuals

The game definitely looks sharper and more detailed than Shadow of Mordor. I only wish I had waited and played it on the Playstation 4 PRO rather than the XBOX One as seeing the comparison between the two showed how vastly different they looked.  Damn my impatience.

Visually speaking there were a few really standout things for me.  Shelob's backstory was one of them, it is told through a mini game where you need to angle glass shards into the correct position to get a clear image and you are then provided with some insight about her.  I really liked the look and feel of the Nürnen region which had a forest/tribal look which just blended together and worked really well.  While there were many great character designs the one that I really liked was Brǔz (seen above).   He has over sized spiked metal gauntlets, giant shoulder pads and an awesome facial scar everything about him says 'I am a badass'. 

Music

It must be tough to be the composer of any Middle-Earth game because you will always be trying to live up to Howard Shore's work on Lord of The Rings films which is a pretty tall order.  The soundtrack for War of Mordor has a pretty epic sound.  There are deep beating drums and horns for the battles, and haunting violin sounds for the more poignant moments in the game.  The two composers for the score are:

Nathan Grigg an American composer who has worked on multiple games including; Fear, Fear 2, Fear 3, Matrix Online, Alien vs Predator 2 and Condemned.

Garry Schyman an American composer who has worked on films, TV series and games, some of his works include; BioShock, BioShock 2, Bio Shock Infinite, Dante's Inferno, Destroy All Humans Magnum P.I. and the A-Team.

Unfortunately I was unable to listen to the entire score as I could only find a few pieces uploaded on YouTube.  I am unsure as to why but the only way I could get the complete soundtrack is to buy the Gold Collectors Edition of the game (see below), which I will not being doing.  My favorites pieces (of the one's I could listen to) were; 'Main Menu Theme', 'Seige of Minas Ithal', 'Minas Morgul' and 'Sauron Boss Fight'.

Gameplay

So much to talk about so let's get to it.  The combat is really smooth which works really well especially when you get into a brawl with twenty orcs.  Outside of combat you have the option of using stealth which for the most part works well, this is especially true later when you can chain stealth kills.  There are plenty of skills to upgrade but don't worry it's pretty easy to get skill points.  Weapons and armor get better as you level up, there is legendary items that have a secondary ability that can be unlocked by completing challenges.  No need to worry about health as long as there is an ally or enemy nearby you can just drain them.  

Building an army is a big part of the game and there are quite a few elements to it.  The are worms that carry intelligence on Captains including locations and weaknesses.  Hunt them down, dominate them and make them part of the Bright Lords Army.  Of course it can be a little tougher than than, they are always surround by their allies and in combat can adapt to your fighting style.  They will sometimes regenerate health when near death or simply retreat.  All of this adds varying degrees of difficulty and that is before you look at laying siege to fortresses.  

Taking a fortress is a lot of work, it requires planning and a lot of currency.  It is recommended you take out all Warchiefs before attempting a siege as it will help reduce the fortress strength.  Once that's done you will need to choose your Captains along with purchasing upgrades to help you get inside.  The next task is capturing points inside the fortress before finally taking on the Warlord himself.

I had some really great experiences while playing Shadow of War and I wanted to discuss a few of them.  I don't want to give you too much detail but I am going to say this - you get to fight a Balrog and yes it is fun.  Caragors are a great way to get around the map and are a great way to stealth kill enemies it was one of the first challenges I completed which was awesome. You never forget your first siege, breaching the walls, battling multiple enemies, dethroning the warlord it feels really good.

I saved the best for last, it started with me being over ambitious and getting killed by an orc called Grom.  After he killed me he was promoted to Captain and was given the title Tark Killer, naturally I wasn't happy about this so I went to kill him only to have him escape moments before his death.  I found him again and this time killed him, it felt really good.  Later on in the game it goes quiet and out pops Grom the Machine, turns out his friends put him back together with metal.  I got to enjoy an intense fight before killing him.

Well I have talked about many great things, what I am going to discuss next is not so great.  There are the Captain introductions, each time you are about to fight one (or sometimes during) they give a speech which really interrupts the flow of battle but is made worse by some really poor voice acting choices.  The controls for Drakes are not great and it often felt like I was trying to control a lead weight with wings.  When trying to hang or drop from ledges there were often times when Talion was completely unresponsive, it had me nearly throwing my controller in frustration especially when trying to infiltrate a camp.  However all of these things pale by comparison of the final thing on my list - Shadows Wars.  In my mind once the first three acts are completed that's it you are done and that is where the game should have ended but no.  The studio thought lets make the last act as annoying as possible and ensure that you will have to put almost an equal amount of time into it as you had for the first three acts combined.  The object is for you to defend the your fortress twenty times!  Of course leveling up your Captains to keep up with your attackers takes time and if you lose then you have to retake it from scratch along with having to rescue or find new Captains.  It requires you to do one of two things; grind like crazy or buy lots of loot crates with real money to get Captains to replace ones that you lose and you will lose them.  What is the pay off you ask? A three minute cut scene that helps tie the game into the movie franchise, I think the clip below says it all.

Final Thoughts

Well after over 30 hours how did I feel?  Not awesome. There was some really great gameplay and I did have some fun.  There were was good story, with three really good acts that was followed by a really bad one.  Shadow Wars should have been a separate mode which would have worked well instead of just a poor way to tie the game in with the movie franchise.  I expected better as so many others did, I am sorry to say I am giving this one 3 out of 5

South Park The Fractured But Whole - Review

South Park has been part of my life for many years & I still enjoy watching it now.  I first read about the show just before it was due to air and I remember thinking it sounded very different to anything else I had seen before.  It was a Friday when the first episode aired on Channel 4 & I couldn't wait to watch it.  I sat on my bed waiting for it to start and then proceed to spend the next twenty minutes laughing hysterically, I loved it, the next Friday could not come soon enough.  Over the years many games have been released using the South Park name but until now only two had the creators Matt Stone & Trey Parker's approval.  In 2014 The Stick of Truth was released & I really enjoyed it, I even played it again just after I finished it.  Naturally enough, I was excited when I heard about The Fractured But Whole and couldn't wait to play it.


In case you didn't know I have a sweet tooth, one sweet I really enjoyed growing up were called Frosties.  They used to cost 10p for a roll, they are cola flavoured hard candy, great for rotting your teeth so of course I liked them.  A couple of years back I tried them again, they looked similar and the pricing had increased but not by a lot.  They were okay but not what I remember, they were not as cola tasting and even though I ate them all during the same day they got really sticky and hard to take out the wrapper.  It's lucky I don't have fillings as I ended up eating quite a few bits of tin foil.  Playing The Fractured But Whole I found myself asking, was this something that was better left in the past and remembered fondly or could it be just as good as I remembered?

Story


Once again you play as the New Kid and are thrust into a group of vigilante heroes called Coon and Friends.  They are trying to create a franchise including movies and Netflix series, quickly arguments breakout regarding who should get what and when.  Friends become divided and Civil War erupts, two sides are created but who will win in the battle of Coon and Friends versus Freedom Pals?


The main story seemed longer than Stick of Truth but I did not feel it was as entertaining and certain parts of the plot became perhaps a little convoluted especially closer to the end.   There were fewer side quests which was disappointing, I think as normal Ubisoft wanted to hold back some content for the DLC to squeeze a little more out of it's customers.  Sometimes more is less but other times less is less, in all honesty for me there were only a few standout quests.  While there were definitely plenty of gags I just felt the story content was no where near as good as Stick of Truth.

Visuals


If you have ever watched South Park you will be familiar with the animation style, while it may not be cutting edge visually speaking I feel it works perfectly.  It helped seamlessly blend the series with game and makes it feel like you are part of one of the episodes which I really liked.  That were however some standout sections including:


Professor Chaos's base, tons of tin foil, big screen TV's, Halloween decorations and hamsters
Path to Heaven, a pretty rainbow farting flying unicorn and a gay fish with a gold chain
Tool-shed's entrance, he slides down using a measuring tape which looks really badass
Plantmancer Ultimate move, hmmm, watch it on YouTube I don't want spoil it for you



Music


The musical score has a distinctly epic sound and reminded me of the music from many comic book movies.  There are times when the score diverges most notably in the Peppermint Hippo strip club which goes for a more urban rap sound.  The composer for the score is Jamie Dunlop who has done a lot of the music for the South Park TV Series.  Outside of this he has contributed to many TV series, movies & games, some of his work includes; Stick Of Truth, Cabin in the Woods, Sixth Sense, Supernatural, Law and Order, Breaking Bad, How I Met Your Mother, Lost, The Wire, Friends, ER and Person of Interest.


While it is not a bad soundtrack it is far from being outstanding and I just felt it was too similar to others I had heard.  It runs at just under three hours, I felt there was a lot of filler and some pieces were very repetitive.  There were some pieces I quite enjoyed including; 'Main Menu', 'Morgan Freeman Boss Battle', 'V.I.P. Brawl', 'The Broflovskis (Kyle's Mom Fight)', 'Character Sheet', 'Drug Dealer Kingpin' and 'Mecha Minion Chaos Battle'.

Gameplay

On my journey I fought many different enemies including; many assed cats, city ninjas, raisin girls and rednecks.  While they only appeared once my favorite enemies were the molesting priests, not only because they were both creepy and funny but also because one of the special moves was one of them pulling anal beads from their ass & running at you with them.  Things like this reminded me of why the show is so funny and why I enjoy it so much even now.  There were some really stand out characters in the game, most notably:


Randy, a man who when he is drunk will fight anyone especially if thinks you have his keys
Captain Diabetes, with the power of diabetes which give him monstrous strength
Tool-shed, I think his outfit looks the best and his sandblasting ability comes in really handy
Professor Chaos, a great villain with funny minions and an impressive ultimate ability


An interesting and very South Parkesque thing is the difficulty level, very easy has you as a white kid and very hard puts you as black one.  This is something that can be changed at anytime throughout, I kept it at normal difficulty.  There are multiple classes in the game similar to other RPGs; Elementalist, Gadgeteer, Cyborg, Psychic, Assassin, Plantmancer, Blaster, Brutalist and Martial Artist.  There is a lot of choice but fear not you can pick more than one class.  Similar to the Stick of Truth you have summons that can call on powerful allies to help you during battle, my two favorites were:


Macaroni Picture, that calls Moses to heal up your party
Cheesing Vial, Gerald flies in and drops multiples bombs on the enemies below


The combat itself I felt was not as good as the Stick of Truth, characters can easily get in the way of each other and multiple times I found it hard to see what was going on as objects blocked my field of vision.


When you are not in combat there are plenty of areas to explore and puzzles to solve, some of these will require your buddies to help you.  There is no jump button in the game but sometimes you will need to get up higher areas using fartkour like parkour but with farts.  Early on red bricks will appear that are lava these can only be cleared by using a sandblaster shoved in your ass and the power of your farts.  There are handy apps to track your progress, show character information and of course there is Coonstagram.  Basically it's Instagram, as a whole there is no real benefit to getting followers and is just a collectible of sorts.  There are mini games, the first one you get to play in the first five minutes.  Through a slightly annoying set of button sequences you get to poop, initially it was mildly funny but later it just felt over used.  Once of the better mini games was controlling a flying unicorn to help get a frog into Heaven through the power of rainbow farts.


I touched on it earlier in the review but as a whole there were not a lot of really good quests, which is where it falls down by comparison of the Stick Of Truth.  There were however a few good ones that stood out:

Medicinal Fried Chicken, this requires you to get weed for Classi to get information from her
Shady Acres, this one has you battling old people which was tough, nasty and funny
Craig and Tweak love story, easily my favorite mission as you need to find a way to get the two back together again


Overall the gameplay wasn't bad but it felt more like things went backwards instead of forwards which was disappointing.  I did like the new buddy abilities but the combat did not feel as enjoyable or as good as the Stick of Truth.



Final Thoughts

After almost twenty hours of playing what how did I feel?  Honestly underwhelmed, the story and combat was not as good as the Stick of Truth.  The visuals stayed the same with a few good exceptions and the music was okay.  While I know I will likely play Stick of Truth again I can't imagine saying the same with The Fractured But Whole.  I can only give this one I can only give 3 out of 5

8-Bit Gaming Conference - Review

Just arrived back last night from Ireland's first 8-Bit Gaming Conference in Griffith College. There was so much to see and do; my better half and I both really enjoyed it and are already looking forward to next year. The atmosphere was brilliant; there were so many gaming enthusiasts & we couldn't get over the amount of rare games & consoles on display.


During one of the panels, we got to hear about how the idea for the 8-Bit Conference came about from one of the organisers.  It was only really conceived a few months ago in a pub (he jokes 'as all good ideas are'). It came from a desire to organise a gaming related event. With a lot of work and little sleep, their idea became a reality.  It's hard to cover everything we got to see and do while at the conference but I will sum it up as best I can to try to do it justice.

The first area we entered was the Retro Gaming Museum, which was fantastic.  They had dedicated display cabinets for both Mario & Zelda, and some of the items featured were really rare.  I thought it was really awesome that they actually had copies of E.T. on the Atari 2600 - which reminds me I really must watch the documentary on Netflix, Atari: Game Over.


While they were many great retro consoles on display, a number of which you were also allowed to play my favorites had to be a rare SNES developer console and the Atari Lynx handheld console.  I was lucky enough to play a Japanese prototype version of Mario Kart on the SNES developer console, which was a lot of fun. The owner of the prototypes explained how these were sent, in various forms (complete, incomplete, slightly different to release versions) to journalists for gaming magazines in the 90s and 2000s. These prototypes and advance copies were often then sold and traded around into the hands of collectors. For me though, getting to play Donkey Kong on the Gameboy (hooked up to a big screen!) was probably the highlight for me and made me really want to buy a Gameboy again.

Next, we moved onto the Arcade Room - this was awesome!  They had a number of Arcade Machines set up and built by Mini Arcade Systems, an Irish company.  Not only did we get to play as many games as we wanted free of charge but they also had free sweets next to every machine.  Not surprisingly, we spent quite a bit of time here hunched over machines, despite being soaked through from being caught in the rain. We even missed the Sega Arcade panel because of it. We easily could have spent the rest of the day there, trying out many of the 800+ available games from Sega, Nintendo, and many more classic systems.


Three things became apparent after being in the Arcade Room. First, playing retro games on an old style bartop arcade machines is a lot of fun. Second, having a player 2 makes it even more fun. Third, we want to buy one of these machines as soon as possible - perhaps as a Valentines Day present to ourselves.

                                                             photo credit 8-Bit Gaming Conference

To be honest I was really happy just to have seen the Retro Museum & The Arcade Room but there was even more to enjoy.  There were multiple panels on retro gaming - the one we went to was on collectibles which was really interesting.  We not only got to hear from the event organiser but also from some avid collectors.  I really liked hearing from the guy who had his whole house dedicated to not only retro gaming collectibles but also his collection of literally hundreds of old CRT TV's & monitors - his reason being, you need a good display set up for the full retro gaming experience.  It was great how excited everyone was, and they were also seriously talking about putting together a gaming museum in Ireland which, in my opinion, would be epic.


On the second floor there was so much going on. There were some really good cosplayers including two people (dressed as Squall and Rinoa) who were there talking about Kupocon.  What is Kupocon I hear you ask?  It is a celebration of all things Final Fantasy including; games, music, special guests & more.  We will be attending next year in Birmingham as the London event has already sold out.  Outside of this, there were tournaments being held and retro games & consoles on sale along with lots of handcrafted items.

photo credit 8-Bit Gaming Conference

photo credit 8-Bit Gaming Conference

 photo credit 8-Bit Gaming Conference

Overall we had an awesome time and based on an interview done with the event organisers they are even looking at bringing it to Cork which would be awesome.  For any of you who missed out on it this year, I cannot recommend highly enough that you check it out next year.

Beginners Guide - Review

I am just back from the 8-Bit Gaming Conference in Dublin &  I have to say it was a lot of fun (might even do a review of it in the near future).  Even though I am little wrecked after traveling back I really wanted to get my final PC review of this year completed.  A short time ago, based on a recommendation, I decided to play the Stanley Parable (created by David Wreden) & being honest I was blown away by it.  I was informed recently he had made another game called The Beginners Guide, after enjoying his first game I thought why not give it a try.


Wine Gums are not the most exciting sweets in the world & if I was in a sweet shop (which I regularly am) it would not be my first choice.  That being said, I do like them - I consume one or two & think to myself 'yeah these are pretty good' & then proceed to have some more.  An entire bag later I think to myself 'damn I forgot how nice these are'. Playing The Beginners Guide I found myself asking was it like a bag of wine gums or is it more like a dip dab (a lollipop you lick & stick into a bag of lemon sherbert) - annoying to eat & generally frustrating?

Story 

The game starts with David Wreden narrating the game. He wants to showcase a number of games created by his friend Coda between 2008-2011.  None of these games were ever released & according to David, this was due to Coda feeling they were not good enough.  David seems concerned about Coda as he seems to have little to no confidence in his work & is also anxiety-ridden.  This is the basic premise of the story - David asks that you bear with him & that everything will make sense.


The story feels like David is simply trying to help his friend & hopefully by exposing his work to others it will help him build up his confidence.  I can't say too much without spoiling it for you - what I will say is that the story is both interesting & thought-provoking.

Visuals

The graphics are quite varied, Coda's early games are very basic but as the years progress this changes vastly.  The best example of this would be the first game you see which is similar to a map from the original Counter-Strike & then a later game about cleaning.  The cleaning game is set in a snow covered area & in the centre is a modern house.  When I stepped inside I was almost in shock as there was so much detail it really did look & feel, for lack of a better term, real.  Initially, I started out feeling the visuals were almost unimportant,  but they really are - just not for the normal reasons.  I know that statement may sound a little cryptic but it is all part of the experience this game has to offer & as such I am not going to spoil that.


Music 

There is not a lot of music in the game which is good because it would only serve as a distraction from David's narration & the story itself.  There are a number of atmospheric sounds used throughout Coda's games which are subtle & work well with what you are seeing.


The one standout song is played during the end credits called 'Turn Back' written by Halina Heron & performed by her & Ryan Roth.  Halina is a singer-songwriter from Canada, she has released a number of albums & EPs including; Moon Hunter OST, The Yawhg EP OST & Back Then.  I really liked The Moon Hunter OST, so much so that I am going to play the game next year because of it.
Ryan Roth also hails from Canada but unlike Halina focuses on very different genres of music, mostly electronic & ambient.  He has worked on other albums with Halina along with doing his own solo work including; The Yawhg EP OST, Moon Hunters OST, Good Snowmen Are Hard To Build OST & Shattered Planet OST.


While I do love a good musical score, the absence of one here I would mark as a positive rather than a negative.  The game wants you to focus on the story & ensures this happens by not offering you other distractions.

Gameplay

When it comes to games, I love talking about the gameplay.  I feel if the gameplay is poor then it is difficult for the other elements to cover for its shortcomings. The reverse is true that if the gameplay is good it can make up for other poorer elements.  The gameplay in The Beginners Guide could be described as an interactive story but really, if anything it is more like listening to a film or TV series commentary.  David Wreden's narration is powerful & creates an atmosphere like no other I have experienced.  The game made me challenge things I had only really thought of in a small way before. I struggled to review the gameplay but after a while, I realised it was because it was more like an emotional, thought-provoking experience than an actual game.  Considering how I feel about games this is a rather bold statement for me to make.


In my opinion, the only way you can truly understand The Beginners Guide is to experience it for yourself.  While that statement could be used to describe many games, I think after you play this one you will understand what I mean.




Final Thoughts

So after just over 2 hours, how did I feel?  Amazed, confused & intrigued.  It is very difficult for me to simply sum up my experience of the game like I would others.  The most basic way I can describe my time playing it is that I enjoyed it & the biggest recommendation I have would have for anyone reading this is to play it.  The time you spend with it will be short but I truly mean it when I say it will be very worthwhile.  This is the second game this year I am awarding 5 out of 5