Tango Gameworks and Bethesda’s The Evil Within promised “a return to the roots of survival horror”, and with one of the fathers of the genre Shinji Mikami at the helm, it definitely had plenty of potential. Sadly, the game was heavily marred by technical bugs, poor design choices and an almost incomprehensible narrative. All the key ingredients for a great game were there, but they weren’t executed properly. But it seems old Shinji and his pals had a few tricks left up their sleeves, and the two story-focused DLC’s, The Assignment and The Consequence almost completely redeem the franchise. Many […]
Read more »Bladestorm: Nightmare is a near seven year old game rejigged for the new era of consoles, although why anyone thought it was a good idea to do that, instead of just building an entirely new game, is beyond me. It’s like someone in the back office wasn’t ready to pull the trigger on a sequel, and settled on another cliched ‘HD update’ instead.
Read more »The music blasts out of the speakers as I fly down the street, bullets ricocheting off the car all around me as the police try to take me, or the car, out of play. My comrades lean out the windows and return fire, buying me time to get away when BOOM, hit by an RPG. Respawn. Find the guy who killed you. Pull the sexy man pose. Battlefield Hardline is always fun.
Read more »Narratively-driven video games have enjoyed a renaissance in the last couple of years, showing the wider population that the medium can be just as effective as films, TV and books when it comes to storytelling. And it’s not a niche market: everyone from indie developers to AAA studios are releasing games with strong focus on characterisation, immersive narrative and deep exploration of relatable themes. Of course, the flip side to that is not everyone gets it right. However, Life Is Strange, a new episodic game from developer Dontnod Entertainment, gets it very right.
Read more »Basketball is a weird sport. I played it for ten years during school and while I learnt skills, no one taught me to be tall. Because my bright and shiny basketball career was tragically cut short, I now write, but thankfully for me and everyone else under 7ft, the latest instalment of Visual Concepts and 2K Games’ long running basketball series is out now.
Read more »Over the last decade, Far Cry has carved out its own niche within the first person shooter genre of games. It has become famous for its wide open worlds, flamboyant characters, and over the top violence and mayhem. The latest installment, Far Cry 4, trades steamy tropical jungles for Himalayan mountainsides, but otherwise, promises to build on the success of its predecessors. Does it succeed? Let’s find out.
Read more »Every so often a game comes along that I enjoy so much I struggle to find words to describe it, due to me not believing I can do the game justice. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is one of those games. It combines a variety of intertwined systems with great replay value to create a game that’s enjoyable to not only play through to completion, but to toy around with and experiment. It’s not only a fantastic game, but it’s also a brilliant PC port that shows other developers how it’s done – it runs well with reasonable system […]
Read more »The Call of Duty franchise has seen some huge highs and some equally low lows throughout its lifetime. With Advanced Warfare, it is clear that Sledgehammer Games and Activision have done their best to re-invigorate the series, combining the strengths the games are know for with new additions to keep the franchise fresh. The result is a polished, well-designed game that has a few rough edges, but not enough to lessen the appeal of the game.
Read more »I’ll be the first to admit that I have absolutely no working knowledge of the Skylanders video games. I came into reviewing Skylanders Trap Team as a complete newbie, with no prior conceptions of what to expect. After playing through Skylanders Trap Team on the Xbox One, I can safely say the game has entranced me, and left me with that kind of excitable glee normally associated with the opening of gifts on Christmas Day.
Read more »Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is probably the best LOTR-themed game in recent years, possibly since the tie-in game for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. It steadily improves as a game through play, strongly conveying the growth in power of the player’s character Talion through play as well as story, and in a most welcome change, it exercises moderation in how it touches upon the lore that surrounds Middle-earth. While one of the key draws for LOTR games is being able to explore the environments we’ve seen in films or read of in the books, the word judicious doesn’t come […]
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