As a racer the onus is on speed and handling, and while the Switch version is able to maintain a respectable pace, it doesn’t feel quite as responsive as other versions and the textures are so low-res in places that it becomes a little distracting. It’s not ugly, by any means, and compared to some other racing games on Switch it’s actually pretty well presented; the problem is probably more down to the fact that I know what it looks like on the PlayStation and it’s hard to forget.

But look, it is what it is. That the Switch is less powerful is hardly news and Bugbear should be praised for how well Wreckfest moves and how good it feels to play on Nintendo’s system. Also, if this is your first time with Wreckfest, you’ll be too busy smashing through the mass of content to worry. There’s a total of 45 different tracks and arenas to race and wreck in, which is impressive in itself. From straight races to destruction events in sports cars, muscle cars, trucks and even ride-on lawnmowers, the focus is on fun and variety.

One caveat to porting such a large game onto Switch and attempting to maintain not only a solid frame rate (it manages a steady 30fps around 80-90% of the time), but also the physics effects that make wrecking other cars feel so cathartic is that the load times do drag a little. Performance is boosted across the board by playing the game docked, but that’s not always an option.

You can play through all the events solo if you want to, racing against AI drivers with those weird computer-generated gamer tags that make you feel like you’re online like Rubber Duck and Slam Master. It may be the best option a lot of the time too. The Switch doesn’t have the best record for online play and Wreckfest’s servers aren’t exactly heaving with players itching to take you on. I have played a few games online, but the wait is often a long one.

If you can look past the iffy graphics and occasional performance issues, Wreckfest is a decent game on Switch. Like most ports to the handheld though, it’s not cheap. You can decide for yourself if the asking price is fair. It comes up to around £50 if you buy the DLC which, annoyingly, isn’t bundled in with the base game. On it’s own you’ll pay around £25 to £30 depending on where you buy it.

The Switch doesn’t have many racers that offer the same kind of thrills and excitement as Wreckfest at its best though, so if you’re just looking for a driving game to smash through while chilling on your commute or stretched out on the couch, it’s not a bad option.

The post Wreckfest Nintendo Switch review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

FAR: Changing Tides: A wonderful sense of freedom

Comparisons to Inside and Little Nightmares are going to be made. The left to right puzzle structure; the artistic style; even the gameplay. However, it has a much different tone and plenty of moving parts. There is a sense of freedom to FAR: Changing Tides. You spend a fair amount of time sailing across the waters. Between getting out your ship and solving puzzles, you’ll drift on the waves while keeping it moving. This will range from lifting the sails to filling the furnace with anything that burns.

The ability to go underwater will help you get through certain barricades. One upgrade to your boat lets you speed off for a certain amount of time, but it’ll demand your full attention. It’s not stressful to keep your boat moving. Every new mechanic is given enough time for you to familiarise yourself with it. There’s also a decent amount of time before each puzzle, so you get to soak in the visuals and wonderful music.

Engaging puzzles

When it comes to the puzzles, none are particularly difficult. If you’re familiar with the principle of Occam’s razor, it’s good to approach FAR: Changing Tides with a certain simplicity. In one puzzle, I tried to stack a bunch of suitcases and crates (both used to fuel your ship) to jump over a carriage on a rail track. I couldn’t work it out at all. However, all I needed to do was use these items to throw into a carriage’s furnace – one that I’d already used. It was right in front of me. From then on, I looked for the simplest solution and made sure I applied logic to each one. Okomotive want to challenge you, but they also want you to take everything in and enjoy the stunning nature of the adventure.

Much of the gameplay revolves around keeping your ship moving. A radar sits slap bang in the central chamber. Every now and again, a blue light glows indicating nearby fuel. You can hop out your ship at any time and go for a swim. You end up unlocking a crane that will haul huge crates filled with stuff to throw in your furnace. The same hook can be used to lift debris underwater that may uncover a switch for a large door blocking your path. Every mechanic has equal importance throughout. Each device within the ship is straightforward enough to use, but they all work in harmony.

FAR: Changing Tides: A gorgeous journey across the waves

It’s a beautiful thing sailing through peaceful waters while making sure it runs smoothly. Occasionally, things go south. It won’t be just the puzzles that hinder your journey. Storms may cause you to rethink your approach to getting to wherever it is you’re going. Although there are dangers along the way, FAR: Changing Tides is a memorable and delightful game. That sense of freedom mentioned earlier never feels as good as when you’re sailing across thrashing waves at great speed. That bond grows stronger every time you throw fuel into the furnace or swim among large whales underneath the surface.

FAR: Changing Tides is about overcoming the odds. It never punishes you, but it doesn’t let you off the hook, either. When you master the various ways you’re ship can be used, there’s no feeling like it. The puzzles are challenging enough, but never seem complex. I fell in love with it almost instantly. It feels so natural to play, even if jumping can sometimes feel a bit loose. Regardless of this tiny flaw, the journey which sees you grow as a sailor and a human being is one I won’t forget in a hurry.

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The LEGO games have always enjoyed a special level of freedom when it comes to storyline. Regardless of which franchise it’s based in, a LEGO game has the privilege of being able to cherry pick the elements it wants from the franchise whole. In-jokes and pop culture references abound throughout each one, but the Marvel ones have the special dispensation to raid not only the MCU but the broader comics universe, too.

As a result you get some characters based on the movie counterparts and others based on whatever TT Games decides. You get the smug, arrogant Tony Stark so uniquely created by Robert Downey Jr in an original storyline alongside the likes of Dr. Doom, Jane Foster, The Fantastic Four, and Wolverine. It begins with the familiar, of course, as the aforementioned Iron Man teams up with Hulk and Spider-Man to take on the likes of Abomination and Sandman.

It feels immediately comfortable to me having played this version when it was originally boosted for release on PlayStation 4. The satisfying rattle and click as you assemble items out of broken piles of LEGO to solve puzzles is just as glorious here as in any title since. Cycling through characters to utilise their unique ability combinations is endlessly fun. Flying around as Thor, hurling Mjolnir at enemies and obstacles doesn’t get old. Neither does swinging through New York as Spider-Man for that matter, or wreaking havoc as Dark Phoenix or Deadpool.

The spread of characters is as impressive as the variety of locations, objectives and set-pieces pulled from the movies and comics. The fact that this also launches with the DLC packs means there are even more heroes to battle against Galactus with. The story is often silly, of course, but does a solid job of mixing in most of the characters and giving you a reason for their inclusion.

Most stages are a mix of light brawling and puzzle solving, asking you to occasionally think your way around a problem. Combat is fun and satisfying as enemies explode in a shower of bricks, but using your selected heroes to overcome environmental conundrums is equally as rewarding. It’s a surprisingly sizeable game, and the trademark LEGO variety prevents it from becoming stale.

It’s just a shame that it’s such a straight port of that original release. After 8 years a host of LEGO titles, it would have been nice to see something added in for the Switch port. That said, it arguably doesn’t need anything. It’s just as playable now as it was then, and the stellar animations and familiar LEGO aesthetic mean you’ll feel immediately comfortable. The low price point of £24.99 doesn’t hurt either.

If you’re a fan of Marvel comics, the MCU, X-Men or, of course, LEGO titles and you missed this one originally, this is a perfect time to rectify that. It was surpassed by its sequel, as is often the way, but in its day this was perhaps the best example of what TT Games could with such a huge source franchise. If you get the chance now, you should absolutely give LEGO Marvel Super Heroes a fair crack.

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Odd is definitely the operative word when talking about the Oddworld series. Packed full of capitalism, dark humour and genocide, the games have shifted in genre and changed their main character multiple times across the four titles. Despite having regular releases over multiple generations, there hasn’t been a new Oddworld game since Stranger’s Wrath in 2005. With a new title coming to PS5 next year, there’s no better time to replay the first game in the series in the form of Oddworld New ‘n’ Tasty on the Switch.

The updated version of the PS1 classic Abe’s Oddysee sees you playing as Abe. Abe’s life (similarly to many of his Mudokon brethren) is a life of slavery, toiling away in a food processing plant that is secretly planning to make his species into the next tasty product. When Abe discovers the fate of the Mudokon, he takes it upon himself to use his unique powers to escape the factory and save as many of his colleagues as possible along the way.

Abe controls in the rigid style of some of the oldest platformers (the 1989 Apple II Prince of Persia for example). He can jump from standing or running, or hop upwards, and every time you input one of these maneuvers the outcome will be identical. Once you jump you have no control over your trajectory, so you’d better be certain you’ll make it to the other side of a pit, or over a landmine. It takes some getting used to this style of movement, but once you do it’s strangely satisfying to use such a limited set of jumps to make it past a tricky section.

Abe has plenty of other tricks up his sleeve to get past the security personnel standing in his path. One of the most unique of these is his ability to possess an enemy by chanting. Taking over a gun-toting guard and walking them into a whirling blade of death is consistently satisfying, and an incredibly effective way of dispatching your oppressors. As strong as this ability sounds, the amount of time required to dominate the mind of an enemy is significant, so you’ll need to find a safe place to chant. There are even some areas that prevent you from chanting at all, with a hefty dose of electricity awaiting you if you try.

The varied environments of Oddworld New ‘n’ Tasty are packed full of traps just waiting to end Abe’s fragile life. Trap doors, proximity mines, motion sensors and more litter the lands, and you’ll need to find way to avoid their danger at all costs. Almost every one of these hazards can be turned on your foes too, with hilarious results. Getting the attention of a guard, only to pull a lever and watch them tumble to their doom is just so pleasing.

Getting rid of these baddies is important, but not as important as rescuing your friends from their capitalist captors. Using Oddworld’s Gamespeak system to communicate was incredibly innovative in 1997, and it’s still pretty charming today. Each direction of the D-pad corresponds to a different phrase you use to talk to your fellow captors. You can say “Hello” to get somebody’s attention, get them to follow you or wait, or just let out a delightful fart to lighten the mood. Once you guide a Mudokon to a circle of birds, you can chant to create a portal for them to escape through, saving them from becoming tinned produce.

No two sections of New ‘n’ Tasty feature the same challenges. Some areas require you to throw grenades to set off traps from afar and blow up enemies, others are full of steam that you’ll need to hide behind. Sometimes you’ll be tasked with riding a wild animal to progress through a desert, other times you’ll need to memorise a string of Gamespeak commands to input a password. The sheer variety is seriously impressive and means that the game feels fresh through it’s 10 hour runtime.

It’s worth mentioning that much like its original release, Oddworld New ‘n’ Tasty is a really tough game. The remake added a few extra checkpoints so death doesn’t feel quite so devastating, but even in the opening hours you’ll die a lot. The precision needed to get past an obstacle course of blades and explosives may be off putting for some. Even the puzzles are tough to navigate, and you’ll often be plopped into a room of traps with only your wits (and plenty of respawns) to help you escape.

As much as I love the original Oddworld, the Switch port of the game is one of the worst versions technically. The framerate suffers on the Switch, and in a couple of the busier visual sections, it really takes a hit. One of these sections is the opening 10 minutes of the game, which is the most unfortunate first impression. When this happens, the camera feels juddery as it follows Abe (especially when running) and the end result left my head hurting. The vast majority of the game is much more playable, but it’s such a shame that areas have this issue.

Oddworld New ‘n’ Tasty is the perfect way to experience the start of the Oddworld series, but the Switch port is not the version I’d recommend from a technical standpoint. It still feels satisfying when you manage to maneuver Abe through a hallway of deathtraps, all while saving a friend or two, but the framerate issues make this a tough port to stomach.

The post Oddworld New ‘n’ Tasty Switch review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Switch Re:port covers the Nintendo Switch port/version of a game newly released on the platform. Originally released on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC in 2013 and scored 8/10.

Six years is a long time in the West. Indeed, it seems like Gunslinger’s protagonist Silas Greaves can pick off some of the Wild West’s most notorious outlaws and bandits in that time. He achieved much in just over half a decade. It’s interesting to see whether Call of Juarez: Gunslinger has aged as well in the same period since it launched back in the last console generation.

The positives are still here for everyone to enjoy. It was a decent looking game when it launched, with its pseudo-cel-shaded graphical effect standing the test of time, even if textures do look a little outdated. The level design is varied as you progress through caverns, forests, mountains and those infamously-robbed trains of the time. Action-wise the shooting feels impactful, and the combo points system for multiple kills ramps up the adrenaline and makes you feel like a badass cowboy when you pull them off.

Nintendo’s portable console brings gyro aiming into the mix which works well, especially when coupled with the game’s Concentration mechanic – essentially bullet time. Being able to quickly and accurately move and take down enemies one by one is both satisfying and well-executed if you pardon the pun. The gyro aiming even in normal time felt in control, allowing you to nab those all-important headshot kills either in Story Mode, or the time-limited Arcade mode.

The niggles from the original game also creep through, and some feel more noticeable thanks to the passage of time. The draw distance is a problem, leading to noticeable pop-in of scenery, especially when the camera and mission objectives are forcing you to look into the far horizon. And no amount of gyro controls can overcome the frustration of not knowing whether an enemy that you can see poking out from cover is able to be shot or not. This is thanks to poor hitboxes on occasion and invisible walls around cover scenery that extends beyond the visible boundaries. If anything it feels more irritating now, given the gyro controls, and that’s a real shame.

But, despite that, it’s still a fun game to play, much like the original. The voice acting feels like it’s taken right out of a Western, making it feel immersive and believable. The story is bonkers, but that’s fine because it’s all action and doesn’t take itself too seriously. It isn’t perfect, but for those who missed the original, this is a good port of a decent Western action shooter that doesn’t outstay its welcome.

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Now, I’m not about to go ahead and say that Ubisoft has reinvented the wheel here (it has not), but the first and most impressive thing that’s been done here is that the UI is so much better. Once you’re through the initial load screens and chosen between Kids and regular Dance sections you’re greeted by a lovely, white, clean UI that is less of an assault on the eyes and much more of a pleasure to navigate that the overly busy ones that went before.

All the information you could want about what you’re about to take on is given to you – song title, artist, difficulty – only now you also get a nice preview video to go along with the song giving you an idea of the horrors that await you. Not only this, but instead of the game’s workout mode being hidden away in a sub menu now you just press X to enter sweat mode. Once Sweat mode has been activated the game replaces the difficulty icon with one showing the intensity of the workout, you’ll also get indicators showing how long you’ve spent dancing to said song and how many calories you’ve burned doing so. This is all very helpful to those of us who may be piling on some unwanted excess weight and actually want to do something about it.

The game now has challenges that you can complete to earn coins which in turn go into a Gacha machine for the chance to earn bits and bobs for your dancer card. The problem is that straight from the off these challenges ask you to do things through the Just Dance Unlimited subscription, which even though you get a month’s free trial to begin with it still feels a bit shitty.

That’s right though, Just Dance Unlimited is back, offering you all the feeling of a growing platform of music to dance to while only really allowing you to play what has gone before. All Unlimited songs now have a great big icon on them stating that they’re for Unlimited subscribers only, and with the new UI all the old songs aren’t segregated into their respective game’s segments. Granted you can use the game’s search function to look for songs, but unless you specifically know the song’s title or artist you’re going to be on to a loser trying to find it in a lengthy song list. You can’t filter by title and there’s no sub menus per section.Oh, did I also mention that the search UI is based on the old PS Store letter ribbon Sony recently ditched? Good times.

Then there’s the usual dancewalls that the Just Dance development team are so fond of. Locking features away until you’ve danced the required amount of songs to get them. I still can’t get my head around why this is necessary, especially when features like the playlists (themed songs for special holiday events or ones recommended to your tastes) are pretty cool, even if the majority of the tracks are once again locked behind that darned Unlimited paywall.

I say this in every Just Dance Review now, but, I guess what really bothers me about the Unlimited thing is that it seems like Ubisoft are dabbling with the idea of a subscriber based platform. It’s a sound idea, and would really help people who love to play these games be it for parties, fitness or general enjoyment, and here it presents that case even further.

I’m not going to say that the music here is bad, but once you’ve jigged away to Liam Payne’s Familiar, or bounded around to Elton John’s I’m Still Standing you’ll find very few songs worth dancing to and songs like Mi Mi Mi or Milosc W Zakopanem are good for their novelty value but won’t really warrant return visits. On a side note there’s a Pac-man song with a video featuring dancers dressed as Pac-man and the ghosts, I couldn’t bring myself to dance to this and decided to feel ever so sorry for those dancers instead.

That’s my biggest problem with Just Dance 2019, the track list just feels so devoid of much genuine quality and when you delve into the Unlimited free trial you really see it. Whether this means I’m some sort of music hating muppet who doesn’t understand what ‘the kids’ are into these days I don’t really care, I know a song I like to groove to when I hear it, and I just didn’t feel that here.

If you really like to dance then the Just Dance games are your only real outlet these days barring going to a nightclub, getting drunk and dancing with people you fancy. I guess in the grand scheme of things Just Dance is a cheaper alternative to having a life, and comes with a fitness segment to boot. I just don’t feel that outside of the hit and miss elements of the UI redesign that Just Dance 2019 does enough to justify a new purchase after 2018, you’re probably better off getting a temporary Unlimited subscription instead.

The post Just Dance 2019 review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Like every episode prior we begin pretty much where we left off in the last one with our team of friends emerging back into the world near Beacon Town. Things have taken quite the turn in Jesse’s absence with the town undergoing a major restructure including a huge floating palace in the sky. The Admin has taken on the form of Jesse and has been ruling Beacon Town with an iron fist. The residents have been subjugated and are now living under a tyrannical regime, fearful of the Jesse imposter and what he might do.

Friendship has been a recurring theme that runs through season two; we have had Jesse upset that Axl and Olivia aren’t around as much any more, Radar is desperate to please and befriend Jesse and there has been more than a few moments where Petra has lamented that Jesse’s time as leader of Beacon Town means that he isn’t around to go adventuring with her as much any more. Friendship is also a key component to Romeo, the Admin’s personality. Over the course of the season we have learned that he hasn’t always been alone, there were two other Admins who were his friends, but something went wrong between them and he killed one and imprisoned the other. In his guise as Jesse, Romeo is keen to establish friendly ties with all of Jesse’s friends, including the absent Axl and Olivia who we find in Beacon Town. He constantly remarks what a great friend he is and demands very public displays of friendship from Axl and Olivia.

I’ve often wondered why the first season went to such great lengths to set Jesse up with a core group of friends that included Axl and Olivia to then pretty much cast them aside after the culmination of the Wither Storm story. It felt odd then, and it feels odd to see them back in this episode playing a relatively key role in helping Jesse to regain control of Beacon Town and defeat the Admin. It appears over time in their absence that Olivia has got a new voice actress; she doesn’t appear to be voiced by Martha Plimpton any longer which is a shame and is particularly jarring when you first hear her speak. I speculate that this is perhaps why Olivia in particular hasn’t featured much over the latter part of season one and all of season two and as such I question why Axl and Olivia even needed to be in this episode at all. The writers have done so much to make them irrelevant in previous episodes that their appearance here acts purely as a means to hammer home the plot points about friendship which could have been achieved either way without them. The same too could be said about the ridiculous appearance of Ivor as a stealth ninja, other than for comedic effect of course.

The action ramps up quite a bit in Above and Beyond with a fair amount of fighting one on one with Romeo. The battles are particularly QTE ladened, but as always due to the intended audience the window for error is pretty wide. I will say though, that the violence in this episode seemed to stand out a lot more for me than in previous ones. The way that Jesse deals with Romeo in the finale is particularly violent and there was a scene very late on where one character breaks the neck of another that I felt was a little over the top in a game that is largely aimed at young children.

In the previous episode I complained about audio issues a fair amount, this episode thankfully runs very smoothly and in actual fact features another great soundtrack. The accompanying music at the beginning reveal of Beacon Town under the rule of the Admin had a very faint hint of Flash Gordon which I found interesting especially when considering that Romeo’s floating palace bears a not too dissimilar look to Mingo City from the early 80s cult classic. Why this comparison, I have no idea, but it amused me nevertheless.

Overall I liked episode five, it is a definite improvement on the previous installment, however despite being very action-packed it lacked a lot of the humour of earlier episodes in the season. Tonally it seemed a bit off as well, particularly in the depiction of the violence that the characters inflict on each other. Previously this had been restricted to only battling the various mob enemies that Minecraft has, but the way that Jesse defeats Romeo feels a little heavy handed (quite literally!). The ending epilogue scene does manage to top and tail the season very well with a reference to Radar becoming the Hero in Residence which I thought was a neat touch, and the final choice between Jesse and Petra felt particularly fitting considering the over-arching theme of friendship. There was a certain sense of finality to Above and Beyond which felt good, but it was also left open for perhaps a season three so this may well not be the last time we see Jesse and friends.

The post Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two – Episode Five: Above and Beyond Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

 
I think part of my issue with Below the Bedrock is that there isn’t any menacing baddie for our crew of heroes to pit themselves against in this episode. Romeo, we are told is above ground in Beacontown in the guise of Jesse and up to all sorts of trouble. He doesn’t make an appearance in this episode and it feels poorer for it. The story is very much an extended fetch quest, and while there are a couple of exciting action-packed sections to it, much of it consists purely of conversations with people of the underneath world, and a few scenes where the adventurers are travelling via minecart to different destinations.
 
There are a few sections that try some new things though. Over in Fred’s fortress there is a trivia contest that demands that players really pay attention to what the characters are saying to them. And there is an exciting action scene in Romeo’s town which requires a bit of problem solving to be successful, but these two scenes feel fairly sparse in the two hour episode.
 
Other elements of the story feel disjointed and out of place. There is a section that introduces a strange group of people that promptly disappear never to be seen again, although this may well be dependant on a story choice made a few seconds prior. And there is a reappearance of an old character that we haven’t seen for ages that feels totally at odds with what is happening. He appears, conveniently provides Jesse with an item required to return over ground, and leaves again with only a really tenuous explanation as to why he was even there in the first place.

 
The disjointed nature of the narrative is further exacerbated by some really quite serious audio issues that plagued my play through. The worst of which was in the section where you enter the trivia competition. In this area you must speak with different characters to learn some personal details about the former admin, Fred. During one of these scenes, after performing the actions that would open up the character to trust me enough to part with the information, the sound dropped entirely and I didn’t hear the answer. Fortunately, the sound returned and Jesse repeated what she had told me otherwise I would never have known the detail. Sound issues have been fairly common across every episode, but they generally take the form of a bit of stuttering, having a whole section go silent is very poor indeed and further emphasises the need for Telltale Games to update their engine.
 
It isn’t all bad, there are continuing themes that have run right through this season that get some satisfying progression. Firstly, Radar the overly needy and cowardly side-kick has had a pleasing arc over the course of the four episodes and he gets his moment to shine towards the end of Below the Bedrock. Furthermore, the ongoing notion of friendship and how that changes over time gets some more meat added to it in the form of a surprisingly tender moment between Petra and Jesse. It is a shame though, that these moments weren’t part of a more interesting and exciting episode overall.
 
Below the Bedrock is a disappointing episode, particularly on the back of the mostly excellent Jailhouse Block. It feels like a tricky middle episode despite being the penultimate one in this particular season.  The action sequences continue to be a lot of fun, and there are some nice moments with characters both old and new, it’s just a shame that it feels nothing more than filler in preparation for what I hope will be an action-packed finale.

The post Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two – Episode Four: Below the Bedrock Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Jailhouse Block begins where Giant Consequences left off with Jesse being cast down into the depths of the Nether into mysterious location that we soon discover is a Prison of some sorts. I am continually amused at this series’ ability to constantly mine the source material for ideas and the Prison block is a great source. I’ve never actually played on one of the community built and maintained “Prison Servers” but the ideas and principles of those heavily administrated servers are carried forward into this episode and work very well with the idea of the overarching baddie being an “Admin”. There are plenty of areas where downtrodden “Guests” have to perform various activities within the prison and all within very strict parameters – the most obvious one being that no-one should have a sword in their inventory.

The episode is jam packed with action which is great to see, and there are more opportunities to build and craft as well as some simple problem solving with a sequence of levers. I am very much enjoying these more interactive episodes as previous instalments always felt a little dry in this aspect. By allowing some of the more creative aspects of Minecraft to filter through into the heavily scripted events maintains the illusion that there is some freedom and scope for playing through how you wish. I am yet to be convinced, however that the moments where the pop-up detailing that your story is changing have any meaningful significance to where Jesse and her friends end up.

Despite being an action filled episode, there are some quieter moments where Jesse can talk to different people within the prison to find out a bit more about what is going on and who the Admin is. These quieter moments actually work really well and help forge some developing characteristics for Jesse and her friends. In particular I have enjoyed watching Radar’s character change and grow in the light of constant support and encouragement from Jesse. Again, I am unsure whether this was always the path that Radar would walk on, but this episode further maintains the illusion that your choices for Jesse have had a direct impact on Radar.

Minecraft: Story Mode is predominately a series for children, but there are some great jokes in Jailhouse Block aimed at the adults who will be playing along with their young ones. I chuckled along at a few visual gags a couple of times and there are some great one liners from a few characters. Jack, my new favourite character, makes an appearance and continues to delight me with his heroic bravado shtick.

A particular stand-out in this episode for me was the music. I haven’t noticed it in any great detail before, but it works exceptionally well in Jailhouse Block. There is an extended sequence of peril for Jesse and Jack as they run from a variety of hideous zombies and creeper/spider hybrids, and the music that accompanies it is suitably tense with lots of synthesized bass that communicates very well the excitement and danger of what they are doing. Whilst the soundtrack was exceptional, there were a few audio issues I experienced with character dialogue merging with other characters almost like the the speed at which some conversations were being played out wasn’t quite in sync with each other. It happened on a few occasions and was just enough to be distracting. The audio issues were once again a reminder that I really wish Telltale Games would update their engine for these story games.

The only criticism of Jailhouse Block is the extremely abrupt ending. It felt like the episode had just reached it’s flow and then it was over. I understand the need for a cliffhanger, but it wasn’t even that, there was a brief glimpse of some glowing eyes and then it ends. I am keen to see where Jesse goes next, and in particular who the mysterious Prisoner X turns out to be – an ally or another baddie Jesse will need to overcome.

Jailhouse Block is another strong episode, it feels much more action packed than any episode has been across both seasons which is great. The story is developing into a fun and interesting one and I am pleased at the direction of the characters. For now the façade that choice is an option continues with the growth of Radar as a character and a I am very much looking forward to episode four.

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Once the colossus has been vanquished a new enemy appears, this time in the form of a snowman. It turns out that it is still the Admin and now he has used his powers of control over the world to plunge Beacontown and the surrounding area into a state of eternal night with all the dangers that darkness brings in the world of Minecraft.
 
I very much like this idea of the enemy being a server admin, as a conceit it amuses me greatly to see him use a clock to set time to night, and introduce new parameters for our band of heroes to overcome. In this particular episode, Jesse and friends are tasked with recovering the clock from the Admin’s Ice Palace, an imposing structure filled with games and traps to complete. He sets a task for Jesse to be the “winner” and to recover the clock first. By doing so he will partner with him and together they will be all powerful.
 
I talked briefly about the introduction of the new character Jack from the first episode, and I’m pleased to see that he is back in this episode. He is very well written with some amusing dialogue, and he is joined in this episode by the Admin with some very amusing one liners. The introduction of these new characters brings me again to wonder why the early stages of Minecraft Story Mode went to such lengths to introduce Axl and Olivia to us to then completely disregard them for new characters early on in the first season. One can only assume there were issues with the obtaining time with the actors who voice the characters, but it seems odd that they have been cast off – a point that the writers attempt to address in this episode with a touching moment filled with existential crisis between Petra and Jesse.
 
The events in Giant Consequences are a lot of fun and I particularly like that in this episode and with the new season so far there is a lot more emphasis on crafting and elements that make up the source material. The opportunity to rebuild Reuben’s memorial statue in any way that you saw fit with the limited materials supplied to you was a nice touch.

 
The pacing of Giant Consequences is significantly improved on the previous episode with the story whipping along at a good pace. There are still moments where the characters are just filling for time, but I can start to see a thread emerging between Petra and Jesse that is interesting, and the theme of friendship and all that entails is taking shape. There are a few cool action sequences that will delight younger players as well; a fight with huge hybrid snow iron golems being a particular highlight which itself followed a really fun fairground shooting range scene.
 
Giant Consequences is a better episode than A Hero in Residence, moving along at a greater pace and with more purpose than the more meandering narrative of the first episode. The new Admin baddie is amusing and I look forward to seeing what other Machiavellian antics he has for our friends to tackle in the next episode.

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As this is season two you have the option to bring over your save game from the first season which will incorporate the choices you made throughout the eight episodes. It is a nice touch and ensures a little continuity between seasons, albeit a very light touch approach. If you don’t have a save file handy you can create a back story to flesh out your characters a little bit. I’ll admit that having this refresher at the start helped to bring these characters and their stories back to the forefront as I had forgotten a couple of the key choices I had made, and although the illusion of choice is always ready to be exposed in TellTale games, it was nice to have some of those decisions reflected back to me at the start of the game.

The first season of Minecraft: Story Mode started off strong with a good story about the threat of the Wither Storm, but over the course of the eight episodes and after the conclusion of the threat of the Wither Storm, things kind of got a little stale with self-contained stories that didn’t always hit the mark. It seems that with this episode the ideas, certainly at the beginning, seem to have dried up with a first half of the game being very slow. We are introduced again to Jesse, and his/her friends Axl and Olivia who featured heavily at the start of season one, only to never be seen again towards the end of the season. Sadly, these two are cast aside again very quickly which is an enormous waste of the vocal talent of the likes of Martha Plimpton in particular who plays Olivia, and makes me wonder why they even featured in the first place.

Themes of friendship run deeply through Minecraft: Story Mode and this is continued with a small sub-plot between Jesse and Petra, the fearless adventurer that joins Jesse, Axl and Olivia at the start of season one. Things have become a little strained between Jesse and her, mainly down to Jesse’s new found responsibilities as the leader of Beacon Town. The story begins with knowledge that the town is to celebrate its foundation with a huge event, and walking around the town on the way to meet Petra, it is clear that Jesse is a big favourite with the townspeople. He is continually distracted by calls from the residents to judge their builds, or assist in the design. Within the town there is a repeat appearance of popular YouTubers, StampyCat and StacyPlays with mixed success. I say mixed success, because I find the presence of these two characters jarring, but they are a useful reminder that this series is not aimed at me, but rather the legion of young fans that Minecraft attracts.

The meandering around town and the subsequent meet up with Petra make for a very slow start to the story, and as it progresses, it almost feels like it wasn’t needed at all. Thankfully, once the main thrust of what this season will be about gets going the episode itself starts to pick up. We are introduced to a new character called Jack who is really funny, and made me chuckle several times during the latter chapters of the episode, and I hope that he will feature much more.

To make up for the slow start the end stages of the episode really ramp up with some interesting locations and an action packed finale. Quick Time Events are used extensively throughout the episode, from being chased by a swarm of cave spiders to dodging the attacks of the enemy at the end. In keeping with the intended audience of Minecraft: Story Mode these QTE events are very generous, with exception of one right at the end that has a ridiculously short time frame and resulted in me failing it a couple of times, which seemed at odds with the rest.

There are some neat little narrative tricks in the story, with a sly reference to the idea of a mysterious being called “The Admin” who is responsible for all the structures that appear in the world. As well as repeated references to Lukas who is busy writing the story of the Order of the Stone. This meta-fiction technique amused me, and I would like to see if it continues throughout the season as it could lead to some interesting ideas being presented.

Season two adds in a new feature called Crowd Play that allows family and friends watching the game being played to partake in the choices made. This wasn’t something that I tried out, but I thought it was an interesting way to engage people in the story being told. There are also some changes that have been made to the points in the story where decisions lead to different branching narratives with a direct notification that the “story is changing” at that point. Choice has always been a bit of an illusion in Telltale Games, but it does serve to remind the player that there is some mileage in replaying to see what else happens.

Overall, Hero in Residence isn’t quite the start to season two I would have expected. The start is a little too plodding and pointless, however it does end very well. Jesse and his/her friends continue to be a likeable bunch with the voice acting throughout the episode consistently high. Some narrative quirks and an interesting new enemy means that episode two could be very interesting indeed.

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I’ve owned the PS4 version of this for a while now (one of my son’s Christmas presents) and I can say that the Switch version is aesthetically identical in every way. Every feature is here aside from the camera recording that uploads to Just Dance TV; this itself is a shame as the scrappily cut videos were always a source of unintended hilarity when you’re dripping sweat gasping for breath, but, other than that it’s the same experience as you’ll get on any other console, even to the point where if you’ve run out of Joy-Cons you can use the Just Dance app to tether your phone to it and use that as a controller.

As I’ve stated before, I’m not the best dancer, so it’s hard to tell if the game picks up my controller movements adequately enough, all things told though very few beats were missed, and my ratio of ‘Good’ to ‘Perfects’ was decent enough for me to pick up at least three stars on every track (with one five star rating, but we won’t go into that); so, it’s safe to say that how the game picks up Joy-Con movement in 3D space is good enough. All things told, despite how knackered it made me the game is pretty fun and it really brings out your competitive side when you realise your star rating is sliding under that of your seven-year-old son.

The tracklist comes in at a respectable 40 songs, with a considerable range in quality – thankfully there’s no Drum ‘n’ Bass, Garage or Dubstep, but there’s plenty of cheesy pop for you to get your teeth into. You can gyrate to Shakira’s ‘Hips Don’t Lie’, go silly with PSY’s ‘Daddy’, slow it down with Maroon 5’s ‘Don’t Wanna Know’, Whip it to Silentó’s ‘Watch me’ or go completely mental with Miku’s ‘PoPiPo’ although why you’d want to take on this ludicrous challenge is beyond me, even if you do want to see some poor Miku cosplay in action.

There’s also another 200 songs through the game’s premium service Just Dance Unlimited, for which you’ll have to pay a subscription for. You’ll find costs ranging from £3.29 for 24hrs up to £25 for a full year, and on your first use of the game you get 90 days of access to Unlimited for free, so you can try it out and see if it appeals to you before you start paying out.

This sub-service is fair enough; I mean games like this and Singstar should be platforms rather than singular games, but it does highlight that 40 tracks for £42 (lower on other consoles) isn’t really good value. You can go down to HMV and buy Now That’s What I call Music for £12, get more songs and dance away to your heart’s content without anyone judging you. Also kept being this pay-wall are the game’s mashup feature which allows you to select songs to put together in a ‘mash-up’ just to give you more of a challenge and even more gutting is the gate-keeping of a selection of kids songs; it just feels unfair to keep that away from you unless you pay more money.

The game’s topped off with a mode for using the songs as a workout routine, which is good for people who like to use dance as a means of keeping fit. The amount I was sweating from regular dancing was bad enough for me, and I wasn’t brave enough to take this on lest I not be alive to write this review. Sorry, but sacrifices must be made somewhere.

If you’ve played Just Dance before you’ll know what to expect from the 2017 installment; a bunch of new songs to gyrate your body to and make yourself look like a fool at parties, now you can take it with you and create dance parties wherever you like – what could be better? The gate-keeping of features behind the Unlimited service sticks in the craw a bit, but what Ubisoft needs to do now is stop making Just Dance games and focus more on making Unlimited a value proposition for people to get behind. But otherwise this is an enjoyable, tiring time and the way my back feels right now can attest to that.

The post Just Dance 2017 Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Episode Three follows Bruce after the unveiling of his family (or more specifically his parents) to be criminals, using their money for horrendous deeds and working with the mob for sordid reasons. The Children of Arkham are now out in force, and although they are a murderous band of terrorists, their message is one that seems to be confusing many of the civilians of Gotham. There are plenty of important story points that unfold as the episode progresses and they include some real corkers. It takes a horrendous amount of time for the narrative to gain traction, but when it does it’s full systems go.

I remember when Telltale introduced Oswald Cobblepot early on and really not liking the road they went down with his character, but after New World Order, the decision to make him a slimy businessman makes perfect sense. Vikki Vale’s character is more developed and her meeting with Batman sets everything into motion. Probably the star of New World Order is Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman; there’s always been a connection between her and Bruce, but this time it feels a lot more personal and honest. The two of them are shown in a vulnerable light – two heroes beaten and bruised, both in need of compassion, love and companionship. There is a really nice moment between the two that stands out as one of the best they’ve ever had, in print or on the screen,

In the first hour or so, you’re constantly wishing things would pick up. You spend a bit of time with R & D maestro Lucius Fox, but when it should be interesting to learn about a whole range of Batman’s tech, you can’t help but feel like it’s an opportunity wasted. It seems like Telltale are using plenty of filler moments in episode three instead of moving the story forward with the familiar charm, panic and pageantry we’re used to, and you’ll find yourself hoping the lack of originality and intrigue moves over.

As the story draws to a close, there’s a moment I never saw coming – a moment I guarantee you’ll never expect in a million years. A character you know and will’ve known for years breaks down limitations and takes leadership of the Children of Arkham; Telltale are doing away with tradition, history and common story elements to present a completely fresh take on Batman and his supporting cast of friends and villains. It’s such a shame it took so much of New World Order to find its feet and deliver a better story.

Episode three of Batman is overshadowed by such a lacklustre start, but as soon as the glimmers of a main villain starts to show, things get really good, and after a pretty hectic confrontation, a whole load of shit goes down to set up episode four incredibly well. Hopefully, the traditionally bad penultimate Telltale episode can have its curse broken and provide a fantastic platform for Batman as the series begins to draw to a close.

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It feels like this ending has been a long time coming, and in some respects has been well over-due. The standalone episodes since the culmination of the Wither Storm narrative have felt a little disconnected from the decision-based nature of TellTale games and I really felt they exposed the futility of the structure. Nevertheless, the individual stories themselves have been entertaining at least, and A Journey’s End is no exception.

The last episode hinted that our team would finally be able to return to their homeworld once one final hurdle was overcome. Harper, one of the “Old Builders” our friends found in Access Denied, told Jesse of a way to find the right portal to take them home: locate the other Old Builders, find the portal atlas and go home. Simple.

One of the things I have enjoyed about Minecraft: Story Mode has been the gentle referencing of the source game. Right back at the beginning we were treated to a journey to the Far Lands with a montage of all the new biomes that had recently been released on console versions of Minecraft, and in A Journey’s End we are given a tale woven around the recent release of the battle mini-games as well as some pop culture references to things like The Hunger Games, where a sadistic crew of people force others to play in violent games for their amusement.

Our team are thrown right into one of these games, a large arena of snow blocks built over a pit of lava with a huge mechanism that crushes anyone unfortunate enough to fall. This is Minecraft though, and a game designed for kids, so death is not final. Every character that fails “respawns” in a holding arena and is then forced to work in the quartz mines until they are allowed to fight again. It’s a surprisingly grim theme, but Minecraft: Story Mode hasn’t been shy with some of the darker stories it has told.

The battle is already in place and Jesse and his team must act quickly. What follows is another story where Jesse is forced to make decisions to keep his friends safe, while also saving the enslaved people of this world and overthrowing the tyrants that run it. It’s a familiar tale, having been done in every episode since Order Up.

Familiarity aside, the tale isn’t without fun. There is an extended QTE sequence that requires you to guide Jesse through a gauntlet of lava, jumps, sword fights with gladiators and a climbing sequence. It is an exciting section and forces you to sit up and pay attention; sadly however, the rest of the tale isn’t given enough time to really flesh out its ideas.

It feels like each episode has become shorter and shorter, and unfortunately with A Journey’s End a lot of the ideas aren’t given breathing room. There is a promising section where Jesse has to decide who of the new people he encounters he can trust, as well as an interesting story about a former competitor who managed to beat the system in the past, but it is over before it ever really begins, and without allowing any time to build up the interesting and compelling backstory it becomes really hard to care about the outcome. Not that I have seen my choices impact the outcome in any meaningful way anyway, since the culmination of the original story with the Wither Storm.

I’ve touched on this a number of times over the past few episode reviews, and it is apparent again here: the contained mini-stories, while entertaining, don’t work as well with regards to the decision-making elements that a longer narrative spread over a number of episodes does. Ultimately, what the different choices amount to is all revealed at the end, when you find out whether you were one of the 72.3% of people that chose X over Y. Purely as a means to move the plot along, or to make you feel like you have some impact on the story, they are rendered entirely redundant and feel more like something to keep you physically involved in the story by making you press a button, rather than significantly shaping it in one way or another.

The end itself was pleasing, managing to reminisce about all the adventures Jesse and his/her friends have been on over the course of the eight episodes, but overall A Journey’s End feels a little under-whelming for potentially the last time we see this group of characters. Decisions made over the course of all entries in the series feel a trifle redundant, and while there are entertaining sequences over the course of the play time, I am not sad to say goodbye to Jesse and friends.

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Here, Bruce Wayne is struggling to come to terms with the news about his parents and their ties to crime. If Realm of Shadows’ goal was to allude to Thomas and Martha’s illegal past, Children of Arkham downright exposes it. The episode is all about revelations, and my God, are there some zingers. The story starts off on crime alley, and off the bat (no pun intended) you’re given some really sad information about Bruce’s parents. Telltale has some great ideas and their vision of Batman and his family is original and interesting.

The Batman comics never shy away from tragedy or death, but Children of Arkham sees some pretty shocking moments. You may not be surprised with what happens, but they’re still big moves. One such moment made me almost shit myself because I wasn’t expecting it, especially in the sudden way it happens. After finishing the episode, I’m fully trusting of where Telltale takes the story; they may have started off a bit wobbly, but it now feels like they’ve gained control of a sinking ship and I’m very happy with where the story’s going.

It’s commendable how Telltale is focusing on many of the smaller characters within the Batman universe. There’s no sign of the Joker, Riddler or Robin, and I’m ok with it. We may end up seeing them in later episodes or even in another series, but things are good without them. I’m still not a fan of how the Penguin has been introduced in the two episodes to date, mainly because Oswald was better as a crime boss and not Bruce’s childhood friend. If you want to feature characters from Bruce’s younger years, bring in Roman Sionis or Thomas Elliot. A minor criticism maybe, but Black Mask and Hush are much better villains to lead with, especially with how Oswald Cobblepot doesn’t have much of a personality beyond his generic craziness.

Telltale Games prides itself on decisions and how the story changes depending on what you choose to do in certain situations. I can’t remember any of the decisions from last month’s episode, and it was one of the reasons I hadn’t liked it that much. Children of Arkham features a few tough choices and you’ll likely struggle with them. One of the choices you have to make had me entertaining both outcomes, and even when I made my mind up I felt back for contemplating both paths. Being Batman is hard, and putting you in his mindset gives the character a new dimension.

Some of the visuals in Children of Arkham are impeccable: the Batcave is immaculately designed and detailed, and the general colours provide a nice pop to every environment. The voice-acting is on point for most of the episode, but I still can’t get to grips with Troy Baker’s Batman voice. Much like Bale’s in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, it’s too gruff and comical.

Children of Arkham is a great episode, and it’s opened up the world of Batman to allow plenty more shocks as the series goes on. As the episode concludes, we’re shown something deplorable from someone never associated with heinous acts, and it’s going to make a big difference. Bruce Wayne’s life has always been about juggling balls and spinning plates, but now his own legacy is in tatters and you’re free to watch Telltale work wonders with it.

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Things seem to be moving along at a much faster pace now that the stories are being told within one episode, and this feeling is helped on considerably with Access Denied being another short episode and with no late title sequence. The credits appear immediately with an extended montage of the gang running into and out of the various portals leading to strange worlds. Once we do get control again, our friends enter a new portal and the story begins.

I was disappointed with the last entry, A Portal to Mystery, as I felt that the fan element with the introduction of the YouTube “stars” detracted a little from the quality of the first few episodes. I am pleased to say that Access Denied is a better overall entry than the previous one with a fun storyline and some quite clever little jokes. However, I still feel that the smaller, self-contained stories are exposing the pointlessness of the decision-making process that characterises Telltale’s style. It is hard to feel anything about the choices you make because the story ploughs on regardless of the decisions you make. Despite this, Access Denied is still fun to play.

Our team begins their journey in a barren land, this time set in the Mesa biome, and we are quickly introduced to a mystery in the form of zombies in the daylight. Our friends find a village (again, beautifully detailed with lots of new ideas for buildings to try in your own Minecraft worlds) and it seems the villagers are themselves a form of zombie or automaton with strange redstone circuitry in the back of their heads. It is then down to our band of heroes to solve the mystery of why villagers are acting this way, fix it and then find their way out again to finally get home.

As with A Portal to Mystery, Access Denied has a number of nods to other genres of storytelling, and as mentioned before, some lovely little in-jokes about gaming in general. There is Ivor’s quip about getting out of trouble using “[…] the power of our imagination”, referencing the ‘make your own story’ nature of Minecraft itself; then there is the baddie that borrows heavily from the likes of Portal, as well as a delightful little skit on the forthcoming virtual reality functionality of games like Minecraft. It’s a pleasant little story, made charming by the animation and characters we’ve been with since the start, even if it doesn’t feel all that original.

Access Denied also does a good job of quickly building up the character of the mystery woman our friends find. The short runtime doesn’t allow a lot of room to do this, but there are some really interesting techniques that Telltale use to try to get as much information about her as possible without endless dialogue trees. It is moments like that where the game does stand out and it’s a shame that these additional episodes haven’t been given a bit more time to be more fully fleshed out as there is some talent on display. As it stands, Access Denied, as with those episodes before it, feels a little rushed.

The shorter run time means that there isn’t an awful lot of interactivity to be had — there is some mild problem solving, some crafting, a few fight sequences and thankfully not many conversation trees. The lack of this branching dialogue feels welcome as it allows for a smoother pace, but on the other hand, makes you feel a little short changed in the ‘game’ department.

Access Denied is a better episode than the previous one. The story, although not original, is fun with some strong character moments and a few decent action set pieces, but the length and lack of interactivity overall could make you question the value of these standalone episodes. Once again, I am sure that young fans will delight in what is on offer here but there is no escaping the feeling that Access Denied and previous episodes could have been much better had there been more time allocated to producing them.

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As a massive Batman fan, it’s hard not to treat every new vision of the franchise with trepidation, especially when the focus isn’t solely on your crime fighting shenanigans. Without giving too much away, the Wayne family name is being dragged through the mud, and certain rumours have started to fly around regarding links with the mafia. It’s up to you to try and work out what is going on by using your brains more than your brawn.

For those of you who are expecting cameos galore or a bunch of references, you’re going to be a little blue. There are some familiar faces, but nothing that made me scream my lungs out with excitement. Characters like Carmine Falcone, Jim Gordon, and Vicki Vale all have quite a role to play, along with other series stalwarts like the unsullied Harvey Dent and Selina Kyle. There is the appearance of one character I wasn’t expecting, but the way his background story and appearance is presented diverges from what we’re all familiar with.

You do play as Batman, of course, and you’ll really get to test the waters with how far you’ll go when facing mercenaries and other bad guys. Batman has never killed anyone, but he can have a reputation for being too violent, and there are instances when you make a choice to shape the kind of Batman you want to be; and in these moments the game really shines. In the later stages, you’ll get to dabble with the detective side of Batman, but it’s a boring inclusion. Unlike Arkham Knight, the build up to recreating crime scenes can be long winded, and the payoff isn’t nearly as satisfying as Rocksteady’s efforts. It feels as though these parts are late inclusions and mere background noise in the story that takes centre stage.

Bruce Wayne is the centre of the story here, and for the majority of the episode you’ll be chin-wagging with upper class acquaintances, appearing at fundraisers and speaking at press conferences, all while trying to build a strong character for yourself. Bruce naturally comes across as arrogant, but you’re given the chance to show some integrity and kindness; you don’t always have to be a dick, and being a stronger person sometimes means you get to stick up to horrible shits like Carmine Falcone. There’s a scene early on where you can talk to the crime boss, and sticking to your guns and not giving in to his bullying tactics will do wonders for your confidence, and your character. These interactions make up a majority of the game, and even though there are quite a few playable moments, you will just be watching and chipping in with a statement or two every now and again. The game goes on for too long and the story feels like one I’ve heard a thousand times before. It isn’t until the end when I started to see the story for more than just another Batman tale.

There are some QTEs throughout and on many occasions you’re really pushed to the limit. During a fight within the first five minutes, I was throwing punches, using batarangs, and zip-lining all over the shop. They aren’t too difficult to execute, but you really need to pay attention to every attack and every move your opponent makes. Along with these QTEs, you also have multiple choices – some are relatively typical, but most shape the way others view you as Bruce Wayne, and the way you view Wayne also.

One of the better features is the Batcave and more so the batcomputer. You’ll get to read about characters and locations you’ve discovered in the codex, watch the local news, and dip into the Gotham media feed to keep up to date with all the news stories. There’s also a radio playing as you keep up to date with current affairs, revealing some potential story arcs for future episodes or seasons, including some crazy goings on at ACE Chemicals.

Realm of Shadows is a good start to the series, with no real wow moments or memorable set pieces, but it does offer a new take on Batman and Bruce Wayne, including a couple of revelations that’ll hopefully give the upcoming episodes some vigour. It’s also clear how improved the visuals are, especially some of the longer shots of Wayne Manor and the newly constructed mental health facility. Unfortunately I wasn’t blown away, but I just hope the story picks up the pace and delivers a more dynamic and thrilling affair next time round.

The post Batman: A Telltale Series – Episode One: Realm of Shadows Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

It feels quite strange, actually, coming back to the game that kickstarted the love affair with this series for us game playing folks. LEGO Star Wars was the first game most of us played and loved, and I’ve been heavily critical of the amount of games that have been made with that “LEGO” prefix (almost as annoying as having to capitalise LEGO every time), especially when you get single movies getting their own game, as opposed to the situation with a series like Harry Potter, where six films were dolled out over two games. With that all in mind, it’s in the back of my head that people will be reading this to find out what’s new for The Force Awakens (there are new bits), and which games are my favourites (Dimensions, Harry Potter, Star Wars – in that order) so they can check the score and judge if this is for them.

Firstly then, what’s new? The most surprising new addition is the cover shooting sections. Yes, you read that right, and no, I’m not taking the mick. Pre-defined sections will have cover you hide behind, whereby you hold the left trigger to pop out, and then hammer square (PS4) or right trigger to fire. You can move the reticule if you want, but otherwise it’ll auto-lock to the nearest enemy. These are quite cool, in fairness, but like much of the series, because there’s no penalty for death (save losing some studs, that is) they aren’t quite as exciting as they could be, despite trying to change it up ever so slightly with different character’s skills. It is an issue for people wanting a challenge, but if that’s why you’re here, you picked the wrong game.

Next, certain builds are now called “Multi-builds” and let you choose from a few different things to create. Most of these are supposed to be done in a certain order. For example: a three piece water puzzle is solved by creating part one of the multi-build, blowing it back up, moving to part two, blowing it up, then moving to the final part and finishing the puzzle. It’s rudimentary and will be more fun for kids than adults, but it’s a nice idea. More interesting, though, is that often one of the build options seems unnecessary, and that’s because it’ll lead to a hidden red brick, or another secret.

Part of the prologue is playing out the final moments of Return of the Jedi (it acts as a tutorial), and at first it seems odd to be playing the old films in this new game, but flying around in the Millennium Falcon is a nice distraction, even if it’s a little squirrely to control. Before each story level there are mini hub worlds which you can muck around in, or choose to replay levels in free-play (and thus access secrets with non story-level characters as per usual). Obviously in an effort to not short change you, the story is stretched over multiple levels, but it’s done quite cleverly. The first stage sees Poe Dameron help the people of Jakku to find their weapons caches so they can attempt to fight back against The First Order, and the second is about Poe and Finn’s escape. Likewise, when Rey finds the lightsaber there’s a puzzle to solve before the story continues. There are also levels that aren’t from the movie which are unlocked with gold bricks and show the lead up to the story of The Force Awakens. Whichever way you look at it, this is a good value proposition, with the usual high number of collectibles, characters, gold bricks, red bricks, and more to find before you can honestly say you’ve done everything there is to do.

The main issue here is that the new stuff is leaned on too heavily. The cover shooting sections are used in nearly every level, and after the first few times the cracks start to show, with the imprecise nature of the controls for older players at odds with the locking on for the younger audience. By the halfway point of the story you’ve experienced enough vehicle sections, too, and while they make sense in the story context, from a gameplay perspective you almost want to get back to the good old fashioned LEGO fun.

But what is here is a good time, and its amplified by co-op as usual. I’ve never gotten on with the dynamic split screen so switching back to a vertical split is a godsend. While The Force Awakens does feel a little more geared toward solo play (sometimes during co-op the partner will be sat waiting for the character with the required skill to unlock a path) it’s enjoyable nonetheless. The character skills feel like they make sense, here, with Rey beginning as a melee fighter with great agility, BB8 able to interact with machinery and power objects, etc.

It looks great, of course, and while the audio is typical Star Wars fare, there does appear to be some inconsistencies with the voiceover audio. While some voice actors have added their words to additional dialogue for the game, the quality seems to vary. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is, but there’s a definite difference in the audio production in places. Whether that’s just a case of some being directly ripped from the film and some being new, I’m not sure, but it’s not really bad, just noticeable if you’ve a good ear.

So while it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, The Force Awakens is a surprising time sink. Each level is hefty enough if you’re the type who likes to get “True Jedi” ranking, and as usual, there is reason to replay each level to unlock all the hidden stuff. What could have been a quick and easy cash grab is another LEGO game fit to burst with content, and one that actually strives to make a more modern feeling product. While it’s not going to change your mind one way or another, often there are two types of LEGO game, and thankfully this firmly falls into the “good” pile.

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Jesse and his or her friends, Petra, Lukas, and Ivor head towards a huge, mysterious mansion in the distance and it is there that the story begins: a classic “whodunit” murder mystery with a few deaths and lots of redstone fuelled traps. Once our team arrive at the sprawling mansion we met a new cast of characters; a crew who will only be familiar to fans of YouTubers like StampyCat, Stacey Plays, and LDShadowLady.

The introduction of the YouTube cast feels wedged in, a deliberate piece of fan service that totally alienates you if you aren’t familiar with their “Let’s Play” shows on YouTube. The fact that their characters in the episode retain their YouTube persona’s just adds to the awkwardness of it all, it’s hard to feel bad about a character called CaptainSparklez having something bad happen to him when he’s called CaptainSparklez, rather than his real life name of Jordan. Furthermore, the dialogue feels like there are a lot of references to events that have happened in these various shows and streams, but as someone who has no interest at all in them despite loving Minecraft itself, the jokes are lost a little bit. As such A Portal to Mystery feels the least funny of all the episodes so far.

I don’t want to go on too much about the introduction of the YouTube characters, but they do play a significant role in the story itself and the quality of the voice acting is at times a bit jarring, especially when compared to the usual high standard that TellTale Games has. This isn’t a slur on the people themselves as they do try admirably, but voice actors they aren’t and it becomes increasingly distracting the longer the episode goes on. Thankfully, or not depending on your views on the introduction of these real life characters, the episode is pretty short, clocking in at just under and hour and half for me.

TellTale often comes under fire for the fact that the choices you make while playing their various stories do not really have a major impact on the overall outcome of the narrative, and generally that is fine because the stories are crafted over numerous episodes and you have a feeling that they do matter even if it is only on a very small scale. Unfortunately, with the shorter stories contained neatly within one episode the choices you make really are exposed as moot. They really feel outdated and pointless during A Portal to Mystery and serve only to keep you focused so that you don’t miss the timer count down on one of the choices. It’s a shame that they have been exposed so much in this episode because I really felt in the first few episodes that the decisions I made reflected in a different experience; the choice to side with Axel for example took me to Boomtown, rather than Redstonia with Olivia, the choice to save Gabriel or Petra feels like it has implications for later episodes in the tale of the Wither Storm, but here they don’t have any impact at all and that is a shame. The story feels like it is happening regardless of whether you participate in it or not, and that isn’t how I want to feel when playing one of TellTale games.

There are positives for A Portal to Mystery, the whodunit murder mystery is very engaging and the twists and turns meant that I had a few suspects in mind. I was kept guessing who the culprit was right up to the end reveal. The story also leads us neatly around various parts of the mansion with some fun building and light problem solving to do. Overall though, I am starting to feel that the lack of any real serious threat for Jesse and his or her band of friends means these episodes are starting to become a bit lacklustre as there is no real drive to continue to see what happens next. Even the next episode reveal didn’t show much in the way of further peril and adventure for our team. I also miss Axel and Olivia.

A disappointing episode then for a series that has been good fun so far. I felt that the introduction of the fan element detracted a great deal from the episode as a whole, but as I have mentioned in reviews for earlier episodes, I worry that I’m no longer the intended audience for this series. Minecraft has a young and very passionate community (I’m a huge fan of the game) and I’m fairly confident that those fans will adore this episode with their favourite YouTube stars playing pivotal roles. But the self-contained story lines are starting to show the cracks in TellTale’s model of storytelling, which I’m not sure is a good thing.

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Shredder and Krang are planning an invasion on New York City and it’s up to the turtles to go and stop them. Nothing new there really, and you’ll pass through each stage at the speed of light until you meet up with some of the turtle’s most famous foes (favourites like Beebop, Rocksteady, and Karai all make an appearance). If you’ve ever played any of the One Piece or Samurai Warriors games, the pace may be familiar to you, but for many it will be chaos over control. Members of the foot clan will appear or mousers will emerge and you’ll have trouble spotting them straight away; everything happens so fast and when you finally spot them, there’s a good chance one of your brothers has already taken them out.

You run around a relatively small level area with certain challenges popping up that you’ll need to complete in order to reach the end of stage boss, such as protecting a pizza van, disarming a bomb or fighting off waves of foot soldiers. They’re quite varied so it does offer a challenge, but the frustrating camera angles take a great deal of fun out of both the challenges and the combat.

Combat does feel different between the characters, with Raphael being stronger than the others and Michelangelo being a lot faster, but after 3 or 4 stages the fighting feels repetitive and uninspiring. You have a normal attack and a strong attack, with upgradable Ninjutsu attacks causing most of the damage. Each of the turtles has 4 of these attacks and depending on the kind of character they are, these moves will focus on their heightened attributes. Upgrading and interchanging these attacks in the loadout screen will help to mix things up a little, but generally the combat doesn’t feel that different.

There are some good features when it comes to manoeuvrability and defence. You can climb walls, glide through the air and travel along railings and phone lines, helping you to get to where you want to go a lot easier than simply running. Parrying and dodging plays a big role as well, and this will help a great deal when fighting hulking brutes like Slash.

The art style make up for some of the game’s frustrations. The cel-shaded rendering of the environments and characters give the visuals a sharp and colourful appeal, with the overall feel sharing a little in common with previous iterations of the TMNT. The recent Nickelodeon cartoon is an obvious comparison, but the tone of the story and the art style is reminiscent of the comics. The voice acting is probably where Mutants in Manhattan shines the most thanks to VO heavyweights like Nolan North (Nathan Drake, Uncharted) and Gavin Hammon’s (Kenny, The Walking Dead) involvement and the brotherly bond is portrayed really well.

It would instantly be a better game if local co-op was a feature. You can go online and play with others, but there’s no real inclination to do so. Teaming up with your friends on your sofa is so much more appealing than over an internet connection and the absence doesn’t seem to make much sense. The turtles are all about camaraderie and friendship and not being able to play the game over a few pizzas just doesn’t seem right.

It’s such a shame Mutants in Manhattan doesn’t hit the mark. It could’ve been such a better game if they’d feature more diverse levels, local co-op, and a much longer experience. I know Transformers Devastation wasn’t the longest of games either, but depending on the difficulty you can finish the game’s 9 levels in less than 5 hours which is a massive let down. Needless to say, this won’t be the turtles game you’ll want to be shouting from the sewers about.

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The focus this time is on King Graham’s quest for love. He’s won his kingdom, his subjects are happy, he’s spent an awful lot of time in the gym – but he’s terribly lonely. Subtle digs from his guards even prompt him to make a fake dinner guest using a coat stand, a poster, and a hat made from a napkin. Dire straits indeed. At the behest of his trusty magic mirror, he sets off into the wilds where he’s heard that there just happens to be a pair of rather lovely princesses in need of rescuing from a tower.

Riffing off Rapunzel (the Tangled version in particular), Once Upon A Climb also takes a good deal of inspiration from comedy classic The Princess Bride. The talky humour feels reminiscent of Carey Elwes’ swashbuckling adventure, particularly thanks to the theme of true love – and Wallace Shawn returns as Chapter 1’s Manny, too. But the greatest success of Chapter 3 is the introduction of the aforementioned princesses, Vee and Neese.

Far more than just sounding boards for Graham’s clumsy ramblings, both women have unique personalities, likes and dislikes that you’ll need to figure out and appease as you attempt to decide which is your true love – a choice that never really feels is Graham’s to make. While dealing with various perils – not least the wicked witch Hagatha, who keeps the princesses locked in the tower – you’ll genuinely feel you’re getting to know them, and you’ll want to avoid making mistakes that reduce their favour.

Not as busy or involving as the first chapter, Once Upon a Climb makes up for a its slower pace with its colourful characters and sense of adventure. There’s real chemistry between Graham, Vee and Neese that slowly moves into love triangle territory as he begins to win over their affections, making for some great moments. As always, it’s worth at least two playthroughs to investigate the results of different narrative choices, but my natural first playthrough felt satisfying on its own. Though, I did spot a returning character who I’m sure died in my run of Chapter 2, which was a bit jarring. The Odd Gentlemen should be wary of moments like that if they’re going to sell King’s Quest as a choice-driven adventure.

Graphically beautiful and well-acted, Once Upon a Climb is a solid return to form for the King’s Quest reboot, but a faster release schedule would be much appreciated. Four months or more between episodes is a long time to wait and it’s not always easy to remember every choice or story beat from previous instalments, which robs some of the impact. I could barely remember the present day stuff with King Graham’s grandchildren, for example, and so felt way less invested in the burgeoning drama between the siblings than in Graham’s retelling of his adventures.

Some of the puzzles felt incredibly tricky simply because you so often have to resort to clicking and combining everything, which is more tedious than genuinely challenging, and more than once I had overlooked a simple solution because I hadn’t found every part of the puzzle. Often failures result in going back a few minutes, which isn’t a problem in itself, but becomes irritating when you have to watch the same conversation or cutscene play out several times.

So, Once Upon a Climb is a strong third entry then, and repairs relations between player and game after the slightly dull previous instalment. Some of the puzzles are a little hit and miss and it takes a while to get going, but the central narrative, new and returning characters, and romantic humour make for a likeable, charming episode.

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If you were faced with the zombie apocalypse every day for the rest of your life, how on earth would you handle the constant threat of being the focus of a walker’s lust for flesh? How would you try to make sense of a world where that kind of risk is normal? Imagine having to deal with losing your sanity and your most precious family members all while fending off a group of nutcases with rifles. You’re getting the picture I’m trying to paint, right? The third episode of The Walking Dead: Michonne is a tense bloodbath where the conclusion of Michonne’s story arc is coming to an end, with all hell breaking loose.

What We Deserve may not be as gripping as previous episodes, but it makes up for it with action. We’ve seen Michonne have to deal with the dead and the living in equal bouts of intensity and the final showdown sees you have to deal with both in abundance. It’s great how player choice is implemented in one particular scene: you’re trying to negotiate a deal with Norma in a heated situation, and as things go south it’s up to you to keep your head. I hadn’t seen this kind of dynamic in the previous episodes so it was refreshing to be given a chance to show your mettle in a rapidly deteriorating situation.

There is some great character interaction, especially between Michonne and Sam and her siblings. If you remember, Sam has seen her brother and her father die, all whilst facing her own death as well. As a mother herself, Michonne struggles intrinsically to show compassion for this family, but manages to despite everything she’s going through herself. There is a really sweet moment where you speak with Sam’s youngest brother Alex, and by choosing the right dialogue options, you can provide some much needed comfort.

The quality of acting here is superb. The level of emotion the characters provide is astounding, and the majority of the cast have such a natural ability. Alex and James are really good in What We Deserve, especially when child actors tend to be a little wooden. The scene in Alex’s fortress is particularly moving and James and Michonne’s interaction over choosing to have a gun or not is a particular highlight. In the end of episode two, I battered Randall’s skull with a wrench, so unfortunately he isn’t in the episode (as he has been anyway), but his sister Norma is and she does a fantastic job of flitting between desperation and power.

The star of the episode (and the series) is undoubtedly Michonne. Sam Wiley is just as excellent as she has been from the start and with the constant hallucinations and freak outs becoming more frequent in What We Deserve, Michonne is falling apart. We all know her as a strong and focused character, but her emotions are tearing her apart and Sam makes us feel such empathy for her. It’s a great dynamic seeing her try to right the wrongs of her daughters by protecting the children left alone after the deaths of their parents, and her love of these characters is the main reason she keeps on fighting.

There are quite a few technical concerns in What We Deserve, such as framerate issues and gruelling loading times. I hadn’t noticed it before, but the wait between some scenes was awful, reaching almost two minutes at times. It broke up the tension and caused a little frustration for me, especially as I just wanted to see what was going to happen with Michonne and her fellow survivors.

I really enjoyed The Walking Dead: Michonne and I’m happy Telltale Games decided to explore one of the comic’s best characters, but I felt the final episode lacked some of the series’ greatness. It is in no way a bad episode, but the absence of any real important choices and lack of surprises helps to make What We Deserve the weakest of the three episodes.

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The first episode of The Walking Dead: Michonne did a great job of painting the bigger picture in regards to who Michonne really is, and it also managed to introduce new characters and settings we hadn’t seen before. Along with newcomers Randall, Norma and Sam, we get to see deeper into the psyche of the titular protagonist as she struggles to cope with the loss of her daughters, Elodie and Colette. If you thought you’d seen Michonne at her worst in Episode One, there are a few times in Give No Shelter where her sanity slips even further into the darkness and you’ll start to see a completely new side to her.

After the grisly events at the end of Episode One, Michonne, Sam and Pete find solace in the makeshift home of Sam’s father, but when everything (and I literally mean everything) goes to shit, Michonne has to make some important decisions that will affect the constantly diminishing group of survivors. There didn’t seem to be any huge decisions in Episode One where the repercussions were felt in any way, but there are some monumental decisions to make in Give No Shelter, and by the end you’ll be left wondering if you made the right choices.

The characters in Episode Two are given more of a presence, with Sam playing a much more important role than before. We learn a lot more about her and her family this time around and it helps to show why Sam is as confident and strong as she is. Even after watching her brother die at the end of Episode One, she realises there is still something to fight for in the messed up world of a zombie-infested America.

Not all the characters in Give No Shelter are as endearing as Sam, mind you. If you weren’t a fan of Randall before, I can guarantee you won’t be by the end of Episode Two. Where villains like Negan and the Governor both had a sense of control and respect, Randall doesn’t care about what he does or what he says to anyone. He’s a vile, despicable human being and you’ll hate him so much, which is a good thing really; it would be disappointing if he pulled a box of cookies out of his backpack and starting singing Katy Perry songs, wouldn’t it?

As gripping as the story is, you don’t really feel any closer to knowing where it’s heading. Penultimate episodes of any show or game tend to give some sort of focus for the finale, but you get the feeling there’s a chance the next episode will be rushed. It feels like a lot has to happen before Michonne joins Rick and the gang.

The story in Give No Shelter is nothing short of shocking or intense. In true The Walking Dead fashion, you can’t rest or relax at any point and thinking things can only get better is naïve. There is a moment towards the end that stunned me so much I failed to see the command prompt that popped up and I took a bullet to the head as a result. Moments like this make up most of Give No Shelter, especially as it reaches the closing moments. Zack Keller and Andrew Hansom have written a thrilling piece of drama and its director, Sean Manning, makes all the pieces fit together wonderfully.

Trying to make three episodes fit well within the comic book’s canon was always going to be a challenge, and if the final act pulls it off, The Walking Dead: Michonne should be as highly regarded as the two seasons preceding it. It’s such a shame that many of the issues letting down The Walking Dead return once more, feeling more prominent in this episode; lagging in some scenes was more frequent, and some of the dialogue stopped momentarily causing some frustration. Minus these problems, Give No Shelter is another great entry into a respectable and beloved series and you’d be smart to pick it up and continue the story of one of the best characters in the series.

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Upon loading up the episode, I was surprised to see that a further three episodes had been planned for release after the finale, with presumably a new season pass for the remaining content on the way too. It seems that episode five is more of a new beginning than a conclusion to Jesse and his/her friends’ story. This may come as a bit of an annoyance to some people who will find that they will need to purchase and download more content should they wish to see the series to its actual conclusion. Thankfully though, Telltale seem to be aware of this and Order Up stands up well as a contained story all of its own.

Order Up picks up after the long break from the previous episode with our group of friends firmly rooted in their latest roles as the new Order of the Stone. It’s great to see that their confidence and acceptance into the wider community that they live in has been finally realised, having been built up as a key theme throughout previous episodes. To see the confidence in the team’s abilities and how the crowds in their home town treated them was a wonderful thing.

With the conclusion of the Wither Storm story arc in episode four, Order Up has a lot to do: it has to establish a new story arc for future episodes, as well as maintain a reasonably well contained plot. As such, we start with Jesse and friends already out on an adventure, visiting a jungle temple with unknown treasures inside. It’s clear that Telltale wanted to delineate this episode from the previous ones, with the title sequence appearing immediately rather than shortly after the completion of the first chapter––making it feel like something new was beginning.

Order Up hasn’t entirely abandoned the story threads from the earlier episodes with a few familiar faces popping up to provide links with what has happened before, including the main antagonist who provides a useful link to demonstrate how far our group has come from the earlier days.

While the writing in Order Up is the funniest it has been with some genuine laugh out loud moments, it is still nowhere near the heights reached with Tales from the Borderlands, but it is a significant improvement on previous episodes. Furthermore, our team of adventurers has been slimmed down a bit with Jesse’s team reduced to four again; dropping two familiar faces in favour of two surprising additions. The reduction in the roster of characters means that a little more time has been given to fleshing out the team members we aren’t too familiar with. One particular character may have been exaggerated a little, but I think younger fans will find his antics amusing.

Once again, the environments have been beautifully done with a fantastic city that got the creative building juices flowing again for my own Minecraft projects. It’s because of this that it’s a real shame that some of the technical issues that plagued earlier and indeed most Telltale Games’ products are still prevalent. The engine is still sluggish, and there are many occasions where the animation is behind the vocals and a couple of times the quicktime event prompts failed to load up in time. I even died during one particular point for a completely unknown reason which was frustrating, but this is indicative of Telltale in that I expect this sort of technical nonsense.

The story itself works as a standalone with a satisfying conclusion, and only at the very end does Order Up create any real desire for people to want to find out where Jesse and his/her team will be heading next. For some people, Order Up may well be all they need to finalise their experience with Minecraft: Story Mode, but for others the tease of where they might end up will be enough to continue their investment for three more episodes. It isn’t as strong an episode as the conclusion to the Wither Storm story was, but Order Up does a very good job of creating a fun and entertaining story as well as laying the groundwork for future adventures.

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It’s also a roguelike: should you die, all your progress will reset upon death and you will have to start over again. The game, then, is a process of trial and error, learning the strategies over time and hoping that luck is also on your side. It is a steampunk delight, set in a bonkers alternative Victorian London in the midst of a war raging between Britain and France over some gubbins that powers the improbable Mechs that you are a commander of. Your task is to play your part in the war effort. Missions are varied, carrying out sortie missions to save caskets of tea (that bronze elixir that drives our brave troops) or to hold back advancing enemy tanks long enough for allies to escape, to destroying an enemy Mech hell bent on broadcasting valuable battle plans stolen from your allies.

Each mission is a sequence of different tasks with an over-arching goal to stop the main advance on the enemy front. A campaign is split over a number of days with the enemy drawing closer to London, and you can choose which different missions you wish to complete which will provide you with XP, scrap materials with which to upgrade and modify your Mech, commendations and war points which will assist you with the end boss fight. Choosing missions is as much part of the strategy as that which is within each individual conflict, choosing missions with more war points will ensure that the boss battle is easier as it has already taken some damage, whilst gathering more scrap will enable you to better equip your Mech for future battles.

Battle is turn-based, and you have a number of resources to manage: your energy levels, weapons, coolant system and repair tools, as well as your movement ability and shield. Matching the coloured nodes on the grid will top up the different areas and you will have to pay close attention to each in order to win the battle. Moving and raising your shield uses your energy as well as reduces your coolant levels. Firing your weapons depletes your weapon resources and also your coolant. With each turn you can match up to three times, but fire or move as many times as your existing resources will allow.

At the end of each successful battle you are returned to your workshop to repair or fit your newly acquired gear. Each of these actions costs scrap which is acquired at the end of each mission or by matching nodes on the grid during the fight. This currency is hard to come by and due to the RNG of the roguelike aspect it is more than likely you will have to make a choice between spending your hard earned scrap on repair or using it all to retrofit the sweet new laser gun you acquired last battle, leaving your Ironcast in a damaged state for the next encounter.

Initially the detail in the workshop area is a little confusing and it took me a few tries before I began to understand how best to utilise my resources to best prepare for the next battle. Each successful battle provides you with commendations which can also be acquired in the puzzle. Commendations are passive advantages for your pilot, active augmentations for the Mech, or unlockable weapons, shields and drives, as well as upgrades to the amount of power, coolant and repair nodes you can bank at any one time. The amount of customisation can become a little overwhelming and it takes time to understand the implication of each area before you can really begin to craft a Mech to suit a particular play style.

Visually, Ironcast is a little flat with not much diversity in the backgrounds or enemies and the dialogue could have done with a little more variety. With the frequent deaths it does become a little tedious to keep scrolling through the same dialogue at the start of each game, but it is a minor irritation in an otherwise engaging game. With its pick up and play simplicity belying a surprisingly deep level of customisation as well as a reasonably executed campaign, Ironcast is a good take on the strategy game.

The post Ironcast Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

In Foul Play, which initially released in 2013 on Steam and recently found itself on PS4, you play as the (who’d have thought it) very British daemonologist Baron Sebastien Dashforth; and if in co-op; his wise cracking, quick jabbing, working class cockney mate, Mr Scampwick. However, you’re not playing through the adventurous pairs’ stories as they happen, but rather a re-telling of them in the form of theatre, on an endless stage in front of an equally endless adoring public.

Well, they will be adoring if you do it right. As its clever idea that sets it apart from other brawlers of a similar ilk, is that you don’t have a traditional health bar, per-say. Instead you have a bar that tells you how much the crowd are loving your performance. This bar goes up and down depending on combos, how long can you smack enemies in the face with a cane before you get hit instead will send the crowd into rapturous applause or a chorus of boos. When audience satisfaction gets too low, the curtain calls and you’re hooked off the stage.

It’s a novel idea and one that I like a lot as it changes up the somewhat tired dynamic of a health bar and also ups the tempo of any “scene”. If you stand around and dawdle too long the crowd will soon get bored, and then the show is over.

This unique theatre setting lends itself wonderfully to some clever practical humour, be it with back stage crew getting caught in the shot, wayward performers wandering on to the wrong stage or defeated enemies crawling off stage as inconspicuously as possible. The humour doesn’t end there, either, as the writing is also quite witty too. Be it Mr Scampwick’s quick come backs, fourth wall breaking remarks, shameless puns, or (my personal favourite) a big mermaid complaining about a grueling season and injuries to his volleyball team, there are several moments that had me quickly breathing out of my nose and smiling. The short story itself, of an abandoned son who eventually finds the clues to his father’s whereabouts, is alright, too.

All of the five plays which, aside from the final one, all contain five sets, are also all set to vibrant and interesting backdrops, which the backstage workers are constantly moving and changing. From rough pubs to Atlantis, from ancient Egyptian crypts to Devonshire graveyards, every performance has something interesting to see. But despite all that, I coming away from Foul Play feeling slightly disappointed. My biggest problem of all is that I had constant saving issues, as progress, big or small, was erased every single time I returned to the game, and being unable to skip cutscenes completely made it a chore to have to constantly catch up.

The combat, while regularly adding new moves to the repertoire and feeling really nice when in full flow, as it’s extremely fast paced and allows you to bounce around the screen like Yoda in those shite movies, does become repetitive quickly. Charms which can be won and used to provide advantages, and challenges that make you focus on certain moves or attempt to reach high combos try to spice things up, but fail to do so. I will admit though, it feels satisfying when you hit a certain combo and the audience let out a massive cheer and throw their hats into the air in jubilation of my achievement. Go me.

But I did find more issues as a lot of fights are plagued by difficulty spikes, as countless enemies would invade the screen and completely drown out the supposed star of the show, reducing him to a mere extra, unable to be distinguished from the rest of the cast. I found checkpoints to be a bit harsh on occasions, too.

So while I admire Foul Play for going through with an interesting and unique idea – one that has a great aesthetic and typically British humour – I can’t get over its other typically British failings: suddenly failing to work (transport in Winter) and being just a little dull (life).

The post Foul Play PS4 Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

With the majority of its attention arising from the wonderfully bleak television show starring Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus, it was a pleasure to see Telltale Games bring the focus back to its source material, creating two record-breaking video games from the world of Kirman’s vision of The Walking Dead. Now, after well over a year since Season Two was released, Telltale is back with The Walking Dead: Michonne and it is just as good as ever.

The story takes place between issues #126 and #139 of the comics where Michonne left Rick, Ezekiel, and the rest of the group to deal with her own sanity in the hopes of putting her demons to bed. You are part of a crew on The Companion, a ship that picks up a distress signal from a stranger. Setting the story on the water is a refreshing change because dull woodland and dilapidated housing can be consistently morose and all too familiar.

Right from the start you’re reminded of how unforgiving The Walking Dead can be, and after a fantastic opening scene involving high levels of tension and emotion, In Too Deep goes from strength to strength. We’ve seen Telltale harness the power of music excellently before (Tales from the Borderlands for example), but Dorothy’s ‘Gun in my Hand’ is easily one of the best songs I’ve heard in a video game before.

Throughout the episode, you’re introduced to a lot of new characters, but it never feels like any one of them are simple filler. Every character fills a purpose; from the potential love-interest of Pete to the vile Randall, each personality feels fleshed out and written with detail and aplomb. In typical Telltale fashion, the choices you make will be affected by the way you care about the characters around you, and within an hour of the story you’ll already start to feel protective over your new friends.

Michonne has always been one of the more complex characters, and to finally see more of her in her own story was the perfect choice. Samira Wiley (Orange is the New Black’s Poussay) does an incredible job of representing the troubled antagonist. Samira has a soft and calming voice, and her ability to make you feel compassion and empathy for Michonne is instantaneous. You’re right there with her, wanting her to overcome the sadness in her heart, and even though you may know the reasons for her going back to Rick Grimes in the end, it’ll be interesting to see her journey to that point.

There are plenty of dialogue choices and the way you answer will change the way people view you and how the story pans out. There aren’t a huge number of pivotal decisions to make in this episode, but when you are greeted with them, there is no time to think. Most decisions have a time limit so you can’t make a nice cup of tea whilst you mull over the options, but certain choices do have longer than others. The controls are as straight forward as ever and that’s absolutely fine; the most important aspect of any Telltale game is the story and its characters so giving you minimal buttons to press keeps things simple.

The pacing is excellent and the unpredictability is ever-present: one minute you’re looking around a ferry’s exterior and the next you’re dealing with a sudden attack from a herd of walkers. You can never relax, you can never take the quiet for granted, and you can never assume you’re safe. You’re going to encounter some dangerous set pieces involving a whole manner of individuals and the way Telltale does this is second to none. They have had plenty of time to hone their craft over the years and this episode is a perfect example of how dramatic storytelling should be done.

There are mild frame-rate issues with some strange pauses between character interactions and the Thunderbirds-like movement of character heads can be a little off-putting, but these minor issues are by no way detrimental to stunting your enjoyment of it. These issues have been a part of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead from the very first episode of Season One and if they haven’t gone by now, they’re probably sticking around for good.

The Walking Dead: Michonne has started off incredibly well and the next two episodes have a great deal of potential to be some of the best yet. The settlement of Munroe and the people therein have the opportunity to rival those seen in the quaint town of Woodbury and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

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LEGO Marvel’s Avengers is a yellow brick compilation of the Marvel universe, the main missions coming from the two Avengers films, with Iron Man 3, both Captain America films, and Thor: The Dark World also providing levels. As usual, the adaptation and construction of the films playable scenarios is fantastic, each level providing enough variation in gameplay, from puzzles to combat, to keep you engrossed. The combat is particularly good this time around, the ability to team up characters for special moves adding more interesting ways to take opponents down. Combining Black Widow and Quicksilver is a personal favourite of mine, any enemies in the circumference of them being obliterated by the quick whirlwind of bullets that their pairing creates.

The game time for each main character is another positive, my moments with each of the Avengers heroes being well balanced and fairly distributed. The final act of Age of Ultron does this particularly well, the chaos of the films final scene being broken into small, playable chunks, your time with the hero’s divided fairly. As usual, there’s lots of replayability, each level asking you to go into Free Play mode with other characters in order to fully complete it and, as usual, you’ll find yourself happily obliging, the “must collect everything” ethos that drives these games pushing players to carry on long after the stories are over, which is rather quickly.

In total, it took me fifteen hours to finish the story missions, which doesn’t seem bad for a LEGO game. But you have to bare in mind that there’s six films worth of content here, the one level film stories outside of the Avengers feeling more like easy add-on content than well thought out mini-games. The truth is there’s too much content, which seems like a ridiculous thing to say, but here this sentiment rings true. If the developers and publishers had come to some sort of agreement to break this game into two releases, with each Avengers film perhaps being the flagship for the titles, the storytelling here might not have been as rushed as it is, a feeling of being hurried through the game prevalent throughout, especially during Avengers Assemble. There are a few occasions, where large narrative leaps from one to the next scene are obvious during the film storylines, and while these do not cause stories to be incomprehensible, they make for distorted viewing, which may cause some fans who have seen the films to be disappointed in the lack of story-line exploration. As much as I don’t play the LEGO games for their plot creations (mainly because most of their games narratives are already mapped out beforehand) they have proved before that they can tell a story well, the great memories of LEGO Harry Potter fading fast while playing this.

That isn’t to say I didn’t have fun while playing, my time never felt like a chore or a bore. I particularity liked the many hub worlds and the contrasts they offered to the linear action. From the sprawling landscape of Manhattan that encourages you to explore, to the idyllic beauty of Malibu, each hub world provides an interesting rest bite from the story-lines, side quests bringing with them many Marvel characters to meet, some of which you will get visibly excited about and some of which you may not even know. Then there’s the attentions to detail that you see, such as Coulson giving you the wink when you think he’s dead, with the usual LEGO humour providing the laughs, the concoction of the serious nature of the Avengers and slapstick LEGO comedy being an entertaining mix.

With LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens recently being announced, it makes sense that TT would want to leave the Marvel world behind for a while, their concentrations lying elsewhere. However, this game really could have done with a less is more approach, the decision to cram everything into one game meaning that quality is sacrificed in places. For avid fans, this will make a nice addition to the collection, the ultimate Marvel experience being brought about by the sheer amount of characters to unlock, replayability, and the quest for 100% ensuring that players pick this game up time and time again. For anyone else however, Marvel Super Heroes is still the best game to pick up when looking for a LEGO superhero fix, Marvel’s Avengers falling short of its predecessor in the style over substance stakes.

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Resident Evil 0 has all of the bombastic storylines and oblivious humour as any game in the series, but it still managed to scare me on more than one occasion. I had forgotten how well the game managed to provide those moments where a zombie or two would suddenly appear from a locked freezer or behind a door and you were expected to act fast and either take them out or run away. You are always encouraged to think; the element of survival never feels more prominent when faced with these decisions, and Capcom’s choice to deviate from this tried and tested formula as the series progressed was always a bizarre one.

The most obvious improvement to the game is how much detail has been put into the graphics. Its HD makeover has done the game a world of good and within minutes of playing you can tell that a lot of hard work has been put into it. Watching the heavy rain hit the windows or the light glare into the carriages in sporadic spurts as you travel through tunnels is vastly superior to the original; the paintings and statues you see wandering around the training facility are also worth mentioning because of the amount of detail put into their textures and palette. Some of the cutscenes suffer from shading issues, and the same blur of the GameCube is still prevalent in certain parts, but not enough to make an impact on the overall experience of the game.

You can now play in 16:9 widescreen, and rather than the image being stretched, it has been perfectly adapted to fit modern TV screens and monitors. If you’d prefer to play the game in its original 4:3 ratio, then you can do that instead. Sound has also been drastically improved, supporting 5.1 channel output and giving you the option to change different dynamic presets in the menus to match your own preferences. It’s evident as you play through the game that these improvements have been made; every zombie’s groan or crow’s caw roars with great clarity and with Seiko Kobuchi’s exceptional score heightening tension and atmosphere, Resident Evil 0 still stands up today as an audio delight.

The controls have had an overhaul too. Those tank controls of the original are still there if you want them, but there’s an alternative now, just as there was with the previous re-re-make. You can now use the left stick to move Billy or Rebecca around freely which feels a lot better, but on more than one occasion I kept cutting back and forth between areas due to its awkward maneuvering. Sometimes, pressing forward on the left stick means you’ll go backwards as you pass on to the next area which breaks up play and can become frustrating. That’s a facet of older game design that happens less now, but this is an old game made new, so it’s worth noting.

I’ve also become so used to holding L2 to aim and R2 to fire in video games and with its absence in Resident Evil 0, pulling R2 to aim and cross to fire doesn’t feel right. There isn’t an option to change to a more familiar control system and with all the other alternative control patterns you can choose from, this never figures into any of them. Even opening the map or accessing your inventory has been given strange button choices. It feels unnatural and awkward, especially when you’re panicking because some zombie dogs have just jumped through a sodding window and you’re messing about with a map instead of blowing their heads off.

Once you complete the main campaign, you’ll unlock Wesker Mode. It’s a nice addition and if you loved playing the game, you’ll now get to do so with series’ antagonist, Albert Wesker. Instead of playing as Billy Coen, it’ll be Wesker dressed in his attire from Resident Evil 5, complete with glowing red eyes and a whole host of special abilities. All the cut scenes have been changed to feature Wesker, and even Rebecca has a new outfit which is reminiscent of the one Jill Valentine wears in RE5.

Resident Evil 0 is a reminder of how great the series once was complete with a whole host of improvements that make it well worth returning for. If you’ve never played the game before or if you’ve never stepped foot in the franchise, this is the perfect place to start. It may feel a little dated at times, especially if you’re used to horror games like Until Dawn or The Evil Within, but this series played a major part in their creation and without Resident Evil, these wouldn’t exist.

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We begin where we left off, with Jesse’s failed attempt to destroy the Wither Storm at the end of episode three. It’s an action packed start with our band of heroes running for their lives in a QTE-packed sequence. I’ve mentioned previously that there didn’t seem to be a fail state for these sequences, which was perhaps in keeping with the intended young audience, but in this episode that appears to have changed. I found that to be an interesting difference which does seem to coincide with the development of some of the more mature elements of the story that continue to unfold during A Block and a Hard Place.

Part of my earlier disinterest was that despite setting up the story to be a classic adventure tale where our intrepid hero goes on a quest of discovery, there has actually been very little sense of actual adventure. Everything seems to have been just around the corner (notwithstanding the use of the Nether rail system for fast world traversal) and within easy reach. A Block and a Hard Place changes this feeling somewhat with a real sense of journey throughout most of the episode. Jesse and his/her team must travel to the Far Lands, which, as any Minecraft aficionado will know, is the outer limits of the “infinite” world where the algorithm that generates the landscape starts to fail. It’s a nice touch, and forms part of the late title sequence we have come to expect from Telltale Games. The fact that the journey took our crew through many of the very recently introduced biomes to the console editions of Minecraft was a particularly cute touch, and after playing the episode I fully expect younger fans to launch straight in to Minecraft to see if they can find the Ice spikes or Mesa biomes in their own worlds.

The Far Lands are the base for much of the episode’s content with some interesting puzzles to solve. These are a nice addition and keep the gameplay engrossing without being too difficult to become a block to progression. They aren’t without some issues though, given the intended audience. There is a maze section which could frustrate younger players as the lighting and camera angle is at times a little obtuse to be able to clearly see the route forward, and the solution to a locked door could be frustrating for younger players if they haven’t paid that much attention to a lot of the dialogue that preceded it. These are minor complaints though, in an otherwise fun episode.

Some of the themes that were starting to emerge in episode three are continued in four. The Order of the Stone’s history is finally revealed and suddenly the insufferable nature of some of the members makes sense. The set up for it was signposted a mile off, but I’m sure that younger fans will have mouths agape when the final reveal is made, and I am smiling thinking about it now.

Episode three had some emotional elements that I said that younger players may need to be guided through, and there is a continuation of this in episode four. I was surprised that the story took this specific turn as I believe the events will be felt keenly by younger players, but I think it is indicative of how the story has developed and introduced new ideas as it has gone along.

I was surprised to learn that Telltale made it clear that episode four would tie up the story featuring the Wither Storm. It makes for an interesting episode five as I am keen to find out what is next. Will they start on a completely new adventure? Will they take on the mantle of the “new” Order of the Stone? Is this a deliberate step to set up a sequel? There weren’t any hints as to what the last episode will entail in the post credits, so we’ll have to wait and see.

A Block and a Hard Place builds on the shift in pace and tone from episode three and is another strong episode. The conclusion to the Wither Storm storyline is delivered in a refreshing and heartfelt way, and I am looking forward to seeing what Jesse and friends get up to in the conclusion.

The post Minecraft: Story Mode – Episode Four: A Block and a Hard Place Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

In the previous episode, Jesse and his/her friends had managed to locate two of the former Order of the Stone members: Eleegaard, the Redstone Engineer, and Magnus, the Griefer. During that episode it became apparent that at least of half of the fabled team that defeated the Ender Dragon and “saved the world” were insufferable, egotistical idiots. Thankfully our friends lost them towards the end of episode two, which ended on a fairly feeble cliffhanger. Episode three begins with them trapped in a room with no discernible way out, however get out they must if they are to find Soren and his super TNT bomb to defeat the Wither Storm unleashed way back in episode one.

So far I have been fairly underwhelmed with Minecraft: Story Mode. The characters are not as interesting as some of those from other Telltale Games series, and it has been a little light on laughs, which is likely a reflection of the intended audience and perhaps unfair of me to criticise too heavily. Having said that, this episode does more work in character progression and heightens the laughs a little more. Of particular note is a recurring image of Axel landing on Lukas, which is shown enough times to be funny without overdoing it.

The action is ramped up a lot more in episode three, with the opening title sequence being perhaps the most thrilling section of the entire game so far. What features here is an extended chain of QTE events and decision making which propel the team through a huge redstone-powered grinder. It is perilous for our friends and as such is an exciting start to the episode. Again, perhaps indicative of the intended audience, there doesn’t seem to be a fail state if any of the button prompts are missed, making the entire scene only appear dangerous on the surface, however I am sure young players will not even notice and be more than thrilled with the events.

In terms of narrative, the stakes are increased a lot more as well, as emotional character connections are progressed; in particular Lukas’ growing dis-engagement from the rest of the group and the rapidly advancing wither sickness on a character whose identity is down to a decision made in the very first episode. There is even a touching moment towards the end of the episode that very young players may need to be guided through.

As with the previous episodes, the attention to the details of the Minecraft world is excellent. There is a trip to The End, where Soren, the Master Builder, has built a beautiful paradise world made of wool, and a testing laboratory for studying the most compelling and frightening enemy from Minecraft – Endermen. It’s in Soren’s laboratory where I chuckled the most; in a wonderful nod to background storytelling through the use of recordings found in game worlds, we learn a little bit about Soren before meeting him in person. This is achieved through placing four music discs into a jukebox. The recordings paint Soren as an amusing, scatter-brained character and it’s the funniest writing so far across all the episodes. Thankfully, Soren is not as intolerable as the other two Order of the Stone members. The escape from Soren’s lab is another lovingly detailed and wonderfully observed acknowledgement of the source material. Surrounded by Endermen, our intrepid team must avert their gaze and work their way out.

The ending of The Last Place You Look is the most compelling so far. It’s fairly predictable, but after the stagnancy of the previous episodes it’s refreshing to have our friends actually try to achieve something, and it’s clear that Jesse’s dream of being “somebody” rather than a “nobody” is getting closer and closer.

This is the strongest entry to date in Minecraft: Story Mode. It still isn’t hitting the heights of some of Telltale Games’ best work, but this episode makes good strides in that direction. It has a lot more action than the previous two, and the narrative is tighter, with greater focus on character development and progression. I’m interested to see how the next episode plays out, and going on the release schedule for the first three episodes, hopefully we won’t have to wait too long.

The post Minecraft: Story Mode – Episode Three: The Last Place You Look Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

This loose tie-in for the Peanuts movie sees the beloved beagle and his lifelong birdie friend Woodstock depart on a great adventure to find Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang, who have gone off to play hide and seek and left a trail of jellybeans to find. As the premise for a platformer it’s functional if mostly nonsensical, but serves as a good enough reason to guide Snoopy through six different worlds, avoiding traps, jumping on enemies, and collecting hundreds of McGuffins.

Blatantly designed for the younger gamer, Snoopy’s Grand Adventure is incredibly easy throughout, but still manages to be entertaining – mostly thanks to colourful visuals, a variety of environments, and a handful of different mechanics that keep the action involving – if not particularly fresh or new. For example, Snoopy can use his ears to glide across gaps, and a collection of unlockable costumes provide not only adorable little aesthetic changes but also temporary abilities such as freezing enemies to use as blocks to reach higher areas.

Collectibles are scattered around each level of each world in the form of Woodstock’s Beagle Scout buddies. Some are genuinely tricky to get to, but won’t tax experienced players all that much. Death is mostly non-existent as enemies aren’t directly aggressive, and landing on them incapacitates them for a little while. If you do lose one of Snoopy’s hearts, you’ll have a few seconds to leap up and snatch it back, similar to in Rayman.

One of the coolest yet sadly underused elements is Woodstock himself. Like Murfy in Rayman: Legends, Woodstock can be used to activate switches and lifts – but he’s controlled by a second player. It’s not true co-op, as Woodstock can’t do a hell of a lot to help beyond manipulating certain objects, but it is nice for either a younger sibling or watching parent to get involved now and then. The costumes, Woodstock and unlockable abilities like a double jump encourage replaying certain levels to polish off all the jellybeans and Beagle Scouts you might have missed.

Most of the time, the levels don’t ask much of you or even really change beyond the environments, which follow fairly straightforward kids’ game templates like Jungle, Sewer and Moon base. That said, “piloting” Snoopy’s doghouse through the bright blue sky like a side-scrolling shooter is one of the highlights, and my daughter kept on going back to play the Skies of Paris and hardly touched the rest of the game for a few hours.

Because it’s so straightforward and easy to run through, Snoopy’s Grand Adventure isn’t going to take you long to finish – but then it’s not designed for adults, and younger children will find it a little tougher and, as a result, longer. There are enough collectibles to warrant revisiting levels, and enough variety to ensure that kids don’t get bored playing levels two or three times. The boss levels at the end of each world offer slightly more of a challenge, but they’re rarely fights, and often ask that you simply escape the boss rather than defeat them.

Graphically it’s sharp and lovely, but while the environments pop with personality, there are occasional issues with the framerate that really shouldn’t exist. Snoopy isn’t the most fluid mover, either, and although the jumping is functional, it never feels totally precise or instantaneous. It’s all so lovely and cute and non-threatening, though, and my children loved it – which is really the most important thing.

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As a quick recap, we were presented with two options at the end of The Order of the Stone, either go to find “The Griefer” or “The Engineer”. Depending on your choices, you begin Assembly Required by heading to the location where one of those two can currently be found. You will also have a different friend accompany you on your journey and when you reach your destination. As I mentioned in my first episode review, I have been playing through with both a male Jesse and female Jesse, and sadly it seems that my feelings about the latter continue here, with her particular run through of the episode being the drier of the two.

Regardless of choice, each destination is a riff of elements within Minecraft that will delight fans. The Griefer is located in Boomtown, a crumbling settlement where TNT and tomfoolery reigns supreme. Without giving too much away, there’s a wonderful extended sequence of dodging explosions and eggs which culminates in a TNT cannon stand-off. For anyone familiar with the myriad of wonderful videos on YouTube, the TNT cannon is a particular favourite and to see that fan service done in this way is delightful.

If you made the alternate choice, you and your companion head to Redstonia, a utopia of smart individuals creating clever contraptions utilising the Minecraft engineering tool of redstone. The activity in Redstonia is more sedate than in Boomtown, and the writing is more comprehensive with a lot more jokes thrown in, albeit jokes that will appeal to a younger mindset than mine. It’s interesting that there is such a stark difference between the two areas with one being all out action and the other more sedate with the laughs coming from the dialogue rather than the activity. I found this interesting in a game genre that is often criticised about choice not really having much impact on how things play out. At least for the time being, that most certainly is not the case with Minecraft: Story Mode.

Once you have collected your target individual the different story strands converge and we are back following roughly the same path again, although there is an interesting difference in the characters waiting for you back at base depending on a choice you made in The Order of the Stone. I’m keen to see how that plays out over the next few episodes.

The rest of Assembly Required whips along at quite a pace, and it is pretty much over just as it begins, which is a shame as it feels a very short episode with not a lot to progress the actual story. Along the way some more things fans of Minecraft are familiar with are introduced with a pretty cool QTE sequence involving Endermen and gravel, but overall this episode feels fairly light on content.

Once again the Minecraft aesthetic is absolutely pitch perfect, and again ideas for future builds of my own were presented, further fuelling my enthusiasm for the source material. The blocky world of Minecraft is so well represented that even the notoriously criticised, stuttery engine that TellTale Games uses blends into the overall feeling that this is a Minecraft world. It’s really very well done.

Assembly Required very much feels like a tricky middle episode, despite it being only the second in a five-part game. Despite there being two very different beginnings to the episode which will encourage multiple playthroughs, it feels very abrupt and for those who only play through once it is exceedingly short, I hope that it’s not indicative of the rest of the episodes going forward. The laughs feel light too, but I suspect that is my age talking as I am clearly not the intended audience. It’s a solid episode, but like its predecessor, not extraordinary. I hope that episode three pulls it back again.

The post Minecraft: Story Mode – Episode Two: Assembly Required Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

After episode 5’s crescendo, the stage was set for the series’ conclusion to be everything that we expect from the war over the Seven Kingdoms. House Forrester has been rocked after losing Rodrik, or Asher (depending on your choice), and Mira is under threat in King’s Landing. The only surviving playable character that is approaching some form of happy resolution is Gared Tuttle, as he nears The North Grove.

With Ironrath in turmoil, Asher, in my case, is the real focus, here. His journey is the best thing in this episode. It’s one of the best arcs in the series, in fact. A lot of that is to do with the detestable Ludd and Gryff of House Whitehill. These vicious bastards have been a constant threat to all members of the Forrester clan and everything is coming to a head. It’s been the most consistent thread, throughout. The Ice Dragon includes some dramatic moments with tough decisions to make, in a short timeframe, with one major one at the dining table involving all the primaries of House Forrester and House Whitehill.

Mira’s story has, possibly, the most intriguing closing moments, but overall, her narrative has felt somewhat stagnant for a few episodes. King’s Landing was an exciting prospect in the first act, but Mira’s story has waned with every passing dialogue option. Revelations in a carriage and her aforementioned final moments are examples of her few compelling beats. It’s a testament to Natalie Dormer’s class that even in only a few minutes, Lady Margaery is again a standout in the handmaiden’s tale.

Lord Gregor Forrester former squire, Gared Tuttle, began the series as its most endearing character – one that you can truly get behind. That makes his fall from grace the most disappointing. For a few episodes now, Gared has been attempting to get to The North Grove, to fulfill the dying wish of his former Lord. Like seeing the monster in a horror movie, The North Grove and events that take place there, lack the gravitas that his journey deserved. It falls completely flat. Add to that, rotten accents and phony performances from a number of new secondary characters and the once great underdog goes out like a lost puppy.

Shoddy voicework isn’t the only issue I have with the audio, though. The technical problems that cast a dark cloud over TellTale Games’ offerings are something which are still, years later, causing problems. You hear voice work clipping before the end of a sentence and music terribly mixed between scenarios.You see friendly NPCs pop into the environment, seemingly from out of nowhere, and lip-syncing that would make other episodic affairs from 2015 blush.

While evidently a deliberate choice, the oil-painting art style is still as distracting as it was back in episode one. During the moments where I was beginning to be enthralled, my concentration wavered  because of horrendous looking backgrounds. This has been a regular occurrence in the six episodes. It was the wrong decision, day one, but Telltale at least stood by its decision with conviction.

It’s clear that there are plans to return to Westoros, as the ending is building toward something bigger in the, as of yet unannounced, season two. There’s some finality to particular stories, but they’re undoubtedly eager for season two. I question whether there’ll be any buzz, or interest, though. After a strong start, Game of Thrones meandered to its finish. The Rodrik/Asher aspect of this chapter had a really strong ending, but everything else just fizzled out.

The post Game of Thrones: Episode Six – The Ice Dragon Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

So, when Telltale Games announced that it was turning the worldwide phenomenon into their trademark episodic format, I will admit that I was a little sceptical that it could work. Minecraft, by its very nature is a game where the player creates their own stories and adventures, and that is one of the most enduring and beautiful things about it. To have a ridgid story within the Minecraft framework seems at odds with the essence of the game itself. However, having said that, any cursory glance on YouTube will let you know that there are countless hours of fan-made, narrative-driven “stories” involving Minecraft, some good, some not so good. With the many hours I’ve personally spent with Minecraft, it is easy for me to forget that it is exceedingly popular with younger players, and it is evident from the get go that the first episode of Story Mode, “The Order of the Stone”, is very much aimed at a younger audience.

The story is standard adventure quest fare, and we are introduced to our protagonists early on. They are earthy, big hearted characters who dream of glory but are ultimately destined to never be anything other than ordinary, until an event that will change all of that. There is Jesse, the main protagonist who the player can choose to be male or female, who is is full of excitement and wonder about the world; Olivia, who is cynical, smart and quick-witted; Axel the gruff, big-hearted hulk; Petra, introduced a little later is the mysterious, fearless adventurer; and Lukas, a member of a rival team of builders who may not actually be all bad. There is even Jesse’s pet pig Reuben, included presumably for laughs, as pigs serve as nothing more than food for the player in Minecraft. Indeed, there are a great deal of jokes about how good Reuben smells when he is accidentally scorched in a fire, all with knowing winks to an audience that is no doubt very familiar with the purpose of pigs in the game.

Without detailing too much of the plot, The Order of the Stone follows a fairly standard path for this type of tale. Something terrible happens in the world and it is up to our group of friends to step up and become the heroes they have dreamed of becoming. The writing is a bit hit and miss, with most of the laughs coming from the player’s knowledge of the source material. I played through this episode twice, once with Jesse as the female character and once as the male. The voice acting for both is very strong, but personally I found Patton Oswalt (Remy from Ratatouille) a more engaging and funnier Jesse than Catherine Taber’s. Female Jesse seemed drier and more earnest, and as such I had less fun in the episode.

Mechanically the game is like all the previous Telltale Games stories. There is very little interaction required from the player other than dialogue options and the occasional quick time event to avoid perils along the way. Slightly different to previous games I have played, there doesn’t seem to be a fail state if you’re not quick enough to make the button press and this is presumably to cater to the younger audience.

Slightly off the beaten track with this type of game, and in keeping with the source material, there are some fun little moments where you get to craft certain items on the crafting bench to help you progress the story. Experimenting a little, there are even options to create items that aren’t part of the script, providing of course the player is familiar with the recipes required for those items. It was a rare moment of freedom in a tightly-scripted environment that I really liked.

Visually, Story Mode nails the Minecraft aesthetic. The characters are blocky and crudely realised, however they do move with more fluidity than you do in Minecraft itself. The environments will delight fans; I did find myself looking at the buildings and thinking that I could use that idea in the world I am currently building, and there were a few “oh” moments when I saw blocks that I don’t usually use being used in interesting ways. The Minecraft geek in me also observed that this has been created with the PC version of Minecraft and not the console version, as there were blocks that have yet to make the jump between platforms, a fact that will no doubt engage young fans.

Player choice is always interesting in these games, and whether it does actually have an impact on the final outcome is too early to say. The episode does, however, end with a fairly clear choice that will no doubt impact the second episode.

In short, the first episode of Minecraft: Story Mode is a solid, functional, but not particularly outstanding introduction. It’s a shame that the delivery from the different voice actors for Jesse are, for me, the difference between a game that is a bit of light-hearted fun to one that is a bit of a chore to complete. Despite some of the shortcomings of The Order of the Stone, it is clear that this is a game created for the younger and most ardent of Minecraft fans. There are plenty of in-game references and knowing nods to an audience that has spent hours upon hours trying to learn redstone tricks, or creating an automated chicken farm (guilty as charged!) The story is good fun, and I’m interested to see how it plays out over the next few episodes, and at the very least playing Story Mode has re-ignited my enthusiasm for Minecraft – I now have a new design for lighting utilising a hopper!

The post Minecraft: Story Mode – Episode One: The Order of the Stone Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

In contrast, WWE 2K16 plays like a dream, looks like the real thing and provides a far closer experience to watching Raw and Smackdown than ever before. Stepping into the squared circle gave me goosebumps. I took charge of the Viper, Randy Orton and went toe to toe with Ryback in what was an authentic and exhilarating match up. Instantly I could see the hard work put in by Yukes and Visual Concepts; in terms of gameplay, this is one of the finest wrestling titles since Wrestlemania 2000 on the N64. If it weren’t for a couple of annoying new mini-game systems, it probably would have been the best.

The pace has been slowed down with the implementation of collar and elbow tie ups and working holds, meaning that the old arcade feel has all but gone. The collar and elbow system was introduced last year, but it felt overused and out of place, especially when it appeared in almost every opening. This year, it feels natural and refined; it now feels like a tool to control the fight rather than a fancy new feature that gets shoved down your throat. Working holds have also been added to help regulate the pace. They are the perfect tool to help you regain stamina while also taking advantage of your opponent.

As mentioned, some of the new systems don’t work particularly well, especially when it comes to being pinned. If you’ve taken a decent amount of damage, you’re a lot weaker and more susceptible to losing, obviously. Unfortunately, whether you’ve still managed to dominate your opponent in the process, all your hard work will be pointless because you were unable to kick out by pressing the right button in time. You get three chances to stop the gauge in the correct spot (similar to taking a penalty in FIFA or a free throw in NBA 2K), and the weaker you are, the smaller the window. Even if you’ve taken a few suplexes, it’s enough to make you lose. The submission meter is equally frustrating. Trying to get your red bar to overlap your opponents for a considerable amount of time can take forever, and when you are on the receiving end – much like the pin – you will find matches can be won way too quickly and unrealistically.

Perhaps the greatest overhaul in this year’s offering is the reversal system. You can’t reverse every move like before; instead you have a yellow bar on your HUD that indicates how many times you can press the reverse button. You still need to time it right, but when that bar has depleted, you won’t be able to stop your opponent’s assault. If you use it too much to stop a punch or kick, you’ll be completely helpless and exposed and at the complete mercy of your rival; not having the ability to reverse an F5 or Tombstone will leave you out for the three-count, and while reserving your reversals will block the more powerful moves, it also looks good and gives you the confidence to turn the tide of battle.

Even the smaller features help with the flow of a match. Wrestlers like Brock Lesnar and Rusev have managers than can interfere and affect the outcome, with Lana and Paul Heyman climbing on the apron and distracting the referee. Features like rolling in and out of the ring can take the pressure off, especially when you’ve been taking a significant beating. It’ll allow you to catch your breath and regain stamina so that you can try and change the rhythm of the match in your favour.

Watching the superstars’ entrances and the action unfold in the ring has never looked so good. All but a few wrestlers look lifelike and the finer details give the game a polished veneer. Previous years’ models have been used for certain wrestlers; however, it is in no way off-putting and doesn’t really tarnish the experience. The animations between the action flow beautifully with only a few issues here and there. For example, in fatal-4-ways or Elimination Chambers, your ability to attack different superstars becomes lost, and you end up punching and grabbing the air.

WWE 2K16 boasts the largest roster ever, and you almost feel overwhelmed by the choice of who to wrestle with. You have the majority of current WWE superstars to choose from, including the Divas division and NXT. There is no cutting corners with their presentation either; Finn Balor’s entrance and appearance is just as good as say, Seth Rollins or John Cena, and every quirk and character trait is present.

The Creation Suite is back to its best. The opportunity to create Divas, championships, arenas and shows are back, along with a whole host of new improvements to all the other features. Before you embark on the vastly enriched MyCareer, you can spend hours making sure that the created wrestler you’ll be playing as is as close to perfect as you want them.

Speaking of MyCareer, you now actually embark on a career as opposed to a single year in your superstar’s life; a whopping 15 years means that you have the chance to really make something of yourself. In the early years, you’ll make your way up the NXT ranks before heading into Raw and Smackdown, and as you do so, you’ll be able to increase your skills and improve your abilities. It can be frustrating at times, however, especially when you have given a match absolutely everything. You start with an overall skill level of 60, so already your opponents are at an advantage. If you make a single mistake, your opponent builds momentum faster and inflicts more damage, and with lower stats, be prepared to lose. Throw the iffy pinning and submissions systems into the mix and you’ll find that losing becomes an unfortunate consistency. You will win in time, but the learning curve can be a little exasperating.

In MyCareer, you are given a list early on that shows you what you need to do to get yourself a spot in the Hall of Fame, such as a holding a title for 365 days or becoming a 10-time champion. These goals give the improved mode added grandeur, and you’ll be keeping an eye on the list to make sure you join the ranks of Randy Savage and The Rock. There are tons of features that have been added which make this year’s offering a lot better. The Authority has been added to either mess up or aid your plans and the post-match interviews help to create an authentic experience, even if they are a little repetitive.

The 2K Showcase is excellent. Much like the fantastic “30 years of Wrestlemania” Showcase from WWE 2K14, the nostalgia hits you like an RKO. You head back in time to the very beginning of Stone Cold Steve Austin’s career, participating in some of his greatest ever matches. It reminds you of the legacy of Stone Cold and how significant he was in the birth of the Attitude era. Like previous showcases, you complete in-match criteria to progress to the next match and earn a ton of new arenas, outfits and content to play with. This could quite possibly be the best 2K Showcase to date and that’s the bottom line, cause Stone Cold (or I) said so!

WWE Universe is back with minor improvements that build on the already fantastic mode. You can create up to seven matches and include rivalries that have more features than last year’s. You can also assign superstars to multiple shows, meaning you can pop up on Raw, Smackdown and NXT if you want.

Taken as a whole, WWE 2K16 is so much better than the previous entry and is a significant step in the right direction for the future of the series. There are certain things that need to be re-evaluated for next year, and those horrific 2K servers prevented me from having more than one match online, but overall the game is great. Fundamentally, wrestling has never been this realistic and the excitement to be had with WWE 2K16 can’t be rivaled.

The post WWE 2K16 Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Ubisoft has added some new modes to this year’s entry in the franchise, and while many of them don’t make a huge impact on the overall experience, they do try to freshen up proceedings a little. The new World Video Challenge is definitely a highlight; you can upload videos of yourself dancing and players around the world can watch and challenge them, resulting in hilarious dance battles that’ll be more fun than you probably anticipate. I took on a chap from the US and his uncomfortably weird dance was vastly entertaining, whether he was genuinely trying or not. Staying on the subject of videos, you can also create music videos (sort of) in Showtime mode and upload them to Just Dance TV for others to enjoy.

There has been a slight tweak to the Dance Party mode that lets you team up with a friend to earn more points as well. Dance Quest mode lets you undertake different 3-song challenges that, once beaten, unlock more quests and points, and the Sweat and Playlist mode allows you to fully customise a playlist to dance along to. On the surface of it, these new modes and modifications to last year’s Just Dance may appear to add more to a flagging franchise, but playing the game first hand only highlights how none of these modes do anything to bring back a freshness that has been absent for a very long time.

The songs have started to become more abstract and unknown; you can dance along to Lady Gaga, Jason Derulo and Bruno Mars, but there is also a lot of filler on the track listing, and after dancing to Uptown Funk for the twentieth time, you may find that boredom begins to creep in. In a way to combat this, Ubisoft has introduced Just Dance Unlimited: a subscription-based service that promises over 150 songs to dance to as many times as you like, although you’ll be expected to pay the kind of prices of services like PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold. If you love Just Dance, this service may be right up your street, but for a game that already sells for around £40, you may find these additional costs rather unnecessary, especially when the original track list is so poor.

In one of Just Dance 2016’s better moves, you can now use your smartphone to control the game (Xbox One, PS4 and Wii U only) which means that starting a dance is easier than ever. The app is incredibly responsive and it manages to capture every move you make while dancing along. It would be an idea to check compatibility before you buy, but my Samsung 5s worked without a single issue and it is available on both the Apple Store and Google Play.

Just Dance 2016 looks like a rainbow in a washing machine; colour encompasses every inch of the screen and its vibrancy makes the experience better for it. The dancers have some questionable outfits and moves, but on the whole the game offers a great amount of amusement. It is perfect to play with your friends, partner or kids because it wants you to have a good time with the ones you love. Just Dance 2016 may not offer anything original this time around, but it manages to retain the fun that has been there since day one.

I got 10,500 points for absolutely nailing the dance routine for the William Tell Overture; the onscreen dancers dressed as horseracing jockeys showed me a routine that proved a challenge, but I nailed it and felt pretty good about myself (and on reflection, I never thought I’d say anything like that in a review!). I even trod on my daughter’s pencil sharpener in the process and remained composed, even though the pain hurt like hell. Just Dance 2016 isn’t revolutionary or original, but it will make you smile profusely and give you, your friends and your family plenty of opportunities to make great memories.

The post Just Dance 2016 Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

The official game of the 2015 WRC championship, WRC 5 is a rallying sim. Please, please, please don’t be put off by the s-word though, as in rallying it is a completely different experience. In a track-based sim, to win you need to clip apexes perfectly, lap after lap, shaving precious tenths off the car ahead, waiting, planning your move until you have the perfect opportunity.

Not in a rally game. On the contrary, WRC 5 almost feels arcadey; going sideways round corners, clipping bumps and fences. But it isn’t. You still have all the tweaks and settings under the bonnet, changing gear ratios and setups to match the course conditions – even if it can be automated. The truth is, rally naturally makes for a fun simulator.

With no competitors on track at the same time, stages become battles between you and the course. You cane it through forests and over mountain passes inches away from a collision, taking corners as tight as you dare, all to shave off valuable fractions of a second. You only ever think a corner or two ahead – forewarned by your excellent co-driver – working out how to get the best line between them as you go. It could be the most exhilarating racing on current consoles.

Then there’re the different rallies. With 13 on the calendar, they range from muddy Wales through to snowy Finland and sun-baked Mexico. The handling model is excellent, with the different surfaces all feeling subtly different, and while you’ll adapt on a stage by stage basis, the change when you run onto some mud after being on tarmac mid-stage can throw you off for just a second.

If that second does cause you to crash horribly, there is a rewind feature. Unlike in Codemasters’ titles, this resets you at a mid-stage checkpoint, starting you from standing. This means it should only be used when you make a massive mistake, rather than to find half a second through a corner complex.

Every little helps when it comes to time though, as the times for each stage of a rally are added up, with the lowest cumulative being the winner. It does mean that if you massively cock-up one stage you can redeem yourself, though larger deficits are hard to claw back.

Mode-wise there are a few to choose from. Quick stage and quick rally are as they sound, as are the multiplayer components, which allow you to tackle a rally against human players, either online or locally (though the latter is on a turn by turn basis). There’re also community challenges to partake in, and a rally school to teach you the ropes.

The real meat lies in the career mode, which has you sign on as a Junior WRC driver and work your way up through WRC 2 to the real thing proper. It’s incredibly cool, with contracts coming with different requirements on the balance between out-and-out pace and keeping the car in one piece. Promise to look after it and heavy damage will demoralise your co-driver and mechanics, meaning they take longer to fix your car. You only get 45 minutes to fix any damage from the previous days stages, meaning on days with three stages it can be a worthwhile tactic taking it easy on the first so that you have more grunt to give later, as damage really effects how the car behaves.

The only real downside to WRC is the aesthetic. While pretty enough, other racers have shown that graphics can be done a lot better. Worst is the damage modelling, with bits falling off your car showing an ugly black model underneath. Even crumpled sections don’t look that realistic, and it highlights the dev’s lack of resources. The timings appear to be a little shonky too, capable of challenging you most of the time, but awful at night stages, frequently several seconds behind me at best. In part this may be overcompensation by the developer, as night stages don’t really affect you too much; what with you only able to see a little bit ahead at the best of times, and your headlights and co-driver’s instructions guiding you the rest of the way.

It’s a shame that these points take the shine off an otherwise excellent game, but while it might not have the looks of a Ferrari or an Aston Martin, given it’s a sport that fans will stand in a muddy field in the pouring rain to watch, maybe that’s not the biggest deal-breaker. WRC 5 really is the most fun I’ve had with a racer this year, giving you a phenomenal handling model, sticking you on a course and largely leaving you to attack it. What more could you want?

The post WRC 5 Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

As each episode has gone by it’s become harder and harder to talk about them without giving away information about plot points, or narrative mechanics that have been used, and here in episode five it’s harder than ever. There’s so much going on here, so many loose ends tied up, and one of the best ending sequences to a game I have ever played.

I’m being serious: this is the first time I’ve had to walk away from a game, due to the weight of what it was asking of me, and when it was all over I had to get out, take a walk and get some fresh air. I had to process what it was that I had gone through, what Max Caulfield had gone through. DONTNOD have given us quite possibly the best narrative experience a game has ever offered. I feel like I’ve been through the ringer. The beginning (as traumatic as it is) starts a bit slowly, but once you’re past it, the ante just keeps getting upped.

There’s a graphical inconsistency to episode five that hasn’t really been an issue in prior parts. Several character models are poorly rendered and animated, and there are some moments with rather low resolution textures making them look a bit ugly. It’s not a deal breaker, as these moments are few, but they are rather distracting when they do crop up.

Episode three was the start of seeing player choice mattering less, and it’s more evident here. There are several puzzles, but there are straightforward routes through them. I’ve made the point that this is DONTNOD’s story to tell a few times in the past, but here the things you are asked to perform seem pointless when you take into account what Max is trying to achieve. In fact, the only choice that seems like it’s worth anything is the final one.

That’s not a bad thing though – far from it. The moments leading up to the end are some of the finest I have had the pleasure to bear witness to. It’s obvious where a lot of narrative and directorial beats have been borrowed from, especially with the moments where it plays with your perceptions. But to say what those influences are would be to spoil the surprise.

This is the problem with episodic games, really. Games have a beginning, middle and an end – they normally start well, slack off in the middle, ramp up towards the end, and then wrap everything up. This is the wrap up, then, and there’s not much more to tell you, aside that you should go play it. I know many have decided to wait until the final chapter has arrived, and some may be waiting on knowing if the final chapter delivers the end that it deserves. It does, and then some.

This is it, then. It’s over. A masterpiece delivered over the course of the last nine months. It came out of the blue, but DONTNOD have given me what is without a doubt my favourite game of 2015. In a way, I am sad that it’s over, but I am very happy I’ve been allowed to experience it and to be part of the story of Chloe and Max.

The post Life is Strange: Episode 5 – Polarized Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

And the latter is exactly what freestylegames has done, because Guitar Hero Live breathes fresh air into a genre that needed it, and it could very well revitalise many people’s dormant love of rocking out with a plastic guitar out, because so many smart decisions are made, and everything about Live feels so fresh and new. From the very get-go, the entire UI has been overhauled, and there’s a clear, distinct division between the core “Live” mode, and GHTV.

The elephant in the room is that Live is a FMV game, and there’s really only two types of those: firstly, the one that is funny because the developer has taken it all so seriously, and secondly, the one that is funny because the dev knows it’s stupid, and goes with it. Freestylegames has made a third one: something that feels cool despite itself. Now look, I’m well aware of how it looked pre-release, and I fully expected to be laughing myself silly at the over-the-top “you are a rock star” nonsense. Even as you start, and a long haired roadie talks you through the basics of the instrument, I thought I was going to laugh.

Then I realised I wasn’t. After a few three-song setlists in varying sized arenas, something was very right about it all. But it must be stupid, right? So I even drafted in a friend to play it, to ensure I hadn’t lost the plot. I watched him play it – you can see the results of his first play in this video – and noticed he found it to be cool as well. It only gets bigger and better as the setlists go on, and the entire concept somehow works really bloody well.

The idea is that you are seeing through the guitarist’s eyes on stage. If you perform well then the crowd will cheer you as the camera swings to a close up view of the most loyal fans. Play badly, and they’ll react accordingly, too. Jumping up a difficulty and initially struggling, as my viewpoint swang to the moshpit, they started throwing cups (of piss, one presumes) at me. It’s utterly silly, but it works as a motivational tool, and I quickly upped my game. The entire thing is seamless, and appears to be hidden behind motion blur as the camera swings hard from one angle to another, and in the moment, it’s like some weird voodoo magic.

But the guitar itself is one of the truly innovative parts. Rather than the five buttons and five frets we’re used to, Live splits six buttons across three frets. Three up; three down – these are signified on-screen by plectrum shapes approaching the traditional lanes that are either facing up or down to signify the up or down buttons. They’re also colour-coded, but not in a traditional sense. There’s no orange, blue, yellow (etc) here, instead it’s an empty darker fill for the top buttons, and a white fill for the bottom ones. Thanks to having these two layers of buttons, there are now barre chords (fret two buttons in one column) at once – and these start out simply, but eventually progress to the point where you are nearly playing genuine, real-guitar barre chords.

What this all means, is that you have to relearn how you play guitar-based music games. It won’t take too long, and the base mechanics are still there (hold notes and shake the whammy, score multipliers, hammer-ons and pull-offs), but it means that it reduces the need to use your pinky, Guitar Hero Live on higher difficulties is a brutally hard game. The sweet spot for me ended up being advanced difficulty, but I aim to get to expert some time soon.

As usual, the songs on offer will be subjective, but there’s plenty here to enjoy: Green Day, Soundgarden, Kasabian, Kings of Leon, Blink 182, and The Who run the gamut of rock and/or indie, but there’re also tracks from Eminem, Katy Perry, Mumford & Sons, and One Republic. There’s really something for everyone, and with support for a mic and a second guitar, you’d have to be fairly anti-social to not get involved.

While the guitar itself is well made, and well worth lauding thanks to the innovative input and gameplay changes, I’m tempted to say that GHTV is the true outstanding moment. Imagine Spotify for Guitar games, and you’re somewhere near what it is. Currently there are two streaming channels (with a third coming), and you can switch between these whenever you want – even mid song. These are broadcasting music videos 24/7, and have themed shows that change every half an hour. Channel A might be playing the metal show, so you can switch to that and play some metal, but you might come to a song you don’t like, so switch to channel B which is playing Sum41’s “In too deep”.

GHTV is a little different to the main game, in that instead of star power (here Hero Power), you use more arcade-like power-ups to change the lane. The first unlock is the bomb, which wipes the highway clear for a few seconds. I’m not a huge fan of that one, because you want to be playing those notes to increase your score, but if you use it as a helper when a crazy solo starts up, it can save your multiplier. This tactical change, along with the free channel switching means that GHTV is something I can (and already have) just chill out, playing songs to. The only penalty for doing badly is that you don’t gain as many coins, and you don’t level up as fast.

On that note, leveling isn’t a huge deal aside bragging rights. You progress through the ranks at a decent speed (if you’re good, you’ll level up every five or six songs), but the real early target is to hit level six, as that unlocks premium channels. These are very cool, and open up timed playlists of things like live songs (the Avenged Sevenfold three-song Download fest one is a great challenge, actually) which you can play, mainly as something different. Some require you to hit milestones (get three stars on these three songs) to play them, but you can also unlock them for Hero Cash, the currency that you buy with real money.

There’s a traditional song catalog elsewhere, which you can buy song plays (though they are not DLC: you never “own” these tracks) using play tokens. Although you can buy Hero Cash for real money, I never felt like I needed to do so. Play tokens are given away at regular level-up intervals, and thanks to the superb channels idea, I had only actually unlocked two or three songs, yet had over thirty tokens. This system feels designed in a way that the tokens are only for when you really must play “that song”, right now. Every song you play (in every mode) earns you coins, and you can swap those coins for tokens, too. So, yes, there is a real world micro-transaction here, but I can’t see a time I’d ever consider using it. Every song in this list is available to play for free on the channels anyway.

So that’s three currencies: Hero Cash (real money), coins (earned by playing), and play tokens (a bit of both). I tell you this only to be completely up front about it. Again, I never felt pressured to put real money down, and I honestly cannot see a point that I ever would, anyway. Where Live’s main “career” mode is about making you feel like a rock star, GHTV feels like putting you in control, and allowing you to chill out with that Spotify style system, with a generous 200-odd songs to go through, and more coming. It’s worth mentioning, too, that in GHTV you are always competing with the rest of the world. A small piece of the UI on the left shows other people playing (currently, and banked scores), and in the premium playlists you’re even awarded points in a table at the end of the setlist. It breeds a competitive attitude, but it’s also something you can completely ignore.

I didn’t expect to fall for Guitar Hero Live the way I did. The new guitar is superb (they’ve retained that clacky sound on the strum bar, by the way) and makes everything feel brand new. GHTV, however, is truly innovative, and means you can just sit there and play for as long as you fancy. If you want to drop out, or suddenly stop, then do so – there’s no penalty, even the second player can drop out without interrupting play. The FMV of the career mode somehow works and is genuinely exciting, too. Ultimately, Live is a phenomenal return for Guitar Hero, and one that everyone involved should be proud of. To fans of the genre, this is something new and enthralling. Absolutely brilliant.

The post Guitar Hero Live Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Despite a few misgivings in the penultimate episode, Telltale has delivered a finale that is fitting of the original premise, and in turn cemented Tales from the Borderlands as one of its best series to date, and certainly one of the best individual episodes it has ever made.

And it starts with a bang. This is one of the most action-packed episodes of anything Telltale has done, continuing right from where episode four left off. Jack has always been someone with psychotic tendencies, but he quickly goes dark with how murderous and mad he is. The voice acting that has been stellar all along is just as good here, and Dameon Clarke’s performance is violently dark at times, but still has that quirky twang that makes everything Jack says seem kinda funny. Dialogue choices give Rhys a chance to play it one way or another, but it’s nice to finally have chickens come to roost, personality wise.

In fact, it’s such a quick start that you almost forget about the trademark Tales from the Borderlands late credits, until it actually happens. And (this is becoming a theme) this moment is one of the best of the series. They’ve been fantastic throughout, but this one (nearly half an hour in) is pretty moving, and makes you wonder where it’s all going.

Interestingly, one of the things I didn’t like about Escape Plan Bravo was that there were suddenly serious emotional moments that just missed the mark. In The Vault of the Traveler, there are plenty of the more serious moments for many of the characters (a surprising one with Jack which gives some back-story is very well done), but they are all delivered very well. Except, I guess, one near the very end that I can’t delve into, for obvious reasons. All I’ll say is that the joke is an obvious one that’s been used elsewhere, and thus loses the impact it could have had.

Speaking of comedy, the huge belly laughs of episode one, two, and three are still shunned slightly in favour or more subtle, cheeky one liners. There’s some insults that are worth a laugh, but there’s no one truly hilarious moment that stands out. Whereas that was something that negatively affected the last episode, here, because the emotional story beats hit harder, it feels right to put it on the back burner a little.

But the action is the best it’s ever been. Sure, there’s the “hammer Q” parts that we know only too well, but one battle has you using multiple inputs in quick succession, and I can’t tell if it’s a parody of a fighting game or not. Either way, it’s brilliant, and a massive moment that makes you feel a complete badass. In fact, I’d go so far as to say there’s not really a dull moment in the entire two hour runtime.

Best of all, the decisions you’ve made throughout the entire series actually matter, though in a different way. Obviously I wouldn’t spoil it here, but there’s a moment after the midway point that directly ties into multiple choices from previous episodes. It’s damn awkward to talk around, but it’s interesting to see Telltale use player choice in a different way. Here, there’s no seams being pulled apart due to having to tie it all together, instead it uses those ties in a cool way, and one that makes me want to replay the finale multiple times to see potential different outcomes and dialogue choices.

It’s a dramatic finale, no question, that relies more on story and character to get it across the finish line than the humour I initially lauded it for. But as a whole, Tales from the Borderlands has been a wonderful series. When the credits roll, it’s almost weird to look back and think upon the characters met, who have lived or died, and where you took Rhys and Fiona from their humble beginnings to the bombastic conclusion. Quite frankly, Telltale has knocked it out of the park, and if there’s ever to be a Borderlands 3 from Gearbox, it’d be an utter travesty to not see Telltale’s characters appear somehow in that game – that’s how fantastic this is.

The post Tales from the Borderlands: Episode 5 – The Vault of the Traveler Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

Transformers Devastation is a different beast, it’s a game that wears nostalgic influence not on its sleeve but in its core. To this game, nostalgia is the Matrix of leadership. This is evident from the boxart alone. This isn’t one of the newer series of Transformers or the films; we’re talking original Generation One. Even the opening menu evokes an old-school feel with a sparse screen crackling with static, while showcasing its options. It’s like an old DVD menu screen and really adds to the overall experience.

In-game the character models look stunning, I’ve never seen cel-shading look quite this good before. Chunky outlines surround beautifully bright colours as metallic style shading cascades across the panels, and it’s all animated beautifully. This is some exceptional design work that’s completely wondrous to behold. The environments, while quite bland early on, at least make some use of verticality with fights taking place on rooftops and skyways with the city below. As the game progresses Platinum ramps the spectacle up, with oodles of large, moving background artifacts, lightshows and particle effects giving later areas a real epic feel.

All this would mean nothing if the game wasn’t much cop, but this is where the other big influence becomes apparent. Being a Platinum game you expect it to have a good fighting system, and it does. In fact, it’s been lifted virtually wholesale from Bayonetta. If nostalgia is the Matrix, then Bayonetta is the Energon providing the game’s power. Combat animation flows beautifully as your Autobot of choice wails away on the targets presented to you for your smashing pleasure. It’s an amazing feeling to deliver a series of light and heavy attacks to then follow up with turning into a car and slamming into the enemy before landing back on your feet and continuing the assault. The lack of a combo counter is an unusual omission as it removes some of the joy of delivering a lengthy sequence of unbroken hits, but you’ll be too busy staring in wide eyed wonder to care.

Hitting R1/RB to dodge hits at the last moment activates witch time (in all but name), slowing things down for you to get more combo hits in without taking damage, while areas are sealed off by doors that require sequential attacks to break through. Heck, even the screens that introduce new enemy types to you are from that same Platinum-template. This homage to Bayo is no bad thing as it has one of the greatest fighting systems around, and it’s good to see it put to good use here.

You can choose from five selectable Autobots, each with their own fighting style to bring to the table. Optimus Prime is the usual “good at everything” character; Bumblebee is small and nippy; Wheeljack has a shield; Sideswipe has good range, and Grimlock is a grappler. The styles are quite distinct with certain advantages applied to each, but you can easily complete each chapter regardless of your choice. If you decide you don’t like a particular one then you can switch between them before each chapter, or at select points in at an Autobot logo.

Each character has four weapon slots, in which you can equip two ranged and two melee types. Ranged weapons have limited use due to consuming energon (which can be picked up from defeated enemies), while melee has no such restriction. Downed enemies and bosses can leave behind weapon pick-ups which can also be equipped. Did you like that sword you saw that Decepticon using? Try it out for yourself. Even older weapons once discarded have some use, as they can be infused into other weapons to create more powerful types. It’s an excellent system that rewards experimentation and tinkering.

It all sounds great, but there are issues. Some level items clip into the world geometry, resulting in cars and other items being partially submerged in the ground, and there’s a repetition of enemy models that’s hard to get over. Shielded enemies mix things up a bit in the combat, but the shields can only be destroyed by a vehicle ram, and while you can chain a vehicle attack in after a ram, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to do it more than once, meaning that you then have to get a run up to attack the next shielded enemy that appears – it kind of ruins the combat flow.

Platinum has gone to admirable lengths to get the original voice cast to reprise their roles, but unfortunately some of the replacements for those who have sadly left us just sound a little odd, with Starscream losing a little bit of the malice that was evident in the original actor’s performance. The less said about the music the better: it’s a terrible faux-rock that repeats in every encounter, and it won’t be long until you learn to ignore its presence.

It’s woefully short, too. You can blitz through it in around four or five hours, and although there’s a bunch of objective based side items within the levels and a challenge mode that sees stages unlocked through repeat story play, they’re no consolation. The cliffhanger ending hints that there were ideas on to the table as to where to push the story forward, but it feels that’s been held back for a sequel or, god forbid, DLC.

Regardless of length, Transformers Devastation is a wonderful blend of pure 90s nostalgia and one of the best fighting systems in games. It truly feels like a Transformers videogame should, and one that fans have always wanted. Whether or not you’re a fan of the original Transformers or not, this is a great game. The fan service will obviously make it more enjoyable for some, but anyone will derive enjoyment from this.

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Split across land, sea and air, these vehicles break up the traditional Skylanders platform-puzzle gameplay with vehicular combat and race sections, adding a fresh twist to the series. Each handles in a similar manner, with R2 acting as accelerate and the face buttons taking care of your weapons and abilities. You’ll battle your way around arenas and other, more linear, tracks, fighting off enemies and chasing after bosses – it’s exactly what you would expect from vehicles in the Skylanders universe, but that’s by no means a bad thing.

Each type is subtly different. Packaged in the Starter Pack is a land vehicle, which is all you technically need to complete the game, but the air and sea ones are more interesting. As you’d guess, planes and helicopters allow for more 3D movement, swooping down and around obstacles and enemies, while sea vehicles can submerge to navigate water sections and dodge surface projectiles. They change up the pace from the standard Skylanders on-foot sections that link them up, with each level having at least one of each type.

Levels each have a twist on them. One takes place on the back of a gigantic dragon, causing platforms to move and shift, while a later area is obscured by clouds, which can be cleared for brief spells, allowing you to memorise your way forward. These twists tend to form the basis for most puzzles in a level, with a gentle difficulty progression in each one.

The stars, though, are the Skylanders and their toy counterparts. Each feels happily different from the others, and you’ll find one that suits how you want to play the game. In the Starter Pack is Spitfire, a dragon/demon guy who can get in close to enemies, and Super Shot Stealth Elf who’s armed with a minigun and can turn invisible for a short time, and there’s over 20 new Skylanders to collect, alongside the full complement of past ones who’ll work as well.

This individuality is helped by the animation, with each Skylander having their own style of movement and little quirks. The toys are great too. Of excellent quality as always, the figures strike action poses while the vehicles have moving parts: cars have working wheels and the helicopter’s blades spin. They are proper toys, and it’s great being able to race toy cars around the table, then pop them onto the portal and have them appear instantly in the game.

The whole game can be played in co-op mode as well. The on-foot sections are the same, albeit with two of you, but the vehicular bits see one of you take the wheel while the other handles the weapons. It works really well, allowing for more precision aiming.

Sitting on top of all of this are three upgrade systems that add a surprising amount of depth to the gameplay. Characters are customisable with new moves, vehicles with new parts and your portal pad levels up, granting bonuses to coin collection and such. With different currencies for each, and some upgrades only available by finding them in-game, it can be a little confusing though. Other bonuses can be found by pairing certain Skylanders and their vehicles, “Supercharging” them, while character types – fire, water, air etc. – are more powerful in certain areas, even if where and when seem a little arbitrarily chosen.

Still, the game is packed full of surprises. There’re various secret areas and side puzzles to discover, and you can find a host of items to customise your Skylander Academy base with. There’s even a Hearthstone-esque card game to take part in (by “esque”, I mean “carbon copy”).

As good a game as Superchargers is though, it has its issues. The gameplay, while fun, is repetitive and lacks serious challenge – although as a kid’s game it’s arguably unfair to complain about this – and the multiple upgrade systems are a little overwhelming, which as a 23-year-old is a very valid complaint in a kid’s game. My largest issue is a deliberate design one, however: Skylanders Superchargers makes you very aware of what you are missing. Vehicle sections blend almost seamlessly into the linear levels in the game, which is fine if you have one of each type of vehicle, but if you only have the Starter Pack’s Hot Streak car, listening through the dialogue about a water or air section up ahead only to find out you can’t do it and must look for a route around is frustrating as an adult, and I can’t imagine how it would be for a child.

Using children to open their parent’s wallets is nothing new of course, but in the past Skylanders characters have been totally optional – one may be better than another in certain sections, but you could complete the game with any. Here, it feels as though you’re missing out on large sections of the game if you don’t have a certain vehicle, which, to be honest, you are.

That you need all three types of vehicle to fully enjoy Superchargers isn’t really a surprise though, and even without them this is still a fantastic children’s game, one that they can lose hours to upgrading their favourite Skylanders and vehicles. There’s plenty for adults to enjoy too, provided you don’t go in expecting a serious challenge, and of course it’s something you can play with your child and both have fun with. Skylanders may be facing tougher competition this year, but with Superchargers it’s stepped up its game to match.

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That Pro Skater 5 is pretty awful probably won’t come as too much of a surprise to many, especially since during the run up to its release negative impressions circled like a swarm of starving sharks. However, it’s not unplayable in the slightest, and fun can be occasionally found, albeit in a slightly masochistic way.

The main hook is in the mission structure, which is very reminiscent of recent skateboarding title, Olli Olli. Pro Skater 5 gives you access to an area, but in order to move onto to the next skate park you have to earn a certain number of stars. These can be achieved via completing objectives in “free skate” mode or by achieving the best scores in missions. Also like Olli Olli, I had to reach the highest skill level in order to earn the optimum number of stars in each mission.

These missions are varied, interesting enough and even quite amusing at times – seeing Tony Hawk’s head gradually grow larger and then explode for the first time was certainly surprising. They also had enough of the “one more go” factor to keep me continuously pressing the retry button even though I was growing increasingly frustrated with how the skating felt.

And there lies the crux of Pro Skater 5’s faults: it’s just infuriating to play. If you get lucky and everything runs smoothly for about twenty seconds, pulling off tricks can feel incredibly satisfying, and even harks back to the glory days when you manage a risky trick and end up landing it perfectly. However, it just never lasts long enough to sustain the enjoyment. Severe frame rate drops, long load times, glitchy visuals and characters’ legs spontaneously collapsing as if a cattle prod has been inserted up their rectum are just a few of the near ever-present bugs that render it a chore to play.

Even the insanely bizarre crashes, which occur completely arbitrarily and usually for no apparent reason, which send the skaters so high up into orbit they may as well go and save Matt Damon themselves, aren’t fun. They feel floaty and lightweight and aren’t even slightly humorous. They’re just very, very perplexing.

One aspect in particular that constantly frustrated me was extremely random clips of the camera. I’d be looking one way, and then very suddenly facing another. The transitions were so jarring that they were constantly ripping me out of the enjoyment I was already struggling for.

While each of the eight developer-made parks constantly improved and offer something a little more exciting with each unlock, they’re a slog to work through and aren’t exactly worth the effort – especially since they’re so bland and forgettable. Developer Robomodo’s late art-style switch certainly didn’t pay off, with Pro Skater 5 looking like it was drawn in MS Paint.

Controls feel loose and unresponsive; I’d attempt to transit from one grind to another and the skater on the screen just wouldn’t react in time with the buttons I was pressing. This made PS5 feel as if it had a real lack of momentum, as tricks didn’t naturally flow into each other so building up any sort of rhythm felt near-on impossible.

It doesn’t help that the controls feel very archaic. Having to press three different buttons in order to move and jump, then even more if you wish to pull off any tricks, just feels unnecessarily convoluted in this modern era.

One would presume that one of the many reasons Pro Skater 5 runs so poorly is due to its always online feature, with latency issues and such. It completely bewilders me as to why the always online route was chosen, when it quite literally offers absolutely nothing to the player besides constantly disappearing skaters that wait around long enough only serve as annoying obstacles, or the intrusive yellow text that covers a quarter of the screen whenever someone joins or leaves the game. Although, saying all that, it doesn’t run much better in private matches.

Sadly, Pro Skater 5’s performance issue’s don’t end in the skate park either. I’ve had the game crash on me twice for no apparent reason and my progress just simply hasn’t been registered or saved on countless occasions.

A brilliant sound track has often been a pivotal part of the great Pro Skater games of the past but, unfortunately, this iteration fails in this department too. There’s not nearly enough whiny American punk rock or chilled hip/hop that really captures the vibe of skateboarding. With only the likes of State Champs’ “Secrets” and Four Year Strong’s “Go Down in History” providing that particular sound. I couldn’t cope with how out of place the soundtrack was for long, so I highly recommend you turn down the volume and stick on the soundtrack to Pro Skater 2, or even just Ashes to Ashes, instead.

Despite it all, I did manage to occasionally enjoy myself while playing Tony Hawks’ Pro Skater 5. There are other positive aspects too: the Skater Bios offer comprehensive information about every skater in the game, which will no doubt appeal to devoted skateboarding fans. The park creation offers lots of options and obstacles (with nothing held back behind unlocks), for the creatively inclined and it has resulted in some pretty enjoyable player-created levels. However, with just so many defects spoiling my enjoyment, it’s incredibly difficult for me to recommend Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 to anyone.

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Visually, NBA 2K16 is gorgeous: the light reflecting off the court, the player animations after a dunk or a 3-point swish, the way the crowd lights up after an important basket and the sweat falling from your point guard’s forehead completely sets it apart from everything that has come before. The meticulous nature of Visual Concept’s programmers makes the game a real joy to look at, providing an almost lifelike rendition of the entire NBA experience; players, stadiums and all. The only time that I found the look of the players a little off-putting was on the teams from NBA’s history. I was playing as the Chicago Bulls from the mid-nineties and certain faces look like they’d been stuck on with some kind of digital glue. When the players moved on the court, the faces didn’t move in unison, which provided a rather jarring experience at times.

When not on court, NBA 2K16 excels in different ways. The pre-match analysis is so realistic that it’s as if you’re watching ESPN on the TV. Shaquille O’ Neal, Ernie Johnson and Kenny “The Jet” Smith provide detailed information on player stats and opinions on the impending match-up, meaning every game is treated differently and each approach by the trio is often dissimilar from the last. Also, between quarters, you’ll have bite-sized interviews with some of the actual basketball stars themselves and cheerleader performances, adding to the overall atmosphere of the game.

You can have hundreds of options and modes to fiddle with, but if the game doesn’t control well, you may as well not bother; thankfully NBA 2K16 plays beautifully in every way. The AI has vastly improved since last year and your opponent seems to play a lot smarter. They wait for a chance to drive to the basket without rushing, yet they aren’t too advanced that it makes you feel like you’re playing against the Monstars from Space Jam. Your own team’s AI has also improved, meaning that they won’t pass to you unless they feel you have a good chance to shoot or break through the defence. With a swipe of the PlayStation 4’s touchpad, I was able to select a play and my team would adapt almost instantly. This gave a great sense of control and made me feel like I was completely in charge of proceedings.

Gameplay is the most realistic it has ever been; you can’t simply drive to the basket without a fight. The defence is tighter, which means you really have to think about your options when on the offence. Make sure you work the defence well by getting a teammate to screen your marker; as mentioned, the AI will be on your tail from the off so always be ready to make the perfect move.

The fluidity in play is second to none, meaning every single move links seamlessly with the next and results in not a single stutter or crash. You’ll feel like a million dollars when you dribble with a bit of style that takes you behind the defence and en route to the basket with a holier-than-thou dunk. Likewise, blocking a player’s shot gives you great satisfaction; it is so easy to get caught up in the action due to the realism in Visual Concepts dedication to precise, enjoyable gameplay.

There has been a lot of hype surrounding the new MyCareer mode, directed by New York Knicks mega fan, Spike Lee. Before release, we were told how the story would feature 12 hours of “in-game drama” and that it would feel more like a real story akin to the Hollywood films that Spike has helmed in his career. Unfortunately, I found the story to be a little tedious, making you feel more of a spectator than the actual focus of it. There are no dialogue choices or different paths to proceed down and you kind of feel a little redundant in your own career. As for the acting, the ham-fisted performances and stereotypes took a lot away from the smart and engaging plot. On the whole though, the Spike Lee joint is a valiant effort to push into the fold of sports storytelling in video games, with lots to enjoy as you reach your goal of being the new Steph Curry or Lebron James.

Many of the modes from last year are back, meaning whether you are playing for the single player experience (outside of the MyCareer mode, of course) or the multiplayer, NBA 2K16 will keep you busy for hours. MyGM mode is back, giving you full control of an NBA team and transforming them into a successful franchise both on and off the court, controlling everything from player morale to improving the backroom staff. With every win comes virtual currency, allowing you to buy a whole host of jerseys, trainers, upgrades to your team and more. If you just want to play through a season of basketball minus all the business waffle, give MyLeague a go and play through an entire season with the team of your choice. You can customise the rules and regulations of the season, but you don’t have to worry about pleasing the fans or living up to your club owner’s expectations.

For those of you who thrive on online competition, MyPark returns with a slicker look than last year, and plenty of opportunities to get stuck in to some street basketball with other gamers worldwide. 2K Pro-Am returns, although I rarely got a chance to play the 5 vs 5 mode due to a lack of opponents available; however, this was more than likely down to the servers and not the actual amount of other players online.

For the last two years, the 2K servers have been a hot mess, constantly crashing unexpectedly and affecting the way in which most online modes operate. Outside of the 2K Pro-Am issues, my experiences online were rarely affected. I could usually find an opponent to play against and the MyPark mode was almost always populated by players with matches being set up promptly. Hopefully as the months progress, 2K will learn from past mistakes and manage to appease the majority of angry gamers who just want to play basketball.

The post NBA 2K16 Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

For instance, opening the Bad Cop pack you’ll be met with instructions – but only how to put the figure himself together. After popping him onto the gateway (that’s what we’re calling the portal, here) it’ll instantly make an in-game instruction manual appear that exactly mirrors the real world ones that you’d find in a normal LEGO pack. Dimensions asks you to build a vehicle, or other character-specific item, and to stop playing the game, and start playing with the LEGO. It’s a marvelous, inventive idea, that absolutely takes advantage of everything great about LEGO. You can unlock abilities for vehicles (etc), and after doing so ten times, you’ll unlock a new instruction manual that creates an alternative take on the original build – up to three different times. Again, the idea is simple: it’s just what you do with LEGO, but I can’t imagine a better implementation, nor a more simplistically innovative way to make this Toys to Life game truly stand out from the crowd.

Much of what you get from Dimensions is down to how much you like the source material, as with the other titles from TT Games. But there’s so much here, with such a broad appeal, it’s hard not to imagine someone liking something. Starting out with Yellow Brick Road (perhaps an obvious choice), moving directly into The Simpsons, then some LEGO Ninjago. After meeting him, Homer nails it straight away: “It’s not selling out, it’s co-branding”. It’s funny, it’s clever, and shows an awareness of the person playing, but it also shows that like those early seasons of The Simpsons, Warner and TT understand that something can appeal to both adults and children, and still be clever enough for both.

It’s obviously not the best story you’ll ever experience, though it’s well written and original while using the characters you know and love. A weird bi-dimensional guy wants to be an all powerful despot, and heroes and villains from all manner of properties have been sucked into the fight between good and evil, with WyldStyle, Gandalf, and Batman (from the LEGO Batman games, not The LEGO Movie) at the centre, fighting back. It made me laugh multiple times, though, thanks to the characters and situations, and special mention goes to the trophy names – some of which are genius.

Make no mistake, however, this is very much a LEGO game. I don’t mean that in a negative way, just that if you’ve played any of the plethora of previous games in the series, you’ll know what to expect. The silly humour, the fact there’s no penalty for dying, the faithful representations of the source material: it’s all what you expect. And, to a degree, so is the gameplay. It’s designed to be played by all ages, and is best enjoyed in co-op with two people who aren’t going to get too angry at one another. You’ll spend much of your time smashing enemies and LEGO to pieces, only to rebuild it into interesting structures that let you progress.

Where Dimensions differs from stable-mates, and where it excels, is the gateway itself. Unlike the competition, the gateway can take seven different toys at once. This means you can have two cars, a scooby snack, Batman, Homer, WyldStyle, and Marty McFly all accessible at once, and instead of (as in Skylanders) you just swapping them out when one of them dies, TT has put them into different categories that allow you to clear a path to otherwise gated sections of the levels. It’s not a new thing, and you can finish every level with the starter pack, but right from the get-go there is an incredible amount of packs available to purchase, that you’ll need to consider if you want to 100% the game. There’s no elemental separation here, and the categories are many.

To break it down further: Gandalf is magic, so can use that on certain areas. WyldStyle is acrobatic, so can double jump and reach higher places – she’s also a master builder so can make bigger, better objects. Batman has his grapple-hook and batarangs, so he can use those on the environment – he also has the Batmobile, so your gang can use that when needed, too. If you choose to buy them, it expands further. Homer is a strong man, so can smash through walls. Bad Cop shoots a laser gun that’ll unlock other areas. It’s worth mentioning that most of these areas gated by the need to purchase new figures are for collectibles, and most categories have at least five characters within them (some are more like ten, and some include vehicle powers that can substitute for them), so you don’t need to buy every figure.

The gateway itself offers up rudimentary (but always fun) puzzle solving. The often used one is that you have three colours on the floor to paint your characters (red, yellow, blue) which will then correspond to an image in the background. The idea is that you have to match those colours up on the gateway, thus causing damage to a boss, or opening a door, that kind of thing. The bosses themselves are always great, and TT isn’t afraid to hit you with three of them on the bounce. As with the rest of the game, the challenge is minimal, but it does make the tried and tested LEGO formula feel fresh, purely thanks to the real life interactions with the portal. I can see people being frustrated with the (sometimes constant) swapping around, but I found it a welcome change.

It feels weird saying this, but LEGO Dimensions made feel so happy. Starting the game and realising that after placing a character down, it’ll ask you to build their accessory was always – and I say that categorically – a joy. LEGO is one of the oldest toys I can remember, and building the Mystery Machine before playing with it in a videogame is an experience like no other. The building is actually more fun than the game itself, but the fact it marries both together so well means that for a game-loving LEGO fan, it’s a bit of paradise.

There are issues, of course. An odd sound bug that causes the sound to go very low, before having the disc spin up and bring in the audio again is just plain bizarre, not least because it seems to happen around incidental dialogue. Switching characters is still awkward unless you hold triangle and manually select, and there’s some fiddly platforming, too. Sometimes characters will get themselves stuck, which is rectified by removing them from the gateway and re-placing them.

There’s no question that this will be an expensive hobby, but in (ever-so slight) defense of it, LEGO isn’t cheap, full stop. But to those of you who love it, and enjoy the series (those frightened for their wallets stop reading right now), then really, this is kind of an essential purchase. It revitalises TT’s own series of games, and at a time where I felt the Toys to Life genre was reaching Guitar-game level of progression and exhaustion, makes me think there’s room to manoeuvre once again. Make no mistake: this is a LEGO game with a few minor new additions that is successful because of the actual LEGO and the gateway portal, but it’s a great LEGO game nonetheless, and the most fun I’ve had with LEGO in years.

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One of the many criticisms of FIFA has been that it always felt like attacking was the main focus, with little reason to keep possession across the back line or in the midfield. Getting it to your strikers was always the priority and usually the best tactic, but this year things are a little more balanced across the pitch. Keeping the ball moving across midfield, while trying to draw out the opponents is a tactic that has served me well. Once a defender moves out of position, a gap usually appears and a well-timed through-ball (on the ground through-balls seem to be the way to go this year) or use of the new passing with purpose modifier that puts some serious pace on a pass to get it there quickly can often lead you through on goal.

But it isn’t quite the surefire way to score that over the top through-balls or finesse shots have been in the last few years. The defensive AI has been significantly improved in relation to cutting out passes and, unless your pass is risk-free or pinpoint accurate, there is a high chance it will be cut out. While that may sound infuriating, it actually works well and makes things seem much more realistic. Almost every pass in the final third is contested in some way, unless you get a pocket of space, making it feel like it was a really good passage of play that lead to the shot.

There are also lots of improvements for when you don’t have the ball. While many of the new changes on the defensive side are incredibly minor on their own, when put together they make winning the ball back a lot easier. Quicker turning animations, better AI tracking of runners, and the ability to jump up out of a missed slide tackle with a single button press to keep momentum make defending the best it has been for years, and the most enjoyable, to boot. Add in the much improved (providing you play on professional or higher) goalkeepers, and goals start to become much more of a rarity. Whereas a 3-2 or 4-3 would be classed as a close game in previous years, this year a 1-0 win is the more common score line.

Just because it seems harder to score this year doesn’t mean that the incredible goals which FIFA is known for have disappeared. I have had a good number of goals that made my jaw drop, and even goals that sound fairly mundane when describing them can have a massive impact. Such as the time Michael Carrick bulldozed past two defenders, leapt like a salmon and powered a header into the bottom left corner, it sounds like a fairly boring goal but in that moment it looked amazing.

On the pitch there is very little to complain about. On easier difficulties attacking down the wings and cutting back inside seems a bit too easy, and there is still the odd questionable physics interaction between players, but other than that there is very little wrong. That doesn’t mean it’s quite perfect; there have been a few things such as strange own goals and misplaced passes directly to my striker within the last five minutes of a close game that made it almost feel like the game was giving me as much of a chance a possible to score. But overall it is incredibly satisfying to play and even more so to score a goal.

As ever, Ultimate Team returns with some fairly minor changes to the main game mode, although the new addition of FUT Draft is certainly welcome. This gives you the option to build a super team to use in up to four games (a loss means your run with that team is over) by selecting one of five randomly selected players for each position. For those of us who will never have enough coins to buy the likes of Ronaldo or Messi, Draft Mode provides the chance to at least have them in our squad for a few games. How many wins you manage to get depends on the type of pack you receive as a reward, but with a 15,000 coin entry fee it can be considered a financial risk for those highly invested in traditional Ultimate Team.

Career mode has also had some small but very welcome chances. The first one you will notice is the addition of pre-season tournaments that offer up bonus transfer funds if you perform well. In my career with Manchester United I headed to the USA to play in a tournament consisting of the likes of Boca Juniors, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid, and I managed to secure an extra few million in transfer funds by coming second. Player training allows you to set specific training drills for up to five players a week to help them improve. For those looking to put a lot of time into career mode this seems like the obvious way to boost any young players you have to make them future super stars. Interestingly, you can also take part in the training as a skill game to improve your playing skills.

Of course, EA has also added women’s football this year, and they play significantly differently to the men. It feels slower and there is more space on the pitch, which is actually very enjoyable, but I doubt anyone will spend all their time playing with the women’s teams – they are a nice addition but ultimately it is more of a distraction than anything else. Although their inclusion has resulted in all hair now being realistically simulated, which does look really good in replays, and visual upgrades are always welcome.

There is no doubt that this is easily the best FIFA game of this generation. The game modes that have been at the heart of the series over the last few years remain as good as they have ever been with a few minor additions, and FUT Draft offers up an interesting new prospect for those who tire of the traditional mode. On the pitch the action is the most balanced yet, with the midfield actually being a key part of any game for the first time in a while, and somehow they have managed to make defending fun, instead of incredibly frustrating. There are still a few issues here and there, and some may question if the relatively minor changes from last year are worth shelling out for an entirely new game, but this is without a doubt the best FIFA in years.

The post FIFA 16 Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

After playing the alpha and beta I was sold on Destiny, hook, line and sinker. But it was impossible to find myself not agreeing with all the niggles highlighted by reviews. A terrible story (or lack thereof), stingy loot system, an item upgrade system that required near constant farming and a dearth of end-game content were all valid concerns despite the excellent gunplay Bungie had crafted. Many people, including those who played religiously, would admit: “This is the best 7/10 game I’ve ever played.”

Vault of Glass was an excellent raid for Vanilla Destiny, but despite the hard work Crota’s End required in The Dark Below, it wasn’t enough to elevate the first expansion to anything other than a bog standard add-on, and it didn’t really add anything in terms of story. House of Wolves at least gave more to do in terms of post-campaign content with the Trials of Osiris and Prison of Elders, even though they were completed within mere days by dedicated players.

Fast-Forward to September 2015 and what Bungie lovingly refers to as Destiny’s “Year Two”. The developers have revamped the game’s loot and leveling systems and now furnished Destiny with its third and biggest expansion yet. Will it enough to entice back players who had grown weary of Destiny’s core loop of shooting and looting? And will it be enough to keep the loyalists loyal?

Initial impressions are favourable: Bungie have finally given Destiny something resembling a story. Cayde-6, Commander Zavala and Eris Morn are granted personalities, with Nathan Fillion’s comedy turn as the (self-proclaimed) “roguish commander” standing alongside the po-faced Zavala and Eris’ “crazy cat-lady” routine. These three provide the bulk of story exposition as you progress through The Taken King’s new missions. It’s a shame that Ikora Rey isn’t granted the same treatment and – considering she wasn’t really featured in House of Wolves – Queen of the Awoken, Mara Sov could really have done with more love outside of her “blink and you’ll miss it” appearance.

Throughout your adventure you’ll come across the Fallen, Vex, Hive and Cabal once again, but Bungie have taken their model recycling to the extreme with the new enemies. You see, Oryx has created an army by taking (see what they did there?) whoever he likes and making them serve him. As such the Taken are all the enemies you’ve seen before, just in a new smokey black hue with a nice glowing weak spot to shoot. Regardless of this they are a very good enemy to fight; they attack en-masse and divide in two if not taken down in a timely manner. It certainly makes things more interesting when you’re trying to divide your time adequately between killing Taken and attacking other enemies or bosses.

Locations are recycled too, with many areas from the Moon and Earth re-used, as well as a similar trick to House of Wolves’ visit to the Vault of Glass that throws up an interesting surprise (which I won’t spoil here). It’s a shame that Phobos’ use in the game’s opening isn’t really expanded upon; it’s used once and then just discarded like a prophylactic. Yes, Bungie have given us the Dreadnaught to explore, but in terms of décor it’s very similar to the Hive areas of the Moon, and has an extremely boring grey and brown colour palette. I’m not saying that evil overlords should have better taste in interior design, but it wouldn’t have caused any harm to throw a little bit of colour in there.

As well as the cutscenes and now near-constant radio chatter, a new feature is enabled into your Ghost (now voiced by the ever in work Nolan North). At times, as you wander through the locations you’ll see the Ghost symbol in the top right corner, this signifies that there is something ‘scannable’ in the nearby area. Opening your Ghost sends out a ping and anything you can scan is highlighted with a virtual mesh. Doing this gives you story snippets fleshing out the new narrative a little more – it’s not much, but it’s very Metroid Prime-esque and will have completionists twitching over every environmental detail.

In a move that will relieve a lot of players, leveling up is now completely down to XP you have earned and no longer held behind the light levels of the gear you pick up. As such The Taken King doesn’t rely on players to devote hours of time to the multiplayer or require access to a circle of friends they can raid with just to hit the level cap. The loot system has been improved too. Granted, it isn’t at Diablo 3’s level yet, but you will find yourself inundated with more gear and engrams than before, meaning you’ll have to make more decisions as to whether you want to dismantle that item or not (for the most part, you will do).

There are also more ways to get gear than before. The multiplayer factions no longer require you to actually play the MP to earn reputation, instead you can trade in easily farmable items for small rep boosts, or by wearing their “badge” any single player quests you do will grant you a little more reputation with them. It’s not much, but it does expand the possibilities for acquiring new items.

You will need to take these new items into account even after level 40. The basic level number doesn’t mean anything apart from dictating what gear you can and cannot equip, after that it is back down to our old friend “Light level”. Unlike before though, your light level is calculated on your attack and defence power of your equipped items. There is stuff gated behind suggested Light levels, but overall the process of acquiring higher attack and defence values is much more simplified than it was before.

Heroic stories, Nightfalls, Heroic Strikes and the Raid are all restricted by different light level requirements; however, once you have dispersed with what appears to be the story content you will find more quests thrown your way. After playing through the original game and the prior two expansions this came as a bit of a shock, as I was expecting it to be another tiresome grind, but it does seem that Bungie have gone all-out to give players more to do once they’ve blasted through the narrative. What’s more, is that so far it’s still going. Handing in a quest is giving me another three or four to do, and so on; add bounties and multiplayer and you’re really looking at a silly amount of stuff going forward.

The new gear is, quite frankly, lovely. New guns have nifty holographic sights, while upgrade paths are more simplified and require less materials than before. Brilliantly, swords are now a permanent feature. Finishing a quest line grants you your very own to use how you see fit. Unfortunately, it counts as a heavy weapon and consumes that ammunition when used, but its deadly blade dance it great to watch and slicing through enemies never gets old – just try not to forget yourself and use it on bosses.

The new class powers are truly excellent; they’re unlocked via a quest that needs to be tackled solo, as if your Guardian is embarking on some spiritual journey. They’re really nicely done and have a great atmosphere to them. Once acquired, the Warlock’s Stormtrance, Hunter’s Shadowshot and Titan’s Hammer of Sol abilities all create fabulous lightshows and do ludicrous amounts of damage. They’re currently overpowered though, and I fully expect them to be nerfed at some point, so enjoy them while they’re hot.

A lot of work has gone into making the new strikes interesting as well. They’re not too long, and now incorporate Raid style tactics into the boss fights, meaning you’ll need to pay attention and work together to stand a better chance of succeeding. Fighting in the dark, having to fulfil a requirement before attacking, prioritising a target while dodging the attacks of two bosses – Bungie have really changed things up a notch here.

It’s a shame that the PvP (player versus player) element hasn’t received the same amount of love that the PvE (player versus enemy) portion of the game has benefitted from, with only two new modes added. Rift is a take on Spaltoon’s Rainmaker mode, tasking you with carrying a “spark” to your opponents’ base to slam it home into their Rift, which really isn’t as fun as it sounds. While Mayhem goes for all out carnage, it ramps up the recharge times of your abilities, which at very least makes for silly fun. The new maps aren’t great, though. They’ve got complicated layouts and lack the flow of the originals, which is such a shame as they’re just not fun to be on.

Regardless of the MP, it’s not a stretch to say that this is how Destiny should have been from the start, and it’s unfortunate that while these changes have improved the base game immensely, there’s not going to be anything to convince those who grew tired of vanilla Destiny. In fact, starting again from the beginning sees no change and the new additions don’t really take effect until you get to the The Taken King content. Realising this, Bungie have seen fit to grant players a boost from level 0 to level 25 (for one character only), immediately opening up passage to The Taken King missions, along with relevant-level blue gear.

While this is a welcome addition, in typical Destiny style it is not without problem. Yeah, it’s great that you can leap straight into the story of the Guardians versus Oryx, but there is one fundamental flaw. You see, you’re given the levels, and you’re given the gear, what you don’t get however, is the relevant XP in your abilities. So, you’ll find yourself at level 25 with no powers, no double jump and a bog standard grenade – it’s a massive oversight, as the likelihood of survival without those abilities is pretty low, meaning that you’ll pretty much have to go back and do the old story content anyway, just to allow you to hold your own.

And there’s the rub, you see: for all the improvements that have been made, the core loop of shooting and looting is more present than it’s ever been, you just have more options on how to go about it. For staunch fans like myself – who spent a ridiculous amount of time doing similar in games like World of Warcraft – it’s great, but for those who don’t like to farm to this sort of degree it’s going to remain a hard sell.

What we have here, then, is Destiny 2.0. It’s more of the Destiny that the fans love, with enough tweaks to keep them grinding for hundreds more hours to come. This is the game that Destiny should have released as, and there’s no doubt that people jumping into it for the first time are getting a great game, and a lot of it at that for a lovely low price, while dedicated players will enjoy themselves immensely while nursing their poor wallets back to health. For once, it’s nice to see some positivity directed at Bungie’s sci-fi shooter. Let’s see how long it lasts.

The post Destiny: The Taken King Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

But Costa is still just so, so good. I can’t hold him off for long, so when a stunning through-ball from Hazard unlocks my back four, Chelsea are back ahead at 2-1. And that’s them, they’re parking the bus now, they want the win. I’m all over them: the Ox is running wild on the wing, and even Giroud is winning headers, but I can’t beat Courtois, and as time goes on, I’m losing the impetus, and the game is slipping away.

Then a ball from Wilshere finds Sanchez, and I jink round two defenders. The space has opened up, and I thunder one into the top right corner, which causes me to leap out of my seat and punch the air. From the other room a woman says “what are you doing?”, but I ignore it. It’s 2-2, and the best moment I’ve had in a game all year. The match ends 2-2, but it feels like a win. It feels like real life. No, fuck it, it feels better than real life because I’m playing as Arsenal, and Wilshere isn’t injured, the teams aren’t really called Chelsea and Arsenal, and I’m not watching a terrible Bolton Wanderers lose every bloody game.

Moments like that are frequent in PES 2016, which I can confidently say (at time of writing), is the best football game I’ve ever played. While there are parts that feel similar to 2015 (shooting is still wonderful), it’s the additions that make it – the large ones, and the small ones that add up to become large. An enormous amount of animations have been added, making so much of what you do on the field feel contextual, without requiring you to hold loads of buttons down. A backheel is the same button as the pass, as is a rabona (I had to ask my kids what that was called, apparently there’s a fake rabona now, too). Every part of it feels designed to let you just play it, and it’s wonderful for it. Even the delayed passing issue has been toned right down, meaning your build up play can be lightning fast. All of it just happens when you want it to, it just feels like it’s been made by a team that understands football.

Best of all, lots of teams; even down to individual players, feel distinct – even individual. Playing that Chelsea side, you can see how hard the battle was for me. Against Bournemouth I romped it, just outclassing them in every area, but then a European match against PSG felt different again. The commentary pointed out David Luiz being more of a midfielder than a defender, which bore fruit as he kept marauding through the centre, but would still be there to stop the cross on the line at the death. Ibrahimovic, once the player to use, has aged, and while still brilliant, is eminently easier to tackle now, due to his diminishing pace.

Elsewhere, a player like Tevez is a mini-Aguero. Skillful, quick, but also tough to muscle off the ball. Someone like Walcott is fast, but he’s not strong. Even he feels different from Oxlade-Chamberlain, who will attempt the more audacious volleys in the box. It’s great, giving a real sense of grounded reality to the superstars we want to emulate in a videogame version of football, and with the addition of bad weather, it means that every match has a unique ebb and flow to it, which feels superb.

Master League has seen a significant revamp, looking more like FIFA’s career mode now. Boxes full of important information are on show, with greater depth than ever. The silly cut-scenes remain, and while league matches still feel like, well, league matches, having the Champions League license is still a massive bonus for Konami, lending importance to something that should feel different and special. Promoting youth players with a professional contract will boost their confidence, and having certain types of players (star player, leader, maestro, legend) in your squad give you bonuses, like increasing your match-day gate – people will buy Sanchez and Ozil shirts, giving you an important bonus. As they level up, they will increase in importance to you and your team. The fact you have to pay your wages from your budget still gives that feel or responsibility: if you overspend buying players, it’ll warn you, but crucially, not stop you – resulting in financial ruin, and the sack. This is the best the mode has been, make no mistake.

MyClub has also seen large, impactful new additions. Rather than being stuck with a rubbish player, if you show faith in them and play them, you can level them up slowly but surely. Up to a maximum of level thirty, even the very best players can start at level one and need to be played to improve. Their stats will grow as they play and gain experience, adding a real feeling of progression. Even better, you can take those you don’t want and convert them into a trainer (after which, they leave the club), instantly giving a stat boost to another player of your choice. Nobody ever feels wasted thanks to this, and just like Master League, MyClub feels as though it’s been truly innovated upon. Konami knew this mode needed work to compete with FIFA’s Ultimate Team, and have delivered in a big, big way.

It’s not perfect, of course: the crowd still looks terrible, and the commentary has had an overhaul which is successful for the most part, but also features some truly comical orgasm-sounding player names when they shoot. It wouldn’t be so bad, but it’s every other time you take a shot that has Drury screaming their name and it just sounds daft – imagine “ALEXIS SANCHEZ!” being screamed every two to three shots. There are also some explanations of menu options that feel a little awkwardly done (and the menus themselves are largely the same overall), but that’s par for the course with PES these days. The only gameplay negative worth noting is the lack of fouls. It was a problem in 2015 and it’s a problem now. Obvious fouls appear to go ignored, and you can go multiple matches on the trot without actually seeing a break in play due to a foul. Of course you’ll get the whistle blown if you attempt to actually kill someone with a sliding tackle (though PES still has the best sliding tackle in a modern game), and a lack of refereeing is definitely better than a ref blowing every few seconds, but honestly, this part of the game should be better.

But when your biggest complaints are related to the crowd, refs, and commentary, you know you’ve a special game on your hands. Sure, it doesn’t have all the licenses, but on the pitch, where it actually matters, PES 2016 is phenomenal. You’ll have a day off from playing it and forget, but then return and remember how truly special it feels to just play football. It’s the best football game I’ve played in as long as I can remember (and I’ve just about played them all), and an utterly essential purchase. PES 2016 is the best there is, and the best there’s been in a very long time. How crazy it is to think that Konami has made the two best games of 2015.

The post PES 2016 Review appeared first on GodisaGeek.com.

While Draft Champions was initially billed as the mode for fantasy football fans, it can be seen as more of an Ultimate Team-light, and perhaps not the mode fantasy football fans wanted. It gives you 15 draft rounds where you select one of three players to add to your randomly generated base squad. You never know what players will pop up in any given round, so you frequently come up with tough decisions such as whether to pass on a decent but not top quality QB such as Eli Manning (in hope that a better option pops up down the line), or to take him and hope Aaron Rodgers doesn’t then become available. Once your team is ready to go you are set free to play up to four games (three against the CPU) with your squad. A loss will result in your run being over and having to draft a new team, but the more wins you get the better the reward at the end.

Once your run is over, you will be given some form of reward, which is usually a pack for the Ultimate Team mode. This means that after putting in a few hours work into Draft Champions, you will already have a decent MUT squad and won’t have those first few hours to put up with. Ultimate Team mode remains what you would expect otherwise, and is still the one many people will exclusively play. There are only minor changes compared to last year’s outing, but as everything worked well last time out that isn’t an issue.

On the other hand, Franchise Mode has been significantly improved. You can still chose to play as a single custom or real player – or the more fun option of being the coach. Guiding your team through multiple seasons and winning as many titles as possible is still the goal but short term ones have also been added. Players and coaches will have season and weekly goals that will increase their skill and legacy rating, while there is also the addition of in-game drive goals such as ‘Don’t allow a passing TD’, or ‘Have Aaron Rodgers (you might have picked up I’m a Packers fan) complete four passes on this drive’. While there is no penalty for not completing them, they do offer significant rewards in terms of player XP and confidence.

When struggling in a match I noticed that once I start to complete a few drive goals and weekly challenges things would turn my way as confidence goes up. That’s not to say it’s a surefire way to come-back but I certainly think it helped, as I landed a last play of the game 36 yard touch-down in week two, against the Seahawks to win 24-21. Other additions such as the handy free practise and the massively streamlined menu systems make Franchise Mode the most pleasant it has been for years.

On the field there have also been some new additions. On the offensive side when receiving a pass new options have been added that allow you to catch in an aggressive way (hold triangle), try and hold on to keep possession (hold cross), or position yourself to gain some yards after the catch (hold square). This finally makes Hail Mary plays and long adventurous passes a lot more likely to work thanks to the aggressive option, while the possession option makes scoring that third down conversion slightly easier. New passion options also allow for high and low throws to offer that extra strategic option on each play.

The rest of the improvements on the field feel much more of a refinement to the core systems. The post play pileups and questionable physics are almost totally eradicated and players seem much more likely to brush off a weak one armed tackle then fly to the ground because of it. Obviously there are still some issues, especially around the line of scrimmage, with large amounts of players unnaturally piling into each other – but that is somewhat expected.

While there hasn’t been too many flagship changes on the field, there appears to be a lot of small AI improvements from both those on your team and against it. Opponent QBs seem to be more intelligent and react to situations better, while blockers on your team finally understand that waiting for the right moment to initiate contact is the ideal way to go, instead of just smashing into them at the first opportunity. There are some minor new additions to running backs to make the run game more viable and, of course, lots of new animations to make everything more realistic. While it’s still not 100% perfect, it is by far the best Madden has felt on the pitch in years.

My biggest issue with Madden NFL 16 is the load times. Simply put: they are unacceptable. While they are an issue across the board, it is Draft Champions that really takes a while to get into, with loading times of more than a minute very common. Across every area of Madden there seems to be some form of long wait, whether it be loading into a game or waiting for your offense to take the pitch. It takes too long, too often, and becomes incredibly frustrating, as do the constant roster/tuning/other downloads that seem to pop up every time I would boot into the main menu.

There are issues in Madden 16, but ultimately the on-pitch action and the game modes on offer present what is easily the best Madden package of this generation so far. Draft Champions is not only a great mode on its own, but also removes the first irritating hours from MUT, which itself is still going strong. The changes to franchise mode make it easier to play and not the database crawl that it once was, and the new goals system offers more depth. The important thing is that Madden 16 is great fun and not at all frustrating to play. The load times are a big issue but are ultimately more of an inconvenience than anything.

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