Assassin's Creed: Shadows - Ubisoft finally set it in Japan!

(PlayStation 5 code provided by Ubisoft UK)

By Sam Coles 

Assassin’s Creed is a franchise (at the time of writing) that has been around for 18 years, since the release of the original game all the way back in 2007 people have wondered if Ubisoft will set the series in Japan. Fast forward to the year 2025 and we finally have a game that is set in Japan, and it has been met with a lot of hate from various audiences but honestly despite the multitude of attacks on the game it is a fantastic experience.  

The game is set in 16th century Japan, and you play as two protagonists, you have Naoe who is looking to avenge her father’s death and Yasuke who is a black slave who was adopted into the samurai order. They are both met as enemies initially but then learn to work together as there is a bigger threat against Japan. It is a typical Assassin’s Creed plot, where it mostly revolves around revenge due to the death of a loved one, but the dynamics between Naoe and Yasuke work well.  

What stands out with this game is its world, the world itself is a character alone and that is something the series has always got right. However, this time they have gone all out with the detail, this is easily the most detailed game in the series specifically with world details. The foliage is dense in this game, as Japan at this point is mostly countryside vistas and this game really captures that with expansive draw distances. What helps with the added detail is that this is a current generation (PS5 and Xbox Series consoles) focused experience, so they can really go all out with the hardware.   

The moment I was allowed to freely explore in this game my jaw hit the ground, the world felt so organic with the lush and densely filled foliage as you see it sway on a breezy day. That is another aspect that helps this world feel believable, the audio design as it sells you this realistic world of wildlife with birds chirping as well as the wind howling as you hear the grass blades brush against each other. It is a wonderful experience, and one where you can just go and explore at your own leisure looking for viewpoints, as you take in the majesty of the beautiful vistas and horizons. It is these moments that I have got into the habit of walking in a lot of areas, just like in real life when I want to unwind I love just walking around and taking in nature, to help blow off the cobwebs and it can help after a good combat section in the game as they are intense.  

Speaking of combat, it is not all about taking in the views and exploring as at some point you will have to confront the dangers of this world. Combat has been given a massive upgrade in this game; it requires timing and patience as you can’t just spam attacks to win as that will get you killed quickly. No, you must anticipate your enemy’s movements it is not Kingdom Come Deliverance levels of complexity far from it, but you can’t just button mash your way to victory. The combat is brutal, bloody and gory something you would expect from this period coupled with the sickening sound design as you slice through a poor soul and see blood fly everywhere. The combat really gets into a ballet of violence once you get going and feels really satisfying.  

Stealth does play a role in this game, it wouldn’t be much of an Assassin’s Creed game if there was no stealth. Anyway, the stealth gameplay is mostly assigned to Naoe as she is the titular assassin in this game as Yasuke is the brute and more confrontational character. Stealth has been finely tuned, where it seems they have taken elements from the Splinter Cell series. What I mean by that is you can now use light or lack thereof to hide, so you can extinguish candles to hide yourself in darkness, coupled with the ability to go prone and hide in shallow tufts of grass. It adds more to what is already there, and honestly it is a welcome change making it feel like one the best stealth systems in the series.  

Overall, what I have played of Assassin’s Creed Shadows so far has really captivated me, it really helped that Ubisoft delayed the game a couple of times to add polish, and it shows. The Japanese setting is wonderful, coupled with the breathtaking visuals, engaging story and brutal and visceral combat. It is a must play!  

Cyberpunk 2077 - A game that rose from the ashes.

By Sam Coles: 

In the modern era of video games, it is common place for projects to come out unfinished and buggy and it is rather frustrating but sometimes certain games can rise from the ashes. Cyberpunk 2077 was a notorious example of this; to put it lightly the game was completely unplayable for most players and when I say most, I mean console players.  

The first trailer for this game dropped all the way back in 2013, as it was used more of a launching off point to announce The Witcher 3. After that announcement, it went quiet until E3 2018 where it was shown to the media behind closed doors where it was later released to the public. People were impressed; however, it looked to be too scripted and almost as if it was pre-rendered and that turned out to be true and a former CDPR developer came out and admitted it a few years later after the 2020 release. The game was set to release in April of 2020 on Xbox One, PS4 and PC, but then was delayed to September, then November and finally released in early December of 2020 and to say it was a disaster is being kind.  

The game was shown off before the release of the game, and curiously throughout its marketing the base Xbox One and PS4 were missing in their official comparisons, and most shrugged it off. Then when it came to the media reviewing the game, first they were only given PC codes for the game, no console review codes were sent out and second which was a huge red flag, they were not allowed to use their own screenshots or video footage. All my years of writing in the industry, this was the first time I have heard of such an embargo with game reviews and it was deeply concerning and when the game came out the review stipulations were clear as the game was a complete mess mostly on the PS4 and Xbox One.   

The PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game barely worked, the game targeted 30 frames per second, however you were lucky to get 20 fps at most. Textures popped in all the time as the game struggled to keep up with the player, especially driving cars at speed. Most often blame the fact the game was released on the Xbox One and PS4, which I would say no that is not the case at all as the hardware was capable of running an open world at this scale and detail, as Red Dead Redemption II came out two years prior to this game. No, this was rushed out the door, coupled with the COVID pandemic as well as the Red Engine which was already an unoptimised mess, this game turned the engine’s cracks into chasms which lead them to ditching it in favour of Unreal Engine 5.  

CDPR knew they had a complete PR nightmare on their hands, and quickly issued an apology to players on console about the unplayable state. However, the damage was done, PlayStation took the game down from digital stores due to the unplayable nature which is unheard off in the triple A space, where as Microsoft had a performance disclaimer for Xbox players. CDPR went back to the drawing board for the game and started to work on fixes.  

Fast forward to now, the game is in a great state if you play it on Xbox Series X|S or PlayStation 5 and it really feels like the game it was supposed to be. The game has a living and breathing world that is really convincing, the variety of people that walk the streets of Night City is incredible. Not only that, they added in a wanted level system that actually works now, so police will no longer spawn out of thin air they actually chase you, something that Grand Theft Auto got right in 1997 but I digress. The game runs a lot better too, running at a consistent 60 fps on the PlayStation 5 which is the platform I played it on recently, visuals in general have been given a massive overhaul and texture pop in is nonexistent now. The world feels lively and lived in, with streets crowed and meets their initial ambitious vision all those years ago.  

Gunplay and physics were tweaked too, combat just flows better now and shooting feels satisfying too. The driving was and to put it bluntly dreadful in the original release, as the physics just didn’t feel right and cars would often fly off in a different direction whereas now it feels like you have a handle of the cars now. The gunplay felt really off in the original release, mostly because I was playing it on an original 2013 PS4 and the framerate was lucky if it hit 20 fps during frantic firefights, 10-15 fps was the normal which made my eyes turn inside out.   

After all the fallout of the initial launch Cyberpunk has turned into a great game that everyone should play, it showed that the team was dedicated to fix a broken promise. However, we should not forget what CDPR did to consumers, with a broken mess that most players could not get through. We should not allow scenarios like this to become the norm, yes, it is great that CDPR didn’t abandon the project all together but we must remember what happened so we don’t repeat said scenario or that is what we should do in theory. We need to hold developers and publishers accountable more, instead of sweeping most issues under the carpet with a mere shrug of the shoulders waiting for an update. Cyberpunk is a great game now yes, but we need to remember the past to build a better future for the games industry and community.  

 

Just a quick P.S. I am sorry for not uploading any articles on the blog for the past two months, been really busy with video content on my Instagram and TikTok. Been doing vlogs, mini reviews and uploading gameplay content on said channels so it has been eating a lot of my writing time, I will get back to a consistent writing pattern in 2025, thank you for understanding and thank you for the support! 😊  

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Campaign - Black Hawk Down to The Italian Job.

(PlayStation 5 code provided by Activision) 

By Sam Coles:  

Call of Duty has been up and down in recent years, but you could always rely on a decent campaign in each game but 2023’s Modern Warfare III was a bit of a blunder. So, when Activision announced Black Ops 6 I was cautious but now I have played the campaign I can safely say that is one of the best in years. I use to be a massive fan of the Call of Duty series, but in recent years I have fallen off the bandwagon, but kept up with the series regardless and this game is a very pleasant surprise. So, let’s get into it.  

Black Ops 6 is set in 1991, where it starts off in the Gulf War which honestly, I thought was a bit of a bland setting for a game, but soon after it veers into the realm of espionage fiction. It has elements of history in the game, but ultimately it goes for a fun fictious spy thriller to entertain the player. You go from your stock standard military shooter of blowing up scud missiles in Iraq, to robbing a casino in an Ocean’s Eleven style sequence. It goes from Black Hawk Down to The Italian Job in tone, where I am expecting Michael Caine to show up and say “You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off”!  

Anyway, the plot revolves around a private military group called the Pantheon who have sleeper agents within the CIA, where they are trying to get hold of a biological weapon to unleash on the US. You have old favourite characters joining the band of rebelling agents, such as Frank Woods and Russel Adler. They are being hunted by said group, so they have setup shop in an old CIA hideout where they can rest and setup their operations where you the player can upgrade said hideout. The plot is really good, it is completely insane but in all the right ways although the tone does shift all over the place. One moment it is an intense military drama, then a kookie heist movie then suddenly it turns into a phycological horror. Outside of that, the voice acting is great the performances from all the actors are superb!  

Now gameplay wise, this is where I would usually give a quick synopsis about it but they have changed a fair bit including the campaign. Let’s start with the aspect they have marketed the most, the omni-movement. What this basically means is that you can perform any movement in any direction, so you can sprint, slide and dive in any direction you want. This on paper sounds absurd and honestly in practice it is, but again in all the right ways as I feel like I am in a John Woo film as I dive across tables, slide through enemy’s legs as I turn legs into stumps with my shotgun. It is immensely satisfying to sliding into a room, diving across tables and gunning everything down without being hit.  

The game does include fairly open-ended levels, the game is overall linear with its structure but they do mix things up by including levels that allow you to tackle objectives in any order you want. Unlike the open combat missions from Modern Warfare III, these are fun and have focus and are not repurposed Warzone levels. They also include levels where you can take a stealth approach too, or moments where you just talk your way out of a scenario you know like an actual secret agent with plausible deniability.  

Not only that the game gives you a plethora of tools to tackle each combat engagement, you have your usual tactical options like flashbangs, smoke grenades and distractions. However, you also get more lethal options like airstrikes and mortars to the more absurd such as RC cars with C4 strapped to them or my favourite the exploding homing knives. You don’t have to use these, but they are a massive help as this game is quite challenging even on normal difficulty, I died a fair amount in this game. This game will repurpose you as a shovel if you get too careless during firefights.  

Visually the game looks fantastic, I played this on the PlayStation 5 and it looks incredible with a stable 60 frames per second throughout with little to no hitches. The character models look great and believable with excellent animations throughout coupled with the well-crafted backdrops you will explore in the game, my favourite being the neon lit casino you rob. Sound design is excellent, gun audio feedback has kick with the chatter of a light machine gun to the hip thrusting thuds of buckshot from a shotgun. Visuals and audios are top notch in this game.  

Overall Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s campaign is one of the best in years, it knows what people want from a COD campaign a bombastic and over top set piece driven experience and it delivers that in spades. It feels like Call of Duty is back with this instalment and I love it!