Cyberpunk 2077 - Thoughts so far, on console.

 

By Sam Coles:

Cyberpunk 2077 almost became a myth within the video game industry, first announced in early 2013 (I wasn’t even 20) it disappeared as it was used more of an elevation platform to announce The Witcher 3. Everything was quiet until E3 of 2018 when CDPR finally showed off the game in motion, well what we thought the game would play like but I’ll get into that later. After delay and delay the game is finally in my hands on PS4, so is it a good game? Yes and no, leaning more towards the no in terms of technical issues. Just a disclaimer this is not a full review as I have yet to finish the game, more of a first impressions of the game, so let’s get into it.

Cyberpunk 2077 takes places in Night City during the titular year where you play as a mercenary named V, where he is out to make his mark in the city. V can have three distinct backgrounds which will effect dialogue, he can be a Nomad someone who lives in the Badlands outside of Night City, Street Kid where he gets involved within the gang culture and Corpo where he is a corporate slave to the world. Anyway he is tasked with obtaining a special chip called “The Relic”, however everything goes wrong, his friend gets killed and is shot in the head and left for dead in a landfill. The story is very engaging and well written the voice acting across the board is leaps and bounds of what we got with The Witcher 3, V and his interaction with Johnny Silverhand (played by Keanu Reeves) is excellent and adds a bit of comedic flare.

Now let’s get into the gameplay and technical side of things, I will be discussing issues before and after the 1.04 patch. Let’s start with gameplay, as fun as this game is it’s not anything innovative as they were touting within their marketing. It’s an open world game with the same stock standard mission structure that we have seen from the past seven years, and there is nothing wrong with that at all but the way it has been presented I was expecting something more.

Combat is meaty and satisfying; guns have an excellent weight to them when you pull the trigger coupled with the fantastic sound design for each firearm. I wish I could say for the same for melee combat which is rather pathetic, I feel like I am waving a wet fish at someone’s face and not a sword that could cut through steel and the same goes for the stealth takedowns. You can go silent which is serviceable, but the stealth takedowns are not good as clothing will clip through your arm when you have someone in a headlock and when you snap someone’s neck it sounds like a bag of pork scratchings. 

The game is not only about shooting as this is an RPG at the end of the day, in most instances you can solve scenarios in a diplomatic manner with branching paths with the dialogue. I like this as it makes you think on your toes as you have to be careful with what you say, and makes a nice change of pace of filling someone’s skull with cordite.

Now let’s tone down the positive and twist the dial to what gets Sam’s knickers into a twist, let’s start with the massive sticking point before the patches the framerate. I was very suspicious that CDPR showed no footage of the base PS4 and Xbox One, and when the game came out it was abundantly clear why. The game when it came out and even with the 1.04 patch ran abysmally, now I’m not talking about a framerate drop here and there we are talking about framerates as low as 15 frames per second. The last time I checked it is not 1997 and I’m not playing Goldeneye, for a 2020 release framerates this low is unacceptable. I had to take a break when analysing the game initially, the low frame rates were making me sick and that doesn’t happen with me playing games.

Next are the bugs and glitches which were and still are everywhere, with the initial release the textures were awful. Character models would have horrendous pop in issues where they would look like plastic figurines dipped in lava, and then their textures would pop back in as if they realised “Oh sorry we’re late”. Car models also have the same issue, where sometimes inside of the car would look like as if they are filled with bin liners, coupled with the external paint work having the same issue.

Glitches also stem from your own character model and animations, sometimes when you change your clothes (armour) V would suddenly be nude in the specific area you would change. I don’t really want to be wondering around Night City with my meat hanging out. Animations are bugged too where I would be shooting someone with my fingers and hands, due to my gun failing to load in my hand so I’m basically going bang with my own voice. Hilarious if it was a joke feature, but it’s not it is immersion breaking.

I want to take the time in this section to add a bit of a personal statement to this situation, as I feel rather disappointed in CDPR. It’s not that game is terrible because it’s not when it is working, as it has a solid foundation with its world and story. However I feel that CDPR completely dropped the ball and they have lost a sizable trust from me, these are not the same people I fell in love with in my late teens and early 20’s with The Witcher 2 and 3. I hope they have learnt a big lesson from this, and take the time to fix it and get it right. It is going to take more than a simple apology.

To conclude I cannot recommend Cyberpunk in its current state, the foundation is there but the execution is about as flaccid as a battered sausage with no filling. The bugs, glitches and overall performance is not good enough, this is not a hardware issue as there have been some great looking games on the base PS4 this year. This is an optimisation issue, and I hope CDPR are now taking the time to fix this, very disappointed and I hope they will take the time next time.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon Review - Persona 5, but with organised crime.

 

By Sam Coles:

The Yakuza series is a game franchise I have fallen in love with over the past few years, it is a series that has always struggled to gain an audience in the west. However in 2017 its popularity exploded onto the scene with Yakuza 0, and here we are now with a new instalment which is a soft reboot of the series. We no longer play as the hardened veteran The Dragon of Dojima and the game is no longer a brawler, this time it is a turned based role playing game. Does this work for this franchise? To put in short terms, yes!

The story starts off in the year 1999 where we take control of a young Yakuza member named Ichiban Kasuga, or Ichi as he is affectionately called by his friends. He is ready for the new century; however things take a turn for the worse as his boss asks him to take the blame for a murder so he can protect one of his most trusted captains. Ichi is then sent to prison for 20 years and expects a fan fare welcome as he gets out, but no such luck so he tracks down his old boss. Unfortunately he is not welcomed back with open arms, he is shot and left for dead but fortunately he is nursed back to health by a homeless man named Nanba who was once a nurse. They slowly form a bond and become close friends as Nanba shows him the ropes of surviving the homeless lifestyle, where he then helps him go on a quest to find out why his former employers turned on him.

Like the other Yakuza games the story is very dark but has goofy moments, however in this game there are more goofy and fun moments which I welcome with open arms. They do include English dub in this game, but I’m sorry it’s not very good so I stuck to Japanese with English subtitles. Ichi is a loveable character he is extremely loyal, but he is a bumbling idiot and I can’t help but love him because of it. His Japanese voice actor brings this across more than his English counterpart, and it is brilliant as he references Dragon Quest for the 50^th time.

This time the gameplay goes into a new direction as this is a soft reboot of the series, it is no longer a brawler but a turn based RPG. Now I know this would turn a lot off and I’m usually one of those people, but unlike other turn based games there is more interactivity then one would expect. If you are familiar with Persona 5 then the UI layout will be instantly familiar to you, with the buttons for different menus splayed out on the left hand side of the screen. Think of it as a hybrid between Persona 5 and Paper Mario (yes hear me out), you have the standard fare of turn based attacks but you can block, dodge and increase damage with attacks with will timed button presses. It’s great as it makes the combat feel less stagnate compared to other games within the genre.

Like other Yakuza games there are slew of side stories and activities to partake in, where you can play classic arcade games, drink, play darts, pool and more than I can handle sometimes. Again like usual it is a nice change of pace from the main scenario, and again is always oddly engaging to take part in these side stories and activities as they can be stranger than what you find in the main story.

Presentation wise it looks fantastic and I was playing on a standard Xbox One, the Dragon Engine once again shines showing a huge amount of detail. What I like is the presentation with Ichi’s over active imagination when you engage in fights, enemies will transform into more fantastical characters as he thinks that he is in a real world RPG. It’s a nice touch and adds to Ichi’s childlike buffoonery. The pure spectacle of the combat is what truly shines with the visuals, with particle effects flying everywhere when Ichi winds up a punch before hitting them like a sledgehammer. Not only that the summons are a joy to watch, which these can range from lobsters attacking your foes to Goro Majima running down a skyscraper as he throws thousands of knives which then electrify the ground. It’s over the top and that is what makes both the gameplay and presentation excellent.

Are there any issues with the game? Well to be honest nothing really got in the way of my experience too much, but I suppose I should talk about the one issue that sticks out like a hairy crisp in a bowl and that is the framerate. The framerate does stutter from the time to time on the Xbox One platform, this happens mostly in combat when particle effects take up the majority of the screen not only that it happens in the cutscenes too. This doesn’t happen too often and honestly I have myself to blame for playing it on a 7 year old piece of hardware, but worth mentioning.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a fantastic step in a different direction for the series, it still retains the dark serious crime drama narrative but this time turns the goofy metre all the way up. The turn based combat really suits the series and is a breath of fresh air, as we have had the same brawler combat for about 15 years at this point. Ichi is an endearing character where he is extremely loyal, but he is also a bumbling idiot which makes him more lovable. If you are looking for a J-RPG with a crime drama flare, then this is the game for you.    

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Review - That title is a mouthful.

 

By Sam Coles:

The Call of Duty franchise has been going for nearly two decades which makes me feel old, anyway it is a series that certainly has its detractors but if you take it for what it is then you can get a lot of fun with it. This year’s Call of Duty has had a rather rocky development cycle, as the folks at Sledgehammer Games were supposed to be spear heading the project. However things took a turn and sailed into stormy waters, so Treyarch and Raven Software had to take it over to get the project done. Despite the somewhat rushed development, it is still a fun game with some questionable issues I will get into shortly. This is Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (that is a mouthful).

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War takes place during the titular period in the late stages of the war in the neon lit 80’s, 1981 to be more precise. You play as Bell who is a silent protagonist which the last time we saw this was Modern Warfare 2, but honestly it works within this context which I won’t spoil. You are tracking down a Soviet agent codenamed Perseus, who has come out of hiding to shift the balance of the Cold War which could possible turning it into nuclear war. The campaign is rather entertaining and it’s nice to see returning characters such as Hudson, Mason and Woods however this campaign is incredibly short where it is over when things start heating up.

What I like about Cold War’s campaign is that it is not a constant shoot, shoot, bang, bang affair, as it embraces the Black Ops part of the title. The game embraces the espionage side of things, you will be sneaking around in enemy territory snapping photos and hacking computers. It’s a nice change as this campaign has more quiet moments compared to other games in the series, although its tone is more Hollywood in style compared to the more serious Modern Warfare.

Gameplay goes back to the more stripped back and fast paced nature of the series, rather the more slower and tactical movement of Modern Warfare. It feels quick, fluid and tight to control but I feel that a lot of guns lack impact but this is mostly due to the sound design for the weapons sounding as about as intimidating as a wet fart.  However the more traditional gameplay gives me a warm feeling of my teenage years, where it is simplistic but hard to master.

In terms of multiplayer the previous paragraph is applicable in terms of gameplay feel, Treyarch have brought back the pick 10 system when it comes to perks and guns but maintained the excellent gunsmith system from Modern Warfare. Where you can create weapons that are practical, or some rather absurd creations that are not exactly combat proven. Time to kill is higher compared to over COD games, which is fine but it does create some inconsistencies where you can pump five bullets into someone’s head and they still stand as straight as a lamp post.

Visually and here comes the word of the review it is inconsistent, there are moments where the graphics really shine such as the vibrant and lush jungles of Vietnam. However the game can look really washed out and it looks less appealing than Modern Warfare (2019), it’s not a bad looking game but it just looks rushed in certain areas coupled with the more stiff animations.

Now let’s get onto the technical issues, let’s start off with the performance (on Xbox One) it doesn’t run that well. This game has constant stutters throughout the gameplay and in the cutscenes especially the cutscenes, they slow down to a crawl. I have to say the performance issues are rather baffling considering that there does not seem to be reason for these issues, the game is not particularly demanding in the graphics department.

I also ran into some glitches, the major one I ran into was at the start of the campaign where they teach you CQC moves where you can either take a human shield or do a completely over top finisher which saying it’s overkill would be putting it lightly. Anyway digressions aside I decided to take him as a human shield, but my new meat shield wouldn’t die and I could not despatch him with a new grenade friend in hand so I had him for the rest of the level. A baffling glitch where I had to restart the entire mission.

Overall I did enjoy my time with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, but it just feels like it was put together at the last minute. The technical issues do drag down the experience, which honestly if you are looking for a better and more recent Call of Duty experience I would suggest 2019’s Modern Warfare.  

Watch Dogs: Legion Review - No you can't hack Big Ben.

By Sam Coles:

Watch Dogs is a franchise that had a rather rocky start to say the least, with its first reveal of the original game back at E3 2012 (god I feel old) showing off some amazing graphics where we were presented with a  game that was still good looking but lacking certain details. Fast forward to 2020 and I honestly feel that the franchise has finally found its footing, balancing its tone with serious and comedic fun. Welcome to London and this is Watch Dogs Legion.

Watch Dogs Legion takes place in modern day London were a rogue hacker group called Zero Day have caused a series of explosions across the city, where they frame Dedsec another nobler hacker group for the event. UK government sees no other option so they hire the not so subtly named Albion private security firm, to patrol the streets of London with their drones, identity scanning checkpoints and armed guards basically putting London under martial law. The story is rather entertaining it can be fun but is not afraid to go into more darker subjects, such as human trafficking and the fine line between humanity and tech as they try to merge dead people’s mind with artificial intelligence (yes really). It knows when to present serious subjects, but at the same time knows when to bring a certain amount of levity.

Gameplay is similar to the first two where it takes inspiration from the Grand Theft Auto series, where you can hijack cars and assault the local law enforcement but with a hacker twist. However this time you no longer follow a singular protagonist as there isn’t one, but instead you take control of several randomised NPCs across the British capital. So there is no central protagonist as Dedsec themselves act as the main characters, where you take control of London one region at a time. It kind of reminds me of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate where you take over London region by region, although this game doesn’t have the laborious street gang fights.

 

In each mission the game this time compared to the first two does encourage a non-lethal approach, as this is London most NPCs don’t tend to carry guns as they are somewhat of a rarity in the UK. Anyway the game lets you scope out the fourth coming area with cameras, cute spider drones, delivery drones as well as body cams. Plus this gives you the chance to mess with the enemy as you can make cars drive themselves, explode barrels, send lewd text messages to distract them or make their technology malfunction and shock them. It gives you a huge amount of tools to utilise without killing anyone, and ultimately feels more satisfying sneaking in, getting the info you need and slipping away like the ghostly hacker you are.

Not to say that you can’t go loud and cause chaos across the London Town, which you can and is it rather fun to get into trouble with local law enforcement especially when playing as an old lady. It is always hilarious seeing an old lady deck a police officer or doing a stealth takedown on an Albion operative, it’s like she is finally taking her frustration out on the youth.

Driving feels good not realistic by any means but it feels fantastic as you nail it around the corner at 90 degrees, where you then tail whip someone with your rear end. I am rather mean in this game so I get endless joy hitting people off their motorcycles, it’s like a moth to a flame I’m instantly drawn to it and no I’m not a dangerous person honest.

Visually the game looks great in terms of its environments and main characters, the streets of London have been recreated beautifully coupled with the slick rain effects on a stormy day. Main characters look really good with excellent attention to detail, however I cannot say the same for the NPCs you will be taking control of. The randomise characters do not look that great, they look washed out and something I would have seen on a mid-gen Xbox 360 game they are not appealing to look at all. Now this is to be expected as you can’t expect every character in the streets to have exquisite detail, no that would be an unrealistic expectation. However it does leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth as they are the characters you are controlling for the majority of the game.

Other issues mostly stem from performance and picture quality, now to preface this part I was playing this on an Xbox One not S or X the old VCR player as some have nicknamed. The game has performance issues on this platform as it seems to be pushing the limits of the system, the game tries to runs at 30 frames per second and it succeeds for the most part. However when things get busy with explosions during firefights, things start to lag and stutter like me after a few drinks and it can be hard on the eyes. Screen tearing is also an issue on this platform, but to be honest this seems to be an issue with Ubisoft games in general and not just this generation of consoles.

Overall Watch Dogs Legion is an enjoyable game, it seems Ubisoft have finally found their feet with the series with both gameplay and tone with its narrative. Exploring the city of London is a joy, coupled with the fun and chaotic gameplay. Yes it does have its issues on the Xbox One (have no say about PS4), but what is here is a fun and entertaining experience.

Editorial | Majora's Mask 20 Years Later.

 

By Sam Coles:

When we think of the year 2000, we think of a new millennium but these days we are shocked how it is now 20 years since that year. A lot of great gaming experience came out that year with the PS2 first launching in Japan and Europe, the first Timesplitters and the subject of this article The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. A game that had a rather tumultuous development to say the least, turned out to be one of the most unique Zelda titles in the series. So let me take you on a journey through the dark and twisted tale within the land of Termina, this is The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 20 years later.

Let’s rewind back to the late 90’s when production of Ocarina of Time wrapped, they had left over material and some at Nintendo wanted make a remixed version of Ocarina. However Eiji Aonuma suggested to make another game instead, and then he was given 18 months to make another game. I am of course over simplifying the situation, but it shows what pressures he was under when creating Majora’s Mask which explains its morbid and pessimistic tone. So much so Eiji Aonuma would constantly have nightmares, so much so one of them would coincidentally make it into the game with Deku Scrubs chasing him. Despite the short production period Majora’s Mask turned to be a great game, it reused Ocarina of Time assets and character models but it works in the game’s favour as it presents itself as a parallel universe to Hyrule. Laborious development aside let’s talk about the game itself.

Majora’s Mask is an unusual game in the Zelda series due to the fact it is a direct sequel, it takes place after Ocarina of Time where Link is in search of a lost friend which is heavily implied to be Navi the fairy. When he is slowly riding through the forest his ambushed by Skull Kid who is wearing the titular mask, he steals Link’s Ocarina and horse and turns him into a Deku Scrub. Link then bumps into the Happy Mask Salesman who says he can help him transform himself back to his former self, but he first needs the Ocarina back in his possession. This comes with a big price as he has only 72 hours to do so, because the Moon is slowly descending towards the planet where it will kill everyone in the near vicinity.

The narrative in Majora’s Mask was a huge change in tone; it no longer went with the whimsical and fairy tale aesthetic but instead went with dark and morbid themes such as death and loss. In a way it reflects the troublesome development it had which led to these themes, and honestly stands out as one of the more interesting games in the series from a storytelling perspective.

What makes the game standout in terms of the gameplay is the 3 day time mechanic, and the masks themselves. Let’s start off with the most contentious aspect of the game the 3 day time limit; at first when I played this as a kid I did not like this mechanic at all as I found it too stressful. However as a teenager and young adult I adapted to the system as you have to use the Ocarina to control it, you can slow down time by playing The Song of Time backwards which will give you three hours for the 72 hour cycle instead of the gonad crushing 55 minutes. When you understand how to manipulate time via the Ocarina, the burden of stress of the situation becomes less cumbersome.

The masks are also a major mechanic in the game; you have three transformation masks you can use throughout the game not counting Fierce Deity or Giant Mask. You have the Deku which you get at the start of the game, Goron and Zora masks. These aren’t just meaningless magic McGuffins, as they represent the deceased characters you find in the world as you use The Song of Healing to sooth their last moments.  The most mysterious one is the Deku mask as you don’t receive it from a dying Deku Scrub and for years it was shrouded in mystery of who it is until you meet the butler in the Deku Palace who remarks that “You remind me of my son”. It’s those small yet significant moments that really solidify this game’s storytelling, as it doesn’t insult the player’s intelligence and lets them put the pieces together.

Anyway back to gameplay mechanics of the masks, each of them have their uses and weaknesses such as the Deku being weak to fire and can’t leave town as they don’t have effective weapons. However they can burrow into flowers and glide for a short time, which helps traverse areas that lack stable ledges. Gorons are strong, can travel around Termina fast as they roll up into a ball but they are slow when walking and attacking. The Zora mask lets you swim quickly and breathe under water, coupled with some slick combat manoeuvres. What I like about this aspect of the game is that you integrate within each community as you take on the persona of each dead character, they don’t see you as Link as you just ghost along within the land as someone else. People barely register Link’s presence, as they see him as the the Deku, Goron or Zora he is disguised as. It makes his efforts meaningless almost as they attribute his efforts to the race he has transformed into.

It wasn’t all perfect though with the game, like most Zelda games there is always that one dungeon that is infamous for being irritating and this is in the form of the Stone Tower Temple. Now in concept it was a unique idea where you would have to flip the entire temple to get to certain areas, however it was the laborious nature of having to play The Elegy of Emptiness multiple times. This song would produce rather nightmarish versions of you in all forms to help way down switches, sounds rather standard but if you know what you are doing you would have to play this song over 30 times which I don’t need to tell you how annoying that is. Unfortunately they did not fix this in the 3DS version of the game, which is rather baffling as they fixed the issues with the Water Temple in the 3DS version of Ocarina of Time.

In terms of visuals Majora’s Mask looks much better than Ocarina of Time, considering the darker tone of its story the graphics have more colour to them. My favourite area being the swamps with the warm reds and pinks, everything is densely detailed and does not have that baron wasteland that is Hyrule field in Ocarina of Time. They do reuse a lot of assets but it works in the game’s favour as I said early with the whole parallel world concept. Everything just looks better, which is helped with the use of the Expansion Pak.

Majora’s Mask 20 years later still stands out as one of the most unique games within the Zelda series, yes certain mechanics can be rather tedious but it was bold for doing something different. The story had a dark tone and the world of Termina was more interesting than Hyrule. I would say give this a go if you can, but to experience it properly play the N64 original on native hardware or on the GameCube collection.

Editorial | My favourite horror games.

 

By Sam Coles:

Ah it is that time of the year where days get shorter and nights get longer, where the weather in England replicates an endless water bucket tipping over but it is also a time to get spooky. Horror in most art mediums has to be my favourite genre, it stimulates the human mind’s curiosity of the unknown plus it is rather fun to have the urine scared out of you. Wet trousers aside, I want to go over some of my favourite horror games. Now this is my own opinion and not in any particular order, so if you don’t see a game you like I have either not played it or not enjoyed it. Are we clear? Good!

Dead Space:

Is Dead Space really a 12 year old game? Good lord I feel old, anyway digressions out of the way Dead Space was a genuine surprise in 2008, because at that point of the games industry developers and publishers were moving away from horror games and were going for the more over the top action of Call of Duty. Dead Space is what would happen if you took Resident Evil 4, put iy in space and sprinkle elements of Event Horizon. The game’s atmosphere relied on audio mostly, where you would then get attacked by the grotesque monstrosities that are the Necromorphs. Combat was unique and fun as a plain old headshot would not put them down, the unique selling point was dismemberment of their limbs which kills them a timely manner. It managed to blend action and horror, which made for a surprising experience.

F.E.A.R:

Now I know what you are going to say “Sam F.E.A.R is not a horror game”, which I will say you are wrong. Yes it is an over the top John Woo inspired first person shooter, but when the game dials back it has a very tense atmosphere as it takes ques from Japanese horror where it relies on what you can’t see and like Dead Spaces uses audio design to its advantage. Throughout the quieter parts after filling a room with buckshot, the game has it thick atmosphere with industrial hums as you traverse the darkness where the you see the silhouettes of Alma stalking you in the shadows. Yes it is a great first person shooter, but the game really capitalises on was an overused trope at the time of a creepy little girl. Great for both first person shooter and horror fans.

Metro 2033:

Again one could argue if this game is really a horror game, but honestly if you examine it at its core it does mostly fall into survival horror. Metro 2033 is based on the book of the same name is a worst case scenario if humanity finally hit the red button, where the world is ravaged by nuclear war and humans revert back to 20^th century factions. Where we see the rise of the Soviets and Nazis again in the titular metros. Political tension are high in this world, but they all have to contend with the mutants in the tunnels and this is where the horror elements come into play, as you hear snarls and growls as you carefully check your shots with the limited ammunition you have. It truly is a tense and scary game when you are traversing the tunnels, with nothing more than a torch, lighter and a Geiger counter as you slowly get closer to radioactive areas where clicking intensifies.  

Resident Evil Remake (2002):

Now how can I do a horror video game list and not include the 2002 GameCube remake of Resident Evil, it is still the gold standard of how remakes are done within the video game industry. This felt like the game that they wanted to make because to be honestly as much as I love the original PlayStation game, it aged quickly and was overshadowed by Resident Evil 2 and 3. They took the foundations of the original and amplified it to 11, it had all the familiar rooms from the original with added visual detail, however it added in new puzzles and areas to keep seasoned veterans on their toes. The visual quality across the board was and still is stunning, it is rare for me to say a game from 2002 still looks incredible. The atmosphere of was really ramped up, with an updated soundtrack, eerie and horrifying sound design and the addition of the new Crimson Head enemies. Truly a game for any horror fanatic should play, and is widely available in HD these days.

So there you have it, some of my favourite horror games for you to play if you haven’t, what are some of your favourites? Let me know in the comments or tweet at me @BristolianGamer.

The Last of Us: Part II Review - The price of revenge. (Spoilers)

 

By Sam Coles:

2020 has been a rather tumultuous year with the thing that shall not be named, coupled with games that had both gamers and critics split down the middle. The Last of Us Part II was a rather baffling game when it released back in the summer, there were some that absolutely loved and others that thought it was the worst thing since measles. How do I feel about it? Honestly I really like it and can’t really wrap my head around why it got so much hate, anyway let’s get into it.

Now let’s start off with the narrative which is the most contentious part of this game, it takes place about 4 years after the original where Ellie has grown up into a young woman. However you start off as a different character called Abby, this is the aspect of the narrative that a lot don’t seem to like as it switches perspective from Ellie and Abby as well jumping around with various flashbacks. However the story works in this regard as it gives context to future actions for both characters and will make you look at them in a different light.

Abby is on the hunt for Joel Ellie’s father figure, as you would know if you have finished the first game killed everyone at the hospital who were trying to make a vaccine for the fungal infection gripping the world. However they would have to sacrifice Ellie to make said vaccine and Joel kills everyone, unfortunately Abby’s father was one of those doctors which leads her on a revenge mission. She eventually catches up with Joel to then blow his knee cap off with buckshot, and then finish him off by savagely beating him to death with a golf club while Ellie screams with both anger and sorrow.

What transpires is a tale of revenge but it will make you look at both characters differently, Ellie as you progress shows her steadily turning into a very nasty person where here endeavours are far worse than Abby’s as she kills more people than Abby does purely to get to her. Abby on the other hand comes across as the more sympathetic character as you get more of an insight into her both in the present and past, where she has a warming community where she is always willing to help her friends. The narrative in my opinion is great with excellent acting from the cast as well as twists you don’t see coming, plus character deaths come out of nowhere there is no ceremonial affair characters get gunned down without hesitation and this caught me off guard a lot.

Gameplay is where this game improves from the first game, the original game’s gameplay loop was good but there was something very clunky about it that didn’t make me comeback to it often. Part II’s gameplay is absolutely savage with how detailed the violence is, coupled with the sickening sound design as Ellie plunges here switch blade into someone’s windpipe.

The game also gives you more options and stealth feels more viable compared to the first, you can kill everyone without anyone seeing you with the dizzyingly amount of tools and weapons they let you utilise. You can craft trip mines, Molotov Cocktails, stun grenades, explosive arrows to unleash your inner Rambo, reinforced melee weapons to my favourite fire rounds for shotguns.

It doesn’t punish your approach for each combat scenario, but instead it leaves it entirely up to you as long as you have the right materials in your inventory. That is also key inventory management, if you are playing on normal you won’t be running out of things too often, but if you get careless you will find yourself in situations where you are basically caught with your trousers around your ankles. The game is not particularly hard on normal difficulty; however the Rat King boss fight really tested me as well as the final hour of the game where enemies are decked out in armour, helmets and automatic weapons.

What can I say about the presentation that hasn’t already been said, they look absolutely stunning. I played this on a bog standard PlayStation 4 and I’m stunned that this game is running on a 7 year old piece of hardware, the amount of detail that Naughty Dog put into this game is amazing. Environments look beautiful, from lush and rich forests, frost laden villages to the warm streets of California. Character models look superb; this is easily the best motion capture performances to date. You see ever subtle detail on a character’s face, from a slight twitch in someone’s cheek when they are angry to a character slowly breaking down into tears, easily the best looking game on the PS4.

The Last of Us Part II is a fantastic game, yes there are plot points that do divide players but honestly I think it was a bold choice to deviate from normal sequel tropes. The gameplay is a huge improvement over the original, with its savage and visceral combat with the open ended design. It’s not going to be for everyone, but I for one think it is one of the best games of 2020.

Crash Banditcoot 4 Review - About time indeed!

By Sam Coles:

After the success of the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy people wondered if Activision were working on a sequel, fast forward three years later we now have Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time. A wonderful play on words with the fact that it is a true sequel to Crash Bandicoot 3, as well as it being about travelling through time and space. Is Crash 4 a worthy sequel to the original PlayStation trilogy? Let’s find out!

Crash Bandicoot 4 takes place after the events of the first game; Neo Cortex still salty about his defeat by the orange bandicoot keeps imaging scenarios where he defeats him. Meanwhile his band of goons find a way to tear a rift through time and space (hence the title), where they can defeat Crash and his friends in different parallel worlds. So Crash must defeat them once more the only way he knows how, by spinning around and breaking everything like a drunkard in the centre of Bristol on a Friday night. The story is entertaining and well-acted from the cast; it’s over the top and made me laugh in a few places with Clancy Brown once again stealing the show as Cortex.

Gameplay is what you would expect from the first era of Crash Bandicoot, you make your way through linear yet tough levels breaking every single box you find as well as trying to do it in a speedy fashion. So far rather standard which is not  a bad thing as it goes back to what makes the series so good and compelling, but it adds in some new elements with the masks you get to play around with.

These add an extra layer of complexity to the platforming, these can range from making platforms appearing from other dimensions, a spin attack that is continuous which lets you float for a short period, anti-gravity and one that lets you slow down time. Each mask has been catered to the levels they appear in, but they can overdo it in some stages as it gets insanely precise.

Control wise this is in my opinion the best controlling Crash Bandicoot game I have played, the jumps have weight to them but not too heavy like the N. Sane Trilogy you can easily gauge where you are going to land. Crash’s overall movement just feels tight and responsive, which helps with the higher framerate which tries to maintain 60 frames per second but I will get into that later. Plus it still feels so good to smash boxes, which is helped by the excellent sound design. I will never get tired of belly flopping onto a stack of boxes, with that crunchy box breaking noise.

Presentation wise the game looks fantastic, I remember seeing a few who were a bit sceptical due to the game not using realistic fur effects. However the cartoony aesthetic works in the game’s favour, as it looks like a Pixar animation come to live in interactive form. The game is very colourful and varied; you start off in familiar territory at N. Sanity beach and move onto to the more bizarre worlds that are neon lit. Overall presentation is absolutely superb!

Now the only issue I had with the game was the framerate, I played this on a standard PS4 and as Digital Foundry highlighted in their analysis of the game it targets 60 frames per second. However the base machines really struggle to stick to that target and the PS4 floats around 40 frames, and it is worse on a normal Xbox One. What would have been nice if there was a framerate limiter to lock at 30, I’m not a framerate snob but if you going to target a specific number it needs to be consistent.

Overall Crash Bandicoot 4 was a blast from start to finish, these retro revivals of old franchises have been fantastic this year and this game was another excellent addition to the movement. It’s bright, colourful, funny and a joy to play. I highly recommend this platforming adventure! 

Mafia: Definitive Edition Review - Welcome to the Family.

By Sam Coles:

Seems to be the year of remakes and remasters, but that doesn’t mean it is a bad thing as games age they tend to start to show their cracks. The original Mafia that was release all the way back in 2002 was ahead of its time, with a well written story and voice acting that was and still is really good. However gameplay is rather archaic these days, and to be honest was at the time coupled with the ridiculous difficulty spikes. Here we are in 2020 where Mafia has been given a complete remake in the form of the Definitive Edition, and it is fantastic. Let’s get into it.

You step into the innocent shoes of taxi driver Thomas Angelo, or “Tommy” as he is affectionately called. He is working late one night where he is confronted by two mobsters named Paulie and Sam, who are associates of the Salieri crime family. They need to get the hell out of dodge because they have crashed their car while trying to avoid their pursuers, and Tommy helps them not out of choice as he is staring down the barrel of a gun. He helps them escape where is offered a job with the family, but Tommy politely declines, until he is ambushed by the rival crime family and has no other choice to get involved with organised crime.

The story is very faithful to the original basically retelling it scene for scene, however it adds new scenes which helps flesh out the main characters as well as characters that were not as involved in the original. The performances from all the actors are superb, which had me emotionally hooked throughout.

Gameplay has been given a massive overhaul, Hangar 13 have taken elements from their previous project Mafia 3 and have injected elements of it into this remake. For starters the shooting compared to the original is much better, with the added ability to take cover instead of awkwardly shuffling behind doorways. The shooting feels fantastic, it has a nice weight to it as you pull the trigger each time coupled with the visceral feedback as blood spirts out of your enemies.

Driving also feels much better, but they are still stiff to drive but this is thematically appropriate as the game is set in the 1930’s so cars aren’t exactly fast or agile. However it is much more manageable when turning tight corners, plus they have added period specific motorbikes which I thought was a nice touch.

What I love about the gameplay experience is that the game will let you customise your difficulty in different areas; this makes the game replayable in my book with different difficulty tweaks. This can range from changing the driving physics to realistic; changing how health works to my favourite how sensitive the police are with your crimes. This is fantastic as it caters to different play styles and opens the game up to everyone, whether you want a hardcore experience or just want to explore and enjoy the story.

The presentation speaks for itself the game has been given a complete graphical overhaul especially the character models, they look very believable coupled with the full body motion capture performances. They manage to capture every subtle detail on character’s faces from a slight smirk to their eyes darting back and forth with worry. The world also looks beautiful, with the warm sunny days lighting the pavements to the wet and neon lit roads at the dead of night. This world looks beautiful and feels lived in coupled with the exquisitely detailed cars, with some fantastic damage modelling. The soundtrack is godlike in my book; the booming orchestra as you gun down gangsters is magnificent as well as the iconic main theme that plays during the opening credits!

Are there any issues with the game? Yes a few, for starters let’s talk about the framerate as it is a problem on base consoles. I played this on a standard Xbox One and oh boy does it chug in places, this would often happen in busy firefights when there are lots of explosions and particle effects and can get a bit annoying. The loading times were also another grievance, but honestly they were not as bad as Mafia 3. Melee combat felt a bit underwhelming and lacked impact; it didn’t feel like I was decking someone with a baseball bat more like slapping someone with a wet fish. Finally the game does suffer with pop in on the Xbox One; this can be textures showing up late to the party or NPCs popping out of nowhere. These issues were somewhat annoying, but fortunately they don’t happen often enough to sour my experience.

Mafia Definitive Edition is a beautiful remake of the 2002 cult classic, it managed to modernise the formula while staying faithful to the original. Sure it has some technical issues, but the fun gunplay and engaging storytelling had me hooked from start to finish. This is one of my favourite games of 2020 and I urge you to go out and get!

Editorial | Mafia: What made it a great experience?

 

By Sam Coles:

Period dramas in video games are somewhat of a rarity these days, but back in the PS2 and 360 era they were everywhere with games such as Assassin’s Creed and of course the subject of this article Mafia. First released in 2002 on PC, Mafia was a breath of fresh air and a big step for narrative driven experiences within the interactive art form. Yeah one could say it relied on tropes from Mafioso books and films, but it was the execution that propelled it into gamer’s hearts. With Mafia: Definitive Edition around the corner (at time of writing), I thought I would go back and talk about what made the original unique.

Let’s start off with the narrative as it is the driving force for the game, you step into the shoes of Thomas Angelo or “Tommy” which he is called by his friends. The difference with this game’s story compared to the sequels is that Tommy is just a normal person, he is not a soldier like Vito or Lincoln he is just a normal person in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It is a late night and Tommy is taking a break with a freshly lit cigarette as he has been doing the late shift in his taxi, he hears a loud crash and the finds himself staring down the barrel of a gun. He is then told to drive as fast as he can to help two gangsters to shake off their pursuers, he eventually does with his taxi filled with holes. He is then told to wait as Sam one of the gangsters goes to get Tommy a “gift”, which just turns out to be money as Tommy thought he was pulling a gun on him. Tommy drives home and looks inside the envelope and he is shocked to see how much there is and considered the offer of a job with Don Salieri and his associates, but pending the thought he declines and carry’s on the next day. After doing a few taxi fares he is tracked down by Salieri’s competition and beaten to a pulp as well his taxi once again being smashed to bits, so he runs to Salieri’s bar for protection and accepts the offer that he gave him.

Gameplay is where things kind of take a dive now it’s not bad just a bit clunky, playing it now and even at the time the controls were rather archaic and clunky. However I would argue that is kind of the point with the driving and shooting given the time period of the 1930’s, weapons and vehicles during that period were more unreliable and tend to feel less smooth. The shooting is a rather contentious topic in this game as some would say it is bad, while other state it requires patience and precision. I fall into the latter category as you are not supposed to be able spray bullets everywhere like someone who has incontinence issues, as you are a normal person who has rarely used a gun at this point. The shooting is about taking your time and assessing the situation, or otherwise you are punished for your stupidity.

Driving also takes a similar approach as you can’t drive recklessly and the game actually scolds you for doing so, as the police will chase for minor and major traffic violations. It adds to the immersion as it makes the world seem more reactive and alive, although the game overall is very linear.

Visually for the time the presentation was very good if you are playing on the PC, the PS2 version of the game had a lot of issues with draw distance and other graphical features being completely missing such as blood during gameplay. Character models for a 2002 game looked really good, it out did Grand Theft Auto in that regard as they looked more human. Voice acting was also great with the main cast, yeah you had the stereotypical Italian American accents as they spout “forget about it”, but it works and I was engaged. The voice acting from a lot of the NPCs is not so great, as it sounds like they pulled people from the street then shoved them into a recording booth. Overall though presentation and sound is still great!

Mafia was truly a unique experience at the time; it was a point where there weren’t many video game narratives based on organised crime (GTA being the exception). It has me very excited for the upcoming remake, as I’m hoping they can recapture the atmosphere of the cult classic.