Grand Theft Auto V PS4 Review - One Year Later in Los Santos

 

By Sam Coles:

 

One year later after the release of Grand Theft Auto V we get to take a trip back to Los Santos on the new and shiny Xbox One and PS4 I’ll be focusing on the PS4 version of the game and let’s say that the game is now packed with even more detail than before, not to say that the game wasn’t beautiful to begin with on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

 

So if you have been living under a rock or haven’t played it here is the basic gist of the story. You play as three characters Franklin who lives in the ghettos of Los Santos, Michael a retired bank robber and finally you have the amoral psychotic Trevor who takes lots of meth and is hell bent on making money through robbery. Michael ends up going back into bank robbing because he owes Mexican Cartel leader money after he pulls down his house with a truck.

 

 

 

The environments have been given an over hall and are densely populated compared to the last gen counterpart you’ll see more flora and fauna with elements such as there being separate blades of grass in the parks in the middle of the city to the long grass and flowers in the wilderness in the surrounding state of San Andreas. There is even added wildlife in the city such as cats and dogs wondering around these little added details make the world of  GTA V feel more alive than it already does.

 

 

 

So what else is new with the current gen version of the game besides a texture update, well you get more cars, guns and a new first person mode which you can play the entirety of the game in this first person mode. This really changes the dynamic of the game and you can witness Los Santos from a different perspective and makes you tackle missions with different strategies. Take note though that it is very difficult to drive in first person but you can change it to third person when you’re in a car and it will switch back when you get out of the car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can now play with up to 30 players in one game on GTA Online but you may be met with some resistance with a full server which is understandable because of the sheer number in this massive open world. Unfortunately the multiplayer is still problematic and players are reporting that they couldn’t transfer their character which has been fixed and I can’t seem to find a full game, most of them seem to have fewer than 10 players each session that I’ve played.

 

Overall it’s the same game that you played last year with a shiny coat of paint, but it still has the same problematic multiplayer because I couldn’t get into a game with no more than 5-7 players, not the 30 player experience that I hoped for. Is it worth buying again if you played it last year? I would say no in my opinion but if you have a new gen console and you somehow missed the game then I would get this version as it is the definitive version.

 

Battlefield 4 Final Stand DLC Available on Premium.

By Sam Coles:

Did you know Battlefield 4 is still relevant apparently because a new DLC has become available for you guys who have paid a lot of money for the premium package. Final Stand includes a hovertank, snowmobiles, rail gun, remote high speed flying drone and new levolution moments in the maps that change up the gameplay. You also get access to new maps called On Giants of Karelia, Hammerhead, Hangar 21, and Operation Whiteout for the epic conclusion of the multiplayer of Battlefield 4 (if it works).

Assassin's Creed: Unity dropping to Unplayable Frame Rates.

By Sam Coles:

The damn has finally collapsed with Assassin’s Creed Unity as the standard for the latest AC game unfortunately has gone down not visually that aspect has been nailed to a certain extent. The main problem that gamers and critics a like are having is the fact the game is running at an abysmal frame rate, players are reporting that the game is running at 20 or hell on the PS4 version sub 20 frames per second.

Unfortunately this isn’t the first problem that Ubisoft have had this year Watch Dogs it was a good game, but was released with horrendous bugs and glitches especially on the PC version. The Crew’s Beta was bug ridden and glitched mess and don’t say “it’s a beta what do you expect” the game is out in three weeks these problems should be ironed out by now.

These sort of frame rate issues are not universal with all parts of the game just certain scenes which the main one being when there are 1000’s of NPC’s on the screen and so the PS4 and Xbox One has trouble comprehending what’s on screen.

Lets wait and see what happens with this game and hope that this gets fixed fast and lets also hope that we don’t get half a job from FarCry 4 when it drops next week, but looking at these problems it looks to be the hardware and not the software. This is not the "Next Gen" experience we hoped for with Assassin's Creed.

Grand Theft Auto V: The Official PlayStation 4 and Xbox One Launch Trailer

By Sam Coles:

Grand Theft Auto V launches for the PS4 and Xbox One next week so Rockstar have given us an lanuch trailer showing off more of what the current gen machines can do to the already beautiful city of Los Santos with high detail textures, further draw distance and much much more. The question is what console are you getting this game on out of the new generation.

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare Review - Something New and Interesting for a Stale Formula.





 

 

By Sam Coles:

 

Over the years I think a lot of gamers have felt the fatigue of the Call of Duty series because they come out annually with little to no change, but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the latest game in the series Advanced Warfare from the guys at Sledgehammer Games in conjunction with High Moon and Raven Software.

 

The campaign’s story is that you play as Private Jack Mitchell played by Troy Baker who seems to be in every game at the moment, but I digress. You first start out in the marines pushing back the North Koreans out of Sol South Korea and then you are then injured and are given a second chance by the PMC Atlas. The president and ceo Johnathan Irons played by Kevin Spacey hires you and gives you advanced prosthetics so you can fight for his army. Yeah the story isn’t special and the twists you can see from a mile off, but it’s presented so well with its direction and graphics with the facial animation which are fantastic that it will hook you.

The campaign took me around 7 hours to finish and that was even on the veteran difficulty and it wasn’t particularly hard but that maybe because I upgraded my exo to the max by the end of it that I was able to with stand a lot of gun fire and sprint fast. That isn’t say that you won’t go up against tougher enemies because you will you’ll get soldiers in harder armour and other mercs in mech suits that are equipped with mini-guns and missiles, let’s just say that the campaign gets more intense in the later stages. In the campaign you’ll do little challenges that will award you with skill points you can upgrade certain elements for your exo such as increase reloading speed or sprint etc. but unfortunately it’s a bit bare bones and except for the reloading I don’t really notice the upgrades in practise.

 

The graphics are amazing especially on the current gen machines (PS4, Xbox One) they are nearly bridging on photorealistic and you can tell who the actors are and you will recognise some of them especially Kevin Spacey he has been put in the game fully. The production value from the graphics and voice actors are high it’s paced like a blockbuster movie. The game runs at a native 1080p on the PS4 and runs at 60 frames per second for the most part it does stutter in some cutscenes, but in gameplay I’ve not noticed any notable frame rate drops it performs really well most of the time.

 

Gameplay is similar to other COD games especially in the campaign but you have the added exo-suit but unfortunately it is used in the scripted events in the campaign which Call of Duty is known for. In multiplayer on the other hand the exo-suit comes into to its own because instead of camping in corners and sniping in this game, players will be running around the map dodging shots and out smarting you in gunfights. It makes it immediately fresh compared to the stilted gameplay of the other games it has feeling of the old school shooters such as Quake and Unreal Tournament where it’s all about map control and not your loadout.

 

 

The multiplayer still has the standard slew of perks and different equipment although there are some interesting weapons as the game is set from 2054 onwards so get a laser heavy weapon and a portable rail gun as a pistol which is a one shot kill (mostly), The variable grenades are interesting where you get 3 or 4 grenades in one which can range from stun, EMP and frag. You can get different exo abilities which can vary from silent footsteps, a shield or speeding up your run speed which all run on a battery which regenerate over time. Pick 10 system returns from Black Ops 2 in the form of Pick 13 where you can equip 13 weapons, perks and abilties which is always usefula and a great way to plan the perfect loadout

 

 

You can customise the look of avatar for the online mode where you can give him or her ostentatious exo-suits which you can unlock more through loot drops. Loot drops are new to the series these are similar to free to play games such as Warface or Blacklight Retribution, but like those game you’ll have a time limit to use the special weapons and clothing items. On the other hand though these drops have special abilities such as your first few bullets may do more damage, but take a penalty maybe with slower fire rate with the first few shots, let’s just say if you can keep them it would make the game unbalanced.

 

The game modes aren’t terribly inventive except for a couple such as Uplink where you have to take a satellite to enemy base and throw it into the uplink, think of it as a faster pace version of Giff ball or American Football. It makes you think on your toes because once you’re in possession of the satellite you can’t use your weapons but you can turn the tables on your enemies by throwing it at them to make them catching it and you can then gun them down. In general though the game modes are the usual Team Deathmatch, domination etc. but with the added exo abilities it adds a sense of verticality and new strategy to the game.  

Overall this is the first Call of Duty game that I’ve enjoyed in years and is an excellent first attempted from the guys at Sledgehammer Games for their first standalone COD game, if you have a PS4, Xbox One or PC give this game ago I have played it on the last gen and it does not perform as well and the graphics (obviously) are not as well optimised. If you’re looking to play on your current gen machine give this game a go because it may surprise you.

Retro Sundays: Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

By Sam Coles:

Sonic the Hedgehog made his debut in 1990 on the 16 bit system known as the Sega Megadrive or Genesis if you are from the US. It was different to what we have seen compared to Nes at the time because the Snes wasn’t out at the time. Sonic had attitude and could speed around the level with his lightning fast running through the colourful worlds. It’s sequel in 1992 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 added a sidekick called Tails the two tailed fox.

Like all the Sonic games you are trying to stop Doctor Robotnik from taking over the world and turning all the animals into robots of war. You’ll traverse lots of worlds and zones as you collect rings and chaos emeralds. 

What I love immediately with this game are the graphics they’re really beautiful and considering that this game came out 22 years ago it still holds up today with the colourful plains Emeralds Hill zone to the flashing lights of Casino Night zone. The levels are all varied and it never gets boring when you’re playing through the game because it’s different in each zone with new obstacles. 

Through out your sprint through the levels you’ll be collecting rings, like Mario when you get 100 you’ll gain an extra life, but unlike Mario it doesn’t reset to zero because you need a certain amount to access the bonus stages at the checkpoints. Bonus stages will transport you in a 3D style view from behind Sonic and Tails where you have several rounds to collect rings and if you are successful you’ll collect a chaos emerald which if you collect them all you can turn into “Super Sonic” where you turn yellow and you can run at ridiculous speeds.

The only problem that I have with this game is the boss battles with Robotnik because they’re not very exciting because he is very predictable with his attacks and you’ll get the pattern in about a second.

Overall Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a fun game and will give you something to do if you want to burn sometime very quickly. This game is very cheap today and is very easy to find on the Sega Megadrive, The Sonic Mega Collection on PS2 and the Megadrive collection Xbox 360 and PS3.

Grand Theft Auto Online Xbox One and PS4 Screenshots.

By Sam Coles:

We are nearly there for the release of Grand Theft Auto V on the PS4 and Xbox One so Rockstar have rolled out some new screenshots but not for the singleplayer but for the multiplayer. The Landscape seems to look more detailed compared to the Xbox 360 and PS3 version and it looks as there is more traffic in the online mode because that was a major problem in the online that there would be no traffic at all. Check out the screens below: