Streets of Rage 4 Review - The 90's are back baby!

By Sam Coles:

2D brawlers are a dime a dozen these days, this is mostly due to game design moving onto different pastures but that doesn’t mean smaller scale projects don’t take hold of the genre. Streets of Rage was Sega’s answer to Capcom against their popular Final Fight series, where they produced a trilogy of games on the Mega Drive back in the early 90’s. Fast forward over 20 years later and we get a 4^th game in the franchise, and you know what it is amazing and one of my favourite games of 2020 so far!

Well the narrative is as basic as you can get with a 90’s inspired video game, Axle Stone and friends plan on clearing the titular Streets of Rage up from corruption and crime. That is pretty much it, I honestly was not expecting anything particularly deep with a narrative for Streets of Rage, and it just sets up the context and tells you to punch anything with a stupid haircut until it tells you to stop.

You can pick four characters (to begin with) you have Axle Stone, Blaze Fielding, Cherry Hunter and Floyd Iraia. All feel great and unique to use, my favourite to use was Blaze as she was quick and nimble but powerful at the same time.

Gameplay is what you would expect when it comes to a Streets of Rage game, you progress through a level, beat seven shades of blue out anything that moves and eat food off the floor which makes me wonder they are not constantly vomiting, but I digress. However the controls are easily tightest in the entire series, everything is fast and fluid without it being frantic, it is easy to get a grasp of the situation but that does not mean this game is easy.

You can punch, kick, jump and pick up various weapons to help in the fight these can range from lead pipes, knives, stun weapons, police batons and of course your special attacks come into play too. How this works is that it bizarrely takes inspiration from Bloodborne with its mechanics, when you use your special attacks it takes a fraction of your health. However as long as you don’t get hit after you perform said attack, you can get your health back by attacking enemies. It’s a great dynamic where it gives you powerful attacks, but at the same time you are literally risking your life in the process to cut down a large percent of health on a boss.

This game gets rather challenging the further you progress, with tougher enemies such as the police officers with their shields where they can bridge on being annoying rather than challenging. It is a good steady curve of difficulty at the start of the game, but then it takes a sharp spike when you get to the old pier stage. But overall gameplay is superb and had me smile with glee as I pummelled thugs into the dirt.

After you have finished the story mode you can do arcade mode where you rack up a high score on any stage of your choosing, as well as a boss rush mode which is rather self-explanatory.  Not only that you can play the game in co-op with up to 4 players, both online and local play which keeps the old school spirit alive.

The presentation is absolutely amazing; from the booting the game up you will see the superb animation that the main characters have. It’s a mix of western animation and anime, with fluid movement throughout and it is honestly beautiful! Colours really pop and leap off the screen, coupled with the fantastic soundtrack where you can also change it to the old Mega Drive OST if you wish. Over presentation is great, coupled with the smooth and crisps framerate that never stutters.

Streets of Rage 4 is a return to form, it takes the existing foundation of the previous three games and dials it up to eleven. It has tight and responsive controls, great music and sound as well beautiful animations. This is one of my favourite games of 2020, go out and get it!

Editorial | Star Wars games you should play.

By Sam Coles:

Ah May The 4^th a day that fans of the Star Wars franchise took full advantage of with their play on words, a funny pun but it shows how much passion within the community there is. Star Wars since its beginning in 1977 exploded into a phenomenon, with several films up to 2019 and of course in the subject of this article, video games. There have been many video games based on the series, from the Atari 2600 to the questionable games from EA (not counting Fallen Order). I just want to recommend some games from the past couple decades. Oh these are in no particular order, and remember if I don’t recommend a game that probably means I haven’t played it.

Rogue Squadron:

With the popularity of flight simulators as well as arcade dog fighting games such as Star Fox, you would think there would be a Star Wars game within the same vein. And you would be correct, but this wasn’t the first as X-Wing and Tie Fighter came out a few years prior, however Rogue Squadron on the N64 was the more notable.  It took all the popular set pieces with the air and space battles from the first three films and put them into video games form, from the Battle of Hoth to the battle Tie Fighters in an asteroid field. It is truly and excellent game, plus I remember my mind being blown with the teaser for the Phantom Menace with the Naboo Starfighter being a secret unlock via cheats.

Star Wars Bounty Hunter:

Now the prequels often get a lot of flak and for good reason, as the writing can come across of what a 10 year old thinks what romance and anger is but they had interesting worlds and characters but the execution can be like me trying to pour coffee in the morning, spotty at best. What we did get was a bit more background on Boba Fett in the form of Jango, which he got his own game and wouldn’t you know it was amazing. Released on the GameCube and PlayStation 2 (sorry Xbox) in 2002, it was an open ended third person action game. So far so standard, but what is amazing is that you get to utilise Jango’s full arsenal of weapons and gadgets to takedown enemies. From his wrist mounted flame throwers, jetpack, duel blasters and my favourite the wrist firing lasso which stops enemies in their path. If you are looking for a good representation of being a bounty hunter in the Star Wars universe, then you can’t go wrong with this title. Plus if you have a PS4 you can play it via the PS Store.

The Force Unleashed:

Now here is a game that is often forgotten, which I think mostly stems from the year it was released back in 2008. The game is set in between the events of Episode III and IV, where you play as Star Killer a secret apprentice of Darth Vader where you are hunting the last of the Jedi. What transpires is a tale of realisation, as Star Killer has a revelation that the Jedi aren’t as evil as the empire portrays them to be (shocker) and betrays Vader and joins the rebellion. In terms of gameplay and I know this is a very by the numbers thing for a video game critic to say, but it makes you feel like a Jedi where you can use the force to manipulate physics in the environments. Which can lead for some great moments, or knee slapping scenarios when the physics have a bit of wobble as you have to bear in mind this was 2008 and games were still a bit clunky. Anyway a great game, highly recommend it and it is backwards compatible on Xbox One if you have a 360 copy.

Jedi Fallen Order:

Finally we come to the most recent Star Wars game Jedi: Fallen Order, made by Respawn Entertainment something I wasn’t expecting from a collective of ex Call of Duty developers. Anyway Jedi Fallen Order is a superb game, where takes inspiration with its gameplay from Dark Souls, where the combat is more methodical as oppose to the more over the top nature that we are used to. Enemies require timing, whether it is attacks, blocking and dodging but without the ball busting difficulty that From Software’s Souls series is notorious for. Anyway it is a mixture of Dark Souls combat, Metroid Prime exploration and Uncharted style platforming that forms this cocktail in video game form for an extremely entertaining experience.

Those are few Star Wars game I recommend for you to dig your teeth into, Happy Star Wars day everybody and May The Force Be with you!

Editorial | Games from my Childhood: Oddworld Abe's Oddysee.

By Sam Coles:

Childhood memories of games really stick in your mind; this can be for a number of reasons whether it is the fact you didn’t have to worry about things as well as having that sense of wonder you don’t quite get anymore when you are an adult.  This segment is more of an experiment and it might become a staple on the blog, or something I will do here and there but anyway let me tell you about Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee.

Released on the original PlayStation all the way back in 1997, Oddworld was released at a time where developers were more willing to experiment with ideas and gameplay concepts. Oddworld was such an interesting and Odd (you see what I did there) with its setting, story and gameplay. I remember this game intriguing and frightening me as a child, with the unique world and the horrifying design of the creatures of the enemies. Even nearly 23 years later this game’s atmosphere still sticks in my mind, and is something that has not been replicated in games of today.

Let’s start off with the story; you play as the titular Abe who works for a meat processing plant called Rupture Farms, I’m sorry did I say work? I mean he is actually a slave, which he states himself. Anyway confusing job titles aside, he is working late one night and over hears a meeting from the higher ups of Rupture Farms. Things are not going well as they have processed most of the animals of Oddworld into extinction, so they have come up with a solution of turning their own workers into meat lollipops. Which is rather counter intuitive, because if you are going to kill your workers who is going to do the work? But I digress. The story is a great mixture of serious and humour, it does indeed have a dark tone but it is also not afraid to throw in cartoon sound effects when Abe bashes his head. It’s this juxtaposition that keeps you off guard throughout the game’s narrative.

The atmosphere, where do I start? This game that is nearly 23 years old at this point still holds up, and that is saying a lot when it comes to PS1 games. The art style is absolutely beautiful, the hand drawn pre-rendered backgrounds look absolutely stunning with each area looking unique where I felt each new locale I would explore feeling fresh. The soundtrack is also a standout, where it can range from dark and oppressive, relaxing as you explore the forests outside of Rupture Farms and the chanting and almost whispering in the dark caves of the Paramites. It’s an atmosphere I have not seen replicated; it is totally unique and still sticks with me to this day.

Now the gameplay can be a mixed bag, while I enjoy the weighted momentum of Abe but it can test my patience from time to time. I chopped this down to me being a silly child and my lack of skills at video games, but even as an adult I struggle to finish this game. It has delayed controls, spikes in difficulty and situations that are extremely trial and error where you would have to play the game before to see these traps coming. However I still like with the different scenarios you go through to save your fellow brothers and sisters, as well finding devious ways of killing your enemies.

The game is a platformer, but you are not fast or super human you are a weakling who can die in one hit. Now this sounds like a terrible idea, but honestly it works in the games favour you have to utilise stealth, communication and mind control no you didn’t skip a page I said mind control. The game relies heavily on communication with your fellow Mudokons, where the game speak control scheme comes into play. You have hello, wait and follow me you have to guide them through hostile territory and as a child I would often get most of them killed resulting in the bad ending. These days I can save most of them, as you have to grasp the slight delay they have when they move, which can lead to some extremely tense situations.

As I said before you have mind control, in the first game you can only take control of the trigger happy Sligs. This adds a different layer of complexity, as you can now attack with a machine gun, however you can no longer climb or jump. You can also communicate with different enemies and wildlife; this is great for gaining the upper hand. It’s a dynamic system that allows you to feel powerful and weak at the same time, but when the game grants you that power it makes feel like Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet in comparison.

Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee is a game from my childhood that still holds up remarkably well; sure it has its trial and error nonsense. However outside of that it has an art style that holds up 23 years later, coupled with an excellent musical score that adds a layer of atmosphere. There is a remake called New “n” Tasty, but I do recommend playing the original on the PS1, PC, PS3 (disc or digital) or the PS Classic.

Journey Review - Quite the journey indeed.

By Sam Coles:

There are some games that don’t come along often that define the medium as a piece of art, that can be relaxing and sombre at the same time. Journey is a game that I have been meaning to play for years, and I finally got my chance to play through it recently due to it being free to download (at time of writing) and I have to say it is one of the most beautiful games I have ever played! Originally released on the PlayStation 3 in 2012, Journey is just that a journey where one must find themselves. So is it good? Well I think you know the answer to that, let’s get into it.

Journey’s story is vague purposefully vague, but that is the great aspect about the game’s narrative that it is up to the player to make their own conclusion of the story. The basic premise that you are trying to find yourself and restore balance in the world; you travel beautiful yet ruined deserts with nothing but you gliding the sands. By the end of the narrative what we have is something that is emotional and beautiful, something I haven’t experience in a while and in other lights I would find it rather pretentious but not this game.

Journey is a puzzle platformer which has elements of co-op play, however at first it is not obvious with the co-op play as the other players feel like they are part of the world and fit in and don’t standout. It’s this level of immersion that elevates Journey on a different level, where it never breaks and keeps you sucked in through the fantastic yet short adventure. The gameplay is minimal but that is not a bad thing, you can jump and glide to help you get to elevated platforms. However you can only glide when you collect certain items in each level, so you have to be somewhat tactful when using it. It’s not a particularly hard game as it is rather linear and straight forward, but it doesn’t make it completely obvious as it gives you subtle visual ques of where you are supposed to go as well as what to do.

There is online co-op in the game, but it is not presented in a traditional manner as you can’t just invite people to help you out. How this works is that it is like the title describes, a journey. Where you meet strangers on the way, where you are unsure if they are friend or foe as they hint at you to follow them. It’s this dynamic multiplayer system that works in the game’s context of the narrative, because in real life we are weary of strangers and having to gauge that trust with someone who you don’t even know let alone their name makes the game tense in a way. What is great about this is that at the end of the game you get a list of gamer tags of the people that helped you out, almost encouraging you to send them a message of thanks. It’s rather heart-warming when you think about it.

The presentation and soundtrack are absolutely superb, considering this was initially a 2012 release on the PS3 it looks miles above anything on that hardware. The baron deserts look wonderful, coupled with the sun turning into a pleasant orange glow the further you progress. It’s not all desert as you encounter a mountainous region, frost laden and peppered with snow with an ominous soundtrack as you traverse the tundra. The soundtrack composed by Austin Wintory is excellent; it can range from relaxing, emotional and even scary in parts as you go through the more precarious areas.

Were there any issues with the game? Not particularly although there was one slight niggle that got to me towards the end of the game. The game crashed just as I was at the end of the game, where I had to start that level all over again however that happened once throughout my entire experience.

Journey is just that, a journey that we all must embark on at least once in our lives. It this combination of art, video game and an experience that make for a totally fresh and unique take on the interactive medium, which I highly recommend. At the time of writing this game is free to download on the PS4 until the 6^th of May, so grab it while you can.

Persona 5: Royal - My thoughts so far!

By Sam Coles:

You know it’s odd how my video game tastes have evolved since I have gotten older as well as becoming a writer within industry, if you were to tell me to play a game like Persona seven years ago I would have laughed and chugged down a pint of beer and played Call of Duty. Now that I’m older and more open when it comes to art I’m willing to try out different games, so to my surprise Persona 5 is rather good and excellent dare I say it. I just want to give my first impressions, so this is not a full review as I understand this game to be a really long game so I can’t really give a proper review. I’m going to summarise my experience of the first 10 hours of the game.

Let’s start off with the story of Persona 5, at first it starts off normal enough (well in terms of J-RPG standards), where you are making daring escape as the main character Joker with an upbeat and jazzy soundtrack (which I will get into later). Where you have oddball characters, somewhat ham fisted dialogue and a slow introduction with the combat. So far pretty standard stuff for a J-RPG, but then things take a dark turn with certain subject matters.

There were many elements that I was not expecting with this game’s narrative, subjects such as domestic abuse, teachers taking advantage of vulnerable students and suicide. It’s something I was not expecting, as you have a talking cat in your party it almost gives Hideo Kojima a run for his money in terms of tone, but bizarrely it works really well. It’s an interesting concept of everyone’s inner thoughts or Persona, have their own alternate reality which makes for a unique narrative. The bright presentation is very deceptive of its overall tone.

Now let’s talk gameplay and it is pretty interesting, it’s your standard turn based combat you expect from a J-RPG. However unlike other games in the genre it’s fast and doesn’t feel like you are waiting forever, it’s not easy by any means but it is easily accessible to people who have never played games like these. It is easy to grasp but somewhat hard to master, as you have to make decisions that sometimes involve not killing your foes let me explain. Within a few hours of the game you are taught more combat tactics and one of these is hold up, what this entails is that you can hold up enemies if you stun them and what you can do is either rob them of money or items, ask for information, steal their power for your own or just flat murder them in a cold blooded fashion. It adds a new layer of depth and bits of morality, as it is more than just “kill the bad guy”.

Moving on from the standard attacks you have the titular Persona summons, these are tied to each character and stem from their inner personality such as Skull who has a Pirate who manifests within him and causes absolute devastation. However the main character code named “Joker” can use multiple Personas, which make these attacks and summons thematically appropriate to the game. They aren’t just there for the sake of it, they tie into the narrative which is great!

The presentation and music of this game is what immediately stands out, as soon as you boot the game up you are presented with a beautifully animated introduction with some of the funkiest music I have heard in a video game. The visuals obviously take ques from Anime, and the cutscenes are well done coupled with the English dub that is actually good for once in this sort of game. The music is a mix of funk and orchestral, which make for a good time throughout where I found myself bopping my head up and down with the beat. The music overall is a big thumbs up and I recommend looking up the soundtrack, even if you haven’t played the game.

Overall my time with Persona 5 so far has been excellent, it manages to balance a goofy and dark tone without it being jarring which is something I can appreciate. Not only that the combat is easy to grasp, but it is not easy as some of the enemy encounters can be tough. Plus the excellent presentation coupled with the funky soundtrack, which had me dancing in my seat made for an amazing experience so far. I can’t wait to play more!  

Resident Evil 3 (2020) Review - "You want S.T.A.R.S? I'll give you S.T.A.R.S"!

By Sam Coles:

Since 2017 with the release of Resident Evil 7, Capcom have been on a bit of a comeback with the Resident Evil series. They went back to the drawing board and realised that fans adore the survival horror genre, after 2019’s Resident Evil 2 Remake I wasn’t expecting a remake of the third game, but here we are just over a year later. Is this is as good as the Resident Evil 2 Remake? No, but it is still really good nonetheless, as it still captures the spirit of the original with tight controls and beautiful visuals. Let’s get into it!

Resident Evil 3 takes place before and after the events of Resident Evil 2, where we step into the tank top of Jill Valentine who is having PTSD dreams about turning into a zombie in her apartment. She wakes up in a cold sweat with a huge bait and switch as it starts off in first person, until Nemesis breaks through Jill’s wall. She finds out that the infection from the mansion has spread to the streets of Racoon City. Jill slowly uncovers the reason why the monster known as Nemesis is stalking her, she finds out that the Umbrella Corporation wants to snuff out the members of S.T.A.R.S as they uncovered the experiments they were working on. The story is actually rather engaging which is saying a lot for a Resident Evil game, the voice acting is well done where it has weight, but that is not to say there are no hammy moments from certain characters.

Gameplay takes the foundations that were set by the Resident Evil 2 Remake, but puts more of an emphasis on combat like the original Resident Evil 3 did. There is a higher amount of zombies on screen at once, which is thematically appropriate given the game’s setting within the walls of Racoon City. Combat feels a bit faster compared to the RE2 Remake, where you now have a dodge move like in the original RE3, but like the original RE3 this dodge attack is rather temperamental and decides to work when it wants to. The hitboxes with the zombies is rather questionable when I was dodging them, because there were moments where I thought I had slipped past the zombie for them to suddenly to grab me and bite my neck like a burrito.

Gameplay is overall fun with the same satisfying feedback with the zombies when you fire a shotgun round into them, as their flesh melts as buckshot tears through their decaying skin. The emphasis on puzzle solving has been decreased in this game, as it focuses on the action more and of course the encounters with the hulking bio weapon that is Nemesis. These encounters are heart pounding and tense, he can suddenly crash through walls and the thunderous thumps as he sprints at you full tilt made my heart jump out of my throat.

However I feel like they have cut down on the Nemesis encounters in this game in terms of his humanoid form, there are only a handful of times that he shows up with his firearms and mutates quicker than he did in the original. Plus they have taken out the choice encounters with him from the original, where it was this high risk high reward scenario which would grant you weapon parts, but now they are gone. Not to say the encounters are bad by any means in this remake as it is a different interpretation, but I feel the element of choice has been streamlined a bit in this version of the game.

Once again Capcom have shown the capabilities of their RE Engine, where yet again they can balance both high fidelity visuals and performance (mostly). The game’s use of photogrammetry makes the world look believable, coupled with the photorealistic looking character models that capture every detail and expression. From a subtle smirk, wink or raise of the eyebrows these are some of the best looking character models I have seen this generation. The gore effects are disgusting (in a good way) and for a lack of better words moist, the decaying flesh on the zombies and monsters have unflinching amount of detail although a bit downgraded from the 2 remake as there are more monsters and zombies on screen.

Overall I have nothing bad to say about the visuals, but performance is a different story as it tries to run at 60 frames per second but it stutters during certain gameplay segments and cutscenes. Now I was playing this on a base PS4 but I expect it is a lot better on PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, but it doesn’t make it any less distracting.

I really enjoyed my time with the Resident Evil 3 remake; it has sharp visuals coupled with great combat and a story that was rather engaging for what it was. However I feel they cut a few corners, specifically with some of the Nemesis encounters and the choices you make in the original game. Great game and worth your time, but if you are a fan of the original you may see certain things missing.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered Review.

By Sam Coles:

Hard to think in three years (at time of writing) that the Call of Duty series will be two decades old, and like a tree you can cut the series in half and the evolution of the series like rings symbolising its age. So here we are in 2020 playing a remaster of Modern Warfare 2, which I’m in two minds where I’m thrilled to go through the campaign with beefed up visuals. On the other hand I am rather confused, as they have omitted the Spec Ops and Multiplayer as they are what made the game special. Anyway let’s take a look at the campaign remastered, and see if it is worth your time and money.

The story is the same as the original game; it takes place 5 years after the events of Call of Duty 4 where the world is once again plunged into chaos. After the joint efforts of the SAS and USMC to stop the ultra-nationalist Russian party led by Imran Zakhaev all is well, until one of his lieutenants Vladimir Makarov takes over and tries to start a third World War. Makarov starts a war between Russia and US, where the Russians end up invading American soil. General Shepard puts together Task Force 141, consisting of Soap Mactavish, Simon “Ghost” Riley, Gary “Roach” Sanderson and of course the man who embodies facial hair Captain John Price. The story holds up really well with its twists and turns, with excellent performances throughout from the cast. You really feel the weight of the situation throughout the battles, as well as Captain Price’s cynical outlook on things.

Gameplay has been mostly left unchanged from the original, although there have been some tweaks to the formula to give weight to the controls giving you a sense of presence throughout. You no longer feel like a floating camera on a stick, don’t get me wrong the gameplay is still fast and slick but the added weight makes it feel more grounded. The shooting is still tight, satisfying and responsive as you snap onto each enemy. Guns really pack a punch in this game, which is elevated by the enhanced sound design which I will get into during the presentation section. There are usual moments where you will take control of vehicles, turrets and unmanned drones these range from UAVs loaded with predator missiles, Jeeps miniguns as well as utilising mounted high calibre sniper rifles.

Presentation has been given a huge makeover; it stimulates your nostalgia senses as it looks like what you thought it looked like in 2009. The game has more detail in all departments from the gun models, character models, environments as well as subtle details added for immersion. For example during the Cliffhanger mission your player character will put on a set of protective goggles when the storm intensifies, it’s not needed but it makes sense thematically, and there are so many instances of these new subtle details throughout this remaster.

As I have said before sound design has been given a huge boost, not only that audio quality in general is much better. The problem in the old version of the game is that sound layering wasn’t the best, certain sounds would either be too quiet or too loud fortunately that is fixed in this remaster. Guns sound terrifying in this game in a good way, the shotguns shake my floorboards with my subwoofer and the LMGs have a thunderous chatter as you cut down legions of soldiers.

Now let’s address the elephant in the room, there is no multiplayer and now I have played this remaster I kind of feel like something is missing. As many issues I have with Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer with its problems and imbalances, I still had a lot of fun with it and formed many memories with it. That’s why I find the current asking price of £20 a bit steep, unless you want to do a Veteran run or get all of the trophies then you aren’t going to get much value out of it.

Overall I enjoyed my time revisiting this game campaign with a fresh coat of paint, but my question is why? Why did they just release it like this? It was fun, but I think I could not recommend it just yet at the current price, wait for a sale I would recommend.