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.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 Review - The Bird Man is Back!

 

By Sam Coles:

We once again return to the next instalment of returning the comforting teat known as nostalgia, this time we dust off the old skateboards with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2. After the disastrous release of the faecal ridden game known as Pro Skater 5 all hope was lost for the series, that is until the amazing people at Vicarious Visions who did the excellent N.Sane Trilogy back in 2017 brings us this fantastic remake and it is a grand return for the Bird Man in the video game space.

The game opens up with a nostalgic and excellent opening video introducing each skater, while Rage Against The Machine’s Guerrilla Radio plays. It got me all warm and fuzzy taking me back to a simple time, and yes I was head banging as the opening track played it is that good. It is a simple introduction to the game and gets you pumped and ready for the game, no gimmicks just showing you that this is indeed a new Pro Skater well a remake of a couple of classics.

Now let’s get to the gameplay and stop me if you have already heard this, but this is easily one of if not the best controlling Tony Hawk game I have played in years. It takes the foundation of the first two games as well elements from the Underground games, and turns it into this hybrid of what a modern Pro Skater game should be. It comes together with an engaging and additive gameplay loop, where racking up ludicrous combos. The first time I pushed off it immediately felt fantastic, very little to no input lack at all once you get going it just works and  is extremely easy to pick up and play but hard to master.

The game is split up into three tours, you have Pro Skater 1 maps, Pro Skater 2 maps and a single session tour with the mix of the two to rack up the best score you can. Like the original titles there are various challenges and objects scattered across the maps, where you have to keep up momentum and agility to get to secret areas. Now I know this may come across as a strange comparison, but think of it as an N64 platformer but you are on a skateboard. Yes this might sound a bit leftfield but think about it, you are in an open somewhat hub based map where you have to collect various MacGuffins as well complete various challenges to progress forward. I know you are probably thinking I am a madman but the parallels are somewhat there.   

You gain money and experience after completing various goals; you can use money to unlock new clothes, skateboards and other cosmetics for your custom skater or pre-existing skaters. Not only that you gain stat tokens which are in hard to reach places, you can use these to upgrade abilities such balance, ollie height and much more. This incentivises you to replay levels over and over again, plus it just feels good to try and beat your own score.

Visually the game looks superb they have built everything from the ground up, while it runs at a buttery smooth 60 frames per second with no hitches. Each location looks spectacular, with the warm glow of the sun as it sets in Venice Beach to the darkly lit streets of downtown. It all looks modern and wonderful, but it is what you thought game looked like as child. They did an outstanding job with the presentation; there is so much care and attention with the detail.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 was a blast from the past, it retains the feel of the older games while sprinkling in some needed modern elements with graphics and controls. If you are looking for a fun injection of nostalgia or you are playing it for the first time, then this game is a must have. This is easily one of my favourite games of 2020!

Editorial | Tony Hawk's Pro Skater's Influence in Gaming.

By Sam Coles:

When you think of sports games you tend to roll your eyes as your mind reminds you the recycled nonsense each year, but they are not always bad and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is one of them. Now I know what you are thinking “Sam Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is not a sports game”, well it falls under extreme sports so I am counting it. Anyway digressions aside, I want to talk about what made the Pro Skater games special with the remake just around the corner (at the time of writing).

In the late 90’s skateboarding was on the brink of fading out of popularity, but Tony Hawk was invited to check out a prototype for a game by the folks at Neversoft. Tony loved the idea and began to give it his endorsement, every time a new build was made Tony would play it to check if it was okay and slowly it became the game that we would finally know as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater released in 1999 on the PlayStation and other platforms later. To say it was a success would be a massive understatement, what made it special? Well there are many factors.

Let’s start off with gameplay which was and still is exceedingly fun to play, the controls are extremely simple to pick up and get the hang of, but on the other hand they were difficult to master. The gameplay loop in the Pro Skater games was fast, fluid and very addictive as it caters the arcade gamer where you want to keep besting your or other player’s high scores. It wasn’t particularly realistic, but that was not what they were going for, simplicity is the key to these games.

Pulling off a long string of combos was immensely satisfying, coupled with the cathartic audio ques when you leap across a gap or pull off special moves. The original game it was a bit harder to pull long combos, but in the later instalments they added in the manual a subtle but important change to the series. This increased the possibility of combos, where you would see almost absurd high scores which looked to be inhuman levels of ridiculousness.

The campaign mode is what also kept people coming back too, now it’s not like they had stories which they didn’t (mostly) but the different challenges in each location which kept things fresh. You had the usual ones such as get this high score or find the secret video tape which was a staple in the series, but you would have certain challenges in each level that was thematically appropriate. This mix of player freedom and structure at the same time, crafted an additive gameplay experience that is still fun to play today.

Pro Skater had a cultural impact too, lots of gamers played these games despite them having no interest in skateboarding and some even picked up a deck and tried to get into it myself included. It paved the way for a new generation of skaters and music, where you would hear Superman from Goldfinger playing at several parties a week.

Now this wouldn’t be an article about Pro Skater if I didn’t mention the licensed soundtrack, this game brought a lot of punk bands into the mainstream back in the day such as Lagwagon, Bad Religion, NOFX, Rancid, Goldfinger and many more. This is how I experienced these bands the first time round, and it being a PS1 disc I would frequently put it into a CD player and listen to the music. Even later down the line it would introduce different genres such as heavy metal and hip-hop, with bands and groups such as Motörhead and Jurassic 5 making appearances in playlists.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is truly a great series of games (except 5, we don’t talk about that game), and it makes me so happy to see the first two games make a comeback with the current generation of gaming. Maybe once again it can create a new generation of skaters, we shall see.