Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

September 15, 2020 Gaming, Home, Review, This Week Leave a Comment

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

In 2012, approximately 745 years ago in video game terms, an action RPG called Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was released on PC, PS3 and XBOX360. Developed by Big Huge Games and 38 Studios, the game was a massive, sprawling, ambitious combination of rich storytelling (by acclaimed fantasy scribe R.A. Salvatore), strong imagery (by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane) and fast-paced, intuitive combat rarely seen in RPGs at the time. It launched to mostly positive reviews and sold in decent numbers. The assumption was, this would be the first chapter in an increasingly epic series, a fresh face on the RPG landscape. Fate, however, weaves a twisted tapestry and not long afterwards, 38 Studios filed for bankruptcy (due to staggering fiscal mismanagement) and Kingdoms of Amalur was destined to forever be known as that endearing one hit wonder. Cut to: 2020, unofficial year of the remaster, and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is back as… Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning. Oof. And to be honest, the title isn’t the only misstep here.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning has one of the strongest openings in RPG history. You’re a corpse, manhandled by dwarves onto a groaning pile of your fellow deceased, when suddenly you shuffle the mortal coil back on and begin your adventure. Why and how you’re alive, what the deal is with the invading hordes and your connection to fate itself are all questions you’ll need to explore over the course of this extremely large (60-100 hour) adventure. So, that’s the story. What’s new in this 2020 remaster? Erm, not a great deal, just quietly. The graphics have been given a minor polish, and the animation runs at a mostly solid 60 frames per second, but in terms of meaningful additions or even quality of life changes (like the ability to loot multiple corpses at once), there’s sweet Fanny Adams on offer.

So, while the combat is still fast-paced and flowing, and the story remains intriguing particularly in the main quests, Kingdoms can’t help but feel very dated indeed. Multiple fetch quests, large empty-feeling environments and exposition delivered via text dumps all chip away at your enjoyment. At nearly a decade old, Kingdoms feels particularly molested by the passage of time. On the plus side, for console owners this represents the only way to get the game and it looks as good as it has ever been. For hardcore fans of the original this may well be enough, and don’t get us wrong – there’s a lot of game here and if you’re able to overlook its shortcomings, much adventure awaits. For those of us hoping the game might get a remaster experience comparable to the likes of BioShock: The Collection or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, sadly this has proven to be an epic fantasy.

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Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2

September 14, 2020 Game, Gaming, Home, Review, This Week Leave a Comment

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2

It’s hard to explain to the younger generations just how much the Tony Hawk games dominated loungerooms in the late ’90s/early 2000s. Afternoons, evenings, post-club kick ons and even cheeky sick days were spent mastering the bird man’s trickier moves, usually shrouded in a haze of bong smoke and concentration sweat. That sense of baked camaraderie, combined with the “just one more go” addiction spiral, made these games indelible parts of the video game landscape. Of course, the party couldn’t go on forever, and while it’s debatable which Hawk game finally sunk the franchise, things had well and truly died in the arse by the time the execrable Pro Skater 5 plopped out in 2015. It seemed that those halcyon days were well and truly over and then Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 dropped in and it’s like the ’90s have returned, except this time we’re old.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 is much more than your typical remaster. It is, in fact, a ground up remake of the first two Pro Skater titles with gorgeous graphics, slick animation, familiar but tweaked gameplay and the original game’s steep learning curve very much present. In fact, due to the animation being so slick, and the frame rate so high, the game’s actually significantly faster than you might remember, which may well give your entropy-dulled reflexes a work out. All the great locations from the first two games are present, with some reimagined and tweaked elements (The Mall now looks like a post apocalyptic, deserted hellscape) and the tricks from later games – manuals, reverts, wall plants etc. – have been added. There’s also a robust Create-A-Skater mode, the character then able to be used across both games and online, and the Create-A-Park mode, which is a hoot for the very patient.

About the only misstep in this entire game involves its multiplayer modes. See, while you can link up with a mate and run through online challenges (like trick attack) with a bunch of randoms, you can’t just bum around a location that’s exclusive to the pair of you. No private matches, no co-op play through freshly unlocked levels and not even any bloody HORSE! It’s probably a tad churlish to complain about a feature missing that sure as hell wasn’t in the original, but in 2020 to not have that level of online interactivity seems a disappointing omission and something that would be wise to correct in this or future entries.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 probably won’t blow away newbies, and honestly, Skate was a better pure skating game (remaster or sequel, please, EA) but if you loved these games back in the day there’s a better-than-average chance you’ll love them anew here. Disappointing online selection aside, this is a near-perfect remaster and a delicious slice of rose-tinted nostalgia done right.

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The Top 4 Thanos Ending Powers in Marvel’s Avengers

We were so excited about the new Marvel's Avengers game, we got GrizGaming to click his fingers and report back on the ways that these Avengers could have ended Thanos.

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AVENGERS ASSEMBLE (at home)!

We put the newest iteration of the iconic team through its paces.

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Wasteland 3

September 3, 2020 Game, Gaming, Home, Review, This Week Leave a Comment

Wasteland 3

It’s while I’m attacking the Gippers that I’m reminded of that Mitchell and Webb sketch about the self-aware Nazis. You know, the one where they ask, “are we the baddies?”, after realising that they’re very much on the wrong side of history. The reason it springs to mind, as I cover the floor with zealot blood and guts, is because what started out with the best of intentions has become a massacre. And while the Gippers are as mad as a sackful of rats – worshipping the memory of pre-apocalypse president Ronald Reagan and calling everyone “commies” – I’m not sure that they deserve this fate. When I exit the front doors of the Western White House, now spattered red, the Godfishers are waiting for me. I made a deal with them, you see. Told the lunatics I’d let them kill the Gippers in exchange for access to their territory, a promise I have very clearly broken. So, as my six strong squad of rangers readies itself for another battle, I can’t help but wonder: are we the baddies?

Welcome to Wasteland 3, the long-awaited post-apocalyptic RPG from inXile Entertainment, that puts the emphasis on tough choices, decisions that have genuine consequences and moral ambiguity that will haunt your non-playing hours.

Wasteland 3 puts you in the boots of two rangers, pre-made or user generated, the only survivors of an ill-advised journey to the frozen hell of Colorado. Once you’ve checked in with local leader The Patriarch, you’ll need to add to your team, take on missions, upgrade your HQ and – most importantly – decide where you stand, morally-speaking. Will you side with the Patriarch’s authoritarian rule or do you think that there are worthier leaders waiting in the wings? Will you bring peace and prosperity to Colorado or would you just rather shoot and loot your way through the various communities. Do you want a better world, or would you prefer to just watch it burn? All of these disparate concepts are viable options and the range of choices you can make is genuinely dizzying. Most RPGs, even the very good ones, deliver nothing more than the illusion of choice, but Wasteland 3 raises the bar, making the game one of the best pure RPG experiences currently available.

Played from an isometric point of view, Wasteland 3 certainly isn’t the prettiest game around. The backgrounds are often drab, the character models a little stiff and while the many turn-based battles that you’ll take part in look perfectly fine, this won’t be a game that knocks your socks off in terms of presentation. The voice acting, however, is very decent, with most of the dialogue voiced and the writing is stellar, with none of the bloat you usually find in this type of game. Performance-wise, it has to be said, the game does have a few bugs at launch. Animation glitches, some audio dropouts and even a few hard crashes to desktop (playing on a PS4 Pro), however, they’re likely to be patched soon. Pleasingly, load times are quite tolerable, particularly compared to the likes of Pillars of Eternity and Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Ultimately, however, Wasteland 3 is all about the choices you make and the paths you take. Before you know it, you’ll be part of a civil war, unearthing conspiracies or, you know, accidentally wiping out two entire communities of religious fanatics because you prioritised mission success over human lives. Despite the game’s often lunatic sense of humour (with toey robot prostitutes and suicide bomber pigs), these decisions will weigh on you, have you thinking about them and probably inform a second or third playthrough. It’s rough around the edges, and needs a little patience at the beginning, but Wasteland 3 is one of the best RPGs in years and an absolute must-play title during these bizarre, dystopian times.

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Pathfinder: Kingmaker Definitive Edition

August 25, 2020 Game, Gaming, Home, Review, This Week Leave a Comment

Pathfinder: Kingmaker Definitive Edition

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is the latest PC RPG to make the leap to consoles, transplanting keyboard and mouse gameplay into the realm of the casual couch and comfy trackie-daks. This has been going on for a while, with the likes of Pillars of Eternity and Divinity: Original Sin forging the way to much success, particularly in the case of the latter. That’s not to say Pathfinder is more of the same, mind you, because while there are many superficial similarities with others, this epic title from Russian developer Owlcat Games offers unique twists on a now familiar formula.

Pathfinder is set in the Stolen Lands, and casts you in the boots of a character – either self generated or preset – who will need to gather a party, grow in strength, take on increasingly tough missions and eventually defeat a tough boss. Sounds familiar, right? And it is, with a lot of generic high fantasy tropes executed in a solid but unexceptional fashion. However, once you beat the baddie, a particularly nasty wanker called the Stag Lord, you’re handed a barony and new responsibilities that involve managing funds, building the right structures and keeping the populace happy and safe.

They’ve gone and put a bloody town management game in your RPG! You’ll still be required to go on epic quests, mind you, but now you’ll need to manage your increasing lands as well. It’s… kind of a lot, to be honest, and those who’d rather just dungeon crawl without reading the instructions should possibly look elsewhere.

That said, if you’re up for the challenge (and able to watch a few Youtube videos before you even begin), Pathfinder is an absolute game changer. One of the best aspects is the combat. Is it turn-based or real time with pause? It’s both. And unlike Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, you can switch between the two on the fly. Mid-dungeon fighting weak arse trash mobs of low level spiders or skeletons? Put it on RTWP and let the AI do the work. Come up against a tough boss that requires a little more strategy and finesse? Notch it back to turn-based and conquer.

It’s a brilliant addition to the genre and one that would be great to see embraced by other developers. Add to that a dizzying array of difficulty customisation options – wherein you can change the level of AI, the fail states and even switch the kingdom management to “automatic” if that sort of fiddly nonsense isn’t your bag – and you’ve got a game that feels like it can be honed to your specific style of play.

The graphics are crisp and colourful, the sound and music solid and even the load times, the inexplicable bane of this genre’s console ports, are better than most. On the downside, the story and script never really rise much above the level of perfectly adequate. You’ll have fun, you’ll be engaged but you’re unlikely to be shocked by something creative and unexpected like Divinity: Original Sin 2. Difficulty spikes can be an issue too, although there’s usually a lateral, albeit nerdy, solution to most problems. The Stag Lord, for instance. Rather than face him head on, you can turn half his lieutenants against him, kill those who won’t be convinced and even rope in his pet bear to join the boot party.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker Definitive Edition comes packaged with all the DLCs, offering literally hundreds of hours of gameplay. While it doesn’t deliver the easiest experience for old school style RPG noobs, careful and patient investigation and experimentation will have your party feeling powerful and ripping through dungeons in no time. Once you get your head around the multifarious systems, Pathfinder: Kingmaker reveals itself to be one of the most nuanced and satisfying RPGs of 2020 and a delightful surprise for those with the patience and time to really hook in.

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Ghost of Tsushima

August 14, 2020 Game, Gaming, Home, Review, This Week Leave a Comment

Ghost of Tsushima

The samurai genre is rivalled only by the western for the dubious honour of earning the ‘least utilised’ guernsey in the modern gaming era. Certainly, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Desperados III paid memorable homage to the latter, but the former has been woefully neglected. Oh sure, we’ve had borderline entries like the Niohs 1 and 2 or FromSoftware’s punishing Sekiro, but those titles utilised fantasy elements to spice up the narrative. No, in terms of pure Kurosawa-esque samurai gear, it’s down to developers Sucker Punch Productions to finally bring the goods with Ghost of Tsushima, a beautiful game that plays it a little safe.

Ghost of Tsushima tells the tale of Jin Sakai, a young samurai who joins his uncle, Lord Shimura, in defending the Japanese island of Tsushima against the Mongol invasion of 1274. The spectacular opening battle goes poorly, leaving Shimura captured and Sakai left for dead. It’s then up to you, the player, to find allies for Jin, improve his combat skills, weapons and armour, and mount a campaign to save his uncle and then rid Tsushima of the Mongol threat.

The first thing you’re likely to notice about Ghost is that it’s simply beautiful. The poetic Japanese scenery, the appealing character models, the warm sun glinting off sword blades and even the blood-drenched outdoor abattoir of a post-battle landscape all combine for a rich, immersive environment that never fails to captivate. Add to this an intuitive, robust photo mode and you’re likely to spend a surprising amount of time just taking in the sumptuous visuals this game has to offer. Movement too is smooth and slick, with Jin slowly but surely learning new combat stances, gracefully spinning and attacking around the battlefield, leaving many dead foes in his wake.

So far so good, right? Well… mostly. See, while Ghost of Tsushima is practically flawless in terms of presentation, the actual gameplay is at times a tad pedestrian. The combat is great mind you, particularly if you avoid the rather wonky stealth and go for straight up front-on battles, but the gameplay between these encounters is desperately familiar. If you’ve played Horizon: Zero Dawn, Days Gone, recent Far Cry or Assassin’s Creed entries or, hell, it seems like most AAA games these days, you’ve played Ghost. Areas to unlock, resources to farm for crafting purposes, main missions, side missions and collectibles. It’s not bad, mind you, it’s just very generic and overly familiar. There was an opportunity to innovate here and instead Ghost plays it very safe.

The main story and Jin’s character in general are also… fine. Intriguing enough to keep your interest for the duration, but not exactly mind-blowing or profoundly emotionally resonant. You’re unlikely to shed a tear here, unlike Red Dead Redemption 2 or The Last of Us. Interestingly, however, Ghost also comes equipped with some of the best side quests – which deepen your knowledge and relationship of existing characters – and Mythic Quests – that explore some borderline supernatural element and always end with you acquiring a fancy piece of gear or weapon. These clever, often beautifully written vignettes showcase Ghost’s best moments and almost make up for the lack of ambition in other quarters.

Ultimately, Ghost of Tsushima is a gorgeous game, an epic love letter to Akira Kurosawa and the cinematic samurai genre he arguably perfected, and the best Assassin’s Creed title in years… despite not actually being an Assassin’s Creed title. Slick combat combines with predictable exploration but with enough twists and turns to keep your armchair samurai adventure a worthy and honourable one.

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Skater XL

August 6, 2020 Gaming, Home, Review, This Week Leave a Comment

Skater XL

There was a time, back in the distant days of gaming, when skateboarding titles were all the rage. Tony Hawk Pro Skater sequels shot into the clammy palms of loungeroom skegs with almost alarming regularity and for those who preferred their kickflips to be a little more nuanced and technical, EA’s Skate trilogy had you covered. And then, for reasons pertaining to the vagaries of the industry, they all just sort of… stopped. If you wanted to pop a sick ollie, you had to do so outside, in the disgusting real world of people and sun. Now, on the eve of a Tony Hawk remaster, a new contender has entered the ring in the form of Skater XL. A game that, while brimming with potential, makes an ironic mockery of its title.

Skater XL puts you in the comfy kicks of a skater, either user-generated or pre-existing, and after a brief tutorial, you’re sent out into the world. It features a fascinating, and extremely nuanced, control system that uses the dual analogue sticks as your left and right feet. It’s fiddly at first, but you’ll soon grow accustomed to the controls and pull off some genuinely stylish tricks, made even more intriguing by the fact that the game uses real physics. In practical terms, this means every move happens organically, based on your controller movements and not cueing a pre-existing animation, which lends a high degree of individuality to your sessions.

All good news so far, yeah? The problem? That’s the entire game. There’s no story mode, no overarching purpose, no multiplayer or even things to unlock. You just sort of noodle around, popping tricks until you get bored or need to take a slash. A handful of maps with rather dull “challenges” (which are basically extended tutorials) and a fiddly video editor so you can record and upload your sessions. Now, for some people this will be enough. Your humble writer has fond (albeit vague) memories of hanging out with stoner flatmates, popping tricks in Skate and making one’s own fun as the controller was passed back and forth. If you’re up for a languid, chill session like that, Skater XL may be the ticket. If you want some kind of feedback, some kind of sense of progression or interaction with the game? You might want to look elsewhere.

Skater XL’s faults are compounded by the fact that it’s currently retailing (on console, at least) for nearly seventy dollarydoos! This is the kind of experience that would feel justified for twenty bucks or so, but being within cooee of full price is absurd. The lack of content, the occasionally janky animation and clipping, combined with a general lack of purpose, leaves Skater XL feeling more like a promising tech demo rather than a full game experience. What’s there is good, sometimes great, but it’s nowhere near enough yet to justify a purchase for any but the most obsessive of skating game fans.

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XCOM: Chimera Squad

August 4, 2020 Gaming, Home, Review, This Week Leave a Comment

XCOM: Chimera Squad

What happens to society after an alien occupation is thwarted by humanity? Are all of the aliens dead? If not, where do they go? Internment camps? Poor neighbourhoods? Can they ever be trusted to join human society and what of their technology? These are the heady, sci-fi questions at the centre of XCOM: Chimera Squad, a standalone XCOM entry that follows on from XCOM 2 and War of the Chosen, and while not perfect, it is a fascinating insight into what we might expect from the inevitable XCOM 3.

Chimera Squad takes place in City 31, a model city where humans and aliens live side by side. Of course, old tensions and resentments simmer beneath the surface and when the Mayor is killed in a terrorist attack it’s up to Chimera Squad – a group comprising alien and human members – to get to the bottom of what’s happening before it’s too late.

The first thing to notice about Chimera Squad is the vastly different tone to XCOM 2. That fantastic game is, it has to be said, a tension filled nightmare that at times seems to delight in flicking a rubber band at your ballbag while cackling like a cartoon witch. The ticking clock, the ramped-up difficulty (even on lower settings) and the permanent deaths of your squad members all make XCOM 2 feel like a 30-hour anxiety attack. Chimera Squad, on the other hand, is much more forgiving, action-focused and has no perma-death. This makes it a much more approachable concern for newbies, although the stakes never feel quite as high and therefore the victories are never as dizzy.

Turn-based tactics remain the gameplay style, but a breaching mechanic, squad members with cool alien powers and easier-to-attain weaponry offer a more streamlined experience. This will likely not delight XCOM purists, but it does mean you get to appreciate the excellent world-building between missions, with genuinely clever ideas showcased in this brave new integrated world.

Ultimately XCOM: Chimera Squad is a bold, engaging experiment that delves into what might happen after the smoke clears from a defeated alien occupation. Some may be a little put off by the brighter tone and streamlined gameplay, but the charms here are many and using the same powers that so definitively kicked your arse in XCOM 2 is a hoot. An imperfect game, to be sure, but one that also offers an engaging and tantalising epilogue and perhaps a preview of things to come in future entries.

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Carrion

July 30, 2020 Game, Gaming, Home, Horror, Review, sci-fi, This Week Leave a Comment

Carrion

Even the most casual gamer will have spent hours of their in-game lives hunting and destroying monsters. Whether the setting is a pristine laboratory, an abandoned warehouse or sinister factory, it’s likely you’ll have splattered an irate organism or cranky xenomorph across it many times over. But what if you weren’t the heroic human in the story? What if, in fact, you were the slime-slicked creature crawling through the vents? That is the premise of Carrion, a game that really shows how much difference a change of perspective can make.

Carrion puts you in the pulsating biomass of a nameless beastie being experimented on in a laboratory. At the beginning of the game you manage to escape from a canister as a small but swift critter, and then it’s time to evolve, increase in size and power, and find your freedom. Oh, and you’ll massacre and absorb a metric tonne of quivering, screaming, terror-scented human flesh along the way.

Of all the many things Carrion does right, its best element by far is the way the monster feels to play. The rapid, slithering, tentacular movement remains exhilarating from minute one to the conclusion four or five hours later. Sweeping out of vents to grab scientists and rip them in half, punching through obstructions like a tumescent wrecking ball and letting out a roar before you engulf multiple victims like a wave of malignant meat is just… wonderful. If you’re of a slightly demented mindset like your humble reviewer, you’ll likely spend much of the game cackling like a cartoon banshee, much to the chagrin of flatmates and cats.

The graphics too, in a crisp engaging pixel art style, tickle all the right retro gaming receptors and are a joy to behold. Slightly less successful is some of the exploration, with a few of the environments reading too similarly to deliver legible landmarks, which can lead to some frustrating and confusing navigation loops, compounded by the lack of a map. Also, players expecting a strong narrative or enticing backstory will likely be left a little cold, because it’s pretty threadbare.

Still and all, the story is not what Carrion is about. This is the type of clever indie game that saw the incredible third act of Playdead’s Inside and went “yeah, let’s do a whole game of that!” and it’s as giddy and satisfying as that sounds. Certainly, the short length and repetitive gameplay will give some pause, but for those who always felt like The Thing from John Carpenter’s The Thing got a raw deal, Carrion will provide splattery catharsis. And in the end, it turns out ol’ mate Friedrich Nietzsche was right: when fighting monsters you yourself do become a monster… and it’s a fucken hoot!

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