Battlefield 2042 - The day the Hovercraft came

 Its been just over three years since I sat down and played Battlefield 5 for the first time. Three years and two days since I wrote my review in fact. Reading that back today was a trip, especially after the rollercoaster ride that DICE subjected us to with the drip feed of content over its lifespan... Let me just say right out the gate that I was a bit hasty to give BFV an 8/10. This time around I am a bit more - how do you say it - cynical with regards to how DICE are going to handle things this time.

My Battlefield collection may not be complete, but I love it nonetheless

I'm really torn on how to start this. I have a large pile of 'this sucks' and a small pile of 'this is good' and no matter which I put first I feel like im still not conveying the message I want to convey - that's just how much of a mess this game is. On the whole? It's 'good'. As of right now I have a good 30 hours logged, with the majority of that spent on the All Out Warfare mode. Portal was something I was really stoked for but its just kind of fallen flat with the custom rules editor that was touted as the main selling point being locked to TDM and FFA modes, and things in general just not being really as flexible as the community had come to expect. Hazard Zone may be fun but its not a mode for me - if I wanted to play Tarkov with no progression id just play Tarkov and not upgrade my hideout, and not jump into Battlefield for that fix. 

The main menu for 2042

So All Out War is my jam, and probably will be where I spend the rest of my time playing the game unless they pull out something wild for Portal in the future. The seven maps on offer are a mixed bag for sure. Manifest is head and shoulders above the others, a joy to play both on Conquest and Breakthrough which is more than can be said for some others. Its a decent size with a good mix of play spaces and seems to be the map that has had the most time put into designing for sure. Contrast that to Kaleidoscope and Hourglass which are practically wide open fields with little in the way of useful cover and you very quickly find yourself at the mercy of a team that is competent in vehicle use, which is further compounded when your own team seemingly doesn't understand what a rocket launcher is. The other maps are all fairly decent but just not to the same quality as Manifest. 

Being average is honestly the theme around here, which is fine but when you think that this game has had three years in development with FOUR dev teams working on it, you really do start to wonder where the time went and what the teams did with it - even allowing for concessions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The most egregious is just how fragmented and unintuitive the UI and UX flow is throughout the game. The menus suck, customising weapons in a match sucks, seeing who is in your squad while not in a match is tucked into its own social tab for *reasons* and this is nothing to speak of issues console players face with navigating these menus on controller. Quality control has definitely taken a backseat at EA for this title, the whole menu experience just feels like a cheap F2P knock off and not at all what you would have expected from DICE especially after the complaints over the menus in BFV.

Balance is another area where things just seem very questionable, which is frankly absurd considering the slim offerings across the board in terms of weapons, gadgets, vehicles and specialists. Of the 22 weapons in the game (that's three sidearms, three SMGs, four assault rifles, three DMRs, three sniper rifles, two LMGs, two shotguns and a lever action rifle) about half of them are usable due to horrendous bloom and spread on the automatics paired with gratuitous visual recoil. Notably SMGs seem unaffected by this meaning the majority of any given server will be using the PP-29 which makes the already small pool of weaponry seem even smaller than it is. Vehicles are split between a selection of faction agnostic transport vehicles and then a faction pool  consisting of a tank, a transport helicopter, an attack helicopter and a jet. The faction pool is functionally the same vehicle for either side with a different skin - the only exception here are the MV38 Condor and the F35E Panther for the US faction as they can switch between a hover mode and and a more traditional jet mode. Despite this, unlocks are separate for these faction specific vehicles despite there being no clear reason for it especially when you cant choose which faction you play as. Vehicle play on the whole right now is incredibly frustrating as you feel incredibly fragile no matter what you do, but conversely when faced with an enemy vehicle they just seem to be invincible - see my quip about playing on teams that don't know what a rocket launcher is. The icing on the cake? The Hovercraft is hands down the dumbest vehicle in the game. Not only is it possible to scale literal vertical walls and fly through the map with them, the minigun they are armed with by default can rip apart helicopters in no time at all while doing no damage to hovercrafts on the other team for no reason at all. For a transport vehicle they are currently way too durable and you will often find at least three hovercraft on each side just swarming objectives and being way too obnoxious.

These are the only weapons I have access to after 30 hours of gameplay

Specialists are a nice concept, but right now the meta is very solidly 'play Falck if you are an infantry player' with others falling by the wayside. Her ability to heal herself is just far and away the most useful thing for a majority of players as it lets you bring an ammo box and just be a one man army. Casper sees good usage on Breakthrough as you can very quickly rack up spotting score very safely, and Angel is pretty decent for being able to distribute armor packs to friendly players. Sundance and their wingsuit are super fun to play with when you can get some elevation to properly use it, opening up some really neat flanking opportunities especially when paired with a spawn beacon. Other specialists are just kind of 'meh' on the whole. Rao and his hacking gadget is a great concept but currently it is really obnoxious to use - the slightest obstruction between you and the target will cause its long use time to reset. For some reason Mackay and Paik are locked behind levelling which is weird because while Mackays grapple is strong, its not strong enough to warrant being level gated - Paik I would have agreed with being level gated except her infamous wallhack gadget got nerfed into oblivion before launch and is now almost entirely worthless. I wonder just what they are going to do with the specialists we are going to get each season as right now it already seems like we have everything we need and anything new is just going to be more overlap that nobody will really take up after investing time on cosmetics for the characters they are playing right now. 

The games current roster of specialists

Graphically the game is about on par with BFV, which is a shame considering how often prior titles would constantly push the bar. Maps like Breakaway and Manifest look great and detailed but then you contrast that with Hourglass and Kaleidoscope and its just barren landscape with a handful of buildings scattered about. The specialists themselves all look unique and have nice designs although the current cosmetic offerings are virtually all just color swaps with very few actual model edits or swaps - I hope we see more different and interesting skins going forward.

On the topic of performance I don't really have anything bad to say - I am running a 5600x with 16gb of RAM and an RTX 3080 and pull a constant 90+ FPS on ultra settings at 1440p. I do however see general consensus online that optimisation is almost non existent, with performance being incredibly hit and miss. There does seem to be a good chance of a memory leak existing within the current build too, though I also haven't seen that myself. Server performance on the other hand is incredibly poor at times, constant rubber banding and lag spikes really put a damper on things. The move to 128 player matches may be a factor here but im not entirely sure, though that could explain the lack of detail in most maps perhaps? Either way the increased scale just really doesnt feel too great to play with, which is a shame because years ago after playing MAG on the PS3 all I wanted was more massive scale shooters. Perhaps 64 really was enough after all?

Before I wrap things up I have a couple of other things I should mention. There is no scoreboard in game for god knows what reason. Its not something I really care for in general, it being gone doesnt bother me though it was nice to see when there is clearly a hacker on the other team. Not being able to switch teams or do ANYTHING in terms of squad management in game really does suck though. Gone are the days of 8+ of us joining the same server to play some BF as you cant leave the random squad you end up getting put into if you aren't part of the first squad to join a server, and then after the game ends you have to requeue into matchmaking to get into another. Its a real pain for our group in particular as we are often at least 6 players so it ends up with us just splitting off into two groups of 3 and just having less fun in general. A server browser would help in this regard, but at the same time we never used it in BFV and didn't have this issue so theres that. The complete lack of a stats page or platoons is just icing on the cake. It just feels like this game was rushed through development with no clear direction by amateurs, when in reality it was a three year dev cycle including world class talent from DICE, Ripple Effect (formerly DICE LA), EA Gothenburg (formerly Ghost Games) and Criterion. The fact that it feels like we have gone backwards from BFV is very worrying, especially when it comes to future content and how slowly that came out of the pipe there.

Why do I have to click the social tab to see my party? Why doesn't that show on the menu?

Overall I don't think BF2042 is bad, but I definitely don't think its anything special. Its fun to play with friends, but don't expect anything great as a solo player (but at that point why are you playing Battlefield anyway?). Future content is make or break for the game, with season 1 reportedly not starting until early next year I fear that the game could be dead on arrival which is a shame because it is unmistakably battlefield at heart and the gameplay loop is great fun. I wish at times though that we never moved on from the Premium DLC model - getting substantial updates to the previous games was always a guarantee and while splitting the player base did suck there are definitely ways around it. With some balance passes and new maps this game could be up there with BF2, BF4 and BF1 but until then it scores a very average 6.5/10 from me.

Resident Evil 2 Remake: Good or not?

So we start 2019 with the remake to '98s legendary Resident Evil 2. For those of you unfamiliar with the premise; the game sees you in the shoes of Claire Redfield, a college student and younger sibling of the prior games Chris, or Leon, a rookie cop coming to Racoon City for his first day on the job. The pair by chance meet up before promptly being split apart again and deciding to head to the police station to get to the bottom of whatever caused the zombie apocalypse to strike this unassuming midwestern US city. The remake has high expectations to overcome, so let's see how it did!

First things first, let's talk about the narrative direction and map layout of the remake. For the most part, it follows the original to a tee; you progress from the police station to the sewer, to the lab. The main story beats are still there - the characters you meet are all the same and at relatively the same times, with a few surprises along the way. However, things are definitely in different places. The locker room is now a side room and not something you will be passing through every time you want to go back to the main hall from the darkroom in a hurry; the library now borders a small lounge, and the third floor has had a complete overhaul. Everything after the police department is COMPLETELY different in terms of layout. Somehow though, Capcom has nailed it. While things are different, it still *feels* like the RE2 I know and love.

The elephant in the room is probably going to be the gameplay for a lot of people - I was hesitant with it running in the same vein as RE4 and its successors but my word does it play wonderfully. The camera and controls are solid (even the mouse and keyboard controls are 100% usable and comfortable at that) and while some enemies are much more bullet spongey than I would like, it will make sense why they are like that when you play. I had to restart my first run because I ended up running out of ammo before the first boss fight due to trying to kill all the zombies I came across, I quickly realized the error in my ways and rectified it with my second run, deciding there to dodge enemies all together or kneecap zombies in high traffic areas to stop them coming through doors or lunging at me. Trust me when I say you will need the bullets and breathing room this allows you once you get past the first boss fight.

In terms of graphics... boy is this game deliciously good looking. Never before in a RE game have I really thought it warranted a 'scenes of explicit violence and gore' warning, but this time it most certainly does. Shooting enemies leaves gouges in the flesh, zombies can be de-limbed and decapitated, some of the boss fights later on feature some very juicy damage too. Fans of body horror will be right at home. Aside from this though, Capcom has really struck gold with the lighting engine. The contrast between brightly lit rooms to pitch black corridors with only your flashlight and the moans and skittering of enemies to guide you... absolutely beautiful. In terms of animation, it is overall pretty good but some of the facial animations in cutscenes does feel very robotic, and I do think that Claire grins far too much for a zombie apocalypse but I suppose that's just a personal gripe.

Audio is, like the animation, a mixed bag. Music is spot on and really hits home the atmosphere, as well as the voice acting - it is a much more mature and calculated script compared to the original although there is still a fair amount of signature cheese and cringe, especially when Claire and Leon are both on screen. Enemy sound effects are all sufficiently weighty and pleasing, be it the moans and wails of zombies or the dreaded pounding of the tyrants' heavy feet. Less can be said of the gunfire sounds - most could do with *something* more. Leons Lightning Hawk in particular sounds incredibly anemic for what should be a thunderous kick from the .50AE cartridges it spits out. Again, just a small gripe but one nonetheless.

In terms of features, it retains pretty much everything from its progenitor - you start off with Leon or Claires first 'A' scenario, and finishing it with one will unlock the second 'B' scenario for the other character. While the A scenarios are different for each character - both characters have different paths during the middle of the game, and each has an exclusively key for the police station - the B scenarios change up everything from the item placements and route through the game to enemy distribution and even boss fights. You will want to finish at least one A and B run to get the full experience and see the true ending to the game; in doing so with a B rank or higher on each run you will unlock the bonus '4th Survivor' minigame just like you could way back in '98. This will put you in the shoes of Hunk, a surviving USS member who is tasked from getting from the sewer all the way to the front gate of the RPD with a limited inventory. Those of you that manage to do so will unlock the hilarious Tofu survivor mode, essentially the same as Hunks run but with a much harder inventory of items. There is another 4 unlockable characters but I won't spoil the fun for you. Aside from those, sadly Extreme Battle doesn't return but Capcom has said that there will be extra modes coming in the future.

The most important thing for long time RE fans though is the character development. The characters from the original were admittedly a little flat; this is rectified very nicely with the remake. The character dynamic between Leon and Ada, and Claire and Sherry are much more natural this time around. Irons is a much more fleshed out character too - he is a much more sinister and vile man here, with various documents expanding on what you see in cutscenes. Anette is similarly expanded upon compared to the original and is actually fairly likeable here but I won't go into detail because of spoilers.

My only real gripe with the game are the boss battles. They feel very... outdated. Its almost as if they were lifted from the original with virtually no regard to the new controls - they boil down to basically standing still and unloading your small arsenal until the foe gets too close forcing you to run to a new spot to resume firing. There is a boss fight requiring a special mechanic to beat but other than that they just feel lacking and flat in an otherwise very vibrant game. A dodge button even only for the boss fights would improve things a fair bit, as well as perhaps obscuring the arenas from view - twice during the game I found myself walking along and saying to myself 'oh I guess that's a boss fight' before being proved right and it kinda ruins the surprise a little.

In conclusion, I would say this is probably one of if not the best remakes in gaming, as well as hands down the best Resident Evil game. It is an incredibly solid overhaul to the original while retaining everything that made it great. The atmosphere is a lot more refined with there being times where if you let it the game will genuinely scare you. While its run time for an average player is around 8-10 hours if you play through only one A and one B scenario, it is a very high-quality game and probably one of the best horror games on the market. Definitely worth full retail price in my opinion although some of you may want to wait for a sale due to its comparatively low $ to gameplay hour ratio.

Overall verdict: RE2 is an incredibly immersive and atmospheric survival horror game that earns a 9.5/10, losing out on a perfect score due to its poor handling of boss battles and a handful of poor animations and audio sfx.

Battlefield V: WW2 Hero, or knock-off zero?

Hey folks! To preface this review ill give a bit of my background in the series; I have been playing Battlefield games since BF2 although I did skip 2142 sadly. BF2 to me was amazing and still is one of my favorite shooters of all time. Really enjoyed the Bad Company games, BF3 and 4 were solid, Hardline was decent but aside from the SP didn't really rise above its predecessor. With BF1 there came a big shift to the gameplay and while I did still put many, many hours into it, it just didn't resonate like the others did. Does BFV change that? Let's see!

Let's start with the obvious; the game looks and sounds amazing. The visual fidelity of Frostbite still amazes me with every new game DICE puts out - but the aesthetic is great too. I did have small reservations about how things were going to look after the initial trailers but they really have nailed the authentic WW2 feel here, and the customization options you can unlock don't really hurt this either which is nice. The bursts of automatic fire ringing out around you as you push through maps is fantastic too (maybe in part because it reminds me a lot of the old Command & Conquer rifleman sounds!) and really lends a hand to immersing you in the scene.

On the topic of customization, things are currently very limited, with there being some camouflage options unlockable for each of the classes through their proficiency assignments unlocked at class rank 10, and a complete set unlockable through mastery at class rank 20, as well as a selection of other outfits available for purchase with the company coins earned through general play. Guns have a similar host of cosmetics, with some being purchased with company coins, some being unlocked as you rack up kills with them, and others for completing the proficiency (gun level 5) and mastery (gun level 10) assignments. Overall I enjoy this system although there are small gripes with the sights being locked to certain cosmetic options (I would love to have the nydar sight in the mint color scheme on my Suomi, but alas all I get is irons) for example but perhaps that will change later on.

I guess next ill follow with the bad things, as I'm sure that's what a lot of you will be more interested in; a fair few things that were announced in media when the game was first revealed are still missing from the game, coming later as part of the 'Tides of War' content update philosophy (Premium DLC is gone, replaced with free content drops every few months). Chiefly among these is the Battle Royale mode, Firestorm, although also included in this list would be the Practice Range, the final War Story 'The Last Tiger' and the ability to drag downed friendly soldiers. I'm sure I've omitted some things but these are really the meat and potatoes as it were. I understand that it was done to show off their live service model, but for sure it would have been a better decision in my opinion to have just delayed the game til perhaps February or March next year with all of these features packaged in; but then they would have missed out on the christmas rush and the sales that brings so...

Aside from this, there are some other small issues I have. The first would be soldier visibility in the multiplayer mode - it can be very hard seeing stationary foes on some maps depending on their faction (axis on Fjell 652 do a very good job of blending in with the snow for one). Another issue lies with outfitting your classes in the Company menu. Having to edit loadouts for the same class on each faction is very tedious, especially when neither faction has exclusive class-based items that affect gameplay - having to change their appearance is understandable but then having to go in and set up my assault with the same gun customization and gadgets on both factions is not ideal. Finally, assignments currently cannot be changed while between rounds, requiring you to fully quit out to the menu. This isn't a major issue but it would be nice to not have to interrupt the flow of my game just to progress my cosmetic unlocks.

Moving on, let's talk about the gunplay. Put simply, its great. It feels more akin to previous games in the series like BF3 and BC2, with each weapon class providing their own strengths and weaknesses. Gone are the sweet spots for snipers in BF1, gone is the horrendous suppression effects too; its a joy to shoot people again and that for me is the biggest plus for this game.

What good is great gunplay without talking about maps? There are eight of them in game at launch, with more coming as the Tides of War rolls around - we currently have two snow maps, two sand maps, two countryside maps, and two urban maps. These provide a good mix of different gameplay, with maps like Fjell 652 and Hamada being great air maps, Arras and Narvik play super nice with tanks and Rotterdam and Aerodrome are superb for infantry focus. Each of them are beautiful and feel good to play on regardless of your bias for how to play the game which is great when compared to some maps like Galicia and Fao Fortress from the predecessor.

Server-side, BFV has been smooth sailing all around, aside from a few isolated hiccups. Net code is very smooth and games have been very stable. There were some issues with reviving sometimes breaking mid round for everyone, and with the planes not spawning in Airborne game mode when all three were shot down at once but these have been fixed with the patch today, as well as a bug with bombs not spawning in both Airborne and Frontlines.

Before I conclude, I will say that the single player war stories are all very good too. Under No Flag and Nordlys give you a few different ways to play - I elected to play very stealthily as I was on the Hardcore difficulty where you will be downed by enemies incredibly fast - on one part of Under No Flag I was tasked with blowing up several objectives on a map, the idea being that I do that on foot with dynamite or some other explosive contraption... except I first made my way to the objective on the airstrip and noticed a vacant Stuka. Of course I hopped right on in and after a comical dialogue with a german traffic control officer I was in the sky and dogfighting before laying down bombs on all of the objectives from the sky. Nordlys has similar options (though not with planes sadly) and while Tirailleur is for the most part a more traditional linear jaunt through france, there are sections towards the end where you have the option of going stealthily too. For those of you that can grab all of the collectibles and finish the challenges, you can unlock a trio of unique melee weapons for the multiplayer; one of which is a rather dashing cricket bat wrapped in barbed wire!

To conclude I will say that BFV isnt a perfect game; there is a fair amount of content that is currently missing that would have been here in prior games, however with the exclusion of a premium pass like the others of recent history I would say that its a fair compromise. The gunplay is great, the single player is a nice chunk of gameplay if you are into that, the variety of weaponry is excellent and the new gameplay features are all fine additions to the battlefield formula. If you are a fan of shooters this game is definitely worth the asking price, and if not you can always grab it a year down the line with more content on sale.

For me, this game scores a solid 8/10.

The (re)advent of the Tank - Renault FT

Hi guys! Welcome back to my blog - its been a while since I have covered anything tank related but I am finding myself more and more recently with free time to fill so why not talk about tanks? As before I will be covering largely tanks from World War 2 through to the Cold War, with the odd modern tank perhaps thrown in (What? The Abrams is sexy...). To begin however, I thought it would be apt to go back to what is possibly the birthplace of the modern tank as we know it - the Renault FT.

--Specs--

Lets rattle through its technical specs first shall we? It weighed in at 6.5 tonnes, was 5 metres long by 1.74 metres wide by 2.14 meters high and seated two crew - a driver and a commander (who doubled as the gunner). The armor thickness was between 8 millimetres at its thinnest point to 22 millimetres at its thickest. It was initially designed to be armed with an 8 millimetre Hotchkiss machine gun but was later equipped with a 37 millimetre Puteaux cannon. Its engine was a 4 cylinder Renault design that gave it a power-to-weight ratio of 5 horsepower per tonne - with a full load of fuel (95 litres) it had an effective operating range of 60 kilometres.

--Construction History--

The FT was Renaults first venture into tank design. Louis Renault was approached by a Colonel in the French military in late December 1915 with plans for a tracked armoured vehicle - Renault initially declined citing that there was no way they would be able to spare the machinery/man power to create it. After a chance meeting 6 months later however, Renault reconsidered and jumped straight in.

Renault essentially changed everything in the Colonels original plans - he proposed that the FT should not weight more than 7 tons as he was certain that no engine produced at the time would be able to give it a sufficient power-to-weight ratio to give it the mobility requested of the Military. Its tracks were permanently under tension to reduce the chances of them coming free from the drive wheels, and a tail was added in order to allow it to cross trenches without becoming stuck.

Its initial turret was a rounded cast steel one, which as mentioned was designed to carry an 8 millimetre Hotchkiss machine gun - early on in 1917 however it was made clear that a 37 millimetre cannon would suit it better. This gun wouldnt fit in the turret though, so various designs were tested before settling on one designed by Paul Girod - this version was mostly cast with a few rolled parts. This updated turret could mount both guns and was generally an improvement in every aspect.

--Service History--

The Renault FT was used to varying degrees of success long after it should have found itself in the scrap heap. After its introduction late into World War I it found overwhelming success due to the war shifting from a stagnant trench war into a war of movement. They could swarm their enemy due to the vast quantity of resources the allies were massing in a bid to outproduce the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottomans) too which proved very effective indeed. By the time the war ended France had manufactured almost 3000 of them. Wow!

After the war many were exported to various countries, who then used the FT as their main tank. They saw combat in the Russian Civil War, Polish-Soviet War, Chinese Civil War, Rif War, Spanish Civil War, Estonian War of Independence and of course, World War 2. Not a bad track record eh?

--Wrap Up--

It was clear the French were onto a winner with the Renault FT from the start - the design was so starkly different from any of the other armoured vehicles of the time, so different that it proved incredibly flexible causing it to become the standard; Driver in front, Turret in the middle and Engine to the rear. Indeed it was the first tank to have a turret at all! I wonder if Louis realised how much of a game changer that would become, if he did his ego must have been huge...

Previously I was working on these once a week but honestly I dont even know if I can promise that (we all know how side tracked I get with things...) but I will try to keep these coming at a semi regular pace for you all, providing you enjoy them. My next piece is up for vote - pick a nation and let me know. Currently its a tie between Germany and Britain, so get in there!

Pick one!

Dark Souls - Prepare to die. A lot.

Dark Souls, unlike the previous games I have reviewed, is an older game. Much older, in fact. Why am I reviewing it? Simple. It is, in my opinion, the perfect RPG experience. That isn't to say it is without its flaws, but as a whole it managed to capture me like no other.

As you might have realised, I am a sucker for deep game experiences. In that regard, Dark Souls pushed every single one of my buttons. Ask anyone to sum up the game in three words and they will likely same roughly the same three words: 'You Have Died'. Dark Souls is a difficult game if you aren't familiar with its combat style, but I do feel the stigma around it being 'the hardest game evurrrr' is vastly blown out of proportion. It is designed to punish those players with no patience to learn how enemies attack, or the patience to explore.

The beginning of the game is as you might expect - a tool to teach players what mechanics they need, letting them practice combat on some fairly harmless hollow enemies, before plunging them into a pretty brutal boss encounter. This would be one of several points where a player might quit the game - the others that I can name off the top of my head would be literally just after arriving at Firelink Shrine after the Asylum Demon, the Capra Demon a short way past that, and Ornstein and Smough at the half way mark. I mean, every boss has that potential, but these parts are places where I think people will have the toughest times.

Either way, after arriving in Firelink Shrine, things get much tougher. The primary reasoning for this is the lack of signposting! This is a double edged sword - on the one hand the game tells you pretty much nothing unless you pay attention to the often cryptic clues the NPCs give you, and on the other it leaves you feeling super satisfied when you go into an area blind and clear it. It can be super frustrating to find yourself in an area with nigh on unkillable enemies (or in the case of a new player venturing to New Londo first, literally unkillable enemies). For example when I started playing, I thought my only options were the previously mentioned New Londo, and the Catacombs - both full of enemies that kicked the shit out me. It wasn't until I complained on facebook a friend hinted at another area I could go to.

You know what threw me off in this game though? PvP. To take part in any online activity in Dark Souls, you need to reverse the hollowfication process at a bonfire - be it co-op or pvp, as well as summoning NPCs and such. Anyway, my first invasion was just before the Bell Gargoyles atop the Undead Parish while venturing forth to summon Solaire. At that point, I had no idea what an invasion was so naturally I just dropped everything and ran to try and go into the fog gate - only to be greeted by a glowing red player dropping on my head and cursing me before my screen flashed up with 'You Died'. Upon spawning anew I was greeted with a nice pulsating egg sac on my bonce and a health bar that wouldn't fill past 50%. Needless to say I stopped playing for a few days. On my return I made a new character and powered through to the Capra Demon with the intention of never reversing my hollowfication again out of fear of another angry red ghosty slapping my shit around.

Essentially though, this double edged sword philosophy is carried throughout the game as a core principle. It teaches the player to be cautious and patient, not only with enemies but treasure - much of the game is filled with traps just waiting for you to place a foot wrong before sending you packing to the last bonfire you stopped at. Mimics really left me kicking myself for being so stupid too, so often I would blindly open it only to be swallowed like a bitch.

So, Marc, why haven't you talked about the story yet?! Well. Similarly how you are dropped into Firelink Shrine and largely left to your own design, the implementation of plot feels like an after thought. You get vague objectives but not much explanation for them unless you really start digging - NPC conversations and item descriptions are your biggest gateway to plot. Nonetheless, you do learn enough to make the final boss encounter very meaningful.

To wrap up,. I definitely feel that Dark Souls ranks as one of the best video games of all time, because of the combat, memorable boss encounters, deep and interesting lore (I just wish it was more readily available and I didn't feel I had to trawl a wiki to even begin to scratch the surface!) and the rush of excitement and satisfaction you get when you finally kill a boss you were stuck on, only to have that wiped away in half a second when you venture into a new area and get curb stomped by its rather angry residents. The difficulty curve, while somewhat steep, is perfect (assuming you leave the DLC for just before the final boss) and pretty much everything feels like it was designed with love and care. If dictionaries had pictures to describe their words, I think Dark Souls would certainly be the image below the RPG entry. Its a shame that Dark Souls 2 wasn't very good in comparison, eh?

Dark Souls is one of a few games privileged enough to earn a 10/10 from me - after finishing it, no other game has given me the sheer satisfaction that Dark Souls has. No other game has me simultaneously feeling in control while knowing if I make a mistake I will be punished severely for it. No other game has a final boss encounter mean so much to a player. And that soundtrack? Oh my god.

Star Wars: Battlefront (2015) - Why you shouldnt board the hype train

Star Wars Battlefront. Ask any 20-something and they will tell you it was one of the highlights of their childhood. Popping that disk into the PS2 and living their Star Wars fantasy, be it the Republic vs the CIS battling on Coruscant, or the Empire vs the Rebellion on Yavin IV, or blasting their way through the Imperial fleet above Hoth in an X-Wing. Battlefront 2 was a game that I could have played through the night for a week straight and still not get bored. It might shock you that after hearing that, the EA reboot is absolutely disappointing.

Lets start with my gripes, of which there are many, shall we? The obvious elephant in the room would be the distinct lack of content. Currently we have 13 maps, that doesn't sound too bad right? It doesn't until I mention that these 13 maps are on four planets and they are mode locked too. We have Tattooine - lots of sand, Endor - lots of trees, Hoth - lots of snow, and Sullust - Basically Hoth except its not snow and theres tons of lava. While the maps on each planet ARE different, they really don't feel special like the old Battlefront games maps did. They had far more soul than the Battlefront reboot, here they feel like fighting on a knock-off movie set. Did I mention that game modes are locked to different maps? Walker Assault uses one from each planet, and being as its essentially the only game mode that feels good to play, you get tired of the maps super quick. I have put about 7 hours into the multiplayer and 4 of those were spent in Walker Assault. I am tired of seeing an AT-AT trudge through sand and snow already.

You might be asking - why do I only rate Walker Assault as worth my time? Honestly, its the only game mode that I cant play a better version of elsewhere. Supremacy (the reboots version of poor version of Conquest) plays like Team Fortress 2's Symmetric Control Point mode. Why they decided this was a better choice than Conquest, I have no idea. Team Deathmatch is little fun due to the shooting mechanics (not to say they are bad, but they *are* too simple to enjoy TDM). Fighter Squadron was something I was super hype for until I discovered that the flight controls are LITERAL ASS. Seriously why couldn't they just use the Battlefield flight model? At least that worked... Can you see where I am going with this? And that isnt even touching the completely fucking backwards spawn system, its so frustrating when you get a hero character like Boba Fett or Darth Vader camping your spawn in Walker Assault and literally being unable to do ANYTHING.

The single player/co-op mode (Missions, as they call it) is also rather lacking. There are five short training missions that teach you various mechanics. These are probably the most offensive to me - they took the time to voice act these and give them their own unique maps only for them all to be done in 20 minutes? What's the point of that? The survival mode gives each planet its own map to hold out against 15 waves of gradually more difficult imperial troop and honestly if it didn't drag itself out for as long as it does it might be somewhat enjoyable. I would have liked customisable loadouts and something more than just popping a pod every couple waves for some RNG bullshit pick-ups that 9 times out of 10 are completely pointless. The last part, Battles is completely yawn inducing - you have what is essentially a Kill Confirmed game mode in either regular soldier version or hero version - you can do these against a friend which is nice I suppose - but ultimately its just a cute waste of time.

Thankfully it isn't all bad news. The game honestly looks gorgeous. Endor is stunning, as is Sullust. The attention to detail on the weapons, vehicles, characters.. hell *everything* is spot on. Not only does it look Star Wars, it sounds Star Wars. Nothing would be out of place in the movies and that is absolutely fantastic.

On the whole though I am, as I said, super disappointed by the game. I could excuse the lack of Space Battles, the lack of Galactic Conquest, the lack of prequel trilogy IF THERE WAS A GAME TO BACK IT UP. There is so much wrong with this that they had nailed with the previous installments that it just feels like it has no soul, no purpose other than to be a big ol' milk machine. DICE have said they will be supporting the game with free maps and modes (the Battle of Jakku content sounds nice) but I dont think it will last for long. When a game has fewer players than EVOLVE you know they fucked up.

I struggle to give Battlefront a 7/10, purely on merits of its audio/visual design. I think it was Totalbiscuit who said this game has the depth of a puddle, and honestly I dont blame him.

Black Ops 3 Review - THE FUTURE MASON, WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Welcome folks, to the first review on this blog. This time we are covering a very polarising game franchise indeed - Call of Duty. Its no surprise that most call every new release the same as the last with a new lick of paint - releasing yearly will do that to you - c'mon Activision, stop it already. In any case, that isn't strictly true. While many laud CoD 4 as the top dog, three stand out to me as being innovative. Modern Warfare 3, for its Strike Packages (why did they get rid of these? They were awesome. Score streaks are almost as good so its not a *huge* deal), Black Ops 2 for the 'Pick' system, and Advanced Warfare for the Exo mechanics. These are proof that Call of Duty ISN'T the same every year, and the main reason I get so peeved when people try to say it is.

Now, I realise a lot of people were put off from Call of Duty after the horrific mess that was Ghosts (Seriously what were they thinking? IT HAS A DOG GUYS. GAME OF THE YEAR) and the futuristic setting of Advanced Warfare - I have some good news and some bad. It isn't a shit heap like Ghosts, but it does still push the future spin. It retains the Exo mechanics somewhat, stripping away the abilities from it but still letting you boost jump and power slide, while also letting you wall run - it removed a lot of the upwards mobility but let you use the new features to attack from unexpected angles - its so fantastic to come blitzing around a corner on a wall and taking someone by complete surprise. It does take a bit of getting used to though if, like me the last Call of Duty game you played was Black Ops 2, so I do recommend hopping into single player first unless you don't mind getting stomped on for the early part of your multiplayer career.

Does Black Ops 3 pull Call of Duty back from the depths of despair? I think it just might.

I will start with covering the single player experience. You do get the choice of playing any mission right from the get go if you like, but I played through from the start, on Veteran, in co-op with my younger brother (Yes! Treyarch have brought back the co-op campaign, letting you smash through it with up to three buddies). It took us maybe an hour and a half to complete each mission, we weren't rushing particularly (he is a bit of a hoarder so we took the time to get most of the collectibles) but we didn't dally either. The single player game has a levelling feature similar to multiplayer now, letting you unlock different guns for you load-out in the pre-mission 'hub', along with new abilities for each of the three different cores available pretty early in the game. Each one focuses on a different aspect of combat, and these are explained in the second mission when you get access to them. Along with that you do get to customise your character with different armor and headpieces awarded after each mission as well as its gender (which you can change whenever you like by the way). The survival 'mini-game' has been included in the campaign hub too, accessible from the terminal with four seats near to the deployment area - I will be honest and say I didn't touch this but I figure it does what it says on the tin. Good for testing your new weapons and abilities I suppose if that's your jam.

Mechanics and systems aside, lets talk story quality. Personally? I think it is one of the best Call of Duty campaigns to date. It is nice and self contained, with plenty of twists - I thought I knew who the baddie was fairly early on - needless to say I was wrong. Kinda. Twists guys. It was a pretty emotional ride as you plow through, especially around halfway through the campaign - once you start getting to what you assume is the main plot point. Its hard to say more without spoilers but trust me - you really do start to feel pretty shitty. There were two missions that stood out as good fun for me - the first is about half way through the game. It contained a sequence where you have the option of going in guns blazing, or with provided suppressed sniper rifle, you can take everyone out stealthily and walk through without a care in the world. The other mission is towards the end of the game where you fight through an imagined World War 2 setting complete with American and Nazi soldiers, Tiger II's and giant dire wolves (wait what?). They also throw in a short Zombie sequence in here too - I must admit it did feel a bit tedious with how long that seemed to drag on for but it didn't really detract too much - and it *did* fit in with the narrative so I guess I will let them off. But yeah. The ending? Very good, and certainly not what I was expecting only hours before. And that's not to mention the nods to the past Treyarch entries - Nova 6, a poster of Mason, a nod to Menendez all lead to a nice and cohesive timeline throughout. Props Treyarch!

Once you complete the campaign you unlock the 'Nightmares' mode - essentially this completely changes the narrative of the campaign and throws zombies at you instead soldiers. I haven't had the chance to try this out yet, but its definitely something I plan on tackling when I have some time!

Speaking of Zombies, it wouldn't be a Treyarch game without a Zombies mode! Now now, you didn't think the Nightmares mode was all you were getting did you? Oh no. You get the same Zombies mode you know and love, barricades, mystery box et-al. The map you get on ship is set in a prohibition era Midwest America from what I can tell, with very unique characters - all with excellent VO lines, again as ever. This is by far the hardest launch map yet, with tight corridors, a handful of new enemies, new mechanics and a tough easter egg. What makes it special this time around? Well, the addition of gobblegum is nice, giving you pseudo-perks (depending on the color - some last for 3 rounds for example, some on a timer and some take action when you die or respawn) that do really change how you play in the later rounds. You start out with five unlocked, and you unlock more as you level up in the Zombies mode (yep, you level up in Zombies too!) as well as being able to gamble for single use 'mega' gobblegum which offer much more powerful and unique effects with a resource you get for playing - you can change your pack of five gobblegum from the lobby and activate them from machines in game for 500 points - the activation is random however so you don't quite know which of the five you are getting! Aside from the gobblegum unlocking as you level up, you do also get the option to customise the weapons you pick up from the wall or the box at different levels - starting with camo but later being able to add various attachments. Some might complain it makes the game easier but honestly, later waves get very tedious so a little extra in the early game isn't too bad. Again, a nice feature in my opinion - besides haven't we all wanted golden guns in Zombies?

And with that we come to the meat and potatoes - the main reason a lot of people purchase Call of Duty. The fast paced multiplayer arena spectacle combat. I used to hear so many complain about people camping - well the good news is that its pretty much GONE. At least, I haven't noticed any in the couple of hours I have put in - there is a much bigger focus on moving all the time what with the exo 2.0 as it were. It feels a lot faster than Black Ops 2 did, and definitely has a bigger skill gap - being able to snap shot someone while doing a thrust jump or a wall run is pretty difficult if you haven't used these mechanics before but when you master them you will feel great and your scores will really sky-rocket. The maps also have a much bigger vertical aspect to them than previously, gone are the days of Modern Warfare's flat, rectangular obstacle strewn maps, replaced by the pitfall laden up-and-down cluster fucks of Black Ops 3. Its really hard to put it into words, but essentially I'm telling you it is VASTLY different to the Call of Duty you know and love (or hate!) while still retaining a lot of the familiarity.

It does away with Advanced Warfare's character customisation in favor of tying an ability and signature weapon to each character - there is a huge selection (half unlocked at the onset, the others unlock as you level up) of characters, men, women, a robot... each have their own VO too which is nice to hear. I have played with Battery pretty much exclusively, as my first unlock token went towards unlocking her Kinetic Armor - an ability that deflects bullets from her torso but still leaves her vulnerable to head shots and non-bullet damage (Semtex will mess up your day). I did unlock the Gravity Spikes for Ruin, a rather gruff looking fellow - the Spikes do a ground pound style attack where you leap forward and slam down for often devastating damage which increases for the distance you travel before hitting the ground (both vertical and horizontal). Sadly I didn't really enjoy that too much so promptly switched back to Battery for a bit before unlocking Outriders Vision Pulse. This is a short range radial burst that highlights enemies through walls and obstacles - very handy indeed.

All in all the multiplayer feels pretty new and exciting to me, with a lot of depth, customisation, and opportunity for a high skill ceiling. All great stuff! Couple that with a fantastic campaign experience, stellar zombies mode and the reintroduction of mod tools for PC - something we haven't seen for a while and honestly a dearly missed feature, this will definitely keep the Zombies mode alive for plenty of time to come. All things considered you get a fantastic complete game with plenty of new and interesting content to keep you occupied for at least the next year when we find out whether or not the next instalment is worth your money - because honestly this one definitely is. My only criticisms of the game are the aforementioned tedious zombies sequence in the main campaign, the complete switch to futuristic weapons (I miss my AK and SCAR dammit) and while it doesn't particularly affect me, the last generation releases (PS3 and Xbox 360) are VERY bare-bones, launching with no campaign, nightmares campaign, vast amounts of missing multiplayer features and a lack of split screen in addition to a very downgraded visual quality have led to some people questioning why they even bothered. To note however, Treyarch didn't have any hands on with this version, it was developed jointly by Beenox (of Skylanders fame) and Mercenary Technology. Either way it is still inexcusable when compared to previous instalments on those consoles.

Overall I would say the PC version is very much deserving of a solid 8 out of 10, thanks to its solid features, narrative and the inclusion of mod tools.
The current console generation releases getting a 7 out of 10 because of the lack of mod support.
Finally, the last generation version earns its self a disgusting 5 out 10 because honestly there was no need for it. Nobody asked for it, especially not in that state.

I hope you enjoyed the review, if you did (or didn't!) I would appreciate some feedback! Next week we will try and get around to Fallout 4 if I can pry it away from my brother for a while. Otherwise look forward to a Battlefront review as I did just pick that up on Origin. Take care guys!