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!

The Review Reboot

Hi there! I have been pondering whether or not tI should do something with this blog for a while, and well now is the perfect time to get it back up and running. Instead of looking at tanks, we are going to be focusing more on games, similar to my last post - this time we are strictly reviewing a single game at a time. I decided this is a decent idea, because friday nights (game night with the JPF guys) we tend to talk about games when people are too drunk/high/tired to carry on gaming - that and the recent fallout release - both of these prompt a lot of thought and usually too much for me to explain on the spot. So? Reviews.

Will be scheduling one a week, to go up on Sunday in the afternoon. At first I was just going to do text but I need screenshots anyway so I figure I could record gameplays and what not and do a voice over on top. This will be the same as the text version for those who prefer to listen/watch . I might do some extra ones here and there in the week if I get time etc, but I will be putting at LEAST one up a week for you on Sunday.

With that in mind, I have a handful of ideas for games to review already - the first (going up on sunday) is a Black Ops 3 review - I can hear you groaning already but please give it a fair shot. After that I was toying with Fallout 4, Dark Souls, Resident Evil 2, Starcraft 2 Legacy of the Void and Warhammer End Times: Vermintide. If you have suggestions also, please let me know and ill see what I can do!

Before I leave, I will let you ponder this image - gee I wonder which I will be using as a basis for my reviews?! Take care folks!