gamingandeducating

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bring back purple consoles you cowards

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I did my best to add everyone I could - at least everyone I care about.

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Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled Concept Artworks

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Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled

After the success of the Crash N-sane Trilogy the next logical step for some fur-k love was always going to be Crash Team Racing. This time seeing a release on all major consoles and giving everyone a chance to really put their skills to the test with an online mode. However, can CTR ever really challenge the King of Kart races, Mario Kart, with a remake of a 1999/2003 game?

CTR feels really good, while I was young and have fleeting memories of the original, it feels authentic to what made CTR different from Mario Kart and that was the drift boosting. To experience the high octane and fast paced racing you really need to be boosting for lots of the track. It took me a few hours to fully understand this, part of it was down to learning the tracks too, but when I got the hang of it I found that I was enjoying it far more. The collection of the wumpa fruit also has a further incentive with the overpowered weapons that come along with it if you have a power up while having the full amount of wumpa. While this is a nice bonus to get if you have it, I also find that it is overly reliant on the maxed out wumpa as this also boons you with a speed increase. It kind of creates a two tiered system that makes the need for the rubber banding more prevalent. The power ups feel powerful, but also avoidable. There is no nuclear option and there is normally something you can do to limit the damage done, partially or completely, if you find yourself in the crosshairs of a rocket or tnt. I appreciate this and it makes it feel more active in your defence of your position. That being said, the rubber banding is strongggggg in this game. The distance between first and last is normally tiny and there is a constant changing of positions. While it was cool when I was playing with friends because you have that reaction of seeing them more often, it becomes infuriating when the drive of your life has only put you half a second in front of another driver. If I had to say the reason for this I would point my finger at the philosophy of track design which I will talk about next.

The track list is comprehensive with well over enough races to keep you finding new ways to race them for more than a solid weekend. The adventure mode treads you through about half of the roster (annoyingly repeating some of these for boss battles) but they are clearly designed to make the most out of the slide boost function. While this is definitely something that makes CTR stand out it does mean that we dont have many maps that focus on long stretches or weaving lines and only ranges of tight turns. I would have loved to see some more variety in race design as the focus on drift boosting leaves each race feeling too similar. There are some interesting dangers on some levels and these do add some spice to the laps and with the tightness between racers you really feel the need not to get caught by a spider or a piranha plant just as much as you feel the need not to be hit by a projectile. A real highlight of CTR is the shortcuts. Your access to them depends on your technique and this, I feel, is the only way that you can break free of the pack and claim first prize and if you hit every short cut perfectly it is nigh on impossible to not win with time to spare. 

My best CTR experience was with friends, as is most kart racers, but when someone started to exploit the short cuts is when I found the game to be least fun. There was never a middle ground between someone barn storming it and everyone clumped together over the finish line, while the former felt insurmountable the latter felt indeterminate and ultimately both made me feel like there was little I could do to make a difference. I am sure this is an unintentional analogy for the value of drifting, you either crash into the wall or you fly round with no middle area, but I was frustrated by the whole ordeal even if I was laughing through my frustrations. As a continuation of this the point system compounded my annoyance as points were only given out for the top 4 spaces given 5th through 8th zero points! Perhaps this is where the differentiations really was a kick in the teeth and first place breaks away. For a game that seemingly trys it’s best to keep everyone together the end of each cup does it’s best to separate everyone out. I would have preferred the opposite to be the case but maybe thats because I was normally 5th and below!

CTR was a fun weekend and couple of evenings worth of a game. It hit every nostalgia factor possible but will not be challenging for the premier kart racer in my heart but I look forward to what comes next for the jean-short wearing bandicoot now the nostalgia era games are all remade, sequel anyone? 

#Crash #Crash team racing #CTR #Crash bandicoot #PS4 PRO #Switch #Nintendo #Xbox one #Xbox one x #ps4 #playstation #kart racer #racing game #video game review #game review

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Rage 2

When Rage 2 was announced I think the overwhelming comment was “Really?” and this continued confusion lasted all the way until I rolled credits on the game.

The combat is arguably the strongest (and potentially only good) thing about this game. Each weapon feels weighty, useful and incredibly enjoyable to use. The secondary mode of fire gives a small range of different uses for each gun, although the upgrades that are on offer to each of these guns is incredibly unimaginative. Enhancements like “Shoot faster”, “Reload quicker” are all useful but so generic that you could probably guess what the rest of the upgrades will be. The abilities are also really fun to use and the slam makes you feel like a super hero. This should definitely be what you plunge all of your materials into. The only form of weapon that is lacking is the thrown weapons. I only really used the bladed boomerang and this was to try and get out of using ammo for something more useful. All of these ways to kill are fun and easy to get to grips with and to their credit are probably the only reason I spent so long with the game. Everything else though...

Okay, so the game looks good from afar but this colourful world is potentially the most drab and boring world i’ve spent any time in. The town’s are all bright and colourful and populated with people doing random stuff for the sake of randomness but theres no reason for any of it. It’s all superficial and tedious to a point where I played most of this game listening to podcasts because there was nothing of interest in the world. The environments are brown, green and grey with a couple of activities to do at any one time but I had no motivation to do more than I had to. I had so little reason to explore other than go to the Arks that one zone on the map is almost completely blank as I was bored by the time I got to that area. It didn't help that the vehicles are tanks and with that become tank like controls. Even the bikes had tank like controls. They made turning a corner an exercise in extreme breaking and not one that was easy without a mini-map. These vehicles also felt redundantly slow and limited how far I wanted to travel because of the sheer grind it took to get there. 

Last of the big points to mention about the game is the story and my word what a turgid affair this is. The incident that is meant to inspire you at the start of the game is not impactful in the slightest, the characters that you ally with are lacking flavour and the antagonist is simply a cliché of tropes. The only character that  I actually found myself interested in was a lieutenant of sorts for the Big Bad Guy and was sadly killed in a cutscene. Thanks for that... Worse than the bad character designs though is pretty shocking missions. Go here, kill this, collect this, come back, for each of the three people you need to impress and then you go into the final mission. I’m not going to argue that more time with the game would have made it better, but it would have given me the opportunity to know these characters and their motivations more. 

My experience with rage 2 was laden with bugs or technical misrunnings. The last boss glitched 3 times causing me to hard reset to fix it. The facial animations when talking were not quite Andromeda levels of bad but they were close but worst of all were the menus. The movement from each of the sections on the menu takes so long (I was running on an xbox one x) and this was so bad it made me not want to go in to the menus and explore the systems. Each click down in a sub-menu took an age to register, either the sound, graphic or information failed to play in sync to such an extent it genuinely made me feel unsettled. With this came the multitude of systems and resources that you had to collect, spend and understand. To upgrade a gun you needed to unlock the level and then with a different resource spend a mod point but only one per level which is different to the project points and different to the autoparts for vehicles and then different to the abilities. It was just too much.

Rage 2 took me about 10 hours to complete and I was probably done with it at about 5 hours with the only reason I finished it was that I knew it would be short. This is a game that you should not buy at anywhere near full price and should only be purchased if you have other media you need to catch up on while blowing up some generic enemies in an equally generic world.

#Rage 2 #fps #rage #bethesda #avalanche studios #xbox one #xbox one x #ps4 #ps4 pro #pc games #PC #video games #video game review #shooter

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Hue

This puzzle platformer is brilliant. It requires a keen mind, or at least a mind that can keep multiple rules in your head at once, a dextrous set of fingers and patience in the latter stages where the game loses a bit of steam but worth pushing through for the satisfaction of the credits.

The basic premise is that you can change the environment so that one colour disappears from the level, this might mean that the obstacle blocking your way no longer presents an issue, or later in the game, that you need to move something without one of the colour sprays changing it’s colour. As you progress through the game you gain access to more colours creating a natural progression and a satisfying loop, at times this gets a little overwhelming but the game does a good job at teaching you before testing you. The only time I have a gripe with this is when the later levels have almost every colour involved and the level is actually about 3 mini puzzles, all with dangers in them and even if you get the right idea, a slip of the thumb on the colour circle will mean that you have to start at the very beginning of the level. Loads are fast enough but this felt unnecessarily punishing when this isn't a precision platformer. When the game does give you gauntlets to run, like the corridor chase scenes, it shows that your nimbleness is a factor to success and these are really enjoyable because they are fast, however the puzzle/dex test is too much for my heart and head to take. 

The game makes a big deal out of getting a new colour, but the game is really the same from start to end in terms of what you can do and so each new colour only seeks to make the game harder by having another factor to consider. The best thing about the collecting new colours though is the letters to Hue. The story is told in these monologues to Hue from his mother and they are insightful and border on magical realism. The game’s thematic thrust is about what is real and what is our perception of real, sure theres a more obvious narrative about a university and Dr Grey, but I didn't have much time for that, it felt like there needed to be an emotional pull rather than be brave enough to say that this game is about the nature of our world. It didn't take away from my experience though and i’m sure some people would have liked the personal quest to find one’s family.

My first 3.5 hours through Hue were amazing. It was easy to pick up and play over several short sessions. This speaks to how simple the game play is and how well the game teaches you. The university section though... It is unnecessary to a point of brutality. Several levels had me yelling, one stopped me playing for a week because of the frustration it gave me. These levels were just too long to be fun and it ground my game to a halt. Given my time again I wouldn't rush to finish this section but I had such a good day going through I really wanted to get it finished. Overall, a really sharp, pleasant game that at it’s best makes your brain work and gives you a smug sense of satisfaction as you finish a level. At it’s worst it makes you only see red. 

#puzzle #puzzle platformer #platformer #game review #video game review #xbox one x #xbox one #ps4 #ps4 pro #games #video games #colour #hue #hue review #pc game

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Life Is Strange 2: Episode 2

While Episode 1 started off the Diaz brothers absconding from the law, meeting everyone’s favourite fictional travel blogger, getting captured by a weird old guy, learning which berries to eat and to avoid AND owning a puppy, you would expect episode 2 to follow up the bumper episode with more action and start driving the plot forward, sadly not.

So straight out the gate, what the fuck guys? Really? Mushroom? Life is Strange has also been good at giving you ownership of your choices and made the characters contingent on your decisions, or at least given you the illusion that this was the case, but within about 10 minutes your dog dies with (from what I can tell) no way for you to avoid this. I am not against these set piece events that are unavoidable in order to have the narrative impact and give the motivation to characters to move forward, but this had no impact for me. Mushroom is introduced late in episode 1 and killed in the first chapter of episode 2 and this leaves me to ask the question, is this here for shock value? And sadly my answer is, yes. It feels unnecessary, almost like the worst parts of the walking dead or GOT, the idea that the devs need to be hard-arsed and hit you in the gut unrelentingly. The choice that they gave was semi-interesting but for me the whole thing smacked of needing a hook for the episode and this was the choice they made. 

The episode moves on and we meet Sean and Daniel’s grandparents. They are written and acted brilliantly. They are quite clearly not your classic warm and cuddly grandparents who wrap you up in warm blankets and pull at your cheeks, but the week you spend with them does offer them an opportunity to grow and develop this side. In this section we also meet Chris, AKA Captain Spirit. I didn't play Captain Spirit and after some reading about what happened I am really glad I didn't. I thought Chris was a normal kid, not unlike myself at that age, making up stories, running around, falling off shit and his dad was just a guy going through relationship problems, however the metaness of the whole thing would have lead me to play this whole sequence differently. While I was uncomfortable in Chris’s dad’s truck as he told me about how hard he finds life, it was because I was a teenager who didn't know how to deal with this random guy spilling his heart to me and not because this guy beats his kid. For me this was a better theme to hit on. The idea that behind normal family issues might be bigger, darker problems and I think I will go back to Captain Spirit now (although like I said, I think playing CS first would have ruined this experience rather than adding to it). I also enjoyed the scene at the market, it was pleasant and I felt safe for myself and my brother. So safe in fact that I spent money which I had been hoarding the weeks prior. The interaction with Cassidy was meh and I couldn't help but feel how superficial and manufactured this interaction felt, but we did pick a Christmas tree, so its not all bad.

The last act was pretty dumb as well and I hated most of it. The “breaking in” to your mum’s room was boring as hell and when you got in there all the advice about being careful just goes out the window. I get it, you’re kids, but actually Sean is surprisingly mature and knows his way around the cautious brother routine, and yet doesn't keep an ear out for the grandparents returning from church and instead gets stuck reading a letter that seems to be a paragraph long for about 2 minutes. Its just a bit ridiculous and my emersion was completely shattered when Sean couldn't say (the writers didn't provide me with) anything that could have shown how absurd it is that my grandparents hide my mother’s presence from me. Where LIS excels is that it’s dialogue feels pretty real, sure the hella’s and cool kid speak is not frequent in my everyday conversation but the content of the conversation is fair and they normally present me with a choice that I would say in that situation, however this time they didn't. I was always defending myself as opposed to attacking the lies and secrecy and that didn't feel right for a 16 year old full of idealism. I am in two minds about the final choice as I am not sure what the consequences of it truly were but that is when games of the genre work best. When the decision you make doesn't have obvious consequences or when we look back and say “X happened because I did Y” but the subtle ripples are often the most satisfying. 

This episode felt like filler in all of the worst ways. There was little to no character progression, little backstory and remarkably little consequence. I think most worryingly of all I still dont know what the point of Season 2 is and we are 40% through and I hope that it will gain some focus in the next weed filled episode. 

#xbox one #xbox one x #ps4 #ps4 pro #video games #video game review #life is strange #life is strange 2 #choose your own adventure #captain spirit

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider

The game touted as “the end of the beginning” released in 2018 had the unenviable task of following up from the critically applauded but commercially iffy Rise of the Tomb Raider and I think it ultimately failed in this endeavour. 

Much of the core mechanics were there. The tombs, the raiding, the platforming and the unnecessarily violent kills (both from and to Lara) but when I played through this game I found myself asking what was really new about this instalment. 

Lara’s South America journey is focused on the re-discovery and subsequent saving of a lost city, Paititi, in order to stop the Mayan Apocalypse which Lara may have had something to do with starting. While this was a cool framing device I have to say that the environments were pretty stale after a while. I am not asking for some geographical nightmare scenario where tropical meets tundra but I would have liked to have seen more variation in the terrain. Rise made excellent use out of the semi-open hub areas that gave the player a chance to explore between linear story segments and while they return in Shadow they feel less explorable and unless there was a tomb there I felt like there was little incentive to go and have a look around. Shadow did introduce a number of settlement type areas but these smacked of a lean to the open-worldification of the game and were so poorly. Of the 20 ish residents maybe 1 would have something they want you to do and one would sell you something. It was so unnecessary to include these groups as they add little to your experience and less to my enjoyment. Then there was Paititi (Spoilers), the lost city, who react surprisingly non-plused to your arrival besides a sense of mild distrust, like why the hell are these people as open to you as they are is beyond me. 

The most praiseworthy thing this game does is build the relationship between Lara and her family as well as Lara and Jonah. I haven't really been too fussed about the whole trinity storyline all the way through the games and would much rather go back to a “one shot” approach to each game, but the character development was great. It was rewarding to see Lara get knocked down from her two past victories in a way that made sense and to see the strain it was taking on her relationship with tomb raiding facilitator Jonah. 

The story is pretty forgettable, mixing elements of history, religion, culture, prophecy and the supernatural to varying degrees but the tone of the game was much stronger and darker. Whereas Rise was shown as her elevation to her status, Shadow feels much more about her title weighing her down and this translates really obviously into the gameplay. The tombs are going down further and require huge climbs through partings of rock to reach your destination all building into this idea of Lara being a shadowy raider. The emphasis on swimming was noticeable, even if it wasn't fun, and the length of time that Lara had to spend submerged in a given cave system was giving me claustrophobic vibes. 

The gunplay was great but I think that games like Gears of War still do this better and the classic archery/hunter mechanic is better done in Farcry, but where Shadow excelled was the tombs. Forget about the killing and guns, the puzzles and platforming in this game are brilliant. I would happily forego a massive world ending story to receive a £50 with 15+ of these tombs. They are designed so well that you know 90% of what you need to do by looking at them without the dynamic camera pan through to show you how to proceed and my experience was made so much better through the breaks that these tombs afforded me.  

The buzz and reception around these game’s release was flat and I have to say I completely understand why. This game doesn't do anything that is jaw-droppingly brilliant, the story won't blow you away in a trailer or in the 15ish hours of playing it and the game doesn't look that good. Instead it’s a slow burn that has some high points but won’t be enough for me to recommend this to someone at full price or in front of a plethora of other games in their backlog.

#xbox one x #xbox one #ps4 #ps4 pro #pc games #square enix #tomb raider #lara croft #shadow of the tomb raider #rise of the tomb raider #games #video games #review #game review #shooter #third person

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Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

Xcom 2 is one of my favourite games and I have to stop myself on a semi-regular basis and so when I first saw images of Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden I was very interested. The game released earlier this month uses a three man squad based half real time exploration and half turn based combat and scratches some of the itch left by xcom 2 in my life. 

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden takes place in a dystopian future after some epidemic has ruined civilisation and lead to the mutations and salvaging for parts. This gave lots of the levels a similar grey/brown feel which became a stale after a few hours, but the dialogue between the characters (mainly Dux and Bormin) kept this enjoyable, even in the most dull moments because of the information and knowledge being shared, which is often a distorted view of the reality of the past world. The level design is much more purposeful and feels a more puzzle based rather than strategic as it definitely feels like there is a right way and a wrong way to approach each encounter, rather than a way that is more likely to work and less likely. While it was cool to silently pick off outer patrols before sneaking into an encampment and destroying it’s leader I would have loved to have been able to battle through in my own way and it still be successful. I think is most obvious in the level House of Bones which I honestly  thought would be the end of my playthrough because of it’s difficulty and sheer stupidity of enemy design, but I did eventually push through this and ended up looking back at that level as a learning point rather than a learning curve. 

The scavenging of broken weapons, electrics and old artefacts helps with the world building and makes your weapons feel powerful when you finally come to upgrade them, although I would have liked to see some more upgrades made available, especially in the late game as this feels scarce because of a lack of imagination rather than by design. By the end of the game I had more med-kits than I would ever need, not because I had been hoarding them, but rather I had nothing else to spend my resources on. It would been cool to buy some different ammo or extended magazines to diversify my playstyle. 

The addition of the real time exploration does allow for faster movement when out of combat and if done properly allows you to position yourself better for upcoming encounters but in my playthrough this so rarely was the case as while I was positioning at least one of my party members would be caught out of position and messed up my hard work. The only time I thought that this was a worthy addition was on the rare occasion when I could sneak through a difficult encounter without engaging and so with a little refinement I can see this system being super-beneficial to any turn-based combat game.

I would have liked to see the party expand from the three to four during the late game to give some more options for fighting and allow you to engage in some bigger firefights as three mutants was always too few to ever feel like I had the freedom to set up a trap or kill zone for my opponents (in fairness I feel the same about xcom 2 and the move from 4 squaddies to 5/6). The mutation system is also cool and allows SOME freedom to play but the restriction of one passive, major and minor mutation was annoying and the duplication of lots of the mutations was disappointing because their was plenty of scope to go crazy with some of mutations that could have adapted the gameplay so much. Hog rush was the definitive most valuable action that I ever performed and coupling this with the run and gun was OP to put it mildly. Dux’s kneeshot and fly were also handy and offered some much needed slow-down to some organic enemies when I felt too outnumbered. 

The story was pretty by the numbers and told through a mixture of in-game dialogue and painted snapshots with some voice over and saw the party uncovering the secrets of Eden and about their origins as mutants, but this was by far the biggest disappointment that the game offers as the game just ends after a certain point, it feels abrupt and really lacks any punch, especially as even I could point to the logical conclusion of the campaign with just one more mission. Perhaps this will be addressed in a future dlc? 

It ought to be mentioned that through my playtime on xbox one x Mutant Year Zero crashed a number of times and had even more glitches that weren't game-breaking but did effect gameplay, such as; dux being stuck in the air, controlled enemies being unable to do anything and being unable to shoot enemies next to the player characters. When these moments happened there was always something else I could do to complete my objective, but it still took away from the gameplay significantly.

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is a good game, no substitute for Xcom by any means, but its purposeful design means that it can be completed in easy chunks that will take you no longer than 15 hours to complete. I picked this up on xbox gamepass and so it was essentially free, but I would recommend this to anyone looking to go back to some turn based strategy with some new ideas. 

#mutant year zero: road to eden #xcom 2 #turn based strategy #real time strategy #video games #video games review #xbox one #xbox one x #ps4 #ps4 pro #pc #steam #games

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virginia

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Virginia

If there is one genre of story that I feel is underserved in modern gaming I would argue that mystery is up there. So often mystery serves to set up horror, sci-fi or some greater premise entirely, but Virginia is a small, localised story that is maybe worthy of your time. 

The game’s hook is that there isn't one word spoken and any interactions have to be understood purely through body language. I have to admit that initially I was worried that this was going to be annoying as I do have a tendency to rely on dialogue to give me most of the information from cut-scenes but because of the short run time of the game I managed to play it through in one sitting without distraction. I did find the visuals to be a little jarring because of how the characters looked like more advanced Mii’s but this was done so that the expressions and emotions were obvious to me as the player, but I think I managed to extract all the relevant information from the story even if I wasn't blown away by the visual direction of the game.

I liked the case that was the framing device for the entire narrative, a missing young boy from a seemingly unhappy family, as well as the side story of watching my partner who has potentially ruffled some feathers within the FBI. If the focus of Virginia was left here then I would have been pretty happy, but the story starts unravelling, with UFOs, dying fathers, sacrifices of live-stock and the climbing of the ranks within the FBI itself and this is where the game loses me. 

Virginia had been following a really simple, but nonetheless interesting, story, but I feel like the pressure to have some deeper meaning was felt and the game suffered as a result as the story was never developed with this in mind. If this game were any longer, or the length of act three was too much then I would advise a hard-pass straight away, however, it maybe due to the short length or the interesting choices made for the sake of game mechanics that I would suggest picking this game up if you have 2 hours free and it’s on sale. 

#Xbox one x #ps4 #steam #pc games #video games #review #games review #writing #criticism #mystery game #walking sim #FBI game #sony #indie games #microsoft

[gamingandeducating]

Dutch knows how to be C̩̝̘͚̮͙̳̍͂ͫ͌̅̇A̱͓̟̋́L̴̳͛̏̉ͧ̿̇M̶̥͐ͧͣ̐͌̎ ͓͖͇͓͍̈́̐͠

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Pokemon Lets Go Pikachu

Pokemon might be the franchise that I have played more than any other. As a man in my mid-20s Pokemon has developed as I have grown and when SuMo released I found myself ultimately disappointed that so much of it was unskippable dialogue on how to catch pokemon and markers on maps to tell me where to go, this led me to miss ultras and feel incredibly nervous about Let’s Go. However, the return to Kanto and the return of a classic story had my interested peaked so I thought to myself “let’s go”.

From the start this game blew me away with how good it looked. I have heard people talking about how they wanted to see the Switch’s power be utilised more, but for me this game looked great. The pokemon were great and for the stylised choices in the overworld were more out of choice than necessity. The cut-scenes looked phenomenal on my tv and in handheld and even though they were telling me the same story beats from over 20 years ago, the fresh lick of paint was more than enough to keep me interested. That being said there are minor story differences, either to incorporate the new mechanics or to serve as references to other parts of the series and these were nice additions that left me smirking to myself. 

The real change up was the GO mechanics. The removal of wild battles and the introduction of movement controls was a decision that I am still undecided on. Initially I found that I was over-levelling certain pokemon because of the catching mechanic and this didn't suit my style of playing. Normally i’d catch one pokemon from each route that I wanted/ needed and would just ignore the Rattatas and Weedles, but now I had to catch these box-filler pokemon to level up the pokemon that I actually wanted to use. However, in the late game I loved this mechanic, firstly the trainer battles are more frequent and so levelling up was easier through fighting than catching and also my team was pretty set and swapping party members out wasn't really on my agenda. The introduction of pokemon in the overworld though was fantastic and I hope beyond hope that GameFreak includes this mechanic in later iterations of both the go games and the mainline games. It made hunting for pokemon feel real and that I had more agency in the decision to be in a battle. I think this mechanic was only let down by the small pool of pokemon available as I found most of the pokemon in the dex with almost no effort on my behalf, even some of the 1% spawns were just sitting in my box because they had the misfortune of appearing in front of me. Catching was so much fun that I attempted a shiny hunt, although gave up after about an hour, but if I could have been tempted to do this then it speaks volumes to how fun the catching was. Using motion controls was hit or miss, i’m sure I was throwing the balls wrong, but this just added to my pokemon journey. Not every pokemon would be caught first time and I was fine with that. In my head canon I imagined that the pokemon had just used a move to knock my ball away from it. 

The game has some post-game content which i’m sure more die-hard fans would have enjoyed, the master trainers were just a step too far for me, but the gym challenge was a good way to let me go back and see the true power of the leaders who had been stomped by my team earlier in the game and if I really felt that I needed more out of the game then I would definitely do a shiny hunt and finally catch my first shiny. 

Pokemon Lets Go Pikachu could have been another nail in my continued enjoyment of Pokemon, but instead I found myself laughing at my partner pokemon and feeling joy when the ball shook three times on a needed addition to my team and I am genuinely excited to see how this will effect the development of the gen 8 games. 

#games #video games #video games review #pokemon #pokemon lets go #pikachu #gen 1 #nintnendo switch #gamefreak #eevee #Poke #Kanto #shiny

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solaire

Praise The Sun Infidel!!

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Dark Soul: Remastered

The Souls games have earned their place in gaming as hard and sometimes obtuse games and despite what people on NG+9 will say I believe that this status is well earned. My experience of the souls games has been one of dipping and quitting until Dark Souls 3 finally clicked and a binging session followed, however with Dark Souls being on 360 and ps3 I never felt the need to bring out my old console to get my ass handed to me again, but when the remaster was released I knew that it was my time to kindle the bonfire.

 I had kept pretty oblivious to most of Dark Souls’ biggest moments apart from the obvious tentpole bosses and built a character that was based around giving me an edge from what I had heard online. The lightning spear was too cool to not use and I thought the range would give me an edge, however it was clear from the get-go that to min-max this system you needed to know what you were doing and when and so my build was less than optimal. That being said the freedom offered to you by the level up and inventory system was pretty outrageous. It didn’t take much for me to build my character in a variety of ways to fit the new piece of gear that I wanted to use and it never felt like many options were flat out closed off to me because I levelled up wrongly. With it being my first full run of Dark Souls I was trying out every weapon and the personality in the move set was mind-blowing and unique, each variation of a swing with my black knight halberd felt powerful and heavy, whereas each jab of my sword felt nimble and darting. While I know the hardcore would scoff at my swapping of weapons the plethora of choice on offer was too much to say no too.

 Obviously Dark Souls is infamous for its difficulty and while I wholly agree to its brutal nature it is totally fair and I love it for what it does. The standard fodder present a real challenge on your first exploration of an area until you learn their routine and then they become a known entity, this doesn’t mean that they are any less difficult and you still need to proceed with as much respect for them in subsequent encounters. The experience that dark souls offers is one of exploration and reward. You have to push and push and push in order to move yourself along a few doors, but the way that the world ties together and opens up is so satisfying. FromSoft have left just enough hints, glimpses and breadcrumbs to assure you that right around the next enemy will be a bonfire or a ladder that will make the next journey faster. The only time there is a genuine feeling of frustration is when these hints aren’t always obvious, such as the Bonfire in Sen’s Fortress and I can honestly say that it wasn’t until my 10th try through the area that I finally found that hidden balcony (I say hidden… it was clearly marked if you look close enough). There are definitely areas that I found difficult that I want to take less responsibility for like The Bed of Chaos and obviously Blighttown, but nothing was as bad as the Tomb of the Giants and the catacombs. These felt like they were just tipping the balance of unfairness a little bit too far for my taste.

 One cannot talk about Dark Souls without mentioning the bosses and these are by far the best reason to pick up dark souls, with only a few exceptions their design is sublime and tests an aspect of your skillset until you are almost perfect in its execution. For me Artorias in the DLC is the highlight of this and the ultimate compilation of everything I had learnt in the game. On the opposite end of the spectrum lies the Four Kings, while their trippy arena was cool at first, I was pretty bored by this fight and the long boss run to it. That being said almost every boss that was defeated was met by a hearty “praise the sun”, sigh of relief and maybe occasional tear for a good boy.

 Something that would be easy to miss in Dark Souls is the narrative reason for you to be harvesting all these souls and I respect Dark Souls for being brave enough to leave it up to the player to decide how much they want to take away. While much of the story is hidden in item description I got most of my world-building from the environment and NPCs. The collection of odd characters you meet on your journey have very little to offer you in terms of conversation and yet you grow to know and care for them because of how few people you do meet (Sun Bros for life). I’m sure my experience would not have been as jolly if not for the cooperation between us hollows.

 Dark Souls was truly a unique experience and one that, even though it was just recently finished, I am already missing and so maybe a journey to Lothric is on the cards. Did someone say dlc?

#dark souls #fromsoft #soulsborne #hard games #games #video games #review #game review #ps3 #ps4 #xbox one #xbox 360 #xbox one x #ps4 pro #blight town #dlc

[gamingandeducating]

Abzû

[gamingandeducating]

Abzu

The Team at Giant Squid Studios took on an unenviable task with Abzu, making an underwater game that wasn’t infuriating as hell and while the game features amazing watery vistas the controls meant that much of the time spent was working out how to look around and take full advantage of the world that was in front of me.

 The swimming simulator isn’t showing you a heart-breaking narrative or a personal journey of growth, it is first and foremost about the sea and I found myself really enjoying the relaxing nature of not having a human voice interrupting my experience of the game and just letting me be in it. Each chapter is pretty similar with the player swimming through and finding objectives that are necessary to move on and while each section you are in feels open and broad it is clearly a mark of clever design that I didn’t once feel lost in the environment. It was always clear where I had to go and not yet been. The underwater plant and sealife also allow this world to feel alive and the colour that these creatures brought to the world was a feast for the eyes. I think most obvious to me though was the sound-design. While a silent sound-scape was certainly an option the rush of a school of fish, or the chime of a slip stream was so well done that I think it might be my favourite aspect of this game. All of these features make Abzu one of the most relaxing experiences I’ve played this year, which it needed to be because the controls almost made me give up.

Abzu’s controls aren’t terrible, it would be hyperbolic to say that they were but they prove such stark opposition to the general vibe of the game that their crimes are worse then just being annoying. Most of the time this presents itself in a fiddly camera and a few movement issues and I am aware of how pity this complaint feels but when I’ve chilled out to the meditation statues and watched schools of fish flutter around the sea weed the last thing I want to do is get annoyed that my movements seem to be unreactive. Abzu’s control issue is most prevalent when it asks you to get out of the water (almost like when a skating game asks you to get off the board). It takes numerous tries to get the character to where you want them to be and then the slow walk to the objective feels as though it is necessary because swimming to it would have been too much of an issue to ensure it works effectively.

 There is no doubt that Abzu is a great visual experience and the exploration of the ocean is something that I didn’t know could be so dramatic and magical. The almost 2 hours I spent with it were sectioned up into a couple of sessions after I played some more intense games and the palate cleansing effect was very real. Could it have been more refined? Sure, but did it need to be? Absolutely not. Abzu wont be a game that I remember for its clunky camera, but the joy of exploring deep caverns and pools.

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#Abzu #sea #ocean #water #ps4 #ps4 pro #xbox one x #xbox one #video games #colour #games review #games #review #video games review #Giant Squid Studios #walking simulator #swimming simulator