Saturday, March 6, 2021
I’ve written my first article for Keengamer.com ! It’s about some of the best early access games ever.
https://www.keengamer.com/articles/features/opinion-pieces/7-great-games-that-champion-early-access/
Friday, February 5, 2021
Friday, January 8, 2021
Friday, January 1, 2021
Cyberpunk 2077- The Good, The Bad and The Possibility
CD Projekt Red have received justified criticism for the state of Cyberpunk 2077 upon its release... particularly on consoles. However, as a PC gamer, I must say that my experience has been a far cry from what I've seen online.
The game's launch for me was no worse than a launch of a Bethesda game, in fact significantly better, if we consider the more recent releases from them.
Like all other gamers this year I was very excited to get my hands on and finally play CDPR's newest open-world game. I'd preordered it and even pre-downloaded it on a geriatric internet connection... so anticipation was high. I'll just come out and say it I was not at all disappointed, on the contrary, so far I've been having an amazing time.
Is it as good as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt? For me personally probably not but they're two very different games. It's important to remember that I was working from the experience of two prior games and several novels when riding into Velen for the first time... so its hardly fair for me to compare the two. Instead ill be talking about Cyberpunk as a single entity, what I've enjoyed so far, what I've had problems with and how I think it could be improved (as I imagine it will be) or modded.
A City Like No Other
Of all the things in this game, the city itself is the developers crowning achievement. Night City is simultaneously a densely beautiful and deeply depressing environment by design. One which wholeheartedly absorbs you into it while hiding endlessly fascinating districts, skylines, architecture, cultural influences and sharp contrasting colour behind every single corner.
I've never walked around so much in a game and simply took in the sights for fear of missing out. This is because missing content (by which I mean just visually) here almost feels tragic so in my fifty-two hours so far I've never once used fast travel which is unheard of for me.
The level of detail and consideration put into the design of every bar, park, mega building, highway, statue or holographic forest is absolutely astounding and something which has gone unappreciated in the aftermath of its release. Its a city made up of thousands of distinct parts which collectively form one incredible 3D masterpiece.
Mercenary Meddling
In the game you play as "V" an ambitious mercenary looking make his way to the very top echelons of Night City but starting from the bottom... its a long road. You'll be taking all sorts of jobs along the way that'll have you hacking, stealing, killing, sabotaging, racing and sneaking your way through the exemplary aforementioned locations.
The side activities are always satisfying thanks to the complexity and synergy of the hacking mechanics, rewarding nature of sneaking through places unnoticed and the sheer joy of blowing people up but they become much more enjoyable as you progress and have more options. I've found the RPG like skill tree to be one of the best aspects of the game. It's incredibly easy to build a powerhouse character that specialises in hacking and shooting and with the synergy between skills being a huge focus it can result in a feel of adaptive capability that's very rarely seen.
The main story and side missions are thematically interconnected and varied however they definitely feel less so this time around and the abrupt endings to distinct quest chains often leave character relationships feeling anticlimactic.
Take one relationship I spent hours building with a nomad woman out in the desert for example. She would send messages telling me how much V meant to her but once I'd finished assisting her in quelling a rebellion in her nomad tribe, she as much as went "thanks V... see you never". Giving in to the end of the chapter and lack of scripted interaction for the rest of my playthrough (admittedly not a full one yet).
I think a GTA style "Hey cousin, let us go bowling?" would have gone a long way.
Something's Bugging Me
While I've had a relatively easy time with regards to issues running the game I have seen my fair share of bugs while playing. They've been very varied and elicited laughter, confusion, surprise and in one case tears but they were never game-breaking and I managed to see the funny side.
One particular example involved Jackie (V's partner in crime) taking a chip out of his head and giving it to V but instead of a chip, he chose to see if he could shove his revolver in one ear and out the other. I looked on in disbelief behind a haze of tears of laughter... it was hilarious and only got funnier with the added context of the situation.
During general play superficial bugs such as small items floating mid-air, cars driving through terrain and vanishing NPC's have been a common occurrence, however, not to the degree to which others have stated. I guess in this regard I've been lucky as honestly, it's been incredibly rare for my immersion to be broken at all aside from the odd giggle.
Time To Heal
Cyberpunk 2077 has an uphill battle to win over most gamers and it's going to need a lot of work but I feel the core experience has been done an injustice... it's brilliant at heart. Over estimations and missteps in the development cycle have cost this game its deserved release. However, CDPR don't strike me as a company that will take this criticism lightly and I'm sure they will work tirelessly to fix the problems with it and make it into the great game it was designed to be.
Speaking about problems can we get a setting to change how zoomed in the minimap is please, my gorgeous futuristic cars brakes would really appreciate it.
PC Specification:
Res: 2560x1440
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080
CPU: Intel I7-8700k
16GB RAM
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
WOW Classic: The Inevitable Run-in (1-20)
For 16 years I've managed the knawing inevitability that I'd end up taking an all-consuming holiday to Azeroth, well over the last month, I've finally caved. Personally, I was curious to see what I would've experienced as a naive pre-teen all them years ago so World of Warcraft Classic was the obvious choice. So I paid the subscription and dived into an experience most gamers first paid witness to back in 2004.
With some experience of Guild Wars 2 under my belt, the general gist and gameplay loop of MMO's is not new to me and I was ready to be guided around the biggest world in gaming, I felt confident going into WOW classic... ignorance really is bliss.
I decided to play dwarf hunter, partly because I live close to Scotland, but mainly because the only other race I liked was the female night elf but this just made me feel dirty. So I chose a stunted walking beard instead and loaded into Coldridge Valley, the dwarven starting zone.
Horrible Gnomes and Helpful Players
After a race-specific introduction showing the dwarves as a race of industrious scots that, just like in real life, love booze and are impervious to the cold. After this intro, I knew I'd made the right decision. As it turns out starting zones are very lonely places and I spent the first seven levels wandering the cold wastes alone shooting wolves and helping some horrific gnomes find their tools.
It was lonely and freezing, but in WOW there are other lonely wanderers around you. It was at this point I met a fellow dwarf called, Cough*... Dysentery. It's no slant on him though, he's anything but shit at this game. He proceeds to help me reach level 10 and takes me to Ironforge where we take an awesome train to Stormwind to get professions, where I decide (I'm told) the life of an engineer coalminer is for me.
Good old Dysentery tells me to help him level in Goldshire for a while till he catches me up, I do so happily; while he explains the game and how it works to me like a child learning to walk... slowly.
I've barely played three hours and I'm already starting to see what draws people to WOW classic, I already feel the power of the community, the scale of the world and the pursuit of some sort of meaningful journey to level 60.
Its already clear that If I'd played this at age 11, as the world obviously intended, I would be writing this from beyond the (man) cave.
The Constant Haunting of Westfall
Our very one-sided partnership finally got on a level playing field my and online buddy told me where we should head next. Westfall. Its a hideously orange farmland filled with things that want to hurt your tiny dwarven frame and kill your new friends in front of you.
We started questing in the cornfields and it didn't take long for me to experience the famed format for WOW classics "rewarding" quests. Find 15 bandanas on a small band of enemies that respawn slowly and rarely drop them, despite them all clearly wearing bandanas.
This first proper questing session was fraught with mistakes and deaths, all because of me, my tiny brain and lack of understanding of how games work. I have a habit of blindly walking backwards while fighting and inviting all mobs around us to a party, a very non-fun party at that. This is where I started to get experience with another pillar of "Classic" gameplay the patented, bone-chilling, humbling experience; corpse walking.
After four hours of collecting discarded blood-soaked clothing and slaughtering wildlife, we wandered up a road to do the all-important quest chain for what would lead me to my first dungeon in World of Warcraft. We just had to find a teleporting NPC takes you all over Westfall on the most depressing merry-go-round... around. I died multiple times but finally (after 2 hours) I did finish it.
A Dungeon Dweller in WOW and Now IRL
My first dungeon run as is I'm told tradition took place in the early hours of the morning with my new online buddy. Only it wasn't a heroic band of misfits taking on a pirate king as it should have been. It consisted of me sitting back and waiting for my good old partner to clear the room using his hideously over-levelled main while I picked up the loot... like the brave, cuckolded, glory stealing dwarf that my character is apparently.
We, I mean he, destroyed everything in the dungeon without losing a slither of health while I was almost mauled by a baby bat at one stage. I got some great loot though.
It wasn't till the following evening that I'd run Deadmines properly. Good old Dys(entery) helped me to not make a fool of myself. Helpfully explaining the rolling mechanic and the ever confusing etiquette that goes along with it... apparently needing for everything's just not the "Classic" way.
We strategically slew packs of mobs one after the other when after killing two guards I 'need' for a great sword and win, then I need for several gems,which i think is justified by me having an engineer profession but as it turns out this infuriated 'Dent' a warrior human who clearly was in need of his Bi-hourly Ritalin dosage.
His temper eased though when we handed him 'Smites Mighty Hammer' then immediately our slightly under-levelled party wipes entirely and is left two mobs from the main boss. Heartbroken and tired our great fellowship snapped as easy as soggy breadstick and I went to bed.
This run of Deadmines took me up to almost level 20, and to what I consider to be the conclusion to my opening hours of WOW classic. As I mentioned before, it's obvious what brings people back and why I'll continue to play this ancient, amazing, all-consuming game. Its the immense, connected world filled with lore, the allotted dopamine fix from levelling and most importantly the strangers that help you through it. It really is a game like no other and despite its quirks and evident aged design ill keep playing and keep writing these silly articles.
GO TRY IT !!!
Thursday, September 3, 2020
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
A Recommendation: CARRION
Every kid grew up dreading a bump in the night; whether from Giant spiders, krakens, zombies, vampires or skeletons. However, the unknown is something to fear more, and monsters from there are twice as bad. I'm talking of course about aliens. In popular culture, there are stacks of movies, games and novels highlighting the power of the otherworldly; showing how horrific it could be to meet one.
I remember the first time an alien scared me was in John Carpenter's The Thing (1982); it was a terrifying film. The incredible design and paranoia-inducing behaviour of the alien were frightening to me. I've always been surprised that many games were made off the back of Ridley Scott's Alien but not The Thing. Consequently, when I saw CARRION's gameplay and its stylised cartoon trailer; I couldn't wait to play it.
It promised to be a perfect homage to the film, just as brutal, gory and manically enjoyable to run through. The previews showed a game that wanted to delight the player; simply by highlighting how fun being a horrifying alien might be. Apparently, it'd be very fun.
Short and (Very Not) Sweet
The game is a sidescrolling 2D action puzzler at heart, however, the main draw of it is the alien itself, and how dangerous you are. It's sadistic fun at its finest. The design of the creature is phenomenal with how it looks/moves being both brutal and empowering. Capable of moving eerily quickly; it'll outrun absolutely anything else. To top it off its apparently so grotesque that nearly every NPC, within an entire screens radius, lets out a petrified (well-acted) scream as you eat them.
As you progress you'll gain new abilities that expand your options for traversal and toying with the humans around the facility. Throughout your playthrough, you'll be laughing as frightened lab technicians run for their lives. As you get stronger by hurling doors through the air, stabbing people, cutting them in half, pulling them through grates, drowning them in water or possessing them before bursting out of their chest. You'll hope it never ends.
It's a very short game though with some players beating it in 5-6 hours. Important to note is that its price is £16.99 which makes it still worth a buy despite the short run time.
Movie Mimicry
The game emulates the atmosphere of survival horror films and games by incorporating a gritty, depressing aesthetic and mostly ambient music; music that channels Dead Space heavily. The way that blood splatters everywhere, as you fight and move around, is a great touch too making it easy to see your path of destruction.
As you become more of a bloodthirsty killing machine you'll be able to infect humans and take control of them just like in The Thing (1982). It's endlessly satisfying and creepy to take a room of unsuspecting guards out while doing this.
The story in the game is basic but serviceable. Mostly it's told through levels where you play as a human, and these offer a nice change of pace to break up the manic main quest. They tell the tale of how the monster came about and the origins of the facility you find yourself in. the story does what it needs too... justifies the carnage.
The game is ultimately about feeling like your a stalking, merciless killing machine from the movies and it nails this. It could use a map though.
Conclusion
In this short, brutal and very fun alien simulator, it pays to take your time. Take out people one by one and analyse the environments at your disposal. You'll learn to be an adaptive and sneaky monster meaning the short runtime will dissipate so quickly you'll be forced to play through it another three times in one day.
CARRION is available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC.
GO BUY IT !!!
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