Skyrim

It had to happen at some stage, even with my Steam catalog bulging like a sack of potatoes about to explode forth with shards of gaming-based french-fry shrapnel each game crying out to me for attention...

It's been a year since I got it, and now - Now it is time for me to take a firmly lodged arrow to my knee and see what all the FUSS-RO-DAH is about...

What was I expecting?

being that I've logged about 4 human life-spans worth of time in Fallout 3 & New Vegas I had a feeling it's pretty much be more of the same, I was wrong, sure there is visual comparison, even the general gaming system feels samey.

But there is something more about Skyrim, I've lodges just over 100 hours in the game so far and only just feel like I'm starting to really get into it! the first 50 hours were hugely fun, exploring, finding things, dying... dying some more... learning how not to die... and then dying.

But each part of the experience has been just such enthralling and must-play-more style gaming, this is one of only a few titles which to date have made me literally be confused when I look up to see that it's 3am. Skyrim is part adventure... part temporal black hole, absorbing time from our reality and turning it into fun.

Any Bad Thoughts?

I'll confess, the very early game was unforgiving, aggravating, frustrating, but for each time I was killed by a random wolf I've now jumped into battle yelling dragon-speakanees wielding odd looking weapons gleefully enacting my virtual revenge on their furry little pixel-butts.

The sound is passable but really it's nothing super amazing, If I were to highlight the weak-spot of this game it would have to be the audio.

Wrap it up, like a Draugr mummy.

I'm now fully immersed in a world that is gargantuan, and have yet to find so much, least of all the fact that already I can see this game has great potential for replay-ability, use a different style, try different quest lines, so much to get done it really really is going to be hard to put this one down.

Oh, and the small fact that there are a wealth of brilliant fan-made mods for the game, allowing me to tweak the experience even more to my personal taste and ensuring that I get 110% of my game squeezed out.

The graphics are amazing, but start adding a few mods and I truly am blown away at just how awesome things look. A lot of time and effort has gone into this game, and it shows.

Gaming Review summary:

Graphics 4.5/5
Audio 4/5
Gameplay 4.5/5
Features 4/5

Weighted Score: 93%

EHR - MAH -GHERD!

This has to be one of the best gaming experiences I've written about to date (although there isn't many) .. This game .... Buy it!

Game Dev Tycoon

So.. Steam, Greenlight.. what's it all about?

Well, It seems it's a platform developed by people that sell games for people that make games to sell games to people that buy games on a platform designed to sell games.

I think...


Whatever it is or is not, recently my 'Steam' home page shoved into my face a title by the name of 'Game Dev Tycoon'

It had isometric quasi-cartoon graphics, and as such I HAD to buy it.

Thankfully what I found was a game that quite well suits my sometimes casual and highly non-committal play style, very much in the same genre as games like 'theme park' you, the player, act as a omniscient controller capable of domineering your will absolute.

While the game itself is quite enjoyable if somewhat repetitive there are some things which I personally think could be improved upon...

Time For A Breakdown!

Graphics:

Not really a strong part of this game, the animations are limited in scope and the general appearance of the game is very static, I'd like to see the little folk perhaps get up for a walk to the vending machines, or take some time out in the chill-out staff area... instead they sit there like good little zombie-droids, even when they are sent on holiday, their zombie-droid-ghost remains sat at the desk.

The best thing I can say about the graphics (and by extension the U.I ) is that it is functional and uncluttered, the controls are easy to navigate even if sometimes they menu system isn't quite as click-responsive as I'd like to to be.

What you'll spend most of your game time staring at...

Sound:

I have very little to say about this.. but that's because there is VERY little to comment on, much like the graphics the sound is functional and fit for purpose, the little folk make blippy noises as they go about their work and background noise is unoffencive if somewhat utterly forgettable / ignored.

Gameplay:

Quite frankly, not a lot really happens during game play, the player interacts with some slide-bar menus, and occasionally clicks a few on screen menu options, but generally a well trained gibbon would be able to perform the tasks required to 'play' the game,

The intricacy comes from the thought process of making the choices for your burgeoning games company, there's quite a scope of options to run through, and managing distribution of workload is far from what many would consider fun, but oddly, in this game... it becomes a challenge not a chore, and overcoming that challenge is somewhat rewarding to the player, a sense of general achievement.

All in all it's an enjoyable procrastination tool, but due to it's limited scope even a dedicated or completionist die-hard fan of this genre will find it becomes all too repetitive, I've found myself in a trance like state while playing this game, not so much enjoying it per-se merely operating it for the fact that it is there to be operated.

Round It Up;

It's a curious game, and it's designers have clearly put a lot of effort into things, so I congratulate them for that, I'll be eager to see if there are any revisions made which add some spice to the dish they've served but fro now this is clearly a Tuna & Cucumber sandwich type of game, enjoyable for what it is despite the fact you really wanted an Angus burger with Monterey jack cheese and all the trimmings...

Gaming Review summary:

Graphics 3/5

Audio 3/5

Gameplay 4/5

Features 2/5

Weighted Score: 54%

Passable Time-Sponge. Far from what I would consider a well polished game, but for what it lacks it's enjoyable enough to overlook the shortcomings, and for what it costs a worthwhile casual game.

Payday 2

Wait ... payday 2? what about the first one!?

Well put simply Payday, is quite long in the tooth now. So I skipped straight to number 2. to get to the juicy review...

CLICK HERE

there's a little pre-amble before I get to the review proper.

The Payday Premise

The whole idea behind Payday, is very simple, it follows in the same idea as Left4Dead, the players, of which there are a small number in any game. Limited to 4 persons per game, find themselves faced with a high volume of enemies that  must be violently dealt with in order to succeed.

These enemies are in theory limitless, so you can't simply kill everything, and then move on, instead, players have to find ways to maximise their in game characters effect and work with other players in order to be successful with a good outcome.

In payday, the roles of protagonist and antagonist are somewhat reversed, the players find themselves in the role of professional thief, and the hordes of enemies are the city police which attend their crime scene. the idea being that the players must complete a heist obtaining the best payout possible, while defending themselves and resisting arrest.

Pure Escapism

Let me stress that this game is all about a little fun role-play, we all as children would play cops n' robbers yelling bang at each other running about like lunatics, and this game allows adults to experience that once again, albeit in rendered 3d with surround effects. 

None the less this game is probably one abhorred by the groups that insist (to the contrary of studies) that video games promote violence and parody of in game events, but that's not what this review is about... I wanted to recognise this detail, but not argue it out here and now.

There's even a little in-game reference to this real-world complaint, just check out this screen capture!

Cops n' Robbers

The new Payday 2 expands on the first game, which I found to be great fun, now it adds extra layers of stealth, tactical planning and character skills which aid the team as a whole. there's a diverse selection of weapons to acquire and modify with 'bonus' items and a nice little touch whereby your 'robbery mask' can be modified to how you'd like it to look.

One of the core and most recognisable parts of Payday was the fact the characters all wore clown masks, and now, players get to repaint, and design their mask (or alternative masks they may find) to bring a rather nice level of personalisation to the game, making the player more involved.

Graphically, this game hits the marks, to paraphrase... it has good depth of focus effects and adequate texture / model handling to maintain an engrossment in the action without breaking the fourth wall. the player is 'watching' from a 1st person perspective and everything that happens visually really melds well.

I've seen a few blip's and glitches (such as warp-factor 9 police officers, and the occasional FBI agent that can phase through solid objects) but the game is still in beta at the time I write this, so there's plenty of room for loose ends to be tied up.

The sounds, well as is the way with any well budgeted game these days, there isn't anything I can fault, it goes bang pop and whiz as is appropriate all keeping the immersion intact.

Grab Some Friends! Get To Work.

This game is all about the co-op, the AI partners absolutely stink, but the whole idea is that you get together with your pals and have a blast, the harder difficulties require a well formed group that can all work in sync really pushing people to work together and not playing the lone-wolf style of play.

Sadly some of the 'drop in' players seem to treat this game like it is call of duty or some other equally forgiving game, but this game is not forgiving, and I like that.. not only is it possible to fail, it's highly probable. That is why I love Payday, you have to play hard, to achieve the rewards, nothing is given to the player... If you want to earn big cash, you're gonna have to work for it.

Gaming Review summary:

Graphics 4/5

Audio 5/5

Gameplay 5/5

Features 4/5

Weighted Score: 90%

Fantastic Encore
of a game I already appreciated for it's approach to co-op gaming, this adds so much to make it even better!

Battletech Ahoy!

I'm a big fan of Battletech, Mechwarrior and in general the whole franchise... So the appearance of a new game that boasts a close relation to the tabletop game really interested me.

I chose to sign up into the beta testing or 'founders club' a nominal fee paid such that I can get access to the game before it reaches the wider public audience. So far, it's been really good fun. While I am a little irked that there is only a limited selection of in game assets with which to tinker with, but I'm sure the developers will pump more detail into the game as it grows.

The game plays as a turn by turn expression of the players moves and choices, each turn acted out simultaneously in a short video to draw the players into the action, considering the subject matter and the fact that the game is a very slow paced affair when played in it's table top incarnation, to make things exciting and more quickly paced. And it's been done well.

Due to the NDA I have to commit to as part of the beta sign-up agreement I cannot relay too much in form of actual detail, but I can say it's worth the pennies. The strategy elements don't require a Mensa test to engage with, the sounds of explosions and stomping mechs' all help keep the user involved in the action as the visuals portray the multi-ton battle machines lobbing ordinance across vast battlefields.

There are a few niggles in the user interface, and some features which I'd be eager to see included from battletech, but it's relatively early days and from what I've seen the developers are working hard at making real effort to get things right.

If you're a fan of the tabletop game, or even if you're a disheartened turn-based PC gamer that has been left in the dark by developer houses determined to make everything into an FPS game perhaps this could be the new thing you've been looking for.

More detail of this game can be found here:
https://mwtactics.com/game

If you're so interested then you can even test it yourself here:
https://mwtactics.com/founders/

To sum things up a little, a good tactical game, with a lot of potential for the future, keeping turn-based gaming alive in a time of banal first-person shooters.

Gaming Review summary:

Graphics 4/5

Audio 3/5

Gameplay 4/5

Features 2/5

Weighted Score: 68%

Enjoyable, Visual feast of turn-based strategy. A well presented game, the scores based only on my experience and most likely would be improved upon the final release of the 'finished' game.

Diablo 3, Error 37

Diablo 3.

So, several years ago (yes I'm old.. deal with it!) I played Diablo (originally on my Playstation, and then later on PC) I waged war against those oh so pixelated daemons for many a happy hour in my youth, When D2, and it shall for me always be referred to as D2, but for sake of reference, I'm talking about Diablo 2 and the  Lord Of Destruction expansion pack; when this game came about I was more excited than a chihuahua on crack being told it's walkies time! my friends and I gored our way through that game like no other, and I could not even begin to hazard a guess at how many hours I played.

So, With the (at this point historical) arrival of Diablo 3 I became anxious of a repeat of sleepless nights and dungeon crawling, searching for that next weapon drop, or grinding a level for experience. Sadly I think I have been let down a little in that respect... Even the title of this blog points to one of the major flaws which was (now solved... mostly) bane to thousands of players: The game has to have an active internet connection at all times, even for solo play. For the best part of its early life players could not log in to the game and were presented with Error 37 .. So a game which cost players upward of £40 they couldn't play because of severe technical fault.

Diablo 3 presents a very simplified interface, indeed gone is any interaction based around character 'levelling' instead replaced by automatic character sheet adjustment and a 'single choice' .. and a choice that can later be altered if you so choose, of skill point.

The interface and game play has also been dumbed down or perhaps more politically correctly simplified with a meagre 4 action keys replacing essentially what was the entire row of player determinable action keys.

The inventory too saw a break down to a more basic role, now the player has one inventory which serves all of their characters, previously each character would have space of their own in which to stash stuff.

I could continue for several point more each detailing how the game seems to have been stripped down until only the required base parts are left...  but lets focus on something more upbeat:

This is a very different game from Diablo 2, but, with a bunch of mates and several hours to dedicate to the game it's easy to get sucked into the world of D3... Even if it is stacked with reference to the previous games like some aged grandfather regaling for the 60th time about how he met the queen once. It does have its charms, but the character progression reaches a plateau all to quickly and game-play becomes quite stale.

All in all, a great fantasy romp, and as far as button bashers go, it's still got good merit quite frankly.. read the scores and my summary below I think it sums things up nicely...

Gaming Review summary:

Graphics 4/5

Audio 4/5

Gameplay 3/5

Features 3/5

Weighted Score: 64%

Disappointing and forgettable modern take on a game franchise which I had nothing but massive respect for previously.