War Thunder

Pip pip, bally ho, chocks away!

War Thunder. Put simply you get a old-timey plane, you get to fly about and yell "neeeeeyyooooo - abakka-bakka-bakka" It's like every young gloss eyed kids re-enactment of aviation combat, but neatly packed into a computer game.

I've not been playing this very long, and was persuaded to play by my pals... otherwise this would have fallen completely under my radar and I'd be none the wiser about what has turned out to be a pretty nicely made game.

The general fear of any game in which players can pay for advancements etc is one that sits uneasily on most players ideas of 'well-balanced' or 'fair' game-play. I too am hesitant of such freemium style games, but War Thunder avoids this, and while players are given options for buying in game bit's and bobs, I've yet to see any imbalance or unfairness.

The game is played generally from third person, although you can swap the view about and the controls are concise well thought out and very easy to play with.

The game plays out in mini scenarios, either within an arcade or more realistic game setting, generally the idea being blow up the other guys before you get shot down. Each game scenario only lasts about 15 minutes and, so far, every game I've played has been quite exciting.

The Graphics are really pretty good there's certainly not much to shout about but the little touches like visible damage and bullet ricochet make it quite immersive. The Sounds are likewise similarly fitting, machinegun fire, flak explosions and engine noises, I could easily be suckered in given a darkened room and a good sound set up

Have A Go...

Really you have nothing to loose but the time it takes to download, and really that time can be used to grow a handlebar moustache and make a cup of tea in preparation for your approaching avionic adventures.

You can grab the game via Steam (which I did) or check out their homepage for more on their 'open beta'

Gaming Review summary:

Graphics 4/5
Audio 4/5
Gameplay 4.5/5
Features 3/5

Weighted Score: 79%

Bladdy hell lads, what a hoot!

Very easy to pick up and play, the menus can be a little frustrating, but this isn't a game about menus, it's about warplanes and explosions.

Google+ Is Not Dead.

An Interruption To Normal Posting

According to some, far greater Tech commentary than what I offer the Social Media Platform known as Google+ "is dead" or at very least "dying".

Which is Utter Nonsense!

Let me give my account, to help fuel the fire of this widespread internet argument. The recent article by Techcrunch 'google is walking dead' sparked rounds of backlash and general internet arm flapping.

"We've Heard"

The article concludes with generalisations and apparently hearsay, that is, unsubstantiated claims and not referable details to a fact. the term "We've heard..." starts 3 of the paragraphs in the article, which in it's presentation is belittling of Google and choices the company has made.

While I'm not a journalist, nor can I really verify beyond what I personally have experienced I can present that the impact of this article has been far reaching and has not fallen on deaf ears.

In my Google+ Circles (and yes... you might say I'm biased, but none the less let's crack on.) In my circles alone, which are not expansive, I've seen at least half a dozen different threads pop up filled with frustrated Google uses, rightly frustrated as they have been compared to brainless reanimated corpses aka zombies.

And now, here I am making my own personal vent against this irresponsible accusation. So I'd like to take just a moment to help put some details, some referable facts into public knowledge so that a better picture can be formed (I hope).

Hello, My name is Rich, and I'm a G+ User

I was an early adopter of Google+ and from those early days I was excited by a new platform, one which apparently wasn't hell bent on control. I found that on day one, I was interacting with people, and I don't just mean I liked their post or read something and quietly laughed to myself. No, I mean I was intelligibly talking with other people, people that I would never have otherwise met.

This early experience of real social media, one which allowed me to talk and interact with people that I had shared interests with was amazing, I'd had more social interaction in one day on Google+ than several years of having been on Facebook.

Facebook had for me been nothing more than a means of interacting with my long distant family members, but now... Now I had Google Plus and I was meeting and talking with interesting people from across the UK and around the globe.

To this day I still enjoy the interactions I have on G+, I'm part of several large Communities (which isn't just a synonym for shared spam inbox) these communities are filled with people talking and interacting, so much so I literally could not even begin to demonstrate just how alive this place with regard to the sheer number of posts and content.

I've long since left and closed Facebook, the platform has nothing to offer me, I still have a twitter account, but it's a little unloved. For me, G+ has everything I wanted or need from a social network; It has people.

Every day I log on, I have notifications of some thread I'm involved in having additional comments, every day I visit my communities page, several of which regularly have the (99+) red notifications telling me that in my absence there has been more replies than can be counted.

If Google+ is a failed platform, then please... define what a successful one would be.
If Google+ is dying, then please... tell me what a lively community would be?

Utter Nonsense

The article presented by Techcrunch was, in the most polite sense, nonsense. It was conjecture wrapped up in vitriol and spite. It gave nothing to properly support the accusations it makes and even the somewhat more influential and prestigious Forbes writes: "Is Google+ Really Walking Dead? Maybe, but Most Likely Not."

Sure there has been a lot of shaky ground covered by the teams that work on and develop the platform, I've personally been quite aggrieved by some of the choices made which led to undesirable changes to the platform.

I think however, it's fair to say that changes are not synonymous to failings. I change my pants, but they aren't a failure.

Find Out For Yourself

Come join the fun here are some gaming communities on Google+ : https://plus.google.com/communities/101776938390053976305 - PC Gaming https://plus.google.com/communities/106294677380036336853 - Gaming (multi platform)

You can even find gaming communities specific to games you enjoy, I personally am in two Borderlands communities and a League of Legends community and often find myself chatting with others.

Not a full Review... ( MiniMetro )

This breaks my style perhaps but I've been addicted to this little on-line game called 'Mini Metro' to be released on every platform ever, probably even Nintendo Game'n'Watch

It is simplistically addictive, the idea is that you oversee an underground train network and your job is to make sure the little circles reach a circel station.. the little triangles get to the triangle station and so on.

The challenge comes as there are new stations added constantly, and often different 'destinations' (each destination is a shape...) couple with that the problems that the little graphical trains you're in charge of only go so fast and other resource limiting ideas this game spirals quickly into that special place just hiding in the shadow of complete frustration but enough that you just need to have another go...

Perhaps a full review when it's not in Alpha (the designers are very actively building in the project and even in the short time I've played things have chopped and changed...)

Until such time as it's worth while here's the 'in progress' Alpha build for everyone to try!

http://dinopoloclub.com/minimetro/

Banished ... and it probably should be..

It comes as surprise to only those that don't really know me that I'm not shy of trying out 'unknown' titles or taking the road less travelled when searching out new games, and so, my attention was easily swayed when 'Banished' showed its face (Via the Steam Spotlight...)

My initial impressions were that it looked to play very alike the original settlers games, which I loved with elements of style influenced by other city-builders a genre which I'm a big fan of. A fool and his money... and perhaps this time, I have played the part of the fool.

My Impressions Were Right!

Kind of, the game was tough - a learning curve which nearly put me off but, I took to it that the challenge came in overcoming adversity a core element of 'survive and build' games, of which this is one.

(above) This is about as exciting as it gets...

I soon got into the swing of things and before long I was mildly overjoyed that I had a small functioning village of happy virtual people... but very quickly afterwards, I realised that there was nothing to do.
I allowed the game to progress a little but it bored me, nothing was happening to entertain me (and for me being entertained is why I play games!)

Push The Limits, Let's Find The Excitement!

I decided that the only way forward was to ramp up the difficulty, and where possible task myself to perform the required hoop diving for the in game achievements. At first the challenge came back again, several games which fought me tooth and nail while I attempted to find the working balance, and keep my little peeps alive and happy but then, just as before: boredom.

(above) Graves, clearly all of people whom,
 having played this game died of boredom.

I realised that I had perfected the route of things to do in the game such that even on the hardest setting and with achievements in site the game was little more than a quasi-interactive screen saver. There was no more challenge, no more effort, nothing more to 'aim for'.

It's All In The Early Game.

Sadly it all comes down to the fact that this game, appears to have little to no longevity, no late game satisfaction, the early game really pushes hard, resource management, planning, double-guessing yourself on the correct thing to do at a given point... but then, it all disappears it's pretty much all or nothing, you either make it past the struggle or not. After that, there's little to do but vegetate as you oversee the somewhat more dull procedure of 'management' stage of things, overseeing tedious aspects of making sure there are X number of workers doing Y job, at this point the fun ratio quickly sinks.

(above) Marvel at the wonder of a functioning settlement .. -  wooo!

(above) Gaze on in awe as your little virtual people GROW CROPS!!  - oooooh!

To Sum up;

I can see how this game really really REALLY could be fun, and I so badly want it to be, but there are too many things that hold me back from really being able to enjoy this.

Gaming Review summary:

Graphics 4/5
Audio 3.5/5
Gameplay 3.5/5
Features 3.9/5

Weighted Score: 62%

And you Shall be BANISHED!

I thought I'd have a game with all the intricacy of Settlers, the graphics of a modern Sim-City and I found that I've been aomewhat disappointed, while it's purely my opinion - even fans of this genre should give this one a miss.

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.

Fallen, but its not Out.

Fallout 3: New Vegas.

Let me open this review by stating that I pretty much despised Fallout 3, It was to me a passionate fan of the original fallout games an abomination. First person, dumbed down and less transparent than a window in a glass of crystal clear water being suspended by a fishing line against a back drop of invisible things.

Until the community at large (thank you Nexus!) was capable of correcting pretty much everything about the game, it was a shocking game that presented no challenge or any hope of playability, let alone re-playability.

Now.. onto the main attraction.

Fallout: New Vegas

Essentially the same game engine but thankfully my VERY first impression... "this is more of a challenge" which is a good thing. The game content (even though I'd purchased the DLC all at the off) was much better, more varied and seemingly more intricate. Another good thing.

Having played the game extensively and for a considerable amount of man-hours I can conclude that there isn't a thing in this game that was 'wrong' ... I have modded the game to my personal tastes, adding extra items and tweaking things (the native level of 'darkness' at night was far from what could be perceived as 'dark') but the things that I've modded in are simply adding to an already enjoyable experience.

My one BIG critique of this game, and probably games in which this feature is used is the enemy level scaling. I oppose the fact that as my character progresses so should the toughness of the enemies which I face, this leads to game breaking occurrences, shooting an unarmored tribal in the Honest Hearts with a high caliber weapon several times and having to reload to then shoot him again... seems utterly ridiculous. In my humble opinion, as I progress my character and I acquire more powerful weapons the enemies which were once a threat to me should become by comparison less of a threat over time.

The rate at which the character progressed was well matched, but with the DLC I've found that I've reached max level and now feel stifled as there is still game to explore but now I feel i'm not getting reward for action.

I have had many hours of game-play from Fallout: New Vegas and once I've finally completed my 1st and very thorough play through I can even see myself enjoying the game a 2nd time.

Graphically the game is far from what could be considered eye-candy, but it has moments where I find myself enjoying the vistas that are presented, the character animation etc again is a high quality, but often there are little graphical fuck-ups that break the immersion.

Same goes for the sound really, guns go bang.. bad guys go grrrr etc etc hardly an audio treat but perfectly fitting of the function.

Gaming Review summary:

Graphics 4/5

Audio 3/5

Gameplay 5/5

Features 4/5

Weighted Score: 90%

Excellent rejuvenation of what I considered a franchise destroyed by modernization, well worth the investment.