Far Cry Primal: Review

Hello fellow gamers, today i will be reviewing Ubisoft's Far Cry Primal. One of the great things games can do is give us a glimpse of a different world. It might not be authentic, lifelike, realistic or remotely believable. It might be a fantasy, dream or nightmare. What matters is that it feels – if only for a few hours – convincing, and that it takes you out of your mundane life.

Very much a 'take the previous template and make it feel primal' approach, Ubisoft's latest imagining on the Far Cry franchise is a smart piece of work. The atmosphere and scope in particular are highlights, making you feel as if you have traveled back to the past where tribes, woolly mammoths and Sabre toothed tigers roamed the Earth. There are no guns. There's no radio conversations. There's no pretty much everything you might expect in today's world!

Such a decision has shunted Far Cry into somewhat new territory, too. With an emphasis on what tools were around at the time, crafting and building feels essential from start to finish. Whether that's sculpting a new arrow for your bow, or smashing together a new club to whack someone in the face with, collecting resources is as important as doing missions.

 The same can be said for Primal's settlement system. Serving as the game's point of progression, focusing on these RPG-like trees and increasing the population continually offers more rewards. These could be your standard level-up boosts – more health, better speed etc. – but it also ties into what animals you can tame, what extras are available to you and, quite nicely, how many resources you have flowing in your direction – every time night turns to day you'll be given a 'reward stash'. The bigger your miniature home, the more benefits you'll get.

Such evolution is nothing new to the Far Cry games, mind. It's certainly dressed up in different clothes this time – as well as having an addictive nature – but the familiar tentpoles are all there. Nowhere is this more apparent than Primal's mission structure. All set within a map so big it'll make you sick, the majority of the time you'll be hunting animals, recruiting important members of your tribe, or flat out killing your main rivals, the Udam. Certain missions play with the formula a tad (and as you'd expect it's littered with side quests), but a certain routine does set in relatively early.

There's nothing wrong with 'do mission, return home, level up, do another mission', but if you've sunk a lot of time into past Far Cry titles there's a slight chance it may all start to ring a few bells sooner than you'd like. There's only so long you can go looking for a deer to skin until before getting the itch to do something else. When it's good, however, it is entertaining and presented pretty damn well, the visual side of things being an absolute treat.

Whether or not it's better looking than Far Cry 4 is arguable, but from the off Primal is an example of why the current generation is impressive. Be it the sheer size of the thing or how pleasant it is to find a high spot and just stare off into the distance, Ubisoft's engine remains an absolute monster. It's a huge plus, mostly because it turns simply walking around the environment into a joyful experience. And then there's the bow and arrow.

 While sharing many traits with the one from 4, having to rely on it so much this time (mostly because there's not an MP5 in sight) forces you to get the hang of it. Once you do, it's a delight. Plunging an arrow into someone's skull is easily as satisfying as a sniped head-shot, and stacking these together sees it become better still. The same is true for the spear, making the slight dip when you engage in melee combat a little disappointing. It's certainly not bad, but up close attacks often spiral into button spamming with no real sense that you're trying to smash someone's face in. You're just swinging wildly.

Thankfully there are ways and means to avoid this, namely the ability to tame animals. Far Cry Primal holds nothing back in this regard either: if you want to have a bear as your partner in crime, you can go and get a bear to be your partner in crime. What's more, you can extended your finger, whistle, and the monster will go rip apart your prey. Acting as a party of sorts, it's a constant as you progress, coming into its own when larger beasts become accessible. Much like nearly everything in-game, this can also be ranked up. Before you see the end credits, you'll essentially be a walking disaster.

Far Cry Primal is a very fun video game (which sounds like a sentence a child would write), but it is a video game you've played before. Think how much a new setting means to you – and how much you enjoy Ubisoft's take on the open world genre – and the answer to whether you need this should be very clear. If you're still on the fence, you can ride around on the back of a woolly mammoth should you choose. That's alright...

Tom Clancy's The Division: Review

Hello fellow gamers, today i will be doing reviewing Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's The Division Beta and my experiences over the short time the beta was open.

I will  admit I got a bit caught up in the buzz for Tom Clancy's The Division since its astonishing premiere trailer at E3, so much so that I put the game on mine most anticipated games of 2016 list. After I played a few hours of the open beta for the game on Play station, my anticipation isn't gone, but it has been dulled quite a bit.

That's not to say there weren't things I loved . The beta shows off the same kind of detailed environmental design as those initial trailers, rendering a disease-ruined and fallen world where hauntingly beautiful signs of decaying civilization are everywhere you look. I also like the game's augmented-reality style interface, which overlays paths and information neatly over the "real world," including map projections that make it easy to figure out where you are and which way to go. The mix of high-end, near-future technology and crumbling urban infrastructure is certainly visually striking

.

 The online party integration also seems pretty solid so far. While you can see a whole server full of players running around and buying items in central "safe zones," individual missions are split off into smaller team-based instances. It's relatively easy to join up with friends or strangers to take on those missions in small groups and coordinate your goals on a shared map. The only quibble is that voice communication seems to be the only reliable way to communicate; there are no in-game tools to quickly highlight nearby points of interest or send quick commands and information to your team (if there are, I didn't find them).

Past those surface niceties, though, the game-play on offer in The Division beta is uninspiring to say the least. The shooting action seems to draw direct inspiration from the Gears of War series, particularly in the way you can snap behind cover and move between safe points with the press of a button. That's a fine idea in theory. In execution, though, the controls are quite a bit clunkier than Epic's high-octane shooters.

Where the Gears of War games thrive on smooth animations and transitions that keep the action fluid and fast-moving, in The Division beta I found the protagonist moved much more clunkily. Stepping out of cover, climbing onto a high surface, and rolling out of the way of bullets all felt slow and awkward, with animations that focused too long on the hero just standing there without much purpose. Even something as simple as sprinting down an empty street felt awkward since even the slightest sidestep to the left or right seems to break the sprint.

The controls are only a minor quibble, though, compared to the enemy AI on display in the beta. In just a few hours of play, I ran out of fingers and toes to count the number of bat wielding enemies who simply ran straight at me at full speed, seemingly eager to be gunned down. Armed enemies were obviously more common, but they'd often pause while dodging between pieces of cover to stand in the open and shoot back at me, relatively defenseless.

One particularly stupid "boss" encounter, at the end of a side-mission line, saw the antagonist simply bouncing back and forth like a ping-pong ball across the edge of a nearby roof, putting herself in the open with predictable frequency you could set your watch to. Sure, these are supposed to be the earliest and easiest missions in the game, and encounters may get more difficult as you go. But it's not a strong start.

Even a couple of hours in, the shooting action is already starting to feel incredibly repetitive. Every single mission so far has boiled down to "go to this point, clear the area of waves of enemies, then move on to another point," with none of the twists or high-action set pieces that keep better shooters interesting. There has been precious little variety in the enemies, almost all of which seem to be thug-like, scowling black men in ratty hoodies who are given precious little motivation by some forgettable, overly expository story scenes and voice overs. A few "named" enemies are supposed to stand out for their intelligence and toughness, but in practice they just end up being sponges that absorb more bullets before going down.

The game's RPG-like leveling and abilities structure hasn't impressed me yet either. You can scrounge downed enemies for items, weaponry, accessories, and armor, and even use scrap materials to build up a central base. So far, though, all these features feel very transnational and perfunctory, with little of the personality that makes customization fun in shooters like Fallout or even Borderlands.

The special abilities on offer in the beta so far are kind of boring, too. There's a reusable sticky explosive that's pretty easy to shoot with pinpoint accuracy, but its detonation barely fazes even normal grunt enemies. A riot shield ability is nice for moving between cover, but it limits you to a pistol when hiding behind it and was awkward to put away in the middle of a firefight. The abilities that send out radar pings to highlight nearby enemies and heal nearby party members are at least useful, if not especially novel. The menu system hints at a bevy of additional abilities, talents, perks, and upgrades that are unlock-able as you play, but none of them are available in the beta.

Those locked bits of content and the hints of a much larger world outside the city's downtown hub give me hope that The Division can grow a bit more interesting outside of this short, limited beta test. After almost three years of anticipation, though, I'm quite a bit less excited about the game's upcoming March 8 release.

Rainbow Six Siege: Review

Hello fellow gamers, If you enjoy charging aimlessly around a map, blasting away at anything that looks remotely like an enemy with the security of knowing you'll end up re-spawning about 15 more times, then Rainbow Six Siege may not be the first-person shooter for you.

But if, like myself, you're ready for a change from the usual pray-and-spray methods that feature in the likes of Black Ops 3 and Star Wars Battlefront, Ubisoft's latest offering could be for you.

Requiring patience, coordination and methodical execution, Siege is nothing short of a revelation in today's gun-ho gaming market.

Sure, it might not have a single-player campaign while the graphics aren't as polished as some of its rivals, but Ubisoft have delivered a unique game which continues to surprise and astound despite being released over a month ago.

Multiplayer is the go-to game mode, although the tutorials are very handy for introducing new players to the, ahem, Siege mentality, while Terrorist Hunt provides some fun against AI enemies.

Ten players are split into two separate teams, one attacking the objective and the other defending it.

What that objective is depends on the game mode, but whether it be a bomb or a hostage, a good time is had by all (maybe not the hostage).

First thing to know is that there are no respawns. Zero. So tact and precision is the order of the day, which is a breath of fresh air.

At the start of each round, Defenders must set up barricades, booby traps and reinforcements to make the Attackers' job as difficult as possible.

Indeed, it's a glorious ode to the much-maligned art of camping, which I was partial to on Call of Duty when I had suffered eight deaths on the trot from various overpowered Kill-streaks.

In these same 30 seconds, Attackers are able to control remote ground drones in order to locate the objective, while also having the ability to mark enemy players and reveal which special operators are in play.

Both teams have their pick of fictional characters from special forces across the globe, each one of them bringing unique weapons and special abilities to the table.

For example, Attacker Fuze can fire a barrage of grenades through walls while Defender Castle is able to replace regular wooden panels with a metal bulletproof cover.

But it's when preparations are over that the real fun begins.

Attackers must link up to find the most effective way to the objective, whether it be setting a breach charge on the ceiling of the room or rappelling through a narrow window.

The element of surprise is key to Siege – unless the objective happens to be in a very remote part of the map, there is always a way in.

But due to the time limit in each round, sometimes the best approach is an all-out assault through a main entrance, which is where team-play and communication really becomes a major decider.

A coordinated attack with other gamers can make for a thrilling firefight, but it can take just one Leroy Jenkins-type maverick to bring the operation to a crunching halt.

The action itself is great fun – every bullet counts, and just one well-placed headshot can turn a round on its head.

There is a real sense of realism, not to mention the joy of blasting apart an almost fully-destructible map.

There are 11 different maps on rotation, and the fact that each round spawns the objective in a different area keeps Siege feeling fresh despite the end-game being the same each time.

However, because a round can become a full-blown firefight at the drop of a hat, it usually makes the objective of the game irrelevant – almost every round ends up with one team completely wiped out, meaning it's pretty much just team death-match with a slight distraction. 

And like pretty much every single video game in existence, Siege does have some flaws which could drive a sane man to smash his controller on the ground.

My first thought is that there needs to be a more effective way to kick team-killers out of a match – these sociopaths seem to crop up way too much for my liking, and although a vote to kick can be initiated, the brutal and ever-changing dynamic of the game means that others on the team don't want to pause and take the time to endorse the proposal.

There is also an issue where the game can freeze for no reason at all – loading a match, reading the post-match results or finding a team to join, there appears to be no other way of fixing this other than closing the application and starting again.

I also have a habit of getting stuck on various things during a match, most notably barbed wire (which I've usually deployed) and roof-tops after a cheeky rappel up the walls.

The old Call of Duty trick which involves chucking a grenade at your feet is of no use in a game with zero re-spawns, so the only solution I've found is to go into prone mode and crawl away, which can be particularly unhelpful if you are being bombarded by enemy players. 

It also takes an annoyingly long time to earn renown, which is used to unlock new operators and gun additions as well as leveling up.

In fact, ranked matches – which I now find more infuriating than casual ones because these experienced players know every trick in the book (including firing out of windows before you've even decided how you're getting into the building) – cannot be unlocked until you reach level 20, which took around 12 hours of game-time.

However, the fact remains that the good times on Siege easily outweigh the bad ones. 

The smooth blend of stealth tactics and furious firefights keeps players on their toes, with the various operators offering unique ways to experience each map and game-mode.

Different options for Attackers and Defenders helps keep Siege's play-ability levels high, and I personally can't wait to see what plans Ubisoft has for this game in the future.

Rocket League: Review

Hello again fellow gamers, hope you enjoyed my first blog and now I will be moving onto “Rocket League”. The concept is as silly as it is simple: football with rocket-powered cars. But it’s the execution that really makes this multiplayer fun-fest really take off.

Whatever you think of video games as an entertainment medium, you’ve got to admit that replacing footballers with rocket-powered cars is an attractive idea. And Rocket League hits like a rocket-powered train. From the first seconds, as the engine growls under your all-powerful trigger finger, this feels not just fresh but perfectly-formed.

Teams of rocket-propelled cars face each other in an enclosed arena, where the walls can be driven up and all corners are rounded for maximum bouncability. At both ends is a large goal, and somewhere in the middle is a giant ball, around twice the height of the cars, which has what feels like its own low-gravity rules: it hangs in the air, moves begrudgingly after taps, and even when whacked will rarely outpace a rocket engine.

Then each team tries to score more goals than the other. The dynamics of hitting a ball with a small rocket-propelled vehicle obviously differ from those of the foot, but the same principles apply – anyone who’s ever played five-a-side will instantly be at home with the key role of ricochets, knocking the ball into walls for clever bounces or smashing it at angles for surprise shots. Even if hitting the thing head-on can be a little tricky at first.

One of the things that make “Rocket League” really special is the depth of the controls, and the learning curve you go through while getting better with them. Simple things are enormous fun. Your early games will be full of flailing vehicles and mosh pits but it still feels great, and pulling off more complex moves feels even better. You soon learn the delicious kinks in acceleration, how long you can hang a jump in the air, and when to go all-in or back off. Soon you’re “flipping” the car to overtake parallel rivals, riding up walls to nose a ball ahead of the jumping mass, even hitting the juice mid-jump and taking to the skies.

The titular rocket engine is a double-edged sword, capable of blasting a car across the pitch to a loose ball (sometimes right through an unfortunate opponent) but just as easily leaving you hopelessly stranded after a misjudgment. The combination of such blistering precision with the ball’s lazier, grounded momentum is irresistible.

It’s so good, in fact, that Rocket League can put the game front-and-centre. It doesn’t waste time with extraneous modes or gimmicky rule sets, but focuses everything on rocket car football with varying team sizes and the same simple rules. The austere, one-on-one duels teach you the skills, but it’s in the 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 playlists that Rocket League takes off, serving up match after match of player-authored brilliance: end-to-end slugfests, delicate tactical exchanges and full-blown wars all fit into quicksilver five-minute sessions.

The match length, such a boring stat it almost passes unnoticed, is what gives Rocket League seriously addictive qualities. As it’s so quick to play, a swift game of Rocket League is always tempting and, after that, you’ve already got it up and running so why not have a few more? Rocket League steals hour after hour and sometimes entire evenings in these five-minute increments, each effervescent hit just making you want more.

Rocket League’s visual style is brighter, its ball physics are that all-important touch heavier, and its matches are a slightly slower but much more substantial and chunky experience.

The difference is phenomenal. Few games can survive on one core loop repeated ad infinitum, but Rocket League is among them. What has made this game special is the extra layer of polish on an idea that was already refined, and the resistance to adding unnecessary extras: in this way, it feels like a Nintendo game. Rocket League is simply a joy to play, win or lose. And with friends? Wow. This is the most fun you’ll ever have behind the wheel of a rocket powered football playing car.

Anyways, here's what's good and bad about Rocket League.

What i love about Rocket League:

• Football with cars that can jump, flip, and have jet engines on the back
• Hilariously awkward gameplay, especially with novice players
• Rules and objectives are simple and to the point
• Controls are simple to pickup and play
• Detailed car editor

What i have mixed or no Feelings about:

• No option to change game length (one period of five minutes per match)
• Inability to change quick messages (the defaults are fine though)

What i hate:

• AI teammates often leave goals wide open for no reason or score on themselves
• Cannot search ranked and unranked matches at the same time (I don't care about my stats, I just want to PLAY!!!)
• Both camera options can be frustrating since they follow the car so close
• Matchmaking can take a painfully long amount of time
• In-game lag can be horrid

Games Similar to This:

• ATV Offroad Fury 4 (Ice Hockey mini game)

What did you think of “Rocket League”? Leave a comment below, or email me at cheshirechats@gmail.com and let me know what you think!.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3: Review

Hello fellow gamers! This is my first try at a blog so I have decided to share my personal experiences of games that I love and hate, as well as throwing in some tips. I am a marketing student and I have always been gripped by gaming from a young age. It all started with my mums Nintendo 64 and Golden-eye 007. Most of you will have found this blog from my social media accounts where I share what I have to say, something I’m prone to speak before I think but it has never let me down.

Seeing as I’m new to this my first blog will be about Call Of Duty: Black Ops III but please suffer in silence as I will be rougher than a badgers arse, nevertheless I am anticipating to upload a new blog each week so keep up to date with my social media accounts @csd_cheshire  

I’ll be the first to admit, I was not enthusiastic about “Black Ops III” when I heard about it. The previous installment from the “Call of Duty” franchise was “Advanced Warfare”, I was tired of the whole sci-fi portion that has taken the franchise by storm. It’s more like enough already stop trying to be like other competitors. I admit that I was dead wrong about my expectations about “Black Ops III.”

I’ve always believe Treyarch develops the best “Call of Duty” games, and “Black Ops III” is a additional proof to that. Personally the controls feel effortless and straightforward which make your personal character have some substance. Graphically, this game really shows what the current generation of consoles are capable of. “Black Ops III” is a gorgeous game to look at from the ominous sounds of the robots and the splatter of blood when someone is shot.

Of course, what kind of horrible world would it be without “Call of Duty” and its multiplayer? “Black Ops III” brings the typical offering with this installment. The “Pick 10” perks system returns, which means players can have a total of 10 guns, tactical grenades, attachment, perks, lethal grenades and wildcards. 

Together with the “Pick 10” system, players can choose a specific specialist class who has their own unique abilities. Specialists are identified by a unique Callsign. Each has one special ability and one special weapon. These abilities and weapons become available after enough time has passed and/or score has been earned in a game. Outrider is my personal favorite and I always use vision pulse, this ability when activated it sends out sonar-like waves that penetrate walls and other surfaces, giving the player the ability to see enemies through objects. This ability makes it easy to track down campers and wipe them out before they even know what hit them. It’s a good bit more powerful than the Tracker perk, which just allows you to see digital footprints of nearby opponents.

Firstly I’ll admit, I was so worried with the idea of Specialists, and though it would just make players to spam their abilities and make me very angry. Again, I was wrong because matches always seem to be very close this year. Specialist abilities have potential to cause real damage in the right hands, but weaknesses make them vulnerable at the same time. Nothing makes me happier than killing someone who is using their Specialist ability or gun because I understand how frustrating it is. As of this writing, my kill to death ratio is 1:56 which is my highest since “Modern Warfare 3” 

I will say, personally I think the sub-machine guns need to be adjusted because they are a little bit OP, and some of the spawn locations can cause very quick deaths. This does cause my controller to be nearly thrown out of the window at times.

Of course, “Black Ops III” also boasts a zombie mode this year featuring a cast of Jeff Goldblum, Ron Perlman, Neal McDonough and Heather Graham. The mode I’ve played so far is a noir-style mode, which is unique and one of the more memorable ones out there. Admittedly, my experience with zombies hasn’t been as positive due to a lack of communication with random teammates. The people I have been paired up with usually run off and do their own thing, and before I know it, I’m surrounded and quickly killed. I’m really hoping to get a solid group soon because zombies this year feels like it could really prove to be a time sink.

Coming off of the fairly underwhelming “Advanced Warfare,” Treyarch did something special with their turn at “Call of Duty” this year. “Black Ops III” has a campaign that, while confusing at times, is actually worth playing even if it’s just to unlock aesthetic things for online play. Cooperative campaign mode adds value to the single-player mode, which is something that really should be implemented in every “Call of Duty” game.it’s worth noting that Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 users don’t have access to the single-player mode since the developers opted out of it due to system limitations.

Multiplayer mode, for the first time in years, feels like a fair and balanced system that rewards skill. Of course, spawn kills and questionable kills will always exist, but they’re far and few between this year. There’s also a giddy sense of satisfaction when using a specialist class to really bring the pain. Zombie mode once again uses an all-star cast to give players an opportunity to go zombie hunting, and it’s a game mode with loads of potential next to the campaign and multiplayer modes. There are also some hidden modes to be unlocked, which I’ll let you discover on your own. At the end of the day, “Black Ops III” is what every “Call of Duty” should be - a complete package that is full of content without relying too much on one game mode.

What did you think of “Call of Duty: Black Ops III”? Is it the best in the series so far? Leave a comment below, or email me at cheshirechats@gmail.com and let me know what you think!