BadboyStelin

Last of Us Part 2 really is a game of two halves. Graphically the game is awesome, as is the sound. Until about 18 hours in I was completely hooked with the immersive story. I loved the character development and my emotional connection with them as the story progressed made me care about what was going on and who was doing what. I am mature enough to accept the openly gay relationship between main characters in the story for what it is and I have to say that the sensitivity in which the script is handled is excellent. Combat is both brilliant and disastrous. When it works, the gun battles are awesome with limited ammo forcing you to adapt a defensive strategy while picking off foes one at a time. The melee attacks become epic as you unlock the ability to upgrade weapons rendering the on-screen violence quite impactful emotionally. It is an 18 rated game, so if you don’t like violence, don’t buy it. Sadly as the game progressed into the second half of the story, I quickly lost patience and interest in the story line. I was forced into playing characters that I, initially, cared very little about and I was effectively forced into relearning whole sets of skills that I had already spent hours honing in the first half of the game, only to have to do it all again albeit with slight tweaks to the weapons and skill-trees. Being forced to walk around in now familiar venues having conversations and looking at utter tat in the environment for the sake of developing the second leg of the story really frustrated me. Huge Yawn. The other irritation throughout the game is one which many titles with NPCs suffer from, the NPCs constantly get in your way. The frequency in which NPCs would push in front of me when trying to position myself at the edge of a wall to ambush an enemy was a joke. I tried bludgeoning the NPCs from time to time but to no effect. It’s a lesson for all developers. If you must place NPCs in a game, for goodness sake keep them out the way or allow the player to beat them senseless for being stupid morons. In the final few hours the story jumps repeatedly from one flashback to another and for me the game became the definition of tedium. At this stage of the game the already irksome combat controls became a real hassle, probably because I had stopped caring and I just wanted it to end. When pushed into tight spaces with large numbers of foes, the combat mechanics seriously lets the game down. I couldn’t find any method of locking on to a target during melee and when you dodge a foe, you have to manually swing the camera around to find them again which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t and often I’d lose the upper hand simply because the mechanics were too slow and too cumbersome to actually achieve what I wanted to achieve. Slow and poorly designed weapon selection mechanics added further to the problem and it became unnecessarily frustrating in an otherwise extremely well polished title. In the final third of the game, Naughty Dog's vision started to win me over. I didn't agree with all their story-board choices but the immersive play forced me to start caring about other main characters as much as Ellie and some genuine morally-charged themes left me thinking about the game long after the credits stopped rolling.

I don't get the hype. This game is so irritating I'd rather stick pencils in my eyes. Barely clad enemies resist multiple slashes of a Katana, Little Bambi deer run off after being slashed multiple times with a Katana. You need to craft two deer skins and rope to make a water canteen yet you can't empty a beer bottle and fill that up with water to carry. Night mode is far too dark and too long meaning too much of the game is a drag to play. I could go on. A supposedly intelligent survival game is let down by stupidity and thoughtless game mechanics.

Excellent sniping game. GW Sniper Contracts gives you freedom to PLAY the game how you want to play and is a real breath of fresh air from all those supposedly AAA titles that insist on taking the action out of your hands with follow me, do this now, do that now and here’s another cut scene every couple of minutes. Sniper Contracts entertains none of that nonsense, the only break in your control over the action is the kill-cam which triggers when you pull off a really nice shot showing you the path of your bullet in slow motion as it traces towards your target and thumping home in a satisfying manner. And who wouldn’t want to see that every time. The aiming process is really intuitive and only takes a few minutes to get used to, allowing you to pull off truly rewarding shots at distance. Maps are interesting, complex and detailed and graphically the game is solid with good textures and detail. Save points may be a minor **** for some. There is no manual save but I don’t agree with reviewers who complain about being sent back to do huge sections of missions again when they die. There are enough checkpoint auto saves across the maps to keep any decent gamer happy. Overall, a great game.

Raid WW2 on PS4 is one big jar of marmite, you might want to like it or want to loath it but regardless of your taste, there’s no mistaking that what you get when you buy Raid is a large dollop of smelly brown stuff. On one hand the full-on FPS action with tongue in cheek humour is a nice departure from the mainstream take on WW2 shooters. On the other hand though is a game destined to failure due to developer’s greed and utter indifference to quality control and customer satisfaction. Prior to the 5GB early patch being downloaded, the entire game was an absolute mess of head-ache inducing lagging, glitching and stuttering during every second of the action. Even after the 5GB patch, the missions in the second half of the game still lag so badly that you’re eyes can’t actually see what’s going on. It’s simply not playable. The game crashes at the end of missions about 40% of the time so you lose all bonuses that you collected as you trudged your way through. It is so bad that the developers must have known that the game was utterly unplayable before release - but they released it anyway and they clearly expect the public to hand over their cash for unfinished, poorly coded garbage. It’s a real shame that consumer-rights laws don’t target developers over this sort of thing, if they did, the games industry might just change for the better. As it stands, even after the 5GB patch the developers have failed to deliver a playable game and the standard of what they’re offering here is criminal. If you don't have a reliable internet connection to download the patch and if you had hoped to play the game solo offline (which you can do with the remaining 3 characters controlled by AI), stay well clear of this game. The developers and publishers involved in this deserve to be looking for another job. One unconnected with the games industry. UPDATE 22/10/17: It's now some time after release and there has been no attempt from Lion Game Lion to patch this mess. The game is still glitching and crashing frequently. I tried to stick with it and fought through a level on hard mode to win extra XP, only for the game to crash at the completion screen at the end of the level. This game is an absolute disgrace and doesn't deserve the time or investment from any player.

This review will undoubtedly attract the wrath of some fanboys but with 30 years of gaming behind me, including most of the biggest titles released over that time on multiple formats, I feel qualified to speak my mind. Evolve is one of those games that I want to love. The idea is novel and I was hoping for so much from this game. In reality the game is a recipe for high blood pressure and/or self harm. It is totally unbalanced, especially if you want to play as the monster as I did. Four vs one should have been okay if the developers had taken appropriate steps to create an equal playing field. But alas that is not the case. If you have any interest in playing the monster, especially the first one you are lumbered with, the game becomes an absolute farce. Four hunters equipped with weapons and gadgets that can track you quickly, shoot you from a distance, drop hell-fire missiles on your immediate position, tie you to the spot with plasma chains, lay mines and throw up a dome plasma cage that traps you in a tight combat position, unable to escape, with those four hunters who can deploy all of those weapons against you, doing just that. Meanwhile you have no ability to regenerate health (other than by evolving - which you can't do under attack). You can attempt to regenerate armour by killing and eating wildlife, but you can't eat it when you are being shot. What can the monster do? Well you can throw a rock which does pretty much no damage at all to the four hunters. You can swipe them, rush at them, do a plunge style attack or breathe fire at them. None of which deals damage anywhere near fast enough to get rid of any of the hunters in time to save your health bar sufficiently to make the game fair or even reasonable. And guess what, once you've thrown a rock or spent one of your other pointless powers, there's an infuriating cool down period to be waited out before you can do it again. Even when are breathing fire, you can't dish out the standard slash style swipes at the same time. No sir, one at a time please and just wait your turn for the next go. Meanwhile, all four hunters continue to relentlessly bombard you with their myriad of weapons at the time time. And then there is the wildlife. When you are being attacked by the hunters, any creatures in the vicinity can have a pop at you as well. Very helpful and not in the least bit annoying. Playing as a hunter is easier than the monster, but is invariably more boring. Unless you and your buddies are all hooked up on mic's speaking to each other, forget any preconception that you will feel part of a team. You will wander about, looking for where the other team players are going and will follow like a little sheep until you come across some action (unless you have chosen the tracker and are lucky enough to have been chosen to play the tracker by the server - yes, you can't even play the character you actually want to play most of the time in multiplayer as only one of each character is permitted in the round at any one time, unlike COD for example where you can choose who you want to be, what perks you want to have and stick with that to gain expertise and skill with that character. None of that here sir, choose the monster and you might play the medic. Choose the assault class and you might end up playing the tracker.) Yes I prefer single player modes to multiplayer. But here both are as bad as each other. There is no forgiveness and nothing to tempt loyalty other than the grind of levelling up to achieve some extra perks or another monster to play with. Is it worth it though? This game is SO disappointing and frustrating on so many levels. The most prominent emotion I am left with after 8 hours of tedious play is, and I regret this yet it is true, utter disdain (I nearly said hatred) for the developers of this utter pile of tosh. Think very carefully before you part with your cash for this. I can not think of another game in my 30 years of gaming experience that is as unbalanced, as unfair or as enraging as this.

Okay, here’s my view. I love music, all kinds of music. From the occasional bit of jazz and blues to electric pop to the heaviest of thrash metal, there’s a place in my library for it all. Some people have just one taste in music, say rap, and if the tune you’re listening to isn’t rap, then that person is going to say your music is crap. The same is true of games. I was dissuaded from buying Dark for ages due to the overwhelmingly bad reviews it attracted. Boring graphics, stuttering controls and a broken game play they announced. I would offer readers a slightly different view. Dark appealed to me because of it promised stealth. I love sneaking around in games as a welcome tonic from all the AAA all-action shooters I usually play. Dark does not disappoint in that respect. You watch, wait, plan and execute. If something unexpected happens, you quickly try to hide, readjust, watch, plan and execute again. If you are good enough you’ll succeed. If you just wade in and try to bluff your way through the game, you are going to die.....a lot. The game’s pencil-shaded graphics are lovely (in my opinion) and I thought the music in the various sound tracks really added to the suspense. The difficulty level can be pretty tough until you get used to how things work. The enemies patrol around using mostly set routines, but this allows you to formulate a plan of attack. Who needs to die first, what will happen if I bump that one off, who will see or hear me do it, do I need and instant kill or can I spend 4-7 seconds **** all their blood out to give me more power? If you are seen an alarm will be activated and you’ll need to either find a place to hide or fight depending on how many enemies arrive as back-up. Sometimes the enemies will sniff you out, sometimes they wont depending on how well you’re hidden. Personally I think the reviewers who slate the enemy AI should consider that Batman Arkham Asylum works in a very similar way. The henchmen in Batman were non too bright either when it came to spotting where you were hiding, yet Dark gets torn to bits for the same idea which is executed in pretty much the same idea (and no I’m not trying to suggest Dark is comparable to Batman re combat, puzzles etc.) As Dark progresses you realise that the mechanics can be rather repetitive as it’s always about spotting enemies, watching, moving, waiting and executing in different locations but you can buy extra powers and upgrades to mix things up sufficiently to keep things interesting. You can learn to kill from a distance using shadows, create a distraction so you can sneak past or increase your teleport powers to move through the level or get closer to enemies quickly etc. There are a couple of weaker moments such as the dispatching of bosses which is a little underplayed in the execution and cut-scenes but that didn’t spoil things for me overall. The game didn’t break (unlike some AAA releases take note EA-Dice re BF4) and overall I think its a good solid stealth game which requires thought and intelligence to play. If you don’t like cat and mouse games, don’t buy it. If you do, give it a go. Now that it’s £15 it’s a good buy.

This latest incarnation of BF has some really impressive maps fit for a decent amount of sprawling action. The ability to destroy buildings is pleasing and the weapons are okay. Most impressive is the sound track which really increases the atmosphere with hard shelled weapon fire noises that echo around you. The graphics are okay but tend to go from very impressive to PS2 level depending on the map you are playing. The fighting is not as frantic as COD in terms of close proximity combat but being staged in a much wider world can be just as tense. I would say that notching up a good score for yourself is much more difficult in BF than it is in any of the COD titles. So in that respect I'm persuaded that BF is the harder challenge. What really **** about this title **** it's ****. Electronic Arts is either lazy, always doing things on the cheap or is so arrogant that it just doesn't care about its customers. The EA servers are clearly not up to the task and in any 2 hour gaming period, you might find yourself being kicked off the server on 4 or more occasions because, 'the server has lost the connection.' This is simply not good enough and this is one area where COD completely outshines BF. Every time you get kicked off you lose all of the points you have just earned throughout the current game which means you might take 30-40% longer than you really deserve to rank-up and get better weapons and kit. That adds up to a huge amount of wasted time and a whole heap of frustration. Another issue is the frequency in which the game freezes. I've played 5 different modes of multiplayer so far and ALL of them have frozen at one stage or another usually when loading up the map at the start. Poor poor poor! You have a choice (most of the time) about where you re-spawn in BF. A nice touch you might think, but also a very frustrating one. All too often all of the available spawn options are all fated and result in just one thing when you are dropped on the map -INSTANT DEATH because the game drops you right in the middle of a fire-fight even if you have watched the small display screen to make sure all is clear before you spawn. The other big issue here is that if you only have a 4GB machine, BF4 will not run on your Xbox360. Check the small print on the back of the game box. Regardless of how much of the 4GB you have free, because none of that 4GB is classed as a hard drive you won't be able to load the game. You need a proper hard-drive to run this game and it needs at least 2GB of free space to download base material. I actually found the single player pretty enjoyable compared to some reviewers. There are some good tense battles and it's graphically better than multiplayer. It has grit but sadly the foul-mouthed language leaves a lot to be desired. Perhaps if you're an adolescent you might think the swearing is cool, but for anyone with an ounce of maturity you'll realise that whilst swearing is a part of every day life in the forces, it doesn't mean you want all the vulgar profanities invading your living room every time you play. If you're listening EA it adds absolutely nothing to the game at all. I'm left so disappointed by this game, it should be brilliant, it wants to be brilliant, but in it's current state it's simply not reliable enough or sufficiently well supported by its own maker EA to be any good at all. Very poor and very frustrating. EA should be ashamed of themselves for the lack of care and respect they show towards the very people who keep them all in gainful employment.

I loved X-Com Enemy Unknown. It was fresh, challenging and made you think. Nothing about Enemy Unknown should detract from the successes of The Bureau, which is also fresh, challenging and makes you think. It's such a shame that some reviewers award far lower scores than it actually deserve because it's compared against an expectation that nothing should be changed from the original formula. In other words fan-boys and fan-girls who presumably must have exactly one slice of toast, with 2.2g of butter, 1.5 dollops of Robinson's shredded orange marmalade, one hard boiled egg (7.7cm circumference) and 353 ml of milk for their breakfast EVERY day, because change wouldn't be good. The Bureau is a great game in its own right. Graphically the game creates a wonderful world full of tasteful pastel colour, great environments and detail that deserves recognition for what it does and how it makes the player feel drawn into the game. The game does a fantastic job of inviting you into a well thought out and portrayed sic-fi adventure that would be fitting of many a AAA movie, and is not too dissimilar in storyline to Independence Day. The vistas are lovely to look at and the 60's setting offers a welcome change to the humdrum of other game designs. The creativity behind the overall theme and the atmosphere it creates is as good as any Bio-shock or Mass Effect game. Later in the game the alien-ship architecture and technology together with glimpses of a stunning galaxy are on a par with, and often better than, many of the AAA movie titles you could think of. The interaction between characters is very much like Mass Effect and once you've chosen a certain line of dialogue you want to pursue, I love the slight twist on how your character delivers the message in the same way that the lead characters in Mass Effect did. Yes it's a simple development trick but one which captures your attention and satisfies if you are even slightly interested in video games telling a story rather than just knocking on a 2ft thick plank of wood. Controls are tight and the method of selecting skills, attributes and weapons is very simple and intuitive and never interfere with gameplay. Yes, as some reviewers have pointed out, the selection of skills mid-fight does pause the 'action' but this is not an action game in the same genre as COD, it's a tactical shooter and one in which tactics need to be considered, actioned and then reconsidered and re-actioned to keep on top of the enemy onslaught. The enemy will try to flank you, then they introduce ones that can fly, so overhead becomes a problem too. If you accept that issuing orders and actually leading your team is a key focus on this game, you will automatically realise that the selection of skills mid-fight is not a hinderance but actually the core skill in the game. Where will you direct your team to take cover, what weapons should they deploy against who, which enemy needs to be taken out first, can you afford to ignore part of the battlefield in favour of tasking everyone to concentrate fire-power on just one foe, who needs medical attention, who is about to die, do you provide that medical attention yourself or direct a team member to do so? It's all down to you and you can approach a fight in any way you please. Before you begin a mission you will choose which squad members to take with you. That choice will have a bearing on how easy or how successful you are in completing the mission. Each squad member can be levelled up through experience and you can choose which attributes and weapons they should carry with them. You cant upgrade weapons as such, but you can choose from rapid fire weapons with lots of ammo to heavier plasma weapons with more limited ammo. You can upgrade certain elements of the squad's attributes. Generally that focuses on a choice of harder-hitting weapons, an ability to distract enemies or offer squad-healing abilities according to what you think would be most useful. The Bureau can be challenging and on harder difficulty levels it demands real focus on your team and constant reassessment of risk and tactics. It can all become quite frantic at times. Once a mission is complete you'll return to base where a few discussions with other characters will take place. Again I found those visits to the base very interesting in developing the story and I spent a little time just soaking in the atmosphere of the very believable (in a sci-fi world) bunker and the people who work there. I do not agree with those who suggest the visits to base are long and drawn out and completely unnecessary. Overall I rate this game very highly and would recommend it to those who love tactical shooters, Mass Effect style games and who love the XCom theme but who are open minded enough to accept that a new take on a theme can be hugely enjoyable without being a carbon copy with a new front cover? A new adventure anyone? Or would you prefer a lemon-curd sandwich the same as yesterday?