Blackstone_296

Im writing this review having owned the game for just on 3 months having 100% completed career mode, Wreckfest is simply one of the best racing games of this generation, recommended for any racing fan no matter what your usual jam is.

Monster Energy Supercross: The Game is a breath of fresh air for MotoX games at the moment, As the Mx Vs ATV series has gone downhill after Reflex and the MXGP titles have just been OK but not great. ME SX TE is a brilliant game and while it's not perfect it gets a lot of things right, so here's some good and bad points about this game. The Good - Needles to say graphically this game is AMAZING and borderline photo realistic at times. The motion blur filter that kicks in during the races makes for a sensational feeling of speed and keeps the adrenaline rolling throughout the races. - The amount of content here is huge, All 17 tracks in the official FIM SX championship with both the 250 East and West championships and the 450 full season. Plus the track editor and the ability to do custom championships on yours and other peoples custom made tracks is enough to keep anyone entertained for months. - The amount of Bike and Rider customisation is massive with all major Bike Manufacturers, Tonnes of contributing MX Brands with tonnes of products on offer that all look great and true to life. - The racing itself is absolutely fantastic. Coupled with the motion blur filter as mentioned before, the aggressive A.I. and the balanced difficulty, the racing in this game can be nail biting at times. While the learning curve may be a bit steep at first. - The handling and response in this game is the best of any motoX game yet and the weight and balance controls really work this time unlike the previous MXGP titles. The Bad - As mentioned earlier the graphics are fantastic but for some reason the day time graphics during practice and qualifying sessions aren't nearly as good as the night time graphics in the races and the motion blur filter isn't present which makes a difference. - The character models of the official riders are pretty ugly and the game also lacks a custom character creator, the custom rider only has a select number of pre-made character models to choose from and they are all pretty ugly except for two. Even to just be able to change the hair and skin colour on them would have made a huge difference. - Lack of depth in the career mode! This seems to be the gripe with most of Milestone's work. The Career mode is fun but its stock standard. Select a rider, gear and bike to start off with, go race, earn credits to buy more stuff, progress from 250 up to 450... Thats it! The NBA 2K games have set a solid benchmark of what how immersive the career mode in a sports game can be. Milestone would do well to take note of that. In conclusion; while MTX Mototrax is still the best MX game of all time, Monster Energy Supercross is the best MX game since 2011's MX Vs ATV Reflex. This coupled with the also recently released 'Gravel' is showing that Milestone are fast improving and they could very well have a masterpiece on their hands soon

After owing this game for a few weeks, sinking hours into it and completing the career mode, What can I say apart from "Gravel is FLAMING FANTASTIC". Its not perfect by any means but its a fun addictive game that's easy to recommend to anyone with even a slight interest in racing games. First of all its important to mention that YES Gravel is an Off-Road based Arcade racer however its is realistic enough and apart from a few strange collisions the physics are reasonably on point, In short Gravel isn't as much of an arcade game as Burnout or NFS and its not as much of a Sim as Project Cars. Instead it sits in the same league as the Forza Horizon games and obviously is strongly influenced by the old school classics such as Sega Rally. Good Points - Graphically, While Gravel doesn't meet the draw dropping elements of Forza or Gran Turismo it is still a great looking game and it has its own art style that remains consistent throughout. Lighting, weather effects and track detail are top notch, Car detailing and Locations are ok, Some of the far away objects and textures are a little dated looking but certainly not a letdown - Gameplay wise Gravel is FUN!!! Seriously!! The racing is unbelievably addictive and is constantly intense and thrilling as Gravel is one of those rare racing titles where the challenge level is nailed! Weather you win or loose a race its always by the skin of of your teeth. For an Arcade racer Gravel can be very challenging and some of the Time-Attack and Smash up events can really leave you really perplexed over how to get a better time. - The progression "Star" system is very well done and is another thing that makes gravel addictive, No matter how many times you complete an event you will want to do it over and over without getting bored until you've earned the max amount of stars out of every event. - Variety! Another reason Gravel is never boring is the amount of variety in the Tracks, Locations, Vehicles, and Event Types. There's just so much to keep the player going. Bad points - Some of the liveries on the cars are a bit lacking, Some are fantastic and suit the games art style but most are simple two to three colour patterns that look like something from an N64 era title and there's usually only 3 or 4 available per car that have to be earned as you level up. Good idea but really there should be 3 or 4 to start off with, with more to earn. And the ones you earn should actually look good... And the earning the Boss liveries each time you beat one of the bosses... While its a good idea in itself why didn't they think to remove the bosses name when you apply the livery to your vehicle? SERIOUSLY! Who the hell wants to drive around with someone else's name on their car!!! Seriously annoying! - Last but not least, The lack of depth in the career mode! This seems to be the problem with alot of Milestone games recently. While no one necessarily plays racing games for the story, I feel that Gravel had a good premise, With each series of events being catalogued into an episode of the 'Gravel' TV Show and having to beat the main rival at the end of each series... Great idea but SO much more could have been done with it... Drivatar's, sponsor objectives, fan building, PR etc etc... Bit of a missed opportunity. Anyway imperfections aside, Gravel may not be the next Forza Horizon 3 but its the best game of this type since then and is one of the best racers of 2018 without a doubt! Go buy this game, don't let it be swept under the rug!

Absolutely Phenomenal game!!! Unbelievable!! Who would have thought that Guerrilla games had this in them after the Killzone series? It just goes to show what game developers can achieve when they are given the time and the creative freedom to create something they actually want to do, not just rival their competitors biggest franchise. And then spend that time to really craft, hone and perfect it. Where do I even begin with this game. Well everyone already knows the graphics, gameplay mechanics, world design and design of the machines is absolutely TOP NOTCH! But where Zero Dawn really shines is in its story. Not only is this one of the best story's ever presented in a video game. its one of the best stories ever told in any entertainment medium!! Its so well paced, With all the information being gradually drip fed throughout the game with plot twists and big reveals at every turn, the immersion in this game is something not very often experienced anywhere else. Its also very rare that a sandbox game is this addictive in this day and age. The world just begs to be explored to its very corners. All the side quests, errands and other activities hardly feel like busy work and are soo addictive and fun, And they all matter and can all have effects on the story line and ending. Alloy is a great protagonist, and I cant spoil but there are some exceptional side kicks and villans throughout as well. Another gratifying feature is the sheer fact that the game makes honest effort to work as many details as possible into the story rather than just resting on the tropes of a sandbox game. For example; Why does Alloy always mutter out loud to herself .. Is it because its a video game and she's trying to give the player hints ? .... Noooope there's a story reason behind it. Why is this smallish landscape such an ethnically diverse place? Because its a video game and it has to be PC... NOOOOOOPE there's a story reason, Or why are the environments so rich in diversity and climate even for a repetitively small space? Because its a videogame and the sandbox cant be repetitive and boring? ,,,, NOOOPE there's a story reason for that too. So on and so forth Unfortunately though some of the games imperfections that others have spoken of are true also. Whilst Alloy is a great main character as Sylens, Avaid, Varl, Herries are aswell, there are a few side characters that are a little annoying and there's a fair bit of misplaced voice acting here and there too. For example a large dreaded African looking man with a voice like he's a white computer nerd with Satyriasis... COME ON. And yes the facial animations and lip sinking at times is off and as sort of explained earlier the voice acting is relatively hit and miss. But all the main characters with important roles are generally done pretty well. In conclusion I cant give Zero Dawn enough praise. Its minor flaws are hardly gamebreakers and at times only serve to make the game more entertaining. It is easily the game of 2017, Its the best current gen game to come out since The WItcher 3 and it even trumps Uncharted 4 as the best PS4 exclusive thus far... Horizon Zero Dawn is one we will be talking about for years to come.

After finishing both remastered Darksiders games I'm surprised I didn't get into the series earlier, though Im actually glad as both remasters are superbly well done. Honestly I don't know why the overall scores on both games aren't higher. I know remasters are usually never as well received as the originals but anyone that missed the game the first time around would be an idiot not to try them on the current gen consoles. Darksiders 2 is simply a great game but its not without its flaws. So here's the pros and cons Visually the game is stunning. The art direction of all characters and scenery is brilliant, the textures in their remastered form are fantastic and something the game drips with is atmosphere. Darksiders 2 is a significant evolution of the first game, Moving up from a linear hack n slash action game to a full on action RPG with the essential character skill building perks to accompany it also with alot more emphasis on open world level design. As did the first game Darksiders 2 borrows heavily from the God of War franchise with its brutally satisfying fast paced combat, the Prince of Persia franchise heavily influences the games platforming and dungeon crawling mechanics while The Legend of Zelda influence centers in the games puzzles and loot system. In this case that's not a bad thing at all, The Darksiders franchise may not have a single stab wound of originality in its whole body but it is the classic case of "What it does, It does **** well!" The story is also another big feat for Darksiders 2, While the first games problem was that the story was present throughout the game though not properly told. Darksiders 2 bursts with story and lore the whole way keeping the player fully involved whilst leaving plenty to be explored and uncovered. The character of Death is also a great character to play as. Whilst War was a fun character to play as in the first game his boring dialogue and dry monotone voice acting was a huge let down. Deaths character however is the complete opposite, The acting is perfectly executed with vibrance and dynamics which at times even make Death a witty and somewhat charming figure. The cons however; As a remaster Deathinitve edition isn't quite as well polished as Warmastered edition (Which is odd that this one was done first.) The textures and resolution are top notch of course running at pristine 1080P the whole time but the frame rates tops at 30fps most of the time occasionally dropping below. If it had run at 60fps like Warmastered does it would have been fantastic. Also oddly enough the remaster doesn't appear to have fixed the issues that players were complaining with the original game. Audio issues crop up frequently where sounds of approaching enemies are always too loud and at the center of the mix making it impossible to tell the direction they are coming from. The grip detection with the platforming is at times horrendous making what could be easy scenery to traverse quite difficult. The convoluted controls and erratic camera problems also make platforming alot more of a task than it needs to be. The combat within small spaces also makes the camera behave like it has epilepsy. Lastly one of the fine perks with the first game was environmental diversity with the scenery puzzles and boss fights, this does exist in Darksiders 2 as well but not as much. Darksiders 2 essentially has 5 main sandboxes within the main overworld and while the scenery varys dirastically between each of them, Everything from enemy types, dungeons, puzzles and bosses remain consistant to each area which the player often has to spend long periods of time in before moving on which is enough time for a feeling of monotony to sink in. However these are but mere speed bumps in what is otherwise an epic 30 hour adventure with the DLC packs to keep you tied over afterwards. GET THIS GAME, Nordic needs to hear our calls for Darksiders 3.

I've just finished the 23 hour campaign of Darksiders: Warmastered Edition for the first time and have started playing Draksiders II: Deathfinitive Edition and honestly I can’t believe I never got into the Darksiders series earlier, but honestly I'm kind of glad I didn't because the remasters of both games are absolutely fantastic and for memory I believe the reason I never got round to playing the original games was after seeing some review footage on youtube and thinking that the graphics were rubbish even for that time period. But the remasters have flipped that on its head. The visuals, art style, level and character design are all fantastic here and the performance at 1080P, 60FPS on the PS4 is rock solid. The technical issues that other reviewers mentioned in the past must have been patched out by now as I don't recall having one single glitch my entire play through. Simply a solid fantastic looking game. Gameplay wise this game is a blast to play and its almost hilarious how much Darksiders borrows from the God of War franchise, right down to the combat style, loot system and platforming, but does it all so brilliantly that it’s a cut above it in every way. As I was never a big fan of God of War and couldn't understand why that franchise was as highly rated as it was. Darksiders is a classic case of take what’s already been but build on it until perfection. But knock-off's aside Darksiders earns tones of creative points in its level design, characters, puzzles, diverse environments and intriguing boss battles. The art style is superbly done and in this day and age with the Triple-A games industry focusing too much on realism there is something refreshing about playing a game set in a quirky over the top hi-fantasy world where nothings real but everything just looks cool. With the post-apocalyptic feel of nature reclaiming the decimated city streets being taken over by demon lords at the same time, the visual style falls somewhere in between 'The Last of Us', 'Lords of The Fallen' and 'Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning’. The large diversity of the environments is another sparkling gem and they all connect together in the overworld seamlessly. Unlike most puzzle based games the puzzles in Darksiders are actually unique to any game of this genera, and fun to traverse and conquer require a fair amount of thought without pushing the player to give up and look up the quick guide on Youtube. The only two major flaws in Darksiders are firstly the fact that although the game is bursting with rich story and lore that begs to be explained and uncovered at every turn, the game does a pretty rough job at telling the story for the most part and I often found myself reading the plot line on Wikipedia as I went along just to keep up. Second is the voice acting of the main character War. While the rest of the supporting cast do superb jobs in their respective roles (Particularly Mark Hamill as The Watcher)War's actual voice may be suiting to his character but his lines are very trite and dull as well as bleak and ominous throughout and his tone remains completely unchanged regardless of what's happening around him. All in all Darksiders gets a 9 out of 10 as its not perfect ... But it is friken awesome. If you’re like me and missed out on the original game you would be an idiot not to give Warmastered Edition a try now particularly at its current price, IT'S A STEAL!