GeekFusion

The Avengers finally assemble on console and PC, but not without a few hiccups along the way. I had quite high hopes as I loaded up Avengers for the first time, I had enjoyed the beta but hoped that there would be still a lot more to find out, and while there isn’t as much variety as I would like, the campaign is so much fun and definitely has replay-ability. The game has one of the best beginnings **** I’ve ever played. You are introduced to a young Kamala and have to find comics through out all the hustle and bustle of the A-day celebrations, now while I know this doesn’t sound to exciting, but what makes this such a good opening is Kamala, she is such a fangirl and personifies what everyone would act like in that situation. It makes the introduction to all the avengers so much cooler as Kamala loses her mind as they each talk to her. This is a thing that carries through the entire game and always makes you as a player think ‘Wow, I’m playing as the Avengers!’ Once this sequence has finished and you have played the A-Day mission from the Beta, is where I start to have issues with the first few hours of this game. The first hour of this game shows exactly how good this game can be with the quick transitions between characters and the awesome character relationship with the endless one liners and quips throughout the early missions. Then it strips it all away and gives you Kamala and Bruce, it’s disappointing that all of that potential is stripped away and you are given arguably the worst of the Avengers to spend the longest with. This is the part where the game becomes a bit confusing because it’s clear that these style of missions, that are essentially capture the flags or destroy the objectives, it’s clear it is trying t gear you up for the multiplayer but you’re playing the campaign. It’s difficult because it’s clear they want to try and please as many people as possible but by doing so it never really commits to anything. The beginning of this game and the end of this campaign are as good as Marvel’s Spider-Man. It is story focused, great combat mind-blowing experience, but in the middle it tries to ween you into the multiplayer aspect which for me was rather annoying as I was trying to play the campaign not the multiplayer. Besides the minor detour in the middle part of the campaign and the fairly frequent performance issues, which I wasn’t overly concerned by as most of this game is going to be on next gen consoles anyway, this is a really good game it’s going to take time to see how the game as a service part will perform but I will definitely play this campaign again on PS5. I will do a separate review for the Avengers Initiative, the long term part of the game, a little further down the line as it’s difficult to see where it is going a week after launch, Marvel’s Avengers Reassemble campaign: 7/10 What do you guys think? Are you going to pick up Avengers? Let me know in the comments down below or message me @geekfusion on Instagram.

Not so well hydrated after all. So I want to start this review by saying I had such a positive feeling about this game before reviewing it, it looked fun and energetic and everything my younger heart heart could want from a Spongebob game, let me tell you it isn’t. The game is definitely tailored to younger audiences even though the original game came out in 2003. I understand wanting to attract a younger audience as Spongebob is a character liked by adults and children alike. However seeing as this cult classic game did come out in 2003, it would make sense to try to tailor to the players of the original too. This doesn’t appear to be the case. Firstly I want to say this could just be my Switch hardware, but the graphics of the remaster are extremely poor compared to what the trailers had promised. I know that what was shown in most trailers was PS4 and Xbox footage but I found some Switch promotional materiel and the finished game is no where near as graphically polished as this material. I even had to find a cut-scene online as my game glitched and skipped an early game cut-scene, that was within 10 minutes of starting to play this game and from that moment on I realised my expectations for this game had been far too high. The gameplay is interesting for the first 20 minutes and then becomes boring and repetitive the platforming is clunky and uninspired and worst of all are the enemies. There is no extensive variation to the enemies so you continue to use the boring controls with the same combinations to defeat these enemies with ease as most only have one thing you need to avoid before being able to defeat them in 1 hit. The Boss battles, if that’s what they can be called also follow the same theme, they have very few lives, making them no challenge at all once you work out how to avoid them once it’s simple to do again. This just adds to the sense of boredom when playing this game there isn’t even a difficulty setting for if you want to try it on a more challenging experience. There are however a few things I did severely enjoy about this game. Having watched Spongebob my entire childhood I am very fond of the show and remember lots of cameo appearances and to see some translate into the game was a nice nostalgic trip for me. Also being a fan of the show I cannot fault the soundtrack for the game it reminds me of all of the hilarious episodes I watched as a child and some are stuck in my head since playing. Another enjoyable aspect of the game is the voice acting, with most of the original cast returning it’s a nice continuation for fans of the show, however there is a very noticeable omission, in that Mr Krabs is not the original voice actor and to any fans of the show it’s a very obvious alteration. Overall, aside from the actual nostalgia of playing something new in the Spongebob universe there is nothing of note to pull anyone towards this game, and especially if you’re looking at getting a platformer on Switch save up a bit more and buy the stellar Super Mario Odyssey. For this game I would give it a 3/10

When I heard the F1 2020 would have a My Team, much like many long term fans of the franchise. I was ecstatic as it was a feature the community had wanted for a long time. However despite the introduction of my team and the re-added Split-screen, not seen since F1 2013, the basic formula for the game has not changed since last years game which is both a good and bad thing. Let’s start with why it’s a good thing. F1 2019 is a stellar game, everything about it felt clean and polished, and 2020 is exactly the same the graphics are among some of the best racing graphics on console right now, the handling model is not to different, so it feels familiar to players like me, but it’s also not difficult to get to grips with. Getting to grips with this game is one of the big new features that Codemasters have pushed with the marketing for this game, the introduction of the casual race settings allows anyone to be able to jump onto the game and be able to stay on track and try to race with the AI, rather then immediately crashing at the first turn like in previous games, this feature won’t allow you to be able to go as fast as people who play with no assists but it’s a way to ease yourself into the experience without being overwhelmed. The other big feature, My Team has been where most of my time has been spent, the ability to make your own team is awesome and seeing it race with real F1 teams is a long awaited dream come true for many players. However off track is where my issues with this mode start to arise. Many parts of this mode feel like they have been copy and pasted from 2019, for example the R&D tree is identical and so are the post session interviews with Claire, and I get that they don’t want to change what isn’t broken, but after a few years of seeing the same things it becomes annoying more then becoming familiar. This a recurring theme with this years game its a lot of the same as 2019, there are new HUD displays and new look menus, which I like much more then 2019’s menu, but the annoying things are still there, like the wide range of multiplayer glitches, which include entering lobbies pressing ready up and nothing happening meaning you have to try and find a new lobby which is difficult enough as almost every lobby you are offered is full, and are never able to race cleanly because of that. The clean racing brings me to another point which has its pros and cons, The Podium Pass, which I really enjoyed when it comes to doing the solo and career features as it gives you a lot to focus on besides the normal weekend structure, which has rightly not changed as it is a great way to learn and speed up around a track over a weekend, and the rewards are great I changed my entire teams design to fit the livery I like the most, which I found through the podium pass. However my issue with the Podium Pass is that not everything can be done specifically by you and makes some challenges very unfair in the respect the for this current season as it wants you to have clean multiplayer races around the two new circuits that have been added for this year. However this isn’t something you can really control as you can try and be as clean as possible but that doesn’t stop someone from hitting you and the race being ruined. The additions that come with the Deluxe Schumacher Edition are nice but I don’t feel they are enough to justify the £65 price tag. Sure, you get 4 of Schumacher’s championship winning cars, one of which came with the standard 2019 game but all are incredibly hard to get to grips with, as well as the early access which I feel was the main draw to getting this edition as it allowed people to get ahead. Overall, this game is very good, the foundations it was built up from in last years game were great especially the feel on the track. The addition of My Team adds a new level of longevity to the game, however the bugs and annoyances of the previous game have not been improved upon which can be very frustrating as you progress and put more and more hours into the game. F1 2020: 8/10

A game made too early for it’s own good. Marvel and Sony’s relationship has always been kept under wraps to the public but one things for sure, their relationship makes good games, and this continues with Iron Man VR however you can’t help but feel like the PSVR limits what this game could’ve been drastically. The story is fairly predictable given the amount of MCU movies that follow the same kind of structure. It is still enjoyable but don’t be expecting a story that is going to make you think long and hard after finishing it. The best part of the story is the personality of Tony, which isn’t a difficult thing given how much source material Camoflauj had to pull from, but they nailed his ability to make fights ten times funnier with his quips during fight scenes. Having his quips brings a reason to continue with the fight scenes, as there is not much to the fights after you are taught the initial controls of the game there isn’t much more to it, there is slight iterations of weapons as you progress and are able to customise your own Iron Man. However they don’t offer enough variety to make fights consistently different and entertaining, they become mundane and repetitive. In contrast to the repetitive fights in the game, the environments are incredible they are bold, detailed and given that you are Iron Man you can explore a lot of them to the fullest whilst flying around. Just like with Spider-Man PS4 and Insomniac focusing on perfecting swinging, the Developers at Camoflauj have openly stated that they focused on making you feel like Iron Man and flying was the fundamental to make this happen. This shows as the flying in Iron Man is incredible it’s responsive and consistently fun to do, aided by the rumble support of the PS Move controllers. But, and here is the big overarching but with this entire game, the world is very grainy and not very polished and that is not the fault of the Developers at all, it’s the hardware, the PSVR in it’s current state cannot run this game well at all, this game could’ve been on of the most incredible VR games if it had been delayed to PS5 or maybe even beyond, to a point where the hardware could live up to what the Developers clearly wanted to created with this game. This coupled with ridiculously long loading times means that it’s a very easy game to put down, I would have to sit down during loading screens they were so long and often would only play a level or even less in one play session as I would get frustrated that right after an action set piece that was awesome I’d have to wait 5 minutes to see what was next. Overall this is brilliant game which uses the features of the PSVR to make you feel like Iron Man and that’s an awesome feeling but I didn’t really care about the story as I guessed most of it right out of the blocks. However, despite using the PSVR’s features extremely well its the hardware that let’s this game down, it was simply too ambitious for the current hardware Iron Man VR 6/10

A good remaster **** game. I never played the original when it released in 2009, so this was my first playthrough of Modern Warfare 2, and it certainly lived up to what I had hoped. First of all, the remaster is beautiful. It is almost as good as the new Modern Warfare that was only released in 2019 on much newer systems. It is a remaster that has clearly had a lot of time and effort put into it, which is visible from the outset. The gunplay is fast and frantic just like every Call of Duty I have ever played. The detail on the character models is the best on any remaster I have ever played, and I also think the voice acting is stellar, with Jeff Leach being a particular standout for me, but whether that was remastered is unclear. I do, however have a few issues with this game. My first real issue I encountered, and this is a personal preference, was the ridiculously aggressive AutoAim. Having played many shooters since the Xbox 360 days, this was very jarring to try to get accustomed too. It became much more a ‘snapshooter’ rather then having to actually try to aim, effectively making the right stick redundant. Another issue I have with this game is that they story, as most Call of Duty’s do, tries to present the American Military as much more in the right then they ever have been. It makes the game seem very tailored to a American audience to try to brainwash impressionable minds into thinking the army is a good thing whilst not showing many of the bad things the Americans do, and even then it is presented as a necessary evil. Also, this isn’t a fault of the game but a fault on myself for succumb to the publicity around the level. No Russian isn’t as bad of a level as it was made out to be. As much as committing a terrorist act at a Russian airport sounds bad when put like that, at not one point are you forced to partake. I played the entire level without shooting anyone for the entire thing. While it is bad to see civilians being murdered around you, I was informed you had to partake which I am very thankful was not the case. It also is a very necessary level to move the plot along and show that not many can be trusted in the Modern Warfare world. The thing that did plague the playthrough was almost a repetition of this point. A lot of the moments in the game fell flat for me and didn’t elicit the response that was intended, whether that is my fault for not completely playing every game and understanding significance of parts of the game, may be on me, but I enjoyed it overall. This game isn’t spectacular, which is why I never payed the £20 asking price but for a game that comes free with my PS Plus subscription it is definitely worth checking out for PS Plus members. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Remastered: 6/10

A game with so much potential, but no execution. Hyper Scape went very much under the radar for me, I knew it’s name and that it was a battle royale but other than that, nothing. So when you see the big opening cinematic, which largely resembles the Oasis from Ready Player One, I was very excited, and while this game of shines full of potential otherwise It goes downhill from there. After the amazing opening cinematic, the game throws you into to what I can only describe as a hub world, except it’s not a world. It’s a rather small enclosed space with lots of doors that take you to different menus. I get that they were trying to do something different and I have to commend them for doing so. However, it is just annoying that you can’t just navigate them like normal menus and have to take a 10 second walk to each screen. Then once you go into the actual games you only have the usual options of team or solo modes. But no matter which mode you try and play you will spend a good 5 minutes going between loading screens and the lobby area being stuck running around and emoting. I have one PSA about this game, do not play this game solo! It does not give this game any credit and you miss out on so many features of this game. Play this game in trios no matter what, then you are able to get the full experience of this game. Playing Hyper Scape solo is boring unoriginal and repetitive. Playing this in trios becomes much more exciting with the death function that makes this game feel original and innovative, when you die you become back as a holographic figure who can be revived at areas where people have died previously in the game. You are able to run around and be able to ping enemies and loot. The gameplay in this game is fast and frantic which I really enjoyed. The fusion technique for upgrading weapons is fun and innovative and gets rid of lots of left over weapons and perks. The gunplay in this game is mediocre at best. The variety of guns is very good and they all look really good but the actual PvP fights make the guns feel boring they have no real idiosyncrasies and the vibration is nearly none existent and don’t feel powerful or different in many ways. Overall this game has a great amount of potential but so far it hasn’t reached that potential. That said, the game has just released so it will likely get a lot better and I think I will keep playing it sporadically to see if it gets any better. Hyper Scape: 6/10

Being immortal is harder then you think. I’m not really an Indie game type of person I prefer Triple A titles much more, so when I saw Dead Cells on Xbox Game Pass, I wasn’t really too intrigued but thought I would give it a go. I have never been more hooked by a game after playing it for 5 minutes then I was with Dead Cells. You are thrown straight in then left to understand the mechanics and combat by yourself. The entire premise of Dead Cells is that you cannot die so if you fail you restart the entire game, a thing I have had to do many times. However as you play you reach what are essentially checkpoints where you can make permanent upgrades to your character. These will help you get further and further through the game every time that you die and have to restart. There were 3 things that kept me coming back to this game: the combat, the ever changing level design and the music. So first the combat: The combat in this game is incredible there is so much variety with weapon choices and play styles it makes the experience fun for anyone that wants to play it. The variety of enemies in each area also make for a fresh challenge in every new area, and even when you have played the game enough to know which enemies are coming it still isn’t easy as they are usually around so many other types of enemies you have to be very strategic in your approach to combat. The ever changing level design makes the usually mundane task of trudging through levels you have already completed new and exciting, as well as always challenging as a new enemy assortment populates the new levels. Having permanent upgrades such as the random starting sword also helps with keeping the game feel fresh and never making you feel as though you are simple just going through the same areas over and over again. Another way this game always manages to feel fresh is through having permanent upgrades that will make the game easier not matter how many times you have to retry it you will always find it easier the next time as you have new tools at your disposal. Even the art style of this game never manages to get old, with customisable costumes to make your character unique. The flashy visuals mixed with the incredible score for this game mean that no matter how many times you are replaying it you can always find some joy in it. However, as much as this game does so many incredible things to make it feel new and fresh every single time, it does become frustrating as you are just playing the same bits over and over again. I found this particularly obvious on days where I would play the game for longer periods as even though the maps do change every time, there are still things that remain the same and reinforce to the player that you are just restarting the whole game every time you die. And when you are dying continuously through long playthroughs the game starts to be aggravating as it is very difficult, but it is clear this is a game where the more time you put into it, the easier it will get. Dead Cells: 8/10

The fun is in the falling. Falls Guys is a cute compact game that is endlessly fun and interesting every single time you go into a show. The premise of the game is that all 60 of you are contestants on a game show called Fall Guys, and by playing randomly picked mini games you have to qualify for the next round by being in the percentage of players it says will qualify. If not, you are eliminated. This is an amazing new take on a battle royale and is clearly becoming a hit with the players as for PS Plus members, like myself, it comes free but on steam reportedly over 2 million players have bought the game. The game is designed for short quick and delightful, with a wide variety of mini games ranging in skill level and annoy-ability. The most annoying game are by far the team games. It is clear why they have integrated them, to stop people being able to win all the time, but it is severely frustrating when you are trying your best and still get eliminated because the rest of your team are really bad. However the rest of the mini games are fast and furious and highly entertaining, a lot require luck more then any skill which makes replaying it a lot easier as you never really find fault it what you’ve done it is just so chaotic that it happened. The Fall Guys themselves are one of the cutest inventions in video games they, make some of the weirdest noises when you start playing the game but the more and more you play the more they grow on you, the ease with which you level up is also a good incentive to keep playing. Even though I did feel at some stages some of the cosmetics were so hard to get enough money for in the time-frame they were in the store. I felt as if they could potentially scale either the price of the costumes or the amount of money you are given each game. This next point as also only an issue for me only the few days after it launched on Playstation and appears to have been sorted now, however many times when I would go very far into the show usually to the crown I would be told my ‘reward’s could not be found’ and then rebooted to the title age again, however this server issue appears to have been fixed recent so it should no longer be an issue. Also I want to highlight the music in this game, it is incredible it is one of those soundtracks to a game where you are always excited to here it again. Especially the menu music before you go into a game, it’s a little bit sad that that song isn’t in the actual levels of the game but the songs that are there are still extremely good. Overall this game, is incredibly fun endlessly enjoyable and even though the levels may get repetitive and boring at some point, I know I’m going to be putting in a lot of hours before that thought enters my head. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout: 9/10