Swampy

Has to be the most fun you can have behind the virtual wheel of whatever car you happen to be in. A great evolution from FH4... There's something for everyone here. I don't know what some reviewers want from a driving game when they bemoan it's evolved similarity to its predecessors... 1. It's a sandbox driving game, 2. It's a driving game... There's not a huge scope for mixing things up short of fundamentally changing the type of game. I dunno instead of cars etc maybe add aeroplanes.... Oh hang on, wait... ;) There's already additional modes, from user creatable parks and challenges to a 'BR' so at least certain YouTubers should be happy. Definitely a GoTY contender... surely? Anyway at least it's not been getting review bombed (yet!) which is a refreshing change... I still note there's a few salties with an axe to grind (and no prior history of rating Xbox games) making fools of themselves with zero pointers. I do wish MC would sort this type of behaviour as it kinda makes a mockery of the site especially when it's so blatant. Oh and as for it being false advertisement about its day and date release date on Gamepass... Well that's just an ignorant or disingenuous take, the game isn't released until the 9th unless you BUY the top tier Premium Edition or the Premium Edition Update which gains early access. This is common industry practice, and was never hidden since the release date was announced.

LoL this game is apparently so bad that the same 'people' forced themselves to play the game on XBox One, PS4, PC and XBox Series X¦S so that they could review bomb it with scores of 0 or 1 on every platform... even if they couldn't understand the languages. We should all give thanks for the selfless dedication of these individuals.

Seems, the game is getting review bombed by salty Sony fanboys, and a concerted campaign of Russian Bots due to a lack of Russian language in the game... Don't believe me, just check out the previous reviews of most of the '0' pointers, they either don't have any prior reviews or have a ton of prior PS reviews... spooky eh!? It'd be laughable if it weren't just so sad... I'll even predict that this 'review' will be downvoted as unhelpful by the same sad sacks! Anyway, the game itself... quite simply it's very enjoyable, and a light-hearted take on dealing with some serious issues like mental health problems. The graphics are simply fine technically speaking, running flawlessly at native 4K@60Hz on my Series X, and a silky smooth 1440p@120Hz. Though, I can understand that some people may not be all that keen on the colourful "Tim Burton-esque" like cartoony graphical art style. Best thing though... it didn't cost me a penny outside of my Gamepass subscription... Bargain! :)

Same sh** different year for another of EA's gambling machines thinly disguised as a sports game... only this time around it's they've added extra bugginess to disguise the fact they copy/pasted it from last year. FU to EA, and **** all you 'sports gamers' throwing money down the pan on MUT that are the reason why EA puts so little effort into their sports games.

Decent MMO that has lots of detailed progression and character customisation all in a very pretty open world that appears seamless. Combat system and mechanics are interesting but flawed. A system that doesnt allow you to regenerate out of combat without using potions or other time-consuming feature should make sure the systems to mitigate damage taken work properly. Unfortunately the combat frequently lags behind input, meaning dodges etc are just wasted. While there is plenty to do in game none of it is groundbreaking or new.. In fact it overly relies on the old ‘kill 10 rats’ go back and kill 15 more style of quest. The dialogue is more akin to first generation MMOs and its mostly textual with minor comments like ‘Hello hero I’ve got a task for you ‘ dubbed over the top. Coming from the likes of ESO which came out for PC originally in 2014 the lack of voice dialogue here is quite jarring, and I feel quite poor for a modern title.

This game does have bags of potential; whether it lives upto that potential in the longer term is an entirely different story however. On the face of it, it is a 'not too deep' entertaining and casual third person shooter set in a persistant world.. and it makes a pretty decent job of filling this niche. The problem is it's a bit of a one trick pony, and there's very little else to occupy your time other than running around an 'killing 10 mutants'. The game world is very small, and even the most casual of MMO players will probably rattle through all the current content within a few days, so this game is going to live or die by the amount of DLC that becomes available and the quality of the associated TV series. Graphically, it's not bad, but it's not great either.. and the world in which we are meant to play is pretty uninspiring, usually shrouded in a grey haze! There are scant in ame options for graphical optimisation on PC either! The social aspects of the game are next to none-existant, in fact I'd go so far to say the way this game/UI is designed makes it pretty antisocial. Which brings me onto the UI.. it is a poor console port that is tedious to navigate on the PC. Additionally there are (at the time of writing) still many bugs within the game, some of which are verging on game breaking.. again the speed and quality of fixes is going to go a long way to determine this game's long term future; and Trion has show that it can be pretty agile when it comes to fixing up things.. but I'm not sure if the millstone of console versions is going to affect their ability to respond quickly. Despite all the negatives however, as I said right at the top the gameplay itself can be pretty entertaining so long as you're in the market for a bit of lightweight escapism and not Battlefield 4 realism... On a final not I have to say the physical Ultimate Edition for PC is amazing to behold, if Trion had executed the actual game as well as this edition they'd be onto a sure fire winner!

I'll start with the good stuff, the imagery and the up to now unique combat system are first rate and make for an entertaining experience. However whether both these plus points can stand the test of time is another matter, and if they can't then the future doesn't look that rosey for TERA in my opinion; as aside from these two albeit significant pluses TERA has very little else to offer over and above any other MMO already on the market. While there's nothing particularly bad about the game it's just more of the same generic fantasy 'kill 10 monkeywangers" go back and '"kill 10 infected monkeywangers" etc etc... don't be expecting any deep lore or story telling here, there's a lot less than Rift for example. So far upto level 20, the levelling process has been linear in the extreme, with all classes/races being funnelled through the same zones and quests (with no diversity). The other issue I have with the game is pricing, because as the sub price has been fixed using EURO's which means for a UK player the monthly sub will be variable, and presently is more expensive than it's peers in the MMO market. Now this isn't a moan or whine about not being able to afford it, or as a UK player that we should get special treatment, but an objective view on TERA's price in comparison to other games available on the UK market. It's simply more expensive than any of the big MMO's out there from a UK players perspective, and I have to ask (as will I'm sure many others) is it worth the extra cost over the competition.. my opinion is; not really! I feel that the pricing difference will be a mental barrier (it's over the 'golden' £10) as opposed to a real fiscal barrier, but I think many potential subscribers will simply choose to go elsewhere.. Rift, SWTOR, WoW, LoTRO, and even the about to be released GW2.

Revisiting my initial review after a month of play; and not much has changed in my views except it's even worse than I initially feared. While the story is nice, it is basically all this game has to offer and makes it VERY linear. There's no incentive for exploration, actually there's not a lot of incentive to do anything but drive the story forward. Technically the game is shabby, the engine is poorly optimised and there are bugs too numerous to list here. The customer service is also terrible, and don't try and leave an opinion on the official forums; you'll be savaged by the rabid 'Bioware/EA defense force' (aka fanboys).. and if you think that isn't bad enough, write any negative criticism and you'll walk a fine line of getting warnings! Apparently they don't mind criticism.. so long as you're not being critical.. I kid you not.. it's actually in their forums t&c's.

Delivery problems aside, this has to be pretty much the slickest MMO launch for years (if not ever). The game is remarkably polished and extremely fun today. Sure it's not a gaming revolution, it's an evolution taking what's good in there genre and trying to improve on it, and adding their own little twists. So on getting out the stable door.. 10/10 this game will live or die by it's scheduled updates and community attitude!

Firstly FFXIV has some interesting a worthwhile ideas.. and the character flexibility, that's not tied to specific classes is right up with some of the best mechanics to appear in the genre. The crafting system is top notch and much more than the usual sideline or afterthought as seen in so many other games. The graphics are first rate, of a quality probably usually reserved for first person shooters rather than MMOs. And that's it for the good stuff! The problems then... there is little to no actual content, I've yet to divine an actual reason for wanting to do anything in the game, other than to grind the requisite 10 levels for each chapter of the so far weak storyline line to be revealed. There is no incentive or story to carry a player along through this game, there is nothing other than grind.. and even that is limited by an arbitrary cap. It's not like you can grind mobs for gear drops either, because there doesn't appear to be any other than crafting materials. Crafting is one of the high points of the game to a degree, but even that has been screwed up by some crazy thinking/design.. 'recipes' appear to be so out of whack with character level and progression, low level 7 items requiring level 11 skills, and level 20something ingredients to make is just insane. I'm not going to try and describe how shambolic the UI is! It needs to be witnessed first hand as I couldn't possibly relay how badly designed it is, and while the game is very pretty the engine appears to be very poorly optimised! All in all, as it is I couldn't recommend a purchase of FFXIV.. maybe in 6 months to a year if Square Enix get's it's rear in gear and listens to what the community is telling it then it may well prove to be the success some of it's better points indicate it could be!