andishdi

Nice graphics, nice selection of music, cars, race types, environments etc... Appalling AI. And the Sprint races!!? I'm assuming they're broken and will be patch because currently they are impossible no matter what difficulty level or driver aids are selected. Codemasters seem to have gone out of their way to make this game as fun as possible only to wring that out of it with some awful, awful gameplay and difficulty spikes in places.

Very short on game modes and content, the absence of a career mode is a serious oversight and a huge move backwards from PS1’s V3. Graphically adept but doesn’t seem to have the colourful flourishes we saw in trailers whilst the sound is fun and music is chirpy. The major issue here is that it’s played mostly online and with a game like this that could shorten the gameplay experience to as long as it takes for the majority to move on to something else… Sad that they couldn’t do more and whilst I accept it’s not a full price release it’s still lacking in anything to recommend it long term.

Buggy, boring, repetitive and in some cases plain broken... What has happened to this series? Barely 10 hours in a have a folder brimming with random moments and characters who look they're wearing someone else's skin. Last night the game got some broken and confused I had to reload in order to continue with mission (only after wasting about an hour trying to find out why I couldn't progress). You could compare this game to the previous in the series, some won't think that's fair and I would agree you have to take this on it's own merits but it's worth noting that almost everything the previous titles did that is present here... They did it much better. This is fairly dull story, you'll care very little for the characters and the ultimate conclusion (if you can call it that) is not particularly satisfying... The controls are very clunky, load times are slow and it is not pretty by current gen standards. The music is better than I think most give it credit for but it is still too muted and not as epic as it could be. The game feels like lots of people had some great ideas but went off into separate rooms and developed them alone then tried and ultimately failed to put them all together. Finally... The argument from many is that all these things will be patched and we'll have a shiny piece of brilliance once finished... But the point is this game was released, sold for £50+ and so should work off the bat. The other is "making games is hard, how can they expect to find all the bugs?", were it only a few bugs I don't think anyone would be that rattled... It's the sheer lack of polish that is offensive, as is if they didn't even bother to test it or simply didn't care - oh, and plenty of other developers make games of this scale without even a fraction of the issues or freakish looking characters.

I think despite the environment and characters that this falls short of the majority of former Fallout DLCs and even recent efforts such as Automaton. Performance suffers thank to the ever annoying fog and when the fog disperses there's very little to see. Despite new enemies and new weapons the only noteworthy new thing the DLC brings to the table is the VR sections which are the most tedious, misplaced things in a game for years... They're ultimately neither challenging or interesting and the quest could have functioned easily without them. In the end the decisions you have to make are fairly hollow and little is given in the way of character development to decide the fate of the islanders. Moving forward, Bethesda really need to up their game as this for me was bordering on Dead Money standards... Positives; Challenging new enemies New areas to explore New weapons and quests Negatives; Performance takes a hit due to fog Some interesting new camera glitches Island drab and mostly looks the same throughout VR section (one of the most ill-judged, worst piece of gaming I can remember) Leaves very little by way of legacy to take back to the main game

Firstly I love this game as I have the previous Arkham games (Origins perhaps being the exception…), the setting, characters and overall feel are unmatched by any other series and I have bene looking forward to playing it for a long time. The graphics are sublime, the music and other sound works great and I really like how the game progresses meaning you never finding yourself repeating similar tasks, it always feels like you’re moving on to something new. That said… There are problems… Firstly the controls, which they’ve just tried cramming too into. I understand that every new title in a series requires more of everything to meet expectation but it hasn’t been done in the clever manner that we’ve come to expect from Rocksteady who single-handedly invented to the one button combat system. Buttons have moved since previous titles to confusing locations and despite being no newcomer to playing a wide range of games I genuinely have to pause before I do most tasks which breaks the flow of the game and leaves me feeling a little helpless. Secondly the focus on how to complete certain elements is hugely flawed… The section at Ace Chemicals that requires you to put the car on the lift was fairly straightforward, a little later on you’re required to blow up a wall in the same area… I decided to swoop in from the sky only to realise there were tanks on the other side… So I thought I’d use the lift again, this initially the Batmobile floating completely unaided but after I’d jumped in it fell to the floor… What was required was to use the lift as a ramp to jump the car – now, why would I think that is what was required when I’d used it different only a few minutes previously? Another area similar to above is where you find yourself in the clock tower which becomes the scene of a flashback, after watching the action unfold it is completely unclear that the player is required to do anything, so I walked around the room mashing the X button only to find that turning completely around changed the scene in front of me… Then I was required to walk to another area and do the same, again no mention of what I was supposed to do was given leading to me walking around the room aimlessly hitting buttons… This lack of guidance very quickly drags the player out of the moment and left me feeling cheated that another cool moment was spoiled by unwarranted frustration. I admire the scope of the game but even early on it feels like a lot was sacrificed in order to achieve that, clunky game sections and many parts where there is simply no explanation of what is intended of you (I could talk about how the Batmobile needs to be revved *slowly* to power up towers or how it is never explained how to counter the charging enemies with the red flash above them etc…) and it’s for that reason that I find myself at least a little disappointed that after so many delays that Rocksteady have failed to fully capture what made the previous games special…

When I started playing The Order I was immediately struck by how pretty it was… Not only that but the sheer amount of effort that had gone into making a setting and surroundings that felt deep, textured and full of details that you could easily overlook if you rushed through. The more I played I was no longer in shock at the detail (although it never ceases to be anything other than incredible) but that so many people and reviewers alike seem to have missed the point of The Order and in doing so squandered a fabulous experience. Set in the Victorian era surrounding the trials and often supernatural tribulations **** of knights the story has some dramatic highs and lows, very much like that **** Hollywood blockbuster – the mo-cap is excellent, voice work is strong and the animation and modelling of the characters is exemplary. There were occasions for me where my jaw dropped, when a combination of lighting, particle effects and the scene unfolding in front of me meant I just had to pause where I was to appreciate the amount of effort that has gone into making this game. Overall the story is fairly by the numbers but it was nevertheless enjoyable and sitting back watching the cutscenes let the treachery unfold is a delight I never got tired of. As with the voice acting the rest of the sound is of a high quality, guns have a satisfying “boom” and clatters and clinks of doors and objects all hit the mark. Musically there is much to enjoy, a strong score that increases the tension when things get hectic but also do a good job of the subtler moments, it’s never intrusive or over the top. As mentioned already the game is a graphical tour-de-force, it’s been a while (at least before moving to current gen) that I’ve been blown away by how a game looks, even character details like eyes and the fact characters even have nose hair (!) are all done to such a high degree it’s hard to see how they can be improved upon. Settings are rich and do a wonderful job of dragging you into the characters and story, giving a real sense of the time and the situations faced. The controls whilst a little clunky work well, I never experienced any deaths that weren’t through my own ignorance. The guns all have their own amounts of recoil, reloading times etc. which help differentiate them and the reactions of wounded enemies appear to be varied and realistic. The QTEs aren’t as common occurrence as you’ve likely been lead to believe and often work during scenes where it is difficult to imagine how it could be dealt with any other way – nobody seems to care (me included) the WB Batman series rely on a set of simple button inputs to generate a plethora of different attacks or to open doors/grates, I don’t see how The Order is greatly different in many respects. The Order 1886 is a game best played at a leisurely place, to do otherwise means to kind of miss the point – this is not a game of huge scope, nor are you meant to delve into every nook or and cranny available to you – but, should you decide to stop for a moment and look around you cannot be anything other than impressed by what a great job the developer has done to bring the sights and sounds of that era to the people – picking up a new gun, why not stop and see the detail of the engraving and appreciate how the designer has incorporated a Victorian degree of practicality to an otherwise modern weapon – use the photo mode and look at the sneers on your enemies faces, the muzzle flashes and the scene all reflecting in a muddy puddle… That people have chosen to complain about the length of The Order 1886, the control being taken away from them and it’s mostly linear progression shows that they have completely missed the point – this game is a fantastic experience that lets you get into hectic gunfights but then sit back and watch the characters deliberate whilst the story unfolds, all this is dripping with impeccable detail and a level of understanding and design very rarely witnessed in the era of annual franchises and copy/paste shooters… I for one loved The Order 1886 and my only complaint is having to wait until the story continues…

Very good so far but... It does crash on awful lot (twice within the space of an hour yesterday) and it's taken me a while to get used to how small the text and symbols are for the on-screen inventory - in this respect it feels exactly like a PC port with the incorrect screen resolutions carried over. The game itself is good fun, I wish the difficultly was a little more forgiving early on (leading to me turning the difficulty back down but now I'm walking all over it...) and the game's beautiful look very quickly plays second fiddle to the gameplay, exploring and combat on offer. Very much worth playing, but potentially go in with slightly more tempered expectations than the 9-10/10s lead you to think.

Whilst the frame rate is a little annoying and I've noticed the odd glitch this game is a return to form for the series and the way Arno can now traverse the environment is impressive. I don't mind the app and website integration and levelling and choosing skills for your assassin makes them feel that more individual and allows you to grow them to your style. Finally, I really like the crowd events and the sheer scope of collectibles and side missions - I can see myself still playing this game long after I would the usual AC offering.

Loving the game, the cute story and funny characters whilst I cannot wait to see what will come when the community gets hold of it over the next few weeks

For all its delay and all the hype it was only ever going to be difficult for Watch Dogs to achieve the acclaim set before it… Sadly it fall quite short of expectations in most areas. Story – Slow, often confusing but with a handful of memorable characters the game does falter in terms of plot yet this is not potentially as bad as it sounds with the world itself be a vibrant mix of people and it’s easy to get absorbed reaching into people’s lives and feeling good or bad when you take action that changes them. Graphics – On PS3 the lighting and shadows are actually very good, character models delight but overall it’s bland and lacks detail thanks to some truly poor texturing. Vehicles all look boxy and have generic looks whilst the scarcity of any shrubbery or detail once out of the city hits the feel of the game hard. Poor weather effects and details like characters clothing failing to get realistically wet also seem to put this game far behind its counterparts in terms of detail. Sound – The soundtrack adds good atmosphere and the voice acting and ambient sounds are good and help recreate some of the atmosphere lost in other areas. Gameplay – Whilst lacking in other areas can be tolerated to some extent it’s here where Watch Dogs falls down most and it’s not unkind to suggest that Watch Dogs is simply an Assassin’s Creed character transported to Chicago with a trench coat and a mobile phone. The similarities to previous Ubisoft entries are transparent but rather than feel any heritage exuding you have of a sense of lacking and longing for a genre to be pushed forward. Stealth elements are often forced and often early in the game when the player yet has a grasp of certain game mechanics, failing such missions leads to extensive reloading which help further detract from an atmosphere the game had built. Difficulty is uneven and A.I unintelligent (on one occasion I needed to hack a CtOS server and despite being spotted, shot by snipers numerous times, surrounded by about 10 guards and not drawing a firearm once… I managed to hack the server… I wasn’t flanked, the guards didn’t storm me in force, they just stood idly by and let me escape). Furthermore the driving mechanics are simply atrocious and hark back several generations in terms of vehicle sounds and physics – it’s genuinely as if Ubisoft made no effort here, made worse by how much of the game has obviously been reused from previous titles. Verdict – Taking Watch Dogs as a lone entry it has some personality, an interesting theme and gadgets but it’s open-world model is dated and the impressions it gives of free choice are often false – this is a game that demands to be played as the developers intended. The lack of effort in some areas makes the game feel rushed and far behind the quality expected at the end **** (TLOU, GTA V etc…), it feels to some extent like an effort to be first past the post and cash-in on the next-gen consoles (the owners of which should feel suitably disappointed). It’s clear to see where hard work has gone into Watch Dogs but it’s equally easy to see where it hasn’t and that detracts overall making an uneven and distinctly average game that relies on its subject to generate any interest. Thinking of buying Watch Dogs? Don’t be put off, but certainly lower your expectations.

I think a score of about 7-8 out of 10 is generally fair... The series has long been plagued now by very little innovation, some questionable AI and some appalling boss battles. It's nice to have such a large number of characters but for me this if anything is a step down from Tekken 6 which at least had its Force Mode. Whilst enjoyable the online mode is no better than on Tekken 6 (apart from the ability to practice whilst waiting for an opponent) and this is much the story with the rest of the game. I've been a Tekken advocate since the beginning having owned all of the series apart from Tekken 4 (one quick go mad it clear that this was awful!) but seeing the series stagnating in such a way is making me consider some of Capcom's effort... Be careful Namco that more don't begin to feel this way...