nobey

What do you get when you blend a large cup of the fantasy world of Warhammer and the survival horror of Left 4 Dead? Fatshark have answered that question with the release of Warhammer End Times – Vermintide. A first person grind ’em up with a lot of similarities to everyone’s favourite multiplayer zombiefest. Only, it’s not just that. It’s a pretty amazing vision in itself. Ever since the demise of Warhammer: Online, I’ve been looking for a decent gaming experience to play alongside friends in its dark and gritty world and luckily, Vermintide delivers with the recreation of Ubersreik, a river city in Southern Reiskland and now absolutely swarming with the venomous, underhanded rat-men, the Skaven. Ever since the demise of Warhammer: Online, I’ve been looking for a decent gaming experience to play alongside friends in its dark and gritty world and luckily, Vermintide delivers with the recreation of Ubersreik, a river city in Southern Reiskland and now absolutely swarming with the venomous, underhanded rat-men, the Skaven. Once you’ve gathered your party and equipped your favourite pointy/smashy thing to skewer/pulverise Skaven with, the host can choose from a number of missions on a map at the inn. The quests are split up into three acts, each with varying mission parameters, such as annihilating as many rat-men as you possibly can or collecting barrels and sacks and placing them in a wagon while hordes of the minging-furred beasties pour forth to poke your eyes out and stab you in the unmentionables The Skaven are varied too, mostly coming in swarms of Dwarf sized clanrats who tend to work in numbers and try to surround your party while you fend them off. There’s also the expected special troops, pulling from the Games Workshop armies and adding abilities that can shorten your group’s lifespan in a matter of seconds, depending how many of them decide to maul you at the same time. The Rat Ogre will stomp around, smashing the crap out of your team and with a seemingly unlimited pool of health, while the poison wind globadier chucks, well, poison wind globes at you, letting off an acidic gas that slowly eats away at your health bar and stops anyone else from coming to save you Once you’ve gathered your party and equipped your favourite pointy/smashy thing to skewer/pulverise Skaven with, the host can choose from a number of missions on a map at the inn. The quests are split up into three acts, each with varying mission parameters, such as annihilating as many rat-men as you possibly can or collecting barrels and sacks and placing them in a wagon while hordes of the minging-furred beasties pour forth to poke your eyes out and stab you in the unmentionables. Luckily, your band of heroes have a great choice of weaponry. From short swords and axes all the way to massive great swords and staves that shoot fire. Secondary weapons are usually of the ballistic persuasion with crossbows, longbows and pistols all having a unique feel to them. Fatshark have perfected the feeling of swinging a war hammer, with a meaty crunch as it descends into the ugly face of one of your attackers. The levels have a good sense of originality to them as well. In your first, painful jaunt into Ubersreik, you’ll stalk the city streets on the way to the Mage’s Tower with tall buildings hemming you in claustrophobically. Later, you’ll traverse sewer tunnels, forests and old forts to name a few, each fitting perfectly with the Warhammer universe. The Skaven are varied too, mostly coming in swarms of Dwarf sized clanrats who tend to work in numbers and try to surround your party while you fend them off. There’s also the expected special troops, pulling from the Games Workshop armies and adding abilities that can shorten your group’s lifespan in a matter of seconds, depending how many of them decide to maul you at the same time. The Rat Ogre will stomp around, smashing the crap out of your team and with a seemingly unlimited pool of health, while the poison wind globadier chucks, well, poison wind globes at you, letting off an acidic gas that slowly eats away at your health bar and stops anyone else from coming to save you. The greatest enemy in Vermintide however, is the potential to be slung into a bad party. Unfortunately, there’s a strong link between winning and having a good team that can kill your enjoyment at points. For instance, I spent my first six hours of play stuck on the first level due to party members who like to wander off or thought they were playing Call of Duty and went running off all lone-wolf ahead, getting deservedly ripped apart by a Gutter Runner for their idiocy. Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide is what every fan of the similar zombie-game-which-shall-not-be-named-more-than-once-in-this-review has been asking for; a hair-raising blast through unlimited waves of evil with friends.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Persona 4 Dancing All Night sees the return of the loved Persona 4 Investigation Team and friends, both new and old, as they must dance their way to reveal the truth of what is known as the midnight stage. As Rise Kujikawa is set to make an explosive comeback into the showbiz world of idols there is an urban legend that’s got everyone worried: “go to a certain website at midnight and you’ll see a strange video. Those who watch it get taken away to the ‘other side,’ never to return.” It’s with this quick introduction that Persona 4 Dancing All Night will then throw you head first into a mystery that needs solving and songs that need to be danced to, and within minutes you will fall in love with it. The story mode for Persona 4 Dancing All Night last eight chapters, with a few extras hidden away, and will take around seven to ten hours depending on your reading speed. The story mode is overall a fantastic addition to Persona 4 Dancing All Night as it gives it an edge over other rhythm games on the market in my eyes. Not only that but once again, it is a solid story experience that it worth going through. Take note though however that you will need to finish the story to unlock all the songs and some extras for Free Dance mode. Gameplay in Persona 4 Dancing All Night is made up of notes and scratches that you need to hit throughout the many songs you’ll play. All of the gameplay within Persona 4 Dancing All Night is within the songs, with the only other section being the visual novel style scenes with characters to explain the story as you go. As you play a song you’ll need to use both the D-Pad and the buttons to hit the notes at the right moment as they move along the screen Thankfully though a handful of items can be set before songs to help make your life a bit easier, or harder if you so wish, and boost your reward at the end of the song. In fact there are a lot of items to be picked up throughout the game along with outfits and other customisation options to which can be used in the game’s Free Dance mode. And lastly it is worth taking a moment to point out that not only is Persona 4 Dancing All Night a beautiful looking and sounding game but also a game that runs perfectly on the Vita. With next to no load times and not a single drop in frames at any point, Persona 4 Dancing All Night is a strong game that makes sure not to waste any potential. If you’re a fan of Persona, rhythm games or even just on the fence about this one make sure to pick up Persona 4 Dancing All Night as it will be truly worth your attention and give you hours of fun.

I love the Need for Speed series as it takes the seriousness out of racing games, and I mean that with no disrespect for those who take street racing seriously, what I mean is that the Need for Speed titles are fun, they’re reckless, they encourage you to try things you don’t necessarily get to try in less street-based games. Drifting plays an absolutely massive part in Need for Speed, something which I’m actually a huge fan of. The only problem is, the game just doesn’t offer any instruction or drifting techniques to allow new players to get to grips with this integral mechanic. Not only that, AI racers are so oblivious to other players on the road trying to do anything remotely technical can often end in frustration, especially when you’re trying to conquer a long drift-chain combo and the tit behind you decides to ram full-speed into you destroying your combo. Unfortunately this has been one of the main problems with the series as of late. Rivals suffered with crappy AI too, which only makes games like this frustrating beyond belief. I’m not just talking about the fictional racers in the game either, the police AI is just as ridiculous making the Outlaw path a pretty difficult one to follow, unless you decide to hold the cops hand by allowing them to catch up. Fortunately AI is the only real problem with Need for Speed, sure it’s a bit of a massive one, but there are many bright points which hopefully outshine this issue. One of those things is the games visuals. I’m not sure how they’ve done it, but Ghost Games has managed to create one of the most realistic games I’ve ever witnessed. Not just with the cars, but with the environments too, specifically with lighting. Though considering most of the races are at night in wet weather, a number of factors play into the visual side of things. Not only that, the cutscenes, though fairly cheesy and consists of more fist bumps than I can count, look fantastic especially considering the cars are rendered in-game, making it look even more brilliant. The visuals in Need for Speed are second to none. They left me thoroughly dumbfounded and I’m still impressed with the way the game looks each time I start up the game. One of the other huge selling points of Need for Speed was that every car in the game can be purchased from the very beginning, no unlocks are needed, all you need is the cash to splash on a pricey vehicle. The only real problem you’ll have is that getting that cash to actually purchase that Lamborghini you’ve been eyeing up, feels very much like any other progress-based unlock system. Sure, the car is there to purchase at any time, but you need to still put the work in, in order to actually ride in it. Overall, Need for Speed is much of the same, which is one of the reasons why I feel so indifferent about it. Sure, it’s visuals are fantastic and the depth of customisation requires an oxygen tank, but the dull story and the oblivious AI does offer a number of sour moments, at least for me.