Game 81 - Unreal Tournament - Week 157 - Dec 22

nreal Tournament (OG) is a game that I never realised it had an origin story. In 2291 in an attempt to reduce fighting among miners, no holds barred violence was legalised. A Grand Tournament was quickly formed which profit growing with every stroke of violence. It attracted the most skewed and violent fighters. Surprisingly ahead of its time with the character creation (3-4 races each gender, 2-4 faces, 2-4 skins and colours, 4 voices, etc).

Fuck this holds up well even against AI. I’m not surprised this was an instant hit that put Epic on the map. To this day all the guns feel unique for the first game, even when compared to its contemporaries such as Doom, Quake, etc. Frags, rail (energy gun), frag gun and my personal favourite the Flak Cannon are all badass AF. Guns have an alternate mode and might be the first game to have such. For example the pistol firing sideways for quicker but less accurate shots or the Flak Cannon turning into a close range ricocheting shotgun into a grenade launcher you can pop around corners. Most importantly movement just feels good, to juke and dodge shots as you return your own volley and oh boy do you feel like the biggest boss on the planet when you hit 30 frags and win.

I had booted this up intending to waste 30 minutes in an empty lobby or against AI and shelve it. But what I got instead was an awesome shooter that after replaying it, is expectedly very active to this day. Or so I thought – turns out most of them are bots (sadly) but there are some servers with actual players and oh boy could I tell the difference. I got smacked in the face by 20+ years of experience so hard it made me miss playing the bots. But still – it’s awesome that’s retain a diehard loyal old school community. Some of the modded servers are ridiculous. Playing licensed music such as Diablo theme music or Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead Or Alive (ugh, a great song played to death). Double and triple jumps. Spawning with a shotgun that has an alt-fire grenade launcher or other ridiculous weapons such as an incendiary minigun that alt fires rockets. Need to swap weapons no longer! Or my favourite The Freezer. Alt fire freeze an enemy or rapid-fire shoot icicles.

My only major issue was no windowed tab and alt tabbing often crashed the game. Which at the end of the day is understandable and I can probably fix this with mods. Considering this is the only issue I had – it’s a testament to Epic’s legacy as developers and engineers. I’d keep this one installed for some old school fragging fun but I feel like I would need 20 years of training to compete with these guys.

Game 80 - Veil of Crows - Week 157 - Dec 22

 

eil of Crows is an interesting concept of Mount and Blade Total War medieval (or Warhammer Fantasty), but it all happens in real time. Like Total Warhammer you have a singular hero unit (that's you) but unlike Total Warhammer there is an element of RPG to it. You create your own character and give it a background which changes your gear and wealth (i.e. starting difficulty). It's not just about empire building either as you can raid and pillage growing your coffers and gang. Or pay off villages to join you or adventure around and take quests from them such as rescuing prisoners or taking bounties. The core gameplay is polished to a standard. The character animations are well done and combat feels like medieval chaos as it should. But everything else around it feels incomplete. art, assets and UI in particular. It's missing some quality of life features and it can feel aimless and difficult to find where you need to go. The first time I was given a quest I spent 10 minutes looking for the location before I found it hidden behind a tree. There could be a list of towns that when clicked on takes you to the location or something in the quest that does it.

RPG and character creation in a grand RPG is a great idea.

Same goes for combat. I zoomed out (which is faster than in for some reason) and then I lost my troops. It was literally impossible to see them from that difference and no way to double click them so the camera could snap to them. The minimap isn’t very good. When I fled the battlefield my character lost all her levels and XP… how does that make sense? This lead me to be taken to their bandit camp. Pretty cool except the roaming bandits on horseback attacked me, resulting in an infinite loop I couldn’t escape because they were faster, thus breaking the game. On top of this there's no politics UI - so you can't see which factions are waring with each other (only yourself). Not ideal for a game all about warring factions. But even the systems around it feel like a lot of lost potential with not a lot of variety in factions and units beyond basic axeman, swordsman, spearman, bows, siege weapons, etc. It’s clear the game is very unfinished.

Game trapped me in an infinite loop near the Deserters Camp. Would be cool if I was forced to join?

RPG options are bare bones – with 10 emblems, colours, etc. You get male and female with half a dozen hair choices. You can barely customize your faction beyond this as you’re forever stuck with a blue shield despite your primary faction colour. Why this didn’t change to match your tabard beats me… Something that I feel would have truly made this game exceptional is to go all in on the RPG elements as this is would makes this game unique. Not only in-depth layered RPG mechanics for your hero but your faction. Also implement a text-adventure style random event generator. Like Wasteland as you move around you would come across different encounters such as bandits about to steal from a travelling wagon. Do you help, intervene, or avoid? This would colour your character and give each story a unique context. There’s already a similar system with roaming factions and towns – but it feels barebones with options such as pay off, join, or kill. Characters don’t respond to you and don’t feel alive and as a result the world doesn’t too. It’d also help solve the issue of feeling aimless when you start. Just head in a direction and see what happens! If you do well enough you’ll gather some gold and can build your army from there. Perhaps the events dynamically change to the size of your “power” level. So kingdoms with 1000s of men would have different events. If events were varied enough you could spend the entire game as a band of 20 or so adventurers. That would make this game truly shine. I wanted to be a bastard woman wandering alone slowly growing her own adventuring warband; helping local towns slay bandits before eventually assimilating with a town (and building a kingdom) or more interesting a town of bandits (and continuing her bastardry). Sadly, the game was for the most part abandoned as the developer could not commit to developing it full-time. What we’re left with is an abandoned, unfinished game full of lost potential. Even so I find it weird that this game is still going on sale. 60% off $15 RRP for an ongoing project shows us how much Steam can fail as a free market of saturated and unfinished experiences.

Game 79 - God of War: Ragnarok - Week 157 - Dec 22

od of War: Ragnarok 

If it isn't broken, don’t fix it. Those cliché words were clearly at the heart of God of War Ragnarok; especially when it comes to gameplay. The sequel to the masterpiece that was God of War 2018 delivers in almost every way. Not as a sequel that evolves what the original did in an innovative way, but something that enhances the nigh perfect gameplay of the original and takes the story in a new winding and unexpected directions before its inevitable climax. As such this review is probably going to be a short one. If you want to see me gush about how good the Leviathan Axe feels to huck at a Draugr or the return of the Chaos Blades wrapped around our favourite spartan's buldging biceps – see my 2018 journal entry – because much of it is the same here. Santa Monica played it so safe that most of the previous moveset is the same – and you know what? I don’t’ mind. It serves the story better in the sense that Kratos is a real character and his legendary weapons are a part of him and can't be switched swapped for every little trinket that comes along. No more than you could remove the legend of Excalibur from King Arthur can you remove the Chaos Blades and Leviathen Axe from Kratos. Also considering we only got the Chaos Blades part way through the story it allows us to explore his old weapon much more. This is very apparent in the new system that focuses on combing these weapons: Set enemies on fire, do more ice damage and vice versa. Do enough damage without getting hit and you can permafrost the axe or immolate the blades for fast high elemental effects and damage. It’s a simple yet effective synergy that takes the existing gameplay and turns into a new song and dance between Kratos and his iconic weapons. Joining the game half way through Draupnir feels a little tacked on, like the Chaos Blades in 2018. Most players would forgoe this already being quite intimate with their existing weapons, but I felt there was enough time for this weapon to become a staple, albeit a little overshadowed by his instruments of fire and ice. The role of Draupnir is more of a utility weapon but I LOVED it thematically. Pairing this with the round Athenian shield gave me awesome Greek vibes - but also the spear quickly overtook the axe as the best ranged weapon. I think a lot of people will underlook the ability to siphon other elements such as electricity, poison and especially bifrost which can make this a very effective weapon. Bifrost is a new status exclusive to Odin’s warriors that when applied caps your health bar and if hit again banishes a healthy green bar into the shadow realm! It’s a nice addition that creates very tense encounters and makes the Einherjar every bit as feared as they deserved to be. Combing stolen Bifrost with Draupnir’s speed has devastating effects – make it the ultimate Asgard counter-weapon in the story and gameplay. Abilities can now be enhanced if you use them enough, giving them special effects such as more damage, elemental, momentum (immolation, permafrost, maelstrom), etc. Which is a fun way to customize the abilities you use the most and motivate you to explore the ones you don’t. That being said I did find myself sticking to an ability once I upgraded it, forming a habit and full well knowing another ability when enhanced could be better.

The story picks up quick. Freya hunts Kratos, Thor and Odin show up, Kratos fights Thor in what is possibly the best fight in the game. Thor delivering his Mjolnir hammer blow and knocking Kratos into Tyr’s statue, exploding into debris was fun and reminiscent of the first fight with the Stranger. Mjolnir was done incredibley well, oozing electricity, and quick but heavy just like it is in the giant slaying legends. In one scene they even breaks the 4^th wall as Kratos fades to black and a loading screen presents itself, you hear Thor say “I'm not done with you yet” and shocks you back to life. An amazingly unexpected touch that starts the game off by saying, yes, we still have surprises for you. It’s a shame that this was the best fight in the game and even so not as good as the fight with Baldur. For that fight, part of it was how unexpected that first fight was and also it was your first experience in the new cinematic boss fights of God of War. But in Ragnarok the formula typically goes something like this, God, troll, Dreki, dragon, etc sucker punches Kratos knocking him back into an arena... Now fight! It’s missing much of the cinematic grandeur that was in God of War 2018, which was true to the original trilogy as well. Even the dragons who had some of the most epic scenes in 2018 with Baldur’s dragon, here have a scripted event of drag Kratos through the sky and fling him back to the arena. 

Satisfying to beat, terrible to fight...

Speaking of bosses some move sets and especially the last 2 bosses felt mechanically cheap. Having a high skill, fast, high moveset boss is fine. But when the damage is so high that there's no room for error. Combine this with some move sets that are blindingly fast as if designed by a QA tester with 5000 hours experience and it's infuriating. So what you end up with is finding builds that will get the job done instead of relying on your own skill. I like what they tried with Queen Gna and King Skrofd. Having final bosses to meet everything you've learnt and built in our Kratos. A big part of what solidified God of War as a 10/10 even in its "end game" was perfecting your own build and maxing everything so you can overcome the boss. It was an amazing feeling. In Ragnarok that feeling is cheapened by an unfair moveset that shoehorns you into a "better" build and good RNG. I just wish I could have done it with my build, god knows I tired for 6+ hours on both bosses both rebuilding. That being said it was only 2 bosses: 0.001% of the overall experience. So still a trivial gripe in perspective only highlighted by the brilliant of the rest of the game.

Even if the cinematics fall short at times, the tension of these scenes do not...

This leads me to my next complaint which is a lack of cinematic moments. I’m skipping straight to the worst part but here it is. Ragnarok (as in the final battle) wasn't long enough. It was epic sure but where was the attrition, the loss, the devastation. I wanted to be involved, up close and personal with Thor and Jormungdarr but instead what was got was watching flying off shooting sparks and a giant snake in the distance. I wanted to see Odin go to toe with Fenris Wolf. The soldiers of Hel are absent bar one wet blanket scene with a boat and so are the rest of your allies in most of the scenes as you travel through the trenches. I've heard so much of these tales I wanted to be up close and personal with every one of them. The entire game was building towards Kratos inner conflict of choosing between his past, becoming the general his friends and son need for the upcoming war or ignoring it all and protecting his son. Cutting this with a fascinating dance with prophecy and the ability to forgo it with your own choices and it was a great ride that played with many of the established Norse tales. The characters becoming the highlight of this story such as Freya’s twin Freyr and his company, Sindri and Brok, Tyr, Freya and Mimir all bring the Norse tales to life in an adaption perfected with so much care and love for their craft. While they were side characters in Part 1, I could write thousands of words going into how each characters is brilliantly crafted and contributed to the journey and some of the best scenes that have nothing to do with Kratos or Atreus. So when this fantastic story culminates in its inevitable end, Kratos had at the very last moment decided to be their general. I was ready to go to Olympus yet again, but this time for my friends and family's vengeance, for Brok, not my own. What I got was a predictable yet poorly executed final battle. Sindri in his grief destroy dwarven weapons used by Midgardians, whom Odin put there to slow down the attackers. Atreus has a breakdown and asks what he wants, and in this moment Kratos sees his son repeating his mistakes, has an epiphany, and as the Fae of his dreams asked him to, asks Atreus to open his heart as they go to find Odin and end this. It’s a great conclusion on paper but after 20 minutes of war its very very abrupt and does not feel earnt. The game had great build up yes, but the execution in that final moment was not great. It was cool blowing the Gjallhorn, see the elves fly overhead as you entered Asgard, and Fenrir and the wolves fight. But I wanted to fight through the trenches shoulder to shoulder with elf and hel walker. 

I wanted to be in the fight between Thor and Jormungdarr as they shattered the realms. When I waded through all the bodies and destruction I had caused, for an hour or more of phenomenal, epic gameplay, and it led to the moment that Sindri destroyed the machines, I should have seen the kid that Atreus befriended dying, making all the prior sacrifice up until that momement and that scene feel real. Instead it felt a little abrupt. Not contrived because the build up of Kratos fighting his old self, a monster, and the man he could be as Fae saw, was every bit as perfect as it could be. But the final ephiany was certainly abrupt. Taking the fight to Odin was perfect – but where was Fenrir? Why didn’t I see Odin push  Atreus off the walls of Asgard as Heimdall almost did. Kratos freefalling after him only to see him caught and saved by Fenrir, who now turns his snarling giant maw to Odin as the legends went. The original God of War(s) were epic. The Norse tales were epic. So why was this moment not!? The final fight like the first fight was too static when you compare it to Baldur. Thor did not get enough screen time and unlike Baldur you only fight him twice – he and we got robbed. Although I should say their movesets where on point with Thor’s thundery belows and Odin’s sorcery. But it should have moved around and been under carnage and destruction. It should have been Ragnarok! Baldur had an undead revived giant fighting Jormungdarr in the background! There was none of that to be seen here... Freya can summon cooler shit than Odin? Um what? It didn’t have to go this exact way but these epic cinematic fights are what God of War is known for and it’s sorely missing here. It’s somewhat clear that the choice to turn a trilogy into a single final game influenced the budget here. Why else would the fights not be as epic? When they have every reason to be so much more. There are still epic momements like the cart ride in Svartalfheim in their search for Tyr or escaping from the mines as Odin’s Einherjar fall from the sky on the epic bifrost rays. Or chasing down Garmr through Helheim. It’s clear they focused on the characters with the constant shift between Kratos and Atreus. Running through the fields as a wolf with Angrboda, freeing Tyr, giving Mimir his redemption and reuniting Freya and Freyr are all awesome. I just wish we didn’t have to lose those epic moments in favour of all these character scenes in the limited time frame one game is given.

Oh Fenrir... you were so perfect until you were robbed of your moment in Ragnarok.

So far this jorunal has been a lot more complaint then praise. I don't want to colour my experience this was in retrospect. The gameplay, environments, dialogue, characters and performances as well as story and mythos brought to live are all on point to the degree that one I bought up this game it just feels like nothing else. As in nothing else can compare and pales in comparison to how good this package is in how good the gameplay feels.  So beyond the complaints about bosses, Ragnarok and cinematic cutscenes the game is still every bit as masterful as 2018 was. Speaking of 2018 I had predicted Atreus would create Fenrir and Jormungdarr through magic and so he did. Also that he would shapeshift this time (not a difficult one considering the mythology). Hel on the other hand I wasn’t sure, but after playing it’s clear she’s yet to come until Loki and Angrboda have a daughter… Loki is such a central part of the tales and arguably the main player - so to see the way they play with the original lore such as in these examples is incredible. This time around we got to experience each realm. And while 5/9 where story beats or side-content. A whopping 4/9 had open world areas with sleds or boats that we could explore - and I soaked up every one until the platinum trophy popped. Vanaheim in particular was my favourite with its beautiful dense jungle and deadly fauna as well as the crater. Uncovering the mystery behind it where Laufey and Thor fought ferociously was an awesome side-story that added context to the God of War mythos. Svartalfheim was also a standout – seeing the dwarven town and their craftmanship was breahtaking. It was like a mix of the Elven Rivendell and Dwarven Khazad-dûm from Lord of the Rings. Which makes perfect sense when you consider the discoure around Dwarves and Dark Elves being the same creatures from the same realm. As for the characters – I loved all of them. 

Freya has been my most favourite travelling companion with her fabulous voice acting and ferocious demeanour. A warrior goddess that's strong enough to lead her realm but compassion enough to save and show others mercy. Not to mention her performance is just fantastic.Mimir’s countless stories of Norse mythology were always interesting to hear retold. Thor was exactly as he is in the legends, drinking, giant killing, big dumb and redheaded. But he has an interesting redemption arc in the end. Odin is not what I expected – but when I think about it that’s exactly what I'd expect from Odin - the unexpected. I can definitely see some people expecting Gandalf or Norse Zeus to be disappointed. But the master manipulator was nailed here with some fantastic moments around him shapeshifting and playing the part of Tyr before his betrayal killing Brok. Using Thor as his hammer, as with all his subjects and "family". The Æsir that surprised me the most was Heimdall. I loved to hate him. 

The team perfectly crafted the arrogance one would if you could see the future – the confidence that would bring especially to a God. Odin brings all this rable together like a mob boss. Moments where Heimdall tries to kill Loki and Odin stops him before sending him off like a sulking child is just *chefs kiss*. Odin embodies the perfect manipulative patriarchal figure that the all-father is. Another favourite God, Freyr has the sardonic and romantic personality of a naïve young adult with a good heart, which is also part of his charm. His merry band of Guerilla fighters in Vanaheim with a sassy female dwarf, Traveller (big guys with bigger swords), light elf and dark elf couple – appeals to my fantasy adventuring heart. There is so much more – the world itself is an amazing character with all the nods to Norse mythology in one way or another such as the poetry of Kvasair, a wise, well-travelled teacher born of the saliva of the Æsir and the Vanir. Or Idunn’s apples which gave the Æsir immortality and Kratos health, One of my favourite moments that perfectly encapsulated the original tales was the decision for Loki to go to Asgard, which I did not expect and having him travel with Thor – which begrudgingly happens in the tales of old. Seeing him even as a child manipulate the oafish Thor in clever ways is so satisfying as a Norse fan. I truly believe it’s a must to have some prior knowledge of Norse myth as seeing how the writers play with these tales is so rewarding as a fan of both God of War and Norse mythology.

The cast is like no other. Every performance is gold.

The settings are a breathtaking mix of fantasy meets Norse mythology. 

By the end of reading this journal it probably seems like Ragnarok was a let down. But I think this is one of those cases where the worse parts are only highlighted by how phenomenal the rest of the game is. Like a pristine Mercedes with a few small scatches. In 2018 I said that I’ve never seen a better adaption of Norse mythology – and that is still true here even if Ragnarok was a little bit of a let down. The only major let down was some poor pacing and lack of epic scenes. I’m aware they decided to do it all in on one game so they could create something new instead of working on the series for 15 years. Fair enough especially when you consider that they’ve been the God of War Studio since their inception in the mid 2000s. I wish it didn't mean Ragnarok itself suffered but I’m excited to see what new IP they’re cooking up next. In the future I would love to see a God of Trickery (or Mischief) visit eastern mythos (Mayan or Aztec culture) centered around Loki. Something I don’t know a lot about. Of course then you have the epic pay off moment when he calls in the artillery, and grey bearded Kratos shows up. A man can dream... In the final chapter the faults of God of War are offset by the fact that every other aspect of the experience is improved enhancing what was already a masterpiece in its previous iteration. 

Badass boss ass !@#$%en game!

Allsorts 4 - Godfall, Robin Hood & Arcadegeddon

 

llsorts 4

Godfall

It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a beautiful tech demo. And for the PS5 no less! Jokes aside the first thing I noticed was how high the fidelity was, but the art felt lacking. Had this generic celestial coasting over everything that just didn’t come together well enough to work. It’s hard to describe why. Some of the NPCs look great – unique and reminding me of Warframe. Speaking of the inspiration is clear with unlockable suits, loot, crafting, etc – but unlike its cousin it lacks the smooth fun gameplay that has always been at the core of Warframe since its first iterations. It's not that the game feels clunky in a janky poorly implemented way, but rather the design was an intentional mix between slow heavy Gears of War and Warframe or Dark Souls. A prime example that highlights this is the simple act of swapping weapons. This is a game that focuses on combo's and skills, creating builds to take advantage of different weapon strengths and exploit enemy weaknesses. But when you swap between your two weapons, it's holstered and takes a second to equip. This interrupts the flow hugely. Maybe I have a hammer with strong AOE and two daggers for precise agile DPS. Wouldn't it be better if I could swap these on the fly as the situation calls for it? This is an inherent roadblack at the core of all gameplay. The animations are already setup for it with my demi-god summoning the weapons. It's an obvious blunder that shouldn't have gotten past first rounds of testing. Overall the game feels unresponsive. Why do I need to hold circle every time to trigger something? If I make a mistake I can always go back. Overall the game feels unresponsive. Why do I need to hold circle every time to trigger something. If I make a mistake I can always go back. In combat there is no animation cancelling and to use your abilities, shield, dodge, etc takes an extra second. It removes any momentum that would have made the game a fun flashy action experience. Also why are the menus so laggy?

It is nice to look at

Beyond that the gameplay has no visceral impact, it feels very much like you're holding an outdated beat stick. Then you have the generic finisher of backflip and whack them with your shield animation 1-5. Not taking the time to do this for each weapon shows a lack of love and respect for your own game. Compare this to GoW. Not only do the weapons carry weight, but so do their finishers. A thrown Leviathan will behead a drauger or split a berserker at the mid-section. Kratos will butcter with the chaos blades and break bones with the shield. Despite this the animations themselves are good and although limited, I did find myself enjoying these (though could expect them to ware out quick). The final nail however was the lack of consequences. I had a quest to collect souls and deposit them. After doing so I needed to defend an area by staying in a circle and killing enemies. The problem with this is archers and healers are deadly enough but when you get a cluster of enemies and can't outmanoeuvre (or you'll lose a lot of progress) them you're done. I've gone from 50 to 0% trying to juggle this and eventually I just died, respawned, stated in the circle and repeat. By dying you lose less progress? Garbage!

My first boss was fun - but the game is definitely not designed for solo play 

Last but not least what reason does this game give you to care? Im still yet to figure it that out. What is it with generic MMO and looter shooters that can't develop a story to save their life. After a generic cutscene I know Orin and Marcos are brothers and nemesis. Marcos betrayed their knightly order so he could reshape the world in his image. Generic as it could possibly be and lacking in every way, just like the rest of the game. The codex seems well written but I was never given a launching point to become invested enough to read them. I'd heard this was God Awful but I was still curious to find out for myself. Let's just say I'm glad I only tried the challenger edition, which is a waste of unlimited bandwidth and HDD space.

Hood: Outlaws & Legends

This is a game that had an aesthetic I found interesting and for the msot part I enjoyed it. It looks good, feels good to play. It’s a novel mix of For Honor meets Hitman 47. Where you play as Robin and his merry band of men, each who have their own skillset. Such as John the bruiser who can take on knights, Robin the long range assassin, and another close range assassin and magic user who can heal the party. It’s too bad when I played I ended up with a party of Robin’s, which shouldn't have surprised me. For some reason people seem to select other characters and before readying up with everyone else they swap to Robin. Not sure why or if that's a coincidence but veryone wants to be the cool assassin looking guy. It would have been coo; to try the harder game modes as I feel they’d encourage a more balanced team. But as expected in novel niche multiplayer games like this its mostly dead. PVE is fun and challenging with most enemies killing you in two to three hits. However the AI is easily manipulated and you end up with a squad that’s a bit too gung ho for a heist game. Often putting you on high alert as soon as the first arrow is knocked from Robin's quiver. It doesn’t help that the game will have a literal take and hold objective, where you need to defend from dozens of the Baron's soldiers. In what universe does this make sense in a stealth game? I’d prefer more stealth and teamwork in a game like this, perhaps forced by more dangerous and varied enemy types. PVP on the other hand is non-existant. After trying different modes on different days at different times they always yield the same result. 5 minutes of queue time and then it's cancelled. Although its lacking in some departments it’s the most novel asymmetrical multiplayer game I’ve played since Dead by Daylight. So it's a shame the the PVP is dead. 

Arcadegeddon

Had no idea what to expect from this one as it was another PS+ freebie. But booting it up the Fortnite inspiration was immediately apparent. Once I saw the developer was ILLfonic I realised the game was likely ill fated. With Friday the 13^th, Predator Hunting Grounds and now this the studio just can’t catch a break. The art style is on point in some levels and looks amazing such as the hell lava flowing medieval level or lush tropical island with zombies. Soundtrack is interesting. Energetic upbeat techno pop that matches the neon art style and storyline of you’re in a VR gang who competes with other VR gangs (i.e. a game inside a game). Dialogue is pretty cringe with an “adults trying to be hip with the kids on the down side, yo” feel to it. But like the dialogue, the soundtrack quickly grows tiresome. The gameplay is interesting with a rogue lite meets Fortnite gameplay and Ratchet and Clank inspired cartoony guns. Running through the levels which get progressively harder and finding cool unique guns lends itself to a roguelite. However the entire time I felt like this would be cool if it was any other game, like an actual Rachet and Clank. I had this feeling like I could be playing any other game, after everything I’ve heard about Returnal being a tight rogue light shooter with random chaotic guns it just made me want to play Returnal more. In the end I couldn’t get over the Fortnite gameplay, I think it just isn’t my game. Maybe playing with other players would have been the draw that I was missing to keep me coming back? But with matchmaking > 5 minutes and an estimate of > 6 minutes (which annoyingly quits once it reaches this and launches you solo) the game is evidently dead.

The guns are pretty damn cool.

 

Game 78 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2022 - Week 154 - Dec 22

odern Warfare 2 (the original) is a game that’s near and dear to my heart. It was the shooter I played most growing up clocking in something like 24 days (576 hours) play-time. It was my first true multiplayer experience and playing it I fell in love with elimination games and games modes that would later carry on to Counter-Strike, DayZ and Rainbow Six: Siege. Something about the tense situations that would arise from only having one life was unparalleled as a multiplayer experience.

So when I heard the hype around Modern Warfare 2022 (MW22) delivering the goods I was instantly onboard. I made the decision to avoid the story not only until I played Modern Warfare 2019, but when back and replayed the original trilogy and finished the MW3 story which I never finished. Whose characters are also near and dear to my heart (Soap, Price, Ghost, etc). While the story remains in a similar boat to God of War 3 and 2018, I did get a chance to experience the multiplayer and I have a lot to say. 

 

First off the bat I was surprised by just how much content there is… to start Ground War and Invasion were my favourite modes. The Battlefield like map of Ground War provide an awesome open warfare experience that easily overpasses its inspiration. I haven’t played a Battlefield game this good since Battlefield 1; and it’s Call of Duty. I enjoyed Domination, Headquarters, Hardpoint, Kill Confirmed for traditional TDM. TDM and FFA are a BIG eh. But I’ve never been a big fan of these modes especially in Call of Duty where you usually feel like headless chickens running around in circles on a map. I’ve never been particularly exceptionally at shooters with my slow reflexes. So I’ve always excelled where I can manipulate the object and outwit my enemy – hence my favouritism of Search & Destroy games. Domination and Kill Team are staples for me in that regards, but Headquarters and Hardpoint too me by surprise. Take an area, hold it, gain points, it moves. Simple but fun and as it keeps you on the toes with a dynamic singular objective that creates amazing combat scenarios.

As for elimination mode I was left quite disappointed. Knockout is a leg above the rest where two teams compete for a money bag and must hold it to gain points (a mobile king of the hill like Oddball from Halo with elimination). Similar to the aforementioned modes this creates amazing combat encounters that highlight the best parts of the maps – with a cat and mouse spin on it as your team forms around your moneybags VIP to protect the objective. Speaking of objectives, the decision to allow players to choose between killstreaks or score streaks is a gamechanger. No longer are players rewarded for avoiding the objectives. If I want to hunt heads I can do so. If I want to sit in the back with anti-air missile and shoot UAVs while defending an objective on Ground War I can do that too and gain my streaks while I’m at it. One change opens up such an incredible amount of potentially for playstyle. It must be in every Call of Duty. A few suggestions and complaints however. Players should start with score streaks as many didn’t even know it existed and just ignored it – which pushes players away from an objective mindset from Day 0. That’s a mistake. Also the ability to create score/kill streak loadouts is much needed. The matchmaking is fantastic where you can select every mode and search – however some killstreak loadouts just don’t work on some modes. Having a 7-9-11 kill/scorestreak works on TDM but not Search & Destroy where you’d be lucky to get. The game modes have 3-5 rounds with 5-6 kills. That’s 15-30 possible kills across your entire team requiring both yours and the enemy team to be wet blankets (yours slightly more than the other). It’s just not feasible and it had me switching off elimination modes. Hostage and Search & Destroy however doesn’t have the same oomph that it use to. I’m not sure what it is but something in particularly that turned me off is just how sweaty these modes have become. Due to the nature of it it’s always been a little competitive but here it’s just downright toxic where trash talk has become a natural part of the game modes. That’s fine I guess but it’s just not the same to me so I choose to leave; that mode can live on in my memory. Finally not long after this released Warzone and DMZ. These modes quickly replaced Ground War for me. I love BRs when they’re done right. They combine the best parts of survival games with elimination game modes. DMZ is Tarkov and Warzone 2 is a BR. I enjoyed DMZ; the hunt loot and extract gameplay formula. But eventually it fell off with no real metagame progression to support it like Tarkov. Instead using a bolt-on from the main game in that you keep your guns and can enter with them next time – pretty shallow. At the very least you should be able to extract your cash with a rotating shop. If I want to go in geared up and I have the liquidity to do that, why shouldn’t I? Warzone is still great if you have a good squad as the most intense elimination game mode on the market – it’s no wonder BRs still dominate. All these modes and I haven’t even touched the campaign or co-op. The value here is absolutely !@#$ing incredible.

Sleuthing around in DMZ is intense especially when solo...

 

The gameplay is weighty and versatile – dive, slide, mount and lean around walls. But at the same time you move slow so you’ll need to use these to your advantage (I see drop shotting returning with this!). The perk system is great – you start with two tier 1 perks and tier 2 and 3 you unlock through the match. It’s a great way to balance people taking Ghost in every game. Initially I disliked all the starter guns but once I eventually unlocked a few others like my forever gun, the AK47 (or whatever its called) everything gameplay wise came together. The degree to which you can customize guns is insane. With dozens of guns, each with 30 attachments, then throw in perks, tactical and lethal grenades and the combinations are insane. If that wasn’t enough weapons having tuning where you can literally slide stats like ADS and damage range up or down. I turned the high stopping power slow draw of the AK47 into a quick draw murdering power house that I can run and gun with and it was glorious. The progression system isn’t perfect however for one reason alone. There are two levels of gates. The first being items unlock each level – for example my favourte perk Ghost unlocks in the 50s. I shouldn’t have to grind for 30+ hours to get this last… Just let me unlock in whatever order I want, please. If you’re worried people will spam it before exploring other perks – then have soft gates and make it ridiculously expensive – offsetting people who want to save up for it from the start. Hell, it’s in the default loadouts so you weren’t that worried. Lastly the sub-unlocks are terrible – the fact that I need to grind a terrible gun to get the one I want is not a good system. I understand the purpose is to have players try every gun. But when certain guns are redundant and will always be forgotten, what’s the point of forcing players to try them in the first place?

 

Previous issues I’ve had with the games are gone. I noticed the spawns are much much better. Sure every now and again you drop right behind someone, especially on the smaller maps. But its noticeable rare. Compare it to Black Ops where I could lock someone into an open spawn at the back of the map – gun them down until I get a chopper and dogs and then no one was safe inside or out. Guns seem more balanced also. Call of Duty has always been about fun over balance (a big reason for its success imo) – but some guns were shocking and often got patched, notably the shotguns in MW2. Here the approach seems to be give players full control over every aspect of the gun with tuning to the point that they can unrealistically create there own guns. The result in my experience so far has been no balance is balance and fun. My biggest problem with the guns are a lot of single shot weapons. Remove a scope from a sniper, give it an iron sight with super quick ADS and now you have a man-dropping machine. It’s garbage and I think any sniper other than a slow draw 50 cal should be two shots to the chest. Or at the very least you can’t remove the scope in single-shot snipers. It seems especially unnecessary when they give snipers the ability to quick draw pistols. The other issues that come to mind are the maps just not feeling as iconic as MW2. There are a few larger maps where older maps have been inserted like Quarry and Rust – and these just seem so much better in terms of design. Afghan, Terminal, Flavela, Sub Base, Estate, Highrise, Karachi, Wasteland and oh my god Underpass... my absolute favourite COD map of all time. The character is notable missing and I have a feeling why. A lot of the maps are designed in tiers of small, medium, large. Reusing sections of a larger map for ground war in smaller game modes like TDM. It’s clever, but the maps feel less crafted to perfection. There’s a definite quantity of quality here. Take Taraq for example. Plenty of ruins. On most modes other than Ground War it feels way to open and naked - like the snipers reigning in on Blood Gulch. Now take a similar map from MW2, Wasteland. Way less cover and way more open. The key difference being tactically placed trenches that allow places to navigate the open zones above. This is sorely missed in what what feels like it would be a simple and natural addition to a Afghan guerrilla inspired map. That being said I do feel they did the best with what they had in this mission to deliver as much content, maps and modes as they did. It’s a concession I think is worth it and while I can understand them not including the original maps initially, so the new ones can stand on their own, I hope to heavens they bring them back in the future.

Oh quarry my old friend...

 

In my time playing I had limited technical issues beyond crashing. Not sure whether I should be grateful for that but it was bad. However these and the other issues aside, the metagame, content and gameplay all combined culminates in probably the best metagame progressions system I’ve seen in a shooter bar a few quirks. The guns and unlocks all carry across every mode. Upgrade a gun in Team Deathmatch? Take the loadout into Warzone where you can buy it. It’s fantastic. Now I hear there are raids coming to. It’s clear the intention here is to supplement every shooter out there - Battlefield, Destiny, Counter-Strike, Rainbow Six, Tarkov – as your one stop shop. A concept that if you told me about 2 months ago, I would have laughed, but to my surprise for the most part here it works. Throw this game into the same boat as Deep Rock Galactic – I think this is going to be my main shooter for quite a while.

Game 77 - Doom 64 - Week 153 - Dec 22

oom 64

After playing the phenomenal Doom 2016 I read up a little on the Doom lore and to me surprise I learned that Doom 64 was not a port of Doom 1, but instead a sequel to Doom 2 and prequel to Doom 2016 tying the original and new games together. Combine this with a diehard loyal fanbase of the game and I was super excited to play the “forgotten” gem of this legendary franchise.

Booting up I was immediately confronted with how different the soundtrack is. The iconic metal is now gone replaced with a weirder, more ambient and ominous soundtrack. It reminded me a little of the original Quake, but I was not a fan. I understand what they were going for in this one. Whether it was a purely intentional shift in direction or in part due to limitations of the Nintendo 64, the levels are way smaller and more claustrophobic. Pair with the soundtrack and you have Horror Doom before Doom 3. I liked it at first as a change of pace, but about 6-7 levels in I grew wary of the formula and missed old school Doom. The enemies and guns feel like Doom (with the return of my baby, Super Shotgun). Was it toned down for a 64 controller? Was it a limitation of the cartridge? Or was it Midway, the only other studio to work on a mainline Doom, injecting their flair as I remember them from games such as Psi-Ops, Area 51, and the Mortal Kombat series… Who knows. I understand what they were going for – and I’m sure it was terrifying back in the day (especially when you consider all the diehard fans) but it doesn’t hold up. I kept waiting for the soundtrack to surprise me. I even turned it up and tried to embrace it but it never developed beyond ambient garbage. FEAR, Silent Hill, Condemned – so many games have done ambient music much better even of the same era. All in all it just feels dated; less intense, less enemies, less Doom.

Never really used the new gun - felt unnecessary.

 

Levels are more miss than hit. A lot of the “Doom puzzles” of finding keys requires too much guesswork. Switches are behind puzzles, unlock rooms with no indication of where, requiring constant meandering and backtracking. Why? This isn’t a puzzle it’s padding. It wouldn’t have been difficult to have a sound effect for what it is (door, portal, wall, etc) or a map to highlight when something opens. Combine this with the aforementioned claustrophobic levels and it takes on a tedious labyrinthine design. There’s some weird additional quirks like the cameras which provided seemingly no purpose. It would have been cool if these faced rooms with patrols or threatening enemies? Also that level that gave me a seizure… jesus.

Ah my eyes!

 

Level 5 and 6 hit the nail on the head, feeling uninspired with not much space. They’re just rooms. There are a few moments like tearing through two dozen grunts with a minigun, managing several arch demons or falling into the dark pit full of Pinkys which is terrifying at first, but once you pull out your chainsaw you’re good. These however should be the rule not the exception however. Level 9 is the perfect example of this. Spawning into a full arena as enemies come in waves and pose a challenging combat puzzle (i.e. the Doom formula). Scary AF new demons show up with variations unseen before for the Doom veterans and throw in some interesting quake like traps and you have what the Doom 2 sequel should have been. Level 9 popped up every now and again but it was only milestone moments that served the story (i.e. Doom guy got ambushed).

Final motherboss fight was cool

 

I was excited to play the last link in the Doom chronology, but the story has never been a major part of the originals and all I was left was disappointment. Doom 64 was just… okay. The enemies and guns are on point, but without the soundtrack to give you the right tempo or great level design to support the Doom combat formula it just falls flat. Maybe it appeals to a particular taste who enjoy a creepier Doom, but I’m not convinced they’ve taken off the nostalgia goggles.

Allsorts 3 - Fallout Shelter, Pac-Man 256, GBFV, Knowledge is Power

llsorts 3

Fallout Shelter

This is a surprisingly amazing mobile game. It stands among examples such as Gwent and Hearthstone that prove if you leave a small team alone with some AAA resources to play with, they can still dish out something great and fun. It even had me questioning that; for the game its trying to be is it a better game than Fallout 4? There are two major reasons I love this game. As a Fallout fan the pip-boy art-deco cartoon style come to life is amazing. You could totally envision these characters as a Vault Tec cartoon in this world. But it also stands up on its own as a great game. The X-com style base management, managing your resources so the vault can expand and survive. Training them to get better at their trade, get an education, mate and create new dwellers and of course venture out into the wasteland to scavenge and explore; completing quests along the way. The quest system was a game changer. I enjoyed sending a dweller into the wasteland and watching the adventure style scrolling  text to see what they encounter in their travels. But sending a veteran crew of survivors to explore a building or vault which may contain various enemies, minigames or characters to negotiate with is what kept the game fresh and playable for much longer. Speaking of survivors you can name your characters in typical XCOM fashion, making their loss that more devastating. My only wish is that it had a hardcore mode. When a character dies you can buy them back if you have the caps (and not all that much). So, death has little impact and instead becomes an economic decision. Giving it much more of a meta micro-management feeling rather than immersing you in the survival of the wasteland. Beyond that it’s a great game to expand your Vault, dress up your Dwellers and find and craft awesome weapons so they can defend and brave the wastes for all the mutants and treasures they hold.

Pac-Man 256

Wasn’t sure to think about this at first. On one hand it’s an interesting take with the endless runner style pac-man with power ups. On the other hand the mobile mechanics are clearly felt here in the gameplay and art style – and the purist in me didn’t know how to feel about that. There were two things that swayed me. The first and most obvious was I unlocked and changed the art style back to the original. Crazy how much an art style can influence the brand of a game, especially when nostalgia is involved. The second is the multiplayer; playing 2 player co-op especially on a keyboard was a joy and set it apart from what felt like a direct mobile port. However I do feel the mobile format holds it back a little. With 2-players it was feeling a little cramped and they could have expanded the map horizontally to suit. Classic Pac has two primary lanes, if this was expanded by 1-2 lanes per player not only would it be more optimized and balanced, it would be incredibly hectic and repayable with more power-ups. Allow players to choose their own power-ups to make it even more hectic. Speaking of, the power ups are a nice touch. Laser down ghosts, set a fire trail, freeze, bomb, go big chompy and more. Overall it’s a refreshing take, but I still think DX is a better evolution of that classic Pac-Man experience. It kept the same template but threw in same snake like combo mechanics. The arcadey injection felt at home, where here the endless runner and power-ups still feel “mobile”. My only other gripe is the house always wins. Sometimes RNG just screws you with nowhere to go.

All this got me thinking; what would the perfect Pac-Man game look like? Personally I loved Pac-Man World and think it is one of the great 3D platformers and highly underrated. So something that combines 2D and 3D and transitions between them seamlessly would be nothing short of amazing. Hell, perhaps make it a mechanic or power-up. Give the player the control to switch between and make it an integral mechanic in solving Metroid-style puzzles. Perhaps the player unlocks and equips power-ups along the way similar to 256 and you could have endless runner boulder chase scenes similar to 256. Who knows, perhaps I could make the ultimate Pac-Man game and pitch it to Namco as a flagship re-entry? Back to the top at hand: While 256 isn’t particularly a game I want to play on PC, it’d be perfect on Steam deck (or sweet sweet prince how I want my ultimate indie machine) or my big TV. So sure enough I’ve filed the game away in the Steam-Deck pile on Seam and wishlisted the Pac-Man Museum+ on PSN. Can't wait for that to go on special…

Granblue Fantasy: Versus

Now this was a surprise. By going off looks alone it looks like a generic anime fighter; but to my astonishment it’s actually a good technical fighter. Straight off the bat it’s annoying half the characters are locked; requiring me to play a campaign I have no interest in to unlock them (or even worse, if they're all DLC characters). At the risk of a diatribe; why haven’t the eastern studios stopped this in their fighting games yet? One or two is fine like Mortal Kombat locking the final boss/es behind the story; but half the roster is ridiculous. It highlights are grander topic of the East being behind in a lot of their game design. Even now you recognise some of their design is no different to games of the 90s. Blurring the lines between what is Japanese game design and what is outdated tradition. Menus being the prime example; sure they’re functional but that classic Capcom menu could really do with an Eastern makeover. Main menu’s that trainsition right into the story; especially on console focused games like Resident Evil 2 or Final Fantasy would be amazing. Imagine: press Start and you’re smashed in the face with a beautiful cutscene that leads into the story. Want to change the options? That’s okay just do it after the cutscene and in the game where you can actually test it. The only absolutely necessary setting is gamma/lighting, and if you’re in the 1% of PC master race donkeys who want to spend an hour playing with settings before you can into the game, that’s fine, back out and do that after the opening cutscene. Anyway, back to the game. The game reminds me of Dragonball FighterZ, a game that was smooth with great move sets, flow and hitboxes which makes Street Fighter 5 look embarrassing. Some favourites include Katalina with her fencing parry skills, Ferry with her spirit wolves and whips and Lowain with his dual daggers and cat ears, because of course…. The boys gravitated towards Ladiva, the muscle bound JoJo character spitting round house kicks, love hearts and cat ears for the ultimate troll. Now remember, before you start you must Believe in the fight!

Knowledge is Power

I’ve been meaning to cancel my PS Plus for a while now. Usually I resub when a banger comes out that I want; or the gang gets together for some co-op games. The offside to that however is every so often it forces me to try a game that at first glance doesn’t interest me but once I give it a go it sends shockwaves throughout my couch co-op group and becomes a staple for us. Laser League is probably the biggest example of that; but Knowledge is Power is shaping up to be another. The premise is simple, yet satisfying. Four doors, pick a topic. Each topic you choose then goes down a path of sub-topics to choose from. For example a generic ‘History’ question about Stalin might then give sub-topics of European figures, Political Studies or Russian history. This is marked by resets every few rounds. The first to guess gets the most points (if they get it right) with 300, 200 and 100 to all those that answered third to last. Each round you can use powers to disable other players; goop that covers questions, ice to break through, nibblers that hide letters; and they all stack. It’s a simple mechanic that turns what would be basic trivia into a combination of Mario Kart and Trivial Pursuit. Throw in some charm with a cute art style and the ability to take goofy photos as your avatar and you have quite the endearing game. The final round has a rapid fire pyramid where you can race to the top. Depending on your performance you have a headstart; but I’ve seen some major comebacks here and it turns the game on its head. Throw in the sabotage mechanics and you have a winning formula that prevents snowballing by the most knowledgeable trivia vertans; which is a common issue in trivia that kills mid-late game enthusiasm for most players in my experience. All these sum up to a whole that leverages game mechanics in a way that general trivia cannot. In the same way that Hearthstone leveraged game mechanics to make an exceptionally unique card game that could only be done as a video game. Moving forward its likely that games and wings night will now be trivia, games and wings nights.