OK, so right off the bat I feel I should probably declare that I’m not what you could reasonably call a massive Halo fan. And by that I mean that, even though I have played (and mostly enjoyed) the games, I’m not a huge follower of the franchise, and the ongoing story/themes/characters aren’t things I’ve paid a huge amount of attention to, or spent a lot of time thinking about. I played through the games quickly (and almost certainly in the wrong order), had my fun, and then moved on. I’ve recently acquired the Master Chief Collection, and am looking forward to perhaps changing all of this, but for now – and for the purposes of this review – you should definitely bear in mind that I’m coming at it from something of a n00b’s point-of-view. Continue reading “Halo 5: Guardians – Campaign Review”
This week it was announced that Nintendo are releasing their first mobile game next year, and Respawn Entertainment also revealed that they would be developing a Titanfall spin-off for Android and IoS – also likely to be released next year. Both of these, it seems, will follow the so-called ‘Freemium’ model, which has already begun its implacable rise to dominance in the world of tablets and phones. As you shall see shortly (if you stick around for the duration of this rant), I don’t like this at all, and moreover, the fact that actual, proper Gaming companies are firmly heading in this direction is very, very worrying indeed. Continue reading “Why “Freemium” Games Could Mean Bad News For Gamers”
As I explained the other day, during ‘Gaming’s Silly Season‘ I shall most likely be doing ‘First Impression‘ pieces for the majority of games, and in these I hope to cover my initial thoughts and/or experiences of playing a particular game, but stopping somewhere short of hitting ‘Full Campaign Review’ type detail. I’ve been playing AC: Syndicate for a total of about 20+ hours at this point, so I figure that puts me in a decent enough position to cover some of the more general points. Also, Halo 5’s just come out, and given I’m both rubbish at multi-tasking and easily confused, I should pro’ly get this out of the way before I begin conflating the two games and start going on about Locke casually chatting to Charles Dickens and suchlike. Continue reading “Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate – First Impressions”
Firstly, if you’re one of the two people who’s read this blog a) thank you and b) I’d like to apologise for my absence over the last week or so. Rest assured, I haven’t gotten bored already, it’s just that I was in the US for a week, and the repeated shock of paying a bajillionty-twelve dollars for a soda at Disney and Universal left me with little time to actually, you know, write stuff. Continue reading “Notes on Gaming’s Silly Season”
In what shall henceforth be known as ‘VR Day – BOOM!’, I spent my last afternoon at Brasil Game Show strapping various contraptions to my big old head, spinning and bobbing around like a drunk pigeon, and just generally looking like a bit of a tool. Here’s the thing, though – I really didn’t care, and it was totally, totally worth it. I’ve been ridiculously excited about the coming of VR for ages now, and this was a great opportunity to have a crack at a few variations of it, and just generally see what our glorious VR future looks like. Continue reading “My First Experience with Virtual Reality”
I loved the Tomb Raider re-boot, and it was probably the highlight of my first year of next-gen gaming. It was great for many reasons, but not least because it got a stone-cold gaming classic back on the right track, and its more subtle (and ultimately more mature) approach genuinely marked it out as a title to be respected.
My one complaint, however, was that there weren’t really that many puzzles. Or tombs, for that matter. Continue reading “Rise of the Tomb Raider: Hands On First Look”
Black Ops III will mark the CoD franchise’s third foray into Next-Gen gaming, and the previous two proved at least as popular as ever – thus answering Edwin Starr’s eternal question (‘War…..HUH…..what is it good for?’) with a resounding ‘selling shitloads of video games, innit!?’. Whether you’re a fan of the series or not, I think it’s fair to say that the CoD games (from whichever developer) have really been nailing their next-gen shizzle, truly embracing – and pushing – what the new machines are capable of.
From what I saw, Black Ops 3 seems to be no different in that respect. Continue reading “Call of Duty: Black Ops III – First Impressions”
As a young ‘un, I must have spent in excess of a 100 hours playing on Street Fighter, and likely a hundred more on Street Fighter II – and they were probably the first games that really got me hooked on the medium. I’d always liked playing on earlier “games” – in an enjoyable enough to spend a few hours messing around kind of way – but it was the first two Street Fighters that turned Gaming into a full-time, hardcore obsession for me. Continue reading “Street Fighter V – Hands On First Look”
Tucked away in a tiny corner of the Xbox area at the Brasil Game Show is a curtain. I’m not what you could call a big fan of curtains – you know, generally speaking – but this one I liked. A lot. See, behind this particular curtain was my opportunity to have a first little look-see at Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer. Yeah, I know right!? Continue reading “Halo 5: Guardians – Hands On, First Look at Multiplayer”
QTX 