I’ve been intrigued by Quantum Break for a while now, and its premise – coupled with its mixture of gameplay and live action “TV” – always suggested that it would be an interesting and unique proposition. Thomas Puha (Head Dude in charge of PR shenanigans at Remedy Entertainment, to use, like, his official title) was at the Brazil Game Show last year, and Quantum Break was understandably a big part of Microsoft’s presence at the event. Shortly thereafter I gone done spent a chunk of my future kid’s College Fund on the Xbox One (and consequently endured a few uncomfortable nights on the couch), so it’s fair to say there was a high degree of personal expectation when I finally got my hands on the game last weekend. Continue reading “Quantum Break – (First) Review”
Part of my gaming New Year’s Resolution this year was to “mix shit up a bit” and I’d decided to make a conscious effort to play a broader spectrum of games. In doing so, I’m hoping to avoid just playing the same type of game, and particularly if it’s at the cost of other types. I mention this because, having just finished Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, I moved onto Ori and The Blind Forest and, to be honest, I’m not sure if there could be a greater degree of contrast between two games. Where the former is an uber-violent FPS with an oppressive palette of browns, blacks and greys, the latter is a colourful, vivid platformer, with glowing balls of light and magic. Essentially, one’s a direct descendant of the evolutionary line that began with first person shooters back in the 80s/90s, and the other is the direct descendant of the gaming line that began with the side-scrolling platformers of the same era, and all the cumulative adaptations in that time mean the games couldn’t really look, or be, more different.
So, after 6000 miles, some pretty dodgy airline (quote-unquote) “food”, and watching a surprising number of my fellow travellers being hilariously stumped by the apparent complexities of airplane toilet doors, I’m back home – and that means I can now get on with the task of rebuilding my Gaming life. Having schlepped my replacement PS4 across the equator (along with some re-bought games, headphones etc) and with my replacement Xbox One eagerly awaiting me here, I’m just about back where I was – hardware-ily speaking anyways. I spent yesterday reconnecting everything, waiting an inordinate amount of time for updates and shit to download, and now, having checked my USB stick on the off-chance I had saved my Fallout 4 stuff but finding I hadn’t, I’ve finally accepted that a) I am definitely an idiot, and b) I’m back to square one in terms of Next-Gen Gaming. Continue reading “And It’s Hi Ho Silver Lining! (Or Some such…)”
As I’ve said before, one of the highlights of my first year of next-gen gaming was the Tomb Raider reboot, and that, coupled with the ever-so-brief go I had on this one prior to release, made Rise of the Tomb Raider one of my most eagerly anticipated releases of Silly Season. I had every reason to expect good things from this installment, and particularly because I’d very much gotten the impression that this one would feature more of the Tomb-ey/Puzzle-y stuff that I loved about the earlier Tomb Raider games, whilst still maintaining the strong narrative arc of the 2013 release. Continue reading “Rise of the Tomb Raider – First Impressions”
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”
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”
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”
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”
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