Bloodborne: The Old Hunters DLC Day One

Back at the bottom

They're dead, all of them. The bosses fell one by one, almost to the sound of 'another one bites the dust' perpetually playing in my rage addled brain. Except - of course this did NOT happen. No, unless you count me dying over and over again as an accomplishment in any sense of the word. The first - of many - mistakes I made (blaming the game would be too easy) was continuing with my new game plus save where I left off back when I first finished the game. Here's the kicker, NG+ is actually harder than just restarting the game, who'd of thunk it? This is ignoring the fact that you have to get a decent way into the game before the DLC is accessible, this surprisingly was easy.

Upon entering the hunters aptly named 'Nightmare' realm It slowly - at a speeding trains pace- occurred to me that things weren't going to be easy, not that they ever were. Hunters litter the landscape now, and staying dead is a tense they haven't learned yet as they Respawn on death. The first boss is a complete bastard (yes I can swear on this site) who *nervous chuckle*, there he is now.... Oh God, I retract my last stament, please no..... Aghhhh! No players were actually harmed in the making of this post; mental wellbeing was crushed, all sense of self worth gone and several walls mysteriously now have holes in them but that's about it.

The Last Of Us sketches

Bloodborne Review

You did your best but you failed miserably. The lesson is; never try

To celebrate the release of the Bloodborne DLC today I'm posting a review I wrote for the base game when it came out, here you go. Bloodborne is a important game; it's the first console exclusive this generation that's worth owning the console for. Sure it's not for everyone, in fact a lot of people that buy it will likely resent the game but it's worthy of the praise it's gotten, despite some flaws.

Broken Age Review

Broken beyond repair

Won't last an Age

You know what's classic, Broken Sword is, as is Sam and Max Hit The Road, along with Simon The Sorcerer and Monkey Island 3. You know what isn't? Broken Age. Now I don't mean classic as in old, I'm using it as a measurement of quality, if it will be remembered fondly for decades to come. I can't see Broken Age being remembered for much and if so, it wont be fondly. If anything, Broken Age will act as a cautionary tale, a reminder that publishers do have a reason to exist and letting your figure head be in charge of money makes for a bad idea. Some people will say that it's more like: "careful what you wish for" and that times have moved on from point and click adventure games. But that isn't true, in fact Charles Cecil's return with Broken Sword 5 was somewhat successful , which was also kickstarted (and got less than a third of what Broken Age got) there's also lots of great modern point and click games; Gemini Rue, the Blackwell series, The Inner World etc. Then people will say "but Ollie you're viewing those old classics with rose tinted glasses" again that isn't true. All those classics I listed and many more, I only recently played in the last few years, as they were released way before my time (yes I'm that young). The original Broken Sword is genuinely breathtaking still today, it stands the test of time. Broken age doesn't even stand up a year and a half after the initial acts release.

Fallout 4 - New dialogue system

A momentary Fallout

Let's talk about the dialogue system in Fallout 4, more specifically what's different. Unlike the last two Fallout games where you were shown a list of all your responses in full, here you get one or two word hints at what the actual piece of dialogue is you respond with, with only 4 choices at any one time. It's not a great change, visually it's more streamlined and appealing but oftentimes it's hard to ascertain what your full reply will be. Sometimes you'll choose a option that simply reads 'sarcastic' with the intention of being lighthearted or charming but instead your character says something that just insults the other person. Also, whereas in 3 and New Vegas you had the option of going through every dialogue option and deciding when to end the interaction, here though you often only get to choose one option before the conversation moves on - locking out any other things you wanted to ask. I understand the intention, it makes conversations flow better, feels more organic and is in line with the likes of Bioware dialogue trees. Honestly it's because we're so used to how it worked in the other games it's quite confusing that it doesn't work the same, not helped by the fact that the game makes no attempt to explain how it works. It's muddy and I'm not sure I really understand it yet. The X button dialogue option always seems to be the nicest and most agreeable route to go whereas O (circle) appears to be the arsehole route or disagree. Triangle most often than not asks a question or is  being inquisitive, leading to sub sets of dialogue options, whereas square often has sarcastic ascribed to it or jokes. This is vague I know, but again the game doesn't really signpost or inform how the new system works. One things certain, dialogue is infinitely better written than Fallout 3 and is on par with obsidian's effect with New Vegas, dark humour is back. More on this tomorrow.

Fallout 4 Day One Thoughts

Setting the world on fire for the forth time

After spending most of the day playing Fallout 4 I can thankful say it's great. Make no mistake this is a sequel to Fallout 3 through and through, for better and worse. Technically the game is a mess, bugs glitches, subtitles disappearing and cameras inside head. Once again Bethesda has rolled out the tired and ancient game engine they've been using since Oblivion and it shows. At times - mainly in wide open space of the world it can be stunning, lighting and haze effects are something to behold. I experienced what appeared to be a radioactive cloud passing overhead where the whole area was drenched in a green fog. Get close up though and you notice the low res textures and stitching together of assets. Animations are better but still as stiff as a corpse. Here's the thing though, that evidently doesn't matter when you exist in what feels like a living breathing world. You enter a room, a building and it visually tells you a story - who lived here, what happened to them, the place being looted after the bombs dropped, that's what's really S.P.E.C.I.A.L here. More thoughts tomorrow.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops Campaign Review - A lesson in mediocrity

Tumbling down the plot hole

After finishing Black Ops 3 I sat there amazed and thought to myself  "what a complete load of nonsense". The fact that I was in stitches during the last mission over the woeful writing and acting when the game was attempting some big emotional payoff with characters I feel as though I passed in the street says it all really. Treyarch try, they always do but by God they went a bit mad here. The plot goes all Deus Ex with a metaphysical AI and a living tree, I wouldn't be surprised if they consulted David Cage during development on the plot "more emoshuns". It's lofty aspirations just cannot be achieved in such a short campaign, characters have relationships that are barely even let on during the game. I spent a huge portion asking; what? Who? Where? Why? Not because I wasn't paying attention but because the game jumps from tone to tone within a second. One minute your character punches his comrade to the ground and the next he's saying they only have each other now.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3 campaign thoughts

Answering the Call again... Hello? Damn spam phone calls

The joke with Call of Duty is that if you've played one, you've played them all. The truth is if you've played one you've played them all..... Wait that's the joke again. Although used against COD by people who don't play them, the joke has an undeniable hint of truth about it. Has Black ops changed, yes has it changed to the point it feels like new experience, well no. At the core it plays like another COD, sure you can dress it up and disguise it all you want but it's about as effective as placing a pumpkin on your head in the effect of it being guillotined, it's not fooling anyone.

The World Of Professor Layton Book Review

This reminds me of A puzzle

Originally released in Japan in 2013 Udon publishing has faithfully translated and released the book in English. As someone who owns the Japanese version I can attest to the fact that aside from the translation nothing really new is here, somewhat unfortunately. This means you don't get interviews with the English voice of Layton and Luke, only the translated versions of the interviews with the Japanese cast. It also refers to content that isn't in the western releases of the game, including some cutscenes, which is interesting to discover.

Perfect games to play on Halloween

It's come to this; a list article 

So it's Halloween, ooooooohh, scary. Being British, spiteful and child fearing doesn't put me in the best place for Halloween spirit, I'm a bit of a mister grumpy in fact. However the show must go on and lots of people and places (America loves their Halloween, just as much - if not more - than their freedom) celebrate it as if it were a real holiday (which it ain't, thanks work!). Scary games are all the rage these days, or should I say 'scary' games, as we all know most of them are gumf and resort to toys or slendy things to jump at your face with all the subtlety of a overweight elephant learning maths in a class room. There are some gems though, ones with actual meat to the bone, that offer atmosphere, chilling stories and nerve racking gameplay - these are the ones I'll list here.

IOS highlight: Lumino City

A City on the verge of a puzzle breakthrough

The first thing you'll likely to notice about Lumino City is its visuals. Now I know, us gamers all like to pretend that visuals don't matter and games can be amazing while still looking rough, but cor blimey! Not only is Lumino City easy on the eyes it also has a brillo art design and a unique visual style - the whole game world being created in real life by hand, then framed and lit for in game scenes. There's a slight stop motion and origami feel to the city, whenever the camera sweeps over into the next scene, the jaw can't help but drop slightly.

Notable IOS releases this week

Agent A: a puzzle in disguise - as the name suggests, a puzzle game. Played out in a first person perspective with a unique art style, Agent A has you play as a spy exploring an enemy spy's mansion in order to track her down.

Octodad: Dadliest Catch - yeah it's come to mobile, the drunk simulator. The biggest question is how the controls will translate to touch screens - probably no better than what it's like on controllers

Lumino City: This ones a sequel but a lot larger In scale. Another puzzle game, though more in the vein of point and click. The biggest thing going for it is the beautiful visuals as the game world was fully created by hand before being scanned into the game.

Opinions on each to come later in the week.

SOMA succeeds in being more than just a horror game

Everyrobots gone to Rapture

I think the first thing to establish about SOMA is that - yes it is scary. And yes there are those contrarians that say "well *readjusts monocle* SOMA really isn't scary at all", which is always going to happen with a scary game. Fear is subjective, what I find scary in SOMA (everything) other people might not even flinch. It's one of the reasons why Horror, along with comedy are the hardest things to get right in games.

Life Is strange Episode 4 Dark Room Byte Sized Review

Do you think I'm Spooky?

Life is Strange started out in episode one feeling like a teen drama,  just with a lot more 'hella' than your average day contains. Now though, it's grown into a hugely impactful experience, taking on real issues of depression and suicide, in a mature and rarely respectful way. Episode Four is equally emotionally powerful and thought-provoking, questioning the morals of Max but also the player. My eyes were consistently moist, it made me an emotional wreck but don't tell anyone.... Or else.

Indie game recommendation: Please, Don't Touch Anything

Please no papers

Can you last without pressing anything, no, the answer is no. Can you solve over 20 mind bending puzzles involving a series of buttons, switches and mechanisms? Your friend - the idiot- has left you to take over the controls of his vaguely worrying looking workstation, with one instruction - don't touch anything. "Wait, what was that? I didn't catch that, hmm I wonder what this does". Visually similar to the equally genius game - Papers Please, with some nods and Easter eggs thrown in. The game is all about finding over 20 different endings, some are insane but the thrill is finding them yourself, pure brilliance in design and inventiveness, and rewards creativity equally from the player. It's not gonna take up a lot of your time but it's worth giving it some of your precious attention, after all everyone likes buttons. Just don't press them.... *press* What did I just say? But in the case of pressing the buy button on Steam or ios I can forgive you, just.

Don't do it? You're not the boss of me.

Tales From The Borderlands finale Intial thoughts

"Well you started badly and it trailed off in the middle and the ending the less said the better, but otherwise it was great"

Two finales in one day, that's too many endings to process. Ok, this episode I thought was a mixed bag, started strong and ended strong, the Middle not so much. It just tried to do too many things in such a short time and the reveal of who the stranger was.... My god, what were you thinking Telltale. My opinion I think is somewhat coloured by the fact I played the infinitely better last episode of Life Is Strange first. Both of which I need to write some sort of cohesive review thingy of... not to get too technical. A fitting finale for Tales though even if it didn't end as strong as it started. One more thing of note, I adore the opening of every Tales episode and this one is also visually stunning, and the music choices.... perfect.

Life is Strange, leaves in tears

Life is Strange has one of the most powerful endings of any piece of media, beautiful, dark and thought provoking. Truly not only the best game of this year but one of the most important stories told in gaming history. Please check this game out, it deserves your time. I will write my full thoughts tomorrow.

Indie Game Recommendation: Downwell

Downwell is a brilliant and admittedly addictive 2d platform shooter from Devolver Digital. The spin being that your character is constantly falling down a well while fending off different types of enemies. There are multiple stages including an underwater one - each with new obstacles and enemies. As standard there are end of level upgrades aswell as shops in the middle of levels. It's definitely not an easy game but one in which you could easily spend hours trying to get further down the seemingly never ending well. Once you die you have to restart back from the top but you do unlock permanent things - new graphic filters and different characters. Give it a look it's currently available on Steam and the App Store for IOS.

A week in preview

Sophie's choice 

So it's getting to the period of time when the big gaming season starts and this week is home to one of the biggest annual game launches - Assassins Creed Syndicate. Another year means another tedious jog through a bug ridden cess pool of historic importance, this time being the long berated Victorian London setting that people were clambering for oh....about 5 years now. Perhaps I'm wrong though, there's a chance that Ubisoft learnt from the abysmal mess of AC: Unity last year. Let's not forget the unforgivable bugs and stability along with the cringeworthy plot and repetitious missions - of which it feels like we've been playing the same ones since AC 2. Initial impressions of Syndicate haven't been comforting but I'll be sure to give my thoughts when I pick it on its release this coming Friday - October 27.

Looking back: Alan Wake - Part One

Alan Wake glanced at the review and scoffed, "pretentious critics"

It's Been over 5 years since Alan Wake was released and around 10 since it was announced. This shocks me, as Alan Wake hasn't been out shadowed since then, it's writing is still better than most and it's use of episodic narrative has been embraced by many others but still not been outdone. I recently went back to Bright Falls, fearing how the game has aged, but it hasn't. It's hyperbole I know, to say Alan Wake was ahead of its time seems crazy but if it was released now, I have no doubts it would of done better.

The lost history of: Victor Sullivian

~ Warning, Satire ahead ~

Victor Sullivan or 'Sully' to his close friends has gained the reputation of discovering several important archeological finds with his 'protege' Nathan Drake, self claimed descendant of Sir Francis Drake. But who was Victor before he got into the merky business and took on Drake?

Thoughts on Uncharted: Drakes Fortune - Remastered

Charting already charted waters

Uncharted Drakes Fortune ah memories...... Of blinding rage. Ok exaggeration but out of the three games the first is the most forgettable and frustrating. You know something's off when you get stuck at the exact same points you did years ago when first playing a game. I'm not even really talking about dying over and over again, the bigger issue was always figuring out where on earth you were supposed to run, jump, climb or drop next. It's a problem that's instantly remedied when starting up the second game but to call the way-pointing in the first game sketchy is putting it mildly. One thing (among others) that all three Uncharted games get wrong is the ending, adhering to the gaming tactic of ramping up difficulty by throwing swarms of bullet sponge enemies at you. Which results in the game arriving at the ending with all the enthusiasm of a teenager doing well.... Anything.

Story holds up as well as can be though, biggest strengths being dialogue and characters. The actual plot isn't exactly a Shakespeare drama (take that as a insult), with about all the subtlety of a bomb going off in a church during silent prayer. Someone dies but they don't really, someone's double crossed you, now they haven't, treasure is cursed and it goes on, this structure can actual be applied to all three games to varying degrees. Nate is still charming and never fails to quip about slaughtering an entire nation of people but that's what's endearing, it doesn't take itself too seriously. The acting and writing still shows up most modern released games, it's what NaughtyDog excel at most and it's only got better with time. Elena and Victor 'goddamn' Sullivan are a joy to be around as characters, every scene being uplifted by their presence. The sense of real back and forth and what would be considered as on stage chemistry is what makes the trio the most standout achievement across all the Uncharted games, I've no doubt the same will be said about A thief's end next year. Play it for the story but the real gold in terms of pacing and cinematic set pieces lie in the two follow up sequels.