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Lastly, a quick not about performance. I ran Stairs on a GTX 980 with an FX-8350 and 8GB memory and it seemed to blitz it. RAM usage was quite heavy but in terms of GPU and CPU, it ran fantastically without any drops. Those with high-end monitors might be disappointed to know Stairs is capped at 60fps even with Vsycn disabled, but it's not the sort of game to capitalise on blistering performance.
They're good at telling stories, these Frictional guys. They're good at building tension, and at using audio cues to stimulate fear. But in the end, I was put off by the inconvenient monsters. When fear is replaced by impatience, something is lost. This is something that Alien Isolation had very occasionally, and that completely ruined the 1999 PC game Aliens vs. Predator. When the monsters become a nuisance, and you're more worried about them for holding up your progress into the main plot than really terrifying you, it's hard to stay really scared.
Overall I'd have to say Train Valley is one of the more enjoyable puzzle games in recent years, combining logical thought with time management, all at a pseudo-relaxing pace.
It's these moment-to-moment planning decisions that really make Satellite Reign a game to recommend and to remember. Eventually, when you've researched the top-flight weapons and your soldier can stand toe-to-toe with entire squads while your hacker turns turrets against the security forces and the infiltrator moves unseen through swarms of alerted guards, you'll get the feeling that nothing can stand against you, and that you've earned every single ounce of your power. But in the early days, while you're scrambling to stay hidden from Dracogenics' henchmen, making the call to pull out with nothing more than a little more intelligence on the layout of an enemy compound to lick your wounds and rethink strategy for the next assault, something really special is happening. Strategy, being formulated in real-time. A surprisingly rare event for a real-time strategy game.
There's nothing inherently wrong with Mad Max, it just doesn't excel in enough areas to really stand out from the crowd. The cost-per-hour brigade will find plenty to love I'm sure; Avalanche have created a game where there's tons to do, but Mad Max is open-world by numbers, following the Ubisoft template too rigidly for comfort. Shadow of Mordor has already filled the hole Mad Max is trying to occupy, and for Mad Max to really succeed it had to bring something new to the table, which it emphatically hasn't. If you're still not tired of the collect-em-all open-world formula then you'll definitely get a kick out of Mad Max, but for the rest of us it feels like an opportunity wasted beyond the first few, sweet, hours.
Just like the previous two games, Shadowrun: Hong Kong has stayed with me when I'm not playing it. The flawed, moody characters and the clever use of Asian magical traditions got into my head, and when it finished, I missed all of the main characters. It takes a pretty cool game to do that. For that intensity and depth to be maintained over a series of three games is pretty remarkable.
There's so much to say about Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, but it's a sprawling, evolving experience that it's best learnt first hand. So many elements are at play at any one time and I've only just scratched the surface of what it is capable of in this review. The number of unlocks is staggering and your play-style will drift over the 60 or so hours it takes to plough through this, offering one of the densest and most rewarding games of the year. It's already shaping up to a titanic battle for game of the year.
At the end of the day, this reminded me a great deal of Telltale's Tales of Monkey Island series of recent years. It's a modern take on a classic genre, heavily capitalising on a famous name and rich in character and humour, but ultimately built on a straightforward foundation short on real innovation or beauty. Still, it's been a while since we've seen a lot of these adventures, and this is the first chapter of five. The main characters are endearing enough that after a couple of chapters they might be able to carry the games more or less on their own merits, but less in the way of un-skippable animations (some of which you'll need to sit through a lot) and mid-game ambling would go a long way toward warming me up when the subsequent chapters arrive.
To that end, The Swindle is a usually enjoyable jaunt that's equal parts familiar and refreshing. It's by no means an easy game. The 100-day time limit can prove a huge frustration, but it does succeed in adding a significant portion of tension. Like anything irritating you'll eventually feel the urge to hit back - what's critical is whether that's enough for you to close the game forever, or the impetus you need for just one more shot.
I have little hesitation in suggesting Life is Strange will be a narrative adventure masterpiece when it concludes with part five - bar a horrific final episode. The way in which DONTNOD has blended teen drama with sci-fi craziness and more than a hint of Twin Peaks is to be commended. It's certainly not something I wholly expected after Episode 1, and it feels like a genuine journey. By the time the credits rolled on Dark Room I knew I'd just played something outstanding, and it only makes the wait for conclusion even harder.
It's a crying shame that's a fantastic racing experience lurking beneath this shell of a game. There's an undiluted thrill to racing at 200mph; it's intense, nerve-shredding work, demanding damn near perfection from avid racers. Codemasters normally has an excellent track record when it comes to feature sets, which makes it even frustrating when it feels like we aren't getting the whole package. Having waited patiently for that generational leap, my advice to you would be wait for the no-doubt feature-packed version next year. That is unless you're a die-hard fan keen for those roster updates, at which point you've likely sold yourself on F1 2015 regardless.
In theory Hatred could have been great but lacklustre development gets it thrown into a pit of mediocrity. It joins a stack of games I played once and never touched again, and that disappoints me on a personal level as I was hoping for so much more.
There's not a lot to separate Magicka 2 from its hallowed predecessor. But give it time. Paradox aren't ones to sit idly by, particularly when it's as popular a series as Magicka. And besides, as throwaway party-style fun with a deceptively complex core, it's a tried and tested formula. Like death-death-shield.
Despite those problems however, Lego Jurassic World is undoubtedly one of the stronger games in the series. There's far less needless time-wasting compared to Lego: The Hobbit's dull crafting, and the levels themselves can be great playthroughs. It draws on the greatest hits of Jurassic Park, and while your love of the franchise will determine your love of the game in the end, gamers with a soft spot for plastic dinosaurs would do well to give this a shot.
Inside the ring WWE 2K15 is fantastic. Outside the ring there's just enough flaws to turn some fans away. In essence this is all about creating your own fun, so the greater your love of WWE the more you're going to get out of it.
I'm still far from the end. I will check in with further thoughts as I progress, but at this point I can unhesitatingly recommend the Witcher III as yet another on the crammed top shelf of excellent RPGs we've seen in the past 18 months. Buy it, buy it, buy it.
Wadjet Eye has put out yet another classic sci-fi adventure game, packed with entertaining characters, thoughtful and original puzzles and plenty of nostalgic goodness. If you're the least bit interested in point n' click or sci-fi, Technobabylon is well worth a punt - and don't forget to check out earlier titles such as Gemini Rue and Primordia if they passed you by before.
What you're getting here is exactly what returning players will expect, a 6-hour or so prequel to Wolfenstein: The New Order, with exactly the same flow, tomfoolery, and smile-inducing shootouts you've come to expect. What is missing is that aforementioned heart. During its brief length there's never enough time to feel attached to any characters, and MachineGames has clearly focused on a more gameplay-oriented approach. To that end it can feel like a hollow experience, and The Old Blood is certainly far more throwaway than its fleshed-out forefather. If you haven't played Wolfenstein: The New Order yet then I don't hesitate in recommended you check that out first, before moving on to The Old Blood if you're still craving more Nazi-baiting gung-ho action.
In conclusion this game is more of the same and a tiny bit more. It wouldn't be fair to assess The Consequence on it's individual elements because it's not meant to enjoyed without having played through the first half. Ultimately it's a pedal-to-the-metal conclusion which wraps up the loose ends, but survival horror fans may be left wanting by its action-lite stylings.
At the end of the day, there are a few good ideas in what is obviously supposed to be a multiplayer-focused RTS, but there's just a lack of anything really imaginative, anything we've not seen before.