Simon Says...

...The Division is out.

Sorry, I'm late writing this... ...The Division is out. That's my excuse.

It's awesome. That's my review. Bye.

OK OK... ...Fine...

 At first, I thought it might be shit, it started playing like World of Wankcraft had a new skin pack, but as I unraveled the plot to the main stage of NYC within 10 minutes I was hooked and well... 30 hours in under a week, with a full time job, 2 kids and moving house in the background must say something about how much fun we've been having playing this. It's brilliant, graphics are phenomenal despite being simultaneously disappointing as what was promised in 2013 was no where near delivered upon - but hey, you know when everyone cheered as the character closed the car door taking cover, well, they left that in, on like, every fucking car in New York. It's beyond an achievement in programming and now a parody, game defining gimmick now. But as gripes go - that's weak.

The gameplay, solo or co-op/PvP, is exhilarating, challenging, never-dull, grinding, loot collecting, action packed, tactical, competitive, enjoyable, and varied to use but a few adjectives. Arguably it is a grind-fest for that loot, but honestly, I've played far worse, loot is vast, varied, and continually being dropped by the enemies. You never feel underwhelmed at any level, and always excited to find some new gun, or boost a new stat in a very complex system of attachments, perks, talents, skills, equipment, weapons and finally clothing.

Fucking flamethrowers...

That's a statement I've shouted, as has GG George, more than once while playing through - the enemies are occasionally equipped with a vast array of flammenwerfers that werf flammen all over your face. It's a pain in the ass. They're massively over powered. This is where we learned the importance of teamwork, and having a fuck-off-big-powerful-long-range rifle/DMR/Sniper or two. Range and silencers are a great help (ProTip™).

I'd been waiting for this release since the 2013 E3 announcements and first views, as a gamer that has bought literally every game with the late Tom Clancy's name on, it was exciting to see a new splinter in the cell of sequels. Rainbow 6 Siege was disappointing and repetitive after 10 hours of desperately bad netcode headshots and instant death scenarios in PVP. So a new attempt, a new plot, a new project, and seeing it be made with such attention to detail and the patience to postpone deadlines with wise decisions to cut back on graphical ambition in favour of making a stable release (which after some reported but inexperienced technical hitches in the servers) it has been 100% perfect for me (other than it's default resolution on first launch being a 2.5k set up - that i wasn't ready to support but easily fixed)

Right I'm keeping this short as I don't want to waste any more time talking about it when I could be playing it, why are you even reading this, go and play it already!

Jamie Jabbers...

First up on my list this week is the next gen release of Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin edition. Now, the Souls games are probably deemed as the marmite of computer games, you either love them or hate them. I don’t think I know anyone who has been in the middle about them. I know from my personal experience, it took me a while to click with Dark Souls. I played the first one until I got frustrated, which wasn’t very long into it. Despite this, I got Dark Souls 2. This is where things clicked in place for me. No matter if you are an avid gamer who plays everything or a casual gamer who plays it safe and sticks to a certain genre. I urge everyone to at least try these games.




Even if you don’t know much about them, I’m sure you will have heard how challenging these games are. I can even imagine that this would be the reason people have thought twice about playing them. I just don’t see why that would be a reason not play this game. Surely you would be looking for a challenge? Especially, in this day and age when most games spend an overgenerous amount of time holding your hand through even the most basic of gaming mechanics. Dark Souls 2 does give you the choice to participate in a tutorial right at the beginning. You can run past these segments with your middle fingers held high in the air. Once you enter the main game however, those fingers will be jammed tightly up your ass by all manner of nasty monsters and creatures.

 Apart from the RPG heavy elements at work here and the awesome looking level design, there is an awful lot of lore you can read up on with every item you pick up and NPC you stumble across. The world of Drangleic - and the Souls universe in general - holds more than meets the eye. If you look out there, you can find many a theory surrounding the history and characters in this game alone.

You Died - A lot. From a big axe.

Just play this game, that’s all I’m going to say now. Even if you don’t feel it’s your cup of tea after trying it, at least you have tried it. I will still be very disappointed in you, though.With all that said, it is here I will stop and let you mull over these words. I will be back soon with more words on another game, I may even get round to review one for you. If not, I may just get drunk and try and play something. Although, I do not condone the use of alcohol to any extent, but I do think it can be a lot of fun.

Simon Says...

As you may or may not know about me, I work in IT. In a small office, for a big company, in North Wales. So when I get home from that small slice of hell, I like to unwind, take my mind off the fact that I have to go back tomorrow and if I can get away with it, play an hour or two of a game.

So in order to escape being trapped in a small dark place looking at fluorescent screens, I go home, trap myself in a room with 3 24" glowing behemoth screens, and play a game called: LIFE IN BUNKER. A game about having to live in a dark, small, underground bunker.

Life imitates art then?

The game is like a more complete version of Fallout Shelter, in an artistic 3d view with rotating camera controls and third person god view - standard RTS so far. The game has clearly taken some inspiration from Minecraft too, as you send your first workers out to dig away at the soft rocks in the hopes of finding a resource plot to start mining.

It all seemed simple in the beginning. The game for me started without tutorials - I am a man, I don't need instructions - within a half hour I'd started working it out, assigning everyone suitable roles, sending them out digging and weirdly hoovering it up (yeah) and so on. I was on a roll and started wondering if the game was a bit too easy to be honest, the resources were there, mining and coming in nicely, the air clean, the earth quakes and molemen a minor inconvenience. I decided to triple speed it up to get some progress underway. That was my first mistake - Although a very practical tool once you know what you're doing, not a great idea for the beginner noob that hadn't been incubating the next generation or preparing for the crew that's working so well to suddenly reach retirement age - D'Oh.

Dropped your dinner? No problem for the Suck-o-matic 3000!

So my first bunker fast became an old peoples home, with no one left to manage the chores, fix the lights, the air con, or hoover up the dead (yeah, seriously). That was the learning curve for me. Next attempt I realised that I could process the raw materials I'd been harvesting a lot faster than I was before with multiple processors (I'm sure I could only have one first time...)

So far, not seen a single bug, the game play is fun, frantic at times and requires patience, it's multi tiered micro management and time management as you try to last 50 rotations before the vault doors open, generations live and die in the bunker, molemen turn up for a slapping match, engineers can also be janitors and everything can be cleaned up using the hoover - see mum, told you the hoover cleans up the dishes.

The art style is unique enough to stand out, but subtle enough to not be this games only gimmick, and the gameplay proves that hands down. One of the more fun indie titles I've been playing.

And that leads me on to title two in this short review, I found a sneaky copy of ClusterTruck - a pre alpha release I suspect, hugely under-finished, but mark my words, in the next year, it's set to be the next Goat Simulator. It's one of those games unlike anything else, to explain it to someone wouldn't do it justice. But here goes... You play a person (i think - you don't have a body yet) that starts atop a truck. The goal is in sight, reach that finish line and you proceed to level 2. Simple. Until the trucks start going mental and colliding with each other and the environment, your skills come into play here, jump, sprint, slow time - cause we can all do that right? The risk, the floor is lava basically (not literally)

It's in the menus that you'll be able to unlock more skills, like jet packs, ground dissolve etc, but sadly these weren't available for testing yet.

It's a short review as currently there's very little content to discuss, art style is very Unreal Engine 4 - beautifully lit, like painted objects, or blank white, no characters, vast white abyss, few mountains and a blocky white truck or 15 and you've got it all right now. Simplicity is a beautiful thing in my opinion, not every game has to look like The Witcher 3 - which personally I didn't enjoy as much as everyone else seemed to - not my thing I guess, but game of the year it wasn't in this gamers opinion, control system is still an abomination and the gui for managing everything leaves too much to be desired. Anyway, back on track, ClusterTruck - one to watch.

GG George

Piracy... I think it's safe to say in the world we live in today that the majority of people who own a PC have dipped their toes in the salty depths of piracy at some point in their lives. Whether it be a film, a game, an album or 2. But there was a time when Piracy was more taboo, and the punishment was far more severe. I mean times have changed, nowadays you get a disgruntled letter from your ISP, go back 150 years and you'd be hung in chains.

Anyway recently i've been watching Black Sails. I had heard of it before but never watched it and so was a bit of a latecomer to the series. After the first couple of episodes I was completely addicted and binge watched every series and episode up to present date. It's safe to say i'm thoroughly enjoying it. After the great binge I was chatting to Rich and said wouldn't it be great if there was a game where you could set sail in a ship in an mmo style format with a huge map and plunder till your hearts content. Well the very next day Naval Action was released on steam and Rich sent me the link. (Eerie I know) I bought us both a copy as the chub in my trousers said we need to play this......now!!!

So here I am a few weeks after release just doing a small write up about what i have found with this game, my experience, my opinions and so forth.

Naval Action is created by Game-Labs which if you haven't heard of are a studio based in Kiev who have also brought you the title Ultimate General. It's made up of staff who have previously worked on: Darthmod, World of Warplanes, World of Tanks, RaceRoom, IL2-Sturmovik, Metro and Stalker to name a few. 

Your first ship a Cutter (Great Britain) Small fast but built of paper...

Naval Action is an MMO which puts the player, as a captain of a ship, for a chosen nation, in the middle of the Caribbean. From here in the Open World you are free to explore, fight, trade, and craft. Depending on the Nation you chose to play as, you start at a different home port.
Nations you can play as:

• Britain
• France
• Spain
• United States
• Denmark
• Holland
• Sweden

I chose to place as Great Britain as I'm British and have always been keen on history and especially the history of the British Empire, and its navy around the time.


Each of those Dots are a Port, I think to sail from the top by South Carolina Down to Venezuela or Panama if you can navigate would take 4-5 hours. HUGE!!!

Now the rules are simple each nation has a home capital and depending on who you are fighting for, has a number of ports in regions of the Caribbean. The idea is to expand your nations reach across the seas which for the most part is done by capturing ports from other countries which opens up new resources and trading possibilities. Fighting for these nations has a great deal of camaraderie, if you see a fellow captains trade ship being hunted down by a group of enemy ships a quick type in your countries chat box and you'll see a mass of ships come together from miles around to help and repel the hunters. Everyone is willing to help each other due to the fact that 20 mins later it could be them being hunted down, and them asking for support.


 

 Cerberus 5th Rate Frigate Supporting a Trade ship under attack...

Now the game has a somewhat sinister side to it as well for example say a British Traders Brigg is in trouble its carrying precious cargo and it's being hunted by a French Renommee Frigate. The Frigate is fast the Traders Brigg although very fast itself just isn't going to out run the Renommee. So the Brigg crys for help, and you respond you're in the area and have nothing better to do, you're sailing a British Bellona Third Rate, ok you are no where near as fast as the Renommee but you out gun them by a huge amount, he doesn't pose a threat long as you keep him in your broadsides aim. 

So you fight, you sink the Renommee, you end up chatting to the Traders Brigg he accidently slips and tells you what hes carrying in his cargo hold and you decide, it would make a fitting reward for the work you just undertook. So you turn on the Traders Brigg which doesn't put up any fight, and you take the Cargo for yourself. So you've created a Blue on Blue encounter you've stolen what isnt yours, which now has lead to you becoming a Pirate. Now the Pirate rules are different in the sense that there arn't many. Pirates can fight other nations like the other nations can, they can also capture ports and expand the Pirates reach across the caribbean. But pirates can also fight other pirates, meaning the camaraderie isn't quite as clear cut as the main nations. So you have to be weary about who you make friends with as a pirate. 

Not so friendly Pirates chasing...

Once you've explored the starting location and home port of which ever nation you chose, you are going to want to start some missions and begin to get some XP to start leveling up. Now this is the kick in the teeth but it is a pain stakingly long ass grind. Which on average takes about 8 hours to go up one rank, yes 8 hours.....8. I mean in its defence there aren't many ranks, only 10 going from (as the British) Midshipman to Rear Admiral. It's not like CoD which has about 70 odd ranks so by the end you are Admiral Super Sayan General Commander Cheif XXIV. But I guess we've been spoilt with the likes of CoD in the sense where its a only a small XP grind and you get some more toys to play with. 

Now with every rank you go up you get more crew, more crew equals bigger ships. You can actually if you have the gold buy any ship you like at any rank at any point in the game so say i was Rank 1 a Midshipman i could go buy a 1st Rate Victory for like a Million Gold and set sail from Port Royal and see how far i get. The issue is the Victory needs 850 crew to be fully operational, The rank of Midshipman gives you a following of 40 men, which means it would take a life time to set sail, turn, reload canons. you'd be a sitting duck for anyone who can see that a midshipman can't captain a Victory. You would be quickly boarded and have your Victory taken from you, there would be tears. and nothing you could do to stop it.

Once you have done a few missions on your own, try to make some friends and try and get a small fleet working together doing missions together takes the grind away and is much more fun playing with friends than on your own, the game forces you to try and make friends after 3-4 ranks or so by taking away your AI fleet which will help you on the early missions till you find your sea legs

Team work equals Pirate Sandwiches...Om Nom Nom...

 I carried on, on my own but found it really difficult to do the later missions when there's multiple ships to fight at the same rank as you, forces you to team up and fight together.

Two Clans coming together to support each other repelling a Pirate assault.

If you join a clan they really open the game up for you and truly unlock the potential of Naval Action and that's when the game really comes to life. Similar to how EVE works its OK on your own but if you can make friends get in a group then eventually join a clan the game all of a sudden opens right up and you can see all the possibilities, enabling you to join clan wars where 60 ships can meet and go head to head for territory gain or defense.


 

 Renommee 5th Rate Frigate using its speed to get out of trouble...

Anyway I'm going to sum this up. Love the game, love the potential as this is still alpha, word on the grape vine is they will be bringing in diplomacy soon which hopefully will have an awesome twist to how the nations are ran by the bigger clans and also on a smaller individual scale. Love the graphics, the sounds, the attention to detail on the ships, love the camaraderie of the players. what i don't love so much, the XP grind can be a bitch, try and play with friends takes the sting off of it. It has its occasional bugs but its an alpha. The game has zero official help or manual or how to get started guide what so ever, so relies on the community to provide that for you, YouTube, Unofficial wiki's and of course ask in game on the help chat group. Other than that, I'm loving it. thoroughly worth the investment if you like EVE style MMO's or fancy being Charles Vane.
Bye for now
George...Something... Something... Something...