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...

Simon Says...

There comes a time when a man plays a game and realises it's just not that good. Sadly these days, it comes too often for my liking. Like a grandparent that can't take the hint that you don't like spending Saturdays in the living room discussing the war. That's right, I'm back, the grumpy old bastard mode is fully engaged again. Hoo-fuckin'-rah.

So... ...you know the question... ...What's got me mad this week?

To be honest, I'm not that mad about it, just disappointed. Maybe I'm getting soft, or maybe games are getting better. With less and less AAA releases happening as development now takes 1 millenia to produce a hashed sequel to a game that barely scraped a 'good' the first time it was spunked onto the market, the way forward is opening up nicely for Indies, and, they're really coming up with some of the best games I've played since the 16bit era. But with every greenlighted kickstarter early access pre beta alpha release title - they can't all be brilliant.

Spoiler Alert: I thought it was SUPER SHIT

This is something i've brought up before, I'm pretty tired of playing a gimmick - that has bags of potential, but never ever gets used or developed again. EG Enviromental Destruction in Red Faction 2 was incredible, but graphically poor - nothing has come close to being as useful in a game since, which is a shame. Arguable that BattleField 3/4 did but it still seems more of an animation than real time.

So, innovation is the indie dev's best weapon in my opinion and this week I tried out a game I'd seen around but never rushed to get, SUPER HOT. A title you'll get to hear a LOT if you play it. It's innovative, modern, crisp, indie, action-packed. So why didn't I like it. Well... ...It's not fun. There I said it. I feel better.

The game revolves around you controlling time with your movement, and spoon feeds you this idea slowly but with a defined and underlined point to make - it isn't easy. Time stops completely unless you move, reload, shoot, punch etc, now that's fun, it's like Max Payne bullet time but also like video editing a puzzle. You work out the best way to fight, kill, disarm red man shaped crystal people and dodge bullets and then once you clear the level, you get a real time action replay - but the whole time it shouts in your face SUPER HOT like a fucking excited facebook page. That pissed me off nearly as much as the replays; Now maybe it's how I played, but I doubt I was the only one who did this: The replay - it's not fluid movement like some John Woo action scene where doves fly out my butt as I flying kicked a guys gun into another guys dickhole to kill them both with their own chins. It's a jittery movement filled stylized nightmare as i slowly edged my way around the colourless environments trying to ensure i didn't miss a magic pop-up asshole ready to kill me in a number of ways.

Also, i mentioned it's a puzzler. But it cheats. It changes the fucking puzzle. In example, say I drop into a room, there are 3 men to kill - 2 have guns this attempt, and one a baseball bat. I kill the bat man (simple) and one of the gunmen, before being shot. (hey, it was my first go!) well, attempt two may see me fight an unarmed man and two guys with bats - always in the same place, but no guns changes things a lot and that ruined the puzzle solving - trial and error isn't necessarily the best way forward - which is silly for a game that clearly runs on the mechanic of LIVE DIE REPEAT in order to progress.

How I wanted to treat my monitors after the 156th SUPER HOT was yelled into my face...

The next thing that ruined my life this week was the less than innovative 'you're a person sat at a computer' theme, that's right, you don't start Super Hot in the action, you start with a DOS style screen, and you're some kind of hackerman at the keyboard... This is a common occurrence these days, third partying you from the action - see assassins creed for example.

I don't like it, it's fine to style the start screen as a DOS environment, but leave it there, all the flashing screen glitches just gave me a headache and likely a tumour. It wasn't needed and did nothing to further the plot of the game. Try it to understand.

Overall, it's very polished, very playable, but really didn't do it for me, it's action packed, but broken down into a jittery mess in the replays (and no, it's not graphical its the replay of me moving 1/5 of a step at a time to budge that time forward a few inches) and the overall gameplay kept my attention for about 5 levels before i realised it's hardwork for no reward. I wasn't gripped, my shit was gripped so for that, it gets a thumb down from me. That's better, grumpy me. It's good to be back.

Who dares to let me play their game next then...

Jamie Jabbers...

Nostalgia. Apart from it being one of my favourite words because of how it rolls off the tongue, it is a very powerful jumble of letters. A mere mention of this word alone evokes such strong feelings - in myself, at least – of times long ago. A word that only conjures the positive from the past, or, at least the stuff I can laugh about now, whilst cringing to the max and thinking “What the fuck was wrong with me?” 

I read somewhere that when you think of a memory, you aren’t actually thinking about that specific memory first-hand, instead you are remembering the last time you remembered that memory. What the fuck, right? That’s some heavy shit right there. I know what you’re thinking, though; “I only came here to read about games, you fucking fiend.” Well, slow down a second. I’m getting there, I promise.

When sitting and reminiscing of times gone by, a large portion of these memories are just certain scenes played out. I may not remember what colour t-shirt I was wearing when I was flung into the local docks, but I remember the look on my mate’s face as I went slowly over the edge; my hands clawing at the ground to find something to grasp onto, and stop the inevitable soaking which was almost upon me. At the time, it wasn’t so funny. Now though, it does bring a smirk to my face. 

So, now I come to the point of this ramble. I just can’t get my head around how after all these years I can recall something totally insignificant as where I was when I first played Silent Hill. I remember where and how I was sat. I remember the colour of my bedsheets. I remember what time of day it was. I can hardly remember my cash card pin number at times, but I can tell you what day of the week it was as well; Thursday. Why the fuck do I remember that? How is that useless information going to help me when the waters rise and the earth crumbles? I need survival tips lodged in my brain, not days of the week I played video games. 

"Got a light?" - Zombie Jamie (Jambie?)

I think it is a perfect reminder of just how much an impact gaming has had on me my whole life. It is a part of me. It’s who I am. Gaming is in my blood. I have always played games for as long as I can physically remember. It all started with my first console, which was a Sega Mega Drive, and my first favourite game being Sonic the Hedgehog. That blue, spikey ball of a bastard made me who I am now. He made me crave playing computer games more and more. So, with each year that passed, my experiences with games became more extensive and profound. My taste in games has certainly changed since those days, but definitely not my love for the medium.

Along the way, there are some absolute belters that I will never forget; I don’t think it’s necessary to name them for you, but I will anyway because you don’t control me! Final Fantasy 7, Abe’s Odyssey, Tekken 3, Driver and Resident Evil to name a few. Yet, with the constant iterations, sequels, reboots and remakes, it’s like these games never fell down the back of the sofa of time. Some might say we’re spoilt. I would say that’s a bit fucking far to go.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved these games. I love the fact they are preserved in the filing cabinet marked “Awesome shit” somewhere in my thoughts. However, I’m sure a lot of games I consider gold from years ago would probably fold under the pressure of even the mediocre games of present; like a hugely obese person’s deckchair. I know I can be into some God awful shit sometimes, but then I know I am also a lover of the classics. Going back to my list now, let’s talk about Resident Evil. That game – along with the many sequels – is one of the best games I have ever played (apart from RE6, of course). I am a huge fan of the zombie killing series. Now, going back on my point a bit, I really, really enjoyed the remake of Resident Evil on the Game Cube. Going back on my point even more, I really loved the remake of Resident Evil on the Xbox one. Resident Evil Remake HD. Wow. What a game.

I know I turned my nose up a few sentences ago, but I feel the first remake was a necessity. It is proof that games have always been great. For me and my generation - and those before who got into computer games at an early age – the original game was a big deal. It is the gaming equivalent of watching Star Wars for the first time in a cinema. I can imagine. I’m not that old. This game was a milestone, and the remake was just as good. They managed to turn it up to eleven and produce a game that stood up to modern originals. The graphics were beautiful. Each segment of the game dripped with atmosphere. The eerily perfect musical score kept me on the edge of my seat as I turned each corner, embracing a grisly end. Imagine if you will, to my horror, I found myself thinking Resident Evil 0 HD should never have risen from the dead.

I’m afraid, as good as this was back on the old Cube of Game, there is not a lot here that makes this a logical choice for remaking. Obviously, the graphics won’t make as big a leap as REmake compared to its original counterpart, but I found it hard to see much of a difference here. The cut scenes are quite laughable; Rebecca Chambers’ face resembling that of a jacket potato stuffed with dog turds and cigarette ends. Her dead, droopy-eyed stare as she speaks to fellow protagonist – and anti-hero – Billy Coen is really a sight to behold. It just happens to be the wrong kind of sight. It’s scary for other reasons.

I though HD stood for High Definition...

The gameplay is exactly the same. However, if you want to play without the old school tanked controls, you can now just use the joystick to run around freely. This isn’t a saving grace though. Many a time I got caught in a horrific back and forth of camera angles, where I would be running in one direction but as soon as I left one angle, I would be running the opposite fucking way and end up back in the previous camera angle. Not good when you are in a combat situation. Not really good for the game, full stop. I heartily endorse the original control set up. Don’t change it. You will regret it.

Apart from the new included Wesker mode which you unlock on completing the game, there is nothing much else to tell you. Even that mode is just the campaign, but you play as everyone’s favourite bastard, Albert Wesker. He even has a cool super ability where you can Force push(?!) enemies back. I think they may also explode(?!) I don’t really know. I haven’t unlocked that mode yet. To be honest, I don’t think I will, either.

It is a real shame, because I remember that game being really good. I mean, it is a really good game, it’s just not a good enough game to bring out on modern consoles and expect people to pay for it. This really is a prime example of how an old game should have been left behind. If you want to play it, I’m sure you could grab a second hand copy for the Game Cube – along with the console – for peanuts in comparison. At least that way you would have gone the whole hog and be classed as proper old school. Hell, that would be awesome. I kinda want to do that now. More than likely, I won’t. I’ll just think about when I had it. That can be just as good. Right? Right?!

Simon Says...

It has been a long while since I've found time to get involved in a game with any real interest, life has taken priority as it usually does sooner or later. But I got gripped by a game I'd heard nothing about recently, and what a pleasant and familiarly warm feeling it left with me. A game, that if I'd read about, I'd have probably turned my nose up at - it's indie, it's arty and it's 'an experience' - ie It isn't Marcus Fenix fucking shit up for 8 hours with an explosive chainsaw machinegun on fire in a vat of blood and guts...

The game in question is Firewatch. Made by Campo Santo, self proclaimed as "A small but scrappy video game studio in San Francisco". And boy are they, they've come out of nowhere (queue John Cena) with a banger of a game. Striking art style and performances from voice actors accompanying a fantastic story...

Hey, are those Crows?

...Yeah ok, you're wondering when I'm gonna get to the bit I don't like... ...Well, keep wondering, because this game blew me away.

Honestly, I've not even finished it yet, and I've purposely chosen to write this piece mid play - it's not a long game I don't think, and could be finished in a single sitting if you're into longer movies. I'd estimate 3-4 hours and i'm a good 2 hours in.

So what's it all about?

You begin with a text based story, portrayed over beautiful imagery and colours settings moods and tones, you make open choices that result in frankly I think the same outcome either which way, but it grips you instantly, the plot is compelling without wanting to give too much away, you're a man, you meet a wife, you have a happy life together, you make choices and have hurdles, like you would anyway. Then something happens, it results in you wanting to escape life and move to the middle of buttfuck nowhere (we've all been there right? - says the guy that moved to buttfuck nowhere this year). This is where the gameplay begins, and the visuals step the fuck up to the plate, and finish their dinner before hitting a home run. The graphics I can only describe as the pixar story boards coming to life in an interactive and exciting first person view. Gorgeous forest landscapes with photo worthy sunsets, waterfalls, and weather.

Your mission? Live in a Firewatch Tower, alone. Sounds shit? I guess it would be a bit... ...but you have a single point of contact - a radio - an intrinsic part of the gameplay, and your only plot device in an otherwise tranquil get away to beauty.

I won't discuss the plot beyond this as this game is very much an experience, imagine trying to explain Forest Gump to people without telling them what happens throughout the film, and basically you have a retard on a bench waiting for a bus. It doesn't do it justice, and that's what I'd struggle to do.

Trying to find the closest Kebab House was the most realistic mission in the game for me

All I will say is that this game has been an amazingly pleasant experience, well worth the £19.99 on steam, available on PS4 and Xbone too and well worth a look, especially if you're not usually into these sort of games - it has action, suspense and a thriller plot to grip even the least interested gamers. A real quality piece that does the games industry a massive justice for once.

Here's hoping Campo Santo produce more as they certainly have a fan here.

*Due to the work going into producing this site, i've not had time to doodle this game this week, in fact, I'm late writing this piece - but i will doodle something and add it in later!*

Jamie Jabbers...

The New Year is well underway and…no longer is it that new. In fact, it’s old year now. I swear it’s been 2016 for as long as I can remember. We are almost at the end of February, so we might as well call it on 2016 and go straight to 2017. Before you know it, we’ll all be getting ready for Christmas again anyway (one holiday everyone at 3 Crows can’t get enough of, obviously). So, whilst I sit alone, humming Christmas carols to myself and making my list for the obese old man who leaves me presents, it hits me that there is not enough love for me from anyone, to buy me all the games that I want this year.

There are some I am not desperate for; Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 could be struck off the list, for now. I don’t really want to part with over half of £100 for Farcry Primal, even though I know deep down in my irregularly beating heart, I will hand over the moola for it at some point in the near future. I’m not even that hyped about Final Fantasy 15 at the moment either. I would get it if I had some spare cash lying around, but I don’t. To be honest, if I did have a pile of cash just lying around, I would have already spent it on other games. One of those games would have been The Division. In fact, I will be buying The Division.

Since hearing about – and seeing footage from – The Division, I have been slightly intrigued, but mostly skeptical. I remember thinking that I had been burned before by Ubisoft and its tendency to exaggerate their games. I have also learned from taking in their constant iterations of sequels that the apple never falls too far from the tree. As mentioned already, Farcry Primal is out on 23rd February, and I can’t imagine there is too much to differentiate it from previous Farcry games. Apart from the setting and the characters, the running themes of taking over enemy camps, collecting textual tidbits and upgrading your ammo pouches by killing 75 and ½ wild boars will more than likely be there.

The first thing this game has going for it is that it isn’t a sequel.  Thank whichever entity you so desire for that.  On the surface, that does seem to be all it has going for it, but underneath the shiny good looks is actually a pretty cool game. For starters, the game play itself feels beefy and hard hitting. The gunplay feels nicely balanced between different weapons and is slightly reminiscent to Destiny. Except there seems to be more to it than just being a nice shooter. Unlike Destiny, this game has more than just a minute modicum of storyline holding together some fancy fighting. Sorry, I’ll stop picking on Destiny. For now.

Moving back to The Division, what I took from the beta story wise is that your character is a cog in a very big mechanism working towards bringing society back. I am unsure as to whether or not what caused society to crumble has been disclosed yet, but I can say it seems to have been some sort of epidemic. The streets are littered with contaminated waste. Certain areas warrant the use of masks to filter out whatever crap is still lingering in the air. Another question I don’t know the answer to is whether or not the situation is on a global scale. One thing I am sure of, however, is I am very interested to find out what the hell is going on.

Another issue which was put to rest was regarding the multiplayer aspect of the game. Which seemed to be the whole game in general. The early footage and all information released very much seemed to be co-op driven, playing out each and every mission with a couple of buddies. You might be thinking why would that be a bad thing? You’re not wrong to think that, it’s my own fault that I am the only one out of the Crows who has an Xbone. Why didn’t I invest heavily in a proper PC so I could play with my fellow brethren. Why indeed? Well, I’m not answering that. I don’t need to because I managed to play through the beta solo, and I feel my experience was just as enjoyable as a group of people playing it would have felt. The story missions I was able to participate in never felt impossible to complete on my own. There was a nice level of challenge I met on my lonesome, and it certainly felt like as the game progresses deeper into the story – and my personal character will develop – the more of an exciting challenge will await. Not one that forces you to buddy up with strangers to complete.

The one aspect of The Division where I did encounter other real players was the Dead Zone. Not the Stephen King novel, but an area of the map which acted as a No Man’s land of sorts. Once you enter, if you don’t have a chum to cover your back, you are very much prey to anyone, and anything moving. There is better loot to collect, but with that there are stronger NPC’s to take down first. As well as your character levelling up to unlock new skills, you have a separate levelling up system connected to the Dead Zone, which allows you to unlock better loot from shady dealers and lock boxes scattered around this specific area. Just make sure that you are ready to play amongst all kinds of villainy and scum within this hive. Ever play Grand Theft Auto 5 Online? Those types of assholes will flock to this place like flies around shit, I’m sure. You could argue that the Dead Zone is there for this very reason. You take away the risk from the core game, and fence it in to create a nice challenge to acquire some special loot. I mean, it’s not like the game is forcing you to go in there and mingle with the trigger-happy tossers.

The Assault on Snoop Dogg's House was a particular highlight for me - Si Tye

Besides the main missions - and the Dead Zone – there seems to be an awful lot of side stuff to keep yourself occupied with. Once a base of operations had been established at the beginning of the beta, several branching missions were unlocked, leading to the expansion of the building, in terms of aid and fortification within the city. The sheer volume of content unavailable at the time of the beta is quite overwhelming, and promising. I know quantity doesn’t always mean quality, but I am very excited at what this game is teasing us with at the moment.

I will stop there, as when I do buy the game and play it for an insane number of hours, I will probably write a bit more. Hopefully  I will sing its praises some more and entice you all to part with your money to experience its achievements. Either that, or I will strike Ubisoft games from my Christmas lists for many years to come. March 8th can’t come soon enough. I guess I’ll play some more Resident Evil 0 HD. You never know, I might tell you all about it(Spoiler: I will).