Dying Light: First Impressions

If I had to describe Dying Light in a few words, I’d have to describe it as Dead Island: Adult edition. From the limited time that I have managed to put into Dying Light I have found it to be, in terms of survival horror, everything Dead Island should have been.

In Dead Island i never really felt any sort of real threat from the zombies. I could run, or walk, at my own pace without fear of being injured, really. Whereas in Dying Light, in most areas outside, i find that i need to constantly check my surroundings. What aids Dying Light in the regard is the way in which the city is constructed. The city is mostly close quarters and i would describe it as favela-esque. This gives you less space to manoeuvre, as well as several hidden directions for zombies to approach from. Dead Island, however, was very very open, and when you add in the option of vehicles, the threat of the zombies becomes almost nonexistent.

The story of Dying Light really is no better, or worse, than Dead Island, but it seems that there are only a limited number of angles you can approach zombie apocalypse from. However, Dying Light does seem to actively emphasis the ‘survival horror’ aspect a bit more than Dead Island. Dying Light is not ‘true’ survival horror in that you are never at risk of losing all your items as you would be in something like Fallout, however the zombies that appear at night are very powerful, and thus makes venturing out a night something of a risky business.

So far, I am enjoying the game very much. There are a lot of areas that it falls down in, mostly based around the story, but for the sake of gameplay and enjoyment it’s as good as, if not better, than the similarly handling games out at the moment such as Far Cry, which I can only see as a positive.

Conor M.

The stagnation of annual games and why it should encourage innovation

So, here is a hypothetical. Your name is James. You own one of the two current generation consoles. What two games are you likely to own? If you’re from the UK chances are it’s Call of Duty and Fifa, If you’re from USA chances are it’s Call of Duty and Madden, and if you’re from, erm, Canada? I guess? It’s probably NHL. Regardless, the point is that you can typically guess the games that the majority of people own on console because they are the games released on yearly basis.

There are two things to take away from this. The first is that these are the games the make the most money and hence are more likely to be owned. The second thing is that these games are the most accessible in that they are sports games, and a cookie cutter FPS. They are very easy to pick up and enjoy immediately, thanks in no small part to the emphasis of multiplayer.

Because these games are accessible and hence quite formulaic in nature, it makes them difficult to reinvent on a yearly basis. Both games are approaching their graphical limit, the sports games specifically are close to adopting every aspect of their respective sports, and ultimately they are becoming predictable each in year. Most people will have recognised this and as many people will look at it with a negative outlook – these games and their approach to releases are stagnating creativity and enjoyment of games in general.

I however have a slightly more optimistic outlook. With every form of media and art we are faced with walls. These walls represent the limit of a certain approach, and rather than give up and accept this is as far as a medium can be taken, these walls are overcome.  In art in may represent a new movement being adopted, a new approach to the subject or form, and that is what i believe will happen with these mainstream games.  So rather than look at the abundance of annual games as the ‘dawn of the casual gamer’ or any other such overdramatic reaction, look at it instead as the precipice of innovation, where all games are adapting and making new. Who knows, it could lead to almost unthinkable prospect of BETTER GAMES!!

Conor M. 

Is Nintendo turning into Apple?

This may seems like a strange question at first glance. Apple doesn’t sell games; Nintendo doesn’t make computers, so how can they be seen as similar companies? The answer is simply in their use of marketing. Apple has been at the forefront of marketing for nearly 20 years now. The products that they create and the way in which they are announced has turned the likes of the IPod and Mac computers into more than just useful appliances, they are now collector’s items. The way Apple has done this, from a business standpoint, is astounding. With every new apple release there is a wave of anticipation that grips millions of people who then run out and buy the new product immediately. This allows apple to earn more money by releasing more frequently, regardless of whether the new product has significant improvements over the older model or not. From a consumers standpoint this is a very scummy way to do business but it is very profitable. For a company like Nintendo, who have struggled to keep pace in the video game systems market over the past decade, the adoption of this approach could see them beginning to make big profits once again, and it is my belief that Nintendo has indeed taken on this approach.

Nintendo recently announced the release of yet another iteration of the Nintendo 3DS, this one called, quite cleverly I might add, the NEW Nintendo 3DS. It’s the best naming decision i’ve seen since the Xbox One (the one that came after the 360). Anyway, it’s become increasingly obvious that Nintendo is releasing these handhelds more frequently and with fewer improvements (the last real improvement being the addition of 3D tech) which is in line with Apples approach to the Iphone:

·         1st gen: June 29, 2007

·         3G: July 11, 2008

·         3GS: June 19, 2009

·         4: June 24, 2010

·         4S: October 14, 2011

·         5: September 21, 2012

·         5C, 5S: September 20, 2013

·         6 / 6 Plus: September 19, 2014

·          

·         DS: 2004

·         DS Lite: 2006

·         DSi: 2008

·         DSi XL: 2009

·         3DS: 2011

·         3DS XL: 2012

·         2DS: 2013

·         NEW DS & XL: 2014

Another thing to consider with this comparison is how Nintendo is already talking about its next home console, despite the Wii U only being a few years old. This suggests to me that Nintendo may also be preparing to ramp up its home console releases. Furthermore, with regards to the Wii U, we can also look at the introduction of amiibos as the further commodification of Nintendos brand. The amiibos offer little in relation to games, and you really would only need one of them, but they are presented in a way that makes them collector’s items.

Over the decades that Nintendo has been around they have built up quite a lot of good faith with its loyal customers, and i wouldn’t call this emerging apple-esque approach as an exploitation of that, but i would look at it as Nintendo finally coming into the 21^st century and realising that they can’t rely on Mario forever to bring them a profit. I imagine that Nintendo will continue to show good faith towards its loyal fans for years to come regardless of how they start operating, so I’m fine with them trying to turn some more profit and catch up to Sony and Microsoft. Besides, everybody loves the underdog.

Conor M.

How Long Should A Video Game Be?

What is the appropriate length for a video game these days? How many hours of gameplay do we expect to make the £50 we paid worthwhile? Well, I bloody well hope that it is more than five – I’m looking at you The Order: 1886. Yes, the brand new PS4 exclusive is reported to be able to be completed in little over five hours, meaning you could play a multi-million dollar blockbuster game, from start to finish, on a slow Saturday afternoon.

So, with a laughably short single player campaign, and no multiplayer component to speak of, is The Order: 1886 worth its RRP? You could make the argument that it is a case of quality over quantity, and I agree that you shouldn’t overstuff your game unnecessarily just for the sake of it (Assassin’s Creed) but we are talking about FIVE HOURS OF GAMEPLAY!

Even, if you experienced some of the best video game storytelling and played in the awe of the, quite frankly, breathtaking graphics – do you honestly believe that makes The Order: 1886 worth the full asking price? You only need to look as far as video games like Skyrim and Grand Theft Auto, to find games that are fully worth the money we throw at them. I paid £40 for Skyrim in 2011 and, through multiple play-throughs, have probably sunk well over 300 hours in the world of Tamriel. THAT is value for money!

There is too much insistence and pressure on the graphical prowess and looks of video games these days that the studios back themselves into corners where they are shelling out way too much on lighting effects and resolution, and not enough on beefing up the game with actual gameplay. Even as video game prices steadily increase, we are seeing more and more games pop up with a pitiful play-through time. We aren’t endless wells of money to be taken advantage of, we want to get bang for our buck and really feel that our money has been well spent.

The Order: 1886 looks to have an interesting world but if I’m only going to get to spend 5 hours in there, I think I will keep my money to myself.

Alex A.

Digital Game Distribution: The Failing Frontier?

Ah yes, we truly live in a digital age. The music industry has managed to find its future in digital sales and itunes and spotify have been an integral part of that. The Film and TV industry has found a new lease of life in the form of Netflix and digital distribution. This is shown in how much money The Interview made from an initially solely digital release. Then we come to the gaming industry. The gaming industry along with all other media forms also has its places of digital distribution and has shown the same success as the music and film industries with the likes of Steam. More sales than you can shake a stick at and AAA games going for low low prices. That, however, is only half the story. With the gaming industry digital distribution has two sides – the PC side and the console side, and with the console side digital distribution cannot get off the starting blocks.

PC gaming has picked up in recent years with pre-built machines prices falling, and new individual parts becoming cheaper to buy. However, the vast majority of gamers remain on console, and for this reason it is baffling to see how digital distribution is being handled on console compared to PC with steam. The prices of new releases on console are astronomical. What would be a £40 game as a physical release can be anywhere from £55-60 as a digital download. Why?

It defies logic that a game, minus all the boxing and wrapping and shipping that is required with a physical copy can be £20 more expensive as a digital copy on console. The only reason i can come up with to explain this phenomenon is the ‘issue’ of pre owned games. The major game publishers feel they are losing money on games that are bought second hand and so must be trying to compensate for those sale by bumping up the digital prices for the games, which you are obviously not able to sell on.

But even with this explanation it doesn’t explain why PC doesn’t suffer the same burden of high priced digital games, especially on steam where it is quite easy to have a shared account used by as many people as you like with only one purchase recorded. Furthermore, music, TV and Film should also have this pre owned problem attributed to games, surely? There may be a lack of reasoning behind this bizarre phenomenon, but it does seem that having the appropriate digital platform such as Steam, Netflixs or itunes is key to providing better deals. Something that Xbox Store and Playstation store for whatever reason cannot provide. Only time will tell as to whether digital distribution of games on console will reach the heights and success of other distribution platforms.

Conor M.

Ps Plus Collection: Apotheon (February 2015)

Playstation Plus Collection is an ongoing series where I give my first impression of all of the games that are made available each month through Playstation plus. Typically, there are around four free games per month, and so one shall be covered each week. At the end of each month I shall give an overall verdict of the worth of Playstation plus for that particular month.

So what would we get if we combined the God of War style of Greek mythology (meaning, we’re off to kill Zeus) and the resurgent form of action side scrollers? Well, as it turns out, a pretty fun, unique, and rather entertaining game.

As I just mentioned Apotheon is an action side scroller, and there has been no shortage of these types of games as of late - Guacamelee and Scott Pilgrim being two that come to mind. With this type of game there are a number of things that are implicit to the gameplay - A gradual gathering of abilities, Rooms with require specific applications of these abilities to ‘beat’ the room, and optional quests or goals. Apotheon has all of these elements and does them just as good as any other side scroller. So what makes it stand out?

The feature that stands out the most in Apotheon is the aesthetic. Both Scott Pilgrim and Guacamelee too have unique aesthetics with their sprite and sharp edged styles respectively, but it is the bringing to life of the greek pottery style (think the start of the Disney Hercules film) which really brings the game to life. Some might see this style as quite jarring or even gimmicky, but i think it is engaging enough and unique enough to make it stand out in a genre of game that relys on the same principles.

Overall, I’d definitely recommend people pick up this game. As always with playstation plus it is free for subscription holders, so even if you’re not into the genre or the aesthetic or the controls or whatever of this game. You’d be foolish not to download it before the month’s end.

Conor M.

Ps Plus Collection: Secret Ponchos & Injustice: Gods Among Us

Playstation Plus Collection is an ongoing series where I give my first impression of all of the games that are made available each month through Playstation plus. Typically, there are around four free games per month, and so one shall be covered each week. At the end of each month I shall give an overall verdict of the worth of Playstation plus for that particular month.

This week I shall be bringing you a double header of Ps Plus Collection to finish the year off with a bang. Or rather, I could only get into one game of Secret Ponchos and Injustice is a humongous download size. Therefore I’m bringing you the both of them in the hope that I have enough content to tell you if these games, that I’ve barely played, are worth downloading.

Secret Poncho’s is a top down strictly multiplayer fighting game that comes with all of the standard multiplayer types that you’ll have come to expect in any online game – free for all, team deathmatch etc.  After waiting for approximately half an hour, the lobby that requires a total of 8 people finally filled up and I was thrown into a free-for-all match. Within the multiplayer you have numerous choices for weaponry, I chose to go with the gunslinger, and I found that my choice was probably the worst one, as people with whips quote literally whipped my ass.

The game itself is very stylistic, and for a PSN game i would have the say the graphics are very impressive. The game play is something that is unique to a console environment with it being top down and offers something new to the weary PSN traveller. But, and this is a big but, the game is dead. It is one of this month’s Playstation plus games which should put it in the spotlight, but alas it is not populated enough to work as a go to multiplayer. If you’ve got some a bunch of friends that want to try something different you could make this work, but otherwise I’d give this one a pass.

Now, Injustice: Gods Among Us is a DC multiverse orientated story driven fighting game, much like Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe except this game is a strictly DC game with a unique story that has even spawned a comic spin off. Although i have not played this game recently because the download size is far too big for my internet to deal with, I have played this game in the past and it is a very good game. The game itself functions around cut senses which push the story forward while also setting up two characters to fight in the typical side-to-side style at which point you take over.

The game has its own general fighting mode as well in case the story is getting in the way of the fighting for you, or if you just want to fight against a friend. The fighting system is on par with anything else out there at the moment whether that is Mortal Kombat or Tekken or whatever. It has all the typical traits of a fighting game with the added bonus of being DC. So you can naturally be Batman, Superman, Wonder woman along with all of the other well loved DC characters...and Aquaman. The story aspect may not be for everyone as it is based around a fighting game, but if fighting games and comics is what you’re into, this is a match made in heaven.

Conor M.

2015: Year of Games

2015 really does promise to be the biggest year of gaming that we’ve seen in recent times, but, unfortunately, it’s all for the wrong reasons, those reasons being that several games that were supposed to be 2014 releases have now been pushed to 2015.

I realise this is very distressing news, but it really has been a trend, delays that is, for some years now. If you can think back Watch Dogs was supposed to be a 2013 release but was pushed to 2014, although this is kind of a redundant example because Watch Dogs was pretty poor in the end. You made me wait, Ubisoft. You made me eagerly wait, and then I was disappointed. However, with the amount of big titles delayed this year, I’d have to say at least one of them will be worth the wait, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about waiting.

First off we have Batman: Arkham Knight delayed until 2015. This is probably the one game that I can deal with waiting for, not because im not interested in it, but because every time I feel like I’m starting to lose interest or forget the game even exists Rocksteady will drop another trailer and i lose my shit all over again...in a good way.

Then we have The Witcher 3 delayed until 2015. The Witcher 3 is probably the biggest game to be delayed until 2015, and i mean biggest in terms of scope, and even though we’ve been aware of this delay for a while now, I still can’t help feeling more and more anxious. It feels like watch dogs all over again. Wow, this game looks super ambitious...oh, its delayed...and again...and it turns out it was shit. I hope this feeling is wrong, and i can at least be safe in the knowledge that The Witcher 3 won’t regress to the point of ‘press X to hack’.

Finally, the last of what i would consider ‘big’ delays (that I’m aware of) is Uncharted 4 delayed until 2015...could even be 2016 to be honest. Now I’ll be honest here, Uncharted 4 never really was slated for a 2014 release, not officially anyway, but the fact that Naughty Dog kept dancing around when the game was coming out suggests to me they were trying to rush it out but it didn’t happen. The game now has a vague ‘2015’ release date, which means it could come in the third or fourth quarter of the year which honestly worries me it’ll slip into 2016.

There are a bunch of other games that are delayed too: Dying Light, Tom Clancy’s The Division, The Order: 1886, Battlefield Hardline, and Evolve, and it just goes to show the amount of AAA games 2015 will be receiving. It makes me think that the people that run the show at all these games studios are one of two things. 1) sadists or 2) terrible time planners who inadvertently end up cock teasing the public. Please, sort it out, a game on time every so often would be nice.

Conor M.

Dragon Age: Inquisition First Impressions

For me, nothing quite beats the feeling of getting truly immersed into a dense and beautiful fantasy RPG. A love that started with Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and continued through various incarnations, peaking with Skyrim, as I impatiently wait for the Witcher 3 to come out and since the gaming gods have chosen to delay Witcher until May, I have to get my fix another way.

Introducing Dragon Age: Inquisition, a game that had the misfortune to be released at the end of a ridiculously busy autumn schedule, falling by the way side with the likes of Assassins Creed and Far Cry eating up my November. I have always been a big fan of Dragon Age from it’s tactical combat to it’s richly detailed companions that you interact with – I was extremely excited to step back into the world of Thedas.

Once I played through the prologue and was set loose upon the world, the first thing that struck me was the astonishing freedom that had been gifted to me. Dragon Age games of the past had been closely linked linear paths so imagine my surprise when I started wandering through the Hinterlands, a huge expansive piece of land, as I collected plants, rocks and battled those pesky Templars. It is a welcome entry for the franchise but also means that any chance of getting this game finished soon went out the window, I spend WAY too much time picking flowers.

So, when I finally managed to drag myself from chasing butterflies, I had a bit of a natter with my fellow companions. And when I say natter, I mean flirt with as much as possible. The life of a prophet is a lonely one as I threw pick up lines at anyone who would listen, not really getting anything but a few slightly disapproving looks from Cassandra. My quest for love had led me to Dragon Age Inquisition’s minefield of a conversation tree.

A conversation tree that is no longer conveniently labeled, leaving me unguided and on my own as I offended Varic for the 10^th time when I was desperately trying to bro out. It is a fantastic system that brings a depth to talking to your companions (subordinates?), you have to treat every chat like a battle as you strategically traverse the conversation attempting to get what you want. Just like real life! Except in real like I’m not a badass mage revered by thousands. *Sigh*

The combat doesn’t deter too far from Dragon Age 2 except from the introduction of the Tactical Camera that lets you pause combat and assess the situation, allowing you to take down your enemies with precision and teamwork. I would LOVE to tell you I was using this new feature and intelligently taking down enemy groups without much fuss. I would LOVE to tell you that. However, my tactics were much more of the ‘charge in screaming, throwing spells at everyone, runaway and chug health potions’ sort. Each to their own, I suppose.

In my first 8 hours with Dragon Age: Inquisition, my only problem is that I don’t have more time to play and get totally immersed in this phenomenally detailed world that Bioware have created. I want to flesh out Cassandra’s back-story and tell Varic that his bare chest is making the other companions uncomfortable. In short, I can’t wait to explore every nook and cranny of Inquisition.

Alex A.

Do video games really need movie adaptations?

Do video games really need movie adaptations? It’s a simple enough question which you can give a simple enough answer: No. They don’t ‘need’ them, but do they actually do anything worthwhile? In other areas of art (Yes, I am including video games as a form of art) there is a lot of cross over in this regard, the most notable being novels adapted into films, Gone Girl being the most recent successful example of this. There is certainly success with book to film adaptations, and whether this taking from books is or isn’t a problem is something to discussed at a later time, but for now, the question is can there be success with video game film adaptations?

The recent precedent that has been set with Video Games adaptations isn’t promising. Who remembers Doom? You don’t? Then you’re one of the lucky ones, you didn’t have to see one of the most revolutionary and significant games get made into a laughable action film. It even had scenes where the shots were in first person POV as if you were playing the game, which far from being a homage, was just an example of the lack of experience in adapting a game into a film. Another significant recent adaptation is the resident evil franchise, which may be one of the most successful video game adaptations, albeit not very good but successful nonetheless, due to the amount of money it made. The problem with both of these examples, however, is how they transverse the mediums; Doom was poor because it tried to show, literally, a video game as a film, and Resident Evil only found mild success from completely changing the plot from the games. Neither were true adaptations, so neither was truly successful.

There is another way to look at this question, and it is in view of films that are inspired by video games. While they are not real adaptations, there are many examples of successful films, good films, being created from this approach, the most obvious being Tron. Tron was inspired by pong, such a simple concept, and yet it became a somewhat groundbreaking film that was well received. The digital aspect of pong and the emphasis of shapes, is very noticeable in both the original Tron and its sequel, Tron legacy. This taking of a simple concept is a lot easier to transform into film, due to the ability to build upon the simplicity of the concept.

Finally, it would be apt to look at some upcoming video game adaptations, specifically, Assassins Creed and Uncharted.  For all the details that have been released, it would be difficult to say outright whether these films will be good or bad. However, what I can do is say why these films could be the first of many to be successful adaptations. Recent video games such as Assassins Creed and Uncharted are generally more concerned with both story and cinematics, and for that simple reason they could be good films because they already possess what is important in films. The gaming industries recent trend of popularity towards both AAA games and indie games both lend themselves to the adapting process by taking the story from AAA games without having to deal with the complexity of interwoven game mechanics, and the ability to build upon the simple basis laid out by simpler indie games.

So, do we need movie adaptations? As games get ever closer to filmic standards anyway, probably not, but as they are going to happen anyway, it’s nice to some evidence to suggest they won’t suck massive balls.

Conor M.

Does Assassin's Creed Still Need The Animus?

Ever since the 2007 release of the original Assassin’s Creed, I have been enamored with this long and successful franchise - the freedom of movement, the historical setting, the sandbox style assassinations and of course, the ever cool, hidden blade. I sunk dozens of hours just roaming around 12^th Century holy lands, creating my own stories that usually descended (ascended?) into leading useless guards on a dangerous dash across the rooftops. It was a flawed game, but one that I have so much time and adoration for.

One element of Assassin’s Creed that always stuck with me was the modern day sections of the game that put you in the shoes of Desmond Miles, an ex-assassin thrust back into the on-going war between Assassins and Templars. Apart from the fact that Desmond was as bland as an especially boring potato, this modern day story kept me interested enough that I wasn’t cursing when I was dragged out of my historical romp to wander the Abstergo labs.

This tradition continued right through to Assassin’s Creed 3, with the idea of two secret organisations vying for power as well as a colourful cast of supporting characters (I’m looking at you, Shaun Hastings) keeping me invested enough to genuinely enjoy the obviously less developed modern story. The end to Desmond Miles’ story, as rushed and a hackneyed job as it was, signaled an end to Ubisoft genuinely trying to tie the franchise together with a coherent modern story.

Well, Black Flag did at least try to make you care about present day. You played as a mute, nameless character in first person as you worked for Abstergo Entertainment, an evil video game corporation – not looking at you EA. You are coerced into hacking various points of the office by a familiar sounding voice – none of it seems important or relevant right up until the final moments when the voice is revealed to be none other than a reincarnation of the Sage you are chasing through the high seas of the Caribbean. It was a nice little reveal but I still wasn’t interested, nor did I care enough about this story to feel anything but annoyed when I was dragged out of 18^th Century.

Unity’s attempts at telling a modern day story were pretty much non-existent, with Ubisoft opting for a ‘let’s go find a sage’s remains’ tale that was laughably under-developed and forced, right up until the conclusion when it became a full blown hilarious joke as you discover that the whole ‘sage remains’ thing was a complete non issue in the first place. No big revelation, no cliffhanger and no attempt to coherently link these entertaining ventures into history all mean that the animus has just become a crude reminder I am playing a video game.

Assassins Creed games are great because of the fantastic sandbox worlds that Ubisoft create for us to explore. We become heavily invested in the realism and scope of these worlds that we feel a living, breathing part of it – and the animus breaks that immersion. I don’t want to be constantly reminded that I’m not in revolutionary Paris, or renaissance Italy just so Ubisoft feel better about calling these collections of games a franchise. We already know of the endless war between Assassins and Templars and that is the only link we need as we go from new entry to new entry.

Ubisoft has even started to use the animus as an excuse for Unity’s technical problems. See a couple hundred clones in Unity’s impressive crowd tech? That’s just animus programming. Wondering why everyone in Paris speaks with immersion breaking British accents? Oh, that’s just the animus doing its thing. Why doesn’t Napoleon have a face when I speak to him? That lovable animus and its hilarious mistakes, when will it learn eh?

In short Ubisoft, if you aren’t going to bother trying to tell a decent modern day story then drop the animus, reinvest in some new HUD and menu designs and give us an Assassin’s Creed world that we can immerse ourselves in for hundreds of hours without thinking we are playing a video game. Seriously, reality is pretty shit.

Alex A.