Farcry Primal – PS4 Review

Once upon a time, I bought a game called Far Cry, and I loved that game like nobodies business! It was beautiful and original. It combined Stealth with FPS goodness, and then topped it off with a decent story. I seriously loved this game!

Then Far Cry 2 came out, and since I loved the original I bought the sequel right quick. Unfortunately I was incredibly disappointed. Everything seemed so bland! The story sucked, the location sucked and I was just really let down. I did love how the fire could spread though when a fire broke out. That was cool, but not cool enough to make the game enjoyable.

It wasn’t too long before FarCry 3 came out, and I found myself equally disappointed with that one. The same disappointment followed with FarCry 4. It was at this point that I knew that Far Cry had evolved into a game series, that just didn’t appeal to me. The sales were high on the series though! People love the Far Cry games! So, odds are it was always going to be the same ol’ game with polished graphics.

I told myself after playing the 4th entry in the Far Cry series, that I wasn’t going to buy any more Far Cry games. That they just don’t appeal to me anymore. Then they announced Far Cry: Primal. Far Cry game where you get to be a caveman and hunt sabretooth tigers and mammoths and all kinds of other extinct creatures? How can I resist that??

Not only did I pick it up, but I even pre-ordered it. To be fair though, how could I not? Cave men! So knowing that I was going to prob dislike the game, I ordered it anyway. Hoping that the fact that it’s about cave men will make it more enjoyable, at least enjoyable enough to overlook everything else that I was going to dislike about it!

So, it arrived and I popped it into my console and began playing it! First, let me just say that the graphics in this game is nothing short of amazing! The fur on the animals doesn’t quite seem right, but everything else is eye poppingly awesome in appearance! However that’s to be expected when it comes to Farcry games. I haven’t played a Farcry title yet that wasn’t graphically impressive for its time. How’s the content? Glad you asked!

The game started off nice! A sweet a mammoth hunt! True, I ended up getting killed in said opening mammoth hunt, so I was fairly certain the game was going to be a challenge! I survived the mammoth hunt the second time around, and eventually make it into the heart of the game! From this point on, the goes downhill to me! It’s basically feels like farcry 4(A game I did not like)! Only difference is as the game progresses you can tame wild animals and have them do your bidding! Yea, that part is actually as cool as it sounds! The story is there, but it’s not really anything that captures your imagination. It doesn’t suck you in! You are going to be spending more time fighting and killing animals that participating in an engaging story.

There are some cool things you can do in the game though! Like shoot bee hives causing a swarm of bees to attack surrounding foes(Or animals). There’s also my personal favorite: track down a bear in the woods, and fire a flaming arrow at him. This catches him on fire, and a flaming bear running through the woods tends to cause mayhem….also wildfires.

The voice acting is acceptable! Though you should know right away that the game is spoken in Proto-Indo-European. What this means is that unless you are a freak and speak caveman language, you are going to be reading subtitles. This does add to the realism, but why does it need to be realistic when so much of it isn’t realistic. I am sure many people will love the added touch, for me it was an annoyance. I hate reading subtitles, because the text on the bottom pulls me out of whatever immersion I am in.

In the end, I didn’t completely hate it like other Farcry games, but it is still a disappointment. Yes, I regret buying it, but I will also likely still play it on occasion. I have no plans to trade it in, so it’s not so bad that I don’t want it in my game library, it’s just not something I will go on about. I really need to stop buying these farcry games though. The style just isn’t my cup of tea! If you love past Farcry games though, most likely you are going to love this, since it’s just more of the same with a few improvements. I would rate it a 5/10. A solid “Meh!”

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Silver Creek Falls: Chapter 1 – PC Game Review

Silver Creek Falls Chapter 1 is an RPGmaker title that serves as the first chapter/teaser for an ongoing game. It is available on Steam and is a free chapter. One thing to keep in mind, is this is an RPGMaker game, so expect your standard birds eye view, cutesy 16 bit style anime graphics and over sized headed characters. If you enjoy those aspects then yer set! Otherwise beware!

The game so far has been getting rave user reviews, however I am mildly disappointed..and I will tell you why!

First, the game has no guidance. While playing the game I first investigated 1 of the 3 crime scenes. After looking around a bit, it didn’t tell me what else to do. The car wasn’t allowing me to enter it. So, I remembered a sentence used by the deputy that neighbors had called the police the night of the murder. So, I assumed I would check in with the neighbors!

None of the neighbor doors were interactive so i tried the ones across the street. One let me enter, and inside was a tape, that essentially ended day one, and assumed I had visited crime scenes 2 and 3…which I obviously hadn’t! At first I thought “Well, maybe there wasn’t a crime scene 2/3 even though the NPCs were talking about evidence that I hadn’t encountered or seen.” However, when checking the Steam store front page for the game, in the screenshots area are screen captures of 2 crime scenes that I didn’t see. so, it’s a safe assumption that I accidentally skipped them.

The story seems disjointed, however that COULD be because it let’s you skip through a big chunk of the game(Seriously developer, you REALLY need to patch that and change the police station to a separate instance that doesn’t phase in until after certain objectives have been met, or at least add some guidance like “Ok, well….crime scene 2 is north of here, let’s check that out next”.

There is no combat in the game, at least in the chunks that I played, however the type of game isn’t really a combat game. It’s less RPG and more story driven adventure/interactive fiction.

Will I buy any future chapters? Not if this is any indication of what the future chapters will be like. The story seemed interesting, but the skipping two crime scenes thing? That’s a major flaw in my opinion, and is something that SHOULD have been prevented, and could have been with a little extra elbow grease.

Yes, I know it’s free…and for a free game it’s ok(Though annoying), however future chapters will cost $$$ and like I said, if this is the amount of effort the developers are going to put into them as well? I’ll pass.

Pros

• Interesting Story
• At least one scene with voice acting.
• Cute 16-bit graphics
• It’s free! DUH!
• Decent controls for a KeyBoard game.

Cons

• Bugged! Can skip half the game.
• Bad BAD voice acting. Not sure if sheriff is southern or from new orleans..or somewhere else.
• No controller support.
• No way to go full screen(That I saw?)

 

RATING: 3.5/10

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Beasts of Prey – PC Game Review

 

In a world full of Zombie themed survival games, Beasts of Prey stands out. As far as I know, this was one of the first dinosaur based survival games made, though certainly not the last. It did however take a chance on something “Different”, and in my opinion it paid off. The game is available on Steam for only 12 bucks, so it won’t put you in the poor house. It is however an Early Access title, so expect some glitches and bugs.

I picked up Beasts of Prey a little over a year ago, but hadn’t played it at all within the last 6 months. So, I installed the game, to see if the developers had done anything with the game, and I was blown away! Everything from the game play to the graphics had been improved! It looked gorgeous, and I was impressed! In fact, I remember thinking: “This game is really going places!”

After the initial awe struck period though, I realized that my hot bar was empty. After fumbling around, trying to remember how to open my inventory, I finally hit tab. I saw my knife and bandages there, although they should by default be in your hot tray IMHO. So, I decided to try and drag them to my hotbar, only to find that I can’t click on them. After about a half hour trying to figure out how to equip my weapon/tool I grew frustrated and went to quit. Only ESC wasn’t bringing up the menu. I tried several other keys, and couldn’t figure even that out. Out of frustration I Ctrl+alt+Del out of the game.

This seems like a lot of trouble to me. Sure, it’s got good potential, and looks brilliant. However trying so hard to just figure out the basics is annoying. I know a lot of these “Survival” games say they don’t want to hand hold you, and they want you to figure it out as if it was a real survival setting.  I’m sorry, but explaining how to hold a knife isn’t “Hand holding” Everyone should know how to hold an item. It’s common sense, not a learned survival trait. I’m not saying that they should explain everything, but the very basics is kind of a no brainer! Then not even being able to exit the game? You shouldn’t even need a tutorial to figure out how to quit!  In the end, i’m just not sure it’s worth the trouble. If you don’t want to add a tutorial, fine! I can deal with that but maybe add some “Game tips” or something so you aren’t forced to just stand there trying to figure out the most basic actions.

Now, to be fair…I’m not sure if the not being able to click or drag my equipment was a bug, or if the esc key doing nada was a bug….but IF they were glitches..these are huge issues, that need fixing.

Pros

• Gorgeous graphics
• Dinosaurs
• Original idea
• Low cost
• Tons of craftable items
• Single Player option

Cons

• No Tutorial
• Either Glitchy or confusing controls.
• Not a large player base
• Very few official servers(w/high pings)

 

RATING: 6.5/10

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood — PC Game Review

If you have ever played Wolfenstien: The New Order, then you pretty much know what to expect in this game. It’s pretty much just more of the same. However, if you haven’t played it, and are unfamiliar with the story and events of W:TNO, don’t fret because that knowledge isn’t mandatory since this game is a prequel.

The game is a FPS, that takes place during WWII along an alternate timeline, where the Nazis have perfected robotics, cybernetics and weapon-tech. Meaning you will find yourself battling robotic super soldiers, cyborgs and well equipped soldiers eager to tear your head off.

While the game is a FPS, it does have many stealth elements. Sure, you can run in guns blazing and possibly survive. However the safer, and in my opinion way more fulfilling method, is stealthing your way through certain locations. Why blast a heavily armored super soldier when you can sneak through some air ducts and get behind him to shut off his power? Why run through a kennel and battle cyborg dogs when you can sneak up to them while they sleep and silence them quickly?

Basically, the game should appeal to both fans of stealth games, as well as FPS enthusiasts. There’s really a lot to love with this game! Although you should be warned that the game is not without it’s faults, which I will list below! First though,  allow me to tell you what it does well.

Pros

• Flawless controller support
• Incredibly long for a 20 dollar game
• Breathtaking graphics
• Excellent voice acting
• Fantastic Storyline
• Vent Crawling!
• Good variety of enemies
• Challenging gameplay with adjustable difficulty levels

Cons

• No Multi-player
• Inadequate Tutorial
• Not much replay value.
• Occasionally the AI can be a bit dimwitted
• No manual save

 

RATING: 7/10

Stranded Deep – PC Game Review

Stranded Deep is an incredibly fun game from “Beam Team Games“and is available on Steam as an early access title for 15 bucks, However you can get it much cheaper when it’s on sale. For those who aren’t sure what Early Access is, let me explain briefly. You basically buy a game that isn’t done. You purchase an incomplete game, and then get to participate in it’s evolution to it’s final state. You basically pay to be a beta tester. This means that the games in Early Access might be unplayable, Ugly, Glitch heavy, or just incomplete. You also take the risk that the game never get’s finished. There have been several Early Access games that have been abandoned, thus leaving their customers with an unfinished and often times unplayable game.  Stranded Deep though has been in Early Access for awhile, and it’s been worked on regularly, so the odds are that this is going to stick around to completion.

The thing that impressed me most was that it had a tutorial(Sort of). Sure, it didn’t explain everything to me and it did leave me trying to figure out how to relight a campfire after the fire went out.  It however did help me with the basics. Usually survival games just grab you and toss you into their world with no knowledge on even how to pick something up, so having them explain somethings to me was refreshing. I didn’t feel like an idiot once the meat of the game started, however I still had to figure out how to do some things on my own.

The game, like most titles of the survival genre offers items you can craft. You can craft an assortment of tools and weapons and various other items all from things you salvage and find scattered around the terrain. Unfortunately at this moment in time, there aren’t too many items to craft. However I assume more craftable items will be added as the game continues to grow and evolve into it’s finished state.

There also aren’t many dangers in the game. On land, you are fairly safe, your only real threat is starvation, or from a brutal fall if you are a complete klutz. While I would like to see more land animals, odds are that won’t happen unless they also increase island sizes, since the island you are stranded on is just too small to have many other creatures on it aside from you.

One nifty thing I like about this game is that it has mods. So, if you want biggerish islands you can just mod it. Just be aware that updates break mods, and since it’s Early Access updates are frequent.

Overall, I would(and have) highly recommend this to anyone I know who enjoys survival games.

Pros

• Gorgeous graphics.
• Quick Download time
• Takes up less than a gig of HD space.
• Unique Crafting Method
• Randomly generated islands.
• Good controls once you adjust to them
• Unique tutorial(Something I haven’t seen in other survival games)
• Mods (with mods that fix some of the cons)

Cons

• No land animals(Other than crabs)
• Few sea creatures
• No character model
• Small Island sizes
• Annoyingly small inventory
• No Multi-player feature

RATING: 8/10

Firewatch – PS4 Review

 

Firewatch is a new game that was recently released on PS4, Windows, OS X and Linux. It’s brought by the developer Campo Santo, which has developed…well, just firewatch.

As I mentioned, the game is available on a few platforms, but the one I am reviewing is the PS4 version.

The game is a first person exploration/mystery/horror adventure game, that centers on the games main hero Henry, a volunteer fire lookout stationed in Shoshone National Forest in 1989(So yes, technically this is an ’80s game). His only companion is Delilah, Henrys supervisor who communicates with you via walkie-Talkie.

As the game advances forward you start to build a relationship with your supervisor, explore the wilderness and eventually discover strange things afoot.

Overall the game sounds interesting, and fairly original! Does it live up to expectations though?

Graphics: 8.5/10 – The graphics are beautiful and artistic. If you are looking for realism in your games graphics though, look elsewhere! The graphics are very cartoony, and appear slightly cel-shading. In fact, the graphics remind me a little of the cartoony nature of World of Warcraft. So, I can’t stress this enough! It’s not realistic looking, and it isn’t intended to be.

The textures are gorgeous, and to be honest, the game its self is a delight to explore. I enjoyed just roaming around the wilderness and looking at all the work that the devs put into this game, more than I enjoyed actually playing the game. So, the graphics are absolutely top knotch.

Voice Acting: 9/10 – The two main characters were voiced rather well! Sure, the sounds of henrys voice didn’t match up with your actions, but that’s because the game has no way to know if you are climbing a mountain, or jumping across a river when you are talking. So, you don’t get the vocal distrubances from movement. However the acting is well done! Rich Sommer and Cissy Jones did a very good job acting out their characters emotions and fears. I was completely impressed!

Controls: 6/10 – The controls, are a pain at first. Mainly during conversations and dialog options. It takes awhile to get used to, and the first several conversations I ended up coming across like an ass and just not responding to her because the time limit would run out before I remembered which button combinations allowed me to reply. Also, when you are out exploring the wilderness, and you have your map up, trying to get your bearings and a call comes in. You can’t reply without first putting your map away. The game doesn’t inform you of this, but your response timer still ticks down, so I lost out on responding to a few other early on calls due to this as well.

Other than dialog, the controls are pretty straight forward, but unfortunately..at least for me, the conversation controls really hit the enjoyment factor hard.

Final thoughts: The game is short as hell. For 20 bucks, I expected more gameplay. Instead what I got 5 hours of gaming, and a good portion of that was spent exploring the area. While most of the game was enjoyable, it ended on a sour note, with what could be the worst and most boring game ending that I have ever experienced.

Is there a reason to replay it? Well, the store description says your choices can impact the game, however I don’t see how anything you say or do, could impact the game enough to warrant a second playthrough. Normally I would say that if you are a completionist you could go back and try to gain missed trophies, however all trophies are earned just by advancing the game…so If you finish the story, you have 100% completion.

Overall, I would suggest getting the game, but only if it’s on a 50% or more sale. 10 bucks seems fair for this game. 20 is just a ripoff.

Overall rating: 5/10

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Retro Review: Dark Forces – Steam Edition

Tomorrow is the release of the new Star Wars movie! “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”! Actually, so is today I guess if you live in one of the areas doing an early showing..But tomorrow is the official opening day! So, in honor of the films release, I decided to do a review of a classic Star Wars game! So, I dove into my Steam library and picked out Star Wars: Dark Forces!

This title is a classic FPS(or as they were called back in the day, a Doom Clone) set in the Star Wars Universe. I played this game first on the original Playstation, and it was my first encounter with the expanded universe. I quickly fell in love with the idea and started buying other EU games, the books(And Comic books) and it all started with this title.

While this game may no longer be canon, it’s still an extremely fun experience. If you are familiar with DOOM, then you know what this is. You run around, blast your enemies and press switches and gather colored keys to open doors. Typical 90’s FPS gameplay mechanics.

The game has held out really well over the years. The graphics obviously are dated, but not so much as to leave you scratching your head trying to figure out what that batch of pixels is supposed to be. Difficulty is fairly challenging. Not so much in combat, but some of the levels get downright confusing and might leave you lost.

The only major downside to this classic titles is the control system! It uses your standard arrow key controls, but looking up and down is a bit of a pain. In order to look up and down, you need to use page up and page down keys. Since you are having to move around with the arrow keys, take your hand off the movement keys in order to aim at an attacking enemy on the ledge above you can be a tad annoying.

Thankfully the game does have Auto-Aim. So, if you fire your weapon in the general direction of your enemy, it will start shooting at him, even if he is a level above you. Yes, it would be nice to aim at your foe easier, but you technically never even have to look up or down to finish the game thanks in no small part to auto-aim.

Pros

• Star Wars!
• Good graphics for the time
• Runs well on modern systems
• Auto-Aim!
• Classic look and feel adds to the Nostalgia.
• Most levels are fun
• Good UI
• Great story

Cons

• No longer Canon 😦
• Dumb AI
• Levels can get boring and repetitious. Mainly the sewer level.
• Clumsy controls.

 

RATING: 7/10

 

 

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The Vanishing of Ethan Carter PC Game Review

Are you are looking for a first person horror/mystery game that feels like a cross between Alan Wake, and Murdered: Soul Suspect with a dash of H.P. Lovecraft thrown in for good measure? Then this might be what you are looking for!

First, let me talk about the graphics! The graphics are gorgeous! Right from the start when you find yourself standing on the train tracks at the end of a tunnel, surrounded by a dense woodland area. It’s probably one of the most beautiful games I have played. In fact you might spend more time wandering around the game world, looking at the scenery than you do solving mysteries. In my 8+ hours of playtime I spent 2 hours of it just looking out over oceans and frolicking around in the woods.

(Actual gameplay screenshot)

In terms of gameplay, the game starts off telling you that it’s not going to hold your hand, which it doesn’t. this is a double edged sword in my opinion. On one hand, you don’t have some clumsy UI detracting from the immersion of the game. On the other hand, the games definition of “Hand holding” apparently includes: Explaining controls, explaining your abilities, explaining why you are wherever it is you are, letting you manually save and letting you view an inventory(or notebook system….or map). So, in the end it’s kind of cool that you have a nice clean screen to enjoy the visuals of the game, but that also means that if you quit playing for a few days and forget what you have collected, or what you were trying to do, yer pretty much up a creek without a paddle.

-Pros-
Beautiful graphics.
Challenging yet logical puzzles(mostly)
H.P. Lovecraft vibe
Good voice acting
Excellent controls
Clear UI
Flawless gamepad support

-Cons-
No tutorial explaining controls
No manual save
No inventory/journal system
Insanely short(I beat the game in 6 hours with 100% achievment completion)

Mad Max PS4 Review

Mad Max: The Gamefollows Max(Who is presumably mad) as he journeys across the wasteland building up his car and gaining support from friends, and fighting enemies all in the quest to find the plains of silence.

Let me begin by saying that I love the Mad Max movies, and I really wanted to love this game! However, the game turned me off right away because it’s just like a post apocalyptic version of Shadow of Mordor(Another game I didn’t like, for the same reasons)! However, this is just my personal taste..there’s plenty to love, which I will talk about first, followed by why the game just didn’t make my grade.

The combat is awesome! It’s very fluid and has a similar feel to the combat from Arkham games as well as Shadow of Mordor. Even though you are punching and kicking, the combat moves still look different, so it seems almost like watching an actual fight since it’s not just the same punch and kick move over and over again.

It has a HUGE open world! You can go anywhere and explore from day one! Follow the missions/story or just cruise around the wasteland and striking fear into the hearts of raiders everywhere.

Customization to your car! Add on stickers, paints, hood ornaments…..whatever! You can also purchase upgrades to your car to make it handle better or just withstand more of what the wastelands throw at you!

Customize yourself! As the game plays on, and you rank up you unlock various face skins that give you different looks…sometimes hair, sometimes beards…sometime just a lot of grime. You can also upgrade to new clothes, like the classic Mad Max leather jacket. You actually don’t feel complete without it!

No need to go it alone! You can have your handy dandy Blackfinger(Mechanic) Chumbucket riding along with you to make on the scene repairs to your car. You also later on get a dog.

So, the game sounds perfect right? What could I complain about…Here goes! There’s just too much combat for my taste! Nearly every encounter ends in combat. There’s also not much in the way of plot. Sure, there’s some vague plot, but it isn’t expanded on as you progress really. There’s no twists and not much in the way of surprises.

The wasteland gets BORING! As I mentioned before, it’s HUGE! It’s also a wasteland, which means there’s not much to see! just open dirty mountainous regions littered with shipwrecks. The area you start out is going to look similar to end game areas. It’s difficult to tell where you are without the map, by using landmarks, cause there’s very few landmarks!

Basically, I played through it, but I certainly didn’t enjoy it. Although, if you are a fan of Shadow of Mordor, you might like this. I didnt like SoM for the same reasons.

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Fallout 4 – PS4 Review

I have spent every waking hour anticipating the release of Fallout 4, ever since they announced it only a few short months ago! So, when it finally got released, I popped it into my console eager to play. Did it live up to my expectations? Let me put it like this: It is one of the worst Fallout titles to date(The only exception being brotherhood of steel)……That doesn’t mean it’s horrible, it just sucks when you expect something as good as Fallout 3, or even New Vegas and end up getting stuck with this.

What’s wrong with it? Well, for starters it’s a Bethesda game! That means that it is very bug heavy! A patch has been released which fixed SOME bugs…but not all. For instance when you are installing the game, if you have the game loaded and watch the “S.P.E.C.I.A.L” video you will encounter a “The disc is not readable error”, and then have to start installing over again. Thankfully this is easily worked around by putting the disk in, and letting it install completely before loading the game up(You can’t play until it’s fully installed anyway). Another bug is for crafting furniture. The furniture will be red and float in the air, where you will be unable to place it. There is an easy fix for this too, it’s just not quick. The only way to fix it, is uninstall the game, and reinstall it and hopefully you will be fixed..If the issue persists, do it again until it’s fixed.

Bugs/Glitches aside, the games story seems mediocre at best. The only fun aspect of it, was seeing life before the great war briefly during the…I guess it’s a tutorial?

What really makes this game bad though, is it’s like it doesn’t know what it wants to be. It’s like bethesda was just WAY too ambitious with this project and tried sticking features in it that make it less fun, and more annoying. Still, there’s worse games out there, and to be fair the game is very pretty with an incredible character customization feature and fairly decent voice acting…and as usual, an awesome soundtrack.

Is it worth getting? If you are new to the series? Yes, it’s a great jumping on point, and you aren’t expecting anything from previous titles. If you are looking for more of what made past Fallout games great….I would suggest holding off and getting it while it’s on sale or discounted..or wait for a Complete Edition that will include the DLC.

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