With gaming’s busiest season well under way, there’s every chance you’re in the market for a new 12 month subscription for your Xbox Live Gold account. Don’t miss out on this excellent deal that’s the cheapest by miles for US and UK gamers. Grab a 5% discount by going to the seller’s Facebook page and clicking the link.
Yes, it’s a little early to get excited about Fallout 4’s Season Pass, but these prices are hard to ignore and could prove a great investment when the content rolls out next year. There’s a significant saving on each format and we have prices for US and UK gamers. Grab a 5% discount by going to the seller’s Facebook page and clicking the link.
The Need for Speed series has struggled to find an identity for years, despite takes by numerous developers. Between the forgotten titles, we’ve had the Fast and the Furious-inspired Underground, the cops vs racers of Hot Pursuit (twice), the straight-faced track racer Shift and the open-world attempt by Criterion in Most Wanted.
This latest game has had an extra year of development, breaking the habit of releasing a NFS game every year. The subtitles are gone, 2015’s game is simply Need for Speed. Although, given the nature of the game, EA must have been pretty tempted to call it Need for Speed: Underground 3. Continue reading Need for Speed Review – Burnt out→
Life is Strange’s five part episodic series began life back in January and the last episode was released nearly three months ago. It’s safe to say the release schedule has been a mess. Even the originally-planned six-week gap between episodes should have been flagged as a narrative momentum killer.
Such is life when reviewing and playing episodic content these days. If you’re smart though, you’ll have stayed away until today. Now the final episode is out, you’re free to play through the whole story at your own pace. And to get right to it: you really should. Continue reading Life is Strange Episode 5: Polarized Review – The illusion of choice?→
You may already know something about Bedlam as it’s based on a book by Christopher Brookmyre. Packed with pop culture references it featured a chap waking up in an old Doom-style shooter he used to play in his youth. The book followed him as he made his way through multiple familiar game worlds and different gaming genres.
The game follows a similar premise, but puts you in the shoes of a different character for some reason. This gives the writers an excuse to come up with additional dialogue, which often falls a little flat if I’m honest and may even cause a few eyes to roll. What we’re really after though is an experience of playing through some classic genres akin to the experience in the book. Continue reading Bedlam: The Game Review – You’d be mad to come here→
Rallying used to be king of the racers in gaming, but just like real rallying, it’s seen its audience dwindle to a fraction of the glory days. A fact not helped by Codemasters bastardising their own franchise by unleashing Ken Block’s show-ponying over actual racing.
The second wave of WRC titles (Sony had a WRC series on PS2) performed admirably last-gen though, despite always being in the shade of Dirt 2. Milestone were a bit cheeky though, recycling some tracks in their annual release and stripping down the career mode to its bare bones. Continue reading WRC 5 Review – A dirty old clunker→
In a recent interview with MCV, CD Projekt Red visual effects artist Jose Texeira said: “Cyberpunk is far bigger than anything else that CD Projekt Red has done before. Far, far bigger.”
The first thought that may pop into the head of any Witcher III: Wild Hunt player is probably going to be ‘how?’ Closely followed by anyone that had to review it with a cry of ‘WHY?!’ Witcher III is geographically massive. Made up of multiple maps that expand for miles, often requiring a boat to travel to until you unlock fast travel checkpoints. I’ve still not seen all locations in the game and I’ve put close to fifty hours in since release. And CDPR are expanding upon it again with the Hearts of Stone DLC later this month. Continue reading Cyberpunk 2077 may well be ‘bigger’ than Witcher 3, but not in the way you think→
Far Cry: Primal wants to shake things up. For once, we’re seeing an established IP trying something far removed from why it became a success in the first place. The change to a Stone Age setting could be just what the series needs while it takes a break from modern times and guns. In fact, taking the guns away from Far Cry could allow the series’ strengths to shine.
Even the way the game was revealed is new for the series. Gone are the E3 demos or year-long waits (or longer). Instead, after a rather dull live stream of a cave painting (which we ignored until it became something to actually talk about), Ubisoft just went ahead announced the game and showed it in action via a new trailer yesterday. The biggest surprise though, was that it will be coming in February next year, just four months from now. Continue reading Why you won’t miss guns in Far Cry Primal→
Gamers of all ages have been enjoying Traveller’s Tales’ Lego games for years now, but now they can finally play with real Lego bricks as a part of the game. With the runaway success of the toys-to-life trendsetter, Skylanders, it’s a mystery why it’s taken this long for the Lego games to jump into the genre.
Rather than focus on one IP, this new series is a mashup of multiple franchises and movie licenses. In the box, you’ll find dinky NFC-chipped Lego minifigs for Batman, Gandalf and WyldStyle. Together they must take on evil forces across dimensions to save the day by beating up goons, smashing up environments and holding the Circle button to rebuild odd yet useful tools. So far, so Lego, right? Continue reading Lego Dimensions Review – Brilliant but blocked→
It’s that time of year where developers and publishers push themselves to breaking point in order to meet the all-important Christmas shopping release window. Frankly, it’s a pattern that crippled many of last year’s biggest games.
We’d love to think that lessons have been learned, but with another dementedly-packed season lying just ahead, it’s not hard to predict that some of the year’s biggest remaining games are going to have some serious issues at launch. They’re all games we can’t wait to play, but we’d certainly advise waiting for the reviews, or maybe holding out until those unchecked issues have been fixed post-launch. Games are expensive, so preorder wisely.Continue reading Expect trouble at launch for these remaining 2015 games→
We’ve said for years how we actively encourage game delays rather than play broken or unpolished products. There’s too much of an emphasis on releasing glitch-ridden games with the attitude of patching it up at a later date. I mean, Arkham Knight on PC still isn’t back in the shops!
But that’s not the reason I’m glad to see Hitman delayed into 2016. Square Enix were going to try something new this December by releasing Hitman at full price on digital stores as an incomplete product. Essentially, an episodic or segmented release, where Io Interactive would continue to develop later chapters throughout 2016 with them becoming available as free downloads when they were ready. It’s not exactly a Kickstarter model, but it’s pretty damn close. ‘Give us money and we’ll finish this game at some point.’ Continue reading Hitman’s delay averts a potential disaster→
It’s all about speed and control. Speed is that vital ingredient to racing games that has us coming back for more. Just how fast can we go and stay in control? Maintaining control of the car, holding a fragile grip on the road just long enough to hold the line around that corner is all that matters. Speed and control make every corner a fight, a neck-and-neck paint-trading tussle between you and your fear of flying off the track or braking too soon and losing ground on the chase and that all-important speed. Forza 6 nails speed and control.
There’s a sweet spot to be found in Forza 6, where you’re challenged just enough by the AI and the driving aids are tuned to ensure every race is an exhilarating adrenaline rush. That’s not to say the AI difficulty options are completely reliable though. Sometimes you’ll go from winning multiple tight races in a row only to find the next one has the two lead cars are so far in front of you, you’ll think you’re in first until you notice the 3/24 indicator in the corner. Continue reading Forza Motorsport 6 Review – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger→
Mad Max can be a seriously tough open world game and you’ll need our new survival tips guide if you want to stay alive long enough to help Max create the car of his dreams with the Magnum Opus. With such a huge game world to explore, you’ll want to maximise (ha!) your play time to take the grind out of the wasteland. It could be the difference between becoming the Road Warrior and road kill.Continue reading Mad Max – 10 essential survival tips→
Season Passes have become the scourge of games in recent years. We’re not opposed to additional content for games, far from it. But when the cost of a Season Pass matches that of a full game, our alarm bells start to ring. What’s worse, so many of these passes offer a paltry amount of content that simply doesn’t justify the price.
Mad Max is a treasured movie series, and it was a great surprise to see the recent Mad Max: Fury Road reboot turn out to be pretty damn good. The pressure is certainly on for Avalanche Studios to deliver with their Mad Max game, which has been in the works since around 2008. So, it’s perhaps not unfair to have high expectations, especially when you consider the same studio is responsible for the ludicrously fun Just Cause series, with a third entry set to tear through stores later this year.
Just think about the comparison though. Just Cause games are set in a tropical paradise and give you tonnes of guns, skydiving, mid-air car surfing, anything-goes grappling hooks and the fun cranked up to 11 for the duration. Mad Max is set in a desert wasteland, car fuel must be scavenged and fought for, ammo for your rusty sawn-off is in dire supply and just staying alive is a constant challenge. Can you guess which game is more fun to play? Continue reading Mad Max Review – Bleeding out on the blacktop→
It’s seriously bad luck to be near George Stobbart. Just as his first Broken Sword adventure began with a death in Paris, someone is shot within minutes of Broken Sword 5. And so begins another adventure to find the murderer. There’s more to it this time though as the shooter’s main aim was to steal a mysterious (and quite disturbing) old painting from a Parisian gallery.
If you’re new to the Broken Sword series, don’t be put off by that daunting number in the title. This adventure works as a standalone title and instead of relying on series knowledge, merely gives the odd nod to fans via cameo appearances, and of course, irritable goats. Continue reading Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse Review→
The dungeon crawler video game genre really does owe it all to 1985’s Gauntlet. The top down multiplayer title has been copied ever since with similar titles in the action/RPG genre, most notably the new genre king, Diablo III, which has built upon Gauntlet’s sturdy foundations.
So yes, if you’re a retro fan or recently found yourself absorbed by the world of Diablo III on PC or consoles, there’s certainly fun to be had with this PS4 update of the recent PC remake. The graphics are slightly shinier than the PC version and there are new items to unlock, but realistically, there’s no reason to double dip unless your mates never wanted to play on PC. Continue reading Gauntlet: Slayer Edition Review – Too old school?→
You would think that after Journey’s success there would have been a wave of titles hoping to provide an experience away from the traditional game. But games with an emphasis on exploring over defeating enemies or high scores continue to be a rare occurrence on consoles. Enter Uppercut Games, who have crafted something they hope will stay in your thoughts long after those credits roll.
Submerged has two storylines for you to discover. The first one at the forefront of the game begins by showing a boat wash ‘ashore’ alongside a building in a flooded city that sees only the tallest buildings reach for a place above the water. A young girl carrying a smaller boy disembarks and makes her way towards a temple-like structure laying him down near a font that could be as much an alter as it could be a birdbath. There’s no talking, no explanation of why you’re there, or how long you’ve been at sea but as the game plays out, things become a little clearer as details are salvaged from the city whose sidewalks now pave the ocean floor. Much is left for the player to imagine, but Uppercut Games feed you just the right amount of information for you to come away with your own understanding of what has happened. Continue reading Submerged Review – Floating through the final flood→
Destiny was fantastic fun for the opening couple of months, but the seriously repetitive content soon became an issue. Bungie’s hype fizzled out to reveal a selection of empty play areas of uninspired fetch quests. Then came the expansions via a Season Pass that cost as much as buying the original game again, albeit with a tiny amount of tangible new content or environments.
Combine this with a levelling system that seemed exceptionally miserly with rewards that forced players into choosing weapons and armour based on how it would affect their Light level rather than the statistical benefits offered elsewhere, and Destiny became a gruelling grind with no sense of purpose. Bungie tried to reinvent the wheel without conceding to the value of a curve. Continue reading Destiny’s upcoming changes could make it great again→
Life is Strange is becoming known for killer WTF endings to each episodes, making that damn six week gap between episodes absolutely excruciating. Don’t worry I’m keeping up the habit of not giving away any past plot events for those of you waiting for the season to wrap up before diving in, Netflix-style.
The opening section of Episode 4 is a radical departure for the story given the ending of the last entry. Max’s whole reality is seen from a new point of view. There are new entries in her SMS log, a new group of friends and her relationship with Chloe has transformed. Continue reading Life is Strange Episode 4 – Darkroom Review→
Gaming reviews, previews and features by Brendan Griffiths
The No Sleep Gamer 