Gears of War Judgment is the fourth game in the Saga but goes back to where it all began. The story is a setup story for the main trilogy's backup characters Baird and Cole. It is a nice idea to go back and set up these characters because they are ever present in the main story arc but you do not really feel they are fleshed out as much as Marcus and Dom were when playing through Gears 1-3. The story starts at the end, with our duo and company in a tribunal. The game is basically broken down into testimony's of the events that unfolded which lead to them being put before the jury.
It works well with the game allowing to flow through the section and then a cut scene setting up the next. You feel the characters emotions well and truly understand the decisions made. The secondary characters in the game are also strong with a distinct personality and overall the story was strong. The campaign runs for around 6-8 hours which is fairly standard but at no point did I find it a struggle to keep playing. There is also Aftermath which is a short add-on to the disc which sees you play Baird and Cole through a section of Gears of War 3 where the two groups are separated. It's nice to see how they got to where they did when not with the main group but it did not really add anything to the game for me.
Level design and graphics are fairly standard compared to the rest of the series with waist high cover in abundance. The graphics are solid and the colours or lack of feel right within the world. There are a few more enemy types thrown in to the game which actually made me wish they had made it into the main games as they added a new threat to proceedings. Also I really enjoyed the 'Declassified' missions. Through the main campaign you find tags on the wall which if you choose to activate, start the next section under a restriction. For example you may be working you way through a building and normally it would be illuminated. But selecting the Declassified mission this would turn off the lights meaning only light through windows can be seen and enemies are harder to spot. This adds a bigger challenge and can add to re playability. Playing through a section knowing that there are going to be harder enemies, or having to use just a pistol etc really became fun as you challenge yourself that little more. The reward is additional XP and also an achievement or two. For some reason this was taken out of the Aftermath section of the game which was a noticeable absence. I was disappointed by it and also really feel that a DLC should be available for the other games so they can be played through with Declassified missions.
All in all Gears of War Judgment did not really make any new ground and was more of an expansion of the series rather than a re-invention. There were some good additions and it felt like it was created with care rather than thrown together purely to make a few bucks. Comparing this to something like Halo 3:ODST really shows Bungie up as this does generally stand up well as a stand alone title but I think releasing at £40 was a bit high. A £30 would have been about right in my eyes but it was good all the same. Multiplayer is very much what you come to expect and again tread on familiar ground.
Graphics - 8
Sound - 7
Controls - 8
Story - 8
Overall - 7.7
Multiplayer - 7
MR
Monday 22 July 2013
Monday 15 July 2013
My Life In Gaming
I have been playing games fairly heavily for 20 years. Not sure if that makes me old or if I just started young. I grew up in the generation where the gaming industry has really kicked off.
This all started for me in the 80's with my parents owning a Sinclair ZX Spectrum with its tape deck and 30 hours of load times. I cannot remember the games specifically but I remember that cause I liked Sooty and Sweep from TV that I did own a game and play it when I could. I only remember the opening segment with Sooty and his wand and what I remember as Spiders as enemies and a stair case. I was only little and I was rubbish. So often I would die and have to start over. the issue with this was that starting over did not always work and so you would have to reload for another few hours! It was not an great machine and I quickly grew bored. However shortly after we got our Amiga 500 with its floppy disc's (I did also play on a Commodore at my Aunties but this was very rare). I remember Postman Pat delivering letters, Thomas the Tank Engine and my first real love in gaming, 'The Point and Click' adventure games.
It started with 'The Secret of Monkey Island' and I loved the humour involved in the game. Guybrush was such a wonderful character and someone I could relate to. He was an ordinary and kind of weak guy but wanted to be a pirate and through determination he got there. I remember the changing of the disc every few minutes when you went from one area to another (There was 4 in total) and Stan selling the ships. I recently played this on Xbox Live Arcade and it still held its magic for me. Later I would play the sequels along with The Dig, Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle on PC's. Around 1990 I think I got my first console of my own which was a Sega Megadrive. I had played on the NES and SNES at a family friends house but for some reason I went with Sega.
I remember that fondly. Sonic, Road Rash, Sensible Soccer, Micro Machines, Pete Sampras Tennis.... The list could go on. When I finally traded that in towards a PlayStation I had some 30-40 games. I never went with the other consoles around this time. The Mega CD or the 32x and the Sega Saturn all skipped me by. I knew a few people who went with these but it was only the odd person and to be fair they never really talked about it. It was only when the PlayStation was launched that games became the playground topic. Everyone had one or wanted one. Like I said I went into my local Game store around my birthday about 6-9 months after it had launched and traded in all of my Megadrive stuff (A decision I wish I had not had taken as I want them back today!).
I think I had almost all the value of the console paid with my trade in and so used the little bit my parents would spend on me to buy a game or two. For the life of me I cannot remember which game it was. I know I played Tekken early on so it may have been that. Through the following years I played some AMAZING games. They were probably the best games I have played and to be fair, release them today with the current graphics and they would still receive great reviews because the games were so solid. We are talking things like Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider, Gran Turismo and of course 'Final Fantasy VII'. That game took so many hours of my life up, they all did. But the games were just so much more absorbing than anything that had come before. Before long everyone I knew had a PS and we were swapping games and talking about them. I had mates round to play and we even chipped in together for a 'Multi Tap' so we could play 3-4 players on one console on things like FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer (I would always win! Even 2 against 1).
Then we all moved on to the PlayStation 2 which was kind of more of the same. At this point I was actually working in a game shop and so I also ventured onto the Xbox and the Gamecube. The Gamecube was such a nice console. It had some great original titles along with some great remakes. Just look at Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes. These were probably the first HD remade games and the new features and graphics were brilliant. Unfortunately this little console got caught out by the big 2 of the PS2 and Xbox and gems were missed by the general public.
I will have fond memories of Mario Kart Double Dash and Metroid Prime amongst others. This was also the time where I was buying old consoles again. I picked up my Saturn (Huge pile of rubbish) an N64 with Goldeneye etc and found I could not stand the pad. I also picked up a Sega Dreamcast console... Again this was a missed gem of a machine. Shenmue was a fantastically scripted title. Chu Chu rocket was a fun little puzzler and I thought Metropolis Street Racer was not a bad game either. The more mature of you might have also enjoyed Dead or Alive... But not for the fighting.
I owned Crazy Taxi on this machine which was also a huge arcade hit. I recently brought the re-release on XBLA and found without 'The Offspring' soundtrack the game felt weird...
I went further back and played things like D and Sega Rally on the Sega Saturn.
I am honestly not sure if this was just terrible or whether the PS1 had this crummy graphics but god it looked awful. This coupled with the unfortunately low sales of the Dreamcast killed off Sega consoles. It was amazing to see a huge company like Sega go through the tough times they did. It has been said that Sega just did not really have a long term plan. they quickly released products without really thinking and with poor implementation. I think from memory that the Mega CD and Mega 32x were released within the same year.. 2 Consoles in a year with development costs and advertising would cost loads....
By the early 21st century it was Sony that had the large market share and everyone owned a PS2. They were so successful that they were still selling well into the following console generation. But somehow Sony messed up with the PS3. The high price and late launch date compared to Xbox 360 meant that they had kind of missed the boat. Plus soon after they launched Nintendo out of nowhere released the Wii. Now I did go out and buy one. But after the first few weeks it became apparent that it had no games that got my attention. So I quickly sold it. The Wii did so well because it was different. But it was not for me.
My PS3 to a degree was the same. I still own it, but it sits under my TV only getting used to take advantage of the free games on PlayStation Plus each month. This service on discounts is better than Xbox but I use my Xbox more for games now. There have been a handful of exclusive titles on Xbox but bar Gears of War I can't say many have really been great games. Left 4 Dead, Forza and a handful of Arcade titles have been good but would not make me buy the machine. It was mainly the price and release date that made me get one. I cannot say there have been any games that have really grabbed me like the early ones. Resident Evil has gone off the rails and point and click had almost disappeared. Then out of the darkness and from a pretty random publisher called 'Telltale Games' came the game of 2012.
The Walking Dead made huge waves in the gaming industry and really got under my skin during my play through. We are currently in a gap between series 1 and 2 and the excitement is amazing. Everyone I speak to has played the game and raves about it. We had nearly Zero point and click games through the first decade of the 21st century and it was said that they were dead. But suddenly other games are sprouting up as people realise that Narrative sells games.
Now we are getting to the point where the Next Generation of consoles is on the horizon. We have the Wii U out already but the sales for this over the 9 months it has been out have been terrible. It is being outsold by consoles nearly 10 years old... Nintendo seem worried. The Xbox One and PS4 will hit down this year. But which way to go? Sony have said all the right things and the product is cheaper. Microsoft have made mistakes, have a weaker machine (On paper but they do have cloud power which can be limitless potentially) and a higher price point. It seems a role reversal from the last gen and I am torn... Loyalty to Xbox and my gamer score of 75k which is pretty big, or a console that seems to have the needs of the gamers at its core... I have a few months to decide but I am seriously on the fence.. Do you buy a console for Spec or for the games? For me I would prefer the games. The story of games is what draws me in. I did not spend 50 hours playing Final Fantasy VII for graphics but the characters.
To be fair waiting for game reviews would be best option. But reviews are subjective and may not answer my questions. Many of my must buy games are turning out to be remakes. I cannot escape the nostalgia. Flashback HD coming soon. Mickey Mouse's Castle of Illusions next... These games are 20 years old. But they take me back to when games were great and graphics did not rule.
MR
I owned Crazy Taxi on this machine which was also a huge arcade hit. I recently brought the re-release on XBLA and found without 'The Offspring' soundtrack the game felt weird...
I went further back and played things like D and Sega Rally on the Sega Saturn.
By the early 21st century it was Sony that had the large market share and everyone owned a PS2. They were so successful that they were still selling well into the following console generation. But somehow Sony messed up with the PS3. The high price and late launch date compared to Xbox 360 meant that they had kind of missed the boat. Plus soon after they launched Nintendo out of nowhere released the Wii. Now I did go out and buy one. But after the first few weeks it became apparent that it had no games that got my attention. So I quickly sold it. The Wii did so well because it was different. But it was not for me.
My PS3 to a degree was the same. I still own it, but it sits under my TV only getting used to take advantage of the free games on PlayStation Plus each month. This service on discounts is better than Xbox but I use my Xbox more for games now. There have been a handful of exclusive titles on Xbox but bar Gears of War I can't say many have really been great games. Left 4 Dead, Forza and a handful of Arcade titles have been good but would not make me buy the machine. It was mainly the price and release date that made me get one. I cannot say there have been any games that have really grabbed me like the early ones. Resident Evil has gone off the rails and point and click had almost disappeared. Then out of the darkness and from a pretty random publisher called 'Telltale Games' came the game of 2012.
Now we are getting to the point where the Next Generation of consoles is on the horizon. We have the Wii U out already but the sales for this over the 9 months it has been out have been terrible. It is being outsold by consoles nearly 10 years old... Nintendo seem worried. The Xbox One and PS4 will hit down this year. But which way to go? Sony have said all the right things and the product is cheaper. Microsoft have made mistakes, have a weaker machine (On paper but they do have cloud power which can be limitless potentially) and a higher price point. It seems a role reversal from the last gen and I am torn... Loyalty to Xbox and my gamer score of 75k which is pretty big, or a console that seems to have the needs of the gamers at its core... I have a few months to decide but I am seriously on the fence.. Do you buy a console for Spec or for the games? For me I would prefer the games. The story of games is what draws me in. I did not spend 50 hours playing Final Fantasy VII for graphics but the characters.
To be fair waiting for game reviews would be best option. But reviews are subjective and may not answer my questions. Many of my must buy games are turning out to be remakes. I cannot escape the nostalgia. Flashback HD coming soon. Mickey Mouse's Castle of Illusions next... These games are 20 years old. But they take me back to when games were great and graphics did not rule.
MR
Thursday 11 July 2013
GTA V - Colour Me Excited
The mind boggles!
MR
Wednesday 3 July 2013
The Art of Reviewing
The truth is there really isn't one. Reviews are all completely subjective and the opinion and experience of the person writing them. That is not to say that they are completely without merit but it is often wise to get a more general overview of reviews than just one.
Once my colleagues start submitting reviews we are hoping to be able to give you a more varied scope on things than just one man's view point.
Just to put this into a context, say you and I play the same game. Something like Alien: Colonial Marines. You being a huge fan of the Films, you own all of the collectors editions and also have been a fan of shooters on consoles such as Halo, COD and the like. Myself, I have just turned 18, have never really seen horror films (Been too young remember) and my gaming experiences come mainly from arcades (I know this is an unlikely extreme). From our two view points our opinions are likely to differ dramatically. For me the game would look great, be full of suspense. For you it would look shoddy, be lacking in any depth or fear or originality. the reviews would be at complete opposite ends. If I was to play the same games as you later then my view would likely change to match yours but my review at the time would come down to my past experiences.
It is often good to know where a reviewers opinion is coming from. What they are comparing it to. This would then link with the audience a bit and put things into a more defined context. While the website currently does not have this on our reviews it is something that we think will help. So once we have multiple view points on the same subject. We will try and link to a context so you can easily detect which review will match your thoughts. Its not an exact science but without being you we can never be 100%.
MR
MR
Tuesday 2 July 2013
Console Wars
We are coming to the end of the current generation of consoles. The War for supremacy is going to run on but who has won the current battle?
It looked for a long while that the Nintendo Wii was going to be the top selling console of the Generation. However in the last few weeks it has been overtaken by the Xbox 360. This seems to be the biggest surprise of this generation. Sony dominated the previous generation with the PS2. This console was selling in decent numbers well after the later generation of consoles had launched. It lasted around 10 years and still had games in development up until recently.
the PS3 however really never took off. It was surprising how much it struggled even in its native Japan. It was hammered in the US not because it was a poor machine, but the cost over the 360 was enormous. It was being sold at nearly £100 more than a 360 at launch and kept a higher price point through the generation. Both Sony and Microsoft made mistakes with that generation. With unique in house chip sets being made at great expense and meaning the cost needed to be high to recoup much of the cost.
However moving in to the next generation we see both have learned a lesson and also both have made mistakes early.
We have a couple of articles on our website (entertainiast.com) regarding these but in a nutshell.
Microsoft messed up with the restrictions to used games and the always online rumours. Plus they have gone with a higher price point on the new console. This does include the Kinect sensor which with the right backing now that ALL users will own one may actually be a positive.
Sony had a poor reveal but really nailed it at E3. They under cut Xbox One price and had no restrictions on used games. They did however make the saving by pulling the Playstation Eye camera out of the box. This was a bit stupid as the new pad had an LED that was meant to be used for motion control. How many people will spend out on a camera now to use this? Not many, which could kill off the motion gaming aspect of the PS4... Hmm.
I think it is still all to play for... But what do you think? Please Vote in our POLL.
MR
It looked for a long while that the Nintendo Wii was going to be the top selling console of the Generation. However in the last few weeks it has been overtaken by the Xbox 360. This seems to be the biggest surprise of this generation. Sony dominated the previous generation with the PS2. This console was selling in decent numbers well after the later generation of consoles had launched. It lasted around 10 years and still had games in development up until recently.
the PS3 however really never took off. It was surprising how much it struggled even in its native Japan. It was hammered in the US not because it was a poor machine, but the cost over the 360 was enormous. It was being sold at nearly £100 more than a 360 at launch and kept a higher price point through the generation. Both Sony and Microsoft made mistakes with that generation. With unique in house chip sets being made at great expense and meaning the cost needed to be high to recoup much of the cost.
However moving in to the next generation we see both have learned a lesson and also both have made mistakes early.
We have a couple of articles on our website (entertainiast.com) regarding these but in a nutshell.
Microsoft messed up with the restrictions to used games and the always online rumours. Plus they have gone with a higher price point on the new console. This does include the Kinect sensor which with the right backing now that ALL users will own one may actually be a positive.
Sony had a poor reveal but really nailed it at E3. They under cut Xbox One price and had no restrictions on used games. They did however make the saving by pulling the Playstation Eye camera out of the box. This was a bit stupid as the new pad had an LED that was meant to be used for motion control. How many people will spend out on a camera now to use this? Not many, which could kill off the motion gaming aspect of the PS4... Hmm.
I think it is still all to play for... But what do you think? Please Vote in our POLL.
MR
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