Borderlands 3 (PS4) Review - A Great New Borderlands Game

- Written by James Walters

The fresh batch of Vault Hunters to choose from! Who will you main? [2K Games, Gearbox ©, Image Source: Destructoid]

Borderlands, as a franchise, wasn’t actually my cup of tea when it originally debuted way back in 2009. I had friends who would play it non-stop and encourage I do the same, but it never really stuck with me. I never played either of its sequels either. In fact, the first time I sat down to commit with the game was when The Handsome Collection released on PS4 and Xbox One back in 2015 when I had the opportunity to play through the campaign with a friend. From that point on I was hooked and the announcement of Borderlands 3 earlier this year had me more excited than I thought possible for a Borderlands game. Now that’s its out and I’ve managed to run and gun my way through the campaign, I thought I take the time to write up about 2K Games and Gearbox’s latest entry to the series.

For anyone who couldn’t tell, this is a follow-up to Borderlands 2 and takes place an undisclosed amount of time afterwards. Anyone who played the Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary DLC for The Handsome Collection will know a bit more than those who missed it and just jumped straight through from 2 to 3. But the long and short of it is that the Vault Key the Crimson Raiders had up and went missing (assumedly destroyed) and they want to  find it as it holds a map to other Vaults across the galaxy. Your player character, one of 4 new Vault Hunters, is hired by Lilith (and Claptrap) to help find it and ultimately the vaults. Opposing you are a psycho cult that has formed on Pandora called The Children of the Vault led by the Calypso Twins, Tyreen and Troy. Really, I don’t want to go any further into any story stuff because while story isn’t the focal point of the Borderlands games, it’s still worth going into it blind and experiencing it for yourself. It has a variety of call-backs for long-time fans and some clever Easter eggs hidden around the place if you’re willing to look for them.

Gameplay is pretty much the driving force behind the Borderlands games. It’s fast paced, hectic as hell gun play is pretty much what the series is known for, as well as its signature self-titled looter shooter mechanics. Enemies will drop randomly generated guns and you can swap and change them from your inventory as you please. The game trailers boast something ridiculous like “Over 1 billion guns” and it’s not too hard to believe. There is plenty of variety in weapons but they all fall into the basic categories i.e. pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, SMGs etc. which was the exact layout of gun types I used throughout my time with the game. It’s all down to experimentation and that again is its driving force; you’ll find a layout that appeals to you, you’ll use that to your hearts content and then you’ll find something new to play with! Basic stuff.

The differences between this game and previous comes down to the smaller details, otherwise everything else is nearly identical. You’ll level up and earn skill points but instead of having one super powerful “oh no I’m nearly dead” move you can choose from 3! Which skills you’ll get will change depending upon the character you choose, but the character I chose had 3 skills they could use (although I only ever used one of them). Speaking of characters, the choices on offer this time are as follows;

• Zane - The Operative: To my understanding he’s a pretty standard assassin/rouge type character as he can use one of his abilities to create a decoy or summon a flying robot helper.
• Moze - The Gunner: Arguably a cross between a tank and a soldier as her specialty in normal play is the standard assault rifles and SMGs. Her main skill is to summon a giant mech called the Iron Bear that you can pilot around the battlefield for a short time.
• Amara – The Siren: A staple character type found in the numbered entries now is the Siren character, a pretty well rounded character type that had use of special powers like a huge ground pound and the ability to spawn multiple arms that will smash up bandits and psychos.
• FL4K – The Beastmaster: A first of his kind in the series, FL4K uses Ai controlled companies during battle in the form of tamed beasts found out in the wild (although it is jarring when you have to fight those same beast types throughout the game). He can have at his side a Skaggs, Spiderant or a Jabber each sporting a difference play type and having multiple evolutions when you level up enough in a certain skill tree

If it sounds thus far like all I’ve done is describe the game and not review it, well you’ve caught me there… The difficulty with this game is, if you’ve already played a Borderlands game then you’ve pretty much seen all there is to see I’m afraid. Like I said there are some mechanical changes that I’ll go over in a moment but other than that, it’s pretty much just another Borderlands game and that in itself will be what puts people off or makes them want to play.

I didn’t title this review “A great new Borderlands game” for no reason; it’s simply another game in the series that has some quality of life improvements. Like getting money and ammo is more streamlined now with not having to hold down the ‘pick-up’ button to gather a group of items, instead just walking past will auto collect any money and necessary ammo nearby. The new clambering feature is great and adds a whole new level of verticality to proceedings, with hidden crates and small platforming sections. They added a much needed slide function for when you need to get behind cover in a fire fight; it was so useful a feature that going back and playing the Pre-sequel, I would be running and press the crouch button expecting to power slide only to stop dead in my tracks. These feature are all great new additions and really add to the experience of playing a Borderlands game but that doesn’t take away from the fact that is still the same game at heart.

Although I do want to mention one big gripe I had with the game. As mentioned before, story isn’t the biggest driving force in these games but character is; the worlds you explore are full of interesting and fleshed out characters that add some colour to your missions. These games are known for their memorable characters and even the villains, or at least one great villain being Handsome Jack. Do you see where I’m going with this? The Calypso Twins are just not very interesting in my opinion. They fill the stereotypical eccentric bad guy role well and literally everything they do makes me want to shoot them in the face… repeatedly. But beyond that they’re just so dull. They’re whole reason for what they do is to find and open the “Great Vault” and become gods, they see the whole opening of the Vaults as their birth right (which is explained later on) but beyond that they’re so one dimensional. At least Jack was interesting because in his own way he thought he was the hero and he sought to open the Vault and save Pandora, Tyreen and Troy are more like spoilt brats and annoying social media ‘influencers’ that constantly vie for fans and followers while streaming everything. I wanted to defeat them because they were annoying more so than because they tried to rule the universe.

Before I waffle on I’ll finish up this review now. But it’s like I said before, it’s a difficult one to review because of its similarities to its predecessors. It adds enough little changes that make the overall experience better for it, but simply quality of life improvements does not a whole new game make. The gun variety is expanded upon and there are newer additions to give more variety to customization and play style. The bad guys are underwhelming and the story investing enough that I saw it through to the end. But all of this still comes back to that one glaring point I made earlier; it’s just another Borderlands game. So if you are an avid fan of the series looking for more of what you like but improved upon slightly then you could do worse than playing Borderlands 3. If you are a newcomer to the series than it’s a great place to start and get a feel for it, but a lot of the story beats and call backs will go completely over your head and going back to play the older games might feel a bit jarring. If however you just liked the other games, then you could give Borderlands 3 a go but don’t come into this expecting a drastic change up to what you’ve already seen.

Catherine: Full Body (PS4) Review - Full bodied in name and nature

The girls of Vincent's affections! Catherine, Rin and Katherine [Sega, Atlus©, Image Source: GameSpot]



Like the wine analogy it’s named after, Catherine: Full Body is a game that’s aged well since its original 2011 release. Back again after 8 years, this current gen remaster not only brings some needed quality of life improvements but also a whole new story line and some drastic changes to the existing plots the game had. It is by no means a perfect game, I’d argue that if you didn’t like the original game then this version won’t go far to change your mind. But if you were a fan or are at the least bit curious, then Catherine: Full Body is very much the way to play this game.

Admittedly I can’t quite list all the quality of life improvements made in this rerelease, only a couple. I haven’t played the original since its release and even then, I was focused more on getting through the challenging levels than noticing any game mechanics. They’re more so the kind of things that you wouldn’t really notice unless they were pointed out to you (as it happened with me). First and foremost is the whole new difficulty setting, Safety mode. The biggest complaint that most people had with the original game is just how difficult its puzzles were, even on Easy mode! The developers must have taken this on board when remastering the game as Safety mode is, and I mean no exaggeration, really frigin safe. The game still gives a challenge; enemies can still hurt you, bit monsters can still kill you instantly and you can still fall off blocks. The difference however is that when any of this happens, you’ll simply go back in the games “Undo” system. You literally cannot die or lose on safety mode.

Keeping on Safety mode, the blocks don’t fall from the bottom of the tower either removing the biggest incentive for you to move your ass. Trap blocks come in all shapes and sizes like spikes, black holes and ice but on Safety mode, they’re all covered over and act as normal blocks with all risk removed entirely. If you’re feeling particularly lazy or are just completely in the game for the story, you can essentially skip the puzzle sections altogether with the “Auto Play” feature. Activate it and your character will just climb his merry self to the top of the tower. It seems like I’m giving the new mode flack but in all honesty, I thought it was a great way to play if you really struggled to get through the normal game. Not to say that everyone should play Safety mode; if you were good back when it came out or are interested in the challenge then by all means keep on Easy mode or higher. But for those out there who like some reasonable puzzles along with our story, then this new feature is great.

I should really talk about the basic game for anyone who hasn’t heard of this game before! So it’s essentially a puzzled based story game; the story is tailored to how you play and the choices you make during the day. During the night you have nightmares that involve climbing towers made of blocks. You’ll push, pull, hang off of and climb up a variety of blocks to reach the top. This side of the game is pretty far removed from how you make your choices however; you won’t suddenly get a bad ending or the opposite ending because you misjudged a gap and fell to your death. Whenever you’re awake you make decisions that affect the story as well as in-between puzzle levels when you’ll be asked questions about… your real life experiences with relationships… It’s very invested in the whole love life thing!

So, let’s look at the story and characters. You’ll play as Vincent Brookes; he has an unspecified job and spends most nights drinking with his friends in the Stray Sheep (your hub throughout most of the game). He’s been in a “serious” relationship with Katherine for about 5 years and she’s starting to talk about “the next step”. Like a stereotypical guy, Vincent isn’t too keen to get married and have kids (who can blame him really). So while he whines away his troubles to his friend and drinks through the night, he wakes up to find he’s accidently cheated on Katherine with some younger blonde girl who happens to also be named Catherine. The ensuing drama is almost identical to the original release with slight story alterations due to the new girl on the block!  Don’t worry, her name is just Rin. She arrives in typical anime fashion; landing right on top of Vincent with his face in her crotch (Oh Japan!). She’s got no memory though, so Vincent is keeping an eye on her until she remembers. Now this sounds vague as hell, that’s because I really don’t want to go into any story spoilers because that’s this games biggest draw; giving anything away makes it seem pointless to play the game. Twists and turns lose all intrigue and the motivation to carry on is lost when you know what’s around the corner and believe me, some of this shit you will NOT see coming.

Coming right around to a verdict, it’s a very straight forward kind of finisher though. If you have played Catherine before then you’ll already know if you like it or not; if you do then you could do worse than picking up this version to experience the new pieces and story. If it wasn’t for you then this rerelease is unlikely to sway you. However to those that haven’t experienced this game before, then it’s one I’d definitely recommend for its great story and unique gameplay and puzzles. Catherine: Full Body is the definitive way to experience this game.

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (3DS) Review - The definitive version to play?

A motley crew ready to slay some goo! [Square Enix ©, Image Source: Humble Bundle]

As any of my previous experience with writing has proved, it’s actually a lot harder to write about something in a review format when you absolutely love the product (Hence why I’m slowly putting off my Astro Bot: Rescue Mission review). I’ve probably just massively given away my opinions on Dragon Quest 8 already with that opener, but bear with me for a moment while I try to gather up everything I have to say on this game because not all of it is great. Full disclosure, I haven’t played the original PS2 version to completion so when I talk about the original version, these opinions are founded on the things I have read online by those who have played it far more than I have. Also to preface things before we go on, I started playing this game on a more casual basis earlier in the year and only sat down to commit to finishing it in the last month.

I suppose the first thing I should mention is how it was relatively easy to carry on after such a long hiatus! Many an RPG player can tell you how often times when you leave in the middle of a game such as this, you can’t quite catch back up to where you were when you return or at least not as easily. But it’s something of a testament to the game, its storytelling and the characters involved that I remembered almost exactly what I was doing the last time I played (the break was only to play other things that released).

I thoroughly loved the story of this game, even if I thought as numerous times the game was going to end a good 10-20 hours before it did. For instance defeating Dhoulmagus seemed very END worthy I thought until things carried on. Then after kicking Marcello’s ass I thought we were winding down pretty soon. Nope. Again though, not really a complaint more of a commentary on how and when we usually expect a decent story to end, but Dragon Quest 8 decided it wanted to tell a much more grandiose and in depth story and I was fully along for the ride. When the story eventually did wrap up, I was very satisfied with how it all came together. Upon further research I found out about the other endings the game held including two that could only be accessed after completing a section of the post-game. After doing so and experiencing one of these ending, I have to say that I easily prefer the original ending the game came with for the sheer excitement and sense of adventure that it gave that resonated with the rest of the game. Not to say that the other endings (let’s call them the “Ring” endings to avoid spoilers) where bad, but compared to the original endings, the “Ring” endings changed a major element of the story’s end but didn’t give them enough of a payoff afterwards. In fact, one of the “Ring” endings that I looked up on YouTube had a better payoff than the other which annoyed me most as I never would have thought the story to end that way; apart from one instance in the game that is entirely miss able nothing else leads you to think the story could go that way.

But I digress, let’s move onto the gameplay itself. Apparently the gameplay mechanics are similar among other Dragon Quest games so if you’ve played another game in the main series then you shouldn’t have any issues. I however was a newcomer to the mainline titles, having only completed the spin-offs Dragon Quest Builders (Fantastic game) and Dragon Quest Heroes (Shit game), it was very jarring for me when I went into battle for the first time after stocking up on healing items to find that those items were in my ‘Bag’ and not on my character. So I quickly learned that Dragon Quest ascribes to the old school style of RPG where you need to organise a characters items individually whether that’s equipment or usable items. This way of playing is likely to be difficult to understand if you’re new to RPGs, but anyone who has played a few RPGs before will get used to it pretty easily. Once you get a good few levels under your belt and invest the skill points in the right areas, healing items will become less and less useful as you’ll get healing spells that don’t cost that much MP (Magic Points) to use.

The main party consists of four characters; the Hero, Yangus, Jessica and Angelo. Each filling in a sort of classic RPG roles like Warrior, Tank, Black Mage and White Mage respectively. Your player character will get a good mix of both physical and magical skills so you can play them however you wish. Yangus has next to no magic abilities, his strengths lie with his attack skills but he can learn one ability that can be a real life saver (no pun intended) whereby he’ll “sacrifice” himself in order to revive the rest of the party if they’re downed. I say “sacrifice” because the moment you do that and he dies, you can simply order Angelo to revive him next turn, the only caveat as he’ll have no MP left to use magic or skills. Moving on to Jessica, she is the dedicated magic user, she can use physical attacks too but they do practically no damage. Her speciality is her magic which she uses mostly as an offensive attack but has some useful buffing magic. If you level up her… “Sex Appeal”, she’ll gain a passive ability that has the chance to stop monsters from using a turn as they become… *cough*enthralled by her “fine form” (This game is Japanese don’t forget). And lastly is Angelo, who for my run at least was my primary healer/buffer character. He has several useful physical skills but as I focused my Hero and Yangus on their strength, he became the guy who’d heal, revive and buff stats throughout the battle.

All in all, a good balance of playable characters I thought and how the game originally released back on the PS2. However the 3DS remaster boasts two additional party members; one that is gained through the story and another that you have to earn through a Pokémon style monster arena. The former is Red; those who’ve played before will know Red as the female bandit character you encounter near Pickham. You’ll encounter her again in Pirate’s Cove later in the game and in this version she will decide to join your party on your journey. The other character is Morrie, the red and green curator and champion of the Monster Arena also found near Pickham. He isn’t so easily gained however as you have to complete his monster arena challenges all the way to S rank where you’ll face Morrie in the final fight. Defeat him and he’ll also accompany you on your adventure. Now, you may notice that except for the finale, they won’t have much of an impact on the story and even then they only make brief appearances during the stories close. Other players online have expressed that they use the two new characters in place of Jessica and Angelo for their playthroughs however, I didn’t use them apart from visiting a grinding spot; not to say that the characters were bad or unusable, just that I had grown so accustomed to the original team and devised a strategy that worked well for me even through to the final encounter. My point here is that the new additions are well received in a general sense but I personally didn’t experience it.

I’ll mention briefly the post-game stuff. After beating the story you’ll unlock a new area and an additional bit of story in order to unlock the “Ring” endings mentioned earlier. The Dragovian trials, as the sequence is called, can range from being very short or very long depending on how much you wish to invest into it. Myself, I only up until the story part ended and the trial part began. From what I can gather, the only reason to carry on after this is to simply keep beating harder and harder bosses, which is fine if you’re into that kind of grind but I took what I had and ran with it.

So I need to wrap things up. Honestly, if the old RPG mood takes you and you want something with a good level of challenge and a good story, you could do worse than to check out Dragon Quest 8. It’s an older title now but with the 3DS port, it’s never been easier to play it whenever you want to. The new additions from the PS2 version are only really noticeable when they’re pointed out otherwise you might miss them. Regardless of that, it’s a good way to spend 60 hours and speaking as someone who used this as their introduction to the main series, I will definitely be visiting more titles in the Dragon Quest series. You might feel the same after finishing this game.

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fuelled (PS4) Review - Activision does it again, in more ways than one

A clash for the ages... on wheels! [Activision, Beenox ©, Image Source: GamesRadar.com]

Although it comes as a surprise to no one, I’m a big fan of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. Hell, half of my arm is covered in tattoos and two of my biggest ones are of the orange marsupial and purple dragon. When Activision and PlayStation announced the N. Sane Trilogy a few years ago I was over the moon excited (even for the Skylanders Crash expansion too cause I actually love that series). Go back to last year and the start of 2018 gave us rumblings of a Spyro remake too but with nothing confirmed I took it all at face value. The Reignited Trilogy was announced, back over the moon I went, even when it was delayed. Then came The Game Awards 2018 and with the very on the nose orange fuzzy dice sent to select journalists, it was no surprise to see Crash Team Racing receive the remake treatment too. It’s been out for about two and a half months and while this review may seem very VERY late, as anyone will tell you the game has gone through some significant changes from launch and that’s why it bares reviewing the game at this stage right as its third Grand Prix event is beginning.

First off we need to look at the base game and the first of my two routes I’m referring to when I said “Activision does it again”. For anyone that missed it, the aforementioned N. Sane Trilogy and Reignited Trilogy are ground up remakes of the classic PS1 titles from Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. CTR Nitro Fuelled is the same thing only with more stuff. Whereas the original only had a handful of racers and tracks, this remake brings all of those back but includes characters and tracks from the pseudo sequel CTR Nitro Kart on the PS2. So characters like Crunch Bandicoot (only introduced in Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex on PS2) and the various Team Oxide characters are playable in Nitro Fuelled… Provided you can save up the required coins to buy them.

They’re recreated the CTR adventure mode too, hub worlds and all. Each boss fight introduction is a full-fledged cut scene as opposed to the TV interview style of the original game. The graphics are very visually pleasing, the worlds are bright and colourful and the details on each kart and character is gorgeous. I’d finally figured out the 4K resolution on our TV at home while playing this game and the change was definitely noticeable! Although tracks will whizz by when racing as max speeds, each has been given sufficient investment and each has their own set of unique details and goings on, making each feel like a real lived in environment. Tigers will be running around the rooftops in Tiger Temple, flying cars go by in Android Alley and all of this still visible when you get blown up by a bowling bomb.

Campaign mode is a lot more difficult then I remember it being. I’m not going to sit here and compare the game to Dark Souls like every other journalist out there does when any game gives even the slightest challenge these days. It’s definitely not easy though (unless you play on easy) and the game practically forces you to get good at its biggest driving mechanic’ the drifting feature. In CTR, you’ll jump using one of the shoulder buttons. When you do, a little bar will begin to fill. When that bar reaches a certain threshold, you can get a boost by pressing the opposite shoulder button which can be chained up to three times. Learning and mastering this mechanic is the key when it comes to winning any races in CTR and especially so if you want to tackle the online side of things.

Speaking of online, this is one of the biggest additions to this remake. Being that I’m not the biggest online player, I don’t have many issues with the online feature in CTR. Notice though I said “many” meaning I still have some. Online matchmaking works on a P2P system instead of dedicated servers. This means that when you want to start an online match, the players involved are connected to one person’s system instead of a purpose built server. So if that persons internet connection isn’t great, you’re gonna have a bad time in that race if you even get to it. The player hosting can cancel out and thus, the whole lobby leaves (usually within the last few seconds annoyingly).

There isn’t any kind of system to match players based on skill levels either. Say you’re a new player who fancied trying your hand at online match making, you could either get really lucky and have a match of players of a similar skill level, or get completely screwed and end up with 7 other racers who’ve already sank hundreds of hours into the game and leave your in 8^th place the entire race. The same can be true in reverse; you’ll be a veteran and want to challenge yourself in an online field but find that you’re going at such a good speed you end up lapping everyone. It needs some kind of tier system implemented, you could use the trophies that you’re rewarded with as those seems entirely useless otherwise (if I’m wrong and they do have a purpose, please let me know).

My final gripe is more based on an online mode that players of the game have been pining after since launch and that’s an item less style race. When you start out, on most tracks, you’ll no doubt find a row of item boxes which will be annihilated in seconds and the players luck enough to get an item will use it straight away. This practice has been dubbed “Weapon Spam” and can make or break any match. It’s especially annoying if you’re having a good match and keep the lead or second/third as racers at the back will be more likely to receive the dreaded blue orb. This item targets whoever is in first place but hits each player along the way and, because a few people can get one at a time, there can be multiple orbs on the track at a time (most I’ve had in one instance was 3!). Now, you could make the argument that it wouldn’t be in the spirit or feel of CTR to have no items on the track during a race, that using the items to gain an advantage in a race is all part of the fun. But I’d argue that the reason players, including myself are getting annoyed, it because you could have been flying through the track using all your skills and abilities to get to where you are, only to lose that because someone back in 8^th place got their hands on an orb and stopped you dead in your tracks leaving second, third or even fourth to come up and take the win. The point here is that online could only be improved by having an online race form that allowed for no item races, not ruined.

To be honest, I do really enjoy this game. I’m one of the aforementioned players that has sunk over 100 hours into the game thus far, platinumed it and completed the story 101%. So I obviously like the game. But where my reviews would usually end here, we not must go on to what Activision has done since the game released. So let’s talk about the Grand Prix’s.

The Grand Prix

The first Grand Prix to come up was Nitro Tour. The premise behind the grand prix was simple enough; monthly events that added one new track and a ton of new items including characters, skins, karts and kart accessories. These items could be earned by completing challenges and earning nitro points or through the Pit Stop (the in-game shop where you’d spend Wumpa coins, the in-game currency). Nitro Tour was pretty well received, it added a fair few new characters including Tawna Bandicoot and the Nitro girls from original CTR, each had their own legendary skin to buy or earn. If you managed to make it into the top 5% of the online leader boards, you were awarded with the Champion kart and a decal to celebrate you’re achievement. Honestly, the only complaints I saw through the first grand prix (besides a few noticeable bugs and glitches) was that the use of certain characters, karts etc. would give a multiplier and only ended up having lobby’s full of the same characters, karts and skins etc. Other than that some of the challenges felt very repetitive and boring.

We then move onto the last grand prix that’s just wrapped up; the Back N. Time Grand Prix. Mechanically it’s the same as Nitro Tour; there were new characters added, a new track and new karts etc. The number of new characters went down to 3 but they were well made characters and became the choice of many top racers. The new track was well received and is considered the best new track so far, despite the almost impossible shortcut jump right near the start and the crates and super pads making the first minutes a nightmare. But it was what came outside the racing that has many fans annoyed. Again referring back to “Activision does it again”, as of the commencement of the second Grand Prix they implemented micro transactions into the pit stop. Now, had this just been put there and left to players discretion as to wither they used it would have been okay, however the prices of bundles in the pit stop went up horrendously (A kart, skin, decal and sticker pack went up to around 11,000 coins but with a “discount” putting it at around 9,900). Not only that but once this last grand prix finished, an option became available to use Wumpa coins to fill up your nitro bar in order to get the prizes in each tier. While this wouldn’t affect your place on the leader board, it does mean that those who spend time and grinded out the nitro to earn those rewards feel cheated as anyone can simply come along when it finished to buy them all. Put simply it isn’t fair!

And a big argument that you’ll hear is that “If It doesn’t affect you then why does it bother you?” which is a fair statement; I’m never going to pay extra money for an item that can be earned through hard work and determination. But that doesn’t mean that these things should be here as there are likely younger players with access to parent’s bank accounts that could spend willy-nilly without realizing. And as I mentioned, those with the disposable income to buy everything only make those who have to work to get everything feel worthless. Going into a lobby and seeing the other players have items from higher tiers or expensive kart sets used to give a sense of “Wow, that person must have spent a lot of time to earn those rewards”, whereas now I just look and think “They’ve probably bought all of that” and the experience is lessened.

I don’t want to harp too much on the Grand Prix’s or the game as a whole because at face value, it’s a brilliant game! It’s a lovingly remade classic that definitely deserves to be in people’s library of games, but when you get into the deeper side of things is when the cracks begin to form. The adventure mode and the local arcade features are practically faultless, the online has a few issues but is functional for the most part, the Grand Prix’s are fun and keep players coming back for a good amount of time. The predatory nature of Activision has come to the forefront though since the game’s launch and this needs to be addressed. The Grand Prix that’s just started is all to do with Spyro so that’s definitely worth being excited for. Pick this game up when you have the chance, just prepare to invest some hours into it but at least they’ll be enjoyable hours.

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth (3DS) Review - The team-up we've been waiting for

An All-out Attack never looked so stylish! [SEGA, Atlus ©, Image Source:  Amazon.com]

Straight off the bat I have to state that I am a huge fan of the Persona series from Persona 3 onwards; the series came into my life at a bad point and I enjoyed it so much that I’ve played every game since and loved them all. To some, that statement would likely insight some questions as to my bias towards the series. However, Persona Q is a spin-off series as it combines the mechanics and style of the Etrian Odyssey series with the characters, settings and combat from the Persona series. The first game, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth released back in 2014 for 3Ds and I played that too except I hated it, didn’t even finish it once. It seemed like an ideal game for me since I came into the series with Persona 3 and sank countless hours into Persona 4, combining the two into one game was supposed to be a dream but it really wasn’t. So when I came to play Persona Q2, I had my reservations but I’m glad to say that they were unnecessary. Had the first game been as good as its sequel then I likely would have loved it in its entirety.

The story premise is largely the same considering what I played of the first game; different Persona teams (this time from Personas 3, 4 and 5) are brought together by some unknown force and have to make their way through labyrinths in order to escape. There are 5 labyrinths in total, each within a demented movie the team need to change and each film will get progressively bigger and have floors that go down even deeper. I liked how each labyrinth had a different genre of film that it was based around, giving a real sense of variety to how you would be moving around. Although the enemies are largely the same shadows copied and pasted with a new coat of paint, they still presented enough variety and their designs memorable enough that I remembered what best move to use in order to win.

As part of the story, the player character (the main protagonist from Persona 5) will receive a notebook to help keep a track of the labyrinths layout. Using the bottom screen on the 3Ds, you’ll be able to draw out and place icons to help you navigate each labyrinth. Perhaps it’s just me but I really enjoyed this mechanic, even from the first game, and I found myself getting creative in the later maps with different colours to help navigate. Sometimes I’d just look at my map and run in the direction I was aiming for instead of looking at the top screen. It’s a simple mechanic but effective, depending on how much you invest into it.

When it comes to combat, this is taken from the Persona games for the most part. Shadows have weaknesses that, when you hit them, will cripple the enemy and give the character a “Boost” for the next turn provided they go undamaged. This boost will make all your skills cost nothing and will give a power boost to select physical attacks. The baton pass feature from Persona 5 has been added too so you can give a “Boost” to another character for that turn. And if that wasn’t enough, when you complete certain side quests you can receive an item called “Power of Bonds” for two or more characters. This item unlocks a special super move that can trigger randomly when one of the characters involved lands a critical hit. There’s no real way to know when one will trigger and, if you use a character with multiple Unison skills, it’s a coin toss as to which one will be used. I never found any one to be more powerful than the others though so at least they’re balanced enough.

Fans of the Persona games may be glad to hear that not only do the cast of Personas 3, 4 and 5 appear in the game, but the much loved “Fem-C” from Persona 3 Portable (P3P) is also here and has the best character arc of the whole cast in my opinion. Without wishing to spoil things, if you’re wondering how having two main protagonists from Persona 3 will work in a story context, then this game has you covered. But again, no spoilers from me. Anyone who is a fan of the series will really appreciate the story on offer here.

Persona Q2 is by far a better game than Persona Q. Although I’ve said it a lot, I’d actually hesitate to call it a sequel as the events of the first game don’t link up here. The P3 and P4 teams don’t recognize one another and the illusive attendants of the Velvet Room don’t recall the events either. The only things the games share is a name and a premise. It practically acts as a reboot for the series which it needed if they plan to make another after Persona 6. Honestly, if Persona Q didn’t grip you then play Persona Q2 because it’s a vast improvement. If you did like the first, then it’s possible it may have already been on your radar. Take it from me though, it’s a great time to be had for all JRPG fans.

Luigi's Mansion 2 (3DS) Review - A revival worth a visit



Looks completely safe! [Nintendo ©, Image Source: MarioPartyLegacy.com]

Almost immediately after finishing the Luigi’s Mansion rerelease for the 3DS, I wanted to get the second game Luigi’s Mansion 2 (Or Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon for our American readers) which speaks to how much of an impact the first game had on me. Unlike the first game though, this isn’t a rerelease and was intended to be played on a 3DS system. As such the controls are ideal and, to be frank, so much better than the port of Luigi’s Mansion. Had they copied over the control system from this title to the first, then it would have been a perfect port in my opinion. But getting back on topic, Luigi is back at it again, hunting ghosts with Professor E. Gadd in a more structured level based game that lasted much longer than the first. Oh and there’s a ghost dog, so that’s reason enough to play this game!

The game is set in Evershade Valley which features the titular dark moon, a big crystal looking creation that has a pacifying effect on the ghosts in the valley. Many of these ghost were helping Professor E. Gadd with his research when the moon is shattered and all the ghosts go nuts. So, E. Gadd calls upon Luigi to venture into the various settings of Evershade Valley and find the pieces to restore the dark moon. Straight off the bat, the story has more structure that the first game did as you’re aren’t simply playing clean up in a haunted mansion but are instead trying to restore order in the valley. You’ll travel to the different locations of the valley, each with a large open ended map full of secrets to find and ghosts to capture. Each area has around 5 levels each, ending in a big boss fight and retrieving a piece of the dark moon. Similar to the first game, money and cash can be found throughout the map, however unlike the first game the money actually serves a purpose. You aren’t graded at the end of the game based on how much money you gathered, instead the money you saved goes into upgrading the Poltergust, so I actually felt some incentive to gather up as much as I could.

Going back to the topic of controls, I so much prefer the control scheme for this game then the first. Obviously the option is here for motion controls to be used, however Luigi’s Mansion 2 also allows for aiming using the X and B buttons for up and down respectively. This makes the game far easier to control over trying to use the little nubbin stick or moving the system around wildly. Luigi can run too which is very handy when you get surrounded. The Poltergust even has a new feature by way of a power meter, so after pulling at a ghost for long enough you’ll build up power to give one big pull and suck the ghost up. The aforementioned money upgrades go into increasing the power and size of the bar and, once you’ve reached the max upgrade the normal sucking power of the Poltergust is noticeably faster making catching ghosts that much easier. It’s a welcomed upgrade that really gives the player incentive to scouring the area to find as much cash as possible.

Besides the new controls and level structure, Luigi’s Mansion 2 plays almost identical with the first game. You’ll still have to hunt down as many ghosts as you can find in each level and find the hidden Boo ghost just like in the first game. What is different though is the addition of a new type of flashlight called the Dark Light Device. This new toy reveals hidden objects in the environment and revives paintings that feature coins and Toad assistants throughout the game. These hidden items will be secret collectable gems or where you’ll find the hidden Boos. There is also a multiplayer function in the game, but I never went anywhere near it so I can’t comment on how well it runs or doesn’t run (One thing I rarely touch on a game is multiplayer).

There really isn’t much more I can say about this game. I like it though, it’s a very good game and a good sequel. To paraphrase Zero Punctuation’s Yahtzee Crowshaw, “A good sequel uses the original concept as a jumping off point to explore new horizons, but a bad sequel just wallows in the first games filth going nowhere”. Luigi’s Mansion 2 does, in my opinion, make a good sequel and if anyone had even a remote passing interest in the series then I’d highly recommend this game be played. I’d even go as far as to say that you could pay full price and still be satisfied. Depending on how invested you need to be in a series, you could probably start playing this game without playing the first game as the only things to carry over are Luigi, E. Gadd and the Poltergust.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst (PS4) Review - The sequel/prequel no one asked for and even less played



Protagonist Faith on the run from Krugersec [Image source: IGN]

So out of sheer curiosity and a sale price that was like practically giving it away, I played through Mirror’s Edge Catalyst; the sequel/prequel to 2008 original that I’m honestly not sure who asked for it. That isn’t meaning to sound as harsh as it does, but the original game was met with mixed reviews, many of which slammed the game for being repetitive and bland with terrible combat. Having played the original myself many years ago, I thought I’d give the new game (new to me at least) a go since practically every sale on the PS Store has the game at a remarkably low price. I finished it in… I don’t know how many hours to be honest because the moment the credits had finished rolling, I quit out of the game onto my home screen and deleted it. Through nought but sheer force of will did I commit to finishing the game and I will likely never go back to it again.


I feel the need to keep emphasising the whole prequel thing because to be honest, I couldn’t tell throughout the majority of my play through. If I had recently played the first game, this may have been more obvious but the game doesn’t exactly have a big piece of text anywhere to say “This is set before the first game”. While I’m on the topic of story, this is by far the weakest point of the game because frankly I couldn’t care less about Faith or the people around her. Faith herself got on my nerves frequently with how whiny and downright abrasive she is towards everyone around her, she shows little interest in doing things properly or listening to other when they tell her what she’s about to do is a bad idea, then gets upset when everything goes wrong. There’s this whole subplot where she’s in debt to some kind of gangster who at one point threatens to break her legs and my first thought was “Do it, might teach her to be less of a dick”. And another thing, I may be misremembering slightly but wasn’t Faith’s sister a police officer in the first game? In this game, Faith thinks she’s dead until they capture the “daughter” of the bad guy and the player immediately goes “There she is” even though Faith still doesn’t get it. By games end, she runs the bad company so how does she go from CEO to police officer exactly.


I need to talk about something else so let’s look at gameplay. The free running is the main drive behind this series as that’s what garnered the most attention for the original title. This side of things I can’t really fault because despite the hard sell of a first-person free running game, the flow of movement is really smooth and the navigation is clear enough that I only got stuck a few times when the navigation is turned off for story missions. I found myself using the fast travel options very sparingly because I did enjoy the running between missions. If you’re confused by what I’m saying, this game is an open world game now which was probably the next logical step for the series. As far as open worlds go, it feels rather large with a variety of collectibles to be found and some side activities, but they all revolve around getting from one location to another as quickly as possible. Most that I played were currier missions where you couldn’t take too much damage or you’d break the package. I only played a couple however because the time constraints on some because nigh on impossible and I could only stand the smug, condescending voices of the clients when I failed so many times.


Right let’s go back to what doesn’t work; combat. It was a mess and hard to work with in the first game that much I do remember. To give them their dues mind, it is vastly improved for the sequel with some good dodge mechanics and needing to put some thought into how you approach the enemy variety. It is though, for lack of a better term, like trying to polish a turd because it’s still poorly executed combat in a free-running game. At least in Dying Light, you had weapons and a variety of skills to unlock that would make combat easier as you go along, but Faith isn’t exactly going to be wandering around the city with a spiked baseball bat on her back. I’m ashamed to admit but I rage quitted at one point in the first half of the game when I kept getting stuck in a story mission REQUIREING me to win in a combat encounter. The game introduces the ‘heavy’ character who kept kicking my ass to no end until I quit out and deleted the game out of frustration. After a few days, I looked at myself and said “This shit will not beat me” and carried on. Cheesed (took an easy exploitable way through) the hell out of the fight but got through regardless. The jist of what I’m saying here is that combat is bad, but not as bad as its predecessor.


Honestly I’d difficult to sum up my thoughts on Mirror’s Edge Catalyst in brief. If you loved the original game then you can’t go wrong with playing this game. If you only marginally liked the first game, maybe replay it to make sure you do as well as refresh yourself then give the sequel a go. If you didn’t like it, this instalment isn’t going to sway you. But, as mentioned earlier, this game is on sale all the time. Even base price (I think) is around the £20 mark and I bought it for less than £5 so I can’t really moan about wasting money on it.

Rage 2 (PS4) Review - Not much to rage about really



Rage 2 artwork, showing off it's new vibrant colours of Neon Pink [Bethesda ©, Image source: Microsoft Store]

I’ll be the first to confess that I’ve never been an FPS (First Person Shooter) fan. A shooting game has to have some kind of gimmick or be funny for me to want to play it. So when Rage 2 was announced and with the subsequent trailers, I must admit I was drawn into the neon pink wasteland and high-octane action. I might not be alone in saying that Rage 1 never gripped me enough to finish it so I was going in half cocked. But after finishing Rage 2 I found it to be an enjoyable experience, just not a very long one.


When I first began playing it, I got a DOOM meets Just Cause vibe, fitting as it’s made by both ID Software and Avalanche Studios developers of those series respectively. It’s the same run-and-gun style of combat in first person with near superhuman abilities like a double jump, ground slam and super blast ala DOOM. A skilled player will combo all these abilities and use the variety of weapons to get some stylish and gory kills. But the more novice shooter player like myself rarely used anything other than the shotgun, assault rifle and rocket launcher. Even the BFG from DOOM is a weapon in this game (when you buy the deluxe edition that is) and is just as overpowered as you’d expect, but ammunition can only be bought from one shop in the entire game and it’s definitely not cheap. In my run, it rarely saw the light of day except for the occasional Crusher fight when I didn’t fancy sinking all my ammunition into its face. The gist of my point here is that the gun play is very satisfying, even to the basic shooter player like me.


The open world is a different kettle of fish though. It’s a huge open sandbox that you’re free to explore from the word go with a plethora of locations to visit and destroy ala Just Cause. You can go kill all the bandits at their camps, clear out mutant nests, open up road blocks by killing the bandits, liberate power stations by killing the shrouded… Okay so it’s just a lot of killing really, the side objective variety is sparse. But as I said above, the gun play is satisfying enough that I didn’t wholly mind going everywhere and killing everything. There’s enough enemy variety that I had to put some thought into how I went about completing objectives rather than go nuts with the shotgun. My issue with the open world is that outside of the missions and side missions, there isn’t anything there. Getting around is a drag and the best vehicle in the game is the first one you get. You can unlock motorbikes and tanks, but the tanks are slow (obviously) and the bikes are an utter mess to handle. Seriously, I think I’ve been spoilt now for motorbike physics with Days Gone because that game handled them like a dream, but Rage 2 is a nightmare. I wouldn’t have touched the motorbikes if it weren’t for a trophy. Oh and there’s a flying vehicle too, but I used it once when I needed to be on the other side of a big ravine to reach the next objective.


Because it’s such a big game, it’s not unusual to find a few bugs here and there but, similar to Days Gone, there weren’t any that really stood out apart from one instance of a game crash. I do take issue however with how slow the menu system ran. There wasn’t that much going on in the pause menu and the layout is similar to other open world games releasing of late, however this one took longer than it should to switch between tabs. This might not matter to some but it really took me out of the experience, especially when the game itself has a very smooth frame rate.


It seems like I’m zoning in on the smallest things to complain about but I do want people to know that I did enjoy my time with Rage 2; the gun play is very satisfying and varied enough to keep me invested to finish the game. But if you’ll recall, I mention that it isn’t a long experience and this is my biggest problem with the game. The main campaign runs in at around 12 hours with about 8 campaign missions in total. There is practically no story other than the typical revenge plot; “Bad guy killed someone I love, gonna go kill bad guy”. The characters don’t really have any kind of arc and the story doesn’t have any twists or surprises. I understand that this isn’t the kind of story centric game, but when you’re charging full price for a game that can be completed in 1 or 2 sittings then something is definitely wrong. In order to get the most out of my money, I went for the platinum trophy which proved challenging only because the stats screen was glitched and didn’t keep a clear track of my actions.


If you consider yourself a big shooter fan than Rage 2 should be on your radar, eve
n if you aren’t it still a good enough game as it is. But I definitely do not suggest anyone get the deluxe edition as the length of time to complete it isn’t worth that extra £20 or so just for a strong gun that you may only use twice. Go for the standard edition or better still, wait for a sale.

Days Gone (PS4) Review - A slightly bumpy ride along the broken road




Protagonist Deacon St John and your customizable bike [Sony Bend Studio ©, Image source: Daily Express]

Releasing as a PlayStation exclusive holds high expectations in this console generation. After we were given God of War and Marvel's Spider-Man in 2018, expectations were high for the latest PS4 exclusive to release Days Gone. It saddens me to say however, that Days Gone doesn't quite live up to the level of interest set by the aforementioned titles. However, while I consider those two examples as exceptional games, Days Gone is a very solid experience that is well worth the price of admission wither you value time spend or a satisfying game play loop.

We are introduced to our protagonist, Deacon St. John and his wife Sarah by way of an intro cut scene that give us a glimpse of how the world fell to pieces around them. She is injured and Deacon gets her a ride out on a military helicopter headed somewhere intended to be safe. Rather than join her, Deacon stays behind to help his best friend and biker brother, Boozer who has been injured. So far things are very simple. Time jumps forward a few years, Deacon and Boozer are "drifters" which equates to handymen and bounty hunters in the open world of Oregon. The story is very long, even without the side content, there are essentially three large regions in the whole game to explore. I enjoyed the games story, I wasn’t totally invested but it was enjoyable. There were moments where the story took turns I fully expected, those I didn't and then for added measure, turns I expected it to take that it did but then flipped it on its head. The characters are well written and well performed, even though Deacon's nattering to himself can get tiresome at times.


Being an open world game, this is where you will be spending the majority of your time in Days Gone and as far as open worlds go, this is up on the list for "best open worlds in a video game". Traversal on your bike, which in itself is a primary game mechanic, is tricky at first but when you get a hang of the steering and utilizing the drift mechanics, you'll be roaming the land like a pro. You'll find the remnants of the old world everywhere, full of supplies and materials to craft with. Although if you're anything like me, you won't use a lot of the crafted traps and bombs until very late in the game, using a Molotov at most for nests.


There are a decent variety of locations and side objectives on the map that you'll want to go to and complete as doing these in certain sections of the map will grant you favour and "camp credits" which is the games primary currency. For better bike parts and stronger guns, you'll need to increase trust and trade in meat and bounties (Freaker ears) to get a bit of extra pocket money. Raising trust isn't too difficult either, by the end game I'd maxed out all but one camp's trust level but aside from a cut scene that brings all the camps together, I don't think there's much else you get from that (besides a trophy probably).


It's worth investing time into roaming the open world and completely jobs as they come up as you want the better upgrades for your bike. In the early stages, you'll seemingly run out of fuel straight away, giving a layer of strategy to getting around and surviving. Petrol stations are at select locations, but you can use petrol cans to refuel (they're infinite and always re-spawn in the same place, pro tip). The bike mechanics are very well designed, trying to ride a motorbike in any other game is ruined for me now! I played Rage 2 almost straight after this game and those bike controls were shocking, tried Watch Dogs 2 more recently and while speed was good handling was none existent. The only difference between the bike in Days Gone and other games is that you only get one bike; if you leave it somewhere miles away, it's not going to be able to be brought to you while you are out in "the shit" and if it takes damage you need scrap to repair it. It can be summoned back to you and fixed up at camps, for a price.


Something that needs addressing from its release is how many critics wrote off the game as being riddled with bugs which affected its end score. In my play through that lasted somewhere around the 60-hour mark, I didn't encounter any big bugs or glitches. The only things of note were a sound effect for a trip wire snapping going off whenever I passed the same point on the map in the very late game. The other was the constant frame rate dips whenever I started to really get some speed in my bike (and I was playing on a PS4 Pro too). Other than that, I honestly couldn't recall any other bugs or glitches in my time with Days Gone. Not to say that there aren't any there, I just hardly noticed any.


With all that said, it really comes down to what you want out of a game. The missions can feel a little repetitive (go to location and kill humans or Freakers) but the investment for doing that meant getting better bike parts and guns. It's very lengthy so if you desire game length in relation to money spent, you'll easily be pleased with how much time you'll spend in Days Gone. The developers have stated they plan for DLC at some point so I know when that drops, I'll be more than happy to jump back into the world of Days Gone. I don't really have a scoring system for my reviews as I never really thought it was necessary but to sum my opinions on this game, get it!