Review - Assassin's Creed 3 (PS3)

Since Assassin’s Creed 2’s release in 2009, I've had pretty high expectations for the series. It’s always had some rough edges but to be honest, I was disappointed with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. They added a slew of features that helped improve gameplay and keep things interesting but I felt that the story was always a huge part of the series and AC:B & AC:R didn’t live up to that of its predecessor. Don’t get me wrong, I love every game in the main series but something just made the Ezio trilogy feel drawn out and more like a series expansions rather than stand-alone sequels. This time around though, players get a brand new setting, brand new weapons, a brand new protagonist and a continuation of the Desmond Miles story. This confused some players from time to time but became more and more invested as we followed the narrative.

You play as Connor Kenway or Ratonhnhaké:ton, in his native language, a half British - half Native American man who’s mission it is to free his people and guarantee their safety throughout and after the American Revolutionary War. There’s much, much more to the story that I won’t go into for spoilers sake. Needless to say there are some pretty big twists and turns that will keep players second guessing allies & enemies throughout the game.

But of course, a new protagonist and a new setting also means a new set of tools to use in the fight against the Templars. Because of Connor's Native American background, his new arsenal is themed accordingly with weapons such as a tomahawk, bow & arrow and the rope-dart. There are also a few other weapons such as swords and guns but it’s nothing drastically new from the older games in the series. The combat system has been changed and improved from AC:R with the use of the usual kill-streaks, counters and the block-breakers. Connor also has the ability to dual-wield any melee weapon (provided that it isn't a two-handed weapon) with his second hidden blade which detaches to become a shiv/dagger. Combat is a heap of fun in the previous entries of the series and without a doubt the combat in AC3 is the best it’s ever been.

However, the environment is somewhat lacking. The Assassin’s Creed games have always been about climbing to the top of a massive building and leaping off it…. It’s also about stabbing people but that’s not my point. Climbing huge towers in the first game was amazing, the second game followed the same path but enhanced it with the breath-taking architecture of the Italian Renaissance and with Assassin’s Creed 3; the player is presented with trees, cliffs, wooden shacks and brick buildings of the American Revolution. I’m not saying that this was a bad decision on the developer’s part; it’s staying accurate to the time period.

Even though the buildings may not be as fun to climb as previous installments  that doesn't mean that the world is underwhelming. As you play through the game, Connor will be sent to various locations in the east coast area, ranging from New York to Boston as well as the Frontier. These areas are oozing with life; animals and people are never out of sight. Connor possesses the ability to climb trees and cliffs through his background and this system is brought to life through the use of ‘Anvil Next’.

Ubisoft have really pushed the limits of the current-gen hardware in terms of physics, animations and just making the world feel alive. You’ll come across NPCs working, red coats patrolling, dogs running through the streets and so much more. But that’s only the cities; the frontier is packed with wildlife such as deer, bears, rabbits and cougars. Since Connor is half Native American, he is able to hunt almost all of the animals in the frontier and sell their pelts & meat or use them for the new crafting system.

I won’t go into it too much because I haven’t spent a great deal of time with it but from what I have seen, the more you develop the relationships between Connor & the workers he recruits to the homestead, the more items you will be allowed to create and trade.

These features are all good and well but because the limits of the systems have been stretched so far, the game suffers from some technical inconsistencies. Frame-rate drops and long loading times drag the experience down from amazing to great. This isn't to say that the game’s bad, it just taints the experience a little.

A brand new arrival is the naval combat missions. I found these missions a huge amount of fun and I was ultimately left wanting more of those missions but I’m glad that they were few & far between. If they were forced mission then players would find them stale or repetitive.

Multiplayer makes a triumphant return with all of the original modes and one new game where you & 3 friends team up to take down NPC targets. It’s interesting to say the least with each round ending in a co-ordinated strike where all four players need to kill their target at the same time. If they’re successful, they’ll earn bonus points but if they fail to kill at the same time, they won’t achieve these points. I found this mode fun when playing with friends but with players you don’t know or who don’t have the ability to communicate, you won’t have a whole lot of fun.

Assassin’s Creed 3 is a huge game that I know I’ll come back to from time to time whenever I feel like stabbing people in the face or swan-diving off the top of trees or buildings. There’s so much to do but that in its self in Assassin’s Creed 3’s curse. It leaves room for inconsistency which ends up breaking the player out of the truly amazing world that Ubisoft have created. Assassin’s Creed 3 is a huge step forward in terms of player interaction and immersion… if you can look past its blemishes.

Assassin’s Creed 3 gets a 9 ‘Muted Microphones’ /10.

And remember, if you liked my review and you want to see more, follow me on Twitter @DylanPerrett or My IGN under 'bobert9497'.

My dream is to one day work at IGN but I'm not going to get there if no one reads my reviews so like them, follow them, share them, whatever you want. Help me get there ^_^.

Review - DmC: Devil May Cry (Xbox 360)

Two brothers, born from an Angel mother and Demon father, Nephilim fighting against the armies of hell and the Demon King to rid them from the earth. Do you recognize this story? If not then you need to go and play Ninja Theory’s DmC: Devil May Cry.

You play as Dante, just an ordinary guy who goes to bars and picks up women, except he’s the offspring of the angel; Eva who was killed by Mundus, the demon king and the demon; Sparda who Mundus condemned to endure eternal punishment and pain. Unknown by Dante was that he had a brother; Vergil, who fights in a war against the demons. The two unite to try and achieve their goal of killing the demon king. That’s pretty much the general premise of the story with a couple of twists and turns that I won’t mention for spoilers sake.

The team at Ninja Theory have done an incredible job on creating unique and diverse personalities for characters who could have ended up very clichéd. This makes cut-scenes and interactions between the characters an absolute joy to watch. To be completely honest, I wish there were more cut-scene just so I could learn more about each character. To call the story and characters in DmC laughable would be a complete joke in itself. Dante has a slew of one liner that portray him as a confident and somewhat witty character. Voice acting is superb, David de Lautour brings the character of Vergil to life and Tim Phillipps as Dante is the icing on the cake. That’s enough about the story and characters, now on to the combat.

The banter between the two brothers is humours at times, even towards the end Dante claims that he’s ‘stronger’, Vergil says he’s ‘smarter’ in which Dante replies with ‘I’m better looking….. And I’ve got a bigger dick’. This kind of boy-ish humour is good in a small dose which is what Ninja Theory understands, thus this being the ONLY blatant penis joke in the game.

Dante returns with his iconic sword; Rebellion, as well as Ebony & Ivory, his to pistols. These weapons combined, Dante can silence the demon scum between him and Mundus. He also acquires new weapons and abilities along the way that can be switched mid battle by holding the left or right trigger to increase the length of a combo. Speaking of combos, Ninja Theory has made them really fun as well as easy to pull off with the addition of a feature that signals the player when they are required to add a delay in their combo.  If I were to perform Y, Y, PAUSE, Y (Y being the basic attack), the game provides a slight vibration in the controller at the end of the PAUSE and signals that it’s time for me to continue the combo.

I really like this feature; it allowed me to focus on enemy attack patterns and when to dodge rather than having to focus on a combo and ultimately get hit which would drop my style rank down by 2 letters.

Style ranks consist of 7 different levels, these are:

·             SSSensational

·             SSadistic

·             Savage

·            Anarchic

·            Brutal

·            Cruel

·            Dirty

The way to achieve these is by using various weapons and combos opposed to spamming the basic attack to fill it up. Again, I had a lot of fun with this. When I got my first full set of weapons (3 in total, firearm, angel, demon), I was a little overwhelmed by the thought of switching up the weapons mid fight but after my first play-through, I found myself switching weapons at every chance I could get and thus further increasing my score.

Technically, the game runs smoothly with very few hiccups although I’ve heard reports of the frame rate struggling on the PS3. The Xbox 360 version and I assume the PC version, only have slight frame rate issues when switching from in-game cut-scene to a pre-rendered cut-scene and vice versa.

Just quickly before I wrap this up, DmC: Devil May Cry has some of the most messed up boss battles and best visual style I have seen in a game for a while now. All I’ll say is ‘Spawn of Mundus’; you’ll know when you come across it.

Ninja Theory’s DmC: Devil May Cry is a great game and if you haven’t played it then you need to even if you’re a fan of the original games. With 7 different difficulties to play and unlock (3 are novelties more than difficulties, ‘Hell or Hell’: enemies die with one hit but so does Dante), I know I’ll be playing this game for a while.

DmC: Devil May Cry gets an 8.5 ‘Muted Microphones’ /10

Review - Halo 4 (Xbox 360)

Halo, the game the put console first-person shooters on the map, is back for its fourth installment with Halo 4. This is the first Halo game without Bungie at the helm; instead, Microsoft entrusted 343 Industries with the job of continuing the story of the Master Chief. When Halo: Combat Evolved was shown at E3 in the year 2000, John-117 was a cyborg… super-soldier… guy, since then the Halo series has evolved and sold countless units. What players didn’t realize then was that in 12 years time, the Master Chief Petty Office John-117 would being able to express more emotion from beneath the cover of his helmet than any Final Fantasy or Call of Duty character ever could. But to tell you the truth, the story of Halo 4 is really about Cortana, the AI that the Chief has carried with him since their departure from the Pillar of Autumn in Combat Evolved, the Chief is just the force that drives the story forward.

Like previous entries in the Halo series, players are required to run, gun and kill as many covys as possible while trying to stop the games antagonist, the Didact, and an army of ‘Prometheans’, the AI defense drones that populate the planet Requiem. The catch though is that Cortana, a flash cloned copy of Dr. Catherine Halsey, is showing signs of rampancy, a condition where an AI’s think themselves to death after obtaining too much knowledge. In the Halo universe, artificial intelligences possess an average lifespan of 7 years. The Chief must attempt to deliver Cortana back to earth and somehow salvage her still-working components.

The game is presented beautifully, with characters showing more emotion than any other Halo game and a lot of current games in the market for that matter. The facial animations here are only matched by those of Rockstar’s L.A. Noire and voice acting helps players connect to the story and characters more than ever before. The architecture of the world has a gleam and shimmer to it, which lends a clean sci-fi experience to the player, much like Star Trek.

The competitive multiplayer portion of the game is right up there with Halo 3. 343 provides a heap of game types and plenty of character customization options that give the player something to strive for while at the same time, offering hundreds of commendations to mix up the experience. A new feature this time round is Spartan Ops, an episodic co-op campaign that delivers a new episode every week (the first 5 weeks after the games launch = season 1) with plans for season 2 on the way.

You play as Crimson Squad as they fight to unravel the mysteries of an ancient Promethean artifact. These missions can range from defending an objective, killing ‘X’ number of enemies or getting from point A to B. Although is this a really good feature and something that will keep players coming back, the missions are made a little stale and repetitive due to constant re-use maps and a slightly confusing story. It’s worth mentioning that this feature replaces the Firefight mode introduced in Halo 3: ODST.

The Halo series has come a long way in its 12 years; we’ve seen humorous co-op, extremely competitive multiplayer and some of the most intense campaigns to date. With there being 2 more scheduled games in the series, it’s easy to say that this will be classed as one of the best and most influential series of all time.

Halo 4 gets 9.5 ‘Muted Microphones’/10

And don't forget, if you like my reviews, please subscribe.
I'm slowly working on some videos that I'll post on Youtube.

Review - PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (PS3/Vita)

Just to put it out there in the open now rather than later, SuperBot Entertainment’s PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is not in any way, shape or form, a direct copy of Nintendo’s Super Smash Brothers series. It may borrow some of its core aspects and mechanics but it’s more of a re-imagining of the concept rather than a direct rip-off. The only thing that resembles Super Smash Brothers is the games perspective, a two dimensional brawler. Ever since Sony revealed PlayStation All-Stars, the only thing that the majority of people have been saying about it is that it would be a rip-off of Super Smash Bros. without of Nintendo’s flagship roster. Some may not see it but there’s definitely a lot to love about this game. Whether it’s the user-friendly nature of Kratos’ combat or the complexity and timing of Sir Daniel Fortesque’s moves list, Sony’s new brawler offers a ton of content and depth. Now that I have said all of that, I will warn you that throughout this review, I will be comparing PlayStation All-Stars to it’s Nintendo counter-part due to the fact that it’s the only other game like it.

SuperBot Entertainment is a brand new developer that was hand picked and forged by Sony to create their new fighting game. Headed by the lead game designer, Omar Kendall and assisted by Sony Santa Monica, the team at SuperBot have done a stand-up job on constructing PlayStation All-Stars. The final product is a mash-up with some of the PlayStations biggest franchises which are all wrapped into a game that incorporates the best brawling gameplay that’s only rivaled by that in Super Smash Bros. Although this information is all good and well, the biggest question about the game is ‘who made the list?’

PlayStation All-Stars’ roster is made up of twenty playable characters, some of Sony’s biggest names. Most of theses characters are extremely popular (Nathan Drake, Kratos, Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter) and some are from games that have earned a cult following, games from the earlier years of PlayStation (Heihachi, Sir Daniel, Spike), even the third party characters get some time in the spot-light (Dante, Big Daddy). Each character possesses very different and unique play-styles; Kratos is more of a ‘grapple’ character, using the chaos blades to latch onto other players, which he then launches them across the map. Where as a character like Colonel Radec, who comes from a first-person shooter and therefore uses guns and ranged weapons, is more affective from a distance. Because of such character diversity, PlayStation All-Stars plays much like Street Fighter game in the way of strategy.

Aside from Good Cole MacGrath and Evil Cole MacGrath, no one character plays the same. There’s no skin swapping, much like the majority of AAA fighting games. The combat offers depth that one might find in a Street Fighter or Tekken game in the way that the player would choose a character when they first begin playing and slowly master their move set to the point of perfection. Where as a game like Super Smash Bros. the player can pretty much pick up a controller and dominate with whichever character they choose. That’s where PlayStation All-Stars rises above its rivals to be something new and different. Obviously the player uses the same button commands to attack such as forward & square. In addition to this, each character has their own list of combinations they can perform. Each combination is different and specific to that character.

The catch though, is that players can only kill other players if they build up their ‘super meter’, a meter that fills up with every hit the player lands on another player. From there, they can launch their level one, two or three supers moves which cost different amounts depending on the level. Obviously a characters level one super is the least expensive but harder to kill with and the level three super is easier to uses but cost much more than a level one or two.

Games are played out on one of fourteen stages that are ‘mashed up’ with two Sony franchises like Uncharted 3 & Bioshock Infinite as well as inFamous & Sly Cooper for example. They’re wacky, light hearted and fun although some of the environmental hazards, objects from the secondary franchise in the background that directly affect gameplay, do get rather annoying on some maps in a prolonged match. There are also plans for DLC that offers players more maps and characters.

To be completely honest, I was pleasantly surprised with this game. I’ll admit, when I first saw this game was announced, I thought it was going to be a complete rip-off of Super Smash Brothers but the team over at SuperBot Entertainment have really gone above and beyond with their debut game. They COULD have copied the Smash Bros. formula and slapped PlayStation paint on top but they didn’t. They went for something different and that’s where I think this game shines. It’s not afraid to stray from the pack. There will always be those who don’t like it but that’s not what matters the most, it’s the fans that matter.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale gets an 8.5 ‘Muted Microphones’ /10

And don't forget, it you like my reviews, hit that subscribe button on the right.

I also have a YouTube channel that a friend and I use to upload some of our gaming adventures so be sure to go and check that out too.

Hawken Closed Beta

Hey there people on the internetz,
I'm currently playing in the Hawken Closed Beta and loving it. There's a certain joy about running around in a 20 ton mech, shooting and blowing up other people that makes the Transformers fan inside me get a little giddy.

The colour scheme on the other hand is dark and gritty, the sort of stuff we've come to expect from post-apocalyptic and futuristic games. Every colour under the 'grey, grey dark grey and brown' spectrum has been used here. It is nice though to be able to add some detail and colour to your mech though.

Hawken uses a customisation system where you can choose a set of abilties (self healing droid for example), your weapons and your appearance. Personally I think it's just enough customisation to add a heap of adversity to the gameplay because to be honest... If everyone could only choose from a list of 3 different mechs:
- A short range
- A mid range
- A long range
All though it would require a lot more team-work, I think it would get a little boring.

Keeping in mind that this is their last beta until the games release later this year, I'm really excited to see what happens with this one.

For your chance to join the closed beta, like the 'HiTechLegion' Facebook page, they should have over a hundred free codes on their wall, if not, hit up their email and ask about the beta.

Also keep an eye out for my 'Hitman: Absolution' and 'Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale' reviews... They're on their way.

Just an update

Hey guys,

It's been a while since I've posted anything, I've been pretty busy with uni and I haven't had a lot of time to think about anything to post.
It's coming towards the year of my uni year so I'm hopefully going to be posting a little bit more frequently with things such as game updates, things that are happening in the gaming-sphere and I may even try out some reviews.

Until then...

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

The Dark Knight Rises. Amazing. Go see it. You will not regret it.