My Favourite Games of 2014

It's April and finally I'm getting to my best of 2014 list. This mainly took so long as I started Dragon Age after Christmas and it was such a huge game. The year was generally slow with a lot of games being pushed back and a lot of games coming out and not living up to their potential such as Watchdogs. One reason behind this is nearly every AAA game released came out for both generations of consoles. This means at worst they were just HD ports or designed for the new generation but with an old engine. Either way comprises were made to the games to make sure they could still function on older hardware resulting in some disappointing games. Hopefully, developers in 2015 will embrace the new generation individually now that the install base has grown. Ubisoft had a mixed year with its smaller titles being impressive but many of its bigger games such as Assassin's Creed and The Crew being disappointing. There were still some impressive games over 2014 and here is my top 5:

5. Infamous: Second Son

4. Child of Light

3. Valient Hearts: The Great War

2. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

1. Dragon Age: Inquisition

My most anticipated games for 2015 are:

4.The Witness

3.No Man's Sky

2.Until Dawn

1.The Whitcher 3: Wild Hunt

Dragon Age: Inquisition Review

Finished Progress: Completed All Main Missions

                               110 hours played (!!)

Having never experienced the first two Dragon Age games, mainly due to poor reviews, I didn't know what to expect. I was originally going to give this game a miss but then strong reviews came out and it sounded like my cup of tea as I enjoy RPGs. Quite simply I am so glad I picked this game up as it is truly amazing. 

The story of this game starts off fairly generic with a civil war between magic and close combat forces. Portals start appearing with demons spewing out of them and you somehow are the only one with the power to close them. Luckily the story does evolve and by the end I really cared about the world and its characters.  Like with the Mass Effect series you can design your character to look however you like. I chose an Elf Mage called Ava. 

The story wraps around your character and changes depending on your traits and choices throughout your game. It truly feels like the game was different due to the choices I made.  Most of the cut scenes are processed in real time meaning your characters and their apparel are in all the scenes and look great. My main criticism when it comes to the story is that I wish there were more main missions. The main missions feel amazing compared to most of the side missions and the production value is incredible. Most of these missions end with a pivotal choice which can be quite drastic in what changes. These missions can go on for hours on end, but there are only 11 in the game. The side missions and investigating the world takes up the rest of the time, but they don't feel as epic. Also, the final mission is quite generic with very little payoff from choosing certain paths throughout the game. Everyone has the same last mission experience unlike with Mass Effect 2. Although I put over 100 hours into this game it can be completed in much less if you don't want to experience everything.

The combat in this game is great. You have the choice of three companions out of a possible of nine. There are three different types of fighting styles; Mage, Warrior, Rogue. There are though lots of choices when it comes to specialisation as when you play as a Warrior you can use two-handed weapons or one-handed weapons with a sword. Because of this I generally had in my team my Mage character along with a Rogue and two Warriors with different specialisms. This was mostly Sera, Iron Bull, and Cassandra. Unlike with Mass Effect, you can control each of the characters individually whilst on a mission. The game has two combat styles you can choose from depending on what you prefer and what platform you're playing on. The first uses a tactical overhead camera system where you control all four characters at once choosing who to attack and when to use an ability. Time is also paused in this mode whilst you select your attacks. The second puts you back on ground level and in control of just one character at a time and doesn't slow time down. The first system is there to please the PC audience and as I was playing on PS4 I generally used the second system. Both though are easy to understand and are always available if you fancy a change.

This game looked great on PS4 whether it was during cutscenes or not. It ran fairly smoothly too except for a few crashes and some frame rate drops in some rather intense combat scenes.  The main issue with its performance are the loading screens as they are long and generic. Also, when you load into a new area it normally takes a good thirty seconds for the sound to catch up with your actions which can be annoying. 

My other criticisms with this game are due to its complexity and lack of instructions. This is not a simple RPG which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be overwhelming. It took me forever to realise I could remove upgrades from armour and weapons. Runes recipes are annoyingly difficult to find and it can be difficult to understand how they are improving your weapons.

In conclusion, this game is incredible and is one of the best RPGs I've played in a few years. My main complaints are the game being sometimes too confusing and its combat systems not being as involving as they could have been. My main positives are the incredible set pieces in the story and how it truly feels like your own story is tailored to your character and choices.

Final Score: 9.0 (20 point scale system)

                             

My time with 'The Crew' has ended

I was really hoping The Crew would be an amazing game but sadly it wasn't. I'll have to keep waiting for a good racing game for my PS4. Although it had numerous issues, I still managed to enjoy my time with The Crew. However, one day when I turned it on, it had completely rested my map to undiscovered.

I had clearly been all over the map as I had discovered and completed most of the skills and missions. However, it had forgotten what I had discovered and I couldn't fast travel anywhere. the map is so huge that I definitely didn't want to start my progress from scratch.

I got into contact with Ubisoft support about my issue. A whole week and a half later I got a reply asking if the issue was still affecting my save. I emailed back and said it was, but they never got back to me. Left it at least two weeks with no reply. My save has been left broken and there is no way of probably fixing it. Well, it doesn't matter now as I've sold the game because of my anger and disappointment. I was not happy with the service I received from Ubisoft and am angry that this issue occurred. The Crew is broken. Take my advice and don't play it.

5 Suggestions to Improve the Next Fallout Game

So a few weeks ago Bethesda announced they would be having an E3 press conference in June, which has to mean Fallout 4 is coming. It has been 4 years since Skyrim came out and therefore we are way overdue a new RPG from this team. The fact that the conference is on the Sunday before E3 and they are making their announcement this early means there are confident in what they will be announcing. Confident enough I think to not only announce Fallout 4 but to also release it this year. There is so much hype around this game it doesn’t need the usual ‘18 month announced to release’ cycle we normally see. I absolutely love Fallout 3 and New Vegas. I would say Fallout 3 is my favourite game of the last generation of consoles. However, there are some improvements that can be made from these two excellent games to make the next one even better.

1.       Have the game work from day 1

I feel like nowadays you can say this for most games as they are still broken in some ways when released. Games like Assassin’s Creed and The Crew definitely come to mind. However, Bethesda already has quite a bad track record but I generally forgive them due to the sheer scale of the games. My time playing Fallout 3 and New Vegas were mainly painless when it came to bugs and performance. In Fallout 3, the library which brought your pre-war books would never load after I completed the mission there meaning I couldn’t sell the books. New Vegas had numerous bugs at launch such as the rotating heads among others though as I played it 6 months after release I experienced not as many bugs. Skyrim however was another story as it crashed often on my fat PS3 and one crash resulted in my PS3 having the yellow light of death. When I finally went back to Skyrim 18 months after release on my new Slim it definitely was more stable. However, there was still a huge amount of pop-in sometimes with characters and buildings right in front of my character. Skyrim and the Fallout games were definitely ambitious, but I would love Fallout 4 to be just as ambitious but also run smoothly from day 1. Is that too much to ask?

2.       Include a map inside the box

This one is fairly simple. Skyrim came with a map of the area inside the box and I would love this to be replicated for Fallout 4. I’d be happy to also pay extra to get one. Not only are they useful for navigation around the world but I find they make quite an awesome poster after you finish playing it.

3.       Don’t ignore mechanics from Fallout New Vegas

Although I think Fallout 3 is a better game, New Vegas introduced many mechanics which I hope are carried through. One of these features is the different faction’s opinion on your actions. Siding with a certain faction would make another faction disapprove of you. Their dislike can grow till they kill you on site and send hit men after you. I also really enjoyed how there weren’t any obvious good vs evil decisions. It was more subtle. In Fallout 3, it was obvious that the brotherhood were good and the enclave were evil. Also, I felt the game was pushing me towards siding with the brotherhood more. In New Vegas, I completely fell for Mr. House’s manipulation without realising. I sided with him but when his robots got the upgrade I quickly realised what I had done. I then ran away and instead help the NCR hoping my actions wouldn’t haunt me more. But the NCR told me to kill him which led to one of the longest and toughest fights I’ve ever played.

4.       Better radio system

The radio is one of the best features from the Fallout games. Not only is the music incredible and add to the atmospheric but the announcer also comments on your actions and the consequences of them. It great to see how your decisions are changing the world and how these changes develop over time. However, there were only so many lines programmed in and it didn’t take so long till you’ve heard them all multiple times. 60 hours in and you’d still be hearing about your actions from the first 10 as if they just happened. A more immersive radio would be a great addition in the next game.

5.       Better graphics and facial expressions

Fallout 3 and New Vegas didn’t look great in the graphics or animation department. However, the games were so open-ended that it didn’t really matter. I would love for them to look a little more impressive. Lip-syncing was completely off and other animations didn’t look that realistic. I’ve been recently playing Dragon Age: Inquisition and while it definitely isn’t as huge or open-ended it still manages to look incredible. Hopefully, Fallout 4 will be exclusive to the PS4 and Xbox One unlike most games of 2014 and therefore, be able to utilise the full potential of this new generation. 

The Crew Review

Finished Progress: Completed all story missions
                               40 hours played

To put it simply, I both love and loathe the Crew. As addicting as it is to level up my cars the game is so broken it's hard to keep playing once you reach the level cap. 

I've been playing the crew since it came out in early December (so nearly 2 months) and although I have enjoyed my time, it will need a lot of things to change before I jump back in. 

The story in this game is just about sufficient enough to keep you interested. The twists are obvious, the conversations are cheesy and the characters are bland however I still wanted to see the story through. The story does allow for some great set piece races such as the 3 part races at the end of each faction area. Take down missions are really annoying because it is so difficult to catch up to the target.

There is a good selection of cars available. Sure there are only 30-40 cars available but the idea is you have a few amount of cars but upgrade them. Money to buy cars is earned through doing pretty much anything. If you want the real jackpots you need to play the faction missions which can be good. The endurance faction races can last hours but the reward is quite high. However, you only need to finish 3rd to get the money and you win the same amount even if you come 1st. The upgrade system works well until you learn how to exploit it. Completing skill missions earns different parts which get better depending on which medal you earn. There are not many different variations of tasks but they are enjoyable. However, you can never really feel the benefit of a part you have earned. The system works initially as the parts and levels vary so in order to level up all your parts you have to complete a variety of skill types. However this can be exploited when you reach level 50 as all you care about is getting platinum medals for parts between levels 40-50. Any mission can be used to earn these medals so in the end you just replay the easy ones and rinse and repeat for all your different cars. You cannot buy parts so money becomes pointless once you have all the cars you want. Therefore, the faction and PvP missions which only award money also become pointless. So basically for a Perf, Speed and Circuit car (I still have no idea of the differences between all 3) just keep completing in the easy escape and speed missions. For Raid and Dirt just use the hill climb skills. It's painfully repetitive, but it's the best way to get all the parts platinum. There is still a great sense of satisfaction when you obtain a difficult platinum medal but no actual advantage. 

The map is incredibly huge. Sure there isn't a lot of detail but the sheer scale is impressive. It is a shrunken version of the US but most areas are there. The developers did claim there would be no fast travel loading screens which in reality isn't the case, but they are still quick. This is probably helped by it always being online. Racing from the palm trees in Miami to the snow peaks and Yellowstone provides a great contrast. To put the scale into perspective racing from Washinton D.C to Los Angeles is 72 miles. Sure that's nothing compared to the thousands of miles it actually is but it is still huge. 

The Crew is an always online game because you are never meant to drive alone. This would make sense if it was actually true. So often, I will be driving around the world and there will be no one else in my world though I'm sure hundreds of people are playing this game. Even when there are online players in your world the chance of them playing missions which you is so low. Most of the missions can be played with other players but mostly I kept it on solo. Not because I wanted to but because it was a rarity for my invitation to be accepted. PvP is also a mess as it normally takes about 15 minutes before joining a match. Luckily you can still play the game whilst waiting but it's still ridiculous. There is no way of knowing which PvP areas are most popular so it's just luck on how long you'll wait. When you finally get  to the PvP matches they are fun however it's a free for all so if you don't have a great car you will have no chance. 

Not only is online broken but so are many other parts of the game. Statistics have been broken since launch and still are so I have no idea of my actual play time. Every time I play the game, it just resets all of the statistics. To make matters worse I played it today and my entire map had reset itself to being undiscovered so I can't fast travel anywhere. AI is stupidly over powerful no matter how much better your car is though this has been slightly improved since launch. 

I realise it sounds like I'm being negative on this game. Understand that I really enjoyed my time playing it but it is still broken in so many ways. Customising  and upgrading your cars feels great and the story is sufficient. Also, the map is just ridiculously large. However, the online issuses and game breaking bugs existing take away from the experience. You never really feel the upgrade from the different parts and the AI is unrealistic.

Final Score: 7.0 (20 point scale system)

P.S: I feel I should also make the point that I believe any game that is 'always online' should come with a free month of PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live. This doesn't have to be done with every game with a multiplayer element, but the Crew is unplayable without these services. It won't even let you get past the start screen.

Assassin's Creed Unity Review

Finished Progress: Completed All Main Missions

                               45%

                               27 hours played

                               Completed story modes of all previous games except Rogue and Liberation. 

Assassin's Creed Unity probably contains the most mechanical and gameplay changes to the AC franchise other than AC2. However, not all of these changes are improvements and it creates quite a disappointing game.

It seems that with every improvement there is also a negative. The city is huge and, in my eyes, beautiful, but loading screens are extremely long and frequent.  The character customisation is great with so much choice, but I wish you could still skin animals for larger inventories. The amount of NPCs in a crowd is impressive, but models repeat and the frame rate can be choppy. Stealth is improved as it now has its own button, but the whistle mechanic is gone and the cover system was said to be like the brilliant one in Watchdogs, but it isn't. Those are a few examples, but I could easily list more. 

The games tagline is unity which relates to the new co-op missions available. The team sizes are either 2 or 4 dictated by the mission. Even though they are side missions and don't relate to the main story they do come with proper cut scenes. The missions themselves are good fun from what I've played, but the lag is horrible. Often in the main story you will have a companion controlled by AI and when you are both fighting the same guy you are both able to land hits. With online multiplayer often one assassin will get the attack animation whilst the other just freezes in place until the move is over. Although there are a lot of missions I wish multiplayer was also available in the main story especially if it's supposed to be the main feature of this game.

The other side missions are a mixed bag. The murder mysteries are a lot of fun and force you to think to make sure you capture the right culprit. However, I found the Paris stories that I played to feel mostly like they were just prolonging my game time. Helix missions I found to be way too repetitive. Paris is large and there are a lot of missions and items to unlock but a lot of it isn't engaging. The amount of icons on the map I also found to be overwhelming and messy.  They are 4 different types of chests which is so confusing and you don't know how difficult they will be to be to unlock before traveling to them. Here is the map with all viewpoints unlocked and it's definitely confusing:

I am definitely impressed with the character customisation. The clothing of your assassin can be changed and so can his weapon. Here is how my assassin changed throughout the course of my play. 

He started off looking like robin hood and ended with looking more like an assassin. You can customise the head, chest, waist, forearms, legs and the overall colour of the outfit. Each item has different statistics which can aid you in stealth or combat. Weapon choices are also vast. I started off with an axe and then moved on to a spiked club and ended with a sword. All of these can be brought with micro-transactions or in-game money, but I never needed to use my own money or grind. There are skill points which can now be used to drop different abilities, but they don't drop frequently enough. Also, necessary skills like double assassinations have to be unlocked. 

The main campaign is enjoyable, but I stopped caring about the characters about half way through. The revolution and its events are used effectively, but I wish they were used more. There are a lot more assassinate missions than there were in previous games and this is definitely an improvement. The ending though is just terrible, but I won't spoil it here. 

Although I experienced many occasions of choppy frame rates my game never broke or crashed. There were numerous glitches I also encountered by they weren't a big issue. 

So in conclusion Assassin's Creed Unity does have some improvements but it fails in more areas than it succeeds. Towards the end, I was getting really frustrated with the game. It's definitely not the best game in the series with glaring issues, but it also isn't the worst.

Final Score: 7.5 (20 point scale system)

Assassins Creed Unity PS4 Impressions

Current Progress: Up to Sequence 7 Memory 2
                             23%
                             16 hours played

There is a lot of negative press about this game and five hours in I agreed with most of it. However, now with 16 hours played and about half way through the plot, I am becoming more positive. Don't get me wrong, this is still not a great AC game. I have played every AC game except the Vita Liberation port and Rogue.

I'll start off with what most of the press is focusing on. The game doesn't run well at all. I can't generally tell the difference between 30 fps or 60 or anything in between. However, in this game there are choppy frame rates, which I do notice happen often. Though the recent update does reduce the frequency of the frame rate drops. Also the loading screens are stupidly long. It's sometimes quicker to run across the city than fast travel to a viewpoint. There haven't been too many glitches since I've been playing. The no face bug seems to be only present on PC. Some console owners never connect their console to the Internet so there is no excuse to release a broken game which can then be fixed afterwards with updates.

Now some positives. Paris is huge and looks fantastic. The sense of scale is amazing and it definitely feels like the biggest AC city. A big change from Black Flag where you never spend much time in one city. Also the game looks graphically beautiful. Whether you are watching in game cut-scenes or running around the city the game graphics are amazing. One of the features this game showed off in all of its press previews was the amount of NPCs on screen. While it is impressive when you see a large crowd, the individual people seem lifeless. Different areas of the city feel different. You know when you're in rich areas with unrest and in rough areas.The city is great and the best thing about Unity.

Mechanically the game has changed drastically since Black Flag. Some are improvements, a lot aren't. One improvement is the combat. You can no longer just counter one move and then chain kill every enemy. You have to parry and dodge. An enemy's health bar flashes yellow when you can parry. Taking on a lot of enemies on is a challenge as it really should be. Because of this stealth is encouraged so to avoid the more difficult combat.

Another improvement to some extent is the huge character customisation. In the past the options for how your assassin looked was purely cosmetic. Now you can customise the head, chest, waist, forearms, legs and the overall colour of your assassin. Each item looks different and has different levels of health and stealth bonuses. It's awesome. This is your Arno and he keeps all of the items of clothing you choose in the cut-scenes. A disadvantage is the skin crafting is no more and instead these items of clothing comes with different item capacities. I found I was looking more at these numbers than how the pieces of clothing looked. Weapon choice has also increased. I'm currently using a spiked club but could use a pickaxe or swords among other choices. Every item can be brought using the in-game currency or annoyingly  micro-transactions. The game becomes even more like an RPG with skill points which is a good addition. However necessary skills like double assassinations need to be unlocked and the amount of skill points you get from the missions isn't many.

My biggest issue with the game so far is the French revolution seems to be barely used, it's more than of a backdrop. There are few references to the guillotine and none to the royal family. There are crowds burning flags but they don't attack the officers and storm the buildings like the trailer shows. The storyline doesn't focus on the revolution at all. I wasn't too impressed with AC 3 but at least that taught me things about the American revolution. I think one reason for this is there will probably be 3 games set in France around this time period so by the end you'll know more about the revolution. 3 Italy games and then 3 America games. Next step 3 France games. But I can't be bothered to play through all of that.

To conclude I am so far enjoying this game. There are a lot a changes and some are for the better. This game is in line with the other poorly received AC games like Revelation (my personal worst AC game) and AC3. Not great but still somewhat enjoyable.