Titanfall [PC, Xbone, Xbox 360]

Titanfall, the most talked about game of the year so far and finally I get around to reviewing it. Thanks to an anonymous donor for a copy of the game. If you haven't heard Titanfall is a First Person Shooter (FPS) with no single player campaign, it's multiplayer only. It's not the first of it's kind but it is probably the first from a big studio with lots of backing.

There is still a campaign but it is a multiplayer affair and it needs to be completed in order to unlock everything. Honestly, it kind of sucks for a lot of reasons. As Kotaku pointed out, you can finish the campaign without having ever fired a shot. It's really just a set of multiplayer matches that have to run their course. Secondly, I'm not impressed with the story at all. People yell stuff at you, there is the odd interesting idea but it doesn't impact what you are doing at all in terms of gameplay. The other factor with this is that, paying attention to the story will wind you up shot in the head; it is too fast-paced to stop and smell the CGI. Finally, it's really hard to find a match, especially for the particular campaign mission you are up to. The campaign seems to be amongst the worst for this but as you'll find out, matchmaking in general is a big issue.

Matchmaking is almost totally automatic, which could be nice but it is riddled with troublesome issues. You can choose which data centre to use, whether that be Australian, US, etc. and which type of match you want to play but you can't see a list of servers to choose from. Titanfall offers 5 game modes at the moment but if you want to login and get to a match straight away you'll just be playing Attrition. It's so hard to find a match of anything else except for maybe the Variety Pack mode. Titanfall does not support cross-platform play, which I think really contributes to the server desolation. I thought Xbone and PC players would be able to link up, at the very least. Also there is no autobalance of any kind, you will not even be swapped to the other team if they have several less players, let alone if you/they are kicking arse. It's incredibly rare to find a match that approaches an approximation of even.

Titanfall Makes up for all of this by having awesome gameplay. It's frantic and the rewards come thick and fast. Whether it be a new weapon or you've just received a burn card, something is always causing you to check your build. The burn cards are a cool idea, they give you a little boost such as a more powerful version of your gun but once you die it's gone. A lot of thought went into making this game accessible to a range of players. The clever thing about it is by adding those dumb AI minions into the mix even poor FPS players like myself can build up confidence. You kill a couple of those and then you are in the swing of things. I have done stuff in this game I never thought I would be capable of in a FPS, going on kill-streaks, actually detonating a satchel charge on time, the list goes on. However I think some fudging does go into this. It seems easier to kill someone in this game then in other titles. The hit-boxes seem to be larger than average and I swear I have killed people when technically they should have been around a corner. It certainly happens a lot to me in the replays. This is not to say there is no skill in it, there is a lot to learn from good parkour technique, when to activate your special abilities and of course, being accurate enough to get a headshot.

Respawn Entertainment have announced they are working on matchmaking and perhaps in time it will be a lot better. There is also a promise of some free DLC as well. Either way, Titanfall is a great game, that just has a few niggling issues. As long as you are willing to focus on playing the Attrition mode, (face it, it's the best anyway) you'll never have to worry about getting into a match quickly but then what is the point of all these other modes? Still, if you want a shooter to play with your friends who aren't the best at them, this could be a way to encourage them to join you. In that sense Titanfall really achieves it's purpose. Go buy it and join a non-Attrition mode, maybe I'll see you waiting in the lobby... 8.4/10.

Desktop Dungeons

Desktop Dungeons began it's life as a Game Maker game that is still available for download as a sort of demo of the game. It has changed a lot since then, including changing to a Unity based engine. As I too am making a game based in Game Maker, I was interested to play the original to see how much can be done with Game Maker and I was pretty impressed but for the purposes of this review let's look at the full version.

The original isn't as pretty as the full release.

There is a story of forging a new kingdom to ward off the monsters of the world or something but it is all rather silly. The main crux of the game is defeating dungeons and then using that gold to upgrade your kingdom. This will unlock new classes, races, items, etc for you to use in the dungeons. But don't think these upgrades will make the game any easier, quite often an upgrade will also let loose a new dangerous type of monster that will require new tactics to defeat. You really need to be focused when playing Desktop Dungeons as it is quite a challenging game. Dungeons will often take multiple tries to complete and the game explains that dying is learning. Often you just need to learn the pattern of the dungeon but as they quite often randomise key features you can't always rely on your memory. The random nature of the dungeons also means sometimes you get off to a horrible start and other times you find the items and enemies you need straight away. This can be immensely frustrating at times.

Look at those graphix

It's an odd style of gameplay where you just bash into your generally unmoving foes until they die. Then as you explore through the fog of war you regain health and mana. However, there are various additions that mix this all up. Magic plays a big role in this and can give you an edge in combat. So to do shrines. Worshipping at a shrine will grant you powerful benefits but the gods get angered by certain actions like drinking potions, or using magic, so you have to be careful. To switch up from just straight dungeon crawling all the time the game also offers puzzles. Puzzles have a specific way they are to be completed and are meant to teach you about the game. The thing that really tricked me with them is that you don't have to "win" them like you would a dungeon. In a dungeon to win you typically have to beat the strongest monster there but in a puzzle you just need to perform the actions in the correct order. I was trying so hard to be able to beat this one monster and when I figured out all I needed to do is hit it once, well, I was a bit shocked. I really think this could have been explained as it would have made it a lot easier. Oh well you die you learn.

 

I don't normally go for immensely challenging games as some others do but I got a lot of enjoyment out of Desktop Dungeons. There are some annoying issues and the game isn't going to win an award for it's graphical achievements but it has a lot of charm and character. It has a good balance of patient, tactical play and loot grabbing silliness to keep you coming back for more. Plus it's pretty cheap and on Steam, which means it will go on sale eventually, I say at the very least put it in your wishlist 8/10.

Legend of Grimrock [Mac, Windows, iOS]

Legend of Grimrock has been out for sometime but I've only just gotten around to playing it lately. It's essentially an old school dungeon RPG with new world graphics and sound. Legend of Grimrock is made by another Finnish development team, who go by the name Almost Human, my second Finnish developer this week.

You're thrown into a dungeon with a team of four and you have to survive. The way you lay out your team is crucial as only the two in front can strike with melee weapons. The back is reserved for missile weapons and magic. I do recommend reading the short tutorial to get a handle on the game but very little is explained. It's all part of the old school charm, you have to figure out what is going on for yourself. This makes the game quite difficult at first and on my first try I died pretty quickly, after being overwhelmed by monsters. Once I figured out how magic worked and that you need to keep backing away from monsters, recharging your attacks and coming back in for the kill, I started to make some progress.

I love the lighting in this game it's so beautiful and really adds to the feel of being trapped in a poorly lit dungeon. I think the animations of the monsters are the most stand out aspect of the graphics. The character models themselves aren't amazing but they way the creatures move in the world really helps you understand how they fight and how you should fight them.

Like it's old school predecessors Legend of Grimrock is fairly frustrating. It rewards precise play throughs that can only be learnt with practice. It's all about the fine details, looking for that switch, figuring out that puzzle. This is what most people want out of this game but it does lead to some problems. The inventory suffers from this old school design and it feels like you are always poking through it to pull out a key, or a rock just to solve a minor puzzle. Combat is clunky too though the clunkiness does add to the sense of panic that makes each battle so intense.

I really see this as a niche game and I am very surprised with it's sales figures. Earlier this year they announced it had sold over 600,000 copies which is amazing for a small developer. That being said there are plenty of players out there looking for just this game, though I think most of them have already found it 7.7/10.

Eldritch [Windows]

Eldritch by Minor Key Games is a First Person Roguelike, set in a Lovecraftian world. It looks a lot like Minecraft and plays something akin to Dishonored with guns, knives and magic. It's an indie title and it only costs $14.99 USD, if that's got your interest keep reading.

Knowing this was a roguelike I set about my first play quite cautiously. I snuck about, got stealth kills and looted every bit of treasure. Doing this I found the game got a little tedious and I had become complacent at how powerful I felt I had become. So I started running about, killing things in the noisiest way possible and not looting everything. Then the game threw something new at me and I died. When you die in this, you can keep all of the artefacts you have banked and you can keep your progress in the way of unlocked books but everything else is lost. This means items are gone, as well as any progress you achieved without unlocking a book. Artefacts act as your currency as well as fuel for your magic powers and books are your gateway into the next world.

After my first death I wasn't frustrated with the game but rather I wanted to get back at it. I thought I knew how to solve my problem and I had learnt a lot through my first play through. I was really impressed with the way the game taught me things without throwing it in my face. I learnt how to manoeuvre through spikes by watching worms, for example and I thought the game had a lot in store in terms of this. However the game is rather short and this is it's most disappointing feature. I was hoping for an expansive RPG world with lots of items and things to do but I finished the game in one session. You can go back and play the game on an extra hard setting which is a nice challenge but it adds little to the gameplay. There aren't a huge variety of weapons and there aren't many things to learn.

Eldritch has a great atmosphere and loads of interesting ideas but it runs out of steam too soon. This adventure is going to have huge appeal to a small niche of people and I think that's really what they aimed for 7/10.

LGR Lazy Game Reviews

One of my favourite places to get game reviews, hardware reviews and odd gaming news has become the Lazy Game Reviews YouTube page. Run by the slightly mad Clint Basinger, the page is host to all sorts of reviews and let's plays. Some of the most interesting pieces look at old and obsolete hardware such as the Bernoulli Box, or classic computers like the Apple IIGS. He has also reviewed every Sims 3 major expansion including the latest one, Into the Future. His review style is a little weird and unlike other reviews he doesn't give a game a score but there is something interesting about his reviews as he is a bit of a character. Although he does a lot of new games I find his most interesting stuff is the reviews of older games and hardware. The fact that he actually plays a lot of these games on the old hardware instead of just DOS Box really adds to it, as you get to see the painstaking processes involved in playing early games! If this sounds of interest to you I highly recommend his stuff and remember as Clint would say, "Laziness is a state of mind, not necessarily a (lack of) action."

Win Total War: Rome II on Kotaku

Head over to Kotaku to win one of 10 copies of Total War: Rome II. All you need to do is grab an image of a dudesman out of the provided picture, then have a rant about him or her. Here is the shot I took for my entry.

Papers, Please Review

This game encapsulates the drudge and monotony of working in a clerical job a little too well at times but it does also add a lot of twists and turns to bring in some excitement. The constant pressure to do a good job and make enough money to support your family, is enough to turn anyone to a little corruption...

It's amazing how much the game can convey with such a simple art style, in fact it only adds to the gameplay rather than detracts. Part of the reason simple art looks so good in this, is because it's set in a fictitious Soviet block country, during the 1980's. An art style like this really makes the little things stand out, for example, guards are normally blue in colour but your friend the guard, he is in green. The simplicity of the art style really conveys the depressing nature of the job but little things, like knowing your friend the green guard wants to speak to you, gives you hope.

The gameplay is a strange mix of absolute boredom, as you process yet another application, to the exhilarating adrenaline rush, of shooting your first terrorist. It's sort of more social experiment than game at times and it makes me feel sorry for all the lowly people getting their work done in a government position (well at least until I remember they get each and every public holiday off). I want to come back and find all the different endings to this game, yet at the same time I can't play very many game days, without wanting to stop. Like you're proverbial average job, it's tedious, frustrating and can't be done well as you tire

It's a great game, it's a terrible game, if the premise interests you at all, I would say it is well worth the mere $10USD admission price, even if you are just curious. It's never going to be for everyone but then that is the beauty of indie games 7.8/10.

The Problem with Steam, or, Why the Steam Box won't Kill the Console.

There seems to be a huge amount of love for Valve and Steam. Although the Steam sales are quite nice, a lot of this love seems unwarranted. Steam is a bug riddled, archaic and bandwidth hogging piece of software, that hasn't had a true overhaul in its lifetime. Steam may be the best at what it does but it wouldn't take much to topple it from its position, especially if they don't have something planned for it soon. Some people have claimed that the Steam Box will destroy videogame consoles as we know them but of this I am sceptical too.

Firstly Steam crashes more than any other program I own. It doesn't matter whether I'm in Mac OS or Windows and I imagine Linux is much the same, Steam will find a way to stop working. It doesn't crash everyday but I can't think of a program that is less reliable than it. Next the fix for every Steam issue according to the forums seems to be uninstall and reinstall it. This is one of the reasons the Steam Box will never kill consoles. A console needs to be a much more reliable experience (no Xboxes don't count), a console never expects you to fiddle about with a .ini file just to get a game to work, nor reinstall its key piece of software.

Steam loves to update, it will update your games but more than that it loves to update itself constantly. You can't stop it from updating itself and if it doesn't want to let you in because it is updating there is nothing you can do about it. Steam doesn't even officially support background updating. When you are playing a game you have to get out of the game, right click on the game you want updated tell it to pause, then tell it to resume updating. The Wii U got a firmware update allowing for background updating where is the patch for Steam?

Steam lacks options. You have the choice between auto-playing videos or having auto-play turned off. I prefer auto-play turned off, so when I click on a video I expect it to play with sound. Why is the sound muted every time when auto-play is off? It makes no sense and why is there no option to stop this? Also it is basically just a glorified browser so why can't I have multiple tabs open? I want to be looking at a couple of games at a time instead of clicking on one, going back, clicking on the next etc. Steam is dated in this regard and it makes it very slow.

I hope the Steam Box brings with it a large update to Steam, as it is in dire need of a refresh. It was once cutting edge but now even Nintendo seem more up to date. The new card system is stupid and if they thought that was going to help them, I think they are in for a big shock. It's time to fix the boring stuff, make it a solid, reliable platform and most importantly give the gamers what they want.

Company of Heroes 2

Company of Heroes 2 was a tough game for me to review. Its intense, complex action is a load of fun, especially with friends but things like the AI bugs and the relentless march of DLC, take away some of it's lovable-ness.

The campaign's story and cutscenes are terrible but I had a lot of fun playing the missions. It starts you out fairly basically and gets you up to speed if you haven't played the previous game. I found the middle of the campaign was a little boring, due to the game throwing similar missions at you in quick succession but then the final few missions mix it up and got me interested again. Things like racing against the clock, or commanding a team of snipers sent to assassinate officers, help make the campaign interesting. The theatre of war mode expands on the campaign with a lot more single player scenarios and even a couple of co-op missions. These are great fun and well worth playing through as they teach you a lot of skills for playing online.

There are a bunch of things that let the game down and keep it from feeling like the true sequel it should be. The game was released a little too soon and there are a bunch of sloppy bugs that really show this. There are odd graphical issues with objects disappearing and things like the repair icon missing at times. There are also a bunch of AI issues that are just straight up disappointing. Just after an update to AI I played a 2v2 game with an AI partner. I watched as the AI forgot to build the Infanterie Kompanie that is so crucial to the Germans and then it sent out it's squad to capture a sector only to retreat it back before it finished capturing. I can't believe how dumb it can be. Path finding features a lot of the old problems you would be used to from the original. Retreating units seem to take odd paths at time, especially when they have added the jump the fence ability to squads, why not implement this to retreating? Make it new interesting and work well. None of this is game shattering but a lot of it is problems from the old game. These should not be a sequel, not one that wants to score highly anyway.

Floating binoculars?

Multiplayer is the best part of this game. Some people love the intensity and focus of a 1v1 match but I prefer the chaos of the 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4 matches. It's hard to explain the pure joy I have experience in this game but perhaps it is best exemplified by a 4v4 match I played online with a friend. So much happened in that match that it's hard to remember but there are a few key moments that stand out. Telling my friend not to send in his scout car to a heavily defended point on the map and watching it explode and everyone inside in one second. Ramming the massive German Elefant tank with my T34 and watching as my team picked it apart afterwards was the most exciting moment in the match for me. But the greatest part was that we had not taken a single victory point from the enemy until we were down to 70 points. We managed to fight back and take all 500 points with out losing another. It's the stories you get and the fact that you can fight back that makes this game so good.

There is a lot of value in this game, it gives you a campaign, the theatre of war mode and multiplayer modes but it has taken some odd turns. They have spent a lot of time on making DLC for the game a lot of which was available as part of pre-ordering the game but if you missed, out or didn't buy the collectors edition, there is plenty that Relic and Sega want to charge you for. I think instead of selling you paint jobs for your vehicles at outrageous prices they, could have focused on the included content a lot more. The game could have launched with another nationality or two to play as, it seems a little undercooked in this day and age. They haven't even explored any of the other Axis powers such as the Italians of the Finns. They will probably make a series of expansions for the game that include all of this but it almost makes it worth waiting for the complete boxed set to come out. By then you will own a PC that can handle this power hungry beast of a game.

All around it is a solid title but there are a bunch of disappointments. I know Relic went through a lot with the collapse of THQ and subsequently being bought up by Sega but I think they could have chosen to release this a few months later, to fix a bunch of these issues. If you liked the originals or like any form of tabletop warfare set from the invention of tanks, to say about 40,000 AD, you will like this game, it just doesn't have the widespread appeal they could have achieved with a more concerted effort 8/10.

Games for iOS, Android and PC

Run That Town [iOS] The Australian Bureau of Statistics finally has a game! I know we've all been waiting and it's even got Shaun Micallef. You can run any town you like from Kambah right through to Thornbury and just like everything the ABS has ever done, it's as boring as hell 1/10.

Iron Man 3[iOS, Android] This one is an endless flyer and like a lot of it's endless runner counterparts it uses the ever terrible tilt controls. This game wouldn't actually be too bad if it weren't for the timers put on everything to make you pay. It does however have quite pretty visuals and interesting missions to complete but at the end of the day it's for fans only 6/10.

Reus [PC] An indie title where you play as a planet, well sorta. You control the deities that are spawned by the planet. These gods represent the ocean, forest life, mountains and swamps and these gods bring life to the planet. The highest level of life is of course humans and you will need to make them happy to succeed in this game. To level up you need to complete achievements, things like get a town to x prosperity level, or have a town with so much greed. It sounds like a cool idea and was great fun at first but the gameplay really drags on as you repeat the same steps over and over again 6/10.

3 Short Reviews

BioShock Infinite [PC, PS3, Xbox 360] A solid game game but no-where near as amazing as the press had made it out to be. The powers aren't as exciting to use as those in Dishonored and the story takes a lull right at the time you are hit with a chunk of repetitive gameplay. Still well worth a play even if it's just to see how pretty it looks 8/10.

Running Unicorn Attack 2 [iOS (coming to Android)] The 80's have made quite a resurgence in videogames this year with Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon launching only a week ago and Running Unicorn Attack 2 (RUA 2) only a few days before that. Although they are probably both more early 90's than you might care to believe, RUA 2 embodies the spirit of what we have come to believe the 80's were. It combines cheesy music and memories of over the top children's T.V., with the ubiquitous endless runner. You play as a unicorn jumping, dashing and flying about the world, collecting tears and fairies, smashing stars and giants, all set against beautiful backgrounds that feature flying whales, dolphins and seahorses. So yes it makes no sense. It has some let downs like the occasional bit of slow-down and it does get a little repetitive but it's free and well worth the experience of cheesiness and rainbow-pooping unicorns 7/10.

Haunted Hollow [iOS] Is a turn based game from Firaxis who can't stop mentioning that they made the latest XCOM. What Haunted Hollow lacks that XCOM had in spades is depth. There are some really cool ideas here but little to keep you playing after your first few run throughs. You can play versus the computer or versus a friend in a hot swap arrangement or even online but there is only one map to play on. It's free to play but you will need to purchase extra monsters and items to get the full experience, oddly though, there is no option to buy a new map. The monsters are fun and the levelling up your house to get new, tougher ones is a nice feature but due to your movement points also being your cash for new monsters, you rarely have very many out. It's an interesting idea that could have been better executed 7/10.

A Whinge About SimCity

Honestly I find SimCity too frustrating to write a review about. At first I was so excited about the game and once I finally managed to get onto a server I found it quite fun. There are great concepts in SimCity but ultimately it falls flat. Rather than a review I'd like to talk about what happens in game and how I would like to see it improved.

Shut up Sims

My power advisor constantly tells me I need more coal in my coal power plant. The deliveries always take ages and by the time I get them I pretty much need more coal again anyway. Some people would say that I need to place my coal power plant next to the highway connection but I think that is a little unfair. I need to place it in such a way that it is not going to pump air pollution all over my town. Which brings me to another thing, why can't I make another connection to the "region"? Traffic is going to become a huge problem in any successful town and with only one way in and out of your city by car, it is going to be a nightmare. Traffic is even still a problem when using trains, trams, buses, airplanes, boats and goats, in an attempt to alleviate the congestion. I do understand that a game should be a challenge and I do embrace that but there needs to be an element of fun too and I think SimCity has forgotten this.

 

I think for most people videogames are an escape from reality and a big factor in that, is fun. Why isn't SimCity fun? It feels like nobody ever play tested it, it was instead purely debugged and they did a poor job of that anyway. Starting a new city is so exciting and you have so many plans but the game quickly grinds you down with tedium. Not enough water, not enough sewage, I swear the game wants you to cover the map in water and sewage pumps with a handful of houses around them which brings us to the worst part of the game, space.

 

The maps simply aren't big enough. SimCity 2000 gave you so much space to expand. You could do all kinds of things. Want to start a new region of your town, completely cut of from the rest? You could. Want to build your mayors house on an island? Plenty of space for that. Plus buildings didn't have add-ons as they do now. In the modern SimCity almost all buildings that you "plop" have extensions that will be required for later on in the game and this takes up an inordinate amount of space. This ruins the fun as suddenly you realise your favourite zoned building has to be demolished in order to "plop" another bloody fire brigade garage. It has double the effect because nice buildings grow next to your nice facilities, so they eat up the space where nice buildings could possibly exist.

Floating cars are a "feature"

The thing I regret the most about SimCity is taking the free game from EA. Not only did I find it immensely tedious (because it doesn't like my Logitech controller) but because I believe that the only way Maxis truly could have made up for it is by releasing some major content for free. First off is the large maps expansion. It sounds like they want to make this paid for content but it should have been included from the start. I have modest hardware on my computer and I can easily run SimCity on high so I don't think technology is the issue here. Honestly I think it comes down to laziness and long development times, that misjudge the advances in hardware. I sincerely hope no-one buys DLC for this product, as Maxis really don't deserve another dollar.

Feature

Another big issue that this has raised for me is the nature of video game reviews/previews and pre-ordering games. The media was overwhelmingly positive before the launch, despite the issues that they encountered. The thing is on first blush it is an enjoyable game but the mid to longterm is a nightmare. To add to this you get "bonus" content for pre-ordering and it seems so important. Honestly I hate the Maxis hero and villain content that I received as a bonus and it actually makes the game worse by constantly bugging you to install mediocre buildings that take up your precious space. I really want to pre-order Company of Heroes 2 as I am a huge fan but after SimCity I am too scared and I want to see the smoke clear first.

I know this review has taken some time but once I heard about "the big patch" coming out for it, I thought I would give it a chance to redeem itself. As of the patch coming in I cannot access one of my cities. This sums up the entire experience. I give SimCity a rating of Maximum Whinges out of Heaps.

Join the Company of Heroes 2 Beta Stress Test

The title basically says it all. In order to get in you can sign up here through Facebook. You'll need to sign away all your juicy Facebook information but then you shall receive a key. It definitely works, I have been playing today and getting my butt kicked as the Russians (seriously those German tanks are crazy tough). There is just a simple online client at the moment as well as a few tutorial videos, I recommend at least watching the one about snow to get an idea why your men are freezing to death. Go on, get playing.

Natural Selection 2 [PC]

Natural Selection 2 is an FPS with a twist, you have your standard shooting but there is also a commander. One commander per team is playing an RTS instead of an FPS and this makes for quite an interesting game. It was originally a mod for Half-Life but has become a stand alone game with it's own engine no less.

The game consists of two sides, the aliens (also called Kharaa) and the marines and they are quite different to each other. The marine players have to build the buildings that the commander creates, whilst the aliens can help build a building faster it is unnecessary. Extra abilities, weapons, classes etc. will need to be researched by the commander before you can use them. Aliens evolve into completely different lifeforms and can have a choice of what upgrades they take as these lifeforms. The basic alien unit is a dog like creature that can climb up walls and is primarily a melee unit. In addition to this you have a support class, a flying alien, a stealthy (and very deadly) one and the massive Onos which is a powerful meat shield.

The marines handle upgrading differently. Firstly there are universal upgrades that apply to you no matter what, which go straight to your weapons and armour. Then you get to choose what weapons and gear you take from an armoury or prototype lab. The armoury gives you access to the shotgun, grenade launcher and flamethrower as well as the welder (which lets you repair structures and your teammates armour) and mines (which blow up stuff). The prototype lab gives you access to jetpacks and the powerful Exosuit. The Exosuit is a robotic suit of armour that comes equipped with a minigun and can be upgraded to wield two miniguns making it hugely powerful.

Whilst balance is a contentious issue and the developers are constantly tweaking it in general I felt the game was quite balanced and either side could win it despite the large differences between them. Team work is something that is very much required and a good commander makes a huge difference too. Not only does a good commander build the structures you need in the correct order but they'll also tell you where to go and who needs help. Another issue the developers have just addressed is that of getting new players up to speed. They have included tutorial videos that play whilst you are waiting to respawn  that tell you tips and tricks. Accessibility was something the game was criticised about by a lot of reviewers but it has become much less of an issue now.

It's frustrating that the game needs to pre-load shaders and precache all the freaking time but once you are in a match it runs quite smoothly. In fact the engine appears to me to have become a little more streamlined enabling me to turn up the graphics settings. I found the world to be quite detailed, beautiful even and extremely atmospheric. What really adds to this though is the sound. I recommend playing with headphones on to truly be sucked into the world and you will need to be anyway. When playing as the marines you can hear the aliens crawling around in the vents or when you are an alien you might lay in wait, listening for the footsteps of the marines. At times this really had me on the edge of my seat, I could hear the aliens crawling all around me, then suddenly they drop from the roof and attack me! I think this truly is the successor to the Aliens Vs. Predator franchise and whilst those games are floundering, this is the place to be.

Whilst FPS fans are going to love this game, due to the commander and building aspects, you don't have to be a straight up FPS fan to enjoy it too. From shooting/biting, healing, building and just being a nuisance there are plenty of things to do in this game. The standard game can get a little repetitive though after you've played for some hours but there are some mods out and others on the way that will help relieve this a little. Plus the game is only $25 USD which for a title of this quality is pretty cheap 8.5/10.

One Sentence Reviews

Pixel People [iOS] It's cool how each new class is unveiled to you in a packet and you get a real sense of childish joy but there is little more to this than a collect it all mentality, still worth the distraction 7/10.

Game of Thrones Ascent [Mac, PC] I was lured in by the bacon but quickly I realised I was wasting my life, so I committed suicide 5/10.

Plants Vs. Zombies [iOS, Android] It's now free for iOS, just get it, 9/10.