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The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Games and Entertainment
7.0
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*IMPORTANT* The Amazing Spider-Man 2 requires an iPad 2 (or newer), iPhone 4s (or newer), or iPod...
Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Dying Light in Video Games
Jul 19, 2017
Awkward parkour (2 more)
Terrible story
Disappointing loot
Mutton dressed as lamb
This game came out in January last year, so it’s now more than a year old, but honestly it feels much older than that. I can remember when this came out to glowing reviews and I was pleased, because I was a big fan of Techland’s first open world, first person zombie game, Dead Island. Plus this looked really cool as it added free running and a transformation of zombies. I bought the game in about September last year, but I have only recently gotten around to actually playing it, so I figured I’d give my thoughts on the game so far. To be honest I am very disappointed, after the glowing reviews and audience praise I was expecting a game that was a lot better than this. I honestly think I may prefer the original Dead Island to Dying Light and although I may be looking at Dead Island through rose tinted glasses, it was only a couple of years ago that I played it, so I’m not so sure.
The big gimmick in this game is the free running. I went into the game expecting Dead Island meets Mirror’s Edge, but instead I got something more akin to Shadow Fall or Far Cry’s janky free running. The player character honestly feels so heavy and clunky and there is no coherent flow to the free running at all. The other gimmick is the idea of ‘drops,’ which are basically supply drops that are dropped in various locations throughout the map. The controller will vibrate, the blue icon will appear on the map and you haul ass across the environment towards it, in the awkward parkour motion that you are forced to endure throughout the game. The first couple of drops are difficult when you don’t yet really know what you are doing, but after a while you know what to expect and as soon as you feel the controller rumble and the icon appear on the mini map you know to just run as fast as possible towards the icon and everything will be straightforward. Also, while I am aware that players don’t tend to love this game for it’s immersive story, what story they attempt is garbage delivered by poor voice acting, in addition it makes absolutely no sense that you are just some random guy that the people from The Tower find out on the street and within spending a day or two with them they declare you to be the best free runner in the whole tower, it is all just far too convenient. The game also attempts to force you to change your play style at night, some of the zombies transform into hulking, hard to kill beasts with super speed, but their field of vision also appears on the map, so as long as you can avoid that, everything will be hunky dory and even if you do get seen you can just run away for a bit and climb onto a ledge and they will soon forget about you. I actually think that the virals that attack you during the day are more dangerous as they don’t have a specific field of view and are faster than the night time virals. Now while all these minor gripes do add up to my dislike of the game, the biggest let down in this game is it’s loot system. The loot in Dead Island was so good and when you had a great weapon, you knew it was great because it was so effective and felt so good to use in combat, there was just a charm to the weapons you could find in that game. The loot in Dying Light is much more generic and the effectiveness of the weapons has been neutered. The game starts you off with flimsy blunt weapons, which is expected, then you either find or save up your money and buy a sweet new axe or machete, you think that this is going to help you take out everything so much easier, but there isn’t much more of an effect, like maybe instead of dying after 18 hits a guy will die after 15, but that still doesn’t exactly feel effective to me. Also, the weapons degrade quickly, but that doesn’t matter because there is a good amount of weapons to buy and find, but since they have all been nerfed anyway it renders the whole process totally pointless, the loot system is really redundant and has no impact at all on the game. Also the guns are overpowered as all hell. The big guys with the heavy weapons will take you around fifty smacks with a hammer to bring down, but if you have a pistol and jump over a three foot wall, they can’t follow you and so they just stand still, so you just pop two or three caps into their skull and they go down in a couple of seconds. I also dislike how the damage you inflict on an enemy is the same no matter where on the body that you hit them. You can whack a guy repeatedly in the head or the legs and he will fall down in the same amount of time either way.
Overall, this game tries to be the next gen version of Dead Island, but what it delivers is a game that looks and feels like it came out at the same time as its predecessor and in a lot of ways it is even less intuitive than the first game. I know that I keep comparing this game to Dead Island, but I honestly believe that if you are looking for a first person zombie survival game, you should save yourself the cash and go pick up Dead Island as it plays better than this one and is graphically on par. However even though I have torn this game apart for the duration of this review, it is still a good game and I can see why people like it, I just don’t understand the massive amounts of praise it gets when Dead Island was a better game.
The big gimmick in this game is the free running. I went into the game expecting Dead Island meets Mirror’s Edge, but instead I got something more akin to Shadow Fall or Far Cry’s janky free running. The player character honestly feels so heavy and clunky and there is no coherent flow to the free running at all. The other gimmick is the idea of ‘drops,’ which are basically supply drops that are dropped in various locations throughout the map. The controller will vibrate, the blue icon will appear on the map and you haul ass across the environment towards it, in the awkward parkour motion that you are forced to endure throughout the game. The first couple of drops are difficult when you don’t yet really know what you are doing, but after a while you know what to expect and as soon as you feel the controller rumble and the icon appear on the mini map you know to just run as fast as possible towards the icon and everything will be straightforward. Also, while I am aware that players don’t tend to love this game for it’s immersive story, what story they attempt is garbage delivered by poor voice acting, in addition it makes absolutely no sense that you are just some random guy that the people from The Tower find out on the street and within spending a day or two with them they declare you to be the best free runner in the whole tower, it is all just far too convenient. The game also attempts to force you to change your play style at night, some of the zombies transform into hulking, hard to kill beasts with super speed, but their field of vision also appears on the map, so as long as you can avoid that, everything will be hunky dory and even if you do get seen you can just run away for a bit and climb onto a ledge and they will soon forget about you. I actually think that the virals that attack you during the day are more dangerous as they don’t have a specific field of view and are faster than the night time virals. Now while all these minor gripes do add up to my dislike of the game, the biggest let down in this game is it’s loot system. The loot in Dead Island was so good and when you had a great weapon, you knew it was great because it was so effective and felt so good to use in combat, there was just a charm to the weapons you could find in that game. The loot in Dying Light is much more generic and the effectiveness of the weapons has been neutered. The game starts you off with flimsy blunt weapons, which is expected, then you either find or save up your money and buy a sweet new axe or machete, you think that this is going to help you take out everything so much easier, but there isn’t much more of an effect, like maybe instead of dying after 18 hits a guy will die after 15, but that still doesn’t exactly feel effective to me. Also, the weapons degrade quickly, but that doesn’t matter because there is a good amount of weapons to buy and find, but since they have all been nerfed anyway it renders the whole process totally pointless, the loot system is really redundant and has no impact at all on the game. Also the guns are overpowered as all hell. The big guys with the heavy weapons will take you around fifty smacks with a hammer to bring down, but if you have a pistol and jump over a three foot wall, they can’t follow you and so they just stand still, so you just pop two or three caps into their skull and they go down in a couple of seconds. I also dislike how the damage you inflict on an enemy is the same no matter where on the body that you hit them. You can whack a guy repeatedly in the head or the legs and he will fall down in the same amount of time either way.
Overall, this game tries to be the next gen version of Dead Island, but what it delivers is a game that looks and feels like it came out at the same time as its predecessor and in a lot of ways it is even less intuitive than the first game. I know that I keep comparing this game to Dead Island, but I honestly believe that if you are looking for a first person zombie survival game, you should save yourself the cash and go pick up Dead Island as it plays better than this one and is graphically on par. However even though I have torn this game apart for the duration of this review, it is still a good game and I can see why people like it, I just don’t understand the massive amounts of praise it gets when Dead Island was a better game.
Gareth von Kallenbach (971 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of Batman: Arkham Knight in Video Games
Jun 19, 2019
Playing as Batman never gets old for fans of the Caped Crusader and in the latest video game offering Arkham Knight from Warner Bros Interactive and Rocksteady Studios, fans can once again climb, soar, and now drive through the streets of Gotham City to make the world a safer place.
After the Scarecrow has launched an attack on the city, it is up to Batman to save the day as the mass exodus caused by the attack has left Gotham a shell of its former self and allowed more of the seedy underbelly of the city to come to ground.
As Batman investigates he encounters all sorts of foes ranging from Poison Ivy to the Arkham Knight who stand in his way. Of course there are legions of henchmen and goons for you to fight through and the free-form combat that has been established in the previous games in the series really shines as the action is as fast and smooth as you would want.
Driving segments played a big part in the game and while I loved racing through the city, I did find the vehicle combat a bit linear and repetitive for my taste, but there are some great side missions such as one in the sewers with the Riddler that will put your driving skills to the test.
What I loved about the game was that the city was a true living and breathing city. It is vast, complex, and something to enjoy when you’re gliding or rappelling your way across the rooftops.
The plot of the game is also a huge selling point as it is filled with twists and turns that will keep you hooked during the entire time that you are playing the game.
From the great graphics and action, the sound quality in the game really makes things come to life, especially the thuds of your fists hitting the next bad guy who was crazy enough to think that they could get away from Batman.
If you are a fan of the previous Batman games in the series, there is much to like about Arkham Knight as aside from the Batmobile issues, I had very little to complain about. The control system works well, the graphics, and sound are first-rate, and the storyline is gripping and engaging.
I look forward to playing the game again and focusing more on the side quests, but for now, let me say that Batman: Arkham Knight is a must own for fan of the series as it is on par with the amazing Arkham Asylum for the best Batman adaptation to date.
http://sknr.net/2015/07/28/batman-arkham-knight/
After the Scarecrow has launched an attack on the city, it is up to Batman to save the day as the mass exodus caused by the attack has left Gotham a shell of its former self and allowed more of the seedy underbelly of the city to come to ground.
As Batman investigates he encounters all sorts of foes ranging from Poison Ivy to the Arkham Knight who stand in his way. Of course there are legions of henchmen and goons for you to fight through and the free-form combat that has been established in the previous games in the series really shines as the action is as fast and smooth as you would want.
Driving segments played a big part in the game and while I loved racing through the city, I did find the vehicle combat a bit linear and repetitive for my taste, but there are some great side missions such as one in the sewers with the Riddler that will put your driving skills to the test.
What I loved about the game was that the city was a true living and breathing city. It is vast, complex, and something to enjoy when you’re gliding or rappelling your way across the rooftops.
The plot of the game is also a huge selling point as it is filled with twists and turns that will keep you hooked during the entire time that you are playing the game.
From the great graphics and action, the sound quality in the game really makes things come to life, especially the thuds of your fists hitting the next bad guy who was crazy enough to think that they could get away from Batman.
If you are a fan of the previous Batman games in the series, there is much to like about Arkham Knight as aside from the Batmobile issues, I had very little to complain about. The control system works well, the graphics, and sound are first-rate, and the storyline is gripping and engaging.
I look forward to playing the game again and focusing more on the side quests, but for now, let me say that Batman: Arkham Knight is a must own for fan of the series as it is on par with the amazing Arkham Asylum for the best Batman adaptation to date.
http://sknr.net/2015/07/28/batman-arkham-knight/
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