Some videogame rambling

Blogging’s been a touch light due to actually getting some work done (huzzah!) and being mildly pestilent (buggerydoo).

Anyway, there has been some recent videogame news that caught my eye and I thought was worth a quick ramble. So ramble shall I.

Fallout 76 is to come out. I imagine a proper reveal and launch date will emerge during this year’s E3, but the murmuring at the moment suggests it’s not a ‘proper’ Fallout (ie a single player RPG along the lines of Fallout 4, or New Vegas). Instead, it sounds like a (primarily, at least) multiplayer online tosh pit, probably including at least some element of base-building.

I rather liked the building in Fallout 4, although I didn’t like Garvey being a nag (and a layabout, why did *I* have to save every damned settlement whilst he frolicked through the streets, whistling and doing nothing?) or the paid DLC nonsense. However, with Fortnite, PUBG and perhaps now H1Z1 dominating the time, and wallets, of millions of gamers it’d be unsurprising if there were a battle royale aspect.

I’m not a fan of multiplayer gaming, and not just because I’m a misanthropic monster who dwells in an isolated cave on a remote North Sea island and whose only human contact is when the local villagers annually deliver me seven redheaded maidens to appease my wrath. It’s quite remarkable, really, given how much time I’ve sunk into Skyrim (much, much more than Fallout 4) how Bethesda have managed to announce various releases since, only one of which I’ve bought, and none of which I’ve played for even 10% of the time I put into Skyrim. But, gaming is a business. If you can make eleventy billion dollarydoos with Elder Scrolls Online *makes the sign against evil* and it takes less time than creating The Elder Scrolls VI: Your Grandkids Will Be Dead Before This Comes Out, it makes financial sense.

Will I be getting Fallout 76? Well, let us imagine a lovely world in which time and money were no object. In that marvellous realm of fiction, the answer would be: almost certainly not.

A more tempting prospect would be the forthcoming Tomb Raider, the third entry in the reboot of the mega-series. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is pencilled in for the middle of this September which really isn’t that far off now. I’ve played both immediately preceding instalments, as well as perhaps a third of those preceding the reboot, and have high hopes this will live up to the standards recently established.

It’s also being touted as completing the ‘origin trilogy’ which will see Lara Croft emerge from the cocoon of ordeals as an arse-kicking heroine. Although she did seem to be there by the end of the second game, if not the first… Anyway, it’s set in South America, with jungles and incredibly steep pyramids all around. This means both camouflage and never skipping leg day will be vital if Lara is to survive this particular adventure.

We are not yet certain what endangered species Lara will be murdering, or what priceless artefacts and/or cities she’ll be wrecking, but I’m sure that’ll come out in due course. Camouflage does play a role, though whether that’ll be just mud and leaves, or something akin to Metal Gear Solid 3’s approach, I don’t know. (As an aside, if you haven’t played Rise of the Tomb Raider yet, you can get it on Amazon for the PS4 for £16, so it’s worth a look).

One thing I will say against Shadow of the Tomb Raider is that the fancier ‘Croft Edition’ comes out 48 hours earlier. That kind of thing is just nonsense, in my eyes. Bonuses in swankier editions should be limited to cool extras like maps, posters, that sort of thing. Getting to play earlier because you’re Captain Moneybags does not sit well.

I’ll probably end up getting this, but not at launch.

On the new games front, this last is a ‘sort of’ entry. The Banner Saga Trilogy Bonus edition for the PS4 comes out towards the end of July (£30). The first game was the first, and so far only, game I’ve ever bought electronically. I have to say I liked a lot about it. The art style is interesting, I liked the strategic combat, and the element of uncertainty/deceit with the characters was intriguing. I also liked the ending a lot. However, I never got around to buying the sequels. Hard to say if it just slipped my mind, my dislike of electronic stuff got the better of me, or what. It’s not the best game ever made but it is a good game and well worth considering, particularly if you enjoy tactical combat, Viking(ish) settings, and tough moral choices.

Banner Saga review here: http://thaddeusthesixth.blogspot.com/2016/01/review-banner-saga-ps4.html

Speaking of electronic stuff, I still plan on getting Blood & Wine DLC for The Witcher 3 at some point (this may seem like I’m absentminded, but given at least 16 years elapsed between me buying the first and second entries in the Death Gate Cycle, this is a small delay). I might also see about getting some XCOM 2 DLC at some point, but less sure about that.

On a wider note, rumours abound that the PS4 is drawing towards the end of its life cycle, although that still means going on to 2021. Given the bullshit pulled with the PS4 Pro, I shan’t be in a hurry to throw hundreds of pounds at Sony next time around. I’ll wait a few years, and see if they pull the same nonsense again.

And don’t forget, if you enjoy fantasy (serious or comedy), do check out my Amazon author page and the lovely five star reviews: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thaddeus-White/e/B008C6RU98/

Thaddeus

Review: Rise of the Tomb Raider (20th Anniversary Edition) - PS4

Rise of the Tomb Raider was a timed exclusive for the Xbox One, which has recently made its way to the PS4. However, PS4 players can benefit from getting all the DLC included, a VR mode (for those of you who are moneybags) and all outfits, including an extra exclusive one.

But is it worth getting?

In a word, yes.

Gameplay

The gameplay is very similar to the predecessor game that rebooted the franchise. Climbing mountains and icy walls with your axe, swooping down ziplines and murdering endangered species all make a return. The crafting system of the previous game has been deepened, with more options for making your own ammunition, enhancing weaponry (some mods carry across all weapons of a certain type, so you won’t spend all your time upgrading pistol A only to then get pistol B and have to start over) and giving yourself more storage space for crafting materials or ammo.

In gunfights I have the combat prowess of a drunk in a cat flap, which makes me a bit wary of assessing such things. My approach, where possible (and it’s often possible) is to snipe enemies with a bow and arrow (which couples nicely with the colour-system where enemies are yellow if other enemies can’t see them and red if they’re in line of sight of their allies). On the default setting I found the combat relatively easy, so those of you who are skilled at shooting may want to bump it up.

You’ll be able to get the vast majority of extra skills (upon levelling up) by the time you finish the main game and these can fit nicely with your playstyle. One I especially liked was a slight change to the targeting system whereby a different symbol was used for a headshot. Others increase damage resistance, improve special ammunition types etc etc.

There’s also a large variety of outfits. As well as the cosmetic changes some offer bonuses to gameplay. A significant number (16 or so) are immediately available. Others are acquired by story progression, beating certain challenges or being bought (with in-game currency). There’s a really nice mix of hot or cold weather, urban or adventurous, and modern or old-fashioned armour.

There is also a lot of side content, ranging from finding optional tombs (bit larger and seemingly more frequent than the previous game), to smashing laptops, helping out other people and so on. There’s a really nice mix of extra content and you do get some bonuses for completion (expedition cards, credits, or tools that help you in-game).

Story

Tomb Raider, over the decades, has always had a slightly predictable approach to stories. Lara has Daddy issues, ancient treasure, massacre wildlife etc.

In her latest quest to find beautiful, long-lost archaeological sites and then utterly destroy them, Lara’s in Siberia. After a largely cinematic prologue, you get a short but sweet introduction to the mechanics of the game. Lara, being nuts, has gone to a lost city in the desert. In Syria. After destroying a priceless historical site, the action shifts back to Siberia.

She’s chasing an artefact her father (of course) was after, taken by a Prophet from Constantinople into the middle of nowhere, to a city called Kitezh. As you may have guessed, Lara’s not the only one after the treasure. [As an aside, the Byzantine flavour to the story and relics you discover is something I really liked].

Stories have never been the strong point of Tomb Raider, and whilst there aren’t many surprises along the way the story does hold up. That’s largely due to the strength of the additional characters and the backstory for Kitezh, which holds up well.

Graphics

The graphics look great. Not only close up, but distant vistas of icy mountains or desert cities, in snowstorms or at night, the world looks fantastic. Sheets of ice and light flooding through windows look very atmospheric, and all the outfits (mentioned above) feature in the cut-scenes so there’s no weird disjointedness of giving Lara a Siberian ranger outfit only to discover when she has a chat with someone she’s changed her top.

If I were being utterly finickity, maybe fire could be a little better and likewise the large ammunition that gets used very late in the main campaign (you’ll know it when you see it, as you get some very fun toys to play with at that stage). Generally, though, environments and characters look great.

Sound

Camilla Luddington, Lara’s voice (and motion) actress is on top form, backed up by good performances all round. I especially liked Jacob’s voice. It would’ve been easy for him to come across as a bit of a damp rag, but instead he’s like a mix of Father of the Year and a universally popular political leader.

The music blends well into the game, and sound effects are good too. I especially enjoyed the sound of dragging a man below the ice as the final gasping bubbles of air escape his lungs, but that might just be me.

Longevity and replayability

Obviously this’ll vary depending on how much side-content you digest in the main campaign and whether (and how much) you indulge Croft Manor and the Expeditions (and, if you partake in multi-player stuff, that too). For me, the main campaign took perhaps 25-30 hours.

The individual areas are nice and large and, overall the game is substantially bigger than the reboot predecessor.

I went through Croft Manor, and must admit, even as someone who liked collecting documents and relics in the main game, I found it pretty boring. I’ve only had a quick go with Expeditions and I think they’ll add a bit more replayability. The Baba Yaga DLC (included in the main game) is the best of the DLC/extra modes. Fairly beefy in size and good fun.

This won’t apply to most people, but at some point I’ll likely replay it in German (playing videogames auf Deutsch is how I stop mine going 100% rusty). There are also many other language options available (a few more for audio, a lot more for text). This is likely limited to the European edition.

I cannot comment on the VR as I'm just a poor boy from a poor family.

Bugs and Other Issues

Very few. The only real problem I had was the 1.04 patch which meant your game crashed after 15 seconds. However, the crashing no longer happens (bit perplexed why, as there’s been no 1.05 patch, but the game runs fine).

It can also be irksome when you’re hunting for relics to hear Lara repeat the same bloody advice over and over when you press R3 for survival instincts. Not that I’m some sort of compulsive collecting completionist lunatic.

Conclusion

I’ve played a number of Tomb Raider games over the years, probably between half and a third of all the games in the franchise. This is my favourite, by a long distance. Great gameplay, enough game to sink your teeth into without feeling the portions are too small, and a plethora of additional modes and features. My only gripe would be a lack of a camera mode, which would fit very nicely here.

Score? 9/10.

Thaddeus

Review: Tomb Raider, Definitive Edition (PS4)

I recently acquired a PS4, and the first game I got for it was Tomb Raider. This was originally out for the previous console generation but (as seems the fashion nowadays) it was remastered for the PS4.

Storyline

Lara, her mentor Roth, a few friends and a TV dick called Whitman are sailing to find Yamatai for archaeological/television purposes. Lara suggests going into Not The Bermuda Triangle, which naturally causes the ship to sink in a massive storm and the crew to wash up on a dreaded island.

After spending her first evening on the island suffering bondage and puncture wounds, Lara sets out to find her crew and a way off the island. Unfortunately, the island is inhabited by an assortment of murderous lunatics.

The premise is nice and simple. Characters and their relationship with Lara are revealed naturally as the game progresses. The way the story goes won’t be a shock, particularly to gamers familiar with this sort of thing, but it’s perfectly sound.

There’s a mid-point which is so involved, lengthy and thrilling I thought it might actually be the climax of the game, and was a bit surprised it wasn’t (feels almost like the end of the first half of a play, which plenty of excitement prior to the interval).

Upon completion, you can return to the island to collect things.

Gameplay

The controls are very intuitive, and the initial section teaches you the basics without the dreaded tedium of a typical tutorial. Most players will have the gist from older Tomb Raider (or Uncharted) games, but for those new to this genre it’s a good introduction.

I played the game on Normal. Discounting occasions when I tried making impossible jumps, I got killed perhaps half a dozen times during the playthrough. Here and there you’ll be forced into a proper gunfight, in many areas you’ll have the option of taking a stealth approach (which I usually went for). Combat in this genre isn’t my favourite aspect, but I thought it worked pretty well.

Tombs are smaller areas you stumble across (there aren’t a huge number) within which you find treasures/upgrades. The puzzles, such as they are, tend to be pretty straightforward. If you’re stuck for a little while you’ll have the option to press L1, and Lara will offer a hint.

On the downside, there’s too much in the way of QTEs (quick-time events, the work of Satan) early on, and occasionally later in the game. Apart from the first hour, there’s not really a glut of them, but I’m not a fan of that approach.

Graphics

The graphics generally look very nice, as the screenshots I’ve included in this review show. Sometimes water effects look outdated compared to the rest. Likewise, flames can sometimes look a little bit dated.

The sea itself looks very nice, though, and there are some great vistas in a reasonable variety of settings.

A nice touch is that Lara’s default outfit undergoes the John McClane process, getting dirtier and slightly torn as the game progresses. Unfortunately, this doesn’t occur with the six extra outfits. She also gets some small scars, which makes sense given she spends several hours getting battered [but these magically disappears if she changes outfit].

Sound

I’ve bought a few Tomb Raider games, and really liked Keeley Hawes’ past performances. The reboot, unsurprisingly, went for a new actress, Camilla Luddington [who also, as is becoming commonplace, did the motion capture for the character].

A good choice, I think. She does sound pretty young, which fits, as this is basically an origin story for how Lara Croft became female Indiana Jones.

The rest of the cast do a solid job, and I like the dynamic of slightly bickering shipmates.

Sound effects are nice, from zip-lining to forcing open metal crates with a pick. By default, you also get sound via the mini-speaker in the controller. As I usually play with earphones in, I disabled this.

The music fits the game well, and is enjoyable without being overpowering.

Bugs and other issues

In my entire playthrough I encountered one bug. Lara froze at the end of an animation, and was stuck in an ice-skater type pose. She kept on gliding forward too, which was weird. I got out of it by changing my weapon. No freezes, lags, excessive screen-tearing, prolonged loading times or any other issue occurred, so that was pretty good.

Conclusion

I enjoyed it a lot. The game’s been out a while, which means you should be able to get it for a low price and I probably spent 20-30 hours on the main storyline (I did some exploration on the side, but not much).

Thaddeus

Tomb Raider Controversy

I've mentioned before that I was thinking of getting the new Tomb Raider reboot game (unhelpfully entitled just Tomb Raider), which has now been pushed back to March 2013. The game has recently hit the headlines for the wrong reasons, however.

Below there are some general spoilers.

There's been some controversy over a scene that has sometimes been described as an 'attempted rape'. I'm pretty sure it's included in the video linked to below (around 2:22), though I think 'attempted rape' overstates what happens significantly. However, the suggestion of what might have happened is quite apparent.

The game takes place with a younger, very inexperienced Lara Croft who doesn't really know her arse from her elbow when it comes to tomb raiding (initially, at least). However, (and it might be exaggerated due to the necessarily condensed and exciting nature of trailers) it does look like the game's gone overboard in making her weak and vulnerable, and I felt a bit uneasy watching much of it.

She gets, at least, groped, attacked by a dog, bound several times, wounded and the voice actress (who does a very good job) makes her seem extremely vulnerable. As the game progresses she will become more proficient and tougher, but some have already said they won't buy the game on the basis of the way she's presented (because the 'attempted rape' scene feels wrong, largely).

But would there be this reaction if she were a he? Naked Snake got electrocuted, tortured, lost control of his bladder, almost had his eyes stabbed out and did lose an eye to a gunshot. He was, of course, a skilled soldier so the two situations aren't directly comparable but it's the closest equivalent that jumps to mind.

There's a very interesting take on it by Susan Arendt, over at the Escapist, which is well worth a read for those thinking of buying the game.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/op-ed/9747-Get-Back-Up

I slightly disagree with her regarding the portrayal of women in the media (almost every advert seems to have a moronic man failing and a wonderful woman succeeding) but generally I think it's accurate.

I don't know whether I'll end up buying the game, at this stage.

Thaddeus

Tomb Raider Vs Uncharted

It’s quite a while ago now that Lara Croft and her improbable proportions bounded onto the screen. Game series seem to have difficulty enjoying a prolonged longevity. Sonic was really popular for the first 2-3 games, but he became outdated, and even the very long-lasting Final Fantasy seems to be doing its damnedest to shake off the last pesky fanboys (if I want something entirely linear I shall read a book).

The early success of Tomb Raider was due to a few factors. Firstly, Lara Croft. A lady protagonist was certainly not the norm in 1732, or whenever the first game was released, especially not one so well-endowed. Secondly, raiding tombs for treasure is cool. It was cool when Indiana Jones did it, it was cool when Lara Croft started doing so, and it remained delightful when her bête noire Nathan Drake appeared. Thirdly, there wasn’t really any rival (so far as I remember) so she had the entire antiquities thievery market to herself.

This year a rebooted version is to be released (unhelpfully entitled just Tomb Raider). This isn’t the first time such a thing has happened, but it will be the earliest Lara Croft we see (she’s not a veteran of theft and slaughtering endangered species, but a novice). Some say, and I agree, that this is make or break. The reboot, with a new, more realistic, Miss Croft design and voice actress, is an opportunity for a clean break. However, if it flounders she may well suffer terminal decline, not unlike the Roman army after the ill-conceived reforms of Marius which transformed the military into a more mercenary force with loyalty reserved for generals rather than the state. Ahem.

Uncharted is a new series, with three instalments thus far. I’ve played the first two (developed a habit of buying the inevitable platinum edition) and liked them both a lot, although I didn’t replay them much. The platforming is probably a shade better than Tomb Raider, but it’s in the gunfights that Uncharted really thrashes its older rival. Drake also seems a lot more likeable, and the graphics are fantastic (small and irrelevant anecdote: I played the first Uncharted game on a standard TV initially, and was really surprised just how big a difference the HD 720p definition made).

The individual treasures that can be found (and it’s hard not to find most of them) in Uncharted are a nice touch, although the generic treasures of Tomb Raider are actually more challenging and therefore rewarding to locate.

Apparently the new Tomb Raider will take Uncharted’s good points into account (which probably means copying them), and will have certain survival elements. I think this sounds pretty good, but, as usual, execution is what matters. If the survival elements are pathetic and tokenistic then there’s no point. If they’re all-encompassing and the mainstay of the game it might be enjoyable but wherefore art thou named Tomb Raider if that be so?

I hope the new game works well. I’ve played perhaps a third of the Tomb Raider series, and found it to be quite enjoyable, but not enthralling. Some extra realism, survival elements and a reboot, going back to Lara’s first adventure, might be the adrenaline shot the series needs.

There’s no solid release date, but it’s pencilled-in for Q3.

Thaddeus