The Uninteresting Blog

Is Trixie a lesbian?

I saw a comment on a review of a Fairly Oddparents episode recently, talking a bit about this, and whilst I haven’t watched the show in well over a decade, I did find it intriguing.

Essentially, the theory is based around the fact that Trixie is extremely dismissive of Timmy (Aside from that episode where Timmy wishes everyone aside from him and Trixie vanished, but even then she only uses him for attention and not out of any genuine desire to be with him)

However, when Timmy became Timantha in that one episode, Trixie was willing to hang out with Timantha and confide in her about her secret (That she likes boyish things like comics and videogames)

Now if you wanted to write a lesbian character in the early/mid 2000′s what would you do? I’m willing to bet a lot of showrunners just made a female character more masculine and called it a day, a lot like how they handled the campy gay man stereotype.

Spec Ops: The Line is a third person action shooter developed by Yager and published by 2K. Yager developed the title as they wanted to criticise what they viewed as a romanticising of war in the media. And so they consulted Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and the film Apocalypse Now and set out to create a narrative experience that would make people think more about the actions they take in videogames. But how well did they pull of their narrative? Is it the story to end all stories or is there room for improvement? I'll be finding out in this review.

Spec Op's story takes place in a devastated Dubai, after a massive sandstorm has wiped out the city. You play as Captain Martin Walker, a Delta operative leading a team on a scouting mission. Your objective is to scout out the city and find survivors. On contact you are to return to waiting US forces outside of the 'Storm wall'. However the situation is quickly complicated when you hear a distress signal from US forces in the area and from then on things quickly escalate out of control.

The actual character arcs are done extremely well, they're consistent and really help add weight to the situation our characters find themselves in. One thing I will criticise, is that Walker's descent into madness seems to happen a little quickly. The big event that throws the game from light hearted action romp to traumatising war also drives Walker's character mad. Pretty much immediately after the event, Walker is having audio and visual hallucinations. It took me out of the experience somewhat, but not enough to really harm my enjoyment of the game. Aside from the rocky start, the rest of the game is superb in how it develops its characters.

The gameplay on the other hand, isn't quite as interesting. There are a few interesting turns, like fighting hallucinations or getting berated by loading screens. But otherwise it's your fairly run of the mill third person shooter with cover mechanics. They do try to show the characters mental state during combat, which is interesting. As the game progresses Walker's orders become increasingly violent as do the executions. Speaking of executions, it's an interesting mechanic in the game. Ammo is scarce in Dubai, so by executing enemies you can get more ammo, though the executions are always quite violent. You can also order your squad around, though it's quite limited. Generally you just get them to prioritise enemies to kill or shoot environmental hazards. There's also a sandstorm system in the game, where visibility is dropped to near zero and you have to locate enemies based on the muzzle flashes from their guns. The segments are quite impressive however it's a shame that these sections are all very scripted, as I would have liked to see a more natural weather system to better incorporate these mechanics.

Spec Ops also has a multiplayer. This is comprised of a few separate game-modes and some Co-Op missions. It supposedly gives insight into the Civil war that broke out between the American soldiers stationed in Dubai during the storms. Unfortunately this multiplayer feels tacked on to the game and while fun, completely undermines the narrative in the campaign, as while the campaign is all about the horrors of war, the multiplayer is all about the fun aspect, supporting the hero fantasy that the campaign tries so hard to decry. The Co-Op gameplay isn't too bad, however it's rather repetitive in terms of what you do. Generally you just have to kill the enemies in front of you and get to the end of the level.

In conclusion, Spec Ops the Line is a solid action game. The story is fantastic, with well defined characters and intense set pieces. It's a little on the short side in my opinion, being only 15 missions long. But it uses the time it has well. The multiplayer on the other hand, goes directly against the message presented in the campaign and doesn't do much to set itself apart from other shooters. However, I don't think its downfalls take away from the game too much in the end. Spec Ops is still a fantastic title and I would recommend everyone give it a try.

If you would like to buy a copy of Spec Ops: The Line, then follow the link below:

Just Cause 3 is the third title in the popular Just Cause franchise. Developed by Avalanche Studios and published by Square Enix. The Just Cause series became famous for the level of destruction offered players. But how well does the third instalment match up to the others? Is it an improvement over the previous games or does it fall short? I'll take a look at it in this review to find out.

Just Cause 3 features many of the same gameplay elements of the previous titles. However, there are a few new additions. The player now has access to a wingsuit alongside their parachute, which allows them to travel quickly across the world (provided they don't immediately dive into the ground) The wingsuit allows quick travel at the expense of the manoeuvrability of the parachute and with the right altitude you can get very far (I was able to travel from the top of a cliff all the way to an off-shore Oil Rig). Vehicle handling has also been changed, at least as far as land vehicles go. And I must say, it's for the worse. Cars seem to turn too wide or too sharply depending on their mood. A light touch of the analog stick can send a car plummeting over a cliff when you just wanted to follow the slight curvature of the road. It certainly takes some getting used to and it can really suck some enjoyment out of the game. Luckily Planes and Boats are unaffected from these steering changes and are still a joy to use. The Liberation missions from Just Cause 1 have returned as well. Though they've seen a fairly significant overhaul. Rather than being missions the player has to initiate, you can now enter a town and start destroying things in whatever order you wish, and if things get to dangerous then you can leave and return later, without having to worry about losing progress. And just in case you get bored of blowing things up there are a couple of alternate game-modes for you to play, though most of these are just races. The gunplay is quite good, the guns sound great and shots really seem to pack a punch, though I found the iron-sights to be a little hard to see at times, which lead to a lot of missed shots. There are a few small glitches in the game, I found that while driving around the islands, sometimes terrain would pop up above the tarmac roads, catapulting my car into the air, though thankfully that's the only glitch of note that I have encountered in the game.

The story is a fairly standard affair for the Just Cause franchise, Rico drops into a politically unstable country and sets about blowing things up until everything is better again. The difference this time is that the setting is Medici, Rico's fictional homeland. The country has been taken over by a ruthless dictator while Rico has been toppling regimes in other parts of the globe. Now it's up to Rico and his long time friend Mario, to free the nation. This is mostly done through liberating the various settlements of Medici, the islands are broken down into provinces, which are then broken down into settlements. When you liberate all the settlements in a province, then Di Ravello, the bad guy of the game, loses control of that province. The more provinces that are liberated, the more story missions that will unlock. This can mean that Just Cause 3 gets a bit repetitive, an issue that was present in the last game as well. Thankfully there are side events to help break up the monotony, such as the aforementioned races. There are also small random encounter missions, such as rescuing a rebel from Di Ravello's soldiers or towing a car that's out of petrol to a petrol station. Unfortunately, these small side excursions are somewhat limited. So you'll probably see the same 2 or 3 missions appear for the majority of the game.

Overall I'd say that Just Cause 3 is a very fun game, while it can get a bit repetitive in places and there are a few annoying bugs and glitches. It's a solid build off of Just Cause 2 and a worthy successor to the franchise. The wingsuit really opens up the world in a way that jets and helicopters couldn't and even though you may get bored of the destruction from time to time you'll still find creative ways to have fun (One of mine is riding the trains around the main island and shooting at any enemies I pass) If you're a fan of open world single player games then I'm sure you'll love Just Cause 3.

If you would like to purchase Just Cause 3, then follow the link below:

XCOM 2 is the followup to 2012's XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Unlike many other titles, XCOM 2 chooses to play off of the bad ending from the first game. This meant that the gameplay had to be overhauled in order to suit the new style of play that would be introduced in this game. But do these additions help or hinder the game? And does it live up to the legacy of the series as a whole?

As XCOM 2 is based off of the bad ending of the first game, the gameplay has been redesigned to focus around guerilla warfare. A lot more of the missions are hit and run based objectives, where you have to get in, complete the task and get out again in as short a time as possible. This of course, means the introduction of timers. There were timed missions in the first XCOM game, but they were generally relegated to Council missions, and usually only Bomb Disposal, where you could increase the amount of time available to you by disabling power nodes scattered across the map. XCOM 2 has no such luxury, you'll find in most cases that you have between 8 and 12 turns to complete the objective and there is no way to increase that time-limit. XCOM 2 also procedurally generates its maps, in order to avoid repetition like you would see in the first game. This has the downside of sometimes creating maps that are a little big for the time limit you have to complete the mission in. This can leave you feeling stressed as you'll have to rush your units forward with little idea of where the enemies are located, which can lead to you unveiling multiple pods at once with no moves left for your soldiers. This can lead to a lot of soldiers dying as you bumble into enemy pods unprepared and have to sit tight for a few rounds as you kill them all. This of course, leaves you less turns to reach the objective and it quickly becomes a scramble to kill all the targets, complete the task and extract before the timer runs out. Some will no doubt enjoy the challenge presented with the timed missions, and it helps discourage turtling for round after round, so the pace of the game has certainly increased drastically. One nice addition to the game, is that weapon upgrades now count for your entire squad, so if you upgrade from ballistics to mag weapons, you no longer have to build a mag rifle for everyone in your squad, rather everyone in your barracks will have the new weapons at your disposal. This helps save valuable resources which could otherwise have been used elsewhere.

On the story side of things, XCOM 2 distances itself from the previous games in the franchise (Though not as much as Declassified did) as mentioned earlier, XCOM 2 is set after the bad ending of the first game, this means theres a large focus on guerilla warfare and as a result, the pace of the game has increased significantly. A focus for the devs has been an increased number of mission types for the player, this means that you'll find the games campaign to be a lot less repetetive than in the first game. The idea of XCOM being forced on the defensive isn't entirely new. It's been explored before in the base assualt game modes from previous entries in the franchise it's much more in depth here. New Dark Events mean the game will through random challenges at you every month, which can range from the enemy completing more research on their project to them sending a UFO to hunt down the Avenger. And while you don't need to worry so much about keeping countries happy anymore, nations can still pull out if they feel you're not up to the task of defeating the Aliens. This can prove fatal to your XCOM operation as you'll need to regain contact with them again, and if they're between you and an enemy base that you need to destroy. You can waste valuable time getting back into their good books while the Aliens creep ever closer to victory. Unfortunately while a lot of emphasis has been placed on the Avatar project in the game, they don't go a long way into explaining what it actually is. Presumably the actual secret of the Avatar project is revealed towards the end of the game, however for much of the time you're working against it, you never really find out all that much about it. Even completing story objectives reveals very little about what the project is for. And getting a Game Over also leaves you in the dark, as once you reach the end of the Avatar project completion timer, a cutscene plays showing XCOM being defeated. With no mention of the Avatar project at any stage.

Overall XCOM 2 is a very fun game, the changes to the gameplay will likely leave many veteran players stressed as they grow accustomed to the new play style. While I think the game can be a bit harsh with its timers at times, it's generally not too bad. There are still a few bugs and glitches in the game even now, such as the Faceless textures or the World statistics board being broken. But I have yet to encounter anything game-breaking. (Slight ammendment here, just encountered a bug where the action camera got stuck after a Faceless transformed and had to restart the game. While irritating, I don't expect you'll encounter this bug too often) I think XCOM 2 is a worthy sequel to Enemy Unknown, it improves upon it in a lot of ways and changes up the gameplay to feel fresh and different without losing its sense of identity. Though there are a few lingering issues, none of them were large enough to damper my enjoyment of the game.

If you want to buy a copy of XCOM 2, then follow the link below:

Mass Effect 2 is the second installment of the highly acclaimed Sci-fi franchise by Bioware. For the second game, Bioware took a look at the feedback they'd recieved from Mass Effect 1, in order to know where they had to improve. Because of this. Mass Effect 2 has much tighter gunplay, which is a lot more responsive than before, however it also lacks the vehicle segements from the first game. So today I'll take a look at it, and see whether these changes and others help or hurt the game.

As I mentioned in the intro, the gameplay has clearly been a focus for Bioware, as it's a much more fluid experience, the cover system has seen major improvements and minigames invovled with hacking have been changed as well, now any class is able to hack into things, however there is no option to use omni-gel to bypass the minigames anymore, in fact, omni-gel seems to be missing from the game completely. The inventory system is also gone, meaning you'll be spending less time managing your inventory and won't have to worry about breaking down really good items into omni-gel because you didn't have enough space, as both the inventory and omni-gel are gone now. One new system introduced in Mass Effect 2, is the Thermal Clip system. In the first game, while your gun had unlimited ammo, it was prone to overheating. This meant the player would often find themselves sitting in cover waiting for their guns to cool down so they could continue fighting. The Thermal Clip system means that now, when a gun gets to the threshold of overheating, you instead eject a thermal clip, allowing you to continue firing without interruption, however the guns can't fire when you run out of thermal clips. This means that unlimited ammunition has been traded for a faster firing rate and better accuracy. Another new feature added to Mass Effect 2, was Paragon/Renegade interrupts. This expands on the morality system introduced in the first game, by allowing people to interrupt conversations at certain points with either a paragon or a renegade action, these can range from making a snide remark, punching someone or brutally killing a group of people. They help make conversations feel less static as it seems like Shepard is making decisions in the moment, rather than just having pre-meditated responses. It also makes gaining Paragon or Renegade points easier, as you'll have more opportunites to gain Paragon and Renegade points, thanks to this new system.

Moving on to the story, Mass Effect 2 takes place 2 years after the first game. Commander Shepard is hunting for Geth activity in the Terminus systems when their ship is attacked by an unknown vessel. The Normandy is shot down and Shepard is killed. Their body is recovered by the rogue Human splinter group, Cerberus who then proceeds to bring them back to life. While this is certainly an explosive way to start the game, it does become quite clear that the sole reason this whole 'died and was rebuilt' part of the story was included was so that there was an excuse for Shepard deciding to work for Cerberus. From there Shepard learns of mysterious attacks on Human colonies, where there is no evidence of fighting, just the vanishing of the entire population. Shepard is tasked by the head of Cerberus, The Illusive Man, to find out who or what is causing these mass vanishings. From there Shepard gallavants around the galaxy picking up various squad mates to aid in their mission. As well as upgrading their ship for the final suicide mission. The story on its own is pretty good, the characters are all fleshed out quite well and it's nice seeing returning faces amongst the cast. Part of the problem of Mass Effect 2's story, is that being in the middle of a trilogy, it's quite clear that it's pretty much filler. A majority of the story is spent recruiting people and upgrading your ship, weapons and armour.Thankfully there are quite a number of interesting side quests to complete, so even if the main campaign is a little weak there should be plenty to keep you interested. One nice addition to the story is Loyalty missions, these are optional side missions in the game, that are given to you by your team. Complete them and your teammate will become loyal. Increasing their chances of survival in the final mission. Ship upgrades and your own planning will also affect the likelyhood of your crews survival, which really helps raise the stakes of the game, as unlike in Mass Effect 1, even Shepard can die in the ending.

Overall, Mass Effect 2 is a very fun and engaging game, while the lack of vehicle sections and somewhat weak plot are a bit of a shame, they aren't glaring enough flaws that'll leave you angry or frustrated. There are a few glitches you may encounter in the game, as it is an Open world game, but otherwise it's very polished. the PC controls need some work as I found them somewhat counter-intuative and it took a bit of getting used to. I was somewhat saddened at the downsizing of some areas of the game, for instance, the Presidium from Mass Effect 1, is now only 1 room large, and it isn't even a big room, it was a terrible disappointment, especially as you can see the areas you used to walk around in ME1 from a balcony in the room. But in the end, I'd say that Mass Effect 2 is well worth a purchase. The charming characters, varied locations, hours and hours of gameplay and massively improved gunplay all help elevate this title to a fantastic shooter, even now 8 years later it still holds up well.

If you would like to purchase a copy of Mass Effect 2, then follow the link below:

With Metro Exodus rapidly approaching I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at the first game in the franchise. Released in 2010, Metro 2033 achieved critical success, and was almost universally well recieved. However it didn't fare as well commercially. Under performing in America. Needless to say, the game was at least successful enough to warrant a sequel, Last Light; which was published by Deep Silver after they aquired the rights to the franchise and developers 4A Games, after THQ went bankrupt.

Unlike the other big post apocalypse series, Fallout; the Metro series is very story focused and unlike Fallout, linear. This means that encounters cannot happen randomly. Each play-through you'll find the same enemies in the same places doing the same things and though there are what you could call side-quests, they're fairly basic. Such as giving a begger some money or not, with the reward simply being some karma points. This is an interesting feature in Metro. Along the way you'll find secret areas, help characters and solve moral dilemma's. As you do this you're rewarded Karma points. You also get Karma by not killing human enemies. This makes getting the good ending to the game difficult, as getting the good ending requires pretty much all of the Karma points in the game, so whenever you encounter a human enemy, you have to find some way to get around them without killing them. As there's no knockout mechanic, the only way to get past human enemies is to be stealthy and some people don't have patience for that in what was marketed as a first person shooter. In the remastered version, known as 'Metro 2033 Redux' the devs did make it possible to knock out human enemies, and also reduced the amount of Karma points needed to get the good ending, to the relief of everyone who played the original version of the game. The game otherwise was very well put together, with few glitches. Though players on PC did find that the optimization was somewhat poor on release. Thankfully the advance of hardware since 2010 means that this is pretty much a non issue for people with powerful enough systems now.

The story in the game is fantastic, it's filled with memorable characters and the bleak nature of the world really draws you in. You'll find yourself immersed in the worlds as you wander around the station cities or explore the dangerous above ground. The NPCs are mostly characterised pretty well though there is a moment where a character goes from happy and optimistic to 'convinced it's the end of Humanity' in the space of a single cutscene. I also feel the game could have done a better job at setting up the threat of the Dark Ones, as all your really get is some exposition from the characters before being sent off on your mission. The Dark Ones themselves also lose some of their ambiguity that was present in the book the game is based off of, it's made rather clear what their intentions towards humanity are as they sometimes flat out state it to the player. Never the less, despite these minor setbacks, Metro 2033's story accels at drawing you into its bleak world and the ending will leave you wanting more.

Overall Metro 2033 is a fantastic game. It's emotional story and gorgeous visuals help immerse you in the world that they've built. The bullet economy and gasmask systems help seperate it from other games in the genre. The lack of multiplayer is a bit of a shame, but in a story heavy game like this, I don't mind too much that it's absent. The gunplay has weight and is very fun and the sound design is spectacular. I'd highly reccomend Metro 2033 to anyone interested in purchasing it.

If you would like to buy a copy of Metro 2033 then follow the link below:

Halo 3 is probably the most popular game in the long running Halo Franchise. It was a system seller for the Xbox 360 and for many people, it was their gateway into the series. So while Halo 3 has managed to craft this legendary status around itself. Does it live up to it? And, looking back over 10 years since its launch, has it held up compared to modern games. These are the questions I intend to answer as I take a look back at the heavy hitting title of 2007 and give my honest opinions of it.

Starting with the story, we have to talk about the fact that Halo 2 was originally going to be the end of the franchise, and that Halo 3 only came about because Bungie set their sights too high and had to end Halo 2 on a cliffhanger. Because of this, Halo 3 has to both tell its own story, as well as finishing off Halo 2's. Halo 3 is comprised of 10 missions, though one is just a cutscene and doesn't really count. So all in all there are 9 missions in the game, making it somewhat shorter than Halo 2. The big issue for me when it comes to Halo 3's campaign is the pacing, or lack of it. The story goes nowhere for 6 out of the 9 missions, preferring to faff about on Earth. These 6 missions are what I believe to be the way Bungie were going to finish Halo 2, or how they were retro-actively ending Halo 2 at least. Specifically Mission 5 is where I believe the ending for Halo 2 would have been. Mission 6 has lots of problems of its own that need to be brought up. To sum it up, in Mission 6, the Flood arrives at Earth on an infected Covenant Battle-cruiser. Long time fans of the Halo series will know the Flood as the all consuming parasite responsible for wiping out the Forerunners, and who took over High Charity (The Covenants Holy City) at the end of Halo 2. So this is a pretty big deal. On board the Flood infested ship, Master Chief finds a message from Cortana talking about the Ark, this is the beginning of the issues. Cortana didn't know about the Ark, she wasn't with Johnson and Miranda when 343 Guilty Spark revealed its existence to them, so how could she have found out about it? One option could be that she took it from the database of Installation 04, but if so why didn't she tell anyone about it? It would seem like a pretty big deal to me, especially when there's a portal to it on Earth that she seems to know about as well. Secondly, how did she even get the message on the ship in the first place? She was on High Charity, the message is on a physical storage device. Did she create it and put it on the back of a Flood to carry into the vessel? And when & how did she record it without the Gravemind knowing? She was being interrogated by him after all and we know how it can corrupt AIs. The threat at the start of the mission, the Flood is also dispatched by the Covenant at the end, meaning the stakes for Earth are pretty much over. The Covenant have left and the Flood on the planet are dead. This mission also introduces us to a new plot point. According to Cortana, there's a way to stop the Flood for good at the Ark, without having to fire the remaining Halo rings, a Forerunner weapon that perhaps, wasn't finished in time to save them, but could save us. Unfortunatly, Halo 3 immediatley drops this plot point, making the entirety of mission 6, pointless. The plot point leads no-where and the threat introduced at the start of the level, is gone by the end of it. It feels like the remainder of some earlier draft of the story, one that I would have liked to see for sure.

As so much time is spent at Earth, it means by the time the game actually gets to the Ark, there's only 4 missions left in the campaign. This doesn't give you a lot of time to really explore the ark, like you could explore the ring in Halo CE. 2 missions in on the Ark and the Prophet of Truth is dead, killed in a cutscene like the Prophet of Mercy before him. This is so that the game can say 'Aha! The Gravemind is actually the true villain!' as he betrays you just after helping you reach Truth. The trouble is the game only has 2 missions left at this point, and in only one of them do you actually interact with the Gravemind to any large degree. His betrayal is also somewhat odd, his tentacles raise up above Master Chief and the Arbiter as he talks about how he's going to kill everything, then fails to grab a slow moving Pelican Dropship as it escapes, only succeding at knocking Arby and Chief off of it before having his tentacles retreat and sending waves of combat forms to attack you, basically it builds up a boss fight and then nothing happens, you just trudge back through the same hallway you fought through not 5 minutes earlier, only now you're fighting the Flood. The mission after that has you delve into the Flood nest in order to retrieve Cortana. The mission itself looks great, the flood biomass over the walls really gives you an idea of what could happen if the flood gets loose. The level layout is extremely confusing and you may find yourself dying a lot as there are constantly spawning enemies including many Flood Pureforms, alongside the confusing layout, you may find it to be an exercise in frustration. This level also serves to rob the Flood of some of their menace. Looking at it lore wise, Master Chief just walked into the belly of the beast, grabbed his holographic friend had a quick chat with her and then strolled back out again. The Flood don't even seem to do anything to stop the damaged pelican he escapes on from leaving. It makes them seem incompetant. The final mission of the game has you heading to a Halo Ring, the intent being to fire it to kill the Flood infestation. This actually conflicts with what we were told in Halo CE, that the Halos don't kill the Flood, they kill its food and let it starve to death. You fight through more Combat Forms and the gravemind taunts you a little, then you get to the final chamber. Guilty Spark informs us that the ring isn't ready to fire, and that it'll take a few more days before it's ready. When Johnson informs him that they don't have that much time, Spark goes rampant and kills him, this had been foreshadowed earlier when Spark zapped a marine who wanted to check out his internals, to make sure he was functioning right, but anyone who had played from Halo CE could probably see this betrayal coming a mile off. You then have to go through an easy and boring boss fight against Guilty Spark before you can finally activate the Halo ring, as the ring is unfinished it starts falling apart, destroying itself and dealing massive damage to the Ark. Which conveniantly solves that plot hole of the Rings only killing the Floods food. This leads to the final section of the game, a Warthog run similar to the one from Combat Evolved, though not as fun. And then the campaign ends. It's a bit sudden, and they of course tease that the franchise will be continued in the future (Which it was, with Halo 4)

Now that I've finished talking about the single player, I can move onto the multiplayer. This is what most people will remember when it comes to Halo 3, as it had a massive online community back when it was released. Halo 3 offered a good range of game-modes for the player to enjoy and a wide range of maps to play on, though you may find people vetoing maps until they get the ones they want, which means you'll find yourself playing on Valhalla or Guardian a lot for instance. The weapon sandbox has been expanded from Halo 2, now new Brute weapons are in the mix as well. Unfortunatly, there's not much reason to use them. There's not a lot that sets the Spiker apart from the SMG for instance, or the Mauler from the Shotgun. The Gravity Hammer is a fun new power weapon that rivals the Energy Sword and I think it's an excellent addition to the game. Two new grenade types have been added as well, the Fire-bomb grenade and the Spike Grenade. The Fire-bomb is what it says on the tin, an incendiary grenade that burns the person it hits to death. The Spike Grenade is similar in some ways to the Plasma Grenade, it sticks onto a vehicles or surface and explodes, the difference being that the Spike Grenade is somewhat directional. Like the Fire-bomb, it's a one hit kill. Some new vehicles have also been added to the mix. The UNSC gets the Hornet VTOL and the Mongoose ATV. The Covenant lose the Spectre from Halo 2, but gain the Brute Chopper and Prowler. The Chopper is the Brute equivelant to the Ghost, only has the special ability of being able to destroy light vehicles by ramming into them whilst boosting, which is usefel in game-modes like Capture the Flag, if the enemy team is escaping with the flag in a Warthog. The Prowler on the other hand is pretty much just the Spectre, but with a Brute theme. It has a single turret on the front, rather than the rear and two side skirts for passengers to hold on. Aside from that, there's nothing else unique about it, as I said; it's a Spectre with a Brute skin. Halo 3 was also popular for Major League Gaming at first. Though there were some noticable problems for those ultra competitve players. Halo 3's netcode was a little poor, this made blood-shots (Shots that hit the enemy from your perspective, but don't register in the game, and so do no damage) rather common, which annoyed a lot of competitive players. Halo 3 also did not utilize hitscan like the previous games in the series had, rather players had to lead shots if they wanted them to land. This took a bit of getting used to for a lot of veteren players. The Battle Rifle also had some poor weapon spread as it would seem as though one shot was always going to miss, unless you were right in your enemies face. The Assault Rifle also felt a little weak as well. This may in part be due to the sound design used on the weapons, which I felt was a little sub-par in a lot of ways. Another new feature that was added in Halo 3 was Forge mode, that let people edit maps by adding in new weapons of vehicles or items and the like wherever they wanted. The mode was a bit simplistic but I won't count that against the game here as it was the first instance of the feature and what players did with it far exceeded their expectations.

Overall I'd say Halo 3 is a pretty solid game, despite what may appear as my hatred for it, I do actually like the game. But its multiplayer far outdoes its campaign. Halo 3 is an old game now, going on 11 years old. You'll find the population for online is rather low, struggling to get above 2000 people at the best of times. This is compounded by the fact the player base is split across the Master Chief collection, Halo 3 on Xbox One backwards compatibility and those still playing the game on the Xbox 360. There are some issues with the multiplayer netcode, but if you're just playing casually, then you probably won't notice too many issues. While the weapon sandbox is a little dull, it's not too bad and there's a nice variety between the weapons. The campaigns story is quite bad but you'll probably have a lot of fun with the missions themselves, the scarab fights are quite fun (even if they make the scarab feel like a bit of a pathetic miniboss) and the settings are somewhat diverse. Halo 3 is available on the Xbox 360, as a backwards compatible title on the Xbox One and is also in the Masterchief Collection. If you would like to purchase a copy, then follow the link below:

After seven long years, it was announced that in 2017, the much-loved console RTS; Halo Wars. Would be getting a sequel, much to the delight of fans. Finally, the cliff-hanger they’d been waiting years to find the answer to can be resolved. Halo Wars 2 was developed by Creative Assembly and 343 Industries, and published by Microsoft.

Halo Wars 2 is set roughly 28 years after the original. Serina, the AI from the first game has undergone final dispensation and we are told this in the opening cutscene. The Spirit of Fire has found itself drifting above a massive Forerunner structure. Seasoned Halo fans will recognise this as the Ark, which was mentioned at the end of Halo 2 and revealed in Halo 3. Much of the damage done to the ark during the main series has since been repaired, though there is a satisfying moment where you get to go past some wreckage from a Covenant ship and upon hearing mention of Master Chief, Jerome remarks about how happy he is that John is still around. Red team is deployed to investigate and in doing so discover Isabel, a UNSC Logistics AI, as well as the villain of the game, Atriox. After a tough battle Red team extracts with Isabel, though Alice is left behind and Douglas is badly wounded. In the next mission, we learn that Isabel has briefed the Spirit of Fire crew on what the Ark is and does, however this occurs off-screen. Which is a shame as I would have liked to have actually seen them reacting to the power available in the Ark and the realisation of what Atriox could do if he controlled such a powerful installation. This is a bit of a recurring problem with Halo Wars 2, a lot of the expositional dialogue is done off-screen and the player is left to imagine what they would have discussed. This is likely due to the fact that most Halo fans would have already played the games and looked at other media in the expanded universe, meaning they don’t really need an explanation as to what everything does, they already know. But any new player entering the franchise at this point will likely find themselves a little lost.

On the gameplay side of things, a few things have changed since the first game. There’s a new resource you need to gather in order to build units and use leader powers. Known as ‘Power’ you have to build generators at your base alongside the standard supply pads. Some fans of the first game saw this addition as unnecessary, as the previous game had no need of such a mechanic. Leader Powers are also changed, instead of gaining various bonuses to different stats and maybe having a hero unit like in the first game. In this sequel, every leader has a selection of different powers they can unlock using ‘Leader Points’ which are earned throughout the game. This helps give the Leaders a bit of a different feel from one another, rather than just ‘15% faster build speed and start with heavy supply pads’. However, this can lead to balance issues. For instance, when the first DLC leader, Kinsano, was released, it was discovered that she was much more effective than the other leaders, and while this was later addressed in a patch, this also brought to light another issue of the game. The patch sizes were massive. For people like me who bought the Ultimate Edition, we got a free leader every month for around 6 months, usually this would be a cause for celebration. But there was also the dread knowing that just after the leaders release there would be a 40gb patch waiting just around the corner. I can only imagine how owners of the standard addition must have felt. They didn’t get a leader each month, but still had to deal with these insane patch sizes. For people without unlimited broad-band, this would mean that it could have gotten quite pricey for them. Even with unlimited fibre broadband, it still took hours to download on my end.

Aside from massive patch sizes, the game had a number of other issues. Thankfully most of these were sorted out after betas were held to help identify problems with the game. However early on in the release I had to deal with crashes, enemies randomly teleporting my units out of the map where I couldn’t use them anymore. The UI is also sometimes a little unresponsive, no-where near as bad as it was in the beta thankfully, but it still can be annoying when you choose to build a structure and the game doesn’t register so. The pathfinding was mostly good though there were a few occasions where is seemed that the AI couldn’t figure out where it needed to move a unit if you had built a large army and were trying to move it through a narrow passage.

While these issues may put you off at first, Halo Wars 2 still manages to be a very fun RTS game, with a good selection of maps and 3 new themes released for the Blitz modes single map, to help keep it from getting stale. Speaking of Blitz mode, this is another instance where people take issue with the game. Blitz is essentially a game-mode wherein you use cards to summon units to a battlefield and try to fight off increasing amounts of enemies in different waves. You can make your cards stronger by opening packs and getting another of the same type of card from those packs. You probably already see where this is going. While these packs can be earned from Achievements, and while each DLC leader came with 5 special packs relating to them each. You can buy packs with real life money in order to make your army stronger faster. Thankfully this doesn’t affect any game-mode outside of Blitz, however, unlike Halo 5. There is no way to buy these packs with in game currency. Which means people who spend a lot of money, are going to have an advantage. Thankfully it’s a co-operative game-mode, rather than a competitive one. So, you won’t find yourself in a situation where you’re totally destroyed because someone had more money than you.

Overall Halo Wars 2 is a very fun RTS, the AI is good, using powers effectively and proving a real challenge even on normal difficulty and game-modes like Domination help keep the game fresh, rather then just constantly playing Deathmatch over and over again. The leader variety is good, especially if you have all the DLC leaders and the story is very interesting. While the large patch sizes and occasional issues with the gameplay can be somewhat annoying as well as the presence of the microtransactions. They don’t get in the way enough to be too much of a bother. In the end, I’d say it’s a very solid game and recommend it purely based on the amount of fun you’ll have with it. As a bonus, Halo Wars 2 is also available on the PC through the Windows Store, so if you don’t have an Xbox One, then you’ll still be able to enjoy it, if your PC is powerful enough to run it, that is.

If you would like to buy a copy of Halo Wars 2, then follow the link below:

Fallout 4 is the latest entry in the post-apocalyptic franchise by Bethesda. Unlike previous titles, Fallout 4 is the first to have a voiced protagonist, but does this help or hinder the game? Were the compromises that had to be made worth it for whatever added immersion the players might have experienced as a result?

Set in Boston, Fallout 4 follows the story of the Sole Survivor; in their mission to find their Son after he is kidnapped (So it’s somewhat similar to Fallout 3’s story only the roles are reversed this time) Along the way you’ll get to meet the four main factions in the game, alongside a host of interesting NPCs. The gameplay has also seen an overhaul in this instalment, bringing it up to par with modern standards of game design.

Starting off with the most obvious and controversial part of Fallout 4; the voiced protagonist. In some ways it does allow the player to immerse themselves a bit more in the game, as you get to see your player responding to characters and talking to people as part of the world. On the other hand, however, it also restricts it somewhat. The dialogue options have been reduced to a four-choice system, whereas before there were many branching options with dialogue changing with your selected perks, here there is hardly any of that. It means that the options the player has when it comes to role-playing have been vastly limited compared to what you were previously able to do. A big problem in a role-playing game.

When you move on to the gameplay however, things get a lot better. The gunplay is a lot more fluid, fast moving. It feels as if there’s more weight to the weapons and there’s a satisfying spray of blood when you shoot and enemy (At least and enemy who isn’t a Robot) However there is a tendency for enemies to feel bullet spongy. This becomes especially apparent at later levels, though by then you’ve usually got enough gear that it doesn’t become as much of an issue. The crippled limb system returns, this time however limbs can heal on their own over time, useful If you’re out of combat and don’t have a stimpack. Stimpacks also heal limbs now, rather than Doctors bags, which some may enjoy. Power Armour has also changed, there is no perk required to use it, and rather than being equip-able armour it is instead assembled around a frame. This new mechanic gives the armour more weight and makes it feel like you’re actually a walking battle-tank. However, this can also make Power Armour more hassle than it’s worth for some people, as they have to be fuelled with Fusion Cores, which last about half an hour real time and need separate pieces like the arms or legs constantly repaired and they can only be repaired at Power Armour Station, meaning you’ll be travelling between settlements constantly in order to keep your Power Armour in mint condition.

One other thing to talk about is the hugely controversial subject of ‘Creation Club’ Which is a system in game that allows Bethesda to sell ‘Micro-DLCs’ to the consumer. These micro DLCs are usually things like armour or weapon paints, new armours or weapons and content packs for the Settlement mode. What makes Creation Club stand out is that modders can apply to be part of it, if successful in their application, they are then able to produce content for the Creation Club and can earn some money back. It’s a nice idea and it would look good on the portfolio of a modder, if they had done work with Bethesda and had that work featured in a major title. Most complaint’s came from the pricing of the content, with most people believing that it wasn’t worth the money that Bethesda were charging for it (For instance, one Power Armour paint costs 100 creation credits, equal to about $1 USD) While I personally am split on whether these pieces of content are worth it, I can see the potential of what’s on offer.

I think in the end, Fallout 4 is a very fun open world shooter, however those who play the games for the story aspect may end up feeling somewhat disappointed at the apparent lack of RPG elements. The settlement mode is a bit clunky but it works and so you may find some enjoyment from it. The perk tree is a bit confusing at first but after a little while you get used to its layout. Overall, if you’re a fan of open world shooters, Fallout 4 is for you, but otherwise you may leave feeling disappointed.

If you would like to purchase a copy of Fallout 4, then follow the link below:

Forza Horizon 3 is the latest title in the Horizon spin off games from the Forza series. Unlike previous entries, Horizon 3 takes the limits out of the occasion and allows you to free-roam across Australia. This new-found freedom really shines in Horizon 3, the different vehicle types are fun to drive across the varied landscape, be it buggies over sand, off-roaders over mud or sports cars over tarmac. It’s certainly a fun game, but does it live up to the various claims of it being the best racing game ever made?

As a ‘next-gen’ racing game, Forza Horizon 3 looks very good, the detail of the cars is astounding and the environments look great as well. One thing I noticed however was that the shadows during the daytime didn’t move smoothly across the ground but rather juddered. It isn’t very noticeable when you’re racing across the countryside at high speed, however when you stop to take in the surroundings or just for a quick break, it’ll become very obvious. Another thing I noticed was that when you got up close and personal to a decal in the customization menu, they would often be pixelated and would take a moment to pop in.

As I mentioned earlier, Forza Horizon 3 is a very fun game to play. The driving mechanics are superb, with each car feeling and sounding different. In the campaign you must earn fans to expand your festivals. You can earn fan through different events. These include lap races, point to point races, PR stunts and bucket list challenges. These challenges are mostly fun but after a while you’ll begin to find them somewhat repetitive. While there are some alternate game-modes such as Infection, King and Capture the Flag, these are only available online in a playground game, and cannot be played offline.

The game also has a few issues. I had a glitch at one point where the garage section didn’t load in properly when I went to go check out my cars. The walls were see through and everything kept flickering. This eventually lead to a crash, which was unfortunate. I’ve also had the game crash when saving a design for a car. This was annoying as it meant I lost all the progress I had made on the design, and as far as I know there is no way to save while designing a car. The in-game Forzathon events can also be a bit buggy, sometimes the description is wrong and the challenge is actually different. Sometimes it takes a while for the game to register that the challenge has been completed (At times over an hour). The same is true of the Forza Hub; an app that lets you collect rewards for the games, sometimes these rewards turn up in your in-game inbox immediately, other times it can take hours.

The game also has something of a microtransaction system. You can spend some real-life money in order to buy cars with ‘Tokens’, saving your in-game credits. In credit to the game, these tokens were things that I didn’t actually know existed until after I’d beaten the main campaign, whereupon a popup informed me about them. If you choose to continue using the credits over the tokens, then the game will not bug you about them and you can peacefully forget they even existed in the first place.

Another gameplay mechanic in Forza Horizon 3 is the ability to create blueprints for Races, Bucket Lists and Playground games. These allow you to choose which car you want to race, the time of day, weather and car class. This means you can create some quite interesting races however, for both the Playground Games and Race blueprints, you can only create one, creating another means overwriting the previous one. Which is annoying if you have multiple ideas for races using the same track.

Overall, I’d say that Forza Horizon 3 is a very capable racing game. The cars are fun to drive, the modification system in-depth and easy to understand. The paint/decal system is good though I think it could be made a little more user friendly. The customization for the races on the other hand I think could be improved a little, being able to create your own course with a bit more control over it would be a welcome addition. While there are a few bugs, they generally haven’t been too problematic and not to common either. In the end, the game is very solid and I would recommend it to those who are interested.

If you're interested in buying a copy of Forza Horizon 3, then follow the link below:

There’s no doubt that Halo 5 is a very polarizing title within the community. People seem to either love it or hate it. As 343 Industries second entry into the Halo franchise (Barring the MCC and Spartan Assault/Strike games) This was generally going to be a ‘make or break’ game for fans of the franchise.

Story-wise, Halo 5 follows Fireteam Osiris, a departure from other main-line entries into the series which have focused on Master-chief, while Master-chief does still play a role in this game, it’s a much smaller one, as the story revolves around 117 going rogue in an attempt to make contact with a previously thought deceased Cortana. Osiris are tasked with tracking him down as well as discovering what’s causing widespread destruction across UNSC colonies.

People who watched the trailers and additional media approaching Halo 5’s launch will remember that a lot of it focused on Chief going rogue and Locke (Leader of Fireteam Osiris) hunting him down, pitting them against one another and even implying that one of them may die by the end of the game. If you did get caught up in that hype storm, but never got around to getting the game, then you may be disappointed to learn that this angle of the story is actually dropped quite early on. While Chief and Locke do fight, it’s only the once. After that Osiris discover that Chief may be being lured into a trap and set out on a rescue mission instead.

Aside from the actual story, the level design of the campaign is stellar, it’s some of the most fun I’ve had playing a Halo title and it makes full use of the new Spartan Abilities introduced in this instalment. Friendly AI can be somewhat wonky at times, generally they’ll be on hand to revive you when you go down though sometimes you’ll find them run in a straight line to their inevitable death in an attempt to get you up.

Graphically, the game looks fantastic. It’s a step up from Halo 4 (Which already looked great) This is thanks to the additional power the Xbox One has compared to the 360. Halo 5 also runs at 1080p at 60 frames per second constantly, even online. Which is an impressive feat that 343 industries should be applauded for. Unfortunately, this push to keep the game running at 1080p 60fps constantly has lead to some other sacrifices. Textures aren’t quite as detailed as in previous games for one example.

When it comes to the games Multiplayer, it shines, matches are fast, fun and there’s a tremendous sense of balance, even when it comes to the many variant weapons in the Warzone game-mode. Though I’ve experienced the game generally losing connection to the network for short periods (About a minute or so) at times. Though this could be related to my ISP, rather than the game itself. Unfortunately for this title, Split-screen is not present. This is another sacrifice of the push for 1080p 60fps (Something the fanbase had wanted to see in a Halo game) Though 343 did try, they couldn’t get the engine to run stably while maintaining that framerate and resolution while Split-screen was being used, so it had to be cut. Due to fan outrage, all future Halo fps games will have split-screen.

Talking about the Multiplayer now leads us onto perhaps the most controversial of Halo 5’s features. Microtransactions. Likely a requirement placed on 343 by Microsoft, Halo 5 features what are known as ‘Requisition packs’ these packs can be purchased with in-game currency or real money. Packs offer two customization items or item certifications, with the chance of an emblem as well. You’ll also receive a variety of single use weapon and vehicle cards for use in Warzone as well as some booster cards that give you more requisition points or xp after completing the cards specific requirements, such as finishing a match or getting a certain number of assists. I’ll be honest here, compared to other games, I think Halo 5 is a better example of integrating Microtransactions, it’s very easy to earn the requisition points in order to buy the packs without spending real money and Warzone balancing makes it so that people can’t just endlessly spawn in powerful vehicles and weapons. While I would have preferred to unlock armour through completing commendations in game, I don’t really mind getting them through the packs either.

To summarise my thoughts on Halo 5; I think it’s a very fun game, certainly based on its gameplay. While I don’t think its campaign is the best in the franchise, I did enjoy and I think it’s far from the worst. The game looks great and runs great and while the marketing for the game could have better reflected the final product, I still very much enjoyed the game.

If you would like to purchase a copy of Halo 5: Guardians, then follow the link below:

Fracture was released in 2008, it was developed by Day 1 Studios (Now known as Wargaming West) It focused on a civil war between the East and West of America. Known as the Pacificans and the Atlantic Alliance. It’s set years after Global Warming has devastated the world, the rising sea levels have flooded most of the central states, advanced terrain deformation technology was developed to combat the rising sea levels. After the sea was halted. The two remaining sides of the USA, now separated by the ocean, went down two different paths in order to survive. The Pacificans chose to alter genes in order to survive, while the Atlantic Alliance developed advanced technology. Eventually the Atlantic Alliance decided to ban genetic engineering, which lead to the secession of the Pacifican states and the start of the civil war.

You play as Jet Brody (The most generic video-game protagonist ever made) One of the Atlantic Alliance soldiers sent to apprehend the Pacifican leader, General Sheridan. But the mission goes bad and thus the game kicks off.

The big selling point of this game was the ability to deform the terrain around you in order to do things like create cover or crush enemies against the ceiling and solve puzzles. The issue is that the puzzles that you solve are insanely simplistic and most of the time you’ll just be finding yourself deforming the terrain to get under or over a wall. There is a good amount of weapon variety in the game, with all of them having their own identity and role, though often you’ll find yourself using the Atlantican or Pacifican machinegun. In the tutorial the game points out a destructible wall and this may get the player excited for some real destruction, however the areas where the buildings are actually destructible are few and far between, so much so that by the time you’ve encountered them again, you’ve forgotten that you can destroy them.

The games story also left much to be desired. You’d think from the synopsis that the setting would be a good opportunity to explore morality and how far people are willing to go to survive, but Fracture attempts none of this, from the outset the Pacificans are pegged as the villains and this narrative doesn’t change throughout. Jet’s relative lack of personality in the game doesn’t help either. In the trailer for the game he mentions that the Atlanticans saved his life and that’s why he fights for them, but this is never mentioned in the game let alone expanded upon. He has so little personality that the Entrencher, his Terrain Deformation tool, is more interesting than he is. The music is also an issue, while it’s good. It’s also very repetitive, despite having played the game multiple times through at this point. I still sometimes think that there is only one track in the game.

To sum it up, Fracture is a game full of good ideas, but it doesn’t expand upon any of them and it ends up feeling shallow. Day 1 Studios clearly decided to play it safe with this release and in the end, that may have hurt it more than helped it. The ending of the game hints at a sequel on a world-wide scale, but due to poor sales, we’re unlikely to ever see the sequel. If you're desperate for a new Third Person Shooter, then you could certainly do worse than Fracture but there's no denying that you could also do better.

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