Game Reviews #6 - GTA V

Platform: Xbox One
Store Page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grand-Theft-Auto-Xbox-One/dp/B00KL3W626
Price I Paid: Free!

Ah the GTA franchise, making tonnes of news programmes think it's the cause of all evil and the digital representation of Satan himself. But that isn't the case, surprisingly. GTA V, easily put, is a well crafted and fun game which I have sank almost four days into on both the Xbox One version and the Xbox 360 version.

The main selling point for this re-vamp was that first person was introduced. I was super excited for this, I mean, the first ever first person GTA game. That sounds great! What I received, in my opinion, was poor. Don't get me wrong, the game looks great in next gen and first person, but the guns. Little effort seems to have gone into the guns being in first person, which really is a shame, some don't look too bad, like the Shotguns but they all look the same, black and dull. Of course you can always customize them but even adding colour to them doesn't make the fact that it's poorly optimized any different.

No changes to the story, you all know how it goes by now, don't you? The multiplayer is still as "ehh" as it was before. New things are being added, heists have been delayed again, apparently they'll be coming out sometime in March or April. But the game is perfectly fine as it is, I didn't experience any bugs or glitches on my playthrough.

It's not the best game for achievements, story achievements are easiest to get, while the multiplayer achievements will require some effort to get, apart from me, mine glitched and gave me most, if not all the multiplayer achievements. If you haven't gotten this game then get it, there's so much to do on this game that you wont be stuck on lack of content until you've completed everything.

I'm pretty much finished with the game though, it has little to no replay ability factor for the campaign unless you're going for 100% completion.

GTA V gets an 8/10

The TV shows that you need to watch #1

Places to watch: Netflix, Youtube

That Mitchell and Webb look is a stroke of pure genius that stars David Mitchell, Robert Webb and a bunch of other recognisable faces from shows you may have watched. It's a comedy sketch show with a variety of sketches, including Numberwang, The Quiz Broadcast and The Surprising Adventures of Sir Digby Chicken Caesar.

To put it simply, this show is hilarious, the actors in it are perfect for the parts, there's something for everyone. Fourth wall breaks, innuendos, sarcasm, witty comedy all round for everyone. There's no real excuse to not watch it, it's one of the greatest sketch shows out there.

Places to watch: Netflix, 4oD, Sky

This is, one of, the GREATEST, SHOWS, EVER. It features the fantastically brilliant Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey and Tasmin Greig, portraying the characters Bernard Black, Manny Bianco and Fran Katzenjamer. The show revolves around the sarcastic, drunken bookshop owner played by Dylan, who hires Manny, played by Bill, to work at the store. Fran, played by Tasmin, runs a store next door for the first season.

It is laugh out loud funny as hell. There is never an unfunny moment in any of the episodes and I can watch them over and over, noticing new jokes throughout. It's my personal favourite sitcom and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Where to watch: Netflix

Ah Scrubs, one of the best comedies to not use laughter effects which is fantastic. I've actually had the pleasure of briefly talking to the show's creator Bill Lawrence about a nod to Scrubs that was on Cougar Town, but Scrubs is all about medical interns making their way through their life, both at work and their social life. You'll laugh, you'll cry and you'll lose track of time. It's fantastic.

Where to watch: Netflix, 4oD

The IT Crowd is one of those sitcoms that depicts a certain group of society, in this case nerds and shows how they don't fit into society as a whole. That concept sounds rubbish. It's a hilarious show, with memorable catchphrases, a great cast and one of the former writers of Black Books, Graham Linehan is the man behind the IT Crowd. I do recommend watching it, but it's certainly not as good as the other shows listed here.

Which Halo is the best?

I'm a big Halo fan, not only is the lore of the series extensive and fantastic, the games are good too. We've had a couple of good games, and some bad ones. Sooo, I've compiled this list of all the Halo games, from best to worst. There are currently 10 released Halo games (including the Master Chief Collection and excluding Halo 5 and Spartan Strike as they aren't out yet.)

10. Halo 4

Ugh, this game is the worst in the series. For maaany reasons. It was the first original Halo game 343 Studios made and it was a poor attempt. The new inclusion of the Promethean enemies or whatever the hell they're called were just boring and their weapons added nothing new to the game. I dearly missed the Flood too, because I'm one of those strange people that likes the Flood missions. Apart from it's lack of decency, I still enjoyed playing this through with a couple friends on Legendary, one of which was crazy enough to do the Lone Wolf achievement.

9. Halo 3: ODST

Another Halo game that I wasn't too keen on to start off with was Halo 3; ODST. I found the drift away from Master Chief to an even blander character than him a bad start. Rookie, who has never been mentioned again tries to piece together what happened to his team. I tried piecing together how long it's been since I got the game and the fact I still haven't completed it. So, about 4 years now. Yep, I'll never know the what the ending of that game was like. I did like the inclusion of the Firefight gamemode and was a huge fan of the SMG and Pistol combo given to the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers.

8. Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary

This was 343's first attempt at making a Halo game. They played it safe, by updating the classic Halo Combat Evolved and throwing it onto the Xbox 360. The result was a laggy mess of a game which did not run smoothly in the new graphics, with a lack of unique multiplayer and the fact that it was cheaper to buy an original Xbox (pre-owned) and a copy of Halo than to get this game. While it did, work, sort of, it was too late for 343, with their first game in the Halo series being their downward spiral. At least you could snap between the original graphics and updated graphics at the press of a button which is fantastic.

7. Halo: Master Chief Collection

343 just don't seem to be able to make a decent Halo game without polishing up a Bungie game and then adding their own bugs. The game has been out for a couple months now and there are still an abundant amount of problems that haven't been fixed yet, the biggest issue so far is the fact that you can't play custom games without wanting to tear your Xbox One out of it's plugs and throw it out of a window. But playing Halo 3 on Xbox One was fantastic, they fixed the lag from their first attempt at a HD remake and the new Halo 2 graphics are, glorious. The multiplayer doesn't work, but the campaign and co-op do.

6. Halo Spartan Assault

I haven't played much of this one at all, but what I will say is that it's far better than all of the ones listed above. It reminded me of Halo Wars in essence, but a twin stick shooter feel to it. So far it was good fun, has achievements and so on.

5. Halo 2

Another game I haven't played too much, which is why it's so low on the list. Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic game none the less but I just haven't played it that much. It's a definite classic on the Xbox and they did a good job upgrading the graphics of the game for the Master Chief Collection. I got it pretty cheap as well which is alright.

4. Halo Reach

Halo Reach was the second game to not feature Master Chief, but it was a bloody good game. I played hours of this, playing Infected and Custom Games for hours on end. The campaign was good too, a fresh change from the adventures of Master Chief and took a focus on the Noble Squad or whatever they were called. The ending was pretty good, the characters had some form of depth and the forge was fixed and re-done so well. Now we could build anything we wanted to much easier.

3. Halo: Combat Evolved

The game that started the whole series, how could it not be any lower on the list? Well, there are only two games that I prefer over the original and you have to admit, there wouldn't be any Halo games without this one. I played the original version on Xbox and PC, then played the anniversary edition which, wasn't the best and then I played the lovely Xbox One version which is fantastic. The graphics are still good for it's time and the backstory to this game is beautiful.

2. Halo Wars

BUT, STOP. How did you put Halo Wars lower than Combat Evolved you complete and utter tooooool? Well, for one thing, I really like RTS games, I also like Halo. Put those together and you get Halo Wars. It takes place before all that Master Chief guff and focuses on an eagle eye view, controlling a whole six different characters who have different special units and it's the first Halo game to allow you to play as the Covenant and not just the Elites. It really is fantastic.

1. Halo 3

The best game in the Halo series. Mainly because of the custom games and inclusion of forge. I spent countless hours with my friends playing Custom Games and it was the first game that I reached over 1000G on. The campaign was pretty good too, for the first Halo game I played it indefinitely hooked me on the series. I liked it so much I got the Vidmaster Achievements...

But that wraps up the list, now we wait for the dissapointing mess that will be Halo 5.

Game Reviews #5 - Mario Kart 8

Platform: Wii U
Store Page
Price I Paid: Free!

Mario Kart is apart of my childhood, I'm sure it's apart of a lot of peoples. The games are fantastic, always adding new characters, tracks, cars and so on. But does the Wii U version stand up to the challenge of being as good as Double Dash?

Boot up the game and it's lovely to see all of the characters available at the beginning of the game. Naturally, I'm going to pick Waluigi as he was missed in Mario Kart 7. There's a good selection of new maps to choose from, The first thing I noticed is that the older maps have been changed beyond belief. I mean, some aren't even recognisable, like Wario's Gold Mine so be prepared to be disappointed. The new maps are lovely though, the graphics really compliment the main points of the map and the backdrops for each individual map are glorious.

What I found most challenging was winning on 100cc with perfect points. I'm prone to rage, like a lot of gamers, so reviewing this game was difficult as hell when I went on to the 100cc cups. I was aiming to 3 Star all the cups but eventually I gave up and just took first place, at that rate I could at least unlock the characters.

Multiplayer was fun, never a game where the same outcome could happen. Of course, always playing as Waluigi, I won a couple, lost a couple and that's expected. It might be good to match people by skill, it gives newer players a better chance of getting better at the game after playing the single player game (or without it).

While it isn't the worst Mario Kart game, it certainly isn't the best, being beaten easily by both the GameCube and DS version for me, however it is nice to see some worthwhile DLC and a large variety of new and old maps.

Mario Kart 8 gets a 7/10

Game Reviews #4 - Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Platform: Xbox One
Store Page
Price I Paid: Free!

With the recent plethora of sub par Call of Duty games, I didn't have high expectations for this game, hell, it was going to be the first Call of Duty game I wasn't going to buy in years. How wrong I was about this game. I'd say it's pretty much revived the Call of Duty games and if Sledgehammer keeps this up then they've got a pretty successful life ahead of them.

So, boot up the game, takes a good hour or so to install fully and jump right into the mult-no. That is not how to play a game. Play the single player. I don't like talking about the story of games because I don't want to spoil anything about a game story wise. But I will say this, Kevin Spacey is damn good in it.

The graphics, oh the graphics. They're amazing, judging that it's on a next gen system, it's pretty obvious that the graphics are going to be brilliant, but, again bringing up Kevin Spacey, it actually looks exactly like Kevin Spacey.

The exo-suit provides a new way of playing the game, it adds double jumping, yeah, amazing. It sounds like a minor improvement but believe me when I say it makes the multiplayer fun as hell. Of course, as you expected, you can buy new skins for your exo-suit and guns, which I wont be doing because it's ridiculous. Why have micro-transactions in a game where you already have DLC out and available? I'm not saying that they should be removed all together but the fact that micro transactions are for such minor things now it's damn ridiculous.

Another thing I'm not too keen on is this new exo-zombies. I like the traditional zombies mode, it was fun as hell, especially World at War Zombies which is the best zombie mode to this date. It's nice to see them trying new things but it comes down to what will make the most money over what the fans want.

The survival mode, is OK. It's not good, it's not bad. We've seen it done before in Modern Warfare 3 and it's basically the same. Wave after wave of enemies but with objectives to accomplish in a round like defusing bombs. It has a nice variety of enemies, your traditional henchmen bad guys, drones, dogs and so on.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare brings a new light onto the genre and Call of Duty franchise which is a refreshing break from the usual sloppy mess that was the Call of Duty series.

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare gets an 8/10

Game Collection Update - February 2015

So, as promised I said I'd go over the games I'd bought in the past month. The past month was February, so I'll do that. So, what have I bought in February? One of the biggest purchases was on some DVD's Season 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of Scrubs. The following day I found a copy of Naughty Bear for PS3, didn't have a PS3 so I traded it in and got £5 store credit. I ended up making a net profit of £3, which I then spent on more games. Those games were Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Earth Defence Force 2017 and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. Out of those three, you can probably guess which game is best.

As for retro games I was able to pick up the first Resident Evil for £4 and a copy of Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty for £5. Which was great, I even got these little Wind Waker statue things, one of them doesn't stand up but they're still pretty cool to have, seeing as though they come with items from the game like a Rupee or a heart.

I'm usually a big spender when I go to Stark Games nearby a friend. Whenever I'm over, we walk down to Stark's and I come back with considerably less money than before. The reason for this most of the time is £1 Xbox games. So I got quite a few good ones, they're mostly sport but every now and then they'll have something that I don't have or that catches my eye. This time I got a boatload. It was worthy of a silver medal in my collecting career, other than the time me and this same friend went 50/50 on about 60+ games for £20.

Some pretty good games were found in that shop, both for older consoles and the newest generation. The ones I picked up included Max Payne, Splinter Cell and many other stand out titles that I can't think of off of the top of my head. There was also a lot of cool stuff that I didn't pick up as well, like games I could've gotten achievements on. It was definitely a surprise when my Uncle called me up and said "Hey, my friend has a big box of 360 games, want to have first dibs?" I was more than happy to oblige. Call of Juarez Bound in Blood and the other, futuristicy one, Vin Diesel Wheelman, Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare and Saints Row 1 & 2. Pretty good haul, they were all in pristine condition and those that had came with manuals and maps still had them (i.e Red Dead and Wheelman) which is one of the main reasons I got them, I need some new posters up and the Red Dead one will fit nicely with the Rockstar Chronology of Posters thing. £35 for all of those Xbox 360 goodies.

SO, what did I get (January 30th - February 28th)

Watchdogs (Xbox 360) - Free
Wii U Motion Controller - Free
Serious Sam (Xbox) - £2
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Xbox) £1
Def Jam fight for NC (Xbox) - £1
Unreal Championship (Xbox) - Free
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (Xbox) - £1
Ghost Recon Island Thunder (Xbox) - £1
Terminator 3 (Xbox) - £1
Zathura (Xbox) - £1
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Xbox) - £1
Max Payne (Xbox) - £1
Midway Arcade Treasures (Xbox) - £1
Vin Diesel Wheelman (Xbox 360) - £5
Call of Juarez: The Cartel (Xbox 360) - £5
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (Xbox 360) - £5
Saints Row (Xbox 360) - £5
Mafia II (Xbox 360) - £5
Saints Row 2 (Xbox 360) - £5
Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare (Xbox 360) - £5
Just Cause (Xbox 360) - £5
Mass Effect 3 (Xbox 360) - £5
WWE 12 (Xbox 360) - Free
Deus Ex Human Revolution (Xbox 360) - £1 (Store Credit)
Earth Defence Force 2017 (Xbox 360) - £2 (Store Credit)
Turning Point Fall of Liberty (Xbox 360) - £2 (Store Credit)

I haven't bought a game since February 16th. That's gonna change when the car boot sales start up...

Game Reviews #3 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Platform: Xbox 360
Store Page
Price I Paid: £25.00

Ah Skyrim, a masterpiece created by Bethesda and another instant classic game which fits nicely into the Elder Scrolls series. While I do have the PC version of this game, I decided to review the Xbox 360 version because I wanted to see what it looked like on my new TV. Well, not just that, but the main reason was I wouldn't be able to cheat on the Xbox 360 as much as the PC version, seen as though I have no access to console commands.

I don't know if it's the Xbox 360 version or my TV, but I started the game and it looks absolutely GORGEOUS. I mean, the problem with the PC version for me is that it seems to think it wants to run everything at the lowest setting. But my God I was impressed, it'd been a while since I visited Skyrim and it was a lovely reunion with the executioner's block.

So, after escaping to Riverwood, I basically went and completed most of the main quest and then it happened. I got sidetracked. Before finishing the main quest, I completed the Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, Comapnions and all the other side quests that are lengthy. It's so fun that you'll get side tracked by other fun things to do.

Bearing in mind this is one of my favourite games of all time, I guess you could say you're expecting a high review, but actually looking back on my playthrough, it was quite glitchy, which is expected with big open world games like Fallout, hell, even Rage had bugs in it and that was pretty fun. The constant amount of freezing and lag didn't help either, I was fighting a blood dragon, switched to my sword and shield, the game froze and I had to wait for a good minute or so until the game unfroze itself.

One problem you'll find eventually is the voice acting, there's nothing wrong with it, but it sounds like they could only afford to hire ten or so voice actors, even some of the main characters like Ralof and Jarl Balgruff share voices with other characters. Judging by the games amount of foliage, I'm sure they could have gotten rid of that and used a couple more voice actors instead.

The sheer amount of things to do in Skyrim is truly overwhelming on the Xbox 360, but with almost 25,000 Addons on the Steam Workshop and lots more on the Skyrim Nexus, the possibilities of Skyrim are endless. But, the Xbox 360 kind of lets the side down with the constant freezing and crashes. Not to mention the voice acting, however...

Skyrim gets a 10/10