Ewan Rants: Xbox One Backwards Compatibility

Microsoft has announced a bunch of things nobody cares about, but they also announced something quite interesting indeed. Backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 games. What this means is that you can play Xbox 360 games on your Xbox One, in essence, this is awesome, I'll be able to play Xbox 360 games without ever having to go downstairs to where my 360 is. It'll also allow me to stop using "My brother is on the Xbox" as an excuse to not play really terrible games for achievements.

Of course, if all goes well, Microsoft will make a lot of good games like Mass Effect, Rareware Games and The Elder Scrolls backwards compatible, I'm working on a list of games I'd personally want to see which will hopefully be up tomorrow.



Microsoft has a couple hundred games planned as of now, however for the beta testers only 18 to 20 games are playable, including most of the Rareware digital titles, Mass Effect, A Kingdom/World for Keflings and Super Meat Boy for now. with more to come in the future when it's all done.

This idea in essence is great, because there's very few good games out for the Xbox One right now, so why not pull out your 360 games and play them instead, render your Xbone useless. Why not just get an Xbox 360? Much cheaper, better and a lot more games out for it that are worth your while. Obviously the Xbox One has been out for only a year or so but there isn't that pops out at me and says "Oh my God, I can't wait to play this." Wolfenstein was OK, Minecraft, Advanced Warfare, Titanfall I can get on the 360, while graphically wise may not be as good, who honestly cares?

They would've stopped a large outburst last year if they'd said "Backwards compatibility is a possibility" instead of just saying "No." like they did. Xbox One probably would have sold more had they announced this earlier on, it just doesn't make sense to do this now of all times. Sure, you can talk to your 360 friends while playing 360 games, but not when playing Xbox One games. Okay then, what if I want to talk to a 360 friend while playing, I dunno, Massive Chalice?

Another thing, this backwards compatibility seems redundant at this point. Yes, it's nice to play 360 games on the Xbox One, but think about it. If most to all of the games are compatible then it's worth it, if not, then just keep your 360. It's like the Xbox 360 - Xbox game compatibility, yes, games like Max Payne are compatible, but then you have fantastic games like Metal Slug 3 not compatible.

We also have to take into account the fact that a lot of the publishers and companies of these games have either shut their doors or are no longer around, examples of which being THQ and Pandemic. Microsoft needs to add new code to make them work, which means they'll need permission from all third party publishers, first party will be on, but for third party games like Darksiders 2 (THQ) things may be questionable.

Of course I hope it works, but it's a matter of:

- How many games are available
- Third party titles being compatible
- Any new features/graphical enhancements to the games

I doubt the third one will happen, seen as though most of the games are fairly old, some of them have knocked their online off like Chromehounds. Xbox stated that all 360 launch titles will be on, Chromehounds was a launch title, does this mean their online is coming back? If so, we can get the achievements for the online mode again.

Microsoft have given us more questions than answers on this one, but I hope it works, I really do. If not, we can always just use our 360's.

Game Reviews #18 Far Cry 4

Platform: Xbox 360

Store Page

Price I Paid: £25.00

Guh. My brother bought this out of his birthday money and played through it saying it was one of the best games he'd ever played. So I had to try it out to make sure he wasn't succumbing to Ubisoft's evil wrath, because Ubisoft have gotten some real bad rep over the past few years, because of releasing sub par games at extortionate prices without trying to fix them, they have become EA 2.0. With that led a trail of naff games including Watch_Dogs and Assassin's Creed Unity. So did Ubisoft Arse redeem themselves with Far Cry 4? No. They did not. But how?

They had such a fantastic set up for the game, the prior games are well respected and known in the gaming community, with Far Cry 3 being a very good game and the previous ones also being fantastically good too. The game is boring, that's the problem. Nothing exciting or unique or original happens. You know what stood out for me? How much this game is like Far Cry 3 but watered down and much, much worse. Let's break it down in bullet point form.

• Variety of ways to heal yourself - featured in Far Cry 3, copied to Far Cry 4
• Skinning animals - featured in Far Cry 3, literally copied the animation to Far Cry 4
• Camp liberation side missions - featured in Far Cry 3, out of place in Far Cry 4
• Un-relatable character - semi-featured in Far Cry 3, full blast in Far Cry 4

So, let's evaluate that. The variety of ways to heal yourself, while the animation is nice, it will get repetitive, fast. It got repetitive in Far Cry 3, but I guess it's nice to have some form of animation, but when you get the same five to six animations every time, it gets repetitive, just like me using the word repetitive, very repetitive indeed.

Skinning animals, no attempt was made of even adding a new animation or changing it one bit. Much like the healing, a variety of animations would've been fantastic, but we're stuck with the exact same animation as Far Cry 3

Camp liberation side missions are out of place. Your character is not a fighter, it's never mentioned that he is, in Far Cry 3, the main character adapted to the land, he grew as a character. In Far Cry 4 however, you're just flung into combat, no growth, just straight in, no difficulty curve, just more and more mundane tasks after another.

The main part of a story should be a good, relatable character. Far Cry 4 seems to have forgotten that. Jason Brody has his character set up in the tutorial of the game, he has a brother, a group of friends and a plot driven story, find his friends. While whatever the hell his name was has a plot drive, which is put his mother's ashes in a shrine of some form, all other information is vague. The only other information we have is that he isn't a fan of Crab Rangu.

How's the gunplay? It's OK. I found it pretty awful when driving, seeing as though RT is usually go forward, it's been taken up by shooting. A logical control to make, but disorienting the first few times you play. Not to mention the vehicles handle like absolute arse.

Poor gunplay, disgracefully bad plot and character development, not to mention the bland characters, however the saving grace is a fairly interesting villain who wears a snazzy pink tuxedo.

Far Cry 4 gets a 3/10

Obligatory E3 Analysis - Bethesda

So, E3 has come and is still around, but I'm doing my obligatory E3 Roundup. Let's look at the most important things. All in heavy gif format, good luck!

Doom set for 2016

Lovely, another reboot by Bethesda, if they do the same as they did with Wolfenstein then I'm sure it'll be very good and we'll all get along happily. I think relationships between Doom and the fan base are a bit rough after the whole with the movie and Doom 3, so hopefully Doom can fix everything and make it a bold franchise like it was a long time ago. Also it seems to be getting some form of modding tools for new maps for the multiplayer which is definitely a step in the right direction for both the modding community and keeping the game fresh and alive.

Excitement Meter:












Dishonoured 2 Announced

Oh, right, this is still a thing. I didn't like the first Dishonoured, it wasn't very good to be honest, another game I doubt I'll review. But they're making a second one, I'm willing to give it a chance to see if it's any good, hopefully better than the first one.

Excitement Meter:



Fallout 4

Finally, Fallout 4 has been announced and it looks amazing. New stuff, new stuff everywhere. I cannot wait. The trailer looks awesome, the game looks beautiful and for God's sake I want the Pip Boy pre-order bonus, how much is it, my soul? Yeah, I could spare one or two.

Excitement Meter:



The Elder Scrolls Legends

So Bethesda announced a new Elder Scrolls game after whatever the mess of Elder Scrolls Online was, and what did they do? They made a free to play card game. Say what? Why would they do this? You're supposed to be cleaning up the mess you made with Elder Scrolls Online, not make it worse with a bloody card game. I don't think Fallout 4 is going to clear up your mess with Elder Scrolls, Bethesda. I've got my eye on you.

Excitement Meter:



Battlecry

Huh, a new IP, a rare thing to see these days. But yeah, it looks fairly OK, nothing to go crazy about yet, but still nice to see Bethesda trying something new. Looks a bit like it's a copy paste of Team Fortress 2, what with the teams and everything, but I have high hopes.

Excitement Meter:



So, that's it for Bethesda's E3 announcements, some pretty good stuff in there and I'm really excited for Fallout 4 and Doom, one down, a hell of a lot more to go analysis wise though.

Ewan Rants: Bethesda, Doom and Game Reboots

So with E3 well on it's way to finishing, I noticed a theme being set, not only by Bethesda, but developers and communities alike. A lot of reboots, remakes and re-releases have been planned for this year and a lot of them were released last year. It confuses me to be honest. Look at the past few years of gaming, especially the Xbox One, a lot of re-releases of games that have already been out. So, remember, these are my OPINIONS I can't stress that enough, I probably touched a nerve last time with some people.



So that company above is probably one of the most well known and respected companies out there, they delivered some fine games over the years, most notably the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series'. However, more recently, they've had a go at reviving some old FPS', most notably Wolfenstein, which they did a great job on (expect a review of that in the coming months) and now they're going to try their hand at reviving Doom. I can't see a downside to this, after what was the burning wreckage of Doom 3, it seems fitting that the people who brought back Wolfenstein bring back Doom. I don't have a problem with this, old game series' do sometimes need a revival.

What I DO have a problem with, is fairly newer games getting re-releases, with the game exactly the same as the first release, but sold as a different game. For example, Payday 2 has recently released the Crimewave Edition for the Xbox One, which is the base game with DLC, not sure why it's been released to be honest, 505 Games need to realise they should fix their game before releasing it. That's another problem for another day however.

Game reboots are cool though, things like Bethesda's Wolfenstein: The New Order and Mortal Kombat have proven reboots can go well. Of course, that doesn't mean reboots are always good, for example Alone in the Dark, Bomberman: Act Zero and Any Sonic game after 2006. So the problem is execution of the reboot, doing it wrong will give you a bad rep, so the risks are balanced against the rewards.

But now, it gets ridiculous, reboots and remakes of games that are a mere two to three years old, or games that still have some life in them, we're looking at you Payday 2. As for Doom, I want to see what Bethesda do with the series, from the trailer it looks a lot like Doom 3 which is, unnerving, so hopefully it all goes well, but as always, I have my doubts about the game itself and the chance that it could ruin the reputation of Bethesda, I doubt anything could ruin Bethesda's reputation, apart from Fallout 4 being shit, but that's doubtful...

Ewan Rants: The Five Nights at Freddy's Game Series

I want to give this a go, this isn't a review, or sarcasm or anything like that, it's the rant portion of the "Ewan Rants". Thought I'd give it a go, let's see how it does. I want to talk to you all about a very popular game series that I have never played and don't plan on playing or reviewing, just doing one article on it, which is this. I cannot stress this enough, these are my OPINIONS. If I offend anyone then, well, I'm not too fussed, you're probably one of those die hard fans, if you can't establish opinion from fact then please, there's the door, uhm, somewhere. This is gonna be me ranting on about a whole load of kerfuffle and garbage for a while, so don't mind me.



Five Nights at Freddies is extremely popular. I've seen people review this game on Steam, well, give their opinions, a lot of them saying that it's the greatest horror game they've played, it's a giant jumpscare that made them shit themselves.

Unfortunately, that is what the game is, one big jumpscare, that is all. A "strategy" game revolving around a huge jumpscare is what makes up this game. I can comandeer the first instalment of the series, it was a step in the right direction and a new breath on the horror genre, with your character helpless, with only some Fallout-esq doors to save him. The second one, while yes, did add new things, was basically the same concept, with the safety of your doors taken away, replacing the game's already functioning horror element with a new, more gimmick-y one. Stick on the mask and hide from the monsters, wind up the jukebox to keep the birthday surprise away.

While yes, I do think that both the first two games were fun in their own respects, the third one delivered nothing new to the table. Before I talk about that, I want to mention the release date schedule, while the games are good, I have a feeling that halfway through the first game, the developer realised this was a good cash cow, ripe for the milking, and began developing an intricate plot to what could've been a very simple game. I'm not saying having a rich story to your game is bad, but he left so many plot and loop holes that it left the player hungry for me, in essence is a good thing, but this was a blatant cash grab, and with the announcement of a fourth installment and a MOVIE, it's definitely been taken too far.

No, I haven't played any of the games, I wont play them either, I don't like horror games, not my genre of choice to peruse, however I see the appeal of a jump scare, shit your pants game. As for the sequel, it was a push, then the announcement of a sequel to the sequel a mere few months later and you're starting to make Call of Duty games look like a rare occasion that comes around once every ten years, and when it does we should break out the emergency party poppers, buy a cake and set it on fire, offering it to our overlords so that they release more mediocre shooters. But I digress, is it a functioning and well made game? Yes. It's fairly easy to copy a majority of code and stick it onto another game, slap a "3" at the end and say it's new content, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the second, third, fourth and movie isn't necessary.

What could've been a fairly respectable franchise has turned into EA's money making dreams, a finite source, but there are more than enough fans of the franchise to hype up the next installments that they make more money each time one comes out, which is a shame overall, there's a lot of other games out there and after seeing some peoples, haven't got another word for it, but "devotion" to the series, while yes, I'm all for being a fan of your series of games, I'm a huge fan of Metal Slug, but it's oddly disturbing to sometimes find yourself on a forum or Reddit or other media websites to voice your opinion on the game, only to be ripped to pieces by die hard fans.

I don't have anything against the fan base, obviously the vast majority of them are lovely people, but those few that give the fanbase a bad rep are just repulsive enough to give the community and games itself a bad rep. Believe me when I say this Scott Cawthon, the creator of the series is a damned genius for leaping on this genre and unique idea when he did, so my condolences there. However from the perspective of a non-fan, it's fairly obvious that the cash cow has been milked, and there's still a lot to go around. Of course, for the fans of the game, this is an enjoyable and fun experience for many of the consumers, but I think Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw put it best in his review of the game.

"But in horror games, jumpscares are more something I grudgingly tolerate more than something I want. They're the horror to what a fart joke is to comedy."

Very true, a horror game should be more than a giant jumpscare, which Five Night's at Freddy's, or FNAF is. You know what FNAF is an anagram for? NAFF. Like the sequels to the game series and what the movie will be. The second point there, a fart joke to comedy, very true, they've been so overdone that it's difficult to make them scary, but Cawthon has made it work, almost too well to be quite honest and what has amassed from that is a hype train so big it's ruined other non-fan's or newcomers enjoyment, it's like Frozen, it may have been good, but it's that overhyped and loved that it just wont die and a sequel is being made, such is the same of FNAF.

However, the fourth game looks scary as hell, all aboard the hype train!

Game Reviews #17 - L.A. Noire

Platform: Xbox 360
Store Page
Price I Paid: £5

L.A. Noire is a game about crime and detectives and L.A. and all things Noire-eeh. But it's a crime game developed by Rockstar and it's fantastic. You play as Cole Phelps, a detective who refuses to break eye contact with potential suspects and gets unwarrantably angry when implying the suspect has done something wrong. He's accompanied by multiple detectives on his adventures in trying to stop such evil villains from murderising the city.

Gameplay wise, it's mostly interrogation of suspects, you watch the suspect and then choose if they are telling the truth, doubt them or if they're telling a naughty little fib about the murder. More often than not, picking truth will continue the conversation, lying will ask you to provide a piece of evidence and doubting them will make Phelps go into overdrive, give them a stern look and flip the table as he doubts their answer. This is because it was named something else before release, they changed it to doubt but never had the time to go back and motion capture those scenes.

Yeah, motion capture is in this game. It's actually the selling point of the game and you can tell why, it's fantastic. All the characters actually look like people that would speak English and not just regurgitate sounds like in most other games. Truly is fantastic and definitely adds to the atmosphere of the game.

It takes a very similar approach to driving as GTA did, you get a waypoint on your map, you don't have to follow a line, just make your own way there. It gives you a false sense of freedom, which I'm fine with I suppose. Quite interesting to play an open world game from a police perspective, so I decided I wanted to nick a car. You can steal cars, well, "borrow" them, by showing them your badge and going "Need to borrow your car ma'am." Nice to see they implemented it into the game, especially if your own car blows up. Also, you can have your partner drive, they'll do the cut scene and talk about case notes if needed and then it'll skip to your location which is great!

I loved the game, however some bits I was iffy on, for example, I often refer to Cole Phelps as Robo-Phelps now on. He has no personality, he isn't relatable in any way, which makes me not care what happens to him, which calls for some funny times I suppose, but not that good for the gameplay.

With all that in mind...

L.A. Noire gets an 8/10

Is It Worth Watching: Run Fatboy Run

Yeah, I'm bringing this back, why not? Gives the blog some more life into it, can't see a downside. So, we'll kick it back off with Run Fatboy Run! I hope this is bloody good, because I bought it in a charity shop for £2, of course, I did get Ghostbusters with it so there's always hope that it's a good movie.

Let's take a look at the cast, which is absolutely amazing, with Simon Pegg and Dylan Moran, two of my all time favourite actors who worked together on Shaun of the Dead and an episode of Black Books. Also including Hank Azaria, who voices a lot of characters on the Simpsons, so this should be good, we've got some comedic legends in this film. It was directed by David Schwimmer too, the bloke who played Ross on Friends. How could this movie be bad at all?

The movie starts off with Gordon (Dylan Moran) trying to coax Dennis Doyle (Simon Pegg) out of his room so he can get his arse downstairs and get married to Libby (Thandie  Newton) who is pregnant with their child or something. Dennis ends up jumping out of a window, fleeing the wedding and running away from his problems, mistakes, friends, family, child and ex-fiance. Now, it's five years later, he lives alone and Libby has met Whit (Hank Azaria) who's the main villain of the plot I suppose. He's the bloke that's trying to not run away from Libby I think.

So Dennis gets annoyed and runs off crying or something to find Gordon, who works at a piano shop where all he basically does is gamble with a form of British Mafia. Then Dennis learns that Whit is running a marathon, so Dennis, being the operative genius that he is decides that it's a great way to win Libby back. This, everyone, is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Running a marathon to win over a girl will not work, take her out to dinner or something, Jesus Christ man.

Yeah, so Dennis wants to run the marathon, so he gets trained by Gordon, his dear friend Gordon, I think at this point he's the only character I like, and that sole reason is because it's Dylan Moran. The only reason Gordon is helping is because he bet £5,000 on Dennis finishing the race, and the only reason Mr. Ghosh Dastidar helps out because he's Dennis's landlord and that's what landlords do apparently. Oh yeah, if Dennis doesn't finish the race then he gets kicked out of his apartment too for whatever reason, that really doesn't make sense.

So they train him up to be ready to run the race and then he's invited to Libby's birthday party where Whit proposes to Libby, she says yes, Dennis gets very upset and Gordon has a bath. So then Dennis says he isn't going to run in the race anymore, so he gets kicked out of his apartment and so he goes and moves in with Gordon a night before the race. Now, I've left a large chunk of the film out, but that's because the film does to.

Race day comes up all of a sudden, Gordon and Dennis are late, they pay a cab driver with a Rolex watch and Dennis runs off to finish the race, he meets up with Whit, they both have a squabble and they both end up falling over, leading Whit to go to the hospital and Dennis with a sprained ankle. Dennis continues the race, with Gordon, Mr Dastidar and eventually a large crowd of people and a news camera, to follow him until he finishes the race. Then he hits the "wall", everyone thinks he's gonna stop, but he keeps on going and there is much rejoice.

Then he hits another wall near the end of the race, until he sees his family and runs over to them. Now, this would've been a better scene if he hadn't already hit a wall beforehand. Then they all have a happy ending, Gordon gets his money and goes on holiday, Dastidar goes and does running or whatever and Dennis and Libby, do nothing.

Oh God that was bad. It's such a shame as well, it's got an all star cast of comedy greats, but it didn't work out, which is a really big shame.

Is it worth watching?

No.