The original Tomb Raider came out in 1996 on the Playstation and after watching it at a friends house I had to have it, little did 10 yearold Paul know how tough Tomb Raider would be. Restrictive save points, complex level design with multiple traps and difficult jumps that can result in instant death meant Tomb Raider was a particularly tough cookie to crack. I never finished it, the first Tomb Raider I finished was Tomb Raider 2 and I'm pretty sure I level skipped a couple of levels back then as well...
But this has all changed! I have now as of October 2019, finished Tomb Raider 1... on PC!
It had to be PC, I haven't got the motivation or disposable time to play the original PSX version and deal with the save points. Being able to save whenever I wanted kept the games pace up and allowed me to just enjoy it and not be frustrated by every death and also allowed me to be more experimental. For me, it's the definitive Tomb Raider experience; once you install Glidos and AntiMicro so the game doesn't look like a blur and you can use a controller instead of developing Carpul Tunnel syndrome with the keyboard.
I'm always filled with a ridiculous amount of blissful nostalgia during the first area (caves). The music, the snow, the T Rex! All the familiar beats remind me of one true fact of the first Tomb Raider: it had top production values. You may say it's aged badly but I disagree. Sure, the graphics are blocky but with the aid of Glidos all the textures were sharp and the low draw distance actually helps build atmosphere and tension as buildings and sculptures emerge from the blackness with theatrical gravitas.
Each area is so distinct in it's presentation. The colour palette that evolves from the grey caves, to golden Greece to sandy Egypt and then most otherworldly of all, Atlantis with it's pulsating walls of sinew. This is a game well designed and it's no wonder people were so amazed by it's graphics oh so long ago.
Gameplay is simplistic in Tomb Raider, super-focused. Three elements encompass the entire game; exploration, puzzles and combat, the latter is actually the less prominent feature it really serves to break up the pace of the game and to also add in a scare factor, especially towards the end. Though simple the combat may be, it is fiddly and at times frustrating. Enemies charge at you and relentless attack and are often faster than Lara. So you're left jumping about almost haphazardly just to minimise time on the ground. Then worst of all, if you manage to find a place to cheese an enemy, they always back off out of attack range, proving that the developers were definitely aware of the AI shortcomings and took steps to force you into direct engagement with the enemies.
Exploration and puzzle solving are obviously intertwined, the levels themselves are on big puzzle. Things start fairly linearly, but once you get to Greece it suddenly takes longer than twenty minutes to finish a level. The puzzles are all pretty much well conceived, there were only I think two occasions where I thought that wasn't obvious, but fortunately those moments are very few and far between. Generally speaking, the solutions are organic and sensible. I think the two trickiest levels are The Cistern and Natla's mines. I further confused myself in Natla's mines because in my panic I fled from the cowboy but jumped down the lava pit, caught a ledge and just kept on going. Then I got a tad lost why I hadn't found my pistols yet and doubled back only to find a piece of the level glitched right out!
I'm glad I've finally finished Tomb Raider and played in my opinion it's most definitive version and that's a statement I've written after playing Tomb Raider Anniversary, which I really didn't enjoy. The level design in the remake is in my opinion, uninspired which makes no sense as it should be inspired by the original. The levels are dummed down to tedium and the already weak combat element is made doubly worse with horrendous AI, poor QTE mechanics and just a general lack of pace and purpose.
But I won't drone on about that, I'm here to say Tomb Raider Gold is awesome, I love it and it's a game I will urge my kids to play and I'm sure I will replay again in future.
Since the IT film remake, Stephen King's works have become relevant again and studios are whipping up books to spin into new film IPs like it's going out of fashion. Cue Netflix's cash in on the action: In The Tall Grass.
Before I go any further, spoilers within.
The trailer was pretty cool, it was tense and exciting and it had Patrick Wilson in it who I think is a rather underrated actor and he's been great playing Ed Warren in the Blumhouse horror films. So me and the missus plonked our butts in bed on a Sunday night and gave it a whirl and well I can safely say my wife did not enjoy it. Her words were "too much fucking grass", to be exact. I on the other hand, would not say I didn't enjoy it but neither did I enjoy it if that makes any sense. I was compelled to watch it, the premise was interesting enough for me to want to watch it to the end but unfortunately there is no "ahhh" moment at the end. It just wraps itself up fairly tidily and ends.
The films biggest issue is the lack of character development, a group of people are just thrown in the field with no actual backstory save for Becky and Travis, the latter of which comes looking for Becky after she went missing for so long. I actually liked Travis and he was the only real likeable character in the whole film. Oddly enough, I think judging from a quick read of Wikipedia, Travis is unique to the film. But yeah, with such paper thin characters it hard to care. It's not like the film has a load of disposable characters to kill off in interesting ways it spends most of it's time with Becky, Travis and Ross (the film's acting villain). That's some slim pickings for a film that's almost two hours.
I liked the whole deal with the rock in the field and that it was never clear if the rock manipulated the local space and time or if the field itself had become sentient due to the rock. It had that Lovecraftian spookiness to it, but the way the film wraps undermines the laws the films teaches in the beginning and rather than go for an interesting and gloomier end it goes for a cheap and unsatisfying happy ending.
So is it worth your time? Well at least it won't hit your wallet as part of Netflix's lineup. But honestly, there are better films to watch for an hour and a half. The ending is fairly weak and is a bit of a slap in the face for anyone that sat through the entire film. Most of the run time is in the grass, maybe twenty minutes of it occur outside the grass, so be warned. You may find yourself a tad bored.
When I was playing Bloodstained Ritual of the Night, I kept thinking back to past Castlevania games that I kept internally referencing against Bloodstained, Aria of Sorrow in particular is the game I compared with it most. After I finished Ritual of The Night, I did wonder to myself if I had, had rose tinted glasses on after all these years. It's always been the best of the GBA Castlevania's which in my mind is pretty indisputable. So, I put my memory to the test and booted it back up again. Firstly, when compared to Bloodstained, it has style. Don't get me wrong, Bloodstained has a look and it's by no means ugly, but it lacked style in my opinion.
The map is large in AoS (Aria of Sorrow), and takes a good six to eight hours to completely explore. RotN (Bloodstained) took me around 12 hours to finish, but unlike AoS I had to do some grinding in places. You can also travel fairly quickly in AoS, you move faster and the rooms are generally smaller, it keeps the pace up. Though I will give RotN it's due, it had more warp rooms and at least one of those warp rooms was next to a save point. No such pleasantry in AoS.
Progressing through AoS is linear but at least it's cohesive. You can get lost in a few spots especially if you forget a place that a new ability would allow you to explore. I was at the mercy of online guides to get the true ending for RotN, so much of it was poorly explained and not communicated through the level design and my god they made swimming convoluted.
Player handling is fairly equal between the two. They seem to move at roughly the same speed, the attack animations seem practically identical although in AoS there are some pretty overpowered weapons not too far into the game that make the rest trivial. I found no such trump card weapon in RotN but both games suffer with greatswords being the best weapons to use thanks to their high strength, area of cover and ability to skip the attack delay by jumping.
Souls and Shards next, wow these two games are really similar. AoS has fewer souls but less overlap with fewer balancing issues, but even still there are plenty of forgetable souls you can acquire. RotN has a ridiculous amount of shards but most of them are useless. RotN also suffers from having some very overpowered shards that just eliminate the notion of experimentation. RotN combat does rely more on Shards that AoS does on Souls, so you could argue RotN does better with the mechanic.
Enemies and bosses, got to be the most divisive category here I think. Enemy wise, AoS has the advantage of familiar faces really, there aren't as many foes here but there is enough to keep the game fresh and other than the Valkyries and Medusa heads, none are especially annoying.
RotN on the other hand is a different story, lots of reskin enemies (and giant versions in the late game, whoo for more crap!) and so many enemies just have a ton of health. I was at level 45 by the time I finished the game and there were still plenty of weaker enemies that still took three or more hits. The only demon I found who gave good hauls of EXP still took six to seven whacks to beat. Definetly tedious and irritating, especially when it crams so many areas with far too many enemies. AoS only does this sparingly, there are places that are crammed and annoying and in the late game there was a bit that made my blood absolutely boil. But not a patch on RotN's constant mob slog.
Finally onto bosses and I have to admit the bosses in AoS are largely forgettable. I like the head hunter and Balore seems a fan favourite, but yeah, not the most exceptional bunch. RotN has some cool boss designs and in all honesty, actually exciting boss mechanics, namely when fighting humanoid bosses. This is something I didn't appreciate when I was playing the first time around but after replaying AoS, I did miss the complex bosses of RotN. The only thing they screwed up is giving every boss far too much HP. The battles dragged out way too long.
Lastly just some random things, both games are actually very close in damage received and HP totals. RotN probably has higher hitting attacks than AoS and you can get comboed to buggery where AoS gives you invincibility frames. What really does sway things further into AoS's favour is the fact that restorative items do not cost a fortune in the shop. In fact, making money in AoS is much easier that RotN. AoS may have been too easy but RotN was too stingy and the health potions were not as effective either which coupled with the drawn out boss fights meant you had to be near perfect most of the time to succeed.
Considering all these points, I still favour AoS over RotN The only thing I would actually take from RotN and put into AoS are the boss battles, because they're genuinely the best thing the game had to offer.
I'll be honest though, Aria of Sorrow isn't as amazing as I remembered it. It's still a good game but it's perhaps overly linear and a few areas are a bit bland to explore, like the floating garden for instance. I would still recommend playing it today if you haven't but it might be a while before I return to it. Bloodstained on the other hand, I don't think I'll ever get the yearning to replay.
This fairy tale come thriller drama has some high production values and is another reason I love streaming services like Netflix and Prime, they do stuff that conventional TV just is too afraid to do. With all the BBC's riches from TV licensing why aren't they producing high quality stuff like this more often? Only now do we see high production value shows that are gripping and addictive like Line of Duty and I think I saw a trailer for War of the Worlds, but these shows are few and far between where the streaming services just keep cranking out shows like there's no tomorrow. Anyway, Carnival Row was very entertaining, it's dark and gritty and the world building is very good. There's a cohesive lore that ties everything together so if you don't mind all the fairy tale stuff, it's engaging on all levels than just the plot twists. It's about relevant subject matter in a mythical world of pixies, pucks and dark magic. Seemingly random murders are all part of a larger conspiracy that all comes down to manipulation of power from the upper echelons of society.
Some of my complaints about the show are; character bloat. There are a lot of characters in this show all with their own story arcs which means the main story arc loses lime light and slows pacing down. It's not half as bad as most shows which really bog down in the middle but this bloating of characters probably helps that.
Weak leads, sounds harsh but Philo and Vignette are not the most interesting characters in the show, my personal favourite is Agreus, the come wealthy Puck looking for acceptance in high society, plus he always cracks me up wearing his hat off the side on one of his horns. The actual political plot line and it's main players too, much more interesting and engaging characters. The love story between Philo and Vignette is more for Vignette's sake that Philo's as he has attachments to other characters that justify his presence through the story.
Carnival Row is a well written show that keeps a better pace than any of it's peers, snappy writing and a fully fleshed out world and society make for a gripping and interesting place to disappear to for a few hours a night. It's already drawing up plans for a second series with an intriguing cliff hanger that should offer much more opportunity for world building and deepening the political plot.
A must watch recommendation from me.
Another little gem I found on the Xbox Game Pass, I downloaded it when it came out but only after beating Bloodstained did I decide to go for something that looked a little more mellow. Surprisingly Yoku's Island Express is another metroidvania game but instead of swords, arm cannons or whatever else one might use to kill something, this game instead uses pin ball mechanics. It's so cleverly ingenius and genuinely intuitive, the game plays and feels natural and looks beautiful too. Reminds me of the recent Rayman games, the gorgeous hand drawn sprites and environments. It has a real unique and distinguished look.
I do have some nitpicks and firstly and this one is the biggest gripe! The fast travel system is a bit pants, you often have to do some slow travelling just to get to the fast travel pick up station. I didn't play much more beyond the story but I imagine back tracking to find all the collectibles is twice as much a pain in the ass as backtracking for objectives. To be honest, I really only struggled with one objective and that was because I failed to spot a certain NPC waiting to chat with me.
Secondly, the pinball level paddles, not the paddles that help you go from A to B, but when you enter a lair and have to win the pinball game, I found you had to be fairly pixel perfect to get the paddle to whack Yoku where you need him. The game doesn't use a physics based system (which eliminates randomness), the paddles instead will send Yoku in a preset direction depending at what length of the paddle the ball is on, but you have to be incredibly precise and it can get a tad annoying at times.
And lastly, I hat the Sootling leash. I despise the sootling leash, you spin so fast that it makes it very unpredictable where you'll end up and getting flung in the wrong direction often means lots of lost time. No fun.
I didn't have to pay for Yoku's Island Express thanks to the Game Pass, it's a very fun game. Short if you're only doing the story but if you are a collecting kind of gamer, you'll probably double your play time.
I think this is the kind of game I would replay and would say it's worth around £13, whether that means you get it during a deal or not is hard to say. £10 would be a definite bargain.
Fun game, interesting gameplay, great visuals and I hate Sootling leash.
Spiritual successor to Symphony of The Night aye? I think bloody not! Bloodstained Ritual of the Night has to be one of the most infuriating metroidvania games I have ever played. It sweeps you in at first, it plays nicely, feels familiar and enjoyable. But it's all one big ruse, the deeper you go, the worse this game gets. By the time I wanted to quit, I had put in so much I felt compelled to finish the damn thing and I can say I have, true ending and all!
The reason why I have so much anger towards this game are as follows: firstly, bosses have far too much HP and deal far too much damage. The battles drag out for a fairly long time and don't give the best tells for attacks. You take huge chunks of damage from any of their attacks, it's really new or casual unfriendly.
The hit boxes are wrong, getting hit by air, hitting enemies but the game doesn't register it's just rough as hell and forced me to use greatswords as they have such huge range they're the only weapon that reliably hits anything.
Loading times, dying to a boss results in a 10-15 second load screen. Just rushing through rooms incurs load times of anywhere 5 to 10 seconds, it's really frustrating, even accessing the menu freezes the game from time to time. I found it really jarring and really broke the flow.
Too many enemies fill the areas and drop low amounts of exp or anything and yet take an absolute pummeling to beat.
Lastly, bloated level design. The rooms are fairly large but most of the space is just empty. Then you'll come to some tiny room or corridor and it's packed to the gills with bad guys.
The crafting system was convoluted in my opinion as well, other than enhancing shards I rarely seemed to find anything for crafting any useful equipment. As for cooking ingredients, forget about it. I think I only ever crafted one thing. One meal! Out of about 30 meals. Doesn't feel well thought out.
And if you asked me about the story, I couldn't tell you what it was about, I skipped every cutscene. Sounds bad but the way the story was told at the beginning just didn't interest me in the slightest. Too much dialogue for a start that was underwhelming in the compelling writing department.
It's an odd game too, you can finish the game and get one of the rubbish endings halfway through the game. The game world isn't very intuitive either, other than a few moments, there was nothing that clued me how to proceed the game to it's true ending. I used a guide. In order to swim you have to farm a specific enemy for a shard that allows you to swim. Which you need to use to access an area that allows you to learn a permanent ability that allows you to walk under water so that you can use another traversal ability underwater to get where you need to go. That in itself, is convoluted and stupid.
I was happy to finish this game and get that amount of vindication from it, but I have to say this is probably the worst metroidvania I have ever played, granted I haven't played many from the indie circuit. But I've played all the Castlevania games that are based off Symphony of the night and this is by far below the standards of those games and even the later entries (Portrait and Ecclesia) which were weak in regards to Aria of Sorrow for instance.
I wouldn't buy this game, so it's just as well I got to play it via the Xbox Game Pass. I don't think I'll ever think of coming back to it in future either. It's an experience, that's it. Nothing more.
My blog unfortunately ended up getting rather ignored during the Summer holidays, many family commitments and to an extent my own laziness, saw the blog get ignored. I did however, play quite a few games during those weeks. Most of my experiences were lows but there were a few high points. So, without further ado the first game I played and actually finished was the original Bioshock remastered for the Xbox One. It was fun to go back through memory lane but I one thing I definitely don't miss is the constant searching through every locker, box and desk. I like the survival elements, but I prefer a game now that paces gathering resources, rather than turn you into a magpie on steroids.
It's quite a long game as well and I did kinda feel like it was out staying it's welcome. You hit a point where there aren't new enemies being introduced and the difficulty curve slumps. Enemies become fairly tanky but don't pose much of threat when you have so much ammo, plasmids and cash to bully your way through the latter few areas.
The next game I played, woah man. What a point of contention and just talking about it to any other human being is liable to get me verbally or indeed physically assaulted. Zelda, Breath of the Wild. I quit this game, ten hours in and I was at worst bored and best aggravated. I'm not going to whittle in, it seems my gripes were not isolated and quite a few other people have the same opinion as me. I hated the weapon fragility mechanic, I hated the one shotting, I hated the far to big open world that was virtually empty, I hated spending 70% of my time climbing and I hated how aimless of a game it was.
My experiences with the Zelda franchise aren't exactly spotless, I've had conflicts with entries before. The only title I've played and loved hard is Minish Cap, something about that game is just perfect but yeah, Breath of the Wild. It was a real misfire for me.
I started to replay Call of Duty Ghosts' campaign, but when I finished a mission and the game crashed and lost all my progress I just gave up right there and then. No matter, Modern Warfare is out soon.
I replayed Resident Evil 4 for the first time in years! Thanks to the Xbox Game Pass! (another mention, come on Microsoft, money under the table - know what I mean). I enjoyed it, I liked the new control scheme I was able to use and didn't think it looked to bad, I heard the the upscaled textures weren't amazing but it was still enough to creep me out here and there. Still can't believe how much ammo I ended up with, I had so many shotgun rounds I had to start spamming shots just to make room for other things.
Resident Evil 4 is truly a timeless game.
I started Devil May Cry 5 but for some reason I just wasn't able to get into it. The game isn't bad, not at all, I think it's a simple case of wrong game, wrong time. I got to Nero's second boss, the annoying flying creature. When I start proper I'll probably start a new game. Shame though because it really is a continuation of the original series, it was a bit jarring to play a hack'n'slash game and not use a shoulder button to strike.
I also played my second ever battle royale game and if anyone knows me, they'll know I personally despise this genre of gaming, one of the reasons is fairly shallow. It's because battle royale games have had a negative affect on the industry and I also find them the most boring way to play a shooting game. Why someone would rather run around an enormous map for twenty minutes, following strangers and hoarding ammo only to die in 2 seconds from someone you probably never saw coming.
The map is so open, there is so little cover you can't get a hunter sensation going. The variety of weapons and ammo types and power ups and armor and passive abilities just create so many unnecessary variables. I just really hate these games, they bore me to tears. I won my first match, I killed two people and played for over 20 minutes. In twenty minutes I experienced ten seconds, if that of combat. Wow! Player engagement is so high! But hey, these games are normally free and crammed with overpriced micro transactions and somehow, despite looking like a fucking horrible prospect, this business model works.
So yeah, I won't be a BR convert.
Lastly, I played Forza Horizon 4 which I was really enjoying until I qualified for the roster and then it turned into a live service racing game and lost any sense of racing career structure which was an immediate turn off for me.
Have to say though, gorgeous game and it is fun driving around very familiar settings (though I've never been to Edinburgh). I just wish it had structure, I didn't realise until over ten hours later after racing with the same car for what seemed like ages, that you can swap your class or type of car to change the race, within reason.
I also hated all the crappy dialogue and those Top Gear missions were the absolute worst, especially with the cheese ridden voice over.
This game made me miss Test Drive Unlimited (which is a fantastic game, shame they made it crap with the second game).
Anywho, that pretty much wraps my gaming experiences up. Only a few days time and I'll be playing Gears of War 5 which I'm very excited to play, hope the campaign is an improvement over Gears 4 and I'm also looking forward to giving the multiplayer mode and good go... Well, at least until Modern Warfare comes out then sadly I'm gone.
