For those who have not played any of the previous games, Darksiders puts you in the shoes of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. War, Death, Famine and this time around you step out as Fury! She is tasked to go and find the Seven deadly sins, which has been released on humankind due to a rather intricate backstory running through Darksiders 1 and 2. All you need to know is that THE seven deadly sins have been released and Fury needs to stop them all. Each of these sins are naturally a major boss fight. The acting can, at times, be rather predictable and somewhat cheesy but this doesn't take away from the great, yet simple, fighting system that the Darksiders-franchise employs!
Graphically Darksiders 3 can not stand up to the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War and many of the other major titles of the last year, but Darksiders 3 doesn't seem to care. Darksiders 3 takes its stylized cartoonish characters and makes it its own. The environment does look rather bland and limited but once again Darksiders 3 makes no excuses and just accepts the way it is and keeps moving forward.
Hacking and slashing is where Darksiders 3 REALLY excels! This might be a hack-slash game on the surface but you would do well to not simply meander into a large group of enemies and simply expect to mash buttons and walk out of the fight unscathed, oh no. For you to survive, even on the easiest difficulty it will require you to observe and place some well-timed counter attacks as repayment for your enemies unkindness. If you don't you will be swiftly punished. As the game goes on you will eventually build up quite the tell-signs of each type of enemy you have faced.
As you continue through the game Fury will receive many arsenal upgrades which not only gives you new ways to destroy the hordes of enemies thrown at you, but with the expanding arsenal comes new movement powers which will grant you access to areas around the map which you would previously not be able to reach. This is a clever way of re-using the same map later on during the game. Being one of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse you would think that after some leveling up, naturally, Fury would become immensely strong which allow her to make short work of all the fodder-enemies that gets thrown at her. But no, thanks to enemy scaling, Fury can be thwarted quite easily by normal scrub enemy. After the first few boss-fights the tables suddenly turn, instead of simply evading and hacking away at the lifebar of the enemy boss, it will feel like you have hit a wall. None of your coaxing will get the boss to reveal its weakness or "tell". But with persistence relief will finally come, I assure you. In this form Darksiders 3 goes back to old school gaming, where developers were not scared to throw immense difficulty at you, making you work for every inch you get in their game.
Darksiders 3 is not a open-world game, instead it is more old-school. Leading you from one room to the next all while working towards your main objective. The next of the seven deadly sins! During your adventure you will mainly be occupied by killing enemies but there is also environmental puzzles which will keep you occupied for awhile on more than one occasion.
Verdict
Overall Darksiders 3 doesn't try to be like anything else. It knows what it is and what it tries to achieve. And for that I commend it. Yes the environment can be a little bland, yes the graphics doesn't match what has become a standard in the current industry but that is okay because Darksiders 3 is not meant for "everyday" gamers. Darksiders 3 comes to life when it challenges you, and it really does challenge you. Yes this can make Darksiders 3 seem rather old fashioned, but with the way Darksiders 3 ends, maybe the next Darksiders can spice things up and bring the franchise to the modern gaming time.
special thanks to Apex Interactive for supplying the review copy
Nordlys, the second campaign take you to a Nazi occupied Norway where you take control of a young female resistance fighter. The best part of this chapter is the ability to jump on snow skis and silently skiing past unsuspecting Nazi's killing them silently with throwing knifes! As you progress through the frozen masterpiece that is Norway, with spectacular views of the northern lights as well as spine-chillingly spectacular snow storms, DICE employed a new mechanic which requires you to warm yourself to avoid freezing. The longer you stay out in the blizzard the slower your movements and reactions will become. This chapter is great in itself but due to the resistance fighters being Norwegian this meant subtitles. What also adds to the punch of this chapter is it showcases what many non-soldiers were willing to do to save their own countries which DICE does a great job of portraying the feeling of being a single person trying to overthrow the might of a Nazi Germany.
Chapter 3, which probably is the best of the chapters available at launch, called Tirailleur which showcases the costs of human bravery, sacrifice and ambition. Seeing many non-French natives coming to fight for a country they have never seen. Not only does it showcase the mentioned topics it also deftly deals with the topic of race during the liberation of France. Apart from all the racial and political ties during this chapter, this is the first time that you feel you are part of a platoon during a war, rather than a super - call-of-duty-esque- soldier. From the start you are fighting next to your fellow soldiers who get cut down right next to you on either side. For the first time you feel vulnerable, which is what it must have been like, your life can be ended at any moment by a stray bullet, and that is what is achieved in Tirailleur. Seeing autumn leaves blowing over the corpses of your friends really hits home the atrocity of war! This is also the chapter that shows you a glimpse of what Battlefield is known for, large-scale warfare!
The fourth and final chapter is The Last Tiger which has you take control of a non-Nazi German who has been assigned to a tank crew. The Last Tiger being spectacular as expected with lots of tank warfare which is really well done giving you the sense of power of being in a Tiger tank yet the large target placed on you in any battle but even more so it tries to give the view of a non-Nazi who is thrust into a war he does not necessarily agree with. DICE has gone to great lengths to make their rather short campaign have some significance with the stories they tell. Battlefield V does a really great job of that building from the great playability of the BF1 campaign and adding an emotional connection to it. Telling us how terrible war really is and how many unnamed people lost their lives to protect what we have today.
The weaponry of BFV feel great. Apart from the new customization features that feels a lot closer to Battlefield 4 customization level, the overall recoil and feel of the weapons are much more predictable and manageable compared to the spray of BF1. Classes, apart from the medic which only wields SMGs, are not limited to one type of weapon. Support class can wield from shotguns, LMGs and MMGs. What makes this even more magical is that each of these weapons feel unique enough to have them feel like they each have a use for different situations. Another big change is the fact that scopes now come unlocked from rank 1. No extra grind is needed to unlock the basic sights. This is a very thoughtful change as there is nothing more frustrating as unlocking a new weapon but having no sights to use on it yet which sees you becoming useless for some time as you are required to run around using no sights until you can unlock them.
2 new features in the weapon system is the weapon progession and aesthetic customizations. Weapon progression allows you to customize your weapon to your play style as you rank up the weapon giving you options to reduce recoil or be more accurate from hip-fire for example. This way you can setup each of your weapons individually over time. The second customization feature is aesthetic skins which are unlocked by performing certain tasks. Not only is this a welcome feature it is also fun to be able to see a fellow soldiers skins and appreciate what needed to be done to acquire said skins rather than randomly get them in loot crates.
The vehicular warfare, as Battlefield is known for, is somewhat dwarfed by the fact that, unlike BF1 where vehicles were less, you will find yourself force-picking assault class just to try and manage the sheer number of tanks or planes. In BF1 tanks and planes were a menace but you knew that there were not that many of them. But that was World War 1 and so we have progressed to a more mechanical age and the increase in vehicles make sense, but I can't help but feel that the relationship between infantry and vehicles is somewhat binary.
Battlefield maps are notorious for being magnificent specimens of gorgeously crafted environments that possesses the ability to make destruction seem magical, and BF5 is no different. The 8 maps that are available from launch will take you through the war-torn streets of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The next map, also in the Netherlands is Devastation which showcases the destruction that was left during the battle between the Dutch and the Germans. Devastation also features dynamic destruction so expect it to change significantly after a few explosions. Twisted Steel will take players to the serene fields of France, with open fields which are great spots for aerial bombardments as well as sniper choke points. Yellow fields is another French map this time taking place around a little village with lots of close quarter battles as well as artillery playing a big role in this map. Hamada takes you to North Africa which saw many large scaled tank battles. DICE has said that Hamada will require good teamwork in using tanks and vehicles to capture the objectives. Airfield is the second North Africa map and sees a destroyed airfield with many burnt out planes play host to all our warfare. The last two maps are situated in the snowy mountains of Norway, dubbed Narvik and Snow Mountain. Narvik takes you to a ( once) beautiful mountainside village that has seen serious war, lots of cover is provided by the war-torn buildings with a rather large bridge playing host to many a long range enthusiast . Snow mountain, as the name suggests, wil have you battling around and in the mountains, not much in the way of vehicular warfare but do expect the occasional bombardment from above.
Not all these maps transpire well to all the available game modes in BF5 but these will certainly be tweaked and corrected with future updates. New and noteworthy additions to the already long list of game modes that we saw during BF1 are; Grand Operations which will as in the past expand as the (free) DLCs arrive over time. Conquest and Domination are likely to be the popular modes and DICE's take on the Battle Royale, Firestorm is sure to be a hit among most players when it launches some time after the launch of BF5.
Focus Home Interactive has been at the forefront of the Simulator genre with their various outings of Farming Simulator. This time around they have made huge improvements which really makes Farming Simulator 19 something special. Featuring a complete graphical overhaul ,which is immediately evident, Farming Sim 19 takes gets you elbow deep in the real farming experience, from starting up your tractor to sowing every seed.
Right from the start it is advisable to work through all the tutorials, and they are rather extensive. Farming is not easy, and there are many steps involved if you want to be a fruitful farmer, in real life or in the game. After the extensive tutorials you will be able to start your first farm. This is where you will get your first glimpse of the new reworked graphical system. Every inch of farming from the mechanical aspects to the graphical are meticulously copied and the results are amazing. walking through grass or crops will have them bend and sway according to the way they are manipulated.
Farming simulator 19 gives you, the farmer, the freedom from the onset. If you want to become a logging mogul, you can grab your chainsaw and build your empire one tree at a time. If you are more interested in being a livestock farmer, which is one of the newer features of the Farming Simulator franchise, you can focus on chickens, sheep, pigs, cows and even horses. You can also go the more traditional way of crop farming which will have you planting and growing crops and then selling them at the store. All of these realistic options comes as a breath of fresh air as many Simulators create rather ludicrous scenarios.
The options don't end there, apart from the above mentioned, you can also simply hop on your tractor, a John Deere if you'd like, which is the newly included brand by the way, and meander about the vast countryside and even do a few fetch-and-deliver or lending a hand on neighboring farms. It's a worthy side note that neighboring farms are few and far between in the rather barren countryside. When you get down to farming your own land is when the game becomes interesting. Without really any sort of direction or mission you are literally left on your own with no clear objective apart from farming and amassing money.
So, there you are, fresh from your tutorial, ready to face farming head-on, but what next... And that is one of the biggest challenges of Farming Sim 19, for greenhorn farmers who have not spent time on previous titles the UI can be extremely challenging as well as having absolutely zero cues on what you should do next. This is a double edged blade tho. Nice in the sense that it will allow you to do whatever you want, but frustrating in the sense that even when you decide what you want to do, you might not know how to do it. After some time you should at least be able to find your way around the UI and the magnitude of steps that go into any process that you take on. Even a simple task like growing wheat takes many steps before you will see your very first head of wheat starting to appear. From cultivating, plowing to sowing, to clearing weeds, fertilizer. The list goes on. Same goes for all the other types of farming you can try on farming Sim 19 and the 300 plus types of heavy machinery at your disposal, which sounds great but for a non-farmer knowing what 90% of them do is a challenge in its own.
A nice touch that players can be thankful for, unlike real farming where you need to wait months for your newly planted wheat to grow you can now simply speed up growing times which makes the longs waits slightly shorter. Now all of this seems rather hard work, thankfully you can hire someone to do the monotonous work for you. You could tune into one of the numerous radio stations while riding your tractor up and down but if you need someone to plow your fields, simply hire a helper! If AI help is not your thing jump into the 6 player multiplayer! This lets you join a few buddies and work the farm... The multiplayer did see its fair share of problems joining other gaming sessions but the first patch is set to sort all of that out. It is also good to note that multiplayer farm sessions don't carry over to your single player sessions.
After a rather strange yet intriguing intro you find yourself in the shoes of Edward Pierce, a rather blank character apart from being a alcoholic war veteran and a private investigator. As the player you are tasked with adding skill points to certain areas of PI Pierce which in turn will affect the way clues are gathered and investigations will go. Areas such spot hidden, which as the name suggests, will help you not get noticed as easily. Eloquence, which will help you persuade people you speak with easily. Strength will help you force open doors and break lock mechanisms. Psychology will allow you to intemperate clues and make connections faster. Occultism which gives you greater understanding of things of the spiritual nature such as magic and astrology. These skills, and how to place your available points to them, is what creates the intrigue in CoC, there are many ways to reach your end result, but each skill will take you via a different route to get to the desired location. With Edward Pierce being more of a medium to tell the story, it allows for less time to be spent on portrayal of the main narrator of the story and more time fleshing out the story and plot which will draw you in from the first few minutes of the game.
The game starts like most B-grade detective stories, Edward Pierce a PI with a bit of a drinking problem gets a rather peculiar case. Not much is given away during the game and finding the needed clues really is fun and shows what makes Call of Cthulhu a good solid game. Investigating is a real delight due to the extremely atmospheric environment you find yourself in. It truly feels like nothing you do or interact with in the environment is without purpose. Picking up books and reading them can add to your medical talents, picking up on environmental hints, all factor in. Edward can use all the hard-earned clues that you have so painstakingly gathered and create a sort of "reconstruction" allowing you to see how all said clues piece together. During these scenes it is tough to not find yourself sitting forward in your seat wanting to see and figure out where to go next, when, not by being told, but by being led, one finds the answer and find yourself simply saying "wow". The CSI-esque moments that are all over CoC could really have fallen flat and become quite a chore like they usually are in pretty much every other detective styled game ever created, but Edward Pierce seems to have the same questions I have, making me want to ask and investigate! This makes a usually terrible game mechanic and turns it into one of the strengths of Call of Cthulhu.
Many other sequences, such as the brief attempt and combat and stealth is a rather poor attempt at them and could have been better left untouched. During your play-through you will also encounter a true Lovecraftian-horror portrayal of a strange version of cat-and-mouse which will have you scratching your head trying to figure out what is needed. This takes from the attempt at being a frightening situation and turns it more to a mundane frustration.
Fortunately these mundane moments are few and far between and the occult detective tale takes the forefront for the remainder of the game. Call of Cthulhu plays to its strengths, really delving into the HP Lovecraft work and using it to create a atmospheric environment which creates its own sense of weight to your actions and the lore that can be found throughout the game. Moving from smoke stained offices to a decrepit portside town all the way to dark and claustrophobic caves, Call of Cthulhu will draw you in with its atmospheric brilliance. Turn off the lights and put on a headset to truly be immersed. Along with this you will be treated to a incredible ending with many plot-twists and revelations hitting from all angles as you make your way through the mystery that is Call of Cthulhu. a Single playthrough will definitely see you miss out on many of the possibilities that can be created by choices, luckily the length of the game makes it alot less daunting to attempt another playthrough.
The Afterglow LVL 3 headset has a simple design, making them less in-your-face like Razer and Astro headsets. They have a grey finish with blue inlays that fits nicely with the general blue theme of the PS4. The two over-ear cups are padded with suede-like padding and can swivel marginally as well as be adjusted up and down. One downside to the earcups are that they seems slightly small. For some the supposedly "over-ear" design will end up being a ON-ear setup, not good for immersion! The headband is sturdy enough and has adequate padding. The build quality feels rather plastic but at R650 and thereabouts, you don't expect much more. The Boom mic that sits on the side of the earcup is nice and long and works really well, picking up no unnecessary background noises while keeping voice chatter as clear as can be expected.
When it comes to the audio of the PDP Afterglow LVL 3 I was thoroughly impressed. The little 40mm drivers do well with deep bass notes and high pitched treble as long as you keep the volume to the lower end. Once the volume goes up the 40mm drivers can't handle it and will distort. This distortion fortunately doesn't affect the gameplay too bad as you will still be able to hear what your party is saying. The 40mm drums do well considering their size and price but they struggle when they reach extreme highs and lows.
While the PDP Afterglow LVL 3 does falter a little in the audio department it is good to re-affirm the low price. Other headsets that can be recommended for gamers on a budget would be the likes of the Astro A10's and the Razer Electra V2's and Turtle Beach Recon 200's are all around the R1000 mark making the LVL 3 a definite contender due to its good pricing. If PDP would make the earcups slightly larger it would go a long way to swaying many people away from the other branded headsets.
The PDP Afterglow LVL 3 is a great starter headset for someone who is new to gaming and doesn't want to break the bank before they know if they are going to really enjoy gaming.
Apart from the vast open world and many things to encounter, RDR2 offers a ridiculous amount of scripted missions, 104 missions to be exact. To put this into perspective, GTA 5 only had you taking Michael, Trevor and Franklin on 74 scripted main missions... Let that sink in. In RDR2 you will spend your 104 main missions sheriff-shooting, bridge-blowing, bank robbing and the lone "follow the objective". The main missions all have a large part in story- and character building which all happens in the craziest of ways such as inventive tasks, costume changes, outrageous modes of transport or peacefully teaching a boy to fish.
Storytelling in RDR2 once again shows why Rockstar took their time with this title. Many AAA- titles with large production budgets and massive teams working on them still churn out rather predictable storylines with plot-twists that can be spotted from miles away. RDR2 takes the standard of modern story telling and pushes it even further. CD Projekt Red and the Witcher 3 was arguably the best story telling around, except maybe for The Last Of Us. RDR2 makes both those titles look normal. The tale of Arthur Morgan takes ambitious twists, and the epilogue is nothing short of astounding.
Lesser games will use side missions as a way to justify charging you a large sum of money for a lackluster story. RDR2 takes side missions to the next level by making each of them worth your time. Animal hunting alone involve tracking scents and clues before targeting your preys' vital organs for that clean kill. The hunting in RDR2 alone is more engaging than all of the Cabela's games combined. Apart from supplying your camp with food via fishing or hunting, you can also use your resources to upgrade certain parts of your camp which offers a management aspect to the game as well. The camp supplies is not the only thing that needs to be managed. Arthur needs to eat, drink, sleep and bath if he wants to be the best sharpshooter he can possibly be. Hair and beards need to cut and trimmed and once in awhile Arthur needs to take a bath otherwise the townsfolk will not want to interact with Arthur.
Rockstar has also added some finer details, not only to the astounding world which ranges from the snowy mountain tops, the open plains with herds of bison and wild horses grazing everywhere to the swampland infested with alligators or the towns where every brick has been detailed and every NPC has a story to tell. Rockstar has also brought a companion app that can be used on IOS and Android devices which even further enhances the immersion. With the opening of maps being rather cumbersome, using the app allows you to have a live map next to you at all times, not only does this help you, turning your in-game map off will see your partners or other NPC's give more descriptive directions as to where you need to go. The physics that has gone into RDR2 is simply astounding, walking through snow sees the snow adjust and fall to the way you manipulate it. Ride through thick brush and the branches will move and bend as well as having Arthure flinch and adjust. These little things is what takes RDR2 from being a great game to a Perfect game!
RDR2 currently has no multiplayer function with the beta going live later in November but if it is anything like what we experienced in Red Dead Redemption and GTA 5 it is sure to be wonderful!
Gaming headsets is a very large market, with the likes of many big-name manufacturers such as Astro, Steelseries and the very well known Tutle Beach being some of the biggest names in the industry. The problem with gaming headsets is that they tend to be rather expensive. Whether it is because of the features they possess or the logo they have branded on them, gamers have become used to forking out rather substantial amounts of money to get decent headsets. Turtle Beach is experiencing a bit of a renaissance at the moment with their new range of headsets which range from entry-level budget headsets to the top-tier headsets that the professional esports players are using. What really makes the Turtle Beach range attractive is the features they pack with their base headsets which come in at a budget price. Making Turtle Beach one of the most competitive headsets on the market at the moment.
Turtle Beach created the Recon 200 wired headset with the new, ever so popular, Battle Royale mode in mind. Battle Royale game modes require teamwork, therefor the Recon 200 focuses on crisp and clear microphone and accurate directional sound, for those moments you find yourself surrounded.
The Turtle Beach Recon 200 is a wired headset with a 3.5mm headphone jack, meaning it can be used on nearly any device that has a headphone jack. This makes the Recon 200 a good buy if you are looking to buy a multi-purpose headset. Being made with Battle Royale in mind the microphone was obviously a major focus, lending the flip up mute feature from their stealth-line the recon 200 has a short boom mic which delivers tremendously clear and crisp chat, without picking up any ambient sounds. The Recon 200 boasts the ability to work with surround software such as Dolby Atmos and Windows Sonic although it doesn't boast the compelling soundscape of its higher-end counterparts. The key feature that puts the Recon 200 above its price-range counterparts like the Astro A10's, is the mic-monitoring which allows you to hear yourself when speaking, eliminating those awkward moments of not realizing you are screaming. This features uses a built-in battery which is charged via the included USB cable.
There are however some negatives to the Recon 200. Gaming headsets are designed to be worn for extended periods of time, meaning they are generally comfortable to wear. The Recon 200 earcups are clad with faux leather, which generally is not a bad thing, but when worn for extended periods of time faux leather doesn't allow for breathing causing a clammy and warm feeling inside the earcup. Not a nice feeling after multiple hours of gaming. The earcups are rather narrow which might have some users opting to place the headset ON the ears instead of OVER the ear as intended. The headband which leans to the too-tight side of comfort rather than the comfortable side also lacks the padding which is required for the long gaming sessions. Although the Recon 200's boast capable sound quality with general use, upon using it in high volume situations with large explosions and overwhelming noise, the 40mm drivers of the Recon 200 struggle and tend to distort washing out most of the distinct sounds which can generally be distinguished when using other headsets which boast the larger 50mm drivers.
Turtle Beach really has refined the Aesthetic appeal of their headsets. Many other big-name manufactures such as Astro sport rather "un-conventional" styling or plaster their hardware with as much RGB lights as possible ( cough cough Razer). Turtle Beach has taken a step back and created a slick and sheek designs creating appeal for gamers and non-gamers alike to use their hardware not only in a gaming environment but in everyday situations as well without being looked at funny.
The recon 200 copies the design and build of the Stealth 600 and 700 series with a carbon fibre finish, paired with matte black covering provides a classy, minimalist look. Neatly tucked behind the one earcup you will find the volume wheel, mixer control, which lets you adjust how much in-game sound or party chat you want to hear from your headset. The power slider and USB charging port is also situated in a neatly paired group. The Mic monitoring, which requires the headset to be charged beforehand, is estimated to be able to be used for nearly 12 hours on a single charge. Earcups also have a diagonal swivel which helps to get that "fitted'" feel.
For people who do not know how the Dakar works. It is a race across some of the most extreme terrain without any GPS equipment with extremely long distances to travel each day. The format being used is called Rally raid. Rally raid is actually a really large scale navigation game seeing racers dash between checkpoints trying to beat opponents as well as not destroy their vehicles in the process. Not having GPS devices mean the driver and navigator need to use a compass, paper roadbook and the odometer of the vehicle to navigate their way to the checkpoints.
No other game puts as much emphasis on navigation as Dakar 18. When you start up the game you will be taken through a tutorial. It is HIGHLY recommended that you do not skip it. You will be told how to read your roadbook and understand all the scribbles that you will find there. Once you have completed the tutorial... do it again! If you are not a veteran and you are highly comfortable with navigation it is recommended that you select the rookie setting. Rookie setting will give you a Compass indicator to the next checkpoint when you are not on some form of road or track.
You will be able to choose from all the vehicles that take on the Dakar rally, from the new 450cc motorbikes, quads, normal vehicles and lastly the giant trucks. Once again it is recommended that you use the latter two categories because it provides you with a navigator that will read the roadbook notes back to you which will save you from having to flick your eyes to the roadbook while trying to keep your car from getting stuck in a sandpit. The whole aim of Dakar 18 is to let you experience what it is truly like to compete in a rally raid. You will need to read the roadbook, use the knowledge and hints given to by the book and then look for the visual cues in the environment to guide you to your next location. These cues can range from a large rock, a clump of grass, remnants of a house or even a car track disappearing over a dune... all while trying to not destroy your vehicle. Camera modes are rather interesting in Dakar 18, the normal bumper and chase cams are available if you want but the experience only hits home when you use the cockpit view where you will be overwhelmed by the noise, as well as the helicopter view for those "tv-like shots" of you careening through the desert.
During the opening stages of Dakar 18 you are racing over dunes and through gorges in Peru which mostly consists of just sand. This might paint a bleak picture of the surrounding but the way Dakar 18 has managed to capture the seemingly endless rolling dunes is breathtaking. If you ever wondered what it might be like to get lost in a desert, don't look at your road book for a few minutes and you will quickly find out what it feels like.
After the day-one patch (which arrived a week late) there was a large graphical upgrade which did help a rather lack luster graphical experience to become more acceptable. Nothing special like some of the other racing titles out there but Dakar 18 does not give you the feeling that it ever wanted to compete on a graphical level. Post patch vehicle dynamics and physics have improved dramatically. Vehicles drive differently from other classes, Steering the vehicle through different terrain now feels that way where as before every terrain felt the same. This being said Dakar 18 tries really hard to be a simulator but the driving mechanics are definitely arcade like. Hopefully this will be patched in upcoming patches.
Simulators are usually rather barren games. Lacking enthusiastic cut-scenes, energetic music and general refinement when it comes to the aspects that they are not trying to be a simulation of. Dakar 18 doesn't offer much when it comes to game modes. The career which is the obvious mode that takes you through all the stages of the Dakar rally. There is a multiplayer mode which includes couch co-op via split screen which will have you and a friend jump into any of the stages available throughout the race for some fun in the sun and sand. Treasure hunt will see you hunt for random items through stages you have already completed. This becomes tiresome really quickly, slowly driving around an area you have already slowly driven around in without any sense of purpose really doesn't sound appealing at all. No matter the game mode you choose they all boil down to one fundamental idea: using a roadbook to travel through a 5.791 square mile explorable map racing from point to point with minimal assistance.
The gameplay is a tad tricky to figure out at first. Your wrestler isn’t this machine that can take hit after hit. They will eventually get tired as their stamina bars deplete and each hard hit will cause damage to their body which is indicated in the HUD in the bottom of the screen. The weaker they become, the easier they are to be pinned down. And that is an advantage highly skilled players can use against their opponents. The reversal system is a key element to success; it’s all about that split second quick time event that suddenly appears above your wrestler’s head before they take a knock. It does get a bit annoying when you end up in a loop of constant bombardment after missing those extremely fast reversal opportunities, but this is only in the beginning as when the system becomes more familiar one predict what their opponent is about to do by studying their move sets but still, the controls feel tricky. After pressing a button that supposedly did one thing ends up doing something completely different. Maybe over time these get easier but after all this time in the game, it feels like the wrestler does his or her own thing most of the time.
There is a skill tree that gives players certain perks which eases things a bit which is a nice touch but it still feels like the game boils down to player skill and not a bunch of passive skills.
The commentary is outright boring. Compared to Fifa games or other sports games, the commentary in this one gets obnoxious after awhile. After the first few minutes the commentators start saying the same things over and over. How many times is the commentator going to say the same line that takes a stab at my opponent’s ridiculous name? Or how many times are the commentators going to ask how these wrestlers are still going after throwing each other around a bit? It gets tedious after a while. But other than that, the music is what you’d expect from a game like this; there are some catchy tunes in the menus. The crowd reacts well to the action and the sound effects are spot on. But commentary and dialogue just feels outright lazy and makes a long match a chore to shovel through which is such a shame because in a quick play match the commentary is better, yet in the story it’s just the same tedious thing over and over.
The graphics are decent enough. A lot of detail went into the wrestlers, which is expected. Seeing sweat gleam off their backs is a very nice touch. The stages are flashy and the way the characters move and react to being whacked in the head with a chair (among other things) looks spot on. Facial animations in the cut scenes are a tad on the cringe side of the spectrum though.
Not keen on the story? Well, WWE 2K19 has a ton of things to do from online multiplayer to various match types, like Hell in a Cell and the Back Stage fight scene, to name a few. There is even a tower mode where players face a series of opponents that escalate with difficulty, much like other fighting games. There is a lot to mess around with other than the story mode, as well as local multiplayer. It’s always fun to beat your friend near to death with a chair while Triple H watches on, paying no mind.
The last time we laced up our boots was with Fifa 17, and that is the last time we spent time with The Journey. Many people prefer games with some sort of story and Fifa's The Journey brings that story to a otherwise great sports game. You take control of Alex Hunter, his kid-sister Kim, and best friend Danny Williams as they each go through their career and possible career in football. You will need to make choices which affect the story in subtle ways. Be it making a conscious decision or a brash emotional decision. The decisions affect the way your manager, coach, the public and your fellow players feel and act towards you. During your journey you will have rival players in your own team which as you interplay with them more and more, your teamwork will increase making you play better alongside them. As in the previous Fifa Journeys, you have to attend team practices during the week which increases stats. The Journey also allows you to customize your player with clothes which is seen during the really well scripted cut scenes which are used to progress the story.
We are simply loving The Journey. The gameplay is extremely smooth and there are some nice added features such as flicking the ball to a teammate when receiving a pass under pressure. Add even more minor tweaks such as body feints, precise ball controls and more, comes the same opposite effects. Balls bouncing off chests and knees when you don't time your flick just right will see the ball roll away and into a opponents grasp more often than not. Above all the new tweaks added to Fifa 19 the new animations is just phenomenal and makes the game play fantastically smooth. During the roughly 16 hour long "campaign" which plays through 3 consecutive running storylines you will help Alex adjust to the life of a superstar at Real Madrid. Help Kim through the struggles of being a 17 year old football prodigy in the USA womens team at the World Cup. And finally Danny, as he struggles with staying in a team as well as being compared to his estranged older brother.
Fifa 19 also focuses more on realistic passing, gone are the days of just simply passing to the fastest player on your team and watching them round the whole team to score goal after goal. Passing now requires you to create space as well as perfect your pass strength. Lots of emphasis has been placed on strength, physically strong players will no longer be able to run attackers off the ball and steal it.
The biggest addition to this years' Fifa outing is the huge addition of the UEFA Champions League. All the drama of the Europe's Top Club Competition is on offer. The instantly recognizable music and graphical overlays that are used throughout the season is perfectly done to create a perfect realistic feel. The level of detail, which in Fifa's case has always been amazing, is simply breathtaking making it feel like each match could be one happening in the real UEFA league right this moment.
Player models and details are also ever improving from the beads of sweat during a game, to the fog and even snow that changes the feel of the game completely! If it is a windy day, loose fitting jerseys can be seen fluttering in the wind.
The UEFA Champions League and its little brother, the Europa League, are seamlessly woven into all modes including career mode. Kick-off mode which has been stagnant for very long also sees a complete rework delivering new modes such as House Rules which sees rules, some of which come straight from the playground, such as Headers and Volleys while some bring more chaos to the beautiful game such as " no rules" which as the name suggests makes everything acceptable. Jumping onto the Battle Royale wagon Fifa 19 brings Survival mode. Survival mode sees random players being ejected from the scoring side which in theory sees the trailing team gain the advantage.
FUT returns to Fifa 19 with even beefier content. Play the Journey and you will unlock FUT content. There is now also live content updates in forms of FUT-cards. These new modes go a long way to spice up the rather stale normal game modes since its launch with Fifa 97. It is still unclear whether these game modes will hold much interest in the months to come after launch due to them being available (strange as that may be) offline, this being said these modes are a welcome addition seeing as the pro club and career mode seems to be virtually untouched. Another nice touch added to FUT, albeit largely untouched, is Division Rivals. Division Rivals has you compete against players of similar skill level for weekly rewards.
