Thunderbirds Are Go! Episode 3: Space Race

With Ring of Fire taking the time to showcase every character and every vehicle in the show (bar the newly introduced Thunderbird Shadow), Space Race, and most episodes after it, takes a different approach, where only a few characters are featured, and only 1 or 2 Thunderbirds are utilised. As such, Space Race only features Thunderbird 3, and mainly focuses on Alan, as well as helping showcase more of Parker and Lady Penelope, as well as her pet pug, Sherbert.

Space Race begins with Alan not on a rescue, but rather doing a chore, helping clear up some of the space junk littering Earth’s atmosphere, while Alan is not happy he is doing “grunt” work. However, all that changes when a space mine is accidently reactivated, and tries to target Thunderbird 3, or worse, random civilian ships. It’s a race against time to find the code to deactivate the mine, as Parker and Lady P must infiltrate a facility where the codes are stored.

The action in this episode is really well paced, seeing TB3 fly around dodging obstacles, Parker parkouring his away around a massive warehouse avoiding guards. It’s also nice that we really get to see TB3 in action in general. If you’re familar with the classic series, you would know that TB3 was the most criminally underused Thunderbird, it only being introduced in the 13th episode, and not many episodes afterwards. So for the episode after the opener to focus on Thunderbird 3 does feel like a treat, as well as a statement that the show won’t mostly rely on episodes featuring Thunderbirds 1 and 2.

This Alan is certainly my favourite incarnation, compared to the movie Alan, and especially the original series Alan, being a whiny brat constantly fawning over a woman he never deserved. Alan may be younger in this continuity, but he is more mature, but still suffers from feeling a little below his brother’s in importance, has an eagerness to impress, and acts, well, just like a regular teenager. I do feel that this episode helped show off his character.

Overall, I think Space Race is a great, thrilling episode, and the kindof standard I would want on this show.

8/10

Thunderbirds Are Go! Episodes 1-2 Review: Ring of Fire

After over 40 years since Thunderbirds ended, as well as three films in the meantime, none of them particularly good, as well as a small host of various spin-offs, none of which are well remembered, Thunderbirds finally gets the comeback it deserves.

The series, like it’s original breathern, focuses on International Rescue, a top secret organisation run by the Tracy family, using their vast wealth to operate five high tech machines, designed to rescue people in highly dangerous situations, where all other rescue operations would fail.

The five machines are, Thunderbird 1, a rocket capable of breaking the sound barrier, designed for first responses, and for assessing the situation. Thunderbird 2, a craft capable of carrying a number of pods, each of which has specialised gear for each emergency, and often works in connection with Thunderbird 1. Thunderbird 3, designed for all space missions, as well as Thunderbird 4, a very small nimble sub designed for underwater rescues. And finally Thunderbird 5, a space station housed by a single occupant, who’s job is to monitor the planet for rescues, as well as coordinate all missions in progress, serving as the beating heart of International Rescue.

The show clearly shows much love and respect for the original series. Thunderbirds 1-4 all look very much like their original designs with varying degrees, TB1 looking near identical while TB2 and TB3 get more “blockier” designs, if more functional, while TB5 has been redesigned completely. Many details are often changed but remain faithful. The palm trees still go down for Thunderbird 2’s launch. The blue uniforms and the sashes remain, the uniforms now being far more practical, as well as the sashes matching each Tracy brother’s respective vehicle rather than being… random. (Why was John’s pink!?)

Even the brothers themselves are fairly close to their original counter parts. Scott being the most heroic and foot first, Virgil being more cautious and secure, Alan being the youngest and inexperienced, Gordon being the jokester and John… now being a paternal operation runner, compared to his very bland original self. Some changes are just made for the best.

The opener is general is very fast paced, and focuses on everyone, as well as giving every vehicle a chance to shine. The original show often felt dominated by TB1 and TB2, whereas now, every vehicle is given some love, and a chance to be showcased. Even other cast members, like Lady Penelope, Parker, Grandma Tracy, and unoffical Tracy sibling Kayo, a chance to shine, as well as constant reminders of Jeff Tracy being dead. Oops.

Overall, Ring of Fire is a very exciting, involved opener to the show, and one which gives me high hopes for the rest of the series.

9/10

Random Thoughts:

*The opening rescue, as well as Thunderbird 2’s reveal was very well handled, and very quick to establish what the heart of the show is.

*Stingray getting a cameo, the marine lab looking like a Space:1999 Eagle, an Aston Martin DB5 parked behind FAB 1, and even rumblings of some kind of Captain Scarlet reference? Tape pausers will be rewarded.

*The Hood stepped out of the shadows with a long range shot, rather than close range was a bit of an odd choice.

*I very much look forward to the newest Thunderbird being used in a future episode, and see what kind of function it will have.

Tales From The Borderlands: Ep 2 (Spoiler Free-ish) Review

In a TV season, one that lasts 13 or 22 episodes, a general pattern emerges. The first episode is often quite fast paced, quickly introducing most, if not all of the cast of characters who will be the mainstays of the show and have their own character arcs. The first half of the show will often see “filler” episodes, some which use basic stock plots, but would use the time to expand and develop their characters. A mid-season episode will often show a big gamechanger, or a revelation, or perhaps even a big character death. And the finale will often be big, with lot’s going on it, with the few episodes preceeding to lead up to the finale.

Now, obviously, such a pattern will always have exceptions, and even shows that do follow such a pattern, will probably have the odd exception in doing so. However, in my mind, alot of the recent Telltale offerings have followed this, with one major exception.  Instead of having over a dozen episodes, they would often only have 5. Both seasons of The Walking Dead, and The Wolf Among Us followed a similar pattern, and maybe even Game of Thrones, which I havn’t play, due to not watching Games of Thrones. Yes, I know, boo at me all you want.

It’s the main reason why I don’t attach scores to these episode reviews is because, well, it’s pointless. Mainly because in a 5 episode season, which tend to often be self contained, and have to wrap up almost all loose ends, unlike a regular show, it means each episode is expected to be as big, loud and audacious as the last. But that’s not how it works with Telltale, where there 2nd and 4th episodes tend to focus more on character development, as well as general plot developments, while episodes 3 and 5 will showcase the bigger set pieces, as well as any big twists, or revelations, or even deaths.

Speaking of deaths, can I talk about how refreshing it is to play a Telltale game where few, if anyone dies in an episode? While the Walking Dead felt like it had to constantly kill characrters to keep it’s pace up, it’s nice to play a game where it doesn’t feel like that everybody you meet is one step from ascending to heaven. I also love the humour of this series, as well as a plot which doesn’t have to have constant revelations, or constant deaths, or constant twists to keep things interesting.

We get to see more character development between Vaughn and Rhys, as their friendship strengthens as the hardships keep increasing. We see Fiona and Sasha dealing with the fallout of last episode’s twist, and in a very good way. Sasha seems like a far more solid character, than how she kept fluctuating in episode 1, as well as what seemed like a sudden twist, actually looks like to be a very vital part of the plot, especially concerning who our main villian will be, still yet to be met, but one who ever our current antagonists seem to be fearful of.

There are a couple of niggling problems. Athena is introduced into the plot, and unlike other existing Borderlands characters, isn’t a mere cameo. However, the way she is introduced, and is in the next time trailer, until it’s revealed, her plot presence could be a rather distracting sub-plot into a great narrative. Likewise, while Rhys is introduced to a very pivotal character, his other sidekick, Yvette, barely does anything in this episode again, so hopefully at some point she is actually made more revelant to the proceedings.

Overall, episode 2 is progressing very nicely, and is looking more and more likely to be a great Telltale standout, as well as be an essential game for anyone invested in the Borderlands universe.

Tales From The Borderlands: Episode One (Spoiler Free) Review

With Episode Two of Tales From The Borderlands coming out in less than a day, I thought I would give a quick, short, spoiler free review for the first episode of the season, Zero Sum.

Tales From The Borderlands is another title in a long line of Telltale’s episode game series, so much so that the company was happy to announce that the second episode, Atlas Mugged, would be the 100th episode released by Telltale over a decade of it’s releases.

And after Telltale’s success with the grim and dark Walking Dead series, as well as continuing that adult drama theme with The Wolf Among Us, and still running Game of Thrones series, it’s a welcome break for Telltale to return to their routes of far more comedic titles, such as Sam and Max, and Strong Bad.

Tales From The Borderlands is an interesting title, in that it serves as a spin-off from a still very much running game franchise, one that will see Borderlands 2 and The Pre-Sequel being re-released on next gen consoles next week, as well as the release of the Claptastic Voyage, The Pre-Sequel’s final DLC.

Tales is smart to embrace it’s spin-off status as well, with the main Borderlands games being often huge, expansive games, starring death defying Vault Hunters, often up against villians who weird tons of power, with the fate of the planet (or in the case of The Pre-Sequel, moon) at stake.

Tales, on the other hand, casts you as two non-Vault Hunters: Rhys, a Hyperion employee who’s story begins after his chance at a promotion is dashed, embarks on an adventure to Pandora so he can gain power and influence, and Fiona, a drifter and con artist, who’s after a big score, get’s tangled up in Rhys’s plot. Rhys and Fiona are both average people, even with Rhys’s cybernetic enhancements, who have to survive in a harsh world, rather than thrive in it like a Vault Hunter would. Their plots don’t have the fate of the world at stake, and feel far more like they are in the Borderlands universe, rather than starring in it.

The episode for the most part does a very good job at introducing the two playable characters, as well as the supporting cast, who will probably serve as recurring characters in the upcoming episodes. Likewise, several Borderlands characters return, all very well written, including the name dropped Zer0 getting several great moments, even if he isn’t in it as much as the title may hint towards.

I only had a few problems with the episode. Alot of the plot is dedicated to Rhys and his sidekick, Vaughn, having to adjust to the far more violent world of Pandora, and while some of it is funny, it does feel very cliche, especially with Fiona and her respective sidekick, Sasha constantly ribbing them for it. Likewise, Sasha is very unlikable. She comes across as having a massive chip on her shoulder, and while it’s clear she is meant to be more likable by the end of the episode, I found her very annoying. There’s also a bit of a twist at the end of the episode, that doesn’t feel earned, and just feels cheap.

Overall, Tales is a very promising start to the series, and here’s hoping episode 2, Atlas Mugged, will continue the trend. Stay turned for part 2 reviewed.

Evolve: Big Alpha First Impressions

Evolve’s Big Alpha event, was basically a limited free weekend, which show cased the game’s hyped game mode, Hunt, which see’s 4 human monster hunters, having to track down and eliminiate a monster, before it could “evolve” into a stronger, and more deadly form. I got to play the Big Alpha for several hours, and here are my general thoughts on the game, from what we know.

Evolve takes place on the planet Shear, sometime in the distant future, where humanity has begun to colonise the stars. Shear however, is not a very hospitible planet, with much wildlife around, from animals that can shock you, to monkeys called “Reavers” that look like monkeys, travel in packs and like to kill people, to large lake sunken monsters that can swallow you whole, to even carniveous plant life.

For some bizarre reason, humanity has decided to colonise Shear. However, despite all those deadly creatures, they are not the worst. Sometimes, rare monsters are sighted, big enough to wreck nearby facilities of humanity, and thus, a corporation sends in 4 hunters, with various skills, to go into the territory, and hunt the monster, before it can endanger nearby colonies.

Evolve’s advertised game mode (and the only one we are currently aware of so far), aptly called Hunt, is pretty simple. The monster gets a head start, to try and run away from the aproaching hunters, while trying to kill and eat wildlife, so it can fill the evolve meter, as well as gain some armor. The monster can evolve twice, making it’s abilities stronger, it’s health bar larger, and making it an even bigger menace to the hunters.

The objective is simple, the monster must kill all the hunters, or the hunters must kill the monster. However, if the monster evolve’s to the 3rd and final stage, an optional objective is presented, a relay on the map. If the monster destroys it, he will win the game, thereby forcing the hunters to go and defend it, and force a final confontation.

To help confront such a powerful monster, as well as to help track it, and take it down, the hunters themselves are comprised of 4 classes: the Medic, the Trapper, the Support, and the Assault.

The medic class has two main purposes, the first and most obvious, to keep the team up and going during and after an encounter with the monster. Val has the ability to use the TF2’s Medic’s healing beam, and fully restore a teammate’s health. Likewise, she can even heal an incapitated teammate back to life, without having to pick them up directly. She also gets 2 rifles, neither of which can do any direct damage, but can create weak spots on the monster, or the tranq rifle, which actually highlights the monster, and slows it down for several seconds.

Consequently, while Val serves as a somewhat front line medic, Lazarus is the opposite. He cannot heal people, but he can revive them, even from the dead, and can also bypass the incap penalties. With his personnal cloak, as well as a fast firing rifle which creates alot more weak spots, but don’t do as much damage, Lazarus is the team member who should avoid the monster at all costs, and when the monster kills and leaves, Lazarus can clean up his mess. However, while this may see people accuse him of being overpowered, he really isn’t. Since he can’t directly heal people like Val, with Lazarus in a game, it creates a self-fulfilling prophecy where people tend to go down more often since their health won’t be topped off.

The medics shared ability is the health burst, which… is pretty damn useless. The health burst is ridiculously pointless with Val, since she can heal everyone around her directly and quickly anyway, she’ll only need to use the health burst if she has lost some of her own health. Likewise, while Laz will be more likely to use it, the radius of it is so small, and gives out so little health, it feels like pissing in the wind. I get why it isn’t more powerful, since in the midst of a battle, if the medic had a button that could restore everything to pristine condition, then it would definetly be OP. However, in it’s current state, it’s something you’re just likely the forget about. My own suggestion would be to change it so it only benefits the medic in question, but restores something like 50% health, with perhaps a longer cooldown rate.

The Trapper class is definetly the most important class in the game, at least in the beginning stages, and arguably, a bad Trapper is far worse than a bad Medic, Support or Assault can do. The Trapper has 2 important jobs, he is meant to be the one in charge of finding the monster, and when the monster is found, his job is to restrict the monster, so it does not get away, to force a confrontation, and when the fight is underway, uses his abilities to restrict the monster’s movements.

Maggie helps find the monster by bringing her pet alien dog with her, a Trapjaw called Daisy. Daisy will sniff out the monster, as well as indicate if she believes the monster is nearby. Daisy can also revive people, and even counts as a 5th hunter, since the game will not end if all 4 hunters are down, but Daisy is still up, as well as the fact that Daisy can go down too, can be healed, resurrected, and will appear in the drop ship after death. Maggie also can lay down harpoon traps, which if the monster get’s near, will tether him, and until he claws the tether away, means that the hunters can fire on him for longer.

Opposite to Daisy is Griffin, who has a far more hands on approach. Instead of bring Daisy, he brings sound spikes, which he can deploy all over the map, which have a 50 metre radius. If the monster goes within the 50 metre radius, an icon will appear showing his location. Sound spikes can be destroyed however, but being able to deploy 5 (which is a golden number, harpoon traps, sentries, mines etc all have a limit of 5), means that Griffin can cover over half the map, and means that the monster can have trouble manouvering. Likewise, instead of harpoon traps, Griffin brings an old fashioned Moby Dick harpoon gun with him. If he fires it at the monster, it almost makes the monster dead in it’s track, but the tether can be destroyed.

The 2 Trappers share the ability to project a dome over a large radius, so when the monster is nearby, forcing the dome down will force the fight, especially since it lasts 1 minute.  However, the dome will be disabled if the Trapper is downed, and if the Trapper misses the dome, and the monster get’s away, it takes another full minute for the dome ability to recharge. Both trappers also get a gun each, an SMG and an assault rifle, but to tell the truth, both guns looks, and feel, and handle so similarly, I have no idea what the difference is. The weapon isn’t that powerful, compared to Support’s and Assault’s arsenals, but does mean the Trapper can lend a 3rd gun into the monster.

The Support class is probably the game’s least defined class. Equipped with 2 strong weapons, but with a tool which helps the team in some way, as well as the class ability being a cloak, which within a radius other hunters will be cloaked as well, the Support has the most wiggle room so that he can define himself to whatever the situation calls for.

Hank has a very powerful weapon of a laser cutter, a machine gun which fires lasers, basically, and deals a ton of damage. He can also call in an orbital strike barrage from space, which again, can devastate the monster if he manages to hit it on the monster at the right moment. His team ability is that he can project a shield onto another hunter, rather like Val’s medigun. It’s pretty damn useful ability, helping shield hunters from damage from the monster, even if it doesn’t last long. It’s also extremely useful with Lazarus on your team, since he can’t heal people, but Hank can help protect them in the middle of the fight.

On the flip side, there is Bucket, a robot, but despite not being human, still functions like all the other hunters. He get’s a guided rocket launcher, attached to his hand, as you do, and also is able to deploy sentry turrets, letting him be quite defensive as well. His team ability is the UAV, where he rips his own head off, and his flies across the map, where he can tag the monster if he finds it. The downside being that his body is left unattended. The UAV is a very useful ability, although one that n00bs often have the problem of using too frequently, and having their bodies destroyed when they were too busy tracking. Like Hank playing a sort of medic role, Bucket’s UAV let’s him serve as a kindof secondary Trapper.

Finally there is the Assault class. He is there to kill the monster. And that, for all intents and purposes, is the single role Assault plays. He gets a short range weapon, a flamethrower for Hyde and an assault rifle for Markov, a long range weapon, being a minigun for Hyde and a lightning gun for Markov, as well as a deployable, being a gas grenade for Hyde, and mines for Markov. They also share the ability to deploy a personnal shield for a short time, meaning they can make themselves invulnerable while they pound the monster.

You could argue that the Assault class is perhaps a selfish class, designed with no abilities to assist the team. But really, the fact that he is a pure powerhouse helps the team plenty. If the other 3 hunters serve their roles, the Trapper restricting the monster, the Medic keeping people alive, and Support adapting to the situation, the Assault is at his peak, where he can devastate the monster with his weaponary. And remember, the monster can’t regenerate health, he can only do it via evolving, and even then, he can’t regenerate a huge amount. Every chunk of the monster’s health bar that is erased before the monster can escape, equals a bigger advantage for the hunters in the next fight. The Assault may not help the team, but while he won’t be able to find the monster, or keep his teammates alive, you can depend on him to finish the fight.

I wasn’t able to play much of the monster myself, since I vastly prefer the 1st person co-op, rather than 3rd person monster frolics. However, both monsters work like this: each monster has 4 abilities they can use, and at stage 1, have 3 monster points, which they can sink into each ability up to 3 times, the 1st point just unlocking the ability to use. When they reach stage 2, they’ll have 6 points, and at stage 3, 9 points to use, as well as upgrading their health bar, and giving them some lost health back.

It’s important to have at least 2 abilities unlocked at hte start of the game, since abilities have cooldown rates. At stage 1 the monster should not fight, and while it is possible the monster can win the fight at stage 1, he does have the disadvantage. At stage 2, fighting the hunters is more viable, and at stage 3, he has the upper hand. I can’t really say much else about it, but Goliath is very fun to play, a kind of King Kong style monster, who likes to jump and charge all about the place. However, while I never got to play the Kraken, I did have the misfortune of fighting him, and… jesus, it was not fun.

I think me and other players consider the Kraken to be the only unbalanced element in Evolve. He has so many ranged abilities, which cause a ton of knockback, even at stage 1, he is just not fun atall to fight. It seems as long as you unlock 3 abilities at stage 1, you can cause so much damage, causing so much knockback means you can barely fire onto him, and means that when you’re flung back 20 metres, he can kill your teammates before you can cover them. I think the Kraken is the only element in Evolve that does indeed need some kind of nerf in my own opinion.

However, overall, I believe Evolve is great fun, and while we still don’t know alot about the final product, who the last 4 hunters are, what the 3rd monster is like, what the 4th pre-order DLC monster is like, how much variety the other 9 maps bring to the game, what other game modes there are, and even the rumblings of there being some kind of single player component. However, if it reachs the heists the Big Alpha has shown us, I believe Evolve is worth pre-ordering. Just 3 months left.

Telltale’s The Walking Dead: Season Two Review, Spoiler Free

With the season finale out now, and having played through the entire season, I thought I would give a brief, spoiler free review of Telltale’s season season of TWD. And while in the end, I do think it does not fully live up to the first season, I do believe it is still very much playing.

After the events of the first season, and the prologue of the second season, Clementine finds herself alone. A young girl, stuck in a horrifying zombie apocalypse, she is forced into an uneasy alliance with another group, one who has made an enemy with a a very bad man, and where the body count rises and rises.

Using a point and click method, TWD doesn’t really break any new ground gameplay wise, having it’s foot first into character interactions, with minimum emphasis on exploration or problem solving. The season, like the last, contains as much violence, and despair as last time, perhaps even more so, the first episode especially having several gruesome, gory scenes, as if to hammer in the fact that things are not going to get any better.

Unlike the first season, the second does feel a little more serialised, while the first often went off in different directions, and never really felt like it had that much direction, as people tried to get settled in a new apocalyptic setting. Season 2 takes place over a year since season 1, and as such, the plot seem’s somewhat more tighter and focused. However, it does falter, the final episode in particular feels bizarrely aimless, and a major event in the 3rd episode feels bizarrely premature, making a major story strand end far too early in my view. Likewise, characters this season die by the dozen, and while a rotating character roster in the first season was somewhat problematic, especially in the 4th episode, here it feels almost ridiculous, and it’s harder to get attached to a cast which feel far more disposable.

Overall, while season 2 is very much worth playing, you need to play season 1 to appreciate it, and ultimately, season 1 is the superior entry. Plus, don’t expect much pay off from the 400 Days DLC of season 1, it doesn’t add up to much unfortunately.

Still, however, The Wolf Among Us was excellent, and with Tales of the Borderlands imminent, Telltale still has a strong and impressive streak going.

The Wolf Among Us: Final Review, Spoiler Free

It’s been 9 months since the release of the 1st episode of The Wolf Among Us, incredibly enough, and with the simulatenous running of the second season of The Walking Dead, it seems that Telltale has had much trouble keeping up with their own deadlines, with the two games running. However, Wolf has finally concluded, with Dead’s 4th episode due out at the end of the month, and hopefully the 5th episode in August. And as soon as Dead’s concluded, Tales From The Borderlands is meant to be due out this year, and could be as early as September.

I don’t wish to harp on this point, but Telltale’s handling of the release schedule is still disappointing. Despite the quality of both series, the fact that they ended up on sale at -66% off for Wolf, and Dead at -50% before they had even finished, does highlight how long it’s taken for them to progress, and as a guy who pre-ordered Dead especially, it’s hard for me not to feel mildly annoyed by it, and makes me wonder if pre-ordering was worth it. With no other Telltale game nearby aside from Tales now, here’s hoping Tales will benefit from a more tight and regular schedule. However, as I can tell you now though, The Wolf Among Us, now as a finished product, is a fantastic experience, and one that matches up with Telltale’s success with the first season of The Walking Dead.

The Wolf Among Us is based on a comic book series called Fables. The basic premise of the game, and the series, is that there are two worlds, our Earth, being normal and boring, and the world of the Fables, where all the characters of various fairy tales, myths, storybooks and the like live. However, the Fables are all forced out of their world, and into ours, when a great evil conquers their world. So, the Fables now have to adapt to the Earth, live alongside Human “Mundies”, use magic to look like Humans to avoid suspicion, and that most of the Fables have created their own community inside of New York City, where poverty and hardship is strife, with everyone still getting used to their brave new world.

In this world, you play as Bigby Wolf, aka, the Big Bad Wolf, a villian of the old Fable world, now serving as the community’s sheriff, where many still despise you and mistrust you for your past transgressions. The game serves as a prequel of the comic series, set in a 1980’s, neon coloured noir style adventure. Having not read the comic series, I think the prequel setting helps newcomers to this franchise, and that it means the plot does mean it lends itself to helping ease players into the game’s fantasy world.

The plot is that when a Fable is found murdered, it begins to unloosen the community, as Bigby Wolf tries to figure out the murderer, but as he does so, realises how corrupt the community is, and how utterly broken everyone is, desperately trying to fit into this world. The game is very much serialised, unlike Dead’s 1st season, where episodes often could be semi-self contained, Wolf is always moving forward with it’s big plot. That is not to say however, that there are not sub-plots. You encounter a good couple dozen characters in your quest, almost all of them, even in brief appearances, having thought out characterisations, and nobody ever comes out without having a clear motivation in the plot.

I don’t wish to spoil any of the plot, but having finished it, I will say that the ending is absolutely pitch perfect, and that almost no threads were left untouched by the end. I was worried the game would end on a big cliffhanger, but that doesn’t happen, but does leave a few pieces of mystery left, and enough wiggle room for a 2nd season, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes a Telltale franchise, like Dead is becoming.

There are a couple of issues. Pacing can be a bit bothersome, especially effecting the episodic structure. The 2nd and 4th episodes do suffer from table setting issues, where the plot plot elements become more clearer, and a few minor reveals, in preperation for the far bigger events that happen in the 3rd and 5th episodes. The 5th episode especially I think does have pacing issues, with the climatic scene dragging on far too long I feel, but again, the ending is absolutely worth it.

A more minor issue as well is the game’s engine, in that there are occasional hiccups, sometimes characters mouths fail to sync with their dialogue, some backgrounds in the game clearly have no real depth to them, and on console versions especially, stuttering frame rates can apparently be very troublesome. I had few of these issues myself, but I do hope Telltale is able to fix and hopefully one day, get a newer engine for these games. These issues have been around since Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, and I really hope that Telltale can FINALLY sort them out.

So, ultimately, is Wolf worth getting? Yes, yes and yes. It is every bit as good as The Walking Dead, and while it does come with it’s own niggling problems, it is one of the best narrative games out there.

Octodad: Dadliest Catch Review

With the Steam sale in full swing, naturally me and millions of other gamers, will make the most of the various deals of different genres of games within the Steam store being sold. So, as I will probably empty my wallet because of this event, here’s a quick review of the hilarious indie title: Octodad: Dadliest Catch.

In Octodad, you play as an Octopus, impersonating himself as a human dad. Rather self-explanatory title. In the game, you can’t move around normally, like any other third or first person game. Since you have tentacles instead of limbs, you have to move your “legs” one at a time, as well as your “arms” seperately. The game tasks you with rather dull tasks, such as getting items in a supermarket, mowing the backgarden, or putting burgers onto a barbeque. However, because your limbs are just so hard to move, as you have a habit of your body flinging itself around the place, knocking over everything in your path in your vain attempts to control your Octopus.

“WEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

In essence, the game is a 3 hour long slapstick adventure. That’s not to say however that it’s the only humour involved. The voice acting is surprisingly well done, with the long running gag of everyone not seeing through your disguise, to your kid’s often insane requests and dreams, such as your daughter wanting to become a unicorn when she is older, not to mention a Supermarket PA who often makes mistakes on the job, to the marine biologists who constantly pick apart the plot of the game.

However, the game has this real kind of Disney-esque humour and heart towards itself, Octodad truly loves his family, and his family loves him back, to his wife and himself actually having a real relationship, even if it is often consciously satarical of suburban family life. Likewise, even the villian is the mad, pamtomine nutcase simply called “The Chef”, who hunts Octodad because he is the only one who recognises him, and even then, his motivation isn’t really that evil either.

I think his hat may be compensating for something…

 There are a couple of issues with the game, somethings you’re forced to go through vents to proceed, which can be very cumbersome, trying to shove all your tentacles into a tight space. Also, the game features marine biologists later on in the game, where if they spot you, they’ll recognise you immedietly, but then later on, suddenly they’re fooled by your disguise. Also, the game can be completed in just 3 hours, maybe 2 if you’re very efficient about it.

However, with it being on sale, and hopefully will return in a flash sale, which is how I got my copy of it, I whole heartily this, due to it’s hilarity, it’s heart, and just the sheer happiness this game just emulates onto one’s self.

The Wolf Among Us: Episode 4: In Sheep’s Clothing spoiler free review

In many respects, The Walking Dead is what made Telltale Games. Now sure, The Walking Dead was not Telltale’s first franchise, and neither were Telltale an unheard company. Three seasons of Sam and Max, Tales of Monkey Island, and Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People were all notable titles. Likewise, The Walking Dead wasn’t the first massive licenced game they had obtained, with 4 Law & Order titles, Back to the Future, and the awful mess that Jurrasic Park. So when The Walking Dead did come in, break new ground for the company, gain a far bigger audience, sales figures, and countless Game of the Year awards in 2012, with high hopes for season 2, (which 3 episodes in, does still contain that possiblity for GOTY greatness.) So, naturally there are some high expectations for The Wolf Among Us, not to mention many similarities between it and TWD. It’s based directly on a comic book series property, it’s an 18 rated drama, with language, violence and sex, all that fun stuff, split across 5 episodes, with the promise of an engaging storyline, with many morally grey decisions. And so with such a high pedigree to live up, 4 episodes in, does it?

There’s alot more unsettling bared body parts in this episode

Well, if you had asked me after episode 3, I would of definetly said yes. But after episode 4, now I am not so sure. But thinking on it, it’s clear that The Wolf Among Us does have a similar structure to The Walking Dead’s 1st season. Did you know for TWD, season 1, 1 writer wrote episodes 1, 3 and 5, and another 2 wrote episodes 2 and 4? Considering how consistent the writing is, it’s perhaps a bit surprising. But, the structure of the season seems to show that. 1, 3 and 5 moved the plot, upped the stakes, and constantly had the most memorable moments, whereas 2 and 4, while having important things happen in them, certainly felt more seperate from the overall story, with episode 2 concerning the farm house, while the 4th concerned Crawford. However, due to The Wolf Among Us’s absolutely serial nature, there can be no “seperate” episodes taking a break from the overall plot, so while 1 and 3 move the story, and up the stakes, 2 and 4 are there merely to move the chess pieces, ready for the next reveal and plot set-up. Episode 1 is when the murder takes place, which starts the investigation, while episode 2 slowly unveils the aftermath of such an event taking place within the Fables world. Likewise, episode 3 had several reveals, and a couple of very harsh choices to make, while episode 4 is dedicated to how just far entrenched that reveal really is, and how deep it sews itself into the Fable world.

And that really does sum up the 4th episode. You go from conversation and location, to find out just how deep and evil the problem is. No major decisions exist within this episode, and while the beginning of it does have you dealing with the utter aftermath of that ending in episode 3, nothing major really happens until the final cutscene and teaser for the finale. Hell, perhaps the most infurating thing about this episode is the fact that of the two major decisions in episode 3 (you know which ones), one is literally NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN. I mean, wow, it was so harsh, and brutal, and it clearly effected a character in a massive way. And that character is never seen or heard from again? That’s a missed opportunity, and I hope the aftermath of that decision gets some mention in the finale. The other massive decision is only brought up a couple of times, and in the context of the episode, it’s fine, especially since episode 5 will undoubtably go into it. Still though, episode 3 brought up the tension so high, taking it higher and higher, up to a near fevel pitch, and episode 4 never really has that much atmosphere to it.

What every episode does deliver though, is making everyone more and more unlikable

If anything, the big question that concerns me more than anything that episode 4 constantly adresses is, how can this end? The Walking Dead had the advantage of being to kill of it’s characters anytime, anywhere, and almost always justified it, and I will personally be amazed if more than 4 characters are able to live through by season 2’s finale. However, Wolf isn’t a horror game, and also a prequel, and doesn’t have that luxury of just blowing everyone away and their respective plot strands. With no news on whether or not Wolf will receive a 2nd season, it does begger the question of how this can conclude, and I worry that the season may end on a massive cliffhanger are looking more and more likely.

When the finale comes out, in hopefully July, I plan to talk about the series in full spoilers, and how it compares to the other massive Telltale franchise. Still though, despite it treading a bit this episode, Wolf is still very much worth getting, and I think you won’t regret it, if perhaps we end up not being fully satisfied by it.

Random Thoughts on Titanfall

Just posting some thoughts I have on Titanfall, playing it on the PC. Currently having alot of fun with it, and aside from use of Origin, and a couple gripes, while I’ll get too, I havn’t had so much fun in a multiplayer game in a very long time.

 

Playing Battlefield 3 (for £15, 3 months ago, argh), as well as Call of Duty 4, while I did enjoy both their multiplayer’s, I felt they were both inheritently flawed, not to mention reading that BF4 and CoD’s countless sequels (seriously, you guys see the trailer for Advanced Warfare? Best selling franchise in the world and the graphics look ancient), to see a new IP drop in and actually make an effort to change things up for multiplayer titles, and in my view, succeed, I think it’s worth talking about. A review said that this was a damn good game, but it was just Call of Duty with mechs. Y’see, I actually agree with that. Except, it changes every single thing I found wrong with CoD and changed it for the better, and not just the obvious things like grenade spamming, barely walking 5 feet without dying, 12 years old calling me a gay slur.

First of all, there is the tutorial. I said this online with you guys, but my god, does the tutorial work. BF3 I struggled with for several hours since it seemed so blatantly unclear what I was meant to do, and how I was meant to assist my squad. In this, the tutorial last about 15-20 minutes, explains everything you need to know, how to use it, and for a PC port, actually has a sensible control set-up. The only thing I ended up rebinding was my melee to my middle mouse button, and that was that. Shift for sprint, Ctrl for crouch, E for “use”, exactly how it should be.

Ever play Mirror’s Edge? That was a game dedicated entirely around parkour. This game nails it, and teaches you how to use, and keeps extremely simply, in less than 5 minutes, something Mirror’s Edge took me over 2 hours to do. It’s astonishing how good it feels. You get double jump, you don’t receive any fall damage, you have unlimited sprint, you can run along walls, and jump easily onto parallel walls, you can wall hang, you can climb into windows and over buildings with much ease, even if you can fumble at it occasionally. Just this alone makes the game feel so good, you feel so fast and nimble, and it also makes combat with other pilots as well fun too, whether it’s trying to avoid their shots, or trying to snipe a gun running between buildings.

The pilots themselves however also come with much goodies to play with aswell aside from running away. They get 3 weapons, which all have some minor customisation options the more kills you get with them, a type of explosive ordnance like grenades or satchel charges, two equipable perks, which can cover things from titan benefits, to the radar, to better parkour, and finally a tactable ability, like turning invisible briefly, or a seeing enemies through walls for a short time.

In short, pilots come with lot’s of options, and lot’s of customisation. You unlock many of the perks and weapons via levelling up, and even then, it’s surprisingly how generous Titanfall is with XP. In a game like Battlefield or CoD, you’re damn well made to work for your levels, wheras Titanfall, I’ve hit 37 out of 50 within roughly 7-8 hours of gameplay. And at the rate I’m going, I think I’ll hit 50 in 1-2 weeks, assuming the XP does get exponential. Likewise, BF3 and CoD, it would take a good 2 months, unless you put in some serious dedication. The game has a challenges features, giving you buckets of XP just for killing X number of minions with Y weapons, X numbers of pilots with Y weapon, X number of headshots with Y weapon, X number of minutes using Y weapon, and there’s usually 5 tiers of a challenge. Often as late as my 20’s, I could level up twice in a single game due to how generous the challenges were, try doing that in BF3.

Likewise, restricting the games to just 6 vs 6 is also a great move. In both CoD and BF3, getting picked off by others is extremely common. BF3 was designed to make teamwork essential, and even then, expect many times to get gunned down before even looking at your attacker. In Titanfall, this can still happen, if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, most of the time now, since everyone is thinly spread out amongst the map, 1 on 1 encounters are the most common. Teamwork can still work, but the sheer freedom and power pilots have, it makes going out by yourself not suicidal, or even risky, but rather fun, carefree and enemy encounters worthwhile. Trying to dodge each other, parkouring around the place, as well as ducking inside buildings, with little risk of other’s interferring, combat often feels fair, winnable, and doesn’t make you feel useless, unlike being sniper for the 20th goddamn time in BF3. Not to mention the game doesn’t even give a toss about ammo conservation, every gun comes with like 10 clips, where even surviving an entire match, it’s almost impossible to use up all your ammo.

To make the maps not empty however with only 12 people, you have minions running about too. Basically, there job is to act as simple AI soldiers, who run about and assist in their own ways. They do very little damage to pilots, but they still carry anti-titan weaponary, and can do serious damage to titans, making titan users always on the lookout. Likewise, if nobody defends an objective, they’ll just go and take it themselves, again, to keep people on their toes. They also look very much like you, and can even be used as cannon fodder. Running among a squad of them while an enemy pilot tries to kill you can confuse them and let you take the advantage.

And finally there are the Titans themselves, and they are an absolute joy to play as. When you start a game, you have a timer for when your Titan is ready to fall from the sky’s, ala, the “Titanfall”, which can be reduced by killing other pilots, doing objectives and general stuff like that. Titans themselves, in many respects, act just pilots do. They have a limited sprint function, they can punch people, they have 2 perks and 2 abilities attached to them, as well as a choosable weapon to equip. The Titan weapons are hilarious btw, like how killed Pilot’s drop their guns, when Titan’s are killed, they drop their weapon. It’s hilarious seeing a 4 foot long assault rifle just lying in the middle of a street.

Titans are not invincible however. They come with a rechargable shield, which even then, merely reduces damage, not stop it, and body armor which cannot be replenished. Most encounters with other Titans will leave you scathed, and often battles with other Titans often are challenging, and require a good mix of time, weapon use, and ability use. Killing another Titan does feel joyous, and being able to punch a Titan while it’s about to blow, and grab the pilot and crush him to death. Likewise, if you’re about to blow, ejecting yourself 200 feet into the air, landing on top of your enemy Titan, and blowing his circuity up with a shotgun, only to jump off the last moment as he blows up, does feel like rather suitable revenge.

Not to mention Pilots can still take on Titans, just not directly. Parkour can be used to dodge their attacks, as well as hiding in buildings and tight alleyways, to get away quickly. Not to mention, all Pilots carry an anti-Titan weapon, which can help inflict good damage on a Titan. Using this while a friendly Titan fires on it, it can be a well timed assist, or even the finishing blow required.

Maps themselves are very well thought out too. While there are a couple of weak ones (*cough* Training Ground *cough*), maps look utterly gorgeous. It really does feel next gen, as well as the slick Titan animations as you clambour inside of one show. Seeing 100 foot aliens wander around outside a twilight inflicted moon look stunning, and I have impressive performance, for a card that isn’t that high spec. Never had any issues with FPS drop what so ever. Even Origin for the most part behaved, aside from a couple times of losing connection randomly.

The only major issues the game has are a truly lame campaign. While it’s good they didn’t do a half-assed BF3 of shoving a terrible campaign in, just to add a bullet point to the back of the box, Titanfall’s campaign consists of just 9 multiplayer maps with some truly terrible voice acting over the battle, telling a rehashed story of Red Faction essentially. It’s alright, and it’s a good start for new beginners since it gives you a good variety of what’s in the game.

The other is lack of game play modes. Basically, the 4 modes are Team Deathmatch, “No Respawns” Team Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, and Control Points. While they are all functional, and simple enough to let the inventive gameplay do it’s work, here’s hoping more creative modes come in later DLC.

Otherwise, while perhaps not for full price, I do think Titanfall is an awesome game, and something that really suits me to the ground far more than Battlefield and Call of Duty ever did for me.