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Over the past week or so, I've been playing some planetside 2 on the PS4. It's a free to play shooter, and I have to say, it's been fun playing. When you start out, you limited to playing in a single starter area to give you a chance to learn the ropes. Having said that, the tutorial aspect of the game is somewhat limited, so you're best off going to watch a basic tutorial primer http://www.lifestreamgaming.com/planetside-2-ps4-basic-beginner-guide/ like that one. The game is certainly scratching at my battlefield itch, and while there is a paid subscription you can opt into, I've not really felt any pressure from the game to do this. For the paid membership, you get a xp boost and you get credits to spend on either you equipment upgrades (you can upgrade everything with the free in game currency too), or buy decals and armour colour schemes (you cannot buy these with the free currency). I've been told that the game is a lot more like MAG, although I've never played that, so I can't comment. Either way, for free, it's a really solid shooter and good fun once you've made yourself familiar with the game and controls. check it out

I picked this up at the weekend. It's good fun, especially if you have OCD for making things in video games. It's really great in co-op too, 2 player local, and 4 player drop-in drop-out online. here's a link to a video that explains the game. http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/17/5518468/nom-nom-galaxy-overview-video

I have been playing this for the last few days and it excellent. The levels are semi-open with different paths you can take and hidden areas with collectables. Strider also has multiple difficulty settings that adds replay value to the game. The visuals are great and Double Heilx also included scanlines which was a nice touch. The gameplay is flawless and just makes you feel like a badass. You can unlock new moves by defeating bosses. Double Helix did not stray too far for the original source material and the bosses from the original game are back and tweaked for the modern era of gaming. Out of all the games I own on Xbox One Strider will most likely be a permanent fixture on my HDD. This is how remakes should be done in my opinion. Too bad Double Heilx is now apart of Amazon, they would have been a great fit as an internal Capcom or Microsoft studio.

Anyone else been playing this? I was a massive fan of the first game, had an absolute ton of fun with it, incredibly addictive, visceral and with a bloody incredible soundtrack. The 2nd game I'm not having quite as much fun with...it seems a bit more stop-start than the first game where you could just get in the groove and be at it for hours, they've also tried to do a lot more story stuff in the 2nd one so there's a load of dialogue this time around, and loads of skippable cutscenes. The music is just as good as the first game, but the level design doesn't feel anywhere near as good to me, the first games levels just felt so tight and well designed around the games controls, but it feels in the HM2 that the levels have been chopped and changed to fit the narrative rather than the other way round, it is still decent though and after the initial hour and a half of frustration and bewilderment I am having a lot of fun with it now. I'm about 5 hours in, so probably not got too much longer to go, definitely feel the difficulty ramping up at the moment.

Yep, that big new release everyone is talking about It's a motorbike game, which will probably be news to some of you, and it's by the people that do the MotoGP games. I can't tell a huge amount of difference between the 2 but then I'm not really an expert. It's kind of focused on buying bikes. You earn credits for winning, and you can upgrade your bike, but you'll be locked out of certain classes until you buy more. Other than that it's fairly open, if you can afford a superbike then there's nothing stopping you buying one and playing those events. The one bit of structure is the world ranking, a ladder to climb by finishing races. The ultimate aim is to get to rank 1, but along the way you'll hit certain milestones that will open up Elite races. These will reward you with a new bike, although usually you have to buy a bike to enter them, which you then spend money improving, meaning you never touch the new bike you won Here's a video I done. The mic is a bit blown out because it was recorded by the capture kit directly when it shouldn't have been

I'm still not sure of my overall thoughts on this game so I apologise in advance if I ramble. I suppose I've not played it a whole lot still as The Hunters. You have four people, each with a role: you have Assault, he's your gun guy who's only job is to shoot the monster and does the most damage and he can lay mines. Most of my time playing as Hunters has been with this class (I did play once as a Trapper but didn't have a clue what I was doing). You also have Support and Medic classes (I've not even tried them yet). You don't really pick your role, it's assigned to you and then you have to be that role. At this point a lot of people don't know what they're doing (I count myself in that group) so sometimes being on the Hunters team can be a really frustrating thing. Until the game has been out for a while and the community figure out how to play all the roles well then it will be more fun to fumble around with people you can communicate with. At least then you won't feel as bad when you do something dopey. But playing as The Monster is the solo experience, and because of that is more fun moment to moment. Like I feel like tracking the Monster as Hunters isn't that fun, especially when you're still not 100% sure what you're looking for, which I think a lot of people are like now. But as The Monster it's simpler: you keep a low profile for a bit and eat wildlife so you can the evolve into a stronger version and that is more engaging during the downtime, rather than wandering around looking for signs to where The Monster is. But I've been enjoying that side of it a lot. There was one game where a trapper must have got a glimpse of me and set down the barrier. The barrier is a large, well, barrier, that comes down and imprisons you with The Hunters which makes escape very hard, but I did manage it once, and it was tense stuff. I was still at the earliest stage of evolution so didn't want to take them on but I realised they didn't know exactly where I was. The barrier is quite big so when it came down the edges were right in front of me so I knew I maybe had a few seconds to hide and by keeping an eye on them (or a nose, the smell mechanic basically puts a yellow or red outline around people so you can see them through walls) I managed to stay out of sight the whole time, just moving a little out of view, and snuck out when the barrier timed out. Sometimes the combat as a Monster isn't always that satisfying. It's a bit unwieldy and I'm sometimes not sure if I'm hitting someone but the range attacks mostly work well unless you get caught on something. You do have to be aware of whats around you and being a big, ugly shit that can be hard to do sometimes. So, bottom line is it's sometimes really fun but relies too much on certain situations for fun to happen, like it's a game that has to be played to certain rules. I'd say the rules are a bit too specific, though. That could change as the classes expand but they made the, frankly, stupid decision to lock other characters and monsters behind a progress system, because that's what all multiplayer games have to have now. Why they didn't just let you experiment with everything from the get go like they did with Left 4 Dead, God only knows.

Not sure what to say about this, it's trials so it's awesome, it looks nice on next gen. don't really like the tricks so far but you don't have to do trick events much so it's no big thing (and maybe they'll grow on me), and the skill events are incorporated into the career which is cool as it forces me to play them, and some are pretty good, whereas previously i never really played them. looks like the community track editor is back so that's cool, but currently afaik multiplayer is local only and they're patching in online later hopefully. i just rushed through the single player, loads of medals still to get, and each track has 3 optional challenges, which i haven't really looked at yet but it seems like a cool idea. the credits show after the last hard track, then there's some extreme tracks as you'd expect - i did the first but then got really frustrated and failed miserably on the next 2 - *1* i should really go back for some more medals to get back into it before trying these again. there's also some quad bike levels which are alright - it just handles slightly differently. i was slightly worried about using a ps4 controller with trials just because being in control is so important in trials and i'm used to playing it with the 360 pad, and as it's really frustrating at times anyway you really need to feel like it's your fault rather than the equipment - at this point i'm partially blaming the equipment - but hopefully it's just a case of getting used to it and i'll be doing *1* before any more final judgement. i was worried about the triggers but they've been alright, it's the left stick position that's causing me problems, to do a quick hop before some jumps with a quick flick back and forth on the stick, i'm just not able to do it very accurately or often enough when i need to at the moment - it's only really needed on some of the hard/expert tracks. i don't know if this sounds petty but i hate going backwards at something, even if it's better in the long run - see me refusing to use kb+m for most pc games. and who knows if i'd find the x1 version any better because of the looser sticks. i should have probably got the 360 version. edit - i should state again that i really like the ps4 pad, i'm just not used to playing trials with it so currently finding it annoying, if the first 2 games were only on ps3 it'd probably be a different story, don't want to start any pad wars or anything. still, trials is awesome. anyone else get it?

Hello. so this is a on ps4, it's sort of a cross between defender and superstardust and a more normal 2d shooter, if that makes any sense. you fly around a sphere, shooting stuff, the controls are like a twin stick shooter but you can only shoot left/right. you kill specific enemies called keepers (that glow green), it releases a human - you collect the human and deliver them to this pod thing - you don't have to do that it just gets you extra lives and bombs and stuff. sometimes you have to have a certain multiplier to unlock the human, and sometimes you have to kill the keepers in the correct order. i'm not fully sure how the scoring system works but there's a score multiplier that works on chaining enemies to keep/increase the multiplier. there's also bombs, boosting, overdrive (like a special weapon you collect cubes to power), and throwing humans. it's good fun, and it gets really hectic at times. visibility is not great at times. i'm probably going to stick at it, as i don't really have any other single player ps4 games i'm that bothered about playing. it looks nice, especially at the end of each level when everything explodes.

Whats to say? It's pool. I have this on PS4, it costs about £5.50 with a PS+ discount and its pretty kewl. You can play local or online and theres a career mode with unlockables and levelling up as you go along. It's very pretty too.

Just dove into to the start of the game tonight. It’s really good if you like hardcore stealth games like the old Hitman or Thief games. The download is around 6 or 8GB if I remember correctly and the game was developed using Unreal tech and it shows for the most part. The characters are nicely designed, but are slightly on the plastic action figures side of things. Styx animations are very well done. He moves with weight throughout the world and walks like a goblin should. The Humans and elves on the other hand are very stiff and robotic-like when walking. The environments are very well design. I’m not far in the game, but it seems that the humans and the elves have some sort of alliance and Styx has lost most of his memories. The only thing he can remember is that he needs to get to the center of the world tree where amber is made. Styx is pretty puny compare to all the other character’s in the game, so it’s not advised to go into hand to hand combat because you’ll die pretty quickly. In most cases they will kill you in one or two hits. Stealth is mandatory and there are multiple paths to get to your objectives. There is a very well done quick save system in place in case you die. So far it’s a solid old school stealth game.

Anyone else given this a go, it's free on the ps4 shop? It's obtuse, obtuse to the point that my housemate, and ign from what he told me, didn't realise they hadn't died and that the demo wasn't over. It's obtuse enough that there's currently no definitive answer as to how to beat the game. Basically you're walking the hallway of a murder house, a man killed his family in what appears to be a spate of similar killings, getting from one end to the other and repeating the loop. Sometimes it's as easy as just walking, other times there's a puzzle to solve to trigger the door to unlock. One of which is actually really simple once you do it, but took me about half an hour and the internet to solve It's creepy definitely, really horribly effective. Until you get stuck, and then it falls down like all horror games do, once you've seen the worst of something it stops being all that frightening. Being exposed to the same creepy noises for 30 minutes means they become quite a severe annoyance, but a lot less scary. Nicely I think it saves your progress, so I'm done for tonight, probably about halfway through, I'd like to finish it tomorrow but it depends how tedious solving the last puzzle is

Hohokum is one of those video games that gets caught up in the debate of 'oh, but is it a video game' and I really hate that debate... well, I don't hate it, I just don't think it matters. Is it a virtual thing you interact and have fun/dramatic/entetrtaining times with? well, sir/madam, that is a video game. So with that sorted, let me tell you a bit about Hohokum. In Hohokum you are a one eyed snake (lol) and you whizz around this strange world full of colourful characters living their wee lives and you have to help them out. The reason you gotta help them out is because other one eyed snakes are trapped and you have to rescue them, and they're stuck in unexpected places. You have to decipher the world and try and figure out where they are hidden. It's hard to explain the game without namechecking others so that's what I'm going to do. So think: Fez Nobi Nobi Boy Animal Crossing. Fez comes to me because becuase it's a game with no hand holding. You're left to go and explore and you have to figure out the problems yourslef. I wouldn't even say the problems are that hard to solve, but when you have a game so full of stuff (cool stuff, mind) it can be hard find them. In fact I found them by stumbling into them, and only in hindsight do I see why. That takes me to Nobi Nobi Boy. To me, that game was just fun to interact with; it was a game that was fun to see what would happen if you did such and such. A few games do that but it's usually based around violence, but this was cute stuff. Hohokum has that too. As well as that I like how the game feels to play, in the way you move. It has a real nice feeling inertia to it, and I also discovered how to move really quickly in it by fluttering the L and R buttons to snake at high speeds through the level. There is so much nuance to the movement, I love it. And the reason it makes me think of Animal Crossing is that it just has that simple satisfaction fo doing simple things for people. Get wee man to a certain place and a cool thingy will happen; get wine to the peole and such and such will happen. It's just full of simple rewards for trivial stuff, but it's fun because of just how the game feels to play. Obviously, it's one of those games that are hard to decribe, but I tried my best here. I think I'd recomend it to anyone who like at least two of the games I'd mentioned.

I gots to tell you, I really don't like this game. It's really humourless and annoying. The controls are all nice and I've had no issues with the platforming but the script is boring and flat. I just want to smack his stupid face.

The demo is out now. My thoughts are Vancouver did a good job. Not an excellent job, but just good job. Granted this is the first NHL on new-gen consoles. The pre-game show is scare photo realistic. I thought I was watching a game on NBC Sports. But during the game while the visuals are all glossy the character models look last-gen. At start-up you can select Easy (face buttons with Arcade style gameplay), Standard (Skill stick instead of face buttons and simulation gameplay), or custom. Enjoyed the demo, disappointed the EASHL mode will not be in the new-gen version. It would have been nice if EA knocked $10 off the price, but whatever. Will pick this up when I find it on cheaper sale.

This came out of the steam tombola and it comes out on the newer consoles soonish. Normally I wouldn't do a thread for something only I'm going to end up playing, but this deserves it. Did you like Colony Wars and X-Wing Vs Tie Fighter? You'll be wanting a slice of this if you did. SSZ is a space combat game where you're given a set of orders and expected to follow them. You're not a super soldier killing every last thing, you are part of a machine. If you fail to fulfil your orders the whole thing falls apart and can make the rest of the mission harder or even fail it outright. You're going to spend a lot of time dogfighting but there's other orders that mix things up a bit. You're scored on missions, doing well sees you unlocking medals, medals equals unlocks which can be used to pimp out your fighter. Different fighters have different attributes and slots to fill with weaponry. I've not actually unlocked much yet, but I can see that some are clearly better in some regards than the others. Controls are a bit hard to get your head around when you start, but you can pitch, roll and do all sorts of fancy shit that will see you skidding and barrelling through the depths of space. It seems hard at first but before long I was able to do trench runs in my ship on big freighters, taking out defences whilst avoiding crashing into debris that seemingly ends up floating about from all the ships you end up scrapping. Getting hit or smashing into something isn't the end of the world, you have a rechargeable shield that can soak up the damage. If you take a hit that isn't absorbed by shields, you have to deal with the hull damage it inflicts until the mission is over. You can use a limited amount of boost and the games warning system to deploy preventative measures from getting hit even more. It's here the game excels in providing you feedback through visual and audio cues that make sure you're protecting yourself when it matters most. Speaking of cues and feedback, there's a part where you're attacking this big space freighter and it's firing flak cannons into the air around you. The closer you get to it the more interference you get trying to pilot around it, it pixelates your screen like a corrupt MP4 and stimies your ability to pilot as you would normally. Usually I wouldn't like that, but it feels really good here, the ship itself is just an obstruction flying through space otherwise, every time you have to deal with one it feels risky as you swoop in trying to take out a defence to make the next pass safer and easier. Other aids are reticles that you can aim for that react to inertia, speed and angle so that you've some idea of where you should be shooting at far off targets. It's a little feature that goes a long way to making the core concept of the game fun Other stuff I should probably mention. Graphically it looks amazing. Although it's very minimalist it really does look the part. The music is great, it reminds me of the Mass Effect games composition. The voice acting is also above what I was expecting, I like how it's not just Americans, the vocalisation is very varied. It's hard as fuck. I'm playing on easy because of the games reputation and I'm yet to feel truly in control of something because of how fast everything is unfurling. I'm hoping when it eventually drops on the newer consoles it comes with a demo so people can try it out. It might surprise a lot of people. In no way is it a top tier million dollar budget game, but the people responsible have crafted an exceptional game, or at least the SSZ part of it is good, I've no idea if SSI is any different.

This hasn't reviewed well and while I can see why it's not awful, in fact I can see it being a bit of a cult game. Gameplay wise it's not dissimilar to the Witcher games, particularly the first one. You have 2 stances, one is using a heavy weapon like a sword, the other is quicker using knives allowing you to dodge. You've got fire magic too, there's area effect stuff, but the most useful ones have been a fireball, a fire shield, and the very necessary spell that lets your weapons do fire damage. You can fire arrows, which I did a lot early but haven't bothered with since learning they were limited, and plant traps. The traps are limited too, but I actually found them more useful than those of The Witcher. A big reason the game has been reviewing badly is the combat. At its core it's pretty good, the need to time blocks to counter is pretty fun. The problem is that the combat is unforgiving, you can go down very quickly, and too often enemies will surround you, ignoring your ally making the fight unwinnable. Add to that the only way to learn how best to beat an enemy means failing the fight over and over again. As a general rule you'll always need your fire attacks, but taking on a large enemy with your heavy weapon usually means reloading your save. I suspect the issues became apparent during development as the game saves before just about every fight. The script is awful, your character is supposed to be cool and dry, but he just comes across as a hateful arsehole. It's telling that the demon that has possessed you is the nicer character. Your dialogue is at odds with the rest of the characters and the world too. The story itself, and the set ups for the side quests are actually pretty good though, they've done a good job building the world even if it is fairly derivative. I've not finished it yet, but I can't see it being worth the price they're asking on pc let alone the higher ps4 price. It's not without its moments though

I played through this over the weekend and it's out today so I thought I should do a thread. There's a ps4 version but I'm not sure when that's out, I think it's this week but I don't know for sure, and it's probably tied to whenever the store updates I'm going to come out and say it, I don't really like Daylight. I streamed my first attempt at it and it was ok, I got stuck on the floor but it was in beta at that point, but it was sort of creepy. I found some stairs, I didn't really want to go down them because it felt ominous, there was a moment where the witch appeared behind a curtain, but as I approached she disappeared. The problem is all the other stuff, the random bangs, screams and wails, the cabinets toppling over and boxes falling, you learn really quickly that stuff is all toothless. Things got bad enough that I was killed by the witch because I didn't realise I could be, prior to that point there was no reason to run from her so I just stood there and eventually dropped down dead. There were a couple of moments where the horror lands. I talked about it in the review and the video I'm going to stick below, but getting chased through a forest, hearing the witch gaining on me through my rear speakers was great, knowing that when I did stop to pick up a note she was going to be right behind me was effective. I jumped a couple of times when she appeared behind me, the first time was that first time I died, but once you've died she largely just becomes a nuisance, more of a problem because she might rob you of your progress which is the problem with it, if you ignore the bits where it doesn't recognise you're trying to pick up items, open cabinets etc. The maze like areas are procedurally generated, so it's possible you will get unlucky and have a really difficult time finding the notes you need (6 notes reveals the key, the key opens the door to the next area). You'll be running around revisiting rooms you've already been in trying to find what you're missing, eventually you'll be killed and you'll do it again, still not finding whatever you missed. That's not fun, if I didn't have to play it I would have stopped at that point and never turned it back on again. If that does happen to you though you can exit the game and reload, you'll get a different map layout which might make more sense. The story isn't great either. It's familiar ground, which is fine I guess, but because of the way it throws you in with no information everything you find is meaningless. It doesn't help that a lot of it really is meaningless, there's stuff there that seems really important but is just dressing, yet the person you need to be focussing on is referred to by a number. It's had mixed reviews, which I'm kind of glad about because it means I'm not on my own, and I can see how it would work for people, it worked for me for about 10 minutes. It's not unthinkably bad though, it's just not fun

I’ve been spending some time with the early access version of Tribute’s Mercenary Kings. The game is a lot different from what I thought it would be – Which is not a bad thing. I thought it would be a straight-up Metal Slug clone, but while it shares a similar visual style the rest of the game is a little different. You start off by picking your sex (male/female) and clothing color (ethnicity). Once that is done you’re dropped into your home base. From here you can craft guns, knives and bionics, set-up co-op, pick missions, talk to people and other things. Items are crafted via materials looted on missions or on the hunting grounds. You can carry unlimited materials, but your backpack has only four slots for items (Guns, Grenades, Health pack, Riot Shield). The hunting grounds are like a 2D Cabala’s hunting game, but where dead animals drop loot. The wildlife are spooked easily, so it hard to get the drop on them. Over all I’m really impressed with Mercenary Kings so far. PlayStation 4 gamers will have a blast with the finished products once it is finished and comes out of early access on Steam. IMO I feel Xbox One gamers should not feel left out. Mercenary Kings on Steam is designed with Microsoft’s pad in mind. It’s even displayed in loading screen showing button layout before being dropped into your home base for the first time. So while it’s not announced yet, I have a feeling it will find its way to that console too. Maybe after the PC and PS4 release. I made a let’s play video tonight of Merc Kings with PlayClaw 5. I’m hoping to get up somewhere for you all to see.