Trials Fusion: Review

A hearty hello to each and every one of you out there in the ether reading this post,
 Today I will be portraying my view of Trials Fusion for your enjoyment! Without another beat of the proverbial bush let's get straight into it.
 This was the first Trials game I have played, going into the first level I was cautiously excited, that caution was put to the wind as soon as I caught my first huge jump(a mear 10 seconds into the track!). As the hours of game time flew past me I never stopped to think, what will happen when the game ends? Well luckily for me it never will, if you didn't already know Trials Fusion boasts the deepest user creation tools I have seen in any game I have played. The developers have even given us the lofty expectation that all of the game could be made in the level creator. As soon as you take your first steps into the level creation you will see that it wasn't an understatement, the tools you have at your finger tips would make even the hardiest of gamers weep at the thought of the possibility's. That being said, the creator does have some down sides, firstly it isn't all that user friendly, or it gives of that impression until you start getting to grips with it, then it is considerably more manageable! The other down side to the creation tools, is the way in which they can be overloaded. This won't be a large problem for most people, but yesterday I started a new track and somewhat spammed the lighting effects. In my head it would have been somewhere between the scope of Game of Thrones and the lighting effects of a neon planet! Now you have that magnificent image in your head, lets take a look at the final product:

For the sake of clarification all of those green and orange flames should be constantly on, but due to how many of them there are the game can't keep them all going, thus they all flicker inconsistently! 

     However if your interest will largely stay within the bracket of  the "campaign" then you are in for a treat, each track has 3 medals and 3 challenges to complete. If you think that sounds easy then you are sadly mistaken, the challenges range from hard to harder. Also a nice handful of the challenges are very cryptic, such as Win a game of tennis. You might think, how do you play a game of tennis in a motorbiking game? Spoilers, that why! All of the medals and challenges give you XP, which will contribute to your level, which in turn will slowly unlock new outfits for your biker. Over all the amount of content in this game is staggering. At the time of writing this review there are just over 4,000 track made by you the gaming community. I am pretty sure however that the tracks you upload are locked to that console, so you can't play a track which has been uploaded from the Xbox One on the PS4! Seeing as the game has only been out less than 2 weeks the quality of some of the tracks is quite astonishing and I can't wait to see the direction the community will take!

      Alas the game is not perfect and it does have a couple of flaws, the largest in my opinion is the voice overs, they themselves are actually really good, but the line of dialogue they are saying will be cut if you have to restart back to the last checkpoint. You will then never hear that line of dialogue again unless you play the track again. So that means that what story there is in the game was largely lost on me because so much of what they were saying was cut. I would have liked to see either the ability to replay the voice overs from the pause menu or the voices continue no matter how many times you restart. If you were wondering, none of what the voice overs say specifically ties into that part of the track. My other gripe with the game is the check points, now they themselves have been placed just frequently enough to stop you pulling your hair out, but far enough away to feel like you have achieved something when you get to one. No it isn't that, my problem is momentum, an irritating number of the jumps are much, much harder to achieve when you retry and then have no momentum behind you. I don't know whether to some people this adds to the challenge of the tracks, but for me I find it quite irritating!

     There you go, they are all of my opinions of Trials Fusion, all in all it is a brilliant game which I wouldn't hesitate to recommend you buy. Now time for the score!

Tracks: All superbly crafted, make replayability an extreme pleasure!                                            10/10

Graphics: Looks really good, but you are mainly focusing of the bike so everything else doesn't matter! 10/10

Challenge: Just the right amount of challenge to keep you coming back!                                             10/10

Gripes: Cut out voice overs and momentum problems!                                                                    5/10

Enjoyability: An extremely enjoyable game that will keep me coming back for a very long time!         10/10

Which brings me to the grand total of :

                                                                  9.0/10

I hope you enjoyed my review of Trials Fusion, and I hope it made you want to play this biking masterpiece.

Signing out, but not for long.

Ed

Battlefield 4 Diary: Aqua Domination

Hi guys Rick here reporting to you from inside the battlefield,

 07:00: The time that we all wake up every day, I nearly always train in the morning and then go out and shed blood for which every country I am serving now, and this day was no different. We usually do 10 laps of the Aircraft Carrier we live on and also serves as a mobile deployment station for where ever we are needed.

 

09:00: At  this time a couple of us have usually been deployed but most of us are sat around twiddling our thumbs until the afternoon. 

 

 13:06: My lunch was cut short when I was told that I was being deployed, my orders from up high were to scout a plane crash in an attack boat. Thinking back that was one of the best tuna sandwiches I had eaten in quite a while!

 

 13:12: That was one of the quickest times that I had got from the mess to the lower deck in a long time, but this was a special day, I am usually deployed on foot, so to be entrusted with a huge boat with even bigger guns was quite a spectacle.

 13:17: By this time I had reached the crashed plane, but I could feel that something wasn't right, it was too quiet, there was no body any where near the crashed plane, the whole place was totally deserted. Just as I was about to radio back to the Carrier to report, I saw them. I saw the enemy, and they were plentiful, I managed to take down one of their attack boats and a couple of infantry before I my self was killed. 

 13:19: Expecting to go into the nether, I was very surprised when I suddenly woke up in an identical attack boat! This time before I left the Carrier I made a few upgrades to the boat, this time I would be going out with a new kind of ammo which I was assured by my quarter master would deal with enemy boats with greater ease. He was right.

 13: 25: This day was turning out to be a very, very good one I had already dispatched 2 enemy boats and I was bearing down on my third. Every thing was going brilliantly, but it would seem with hindsight that the enemy saw what I was doing and dispatched a jet to take care of me. As you may be able to imagine, it didn't take long before I was waiting to wake up again.

 13: 33: I felt like I was within spitting distance of something very important, I just couldn't put my finger of what! This time when I woke up there was someone else driving the big boat and I was precariously stood on the back of it with a rather large chain gun. 

 13:37: This was going brilliantly, it turned out that the guns on the side of the boat were highly affective against most things that floated. Alas my reign of aqua dominance could only last so long. This time it was someone from the shore line who was pointing a rather large gun at me which he rested on his shoulder.

 13:54: After several more escapades in the attack boat I got a radio buzz from my quarter master, who told me that I was now a good enough boat driver to be entrusted with a very new gadget which had been nicknamed "TV Missiles", as soon as I used one for the first time I could see why, using a screen in my boat no bigger than a laptop, I could wirelessly control very explosive missiles, and send them all the way across the map!

 14:35: After a little while longer experimenting with this new gadget I was told that I had played my part for the day and that I was being brought back to the Carrier. I was quite disappointed because I was having more fun in the boats that I undoubtedly would doing laps of the Carrier. Alas I would be able to take to the seas once more tommorow!

Thanks for reading,

Ed

Just as a quick note on the end, Rick is a totally fictional character and the diary is written from his perspective of one of the players in Battlefield 4.

inFamous Secons Sons run down!

Super Powers, Choice, Smoke
Hi guys, 
 Just a quick note before I get into the main post, from now on most of my posts will be starting with 3 words the I feel represent the game the best from what I am played/seen of it!
 Ever since  I saw the credits role over my journey through inFamous 2 I have been on tender hooks waiting for any word of the next game. So when Second Sons was announced last year Sucker Punch had my undivided attention. Fast forward and after numerous trailers and tibits of information I am very excited that the release of this game is only 2 weeks away! If you aren't totally aware of the premise of Second Sons then let me fill you in, you will play as Delsin who is a Conduit(in other words someone with supernatural powers) and who lives in a society of people who don't like conduits(or as they call them Bio Terrorists). You will enact your adventure within the confines of a beautifully recreated Seattle. That is one of the things I am really excited about in Second Sons, the level of detail that Sucker Punch appear to have put into portraying a realistic recreation of Seattle.
     During the time we will spend with Deslin we will be trying to rid the city of the apparent plague of the DOP, the people who want to cleanse all Bio Terrorists from Seattle. In the time we will be traversing E-Seattle we will be coming in contact other Conduits that also want freedom within their own city, so far we only know of  is a woman who has alluring name of Fetch! Fetch has remained quite elusive to us so far and all we know is that she has control over neon, being able to shoot neon balls out of her hand. We also know that Deslin and Fetch collide at quite some speed and then Delsin is able to drain neon from any near by sources, this raises the tantalising question of what other powers will we be able to commandeer from other conduits? It has been confirmed that there will be multiple powers Delsin will be able to control, but Sucker Punch have kept their lips very tightly sealed about what they could be! If would be quite nice if we will be able to utilise the power of electricity like Cole could in inFamous 2!

That brings me to the end of my run down of inFamous Second Sons, the only last piece of information I can dangle in front of you is the release date on March 21st! Only 2 weeks to the day from when this post first went live!
Thanks for reading and stop reading and start playing!
Ed
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Battlefield 4: ACE-23 Gun Review

Hi guys,
 I decided that seeing as I am loving Battlefield 4 so much, I would bring you a review of one of the guns/classes I like to use! If you already have BF4 you have doubtlessly heard of or used the ACE-23, despite BF4 being a much more balanced game(gun wise) there are still guns that the masses will crowd towards. In BF4 the ACE-23 is just such a weapon. The biggest problem with this weapon is actually unlocking it, it is unlike most other Assault Rifles as you need to complete 3 assignments to be able to unlock it! Let's break down the three assignments:

     First you will have to complete Assault Basic, which will require 7 kills with any Assault Rifle and 11 heals, but most importantly you will need to be at least rank 10 which shouldn't take you to long to do. I believe this is to keep this very powerful weapon out of the hands of people who have just picked up the game. The heals can be obtained either with the Med Kit or the Med Bag. You will then be awarded with the Assault Basic dog tag.
     Next there will be the Assault Veteran assignment, you will needed to have completed Assault Basic to unlock Assault Veteran, for this you will need to get 8 kills with any Assault Rifle an 12 total heals. Much like Assault Basic this will be very easy to complete, though if you are having trouble with the heals play some Operation Locker pop one down and the heals will come quickly! The nice thing about this assignment is that you get a new camo for all weapons and vehicles for completing it.

     So far the assignments have been a walk in the park and you should get them within a few matches, the biggest problem is Assault Expert, which firstly requires you to have competed the two above assignments and then you will need 50 Medkit Ribbons, 200 kills with any AR and 10 AR Ribbons. Despite it sounding quite daunting this one assignment only took me about 4 hours to complete. The 50 Medkit ribbons: to earn one Medkit ribbon you have to earn 8 heals in one round. For this I would recommend you having the Medbag but it isn't essential, this will also mean that you will get a Medkit medal. The 200 AR kills and the 10 AR Ribbons both will be earned together, the ribbon requires you to earn 6 AR kills in one round, you will earn this before you get your 200 AR kills. As for the 200 AR kills it isn't that hard, just quite time consuming. Once you have completed all of this you will earn yourself the ACE-23.

    Right now you have unlocked it let's talk about how it handles, this is a very good overall weapon, it can handle itself up close and further away(though you will need to tap fire for long range shots) and that is the main reason it is good. Anyone can pick it up and do well, you don't need to chose a compromise you just have to pick up the weapon. Let's talk about the attachments:

To be honest the optic is really down you how you want to play with this gun, but if you are going to be close to medium range then I would recommend either the Coyote RDS or the Kobra RDS. I find the laser sight is invaluable as you will be running into people unexpectedly so you want to be able to hip fire and still have a fighting chance. I haven't unlocked it yet but I would recommend the green laser sight as it is the hardest see at a distance.

     If you didn't know, in BF4 you can equip a suppressor with out it effecting you damage stats, as it did in BF3. Instead it only slows the flight of your bullets, this makes it an essential for any guy(when you unlock it).

Finally you have you under barrel attachment, I have gone for the potato grip as it decreases your bullet spread when you shoot!

    

     Thank brings me to the end of this review for the ACE-23 in Battlefield 4, all in all I would give it 10/10, a flawless gun that can be used at nearly all ranges with few guns to out shoot it. I know this has been a bit of a weird post but I am playing very little else at the moment, so I wanted to post about it. Please do tell me if you want to see more of these BF4 gun reviews either by Tweeting me, or leaving a comment down bellow!

    As always thanks for reading,

Ed

Don't forget you can read this and much more on my new Website!

100th Post Extravaganza

Hi guys,
 I have been looking forward to bringing you all this post for a very long time, my 100th post. I am going to cut to the chase and tell you that after many months of work I am very pleased to announce to you all that I have launched a website! This website will feature posts from this blog, and in the future will get posts that will not be on this blog! I would really appreciate it if you would go and check it out and tell me what you think, you can tweet me any of your thoughts or ideas here.

Go now and read the future of The Games Critic: thegamescritic.com

If you would like to tweet about my new website click here! This just helps to get the word out about the new site.
 That is all for now, thank you all very much for reading and I can't really thank you all enough for the support you have shown me over the last couple of months.
Ed

Playstation 4 Review

Hi guys,
 Just before I start this post I would just like to say that this is my 99th post on this blog. Within the next week you can expect my 100th post. The 100th post is going to be huge, it will change the whole format of my blog and I am really excited to bring it to you all. I have been working behind the scenes on this project for a few months now so it will be very nice to finally see it released. If you follow me on Twitter then you will have seen some tweets in-directly about it. That is the only hint you will get!  Right after that intro I have an equally awesome post for you, my full review of the Playstation 4. Now this will be the first console I have reviewed so I hope I cover all of the relevant points.
   
 DESIGN: Let's start with the design of the console, this console is a really stunner, if there was a bar where all of the games consoles hung out, when the PS4 enters the room she(I have given my PS4 a girls name, as should you!) would turn many heads. Moving on from that slightly weird analogy, seriously though she does look gorgeous, if you are a hermit at haven't seen what the PS4 looks like here she is:

CONTROLLER: That is the other major change with the PS4 the Dualshock 4, I can't stress enough how bigger difference you can feel just by holding the controller. When I first picked up the controller back in September at Eurogamer, I wasn't particularly infatuated with it and that gave me cause for concern. However as soon as I picked it up with my own PS4 I just fell in love with it, I think the first thing that will hit you is the size of it. This is considerably bigger than the Dualshock 3, and I personally think it is better because of it! It will take you a while to get used to it, but when you do it is simply a joy to use.
     As you may know the start and select buttons from the Dualshock 3 have been replaced with the options and share buttons, and touch pad. As it sounds the share does nothing but takes screen shots/videos. The options and touch pad are the new start and select, with the touch pad usually taking the place of select and the options button taking the place of start. In the future I would like to see more games take more advantage of the touch pad. I can see it being a feature that will maily be used in first party games. I know for a fact that there are sections of inFamous Second Sons that will feature the touch pad, I can't wait to see what Naughty Dog can do with it! All in all I think it is one of if not the biggest improvement between Dualshock 3 and 4!

GRAPHICAL CAPABILITY: The difference between the PS3 and 4 graphically is staggering, if you look at a game like Battlefield 4(single player) and then you look at something like Uncharted 3, the difference is huge. Now I know you want a difference that big, but this is just the beginning of the consoles life span, the graphics/size of games is only grow the longer the console is out there!  Lip syncing has also been greatly improved between the generations, I know it is some what down to the game engine/developer but the console itself gives them the opportunity to do so much more than they could before.Most of the games you will play with be 1080p and 60fps, if you don't know what that means, it is going to look gorgeous and run very very smoothly!
 
     THE BAD THINGS WITH THE CONSOLE: Yes it is a shame that a few things are done wrong with this console, but non of them are huge and shouldn't get in the way of your day-to-day gaming experience. The first thing is actually the share button, when you take a screen shot(by pressing the share button once depending on what you have set it to in the settings) it will take a screen shot. When ever you want to upload that screen shot, you press and hold the share button and it gives you the option to either tweet the shot, or post it on Facebook. I would have really liked to see an option where by you can email it to yourself or others. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that you can only access your photos through the PS4, not through the Playstation website or something like that, I feel it was a big missed opportunity with the PS4.
     
     My second problem with the PS4 is the downloads system, when ever something is automatically downloaded or you start something downloading, you have no ability what so ever to pause that download. This may not be a huge problem for many people but for me with a 1.8mb/s Internet speed any kind of download in the background means that I then can't play any multiplayer games. This is a huge pain especially as games for the PS4(Warframe for example is 50GB) are so big.
   
     This brings me onto my third problem with the PS4, the memory. Now I know that in time there will be much bigger options available for the PS4, but to only have one 500GB(the size that was available on the PS3 at the end of it's life cycle) option at launch I feel was a wasted opportunity. I have already filled half of my hard drive with 4 disk games and 3 digital games. I have no films and no media other than the screen shots that I have taken.

     My fourth and final problem is the on/off button. For some reason I can't make my PS4 turn of just my pressing the off button(or pressing and holding), which puts it into standby mode, but I want to turn my PS4 totally off. So instead of actually using the power button I have to go through the menus of the PS4(which sounds worse than it is)to turn my PS4 off. This isn't a huge thing but it is a bit annoying.
   
Anyway that brings me to the end of my review for the PS4 as a whole, if there are any points you think I have missed you can either leave your ideas in the comments or Tweet me or hit me up on Facebook.
     All in all I absolutely love the PS4, and the bad things I have mentioned have little to no impact on your day-to-day gaming, they just would have been nice to see.
     I feel as though it wouldn't be right to give a whole console a score, so I will leave you with this. No matter what your console preferences you should definitely pick up a next(now current?) gen console. They are a master piece in gaming design and I am very very excited to see what this next year will bring us. If you are a gamer, you had better strap yourself in because what is to come, will be know for years to come, as the best time to be a gamer.
As always thank you for reading,
Ed
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Contrast: First Impressions

Hi guys,
 A game that sees you playing as an imaginary friend of a young girl who hasn't seen her farther in years. Also this friend has the ability to turn into a shadow. So just you average game then! This is a game that in principle should be really good and enjoyable to play, I say in principle because it isn't. I know I haven't beaten about the bush, this is a game that should play well, but is help back by the plethora of glitches and bugs in the game.
     Now as the title says these are my first impressions, so they may change by the time I review this game, but from what I have played you can barely play for 15 minutes before you will get a glitch. Now when I say glitch you will conjure an image of a table that defies gravity or a leg that bends the wrong way, if that was the case then you could put up with them. But when this game does glitches it DOES glitches, I'm talking about being a shadow and the camera can't cope with what you have just done, and thus will not move. Or when you as a shadow get squashed between something top and bottom, and what the game should do is pop you out the wall, but in some cases you don't do that and the then stuck in the wall with nothing to do!
     When this game does work, it works really well, and is a puzzling game to play. You have to combine certain shadows in order to progress through the level, and though the puzzles are never very hard they do a good job of making you feel a sense of achievement for completing them. Also the story behind you and the little girl(which I won't spoil) is one that is both beautiful and haunting at the same time. I don't quite know how it does this but you really connect with this little girl and can't help but play as well as possible to help this poor little girl out!
 That brings us to the end of my impressions of Contrast, if it can sort out the glitches then this could be a game to treasure playing, but until that is the case I can't recommend playing it as it will put you off playing the game once it has been fixed.
Many thanks for reading,
Ed
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