Metroid Dread Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey guys, so figured I would get another review out before the month ends and this one will be on another video game, which will be on the 2D action game, Metroid Dread. So, this game is much acclaimed by critics and fans alike but what do I think? Well, let's find out.

So, I will say a bit about the plot below but not too much but the warning is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD (BUT NOT MUCH!)

So, I will quote a bitesize bit of the plot below, which is quoted from Wikipedia

"The Galactic Federation receives evidence that the X, a dangerous species of parasite that can mimic any creature it infects, survives on the remote planet ZDR. They dispatch seven E.M.M.I.s (Extraplanetary Multiform Mobile Identifiers) robots to ZDR to investigate, but lose contact. The Federation sends Samus Aran to ZDR to investigate. Underground, Samus encounters a Chozo warrior who destroys the exit, defeats her in combat and strips her suit of most of its abilities. Her ship's computer, Adam, instructs her to find another path to the surface and return to her ship".

THOUGHTS

So, Metroid Dread sees a return to the 2D action style that the series was well known for in the past after the Metroid Prime series 3D based games and the game itself is a pretty intense fast paced shooter in which the action comes thick and fast. The game itself is also very challenging and features some chaotic boss fights as well as fast paced platforming as Samus powers her way through different areas and challenges. In fact, the game for me echoed the difficulty of the Souls games given how difficult it could be, I also found it to be very frustrating at times but I will get into that later. That aside, this is still a very enjoyable game with plenty of exploration and features that are well known in the Metroid series. 

GAMEPLAY

As for the gameplay, I will do the usual sections for the gameplay below.

MOVEMENT 

Starting with movement, Samus is shown in the classic 2D side scrolling manner and she can run pretty fast by default but she can also jump, crouch, roll and slide through environments. Samus can also cling onto ledges and other platforms and hang by the side to allow her to even use her weapon without climbing up. Samus can also with the aid of her abilities transform into a literal ball (morph ball) allowing her to roll through tight spaces as well as jump higher up with further abilities she get's later on.

WEAPONS

As for weapons, Samus's primary weapon is her canon, which by default uses a ray beam to attack but as she progresses she will be able to upgrade her weapon abilities. These different weapon abilities include the wide beam, where Samus can fire out three beams at once, the diffusion beam, which allows her to fire a beam through walls. The grapple beam allows Samus to cling onto walls and reach high up places she normally can't jump up to. 

Other weapons Samus can use are missiles and there are again different types of missile such as the super missile, which increases the damage of normal missiles. Then there are the storm missiles, which allow Samus to focus 5 targets at once, which can be used on individual enemies as well as barriers that block Samus's path. Then there are the ice missiles, which can be used to freeze enemies in place and with further shots can then destroy enemies, they can also be used to destroy unique plant enemies (the Enky) that block Samus's progress in certain areas. 

ENEMIES & BOSSES

As for the enemies, Samus will encounter a large number of enemies that range from small and not so bad up to very large and challenging ones. There are also a mix of enemies such as insectoids, bird like ones, underwater fish like enemies as well as robotic enemies that fire out explosives and ray beams, which can alot of damage. 

Moving onto the bosses, there are quite a few to be found in the game although some of them are repeatable such as the Chozo warriors, which are powerful armoured robot-esque creatures that deal alot of damage. Then there are more unique bosses such as monsters as Corpius, a large cloaked monster with a large tail. Kraid is another boss, which is another large monster that can fire projectiles from its mouth and body and is chained for most of the fight and last of all is Droygya, who is a large mollusk creature with plenty of tentacles. So, most of these fights can be quite challenging and take time to learn their movesets but again like all bosses its about pattern recognition. 

EMMIS 

And then we get to the EMMIS...oh dear! Yeah, the EMMI's can be a real pain to deal with in this game, as they are robotic enemies that chase Samus around certain parts of the game. The EMMI themselves are robotic creatures that act like security guards and move like spiders, as they crawl around but they also have sensors that can detect movement and if they do, they will hunt Samus down and if captured, will insta-kill her. There are several EMMIs in the game and they are definitely very frustrating to deal with and to try and evade being captured by. You do however have a small window to parry the EMMI, to stun them to allow you to escape but the window is pretty tight for it to be effective and difficult to pull off consistently.

STEALTH AND CLOAKING

Another feauture of the game, which is connected to the EMMI is stealth and Samus can do this by using a cloaking device she picks up to conceal herself from enemies. This however isn't always foolproof particularly with EMMI's as they can still capture her if they bump into her! The cloaking device also has an energy bar, which once is depleted will then drain Samus of her energy quite rapidly, so at this point its best to deactivate it before Samus burns out her energy entirely. The cloak is also useful for walking through security doors that can shut down on Samus if she is seen. 

MORPH BALL FEATURES

Another key aspect of the game is the morph ball, which allows Samus to curl up into an actual ball, so she can pass through tight confined spaces. However, the morph ball also has additional features such as morph ball bombs that Samus can use to destroy breakable blocks that obstruct her path. Then there is a more powerful version of the morph ball bombs that can destroy several blocks at once and there is an even more potent version, which can destroy all the blocks in sight. The morph ball also has features that enable Samus to jump higher, such as the spin boost, which enables Samus to perform a double jump to get higher up. And then there is my favourite, which is the screw attack where Samus turns into a sort of corkscrew, which can deal damage to enemies as well as propel her as high up as she can go and really opens up areas in the game you can reach.

SPEED BOOST & SHINESPARK

Then we have another ability that can be very useful in certain areas, which is the speed boost that allows Samus to run at super fast speeds and blast past enemies and break through destructable boxes to reach other areas. Also attached to this move is the shinespark, which can allow Samus to hold a charge of the boost and use it to redirect her in any direction, which can be very useful to destroy blocks to access items.  

SUIT FEATURES

Another aspect of the game is Samus's suit, which by default cannot allow her to travel everywhere in the game, so you need to upgrade it to do so. So there are several suit upgrades such as the Varia suit, which allows Samus to enter areas of extreme heat but will not protect her against lava damage. Then there is the Gravity suit, which will allow Samus to run through areas of extreme cold as well as run through lava. There is also a final suit upgrade but this pertains to the ending of the game, so I won't really mention it here. 

GRAPHICS

Moving onto the graphics, the game was originally released for the Nintendo Switch, so by modern standards, its not an amazing looking game but its visuals are still pretty good overall and 2D visual style works well here. So, the environments actually look quite solid and there are some nice background details as well as plenty of variety in the visuals for the different environments ranging the cool interiors of areas like Antaria to the outside jungle like areas of Ghavoran. The enemy design also looks pretty good mostly with the enemies given a somewhat cartoonish look (like alot of Nintendo exclusive games!). Character model wise, Samus is well presented in her suit and you can only really see her face through the suit during cutscenes. So, overall given the game's modest pixel count of 900p, its still a good looking game for the Switch.

SOUND DESIGN AND MUSIC

As for the sound design, the game's sounds are pretty good with plenty of atmospheric effects from the background, enemies, explosions, sliding doors and of course Samus's laser and missiles. Then there is of course the score by Kenji Yamamoto, which is quite suspenseful and atmospheric and has plenty of intense and chaotic moments as well some more mellow ones in addition to the classic tracks where Samus finds her new abilities. So, its a pretty good score overall with plenty of intensity and indeed a fair amount of dread thrown in! 

FLAWS

As for flaws...yes, Metroid Dread has some worth a mention.

For staters, the biggest complaint I have with the game are of course the EMMI's, as these guys are the most infuriating enemy I have ever seen a video game, PERIOD!! In fact I think I died more to the EMMI throughout this entire game than I have to any Dark Souls boss and that is saying something! And its hugely frustrating to try and evade capture from these guys, as they can continously capture and you always get the same cutscene where they pierce Samus in the neck with their spike. Also to make matters worse, the later EMMI can also fire a paralysis attack to hold you in place, so they can capture Samus more easily, which is even more infuriating! So, yeah I totally tore my hair out trying to evade this enemy (or EM-E-N-E-MI!) throughout the game and the deaths I had were easily into several hundred by the time I had finished the game! So, in short f*** these guys!

Another issue I had was to do with the complexity of the shinespark move, which is activated by pressing down the left stick and then after the boost is started, holding down the left stick again and pressing B and then direct which way you want to go. However this move can be ridiculously complicated to pull off if you want to reach certain items as its too easy to cancel it out by hitting a wall or some other object. So, if you want to say get every energy tank in the game, you need this move, which makes life very difficult if you want obtain all items.

I also found some of the bosses to be quite frustrating at times as well and especially the repeated inclusion of the Chozo soldiers as bosses, as to fight these guys over and over, get's pretty tedious after a while. I also found the finale boss to be quite difficult (won't say who!) as there were some cues for counters that weren't so clear to look out for, making the fight to be very frustrating at times and this in itself prolonged the fight rather than shortened it. 

Last of all, I had an issue with the save game system, which is admittedly an improvement over the saves of Metroid Prime as there are more save stations and they work pretty quickly. However, there are certain sections of the game where you need to repeat sections or a boss, which requires backtracking to get to them at times and it would be much easier if the game checkpointed the saves for you on loading the game again if you left it. However, in this case, the game doesn't do this and reverts you back to the previous station, which could be MILES away from where you last progressed to. 

So, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Metroid Dread is for the most part an enjoyable albeit at times very frustrating Metroidvania game, which can be very difficult but also in its own quite rewarding. The game also has some neat features and abilities, which are often repeated throughout the Metroid series but they work well all the same. The game's exploration can also be fun when you reach a new area and there are many areas and room to check out. 

There are of course issues with the game, such as the save system, frustrating boss fights, some of which are repetitive and feature the same enemies. Not to mention of course, the EMMI, who are by far, the MOST frustrating enemy I have EVER encountered in a video game thanks to their insta-kill BS. However despite this, Metroid Dread is still well worth checking out, especially if you have played the other Metroid games and don't mind a challenge.

So, I will rate Metroid Dread...

8 out of 10

So, that's it for now and I will be back next month with another post.

Until then bye for now!  

 

Star Wars Outlaws Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, for this post, I thought I would do another video game review, which will be on a game I have just finished on the Switch 2, which is Star Wars Outlaws. So, this game was well received on its release by critics but also panned by some gamers for its bugs and repetitive missions. 

So, where do I think this game fits on the spectrum? Well, let's find out! 

The usual warning is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

STORY

So, the story focuses around a young outlaw named Kay Vess (voiced by Humberley Gonzalez) who is looking to make a name for herself among the crime syndicates as she looks for any jobs to build her reputation. Kay in a desperate to escape her home planet along with her little sidekick pet Nix, joins up with a crew to rob the mansion of a wealthy crime lord named Sliro (voiced by Caolon Byrne). However, the job itself goes not to plan as Kay thought, as it turns out it was to rescue an rebel alliance member and not a robbery and as Kay demands payment, she is stunned and knocked out and left for Sliro. Sliro then blames Kay for the job but she manages to escape in a ship called the Trailblazer, which leds to Sliro placing a death mark on her.

Kay soon however is forced to make a landing on the planet Toshara and while there she meets a mechanic, Waka, who says he will help her to repair her ship but tells her to get local work with the crime syndicates to pay for the parts. So, from here, Kay begins her connections with the criminal underworld in order to establish her reputation. 

THOUGHTS

As far as Star Wars games go, Outlaws is definitely very enjoyable and has much going for it as it has an engaging story and good characters as the plot features plenty of twists and turns along the way. Kay herself is also a likeable, albeit feisty protagonist, who while a scoundrel, isn't all that bad either and does exhibit much loyalty to the people she works with. Kay also has a nice little relationship with Nix, her cute little alien pet, who is also quite resourceful. The game also features plenty of action, most of which is stealth based, so if you are not keen on stealth then this might not be for you but I personally found it to be enjoyable for the most part.   

GAMEPLAY 

Moving onto the gameplay, I will as usual split it into sub-sections to cover different aspects.

MOVEMENT AND TRAVERSAL

Starting with movement and traversel, Outlaws is in the third person perspective, so we get to see Kay as she works through her adventures. Movement wise, Kay has a fairly diverse moveset as she walk, run, crouch, jump as well as climb. Kay can also traverse many parts of the game via the use of climbing walls and structures to reach her objectives and these can occassionally be met by obstacles along the way such as large cooling fans that can blow Kay off a ledge as she navigates tunnels. Kay can make use of a grapple to to climb up or down areas that have a grapple point to attach to. Kay can also travel by speeder out in the open world, which allows her to cover more ground quickly and she can also upgrade her speeder to adapt it towards different terrain.

STEALTH AND COMBAT

As for the stealth, this is a key part of the game, as Kay will often have to sneak into places in order to complete her missions and gain access to information or other items. Kay can also sneak up behind enemies and knock them out as she moves through areas but can also use Nix to distract as well. Kay however does need to watch out for motion cameras that can track her movements during stealth missions. 

As for the combat, Kay can use hand to hand combat one enemies up close but she also has access to certain weapons in the game, such as imperial blasters, rifles, or even grenade launchers. Kay's main weapon however is her blaster, which can be modified and upgraded by finding materials throughout the game. So, Kay can use her blaster for regular fire on enemies, ion setting for destroying shields and robots as well as an explosive setting to do extra damage, so her blaster is actually a pretty good and diverse weapon.

ENEMIES AND CAPTURE

Outlaws also has its share of enemies and quite a few you will have seen already from the films such as the imperial stormtroopers, Darth Vader, Jabba the Hutt and even the Rancor (from Return of the Jedi). Kay however will also face plenty of other enemies of other kinds we meet have seen in the Star Wars films series such as Jabba's palace guards, the pig-faced Gamorrean, who are quite brutal here and hit really hard(!) as well as the Rodians, who are the race Greedo belongs in Episode IV and Waka and Gedeek, who also help Kay. Kay can also be captured by enemies such as stormtroopers if she is wanted for trespassing or other crimes, which will result in the loss of credits.

CRIME SYNDICATES AND REPUTATION

Another feature of the game are the crime syndicates that Kay will work for and she has opportunities to build up her reputation with them with the main ones being Pyke Syndicate, Crimson Dawn, the Hutt cartel and the Ashiga clan. However, Kay will also on certain missions be forced to work for one and betray the other, which will results in her reputation changing for the worse or better, which can range from terrible to excellent. However, Kay's reputation can if knocked down, be rebuilt by doing other jobs for that syndicate to get back in their favour but this can also affect the others. 

SPACE TRAVEL AND AERIAL DOGFIGHTS

Then we have the space travel aspect of the game, as Kay can also travel to other parts of the galaxy using her stolen Trailblazer ship (after its been repaired that is!). So, the Trailblazer can actually doing a light speed jump to other planets but it needs a clear path to do so and certain areas in space will have alot of debris or even pockets of dense fog and cloud (or more likely, nebulous gases). Kay will often also get drawn into space dogfights with hostile fighters that could be imperial tie fighters or even crime syndicate rivals who are after her and she can shoot them down with the ship's canon and missiles. 

NIX 

And then we have Nix, Kay's cute little alien pet and companion, who is also very useful as Kay can use him to open doors to get inside areas she can't, or pull down shutters to access power cores to turn off energy shield barriers. Nix can also be useful for distracting enemies, so Kay can take them down from behind and he can even attack them as well an additionally, Nix can also distract security cameras by lying down infront of them, so Kay can sneak past them undetected. 

BETTING

Kay during the game can also engaging in some betting activities such as a card game known as Sabacc, which is similar to Poker where she has to sit down and win a hand against rival players. Kay can also place bets on Fathier races, which involve large aliens racing against each other. Some missions also require playing Sabaac but these are optional. 

OUTFITS

As the game progresses, Kay will also get awarded with new outfits, some of which she can also buy from merchants found duirng the game and these can provide different levels of defense and in some cases, boost her stealth abilities. Kay can also purchase other items that can be used to craft new clothing items but this is found after a specific mission.  

WEAPON UPGRADES

As for weapon upgrades, Kay can upgrade her blaster at the workbench on the Trailblazer but this will involve specific materials that she will find throughout the game. The blaster has three main settings for Plasma, Ion and Power all of which you can unlock as you do the missions. Kay can also customise her blaster's appearance as well as boost its efficiency for reducing cooldown time being firing and recoil resistance.

VOICE ACTING (WARNING: SOME SPOILERS MIGHT BE MENTIONED HERE!)

Moving finally onto the voice acting, the cast all do an excellent job here.

Starting with Humberly Gonzalez, who is excellent in her role as Kay Vess, the young scoundrel, who wishes make a name for herself in the underworld. Gonzalez does a great job here at showing Kay's sassy and feisty qualities but also her loyalty towards the crew she works with and also the bond she develops with her robotic counterpart ND-5, who she does a big heist job with.

Eric Johnson also does very well as Jaylen Vrax, the suave leader of the crew, who recruits Kay into his plan to do a heist on the powerful crimelord, Sliro. Johnson does a fine job also at conveying that Jaylen might not be all what he appears to be at first as he appears somewhat idealistic in his notions to steal from the wealthy and corrupt (even though he is himself!). 

Jay Rincon is also excellent as ND-5, a former commando droid, who has been reprogrammed and is now self aware but also remains under Jaylen's control. Rincon excels here at playing ND-5 as a robot but also essentially a sentient being, who can make his own choices and develops a bond with Kay over time as they do missions together. 

As for the other roles Shadi Janho does a good job in his role as well as Gedeek, a Ridonian who worked for the Empire but is soon recruited by Kay for the heist and he appears to regret his past and make some amends for the rebels. Caolon Byrne is very good also in his role as Sliro, the arrogant crimelord, who Kay is looking to steal from and Byrne exhibits Sliro's arrogant nature very well. And lastly, Nicole Correia-Damude is very good also in her role as Riko, Kay's mum, who leaves her in the lurch as a child but later on appears in the game and she is somewhat sassy and feisty herself, as well as a bit on the cocky side!

GRAPHICS

As for the graphics, Outlaws is a very handsome looking game with its stunning open world design, this game is not short on pleasing visuals. As for its environments, they are varied and have plenty of rich detail from open desert terrain of Tattooine to the frozen lands of Kijimi and Toshara for its open landscapes and home to various syndicates. Then there are the outer space sequences where Kay travels in the Trailblazer and engages in dogfights sometimes, which looks impressive. The character models are also quite good albeit they do look a little bit unsophisticated compared to other modern games but overall they are good enough. 

So, overall, the game is a visual treat for the most part and the Switch 2 version is surprisingly excellent and runs very well even with ray tracing capabilities built-in, which can be demanding, this is quite a feat on such a small handheld console. 

MUSIC

Moving onto the music, the score is very good and is composed by Wilbert Roget II and it has an appropriate Star Wars-y feel to it and its main theme is also quite catchy and sticks with you every time the game loads up. It also has some other good themes throughout and one that springs to mind is theme where Kay comes into land on a planet. So, overall, a very good score here. 

FLAWS

As for flaws, yes OK Outlaws isn't quite perfect.

For starters, I think the game suffers at times from an excessive use of stealth during missions, which can make a lot of missions feels very repetitive and samey. While the stealth didn't bother that much as whole and thought it was well done for the most part, it does have to be said that on alot of missions, Kay has to sneak around e.g. an imperial base or vessel only to finish her objectives and THEN the alarm goes off and she has to fight her way out! So, for me this kind of really negated the whole stealth nature of the game in these moments and makes you think what the hell was the point of it all in the first place! 

Another issue to do with again what is commonly an issue in open world games, is the map system can send you on a bit of a wild goose chase at times. To give an example there is a mission where Kay needs to meet a potential crew member out in a canyon on Tatooine but reaching them is a pain as its that obvious whether its higher up or lower down according to the map indicator, reading the map and following the trail bit by bit, does help more in these cases but its annoying all the same.

Then there are the space dogfights, which frankly for me were really boring and the weakest part of the game overall, as they were simply uninteresting as you fly around in space, zapping away until you hit your target from a great distance. So, there is no immediacy to the space combat, it just feels like it was pretty half-baked in its design and easily one of the weak areas of the game.

Another issue is to do with the limited amount of weapons in the game as there isn't too much variety to be found and the weapons you do find, often have limited ammo, which can't be refilled and you are forced to drop it for another weapon, which is pretty crappy imho. So, the weapons really should have been improved. 

The mission choices in the game where Kay has to make a choice to back one syndicate or betray the other also kind of lacks a dramatic impact, especially given you can make up your reputation with the other syndicate as you progress. This also brings me onto another annoying issue where Kay often will get chased by pirates, who are out to hunt her for the death mark Sliro has placed on her and they can be pretty annoying to fend off as you travel in your speeder.

Lastly another issue I had was to do with the leave quest option in the game, which is a bit misleading as you cannot quit a mission if you want to WITHOUT actually deleting your entire progress of the game! So, if you want to avoid doing a mission you don't want, which you may have already started, you need to revert back to an earlier save, which is quite annoying and time consuming.

So, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Star Wars Outlaws can be a lot of fun and as an open world SW game, it works pretty well with plenty of missions and other side content to check out. It also has some fun, engaging characters and a good story that has plenty of twists and turns in it and the visuals of the game are also impressive and the music score is also pretty good and worth of the Star Wars name. 

There are some issues of course with its gameplay, as the stealth missions can get quite repetitive and as such the game does feel a bit too long in its run time as you get nearer the end and there are some other quirks and issues. However, all that aside, this is still a very enjoyable game and well worth a look if you are a fan of the Star Wars game universe, this could be for you.

So, I will rate Outlaws:

8 out of 10

Right, that's all for now and I will try and get another post done before the month is out.

Until then, its bye for now! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Elden Ring - Tarnished Edition (Switch 2) Thoughts

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I thought I would do a post on the subject that has been of great interest lately, which is on upcoming release of the action RPG video game, Elden Ring on the Switch 2, named Elden Ring - The Tarnished Edition and I wanted to address the recent footage that has surfaced from the Gamescom event last week. So, the footage shown for the game has not been considered the best and shows visible frame rate dips and with numerous reports of the handheld version suffering major frame dips that slow the game down to almost a slideshow.

So, I thought I would throw in my thoughts on the matter and moving forward that they hopefully fix these issues before any launch date is given. So, with that said let's take a closer look at what we know so far.

GAMESCOM EVENT

Well, it was revealed prior to the Gamescom event, which took place last week on 20-24 August in Cologne in Germany that Elden Ring would be one of the games at the event for the Switch 2, which naturally created alot of buzz given its a much anticipated title for the console. However there was plenty of other games at this event such as Borderlands 4, Final Fantasy VII, Metroid Prime 4 and of course the highly anticipated idie game, Hollow Knight Silksong, which had huge cues of people waiting to play it (more so than Elden Ring!).

ELDEN RING PERFORMANCE ISSUES 

So, at Gamescom it was revealed that numerous players tried out Elden Ring in handheld mode and the results were far from impressive, as several gaming outlets such as IGN and Nintendo Life said the game ran terribly in handheld mode with significant frame drops, especially out in the world of Limgrave. The game however was lauded for looking good on the Switch 2 as I believe the target for this game on the Switch 2 is 1080p at 30fps. This also resulted in Bandai Namco staff at the event to not even allow people to record footage of it, given how bad it apparently ran, which frankly is quite worrying for the future of the game on the Nintendo platform.  

FAN EXPO EVENT 

However at the Fan Expo event that was held the same week in Toronto, Canada, actual footage of the game surfaced showing the game in docked mode and this footage looked while not perfect, did look playable as one attendee was show exploring Limgrave with no obvious slowdowns in the framerate. However, this is not to say that the footage ran perfectly as some frame rate issues I think still remained even in docked mode but it did look playable. However, it is hard to fully understand how well it ran based on the captured footage, which was taken presumably on a phone or video camera, which just showed the game running on LCD screen (I think). This however did some go against the notion of the terrible performance in handheld mode.

POTENTIAL GAME BUILD ISSUES AT THE EVENTS

So, this brings me onto another possible issue, which was to do with the possibility of the game build at the event being an earlier version of the game with an IGN presenter at the event, suggesting a possible current build might still have been in development and not ready for public display. There is also the possibility that the versions at both Gamescon and Fan Expo were different also and may account for the possiblity of it maybe running slightly better at Fan Expo than the former, however this is just speculation and we don't really know for sure.

POSSIBLITY FOR FIXING THESE ISSUES

So, moving forward we have to look at the possibility of Bandai Namco fixing the issues for this release, as what we know for certain is, if Bandai were to release the game in its current state, there would a huge backlash and be deemed as being totally unacceptable by gamers and consumers alike. So, we just have to hope that given the performance problems with the game that Bandai will try and address them before the game is due to be released but at this stage we are still waiting for a release date with the vague timeframe so far given just as 2025. However, given these issues, we also have to assume the game might be pushed back to 2026 to try and resolve the frame rate issues of the game, which might be for the best if they cannot guarantee a release date for this year. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

So, to finish up, I think it is definitely concerning that Elden Ring is currently running in a less than acceptable way on the Switch 2 platform. It also of course it has to be said that this game has even had its issues on other platforms with frame rate performance. In fact I think the only real smooth running version of the game is the backward compatible PS4 version on the PS5, which does run at a locked 60fps but nowhere else has it achieved this even on PC.

It also has to be said that Fromsoft always have had a bad history of getting their games running smoothly on most platforms, as it seems they have never updated their game engine in the last 10 years since the release of Bloodborne. Their upcoming title however, the Duskbloods does show more promise as its trailer looked remarkably smooth with a 1080p 30fps performance that run unlike anything Fromsoft has put out so far. 

So, moving we just have to hope that Bandai Namco will fix the issues with this Switch 2 port because otherwise it would be a huge disservice to the game to release a subpar version of it and charge full price. I for one, intend to buy the game on the Switch 2 but I will certainly hold off on the reviewsbefore doing so, because I won't entertain buying unless it runs in an accetpable way. 

So, that's it for this one guys and I will be back soon with another post.

Until then its bye for now! 

 

Elden Ring Nightreign Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, so its time for another video game review and this one will be on the latest offering from Fromsoftware, which is the co-op RPG, Elden Ring Nightreign, which come out a few months ago and I did play for a while fairly recently.

So, how does this co-op game compare to the epic original RPG? Well, let's find out...

PREMISE

So, I won't say much about the story and say more on the premise of it instead in which you play as one of eight playable characters, who are known as Nightfarers, who's quest is to dispel the reign of night. You start the game as the character Wylder, who will have to fight many enemies in the realm similar to that of Limgrave in Elden Ring, which is now called Limvled. However, in order to progress in his mission, Wylder must join up with other characters to defeat powerful bosses known as Nightlords, who rule over Limveld over the space of 3 days. 

THOUGHTS

For the concept of the game as co-op, Elden Ring Nightreign holds a lot of promise and it can allow for some engaging battles with online players, as you try and progress through each run to fight the Nightlord bosses. However, this can also be very challenging due to the high number of enemies you deal with as well as not getting caught out by the engulfing night mist, which can quickly drain your HP. You will also have to battle through each run over the space of 3 days, with each day lasting about 14 minutes before you reach the final nightlord boss for that run. So, this is very much a fast paced game that does require a lot of team effort in order to get through it efficiently, which will vary based on the effectiveness of your team. Not to mention, this is a rogue-like game, where if you die, you need to start all over again with no checkpoints, which can be quite annoying but I will say more about that later.

GAMEPLAY: CO-OP & SOLO 

As for the gameplay, you have the choice of actually playing co-op with online players, which are invited in via matchmaking, or a group password can be enabled to allow friends to play together, which is considered the best way to play it as it allows for a better chance of survival and success. You can however also play the game solo, to try and get through the run but this will ultimately be a greater challenge when facing the bosses solo.

NIGHT MIST

Also as work through the run the world will slowly be engulfed by the night mist, which is similar to the effect you see in Fortnite, where getting caught in a shrinking zone can be fatal if you step outside it (not sure if I have that right!). So, this will happen a few minutes into each day and have to outrun the mist in order to survive, or you will die but you will still respawn again.

CHARACTERS

As for the characters there are eight playable ones in the game but you can only access six of them at the beginning and you need to complete two of the Nightlord bosses to access one and fight a boss version of the other. The characters are actually quite good fun to play with and Wylder is a solid starting choice as the default option as he can weild a number of weapons that can be dex or strength and he also has a cool unique ability that causes a large explosion as well as a grapple he can pull himself toward enemies with. Other characters include the Duchess, who is a dextreous spellblade, who uses swift weapons best and casts spells, who is very fast but she also has lower HP, the Guardian, who is quite the opposite and a human tank basically, who uses quality based weapons such as a halberd and the Executor, who weild a powerful katana as well as an additional sword for further damage. Then there Ironeye who is a more ranged option, as he uses a bow that can be useful when you want to not get too close to enemies.

You can also encounter these characters independently in the roundtable hold area of the game, which is the same central hub as to the one in Elden Ring, only its more delapidated looking and you can also get some dialogue from them. You can also change into each character from the hold itself, which will the default to showing your previous character back in the hold. 

WEAPONS AND LEVELS

As for weapons, the game offers some new ones that are specific to each character but most of the weapons found here are from the original game and are purely random based drops, which you can get when you kill enemies or break crates or open chests. As for the character weapons, Wydler uses a standard greatsword, the Duchess uses a magic infused dagger, the Guardian uses a Halberd and the Raider uses a Great axe. These weapons can be swapped out however at any time by picking up another one and you an hold up to six weapons at once. 

In regards to the levels, you will always start off at level 1 and you can progressively build your character up to level 15, which is the maximum you can reach during a run. Its obviously a good idea to try and build up your levels as much as you can as they will effect not only how much HP, endurance and FP you have but also what types of weapons you can access too. So, ideally by the time you reach the 3rd day of a run, its best to be near the max level as much as you can.

CURRENCY AND OUTFITS

As for the game's currency, things are a bit different here as you earn what's called Murk for each run, which will depend of course on how successful you were in the run and you will get a higher amount for completing the run. So, with this currency you can use it to purchase other items such as specific relics, that offer different attributes and abilities, as well as new outfits, one for the daytime and the other for night. These however aren't unlocked until you have completed the first two Nightlord bosses ot the game.

RELICS

Another key aspect of the game are the relics, which are items you can pick up throughout the world and you can equip them at the hold. Relics can offer different abilities ranging from adding specific skills to your starting weapon to boosting your stats such as strength, faith or intelligence by a point or two. The relics are also colour coded and come in different sizes with the larger ones being more effective than the smaller ones but specific ones can only be used with certain characters and not everyone can use the same relics.  

THE NIGHTLORDS 

As for the bossses, these are the Nightlords and there are eight of them to be found in the game although only seven of them are accessible to fight initially as the final one is unlocked later on. So, the Nightlords themselves offers quite a high level of challenge for players but they also each have a specific weakness, which can be exploited and can be read about at the Roundtable hold. So, its a good idea to pay attention to these weaknesses and find a weapon during your run that can help inflict a specific weakness e.g. poison or lightning. However, these bosses can only be fought on Day 3, so if you die before then, you need to start a whole new run. There are also updated versions of these bosses that are more difficult known as everdark bosses, and they offer a higher level of challenge but so far only three of these bosses have such a version of themselves.

GRAPHICS

Moving onto the graphics for the game, its the same engine as used for Elden Ring, so visuals are pretty much identical to what we've seen before and the game looks pretty good overall. So, the environments are more or less much the same in this adapted world of Limveld compared to the original Limgrave but there are still some differences in design but they still look pretty impressive. As for the character models, they all look pretty good too and similar to the ones in Elden Ring in terms of standard. There are still some frame rate issues however that I noticed on the PS5 version, similar to Elden Ring itself, its not entirely smooth but that's to be expected from a Fromsoft game I guess. 

MUSIC 

As for the music, it was composed by five different composers that all worked previously on Elden Ring such as Shoi Miyazawa, Tai Tomisawa and Yuka Kitmura and the music is pretty good overall and of course the usual standard we expect from From (so to speak!). I also quite like the music for the Roundtable Hold, which is a bit different from the original theme.

FLAWS 

As for flaws...yes Night Reign has a few worth a mention.

For starters, your success in this game is primarily based on how good a team you have on your side, and yes I can easily say I am not the best player in a co-op situation but I did play this game for over 25 hours and could NOT get back past the 3rd nightlord boss! So, if this game has one big flaw then for me its the rouge-like nature of it, as having to repeatedly do 40 minute runs to get a boss becomes tedious pretty quick. 

So, yeah this game can be really frustrating when you are being matched up with random players and in most cases I found the random players to be fine and worked well with them. However, this does bring me onto another issue, which is that the pace of the game is a bit too fast at times due to the limit, so its too easy to fall behind and get lost from your team mates as you try and progress. This is especially the case if you die at the hands of enemies or get caught in the might mist and you have to run around and find them again. 

Another is to do with the 3 day structure of the runs themselves, as at the end of each day you need to fight a big boss and the 2nd day can itself very tough and that means one thing, if you die, you need to start all over again. So, yeah ultimately the constant reptition of these runs does get pretty tiring and ultimately it becomes a buzz kill after a while. And there were quite a few runs where I managed to get to day 3 and the nightlord bosses have a TON of hp, which takes a long time to work them down and again if you die, you are at the mercy of your team mates reviving you, or if they die, you revive them and if not, then its game over. 

This brings me onto another issue, which is to do with the amount of time it can take to restore the health of a team mate, as it sometimes feels too long winded, although if you have a fast striking weapon it can help revive them quicker. However, in a big boss fight, taking too long to revive them really can be the difference between you losing your run or carrying on, as the boss could also take you out as well as you try and revive your team. So, yeah the whole revival mechanic is a pretty flawed one overall. 

The relic system also feels pretty flawed too, as they can help provide a variety of different effects such as boost your stats, hp, endurance, faith, intelligence etc, which is good but you can find so many and they are a mixed bag in how useful they are. The colour coding of them in the Roundtable hold is also a pain as certain characters can only use certain relics of a specific colour but you might have some relics of that colour that are not useful and you need one of another colour that can be used by another character but not the one you currently use. 

And last of all is to do with the alternate costumes that are available in them game for each different character, as the cost to buy them is ridiculously high, as you need at least 14,000 murk (the ga,e's currency) to buy the cheapest outfit alone and its hard to farm up so much murk per run. So, again, this is a pretty frustrating mechanic and the game punishes you with it pretty badly, if you are intent on getting all the outfits for each character, it will take you quite some time to do it! However, in the end, I gave up on playing this game after 25 hours of gameplay, so I never got past the 3rd Nightlord boss and lost interest in it by that time.  

So, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP 

So, to sum up, Elden Ring Nightreign can be a fun but also a frustrating experience as the co-op play can be enjoyable but can also quickly become a tedious chore given how successful you are in a run depending on how well your team work together and the RNG you get in terms of enemy and boss difficulty. The fast paced nature can also be fun but at the same annoying too, as you can all too easily get separated from your team mates, so you really are forced to try and keep up with them as much as possible. 

The graphics however are just as good as before in Elden Ring with good character models and the environments still look similar and impressive and the music score is also pretty good as you would expect from Fromsoft. Also, if you do get a good team on your side during a run, this can be a fun experience and quite satisfying when you do get a nightlord boss down. 

However, I do have to say for me, this is still the weakest From game to date overall, as its co-op gameplay really is dependent on how well your team gels together or and how lucky you are with the boss and enemy RNG. Its said to be best enjoyed also with friends, however alot of players don't necessarily have friends that are into Souls games (myself included) so that kind of scuppers them in that regard and that is how to get the best out of it, which is unfortunate. 

So, for me, Nightreign really is a pretty flawed if at times fun game, which has an intriguing concept but ultimately its one that's bound to frustrate and entertain you in equal measure. If you like this game, that's great and if you are good at co-op (unlike me lol!) then you are sure to enjoy this but for me, it was a fun for a while but after so many runs, it get's pretty samey and tiring to go through the same stuff over and over again 40 minutes or so at a time and for that, this game just doesn't cut it for me overall. It can be enjoyable but its far from perfect.   

So, I will rate this game:

7 out of 10

So, that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post.

Until then its bye for now! 

 

Doom Eternal Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I figured I would get another review done following up my review of the Switch 2 and review a game I've recently finished (just today!) on the platform, which is Doom Eternal, the sequel to the hugely successful 2016 Doom reboot. 

So, after the acclaim of the 2016 reboot, how does Doom Eternal fair??? Well, let's find out.

STORY 

So, I will say a bit about the plot but not too much as it begins the main playable character, the Doom Slayer, who sets out in his quest to kill three Hell priests, who are co-ordinating the demon invasion of Earth, which has heavily wiped out Earth's population. So, on his way he also reunites with an old ally, Samuel Hayden, a robotic droid, who previously betrayed the Slayer at the end of the first game, who guides him to the final priest and his ultimate quest to destroy an even bigger threat...

THOUGHTS

As a sequel to the Doom reboot of 2016, Doom Eternal is a very entertaining first person shooter, which has plenty of thick and fast action that will keep most players on their toes and can get pretty chaotic at times. Overall, I would also sat I prefer the sequel to the origial reboot, despite one or two issues, its a lot of fun and the crazy and gory combat has its own bizarre charm to it and the game also has a good amount of challenge to it as well.

GAMEPLAY

As for the gameplay, I will do the usual with my game reviews and split into sub-sections below.

MOVEMENT AND PLATFORMING

So, in this game, you can move pretty much as before, as the Slayer can run, jump, climb up onto areas but this time there is a heavier emphasis on platforming itself. So, here the Slayer has to jump between various areas to progress, which can invovle jumping from climbable wall sections to jump onto other walls to reach higher up platforms. This can involve making double jumps in the air but you can also perform mid-air dashes to reach further away platforms. There are also times, Slayer will have to punch out green labelled wall sections to progress as well that will lead into new areas. Some of these platform sections can also be time based and involve careful timing to avoid falling to your doom (I guess!). The platforming certainly isn't without its challenges and can result in a lot of trial and error but I will say more about that a bit later on!

COMBAT

As for the combat, you will have access to the usual weapons that are found in the Doom franchise such as the shotgun, chaingun, plasma rifle, rocket launcher and of course the BFG. You can also have access to other weapons such as the super shotgun, which has a built-in grapple called a meathook, which be used to grab onto enemies and can slingshot them. Then there is the Ballista, which fires out a powerful single blast and there is also a special weapon, the Unmakyr, which is a magical sword that can destroy most enemies in one hit (to quote the Fash Show here: nice!). As you play the game, you will also gain access to XP points that you can spend on your weapons to upgrade their features as well as boost the features of your suit that can enhance your HP and armour. 

As for other combat features, similar to the 2016 reboot, the Slayer an also perform glory kills, which are essentially really gory kills, as the Slayer will have a number of brutal finishing moves to take down his enemies. These can tend to be quite funny and over the top in their ridiculousness and there is also the include of a blood punch where Slayer can pulverise weaker enemies with one hit and stun stronger foes as well if not fully take them out. The Slayer can also use an attached blade to perform some of these kills on the demons, which can be both gruesome and at time hilarious to look at. Last of all is the chainsaw, which Slayer can perform kills on enemies with, who will drop weapons and health as a result. Overall the combat is certainly for the most part a lot of fun here as well pretty intense. 

ENEMIES

Moving onto the enemies, Eternal has no end of enemies here, as the Slayer will literally slay hoardes of them as he progress the game. These enemies will range from weak to very powerful and will feature most of the enemies to be found in the Doom series such as the imp, who throw fireballs at you, the Cacodemons, floating blob like creatures with one eye that fire projectiles at you as well the classic "Pinky" demon that charges at you. 

As for the newer enemies, there are the Mauraders, who are very quick (not to mention very annoying!) and can charge at you, using a shotgun and a powerful shield to block your attacks, as well as summon phantom dogs. Then there is the Doom Hunter, who is a cyborg demon that can fire canons at you, have a chainsaw arm and can also thrusters to move through the air. 

Other enemies that have returned are the Tyrant, who is a renamed version of the Cyberdemon, the Arachnatron, a spider-esque cyborg creature with a canon on it shead, the Revenant, an armoured skeleton with shouldered rocket launchers and lastly of course, the Arch-vile, who can ressurect and buff enemies. So, you will never go short of enemies in this game as there are plenty to be sure and they will offer plenty of challenge.

SENTINEL BATTERIES

Another feature new to the game are sentinel batteries, which the Slayer will pick up throughout the game and these can be used on the hub area, the Fotress of Doom, to unlock upgrades. These upgrades can either be for weapons or for armour, which similarly can be found throughout the game as you progress.  They can also allow access to new armour skins as well for Slayer to put on, if you fancy a change of outfit. 

FORTRESS OF DOOM

As for one of the key areas of the game, the Fortress of Doom is the central hub of the game and from here, Slayer will enter a portal to travel to his next destination. This area can also be explored to find items, armour and weapons, some of which can be unlocked with the use of the batteries as already mentioned. You can also use the fortress to revisit missions and try and cover stuff you might have missed on your first run. 

MULTIPLAYER MODE

The game also has its own multiplayer mode, which is named rather aptly Battlemode, which offers a 2v1 method of combat where two demons controlled by online players take on the Slayer. I have to say not being a big fan of multiplayer games, I haven't really checked this mode out myself but its there for anyone who does fancy a bit of PVP action.

GRAPHICS

Moving onto the game's graphics, well this is where things can be a mixed bag, as I played the game on the least graphically developed platform available for this game, which is the Switch 2, which runs under the backward compatible mode for the original Switch. So, unfortunately this means the graphics and frame rate do take quite a hit here, as you can only play at 720p (if it is even that more like 540p!) and 30fps and the textures are somewhat soft and lacking details The lack of 60fp is also an issue as you can miss out on the fine details of the combat and some of the glory kills as indistinct due to this. That said the Swtich 2 version does still run smoothly given its limitations, although this is more to do with it being a backward compatible version instead of being Switch 2's problem. Hopefully Nintendo or Bethesda one day will issue a Switch 2 update but we'll see. 

However, having viewed the game footage online on different platforms, more specifically the PS4, the game's graphics are indeed excellent and on other systems, e.g. Xbox and Playstation, this game looks great and looks like a completely different game. So, in the other console versions, this game has great character models as well for the enemies and the environments offer plenty of detail and variety and a fine colour scheme, which is more vibrant than Doom 3 for sure by comparison! So, its definitely best to play this game on PS4/5, Xbox or PC as you will be sure to appreciate it more. 

MUSIC

As for the music, the game features another soundtrack by Australian composer, Mick Gordon, who did the score for the first game and its the usual frantic mix of industrial metal and atmospheric synthesizers. So, the score itself is actually pretty good and has some good tracks in it that combine the insane crunching fast paced metal riffs and the more intense and gloomy sythnesizer tracks together very well. The game also features a catchy theme, which will forever stick with you every time you load up the game. 

FLAWS

As for flaws....yesss,  Doom Eternal is not perfect.

For, starters the biggest problem I have with this game is the inclusion of the platforming, which I thought at first was a nice touch but soon becomes apparent that it really has no place in a Doom game (well imho anyway!). So, yeah as you progress through the game, you will be forced to do a number of platform sections to reach the next area and it is way too easy to mess these up and fall to your eventual death (as you lose a bit of HP each time you fall). 

So, quite often these jumps require careful timing, as you need to do a mix of double jumping and mid-air dashing to reach a platform, which I more often than not missed! So, as the game went on, this got increasingly frustrating to deal with and it really slows down the pace of the game and at times even threatens to ruin the game itself. This is also really annoying, as it can force to redo sections of combat, you've already completed. So, yeah, the platforming is no fun and does NOT mix well in the Doom formula.

Another issue I had was to do with the difficulty level of the game, as it can be quite a stern challenge even at its lowest difficulty settings, which is "I'm too young to die" and was what I played it on. I knew going into this game however it would be difficult, as the Doom 2016 reboot was also quite tough even in "easy" mode. So, its fair to say I died an AWFUL LOT during my playthrough to various enemies, as the game really quickly turns into a s*** show as you are engulfed by enemies left, right and centre.

Then there is the issue to do with ammo availability, as most of the time when you run out, you have to chainsaw a nearby enemy to get them to drop ammo and at times health. This can prove also to be very frustrating because sometimes, the low level enemies are not available and if there are bigger enemies around only, you are pretty much screwed and need to start all over again to get some ammo. You will find quite a bit of ammo lying around in the game but there are times where it can also be a bit sparse and this can be a real problem. 

I also found at times the action in the game to be just a bit too frantic and chaotic to deal with as enemies really do come at you thick and fast and this no more true in the final boss fight of the game (which I won't mention the name of here). So, there are definitely moments where you don't know where to turn as you are surrounded from all angles, as you scramble to find a medkit or health items, you can sometimes get killed in the process by enemy onslaught that overwhelms you and this can be quite annoying to deal with.

And yes, I have to give one enemy a special mention in the flaws section and that is the Mauraders, these guys are an absolute pain in the ass! Yes, the lovely Mauraders are unquestionably the most annoying enemy in the game, as they are super fast and give you precious little attack windows and they also throw out these annoying phantom dogs at you. The Mauraders also have a large shield that can block your attacks, so your best to bet is to stun them with a super shotgun blast and blood punch them if possible. So, yeah these guys can be quite infuriating to deal with and are worth a mention in the flaws.  

And last of all, I would have to say that in terms of the game's story its not that compelling to follow and the game is lacking in any interesting characters with maybe the exception of Samuel Hayden, the robotic doctor that aids Slayer in his quest. In fact, it feels like the game had to have some sort of story to justify its longer runtime here but the story definitely feels largely redundant next to the game's action.  

So, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Doom Eternal is a very enjoyable action game, which offers plenty of fast paced and intense action as well as hoardes of enemies that offer up plenty of challenge throughout. The game also has excellent graphics (well except on the Switch 1/2 versions as they kind of suck visually on that platform!) and a solid metal soundtrack by the returning composer, Mick Gordon. It also offers plenty of customisation in combat options for your weapons and armour as well as additional side challenges. 

The game perfect and does have some issues, especially its hugely frustrating platform sections, which can be infuriating and really slow the pace of the game down and have no real place IN a Doom game in the first place. The game's combat can also get a bit too hectic at times to follow and the difficulty level is quite punishing even on its lowest setting!  However, if you can forgive the game its flaws, there is still much to commend it and its well worth a look. 

So, I will rate Doom Eternal:

8.5 out of 10 

So, that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post.

Until then its bye for now!   

Nintendo Switch 2 & July Nintendo Direct Thoughts

 

 

 

 

 

Well, for this post I thought I would do something a bit different, as I fairly recently bought a Switch 2, which is the successor to Nintendo's original console, which is of course hybrid console that can be handheld and also docked to use on a TV or monitor. 

So, I thought I would share my thoughts on the console and also the recent Nintendo direct that was released yesterday (at the time of posting or writing this).

THOUGHTS ON THE CONSOLE 

Well, as for the console itself, I am quite impressed with the Switch 2 overall with its fairly big screen and also the joy cons, which I found quite unique having not owned the first Switch console. However, I have largely used the console docked on my TV and with the Pro 2 controller, which is an excellent controller albeit a bit too pricey at £75 (how much??!!). I know a large appeal of the console is use it as a handheld but I found it a bit large and unweildy for that purpose athough I have used it with the stand and the joy cons separate and quite enjoyed it that way.

THE SCREEN  

I also liked the screen, which is quite colourful and fairly vivid although the screen itself is actually very prone to scratches, so I instantly bought a screen protector to prevent this from happening, which can be seen a drawback of the console. Alot of people also have criticised the screen for appearing to suffer from motion blur a little despsite being 120hz but again there are hardly any games that currently support this resolution.

NVIDIA's DLSS  

The console does however boast the usage of Nvidia's DLSS technology however it is a more scaled down version of the PC variant of the technology. DLSS also appears in very few Switch 2 games so far with only Hogwarts and the racer game, Fast Fusion coming to mind that support it. What is more confusing however is there are still games that utilise AMD's FSR upscaling tech and its earliest variant, FSR 1, which is easily the worst version of FSR. I found this puzzling however that an Nvidia powered console would even use FSR in the first place but oh well! I just hope future Switch 2 games will provide further support for DLSS however and make improvements to image quality. 

GPU POWER COMPARISON TO PS4

One notable thing about this console however is that doesn't come near the power of the current gen consoles with Sony and Microsoft and only has a fraction of the Series X and PS5, which given its current price point at almost £400 makes it a bit too expensive. It does however sit somewhere between the power of the PS4 and PS4 Pro and comes fairly close in power to the Series S and despite the lack of horsepower compared to the current offerings, I still found the Switch 2 to be enticing enough all the same mainly as I am a big fan of playing games across different platforms. Despite all this though, we are still very early into the life cycle of the Switch 2, so it remains to be see how it will fair with future games and past releases that are yet to be upgraded for the new console or more existing third party games coming to the Switch 2.

USER INTERFACE 

As for the system's use interface, I quite like the layout of the Switch 2 as its quite logical and looks pleasant enough and is pretty easy to navigate. The Nintendo eShop is also quite good for browsing with some decent offers on sale for plenty of popular titles even if some of them are quite pricey at standard retail price. I did think the online account prices were actually pretty reasonable and quite cheap compared to other platforms offering a year's worth at £17.99, which is excellent value although I am aware for add ons, you do pay a bit more. The news section I felt wasn't the best, as I didn't provide any updates on future Nintendo directs and in fact it didn't even notify me of one until AFTER the fact (Well, I think!).

GAMING PERFORMANCE 

As for the game performance of the Switch 2, so far I have to say I am fairly pleased with it but there is still definitely room for improvement and this comes down to the limitation of the original Switch's hardware and backward compatibility. However in the Switch 2's defence, it does a pretty solid job at boosting the performance of backward compatible titles and any games that run poorly on the original console are now running much smoother. However, this also highlights an issue to do with many titles, which are often locked at 30fps such as Doom Eternal, the GTA trilogy, Dark Souls Remastered and the Witcher 3 to name a few that I have tried so far, plus some of these titles are still only at 720p. There are thankfully still some games that have an unlocked framte rate, which now run much smoother and are close to or even locked at 60fps such as Resident Evil 5 and Doom 3 that I tried that are very smooth and look impressive at 1080p. I also tried Darksiders III, which runs very well at close to 60fps with one or two minor dips but still at 720p. 

However, I would have to say that this brings me to an issue with the Switch 2 and backward compatibility being an issue in itself as there are very few Switch 1 games that offer updates other than a few exclusive titles such as the Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. So, this leaves many games waiting for a 60fps patch update or even a resolution bump and this could take possibly months to ultimately update in order to take advantage of the Switch 2's improved hardware, which is pretty frustrating when you are left with the Switch 1 version for so many existing games. In fact I've played so many games at 30fps on this console, I've almost forgotten what 60fps looks like lol(!) and that is the most annoying part as this console is so much more capable than the original but its being held back by the limitations of its predecessor. To be fair from what I understand some games do run locked at 60fps and even 1080p such as the Tomb Raider remastered games and also the Prince of Persia Lost Crown on the original Switch.  

So, in some cases, the Switch 2 is pretty impressive in its ability to brute force previous games limited by the original Switch but in other cases its still handicapped by them. So, ultimately moving forward we are going to need to be patient and see if Nintendo will provide updates and patches for its existing catalog. However, there were reports in the past that Nintendo was not giving out software developments kits (or SDKs) to some developers, which would prevent them from being able to port their games to the Switch 2 or provide updates for this, which might explain one or two things regarding the lack of updates.

So, overall I am impressed with the Switch 2 but we are still too early in its life cycle at this stage to fully appreciate its capabilities and also the current catalogue for specific Switch 2 games is still pretty sparse. In time hopefully this will change but in the meantime, I think we will need to be patient for the console to reach its potential. 

JULY NINTENDO DIRECT THOUGHTS

Moving onto the Nintendo direct, which was broadcast on 31 July, it gave a short presentation, which was a partner based one rather than a general one, so there werent any Nintendo exclusive titles mentioned (well maybe one).

However, despite much hype being around this direct, it turned out to be a big disappointment personally and many Nintendo fans alike were frustrated by the lack of release dates for some previous titles mentioned in the opening direct for the console. The direct itself instead focused on titles I was mostly not interested in such as Dragonball Sparking Zero, Adventures of Elliot, Once Upon a Katamari and camp fire simulator called Chillin by the Fire all of which had graphics that did not showcase the power of the Switch 2. Then there were tiles like EA Madden NFL 26 and NBA Bouce, which again were not really interesting to me, as I am not keen on sports games. 

To be fair there were still some games of interest such as the Yakuza games, which Nintendo are keen tio port the whole Yakuza series over to the Switch 2 and this one definitely looked impressive visually and sign of what the Switch 2 can do. Star Wars Outlaws also might be worth a look as a game but I have to admit visually it looked pretty underwhelming and rather soft as they must have had to make some signigicant cutbacks to its visuals to scale it onto the Switch 2, highlighting the new console still has its limitations. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisoment looks intriguing as its part of the Zelda world and an RPG but it didn't even have a release date! Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, a 2D side scrolling action game looks pretty impressive as well. Last of all is Chronos: New Dawn, which is a sci-fi horror game that has Dead Space vibes and looks pretty impressive and was the title that really intriguied me the most, so I might check that out sometime once its out in September.

However, the biggest disappointment of this direct was the lack of release dates for already confirmed games specifically the likes of Elden Ring, Final Fantasy VII and the already mentioned Hyrule, Age of Imprisonment. It was also disappointing to not see some of the rumours confirmed such as The Witcher 3 getting its Switch 2 update, which would have been nice as well as the addition of potential other games like Death Stranding although Microsoft are to confirm some games coming to the Switch 2 soon as well as the PS5, so that would be separate to the directs. There is to be a reported general direct happening in September though, so I guess we might get release dates for these games by then but we'll just have to wait. But this also does raise the possibility of these games even being pushed back to next year instead depending on what is causing the delays.  

So, overall I felt this direct was really lacklustre a few interesting titles and its also frustrating to see the lack of existing 3rd party Switch games not get updates although I guess they do want to target their own platform exclusives first before prioritising 3rd party titles. But for me personally, I felt the majority of this direct might as well have been aimed solely at the Switch 1 rather than the Switch 2, as there wasn't a great deal other than a few titles that appeared to promote the Switch 2's capabilities and in the end it left me disappointed. If however you were excited by what was on offer here overall, that's great but for me, like many other people, I just hoped for more.

Anyway, so that's it for my thoughts on the Switch 2 and the Nintendo direct and I will be back soon with another review post of sorts.

So, until then its bye for now! 

Doom 3 Review (Revisted)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right, so apologies for the lack of posts this month, as I've been busy with other stuff but I thought I would get a quick post done before August comes round. 

So, I've been pretty pre-occupied lately with my Nintendo Switch 2, which I got last month and I've been playing a number of older games on it and one such game I played was Doom 3, the BFG edition featuring the DLCs also. So, having done a review of this five years ago, I figured I would update it, as I've just finished replaying Doom 3.

So, let's take a look and see how this game fairs 21 years on from its original release...

And as I will mention some of the story a warning is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!  

STORY  

So the game is set in the year 2145 and it takes place on Mars, which starts with an un-named marine, who arrives at the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) base on the planet.  Meanwhile a councilman from Earth, Elliott Swann (voiced by Charles Dennis) arrives at the base to meet with Dr Malcolm Bertruger (Philip L.Clarke) as there have been complaints about incidents that have taken place on the base.  Bertruger's research has involved unnatural experiments with teleportation. 

Meanwhile the marine meets with Sergeant Kelly (Neil Ross), who sends the marine to find a scientist on the base who has gone missing.  The marine soon finds the scientist, who tells him about Bertruger's experiments and the dangers involved and that he is trying to send out a message to the UAC base on Earth to warn them about this.  However as a result of another teleportation, a shockwave hits the base, and transforms the scientist into a zombie, who the marine kills.  The marine is then forced to deal with the rest of the base staff and soldiers, who have mostly been turned into zombies as well.

As the marine makes his way through the base, he also encounters demons of different kinds, coming through portals, which he fends off with his weapons.  The marine manages to make his way to a comm system where he receives a message from Kelly telling him to try and send out a distress call to the UAC on Earth.  However Swann has other ideas as he tries to prevent anyone from sending out messages to Earth as he believes the situation should be contained on Mars.  Based on the player's decision the marine will face the choice of either listening to Kelly, and sending the message or to Swann and not sending the message, which is where the game will go in two slightly different directions. 

As the marine progresses through the delta labs of the base, he receives a message from Bertruger, who tells him that he is co-operating with the forces from Hell, in order to prepare for the invasion of Earth.  From here the marine is forced to continue his battle against the hordes of demons and against Bertruger in his attempts to destroy the Earth, as the fate of humanity lies in his hands...

THOUGHTS

As a long awaited sequel to Doom II, Doom 3 certainly delivered the goods, as its complete graphical revamp of the series brought it up to date superbly.

The gameplay of course remains fairly faithful to the original as the marine you simply run around, shooting anything that moves, and picking up key cards to access new rooms, and to access vents and lockers containing ammo and equipment. And one of the main differences to the original games lies in its use of dark shadow and it utilises enhanced lighting techniques to increase the intense atmosphere of the game, as alot of the game is pretty darky lit, it allows for the player to be immersed in its creepy world, as baddies can be all around you and wouldn't even know it, or you don't know it until you hear the groans or screeches. And with that all in mind it adds up to a very intense and unsettling experience and a real jump scare fest, as you never know who is round the corner. 

GAMEPLAY

Gameplay wise the game isn't too different from the original games as its a case of run round and shoot anything that moves with some very cool weaponry. There are a few more aspects to the game this time however, so I will go into them more below.  

MISSION OBJECTIVES 

So, Doom 3 now has more explicit game objectives, which mainly comprise of finding key cards to open doors that require security access, or opening vents to crawl through or talking to NPC's to access door codes and key cards or to carry out other objectives. The objectives are quite basic in themselves and serve simpy as a means for progression. 

PDA AND VOICE AND EMAIL LOGS 

The game also features the use of a PDA (personal data assistant) system where the marine will pick up key cards with personnel's names on them and attached with that there will be audio logs that give background details to the story aswell as codes for doors and storage lockers that store health and ammo. So there are numerous key cards that can be used by the PDA throughout the game, which he will need to pick up to progress. You can also scan found PDAs for emails that may contain useful info as well such as codes for storage lockers. 

WEAPONS 

The games arsenal is also quite impressive as you have pretty much the same array of weapons from the first two games, but they look great graphically and are easy to use.  The weapons feature a hand gun, shotgun, machine gun, minigun, plasma rifle, rocket launcher and of course the BFG (and we all know what that stands for!).  There is also plenty of ammo strewn throughout the game so you will never normally run out of ammo in a hurry, although the baddies can come thick and fast so there will be times will you might run a bit low on ammo so you need to be careful at times but you should usually not go short on ammo

SOUL CUBE (KIND OF SPOILER!) 

The game also features a new weapon of sorts in the form of the Soul Cube, which the marine can access later on in the game once they have travelled to Hell, which is easily the best level of game and is refreshingly very different looking from the other levels. The Soul Cube is acutally quite an OP (overpowered) device in that it can demolish any single enemy in one foul swoop, which makes it very handy indeed! It also kind of helps that the cube has a pretty sexy female voice in a way even if it does sound a little creepy too but I never got tired of hearing it say "use us!" whenever the prompt to use it pops up.     

FLASHLIGHT

The marine also has access to a flashlight that will let him see in the dark as there are plenty of dark and dimly lit areas for sure in Doom 3! However in the BFG edition of the game, the flashlight is now mounted onto the marine's shoulder as before you had to swap between your light and weapon to use it, which was a bit annoying, so its a welcome change to use the light and both your weapon simultaneously. The only drawback is that the flashlight in the BFG edition has limited charge and does drain quickly before you let it recharge again. 

ENEMIES 
 
Then of course we have the enemies that feature many of the original foes in Doom I and II and the have been brought back really well starting with the imps, who hurl fireballs at you like they are throwing a baseball, who have a high pitched whine.  There are also the Cacodemons (who still give me the creeps from the original!) who also fire big fireballs at you (a popular weapon in hell I'd say!) and float around. And then we got much stronger enemies such as the Hell Knights, who are massive and probably the toughest of the enemies in the game and they can seriously chunk your health! 

Other enemies also feature the Revenants, who are walking armoured skeletons with rocket launchers attached and the Mancubus who are large blobs with attached flame throwers who featured in Doom II.  Some of the new enemies feature mutated soldiers, who have a long retractable arm that can attack you, large head spiders who can lash out and attack you and freaked me out more than any other enemy in the game. Then of course there are the babies with attached wings that jump out at you, who are without a doubt one of the most horrible baddies in any game! I'm sure John Carmack, the creator of the Doom series is a decent guy but I don't know what he was thinking when he made THIS enemy!

However it definitely has to be said that Doom 3 has no shortage of enemies and there is plenty of variety too.   

GRAPHICS

As for the game's visuals well even 21 years on, Doom 3 still looks pretty awesome for the most part with nicely textured environments and great looking (or creepy) enemies and its use of lighting is very effective also.

The only real drawbacks to the graphics are some dated looking gory details such as bloodied body parts lying about that look naff and of course the character models for the humans look a bit daft and very unrealistic! In fact you could argue that humans in the game look far weirder than the enemies as they have somewhat flattened heads and weird eyes!  So while certain aspects of the graphics look a bit dated, Doom 3 still looks great for its day and holds up quite well today.

MUSIC

As for the music, Doom 3 has a pretty good score, which is largely very creepy and atmospheric sounding by Clint Walsh and ex-Nine Inch Nails drummer, Chris Vrenna, who composed the excellent theme tune for the game. Walsh wrote the soundtrack along with Vrenna as the two of them together were members of the band, Tweaker although it was originaly planned for Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails to write the soundtrack, which never came to fruition. Despite this though, it is still a very good score that nails (non pun intended!) the tone of the game perfectly.

VOICE ACTING

And lastly there is of course the voice acting of Doom 3, which is very good overall as the voice cast all do a fine job. Of course it has to be said that the marine you play does not have any dialogue whatsoever, so it comes down to the other NPCs in the game to deliver the game's dialogue.

Starting with Neil Ross who does very well in his role as Sgt Kelly, who is the marine's commanding officer, who the marine keeps in constant contact with throughout most of the game. Philip L. Clarke also delivers an excellent performance as the sinister Dr Bertruger, who is the mastermind behind the demon invasions on Mars and main antagonist of the game. Last of all is Charles Dennis who is excellent in his role as Counsellor Elliot Swan, who is opposed to Bertruger's evil plans and tries to put a stop to them.

FLAWS 

So, flaws...does Doom 3 have any?  Well, yeah there are some.

And for starters I would say that the gameplay can tend to get a bit monotonous after a while, and the level design is at times a bit samey too with so many levels having the same dark corridors, ladders and stairs.  And the gameplay mainly consists of the marine just following the formulaic pattern of just running about shooting anything in his way, grabbing key cards, pdf files, and CDs to gather information, and not much beyond that.  However the intense thick and fast action in the game does help to overcome that for the most part and doesn't spoil the overall experience.

There was also an issue with the controls in the original PC version, where you couldn't hold a weapon and the flashlight at the same time, as you had to access one at a time. However this was fixed for the BFG edition, as I mentioned earlier that the player now has the flashlight attached to his shoulder of the marine's outfit, which he can turn on and off and still use his gun at the same time but the only drawback is the light's charge only lasts for so long before it needs to recharge. 

Another criticism that can be levelled at the game is that most of the enemies can be killed with fair ease, especially some of the ones such as the demon dogs with the robotic legs, which are pretty big in size, yet an imp can still take a few more shots to kill!  Naturally the bigger baddies such as the hell knights, and the mancubus are pretty tough to eliminate but quite a few of them can be dispatched with just one or two shots from your shotgun. However this will all change of course when you increase the game's difficulty but for most part I would say that Doom 3 isn't too difficult, which some fans might find a negative. 

And finally another flaw that can be levelled at the game is the lack of a map in the inventory screen, as it would be good if it gave you a map of each level, as there are times where you can get lost wandering around the corridors at times, trying to feel your way through the level, which means you are running blind, you can eventually get through the level fine but it can take a while based on what level you are doing.  In fact even Doom II had maps for each level, so its bizarre they don't have that in Doom 3 so it kind of feels like a backward step here but maybe its the game makers way of not wanting to hold your hand in working your ways through the levels.

Another issue relates specifically to the BFG edition of the game, which is the inclusion of forced autosaves at key points in the game, which are pretty annoying as there are times they can actually hinder your progress rather than help. And the reason being is because you might get to an autosave at a point where you are low on health or ammo and this might force you to load back in a previous save in order to compensate. So, for this reason I think the autosaves were a bad idea and should have been taken out of the BFG edition of the game. 

UPDATE: As it turns out however, you can actually turn the autosave feature off in the settings, so this thankfully sorts this annoying issue out. 

And last of all I felt that the inclusion of the soul cube device was a bit of a cheat in a way as it actually trivialised the later boss fights in the game as you can use it to attack the bosses and before you know it, they would be destroyed as a result! However I can't deny that the soul cube is a very useful tool in the game as it allows you to kill single enemies and it restores your lost health as a result, so its not all bad but in some ways it definitely feels like a cheating device that weakens the challenge of the game. 

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP 
 
So, to sum up after 21 years, Doom 3 still remains a thoroughly entertaining, intense and creepy experience and I still prefer it over the reboot Doom game that came in 2016, which I didn't like as much but to be fair, I will try and give Doom Eternal a go quite soon. And even though the game is a bit repetitve in terms of its gameplay and level design, on replaying it again I didn't mind and still had a blast with it and felt I wanted to play it all the way through, which I always think is a mark of a great game.

So, combine the game's great action, weapons, creepy enemies and chilling atmosphere, you have a real classic on your hands, which after all this time still stands up for me years on. 

So, I will rate Doom 3:

9.5 out of 10

So, that's it for this one guys and I will be back soon with another post next month.

Until then its bye for now!