Dimension Hopping: Sortof... Pokemon Omega Ruby Review

A remake of Pokemon Ruby has been a long time coming. For the uninitiated, the original Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire came out in 2003 on the Gameboy Advance. 

They were the third in the series of games and introduced a new generation of 100 Pokemon for players to catch and train. The remakes Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were released last month on the Nintendo 3DS

While the layout of the game is 95% the same, it has been upgraded to a full 3D game. So even if you have played the originals like myself it does have a completely different look. The graphics still hold the same bright colours and anime style of the previous games and dare I say it…the cartoons. But the upgraded graphics is definitely worth the pennies you pay for the games. 

Something that I don’t quite understand is why only certain parts of the game utilise the 3DS’s full 3D mode. If you don’t own this console, this allows the game to appear like it is leaping off the screen - like a 3D television. Only Pokemon battles and select parts of the main game (roaming around the landscape) use this feature. 

I’m not sure why that is but it’s disappointing. Pokemon games have been criticised in the past for not keeping up with the graphics of the console successive titles have been realised on. Between the original two generations on the Gameboy Colour and moving onto the Gameboy Advance, there was very little change in quality of graphics or gameplay itself. 

As for game play, the fundamentals are the same: you catch Pokemon, you train them and battle them to progress further in the game. Some new elements have been added to the remakes, there’s much more emphasis on becoming close with your Pokemon - this is done by petting, feeding them and playing mini games. There is also a new form of evolution which certain characters can achieve in battle later on in the game and some new areas. 

There’s a lot to do besides the main game, so there is enough to keep players busy if they tire of battling. The game is very pretty and there is enough here to keep old and new players alike entertained. 

Omega Ruby gets 7/10.

Finding the Vault: Borderlands Game Review

With the recent release of the new Borderlands game, The Pre-sequel, I’ve decided to have a shot at the original 2009 game. Not to be confused with the southern region of Scotland that shares a similar name (The Borders), the game drops you on a desert planet called Pandora. 

After selecting one of four characters, who all specialise in different weaponry, you then must begin your search for a mythical alien bunker called The Vault.

If you’re after a story driven game then you’re best looking elsewhere as that is pretty much the extent of it in Borderlands. You have to do certain missions and speak to certain people to move the story a long but they do not say much and there is definitely no complicated subplots going on in this desert. 

Borderlands is a first person shooter and if you’re into the genre this will be right up your street. I found it was very enjoyable to play with friends as a team shooter. However, while Borderlands has a wide range of missions for you to play besides the main story, they are all very samey. As a result the game can be very repetitive at times. 

But it has some nice cartoony graphics and the music is good, and so are the controls. This is a good one to play with friends rather than go it alone. 

Borderlands gets 7/10.

OUT NOW: The Boy Who Played With Stars

Glaswegian Hayley Foster has spent the last two years sharing a flat with her best friend Alex. Unbeknown to the rest of the world Alex is in fact Hayley’s guardian angel. But their attempts to live quietly were shattered when an old enemy returned to their lives and continues to hound them at every turn.

Following on directly from the ending of Crashing Down to Earth, the final part of the Stars and Satellites series sees Alex trying to stop his fallen brother Gabriel from killing Hayley and everyone close to him, while facing up to the horrific secret that has haunted him for millennia. 

The Boy Who Played With Stars is available on ebook format from Amazon here.

Assassin's Creed Unity Review

It's November again and as inevitable as Christmas coming our way, Ubisoft have released yet another Assassin's Creed game. But why have one when you can have two this time? One (Assassin's Creed Rogue) is an Xbox 360 only game focusing on pirating and the other (Assassin's Creed Unity) is only for the new generation consoles, namely the Xbox One and Playstation Four.

For this review we will be focusing solely on the latter which is set during the French Revolution. For those uninitiated with the series, Assassin's Creed is a game series that follows the eternal war between two factions of humanity, the Assassin's and the Templars. You play as an assassin (yes, it's hard to believe that they're the good guys when I describe it like that).

In Unity you play as Arno, and orphaned aristrocrat (at least I think he is), who grows up to be a waste of space. But after being accused of murder and thrown into the Bastille, and learning of the Assassin's Brotherhood - who Arno's father worked for - you begin your life training to become a master assassin while trying to unravel the mystery of who killed your father and why.

Unity makes a welcome return to the core gameplay I loved in previous titles, namely the stealth and the endless freerunning over rooftops as far as the eye can see. More recent titles like Creed 3 and Black Flag scrapped this to focus the games on other things, but for me it always left the impression that both were missing something. Besides the reintroduction of all the freerunning though, there is not really much new weaponwise or movewise brought to Unity.

Visually you can also see a clear difference in the definition and detail between Unity and older titles. The detail on the buildings and the quality of the characters faces are most notable. Even very recent Creed games like Black Flag, which only came out last year, still suffered from what I like to call "cardboard box" head characters.

The multiplayer mode has had the biggest facelift. While playing the single-player mode you can join mini missions with either friends or random players. There is a wide range of different missions and playing them can really help towards upgrades to your character in the single player game. In previous games I found the multiplayer was often repetitive and got boring very quickly.

But sadly, besides the multiplayer, Unity has not really brought anything new to the table. This is a good game with great visuals and a lot of play in it, but it does rely a little too heavily on its core mechanics rather than trying new things. Like many other reviewers I really wish this game was held back in development for a few more months as the number of glitches it had on the first day of playing was inexcusable.

It gets 7/10. 

Alien Isolation: First Impressions

The game I’m looking at this week comes from a sci-fi series that everyone is familiar with…not unless you’ve lived in a cave on a remote island for the last four decades with bees in your ears.

Anyway enough about bees. The game I’m looking at this week is Alien Isolation. I still haven’t finished this yet so I’m going to be giving a rare first impressions review of it instead. 

Basically the story is set 15 years after the events of the original film. You play Amanda Ripley (Ripley’s grown-up daughter) who is sent to a distant space station to collect the flight recorder of her mother’s missing ship, the Nostromo. However, when you arrive it quickly becomes apparent that something is very wrong on the station. The game then becomes a race to retrieve the flight recorded and escape with your life before the alien gets you. 

Alien Isolation is genuinely terrifying. You cannot kill the alien, regardless of whatever new goodies you find as your progress. You must be quiet and you must be sneaky at all times while trying to work your way around a predominantly dark environment and also get by rogue androids - the Working Joes - and jumpy, armed survivors. The sounds are well timed, the jump scares are spot on and the randomness of the alien’s appearance will keep you on edge. 

Tune in soon to get my full review of the game.

To the Front Line: Fury Movie Review

Not for the faint hearted, Fury is full on with blood, death and gore from the opening credits. Starring Brad Pitt, it tells the story of a group of ordinary soldiers on the front line in Germany in April 1945, just months before the end of the Second World War. 

The movie opens with Staff Sergeant Don Collier (Pitt) having to come to terms with his ill-equipped and ill-prepared replacement assistant driver and gunner after his original crew member is killed in battle. The replacement is Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman), a typist who has never even been inside a tank before. 

The film is much a story about Norman becoming the soldier he’s expected to be and the rest of the crew coming to accept him in some of the most terrifying and difficult environments anyone could ever face. I felt the movie tried hard with this but it did struggle. There is a lot of raw emotion and great acting, especially from Pitt and Lerman. Pitt is exceptional as the Sergeant on the verge of breaking down but struggling to keep it together for his crew. 

However, the character development is a little paltry despite some good performances and is easily overshadowed by the war itself. The fight scenes are gripping viewing, brutal, relentless and bloody; a believable testament to the realities of war. The sets are also very impressive. Purely judging this as a war film, Fury is a great two hour flick. 

It gets 8/10.

Stick em up: Heavy Bullets Review

This week I have been playing the slightly trippy first person maze shooter that is Heavy Bullets. The game premise is simple enough. Armed with a gun you must make your way safely through eight monster-infested levels to the finish. 

While it sounds easy you have a limited number of bullets and very limited health. If you die at any point you must restart from the first level again. If you think practising the levels and learning where all the enemies are will help you succeed, think again. The levels change every time you play, adding a lot of re-playability to Heavy Bullets. 

The graphics themselves have a retro look, like an early 90s 3D computer game. However, the corridors, enemies and elements are all garish and movement is much more fluid than those found in the old PC games Heavy Bullets pays homage to. 

 

Weapons are available and you can deposit cash into a bank and it will be available to you even if you die and start again. If you save up a lot of cash and buy weapons and health it can make the game a lot easier.

For a simple game with simple sound effects and graphics, Heavy Bullets is quite addictive.

It is available on Steam.