Name: Gran Turismo Sport

Developer: Polyphony Digital

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Released: 18, October 2017

Platforms: PlayStation 4

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

Acquired: This review is based on a self bought copy of the game

Gran Turismo returns once more, but with a bigger competition than there was 20 years ago, does it have what it takes to keep up with the others?

Gran Turismo arrived on 23, December 1997 in Japan and 12, May 1998 in Europe on the original PlayStation. And since release this series have been known for their details on the cars and for solid gameplay through the years. But with all the competition there is you have to evolve to keep up.

Graphics

Gran Turismo Sport really delivers when it comes to graphics and details, and is one of the best looking car games in recent time. This may not come as shock since Gran Turismo has always been known for it. It’s smooth and has some great colors. I played it on a regular PS4 and there is nothing that I know of to complain about it. I haven’t experience any drop in framerate or any thing like that. In VR Tour which is the VR mode details has been slightly reduced to maintain steady framerate during races. But it still looks good, and the interior in cars are excellent and in VR you will be amazed of the level in details of the cars.

10/10

Controls

Gran Turismo Sport is more a simulator when it comes to the controls. But also feeling familiar to it’s previous instalments. Cars feels heavy and will slide if pushing them to hard. Steering can be tricky if not used carefully, and can feel a bit unresponsive on lowest settings. You will have to practice a lot to get known with every car, and how to control them.

7/10

Gameplay

Gameplay is where I felt the most conflicted and was not certain if i liked it or not. Was it the nostalgia that did this maybe.

First off the cars feels great but can be really difficult to control because of the physics, there is a lot of assists to turn on to help you. But many want to play without any assists and that can be difficult to handle the car. The cars spin out easy and is hard to control so unless you are driving a 4WD you will have to get used to spin out of the track. At least with a controller it is difficult and I think it’s weird there’s almost none options to calibrate/tune the controls except for steering sensitivity. Project Cars really showed how to implement that and give players the option to how they want it. Also the counter-steering is to brutal even with assist on, even with a slight steering correction the rears jumps out and you spin out. But if you want you can just turn on all assists and just hold the acceleration and the game do the rest for you.

Rally returns aswell but it’s very limited with tracks and cars. It is a nice break from racing on tarmac, but it doesn’t give much. The cars just feels slippery when driving on gravel so you are just sliding from side to side to get through.

Then the most important part the cars.

It’s weird that there is only 170 cars available at the moment, when Gran Turismo 5 had over 1000 cars. And it feels a bit thin comparing to Forza 7 which has over 700 cars, there is announced more cars to come but at the moment it is lacking so much in the car selection. Also because almost every manufacturer has just the same car with different classes.

That applies to the tracks also with it’s 17, opposite GT5 that had 100. Every track has different variations to them  in time of day and some of them the weather.

The relatively small selection had not been so bad if the game had offered a proper campaign mode with leagues and tournaments, but at the same time. Instead, everything is getting a variety of training modes and challenges, which despite being educated are not far enough to make up for decent traditional cups. I want to win the trophies and achieve real victory, not a golden disco-ball.

One thing people maybe will have a reaction to, is that you will not be able to play the single player unless you are connected to the internet. The arcade mode is all available offline. For a game that does not seem to be a full-fledged Gran Turismo title, it’s completely incomprehensible that Sport in fact a online-only game.

Despite a little optimal single player mode, Polyphony has fortunately not introduced real-time microtransactions. In return, we get some different resources that can be collected and used on various items.

By running and winning races you will receive Credits. This is the currency of the game and lets us buy flickering new cars. How much you get per race depends not surprisingly on how well you do it. In addition to Credits, we have «Milage Points», a currency that you can switch to special items like new outfits for the avatar and modifications to your car. Finally, we have «Distance Driven», which tells us how far we’ve driven, which helps to unlock other «achievements». Virtually all of this also helps increase your profile level, which will offer prices like new cars and lanes available in arcade mode.

Gran Turismo Sport delivers a VR mode as mentioned called VR Tour, that is compatible with the PSVR. it is a fun experience but it is not a really deep mode. It’s only a 1vs1 duel against the AI,where you race against each other. You also have showroom, where you can take a look on your cars. But you can only look at it from the outside which is weird, when they have made cars so detailed.

VR is a fun mode to try, but it is not enough to give people a reason to buy PSVR just for that.

6/10

Multiplayer

The multiplayer offers a mode where you can play without risk with friends and unfamiliar, but the real fun is to be found in Sports mode. Here you will find exclusively rated races, but they stand out by requiring you to write up on races that take place a certain number of times per hour. Everyday there are three such races that run over and over again, and there will be official tournaments in the future. However, I wonder why there are only three different races at a time, because one has to wait around twenty minutes from a race start to the next of the same kind of beginner, it will be a while to wait if you want to drive the same race time after time – something I think is quite fine because it takes time to get to know both cars and courts.

Gran Turismo Sport puts a lot of emphasis on sporting behavior. The game is forcing you to watch two YouTube videos on how to behave.

The focus on sporting behavior is reflected in being punished when crashing and sabotaging the opponents, as well as trying to cut turns by driving on the outside of the road. It’s a philosophy I like very well, but still needs to be implemented right so as not to spoil the experience. So far, this only works a few groves. For although it is good and right that those who sabotage others are punished, the system often makes mistakes of who it is who creates nausea. It’s annoying to be penalized if you’re the one who gets pushed away, even the smallest penalty seconds can ruin a race.

7/10

Replay value

Car games in general can have a lot of replay value because of their genre. And the same can be said about Gran Turismo. You can always just pick a car and drive offline racing for hours. Or head in Sport mode and drive against others. So it makes it easy to just pick up and play whenever you want.

8/10

Name: Grimoire: Manastorm
Developer: Omniconnection
Publisher: Omniconnection
Release date: 26th of October, 2017
Platforms: PC
Reviewed on: PC
Acquired: The developers provided us access to all classes for free.

I knew very little when it came to Grimoire: Manastorm other than it being a free-to-play FPS. When I heard there was magic involved, my interest definitely grew – so how did the game cope with my interest?

Story

I did not see any story in-game whatsoever, but according to the game’s website this is the situation;

“The northern land of Futhark is home to two great houses locked in a bitter struggle. As ruin rises from the south, each vies for the Grimoire, a powerful artifact of a lost age. It was the Grimoire that ushered in the Dawn of Magic, called forth the destruction of an empire, and which now heralds civil war. Honorable House Magnus clings to their charge of sealing the book’s secrets, willing to sacrifice Futhark if only to save the world from the horrors held in the Grimoire’s binding. Ambitious House Validus has little time for craven hearts and strives to brave the tome’s power to save the republic and lead it into a golden age whose like has never been before seen. Yet the Grimoire is no idle prize to be fought for. That dusty tome has begun to glow, welcoming their dissent even as it spreads its pages, unleashing the Mana Storm in the battle to come.
War approaches.”

I’m not entirely sure the game need’s a story, but I guess it’s nice to have if you want some backstory before you start the game. Reading the story-summary however, this feels like a very standard story. Sort of a mix between Romeo and Juliet, with its two houses, and the standard “there’s evil in the world, and everything will go to hell unless you, the hero, stop it”.

2/10

Graphics

The graphics in Grimoire: Manastorm are okay-ish. It’s not that the textures are bad or anything like that. It’s just that everything seems very bland, and the environments are rather empty, even though they are technically filled with objects.

Coming to the wizards, which there are six of, the drawn sprites on the select-screen are rather cool! However, in-game they feel like empty shells, without any real connection to their own classes.

As with the enemies (skeletons and monsters) their movement is really weird, like, I know motion is really difficult, but for a game that has been in development for more than three years, I really feel it should be more polished.

3/10

 

Gameplay

When you’re starting a game you get to choose between six different wizards – Lightning, Nether, Fire, Life, Ice and Earth. Although with the free version only two classes will be unlocked at any given time, with the classes changing every week. Each one has their own pros and cons, however I found the lightning-wizard to be my favorite – mainly because it was way too overpowered. You can mix up the classes a little bit though, by unlocking more spells, and put together your own combination.

There are three game modes in Grimoire: Manastorm – Conquest, Free-for-all, and Survival. The Conquest mode is by far the best one, where some tactical aspect comes into play. This mode also includes a very cool feature – the maps has destructible objects, kind of like the Battlefield-series, which can reveal new territory or bring destruction to the enemy!

When it comes to AI-enemies I have one major issue, apart from the stuff I mentioned under Graphics – if they get too close to you, you are unable to kill them because they are standing between the camera and the point where your spell starts to get cast. Hopefully this will be fixed for the launch.

One problem with the game though is the problem that during my time, it was incredibly few others than played it. By all means, it was before launch, but it has been in early access for two years, so I really hoped it would be someone else than other reviewers to play against.

Another major issue is the fact that the game crashed every single time I played it – I’ve yet to click the “exit game” button, because the game has consistently crashed during a game.

2/10

Controls

The controllers are a very safe bet by the developers. The usual WASD + Space for movement. LMB and RMB for standard spells, with Q and E for special spells. As well as F for a “movement spell” and with Z for a leap-function. Unfortunately I found the controllers way too floaty. They were way too sensitive, but at the same time not responsive enough. I never got the hang of the air movement that is possible, but I assume with more practice that could be a cool aspect of the fighting.

3/10

 

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Name: South Park: The Fractured but Whole
Developer: Ubisoft San Francisco
Publisher: Ubisoft
Released: 17, October 2017
Platforms: PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4
Reviewed on: PC
Acquired: A copy of this game was provided from publisher for review purpose

First, I’d like to start with a confession. I never played the first game, I only watched let’s plays of it. And I’ve watched a seriously low amount of South Park during my time on earth. So some of the references in the game has probably been lost on me. That being said, I really looked forward to giving South Park: The Fractured but Whole (yes, fractured butthole) a try!

Story

The game starts out where the last one ended. You are on the toilet when mom tells you some of your friends are at the door and want you to come out and play. Turns out Cartman is tired of playing “Lord of the Rings” and now wants to go back to playing superheroes. And it doesn’t take long before you join “Coon and friends”. One of the two superhero franchises in South Park. The other one being “Freedom Pals”. They’re basically Marvel vs DC Comics.

The whole premise of the game is the fact that all cats in town have been kidnapped! And there’s a $100 reward for one of them, just enough for Coon and Friends to get their franchise going. However, Freedom Pals wants that reward as well. Obviously I won’t say too much about the ending. But I need to address the problem about it being way too tedious, it was quite easy to foresee, and I honestly got a bit bored during the last mission.

Of course, there are side missions too. And many of them are needed to do to complete your character sheet, which is a cool way to make side-missions meaningful. Speaking of the character sheet, there’s loads of cool ways to make the character your own. You can choose between several genders, for example cis, trans, gender-fluid and genderless. Tha same goes for sexuality, straight, gay, pan or asexual (and probably more that I didn’t discover). Kudos for that, South Park!

6/10

Graphics

As the game uses Ubisoft San Francisco’s Snowdrop engine the developers has been able to use sprites from the TV series. That being said, I feel like the TV series has way more details and more continuity in how thing looks and how the background changes. I’m not saying it’s bad, but as someone who doesn’t really like the style in the show, the game falls a bit short when it’s not even as good as the show’s graphics.

5/10

Gameplay

South Park: the Fractured but Whole’s strongest side is it’s gameplay. It’s an open world, although with some closed doors which are closed until a certain point in the story. And if you already know the layout of South Park you will instantly know how to get pretty much anywhere. I’ll also give the game credit for filling the town with several collectibles, especially the one collectible which is a nod to Life is Strange: Before the Storm.

The fights in game are initiated by either hitting, or be hit by, your opponent. Here the gameplay goes over to a turn-based tactical mode. Usually you are joined by four of your companions and it’s time to get whacking! However some of the opponents, most often bosses, really need to be observed to find out how they can be beaten before you can do any proper damage, which takes the whole tactical part of the game to a new level.

7/10

Replay value

I am very unsure whether or not the game is worth replaying. On one side you can choose different classes the second time around, to get another type of fighting-gameplay. However, when you know who the villain is the story sort of loses the little intensity it has. And since it takes 15+ hours to complete the game per playthrough, I don’t find it worth another go, myself. Also, since the game doesn’t stop, i.e. you can play the rest of the side-missions after the main story’s conclusion, you don’t necessarily feel the need to play the main story again.

5/10

Controls

I played the game with an Xbox One controller because I found the keyboard + mouse combination rather difficult to control with. I’m honestly not sure what was wrong with keyboard-controlling, other than that I found it really clunky and difficult to get to grips with. With a controller however, things worked like a charm. Except when I were in combat and tried to cancel whatever action I was about to do, sometimes I needed to hold the RB down for a long time, and sometimes it cancelled everything with just a quick tap.

6/10

Name: Middle-Earth: Shadow of War
Developer: Monolith Productions
Publisher: Warner Bros. Entertainment
Released: 10, October 2017
Platforms:  PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Reviewed on: PlayStation 4
Acquired: This review is based on a self bought copy of the game

Shadow of Mordor sneaked itself into the market with a huge positive surprise back in 2014. And the sequel Shadow of War is much like it with a little more content. But can they live up the hype? Especially now with all of the marketing this game has received before launch.

 

 

Story

Okay, let’s just get this subject out of the way instantly; the lore. Yes both Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War has some topics a hardcore Tolkien fan might wonder about. And without spoiling to much of the new sequel I will try to explain a few. “Lore breaking” such as the most obvious one is the new ring who pretty much is an inverted version of the ring most of us know from The Lord of Rings books and movies. Shelob (A huge spider) is not a sexy women in a sexy black dress. But as for both the new ring and Shelob, this is something that I can live with. As for a not-named (in this review for not spoiling to much) wraith is something I truly do have some problem figuring out of what I feel. Not that all of the lore breaking stuff that I mention nor the topics that I didn’t mention ruins the game or story, I can see why they did what they did and for the people who isn’t a hardcore fan of the lore might not even see it.

Shadow of War begins with the ancient elf lord Celebrimbor (ringmaker) and Talion a ranger from Gondor forging a new Ring of Power, and then immediately loses it. During the story we meet up with Shelob, the Witch King, Sauron himself, Balrog and even more familiar characters. Even though some of the dialogue might feel a little drawn out or clunky, there are some strong and funny moments as well.  Me personally found Shadow of War’s story intriguing and funny, there are some depth into the new characters and old ones. And the story keeps me wanting more of this universe / version of Middle-Earth.
(Even with the lore breaking and wrong year of the foundation of Minas Morgul – they actually say is several hundreds years later than J.R.R Tolkien suggested)

8/10

 

Graphics

Let’s start off with the positive of Shadow of Wars graphics. Overall the game looks amazing, each region is not to big so you won’t be overwhelmed of tons empty environments. And you can spot the difference between regions easily, icy mountains, swamps, forest, volcanic is just a few of them.

But if we’re taking a little closer look, there might be a few things that can take your attention. Some of the lightning work isn’t quite finished on some areas, some stone walls looks more like they was imported from a remastered version of Minecraft, and other textures as well. Overall that didn’t bother me, as the graphics is stunning except for one thing that truly did bother me. And that was the facial animations, I can’t exactly put a finger on it and say what is wrong with it, but there is something weird going on there.

8/10

Gameplay

The Batman / Assassin’s Creed combat system is back it again, one button to counter, one to attack and another to dodge. For me this works perfectly, and it is almost a dream coming true from what I expect from a Middle-Earth game. Every single open world games struggles to keep players interested and tries not to be too much repetitive, and it was here Monolith added their Nemesis system to Shadow of Mordor. Shadow of War doubles that down ensuring anything can happen during a mission or just free roaming the world. Ambush, betrayals, and much more can happen. A simple grunt can suddenly become your new antagonist, every player’s story is different.

Approximately the first five to six hours of the game might work as a tutorial or recap to get you familiar with the game mechanics. One thing I found annoying is that sometimes the AI of your companions might be a little confusing, and by that I mean regarding mission where you’re prompted to follow them. They want you to run / jog behind them, and then suddenly they jumped left, and then right and stopped, and then back again, make up your mind already!

The best part of Shadow of War is the nemesis system, character building (orcs / uruks part), each and every one has their own set of abilities, voices, and armors. I still keep seeing new elements after well over 30 hours gameplay. Killing warchiefs, dominating orcs to add to your own army is crucially satisfying. And the adrenaline rush I keep getting every single time I prepare my assault to an enemy fortress is extremely fun.

10/10

Replay Value

You can earn ingame currency in Shadow of War, and sadly you can pay up real money for ingame gold to use in the market. But luckily even though you can get Epic or Legendary orcs to add to your ranks, they do not matter regarding an online conquest or something like that. I won’t say it is pay to win there, but the microtransactions is there and that’s bad..

But one thing that might keep players coming back for more Shadow of War is acquiring different gear sets. You can find rare, epic and even legendary gear pieces that you can use. And each one has their own challenge to do, if you want to upgrade them, some of them even have special abilities. Such as bringing back dead orcs to fight alongside you in the battle.

Leveling up your orcs in fight pits (almost like sending your orcs in a Pokemon fight) and then attacking high level fortresses. Collecting different type of collectibles in each region, there is tons of stuff to do even after the endgame. And more is about to come in future expansions.

9/10

Controls

The controls is easy to learn, and if you’re familiar with the Batman series and or the Assassin’s Creed series, then the combat and climbing system will feel pretty much the same. Even a few tricky combinations or other types of special attacks aren’t that hard to learn as well.

10/10

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