Little Inferno

Little inferno was released in late 2012, it's developed by 'Tomorrow Corporation' and features work by Kyle Gabler, the same artist and musician from World of Goo - To the extent where many people, myself included, just sort of logically came to the conclusion that this is a sequel by the same people.

Unlike World of Goo, Little Inferno didn't achieve critical acclaim, nor is it going to anytime soon.
It's a bizarre little thing which plays similar to many odd flash games of the past, and sort of actually reminds me of the 'desktop destroyer' program I used to mess around with as a child (the one where you can take a chainsaw to your desktop and stuff).
Majority of Little Inferno is set infront of a fireplace, and 'Gameplay' is based around purchasing stuff for coins, waiting around for it to arrive, and then setting it on fire - upon which it'll drop more coins than it was purchased for, its a vicious cycle, buy, burn, buy , burn, yet is oddly satisfying for an hour or two, some items have unique effects when burned, some items explode, others get up and leave, some spawn more items.

There are also puzzles to figure out, in the form of 'combinations', essentially a list of 100 combos with hints as to what they consist of, for example, 'Poker Hand' combo is achieved by burning both a Hand and some poker cards at the same time. These vary in complexity and obscurity, with certain combinations making borderline no sense (to me at least).

Graphically, the game looks wonderful, the fire effects are very pretty, and item descriptions/animations are entertaining. Similarly, the music is pretty good for the few short instances where it stirs up, the music sounds very World of Goo though, and often you'll wish you were playing that instead.

The story does sort of progress, but it's really not worth the payoff, the final segment could easily just not exist and nobody would be any worse for it.

Verdict:
Little Inferno was pretty disappointing overall, yet setting things on fire for a couple of hours is oddly satisfying, Its in the Humble Bundle right now, and for the price of 'what you want'? its probably worth it, but the regular asking price of £7 is absurd.

Approximate Game Length :  3 Hours
Actual Worth / Steam Price:  £2 / £7 = 0.14
Actual Worth / Humble Price: £2 / £PWYW = Sure, why not.
Should you play it : Meh, give it a go if you stumble upon it, it's nothing too great though.
Rating: 2/5

https://www.humblebundle.com/
Go grab the humble bundle! You get Hotline Miami if you beat the average (and that game is fucking sweet) or you can just pay something minimal and a copy of this and Dear Esther (with some other meh games tacked on)
ps. Awesomenauts is fucking terrible. Just putting that out there.

Rotastic

'Rotastic' , Released in October 2012 for PSN, XBLA and Steam, I can see where they were going with the name, but if im honest, I can only think of Rotisserie chicken when I see the name 'Rotastic'

The gameplay here is based around rotating around pivots, and im sure i've played another game like it, but I cant for the life of me think where i've seen this game concept before.
I got up to world 5 during my half an hour playthrough, that's about half the game I might add since there are only 8 worlds.

Levels are split roughly into 'Collect the Gems', 'Break the crates' (which oddly turns the game into 'breakout' of some form), 'Survive' and 'Duels'.
Pretty much all of the level types play out exactly the same, hookshot onto pivot points and use centrifugal force to fly your way around the level to pickup/dodge shit, there are tricks and little maneuveurs you can do to boost your points, but honestly most of them just reward you for playing the game normally.
The Dueling/Battle mode however is a little more interesting, this still essentially the same gem collecting game as before, but now there are between 2-4 players on the field, and crossing other's ropes will allow you to cut them - its equal parts collection and trying not to be caught out and is actually pretty good - of my experience with the game, the small multiplayer bits were the best and so I would presume that local 4 player would be pretty good.

Graphics and sound are pretty terrible, the art is just about good enough to pass for this sort of game, but many of the levels are incredibly dull looking. The music was horrible, some shitty flute track which seemed to loop every 10 seconds.

I'd also like to add that the game crashed on me twice in the 30 ish minutes I spent playing. Which is less than ideal.

Verdict:
Honestly, im surprised they managed to get released on XBLA/PSN/Steam, it doesn't really seem much more fleshed out that some flash games out there, and for the most part, its not even particularly fun.
I wouldn't waste time with this unless you have 3 friends onhand to give the 4 player local multiplayer a go.

Approximate Game Length :  <2hrs
Actual Worth / Shop Price :  £1 / £8 (Steam) = 0.125
Should you play it : Nope, Barely worth the 450mb bandwidth allocated towards downloading it, and certainly not worth £8 , though perhaps give it a download should you have some friends come over, it might see 15 minutes of play, maybe.
Rating: 1/5

http://store.steampowered.com/app/204580/

Save the Date

Save the Date is a unique twist on the Visual Novel genre, it is a short indie game from 'Paper Dino Software'

Save the Date is a game about saving your date, funny that.
You take your girlfriend out for dinner, and... bad things happen.
Its very hard to talk about the game without spoiling the twist which makes it so good, but know simply, that is IS good.

The less you know, the better your experience will be.

Approximate Game Length :  30 mins
Actual Worth / Shop Price :  £3 / £FREE = 10
Should you play it : Totally, this game is awesome, and the twists are pretty unique.
Rating: 5/5

DOWNLOAD FROM HERE (17mb) - http://paperdino.com/games/save-the-date/

Mirror just in case the dev website blows up - http://www.mengsbizarreadventure.com/uploads/savethedate-1.0-win.zip



ps. Cant find the 'Good Ending(s)?' - Read here when you've given up -

Element4l

Element4l is going to ride under the radar for a long time, but then eventually, it's going to be included in a sale of some sort, and this game is going to EXPLODE and join the list of indie classics - you heard it here first.

The game is essentially a physics based platformer, you control a being that can morph into 4 elements - Ice, Fire, Stone and Air - warping into them drains a little energy but provides you with the strengths of that element, the game basically builds around this by setting up levels to force you to master the elements to be able to progress.
Air makes you float upwards and be carried by winds
Stone thrusts you downwards
Ice makes you slide around
Fire throws you sideways and lets you bounce off lava.

There are 16 levels, ranging from 'childsplay' act1, to 'leetskills' act4, you'll be able to tell for yourself when the difficulty is ramping up, because the playtime counter shown at the end of each stage will eventually start entering 4 digits (and it shows in seconds), that and the swearing - Infact, mostly the swearing. I was actually shocked at how hard the game was, im usually not the kind to get phased easily by skill based games, but my god the last few levels reminded me of sections of Super Meat Boy.
Element4l runs just around 2.5 hours maybe for a first playthrough, but it will vary depending on personal skill, and whether or not you succumb to 'easy mode'.

The artstyle is minimalistic yet beautiful, im a big fan of the silhouette artstyle provided by games like Limbo and Contre Jour, but Element4l is so very polished, id say it's the best looking game that uses this style. Quotes and little random pieces of text pop up throughout the game, occasionally hints, sometimes things which are slightly more random (the message referencing BMX rider 'Danny Way's great wall of china jump comes to mind).

Music is also fantastic, its a weird style but it reminds me a ton of Brian Transeau (BT)'s more chilled out works, and im totally okay with this. A kind of melodic electronica style, which is pleasant to listen to and adds to the overall mood of the game.

Verdict:
Element4l is a true gem, it does everything right - the graphics are lovely, the soundtrack is amazing, the controls are tight, the difficulty is challenging (and has a good curve), the levels are well thought out... I really enjoyed this game, and i'm sure most of you will too.

Approximate Game Length :  2-3 Hours
Actual Worth / Shop Price :  £15 / £7 (Steam) = 2.14
(also, free soundtrack with the game)
Should you play it : Yes! Fantastic little gem in a sea of pretentious indie shite.
Rating: 5/5

http://store.steampowered.com/app/235820 - Steam market page
http://mindtree.bandcamp.com/album/element4l-original-soundtrack - Soundtrack

Rating System

The only reason I've been kind of reluctant to add a ratings system so far is because personally, I usually just skim read an article and then look at the rating at the end. I hope people won't start doing that but I figure if that's what y'all want, who am I to stop you.

I've gone back to the start of 2013 and added ratings for all the games i've given proper reviews to.

The ratings system is out of 5, why 5? Because in the video games industry everyone wants to rate stuff between 5 and 10 out of 10, Bad games often get scores above what they deserve, and eventually everything falls into the 8-10 category anyway, why bother.

Ratings Explained:
0/5 - The game was so bad that I 'tapped out' as soon as I had finished formulating my opinion

1/5 - Not worth your time, nevermind your money.

2/5 - I'd recommend against it, but these games can be appealing if you are into that sort of thing.

3/5 - Could swing either way depending on your personal preference, Not great, but playable, just enough enjoyment/satisfaction to keep you playing. Probably best to pirate a copy

4/5 - An enjoyable/interesting game, which you should probably play should you have easy access to it.

5/5 - A great game which you should definitely play, these games are either very well polished, extremely fun, unique or (preferably) some combination of the 3.

Heres the current scoreboard for 2013

	GAME NAME	SCORE	VALUE
May	COJ: Gunslinger	5	1.5
March	Bioshock Inf	5	1.07
March	Tomb Raider	5	1
May	Monaco	4.5	2.11
May	Cart Life	4	10
March	Sniper GW2	4	0.52
April	DeadSpace3	2	0.64
April	Evoland	1	0.35
Feb	Aliens Cm	1	0.066
March	Resi6	0	0.125

I've also made 'Game Review' its own tag, incase you're looking for that sort of thing

Cart Life

Cart Life is a unique game made by 'Richard Hofmeier', the game is billed as a retail simulation game, but in reality this game is so much more.

The game begins with you selecting a storyline, the two initial stories unlocked are Andrus the newspaper seller, and Melanie the coffee stand vendor.
I selected Melanie to start with, a recent divorcee who is struggling to raise money to take custody of her daughter Laura, the game starts with a conversation with Mel's sister, who has offered to take us in, and then after a VERY brief tutorial, brushing our teeth and going to bed, we are dumped in the world.

Much like Melanie herself, you are thrown into the world pretty much clueless, you know roughly what you would need to start a business sure, but how does one actually go about doing so?
To run her business Melanie needs a sellers cart, equipment, stock (coffee, milk, cups, sugar...) , permits and more, but then the decisions begin, where do you set up? what quality coffee beans do you go for?

This bit was great fucking fun, it was the best simulation of waiting in line i've ever seen >_>"

And then comes the drama, the chores, and everything else that comes with life.
My first day, despite being reminded, I managed to fail at picking up my daughter from school, not only does she probably hate me, but the ex-husband comes by to bring her home.
It's weird little scenes like this that have a surprising impact, particularly because the scenarios presented are just so lifelike.

I don't even know what my ex-husband did, but I hate him.

After eventually getting my cart set up - an ordeal in itself requiring waiting for hours at the courthouse, selling my personal possessions to be able to afford stock and a bunch of other horrific stuff... Finally got the shop up. And then comes the serving - which is, similar to everything else about this game - stressful. As soon as a customer places their order you are on the clock, you have to remember what they ordered, physically type out "Be careful, its hot" and then take their money and do mental math to work out how much change to give them, all under 15 seconds or so, at which point you lose the sale and they walk away.

Get real life work skills to put on your CV

Other notes:
Graphically, very minimalistic, and greyscale, perhaps an ode to the grey monotony of the working life most of us lead, it is however sufficient enough to get the game across, and in some senses may actually heighten the experience as the brain as a lovely tendency to fill in the gaps with our imagination.
In terms of music, the game is equal parts depressing real life silence and quirky chiptune, its OK, but nothing too memorable.

Verdict:
Though I only spent a few hours playing, I can safely say that Cart Life is one of the best simulations of real life I have seen, much like the real world it is based on, this game is harsh, stressful and unforgiving. Every action has a reaction and it seems impossible to play without a certain feeling of strangulation. Whilst not what I would call a 'relaxing way to unwind after work', Cart Life is a very unique video game experience unlike any other, and playing it will make you understand how it won 3 prizes at IGF2013

The game is available as a free download on the authors website with 2 stories, or $5 for 3 stories
http://www.richardhofmeier.com/cartlife/

Actual Worth / Shop Price :  £5? / £FREE = ??
(I have no idea how much I would actually pay for this)
Should you play it : Give it a go, but be warned that this game is pretty much the exact polar opposite of a 'good time'
Rating: 4/5

Call of Juarez : Gunslinger

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is the 4th game in the CoJ franchise, it is a series I've personally never had problems with, however I did completely skip 'The Cartel' because of the reviews surrounding it.
The game is developed by Polish games studio 'Techland', who also make the Dead Island series - but aren't known for producing anything else worth commenting on.

Gunslinger shares many similarities with its predecessors; dual revolvers, dueling, slow motion and unfaultable gunplay, this outing has for whatever reason (I presume development costs) decided to steer away from the fantastic semi-open world gameplay of CoJ Bound In Blood, in favor of a very linear arcade style shooter. Gunslinger is missing many of the innovations made in previous games like horseback gunplay, epic set pieces and true character development, these losses do make the game feel more shallow as a whole, however the fun to be found in the game stands strong.

Yes, that border is always there, No, you wont notice it whilst playing.

The game begins with Silas Greaves entering a bar and sitting down for a drink, before long he ends up sharing a story with some folk in the bar, and thus we have our game. The entire game is told as a recollection, with running storytelling from Silas throughout, this method of storytelling felt somewhat similar to a very extreme version of the amazing storytelling in Remedy games Alan Wake and Max Payne. Being that the story is a recollection, the way the conversation between Silas and his audience flows directly affects the game itself, the plot jumps and skips backwards and forwards as Silas remembers the story - and its a genius way of both storytelling and directing the player.

Parts of the story end up being retold multiple times from different perspectives, one level in the game started being told someone in the bar, a telling of marching through the town to assault a bank - the story told in the legends, Silas cuts in before the climax - "Sorry son, but that's not how it went down at all" - The game turns western filmgrain and begins to rewind, "It was dusk, not high noon, I was riding in from the east..." - The sky darkens before our eyes and we are suddenly set behind the bank instead, the story continues from Silas's perspective.

"Wait wait, im getting this story all mixed up, that's not what happened at all"

Another memorable moment from the story involves Silas telling how he spotted a shortcut path, the ingame camera cuts to the shortcut and a path forms from seemingly nowehere - the next few minutes of fighting eventually lead you to an ambush and death, with the same 'Game over' screen you would normally get from dying - "Im sure glad I didnt opt to take that path, im sure that would have ended badly" - The game rewinds. This unique method of introducing alternate universes was very cool, and something I haven't really seen in an FPS game before.

'Concentration' mode in effect. It is awesome.

At the core of Gunslinger is of course the shooting, and the shooting is fantastic Some may argue that the game is not much more than a shooting gallery throughout, but is that really that big of a problem? What else were you expecting to do in a first person shooter game?
Gunslinger addresses this problem by making the shootouts so satisfying that you end up quite happy to fight against constant waves of bandits assaulting your position.
There are only 4 proper weapons in the game, sounds bad, but in reality you will happily just use the dual revolvers to kill everyone, because revolvers are fucking sweet. Guns shoot true, headshots are powerful, reloading whilst firing isn't a burden (firing cancels reload animations), and the special abilities really add to the experience as a whole.

What special abilities? Gunslinger has a 'concentration' meter which can be activated even when half full to give Slow-mo and enemy highlighting, this bar refills pretty damn fast (especially later in the game after upgrades) and really helps even the odds and in turn allows the game to throw more enemies at you at once.
Another special ability is called 'Sense of Death' and acts as a last chance system, it refills on its own over time and is activated automatically upon taking lethal damage - the camera zooms in on an enemy and time slows, the bullet becomes visible, you get a chance to dodge the shot which would kill you by leaning left or right, if successful you gain a slight second wind and have a chance to clear enemies or get to cover. It is very similar to the showdown sequences in 'John Woo's Stranglehold', and is just as satisfying and awesome to look at here.
Finally there are the reflex segments, which are gunslingers method of introducing quicktime events to the game, this again plays out very VERY similar to the showdown sequences in stranglehold, but with a quicktime twist - The camera cuts to new enemies and time slows, then key prompts appear on screen   (WASD for me), pressing the right key fires a bullet at the enemy and the camera spins around to the next, failing the encounter means a cut back to normal FPS action where you will have to dispatch them all yourself (usually at your disadvantage since there will be 6 of them from all directions).

'Sense of Death' in effect. Looks like this one would have hurt.

There is also an XP system integrated into the game, pretty standard affair, you gain XP for stylish killings, combo kills, finding secrets.... Y'know, normal arcade shooter stuff.
The XP buys upgrades in 3 trees (Revolvers/Rifles/Shotguns) and most of the upgrades are sweet.
Upgrading the revolver tree for example allows you to reload faster, shoot faster, more concentration, concentration refills upon 6x multiplier...
Rifle tree is based more around ranged encounter, so more zoom, slight slow-mo on aim.. etc
and the shotgun tree is based around that bucka-buck.
Getting through the trees awards the player with new upgraded weapons (quickload revolvers, faster firing rifles, Dual sawn off shotguns...) and is a nice little reward for speccing heavy into a single tree.

Nice to see a skill tree full with skills that are actually desirable for a change.

Finally, there are the bosses, who are introduced via an awesome little cutscene which turns into western drawing. Most of these end up as showdown duels but some are on gatlings or other things.
The showdowns themselves are pretty good, I think I preferred the draw style in CoJ:BiB (Sweep mouse down to grab gun, pull mouse up to aim and fire) however the playstyle in Gunslinger is certainly tense and skillful.
Left/Right controls your hand position, you want to keep your hand over your gun to increase your 'draw speed', your mouse controls your focus, maintaining focus on your enemy results in a gradual zoom allowing for better/easier shooting in the actual firing phase. When your opponent goes for his gun, 'fire' draws your gun and then you get to play with the floaty crosshair as you try to fire before he does, firing before your fully draw your gun ends up wasting a shot and essentially getting you killed.

Worth noting also, that completion of the game unlocks 'True West' mode, which is basically a completely HUDless experience. It is AWESOME. Single revolver and rifle now have their purposes as precision weapons, whilst dual revolvers are trickier to use because of the lack of a crosshair.

I've written a hell of a lot for such a 'small' game. I should wrap this up.

Verdict:
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is a brilliantly made run and gun FPS game, it may not have the depth of  the so called AAA titles but the actual fun from gunfighting in this game easily tops that of Call of Duty, Bioshock Infinite, and other big titles from massive studios. This game with its tight shooting mechanics and unique storytelling method may well have just snuck its way into my next top 10.
Gunslinger is far from long, but then, its far from expensive. Pick it up and enjoy the ride the next time you fancy shooting guys without thinking too much.


Approximate Game Length :  ~5 (Main Story on Hard), there are extra 'arcade' missions too though.
Actual Worth / Shop Price :  £18 / £12 = 1.5
Should you play it : If you are a fan of the FPS genre, this is a must play. Just don't be expecting too much more than an old style corridor shooter.
Rating: 5/5

Monaco : What's yours is mine

Monaco was the grand final winner of IGF back in 2010, I actually remember seeing a little bit about this game a year or two back but never really looked much more into it than that, and then suddenly, the game got released, everyone started talking about how great it was, and then silence.
The game is a few weeks old on PC but is set to see another wave of fandom when it releases on XBLA on the 10th of May.

Monaco at its heart is a 2d top down stealth game, it plays a little like a mix between old metal gear solid, and pac man, and its great.
Each mission plays out similarly, infiltrate, complete the objective, and then get out - Players are encouraged to try and play stealthy (especially on the later levels, where the guards are significantly less tolerant of your antics) at all times, using a mix of line of sight stealth, tools, unique character skills and hacking to get past all manner of obstacles like gun turrets, lasers, alarmed doors, patrol dogs, and of course the guards. Performance is judged by time, with penalties incurred for not 'cleaning out' the joint - each level is littered with coins and failing to collect them makes your time skyrocket and all your friends will laugh at your incompetency on the online leaderboards.

There are 8 characters to choose from, each with their own unique skills, some are more useful than others but they all have their distinct advantages depending on the level and the players style - in multiplayer getting a good teamcomp can make a heist significantly easier, an option you won't get whilst playing singleplayer. There are also usable items scattered on the levels, weapons, smokebombs and EMP's amongst others, which will make life easier.

Whilst there is a storyline and cutscenes between levels, it is fairly basic (though some dialogue lines can be entertaining).
There are a fair amount of levels, and then remixed (aka. Hard mode) levels which throw in more security and guards for you to bypass. Along with the leaderboard and achievements, if you have some friends there is some reasonable replayability and lifespan here (assuming you like scoreboarding).

Multiplayer
There is no doubt that this game was made to be played in multiplayer, the levels are massive and the advantages provided by multiple operatives in the field are too good to pass up. With my circle of friends, multiplayer quickly became a romp to try and grab all the coins as fast as possible and zergrush our way to the end of the level, reviving each other along the way and occasionally luring guards away from friends (and other times, leading guards straight into friends).
The game can become rather chaotic at times, particularly when the camera zooms out to accomodate all players if they are on opposite sides of the map, and 'minor' details like cameras and laser traps can often go unnoticed when your friend is leading a conga-line of guards towards you.
ps. Local 4 player, thank you pocketwatch games.

Singleplayer
In singleplayer this game becomes significantly more serious, you only get to pick one specialist (and thus only have 1 active skill) and if you die, you have to change character. I found myself almost always using the recon because the ability to see enemies through walls is so very useful (otherwise you have to rely entirely on line of sight - making it even harder than playing MGS without the radar).
The game in general becomes much much harder, some coins are near impossible to get to without careful planning and execution and getting caught is much more tense (unlike in multiplayer, where there almost always seemed to be someone getting chased around).

Verdict:
In multiplayer, Monaco is a fun and frantic twist on pacman, and in singleplayer, Monaco is a brilliantly structured stealth game with a slightly insane difficulty ramp. Regardless of how you choose to play it, Monaco is a charming, fun and unique game which deserves your attention. Should you be lucky enough to have 3 friends to play it with locally you'd be a fool not to buy this game at the price it is.


Approximate Game Length :  ~5 Hours for first playthrough
Actual Worth / Shop Price (Singleplayer Only):  £10 / £12 = 0.83
Actual Worth / Shop Price (w/ Online Multiplayer) :  £12 / £8* = 1.5
Actual Worth / Shop Price (w/ Local Multiplayer):  £12 / £3** = 4.0
*Used prices for the 4 pack
**Based on 1 copy between 4
Should you play it : Absolutely. This game is an absolute blast in 4 player, and still a very solid stealth game in single player (particularly if you enjoy hard games)
Rating (MP): 5/5
Rating (SP): 4/5

Evoland

http://evoland.shirogames.com/ (Game getting reviewed)

http://www.gamerfish.com/rpg/evoland/ (Flash Version)

Evoland is a 'full' version of the flash game similarly called Evoland.
Im not entirely sure if its the same developers or there was collaboration or what, but the games start off pretty much identical but then the full version keeps going and refuses to end.
The problem here is that whilst the flash version was short and sweet, with entertaining gimmicks and fast feature additions, the full version is longer and more drawn out - and eventually tries to turn itself into an actual game.

Whilst im not going to bash it for trying to be an actual game, in doing so it loses much of the charm of the original flash version - the gimmick of the game being the evolution of the world and game concepts, the actual game being played is, to be blunt, really fucking boring - with the player mostly continuing play to see what the future holds.
As such, when the game throws you into a 10-15 minute long zeldaesque dungeon with only a sword and no other mechanics, you quickly realise you are wasting away precious time which could be spent playing other things.

Approximate Game Length :  Unsure. I played for 1 or 2 hours before quitting from boredom

Actual Worth / Shop Price :  £2.50 / £7 = 0.35
Should you play it : Save Money and time by just playing the flash version if you haven't already tried it, its basically the same thing but less drawn out.
Rating: 1/5

Dead Space 3

The Dead Space series have always been solid action/horror games, the first one in particular was full of memorable moments and the second was impressively scary.
The third seems half and half in a variety of ways, with a handful of highly refined ideas which work well, some other new features which perhaps were not so well thought out, and other aspects of the game which just seem like steps backward for the series.

I'll start with the new features for this game, the first half of DS3 takes place in space as usual, and eventually you unlock a small flying vessel of some description, the game almost goes into a kind of free roam mode for segments, with the ability to choose to backtrack to previous locations, fly out to a derelict ship for an optional mission, another place for a co-op mission, or to simply complete the main objective to advance the story - Im a pretty big fan of 'do what you want' style games, so it was nice to sort of be able to choose what my next objective would be, the optional missions reward you with additional resources, weapons and upgrades (which i'll get to shortly). Unfortunately, very quickly after it is introduced, the flying vessel and any free roam capability is stripped from you, and you're back to crawling through corridors for another few hours, I cant help but feel this was a waste.

Another new feature, and potentially a game breaking one, is the new weapon system, In previous games you would find weapons similar to Resi (ie. a pistol, a shotgun, rifle), however in DS3 you find weapon parts, or can craft them from found resources. The game has has little limit on when or how you use these parts and so it is all a matter of how fast you can scrape together the resources to build your weapon of choice - its worth noting also that these weapons have 2 slots, essentially allowing for 2 weapons on the same gun frame. Being able to have an assault rifle and shotgun on the same slot is a pretty big firepower advantage over previous games where you would oftentimes find yourself armed with just the welder (and then the line launcher for emergencies), I would say that once I had an AR/Shotgun and a Sniper/RPG, the entire game became almost trivial and monsters became much less of a threat.
Something minor which may not seem like such a big deal (but actually is), is the changing of ammo, imagine if you were playing Resident Evil 1 and you could reload your shotgun using pistol rounds (and still fire shotgun shells), why the fuck would you use the pistol anymore?
This lack of foresight means you always have your strongest weapon available at all times, with little need to ration ammo for it - When playing old school survival horror games I would have the mentality of "I need to keep X shotgun shells on me incase shit gets real", the ammo change really enforces that this is an Action horror, and definitely NOT a survival horror.

There are a few other new features (or at least, features I don't recall being in past games),
- Co-op is obviously one of the bigger ones, I didnt get to try co-op but I was mostly glad to see that the game had not been balanced around it (or at least scaled it for me playing alone), there are some obvious tell signs that it has been designed for co-op but the singleplayer experience hasn't suffered as a result (something which I was worried about when they revealed the feature at E3 2012), there are special co-op only missions, which will likely fully exploit the fact there are two of you, which is probably a good thing.
- There were a few puzzles put in, hacking minigames and so on, these are actually never explained and can take a little while to figure out, some extra effort in the objective of the minigame/puzzle would have been nice, especially since the game seems to give you tutorial hints on just about everything else.
- There are some segments of the game with human enemies, which are about as uninspired as one would expect, the game essentially turns into Gears of War for these bits, but at least they die fast so you can get back to fighting necromorphs.
- When you land on the Ice planet a body temp gauge is introduced, and you have to keep yourself at a reasonable temperature. I quite liked this new challenge mechanic and would have liked to see it used a little more in the game, however the idea seems to get scrapped after about 15 minutes.

The remainder of the game (read: the established Dead Space gameplay) is all pretty routine, explore spaceships, bases and so on whilst scavenging everything you can find, trying to anticipate which vent the next monster is going to explode out of. DS3 handles these sections well, with some cheap thrills thrown in here and there, some tense sound, and enough monsters to keep you occupied and on your toes. The necromorpsh seem to be shockingly fast now, I like to call them Usain bolt zombies because of how fucking fast they run at you. The game runs well on PC, I ran the game on abs. Max at 1080 and was getting a consistent 120fps (Vsync locks the game at 30, so turn that off as soon as you can), It feels almost a shame they didnt go the extra mile graphically - the game looks fine and all but there was plenty of room for improvement, particularly in texture quality for the PC version.

I had a few gripes with the game, there are segments when the objective arrow would just lead you to a corner and not really pinpoint why you are there, only for you to realise you have to complete something else and the objective marker is guiding you to the end point.
I did not enjoy having to jollystomp every motherfucker I killed, along with having to break about 500 boxes, open 300 lockers and so on, Im not entirely sure why you need to overkill the enemies to recover items from them, and in a game filled with enemies, this gets tiring very very quickly.
Also the difficulty of the game seemed...meh. Granted I wasnt playing it on the hardest difficulty but there seemed little challenge aside from some stupid cutscene deaths (soon.).
DS3 also takes a step back from its predecessors in terms of scares and shocks, I feel like the previous games (particularly DS2) were much scarier and more tense, whether this is game is less scary due to the weapon stuff I mentioned earlier, worse designed, or just become routine, im not entirely sure.
Special mention also to ammo scarcity, in the first 3/4 of the game you are swamped in ammo, literally you dont even need to aim properly just spray at stuff, but then in the last hour or two of the game you will find yourself with practically no ammo relative to what the game is throwing at you enemy wise, very odd.
One last gripe, towards the end of the game you have to climb lots of cliffs, and then climb down lots of cliffs. Its really fucking boring, and occasionally frustrating with insta death happening if you get hit by something falling. I died 8 times on one cliff face, Dumb as fuck, and not fun at all.

Verdict:
Dead Space 3 is a competent and refined Action Horror title, however during its evolution it seems to have forgotten what made the previous games so appealing. Both the scares and challenge in DS3 seem to have taken a back seat to what can only be described as a Michael Bay edition of Dead Space filled with explosions and gunfights. DS3 is not bad by any degree, but it feels like a disappointing end to the trilogy.


Approximate Game Length :  10-14 hours depending on optional mission
Actual Worth / Shop Price :  £16 / £25 = 0.64
Should you play it : I would probably actually say no, fans of the series will be disappointed by the gameplay choice devolutions, and people new to the series should probably go and play DS1 and 2 first (which would leave them in group A afterwards anyway)
Rating: 2/5

Best bit of the game? Mashing the shit out of Space on a corpse and then throwing the remains of the body off a cliff.

Bioshock Infinite

I was thoroughly enjoying Bioshock Infinite, then it ended.

Welcome to Columbia.

Lets take a few steps back first though.

I remember the first time I played the original Bioshock, I enjoyed that game, however something about it made that game left what could only be described as a really bad aftertaste.
I skipped Bioshock 2 after half an hour or so of play because I simply didnt enjoy it.

So along comes Bioshock Infinite, a game which I initially had no interest for, my interest was perked however after hearing a friend's thoughts on the game, which was swiftly followed by a metacritic score of 96.

The first thing I have to say about the game, is that its gorgeous.

Columbia is a bright and colourful place filled with interesting and unique locations and crazy weather which makes exploring and progressing through the game a joy, even most of the indoor sections are brighter and feature more variety in styles than similar games in this genre.

I wanted to spend all day at this beach and its arcades.

On multiple occasions (particularly in the first 1/3 of the game) I found myself frequently taking breaks from combat to admire the scenery. Changes in time and weather further add to eyecandy, along with the special attention which has been given to lighting effects - the shadowing, bloom, and glow from lights really adds to the overall atmosphere of the game.

On a very few occasions during the game, the presentation style completely changes, this is a pretty neat effect I havent really seen in games much, and is usually something reserved for films, but I feel Bioshock used the effect well to enhance the atmosphere of an area.
Its worth noting also that the PC version is pretty well optimised, I was able to play on Very high settings at 1080p and maintain 60 fps for most of the game, even on my ageing PC.

Not sure if atmospheric buildup, or Doom 3 reference.

 The game, functionally, is an FPS with powers, similar to previous games, the gunplay is mostly solid, with majority of the guns feeling impactful (though some balance issues seem to prevent half the available weapons from being used at all unless you fancy seeing yourself outgunned). Aim down the sights is present, as are headshots, heavy armored infantry, and 'specials' - the latter two being the replacement for Big Daddies or similar threats.

There are 8 powers in the game, each with their own perks, however they are mostly relegated to utility  effects - I only actually found myself using 3 or 4 more more than a few times (Even though Im playing on PC which gives you easy access to all 8 powers - you have to use a wheel and quickslot system on controlpad). Weapon power, ammo and enemy health are mostly fine until you get towards the end of the game, where enemies begin to turn into bulletsponges and max ammo/found ammo quickly become insufficient.

If you thought big daddies were bad...

The game features an almost RPG style random gear system along with options for upgrading powers, weapons and player stats, the gear provides perks whilst playing (for example, faster shield regen, more ammo drops, double damage when critical low health, etc) and are an interesting addition to the game, whilst the weapon and power upgrades are mostly damage upgrades or ammo boosts - its worth pointing out that the price of these gear upgrades are very high compared to the amount of money you will scavenge through the game - likely resulting in you speccing into certain weapons or skills more, this becomes a problem when mixed with the low ammo pickups mentioned earlier, as during intense firefights you will often be forced to pick up whatever weapon you can get your hands on, like a shitpiece you havent been upgrading, which can make certain bossfights very difficult and result in 'corpse zerging'.

Cute heroine Elizabeth deserves her own paragraph, its a nice change for a pseudo escort character to not die in firefights and actually sort of be an asset to the player, she is pretty much constantly throwing money and salts at you during combat, and is a joy to travel with. From the dance scene near the start of the game, it became clear to me that Lizabeth has been designed to be loved by the player, particularly towards the start of the game, she has many little quirks and interactions with the environment as she explores much the same as you - I was shocked when she sat down to rest on a bench as I was looking at something nearby, or when she waited outside the male restroom for me.

Liz, heres a lockpick, it might be useful if you, the master of unlocking, take it.

The story.... is trippy. It is a solid story for the most part, and progresses the plot well enough and moves you from location to location, however towards the end I feel like it tried a little bit too hard to replicate something similar to that of the end of Bioshock 1 - Obviously an attempt at making the game deep/twisty, I feel as though it doesn't explain itself enough and doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Many elements in the story are also left unexplained, like the giant mechanical bird or certain enemies (or why the fuck there is so many bottles of 'salt' laying around when nobody seems to use vigors but you).
Whilst im complaining about stuff, a design overlook I found at a particular point in the game left me without any ammo, facing a horde of enemies, with nowhere to be able to pick up items and with the respawn being in a dangerous location - I had to corpsezerg into the room, kill a guy with melee, die and repeat about 8 times to clear the area, losing all my money in the process (gotta remember also that enemies regen health when you die).
A similar sort of encounter with a boss in a graveyard had me without ammo facing seemingly endless waves of enemies from all sides, perhaps its because I was playing on hard, but these sections just seemed badly made (artificial difficulty) rather than actually being challenging.

I LOVE the colours in this game.

Im almost surprised there is no multiplayer segment in this game, considering Bioshock 2 had multiplayer, and even the recently released Tomb Raider has multiplayer. With the gunplay in infinite being so solid, I feel like DM/TDM would have been pretty fun, particularly with gear/weapons loadouts, limited upgrade points for loadouts, and then putting Vigors (powers) on the map as pseudo powerweapons, and awarding salt for kills and assists.... Maps could also use skylines for movement/flanking or CTF style stuff.... I should work in videogames, someone hire me already.

Verdict:
Bioshock Infinite is an amazing FPS adventure set in an beautiful locale, its small cast of well crafted characters help to pull the game's complex story together. There were few complaints to be found whilst playing through, and I found myself struggling to pull myself away once the game started moving.

Approximate Game Length :  13.5 Hours on Hard difficulty.
Actual Worth / Shop Price :  £30 / £28 = 1.07
Should you play it : Without a doubt, this is likely the best single player FPS game released this console generation.
Rating: 5/5