PC Game Review: Bombshell

GAME: Bombshell
DEVELOPER: Slipgate Studios (formerly known as Interceptor Entertainment)
PUBLISHER: 3D Realms
RELEASED: 2016

During the development of Duke Nukem Forever, the creators came up with this idea of a female counterpart to Duke Nukem. A badass chick who could hold her own against the alien forces and join forces with the king to wipe them out. The idea unfortunately ended up being scrapped due to... reasons that are frankly unknown to me, even though I could guess it had something to do with it just not fitting for the game which ended up being entirely centered on Duke, so it wouldn't make much sense to have a secondary hero character steal his thunder. But when publisher 3D Realms and developer Interceptor Entertainment (now known as Slipgate Studios following a name change after the release of this game) were working on a Duke Nukem action RPG, and ended up in a legal battle with Gearbox Software, they lost the chance to make a Duke Nukem action RPG. However, from the ashes of this legal battle arose a new chance to bring this female badass, from deep within Duke Nukem Forever's endless vaults of cut content, to the front of her own game, and finally give her a franchise of her own. The end result is Bombshell, a top down isometric shooter RPG. And here are my thoughts on it.

The 2015 reveal trailer featured an early draft of the character that left a bad taste in most people's mouths. Unfortunately I actually kinda liked it. :P

In 2015, 3D Realms published a reveal trailer of their new game in development. The trailer featured a scantily clad female with a robot arm and a black sidecut hair that would make Skrillex jealous, drinking whiskey before grabbing a shotgun and getting on a bike. It encapsulated perfectly what the game was about but received a fair bit of backlash for its lackluster graphical fidelity and sexualized protagonist. And while I personally liked it and got hyped from it, I could see where people were coming from. Luckily, the trailer wasn't really representative of what was to come. Because Bombshell isn't really a game in the same league as Duke Nukem 3D or even Duke Nukem Forever if you ask me. While Shelly is clearly a badass protagonist, she feels entirely different as a character and never really ends up feeling like a simple genderswapped Duke Nukem.

The first thing I've really noticed about Bombshell is that it kinda takes itself seriously. The story feels like something out of a b-movie of course. The president (who is a female in this game) is kidnapped by a cyborg villain known as Doctor Jadus Heskel (totally not Doctor Proton) and a badass chick with a robot arm goes on an intergalactic trip to an alien homeworld to save her. But it's not really played up in any way that makes it self-aware or self-referencing, as most of it is taken really seriously and most of the humor is kind of tucked away in the form of one-liners and references. And this is why it feels really different from a Duke Nukem game. Because while on paper the setup feels almost like a perfect setup for a Duke Nukem game, where a Duke Nukem game wouldn't really take itself TOO seriously, Bombshell goes for a very serious tone despite the somewhat ludicrous premise. For instance, Duke Nukem Forever did take itself somewhat seriously in terms of story but it never expected the player to take it seriously and always assumed the player would be in on the joke and understand that this was never meant to be taken seriously and that it was all in good fun. Bombshell completely lacks that self-awareness and thus always expects the player to not only take the story seriously but also be invested in it. The main problem with the story though is that it's not really written well enough to draw you into it and expects a little too much from the player to be invested in it. And it lacks enough humor to really offset the amount of seriousness.

Most of the humor in Bombshell is derived from stuff like naming a weapon "Ion Maiden" (cause Iron Maiden... get it?) or "PMS" (which is basically on par with naming a town Morningwood). Or making a random NPC sound like a horrible impersonation of Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's never really humor that fully lands for me and while I can get a chuckle out of a few lines here and there, I would never really call the game comedic in tone, just kind of witty at times, and it kind of makes stuff like the weapon names feel a little out of place. You thought Duke Nukem Forever had a confused tone? This game struggles to even get a confused tone, it's a straight up disconnection between what you see on screen and what the game's story is doing.

The final design of Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison pretty much nails who the character is meant to be. A serious and badass female with a robot arm and a zero bullshit tolerance.

The game looks rather gorgeous though, especially for what is essentially an indie title. Interceptor is a fairly small development team, and they all work from different parts of the world, making it more of a virtual dev team than a physical one, which may explain a few things but we'll get back to that later. All of the levels in the game feel distinct from one another, with each sporting its own colour space and mood, ranging from a level over a deep underground lava pit, to a frozen ice level, to an industrial level with tons of awesome imagery. While none of the levels really end up feeling that original, they definitely all feel distinct enough to make clear and proper "chapters" in the game. I also rather like the cutscenes that are all done in-engine and feature some very cool animation. It's a huge step up from the comic book style cutscenes that most indie titles seem to do nowadays (even Interceptor was guilty of this with their Rise of the Triad remake, although in that game I felt it was a bit justified given it was a remake of an old game). Of course, as I mentioned, your enjoyment of these cutscenes will of course depend heavily on your investment into the story and whether you like it or not. But despite not being entirely into the story I still enjoyed the flair of the cutscenes and they do their job building up some drama between levels.

The detail is also extremely high and the game allows you to zoom in on the action to take in the amount of detail on the textures. Especially Shelly herself has some rather awesome texture work done on her. With everything cranked to the max the game definitely looks rather good and runs really well too with no hitches or stuttering (bear in mind I am running the game on the latest patch), and you probably won't need any high end system to truly crank up the graphics, as running everything maxed out on 1080p granted me smooth and stable performance on an AMD Phenom II 3.2GHz CPU with an AMD R9 280X GPU. I can definitely appreciate the work put into the graphics in this game, and it is by far one of my favourite aspects about it. It deserves praise when an indie game manages to look this good.

The game starts out on Earth sending you into the white house to rescue the president, which ends up taking you to the alien planet Kyrr.

The game is a top down shooter despite it trying to sell itself as an action RPG. The RPG mechanics are extremely miniscule in this game. There is no real roleplaying involved as you don't play your own character, you cannot choose what to say, all of the levels are played in a linear fashion and in general the only RPG element is that you can choose which of Shelly's abilities to upgrade whenever you level up, and can choose between 2 upgrade paths on your weapons, with new upgrades unlocking as you level up. This is really not enough to warrant the game being called an RPG in my opinion and I think it's wrong to call it such as it gives the wrong expectations towards the game. The game is really just a simple isometric shooter.

That being said, as a twin-stick shooter it is still fairly competent. The game features moving with the WASD keys and aiming with the mouse, or using dual analogue sticks on a gamepad. While I might have preferred the game being made as a first person or behind-the-shoulder third person shooter, it still plays well as what it is. The camera can be a little frustrating though as the angle can make it difficult to spot enemies approaching you (though the map mitigates this design flaw a little as it shows enemy locations as red dots). The weapons feel satisfying to use, especially if you get the right upgrades for them, such as upgrading the Maxigun to fire rockets (which feels pretty much exactly like it does in the new Doom game) or upgrading the Motherflakker (basically the game's shotgun) to fire explosive shells. It gives the weapons a whole new "oomph" and dimension and makes you feel crazy powerful. I wouldn't say there was any weapon I really didn't enjoy using with the exception of the Shellshock, which I couldn't really wrap my head around using. I mostly ended up using either the Maxigun or Motherflakker with the Ion Maiden being used for dispatching small pests and the PMS or Flamethrower being used for larger miniboss type enemies. While you can definitely tell there is some influence from Duke Nukem to these weapons, they truly end up feeling unique to the game and puts their own twist on familiar archetypes (except the Shellshock, I still have no idea what it's supposed to do lol).

The game's currency can be picked up in the form of purple orbs. At times it ends up feeling like I'm playing a strange mix between Duke Nukem and Diablo.

The level design is alright for the most part. The main gameplay rhythm mostly comprises of moving towards objectives, wiping out enemies, gathering ammo and currency, and rinse and repeat. You do get secondary objectives in some levels which you might wanna finish before moving on to the primary objective if you're a completionist, and a lot of the levels have secrets in them. A few issues I did notice though was that at times you are required to do platforming which can be tricky given the camera angle, and at times the level geometry can make it a bit tricky to move around. The aiming can also be a bit finnicky at times, requiring you to aim specifically at enemies rather in their general direction. The game also softlocked several times for me during certain quests, requiring me to restart the entire level. Not a huge deal but something you should be aware of. For instance, I never ended up getting the Electroshocker on my playthrough, despite picking it up. And I was stuck for hours when a quest bugged and leaving me unable to pick up a power crystal I needed to continue. So the game is far from perfect, but none of the bugs I encountered were outright gamebreaking and could typically be fixed with a level reset.

The soundtrack is decent enough, if you love industrial metal. It's not really my cup of tea and most of it just ended up sounding like generic background noise to me and not really with enough synth to make it sound interesting. Just generic chugs and no real themes or memorable riffs. Andrew Hulshult is a decent musician but not a really strong songwriter in my opinion. Some stronger themes would really have helped the soundtrack come a long way as I couldn't really get into it. The main theme is repeated a few times but even that isn't really that memorable. I felt he did a much better job with his Rad Rodgers soundtrack in all honesty.
The voice acting also leaves something to be desired. While Shelly herself does an alright job, it is true she kind of lacks impact. And some of the NPC voice actors straight up sound like they recorded their lines in their bedroom. Which they probably did given how Interceptor works. For the most part it's not too distracting but at times it was pretty cringe-worthy.
Luckily the weapon sounds and general sound design is pretty good. The weapons sound beefy and loud and the ambience is also really good. I just couldn't really get behind the voice acting or music. Both sound a bit bland.

At a few points the game will offer a turret section to break up the gameplay a bit. If you hate these though, do not fear. They are extremely underutilized. The turret does feature a slow-mo function though.

So that kind of concludes everything I had to say about this game. While it's not really a bad game and definitely not as bad as some reviews make it out to be, it has a lot of missed potential. I feel with a stronger story that took itself less seriously, and with better voice acting and stronger music the game could be a real blast. Oh well, maybe Ion Maiden will prove to be a stronger experience given it's using the good old Build engine, the same tech which powered Duke Nukem 3D, the series from which Bombshell was born from? Time will tell. In the meantime, I would say Bombshell is worth giving a shot if you can find it on sale and crave a simple isometric shooter with a b-movie story and playing as a badass female with a robot arm. Because as mediocre as this game might be, Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison is still a hell of a gal and I really hope to see her in more games and watch her grow as a character.

STORY: 5/10
GAMEPLAY: 8/10
GRAPHICS: 9/10
SOUND: 6/10

TOTAL SCORE: 7/10

First Impression: Ion Maiden (Preview Campaign)

GAME: Ion Maiden
DEVELOPER: Voidpoint
PUBLISHER: 3D Realms
Year: 2018

What's up, kids. Today I'm taking a look at Ion Maiden, a new oldschool FPS by Voidpoint, and published by 3D Realms. I wanna stress though that this is less of a review and more of a first impressions deal, and the game is in Early Access at the moment so it is subject to change in the future and might not necessarily reflect the final product and shit. Specifically what I'm looking at is the Preview Campaign that is available to early backers and owners of the Bombshell Digital Deluxe edition.

So a couple of years ago, specifically 2016, 3D Realms released a little top down shooter called Bombshell, developed by Interceptor (a game I've been planning to review since 2016, so a review is coming, although delayed lol). Much like the team's previous effort, the 2013 remake of Rise Of The Triad, it received criticism for being generally buggy, unbalanced and lacking polish, though has received more support since its release, but is generally considered an average game. The game's main character, Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison was based on a character cut from Duke Nukem Forever that was intended to be a female sidekick to Duke. The plan was for Bombshell to earn her name together with greats such as Duke Nukem, Caleb and Lo Wang. And it seems that Ion Maiden has come along to do just that.

Ion Maiden is technically a prequel to Bombshell, set in a futuristic cyberpunk-esque city called Neo DC. The setting heavily reminds me of Shrapnel City from Duke Nukem 1 and already I'm in love with the game. The level design and graphics ooze mid-90's charm and the level of detail is insane given it's using such an old engine. I especially love the colour palette of the game, which seems to focus on a mix of red and blue (possibly to symbolically reflect the heroine's police background). It's definitely on par if not surpassing the detail seen in Blood. The game also pulls some rather impressive scripted sequences that wouldn't look out of place in a Call of Duty game (albeit with the graphics of a mid-90's game engine), giving the game a very high explosive "Michael Bay" feel that I absolutely love.

The streets of Neo D.C.

Scope is really the key word of Ion Maiden. Instead of going for a linear "level to level" approach, the game is structured into multiple zones (with the preview campaign having only one zone) which could be considered the equivalent of an episode, except in this case you can go back and forth between the levels as you see fit, similar to games like Quake 2 and Half-Life. The game will warn you when you're about to enter a part of the zone that closes off the rest behind you though by warning you that there are still secrets left to find in the area if you haven't found all of them, a useful tip for OCD players like myself who want to find every secret before moving on and very much appreciated. This makes each zone feel like one big hub of levels, and given the size of some levels (especially level 2 of the preview campaign is an enormous level with impressively large buildings), it's safe to say the game's scope will be pretty big.

The game's weapon selection consists of what you'd expect. A melee weapon (Shelly's electric baton), a revolver (the Loverboy), a shotgun (the Disperser) and an automatic SMG (the SMG-9000) in addition to Shelly's signature bowling bombs (essentially heat-seeking grenades). All of the weapons feel really satisfying to fire, and i don't really have any complaints about them. The sound effects are really good as well and give that "oomph" feeling that I love about oldschool shooters.

Easter eggs and references galore

The game definitely does a great job at feeling like a lost game from 1995 that's been polished up. Shelly's character portrait constantly sits in the lower left corner, looking left and right while also becoming increasingly bloody and damaged as you receive damage, similar to games like Doom and Quake, a small detail that further emphasizes the game's mid-90's tone. Her one-liners are cool and ooze confidence and charisma and I'm happy to see Shelly's voice actress from Bombshell return here and given she doesn't really have to do any dramatic acting, she does a great job just spouting one-liners, which I think fits the character more than the amount of dialogue she was given in Bombshell.

Control-wise the game controls well, although some people have reported issues with the mouse aiming (a common issue with build engine games). If you have played other build engine games, you'll feel right at home in this game although interestingly the game does not have any inventory system like other Build games. You have an inventory for medkits but pretty much nothing else, which makes me wonder if there will be one in the full version.

The soundtrack is done entirely as mod music, which explains the game's low file size, but is generally really well done, sounding somewhat industrial and techno'y and perfectly fits the game's aesthetic.

Now to the negatives... the game is really unoptimized. Severely unoptimized even. Running in OpenGL mode, even with some of the performance tweaks the devs have listed on the Steam forums I ran into severe hitching/stuttering and the framerate going into slideshow territory repeatedly during gameplay, especially during heavily scripted sequences or just looking around certain parts of the levels (particurarily level 2). Running the game with the Classic renderer fixed most of these issues but the game still runs somewhat badly. I would attribute this to the fact the preview campaign is essentially a beta though and hope they will make it more stable in the full version. I also experienced the game crashing repeatedly on level 2 after playing for a while, though the devs are working on a fix for it.

So that was my thoughts on Ion Maiden. It's definitely an excellent game so far and is shaping up to stand up with other Build engine classics. My only concern really is the lack of optimization and the stuttering problem, but other than that, this is definitely a game to look forward to.

If you feel like supporting the development of this game or simply trying out the preview campaign for yourself, you can find the game on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/562860/Ion_Maiden

Cheers~ <3

PC Game Review: Call of Duty - Infinite Warfare

CALL OF DUTY: INFINITE WARFARE
Reviewed by Alyxx

Year: 2016
System: PC
Developer: Infinity Ward
Publisher. Activision
Genre: First person shooter


When I initially heard about Infinite Warfare I wasn't all that hyped about it. It seemed marketed as a bit of a "back to the basics" kind of game, but of course once I heard about the story taking place in space, I was on board completely, being the sci-fi nut that I am. Of course, for the same reason I can't say I have any kind of hype for the next Call of Duty going back to WWII, but I'm glad on behalf of the people who wanted it. It's just not my cup of tea and I really hope the next Call of Duty will stay in the future as I love seeing what these games can offer in terms of futuristic content. So without further ado, let's take a look at the latest and hopefully not last sci-fi installment in the ever-running Call of Duty series!


The Campaign

The graphics and locations in Infinite Warfare fully take advantage of the setting and provide some truly spectacular and gorgeous setpieces.

Infinite Warfare's story campaign centers on a singular character this time. Nick Reyes (Brian Bloom), a soldier who is fighting for Earth in a battle for the resources of the solar system, where a group of Martian colonists who calls themselves the Settlement Defense Front (SDF) are waging war on Earth, lead by the charismatic Salen Kotch (played by Kit Harrington). You soon become captain of the warship "Retribution", and join a crew who set out to drive back the SDF forces.
Your crew consists of the "brobot" E3N (affectionally called Ethan, voiced by Jeffrey Nordling), easily one of the most memorable and likeable robot characters in recent history, Admiral Fredrick Raines (played by John Marshall Jones) who is a mentor to Nick, Lieutenant Lora Salter (played by Jamie Gray Hyder) who is Nick's wingman, Staff Sergeant Usef Omar (David Harewood), Corporal Sean Brooks (Jason Barry) and Private Todd Kashima (Eric Ladin) who all assist Nick in some of the missions. The other notable crewmembers are the Navigator Victor "Gator" Diallo (Omid Abtahi), Captain Maureen Ferran (played by Claudia Christian, famous from Babylon 5), and Chief Engineer Audrey "Mac" MaCallum (Claudia Black).

For the first time in the series, the missions are laid out in a more non-linear structure where you actually get to choose if you want to do a side mission or a story mission. Although the story missions technically are more linear, and the side missions offer no real reward beyond some loadout options, it still helps give you some choices on what kind of mission you wanna do next and feels a bit progressive for the series.

Space combat is a lot of fun in Infinite Warfare, feeling reminiscent of classics like Wing Commander and Descent.

Some of the missions require you to pilot a space fighter in a style similar to Descent and Wing Commander, usually with the goal of either taking you to an objective or taking out enemy fighters and cruisers. It helps break up the gameplay and fits well with the sci-fi theme of the game. The fighter kinda moves a bit unrealistic in the sense you have absolute control of where the spacecraft is facing at all times using your mouse, which kinda gives it that same feeling of 360 degrees control from Descent. It's definitely a lot of fun playing these segments and it really did remind me of oldschool space shooters like the aforementioned Descent and Wing Commander and even Star Fox.

Otherwise the missions follow the typical Call of Duty structure where you go into large setpieces, and overall the campaign definitely feels like it has a ton of production value behind it. The series has always been known for its cinematic flair and it's really strong in this game with a lot of cutscenes feeling like it could belong in a big budget movie, especially with the stellar voice acting from the aforementioned cast, especially Brian Bloom as the protagonist Nick Reyes does a great job, and Claudia Christian is stellar in her role, who almost feels like she's playing the same role she did on Babylon 5. The badguy who's played by Kit Harrington sadly doesn't get nearly as much buildup and screentime as I would've liked, and by the time you get to fight him it kinda feels a little anticlimatic.

I also didn't like how there was no co-op option in the single player campaign, especially when Black Ops 3 had it. I mean, that would've made the campaign a lot more interesting to me and I think more Call of Duty games should offer co-op campaigns.
That being said, overall the campaign is an absolute blast, if not feeling a little short and it gets a little intense on the millitary stuff. I would've preferred a bit more focus on characters and character buildup, similar to Ghosts' focus on building up the characters and their relationship with the badguy. Infinite Warfare feels a bit like a rethread of Modern Warfare's focus on the military operations over the characters and the badguys being pretty lacking in character. While the badguys in this game, even the lesser ones obviously have had a lot of backstory put into them and even are given their own portraits, I feel this is all a bit wasted since none of it really matters in the final product.


The Multiplayer

I'm not gonna lie, finding people to play with in Infinite Warfare can be a problem sometimes. And this sucks because it's not really a problem with the game itself and more with people just not playing it. I think it's a shame because once you do get into a match, it still feels like Call of Duty and it's as fun and fast as it's ever been. Similar to Black Ops 3 you're offered different specialists to play, although this time they're called "rigs" and are essentially robots you control. I'm a bit iffed you're not able to play as a female, although you can give your rig a female voice. To me it just feels a bit lazy to not offer gender options.
Anyway, each of the rigs have their own set of abilities, and you can even choose between multiple abilities now, giving each rig 3 offensive and 3 tactical abilities, which gives a lot of variety to the gameplay. The rigs are also each focused on different playstyles, offering everything from raw speed to accuracy and stealth, which makes it feel like there's no stronger or weaker rig, all of them simply offer different boons to different playstyles, which gives incentive to mix it up now and then if you wanna try a different playstyle.
The weapons are a bit lacking in akimbo options, sad to say, but not as bad as Black Ops 3 thankfully. There are also a lot more weapon varieties to pick from, similar to Advanced Warfare and Black Ops 3 you can purchase supply drops from the Quartermaster using either in-game points or real life currency. Whether you're a fan of these microtransactions or not doesn't really matter to me since you can easily get most good gear just by saving up points. The chance you'll find a weapon that suits your playstyle and preference is really high.

Making custom emblems was unavailable at first, but paid off as it has a lot more options this time.

The modes on offer are Team Deathmatch, Free-for-all, Domination, Frontline, Defender, Gun Game, Infected and Ground War, with hardcore modes of TDM, FFA and a mosh-pit of several modes being available. Sadly only TDM seems to really have any players, if at all.
In addition to multiplayer there is also a Zombies mode, which has a bit of a throwback retro feel to it, with each episode taking place in different decades, with episode 1 taking place in an 80's fun fair, complete with a load of awesome 80's music. The second episode takes place in the 90's in a rave, and the third takes place in the 70's. The zombies mode is pretty much the same as it's always been and doesn't really offer anything new. It's fun in bursts but since I've never been any huge fan of this mode I can't really recommend getting the game just for this. However if you really like the zombies mode from previous installments this likely won't disappoint.



Graphics and Sound

Hey, I can see my house from here!

Call of Duty IW is an absolutely gorgeous game. It also runs very smoothly on PC and feels a lot better optimized than earlier titles. Some of the textures look a bit blurry up close, even on high settings but overall I think this is one of the best looking games in the franchise. The designs are also really cool and I especially love the locations and setpiece designs. My jaw dropped a bit on the first few levels of the game and the game never ceases to lose its cool factor all the way to the end, constantly throwing really large and impressive visuals at you. It really does feel like a bit of a rollercoaster ride at times and you'll definitely get your money's worth in this regard.
Sound-wise the game also really shines. The weapon sounds are really satisfying and beefy overall the sound design is really polished and well done. The music is not really memorable sadly but the music selection in the zombies mode is awesome with a ton of badass 80's tracks, including Every Day Is Halloween by Ministry among others.


Score
STORY: 7/10
Failed to engage me in some of the characters, and some uneven pacing made the story itself a bit mediocre, however the acting and variety in gameplay saved it for me.
CONTROLS: 8/10
Responsive for the most part although during some moments of the game it felt like the mouse sensitivity dropped for no reason, which was a bit annoying.
GRAPHICS: 10/10
Absolutely gorgeous. My jaw dropped multiple times during this game. I love the different locations and space just looks enormous as it should! Facial animations are stunning and makes it feel more like watching a movie at times than playing a game.
SOUND: 8/10
Sound design is excellent and the voice acting is stellar. Sadly the music is not that memorable and mostly feels like background noise but the music selection in the Zombies mode is excellent.

OVERALL SCORE: 8/10
Overall Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare doesn't deserve the hate it gets. It just happened to not be the game that the fans wanted, but personally I think it's still one of the better games in the franchise and like Ghosts I can't help but feel it's going to end up a bit underappreciated and underrated by the fans.

Top 10 Games of 2016

I feel I'm a bit late to the party but since I completely ditched doing a "best of 2015" list last year I feel I owe people a list of my favourite games from 2016. So... here we go!

10. RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER

Jaw-dropping vistas are still commonplace in Rise of the Tomb Raider...

2016 got off to a great start with this one, a highly anticipated game on my part as I've been a huge fan of the franchise ever since my childhood, practically growing up with Lara. While I still haven't finished it, all I can say is that so far it's been a pure joy to play, carrying over the gameplay style of the first game while still doing its own thing and having a story and atmosphere of its own. I also feel a ton of subtle hints to the classic games in here. My only complaint so far though is STILL NO DUAL WIELDING?! Stop teasing us, Square Enix and let Lara dual wield some pistols already!

9. FALLOUT 4

Billy Idol with an explosion behind him. Yeah, kinda obvious why this game still appeals to me!

While it technically launched in 2015, I still played a fuckload of Fallout 4 in 2016 as a lot of new DLC still came out for it and the mod scene pretty much exploded around the game. Being addictive as fuck, with a ton of stuff to explore and a lot of stuff to do, it's still an amazing game to play and all I can say is that I'll likely keep playing it for the next few years...

8. DUSK

Polygons so sharp they probably hurt.

Even if it's still in early access and beta, Dusk was an amazing game to play this year. It perfectly captures the look and gameplay of late 90's shooters such as Quake, Redneck Rampage, Half-Life and Blood. If you're at all a fan of those types of games, I highly recommend keeping an eye on this one!

7. RAD RODGERS: WORLD ONE

I'm admittedly a huge Interceptor fan at this point, and while their games aren't as polished as I'd like sometimes, they still deliver fun games that pay homage to the old days while still feeling fresh. So I feel like giving them two spots on the list this year. Rad Rodgers was a kickstarter game that is made in the spirit of classic Apogee run'n'gun platformers, and it's actually really good with a lot of humor and bright colorful graphics. The animation is also really good and I really love the synthwave soundtrack. I'm probably gonna write a full review of the game later on so stay tuned! Can't wait to see more coming from the guys at Apogee!

6. BATTLEBORN

While I did enjoy Overwatch this year I simply didn't get around to playing it much as I never bought it (I plan on maybe doing so later though). However, I did play a lot of Battleborn this year and in my opinion, it is the superior game in the FPS MOBA genre that seems to have taken off lately. Made by the team who brought us Borderlands, it offers a co-op campaign with pretty good writing in the same style as Borderlands and it honestly had me chuckling a lot and laughing out loud at certain things. I love the style of humor here and it feels very classic Gearbox. The versus mode is the only game mode I'm not a particular fan of, and my recommendation is to just play the game with a few friends.

5. BOMBSHELL

Bombshell had been teased for a while by Interceptor. Starting out as a Duke Nukem action RPG, after losing the rights to the IP, Interceptor instead decided to do their own thing and make a new IP. Bombshell had been a concept character for Duke Nukem Forever, where she would pretty much act as a female sidekick that ended up on the scrapping floor. So it was decided that she would now get her own game. Bombshell is an isometric shooter and while it is marketed as an action RPG, the RPG part is kinda lackluster. But if you go into it expecting a solid overhead shooter, you can definitely get some fun out of it. While it had some lukewarm reviews on launch, the game has since been patched a lot and most of the issues have been fixed.

4. CALL OF DUTY: INFINITE WARFARE

Space ace!

When I heard there was going to be a Call of Duty in space, I was kind of unsure what to feel, but after seeing the trailers I was sold on the concept. And boy, Infinite Warfare did deliver and not disappoint! I'm eventually going to write a whole review for the game so I won't say too much here except that the game is probably the best CoD campaign so far and the multiplayer is solid as fuck with great controls and some of my favourite guns so far.

3. SHADOW WARRIOR 2

Explosive orgasm...?

Flying Wild Hog did an amazing reboot of the Shadow Warrior franchise back in 2014 and it didn't take long for them to start working on a sequel. While I haven't completed it yet, Shadow Warrior 2 is an amazing game so far that carries over what made the first game great and pretty much improves on it. If you're not into the Serious Sam style of shooters, then this is probably not gonna be your cup of tea or win you over in any way, but if you liked the first Shadow Warrior, then this is a must-have. Helps that you can also play it co-op!

2. DEUS EX: MANKIND DIVIDED 

The future, now with anti-gravity refridgerators...

Ever since Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I had been eagerly awaiting a sequel. And while The Fall offered a temporary fix for my Deus Ex cravings, Mankind Divided eventually did deliver the full package. While the story feels cut a bit short, and the addition of microtransactions is a bit confusing and frustrating, there's no denying the game is solid as balls (of steel even) and I have no problem recommending this game. It offered pretty much everything I wanted out of a Deus Ex game and then some.

1. DOOM

Giant pillars of light in the sky is usually a bad sign in a FPS...

There's just no other game that could be the game of the year for me. Pretty much taking Doom 3's "horror" approach and shoving it into the ditch and burying it with a dirty shovel, DOOM 2016 is just fucking DOOM. It brings back the badass protagonist with the double barrel shotgun, and strangely enough gives him more personality than most FPS protagonists these days without a single line of dialogue. DOOM, like Shadow Warrior 2, goes the Serious Sam route where you go from room to room, clearing out waves of enemies in a brilliant ballet of death, ripping and tearing enemies to shreds. I was a bit unsure about the game to begin with but after playing it, I was won over quickly. Add an amazingly cool industrial soundtrack and a self-aware tongue-in-cheek story that doesn't take itself too seriously, and you have easily my favourite game this year.

Top 10 FPS Games of the 90's

The 90's was pretty much the decade the FPS genre got its birth. With early titles such as Wolfenstein 3D and Doom paving the way for the future success of the genre, it didn't take long for the genre to take a major foothold in the industry. With a genre still so prevalent in the industry, let's take a look at some of my favorites from the decade.

10. WOLFENSTEIN 3D

While it may be the grand-daddy of all FPS's, Wolfenstein 3D sadly hasn't aged that well. With
confusing mazes and repetitive gameplay, it's a game that tends to get a bit stale after a while. It's still worth mentioning though as it helped popularize the genre and lead to future successes for id and at the time, it was one of the first smash indie hits on the PC, helped in large part by the free shareware episode that spread the game all over the world.

9. QUAKE

Quake is a bit of a mess. But it's a damn fun mess. It was one of the first FPS's that featured true 3D
environments and 3D models instead of sprites, giving it a unique look for the time. Helped by an extremely atmospheric soundtrack and sound effects by the legendary Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, intricate level design, and a multiplayer that is still active to this day, Quake quickly became a legend among gamers. Sadly, in my opinion, as good as Quake is, and being one of the most visceral FPS's ever made, it's also a bit tough to play for any lengths of time given the monotone graphics and somewhat repetitive gameplay. The technology behind the game might in many cases be more interesting than the game itself. It also feels like the Lovecraftian influence was criminally underused and the story never quite got wrapped up. Still worth playing though!

8. HALF-LIFE

Released in 1998, Half-Life pretty much revolutionized the industry upon release. It was one of the first FPS's to tell a complete in-game story, but without ever taking the player out of the first person view or taking control from the player in any way, achieving this through heavily scripted scenes. It also brought in some survival horror elements, making ammo sparse in some places and intentionally making the player feel vulnerable. You'd have to play tactically and carefully in order to survive. The technology behind the game was also rather impressive. Using a heavily modified Quake engine, it supported skeletal animation and some very complex AI routines that helped give the enemies in the game a very eerily realistic feel to them. It also had no definitive level structure, taking you from area to area with a "loading" text on the screen, which helped the genre move away from the heavily level-based structure of the past. Half-Life still holds up rather well today, although some of the mechanics feel a bit antiquated, especially crouch-jumping.

7. SiN

SiN launched almost at the same time as Half-Life and thus quickly became overshadowed by the latter's enormous success. Undeservedly so as SiN did a ton of stuff that was rather innovative at the time. The outcome of the game relied on how well you completed mission objectives, as failing some of them or missing some things could affect what levels you got to play, where you'd start and so on. It also featured hackable computers, some of them featuring a fully featured DOS prompt to peruse. Mixed with some really cool weaponry, and a talking badass protagonist who obviously takes a few hints from Duke Nukem, SiN to me feels like one of the most typical 90's FPS's ever, in all the best ways. Sadly it's bogged down by some uneven difficulty spikes and some annoying vehicle sections with bad controls.

6. BLOOD

Easily one of my personal favourites from the 90's, Blood is one of the goriest games I've had the pleasure of playing and more than lives up to its name. It's pretty much a spoof game, though as where Duke Nukem spoofs action movies, and Shadow Warrior spoofs kung fu movies, Blood takes its inspiration from horror flicks. Almost all of the weapons are fun to use, and the protagonist, Caleb, has so much dry dark humor he's a delight to be listening to as you play through the game. Featuring some amazing level design and graphics for the time (helped by its use of voxels for some objects to give them a 3D look), it's a hell of a ride that's worth taking if you're into oldschool shooters.

5. ERADICATOR

Eradicator is one of those kind of overlooked gems from the 90's. Soaked in a really hardcore cyberpunk/biomechanical sci-fi atmosphere obviously influenced by H.R. Gieger, it's a pretty awesome FPS that has a ton of features that are kind of mindblowing for a 1996 game. Not only do you have 3 characters to play as, all properly voiced, you can remote control bombs, exploding RC cars, control things through terminals in the game, and it mixes a lot of cool oldschool shooter combat with some really challenging puzzles, often involving timing, forcing you to have pretty much the entire level memorized in some cases, which to me might be the only thing not making this game great. But I think it definitely deserves more attention.

4.  STAR WARS: DARK FORCES

When it comes to Star Wars games, some might argue the sequel, Jedi Knight, is the better game but to me, this is still one of the best Star Wars games and shooters of the 90's. What makes this game so awesome is that you're not playing a jedi (yet) and just a mercenary doing missions for the rebels. It even ties in with Episode IV, explaining that you retrieved the Death Star blueprints for the rebels (this was way before Rogue One, lol). It has a lot of amazing features for the time, including a flashlight, and some more objective-based gameplay than earlier shooters which were more about just getting keycards and getting to the end of the level. Sadly, there's no quicksave option which to me is the only thing not making it that fun to play. But it still is an amazing FPS and worth playing, especially if you're a Star Wars fan.

3. UNREAL TOURNAMENT

While some might argue this is cheating a bit, the game DID technically come out in 1999, keeping it firmly within the 90's. It's in my opinion one of the best multiplayer shooters of all time, with lots of awesome and memorable one-liners, unforgetable weapons and levels, and a mix of game modes that always keeps the game fresh. In my opinion, the game never gets old and it's always fun to play this. It has an awesome soundtrack as well, and for the time mindblowing graphics using the then somewhat new and noticable Unreal Engine that nowadays is used in pretty much everything.

2. DOOM

Making a list of the best FPS shooters of the 90's without mentioning the big daddy of them all would be a criminal offense. So here it is. Mentioned. There's really not much to say that hasn't already been said about Doom. It set the standard, it popularized online deathmatches, it created insane controversy due to its satanic imagery, and is STILL played and enjoyed to this day. It is the rock star of gaming, showing its age but still kicking ass. But... as good as Doom is, it's not my absolute favourite... that would be...

1. DUKE NUKEM 3D 

Duke Nukem 3D did so much for the FPS genre it's insane. Where previously shooters had been based in fantasy or sci-fi levels with more abstract level designs, Duke 3D had levels that felt more set in the real world, helping grounding it in reality like few shooters before it. It was also the first FPS to feature a talking protagonist. And boy did he have much to say! Duke's personality still is entertaining to this day, being a total spoof of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood, Bruce Campbell and pretty much every macho man you can imagine. He's also got an insane weaponry at his disposal, with an arsenal unlike any other. While you have all the default weapons you'd expect, it is stuff like the shrink ray, freezeray and not to mention, the almighty Devastator that still makes Duke Nukem 3D a unique experience. Hail to the king, baby!

[PlayStation Vita Game Review] Call Of Duty - Black Ops: Declassified

CALL OF DUTY - BLACK OPS: DECLASSIFIED
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Released: November 13th, 2012
Genre: FPS
Developer: Nihilistic
Publisher: Activision

Call of Duty has always had a bit of a rocky reputation on handheld consoles. The only title released on PSP was the critically panned "Roads To Victory" and the two games on the Nintendo DS were technically impressive for the system but hindered by awkward controls on a system that wasn't really meant for FPS games. The Vita was in many ways a new chance for Activision to prove they could release a good portable Call of Duty experience, as the Vita was heralded by many as a handheld PS3 and a powerhouse for console-quality games on the go. Sadly Black Ops: Declassified doesn't really live up to this standard, and let's discuss why.


As always, the game has a campaign mode although instead of following a linear narrative, the campaign is split into multiple "Operations", which act as missions to play through. To be perfectly honest the story isn't at all interesting and I barely remember anything of it other than going places, doing shit for some reason and blowing shit up. Which is par for the course for most CoD games but with games like Ghosts and the more recent Black Ops 3 offering really memorable narratives, it feels like a bit of a letdown and like a lot of older CoD games, the game seems a lot more centered on political black operations and agendas than exploring personalities. Similar to Black Ops you play as Frank Woods and Alex Mason during the Vietnam era, sent to complete varying missions or some shit here and there. It all doesn't really conclude in anything and the whole campaign can be finished in under an hour, which is laughably short, even for a handheld game. True, you can replay missions for achievements or to beat them on higher difficulties, but in the end, while the campaign is servicable, compared to the other titles in the series, it comes off as a joke. The nail in the coffin for me is the lack of checkpoints. You HAVE to play an entire mission from start to finish without dying, even on Veteran difficulty. While the missions are short, starting the entire mission over each time you die is a fucking disaster and just ends up being extremely frustrating. There's a REASON they added mid-level saves to the Killzone: Mercenary missions...


There are also two other single player modes. The first is Time Trial, which sends you onto a course where you shoot cardboard enemies with various weapons and you're scored for your time and efficiency. This mode feels a bit like some sort of training mode and isn't really all that fun unless you enjoy shooting cardboard enemies.
The second mode is Hostiles which acts basically as a horde mode where you fight increasingly difficult waves of enemies. It's the same mode as in Modern Warfare 3 basically and while it's fun if you're offline and just wanna play some simple multiplayer maps with bots, it tends to get very repetitive. The care packages you get between waves also only offer 3 different killstreaks which is pretty dull.


Multiplayer is also a bit of a letdown with a very limited weapon selection, an outdated loadout system, no calling cards or emblems, and while challenges are there, they offer no long lasting reward such as cool skins or calling cards. By outdated loadout system I mean it uses the old pick primary, secondary and 3 perks system and you can't use a slot system like in Black Ops 2 (which ironically came out around the same time), meaning you can't have multiple perks, you can't specialize in a weapon and you are pretty limited in loadout selections.
The weapon selection is alright, with a list of fairly standard weapons that all don't really look or feel all that special or memorable but function nicely. The FAMAS assault rifle is pretty cool looking though. What i miss the most is the akimbo attachment which is nowhere to be seen, a huge letdown as I am a huge fan of akimbo in Call of Duty games.
Surprisingly there are still a lot of people playing the multiplayer, though I've had tons of problems with disconnections and lag during matches, and a lot of players seem to be cheating, either hitting with perfect aim or running around with god mode, soaking up bullets like a bloody sponge. Thankfully those players have been few but they have been there and it's always annoying, especially on a console.
Some of the maps are ridicilously small, even smaller than Nuketown (in this game you have Nukehouse instead which is just a single building) and you often end up spawning right next to an enemy. On the larger maps this issue isn't all that prevalent but on the smaller maps it happens frequently so be prepared to fire as soon as you spawn.
While the multiplayer is perfectly servicable like most things in this game, it just doesn't feel rewarding to play and gets very repetitive quickly.


Graphically the game looks... okay. While nowhere near the quality of Killzone: Mercenary or even Resistance: Burning Skies, it looks okay though it suffers from a very drab colour palette, boring weapon skins, extremely simple lighting and at times resembles a PS2 game.
Models and textures are decent though and from what I hear they got so much flak during an E3 presentation of the game they worked on the game a bit extra to sharpen up the graphics. Shame it still kinda looks like crap.
Sound-wise it's alright as well. Weapons sound like they lack punch, music is forgetable and boring and all in all, not a very memorable experience.


All in all, this is far from the Call of Duty I wanted on Vita. Hoping for more of a Black Ops 2 experience on the go, to say this game is disappointing is putting it lightly. To this day it remains one of the most critically panned Call of Dutys and it's easy to see why, given how little value you get for your money. If you can get it on a sale, I'd say it's worth picking up as the multiplayer is still active and it's worth at least one playthrough if you're desperate for a Vita FPS that isn't Borderlands 2, Resistance or Killzone. But if you haven't played Killzone or Resistance first, I'd say grab those instead of this. Hopefully one day we'll get a Vita CoD game that's good but I won't hold my breath given the reception to this.


STORY: 5/10
Not that memorable, very short and not worth replaying much.

GAMEPLAY: 5/10
Tight controls, good ADS snapon but hindered by a pretty bad AI that at times has absolute perfect accuracy, which is highly annoying on higher difficulties where the lack of checkpoints really makes the game a frustrating mess. Multiplayer is servicable but a bit of a letdown compared to other games in the series.

GRAPHICS: 5/10
Drab colors, uninspired weapon skins and bad lighting makes this game kind of horrible looking, especially compared to Killzone: Mercenary or even Resistance: Burning Skies which came out before it.

SOUND: 6/10
No big complaints really but can't say there was any of it I particurarily enjoyed. Weapons seem to sound weak and not that satisfying.


FINAL SCORE: 5/10

[PC Game Review] Undertale

UNDERTALE
Platform: PC
Released: September 15th, 2015
Genre: RPG
Developer/Publisher: Toby Fox


Before my complete review of Undertale, I want to recount my experience with this game...


It was... I don't remember what day it was. Thadeus had bought me a game he loved. Undertale it was called. For a while, I didn't really want to play it. I mean, the graphics seemed... not that impressive and all I knew about it was that it was influenced by Mother/Earthbound, which granted are some of my favourite RPG's, but for some reason, I held off on playing the game.


I sat down one day, Thadeus eagerly sitting on Steam chat, awaiting my reaction. I fired up the game, commented how I could tell it was made in Game Maker, cause of the collision detection. Commented how I wish the music wouldn't constantly change styles. I kinda half-ass played it, not really paying full attention. I met Flowey, he of course was creepy as all hell, letting me know it was "kill or be killed". I killed some enemies. That's what you do in RPG's, right? I earned some EXP and felt pretty good. This character Toriel took me in, she seemed very nice. I liked her. In fact... I started to enjoy her company. Then I wanted to leave her place and move on. She blocked my way, said she was going to test if I was ready.


Then I killed her.



Realizing what I'd done, realizing I had killed a character who was friendly, I panicked. What happened? In other games, friendly NPC's wouldn't die if you fought them. They would stop, not let you kill them, something would keep it from happening. Yet here I sat, watching Toriel vaporize in front of me after the most blood chilling speech I've ever seen from someone friendly.


I cried, I felt rotten. I felt ashamed. I reloaded the game so I could get her back. The next fight the game told me I thought of letting Toriel know I watched her die, and she said she felt like a ghost when I looked at her. Finally figuring out how to spare her I moved on. Then... Flowey appeared again. He let me know he was aware I had reloaded to try and save Toriel. I felt a chill down my spine unlike anything I've ever felt in any game. I knew it was possible for game characters to break the fourth wall but this felt like Flowey was speaking directly to me. Not the sprite on the screen, but the player controlling the sprite. Instantly I felt like I couldn't play anymore. I was scared, way out of my comfort zone. I had just played a game that held me directly responsible for taking the life of a friendly character. I shut down the game and didn't touch it again for a long time...


I deleted my save file... manually... complete reset of the game... then I went back one day. Thadeus urged me to go back to it, struggling not to spoil it for me.


I had an experience that changed my entire view on games. What games can do to you, how they can impact you. Undertale takes every trope, every preconception you might have about games and turn them entirely on their heads. Instead of killing everything, you are urged NOT to kill, but to use non-violent solutions. The game has no limits on who you can kill. You can kill everyone if you so desire. It is up to you if you want to kill everyone or make friends. So on my second playthrough, scarred by my initial experience, I didn't hurt anyone. And the rest of the game was honestly one of the most unforgetable experiences I've had in gaming ever, something that will truly stick with me forever.


Undertale proves that 8bit sprites on a computer screen can feel as real as you and me, it proves that killing is a horrible thing and holds nothing back to push that point home. It proves that in the end, the only thing that matters is what you choose.


So choose wisely...




STORY: 10/10
While I don't want to spoil everything, the gist of the game (told in an opening narration that seems amazingly influenced by Mother) is that the world once was ruled by humans and monsters, but a war broke out and the humans sealed the monsters underground behind a magic barrier. But one day in our time, a human child falls down into Mt. Ebbot, seemingly the only way down to the monsters anymore. After waking up you are confronted by Flowey, a seemingly innocent flower who is a lot more than he seems to be. You quickly learn he's actually trying to kill you and are saved by a female goat named Toriel, who takes care of you and functions as a literal tutorial guide, teaching you the basic gameplay mechanics. However, you quickly learn that in order to get back home, you have to cross the magical barrier, and in order to do so, defeat Asgore. After a test of your willpower, you leave Toriel behind and set out on a journey to reach Asgore. How you go through this journey is up to you.
The character you play as is intentionally left nameless and gender neutral, allowing the player to completely immerse themselves into the game by projecting onto the character. Whether you're a young kid or an adult, anyone can play this game and feel immersed in it which I think is amazing. It uses very simple old tricks but they work wonders.



GAMEPLAY: 10/10
The game is split into two different levels. The overworld where you explore, talk to NPCs and do the main path of the game, and the combat system which occurs whenever you encounter a monster or an NPC initiates a battle. The overworld gameplay relies mostly on simply puzzle solving, character interaction and exploration so there's really not much to say about it. It feels very similar to Mother in that you have a menu with items, stats and a phone (which you can use for a lot of things).
The battle system is where things start to get really interesting though and where the game shines as very unique. While you have a Fight button you can use to hurt and even kill both enemies and friendly NPC's alike (which does have pretty huge consequences I might add), you also have an Act button which opens up the non-violent solutions to a battle. Each battle is basically like a puzzle and choosing the right actions in the Act menu is essential to solving the puzzle and giving the monster some kind of resolution so that it gives up and you can choose the Mercy option and spare it (at the start of the battle, the Spare option won't be available). You can also use the Item menu to access your inventory. Between each action you make, the monster will attack you in a style reminiscent of bullet hell shooters, although it relies mostly on you dodging the attacks.
What the game does very brilliantly is making EACH battle, even with minor monsters feel memorable and meaningful, and each battle has slight variations on the mechanics so the game never feels repetitive or stale, you never know what to expect and it keeps the game interesting and fresh all the way through.

The controls are fairly simple, you move with the arrow keys and use Z, X, and C for different things. Z is the general action key, X is for cancelling usually, and C is for bringing up the menu during gameplay.




GRAPHICS: 10/10
Undertale mixes a lot of different styles together, but for the most part has a very limited 8bit influenced color palette, giving it a retro style that's still pretty charming. The character sprites are all drawn with a ton of personality and small details that are fun to pick up on. The HUD during battle is very well defined and some of the backgrounds are downright gorgeous. The graphics aren't really the focus of the game though, as their limited range almost makes your imagination kick in more than it would with something more realistic looking.




SOUND: 10/10
Undertale has a rather remarkable sound design. While a lot of the sounds are very 8bit and 16bit sounding, the soundtrack ranges in styles from 8bit, 16bit to very orchestrated themes. While I kind of wish the soundtrack stuck to one style, it's only a minor complaint. The themes are all really good and function well for their intended purposes and I'm still humming most of them on occasion.



FINAL SCORE: 10/10


This is a game I urge everyone to play all the way through. It's one of the most memorable games made in ages and holds its place as one of the most important games ever made. It reminds us that games don't have to be about mindless murder, but can be about something very beautiful and emotional, something that can leave us with a feeling we'll never forget...


Reseting the game has never been this difficult.

 

Top 10 Games of 2015

Another year comes to an end, and another year of gaming is over. For me, this year was filled with a lot of expectations, a lot of disappointments and some unforgettable moments. So let's take a look at my top 10 games of 2015.

10. CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 3

Black Ops 3 for me is a bit of a disappointment. While I enjoy the campaign and multiplayer, especially with the new specialists, the game is horribly unoptimized on PC and suffers from really bad memory leaks. Specifically the game runs really well... for the first few minutes. And then the framerate gets worse and worse and it keeps degrading the longer I run it. The game also feels like it's somewhat lacking compared to Advanced Warfare which I loved and played the heck out of. Lack of akimbo weapons, lack of those various weapon and camo drops from AW, and while the gunshop is a neat idea you still are restricted to what attachments you have unlocked or not. It's a decent game but doesn't hold up to Advanced Warfare's standards in my opinion. Still, I will probably play the fuck out of it since it's still a lot of fun at times.

9. GRIM FANDANGO REMASTERED

 

Arguably one of the best adventure games ever finally got re-released digitally early this year and what a way to start of the year. I grew up on Grim Fandango, and I've played through it countless times over the years. Coming back to Grim's world after all these years, it still looks as great as it did in 1999 and graphically this game has held up incredibly well. The pre-rendered scenes have been remastered in glorious high definition and look as crisp as ever, and the game has even been given some beautiful lighting effects, though these are more subtle really. The game now also offers you to play it with more traditional point-and-click controls as opposed to the "tank" controls of the original game (which I kinda prefer, that's how I played the game in its original form). One of my favourite games of all time and definitely worth picking up.

8. WOLFENSTEIN: THE OLD BLOOD

 

The Old Blood is a standalone prequel to Wolfenstein: The New Order, and if you loved that game, this is definitely for you. It offers more of the stealthy action from New Order but mixes in a lot of new and fresh ingredients that makes it much more of its own experience. I won't spoil the game too much but it gets really interesting near the end. It did NOT disappoint in any way and I highly recommend picking it up if you're ready for even more Nazi killing fun!

7. SHADOWRUN CHRONICLES

Shadowrun Chronicles is pretty much an online co-op experience of Shadowrun where runners can meet up in hubs and go on missions together. I've played it a ton with my friends and while it still remains very tactical, I really love the cyberpunk atmosphere and the fun of customizing your character's look, gear and playstyle. It's a very fun game that I highly recommend picking up if you're looking for something more like a tabletop Shadowrun experience since the other games on Steam now are more single-player campaigns.

6. MAD MAX

 I was pretty hyped for this game ever since I saw the trailers for it. And I was not disappointed. Paying a lot of homage to the classic Mad Max movies as well as Fury Road, the atmosphere, characterization and story is absolutely spot on in this game. It gets it right, so to speak. And while the gameplay is more on the generic side, it still offers a really good open-world fix for fans of games like Far Cry or Tomb Raider. A good little time-waster that will make you feel badass as soon as you fire it up.

5. 3D REALMS ANTHOLOGY

 

It's definitely sad to hear that this will be taken off Steam next year for undisclosed reasons (though I have my suspicions Gearbox is involved). But this is probably one of the most solid packs I've ever seen released. Offering 32 classic PC titles that helped define the 90's in PC gaming, it's a hell of a deal. Whether you like Duke Nukem, Shadow Warrior, Blake Stone, Terminal Velocity, Rise of the Triad or any of the other classic titles from 3D Realms, this pack is a must-own for any PC gamer. I still play a lot of these games from time to time, both for nostalgic reasons and because I feel they have held up very well. They are all simple action titles that you can just pick up and play any time and that's what makes them so great in my opinion. Apogee means action!

4. UNDERTALE

 

I was kind of resistant to Undertale to begin with. It didn't seem like my cup of tea, the graphics seemed a bit bad and it didn't help everyone hyped the game to the end of the world and back. That kind of effect usually just makes me stay away from something. But oh boy am I glad I gave this game a chance because Undertale is absolutely deceiving. At the surface it might seem like nothing more than an Earthbound ripoff with terrible graphics and a soundtrack that doesn't seem to be able to decide what chiptune era it wants to reside in. The truth is Undertale has one of the best stories I've ever seen in a game, and it's also one of the most unique gaming experiences I've ever had in my entire life. I won't spoil it for you but let's just say this game has gotten under my skin. It has cut deep into my soul and left marks that will forever remain there. It's a game I am almost afraid to play because I know I will get even more attached to it as I have barely played beyond the first areas yet. This game is simply amazing and is so much more than it appears to be. It is definitely deserving of all the hype it gets and the only reason it's not on my number one spot is out of pure defiance as all the games on this list are games I enjoy and Undertale is no different. You definitely should play this game and it's so cheap you really have no excuse not to. It offers so much for how little it asks of you, trust me on that.

3. TALES FROM THE BORDERLANDS

Tales From The Borderlands technically released last year but has gotten on-going episodes all year. It's remained one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had and while I hesitate to call it an adventure game since it plays more like a quick-time event movie, it's a great story with really well written characters. It's a bit less heavy on the Borderlands style humor but it still made me gigglesnort a lot so it gets points from me. Worth picking up if you like Telltale and Borderlands, which I do. In fact Borderlands is one of my favourite franchises ever so... this automatically is awesome to me.

2. DUKE NUKEM 3D:  MEGATON EDITION (VITA)

You may be wondering why I am listing Duke Nukem 3D as a game of 2015. Well here are my reasons:
1. I can play it while I'm taking a dump
2. It has all the expansions and PSN multiplayer
3. It's fucking Duke Nukem
4. Your argument is invalid.

1. FALLOUT 4

Fallout 4 is probably the game I was the most hyped for this year and boy did it deliver. Everything feels like a vast improvement over Fallout 3. Better controls, better combat, better graphics (seriously, I'm so glad they actually gave this game some colour), and a much better story that had me pretty involved from the beginning. And while it's anything but a perfect game, it hit all the right marks for me and I can imagine I will be playing this for years to come, and I can't wait to see the mod scene really take off for this game now that they can offer mods on consoles as well. The world feels a lot more alive than in Fallout 3 and less barren which to me is a huge plus, and there's just so much more to do as there's a whole new crafting system involved as well as building houses and settlements. It's a very dynamic game where everything comes together much better and synergizes more. Junk isn't just junk, it's now ingredients for your crafting and is a lot more involved than in Fallout 3 where junk was just junk and vendor trash at best. Sadly no Liam Neeson in this game but hey, we get Garrus so I'm happy. :P