Video game review #9: Judge Dredd: Dredd VS Death

 So its been just over 8 years since my last dedicated video game review? That's long enough right? Yeah not too bad.

Then again, consistency has always NOT been a characteristic of my timing on this blog so what's the harm in reviewing a long-forgotten FPS game based off of a much-loved sci-fi franchise?

Judge Dredd: Dredd VS Death is one of those little gems that, while maybe not leaving a huge overall impact on the gaming industry and the scene of FPS titles, still deserves credit as a fine example of simple gameplay and simple storytelling creating a compelling and enjoyable experience.

The Judge Dredd comics that are part of the 2000AD comic series and first published on 05/03/1977 have become the hallmark for action-based comics with dark and adult themes. The comics have rightfully earned their place as some of the most seminal in the medium and even spawned two films; a terrible but nonetheless fun cheesy popcorn flick in 1995 starring Sylvester Stallone and a 2012 film starring Karl Urban in a more faithful and grittier adaptation of the comics.

In terms of tone and style, I'd say that this 2003 first-person-shooter video game is somewhere between the two movies. It has a fair bit of grimdark, grit and realism that can be found in the 2012 movie but also the theatre, one-liners and set-piece moments of the 1995 movie. 

While the atmosphere is a good balance between grit and cinema, the actual gameplay is a lot more consistent. The shooting has a decent amount of impact but there isn't as much variation in the weapons as you'd expect from an early-2000s FPS. You get a selection in this game from a pistol, a rifle that doubles as a sniper rifle and assault rifle, two different types of shotguns, a laser rifle and a laser pistol that is about as powerful as a newborn kitten and a strangely ineffectual grenade launcher. The real standout though is the Lawgiver pistol which is a seminal part of the Judge Dredd mythos as it is a multi-weapon handgun that is linked to the biological ID of it's registered user who has to be a Judge like Dredd. It's easily the best weapon in this game showcasing a rapid-fire mode, heat-seeker bullets, armour-piercing rounds, immolating fire bullets and the one-solution-solves-all-problems that is high-explosive rounds. I quite honestly never found any need to use anything other than rapid-fire and high-explosive rounds on the lawgiver which is a bit sad as I would've liked to see more set-pieces where I was forced or inclined to make better use of the lawgivers' alternate fire modes. As it is, the gunplay still has a good bit of impact and you do really feel like you're an all-conquering law judge in Mega City One.  

Outside of the shooting, the gameplay is pretty straightforward and while it doesn't have the sleuthing segments of the James Bond PS2 games or the physics puzzles of Half Life 1 & 2, it does have a simple formula that is undeniably compelling and enjoyable. depending on where you are, you'll be facing gangs corrupting the underbelly of the city or a mix of vampires, zombies and death cultists bringing about untold destruction to the innocents of your city. With the more human enemies, you can capture them and sentence then to time behind bars or you can shoot your way towards justice and a safer Mega City One. The way the simplicity of that gameplay finds itself to be so compelling is by doing just a couple of things for the fundamentals of the game but making them as accessible and rewarding as possible.

That's not to say the gameplay is flawless though, I can imagine that some people will yearn for something with a bit more variety. However, the game is only 5-6 hours long with the single player in mind so its not like you'll be playing long enough for this to become an issue. The other main problem I had with the gameplay is that the civilian AI is impossibly janky and stupid. On one level in a mega mall, I had to rescue civilians being attacked by zombies in a nightclub. The civilian AI would follow me wherever I went but their natural pathing was so one-note and unintelligent that when they came to the 'specified safe zone' they'd horizontally line up. But if I led all of them in at the same time or walked centrally to the escape exit then the last of the survivors would get stuck behind the line of other civilians and the game would refuse to register me completing that objective. This definitely happened at least two more times thus forcing me to do minor restarts. Its not a total gamebreaker, but the AI is possibly the weakest fundamental part of the gameplay. 

The visuals are also another possible downside. They don't look like excremental doggy chowder but its not the most handsome game either. I gather they were probably going for a similar cartoon feel to the comics but its presented in a much less seamless way here. The design isn't the problem but the graphics and how said design is implemented has certainly aged chunkily in a visual manner. That being said, while the graphics have aged poorly, there is a definite rough charm to them and the game feels like a game of its time as a result of that in the best way possible.

So while the game is a little bit imbalanced, it is fun in a refreshingly simple way. So what's the story like? Again, its pretty simple but definitely mixed with a bit more complexity. It does help to have read a little bit into the mythos of the Judge Dredd comics but its not entirely necessary. In this game you have to deal with a death-worshiping cult who are trying to release the four demonic 'dark judges' who are perverse and dark parodies of Judge Dredd and his colleagues who come from a dead parallel world that is a dark parody of Earth after all life has been exterminated. The dark judges work off of the basis that living itself and consuming the resources that the world needs to operate is a crime and they aim to judge every living being by killing them. Its grimdark in its purest sense and ties perfectly into the ethos of a 2000 AD-type comic. What gives a good bit of narrative juice to the concept of the four dark judges is that they are loosely based off of the four horsemen of the apocalypse with Judge Death being marked as guilty by the hall of judges of not only murder (well duh) but also genocide and bloody omnicide (where you are found guilty of wiping out an entire species in a process that may also result in your own death). So yeah, I think the stakes are pretty high.

Throughout the game you're working towards the overall goal of stopping the dark judges from gaining fully material forms so they can enact their full powers with the aim of ending all life on earth. During the Necropolis event in the comics, the dark judges were able to turn Mega City One into a city of the dead by murdering 60 million of its occupants. With hints to their previous exploits in the lore being fed through character's basic reactions to their presence as well as chapter title cards, you get a well-balanced sense of just how dangerous and threatening the judges are. Considering they can kill you pretty quickly in the game (with the exception of Judge Fear), the dark judges hold an immersive sense of threat and magnitude that draws you into the story by the sheer magnitude of their evil and just how much they need to be stopped.

This game overall is like a cheeseburger, its simple and you know what you're getting in for but the key here is in the execution in the ingredients. Yes its a cheeseburger, but its a great cheeseburger in a seeded brioche bun with A1 Wagyu beef and lamb fat with top-tier gouda and cheddar as well as some artisan gherkins and dry slaw along with homemade burger sauce and bbq sauce along with a side of traditional Belgian fries that have been triple-fried. This game isn't super complicated but it doesn't need to be. Be it something wholesome and kid-friendly or something bloody and grimdark, you sometimes just need a simple injection of fun.

Gameplay 8/10

Story 6.75/10

Graphics 5/10

Soundtrack and sound design 8.5/10

Fun factor 9/10

Fundamental/overall/objective score 7.5/10

Game reveiw #9: Fallout 4 (Released November 10th 2015)

Image source: http://www.idigitaltimes.com/fallout-4-concept-beginner-guide-basic-game-details-why-everyone-obsessed-491424

Ok ok, I know that its a bit late for this one especially considering that Fallout 4 has been out for a few months and that everyone from the most humble YouTuber with a mere 40-60 subscribers to the biggest corporate game website has reviewed this game from the ends of the earth and back.  Therefore, if some of you think that this review is a bit irrelevant. well...that's understandable but I care about as little about said critique as Mel Gibson does about his public image.

So to put it short and sweet for the introductory summary?  I fucking love this game like the cliff-racers from The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002) love being annoying, swarm-mentality zerg-rushers.  This is probably my favourite Bethesda game to date and call me bias all you want but keep in mind that I don't like quite a few Bethesda games and with particular regard to the previous Fallout games (1997-present).  I never really got into the previous Fallout games for a few reasons that I'll shortly get into but I want to say this before I do;  Falllout 4 is objectively not the best RPG, adventure or shooting game of all time and when people say that this is either their least favourite game in the Fallout series or just an average shooter/adventure title with some decent crafting systems then I absolutely understand. 

Image source:

I was talking about this with my friend Pujge on skype recently and we both agreed that there is no such thing as a perfect game and nor will there ever be and even though I might love the shit out of Fallout 4, I can see why people have been lambasting it here and there, all within proportion of course though.

So, of course the plot in this one as in the previous Fallout  games is pretty light and left to your volition to find and fulfil.  Add in some bath salt-smelling mad side-quests with an overlaying sense of apocalyptic gloom and BOOM!  you have yourself a Fallout setting.  In Fallout 4 we follow the same basic criterion for setting up the main story as in Fallout 3 wherein we see the main character start out their life bright and full of modest hope and prosperity.  However, while I do think that the intro to Fallout 3 is masterful in showing the infant death of your mother and growing up in the confines of an underground vault before going initially-blinded out into the post-apocalypse of Washington DC, I think that the intro of Fallout 4, while practically less immersive is still a bit more investing.  This might sound a bit contradictory and I apologise if this does seem the case but for me I really was drawn more in seeing the life of the main character in the clean and happy world of pre-apocalypse Massachusetts on a bright and happy October day before Halloween planning to go to the park and enjoying the calm life of American suburbia.  Only then, for this all to be smashed apart by the jarring explosion of a nuclear bomb on the horizon that then forms the basis not only for the underlay of the whole narrative of the game but also for a large section of the in-game map later on.  After seeing a great personal tragedy in the confines of a cryo-chamber (which I won't spoil here, go play the game for yourself), you then set out to hunt down the people who wronged you and take back what is yours in a post-apocalyptic world that you barely recognise.  On top of this, some have criticised the game for being less batshit mental than previous Fallout games but if I was in a post-nuclear apocalypse in semi-urban America I'd expect things to be a bit more nuanced and grey.

So that's the narrative and honestly its pretty easy to follow once you get into it and while a bit cliché at points is still very much engaging later on down the line.  Similarly, the gameplay is also pretty easy to follow as Fallout 4 is much more of an action/adventure game rather than a strict and traditional RPG as compared to the previous games in this series.  This is probably the biggest critique aimed at Fallout 4 and while it isn't the biggest for me, I understand that a big appeal of the previous games was how they blended an attractive mix of sparse and reasonably realistic shooting with the in-depth roleplaying of a specialised survivor in a post-apocalyptic world.  It does admittedly seem like this has been streamlined allot more in Fallout 4 but oddly enough, this is one of the things that really drew me into the game.  Its also part of the reason why I never really got hugely into games like Fallout 3, Fallout (1997) and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006).  Call me mainstream but I didn't like those aforementioned games because they just struck me as too in-depth and stoic in terms of gameplay.  Yes I know this is a big plus for a great many people and really that should be what people request for their RPG's and games in general.  Some games like your everyday shooter or puzzle game can afford a bit of streamlining and simplicity here and there but I will admit that while I like the streamlining of Fallout 4, I think that it might not be the best route for the series to take while paradoxically being the main thing that drew me into the game.  And keep in mind that this is the guy who throws a spitting fit of rage whenever a new RTS is streamlined and minimalized in terms of customisation and in-game depth.

I suppose then that the other main criticism of the game would be its dialogue system.  It sucks.  It sucks more than a stock M3 Lee medium tank on World of Tanks (2010), it sucks more than virtually every bit of artwork every produced by Tracy Emin and it sucks about as much as when they removed the machine for House of the Dead 3 (2002) from my local bowling alley when I was 12.  I have NEVER liked the wheel-of-misfortune-style of dialogue selection as seen in the much vaunted Mass Effect series (2007-present) and when I saw it was being implemented into Fallout 4, I was indeed sceptical but decided to give the game the benefit of the doubt in order to give it a fair chance.  I found that while this system was nowhere near as badly implemented as in the Mass Effect games or Dragon Age 2 (2011), it still sucked succubus pus through a razor-wire straw and looked about as bad too.   I know it might seem like I hate the game more than I really do but while that isn't true I'll just mention one more major criticism.  This is probably some of the worst graphics for the context of the gaming era in which a game is made that Bethesda have ever produced.  Human models are unnaturally glossy particularly with the eyes and texture pop-ins, while thankfully rare, are want to happen when a big explosion happens to you albeit not all of the time.  Admittedly, it would be hard to make a game of the sheer size and scope of Fallout 4 look as beautiful as a tapestry done by Vincent Van Gogh, Picasso and Leonardo Da Vinci but even still, Bethesda really missed the mark on the specified graphics here.

Image source: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/06/14/fallout-4-gives-voice-to-vault-survivor.aspx

But do these problems detract from the overall enjoyment of the game itself?  Well for me, not so much really as they're annoying and do get in the way but I never really felt that they were together or singularly problematic enough to constitute that kind of issue.  What really won me over was, as mentioned earlier, the great action/adventure gameplay where customisation of one's weapons and armour has taken untold importance in this game as a humble 10mm pistol now has infinitely more options to turn it into a hand-cannon of fiery death.  With at least 2 modifications for each module on each weapon in the game there is more than enough modding of weapons and armour to be done and while it isn't imperative to completing the game, it is nice to know that there is some variety and option there.  This does mean that you might lug around tonnes of guns and unwanted armour to scrap for screws and scraps of leather and glass but you can easily find enough scrap if you adventure around enough.

This scrap and forging system plays nicely into my other favourite part about the game which is the settlement building function which I have already sunk many, many hours into.  True, it can be very fiddly with where you put constructions like beds, guard posts and generators but aside from that, the settlement system gives you something to work towards when the side-quests are tiring you out or the main quest is pissing you off for some reason.  It is hard work once you have at least a dozen settlements across the state of Massachusetts but I kind of felt like I was actually working towards something bigger than myself aside from the odd side-quest or main-quest.  It perhaps isn't the most impactful system of its type ever in gaming but I found it truly enthralling to establish well-defended settlements where I saw NPC's begin their lives anew in admittedly dusty and rusty little havens.

Image source: http://fextralife.com/beginners-guide-settlement-building-fallout-4/

By the way that link  just beneath the above picture is a good little guide to building a nice and solid settlement so maybe check it out if you're new to the game.

On top of this, I have to mention that aside from the games' crafting systems and combat being top notch, so too is the voice acting.  Some of the writing is a bit cliché and run of the mill and like I said, the dialogue wheel is about as much use as a poo-flavoured cold & flu tablet.  However, some of the lines particularly if you choose the female as the main character are superb with easily the best voice acting seen thus far in the Fallout series.  I find it weird though that people critique this game for not having very many voice actors when having an abundance of voice actors has never been the case in ANY Bethesda game.  I mean, have you even listened to some of the dialogue in Fallout 3 or The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion?  The writing isn't bad but the repetition of some of the voice actors in these older games is sometimes downright insulting and the fact that people then go on to critique The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) and Fallout 4 for not having enough voice actors makes me absolutely baffled and perplexed.  Maybe its a bit of a nit-pick about the criticisms aimed at this game but its been something really bothering me over the last few months since the game came out.

Just before I cap off this review I must praise one more major thing about the game.  While the main story is certainly enthralling, engaging and genuinely dark at points, the companion characters provide more than enough extra story muscle to the meat of the games' internal narrative.  These individual character stories could be told slightly better and some of the writing at certain points in some of them is a bit iffy but they provide some of the most profound dialogue exchanges I've ever heard in a Bethesda game not to mention some pretty decent side-quests with the reporter Piper being my favourite in terms of her personality and Nick Valentine easily having the best dialogue and individual, personal quest.  The moments when you get your selected companion to like you more and more are easily among the most engaging moments in the entire game and while perhaps not the best written all of the time, easily convey for the most part how these different people interact with the world they find themselves in.  Except dogmeat, he just acts as a pack animal being cute and running through minefields to fight one radroach like an adorably furry fucking idiot.

Image source: http://wccftech.com/fallout-4-official-direct-feed-1080p-screenshots/

So in conclusion, would I recommend Fallout 4?  Well overall I would but to fans of the franchise itself I would recommend taking it with a shaker-full of salt and be wary that allot of things have indeed been streamlined down from previous entries into the series and thus may not be what you look for from a Fallout game so do be wary about that.  Even despite that though, I would still recommend this game with gusto.  It isn't great as an RPG and the graphics and dialogue system are pretty naff but on the whole it easily makes up for one of my favourite games released in 2015 and easily my favourite game thus far in the Fallout series so whether or not you want to see what the series has just produced or are looking for a new shooting experience with some crafting and exploration added on then I'd give this a massive thumbs up.

And of course, until next time, have fun with whatever you're playing, stay safe and take care!

Graphics: 5/10

Optimisation/FPS: 8.75/10

Internal game content: 8.5/10

Gameplay: 8.75/10

Design: 8/10

Writing: 7.5/10

Voice acting: 9/10

Story: 8.5/10

OVERALL RATING: Great bit of pub grub pie and chips with a cold pint but not quite a top quality medium rare steak with dauphenoise potatoes and pan-fried asparagus.

Crazed Critic's top 5 best games of 2015

I thought that even though we're coming to the end of another year that was more turbulent and riddled with controversy for gaming that I'd make something of an attempt to look at what, in my eyes, are the top 5 best video and computer games of the year.  The criteria is simple for this list in that a game's standing on the list depends mostly on how much I personally enjoyed it with perhaps some variation depending on how much innovation said games bought to the video game market and industry and how much they brought to their own series'.

Fortunately there were allot of good AAA big-name releases as well as smaller indie titles this year so despite all the controversy about games like Battlefront and Hatred, how disappointing The Order 1886 was or how shit the new Alone in the Dark game was, there are more than enough games to pick for this list.  I decided to limit this list to a top 5 to avoid any rambling but I really do think that despite all the controversies and big disappointments, this was a great year for gaming overall particularly for small releases.

So without all ado, I hope you lot had as much fun gaming this year as I did and have an absolutely stellar 2016!  SO! LETS PARTAY!

Number 5 - Super Mario Maker (released September 10th)

Image Source: www.nintendo.co.uk

OK so out of all the games on this list that brought something new to the table in their respective series I'd have to say that the absolute winner on this account would be Nintendo's Super Mario Maker.  Out of the three major companies in gaming of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, Nintendo are probably the ones with the biggest monopoly on their intellectual properties and gaming series.  This arguably has sometimes resulted in a loss of third-party oversight and outside advice and influence which some say has damaged Nintendo's longevity particularly in the hardware department.  Not so much with the software and games of course and definitely less so during the silver age of gaming (1991-2005) when Nintendo released some stellar games like the Banjo & Kazooie  games (1998-2008), 007 Goldeneye (1997) or the Metroid Prime series (2002-2009).  Therefore, it seems a very admirable and refreshing move from Nintendo to create a game around one of their three biggest series the main aspect of which is user-created content.  A game made for gamers who can then make the Mario game they themselves specifically wanted.

Image Source: en.wikipedia.org

This is arguably a lazy thing to do on the part of a big-name gaming company like Nintendo but out of themselves, Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo have really had the most community interaction into their video games with their customer call ins and letters throughout the late 1980s and 1990s being a cornerstone of the kind of gaming culture that Nintendo promoted.  With the ceasing of production of the legendary magazine Nintendo Power a few years ago (1988-2012) this is probably the best move Nintendo have made in the better part of half a decade in order to move themselves closer to their fans in order to create a stronger commercial link and potentially drive their revenue to untold levels.  Even if all that rambling isn't true though, Super Mario Maker is an excellent little building tool that allows players to create and upload their dream Super Mario levels and potentially teach them something useful about game design that they may not have known about before.  If you like building, are trying to get into game design or simply like making absolute batshit insane bollocks in video games then I strongly suggest this little gem.

Number 4 - Rocket League (Released July 7)

Image Source; www.gamersftw.co.uk

Originally I wasn't actually going to get Rocket League because despite the well-founded popularity of this one I thought that the price, even during sales, was a bit high for how much content and modes there are in this mental rocket-powered car take on football.  Despite all that, when one of my closest friends got the PC version of this for me over Steam I was pleasantly surprised as I frantically drove and blasted my way through a smaller-scale but more high-intensity take on the formula that FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer have been trying to perfect for years now.  Admittedly there is a bit more gamer involvement in this one than in either of those aforementioned games and while the content is a bit limited and the physics a bit of a piss-take sometimes this is arguably one of the most benefiting aspects of Rocket League.

Image Source: www.g2a.com

The developers of this game seem to have made it subversively clear that their main aim was to make a game with refined gameplay rather than an abundance of content which I can respect to a degree.  I do prefer my games to have some nice extra content and extra modes to extend the replayability but with its floaty yet comprehensible physics and remarkably simple gameplay as well as extensive aesthetic customisation on your car, the simplicity of this game can easily become its greatest factor towards its longevity.  Maybe some might criticise the game for how much limited content there is on offer here but regardless, this doesn't really matter too much when you fly 100 meters through the air in a bone-white and blood-red SUV in order to make a game-winning goal in the last 10 seconds of a match.  Maybe the developers could lower the price by about five quid but I'd still say this one's a gem, even more so if they actually lower the price at some point.

Number 3 - Fallout 4 (Released November 10)

Image Source: www.ibtimes.com

I'll be perfectly honest, aside from a few parts of Fallout: New Vegas (2010) I never really liked the Fallout series (1997-present) all that much. I never felt like the user interface was at all user-friendly or that there was much point to exploring the universe of the game that I was in to a major degree.  Perhaps this is someone who has had a far greater affinity for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002) and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) in terms of Bethesda RPG's and the fact that there was simply just more wonder and batshit insanity on offer in the Elder Scrolls series (1994-present).  This in turn makes me feel a bit weird when I say that Fallout 4 is my favourite Bethesda RPG so far considering that it has less batshit insanity than most Bethesda games to come before it.  

Image Source: www.shopto.net

In actuality, I was a little disappointed about how there seemed to be somewhat less variation in the mission objectives here as compared to the previous Fallout games and I would be stupid to be reticent to mention the botched dialogue system in this game.  While it certainly isn't the worst ever, the humour that can come from it is a bit clunky sometimes and the streamlined nature of the dialogue wheel in Fallout 4 seems a little too much like a bastardised version of the same system used in the Mass Effect series (2008-present).  Not only this but I also felt that the graphics were very spotty in some areas but considering that each Bethesda RPG is a massive build for whichever era of games that they're made in, I never really consider this to be a massive criticism of these Bethesda RPG's as they're all usually big undertakings with years upon years of design, scaling and programming. Regardless, this does seem to be a diamond in the rough as the voice acting and gameplay are second to none with the voice acting being possibly the best of any game released this year while the multiple storylines that you can follow all have truly magnificent faction-specific storylines.  On top of this, the sheer number of repeating sub-quests and minor storylines are staggering so there is a definite positive to exploration here especially given the presence of secret caches of weapons and power armour all over the place.

Image Source: www.gamespot.com

Ultimately, this is far more of a multi-person, adventure-based shooter than a regular Bethesda RPG but perhaps that's why I've stayed up until the early hours of the morning playing this on a housemate's PS4.  I wasn't able to get a PC version for myself but judging by screenshots, the graphics do seem to be best on that format.  Maybe this might not be the most well-balanced or varied game Bethesda have ever made but out of the ones they have done so far its easily my favourite.  Oh and if you're like me, you'll waste hours of your life constructing buildings and modding weapons and armour, mark my words.

Number 2 - Undertale (Released September 15)

Image Source: undertale.com

When I said in the intro to this list that this was a great year for indie games I was thinking in particular mind of the absolute gem of a multi-genre indie title Undertale by game developer Toby Fox.  Mr Fox apparently made this entire game about 90% by himself and you while he did do so, you certainly wouldn't think that just judging by how much variation, design, humour, care and attention has gone into this little game that has blown up into a full on internet phenomenon.  Much like Portal (2007), Undertale came into the video game market under an unassuming guise but with enough controlled confidence and disciplined yet unique design aspects it has ended up becoming one of the most popular digital downloads of the entire year.

Image Source: steamed.kotaku.com

With the game's varied gameplay and seemingly limitless humour this isn't really hard to see why.  Some certain lines from different moral paths in the game yielding varying versions of cold, sweaty dread or warm-hearted laughter.  Speaking of which, when a morality system is implemented in a game I usually find it a bit tacked on as games are removed from reality so morality can arguably play no part in the gameplay.  Through a simple act of killing or sparing your enemies after you've beaten them, you can greatly alter the route that the game takes and what the final boss might be and in this department there is a crazy amount of variation.  On top of this I must say that the gameplay is a bit hard to pin down because at times its a Zelda-style adventure game while at others its like a bullet hell shooter.  At times its kind of like a traditional pen & paper RPG while at others it seems more like a game like Papers Please (2013) that is designed more than anything to challenge your reactions and code of ethics.

Image Source; www.pcgamer.com

Whether you like intensity or are simply some sort of meta-thinker who likes looking at moral situations from a distant disposition then I would recommend this one strongly either way as each playthrough is only about 6 hours max and is pretty cheap so I'd definitely give this a thumbs up.

Number 1 - World of Warships (Released September 17)

Image Source: www.warhistoryonline.com

Considering that many of the videos on my YouTube channel are centred around shooting games, World of Tanks (2010) in particular, It may seem unsurprising, especially to my close friends that I call World of Warships the best game of the year.  To be honest though, I almost put Fallout 4 or Undertale at number 1 considering that I've comparatively played them both longer and how much fun I had with them but when, at the end of the day, the deciding factor is simply how much fun I have with a game, I have to give the award to World of Warships.  Coming from a labour of love between Wargaming and Lesta Studio, World of Warships largely uses the same interface and design as World of Tanks albeit with a game designed around naval rather than armoured ground combat from the Second World War and early Cold War eras.  Many argued that the biggest new battle-arena MMO of the year would be Obsidian Entertainment's Armoured Warfare and while that game is certainly well designed, it really just seems to be more of the same as was seen with World of Tanks but set in a modern combat zone and removed from the clunky charm that makes World of Tanks one of my top three favourite games of all time.

Image Source: www.gamespot.com

Does World of Warships surpass it's landlubber cousin?  It may do for allot of people but not for me.  This is still easily the best game of the year for me through and is probably in my top fifteen or ten favourite games of all time now and I'm sure that standing will only go up as Wargaming add in more ships and navies.  However, the tutorials are a bit shit here and the user interface isn't exactly the friendliest and I'm quite annoyed that they haven't added in the Royal Navy yet not to mention the RN's main representative at this point in the game is the admittedly brutal Tier VII ship the HMS Warspite.  

Image Source: forum.worldofwarships.eu

Like I said, this isn't the most new-player-freindly game released this year but its more than capable of delivering what you want from a MMO battle-arena game and will surely give you a bit of more insight into Wargaming's other titles and perhaps even MMO-battle-arenas if you've never played one before.  All in all, while I said before that this was a rough gaming year I do hope that these games on this list will bring joy and happiness to gamers around the world for years to come.  Certainly not the grammar in the community chat of World of Warships though because its fucking diabolical.

Hope you had an amazing 2015 and see you all in 2016, take care!

My YouTube channel; https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHmq7KX4Qc46VGhYzWqQfOg

Ted 'R's Top Tens #7: Top ten favourite Star Wars games

Merry Christmas people!  Before I get into this list I just thought that I'd give a bit of late festive cheer and wish you all a great new year and hope you had a great Christmas and if you don't celebrate it then at least that you all had an amazing December and end of the year.  I thought as well that with the recent release of the FPS mass-success Star Wars Battlefront which reboots the classic multi-person shooter series in an FPS format and the film Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (the latter of which you lot know I've already reviewed) not to mention the announcement of the production of Star Wars Episode VIII I would guess you're all Star Wars weary.

But you know what I say to all that?  Fuck it.  I know that Star Wars is getting a bit of extreme coverage and talking about at the moment so people will probably be getting tired of it at this point if it isn't their sort of thing but with how much of a huge year this was for Star Wars I thought it appropriate to touch off the year with a top ten list of my favourite Star Wars games.

Admittedly some Star Wars games can be pretty shite like Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 (2004) or Shadows of the Empire (1996) but for the most part I think they are pretty good or at least try to do something inventive and enjoyable with the tried and tested Star Wars formula.  Speaking to the point, Star Wars is so tried and tested in its story and universe and is so open that the franchise is open to having any number of genres being made out of it in the video game world.  So without further ado, lets get into this varied fruit salad of a top ten and count down what, in my opinion, are some of the most admirably and passionately made games I've ever played.

Number 10 - Star Wars Jedi Starfighter (2002)

Image Source: www.emuparadise.me

OK so this one is easily the weakest game on the list (which is why its at only number 10 you fucking simpletons) but even in the scene of free-flying combat flight simulators created in the late-1990s and early-2000s many of course which were Star Wars games.  Jedi Starfighter easily outpaces its 2001 predecessor Star Wars Starfighter not only by having a much fairer rate of difficulty progression in the single-player campaign and bonus missions but also having notably more varied space ships with which to blast about the place in.

The story isn't really much to write home about but that's never really been the main emphasis with the Star Wars flight-sims I find.  To be honest this fits as your attention is drawn to the mad manoeuvres you can pull of with different starfighters from across Star Wars canon.  Jedi Starfighter manages to have at least a moderately investing story with a wide variation of objectives in each single-player mission and some bonus levels that offer truly gripping action scenarios.  True, the game's story is somewhat limited by being linked to the film Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) which many would argue is one of the weaker Star Wars features especially in the story department.  Thankfully if this would turn you off then I can gladly say that the plot from the film takes the back seat to a sometimes harrowing plot about a team of jedi and pirate mercenaries desperately trying to stop a separatist general's plot to destroy the republic clone army with a biological super-WMD.

Add to this the varied starfighters and gameplay albeit with less of a sense of adventure of previous starfighter games and yet you still have a highly compelling flight-combat simulator that I would highly recommend to anyone into this genre and who owns a PS 2.

Number 9 - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Image Source: forums.ffshrine.org

Despite how varied the ventures of the Star Wars franchise have been into the many realms of video game genres its ventures into fighting games have been very few and far between and very small on commercial success.  Probably the most prominent Star Wars fighting game aside from this one is Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi (1997) which has been reviled by many as both one of the worst licensed and fighting games of all time.  Fortunately, while the tie-in game to the film Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) is no Tekken 5 (2004) or Super Street Fighter II (1993) its still a nicely balanced fighting game with a small but varied character roster and some of the most satisfying uses of a lightsaber I've ever had in a video game.

Like I said though, this isn't one of the greatest fighting games ever made but the small size applied to wide variation of play-styles in the character roster helped to make this feel like something of an unappreciated gem in the over-saturated scene of fighting games in the mid-2000s.  To be fair, there are characters that feel somewhat overpowered in duel mode (Old Obi-Wan and General Greivous I'm looking at you two) but the lightsaber combat in all its simple fluidity more than makes up for this.  Admittedly, performing elegant lightsaber clashes with button pressing on the PS2 controller may not account for the most apparent and immediately immersive lightsaber combat but its certainly better than the alternative found in motion controls such as in Star Wars Kinect (2012).

As for the story it isn't too much to write home about.  You play through alternative scenes from the actual movie from different perspectives as either Obi-Wan Kenobi or Anakin Skywalker (thankfully with his whining and emo hair fringe toned down considerably) and with two different endings and a reasonably lengthened campaign at 17 missions you feel like you get your moneys worth.  Definitely not as good as many fighting games out there but a decent one and a great Star Wars experience all the same.

Number 8 - Lego Star Wars: The Video Game (2005)

Image Source: lego.wikia.com

While none of the Star Wars films (with somewhat exception to episode VII) are not that dark, its kind of inevitable that, whatever franchise will be turned into a Lego game, that the tone will be lightened by being set in the kid-friendly world of these iconic plastic building blocks.  I suppose there is a bit of bias in putting this game on here because Lego was one of the central pop-culture pillars of my childhood and Star Wars is one of my top three film franchises of all time (alongside James Bond and the Marvel cinematic universe) but it still isn't as good as the games coming after it on this list.  The explanation is simple as I simply just enjoy those games a bit more but even still, this is one of the most user-friendly and expansive action/adventure games released in the mid-2000s.  And given the success of the Jak and Daxter and Rachet & Clank  series' around this time (2001-2013 and 2002-present respectively) that's saying allot.

Overall the action/adventure gameplay in this entry into the Lego games saga is quite simple but with the added dimension of lightsaber combat and no hokey voice-acting in sight it acts at least as a great intro for little kids or first-time gamers into the world of Star Wars and adventure games.  Like I said, arguably the biggest strength of this game is its open endedness to the gameplay coupled with the simple and user-friendly interface, menus and gameplay.  Nothing is too heavily expositioned or explained the fuck out of but the game explains everything just enough and primarily through character expression and gameplay, arguably just the way it should be for these kind of games.

This is easily one of the most underrated adventure games of the mid-2000s and a great game for little kids as its nice and light in tone and user-friendly but challenging enough that its still a fun experience and more than worth your money especially as it covers the plots and settings of all 3 of the prequel films.

Number 7 - Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (2002)

Image Source: starwars-funymas.rhcloud.com

OK so I'm not purposefully trying to repeat myself over and over again but I feel like I am unintentionally am doing so by saying that this is easily one of the most under-appreciated 3rd-person shooters and action/adventure titles of all time.  Again, its not the most refined out of these two genres but the way that Bounty Hunter smoothly melds together these two gameplay genres is nothing short of encore-worthy.  I never really got that into this game when it first came out as I was more preoccupied by the likes of the original Star Wars Battlefront and the aforementioned Jedi Starfighter which were released the same year and to a considerable degree overshadowed the fledgling 3rd-person shooter cousin of these two games.  

I was however introduced to this game with great gusto and enthusiasm by my best friend who to this day tells me that its either one of if not his very favourite video game of all time.  In all fairness I can see why as despite some clunky interfaces here and there and some spotty graphics, Bounty Hunter seamlessly merges intense tactical 3rd-person combat encompassing multiple weapons and gadgets with a sense of exploration and adventure seen not all that often in 3rd-person shooters of the time.  The gameplay here isn't as user-friendly as in the previous entries and is also considerably harder on a basic level but the difficulty for me is a highly rewarding factor of this gaming experience as we see famed and feared Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett make his way to the top of the bounty hunting food chain and gather together all of his iconic gadgets and weapons.

Add into this a suitably dark narrative and an interesting sense of moral ambiguity in the single player along with one of the most intense and terrifying video game final stages I've ever played.  Seriously, don't pass this one up.  Especially if you like intense final stages that make you shit yourself.

Number 6 - Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (1999)

Image Source: store.steampowered.com

Out of all the games on this list, X-Wing Alliance is probably the one I've played the least but is also one of the most varied and definitely the most expansive.  Coming out years before other space -flight/combat-free-flying-sims like Freelancer (2003), Darkstar One (2006) or Elite Dangerous (2014), Alliance defined itself by being possibly one of the most expansive and free-roaming games ever made up until that point and a cornerstone of the Star Wars X-Wing games starting way back in 1994 with Star Wars X-Wing.

All of the X-Wing sub-series feels expansive and free-roaming and were all years ahead of most other combat/flight-simulators of the mid to late-1990s.  They didn't bog themselves down too much with story like the Starfighter series did and instead focused on making the expansive world feel bigger with larger environs and more varied gameplay with each successive entry into the series.  In a way I feel that the release of Alliance in 1999 being the last one in the series is kind of sad because while the series as a whole was very culturally influential on flight-sims and other alternative adventure games, the games themselves were all very good flight-sims indeed.  Perhaps it was because, at the time, this was a niche market in the video-game industry or perhaps the X-Wing series couldn't compete with the growing popularity of a then-little-known series called Ace Combat (1992-present).

Either way and whatever this cause may be, I strongly recommend Alliance and the other X-Wing games if you're one for flight-sims and especially if you're not that into the more streamlined gameplay of something like Starfighter.

Number 5 - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003)

Image Source: store.steampowered.com

Most gamers will undoubtedly heard of this one.  Released in 2003 to wide acclaim and applaud, Knights of the Old Republic is considered by many to not only be one of the best Star Wars games of all time but possibly one of the best RPG's of all time as well.  Its not hard to see why really as what was then becoming a genre about as stale as 10-year old Christmas cake covered in moulding flour was reinvigorated somewhat by the sheer scope, replayability and fascinating world, characters and dialogue that this legendary RPG had to offer.  Add to this a large amount of character customisation and specialisation and one of the best plot twists in video game history and you have a quintessential Star Wars gaming experience tied up in a neat little RPG package.  Is small the proper adjective though?  I feel that with how much dialogue, exploration and customisation there is on offer here that my choice of words is somewhat flawed.

Either way, I've talked about this game before at length in reviews of other sci-fi games I've done not to mention my worst sequels top ten list where I lambasted Knights of the Old Republic's inbred and mentally challenged brother of a sequel released barely a year later with somehow worse graphics and gameplay variation.  But don't let that get you down. I highly recommend this one although people who may not be so into RPG's and are more partial to quicker games with friendlier interfaces like Lego Star Wars may not like this one all that much.  Not for everyone, but still a classic for me.

Number 4 - Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (2003)

Image Source: store.steampowered.com

I could just call this 'banter central-the video game' for how many mental circumstances one might get into while playing this well-customisable multi-person lightsaber & shooting action game.  To pin Jedi Academy down to one genre is truly difficult as it is essentially a game glued together of bits of RPG, FPS, 3rd-person platformer and shooter, adventure and mod simulator.  This is arguably the greatest strength of Jedi Academy in that it merges together multiple genre aspects and factors and easily comes out as the best game in the Jedi Knight series (1995-2003).  You can have a massive number of varied action set-pieces and running battles with your mates on the games' highly-moddable multiplayer and explore and break the games' laws of logic in a crazy number of ways.  Add to this a straightforward and simple but still rewarding single-player campaign which itself allows you to create an in-depth customisation of a main character and you get a very replayable game with more customisation and modding opportunities than you can shake a double-bladed lightsaber at.

This is arguably the most simple game on the list at its core and at its most un-modded though so I can't really say too much about the multiplayer without repeating myself or about the singleplayer without spoiling it.  The campaign does however elevate itself by bringing back some characters from the previous Jedi Knight games like the ever-dickish and awful teacher Kyle Katarn (aka that useless face-beard-wearing dickhead who never helps me out the bastard).  This game may be a bit simple in places particularly with the force powers and might not be as refined as Knights of the Old Republic but with its great replayability, modding capability and longevity thanks to being immensely forward and backward-compatible I would not only recommend this to any action-game lover but would do so wether or not they have a computer from 2005 or 2015.  It's also very cheap on digital format from most online stores so if you only have a few quid to spare I'd still say to give it a shot or swing.

Number 3 - Star Wars: Republic Commando (2005)

Image Source: imwithgeek.com

I mentioned this game before as well on my top ten list of favourite FPS games as a simple but robust and immensely enjoyable and satisfying shooter in which lightsabers are ditched for clone war-era tactical squad-based combat.  Therefore I'll try and not ramble too much about this under-appreciated classic of an FPS which melds together squad-based single-player with fast-paced multiplayer to create a satisfying experience that I would recommend to most FPS fans.  

There are two major issues with this one that I deigned to mention in my top ten FPS list which is regards to the games' unlockables and multiplayer variation.  The secrets and unlockables are fun to find and achieve but feel all to easy to achieve and apart from some concept art and a half-decent music video, really aren't worth much.  There's also the issue of how the tactical-squad-based combat present in the single-player isn't present in the multi-player and that the game modes on multiplayer seem a bit copy and pasted from other popular multi-plauer FPS games of the time and even now.  However. this is made up for by the games' aforementioned solid gameplay along with its punchy gunplay, simple but satisfying melee combat, challenging and fast-paced combat and immersive settings throughout the planets of Kashykk and Geonosis as well as a Republic Acclamator-class war cruiser.

It might not be the best or most refined FPS or even Star Wars game of all time but like Jedi Academy. this classic is well-compatible and usually very cheap on digital format so I would definitely recommend it to someone who needs a quick but challenging distraction.

Number 2 - Star Wars: Empire at War (2006)

Image Source: www.macgamestore.com

Whereas 2001-2003 was the age of 3rd-person action platformers, 2005-6 seemed to be the age of RTS gems as within 2006 alone we were treated to two gems of RTS gameplay.  First was the World War II-set Company of Heroes and then came Star Wars: Empire at War.  Empire at War sets itself out among mid-2000s RTS gems by having alternative single-player modes and multiplayer far stronger than the single-player campaigns on offer here.  Now this isn't to say that the Rebel and Empire campaigns in the original game or the Zann Consortium campaign in the expansion pack Forces of Corruption (2006) are bad at all as all three are very varied in their mission objectives, are expansive and decently challenging but compared to the rest of the single-player content and multi-player content they just don't match.

The galactic conquest in single-player is, at least for me, a more satisfying experience than the single-player campaigns because while there isn't as much variation on the objectives, there is allot more freedom of movement within the parameters of each conquest setting which allows for much more freedom of choice in expanding your borders.  The galactic conquest mode has resurfaced in multiple Star Wars games in different formats but it, without a doubt, reaches its zenith of quality in Empire at War as you are let free to roam and savage the galaxy as you see fit.  As for the multiplayer, LAN is much stronger in the galactic conquest mode but it is immensely enjoyable if a little deadlock-prone to clash with your mates in single battles either on land or in space with a massive number of varied and unique units and turrets with which you can form a wide variety of mad strategies.

As a big RTS nut I can't recommend this one enough.  Not only is this my second favourite Star Wars game but I would easily say that its my 3rd or 4th favourite RTS of all time as well.  Any accolades given to this gem when it was released are very well deserved and despite a somewhat tiring single-player campaign and weak extra content I would give any other RTS enthusiast the thumbs up on this classic.

Number 1 - Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (2005)

Image Source: store.steampowered.com

When the 2015 FPS reboot of the Battlefront series (2002-2005) came out and was well optimized, beautiful to look at and had great gunplay but ultimately boiled down to one of the most generic and standard FPS games released over the last few years you can imagine, with the fact that Star Wars: Battlefront II is my favourite Star Wars game that I was more than a bit disappointed.  Regardless, I respect the idea of moving the series in a direction it hadn't gone before because creating something new to a series even if it turns out to be a failure is about the bravest thing a developer can do.

It does bring back nostalgic memories however of when this much-awaited sequel to the 2002 classic Star Wars: Battlefront came out and blew the roofs and heads off of action-shooter fans and set itself out to be, arguably, the best game of 2005.  Not only is this my favourite Star Wars game but its easily one of my top 10 favourite games of all time seamlessly sewing together interchangeable 1st and 3rd-person shooting with multiple set soldier sets for each army in the game, content for both the Clone War and original trilogy and multiple types of turrets, unlockable heroes and vehicles not to mention the, in my eyes somewhat over-hated space battle mode,  This might not be the most graphically impressive game of all, time and certainly not on this list (that award would have to go to Lego Star Wars or Republic Commando) but with decent graphics for the PS2 era and a large variety of maps and settings you also feel like that this is a fun game to explore and run around in as well as shoot up the place.

There are some cons to this classic like how somewhat clunky the heroes V villains mode is or how some heroes on certain battle maps are a bit overpowered (Darth Vader on the Tantive IV I'm looking at you) and the space battles are a little bit copy/paste.  But this is still one of those games that has just enough charm, design pros and gameplay panache and variation to outweigh the cons so much so that you have, in my personal opinion, THE quintessential Star Wars gaming experience.

Sorry if this was a bit late and if my upload schedule was a bit lax recently but I hope you all have a great new year and am looking forward to seeing you all in 2016!

My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHmq7KX4Qc46VGhYzWqQfOg/videos