I should say at the outset that I’m a huge fan of the God of War series, and in many ways, the difficulties with reviewing God of War: Ascension as a fan of the series are the same faced by the game itself: it’s hard to avoid comparisons to previous games in the series. God of War and God of War 2 redefined ‘epic’ gameplay, and God of War 3 showed us how much further the PS3 was capable of pushing that. Many hoped that Ascension would show there was still life in the PS3’s old bones yet, but it doesn’t really push the series forward in any meaningful way. There was only so far that Kratos’ feud with Olympus could be escalated, and that point turned out to be when God of War 3 closed with Kratos beating Zeus to death with his bare hands. God of War: Ascension dials things back and attempts a more intimate, personal tale, set prior to the events that led to Kratos becoming the God of War. Read the full story »

The sniper level in Call of Duty Modern Warfare was considered one of the game’s highest points; its combination of stealth with setpieces – despite being a highly curated experience – created a tense kind of mission in a game that was rapidly redefining what a cinematic FPS could do in its use of curated setpieces. Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 (or Sniper 2 for short) is a game formed entirely of these moments – mixtures of tense marksmanship and frantic action in the aftermath. It is a game which, rather than offering vast selections of experiences in a kind of action buffet, focuses on simulating a single one – sniping – as seemingly realistic as possible. Finding the midpoint between simulation and accessibility in a game like this is crucial, and Sniper 2 succeeds only in part. Read the full story »

Ever since its arrival in 2008, EA seems to be hell-bent on turning Dead Space into another fit-for-purpose media megastar to rival the likes of Capcom’s Resident Evil and as a result the series has travelled down some winding roads, from claustrophobic horror to Nathan Drake’s mixtape sequel. This is not forgetting offshoots like the lightgun-inspired Extraction, forgettable downloadable titles and so-so anime features. As such, Dead Space 3 monkeys with the series formula but, unfortunately, doesn’t often succeed in doing so. Read the full story »

You can’t keep a good adventurer down, and that’s never more appropriate than when talking about Lara Croft. She’s faced gun-toting mercs, vicious dinosaurs and even her own demonic copy – and let’s not dwell on the so-so movies and lacklustre Angel of Darkness that led to her initial fall from grace. The heroine’s had a reimagining and some solid outings since, but almost no one could have predicted the comeback that she would eventually pull off. Crystal Dynamics we salute you, as this latest reboot is the best that the franchise has ever produced. Read the full story »

Mass Effect 3 had a few troubles around its release, nothing compared to EA’s recent fun with Sim City and Dead Space 3, but at the time it made waves. The biggest issue was the ending, which people felt didn’t cover enough of the repercussions to the whole cast, they felt ownership of Bioware’s story because they’d made a few arbitrary decisions along the way. It was weird, and I didn’t see that as a problem. All the whining, bitching and complaining was paid off with an ‘extended ending’ to try and placate them.

I didn’t mind the ending, it felt right for what my Shepard would have done. The problems I had weren’t anything to do with that, but with the invasion of the grimdark into another game and the lack of flavourful fluff to help you have fun in the game. Fortunately, the Citadel DLC answers all of that and more. Read the full story »