Video Games
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In terms of presentation, Borderlands 3 is incredible, particularly creatively. The various explorable planets are full of diversity, each having their own unique character; the starting area, Pandora, with its sandy, oppressive deserts and craggy mountains is decidedly different from, say, the planet of Promethea, with its impossibly tall skyscrapers and seemingly advanced technology. Neon
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Borderlands 3 gets off to a fairly rough start. The starting environment, Pandora, has been featured heavily in prior games of the series, and thusly feels overused, stale; originality is lacking. The opening hours are slow and unremarkable, the deserts and landscapes mimicry of what has come before. True from a technical perspective the graphics
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Echoing very closely the openings from the previous games, a brief, artsy cutscene begins the narrative, with voice-over by the series’ trademark, greedy capitalist Marcus. “So, you want to hear a story?” We’ve heard this multiple times now, but his voice acting is of such a quality that it really isn’t aggravating. An in-engine cutscene
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Tomb Raider is, for me, a very special title. It succeeds both narratively and in its multiple, varied gameplay systems. Beyond these two things, its greatest achievement is the crafting of our protagonist, Lara Croft, who undergoes throughout her journey a notable shift, a maturation, and maybe even a phase of disillusionment; the Lara
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The more I play of Tomb Raider, the more I like it. Early on, a sort of foundation is laid for the player, orienting him to the world and informing him of the varied mechanics. Gradually, these core systems are logically built upon, increasing in difficulty in accordance with an increase in player skill.
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The game opens with a striking CG cutscene, introducing our heroine Lara, whose character design is striking from the first, slight in terms of build, beautiful, all the while radiating a strong sense of the resolute – or potential to develop the resolute. The other characters introduced in these early stages are also quite diverse
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The Lost Chapters component of Fable Anniversary exists as a fairly straightforward expansion, though I am hesitant to even apply that term to the added content, which is rather slight; I was able to complete the entire thing in three or so hours, taking in most of the sights and deliberately and carefully exploring
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Fable Anniversary’s gameworld is fantastic. The land of Albion, influenced strongly by Medieval England, is a beautiful land, one of great diversity in terms of locales; technically, it may be seen as unimpressive, or possibly just dated; the textures are not exactly mind-blowing, and the facial animations and character designs for the NPC’s are
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One thing that has really stood out to me in Fable Anniversary after twelve or so hours is the clever marriage of linearity and more open-ended level design. The maps are all rather small in size, basic too, though certain of them have branching paths, which often lead to side areas and locations which
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While being a remaster in a different, newer engine, graphically Fable Anniversary seems inconsistent – while universally improved graphically over its antiquated predecessor, it still suffers from some technical shortcomings; it is not truly, impressively, modern. The faces and character models are decent at best, though the environments fare better; trees in their beautiful
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There’s something completely refreshing about Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. The game is almost hyperlinear in terms of design, with very few branching pathways, proudly eschewing the considerable open world bloat, presenting overall a cinematic experience. Still, it can be basic at times, in terms of mechanics. Even other linear, straightforward games offer
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Watch Dogs as a game is engaged in a fierce struggle to discover and assert its own distinct identity. In the end, it fails in ever achieving the much-desired uniqueness. It has taken the mechanics of other open world games, and while they have been transplanted here fairly accurately, the very fact that it
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Watch Dogs is at its best when it is original. Much of the gameplay is a mixture of driving and shooting sections, which have become a hallmark of the open world genre since its inception and popularization; a blueprint has been established, and the developers follow it quite faithfully – for better and for
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One of Watch Dogs’ greatest strengths is its open world, though those strengths are tempered strongly by a great many flaws. There is a large, sprawling map – Chicago – which is littered with icons and objectives – as would be expected in a modern game from this genre. But despite the impressive quantity
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Assassin’s Creed IV: Freedom Cry manages to condense into one neat package much of what made the base game great. The naval aspects are present, though they receive noticeably less emphasis, as would be expected. The land-based gameplay is still there, and the stealth system is as solid as ever – not great, but
Games With Grey 