Geekly Review #156

Happy 3rd Birthday to us! Yes. We’ve turned three years old over the weekend. Thanks to everyone who supports us!

Noct

Noct came out just over a year ago which we reviewed after it came out. It’s part survival part horror with an emphasis on building tension through atmospheric music and locations whilst you try to fight off giant bugs. I haven’t actually played it for a long time mainly because it’s in early access and with it being developed by a tiny team – I think just one person for most of the year, I’d played through all of the content pretty quickly.

But, there has been an update, the most significant update since its release, one that actually adds new gameplay elements and, well, basically entirely changes the game.

Essentially there is this new Cataclysm mechanic where after 5 minutes the world basically blows up and if you’re caught out in it you die. So you need to find a bunker kit and hide every time this is about the happen. You then get to head out and explore in between gathering weapons, ammo and food etc… That’s kind of it.

It actually feels like a different game now. Before it was very tense and quite scary at times – with instant kills being a thing, where you could only take one hit from enemies. Now enemies are much more plentiful and you have health meaning you can take a few hits. It’s become a lot more action based and I’m still not sure whether I like it.

At the moment 5 minutes of exploring time just isn’t enough you barely get to go anywhere before you have to head back. The large amount of enemies that now spawn makes it lose all the tension. The bunker system, whilst potentially interesting, right now is meaningless. There is literally no reason to leave the bunker other than to get in a fight, I could sit in it all the time and nothing would happen to me. Yes, it would be very boring, but there is no real incentive to go anywhere. The map size has been drastically reduced – not that it matters anyway with the timer being so short. And all the missions have been removed from the game.

I’ve been waiting for this update for a long time and I have to say that I’m really sad that it feels so underwhelming.

The thing is, is that I know Noct is only being developed by a small group, so I don’t want to be too harsh, and I actually think the ideas being used are good ones. But they just need to be seriously expanded upon, and I feel like they need to do it fairly quickly to keep any kind of interest in the game.

Some of the issues like the 5 minutes between Cataclysms has been talked about and sound like they’re going to be increased and there are obviously other plans in place to expand on story missions and other gameplay elements, I just hope it’s not another year until we start to see this.

I’m remaining hopeful that this new idea will turn out good and that at the moment it’s just the basis to start out new.

T.I.M.E Stories

We recently played the amazing T.I.M.E Stories and posted the review last week. It’s been on of my best gaming moments in recent times and is probably my favourite board game. Read the spoiler free review here.

Hello Neighbor

Last week I got the change to play an Alpha build of Hello Neighbor, and damn is it a lot of fun!

You move into a brand new suburb and notice your neighbor is hiding something in his basement. The only logical thing to do is to break into his house and figure out what he’s hiding.

• Stealth Horror

• Procedural AI 

• Pixar-style visuals 

• Extremely tense gameplay

The game is being developed in Unreal Engine 4 and is coming to PC Summer 2017. 

Check it out below

– Will

Pro Wrestling Chaos: All or Nothing

So Saturday I was ringside for PWC: All or Nothing. The card had 6 matches featuring the King of Chaos title match with ex WWE star Hardcore Holly, and the crowning of new Knights of Chaos tag champions. The Tag championship opened the show in a ladder match and it was absolutely sensational for an opening match. The Steele Dragons picked up the victory in a hard fought win which left Alex Steele injured and taken to hospital. We found out the next day he had fractured his heel.

Adam Rose was on the card and looks absolutely stacked up close. He picked up a surprising win. And seeing Hardcore Holly in a title match. He’s looking in great shape. The swerve of the night came after this when GM Jimmy Havoc resigned from his GM role announcing he was now a roster member and gunning for the King of Chaos title attacking the reigning champion Wild Boar.

I also got a picture with Jimmy Havoc which was a pretty incredible moment. Here’s the full results:

Steele Dragons defeated Scotty Essex & Tom Dawkins in a ladder match to become the first Knights of Chaos!

Aldo Rose pinned Danny Jones

Skyrim Special Edition

Battlefield is out, Titanfall 2 is out, Tomb Raider is out, all games that I probably should have picked up as they’re new games for my PS4. But I didn’t pick these up. Nope I instead opted for Skyrim Remaster / Special Edition.

As soon as I was on the title screen the familiar music kicked in and I felt nostalgic (which is weird considering the original game is only 5 years old). I’d been reading a bit about the remaster before playing it and noticed a lot of people complaining that important NPC’s were being killed off by vampires thanks to the Dawnguard DLC that’s included with the game. I’d never purchased the Dawnguard DLC and didn’t like the thought of losing any important people to vampire attacks so as soon as I had freedom chased this quest down to make a start on it.

It’s a funny old thing, this DLC is actually huge, and If you’d purchased this after completing Skyrim back in the day you’d be really happy with the content here as it’s taking ages. The problem is, I want it to be over and done with and out of the way. I just want to rid the world of vampires so I can play the game as I did 5 years ago. A nice pace in which I can freely visit cities without fear of villagers being attacked. The freedom to get side tracked and go hunting, or make weapons, or gather things for spells. But it feels like I can’t do this till those pesky vampires are taken care of. And yeah, the DLC for this is massive and taking absolutely ages. I’m saving all the time and scared to enter villages for fear of vampires attacking me and therefore any NPC’s around who will fight with me against the vampires. I’m also getting pretty pissed off contracting vampiresim from fights with them. I can’t be bothered to keep healing myself of it to prevent myself turning into a vampire. I wish there was the option to turn the DLC on when you want like the mods. I’d have definitely saved it till later. But I’m almost done with it now, a few quests remain after a mammoth session on Sunday.

The game itself aside from that is just as addictive as I remember it being. The music, the settings, the visuals are all so awesome. There honestly isn’t a huge leap (or at least not that I can see) visually from the original Skyrim to this version of PS4. But that doesn’t bother me. The game is still stunning in areas like the woods and plains. I can’t wait for more marathon sessions and dragon slaying. But first things first, those damn vampires.

Titanfall 2 – Slow Start in UK

Titanfall 2 always seemed to be in an odd release window. Battlfield 1 2 weeks before, and launching alongside alot of other games at this time of the year. It always felt like it could be forgotten about. That unfortunately seem’s to be the case in the UK.

It’s looking like Titanfall 2 on XboxOne, PS4 & PC combined sales are less than quarter of the week one sales for the original Titanfall on just the XboxOne.

[Week 43, 2016] 04 (NE) TITANFALL 2 (ELECTRONIC ARTS) < 52,000

Xbox One (57%) < 30,000
PlayStation 4 (41%) < 21,000
PC (2%) < 1,000

In comparison to Titanfall 1 in 2014:

[Week 11, 2014] XBO TITANFALL (ELECTRONIC ARTS) – 118,000 / NEW
[Week 11, 2014] PC TITANFALL (ELECTRONIC ARTS) – 7,000 / NEW
[Week 15, 2014] 360 TITANFALL (ELECTRONIC ARTS) – 28,000 / NEW

Not the best start. Hopefully positive word of mouth about the campaign can ensure this game gets a few more sales.

– Murr