With all the trailers, announcements and hype of E3 going on last week, we decided against doing a Geekly Review, but we’re back to normal service now.
Rising Storm 2: Vietnam
I picked this up on a bit of a whim the other week – mainly because I found it really cheap. Vietcong was one of the first online PC FPS games that I really loved playing and played the hell out of it. So I have a little nostalgia towards Vietnam era games. I thought Rising Storm looked good and wanted to check it out.
I don’t quite know what I expected and I’m not entirely sure if I like it or not. My first few games consisted of me running around aimlessly getting shot by people I couldn’t even see. Needless to say it was a little frustrating. Then I gradually started to get the hang of things – this doesn’t operate like a normal FPS, and I started to enjoy myself a bit more. Taking things more slowly and methodically is definitely a more beneficial. It’s more like Battlefield than Call of Duty, and is actually a lot more tactical and ‘realistic’ than both of them combined. Teamwork pays off, and the whole run and gun thing doesn’t tend to work that well.
Rising Storm 2: Vietnam features battles with up to 64 players across a boat load of huge maps. Each side also has a class system meaning that there are specific roles for you to perform when in your team. I’ve mostly only played as a standard solider because I knew if I went for anything more specialised I’d probably let my team down hugely.
One thing I haven’t got used to yet is the way you gun moves around the screen when you move. Look to the left and your gun will now be more to the left, look up and it will take up more of the screen. It’s weird and I don’t really understand why it’s a thing.
As I said I’m still undecided on whether I like it or not. Maybe I just need to play more of it.
-Will
Horizon: Zero Dawn…. Mind is BLOWN
So as I’ve mentioned in pretty much every GR since the end of May, I’m still chugging away in Horizon: Zero Dawn. I keep flipping between things, like one sitting i’ll concentrate on going through the story, another sitting I’ll focus on helping out citizens doing side quests. Well Thursday and Friday evening sessions were very much focused on progressing the main story. I’ve reached the stage now where I’m on the final mission before completing the main quest line, and the secrets and revelations you unearth during these missions building up to the finale are absolutely mind blowing. Learning more about Elisabet’s plight to ensure humanity will once again strive, the real meaning of Zero Dawn, discovering Zero Day, the existence of Hades to balance out Gaia, Seriously it was all incredible stuff and the story really started to astound me. The biggest shockers being the creation of the robots we’ve all come to know that inhabit earth in Zero Dawn, discovering their purposes. It seemed convenient that there were water dwelling robots, and robots that ruled the sky, well now it becomes a clearer why and how they were created. Outstanding stuff. With just the final mission to go now, i’m going back across the world picking off other tasks such as the dungeons and ruins. Horizon has been an incredible experience and one of the strongest and “woah” gaming stories I’ve played in a long time.
Lego Batman Movie
Sunday was a lazy day because of a few drinks were partaken the night before, so like all lazy Sunday’s it’s a case of eating pizza (in this case a free pizza) and watching films. I opted for Lego Batman as I’d wanted to see it when it first released, but never got round to it. It’s funny, but feels a bit too forced on occasions. It’s not got the same charm as the Lego Movie, which I can watch very frequently. I was surprised about the use of all the other properties Lego have their hands on in this film though. Seeing the bad guys from Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, King Kong & Darlicks from Dr Who all trying to take down Gotham was interesting. And Gremlins, is this the closes to Gremlins 3 we’ll see. Not quite as good as I’d hoped it to be, but still, entertaining enough, and you can’t help but marvel at all the Lego creations in use for this film.
– Murr
I’ve done pretty much all of the Horizon side quests now, and just have a few final story missions left to go. Knew you’d love it! 😉