Being battered by 2 storms in the space of a few days means not leaving the house, So plenty of opportunities to get some gaming in.
Dreams
The year is 2013, Sony has revealed PS4 at a meeting prior to E3. Now we’re getting our first look at the games that’ll be coming out on the shiny new console that DOES allow us to trade games with friends. It is E3 2013 where Media Molecule first reveal their latest ambitious project Dreams. Collectively after the reveal we have no idea what Dreams is. Appearing to be some sort of art/creation game, but it’s definitely Media Molecule and the resemblance to Little Big Planet is clear to see.
The year is 2020, Sony has yet to reveal PS5 at a meeting prior to E3, and now Sony doesn’t attend E3. We are yet to get a look at the PS5, we just know it’s coming. Oh, and Dreams full retail release finally arrived on Valentine’s Day. Yes, a whole console generation, 7 years that we know of development time, plus probably a lot more prior to the reveal in 2013, Dreams has hit retail and I actually own a copy. It’s in my hands. Between this, The Last Guardian, Shenmue III and Final Fantasy 7 Remake the legendary PS4 titles are almost all in our hands.
Dreams though is both equally incredibly fun when playing the fantastic creations that the gifted creators in the Dreamverse have made and difficult to pick up with regards to making your own masterpieces. There are some absolute gems outs there to play first though. I’ve played an F1 simulator and an incredible little boxcar rally game. As well as a fantastic game where you are let loose in a museum and have to destroy as much valuable art as you can discretely as you can avoiding other tourists and security within a time limit. It feels like … well, no way to say it, a proper game. Since launch Fallout 4 has been created in it, There are wipeout clones, in-depth RPGs, it’s astonishing the creativity some of the Dreams players have.
I attempted to build a game during the initial tutorial phase, and wow it’s tough to get to grips with the field of view and depth of the creator tool. Having spent nearly 2 hours simply placing a road and 4 cars down to start my street racing game I’ve had in my head for years, I was impressed with just the static visualisation of the concept I’d created, I have no idea how to make these parts move yet though. I’d love to get more in-depth on it and really want to land my street/drag racing concept akin to the drag racing from Need For Speed Underground back in the day.
An unbelievable achievement, this game, creator, tool, whatever it is, is fantastic.
Mad Max
Still going through the Christmas backlog. I took a break away from gaming and concentrated instead on catching up with some films and tv I’d missed throughout 2019. However now back onto trying to clear the backlog up. Although progress on Mad Max hasn’t exactly stalled, I’m just distracted trying to clear up all the side task stuff in each area. The more this is done, the more skills available to unlock as well as points, thus probably making the main game easier when I get to it.
Occasionally a tad repetitive going to bordered areas of a map and finding X scarecrows, X Snipers, X camps to destroy. Think back to all the liberating you had to do in Far Cry 3 & 4 and that’s essentially what I’m currently up to in Mad Max. Somehow though despite the world being very baron and empty I’m enjoying it much more than in the lush tropical environments from the Far Cry games.
– Murr
Reviews & Recommendations
Gran Turismo World Championships
The weekend saw the start of the 2020 FIA Certified Gran Turismo Championships, Live from Sydney. Saturday morning UK time saw the first Manufacturers championship and Sunday was the first Nations Cup.
The manufacturer’s championship was what caught my interest in 2019, so I was looking forward to watching this again in the new season. BMW completely dominated the day however showing some stunning pace in the opening stints of the final race running in medium tires to keep up with the Porsche and Audi that were running in soft’s. Toyota made a massive stride to first place when they put the soft’s on, but it was all for nothing when the BMW put the faster compound on. The surprise of the race was Lexus who came battling back in the final stints to take 3rd place.
My son woke up at 4am Sunday, while I was disgruntled at him, I was also not to mad as I was up I could watch the Nations Cup live at 5am. By this point, my boy was sparked out on my lap again, so uninterrupted viewing of the races that would occur and last till gone 7:30am. I’ll skip over the 1st & 2nd Qualifiers and jump to the main event which was fantastic. Japanese competitor Takuma Miyazona took a ‘bold strategy’ (yes all I could think of was Dodge-ball when the commentator said it) to pit earlier than the field to move to the soft compound tire. It paid off dividends and resulted in an incredibly enthralling chase to the final corners of the 30 lap race.
Genuinely heart in mouth stuff as P1 & P2 from Japan and Australia respectively traded between places for much of the final lap with each of them essentially side by side on the closing straight. Sadly for the Hungarian racer on the final lap who was equally making excellent progress, just kissed the wall which saw him fall all the way to last place.
I cannot recommend watching a replay of the Nations Cup enough (1hr 30mins in the video below), even if only for the final 5 laps. The tension was immense. Looking forward to keeping up with more of this as well as the Manufacturer’s championship this year.
