Gaming Review of 2014

Before I get into the bulk of this post I’d just thought I’d point out what it is all about! Unlike most other ‘Yearly’ gaming reviews, I’m going to base it all on my personal opinion and not just limit myself to games released in 2014.

So what happened for me in 2014? Well I got my hands on the Xbox one, which was always the plan but I wasn’t expecting to get it as soon as I did! A lot more of the Ruff Gaming crew moved over sooner than I expected so I thought I’d tag along! Now my opinion of it is that it is a brilliant console, however there are a few little niggles that annoy the hell out of me!

Firstly the amount of time Xbox live is down is unreal, I’ve never known it go down so much and players be unable to use the service. Although you can use the xbox one without an internet connection, the console is designed round a constant internet connection and does suffer without it. Over the past 11 months I’ve owned a xbox one, I would say live has been down about 8-10 times, averaging about 2 hours every time it does go down….

Another annoyance I have is this is a Next generation (or is it now current gen?) console and whilst I don’t expect instant actions on the screen, sometimes the time it takes to snap/unsnap, or for a menu to load just feels a bit too long. An example of this is Fifa 15, in between games it gives you 45 seconds, now in this time I can’t snap the party I’m currently in and invite someone else into that party…. I don’t know if it’s just my console/internet but I would be keen to know what other peoples experiences are like!

Before I get too side tracked from the main topic of this post let’s get straight to the ‘Awards’!

Xbox One Game of the Year

There is still a hell of a lot of games I want to play on the Xbox one that came out and I’ve not got round to getting but basing it on what I did buy I’ve got to go with what some might say is a pretty obvious call….Battlefield 4.

This game was plagued with teething problems at Day one because it was rushed to get out but for me it is still the best shooter out there. I’ve had countless nights on Battlefield with the Ruff Gamers and every single night is a laugh.

It is probably the game I’ve put the most time into on the Xbox one this year and now I feel it is past it’s problems and is a complete game!

Xbox 360 Game of the Year

I’ve played quite a few xbox 360 games this year from my pile of shame but the game that stands out by a country mile is Far Cry 3.  To my shame it had been sat on the shelf for over 12 months as I’d had other distractions which kept me away from it. I started playing it at the back end of last month and what a game it is! I played through the complete story in just under a week and was so impressed that I’m already working on a second play through and I’m already finding bits I missed first time round! I want to get into the Co-op at some point and will be getting Far Cry 4 in the new year (once I get a hard drive!)

Disappointment of the Year

This was a tough category for me because there is 2 games that have stood out that could win this ‘award’. I got both games pretty much on Day one, played them for a few days and then give up on them! Destiny and Titanfall both failed to live up to the hype in my opinion. Let’s start with Titanfall, when it first came out I thought it was brilliant, the combination of Titans and foot troops worked, but after playing for a couple of hours I found I was on the same mission…. And that same tactic worked over and over again. It became a bit boring if I’m completely honest and a real grind if you want to ‘gen up’ because of the various challenges that you had to do. Destiny I felt was supposed to be game of the year and the first hour of playing it, I was hooked and agreed that it was the best thing since sliced bread…. But once I took the rose tinted glasses off I found the game a complete grind. You did the same thing over and over and over and over again and it drove me insane, so much so I’ve not put it in the console since that first couple of weeks. I know plenty of people on my friends list have got a hell of a lot more out of it than I ever will.

I can’t really decide between the two which I was disappointed with more so I’m going to leave it as a joint award.

Feature of the Year

This was by far one of the easiest categories for me to choose a winner. I’ve always wanted to record my gameplay but don’t want to pay through the nose of the kit to do it, but with the introduction of ‘Upload’ on the Xbox one and live streaming mode of Twitch, I can share what I do more!

I think this is a great feature and a good way of growing a gaming community. Now combined with the social feed on the xbox one’ Upload’ for me is the feature of the year. Whenever I’m online, you constantly hear ‘Xbox Record that!’ capturing those epic moments/fails that would normally be lost. It’s a great way of sharing you moments in gaming, sharing advice on gaming (Thank you PGTips!! Halo Skulls…!) and sharing those moments of epic fail for the world to see.

Xbox has latched on to this feature and recognised it as a highlight on the new console and improved it. Controlling the clips through the controller makes sure you capture them moments so easily my Feature of the Year.

Surprise of the Year

Again a relatively easy choice for me! When it was announced that GTA V was coming to Xbox one, I didn’t exactly jump round the room in excitement as I’ve been there, done that and got the t shirt. I was waiting to see how the Ruff Gamers jumped on the HD bandwagon before I made my decision to buy it. Then came the announcement of 1st Person mode, whilst it didn’t make it a certain for me, I decided at the time it was worth a punt and boy was I impressed! It’s the same story and everything but feels like a completely new and fresh game. The ability to change when you are in 3rd person and when you are in 1st person, depending on the situation is unreal!

They have also revamped the music in the game, which for me was actually quite a big boost because I played that much GTA V story on 360 I was bored of it, so something nice and fresh is a plus.

I’m also looking forward to the new features in the multiplayer because I don’t think I’m the only one that thinks the online on the 360 was a huge disappointment last year because it didn’t live up to the hype. I’ve not played much of it yet but from what I did play it was an improvement and I’m looking forward to getting some gamer nights organised in the near future!!!

So that’s the ‘awards’ done and dusted, I would love to hear if you agree/disagree with me and what you would class as your winners.

I’ll be doing a post sometime soon about what I’m looking forward to next year!

As always feedback and subscribers are appreciated!

Have a good Christmas!

Gaming Identity - Shooters

This may, at first, seem like a very strange topic but I thought it might be interesting to share what influenced me and created my gaming ‘identity’ in shooters.

I don’t like to define how I play games because I generally like to have an open mind but anyone who has played an FPS with me knows what kind of role I usually take. I prefer the long range, accurate approach usually matched with snipers. Even in games such as Mass Effect or Destiny, I chose the ‘sniper’ style role.

So what drew me towards sniping/long range combat?

My earliest memory of sniping in gaming was on the N64 and that legend of all shooters… Goldeneye. The very first mission you got round the corner and into a watch tower and there you find a sniper rifle…. With this sniper rifle the whole mission becomes so much simpler as you can pick the enemies off without them setting any alarms off…. And that sort of got me thinking, if it can be this easy in single player then why can’t it be this simple in multiplayer? Back in the days where people actually had to be present for you to have death matches and screen peeking was the norm, me and my sniper rifle could be found at the top of the pile (especially if people insisted on using DK mode!).

I can’t really recall much in between Goldeneye and then next big influence however with the arrival of the first Xbox and one of my all-time favourites Conflict Desert Storm. One of the reasons it is up there is the simple fact that it has a co-op element, I’m a sucker for that! But for those that can’t remember there were 4 playable positions… Medic/Leader, Demolitions/Engineer, LMG/Support and a sniper. Now unlike most games where you could choose which role you took, it was all about which player you were on the console…. Player 1 was medic; Player 2 was Demolitions etc etc. So I always ended up being player 4 because it was never played at my house….. which meant I was the sniper! Now everyone else hated to play the sniper but I thought there was nothing better! With CDS clever recoil system you had to develop your own shooting style with the rifle and it made those head shots just that more little more rewarding.

From there no matter what shooter I played I tended to favour the long range weapons, with the mentality that if I could get them before they knew I was there how could I get killed??

This has developed more and more now with my online gaming, although not as prominent now (I will use other classes) however I still feel  that ‘Recon’ as its now known is my preference. Games such as Gears of War reward the perfect headshot with a satisfying explosion of your enemies head.... Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a camping sniper, I would consider myself an aggressive recon! I'm often right in the thick of it and getting my hands dirty!!

Please comment below on what you feel your shooter gaming identity is, would love to hear some of yours!

The Cost of Gaming

First of all sorry for the lack of posts over the last few weeks, I’ve had an exam and needed to take time to study for it!

Back with a bang and I thought I’d discuss the current cost of gaming and how you approach it affects the cost.

Let’s get one thing straight, I’m tighter than a submarine door when it comes to my money! So whenever a new game comes out I make sure I’m getting it for the best price I can. I try and limit myself to a few games a month otherwise I’d end up bankrupt! This month my game of choice was WWE 2K15, with one or two of the following:

·         Halo MCC

·         Far Cry 4

·         GTA V HD

Now at the time of writing this I’ve only picked up WWE and GTA V, which has cost me a grand total of £89.

Now before I go into the price difference, I’ve based this on buying on the day so I could (in theory) play it on the same day! I did what I do with every new release and go online and compare the prices between the major retailers to see who has the best deal… and to be honest the difference can be staggering.

Below is a comparison I found:

WWE2K15/Halo MCC/GTA V HD

·         Asda: £44/£44/£44

·         Argos: £46.99/£39.99/£46.99

·         Game: £46.99/£43.99/£46.99

·         Tesco Direct (Click and Collect): £42/NA/£42

·         Toys R Us: £49.99/£44.89/£45.89

·         Smyths: £44.99/£44.99/£45.99

·         Xbox Online Store (Digital Edition): £54.99/£44.99/£54.99

All these prices are correct on 17th Nov 2014and might well have changed now…..

Now firstly I’d like to highlight how expensive it is to go digital of Xbox!! I’ve got a few games digital and it’s great being able to change game without having to get up and move, having all the updates download in the background without you knowing, so I can see that the future of gaming is heading that way….but at those prices?! When the xbox one first came out and this new digital era of gaming came around I said to myself that I would probably go digital and would even be willing to pay slightly more for the games for the privilege but not £10 more…

But even if you are old fashioned and want that disc, if you are not careful you can get ripped off!

The cheapest solution for those 3 games would be Tesco Direct/Argos/Tesco Direct. But without doing this research I’d probably have just reserved them all at Argos or something. I’ve done this a few times now and I always come up with the same result.
Going further into this, Pre ordering/Ordering online can save you even more money but I try and avoid using Amazon because of a number of bad experiences I’ve had using them in the past. Gameskeynow (or the xbox equivalent gamespointsnow) has proved a great service for me but they don’t always have the latest releases. They did a great deal on Fifa 15 which was £38.99 for a digital code which I had 2 weeks before release day. This meant that come midnight I could play fifa (not that I bothered….).

Moving away from the games… as strange as it sounds talking about the cost of gaming… there are other expectations we are subjected to when we buy these new consoles. At the very bottom of this post I’m going to outline a pretty accurate breakdown of what has been spent on my xbox one.

Overall since the release of Xbox One/PS4 I feel I’m spending more on gaming than I ever have done!

Here is what I’ve spent on my xbox one so far….:

Console: £429.00 (Including 2 games Fifa 14/Battlefield 4)
Headset: £60.00
Games: In total I have bought (excluding the 2 I got with the console) 8 games spending a grand total of £332.00
Total: £821.00

And going forward I’m expecting to pay out for the following:

Rechargable Battery Pack: £25
External Hard Drive: £45
Extra Contoller: £40

So you can see that I’m pushing nearly £1,000in the 10 months that I’ve owned my xbox. I would consider myself quite a low spending on it too as I’ve not really bought that many games  for it as I’m waiting for them to go cheaper (e.g. Watchdogs/Dead Rising 3) or I’m looking at renting them!

Overall I think gaming is getting more expensive but you can avoid some of the expense by looking round for the best deal!

Love to hear what you guys think

Do Video games make People Violent?

I was browsing my Facebook this dinner time at work and come across a link with the same title as this blog post. After I watched the trailer for the next ‘most violent game’ and read the short report I was keen to put my own interoperation to it and share my opinions and hopefully get the opinions of some people who read this. If you want to check out the article and video I saw then click on the following link:

http://fullist.co.uk/2014/10/video-games-violent-new-hatred-trailer-change-mind

This topic has been bounced around pretty much since gaming first started. You have always had the controversy of people saying a game is ‘Too Violent’, but I see one major flaw with that comment… it’s purely opinionated. People’s opinions differ depending on that person; do I have the same tastes as every single person on my Xbox Live Friends list? No I don’t, so can someone define that one of us is wrong and one of us is right?

There have been a number of notable incidents about games being changed because they were deemed ‘too violent’. Possibly one of the most famous of these incidents was Mortal Combat and its fatalities. In the early 1990’s the game was subject to scrutiny in the US, saying that the fatalities were too graphic for release and subsequently the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) was formed in 1994. The games creators even went as far to hide the gore content in the game only accessible by a cheat code. Another famous incident was when Carmageddon was banned because of the depiction of you running over and splatting humans. In order for the game to go ahead the people were changed to zombies (Basically the blood was turned from red to green) and that was allowed. In the case of both these games, both have subsequently been released with the original content. So the presence of violence in video games has always a hot topic amongst the media/governments.

Now in terms of suggesting Video games turn people violent, one incident stands out more than most, The Columbine High School Massacre. In the aftermath of the incident it showed that one of the killers, Eric Harris, was an avid Doom player, often submitted levels that he created to play online. It originally was stated that one of the levels he created was a ‘mock up’ of the high school, which could have been used for preparation for the attack. This was subsequently discovered to be false; however some media outlets and political party members still believed video games were behind it. Now every time a similar incident hits the media, what gets the blame…. Video games.

Is it fair for video games to be tarnished with this brush? Is there any evidence that links violence to video games? I’ve played most of the GTA games and I’ve never once stolen a car, gunned down a gang member or killed a prostitute to get my money back (don’t pretend like you haven’t all done it!). I’m sure I’m not the only that has managed to suppress these urges after playing these games…..So why should games get the blame?

The whole issue is blame culture, someone isn’t bad because they are bad, there has to something wrong with them or some kind of outside influence that has turned them that way. Take Eric Harris for example yes he spent hours and hours playing and designing Doom levels, but he was also abused by his violent father and spent most of his school years being bullied, but yet video games got the blame….. I don’t think that quite stacks up do you?

I’d love to hear people’s opinions on this. So if you have anything you want to share, please comment below and share my blog.

The Golden Joysticks

The Golden Joy Sticks, for those that don’t know, are the only ‘official’ annual awards as voted for by gamers!
Below is a list of the winners (taken fromhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/29758242):

Lifetime achievement: Hideo Kojima
Game of the year: Dark Souls II
Best original game: DayZ
Best online game: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Best storytelling: The Last of Us: Left Behind
Best visual design: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Best audio: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Most played game of the year: Rust
Best multiplayer: Battlefield 4
Best indie game: DayZ
Innovation of the year: Oculus Rift DK2
Best gaming moment: The Last of Us: Left Behind - "The kiss"
Best handheld game: Pokemon X & Y
Best mobile game: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Most wanted: The Witcher III: Wild Hunt
Gaming personality of the year: PewDiePie
Studio of the year: Ubisoft Montreal
Gaming platform of the year: Steam

Do you agree with the list above?

I totally agree with Hideo Kojima getting a lifetime achievement award. His work on MGS alone is enough to earn this but add this to his work on Castlevania too, it is a worthy acknowledgement! Just looking at MGS, it is a franchise that has survived the test of time, with each new instalment providing something different to keep the franchise fresh. In honour of this I’m going to be doing a post about the MGS series and how it affected me as a gamer!

Battlefield 4 winning best multiplayer is a hell of an achievement considering the trouble it went through when it was first released and the subsequent DLC that followed. Don’t get me wrong, Battlefield is a worthy winner of this award because right now I can’t think of a better Multiplayer, everything released since I’ve compared to how much I enjoy battlefield and nothing has come close. It is one of the only games I’ve been willing to buy the season pass from Day one because I knew how much I would be playing it and I can see me playing it for at least another 12 months!

Shame to say that’s about all I can comment on the above list as I haven’t had much experience with the other games… what does everyone else think?

Has Social Media Killed Gaming Forums?!

I’m back…… Hopefully I’ll be a bit more active this time round! I’m not going to bother with an ‘introduction post’ because if anyone actually reads this they will probably know who I am anyway! During a conversation with T3RRAF0RM (one of my xbox friends!) he said something that really got me thinking….. He said ‘I think twitter has killed a lot of gaming forums, it’s a shame really’ and sadly I think he might be right. The conversation came about over a gamer night post I offered to do for him on Ruff Gaming. I’m trying to get more people through the forum to see what we are all about etc etc. and T3RRAF0RM regularly hosts a Battlefield 4 night. My idea was to post it up and allow people to sign up and join in, thus increasing site traffic! But maybe he is right? What do you think? Has social media (not putting the blame solely on Twitter) really killed gaming forums? I mean how easy is it to organise a gamer night these days? Post a quick tweet out, tag the relevant people and await the response, boom, night sorted. Gone are the days of forum posts, meaning people had to sign up to show their interest and willingness to get involved. Yes it is much quicker but what are we losing by using 140 characters? Exactly that! We are limited to 140 characters, half of that can be taken up by mentioning people who you think will get involved (can usually involve multiple tweets about the same thing). So you have an average of 70 characters to say what game, what date and what time you will be playing… Can be pushing it right? And what if you want to ask a question about that night as you send it out, such as does everyone have a certain DLC? It can get very confusing! At least with a forum post everything can be there for people to see on one post, plus with the added comments section, you can answer any questions or even propose your own? I feel there can be a lot more interaction by using a forum! I’d love to hear what people think on this…. Please comment below or contact me via Twitter (@iceman_d18) with your thoughts!