Train2Game News: WWE 2K14 Review

ultimate-warrior-wwe2k14The people at 2K very kindly sent me a copy off WWE 2K14 to review. This was 2K’s first wrestling game since obtaining the license from THQ.

There couldn’t have been a better developer to take over the WWE wrestling game franchise than 2K. They already had great sports game experience with their NHL, NFL and NBA series. So how did they do with their new IP?

Following on with the popularity of the Attitude Era storyline in WWE ’13 it was a smart move to keep the single player in a similar style. This years game saw the player run through the 30 years of Wrestlemania mode. Starting back at Wrestlemania number one with the $15,000 body slam challenge between Big John Studd and the late, great André the Giant all the way up to Wrestlemania twenty nine with the rematch of John Cena and The Rock for the WWE championship.

It was a pleasure reliving all the great Wrestlemania moments through the years and it was a brilliant excuse to play as several of the biggest Superstars through the events history including Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, HBK and of course the Undertaker.

The gameplay and graphics in the game are pretty much the same as they have always been however just with a few rough edges tidied up.

For example when doing The People’s Elbow or the Five Knuckle Shuffle, the superstar on the floor won’t float across the ring to be in the correct position. Much like a real wrestler he will shuffle himself to the right angle for the move and if he is too close to the ropes the wrestler doing the move just simply won’t try and jump over him.

Overall the AI seems to be a bit more intelligent. Previous games have had bad trouble with targeting which can be utterly match changing in some situations, in the new game that happens a lot less but will still occur occasionally.

There are a few more little features included this year such as corner finishers. This makes finishing moves like HBK’s Sweet Chin Music and Edge’s Spear much simpler to do.

My final conclusion for 2K’s venture in to the Wrestling world is that they have smoothed down some rough edges but there isn’t anything particularly new in the game apart from a different enjoyable single player campaign and the updated roster.

Train2Game News: Magic 2014: Duels Of The Planeswalker Review

Chandra I got the pleasure of reviewing Magic 2014: Duels Of The Planeswalker, from Wizards of The Coast.

One of the first thing that is noticeably different is that this game has some beautiful cut scenes involving the Planeswalker Chandra, which the main story of the game revolves around.

The progression of the story is slightly different to the last game in that you face four encounters which involve a set strategy that you must deal with before facing the “boss” of the level in a normal Magic The Gathering game.

In my personal opinion I would have liked more standard Magic battles rather than the encounters.

Once you finish a level you do get to face another Planeswalker to unlock their deck in a standard Magic battle.

As for the decks they have some interesting ideas. My personal favourite colour to play as is White and I did quite enjoy the white enchantment deck and the white soldier deck. You could get some nice powerful creatures with the enchantment deck or just a large quick army with the soldier deck.

This game also saw the introduction of Slivers. Slivers are a creature in the Magic universe which empower each other Sliver under your control on the battlefield.

I felt the Sliver deck was a little bit too slow to get going but when you did get it going it was very powerful. It just needed to be that bit quicker.

The other new addition to this game was the introduction of the Sealed Play campaign.

If you have ever been to a Magic The Gathering Pre Release event you will know what this is about but for those who don’t know, you get a small collection of booster packs that you create a deck with. This of course entirely depends how lucky you are with your booster packs to how good your deck becomes.

I wasn’t very lucky. I created a Blue and Black deck using the auto create feature which just scraped through the first battle.

When I created the deck, the strength meter at the top declared the deck as “Awesome” but after I won the first battle to get a new booster pack, I added a few good cards and adjusted the land accordingly and the strength of the deck plummeted to “Average”.

In conclusion, I like the decks in this game and the story is displayed much better but there should have been more standard games and the sealed campaign is a nice idea but I think it still needs a little bit more work on it.

Train2Game News: BioShock Infinite Review

BioShock Infinite I realise that this is about a month late but I had to make sure I had played it properly and let it sink in, just to make sure BioShock Infinite was as good as I thought it was.

*SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS*

The lovely people at 2K sent me a copy of the game and I must say straight away this game was incredible, since playing it at the start of April it has still been running around my head. One of the signs of a good product is one that you keep on thinking about once it is finished.

So what made this game so good and stand above all the rest?

From the moment you start the game rowing to the light house, it reminds you of the first BioShock beginning. You don’t know it yet but it is giving you little teasers of the story and what is to come. The game is full of little snippets of information all through out. The levels are crafted beautifully to subtly display these teasers.

Speaking of the levels and the world, after you get fired up to the city of Columbia you are blinded by the beauty of the world and this detail continues in every section. Walking around the early areas of the game through the peaceful beginnings gives you a true sense of being in 1912. This is shown by finding young children smoking and posters with racist tones around the place.

The era is a strong presence in the game, again much like that of the first BioShock but because of the games story, which I will try not to give away too much, you can hear bits of music that don’t belong in the time zone. Songs such as Cyndi Lauper’s – Girls Just Want To Have Fun can be heard at one point.

Columbia is a beautiful place with a dark under tone which becomes increasingly more obvious as you progress through the game.

The next thing I love in this game are the characters, particularly the interaction between main protagonists Booker Dewitt and Elizabeth.

From the beginning Booker has an air of depression around him. This is nicely balanced out with the introduction of his companion Elizabeth. I always felt that Elizabeth was like a Disney Princess for an adult audience, her facial expressions are beautifully animated making her all the more real.

I also enjoyed the way Elizabeth’s character evolved from the scared girl who ran for her life the first moment Booker had to take someone’s life, to realising it needs to be done for the world they live in. She does always keep a small bit of innocence which can be heard as she gasps whenever you decapitate an enemy with your Sky Hook.

The relationship that grows between the two as the game progresses is a heart warming experience and adds to the immersion of the game. From a game play point of view, Elizabeth was a very helpful addition. She would keep you well stocked on the things you needed with, at times, some very impressive throws. Her ability to pull things through was also a nice addition but possibly could have been expanded on a bit more, I found myself not using it ever so much.

The other incredible characters of note, who since the games release have become Cosplay favourites, are the Lutece twins. These are the first characters you see in the game and play an incredibly important part in the story.

They are more than that however, they are part of the very world you play in and without them the game wouldn’t have been as good in my humble opinion. Their interaction and bickering shows a deep caring between the two. One of the only other heart warming parts to this dark universe.

The main antagonist of the game is Lord Comstock, a figure who you see constantly through the game but never meet until close to the final moments. He is very similar to the antagonist of the first BioShock in the way he is often heard and not seen. He does a good job of making you hate him and want to work through the game so you can get at him.

Finally to the actual game play itself.

I love this game and it is one of my favourites but the game play was nothing overly new or exciting. The game play was the same as the previous BioShock’s with your gun in one hand and ability in the other.

This has evolved slightly with different guns to try and seeing which works for your personal preference and like wise with the now called Vigors.

My personal weapon of choice was a Machine Gun with a Sniper Rifle back up and the “Ram” Vigor as in games I personally like to get up close and personal. I felt these choices complimented each other nicely.

The Sky Hook as a melee weapon was a good choice, it is one I enjoyed throughout the game. I would say this is where the majority of the gore from the game comes from.

As a travel system though, riding the rails with the Skyhook, it was very easy to get disorientated and lose where you were going. Without the helpful pressing up on the D-pad navigation system I imagine I would have been very lost a few times in the game.

The enemies in the game were nicely varied. Starting off against standard guards running around shooting, moving on to a couple more super natural ones. These I will let be a surprise. The Patriots were a good enemy, having their hard to hit weak points on the back of the American President robots made them quite a challenge.

The hardest enemies were the Handy Men, who are this games equivalent of the Big Daddy. Their ability to hurt you on Sky Line’s was constantly challenging when trying to get a better vantage point to shoot them. I did feel they weren’t used enough though.

In conclusion, the story and universe of the game is incredibly astounding and these alone will keep it as one of my favourite games for some time but to make the game truly perfect I would of liked to have seen perhaps a bit more evolution of the combat.

This is only a small section of how I personally feel and what the game is about, I have done my best to do justice to this incredible game but the only true way to find out what this game is like is to pick up a copy and play it!

Train2Game News: Chimpact in The Sun

Chimpact in The Sun

Earlier this year, Train2Game covered the story of the Windows 8 game, Chimpact. This morning the national paper, The Sun have reviewed and covered the same game.

The Sun ran the article this morning alongside a review for Sega’s Aliens: Colonial Marines. Chimpact was the second biggest review on the page with a huge rating of 4 out 5 where as Aliens: Colonial Marines only got 3 out of 5.

The review in The Sun says: “Though the iPhone and iPad, understandably have a stranglehold on the market, some games are actually better on other platforms. Chimpact is an example of that.”

The whole review was very positive and ended by saying: “Chimpact is mega-addictive, delivered with impressive graphics and spot-on gameplay.”

This is excellent news for anyone else thinking of developing for Windows 8 as it shows you can get recognition on the platform from some of the top news distributors.

It also shows the Train2Game blog keeps you one step ahead of the rest with us getting to this great game first!

If you want to find out more about the game you can go to www.chimpact.com

Train2Game News: WWE 13 Review

WWE 13 came out earlier this month and I got to play it for the very first review on Train2Game News.

The first thing I dived into was the career mode. If you have played WWE games before then you know it is normally a Road To Wrestlemania involving current day superstars. This time however it’s different

You get to play through the famous 90’s Attitude Era.

The career takes you from the Rise of DX seeing the meeting of Hunter Hearst Helmsley, who would go on to be known as Triple H, and the Heart Break Kid, Shawn Michales, up to Wrestlemania 15 with all the excitement in between.

As someone who never got to experience the Attitude Era of Wrestling as I am a recent fan it is a brilliant career mode for me. Playing through some of the iconic matches like the Calgary screw-job where Vince screwed Bret Hart and seeing the Big Show, still then known as Paul White, rip through the ring during the steel cage match between Vince McMahon and the Rattlesnake Stone Cold Steve Austin, you can really enjoy the Attitude Era.

As for the rest of the game it is very much the same as previous WWE games with some added extras and improved graphics.

You still get the WWE Universe mode with this games sizeable roster and the same match types as before with the addition of an I Quit match. You can now also perform “OMG Moments” which are an enjoyable feature where you can use your finisher to perform exciting moments like smashing your opponent through the crowd barriers.

Single player game play is fairly smooth with the occasional hiccup here and there but the multiplayer is still quite clunky. Troubles with targeting players and clear visual bugs still occurring, at one stage as Edge stood up his arm seemed to fall through his body leaving him quite contorted.

Over all the game is as always one for Wrestling fans, it certainly won’t be drawing in a new audience with the game. If you are a Wrestling fan though I would highly suggest this game as I feel it is the best one so far, purely for the great enjoyment I got from the Attitude Era.

If you are a fan of WWE then live the revolution!