Writing Within Gaming

Some of my earliest and most fond memories of PC gaming come from Bioware's Forgotten Realms series. They gave me an unparalleled drive to continue and develop my story in the way that a novel never could. I was as much a part of the story as any of the portraits up the left of the screen. Don't get me wrong, I love a good book, but story-driven gaming holds its own character and niche in entertainment that fascinates me.

As a writer, I strongly feel that stories can benefit from being told through new media. Gaming presents an incredible opportunity for writers to delve into the minds of their audience, and it even leaves room for multiple choice scenarios, the holy grail of storytelling. Occupying the same mental space as the protagonist has a profound effect on how the audience experiences the character's choices, there's a feeling of weight to decisions.
     However, there are a number of things that gaming can't do optimally. A game can't venture beyond what we can see and hear, e.g. the internal thoughts of minor characters. Also, because it's a relatively new medium, it has less material to reference and draw upon than written literature.
     What are games good at, and what are their weaknesses? How will video game story-telling evolve from where it is now?

To start, here are some examples of my favourite stories within games and why I enjoyed them so much.
<SPOILER ALERT> for any of you who haven't played these games, I am sorry:

Baldur's Gate II fused a wondrous fantasy setting with a dark plot. To this day, it remains one of my favourite story-driven titles. The writing was superb and it had enough twists to qualify as a pretzel.

Five party members, a top-down perspective and an opening set in an arcane lab-prison filled with mages and monsters. D&D at its best. It has one of the longest story experiences of any single player RPG. Your companions would frequently initiate conversations while you explored, raising concerns and delights with both you and their peers. Some of them adore each other, and others want to tear out each other's throats as soon as possible. It's rare to have a gaming experience in which your character isn't the only character of... well, character. It's not often you get to play alongside a crazed, claymore wielding barbarian with a pet hamster named 'Boo.'

Neverwinter Nights brought us a solid story, but it had less character-interaction that made Baldur's Gate II's story so gripping. However it has the best and most intuitive map editor I've seen to date, which brought the playerbase into the creative process.

There was a great deal more focus on the main character rather than the supporting acts by the time NWN came out. That was a shame. However, it was heavily moddable and invited players into the creative process with its simple level editor. At last, I could create all of the conversations and quests that I really wanted to play, and share them with my peers. Its single player campaign had a stylish 'story book' sequence that introduced each act, which summarised complex situations without the need for too much introductory dialogue.

A new IP in a Space Opera setting. Bioware took a big risk with Mass Effect, but between the cinematic feel of the game and its sinister villains, Mass Effect took the gaming world by storm.

I'll be honest. I completed Mass Effect in one sitting. My eyes were glued to the screen. The way the game puts the pressure of responsibility on Shepard (the protagonist) is really memorable. Choosing which members of your party have to die to save the mission, is an unforgettable ordeal. Its sequels never quite recaptured the sense of urgency and discovery that this gem had in abundance.

It's not always about the originality of your story. It's also how you tell it. Bastion has some of the most stylish narration and aesthetic choices I've seen, and its framed narrative allows the player to feel part of the story line without having to make any awkward conversation choices.

An ultimately optimistic tale about the end of the world, Bastion gives you two profound choices in the story. 'Kill or rescue your enemies?' And 'Do I really want to go home?' Other than that, the framed narrative gives a tidy reason for your character to remain silent without breaking the third wall. Player Characters are mute in most games, but in Bastion you feel like the hand turning the pages of narration.

Fallout 3 is better known for its exploration and for blowing ghouls to bits with shotguns in slow motion, but it had a great, albeit short story that played on a number of biblical themes in a post-apocalyptic America.

I'm not Christian. I've never read the bible beyond what I had to do for school work a few years back, but due to Fallout 3, I have a favourite excerpt.
"I am Alpha and Omega; the beginning and the end. I give unto him what is athirst of the fountain of the water of life, freely." The game's story uses the themes of Eden and the Water of Life to great effect in a story about restoring the slightest hope to a post apocalyptic wasteland. It gives an insight into the father's (Liam Neeson's) mind, and shapes the plot as a whole. It's just a shame that you don't get to play it after the end of the story, but I guess its good to end on a high.

What they all do exceptionally well is immerse the player. Either through dialogue, choice scenarios and player action; they all give some level of responsibility to the player and bring them on board with the creative process by asking them to fulfil a role. This is what 'Role Play Games' used to mean, before they became defined by dice rolling and level-ups.

Gaming has a number of issues when it comes to introducing characters to the player. The player has no concept of the protagonist's past, so without an incredibly long explanatory sequence (which would likely bore the player to death), the primary characters should be introduced to the protagonist at the same time the player is introduced to them. Otherwise, a distance is created. An example of a bad character introduction is the beginning of Grand Theft Auto IV. Nico Bellic's brother is introduced, and the history between them is displayed through lively in-jokes and anecdotes, which makes the player feel like the third wheel, breaking the immersion.
     Bastion, however, does this flawlessly. The narrator, Rucks, may be talking from the get-go, but his character meets 'The Kid' at the same time you meet Rucks, and the realisation that the narrator is an interactive character is an exciting moment.
     Though it has a more restricted way of introducing and incorporating characters (particularly in action-packed games), what games do well is attach you to them. This is particularly true of Mass Effect, which uses a real time (almost) conversation system to prevent you from picking the perfect conversation option, which reveals either your own or their character flaws. Unfortunately, this is only true of the first playthrough. Once you've done the Virmire mission twice, you might save a different character than you did before, just to see the results. And another thing, Mass Effect has the potential to kill off characters you know and love like no other RPG before it, only being surpassed (in that regard) by its sequels.

There's a mostly unwritten rule about writing good fiction that you should 'show & not tell' the reader. Unfortunately for gaming writers, they can't effectively use metaphor without some kind of dream-sequence Inception gimmick. Instead, imagery is often replaced by gameplay mechanics. This turns the writing rule for gaming into 'do, and don't show.' There're always exceptions of course, like intentionally removing control to make the player feel helpless in a given situation. Foreshadowing is also is still achievable, because you can copy the way films plant ideas visually. That brings me to another issue.

Games copy films far too much. You are given the tools to create an experience whereby the player IS the protagonist, without the tedium of an adventure book and without having to feed the player information with cut-scene after cut-scene, yet developers still force-feed us information with arbitrary cinematic 'time-outs.' Perhaps they believe that films are the embodiment of perfection as an art form, and that games should be like them. Whenever control of your character is taken from you without good reason, it feels like your childhood friend yanking the controls off you squealing 'your turn's over.' It all ties in with recent advances in visual technology, and these over-used cut scenes are development companies flexing their muscles, showing us what they can do after years of research. That's great, it really is. It's great that you can model realistic facial expressions in real time, but the fact that you're pressing the screen against the face performing them is detrimental to my gameplay experience. Take a step back, and look to the time before they had great visual effects. If a game gave me a little less high-fidelity graphical quality in exchange for complete, uninterrupted control of my character, I could guarantee that it'd be a more enjoyable game. I can't guarantee good reviews from the media, because the gaming media is subject to some very widespread press-freedom (versus investors) issues, but it would be one small piece of an incredible RPG if the rest of it is up to standard. Games are almost exclusively for entertainment, and if its entertainment value comes from player control, then that's what games need to emphasise going forward.

It's one thing to show us too much, but there're also examples of showing us too few visual cues and game mechanics. Dear Esther only allows you basic movement controls and an interact key. This would be fine, if there was some sort of puzzle element for mental stimulation, but instead you're only allowed to view the environments (as pretty as they may be) and read notes left for your character along the way. It sparked great debate at the time as to what counts as a game. Honestly, I always found it difficult to define Dear Esther in any other way than as an e-book.

As a side note, we've recently had a surge in the number of cheap, good value Indie games appearing in various places including the Steam Store. Many of them, including Breath of Death and Cthulu Saves the World, have quirky stories that are getting to an incredibly wide audience. Why wouldn't they? Outside of sales you can get both of these two games as a bundle for less than £1. These are something that can be put together in a Game Jam. This is a multi-day event where programmers, artists and writers meet up, get into teams, create a video game and showcase it by the end. The days where a video game writer was only commissioned for million-dollar projects alone are over, which is great news for all of the new talent coming in.

In the short period that we've had with story-driven gaming, we've seen some of the great things it can pull off. Through a combination of great script-writing and game mechanics, we've seen it simulate (to a shallow degree) a genuine relationship between players and non-player characters. It immerses the player in a way that books and cinema struggle to achieve. However, games encounter issues when they don't respect themselves enough, and try either to copy cinema too much or not give us enough visual cues. Going forward, video game scripts are something that all writers should look to, either to at least try, or to write for from the start. This may eventually reduce the number of bad movie cop-outs and give us some genuinely good material to create really great interactive stories with. It's this idea, that eventually gaming could open up doors for more writers, that has me genuinely, insatiably excited.

Torchlight II

I had pre-ordered Torchlight II (Runic Games©) a few months ago, after seeing what Blizzard had done to my beloved Diablo series of action RPG’s. I’ve always been a firm believer that if you want to protest, you should buy a competitor’s product. How about buying a product from the team that brought us Diablo one and two in the first place, practically inventing the action RPG? That sounded good to me.

It didn’t disappoint.

The first thing that struck me about the game was its graphics. I’d seen the art style before in Torchlight, but the visuals look so much more crisp and refined than they did in the original. Not only is it a pretty look, but it makes it easy to see what’s going on in those larger, more hectic battles. You’re ushered into the game via a story-book sequence that pits the two of the first game’s heroes against the bad guy, Ordrak, and explains why they aren’t the playable characters this time around. It’s worth a watch, and gets all of that story nonsense out of the way so that you can get to hacking, shooting and bashing your way through the progression system.

Surprisingly, Runic chose not to deviate too heavily from the tried & tested progression system in other RPG’s. You gain one or two skill points each level that you can spend on skills. Putting enough points into a skill will unlock its ‘tier bonus’, which gives it an additional perk, making it a more useful skill than if it had gained X% damage alone.

There are four classes to choose from:

•       The Berserker: Uses the spirits of animals to enhance his general combat strength. Generally played as a melee class.
•        The Engineer: Uses tools and gadgets to both support his team mates and inflict heavy damage. Used as both a melee or a ranged class
•       The Outlander: An explorer. Think of a rifle-toting scout with magical capabilities. Usually ranged
•     The Embermage: Fire, Ice and Lightning. All we’re missing is brimstone. Not a unique class, but still interesting given how great the particle effects look. Usually ranged.

I chose to roll with the Berserker, who builds Fury with each hit. Once the Fury bar fills up, you have a limited time in which you both move faster and are guaranteed critical hits. Using a greatsword or hammer while in this mode would allow me to one-shot the tightly clumped groups of goblin-like creatures. In tougher fights, I would deal with the lesser minions to build up my Fury, and then swing wildly at the boss before backing off again. Each class has a mechanic like this that spices up the combat, and changes the way you play on the fly. It gets you closer to the core of what this type of game is about… smashing things to bits.

Another thing that Torchlight II does well is its secret areas and challenges. Upon killing a ‘phase wolf’, a portal opened that I blindly stumbled through. I was met with a three-part challenge to kill waves of monsters, and the final prize was a screen full of loot. This was not an isolated thing, though. A puzzle in a bandit cave yielded another stash of goodies, and I would continually find giant golden crabs that dropped keys that I needed to unlock golden chests. The game really does reward you for exploring, rather than the old map exploration system that was more like a scratch card; scrubbing away until you found what you needed, and then leaving the rest untouched.

What’s more? The game is playable both in multiplayer LAN and offline single player mode, as well as the expected hot-join multiplayer. No relying on servers to hold their own, and no restrictions to your gameplay experience.

Where does it fall short? If you were looking for a game that overhauls the action RPG, you’re looking in the wrong place with Torchlight II. Also, you can only get it through Steam, and some people don’t like using Valve’s service. Other than that, you’re getting a polished, fast paced, beautifully crafted action RPG with mod support (to come soon) and generous multiplayer features, all for less than £20.

Up to now: Guild Wars 2

It's been just over a month since release. Many people have surfed the Dynamic Event waves to level 80, and  the PvP players are starting to get some crazy looking attire. It's been hugely successful in the brief time we've had it, but can it hold on to its end-game magic long enough to keep people interested?

Starting off with the personal story; a pleasant, though scripted game-play experience for one player to share with friends, if he/she desires. The idea is that once you've completed one character's personal story, you could have a completely different experience with a new character. A new race, new class, new quirky background stories about your involvement with the circus. However, this simply isn't the case. Regardless of how many variations you make in character selection from your previous play-through, you will only see a real difference up until level 40-50 ish. It's at this point where the game moves away from your choice of faction (Vigil, Whispers or Priory), and towards the Pact. The Pact is an alliance of all three of the player-chosen factions. This is also the point where the Sylvari Trahearne, takes the lead role in the story away from your character. This needs to be done or the game would feel broken by having so many player Pact- commanders. After then, the variation comes from the 'fork-in-the-road' conversations in which you choose a plan of action. Trahearne, naturally, defers to you for every major decision in the campaign against the dragon, Zhaitan. It makes you wonder,
'Sorry, who's the commander, again?'
Not to mention Trahearne's wooden acting (excuse the pun), which somehow allows him to make a stirring speech of Martin Luther King proportions sound like a 'mind the gap' tube chant. Maybe it's so he doesn't steal your character's bad-assery spotlight, but still. I love what ArenaNet have done with this part of the game, but the personal story's lead role could have had a little more charisma, no?
Varied or not, the final clash with Zhaitan is something to behold. Riding a flak-cannon toting airship headlong into a horde of lesser dragons never gets old, and using an Asuran mega-laser to blast bits off the boss-man is indeed as fun as it sounds. You'll also get some neat rewards for finishing the plot, which are randomly generated within certain parameters. The only issue I have with the system as it stands, is that the final personal story battle is a story mode dungeon, and some of the players who aren't as proficient in MMOs and are just there for the personal story will have some serious trouble reaching the end of what they're playing the game for. There is something to be said for making the game challenging, but perhaps the challenge is best left for the explorable-mode dungeons.
But seriously, if you can, do Arah story mode at least once. You won't regret it.

The ruins of Orr. A bleak, yet oddly picturesque landscape.

The Dynamic Events in the highest-level zones go one-step further in terms of their scale than you would have seen before level 80. Take the top-end Norn zone, Frostgorge Sound: the 'meta event' chain results in a Claw of Jormag (a huge ice dragon) to attack the north-eastern-most corner of the zone. It takes about 30-40 players to pick up some Charrzookas, fend off ice elementals and arm flak cannons long enough to bring the blighter crashing headlong into a mountain. Then, the players must defend siege golems as they carry bombs to the grounded dragon's feet while hordes of Icebrood attack from two sides. At the end you're rewarded with a chest which contains level 75-80 gear and a vendor appears that sells top-level crafting recipes. As always, however, the mob of players will always be disorganised. There's no real replacement for raids that ex-wow players will be looking for. At the end of it all, it seems that the Karma system (the currency gained from completing events) is just something else to collect in order to forge a Legendary weapon. More on that later.

Explorable mode dungeons are the mainstay of the endgame PvE. Like in other MMO's, doing these dungeon runs earns you tokens, which can be exchanged at a vendor in Lion's Arch for weapons and armour that have a look tailored specifically to their respective dungeon's theme. They recently changed the system so that the tokens are only rewarded at the end of the run. This is to prevent players exploiting resetting the dungeons after the first encounter for quick tokens. There's plenty of variety of appearance among the dungeon sets, and you can even mix and match and still get the set-bonus benefits by using transmutation stones. If you so choose, you can have an entirely unique-looking set of armour. No identi-kits here.
There is a problem with how the way the routes are chosen through the dungeon, but one that isn't easily fixed. You are presented with three to four options on which route to take at the beginning, and the party is given the vote on each one. Democracy, folks! However, this means that each of the routes has to have the same 'token reward/time' ratio for the majority of PvE players to be interested in doing it. This made the Scholar Magg run of Citadel of Flame the best route to take for tokens, even with increased end-rewards from the other routes. This prevents players from experiencing a great deal of content when playing with strangers, as it's so difficult to persuade anyone to explore content that is numerically inferior in terms of its rewards. To my relief, ArenaNet are quickly working out a solution whereby the first run-through of any explorable route per day will yield sixty tokens, which means you get the best of both worlds. The rewards... and the gameplay experience.

Another day at work for a Charr paramedic

WvWvW or World versus World versus World (... versus World?) provides a genuine use for your hard work in PvE by allowing your level 80 gear stats to carry over. Some will complain that this makes in inherently imbalanced, but World PvP in any game has been about how many chums you brought to the party, rather than your individual stats and skill. This mode also provides a PvP fix to players that maybe aren't quite confident enough to play in structured 5v5 PvP. You can get an insane amount of gold, experience and Karma; all of it scaling to your level to provide the best reward. The server matches go on for two weeks, and create friendly rivalries between servers. Well, mostly friendly... this is the internet. A well-organised guild force can coordinate its use of siege weapons, and when it pushes out into the field, to great effect. There's a feeling of pride when taking a large chunk of land from an opposing server, and holding back the counter attack. You did your lot proud. There is no reward other than pride for winning a server match-up, but honestly, what better and more lasting reward can you get out of an MMO than pride?
Plus, you can create and use Iron-man style 'Alpha Siege Golems', (Sort of like Dreadnoughts from Warhammer: 40k)  which is a reason to play by itself.

This brings me to the Legendary weapons. I'm talking supreme instruments of mass Skriit destruction. A unicorn bow that shoots rainbows, and all that good stuff. These may be cool as can be, but I disagree with how they are attained. They require you to spend weeks gathering enough Karma, enough dungeon tokens, enough crafting skill, enough WvWvW tokens and gold to make, and I think that for a game that was sold promising 'no grind,' this seems very out of place. I can understand that ArenaNet only want a few people on each server having one, but creating a super-long grind isn't the way to achieve that end. Having an achievement-based system (i.e. accomplishing something that's near impossible) would have worked better. It says more about the weapon bearer if they got it through achieving something, rather than having a lot of spare time on their hands. Eventually, as it stands, everyone who really wants one will eventually get it before the expansions are released. Still, it's something to work towards that MMO players really want when they play, so an item that takes a long time to acquire achieves that end.

At last, I'm brought to the sPvP (structured). It's not really 'endgame' as such, nor is it 'early' or 'mid-game'. It's a different game entirely, and one where the only progression is aesthetic rewards. It's sleek, tactical and requires some game knowledge to play and watch, but no where near as much game knowledge to watch as a game like WoW does. This is thanks to the capture & hold mechanic on all of its maps. Red and blue numbers make it easy to determine who's winning, and who just did something awesome. The catch? It's not going to attract any audience outside its own player base. This is no Starcraft, which can be appreciated by a broad range of viewers. When the ranked tournaments are finally released, however, I think we will see the Guild Wars 2 PvP scene explode with enthusiasm.

So, the endgame has its issues, and its dead-ends. However, the levelling experience is by far and away the most engaging levelling experience in an MMO to date. There is also no subscription fee, and paying for the expansions means you pay for content as it is released, rather than for how long the developer takes to bring out said content. The WvWvW game is infinitely captivating and the PvP has a healthy competitiveness in its community that so many other games miss. The PvE game will not keep you occupied as long as other MMO's, but that's because it doesn't hold you back at every turn with arbitrary grinds and restrictions. It's a shortened PvE experience with most of the tat taken out and left aside.

Skulking Around In: Natural Selection 2

It's getting close to its release now, so I thought I'd do a write up on the sequel to a well-loved Half-Life mod that I've had an absolute blast/shoot/chop/stomp with.

First, a little glimpse into the history of Natural Selection (NS1). It blended the genres of FPS and RTS, giving players the goal of destroying the enemy base, much in the same way as Savage. However, Savage didn't come up with the concept to begin with; it only gave a commander to both sides. The commander controls the base-building and team-support mechanics of the game. He also has exclusive access to certain NPC units that simply do his/her bidding and nothing else. He issues orders to his team mates, and they can choose which goals to prioritise. Giving the foot-soldiers creative freedom gives the game an interesting dynamic. Instead of giving a specific order of <Attack Target> and then <Wait for Further Instruction>, the commander can explain using voice chat the over-arching goal he wants his team or specific marines to accomplish. Imagine, for a moment, that a Zealot from Starcraft could intelligently assess the situation and edit the commands given to him to best suit the situation.
'No, high templar, it would be better for me to protect our ramp's choke point to prevent any zergling run-bys!'
Ace.
This is, however, a double-edged sword. A new (or less cooperative) player could completely disregard the commander's orders, and the disorganised confusion would likely give the other team a few windows of opportunity to destroy resource towers and take more bases.

NS2 develops on the first game by allowing both teams to have a commander. Previously, the aliens would share the duties of a commander by assigning each other tasks over the mic, but now the process is streamlined with their newly dedicated boss-skulk. It allows for the better allocation of the alien team's brain-power. One player handles placing down structures, ordering upgrades and general care-taking, the rest of the team can focus purely on bringing down the enemy marines and resource towers.

It'll take more than bleach to get rid of that stuff

All of the classic units and upgrades remain; including the:

• Skulk: The aliens' base-unit. It has a melee-range bite, can run on walls and ceilings, has enough movement speed to make Greyhounds wish they could run on walls.
• Gorge: The aliens' builder unit. It's sort of like a deep-fried piglet that vomits healing acid. it can also build 'clogs,' which block movement through tight corridors, and Hydras, which are miniature turrets, which can net you a view kills from careless marines.
• Lerk: A pterodactyl which sprays toxic gas in its wake. This makes it difficult for marines to push locations without flame-throwers to systematically burn away the fumes. It can also be upgraded to shoot spikes from glands protruding from its body, which make it great for harassing at range.
• Fade: With blades for hands, the fade is a real nuisance for marine players. Its teleportation and phasing-out-of-reality capabilities, coupled with its beastly melee damage will often force marines to use shotguns to bring it down quickly.
• Onos: An Incredible Hulk of flesh and chitin that can break doors and stomp to knock down nearby marines. They can't digest a single target any more, however.
• Jetpack: A late-game changer. Marines will rejoice to get these, finally able to match the mobility of the alien units in open areas. They are an expensive upgrade however, and they're lost on death.
• Exo-Skeletons: A huge bulk of metal and gunnery is exactly what the doctor ordered to clear out those pesky alien entrenchments. They're also the marines' salvation against the infamous Onos.

The power mechanic has proven itself as a system that induces genuine fear in NS2's players. Once the power node in a sector is destroyed, marines lose a huge visibility advantage while having to contend with the aliens' infa-red alternative. It will also power down all structures in the vicinity. If the power goes down in your main base, as the marines you'd best have some repair tools to hand to patch it up quick, or GG's will fill your chat-log. It serves as a good real-life reminder that you should stay on top of your electricity bill.

The Crevice... Where Lerks and Jetpacks reign

Graphics technology has taken leaps and bounds since the original mod, and NS2 looks incredible. The lighting effects and shadows are spot-on. Not only do they look impressive, but they can conceal skulks in the shadows without the need for intentionally not rendering something to preserve the stealth mechanic. The HUD is sleek, and stylised to which team you're on. It's a beautiful game, but that does mean that it might have trouble running on a number of machines. If you're thinking of buying it, make sure to compare system specs and requirements, and note that optimisation is still improving going forward.

It would be great to see this game do well, as the development team is very well involved with the player base. So far, we haven't seen a precise release date, but its coming this summer. If you can run it, I'd thoroughly recommend giving this gem a shot.

Guild Wars 2: BWE#3

My guild mates and I wasted no time in diving straight into the tournament play for the third beta event of Guild Wars 2. Unfortunately, the tournament servers weren't quite up to scratch, and a plethora of bugs and miscellaneous technical issues would either prevent us from joining a queue, or stop us from being able to reach that first place prize we had already earned. Hopefully this will be heavily addressed before release, or there'll be a very large number of angry Europeans. Still, when we did manage to get into matches, we forgot about all of the problems, simply because of the PvP is so good. Balance is mostly there; although not quite, but it rarely is in any game. A third map was added to the list called the 'Legacy of the Foefire,' which features semi-hilly terrain in an almost lane-based format, and also has two keep lords that each team must attack or defend, lest they give the enemy team a huge burst of points.

I diversified a lot this beta. In-between playing the Warrior, I played the Ranger, the Necromancer and the Thief. I found myself enjoying the Thief. I never thought that would happen. They don't have the staying-power in combat that most of the other classes do, but they have unrivalled utility. I would often pretend to run away from a point with Shadowstep, which earned me a few chasing players, and then activate it again to return to the original position; neutralising the enemy team's capture-point.

Although the server mostly prevented the tournaments we played from finishing, we did manage to get a single gold chest for first place. It was an eventful second round in the 'Battle of Khylo':

1. We take the Mansion, they take the Windmill. I begin running towards the Windmill for a sneaky neutralisation, and I notice all five of their team heading for the middle point, the Clocktower.
2. I hurriedly yell this down the mic to my team mates, and immediately head for our trebuchet.
3. After smashing the roof off of the tower, I continually blast the capture point, inflicting near 10k damage to multiple targets per shot. This also knocks the enemy away, allowing for my team mates to capture the point with no difficulty.
4. I then ask my team to spot targets for me, and hit their windmill defenders once or twice. After deciding they'd had quite enough, two of them push for my precious trebuchet.
5. We manage to hold it, and they retreat towards our Mansion, which I continue to mercilessly bombard. I'm still not used to the trebuchet, so I miss a few shots, which allows the point to get neutralised. However, they don't manage to capture the point and one of our Elementalists manages to re-capture it. 
6. Now, three of their team push for the trebuchet, and our other Elementalist takes this opportunity to destroy theirs. Unfortunately, ours gets broken into splinters, but we were put so far ahead in points that the game was comfortably ours. 

It may be a traditional Capture & Hold map, but the trebuchet spices it up, so you can never truly be safe while capturing points, and mastering its use can really help you out

(My Thief: Wearing her new shoulder armour with pride.)

Without the server issues, the PvP system is easy to access, addictive, and highly competitive without being elitist. Sure, you'll get groups of people asking only for players with a certain experience level, but you can very easily join up in a group and fight for aesthetic prizes yourself, without being restricted by any of the old notions of gear requirements or match making rating (MMR).

Only a month to go now...

Endless Space: It goes on forever!

Endless Space. No, it's not a hint to the hard-disk space required for installation, but to a surprisingly good 4X game that you'll never finish a game of. It takes influence from Master of Orion, and for those who aren't familiar with the genre, think of it as Sid Meiers Civilisation in space, but with fewer immortal Gandhi look-a-likes and more intergalactic space slugs.

The four 'X's are Explore, Expand, Exploit and Exterminate. These are the aims of the game, and there're multiple win conditions for players to pursue. The idea is that the game pans out differently each time its played, with a different combination of military and peaceful solutions to opponents. In reality, this isn't the case. Everyone wants a piece of the ship-building, space battling invasion gameplay, which can make it somewhat difficult to play as the more peaceful races.

The combat is nothing like Master of Orion's turn based, isometric tactical screen, but is instead boiled down to what is essentially a rock, paper, scissors card game. Your fleet will fire rounds at the enemy automatically in the three phases of the battle. To compliment this, you play 'cards' which give certain bonuses for a single round of combat. Each card (except retreat) has a counter card, and if it is countered, the effect of your card is not only completely neutralised, but your opponent gains a specific bonus to his card as a result. It makes for some interesting mind-games; trying to guess what your opponent is going to pick, and out-picking him to the best of your ability. Other than these cards, its the ship-building that decides the fights.

(Bullets at long range. Like confetti, it's just annoying and doesn't really do much.)

The ship-building interface allows you to add modules to a class of hull of your choosing. It's heavily linked with the research you make. When new weapons come along, you'll be wanting to retrofit all of your old ships with new weapons, engines, and defensive modules. If everyone pursues a military research path, it quickly becomes an arms race and a retrofit-extravaganza. However, researching new weapons needs to be balanced with researching new hulls, which is in the expansion tree. Focussing too much on one research path is a bullet to the foot. Hybridising too much can leave you in the same situation. You're never really safe, no matter what you choose to tech into, which makes the games tense; forcing you to use your strategic mind.

(The standard defender. It usually becomes obsolete within 20 turns.)

I've played too many games of Endless Space to bother counting, and only two have gotten anywhere near completion. It's one of those games that you need to set aside a day to play with someone, like Settlers of Catan or other board games that take forever (and then some) to play. It's one of the few games that actually has endless hours of gameplay, and it goes to show that the turn-based format is far from dead, even with new technology.

Dawn of War II: Retribution

In the grim darkness of the not-too distant future, there was only Games for Windows Live.

Until now...

GFWL has been purged from the Dawn of War franchise, allowing for the more user-friendly Steam interface to take its place. No more slow, irritating friends interface that fought with Steam.

No more compatibility issues. No more being booted from the game because your internet tripped out for half a second. Funnily enough, there was a global steam server crash that lasted a few minutes on the first night I started playing. Some things... you just can't escape. I didn't buy Retribution at release, it slipped under my radar. That is, until a sale came up and I practically stole it at £5.

The game has three modes. These are the campaign (which can be played with one additional player), the competitive multiplayer, and Last Stand. It's basically a game of its own. Three players choose a hero unit and their wargear loadout and face off against wave upon wave of pre-determined enemies, trying to get a high score through a mixture of the virtues of speed, survival and area control. It's a simple concept, but one that's executed brilliantly. It's addictive, has a short duration, and has a surprising level of nuance and team play involved.




Baneblade: The tank to end all tanks.

The campaign is as good as ever, but the greater variety comes with its problems. You can play as any of the five races in the game now, including the infamous Tyranids, who get the award for the slowest talking leader of all time. The campaign has little re-playability because all of the earlier missions seem Copy-Pasted, only with different units for the player. I can't honestly say that I expected five great, full length campaigns that stood out from one another, but the campaigns have been a great strength of Chaos Rising and the original release. At least it serves as an extended tutorial for using the units each race offers.

The standard 'capture and hold' multiplayer is better than ever with the introduction of the imperial guard; a largely conscripted, force with 'bog-standard' infantry with commissar leaders that can execute their men to inspire better fighting (workplace motivation at its finest). They also have good tanks. I love good tanks.

Though the game can at times seem slow compared with RTS franchises like Starcraft, it still has those awesome moments that make it worth a look if you're looking for a strategy fix.

Murdercraft: Hunger Games in Minecraft

It had all started with an eery countdown near the chests at the centre of the map. As my pal and I ran off into the distance, we could hear the lightning; the in-built pathetic fallacy signifying player death. We searched the nearby islands for supplies...

• A bow
• A single arrow
• A fishing rod

20 tributes remain.

We could keep ourselves fed, but this wasn't going to be enough when it came down to dealing with the brutes who won access to the chests of swords in the centre. We needed an edge, one that was preferaby not metaphorical. We found a ruined house. No luck, but we did find a crafting table. After finding a bunch of iron ingots, we later returned to this table and crafted some swords, and some leather armour.

10 tributes remain.

Unfortunately, it was at this point that my friend's ISP decided to give up on him, and he didn't even have the courtesy to drop his loot. Typical. I was on my own; waiting out the night in a tree, surrounded by spiders, skeletal archers... and creepers. Always the creepers. When the new day dawned, and I recieved a message about the chests being re-filled, I decided to re-trace my steps and visit all of the chests again

3 tributes remain.

 I see someone. Leather trousers. Gold helm. Under-equipped. I charge, throwing caution to the wind. He spots me, and flees. I chase  him to a set of vines going up the cliff face, and take aim with my bow. He sees this and dives off the vines to avoid my arrows. Over my shoulder, my brother cries 'EAT HIS HEART!'
The episode is concluded in a glorious display of gratuitous, pixellated violence.

2 tributes remain. A fight to the death will begin soon.

Unfortunately for me, the guy waiting for me in the centre ring was fully clad in iron armour and he had a diamond sword. The fight was over faster than I could say 'Didn't I read this in a book once?', but at least I came a close second.

It's the mods and the communities that make Minecraft great. This mod, however, is something that stands out. It's a lot of fun, and you'd be mad not to give it a go:

http://minecraftpvp.com/hunger-games/

Guild Wars 2: BWE#2

It didn't seem like three days, it seemed like a few hours packed between necessary sustenance breaks, and sleep, but that didn't seem so important at the time.

(This is the important stuff)

I played a number of classes which I hadn't tried, including the Thief, Mesmer, and the Necromancer. I was impressed with the Thief's impressive ability to avoid damage, with shadowsteps (glorified teleports) and crowd control, while dishing out plenty of his own. I didn't get far with the Mesmer, but the weapon skills felt unique compared to other classes. I was a little bit disappointed by the illusions mechanic though, and the random-condition element of the staff didn't impress me all that much. Most of my time was spent with my brother, in the Charr starting zone. He played Mesmer, and I played the Necromancer. Though the Necromancer is less visceral than the Warrior, their capability is incredible. With their life-steals, pet summoning and damage absorption, they have all of the tools to dominate large groups of opponents.

The crafting and economy is well thought out and executed. If there're no sellers for the item(s) you wish to purchase, you can place an order to be fulfilled by other gatherers on the server. This creates a clear demand to be fulfilled at a moment's notice. Not only does this mean that you always end up getting what you want to buy, but the sellers can get their money instantly. Win-Win. It's not only how the trading post is operated, but also how its income scales with the rest of the game. The trading post, with its enthusiastic craftsmen and gatherers, is by far the best way of making money in the game. This is how it should be. For the longest time, MMO cash-acquisition was best achieved through hours of grinding the same thing for daily quests and doing the same dungeon over and over. Hopefully, this income-balancing will remain constant. I'd hate for the end-game to become another grind session.

(ArenaNet's notion of sheep and mine differ greatly.)

As expected, the WvWvW content continued to impress. However, this time I opted to switch my build to be a support Warrior. Using a sword, a warhorn and a shield, I'd speed up my team whilst soaking up damage and chasing down fleeing targets. I chose to have Endure Pain (a brief invulnerability), Banner of Tactics (a heal-increasing flag), and Banner of Defence (which increases toughness and vitality). My elite skill was yet another banner, which revived all targets in an area. While holding a banner, I had a different set of weapon skills. A meagre attack, a sprint, a team speed buff and a skill to plant the flag in a new position. I would switch between the warhorn and the banner to give my team mates a massive speed advantage, but usually just seeing a huge Norn charging with a flag was enough to send enemies running, wishing they had brought more troops. Arenanet introduced skill-points and jumping puzzles to the WvWvW map this beta. I'm curious to see how this turns out. The skill points are ok, and seem to be placed in locations that are tactically useful (think of them as a carrot on a stick), but having a jumping puzzle occupy players that would otherwise have been intercepting dolyaks or taking keeps seems a bit counter-intuitive. Still, it's good to see some extra variety added to the map which will likely be the focus of the endgame besides structured PvP.

A few hours before the Beta ended, my friend and I managed to piece together a group for the Ascalonian Catacombs dungeon. The dungeon was a real challenge, and was a nice change from the fifteen-minute 'Heroic' runs in World of Warcraft's expansions. A system is in place that allows you, as the party leader, to call out a target to your party. <Ctrl-T> paints a target with a cross hair, and when the party members hit <T> the target is selected. Sure, there's merit in group members being able to pick their own targets, but it allows for a less bothersome focussing system that makes communication simpler. To our amazement, we managed to down the dungeon's hardest encounter, the famed 'Lovers' boss, first try. The success rate for the dungeon was around 30%, as we later found out from statistics. This does mean that the dungeon content will be challenging for a large proportion of the player base, but that's no bad thing. Still, the players that want to keep the challenge after the story mode can enter the explorable version, so it doesn't matter as much if they continue to reduce the difficulty of the initial run.

There have also been some U.I improvements made to the endurance bar (Dodge-rolling stamina stuff) and the feedback on skill combos. Previously, you would be notified when you made a combo, but you didn't necessarily know what it was. Now, a heart icon pops up and tells you the exact condition you inflicted as a result of this combo. This makes it much more convenient to test out combos and get some synergy with your party.

Guild Wars 2 is continuing to shape up nicely, bring on BWE#3.

Tribes Ascend: [VGW] Woohoo!

Most modern shooters always end up with the same problem. Since the decline in the Quake style shooter, there's been element missing from this most beloved genre. Speed. Freedom of movement. Players wonder: 'There's a roof on that building, why can't I get there?' Hi-Rez has always done a great job with the Tribes series, which do away completely with the limitations of narrow corridors and set movement paths, by having you soar over vast horizons trying to land projectile weapons. These are the only games in which a player moving at 120 kilometres per hour is considered slow. It gets better, as Tribes: Ascend is free-to-play.

I realise that the game came out a while ago, but I was never really interested until my friends and I started playing together. It makes the game's learning curve so much less daunting, and feeding position information to your pathfinders (the super-quick class) is invaluable in a pinch. We bought the cheapest real-money bundle once we were sure we liked the title enough. For £7, you get a permanent +50% experience boost, and enough gold (the game's real money currency) to get you started with a few extra weapons or perks for your favourite class.

It's weird how, in a number of cases, acquiring vehicles gives you less manoeuvrability.

There are nine classes; each with their own specific niche:

• Pathfinder: (Light) A super-fast flag chaser and capper. Their grenades force the enemy to drop the flag
• Sentinel: (Light) The sniper class, equipped with claymores  That's the explosives, not a sword. I'd advise against playing this as your first class
• Infiltrator: (Light) The Thief stealth class. His job is to be annoying destroy the generator and generally cause havoc.
• Soldier: (Medium) The balanced, versatile class. Standard loadout is an assault rifle, grenade launcher and frag grenades.
• Raider: (Medium) Complete with a shield-pack, which causes your energy pool to deplete instead of health, the Raider's job is to attack the base and generator, while excelling in close-quarters.
• Technician: (Medium) The turret guy. He fixes things and places turrets. A very important class for defending.
• Juggernaut: (Heavy) Often used as an offensive bombardment tool. His fusion mortar does massive damage to structures and one-shots light and medium classes.
• Doombringer: (Heavy) The ultimate flag defence class. He places forcefields, which are like portable windscreens... if the Pathfinders are road kill. He can also use saber-missiles on vehicles and fliers.
• Brute: (Heavy) He is as he sounds. Tough to kill, chunky weapons. He's useful for securing the generator room and dealing with those pesky gener-haters.

To start, you're given access to only three of them. The Pathfinder, the Soldier and the Juggernaut. These are good to get you started, but you'll soon find yourself in want of more variety. The classes take a long while to accumulate on a free to play account, which is a real pain. You can unlock all of the classes with experience long before you could unlock a weapon for a class, which is something I don't like about the system. Sure, the game is free to play, but without paying £7, your options are severely limited. Saying that, £7 is not going to leave a hole in your wallet, and if we're talking about pounds per hour, it's a great deal for saving you time.

All classes have jetpacks and a frictionless gliding system which allows them to 'ski' across the map. Picking up the flag at a less-than-neckbreaking speed will leave you as easy pickings for skilled defenders.

The competitive scene for this game is hard core. It takes a tremendous amount of skill to play this game at a high-level, but there are embedded live-streams and advanced training videos in the game's main menu. You'll have to disable the game's sound before watching them though, or you simply won't hear the speech. The only competitive game mode is capture the flag, so if you're not a fan of that game mechanic, it probably won't suit you. However, between the chasing, capping, defending and E-grabs, I'm hooked on it. I've played the other game modes, but they don't really impress me. Capture and Hold is sub-par, Team Deathmatch is, well, Team Deathmatch and Arena is done better by Unreal Tournament and Quake Live.


If you're looking for an example of hardcore Tribes: Ascend play, look no further than this montage:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL7lXydozU8

The game is incredibly solid, exhilarating and skill-based. There's a great variety of weapons, classes and tactics, but it's only really made for 'Capture the Flag' multiplayer. It may be free to play, but the system punishes the players who don't pay up. However, the low-end pricing is reasonable and highly rewarding. It's definitely worth a look.

https://account.hirezstudios.com/tribesascend/

Super Monday Night Combat

I got involved in this one shortly before the end of the beta testing. I own the previous game, and the only reason I don't still play it is that the player population has been dwindling for a long time. Instead of going for another standard pay-model, Uberent have opted to tower-dive into the free-to-play realm of MOBA games (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. Yes, the name is dumb, but it exists) with in-built micro transactions for cosmetic differentiation. Needless to say, the title has reduced the focus on the purely 3rd person shooter mechanics of the original, and has moved toward the MOBA style. The turrets hurt, the bots are everything, and players are harder to kill.

(These opening sequences never cease to delight me.)

As the number one deadly sport of the future, Super Monday Night Combat (SMNC) wouldn't be complete without the commentators:

'The Annihilator is ready in thirty seconds!'

'I'm holding my breath.'

'Uhh, that's not your breath...'

There are other examples I could give, but I'd have to tweak the age rating. They have a practical purpose as well as being the comic relief. They let the players know what's happening and where. The example I gave lets the players know that the Annihilator is ready. Not only does this deal heavy damage to all enemy players, it also destroys all of the opposing bots, allowing you to push into their base and get a massive advantage. When this countdown begins, the centre of the map starts getting the players' attention, and the team fights kick off.

The Pros (or 'champions' to League of Legends players) are each based on a stereotype. They don't quite fill the same roles as the characters in Team Fortress 2, so it doesn't feel like it's ripping it off; which could more than easily have happened, given the graphics style. They each have three skills and two weapons, each with alternate fire modes. It takes a fair few games to really get the hang of any pro, especially commandos, which are the fast, annoying wasps which dive in at the least convenient moment. I stuck to the tank or support when playing with friends; they can both sustain pushes and keep the bots at the enemy's turrets.

(I don't even want to know what that pink thing does.)

Unlike most MOBAs, there are no items; only skill upgrades that increase with level. Money gained from kills is instead spent on spawning bots, picking up buffs from vending machines or using the Annihilator. It's important to time spawning bots with your teammates. Assaulting two flanks simultaneously with Jackbots (the ultimate unit) is a good way to ensure you get to the moneyball (which is the SMNC equivalent of the nexus). You also need to protect these guys, and your investment, as they cost $4000 dollars each. Those are in-game dollars, not draconian 'micro'-transactions. The games last roughly twenty minutes, which means you're never spending too much time slowly losing a match like you would in League of Legends or DotA. The game is free, yet feels like the kind of thing one should pay for. Did I mention that it's free?

Go play it.

Torchlight 2: Beta

I'll be honest, I was so turned off by the design decisions of the Diablo 3 design team that I lost interest. This was a long time ago, and I've been looking for something to take its place as the rightful successor to the Diablo throne. There're a whole bunch of games clamouring to usurp that throne (such as Path of Exile and Grim Dawn), but the most promising looks to be Torchlight 2.

It doesn't completely revolutionise the genre of monster-smashing, loot-grabbing action RPG's, but that isn't what fans of the genre want. The simple formula is instead tweaked and streamlined at every possible opportunity to make sure you're focussing on taking down hordes of enemies, instead of playing inventory Tetris and continually rushing back to camp to sell your items (after all, your pet will do that for you). Gems drop all the time, so you're never saving them for later just in case you pick up a rare item along the way. Speaking of items, the stats requirement system gives you a two distinct options when trying to equip gear. You either have to meet the level requirement or you can meet the stat requirement. E.G. [Boots of Much Leaping]: Requires level 20 or 20 Dexterity  & 40 Strength. This means that if your character is focussing on two particular stats, he/she will be able to get items that exceed their own level. It also gives you reason to question pumping points into certain stats over others. Do you sacrifice 3 Vitality to pick up the extra Strength to wear those boots, or do you stick to your 'character plan' (if you have one) and continue regardless. It makes the progression feel less linear, which is always a good thing. The linearity of the skills tree is also reduced, though not completely. The only thing stopping you from purchasing skills with the points gained each level is the level requirement. This is probably for balance purposes. You can dip into any of the three skill trees, or panels, and cherry-pick the skills and passives that you want. I'm reluctant to call them 'trees' simply because there aren't any instances of needing one skill to get another. You take skills because you want them, not because you need them to fill in the gaps to get to the next branch.

Now we get down to the good bit... the fighting. It's simplistic and familiar, but crafted to near perfection. I played as a Berserker on Veteran difficulty. I would use [Shadow Rush] to dive through enemies, inflicting minor damage and healing my character. This allowed me to instantly break shields, and pick off the stragglers that got left behind by the minion ball of death. The combat was sufficiently challenging, and I found myself having to use potions. A major complaint about Torchlight was that you hardly ever had to use health potions to stay alive, so it's good to see this fixed. The enemies are varied, and can hit you like a silverback gorilla wielding a truck, if you're not careful. I had to time my dash carefully to make sure to dodge attacks, without sacrificing too much of my damage.

(The lightning enchanted claw... So very 40K.)

The boss fights feel extremely rewarding. It shows just how far the genre has come since the early days of 'Spank Diablo with your sword and board while drinking potions until he drops dead'. Taking the beta's final boss as an example: Standing still and damaging the boss while he's near the centre will get you tentacle-stomped. Attempting to clear the summoned minions in melee will leave you wishing you hadn't. Not dodging the ghostly rhino thing will kill you. Standing in melee range of the boss when he does a certain animation will kill you instantly. Needless to say, I died a few times figuring the boss out, but it was worth it when I finally made that killing blow after I'd spent half an hour trying. The piles of gold kept spilling forth, the items wouldn't fit in my bag alone, and that rhino thing I'd been dodging turned out to be something to do with the main plot. I took the next quest and Town Portalled, feeling like I had accomplished something.

The design team behind Torchlight 2 has a fair number of Blizzard North guys. These are the people who brought you Diablo 2, and it shows. The game is fast paced, relentless, and is in my opinion the successor to the throne of action RPGs.

Guild Wars 2: Monday 14th Stress-Test

It was only seven hours long, and I missed three hours of it (damn real people and their birthday celebrations!). Still, I got my fair share of structured PvP with my friends. I re-specced my Warrior to switch between a two-handed hammer and a sword & shield combo. Picking up a perk which allowed me to reflect projectiles of any sort while blocking, it was hilarious watching a ranger knock himself off the clock tower when trying to remove me from the capture point. This happened several times.

(When the facepalm isn't quite enough... facestump.)

My elementalist friend decided to play thief, and when I asked him what weapon sets he was rolling with, he answered,

"Dagger dagger, dagger dagger."    Thieves on their favourite bladed weapons.

Apparently, switching weapons as a thief gives you extra damage, so he was switching weapons only to have a crack at one-shotting people. He was doing 14k damage bursts on lower toughness targets and 9k on me when we weren't on the same team. Genius.

But that brings me to an issue I still have with the structured PvP system. There's still no way for you to make sure you're playing with your friends, rather than hoping you get lucky and end up on the same team. More than anything, it infuriates me that I couldn't coordinate with my pals on Mumble. Maybe this is something that's specific to the beta build, and will be resolved further down the line.

Still, despite its snags, it was awesome fun to jump back in to the game and continue to test builds for release. I've spent this morning making builds on this website, eager to test them next month.

http://www.gw2builds.org/create

Check out our guild at: http://vi-et-armis.enjin.com/

Bastion (Supergiant Games)

A great story isn't defined by what happens, who dies when, or why. A great story is made by how you tell it. I had played it before, but never all the way through. Now I wish I'd done that much, much sooner. I think this is the only game since Mass Effect (the first one) that produces real lump-in-the-throat, heart wrenching moments at every point in the story. The narration is superb, hitting the nail on the head for your immersive experience. It's like being eight years old again, being told stories around a camp-fire (without the fire department getting involved after you botched the whole thing).

Bastion can be a little bit disorientating at times, having the environment spring up just ahead of you takes some time to get used to, but once you're used to it, the game environments seem to flow in a pleasing, arty fashion. You play as the standard gaming protagonist: a mute character called 'The Kid' by Rucks, the narrator. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. The apocalypse has instead been given the name, 'The Calamity'. This event is not the driving force behind the story though, and is instead a vehicle to find out more about the characters and their motivations. It's surprising how much depth the characters can have with so few lines, being described only by Rucks, who has a fair few complications himself (no spoilers here). There's a great moment towards the end of the story where you can go against the narrator's expectations. When you reach this moment, it's so very difficult not to pick the compassionate option, but you have the choice all the same, like any good RPG.

"He finds me."

The combat is simple, fast and engaging. It builds on the original Diablo formula. There're always a horde of enemies coming at you from multiple angles, and you only have two weapons (which you can choose), a Secret Skill (with limited uses) and a dodge-roll, which allows you to evade attacks and get out of nasty surrounds. For the first play through, it's not particularly taxing skill-wise. However, once you complete the game, you unlock a feature called New Game Plus, which turns the game up a notch. Enemies have more health, more damage, and all of the idol effects are activated, which means that some crazy things can happen if you let even a single squirt (a sort of living tear-drop thing) past your guard.

I've always got the game's soundtrack close to hand for whenever I want to listen to those funky, bluesy, interlinked tunes. The way Zulf's theme, Zia's theme both culminate into the final credits sequence makes for a great capstone to round up the story.

If you're looking for Pounds/Dollars per hour, it's probably not the best buy outside of a sale, but it's easily one of the most memorable single player gaming experiences to come out in a very... very long time.

Ghost Recon Online: Beta

Ghost Recon. The series has drifted so far from the original game, that it has as much to do with ghosts and reconnaissance that Gears of War has to do with sunshine and puppies. Like Gears of War, it's a cover-based third person shooter with slick, simple movement controls. However, it isn't set in Chest-High-Wallia, and there's no queueing to chainsaw players chainsawing someone who chainsawed you last time.

The first thing that struck me was the U.I.. It looked like I had a weird, magical line attaching me to a nearby squadmate. Was it a leash, to keep me close? Do we use it to close-line people? Turns out, it just points to nearby squadmates without forcing you to look at the minimap. I can understand why it's there for new players (keeping them conscious of angles of fire etc.), but it seems just a little bit intrusive and distracting. What's more, as of yet there's no tutorial, besides a guide to the micro-transaction system.
("Look! Look at where you can give us money!")

One of the more interesting side-affects of the micro-transaction system is how grenades work. You have to buy grenades outside of matches with points that you accumulate during them. This isn't the only thing that this can be spent on, but it makes grenades feel precious, as they should. Whereas in Call of Duty, you're constantly diving out of the way of the grenade indicator, Ghost Recon Online (GRO) feels more tactical, and about fields of fire more than anything else. It's a refreshing shooter in which your movements and decisions feel planned, and not simply a matter of strafing in awkward ways.

I've played as the Assault, so far. Automatic rifle, riot shield, leg-implants. Oh my, is it cool. When your energy meter reaches full, you can engage the 'Blitz' charge, knocking enemies to the ground at high speed with your shield. As far as I'm aware, you can't simply equip the riot shield, though. Even as the class with the most health, health is still precious, and regenerates sluggishly. You've just enough hit points to survive being scratched from a suppressive burst, or being clipped in the arm by a sniper.

At present, the matchmaking system is horrific. I was rarely put in games with players that were within ten levels of me, which is absurd, as the purchasable items get better with experience. However, when I was placed in games with players my level, I had an awesome gameplay experience. I'd say it's something to keep an eye on. A good free-to-play title is always welcome, especially when they're this satisfying

Brainfreeze in Frozen Synapse

No matter how many words I piece together to form some kind of primitive description of how Frozen Synapse plays, I can't do it justice. Often, you spend so much time trying to come up with the perfect movements; down to a tee, only to find that your opponent has picked just the right moves of his own to counter yours. It's tense. Any second, one of those red guys could pop round the corner and finish you. I played a ton of matches with my brother on all of the 'Dark' modes, which means all enemies are invisible until there is a clear line of sight. It captures the fear-factor of X-COM, in that you're desperately scanning your screen for any signs of an enemy.


I don't rate the singleplayer campaign as highly (from what I have played of it),  much in the same way that I don't play 'Light' mode. I feel like being able to see your opponents through walls diminishes the feeling of dread, and it removes one of the key layers of tactical play. However, I do like the style of the campaign and the Cyberpunk setting. You play as an A.I (or shape form) called 'Tactics', and you occupy a virtual reality called The Shape, which gives you your ability to oversee a simplified, un-textured version of the terrain and come up with the perfect set of moves. It's like playing as a program in the Matrix. At the start, another A.I called 'Charon's Palm' declares himself your enemy, and the first few missions kick off; introducing you to the city of Markov Geist, your pals in the splinter group Petrov's Shard, and the bad guys, called the Enyo-Nomad corporation. The campaign isn't heavy on plot, from what I've played. It just about works as glue to piece together all of the missions, giving an excuse for some of the tactical scenarios.

The maps are semi-randomly generated each time, so there's no Trial&Error here.

On the main menu screen, there's a list of the day's top players, the most 'liked' replays, and global leader boards. It's reassuring to have a game so unique fully supporting its competitive scene, no matter how limited it may be. The added bonus is that your replays are permanently stored on-server (as far as I'm aware), so there's a way to back-up your bragging rights, like winning a game of hostage rescue, where the hostages freed themselves (Sorry, Ben!).


The four game modes are:

• Charge: First, you place bets on how far you can get your guys across the map. The one who bet highest has to get their guys across that line to score. The further the bet, the higher the score that player gets.
• Extermination: This is my favourite, despite being a plain and simple death match mode. The player with the last man/men standing wins.
• Hostage: One player must defend the hostages with superior numbers. The rescuer must deploy, and then move in with fewer men and move the two hostages out of the 'safe zone' and to a designated edge of the map.
• Secure: This is the one I've played the least of, but it's a territory-control game mode. Gain control of the map without spreading yourself too thin.
• Disputed: Boxes are dropped in random places on the map. The two players have to retrieve them and get the carrier to the edge without losing him. Failing that, you could just kill each other. That works too.

"These need re-calibrating, don't you think?"

I'd suggest buying it with a friend. Considering it's buy-one-get-one-free on Steam even off the sales, it makes it a really cheap, rewarding mind-duel, that you'll keep coming back to.