Echo is a futuristic stealth game in which you play as a woman named En who is trying to resurrect a man named Foster. Her species is known as the Resourceful, which was created by her grandfather. She enters this facility to find a cube that Foster is supposed to be inside. The story doesn’t explain a whole lot outside of voiced dialog here and there.
The game has a great opening sequence where you land on a strange planet full of square cubes and must descend into the facility. The first hour of the game introduces all of the game mechanics, with the biggest being that the enemies are clones of you and learn from you. These clones reset during power cycles every so often. The music changes, and the game goes dark, but this is when the system can’t learn your moves. If you shoot, jump, duck, hide, or smash clones in the face with crystal balls, they will be able to do the same moves during the next power cycle. It’s important to reserve using your gun or even using elevators until the lights go off.
There are other abilities you have, such as a power bar and being able to shove clones. Every action requires an action point, such as shooting and leaping over ledges. You also have a very limited sprint meter. You can slowly regenerate one action point, but there are little towers with white balls that can give you one point spread around a room. It’s both strategy and stealth to only use these points when necessary, as some rooms can have dozens of clones you need to sneak around. This is when all the problems start setting in.
Sneaking around is fine and all, but there are so many clones that it’s nearly impossible not to get seen in any single room. The only objectives you get are to make it to the next room or find keys in large open rooms to activate an elevator. This gets extremely frustrating when you restart an area over a dozen times only to never find a good path around the clones. So many times I was spotted and tried to run, only to run out of action points and energy. You get one freebie by fighting your way out of a clone’s grasp, and your proximity meter will glow red, meaning you can’t take another hit. Rooms can be so large that you can’t get to the other end even after lining up your shot with several clones, sprinting, using your free grab, and shoving clones down.
The next issue is that the game feels like it drags on forever. I love the art style and atmosphere, with strange Victorian-style furnishings in a nearly sterile environment full of silver and gold decor. The problem is that it repeats forever, never changes, and the constant repetition of going from room to room wears thin fast. If there were a variety of things to do here, it would be more enjoyable.
Overall, Echo has great voice acting, good graphics, a creepy atmosphere, and very interesting game mechanics, but they are poorly executed in a repetitive, frustrating stealth gameplay loop that outstays its welcome.
Kratos and God of War are PlayStation icons and symbols of what the system can offer. This game was the biggest hit in 2005, and I went nuts for it like everyone else. It reinvented the action-adventure genre like no one else had with epic boss fights, cinematic combat, and insane-level design. We finally get all of this in portable form on the Vita. While it isn’t the most ideal version, it’s still plenty of fun.
God of War is really starting to show its age and flaws these days; that is really clear. It was a new idea, however well executed, but still had some issues. The game isn’t quite as epic as I remember, thanks to the newer games in the series being insanely huge. There are only two big boss fights in this game, and I could swear there were more. The game is brutal in spots but still rewarding, with many secrets and areas to explore.
You play as Kratos, a Spartan general who cried out for Ares to save him and defeat his enemies, but this all came at a huge price. I won’t spoil more of the story if you have never played this series, but longtime fans know it already. The game has amazing combat, which is what was praised so much 13 years ago. Using the Blades of Chaos, Kratos can swing and spin them around with amazing animations and kill hordes of enemies. I’m not kidding about hordes; there are some scenes where you must defeat nearly a hundred enemies, which is brutal.
The enemy variety is also great, as there are small, easy enemies to huge, lumbering cyclops that take many hits to kill. God of War is famous for quick-time event kills. After so much damage is taken, the enemies will display the circle button above their heads. This initiates a quick-time button pressing, which will give you health orbs. Each enemy has its own unique animation. Each enemy is also a challenge on their own, as some are dangerous on hordes while others are not so much alone. The level design is fantastic, and the enemy placement is cleverly laid out to offer a challenge every step of the way.
The series is also famous for the magic powers you acquire that are different with every game. You get four, which become very useful for various enemies. Poseidon’s Rage is great for clearing hordes of weaker enemies, as it’s an AOE attack. Zeus’ Fury is the only long-range weapon you get for picking off ranged enemies. Souls of Hades is like a shield, and Medusa’s Gaze is great for larger single enemies to turn them to stone. On top of the Blades of Chaos, you also get Artemis’ Blade, which is a powerful short-range heavy weapon, but once the Blades were fully upgraded, I honestly never really used it.
Outside of combat, there are puzzles that will sometimes slow you down. Most consist of pressing switches in order, climbing puzzles, or jigsaws. Pandora’s Temple is a giant puzzle within itself that takes up a third of the game near the middle. I just can’t stress enough how hard this game can be. Some spots had me restarting dozens of times until I got it right, and this included platforming sections. The first game’s Hell area is notorious for being brutally difficult. Having to balance on long spinning logs covered in blades and then climb spinning spiked towers that stretch on forever is daunting, but rewarding when you do complete it.
Overall, God of War is still a blast to play 13 years later and is as polished as I remember. Outside of hardware limitations at the time, Sony did an amazing job creating what they did. There are some cheap deaths, unbalanced difficulty in spots, and the quick-time events do get repetitive, but it’s minor issues that can’t really bring the game down even today.
The Vita version is the only way to play this game in portable form, and it’s not the most ideal version. The PS3 version runs at a smooth 60FPS, but the Vita cleans up the visuals a little and does have some FPS drops when a lot of enemies are on screen, but it’s not often. I’m sad to see this game doesn’t hit 60FPS, which it does even on PS2 sometimes, which keeps this game from getting a perfect score.
It’s sad to say that the Vita was a mostly commercial flop as Sony got scared with the first sign of trouble. The Vita still continues to release JRPGs and visual novels today, but first- and third-party support has been long gone. The Slim Vita was released right at the beginning of all this, but there’s still a huge library to play on for anyone who hasn’t picked up a Vita yet. While the launch system was a fantastic piece of hardware, the slim version is as well.
While I won’t get into technical details about the hardware, the Slim Vita is virtually the same system, just slimmer, more ergonomic, lighter, and with much better buttons and placement. The awkward oval start, select, and home buttons are gone with new circle buttons that are firm and less mushy. Everything just has a more satisfying click and less of a mushy feeling to it, which is nice. The downside to being lighter and slimmer is a cheaper feeling, but it still feels good in the hands.
The home button no longer lights up, so those LEDs were moved to the top next to the power button as small bars, which look sleek and minimal. The Vita also uses a standard micro-USB cable, which is nice and ditches the proprietary charger; it’s just too bad they didn’t do that with storage. 1GB of internal memory is included for tiny games and saves, but you can’t use it concurrently with the outrageously expensive memory card.
The biggest change of all is the LCD screen, which is no longer OLED. The Vita was touted as having a fantastic-looking screen, and while the LCD is nothing to scoff at, it doesn’t pop like the OLED did, but you wouldn’t notice unless they were side by side. This change always has more battery life as well. Also noted is the exclusion of 3G models, as AT&T killed the Vita plans less than a year after launch.
Overall, the Slim Vita is the best version to get due to all the improvements. Griping about the OLED screen isn’t enough to justify not wanting this version. We won’t get another iteration, so this is the best you can find.
When you think PlayStation, you usually think God of War or Kratos. God of War was a game-changer back in 2005 with cinematic fluid combat, memorable characters, and intricate level design, as well as the birth of quick-time events. 13 years later, the entire game is reinvented, not just to change the way we play as Kratos but to reinvent the action-adventure genre itself.
I really want to go into detail about the story, but it would contain so many spoilers that I have to refrain. For starters, you do play as Kratos, but as an aged man, a father, now living in an entirely new world set in Norse mythology. Yes, the Greek myth of God of War is now done, and we get a whole new set of gods and enemies and a beautiful new world. Kratos is living humbly as a woodsman with his family until his wife dies, and he and his son, Atreus, must venture to the highest mountain of Midgard to spread her ashes. It feels like the most humble story and a stark contrast from past games, with Kratos’ rage and anger tearing down gods and endless Olympians.
I can’t stress enough just how well developed his character and personality are. Being revoiced by Christopher Judge, who is best known as Teal’c (Tee-ULK) from the Stargate SG-1 TV series, he has a more calming, aged, and tired look to him. He is extremely wise, quiet, reserved, and has learned all these years to control himself; however, he still struggles. Santa Monica Studios did an astounding job of developing his character and Atreus’. I was fully immersed throughout the entire game and loved hearing Judge’s voice on screen, soaking in every cutscene and spoken line of dialog. It’s one of the most well-written characters and scripts in gaming history and goes from a simple story to blowing up into the expected epic mess that Kratos usually gets into. The story does end on a cliffhanger, and there are a lot of unanswered questions, but fans will know that means more is coming, and more is better.
The next thing you think of when you hear God of War is the amazing and well-made combat. It is one of the top five best action-adventure combat systems ever created and has just improved over time. Santa Monica Studio not only reinvented God of War’s combat but also action-adventure combat itself. Instead of using a cut camera like in previous games, we are now behind Kratos from an over-the-shoulder perspective with similar combat mechanics to past games. Some would say this seems impossible, but they pulled it off. Light and heavy attacks are now mapped to the R1 and R2 buttons, with your Leviathan Axe being used to solve puzzles as well. This is another amazing twist to the weapons in God of War; they aren’t just for chopping off heads. The Leviathan Axe is an amazing tool that is powerful, used as a ranged weapon, and for various other reasons. The main attraction of the axe is that it can be thrown and returned to the player anywhere in the world. The Triangle button is permanently mapped to just returning the axe, which is an interesting game mechanic never seen before.
I can’t go into further detail about weapons as it’s actually a huge story spoiler, but the combat feels very familiar to past games while also feeling fresh and new. I can’t think of the combat being done any other way. On top of chopping off heads, the magic system was reinvented with new enchantments and rune stones that you can collect around the world. These can be socketed to armor and weapons and add various moves to certain button combinations for each weapon. These are keys to surviving in battle, and without them, you just wouldn’t be able to finish the game. I always changed them up and upgraded them, as there’s a huge variety of magic moves in this game.
Epic cinematic kills are also back, but less quick-time event-heavy. While I did miss them, I understand why they were excluded. It does get repetitive, and you constantly relied on seeing that circle button pop up to gain health, magic, or experience orbs, but the animations went from awe-inspiring to shrug-inducing very quickly. The game does harken back to the first God of War in the sense that the game isn’t heavy on epic giant bosses. There are a few, and they are scripted, beautifully animated, and jaw-droppingly epic to see. You still feel like you are taking down these giant creatures, but in a different way. There are larger, smaller enemies like trolls and elemental golems that can be defeated similarly to past games, but it’s changed just enough to feel new and different. The combat is still cinematic, epic, and enjoyable, with awesome slow-down and gore everywhere.
Atreus himself is also a great combat tool, as he’s a companion that actually works and never gets in the way. He’s mapped to the square button, and you can use him no matter what Kratos is doing, and that includes death kills, being knocked down, etc. He shoots various types of arrows that can stun enemies and bring their stun meter up. Unlike past games, you can’t just deal so much damage, and then the kill button appears exactly the same for every enemy. You need to use various attacks to bring that meter up, and it’s difficult on tougher bosses. It keeps you from relying on quick-time events, like in past games. The well-invented and amazing enemies also help, as each one stands out and is unique, and you will learn what moves work with what enemy.
If the combat wasn’t enough to hook you, then the world will. The third major part of God of War is exploration and puzzle-solving, which make up over half of the gameplay. They took the secret chests of past games and blew them up tenfold with various types of chests, from simple small treasure chests full of Hacksilver (currency) to actual puzzle boxes where you have to hit various bells with runes to match the box. These can get tricky and require using all of your skills to solve them. God of War is also an open world. Yes, an open world. Midgard contains several realms you can explore, two of which are only for trials and challenges, but Midgard itself is a giant lake with various islands full of puzzle goodness and amazing challenges that will keep you hooked for dozens of hours. There are so many tasks in God of War that it really feels like an awesome open-world RPG, thanks to a leveling system and a brand new upgrade and crafting system.
The last part of God of War goes from using red orbs to upgrade things to finding various items in the game like any RPG and using them to craft and upgrade armor, weapons, enchantments, and even Atreus bow and his armor. There are certain armor sets that require various items from certain realms, and this can be a challenge, but it’s possible I actually finished the story before reaching the max level and acquiring the best armor. That’s all reserved for the bigger challenges seen elsewhere in Midgard.
Overall, God of War is the single best game to be released this entire console generation cycle. This is what we needed more of from every console maker. It took Sony too long as it was, but here we have it. The game is literally perfect, and I can’t think of any flaws in God of War that are detrimental to the overall game. I could say the game is too hard in spots, but that’s because I ventured too far too early and needed to come back later. I could say there are a lot of hidden items and they are hard to find, but I need to explore more and look more carefully. I could say that the story is too short and the lower amount of epic bosses is what made God of Warand hurts the game, but it just doesn’t. God of War is the best game I have played in the past 10 years, and many other developers need to take note.
Note: The game plays best on the PS4 Pro. It looks really awful on the standard PS4, but the Pro is running in 4K checkerboard, and the textures and added effects are well worth a purchase just for this game.
Every time I play a Call of Duty game, I expect less and less each time. The game is designed from the ground up for the lowest common denominator and people who have never played games before. Infinite Warfare is no exception, being the third game from Infinity Ward this console cycle. I have to give Infinite Warfare some credit, as it did surprise me more than the series has since Modern Warfare 2, and that’s saying a lot. The game has excellent acting and surprisingly interesting characters that you kind of care for, which scared me coming from such a mindless series.
You play Lieutenant Reyes, who is part of the USDA and is trying to protect Earth from the SDF, who are a bunch of rebels living on Mars and want to wipe out all of Earth. It’s a typical war plot with basic objectives, but the chatter in between is quite entertaining and kept me hooked. I actually sat through the entire game in two long playthroughs, which I have never done for Call of Duty. They usually get boring after the second mission or so. I do have to mention that the use of Kit Harrington (Jon Snow in Game of Thrones) is wasted on a villain that is rarely seen in the game and whose character never evolves or has the potential to grow. Why did they use him for a half dozen lines of dialog? I know Call of Duty is famous for using celebrities in its games (Ghosts being the worst use), but this seemed rather pointless with almost no face time.
Reyes’s partner, Lieutenant Salter, creates a strong duo that helps drive the game forward. I was actually able to figure out what was going on at all times, and the story never got convoluted or overly complicated. The game also changes pace quite often, which keeps it from getting boring despite these changes being the same and just shuffled. Outside of boots-on-the-ground combat, there is some zero-G combat and space combat in a jet. The space combat is great, and the Jackal has buttery smooth controls and feels very cinematic and challenging. The only objectives here are to destroy other fighters and larger ships while keeping missiles off of you and staying out of danger. Locking onto other jets puts you in auto-pilot mode, where the game will automatically follow the jet and you just have to shoot it down.
Zero-G combat is used the least, but it is still quite fun. You can tether to objects for cover, grapple enemies, and initiate pretty awesome melee kills. The environments are rather beautiful, with a lot of detail and massive objects in the background. This is not an ugly game by any means. Once you get indoors, though, the game is boring and stale, with metallic corridors, generic monitors, and the same crap we’ve seen over and over again. There are a few small moments outside of all this, such as when you can call in certain weapons or airstrikes to turn the tide. It feels good to use them, and they always come in handy right at the last moment.
One thing that really surprised me was the use of side missions that you could optionally go on. According to the Trophy listing, most people never played these as they are rare achievements, but it helps divert people away from the main story if they just want to finish real quick and move on. These missions include a few stealth operations as well as flying the Jackal and rescuing hostages. This was a nice mixed bag of gameplay that was fun to play through. The main reason to go through these is to take down top officers from the SDF that are part of the “card system,” which is a series of “hits.” It’s pretty meaningless and just one more reason to unlock an achievement.
Once you finish the campaign (about 6 hours), there is the multiplayer suite, and honestly, the campaign is stronger this time around. The multiplayer is very safe and doesn’t do a single thing different from what we’ve seen before with the same type of maps and modes that we’re used to. Is it worth grinding through the Prestige levels? Probably not, but there is zombie mode, which is even starting to show its teeth these days.
Sadly, Infinite Warfare just doesn’t have any personality, despite all the pluses it brings to the series. At its core, it’s still a generic space shooter that has strayed so far away from what made Modern Warfare great that it’s laughable. With the fake made-up guns (which are actually interesting), robots, and spaceships, this could have been any other name, and it would have still been a good game. The Call of Duty branding seems to hurt the game more than help it these days.
With that said, Infinite Warfare doesn’t’ deserve the flack it has gotten from fans, is surprisingly smart and entertaining, and at least tries to do some new stuff that we haven’t seen before. The multiplayer is passable, but at a bargain bin price, you are in for an entertaining day of shooting robots and saving the planet.
This console cycle is really strange, as we are now seeing updated hardware with more powerful components rather than just slimmer sizes. This is due to using off-the-shelf parts rather than proprietary hardware, which won’t change the coding for the games. Using 64-bit architecture allows Sony to give users and developers more powerful hardware rather than just giving consumers a cooler-looking system. To me, this seems worth the upgrade price, as you’re not just getting the same system as you had before. We saw this back with the New Nintendo 3DS, which had a faster processor, allowing for more advanced graphics.
The problem with all these hardware changes is the confusion for consumers. Unless you have a 4K TV, is it really worth the upgrade? Yes, as the PS4 Pro can “boost” games that aren’t patched for it, allowing supersampling anti-aliasing on 2K or lower resolution TVs, allowing for crisper images while still getting higher framerates, but is it really worth it? If you are really into how your games run or making them pop on your TV, then yes; otherwise, just stick with your original PS4.
With that said, the Pro not only looks bigger but also looks better than the original model. The top illumination strip is now laid horizontally in the front, with actually marked eject and power buttons on the left and right. The same two USB slots are upfront, with a USB 3.0 slot in the back for external hard drives and USB drives. The Pro comes with a 1TB HDD standard now, which is a must-have if you have more than 10 PS4 games. The system even has PlayStation-symbolic rubber feet on the bottom, which I found quite interesting. It’s a much bigger system, but the bulk is sheered away with shelf appeal and just seems more round and sleeker-looking. I also have to note that the PS4 finally has 5Ghz support! This means faster downloads, fewer cutouts, and reduced ping times. I can’t tell you how excruciating it was to be stuck on 2.4GHz wifi when it’s been a standard feature since the late 2000s.
Outside of the physical appearance, the PS4 software experience is exactly the same outside of some exclusive features such as 4K rendering, power options, and the Boost mode for older games. You will notice the biggest change when actually playing games. I tested the system with God of War, and the difference is astounding. The visuals were crisp, vivid, and night and day from the standard PS4. The game ran smoother, and while not in 4K for that title, the framerate difference was the big winner here.
Next, I tried The Last Guardian, which was one of the biggest performance increases I have seen. On the standard PS4, the game ran in the low 20’s, but in 4K, the game rarely dipped that low and ran at a smooth 30FPS. After that, I tried Shadow of the Colossus, and it ran smoothly with noticeable performance increases. Crash Bandicoot: N.Sane Trilogy didn’t really see much of a performance increase but seemed to look a bit sharper in the higher 2K resolution that it renders at.
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection ran at a locked 60FPS and looked buttery smooth, with zero slowdowns anywhere. I am still continuing to test out games and noticing stark differences that make the upgrade well worth the purchase (or, you know, just trade in that old PS4 when a deal hits). Note that the PS4 rarely renders natively at 4K but uses checkerboard rendering (just like the Xbox One X) to give an image that looks 4K, and usually you won’t notice a difference, and I sure don’t. Most movies aren’t true 4K either, as we just don’t have the graphical power on smaller systems to render this at a cost-effective level.
Overall, the PS4 Pro gives games a resolution and performance boost this generation desperately needs. While not every game is patched to support all the Pro features, the Boost mode will help older games run smoothly with rare framerate drops, if not at all. I highly recommend this system if you have a 4K TV with HDR, and 1080p TV users will benefit as well with added clarity to their images. My only critique of the system is the need for games to be patched, and there is no UHD Blu-Ray support. You will need an Xbox One S or X for that.
The “Ico Trilogy,” as it’s sometimes called, has been a long time in the making. Starting way back in the late 90s, Ico was a highly anticipated game that didn’t see much commercial success despite critical acclaim. Shadow of the Colossus fixed this despite its many issues, and The Last Guardian has been in development hell, originally planned to release on PS3. After showing up at numerous conventions, release dates changed, and promises failed to be kept, Sony Japan Studio just stopped giving us information. Finally, in 2016, The Last Guardian was released and was well received despite its poor sales.
The game doesn’t explain much when it comes to story or characters; it just kind of builds this adventure that the boy and Trico go on, and their interactions help build their character in a way. You wake up in a cave, and shortly after meeting Trico, which is a hybrid bird of some sort—it’s never explained—you just start going. There’s no real goal until towards the end of the game, and even the goal isn’t really explained. Like all other games in the series, it’s wide open to fan interpretation, and sometimes this is better, but for this game, I didn’t feel a reason for these two to be together other than to complete this mysterious journey.
The game consists of puzzles and climbing segments, both for the boy and Trico. This is where the frustrating controls and Trico’s awful AI come into play. When you’re playing as the boy and doing puzzles on foot, it’s not too bad, but once you hop on Trico and start trying to direct him, heal him, and help him in combat, that’s where things get difficult. The animations in the game are wonky and canned to a fault. The boy changes his animation based on the type of terrain he’s walking on, such as stairs or thin walkways, and once he clings to something, he doesn’t want to let go. When you’re trying to control Trico, his animations are also very canned and can’t be controlled outside of “direction gestures” to make him jump, sit, swim, or push. The AI has trouble figuring out what to do half the time when Trico needs to jump up pillars or squeeze through a small hole. Many times I would point and shout and he wouldn’t budge, or I would have to climb down and call him towards where I wanted, then climb back up only to have him turn around for unknown reasons. This is incredibly frustrating and almost feels broken due to how finicky this mechanic is.
Climbing Trico is a chore, as the boy will cling to him and won’t let go, or he registers each part of his body as a different surface, so in combat he can get stuck on parts of Trico, and the camera is just atrocious. Many times the camera got stuck between the boy and a wall, and I was blind to what was going on. When you’re in combat and statues are running around trying to grab you and throwing spears at Trico, you need to climb him, remove the spears, heal him by rubbing the bloody feathers, and then you can also pull heads off statues while they are down. If you get grabbed, they try to take you to a blue door, and then you die. When they grab the boy, you must mash the face buttons to wriggle free, which is an interesting mechanic. I don’t mind the idea of the combat system, but it’s just frustrating with the awful controls, terrible camera, and bad AI.
Outside of the occasional combat area and all the puzzles, there’s nothing to do. The world is a barren wasteland, which is typical of this series and sets an ominous atmosphere, but I would have liked to have seen more of this world. It sounds like I’m harping on this game, but it’s quite enjoyable outside of all these flaws due to how incredibly unique this experience is. When the game does work, it can be a beautiful thing to behold. The game is fantastically gorgeous, with amazing art at every turn of the camera. The saturated whites and grays mixed with the bloom effects just look gorgeous and stay true to the art style of this series. However, it does take its toll on the PS4 hardware. The game runs in the low 20’s throughout most of the game, making this almost like a slideshow. Unless you have the PS4 Pro, you won’t ever see 30FPS unless you are indoors. Even on the Pro, in 4K, the game still dips into the ’20s, but not as often. I don’t recommend playing this on anything other than the PS4 Pro.
Overall, The Last Guardian is a unique experience with interesting locales and a loving relationship between boy and animal. Outside of the frustrating controls, awful AI, and wonky animations, there’s something to love and experience here that’s unique to the PlayStation console that you can’t get anywhere else. The game runs about 8 hours or so; it’s not very long, and sadly, a lot of the length is getting Trico to do what you want. If you have patience and love the other two games in the series, this is something you don’t want to miss.
Remedy Entertainment is one of my favorite developers. You may know them from little games like Max Payne and Alan Wake. These were both fantastic third-person shooters with great characters and an interesting story. It’s been a while since we have seen anything from them, and Quantum Break was quite ambitious with big-name actors, live-action cutscenes, and just an overall large budget.
The game starts off with you playing Jack Joyce, who is the brother of William Joyce and gets stuck in a fight against Monarch Solutions to save the universe. It sounds pretty cliche, but the time-bending gameplay and story have some merits. Paul Serene, the antagonist of the game, steals a time-travel device from William Joyce and uses it for profit. The game does this whole start at the end, then work your way back to the beginning sort of story, filling in gaps along the way. I really wanted to like the story here, as the acting is top-notch and the live-action cut scenes are fantastic, but it’s so convoluted and there are so many things that aren’t explored.
One such thing is the end of time. It’s frequently mentioned that the end of time is caused by a fracture in the time machine, but we never see it. Seeing the end of time would have been fascinating, if only for a little while. On top of this, the five different choices you make in the story don’t affect the outcome of the story, which makes it feel pointless. After each chapter, there is a junction in which you play as Paul and have to make a choice. Then you get a 15-minute live-action cutscene, which is the best part of the entire game.
The gameplay itself has time-stopping and bending abilities with Jack Time. Rushing enemies to fly by them, using time blasts for AOE effects, shields, and various other abilities. You will use them all throughout the game, but it feels forced. The guns feel fun to shoot, but they’re all so generic and boring. The same four enemies repeat, and to make you use your powers, they throw in enemies that are immune to your powers and ones that you need to use your powers to get past their armor. They don’t show up often, but when they do, it slows down the gameplay and makes it drag.
I did use different weapons for different situations, but I had no choice, as the game can be so difficult at times that you need to use these weapons or powers by default and not by choice. You can upgrade your powers to make them more useful, but they require hidden upgrade points, which are really hard to find (I only found 5 through my whole playthrough), so it defeats the purpose of having an upgrade system if the points to use it are hidden. The action and storytelling are also poorly paced, with entire chapters of just pressing buttons, walking around, and climbing things. Then you would get an hour of non-stop shooting. Then the final boss took me 3 hours to beat, as it’s so incredibly difficult and requires you to use all your powers beyond what the game will allow. You can only turn so fast, move so quickly, and shoot so much with time bombs going off behind you and enemies zipping around and shooting you. It’s overwhelming and clearly breaks the system in place.
I really wanted to love this game, but it’s entertaining at best and very forgettable. The game looks fantastic with amazing character models and animations, but the PC version suffers severe performance issues as it’s poorly optimized. The art style, however, is rather dull, with nothing but sterile gray hallways, generic buildings, and nothing that really stands out. Outside of the Nissan and Microsoft product placements and the yellow accenting throughout the entire game.
Remedy really could have done more here, but most people will find it either too boring or too hard to care about. It’s an entertaining weekend playthrough, but nothing more.
MSRP: $54.99 (3 pack, no software), $89.99 (3 pack with software, $24.99 (single pack)
RGB fans are the big thing right now, and Thermaltake is taking on Corsair for the best out there. I purchased these with my Thermaltake View 31 case, and I’m incredibly impressed with them. If you buy the three-pack, you get a control box that can be mounted in the chassis, so you can link all the fans together so they can sync with each other. There is a more expensive pack that allows you to control them through software, but the hardware box was fine for me.
Installing them is easy, as you can either use them as case fans or radiator fans, and screws for either choice are included. You can mount the control box with the included velcro tape, but a magnetic bottom would have been better. I had to actually cut up the velcro and place it in a way that would work for my case, which was annoying.
The fans come with sleeved cables and are quite long, which makes them easy to work with. You can stretch them across a full-size tower, so they can plug in wherever you want. Once you plug them into the box, you can start or stop the fans in your favorite color, change the fan speed to full or quiet mode, and also change the mode from solid colors to 256 color mode. The fans look amazing and show bright, vivid colors, and the 256-color mode looks fantastic.
Overall, the fans are amazing. At full speed, they produce very little noise and have great airflow, and the RGB effects are the biggest seller. For half the price of Corsair’s fan, you can’t go wrong here.
MSRP: $99.99 ( 2 Blue LED fans), $129.99 (3 RGB fans)
PC gaming isn’t just about having the best GPU, fastest CPU, or 64GB of RAM (which is stupid, honestly), but also how good your PC looks. When you invest a large amount of money in a machine, you want to put your own stamp on it, and it starts with the case itself. I moved on from the Raidmax Viper GX case, which was a good case for beginner PC builders. I actually had an accident in which my son knocked me off balance, and I spilled soda on top of the tower and had a major disaster. This led me to need a new case, and tempered glass is the way to go.
Now if you aren’t really into showmanship, lights, colored radiator fluid, and cool hardware, then don’t get one of these. However, with some good cable management and patience, you can get a simple setup to look top-notch. The Thermaltake View 31 comes pre-installed with two Riing 14 Blue LED fans (the one I have) or three Riing 12 RGB fans (which cost extra). The case itself looks sleek, is lightweight, and is easy to use and set up. The tempered glass sides just have two screws on each side, and they pop right off, allowing full access to the inside. This tower is void of 5.25″ bay drives, and everything inside is customizable.
There are 3 HDD trays with an amount that is moveable, or you can install them on the back of the PC if you want them out of the way or need to install a large coolant reservoir. There are plenty of options for fans and radiators, as they can go on all sides. I opted for the two Riing 14 Blue LED fans to go in the front, and I purchased an additional 3 packs of Riing 12 RGB fans for the top. I don’t have any fans on the bottom yet, and I have a Corsair H75 AIO radiator with a dual fan setup for the CPU in the rear. It looks fantastic, and just a little effort goes a long way.
One major feature I love is the magnetic dust screen that lays right on top of the top fans, as this allows you to see the lights from the top. The front panel has vents on the sides to allow air in and is darkened so only the lights show and you don’t see the blades spinning. When I actually started placing things inside, it was nice to see the motherboard stand-offs were pre-installed for an ATX motherboard, and the front panel cables were already tied down and managed. There were plenty of holes and places to put cables and loop things through. Even with a crowded system and every port filled, you should be able to find plenty of areas to manage cables neatly. There is also an option to have your CPU face towards the case for those with custom GPU coolers.
The front panel features a clean and sleek blue-lit square power button, a smaller reset button, an HDD LED, two USB 3.0 ports, and two USB 2.0 ports, as well as a microphone and headphone jack. This was a huge plus over my last case, which only had two USB 3.0 ports up front.
Overall, the case is just slick, clean, and tidy, and it looks high-end and professional for a reasonable price. I do have a few minor issues, such as the fact that there are not six HDD trays, so you can have three up front and three in the back. I’m actually contacting Thermaltake right now to see if I can have more sent to me. Some additional trays would have been nice. People who don’t use AIO liquid cooling systems will find the big empty area on the right to be an eyesore (I don’t mind it). It does not come with a PCI-E ribbon cable for the GPU stand-off. It also lacks more fans, pre-installed RGB or not. What do you get? However, the case is fantastic, and I don’t think I’ll be swapping it anytime soon.
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Try multiplayer. A lot of fun !