Yakuza: Dead Souls Review

It feels like everyone has had a pop at the zombie genre and now it’s SEGA’s turn, with the Yakuza series going the way of the undead.

Waking straight into this long running crime story with no idea of its history was a little daunting initially. The wealth of characters, already set out with their own back stories that I had no idea about, would normally make a game a confusing mess for me; but I must give credit to the writers as very early on you do start to feel for the main players with a some great lines that keep you smiling throughout the game and get you settled rather quickly into this new zombie fare.

I don’t know who these guys are, but they are pretty bad-ass.

Yakuza: Dead Souls is split into four different perspectives of the zombie apocalypse as it takes hold of the city of Kamurocho. Starting off with Shun Akiyama as he begins his loan payment collections with his business partner Hana, all seems well until some Yakuza zombies come crashing from an office block from above and start biting into the gathering crowds, leaving Akiyama to deal with them (via a basic control tutorial). Tired from this ordeal Akiyama takes a nap in his office, only to awaken in the middle of a zombie holocaust; with the small area of the city he resides in sectioned off by a huge impenetrable steel fence. From here the game takes you through the characters own personal story, which on completion moves to the next Yakuza member, each with their own reasons on taking on the zombie holocaust and like I said, I don’t know who these guys are, but they are pretty bad-ass.

Yakuza: Deal Souls is zombie survival game that is split into two distinctive areas, the zombie filled Quarantine Zones and the remaining safe city streets that surround it. The Quarantine Zones allow for either a fixed linear mission to progress the story or a free mode where you can go on the rampage, taking out zombies, earn experience and hopefully save a few stranded shop owners along the way.

The safe zone is a lot less dangerous, since it’s a bustling city full of life, with locals crowding round the barriers asking what’s going on. There’s plenty of side quests here to pick up, plus shops to purchase food and batteries for your torch, a weapons crafting van plus if the zombie slaying gets too much, plenty of pubs to visit for some branded whiskey and some darts. You can even pop into Club SEGA for some shoot-em-up action on the Boxcelios 2 arcade machine and whittle your cash away on a crane game trying to win a cuddly toy.

The overall control of the characters is a bit of a struggle initially with an awkward blend of strafing and stationary attacks available. By just facing your opponents and blindly firing the game will auto aim, hitting most targets and with R1 pressed you can strafe and keep the camera behind you, making it a little easier to see where you are going and what you are shooting at. Holding R2 goes all Resident Evil on you, allowing you to directly control the aiming cursor but at a cost of no movement. With even lightly zombie populated areas causing headaches the controls are made easier with the levelling up system. As you carry out the numerous missions, Substories and Directives you earn experience and with every level you pass you earn an extended health gauge plus Soul Points which can be spent on new abilities like a snap aim for easier headshots, a larger inventory and a improved melee attacks.

There are plenty of zombies to shoot at within the Quarantine Zones with hordes consisting of the usual shufflers, runners, plus some that just hunch on the floor. Others literally hang from windowsills, waiting for you to get a little too close. The zombies are varied in looks and are really well animated, all going down with either a satisfying slump with a headshot or flaying as you riddle them with bullets. Away from the standard fare there is a great variety of mutated monsters out there, with more than a few nods to other zombie games – young girl zombies scream to get the attention of the horde, Popeye armed hulking Meatheads that will only go down with headshots, Monkey Boys that jump and slide all over the place and even a boss that is clearly a Licker from Resident Evil.

With so much shooting going on, the removal of a crosshair renders a lot of the game down to running and shooting aimlessly and with the game making sure you hit the majority of targets it feels a little hollow after a while. There is an attempt to break this up by including Heat Sniping, a special move that builds over time that allows you to pull off an explosive shot with parts of the scenery like explosive barrels, petrol tanks on motorbikes or electrical junction boxes, but even this does not keep away the grating feeling as the further the zombie virus spreads through the city, the more boredom that creeps in with the simplistic game play.

However the biggest gripe is the camera, as most of the time it does not seem to have a clue from what angle to show the action, making it hard to shoot enemies even with the auto aim; on a few occasions it got so confused in corridors the camera spun wildly around my character, marking the first time I have gained motion sickness from a game.

There is an element of multiplayer included in Yakuza: Dead Souls. Along with high score rankings on the many mini-games, you can also play Two Player Battle in pool, darts, golf, bowling. You can also have a pop at Karaoke, a very fast paced and insane button mashing rhythm game that even has the Japanese lyrics so you can join in to the likes of “machine gun kiss”, “pure love in Kamurocho” and “I wanna change myself”, pop classics.

A deep and ultimately fun game, even with all its problems.

There are two elements to this game, the great open world of the safe zone that offers many great moments and hours of just wandering around, but then you have the frustrating zombie killing areas that suck any fun from it with a laborious camera and flat feeling weaponry. Dead Souls could have been so much better and it’s a real shame, however, I understand the safe zone moments are more in keeping with the other Yakuza titles and will now seek out the older titles due to my experience here.

Yakuza: Dead Souls is a deep and ultimately fun game, even with all its problems, however as you play through you’ll find yourself wishing the zombie moments were over, so that you can get back to exploring the rich living world these moments surround, and that is the biggest crime of all.

Armored Core V Review

The long running Armored Core series has been around on consoles for what feels like forever, but the battle mech titles have always been a genre I’ve avoided, since the tech heavy slow battles always felt more suited to PC than console gaming. That was until last year, when From Software released one of the greatest console games, Dark Souls. Since then, this developer has been on my radar and as no more Souls game are close to release, the Armored series caught my attention.

The wish to strap into a huge lumbering robot and battle it out against others has always seemed to be an Eastern thing, with game like Robotech, Gundam and BattleTech occasionally reaching the attention of fans over here, but nowhere near like the Japanese crave for them, with this series releasing a solid line of titles since 1997 and showing no sign of easing up.

The wish to strap into a huge lumbering robot and battle it out against others has always seemed to be an Eastern thing.

Just like the Souls games, difficulty and complexity was always more of a put off rather than a selling point. Even after spending some decent time with Armored Core V, it’s still a series I feel I need to have more time with, even after finishing this review, although to get to that point there is an awful lot of chaff to work through.

The story is rather ambiguous with a lot left to the imagination other than “The Father” is bad and you need to overthrow his rule. To be fair though, when you can pilot these one-manned death machines, stacked with some awesome arsenal at your disposal, who cares about story? But first you need to figure out how to use them. The general gist in both single and online play is that you need to accomplish a set amount of story and Order (side) missions, slowly building up a decent cash supply and creating your own personal ultimate mech, slowly freeing regions of the world previously ruled by The Father. Battles are pretty straight forward in the tasks, with a simple kill everything that moves until a checkpoint is reached mentality, interspersed with a few side missions like killing a set amount of drones or completing a mission in a set time.

This however is not an easy task with the main story missions getting extremely hard after only a couple completed. Most enemies being too well protected against your constant barrage and the game leaves you to figure out for yourself how to earn more cash and also how to create and improve your current mech, which results in lots of repeated play and many deaths to work out the simple things; like what the benefits are and who you can damage using the three main weapons systems Kinetic Energy, Chemical Energy and Thermal Energy, which mean absolutely nothing until you just test each on the field.

The Mechs you pilot can carry a huge array of weapons, used by fired utilising the shoulder buttons and a quick change to switch to your other sets. This enables you to choose from a range including standard shotguns, Gatling guns, close quarter energy blades and long distance sniper rifles, though to call these standard is a bit of a misnomer as the rifles are the size of a bus. Depending on your mechs load-out limitations you can pretty much take what you want onto the battlefield, but again the game does not help in the slightest with these choices, leaving an awful lot of trial and error. To get a feel for the styles of mech available you are able to run around using the “vanilla” modes, offering the spry two legged assault class to the huge heavy weapons defenders that run on huge tank tracks. Though customisation is the draw here, for any newcomers it will be a strain to figure out what is required as you get comfortable with the game and earn some cash to purchase more items that include new body parts and armour and weapons, allowing you to mix up whatever you fancy, as long as its within weight and power consumption limits.

Though an absolute slog to get set up and up to speed with what is required of you, my misconceptions of this genre are swiftly set aside once on the battle field, where the action is a lot more smoother and faster than I expected. This is mainly down to the size of your mech; being a little smaller than usual enables a quicker movement using jumps and boosts, really making the gameplay a lot more frantic.

Though I come across as negative on the single player, that is because it’s really an online only game, as where you will struggle on your own, online really opens up the game with online running seamlessly in the background, awaiting your next command. When starting online, Armored Core V allows you to create or join a mech team, where you can participate in brutal team battles that require close team work plus carry out attempts to take over world. The 8 global segments are littered with missions alongside the usual story and Order missions. Some allow for an attempt to conquer an area under the Conquest mode, with your total team points determining where you can attack and once captured, what sort of computer controlled defenders you can utilize for when you are away. To build these points to carry out a Conquest attack you need to complete other smaller missions in occupied land, like the blast fest Blitz mode or Data recovery missions where you raid the area for vital information. Each of these can be carried out solo but with you teammates around you it makes them a lot easier. Even if you are focusing on the story missions you can also hire or offer your services in the Mercenaries mode, connecting with friends or random players just to even the odds on the battle field.

While there are many issues with Armored Core V, in the end the action speaks for itself.

The graphics and sound are a mixed bag, being well executed and poorly designed. The mechs are created with great attention to detail and an in depth ability to customize many aspects, they look great in action, although when walking looking a little false. The cut scenes look amazing, but are marred by the poor and uninspiring environments, e.g . Very basic looking buildings with even a little pop up occurring.

While there are many issues with Armored Core V, in the end the action speaks for itself. If you have the patience to get through the initial frustrating learning curve this may turn you into a fan, though I can’t help but think this type of game is more suited for a PC.

What Happened To GAME?

It all seems oddly rhetorical now, of course, given what we know about the GAME Group.  The situation seems to be that they’re struggling a bit – publishers are losing confidence, they’ve lost their handy sale-or-return policy with key suppliers and anecdotal (and largely unverified) evidence floating around the net this week suggests some employees were paid late recently.

Naturally, all this is difficult to quantise and without key facts from the company there’s a lot of speculation abound, but the story starts to tell a sorry tale whichever way you look at all this.  There’s some resolution at the end of all this, of course, and nobody really expects the group to suddenly vanish from the high street, but the road might not be quite as smooth as everyone would like.

Founded in 1991, GAME started off fairly small, the oddly named Rhino Group expanding to 77 stores when they took over Virgin Games two years later.  Another 48 months on and what was then Electronics Boutique Limited bought 25% of the company, rebranding the stores (which were then Future Zone) as Electronics Boutique, a name that still rings strong for some as representing knowledgeable staff and a wide range of products.

It's a familiar sight for gamers, but one that's slowly moved away from focusing on new titles.

It wasn’t until 1999, when Electronics Boutique bought out a range of stores called Game that the group was formed as it is now.  Founded in 1990, Game had 86 stores of its own.  Further expansion (BarrysWorld, ScoreGames and Centro Mail) happened in 2001, and EB quickly became a force to be reckoned with, before rebranding as GAME a year later.

The GameStation buy-out happened in 2007, but not before GAME gobbled up GamePlay and GamesWizards, leaving GAME pretty much the only high street national at that stage that concentrated on new titles.  Altogether the brand has around 1,300 stores at the moment, and continues to trade from its main website (alongside the rather more specialist looking GamePlay site).

In March last year, though, things started to slow.  As the average consumer started to wise up to what the core gamers had been saying for years – that cheaper deals could be had online – GAME’s once ready market wasn’t quite as enthusiastic.  And on top of this, many retailers new to the industry (which, for better or worse, includes the supermarkets) started offering trade-in deals, something the specialists like GAME once had all to themselves.

This, as you’d expect, made a massive difference to GAME.  Asda, for example, can give arguably better trade-in prices than the specialist does depending on the game (obviously it’s worth shopping around) and I’d suspect they’re not alone.  And if the average shopper picking up their weekly groceries can also nip into the electronics section of the supermarket and grab the same games that GAME are offering, and usually cheaper, then why would the same person make the trip to the high street to go to a dedicated store?

Of course, in days gone by, that same specialist would be able to impart knowledge, information, unbiased facts and perhaps even some friendly small-talk as you handed over your cash.  Admittedly, you’re still going to get the most from staff from a dedicated games retailer, and I know a few employees that pour their hearts into their jobs, but is this still widely the case?

What’s particularly noticeable, though, is the way the stock has slowly changed within GAME branches.  What was once racks and racks of new titles is now a much smaller area, with the lion’s share handed over to pre-owned games, some times considerably so.  If GAME are doing this, then they’re only really stocking a small subsection of each platform’s games new, and in some cases just what constitutes the retailer’s own top twenty titles.

Downloadable titles, too, has no doubt had an effect.  Steam has revolutionised the way PC games are bought and played, and who knows what’ll happen when the Vita appears, where every game you can buy on cartridge will also be available over the PSN, a service that GAME won’t see a penny of unless you buy your credit for the Network on a pre-paid card from one of their branches.

GAME, you may argue, has failed to evolve as the industry has.

The Vita is a new hardware launch that GAME are confident will still be a feature of the group. Many have pre-ordered with them.

News this week hasn’t been particularly fair on GAME, with some misreporting and conclusions unfairly jumped to, but what remains is a series of articles suggesting the group is struggling.  They’re no doubt not alone, but clearly a large target, and are only just admitting to their problems.  Indeed, only in the last few hours has the board commented officially.

News first broke yesterday when it emerged that the group had lost certain insurances from publishers (with some speculating this included Konami and possibly EA) and meant that the normally safe sale-or-return scheme (where GAME could just send back any unsold games) had been removed.  GAME, basically, had to foot the bill upfront.  This, in turn, meant that there were rumours new releases wouldn’t be available this week, but that appears to have been smoothed over.

MCV, a bastion of balanced viewpoints (at least in this particular case) reports this evening that the owners have “concluded discussions with its lending syndicate and agreed revised terms for its facilities” and whilst GAME are now having to “‘operate within lower limits of its existing facilities than was previously available” it does mean they’ve been given a lifeline.

They’ll continue to trade, basically, although this is going to be off the back of an £18m loss before tax for the year to the end of January.  ”We’re pleased to reach agreement with our lenders, but should be under no illusions about the challenges in our market or the hard work that is required to deliver our strategic plan,” said CEO Ian Shepherd.

There’ll be an update to the group’s strategic plans, too, which may involve the selling off of GAME’s international businesses, which currently relates to approximately 50% of the branches.

Whilst it’s apparently fashionable to think that the industry would be better off without GAME, that’s largely not the case.  The supermarkets might be cheaper now, but that’s because they’re competing for the market against GAME who hold as the last real specialist high street presence, and whilst the indies might temporarily thrive if they were left without the likes of GAME around the corner, who knows what might happen if they vanished?

I do wish GAME well, I might not shop in there as often as I once did, but that’s largely a change in my own circumstances rather than anything particularly directed at the retailer.  I do like to go in and browse, though, and seriously can’t imagine not having that option. The group might not be in top form right now, but publishers and gamers alike need them – heck, the industry needs them – and hopefully they can come through this in a much stronger position.

DC Universe Online – Beyond Level 30 Guide (Part Two)

If you’re fast approaching level 30 in SOE’s comic-inspired, action-based MMO we’ve knocked together a small guide just for you, outlining the transition between regular and “endgame” play. Part one was focused on the four playable character roles: Controller, Tank, Damage, and Healer; before reading this second half we strongly recommend backtracking through the previous article as there are several areas of overlap.
This time around we’re looking at how to get the best out of your equipment.

No matter how well you rack up combos, identify enemy tells or dodge attacks, at the end of the day player skill comes second place to the power of your equipment. Before a recent update, hitting level 30 meant that players could dive into Raids, Tier 1/2 Alerts and Duos straight after playing the narrative-driven, resulting in swarms of greenhorns permeating into the ranks of elite players and effectively ruining their experience.
Since then a new progressive stat titled “Item Level” has been added to the existing character sheet, producing an average number based on every piece of gear your hero/villain has equipped. For players to join queues for T2 (Tier Two) Alerts and Raids they now need to have an Item Level of 43 or higher. This may not seem much but in reality it requires a decent amount of Duo/T1 (Tier One) grinding in order to get strong enough gear. Though sometimes frustrating, this concept effectively separates the wheat from the chaff; those who are dedicated to DCUO will more than likely piece together the right gear, whilst those who aren’t ready yet are kept away until they are battle-worn enough to ascend the ladder.

Very few will have the skill, patience, and connections to get the Tier 3 "Kryptonian" battlesuits.

So, when you hit level 30 and have decided on which role you wish to pursue, it’s time to start hitting the Duos (two-player dungeons) and T1 Alerts (advanced four-player dungeons.) Your goal in these instances is not to gain XP as you have been doing previously; Duos and Hard Alerts allow you to refine your playstyles, experience teamwork, and grab loot. Of course the latter is most important, if you don’t see an increase in your item level during the endgame you aren’t really going anywhere, which is the most likely cause of player abandonment.
DC Universe Online, like many other MMOs, has a “Need or Greed” loot sharing system. When an enemy is downed they may drop a piece of equipment (bosses drop loot every time) which is then contested for by the players, who each have three available options. Selecting “Need” will put you in a priority queue for the said item, “Greed” puts you in a secondary queue, and “Pass” excluding you from the running altogether.
If one or more players select “Need” the secondary queue is also excluded and each character left is given a random number out of 100, the highest being the winner. As the name of the system suggests, it categorizes players who need the item for actual usage, those who want it simply to sell it or auction it, and those who have no use for it whatsoever.
When deciding whether to need, greed, or pass, you will have a direct view of the item’s stats, including an indication of how it will affect your abilities. Each of the stats is displayed a red or green number, with stats in green showing an increase and those in red meaning it will decrease your abilities.
Simply put, all you need to do is check whether the item compliments your roll; if it does then select need, and if not choose one of the remaining options. The reason I put so much stress on the loot system is because there are plenty of players out there who will abuse it and ruin the game for others. A damager doesn’t need healing gear, a healer doesn’t need controller gear and so on; somewhere down the line those who take what they don’t really need will just toss away  loot they’ve unjustly stripped from another’s hands.

Reaching Tier 2 opens a new gallery of four-player Alerts, also allowing players to join Raids.

Enemies won’t always drop the loot you want, given that they are random after all. However, there is another way of securing better equipment; despite being more secure, this method requires hours of playtime with heavy doses of patience. Credits known as “Marks” are distributed to players for a number of in-game actions such as instances, solo quests and vault drops, “Marks of Triumph” being the first ones you should focus on. After accumulating at least forty-five Marks of Triumph they can be traded with Watchtower/Hall of Doom vendors for Tier 1 gear which easily outshines most of the loot found in dungeons. For some items such as body armour and helmets you could need fifty to sixty Marks and, given that a few hours of gameplay should yield ten, it can be a bit of a hike.
If PvE (Player vs. Environment) isn’t exactly your thing, hooking up with a League and developing a PvP (Player vs. Player) crack team is also an option upon hitting 30, though not quite as expansive or rewarding as dungeon scouring. In a similar fashion to the PvE endgame you will be able to bag Influence and various Marks in order to unlock the best battle suits, these ones tuned to enhance PvP stats such as Toughness and Dominance.
So there you have it. It’s unlikely that this bodged up player’s guide will sink any thoughts of bewilderment, though we hope the information provided will help you understand the various Endgame paths and concepts. Be sure to keep an eye out in future for more DCUO updates and a feature review of Lightning Strikes, the latest ten quid expansion.

Hands On: Max Payne 3

After a lengthy absence Max is back and this time the coding duties have been handled in-house at Rockstar. The team had previously helped the Finnish developer Remedy Entertainment with Max Payne 2 but now the franchise is solely in the hands of Rockstar with Dan Hauser, the writer of Red Dead Redemption, taking over the scribe duties from series creator Sam Lake.

Set a few years after the previous game, Max (voiced by James McCaffrey) has moved to São Paulo, Brazil and now works as security for Rodrigo Branco. Branco’s trophy wife, Fabiana (big boobs, the mini-est of miniskirts) gets herself kidnapped by a street gang and it’s up to Max to get her back.

A meeting is arranged in which Max and his buddy Passos drop off a bag full of cash in exchange for the skirt and a tense cuts scene shows the drop off. All is going to plan until a shot rings out and a paramilitary group gatecrash the exchange and shoot Max in the arm.  The cut scene moves seamlessly into game play and it’s time to make a stumbling dash to cover as gunfire blazes across the stadium.

Moments like this leave you feeling like a total bad-ass.

I died rather a lot during the first hour of Max Payne 3 and this was made even more embarrassing as sat either side of me and watching every move like a hawk were two chaps from Rockstar.  The reason for my multiple deaths was that I was playing Max Payne 3 like any other third person shooter.

After stumbling and crashing his way to the depths of the football stadium Max is now facing a number of enemies all of whom are reaching for their guns. I glance around and spot a pillar, the perfect cover, so run over and hide behind it.

Wrong.

The bad guys quickly out-flank me and toss a grenade at my feet. I’m dead. Some words of advice from Rockstar and I’m ready to try the scene again.

This time as the paramilitary squad go for their guns I tap the shoulder button, engage bullet time and dive sideways through the air. In slow motion I take out three of the enemies with blasts to the chest and the cripple the fourth with a well placed shot to crotch (somewhat of a signature move of mine during the play through).

As bullet time ends I see the telltale traces of shots being fired from behind me so as Max lands on his back I quickly shift his aim to the two bad guys who have entered the room and take them out whilst laying prone on the floor.

As my last shot is fired the camera switches back to slow motion and follows the bullet leaving Max’s gun, zipping across the room and smashing into the enemy’s face. A plume of blood sprays out and his head snaps back, smashing into the wall with a satisfying thump…

It’s hard to describe just how awesome Max Payne 3 looks in action; you can pull off some ridiculously cinematic moves and make your own John Wu movie. For example, near the end of the play-through I found myself at the top of a set of stairs in a football stadium, about 50 feet below me more paramilitary types are searching for Max and Passos.

Convention dictates I should have hidden behind some of the stadium seating, take advantage of the high ground and gradually picked off the men one by one. Instead I start running and take a leap from the top of the stairs and engage bullet time. The assembled bad guys at the bottom of the stairs turn towards the plummeting Max before crumpling in heaps as four well aimed shots to chest end their short appearance in the game.

Every character, no matter how inconsequential, has been motion captured and every time a bullet hits an enemy they will react as you would them to expect. By blending physics and animation, if a thug is shot in the leg he will react like he has been shot in that specific limb rather than run a general ‘ooh I’ve been shot’ animation.

The game looks superb and is running a modified version of the R.A.G.E. engine that powered GTA IV. Grand Theft Auto is an open world so there were limitations on the effects and destructibility, Max is a linear adventure which means the engine that once powered a entire city is now powering a room or two at a time. This means little touches like blood splatter on Max’s shirt and the weapon he is carrying will be visible during the cut scenes.

Special attention has been paid to the effects when bullet time is engaged. Shots leave Matrix-like trails through the air and you can even see the hammer on Max’s gun clicking down as it fires the next round.

The comic book panels from the original game are back but this time are being used in cut scenes to show multiple angles of action. Whilst characters are talking their words occasionally appear on screen, a nice little touch and it works really well as the dialogue is snappy and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny.

There are no loading screens (unless you die), cut scenes merge seamlessly into game play and Rockstar created a brand new effect never seen before in a video game: during one cut scene Max is sat in a helicopter discussing how he came to be in Sao Paulo and in an instant the scene changes. Max is still in exactly the same pose as before, sitting down, but now he’s at a New York bar, he’s wearing different clothes, unshaven and nursing a whisky.

This effect happens in an instant and in real time. The game engine removes every asset apart from Max and creates a brand new environment in a the blink of an eye. It shows just how powerful Rockstar’s game engine can be when is when confined to a smaller, linear environments.

Bullet balet like this is what made the original Max Payne great, so it's no surprise to see it back.

The game has a free aim system or a soft auto-assist. I played in free aim, which is slightly floaty but can be mastered in half an hour. Max’s health does not regenerate, instead he relies on popping pills to fend off injury, a throwback to the original game. If you do take a lot of damage you will enter a ‘Last Man Standing’ sequence in which you have a chance to finish off the thug who has just shot Max. If you can take him out in time you will recover a small amount of health and can carry on playing.

Max can carry three weapons which are selected via a simple weapons wheel. You can use two smaller guns that can be dual wielded or one larger two handed weapon such as a shotgun or an assault rifle.

It’s not just shooting, though, as there are plenty of melee attacks, each unique depending on which weapon you are holding. Get close to a paramilitary thug and hit the fire button and rather than just shoot the scumbag an animation sequence will activate that shows Max incapacitating the thug and ends with his gun pointing towards the cowering enemy. One more click of the fire button and his brains will be splattered across the floor like a Jackson Pollock.

Getting close to a bad guy to perform such a move is harder than you might think though, the AI is is very intelligent and takes into account your play style. Be a death-kill-murder mofo by performing slo-mo headshots and the enemy will get scared and make a run for it. Hide behind cover and – as I found out – the enemy will become braver and flush you out from your hiding place.

It’s hard to fault the game, if I were to be really picky I would say a glitchy effect used to show Max being in pain was used a little too much, but as Rockstar stressed this was an effect they were working on and I think they’ll have fixed it before release. Also the enemies are slightly bullet spongy, a couple of times I thought I had killed a guy but he picked himself up and started firing again.

Despite my initial reservations the best part of playing Max Payne 3 is having an audience, once you have got the hang of bullet time and dodging you can pull off spectacular ‘bullet ballet’ sequences that rival the most outrageous action movies.

The last scene I played was set around a docks and after an hour and half of action I knew exactly what I had to do. I went in all guns blazing, melee killing four enemies in quick succession, engaged bullet time and slo-mo dived over a bench as I fired a round in to a gas canister which in turn exploded, drenching the enemy in flames.

The whole sequence took less than a minute and as the last thug dropped to the floor the two Rockstar chaps clapped and laughed, “Wow, I’ve never seen anyone tackle it like that, you were totally bad-ass!” they said.

I have to admit I have never been a fan of Rockstar’s open world games, I have never found them as engaging as everyone else so I’m quite surprised just how much I like Max Payne 3. I usually favour the ‘all guns blazing’ approach in most shooters so to find a game that actually rewards the technique rather than penalising it is heavenly.

Uncharted Golden Abyss Treasure Map: Worth Buying?

It may not have reached the heights of Drake’s Deception, but Uncharted’s Vita debut has been a landmark for portable gaming. The touch controls may have been hammy in places and the over-arching narrative a little out of place but intuitive gunplay, fantastic visuals, and dedication to Naughty Dog’s groundwork have paid off nicely for Bend Studio.

Something we particularly fell in love with was the game’s abundance of collectibles. In the form of clues, photographs, artefacts and bounties, they enrich the experience and pour on a good few hours of replay value. Aside from providing snippets of backstory, they also build towards some of Golden Abyss’ more taxing trophies.

The map, in all its glory.

Bounties have been made less bewildering thanks to Bend’s implementation of the Black Market and so have the other collectibles, via a downloadable treasure available on the PlayStation Network. At 79p it’s a throwaway bite of content that we suspect many have bought on impulse, but for those who are still wondering whether to take the mini-plunge, we’ll take a look at what to expect.

Once downloaded, the map will be available exclusively via Drake’s journal which can be opened using the select button, followed by an on-screen icon. Adorning the left hand side of the journal, there is a unique map for every stage in the game that can be expanded at the tap of a button.

The maps themselves are far from spectacular, lacking any sort of interactivity. Each one displays a lay out of an in-game stage, littered with icons and arrows that denote the locations of camera vantage points and pick-ups, as well as obstacles which need to be hewn away by Drake’s machete. The image quality is good, though navigating the maps won’t be plain sailing for everyone.

Working out where you are in correlation to the map can be tricky at times, even more so when in areas with multiple levels of elevation. At just under a pound it may be unreasonable to ask for a full 3D lay-out with video tutorials, but having a persistent location marker wouldn’t have been too much of a push. I’m currently on my second run-through, and admittedly I’m enjoying the game more when playing in this self-imposed treasure hunter mode.

The maps are basic, but with the only other alternative being smartphone/tablet guides, it’s the quickest way to unearth that coveted platinum trophy.

Sunday Thoughts: Chunks

If you pay all that much attention to my vague ramblings you probably know that I have a bit of a thing for comic books. To be fair though they don’t just interest me in book form, I love comics however they come. For quite a few years I’ve had a huge thing for web comics, which isn’t just to do with the fact I don’t have to pay to read them. I mean that’s certainly handy, but I think the real reason is the bite sized nature of them.

You see with a physical copy of a comic the unit is the book, and when it’s a single issue of  a comic that’s normally somewhere between twenty and thirty pages. That’s hardly a commitment really, I can probably read and really appreciate a single issue in less then fifteen minutes on average. A quarter of an hour is short enough for me to pick up a copy of something lying about and flick through it before I have to go back to whatever I was actually meant to be doing (writing for TSA, editing the podcast, fixing a software bug etc…).

The thing with a web comic, though, is the unit is a single strip. Something like Penny Arcade can be read in thirty seconds, which is so short that it’s barely a commitment at all. Short comics like this are absolutely fine, except they do end up bringing about a “just one more mentality”. I mean that comic only took you thirty seconds to read, so you might as well read another. And this time it was a bit longer, but it still only took forty seconds to read; one more couldn’t hurt. With me this loop can go on for hours; in the past I’ve lot the best part of a day when I find a new comic to read.

Mass Effect may well be brilliant, but the sheer scale intimidates me.

So if the unit for a comic is an individual book, and the unit for a web comic is a strip, it does raise the question of what it is for a game. For some games this is pretty easy to think about, in FIFA you tend to play a match at a time, in games like Sonic or Mario you can easily split your time into levels.

However, it does become a bit tougher when you look at some modern games. Where do you draw the line in Uncharted for example? Sure, there are cut scenes but really everything tends to flow together with few real breaks. With games becoming more and more like films in their structure and narrative it seems to become trickier to break them into chunks. You wouldn’t watch a film in blocks so why play a game with a cinematic narrative like that?

The problem obviously comes from the fact that a game is typically seven hours long at the lower end, whereas films are around three hours long at the most. It’s hard to convince myself that I can play a seven or eight hour game in a block, although there are some that have managed to snag me like that.

Of course, developers do try and put breaks points into stories, but it’s all about the perception at the end of the day. For example I have Mass Effect sitting sealed on my shelf because I’ve been told over and over it’s a long, deep game. That intimidates me hugely, to the extent that I’m scared about playing it. I know that makes absolutely no sense, that I just need to try and play it in manageable blocks, but I’m still almost nervous about starting the game.

I suppose it does seem pretty weird to be intimidate by a game, no matter how weighty. After all they’re supposed to be fun, not something you have to battle your way through. Worrying about the length before I’ve even started doesn’t feel like it’s the right way round, but sadly that’s just the way my brain works.

Spend two hours playing thirty second games of Angry Birds? No problem. Spend two hours playing a ten or twenty hour game? Some how that seems like a mammoth task.