Wargroove is the Advance Wars Sequel We Deserve

I played Wargroove at EGX Rezzed after following it for months and months. It was another one of those games that promised an Advance Wars spiritual successor, but I’ve been burned before. Into The Breach was looking like the best hope, but that became more of a puzzle game where you have only 3 units per level. The original creators of Advance Wars have moved onto fully supporting Fire Emblem, which again takes the turn-based strategy but gives you a group of heroes with perma-death to fight battles with, fun but no tanks or bobbing infantry being churned out of a factory.

Enter Wargroove by Chucklefish, the London-based developer that brought you Starbound. As I said I got to play a battle at Rezzed and, after being trounced by the AI, it’s safe to say it takes everything we liked from Advance Wars and put a great new spin on it. That spin was mostly tied up with the new commanders and forces. Instead of having 4 factions with different looking tanks, planes and commanders, Wargroove has 4 factions with commanders who fight on the battlefield themselves. Each faction varies based on the fantasy theme it brings to this pixelated, bobbing universe. There’s the nature-based faction where the commander summons a horse beneath them made of branches entwining together, and of course there’s a straight up human faction with your knights and archers.

The one I picked was an undead race full of skeletons. Remembering my Heroes of Might and Magic III days, summoning skeletons is the most fun and potentially broken mechanic. Happily the faction leader could forgo his turn to summon skeletons, which were the most basic unit. Unfortunately I was trying to be aggressive and got overwhelmed. As I was finishing up I was already thinking ahead to my next game: should I get to the mid-point and hold the line whilst summoning an unstoppable wave of skeletons? Should I save up for the more elite knights? Maybe there’s an inherent advantage of the faction I can use if I read up a bit more? There was a queue of sorts forming behind me so I had to leave it at that. But I’m convinced – it feels like Advance Wars and I want it.

The Wargroove wiki page has a section ready for Campaigns, so it looks like it will definitely contain story missions for at least one of the factions. The 3 commanders per faction – the ones that are released – look unique and retain that level of personality the C.O.s of Advance Wars had, and I’m hoping that the campaign will ingratiate players to one faction or the other. My friends and I all had our spirit animal C.O.s, and would ‘main’ them in our skirmishes and multiplayer games. Each commander even has their own theme – an integral part to their personality in Advance Wars. Grit’s slow, lazy guitar riffs fitted to his laid-back attitude and long-range specialisation, and Max had a punchy, strong beat to suit his rolling tanks.

My Gameboy Advance SP that I got when I was 13 has followed me around the world and back and still lives in my drawer, still ready at a moment’s notice. There’s only one game that sits in it though, and that’s Advance Wars 1. Now perhaps finally there’ll be a reason to retire it for good, or at the very least not be too sad if it finally dies. With Wargroove coming to PC, PS4 and Switch, there’s plenty of ways to play, mobile or otherwise, and I can’t wait.

God of War Grows Up

I had a freelance artist friend who worked from home a lot, and he watched copious amounts of Let’s Plays whilst working. If I had a day off or came over in the evening, I’d bring my Playstation and I’d play whilst he worked and watched. A live Let’s Play, so to speak. There was one game however, that he could not just watch casually. One game that couldn’t be appreciated with cursory glances at the tv screen in-between drawing and sketching. This game was so noisy, so loud, so spectacular and grand, he just had to jump on the sofa, grab a beer and enjoy it in all it’s glory.

This was God of War, of course.

Kratos spends his first trilogy fighting the Greek pantheon of gods, as revenge for the actual god of war Ares making him kill his own wife and child. Unlike that other Greek hero Hercules, Kratos didn’t want to atone for this by doing some menial tasks for the gods. He just wanted revenge. Pure, emotional, blood-splattered revenge. The final game in that trilogy ends with Kratos killing Zeus (spoilers), and damning the world to darkness and nothingness. His revenge is complete at the cost of pretty much everything, his selfish revenge has brought everyone else down to his level, and is he happy now? Who knows.

The story goes as far as it needs to to justify the mad and awesome action in the game. Climbing up titans to stab them in the eyes, going down to Hades and essentially wiping out the Underworld, ripping off Helios’ head to use it as a lamp and even taking out Atlas so he drops the sky. The action is a mixture of hack and slash with various weapons like Hercules’ fists and Hades’ claws, and QTEs for the set-piece moments. This is the game series that made everyone think QTEs were awesome, until everyone else ruined them. It revelled in how over-the-top it was. My friend just couldn’t get enough of how crazy it was to be killing gods in this fashion, it was a throwback to the mad and bonkers 80s action movies of our childhoods.

Now though, Kratos has a beard. Not some pointy, edgy, early-2000s, combine-with-Oakley-sunglasses-and-a-black-shirt beard, but a full, old man beard. He walks and paces like a boxer instead of doing his normal hunched predatory run, his voice is calm and full of caution, and only seems to roar when fighting, rather than whenever he’s frustrated with another annoying puzzle section. All his stolen legendary weapons are replaced by his one axe, and he teaches his son patience, “You are hunting deer, not chasing it.” Yes this is the same Kratos. And yes I did say son.

As Hollywood knows all too well, child characters can eek out the humanity of a protagonist who has none; Terminator, Logan, Leon, all have a stoic, violent man being accompanied by a normal child who they end of caring for and even enjoying the ‘small things’ with and other clichés. Games have started to do it with The Last of Us, and it’s honestly a potent mechanic. Doubly-so when the character you’re playing has this absurd, violent history and is wandering the Earth reflecting on what he’s done. Kratos’ whole raison d’être has been revenge for his family that he killed, and now he’s got a second chance at doing the whole bereavement thing, this time with less apocalyptic rage.

So why is Midgard such an appropriate setting for this potential redemption? Well Kratos has felled one pantheon out of rage, and now he wants to be left well alone with his new family. If there’s any group of gods who have a reputation for messing with people, it’s the Norse gods. Odin goes to Midgard as an old cloaked man with one eye, Loki plays tricks and Thor strikes people down with lightning. The gods have to be impressed to let you into Valhalla, they want you to fight and spill blood – they would love younger Kratos. You can imagine that Kratos will want to be left the hell alone, his quest is to take his wife’s ashes to the top of the tallest mountain with his son, but Odin et al will surely not resist the urge to interfere. Not to mention creatures like the frost giants, ogres, Fenrir and Jörmungandr, the giant wolf and the world snake, both children of Loki.

Whereas the Greek mythos is well documented and expansive, with a large cast of titans, gods and demi-gods, Norse mythology is a more fluid thing. Most of it comes from stories (sagas), epic poems and what was left behind. There’s a mysticism there where we don’t really know what’s what, and the gods were mysterious in nature – a lot of the tales about them involved some form of deception, trickery and untrustworthy wanderers. It’s why Loki is such a prominent figure, an anti-hero and trickster, rather than a villain.

This is to say that, as we journey more deeper into Kratos’ psyche than ever before, as his more complex layers are revealed, it’s fitting that he probably won’t just be pinning someone’s godly nuts to the top of the parthenon with his Blades of Revenge. I can’t see new Kratos taking their crap, but he may even be above them now. He may match wits with Loki as much as he matches strength with Thor. He’s not going to want to endanger his son by going toe-to-toe with them all, so he’s going to be on the defensive for the first time.

Any gamer who grew up playing God of War and loving the violence and the high-octane set-pieces will be happy to know it seems to remain, but they will also be happy to know that, 10 years on, it’s doing more than that. The transition from Greece to Midgard for me at least visualises a turn in the series into the more multi-dimensional. Kratos’ long-term grief and remorse, his son, his desire to be left alone from the world lest he do more things he’ll regret, and now just wanting to complete his wife’s dying wish, make him way more interesting, and sticking a character like that in the realm of the Norse gods seems like the cruelest but most intriguing thing Santa Monica Studio could’ve done.

Will Disco Elysium Finally Move RPGs to the Next Level?

Role Playing Games have been having a bit of a renaissance on the PC in the last few years. We’ve seen games like Pillars of Eternity, Legend of Grimrock, the remastered Avernum series, and Wasteland 2 reinvigorate the traditional style of cRPG. We’ve seen new takes on the cRPG formula, like Torment: Tides of Numenera and the Divinity: Original Sin series. We’ve also seen action RPGs take over the world, with The Witcher 3, Final Fantasy XV, and Diablo III selling absolute tonnes.

These games are all brilliant, but it feels like the RPG genre has stalled a little, whilst we’re seeing absolutely wonderful games come out that are exciting and ambitious, it feels like it’s been a long time since we had something that really shook the genre up.

Maybe that time has come in the form of Disco Elysium.

Dance Steps

Disco Elysium (formerly No Truce with the Furies) is a semi-futuristic/fantasy alternate-world neo-noir RPG about ideas and about solving crimes. It’s a game where your character’s mind is as important as your character’s actions, it’s a game where your character’s perception of events is called into question throughout, and it’s a game that feels fresh and exciting in a way that RPGs haven’t for a while.

That’s a paragraph that needs unpacking, but first, watch the trailer:

Learning to Boogie

There’s a sadness that permeates Disco Elysium, from its first seconds it’s clear that this is a world where hope and something essential and vital has leeched out of the world. You’re a washed up cop, so far past the border of ‘borderline alcoholic’ you might as well be a citizen of Alcohol Country.

The game has you waking up, nude, still drunk from the night before, in a hotel with a smashed window. What did you do the night before? Who are you? Why are you here? Your memory isn’t what it used to be…in fact it isn’t anything.

The way your character talks to people is up to you, your memory is one huge hole and how that plays out is your choice. Do you want to bluff your way through, rely on info from others to fill in the gaps, or are you going to be straight up and admit to everyone that there’s a gap where your past used to be?

Speaking to the developers, they took this as a deliberate choice. They hate the hour of exposition many RPGs lead with and they would much prefer that you explore this world at the same pace as the main character. It’s important to remember that despite appearances, this isn’t our world. The developers ZA/UM said at EGX Rezzed that the world is similar to ours, but is essentially different even down to the reactions of people. It’s not just an event that caused this world to split away from us in our past, it’s that thinking and our ideas are different in this world. What makes human ‘human’ is different here, so the world itself has grown apart from our own history.

Dancing with the Lights Off

This is definitely a game about conversation and exploration. One of the issues the developers have had with other RPGs is that they tend to be combat heavy, even the lauded Planescape: Torment has plenty of frankly-average combat padding out its hours. Disco Elysium instead aims to be a game about events, whilst people can die and you can be in danger, they’re tied to crescendos in the plot and in the narrative.

What instead takes the focus is your investigation in the world, you’re a cop with a partner, and it’s your job to look into a case. This starts off with a murder, as all good mysteries do, and spans out from there into a semi-open world RPG adventure.

Whilst your character is ‘somebody’ in the world, you’re not ‘the Dragonborn’ or ‘the promised one’, you’re just a cop. One people will have reactions to, they may know you already, they may judge you on your appearance, or they may judge you on your job. Developers ZA/UM spoke about this at Rezzed, saying it means they can avoid the issue where you can be fifty hours into a game, killed God, punched a Daemon into the moon, and still have people say to you ‘ho adventurer, say, kill five rats for me’.

This isn’t, however, the thing that’s revolutionary. That’s more in the mind.

Think it Over

You have an inventory in Disco Elysium where you can manage the items you pick up. It doesn’t end there though, you can also pick up ideas as you proceed through your case. For example, at the start of the game you are asked to investigate a corpse, swinging softly in the breeze from a nearby tree. As part of its narrative structure you can attempt actions or attempt to succeed at challenges through the dialogue options, and it’s possible to fail this particular challenge a few times simply because the body has been hanging there several days, and you’re quite hungover.

So even after using something to take the smell away, you might find yourself needing a new option. In comes an idea your partner gives you, to get your shit together. You see, in Disco Elysium you have a second inventory related to ideas and concepts that you come across. Slotting this idea about getting your shit together in there, you are given a small in-world timer which passes as you talk to people. After thirty in-game minutes, the idea ripens and bursts into…the shit singularity, meaning that you do indeed have your shit together.

Heading back to the tree, you can now keep your shit together and investigate the corpse, successfully taking the next step in your case.

Whilst this is an early game example, the developers talked about how this feature would expand from this. The idea is that you can mature other concepts in your mind, and these will determine how you act and react to people and situations in-game. If you slip in a racist idea you’ll be a lot more racist in your interactions and people will react appropriately. Similarly with fascist or communist ideologies.

Any Colour you Like

Your character isn’t just a meat suit you pilot about the world, he’s also possibly losing his mind. Not only is he left with a gap in his memories, he’s an unreliable narrator. Very soon after starting the game you’ll find objects, corpses, sleeping people, all talking to you, urging you on or asking things of you. Are they real, are you a shaman, or are you just losing your mind?

None of these questions are answered in the short area available to attendees of EGX Rezzed, but you get a feel that the world might not be all that you’re seeing, and there might be more below the surface if you just scratch away at it.

The developers did mention that this isn’t just a slightly futuristic world, there may be the supernatural lurking away in the corners, so maybe this is your way in. Maybe you are magic, and you’re tapping into the a world others can’t say. That said, it’s entirely plausible that these are the firings of an alcoholic’s last neurons as you slide slowly into death.

Disco Elysium is looking to be something utterly special, it’s an RPG that actually uses the R for once. You’re playing a role, and you define that role through your interactions with the world and yourself. The start of the game which was playable at Rezzed was astounding, and easily was something that an hour or more could be sunk into without noticing. It’s one to keep your eye on, and it’s coming later in 2018.

You can learn more about Disco Elysium at the official website.

What happened to games of movies?

I wouldn’t be so gatekeeping as to suggest that only people who grew up in the 90s like me suffered the continuous disappointment of games that had been made from popular films. One of the worst games of all time is the infamous E.T. on the Atari 2600, the game that is blamed for the home video game system crash of the 80s. It was like the App Store back in those days where every game was only allowed 6 weeks of dev time, except they also had to physically make, transport and sell copies, and the sold them at $70 a piece. People stopped buying video games entirely because of movie cash-grabs like E.T. and Gremlins.

There’s also younger generations who perhaps grew up with a Wii or Gamecube who experienced some shockingly bad adaptations of their favourite movies – or more likely their parents assumed they would enjoy them more than, you know, Mario or GTA. And then there’s us 90s kids who got arguably the most successful movie tie-in: Goldeneye, and a slew of ‘quite average to good’ Disney games because as it turns out it’s not hard to make a decent 2D platforming game when you’ve got someone else’s already good visuals, characters and soundtrack to slap on it.

I mean how much of this was copy+paste?

During the PS2/Gamecube/Xbox era, a video game was just another tick in the box for film production companies. Film? Check. Ads? Check. Toys? Check. Video game? Check. No-one really cared about the quality of the game itself, it was just another obligation for the studio and the actors. You’d get some quality stuff this way; like most of the Lord of the Rings games, as EA seemed to have wrestled enough creative control to make decent games. Harry Potter was there, films like Hulk and King Kong were surprisingly good too. But were they good because they were movies, or despite that?

LucasArts realised that their prequel games – Star Wars Episode 1: Jedi Power Battles, The Phantom Menace, Episode III – definitely weren’t doing as well as ones that provided something extra; not just putting fans in the films in a clunky and forced way, but giving them a fresh experience that adds to the overall enjoyment of the Star Wars universe. Games like Republic Commando, Battlefront 1 and 2, Bounty Hunter, Rogue Squadron, Empires at War, Jedi Outcast and Academy, were and are still held in very high regard. Ask a Star Wars fan what they want most from the new Star Wars films and it’ll likely include a continuation of things created in their favourite games (Top tip: If you’re a fan of Republic Commando like me, check out one of the episodes of the animated series Clone Wars. It has a Commando in it and it’s so true to the game, it’s great).

Using this image so I get picked up by r/gaming hopefully.

So by the launch of the PS3 and Xbox 360, the majority of film tie-ins had died away and seen as not worth it for the film industry, thankfully because gamers got wise and real IPs started to rake in all the money. They couldn’t compete with GTA, Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, games that were getting as cinematic as films themselves without needing to be restricted to mimicking a 2-hour storyline. So where did all the cash grabs go? How do we prey on the impulsive nature of young children, the growing sensitivity of parents to violent video games, and deal with the fact that turning films into games is actually really tough? You homogenise them into one family-friendly theme: LEGO!

Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Batman, Avengers, Harry Potter have all come back with a vengeance in LEGO form, and now Disney is returning to video games yet again with it’s The Incredibles LEGO game. This is not to say the games are bad, they definitely have a place in the ever-growing landscape of video game genres. They take something familiar and they put a spin on it that’s entertaining, new and easy to play. The wildly varying difficulty and fun of the movie tie-ins is gone, in favour of a consistent and possibly more average type of movie game. Like a Nepresso coffee capsule, it’s not the best but you know what you’re getting.

Mmm consistency.

And this looks to be the way the games industry will treat films now. In fact the tables seem to have turned; the film industry has looked at our Tomb Raiders, Warcrafts, Assassin Creeds and our…pixels (?) for film ideas and relying on games’ inherent popularity with people instead. Netflix are even getting involved and borrowing our beautiful Witcher, and Disney has stopped shovelling out 2D platformers and is now creating films like Wreck It Ralph AKA ‘Video Game Reference Film’. The games industry doesn’t need the handouts of Hollywood writers for games ideas, they’d rather go to the source and pitch their own plans for IPs. Games like the upcoming Spiderman on PS4 and the recent Batman Arkham series, Battlefront 2 (the new one) and the Shadow of Mordor games have very high standards that are being, or most likely will be, met. The onus is on them to make us play them rather than picking up the new God of War or Last of Us. Or just League of Legends again.

So where will this go next? Will VR usher in a new wave of movie tie-ins? Unlikely, but possible. AR has prompted some new Harry Potter games, and companies are still making mobile games about Transformers and the like. But AAA games these days have to be platforms for DLC and new content and a growing fanbase to have good enough return on investment. You know how you ruin your return on investment? You make a bad game because you’re trying to cash-in on a temporarily popular film franchise. The restraint devs have shown to avoid this in recent years is admirable, TellTale Games notwithstanding. The only way for them to go is the way of the new Spiderman and Avengers games, by creating brand new story and becoming part of the universe in their own right. To stand among books and films and tv shows as equally important and lucrative experiences.  

 

Chart Expert Game 2.0 – New Rules

Welcome to the new and improved Chart Expert Game!

Why change your beautiful Chart Expert Game?

Previously we asked you to guess the top 3 games sold over the week. This was easy when Destiny 2 and Call of Duty were going to be released, but every other time it was very difficult to guess what game did best in our sales, and other factors.

 

So what’s changed? Is it easier?

Yes! Now we will give you three games each week, and you have to put them in the order in which they’ll occur. For example:

On Monday, we say: Destiny 2, Call of Duty: WW2, Barbie’s High School Dreams.

Then by midday Tuesday you have to guess the order of how much each sold.

You say:

  1. Barbie’s High School Dreams
  2. Destiny 2
  3. Call of Duty

On Friday we’ll release the correct order, and all those who guessed correctly will win a game key!

 

When does it start?

Today. Go now!

 

The Best 10 Indie Games You Haven’t Played…Yet

There are more and more games appearing on Steam every single day, and that’s great. More games means more people making games, more people playing games, and just more games out there. Not all are good certainly, but some will be breathtaking and with more games out there, the amount that are amazing will be a higher number.

The problem is discoverability. With all these games, how do you find out which ones are amazing? How do you separate the games you will love from rest of the crowd?

Well thankfully we’re here to point your way to the best 10 Indie games that you haven’t played…yet.

Virginia

Twin Peaks feels like a too-easy comparison for this game, but it is very Twin Peaksy, and also a bit X-Filesy. What it is most though is an absolutely thrilling story told through a bare-bones but incredibly cinematic lens. If you have any interest in cinema, music, or plotting, then this is a required play. You’ll be thinking about it long after you finish it, and you’ll be listening to its soundtrack for even longer.

The Flame in the Flood

If survival’s your thing then forget all the Day-Zs or Long Darks, it’s an adventure with Scout, her dog Aesop, and a raft that’s where you want to be. Taking place in a beautiful world filled with danger, it’s up to you to steer Scout to safety as she makes her way down the giant rapids. Or maybe you’ll steer her to sudden death, you monster.

Slay the Spire

It’s still in Early Access but remarkably complete, Slay the Spire is a roguelike deck-building game. Confused? It’s a lot simpler than it seems, and also a lot more complex. Building your deck as you race up the spire, and using it to take on challenges or enemies, you build and spend cards as you plough through the spire hoping that you’ll get the right combination of cards that’ll let you deal with the challenges ahead. Die once though…and it’s back to the bottom you go.

Last Day of June

It’s emotion time in Last Day of June, a puzzle-based game where you play as Carl who has been recently bereaved. Exploring his memories and solving puzzles, you try to find a way to save his wife, June, from her death in a car crash that also left Carl in a wheelchair. It’s a beautiful and poetic story about love and loss, and it expresses itself through its mechanics and puzzles in a way that not many games manage.

What Remains of Edith Finch

Speaking of loss, here’s a game all about it. From the team behind The Unfinished Swan, What Remains of Edith Finch falls into that genre which has been unkindly called ‘walking simulator’; its real challenge and gameplay comes from understanding its themes, feeling the intended emotions that the developers have seeded through it, and from appreciating and experiencing the world and story that’s present in the game. It’s a story that’ll take your breath away, and one that’ll stay with you long after you close the game.

Bomber Crew

If FTL is a tale of a crew desperately holding out against overwhelming odds, Bomber Crew is a slapstick comedy about a crew barely able to cope, unready for the skies, and dropping their bombs like pigeons drop crap on your car. Managing a crew of idiots while you’re under attack from multiple incoming fighters, it’s up to you to complete the mission and show the enemy what for, but nothing’s ever that easy and Bomber Crew is a tough game that’ll take a lot to overcome.

Human Fall Flat

When the only thing you have to solve puzzles is your own body, then that’s what you’ll have to use. Human Fall Flat is a surreal adventure set in a dreamscape, where the only way to get out is to figure out how to escape using your own body, and those of co-op friends, to solve your way to freedom. It’s a free-form and chaotic puzzle game that combines co-op physics fun with a series of rapidly escalating puzzles. Your body is your only real tool, and your body is floppy and ready to fall flat.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Two brothers go on an epic adventure to find a cure for their ailing father, and on the way they meet friends, enemies, and see wonders they had never dreamed of. Using a unique control system on gamepad where each analogue stick directs each brother, it’s a puzzle game that will test your ability to keep track of multiple moving parts as you solve your way to your goal. That’s before the feelings come in, as this game hits hard on the emotion front. Play because it’s wonderful, but play at your own risk.

ABZU

If you thought this game looked like Journey but underwater, you’d be half right, but what that short description passes over is how wonderful, mysterious, and frankly terrifying the underwater world in ABZU is. Moments of utter joy mix with moments of fear as you explore hidden secrets at the bottom of the world. It’s also a game that just asks you to take a moment every now and then, yes there’s danger and beauty in its world, but also why not take a moment, look around you, and appreciate the visuals. If you’re too timid to venture into the deep, why not let famed underwater explorer Jacques Custard guide you into the ocean?

Euro Truck Simulator 2

There’s little else as relaxing as putting your truck into a middle gear, sticking on the cruise control, and listening to the local radio as you eat up the miles on a continental truck journey. Euro Truck Simulator 2 is still the most complete of the Truck Simulators, and it’s a game that’s as deep as you want it to be. Do you want to micromanage your own haulage company and park with precision with each cargo, or are you just looking to drive from Luxembourg to Milan and honk at geese? Euro Truck Simulator 2 lets you set your own pace, and it’s a game that’s unrivaled in letting you do that.

 

So there’s 10 cracking indie games that you might not have touched yet, and if you haven’t given them a go – give them a go today! Most of them are also in our Discover sale, which means you can get an extra 22% off when you put DISCO22 in when checking out.

Why we need the Pacific Rim Universe

I saw Pacific Rim: Uprising at the weekend, and it was enjoyable. Not amazing, but fun. I want to tell you why, if I had it my way, the series should continue until it gets great or dies trying.

Pacific Rim does something that no other film series does. When the only monster films you’re exposed to as a child were Godzilla (1997), and the only giant robot films in your teenage years were Transformers (2007), you realise that giant things fighting each other in cities can be very average indeed. You have to get through a very dry human story with Matthew Broderick and *sighs* Shia LaBeouf and probably some shouty US military to reach the big action scene at the end, with maybe some good bits sprinkled over that first 2 hours of dialogue but no giant swords.

When Pacific Rim came out in 2013, it took the main ingredient from these films, and stripped everything else back. It starts with 2 brothers who are ‘Jaeger pilots’ (awesome), they get woken up because of a ‘Kaiju attack’ (wow already? Awesome!), and the next 5 minutes has them going through their ‘suit up’ process which includes being screwed into their suits Ironman 1 style, getting into their Jaeger’s head, interacting with the holographic display, the head being dropped into the Jaeger body before the Jaeger is fully revealed and walks out into the rainy night, the pilots full of confidence and fraternal bravado.

And Idris Elba is their C.O. God damn Idris Elba.

God damn.

The level of detail here reveals just what the creators thought was the most important thing for this film – the robots and the monsters. The characters themselves are excited throughout the film. The main character loves life as a Jaeger pilot as most of us would, Elba’s character Marshall Pentecost did it until it started to kill him, and a lead scientist has tattoos of Kaiju on his arms because he just thinks they’re so freaking cool.

The Pacific Rim universe also does what Transformers and even Marvel/DC fail to do. They fully become fans of their lore. In Uprising, it’s 10 years after the breach has been closed. If this was Avengers or Transformers, no doubt some ‘suits’ from a governing body would have shut down the Jaeger program, or the heroes themselves would have been retired. But in Pacific Rim, they’ve built giant gun platforms on the coast, massive corporations are making huge leaps in Jaeger tech, and the ‘Thunderdome’ is still housing a full complement of shiny new Jaegers. Why? No-one actually explains that. But I don’t actually care. The world in Pacific Rim is a big a fan of Jaegers as we are, whereas the MCU takes every opportunity to oppress Tony Stark and the Avengers and their cool abilities until the climax.

The human story also just feels so much more grounded than something like Transformers. There’s no Megan Fox, embarrassing parents, US Rangers or POTUS taking away from our main event. The characters in Pacific Rim are Jaeger pilots, and they come from multiple backgrounds. They’re professional, but also scrappy. They spar in a dojo to see if they’re drift compatible, and the main character has been humbled but is still good at everything. It feels more like an anime with humble protagonists and stern but fair authority figures who guide their young soldiers and act as the moral compass. There’s also no romantic subplot. In either film. This is quite a big deal for a hollywood blockbuster.

Whilst the tech-porn of the first film may have been lost slightly along with the departure of Guillermo del Toro as director (but still producer), the excitement to show off new ideas remain. All the Jaegers have new weapons and new abilities, and you can see the evolution from the first cobbled together batch. They’ve become more varied and specialised now during peacetime, when no-one knows in what form the Kaiju will return. Compare Cherno Alpha, the Russian heavy tank Jaeger, to Saber Athena, the lithe, bright orange, back-kicking Jaeger, and you can see that the writers had a LOT of fun making these, and weren’t afraid to pay homage to their Japanese inspirations. Without spoiling much, the Kaiju also have some new tricks up their gooey sleeves which keep them as the deadly and tricksy villains from before.

Uprising ends on a scene promising not only future films, but a massive change in gear for the plot so far, and while I had a slight “here we go again” feeling of not wanting to burn out on yet another franchise that overstays its welcome, at least I know that these films will be fully unabashed silly but awesome action. The series takes itself incredibly seriously, it won’t make you feel bad for enjoying it – there will be no robot testicles.

There will also be no Linkin Park soundtrack either. The first film started strong with a loud, threatening score that’s overlaid with Tom Morello’s (of Rage Against the Machine fame) guitar licks, and it gets a modern remaster in Uprising. The theme portrays the last bastion of mankind feeling of the films, whilst also acknowledging the pure awesomeness of piloting Jaegers.

After watching Uprising, my brother and I, a 20 and 28 year old respectively sat on a quiet train platform and talked excitedly about what Jaegers we want to see next. I want to see one with a shield and flail like the crusader in Diablo 3, he wants one with a halberd that can tear up Kaiju from a distance. And we know we will probably get that at some point. Then we started wondering what a Pacific Rim game would be like. For Honor but with Jaegers and Kaiju? Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters but new and good? Any film that can unlock so much imagination and excitement from jaded gamers has got to be good for the world.

Why Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is Probably the Best Videogame Movie Ever Made

It’s been twenty years since the original Jumanji stampeded into cinemas, and since then the titular boardgame has been busy. Salvaged after the end of the original film by young Alex Vreeke in 1996 it realised that Alex wasn’t going to play it in its current form, so it morphed itself into a videogame.

This starts a series of events that eventually leads to another four young teenagers being trapped in its jungle world, twenty years later.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle appears dismissable, it’s got almost nothing to do with the original, Robin Williams is of course, sadly deceased, and this film has every appearance of a throwaway cash-in, the sort we’ve seen a lot of in recent years.

But Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is more than that.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle might very well be the best videogame film ever made. Here’s why:

It Understands Videogames

The problem with a lot of videogame films, or films that feature videogames, is that they don’t ‘get’ the source material. Either it goes the Gamer route and everything’s just…stupid, or it goes in a route that often captures the storyline of the source material, but fails to capture the feel.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is an affectionate parody of videogames and videogame tropes. It’s clearly written by people who know videogames, and love them, and still want to send them up.

There’s NPCs, patrol routes, branching paths, and much more referenced in the film. Yes, that’s only superficial, but it lends an air of credibility to the whole thing. Whilst the film stretches those and creatively adapts what they are for cinema, that’s understandable and throughout the whole thing is actually fairly accurate. At least, for games from the 90s like the remake of Pitfall, Tomb Raider, and other games of the era.

But the most important thing, and the reason why this is probably the best videogame movie ever made is…

It’s Actually Not a Terrible Film

See this shouldn’t be an amazing thing but really, it is. It’s not controversial to say that most videogame movies are terrible, with only a few like some of the Resident Evil films and the first Silent Hill being ‘alright’, and some others like Warcraft or the Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider films being ‘enjoyable’. Every other videogame movie is dreadful, and to have one that’s so clearly inspired by videogames and yet actually watchable is a relief and sort of a revelation.

Part of this is the cast of course, The Rock is eminently watchable and Jack Black, Karen Gillen, and Kevin Hart all pull off their roles like they’re having the time of their lives.

That’s not to say the film doesn’t have its problems, the film does try to pillory videogames’ tendency to put women in saucy costumes…whilst also having a lady in a saucy costume for the film which doesn’t quite work, but overall it’s a damn fun adventure.

It’s also got a Jonas brother in it so that’ll keep some of you happy.

So there you have it, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a film that understands its source material, loves games, loves to parody them, and is also actually fun. Making this almost a first for the videogame film – a film that’s worth watching in a non-ironic way.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is well worth your time, and is definitely the best videogame movie ever made. Let’s see if Ready Player One can knock its crown off.

Is For Honor a Success for Ubisoft?

You all remember For Honor. That game that put samurai, vikings and knights in an arena, tied them together with a intricate melee combat system, and invited you overcome your opponent with skill, reflexes, and tactics. If you’ve ever wanted to have a proper axe, katana and longsword fight in a game that didn’t reward the best button-mashing, this was it.

And then you are swamped in a 3v1 and killed immediately, and probably tea-bagged by a Nordic shaman for good measure.

Despite selling way beyond expectations, at least on Green Man Gaming, For Honor has suffered like any other competitive game that is hard to learn, hard to master. It wasn’t helped by constant disconnects and lag, snowballing game modes and characters with abusable skills. Indeed, For Honor’s attempt at a break-out esports event was ruined back in August 2017 when the winner was accused of using an exploit to defeat his opponents. Not a great start for the game with so much potential.

Source – Steamcharts

Despite this, August saw the biggest spike in For Honor players since launch, reaching 11,359 concurrent players. Compare this to the previous month’s 1,941 peak, and you could argue that the pull of For Honor is still a strong one in the mind of the gaming world. We want it to work, we want it to be good. We want to be good.

A similar, and more successful tale is For Honor’s big brother, Rainbow Six: Siege. After a middling launch, it went through a similarly brief moment in the spotlight before variety streamers and gamers moved onto the next big thing. And yet, two years after release, it is regularly the most viewed FPS after Counter-Strike. RSS sees big tournament action, regular content updates and patches, and last month had an average player count of 68,796. If you look at the lifetime stats of RSS, it is a continuous upward trend, something that goes against everything we think about games. Normally a multiplayer game has a small window to smash onto the scene, or die. Lawbreakers, Paladins, and many others didn’t make the cut.

Source – Steamcharts

Whilst For Honor hasn’t caught up with RSS, it’s numbers have been creeping up in the last few months. Both games have the chance to be successful because they have a unique prospect for gamers. Where else can you abseil down a building with your mates, knock out the wall with your sledgehammer, work through the rooms taking out terrorists with myriad gadgets and weaponry? The same goes with For Honor, just how many other games give you mastery over medieval melee combat?

Whilst For Honor’s esports scene is limited, as the character’s move-sets are not extensive enough to offer Street Fighter levels of god-like performance, it also means that you, average gamer, can get relatively good at For Honor much faster than Street Fighter. Blocking damage is about reflexes, not so much skill, so take a heavy character and you’ll survive a long time in a fight. Take a shield and it’s even easier. From there you can start attacking and testing out combos, and there’s only a few combos you’ll need to know to start with. And they’re normally ‘left click, left click, right click’ or similar. Then you can start looking at parrying, guard blocks, knocking people off terrain and character’s special moves. It reminds me more of a game of tennis, trading blows and adding in a bit of misdirection and moves to get an edge.

I’ve been playing For Honor for about a month, and it is the almost chess-like approach, combined with massive swords and cool viking characters (I’m also currently binge-watching the series Vikings), that keeps me coming back. I don’t normally like 1v1 PvP but in For Honor I don’t feel overwhelmed, and I know that I’ll be rewarded for picking a favourite character and really mastering them. I like how each character is very different and shows the personality of the player. I’m sticking with the Raider (the big axe-wielding viking) because I find her strong and I know the move-set, but I’m also gravitating towards the shaman – a quick and feral viking who jumps on people and spins her hand-axe and knife around. It’s like trying to master a character you like in League of Legends, but much easier and actually fun. Losing, so far, hasn’t felt unfair. I just want to get better.

The awesome Viking Shaman.

So what is the future for For Honor, and is it a success for Ubisoft? The latter question entirely relies on what Ubisoft consider a success, but if they look at this and Rainbow Six: Siege as carving out unique segments of the gaming scene, I think they’ve done very well. They offer experiences that no other developer is offering, and The Division and The Crew shows that they’re committed to that even if it doesn’t go so well. Let EA and Activision do the war shooters that practically feel the same, I’m glad someone with the resources to improve and support their games over time is offering titles like For Honor and Rainbow Six.

As for the future of For Honor, Ubisoft will continue to bring more content and more seasons to the small but passionate community. And I like the community. This is coming from a community manager, too. There are players who, above all else, crave honour in their game of…For Honor. They are the edgelords in their trench coats who will offer to 1v1 anyone who complains about perceived balance issues; they’ll wait for their ally to finish their duel before interfering in 2v2; and they’ll avoid the most unbalanced characters. It reminds me of the Starcraft community, that respect and sportsmanship is very hard to find in the more popular multiplayer and free-to-play games.

So pick it up if you want, and come 1v1 bro over in the community if you have any comments.

Every Far Cry Ranked From Worst to Best (Updated)

Update: Far Cry 5 is available for preload today, so get it downloaded as soon as you can and then let us know where it fits in the series!

Far Cry 5 is approaching with deadly momentum, so before we look forwards to the future of the Far Cry series it’s time to first look back, back over where we’ve been.

The next step in the Far Cry universe will take us to deadly Montana, home to the most dangerous prey: Americans. And also you’ll get a dog so frankly, this game is looking 10/10 in my view.

But we cannot understand where we’re going until we know where we’ve been, I’m pretty sure I read that on the back of a cereal box once. So let us look back, back into the deep mists of time to say ‘which of the Far Cry games is the best’.

NOTE this is entirely subjective and should not be taken as fact, by anyone. Except in the comments.

Far Cry

The first Far Cry game set out the rough idea for most of the games that followed, open world elements, islands, guns, outposts, blam blam, you’re dead.

The problem with the first Far Cry is the same problem that the first Crysis had, which isn’t surprising given that they’re made by the same company. Both games are great! Until the aliens/mutants turn up.

In Crysis it’s the aliens who ruin the party, in Far Cry it’s mutants. The whole game is great up until that point and then in they come, like angry boars made of mutagens to ruin your fun. They’re just not engaging enemies, they’re bullet sponges and they throw out a lot of the tactics you’ve built up over the preceding half a game in order to become a worse version of itself.

So if you’re going to play Far Cry, and you should, just be prepared that there will be a point when the fun might dry up.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

This is a game I just didn’t get along with, entirely for tonal reasons. It shares mechanics with Far Cry 3 – a game I unabashedly love (and you’ll read more on that in a moment), but the ‘jokes’ in Blood Dragon entirely fell flat for me.

Take the tutorial for example; it starts off with a ‘joke’ that making players look around and jump to pass a tutorial is stupid, everyone knows how to do that.

Then it makes you look around and jump to pass the tutorial.

From the get-go the game’s sense of humour drove me up the wall, and that’s the reason its so low on this list. The rest of it is a weird mix of nostalgia and bombastic pseudo-80s themes, and neither of those works for me. So I had to give up on it, which is a shame cos I thought I could always use more Far Cry 3.

tl:dr, it’s the Ready Player One of videogames, references with no context or thought, just HEY REMEMBER THE 80s? the videogame. No ta.

Far Cry 4

Far Cry 4 did what I wanted from it, it saw a lot of the stuff that Far Cry 3 did wrong and then did better. It also moved the location of the game to an absolutely beautiful place, up in the Himalayas, and made vertical movement easier and more fun.

So why didn’t I like it so much?

Easy, it also added a load of new features which just soured the mix a little. For example there’s a tonne of new mission types, such as one where you have to sneak into encampments and deal with guards without alerting anyone in order to free hostages. Get caught, and the hostages might die.

Which is fine on the face of it, stealth is a great part of the Far Cry mix, but part of what I love about the Far Cry games is that it gives you tools to deal with things that go wrong. These missions, and missions like them, ruin that for me.

Added to that there’s a load of enemies which just aren’t fun to fight, they can go invisible and stealth around and throw knives at you and I ain’t got time for that, I wanna shoot a tiger, yo!

Far Cry Primal

Otherwise known as ‘the one with the cavemen’, this was a surprise. Mainly because it was so good, it got rid of most of the ranged weapons and focused on your interactions with the animal world, and your interactions with SPEAR vs CAVEMAN.

It’s really good! Shunned by most as ‘not a real Far Cry game’, it actually does ‘systemic playground’ better than most of the others in the series.

Also you get an owl that acts as magic binoculars, and any game that lets you peer through the mystic owl has to be worth the price of entry, right?

Far Cry 2

Otherwise known as ‘the one with all the malaria’. Created by legendary game designer Clint Hocking, it’s hard to overstate how impressive this was as a sequel to the original Far Cry. Especially as this isn’t how the narrative is supposed to go, game name gets bought by big company, sequel gets made without original team and then…game vastly surpasses the original in every way? Huh?

With a huge open world to play in and a compelling narrative about post-colonialism, Far Cry 2 is definitely the best Far Cry game.

APART FROM

Far Cry 3

Jason Brody is a dick.

I’m saying that because it’s probably the first thing you think of when this game gets brought up. Jason Brody is an absolute twat, and that’s why I love this game so very, very much.

See it’s an odd thing to have a game protagonist be an arsehole, but Jason Brody is one, but throughout the game he evolves from arsehole into ‘psychopath’. A normal FPS will have you gun down a million people and shrug it off, Jason Brody learns to revel in it, he exults in murder and never stops to wonder what he’s become. But his friends, his brutalised, kidnapped friends, do notice. There’s a moment where you rescue Jason Brody’s girlfriend and he just starts celebrating at the wild ride they’ve taken, and the massive shootout you just participated in. And she freaks out, because WHAT THE FUCK JASON?

It’s a wonderful moment, and frankly one that more games should pay attention to.

Also tied into that is the utterly beautiful open world, the best bad-guy ever (hello Vaas), and the fun-but-stupid upgrade system (I need a shark skin to hold all my cash), Far Cry 3’s my favourite.

So there you go, definitive proof from me, chief Green Man Gaming opinion-haver. Far Cry 3 is brilliant. Will Far Cry 5 be better? Pick it up now and find out next week!

Embrace Madness in the March Madness Sale! [Mystery hints included]

March Madness at Green Man Gaming continues! This means two things: 1) it’s March, and 2) we’ve got a mad sale going on at Green Man Gaming.

The whole month we’re selling you amazing games at prices that probably won’t make us any money, and that means one thing: CHEAP GAMES.

We’ve got huge discounts hitting up the biggest games, the smallest indie hits, and everything in between. But that’s not just it, this isn’t your grandfather’s sale, this isn’t the sale of yesterday, this ain’t no dull voucher; this is the March Madness and we’ve got lots of mystery prices (only seen in the basket) on top of our mad deals!  Here’s how it all works:

What’s so Mad About this March Madness?

It’s coming to you in two ways.

  1. Every day we’re hitting you up with new deals, so day one you’ll see some offers on our Hot Deals page, day two there’ll be more, then day three even more. This means every day this month you should be heading back to see just exactly what we’ve got for you.
  2. The other is…mystery prices! These flash mystery prices could last 24 hours so act quick if you want the game.

We’re even doing franchise and publisher sales, so if you love one particular publisher, make sure you keep checking to see if your favourite is on sale.

What on Earth is a Mystery Price?

It works like this:

  1. Sign into your Green Man Gaming account (or if you don’t have one, make one already!).
  2. Add a game to your basket
  3. Watch as the discount on the game gets better…right in your basket!

So you’ll never know which games are going to secretly have a better deal, you’ll have to check back daily and frequently!

Can You Give us Any Hints About Which Games Will be Getting Mystery Prices?

Possibly…something to do with the number eight…and maybe something to do with big nude babies that like to eat people? Does that help?

Head over to our March Madness page now…and embrace the madness!

Top 10 Games With Left-Wing Themes

According to an opinion piece on The Guardian videogames have an ideology problem. They are recruiting grounds for far-right groups and are filled with themes which centre around xenophobia, racism, sexism, and worse.

Firstly lets get this out there: there is a notable toxicity issue around videogames and many videogames have troublesome elements in them or issues with representation. But it’s important to remember that the art a culture produces is often a reflection of that culture; they’re symptoms of our society not the cause. In addition to that, recently many strides have been taken to analyse games, to talk about the troublesome elements, and to be more inclusive. It’s becoming more and more apparent and accepted that videogames can be made by anyone, can be for anyone, and can include anyone.

The battle to make games open to everyone isn’t over, but it’s ongoing and more and more games reflect the huge spectrum of people who love them and love to make them.

To counterbalance this article which talks solely about the far-right in videogames, here’s the top 10 Videogames with Left-Wing Themes.

Hate mail to the usual place please.

Red Faction: Guerrilla

The game is about uniting a proletariat workforce in order to smack a far-right government with a big hammer and the main colour is red. You don’t need any further description than that.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a game where big business is the bad guy. Through the Deus Ex series the themes are about anti-authoritarianism, but in Human Revolution it’s the corporations which are the source of that authority.

Throughout the game you’re confronted with the poor, the downtrodden, those who’ve had limb replacements but can’t afford the expensive drugs that’ll stop cybernetic rejection.

If you come out of Deus Ex: Human Revolution thinking ‘unrestrained capitalism sure sounds great’ then maybe play it again and pay attention to a lot of the side stories and the world building.

Wolfenstein

These games are about one thing, giving Nazis a damn good thrashing.

Let’s remember Nazis getting a damn good thrashing with one of their promotional tweets:

https://twitter.com/wolfenstein/status/919684333207568385?lang=en

Civilization VI

A lot of what makes up the Civilization games is that they aren’t explicitly for or against anything, they are an attempt to model a very complex thing (history) and show you the outcomes.

So in Civilization VI you can be a Communist government, and that’s just fine. It gives you some defensive boosts and production boosts, but it’s entirely workable depending on how you want to play your civilisation.

So go ahead comrade, rise up.

Bioshock

Andrew Ryan: “Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? “No,” says the man in Washington, “it belongs to the poor.” “No,” says the man in the Vatican, “it belongs to God.” “No,” says the man in Moscow, “it belongs to everyone.” I rejected those answers.”

Mate, after seeing Rapture, maybe you should’ve embraced some of those answers. Maybe, just maybe, working for the good of your fellow humans is a not terrible idea? Have a think yeah? After your game of golf, of course.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Whilst this game is, on the face of it, about militarisation and standing firm against an outside threat (something that on the surface of it seems a far-right wet dream) the true story of XCOM is about inclusivity and unity.

As the commander, you build your XCOM forces from a diverse and wide range of people. White people fight alongside black people, women fight alongside men. Even if it’s an outside threat that’s caused it, the people of the Earth come together as never before to stand against the alien menace.

XCOM teaches that when all of us are on the line, what divides us doesn’t matter, it’s what unites that which does.

Mirror’s Edge

Similar to Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the bad guy in this game is corporations that are meddling in our lives, using our lives up, and spitting us out.

Basically big business wants to shut down the small independent retailer, and as one of those retailers who sells your ability to run real fast, it’s up to you to stop them. By running real fast.

Doom

‘But Alex’ you say ‘this game is apolitical, it’s just a fun time shooting demons’.

But where did those demons come from. Hell? Yes, but they wouldn’t be *here* if it wasn’t for corporations chasing the almighty dollar at any cost. If they’d maybe stop and think about social responsibility for a second instead of their next buck, we wouldn’t be dealing with a demonic invasion right about now.

Eco

Something bad is coming, and it’s up to you and those like you to work together and save the world from the incoming apocalypse. However, there’s no point ruining the world in order to save it.

In Eco you work together to achieve a bigger goal, and you do it in a responsible way.

Overwatch

Featuring a diverse cast of characters whose backstories are becoming more complex, human, and representative, and with a storyline that subtly criticises big business while emphasising the UN and organisations that bring us together, Overwatch is pretty left-leaning.

The fan reaction to Overwatch has also been wonderful, with fan art, comics, and stories expanding on the universe, and it’s great to see Blizzard lean into this and improve on their already quite inclusive cast with even more characters that represent the huge variety of people who love games.

There you go, ten games which contain Left-Wing themes. Have I missed any? Hit me up in the comments!

Final Fantasy XV – Who’s the Best Boy?

Final Fantasy XV is finally arriving onto PC on the 6th of March, and that means all of you, all my beautiful PC playing brothers and sisters will get to experience the wonders of the greatest road trip you’ll ever take in your life.

You’ll kill beasts, have feelings, explore ruins and dungeons, murder robot after robot, get confused by the plot, understand the plot, go fishing, make food, cast spells, and most importantly just enjoy spending your time in one of the most compelling open worlds ever made.

But that’s all secondary as there’s only one important thing that matters in this game. And that’s who the best boy is.

There’s four of you on the road trip, Ignis, Prompto, Noctis, and Gladiolus.

But there can only be one. One best boy, so here’s the list with 100% infallible reasoning about who the best boy is in the game, and why it’s <SPOILERS>.

Let’s start at the bottom! (Also there will be spoilers for the game here).

4. Gladiolus

AKA the walking slab of beef, AKA the noodleman, AKA captain grumpy, AKA who needs a shirt it’s not that cold out.

Gotta make it clear here: none of the boys are bad, but Gladiolus is the worst of the boys. Simply because he’s a bit joyless; he’s a grumpy guard who’s got your back but that’s about it. Even his non-combat ability is a bit weak. Putting up tents? Yeah mate, level that up, tell me all about how tough it was to be tentmaster.

The only real ‘personality’ he has is expressed through his sister, his love of noodles (which is a promotional tie-in, but cute nonetheless), and not wearing a shirt.

He’s handy in a fight cos he gets the big swords but other than that he’s just a lunk and I ain’t got time for lunks!

What’s worse is during the late game he turns into a bit of a prick, giving Noctis a hard time just when he’s going through, I dunno, some POST TRAUMATIC STRESS. Dude! Give it a day or two!

3. Noctis

He’s the main character but good god he’s a whiny boy.

Probably the largest issues with the plotline in Final Fantasy XV come from the lead character. For large parts of the game he just seems to not be engaged with what’s going on. Your home country’s been invaded? Ah whatever. Dad might be dead? Oh well. Demons? Hey who cares.

I mean he even manages to make Squall look like he’s engaged in his own story.

That does change, and Noctis has moments of vulnerability as you progress through the game and eventually matures into a hero you can be proud to control. That combined with his skillset and teleporting make him brilliant to play, the game is radically different to previous Final Fantasy games in how it controls and plays out, and the way Noctis handles makes every fight tense and fun.

Basically when he grows a beard, I like him a lot more.

Also his fishing minigame is ace and probably one of the better fishing minigames out there. I spent an hour chasing a damn trout. AN HOUR.

2. Ignis

Ignis is the stuffy British one, the one who’s about decorum and comporting yourself correctly. That makes him fun to be around, fun to poke fun at, and his dry sense of humour adds loads to the feeling of four friends on a roadtrip.

His combat abilities are great too; eventually he gets some of the best abilities in the game.

But that’s not what makes Ignis the second best.

What makes him second be<THAT’S IT! I’VE COME UP WITH A NEW RECIPEH>st. Ah yeah, that.

Basically he spends most of his time not worrying about battles or the larger plot, Ignis just wants to find something better to cook with. Half way through many battles the combat will stop and the camera will zoom in on him as he announces he’s discovered, right there, baked beans or something.

It’s brilliant and never anything less than perfect comedic timing.

Combine that with the frankly gorgeous food he whips up for you every time you camp out and you get the picture: Ignis is ace.

1. Prompto

If Gladiolus is ethos, Ignis is logos, then Prompto is pathos.

He’s the heart of the gang. He’s the little boy who isn’t sure that he belongs. He’s the joker that’s having a constant crisis of confidence. He’s the boy who wants to try harder, be better, and prove himself to all his friends.

It’s normal to meet Prompto and be annoyed, he’s not great in combat and the photos he takes are pretty terrible.

But slowly you learn how to use him better in fights, he unlocks some frankly stunning moves, and he gets rapidly better at taking snaps.

Then you have a conversation where he just opens up to Noctis, you learn all about how he tries, and he fails, but he keeps on trying. He doesn’t believe that he belongs with you, heroes all, but he’ll keep trying until he does.

I mean after that how can you not love him? Prompto is us, he’s the little kid that could. He stands with giants even though he isn’t one, yet.

Prompto is the best boy, and I’ve got a tear in my eye thinking about him even now.

Final Fantasy XV is out on the 6th of March, and you can argue with me about which boy is best on our community buzz!

 

Warhammer 40k – 8 Tips To Get Started

Every other Thursday at Green Man Gaming there’s a group of us who sit down and play some Dungeons and Dragons. The other Thursdays, we have epic battles of massive proportions between futuristic races of super-powered men, horde-like or intelligent alien races, or humans corrupted by the forces of Chaos.

If you like the sound of the latter, then check out our tips for getting started in Warhammer 40k. If in doubt, do it for the extra stamp on your Nerd Card.

Learn some lore

So how much about Warhammer do you actually know? A lot has changed in 38,000 years. So where do you start? To find out how humanity is going, check out this incredibly short primer. Most of the lore is split between 30,000, otherwise known as the Horus Heresy, and 40,000 itself. If you’re interested in seeing how humanity has fallen and split entirely, check out the HH novels. If you want to see them in their corrupted and grim-dark glory, go for 40k. After all, you don’t want to go wandering into this huge universe without a clue what’s going on.

Pick your army

You can see all the playable factions right here on the official website. Give them a look through and see what takes your fancy. Each army has a different feel to how they play, and some are a lot tougher than others. It’s kind of like starting at a new gym, you’d want to know all the equipment and facilities before going, right? Things that are space marine-esque will be the easiest to play, since they have above-average stats, understandable army organisation and straight-forward weapons. Plus there are many variations and flavours, ranging from your standard Ultramarines, to the feral Grey Wolves and rotting and zombified Death Guard.

If you want something a bit different though, and want hordes of units on the battlefield, consider the Imperial Guard, or Tyranids and Orks. You’ll have many many units of little strength but their numbers can overwhelm your foes. If you would prefer smaller, more elite armies, consider the Aeldari factions, or the Adeptus Mechanicus. Weaker in body, but heavily armed and specialised units and big robots.

And then you have to think about whether you want to have a strong ‘shooty’ army or an army that specialises in mincing up the enemy in melee. You can strike a balance but some factions will heavily lean towards a certain path. Once you’ve made a decision, pick up the faction’s codex to learn all about their history, their units and their strategies.

Be realistic about the commitment

So here’s the bad news. Warhammer isn’t a cheap hobby. It’s more expensive than playing games, card games, but thankfully not golf. You can get the units that you want, paint them up as basic as possible, and play with them for a minimal cost, OR, you can buy all the paints, brushes, boxes, special edition models and scenery for the full bankrupting experience. The cost is a spectrum, as is the time commitment. It’s like the gym, but cheaper and less embarrassing. You can field your boys in blank plastic, or even use coke cans and write ‘space marine’ on them. But realistically, you’ll want to paint them up to a decent standard, have a decent sized army for some variation, and all the required rulebooks. Just be prepared to sink some money into it. But don’t worry, it gets easier to part with that cash. And there’s always Ebay.

Set your painting standards

I mentioned wanting to paint things to a certain standard, but realistically you’re probably going to be bad to begin with. But don’t worry, every time you make a mistake, or you make a space marine look like a badly painted garden fence, you’ll learn for next time. The best feeling is comparing your first and most recent model and beaming with pride at your skills. Saying that, unless you want to spend days painting – and risk burning out on the hobby – pick and choose which models you want to go full effort with, and which ones you can say ‘that’ll do’. For example, in my Death Guard force, my leader Typhus got a whole weekend’s worth of lavishing to get him looking spectacular. The Poxwalkers he surrounds himself with? I pretty much dipped them in the paint pot. Because they die so fast and no-one is going to admire them up close. I don’t feel bad. It’s like when you skip the treadmill at your new gym, people will understand.

Don’t sweat the rules, but learn the rules

The 40k rulebook is colossal. But don’t worry, the important rules are actually pretty short. Don’t expect to learn them all from reading the manual, the best thing to do is set up little pretend battles and play out the rules. Once you see them in action, they’ll make sense. As long as the main phases of battle are familiar to you, 90% of the game will go swimmingly. Like when you learn to stick to the lanes of the swimming pool at your gym and stop head-ramming into that poor old person every time.

Also, your faction will have different stats and abilities to your opponents, and it’s your job to know them. We trust each other to not cheat, even if it’s by accident. As mentioned, factions like Aeldari have so many special rules, you’ll definitely need a cheat-sheet. I’ve played quite a few games now, and even I forget regularly that I can get an extra attack for every roll of a 6 in the fight phase against Imperial factions. Yes, there are many rules like that. Your first games will take some time but they’ll speed up as you’ll know what dice to roll off the top of your head.

Grab some friends

Sadly, you can’t play Warhammer on your own. I mean, you can, it’s called Dawn of War, but you can’t use your lovely painted boys. It’s kind of like starting at the gym, you want a buddy to keep you on track, keep you motivated, and stop you spending way too much money (or more, if you’re slacking). You can share painting achievements, battle reports, and argue about whether Emperor is the saviour of mankind or a heretical bag ‘o’ bones. You’ll also need someone to play with, so it’s handy to have one of those!

Find your FLGS

Like the best gyms, your Friendly Local Gaming Store will be the best place to express feelings about your new hobby. Don’t go around with ‘normal’ people talking about the battles of the 41st millennium and your new technique for painting power axes, you need to find those who get it. Also this will be your primary place of play, since they’ll have tables available to play on with lovely scenery which will make you feel a bit more legit. Just remember to learn your own rules, and shake hands with your opponent after you crush them. Buy them a Monster Energy Drink, or something.

Consider Age of Sigmar

For some, different versions of the hobby will be more appealing for different reasons. And as there are different ways to work-out that makes people hate you, like Cross-fit, so too Warhammer has alternatives. The biggest would be Age of Sigmar, the new version of Warhammer Fantasy. With simplified rules, fantasy units and a broader definition of what an army can consist of, AoS has a lot to offer. If you don’t mind trading off balance for fun and speed, it would be worth considering. This is also the only place to get races like Skaven, vampires, lizardmen and walking trees. I myself have a small AoS army and it can be a great way to mix things up and be less stressed about how many points that one bolt-pistol costs.

I hope you’ve found these tips useful, and are at least considering taking out a loan to buy some plastic men very soon. If you want to chat about more things Warhammer, head over to the community why don’t you?

Why Into The Breach Is Not FTL 2

Into the Breach is Subset Games’ long-awaited new project, after their colossal success with FTL. I love FTL. You love FTL. The next game from the same minds is going to have enormous Half-life 3-esque expectations. But this isn’t FTL 2, and so we shouldn’t think of it as such. Whilst the pixelated art style is there, Ben Prunty is back (and better than ever), and the simple yet deep turn-based strategy is prevalent once again, Into the Breach is a very different game. Here’s why.

It’s a puzzle-tactics game

The biggest difference between the two titles is the way they play. This isn’t a rogue-like about managing a spaceship, Into The Breach is you embarking on missions to fight off the insectoid race known as the Vek with a team of mechs. Each mission is presented as a different region like in Advance Wars, and you have so many turns to defend your base. You can see what the enemy is going to do on the next turn, so it’s all about positioning and dealing with the incoming threats. You won’t be so much trying to kill all the Vek but deftly manipulate them into hitting each other, knocking them off the map, or pushing them into a big AoE attack.

Each map has bonus objectives too, so the better you play, and the more settlements you protect, the more resources you can get to upgrade your mechs.

No RNG

FTL was built on RNG, that is, certain things would happen because of random chance. The encounters were random, the galaxy quadrants were random, the missions you got, the stuff in the shops, the amount of enemy missiles you dodge, was all completely random. In Into the Breach, there is no hit percentage chance. If you get the enemy into a disadvantageous position, nothing will stop you from executing your perfect plan. This is definitely a puzzle game, rather than a turn-based strategy. However you look at it, there’ll be no 90% chance to hit misses like in XCOM. Sounds good to me.

Okay, some RNG

There are natural events that can affect the map, such as tsunamis and big holes appearing that can be used to your advantage, or really hinder your plans. The environment also plays a big role in your planning. Sand dunes that are hit can result in kicked up sand obscuring the enemy’s vision, and forests can be set on fire to cause even more damage. Each of the four islands you have to fight on have different climates and introduce different themes that present new features. The icy continent’s settlements are covered in ice, giving them more resistance to attacks. But it also bring with it more dangers to keep in mind.

Mechs instead of a ship

Each mission you can send out mechs to deal with the alien menace. You know that scene in Pacific Rim where they carry the Jaegers with helicopters then drop them in Hong Kong bay? Yeah, like that. Except cute pixelated Jaegers. The mechs are where a lot of the customisation comes in. You can get eight different squads, and equip different weapons and abilities. You can take long-range artillery mechs, big armoured fight-y mechs that throw enemies across the map, or specialised mechs that do things like freeze enemies. You can even get a randomly-generated squad, sort of a gamble button to either get a extremely strong squad or…not. The pilots themselves will level up and gain passive abilities, making them stronger and stronger…and more painful to lose.

You will complete it

Finally, one of the biggest differences from FTL, is that you will most likely complete this game. FTL was famous for being extremely difficult to reach the end of, let alone beat it. Into the Breach is a game that has no bonkers difficulty spikes, but lots of variety to explore, and that’s what players will come back for.

In the words of the co-creator Matthew Davis: “We intend for people to finish the game and then go back and explore new options and let the randomness drive its longevity. You’re always coming across new combinations that are fun and unique. I’d describe Into the Breach as something more like a board game. It’s not that you beat a board game, but you take it out to play for an afternoon and then you put it away and come back and play it again. It’s not something that you beat and then never touch again.”

Into The Breach is out on the 27th February, and if you’re still excited to play it despite it not being FTL, come chat about it on the community.

Every Warhammer 40k Faction Rated From Worst to Best

In the grim darkness of the far future of Warhammer 40k there is only endless articles ranking everything and everyone. Top 10 Primarchs, which Chaos God is hottest, which Lasgun has the highest efficiency, and so on.

Terrifying.

We at Green Man Gaming don’t believe in ranking things for no reason, we’re here only to rank when ranking is necessary, important, and also will let me write about Warhammer 40k for a few hundred words.

So here’s every faction that’s currently in Warhammer 40k, ranked from worst to best.

If you dispute this highly scientific and objective list, then either you are a heretic of the foulest kind, or you’re a Games Workshop employee. If you’re the former, please let us know on the Community why you think I’m wrong! If you’re the latter, can I have a money off voucher? Thanks.

Note: This list isn’t about who plays best or anything. and is 100% factual and serious.

Necrons

Necrons could’ve been cool, they’ve been slumbering under a multitude of planets, there’s hints of Old Ones, there’s a bit of Egyptian…ness there. They could’ve been something.

What do we have instead? Zombie robots.

I’m out.

T’au Empire

Ah the ‘how can we make cool mecha a thing’ faction. They’re not terrible, but their focus on ‘the greater good’ doesn’t always fit in the grimdark universe. And maybe that’d be alright if they’d stuck to it; a shining beacon amongst the rest, but over time the T’au have gradually become more grimdarkened, now it’s clear they subjugate lesser races and keep people docile under mind control.

I feel that if they’d kept to their guns we could’ve had something interesting, but they’re slowly becoming ‘just some blue guys’.

Cool mechs though. But could we get rid of the ‘ in T’au please too? Makes them sound like an 80s band, or a Vulcan.

Astra Militarum

Look they’re good and they try hard, but in the universe of the Imperium these guys are grist for the mill. They’re the delaying tactic until the real warriors turn up, they’re Operation Cannon Fodder. If they didn’t have tanks they’d be nothing.

The fantasy is good, Sharpe vs Daemons, WWI aesthetics vs space aliens, but the reality is just they get mown down. These poor guys are low rated here mainly cos they just deserve a rest!

I don’t hate them, I just feel sorry for them.

Grey Knights

What happens when you take a Space Marine and dial it up to 11. They’re just so over the top, and that’s saying something in the incredibly over the top Warhammer 40k universe. Some of the stuff they’ve gotten up to in the Warhammer 40k universe is just…ridiculous. They’re funny rather than threatening, a bit of a grimdark joke.

Adeptus Custodes

What happens when you take a Space Marine and dial it up to 2812749187. They look like the bastard offspring of a Space Marine and the hideous golden doors at Trump Towers.

Aesthetically, they’re a joke. Good weapons though.

Next!

Adeptus Ministorum

This is where we start turning it around, the Adeptus Ministorum have an interesting story to them, because they’re saints and worshippers of the God-Emperor, a divine being that defies his own divinity.

That’s interesting right?

They also lean directly into the grimdarkness of the universe, that special kind of Warhammer 40k grimdark where it’s grim and dark as hell, but they think they’re absolutely right. The Penitent Engine, the Repentia Squads? Good stuff.

Imperial and Renegade Knights

A newer addition to the Warhammer 40k universe, Knights are a stepping stone between dreadnoughts and titans. Bringing in a bit of flavour from medieval knights and feudalism, they are single pilot mini-titans, and they’re cool as heck. Seriously, they’re huge but not too huge, and so you just want one right?

Right.

Tyranids

I love the alien films as much as everyone else so Tyranids are always welcome. They make a wonderful enemy, faceless, unknowable, a tide from outside the galaxy who only seeks to destroy.

The only problem with them is that this is it, they’re faceless and unknowable…and that’s where their depth begins and ends. Bit two dimensional, our niddy boys.

Drukhari

Ah the original Eldar, still holed up in the Webway, still all fucked up and loving pain. They’re a good counterpoint to the prim, stuck up Eldar, all living in their bone spaceships and fearing death.

These Eldar treat everything differently, they’re slavers, pirates, experimenters with flesh.

If only they didn’t look quite so emo, y’know?

Chaos Daemons

Honestly I do love daemons in Warhammer 40k, I love them very much.

So why aren’t they higher up?

Because for every amazing daemony model, there’s one that isn’t quite so good. And even more than that, I feel that some of the daemon models don’t really ‘feel’ very much like their gods. Bloodletters for example, whilst useful, don’t feel hugely Khorne-y to me.

Officio Assassinorum

Cool assassins. Nuff said really.

Inquisition

The Imperium is beset by many enemies, both subtle and overt. The overt threats have armies to deal with them, but for the insidious threats which threaten the stability of humanity the Inquisition is there, blade, book, and bolter in hand.

They’re a really brilliant fantasy, always rooting out heresy, xenos infections, and daemonic incursions. They’re the lone warrior deep in a hiveworld, uncovering secrets and putting enemies to fire and sword.

Brilliant stuff.

Adeptus Mechanicus

Probably the best thing about the Adeptus Mechanicus is their models, they mix together body horror, far future mechanical augmentations, and 50s scifi aesthetics.

Maybe it shouldn’t work, but it does, and with absolutely brilliant robots and walkers thrown in too. Who can look at an Onegar Dunecrawler or a Kastelan Robot and not be drawn into worship of the Omnissiah? I know it’s a struggle for me not to!

Craftworlds

Alright, they’re dying out, they’re haughty, they’re prim, they call humans ‘mon-keigh’ which frankly is a joke that’s outstayed its welcome by several decades.

But they’re just so damn cool. Those sleek lines on their Wraithlords, the Howling Banshees, the Exarchs, Warp Spiders! Every model is alien with a capital A, they’re space elves yes but they’re damned cool space elves.

Space Marines

Space Marines are the main heroes of the Warhammer 40k universe, and for good reason. They’re humans but humans+, they get awesome armour, they get all the plot lines, and they’re diverse enough that you can make your own chapters and histories.

Basically anything goes.

So why aren’t they first?

Well because their standard chapters, the existing ones, can be a bit up and down in lore, in theme, in colour schemes. For every Dark Angel there’s an Iron Hand, for every Salamander there’s an Ultramarine, for every Blood Angel there’s an Imperial Fist.

And now I’ve offended probably every Space Marine player lets go on to…

Chaos Space Marines

Space Marines but cooler.

Also Word Bearers are Chaos Space Marines and they’re the best chapter in the game and Lorgar did nothing wrong and (That’s enough of that – Ed)

Harlequins

Similar to my theory about Chaos Space Marines, Harlequins are Eldar…but cool. They’re a specialised smaller force of individual performers and warriors, and it’s that which makes them so unique and interesting in the universe. They flit through society, performing and undergoing missions, and you never really understand what their goals are.

Most special amongst them all is the Solitaire, the figure representing death, something which rightfully terrifies all Eldar given that their souls are eaten by Slaanesh. Solitaire walks the battlefield, a lonely figure, unable to be hit by any mortal weapon until they reach their target and. Execute. Their plan.

They’re beautiful, deadly, and the second best faction in the game.

Orks

So who’s best? Who’s the number one?

Orks.

Why Orks? Is it their mockney accents? No. Is it their beliefs that can alter reality? No. Is it their tech? No.

It’s that, out of all the races and species in the Warhammer Warhammer 40k universe, they’re the only ones that have won. A good day for an Ork is to wake up, and have a fight. A brilliant day is a day in which they have two fights.

So this universe of Warhammer 40k, this grimdark far future, is a future of only war. So the Orks are consistently having the times of their lives. Doesn’t matter if they win or lose, they’re having a great time. They’re along for the ride, and the ride is fun.

 

That’s what I think, my name’s been Alex, and if you want to disagree or lend your support to this perfect list, hit me up on the Community. Death threats can be addressed to the usual place.

I Played Frozen Synapse 2 (And was really bad at it)

You and your teammates are standing outside a building, unable to see in. The presence co-ordinating the operation has put your next moves into its probability matrix and worked out what it thinks you, and your unseen enemies, will do. It believes with some certainty that if you breach, cover each other, and then slide back into cover you’ll be fine.

The execute order comes through and you smash the door open, guns ready. Four shots ring out as you and your partners fall to the ground, your clone lives snuffed short.

That’s Frozen Synapse 2 and you’re the controller, and you’ve messed up again.

Frozen Synapse 2 is a sequel to 2011’s Frozen Synapse, and it’s taking the simultaneous real time tactical combat game further in every direction. The original was noted for its deep tactical combat where you can simulate yours, and your opponents, actions before executing your plan in real time and watching events unfold. The sequel follows up on this by adding more….more.

More weapons, more locations, more mission types, more terrain, more everything. This applies to more than just the combat too, the world and the way you interact with the world has been overhauled. Gone is doing a series of missions one after another, in is an open world, a huge city modelled with different factions all vying for territory.

It’s into this city, Markov Geist, that you step. Leading your faction to victory, doing raids, defending your own territory, there’s even diplomacy in it, albeit diplomacy at the end of a loaded gun.

If you’ve played XCOM: Apocalypse, think that Megacity, and then add in super intricate tactical combat, and you’re on your way to imagining what Frozen Synapse 2 is. Have a look at where the game’s at, as of a month or so ago:

I have a confession to make though; I am terrible at any form of tactics or strategy. In C&C I always got bored building stuff so would attack with vastly inferior forces, in Civilization I would make a tiny empire far away from anyone and just wait for their armies to turn up and kill me, and the only way I ever completed XCOM was by sticking it on easy and using a guide to help me decide what to build in the first part of the game.

I am bad at strategy, bad at tactical combat.

So why does Frozen Synapse 2 appeal to me so much?

It’s probably because even if – when – you fuck up, you know exactly why that happened. You have total information from the top down view, and if an enemy did something you didn’t expect it’s because you didn’t accurate model what they would do. The game might be tough, but it’s not unfair. The unfairness only comes from how you’ve seen the world, and how you’ve planned and interpreted the information around you.

I died in the tutorial, I died quite a few times in the tutorial, and then made it through to the first mission and…I died. A lot.

But it never felt frustrating, if I hadn’t been monopolising the computer I would’ve happily carried on. There’s something about having all that information in front of you, and making decisions based on that, that makes you feel like you’re not being cheated.

OK there were some times where I didn’t know what was going on, like when I burst into a building only to get shot in the head, but that’s few and far between and franky, it was my fault anyway.

Frozen Synapse 2 is looking special, it’s that small game that’s trying hard to be something bigger and better than its predecessor and is doing a lot right. I can’t wait to dive back into the world of Markov Geist, build my faction, and break some heads.

Frozen Synapse 2 is coming out…soon?