Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (BETA)

I’ve not bought a Call of Duty game since Modern Warfare 2. Every time I see a new one I just think ‘I can just play MW2 again’. The multiplayer may be dead, but the campaign is still super fun and the Spec Ops mode is fantastic with a friend. I do keep trying them though, which is why I wanted to give Black Ops 6 a shot.

And sure enough it’s . . . more Call of Duty. The years go by and the names may change but Call of Duty stays the same. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Black Ops 6 is fast, frantic and utterly chaotic. The maps range from small to absolutely tiny. One map is essentially just a big open room. It’s not unusual to die almost immediately upon spawn because of how fast and easy it is for players to circle the map and come around behind you.

And you can do the same to them. So many times I’d see two or three enemies just spawn in before me and I’d mercilessly mow them down. But so what, right? It happens to them and it happens to you. Within seconds you’re back in the match and within seconds you’re dead again. Sometimes you’ll go on a streak, but it feels more like luck than skill or good judgement.

The maps are quite open, so you’re often going to get shot from about seventeen different directions at once. And because they’re all so small, there’s no real sense of order or flow to a map. No aggressive pushes forward or tactical retreats. No tactics at all, really. Everyone just runs around (or falls around in this case) shooting everything that moves and tossing grenades about like candy.

Why not toss them? Even if you can’t see the enemy the maps are so tiny that you’ll probably hit something. I killed dozens of enemy players with totally blind grenade tosses just out of pure luck. When the maps are this small, you can’t really miss.

It’s pure chaos. Is it fun? Sort of, I suppose. But I only played the Beta for about 5 hours before I gave up on it. Not because it was bad, as such. I guess I just didn’t find the matches particularly satisfying. Win or lose, none of it feels like it really matters. Everything happens so fast and feels so random that even if you play well you just don’t feel any sense of accomplishment.

You get your XP. You get your level up and unlocks. Everything is instantly forgotten and you move onto the next. It’s like the takeaway junk food of gaming. I’m actually surprised how well I did during a lot of my matches considering I’ve not played any competitive shooter, let alone a CoD game for years.

But like I said, I didn’t really feel like I’d done well because so many of my kills felt more like luck. A few times I got the ‘play of the match’ or whatever but like so many others I saw, it’s only because I was fortunate and killed three or four players looking the wrong way in a row. That’s not good play, it’s just a tiny map in which I got lucky with my spawn and they got unlucky with theirs.

I was also kind of confused by the player and weapon skins. I thought this game was set during the Gulf War? So why do I have what looks like a zombie in riot gear on my team? And why does that guy have a purple glowy gun? What the f**k is going on? I guess this is normal now? Is this CoD now? What happened to period appropriate weapons and team skins? I guess the weapons (skins aside) seem okay. But why did I just kill a bloody cyborg?

It feels like CoD has evolved into something far beyond what I recall. It’s now a service platform as much as it is a game. I found that out when I wanted to download the beta and discovered I first needed to download the Call of Duty platform application, through which I then had to set up an Activision Account, and then I had to pick the Black Ops 6 Beta from within that app, in order to launch the separate Black Ops 6 app and . . . f**king hell it never used to be this tedious.

I can’t say I didn’t have any fun with this beta, but CoD – the multiplayer at least – has clearly evolved into something I’m just not very engaged by. Win or lose. Kill or die. None of it feels like it matters. The new ‘omni-movement’ or whatever just results in everyone pointlessly throwing themselves to the ground every few seconds. That was fine with me – I just stayed on my feet and shot them. The kids really seem to love it though given what I heard through the open mics before I blanket muted everybody.

Now Playing: Rally Adventure & Hot Wheels (DLC)

Rally Adventure and Hot Wheels are the two DLC expansions for Fora Horizon 5. I’ve been wanting to jump back into Forza 5 for some time, so picking up these expansions in the recent Steam sale gave me the perfect excuse. I decided to start over, entirely from scratch, so it took me some time to work back up to this new content but I had a real blast doing so.

So let’s start with Rally Adventure. You’re transported to a new map and can join three ‘teams’ each of which feature their own races, PR stunts and challenges. As you complete each level of content for each team, you’ll earn reputation which will then unlock the next. It’s a decent if somewhat repetitive structure, and that repetition is made worse by the way the races work.

Every race has two modes – the standard race and the new ‘rally’ mode which is a time trial in which you’re racing against the clock. You get your own co-driver who calls out the twists, turns and jumps which gave me a nice Sega Rally nostalgia rush. Easy right!

There’s not really a ‘proper’ rally mode in the base game, so I think this was a nice addition even if it still, I must admit, doesn’t really feel like proper rallying. It’s like they tried to crowbar a rally game into Forza 5 which doesn’t quite work but it works well enough that it’s still pretty fun.

But if you want to clear all the challenges in Rally Adventure you’ll need to play each race at least twice – once in rally mode, the other in race. That does get a little tedious, although it is also optional. The other content in the form of new PR stunts and challenges are all fine, but you’ll likely clear them all pretty easily and then immediately forget about them.

I don’t have much more to say about Rally Adventure. It’s a fine but I wouldn’t say required addition to the game, not unless you really want a more dedicated (sort of) rally mode in Forza 5. If you don’t have any interest in the rally stuff though then it’s probably worth skipping.

7/10

Hot Wheels on the other hand is a DLC I’d recommend any fan of the base game to pick up. It’s some of the most fun you can have in Forza 5 as it totally embraces the arcade racing aspect with track designs that simply aren’t possible in the more ‘realistic’ base game setting.

I’m talking about tracks that loop and corkscrew, speed boosting pads and even water slides. Races in Hot Wheels are all about speed and pushing the limits of how fast you can go. You begin with a series of B Class races and ‘missions’ which in turn unlock A class content and then S1 and S2.

It’s kind of similar to the structure of Rally Adventure in that every tier of content has its own set of races, PR stunts and challenges, but I’d say these are better paced here as there’s more variety and less repetition. And of course, these tracks which are so fast and wild, full of loops, twists and turns breathe a lot of fresh life into the Forza 5 racing experience. They offer something truly different to the base game, which isn’t something Rally Adventure quite managed to do.

There’s a new series of ‘story’ missions in which you’ll learn far more about the Hot Wheels brand than you ever wanted to know. It’s kind of interesting, I guess, but you still feel like you’re being advertised to as you play. There’s new Hot Wheels specific cars to unlock which is cool, although I tended to stick to my own custom range of vehicles.

The only real issue I have with this DLC is how buggy it is compared to both Rally Adventure and the base game. I had multiple crashes during my time with it, including an irritating crash whenever I tried to open the map directly rather than through the menu. It also locked me out of online racing / tour content for no apparent reason at one point.

Despite those annoying issues, Hot Wheels is still a DLC I’d easily recommend any fan of the base game to pick up – but like with Rally Adventure, maybe wait for a sale.

8/10

Final Fantasy XVI (Demo)

I didn’t pay much attention to Final Fantasy XVI when it originally released on PS5 as I knew the PC version would arrive some time later. I’d seen it receive a pretty positive reception though (87 on metacritic) and as one of the seven people who really liked Final Fantasy XV, I thought I might like this one too.

But then I played this demo and . . . what the f**k? The demo opens with someone talking a load of old bollocks which I kind of expected for a FF game just as I expected the opening to be somewhat cutscene heavy . . . but not this f**king heavy.

I think I’m a pretty patient gamer but FF XVI broke my limit. I’d guess only about 10 minutes of my first hour playing this demo was actually playing the damn thing. I say ‘playing’ but all that really amounts to is pushing forward on a linear path and getting interrupted by another cutscene every twelve steps.

I wouldn’t mind so much if the cutscenes were at least engaging but I found everything terribly dull. Everything is so over dramatic, overly serious and the characters are so wooden you’ll fear getting a splinter. The game keeps tossing in all kinds of dumb fantasy place names but then hilariously names the player character Clive.

I’m not saying the game can’t be serious I’m saying it just doesn’t work, not when the player has no idea who these people are, where these locations are, why X is fighting Y or why Clive is called Clive. It’s like the game thinks if it just piles all this pompous, expository shit onto the player early it will seem important and make us care but none of it does because it’s all in really dull f**king cutscenes.

Let me play the damn game! Eventually I got to a combat tutorial and a little area I could run about in. It lasted about 5 minutes before another round of cutscenes. After another ten minutes or so of those I eventually got into a proper gameplay sequence where I was fighting goblins and it was incredibly lame. The boss fight at the end of this short section was a little more interesting . . . but not much. I didn’t want to judge the combat too much at this point though because Clive didn’t have many abilities unlocked yet.

But this is also when I started skipping cutscenes to get to the gameplay and at one point I think I skipped six in a row without any gameplay to speak of. I then found myself playing as some dumb kid which thankfully lasted about 3 minutes before more cutscenes I had to skip. Then the kid was a giant fire bird and I had to shoot fire missiles at a monster and it was very dramatic but not at all fun. Then the demo ended.

Or did it? Because I then unlocked another section where I could play as Clive with all his abilities unlocked. I thought maybe, just maybe, this would win me over. But no. F**k no. Even with all the unlocked abilities the combat still wasn’t great. It was flashy for sure, but about as deep as a puddle. It’s like a really bad attempt at a Devil May Cry game. Maybe I wouldn’t have cared so much if everything else was great, but with a plot and characters I couldn’t give a shit about, uninspiring environments and enemy designs and rather lacklustre visuals (at least in the demo) the combat was the only thing that could have got me excited to pick this up.

Okay, maybe this is only a demo and the full game is so much better . . . but I just find that hard to believe. Watching some videos of the full game doesn’t make it look any better . . . just more of the same. I just find it bizarre this game landed on an 87. Is it the brand? F**k me, Forspoken had more engaging combat than this and that game only hit a 64 which was probably fair. It also (based on this demo, at least) had a more original and interesting fantasy setting. So what the f**k is going on?

Now Playing: Night Springs (DLC)

Night Springs is the first DLC release for Alan Wake 2. It’s a short, mostly fun addition that’s worth giving a spin if you enjoyed the base game, but I wouldn’t say it’s worth buying the Expansion Pass for on its own – if you don’t already have it, maybe wait for the Lake House DLC to see if that adds more value.

Night Springs is split into three ‘episodes’ each of which involve playing as a different character with each lasting around 30 minutes. The first, in which you play as Rose – Alan Wake’s Number One Fan – is the most amusing as you’re treated to a warped view of reality in which Rose is the hero on a quest to save Alan. A quest that involves shooting a lot of bad guys with a shotgun.

Amusing, but not particularly substantial and like the other episodes, it’s mostly just reusing assets from the base game. The next episode is unfortunately the weakest. You play as Jesse Faden, star of Control, and although it was good to see her again, the episode is mostly just a slow, back and forth slog around the amusement park from the base game as you hunt for the items you need to progress.

There’s a rather terrible attempt at a ‘horror’ section at the end but it’s more annoying than scary and the episode ends pretty abruptly. If you thought Jesse might get to play with some of the powers she acquired in Control then guess again. I guess you could argue that it’s not technically her but I don’t really care. There’s nothing very interesting about this episode in terms of its narrative or how it plays.

Thankfully, the final episode is pretty great in which you play as Sheriff Breaker. It gets very meta and unlike the other episodes, it isn’t entirely reliant upon recycled assets. They’re certainly there in parts, but that’s not all there is and there’s some fun and surprising stuff towards the end.

It’s the strongest episode in terms of narrative and the only one that really feels important within the context of Alan Wake 2 as a whole. The other two episodes feel a little more pointless in that regard, but maybe they’ll turn out to be more relevant in the Lake House DLC.

Overall, Night Springs is worth playing if you liked Alan Wake 2, but I’d say the last episode is the only one that’s ‘essential’ to play. The first is fun and silly, but not really important, and the second just feels like a waste of time. Like I said, if you already have the expansion Pass then there’s no reason not to give it a spin but I wouldn’t buy it just for this. Hopefully the Lake House DLC will offer a more substantial and original piece of content.

6/10

NSO Retro: Super Mario Brothers (SNES)

For my first Nintendo Switch Online Retro Review I decided to start with a classic – the original Super Mario Brothers. Well . . . sort of. Rather than play the NES (1985) version I decided to play the SNES (1993) version released as part of the Super Mario All-Stars collection.

I did play a few levels of the NES version and whilst the original visuals do have their charm, I’d still recommend the more colourful SNES version for new players. And I am very much a new player to Super Mario Brothers. I’m not entirely sure if this is the first time I’ve played the game at all – because it’s likely I’ve played a little of one version or another down the years – but this is certainly the first time I’ve played the game through to completion.

So . . . did I like it? Well, yeah. It’s still a pretty solid and fun little adventure, but I’m guessing my feelings towards it would probably be quite different if I had played it back when I was a kid. There’s no real ‘nostalgia’ vibe for me, so I’m just looking at it through my cold, cynical old man eyes.

There are 8 worlds to progress through, each split into 4 levels and each world ends with a boss fight. Well, not much of a boss fight, to be honest – you just jump over his head once to grab an axe to defeat him. It’s the same for every world from first to last, although he does get a few new tricks along the way.

It’s a surprisingly short game – I played through it in two sittings – although that’s thanks to the ability to essentially Quick Save wherever I wanted in this NSO edition. That does remove any real challenge from the game but honestly, I might not have had the patience to get through the game without it.

Because like a lot of older games that want to encourage repeat play so you feel you’re getting bang for your buck, SMB has a fair amount of bullshit to catch you out and reset your progress. Mario can (unless boosted by a mushroom) only take a single hit from an enemy, and he can’t survive a fall.

So without that Quick Save safety net, you’ll probably be replaying a level multiple times until you learn the platform layout, enemy positions, jump distances and timing you need to get through. Each level is fairly short, but they do get more tricky as you progress with more finicky jumps and more annoying enemies – f**k those hammer throwing little shits!

The game mechanics don’t really evolve much at all. You’re scored by various factors, the most important of which is probably the time limit – the quicker you complete the level, the more points you’ll get. This does give the game an excellent score attack / speed running vibe, because with practice on your timing, you can really fly through these levels, barely touching the ground.

 

The game does throw some new challenges at you here and there, but by the end it’s mostly just repeating everything you’ve already seen. Oh, and I didn’t like those boss level ‘puzzles’ where you’re unable to advance unless you choose the ‘correct’ path to take – if you don’t it just loops you back to the start.

Once again, it feels like a bullshit way to make the player replay the level until they find the right path through trial and error because that clock is always ticking down. Thankfully I didn’t have to worry about that because of the Quick Save feature.

Overall, I had some fun with Super Mario Brothers and I can certainly understand its importance in Video Game history, but it isn’t a game I have any nostalgia for so I’m not going to be as gushing towards it as someone who does. I wouldn’t say it doesn’t hold up today because it does – to a degree – but I’d say it’s a game you’ll probably appreciate more for the classic it is, and less for what it offers you today.

Now Playing: Midnight Suns

When I saw Marvel’s Midnight Suns available for free on Epic I saw no reason not to give it a spin even though I’m not particularly interested in deck building games. But Midnight Suns isn’t just a deck builder, it’s also an XCOM style turn-based strategy game and RPG rolled into one – a combination that works surprisingly well.

You play as ‘The Hunter’ an original, customisable character created purely for this game. You’re resurrected to fight alongside the titular Midnight Suns – a collection of rogues, misfits and magic wielders – against the demon Lilith. Along the way you’ll recruit some more famous Marvel characters into your squad such as Captain America and Wolverine.

It’s a pretty cool mix and if there’s one thing Midnight Suns does well, it’s the way these characters are written and how they all interact – with the notable exception, unfortunately, of The Hunter, who I think I would have preferred as a ‘blank slate’ type protagonist.

The Hunter just isn’t terribly interesting compared to the established heroes. In fact, they kind of stick out like a sore thumb. You do get dialogue options to choose from, but The Hunter always comes across like a such a bland, boring git no matter what you pick.

Thankfully, everyone else is well written and I did like hanging out with all these Marvel superheroes – even if it does sometimes feel like half the game is a bizarre ‘Marvel Friendship Simulator’ because I just can’t imagine any situation in which Blade would want to go mushroom picking with me

I say ‘Friendship’ and not ‘Romance’ because despite the love hearts that unlock as you get closer to each hero, there’s no way Marvel are going to let you get jiggy with Doctor Strange. Overall, I must say I preferred it when the game focused on the Midnight Suns characters – like Nico and Magik – rather than the Avengers who I ended up not really utilising much throughout my time with the game.

The plot, as a whole, is pretty decent. It’s nothing amazing, but there’s a few fun twists along the way and some really fun core story missions. As I said, The Hunter, as a character, is a weak link, but the story remains compelling enough to see you through. My only real annoyance was how abruptly the game wraps up after the final battle.

I think it would also have been nice to have multiple endings – or at least slightly more varied ending cutscenes – based on your relationship levels with different characters. In the end, none of that really feels like it matters which is weird considering it’s such a big part of the game between missions.

Midnight Suns gets off to a pretty terrible start though – so bad in fact, that I nearly gave up on the game. It’s a painfully slow opening that sees you fight some very short, very basic battles before arriving at The Abbey – your hub between missions. And it feels like you spend 90% of your time during the first 5 or so hours just running back and forth between characters at The Abbey.

The game drip feeds you everything so f**king slowly and I very nearly lost patience with it. I’m glad I didn’t, however, because it does pick up a lot as you progress. What doesn’t really get any better though is the general game structure. You have ‘Day’ in which you can embark on a single combat mission and then ‘Night’ which follows the completion of that mission.

Missions are split between ‘Story’ to progress the overall narrative and ‘General’ which are essentially just randomised, repeatable battles based on mission types from the story campaign. They exist purely to increase character levels and obtain resources. Oh god – resources. I need to talk about those.

It can be frustrating because the game won’t always let you progress at your own pace – it often locks story missions until you’ve completed specific research (that takes an entire day) or completed a General mission. It’s particularly annoying towards the end of the campaign when you’ve got all your heroes levelled up and their decks upgraded just the way you want and you don’t really need any more experience or items. You just want to get the f**k on with things. And you can’t, because the game won’t let you.

It also won’t let you do more than one mission per ‘Day’. The game locks you into a very rigid routine in which you can only do certain things at certain times. Want to upgrade your deck? You can’t at Night. Want to unlock another mystery of the Abbey grounds? You can’t during the Day. Midnight Suns also convolutes things to a completely unnecessary degree.

Let’s say you just want to upgrade one of your cards – you first need to create a copy of that card, so you head to the Forge. But to create a copy you’ll need a blueprint of the corresponding card rarity so if you don’t have one, you’ll need to create one by exiting the card menu and going into another menu to do that.

But wait, what if you don’t have the necessary resources to create that blueprint? Well, you can always run over to the Cauldron on the other side of the Abbey to swap out the resources you don’t need for the ones you do, a process that requires particular ingredients you’ll have to harvest from the Abbey grounds. Done that? Good.

Now run back to the Forge and craft that blueprint, and then go back to the card crafting menu and crate a copy of the card you want to upgrade. But can you upgrade it here? F**k no. Now you’ve got to run to the Training Ground where you can go back into your card menu but this time you’ll get the option to use your copy to upgrade your existing card. Oh wait, you want to craft some item cards to supplement your deck? Now you’ve got to run over to that other crafting station specifically for those cards and . . .

You know what would be so much easier? Just a single card menu where you can craft, upgrade or edit a hero’s deck all at the same time. There’s also a lot of annoying little animations you’ll rapidly start skipping through every time you embark on a mission, return from a mission, go to sleep, wake up etc.

I played Midnight Suns for just over 40 hours and that was focused almost exclusively on the main quest – when it would let me – although I did quite a few General missions early on even when I didn’t have to just to earn some resources or unlock some new cards. I also solved most if not all of the Abbey mysteries and challenges but was disappointed by how none of that meant anything at the end – like the relationship stuff, it’s another missed opportunity.

There’s just too much busywork involved before, between and after missions and it’s annoying having to go through the same rigid routine and series of repetitive animations for every single one. It really detracts from the best thing about Midnight Suns – the combat.

It takes some time but Midnight Suns really does get quite fun and engaging the deeper you go. Because it’s not just about your deck – it’s also about utilising the environment or the positioning of your characters to your advantage. It’s about building a deck for each hero in a way that works for you, but also figuring out ways to combine them effectively with other heroes to maximise your damage output every turn.

There’s a lot of cool attack animations for each hero, and it’s incredibly satisfying figuring out a strategy to beat each mission whilst taking the least number of turns. It almost turns into something of a puzzle game at times, because not every mission is simply about defeating enemies, but performing particular actions or achieving certain objectives.

There’s a nice variety of mission types you’ll discover as you progress but these might feel a little repetitive if you also do a lot of the General missions. I also think the game does a good job with its unique story missions and ‘boss’ style fights – although I really wasn’t fond of the random bosses appearing during some General missions because there are times you might just want to knock one out quick in order to progress the story and the game decides to f**k you over by shoving a boss in there and making it take twice as long.

Visually, Midnight Suns looks fine. Some of the faces look terrible though – I’m talking about you, Peter Parker. Music is good. You probably won’t get much out of it if you have zero interest in Marvel stuff because the game wouldn’t hold up as well without it. Overall, my initial impressions of Midnight Suns weren’t great, but it did slowly win me over. It’s a game that requires some patience and it sadly never gets as good as I wanted it to, but I still enjoyed my time with it and it’s certainly worth giving a spin if you got it for free or if you see it on sale.

7/10