Gallery: Three Kingdoms

 

 

 

Now Playing: Eleven: Table Tennis (VR)

Eleven: Table Tennis VR is a very enjoyable simulation of table tennis in – you guessed it – VR. I did have my doubts about the game prior to picking it up in the recent Summer Sale. I’ve written before about the challenges in VR when a mechanic requires you to judge weight, power and distance – which is particularly important in a game like this.

But table tennis, in a way, seems uniquely suited to VR despite this challenge. The balls are light, so you don’t expect to ‘feel’ a heavy connection when you strike the ball with your virtual paddle. And, based on what I’ve played, the power you physically exert in reality for a strike has an exceptionally close correlation to the power you see exerted upon the ball in the game. Distance is a little more tricky, but it’s something you gradually learn to judge based upon your power and angle the more you play.

The most important thing they needed to get right in Eleven was the ball physics and I think they’ve pretty much nailed it. The way the ball moves, bounces and spins all had to look and ‘feel’ accurate. It’s kind of a nebulous aspect to discuss – the ‘feeling’ of how something plays, but I’m not quite sure how else to talk about it.

When I’m playing Eleven in VR, I really do feel like I’m playing table tennis. The way the ball bounces, the sound it makes as it strikes the paddle, the very slight vibration of feedback in the controller as the ball connects – it all adds up to what feels like a near perfect simulation of the real thing to the point that I sometimes reach out and futilely try to grab the virtual ball with my real hand.

Yes, it really is that good. Of course, doing such a great job of simulating table tennis mechanically in a game isn’t the same as making a good table tennis game. So what does the game side of Eleven have to offer? To begin, you have a single player mode against an AI opponent with an adjustable difficulty slider. This slider ranges from ridiculously easy to ridiculously hard.

Easy opponents are more likely to miss or overhit shots, whereas more advanced opponents are not only more accurate and less prone to mistakes, but more likely to hit tougher angles and use ball spin more effectively. I have to say, I’m really impressed by the AI system. I don’t know how it will feel on higher settings (I’m currently playing on the upper-medium level) but it never feels cheap or – even worse – like its cheating by pulling off shots or hitting angles that shouldn’t be possible.

If you don’t want to play a creepy, emotionless AI you can always play a creepy, emotionless human in the game’s multiplayer mode, but because I’m still kind of bad at the game and don’t really like interacting with other people, I’ve not tried it out yet. Beyond single and multiplayer, Eleven also has a few basic and forgettable ‘mini-games’ to check out, but this is one area that the game could use more improvement.

Eleven has the core gameplay down, it’s just everything surrounding that core that needs to be expanded and improved. More interesting / fun mini-games. More virtual environments to choose between. Maybe a custom music option. A selection of AI visual appearance options.

Eleven already has some pretty good customisation options – table / paddle colour and MP avatars – but more certainly wouldn’t hurt. And how about some kind of tournament mode against different (visually) AI with different skills and a ‘personality’ that determines how they play? As enjoyable as Eleven is in its current state, there’s a lot more they can add and do with the game to flesh it out and really make it a VR sporting game classic.

Overall, Eleven is a great table tennis simulation with a slightly above average ‘game’ aspect constructed around it. If you think you’d enjoy playing table tennis in VR then there’s no reason not to pick it up now. It’s not the kind of game I’ll sink hundreds of hours into, but it’s the kind of thing I’ll always keep installed so I can hop in and play a few rounds when I have fifteen minutes to spare.

7/10

Gallery: Halo 2

Now Playing: Eight Princes (DLC)

Eight Princes was the first DLC released for Total War: Three Kingdoms. It has pretty negative reviews on Steam, but the majority of those reviews are not related so much to the quality of the content, but the fact that Eight Princes is entirely disconnected from the core 190 campaign.

Three Kingdoms had an excellent release but the main campaign desperately needed more unique units, factions and characters. So when Eight Princes was announced – an entirely separate campaign set more than 100 years following the Three Kingdoms period – it was everything that fans of the game didn’t want.

Eight Princes, at release, was the wrong content at the wrong time. Creative Assembly, it appears, realised their mistake and instead refocused their DLC plans on new content that would enhance and build upon the main campaign – Mandate of Heaven and A World Betrayed.

 

Eight Princes wasn’t the content people wanted, but does that make it bad content? Considering I’ve played and reviewed the other 3K DLC I figured I might as well give Eight Princes a spin and see what it was actually like.

Eight Princes has eight new factions, each led by – you guessed it – a Prince competing for control of the Jin Empire. Each Prince has their own unique campaign mechanics, with a couple of unique units and faction bonuses to suit their particular style of play.

The campaign victory conditions work a little differently in EP – you’ll need to either declare yourself the new Emperor – or act as Regent – by destroying or subjugating the other Princes, or by amassing prestige. Along the way you’ll receive dilemma events that allow you to build your ‘alignment’ to Spirit, Wealth, Might or Mind.

Increasing these alignments gives you additional campaign bonuses, but the dilemmas can also cause various diplomatic impacts within the campaign as you choose to either support the scheming Empress – or rally against her.

 

If there’s one good thing I can say about Eight Princes it’s that playing it now – rather than at release – did provide a pretty refreshing campaign experience. It’s a new twist on the original map. You have new factions to contend with, all of which begin in new locations. It makes Eight Princes, at least in that sense, worth picking up if you’re a little tired of the core campaign and want to try something new.

The problem is, that’s kind of all Eight Princes really has to offer. It does feel like a DLC knocked out on the cheap. Yes, there are eight new factions, but aside from the faction leaders, there are no other new, unique characters. Every new character you recruit will be from the sadly limited ‘generic’ character pool.

There simply aren’t enough new units or building types to properly separate Eight Princes from the core campaign. And the Technology Tree is, honestly, pretty pathetic – it’s just a handful of ‘new’ reforms that unlock some of the higher tier units from the core campaign.

 

I had fun playing Eight Princes, but it feels like a shadow of what it could and perhaps should have been. I guess you could argue that adding in lots of new units, characters and building types would have increased the development cost and time and resulted in a DLC more akin to a large scale expansion – and an increased price. But that’s what I think Eight Princes probably should have been – a big, fleshed out expansion released much later in the life cycle of 3K, with a much more comprehensive campaign.

That said, just like the base 190 campaign, there’s no reason Creative Assembly couldn’t release more updates to Eight Princes to flesh it out and make it more unique. I don’t expect they will – the poor sales and negative reception probably won’t justify it – but the base platform is certainly there to build upon if they are willing to do so.

Overall, Eight Princes is a limited and rather shallow DLC. It’s not bad content, but it’s also not as good as it could be. It would be nice to think that once the core 3K campaign is seen as ‘complete’ that CA will revisit EP and give it the overhaul it deserves. But in the meantime, if you really want a fresh 3K campaign experience, I’d still recommend picking it up on sale.

5/10

Blade & Sorcery: The Sorcery Update (VR)

I posted a review of Blade & Sorcery back in January, but the game recently received a pretty substantial – and impressive – update. Update 8 – AKA The Sorcery Update – adds two new spells – fire and gravity. It updates the existing NPC models and adds a new amour tier system into the game – cloth, leather and plate. It also adds a new map, some new weapons and some welcome improvements to weapon penetration.

Let’s begin by talking about the new spells. Fire lets you toss fireballs from your hand which – in VR – is an absolute blast. At range, they can be tricky to control, but you can direct them to a degree once released. You can also ‘charge’ weapons with fire, increasing their level of penetration. A regular dagger can’t penetrate plate armour, for example, but a dagger charged by fire can.

You can also – although this is still a work in progress – charge a stave with fire and use it to ‘shoot’ fireballs. It’s a little wonky but, combined with the other spells, really makes you feel like the ultimate wizard badass.

 

Gravity is the most ‘complete’ spell yet released. You can release a gravity blast from a single hand, staggering a foe, or a double blast from both hands to really send them flying. Charging both hands creates a localised anti-gravity field around the player, and merging the gravity spheres generated in each hand creates a powerful anti-gravity ‘bubble’ in which everything not you will fly into the air.

Like with fire and electricity you can also charge weapons with gravity and even use it to ‘grab’ npcs at range in a telekinetic force choke. Using both hands you can even rip the arms and legs from your foes. It’s probably a little too powerful, to be honest, but it’s up to you how much you want to abuse it.

Fire and gravity really change up the way you play and give you more creative tools to work with. They also, unfortunately, kind of make the electricity spell at little pointless – it can still be useful for stunning an opponent, but why would I bother when I can punch a double fireball into their face?

 

The new armour system also changes the way you play. Cloth armour is easy to deal with, and even leather to a degree – a strong thrust can still penetrate leather. But plate armour is more tricky, and this is where the spells (particularly fire) come into play. If you don’t want to use the spells though, there are other options.

Blunt weapons are suddenly more than just a fun novelty – they’re exceptionally useful against plate. You can’t pierce a plate chest but you can smash a war hammer into it, knocking your foe to the ground. Weapon precision also becomes far more important. Your foes aren’t totally protected by armour – arms, legs and faces are all weak areas to target.

And this is why the improvements to weapon penetration are so important. Previously, trying to stab a particular body part like an arm or leg would see a blade ‘bounce’ or ‘slide’ away from it. But now, every strike lands perfectly and every blade penetrates at the point of impact. This improvement really is key to also making the new armour system work because its primary weakness (ignoring spells) is precision attacks.

 

Since I picked up Blade & Sorcery it’s one of the few VR games I keep jumping back into for short burst sessions – and this excellent update will undoubtedly see that continue. Yes, there’s still not much of a ‘game’ here – it’s still just a combat sandbox in which you simply fight various waves of enemies on a handful of different maps. But the combat is so damn fun and – with this latest update in particular – gives you so much creative freedom that you never really get tired of it.

It’s the best VR combat I’ve played and, as I said in my review, it’s the standard by which other VR games should be judged. I guess the question is – where does Blade & Sorcery go from here? Improving the existing spells (fire and electricity) and perhaps adding a couple of more would be great. More enemy / armour variety and an expanded character creation tool. More weapons.

There’s a lot it can do, and that’s before we even consider the possible inclusion of some kind of campaign. I’m not expecting much, but I can totally see some kind of randomised ‘dungeon’ mode in which you progress, level up and earn loot to buy new weapons or abilities. Something like that though, if it even happens, is a long way off. But in the meantime, I’m going to keep playing and enjoying Blade & Sorcery for what it already offers.

Now Playing: Halo 2

I remember having some pretty mixed feelings about the Halo 2 campaign when it originally released in 2004. I don’t think I actually played it through more than once or twice. That was partly due to the game having some pretty bad technical issues on the original X-Box, with tediously long load times, poor frame rates and a lot of levels where textures simply didn’t load properly.

So I was curious to see how or if my impressions of the game would change with this PC release. Certainly, the technical problems are no longer a consideration, but what about everything else? Well, after completing Halo 2 again both in solo and co-op, I can say I still have pretty mixed feelings about it.

Halo 2, in many ways, is a more ambitious game than its predecessor. The plot is more complex, delving into the political structure of the Covenant and their religious hierarchy. The missions are split between playing as Master Chief and the Arbiter – an elite who comes to question the wisdom and the truth of those who command him.

 

Playing as the ‘enemy’ for half of the game was a pretty risky move, although they never actually put you in a situation where you’ll be fighting humanity as the Arbiter. The environments are more varied and complex, as are the enemies you fight. There’s a lot I can appreciate about Halo 2 as a game in terms of story and design but, unfortunately, I’m still a little disappointed by it.

Because the campaign is split, you end up feeling like you’re only getting half a story for both characters. The campaign, overall, is also shorter than the original game. The missions become increasingly linear as you progress, with both the Chief and the Arbiter stuck in what feels like an endless series of recycled corridors and copy-paste rooms.

Halo 1 had a similar problem, but not quite to this degree. The game feels increasingly rushed and hastily knocked together as you go which, given the well documented development issues of Halo 2, shouldn’t come as a surprise.

That said, the campaign does get off to a fantastic start. In fact, I’d say that Halo 2, despite its flaws, has some of the most enjoyable combat and levels of the entire series. But it does, sadly, turn into something of a slog as you progress, before eventually concluding in a way that’s not entirely satisfying.

 

Whilst I can understand some people preferring the classic visuals of Halo 1, I don’t see how anyone could prefer the classic visuals of Halo 2. My god, does the original game look ugly today. Thankfully, the remastered visuals are excellent, as are the updated, CGI cut-scenes.

The combat of Halo 2 is as fun and engaging as you’d expect and I certainly like the story aspects. But the game, overall, falls short of the original in terms of level design, length and providing a satisfying campaign.

There are moments of brilliance and some genuinely excellent levels, but Halo 2 is a game that was essentially pieced together in a hurry and that’s exactly what it feels like to play. In a way, it’s impressive how good the game is despite those developmental issues. It’s certainly worth picking up and playing if you liked Halo 1 or Reach, but don’t set your expectations too high.

7/10