Wolfenstein: The New Order

If there's one thing that gaming has done to death its WW2 and particularly Nazis because... who can resist killing Nazis? They're about as close as you get to pure evil in the real world but Wolfenstein: The New Order puts a new twist on things. Your protagonist is involved in a last ditch attack to try and stop the Nazi warmachine, gets knocked out - (actually, it's the third time he's KO'd but this time he's in a coma) and wakes up in the 1960s to find that the Nazis won.

The art design of this Nazi run alternate future is genuinely impressive - mixing the futuristic tech with the retro-60s look... Everything from the big clunky robots to the space shuttle, it all seems nicely coherent... and contributes nicely to that continuous oppressive feel the game has, although the subject matter helps in that regard too. This game doesn't shy away from some of the obvious issues when it comes to the Nazis - one of the missions even takes you to a labour camp but it doesn't really out-and-out confront it either but that works for it.

In this world, the Holocaust is only one of many atrocities visited upon the world by the Nazis - who nuked America, have ongoing labour camps (that are cremating people too weak to work) and are enacting genocide against Africa - the last real place to hold against Nazi rule but that's never really thrust in your face. It's a bit like Half-Life 2 in that respect, although it lets you read full news clippings and get actual audio logs - also, cutscenes.

As far as FPS go, this is rather old school. There are sections where stealth is possible and even advisable but there are other parts where the game flat out says - here's a bunch of Nazis, gotta kill 'em. That's actually entirely fair, you're not in Splinter Cell... you're a soldier, not a ninja... but the game does reward you  for different play styles, as well as giving you successive upgrades to guns... and shockingly, NO TWO GUN LIMIT!

Speaking of shocking - regenerating health is done rather different here. It's not just getting jam on your face or the screen going grey or red or whatever - you lose a wodge of health, it's gone until you get a health pack... of course, the game follows the recent trend of having protagonists who walk through firefights getting injured in cutscenes - in one scene, you're STABBED REPEATEDLY AND LEFT FOR DEAD... but you're fine. The next time that happens (yes, really - it's as bad as getting KO'd) it kind of cripples you... for a few seconds.

So, overall - a pretty fun game. It's a wonderful treat for old skoolers. It doesn't QUITE go back to old skool gaming but it at least pays homage and really, it's just a fun FPS. Which in this age of dull and dreary ones, is sadly exceptional.

Watch_Dogs wasn't worth the wait

You know what? There just isn't a lot to say about Watch Dogs. The best way to describe it is hollow.

At some point - perhaps - there might have been a good idea in there but all we've got in a very banal storyline (which doesn't even include the titular Watch Dogs) and the usual growly, angry and very stupid protagonist (although, obviously his stupidity is what's required to push the plot along) atop gutted GTA gameplay (and we're talking maybe Vice City and that's being generous) with a bunch of random stuff lifted from Assassin's Creed (including actual animations) tossed into the mix, with the addition of the hacking stuff which is mostly mini-games or used to make-up for the inability to fire weapons while driving (hence being sub-GTA as that's something it added several titles ago).

In fact, it's more likely that you can't shoot and drive as that would make the already somewhat extraneous hacking pretty much entirely irrelevant given that about half of your hacking abilities are for stopping cars. In actual combat, it's really only useful if the mooks are near the ubiquitous explodable items that are apparently integral to Chicago's infrastructure... and as soon as you go exploding something - there goes the element of surprise. Which means that - if you're playing on the highest difficulty, where all it takes to kill you is some harsh language - you're going to want to hold off doing that and just go for KOs or stealth kills if possible.

There ARE some interesting ideas used - finding the QR codes by getting the right camera... Using cameras to track down boxes... but the hacking mini-game itself gets old pretty fast... and really, it feels as if the game would have been better had it concentrated on large mission areas, rather than a whole open world. The experience is just so diffuse and while the game is pretty, it feels unfocused... although, with such a bland storyline - that's hardly surprising.

The worst part being that the game seems certain it has this complex mystery plot and when it finally does reveal what set in motion the events of the game, it's such a let down (and especially if you listen to the audio logs) that it makes it that much worse. It also has the bland main character - so we can all pretend we're him - who is surrounded by far more interesting characters... who really don't get nearly enough screentime.

Needless to say, the biggest question there is to ask when it's all finished is - what did they spend those extra eight months on? It certainly wasn't polish.