Game Reviews December 2017

Assassins Creed Origin

From: Ubisoft

Platform: Xbox One, PC, PS4

You slowly look to the left, spotting your target. Unable to fully scope the terrain you let your pet eagle scout the area from above and highlight enemies for you. Scaling the nearby building you wait for your target to get near. You dive towards him as a hidden retractable blade flicks out from your left arm and it pierces the base of his throat. Guards rush from all corners as you acrobatically run down a narrow alleyway dodging dozens of citizens and finally escaping over what seems an insurmountable wall. This 3rd person action adventure stealth game is pretty cool!

Set in Ancient Egypt during the Ptolemaic period (yes I Googled that) the game recounts the secret fictional history of real-world events. You can freely roam the open world environment and complete optional side quests but to progress through the excellent story you’ll need to complete the varied linear quests with set objectives. The is the 10th major game in the series so I was worried it might be getting stale. For the first 3-4 hours it’s slow going with a lot of character development but hang in there because the missions that follow are really really good. I’m about 14 hours in and so far it has been excellent. If you’ve never liked any of the games in the series this won’t change your mind but if you’ve enjoyed the series or are completely new to Assassins Creed this is a great purchase. Watch the trailer and be blown away.

Rating: 9/10

Forza Motorsport 7

From: Turn 10 Studios

Platform: Xbox One, PC

700 cars. 700 cars!! I’m never going to have the time to race in 700 cars. That’s a huge number. These aren’t just 100 cars with 7 slight variations to each – these are 700 unique vehicles. A few days back my go to car was a 1932 Ford De Luxe coupe. Today it’s the 2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS. Variety is the spice of life and I love this spice. Stunning graphics – tick. Excellent AI – tick. Lots of tracks – tick. Great handling – tick. Dynamic Weather – tick…what else… Oh who cares it ticks a lot of boxes.

The only reason I’ve given it 9.5 is because I don’t like handing out 10’s willy-nilly and the load times can be a little slow. In the race proper you’re usually up against a dozen AI players who are aggressive and prepared to take calculated risks, which makes for some thrilling racing. Online is very good too. Beating Australians on Bathurst in a Holden Commodore SS V8 ute painted in black with a silver fern is always fun. Man this game is good and on the Xbox One it looks amazing. Ok I’ve changed my mind I’m giving it a 10.

Rating: 9.5/10

Super Mario Odyssey

From: Nintendo

Platform: Nintendo Switch

For the last 20 years every time I start to play a new Mario game I always tell myself this is too cutesy for me… I’ve moved to bigger and better gaming… I need more grit in my games like Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto… then 8 hours later my controller’s battery has run out and I need to sit near a power plug charging my controller while I play. I’m tired and want to go to bed but I need to finish just one more level. Man these games are addictive. Mario is the king of platforming games and I struggle to understand how Nintendo hasn’t run out of ideas. The level design can sometimes be crazy but in a good way with unique and clever ideas that are just brilliant. Variety in almost every area genuinely surprised me. The biggest was “Cappy” who is your magical hat that allows you to possess/control most of the enemies you’ll encounter.

Cappy can also be your co-op partner so my six your old son takes control of the hat with a separate controller. My four year old daughter watches us play and thinks it’s “the best cartoon ever”. Playing video games while taking care of the kids. Now that’s gold. So we’ve finished the story but that just unlocks the game to go back and explore all the levels again, finding secrets we missed which will then open more new levels which I assume will be bloody tough but a hell of a lot of fun.