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I know, I know, this review is very late, but then again, I know a lot of people who are yet to pick up this game, so to you guys, this may be helpful! (The short of it: It’s great, try it.)

Dishonored is a first person, stealthy adventure/RPG game, set in a Steam-punk inspired era and world. You play Corvo, a guy who was framed for something, who then spends the game taking down people and attempting to get his life back. I’m keeping that broad so as not to spoil the fun. How you play the game is largely up to you, you can stealthily take people down, or none lethally silence them, whilst you get done what needs to be done. You have access to a range of weapons and methods, and also some strange and intriguing magical abilities/perks.

Although the game itself is fairly linear, it is very easy indeed to become completely immersed in the world, the attention to detail is excellent, the sound design compliments the dark and eerie feel too. Whilst playing, I can clearly see many many influences, Half Life 2, Bioshock, Deus Ex and Oblivion all spring to mind, but Dishonored still sits aside as a unique game.  It’s strengths being the combat, and choice of combat methods, the art style, and the way in which, at just the right moments, the main story takes a backseat and the focus becomes on the smaller side stories you create with each new mission.

The magical abilities are great advantages, but rather than leave that unbalanced, whilst using them, neither your health nor your mana regenerates ..powerful as they are, your resources are scarce, so missions require much thinking, and the game quickly becomes immensely challenging. I’ve replayed missions lots of times as I just get stuck, but to Dishonored’s credit, I still find myself returning for more.

Dishonored isn’t your “all bells and whistles” blockbuster, but it borrows from many, and all are good ones, the more I play, the more I genuinely hope people will buy this game and try it out, I worry that the majority of gamers have been reduced to buying sequels and very rarely try new franchises or indie titles, this rewards those who still enjoy a surprise.

My only gripes are with game mechanics; context-sensitive actions such as moving onto ledges and opening doors, require too much shuffling around for the right prompt to appear. Frustrating at best, fatal at worst. The AI is inconsistent in some missions,  spotting me a mile away some times, and in other contexts, I’m almost standing next to them and they don’t bat an eyelid.

Even with the weaknesses in mind, the gameplay satisfaction in Dishonored is something I haven’t felt, to this degree,  in a very long time, and I thoroughly enjoy the time I spend with the game.

General Scoring

Wildcards

Total Score: 84%

Hello and welcome to October, otherwise known as 3DS month here on the blog. We kick off my first ever hardware review in the shape of the 3DS XL. One important point to remember here, is that I did not own a 3DS, I jumped from a DS Lite to the 3DS XL. So let’s get started !

What I like about it.

• You know what surprised me? I actually like how big it is. It makes me feel like I have purchased something worth all the pennies, and less like I’ve stolen a 5 year olds toy. This is definitely a console for adults, or at least older kids than I actually see with 3DSs now. The larger screens really make everything that little bit more playable too, I find the games to be slightly more immersive as a result. It’s heavier which isn’t so good, but is much sturdier as a result, which I like.
• Backwards compatibility, I love love love, this feature in any console, but since I don’t tend to spend money on portable gaming unless I’m off on holiday…being able to play all my old DS titles is a great little bonus.
• Glasses free 3D! As a specs wearer, this is a truly awesome feature, and works well in the majority of titles for the console.

What needs a little work.

• The cameras I think were what disappointed me most, far inferior to even the most basic of mobile phone cameras with regards to standard picture quality, but I guess the ability to take 3D pictures will be a winner with some.
• Battery Life: 3.5-6.5 Hours of playtime with 3DS games and 6-10 with DS games…not enough for me I’m afraid.

Unless you count Jet Set Radio Future, and frankly you shouldn’t really as that was quite some time back, Snowboarding games are really the only sports games I play. (Racers I feel are a genre all of their own due to the variance within them, sims, rally, arcade racers etc.) So imagine my disapointment when I bought my PS3, 4 years ago and there was a distinct lack of the games available. Since then, there has been Shaun White Snowboarding, don’t bother with that one, trust me…but alas, all is forgiven as we finally welcome SSX to the table!

Yes, I’ve played previous titles, and I played SSX Tricky to death, this means I had high hopes about this release, a little too high that once the game dropped through the door, I thought I may be disappointed. I can happily report I am not, and have played so much of this game that I have decided to dedicate my first mini series to it. So let’s jump into the review, and look out for some hints and tips in the coming weeks to help you make the most of the time you spend on the peaks.

In “campaign” mode we have 9 deadly descents, the mountains you board down are mapped from real ranges using Google Earth and NASA data, which is rather cool. In each descent you experience 3 game modes, Race It (a race to the bottom of the mountain) Trick It (Highest scoring trickster takes 1st place) and Survive It, a round which I guess would be considered the boss battle, only it doesn’t contain a boss, it’s just up to you to use equipment, perks, and skills to survive harsh environments, and make it down to more stable ground, these challenges include trees, rocks and avalanches to navigate.

Explore mode allows you to explore and race/trick countless paths down various mountains, there are literally dozens and dozens of different drop points and events here.

Ridernet is a clever little feature akin to AutoLog in EA’s more recent racers. It tracks yours and your friends progress through the game by way of times and scores for various events. It’s great to login to a new challenge of beating your friends latest time or trick score in places as vastly different as Africa and the Arctic regions. RiderNet however doesn’t make up for the biggest problem I have with the title, and that’s the lack of any realtime multiplayer. So even though my friends out-trick me, I feel confident I can out race them, however the game lacks the ability to login and invite your buddy for a race down Mt.Fuji. This isn’t a massive loss, as the game really is a great one, however it’s pretty cheeky of EA I think to make this an online pass game. So if you pick up a used copy of the game, to take it online in a RiderNet sense you have to stump up £7 for the online pass on the store, but once paid you don’t actually get to play online with your friends.

If you can overlook the cheeky business side of EA, my only other gripe with the game is the difficulty, now I’m not that great at games, so for me, this is a challenge, but a great one.  However I know many quite new to the franchise who find the moves hard to learn and the controls hard to master.  I’m hoping this doesn’t put you off, it shouldn’t, as I believe you are rewarded for your persistance and practice.

To the good points now and there’s several…A few old faces from previous games show up, but there’s also new riders to try out, there’s lots of customisation to your characters, with mods and accessories ranging from the pretty to the essential to survive. There’s badges to collect via the completion of various challenges, and pick up a GeoTag (large snowflake) and place it down somewhere hard to find and get lots of points for your efforts.

The fact that the mountains are mapped from real data I think is also great. A game that I believe was worth the wait, it genuinely seems that they put in the effort to make this something a little special in a genre that often lacks such a thing. The best element of all though has to be the soundtrack, this is hands down one of the best and most varied soundtracks in a game of all time, I didn’t think they would better the SSX Tricky soundtrack, but this one is definitely up there with it. (There’s also the ability to add your own custom playlist of music, should the tracks not be your kind of thing.)

Overall, it was a long time coming SSX, but for being this awesome, all is forgiven.

General Scoring

Wildcards

Total Score: 88%