Recent reviews by BlokeChap

I have been a long-time fan of Warhammer 40,000, going back to the late '90s when I first got into the hobby (even then it felt expensive). Games based off the series have covered multiple genres, most of which have been various forms of strategy as befitting the subject matter, but have also covered RPG, FPS and even side-scrolling shooters and an upcoming racing game (still waiting on a cart racer though, c'mon Games Workshop let 40k be silly). Many of these have been classic games in their own right, like the various Dawn of Wars and Space Marine. When it come to FPS however, the pickings are fairly slim, Fire Warrior was a decent Halo clone and had some good voice acting and in hindsight the fairly unique approach of allowing you to play as a Xenos (a filthy T'au no less). The recently released Boltgun is a short but enjoyable retro-themed experience, but one thing I've always felt was lacking in non-strategy 40k game department were ones that let you be the poor bloody infantry of the Imperium; the Astra Militarum Imperial Guard. Darktide is so far the nearest thing we have to this and for that reason alone I was interested.

If you've played Fatshark's Vermintide you'll be very much at home here; you go into a map with 3 other players, fight hordes of enemies, and bugger off with hopefully your sanity in tow. As you can see I've clocked up a very unhealthy amount of time in this game and I've seen it from release, I've put off dropping a review simply because games of this nature are very much a changing beast when it comes to gameplay. One patch your favoured gun and chainsword combo is clearing the highest difficulties without a sweat and then the next it's been nerfed to oblivion for some arcane reason. As such I'll list my likes and dislikes based on the broad concepts:

- Gets you into the spirit of the universe, life is cheap, we're ignorant and proud of it, purge the unclean, for the Emperor.
- ...but also knows to have a little bit of fun with it, character interactions between players throughout the missions are laced with dark humour.
- Loads and loads of dialogue, even with all this time I've played, I still hear new interactions between different characters and classes.
- Great cast of characters, as mentioned above their interactions are a lot of fun.
- Extremely fun combat; slicing, dicing and burning heretic scum never felt so good.
- Just the right balance of challenge and BS to keep you going and make you feel rewarded (though the hardest difficulty is having bad team mates as always).
- Sound design is excellent, not just the voice acting, guns, swords and music (there're all fantastic) but the way the game gives you clues as to what sort of enemies are approaching and even when your gun is low on ammo.
- Each class has a distinct flavour and purpose, giving you a lot of variety in game-play approaches even within said class.
- Fantastic graphics, really get to see the dirt and grime of the Imperium up close like I've wanted to see for a while.
- Amusing loading screens.

- Only five character slots, I really want to try all the different backgrounds for the classes, no-one cares if your game is 80GB anymore.
- Story so far is somewhat spartan, this is a little to be expected given the nature of the game (online-only co-op shooter) but while the game has finally given us a big chunk of lore with the most recent event 'The Traitor's Curse' it's still a lot of drip-feeding and I keep asking when we're going to get some really big loredump or extra context to what we're doing (I imagine there'll be some other game or book or whatever that will do this, but... you know, that's a bit of a cop-out).
- Crafting system at present is better but not great, I've come to call it 'Los Hadrons' because it's a complete gamble if your spicy Boltgun will be excellent or if it will have Gloryhunter IV or some useless blessing on it.
- Paid cosmetics are rather expensive and have a fair number of reskins, but then again this is Warhammer so I've long accepted that c+++k is cheaper.
- We really really need a new Investigation and Repair mission map, how we only have one of each is just silly.
- It's perhaps a little bit silly that four dudes can carve through 2000 heretics and a few demons when the life expectancy of a Guardsman is 24 hours but hey ho we wouldn't have a game otherwise.
- Occasional Swedish Chef spaghetti code. Bork e bork.

Overall though - maybe it's because I'm a fan of the setting, maybe it's because I've got some good friends to play with - this is a really fun game, and watching it grow is like having a puppy with big paws. Definitely worth getting if you're a fan of the series, and if not then it's a pretty good way to really get how twisted the Imperium is. Best fun I've had with a game this year, very gory, and looking forward to the second year of the game!

Well at long last SEGA have managed to make a good Sonic game again.

Going for an open-world approach Sonic Frontiers is on the surface a different beast to previous titles but maintains many core aspects from before. One of the most crucial aspects when designing an open world game is making the movement and navigation fun for the player, this is something that Sonic Frontiers excels at, and moving across the five islands never feels like a chore.

Maps are populated by what are essentially little obstacle courses, which the player can manoeuvre through to collect an item or progress to another part of the island. Collecting is the bread and butter of the game, gears to unlock Cyberspace stages (essentially recycled 3D stages from Sonic Generations - though these can be circumvented by playing a fishing mini game if you have a complete aversion to the boost formula), keys from said stages to collect Chaos Emeralds, and character tokens to progress the story and to find out more about the island.

Movement is based on the previous boost formula but can be adjusted in the menu to suit your needs, though I found the default to work fine for me. Moving into an 'obstacle course' generally locks your movement into a single plane to help prevent you from speeding off (though you are able to get away if you want to in most cases), and the courses are normally made up of rails and platforming stages. If you've played previous 3D Sonic titles nothing here should be too radical. Honestly though most of the fun had is just zooming through the stages and taking in the scenery.

Combat is more involved than previous Sonic games and you can unlock combo moves through collecting tokens. Combat is actually pretty decent and makes a nice change of pace but like the obstacles you can easily avoid or run away from enemies if they're giving you a hard time.

The story has been praised by a lot of people and honestly it's pretty decent, there's certainly a big emphasis on mystery which I appreciate. There are a few bits that are meant to be taken seriously that come across as somewhat farcical though I'm sure a kid would enjoy it, and the writer *really* likes putting in references to previous games as if to make up for the lack of serious continuity in other Sonic titles. Unfortunately it's done to the point of distraction and in most cases the reference could easily be replaced by a more eloquent description or dialogue, rather than 'This thing is just like the time when we did that thing'. Overall it's nothing to write home about but it's not awful either, really it's just competent though it does do some things that make me roll my eyes that I won't go into due to spoilers.

Onto the bad then:
Denuvo is rubbish, please stop using it SEGA.
When you upgrade your speed and ring count with the Koco Elder you keep having to go through the same dialogue prompt over and over again. Which if you have a lot of Koco's with you means you'll literally spend minutes upgrading your stats. Conversely when upgrading your combat abilities with the Koco Hermit he'll do it right away. There really needs to be an option to upgrade your speed or ring count to the maximum you can go with the Kocos you have on you.
The cyberspace stages can feel really sluggish even when boosting which frankly feels absurd when you compare them to Generations and Unleashed where your eyeballs were in danger of melting. It feels like they course corrected far too much in the opposite direction.
Wall running can be a bit tricky but this might just be the way I've set up the control.
The game overall is perhaps a bit too easy, but that again is a relative thing.
The final boss is... well you'll see but it's dumb, bosses overall in this game a real step up from previous titles but the last one is a complete curveball.

Overall, I rate it a 7.5/10

It's the originals, but better. Definitely the definitive way to get into these games if you've never played them, or if you're a returning veteran like myself (where have the years gone?).

As far as remasters go, this is certainly the way to do it: improved UI, all missions available, bonus music tracks, redone graphics (including the option to go retro at the press of a button if you want some pixel goodness), upscaled resolution, bonus behind-the-scenes features... It's all there and it's most excellent.

If you're a fan of the originals, you've probably already considered getting this, and let me tell you it's worth it. If you're new to RTS games or didn't play the original Red Alert or Command and Conquer, well this is certainly a very accessible way to get into them. I strongly recommend this!

Dawn of War, what can I say? When the first game in the series first appeared in 2004 I was blown away, having previously played RTS games like Age of Empires, Star Craft, Red Alert and Total Annihilation to see an RTS with fully 3D models was incredible. As a Warhammer 40,000 fan the fact that it was set in the same bloody, grimdark universe was an extra treat. If you're reading this you probably already know how great this game is, but if you're new or unsure here's a quick breakdown.

Gameplay wise the main focus is on combat, base building and resource gathering is streamlined down to two resources that are gathered by taking strategic points around the map. This means that army building and fighting happens at a frantic pace, and encourages the player to go out and explore the map to seize critical point, thus gaining more resources in turn. Units can be upgraded and use special abilities which can turn the tide of battle. Overall it's fairly easy to learn, and each faction has different strengths and abilities/playstyles which make each one a unique experience.

For Dark Crusade the main campaign takes place on a strategic map, this is a departure from the story-driven single-player experience of the previous entries; with the player instead taking the planet Kronus province by province. In doing so gaining strategic bonuses like an extra attack, as well as upgrading their commander's wargear for bonuses as well as acquiring 'honour guard' units that the player starts battles with. This does mean most battles play like skirmish matches, which may be a disappointment for players who like more story-driven missions. However each enemy stronghold does have a unique challenge to it which does change things up and leads to some cool dialogues between the commanders.

In terms of presentation, it still holds up fairly well, while you can see the polygons on some of the units close up they're all accurate representations of the models from the hobby itself. Blood and gore are abound and watching the units actually engage in melee combat and finish their enemies off like a Mortal Kombat fatality never gets old (especially at a time when all RTS units would just 'hack' at each other like rock-em-sock-em robots). The in-game army painter while somewhat limited was very unique at the time and allowed you to customise the look of your armies, I have many fond memories making the most garish colours possible for each faction! The voice acting can get very melodramatic but it's fitting for the larger-than-life sci-fi fantasy epic that the universe is in. The music is absolutely top-notch too.

I could go on, but really if you haven't played a Dawn of War game and you're a 40k fan or an RTS fan you're doing yourself a disservice by not getting these. The 'first gen' Dawn of War games are unique in the series by the fact that they include base-building, as opposed to the more tactic-oriented Dawn of War II and III. There's also a big modding community for the original DoW games which gives you pretty much any faction or unit you'd want from the main hobby.

Honestly, this was much better than I expected. In fact along with Sonic Mania, SEGA have been pretty fanservice-y with us as of late, makes you wish *this* was their so-called 'Year of Sonic'. Better late than never though eh?

Sonic Forces takes a different turn from previous entries by returning to the 'boost' formula that was absent in Lost World and... some other game which doesn't need mention. Many will welcome its return while others will roll their eyes; to be honest I think a lot of Sonic fans minds will be already made up on this game. However I would implore all of them, and non-fans for that matter, to give this game a look. As I said, it's much better than what you'd expect. Plus it's fun, which never hurts either.

The plot of the game is probably the biggest change in recent Sonic titles; we are back to 'serious' plots now. The new villain, Infinite, is so gloriously edgy (especially in the Shadow missions which give him a bit of backstory; which is almost Metal Gear Solid levels of ridiculous), he cackles and broods even more than Shadow ever did. It's amazing he never says 'Nothing personell kid' frankly. Despite this, it never goes *too* far like Shadow, nor does it take itself way too seriously like 06. The game manages to both feel self-aware, but plays itself straight at the same time, it's hard to describe. However I will say I had good chuckle at the melodrama and there were a couple of moments where I was surprised with where they went. It's also rather nice to see Sonic's friends back, and taking more active roles (though I still don't know why Silver is there).

Graphics and presentation are decent, nowhere near as good as Unleashed, but not terrible. There are some really nice looking stages but also some fairly barren ones. Voice acting is pretty good all-around.

Of course, the gameplay is why we're here, and I will warn you that this game is somewhat short. If you ignore the side-missions you could probably beat it in less than 3 hours. However the real meat and bones for me when it comes to Sonic games is replaying the levels, to beat my own score and to get 100% completion. Fortunately, there is a lot of that on offer here, which along with the relatively cheap price makes it easier to recommend.

There are three styles of gameplay, four if you include the Tag stages, Sonic, Classic Sonic, and the Avatar stages. Now much has been made about the Avatar, at the start of the game you are given some super-basic options, basically sending the guy or gal out naked except for some gloves and a basic Wispon (Wisps are back, whether you like it or not). However there are a lot of unlockable pieces of kit to customise your character, and while I normally pour scorn on 'Original Characters' I won't lie, I had a bit of fun trying to remake Manic the Hedgehog from Sonic Underground (unsuccessfully, but maybe the right hairpiece will come up). The Avatar plays in the same manner to Modern Sonic, sans the boost ability, they do however have the wispon, a variety of which are available and give you certain abilities which does offer a fair bit of replay value. Classic Sonic is classic Sonic except he can do the drop dash from Mania. In terms of control for the most part it's pretty good, though Classic does take a little getting used to (in short, the physics are not the same as the Megadrive ones), but he could easily not be in this game. Tag combines Sonic and the Avatar together and it's probably the best fun overall. Level design is fairly short, some levels being only a couple of minutes long, however there are a few branching pathways, though nowhere near the same amount as Generations.

Which brings us to the final bit, is it as good as Gens? Sadly, no, it does feel like a step back in many ways when it comes to the level design, which is a shame. However while there are shortcomings there was nothing really frustrating on offer here, my only real point of criticism is that the game is too easy, though that does overlook the whole 100% aspect mentioned earlier. In which case there is a lot of gameplay on offer here as you try different routes and perfect your timing in order to get all those Red Rings or up your score to S-Rank.

Overall, I'd give it a 6.5/10; I had fun playing it, but it's not great. If you're a fan of 'boost' Sonic games then give it a go. If future Sonic games were this workmanlike the franchise would be in a better place (nary a glitch to be found), but more oopmh is needed in order to win back the gaming audience (though Mania has instilled lots of good will and this game, while nothing special, isn't another crash and burn which is helpful). The Avatar is actually really fun to play as and customise, and you will surely find ironic or unironic enjoyment from the latter. HOPEFULLY Sonic Team can build on the what they've done here, however knowing Sonic Team they'll probably make a Shadow FPS game or just try and copy Mario Odyssey. Also, *never* put classic Sonic in a modern Sonic game again ST, it's just not working, give that to the Mania people and concerntrate on *Modern* Sonic's gameplay and level design!

The most 'Elementary' Sherlock game from this series. I'm really not sure if I should recommend this or not because for all intents and purposes it's not a 'bad' game when taken on its own. It's just so truncated and basic that after the previous entries it feels like a let-down. Now I don't usually take a dig at consoles and console gamers seeing as I'm one myself, but this is a very good example of a series 'dumbing down' for a wider console audience.

So what's the problem? The problem is that the game, or rather the puzzles within are far too basic and self-explanatory. Whereas previous entries in the series would have you jotting down notes, figuring out patterns and trying to read between the lines this game for the most part doesn't really get any deeper than remembering some symbols in order to figure out a maze. Most of the puzzles can be solved without much thought and the way the game indicates that you've examined everything in an area removes most of the challenge that the previous games had. I could go on but most of the time I felt more like I was playing an interactive movie with some occasionally tricky puzzles. However most of the time you go to a place, talk to someone and check everything you need to check, and then get told to go on and do some other task, look for more clues and then make a deduction. Occasionally you have some action segment or will get to control another character but nothing that's mentally taxing. In short, it's a very liniear experience.

It's not all bad though; the presentation is top notch for the most part and the interface is very clear. You can customise the way Holmes dresses though this is only relevant twice in the game as I recall. Voice acting is good and you are given a wide array of mysteries to solve. Two new features that are pretty interesting are the abilities to 'read' a character by looking over their appearance; a nice little feature that helps you gain clues and dialogue options as well as being very 'Holmesan'. As well as the deductions for each case being open-ended, you have multiple conclusions to each case but unfortunately due to the very prosaic nature of the puzzles and clue finding it's pretty obvious which is the right choice for the most part.

Overall, as I said at the start, it's not a bad game per say, just rather dull and straightforward. It's a shame really, because the last game, 'The Testament of Sherlock Holmes' was a good blend of tricky puzzles and some more action-focused sequences. Why they didn't carry on with that is the real mystery.

Reccomended if you want a basic, easygoing experience, not so reccomended if you wanted something more challenging. Either way get it on sale if you have to but it's certainly skippable.

Fun little game, very atmospheric and while a little on the short side does provide a very enjoyable experience. If you're a fan of squad turn-based game or H.P. Lovecraft's works then this is for you. Shame there aren't more games like this.

On the negatives, the UI is a bit clunky and occasionally the music will cut out, but other than that for the asking price it's a very enjoyable if tough experience.

Fast, bloody, and bloody brilliant. RtCW is a fantastic blend of fast-paced shooter action, stealth and exploration. Levels are huge and offer many secrets and the occasional puzzle, enemies are tough, fairly intelligent and come in many varieties. Missions vary from all-out assault to sneaking around and stabbing guards in the back. I could go on, but really if you like your classic fast paced FPS action games like Doom or Duke Nukem but also appeciate a bit of stealth then you should really take a look at this.

The original, and cheap.

For £3 this is very good value for money; if turn-based strategy is your thing that is. Fight across the USA using an arsenal of modern military gear including some prototype unique units, capture strategic points and cause or prevent collateral damage along the way. There are some nice powers avaliable to each side to help turn the tide; and any game where you can napalm Detriot or Nashville (acts which bizarrely increase your 'evil-o-metre') is a good one in my book.

On terms of negatives there isn't too much depth here to be had, though the maps you fight over do stay destroyed meaning you can have some serious wastelands developing over contested states. The other problem is that infantry as in so many games of this type are useless outside of being cannon fodder. It's very hard to be evil in game, which limits your special abilities somewhat, so you might want to go into the game's text file and make some adjustments. Also be sure to save frequently becasue there is a tendancy to crash.