After installing a massive 9GB day one patch, hundreds of thousands of Xbox One owners booted up 343’s newest title, Halo 5: Guardians. 343 had a lot to make up for after the release of Halo 4. The multiplayer community in the previous game was bored with the content after a mere two months. At the same time the story was incredibly predictable and gameplay was repetetive excluding a couple new bells and whistle. I personally have not been a fan of the series since Halo 3 (which is easily one of the two best titles in the series), yet Halo 5: Guardians surprisingly has changed my feelings towards the series. This game, by no means is as good as Halo 3, but it certainly plays well for an FPS. Take this how you will, but Halo 5 does not play or feel like a traditional Halo game. I thought it was kind of odd to even associate the gameplay with the series, that’s how different it is. Whether that is a good or a bad thing is up to the player.

For starters, Halo 5 looks great. The assets from the previous games that have been reused in previous games have been completely redone, providing a much needed face lift for the franchise. According to my El Gato capture device the game runs natively (yes that’s a real term) around 900p and is up scaled to 1080p. This was planned by 343 in order to have a close to 60FPS so the shooting mechanics seemed as clean and smooth as possible when compared to how choppy Halo 4 was. However, the game is by no means a precise and surgical 60FPS that one can see in a title such as Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, the lowest my El Gato capture device ever read on the game was around 48 frames per second during larger scale battles. This honestly didn’t matter that much to me because I was surprised by the visual quality of the effects in the game. Also, the moment to moment shooting normally stays around 55-60 FPS, so you will notice when the drop occurs but it doesn’t take that much away from the quality of the game. I just would like for developers to stay true to their promises since 343 explained that the reason why they down scaled the resolution of the game was in order to have the game locked at 60 FPS, this game is not locked at 60 FPS.

Back to the effects, Halo 5 sounds and looks great. 343 stepped away from the sepia tint that they used for Halo 4 and instead replaced it with a vibrant palette of colors. The mere amount of variety when it comes to the hue of the different primary colors used in this game made me pause at first because this is easily the best looking Halo game (and that is putting the fact that it is the newest iteration in the franchise aside). The sound design from gunshots to the sound of a Banshee exploding all sound genuine and honestly realistic. Each gun makes distinctive sounds which are varied enough and recognizable enough that players can tell what kind of weapon enemies are attacking them with before they even see the enemy. This is incredibly useful on harder difficulties since every bit of intelligence on your enemies can help you succeed in battle. I am just glad that 343 didn’t decide to lazily cut and paste sound bits from the same weapon and apply it to all guns that fire bullets or plasma.

Contrary to what the marketing behind this game might have informed you about the story of Halo 5: Guardians, is the fact that you hardly play as the series protagonist, The Master Chief, at all. In fact you only play as Chief and his friends from Blue Team only in 3 out of the 15 missions in the entire game. This angered me since earlier this year, 343 claimed that Halo 5 would follow two stories interwoven together. One following Master Chief and Blue Team, while the other follows Spartan Locke and Fireteam Osiris while they attempt to hunt down the former. To “Hunt For The Truth.” Instead players are given a campaign and plot twist reminiscent of Metal Gear Solid 2. In Metal Gear Solid 2, the game was marketed as the next stage in the protagonists story, Solid Snake, instead players realized that they were instead going to play as a new character, Raiden for the majority of the story. This game was marketed as the next title in Master Chief’s story yet I felt like this was more about Spartan Locke and his crew. I wouldn’t mind this if 343 actually attempted to flesh out the characters of Fireteam Osiris. Sure players are given short dossiers on each member of the team, but none of these facts or backgrounds are expresses successfully in the game.

The use and explanation for Blue Team, Master Chief’s long time friends and comrades is also set up and executed in the game with an incredibly sloppy approach. To the unaware players, Blue Team is the codename for the Master Chief and his fireteam. Originally comprising around sixteen Spartan IIs, Blue Teams roster was decreased due to the deaths of over half of its members before or during the Fall of Reach which takes place earlier in the series timeline. Blue Team, like all of the other Spartan II supersoldiers were kidnapped as children in order to be augmented and trained into the  most effective fighting force in the history of humankind. The relation ship between the Master Chief and the other three Spartans, Linda-058, Frederic-104, and Kelly-087 is reminiscent of a real brotherhood that one would find in real military units. Halo 5 does an absolutely atrocious job of attempting to flesh this dynamic out. There is literally one line said by Buck of Fireteam Osiris (voiced by Nathan Fillion) during level 4 of the campaign that explains to the unaware gamer that Blue Team has completed more operations than any other fireteam and that they are a family. That’s it, nothing else is mentioned in game to further explain the actually incredible dynamic between these characters.

Multiplayer in Halo 5 has proved to me that old franchises can be successfully reinvented in order to appeal to a larger audience and to remain relevant to gamers. Halo 5 currently features two forms of multiplayer combat, Arena & Warzone. Arena is essentially the gamemodes a veteran player would expect to find in a Halo game. Gamemodes such as Slayer, Free for All, and my personal favorite SWAT are all under this category. They all have a new twist however, these gamemodes are limited to 4v4 and are incredibly fast paced. This is partially due to the fact that gameplay in Halo 5 is fast paced and constantly moving. These Arena gamemodes also have a new ranking system to them that is incredibly similar to that of MOBA games such as League of Legends & DOTA 2. I felt that this added a much needed competitive nature to the game and would make it appeal to more hardcore gamers. This was needed in my opinion because Halo typically has an incredibly low learning curve and normally lacks any need of skill at the surface. These new additions of jump jets and cambering along with dashes help raise the learning curve for this franchise in a well executed fashion. The other gamemode that I have been playing non stop is Warzone. Warzone at its core can be described as Titanfall mixed with Battlefield with a touch of MOBA elements. Warzone puts two teams against each other on a large map that supports close combat infantry engagements along with large scale vehicle combat. The two teams fight over control for 3 different points, typically two armories and a center stronghold. By controlling these points the teams gain points. The objective is to be the first team to reach 1,000 VP points. Simple enough right? Wrong. Along with worrying for the other team, players must also worry about incredibly strong Covenant or Promethean enemies that will spawn in at different locations at different times during the battle. If a team manages to kill one of the computer controlled opponents they will normally earn a large amount of VP points that will be added to their team’s total and will also more than  likely gain a powerful weapon from the now dead enemies inventory. These along with several other features that I will let players discover on their own adds some more complicated elements to the gamemode.

I found Halo 5 to be exponentially more enjoyable than Halo 4. That isn’t saying much though considering how much of a dumpster fire Halo 4 was. Halo 5’s new elements breath life into a struggling franchise and helped it become the best selling Halo game of all time. Whether this is due to the fact that it is the first exclusive shooter on the Xbox One or the fact that it is available to a much wider audience since it is rated T for Teens and not M is up to your interpretation and analysis. Halo 5 is by no means the best game in the series but it does succeed in reinventing itself but it also loses some of its original appealing factors by doing so. None the less Halo 5 is miles ahead of Call of Duty Black Ops 3 (Do not expect a review any time soon for that pitiful “game”) and proves to be an enjoyable experience when you put the flaws in the story aside.

Verdict: 8.8/10

Frantically jumping from seat to seat, the vertigo setting in, I panic as I make my way up the train. Everything inside the train begins tumble out the back into the valley below as the train inches closer to tumbling off with Drake inside of it. His leaps become more sporadic and desperate as the realization of the dire situation begins to fully sit in. After several more heart stopping leaps of absolute faith I make my way off of the cliff face onto relatively solid ground. This retelling of one of my favorite moments from Uncharted 2 in the Nathan Drake Collection. 

The Collection follows, the charismatic adventurer and thief, Nathan Drake on three escapades that lead him and his friends (and enemies) across the world. The Collection itself is actually three games remastered through the same engine Naughty Dog used in The Last of Us when it comes to visuals. The three games remastered are Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. All three of the games have an average Metacritic score of over a 91/100 and Uncharted 2 was the official Game of the Year in 2009. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception was given perfect scores from IGN and Gamespot.  Overall these games are action packed almost cinema esque adventures. Yet, what makes them stand apart from the average action adventure game?

Naughty Dog, the game’s developer is no stranger when it comes to making noteworthy franchises. They in fact are one of the few developers that has made noteworthy games in three completely different genres. Crash Bandicoot was a phenomenal platformer on the PS1 and PS2. On the other end of the spectrum The Last of Us cleaned shop and won Game of the Year for being a story driven survival-horror game and is regarded by many as being one of the best games ever made. Uncharted at its core is an action adventure third person shooter. However, it also has fantastic platforming puzzles and over the top cinematic gun play experiences as well. Yet, it accomplishes this in a light hearted manner. Not a single Uncharted game has been rated M for mature audiences (although the upcoming Uncharted 4 might be). All of this is combined with perfect voice casting and acting. Nolan North absolutely lives this role when it comes to his performance as Drake. The characters in this series ranging from the father like figure Victor “Sully” Sulivan to the witty journalist and love interest Elena Fisher are also all expressed through expressive performances. The Villains in general are well written. So just from a story perspective, the series has an incredible advantage over other games in the genre.

Now to break apart and describe the various kinds of gameplay one will find in this collection. Each game does a fantastic job of incorporating a controls tutorial into the actual story in each game. For example, the basic mechanics of how to climb and maneuver a 3D spectrum are introduced to the player while they are attempting to climb out of the cliff side train in the opening scene of Uncharted 2. Climbing, whether it be inside an ancient monastery in Nepal to a warehouse in London, inhabits a large portion of the gameplay. Puzzles at times have to be solved through jumping to specific points in a ruin that would be unreachable by any other means. Shooting mechanics are also added to the climbing functions. One moment Drake may be climbing up the side of a burning apartment building in Nepal and may need to shoot a mercenary from the ledge of said building. It shouldn’t have to be stated that Drake cannot wield a two handed weapon such as an AK47 or a M4A1 during these encounters but I felt like I should at least leave that tip in here. The climbing portions and verticality of what would be tedious single planed environments in other shooters is essentially refreshed with the ability to scale the environment in order to get the drop on your enemies.

The moment to moment gameplay centers around run and gunning from cover to cover. As stated earlier, these do not suffer from being repetitive due to the added verticality in the games. You are never simply fighting enemies on a level environment. This is thanks to the level design and creative directors at Naughty Dog. The screenshot above is from Uncharted 2: Among Thieves during a boss battle with a Hind Attack Gunship. Most games would put the player in a courtyard or inside a building. Instead this fight takes place on several burning rooftops in a city in Nepal. The player is forced to frantically jump from building to building, utilizing any weapon they can find in order to take down the chopper. All while dodging gunfire from not only the chopper but also rooftop enemies. The weapons themselves in these games are what one would expect in an adventure game of this genre. The player has the ability to pick (in many cases off the corpses of enemies) weapons ranging from simple nine millimeter handguns to RPGS and Grenade Launchers. There are also usually a variety of each class of weapon Drake may find. In other words there are normally two to three different kinds of assault rifles or pistols to pick from. Some players may favor a classic revolver that deals a lot of damage but lacks ammunition capacity. Others may prefer a semi automatic Colt .45. The decision is up to the player and will drastically call for different play styles. However, the game does force players to part ways with their preferred weapon sometimes during specific encounters. For example you simply cannot beat a tank with an assault rifle, so you are forced to use an RPG. These moments feels necessary though, so I personally did not mind them that much.

Visually, all three games look fantastic. Obviously the best change visually from the original to this remastering is the graphical upgrade for Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, the first game. Seeing Nathan Drake being rendered through the same process in all three games in the remastering truly blends all three games into a seemingly transition-less story. I find it enjoyable to play several chapters in each game without really noticing any basic changes to the graphics. The special effects from everything from an explosion to the candid torchlight deep underground all seem incredibly polished and organic. Organic in the sense that the effects seem to be all unique in the specific encounters. An explosion inside a cave simply doesn’t behave or look the same as an explosion that occurs on top of a roof. The sounds design in the game is also incredibly noteworthy. I find the attention to detail, such as the ringing that occurs after an explosion that goes off in close proximity to Drake a nice touch to theses games that sound and look almost like a movie. I can best equate these games to a modern take on an Indiana Jones style adventure game.

The Uncharted series is a must play franchise for any player new to the franchise or a series veteran that seeks a nostalgic trip through incredible set environments and intriguing stories. The franchise has literally never looked better. The shere amount of content a player recieves for $60 is an absolute steal. Three outstanding games that received countless awards for the price of one, who honestly wouldn’t want to play these fantastic games found only on Playstation? I personally cannot wait for the next iteration in the series: Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End which comes out next spring but until then, this Collection will suite my cravings for the franchise.

Verdict: 9/10

Rain, high speed, stunning visuals and super fast cars. What more could a car enthusiast want? This year marks the 10th anniversary to the first Forza game. To mark this great milestone the developers over at Turn 10 Studios have created this phenomenal addition to the franchise: Forza Motorsport 6. In my opinion this is the first iteration in the franchise that truly feels next gen. For those unaware theForza franchise has been exclusive to the Xbox platform, this is the second game to be solely developed for the Xbox One (The other being Forza Motorsport 5). Yet, this game finally delivers in my opinion when it comes to the amount of content and the overall feel of the game.

The Forza series at its core is a racing simulator. The RoundUp’s very own Editor and Chief, Blake Delong ’16, describes it as “very visceral and tactile experience due to the audio and physics.” This is a practical interpretation of the series. Every turn of the steering wheel, just the slightest touch of the breaks has a domino effect on the track. In other words this is by no means a casual racing game. Sure the game gives the player the option to set racing difficulties to novice and even allows players to rewind in real time to correct an awful turn or pass. However, if a player wants to be any good at this franchise, the player has to know their own limits when it comes to reaction times and the limits of their current car. These are the minimal requirements to being mediocre at this game. The mere attention to detail Turn 10 Studios put into this iteration is mind boggling. For example, cars have less grip at night due to a cooler tarmac, this tiny detail is even reflected in the gameplay. Another small detail is how water pools in certain parts of the track, this creates spots of low traction. The developers went to each circuit and mapped all of the low points on every single track in order to provide this realistic aspect. Combining all of these features with countless others provide the foundation to a solid racing experience.

Now to the actual racing in Forza Motorsport 6. The typical race features a grid start with up to 24 other racers. The majority of your opponents are the “drivatars” or avatars of other real racers in the game’s community. These can even at times be your friends if they have ever played a Forza game. Most races require intense concentration, this is due to the shear havoc a driver can encounter on a circuit. These range from simple 2 lap sprints to endurance races that require several hours to complete. The first type of race mentioned is incredibly easy for new players to jump into. Meanwhile, the latter of which call for far more experience and general knowledge of racing. Other details and effects that do not effect short races such as tire wear, fuel consumption, and dynamic weather all contribute to the greater difficulty in these endurance races. Tires losing grip will more than likely be the first challenge racers will encounter on the circuit. This will force players to literally get better or quit this portion of the game altogether. Tires in this iteration of Forzaabsolutely matter. Fuel honestly isn’t that much of a problem, if you as the player notice that your fuel gauge is low, simply enter the pit stop. Yet, deciding which lap one should stop for gas on is entirely up to the player. My suggestion is you enter the pit stop during a long race sooner rather than later. This allows you some time to catch up to the other racers.

The most difficult aspect when it comes to racing in Forza Motorsport 6 is building experience and mastering the ability to drive in heavy rain. Rain is absolutely unforgiving in Forza. A powerful horsepower filled beast such as the Audi R8 or Pagani Zonda can be reduced to a chunk of scrap metal by simply breaking to much or too little in the rain. The team over at Turn 10 Studios as previously stated went to each individual track and got the precise measurements for the track. This allowed them to properly place where on the track pools of water occur in heavy rain fall. These pools can honestly be a racers worst nightmare since they can lead to hydroplaning and a loss of stability. To make things worse, the player must also watch out for other drivers that may hydroplane themselves and then obscure or block the track. In other words player awareness should be double what it normally is in non wet conditions. Possibly the worst conditions to race in are rainy tracks at night. My experience’s during those kind of races were by no means pleasant ones. This added difficulty in turn tested my abilities as a racer and proved to be absolutely worth it. After mastering (in my opinion) racing in wet conditions, racing in dry conditions proves to be second nature and even easier than before.

Challenges make a return in this iteration of Forza. These challenges are a decent break from the typical racing. One of my favorite challenges puts the player in a super car and they are tasked with passing as many cars as possible. I personally find this enjoyable considering the cars you end up passing are either old VW Bugs or old Fiats. These challenges are also where players can find endurance races and challenges in exotic cars. The challenges as a whole are a nice piece of additional content to a game that already has a fantastic single player experience. The multiplayer is more of the same that the single player is but the drivatars are replaced by actual players so it is nothing ground breaking. However, I find that this isn’t a bad thing to the slightest degree. In fact it is nice that the developer didn’t half make a crummy multiplayer system.

Forza Motorsports 6 is probably my favorite installment in the series or at least ties with Horizon 2. The precise and calculative gameplay is only matched by Gran Turismo but that series is yet to have a next gen installment. If what I have said earlier doesn’t convince you to get this game as a racing fan what I am about to say will. I LITERALLY BOUGHT an Xbox One to play this series. My Xbox One is my Forza & Halomachine. In other words, I was willing to pay the money to just be able to play these two game franchises because they are that good.

Verdict 9.1/10

For those unaware, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is the last game in a TWENTY EIGHT year long blockbuster series (Well atleast the last for the series creator). I highly suggest reading my preview for this game simply because to understand this game and review, you need to know what the heck is going on (you can find it here). I will attempt however to summarize the setting of the game as quickly as possible.

 

Bent metal, stunning visuals, and heart racing gameplay: Few words can describe the sheer amount of detail put into Project CARS, a racing simulator developed by Slightly Mad Studios. At first glance, the game would appear to have been made by a major publisher’s developers such as EA or Ubisoft. However, the reality is that Project CARS was developed by a small team whose origins can be traced back to Need For Speed: Shift. Slightly Mad Studios, which is based out of the U.K. and is comprised of just over 100 employees. When juxtaposed with the larger developers that can range from 350-800 employees, this number seems relatively tame. If this game proves anything about AAA game development, it is that beautiful games do not require a ludicrous amount of employees and funding. This alone drew my attention to Project CARS.

Racing simulators, for those unaware of the specifics of the genre, attempt to encapsulate a realistic approach to racing. Easily distinguishable from more arcade racers such as Midnight Club or Burnout, racing sims convey the more serious aspects of circuit racing. Other noteworthy racing sims are the Forza & Gran Turismo franchises, yet these two are isolated to either the Xbox or Playstation platforms. Project Cars, on the other hand, is available on multiple platforms from the PC to the WiiU. Obviously, the most unique experience will be on the PC, which is my platform of choice for the game. At the same time, however, I am incredibly satisfied by this small team of developers’ ability to put out their game on so many platforms (the Thursday release on the PC was also a nice change).

From the moment that the game is booted up, the visuals are the first aspects of the game that stand out the most. I was met with near photo-realistic quality. This amount of detail and hard work put in by the team absolutely accomplished its goal of putting the player behind the wheel of a super car. In other words, everything from the rain drops running down the side of the cars to the unique shadows and lighting exemplify and champion the art of artistic game design (photo-realistic comparison is above). Another small detail that was quite enjoyable was the physics behind leaves and debris on the track. Leaves mask the trail and rush of air behind your vehicle, almost like a small tornado. The amount of time dedicated in order to accomplish such a small feat truly displays this hardworking team of developers’ pride in its work. This alone set them apart from more “mainstream” developers.

Graphics in racing games can only help polish the games’ end result. Gameplay ultimately makes or breaks racing games. That being said, I have found my time withProject CARS incredibly difficult but rewarding. All actions and shifts of the steering wheel have drastic effects on the handling of the cars. The slightest wrong twitch can send your priceless car into the side of an unwelcoming wall or fellow racer. Project CARS manages to break down the aspects of racing to almost an art, which sounds poetic but is nonetheless true. Rain, which normally is a minor setback in other racing games, truly can screw the player over if the wrong set up is used. The types of tires, break pressure, and even the temperature of the breaks all affect the player’s ability to navigate in the rain. Driving without rain in this game is already difficult enough at times, and rain just makes Project CARS even more realistic and difficult. Ironically, I found the driving mechanics in the game to be not only fair, but also quite easy to understand. The game explicitly explains to the player what different tunes and options on your car will result in on the track. The game does not hold the player’s hand. Rather, it attempts to guide the player in explaining how things such as qualifier rounds and grid set ups can affect your performance. The game itself is far more intuitive and has far more depth than it lends itself to at first glance.

The cars themselves in the game are also a specific asset when it comes to the gameplay as a whole. In some races, the player will be racing against 20 identical cars that only vary when it comes to finite tuning adjustments. In other races, the player will pick a specific car from a preset class. Regardless, the game’s fair level playing field of giving each racer the same fully upgraded car truly helps distinguish an average racer from a pro. Players can’t depend on better upgrades or cash to pay for better parts. Instead, the skill of the player ultimately proves to be the defining factor between finishing first or last. The game accomplishes these fair playing field conditions by placing the player essentially on a racing team sponsored by a group. In these leagues that the teams compete in, all cars are the same, and all assets are shared. The tournaments themselves occur on a calendar reminiscent of my pro player on Fifa or any other sports game. Races are set in advance and are normally divided into days. This adds a sense of reality and depth to the game. Many racing games have the player magically appear at a starting line, only becoming aware of where they are going to race moments before. Project Cars allows the player to glimpse months ahead into their schedule in order to prepare for the different tracks and cars allowed in upcoming races. It truly feels like a professional and realistic experience, or as close to one as the average player can get to actually racing a two million dollar car down the Mercedes Benz test track in Germany.

To top off the already incredibly well-made game, the developers have made a phenomenal multiplayer environment. On the PC at least, weekly tournaments and competitions are hosted for various prizes, including some actual cash prizes. The community as a whole is incredibly welcoming, and different brackets for various skill levels of players are available. The developers behind Project CARS have succeeded in making a game with a devoted and deeply interested community. This in turn will increase the longevity of the game and hopefully the game series.

Verdict: 9/10 – Though it lacks the large roster of its competitors in this genre of gaming, Project CARS instead provides the players with an incredibly realistic environment. The attention to detail and the overall graphics of the game are easily the best in the industry at the moment, but, at the same time, the game delivers a precise and fair version of racing gameplay.

Immediately, as I boot up the game, I am met with a dying soldier and a bloodied Chocobo (an animal used like a horse), an incredibly violent scene for a Final Fantasy game. From the very beginning sequence in-game, Final Fantasy Type 0 HD makes the player aware that the themes and topics in this installment will be far darker than before. Final Fantasy Type 0 HD is the remastered and rebalanced version of the PSP game; Originally released in Japan exclusively back in 2011, Type 0 HD reiterates its dark themes. In fact, Type 0 was the first and only Final Fantasy title to receive a Mature rating from the ESRB. Unlike previous iterations in the franchise, Type 0 depicts a gritty and graphic war between four nations. The added gore and blood sets this game apart from the rest and is absolutely geared toward a more mature audience.

The game takes place in the world of Orience, which is divided into four kingdoms. Each kingdom has its own magical crystal that grants the specific kingdom a certain magical ability. One of the kingdoms, the Milites (white on the map), sparks the beginning of a war between the other kingdoms. The protagonist of the game hails from the first kingdom that was attacked, Rubrum (red on the map). To be specific, the playable characters in the game are all cadets for a special military academy near the border between the two kingdoms. This special academy trains students to wield deadly magic with utmost precision. In total, 14 cadets are playable; each one uses a different play-style and excels and struggles at different situations and fighting specific enemy types. The cadets range from a katana-wielding student by the name of Jack, who is incredibly slow but deals an immense amount of damage, to the quick and agile Ace, who uses a deck of magic cards to eliminate enemies at range and teleport from enemy to enemy.

The voice-acting cast could have been a little better, but it still brings life and diversity to the 14 characters, not to mention the incredibly memorable journey that the students embark on throughout the entire world of Orience during the war. I found the story compelling and even quite tragic in the last two acts.

Unlike previous games, Type 0 HD takes place during a brutal war. Gameplay and main story missions reflect this motif. Unlike other Final Fantasy games, you aren’t searching for a special weapon or a hermit that holds secrets that could save the world. In Type 0 HD, you wage raids and military campaigns with the only goal in mind being the extermination of Rubrum’s enemies. The cinematics are incredibly saturated during military combat scenes, much like recent war films, which helps encapsulate the different tone of this game. On top of this, the game narrates itself like a war footage documentary. In other words, the game helps explain battles and tasks through diagrams and voice-overs during cutscenes.

The game itself has two different kinds of cinematics, the fantastic-looking CGI cutscenes and the in-game engine cutscenes, the latter of which isn’t that incredible to look at and is the consequence of the game being a port of the original Japanese PSP game. I felt as if further anti-aliasing and reworked textures could have saved this game from mediocre in-game cutscenes because they put the pre-established CGI cinematics to shame. That being said, the graphics in Type 0 HD truly couldn’t be capable on last-gen systems. Though it isn’t the best looking game at all with some muddy textures, the sheer amount of things happening on screen do not cause the game to ever drop frames. At times I counted 30 plus enemies all moving independently combined with environmental effects and aftereffects from weapons and magic. In nearly any other game so far on the next-gen consoles, a setting like this would cause the game to slow down and drop frames. Yet, time was obviously spent more on performance and gameplay over graphics, which isn’t bad since the gameplay is an absolute blast.

Type 0 HD takes the normal party system that is quite common in the Final Fantasy series and adds a more high risk theme. Unlike other Final Fantasy games that allow party members to be revived using various items, Type 0 HD penalizes the player and forces the player to trade in a different cadet to take the fallen one’s place. On top of this, the cadets do not come back to life until the mission is completed. This can prove to be a significant problem if, for example, your top 3 party members are all slain at once. This would then force the player to equip a B-team of under-leveled cadets to continue the fight, which normally doesn’t go well for the player. To combat this, I tended to use one of my top cadets with two lower level ones, and I attempted to keep all of my party members near the same level. This made the mission perma-death a lot easier to manage. After missions, all cadets are revived and you as a player return to the Academy, which acts as a hub for all interactions in the game. In the Academy, players can buy new gear, attend class for experience, and do other things that a student would do in a college setting. Interactions between members of Class Zero (the group of cadets you play as) also occur behind the safe walls of the Academy.

When compared to the main installments in the numerical Final Fantasy games, Type 0 HD holds its own. It adds new features and aspects to gameplay such as insta-kill strikes and a unique perma-death for cadets in mission. However, since the game is a port of the PSP version, it fails to truly reach next-gen level graphics and ends up being a muddy mess at times. Yet, performance-wise the game does not show any signs of FPS drop or tearing so I commend the developers on that. At its core, Final Fantasy Type 0 HD is a fun game when it comes to gameplay. It took me a solid 40 hours to beat it, and that honestly didn’t require that bad of a grind.  In summary, the game is fun and the story is great, but the visuals, however, could have used some reworking.

Verdict: 7.6/10

After the rough release of Battlefield 4, expectations were relatively high for Visceral Games. The outcome for this game’s release however went quite smoothly. This was the outcome of several lengthy Betas that were offered by the developer. Compared to Battlefield 4, Battlefield Hardline lacks the game breaking bugs and glitches which is an absolute joy considering I myself am an incredible fan of the franchise. Yet, this game did have some let downs, which I will go into further details regarding its highs and lows.

Most first person shooters lack a compelling and overall good/great story. This is a side effect of the industry’s market regarding competitive multiplayer gaming. Developers in the gaming industry are spending a larger portion of their time working on balancing their multiplayer game modes, which isn’t a bad thing. It provides gamers with a unique social environment where they can team up with friends and compete in a diverse community. On the other hand this lack of time focused on campaigns or singleplayer story modes often leads to boring and uneventful stories. Battlefield Hardline has one of the best singleplayer experiences that I have played in most recently. It absolutely tops any FPS that has come out in the past two years when it comes to providing the player with a unique story.

Instead of being a stereotypical gung ho special forces soldier, the protagonist is a detective/agent in a Police Force. It is a nice new theme that already makes the game stand apart from basically EVERY OTHER shooter on the market in the FPS genre. Without going into spoilers for the story, the game begins in Miami, but over time it begins to encompass a larger spectrum. Thought the game does of its stereotypical characters such as a witty one, a pretty awful bad guy, etc, the game’s story is memorable. Unlike other games where the protagonist is out to kill every single person between point A and B, Battlefield Hardline’s enemies can be arrested and spared from a typical death via gun. This adds another feature to the game since I personally didn’t want to kill people unless absolutely necessary. Ordering crooks to “Freeze, and hit the ground!” honestly is more enjoyable than senselessly killing them. This is because for once you are a cop, you are a person behind a badge. You aren’t out to kill, you are merely attempting to fulfill your duty of protecting and serving the populace. The episodic nature of the campaign also makes the overall feel of the game like of an episode of “Cops” or even “Burn Notice” with its action themes. In summary Visceral really outdid themselves when it came to crafting a unique story for a FPS title.

Gameplay in Battlefield Hardline is nothing too difficult to comprehend if you have played previous games in the series. There are some new aspects such as ziplines, tasers, and basically everything else at a police force’s disposal. This has advantages and disadvantages when compared to other Battlefield games when you have access to the hardest hitting weapons in existence. It forces players to be more like tacticians and it requires a lot more planning on higher difficulties because unlike the military, Cops don’t have access to LAW rocket launchers and tanks. I personally felt as if the combat in Hardline was far more precise and at times harder than previous games in the franchise. For example there may be a dozen enemies in the next room. In Battlefield 4 one could simply fire a rocket into the room or throw a pack of C4; Hardline on the other hand forces the player to utilize tactical grenades such as flash bangs and FMJ rounds to take down enemies of the state. But the ability to destroy one’s environment isn’t absent; it just isn’t always the best option (at least in singleplayer. The same can’t be said for multiplayer).

Unlike previous games, Hardline utilizes a currency system to acquire new weapons and gear in multiplayer. This however doesn’t exempt players from actually unlocking the gear; it has to be first unlocked then purchased. “Cash to Spend” is acquired by killing enemies, completing challenges and following objectives while in game. Though the prices in the image above do not reflect the same ones in game (This is from an Alpha photograph by EA), the overall idea is present. Some guns are more expensive than others and they obviously perform differently. For example, SMGS have little to no range while Assault Rifles can hit targets from farther away if the right attachments are equipped. The same currency model is applied to the previously mentioned attachments as well. Everything from grips to sights are all acquired by spending some cash.

Multiplayer in Hardline is one word: Chaotic. It plays like a hybrid of Battlefield & Call of Duty. It has the awesome graphics and tactical feel from Battlefield and the unskilled chaos like fast paced action of Call of Duty. Though I don’t care for the latter’s aspects of the game, Hardline still feels like a Battlefield game—Just a more fast paced one, which it seems at times is easier for new players to venture into. The absolute chaos that is an outcome of the addition of fast cars and trucks, and the ability to lean through the window sills of the fast cars adds an adrenaline filled experience. Vehicles such as choppers also provide a feel of tension since they can come out of nowhere when fighting in a crowded city. The scout chopper can absolutely devastate a pack of crooks on the ground and the lack of equip-able heavy launchers can prove to make engagements with them extremely difficult. But if you shoot it enough it will eventually drop out of the sky. Finally, the addition of new game modes adds a breath of new life into the franchise which all FPS’s constantly require.

Overall Battlefield Hardline is everything one can expect from an FPS game, especially a Battlefield one. It however in my opinion is far more enjoyable than Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare since no matter if you are losing or winning it is still INCREDIBLY EASY to have fun.The multiplayer has a variety of aspects open to all skill levels of players and it requieres actual patience and skill to a degree when compared to Call of Duty. I was honestly surprised by this game’s performance and look forward to continue playing it on my PC.

Verdict: 8.3 Battlefield Hardline is proof that the generic military shooter isn’t the only genre that can fit the FPS genre. It has everything a Battlefield game has and more. Yet, it still feels very much like Battlefield 4. I still suggest this game if you are fan of FPSs since no other FPSs come out until this Fall.