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Wolfenstein: The New Order (PS4): COMPLETED!

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I have said before that I’m not a big fan of first person shooters. I’m not totally against them, and there are many I have enjoyed over the years, but they’re largely ignored. Wolfenstein: The New Order, however, has a plot that interested me, got praise from a lot of people (some of whom also wouldn’t normally play FPS games), and is a followup to the original Wolfenstein 3D from way back when – which I really liked.

Then, thanks to cheap credit and offers, I picked it up for less than two quid on PSN. Definitely worth a go, right? And oh god yes. It’s brilliant.

Like the original (and probably the sequels and reboots since that have passed me by), you play as virtually indestructible soldier BJ Blazkowicz. A man who shrugs off gunshot wounds and being stabbed, and is capable of carrying round several tonnes of heavy weaponry at all times. The game opens in 1946 as you and your allies attempt to storm Deathshead’s castle, but things don’t go well and BJ ends up with shrapnel in his brain following an explosion. He’s treated in a Polish mental asylum for 14 years, drifting in and out of conciousness, until the Nazis come and shut the place down (and kill nearly everyone) where he “awakens” and escapes.

So begins the game properly, with BJ in 1960 trying to find the last remnants of the allied resistance, and then helping them strike back at the Nazis – and ultimately Deathshead himself. It might have an alternate history premise, but the plot is utterly insane. The resistance are hidden under a fountain in Berlin itself. There’s a guy tainting the Nazi “super concrete” (that they built all their cities with after the war), who is some sort of Jewish sage with the key to an ancient store of advanced technology (some of which the Nazis have already made use of – hence winning the war). The store? Under the sea, of course. So BJ has to steal a U-Boat, by hiding in a torpedo.

And then he goes into space.

Look, it all makes sense in the game, but the important thing is that as mad as the story gets, the gameplay is just perfect. It’s not all shooting Nazis with increasingly bigger guns, although that’s obviously a big part. There’s stealthy bits, fences to laser through, items to find, and completely over the top set pieces. Car chases, mechs, bits where you’re stripped of all your weapons. It never gets dull.

My only complaints would be that ammo seems to run out far too quickly, and there are a couple of sections (one on the bridge in particular) which are inordinately harder than the rest of the game. But that said, it’s still fantastic and I’ve the prequel – The Old Blood – lined up in preparation already.

The post Wolfenstein: The New Order (PS4): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Golf Story (Switch): COMPLETED!

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I was very much hyped for Golf Story, when it was first announced, and I leapt on it the moment it hit the eShop. Unfortunately, Stardew Valley came out just a week later so I only managed to get halfway through it. Until now.

The mantra of Golf Story seems to be that everything is golf. It’s not a full-on golfing game despite being entirely golf based, instead being a story driven adventure game. With golf. It has chatting and fetch quests (some of which involve golf). Slaying the undead (using golf), feeding birds (golf), melting frozen people (golf) and collecting ore (guess what? Golf). Golf. There’s even a mini-game which is almost a remake of the old NES Golf game, only that’s called Galf.

Then there’s the actual golf. Several varied 9 hole courses, each with gimmicks like ice, or turtles in the water you can bounce the ball off. Different clubs provide extra “powers”, such as super-high chipping, the ability to skip the ball across the water, or better control wedging out of a puddle. Despite these unorthodox abilities, Golf Story’s golf is surprisingly standard video game golf. It feels like Sensible Golf, or the old 16-bit PGA Tours, with the controls, spin and swing bars all intact. You always feel in control but a slightly mistimed button press, or a miscalculated wind adjustment and it can all go horribly wrong very quickly.

As you progress through the game, gaining access to each course, you play other NPCs in stroke and matchplay competitions. Despite each opponent being awful at golf (even the pros) mainly because of the style of play they focus on (Max Yards has no short game, the old folks from Tidy Park always play safe and have no range, etc.) somehow they remain challenging enough. Not least when your up until now foe had been hitting bunkers and trees without pause then suddenly gets a slam-dunk albatross hole-in-one due to a bizarre sequence of awry bounces and rebounds. Thankfully, they’re not unbeatable. Although the final tournament at Blue Moon Dunes was almost enough to end me.

Golf Story’s humour, unlike this upcoming pun, is above par too. Sometimes games can be a bit tryhard at making the funnies (see Undertale, to a degree), but Sidebar Games didn’t go overboard. There are pop culture references, sure, but they’re reigned in and it’s the quirky characters and their dialogue that makes it work. Coach’s constant putdowns, the TV guys interviews and inane drivel from the interviewees, and the totally out of place rap battle between the yoof thugs and the Tidy Park elderly gentlemen being some of the highlights.

It’s hard to find fault with Golf Story. There’s the odd bug (including a repeatable one where running between rooms sometimes causes you to get stuck in the “void”), some of the “find x of these things” quests are a bit tiresome as invariably one of them is impossibly well hidden or in a different area entirely, and there are the odd graphical glitches, but there’s nothing to ruin it. Or even put a visible dent in it.

Even if you’re not into golf, you can’t fore go playing Golf Story. And that was the worst pun ever, badly shoehorned in at the last minute. Sorry.

The post Golf Story (Switch): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Golf Story (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on Written by

I was very much hyped for Golf Story, when it was first announced, and I leapt on it the moment it hit the eShop. Unfortunately, Stardew Valley came out just a week later so I only managed to get halfway through it. Until now.

The mantra of Golf Story seems to be that everything is golf. It’s not a full-on golfing game despite being entirely golf based, instead being a story driven adventure game. With golf. It has chatting and fetch quests (some of which involve golf). Slaying the undead (using golf), feeding birds (golf), melting frozen people (golf) and collecting ore (guess what? Golf). Golf. There’s even a mini-game which is almost a remake of the old NES Golf game, only that’s called Galf.

Then there’s the actual golf. Several varied 9 hole courses, each with gimmicks like ice, or turtles in the water you can bounce the ball off. Different clubs provide extra “powers”, such as super-high chipping, the ability to skip the ball across the water, or better control wedging out of a puddle. Despite these unorthodox abilities, Golf Story’s golf is surprisingly standard video game golf. It feels like Sensible Golf, or the old 16-bit PGA Tours, with the controls, spin and swing bars all intact. You always feel in control but a slightly mistimed button press, or a miscalculated wind adjustment and it can all go horribly wrong very quickly.

As you progress through the game, gaining access to each course, you play other NPCs in stroke and matchplay competitions. Despite each opponent being awful at golf (even the pros) mainly because of the style of play they focus on (Max Yards has no short game, the old folks from Tidy Park always play safe and have no range, etc.) somehow they remain challenging enough. Not least when your up until now foe had been hitting bunkers and trees without pause then suddenly gets a slam-dunk albatross hole-in-one due to a bizarre sequence of awry bounces and rebounds. Thankfully, they’re not unbeatable. Although the final tournament at Blue Moon Dunes was almost enough to end me.

Golf Story’s humour, unlike this upcoming pun, is above par too. Sometimes games can be a bit tryhard at making the funnies (see Undertale, to a degree), but Sidebar Games didn’t go overboard. There are pop culture references, sure, but they’re reigned in and it’s the quirky characters and their dialogue that makes it work. Coach’s constant putdowns, the TV guys interviews and inane drivel from the interviewees, and the totally out of place rap battle between the yoof thugs and the Tidy Park elderly gentlemen being some of the highlights.

It’s hard to find fault with Golf Story. There’s the odd bug (including a repeatable one where running between rooms sometimes causes you to get stuck in the “void”), some of the “find x of these things” quests are a bit tiresome as invariably one of them is impossibly well hidden or in a different area entirely, and there are the odd graphical glitches, but there’s nothing to ruin it. Or even put a visible dent in it.

Even if you’re not into golf, you can’t fore go playing Golf Story. And that was the worst pun ever, badly shoehorned in at the last minute. Sorry.

The post Golf Story (Switch): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Fire Emblem Warriors (Switch): COMPLETED!

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You may have seen me enthuse about a game called HYRULE WARRIORS in the past. Indeed, it’s so good that it usually needs to be written in capitals. It’s one of the best games ever made, and between the Wii U and 3DS versions, I’ve devoted over 300, probably nearer 500 hours to the cause.

Imagine that game then, only swapping out the Zeldaverse for Fire Emblem.

Ta-da! It’s Fire Emblem Warriors. And boy is it the same as HYRULE WARRIORS. You hammer the buttons. You take over forts. You get weapon drops, unlock better defence and faster gauge replenishment. You control several different heroes, swapping between them as necessary. It’s all very familiar. In fact, even some of the levels seem to have borrowed liberally from the Zelda title. I mean, the World Tree bears no resemblance to the Deku Tree and is an entirely different prospect, y’honour.

But of course there are differences. Firstly, there are a whole suite of characters I’ve never heard of. Marth, sure, but then that’s from Super Smash Bros. Chrom I recognise. Tiki, but from Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. Yes, I have played Fire Emblem games before but the only guy I remember is Roy and he’s not even in this. I was a little concerned getting into the game that I’d not know anyone, but it doesn’t actually matter.

Also different is the lack of Giant Monsters. Dealing with those was a core part of HYRULE WARRIORS, and – final boss aside – Fire Emblem Warriors ain’t got any. It’s a shame, but again, doesn’t really matter.

Characters can now team up, allowing you to use one as a support attacker or (if they’re controllable) can be “carried” around in case their weapon is stronger against a particular foe than your main character. You see, this game follows the Sword/Axe/Lance strength triangle of the main Fire Emblem series, so if you have a sword, bringing an axe-wielder with you can help. In fact, I generally paired Lianna (my “main”) with Lissa where possible for this purpose.

There’s more in the way of tactics here too, although it’s mainly limited to telling your allies where to go on the map and what to do. You could do this to an extent on HYRULE WARRIORS LEGENDS on the 3DS, but it’s more important here as your AI chums have no I, A or otherwise. They wander off into danger, then cry they’ve made a terrible mistake, so I have to save them and guide them away. Only to have them return. Idiots. One of the bosses is invulnerable until you’ve taken over several forts, and yet all my allies kept running over to him only to get slaughtered. Babysitting wasn’t on the box blurb.

Other than those, it’s the same game as before. It’s not quite as good, but then very little is. I’ve completed the Story mode, which was about 14 hours long, but naturally there’s a massive History (like HW’s Adventure) mode that is where the bulk of the game actually is. I expect I’ll be playing this for a long time.

At least until the Switch version of HYRULE WARRIORS comes out, anyway.

 

The post Fire Emblem Warriors (Switch): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.