Personally, I don’t have any experience with the Frontier franchise, so Elite: Dangerous is my first foray into the series. Fortunately for myself and many others in my position, I don’t think having that familiarity is important here. The moment that really grabbed me was the first time I did a light speed jump in one of the tutorials. You press a button to start charging your engines, and right at the last moment you slam your throttle up to propel you into hyperspace. It is an impactful moment the first time you do it, and it doesn’t lose it’s edge any time you do it afterward. This is good because it will quickly become your main way of traveling.

"The moment that really grabbed me was the first time I did a light speed jump in one of the tutorials. "

There are a wide range of tutorials to ease players into this complex world, and I would implore anyone to take a run through them before hopping in. There is a lot to keep track of, so knowing how to fully utilize all of the features of your ship will be crucial. I honestly felt like the game didn’t teach enough about it’s systems but maybe that was intentional to get players to just hop into the game and figure it out on their own. And that’s fine if it’s what they were going for. Regardless I feel like this has to be one of the more accessible space simulators.

Flying the ship is relatively easy here; it isn’t like other sims where you’ll need to master two keyboards worth of key bindings, and keep a user manual handy just to get in the air. In the first tutorial, I was tasked with shooting down some fuel canisters, and the game let me explore and figure the controls out for myself. Bound to W,E,R, A, S, D, and F on keyboard, the controls for thrusters/throttle immediately made sense to me and I was able to get the hang of it quickly. I later tried it out on controller and found that to be a viable way to maneuver as well. As is the case with most flying games, flight sticks are fully supported as well. I found the controller to be best when flying the ship, and then switching back to the keyboard and mouse for hud elements. It makes for a good bit of immersion.

Whenever you dock at a spaceport you have the option to take on missions and earn money in order to purchase better ships and upgrades. This is an extremely important aspect of the game as the massive universe makes faster travel and enhanced scanners necessary tools for efficiently scouring the universe. Before you can dock though, you have to learn how to land. It can be tricky as first but the game guides you in well. It really feels like the docking sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and I’m pretty sure that’s the feeling they were going for.

"Flying the ship is relatively easy here; it isn’t like other sims where you’ll need to master two keyboards worth of key bindings, and keep a user manual handy just to get in the air. "

Missions usually involve delivering various forms of cargo to other systems in the allotted time period. It may sound a little boring at first, but once you get out into deep space, you never know what surprises you may encounter. Unfortunately that’s about all you can do right now. The developers have promised a whole lot more for the full release, but I got bored of this aspect of the game very quickly so I hope they can deliver.

The universe is divided into hundreds of smaller zones separated by lightspeed travel. These zones are completely instanced to a smaller number of players at a time to decrease load. This ensures that docking stations aren’t completely clogged every time you need to refuel or pick up a quest. It is similar to the way Guild Wars handles it’s zones. Unfortunately, there was some weirdness with groups when I played that prevented us from being in the same instance.

I won’t lie, I am a bit concerned about the technical problems I’ve encountered during my time with the three Beta builds. The game has been very unstable for myself and other participants, and even in the latest release, basic functions like grouping are broken. I worry because the game is little over a month away from release, and there hasn’t been a stable build yet. I had crashing issues from the day I installed the first version of the beta, and when I reached out to PR about the issues I was having, I received no reply. Unfortunately, I was not alone in this as evidenced by various forum posters reporting similar issues. I’m hopeful these problems will be fixed before launch.

"I won’t lie, I am a bit concerned about the technical problems I’ve encountered during my time with the three Beta builds. "

With that said, Elite: Dangerous represents a bold shift in the way hardcore sims want to be perceived. It extends an olive branch to the uninitiated, and welcomes them to the fold, encouraging them to dig deep into the sprawling universe. The game is constantly developing with new things being added to the beta every few weeks. It will definitely be one to watch going forward as it opens the door for many players who have found space sims too obtuse. Look for more news on Elite: Dangerous when it releases December 16th, 2014.

This preview was written based on the Beta 3.04 build of the game and may not be representative of current build features and bug fixes.

Which brings me to MX vs ATV: Supercross, the first entry into what is supposed to be a revival of the franchise. And see, the thing about revivals is that they should be something to get excited about. Unfortunately if fans of this series still do exist, I really don’t think they will be pleased with what Nordic has put together here.

"Unfortunately if fans of this series still do exist, I really don’t think they will be pleased with what Nordic has put together here. "

If you’re going into this game expecting unique game modes to shake up the typical racing formula, I have bad news for you. Supercross consists of a few career mode options, some standard fare multiplayer modes and 17 tracks, most of which are completely interchangeable in locale. There isn’t a lot here to play, and I say this as someone who honestly couldn’t wait to be done playing this title. I suppose this is supplemented by having each race be 5 laps.

At 5 laps by default, the races feel too long because there is really no sense of speed at all. Most of the time the game makes you feel like you are trodding along like those little race tracks we all had as kids. You know the ones, the car has a little needle thing on the bottom to keep it on the track, and no matter how hard you squeeze the trigger the cars just don’t go any faster. And that’s the problem, there is nothing fun about feeling like you are on a set railway, just going through the motions pretending to have a good time.

"There is nothing fun about feeling like you are on a set railway, just going through the motions pretending to have a good time."

Not to mention that all of the tracks look largely the same. Maybe that is inherently the case when you are making a game based around a real sport, but I just can’t seem to see the appeal. It would have been better if there was a track editor or something but nothing like that exists in this game and I feel it would have gone a long way to making it feel less drab and rudimentary.

So here’s a weird thing. During 3 of the races I participated in, the AI cheated. Okay, that sounds crazy right? I thought so too, but it’s true. On most of the tracks, you are kept in-bounds by foam blocks that will move when you hit them. This allows the player to skirt some corners if you want to get cheesy, but the game will usually reset you back to a previous position on the track when you go too far. On not one, not two, but 3 occasions the AI not only skirted the barriers, but blatantly drove right through the middle of the track ignoring them in order to gain the lead.

"On not one, not two, but 3 occasions the AI not only skirted the barriers, but blatantly drove right through the middle of the track ignoring them in order to gain the lead. "

I assume this was just a pathfinding glitch but the fact that it happened more than once makes me wonder if it wasn’t part of the AI’s clear rubber banding tendencies. For the uninitiated, rubber banding in racing games is when you have a clearly defined lead and the AI miraculously catches up to you or passes you. This happens a lot in Supercross. I suppose it is to build tension but when the races are overly long and plodding, it is super annoying for the AI to pull ahead (or cheat) when you are about to finish for no real reason at all.

The fact is that this genre was elevated past this sort of drudgery years ago, and you have to wonder why Nordic would bring it back just to do nothing with it. In fact, the previous entry into the series, MX vs. ATV: Alive, even looks better graphically and the UI and HUD elements are much sleeker. That’s not even taking into account that it has more modes and variety. I can’t even do the standard review thing of saying “Fans of the genre will like this”. I can’t recommend this game to anyone really. Maybe you would be better off hunting down a copy of Alive if you need to scratch the Motocross itch. There’s something admirable about bringing back a once dead franchise, but not when it amounts to, well, cynical shovelware at best.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

NatUral DoCtrIne takes place in an (stop me if you’ve heard this before) Eastern medieval high fantasy world. A lot of the game’s aesthetic borrows highly from Fire Emblem and games like it, in fact, its almost as if the characters just stepped out of a Fire Emblem game. That is, their anime renderings do at least. The in-game models however, look like deformed board game pieces and barely resemble the 2d versions of themselves. It’s a really odd disconnect, because outside of the seemingly random anime cutscenes, the game never looks like the colorful anime portrayals. It’s really strange and it almost feels like the anime renderings were added after the fact by someone who was given a rough description of the characters over the phone.

"In the case of Natural Doctrine, [..] maybe this game would have been better left as an importer’s curiosity. "

This game just doesn’t look very good. Even with the 1080p resolution and added DOF and SSAO effects on the PS4, it just looks like a weird mix of gritty D&D art book and discolored  Play- Arts action figures. I mentioned above how there is very little cohesion between the in-game models and their anime counterparts, but that isn’t the only thing that caused dissonance and took me out of the game. Anyone remember Final Fantasy Tactics on Playstation? Well the maps are sort of like that, suspended in midair and disjointed from the world. It is really bizarre when you take into account the platforms the game runs on. Maybe it was an artistic decision, and I would believe it based on some of the other questionable ones, but it just looks..well, cheap.

Being a Strategy RPG, you are thrown into closed areas and can move around the map when it’s your team’s turn. You choose adjacent enemies to attack when you’re close, and whoever is stronger will prevail. That’s all standard fare for games in this genre, but NatURAl dOcTRine adds a complicated buff and debuff system on top of that depending on your character’s placement in an area.

From what I gather (because the tutorial teaches you how to move and attack and pretty much nothing more), critical hit percentages rise when having your characters close to one another in a line formation. It’s really hard to illustrate with words, but the further back in a zone the second character stood, the higher the critical chance. Add in a few subsystems where free hits are given to enemies seemingly at random and you have a mess of combat mechanics that is just not fun to deal with.

"Add in a few subsystems where free hits are given to enemies seemingly at random and you have a mess of combat mechanics that is really not fun to deal with. "

Now, I’m not the world’s biggest SRPG fan, but there are a few that I really enjoy. I love Valkyria Chronicles, Advance Wars, and XCOM for instance. So I know when I go to one and something just doesn’t feel right. In NaTUrAL dOctRINe’s case it has to be the game’s overall pace, It’s just too slow. Everything from load times, to battle animations, to enemy turns, takes way too long to accomplish.

Even though the game has a skip/fast forward button(It’s the circle button, thank me later), it doesn’t do enough to move things along. And there is a huge oversight that makes using it annoying in Itself. Circle is also the cancel button. What does this mean? Well when you are holding down the button to fast forward to move the game along at a speed snails would scoff at, you need to hit confirm when the enemy turn is over so you can start yours. Except..if you are accidentally still holding circle in this phase, you will have to watch the entire enemy turn all over again and pray you don’t fall asleep doing it.

"If you are accidentally still holding circle in this phase, you will have to watch the entire enemy turn all over again and pray you don’t fall asleep doing it. "

Which I guess leads me to the difficulty. I noticed some talk of it being billed as a really hard game. I’m of the mind that if a game is setting out to do this, it has to strike the right balance in order to be fair but challenging. In this game, it just feels unfair when you get railroaded by 1-2 enemies and its never understood exactly why that happened. For example, two goblins were able to hit one of my characters repeatedly until she died and the game never let on why that was. I repeated the same actions after the Game Over screen and it didn’t happen again. I still have no idea why. It just felt like I was robbed, like it wasn’t my fault. And I say this as a guy who appreciates hard games, when they are designed well.

I know that in the current climate of the gaming industry, everyone is clamoring for hardcore games that don’t hold their hand, but I don’t think nATuraL DoCtRIne is what you’re looking for. The game isn’t challenging so much as it is just inconsistent because the enemy rules are seemingly made up as it goes along. It just isn’t enjoyable to play, and that’s a really big failure in a game like this. The game is budget priced on PS4 ($39), but It’s more like it was made with the budget of dollar store Christmas wrapping. You know, that really thin crap you can get for $.50 a roll. It may seem like a good deal but each roll is only 2 feet long, so you need like 18 of them to finish your wrapping. It’s probably better to just spend more for better wrapping.

This game was reviewed on the Playstation 4.

Alien: Isolation starts off with the player taking the role of Amanda Ripley, daughter of series heroine Ellen Ripley. Set fifteen years after the original 1979 classic, Amanda has never stopped searching for her mother, who was on the Nostromo when it went missing. One day she is approached by a Weyland-Yutani representative told that the crew of the Sevastopol space station has found the Nostromo’s flight recorder. Amanda wastes no time in traveling to the Sevastopol to potentially hear the final moments of her mother’s life. Unfortunately for her, the Sevastopol has been set upon by the same life form that caused the terrible events of the Nostromo.

"Amanda wastes no time in traveling to the Sevastopol to potentially hear the final moments of her mother’s life. "

First and foremost, Isolation is a stealth game. There are segments where you may need to use your pistol to combat android and human enemies, but most of the time it will benefit you more to just sneak around them. Human enemies are easily dispatched using your various weapons and crafted items, but the androids are much more resilient. And the Xenomorph? Well, the Xenomorph is invincible. The only recourse you have with it is fire, so when you eventually get the flamethrower or molotovs, you can use them to scare it off momentarily (and I mean momentarily). However, if you use them too much, the creature will only be stunned for a few seconds before pouncing on you.

There aren’t many encounters in the game that pit you against human/android enemies, most of the time you will be making your way through the station avoiding the Xenomorph. Thankfully this is the case, because I felt like the parts where you are pitted against the other enemies, especially the androids, were among the weakest in the game. Human encounters are mostly fine, they are usually circumvented easily, and in some cases you can lure the Xenomorph to kill them with a well placed distraction. This isn’t the case with the androids though, as the Xenomorph will not attack them. Add to that the fact that they will swarm your position when alerted and take entirely too much damage to kill, and you have yourself a recipe for frustration. The saving grace here is that these encounters are few and far between.

I’m kind of a chicken when it comes to horror games. I deplore when a game uses a large amount of cheap jump scares to startle the player. It’s lazy and there’s no craftsmanship to it. I’ve been turned off on a lot of horror games due to this. And while this trope is in Isolation, the game knows it has to earn those moments, and it never puts you into that situation deliberately. What I mean by this is that whenever the game has a jump scare, it is something dynamic, and could often have been avoided by careful observations of one’s surroundings. For instance, you could round a corner and find the Xenomorph right there staring at you. It isn’t because the Xenomorph suddenly appeared there, it is because you weren’t using your motion tracker and peeking around corners.

"Whenever the game has a jump scare, it is something dynamic, and could often have been avoided by careful observations of one’s surroundings."

Isolation is a game where you need to be careful of your surroundings. Being careless will always lead to a quick impaling by the Xenomorph. To aid in your endeavor you are given a motion tracker, and the ability to craft items. Among these items are noisemakers, emp grenades, medpacks, and molotov cocktails. You’ll need to collect blueprints for each item before you can craft it, and they are easily missed if you are just speeding through areas trying to get away from the alien as fast as possible. Exploring areas to find these blueprints is key, as you will find later segments much easier when you have them.

The Xenomorph is the most impressive thing about Alien: Isolation. I don’t say that lightly either, I could write an essay on it’s dynamic AI alone. The Xenomorph is a one hit kill when it finds you, forcing players to avoid detection at all cost. He’s going to follow you throughout the game, and when you don’t see him you will always feel his presence. You’ll wander down corridors, and through rooms trying to complete your objective, all the while picking up the odd blip on your tracker, to remind you that you’re never truly isolated. You can hide under desks, in cabinets, and in lockers, but if you aren’t holding your breath the Xenomorph will hear you and rip you from safety. The creature is dangerous, and it demands you respect that fact if you want to make it to the end.

"The Xenomorph is the most impressive thing about Alien: Isolation. "

The attention to detail in this game is staggering. It is a faithful recreation of the technology from the first film. Computers use old DOS prompts, handheld devices are big and bulky with mechanical button inputs instead of our now modern touch screens. On top of this everything uses rudimentary graphic design reminiscent of the Atari 2600. In fact, one of the small hacking minigames uses designs from the Alien Pac-Man clone for the 2600. Its not just the technology though, the designers have gone through painstaking measures to create the look and feel of the 1979 classic in the design of the ship’s interior. I recently watched the first movie again in preparation for this review and I was amazed by how accurate everything turned out to be.

I normally don’t acknowledge sound design in games. A lot of the time it is pretty negligible to my experience with them. I play a lot of games wearing headphones, but I feel like developers very rarely put a lot of effort into designing their sound around that type of immersion. It’s clear that this wasn’t the case with Alien: Isolation. Busted pipes hiss, vents creak, computer hard drives write, and the loudspeakers blare announcements. These small things go far in giving ambient sound to the environment and bring it to life. Add to this the recut score from the original film during sequences with the Xenomorph and you have some of the best sound design in recent years.

"The attention to detail in this game is staggering. It is a faithful recreation of the technology from the first film."

I’ve seen some people say that they thought the game was too long, I don’t share this opinion. I definitely understand where they are coming from, but for me it was more of an issue with pacing. There are at least two points where the game seems to ramp up to a climax, but doesn’t end. Honestly this didn’t bother me. To me, this is part of the Alien experience with the movie franchise also sharing the “False end” trope. I appreciated this game’s 18+ hour length as a fan of the movies and can’t get enough. In fact, I will probably play all of the DLC just to get more time with it.

Overall Alien: Isolation is the game Alien fans have been waiting for. In spite of the numerous broken promises in the last 35 years, Creative Assembly has successfully formatted a love letter to fans of the franchise, one that has taken far too long to get here. A golden standard has been set for all future titles in the Alien universe. Simply put, Isolation is the definitive Alien game that no fan should miss out on.

This game was reviewed on the Playstation 4.

Styx: Master of Shadows is a prequel to 2012’s Of Orcs and Men. For this release, Cyanide Studios departs from the action RPG to produce a traditional stealth game, one that sweeps together all the clandestine conventions of past success. This collaboration offers no surprises, and ultimately fails to argue a purchase. It is too familiar, too often.

Styx is not terribly fun to play. There are many things responsible for it’s deflation, but the macro fact is that there is no great reason to play it. For every unoriginal design there are five buggy visual interruptions. For every five bugs there are ten frustrating checkpoint resets. Other facets like sound design, and narrative are there, but neither are remarkable.

"It is too familiar, too often."

You take on the role of Styx, a goblin who’s equal parts sneaky, and snarky. You guide his plunder of the Tower of Akenash, a massive structure housing unionized humans, and elves who guard a magic tree, and its coveted sap of Amber. The politicized possession of the sap, and glares of goblin bigotry don’t hide the by-the-numbers fantasy stage. Somewhere between the Dungeon Master’s Guide and the Monster Manual, Styx checks every otherworldly box to unflattering effect.

The low production cut scenes and occasionally forced dialogue do little to engage its audience, and the villainized defendants of the Amber hardly seem worth butchering. The attempt at making Styx an anti-hero falls into the question of who the real enemy is. Between his angsty f-bombs, fart jokes, and constant widow making, Styx feels like a real jerk, one who repels cheerleading.

With a well-visited fantasy world, one would hope the gameplay might land on new shores. It doesn’t do this, and underperforms on genre contrivances. Excluding the unpredictable AI, the main enemy here is the light. Our goblin friend can snuff torches by hand, or toss wet sand to extinguish at a distance. As long as you are standing in darkness, you are free to assassinate your adversaries with a noisy quick kill or elongated quiet kill. Heard this one before? How about ‘Hold to pick lock,” or “Press to look through keyhole”?

"The macro fact is that there is no great reason to play it"

You have played this game already. At some point in your gaming career you have played and enjoyed an element of Styx in a different (likely more entertaining) title. The inclusion of platform elements is welcome, but feels underutilized and derivative. These familiar tropes are tossed into big environments that ask the player to cut their own route to the next objective. This can be fun occasionally, but often times it felt that there was one clear path for success and the rest was peripheral or outright divergent. While the environments mock vastness, the same cannot be said about the gameplay toolkit. An upgrade system allows you to slot points into different categories, but you will spend most of your time killing the lights, and slitting throats. The ability to clone yourself proves useful when required, but is unhelpful beyond a brief area scouting.

Maybe it is okay that Styx lacks an infinite holster of death, because his AI counterparts are slack-jawed quitters. When one of them catches the scent of danger they do everything in their power to stop the threat, e.g. they leisurely pace toward the clue, gawk, and turn 180-degrees and return to thinking deeply in a fixed position. The more athletic guards will strut highly telegraphed patrols that you can comprehend in a matter of moments. The difficulty spawns mostly from the player getting too cocky and discrediting the bloodthirsty AI.

"You will spend most of your time killing the lights, and slitting throats"

You will die, though, and often. If you are spotted, you can almost bet on your demise. Coming into range of an assailant will lock you mono e mono, your only saving grace being a well-timed parry. In these situations, Styx can only target one enemy while the rest are free to prod you with blades and release their bolts. If you escape, well, you’ll likely get shot in the back. Escapism is so commonly ineffective that you might wonder why you don’t immediately restart after being spotted.

For all its frustration, the game can be fun. Some of the upgraded abilities trigger satisfying results, and throwing your lifeless victims over the edge is worth a giggle. These strides don’t last very long, and quickly become marred by repetitive level design, and airhead AI. The game is not short, but the overall quality won’t compel anyone to the credits, or feel like their money was well spent. All told, Styx: Master of Shadows is a pickpocket.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

Editors note: Due to technical difficulties on the site this review has been published under Philip Hartmeyer’s byline. In actuality, Eli Kineg wrote this review and deserves whatever credit is due. You can follow Eli on Twitter at @NAPK1NS

Last generation we saw a jump in quality for licensed games when the Batman Arkham series shook the industry to it’s core, proving that in spite of many failures throughout the years, movie, comic book, and TV show properties can be adapted to video games well when developers and publishers invest themselves in the IP. WB Games understood this when they made Arkham Asylum, and Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is proof that lightning can strike twice.

"Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is proof that lightning can strike twice. "

In Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor you’ll play as Talion, a Gondorian Ranger who is killed moments into the game. Due to possession by an Elvin Wraith, he is “banished from death.” Taking up the mantle of Gravewalker, Talion and the Wraith set out to avenge the killing of his family by the Black Hand of Sauron. To do this, Talion must make his way through the ranks of the Dark Army, and destroy it one beheading at a time.

You’ll traverse through the game on foot and eventually gain the ability to ride animals. I never felt this was necessary as the two hub areas in the game aren’t very large and you can unlock fast travel points at ruined towers on the map. Unfortunately, there is little reason not to use these as much as possible because the environments are bland and uninteresting. And yes, I know that is largely the point of Mordor, but with as much creative license they have taken with the lore (completely retconning it in spots), I feel that they could have done better.

Combat makes up the majority of this game, so it’s good that the combat system is fantastic. Borrowing heavily from the Arkham formula, the game’s combat focuses on timed counters, combo chains, and positioning. Battles are engaging and require your full attention as Talion can’t take very many hits, especially from higher level foes. Learning to counter and evade blows will become an essential skill to successfully resolve conflicts.

"Learning to counter and evade blows will become an essential skill to successfully resolve conflicts."

Using stealth to your advantage before encounters can change the course of the battle that follows. You will want to eliminate as many enemies from the area as possible before initiating conflict. Later on, you will gain the ability to stealthily “brand” Uruks to fight for you when commanded, which will become necessary in late game objectives. Ultimately you can choose between using stealth to even the playing field, or just rushing in like a mad man. I wouldn’t suggest doing the latter if at all possible, especially in stronghold areas where the enemies can easily call powerful reinforcements.

Its rare that a game does stealth gameplay correctly, but Monolith really seems to know what they are doing. The game nails it by giving the player all the right options and abilities to truly become the shadow Uruks fear. I love stealth games; I like feeling like a knife in the dark while clearing areas. So when I play a game that gets it wrong, it’s very frustrating to me. Most of the time these games feel like the mechanics are getting in the way of what you want to accomplish. Shadow of Mordor doesn’t suffer from this problem. I never felt when I failed in a stealth segment that it was the game’s fault, which is a testament to how refined the stealth gameplay is.

You can upgrade your abilities and attributes by gaining experience points and collecting “Mirian”, the in-game currency, from collectibles and monuments. The game is flexible with how you can spend them, and no playstyle seems to be “wrong.” It all comes down to personal preference so if you tend to focus heavily on stealth for your approaches there are ample options to choose from. Along with this, you can augment your weapons with different runes that Captains drop when defeated. These drops are random, but more powerful runes can be gotten from Captains and Warchiefs by sending a death threat to them before your confrontation.

"I never felt when I failed in a stealth segment that it was the game’s fault, which is a testament to how refined the stealth gameplay is."

Shadow of Mordor’s story is pretty bad. Predictable revelations about your Elf Lord companion, characters that are introduced for 2-3 missions and then thrown away, a forced appearance by Gollum, and a rushed, anticlimactic ending are just a few of it’s problems. It wasn’t really a big deal to me because I’m not a huge fan of the The Lord of the Rings, but I could see it putting a damper on fan’s expectations. That said, I think the nemesis system fills this gap nicely.

You see, Shadow of Mordor isn’t really a game about The Lord of the Rings lore, it’s a game about the dynamic rivalries built between the player and the Uruk hierarchy. These relationships will shape your playthrough, and the playthroughs of people on your friends list (I’ll get into this later). You’ll come to know certain Uruks by name, and avoid situations where they are around. Be prepared to plan carefully in order to eliminate them, or ultimately, make them your minions. You won’t be able to take control and give orders to Uruks until around the halfway point in the game, but once you can it is as easy as grabbing them and using the “dominate” ability.

"Shadow of Mordor isn’t really a game about The Lord of the Rings lore, it's a game about the dynamic rivalries built between the player and the Uruk hierarchy."

Throughout the game you will be tasked with finding and confronting two types of Uruks in the hierarchy of Sauron’s Army, Captains and Warchiefs. Captains wander the world with groups of followers and can be randomly encountered during traversal. Sometimes they will be engaged in instanced activities that you can choose to infiltrate and disrupt. For example, if a captain is having a power-struggle with a rival captain you can choose to intervene and kill the stronger one of the two in order to put a weaker Uruk in a position of power. This helps by ensuring Warchiefs have weak Captains that they take into battle with them when you do decide to confront them.

You can and will be killed numerous times by these Captains, especially when 2 or more are traveling near one another. This doesn’t end the game though, as the Uruk who killed you will be promoted and become stronger. If it is an unnamed Uruk soldier who kills you he will instantly be made a captain, and if it is a captain who kills you he will be promoted to Warchief as long as there is an available opening. Dying will only result in a fail state when you fall in a mission, otherwise it is a vital part of experiencing the game and testing the limits of the nemesis system.

Players on your friends list will also affect the course of your playthrough, and you theirs. Whenever they are killed by a captain, you will have the option of doing a Vendetta mission to avenge them. If you fail the mission, the captain’s strength increases and he becomes part of your game. This kind of persistent online activity adds a strange sense of community to an otherwise single-player game.

"You can and will be killed numerous times by these Captains, especially when 2 or more are traveling near one another. "

As you can see, the nemesis system is the star of the show. I can honestly say that without it, the game wouldn’t have much else to stand on. Its clear that Monolith spent a lot of time designing and testing their advanced AI. Unfortunately for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 players, the system won’t fully be there in those versions. It is unknown to what extent nemesis will be downgraded, but I would recommend playing on a current generation platform instead if at all possible.

The bottom line here is that if you have a passing interest in Tolkien’s work, and you liked the Arkham or Assassin’s Creed games, then you owe it to yourself to give Shadow of Mordor a shot. As for avid fans of Tolkien, the retconning of certain pieces of lore might upset you but this is hardly the first time a Lord of the Rings game has done that, and at least the “game” part is actually good this time. Just don’t go in expecting a story on the scale of The Lord of the Rings or detailed environments, they just aren’t there.

This game was reviewed on the Playstation 4.

The game starts with main character and narrator Paul Prospero traveling to a small town after receiving a disturbing letter from a boy named Ethan Carter. Paul, being a detective, cannot ignore Ethan’s plight and sets out for Red Creek Valley to investigate Ethan’s story. As soon as he arrives he finds the forest filled with dangerous traps and a dead body near the train tracks. With his suspicions confirmed Paul must find Ethan as fast as possible.

"I can't help but be intrigued by games trying to tell smaller, more personal stories. "

During the game you will encounter areas where you can inspect items that seem out of place. The first crime scene involves an abandoned train with a curious blood stain on the front of it. Further down the track things get a quite a bit more serious when you discover a cut rope…and a pair of severed legs. I won’t spoil anything but this is only a glimpse into the sinister underbelly of the game.

Paul’s inner monologue can be heard during the game, giving small insight into where he is coming from and who he is as a person. He possesses the ability to communicate with the dead to perceive the moments leading up to their death, and shortly there after. This allows the game to tell it’s story and let you piece the game together for yourself through these investigations. Its worthy to note that you can do these investigations out of order for the most part, so your own deductions may differ depending on the order of investigation. The quality of the voice work can be a little inconsistent but for an independent game the fact that there is any VO at all is very much welcomed.

The gameplay consists of highlighting objects and inspecting them to trigger thoughts from Paul about how the victim died. Once all these objects as found, you can construct the series of events and determined what exactly happened, and in what order. There isn’t much more to it than that, but investigating the scene with a fine tooth comb to find that last piece of the puzzle is satisfying in a way most games aren’t.

"Investigating the scene with a fine tooth comb to find that last piece of the puzzle is satisfying in a way most games aren't."

Which brings me to the tutorial. There isn’t one. The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter drops the player into the game with very little information or hand holding and trusts that they are competent enough to solve it. This type of play is rare in this day and age and I can respect any game that doesn’t attempt to undermine the player’s intelligence. However I wouldn’t have been against more direction in the first investigation, as I feel there was one piece of evidence that was a bit too hard to find on the first outing. Perhaps this is purposely designed that way in order to teach the player that they need to comb crime scenes for clues, but I’m not so sure.

The only real problem with The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter is the game’s length, I completed the game in a single sitting (around 3 hours or so). I found myself a bit disappointed to not learn more about Red Creek Valley and it’s history. I only played through the main story and did one or two of the side investigations in my first run, but even playing the game a second time I didn’t feel like they satisfied my curiosity. I hope this is not the only entry into the world of Ethan Carter and that the developers have merely scratched the surface.

"I hope this is not the only entry into the world of Ethan Carter and that the developers have merely scratched the surface. "

After I completed the game I went back and spent a lot of time just wandering around staring at the wide vistas and lush forests in the game. The set pieces and landmarks of Red Creek Valley create a consistent and believable world. Advanced lighting techniques and high resolution textures compliment smartly placed geometry and bring the game to life. Rarely have I seen such a beautiful independent title, and even more such a beautiful Unreal Engine 3 based game. That said, the actual character models can seem a bit rough around the edges, but in Ethan Carter the only character that really matters is the town itself. 

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a game that couldn’t have been made 10 years ago. The independent development renaissance has facilitated it’s existence, and thats a great thing.  Developer The Astronauts has proven that you don’t need a AAA budget to create a game that is not only beautiful, but also thought provoking and atmospheric. The game’s only pitfall is how short it can be if you are only interested in the main story, but I would say it is worth a second play-through to discover all of the hidden investigations and secrets. If you are into Lovecraft or Poe and appreciate a macabre mystery with heavy atmosphere, you owe it to yourself to dive into the world of Ethan Carter.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

Fenix Rage is a high-octane 2D platformer from Green Lava Studios, and the largest game they have produced to date. It pays homage to the good days of gaming, an age where the pixels were big, the cartridges dusty, and the controllers tethered confidently via rotund black wires. This golden age of gaming asked something of its consumer, demanded something. More often than not these requests were “try to beat me.” Or, “throw your controller at the wall.”

"It pays homage to the good days of gaming, an age where the pixels were big, the cartridges dusty..."

Let us attend to the elephant in the room and admit the immense difficulty of Fenix Rage. Fenix Rage. Rage. See, it’s right there in the title, you don’t even need me to tell you that. Fenix, however, is the player-character whose design meshes Sonic the Hedgehog and a common stress ball. You’ll guide the little bugger through 200+ stages that offer the lasting impression of a tumultuous romance. Depending of the level, you will squeal with glee while endorphins fire in your head. Counter to this are the levels where you yell loudly, producing animalistic noises and have very real, important arguments with the screen. Arguments where you swear it’s all Green Lava’s fault, and you’re a hard seasoned gamer.

It isn’t Green Lava’s fault. They have crafted a game that pits you against ruthless level design while giving you a small, yet effective list of abilities to utilize. Really, this isn’t a complicated game, just a hard one. Fenix can pull off a number of fancy tricks using the environment but the bread and butter’s are the horizontal dashes, and jumps that can be used an infinite number of times. The player will need to effectively use these gestures and unpack their underlying uses e.g. cancelling a jump by quickly using a dash move. The levels in Fenix Rage are riddled with hazards that require you to master the ever-useful jump button. Since you can jump endlessly, the real challenge is controlling the rise and fall of Fenix to duck and weave through the busy screens. The result is a game that feels like Super Meat Boy, Flappy Bird, and a bullet hell game.

The first two worlds of Fenix Rage are thrilling. The movement is fluent and elegant, and the dismissible gravity is sure to produce some magical speed runs. Early stages will have you sliding down vulcanized walls to ignite Fenix, allowing him to dash through measly bricks of ice. You will grin after evading a tricky mess of hazards, and rocket through color-coded portals that send you snapping around the stage. It’s all very invigorating. Before long you’ll come to know the control calibrations, and the annoying anthropomorphized bricks of toxic goo that litter the stages.

If you die (and you will) Fenix is instantaneously reset back at the start for another go. Beating a level has zero fanfare, passing you along to the next whooping with zero downtime, resulting in an endless stream of attempt and reward. The difficulty does not escalate linearly throughout a world, either. The player is thrown a few easy, quick levels to keep the ball rolling over potential jams. This liquidity is so fun and fast that you’ll have trouble ignoring the allure of the next set of pain.