I commute up to four hours a day but I’ll never get tired of being on trains. During the opening hours of Metro Exodus, when Artyom and his Spartan Ranger pals have finally boarded the good train Aurora, I stare out the window while the bigshot commander guy rattles off his commands. Outside, the ruins of village houses and rural bus stops fly by, the sky is a morose dark grey. I want to take a seat: this is heaven for me.When the commander has stopped barking I flee the cabin and stand on the outside deck. Gutted orthodox churches and crumbling tower blocks dot the landscape. Electricity towers sprout from the charred brown shrubbery. I wait, anticipating the moment when this handmade landscape will loop back onto itself. And it does: there’s the orthodox church from before, there’s the Cyrillic-festooned bus stop again. I enjoy this confirmation that I’m inside a videogame, just as much as I marvel at the version of reality it’s striving to depict. I … [Read more...] about Metro Exodus’s miserable landscapes put other modern open worlds to shame
Sprint open world
Scavengers brings open world chaos to a fascinating blend of PvE and PvP
There are some intimidating enemy factions in Scavengers, Midwinter Entertainment's fascinating debut: a strange hybrid that's part survival game, part competitive shooter, and part cooperative exploration game. There's the Scourge, a fleshy parasitic alien horde that endlessly sprouts from the ground, and the Outlanders, a band of desperate rogues hardened by an eternal winter. But neither is as powerful as a single bear. It's a single bear that finds our lowly group, four survivors shot down from a space station to explore an Earth reclaimed by decades of cold, catastrophic climate change. It's a single bear that chases us until we run into another group of players in a shootout with an Outlander camp. As the final blizzard moves in and the extraction point is marked 500 meters away, it's that single bear that leaves us for easier, distracted prey and cleans up an entire camp of of both NPCs and live players while we scoop up some of their spoils and sprint to the space van.I'd … [Read more...] about Scavengers brings open world chaos to a fascinating blend of PvE and PvP
How Big Is Dynasty Warrior 9’s Open World? Watch Us Cross the Massive Map from Corner to Corner
The biggest innovation of Dynasty Warriors 9 compared to its predecessors lays in the shift to an open-world environment. The game is set in China, and China is definitely a big place. Of course, the map does not represent the whole country, and it’s not in a 1:1 scale, but just how big is it? As it turns out, it’s very big. In order to test it properly, we went all the way to the north-eastern corner of the map and set a route to the south-western corner. It’s not an entirely straight route, but there aren’t that many deviations (and trying to cross obstacles instead of following the road around them would have probably taken longer anyway), so it’s a good way to give you an idea of just how big the game’s portrayal of China is. Ultimately, it took us a whole hour to ride along the whole route on horseback (sprinting as much as possible), crossing cities, snowy mountain passes, scenic canyons, and even jungles populated by tigers. Since you probably … [Read more...] about How Big Is Dynasty Warrior 9’s Open World? Watch Us Cross the Massive Map from Corner to Corner
Monster Hunter World Review: The Deadliest Catch
While some fans of the series were disappointed when Monster Hunter XX came to the Switch as a Japan-only exclusive, the good news is that we don't have to suffer in region-imposed torture any longer. The latest big fish in the franchise's pond, Monster Hunter World, is finally here, and it blows the previous western releases out of the water. For seasoned players, the gameplay loop in Monster Hunter World is immediately recognisable. Your job is a cycle that involves crafting weapons, bulking up, killing monsters, and looting them for materials. However, a well-crafted narrative has not traditionally been a part of that gameplay loop, and that may have been a deterrent for those looking for a foothold into the franchise in the past. Luckily for them, the first major point of difference here from the previous mainline titles is the way that the plot and gameplay are grafted together. A spinoff, Monster Hunter Stories, stepped off the beaten track by introducing a simple yet satisfying … [Read more...] about Monster Hunter World Review: The Deadliest Catch
Monster Hunter World Review: Larger Than Life
While some fans of the series were disappointed when Monster Hunter XX came to the Switch as a Japan-only exclusive, the good news is that we don't have to suffer in region-imposed torture any longer. The latest big fish in the franchise's pond, Monster Hunter World, is finally here, and it blows the previous western releases out of the water. For seasoned players, the gameplay loop in Monster Hunter World is immediately recognisable. Your job is a cycle that involves crafting weapons, bulking up, killing monsters, and looting them for materials. However, a well-crafted narrative has not traditionally been a part of that gameplay loop, and that may have been a deterrent for those looking for a foothold into the franchise in the past. Luckily for them, the first major point of difference here from the previous mainline titles is the way that the plot and gameplay are grafted together. A spinoff, Monster Hunter Stories, stepped off the beaten track by introducing a simple yet satisfying … [Read more...] about Monster Hunter World Review: Larger Than Life