28.gaming
Monday 13 March 2017
The Courier
Gaming Editors: Jordan Oloman, Errol Kerr and Jared Moore
Nintendo Switch Review Georgina Howlett takes a look into nintendo’s latest hybrid
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ne week on from release, Nintendo’s Switch has proven itself to be a worthy entrant into the competitive gaming market. Despite its reported faults – and let’s be honest, there’s quite a few – it has become Nintendo’s fastest-selling console of all time, and Reggie Fils-Aimé (President of Nintendo of America) has confirmed that Breath of the Wild, the newest Legend of Zelda instalment and primary launch title for the console, has become Nintendo’s best-selling launch title of all time. Not bad. So, what is it actually like? The portable design of the Switch is both innovative and sleek, just as Nintendo intended, and the joy-cons, although small and seemingly fragile, are tough and detailed pieces of technology, easily coming away from the screen body and attaching to any of the other accessories you wish. Their buttons are highly-responsive, they sit comfortably in your hands, and with the included joy-con grips, they make for controllers that you almost forget you’re holding. The screen itself has a sharp, vivid image quality, with the display being able to be dimmed or brightened at will as well as customised between light or dark themes (I would predict that Nintendo will release more in future, similar to those available for the 3DS menus). The touchscreen is also a nice touch (no pun intended) to the console, giving it ease of access and a further modern portability, though I wish a stylus had been included as with the Wii U gamepad as to not get fingerprints all over the glass. Thus, the console in its portable form is both comfortable and easy to use, and I cannot fault it in terms of appearance – it looks good.
“The portable design is both innovative and sleek”
Moving onto the console’s ‘home’ mode, the Switch dock is sufficiently compact as to be able to sit practically anywhere, with a HDMI port and three USB ports available and the Switch logo emblazoned nicely on the front. Performance was thought to be designed to improve when the Switch was docked, but if there’s one complaint to be had, it is that – particularly with high-intensity games such as Breath of the Wild – there are noticeable frame-rate dips when in docked mode. This issue has been reported numerous times online, as has others including dead pixels on the Switch screen, joy-cons spontaneously losing signal, interference with other electronics, and even issues with reading game cartridges. (Speaking of the cartridges, do NOT lick one. It’s gross and not worth the dare. Trust me.) Ignoring all of these scary, scary issues (none of which I have experienced, though I will admit my Switch froze and had to be manually restarted once), my main issues now revolve not around the appearance or power of the console, but its lack of content. There are no applications available for the console beyond the few eShop games available, and this combined with the console’s lack of activity log, achievement system and messaging system (to name but a few of the most-demanded features at this point), creates a huge problem. Nintendo, understandably, wanted to create a games-oriented console, but in doing so has limited its usage right out of the gate and alienated many prospective buyers from even considering it. Although I love my Switch, and adore the portability of it, I don’t actually use it that much right now because I simply don’t have that much to do on it. While I would easily recommend a Switch to anyone thinking of getting one, I do realise that it is, at the moment, fairly pointless unless you’re a hardcore Zelda fan or interested in (for example) the niche SNK games on the eShop. So, like me, sit back and relax while you wait for the incoming software updates and game releases.
Review: Breath of the Wild Gaming Editor Jared Moore switches on Zelda and takes in a breath of fresh air
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aving never before played a Zelda game, going into Breath of the Wild presented a rare opportunity. As such an influential franchise in the industry, a large proportion of people currently playing through the latest of Link’s adventures will be doing so having already played through one of the previous titles in the franchise available. Stepping out onto the great plateau for the first time gives you a first insight into the vast open world landscape that the developers have been working towards for so many years. Aesthetically, the game is stunning. Lighting and shadow effects are not only prominent throughout but are well balanced and add to the iconic art style that the game promotes. Whilst Link is able to fast travel between locations that you discover during the course of your playthrough, I’ve found my self often travelling the old fashion way between objectives solely because graphically the game makes such a menial journey so enjoyable. Freedom plays a huge part within Breath of the Wild. Not only does the game allow you to pretty
much go wherever you want from the offset, there’s a diverse range of mechanics integrated within the game that allow you the freedom to act an play in a style that suits you. It’s the attention to detail that sets Breath of the Wild apart from other titles around. From cutting trees to climbing cliffs, there’s a huge amount of joy to be found just exploring the world before you. Throughout the game your shield can be doubled up as a board which Link can use to surf down the slopes and grassy rolling hills throughout Hyrule. Weapon degradation also plays an effect throughout the game, encouraging you to constantly explore and find new items on display throughout the land. That being said at times, weapons appear to wear thin far too quickly, just as your about to get familiar with a new spear or rusty sword it’ll shatter into a thousand fragments leaving you weaponless and at times frustrated. Perhaps the most useful item utilisable from the offset is the Sheikah slate, an ancient device that allows you to harness the power of different runes discoverable across Hyrule. The slate provides a subtle nod towards the Switch’s portable device
which only adds to the charm of the device. Getting to grips with the slates various rune based powers is at times slightly clunky, but provides the basis for some interesting and fascinating puzzles throughout the worlds various shrines. Unfortunately, my experience with Breath of the Wild so far has been marred by a lack of optimisation on Nintendo’s part. Whilst for the most part the game considerably well on the Switch’s handheld there are noticeable issues with framerate especially when the console is docked and played at a higher resolution. At times these issues cause the game to slow to a point where it makes it difficult to actually play. In all honesty with the time Nintendo have spent on Breath of the Wild framerate issues like these not only can’t be overlooked. They take away from the immersive nature of the gameplay and take away from its fun factor. Many review scores for Breath of the Wild have given it perfect scores across the internet, but until Nintendo fix the games graphical performance, I don’t feel like the game can be considered as such.
Indie gaming insight: Shadowrun Returns
Gerry Hart plays the game and tells us what he cyberthunk about this indie masterpiece
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hat happens when you take the dystopian near future trappings of cyberpunk fiction and combine them with elements of high fantasy? Well for one you piss off William Gibson but more directly, you get Shadowrun, the venerable pen and paper RPG franchise that’s been rustling the jimmies of cyberpunk purists since 1989. Yet despite some decently acclaimed titles on the SNES and Sega MegaDrive, Shadowrun’s seen few decent video game adaptations. That was until the Seattle based Harebrained Schemes threw their hat into the ring with 2013’s Shadowrun: Returns and its sequels.
“Outside combat, the Shadowrun games focus heavily on dialogue and teasing little details out of the environment”
I’ll start with the actual gameplay seeing as its largely the same across all three games. Mechanically speaking, Shadowrun: Returns is a party-based tactical RPG in the vein of XCOM. Combat typically revolves around turn-based firefights in arenas dotted with cover, with the number of actions you can take per turn depending on your action points. This also applies to hacking
or “Decking” as its called in Shadowrun. As with XCOM, this forces the player to think carefully about the decisions they make in combat. Variety is further added by the character classes based off of the archetypes from the original RPG. Each class is markedly different from one another, necessitating particular playstyles whilst allowing for a remarkable amount of flexibility within them. Outside combat, the Shadowrun games focus heavily on dialogue and teasing little details out of the environment. This is where I feel Shadowrun: Returns truly shines as many of the skills can afford players advantages when interacting with the environment or in dialogue, as well as revealing a number of intricate little puzzles. Thus players who want a more eclectic experience outside combat must also consider where they spend their skillpoints (or Karma) even more carefully. Now onto the individual games themselves. Of the three, the first title from which the franchise derives its name is probably the weakest. Its not bad by any stretch. The story certainly does a good job of painting a vivid picture of Shadowrun’s bizarre world. Nontheless, its remarkably short and a little too linear for a game of its type, so you’re given no real chance to acclimate to any of the in-game locations. None of the characters are particularly memorable either. However the second title, Shadowrun: Dragonfall drastically improves upon its successor. Rather
than a linear structure, Dragonfall is more hubbased from which you embark on missions at your own pace. You also have a team unlike the first game, all of whom are beautifully characterised. Dragonfall also continues to paint an even more vivid picture of the dog-eat-dog yet simultaneously solidarity-oriented shadow communities you run in and the anarchist dominated Berlin where the game is set.
“None of the characters are particularly memorable either”
This brings me on to 2015’s Shadowrun: Hong Kong which I’m still playing through. Thus far has done a decent job at building on the successes of Dragonfall. The District of Heoi from where you operate is even more engaging than Dragonfall’s Kreuzbasar and the characters are fantastic. Decking has also been substantially to incorporate stealth mechanics (though I’ll be buggered if I can figure them out). Whilst blending cyberpunk and high fantasy might sound unbearably cheesy, Shadowrun’s world has proven remarkably compelling and as far as video game iterations go, you couldn’t ask for much better than Shadowrun: Returns. At the very least, its got me hooked. See you in the shadows, chummer.