36 write for us!
press.games@forgetoday.com
REVIEW
Adam Richmond
The biggest football game in the world is back (sorry PES), and this time it’s actually significantly improved. The big headline for this year’s FIFA is that they now have Champions League rights. This brings with it the authentic broadcast package, kit patches, ball and, of course, the trophy. The addition is well needed after seeing Champions Cup plastered across every career mode until now. There’s now a Champions League tournament in kick-off ,
if you want to see which of your friends is the tournament master. You can now channel your inner Guardiola and become a tactical mastermind with the new tactics options in the squad menu. You can change what each player should be doing, depending on whether you’re getting every man behind the ball or crowding the opponent’s half, with an attacking style that would even make Jurgen Klopp blush. Career mode only really has cosmetic changes this year. With Champions League graphics galore,
they’ve replicated the draw (yes, you can see a guy take out a piece of paper that says Doncaster). But, apart from that, not much has changed.
The Journey, the game’s campaign mode, is back for the last part of Alex Hunter’s story and this year they give you a few
Fifa 19 is a must buy this year
more options than just playing with the South London star. They allow you to play with side characters Danny Williams and Kim Hunter. . Alex Hunter finally fulfills his dream of playing for Real Madrid, and through the story you will see how he copes with life in Spain. One mode that really sets it apart from last year’s game is Kick Off mode. It’s no longer just a regular match, you have the choice of playing House Rules, Survival Mode, No Rules, Long Range, First To…, Headers & Volleys, Best of Series, Home & Away and Cup Finals. You can also make accounts so you can track the stats of your friends, so there’s no more debate. Then you can see who the real King or Queen of FIFA 19 is in your home. FIFA 19 is a must buy this year with the addition of the Champions League. It’s certain controllers will be thrown across rooms due to injury-time bicycle kicks, making it an essential buy for your uni house.
FEATURE
Black History Month: Black representation in video games Adam Richmond
Black History Month has rolled around again this year, celebrating and thinking about black people in society, present and past. Through this we discuss representation within all mediums, but one that is often overlooked is the representation of black people in gaming. It seems now that most triple A games feature a white protagonist. Is it true that the role of black people in games, like films, is always just as a criminal or villain? This is not an attempt to criticise just the video game industry’s attempts at representation. There have been great protagonists in
video games such as Franklin in GTA V, Lee from The Walking Dead, Connor from Assassin’s Creed III, Jax from Mortal Kombat, and Marcus from Watch Dogs 2 - I’m not going to count LeBron James in NBA 2K19. But it seems clear to me that there is a massive lack of black female protagonists in video games. The only one I can think of is Aveline from Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation. She became our first female leading assassin back in 2012 when it was originally released exclusively for Playstation Vita. It was found to be quite popular so Ubisoft re-published it as Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation HD. The game was put on the three top platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. This was a great achievement in gaming
at the time, for a black woman to front the cover of such a large gaming franchise. Especially this year, and with the release of Tomb Raider and Horizon: Zero Dawn, we can see that the industry is continuing to produce strong females with great stories that are not just there to look at. But, if you look at the rest of the year there’s no female protagonists in many of the upcoming big releases and importantly, no black protagonists. There’s a reason some black kids want to become basketball players or footballers. It’s because it is what they are represented in the most. It shouldn’t be that black people are only thought about when the
next NBA game is about to come out and we are provided with a revived roster of players to choose from. If the video game industry doesn’t want to keep churning out the same stories with the same typical white man on the cover, it needs to realise this as well.