Marvel’s Avengers and associated Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of the biggest media properties in human history. From films, tv shows and of course comic books, you can find excellent Avengers content almost anywhere.

But it has been surprising how little the Avengers have featured in video games, with few big-budget titles to point to. But that all changes with Marvel’s Avengers, a new AAA release from Crystal Dynamics, who made two of the three excellent Tomb Raider reboot trilogy games.

And this is no mere movie tie-in. This is the whole hog – a substantial and well-written story campaign, and a whole games-as-a-service, Destiny-style looter. Crystal Dynamics hope that you’ll come for the first and stay for the latter, but after spending some time with the game I will need some convincing to hang around for those after-dinner mints.

Let’s start with the main campaign. Our story focuses on Kamala Khan – Ms Marvel – as she witnesses the spectacular fall of the Avengers after San Francisco suffers a horrendous attack. With the main Avengers ensemble disbanded, bitter and lonely, the story is a classic coming together narrative focussing not just on bringing the band back together but on Kamala Khan’s transformation from unabashed (annoying) fangirl to mature, respected and valued member of the Avengers herself.

Overall, the story is short but satisfying, and really does feel like a true Avenger’s narrative, with a classic three-act structure and enough character development for the campaign to hang on its own merits.

There are some downsides however, and despite the relatively short campaign length it feels a little padded out with missions that were clearly originally designed for multiplayer – or at least multiple players. There are classic stand-here-and-kill-waves-of-enemies-as-a-progress-bar-fills-up sections where you must try and defend three control points at once – a tough ask for just one player, and your AI teammates don’t seem to take the hint very well to stand in the other areas. But luckily each mission isn’t too long nor difficult so you won’t be tied up for too long in that monotony. And your AI enemies can make a difference rather than just stand there not acting.

Speaking of teammates, over the course of the campaign (and leading into post-game missions and the multiplayer), you can play as six of the most iconic Avengers (Thor, Hulk, Ms Marvel, Black Widow, Iron Man and Captain America). Now there were some concerns about the character designs when this game was first teased, but I can say that apart from Captain America, I got used to the new faces and voices without much effort. This is helped by some exceptional and well-known voice acting talent from industry veterans such as Troy Baker.

Other superheroes are coming too, such as Hawkeye and Spiderman. Speaking of, Spiderman is locked to the PS4 of the Avengers, which is a disappointing exclusion from other platforms. This is especially true as performance on the now-aging PS4 can be a bit wobbly, so for a good, locked 60FPS you’ll need to play on PC.

Luckily, each of these characters feels vastly different to one another while sharing much of the same inputs – think Super Smash Brothers. Black Widow, for example, is an agile boxer, with a focus on movement and dodging. Hulk meanwhile, feels unsurprisingly weightier, with slower (though not snail-like) movement and a greater focus on area of effect attacks. The only character I didn’t connect with as much was Iron Man, who seemed lacking in firepower considering the vast arsenal he supposedly has at his disposal.

Each Avenger has a range of combos and special moves to unlock over time, and by the end of the campaign I still had many greyed out. Each also has three main abilities, with one a super that lets you really go to town on whoever is in your way. They do take a while to recharge though, so it ends up quite a strategic decision when to use them and when to leave them be.

This is made harder as each encounter can be a little difficult to decipher. There are only so many enemy types in the game (most of them robots), so you might be trying to expertly dodge to get a damage combo off, but in sea of similar-looking limbs it can be hard to know when or where an attack is coming from.

Playing at 60FPS or higher felt like the right way to play, with 30FPS (the target on current-generation consoles) lacking the smoothness, fluidity and input response that makes melee fighters such as this better to play. With all the settings turned right up the game looked incredible, though it will tax your GPU to get there (though perhaps my backordered RTX 3080 may fix those particular concerns). There has clearly been an incredible amount of time working on the character models and animations, and it shows with the grunt of a modern PC graphics card. I did have some issues with sound levels being off no matter my settings, but this may be local to my machine.

And while the game can be a little too liberal with the particle effects, the satisfying way that your attacks hit feels grounded and realistic, though it can get crowded when the game throws lots of enemies on screen at once.

If Destiny is a looter shooter, then Marvel’s Avengers is a looter basher and at the core is a game about getting new shiny gear to watch the numbers go up. But upgrades don’t do anything cosmetic to your character (outfits are unlocked separately, and look legitimately good) but more egregiously didn’t make me feel particularly different apart from a general sense of being at or above my enemies level.

These issues, and my general satisfaction with the campaign meant I wasn’t highly motivated to go back and work through the multiplayer. Some will want to spend more time with these characters repeating missions and maybe I’m just burnt out on these games but I am happy to enjoy the story, post-game missions and move on to a new experience.

When new content and heroes drop I’m excited to return but until then Marvel’s Avengers has been a satisfying, short experience without the staying power that I think Crystal Dynamics hopes it should have.

The post Marvel’s Avengers (PC) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Lara Croft is back in in the third chapter of the reimagining of the classic series. For this game, things are apparently taking a dark turn for the novice tomb raider.

The story continues to follow Lara’s quest to disrupt the intentions of Trinity, the shadowy organisation responsible for her father’s death. This time out Lara starts of in Mexico, searching for a Mayan dagger. It’s her obsession for the artefact that sets in motion events that may just lead to the end of the world. It’s then off to Peru to find a silver box that may, or may not put things right again. Of course, Trinity are one step ahead wanting to use the powerful artefacts for a bit a mischief.

If you liked the gameplay of both the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot and the 2015 sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider you are in for a treat. Whilst I found the combat in Shadow of the Tomb Raider almost identical to its predecessors, both the stealth and climbing mechanic have been overhauled, somewhat.

Whereas the original Tomb Raider games were all run, jump and gun when it came to bad guys, these new Tomb Raider games require Lara to tread a bit more carefully, picking the enemy off one-by-one. The bad guys often patrol in numbers and with vastly superior firepower. For this entry in the saga, Lara can cover herself in mud to not only hide from guards equipped with thermal cameras, but also against vegetation-covered walls. As well as just sneaking up behind them, enemies can also be dispatched by dragging them into the foliage whilst hiding against walls and in bushes. Lara can also string up enemies from trees and pull them into water.

Traversing the huge environments has never been more fun or as challenging. Armed with her pickaxe, Ms. Croft can not only scale rocky cliff-faces, she can also, when suitably equipped, now climb up and under rock outcrops, hanging like, well… a spider.

There’s little doubt that the developers, Crystal Dynamics have been looking at the work of their competitors for inspiration, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The stealth borrows a lot from Assassin’s Creed, and so do the new fear arrows (crafted from poisonous critters). One hit from a fear arrow and the enemy goes into a mad killing frenzy before dying. Sound familiar?

Even though the combat borrows a bit from other titles, when it comes to the puzzles, Shadow of the Tomb Raider has gone back to its roots. One of the criticisms that I had of the last two games were the relatively easy puzzles. I found that there was very little challenge in solving the puzzles of both the main quest line and the optional challenge tombs.

Whereas Rise of the Tomb Raider was a step in the right direction, the puzzles, this time, rival some of those brain- teasers for the original Tomb Raider series. Of course, better Level design means that you are unlikely to be spending hours trying solve a puzzle like you did in the OG Tomb Raider. For the most part, the puzzles in Shadow of the Tomb Raider are quite ingenious. Secrets are revealed and doors are unlocked using wind, fire and water using ancient and often perilously decaying mechanisms.

Both the main quest line and the optional challenge tombs (of which there are not nearly enough) all feature some of the best Level design, when it comes to puzzles and exploration, in the series so far.

Gameplay-wise, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is generally superior to its predecessors. That’s not to say the game isn’t without its faults.

For the most part, the plot works well. Even Camilla Luddington, the voice of Lara, seems to have better settled into the role – only occasionally overdoing the received pronunciation that masks the British-American actress’ Mid-Atlantic accent.

It’s when Lara gets to the Peruvian city of Paititi that the game, for me anyway, hit a narrative roadblock.

Whereas Rise of the Tomb Raider had a hidden tribe of people living in Siberia speaking perfect English with an American accent, this time we have the occupants of a Peruvian lost city, again, speaking English, although to its credit, with a “foreign” accent. You can change the language to Peruvian(?) with the “voice-over immersion” option, but that’s also weird as Lara still speaks to the indigenous people in English. During this segment Lara also dons an outlandish (i.e. awful) costume, which with the addition of an (equally awful) mask, she uses as a disguise – fooling the locals, even with her clipped English Home Counties accent.

The developers seem to strive to give Lara a deeper meaning than just being an archaeologist that likes raiding tombs. It really doesn’t work. Rationalising a videogame character in this manner is virtually impossible. In real world terms Lara Croft is a psychotic murderess, which of course she is not, she’s a character in a video game.

Thankfully, with Paititi behind her, the story picks up, once more.

As with the previous games, Lara is accompanied by her Kiwi-born friend, Jonah. unfortunately, he only really serves as Lara’s moral compass (when the plot suits – the rest of the time he is all about the murdering, as well) and as the muscle. Jonah is always there to lift obstacles and open up the next area when the game wants you to move on.

As is now becoming the norm, Shadow of the Tomb Raider includes a photo-mode. I’m not sure if I’m just being spoilt by the graphical advances of the last year or so, but the photo-mode seem to emphasise the nagging feeling that the visuals of the game on the PlayStation 4 Pro, whilst nice to look at, were perhaps up to the standard of many of the game’s contemporaries. Freezing the game for a photo-op, nine times out of ten, revealed a Lara Croft posed awkwardly with a shockingly vacant expression on her face.

Lara’s trip down uncanny valley aside, the game’s environments and the detail in the various tomb and underground chambers are superb. The visuals in the set pieces, which I’m not going to talk about at all, rival those of a Hollywood blockbuster.

Thankfully, the PC version of the game offers a vast visual improvement over the PS4. Better lighting, higher resolution textures and I’d even say better facial animations make the PC a more definitive version of the game. That being said, running the game on a pair of GeForce GTX1080ti GPUs the visuals are not hugely different from three-year-old Rise of the Tomb Raider. This will change for owners of the upcoming Turing-based GeForce RTX GPUs, as Shadow of the Tomb Raider supports the cards’ ground-breaking real-time raytracing capabilities

New for Shadow of the Tomb Raider are a set of customisable Difficulty settings. Players that are tired of the less than subtle points that designers commonly put into their games to help guide players will be very pleased. Visual cues such as the white paint to highlight climbable items can be adjusted in intensity or removed altogether. The beacons and glowing items using Lara’s survival instincts can also be switched off. Puzzle hints can be reduced and Lara’s health abilities adjusted. There are six variable that can be adjusted to customise the game Difficulty according to taste and ability.

As Lara progresses she earns experience points which unlock skill points. As before, the camp fires dotted about the game can be used to spend skill points to improve Lara’s abilities. At these locations players can also upgrade Lara’s weapons using scrape picked up during the game.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a great game, but suffers a bit in execution. It’s a bit uneven.

The puzzles are better, but it lacks the polish of the last two games. The plot is bearable, at least compared to Rise of the Tomb Raider, but the developers really need to do up their narrative game to be in the same ball park as Naughty Dog and their Uncharted games.

That being said, I enjoyed the game immensely. It could, however, be a lot better. I hope that Square Enix take a step back before embarking on the inevitable fourth chapter.

The post Shadow of the Tomb Raider (PS4 / PC) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Warner Bros. has just released info to us at StG on their up coming Tomb Raider film, set to release next year (2018).

Lara Croft is the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who vanished when she was scarcely a teen. Now a young woman of 21 without any real focus or purpose, Lara navigates the chaotic streets of trendy East London as a bike courier, barely making the rent, and takes college courses, rarely making it to class. Determined to forge her own path, she refuses to take the reins of her father’s global empire just as staunchly as she rejects the idea that he’s truly gone. Advised to face the facts and move forward after seven years without him, even Lara can’t understand what drives her to finally solve the puzzle of his mysterious death.

Going explicitly against his final wishes, she leaves everything she knows behind in search of her dad’s last-known destination: a fabled tomb on a mythical island that might be somewhere off the coast of Japan. But her mission will not be an easy one; just reaching the island will be extremely treacherous. Suddenly, the stakes couldn’t be higher for Lara, who—against the odds and armed with only her sharp mind, blind faith and inherently stubborn spirit—must learn to push herself beyond her limits as she journeys into the unknown. If she survives this perilous adventure, it could be the making of her, earning her the name tomb raider.

From Warner Bros. Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, Tomb Raider is the story that will set a young and resolute Lara Croft on a path toward becoming a global hero. The film stars Oscar winner Alicia Vikander (“Ex Machina,” “The Danish Girl”) in the lead role, under the direction of Roar Uthaug (“The Wave”), with Oscar-winner Graham King (“The Departed”) producing under his GK Films banner. The film’s production began on the heels of the 20th anniversary of the wildly popular videogame franchise from Square Enix, Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal.

Tomb Raider also stars Dominic West (“Money Monster,” “300”), Walton Goggins (“The Hateful Eight,” “Django Unchained”) and Daniel Wu (AMC’s “Into the Badlands”).
Shooting on location in South Africa and the UK, Uthaug directs from a script by Geneva Robertson-Dworet. The director’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography George Richmond (“Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation”); production designer Gary Freeman (“Maleficent”); Oscar-nominated editor Stuart Baird (“Skyfall,” “Gorillas in the Mist”); and costume designer Tim Wonsik (key costumer, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”).

From the film’s Director, Roar Uthaug; “Being a longtime fan of the game, it’s important to me to honor the Lara Croft legacy and capture that spirit. It’s great to know that there’s such a passionate global fan base for Lara and her world, and our commitment to that will be evident in our movie. What’s different about this “Tomb Raider” movie is that it’s an origin story for the big screen, focusing not only on Lara’s strength and physical accomplishments but her humanity. We see Lara as a young woman, smart and capable but largely unfocused, and follow her on a dangerous journey that will push her to her limits in every sense, and allow her to hone the skills she needs to ultimately become who she was meant to be. As Lara Croft, Alicia Vikander is brilliant. She brings great depth to a complex role that is both physically and emotionally demanding. We hope this film will delight fans around the world and add another intriguing chapter to the Tomb Raider story.”

Producer of the 2018 Tomb Raider Graham King states, “I’m excited to be a part of this new Tomb Raider story, which introduces the origins of Lara Croft and delves into the humanity of this character. Alicia Vikander is a gifted actress that brings so much to this role. Our director, Roar Uthaug is extremely passionate and has an eye for scale as well as gritty realism. It’s been a wonderful experience shooting in various locations around South Africa and we hope that using these actual locations will give a grounded sense of reality. It’s our goal to make a film that will not only delight fans but enthrall a world-wide audience.”

Tomb Raider releases in New Zealand and Australian cinemas in 2018.

The post First Look at Tomb Raider 2018 appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Recently at PlayStation Experience 2016, Square Enix Montréal announced Lara Croft GO, the Lara Croft adventure, is now available for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita and is fully compatible with PlayStation 4 Pro. Developed in collaboration with Montréal indie studio, KO_OP, Lara Croft GO will feature a new story chapter, “Mirror of Spirits,” which includes new puzzles, mechanics, achievements, trophies and more—available first for PlayStation.  

“We’ve partnered with the talented artists at KO_OP to deliver a new Lara Croft GO chapter all while retaining the spirit of the Lara Croft franchise,” said Antoine Routon, lead engineer and co-creative at Square Enix Montréal. “Extending Lara Croft GO beyond the mobile platforms is a testament to the game’s success and our team is incredibly proud.”

In Lara Croft GO, Lara uses her wits and weapons to delve into dangerous chasms filled with mystery, artifacts and peril. Featuring an ambient, mesmerizing soundtrack, stunning art style, and didactic turn-based puzzle solving that made the game a critical and commercial success on mobile platforms last year, the new console version features finely tuned controls, trophies (including a platinum), as well as cross-buy and cross-save functionalities so you can purchase and play it on both platforms without losing progress.

“This has been a momentous time for Lara Croft, as the industry and gamers worldwide have joined us in celebrating The Year of Tomb Raider,” said Rich Briggs, Global Brand Director at Crystal Dynamics. “Lara Croft first appeared on PlayStation in 1996, and 20 years later it’s exciting to pay homage to this legacy by bringing Lara Croft GO to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita first.”

Lara Croft GO is available with an added 20 percent discount for PS Plus Members. The game is also available on Steam as of Sunday, December 4th, 2016, featuring all of the original content with the ‘Mirror of Spirits’ story chapter following three months later. Additional platforms will be discussed at a later date.

The turn-based puzzle adventure game casts players as the iconic Lara Croft as she explores the ancient ruins of a long forgotten civilization. Over the span of seven chapters and 115 puzzles, players must help Lara fight menacing enemies, overcome dangerous obstacles and traps, and ultimately, uncover the myth of the Queen of Venom. Along the way, players can collect ancient relics hidden throughout the game world to unlock additional outfits for the most nostalgic fans.

The post Lara Croft is GO on PlayStation 4 & PS Vita appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Tomb Raider has been around in one form or another, through both highs and lows for twenty years now. And what better way to celebrate the game than with a new version of the most recent game in the series, packed to the brim with new content?

Rise of the Tomb Raider – 20 Year Celebration (a mouthful to be sure) is not only the best version of last year’s game on consoles, but in a strong sense a homage to the series as a whole, lest we forget it as the inspiration for a whole range of action-adventure games. While it doesn’t spend too much time being nostalgic, the litany of modes, missions and extras is a welcome, (if slightly confusing), addition to last year’s release. The package includes the main game, all the DLC that has been released for the Xbox One and PC version, some new DLC (also being released alongside the 20 Year Celebration for existing owners on those platforms) and exclusive VR content for the PlayStation VR.

In the main story, Rise of the Tomb Raider, we see Lara Croft emerge as her own. This review won’t cover the main game in detail, as we have already covered it excellently last year with Darren’s review. Suffice it to say that having played it myself as well, Rise of the Tomb Raider is a worthy and successful entry into the rebooted series, and shows that Crystal Dynamics was no one trick pony with 2013’s fresh take on Tomb Raider. While not as emotionally resonant as it perhaps desires to be, strong shooting, crafting and exploring mechanics come together as a worthy challenger to Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series.

And the presentation on the PS4 is very similar to that on its Xbox One counterpart with some extra additions in some area. My only real complaint is that the game still does not run at 60FPS, but the upcoming PS4 Pro (or the further out Project Scorpio) may be my solution for true 1080p/60FPS performance on a console here.

Yet this version of Rise of the Tomb Raider is less important for its main story as everything else included in the package.

The 20 Year Celebration introduces a walking-simulator like experience called “Blood Ties.” Set between the first and second chapters of the game, Lara is tasked with exploring her father Lord Richard Croft’s manor to find documents that cement her claim to the building. It’s a short but touching experience that mainly involves discovering voice recording, relics from Lara’s childhood and her father’s research notes. Its quiet tone stands in stark contrast to the highly kinetic main story. The short time in the house gives you much more backstory into her parent’s history, and it is for the most part well written.

Blood Ties doesn’t outstay its welcome nor take itself too seriously. My sole issue is with Camilla Luddington’s voice acting, though I feel it may be more of the direction she was given rather than her skills themselves. Every item you discover is described in the exact same breathless tone of voice, which can grate after the fiftieth time you hear it.

I explored Croft Manor in Playstation VR, which was interesting, but clearly a bit of a gimmick, yet I can see that it would be a great introduction to virtual reality experiences to players new to the medium.

Also set on the same map in Croft Manor is “Lara’s Nightmare” zombie survival mode – sort of a horror wave-based mode. If Blood Ties is what happens during the day, Lara’s Nightmare is what happens at night when you’re home alone in a decrepit mansion. The zombies (sorry, infected) are genuinely terrifying and there is a real sense of dread throughout, although some of the horror is counteracted by the option to use character skins from the PlayStation 1 and 2 era, which looks hilarious and of which I took advantage of immediately.

Together, these two modes feel like little experiments by the developers that they created in extra time, as something completely different to the main story entries. They’re nice distractions and welcome additions to the game’s package, though ultimately both are forgettable as you can get better narrative walking simulator and wave-based zombie gameplay elsewhere.

Together with the addition of co-op to the DLC Endurance mode and a new Extreme Survivor difficulty the game is now brimming with content to justify its full-price for a year-old game. In addition, Square Enix has attempted to turn Tomb Raider into an endlessly-replayable experience, where the main story mission is meant to be just the beginning of your time with the game with mission modifiers, the new difficulty mode and time trial. Actually getting to those modes can be a little difficult, with a relatively complex and muddled UI that seems to have been designed for the main story only. They seem to be options to keep you coming back to the game – that shibboleth of modern game design: retention.

But I can’t really see that happening. Like Uncharted, Tomb Raider is a game that is at its best in the main story. And that’s okay. Rise of the Tomb Raider – 20 Year Celebration is the very best (console) version of a very good game. If you haven’t already played it on either PC or Xbox, then this version is the one to pick up. For PS4 users who haven’t had the chance to try out the game, the 20 Year Celebration represents a great deal that will keep you entertained for many hours.

I’m looking forward to examining the improvements the PS4 Pro bring to the game as demonstrated at the updated console’s launch event, but that will have to wait for now.

If you already have the game on other platforms all of the content released as part of the 20 Year Celebration, with the exception of VR support for Blood Ties, will be made available to existing Xbox One and PC users as part of the game’s season pass. So really, you can’t go wrong with this exciting, highly enjoyable game.