You may have enjoyed some of the best games that the last twelve months had to offer, but it’s worth being mindful that many of those games have even more post-launch content to enjoy.

Downloadable content, or DLC, has come a long way since Bethesda’s DLC horse armour mis-adventure with Oblivion. For some, DLC is content that developers should have included in the purchased game, and for short titles, that may, indeed, be the case. For three of the very best titles from last year, games that already featured hours and hours of adventure, the additional DLC is well worth the price of admission.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is my 2018 game of the year. Not content with giving players 100 hours-plus of fun roaming Ancient Greece, Ubisoft scheduled a whole season of additional adventures and challenges for your hero to experience.

Players can already enjoy free regular updates, like epic ships and contracts, but the meatiest of this free content is entitled the Lost Tales of Greece. These episodic questlines offer standalone stories with new characters. Even if you’ve not picked up the season pass, players that have already finished the game, by completing all the existing missions (and fair play to you), still have plenty to look forward to. Most of the thet seven free monthly expansions can already be found in the game, with the rest continuing to be released for the next few months.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Season pass owners are really being looked after. The pass includes a copy of Assassin’s Creed 3 Remastered which has just launched. For Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, right now, the first of two additional story arcs are available in the game.

Legacy of the First Blade introduces our hero to Darius, the assassin who allegedly killed the Persian king, Xerxes. All of the three episodes are currently available to play. These introduce some of the elements, that will be familiar to fans of the series (and not just the hidden blade).

The second arc, The Fate of Atlantis (a title that LucasArts fans may be familiar with), shares some more secrets from the famous sunken city. We’ll know more once the story starts sometime in the next month or so.

The Assassin’s Creed Odyssey DLC, both free and as part of the season pass has added some superb new content to the game. Future DLC should keep this already amazing game fresh and exciting for months to come.

Whilst I found Lara Croft’s latest adventure, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, to be a bit lacking in the story department, the game looks great, especially on PC. The game also features some of the best puzzles since the 2013 reboot. This time the tombs are more like the insidious locations of the original games.

The season pass entitles purchasers to download seven DLC expansions, three of which are out right now. Each of the expansions include a new tomb, a new costume, a new ability and a new weapon. Each tomb can be played as a challenge tomb accesses from the main menu of from within the game after players have reached a certain point in the story.

Playing from within the main story, each new tomb includes a new quest line and story element. These paths include extra gameplay and puzzles that lead players to the new tomb.

The first expansion, The Forge adds a new quest-giver in Kuwaq Yaku. The old lady has a map that sends Lara on a new side-quest called Echoes of the Past. Lara must first translate the map with the help of the map’s creator, Diego, then it’s off searching for the tomb entrance.

The fiery tomb itself features lots of explosive gases that Lara must manipulate to swing over red-hot lava pits. The centrepiece is a massive rotating structure that’s an engineering marvel in itself. As with other tombs in the game, successful completion imbues Lara with additional skills for use in the game.

The second DLC, The Pillar, adds a new challenge Tomb to the main menu and a new in-game side-quest called The Age Makers. This new quest is available in Paititi. The Pillar adds a huge chunk of new story and gameplay before Lara even gets to the new tomb area.

The tomb, itself, has Lara battling against the elements in a huge storm throwing rain high winds and lightning bolts her way.

The third DLC, The Nightmare takes Lara back home, to Croft Manor and has her battling supernatural enemies. The fourth instalment, The Price of Survival, pits Lara against elite Trinity soldiers as she makes her way through a tomb packed with deadly traps. The Serpent’s Heart pits Lara against the evil Kukulkan cultists as she seeks to save the lives of the rebels.

The recently released DLC, The Grand Cayman gives us another challenge tomb and a new mission to save the people of San Juan, as Lara does battle against a group of mercenaries and solves the puzzles of a new volcanic tomb.

These DLC packs each offer, at the very least, a solid hour’s worth of tomb raiding and extra questing. If you try each again as challenge tombs you can easily add on another half-hour per episode. You are likely going to get a good ten hours of extra game time from the full seven DLC packs.

Square Enix have really pulled out all the stops with the Shadow of the Tomb Raider post-launch content. The season pass affords players hours of new gameplay, repayable challenges, costumes and abilities.

For our third game that keeps on giving, we need look no further than the adventures of the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, exclusive to PlayStation 4.

Whilst Spider-Man is a huge game straight out of the box, packed with Marvel Easter Eggs, Season Pass owners get even more web-swinging action. The Spider-Man DLC The City That Never Sleeps is split into three self-contained episodes. As well as new story, you also get new suits and side activities to play through.

The first episode “The Heist” introduces Felicia Hardy AKA The Black Cat, who was mentioned, but never seen in the main Spider-Man campaign. The story plays on the unlikely former relationship between Spider-Man and the cat burglar. Black Cat is after some of Hammerheads hard drives and enlists Spider-Man’s help. We also get to play as Mary-Jane in another of her stealth missions. The episode games players some down-time in which to locate some of paintings hidden my Felicia’s father, the first Black Cat. Finishing The Heist unlocks the Spider-UK suit.

The City That Never Sleeps continues with “Turf War”. For this second DLC it’s all-out gang war in the Big Apple. Hammerhead is trying to take down the Maggia dons and Spider-Man is in the middle. Add some seasoned gangsters and a sprinkling of Sable tech and you’ve a recipe for disaster. This DLC whilst fun, is a bit weaker than its predecessor. The Spider-Man DLC concludes with “Silver Lining”. This finale features the return of Silver Sable, who is not happy that Hammerhead hands his hands on her technology.

As well as additional storylines The City that Never Sleeps provides players with new collectables and side missions, as well as additional spider-suits and abilities. There’s even a few more frames for your photo-mode shots. This is on top of some special suits that the developers, Insomniac, have added to the game, fee to all.

These three huge and very different games from the three very different publishers of Ubisoft, Square Enix and Sony Computer Entertainment, offer players some of the best gaming experiences you could want. DLC content, whilst not denying it would have been nice for it to have been in the base games, can hardly be seen as a cash grab. Rather it extends the gaming experience for players that want to extend their time immersed in these incredible game worlds. If only more publishers’ DLC provided such value for money.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is available now on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is available across PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, as well. Spider-Man, however, is only available on PlayStation 4. All three games are some of my favourite titles from 2018 and come highly recommended.

The post The Games that keep on Giving! 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.