Sony’s PC port avalanche continues. For a company that only a couple of years ago was dedicated to console system exclusives, this newfound interest in the PC as a platform has been welcome.

To date, we have received high quality ports of Horizon: Zero Dawn, Days Gone, God of War, and most recently Marvel’s Spiderman, with Sackboy: A Big Adventure also announced for later this year.

Now, one of Sony’s most beloved franchises, Uncharted, has made its way over to Windows PCs. Uncharted: The Legacy of Thieves Collection is both Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: Lost Legacy, also brought to PlayStation 5 earlier this year.

Ported by stalwarts Iron Galaxy, this is a full-featured release, with some extra niceties for PC players to make it the definitive edition, and if you have the hardware, the best place to play the most recent Uncharted games. It is a momentous occasion, and with these two games coming to PC I have realised just how much time I have been playing Sony first-party games over the last year on my gaming PC. It is an opportunity to expand the franchise to a new audience, and though the Uncharted movie wasn’t necessarily a top-rated experience, shows that Sony is willing to push properties beyond the console into new media forms.

But as a PC port, what can we expect? Firstly, there's the usual bevy of screen and graphical settings options such as higher than PS5 settings for anisotropic filtering, textures, ultrawide resolutions (though most cutscenes are still 16:9), high framerates and more, though perhaps not as many as you might expect. That’s not to say you can’t get great image quality out of the game, but don’t expect entirely new versions of ambient occlusion, global illumination, or other graphical systems.

What is included, however, is the addition of NVIDIA’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR upscaling technologies (it is unclear whether this is FSR 2.0 or 2.1).

The DLSS implementation is excellent, and on a 4K screen even the DLSS balanced setting looked extremely sharp, and definitely helped to keep frame rates steady on my RTX 3070 GPU. I would have loved to see a dynamic resolution option based on DLSS and/or FSR but perhaps it can be added at a later date.

I was pleased to see that the game pre-builds game shaders at the title screen. While this does mean you need to wait a while once you choose either Uncharted 4 or The Lost Legacy on the menu screen, and your PC will use a lot of energy during this time, this will save a lot of shader compilation stutter and lower performance during the game. It is an option I wish more games had as I find compilation stutters extremely distracting.

That’s not to say you won’t experience any stutters at all, even accounting for this precompilation process. At times I did feel a few during my playthroughs, potentially linked to the game streaming in new assets (despite the game being run from a high- quality NVMe SSD).

It was also great to see accessibility options make their way over from the PlayStation 5 release. Everybody needs accessibility options at some stage, and it is positive to see this commitment from Sony extending to their PC ports. I did have to select my accessibility options again when switching from Uncharted 4 to Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, however and I’m not sure why it couldn’t automatically apply to both, as both games provide the same options as far as I can tell. I do find it a bit of an odd choice for the games to be combined into one launcher, especially when the two games are, in the end, separate .exe files. This approach sort of made sense of the PS5 release, but PC players expect a certain level of modularity this setup doesn’t provide. It also means that the total download size is north of 120GB, something that could be ameliorated with the option to download only the game that you actually want to play at any one time.

But what of the games themselves?

Well, they are, as expected, excellent. There are no new pieces of content or additions for this release, but Uncharted 4 and The Lost Legacy were standout PS4 titles that are still well worth playing. The enhanced graphical options make the game truly standout, and finally being able to run an Uncharted game at 4K and 60 frames per second was incredible. The art direction, motion capture, voice acting and world design are exceptional, and I’m glad PC players now have the opportunity to experience these stories.

Of course, it has to be mentioned that from a strategic point of view it is bizarre to introduce Uncharted to PC players who might never have played the games before with Nathan Drake’s final adventure in Uncharted 4 and, for Uncharted: A Lost Legacy, a story of two characters which assumes a lot of prior knowledge usually gained from playing Uncharted 1-3. I hope that the next stage for Sony is digging back in the archives to upgrade the Nathan Drake Collection for PS4 to PS5 and bringing it to PC as well.

Tragically, it never even received a PS4 Pro patch and is now a bit rough visually in 2022.

If this is your first Uncharted adventure than I do suggest reading up on the story so far (something lacking from the PC and PS5) release, unlike the recently-reviewed Return to Monkey Island). Even better if you can find a PlayStation 4 or 5 to play the Nathan Drake Collection, but I realise that undercuts much of the benefit of the PC release.

These are iconic stories, characters and moments in Sony gaming history, and a Naughty Dog game coming to PC is a sure sign that something has changed at Sony. With The Last of Us Part 1 coming to PC as well, the future for gaming on PC is bright, no matter your publisher of choice.

The post Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection PC Release (PC) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Game to movie adaptions can be a little hit and miss.

There’s been good, there’s been really bad and then there’s excellent.

Last years Mortal Kombat film redo was just wow and now Sony are jumping in porting their triple A  Uncharted game franchise from Naughty Dog on to the big screen with real life actors.

Taking bits from the games (Uncharted, Uncharted 2 and Uncharted 3 as well as Uncharted: The Lost Legacy) we begin at the beginning.

A young Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) is with his older brother Samuel in an orphanage run by some very strict Nuns.

Their parents are presumed dead, missing, but a Drake will be a Drake and the two brothers get themselves in too much trouble.

Nathan, called Nate, and his brother are split up and the older Drake runs away before he can be taken by the law.

Years pass and Nate begins a path of his own – not exactly an honest one.

He catches the eye of an older, sly treasure hunter called Sully (Mark Wahlberg) and enlists Nate to help him steal an artefact from an Auction House.

The two eventually team up in search of an ancient Spanish treasure, lost within the smaller islands of the Philippines.

The duo become a trio as Chloe Fraser (Sophia Ali) joins in the hunt, but they aren’t the only ones looking for the treasure.

A wealthy and ruthless businessman called Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) hires mercenaries to locate the treasure, which he believes his is family’s rightful fortune.

What plays out is a lot of double crossing and action to the likes of high adrenaline moments in the games.

The writers have done a fantastic job of incorporating the lore and memorable gaming moments in to the film.

There’s even a shout out to Indiana Jones and Nolan North, who voices Nathan Drake in the games has a small cameo.

Myself being a fan of the games and having played through all of them watched Uncharted and loved it. For the PlayStation gamers out there who are on the fence about seeing Uncharted, it’s worth it, appreciate it for what it is – an action flick that’s loyal to the games’ series.

The post Uncharted (Sony – 2022) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and the standalone expansion, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, both get the PlayStation 5 remastering treatment with the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection.

Continuing Sony’s reissuing of old as premium remasters rather than free updates or backwards compatibility, the most recent Uncharted games get a next-gen reissue. Originally released on the PlayStation 4 in 2016, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and the 2017 standalone expansion Uncharted: The Lost Legacy have been polished up for this new collection on PS5.

It was the original Tomb Raider that sold me on getting a PlayStation back in the 90s. I’d borrowed one from the guy who would one day be my brother-in-law, and we all sat around taking turns with the adventures of Lara Croft until he wanted it back.

So, I went out and bought my own to finish the game.

Funny that years later and half a world away from that UK shared house, it would be Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, a game that owes so much to Tomb Raider, that would make me put my hand in my pocket for a PlayStation 3. Nathan Drake’s 2007 adventures outshone anything that Eidos had published of Lara’s for the last decade.

Melding action, puzzles, exploration, and intrigue, along with a gripping story, the Uncharted games cemented the developers at Naughty Dog as masters of their craft. From Uncharted the developers went on to create the post-apocalyptic The Last of Us games, titles with very similar gameplay.

The success of The Last of Us had that game’s director, Neil Druckmann, take over from Amy Hennig on Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End along with co-director, Bruce Straley.

The Uncharted games primarily follow Nathan Drake, a slightly roguish treasure hunter who, along with his mentor, Sully, and other supporting characters, seeks artifacts like a modern-day Indiana Jones. Like the Indiana Jones movies, the games feature plots that meld fantastical archaeological sites with a touch of the supernatural.

As action games, they mix combat with amazing scalable environments and puzzles with some outrageous set-pieces thrown in for good measure.

The fourth instalment, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, one of the two games included in Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection starts with a prelude that introduces Drake’s previously unmentioned older brother, Sam, and reveals the boys’ upbringing in an orphanage.

It’s a far cry from the aristocratic origin of fellow treasure hunter, Lara Croft.

The game then switches to an older Nathan Drake, seemingly happy with a more regular job, one that doesn’t involve getting shot at all the time. He does still pine for the old days, though. When his past comes back to haunt him, Drake, once again, gets involved in a treasure hunt, this time for the booty of the English pirate, Henry Avery.

Uncharted 4 sticks to the same formula as the previous games. There’s epic adventure, action, shooting, and some interesting puzzles tied up in an exciting plot. Personally, I’m torn as to if this is the best game in the series, even if it is the most refined.

The collection also includes Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. This is a game that started out as a DLC expansion for Uncharted 4 but ended up being released as a fully-fledged game of its own.

The Lost Legacy features Nathan Drake’s sometimes partner and even more roguish treasure hunter, Chloe Frazer on the trail of the Tusk of Ganesh in India. She is joined by mercenary Nadine Ross, one of the antagonists from Uncharted 4.

Whilst The Lost Legacy is every bit as epic as other Uncharted games, the characters do less globe-trotting with the action constrained to locales in the mountains of India’s Western Ghats.

The game has players trekking through the jungle in a 4×4 stopping off to investigate and explore ancient ruins. The exploration is punctuated by shootouts between the protagonist and a band of rival treasure hunters.

For plot-heavy, linear experiences, the Uncharted games are some of the few titles of their type that I’ve played through more than once. But they are such polished games, and just so much fun. Yes, you could argue that they are just cover-shooters, but the adventure-movie stylings elevate the games beyond that. Characterisations and dialogue give the games a buddy-movie feel, but with action sequences rivalling anything that Hollywood has to offer.

The thing with these two particular games in the series is that the native PlayStation 4 versions both play, and look very nice on the PlayStation 5, anyway.

Sony asking fans to shell out on updated versions of the game for their new equipment is a bit sad, even if the upgrade cost is only $20 or so. If you’ve not played the originals, you are still paying a fair amount of dosh for a six-year-old game and its five-year-old expansion.

Saying that we have all paid a lot more money for a lot worse.

From a practical point of view, both Uncharted 4 and The Lost Legacy likely lend themselves to remastering a little more than previous entries, as they didn’t need so much work. It’s a bit of shame, as Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception are all games worthy of an update and ones that would better appreciate the graphical overhaul.

The previous Uncharted games are available on PlayStation 4 as Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, and will work on PS5. Whilst there’s no need to play these before The Legacy of Thieves Collection, the relationship between the character makes a little more sense if you have.

With the PlayStation 5’s graphical enhancements, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection does provide players with the definitive versions of both Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.

Players can choose from performance-targeting 60 fps, fidelity-4K at 30 fps, or the 120 fps performance+ mode in 1080p for those with suitable equipment.

Playing on performance mode the games are both slick and smooth. The visuals, even supposedly toned down for the faster frame rates, still look amazingly crisp and more like those of a graphic novel than a pixelated video game.

These new editions of the games make use of the PS5’s fast storage with near-instantaneous load speeds. The games also utilise the new DualSense controllers with haptic feedback and the dynamic adaptive triggers.

PlayStation 5 owners that have not played these games should see the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection as an essential purchase. Upgrading for those with the PS4 versions of the games will be a personal decision but highly recommended if you intend on playing through them again on the PS5.

The post Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (PlayStation 5) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

People all over the world are doing the right thing by staying home to help contain the spread of COVID–19.

Sony Interactive Entertainment is deeply grateful to everyone practicing physical distancing and takes responsibility as a home entertainment platform seriously and they are asking their community to continue supporting the safe choice and the need to Play At Home.

As a thank you to all who are doing their part to lessen the impact of this pandemic, Sony Interactive Entertainment is pleased to announce the Play At Home initiative.

Free Games to Play At Home: UNCHARTED: The Nathan Drake Collection and Journey

As part of the Play At Home initiative, PlayStation is offering free games to try and make those occasionally dull moments more exciting. UNCHARTED: The Nathan Drake Collection and Journey will be available for free digital download for a limited time from tomorrow, April 16th, 2020 at 11am NZST through May 6th, 2020 at 11am NZST.

For most of you, UNCHARTED: The Nathan Drake Collection will need no introduction.

UNCHARTED: The Nathan Drake Collection is a three-game collection from the masters at Naughty Dog includes Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, all meticulously remastered for PS4.

There’s no better time for globe-trotting adventures with Nathan Drake, an iconic cast of characters, and thrilling treasure-hunting action gameplay.

Then there’s Journey, a beautiful, celebrated adventure that is as moving as it is mysterious. The game’s life-affirming message is timeless, and perhaps more important now than ever before.

Independent developers are vital to the heart and soul of the gaming community and PlayStation understand the hardships and financial struggles that many smaller gaming studios are facing.

With that, SIE has developed a fund to support them during this time, having have earmarked $10 million to support their independent development partners.

More information about the fund, including participation criteria, will be made available soon.

The post PlayStation has announced the Play At Home Initiative appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

NOW CLOSED – You can’t get any more epic than Sony PlayStation’s exclusive Uncharted series.

Beginning with the adventures of Nathan Drake and his accomplices, enemies and more there is no denying that Naughty Dog’s cinema-like narrative within each and every chapter has compelled gamers to play on over two generations of consoles.

Now The Lost Legacy has recently released. Taking on the story arc of one of the characters that we met throughout the series; Chloe Frazer. Proving to be just as epic and challenging as the Drake series. We Uncharted gamers are opened up to a whole new story, a whole new chapter and of course a whole new adventure.

Thanks to our mates at Sony PlayStation NZ and to celebrate the release of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, STG has the ULTIMATE Uncharted Prize Pack up for grabs. The Uncharted Prize Pack includes everything you could ever imagine and ever want from the entire Uncharted series:

• Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Standard Edition PS4 Game
• Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Chloe Frazer Sackboy Keyring
• Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Nadine Ross Sackboy Keyring
• Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Tote Bag
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Standard Edition PS4 Game
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Nathan Drake Sackboy Keyring
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Travel Journal
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Pin Badge, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Patches
• Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection Standard Edition PS4 Game
• Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection Travel Wallet
• Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection Stickers
• Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection Pin Badge
• Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection Ring

* Winner(s) will be randomly selected from those that Comment below / Facebook Comment / Email in accordance to the above Question. Winner(s) will receive a Ultimate Uncharted Prize Pack consisting of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Standard Edition PS4 Game, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Chloe Frazer Sackboy Keyring, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Nadine Ross Sackboy Keyring, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Tote Bag, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Standard Edition PS4 Game,   Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Nathan Drake Sackboy Keyring, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Travel Journal, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Pin Badge, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Patches, Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection Standard Edition PS4 Game, Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection Travel Wallet, Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection Stickers, Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection Pin Badge, Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection Ring. Competition ends on the 25th of September 2017. The Uncharted Games Series has a R13+ and R16+ Age Rating in New Zealand. You must be over 16 Years of Age to Enter this Giveaway. We may ask for Proof of Age. Only open to New Zealand entrants.

The post Enter to Win the ULTIMATE Uncharted Prize Pack! appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Naughty Dog’s Uncharted: The Lost Legacy started out as a single-player DLC pack for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. During development, however, the DLC morphed into its own standalone game.

The decision to continue the Uncharted series focusing on the franchises supporting characters is an interesting idea, and one that could pay dividends. It’s a credit to the strength of the brand and the bold creativity of the developers that they could retire the former lead, Nathan Drake, and continue with a new protagonist in Drake’s ex, Chloe Frazer.

The prologue sequence, which introduces the partnership of Chloe and former mercenary boss, Nadine Ross, is straight out of the Uncharted playbook. With a fairly obvious route, you need to navigate through a war-torn city, stealthily taking out soldiers in your way. When you met up with Nadine, all hell breaks loose allowing players to experience some of those fabulous Uncharted set-pieces as they high-tail it to safety whilst pursued by angry gunmen.

Instead of globe-hopping like in previous Uncharted games, The Lost Legacy, for the most part, focuses on one location, in a similar fashion to the last two Tomb Raider games. The adventure takes the unlikely partners from the streets into the Indian mountains.

The pair are after the tusk of the elephant-headed Hindu god, Ganesh. The game reveals Chloe Frazer’s Indian heritage, which seems like a narratively convenient retcon, this not having been mentioned before this game. It does serve to explain Chloe’s intimate knowledge of Hindu mythology and give the tale a more personal angle.

Players concerned that the female duo may lack the wisecracks of Nathan Drake will be pleased to know that the banter between Chloe and Nadine is just as entertaining. The incidental dialogue is very well written. Chloe and Nadine’s very different relationships with the Drake brothers causes some friction. Nadine blames the Drakes for the loss of her military contracting business, Shoreline.

The gameplay is similar to Uncharted 4, but adapted to suit the new protagonist. Chloe’s fighting style is different to Drake’s being lest brute force and more athletic. Chloe also relies a lot more on stealth- even getting a silenced pistol. Enemy weapons caches are opened via a new lock-pick mechanic, adding a bit of suspense as you hurriedly try to unlock a container before being spotted by the enemy.

This being my fifth Uncharted game, and having played through the others (unusually for me) multiple times, I’m a little over-familiar with the series’ puzzle conceits to the point that they never really gave me much of a challenge. The puzzles are ingenious, though, some being huge feats of engineering.

The game’s pacing is spot on. The mix of exploration/climbing, puzzles and combat is balanced to perfection, keeping the gameplay fresh and flowing. Not once did I feel fatigued. I could have played the game none stop for its ten-odd hours.

The game features a large section set in a huge open area. Players are able to explore the various structures by driving around in a jeep. The area is absolutely spectacular and an interesting departure from the usual, tight, linier gameplay that is the series’ hallmark.

As well as the main objective, an optional task in the open area grants Chloe a bracelet that help you to location the many treasures scattered about the game. As in previous games, each treasure is meticulously modelled and beautiful to look at. The more treasures you collect the more credits you get to spend on the unlockable extras, such as news character skins, concept art, weapons and rendering effects.

Visually, The Lost Legacy is superb. The lighting, the textures and the Level design are just as you’d expect from an Uncharted game. The scale of the environments is breathtaking. There’s some huge structures to traverse, and they all look practically photo-real. If I had to pick holes, I don’t like Chloe’s stooped resting pose. I wish she stood up straight when standing still. It looks odd in my otherwise beautiful photo mode snaps.

The game comes complete with the multiplayer mode from Uncharted 4. This offers players both the traditional multiplayer modes and the wave-based co-op Survival mode, as well as the single-player practice Trials challenges.

Whilst Uncharted: The Lost Legacy may have started out as an expansion of Uncharted 4, it is so much more. In fact, were Naughty Dog to put a “5” in the title, I’d have been fine with it. The game doesn’t miss a beat in delivering everything that you’d expect from an Uncharted game.

The post Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PlayStation 4) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The first official day of E3 saw us spend the majority of our time at the main Expo Hall, situated at the Los Angeles Convention Centre, where most of the hands-on sessions, meetings and interviews with video game developers and publishers were being held.

We had the opportunity to get a one on one look as well as some hands-on time with upcoming games such as Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Strange Brigade, Rogue Trooper: Redux, Project Cars 2, Dragonball Z Fighter and Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom.

Our Uncharted: The Lost Legacy session was more of a guided hands-on or more of a private showing of the initial chapter of the game. We met the game’s writer, Josh Scherr, who walked us through the game and provided us with some little insights into the history of the title.

Uncharted – The Lost Legacy

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy follows Chloe Frazer, the secondary character in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Nadine Ross, as they travel through the south-west of India.

With such a setting, the game’s story stems from Hinduism and the old Indian culture, many aspects of which are still prevalent today. In order to ensure content was as accurate as possible and respectable to the culture and religion, Naughty Dog consulted with a religious expert at a University.

The graphics are certainly the standout aspect of the game, with crisp visuals and an entirely realistic character design. From what we were shown, the game appears to handle really well and is smooth, much like many of the other Uncharted games.

One of the best aspects of the game is currently the way in which Chloe is portrayed.  Her character does handle action superbly, is able to hold her own as well as Nathan Drake could, and it’s nice to see a strong, female character take the lead. Uncharted: The Lost  Legacy  is scheduled to release August the 22nd this year.

Strange Brigade – Rebellion Games

Our next hands on experience was with UK studio, Rebellion Games, who are known for the Sniper Elite games. The studio’s presence at E3 was to show off two very fun and addictive, yet very different titles, Strange Brigade, a third person, co-op multiplayer, adventure-shooter, and Rogue Trooper: Redux, a remastered version of the old school Rogue Trooper game, which is based off the 2000 AD comics of the same name.

Strange Brigade was very much like an Indiana Jones game with hordes of zombie enemies, which are made up mostly of Egyptian mummies. The 1940’s style narration is refreshing and adds character as well as unique personality to the game. The gameplay feels similar to the Zombie Mode in the Call of Duty Black Ops series, with waves of enemies attacking at every turn. With four characters to select from, there is variety in gameplay as each character possesses their own unique abilities and base load outs. The game plays well and appears to be one that could provide hours of endless fun, however the controls do take some getting used to if playing for the first time. Regardless, fans of shooters and adventure games will definitely enjoy Strange Brigade, which currently does not have a release date set.

Rogue Trooper: Redux

The second game, Rogue Trooper: Redux, was a rather interesting one. A remaster of the original 2006 single-player, third person shooter, the game follows the genetically engineered super soldier, Rogue, and his sentinel helmet, backpack and rifle. As one of the last of his squadron to remain alive, Rogue battles enemies with the help of his talking equipment. The concept is certainly intriguing and one which fans of the original game will enjoy. Rogue Trooper: Redux will be available across multiple platforms, including the Switch, Xbox One, PS4 and PC, to allow for a broad range of gamers to enjoy the game.

After three very solid games, we were thrilled to have gotten a chance to take a look at the upcoming Bandai Namco titles, Project Cars 2, Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom and Dragonball Z Fighter.

Project Cars 2

Project Cars 2, the second iteration of the popular racing title, is set to release on 22 September. Project Cars boasts the largest track roster of any console racing game and was one of the first to include dynamic weather. Project Cars 2 includes cars from every iconic brand, which can be played right from the get go, without the need to grind for cash or to unlock cars. It also now includes seasonal changes as well as improved localised weather.

The overall highlight of Project Cars 2 is its focus on providing absolute realism, with extremely realistic tracks, multi-class racing, which allows both fast and slower cars to race at the same time, having a real driver’s career and providing an experience across the full spectrum of car racing.

Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom

Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is an interesting title. Based on the similar art style of Studio Ghibli animation, the game tells the tale of a young King who doesn’t quite know how to be a leader. With a coup on the horizon, the King must work together with those around him to gain experience to crush the coup and lead his people. The major difference in this game compared to the previous iteration is that it now includes a new kingdom mode and includes real time combat as opposed to the traditional turn based style.

Dragonball Z Fighter was the big surprise of the year from Bandai Namco, and one that’s been extremely well received. The game illustrates the perfect fusion between the Dragoball universe and Arc System Works and proof of this is in the graphical quality of the game, with the extreme animation used. The game looks great and runs like a charm at 1080p and at a constant 60fps. One of the great aspects of this new fighting game, which includes 3 v 3 gameplay, is that each character is unique and has their own move and skills set.

With most of the titles we experienced releasing in 2017 and 2018 we are not only intrigued to see their development up until their respective release dates but also looking forward to playing them on our PlayStation 4’s, Xbox Ones and PC!

The post E3 Day One Experience appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Naughty Dog has been hard at work since revealing Uncharted: The Lost Legacy at PSX some months back, building a story and an experience that joins a new protagonist, fan favorite Chloe Frazer, with all of the hallmarks of an Uncharted adventure.

Today, PlayStation have officially announced to us at StG the release date for the PlayStation 4 exclusive title and also shared new footage and additional details about the game we are all eagerly waiting for. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy will launch from the 23rd August. Fans will be able to purchase Uncharted: The Lost Legacy for $69.95 RRP.

Initiall announced in December 2016 developers, Naughty Dog stated that they were approaching this project as a true Uncharted game – complete with its own deep narrative with complex character development, all-new destinations, refined gameplay, and blockbuster cinematic moments.

Naughty Dog have said “we’re especially excited to have Chloe as our new protagonist and explore more of her story as she and Nadine venture across India in search of the fabled Tusk of Ganesh. To that end, we wanted to share a new scene from early on in the game as Chloe and Nadine try to unravel the clues leading to the Tusk’s location”.

On another Naughty Dog note, rumours have been circling that all four of the original Jak and Daxter PS2 classics are coming to the PS4 via PS Store later this year. As beloved games in Naughty Dog history, the release of all four titles will coincide with the release of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.

PlayStation gamers that pre-order Uncharted: The Lost Legacy at participating retailers will receive a free digital code to download Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy on The Lost Legacy’s release. For those who pre-order on PS Store, you’ll also get an Uncharted: The Lost Legacy PS4 theme designed by Truant Pixel.

If you picked up the Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Digital Deluxe Edition, Explorer’s Pack, or the Triple Pack, you’ll get Uncharted: The Lost Legacy as a free digital download at launch. Owners of these products are not eligible for any pre-order bonuses.

The post Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Release Date Announced! appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

With Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End launching just around the corner, on 27th April 2016, whet your appetite for Drake’s return. Up until now Sony PlayStation have dropped small hints about Nathan Drake’s final adventure. It’s time to finally pull the curtain back and give you the official story trailer (above)!

BUT… before jumping into it, we have a little warning.

We’re being careful not to reveal too much – but story trailers by their very nature contain some story spoilers. If you’re on a media blackout… look away now! For everyone else, we have what Naughty Dog consider to be the best trailer in their history.

Still with us? Good. Enjoy.

The post Uncharted 4 – The Story Trailer Released! appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

2015, what a year. It’s been a year where I spent many an hour retreating old games with shiny new visuals, but also one where I experienced gameplay and graphical fidelity unlike anything I’d seen in the thirty-five years that I’ve been playing video games. Here are some of the highlights of my gaming year.

PlayStation 4 exclusive The Order: 1886 broke new ground in interactive storytelling. A visual feast depicting characters and Victorian London with almost photo-real clarity, sadly it didn’t get the acclaim I thought it deserved.

Press coverage for The Order, instead of lauding the interesting story and beautiful visuals, decided to slaughter the game, deriding it for is brevity, excessive quick time events and lengthy cut-scenes. I think they missed the point, myself, but it meant that the game was practically stillborn. Such a shame.

Despite my misgivings based on playing a preview build, Techland’s Dying Light managed to reinvent the open-world zombie game that the developer practically invented with their Dead Island series. Intelligent, interesting and above all pretty frightening, Dying Light immediately took my top spot when it comes to surviving a virtual zombie apocalypse.

EA’s Battlefield Hardline didn’t quite do it for me. Whilst I salute Visceral Studios for trying something different with DICE’s Battlefield series, Hardline was perhaps too much of a departure. In swapping huge battlegrounds for urban cops and robbers, the game lacked the scale and excitement of it’s military-themed predecessors. By all accounts, still a good game, but not a good Battlefield game.

Cities: Skylines on PC was a pleasant surprise. The city building game manages to take everything that was wrong with SimCity (a game that I personally still enjoyed) and create a nigh-on perfect example of the sometimes embittered genre.

Easy to get to grips with, beautiful to look at and relatively bug-free, Cities: Skylines has become my go-to city building game. With the introduction of a day/night cycle later in the year, the game became even more beautiful to look at.

Ori and the Blind Forest provided a charming break from the AAA action-fests that dominated 2015. Taking more than a little inspiration from the visual style of Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli animated movies, Ori and the Blind Forest follows the trials of the orphaned guardian spirit, Ori.

It sends players on a magical journey and is full of emotion. At its heart, though, Ori and the Blind Forest is no more than an old-school platformer which with repeated plays felt more and more derivative. A great game if you are looking for something short and sweet.

As a gamer that likes a bit of story with my action, 2K’s multiplayer squad shooter, Evolve didn’t really do it for me. It’s nice idea, being a member of a group of mercenaries charged with hunting and killing a gigantic player-controlled monster, but it lacked that Left 4 Dead feeling of comradery.

I’ve returned to the game many times over the year and enjoyed my time with it, but there are plenty of other games that I’d sooner be playing. To all intents and purposes, Evolve is still a great game, but not necessarily my sort of game.

The classic fighting franchise, Mortal Kombat made it’s new-gen debut in 2015 with Mortal Kombat X. With new-gen visuals, the series gruesome finishing mores were too much for Australian censors which slapped it with an R rating.

With a great story featuring character both old and new, beautiful graphics and some fantastic gameplay, Mortal Kombat X is the best fighting game I’ve played in a long time.

In real life I’d say that two wheels are better than four when it comes to having fun on the road. I’ve never really found a game that has managed to capture the excitement of motorcycling. Milestone S.r.l.’s Ride comes close.

Building on their successful Moto GP franchise, the Italian developers have, with Ride, created a game that celebrates the motorcyclist, their machine and racing on the open road.

Whilst it was released in 2014, Dragon Age: Inquisition dominated my playing schedule throughout 2015 due to the great DLC release during the year that bought the amazing story to its conclusion. The game received seven expansions during 2015, from the beautiful and varied terrain in the Jaws of Hakken to the conclusion of Trespasser. The Black Emporium gave players opportunity to change their character’s face (something that my unfortunate-looking Inquisitor was in dire need of).

The crowd funded / developed Project CARS really upped the ante when it comes to racing games. It the tradition of Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport and GRID AutoSport, Project CARS is a driving simulator rather than an arcade racer.

Project CARS copped a lot of flak for being virtually unplayable on a gamepad. With a decent steering wheel and shifter, however, the game is in a league of its own. Add a couple more monitors for a panoramic view of the track and it’s just like being there, sitting in a race car.

May 2015 finally saw the release of one of the year’s most anticipated games, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. This is the game that I still return to when I game in my own time. CD Projekt RED polished up the gameplay that they had been developing over the last two games and dropped players in a gorgeous open-world.

The vast world of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt offers player hours and hours of adventure, which the developers augmented with 12 free DLC packs and an expansion called Hearts of Stone.

Warner’s Batman: Arkham Knight managed to polarise the fans. Not a game that I had to review, but one that I purchased myself, on PC. Whilst the console version was, for the most part, celebrated, the PC version was not. PC gamers reported performance issues and missing effects indicated a badly-ported console to PC game.

Running Batman: Arkham Knight on a PC-rig bordering on the un-natural, my 32 gigs and 2xSLI GTX980 machine never really had any problems running the game, much to the ire of my peers. Still the PC version was a massive fail for both Warner Interactive and nVIDIA, whose Gameworks code seems to be a root cause of many of the problems. To this day, Batman: Arkham Knight still doesn’t run as intended on PC.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour kicked of EA Sports’ annual barrage of sports sims. The franchises two-year break allowed the developers to rebuild the game using Battlefield’s Frostbite engine and even including the Battlefield 4-themed Paracel Islands course.

I found the fantasy courses in Rory McIlroy PGA Tour more interesting than the real-life course which is probably because I don’t follow the game on TV. Still, PGA Tour is a good game and a was a great start to the 2015 EA Sports season.

I feel that I’d played every game that’ll ever be made. Most games wear their inspiration on their sleeve to such an extent that they seem like no more than derivative rehashes. Original gaming experiences are few and far between. Sony’s Everyone’s Gone to the Rapture is one of the most original games that I’ve played in a long time.

Derided as being no more than a walking simulator by those that fail to be engaged by the game’s subtle storytelling, Everyone’s Gone to the Rapture is an apocalyptic game with a difference. Set in a deserted English village, the game reveals the tragic events that befall on the people at the end of the world. It’s a very British horror story in the vein of Nigel Kneale’sQuatermass and one that keeps you thinking about it long after you’ve switched it off.

The PlayStation 4 exclusive Until Dawn was a bit of a surprise. Perfectly capturing the teen slasher movie look and feel, the game put the lives of a group of friends trapped in a mountain lodge in the hands of the player. Everyone that I spoke to about the game had a different experience with it. Not the longest game out there, but certainly nigh-on perfectly formed.

2015 saw the release of a game that seemed to have taken forever to arrive. Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain arrived in a storm of controversy that, for a change, had nothing to do with the game’s female lead wearing next to nothing. The launch was overshadowed by the seemingly very public, and rather unprofessional, spat between the game’s publishers, Konami, and the Metal Gear series’ creator, Hideo Kojima.

Regardless of the politics surrounding the game, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a superb effort, with the open-world gameplay taking the series’ tried and tested mechanics to a new level.

As accomplished as it is, I thought that Microsoft’s Forza Motosport 6 failed to live up to the excitement of 2014’s Forza Horizons 2.

Still a beautiful game, possibly the best-looking racing game ever, Forza 6 felt held back by the real-life locations that we’ve seen countless times before. The end result is a very accomplished game, but one that still feels a bit sterile.

Destiny: The Taken King proved to be more than just an expansion for Activision’s acclaimed shooter. Destiny’s second year of adventure kicked off by wiping Game of Thrones actor, Peter Dinklage’s much-maligned voice-over work from the game and replacing it with that of Uncharted’s Nolan North.

The inclusion of a revised leveling system, more akin to traditional role-playing games in Destiny: The Taken King as well as new missions, locations and a sinister new foe makes the game feel fresh again.

In a seemingly desperate move to shake their alleged misogynistic reputation, EA’s FIFA 16 includes, for the very first time, a selection of Women’s international teams. I found it to be a rather welcome move, making the 2016 entry more than just a roster update with a few token gameplay changes.

EA Sports’FIFA 16 is also the best looking entry in the series, the developers really starting to embrace the new-gen console’s graphics abilities.

Rock Band 4 re-introduced a new-generation of gamers to the rhythm music game. As I said in my review, Rock Band 4 was likely borne out of necessity over anything else as the die-hard Rock Band fans replaced their PS3s and Xbox 360s with new-gen consoles.

Rock Band 4 really doesn’t bring anything new to the table, apart from freestyle solos, which allow you to basically go mad with your instrument and still make a sound that seems like real music. Despite the lack of innovation for this fourth outing, Rock Band 4 is still an excellent game. The fact that you can still use your old instruments and previously purchased music make the game an essential purchase for fans.

I wasn’t particularly happy when I found out that Rise of the Tomb Raider was being release, initially anyway, as an Xbox exclusive. I’d been playing the Tomb Raider reboot on PC, with all its exquisite graphics cranked up to the max. I just could help but think that the Xbox One version’s visuals could be anything other than a disappointment.

Of course, I was wrong. The Rise of the Tomb Raider development team had been working closely with the guys at Microsoft to ensure that the latest adventure of Lara Croft looked nothing short of fabulous on the Xbox One. Whilst lacking a bit in the story department, the inclusion of more tombs to raider was welcome, even if the puzzles are still a lot easier that they were back in the day.

Likely in response to Harmonix and their rebooting of the Rock Band franchise, Activision countered with their Guitar Hero Live. Whereas Rock Band was essentially the same as before, it was all change for Guitar Hero.

With an almost retro feel, Guitar Hero Live uses real-life video from the point of view of the guitar player to put you right into the performance. The Guitar Hero TV experience allows players to stream official music videos and play them on the redesigned Guitar Hero guitar.

Fans of post-apocalyptic role-playing games got everything they could wish for with the release of Fallout 4. Not only does the game offer players a vast world to explore and a superb story, but you can also spend literally hours building things.

In previous games I’ve often wondered why the developers littler the world with useless objects. In Fallout 4 I could break items down to material and create all sorts of things from essential water purification systems to rather extravagant outdoor lighting.

In the build-up for the release of the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, the release of EA Games’ Star Wars Battlefront was perfectly timed. The free DLC, The Battle of Jakku, offered players their first peek at a key new location from the film.

With visuals plucked straight from the movies, Star Wars Battlefront, pressed all the right buttons for me and many of us that had been waiting nearly forty years to step into the movies. Many, however, were a bit upset with the lack of content included in the retail package and the price tag that EA put on the game’s season pass.

When it comes to over-the-top action, the Just Cause series turns it up to eleven. With Just Cause 3 Avalanche Studios took what was best about the other games- blowing shit up, and basically made the game all about that. The result is a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but offers players a crazy amount of fun.

You can spend hours in Just Cause 3 just designing mayhem. Be it tying stuff together and watching what happens or putting rocket mines on cows’ butts and having them fly about before exploding in a red mist. Naughty, but nice.

I’m still putting the finishing touches together for my Call of Duty: Black Ops III review. A far cry from last year’s Advance Warfare, Black Ops III has, in my mind, finally pushed the series too far away from its original premise and turned Call of Duty into a sci-fi shooter.

With an enjoyable if incomprehensible single-player campaign and a multiplayer experience that feels borrowed from Titanfall (but without the big robots), Call of Duty: Black Ops III really jumps the shark, giving us a fun, if totally brain-dead entry in to the series.

After last year’s critically panned game, I was surprised to find that the Victorian London-based Assassin’s Creed Syndicate shared most of its gameplay with the very similarly styled Assassin’s Creed Unity. It was interesting to find that whilst one game was derided regarding awkward controls, this new, much-lauded entry seemed to share most of the same mechanics.

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate did, however, work right out of the box on both console and PC. Personally I found the brother / sister team of Jacob and Evie Frye not as interesting as previous protagonists (notably Edward Kenway, who they will forever have trouble following) and the setting, Victorian London a bit too familiar and not as exotic as, say, the pirate-ridden Caribbean.

Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six: Siege, for me, suffers in a similar way that many found with Star Wars Battlefront. In leaving out the traditional single-player experience, the game just did sit well with me. Here was a full-priced game to all intents and purposes missing half of its content.

Don’t get me wrong, the multiplayer experience in Rainbow Six: Siege is very well honed, but with only a handful of maps, I’d hardly have called it complete. Add the real need for online co-operation into the mix and you’ve got a game that can really only be played within your circle of friends.

It was the year of the remaster and resurrecting games that were originally released in previous years I’ve deliberately left them out of the list above. I took a look at Saints Row IV: Re-Elected, DMC Devil May Cry: Definitive Edition, Borderlands: The Handsome Jack Collection, Journey, God of War III Remastered, Rare Replay and Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection. With the exception of Journey and Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, none of the others really did it for me. Rare Replay was an interesting trip down memory lane, but there was no way I was playing a thirty-five-year-old game for hours. Borderlands: The Handsome Jack Collection was good, but these where game that were still fresh in my mind and, quite frankly, looked just as good on the last-gen consoles.

2015 has been an epic gaming year, with the release of many games that we had been waiting quite some time for. There was very little to be disappointed with, either, with most games living up to the hype, the notable exceptions being Star Wars Battlefront (which could never have lived up to that sort of hype) and the disappointing PC port of Batman: Arkham Knight.

I’m going to close this feature with a list of my top games for 2015:

Best Story –Everyone’s Gone to the Rapture

Best Graphics – Star Wars Battlefront

Best Shooter/Combat Game – Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Best RPG – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Best Sports Game – FIFA 16

Best Music Game – Guitar Hero Live

Best Racing Game – Project CARS

Best Action Game – Just Cause 3

Best Sci-Fi Game – Fallout 4

Best DLC – Dragon Age Inquisition: The Jaws of Hakkon

Best Remaster – Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection

Game of the Year – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Here’s to a great 2016!

The post 2015 – A Gaming Year in Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.