Fallout 4: New Vegas [DLC] [PS3 & 360]

Dead Money

This was without a doubt my favourite of the Fallout New Vegas DLC releases. Unlock all the other releases and indeed the main game Dead Money really makes you fight to stay alive. The DLC is set with the Sierra Madre Casino being the main backdrop of the proceedings, however you have to make your way through the streets of a nearby town before you can gain entry. The town is unlock anything you have seen before in the Fallout universe. Bathed in a strange red glow the town is covered in all kinds of dangerous traps, hazardous gas and is populated by a very creepy new enemy known as “Ghost People”.

When you first encounter the area you can be forgiven to think it looks like something from a Lovecraft novel, I’d be surprised if that’s not what the developers were aiming for. The story is a lot more engaging than I expected and if I was to sum it up I’d call it a mix between SAW and Oceans 11. most of your time will be spent in the streets cautiously navigating your way through traps and past the Ghost People, but that’s not all. At the start of the game you are knocked unconscious and when you recover you find that an explosive bomb collar has been attached to your neck, (think The Running Man) the collar is triggered when you come within range of certain speakers, this too makes the difficulty increase and really keeps you on your toes. As I already stated this was by far the best DLC in the pack, it was extremely hard and tests you right to the brink of sanity.

There are a number of characters in Dead Money that play key roles in you completely the game, the dialogue is rich and really well drawn out. What Dead Money does differently is an overhaul of pace and tension, it makes you carefully watch each step and think about your next move rather than carelessly wander through the game. I’d recommend the DLC for players who are at least at level 30, it will try and test you to the very end and once you start Dead Money you cannot go back to the Mojave until you completed your business in the Sierra Madre Casino. [9 out of 10] By far the best DLC going, a solid storyline with interesting characters and a whole new approach and pace to the game.

Honest Hearts

Before you set out to play Honest Hearts you need to remember to carry only what you need because the game caps our weight allowance at about 70 or 80, why? well because to get to the area where the game takes place you have to squeeze through narrow corridors and caverns. When you arrive you find yourself in the middle of Zion National Park, Utah of all places. This is where you quickly learn that Honest Hearts plays out a lot like a western complete with tribes and the kind of landscape you see in a typical Cowboys and Indians movie.

At first missions are kind of interesting and hold your attention for a while, but after that its easy to just forget about what you are doing and who sent you, you still get the job done but caring about why you were doing it really goes out the window. So the storyline is nothing special but the map and lush terrain makes up for it. Zion is a very beautiful place, helped of course by the fact that its waters and rivers have not been polluted by radiation and chemicals.

Another thing that instantly became apparent was the addition of changing weather patterns, Zion not only gets showered in rain storms it also has a star filled sky at night that will make you stop and stare the first time the sun goes down. Included with the natural beauty is all manner of tribal art and murals, you see them scrawled and painted onto walls and cliff faces and while its only a small item of detail its the kind of thing that makes the game all the more special. It’s not all wine and roses though, what Zion has that I don’t like is roaming swarms of Cazadors that seem to spawn in the most random locations, and except for a few other varieties of beasts that’s really all you will find. It’s a shame they didn’t put in some new animals or mutants because if anywhere on the map would benefit from such things it would be Zion. All in all its an okay DLC pack, it has its faults but you do receive an even higher level cap and Zion is the perfect place to visit when you just want to get away from the dry dustiness of Mojave. [6 out of 10]

Old World Blues

This was one of the oddest DLC’s Fallout has ever received, even in terms of the alien encounters in Mothership Zeta this still wins in terms of weirdness. Old World Blues plays a lot like an old cheesy science fiction movie that probably cost the price of the game to make. It’s all very strange yet kind of exciting at the same time. You wake up after what seems like a serious operation to find your brain along with other body parts have been removed, but by who or what? Well as crazy as it sounds by a bunch of robots. These plucky piles of scrap metal are inform you that you can get your organs back by doing specific tasks for them, there are all kinds of mini missions that thankfully take up a lot of time so you do actually feel like you get your moneys worth from the missions and story alone. The game is set in huge crater that’s been sealed off from the outside world, its called Big Mountain and as you explore it you start to see that it’s where much of the technology featured in the game was developed.

It’s full of secret test labs and facilities to pillage and plunder, once you can get past their occupants of course. Old World Blues features a great mix of enemies that challenge even the most accomplished players. Robot scorpions and robot dogs are some of the foes you will find roaming through Big Mountain, along with yourself there are also test subjects armed with guns and melee weapons and as you may have guessed they are bent on annihilating you. The DLC’s strong points are its heavy on new items and weapons, the humour and wackiness is seriously off the scale, Big Mountain is fantastic to explore. All that aside there is always one DLC pack that seems to suffer the most from bugs and freezes and this time around it’s Old World Blues. I lost count how many times the game slowed down to a snails pace, most of the time it was a specific area of the map and reloading a previous save fixed it right up. Even with the dire freezes which drove me crazy countless times Old World Blues is fantastic, the dialogue is beyond hilarious and its all very challenging. [8 out of 10]

Lonesome Road

This DLC ties in a lot more than the others in terms of the games main story. In a nutshell you are offered a quest by one of the original couriers who didn’t take the job that you did, this courier calls for you to traverse the dangerous terrain of an area known as The Divide in order to learn secrets about your past. And so coaxed with such an offer you set out into The Divide and as usual cannot bring a companion with you. The story is not that great and you can tell that they tried to do something gigantic but it really didn’t pan out, I found myself losing interest and my concentration diminishing as the game went on. It’s in no way a safe location, The Divide is home to many death claws who's razor sharp claws will tear even the highest level characters into shreds in a matter of seconds. Along with “the wildlife” there is a new enemy that resembles the ghouls and carries serious heavy firepower.

They aren’t too hard to defeat and raiding their remains nets some nice hardware and items which can be sold once you leave the area, thankfully unlike all the other DLC packs you can leave The Divide whenever you chose. This works great because you can sell off all the spoils you find and top up on health or ammo whenever you are lacking in it. Just like Honest Hearts I wouldn’t buy it for the story, I’d only buy it for the extra level cap and the challenge of making it through this new volatile area of the Mojave. [5 out of 10] Uninspiring landscape, flat story and dialogue, only worth it for the extra level cap small change of scenery.

Gun Runners Arsenal

When you first see this DLC it’s easy to get excited for the wrong reasons, it promises a lot of extra weapons and never before seen items. However many of the weapons ion the pack are already in the game, the difference is they are tagged with GRA and come with mods that their counterparts don’t have. The problem here is you can only use GRA mods on GRA guns, while one gun might be the exact type unless it’s from the DLC pack you can’t use the mod on it. Luckily not every single weapon falls into this category and some are new previously unseen weapons. While most come premade a few come in the form as weapons you craft at workbenches and the like. While it’s a decent enough pack if it hadn’t have come with the Ultimate Edition I wouldn’t go of my way to buy it separately because the game already has so many items and weapons that these don’t make too much of a difference.

Fallout 4: New Vegas [PS3 & 360]

Fallout New Vegas was one of those games I wanted to review when it was first released but for different reasons it slipped through the cracks. After so long the developers have finally put together the ultimate New Vegas collection that includes not just the award winning game but also a number of DLC packs that contain an almost endless supply of new items to collect and areas to explore. While that’s all good and well New Vegas originally suffered from countless bugs and glitches that made a lot of people rage quit and never go back to it, thankfully the game has had a number of fixes and patches, the updated Ultimate Edition includes all of these. And so with my back to the vault and my eyes open wide I started out into the vast wastelands once more to experience what could only be one of the biggest RPG’s ever made.

The story of New Vegas is simple enough but it changes depending on how you want it all to play out, this is done primarily through your dialogue and actions with other characters. Like most RPGs its up to you to determine how a conversation or action effects the game as a whole. New Vegas itself is no different here giving you the freedom to not only be who you want to be, but to also mould the world as you see fit. At the start of the game you are just a regular vault dweller living a normal enough existence with a number of other survivor's who found sanctuary in huge underground compounds while the world world outside was struck with nuclear war bringing the earth itself to its knees.

Growing up in the vault you learn to fear the outside world and never venture out into the bleak empty wastelands beyond the walls of the vault. Things in the vault don’t go to plan and you soon find yourself having no choice but to leave the sanctuary of the vault for an uncertain future in the wastelands. Unfortunately unlike Fallout 3 the story is not as memorable, while its a lot of fun to change the outcome of events it feels like it’s always trying to play catch up yet never quite gets there.

The game does its best to gently coax you into the right direction at the start so you can learn the basics of weapons handling and wasteland survival, being an RPG you can choose to avoid the help and go wherever you chose, though while this might not be the smartest plan it really is entirely up to you. On your epic journey through the game you will encounter different people from different factions, some will like you straight away and trade with you or even offer side quests, while others will be hostile to you straight away for something as simple as being in their area of the map. While human enemies can be reasoned with through dialogue the mutants and animals subjected to years of radiation cannot be reasoned with and will attack you on sight.

Everything from wild dogs to large mutated scorpions and rats all roam the road ahead of you and while some might look easy to defeat that’s not always the case, keeping your distance and taking them out at range is one of the ways to do it but you are not limited to the type of weapons or fighting styles you want to cultivate so up close and personal can equally get the job done.

Fallout New Vegas borrows a lot from the previous game Fallout 3, if you have any experience with 3 then NV becomes a very easy game to get to grips with. Getting around the gaming world is all done on foot, after all you are in the middle of a wasteland destroyed by post nuclear war and nothing with wheels moves anymore. The great thing about moving from location to location is once you find an area on the map that has been designated by the developers as a point of interest then as long as there are no enemies nearby you can fast travel back and forth with ease. If you want to get items in the game such as weapons or health packs its as simple as trading with someone or finding them among the thousands of other items scattered everywhere, some are hidden in lockers or drawers while others can be found on the bodies of fallen enemies or characters. Like Fallout 3 I rarely found myself having to trade with people or caravans because I always found everything I needed in random locations.

Getting your characters stats and level up are a core part of the gameplay, you earn points by defeating enemies and by completing all kinds of missions be they huge story driven affairs or simple little side quests like finding certain items for someone. Levelling up grants your character different kinds of perks that are essential in making it to the end of the game. Some perks give you better lockpicking skills while others give you more of a chance to do critical damage in your attacks. There are tons of perks to earn and each one helps make not just the game a lot more fun but your character a more serious force to be reckoned with.

New Vegas uses a system called VATs which is used in combat situations, you go into VATs by a simple button press and while in there you have a number of hit points to assign on different parts of the body, when used you attack those points often leading to a messy end for the person or monster on the receiving end. Their is a karma system built into the game so acting like a saint will naturally mean people will like you more, while acting like a sinner and terrorizing the Mojave's inhabitants will mean a more hostile welcoming from people. 

Visually the game is not the best looking you will see, if anything its very similar to Fallout 3 and there have been no giant leaps or bounds in the graphics, but that’s fine because the visuals were never really broken in the first place. What is broken however is the number of freezes the game sometimes suffers in various areas of the map. The developers have released a number of patches to address these freezes but it seems like a few are still there lurking. One particular freeze kept happening to me on one of the final missions of the game, it took a number of reloads until the game finally got past it and I could get on with the fun. As annoying and cumbersome as some of the freezes and glitches can be it should still not put you off playing because for those who are willing to enter the wastelands a virtual treasure trove of adventure and danger awaits.

Just like Fallout 3 I really enjoyed the game, there was so much to do that it took me months and months to finally finish everything and even then there is a chance I missed some things here and there. New Vegas does have its faults and when it comes to the overall story it can be quite weak, but even still in terms of gameplay and lifespan it earns top marks. I’m giving Fallout New Vegas an 8 out of 10, if the story was a little more compelling and bug/glitch free it would definitely earn a 10.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Revisited) [PS3 & 360]

I first played MGS4 in 2008, back then it had just been released and having played all of the previous titles in the series I was very anxious to get into the game. Now in 2012 Konami have decided to make a few changes. When MGS4 was originally released it came with Metal Gear Online which was and in my eyes one of the best multiplayer games ever made. Times have changed and Konami have closed the servers for the game making it a relic of the past.

A new update on MGS4 completely removes all traces of the online, which basically means no menus leading the player to a dead server. It’s not all just cuts though, Konami have added a feature where you can install the whole game in one segment making for a smooth playthrough.

While that’s a handy thing to have the real difference now is that the game finally has trophy support! for years gamers called for trophy support on MGS4 but time and time again were told it would never happen. So spurred on by the trophies to hunt I decided to go back to MGS4 to find out what trophies they added and if trophy support really can breath life into an old game, but not just that I wanted to see if years later it was still as powerful as it had been all those years ago.

The story of MGS4 is one of the most complex and sometimes confusing stories I’ve ever tried to follow in a game, whereas I do know the history of the MGS universe and the pieces fell into place every now and then, that wasn’t the case for my boyfriend who watched a lot of the cut scenes and found it all very confusing. It is a good story, don’t get me wrong there but if you don’t have previous knowledge of the other games you can be easily swept up in a wave of confusion. The dialogue still sounds really well done and it rarely seems to get tiring listening to the story unfold, helped of course by the hugely cinematic visuals and over the top action and combat sequences.

Visually the game still stands up to the more recent games on the market, things like running water and smoke look fantastic and grass moving in the wind makes you stop and take a look. Without giving too much away of the story when Snake encounters chilled weather conditions the snow blowing through the wind caking his sneaking suit and camouflage still looks as realistic as always. For it’s time MGS4 was one of the best looking games on the Playstation 3 and even now you can be forgiven to think it was only released a week ago. It’s Konami’s highly stylized attention to detail that really makes the game shine both in terms of visuals and in audio. Of course it has its moments of quirky strangeness and oddness, Konami like many Japanese games developers have always been a little quirky when it came to their representations of western culture and character development.

Controlling Snake can be a task at first but the game does everything in its power to teach the player how to manoeuvre efficiently enough to survive on even the most brutal of battle fields. It’s no secret that Snake is a little worse for wear, he resembles an old man on the box and that’s exactly who you play. I remember when I first saw Snake like that and immediately thought he looked ridiculous, I’m still not a fan of the look but as you progress through the game you unlock facial camouflage that mimic characters from the game one of them being snake in his younger years. It’s the little tricks like that which make the game memorable, obviously the developers knew the hardcore Metal Gear fans wanted to see the Snake they knew and loved so with the camo equipped that’s the look they get. Another strange little addition is an iPod which can be used while you play to hear podcast segments and music tracks from previous MGS and Konami games. I’ve always said a portable music player like that would be more at home in a Grand Theft Auto game but so far Rockstar haven’t implemented such a gadget.

For playability it scores top marks because you really do feel like not only are you a part of something big but that you yourself are the one determining how it all plays out in the grand scale of things. It is a very in depth story and at times the video cut scenes can be a little overwhelming but there is never any rush in a mission so you can take it all at your own pace. The emphasis on all MGS games is stealth, Snake as the name suggests is a sneaky slippery character who uses his terrain and equipment to infiltrate enemy areas and strongholds.

To aid Snake in his slipperiness he is decked out in the latest sneaking suit which not only masks the sounds of heavy footsteps but can adapt to the environment by mimicking textures such as grass and concrete. Another new feature is the solid eye, a state of the art eye patch that gives the wearer night vision capabilities/radar and an enhanced view of Snakes surroundings. Along the way he encounters enemy troops and all manner of super soldiers or bosses, sometimes cunning is not always the only way to do it, but when heavy firepower is needed there is no shortage.

One of the main characters in the game is an arms dealer named Drebin, he and his creepy monkey (he has a monkey that wears silver pants, smokes and drinks soda) are tied in with you as you go through the game. Guns and ammunition can all be bought off of Drebin at any time by simply going to the pause screen and navigating through the generous list of hardware. Depending on your play style you may only ever use a standard pistol and combat knife but should you chose to there are a number of rifles/sub machine guns/rocket launchers and much much more, all of which can be modified with things like silencers/grips and scopes.

I always go for Snakes standard gear which basically means a silenced pistol and combat knife, sometimes just using a tranquilizer gun seems to do the trick better but then like I said it all depends on your intended playing style. You could just buy the biggest and baddest guns and blast your way through the game but you would be missing out on the games intended pace and style, jumping out of the shadows to grab an enemy soldier by the throat never gets old. Whether of course you knock them out of go for the jugular, its still all up to the player.

I enjoyed my time going back through the game and I was surprised how much of the story and gameplay I’d forgotten. In a way its a good thing because it helped see the game all over again just like it was the first time around. There is a lot of incentive to go back and replay the game again as you can stack save data which means items and weapons you unlock carry over to a new game. I came away from the game with eight trophies in total but at the end of the day the real prize was experiencing the action and excitement again. The only bad thing I can say about the game is some of the cut scenes can be heavy going to the point where you forget you are playing a game. I like my games to be 90% real time playability and the rest to be taken up by video, MGS4 doesn’t just blur the line it completely decimates it.

If you enjoy long cut scenes or just prefer to press “skip” then all of that shouldn’t be too much a problem, though at times during a cut scene you have a limited amount of seconds to press a button to glimpse a flashback from one of the older games. I found out afterwards there is a trophy for missing none of them which goes back to why I don’t like it being heavy on cut scenes. Other than that its absolutely perfect and offers countless hours of fun and excitement. I’m giving Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots a 9 out of 10, I revisited the game because of trophy support but in the end got something a whole lot better.