Peter Chapman
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TheSixthAxis Latest Reviews
The Master Chief Collection is a lovingly pieced together, faithful collection of games that changed the industry and multiplayer modes that created a new way to play. The attention to detail is a delight and each game still holds up, especially with the remastering of the two older titles, so there’s potential for this release to introduce Master Chief to a whole new generation.
Football Manager is not just a football game, it’s a football simulation. Although you could easily think of it as an incredibly complex open world RPG, there’s so much going on around your in-game existence that it’s not simply your personal experience, it’s a whole world of the beautiful game, happening inside your computer and you’re only the star – or villain – of your little corner of it. So much so that you feel it’s not really your game of Football Manager, you’re merely playing a role in its grand simulation of one possible universe of football in an infinite number of universes of football, each one starting when you click the “New Game” button.
That idea of never being comfortable with how the game is unravelling is something that feels quite unique and it’s extremely well imagined here. Plenty of survival horror games have you feeling vulnerable as you essentially fulfil the role of a hero but things are different here. In Alien: Isolation you’re not the hero, you’re the prey.
Horizon 2 gets the basics right: It’s a great core driving experience with plenty of variation to the events, a respectable catalogue of cars and a large map to explore, but there’s significantly more to it than that. The online system, friendlist leaderboards and clubs system are all relatively unobtrusive if you don’t want to use them but impressively powerful when you do and, although they still go big on the DLC car packs, the return to a lack of micro transactions is very welcome too.
FIFA 15 is not quite the great leap forward that many would have hoped for but it’s a bigger jump than it initially appears to be. The changes, although infuriating to begin with as they make you re-learn elements of your game, ultimately make for a more realistic game of football. There’s more nuance, more fidelity in the tactical systems and there’s greater movements from the players on the pitch. In a series that is synonymous with incremental improvements, FIFA 15 manages to feel like more of an evolutionary leap.
Forza Motorsport 5 is a great game, but it comes with some quite significant problems. It has fewer tracks and cars than its predecessor, prices have been hitched up several notches on its in-game cars and the excellent, ever-building, system of rewards has disappeared. Multiplayer is a little anaemic and Free Play mode has been pared back too.
Contrast is, quite fittingly, a game of stark separations. There are elements of real quality but those are unfortunately juxtaposed with certain areas where the game fails to quite live up to its potential. With some very interesting ideas and some genuinely clever puzzles, it’s a shame that it has moments that feel a little rushed, a narrative that doesn’t hold any real sense of surprise or intrigue and a cast of characters that it’s difficult to empathise with.
It feels almost unfair and premature to be rushed into reviewing such a grand proposition but even with so much left to experience – the personal stories we all develop from situations that are unique to each of us – it’s clear that this is the best Football Manager game so far and that makes it entirely unmatched in its field.
GTA V doesn’t break new ground. It’s not going to change the world. It is, after all, the fifth numbered title in a well loved series and for the most part it is simply delivering more of what the developers must know the fans want to see. To expect otherwise is idiocy. But it is engaging, compelling, interesting, clever, funny and packed with things to do and see. It’s a personal story, or several personal stories, set in a magnificent world that ebbs and flows with thousands of people who all seem to be living their own personal stories. It’s a genuine landmark event in the history of videogames and it’s one that you definitely shouldn’t miss.
Rayman Legends doesn’t need a thousand words of explanation and assessment. It’s not a weighty, narrative driven game that will make you postulate meanings or attribute deep allegorical intentions. This is a game about not thinking, it’s a game about letting go and just enjoying the colours and sounds and swirling, bouncing happiness that’s taking up your screen. You’ll have to practice elements, you’ll need to learn locations of hidden areas and timings of jump sequences to progress. But you’ll certainly never be bored.