It is E3 time, and we see lots of things, right? Well, Wolfenstein 2, which also has the working(?) title “The New Colossus“, and is technically not Wolfenstein 2 … anyway, this is the best trailer we’ve seen for quite a while, and not even just because of the gameplay. But see for yourself:
Let’s just hope we don’t get to fight naughty Liesel …
So it seems Wolfenstein 2 brings us to the US of Nazi America, where good old B.J. fights from Roswell and New Orleans to a post-nuke New York, and does what he does best – slaughtering Nazis by the thousands!
Rabidgames laughs:So far, this trailer has been the highlight of E3. Now we can only hope Wolfenstein 2 follows The New Order with the great level design and the nice character development as well. And as a bonus, who knows what we will discover in Roswell …
Remember the soon coming Agents of Mayhem, which looks like an insane mix of Overwatch, Crackdown and a pint of Saints Row? Well, part of the open world slaughter fest in the unusual setting of Seoul will now be the baddest motherfucking badass of video games, Johnny Gat!
Sadly, this has to be taken with a grain of salt: Johnny will only be available for those who pre-order Agents of Mayhem via retail, as online pre-orders will contain a-fucking-nother character … Sigh.
Anyway, if you were not sure about the Agents of Mayhem, Johnny might change your mind. Oh, in case you wonder about the plot, the simplified version goes like this (copied from Wikipedia because let’s face it, writing those names ain’t fun): M.A.Y.H.E.M. (Multinational AgencY Hunting Evil Masterminds), founded by Persephone Brimstone (a character first seen in Gat out of Hell) and funded by the Ultor Corporation (one of the main antagonists of Saints Row 2 and the Red Faction series, later merging with the Saints. Bearing the Saints’ iconic purple logo, M.A.Y.H.E.M’s goal is to stop supervillain organization L.E.G.I.O.N. (the League of Evil Gentlemen Intent on Obliterating Nations) from destroying the world’s nations. And there you know it’s going to be batshit crazy.
Rabidgames wants:Despite this pre-order bullshit, Agents of Mayhem has always looked interesting. With Johnny in the mix, it is a must-have for Saints Row fans.
You might know Plague Inc. You know, that great game where your aim is to infect and eradicate mankind from the face of the planet. It’s fun. Great fun. Not just because you rid earth of the human pest, but also because of the hilariously funny news reports you get, and because of some weird trophies you can unlock …
The weirdest one though is called “Brutal Brexit” and the description reads “Put Britain on the road to madness when it leaves the EU”. Now it should be noticed the road to that trophy (or achievement to be consolely correct) is quite muddled – it seems your disease is not allowed to have hit the UK when Brexit gets announced, but then you need to hit Britain with very specific symptoms and you need to infect everybody in the entire UK.
In a game full of black humour and the black death, such a trophy shouldn’t be a surprise. And of course, Plague Inc. was developed in the UK. British humour at its darkest. And best.
Rabidgames smiles:Trophies are often dull. One could claim they’re completely unnecessary. But in some instances, they just make you grin.
First of all, here’s the Far Cry 5 trailer everyone and their mama are talking about, some of ’em already foaming and moaning about the damn left-wing liberal communist SJW gaming industry:
So, Far Cry 5 will be set in rural Montana’s Hope County, where we will ready our weapons to kill us some fine christian far-right extremists. There will also be some characters helping us, the customisable protagonist (among other things, we can choose gender and colour), to tear the zealots apart. Oh, and it seems we can finally fly planes! Far Cry 5 will also be entirely co-op compatible, which seems to be a big deal these days. Whatever.
One thing is for sure – Ubisoft knows that controversy creates cash, and that’s what they’re trying to do. It still seems to be a taboo in gaming to kill christians on US soil, no matter how corrupted or insane they are. And set in the Trump era, Far Cry 5 and its depiction of backwards American rednecks lost in extremist delusions is one way to add fuel to the fire. Then again, it’s always been okay to kill Arabs in military shooters, and how many decent American citizens have we already digitally removed from their mortal shells in the likes of GTA, Saints Row, or Watch Dogs? But hey, it’s going to be interesting to see what Breitbart, Fox and their ilk will come up with …
One interesting detail is the cross, replacing the stars of the US flag, which also adorns many of the extremists’ buildings and vehicles in Far Cry 5; while some think it looks similar to the iron cross used by Germany, it could also be interpreted as being similar to the Templar cross featured in Assassin’s Creed – and since there was an Abstergo facility in Far Cry 3, both universes seem somehow connected anyway.
Rabidgames is ready:Visiting this virtual Montana will be great fun – the graphics look great, the setting is interesting – now we need to wait. For some titbits of information to be brought to us during E3, and then it’s going to be a long wait until February 2018 … Let’s just hope the setting of the game remains fiction until then!
First Final Fantasy XII, then Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, and now, Dragon’s Dogma will come to the next-gen consoles! Fuck yeah! About time! Fuck yeah! Finally! Yes! Yes! Yes!
In autumn this year, Capcom finally – seeing reason – will re-release Dragon’s Dogma, oh no, not just Dragon’s Dogma, it will be the all-DLC-including Dark Arisen. A move fans of the game have been waiting for since the release of the PC version, and now it finally happens!
Now, re-releases are not always great, and by the tail of a chimera, if Capcom fucks this one up, there’ll be hell to pay, but while Dragon’s Dogma was great, Dragon’s Dogma with improved graphics a stable frame rate and less bugs will be even greater! And if you’re still not convinced, who doesn’t want to listen to our pawns and wisdom such as “Even in numbers, a weakling is a weakling still” or the all-time favourite “It bears the head of a cock”?
Rabidgames is happy:Finally, finally, finally! Fuck words. Let’s drink to the good news!
Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time will hit the PSN Store in North America and Europe next Tuesday, 23 May. BOOM! Square Enix just released that bombshell out of nowhere, and while the confirmed US price of $21 is not exactly cheap, this great game will be worth it!
Now, in case you don’t know why Till The End Of Time is loved by many JRPG fans, well, how does mixing a great deep and tactical combat system with a part sci-fi/part fantasy story and then turning everything upside down with a big twist in the middle of the game sound?
Rabidgames throws money to the screen:Shut up and take the money already, Square!
Now, don’t get Rabidgames wrong – open worlds are fine. Perfectly fine if you like them, as we all know Rabidgames does. But when it comes to Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, the open world is uninspired and bland. And that’s far from the biggest problem the game has …
Technically, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is the equivalence of a train wreck. Loading the game takes up to 5 – yes, five – minutes Every time the game is booted up, it crashes. Every damn fucking time! Sometimes it freezes, sometimes you fall below the world, sometimes you want to enter your car but are teleported into the sky – in this instance, you might very well fall back down and die. Thankfully, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 loads quicker after you died, but when you’re unlucky enough to witness a crash or freeze 5 minutes after you watched the screen for 5 minutes, the next 5 minutes are a special kind of frustrating! Okay, some bugs are also funny …
Another hilarious issue in Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is that enemies disappear when they’re away more than roughly 250 to 300 metres. You tag them, walk away to snipe them, and boom, they’re gone. Until you come within their range again. Now the most brilliant thing about this is there actually is a trophy for killing someone with a headshot from 500 metres away. Awesome!
And then, the characters … Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is a prime example of what happens when all you do is adding some tough guys, a few sexy minxes and very evil enemies that speak Russian, because Russian enemies never go out of style, right? Giving away spoilers would almost mean giving away 50% of the lacklustre story, so let’s leave it at the simple point that the story is nothing to write home about.
And yet, despite all this, the gameplay isn’t too bad. Now, the name isn’t the only thing where Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 sounds a bit like the lost brother of Ghost Recon Wildlands … In both, you’re an American elite operative infiltrating enemy territory, and both give you a drone (although the one here moves horribly, always swinging about) and focus on stealth. That’s unfortunate, to say the least …
But whereas Wildlands is third person and all about your squad and synch shots, you’re mostly a lone wolf in the first person shooter Sniper Ghost Warrior 3. The story throws you into a bleak Georgia entangled in a civil war, and you snipe and shoot your way to missions that are actually not too bad, at least some of them.
Yes, it’s things you’ve seen before – recon, identify, take something or take out someone, but it can be fun. You also get side missions and you can explore the world, making grisly discoveries quite often. It’s just … the world in Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 feels barren and empty. Barren is fine as it suits the mood, but empty is a problem – yes, you can follow question mark and investigate things, some of them even with an unexplained Witcher-style sense, but everything in the world is bland – the architecture, the design of the maps, no traffic on the roads, hardly any civilians around … It’s a shame as sometimes the game hits a nerve, but mostly you go from A to B and find maybe a point of interest inbetween that doesn’t tell a story but just gives you some stuff.
You also level up in Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 (pretty much like in Skyrim – kill from afar and you level up your sniping skills, get up close and you level up general fighting skills), you earn currency you can invest into new weapons, ammunition or gadgets, and there’s also crafting if you feel like it. Pretty soon, you can craft a lot already. For some reason, some sniper rifles are hidden in the game’s world as well. Why? Who knows, who cares, right?
But as mentioned before, if Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 crashes every hour or so, it takes away most of the fun. And that’s a big problem. Add to that if the game crashes while you need to get out of the radius of a mission, re-booting Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 brings you back to the start of the mission. Pretty frustrating, right? Yes, developer CI Games apologised by giving us the season pass for free, but how useful can more of a broken game be? Yes, broken! How else would you describe a game crashing every 60 minutes or so?
Rabidgames bugs out:In its current state, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is a broken mess hardly worth playing. If patched properly, it might be worth giving it a shot, but for the time being, frustration out-levels fun by some degree unfortunately. If you’re interested in the game, feel free to check regularly and buy once the worst bugs and glitches have been fixed. If they get fixed …
