• Format: PC (version reviewed), PS4, PSVita
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Degica
• Developer: Pyramid
• Players: 1-4
• Site: http://darius.jp/dbcs/en/
• Game code provided by PR

DariusBurst Chronicle Saviours’ gameplay will be immediately familiar to those with even a passing interest in the bullet hell shooter genre: You control one of a variety of ships faced with an overwhelming force of adversaries, and must shoot your way through the horde while evading all manner of laser beams, mines, and other means of blowing you up. Where this might diverge from some players’ view of the genre, however, is that DariusBurst Chronicle Saviours sees your ship blasting a course through space from left to right rather than bottom to top. If you aren’t used to this, it might be jarring, but it’s nice to be able to utilise the wider screen to see more of what’s coming your way.

What’s also interesting about DariusBurst Chronicle Saviours is your hit-box. While the majority of bullet hell shooters give you a tiny area vulnerable to damage – sometimes as small as a single pixel – this game is a little harder on you and opens your entire ship up to the enemies’ fire. This makes for an incredibly challenging task when things get out of hand and most of your screen is full of enemy fire. It’s a welcome change, however, as it makes it easier to know when you’re going to take damage and when you aren’t, free of the obfuscation of other bull hell shooters’ design.

The game overall is quite good at this kind of graphical communication of its mechanics: enemies with drops are coloured accordingly, boss’s weak points are simple to pick out if you’re observant enough, and the brief glow of your ship upon taking a hit is a fine indicator of how many more you can take. Because of this the UI is quite clean in the AC mode, making a concession only for a small bar beneath your ship to indicate how much charge your more powerful weapon has, as well as a small indicator in the top left to show how many upgrades you have.

AC Mode features the original arcade game’s aspect ratio.

These upgrades can be picked up throughout the level and do a number of things to your arsenal, granting your main weapon a faster rate of fire, wider area of effect, and punch-through among a few other effects. You can use this to your advantage, picking up the right colours for whatever you might deem advantageous against the particular level’s enemies and boss.

The bosses are perhaps the highlight of the game; each of them are challenging in ways that are very satisfying to defeat, be that obstacles to overcome in the moment or patterns to learn over various attempts. There’s a large variety of them to defeat and the vast majority are gratifying in this manner and in their appearance, as they’re all enormous ships based on marine life.

All of these core mechanics make up the AC mode, a port of the game’s original arcade cabinet from Japan that features a run of three levels in Original Mode and a map composed of levels with tweaks on the rules such as item limitations. CS mode, on the other hand, is a new mode that allows players to tackle levels of ever-increasing challenges with only three lives across a branching map.

All of these modes can be played co-operatively if you have a few extra controllers lying around. The co-op is well done, giving each player a different colour to differentiate them so that you don’t get lost in the crowd and get confused as to which one of the tiny ships you are. On top of that, it’s enormous fun to swipe all of the power-ups that your allies are uncovering while they remain oblivious to your chicanery.

Giant enemy crabs are all the rage again.

DariusBurst Chronicle Saviours isn’t exactly a pretty game, though this isn’t a fault of the technical side of things but rather an aesthetic choice by the designers. It’s an almost utilitarian art style due to the importance of communication to the player at the cost of any kind of flair. It’s a very plain-looking game for better or worse.

The game’s soundtrack is sure to be as divisive as it is varied: some levels will see an operatic singer bellowing over synthesizers while others utilise a more traditional soundtrack. What each player gets out of it will of course be entirely subjective, but from a production perspective the music sounds perfectly fine.

If you’re a fan of bullet hell shooters, DariusBurst Chronicle Saviours offers of a great mix of unique and familiar mechanics as well as the ruthless challenge you’ve come to expect of the genre. There’s also not much of a barrier to entry, giving newcomers a great place to make their entry into the beloved though still very niche genre. This ability to adequately serve both markets makes it very easy to recommend DariusBurst Chronicle Saviours, despite some stylistic choices that might be off-putting to some.

• Format: PC
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Merge Games
• Developer: Raspina Studio
• Players: 1-16
• Site: http://etarmies.com/
• Game code provided by the publisher

E.T. Armies isn’t great but it’s not awful either; it feels like it’s skipped a good chunk of the last decade’s First Person Shooters and just been made from half-remembered early noughties designs. It’s made in Unreal 4, and looks fairly decent for that reason alone; but lots of little things are “off”. Sounds, dialogue, and the general way it plays all feel as though it’s not quite there. The other issue is that it feels very limited – it starts and finishes in a very short space of time, and makes us think that it wasn’t really sure where it wanted to go in the first place. However, that does also mean that it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

This uncertainty pervades the entire game which, in a way, shows how inexperienced the Iranian team is. It mimics certain things but seems to be about ten years behind in some aspects. It has quite a few things nailed down fairly well; movement is fluid and has the right sort of feel for an FPS (which quite a few newer games still don’t get right). It doesn’t feel perfect, because the small things like being able to toggle aiming down the sights while shooting isn’t allowed, and landing after jumping emits no noise at all. These small things all add up, making it feel less polished than its competitors.

Shooting only really feels any good when you’re wielding the sniper rifle or using the shotgun properly. Unfortunately the rifles and pistol don’t really give the right sort of impact on the enemies, so it doesn’t feel satisfying. As these are the only weapons you’ll be using, it does mean that you’ll have to use less “fun” weapons often as ammo drains fairly quickly. The rifles all have certain playstyles in mind, but none of them feel particularly satisfying to use in their preferred roles.

It seems unfair to criticise the writing too much as it could be down to translation – but it isn’t great to listen to. It’s English as they teach it in schools abroad, with a fixation on the grammar. It’s robotic and lacking what makes English work in conversation. It also suffers from a main character that is likely intended to sound funny, but just comes off as whiney and out of place for a soldier.

The worst thing about E.T. Armies is the pacing of the game which has a few moments of running and gunning, but far too many moments where you just have to defend or attack a group of enemies that you need to whittle down. This is the one aspect that really bugs us, because the guns generally feel a little lacklustre and defending a small area feels both constrictive and claustrophobic causing them to become almost immediately tedious.

The lack of any forward momentum and the occasional addition of a countdown timer make it feel like a cop-out. Sit here and shoot waves of enemies that spawn a little too quickly to give you any sense of pace. Those sections are just go-go-go without the time to allow you even a moment to reload as you have to find new cover to run to away from the flying drones that constantly flank you.

Credit where credit is due though – the multiplayer isn’t half bad. The weapons feel better, but aren’t balanced. For instance, one-shot sniper kills compared to a small handful of shots from most other weapons which aren’t nearly as accurate. We were a little too successful against the opposition with a Sniper in hand and we aren’t the best at leading shots, either. It’s not great that that sort of thing exists in what are fairly open maps (of which, incidentally, there are only two) so that you spend a lot of the time either in the open or popping up from behind cover.

There are also some highly powerful abilities which everyone can begin to earn as time passes. However, those who get lots of kills will get them more often and they will also be the only ones accessing the really powerful ones. These are made up of all the non-human enemies in the game which includes flying drones, turrets, and a ship (flying). There are all ridiculously high in health considering the damage they can do, so it’s not as far from the kill streak issues of other games even though less skilled players can get a chance at them too.

It’s a shame that it’s already almost dead. The lack of guns, the lack of maps, and the lack of any lasting appeal has led to so few players that unless it picks up or you get a fair few friends together, you’ll likely never see how this was intended to be played.

E.T. Armies is a shooter that has a few highs and a few lows but ultimately is just okay. Its lack of content is its undoing in multiplayer, but its single player makes good use of your time by not outstaying its welcome even if it is a little bland. It’s a good first attempt from Raspina Studio and it could lead to better things in the future, but this game is still ultimately a shooter which fails to leave its mark on you – neither good nor bad, just mediocre.

With the recent release of The Force Awakens in cinemas, Star Wars is back with a bang that would make the destruction of the Death Star seem like a fireworks show. Timeline: Star Wars is a game that uses 110 cards. The game comes packaged in an attractive tin box, with business card sized cards. Each card depicts a scene from an event in the original Star Wars movie trilogy, from Episodes IV: A New Hope to Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Each has a scene pictured on both sides, but on one side, the date that the event happened is also present.

The cards are business card sized, which means you can take them on trips away.

Each player is dealt four cards, with the date side face down. The first card is then played, and each player then takes it in turn to place a card into the timeline of the movie franchise. You need to decide whether the scene on one of your cards happened before or after the first card. After you’ve played your card you flip the rest in play over to see if you’re correct. If you’re correct, the play moves to the next player; if you’re wrong, then you discard the card and take another one from the deck. Play continues until players are left with no cards, the winner being the player that is the first to play all their cards.

The tin that stores the cards is nicely designed, and keeps the cards nice and safe.

For a family of Star Wars fans it’s a really enjoyable game that tests your knowledge of the goings on in the original trilogy. As more cards are introduced into the timeline it can get quite tricky as your options are reduced, and you struggle to remember which movie a scene occurred in. The game has a recommended age range of 8+, but we reckon slightly younger children with an interest in Star Wars will be able to play quite easily. Each game lasts around 10-15 minutes, which is a nice short and sweet game that doesn’t overstay its welcome. Even if you’re not a big fan of Star Wars you can make a guess to which scenes go where, and more experienced players can also balance the game for less knowledgeable players, by starting off with a larger selection of cards.

With 110 cards to put in order, it can get quite tricky when a few cards have been played.

For fans of the Star Wars franchise, Timeline is a great game, but non fans can also enjoy playing it too. It’s simple to play, and with games only taking 10-15 minutes to complete, it manages to hold player interest really well. It’s not quite Happy Families, being the story of the Skywalker family, but the Force is strong with Star Wars Timeline.

• Format: Xbox One (version reviewed), PS4, PC
• Unleashed: Out now
• Publisher: Warner Bros Interactive
• Developer: Techland
• Players: 1 (offline), 2-4 (online)
• Site: http://dyinglightgame.com/?lang=en_UK
• Game code provided by PR

Mere mention of the phrase ‘zombie game’ is enough to set the eyes a-rollin’, and not without reason. Nonetheless, we found Dying Light to be one of the most pleasant surprises for years. Although it’s a great self-contained adventure, DLC followed, with The Following being the first major expansion. Boasting a map said to be twice the size of the original game, not to mention a driveable vehicle and a brand new storyline, it has the mouth. But does it have the trousers?

These are certainly intricate and attractive trousers that we’re looking at. The aforementioned vehicle is a dune buggy, which you get your bloodstained hands on as part of one of your very first story tasks. Its inclusion should be ruinous in a game with a heavy emphasis on parkour movement… but it’s not. It fits in snugly. It’s a great (and welcome) way to cover huge distances in a short time and, yes, you can smash through zombies while driving it. There’s a new skill tree too, which will help you upgrade your buggy to be faster, tougher, and generally more cool.

If you were wondering, yes, you can bring your character from the base game into this expansion. Weapons, abilities, XP, items, everything. Just as well too because, although you can jump straight into The Following if you want, those who do will find it noticeably tougher than the rest of us. No punches are pulled. Without some decent weapons and a nice stash of money and crafting materials to begin with, zombies and humans alike will make things as difficult as possible for you.

KAAAAANNNN!!

As for the story, it concerns a lead that takes Crane outside of Harran and into the midst of people seemingly immune to the virus thanks, they claim, to the blessing of a cult known as the Children of the Sun and “the Mother”. Needless to say the truth isn’t quite that simple, and there are two (theoretically three) endings. Don’t expect flowers and sunshine at the end of the road, whichever way you turn…

There are new weapons to be had along the way, including a crossbow which proved to be our best friend most of the time. It only holds one bolt at a time, and takes precious seconds to reload. It’s silent, though, and great for headshots. The new missions? They are many, and they are good. Aye, they generally equate to “go get this thing” or “go kill everything here”, but they are presented in a way that hides this fact well. It also helps that most of the missions can be tackled in any order you wish, and in fact you can reach the ending leaving most of them untackled. The basic idea is that you raise your trust level with the cult by helping it and its followers out, and each time you reach a certain level of trust you’re given access to the next story mission. It says something about the quality of the missions, in fact, that we completed a few side quests before realising that neither were the one to push the story along.

While the buggy has been extremely well implemented, it’s not quite perfect. You need to scavenge fuel from abandoned vehicles (presumably you keep it in your pockets), but we never found that to be a problem. What can be irritating is that, before you indulge in some serious upgrading, the buggy is disappointingly fragile. One bump or nudge too many, and your speed takes a serious hit. You better hope you have enough screws on you to fix it. Then there’s the inevitable decision to place certain objectives kilometres apart due to the buggy’s presence which, despite the multitude of things to kill, explore and scavenge in between, can be a little tiresome if you’re just in the mood for advancing the story.

Of course, actually FIRING that gun will result in the most dangerous zombies making a beeline for you.

Online co-op and zombie invasions return from the main game (though, again, the final stretch of story is singleplayer only). A new way to occupy yourself outside of structured missions – and earn extra blobs of XP in the process – is to complete ‘Bounties’. These are essentially mini-challenges for the kind of thing you’d be doing anyway, such as smashing through zombies in the buggy or climbing over a certain number of ledges and objects. Entirely optional, and not exactly thrilling; but nice to have nonetheless.

If you buy the Dying Light ‘Enhanced Edition’ you get this, the base game, and the other more minor DLC released thus far. That’s a brilliant package for anybody new to the title. If you’ve already been through the main game, is The Following worth £15.99? Absolutely. Even if you hammer straight through the main story that’s 10-12 hours of play for you, with plenty to do afterwards. It’s got the same great atmosphere, the same stark division between the manageable day and the lethal night, and the same sense of a zombie apocalypse done right. Rotting corpses never felt so fresh.

The definition of the word “expensive”, according to oxforddictionaries.com, is “Costing a lot of money”. The HTC Vive has been announced to cost $799, and the Oculus Rift will cost you $599 (excluding tax and shipping). $799 is a lot of money, and so is $599 (excluding tax and shipping). In addition, these prices do not include any additional cost incurred through buying and/or upgrading your PC to a level of power which can actually cope with running VR. Therefore it is, despite what the people set to profit from an unlikely VR success story are telling you, factually correct to say that these items are “expensive”.

You might say that expense is relative, and you’d be right. The Oculus Rift looks expensive next to a Mars Bar but less expensive next to, say, the latest Mercedes. The bottom line though – and surely most people will agree with me on this – is that $600-$800 is a lot of money to the vast majority of people, regardless of what the price tag is attached to. Convert it to your local currency (we in the UK already know we’re going to get shafted above that*) and it’s a month’s rent; or probably even more. Perhaps it’s your household’s monthly food, gas, and electric bills combined or, again, perhaps even more than that. If you work part time, it’s likely more than you take home for a whole month’s work. It’s not as simple as ‘stop whining that these things cost more than a games console’. 

The most common argument in favour of the VR prices thus far announced is a somewhat insulting, condescending one. “These are very reasonable prices for what you’re getting,” they coo. “You simply don’t understand that. What did you expect? This is complex, advanced, and very exciting technology!”. Now, take a moment to consider who it is, exactly, that has come out to defend the VR headset pricing. Many people; many, many people. The next time you see such an argument however, closely examine who it is that’s making it. Do they stand to profit from the sale of these headsets in some way? Do they work for a VR hardware company, or a VR software developer? Or perhaps they’re a journalist or blogger who’s had some hands-on time with the relevant technology; in an extremely carefully-controlled environment, and completely for free? Is this same journalist or blogger set to get at least one VR headset for free as part of their work who, for themselves or for their boss, already knows that writing thousands upon thousands of words about VR will help put bread on the table in the near future? Somebody, somewhere, will want to be sure that a relationship with the relevant companies hasn’t soured before it’s even begun. That doesn’t mean there are shady deals betwixt reporter and VR peddler; just that it’s human nature to avoid shooting yourself in the foot wherever possible.

You too could look this cool.

How many people, basically, that aren’t paid to sell or write about VR have you seen say “$600 is perfectly reasonable for a VR headset, I have no problem with that”?

Despite what I may have led you to believe, I do actually think it’s likely that these prices couldn’t come down too far before they would result in each unit being sold at a major loss. Even if this is true however, using this fact as a defence is missing the point by a country mile. Videogames, after a long and hard struggle through the decades, are finally accepted, understood, and even enjoyed by pretty much every level of society in a huge number of countries across the globe. There are still many people who fear and misunderstand games of course, with no interest in learning; but generally speaking, any given room full of people will have games fans in as surely as it will have movie fans in. This is in no small part thanks to the mammoth success of first the PlayStation and then the Wii, which each opened gaming up to the masses in very different but equally important ways. VR wants to take the industry backwards in one huge, regressive leap.

Gaming used to be a small, sweaty, nerdy club populated almost exclusively by teenage boys. The future that VR is allegedly leading the charge toward is something depressingly similar. I strongly believe that when it comes to games, VR will crash and burn this year, and I will enjoy watching the flaming wreckage come thundering to the ground. Price isn’t the only issue, but it is an important one. The $599 and $799 price tags immediately exclude a significant proportion of existing consumers. Not just kids and young teens who rely on relatives to purchase hardware for them, either. There are a few different figures given for the average gamer’s age, but it seems to be in the early thirties. You know; the sort of age where you’re settled into bills and responsibilities such as rent, tax, food, kids, car, electricity, gas…

Business owners and those on high salaries might still buy VR without a second thought. Even those with more squeezed budgets might save up and just about manage to nab one, and good luck to them. But how many people will do that? The biggest question of all, of course, is… why would they do that? Name me just one VR game that rises above ‘interesting’. One VR game that compels you or anybody else to lay down the money for a pre-order, something that looks like an incredible experience that nothing currently on the market is even remotely similar to. It’s my strong belief that at least 90% of VR sales, both existing and upcoming, are simply developers selling to each other. It’s a very pretty bubble that’s almost ready to burst.

Sony is in the perfect position to save and even dominate the VR market, but there’s a significant question mark hanging over this. That question mark is, as you might expect, money-shaped. With recently announced global PS4 sales of almost 36 million, that is theoretically 36 million potential customers who can be certain that they already own hardware 100% compatible with Sony’s VR headset. Even the PlayStation VR experience itself is unique, with each game providing a display for the TV as well as the headset (distracting friends and family from what a tool you look like wearing the thing, if nothing else). Your PS4 is probably already in the living room, dampening the isolation previously supposed to be an integral part of the VR experience. If PSVR launches for half the price of its next-cheapest competitor, it will almost certainly succeed, and decide the VR race as soon as it starts. That sort of price, however, is looking very unlikely.

Unless Sony moves the goalposts in a bold and daring gamble, VR is expensive. Anybody who tries to tell you different has an agenda.

*Just as I was finishing this piece, it was announced that the UK price of the HTC Vive is to be a currency-converter-ignoring £689, which includes three games (Tilt Brush, Job Simulator: The 2050 Archives, and Fantastic Contraption). 

• Format: Xbox One (version reviewed), PS4, PS3, 360, PC, Mac, iOS
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Telltale Games
• Developer: Telltale Games
• Players: 1
• Site: https://www.telltalegames.com/walkingdead/michonne/

Perhaps not everything they touch turns to gold (we’re looking at you, Minecraft Story Mode), but Telltale Games long ago proved themselves masters of the walk-and-click, playing no small part in its current popularity. One of their biggest hits was The Walking Dead, with both currently available seasons garnering much well-deserved praise. While characters from the comics have thus far been relegated to cameos or supporting roles, this three-episode miniseries focusses on Michonne. Good idea…?

The problem with giving players an established character – especially in a game like this, with a heavy emphasis on choice – is that said character needs to not just look ‘right’, but to act and talk right too. That problem is further complicated here when it comes to Michonne. She’s a well fleshed-out and memorable creation, but her portrayals in the comics and the TV series differ noticeably. The basic concept of this game straddles the two worlds in a slightly awkward manner; the graphics are solidly comicesque, even if they don’t match this particular comic. In fact, the miniseries fills a gap in the comics where Michonne parts ways with the rest of the group for a while on a boat (although nothing thus far alludes to any of the comics’ events). However, while Danai Gurira (from the TV series) does not play Michonne here, Samira Wiley – presumably under orders – offers an incredible mimicry of Gurira’s voice and performance.

The first episode quickly sets the tone very well, with a bit of zombie slaying rapidly descending into a demonstration of how Michonne’s loneliness and deep-set guilt are ripping her apart mentally. Then her interactions with other people begin, and you are in effect able to offer your own interpretation of what she has become. She can be stony and gruff or empathetic and kind, optimistic or pessimistic, fatalistic or determined, in control or visibly losing it. This also means that you can swing from one to the next which, while theoretically supporting the idea of a mentally tortured soul, would be an outcome that fails to match Michonne’s character on the page or on the screen.

Why are you looking at him suspiciously, Michonne? IT’S A ZOMBIE.

Nonetheless, it serves to prove that you have a choice in how to act (and also, on occasion, that making your choice based on a half dozen on-screen words under pressure can result in your character acting in a way that you never intended). It has to be said that overall, the writing here is among Telltale’s finest, and yet again unflinchingly sticks to the Walking Dead ethos. There’s some uncomfortable subject matter, and before the episode is over you’re already questioning whether the issue of who the good guys are is as straightforward as it seems. There’s one particularly neat example, too, of how the way you react in a certain situation has unforeseen consequences just around the corner.

As always with a game of this kind, it’s desirable to avoid details of what actually happens as much as possible. That problem is inflated here, as this first episode is just about an hour and a half long. Let’s just say that things fast forward after Michonne’s initial breakdown to when she’s part of the boat crew. Then the boat ends up getting snagged on something, and, well… things never really get any better from there.

How much you’ll enjoy this game will depend on what you’re expecting from it. If you have no previous experience of The Walking Dead, then some (though not much) of this will be lost on you. If you loved Telltale’s other Walking Dead games and want more of the same, then the first Michonne episode doesn’t disappoint. It’s well acted, tightly written, and even the most seemingly insignificant choice makes you think. Disappointment waits only for those who are hoping for some of Michonne’s background to be filled in because, so far at least, that simply doesn’t happen. As previously mentioned, it doesn’t even tie in to the comics particularly yet, apart from the fact that she’s on a boat in the early stages of the episode.

As gripping as the first episode undeniably is, the series still has a lot to prove in just two more installments. Will the other characters prove to be as complex as we hope? Can the tension be sustained throughout the rest of the miniseries? How much of an effect will your dramatic choice at the end have on the events of the next episode? We don’t know, but what we do know is this: we’re looking forward to finding out.

• Format: PS4
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Pqube
• Developer: Sandlot
• Players: 1-2 (offline), 2-4 (online)
• Site: http://www.pqube.co.uk
• Game code provided by the publisher

If Earth Defence Force 2 on the Vita is a sumptuous cream cake that’s started to go stale, then Earth Defence Force 4.1 on PS4 is a sumptuous cream cake that looks a bit stale, but tastes better than any other cake you’ve had for months. Where we’re going with this sugar-laced metaphor is… er, look, it’s really good, okay?

If you’re not familiar with the EDF series, then check out our review of the Vita game which released alongside this and you’ll (hopefully) get a pretty good idea. Giant insects, robots, and a handful of other enormous villains have appeared all over Earth. They are bad. You, as part of EDF’s Storm Team, are good. Your mission, should you choose to accept it and you don’t really have much of a choice, is to go kill everything. That, really, is gameplay in the proverbial nutshell.

The series’ “conservative” budget shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, and even this PS4 release (itself a remake of a last-gen title) seems to have been made for little more than you might spend on sweets across an average year. Unless you’re us. We love sweets, and our annual sweet budget is approximately 3% of GDP. Anyway, the point is that there’s no AAA bankrolling here and, as usual, Sandlot celebrate this fact with glee.

The dialogue and acting are lovingly crafted from the most delectable cheese. Unlike other EDF games there’s a very strong sense of taking part in a larger battle here, as you’ll more often than not be fighting alongside AI teams (who, incidentally, do actually take some enemies down) in cities and other open areas. They come out with some classic lines, such as “I’ll shoot you dead!”, or start chanting “E-D-F! E-D-F!” in a wonderfully out-of-sync manner. Writers and actors both clearly had a great time making the game, and that helps you have a great time playing it.

“I’m telling you Sharon, they’re around here somewhere.”

Basic gameplay really is just ‘shoot everything’, but there’s a depth to it that simply watching somebody else play would never suggest. For one thing, which of the four classes you play as makes an enormous difference. You have the standard soldier, who starts off with decent health and the sorts of weapons action game fans will be familiar with. The Air Raider can call in some mighty support vehicles and attacks, but is the weakest at self-defence, making him best suited to multiplayer. Then you have the two extremes of the Wing Diver and the Fencer.

We’re not ashamed to say that we almost exclusively played as the Wing Diver. This female soldier, despite being kitted out in an armour design of dubious practicality, is brilliant. She’s kitted out with a jetpack (which seems to drain energy slower than in the Vita game), and she can unlock some pretty tasty weapons. The two main drawbacks are that she starts out with the lowest health, and most weapons drain the same gauge as the jetpack. The Fencer is slow, grounded (though with a boost pack for brief lift-off), but also very tough and significantly different from even the Soldier and Air Raider. Perhaps the biggest draw for EDF veterans looking for a different experience from early games, the Fencer can carry two two-weapon loadouts at once – including a shield in one or both.

As in other EDF games, maximum health and your arsenal of weapons are built up by collecting pickups in each stage. The higher the difficulty you play, the better the weapons you can find. Despite the huge range of weapons on offer, the majority act and ‘feel’ impressively different, and you’ll sometimes have to choose which to take into the next stage carefully (especially as a Fencer, who can get overwhelmed quickly if you’re not careful). Despite the fact that basic enemies will rush toward you en masse, it’s sometimes possible – even desirable – to indulge in a bit of sniping. This ties in with the fact that you’ll need to prioritise targets, usually under pressure, more often than you’d expect. But, yeah, generally you’re keeping your finger on the trigger and hoping that everything else dies before you do.

Yes, this thing is as big as it looks.

There are a few annoyances. For one, it’s a real shame that the power of the PS4 wasn’t harnessed for a smooth frame rate; this would be a sight to behold at 60fps. More directly affecting gameplay are those flippin’ Retiarius spiders. These huge things (shaped like the one on the Spider Man logo) can ensnare you in a web from great distances, and even through objects. It will then slowly drag you towards it, sapping health all the while, and the only way to free yourself is to kill this thing which you might not even have a clear shot at yet. They’re thankfully only in a handful of levels and, if you’re careful (and lucky), you can avoid this.

These minor annoyances are offset by the sheer joy that play brings. After all, there’s little that beats the satisfaction of sending a huge transport ship tumbling to the ground, or sending bolts of electricity coursing through a horde of giant ants, spiders, wasps, etc. Heck, there are even two stages where you get to walk around in a giant robot! Harvesting pickups to increase your health and to find new weapons is also strangely alluring in a way that, for our money, Destiny never managed.

It took us about 25 hours to finish all 89 stages on Normal difficulty, but we’re far from finished with the game. We’re starting to spend some more quality time with the Fencer, and we even had a go at Inferno difficulty (that didn’t end well). Then there’s the ever-fun online co-op which, despite limits on maximum health and weapon level, is brilliant. Kudos too for including offline multiplayer.

To summarise: E-D-F! E-D-F!

• Format: Vita
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Pqube
• Developer: Sandlot
• Players: 1-2 (offline), 2-4 (online)
• Site: http://www.pqube.co.uk
• Game code provided by the publisher

Generally speaking, you either love Earth Defence Force or you’ve never heard of it. The series started off as a PS2 title with a strictly limited budget, and the funding hasn’t changed much since. It’s become a cult favourite across the years, so much so that this is actually the second re-release for this entry (it saw a Japan-only PSP version too). The fact remains that despite some tweaking, this game is now over a decade old, and wasn’t particularly polished in the first place. Does it hold up?

The EDF games have always resembled B movies in several ways, and this is no different. Just like a cheap sci-fi film, the minimal budget is glaringly obvious, and the basic concept very simple. There are giant insects all over the planet – with the occasional robot, monster, or ship thrown in for good measure – and it’s your job to kill ’em. That’s most of the story and the gameplay right there. Nothing wrong with that though, and the EDF games specialise in this sort of glorious nonsense.

Despite the fairly basic character models, your (giant) enemies will scuttle, jump, fly, etc in a semi-realistic manner that helps the atmosphere no end. Doing your best to hold off dozens of enormous insects (and arachnids), and sometimes robots that tower over nearby buildings, can make you feel like you’re in the middle of a very dumb – and equally fun – film.

There are three character classes, each with unique weapons. The Infantryman has all sorts of rifles and explosives to collect, and starts off with a decent amount of health. The Pale Wing has the lowest default health, but is equipped with a jetpack for unequalled manoeuvrability. They can also get hold of some nifty weapons, but these will usually drain the same gauge that powers the jetpack. The Air Raider, meanwhile, is able to call in powerful support strikes; but is the least capable when it comes to personal weaponry. None, unfortunately, get around the total lack of precision that the Vita’s sticks suffer through no fault of the game.

Killing this enemy type effectively requires… well, it requires something better than the Vita’s nubs.

This is a title meant to be played and replayed, though, and part of this is the way in which you can slowly build up each class through your hours of play. The seemingly endless swarms of enemies will randomly drop health, armour, and weapon pickups. Each armour piece will slightly increase that class’s maximum health once the mission ends, and weapon items will (if you’re lucky) add a new death-dealing device to your arsenal. The more you play the tougher your soldiers become, and the wider the range of weapons they have to choose from. You also, it must be said, won’t be ready for the higher difficulties until you’ve sufficiently beefed up at least one class.

Cutting down giant bugs is hectic and fun, no matter what stage your class is at. There’s nothing quite like sending a bunch of homing missiles into a cluster of enormous spiders, sending legs flying everywhere, just before swinging round to take out the giant ant shooting acid at you from the ceiling that somehow slipped past. There are moments where the screen is crammed full of enemies, and you can see little else; but emerging victorious from such a scrum is very satisfying.

Significantly less satisfying is when, in such situations where there are loads of enemies crammed into a very small space (a common occurrence in this game, which features many cramped areas), enemies are able to approach and attack from behind the corpses of their creepy fellows with no fear of damage. Every single enemy that falls has their model stay on-screen for a short time before magically disappearing. During that time, they will absorb bullets and – even worse – trigger grenades and other explosives, which can send you flying. These are enormous bugs, remember, so just one corpse can provide a significant barrier for your enemies. When you have a pile of them, and enemies are biting and shooting from behind…

There are also a few bugs of the unwelcome kind related to enemy spawns. Now and again, you’ll be left with the last few enemies some distance apart. While annoying – especially given the slow movement of the Infantry and Air Raider – it’s nothing too bad. Spawns sometimes take place in odd ways which make the next wave oddly difficult to find and/or mean they have difficulty in reaching you. The worst example we came across was in an underground stage, which ended up lasting at least half an hour longer than it should have. Not only did we struggle to find a way to the relevant cave, until we did a few of the bugs were able to shoot through the wall separating us and them (and they therefore made no effort to find a way around themselves). And no, we couldn’t shoot through the wall.

Eep.

You can team up with others via either ad-hoc or online multiplayer. As you can imagine, this makes things easier to handle, and is great fun to boot – but there aren’t many people playing online on the Vita. Those that are tend to be going for the most difficult stages, and are bringing supersoldiers into battle.

Earth Defence Force 2 proves that you don’t need a seven-figure budget – nor a painstakingly planned out script, nor convoluted play mechanics – in order to produce a fun game. It also proves, unfortunately, that a low budget can have undesirable side effects if you’re not careful. The PS4 game released at the same time as this one seems to avoid the biggest pitfalls (watch for a review in the coming weeks), but both have the same sense of tongue-in-cheek glee. If a portable EDF is what you want, then this does the job admirably – if you can look past the technical issues and the Vita’s notoriously rubbish sticks.

To celebrate a year since the release of The Escapists, veteran games developer and international games label Team17 and indie developer Mouldy Toof Studios have announced that they will be releasing a brand new free map, Paris Central Pen, which was made available for all PC, Mac and Linux owners of the game via a free Steam update yesterday.

The new map is inspired by the La Santé Prison in Paris, which was home to the infamous Carlos The Jackal, and is renowned as one of the most brutal and notorious prisons in France.

The 8-bit prison escape game started life as a Kickstarter project, and has sold over 1.25 million copies since its release a year ago on PC and Xbox One. The Escapists has also been released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 4, and an update has been promised to bring the new map to Xbox One and PS4 consoles at a later date.

Headset provided by the manufacturer

DISCLAIMER: Okay, this is a biggie. One of the founding fathers of Prif used to write for Critical Gamer. Not only that, but we stay in contact, and some of the reviews published on their official blog are written by my good self. No contracts are involved however, and I am not paid for any of my work there. For better or worse I’m being entirely honest in my opinions here, and going forward I intend to get others on the CG team to review any Prif products we cover in future. With that out of the way, let’s get to it…

New kids on the block Prif have finally started to release real products, which you can buy with real money. Having been informed about the company in the very early stages, taking the PlaySonic 3 out of the box was an odd experience for me, almost like the birth of a firstborn child; albeit a child fitted with a removable microphone and a 3.5mm jack connection.

First impressions are good. It’s priced somewhere in the lower mid area of the headset market (less than thirty quid at Amazon at time of writing), but has the appearance of a pricier model. The earcups and headband are both cushioned in a lush and disturbingly attractive manner, and the microphone is a feature all by itself. It swivels round a bit and sits upon a flexible cable. Okay, nothing special there; you could say the same of flippin’ loads of headsets. This mic has a cushion on the end though and, although this serves to give it a vaguely phallic appearance, that is (surprisingly) not the distinguishing feature.

Why is the mic always on the left hand side? Okay, don’t tell me, I’m sure there’s a logical and prosaic reason behind it. But with the PlaySonic 3, you can switch the mic between the left and right cups should you so wish, you rebellious devil. I’m not entirely sure why you would want to do this – nor am I sure why you’d want to take advantage of the fact that each earcup can be swivelled 180 degrees so that it’s facing away from your ear – but, each to their own.

Okay, so it looks good (I’m a particular fan of the red metallic highlights on the cups). But does it… er…. headset good? Going back to that luxurious-looking cushioning, it really does make the headset comfy to wear. Possibly the comfiest one I’ve tried so far, in fact, and no overly sweaty cranium from extended use either. The headband doesn’t extend quite so far as some others, but it certainly looks like it easily stretches wide enough to fit any ordinary human. I don’t have a particularly bloated head (even if I do say so myself), so I can’t give a first-hand account of how it would fit a steroid-fuelled monstrosity.

One thing you most certainly do not have to worry about is the outside world intruding on your aural pleasure. Even before you plug it into anything, the PlaySonic 3’s earcups block noise from the outside world with surprising efficacy. Having spent many years working on factory floors, I genuinely think that they would work as moderately effective ear defenders (though I hasten to add that you really shouldn’t try testing this out). The volume can go darn loud too. Sound quality is great, with a deep earthy bass that’s perfect for action games or music with a booming backdrop.

As for the mic that can promiscuously insert itself into either earcup, it picks up your voice very well, and you don’t need to fiddle with it for perfect positioning either. If you purposefully pull it far from your mouth, then yes, you’ll come through fainter. Short to mid distance provides consistent voice pickup though. Even when I purposefully moved the mic much too close, my voice didn’t come through muffled or distorted. It’s perfect for game chat; but not quite to the level perfectionists who regularly record, say, podcasts or Let’s Plays might want. It does a good job of excluding some (but not all) background noise; it deserves credit for that. There’s a very, very faint background hiss though which, if not propped up by music or sound effects, will irk the pedant.

It’s ready to go for pretty much any gaming machine. You can plug it into your 3DS or Vita but, of course, you’re not going to have much use for the mic there. Just as well it’s removable, eh? You can use it with your PC and, while it doesn’t run through a USB connection, it comes with a Y cable; hurrah! You’d be surprised how many headsets don’t. Plug it into a home console’s controller and, thanks to the built-in rechargeable battery (which charges via USB in a few hours), you needn’t worry about a cable trailing across the room to power the thing. Plug it into your DualShock 4, fiddle with the headset settings in the PS4 menu should you so desire, and job’s a goodun. Similarly, you can plug it straight into an Xbox One controller – if you’ve got one of the newer ones. If you have the original design, when Microsoft were still expecting you to buy a headset adapter in their non-stop mission at the time to make everybody hate them, you’re out of luck. Same with any other headset there, though. It’s also compatible with Wii U but, again, not a big demand for chat functions there…

The switch on the cable leading from the left earcup is, basically, the PlaySonic 3’s control centre. It’s where you plug the micro USB cable in to charge it; it’s where you have the volume control; it’s where you have the on/off switch; it’s where you have the mic mute/unmute button. Heck, there’s even a clip so you can attach it to your baby’s ear for easy access while you play*! I’m old fashioned, me, and I like having everything to hand like this rather than on the earcups, or on top of the headband, or on a noseclip or something.

I feel confident in saying that the PlaySonic 3 can comfortably rival headsets selling for twice the price. It’s comfortable to the point of quickly forgetting it’s even there, it’s plug and play for the latest machines, it roars sound into your ears with pleasing power, it grabs your voice and holds on tight, and it looks sexy. It’s a keeper.

*If you actually see anybody doing this, you have my permission to slap them. Hard.