The Crew PlayStation 4 review

Never in the history of video games have racing fans been gifted such an enormous playground as they have in Ubisoft’s The Crew.

With the open road ahead of them players can push the pedal to the metal and embark on a road trip from the east coast of the United States to the west in an epic journey that’ll likely take an hour or more to complete.

The world of The Crew is a vast and rather impressive achievement. To pack the entire United States into a game console (albeit scaled down somewhat) and without any loading times is rather special.

Continue reading The Crew PlayStation 4 review

Rabbids Invasion: The Interactive TV Show Xbox One review

Rabbids Invasion is series of animated shorts produced by Ubisoft in association with Nickelodeon. The cartoons are based on Ubisoft’s Raving Rabbids video games, themselves a spin-off from the classic Rayman franchise.

The Rabbids, themselves are basically foot-high stylised rabbit-like creatures that stand on two legs. They don’t speak English, they just utter words in their own language, including their trademark “bwahh”. Instead they communicate with the audience via expressions- which the animators skilfully use to instil some amusing, but at the same time darkly comical and sometimes vicious, personalities. Continue reading Rabbids Invasion: The Interactive TV Show Xbox One review

The Crew hands-on preview

It’s been a challenging few weeks for Ubisoft, with the less-than gracious launch of Assassin’s Creed: Unity casting a bit of a shadow over things. The busy publisher’s next release is now upon us: The Crew– an online racer with RPG aspirations.

I say busy because, whilst the French publisher has been hitting the headlines pretty continuously regarding the latest Assassin’s Creed: Unity bug reports, they’ve released an outstanding amount of other games without a hitch. Continue reading The Crew hands-on preview

Wargaming.net at PAXAUS 2014

PAX Australia is unlike any other gaming show in the Asia-Pacific region. For the last two years it’s been a celebration of games, from mainstream hits like Far Cry 4, to pen and paper affairs like Dungeons and Dragons.

Earlier this month I attended PAX Australia 2014, the second time Melbourne has hosted the prestigious gaming event and only the second time that a PAX show has been held outside the United States.

Of all the exhibitors at PAX Australia 2014, World of Tanks publisher, Wargaming.net, stood out from the crowd. They had a huge booth that dominated the main hall, the centrepiece of which was an actual tank. Continue reading Wargaming.net at PAXAUS 2014

PlayStation TV unboxing and review

I’d held off getting a PlayStation Vita. I own two PSPs- an original phat one and one of those lighter ones with a better screen. I’ve hardly used either of them.

I love the idea of being able to play games anywhere, but the opportunity to actually do so seldom arises for me. The only time I seemed to use my PSP was waiting in airports and flying on planes.

Outside of those times, when I was a captive audience for the device, the tiny screen and that little thumb-stick really didn’t appeal to me that much. I didn’t want to play a game looking at a picture not much bigger than a postage stamp, not when I could have a much better experience on my PS3 or Xbox 360 back home. Continue reading PlayStation TV unboxing and review

Elite gets dangerous

I’ve been dabbling in Elite: Dangerous, Frontier Developments’ space trading action MMO, all through the beta cycle.

The original Elite, back in the early 80s, pretty much introduced me to the concept of open-world adventuring- something taken for granted these days.

Elite: Dangerous puts players at the controls of a starship and asks nothing of them but to venture out into the icy darkness of space, find work and earn cash. Players can become traders, mercenaries, bounty hunters or pirates. Continue reading Elite gets dangerous

Far Cry 4 Kyrat Edition PS4 unboxing

Ubisoft’s Far Cry series has become one of the world’s top gaming franchises. Combining exploration with a dark tale of survival in an exotic location, Far Cry 4 continues the legacy. This time players are transported to the Himalayan mountains, to a land caught up in a civil war against the tyrant Pagan Min.

Following Ubisoft’s tradition for producing some very special editions of their games, for Far Cry 4 they’ve produced the Kyrat Edition– named after the unfortunate country from the game. Continue reading Far Cry 4 Kyrat Edition PS4 unboxing

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