As the saying goes, all journeys must come to an end, and so after 10 years, I am announcing that with a heavy heart I will temporarily stop updating the SG Gaming Info website and YouTube page.

My decision to do so is due to a new path that was opened up to me last month, this new path is a new job that I have fallen in love with and need to dedicate a large portion of my time to as it is full-time employment, and while I could easily run SG Gaming Info during my time off, something I tried doing during my previous job, it would mean I would have no time to just relax and recharge my batteries. I think it is important to note that my reason to stop writing hasn’t diminished my love of video games as I still enjoy playing the occasional MMO and story-driven game.

SG Gaming Info has given me a chance to meet people and experience events that I could only dream off. I don’t think I could ever forget my first press pass, my first interview, my first review or any of the friends I made within the games industry and journalism fields. To those, I met and worked with thank you for changing my life.

I’m pretty much terrible at saying goodbye, so I won’t say so long forever, instead I will say see you next time, after all, who knows what the future might bring as SG Gaming Info could return someday or I might start a new venture in the ever-expanding games industry (I hear let’s plays are all the rage nowadays).

In regards to site’s YouTube and social media pages, I have the following announcements. The SG Gaming Info YouTube page will remain intact so if you ever want to watch my videos you can do so for as long as they remain on the platform. The Facebook page will remain online and I will continue to monitor it. The Twitter and Instagram accounts will receive a name change and become my personal accounts (Those who follow these accounts have more than likely seen this already).

For those who want to continue to get an Irish perspective of the games industry, I recommend checking out Game-smack, GamEir, Elite Gamer and The Republic of Players, these four sites are operated by incredible writers whom I had the pleasure of hanging out with.

For the final time, I say goodbye and thank you for your support.

Regards,
Aaron Meehan
Owner of SG Gaming Info

It’s time to return to Warcraft’s roots as SG Gaming Info reviews World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, the latest expansion in the long-running MMORPG, World of Warcraft.

It is time to go back to the heart of the Warcraft franchise as the defeat of the Legion has not brought peace to Azeroth, but brought a new reason for the Horde and Alliance to fight. Azerite, a brand new resource has appeared and the Horde and Alliance are prepared to go to war for it.

As the drums of war beat ever louder both the Horde and Alliance must find new allies, and so players will journey to the island nations of Zandalar (Horde) and Kul Tiras (Alliance) in an effort to convince them to join them and fight their enemies. However, recruiting the people of the island nations isn’t easy as you will need to overcome numerous challenges that threaten your potential new alliance.

Now, I’m an Alliance player, so my story experience etc. will be from the Alliance side (sorry Horde fans, but your War chief burned down a tree). The Alliance story focuses on Jaina Proudmoore, the daughter of the ruler of Kul Tiras, and your effort to bring the kingdom into the Alliance. However, as soon as Jaina arrives home she is arrested for high treason as her actions during the Third War led to the death of her father and the destruction of the Kul Tiran fleet. While this is a setback you work with members of Proudmoore Admiralty to help free Jaina, expose corruption within the very heart of Kul Tiras, free the island’s southern zone from the corruption of dark magic, and free the Tidesages from the lure of the old gods. Overall, the Alliance story offers some great lore but fails to be truly interesting as I tried and failed to really get into the story. I think one reason the story failed to grab me was the fact that it required you to visit multiple dungeons, and as a DPS (Retribution Paladin) I found myself waiting 30+ minutes for the dungeon finder to get me in, but if that doesn’t sound bad enough, the final Alliance story quest requires you to complete a mythic dungeon, a difficult 5-man dungeon that requires hours of grinding due to its high item level requirement.

The recruitment of a new kingdom is not the only story as your faction will be engaged in as there is a war campaign. This war campaign sees you go to the other faction’s island and attempt to disrupt their military might. The war campaign also has you send out NPCs on missions in a move similar to that of the class order hall missions from Legion. Personally, I like the idea behind the War Campaign as it helps drive home the brewing conflict between the Horde and Alliance, unfortunately, like the story, the War campaign has content locked behind reputation requirements, so I hope you like grinding reputation for hours on end at max level.

Void Elves, one of the new Allied Races for Alliance players.

If you are looking for a new character to play in Battle for Azeroth, the expansion sees the addition of allied races. These races, of which there is a maximum of three per faction, require players to reach exalted reputation with each of the race’s factions, this can be a long grind, but if you played Legion from start to finish you will have easily completed the requirements. For those wondering who are the new allied races, Horde players can unlock: Nightborne, Highmountain Tauren and Mag’har Orcs, and the Alliance can unlock Void Elves, Lightforged Draenei and Dark Iron Dwarves. It is worth noting that the Mag’har Orcs and Dark Iron Dwarves require you to complete the War Campaign story alongside the exalted reputation status with the faction conducting the war effort (For the Alliance it would be the 7th Legion).

So, what else is there to look at in regards to Battle for Azeroth? Well, at the beginning of the expansion players are given a brand new artefact item, the ‘Heart of Azeroth’. This necklace provides players with a new way to empower their Battle for Azeroth helmet, shoulder and chest pieces with bonus stats such as regaining health after killing a monster or a temporary buff to one of your primary or secondary stats. The Heart of Azeroth is an interesting gimmick as players need to collect Azerite to level up the necklace and as the necklace levels up you can unlock more and more powerful traits. For those who played World of Warcraft in Legion, the Heart of Azeroth is a far more refined and customisable version of the artefact weapon.

So, how do you get Azerite for your shiny new necklace? Well, during the levelling process you get them by completing quests, but at max level, you will be swimming in Azerite deposits as they can be gained from world quests, NPC missions, the duty finder, battleground finder and island expeditions. Now what probably grabbed your attention was the island expeditions, this is a new feature for Battle for Azeroth and it involves 3-man groups heading to an uncharted island and attempting to fill their ship full of Azerite before the opposing faction. These expeditions like dungeons have multiple modes – normal, heroic, mythic and PVP. In the PVP version of Island Expeditions, you can fight a 3-man group from the opposing faction while hunting down Azerite. For me, Island expeditions offer a fast-paced alternative to waiting 30+ minutes to run a dungeon as a DPS class.

In terms of levelling and mobs you fight, Battle for Azeroth uses the zone scaling that was first introduced in Legion, for those unaware the zone scaling is where enemies have their health and power increased to match your own i.e. if you are level 119 you will fight level 119 mobs. Just like in Legion, this zone scaling system makes levelling a far more challenging experience.

In regards to the new Warfronts, a 20 player PVE mode that has Horde and Alliance players fight for key locations throughout Azeroth, the mode is not currently live, I’m not sure why maybe Blizzard wanted as many players as possible at max level before allowing people to try it.

Finally, let’s look at the graphics and audio of Battle for Azeroth. After almost 14 years, World of Warcraft cartoonish art style still holds strong, especially in Battle for Azeroth’s numerous in-game cutscenes. Audio wise the in-game music, ambience and voice acting has also improved.

Collect Azerite for your shiny new necklace in Island Expeditions.

Conclusion

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth not only bring the war between the Alliance and Horde back to the forefront, but it also provides new ways to level up and make your character stand out.

Score: 7.5/10

For more information on World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, visit https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/.

The most striking improvement to F1 2018 is the career mode as you now have to deal with the media asking you time-sensitive questions, and while you might feel your answers to their questions mean nothing they have consequences as your answers can affect your reputation with your team and the morale of your research and development department. Alongside your reputation you have your character style, this new feature is a bar that can swing between sportsmanship and showmanship depending on your on track actions and the previously mentioned interviews, for example choosing to thank your team for the win instead of saying it was all down to you sees the character style lean towards sportsmanship. While this off-track action isn’t as exciting as racing, it does a brilliant job of immersing you into the world of F1.

The ever so fun R&D aspect of career mode also gets an upgrade as regulation changes can affect what improvements you can make to your car, and team-specific tech trees means that not every team will have the same upgrade path. Just like with the additional off-track content the R&D changes make the career mode a more personal experience.

For those who haven’t played F1 2017 and are wondering what is R&D and how does it work, well during career mode you can upgrade four parts of your car: powertrain, chassis, aerodynamics and durability with resource points. To gain resource points you need to meet or surpass your team’s expectations and complete multiple practice programmes.

Practice programs are similar to F1 2017s where during the practice sessions you much complete several tests, these are: Track acclimatisation (learning about the track by going to through gates), tyre management (managing tyre wear), fuel management (managing fuel usage per lap), ERS management (learn to effectively harvest ERS), qualifying pace (how fast can you go), race strategy (combine all programmes so that your team can create the best race strategy) and team strategy (these are objectives your team want i.e. low fuel run, fast in X sector and chain corners). Practice programmes aren’t just important because they gain you resource points, but because they also help you get used to the tracks.

Speaking of tracks let’s talk about the racing, F1 2018 adds new suspension and chassis physics alongside real F1 physics data, and these improvements are in full effect as simple mistakes such as driving offline, going over curbs or hitting the accelerator to quickly can have unforeseen consequences. In terms of the driver AI, they are still unfortunately annoying, I’ve had cars drive into me and retiring cars block me along with other AI drivers, but while I am being critical of the AI it isn’t terrible, especially on the higher difficulty setting where they offer an actual challenge.

For those who are new to the franchise and are wondering about the learning curve, well you will be happy to know that the game is very accommodating to new players with a number of assists that include: braking assistance, traction control and on-screen indicators that tells you when you should break or accelerate.

What else is there to say about F1 2018? Well, it has all the officially licensed tracks, including Circuit Paul Ricard and Hockenheimring, all the official drivers and teams, and the continued support for classic cars with F1 2018 adding eight new classic cars for you to enjoy in multiplayer, time trial and during special career mode events.

Earlier in this review, I mentioned the HALO device, and I think it is important to bring it up again as it drastically alters the cockpit view. At first, the HALO device can be a nuisance as its centre column does make it difficult to see some parts of the track or see objects such as the gates you need to drive through in the track acclimatisation practice programme. However, over time I got used to the HALO device, but if like me you enjoy using the cockpit view for racing and can’t stand the thought of the HALO restricting your view of the track than you will be happy to know that the game allows you to hide the centre column of the HALO device.

For those who like graphics, Codemasters’ has made some amazing visual upgrades with the cars and tracks having some amazing details from detailed tyre degradation to scratch marks caused by a run in with a barrier. Playing the PC version of F1 2018 on the ultra high settings is a visual treat and if you have a PC powerful enough to run the game at its highest settings I strongly recommend you do.

Conclusion

F1 2018 offers an enjoyable racing experience alongside an in-depth career mode. If you are a fan of Formula One I highly recommend playing F1 2018.

Score: 9/10

For more information on F1 2018, visit http://www.formula1-game.com/.

Kasedo Games has announced that Bulwark Studios’ turn-based tactical game, Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus will be coming to PC on November 15, 2018.

While the release is three months away, Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus is available for pre-order with those who pre-order receiving a 10% saving on the retail price (€29.99). For those who want a little more than just the base game, a special Omnissiah Edition is also available for pre-order (10% discount of the €34.99 retail price). This special edition includes the game’s original soundtrack, digital art book and the arc scourge weapon to enhance your close-quarters arsenal. To pre-order either the standard or special edition version of Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus, visit https://store.steampowered.com/app/673880/Warhammer_40000_Mechanicus/.

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus description

For the first time ever in a Warhammer video game, Mechanicus puts you in control of an array of Adeptus Mechanicus forces.

Lead your priests and troops on a tactical quest to salvage ancient technologies from the mysterious catacombs of the Necron tomb world, Silva Tenebris. As Magos Dominus Faustinius of Mars, your every decision will shape the missions ahead and have far-reaching consequences for you and your team.

For more information on Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus, visit https://www.mechanicus40k.com/.

To celebrate more than 500 million PlayStation sold since the original PlayStation in 1994; Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced a special PS4 Pro called, “PlayStation 4 Pro 500 Million Limited Edition”.

The PlayStation4 Pro 500 Million Limited Edition will be limited to 50,000 units and will come in a dark blue translucent design along with matching DualShock 4 controller.

The 500 Million Limited Edition console will retail for €499 (€100 above the cost of the standard PS4 Pro), but unlike the standard PS4 Pro this limited edition console will include a 2TB HDD, PlayStation Camera and vertical stand.

Those interested in this special Limited Edition console can pre-order the PlayStation4 Pro 500 Million Limited Edition from Tuesday, August 14 at 10 am. The console will be available for purchase from August 24, 2018.

To learn more about the PlayStation4 Pro 500 Million Limited Edition, visit https://www.playstation.com/en-us/explore/ps4-pro/systems/500-million-limited-edition-ps4-pro-console/.

As a fan of Formula One I cannot wait to jump in and throw the cars around the new and returning tracks, and as per usual I will likely take a lower tier car and stream roll the career mode (I mean we all know Sauber F1 deserve to be constructor champions).

F1 2018 will be available for Xbox One, Windows PC and PlayStation 4 on August 24, 2018 (Just in time for the Belgian GP). For more information on the game, visit http://blog.codemasters.com/f1/.

In the game’s campaign you are commanded by Proletaricat and some kittens that seem to love playing around (at one point they draw subway lines in crayon to confuse Proletaricat). The aim of the campaign is to traverse the many subway lines of the Russian underground collecting food to stay alive, but while this sounds easy in practice it isn’t. To complete a level you need to earn at least a passing grade and collect up to three bones per level, these bones are gained by completing specific missions given to you by Proletaricat, these missions can range from simple tasks such as “Not being hit by a babushka” to more challenging tasks like “Getting a 7x or higher vodka juggle.”

While collecting food is your ultimate goal, be eat Shawarma or a nice juicy American burger, the game likes to change things up by awarding extra points for eating the food in the air, cooking the food by making a vodka bottle land on a person carrying food and juggling the food. So, simple thing first how do you make people throw food and vodka away well the answer is simply sneaking up behind them and barking, nothing makes a man throw his food in terror more than a dog’s bark. Now, you might be thinking this sounds all too easy you just need to collect food until the time runs out, well as you progress further into the campaign rival dogs start appearing such as Dobermans who will take any food they see on the ground and Poodles who will jump for any food they see flying across the platform.

So, does the game offer any other modes apart from the campaign? Well, the game has an endless mode where you can try to survive for as long as possible, i.e. not starving to death. The endless mode is a good way to get to grips with the game as I found it a bit more forgiving than the campaign.

In regards to playable characters the main character a Russian dog, but you can unlock additional characters, these include the Proletaricat, a racoon, and a number of dogs from various indie games and comics.

Now I haven’t really spoken about the game’s controls, so let’s do that. The control scheme is pretty simple arrow keys to move, and z and x to bark and jump. While the control scheme is simple I did notice that arrow keys make finer movements such as aiming jumps rather difficult, however there is a way to get better control of your dog and that is using a controller, I used my Xbox One controller and while I did still notice some problems the issue of finer movement was almost fully eliminated.

In regards to issues with Russian Subway Dogs, there aren’t any major flaws with the game. With that said the missions provided to you at the beginning of the campaign tend to be far more challenging than one might expect with the game expecting you to be proficient right from the start. The second issue is more on the technical side with the game failing to support mouse control on the menu screen and a barebones graphics menu that lacks even resolution options.

In terms of graphics, the game’s pixel art felt rather relaxing as I found it helped to alleviate any frustration the game created. In terms of audio, Peter Chapman (COINS) does a great job with a mixture of Russian and old arcade style music.

Conclusion

Russian Subway Dogs is an enjoyable 2D arcade style game. The campaign offers a decent challenge and the pixel art style will make you relaxed and want to play more.

Score: 8/10

For more information on Russian Subway Dogs, visit https://spookysquid.com/rsd.

So, first and foremost what is the difference between the original Defiance and Defiance 2050? Well, at first glance there isn’t a whole lot, the story and world is exactly the same, but if you look closely you will see updated textures and according to Trion Worlds’ improved performance, a claim that can be shot down when you see your first enemy teleport around the map.

Well, what can you expect from Defiance 2050? The game contains three playable races – human, Irathient and Castithan, these three races can be any one of five classes – assault, assassin, guardian, combat medic and demolitionist. Each class has a maximum level of 25 and your character has a max total/EGO level of 50, this means you can play at least two max level classes on one character. All the classes use ranged weapons (melee weapons have been removed), multiple shield types and grenades. The weapon variety is straight-forward with players able to use pistols, assault rifles, submachine guns, light machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, detonators and rocket launchers, all of these weapon types can be modified with special mod drops such as a stock for an assault rifle.

Since Defiance 2050 is a third person shooter, how is the combat? Frankly, combat is, for the most part, easy with the only difficult part being fighting enemies that are 500+ power levels ahead of you. While combat is relatively easy the enemies are very bullet spongy with some non-elite enemies requiring an entire clip to bring down, unless you happen to use a bolt-action sniper rifle than you can take out an enemy in one to two headshots.

Now, let’s talk about the world of Defiance 2050. The game takes place in an area known as Paradise, just north of San Francisco. The area is split into five zones: Mount Tam, Madera, Marin, Sausalito, and San Francisco. While the game has multiple zones there is very little variety in terms of topography, with the exception of San Francisco. As you go through the zones you will come across green hill after green hill with alien plant life sprinkled in, sure it looks interesting the first time, but after a few hours, it all becomes an uninteresting blur.

As I stated earlier Defiance 2050 has a single player story. The main story mission has you (an ark hunter) work with Karl Von Bach (a brilliant scientist) in an attempt to help him find some Ark Tech, powerful technology that was stolen after the Stratocarrier you were travelling on crashed in Paradise. To find the lost Ark tech you have to work with various powerful residence of Paradise from a skeevy alien who owns a large portion of the area to Cooper, the lawgiver and one of the Defiant Few. The story, while focusing on finding the missing Ark Tech you also learn about the various enemy factions in the area and what happened to the world. The story also has you interact with Nolan and Irisa, two of the main characters from the Defiance TV show. They don’t do much, but it shows what their lives were like before the TV show.

In terms of enemies, there are seven enemy factions: Raiders, 99ers (cyborgs), mutants, hellbugs, EMC, Dark Matter and the Volge. In terms of variety, the majority are human enemies, but I found that despite which faction you are fighting they all act the same.

Okay, let’s talk about some of the MMO styled features of the game. The game has seven four-man instances that consist of story and tier varieties, these instances do offer a decent challenge, especially for those who have recently reached max level, I mean in my first tier 1 instance I died several times. There are also four eight-v-eight PvP maps for those who like to test their skills against other players.

If instanced combat isn’t your thing, the game offers large-scale open-world events called Arkfalls. Arkfalls are events centred on a piece of Ark tech that has crashed landed on Earth and fighting off enemies who wish to take it. The Arkfalls come in multiple varieties with small Arkfalls, seeing you fight waves of enemies until the ark explodes to large-scale Arkfalls that see you visit multiple sites that end in fighting a large and incredibly powerful boss monster with other players. These large-scale Arkfalls are incredibly enjoyable and offer the best rewards as they drop Ark chests, which can only be opened by an Ark Key.

Speaking off Ark Keys, this item is gained from select missions, max level contract missions and with real money from the in-game store, this means if you want to do multiple Arkfalls or instances for loot you may need to spend some money on the game. The cost of an Ark key is 120 bits, which is a little over €1, but unfortunately, the lowest number of bits you can buy is 500 bits for €4.99.

Looking further in-depth into the store, it offers various boosts, visual only outfits, additional storage space, vehicles, weapon mods, enhancements and currency. The last three on the list could be considered to have pay-to-win elements as the enhancements give you additional salvage to upgrade your weapons, mods allow you to improve your weapons and currency allows you to buy additional mod slots for your weapons. The term pay-to-win can vary from person to person, so I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether the Defiance 2050 store goes too far.

Now let’s look at Defiance 2050’s issues. The game suffers from terrible lag, which causes enemies to rubber band around the map and even makes their grenades and rockets invisible until they hit you. The latency issue has slowly been getting better but at peak times it is noticeable. Another issue is the game’s performance, my PC is more than capable of running the game at max settings, but when played on max the game would randomly stutter and even freeze for several seconds, at one point when typing a six world post in chat the game froze a total of three times. Thankfully the freezing can be fixed by turning off shadows.

In terms of video and audio, the game looks rather run down, and while this suits the tone of the game it doesn’t make it very visually appealing. In terms of audio, I did notice that on occasions the music would play over voice acted scenes.

Conclusion

While Defiance 2050 offers spectacular open world events, everything else feels lacking as the game tries and fails to balance the single-player experience with that of an MMO.

SCORE: 5/10

For more information on Defiance 2050, visit https://www.defiance2050.com/.

Square Enix has released a new trailer and details regarding the Final Fantasy XIV and Monster Hunter: World collaboration.

The Final Fantasy XIV event will the “King of the Skies”, Rathalos appear in Eorzea on August 7th and will be accessible to all those who completed the “Stormblood” main scenario quest. Players will fight Rathalos in both Normal and Extreme versions of “The Great Hunt” trial. The normal version will see eight players tackle the fierce beast, the extreme version will see four players fight the powerful beast.

Those who choose to take part in the event will be able to obtain a number of unique rewards. The rewards in question are:

• New Armor Set – design inspired by Rathalos
• New Minions – Poogie and Palico
• New Mount – Rathalos
• New Furnishing – BBQ Spit

Below is a brand new trailer for the upcoming collaboration.

During E3 2018, Square Enix announced that they would be teaming up with Capcom for a Final Fantasy XIV and Monster Hunter: World crossover.

The crossover, which is scheduled to take place this summer, will see the Final Fantasy XIV players take on the “King of the Skies”, Rathalos, and interact with a lone Palicoes, in Monster Hunter: World players will take on the imposing Behemoth and encounter a Cactuar.

This is not the first crossover/special event to hit Final Fantasy XIV. Previously the MMORPG has done crossovers with Dragon Quest X, Final Fantasy XI (twice). Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, and Yo-Kai Watch.

To get a glimpse of the crossover, check out the Final Fantasy XIV and Monster Hunter: World trailers crossover trailers below.

Xbox One fans rejoice as Microsoft revealed a brand new Halo, Forza Horizon and Gears of War alongside numerous exclusives and world premieres the Xbox E3 2018 press conference.

Xbox fans clambering for exclusive titles were in for a good time as Microsoft revealed Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 4, Gears Tactics and Gears 5. While it was great to see new exclusives, only Forza Horizon 4 will be released this year on October 2, 2018. For those curious about the Xbox/W10 exclusive Crackdown 3, it has been delayed again until February 2019.

Besides the newly announced exclusives, Microsoft announced that they acquired five new studios: The Initiative, Playground Games (developers of Forza Horizon 4), Ninja Theory (developers of Hellblade), Undead Labs (developers of the State of Decay franchise) and Compulsion Games (developers of We Happy Few).

Outside of exclusives and acquiring studios, the Xbox press conference unveiled numerous highly anticipated games. The conference revealed, Devil May Cry 5 (Capcom), Dying Light 2 (Techland), Gears POP!, Jump Force (Bandai Namco Entertainment), Just Cause 4 (Square Enix), Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Activision), Session (Crea-Ture Studios), Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (Bandai Namco Entertainment), The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit (Square Enix), and Tom Clancy’s The Division (Ubisoft).

Microsoft showed off so much content I can’t possibly go through all of it, so if you want a complete look at the announcements from the Xbox E3 2018 press conference, visit https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2018/06/10/xbox-e3-2018-briefing-recap/.

During the EA Play 218 press conference, Respawn Entertainment (known for the Titanfall series) revealed that their upcoming Star Wars game will be called Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

According a short, if not poorly executed announcement, Vince Zampella, CEO of Respawn Entertainment, the game will see you play as a Jedi during a period known as the “dark times”, which is a period of time between episode 3 and 4 where the Jedi who survived Order 66 were hunted down and killed. In addition, for some reason, Zampella had to explain to the interviewer that the player would be able to use a lightsaber. At the end of the reveal, Zampella once again emphasised that the game would take place by saying, “it’s not a nice time… it’s a dark time” while nodding his head. Zampella also said the game “will be amazing” when asked if “does that mean it will just be all dark and serious”.

Despite the poorly done announcement and painful interview questions, Zampella ended the announcement by revealing the game will be available in holiday 2019. The release date is surprisingly close for a game they couldn’t show off on the main stage.

Irish gamers rejoice as GamerFest returns with GamerFest 18 taking place in the Strand Hotel, Limerick on the Bank Holiday weekend of June 2nd & 3rd.

GamerFest 18, is considered one of the leading gaming festivals in Ireland, is an event open to gamers of all ages, from casual gamers all the way up to the most dedicated gamers. Visitors to the two-day festival will be able to enjoy the latest games and consoles, experience Virtual reality, and even experience what it is like to be a Formula One driver with the F1 VR Racing Rig.

Of course, the festival just does have games. There are cosplay events, esports tournaments (tournaments include FIFA 18, F1 Virtual Reality Challenge, and Tekken 7) and live stage shows from various YouTubers, these include the amazing AllCast Irish Gamers, the always-lovely AntiTinkerbell, Nintendo Impact Gaming and ImScottJones.

For those who want to play some retro games, GamerFest has you covered with the RetroZone featuring a large selection of classic console and titles. The RetroZone is a great way to relive a childhood classic or to see just how far gaming has come.

If you are interested in attending GamerFest 18, visit http://gamerfest.ie/.

Detroit: Become Human is another branching story experience from Quantic Dream and David Cage. The game takes place in the city of Detroit in 2038, in the city androids have become a common sight as they do everything from running errands to caring for the elderly. The main premise of the story is that the androids are beginning to show emotions and push back against their human masters, but where this pushback leads is up to you, will the androids lead a peaceful rebellion or destroy those who controlled and abused them.

Detroit: Become Human is seen through the eye of three playable characters: Kara – a housekeeper android, Connor – a police android who is tasked with hunting down androids that have deviated from their programmed behaviour, and Markus – a caretaker android who becomes the leader of a free android movement. The actions you take with these characters will affect the story in more ways than you can imagine, even the smallest choice can lead to big consequences.

Out of the three playable characters I found Kara’s arc to be the most fascinating as she plays the role of a mother to Alice, a child she helped rescue from an abusive father. Kara and Alice’s journey is a heartwarming tale and shows that neither side is born hating the other.

Now, let’s look at the story. While androids developing human emotions and rising up against their masters is an interesting premise, the execution is rather poor. The whole story revolves around humanity considering androids to be property/slaves created to do their bidding without question, the people who own an android have the right to burn cigarettes on their arms or break them when they get angry. The story heavily uses racism and racist actions to get its point across with androids barred from entering certain shops, and when the androids rebellion grows they are rounded up and thrown in concentration camps where they are stripped of what makes them human and scrapped. The concept of how the androids are treated as nothing more than slaves is interesting and sickening at the same time. I guess Detroit: Become Human teaches us that humanity never changes; they will always find someone or something to do their work and oppress.

While there is a heavy focus on racial allegories, the story doesn’t do much else as many important plot elements are either poorly explained or never brought up. Although, the game does have a few pointless plot twists, one of which was so bad I thought it was a joke poking fun at M. Night Shyamalan’s overuse of plot twists.

Looking past the story, we have the branching story experience. This is easily the best aspect of Detroit: Become Human as any action you take can have far-reaching consequences, for example, Kara can kill or run from Alice’s father, killing him makes it easier for Kara to be hidden, but leaving him alive will see him drum up anti-android sentiment and make it more difficult for society to support freedom for androids.

The branching story approach also creates a greater degree of replay value because in one playthrough you might have gone for a pacifist run where humans and androids live in peace, but in another, you might want to go an extremist route and punish humanity for oppressing the android populace.

In terms of gameplay, Detroit: Become Human is quick time event (QTE) heavy as you need to perform actions the game prompts you to perform, this includes pushing, holding or tapping buttons, swiping your finger across the touchpad or flaying your controller around in hopes the motion sensors will know what you are doing. While QTEs are expected in a game that relies on player choice, they can get a little annoying with some button prompts requiring you to make a split second decision due to a fast-moving countdown timer. While the timer makes sense for some situations, I feel the panic it creates may accidentally cause players to trigger a series of events he/she did not want to do.

So, what else is there to say about Detroit: Become Human, well graphically the game does look beautiful, although I felt some human animations looked ironically robotic. In terms of audio, the dialogue was solid and the lines were conveyed clearly.

Conclusion

Detroit: Become Human is an interesting experience that is let down by a mediocre story and overuse of quick time events.

SCORE: 7.5/10

For more information on Detroit: Become Human, visit https://www.playstation.com/en-ie/games/detroit-ps4/.

The inaugural Three Ireland’s EStars tournament took place in the 3Arena in Dublin on Sunday, May 13, and well the final showed a lot of potential.

Esports, which is a competition using a video game, is something that never really grabbed my attention, sure I watched the occasional StarCraft II tournament, but I never found myself going out of my way to make sure I watched a tournament. So, with that said going to the Three Ireland’s EStars final in the 3Arena was a journey into the unknown.

The final, which was a best of three, was between Sligo Rovers and Shamrock Rovers in League of Legends, a five-v-five lane based MOBA. I had occasionally played League of Legends in the past, so I understood the basic mechanics of the game.

Before talking about how the matches went down I want to give my impression of the arena. The event location, 3Arena, is a 13,000 capacity indoor amphitheatre although the organisers of the event decided not to fully utilise the capacity, I say about less than half of the seats were available, but the reduced capacity meant that attendees got a closer look at the action. Speaking of attendees there were children who accompanied by their parents and young adults, it was nice to see that the final brought in a wide array of spectators who all cheered and clapped together when one team dominated the other.

Moving onto the matches between Sligo and Shamrock, the first match was a rather disappointing as Sligo dominated Shamrock Rovers right from the off as Shamrock Rover always seemed to overextend with the players getting caught in 3 on 1 or 3 on 2 situations. These pushes were seen clearly in kill count as after 20 minutes Sligo had registered nine kills to Shamrock’s one, but killing isn’t everything in League of Legends and Shamrock had attempted to come back, but the damage they took early on proved fatal.

Now for the second match, and Shamrock Rovers started off far stronger with an early dragon kill and double kill within the first 10 minutes. Unfortunately, Shamrock’s strong start was as good as it got because following the double kill things slowly began going downhill for them as Sligo Rovers regained composure and pushing back, and on the 21 minute mark Sligo struck a killing blow, a triple kill, this triple kill sent the remaining Shamrock players running back and gave Sligo Rover the opportunity to push toward Shamrock’s Nexus and after 23 minutes Sligo Rovers had overrun Shamrock Rovers’ defences and won the second match and the final. Sligo Rovers victory netted the team €20,000 and a trip to Las Vegas.

Apart from the matches did the final offer anything else? Well, the organisers had some nice side content. At half-time F2 Freestylers took to the stage to entertain the audience by having some fans perform football skills and dance, honestly the F2 Freestylers were not my cup of tea (I guess I wasn’t the target audience), after F2 some cosplayers took to the stage and the hosts talked to them as they showed off their outfits. Following the final match, there was even more side content with YouTube content creators such as Sjin and Turps from the Yogscast, RossBoomsocks, Rezone Games and Gross Gore talking about their experience in Ireland and League of Legends in a short Q&A session. As the YouTubers went away the best act took the stage as Prodijig provided a stunning modern taken on Irish dancing, it was a truly amazing dance and music.

So, what else is there to say about the final? Well, there were some minor issues, before the start of the first match, one of Shamrock Rovers computer crashed (displayed BSOD) and apparently one of the machines didn’t have the required software installed (I learned this from talking to the players after the final match). Another issue was the start time for the final. My invitation to the final stated that final would begin at 5:30 pm, but the EStars Facebook page said the doors opened at 4:30 pm and Ticketmaster, who were selling the tickets, said 5:15 pm. I know one or two others were a bit confused by the time, so I hope future events lay out the times better.

So, in the end, what did I think of the inaugural Three Ireland’s EStars tournament final. Well, I found it to be rather entertaining experience, as someone who only slightly followers esports I was able to be engaged with what was happening around me and the side content/entertainment was a nice way to break up the matches. Personally, I hope this inaugural tournament is the first of many esports tournaments to take place in Ireland.

God of War is an incredibly strong character driven game, with the game putting a strong emphasis on the struggles that Kratos and Atreus must overcome. These struggles aren’t just physical obstacles as we see Kratos struggle to reconcile with his past, and become a better father to Atreus. The main characters of Kratos and Atreus are not the only ones who have struggles as side characters such as the dwarven brothers, Brok and Sindri, must learn to realise that they are better together than they are apart.

Going further into the characters, Kratos is far more than he appears, while he is a strict father who is quick to point out Atreus’ mistakes he opens up more and more to his son as the game progresses. Atreus also gets a lot of development, at the start of the game he follows his father’s words without question, but as the game progresses his character does begin to grow, but this growth isn’t always positive.

In terms of how the story plays out, it primarily takes place on Midgard (Earth), but players are able to visit the other eight realms from Norse mythology, these include Helheim and Alfheim. For those who enjoy Norse mythology, God of War is a treat as the story holds no punches when it comes to depicting the Norse gods with the likes of Thor depicted as a rather ruthless tyrant and Baldur acting as a loose cannon. What I really enjoyed about the story was the otherworldly feel of the game as you traverse the world tree and talk to the World Serpent, a serpent so big that it encircles the world.

God of War truly shines when seen as a father and son adventure, the character growth isn’t one dimensional or just used for window dressing, when Kratos and Atreus argue or fight the effects linger throughout the entirety of the story.

Now, let’s look at the combat, and well the combat in God of War is a treat with fast and fluid melee and ranged combat. In God of War, Kratos has a brand new weapon the Leviathan Axe, this powerful one-handed axe is much more than it appears because not only does it do ice damage, but you can throw the weapon and immediately recall it. Atreus also helps in battle by providing range support with his various arrows. Now as I said combat in God of War is fast and fluid and the reason for this is due to how you can go from a melee of light and heavy attacks to performing defence moves such as rolling away from attacks or using your shield to not only block but parry attacks if you time the block right.

Apart from your regular offensive and defensive move sets Kratos has various abilities, the most prominent of which being Spartan Rage, which allows him to go into a rage and heavily increase his damage output, to use Spartan rage you need to fully fill your rage meter. Kratos also has runic attacks attached to his talisman, light attack and heavy attacks. These runic attacks, which are unlocked through various means, gives players an additional attack option when using their shield. Runic attacks include charging at enemies with your shield and a quick healing burst.

God of War also has a talent tree that allows you to improve your various combat styles, but annoyingly a lot of the talents are locked behind rather large stat requirements.

Now, remember I said Kratos can throw his axe and immediately recall it, well this ability isn’t just something that is great for taking out ranged enemies as it more often than not a tool that helps solve many of the game puzzles. The Leviathan Axe helps with puzzle solving by allowing you to rotate objects as well as stopping objects by throwing your axe and freezing it until you recall the axe. The puzzles in God of War are deceptively easy, I often spent several minutes trying to find out how to complete a puzzle only to realise that the solution was staring me in the face.

So, what else is there to say about God of War, well the game does have a crafting system, which allows you to upgrade the stats of your equipment. Crafting is a straightforward experience with crafting materials coming from the likes of boss battles and chests, once you have gained enough materials to upgrade your equipment you need only visit one of the dwarven blacksmiths.

After fighting, crafting and following the story, what else is there to do in God of War? Well, there is simply exploring the nine realms, finding treasure chests, taking on favours/side quests for the dwarven brother and fighting the various Valkyrie hidden in the game.

Looking at God of War’s graphics, there isn’t much to say apart from the fact the game is absolutely beautiful with each realm using colour and objects to separate themselves from each other. However, on the base PlayStation 4, I did notice the occasional drop in frame rate. In terms of audio, the orchestral music is amazing, with slow soft tones rising to an almost overwhelming crescendo of sound that made every scene that much more spectacular.

Conclusion

God of War (2018) is an amazing character-driven single player story game. The relationship between Kratos and Atreus is just one part of what makes this journey through the nine-realms an unforgettable masterpiece.

Score: 10/10

For more information on God of War, visit http://godofwar.playstation.com/

Irish League of Legends fans rejoice as the Three Ireland’s EStars final is coming to the 3Arena on Sunday, May 13th.

The eight-week-long tournament is finally reaching a close with the ten teams, representing League of Ireland premier league football clubs and main sponsors Three, are ready for once last battle for the chance to win €20,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas.

Alongside the matches, there will be additional entertainment for fans attending the final. Additional entertainment includes the football maestros F2 Freestyle, dancing sensation Prodijig. There will also be some YouTube’s most influential streamer, including, Sjin and Turps from the Yogscast, RossBoomsocks, Rezone Games and Gross Gore who will meet and greet with the audience.

Mags Byrne of Three Ireland’s EStars explained that the Finals at the 3Arena would be a fitting finale to the ambitious and gripping league. “Together with the support of our sponsors, we have composed a line-up that is an unmissable experiential event,’ she said. ‘With some of the biggest names in entertainment such as the F2 Freestylers, joining our huge Youtube influencer guests, attendees will be immersed in the culmination of the league when the inaugural Three Ireland’s EStars will be decided. We are bringing a Final that celebrates the growth of esports while executing an engrossing extravaganza that will be spectacular for the spectators.”

Karl Donnelly of Three Ireland added: “Three have been delighted to be involved in the inaugural Three Ireland’s EStars league as we cast our eye to the finals at 3Arena. The final promises to be a fantastic competition that showcases the popularity of gaming in Ireland, one which our customers have shown real excitement for. Three is committed to enhancing the lives of their customers by continuing to provide the latest technology innovations, in addition to our All You Can Eat Data offering, during this exciting new era in Irish gaming.”

Tickets for the Three Ireland’s EStars final start from €49.65 and are available on Ticketmaster. For more information on Three Ireland’s EStars final, visit http://www.estars.pro/.

Son of a Witch recalls the compulsive replay-ability of your favorite roguelikes but wraps it all in a charming package, making it a lot more welcoming to a wide range of gamers than your standard fare. But don’t let the cutesy graphics fool you: Son of a Witch offers deep mechanics that reward constant experimentation and learning. Son of a Witch boasts over 120 unique weapons and items to discover. Players will only find a small section of these in each run, meaning the game is completely different every single time you play. There are also 7 playable characters with wildly different skill sets and abilities, over 20 bosses to beat, and 30 pet animals to find.

In the release date announcement, Milan Babuškov, creator of the game, revealed the planned post-launch content for Son of a Witch by stating, “The release is just a first step, we’re making the game feature complete. But I have much more content planned, more items, weapons, pets, mounts, NPC quests, heroes and bosses for future updates. We’re excited to see what people think of the game and look forward to using that community feedback as motivation to continue improving the game over the months to come.”

For more information on Son of a Witch, visit https://store.steampowered.com/app/539400/Son_of_a_Witch/.

Bandai Namco Entertainment has announced that the Nintendo Switch version of Dark Souls: Remastered has been delayed until the summer.

The delay of the Switch version also affects the Solaire of Astora amiibo, which has also been delayed until the summer.

While Dark Souls: Remastered for the Nintendo Switch is delayed, Bandai Namco Entertainment has stated that the game will still release on May 25th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

For more information on Dark Souls: Remastered, visit https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/dark-souls/dark-souls-remastered.

The four games announced are Bullet Witch for PC, Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal for PS4 and PC, Senran Kagura Reflexions for Nintendo Switch and Fate/EXTELLA: Link for PS4 and PS Vita.

Previously an Xbox 360 exclusive, Bullet Witch will be making its way to PC on April 25th, according to Marvelous the PC version features visual and gameplay improvements to bring it in line with modern gaming standards.

Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal is an HD Remake of the first title in Senran Kagura series, Senran Kagura Burst, which was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013. Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal is set to launch on PlayStation 4 and PC this Autumn.

Senran Kagura Reflexions is the latest entry in the Senran Kagura series and the game uses the unique properties of the Nintendo Switch’s Joy-Con controllers to allow you to get up close and personal with everyone’s favourite Shinobi Asuka. Senran Kagura Reflexions is set for a summer 2018 release.

Finally, we have Fate/EXTELLA: Link. Set for release this winter on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, this latest entry in the Fate/EXTELLA series has players once again battle for dominance over the virtual world of SE.RA.PH. The upcoming release will include an expanded cast of legendary heroes and online play for the PlayStation 4 version of the game.