Author Archives: Justin Fox

Nier: Automata left me a little frustrated. I do think the replayability of the game is conceptually interesting, but I just rage quit a few too many times half way through the 2nd playthrough. Ultimately the gameplay and graphics killed it for me, and the story, nor the soundtrack (I had the music on for the 2nd playthrough) just didn’t grab me, full stop really.

I’ve had a review copy of Wolfenstein: The Old Blood gathering dust around my lounge room for a year now. Initially I couldn’t install it on Ved’s PC because it didn’t have a DVD drive. I ended up getting an external with the Zen PC build so I finally got around to installing the game yesterday and finished it today (more a DLC, it’s super super super short!).

Published, and sent to me by Bethesda (so you know it’s going to be good!). It’s made by MachineGames, but I had a feeling it was going to look, feel and play like Doom, which it did! But what it did even better than Doom was take me back. I soon realised this game was made for me, for Bethesda fans and most importantly for other oldies who played the original another lifetime ago.

Fast gameplay, BJ, dual wielding guns (silly but it’s OG!) and something I didn’t expect, stealth, which was actually quite fun (not at all serious as the AI couldn’t detect dead bodies). Over the top Bethesda Easter Eggs and references to the original Wolfenstein are dropped throughout the game; even a simulator of the original game within the game! Loved it’s world more than Doom’s SCI-FI world, and it kills Metro in every way. I was shocked it ended so quickly, definitely left me wanting more.

Sold as an open-world action role-playing video game, but in reality it’s everything but. I was super happy to give Nier: Automata a miss despite the rave reviews (people out there literally calling it a masterpiece, 9-10/10’s and reviewers saying they were literally brought to tears with the storyline, or at least very deep in thought about it post game.

Man have these guys played Fallout 4?! To me, Nier: Automata feels very Japanese in an old school Indie Sega Mega Drive game kinda way. It’s story is cool, but nothing new in the post-apocalyptic gaming world. The soundtrack is getting HUGE praise, but I always turn music off in games, that’s just how I play. The graphics are really low definition and over-stylised, it’s such a low saturation and hazy environment which doesn’t look good despite running in 4K and on max graphics settings. I suppose it’s just not that kind of ULTRA high res textures gaming experience (with a full screen bug and laggy cut-scenes I’d say it Nier would have been better on the PS4 than the PC).

The gameplay is super arcade style. The game goes from 3rd person to 2D side and overhead like old school coin operated games like 1942 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (which I sank lots of 20c coins into as a kid!). It’s hilarious that Nier is blowing people’s minds as it’s just old turned new again. Think iPad, and how Angry Birds blew minds (but in reality it’s a really simple game). Old platform games came back to star on “new” technology (tablets). I see it as a low-tech, going back to go forwards kinda thing.

A quick dip back into Ghost Recon had my PC’s fans on full blast minutes in, and I found myself in the dying light, in the rain, gawking at the detail on my Ghost’s wet backpack.