Gaming - Organizer

Wargroove 2 review – The pixel art of war

1:39 pm | October 11, 2023

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Tags: Advance Wars, PC | Comments: Off

Review info

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PC, Nintendo Switch
Release date: October 5th, 2023

Plotting and devising are crucial to success in turn-based strategy game Wargroove 2, a challenging sequel that doubles down on tactical troop management and mythical questing. Taking place three years after the first game, Wargroove 2 introduces a carousel of characters with new agendas and mythical, musical weapons that add tension and intrigue to every sword swipe and bullet shot.

Before diving into one of the three interwoven campaigns, I spent my first few hours in the prologue, learning Wargroove 2’s combat controls and meeting the troublemaking Faahri faction. In the wake of the violent power struggle seen in Wargroove, we’re thrust into the vibrant land of Aurania as it has settled into a newfound peace. That calmness is short-lived, though, as the Faahri seek to steal forbidden artifacts hidden across the world, sending its inhabitants into disarray.

I quickly became acquainted with the unlikely Faahri commander Lytra, a rookie mouse mage whose fighting spirit elevates the first two legs of Wargroove 2’s story. This meek and magical buccaneer becomes the first of many controllable captains you’ll wield across the campaign. Lytra captured my heart immediately with their underdog energy and pure heart, as they come to question their orders while on the warpath.

To round out the worldbuilding, a handy integrated Codex helped a newcomer like me to get up to speed with the history of Aurenia and its multiple warring factions. Wargroove 2 has a surprisingly rich backstory that develops as you progress through the campaigns, rewarding you with tidbits as you complete its turn-based missions.

However, while I appreciated the tutorials at the start of my journey, Wargroove 2’s hand-holding extended a little too far into its campaigns. The game's tutorials lasted much longer than necessary and messed with the pacing of the narrative. I would rather have made mistakes on my own terms and learned by reading the How to Play section in the Codex rather than enduring several tedious scenarios. Thankfully, the lessons are integrated into the story so it doesn’t feel like it’s for nothing, but I could have done with a little less parenting over the course of my career as an army commander.

Scheme and slash

Wargroove 2’s combat is top-down, turn-based, and tactical, similar to games like Fire Emblem Engage and Advance Wars. Facing off against an army of foes, you’ll take turns positioning units, engaging in combat, picking up resources, and capturing landmarks. While it might seem a lot to juggle at first, Wargroove 2 is surprisingly approachable in its design and felt intuitive to control. I relished the opportunity to create killer combat formations that could sweep out my opposition with efficient calculated strikes.

Terrain formations add an extra consideration, bringing environmental effects like mountains and fog to the game’s animated landscapes - all of which burst with pixelated detail. This led to difficult flashpoints, as my army’s numbers dwindled. During a particularly difficult battle, I had to choose between funneling my swordsmen across a bridge or taking a different risk; sending them through shallow water that would hurt their defense but lead to a quicker attack. While pond walking paid off on this occasion, there were plenty of times where the dice didn’t roll my way, leaving my sweet warriors to take overwhelming damage in swampy riverbeds.

Best bit

Wargroove’s adorably lethal character designs summon a sense of accountability in battle that makes losing your soldiers a painful process. Every spear-wielding mouse, puppy warrior, or intergalactic flower fighter that falls is salt in the wound of your miscalculations. Your cutesy companions will be avenged.

Learning to keep a level head and make wise choices as the triumphant music boomed was a persistent impulse check, and it consistently pushed me to think laterally about my forthcoming plans. Lytra and the other commanding officers each have a unique Groove weapon, which draws its power from defeating enemies and capturing buildings in battle. Groove attacks have the ability to shift the combat narrative, and were particularly useful in a pinch when I needed to save my commander.

As I progressed through the story, I found myself frustrated at the tight nature of certain maps which bottlenecked my movement, leading to some painfully slow engagements that I was glad to see the back of. Even if I was more patient, it would just be a case of waiting for units and constantly resetting rounds rather than setting up careful plans.

Fire in the hole

Wargroove 2 has a distinctly polished pixel art style that is best seen across the varied animations of its sprites. Central characters interacting with magical ruins would cause them to flicker and come to life with a neon aqua glow. Each geographical area in Aurania has a unique color palette that helps put the vastness of the continent into perspective. Snowy regions are doused with cool-toned greys and purples, while the coastal areas are full of sandy browns and turquoise blues. I was almost always delighted to see new structures as I explored the realm - every pixel had clearly earned its place.

Wargroove 2’s sleek style extends into its battle units, with unique visuals depending on a warrior’s faction and archetype. Flying attackers across all factions have their own idiosyncrasies, such as the science-minded Faahri’s steam-powered jetpack-wielding Flight Engineers or the forest-dwelling Floran troops who use flying Leafwings with fern feather appendages. The technical capabilities of the units remain the same, but the faction differences keep cutscenes fresh as you move between Wargroove 2’s campaigns, grounding each army in its own ambitions.

I would also be remiss not to mention one of Wargroove 2’s best assets: its soundtrack from Dale North, which sets up dramatic and comedic scenes with awesome heavy brass arrangements and intense percussion. The intensity was maintained as I battled my way through a rogue’s gallery of adversaries, with many songs tailored to the environment or character I was facing up against. Wargroove 2’s whimsical pirate tunes wormed their way into my head quickly, and have taken up a residence - I don’t see them forfeiting anytime soon.

Swashbuckle to success

Once you’re finished taking on the story, you can jump over to the roguelike Conquest mode, which speeds up the action. Here, you choose a commander with an associated starting bonus and soldier formation before working through a league of challenges. Failure in this game mode results in permadeath - no matter how far you get, you’ll have to start over if your commander goes down. If you succeed, you’ll work along the nodes of a combat spiderweb, choosing perks as you go to bolster your army. These perks do cost you gold, so early successes are key to completing the extremities of the web.

Conquest is an exciting change of pace from the exposition-heavy campaign, and it was brain-teasing to grapple with the procedural options and attempt to curate a perfect run, or explore new tactical approaches.

Wargroove 2 also features a map and campaign creator that enables players to use the game’s catalogue of assets to build bespoke narratives. The process can be a little finicky to navigate (especially on the Steam Deck), but it’s a fully-featured and hopeful inclusion that signals a future full of player-made content, an enticing prospect for those who wrap up Wargroove 2’s story and are looking for more challenging fights to sink their teeth into.

Wargroove 2 is a moreish strategy game that repeatedly put my best-laid plans to the test across the linearity of its campaigns and the chaos of its all-new roguelike mode. Even with the handholding and some awkward maps to contend with, the call of "one more battle" was hard to ignore.

Accessibility features

Chucklefish has included a range of features players can use to tailor their experience in Wargroove 2, including difficulty sliders that modify offensive and defensive stats. The accessibility menu has further settings like a colorblind and photosensitivity mode, as well as the ability to toggle vibration.

How we reviewed Wargroove 2

I played through Wargroove 2’s trio of campaigns and Conquest mode between my Steam Deck and PC. Across Wargroove 2’s missions, I modified the difficulty settings to see how I fared in different circumstances and against certain factions. In Conquest mode, I used a variety of commanders and formations, and tried my best to take new paths where possible. When testing the custom content creation tools, I switched between handheld and mouse and keyboard to see how easy it was to put together a map on a portable controller-mapped device.

The best single-player games might offer new experiences if you're looking for the next title to sink your time into. However, we've also got a list of the best multiplayer games on PC if you wanted to play through something with a companion.

Total War: Pharaoh review – sand and strife

5:42 pm | October 10, 2023

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming PC Gaming | Tags: Total War | Comments: Off

Total War: Pharaoh waxes and wanes like the Nile itself, offering a competent, yet inconsistent strategy experience. This latest offering from genre veterans Creative Assembly offers up a realistic and satisfying treatment of the end of the Bronze Age, let down by awkward intrigue, trade, and diplomacy systems.

As with previous Total War titles, the game exists on two layers. There’s a turn-based empire management sim where you’ll manage cities, raise armies, and attempt to weather the machinations of neighboring factions. Nestled underneath comes a sophisticated real-time battle system. Though you can opt to play the battle-only skirmish mode, the campaign is where the meat of the game experience lies. Total War: Pharaoh has you act as both general and administrator.

For the most part, the historical strategy game competently executes this task, allowing you to auto-resolve battles that would be a dull walkover while playing out engagements that might benefit from a more hands-on approach. The battles themselves are engrossing, offering plenty of chances for micromanagement and clever tactics.

Total War: Pharaoh is a game about war, rewarding you for crushing your enemies and conquering their settlements

The faction management layer, however, is more hit-and-miss. Constructing cities and directing your dynasty is often rewarding, but diplomatic interactions with neighboring factions drag. Total War: Pharaoh attempts to capture the diciness of the Bronze Age Collapse with the “Pillars of Civilization” mechanic, which offers rewards when factions build and maintain large, stable cities. Whether you’re playing as an Egyptian, Canaanite, or Hittite, maintaining these pillars is in your best interest, since the game brutally penalizes you should these lynchpin settlements fall to ruin.

However, as the name suggests, Total War: Pharaoh is a game about war, rewarding you for crushing your enemies and conquering their settlements. The game pulls you in two separate directions, simultaneously incentivizing diplomatic play and all-out war in a way that never quite lands.

Blood on the sand

Ramesses distinguishes himself in battle — (Image credit: Creative Assembly)

The battles themselves are sophisticated affairs, boasting intuitive mechanics that gracefully unfold into complex tactical challenges. At their most basic, these engagements boil down to classic rock-paper-scissors mechanics - the sort you’d find in many of the best PC strategy games. Spears beat chariots, chariots outmaneuver shield infantry, and shield infantry outperforms spears. On top of that, you have faster, more hard-hitting squads designed to outflank enemies as well as the occasional hybrid unit that can excel in multiple roles.

To help you navigate this maze of strengths and weaknesses, when you click on an allied unit, a handy color-coded triangle will appear above potential enemy targets, alerting you as to how effective your soldiers might be against them in battle. However, flanking and maneuvering are just as important as unit type. If you’re outnumbered, you can attempt to hold the enemy at choke points, mitigating their advantage - a strategy that saved my poorly defended frontier settlements on more than one occasion.

Best bit

Close up of a Pharaoh — (Image credit: Creative Assembly)

Gaining a court position for the first time proved to be very entertaining. As Treasurer, I could embezzle money from other members of the court, which I then used to negotiate favorable deals with other factions. It made me feel like a sneaky political puppet master, worthy of the cutthroat courts of ancient Egypt.

Total War: Pharaoh adds a few new features to the Total War melting pot, too. Shifting weather conditions affect battlefields, changing the terrain and affecting how quickly your soldiers tire, as well as the performance of certain units. You may have the shiniest chariots, but, if rain has turned the desert into sludge, then you’ll be doomed to scowl at your foes from afar as your mount inches forward at a snail’s pace. Armor degradation also helps give engagements a sense of permanency, while ensuring that elite units aren’t quite as unassailable as they were in previous Total War titles.

Unfortunately, the battle layer is held back by a lack of diversity among the units on offer. While Total War: Pharaoh offers regional unit variants, you’ll almost always be stuck with some combination of melee infantry, archers, and chariots. The monotony made me pine for the fantastical and varied units on offer in Total War: Warhammer 3. Getting to the top of the tech tree was a bit of a letdown when all it got me was infantry with slightly prettier swords.

Pyramid schemes

The court intrigue system, represented by a pyramid-themed menu — (Image credit: Creative Assembly)

The faction management layer is less coherent and consistently joyful than Total War: Pharaoh’s frantic real-time battles. In an effort to accurately reflect the complex systems of politics that underpinned the government of ancient Egypt, Total War: Pharaoh introduces a court system, where factions can scheme against one another, trading favors and vying for advantage.

On paper, it looks satisfying. Every turn you get the chance to do something at court. You could gossip with one of the holders of a court position to gain favor, or you could start a secret plot to oust one of your rivals. You can conspire with allies, trading favor with them to boost the success rate of one of your schemes. You can even flat-out assassinate your enemies if you put in the legwork.

The pillars of civilization menu — (Image credit: Creative Assembly)

However, the court system struggles due to its lack of personality. Contrary to more immersive titles like Stellaris or Crusader Kings 3, your rivals at court have little to distinguish themselves from one another, feeling more like cardboard cutouts than actual people. The gregarious Ramesses won’t visibly act differently in court to gruff and ornery Seti. What’s more, court rivals will plot with or against you with little regard for your diplomatic standing. It was weird to form a tight-knit military alliance with Ramesses, only for him to blackmail me in court several turns later.

You’ll often find yourself entering into rapid-fire deals just to keep your economy afloat

Total War: Pharaoh also leans heavily on trade systems, having units and buildings cost a variety of resources. Food, iron, gold, stone, and wood production all need to be managed in tandem, often requiring you to barter with neighbors in the world’s bloodiest game of Settlers of Catan. You’ll quickly find yourself entering into rapid-fire deals just to keep your economy afloat, a process made more tedious by clumsy menus and the sheer frequency of trades required to keep your faction’s head above water. I easily struck twice as many trade deals as I fought battles during my time with Pharaoh. Once again the game led me away from its stronger elements at its own expense.

Open are the double doors of the horizon

Oasis daytime — (Image credit: Creative Assembly)

As a testament to Egyptian history, Total War: Pharaoh excels, skillfully immersing you in the period. History buffs will find themselves well served here. Much like historical Egypt, the game world is affected by seasonal events and raids from external powers. Droughts and floods have considerable effects on your faction’s production beyond simply modifying the terrain in battle. Your empire will rise and fall alongside the Nile itself. The endgame event, the invasion of the Sea Peoples, makes the game less about winning outright and more about weathering the catastrophic events of the Bronze Age Collapse - the perfect storm of drought, famine, and invasion that brought civilization to its knees 3,400 years ago.

Total War: Pharaoh asks you to contest with the very same factors that tore the ancient world apart

Total War: Pharaoh asks you to contest with the very same factors that tore the ancient world apart - a challenge it conveys effectively through the use of its crisis system and increasingly brutal world events. As you play through the campaign, the world around you changes and you must either adapt or perish. Traditional Total War strategies might not serve you too well here, as aggressive expansion leaves you open for invasion by marauders or sudden economic collapse due to environmental factors.

That said, by asking you to lean away from warfare and towards diplomacy, Total War: Pharaoh pushes you towards its weaker mechanics and systems, undermining the game experience in pursuit of realism. This is not a move that will sit well with everyone. However, for those looking to really immerse themselves in the trials and tribulations of the ancient world, Total War: Pharaoh will deliver an experience that, though hit-and-miss in many respects, provides a refreshingly earnest take on the historical strategy genre.

Accessibility

Total War: Pharaoh offers a range of accessibility features, including colorblind modes for people with Deuteranopia, Protanopia, and Tritanopia, as well as the ability to customize colors for neutral, enemy, allied, and player factions. The game also offers UI scaling, for those looking for larger print. Beyond this, players are free to heavily customize their key bindings and camera settings.

How we reviewed Total War: Pharaoh

I spent 20 hours with Total War: Pharaoh, playing out one long-form campaign through the Sea Peoples' endgame crisis and a shorter campaign that went through to the mid-game. Both playthroughs were markedly different, with one focused on diplomacy and the other directed towards a more traditional, military-centric approach.

I have played over a thousand hours of Total War titles over the last ten years, including the Total War: Warhammer series, the Medieval: Total War series, Napoleon: Total War, and Total War: Three Kingdoms. I also have a great deal of experience with the wider strategy genre, including Stellaris and Crusader Kings 3 - all of which proved crucial when approaching the game.

Looking for more immersive titles? Check out our lists of the best PC games and the best single-player games.

Turtle Beach Atom iOS controller review – small but mighty

4:45 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Comments: Off

The Turtle Beach Atom iOS controller is small but wonderful; with it at your side, you can take your average mobile gaming experience and give it a serious upgrade. Compact and lightweight, it’ll take up little space in your bag, lending it an excellent level of portability. Once set up, switching between your phone's standard capabilities and it as a portable gaming device is easy as pie, meaning you can enjoy a ton of fantastic iOS games at a moment's notice.

If you're a fan of mobile first-person shooters like Call of Duty: Mobile, then this is somewhat of an essential buy. It'll elevate your game exponentially and allow you to have some serious fun on your phone.

Price and availability

The Turtle Beach Atom iOS controller isn’t the most expensive iOS controller on the market; the Backbone One tops the charts at $100/ £100. Instead, the Atom's price tag falls in line with mid-range gamepads like the Xbox Wireless Controller and DualSense. You can pick it up right now for $79.95 / £69.99/ AUD$189.95 from the official Turtle Beach Store.

At this price, you’re getting a quality build that is sturdy, portable, and stylish. If you’re looking for something to elevate your gaming experience and don’t want to dish out for a Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck, then this is a top-notch substitute with the bonus of making it easier to play the best Apple Arcade games.

While the iOS version only comes in one color, there is more availability in the Android version, as colors come in red/black, black/teal, and black/yellow. You can purchase these either at the Turtle Beach store or Amazon.

Design and features

The design for the Turtle Beach Atom iOS controller is sizable, but also manages to be lightweight. This means you can hold it up for hours while enjoying your iOS games in a new way. It doesn’t strain your arms, nor does it become uncomfortable after long uses.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many options for the iOS version in terms of color. So if cobalt blue isn’t your first choice, you may want to look elsewhere for palletes that suit your aesthetic. Obviously, this is a very small gripe, but at this price range, having basic color options would be nice.

However, for what the Turtle Beach Atom iOS controller lacks in style, it makes up for in portability. Both ends of the controller easily slot into one another, making transport easy and efficient. It also means that there’s less of a chance of it breaking while you transport it in your bag.

The Turtle Beach Atom iOS controller also slots into your iPhone with ease, meaning that as long as it is newer than iPhone 11, you can use it on any device, no matter the size. This was incredibly helpful, especially when it came to sharing the device among the household, so everyone could enjoy it a bit. It’s also not USB-based, so you don’t have to worry about messing around with a lot of cables.

Performance and battery life

Using the Turtle Beach Atom iOS controller was straightforward. Setting it up took minutes, as all you had to do was charge the device and then pair it with the phone via Bluetooth. After this, it was ready to go for repeated use, for up to 20 hours. It charges up quickly, too, going from empty to full in approximately two and a half hours.

The low-latency Bluetooth connectivity also ensures that there’s a stable connection to your device at all times. This prevents any mid-game freezes and noticeable input delay, meaning you’ll be able to play at the top of your game at all times. There’s also an Atom compatibility app which allows you to easily customize your controller, tweaking stick responses, dead zones, and helping to ensure that it’s up to date with the latest firmware.

For the most part, I played Call of Duty: Mobile and Honkai: Star Rail with the controller. The Turtle Beach Atom iOS controller greatly improved my experiences with both of these. However, the advantage given by this controller was almost unfair at times. Even when placed into matches with other handheld controller users, I still averaged 30-0 in most games (a true champion). This being said, the analog sticks and direction pads occasionally became stuck, making it hard to switch between loadouts and sprint across maps.

Overall, my time using the Turtle Beach Atom iOS controller has been full of fun. It’s changed the way I game with my phone for good, finally convincing me that gaming on the go, even with big-ticket games like Call of Duty Mobile, is incredibly fun and definitely worthwhile. Touchscreen controls can be incredibly finicky and slow to use; you end up stumbling over aiming and firing all too often, so a proper controller which speeds up and simplifies the process is more than welcome.

Should I buy the Turtle Beach Atom iOS controller?

Buy it if

Don't buy if

How we reviewed the Turtle Beach Atom iOS controller

I tested the Turtle Beach Atom iOS controller over the course of a week. Every chance I got to sit back and relax I clipped on the iOS controller with ease and passed the time crushing opponents in Call of Duty: Mobile. It also travelled really well being light and taking up little space in my bag, meaning I could enjoy it while sat relaxing on the train.

Check out our lists of the best PS5 controllers as well as the best Xbox controllers that are available to buy right now.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage review – the bloody book of Basim

2:01 pm | October 4, 2023

Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming | Comments: Off

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC
Release date: September 5, 2023

The story of Basim Ibn Is’haq and Assassin’s Creed Mirage brings the blockbuster stealth series back to its roots with enormous success. Brilliantly modernized stealth action and one of the finest settings the series has ever seen combine with one of the most interesting assassins from recent years to produce spectacular results.

The story of Basim and his rise to assassinhood is full of mystery, discovery, emotion, and splendid character development over its 15 or so hours. With a minimum of modern-day storytelling, Mirage begins with a series of focused cinematic stories that revolve around cleansing the rot that lies under Baghdad’s golden veneer. At the core of this is Basim’s goal: unraveling the mystery of The Order of the Ancients and loosening their grip on Baghdad. Intel is thin on the ground, so there is an emphasis on finding the information you need before you're able to act on it.

Knowledge is power

Screenshot of Basim and the Baghdad skyline in Assassin's Creed Mirage — (Image credit: Ubisoft)

Basim’s investigations take him across Baghdad’s districts, with each target needing to be unmasked and identified through some serious detective work and investigation. Basim needs to go target by target and case by case to gradually reveal more information about the target’s work, habits, base of operations, and, ultimately, identity. These investigations are always interesting and multi-faceted. Each of these cases gripped me, and I was drawn in by everything from the tiniest of clues to the full-blown, climatic, and bloody missions that cap off each investigation.

There’s so much originality here and it feels like you’re actually cracking a case as you follow the different threads. When things get tricky, you can use Eagle Vision (an assassin’s sixth sense which can reveal enemies, loot, and clues) to assist in your search. It will highlight evidence, but as it’s so effective at revealing clues it can erode your sense of immersion, undermining otherwise tense searches and missions across a beautiful Baghdad that’s full of life and character.

From the stillness of the desert at night to the hustle and bustle of the market districts, the city of Baghdad is absolutely spectacular and a distinct character in its own right in Mirage. It is certainly one of the series’ most beautifully realized city settings. Getting to see and explore parts of the Alamut while it’s in construction is a thrill too; it oozes a sense of place even in its state of incompletion.

The only thing perhaps more interesting than Baghdad, however, is Basim himself. There’s more to him than meets the eye - much more than many other assassins we’ve played as, and his growth and journey in Mirage make for a wonderful story arc. Whether Basim is a street thief or a fully-trained Assassin, he is smart, perceptive, and ambitious. However, he is also very aware of himself and what being a Hidden One (the early name for Assassin in the game’s lore) entails in terms of ending lives and working in the shadows. Often wrestling with the ideals of the brotherhood and Hidden Ones and what it stands for, he is plagued by nightmarish visions of shadowy figures in his dreams. Yet he is calm, likable, witty, patient, and determined - and the climax of his story in Mirage is deeply interesting.

New tricks, old habits

Screenshot of Assassin's Creed Mirage — (Image credit: Ubisoft)

Basim is a superb free runner; quick and nimble, able to deftly navigate corners and heights. His parkour feels familiar, being the same moveset as that of recent Assassin’s Creed games - this isn’t a full-scale overhaul of the movement and fluidity - but it’s massively elevated by Baghdad’s tight design and layout that lends itself to smooth and fun parkour. There are always multiple routes over, around, up, and across buildings and walls. You can put some seriously elegant and fluid runs together as Basim moves at top speed across Baghdad.

Basim fights like a nimble, lightly-armed, assassin who’s more used to stealth and the shadows. That’s not to say he can’t handle himself with his sword and dagger, but there is a greater emphasis on deflecting, parrying, dodging, and timing compared to previous games where you could rely on pure muscle to get you out of a bust-up. Waiting for the right time to strike, examining your enemy's moves, and trying to outmaneuver them are far more important. I was much more successful in fights against guards when I stopped trying to pummel them continuously and instead took a patient, analytical approach. What’s more, even the most ordinary of guards can really dish it out on Basim; so he’ll fare better in the shadows rather than in open conflicts.

Stealth rules

Best bit

Finding and reading each clue in a restricted area, tracing each lead, and cracking each case, working towards the climax of each investigation in Assassin’s Creed Mirage is such a thrill. You’ll feel like a spy as well as an assassin and, with each clue, you'll find the mysteries become increasingly gripping.

The stealth in Assassin’s Creed Mirage is possibly the best in the series. From Basim’s tools, the reliance on the hidden blade, and reimagined aspects of social stealth, there’s a great blend of old and new. This comes with a greater emphasis on patience, choosing routes carefully, and generally being super sneaky. Your small but honed assassin’s toolkit that gives you everything you need. While previous games’ stealth skillset had a lot of filler and little killer, Basim is going to need every single skill and gadget in Mirage. You need to use your limited throwing blades carefully, while also knowing how to distract and move guards around. You'll also need to be patient, looking for the time to strike, as well as where to place traps preemptively in anticipation of guards' patrol routes or when they give chase. Basim’s Assassin’s Focus ability - a skill where Basim can mark up to five targets with time suspended, and then teleport between them to assassinate them) is powerful, but it’s not something you can repeat at will. You’ll need to perform stealth kills to fill up its meter, and invest in skills (another honed selection of just three small trees that are woven neatly into story progression) to make that meter larger. However, when you get it right, unleashing a fully upgraded Basim to chain assassinate five blissfully unaware guards is hella cool.

Social stealth makes a fantastic return too, with the likes of eavesdropping, blending in with crowds, pickpocketing, and tailing suspects all worthy and well-implemented elements. The pickpocketing in particular is deeply satisfying and trying to master the technique is a fun challenge. When it comes to being social with Baghdad’s residents, you’ll have to be careful as your notoriety will increase with each theft or kill you perform. This can lead to Basim being recognized in the street, right through to having special enforcer enemies sent after you - once again, being patient and staying stealthy is king, as you don’t want to be running around with full notoriety trying to tear down posters or bribe town criers (but only if you have the right token - a currency that can be used for merchants, speakers, and gangs et al - about your person).

The way it mixes the old and the new, polishing up classic Creed features for a modern game and audience, creates something special

Mirage is not totally blemish-free, though. Basim and his story lean on and are tethered strongly to Assassin's Creed Valhalla, making knowledge of that game nigh-on essential. In-game, the AI and enemies are fairly ignorant in familiar ways. It’s very easy to separate guards from each other, or get away with brazen assassinations in full sight; lightly bumping into them can still take them straight from ‘chilled’ into ‘pursue to kill’ mode which is annoying, too. The parkour can still be ‘sticky’ in places and the series’ famous opposite-direction jumps are still present and can ruin the flow and land you right in trouble - literally. While excellent for jeopardy and encouraging stealth, the notoriety meter does build up staggeringly quickly - it can feel like the citizens of Baghdad are using walkie-talkies with the guards to insta-report your exact crime, appearance, and location.

However, these tiny gripes don’t get in the way of the fact that Mirage is a fantastic Assassin’s Creed game, truly - and perhaps one of the very best to date. The way it mixes the old and the new, polishing up classic Assassin's Creed features for a modern game and audience, creates something special - it turns out you can teach a new game old tricks. Add in the fact that it’s got heart, a deeply interesting protagonist who really feels like an assassin, and some seriously deep and high-quality investigation missions and it all culminates in a game that’s better than those it’s taken most inspiration from. It feels great to be an Assassin again.

Mirage is a brilliant, bloody, patient, focused, and exquisite Assassin’s Creed adventure that’ll live long in the memory - and hopefully represents a solid bedrock on which more lean and focused entries in the series can build.

Accessibility features

Image 1 of 8

Screenshots of menus from Assassin's Creed Mirage — (Image credit: Ubisoft)

Image 2 of 8

Image 3 of 8

Image 4 of 8

Image 5 of 8

Image 6 of 8

Image 7 of 8

Image 8 of 8

Ubisoft has provided a host of accessibility options to make playing the game easier or more difficult. You can adjust the core difficulty at any point but can turn on things like automatic pickpocketing, and aim assist to tailor the playstyle more specifically. You can change the language of voices and subtitles, and you alter the size and effects of the latter, while controls can be changed to your preference. There are also three colorblind modes (for tritanopia, deuteranopia, and protanopia) and Ubisoft’s (rather robotic) screen narration is also present.

How we reviewed Assassin’s Creed Mirage

I played Assassin’s Creed Mirage on PS5 with a Samsung QLED Q6F 4K TV and experienced its audio through a soundbar setup but also with a headset. I have played for more than 20 hours, finishing Basim’s story in 15 hours, and spending the rest of the time hunting for collectibles and tying up side stories. I tested both High Framerate and Quality graphics modes and recommend playing on the High Framerate mode, though Quality mode has noticeably more detail.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is one of the best single-player games of 2023, but if you’re after something else, check out the best co-op games.

Forza Motorsport review – revved up

10:01 am |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Tags: Forza Motorsport, Xbox Game Pass | Comments: Off

Review info

Platform reviewed: Xbox Series X
Available on: Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: October 10, 2023

Forza Motorsport provides a refreshing change of pace compared to the racing game landscape of the last couple of years. While it’s a sim racer at heart, it’s much lighter on realistic simulation than Gran Turismo 7, while offering a tighter, more intimate racing experience than the open-world shenanigans of The Crew Motorfest.

To sum it up in a word, Forza Motorsport is welcoming. There are swathes of accessibility options to accommodate players of all skill levels and levels of familiarity with racing games, and the handling model is generous compared to the pinpoint precision demanded by other sim racers. Throw in a wide range of difficulty options, over 500 cars, and multiple racing modes, and the latest Forza feels content-rich at launch. For the most part.

The truth is that you’ll get the most out of Forza Motorsport if you race online with other players. That’s because the Builder’s Cup career mode becomes quite repetitive early on. And that’s exacerbated by the limited number of circuits available to race on at launch, meaning you’ll be visiting the same tracks frequently. What’s here right now, though, is an exhilarating racing experience that rounds out a strong year for Xbox console exclusives.

Built to last

After a couple of introductory races in the game’s flagship cars - the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R and Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray - Forza Motorsport will put you straight into the Builder’s Cup, the career mode. There are several individual cups, each featuring a specific car theme across five or six races. Each series of races will have you buy a new car that’s eligible for the category, and you’ll upgrade it as you progress.

What’s especially cool is upgrading goes hand in hand with how well you drive. As you race, you’ll earn Car EXP from overtaking, racing cleanly (i.e. staying on track and not shunting your competitors), and driving sections and corners quickly and efficiently. These are particularly important, as you’ll be graded on a scale of one to ten; an excellent way of incentivizing you to learn each track and the best racing lines through them.

Leveling up your car gradually unlocks new parts for upgrades, and accrues CP (car points) for you to spend on them. It’s crucial, then, that you race as cleanly as possible, as this’ll mean you can afford more upgrades to remain competitive with your rivals, who’ll also be upgrading their cars as each series progresses.

Best bit

I’m a huge fan of Forza Motorsport’s Car EXP system. I felt like I was constantly being rewarded for learning tracks and improving my overall driving skill. This in turn helped me perform better while racing online.

It sounds like a pretty satisfying loop on paper, but unfortunately, it creates a feeling of monotony throughout the Builder’s Cup mode. Each round features a practice session of two or three laps and a time to beat to get you familiar with the track and your car’s handling. The problem here is that I quickly felt the desire to just skip this and head straight to the race. And that’s not ideal at higher difficulties as practice also rewards valuable Car EXP and credits to buy new vehicles down the line, so they’re practically a necessity.

Instead, it would’ve been preferable to have a qualifying session that rewards you based on your lap times compared to other racers. Forza Motorsport sidesteps this with a risk vs. reward system that offers higher payouts based on where you choose to start on the grid. I’m not a fan of this; not just because it’s unrealistic, but also because the payouts are relatively tiny no matter where you elect to start.

Ultimately the Builder’s Cup is fun for shorter sessions, and it’s going to be regularly updated with new series post-launch. If you take it at a relaxed pace you’ll find there’s plenty of content and cars to enjoy here over a longer period of time.

Top gear

One of the best things about Forza Motorsport is its excellent vehicle handling. While not as strict or sim-heavy as Gran Turismo 7, the game provides a responsive and robust model with clear differences from car to car. That’s especially apparent when jumping from a front-wheel drive’s high speed to a rear-wheel’s more effective grip and handling.

There’s high attention to detail across all aspects of simulation. Tyre wear is a huge factor, with softs allowing for quicker lap times than mediums and hards at the cost of reduced durability. Tracks can also be rubbered in over time as tires wear down, increasing surface grip, or reducing it in wetter race conditions.

With that in mind, the best races are the ones that bring the game’s dynamic weather system into play. A wet track, for example, will dry over time once the rain has let up. And on longer races, you’ll need to effectively plan a pit strategy to make sure you’re not caught out on a suboptimal set of tires When the weather and track inevitably change.

Further exemplifying Forza Motorsport’s fantastic handling model is the wide range of assists and difficulty options presented. Just starting out? You’ll be able to make use of visual racing lines, traction control, brake assists, transmission type, rewinds, and more lenient penalties for shunting and track-cutting. You can toggle these off at any time to suit your comfort level, allowing you to tailor the game’s challenge to your preference.

There’s no limit to assists when racing online, either, which is fantastic for players who prefer racing against other players. While I had no issues with connection quality during testing, I did find the Featured Multiplayer (the game’s ranked mode) to be fairly limiting, as you’ll need to queue for races at specific times, with preset tracks, eligible cars, and conditions. Thankfully, private multiplayer lobbies with support for custom rule sets are also available if you just want to muck about with friends.

A feast for the eyes

Forza Motorsport is a visually beautiful game, which is highlighted superbly by the game’s revamped lighting system. The addition of volumetric lighting means that light accurately permeates through objects like trees, fences, and bounces off your vehicle. And if you’ve got ray tracing enabled, you’ll be able to see detailed reflections in vehicles and puddles of water. Rain-soaked races are especially lovely here, though the on-screen rain effect is a little overkill and quite distracting due to a frankly comical smattering of droplets smearing your vision.

Track detail is similarly impressive, with a high number of objects, animated 3D crowds, and high-resolution textures providing near-photorealistic results. If you’ve got an HDR-capable 4K TV, the results are especially breathtaking. And if you don’t mind the cut to 30fps, the Quality graphics setting is an absolute treat.

A big trade-off for all this extra detail, though, is that Forza Motorsport only features 20 circuits to race on, far fewer than GT7 at launch, and there are some baffling omissions. You won’t be racing on iconic tracks like Monza, Mount Panorama, or Brands Hatch - at least not at launch. More tracks will be coming in the future, but for now, you’ll find yourself racing the same tracks pretty frequently.

Despite its shortcomings and relatively slim track list, Forza Motorsport is a competent return to form for the sim racing series. It’s accessible to players of varying needs and skill levels, has enough content to last dedicated players months, and looks utterly gorgeous to boot. It’s not a game to miss if you’ve been craving an in-depth racing experience on Xbox.

Accessibility

Forza Motorsport’s accessibility suite is simply brilliant, accommodating players of all kinds. Subtitle and screen narrator options are plentiful, as are global colorblind settings for both the game and its UI elements. Most impressive, though, is the extremely robust blind driving assists, which enable audible cues for braking, cornering, overtakes, off-track indicators, wrong-way indicators, and pit lane response.

How we reviewed Forza Motorsport

I played Forza Motorsport on Xbox Series X over the course of a week, getting stuck into the main Builder’s Cup mode and ensuring I tried out a wide range of forward, rear, and all-wheel drive vehicles across all of the game’s tracks. I tested some online sessions too, with developers from Turn 10 Studios.

Forza Motorsport will be available day one on Xbox Game Pass. For more top racing titles, consider browsing our best racing games list, many of which work brilliantly with the best racing wheels you can buy in 2023.

Turtle Beach Scout Air gaming earbuds review – no-frills buds

1:25 pm | October 3, 2023

Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming | Comments: Off

The Turtle Beach Scout Air wireless gaming earbuds manage to get the job done on a number of fronts and are a solid option if you’re in the market for a pair of simple and effective mid-range buds.

Don’t expect incredible quality here though, as nearly everything about the Turtle Beach Scout Air gaming buds is pretty middle-of-the-road. Audio for gaming and casual music listening is decent without feeling particularly full-bodied or accentuated in any one area. Plus, the overall average battery life and awkward form factor make them rather unsuitable for extended listening sessions.

It’s not all bad news, though, and these buds do excel in some pretty important areas. Their low-latency Game mode is fantastic for providing accurate and responsive audio while gaming and a high water resistance rating means they’re perfectly suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. If you can deal with their shortcomings, the Turtle Beach Scout Air gaming earbuds are a solid pick if you’re after a well-rounded and versatile pair of buds.