Geek of Oz

THE SHORT VERSION While I loved the last two Disney Infinity games, there were parts that felt a little empty. The lack of matchmaking and absence of substance in some of the Playsets made the games, while fun, feel a little cold over time. There's only so much one can build replicas of famous Disney locales in the Toy Box before it becomes a little tedious. Fortunately, Disney Infinity 3.0 has filled the emptiness of its predecessors, and added some more stuff on top of it. It's a damn good game, and most importantly it's fun - which, given what the game's mechanics and aesthetic are themed around, is kind of a prerequisite. Those who felt that the straightforward and rather empty Playsets of the previous game in particular will be pleased to know those problems have been fixed. There's much more to do here, and pretty much everything added to the Infinity experience is an improvement. Plus, now you can have Yoda fight Thor, or team up Iron Man and Bo...

At times, I question how far I've actually aged. Biologically I'm 24 years old, but it's anyone's guess what number the parts inside the brain case add up to. Sometimes I feel the relative youngness of those 24 years, but sometimes I regress into something closer to single digits. Disney Infinity 2.0  makes me regress, in a great way. There are few other ways one can enjoy Thor fighting Elsa from Frozen  in a treehouse, or Star-Lord and Dash from The Incredibles  having a foot-race through New York, or even Iron Man picking up and punting Jack Skellington over a gaping abyss like a flying red-and-gold man cannon, unless you regress somewhat. Last year's vanilla Infinity  (which I guess is 1.0?) was a gaming-cum-merchandising attempt by Disney to make the  Skylanders  lightning strike for them. It was a fairly simplistic but artistically engrossing game that featured a plethora of Disney characters - existing in the real world as wallet-puncturing plas...

For quite a while there it was difficult to find a good quality video game based on a comic book, not to mention a film. So it comes as no surprise that The Amazing Spider-Man 2, a game based on a film which is based on a comic book, is rather lacklustre. Sure, swinging around the city is fun but it's been done, and done rather well, for many a Spider game. Luckily for me, and for this game, I'm a Spidey fan. Spidey has been my absolute favourite since I was a wee chap. Whether it was his wise-cracking nature or everyman demeanour, there was just something that drew me to ol' webhead. So unless this game had absolutely no redeeming qualities, there's a good chance that I'd enjoy it. Swinging around the city is fun, and is probably one of the best things about the game but even that has its issues. The camera has a tendency to bug out (pun intended), particularly when you transfer from web-slinging to wall-climbing. There's nothing particularly new abo...

I'm about to make a frank admission which may discredit any semblance of gamer cred that I currently possess; I've never played any of the Call of Duty games. Nope, not one. This is for no other reason than because I've never particularly enjoyed straight laced war shooters. If it hasn't got dragons, aliens or some other form of fantastical setting, I'm probably not interested. Enter Call of Duty: Ghosts. From the moment I saw that Astronaut shooty action, I knew I had to try it.  Starting off in a "world gone mad" setting, CoD:G instantly piqued my interest with it's truly cinematic presentation. Running through crumbling buildings, at this point weaponless, gave cause for a raised heart rate and a handful of cuss words. Being closely followed by a zero-g encounter really got the blood pumping and started to show off those gorgeous next-gen graphics. Across the next few levels, CoD:G surprises with a variety of different locations and diff...