Geek of Oz

THE SHORT VERSION I mentioned, back in my brief look at it in August last year , that Project CARS felt like the racing world's answer to Dark Souls . It was a solid and unforgiving racing simulator that rewarded patient players who could get a handle on complex controls and customisation options. This was the kind of game where you could tweak your tires to a T, where if you didn't know the ins and outs of your vehicle you were liable to veer out of control very quickly, and where, yes, you could indeed drive around Mt Panorama in a go-kart with rain incoming. Trust me, that last part is a lot more exciting (and awesome) than it sounds. That was just in the beta, mind. Small wonder, then, that the finished version is all that and more. In fact, I'd almost go so far as to say Project CARS might be the defining driving game experience one will come across. That's both a good and a bad thing. STORY You are a racing driver. You enter competitions, and have c...

DISCLAIMER: You may notice this review has a significant slant towards positive aspects of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt  without much mention of the bad bits. This is intentional; what few issues there were in the beta build I played were largely technical, and I feel it'd be unfair to overly criticise the game for these particular problems and crashes when it's still four months away from release. Truth is, the game really is  that good as it is anyway. Also, anyone who wishes to remain vestal about the game may find MINOR SPOILERS in this review. _______________________________________________________________________________ The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt  is good. No, sorry. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt  is great . Nope, wait, hold on, let me find the right marriage of adjectives...ok. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt  may be the most splendiforously magnificent visual magnum opus in the history of any human artistic endeavour. Actually, that's probably overdoing it....

To celebrate the release of SWORD ART ONLINE: HOLLOW FRAGMENT on PlayStation®Vita handheld system, we've got a download code for the game PLUS a copy of Sword Art Online volume 1 and 2 on your choice of Blu Ray or DVD thanks to Bandai Namco Games and Madman . Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment is a Role Playing Game (RPG) based on the novel, manga and anime, Sword Art Online, and reflects the charming characters and breathtaking environments from the virtual reality world called Aincrad. In a simulated Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) setting, players find that they are trapped within the game and must explore and defeat enemies until they reach the highest levels of Aincrad to beat the game and free themselves from the fantasy world. This competition requires a little bit of effort to weed out those truly committed to Aincrad! But think of it this way, if only a few enter, your chances of winning are all the more greater! What you need to do is t...

Continuing from Part 1 , here’s the rest of the schweet schtuff I got my hands on at Bandai Namco: Project CARS PC, Xbox One, PS4 - November 2014 Wii U - 2015 The best way of summarising the crowd-funded Project CARS  is that it is to racing games what Dark Souls is to fantasy games. No perceivable story – not that it needs one – but whoa-on-a-stick is there a ton of customisation, tracks, cars, difficulty settings, AI settings and weather presets. You could probably drive a go-kart around Bathurst’s Mt Panorama on high difficulty against   overly-aggressive AI competitors, with realistic tyre-ruining sand and an encroaching rainstorm, given the amount of flexibility there is in the gameplay setup. Actually, that’s exactly what we did do. Mt Panorama. In go-karts. With rain coming. While I can definitely recommend Project CARS  for driving enthusiasts, particularly those who were unimpressed by recent Forza and Gran Turismo offerings, the on...

First of all, I’d like to once again thank Bandai Namco and their Sydney studio for giving me the chance to check this advance stuff out last week. They’re a rad crowd, and had some fantastic games on offer. Second, all these games are good. Seriously. No, I’m not secretly being paid millions of dollars by Bandai Namco, I’m being honest. As a gamer I’m quite hard to please, and despite a few hiccups and one particular game that wasn’t my thang, yo, the offerings on hand were all excellent. It behoves one to at least give them each a look; chances are you, like me, might find something you didn’t know you wanted until you played it. So, in no particular order, here’s the first lot of gems I got my hands on: Tales of Xillia 2 PS3 - August 2014 I don’t know about the rest of you, but I was mighty disappointed by Final Fantasy XIII . As a fan of many of FF’s preceding entries it was disheartening to see the gameplay chopped down to almost nothing and the story pared ...