Startup Company, an In-Depth Review...

So I recently came across a brand new game that was 'Upcoming' on the Steam store and started following updates since Mid-July. I am delighted that it has finally been released as of 11/08/2017.

Unfortunately Steam was down for me for quite a while, so I didn't have a lot of time to actually play it until a couple of days ago. The first time I started playing it, I stayed up until 5 am. It is extremely addictive, and I just couldn't put it down, no game has grabbed me like that since Destiny was released, by comparison, Destiny and this game are obviously worlds apart, but in terms of originality and replayability Startup Company just strikes a chord with me, and this game is not even out of early access yet, so I'm excited to see what comes next, what features are released and what the finished product will look like in a few weeks or even in a few months time.

I thought I'd take some time to explain my strategy for the game, and provide an in-depth review for those of you who are unsure, or just want a little more information before you start playing. It is worth saying though, that I'd grab this game now whilst it's at £6.99 because once new features are being released, and it moves closer to its final development, it has been confirmed that the cost will increase!

So what is the game about?

I would categorise the game as Indie, Simulation & a Management game.

This is the official description of the game, directly from the Startup Company press kit (thank you for making it easy by the way).

"Startup Company is a business simulation sandbox game. You're playing as the CEO of a newly started software company. With an empty bank account you are forced to complete client contracts, but as soon as you get enough money you will be able to start competing with the largest tech giants and building your very own products and services".

To me this statement doesn't quite do the game justice, it is so much elaborate than that, there's so much more you can do, and you can literally spend countless hours just watching your money rise.

What can you do in the game?

Build Mode: Design your own office.
Contract Work: Win contracts by competing on price and service.
Crafting System: Merge components together to create modules. (Modules create products).
Hiring: Optimize your benefits and work conditions to attract the best employees.

Develop, Merge, Repeat:  Use developers, designers, lead developers and DevOps to produce items.

Create your own products and services: Hire a CTO and start building your own products. Putting all these modules together allows you to compete with the largest tech giants.

What is the current status/price of the game?

The current status of the game is Early-Access, this means that the game has not been fully developed as of yet, and it's currently in its Beta Phase (12.5) - As of 18/08/2017. The developer Hovgaard will be reviewing peoples comments, feedback, reviews, and suggestions so that the overall experience of the game can be improved, and a better game created for all involved, so get your suggestions and feedback in, it's crucial to the success of any Early-Access game. The price is very reasonable for a game in its genre at £6.99, so grab it now!

Where can I get the game?

The quickest way to grab the game would be by doing so on Steam, or by going to the developers website directly and choosing your format, check the links below:

Steam: http://bit.ly/SteamVersion 

Website: http://bit.ly/WebsiteVersion

Let's talk a little bit about navigation first of all, what does what, then I'll let you know about my findings, and I suppose a little strategy to get you started.

The Main Navigation Menu

Shopping Basket Icon: Select this to buy items for your office, including desks, decorations, sofas, Tv's etc.

Dollar/Money Icon: Select this to view a snapshot of your finances for the next 30 days, and the previous 30 days, this also shows your bank balance, per month and per day, you can also review your transaction history, pay back or take a loan from this screen.

Menu Icon: This is your inventory, and contains all of the products (components) and modules your staff have created

Letter Icon: The letter icon displays the requirements for your active contracts, it allows you to cancel or fulfill them, and you can also view your previous completed contracts from this screen.

People Icon: This is your employee section, it will show you a snapshot of all of your employees and what they are currently doing, you can also recruit new staff by using this area and view any candidates that have already applied for a position.

Building Icon: In this section, you can have a look at your company stats (employees, workstations, and contracts completed), it also shows you your work environment rating which shows benefits etc. This helps with your company appeal and is helpful for attracting the best potential new recruits. You can also view your current tier level and what your unlocks are. You can also change your building (however you can't revert back to a smaller sized building).

Envelope Icon: This is your email area, you receive mail if you fail a contract, it's also used to provide game updates etc. This can also be used as an area to explore additional contracts through the SC Online Contracts MOD available through the Steam Workshop.

Factory Icon: This is the competitor's area, you can purchase stocks for rival companies as well as selling them.

Wrench Icon: This is where you can load the game, exit, display full-screen etc. There's also a zoom button at the top right-hand corner, and you can view your current tier level, as well as pause the game at the top, stop or fast forward the day.

When it's time for a new day and all of your employees have gone home, select the 'Jump to start of the day' this will start the next day, from when your first employee arrives.

Starting the game

First things first, you begin the game as a boss of a company that you have just launched, however, you will need some cash to get you started, a handy loan is available, and will allow you access to $40,000, bear in mind though you will have to pay 30% in interest, you can repay the loan anytime, and there are no penalties if you repay after a while. As you progress through tiers in the game, you can unlock further loans, and you can have three loans active at the same time, giving you plenty of opportunities to build your business.

Loans available within the game!

Hiring the right staff to quickly complete contracts

Once you have some money in the bank, your goal is to make as much money as possible and make sure your company has a high valuation. You will begin paying rent on your office space, and it's important that you hire some staff, to help you in your venture of becoming a highly valued and cash-rich company. Don't make my mistake though, each member of staff has their own salaries, and your money, especially at the start of the game, will dwindle down quite fast. My recommendation at least for the first part of the game would be to hire a few Developers and one or two sales executives, this way you can start stockpiling products, which means you will be able to fulfill contracts easier (which the sales executives find for you), contracts in the early days of the game are the only way to start making decent money.

Buildings available within the game!

Expand your roster of staff

Once you have completed a few contracts, you should now be in a position to expand your staff capabilities, as you might notice you now need to merge the products your developers create to fulfill contracts, as their requirements change all of the time. I would now recommend that you hire at least one Lead Developer, and one Designer as the lead developer can combine the products created by your developers and designers into modules, which can be used to fulfill larger contracts, which in-turn will grant you access to more money which is the main aim right? Your designer can also start designing other products, which are needed later on for the lead developer to merge also. Don't over do it with your staff, because you may need to take out another loan, which if played right, you can avoid from the off ;)

Start automating your staff, and stockpiling Products/Modules

At this stage, I would recommend that you start stockpiling products, and getting each of your developers and designers to create one product each. The easiest way to stockpile products is to stop completing contracts (if you can afford it, remember your income goes down each day for rent/salaries etc), and get your developers, lead developers and designers to create products over and over again, so you have a nice stockpile, you might now want to think about hiring a manager, so your developers can automate their tasks. Once you hire a manager, you can ask them to manage a number of your colleagues, by doing this, that particular colleague will automatically start redoing the task you ask them to do, which is helpful considering contracts can require 20 or 30 products at a time.

Looking after your staff, building bonuses, provide benefits and hire right

You also need to take the needs of your staff members into consideration also, because they will get tired, and they will become unhappy, leave it like this for a while, and you risk that colleague leaving your company, which is a nightmare, especially if you're in the middle of a large contract, so either send your unhappy colleagues on vacation frequently, or install a MOD available from the Steam Workshop that will keep your employees happy all of the time, however that ruins the fun, in my opinion. As you progress within the game you can hire a HR Manager, this is especially helpful if you want your staff to become more productive by increasing their working hours, it's helpful for taking a quick look at all of your staff, and sending the unhappy ones on vacation, without having to individually check each one of your staff members.

Another way to boost staff morale is by increasing the benefits available to them, as you start going through tiers within the game you unlock various different items, this is usually a different type of desk or office furniture, but you can also unlock different benefits, such as giving all of your employees free healthcare, or free beverages, you can access this by clicking the building icon in your main menu at the bottom of the screen.

You can also upgrade each of your staff members from beginner right through to Expert, this will increase the salary of your staff members, but also make them happier and more productive, likewise, you can also do this with their desk, by deleting and buying either a Beginner, Intermediate or Expert desk.

By buying different types of office furniture, this can also provide bonuses to your colleagues, and can make your company more attractive to future potential employees, the more attractive your business is, the more benefits your business has and the bigger the bonuses, which means way more people will apply to your adverts for various positions, and you will get much more productive staff from the off.

Income from stocks.

Produce, create and release your own products

Another way you can earn money within the game is by buying stocks and shares in rival companies, this is easily accessible from your main menu at the bottom of the screen by clicking the factory icon, the more stocks you buy, the more daily income you can earn from them, as shown in the image above, this can be a crucial part of adding to your companies value, again though be careful because the price of stocks can be ultra expensive. I've added a MOD here which shows real businesses, rather than the computer generated ones. 

The other way you can earn income and money in the game, is through creating your own products, to do this you will need a few different members of staff. You will need researchers to be able to research frameworks and features of your products, you will need DevOps to produce items needed to create your products, as well as marketers to help with building the hype of your products, and getting your product noticed.

Step 1: Name your product, choose your framework and then choose your product type on the left.

Step 2 choose your features, confirm the selection and launch your product!

Tiers & End game

As you move through tiers within the game, you can unlock a variety of different things, this could be a benefit for your employees, or it could be a piece of office furniture to help increase employees' moods, it could also allow you to unlock another loan if you need to. Currently, the top tier you can reach within the game is tier 20, and once you reach this, you get a personal in-game email from the developer thanking you for playing, this is a nice touch. Once you have reached tier 20, there's nothing else to unlock, and it's just a case of experimenting with different products, and contracts and trying to get as much money as possible.

Email from the developer when you reach T20.

I know I've plugged this as an in-depth review of the game, and I hope you've found it helpful, and can be used as a guide to help you start off on the game, of course, it isn't going to cover every little detail, but the game itself is very straightforward and self-explanatory, it does not offer any walkthrough at the moment, but it doesn't need it. These views are solely my own, and I'm not endorsed by anyone, I'm passionate about the games I play, the communities and people I meet a long the way.

On another note, this game has around 8 hours of gameplay in its current state, I personally think that's overestimated slightly, I've done everything there is to do within half of that time, however I'm so addicted to it, that I am still playing it, there's something satisfying about watching your money increase and increase, and after all that is what the game is about.

Once you have managers in place managing all of your employees, you can ask each employee to automate their workload, the game then plays itself. All you have to do is accept and complete contracts, buy stocks and shares, and experiment with creating your products. (Just like a real business).

4.5 Hours of play time.

I'm eagerly anticipating the next move, it's definitely the best Early-Access game I've played in terms of it being bug-free, the graphics are pretty decent, and it just has a very polished feel to it. If you have any further questions (I'm no Pro), but feel free to ask. Hats off to you Jonas, you've made an awesome game!

P.S. You might want to have a look at the achievements, as a couple of them have not popped when I've completed the requirements ;)

I also discuss Startup Company in my most recent episode of DweeKast, be sure to check that out by heading over to - http://bit.ly/DweekastEP8

My Current Rating:

Destiny 2 Thoughts & Feelings - Beta Opinions...

It has been a while, again I apologise for my inconsistency, as usual, a lot has happened. I've had major surgery and I've lost my job in the process... yay! But enough of that, onwards and upwards, at least this time off work has given me time to think, reflect and make some great decisions to steer me on the right track for my future career. Bleurgh! enough of that.

Now down to the nitty gritty and the main reason for this post. WARNING if you have not played the Destiny 2 Beta, or you don't want to know until full release, then look away now, because there may be some SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Destiny 2 Beta was released first for those who own a PS4, the Beta officially started for them on 18th July, the Xbox One from the 19th (for those of us who pre-ordered), this was a sort of closed Beta if you like. and then open to all consoles on 21st, with a Beta coming for PC players in August. I hate to be negative, but this is my first gripe. There is a lack of incentive to pre-order if you only get access to the Beta 2-3 days earlier, especially considering your progress is not transferred over, so it's not really getting ahead of anybody else, is it?

My second gripe is that why do we have to wait until August for a PC Beta? It seems that PC gamers suffer the most, have to wait much longer, and a lot of Betas have been historically disappointing from what I've seen (No Man's Sky) for a prime example. It has been said a lot of it is due to the PC version being on a different platform (battle.net) and graphics need way more work, hence the extra few weeks we have to wait for a PC Beta. To be fair to Bungie it is their first foray into dabbling into the battle.net platform, so maybe we'll let them off a little.

Now, what can you actually do in the Beta? Well up until now it is very, very restricted when compared with the original Destiny Beta. At the moment you can do 4-5 things.

1. The first campaign Mission - Homecoming
2. The Inverted Spire Strike
3. New PvP mode - Countdown (This is basically search and destroy)
4. Control PvP on a new map available in the full game.
5. You could access the new social Space (The Farm) for a limited time on Sunday.

For those of you who remember the Destiny Beta all them moons ago, it is disappointing that there is not a lot to do in Destiny 2, considering there is meant to be a lot more content and a lot more to do in this game according to the devs. In Destiny 1 we were allowed to complete all of the Earth Missions for crying out loud (gripe number 3).

Dominus Ghaul - Red Legion

Let's talk about the first mission, Homecoming. This is certainly more gripping in comparison to the first mission in Destiny 1, there is an attack on the Tower by the 'Red Legion' and the tower is destroyed and is lost, it's no longer home, and no longer the last safest place on Earth. You have to battle your way through the invasion, taking out Cabal forces. You start the Beta as a mid-level character with mid-level gear (Level 20, 200 light), and it is recommended that you are 210 light to take on some of the bosses, and boy does that 10 light make a difference, especially when your guns and grenades feel like your throwing water balloons and golf balls, and not actually inflicting much damage at all.

You wouldn't expect to go down on the first mission, but it's very easy to do if you don't watch your back because those enemies are tougher than you think. There has been an introduction into a mini-gun, and a grenade launcher, both of which are underpowered, hopefully, a change they make in the full release of the game. As you continue in the Homecoming mission and look to take back a little control of the Tower, you come across a Mother/control ship controlled by the Red Legion, and you must lower its defences so you can destroy it. Once you have battled your way through all the minions, and a few bosses you come to the last part of the level. Where you have to shoot out three turbines to disable the defence system.

On my first playthrough, this was absolutely impossible, there are four turbines constantly spinning and one hit and you're down, no ifs no buts that is it, get hit and it's game over (well not literally, but you get the gist). On the second and third playthroughs, though I managed to do it both times, without going down once, you don't understand the sense of achievement I feel right now.

The Damn Turbines!

Once you have managed to take down all of the turbines, it's cutscenes galore, the tower is imprisoned, and the light literally walks away from your guardian, and there's absolutely nothing you can do. You get to meet the leader of the Red Legion 'Dominus Ghaul'. wow, I wanted to kick the s**t out of him there and then, but he'll get his.

He boots you over the edge of a cliff, and that's the end of the mission, I wanted more, I want to know how the story progresses, but I'll have to wait until 6th September grrrr. This is just a brief explanation of the mission, I've purposefully left out some awesome bits, so you'll have to see for yourself.

Moving over to the Inverted Spire Strike, there's not a lot really to say about this without giving the whole plot away. However, it is challenging and it is awesome. I wouldn't say it's the hardest Strike I've played, but I'd say it is probably on the same level as a Heroic Strike (in my opinion) bearing in mind I'm not the best gamer in the world ;) There are some really awkward cliffs you have to jump across, fire portals and other obstructions that get in your way.

Drills in the Inverted Spire

You make your way down to a drill site, and you have to avoid the drills again one tap and you're dead, I don't know how I managed it but I didn't die once, it was either a fluke or I managed to somehow get out of the map and avoid it altogether. Once you have passed that you come up against the final strike boss, this is a 3 or 4 stage boss, and he quite literally removes the floor from under your feet on several different occasions, he electrifies the water surrounding the area you're in, and turns the floor to lava, making it pretty much impossible to escape some form of damage,

Nuff said really, it's a tough, classic Strike which will have you gripped and frustrated, there seems to be much more of an element of fun in this game than in the previous one.

New PvP Mode - Countdown

Moving on over to the new competitive PvP mode - Countdown. This, unfortunately, is nothing new in my opinion. It is a game of search and destroy relabeled, you have to plant, and defuse bombs, if you kill all of your opposing team, and defuse any bomb you win the round, if you plant a bomb and it isn't defused, you win the round, that's my understanding of this anyway, I've played one match of it, and was immediately disappointed, if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me, these are just my opinions after all :)

Before I move on to my PvP experience in Control, I was one of the lucky ones to get access to one of the new social spaces - The Farm. This went live at 6pm GMT/BST on Sunday 23rd, and this lasted an hour only before we were all kicked out. There were obvious signs of a Cryptarch, a Gunsmith, there was an Everese logo, so Microtransactions look to be returning in Destiny 2 (Please don't let this be a pay-to-play game), there were obvious signs of Sparrows returning in the game, as well as a dock could there be boats? Or could our sparrows be able to be used on water?

Social Space - The Farm (1)

Social Space - The Farm (2)

There is real football as well, with an actual scoring system, first to 3 wins. There are lots of other space for more vendors at the site, all in all, I have a funny feeling there may be more vendors there than in the tower, but I could be wrong, it's early days really. There were also a lot of the Farm that was inaccessible, there were doors that you couldn't get access to, a mysterious 'X' when it was dark would appear in a certain location, there were turbines and power lines, and campsites. There was an open gate also, but walk through it, and you'd be out of bounds, how frustrating, it's like dangling a £5 note in front of you that you can't have, keeps you guessing though. There is so much more to say about the Farm, but honestly, I think it's best that you just see for yourselves.

I anticipate a lot more to do in this Social Space though, we already know there will be chickens and football, maybe some other forms of interaction will be added, or a few other mini-games, the list is literally endless. It will definitely be interesting to see what they come up with, so watch this space. What would you like to see in the new social spaces? Do you know something we don't? Or do you want to share anything about your Beta experience so far? If you do, and if you have the time, let me know in the comments section below, it would be awesome to hear from you :)

Aaaand finally Control, good old Capture the Flag gameplay is back, and in my personal opinion, it is at its finest. I've left it until now to talk about the mechanics of the game, the new subclasses, the new load-outs and weapons because it's this part of the game I've played the most and I've spent countless hours working through everything. It was a big no no to me for the devs to change it from 6v6 to 4v4, I thought it was going to be so much harder, and it was basically going to be Trials of Osiris all over again (Never again will I attempt that, it's so freaking hard). BUT it's not, it's awesome and it might even be a little easier, having said that, that might just be because everyone is on an even playing field, there are no level advantages, and it's mano v mano, so the real test will be the full release. It might have been wise to allow a little progression within the Beta, would be interesting to see how this 4v4 is going to pan out when level advantages are enabled or better gear equipped. Could be a disaster in the making, could be the best thing since sliced bread. My hope though, is that it doesn't turn into Trials like gameplay because if it does, I'm not going to be able to compete at that level in PvP, I'm getting better, but Trials is just a whole different kettle of fish.

Dawn Blade - Warlock

The new subclasses are awesome, at least in the graphical sense, you get a shield you can bash people with or throw about just like Captain America (Titan's Sentinel) you get a flaming sword, again which you can throw at people (Warlock's Dawn Blade). And you get this kind of electric staff thing you can destroy people with (Hunter's Arcstrider). The classic ones are also available as well, such as Striker, Gunslinger and Voidwalker. There's no sign of any others just yet, but those may come in the full game release. They've reimagined the subclass loadout screen, rather than it being rows and rows and unlockable upgrades, it's a tree-like system, much easier on the eye. However, on first glance, it looks as if there's not a lot you can upgrade, it looks like you have far fewer upgrade options than you do in Destiny 1. That might be a good thing though, it took an awfully long time to fully upgrade your subclass in Destiny 1, regardless of skill, it was all about a number of hours you poured into the game. So I guess they've stripped it down, to make sure you play the game instead of worrying about upgrading your character. I'm hoping like in the Beta you get some already unlocked abilities, but I highly doubt it. You never know though.

Although the premise is the same with the 3 weapons you can take into battle with you, the heavy weapon is now known as the Power Weapon, and Power Weapon ammo is available to collect from in-match games, unlike in Destiny 1 however only one person can collect this ammo at a time, and you don't automatically get this ammo if you happen to be standing by, that sucks. Having said that though the spawn delay for the heavy/power ammo is a lot less than in Destiny 1, and having played for some time, I've managed to get way more power/heavy ammo in Destiny 2 than I ever have been able to get a hold of in Destiny 1. this could just be a location type thing, it could be because there are far fewer players to challenge you, either way, I like it, and there are plenty more areas power ammo is available to be retrieved from, a nice change, especially for those of us who rarely have a chance to get their hands on some serious purple ammo drops. On the flip side, however, the amount of ammo that actually drops is poor, 4 ammo for a grenade launcher, 8 for a shotgun, hmmm... It's early days.
Aside from the slightly different ammo and guns you can have in the heavy weapon slot, you can now have a similar class of weapon in your primary and secondary weapon slots, so I've taken full advantage of this, and used Auto Rifles in both my slots, secondary ammo seems to be a lot easier to come by as well, you typically go into a match with a full magazine of primary (white) and secondary (green) ammo, a much more pleasurable experience.

It is also frustrating to me that the cooldown for your abilities take an absolute age, I've managed to play full games of Control without my super ability fully charging, I mean you should be able to use your super ability at least once in a Destiny match right? Take into consideration that there are two fewer players per team, which realistically means fewer kills overall, which in turn means a much longer wait time for your super ability. As mentioned previously, grenades and melee seem to do absolutely nothing against any enemy, whether this is in PvE or PvP, something which desperately needs to change. Aaaand the Titans ability to shoulder charge into an enemy whilst using the Striker subclass is no longer an instant kill, it takes down an enemies health by around 40-50%, making this ability pretty much defunct, it's a huge shame, I loved getting instant kills in Destiny 1 with this! Damn you Bungie. And it seems to take 2-4 melee attacks to fully kill an enemy as well, something which I hope is improved in the final release of the game. In fact, Bungie has already said they are making improvements to this, so hopefully, weapons, abilities and upgradeable abilities get an awesome buff they deserve, and a one were used to in the original Destiny. Here's to hoping.

Overall Destiny 2 seems to be so far a more immersive experience, the missions that I had the pleasure of playing are balanced with the right amount of challenge, graphics and theatrics. I hope the rest of the Destiny 2 missions are this good, and not just the same mundane locations with the same mechanics. The new subclasses although needing a few tweaks have the potential to be awesome, they need to be buffed in the right places though, I mean Destiny is not meant to be an easy game, but it's not meant to be so challenging that it can't be done (unless you're into Nightfall strikes that is) and if that's the case, then my hat goes off to you.

So to sum up everything that I've ranted on about for around a month, I thought I'd end this with a top 10 list of the awesome things I liked about Destiny, and 10 things I didn't like so much, I'm pretty confident that Bungie are already aware of most of the communities thoughts by now, so they are probably already making changes as we speak. Plus there's roughly another hour or two before the Bet ends, so I'm going to get in some last minute PvP, might even give Countdown another shot, you never know ;)

Top 10 Likes:

1. The Missions are much more gripping. 
2. A third ability such as a mini shield or a healing/damage Aurora.
3. The new subclasses and abilities have the potential to be awesome. 
4. The change from 6v6 to 4v4 in PvP is well developed. 
5. The ability to have the same class of weapon in Primary and Secondary slots is awesome. 
6. There's more opportunity for power/heavy ammo to be picked up. 
7. I love the addition of weapons such as miniguns and grenade launchers. 
8. Load times seem to have improved dramatically.
9. The Damn going into orbit is no more, now there's one snazzy 'Director' screen.
10. The new Social Space looks awesome, can't wait to see exactly what's what. 

Top 10 Dislikes: 

1. Ability & Super Ability cooldowns are too long, you can barely use them once per game.
2. Melee attacks are around a 2-4 hit kill, a far cry from what we're used to (1-2).
3. Abilities such as shoulder charge are no longer a 1 hit kill :(
4. Missions/Strikes seem a little too challenging (This might just be a Beta thing). 
5. Auto-Mantle changes in the game are a little frustrating. 
6. It seems to take an age to fall back to the ground after a jump, this has changed a bit. 
7. There's evidence that Microtransactions are returning, I hope this isn't a major thing. 
8. The game in places feels exactly like the Original Destiny, which is a good and bad thing. 
9. The game is released on September 6th, which is ages away. 
10. The Beta literally ends in like 1.5 hours :( 

So that's pretty much it, as always this is totally my opinion, and based on my experiences, I don't pretend to be a world-class gamer, just the average person who loves everything gaming. If I had to sum up Destiny 2 in one sentence, it would be 'Does not Disappoint'

My Game Rating:

Titanfall 2 Final Campaign Thoughts...

I have now completed the Titanfall 2 Campaign, and my initial thoughts of the campaign have massively changed, oh my giddy aunt is there some intense fricken missions, I'll go through my experience, my likes and dislikes. Because why the hell not? If nobody else reads this or cares, at least I do and it's wasted some time so hey ho!

Titanfall 2 has 9 main campaign missions, the game is still not that old, so there's a possibility of some single player expansion (Here's to hoping).

The main storyline is mediocre in my opinion, and similar to recent Call of Duty storylines, there are typically 2 factions/nations/clans (or whatever) that are enemies, and the goal is to simply destroy the faction and stop them from trying to take over the world. *Spoiler* Or destroy a planet, or stop them trying to create a superweapon in this case, which would ultimately lead to them destroying a Planet aptly named 'Harmony'. It's not surprising that they've adopted this samey approach, I get the feeling that they didn't particularly want to put much development time into the campaign, and the same Devs have worked on the Modern Warfare campaign previously as well, so they've obviously stuck with a format that works.

In total it took me around 5-6 hours to complete the campaign, though It's possible that this could take around 4-6 hours, as it depends on how many times you fall off the map, or get crushed, or miss a wall jump if you're anything like me it will take you longer because I'm constantly dying and misjudging moving objects and god awful skinny platforms.

*More spoilers ahead* 

If you are an achievement hunter then you're in for a massive treat, because you can quite easily pick up around 600G (gamerscore) without even having to try, you can even do this on 'Easy' mode, but if you want to go for the full 1000, you'll need to complete the campaign on every difficulty, and go hunting a little bit to find some in-mission collectables (Pilot helmets) you get a rare achievement and 90G if you're an Xbox One player, and I guess this would be similar in terms of trophies on PS4 too. In order to maximise the amount of gamerscore you get in your first playthrough, I would recommend trying every Titan Loadout, and killing other Titans with your core ability, you can quite easily pick up 15G's a piece for using Sword Core, Laser Core and for killing 3 Titans in a row using one of your core abilities. If you're wondering what a Core ability is, it's basically your super weapon which charges over time, it's vital for you to use it at the right times. There is so much more I could say but I'll leave it there for you.

When I wrote my initial thoughts and review on the game, I had played 3 campaign missions, this was far too early for me to have a decent opinion on the campaign, and I was reluctant to complete it, but I'm so glad I did. Mission number 5 is where the game changes for me and becomes a unique game that I have been dying to get stuck into for some time. This mission is called 'Effect and Cause' (yes I have that the right way around). This mission is a real game changer for me and it's at this point in the game that I can really see the Titanfall 2 Campaign shine and is the whole reason I continued to play this game through to the end. The mission puts you at a research facility, which has been destroyed, there are fires and debris everywhere, it's impossible for there to be any sign of life here. Your primary objective is to locate a pilot and gather intel from him. As you progress through the facility you start to see distortions, and you start seeing flashbacks to previous points in time when the Research Facility was still standing and was populated.

As you continue you collect a wrist watch/device and you use it to alternate through different realities, you use this device to travel through time, you can use this as many times as you like to manoeuvre yourself around the facility and try and find your exit. When you go back to the past, the research facility is still standing, there is a professor lecturing some students, there are guards patrolling the hallways, everything is as clear as day and all is well with the world. It is crucial you use this wrist device as you need to activate control panels in the past to open your exits in the present day, and there's a pretty tricky bit where you have to fall down a shaft with fast moving propellers, and you have to time travel perfectly to avoid you getting all squished. You get unlimited use of this device, and this is something that sets this game apart from similar single player campaigns in its genre. You come across a fire, or you're being attacked by guards or robots, no problem switch between past and present and avoid your death, it is that simple and it is that awesome. - Please continue to develop stuff like this Respawn (we love you).

Now one of my main gripes throughout the campaign though is that there are some really tricky areas where you need to get to without falling off the map or plunging to your death, there are electric walls and floors you have to avoid, long jumps which you have to make perfectly, and multiple wall-runs between multiple walls, all of which causes a great deal of frustration when you a just a noob gamer, I mean come on give us guys a break.

As the story progresses you start to prepare for all out warfare, and there is one particular mission where you get to work with your faction, complete a Titanfall exercise (basically multiple Titans deployed to a location, and you get to kick the living daylights out of other Titans and IMC Guards (The enemy faction). The story is suspenseful and full of action-packed cutscenes and major on the edge of your seat type stuff, you get to defeat around 5 Bosses which are different variations of Titans and look awesome (but look even more awesome when you defeat them) and each one you defeat you pick up some nice G's for it, pretty sure it is 30G a piece.

I am overall quite impressed with the Campaign, and if it wasn't for a few mundane and time-consuming missions, where you have to search for certain items or find someone, then this would be a perfect 5, but just misses out due to earlier missions, but we can't have our cake and eat it, now can we?

So I have to give a rating based on my experience of the full campaign, and the Effect and Cause mission, the cutscenes, the epic suspense, the unique weapons based interface, and the smooth controls and battle movements strongly outweigh the negatives, the only thing that lets it down is the same old same old mundane storyline, but hey they executed it awesomely!

Titanfall 2 Review...

So I know I'm a little late to the party, and I know that this game came out the back of end of last year, but I've only just picked this up today. I got the Deluxe Edition for £28.00, absolute bargain! Oh and by the way you can pick up the PC version of the original Titanfall for £6.67 or £7.99 for the Xbox One version... I'm too good to you!

EA are having a massive publisher sale at the moment on Xbox, and maybe even other platforms, but I can't really confirm that. Pretty much all of their mainstream games are on sale, you can pick up Fifa 17 for £27.00 (Standard edition) and there's a double pack of Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 Deluxe for just under £40.00. Mahoosive bargain and money saving potential right there.

*Warning Potential Spoilers* 

So now down to the nitty gritty and my thoughts about this game. I never got the opportunity to play the Beta/Mech Tests, so it is solely based on the completed game. The first major difference between this one and its predecessor is that it has a single-player campaign. A long overdue one might I add. You start the game by doing a calibration inside a Titan, like in the first one, then carry out a training exercise. You have to complete this within 2 minutes and the time it takes you determines your recommended skill level for continuing the game (It recommended that I play mine on Hard - fook that). Once you have completed your induction if you like, and battle through a couple of scenarios, you get your very own Titan called BT. You can develop a relationship with BT, by picking your own answer to the questions he asks you, and your responses are tailored to the environment. I haven't played far enough through yet, so I'm not too sure if the choices you make and answers you provide will have that much of a massive impact on the game, but I'll let you know as I play through it.

I am instantly attached to BT, and rather than just being a 'Mech suit' it actually has a personality of its own, and its sole job is to follow the mission and protect the pilot (you). I can see the relationship developing quite nicely, and the humour and sassiness the developers have added to BT's dialogue, has made me giggle a couple of times, I'm looking forward to seeing how it all pans out.

Now there doesn't appear to many main story missions, though further expansion may be available for this. The missions that I have played through seem at best a little mediocre, and a some a little bit tedious. I found myself falling off certain parts of the map a few times, trying to reach the destination. There is a cool new feature which is a 'Ghost Route' this is basically a tutorial which shows you the route you need to take to reach your destination, and then you replicate it, not as easy as it sounds, and can become frustrating especially considering you don't get your double jump ability immediately.

I have played a handful of missions and noticed that you come across a boss battle in the early stages of the game (mission 3), you come across a boss named Kane, who of course has a stronger Titan than you, and has a little titan buddy that fights alongside him. This frustrated the hell out of me, and I just couldn't do it on 'Regular' difficulty, so switched this up to Easy just for that mission (I know I'm a noob, I'm so sorry) and completed it in like 5 seconds, nice 30G achievement for that though as well (it's all about those G's). There are also these really annoying exploding spiders that cause absolute chaos... you barely manage to get away from one, but there were 6 that came at me... like come on, chill pal.

I think the game seems to flow better, there has obviously not been much change in the core development of the game, the controls seem much more fluid, and it's a lot easier to combine skills such as a double jump with a wall jump, I don't now there's just something about it that just seems to flow a little bit better, the core gameplay has not changed, but it somehow just feels like a brand new game, albeit a little mediocre, I feel there could have been more development time spent in campaign, but hey I get why not, there's only about 5% of people who actually bother to complete the whole thing.

The Exploding Spider Bombs!

It is clear to me that most of the development of this game has been focussed around Multiplayer. I found Multiplayer a really pleasurable experience, with quick loading screens and pretty decent matchmaking, there weren't any players who were hundreds of levels above you killing everyone and everything in site, it all seemed to flow well. There's a nice option to also choose your own server, it has a handy stat telling you what the ping is, making your online games flow better.

There are a few cool new titans and load outs that have come with the Deluxe edition of the game, one with an awesome plasma rifle! There is a store option where you can buy premium load outs and titans to use in-game, they're about £4.00 each, not really sure how much of an advantage they give you, because I haven't bought them.

There are a couple of new game modes that have been added online, 'Live Fire' which is kind of like Capture the Flag mixed with Hardpoint and a bit of Search and Destroy, the aim of the game is to either kill the entire opposing team, or be holding the flag when the time runs out, it's very fast paced, wham bam thank you mam action, something I like and it flows beautifully in Titanfall 2. You now also have the option of searching for games that you only want to play, and all the classics are back, Capture the Flag, Hardpoint, Free-for-all, Team Deatmatch (although not called that). It is nice to see some nice large maps, suited to all player types, whether you're the run and gun type, or the sniper or the medium range fighther, there is plenty for everyone. It is also nice to see the return of some familiar maps, and the return of AI as well, everytime I kill loads of Ai I always feel like an absolute champion haha. The last titan standing is an awesome game mode as well, whoever holds on for 3 rounds is the winner, or literally until the last titan stands, that'll never be me! :D

Overall I would highly reccomend this game to people who enjoy games such as COD, or Destiny, or any other similar shooter game, the single player campaign is slighlty lacking, but I think it more than makes up for it in mutliplayer, and there's no better time to buy it, with how cheap it is.

Dweelan's Game Rating:

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - Movie Review...

What is all the hype about? Is this movie really as good as Harry Potter, have a look at my thoughts below, let me know what you think in the comments below :)

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Release Date: 18/11/2-16
Budget: $180,000,000 (Estimated)

"We're going to recapture my creatures before they get hurt. They're currently in alien terrain surrounded by millions of the most vicious creatures on the planet; humans".

So I like it, I like it quite a bit, do I love it? I'm struggling to answer that with a yes, it is good and I know I'm super critical of movies recently but I'll tell you why later on...

The Movie focuses around Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) a young English Wizard who visits New York whilst en route to Arizona. He has a mysterious suitcase full of weird and wonderful creatures, from a stick insect with a heart of gold to a cute gold munching monster (which happens to be my favourite creature). Newts suitcase ends up in the hands of a No-Maj (A non-wizard) who is on his way to the bank to secure a loan for his new bakery business. Little to his knowledge that he has unlocked a dangerous amount of terrifying creatures into the wild.

Source: http://www.IMDb.com

Newt gets arrested for being an unregistered wizard, will he have the time to catch his creatures and return them to safety?

Although the creatures are a little cheesy for a better word, the concept behind each of their behaviours and characteristics adds a sense of emotion to the movie, simply put you fall in love with them, and don't want anything to come between Newt and his creatures.

The movie itself is full of suspense but has too many side characters/extras for my liking, it is also set in the 1920's, and movies set in this era just annoy me, I don't know why and I don't really have a reason, but this movie seems way beyond its setting and in my opinion has a more futuristic feel, it may just be the magic who knows.

Now this movie is meant to be standalone from Harry Potter, but it has been way overhyped in my opinion, there are only very few references to HP and it doesn't have the same feel to it. This movie is awesome in its own right, but when compared to Harry Potter it lacks somewhat.

However, we seem to be falling back into the world of Witchcraft and Wizardry and that can only be a good thing. I would anticipate maybe a sequel or two to this movie, and I'd be going to see them on release day.

Further Plot/Storyline:

"Holding a mysterious leather suitcase in his hand, Newt Scamander, a young activist wizard from England, visits New York while he is on his way to Arizona. Inside his expanding suitcase hides a wide array of diverse, magical creatures that exist among us, ranging from tiny, twig-like ones, to majestic and humongous ones. It is the middle of the 20s and times are troubled since the already fragile equilibrium of secrecy between the unseen world of wizards and the ordinary or "No-Maj" people that the MACUSA Congress struggles to maintain, is at risk of being unsettled".

Dweelan's Star Rating:

Passengers - Movie Review...

So I thought I'd start doing movie reviews again, just because it's something that I really enjoy doing! P.S. I hope you like the schnazzy new logo at the top :D

As always the views are my own, and for my (and hopefully your) entertainment only. I am not some amazing movie critic, but you'll get a down-to-earth honest opinion/review of the movie! :)

Passengers
Release Date - 21/12/2016
Estimated Budget: $110,000,000

"Nothing happens by accident"

It's hard to talk a lot about this movie without giving the main plot away. The first thing I will say is

Source: http://www.imdb.com

that this is definitely worth a watch. Jennifer Lawrence (Hunger Games) and Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy) are the main stars in this gravity defying blockbuster. The movie is set aboard the Starship Avalon which is en route and in the middle of a 120 year voyage to a new colony far far away in the distant galaxy, where a new life can be made, and a whole civilization can be created.

Unfortunately not all goes to plan, and one passenger - Jim Preston (Pratt) is awoken 90 years early, with no way of return. Jim has to fight his way through obstacles and challenges to keep the Starship Avalon on course, and prevent it from crashing and destroying the 5000+ passengers on board. This movie has everything you want from a good action packed movie. There are no boring bits, and you will be glued to every scene. There are some pretty amazing dramatic scenes that will have you gasping for air (tiny little spoiler).

My favourite character in the movie is actually a bar tender/human android named Arthur played by Michael Sheen (Twilight), his sassy on-screen character and charming conversations make for a little bit of hilarity, sometimes a little bit uneasy considering you are stranded alone on a spaceship, knowing that you are 90 years away from landing. Seems pretty final, doesn't it?

The only thing that lets this movie down in my opinion is the ending, unfortunately it does not leave you in suspense, and there's no way there's any chance of a sequel being made, unless they focus on the back story or the time before the '50 years later' ending! It sucks that they have a left a huge chunk of the movie out, massively disappointing for a film of such a high standard, but I guess you can't have everything, and is sadly the reason it has lost so many stars from me.

Further Storyline (Source: IMDb)

"The spaceship, Starship Avalon, in its 120-year voyage to a distant colony planet known as the "Homestead Colony" and transporting 5,258 people has a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers. As a result one hibernation pod opens prematurely and the one person that awakes, Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) is stranded on the spaceship, still 90 years from his destination". 

Dweelan's Star Rating:

$110,000,000 $110,000,000 $