Planet Coaster

• Developers: Frontier Developments
• Publisher: Frontier Developments
• Genre: Construction and Management Simulator
• Platforms: Microsoft Windows
• Release Date: 17th November 2016
• Microtransactions: No

Roller Coaster Of Love

Theme Park, we all know the game from back in 1994. It was developed by Bullfrog and had that legendary bullshitter Peter Molyneux as part of the team (Was the name based on him?). It was the start of the fairground sim and eventually the genre evolved into the legendary Rollercoaster Tycoon Series.

Rollercoaster tycoon, in case you didn’t know, has a massive fan base and provides you with a sandbox where you can create your own park or dream rollercoaster. You probably know someone who still plays one of the old games, hob nob in hand, with a love for tinkering with the price of sodas or reshaping that path so Sally can get to the ride without sulking.

Fast forward to now and we have Frontier Games, which has most of the original tycoon crew within it. They wanted to create the ultimate fairground sim, pay homage to the classics before it and ultimately surpass them all. Enter Rollercoas…. Sorry Planet Coaster.

From the beginning you have 3 modes. Career, challenge and freeplay. The latter of these lets you build a park from scratch. No need to worry about funding, just build to your hearts content. Career mode is where the bread and butter is. You start with limited funds and will have to really think about what you are doing if you are going to be raking in millions and donning a suit at the latest Prada event. Loans, happiness, staff will all test your resolve and make you work for that dream park. Challenge mode gives you a scenario, and you have some goals to achieve before you can progress. Obviously getting tougher the more you advance.

From the off this game really has been made with a lot of love and respect. The opening tune is one of the best I have ever heard and always gives me a smile when it comes on. It tells me “welcome back sir, whistle along with us gleefully while we load your next experience”.

Buckle Up

Frontier games have left nothing unscathed here, menus, sfx, tutorials, music. Its all of a very high standard and you would be hard pressed to moan about much. The graphics are brilliant and surprised me in parts actually how good they are. Shadows bounce of the rides, trees sway in the wind, even the animations of the little annoying park goers are extensive and do not get tiresome.

You can follow someone round the park and watch them as they react to the gaming world you created. Little things you can do like get a customer’s view of a ride you have just built,It all feels like it has been created with the gamer in mind. You can even change the ride music to something from your own totally legitimate and payed for mp3 collection. Highlight of all this is placing a Chief Beef stand down and hearing the CHHHHHEEEEEEIIIFFFFFF BEEEEEEEEFFFF.

Biggest of Dippers

Building a roller coaster is a very fun affair, but doesn’t come without its problems. Many times I have spent around an hour creating a beast of a rail, only to find I cannot make it join up at the end or when I test it my rollercoaster decides it will not go up a certain dip.

But I am still getting to grips with this part of the game, and its very extensive in what you can do and what you can achieve. Just look up online what some gamers have created, its simply mind blowing and wets your appetite for another go at creating Never Never Land. The community on steam are constantly uploading custom made rides and buildings which really does keep it fresh when the standard rides become stale.

I really would of liked it if the game was a little more sim like on the handling of the staff. You prop up a shop, and over time your staff get a little fumed if they are not making sales or are situated in a quiet spot. But when they leave you can just hire another one in the same store with little or no penalty whatsoever, sometimes takes you away from the sim aspect as you have just payed off a loan, upped your park rating and turned over 600 new park goers with patience, time and cunningness. But I can just click a button to replace Boris, Stephen and Marvin because they are moaning little scruffs.

All the bells and whistles are here, price changing, colour schemes, speeds of rides and patterns. You cannot put more salt on your chips or ice in your coke though, that is one thing Theme Park does that PC doesn’t. The little blighters.

Merry-go Bye Bye

Frontier games really need to be proud of themselves with Planet coaster, niggles aside it is by far the most detailed, gorgeous and fun management sim out there. They really have hit the nail on the head with almost everything, and if you have a half decent PC I really recommend giving it a go.

At 30 quid on steam, you could really do a lot worse for your money. A lot of sims frustrate you, punish you or overwhelm you to get rewards. But Planet Coaster is just a joy to play all of the time. Even when it is all stacked up against you, you can look at the 1000s of things going on in your park and it will make you smile enough to want to carry on and better yourself.

With the constant updates to the game and the community love and uploads, I can see this game lasting a long time and its only getting better. If you enjoyed Theme park or RT you will really not want to miss this.

PROS

• Great graphics, AI and presentation
• Plenty of customisation options
• Loads to see and do
• The title music

CONS

• Management of staff is a little basic
• Profits can either increase or decrease massively for no apparent reason.

Verdict

9.1/10

The post Planet Coaster appeared first on Show Me Games - Independent Gaming Site, and Community.

Final Fantasy XV

• Developers:  Square Enix Holdings, XPEC Entertainment, HexaDrive, Streamline Studios, Umbra
• Publisher: Square Enix
• Genre:  RPG, Action Adventure
• Platforms: PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), Xbox One
• Release Date: 29th November 2016
• Microtransactions: No

Final Fantasy

As a Final Fantasy fan, a big Final fantasy fan may I add, i feel that I am the right person to do this review. I am one of those fans who gets annoyed at the constant rubbish that has been churned out like a new flavour of Pot Noodle in the local supermarket, that is then on offer because nobody buys it.

I am one of those fans that if you said to me anything after X is even a remotely enjoyable experience, I would then proceed to nick your shoes and chuck them onto the nearest phone line.

I dream of Ifrit or Shiva taking me to some baron land to offer me their services, so the next time someone kicks off with me in town I can summon them accordingly. Should be good right?

Lets get on with it then…..

Final Fantasy XV takes place on the fictional world of Eos. All the world’s countries—bar the kingdom of Lucis—are under the dominion of the empire of Niflheim. Noctis Lucis Caelum, heir to the Lucian throne, goes on a quest to retake his homeland and its magical crystal after it is seized by Niflheim on the eve of peace negotiations between the two nations.

Now i had to copy all that from Wiki, because none of the backstory is memorable to be honest, it sets the tone in the usual Fantasy sort of way that you would expect. But the way the story progresses is the main fault of this recent addition to the series. Brief FMV clips with no dialogue are shown and expect you to know or care what is going on, they do look very nice but there is no build up or explanation of why you all know each other or why it is all kicking off with these imperial dudes. Do they not like my hair?

Band of brothers

Noctis and co are a bit annoying at first, but you do warm to them as the game goes on. The style of the characters has been slated all over social media coming up to the release, but I think they suit the style of the game and give Final Fantasy that modern Japanese look they where going for. Well, that is until you hear them speak. .I have heard you can change to Japanese audio though so it might be worth doing unless you want to listen to characters that resemble Donald Trump if he was a mechanic.

Some of the one liners the characters have between themselves did make me chuckle though, and I found myself getting excited when buying food so I could just hear Ignis say “Ive found a new recipe!”

Fantasy (fans) may cry

 The new battle system is all in real time. Now if you are like me and that fills you with disgust and pure rage….its good.  At times it feels more like Devil may cry than Final Fantasy, but there is something satisfying about the games combo system and team mechanics that keeps it fresh throughout the game.

While nowhere the depths of its turn based counterpart but it is satisfying and you do have to use your head to defeat some enemies or bosses

Do you like my mates hair?

Graphically the game is amazing. 10 years in development, a lot of fans where worried about the game looking out of date. There is no need to worry about that.

Grass elegantly sways about , hair waves in the wind. The whole area looks really polished and some of the boss fights are a joy to witness. One encounter blows everything out of the water and is some of the best graphics I have ever seen on a console. There are some parts of the game though that show the odd sloppy texture and some areas look like they have been stuck on. Nicky minaj with makeup for the most part though.

Summons look very nice but you cannot summon whenever, instead the game tells you to summon at random points in the game. At one point it popped up with one soldier in the battle, but its always nice to see anyway.

A final fantasy game should have excellent audio right?

Musically the game is good without being outstanding. There are some nice piano songs that would ring true with most fans, but there is nothing memorable. I always look forward to the battle music as it is usually addictive and something you will be humming for months on end, but there is nothing like that here. Sounds good, but it isn’t going to be finding its way on your tracklist anytime soon.

A really nice touch and a bit of fan service is listening to old games soundtracks while in the car. Flying down a motorway while blasting out the FFVII soundtrack does tickle the strings a bit, and very nice to see.

The bottom line

One thing with the game that really annoyed me, is the first 10 hours there was little in the way of story or dialogue. After this it heats up and progresses at a fast rate. I don’t see why there is nothing in the way of this in the first few hours, well there is but not to the same extent it is later on.

The game does get more linear as it draws to climax but it didn’t stop me enjoying it in any way. Apart from Chapter 13 – that was nearly a game breaker for me. Argghhhhh chapter 13. You will all see…… meh hahahaha.

When I bought this game, and in the build up to its release I was very sceptical. I longed for a good Final Fantasy that I could enjoy and give me some love back for the long standing but admittedly now over rated franchise. While this game is not perfect it really is a positive achievement and gives us a glimpse of where Square Enix see Final Fantasy going forwards.

By the end of the game  I was impressed by not only the game itself but the new found hope I now have for future games in the series. And it could very well be my game of the year!

8.3/10

The post Final Fantasy XV appeared first on Show Me Games - Independent Gaming Site, and Community.