Mafia III

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Written By: Graham Lewis

Publisher: 2K Games
Developers: Hangar 13, 2K Czech and Mass Media Games
Genre: Action-Adventure
Series: Mafia
Released: October 7 2016
Certificate: 18
Consoles: PS4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows and OS X

Mafia III completes the trilogy of entertaining, crime-based tales of retribution and power. Before writing this review, I took the time to complete the game on PS4, just to be absolutely certain I was giving it a fair chance.

So how has the series’ transition to current-gen consoles gone, I hear you ask? Well, it isn't exactly perfect.

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The Last Of Us

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Written By: Luke Mythen

Distributor: Sony Computer Distributions
Production Company: Naughty Dog
Directors: Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann
Scriptwriter: Neil Druckmann
Main Cast: Troy Baker, Ashley Johnson, Annie Wersching, Merle Dandridge and Jeffrey Pierce
Released: June 14 2013
Platform: PlayStation 3
Running Time: 20+ Hours
Certificate: 18

Back in 2012, Naughty Dog released a teaser trailer for their newest game away from the hugely-successful Uncharted series, The Last Of Us. This created huge excitement within the gaming community, as Uncharted is now one of the most highly accredited games on the market. The idea of ‘Naughty Dog’ and the end of humanity had a nice ring to it, and many were left hoping that they could knock this one out of the park and deliver us something special. I personally bought the game out of interest, not because of anticipation or excitement. I saw the reviews, and they convinced me to take a gamble and spend £40 on this game.

The beginning of the game is one of the greatest to date. I have never been so attached to characters for the game to take me in a completely different, more emotional direction. This is what Naughty Dog are experts at: creating characters you really care about and attach to. I am not going to give away any spoilers in this review, but be prepared to have your emotions taken in different directions. The story revolves around the main protagonist Joel (Troy Baker) and his journey from being a single father in Texas before the outbreak to him being tasked with looking after a young teenage girl called Ellie (Ashley Johnson) and travelling across America. We are taken through different stages of the year as the story progresses from summer, through winter, into spring and back to the summer again. Ellie has been bitten by the infected, but she isn’t infected or affected by it. The Fireflies, a group outside of the law, want to make sure she is safe because she could hold the answer to the future and survival of the human race. This is Joel’s mission. Along the way, you will meet up with new characters like Joel’s brother, the former Firefly Tommy, and brothers Sam and Henry. It is a fascinating story that will leave you wanting more every time you stop playing; it is one of the most addictive stories I have ever had the pleasure to watch and play.

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Grand Theft Auto V

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Written By: Luke Mythen

Distributor: Take Two Interactive
Production Companies: Rockstar North and Rockstar
Producers: Leslie Benzies and Imran Sarwar
Scriptwriters: Dan Houser, Robert Humphries and Michael Unsworth
Main Cast: Shaun Fonteno, Ned Luke, Steven Ogg, Gerald Johnson and Vicki Van Tassel
Released: September 17 2013 (Worldwide)
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Average Completion Time: 50+ Hours
Certificate: 18

One of the most anticipated games ever at its release back in September 2013, and rightly so. For over a decade now, Grand Theft Auto has been extraordinary, controversial and evolutionary in the gaming world. Since GTA IV released in 2008, Rockstar have been working on its follow-up and, looking back 18 months later, how does the game hold up?

Well simply, it is still one of the greatest videogames, if not the greatest videogame that I have ever played. Everything from its gameplay to the story to the graphics - all of it is simply close to perfect. For the first time, the story follows three different characters:Michael, Franklin and Trevor. Each is acted brilliantly, and all three bring something new to the table and ultimately could lead the game alone. Michael is a retired ex-conman who his family hate, and he even hates himself. We are introduced to Michael in a therapy session, which you can continue to do throughout the game as Michael evolves as a character. Then comes Franklin, a small-time gang banger on the streets of Los Santos or Los Angeles. He enjoys the fast life, stealing cars, buying street hookers; however, he doesn’t have the money to sustain it, so he is looking for a better, richer life. And, finally, comes one of the most talked-about characters in the series, Trevor. Trevor is a narcotic, sarcastic, evil, and funny man, and quite frankly, a psychopath. But playing as him heralded some of the best moments of the game and allowed you to escape reality for a while, as some of his missions do push the boundaries of natural law.

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Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Image Source: Zavvi

Written By: Luke Mythen

Distributors: Activision and Square Enix
Production Company: Sledgehammer Games
Directors: Glenn Schofield and Michael Condrey
Scriptwriters: John Maclnnes, Eric Hirshberg and Mark Boal
Main Cast: Troy Baker, Paul Telfer, Kevin Spacey, Gideon Emery and Khay Payton
Released: November 4 2014
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Average Completion Time: 6+ Hours
Certificate: 18

I have been a COD (Call of Duty) fan for a number of years now, mainly since its reinvention on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Ultimately, the series has not lived up to those standards for a long time. We have been introduced to mediocre game after game, ranging from Ghosts (which might as well have been a game of darts because it was that boring) to Black Ops 2 (where I managed to skip certain missions, finish the game and still know what was going on). It’s fair to say that the latest instalments have not excited me, and therefore I was apprehensive regarding this latest outing. The idea of moving the story 45 years into the future didn’t really excite me, and to me it sounded more of the same game with lasers and bigger cities and flying cars. I am happy to report that this is not the case and I enjoyed the game more than I thought I would. Before I start properly, I would like to stress that this is not a review of the online gameplay, just the story.

The series was not going anywhere fast; they needed something to bring fans back to the story mode. The online is the real draw for most players when it comes to Call of Duty and rightly so; it is by far the greatest online FPS (First Person Shooter) out there. Because of this, the story has had to take a smaller role and that has disappointed me. This year, however, with a new developer comes a new story. Kevin Spacey has been employed to help sell the story mode this year, and without spoiling anything, his is a great character that has a number of twists and turns along the way in the six-hour story. Yes, the story is short, but it is packed with excitement. From fighting in the North Pole, which reminds me of a certain classic Star Wars game, to the stealth missions around a heavily guarded house, these are the most diverse level types we have had for a long time, and what we had been screaming out for since the last generation games.

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