Author name: DJ Henderson

Hello, and welcome back to Patch Notes! As always I grab a few bits of news from the past week and discuss them. This week we’ve got Borderlands 3, a mini-meltdown from Randy Pitchford and Valve’s brand new VR unit that will not just break your bank, but also leave it crying in a small heap.

Borderlands 3 Is Real!
Borderlands 3 officially exists! The gameplay event reveal happened this week and so we got our first official look at third game in one of my favourite franchises. To be honest, not much as actually changed but I feel like that’s a good thing. Its keeping true to its roots by focusing on the glorious, juicy loot! Normally I’d want a little more change and innovation, but quite frankly I’m happy with a visual upgrade, new classes and loads more guns.

Still, there are some tweaks to the formula. Alternate fire modes for weapons, for example, opens up a bunch of fun possibilities. And now in co-op everyone will get their own loot, finally stopping arguments over who gets the nice gun that just dropped.

Oh, and one of the new characters is an Irishman called Zane. That’s me sold right there.

Anyway, check out some gameplay from Eurogamer below.

Borderlands 3 Microtransaction Confusion
Right, now for some Borderlands 3 confusion. During the gameplay reveal event this past Wednesday Randy Pitchford clearly stated that it, ” “won’t have microtransactions” or “microtransaction-y, free-to-play junk.” It was also confirmed that there would be plenty of skins and heads for customizing the characters. This got a nice cheer from the audience. However, Creative director Paul Sage told Game Informer during an interview that, “We’re selling cosmetic items, but we’re not going to nickel and dime players,”

Right. Bit of confusion there, but no big deal. I mean, it sucks donkey bollox that there will be microtransactions but…

No, wait, here comes an angry Randy Pitchford. After Game Informer put out a simple Tweet stating, “Despite Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford’s comment about ‘no microtransactions’ in Borderlands 3 during today’s livestream, we’ve been told cosmetic items are still purchasable” Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford proceeded to chastise Game Informer. He replied to the Tweet by saying: “Come on guys – shitty clickbait headline. Literally seconds before I said that, I made it very clear we’re going to do more cosmetic stuff like we did in Borderlands 2. You know I was talking about premium currency and loot boxes kind of stuff NOT being in our game. ”

Pitchford continued his rant, Tweeting ” Why you guys would fuck me on this is beyond me… thanks a lot. ” To be clear, Game Informer’s headline simply read, “There won’t be loot boxes in Borderlands 3.”

Things got dumber, though. A Twitter user by the name of Dan Sapossnek replied to Pitchford by saying, “You said no micro transactions. Paying small sums of money for cosmetics is micro transactions. You lied. Not having loot boxes is a big plus, but be honest in how you’re monetizing a game that already costs $60.” This angered Pitchford further who replied to Dan and Game Informer by saying, “See @gameinformer – this is what your fuckwitted tweet is doing! Please correct your bullshit. This user believes and has called me a liar because of your incomplete context click bait bullshit here. You are better than this.”

Since then there have been loads more Tweets and heated words from Pitchford. Game Informer themselves have even stepped into the conversation and to their credit have remained calm. They correctly point out that nowhere did they claim Pitchford had lied nor do they say anything negative. They simply reported the facts to clarify the situation for everyone.

Pitchford, though, was still pissed off. He has attempted to claim that Game Informer took what he said completely out of context and that by publishing something saying that there would be no microtransactions (which were his words) they had confused people.

So, let’s examine exactly what he said. ” “we’re gonna do some kickass campaign DLC, and I’m sure we’re going to do all kinds of fun customizations like heads and skins. But we’re not doing any of that free-to-play junk. There’s not going to be any microtransactions, there’s not going to be any of that nonsense.” To me, what he said was quite clear: there will be downloadable campaign content, presumably paid-for, and there are going to be heads and skins. And no microtransactions. In this I believe Game Informers article was spot-on. They initially reported that there would be no microtransactions based upon Pitchford’s words, then later clarified things. Meanwhile, Pitchford seems to believe that Borderlands 3’s cosmetics are not microtransactions and that things like loot boxes do not come under the heading of microtransactions.

Pitchford has had problems with the media in the past, especially in regards to Aliens: Colonial Marines. He was accused of blatantly lying about aspects of that game. And over the years he’s proven volatile, quickly angering at even the smallest things. This just seems to be another example of that. Game Informer did what their job requires of them – they reported on something they deemed interesting, and then later published information which clarified Pitchford’s statement. They didn’t paint Pitchford or Gearbox in a negative light or even offer an opinion on the matter. Randy Pitchford, though, attacked them regardless.

Valve’s New VR Headset

So, it seems that while VR sales aren’t as high as I’d personally like Valve seem to think there’s still plenty of opportunity there. This week they announced their brand new Index VR system which retails at a whopping £919 for the whole thing. Apparently despite the epic price pre-orders were sold out within 30-minutes in the US.

So surely for nearly a £1000 this should be the next step in VR? Well, no. Not really. Things like eye tracking and being wireless are true steps toward the next generation of headsets. The new Oculus Rift S, for example, doesn’t need external sensor stations.

What exactly does the Index offer, then? For starters there are two LCD screens providing 1440×1600 resolution per eye. According to Valve these custom LCD screens will provide 50% more subpixels than OLED and thus is intended to combat the screen-door effect which is when players can discern pixels due to how close their eyes are to the screens. A 140Hz refresh rate should help give the Index a smooth feeling which is vital in VR. Comparatively the new Oculus Rift S is running at 80Hz.

Oddly Valve have so far not confirmed the field of view that the Index will sport. What they have said is that it will be 20% greater than that of the Vive which has a FOV of 110-degrees.

The front of the headset has two front-facing cameras that allow you to see the real-world while wearing the headset. This opens the door for augmented reality uses, and if nothing else means you’ll be able to grab something off your table with floundering around like a moron.

There’s also new controllers which are worn instead of just held. Because of that you can properly open up your hands with 87 sensors per controller tracking the movements. During hands-on time with the headset people reported getting to play Aperture Hand Labs where they were able to shake a robots hand and even open a letter by pinching the tab. These new controllers could definitely allow for a much greater sense of immersion.

Finally, there are the new basestations which will offer a wider tracking range and a general increase in accuracy.

Now let’s chat about the pricing. £919 is the cost for the complete package, but there are cheaper options if you already own a Vive or Vive Pro. You can pick up the Index headset and controllers for £689, or pay £459 for the headset. Grabbing the controllers on their own costs £259. This is because both the controllers and the headset are fully compatible with existing Vive and Vive Pros. The Index’s basestations, though, are not backwards compatible.

Right, so what do we think of this? Well, personally I don’t think the Index is offering a true next-gen VR experience, rather its a refinement of what we have right now. Provided everything is as Valve claims then the Index should take the spot as the number one VR headset available in terms of pure quality and performance. But man, that pricetag is one hell of a barrier for entry. As amazing as the Index sounds I don’t think I could justify upgrading from my Oculus Rift. It’s certainly not a price likely to bring in VR noobs, either, rather the Index seems to be aimed at people who already own a VR headset, are sold on the idea and now want the best version possible.

My weekend has been filled with violence courtesy of my little niece who firmly believes that beating up her uncle is the greatest thing in the world. Man, five-year-old little girls can seriously do some damage. Jeez.

This week I chucked out my review for Close to the Sun, an intriguing game set in an alternate timeline where Nikola Tesla has become the richest man in the world. With all that wealth he constructed a huge ship called the Helios and then packed it with the greatest minds in the world. Of course, things go wrong, people die and we get to explore the ship in order to find out what went wrong.

All said and done I really enjoyed Close to the Sun, but the ending left me feeling entirely unsatisfied and the tension that was so well concocted early on fizzled out. Go check out my review for the rest of my thoughts.

I also put out another Patch Notes, this time talking about Randy Pitchford having a small meltdown and Valve’s brand new VR headset.

So I’ve been putting some time into Days Gone and so far I’d have to say it’s pretty damn good, though the opening couple of hours don’t do it any favours. But what I wanted to talk about here is what’s up with the bikes? Or my exactly, why is everybody on bikes and why are they all choppers? I mean, I’m totally on-board with having a bike in a zombie apocalypse, but a chopper is the worst choice possible. They’re clumsy, hard to move around and suck for off-roading. Yet everyone is riding them, with not a dirt-bike in sight. Weirder is how the roads are littered with cars and especially chunky 4x4s that would be superb for mowing down Freakers. Why does nobody drive those as well? I don’t think the game ever tries to explain it, either. Huh.

My Mortal Kombat 11 review should be up in the next few days, so I won’t say too much about it. I’ve actually had to re-write a chunk of the review due to some of the recent updates, which is a good thing because the game has been improved.

I’d also recommend checking out Kasual to Kompetitive, a handy guide to the game that you can find below. There’s a series of these videos, and once you’ve watched this one you should go and look at their combo guide.

Obviously last week Game of Thrones aired the third episode in the final season. Its fair to say that opinions were somewhat divided. I’m going to offer up some quick thoughts on it, so be warned we’re going into spoiler territory.

First, let’s tackle the Night King himself. I agree with the general feeling that after 8 seasons of build it was a shame to see him go out so…quickly. I’m not upset about Jon Snow not fighting him head-on, though. While it would have been cool to see, it wasn’t something I assumed would happen. Plus, we don’t even know if the Night King was any good with a blade. We never saw him fight, and he seemed disinterested in doing so. He shrugged off Jon’s challenge earlier in the episode, after all. He may never have had to properly fight one-on-one. He has no reason to.

With that said, Arya was a bit of a surprise, but a welcome one in my eyes. I like how they used the episode to remind of us of her various skills. I really enjoyed the library sequence and how she was shown to be so quiet that it was a drop of blood that eventually gave her away. The callback to her to move against Brienne from last season was also superb, and I liked that she snuck up on Jon in the exact same place the episode prior.

But man, the Night King needs to get himself some better bodyguards. The white walker generals kind of suck. At everything. Not only do we never see them do anything, they failed to protect their master from the small blur of a girl.

Speaking of useless, what the fuck Bran. Just…man, you’re useless.

A lot of people are unhappy with the idea of Cersei and the battle for the throne being the final boss fight in Game of Thrones, assuming that the Night King story is actually over. I think I’m okay with it because I had always figured that the battle for the throne would probably be the finale. Game of Thrones, at least the TV show, has always been about two storylines: winter coming, and political backstabbing. Realistically, the threat of the walkers had to be dealt with first. Although I have to admit that having the North tackle Cersei first then trying to hold off the Night King with a shattered army would have been cool.

As for the rest of the episode, I did notice that a lot of people found it too dark. It’s a valid complaint, I reckon, but personally the darkness worked for me. I loved that you couldn’t see the undead until they were right on top of people. It gave the battle a horror tinge.

I also thought they did a fantastic job of taking a 90-minute battle and keeping it interesting. They constantly changed the pace up, from chaotic war to character moments to creepy sections and sombre sequences. The entire piano and slow motion sequence toward the end sent chills down my spine.

In the midst of all that chaos, though, it was a bit strange that none of the major characters died. I think Game of Thrones has fundamentally changed since the show caught up with the books. One of the defining aspects of the books and show, to me, was that characters would die in believable ways. If they made poor decisions in the game (of thrones) or found themselves in tough situations it usually resulted in death. But since diverging from the books it feels like characters are able to get away with a lot more. Jon Snow and co. being surrounded in the middle of the lake from last season is a prime example. In earlier Game of Thrones at least a few of the big characters in that episode would have died. But thanks to Gendry being a champion runner they pulled through with only one minor death. Going back to The Long Night we had multiple characters being completely surrounded or inept yet surviving. Sam is a character I love, but he should have gotten killed several times over. Likewise, we saw Brienne, Jaime and Podrick all being squashed by dozens of walkers but by time we come back to them they’re fine again.

And then, of course, we have the strange Dothraki charge. I’m still not sure why they were at the front, or why the catapults were also right on the front line and did practically nothing. It seems like the Dothraki were sacrifices or something, though, because none of them appeared to be wielding dragonglass weapons that I could see. Maybe we’ll get some sort of crazy explanation this week as to why they all went charging off to their deaths. But man, at least the scene with all the fiery swords going out was awesome.

Fighting games are like some sort of detox. After playing game after game where I’m living a power fantasy playing a fighting game can be a slap to the face, a reminder that I’m not as good as I think. One on one there are no excuses. Failure needs to be owned. Lessons must be learned. Inventive swear words must fill the air like so many angry, foul-mouthed bees. And my favourite fighting game series in history is Mortal Kombat. I’ve been playing them since Mortal Kombat 2, and now we’re up to the 11th numbered game in the series. For a while things were rough, but then NetherRealm made an epic comeback in 2011. Since then, Mortal Kombat has been better than ever. But Mortal Kombat 11…well, it’s a little trickier.

The Story & Characters
The story mode is lavishly made with detailed cutscenes, awesome fight sequences and even some strong voice acting in places, provided you don’t count the awkwardness that is Ronda Rousey voicing Sonya Blade. We open with Raiden having gone off the deep end. Determined to keep Earth Realm safe he’s now willing to go to any lengths to achieve that. Unhappy with the way things have gone a character by the name of Kronika pops up and starts messing with the timeline. Suddenly earlier versions of the Mortal Kombat cast start popping up. Young, cocky Johnny Cage is interact acting with his older, wiser self. Cassie Cage has to deal with meeting the earlier versions of her parents. It’s prime material for some klassic Mortal Kombat cheesiness.

Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PS4

Reviewed On: Xbox One X

Developer: NetherRealm

Publisher: Warner Bros.

Do be warned, though; if you can’t help but nit-pick stories then Mortal Kombat 11 might just drive you crazy. The thing that typically bothered me the most is how both heroes and villains would knock their deadly opponent’s out and then just leave them there. In a game that features incredibly violent killing animations, loads of blood and more violence than an average Saturday night in Glasgow it’s strange that so many lethal threats are left alive.

In short, there are a lot of plot holes involving the time -travelling shenanigans, but the story is surprisingly good fun. The only real complication is that keeping track of the Mortal Kombat timelines requires a college degree. This is the second sequel to the 2011 Mortal Kombat which served as a reboot for the series. Mortal Kombat X bumped the storyline along 25-years, thus introducing characters like Cassie Cage, the daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade. Throw in time travel and lots of references to prior games and you’ve got one confusing mixture.

Time travel also gives the developers an excuse to mix up their character roster. Old classics make a most welcome return, such as Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Noob Saibot, Liu Kang and Johnny Cage. Then there are the newer members like Cassie Cage and Erron Black. Finally, there are a selection of characters introduced in Mortal Kombat 11. There’s Geras, the hulking servant of Kronika, and Citrion, the daughter of Kronika who can wield the elements. It’s a good mix of characters, and the roster will only get expanded. But with that said, holding Shao Kahn back as a pre-order bonus was a dick move.

Fighting Mechanics & Changes
Look, I’m no expert at fighting games so this isn’t going to be a review that approaches the combat from a technical perspective. This is just going to be from the view of someone who likes punching virtual opponents in the face. On the surface this is still the typical Mortal Kombat experience where you dial combos and special moves and watch the blood fly. Hits feel impactful, the controls are responsive and the game looks fantastic.

Probably the most obvious change is that running has been ditched entirely, so the intense rushing of Mortal Kombat 10 is thankfully gone. Instead, its back to dashing, though players have already found an insane method using dashing that lets them hop across the screen in seconds. Despite the intense on-screen violence the pace actually feels more thoughtful and methodic.

Then there’s the inclusion of Krushing Blows, painful slow-motion moves that show of your opponent’s bones and organs being decimated. Every character has access to a few of these, but the way they’re triggered varies. Sometimes they need to be used as a counter, for example. Each one can only be used once in a fight, so to get the most out of them you need to vary attacks. I like these, because at first I didn’t even think about them and only occasionally hit one by accident, but over time knowing how and when to use them became more important.

Perhaps the most divisive tweak to the way fights play out are Fatal Blows. When your health is low a quick pull of both triggers activates a Fatal Blow, which is basically a super attack animation complete with spikes going through eyeballs, ice-axes being driven into chests and so much more gloriously over-the-top forms of violence. They’re fun the first time around, but after that the lengthy animations disrupt the flow of a fight and each character only has a single Fatal Blow animation. They can also just feel like a cheap way of balancing out fights, so that someone getting hammered can suddenly pull of an immensely damaging move. However, the wind up for a Fatal Blow does give the opponent a good amount of time to block. Plus, a Fatal Blow can only be used once per fight.

I have to say, though, that Fatal Blows in the story mode are hilarious. In the opening scenes you play as Cassie Cage and must battle her mother Sonya Blade to prove she is capable of leading a squad. Mid-way through the fight I activate Fatal Blow and suddenly loving daughter Cassie Cage proceeds to break Sonya’s jaw, put a bullet through each of her knees and then finish up with several rounds into her gut. Then the match ends and both people act like all they had was a demonstration bout. Only in Mortal Kombat.

Once again I have returned to bless you all with some random snippets of news from the past week and my horrendously worded opinions about them! Huzzah! This time Randy Pitchford is in the news again, Ubisoft have announced a new Ghost Recon, John Wick is getting a video game and NetherRealm are investigating accusations of horrible working conditions.

Randy Pitchford vs Claptrap Actor David Eddings
Oh look, Randy Pitchford is in the news again. Jesus Christ, would someone just disconnect his internet already?

Actually, to be fair, this story is a little more complicated and ultimately boils down to Randy’s word versus someone else’s.

Things start with David Eddings, the original voice of Claptrap for Borderlands, Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Eddings posted a Tweet stating that he wouldn’t be reprising his role. Eddings replied to a Twitter user asking if he would be voicing Claptrap, saying “No. For the first time, I insisted on getting paid for my performance and all of a sudden they couldn’t afford me. Now I’m not telling them how to run their business but maybe next time they should put the $12M payment from 2K in the Gearbox bank account instead. Just sayin’… “

I was fine moving on after Gearbox. But when my former boss starts mouthing off about various aspects of my employment including “how highly compensated” I was and how “generous” he is, I feel obligated to correct the record.— David Eddings (@davideddings) May 7, 2019

In the previous games Eddings was working at Gearbox and voiced the character for free. According to Gearbox they offered the chance to voice characters in their games to all of their employees, but it was never mandatory. When approached to reprise his role Eddings was no longer working at Gearbox (having left in 2017) and thus asked to be paid for his work.

Eddings comment about the $12-million payment is referring to an ongoing lawsuit in which Randy Pitchford is accused of having pocketed a $12-million payout from 2K that was intended to go directly to Gearbox as a whole.

Randy Pitchford later stated:

Mr. Eddings was paid very handsomely during his employment. After his employment he was made a relatively generous offer to reprise the role. Unfortunately, he turned that opportunity down.— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) May 3, 2019

According to Pitchford, Eddings was offered 2x the standard industry rate but no agreement could be reached. After a quick bit of research it seems standard union rates for voice-over work is about $400 per hour, thus Pitchford is saying that Eddings turned down about $800 per hour.

However, Gearbox’s official Twitter account says that they offered him industry standard rates, contradicting what Pitchford said. So far, so confusing.

Eddings also stated that, “I ultimately offered to do it for “free” in exchange for past royalties owed plus an apology for something I’ve never spoken about publicly until now: Randy physically assaulted me in the lobby of the Marriott Marquis at GDC 2017. “

In regard to royalties Eddings previously mentioned that Gearbox employees take lower salaries with the promise of royalties to come. Presumably said royalties were going to amount to a large sum if Eddings and Gearbox couldn’t reach an agreement. According to another Tweet from Eddings he would have lost money accepting the job, which was unacceptable especially as he has a lot of responsibilities.

Then there are the serious physical assault accusations. I recommend reading Eddings interview with Newsweek for a proper breakdown of events. In short Eddings was informed that someone inside of Gearbox was attempting to get a price on the company. Eddings told Randy Pitchford who responded angrily and then shoved Eddings. Eddings believes that Randy Pitchford was already aware of the person trying to get a price on Gearbox and was somehow involved, and that Pitchford merely wanted him to tattle on his source. As a result Eddings said he was fired by Pitchford the day after the assault, though Eddings did also report the incident to Human Resources.

This is a hell of a story, and honestly trying to piece it together feels impossible. Most of it has come from Tweets, so trying to get a clear timeline is awkward and questions regarding specific details remain unanswered. At this point I’m not even sure if Eddings was actually offered payment. Given Pitchford’s history of lying and his volatile temper I’m inclined to believe Eddings in this case, but this is an example of “he said, she said” with nothing but words. The only exception is that Gearbox co-founder Landon Montgomery says he did witness Randy getting angry and shoving Eddings.

Finally, I can’t even figure out how this started. There doesn’t seem to be an inciting Tweet that I can track down. I have no doubt that there are huge chunks of this story missing, so judgement should be reserved for the moment. In the meantime, I appreciate Eddings also pointing out that his problems are with Pitchford and that he views Gearbox as a terrific company.

Against all laws of probability I’ve somehow managed to catch yet another bloody cold. Annoyingly it’s just a few days before I’m due to go visit my sister and little nephew, so hopefully I can just inject some Lucozade straight into my bloodstream and let that sort everything out. I’m pretty that’s a medically sound idea, right?

On that topic, though, I thought I’d share a picture of my wee nephew pulling his best pose for the camera. Cheeky little sod.

This week I reviewed the gruesome Mortal Kombat 11 and had some quite mixed feelings about it. Ultimately, though, the core fighting mechanics were bloody awesome and I’m still having good fun with it. The progression system is still rather naff, but I’m enjoying learning different characters and getting my ass whooped online.

I’m still playing Days Gone as well. And yes, I do still plan on reviewing it. I’m just taking my time with, savoring it as much as I can. Because I like to review as much as I possibly can I find myself rushing through games. It’s nice to just sit back and take my time with a game.

Anyway, I’ve read most of the major reviews for Days Gone and have to say…they’re kind of right. The combat is clumsy, the movement is clunky and the opening hours don’t do the game any favours. It’s a game that really hits its stride 10 hours in, and that’s not a good thing. But I think it shares a lot in common with Red Dead Redemption 2 in that its flaws can be overlooked. Once you deal with the issues and learn how to work around them Days Gone becomes so much fun. There’s a strong story with a great lead character, great bike riding and an interesting open world.

And taking on the massive swarms of Freakers is just a blast. The first one I encountered was a crazy affair involving me running madly around trying to lure them into death-traps. Great stuff.

In terms of forthcoming reviews, I’m not to sure at the moment. I’m probably not going to be covering Rage 2 as it simply doesn’t interest me. I do have a pile of tech reviews to do, though. That includes some awesome new Star Wars licensed gear from Razer. But I’ve also got some HyperX reviews coming, plus the Rig 500 headset.

I also put out a little piece chatting about episode 4 of Game of Thrones, season 8. There’s a lot I wanted to say and the piece rambles on a bit, but to put it simply yes, the show has gotten weaker and the writing shakier, but I’m still enjoying it.

You could also go read my Patch Notes where I tackled Randy Pitchford being in the news yet again, a John Wick game being announced and more.

This week I watched the sequel to Iron Sky, a barmy film involving evil Nazis on the moon. The sequel, titled The Coming Race, is absolutely terrible. And fantastic. Like Iron Sky it’s not meant to be taken seriously. This is a film that involves humans living on an ex-Nazi moonbase, a hollow Earth, an ancient reptilian race and an army of dinosaurs. I mean, if that doesn’t make you want to watch it then I don’t think you deserve to be alive.

I also watched the 2-hour long God of War documentary that pretty much blew my mind. The passion, detail and sheer talent that went into forging God of War anew is simply breathtaking. It’s a lengthy watch, for sure, but I’d highly recommend you find the time to kick back with some snacks and drinks and watch the story of how one of the best games of this generation came to be.

Other things I’d recommend checking include this lovely little piece from Martin Robinson over on Eurogamer about how it’s time for Ubisoft to bring back Splinter Cell. I couldn’t agree more and it would be a nice change of pace for Ubisoft to go back to a more linear game. Open world games are nice and all, but I miss being Sam Fisher sneaking my way through a tightly designed maze. The previous entry in the series, Blacklist, was fun but probably would have done better without the Splinter Cell name attached to it.

At this point the Internet is a blazing battlefield where various factions go to war over this controversial season of Game of Thrones. It’s a mess, and what was once regarded as one of the finest TV shows ever forged has become one of the most divisive. So grab a beer, get some food and join me as I tackle Game of Thrones, Season 8, Episode 5.

Oh! And be aware that this is a full spoiler review! Stop reading now if you haven’t seen the latest episode.

The first thing to say is that I didn’t have a problem with turns that this episode took. Dany going crazy wasn’t a problem for me. Where the problems lie in this entire season is the lack of proper setup for everything.

Still, in what is perhaps a controversial opinion I actually quite enjoyed this episode when taken as a whole. I’ve accepted that things are going to feel more rushed than I would have liked and that the writing isn’t as good as it once was. Now, I’m just enjoying the ride and what a fucking crazy ride it was.

First of all, this was a visually breathtaking episode. Game of Thrones is easily the most impressive project put on a TV screen, and this episode in particular could rival most big budget movies. The CGI was superb throughout, and there was still plenty of practical work.

The directing and camerawork was on point, too. The high shots of Drogon burning the city were amazing, but the true brilliance was in the depiction of war as nothing more than a brutal atrocity that makes savages out of people, and makes the innocent suffer. There were horrific scenes, and our conquering hero’s armies were shown to just as bloodthirsty as any other once the adrenaline was pumping.

And on the whole the episode had me on the edge of my seat. I still have issues with the writing and the execution of many character moments, but I’m also eager to see how this all ends. I don’t think it was ever possible to deliver an ending that would wrap everything up perfectly on a show like this. It would be a monumental task. How the hell do you end Game of Thrones? I mean, seriously? Hopefully we manage to get a solid finale, but I think it’s smart to temper expectations. Its been a hell of a journey, and so even if the ending isn’t everything I wished it to be I’m still going to have enjoyed the eight seasons it took to get here.

Right, let’s talk in more detail. I’m going to break this down by character, kicking off with…

Jon Snow – He’s…There

You know nothing, Jon Snow. You do nothing, Jon Snow.

This wasn’t an eventful episode for Jon, which seems to be a pattern this season. Mostly it was about his reactions to Dany’s insanity and the realization that he has bent the knee to a terrifying tyrant that controls an overgrown fire-generating reptile of death. If nothing else his character is consistent in terms of remaining honourable to a fault because he ignored Dany’s questionable decisions to the bitter end.

At least he finally tackled his romantic relationship with Dany head on, by which I mean he rejected her, presumably due to the whole being related thing. It does kind of kill the mood. Although I can’t help but wonder if a lot of burning alive could have been avoided if Jon had shown Dany some lovin’.

We did get hints of a confrontation between Jon and Grey Worm, which could be a lot of fun. Above all else, though, I imagine it’s going to be Jon that has to kill Dany. You could also read that as fulfilling the Azor Ahai prophecy. The Long Night the prophecy talks about may not have just been the Night King, but a dark period of history in general which Jon ends by killing Dany. If his sword goes up in flames then that’ll be why.

At least Jon is going to have one hell of a story to tell his future kids. “Aye, I was there when King’s Landing fell. I saw all them people burned alive. It was horrible. And I could have stopped it all if I’d just slept with my aunt.”#

God dammit, Jon.

Tyrion – Still Kind Of Dumb

Tyrion had a really mixed episode this week. On the one hand I loved his scene with Jaime. His admitting that Jaime was probably the only thing that kept him alive when they were children was a heartfelt moment that made me choke back some tears. Even as the world goes mad Tyrion has remained steadfast in trying to save as many people as he can, including his brother and even the sister he hates.

His reaction to watching Dany burn the city was also superb. Regardless of any issues that I may have with the show I cannot stress how brilliant the acting was. Peter Dinkelage was on top form here.

His selling out of Varys, though, has left me feeling conflicted. Over the last season or two Tyrion has seemingly lost his one major strength: his intelligence. A slew of bad decisions has made us all question whether it was simply because he has trouble reading Dany or if it was poor writing. But one thing has remained true and that’s his stubborn loyalty to Dany. He firmly believed in her, and so after telling Varys of Jon’s real identity he then sells Varys out. It does make sense; he’s loyal to Dany and also knew Varys would likely do something to get rid of her. Indeed, we got evidence of that with Varys talking to the small child, stating that they’d try again at supper. I’m pretty sure the implication was that Varys was attempting to poison Dany again, as supported by the fact that the child works in the kitchens and he told her, “remember, the greater the risk the greater the reward.” Varys had her slipping poison into Dany’s food.

Still, I would have liked to have seen Tyrion have one last conversation with Varys, one last attempt to save his old friend before ensuring that he got barbecued like a chicken wing.

Varys – Went Out Like A Boss

Though Varys is dead he may still have an impact on things to come. The letters he was writing all seemed to be informing various lords about Jon Snow’s actual parentage, and so now the truth is presumably running rampant across Westeros.

Varys was told that he’d die in Westeros, and last season Dany also told him she’d burn him alive if he ever betrayed. Both things came to pass for poor Varys, a character I assumed at first was nothing but a snake but that I came to like. Much like Tyrion his goal was to make things better, and to help hold Dany in check. Ultimately his betrayal and death helped show the world Dany for what she truly is – a Targeyran lunatic.

Varys went out via dragonfire and never once made a sound. That was a bit odd since not long after we saw other people screaming while they died of dragonfire, so I guess Varys was just a total boss.

Finally, I assume this means we will never learn what Varys heard in the flames when his most intimate parts were chucked in the fire all those years ago.

Jaime & Cersei – Together Again

As a character Cersei really didn’t do very much in this episode, which was surprising. She’s proved time and time again that’s she’s the coldest bitch around, yet she didn’t seem to have any backup plans. Instead she stood at her balcony and watched everything burn. However, that did let Lena Headely deliver a masterclass in acting. Cersei’s episode-long breakdown was so engaging. Her refusal to believe that she could lost before doubt began to creep in and then eventually outright terror was fantastic. Then her final moments with Jaime where she breaks down entirely made me genuinely feel sorry for her. As evil and cold as she is, she was ultimately still just a person terrified of dying, who wanted her and her child to live.

Jaime is a more complex topic. On the one hand I feel like I get what they were trying to do with his character. They seemed to be trying to say that this was never a redemption story for Jaime. We the audience saw it that way, but Jaime never did. In truth he could never be redeemed considering the horrible things he’s done. And so he returns to the woman he loves and his unborn child because he doesn’t believe himself a hero. He’s a drug addict who cannot escape his addiction to Cersei Lannister.

You could also view Jaime’s speeches to Brienne and Tyrion as him justifying going back to Cersei to himself. Rather than telling Brienne the truth he tries to make her hate him instead. And later with Tyrion he justifies the choice to himself by saying he never cared about the innocent. He does. But he needs his fix. He needs her.

However, it still feels like a massive betrayal of Jaime’s long story arc and seemingly ignores a few key plot points. Firstly, the scene between Jaime and Brienne in the bath several seasons back saw Jaime finally explaining why he killed the Mad King. He says himself that he did it to save the city, that he begged the King to surrender and spare lives. He became Kingkiller to save King’s Landing.

Later on Jaime tells Cersei he’s heading North to fight for the living. Again, his upholding his knightly vows to protect the innocent. We even get reminded that he’s a knight when he knights Brienne. And then knights her again. Sorry.

With this in mind it feels off to have him saying that he doesn’t care about the innocents and all that crap. He just wants to get to Cersei, the same woman who sent Bronn to kill him in the previous episode but is now concerned that Jaime is bleeding. Women, eh? Amiright?

Still, we can at least say that Jaime remained consistent in his love for Cersei and how it tended to override everything else. Over the past 8 seasons we have always seen him return to her side again and again. And who knows? Perhaps Jaime will live on in his and Brienne’s child. That’d be an interesting twist.

“Can we redefine ourselves?” Coster-Waldau said in an interview about Jaime’s decision to leave King’s Landing in season 7 “Most people have moments in their life where you go, ‘Can I really, fundamentally change?’ . . . The core of him has always been Cersei. . . . When that’s taken away, what are you then? What’s left? Is there anything left? When he leaves [King’s Landing at the end of Season 7], obviously he has no idea. He doesn’t know the answer to that question.”

Finally, another prophecy was fulfilled by a technicality. Cersei did indeed die with her younger brother’s hand around her throat.

Euron – A Real Dick Until The End

Right. Don’t know where to start with this, really. Euron has been a strange character on the show. He never had a real defined personality outside of being a complete knob and it constantly felt like the writers didn’t know what to do with him. This was apparent in episode 5 where his role ultimately wound up being to crawl out of the ocean at the exact same time Jaime Lannister happened to be passing by. Cue a decent fight that I couldn’t get into it. Jaime gets stabbed and his injuries would likely kill him, if it wasn’t for the fact that he gets crushed any ways. But I did like that Euron reckoned he had killed Jaime, because Euron’s ego demands it.

Before all that, Euron took on a dragon again. Now, in fairness the writers at least attempted to explain why the deadly Scorpions which massacred Rhaegal last episode were suddenly struggling here. Dany swoops down from the sun at a sharp so that getting a shot on her becomes damn near impossible, before then using Drogon’s speed. We saw that the Scorpions were awkward to manoeuvre. They couldn’t keep it up.

It’s not the best explanation as to why the Scorpions were incredibly accurate last episode and able to fend of Dany’s charge as well, but at least there was some justification written in. Still, the Scorpions were made a mockery of and so the threat that was built up around them in the previous episode was wasted.

The Hound – A Fitting End

At this point The Hound is arguably the one character whose arc feels like it came to a fitting conclusion that almost all the fans would agree makes sense. He went to King’s Landing and he killed his brother. Well, killed him for the second time. The Hound vs The Zombie Mountain was a spectacular brawl. Apparently the only thing that superseded the orders of Zombie Mountain’s maker was his hatred for his brother.

Anway, there’s not much to say here except I enjoyed the hell out of their entire fight, and thought that the Hound tackling his brother into fire was a fitting end to their story.

I also loved his scene with Arya. While it was a bit daft that he waited until the very last second to deliver his little speech to her, it was a nice, heartfelt moment between two characters who have always had a fascinating relationship. Arya has spent most of her life now chasing revenge against those who wronged her and her family. That’s a high cost, and the Hound can see her becoming just like him; surly, uncaring, focused on a singular, horrible thing and unable to find any happiness in. He doesn’t want that for her.

Arya – Didn’t Stab Anyone

Arya had a bit of strange episode because basically she trekked across the whole country and into King’s Landing just so she could run back out of the city. She also learned that badass assassin skills do not translate into dodging piles of falling masonry very well. Her plot armour was strong this episode, though, and thus during a truly amazing sequence we get far too many fake “Oh No! She’s dead! Oh, she isn’t” moments.

But seriously, how fucking good was that entire sequence? Again, despite what you may think of the writing there is absolutely no denying how amazing the series has been visually. This was a stunningly directed episode full of jaw-dropping moments.

Anyway, the episode ends on a strange note when Arya randomly stumbles across a horse in the middle of ruined city. It’s a white horse that’s also coated in blood. For me the symbolism is obvious enough; the horse represents Arya’s lost innocence and childhood. She’s still not much more than a kid, yet she’s coated in blood and driven by revenge. As she rides out of the city we get to end the episode on a note of hope, hope that there’s more in life for Arya than death. I can’t imagine she’ll agree to marry Gendry and become a Lady, but maybe she’ll set out on a life of adventure, or just marry Gendry and refuse to do ladylike things.

Daenarys – The Mad Queen
I don’t doubt that Daenary’s was always intended to become her father in the mind of George R.R. Martin. Nor do I doubt that he told the show runners about her turn as well. What I do doubt is that it was intended to play out this way.

Firstly, whether you like Dany as a character or not I don’t think it can be denied that her eventual demise has been strongly hinted at. Dany has always been portrayed as somewhat ruthless, her early days in the Dothraki likely contributing to that. Though she wanted to break the wheel she just replaced it with a brand new Daenarys wheel. Slave traders and other horrible people deserved their comeuppance, but burning people alive and crucifying others was never exactly a good way to show people that she was different.

Back in season 5 she invaded and took over the city of Mereen before attempting to rule it for a year or so. As it turned out, Dany is a shite ruler and is only capable of maintaining power via her dragons. Regardless of whether or not people deserved what Dany did to them, the simple truth is that she committed horrible atrocities.

In short, I feel like Dany becoming a tyrant was indeed setup in prior seasons. Where the problem lies is in the awkward exection of Dany’s descent into madness this season. Rather than a nice slow burn the writers hammered Dany with a rapid series of blows. The deaths of Jorah and Mormont, Jon betraying her trust, Varys’ treason and the fact that she felt threatened by Jon’s existence drove her to the edge. Dany has been repeatedly betrayed in the past, so this latest series of events certainly feels like it could be her snapping point, but it was done too quickly. As she tells Jon, if she can’t rule through love then she’ll rule through fear.

But the biggest execution issue comes with the line Dany crosses. Innocents have died before due to her actions, but they have typically been collateral damage. This time, though, Dany hears the bells that indicate King’s Landing is surrendering and can visibly see soldiers dropping their weapons. She has won, and the people most certainly fear her. Then she makes the concious decision to deliberately and brutally attack the innocent civilians within the city. She burns them alive, regardless of who they are. Children, women, men, soldiers, old folk and even her own troops suffer gruesome deaths. And she keeps going. She keeps burning. It’s a big line for her character to step over and one that didn’t feel justified yet.

This makes Dany a much less interesting character. Had the bells not been struck then Dany burning the city would be a tragic but understandable act. The innocent deaths would still be horrible, but the audience could at least still see her reasoning; they were collateral deaths in a war, even if all Dany actually had to do was just destroy the Red Keep and Cersei. But by having Dany simply murder potentially hundreds of thousands of terrified people the writers have painted her as nothing more than a generic villain that we can’t understand or sympathies with. Dany’s fall should have been tragedy, her good intentions giving way to own overpowering belief that she deserved the throne by right of just being born.

There’s a strong theme in Game of Thrones that just because you were born with a certain name that doesn’t mean you should rule. This was, in my eyes, Dany’s story arc throughout the series. Despite all her intentions she never was any better than the people she replaced. The story potential with that was massive, but instead we just have her going crazy and burning everything instead.

So why? Why innocents? That was never in her character, after all. Despite everything she did, she never deliberately targeted innocent people. According to the writers Dany saw the Red Keep and was overcome with anger because it represented everything she lost. Somehow that translated to murdering everyone else. Had the people of King’s Landing refused her as their queen, it would make sense. But they didn’t. She. Just. Went. Crazy.

Post-apocalyptic survival blockbuster Days Gone was among the most hyped new releases of 2019 and it finally launched to great fanfare on April 26. Open world. titles like Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto and Far Cry have been outrageously popular in recent times and the zombie genre is flourishing. Days Gone therefore looked perfectly poised to capture the zeitgeist and Sony’s marketing team did a great job in ramping up the excitement among the PS4 community.

But has it lived up to the hype? Is it destined to become a modern classic after dazzling with its brilliance and ingenuity, or is it simply another bland and tiresome addition to an oversaturated genre? The answer probably lies somewhere in between.

Critics’ Reception
It is fair to say that Days Gone has received a distinctly lukewarm reception among critics. The Verge referred to it as a “lavishly produced, painfully generic” addition to the zombie genre, opting for the strapline: “When the undead apocalypse is boring.” Reviewer Andrew Webster lamented the way it plays out like a dozen games you have experienced before, the forgettable cast, the predictable plot developments and the frustrating gameplay. The Guardian was a little more generous, assigning it three stars but referring to Days Gone as “a game of fun and fury, signifying nothing”, replete with cardboard cut-out survivors.

This theme continued across the board. The Metro also gave it three stars and found moments of beauty, but said it was bogged down by a sappy storyline and poor pacing. Venture Beat highlighted a number of technical flaws and called Days Gone “a great game that loses itself in the wilderness of bugs”. Polygon called it “a repetitive apocalypse” and signed off with a cutting takedown: “Like a zombie, it lurches through the motions, hungry for brains, lacking its own.” Wired said the game is “so bad it’s funny”. The Gamer ran a feature profiling 10 games that did zombies better.

It has a score of 72 on Metacritic, based on 101 scores, and that is not a bad
performance. Some loved it. The Daily Star enjoyed the “superb zombie-slaying combat”, the motorcycle gameplay and the zombie hordes. Impulse Gamer liked the compelling narrative and the top-notch presentation. But some absolutely hated it. Slant Magazine branded Days Gone “a tiresome, empty experience”, The Daily Dot could not find “any shred of a soul” and VGC said it rarely makes the case for its own existence. Ouch. Overall, a mixed bag.

Gamers’ Reception
However, users have been a lot kinder to Days Gone thus far. Back on Metacritic, it has received 755 positive reviews, compared to 38 mixed reviews and just 81 negative reviews. “Do not trust the negative reviews,” urged one gamer. “This game is great for anybody… except for the Xboxers.” He went on to call it “a masterpiece”. It received a number of 10/10 and 8/10 scores, although not everyone was pleased with the game. One user wrote: “Bland, uninspired, boring, overdone, nothing new and filled with characters no one cares about. The stupid looking characters, bad animation, bugs and glitches, boring story and bad combat make it a real disappointment.”

A number of people have highlighted the bugs and glitches on social media, but the reaction has been pretty positive, with many social media users sharing pictures of the magnificent graphics. “Is it OK that I actually enjoy Days Gone even though all the reviewers tell me not to?” said one Twitter user. Another posted: “Just beat Days Gone. What a story! The critics were wrong.” A third gamer urged patience and said it really picks up a lot after 20 hours in. Others have begged developer Bend Studio, part of the Sony empire, for a sequel. It went on to win the Players’ Choice Award title for the best new game in April at the PlayStation store ahead of Mortal Kombat.

Early Sales
The negative reviews clearly did not deter masses of gamers as Days Gone shot straight to the top of the bestseller charts at the European PlayStation store in April. That put it ahead of Grand Theft Auto V, World War Z, Mortal Kombat 11 and The Crew 2. In the US, it was second to Mortal Kombat 11, but it still enjoyed a strong showing. It was the bestselling game in the UK in the weeks after its release, leaving Mortal Kombat 11, FIFA 19, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto Firmly in its shade.

It holds the coveted status as the UK’s bestselling game in terms of physical sales so far this year. That has seen it beat Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 and Far Cry: New Dawn from Ubisoft. Days Gone also outperformed God of War on its Japanese debut, instantly shooting straight to the top of the bestseller charts by shifting 114,319 copies in its opening week. God of War only managed 46,091 and that highlights just what a commercial success the game has been thus far.

Future Prospects
Days Gone has shaken off several negative reviews and enjoyed an impressive start to life over the past few weeks. However, it might be difficult for it to maintain that momentum going forwards. Nowadays games require large and engaged communities to enjoy longevity. It also helps if they can translate to the burgeoning world of esports, which people love to bet on at sites like Unikrn, pack into stadiums to watch and stream live on their mobiles and desktops.

This new release from Bend Studios will not translate into an esport, and it has entered an extremely crowded genre. Later this year we will see the release of another eagerly anticipated title from Sony, The Last of Us Part II, and if that receives stronger reviews it could massively eclipse Days Gone, as the original zombie thriller received almost universal acclaim. Throw in Resident Evil 2, Fallout 76, Anthem and Metro Exodus and you see just how saturated the zombie genre is right now and Sony will have to work hard to keep the momentum going.

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good story is a powerful thing. It is amazing to consider how much impact a book, movie or TV show can have upon on our lives, to the extent that when they end we feel like we’ve lost something. I’ve gone through this a number of times, perhaps most recently when Terry Pratchett passed away and I was hit with the realization that there would never been a Discworld book again. No more Tiffany Aching, no more Rincewind, no more Vimes. Years before that when I closed the final Harry Potter book I was momentarily lost. The same feeling would hit again when the movie adaptions came to an end. Stargate SG-1 was another, a long-running series whose ending left me feeling like a part of my life had just vanished.

The point is, I’m still trying to come to terms with the idea that there will be no more Game of Thrones, at least not in its current form. For all the division amongst fans that season 8 has caused, I think we should all take a moment to remember how long Game of Thrones has been part of our lives and the many hours of fantastic entertainment that it has provided. And for all the accusations of slopping writing, justified or not, that have been aimed at Benioff and Weiss it’s good to remember that they were also partially responsible for the show’s strongest seasons as well. Attempting to go from adapting the stellar writing of George R.R. Martin to continuing his work and staying true to it would be a daunting task for anyone.

Anyway, on to the episode itself. Titled “The Iron Throne” the finale was consistent in making me like where the characters end up, but disliking how they got there.

And as per my last review, the night is long and full of SPOILERS!

Right, let’s start off with the most important character:

GHOST
Finally got his pets. Confirmed to be a good boi.

Jon Snow

Jon had a rough season due to him being side-lined for most of it. His dialogue consisted of saying, “You’re muh Queen,” a lot. But in this last episode he finally got something to do, and while I never really bought into his and Daenarys’ relationship I did buy into the devastation Jon felt at having to murder the woman he loved. He’s consistently put everyone else ahead of himself, and he did it one last time.

However, his Targaryen revelation ultimately didn’t change the story very much except for introducing some tension between him and Daenarys. Considering how important Jon’s lineage as been throughout Game of Thrones, both the books and the show, it didn’t feel like it held any weight during the final season. Season 7’s confirmation of Jon’s parentage, which has been one of the longest running theories, was a fantastic moment so for it feel so unimportant was disappointing.

Ultimately it was Jon’s sense of honor that he inherited from Ned Stark that won the day. He put his duty to the realm above all else, and like Ned he was the one that passed judgement and swung (thrust) the blade. I’d also say there was a little mirroring of Jon and Jaime here in the way that for both characters love was blinding and overriding. For everything Jaime went through and did it was ultimately his love for Cersei that overrode everything else, including his own life and redemption. In Jon’s case his love of Dany seemed to blinding him to reality as it took several characters pointing out that she might have gone a tad too far for him to finally wake up and smell the dead bodies.

After Dany’s death, though, things become a tad wonky. With the body carried off and no witnesses except Drogon there is no evidence that Jon murdered Daenarys. Then we get a small time jump, only to find that Jon has been imprisoned by the Unsullied who have apparently taken control of the city. So why exactly was Jon arrested? Presumably he turned himself in since he would have seen that as the honorable thing to do. We should have seen that happen, though.

It’s also rather strange that Greyworm and the Unsullied allowed Jon to live rather than executing him straight away for Regicide. Instead they keep him prisoner for several weeks before dragging Tyrion, who was guilty of treason, before the Lords and Ladies of Westeros. Why do the Unsullied require these people to cast judgement? Greyworm is adamant that the city is under the control of the Unsullied and that both Tyrion and Jon need punishment, then dutifully shuts up when Tyrion launches into his speech.

Jon’s final scenes are a bit confusing. He’s sent back to the Night’s Watch which is still technically guarding the wall, but like before is also a sort of penal colony where bastards, criminals and troublemakers can be sent in the hope of finding redemption. It’s unclear whether Jon has been named Lord Commander again, which would technically make him the 1000th Lord Commander. Regardless, the final scene shows Jon and Tormund leading the Wildlings out from behind the wall and into the North. Is he simply leading the Wildlings home before returning to the wall, or is Jon Snow going North as well, returning to the Wildling ways where he seemed quite happy many seasons ago?

I also noted a bunch of theories surrounding how Jon Snow could become like his uncle, some sort of half-walker half-human hybrid. After all, can he even die after his resurrection? It’s a cool idea, but I don’t think there’s anything supporting it.

Regardless of what Jon is up to the final scene in Game of Thrones is a mirror opposite to the opening sequence in the very first episode of season 1. In that episode we saw the army of the dead emerging from the forest, whereas this time we saw Jon leading the living back into the forest. The way the scene is shot is almost identical to the first episode, too.

Daenarys

After going full psycho last episode and then vanishing from view as she torched the city Daenary’s popped back up to give two speeches and then die. Jesus Christ, what the hell was all that about?

When it came to her one-on-one scene with Jon I was excited at Daenarys having a chance to justify her choices in The Bells, to provide some reason as to why she would choose to incinerate innocent people. Her answer? Cersei was using the people to deter Daenarys. That was Daenarys’ big argument. So instead of just targeting the Red Keep and killing Cersei, thus keeping the casualties to a minimum, she killed a bunch of people who were not in her way. Right.

Y’know, this could have worked if we have an episode or two of Daenarys actually sitting on the throne and actually being a good ruler. A juxtaposition between her capacity for sheer brutality and her ability to rule wisely could have at least made her sympathetic. As they say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. But we didn’t get that and so when it came to her death I felt absolutely nothing. Why would I? She was a monster. The Dany I knew died the moment she chose to burn children alive, and so the only emotion I felt was a sadness for Jon Snow. And for Drogon, the dragon who had lost two brothers and now his mother.

Speaking of which, the Internet has already happily made Drogon into a meme, citing how he spotted the pointy object stuck in his mother and therefore opted to obliterate the pointy seat because it was clearly the perpetrator. In all seriousness, Drogon burning the Iron Throne did look amazing, but it was also rather silly. My assumption is that Jon’s Targaryen heritage is what kept Drogon from at least attempting to annihilate Jon. If that was the case, though, it wasn’t conveyed very well and so what we got was the intelligent dragon opting to destroy a chair instead of eviscerating the man responsible for his mother’s death. Maybe Drogon was aware that it was Dany’s lust for throne that caused her downfall?

But let’s find some positives for Dany, shall we? I liked the way they brought in the idea of her believing she is good and just and knows what is right because that’s what everyone had been telling her she is. She believed to the end that what she was doing was right and for the betterment of the world, so wrapped up in her vision of the future that she couldn’t see what she had become.

I also loved the glimpse of happy, bubbly Dany. Emilia Clarke absolutely nailed it, and did the very best with the limited material she was given to work with. It was a reminder that her intentions were indeed good, and that she truly believed she was going to make the world a better place. Again, had things leading up to Dany going down a darker path been better handled this could have been a truly superb scene that made her death all the more impactful. But at least at the end we got a glimpse of the girl she used to be.

On a side note, many seasons back Dany was shown a vision of the throne room in King’s Landing, of the Red Keep decimated. Then the vision suddenly changed to Khal Drogo and Rhaego, Dany and Drogo’s stillborn child. As it turned out the vision was true, and what Dany saw was her own death and transition to the afterlife. Here’s hoping you found happiness with your Khal and your son, Khaleesi.

Tyrion

The episode opened with Tyrion walking through the ruins of King’s Landing. Here we see not only ash raining down from the sky but also snow. Winter has arrived in King’s Landing. I noted in my last review that the prophecy mentioned the Long Night may not specifically refer to the Night King, but also to the threat of Daenarys. As the episode closed we caught a glimpse of greenery growing North of the Wall, a hint that with Dany’s death the Long Night is over and summer can come again.

I think Tyrion is truly the new King of the Six Kingdoms. I know that he was officially named Hand of the King, but the way I interpreted the end of the episode suggests that Bran is mostly a figurehead and that Tyrion will actually be doing most of the true ruling. Bran’s comment out seeing if he could find Drogon and his rather quick exit from the council indicated to me that he’s happy to leave Tyrion and the others in charge of things. Plus, we never even got to see Bran coroneted.

If this episode was anything then it was a tour of Peter Dinklage’s ability to act the absolute shit out of everything. His discovery of Cersei and Jaime was a powerful moment that was carried solely by the talents of Dinklage.

Then he delivers an impassioned speech later in the episode about picking a new King or Queen. Greyworm specifically told Tyrion to shut up, and then is presumably so enamoured with the Tyrion’s linguistic talents that he lets Tyrion talk everyone into electing a new ruler, letting Jon Snow live and ensuring that he doesn’t get executed. Let this be a lesson to you Greyworm: just execute the people responsible for killing your Queen straight away rather than keeping them prisoner for ages.

I enjoyed the Small Council scene to a degree. It was fun and light-hearted, a nice way to balance out the usual depressing nature of Game of Thrones. I’m not exactly sure why anyone would ever make Bronn the Master of Coin, though. At what point has he demonstrated any aptitude for juggling funds? But anyway, while I do enjoy the sequence and the banter between the council I also feel that given how rushed everything feels the time would have been better spent elsewhere. It would have been good, for example, to see how the people have reacted to the destruction of King’s Landing, the death of Cersei and then of Daenarys and then finally the crowning of a broken King.

Ultimately Tyrion’s ending felt right for his character. Although his intelligence may have been somewhat eroded over the past couple of seasons Tyrion remained one of my favourite characters, and his becoming Hand of the King feels like a fitting end for a man who tried his hardest to do what was right for the people. With Bran off doing strange Bran stuff he’ll be the one largely responsible for rebuilding King’s Landing and dealing with the six kingdoms of Westeros.

Sansa

Sansa’s ending in particular pleased me. She began the show essentially trying to abandon the Stark name and escape the cold North. Over the course of eight seasons we’ve seen her learn from some of the most intelligent players in the Game of Thrones and rediscover her Stark name. I think it fitting for Sansa to take the crown as Queen of the North. As Jon says, “Ned Stark’s daughter will speak for them.”

I think of all the characters on the show Sansa’s journey to the final episode has been the most consistent. It’s been built toward over the last few seasons and so when the Northmen were yelling, “the Queen in the North!” I was right there with them.

Sansa’s declaration that the North would remain independent gave me a chuckle, simply because Yara Greyjoy’s reaction was like, “wait, that was a choice?” Speaking of Yara, the Iron Isles had pledged themselves to Daenarys and Yara reminded everyone of that at the meeting, declaring that the Ironborn are not so quick to forgive, yet mere minutes later Yara seems happy enough to agree to name the new King as Bran, a member of the Stark family she fought against previously. Yara does at least support the idea of killing Jon Snow which fits with her character, but then meekly shuts up because Arya threatens her. When did Yara become Arya’s bitch?

But back on track! In the early season’s Sansa was consistently one of my least liked characters, but as the show went on and the character grew she became one of my favorites. I just wish we had gotten to see Dany sit on the Iron Throne for a few episodes so that her and Sansa’s clash could be fully explored. Once again the fact that the writers didn’t take HBO up on their offer of ten episodes for season 8 means having to skip so much potentially fantastic material.

Arya

The first time we see Arya in this episode she’s stalking Dany, quietly watching as Jon heading up the steps to stand beside his Queen. Given Arya’s character it would make perfect sense for her to target Daenarys. Yes, Arya gave up vengeance in her last scene with the Hound, but this is about much more than that. Killing Dany could save millions of people, and Arya has the skills to slip in, eliminate Dany and disappear before anyone would even know what happened.

But instead Arya uses her magic ninja powers (gained when she was bitten by a radioactive Batman) to silently appear beside Jon. It was a cool shot, sure, but then Arya proceeds to tell Jon that she knows a killer when she see’s one, looking pointedly at Dany. An astute observation there, Arya. The thousands of people that Dany just burned alive was in no way a clue that she might be capable of killing.

Really since episode 3 I don’t think the writers have known what to do with Arya. They have an incredibly powerful character on their hands, and while they managed to find reasons for Arya being unable to get to Cersei and potentially end the war before it even began they didn’t manage to explain why Arya didn’t just kill Dany in this episode, or at least attempt to. Instead, Arya just has to be yet another person trying to point out to Jon Snow that Dany is a bit of an issue and should be dealt with. And then once Jon is chucked in jail, Arya doesn’t go bust him out.

Indeed, Arya’s entire journey to King’s Landing was a bit pointless. Her main reason for being there seemed to be because the writers wanted her as a POV character for the destruction of King’s Landing. She single-handedly took out the Night King, yet when Tyrion talks of the power of a story he bypasses Arya’s own amazing tale. Of course, Arya wouldn’t want the crown, but if you’re looking for a figurehead who better than the woman who took out the Night King?

Still, I did ultimately like Arya’s ending. While once again the build to it was poorly handled – especially since in season 6 her saying, “I’m going home” and retaking her name was such a big deal – the idea of her wanting to become Dora the Explorer feels kind of right. Again, had more time been given to Arya’s story I would have liked to have seen her at Winterfell and coming to the slow realization that she doesn’t have a place there any more either, thus giving her the reason to head out and explore what is west of Westeros. Ah well. Seeing her sailing away with the Stark emblem on the ship’s sails and at its prow was a nice moment.

Bran

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that George R.R. Martin does fully intend on Bran claiming the throne at the end of the books. But I hope that the author does a better job of building toward that moment than the show, because Bran being crowned King was something I didn’t see coming, and not in a good way.

The issue is that once the show overtook the books nobody seemed sure what to do with Bran. As a result huge chunks of his story were utterly forgettable.

As I mentioned when talking about Tyrion I believe Bran will be more of a figurehead than anything else. But there are interesting questions surrounding Bran and whether he perhaps altered events in order to claim the throne. “Why do you think I came all this way?” Bran says to Tyrion, the obvious implication being Bran already knew he would become King, though exactly when he knew is debatable. This paints Bran in a sinister light; did he allow the deaths of thousands of people in King’s Landing? He certainly seemed to be aware of upcoming events last season when he handed Arya the Valayrian Steel dagger in the very same spot that she would use the dagger to kill the Night King in.

The first problem is that Bran’s abilities have remained extremely vague throughout the show. It seems he is able to see part of the future, but not all of it. That leaves us wondering exactly what he saw. He remained adamant that he didn’t want the crown, too. After naming Tyrion the Hand of the King Tyrion says that he doesn’t want the position, to which Bran says he didn’t want the crown, either.

So, is the future determined or changeable? Bran’s foreknowledge of his crowning might portray him as sinister, but it could also imply that he saw a future where his not accepting the crown could lead to worse things. After all, what other options were there? Jon didn’t want the crown either and really is personality probably wouldn’t make him a great monarch. Plus, it’s stated that if he took the throne the Unsullied and possibly even the Dothraki would be a tad unhappy, although the Unsullied piss off on boats later anyway. Sansa is more interested in an independent North, and if she did take the crown everybody would be sure she would favor the North. None of the other Lords or Ladies would likely support someone like Yara or Edmure or Robin, and Tyrion listed off a bunch of reasons he couldn’t take it. As for Gendry his legitimacy was only just made official, and the person who made it official was the Dragon Queen who just torched a city then got murdered. Bran is basically a neutral choice in the eyes of the show writers, although to my thinking the other Lords and Ladies would wonder if Bran would favour his sister when interacting with North. Essentially Bran wasn’t chosen because he’d be a good king, but because everybody else would cause problems.

There are some worrying questions that still remain. The Three-Eyed Raven is more like a separate entity that has taken up residence inside Bran’s body and it’s a bit unclear as to how much of Bran is left. Based on the previous episodes I’d say not very much. There’s also the fact that the previous Three-Eyed Raven was some 1000-years-old, so was anyone aware of this when they voted Bran in? They might be in for a surprise.

Everything Else
Once again the way the episode was shot and scored was simply superb. For all the problems that I might have with the final episode there is simply no denying how visually amazing it was. The way Drogon spread his wings behind Dany, making her seem like a dragon for just a moment, was beautiful. I also loved Drogon sleeping under a pile of snow, shrugging it off as Jon approached.

But man, this episode is a prime example of the many issues that have plagued season 8 and season 7. Let’s take simple details: what the hell happened to the Dothraki? They were seemingly wiped out in episode 3 before somehow showing up in The Bells in full force. In the final episode they almost entirely vanish after Dany’s speech, only a few of them reappearing later at the Harbor. Where the hell did they go? There’s a brief line suggesting that the Unsullied had convinced them to leave but…that’s a very un-Dothraki thing to do. What, they just raped and pillaged an entire city then quietly leave? Nah.

The Unsullied also seemed to respawned since episode 3. There’s a whole fecking army of them in this episode. It ultimately makes the battle with the Night King feel utterly pointless because even after the Walker hordes ripped the allied forces of Daenarys and the North to shreds the armies were still more than a match for Cersei’s forces. Wouldn’t have the taking of King’s Landing have been so much more tense and interesting if Daenarys’ and Jon’s troops were decimated? If Daenary’s actions were borne of desperation rather than sheer madness?

Once again we also get things being skipped over entirely, characters and entire armies teleporting around like distance is no longer a factor even though it was once an integral part of the show. Back in episode 4 Sansa spoke of the soldiers being tired and needing rest, but we skipped them having to make their way to King’s Landing where they seemed to be perfectly fine anyway. In the Game of Thrones of old we would have seen the travel time and seen how it affected the armies.

Smaller moments that I enjoyed included seeing Brienne as the new head of the Kingsguard and her finishing Jaime’s chapter in the book. Presumably she has been released from her vow to protect the Stark girls at this point, and equally presumably Brienne was the one who knighted Podrick, whose job now seems to be the Master of Pushing the Bloody Chair Around.

Random Thoughts & Moments
Tyrion resigning in front of the entire Unsullied and Dothraki army was badass. But also very, very stupid.
What happened to Varys’ notes? He seemed to be telling as many people that he could that Jon was a Targeyran. Did those notes get out? Are loads of people now aware that Jon is the rightful King?
Daenarys actually did succeed in breaking the wheel. Her destruction of King’s Landing and her subsequent death resulted in Westeros changing how new Kings and Queens come around.
Daenarys also succeeded in putting the throne on wheels. Long live King Bran.
That burned guy at the start of the episode just got lost looking for the Chernobyl casting call.
Where in the blazes did Arya’s white horse go? Did she ride it like 20ft then get off and head back into King’s Landing anyway?
Are they going to fix the huge hole in the wall? Somebody call Trump. He needs to know about this. He’s going to be pissed.
After eight seasons I think it’s fair to say that Game of Thrones didn’t end in the way we wanted. And I don’t mean in terms of whether it was upbeat and happy or incredibly depressing. We all assumed things wouldn’t end happily for the characters, but in fact many of them have gotten quite happy endings. No, we just didn’t get the ending we wanted in terms of quality. This season has felt rushed, plots have been condensed and character decisions haven’t always been consistent.

Ultimately my problems with the final episode are the same as the ones I’ve had with the season as a whole, which is to say that I have no problem with where the characters ended up but do think the way in which they got there was poorly handled. A show once known for its fantastic attention to detail, its nuanced characters and the way in which nobody was safe lost its way, becoming a more generic fantasy show where characters could make poor choices yet still survive. It’s a shadow of its former self.

But, it’s worth saying that even at its worst Game of Thrones is still a hell of a show that has given me eight seasons of actions, tension, drama and spectacular moments. Given how season 8 went it ended about as well as I could have hoped for, and though I wish it could have gone better nothing can take away 8 seasons of entertainment. I’m going to miss this show, and these fantastic, amazing actors.

The Queen is dead, long live the King.

For a while I was into mountain biking, specifically the downhill side of it because actually having to peddle is just the worst. I say I was into mountain biking, but mostly what happened was that I pin balled from tree to tree in a generally downward direction. But the point is I’ve always wanted more games focused around mountain biking, and while Descenders might not be the more simulation focused game I was hoping for it sure is a whole lot of fun its own right.

So here’s the idea; you get handed a bike, shoved onto a randomly generated track that the game slaps together for you and then told to simply cross the finish line. Easy. Then you repeat until you either become a master of the trails or until you realise it’s 3AM and that you should probably go to sleep. There’s no ultimate objective to chase in Descenders, no championship to win or storyline to follow. Much like mountain biking in real life it’s all about enjoying yourself. And not hitting that tree over there. Yeah, that one.

Platforms: PC, Xbox One
Reviewed On: PC
Developer: RageSquid
Publisher: No More Robots

Descenders nicely captures the feeling of being on the edge of control. You could always play it safe by riding the brakes hard, but where’s the fun in that? The game is undeniably at its very best when you’re on the limit, reacting to the randomly generated turns, hills and jumps. Sometimes that just means hoping that the hill you just bunny hopped off of won’t send you straight into a tree or off a cliff. Being randomly generated means that sometimes you’re going to crash because it’s impossible to know what’s coming. But the good news is that it’s still fun even when that happens. I rarely found myself complete frustrated.

The physics driving the game mostly feel great. I say mostly because there’s a sense of weight that’s lacking in your bike, almost like your gently floating above the ground. The tyres never bite into the various surfaces like you’d expect on a real bike. Other than that, though, the game controls fantastically and with surprising depth. It’s possible to pull off some cool stuff with a little experimentation, and once you get into the flow it can feel truly spectacular.

If I could change one thing, though, it’s that speed can be tough to judge on the bigger jumps. Descenders has a superb sense of speed, especially when using the first-person view (which I’d highly recommend) but when it comes to the larger jumps the different between barely making it half-way and flying waaaaaaaaaaaaay over the landing ramp seems to be about 1MPH.

Using the right stick and left bumper on a controller (A controller is certainly advised) in conjunction you can pull off a few basic tricks like no-handers and supermans, while combining them with flips or spins. It’s no exactly a wide array of tricks, but that’s fine because the focus is really on the feeling of momentum.

Right, now that the controls are out of the way let’s get down to the game’s structure. The way it works is that you kick off with a set number of lives, and when out of those your run is over. Every crash costs a life, but if you manage to complete a track’s secondary objective, such as doing two backflips, then you earn a life. This creates a nice risk vs reward mechanic where chasing the secondary objective can sometimes cause more harm than good.

When you complete a track you get to choose from a couple more, each of which has a set of stats informing the player of roughly how steep, curvy and full of jumps it will be. Eventually you’ll reach the Boss Jump stage which might involve you leaping over a canyon or trying to backflip a pyramid, both things which I highly advise not attempting in real life unless you’re looking to become dead AND famous on Youtube. Beat the Boss Jump and you get to move on to the next environment of which the game features eight. There’s the mellow sand dunes of the dessert to icy peaks and forests. Each packs its own small selection of specific obstacles that you’ll become familiar with over time.

There’s absolutely no rush to reach the Boss Jump. You can work your way through every track if you wish, completing secondary objectives in order to stockpile lives. There’s a couple of different event types that pop up from time to time, too, like one where the track gets removed entirely and instead you have a compass pointing to the finish line. There’s also medic camps that offer up a bonus life upon completion. The only catch to completing as many tracks as you can is that the nigh time will slowly creep up, obviously making it a bit harder to see.

By doing tricks, landing big drops and just going bloody fast you’ll earn rep that in turn unlocks new Crew Members to choose from. These guys only last as long as your run does, but they provide handy bonuses like reducing speed wobble or letting you take bigger impacts before bailing. Because tracks aren’t actually races as such there’s no time limit, so you can actually veer off track whenever you like or even ride back up the track in order to rack up more rep before moving on.

Rep also unlocks new gear for you to equip, all of which is purely cosmetic. New shirts, helmets, trousers, bikes and other bits and pieces can be earned in a variety of rarities. It’s normal to cycle around the little hub you enter when firing up the game and see players wearing pink mohawks or rocking neon wheels.

Speaking of other players, multiplayer is handled in interesting ways in Descenders. As I briefly mentioned when you fire up the game you’ll be dropped into a lobby with about five other people in a small area filled with jumps and obstacles to mess around on. It’s a place that looks weirdly cobbled together, but otherwise serves its purpose as a meeting point. However, you can’t directly challenge an opponent to a race or anything else from here, and there’re no options for text or voice communication.

To race people directly you can set up an online session by creating a room, selecting a few basic parameters and then deciding if you want to password protect your session. Sadly there’s no quickplay option. At the time of writing there aren’t heaps of sessions to be found, but generally speaking I was able to get at least a few people popping by whenever I made a room.

Anyway, when it comes to the racing itself everyone will set off at the same time and then…um, mayhem, mostly. Right now there’s a mixture of people who want to do the best stunts possible and people who want to get to the finish line as quickly as possible. Since there’s no voice or text communication I found it best to use the room name to describe which of the two you fall into. Anyway, rep and time are both tracked and just like the regular solo mode you’ll go from event to event and environment to environment until it just sort of ends.

Meanwhile, in the regular singleplayer mode you can randomly encounter other players on tracks, something which the game indicates to you when you’re choosing where to go next. But these people won’t start the track at the same time as you necessarily, so there’s no real competition as such. You can also opt to go offline entirely if you don’t fancy having random strangers gaze judgingly as you plough into a sand dune.

There’s a common theme in Descenders which is that it isn’t very big on competition as such. The game itself tells you that it isn’t a race, that you should take your time and do everything at your own pace. There are no penalties for heading off the track nor any time limit for reaching the finish, unless you’re in a multiplayer session in which case the first person to cross the line triggers a countdown. This more chilled vibe is best noted in the music which comes from a Dutch drum and bass label called Liquicity. On paper the hectic, on-the-edge action doesn’t match up with the rhythmic, mellow music but in action it works perfectly.

Descender’s biggest strength and ultimately its most frustrating element happens to be the same thing; random level generation. On the one hand it makes Descenders massively replayable. There are always more tracks to ride, more potential for the game to generate something special. But while you’re blasting through a career session there’s no way to save a fantastic track that you’d like to learn and get faster at. And with everything being put together by the game rather than a designer there are going to be plenty of times when things don’t line up very well. For every great layout there was usually another that didn’t flow well, perhaps because there was a jump placed where it was impossible to get speed up.

You can head into a freeride sessions and generate worlds using a seed key, which is currently the only way to replay a level over and over before challenging some mates to do better. I’d have liked an easier way of doing this as well as an option to save seeds for tracks in career sessions, but at least is possible and there are a good amount of people on the Steam forums sharing interesting seed keys. That leaves some room for some fun Steam forum leaderboard posts.

Graphically Descenders is probably best described as being exceptionally mediocre. Textures are flat and lifeless, there’s a general lack of detail and the levels look like they were slapped together with no sense of cohesion. The most notable is the Favela which in real life is a sort of slum/shantytown filled to the brim with people. In Descenders, though, it’s a life place filled with squares that vaguely resemble buildings.

The benefit to the graphical simplicity is that Descenders runs pretty much perfectly, at least based on my time with the game. To be fair, I’m throwing a 1080Ti at it and getting well over a 100FPS, but given how visually simple the game is and how little raw processing power it needs people with modest machines should still have no problem running Descenders. You’ll appreciate those high framerates when everything is whizzing by.

Descenders is an Early Access game done right. It spent its time in Early Access learning from the community while honing in on what it wanted to be. Developers RageSquid have done a damn fine job crafting this arcade rogue-lite mountain biking game, which might sound like a strange description but is fair, I reckon. There are things I wish had been done different but there’s absolutely no doubt that I’m having heaps of fun blasting down tracks, nailing tricks and searching for the ever elusive flow.

good kart racing game is such a pure thing, right? It’s like the essence of gaming; simple, joyful fun wrapped in bright colours. It’s something the whole family can enjoy. It’s also a genre that’s time in the spotlight is long gone. But now it’s making something of a resurgence, and after 7 years Sumo Digital is finally back with a sort-of sequel. So let’s review Team Sonic Racing, yeah? Let’s see if it can go toe-to-toe with Mario Kart 8 and the upcoming Crash Team Racing remake.

I think the first thing I want to get out of the way is that Team Sonic Racing is not as good as its predecessor. Although it was released in 2012, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed remains, in my view, one of the best kart racers of all time. It boasted a massive roster of Sega characters, fantastic tracks and brilliant racing. If that wasn’t good enough each race saw character’s vehicles transforming from cars to planes to boats. Comparatively, Team Sonic Racing has a smaller selection of characters and a less inspiring set of tracks, nor does it have such a visually cool trick as cars transforming mid-race. Still, don’t just toss Team Sonic Racing to the curb. It’s still good and its still bringing good ideas to the track.

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Reviewed On: Xbox One X
Developer: Sumo Digital
Publisher: Sega

Review code provided free of charge by the publisher.

As the name implies this game focuses purely on Sonic and his chums rather than the vast expanse of Sega’s IPs. That equates to 12 racers, from Sonic himself to Shadow to Eggman to Rouge. It also has Big the Cat. Ugh. Anyway, the roster is then divided into types of character: Speed types are more resilient to projectiles when they’re leading the racing; technique types can go over certain terrain without a speed penalty; and finally there are the big bruisers who are slow but can swat aside other racers and barge through obstacles with impunity. It’s certainly not a varied roster and I would have liked to have seen more creativity in terms of vehicle design, but considering Sumo were limited purely to Sonic and co this time around they did a good enough job.

For the most part Team Sonic is a typical kart racer where you drift round corners to build up boost, hit pads that send you surging forward and pick up weapons designed to annoy the crap out of everyone else. While the sense of speed is lacking (it actually gets faster on high difficulties) its otherwise excellent stuff, albeit arguably just a Mario Kart 8 clone. Drifting round corners feels awesome, and the tracks while not fantastic are colourful and beautiful to look at. They also feature some gravity-defying corkscrews and turns and the occasional shortcut here or there.

Where Sonic Team Racing looks to distinguish itself from pretty much every other racer on the market is the focus on winning as a team. Whereas other kart racers seek to destroy friendships this is a racer that wants to build and strengthen them. Coming first is important, but ultimately it means nothing if the other two members of your team are struggling in the middle of the pack. In other words, coming first doesn’t actually mean winning the race. Everyone needs to do well.

To help your languishing chums out there are a few things you can do. First, the leading member of your team will produce glowing yellow slipstream trail and by staying in it a powerful boost is built up which gets activated as soon as you leave the slipstream. This naturally encourages people to try to drive smoothly so that team-mates can make the most of the slipstream. The next trick involves skimming past team-mates, giving them a boost based on the speed difference. Obviously this is great for getting a team-mate that’s crashed back into the race, but you can also pull off a skim when pulling out of a slipstream. Co-ordinated teams can really pick up some major speed by doing this. Finally, you can offer up an item with a tap of B, letting a team-mate grab it and potentially put it to better use. Sharing is caring, after all. I mean, I wouldn’t know personally, but it’s a saying so presumably it has some merit.

By slipstreaming, skimming, sharing items and taking down other racers you build up a special meter. Once its filled tapping Y will activate the special Team Ultimate, which is a very posh way of saying that your car glows yellow, can now bash through stuff without a problem, goes faster and is capable of knocking aside other racers with ease. Timing the Ultimate so that you can hit the front of the pack or just blast through some problems is satisfying stuff, but I wish the developers had given teams their own visual variations on the idea.

As for all the items you can pick up and use it’s a generic selection of stuff. There’s the standard missile that can be fired forwards or backwards, for example, as well as chuckable bombs and cubes that you can drop on the track to trip up unsuspecting idiots. But while these items are fun to use and sharing with your team is a great idea it’s a little weird that none of the items themselves encourage teamwork. Some pickups that offered benefits for sticking together would have been great, or maybe a chain/laser that is connected to two team-members which can decimate anything it touches?

Racing games have never been known for their story and yet in Team Sonic Racing the developers have put a surprising amount of effort into their singleplayer story mode. Basically a mysterious individual turns up and offers Sonic and his chums a chance to compete in races using incredible cars. Things go downhill quickly, though, due to the way the story is told; characters pop-up at the sides of the screen like a visual novel and spout awkward dialogue that’s poorly voiced.

But the good news is that through the story mode you get introduced to a few different types of event that help break up the action a little. There are Traffic Attack events where you need to dodge robots while racing through checkpoints that add time to the clock. There’s also the tricky Daredevil tracks where you have to drift as close to posts as you can to earn points and build multipliers. Another type of race has you collecting the classic gold rings. If that wasn’t enough there’s my favourite event where you have to destroy robotic racers by blasting them with missiles or just crashing into them.

Throughout the story and indeed every other race you partake in you’ll be awarded credits that are then spent to purchase Mod Pods. These little capsules contain modifications for the various character’s cars, like new tires and engines and other goodies. In total every character gets 12 unlockable parts plus special Golden legendary versions of each in case you like to show off. As you might expect these parts alter the stats of the character, maybe bumping up defence at the cost of speed or increasing acceleration while losing some handling. But ultimately these stat changes don’t manifest in the racing unless you really swing things heavily one way or the other. In the end I wound using the upgrades more as cosmetics, and I really hope they add more parts in updates down the line.

At the time of writing there is no sign of microtransactions being introduced despite the loot-box style of the Mod Pods. Team Sonic Racing is a family game and I’d hate to thing that Sega would be crass enough to soil their game with microtransactions and gambling.

As fun as the main story is the A.I. aren’t the most exciting opponents. For that you need to head online where the team mechanics can either be glorious or the bane of your freaking existence. Random people you meet online aren’t always the most reliable or consistent. At the moment there seems to be a lot of players struggling to understand the team concept, but happily there’s an option to play standard races. I’m not sure why you’d bother, though; with the team mechanics removed Team Sonic Racing becomes a standard kart racer.