David Peach

Tag: PS4

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    Metal Gear Solid V : The Phantom Pain

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    Shadow of the Tomb Raider

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    Persona 5

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    Statik on Playstation VR

    Statik is one hell of a fun game to play. Lasting only a couple of hours, depending on whether you solve the puzzles of course, this game never got boring. Despite the fact that you spend the entire time with your hands locked in a box.

    Locked in a box

    Your hands are locked in a box within its VR world for the whole game, whilst in reality you take a hold of the standard PS4 controller. That controller is used in very inventive ways throughout the game to try and solve each puzzle.

    Each level gives you a new puzzle to solve, which become increasingly tricky and mind-bending as they go on. Each button, whether it be the directional buttons; the shape buttons; triggers; or analogue sticks, will control individual parts of each box.

    There are some puzzles that require you to hold the control bindings of a box in your mind all at once, with one particular box being on a timer. This gave me just the right level of stress to warrant fighting back against being put back a step or two.

    It’s not just a box

    A lot of the game must actually be solved by using the environment around you. Parts of the room and certain objects around will very subtle guide you through the cryptic puzzles. I found myself at times just dumb-founded without a clue on how to solve something. Until I would make a really clever connection between my box and something around me and I’d end up with a great big grin on my face.

    My personal favourite was taking control of a small remote control camera buggy. As you move around to otherwise-inaccessible areas to solve its particular puzzle, you get live feedback to your box. It felt so trippy to be inside a VR game controlling a remote control car that can show you a live feedback of yourself in that chair.

    So frickin cool.

    A quick game that feels just right

    Even though each game involves you solving a different box that has your hands locked within, the game never felt repetitive. Each puzzle was so different from one another that I ended up feeling like I’d been on a real test of the mind to get to the very end.

    I completed the game in about two to three hours and that felt just right to me. I’d had my fill of that particular world, but could probably have played just one more level.

    I guess that’s one of the marks of a really good game – leaving the player wanting just that little bit more.

    In Summary

    If you want a challenging mind-bender of a game with truly ingenious uses of what the PlayStation VR can do, please do check out Statik. This game was a random recommend on a list of “best PlayStation VR titles” I stumbled across, and I’m so glad I picked it up on the PlayStation store.

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    Resident Evil Kitchen Demo on PSVR

    The Resident Evil Kitchen Demo is a little taster that Capcom put out around the release of Resident Evil 7. It shows off, in its short five minutes of game play, the pure horror potential for Playstation VR, and indeed VR in general.

    What happens in the Resident Evil Kitchen Demo?

    You spend the entirety of the demo strapped to an old wooden chair in a completely run-down kitchen. The Kitchen gave me similar vibes to the Peacock house from the infamous X-Files episode, ‘Home’. Just sitting there in the chair, both my real-life chair and the in-game chair, looking down at my bound-hands, I was already bricking it.

    It felt very much like the start of the original saw film too, in that I had essentially woken up with no recollection of how I got there.

    Once you figure out how to wake your friend up off the floor, he slowly gets up and tries to untie you. This is where my first palpable fears manifested. Behind him, moving in the shadows of the corridor, I could see a figure. A figure that no sooner had I said aloud ‘behind you!’, was already upon him.

    Looking directly into the face of the hideous visage of a woman, who looked somewhat decayed and possessed, was a feeling like no other. In VR you can look around her head at the mangled locks of hair; the saliva in her teeth; the killing gleam in her eyes, staring directly into yours.

    This is what horror really is

    Horror games are always fun to me in retrospect. At the time of playing I experience what the game developers must strive for – prolonged anxiety and a fear to move onward through the game. But there really is no feeling like that of the release of tension after a well-timed, tasteful jump scare. And I have the feeling Resident Evil 7 will have those in spades.

    Seeing the twisted and zombie-looking woman up close in my face actually got me turning my head away. I knew, somewhere in my mind, that this was just a game. But that held truth was buried beneath the many layers of fear from this demo. The level of immersion here is unreal and this has somehow awoken a level of computer game experience that I never even knew existed.

    On to the full game

    As soon as I finished the Kitchen Demo I was online shopping for the full game. I kick myself now for not picking it up in the PlayStation Store sale a few months back. As I type this sentence I am awaiting a confirmation email to come through for me to collect the game.

    I have no idea how I’m going to survive this game. Outlast feels like a walk in the park now, compared to this. (It’s not – Outlast is still very scary, but Resident Evil 7 just has a whole new dimension – literally and figuratively).

    p.s. I have since bought the game and have played the first hour. It has not disappointed me and I can not wait to write up my thoughts on it in full.

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    The Last of Us review

    The Last of Us was released in 2013, yet i didn’t get to play it till three years later. But when I did, it quickly became one of my top three games of all time. Its whole world and the characters within have somehow become a part of me. Joel and Ellie have become two of the most important characters in my life.

    What’s The Last of Us about?

    After one of the most emotional game intros I’ve ever experienced, we are placed with our hero, Joel, twenty years into a Post-apocalyptic world. Early on in the game you are entrusted to look after 14-year-old girl, Ellie. This is where it all begins – one of the most important relationships in gaming history starts right here. You are tasked with getting her safely to a group called ‘The Fireflies’, the reasons for which I wont reveal here, and of course it’s not simply a case of walking from A to B.

    Once Ellie is with you, she will follow you wherever you go and you must protect her at all costs. But don’t get mistaken that protecting her means she is helpless; quite the opposite is true in fact. As the game progresses you will find that Ellie is just as tough as Joel, if not more so. They both come to rely on each other for survival.

    You will end up travelling across America in your mission, encountering some interesting and downright terrifying people. The locations too are beautiful to explore, with the suburbs; the University of Eastern Colorado; a snowy lakeside resort; and more. All of which have been subject to the unstoppable spread of both mother nature and the deadly virus. The combination of overgrown flora and fauna, along with the ever-mutating infected, make for some simultaneously beautiful and grotesque imagery.

    Infected everywhere

    The infected that you encounter on your journey can be really tough at times, with all-out gun fights being the worse option to take. The infected people are found at different stages in their individual mutations, with each stage having its own strengths and weaknesses. The most iconic of these stages is probably what are known as ‘Clickers’. These mutated festering people have one of the most iconic sounds I’ve heard – their namesake ‘Clicking’.  They use this as a form of echo location due to their being blind as a bat.

    There’s nothing quite so brutal as the moment a clicker grabs a hold a bites down hard.

    A game of character

    The emotional thread that runs through this game is much stronger than any of the make shift melee weapons that Joel can fashion. The core of The Last of Us is the father/daughter relationship between Joel and Ellie that gets stronger and stronger as time goes on. Although he is initially cold towards her, treating her simply as his current mission, you will see how their bond becomes tighter with each step they take. One of the real great parts of this character development too, is the subtle exchanges of conversation that happen in-game, when you are playing.

    It is hard to talk about the characters in this game without drawing comparisons to The Walking Dead. What both The Walking Dead and The Last of Us do so well, is deal with the conflicts between humans themselves. Even though humans as a species have a common enemy in the viral outbreak, there are still separate factions that arise that will kill one another for control and supplies instead of working together.

    As strong and positive as the relationship between Joel and Ellie is, there is darkness out there that would see them torn apart. This darkness could not have been portrayed any better than by David. The build up through the Winter chapter to its violent conclusion is one of my favourite scenes in gaming. And that’s all I’ll mention of it.

    Multiple playthroughs

    I’d never before finished a game and immediately, after the credits, hit ‘New Game’, but with this one I did. I just couldn’t wait to get back into this world once again. Once I knew the story and where conflicts would occur, I found I could take in more of the environment. I would start looking carefully at every little detail in the world around me, ever-impressed with the level of care.

    When you replay through at the same difficulty you keep all weapon and character enhancements you gained first time through. This made me feel like a bad ass and I actually went looking for fights.

    In Conclusion

    It’s rare that a game, or even a film, that gets such high praise and surrounding hype actually lives up to it, but The Last of Us does. It’ll have you laughing at the funny interactions between the characters; it’ll have you terrified and scared for your life. It may even have you questioning the things that you really hold dear in this world of distractions and excess.

    The Last of Us not only lives up to its reputation, it dwarfs it.

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    Until Dawn – First Impressions

    Within the breathtaking landscape of the snowy mountains at night, a young couple play at snowball fighting. The pair are obviously an item and the soundtrack playing enforces the innocence and playfulness of youth.

    All would be fine and dandy if it wasn’t for the impending doom that leans over all of the characters. Until Dawn has immediately drawn me in, and although the whole game thus far has a shade of terror about it, I find it hard to pull myself away.

    A game of choices

    Until Dawn is a game all about choices – your choices to be precise. Each decision you make throughout the game affects all future outcomes and new decisions to make. Even the little remarks made by a particular character seemed to be as a direct result of my actions as a separate character earlier.

    Most choices seem to have a risky option and a safe option. I’ll admit I have been taking the safe options quite a bit, if only for the well being of the characters. However, I have started throwing some curve ball responses in just to see what happens.

    Starting as you mean to go on

    The opening of Until Dawn gave me a good taste of how the game is played and the sorts of choices I would need to make as the player. These opening scenes had just enough suspense to keep me wanted to know more. Whilst not laying on too much horror, so as to risk topping out at the start.

    In between the main storyline I am placed in a therapy session and asked about my thoughts when given certain items. A creepy photo of a small farm; a scrapbook of ever-increasingly scary imagery (then asked to pick which images scare me more). I can’t help but feel that even these decisions, seemingly outside of the game’s main thread, will later affect how this game is played out.

    Character Introductions

    I really liked how the character introductions were handled. Each character is freeze-framed on, displaying their name and some of their character traits. As each new person was introduced it became obvious that a complicated web of love and relationships was unfolding.

    I’ve already forgot some of the characters’ names but to be fair there are eight of them. I have faith that within a short amount of time I will have each character’s face and name committed to memory.

    Must be fate

    A friend of mine recommended this game to me, but it wasn’t on my list of immediate games to play. Then when I joined the Playstation Plus membership, and discovered it was one of their free games on offer, I knew it was fate. Now whenever I come to play a game after dark, Until Dawn is the one I play.

    I’m really looking forward to the story unfolding and seeing where my decisions take my new friends.

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    Interview with Lyndon Holland

    One of my favourite soundtracks, and a recent obsession of mine, has been the soundtrack to the game Virginia by Lyndon Holland. His soundtrack has had such a great affect on me, and no doubt many others.

    Lyndon recently agreed to answer some questions of mine so that we can get more of an understanding of the man behind the music.

    The Interview

    Please tell us about yourself in as many or as little words as you like.
    I’m a pretty normal guy with geeky interests and a strange job, working out of my bedroom in West London.
    Growing up, who were your heroes in music?
    John Williams, Danny Elfman, Alan Silvestri, Jerry Goldsmith, Nobuo Uematsu
    Growing up, who were your heroes outside of music?
    Not sure I really had many ‘heroes’ to be honest, but I remember Spielberg movies having a huge affect on me.
    What was the first album you remember buying?
    Ha, I distinctively remember it being Metallica – …And Justice for All
    Was there any defining moment in your life when you knew that you wanted to write music?
    I remember being in love with the music to Final Fantasy VIII as a 13 year old. As a result, I started playing around with midi in a basic software package called Noteworthy composer.
    Who is your biggest influence in how you approach what you do today?
    The way I think about music in relation to narrative developed a lot whilst I attended The National Film and Television School. I couldn’t choose a single individual, but the process of working with like minded people in such a heightened and condensed way for 2 years was as influential as anything else.
    What is the proudest moment of your career so far?
    Probably all the positive the feedback I have received from people after playing Virginia.
    What is your favourite Book?
    To Kill a Mockingbird
    What is your favourite Album?
    Tough one. In terms of music that I keep coming back to, I suppose it could be something like The Beatles – Abbey Road. But ask me another day and it would probably be something different.
    What is your favourite Film?
    Again, very difficult. I could pick something obscure and meaningful, but instead I will choose something I have watched a million times and never fails to work it’s magic; E.T.
    What is your favourite TV Show?
    Something like Breaking Bad or House of Cards probably deserves this, but for all it’s faults, I still have a huge place in my heart for Lost.
    Do you have a favourite film/tv/game/musical soundtrack?
    For the way it works with the picture, I love stuff like Howard Shore’s score to Crash or Jonny Greenwood’s score to There will be blood. But then for listening purposes outside of the film, I dunno, I love The Lion King, and the recent arrangements of Final Fantasy VII in the Final Symphony album.
    Are there any new albums you are binge listening to at the moment?
    For no real reason in particular, I’ve been listening to The Nightmare Before Christmas a lot recently, ha.
    You’re walking somewhere and your mp3 player has only a little battery left; You’ve only got time for one more song. What song do you play?
    Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb
    What advice would you give to your younger self?
    I’d tell younger self to concentrate on understanding form and structure before attempting any complex orchestration.
    If you could ask any person – living or passed – any question, who would it be and what would you ask them?
    I’m definitely throwing this question away, but I’d ask Stanley Kubrick if Eyes Wide Shut was his final cut
    Do you have any exciting new projects you are working on that you can tell us about?
    There are some things in the pipeline, but it’s too early to say anything at this time!
    Could you tell us a joke?
    “I’ve decided to sell my Hoover… well, it was just collecting dust.”

    A big thank you to Lyndon

    Thank you, Lyndon for taking the time to answer these questions.

    If any of you need convincing to listen to his awesome music, then please do read my write up of the Virginia soundtrack. Or just go and buy it right now.

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    Bring home the bacon – A review of the game Virginia

    One of the marks of a great game is its ability to stay with you long after you’ve finished playing it. Even more so is it’s ability to imprint specific memorable scenes into your mind – surrounding them with feelings that help to bind that scene to your memory. Usually these memorable games are pretty long in length, having time to build up into those moments, however this is not the case with Virginia.

    A small game with great depth

    Virginia is probably the shortest game I’ve ever played in terms of start to finish, but it’s also one of the games to stay with me the longest after finishing it. One of the many things that Virginia does so well is it’s ability to contain so many iconic scenes compacted into its relatively short time span. And please don’t think I’m mentioning the time span of Virginia as being a negative thing – quite the opposite. The way you need to think of this game is as an interactive film / novel. The story is set and 99% of the actions are inevitable, however giving you full control over performing those actions puts you completely in the mind of the main character.

    I have previously praised the music of Virginia, expertly written by Lyndon Holland, so I wont go too much into that again here. All I will say is that the music of Virginia is the game’s heartbeat; it’s skeleton; its very being…

    …It kind of has to be when there are no words spoken in the whole game. That’s right, no words are spoken throughout the whole game! The story is driven forward, and the characters thoughts and feelings implied, by the aforementioned music coupled with the unique animation style used.

    Virginia’s Exceptional Style

    The artwork for Virginia is just as beautiful as the music that scores it. As you can see from the image above, the game’s scenes are very vibrant-looking with an almost painted aesthetic. It didn’t take much playing until I was wanting real life to look like this – simply put, it is gorgeous. Even the dark dream sequences are full of colour. The use of the photographer’s dark room red is exceptional in one of the games first dream sequences.

    The story itself gets trippy and quite cryptic towards the end, in fact most of the game contains cryptic imagery, but it feels cohesive through it’s confusion. Like Twin Peaks, from which Virginia has lovingly taken much inspiration, so too does the story of Virginia not have to be completely understood first time round. Instead it is more than enough to simply soak up the dream-like atmosphere and let the game conjure up whatever feelings it does within you.

    Virginia is a unique offering and a great accomplishment for the developers at Variable State, and I eagerly await their next offering.

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    My Second Day In Firewatch – A Write Up

    I woke that morning feeling uneasy from the previous night’s events. This was followed by Delilah giving me the task of investigating the knocked-out communications that had been reported.

    Once I was dressed and awake, I set off towards the cave entrance I found during the previous day. From here I continued north until I found the cables overhead. Following the cables up a mountain incline at Beartooth Point, past some discarded beer cans, I came to the top of the hill – and to where the communication wire had been cut clean.

    I was sure that it was these bloody girls from yesterday who were responsible for cutting the wire. On continuing my investigation, I found their previous campsite abandoned. That is if you ignore the discarded beer cans about the floor. Continuing forward I came across a lone rucksack hanging from a tree, inside which I found a disposable camera and enough rope to last me a while.

    I moved forward down the only trail I hadn’t yet investigated and came across a chain-linked fence, warning people to keep out. I wonder what could be on the other side? Onward I travelled on through a beautiful area known as Five Mile Creek. I followed the trail to the south west till I found the girls’ new campsite. This new site was also abandoned, only this time in a way that seems to have been violent in nature. The tent and discarded clothes had been torn and spread about the ground; the area was a state.

    Just where could these girls have now got to?

    In Conclusion

    During my second day in Firewatch I managed to uncover more of my surrounding countryside. Some side areas may have been missed but I will go back and find them shortly. I am loving the sound design of this game – how the trees rustling in the breeze seem to be treated as part of the score. I love how the music is using sparingly and to great effect when it is. The isolation is a comfortable one at the moment, but I am expecting things to get darker pretty soon.

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