Our Oddworld farting friend Abe is back again and this time he’s blowing off all over the PS Vita.

Originally appearing on the PS4 and then the PS3, Abe’s latest adventure Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty has arrived on our beloved handheld. This beautiful looking game performs like a dream on PS4, but how does it fare with the constraints of a much smaller console? This is a lush, highly detailed game. Surely something has to give for it to run adequately on the Vita? Perhaps not. It takes seconds to realise the Vita has gained something really special. Turns out, Abe feels very much at home.

New ‘n’ Tasty is a puzzle platformer that oozes charm, dribbles comedy and is a little bit disgusting. There’s nothing quite like an Oddworld game in that respect. Abe is a Mudokon working at RuptureFarms, a meatpacking enterprise that turns entire species into Spam. While Abe is waxing floors one dark evening, he overhears his boss planning to Spaminate all Mudokons in an effort to turn profit and save RuptureFarms from certain liquidation. Abe must escape and save his fellow Mudokons from being popped into the meat grinder. Yuck. Clearly it’s a somewhat icky plot and the characters are all equally blugghhh. Even Abe himself with his skin-and-bones physique, nasally voice and guffy bottom is slightly vomit-inducing. Oddworld, in places, is the video game equivalent to Ren and Stimpy, and yet Abe is such a likeable character. Even the enemies have a weird charm. Some of the most entertaining pieces of dialogue are the background utterances of sligs.

The weirdly grotesque allure of Abe and his Oddysee is really just the cherry on top of an already very tasty cake. Gameplay is, after all, king. Although Abe can get about okay he’s not Usain Bolt. This isn’t an action platformer. Rather, the fun and frolics lies in the puzzling aspect. Abe can run and jump just fine but he’s faster and can jump farther on an Elum. He can also crouch, roll and, my personal favourite, sneak in spectacular and melodramatic fashion. Figuring out how to get past sligs, mines and other pests is the main focus of this game. There are portals that will allow fellow Mudokons to escape and so Abe needs to find his people, lead them to the dormant portals and chant to open them up. Chanting can also allow him to possess unlucky sligs. Don’t chant in the wrong place though, or Abe will get rather a nasty shock.

There are the usual difficulty modes and with checkpoints aplenty there’s not much danger of frustration. There’s enough of a challenge here to keep most people happy throughout a decently sized game. For an extra challenge there are thirty seven trophies including, with a good bit of elbow grease, a gleaming Platinum.

Graphically, New ‘n’ Tasty nails it, hits the jackpot and pokes the donkey right in the eye. The environments are richly detailed, not a square pixel in sight, and absolute proof that the Vita is capable of truly great things. Of course there is less detail than the PS4 version, but the look of the game does not suffer because of it. It’s a small screen but it never feels either overcrowded with too much detail or bereft of it. To top things off, cut scenes are gorgeous, a pleasure to watch and never feel intrusive.

So how does the Vita handle all this? I experienced no framerate drops, bugs or crashes. It’s clear that time has been taken to ensure the game runs smoothly. I know zip about programming, but it looks to me like everything in this game has been put there after careful planning, consideration and scrutiny. There’s an excellent balance going on that means the Vita version feels like a top game in its own right and not a clumsy port that’s been rushed through as a cross buy afterthought. It feels as though as much love went into making this for the Vita as it did the PS4 and PS3 versions.

Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty review conclusion

Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty has finally arrived and it’s everything we hoped for. It’s clear that the developer has taken time to give Vita fans the game they want and deserve. Lovely graphics, smooth gameplay, interesting and tricky puzzles, the PS Vita has a brand new farting saviour and we love him.

S J Hollis Rating – 8/10

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The bombs are coming. Right now. The end is here and you don’t even get to finish your coffee. Grab your partner and your baby and run for your life. Vault 111 is just over the hill and you and your family have a space. You are lucky. So lucky. You make it through security, through all the unlucky ones who are about to die, and you stand on the vault’s elevator.

For a single stupid second your heart jumps because you realise you left the front door unlocked, but then the sky lights up. The crack and flash of the first bomb shocks you all into silence. Then the lift descends and, above you, the boom and roar of complete nuclear destruction rolls across the world. You are so lucky.

It’s been said before that Fallout 4 is Skyrim with guns, and after fifty one hours with said guns, it’s our intense pleasure to announce this to be perfectly true. Fallout 4 is an RPG, an adventure game and a shooter. Actually there isn’t much thatFallout 4 isn’t, but first and foremost it’s an RPG. When you first emerge from Vault 111 you’ll be underdressed, under skilled and under armed. Even the Vault’s resident insects are a threat until you find something to fight back with. You’ll need to scavenge if you’re going to survive and the game picks up on that from early on.

Scavenging features heavily in Fallout 4. Don’t be shy; if it’s lying around, nick it. You never know what might come in handy and it’s not just weapons. Scavenging in the Wasteland is a hoarder’s dream. Plastic spoons, clipboards, alarm clocks, empty bottles, pocket watch, baseball cap, piece of chalk, box of detergent – everything has a purpose, even if it isn’t immediately obvious. You’re going to need deep pockets, but just how deep they are depends entirely on you and the S.P.E.C.I.A.L system.

Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck. At the beginning of the game you must assign a set amount of points to these different character aspects. You need to consider how you intend to play the game, and this is an enormous hint that Falloutwill adapt to your own unique style of play. I prefer to think my way around situations and I certainly need all the extra help I can get so I assigned a large portion of points to Charisma, Intelligence and Luck, thinking I wouldn’t necessarily need Strength and Endurance as I’m not much of a pit fighter. Slight error as Strength will affect how much you can carry and Endurance will affect your Actions Points (needed for tactical VATS combat and pegging it when things get rough), two things I really needed as it turns out I’m a secret hoarder and a coward. There’s no right or wrong answer to how you assign your points, but it is worth properly familiarising yourself with S.P.E.C.I.A.L and deciding what’s important to you.

Depending on how many points you assign to each ability, different related perks will become available for unlocking. Each time you level-up, you’ll gain a point that you can either add to your S.P.E.C.I.A.L abilities or use to unlock a specific related perk such as extra health, finding more ammo, ability to craft better weapons or advanced hacking or lock-picking. It’s a clever upgrade system that works very well. If you prefer a shootout with automated turrets, that’s cool, but unlocking the different levels of hacking perks will allow you to turn them off and stroll on by with a thumbs up and your guns down. Every time you upgrade it’s likely you’ll have an argument with yourself over how to assign your hard-earned point. You have an unbelievable amount of options.

Buying, finding or snatching weapons and armour off corpses is another tried and trusted way to upgrade, and Fallout 4 has an excellent balance of quality finds. The really good, higher level stuff is tricky to find but certainly not impossible. The fact that the good stuff isn’t just floating about everywhere gives you a great sense of achievement when you find something truly awesome. The spawning of a Legendary Enemy certainly gives you a thrill, to a point where you’ll use up every scrap of ammo to bring it down and rifle through its lifeless remains.

An RPG just isn’t an RPG without a spot of crafting, and Fallout 4 has more than just a spot. All that crap you’ve been collecting? Use it to craft countless mods for your weapons and apparel. Again, you can match your choice of upgrades to your playstyle. Like close quarters gunplay? Far away with a scope? Shooting from the hip? Happy to sacrifice damage for accuracy or energy resistance for radiation resistance? You decide. The crafting system is simple and RPG pros will take to it like a beef patty takes to a bun, but it’s also simple enough for RPG newbies to pick up pretty much immediately. In the same vein, if players are unsure, the game is perfectly playable without even sniffing at an amour bench. I ‘completed’ the game without once using the stove to mix ingredients and cook something yummy, not because it was in any way complicated, but because in real life although I microwave a damn good coffee, I don’t cook and, besides, I was quite happy jacking up with Stimpacks and gobbling radiated mutant hound meat. Basically, Fallout allows you to play the game however you want. If you want to tinker with the chemistry set, go for it, but if you’d rather just go shoot stuff, you can do that too with no consequences for shunning the deeper RPG elements. Just sling on your Power Armour and wade on in.

While we’re on the subject of RPG elements and crafting, they don’t come much deeper or bigger than the ability to craft entire settlements. Some areas come complete with a workbench, but they are overrun with enemies. If you can successfully clear them, you’ll get access to the workbench and you can build a settlement or improve an existing one. Place beds for settlers to sleep, defence items to keep them safe, plant food to feed them and even build entire houses either from scratch or pre-made. Power generators, lights, rugs, chairs, gun turrets, crafting stations – if you’ve scavenged enough useless crap from the Wasteland, you can build whatever the hell you like. Lastly, place a recruitment radio beacon and power it up to broadcast the existence of your fine little settlement. If you build it, they will come. It’s your choice how much time you spend on this, although one particular route through the game will have you building more than the others. Personally, I couldn’t get enough of it, and now the main campaign is over I can really dedicate some time to building the biggest and best settlement the Wasteland has ever seen. I’m praying with all my heart that Bethesda will include more settlement options and items in future DLCs.

In keeping with Fallout’s ability to adapt to an individual’s needs, the game has four different factions you can align yourself with, and each one will eventually lead you to a different ending. Much like you could in Skyrim, you can follow any route you wish, but only up until a point. Once you reach the climax of the central storyline, you are forced to choose a side and who you pick will probably depend on your in-game morals and how much your character’s ultimate and very personal goal has affected you. I sided with the Minutemen and their commonwealth building and people-centric ethics, but I did feel extremely torn and finished the game feeling guilty, elated, excited and devastated all at the same time.

If you’re more into a ‘if it moves kill it’ playstyle, you may choose to align with the Brotherhood of Steel. These guys are what pass as the military in the Wasteland and oh my goodness you want them on your side in a fight. While on my way towards the Glowing Sea I accidentally tripped over a skirmish between them and some badass mutants. If it hadn’t been for them, my companion and I would have been annihilated. This wasn’t my first encounter with the Brotherhood and actually my first whiff of these guys took my breath away. This faction is another good excuse to take your Power Armour out for walkies. Your defence against everything is greatly increased while you’re in the armour and you can carry a lot more, but the system runs on power cells that are hard to come by and when it’s damaged you’ll need valuable supplies to mend it. You need to balance out your use of your big metal suit. Save it for special occasions like birthdays, Christmas and the really big missions.

So if the Minutemen represent the people and the Brotherhood are the military, that probably makes the Railroad the freedom fighters and the Institute the educated elite. Really, there should be enough room in the Wasteland for everyone, but life rarely works that way, does it? Although you are forced to eventually side with one of them, I would like to see the factions working together (however reluctantly) in an expansion. Roll on, that season pass content because even after the main story is finished there is a huge amount of scope for so much more. Forgive my gluttony.

While you are wandering the vast world ofFallout, you’ll be happy to learn that you don’t have to do it alone. No, there is no pesky multiplayer to invade you game, steal all your stuff and ruin all your fun. I’m talking NPCs, and you have a rather nice selection to choose from. These guys (and girl and canine) will help you out in battle and carry your stuff. How nice of them. It’s up to you who you choose so bring along, but no one beats Dogmeat the German Shepherd. He’s loyal, he can sniff out bad guys and fetch valuable items, and best of all he looks fabulous in a bandana and welding goggles. Dogmeat also seems to be the companion who gets in the way the least. Yes, unfortunately, the game does suffer from NPC Right in my Way Syndrome. Also, if you dismiss a companion and then try to find them later, you may have trouble. They do seem to disappear and often won’t go to the settlement you send them to. It’s a minor aggravation that I’m sure will be fixed in a future update.

On the subject of buggy annoyances, the game has only one or two that I’ve experienced. I got stuck on top of a shopping trolley when a nuke blew me across the room and I crashed three times towards the end of the game. However, there is nothing major to report and nothing we haven’t seen before in any other new game. When you consider the size and depth of Fallout, a few launch day glitches are to be expected, and I certainly haven’t come across anything completely game-breaking.

Graphically, Fallout 4 is just fine. Don’t expect Killzone or ACU levels of new gen brilliance, however. Fallout has the look of a PS3 game, and there’s nothing wrong with that. While stunning graphics are great to have, Fallout 4 is absolute proof that if a dev can get the gameplay dead-on, the framerate and the 1080-blah-blah doesn’t matter one jot. Not once did I think ‘I’m having so much fun I’ve missed two meals, but boy I wish I had a few more frames!’ Forget about it. The Wasteland is perfect just as it is and you don’t need to see every hair on Dogmeat’s back swish in the breeze. If you’re playing this game properly, you won’t even notice.

One of my favourite features is the ability to switch between first person and third person. Don’t know about you lot, but I’m a third person kind of girl. I find movement infinitely easier when I can see where I’m putting my feet. I assumed I would stay in third person for the whole game, but a quick press of a button can switch to first person in a flash and make combat heavy scenarios so very much easier. The switch makes it feel as though you’ve changed the entire game from RPG to shooter. In first person aiming feels beautifully accurate. There is a marked difference between the different weapons and ammo types, lots of things to weigh up before you decide which weapons to take with you and which ones to pilfer from all the dead bodies piled at your feet.

If you’re not so good with the shooting and are more likely to hit your poor companion than the enemy, rejoice in the V.A.T.S combat. A quick tap of the R1 button allows you to slow time and target not only specific enemies but specific body parts. Very handy for shooting a mini nuke out of an enemy’s hand and blowing them to smithereens before they charge at you and blow you both into meaty chunks with gravy. The catch here is that you’ll need high Perception for high accuracy and enough Action Points to take as many shots as possible. What you end up with is a battle that is a combination of real-time shooting while your Action Points bar fills up and slowed-down tactical pinpointing that includes strategic critical shots. This system is one of the game’s (many) highpoints. Every battle needs both quick reflexes and tactics. Hiding while your AP bar fills up is a genuine option in desperate situations. Failing that, just make sure you’ve got a missile launcher in your pocket.

Feast your eyes on fifty one gleaming trophies including an extra shiny Platinum. Many of the trophies will pop as you progress, but if you want to go for the Platinum you’ll need to create some strategic saves so you can play through all the factions. There are also trophies for the magazine and bobblehead collectables and for settlement building. All of the trophies are reasonable with nothing that can’t be earned with a bit (or a lot) of leg work. It’s always nice to see a trophy set that is potentially attainable for any skill level. Not everyone wants or can play on the harder difficulty settings so bonus points to Bethesda for not penalising those people with trophies that would otherwise be impossible for them to earn. Aside from the few trophies that force you to go backwards, most trophies encourage you to keep moving forwards, finding collectables, cleaning up sidequests, building up settlements and exploring this brand new world.

Conclusion

When we are smitten with a game we unashamedly scream and shout about it. Here goes.

Fallout 4 is a masterpiece. They should hang the box in the Louvre. If you only have the time and money for one more game in the next six months, let it be this one. There’s no downside, no catch, no doubt. We will certainly be playing it well into next year and hopefully long after if future expansions allow. Stunning, deep and engrossing gameplay,Fallout 4 is a huge supermutant beast of a game. It’s a flawless RPG, a solid shooter and a spectacular open world adventure. Even after fifty one hours we’ve only just blown dust off its surface. We have hundreds of hours of gameplay left to experience. The Wasteland is not an inviting place, but we don’t want to be anywhere else.

S J Hollis Rating – 10/10

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Almost every business needs to be connected to the world of the web but some require more capacity and higher speeds than others.

One popular solution recently has been to opt for a leased line. This is a dedicated network connection that physically connects two locations. Leased lines are ‘uncontended’, meaning you are not sharing the connection with other businesses and consumers.

This in turn means your contracted speeds should be guaranteed, even at peak times and can also provide symmetric speeds for downloading and uploading data.

The increase in the number of businesses opting for leased lines comes due to the enhanced security measures it provides – with no one else using the line apart from your business, you can be sure that your data and files are completely safe.

There’s no denying that leased lines can be expensive however and they’re certainly not the optimum solution for every business. If you’re waiting for a more affordable, high street version of ultrafast broadband however, you could be waiting a while.

Last summer BT announced plans to trial its fibre to the remote node (FTTRn) system in London’s burgeoning Tech City area and selected rural locations.

At the time local MP Meg Hillier said:

As I have said to the prime minister in the past month, broadband is a national embarrassment and action is urgently needed. In Tech City, the much trumpeted European hub of technology, businesses are moving out because they simply cannot access high-speed broadband.”

Last month BT further announced that the hybrid-fibre G.Fast technology would be trialled in the summer in Huntington (Cambridgeshire) and Gosforth (Newcastle). They plan to roll the technology across the country starting in 2016/17 and will aim to deliver speeds of up to 500Mb/s to “most of the UK” within a decade.

This is good news for businesses requiring faster connections that are currently widely available. Leased lines typically go from 2Mb/s to multiple Gb/s so G.Fast would fall somewhere in the mid leased line range. But, with the timetable for deployment still consisting of mostly blank spaces however, businesses will have to consider their current requirements and whether they can really afford to wait for the rollout.

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Joe Danger is a man who likes to take risks. Joe Danger performs death-defying movie stunts. Joe Danger is a pilchard from Guilford who has his own bed at The Royal Surrey Hospital. Skis, jet packs, motorcycles, a miner’s cart – Joe Danger 2: The Movie is a cartoon stunt game that’s brimming with fun and overflowing with humour.

January blues? Backflip and somersault your way back to your happy place with this little piece of Vita Joy. It’s flippin’ brilliant.

Joe is a lucky guy to star in so many blockbuster movies. Indiana Bones and the Temple of Boom have him flipping his mine cart through dangerous mineshafts. View to a Chill and Dr Snow see him dodging rockets, trying to out-ski a rushing avalanche and ducking and diving to avoid motion detectors. Cold Finger flings him into a jetpack. Beverly Thrills Cop has him on a police bike chasing down crooks and apprehending them with a heroic Hollywood bunch of fives. And don’t forget Joe-Rassic Park and Demolition Van. Each Act has multiple levels, or rather multiple scenes, and you’ll collect big fat gold stars for your achievements within each scene. Collect all the pick-ups, the hidden star, finish within a set time, perform stunt combos or collect bananas. Each scene’s challenges will vary so also expect to earn stars for dismantling missiles, shutting down robots, not setting off alarms and other mad movie machinations. Some levels are harder than others and of course it’s all fun and games until somebody loses a banana.

If you’re anything like me, you’re all fingers, thumbs and big toes when it comes to stunt games and tricks, and in real life you can barely do a half-arsed roly poly down a thickly carpeted hallway, but do not fear, for this is not Trials Fusion. Joe Danger is, first and foremost, fun. It’s tricky (haha) in places, yes, but it’s not at all frustrating or difficult to master. The left trigger takes you forwards, the right trigger takes you backwards, the left stick flips you forward or backwards and allows you to do wheelies, and X will give you a temporary boost of speed. This boost bar will need to re-filled before it can be used again, but luckily a few flips and tricks will fill it up quickly and easily. Square and Triangle will are the two main trick buttons. A combination of these mid-air and holding them until the very moment before you land will fill up that boost bar long before you can shout ‘Call an ambulance!’

You’ll need a certain amount of those achievement stars to unlock later levels, so you’ll probably need to go back to earn more. I just picked my favourite movie and scenes and zoned in on those. Once you’ve got an achievement within a level, there’s no need to concentrate on it again. Just go for the missing achievements. You could go for the speed achievement and zoom through the level ignoring everything else around you. You could just disarm the missiles and screw the bananas. Each level has a combination of choices that mean you can play whatever you feel like playing. If you’re a speed demon, great. If you’re an OCD collector, terrific. If you’re a stunt stud, break a leg.

There’s nothing serious about this game. It’s a cheeky bite-sized stunt racer. You could sit and play all day because it definitely has that ‘Once you pop you can’t stop’ factor, but I also found it perfect for pulling out of my pocket for a quick race between my soaps, while waiting for the kettle to boil or the chip shop to open – you know, the important life stuff. The point is, we all have busy schedules, but this is definitely one that can be played in shorts bursts if you need to, and there’s plenty of content to keep you going. Don’t forget to check out the deleted scenes and downloadable tours. Also play as Sackboy, Steve from Minecraft or a nice selection of other characters. Personally, Joe is the man for me, but different spokes and all that.

Now, allow me to put on my technical hat (a red turtle shell with a LEGO Batmobile stuck to one side in a jaunty cavalier style). Joe Danger 2: The Movie runs at 60 fps. Gameplay is as smooth as a kitten’s ears. There are no framerate issues, no glitches, no bugs, and no nasty surprises. Hello Games are the guys working on No Man’s Sky. If the quality of the programming in Joe Danger is anything to go by, we are in for the smoothest spaceship ride in the known and unknown universe. Although I’m not sure we’ll be allowed to fly it with one leg in the air and no hands.

Conclusion

Joe Danger 2: The Movie is pure fun and laughs, and the Vita is a lucky little handheld to get it. Its big screen antics are perfect for the small screen with bright and colourful graphics and smooth gameplay. Download this and you’ll be zooming, roaring, flying, rolling and sliding your way to hours and hours of entertainment. Never has a broken neck felt this good.

S J Hollis Rating – 8/10

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A week after the release of one of the most anticipated games of the year, the reviews for Destiny are starting to tumble in. They’re not quite what we were expecting, are they? Less “Whoooo, best game EVAH!” and more “Meh”. Expectations were high and it seems the reality couldn’t quite stretch up to it. These situations always make me wonder if some of the negative reactions would have been more positive had we not worked ourselves into a frenzy of anticipation. It’s Watch Dogs all over again.

To make my stance very clear straight away, I don’t think Destiny is a bad game. I like it. It scratches that itch I have to shoot people in the face. It challenges me, it’s very pretty and, to my surprise, it’s training me to shoot better.

I’m not a massive fan of first person shooters, and aside from a few very notable exceptions, I don’t get excited about them. Unless an FPS is absolutely spot on, I can’t stomach it. Take it away, waiter, and bring me something with more story and less tomatoes. However, I am happy to say that the part of Destiny that is an FPS first and foremost, is a fine main course. Yes, I will have a sprinkle of ammunition on that, thank you, garçon.

I love the guns in Destiny. They feel good. They feel effective. There’s a nice variety and each type handles with differing positives and negatives – a gun for everyone! I’m an auto-rifle kind of girl and Destiny’s autos blast the crap out of everything in a manner that is truly gratifying. I prefer a shotgun for my secondary weapon. Nothing beats it when a horde of Thrall are right in my business. I know nothing technical about guns so I can only say that when a Copperhead goes bang, recoils and goes bang again and again and again, I am filled with a murderous, psychopathic delight that makes my toes tingle. Between that and my Storm Fist, which I prefer to call my Bunch of Fives, close range combat feels satisfyingly authentic. The Thrall are fast and I feel weighed down by my armour and hefty weaponry. It’s a frantic and formidable struggle for survival.

There are three classes to choose from although, aside from their special abilities, I have so far failed to see much distinction between them. I was a Hunter in the alpha and a Titan in the beta, and I chose to stay as a Titan because I love the special ability so much. When supercharged, you can fling yourself into the thick of battle like a chav into a Pound Shop, and land with a ground-shaking crunch that will damage any enemy within the vicinity. Very helpful ability, and I spend much of my time desperate for it to recharge. As a tank-type character you are supposed to get up close to take and deflect damage, so launch yourself at a Wizard, finish him off with your rifle still at relatively close range, punch a couple of enemies that dare get too close, throw a grenade at some stragglers and then back out with your shotgun pointed and quivering. Awesome, yes? Yes. Yes it really is. But not over and over and over and over. Oh I’m a better shooter now. I’m not cowering behind a piece of scenery like I normally would in an FPS. But every mission feels too similar and I am starting to get bored.

I played the alpha and the beta with a huge amount of enthusiasm. I got up in the early hours to fit in some Destiny time. Loved it. The mistake I made was not listening when people said the beta was near enough the finished product. I honestly thought there would be more. Where’s the story? Where are the amazing cinematic cut scenes to go with that incredible music? I’m sure I was promised more than just daga-daga splat.

When I listened to the Destiny hype, I heard rumours of an in-depth adventure shooter with MMO elements. I heard we were getting a new world that we could spend the next ten years in. Honestly, one or two missions is enough. There is no adventure, no in-game story to back up the awesome backstory. Destiny is a co-operative and single player shooter, and that’s all. There’s no heart, nothing to drive me forward. Okay it’s primarily a shooter so maybe it doesn’t need that much story, but I thought Bungie was going for an Experience rather than something that soon feels like such a generic slog.

Even the RPG elements aren’t enough to hold my attention. I’m levelling up, choosing armour, choosing upgrades, but I don’t seem to have found as many goodies as I did in the beta version. I feel as though my choices are very limited. I’m getting better weapons and armour as I level up but the enemies are levelling up with me. It’s meant to look like progression but in actuality I don’t feel much benefit to the upgrades. My Titan looks different but she doesn’t feel different. Finding the Legendary equipment is a bonus, I’m sure, but I would rather have a much larger variety of the more attainable upgrades. Or perhaps I’m just being greedy.

Destiny’s biggest selling point is its MMO element and that works flawlessly. Team up with friends or randoms or even play through by yourself. I’ve done all three and all three options are generally great. I had been fearful that I would always have to team-up in order to complete the main story, but this is not the case. It is challenging but very doable and the game works well if you choose to go solo. The only issue playing with friends is that in order to really enjoy it as Bungie have intended, you need to be roughly on the same level. If one person is much higher or lower then it just doesn’t work. The fun is in struggling together.

While I do tilt towards solo for the main story, I love teaming up with randoms on Patrol. Help each other out, do a little dance and then, ‘oooh something shiny’, off I go. As a confirmed commitment-phobe and chronic pause button presser, I like not being effectively tied to another player for an hour or more. I want to scamper in, obliterate stuff and then be on my way, good day to you, sir. For this reason I absolutely love the little events that randomly pop up on the map. They are very brief and you can choose to join in or just sail on by leaving your fellow Guardians to perish a la giant mechanical spider. These events are a wonderful interruption, they add variety, and I get warm fuzzy feelings when I see other players rushing in to help. When it’s over, we all go our separate ways. Perfect. More of that please, Bungie. I want more choice, more freedom, side-stories, sub-missions, mini-games. I want Skyrim levels of freedom. I want characterisation so I don’t feel like my Titan is actually a robot. I want to talk to other characters. But mostly, I want a story that is more than just background; I want to bob my head to the beat of it, not entirely forget that it’s there. What I’m trying to say is that if you want my attention for the next ten years, I need more than just a great set of guns. I need more than a fine main course. I need pudding.

Conclusion

God only knows how much of an evolution Destiny is facing over the next decade. The game, as it stands right now and underneath the lovely graphics, gorgeous music and smooth gameplay, feels empty and repetitive. I don’t know if future installments will add more story and cutscenes, more reasons to roam free, or whether it will just provide more of exactly the same. I’m loath to completely criticise what is clearly just a base for a much bigger game, but I still can’t shake the feeling that Bungie have mucked up the chance to bequeath something truly special.

Rating:

7/10

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