Ok, I’ll kick off this review by admitting I’m actually pretty bad at this game, I spent a couple of weeks trying and honestly, I’m just bad 😀

So, onto the review…

Bow we’ve been following Ironcast on PC since it was released on STEAM March 2015, roll on a year later and the XBox One version was released on the 9th of March.

At it’s heart, IronCast is a turn based gem collecting game, but calling it just that does it an incredible disservice. This is a roguelike tactical RPG if ever there was one.

Inspired by Victorian era science fiction writers such as H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. Ironcast is set in an exciting alternative history; a time when refined men and women in top hats and bonnets commanded gigantic walking war machines, laying waste to the enemies of the British Empire.

Take control of a 7 meter tall walking vehicle called an Ironcast and face off against an invading force of enemy Ironcast in order to defend 1880’s Victorian England. Battles are fought by generating resource nodes which in turn drive the Ironcast’s various weapons and systems. You must choose how to spend these nodes wisely, either offensively in order to cripple and destroy your opponents, or defensively, if they suspect a barrage of incoming weapons fire is due.

As the blurb says, you are the commander of an 1800’s era steampunk inspired steam tank/walker. You have to collect gems in your turn the correspond to ammo, coolant, etc, which you then use to move your mech, fire your weapons and/or raise your shields, but you never really have enough to do all of it.

The game is simple in idea, but in the execution, its easy to forget what you’ve done and as you’ll see in my twitch playthrough below, I regularly forgot to do something or simply ran out of what I needed to keep myself alive or attack the enemy. Now this could just be me, watching other streams, people are gettign the hang of it, but i also wonder if for me, the transistion from keyboard and mouse, to a single controller system is, for me, the downfall. Everything in the controller layout makes sense, and on screen the items are marked with the button that makes them work, but maybe it was too much for this old senile head to master.

That aside, I really enjoyed playing Ironcast and I love the steampunk vibe of the game.

The sound is also great too, the voice acting is a wonderful cockney British that makes me feel like I’m part of the game (it is my natural accent anyway) and the force feedback of the controller suited the sounds of the gun fire and moving mech perfectly too.

The leveling up and skill system seemed a little tricky to get to grips with and my main gripe while playing it on stream was some of the text is too small to read, even on my rather large tv in teh front room, something that would be less of a issue on a pc monitor you’d usually sit closer to.

As I said though, I enjoyed Ironcast and I will play it a lot more and it’s definitely worth £10, so head over to xbox.com or check your Xbox One’s store page!

~Lone

A Steam powered 6.5 out of 10!

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been wildly successful. Successful to the point where DC clearly felt that it was time to try it’s own hand at bringing the wider universe of it’s superhero stable to the silver screen in a more comprehensive way. Enter Batman vs. Superman. Two of the biggest, baddest, most well known superheroes in the world duking it out head to head in an epic conflict for the ages.

Or at least that’s what the trailers would have you believe. In actuality, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice is a two and a half hour long trailer for the forthcoming title it so blatantly foreshadows (that being Justice League) interspersed with nonsensical dream sequences, clueless Lois Lane investigations, grating twitchy supervillain antics from Lex Luthor, and- most disappointing of all – Batman and Superman whining and snarling at each other like two schoolyard bullies fighting over who gets to shake down the last nerd for his milk money before recess is over.

As this review is meant to be spoiler free, I will try to avoid to many specifics. The main thrust of the movie is the unchecked power of Superman and the threat of what would happen if he were to lose his morality. This is shown in the grounds eye view of the terrifying battle between Zod and Superman from the Man of Steel. Similarly mirroring this is a grim, brooding Ben Affleck as Batman. This is an older Batman, one who is losing his fight (and if his dream sequences are anything to be go by), his sanity and possibly the last nobility that makes him a hero instead of just another vigilante. Batman decides Superman is a threat that must be stopped, Superman decides Batman is a civil rights violating vigilante that must be stopped- and then Lex Luthor shows up. I’ve never been a Jesse Eisenberg, but to be fair he isn’t given much to work with here. His Lex is quirky, manic and a techy nerd. But his motivations come off as nonsensical. The same holds true for Ben Affleck. Batman’s emotional range in this movie runs from “enraged and yelling” to “enraged and yelling while branding bad guys with the bat symbol” to “enraged and yelling ridiculous things at Superman such as “DO YOU BLEED?””.

Unfortunately, Henry Cavill is as wooden as ever in this movie. His Superman as well as his Clark Kent are merely ciphers with no real connection to the world around them. Jeremy Irons as Alfred is a weary bright spot in a weary movie, as is the one great cameo by Wonder Woman. This takes place at the end of the movie, and is actually a bit of a disappointment. After a truly awkward fight between Batman and Supes that I just wanted over as soon as it began thanks to director Zack Snyder’s usual hamfisted and grainy filtered approach to combat, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman shows up to a truly awesome theme song. Its a bright spot in the movie for sure, especially after the super slow mo, vasoline smeared look of the fight sequences. And the main problem with the fight sequences is that they exist in a kind of vacuum. The reasons for the brutality are so banal that its just uncomfortable for the viewer.

I think in the end, that uncomfortable perfectly describes the entirety of the opening steps of the DC Cinematic Universe. Its like watching a train wreck. A nonsensical plot, terrible writing that opposes well over half a century of established canon, not to mention basic personality traits of two of DC’s most well known heroes and worst of all, the feeling that its all just a trailer for Justice League will leave you feeling by turns: awkward, faintly embarrased for the movie, bored, extremely uncomfortable, and finally glad that its over.

Batman vs. Superman- 2.5/10

MMOs. The very term can make some people wary. There’s  a huge time investment involved. Questing, looting, raiding, experiencing the story, getting killed by a half naked guy who’s 8000 levels higher than you….it’s a lot to take in. Good news for you then that the staff here at Sanitarium.FM love MMOs. And we play a ton of different ones. So if you’re looking to jump into an MMO read on. We’re going to breakdown our five favorites and why you should give them a try.

World of Warcraft – k1ng0fspades

After a decade long lifespan, WoW is still the most subscribed MMORPG in the world.  In many ways it sets the gold standard for its genre and many MMOs still live in its shadow.  It’s gone through many iterations over the years, constantly evolving and improving and altering the formula to respond to the ever-changing needs of its playerbase.  I began playing in early vanilla when reaching level 60 and earning enough money for an epic mount was the ultimate achievement, and despite a few hiatuses during content drought, I’ve remained a loyal citizen of the world of Azeroth.

In classic WoW, the world of Azeroth was simply the lands of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, and traversing this world was a magical experience that captured my young imagination and created a life-long love for this universe.  Each expansion made this already staggeringly huge world even larger, more immersive, more interesting.  Each expansion added new features to every class, new classes, new races, new collectibles, new challenges to surmount, which created a hunger in the playerbase to explore every facet of the universe, conquer every obstacle, earn every reward.

Blizzard’s customer service is second to none.  Ask any player about any exchange they’ve ever have had with a Game Master and they’ll tell you, the agents are constantly friendly and sincerely invested in providing the quickest and most effective service they can.  If there’s one thing that creates loyalty to a game, it’s customer service that cares and understands the perspective of the consumer and Blizzard embodies this mentality.

Legion is highly anticipated as a return to the glory days of WoW, with the release of the demon hunter class and presumably the final conflict with the eponymous Burning Legion, one of the most iconic enemies of the Warcraft universe.  Despite years of declining subscribers, the game is still going strong and still remains on top, and there it shall likely remain.

Get it here: https://us.battle.net/account/creation/wow/signup/

WildStar – Digmbot

WildStar has had it’s ups and downs. Now a free to play game, it seems to have found some new life. A game that relies heavily on mobility in combat, Wildstar uses a telegraph system to make sure that you always know where your attacks are going and where enemy attacks are coming from. This doesn’t mean it’s easy to dodge everything- Wildstar’s bosses have some fiendish patterns that make your average Japanese bullet hell shooter look like a walk in the park.

Combine this with a charming and unique wild west meets outer space aesthetic, a wicked sense of humor and a truly insane cast of characters, and you have a recipe for a fun, fast and colorful MMO. Quests can be turned in from pretty much anywhere, so this game is light on backtracking to quest givers. There are multiple crafting systems, and you can make some truly meaningful decisions about how you specialize your characters trade and crafting skills. Oh, and we haven’t even mentioned the character classes.

WildStar is unique in that every character class can perform two roles. The medic is capable of putting out a staggering amount of DPS. The stealthy assassin-like Stalker can also tank. And the Engineer…the engineer has a bigass mechsuit, badass robot pets and a gun the size of a small city bus. Keeping players from feeling locked into traditional MMO roles gives you a sense of freedom in the game, and lets you tailor a party of friends to your needs without having to rely on locked in rolls.

With a free to play model, fair micro transactions that prevent buying power and a ridiculously fun style of play, WildStar is the perfect MMO if you want a little more action in your playstyle and also love goofy, wacky and sometimes creepily insane characters.

Get it here: http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/freetoplay/

Guild Wars – Lonesamurai

Guild Wars holds a special place for myself and the radio station, we launched the Sanitarium.FM with my weekly Ascension show on a Tuesday night, sat in Lion’s Arch International District 1, sometimes with Gaile and Froggy along for the party and a host of players joining in the conga lines

Guild Wars 1 was, for some, a strange beast, it had no jump button and outside of towns and cities, the area was instanced for your party, whether that party was made of other players or just a team of AI

But that was part of Guild Wars charm and that charm still exists to this day.  This was at a time when World of Warcraft had just released as well, but Guild Wars held it’s own against WoW with a fifth of the player figures WoW had.  It’s clean, easy to follow gameplay and skill system, a pvp system Blizzard would eventually steal from for WoW arenas and an art style that still looks fantastic to this day

Guild Wars 2 may have been a disappointment to all the station team and the guild, but GW1 still makes us feel nostalgic and was totally worth the £180 I spent on it all those years ago!

Get it here: https://www.guildwars.com/en/

Eve Online – Lonesamurai

Nowadays we have Elite and other gorgeous space flight sims that satiate our bloodlust and our joy for the exploration of the final frontier (que Star Trek theme)… Way back when the station first started though, the other MMO we regularly covered was EvE Online, still, in my opinion, one of the best space MMO’s out there, and although Digm and others disagree, I actually loved the 3rd person point of view and even CCP’s lore behind it 😀

Some find EvE Online a straight up excel spreadsheet simulator and some like to play the game that way, sitting in Jita, playing the market, but personally, my fave past time and sometimes I miss this, was sitting in my Amarr Tech 2 Battleship clearing tier 4 zones, then coming back in my Cruiser and salvaging the lot for profits

EvE can be as massive or as small as you want to play it, and unlike Elite, with its closed and personal servers limiting players griefing, Eve is a death threat just ready to slit your throat.  PvP is usually brutal and quick, with gate campers sometimes in groups of two or three, each ship with a role to catch unwary pilots that forgot to check where they were going.

But it’s in the corporation (guild) play that evE gets really exciting, with some guilds of hundreds of players going up against other guilds with similar numbers for some truly epic space battles, the like Elite and others just couldn’t do right now, but maybe in the future.

The first time you see a titan warp in on top of a combined fleet and open up its doomsday weapon is a site to behold, unless you happen to be in the path of that doomsday, then, it’s time to clone jump and set up a new ship!

Blade and Soul – Digmbot

Do you want to be a Kung Fu Winner? Then Blade and Soul is the place for you. A Korean MMO, Blade and Soul places you in the shoes of a student who’s school was destroyed and is out for revenge. Taking inspiration from movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Blade and Soul allows players to run, jump, flip, fly and literally race across the very surface of the water as a kung fu master. With a healthy selection of classes, including a brand new warlock magic wielder, the adorable yet deadly summoner, and the punchy punchy kung fu master himself, there’s a playstyle here that will suit you. Want to teleport around, leave little wooden logs to confuse enemies and then plant bombs at their feet? Assassin is the way to go. And theres more to it than just the classes. Blade and Soul rewards combos. Use your abilities correctly and your menu of combat choices keeps expanding in a glorious and seemingly never ending buffet of destruction and kung fu glory.

The story is engrossing and well voice acted, the locations are gorgeous and inspired by the best of kung fu movie and anime art, and the characters you meet prove to be memorable, even if you only remember them because you can’t wait to stick a sword in their guts. Blade and Soul doesn’t place higher on this list unfortunately, because at it’s heart it is a Korean MMO. The  vast majority of quests are going to boil down to kill this many things and bring back this many items. You must return to most quest givers to hand in quests, making backtracking a huge part of the game. On the plus side, being overwhelmed by gear is rarely an issue, as you feed your gear other gear to level it up in Blade and Soul. This, unfortunately also has a few negatives, as you can find yourself farming the same spot for quite a while to get an item you need to breakthrough to the next level.

At it’s core, Blade and Soul is a fun romp through a mystical kung fu inspired world. Movement and combat are glorious, but the game is dragged down by what becomes a huge grind fest when you get to higher levels. Still, if you want to run on water and glide through the air while being followed by your giant mallet wielding cat familiar, Blade and Soul is the only place to go.

Get it Here: http://www.bladeandsoul.com/en/freetoplay/

ARK: Survival Evolved was a huge overnight hit when it first hit early access last summer. But now, the dinosaur taming survival game could be in serious trouble. Studio Wildcast, the game’s developer has been hit by a lawsuit from Trendy Entertainment, creators of Dungeon Defenders. Kotaku has compiled a rather extensive report on all of the documents and emails passing back and forth, but the major point is that Trendy claims Jeremey Stieglitz, its ex-creative director, is in breach of his previously signed contract. Non-compete clauses are certainly nothing new, and Trendy’s lawyers are alleging that Stieglitz agreed to several conditions when he left Trendy in 2014. Among these was an agreement not to poach staff from the company, and not creating direct copmetition.

Trendy is arguing that Ark is direct competition, and that its development has seen the movement of staff from Trendy to Studio Wildcard. Interestingly, the non-compete clause has been reported to have been just one year, instead of the standard three. In essence, the clause would keep Stieglitz from creating anything which would damage Trendy financially. A video game would certainly fall under this heading, though the clause would have expired in August of 2015. Trendy also alleges that Wildcard used technology and information from Trendy while developing Ark. This is a key point, because Trendy could make a case for Ark being their intellectual property and not Wildcard’s.

In response, Wildcard has stated that Stieglitz wasn’t a full time part of Ark’s development team. Instead, they have pointed out that Wilcard’s co-founder Jesse Rapczak went to college with Stieglitz and that Stieglitz was a consultant on Ark. There are several other bits of information involved in the case, but the most pertinent point for gamers is that this lawsuit could very well result in Ark being removed from sale on Steam. Wildcard are seeking for the case to be dismissed, but the case still has time before it appears before a judge. We’ll know more on April 28th, but it seems that this could have serious implications for both studios involved.

Despite how some received the beta, The Division seems to have been mostly well-received so far. However, like all new games it has some issues to work out, and some of those are being solved through patch 1.02, the first major one since release.

Among other things it does a number of things to discourage combat logging. Firstly the disconnect timer has been increased to 30 seconds to stop people logging out to avoid fights they were losing against another player. At the same time the rewards for taking down a rogue player and surviving a rogue status have been increased, as well the the XP and DZ penalties upon death being decreased slightly.

The other notable change is the that stun upgrade to turrets have been nerfed to stop the occurrence of PvP encounters being entirely stunlocked for periods of time.

The full list of changes can be found here.