The first Surge game came out at just the right time, offering a very refreshing take on the Dark Souls style by having a sci-fi setting and adding some dynamic elements to the formula. But since then, a whole range of Dark Soul clones have released from 8-bit instant classics such as Deadcells to another title from the team behind the Dark Souls games in Sekiro, a masterful example of how the genre has evolved. I was very much interested to see how Deck 13 as a developer team and built on the foundation of the first game to see if they have taken it to a new level with the sequel.

The Surge 2 opens with asking the player to create their own character but sadly this so generic and limited that you can never really put together a perfect character. Trying to make a male character became such a chore due to not being able to land on a good face to facial hair balance that after almost 40 mins of trying I just binned it and created a female character which actually worked far better within the frustratingly limited options available. Next you can pick a back story for your character but this lacked anything really interesting and simply had me picking the one with the nicest outfit just to get into the actual game. Thought nice to have an option to customise my own character, it really would have benefited from having far more depth than just generic unimaginative selections.

Once your character has been finalised you are then thrown into a cutscene showing your character on board of a plane, making friends with a young girl. The plane is then struck by the Utopia rocket which is carrying a payload of Nanites which flood into the plane causing it to crash into Jericho City. Seeming the only survivor of the crash, your character then wakes up in a prison medical facility but discovering they had been in a coma for 2 months from the crash. The Prison is then suddenly attacked by massive creature seemingly made from the same form of Nanites that caused the original plan crash, causing so much damage that prisoners are able to escape from their cells. Waking up and armed with a basic weapon, the player ventures out into the prison.

I will come back to the story a little further on but I do want to start off by talking about something that stood out for me in the first game and is far more enjoyable now in The Surge 2, the combat. The combat system still relies on a limb targeting system using the now commonly used requirement of a stamina-based fighting system. What does change things up right away and is the first improvement for me, is that the player no longer has to choose between a light or heavy personal Exo-frame or rig. Instead you now simply get one Exo-frame and you can customise it with light or heavy armour as you see fit. In fact, making that choice is made very easily as you can now have three pre-set loadouts for your rig. The limb targeting system still enables the player to get hold of new weapons but also new armour blueprints which can be then crafted and used with a bonus of using a complete Armour set with three pieces giving you one bonus and a completed set will come with the bonus of a full set of armour bonuses.

The freedom to really customise your load-out on the fly also applies to the Implant system which is carried over from the first game, that allows you to add new abilities and skills whilst improving how your rig and load-out performs in the field. As always you can upgrade and craft new weapons and amour with the materials you find in the field which brings me nicely back to the combat. Thanks to be able to have different load-outs for your rig, the freedom to try out and test different weapons really allows players to tailor their own play-style in the world. The number of weapons has been improved so finding one to suit your own style from dual weapons, swords, staffs and hammer types can all be equipped. The work on ‘execution’ animations as well when taking out a particular limb has been focused on and with some of the weapons, these animations can bring a very satisfying end to any enemy. The game is also more forgiving should you fall you an enemy with the traditional “racing back to pick up your lost items” now having a timer showing how long you have to get back to where you fell to retrieve them. The only issue I have with the new combat system is the direction parry system, which if you install the correct implant will allow you to ‘detect’ the direction of an enemy hit in order to parry it using the right stick but it just feels really clumsy instead of a simply single button press parry system, I just found it really cumbersome especially when fighting a group of enemies.

Where the game does fall down however is in the story and world design. The story falls into the same trap as the MATRIX films for me, with the need to try and blend the philosophical and religious tones with how technology can impact on humankind going forward. The opening cut-scene to the game even raises the concept of can machines/robots be truly perfect if they are created by the imperfection in humans. The issue for be is that it just becomes more  convoluted the further into the game you go and the story itself limits the playing area you have with Jericho City now cut off from the rest of the world due to the Nanite plague ravaging the city following the same plane crash that you as the main character survived.

The first game was set in a dystopian industrial world with corporate greed being a big focus but now we simply move those themes into a city-wide area with technology and the evolution of technology now the main possible big bad. The world does feel bigger however by having the player moving through streets instead of warehouses but it is a city that is just damaged, dirty and broken. Nothing really makes it stand out other than having more ways to run about. You can still create shortcuts between areas which can be very handy if you want to get back to a Medbay which still serve as The Surges version of the Dark Souls bonfires, allowing you spend your scrap to craft or upgrade your gear and I also like that you can bank your unused scrap instead of the risk of losing it out in the world should you fall to an enemy. The shortcuts can also seem almost added to be poke fun at the player, early in the world it took me a good hour of so to navigate through in order to find different areas to go explore but then to find a gate requiring a certain level of key card to open which then breaks the logic of having an Exo-frame and weapons and not being able to just kick or cut the door down whilst at the same time able to chop off armoured limbs to salvage.

Early on the challenge of coming across new enemies can lead to a massive difficulty spike, forcing you to grind and farm an area enough in order to gain a full set of new armour or materials to upgrade in order to grind and the game simply lets you do this without forcing you as the player to up the tempo or put pressure on you to push on. The early bosses can be a challenge making any cushion near you want to be someplace else as you might pound your controller into it but later on, the bosses simply become a higher level of the same fight patterns and with enough sensible load-out builds, you can become strong enough to simply make these battles a case of hitting them enough with your best weapon rather than the skilful dance that makes you learn their attack patterns waiting for a moment to strike.

What is a disappointment is that The Surge 2 still suffers from technical problems with average visuals but also screen tearing and a camera that can miss many of the brilliant limb cutting off animations when they trigger, especially when fighting multiple enemies at the same time. Now I began playing using my OG Xbox One and this game definitely rough around the edges, especially in character models but I switched over to my new Xbox One X and whilst it did help make the visuals look a little sharper, the screen tearing remained. I also became really bored with the sheer number of “player graffiti” tags if you have the game in Online mode where players  can leave tags to either indicate where an item can be found or if an enemy might be hiding just around the corner so it doesn’t catch you out but it became annoying because a lot of players just tag anything and everything using all the symbol options possible so almost a case of spamming the world with tags. Aesthetically the world is just rather dull to be in, it might be set in the future but it ends up looking like any normal city with some broken buildings and burned out cars in the street.

The environments will have nooks and crannies that might hold secret routes or secret rooms to find with many requiring a particular skill in order to access them which is there in order to give players a reason to return to that place later in the game. I found the first game to be fairly average on the visual side and that can be forgiven for a small studio lacking the budget of a big team such as you would have behind a Dark Souls and Sekiro title, but this sequel just feels very much the same and with other games now out all battling to win over the Souls genre fan, some effort to just lift the visuals to another level would have helped.

If you enjoyed the first game than The Surge 2 will offer you a lot of the same both good and bad, with enough refinements to the combat to still make it fun. The sci-fi setting still offers a lot of room to build this franchise on if it can aim higher instead of playing it safe. The combat and setting alone are enough to make this worthy of your attention if you are a fan of the genre, it just lacks the polish that a sequel should have rather than just a few quality of life fixes. But there is a great deal of fun to have with The Surge 2, and the gameplay elements are strong enough to make this a game worth experiencing.

The Yakuza series is perhaps the most welcome surprise in my gaming life and as someone who missed the original PlayStation 3 releases, getting to play this series now on PlayStation 4 has definitely been one of the highlights of this current generation. This series is a strange one if you are a newcomer to it as so far the releases have been out of chronological order with Yakuza Zero and Kiwami released first followed by Yakuza 6: Song of Life and then Kiwami 2, so its all a little jumbled for new fans of the series as naturally you would be thinking “so that is the prequel, 1, 2 and 6 of the series, so…where is the rest?”…well, fans old and new now have the chance to complete the series starting with Yakuza 3 Remastered.

Yup that is right, rather than making fans wait for news of the release of Yakuza 3, 4 and 5, Sega and RGG Studios surprised everyone with the announcement that all three games would be bundled together as the ‘Yakuza Remastered Collection’ with Yakuza 3 Released in September, 4 released in October and 5 released in February 2020. Then it was confirmed that Yakuza 7 was being worked on with the plans to release in the West as well with a brand new protagonist, and pretty much every Yakuza fans wishes had been answered, we will now get to own and play the complete Yakuza Series and this started with the remaster of Yakuza 3.

I was so excited to finally play this chapter of Kiryu’s story I was just smiling from ear to ear just to be back in the world of Kiryu and experience more of his story. My PS4 was also a little overexcited because it decided to actually die on me, giving me a very impatient wait for it to be repaired and returned so I could carry on. But once it was back it took not time to get back into the thick of things and it genuinely felt like returning home to Kamurocho with Kiryu. The Yakuza series has always fascinated me because each game, whilst using the same characters including Kiryu are connected by are their own complete story, much like my other favourite series Assassin’s Creed. Each game is a chapter in the life of Kiryu who we find in Yakuza 3, fully retired from the life and business of the Yakuza and the Tojo family.

It is this new look on life that stands out the most as we get to see the very paternal side of Kiryu who has chosen to open and run the ‘Morning Glory’ Orphanage, which is a stark contrast to the life of crime and violence Kiryu is normally smack in the middle of. In fact, Kiryu not only left that life behind but also moved away to Okinawa to be as far away from that life as possible. Players get to see this very different side to Kiryu, who himself was raised in an orphanage and the opening hours to Yakuza 3 are completely focused on this new life style and I really enjoyed it. Seeing Kiryu having to deal with very non-Yakuza trials and tribulations of 9yr olds from helping one find a way to win the girl he has a crush on to helping find the culprit behind some stolen pocket money. It is slow but deliberately paced in order to give players the connection to this new life for Kiryu because as fans will know, trouble will always find its way to the feet of Kiryu.

Soon the very fate of the orphanage is as risk and as a result the home and family that Kiryu has managed to forge his orphans into, helped by you the player at the start of the game. It becomes obvious that forces are working against the orphanage as the story becomes far darker with corruption in politics and the usual Yakuza family betrayal and scheming in the Yakuza have once again forced Kiryu to put down his rather fetching Hawaiian shirt and put back on the silver two piece suit and red shirt with the super high collar in order to investigate what is happening and to save his kids and orphanage. This is the magic of a Yakuza game that it can start off slowly and so innocently and allowing Kiryu to showcase his more human side before the real-world crashes down around him and he becomes the only person capable of sorting it all out. When this happens it never feels old and this story successfully manages to justify that need to summon Kiryu back to a life he wanted to leave behind, almost like the classic westerns where the famous gun slinger puts down his guns until something terrible happens and they are forced to pick up their six gun and return to action. The stories just draw you in and get players emotionally invested in the characters of Yakuza and like any good pantomime, booing at all the bad guys up to no good.

What does feel a little strange is that this is a remaster and not a remake, so unlike Kiwami 2, this has released as a more cleaned up version of the original PS3 release so visually it still looks great but it still suffers from the old style of movement animations and combat style instead of the more up to date combat and levelling up systems you have in Yakuza 6: Song of Life and Kiwami 2. The combat is still incredibly fun though and the use of weapons definitely brings a very old school Hong Kong fight film style to it but if you had gotten used to the more modern style in 6 and Kiwami 2, it might feel a little janky to suddenly go back to a less diverse fighting system. I did however really love the feeling that you were accessing more finishers and fighting moves as you levelled Kiryu up so you always feel as though you are improving as you progress through the game.

Visually this is also not as rich as 6 or Kiwami which were built on the Dragon engine, as a remaster this still looks good but not as good as a title that had been rebuilt on the new engine could have been but it also makes sense as to why the final games in the series have been bundled together as a remastered collection instead of a remade collection. Nearest comparison I can make again goes to the recent Assassin’s Creed remastered games where a lot of them have just been cleaned up visually and with some quality of life improvements rather than remaking them entirely. But doing some research into the original Western PS3 release that suffered quite major issues with localisation and translation of the dialogue where the orphanage was actually called ‘Sunshine Orphanage’ and getting some of the character names wrong. What this release does manage to do is restore all previous cut out sub stories and mini games whilst correcting the localisation issues making this the best experience of this game a new fan and series veteran can finally have with Yakuza 3

For me the sub-stories are once again a highlight of playing a Yakuza title with some that are just mind boggling out there silly to some really quite powerful and emotional stories connecting back to the previous game Kiwami 2. Being asked to take photos for a ‘Blogger’ is not only randomly fun to do but again you can literally see how culture and technology changes during the Yakuza series as Kiryu is forced to try and adapt to this changing world around him outside of the fist to face problem solving he is used to dealing with. Some can feel very strange to have Kiryu do but believe me when I say they are a definite bonus to the main story which itself is still very relevant in 2019 with many themes easily relatable to things happening today in the news.

Mini games are not quite as deep or fun as the other Yakuza titles but you can still manage a hostess bar where Kiryu/player has to help dress the hostesses in order to attract the best clientele to make money for the club which felt a little strange for me. But karaoke is back with the option to have the song lyrics in English so the songs can be understood by a western audience and then you can go and play darts or some golf. They do feel limited compared to what can be experienced in Kiwami 2 and Yakuza 6 but I must admit, I do like how they have been kept as they originally were because you can really appreciate how far the series and RGG Studios has come since 3 first released, so yeah being a remaster allows for the more nostalgic style of gameplay over it being a full on remake.

Yakuza 3 just ticks all the boxes for me who came to the Yakuza series only because of the recent re-releases and remakes and even though I am playing the stories out of chronological order such as playing Yakuza 6 and seeing how Kiryu story does come to end only makes having the opportunity to go back and experience his earlier stories has really been a delight. The differences between a remastered Yakuza title and a remade Yakuza title are very obvious and also very forgivable and the biggest selling point for playing Yakuza 3 as part of a purchase of the Remastered Collection is that for the asking price, getting three Yakuza games and completing the whole saga is an incredible deal. If 3, 4 and 5 had been remade, fans would realistically be looking at a far longer wait for their release instead of the opportunity to play and experience them before the 7^th game is released in 2020.

Kiryu really continues to justify his place as one of my favourite gaming characters and the story this game is incredible with twists and turns and seeing Kiryu constantly evolving as a person as his own personal experience of being brought up in an orphanage leads him to care so passionately to protect his kids and help them become a family which is something he did not have himself until he joined the Yakuza. I am still learning more about Kiryu and the characters around him as well as his world and this is now the 5^th Yakuza game I have had the pleasure of playing thanks to them being released again for PS4. I will say if you have yet to play any Yakuza title, I implore you to treat yourself and your console to play Yakuza Zero and both Kiwami titles before diving into this remastered collection but if you have then yes grabbing the Yakuza Remastered Collection and starting with Yakuza 3 before 4 is released towards the end of October will add something incredible to close 2019 before you can get your hands on 5 in February.

Not as polished as the remade titles and Yakuza 6, Yakuza 3 still has more than enough to have fun with and to appreciate this amazing series. This is a great example of what a good remastered game can deliver by showcasing what made a game that many people would have missed out on but also fixing flaws in the original release to tidy things up without changing what made the original so good to begin with.

September was quite the month for me as an Xbox fan and a fan of the Gears of War series. The epic experience begun on September 5^th when I was lucky enough to attend the GEARS Ink event hosted by Xbox UK to celebrate the early access launch of the GEARS 5 Ultimate Edition to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate where not only was I able to get an incredible GEARS 5 inspired tattoo and meet the voice actors behind the characters of JD and Del from GEARS 5, Liam McIntyre and Eugene Bryd , but after getting home from the event and tuning into the live stream, somehow the gaming gods chose me to win the ultimate prize on the day….the brand new GEARS 5 Limited Edition Xbox One X!

Which arrived this week and so much love and thanks have to go to the amazing Xbox UK team who not only kept me up to date with how long the wait would be, they actually shipped a brand new console all the way from the US just to make sure the prize was in the best condition it could be which made the wait absolutely worth it. Everything about this console from the trailer above already had me close to drooling about how gorgeous this limited-edition console was, but my word was I completely blown away once I took it out of the delivery box itself.

Now I have had some experience with Xbox limited edition consoles and I can happily say I still the stunning HALO 4 Limited Edition Xbox 360 which you will see a little later on, but often the packaging is just your pretty standard protection type designed to keep everything in the box including the console safe. What I had not expected was to see just how far the designed concept for this console bundle had gone as even the packaging itself was part of the entire wintery look of the GEARS 5 LE Xbox One X. Just removing the protective sleeve revealed another awesome art design which if my OCD need to keep boxes for EVERYTHING ‘just in case’, I would use it and frame it as it is just that nice piece of art. First things first, this is what you can expect when you open the box:

• Xbox One X (1TB) limited-edition console.
• Xbox One Controller featuring Kait Diaz (with batteries).
• Vertical Stand.
• High Speed HDMI Cable.
• Power Cable and plug.
• Full-game download of Gears 5 Ultimate Edition paired with Gears of War 4.
• Full-game downloads of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Gears of War 2, Gears of War 3.
• Month trial of Xbox Game Pass.
• Month of Xbox Live Gold.

Next out of the box came the limited-edition Kait Xbox one controller which for those who do not know, is modelled after Kait’s very own Winter Protection COG armour in the game. It really is a stunning looking controller which is based on the new style of controller which features etched trigger grips as well as the now standard rubberised diamond grip on the back case to prevent slippage from sweaty hands from even the most energetic online battles. The colour scheme is just brilliant and I love the blue analogue sticks and triggers which highlight them even more from the grey of the main controller. But it is the Kait armour design that is so striking, it is even textured where on the front you can feel the ‘armour sections’ on the front as compared to my other controller, the Ocean Shadow controller where you can see that the front of it is just one clean panel. It really brings the Kait controller to life more to have that additional detail and I also like the extra Locust Symbol from Kait’s necklace given to her by her mother at the closing of Gears of War 4, on the battery cover although sadly mine looks a little rubbed off in places but I cannot tell if it is like that by design.

Now it was time to take out and get a closer look at the actual Xbox One X console and if you can describe a gaming console, this limited-edition Xbox One X definitely earns that title. Looking at the top alone showing the new winter Crimson Omen COG image with it appearing to be underneath the ice is simply as elegant and lush as you would expect. The ice is actually a translucent layer with the Crimson Omen physically layered below making it a fully 3D image when you look directly at the console itself. The cracking ice effect that spreads out on the top of the console from the central Crimson Omen image look incredible giving it a real texture when you run your hand over them with the but I did not expect was that those cracks, are actual cracks in the casing created using laser etching so it has the texture if you ran your hand over the case that just makes it all pop so much more. The underneath of the case is almost identical to the Kait controller with the locust symbol on the bottom but what came as another surprise was that the snowflakes which I thought were just an effect on the trailer, are actually painted onto the bottom of the console. It is the extra detailing that makes this easily one of the best custom consoles Microsoft has produced with a design made by the co-creator of Gears, Rod Fergusson.

What is abundantly clear from how this Xbox One X is designed, is that it is meant to be used in a vertical position, which thanks to nicely colour matched stand that came with the console allows owners to do. Now I do know the risks of possible laser burning damage on discs by running the Xbox vertically rather than the very sensible horizontal style, but around 75% of the games I play and review are digital, so for now, I am keeping it vertical to really just show off how stunning this console really is rather than hiding it in an entertainment centre which will cover the bottom and the top designs. Easily this console looks fantastic vertical and until I sense an issue using it this way, it is how it will stay.

The console also comes with the entire Gears of War game collection, well other than Judgement which I never liked anyway. The console contains digital codes for Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Gears of War 2 and 3 and a code for GEARS 5 Ultimate Edition paired with GEARS 4. A Bonus is that the LE Console version of the GEARS 5 Ultimate Edition also comes with all the bonus skins that the other GEARS 5 themed items come with, so it has the ICE Kait skin that comes with the Kait controller if purchased standalone as well as the Lancer and other weapon skins that you get with the GEARS 5 Seagate External Drives. What this console also has is the ICE Jack skin and all these additional skins match the console’s Crimson Omen Logo under the ICE look which again, just pops on screen when they are equipped for the MP modes of the game which is something I will certainly use, I have been holding out playing the new modes and completing the campaign until the new console came and yup, will be diving back in.

Another surprise was when powering up the console for the first time and instead of the usual beep you get with an Xbox One, this X actually makes the sound of water freezing into ice as its start up sound and when powering it down, the sound of the ice breaking plays. Sometimes it is the little things like that which truly make it a customer console to have.

I do not really need to go into the performance of the console as by now we know that the Xbox One X is the most powerful gaming console on the market today but as someone who has yet been able to invest in a 4K HDR capable TV, considering this was a prize I never expected to win, I do have to say the performance jump from my now old original Xbox One is very noticeable thanks to the natural up-scaling the console does with regular games and especially ones which have been enhanced for the Xbox One X. I ran through Assassin’s Creed Origins and Odyssey to test out the visuals along with Borderlands 3, The Surge 2, Code Vein and Sea of Thieves and I did noticed a considerable improvement in the sharpness and vibrancy of the visuals on my TV as well as improved loading times and draw distance on a good few of them.

All in all, I am overwhelmingly impressed with the GEARS 5 Limited Edition Xbox One X console, having the now standard 1TB Internal HDD will come in very handy alongside my 3TB External drive, it runs almost silently compared to the OG Xbox One and the Kait controller compliments the outstanding design of the console itself. This is easily the best custom Xbox One X console that Microsoft have produced themselves and even if you are not a huge fan of Gears of War but looking to upgrade to the X, this is just a huge centre piece of your gaming set up that will have your fans drooling when they see it and have you smiling each time you go to do some gaming.

But if I am being really finicky, the only criticism I would have is not about this console or controller bundle, but I really wish that Microsoft would change the One Month of Xbox Game Pass code to no longer require it be used for non-Game Pass subscribers only, at this point Xbox really need to appreciate that those who are choosing to upgrade consoles might already be an Xbox Game Pass subscriber and realistically, with all the hard marketing Xbox are doing for the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with so many 1 or 2 month  for £1/$1 style promotions they keep running, who right now is not an active subscriber so if the One month of Xbox LIVE Gold can go to existing users, the code for Xbox Game Pass should as well.

But nothing really takes away from what a true beauty the GEARS 5 Limited Edition Xbox One X console bundle is and I just have to thank the gaming gods along with Xbox UK letting destiny combine for me to win this exceptional special console.

To purchase this bundle from the Microsoft UK Store (currently £50 cheaper at time of posting) go here: https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-one/consoles/xbox-one-x/gears-5-1tb-le