The reveal trailer for Jump Force both equally made my jaw drop as it did confuse the hell out of me. As a fan of MANGA anime. To see iconic character after iconic character of all the MANGA Anime shows I loved all appearing on screen together had me excited, I had no idea if it was going to work or how it was even possible to bring so many characters together in a single game but finally, and being a little late to the party, I was finally given the chance to find out for myself and it was quite a mixed bag.

Following on the success of Dragon Ball FighterZ was always going to be a tough one for any fighting game from Bandai Namco, but especially for such an ambitious title like Jump Force. It is also worth noting that for this game, they have gone back to the large area Dragon Ball Xenoverse style of 3D fighting in a massive area which, if you have ever watching Dragon Ball animated sagas you will know that battles rage over wide open spaces. I did find this strange considering the tremendous success and welcome from fans for the 2D tag team style of Dragon Ball FighterZ but then, with the scale of the fights by bringing together so much of the MANGA universe together, on paper this style makes sense, the execution sadly not too much but will come back to that point a little further on.

The story mode opens with Frieza, my personal big bad of any animated show, appearing in the world along with a force of bad guys known as the Venoms. Doing what Frieza delights in doing, he is soon killing without mercy and destroying the city when one of his lasers hits you, the player. Before you can die however, Trunks appears and decides to save you by infusing you with an Umbras Cube, which not only revives and heals you but also gives you super powers of your own, with the ability to learn more through fighting. Now you as the player are part of the Jump Force, working to put an end to the evil whilst working alongside some of the biggest heroes in the universe.

The story itself is rather flimsy, not to mention the visual style which just fails to win me over especially in the story cut scenes where the animation is very minimal and every character looks like the test of a 3D modelling engine for a fan made short, whilst the voice acting is spot on, it all comes together is a rather messy and clumsy way outside of the actual fighting. Every character just looks so wooden, almost figurine like and for me it is very off putting throughout. Next comes the Hub World which is the Jump Force base and is a very bland empty space that players will find most of their time is spent outside the battles. In this hub players can find side missions to undertake and also spend the in-game currency to purchase new cosmetic items for your character which when you first create your character, are painfully light in variety.

The lack of variety also appears in the poorly balanced use of the different universes brought together with Dragon Ball the most dominant and even in the story the way characters interact just feels very bland instead of the celebration that it could have been to have some amazing characters brought together to interact and yet, no attempts to do anything clever or to have any real fan moments is just a waste of this opportunity. But what the story and the game overall really just want to do is focus on the fighting, putting these characters against each other and the player.

The combat system is relatively simple using a tag team style combat with the character having support characters vs the same on the other side. Support characters can be called into help or can be switched too but they all share a single healthbar which is an interesting way to manage a multiple character team compared to again, Dragon Ball FighterZ where switching a character can save the day and provide a final chance to get back into the battle. Controls have also been kept very simple with light attack, heavy attack, throw, and jump buttons and simply repetition of the attack buttons will trigger combo attacks making this a very button mash friendly game as it works across all the roster of characters. Right trigger can be used to charge up energy which can then be used to execute super moves, which really is a fan delight to see the well-known moves of the characters put on screen. Whilst I did not find this combat style to be as satisfying as other fighting games, it does suit the variety of the characters in the roster allowing for many dream match ups that fans will appreciate. It is just a shame that brining the battling, story campaign and hub world together feels so lacklustre that disregards the potential the game has to deliver for fans.

I do like the RPG elements however, with XP earned from victories which can then be used to improve stats and attributes as well as the ability to learn new attacks to allow the crafting of the players custom fighting style. I also did appreciate despite being lacking in real substance, of having so many iconic characters together specially to put together as a fighting team certainly has its appeal which many fans of the various universes will appreciate. A roster of 40 characters is huge for any fighting game and with the Season One DLC Pass promising more iconic DLC characters to come.

Failing to fulfil the promise and potential is why ultimately Jump Force is a mixed bag for me, neither one of the components is fully satisfying enough to keep me returning if not to just dabble when new characters are added. But it is being supported with free updates as well as Season Pass content, with a Clan feature and Vertex Event whilst the first paid DLC will debut in May and will introduce a famous Yu-Gi-Oh! anime character Seto Kaiba to the roster.

With continued support and improvements Jump Force should continue to grow, but it is certainly a very niche fighting experience relying on fans love of the different franchises being brought together to attract players to it. I just wish more focus had been put on the details of the experience rather than just smashing all these worlds together and hoping for the best.

Assassin’s Creed III is as close to being the black sheep of the series as you can get, well that and it almost comes close the contempt that Assassin’s Creed Unity has amongst the fanbase. I on the other hand have always been a defender of the game for so many reasons and out of all the instalments in the series, had the toughest time being accepted by fans considering it followed what for me is still the greatest trilogy in gaming, the Ezio Saga. That is not to say that it did not deserve some of the criticism that it received on and after launch, but personally I really do not feel that the game and its hero in Connor was given a fair chance over the years. But thanks to this new remastered version, it finally completes the Colonial Trilogy on current gen consoles and I am hoping that this version will give fans old and new an opportunity to revisit it and give it another chance.

Any title was going to struggle with fans following the conclusion of the Ezio Auditore da Firenze trilogy, I mean how do you follow up such an iconic and charming gaming hero in Ezio. On release it was also just a sequel and not the final chapter of a colonial trilogy that would bring the vibrant worlds of Pirates with Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and the first real opportunity to experience the Assassin Templar war through the eyes of a Templar with Assassin’s Creed Rogue. When you put those games in chronological order, Assassin’s Creed III is actually the final chapter of revisiting the past as the true order is Black Flag into Rogue into Assassin’s Creed III. As for the modern day story however, AC III is actually the final chapter in the modern day story of Desmond Miles, who is now less then a month away before another extinction level event through a massive solar flare threatens to wipe out all life on Earth just as it did for ‘Those who came before’ or Isu as later AC games would identify the first advanced civilisation.

So the stakes were pretty huge going into this game story wise but this is where I wish that instead of just enhancing the visuals of this game and making a few quality of life changes to it, which I will come to a bit later one, I do wish that this had been remade based on some criticisms that I had about the game and ones that during the marketing leading up to the release of this remaster, the original developer team also had. This begins with the opening of the game and how it misdirects the player once Desmond has entered the Animus once more, as Desmond requires a key to activate the final solution in the Isu vault in order to prevent the catastrophe from happening again. After a very short tutorial on how free running works, Desmond is soon reliving the life of one of his ancestors but not Connor, instead Desmond takes the role of Haytham Kenway, an English gentleman who, under the cover of  watching a play, is actually meeting his contact to get his next target in order to recover the very artefact that Desmond needs. What follows is a rewarding but still painfully dragged-out three-hour prologue as Haytham is ordered to go to America in order to find Isu ruins in order to find the use of the artefact he recovered.

I say dragged out because as soon as you complete this prologue, and though I loved learning about Haytham and the twist which many series fans will already know reveals him to actually be a Templar and not an Assassin as implied, you then switch to Ratonhnhaké:ton (Connor) as a young boy, knowing that he is the son of Haytham and Kaniehtí:io following a relationship they had during the prologue. For me this early experience with a young Ratonhnhaké:ton is perhaps the biggest defence of his stern and rather cold personality later in the game. As a child he suffers severe racism at the hands of Charles Lee, the right-hand man of Haythem Kenway, now leader of the American Templar Order. Not only that but he also has to witness the death of his mother following an attack on their village after they refuse to give up their land and unable to rescue his mother from the flames,  weighs heavy on his heart for most of his life and is a big reason why he seeks vengeance against the Templars.

But it is also the forced destiny he is given when he learns from his tribe’s elder that they have been protecting a Temple of their spirits, and when Ratonhnhaké:ton touches the Piece of Eden the tribe has, he is then instructed by Juno of the Isu, to recover the key to the Temple and instructed to keep it safe in order to pass it on to Desmond. He is literally a character pushed into a life with a duty he doesn’t fully understand but always with the desire to do what is right and to protect his people. The quality of writing of this game is still astounding to me with how Connor, his given name in order to be accepted by people to disguise his true background, tries to fulfil his destiny by training to become an Assassin under the guidance of a very reluctant Achilles, dealing with the historical time of Colonial America and Connor’s role in the American Revolution. Connor for me is the most interesting of all the main Assassin’s in the series and experiencing his struggles has always intrigued me. Connor has his mission to defeat the Templars, retrieve and protect the Isu artefact for Desmond and all while everyone around him is seemingly just using him to help them with their own agendas, which as the story plays out becomes more apparent in how the actions of people like George Washington do not always align with their promises. All this is a great look at this period in history but then you also have the completion of Desmond’s story arc and in the modern day sections Desmond himself is also going out on missions to retrieve power sources needed to power the Isu Temple, although few in number, I did appreciate finally seeing Desmond using the skills learned from previous games as well as his interactions with his father, Sean Hastings and Rebecca with lovely moments of dialogue wrapping up his story very nicely after five games.

One of the criticisms of the setting was that going from the tall buildings and large city areas of the Italian Renaissance period with Ezio saga to the less colourful and cruder buildings of Colonial America provided less of the traditional free running gameplay of those games in AC III, which is true, in this period of history, the cities of Boston and New York are new and small, but where AC III does try to make this up is by providing the wilderness areas where Connor can hunt, climb trees and rocky environments and conduct side missions. On the original release I remember spending many hours outside the main story campaign just hunting in the wilderness and spending a lot of time with the Homestead which allows the player as Connor to meet new people to begin building a new colony and by completing side missions for them will level up what they bring to the Homestead such as farming, wood crafting and mining, all of which can come together to trade products from the  Homestead. The amount of side content to do is also very satisfying and has some tremendous moments that truly humanise Connor so please, take the time to complete the Homestead missions as they will give a great payoff by the end.

Of course, Assassin’s Creed III also brought in Naval combat for the first time to the series and from this game came all the pirating in AC IV and Rogue and returned in Origins and Odyssey, such is the legacy of what began here and so much so that a full spin off game in Skull and Bones will release in 2019 as a full celebration of it. Now here it is very basic and it was improved greatly for later games but it is still very satisfying to revisit where it began and still remains one of my favourite features in Assassin’s Creed III with the variety of side missions both on ship and on foot from the Naval side really makes a nice break from the main story.

Now the changes made with the quality of life improvements work really well such as the mini-map showing which direction enemies are facing and moving to being able to finally do a double hidden blade stealth by walking, something that could only be done by dropping on two enemies in the original. These sound like very minor changes but they make a huge difference. The combat remains as brutal as it was originally with Connor for me, still being the most lethal of all the main game Assassin’s with the ability to even use tools such as the snare and rope dart during counters for lethal effects and not to mention the double and triple counter moves Connor is capable of doing which for some reason were dialled down in AC IV despite it using the same combat system. Now as with previous remasters in Rogue and The Ezio Collection, this is another example where refinement would have benefitted the gameplay as much as visually improving the game and some of the same niggles and bugs from the original still remain such as NPC AI in follow missions which can cause them to stand completely still or get stuck in scenery can force you to restart that checkpoint or mission to animation glitches which really should have been tidied up for a remaster.

The inclusion of Assassin’s Creed Liberation really is a great bonus to the story of Connor who features briefly in it but also in celebrating the role of Aveline de Grandpré, the first female main assassin in the series in a story that runs alongside the events of AC III and was originally a PSP title that was ported across to last gen consoles a few years back but also now remastered for this release. Aveline’s story looks at twelve years of her life and mission to help free slaves and many fans would be forgiven for either not knowing about this game and for not having the chance to play which thankfully has now been resolved. It is a great compliment to the AC III experience and I am really happy to see it be included.

I will probably spend more time defending Connor as a character and Assassin’s Creed III as a chapter in the series for many years to come and in hindsight, this game and the story greatly benefits from being part of a trilogy with Black Flag and Rogue completing the full story helping to give more context to the role Connor played. This remaster helps bring the series almost completely to current gen consoles with only the first Assassin’s Creed title yet to be considered or planned to be remastered, but I hope they do so fans can have a completely series on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 to enjoy. It looks better than ever and the musical score helps bring even more emotion to a very powerful story told within it. Not only does the inclusion of AC Liberation add to the experience but having all the DLC including the equally fun but super silly Tyranny of George Washington expansion, which tells an alternate universe ‘What if’ story about what would have happened if George Washington had been corrupted by a Piece of Eden and declared himself King.

I really hope this release gives Connor and Assassin’s Creed III a new chance to win fans of the series over because it deserves a fairer opportunity to do so and it also was just another nice opportunity to replay the more traditional Assassin’s Creed style after really enjoying and falling love with the new RPG style of Origins and especially Odyssey. It is still bittersweet for me as well with it being the end of Desmond’s story which left the modern-day side of the story in a bit of limbo until Layla’s introduction in AC Origins returned it to a more character focused story. To have this as part of the Odyssey season pass was rather nice too so if you can find a deal for AC Odyssey and the season pass then quite frankly this is a no brainer but you can purchase it separately just as you could with Rogue.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Assassin’s Creed III again, it had been a few years since I fired it up but reliving Desmond’s final moments as well as Connor and Aveline has been a nice throwback just ahead of the next expansion to AC Odyssey ‘The Fate of Atlantis’ just about to launch.

The hype for all things Borderlands is incredible right now following the announcement that Borderlands 3 will be releasing this September. It has fans old and new really looking forward to it but for fans like me, who have played the series since it first launched back in 2009, it immediately made me want to revisit the original loot shooter to relive how it all began. So how handy was it that in the same event that announced Borderlands 3, Gearbox also revealed that Borderlands GOTY had been remastered for current consoles and PC.

The moment the intro plays for Borderlands I was instantly transported into its world once more, even though I have played all the games since including the Telltale ‘Tales from the Borderlands’ which I very much recommend you playing, there is still something magical about where it all began that still makes me smile. Now Of course one of the now traditional aspects to any Borderlands game is that kick ass opening musical track which began with “Aint no rest for the wicked” for the first game and remains fondly on my Spotify Gaming playlist.

Not to mention remembering the cell shaded comic book visual art style to the game which even now after four games is still striking and now very much refined with this new enhanced version of the original Game of the Year Edition, which kind of surprised me as cell shading usually just looks like cell shading to me, so the fact I can see how refined it is shows how much detail and precision has gone into making this enhanced version look as good as the previous remasters in the ‘Handsome Jack Collection’ and the animation is smooth as silk which is important for an FPS.

For those who may not know the story of Borderlands, the universe is one full of mega corporation all battling it out to be number one. The Atlas Corporation, is the first to discover a mysterious alien vault full of weapons of advanced technology which instantly gives them a huge advantage over their rivals and so begins their search to find more which leads them to the planet Pandora. Atlas set up shop on Pandora hoping to find more alien vaults amongst the strange alien ruins on the planet but they failed to take into account the monstrous wildlife and soon after being unable to find anymore vaults, abandon the planet. Being the competitive and sneaky Corporation that they are, DAHL then occupies the planet, but instead of focusing on alien technology finds, they focus on harvesting the rich minerals on the planet by bringing in prisoners to do all the labour but they also have a team of xenoarchaeoligists searching for alien vaults.

However the vicious wildlife has taken out all but one of the team, but the lead researcher, Patricia Tannis does make a discovery, but her communication is intercepted by Altas, who being a little annoyed by the fact they missed this discovery, send in their Crimson Lancer attack force to retake Pandora which forces DAHL to abandon it by only taking the wealthy off world. Pandora is now left with all the prisoner labour force now splitting up into their own gangs, the Crimson Lancers who have kidnapped Patricia Tannis and set up military points across Pandora and a population suffering under the hardship of the world and its wildlife. In other words, Pandora is not a place to take a holiday!

But Pandora has become  a point of interest for the baddest of the badasses of mercenaries known as Vault Hunters, willing to do whatever it takes to find the alien Vault on Pandora and claim its treasures for themselves which is where the player comes in, as four new Vault Hunters arrive on Pandora ready to gear up and find the secrets of Pandora and prepared to take out anyone who stands in their way. Each playable character has a particular skill or class starting with the generic Soldier class in Roland, a former Crimson Lancer now working for himself, Mordecai the hunter with his pet bird Bloodwing, Lilith the Siren, who has mystical powers to use and my personal favourite in Brick…the berserker class and mammoth sized man who can enter a rage and just punch the crap out of anything and everything around him. This guy you may also recognise from the Borderlands 3 trailer breaking out in a sexy saxophone solo!

The reason why Borderlands was so incredible as a shooter and naturally evolved into bigger and better games is that Gearbox managed to blend together so many different genres into what I still consider to be the first successful ‘Looter Shooter’. It can be played completely solo if you wish or teaming up with friends online and now even with randoms via matchmaking. The FPS aspect is very satisfying and one of the most iconic things about the series is the sheer volume of guns and weapons you will pick up along the way is quite frankly ridiculous. From machine pistols to revolvers and assault rifles to shotguns, sniper rifles and rocket launches and all the grenades in between, it is truly nuts just how many guns are thrown at you as you play through. Weapons can come with elemental buffs with shock, corrosive, explosive and fire augments which can be effective against particular enemy types you encounter.

As you progress through and earn XP you can spend points on your chosen character’s skill tree which brings an RPG element into the game that also works incredibly well as you continue to grow your character and make them stronger and unlocking new abilities to enhance your core skills. What I also enjoyed and still do is the balance to keep enemies a challenge for players throughout so enemies will always scale to your player level and boss fights always fun. You can also run multiple character save files too so the ability to try out each of the main heroes is there at any time and just like I did first time around and with the sequels, I would have one character to take through the story all solo but mix it up by playing as a different character when teaming up with friends online.

The story itself is very well written as the quest to find the Vault is supplemented by numerous side quests to take on in the different areas across the world, all of which connected by a handy fast travel system which can speed up the time to get to each region to complete the side quests and return to safe areas. The variety in the characters you will meet to either give you main campaign story missions or to serve as provides or side activities is as fresh now as it was back on original release and you can really see why this game launched the series to such success, it is the foundation by which all of the series continues to grow and just why there is so much hype going into September and the release of long awaited Borderlands 3.

That said, I did find with this enhanced version of the original GOTY Edition, that it certainly could have benefited from some extra refinement as there are certainly some niggles in the game such as hit detection with hip fire can be very annoyingly hit and miss and vehicle use can also feel very clumsy at times. Other issues I found were dialogue audio with some of the NPC characters simply failed to play at all which was a bit of a downer. But otherwise this is a very solid edition which certainly benefits from the amazing DLC expansions to the game such my personal favourites The Secret Armory of General Knoxx and Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution standing out the most but all four DLC packs are included making this the best entry point for the series for newcomers wondering what all the fuss is about.

Returning to the first Borderlands game has been great fun and with this release, the entire series is now fully playable on current generation consoles giving fans all the Borderlands chaos and mayhem they could possibly want heading into Borderlands 3. This remains one of my go to gaming series with friends and it especially still holds up today against the looter shooters like Destiny and The Division which all came out after the original release of Borderlands. This is a great entry point for players and a superb nostalgia trip to revisit where it all began, and whilst the sheer number of guns available has become more of a meme rather than a selling point for the series, incredible gameplay, well designed characters and a fantastic voice cast to bring them to life all come together once again to highlight how great Borderlands is.