"Hello and welcome to Good Game." "I'm Bajo." "And I'm Hex." "Bajo, what's the first thing you would do if society collapsed after a deadly virus outbreak?" "Well, I'd build a zombie-proof shelter and stock up on a lot of antibacterial hand gel." "Right." "Well, what you're meant to say is that you'd rise up and join The Division." "Seems like a lot of work." "Probably just chill out, catch up on some books." "Re-watch Deadwood." "You've been trying to get me into that show." "Watch Deadwood." "Yeah." "OK." "Alright." "OK." "Grenade." "Oh, I'm down." "I should not have thrown that grenade." "Plus, we play dress-ups for murder in the latest Hitman." "Plus, NichBoy deals with a ClusterTruck and Goose has a rant ready." "Oh, he's a stroppy Goose this week, isn't he, Hex?" "I know." "Beware of the Goose." "But before all that, can you name the game for this week?" "Got his Goose feathers in a ruffle." "'Ruffle'?" "He ruffled his feathers." "I don't think you can get something in a ruffle." "The bald barcoded one is back." "The man of hits, it's Hitman." "This is an origin story for Agent 47 where you'll follow him through his recruitment into the agency." "To start things off, he has to prove himself over two tutorial missions which recreate hits carried out by another one of the agency's agents." "This is your objective as well." "These first tutorial missions are quite short, but once you pass those tests, you're given your first real mission - a fashion show in Paris." "Ahh, Paris, yes, this is Hitman at its best." "It's a huge event, brimming with people and so many opportunities to assassinate in devious ways." "It's incredible, isn't it?" "This is such a big map full of characters." "And there's so much attention to detail in every inch of it." "And there's all these conversations that take place which can actually point you towards possible assassinations." "I know I look fine but he's, like, a Greek god or something." "And you can even have conversations with MPCs, which helps set things up." "Yeah, and some of these conversations are part of a new mechanic called 'Opportunities'." "These give you a breadcrumb trail of objectives to help you carry out one of the more-specific assassinations available." "Well done, 47." "Viktor Novikov is next." "And I loved these because in most Hitman games," "I'll generally get the job done but I'll often miss some of the more-elaborate hits that they've put in." "Yeah, it's definitely clearer and more obvious, but also a bit too easy." "It basically allows you to build a list of possible ways to complete the level, and then you just pick one and go." "But if you're a Hitman purist and wanna figure out everything yourself, you can turn those off." "Another thing I thought that made it a bit easy was now how there are big white dots above particular guards who will find your disguise suspicious." "Mm." "That doesn't make sense to me." "Like, how does Agent 47 know that those particular staff are gonna get suss when others don't?" "Yeah, exactly." "But still, I grew to appreciate this over time, because it does make things clearer and lets you focus on taking out your hit successfully." "What impressed me most about this game though, Hex, was the animations and AI routines of the characters as they played out around the map." "Everything's already in motion." "You really do feel like you've busted in on this huge busy event already happening." "Hex, I found this Paris map just so interesting." "There's just so much going on and it really made me feel like this is the Hitman that we have been waiting for." "It's pretty spectacular and there are so many little stories hidden in the map just waiting to be uncovered." "What's this one for?" "That's the fireworks remote." "I wouldn't touch it if I were you." "Once you're done with that mission which, depending on your approach, won't take much more than a half-hour, then you're done, that's kind of it, so, all up, this took me about an hour to get through." "It's very much dependent on how you play this kind of game." "For me, it was about three hours, because I just loved exploring that Paris map and walking the catwalk." "And every time I got busted, I want a restart too," "I want that pure clean run." "So, yes, it is short, and that's because this Hitman is episodic, they plan on releasing new cities and missions as the year goes on." "It's a bit strange to me, Hex - a AAA game like this suddenly being episodic?" "Yeah, I don't really understand it." "I mean, it makes sense for games that are more narrative-driven, obviously the Telltale games." "There's a big chance that people will play that first episode and just forget about it and not buy the rest." "Yeah, it feels like they've just kind of lopped off the first mission, and when it ended, I didn't feel satisfied, really." "I'm, like, 'OK, I just want more.'" "Which is great, but there's not really enough story in this to really feel like I'm gonna remember it when the next episode comes out." "Yeah, I mean, the cynic in me says maybe it's a money thing, because I know the way they've priced it is that it's more expensive if you buy all the episodes individually than if you buy it all at once," "and then maybe there's another package - if you buy the first episode and then all the rest at once." "So, there's ways for them to kind of capitalise on it, I suppose, if it pans out for them." "But I don't know, it could just completely blow up in their faces as well." "Yeah, it's a strange one." "And this is the sort of game that" "I don't wanna play just one mission of " "I wanna sit down in a weekend and smash this out and be truly absorbed by it." "Well, I mean, I believe that once they've released all the episodes, they are going to release the full game just on disc, you know, traditionally..." "Yeah, in, like, a year." "If you wanna wait a year." "There is some replay value, though." "You're encouraged to try every possible way to tackle each mission, plus there are extra modes like Escalation, Contracts and the new Elusive Targets." "So, they're certainly trying to squeeze out a lot out of each location." "We should wrap this up, though." "Final thoughts?" "Well, for me, there wasn't really enough story or content to get me invested, and what was there was a little bit too elusive to hook me into episode two." "So, what I'm saying is I'm curious but not totally on board yet." "3 stars." "Well, the last game, Hitman:" "Absolution, is actually my favourite stealth game of all time, and they've taken a lot of ideas and the humour of that game, and I can see those glimmers in this one." "So, I'm very excited." "I want more." "I wasn't really satisfied by this, but it still feels like a 4 out of 5 for me." "Goose." "Field reporter." "Bearded professional." "A man with opinions." "Here is one of them." "This week I want to talk about pre-ordering games, specifically that you should stop doing it." "I don't know who is still doing it, but there seems to be a lot of you and you should all stop it right now." "Don't make me unleash the Goose." "I love that clip." "In my opinion, there's almost zero reason to pre-order a game." "It's just a lose-lose situation for you and it leads to flashier marketing rather than good games." "Get your hands on your very own set of Super Thumb Fighters now when you pre-order Super Street Fighter IV." "Firstly, you don't honestly know if the game is going to be any good, so it doesn't hurt to have some patience and wait for reviews or word of mouth." "Don't go laying down ten bucks on a game that's just been announced at E3 and won't even be coming out for another two years." "The thing may get cancelled altogether." "And, sure, you'll get your ten bucks back, but it'll come laced with disappointment and wasted time." "You know what you get for pre-ordering a game?" "A big dick in your mouth." "Or, even worse, if you pre-order digitally you'll have to pay the full amount upfront." "I mean, at least back in my day when games all came in boxes with only a few stores around, it made sense to secure your copy." "They were a physically limited commodity." "These days not only are there so many physical copies that the thought of a game having limited amounts is unheard of..." "Order now, supply is limited." "Limited!" "...but there are infinite digital copies available - literally infinite." "The only excuse I'd accept is if maybe you wanna pre-load the game, but you're still just robbing yourself of an informed purchase decision, and you're paying to do it." "We want everything." "We'll give you nothing." "We want something." "Deal." "And don't even get me started on season passes, which are essentially just pre-ordering DLC." "Oh, sure, let's give $60 upfront for something that could turn out to be a load of rubbish." "Yes, I'm looking at you, Batman." "Oh, what's that?" "I'll save $5 if I buy it all now in a bundle with almost no idea what I'm getting - what a bargain." "Now, don't get me wrong." "Go ahead and pre-order your new consoles or VR headsets - hardware is another story." "Or if you really need a ridiculously-large plastic statue in your life, then, fine, pre-order those, I guess there's scarcity there." "Although, come on, you don't really need that statue and you're gonna regret buying it, as slowly that realisation that the same of joy you got from buying toys as a kid is gone now..." "Oh, my God!" "...replaced with guilt and remorse, as your deluxe edition, one of only three million badly painted, cheap, plastic, pre-order bonuses stares at you and reminds you how much you suck at saving money." "Boy, that escalated quickly." "Look, I get it, the latest game in the franchise you love has been announced, or some flashy trailer has won you over and you want to do something to scratch that itch." "Even with the temptation of some beta access that'll just ruin your enjoyment of the final game or that exclusive overpowered gun that makes everyone else hate you, pre-orders only serve to put a value on hype." "'Oh, but, Goose, the publishers need pre-orders 'to figure out blah, blah, blah.'" "I don't care, it's not your job to do their job for them." "And maybe without that guarantee of millions of pre-sold copies, they'll focus on making sure their game is actually worth going out and buying after it's been released." "But, of course, that's just my opinion." "Do you pre-order, and if you do, why?" "Or do you think they're a waste of time and money?" "Let us know on social media and we'll discuss it on Pocket tomorrow." "Have you ever pre-ordered anything, Hex?" "Oh, totally." "Because I get sucked into those collector's editions with the statue and the jewellery and the art book or whatever, ands then I always regret it 'cause it's so dumb." "Yeah, that's how they get ya." "For me, never, unless it's a cloth map." "Good rule." "Yeah, then I'm right on board." "Well, now it's time for a First Play." "Here's NichBoy." "What are you doing with a cloth map, though - are you hanging it on your wall?" "Yeah." "Really?" "Yeah." "With what?" "Just sticky tape and stuff." "Blu-Tack wouldn't work 'cause it's cloth." "Enough of it does." "Thanks, guys." "ClusterTruck is an upcoming action-puzzle platformer by landfall Games." "They are currently running an open alpha for it, so you can jump in and take a look, but I'll do that to save you some of the time, and I assume it involves a cluster of trucks." "So, let's jump in and hope we don't truck it up." "Not what I was expecting!" "What?" "What?" "!" "I thought I would be driving a truck - instead I seem to be surfing them?" "Ooh." "Oh, yeah." "'Shift to sprint.' OK, so what's the point?" "I guess I'm just trying to last as..." "That is a huge jump." "...last as long as I can on the trucks." "This is a lot of trucks." "Brilliant. 'Level complete.' I'm the winner." "Yeah, group 'em up." "Hump dem trucks." "Oh, there's a big jump!" "'Use left mouse button to slow down.'" "This is awesome." "Level six!" "What happened to levels three through five?" "Oh, that is a col..." "OK." "OK." "So I wanna get past all that crap!" "So, when I slow down, like, mid-jump..." "Oh, yeah, yeah, finessey little moves, cool." "Oh, no." "Oh, no!" "Back!" "Nope, nope, nope." "Whoa!" "No, too many trucks." "What is supposed to happen in that scenario where all the trucks crash and then it's just gaping desert?" "So, obviously, every time is a little different, like, there's a bit of procedural sort of stuff going on here, like, right now I don't possibly know how I could finish this level," "other than riding this mighty truck to safety!" "I mean, why are we even driving between this canyon thing anyway?" "There's so much space everywhere else." "It doesn't need to be like this!" "No!" "Go, go!" "Go!" "Go!" "Go!" "I don't know what part of a truck I'm on." "That was incredible." "I was, like, surfing the side of it." "Mm." "I am one hot mother-trucker." "Oh, my God!" "Nich, slow down time." "Remember you can slow down time." "Because that would've been the greatest moment of your professional and, possibly, personal career." "Certainly of your trucker career." "OK, we got it, we got it." "Don't you screw me over!" "Yes!" "This is by far the best trucking game we've played on the show." "Oh, yeah, low." "The trick is the bonnet!" "Do not tip over." "I'm gonna bonnet-ride this bad boy to freedom." "Oh, no... please finish." "I'm gloating too much." "Yes!" "What is this?" "Moving..." "You would just never..." "As a trucking company, you would just never send your cargo on this route - this is ridiculous." "Holy shit!" "Cannot deal...!" "We're gonna leave it there." "Alright, so that was ClusterTruck." "This is the second runner I've played on the show in two weeks." "Obviously last week was TRON RUN/r, this one ClusterTruck." "It wins in name, it's a much better name than TRON RUN/r, but it's also just a much better runner." "It's so much fun and I think it's because the game understands that you are always heading in this one direction." "So you better want to continue heading in that direction." "Here, even though I fail, even though it's random," "I'm just having a heap of fun, I'm laughing," "I would easily recommend this to anybody." "It's free at the moment, as in 'alpha'." "There seems to be quite a bit of content here." "I love how it kept surprising me." "I thought that, for the alpha at least, we would just always be in that desert, but then moving locations is nice, but then suddenly there's things hanging down that I need to dodge, the ground's moving, I'm on a narrow track." "At the end there, when I'm falling over cliffs," "I don't even know how I'm going to finish that, but it is so much fun trying to figure it out." "Then when you have a plan and it goes so bad, that's also part of the enjoyment." "Also, no time restarting." "So you die, you're instantly back having fun." "It never lets you out of the loop, and that's so important for these kinds of games." "You can get through 30 levels in one sitting without even realising." "Alright, that was my first play of ClusterTruck." "Will there be a second play?" "Truck, yes." "Christmas is a time for sharing and caring with friends and family, that is unless there is a virus outbreak, that is mostly about murder." "We knew the situation was bad, worse than anyone knew." "Have you ever been to New York, Bajo?" "No, this is the first time." "We are an elite, highly skilled group of embedded agents." "No!" "Axe guy!" "Oh, no, I'm in trouble." "They only call us when everything else has failed." "Oh, they're right here." "Gonna blow, it's gonna blow." "You'll be carrying a red barrel on your back." "I'll take that." "Oh, the flame guy in the room we were just in." "Pull back in the house." "Oh, no!" "It's gonna blow!" "Could say that was an explosive ending." "Oh, Bajo!" "You're on fire." "No, wait..." "He is." "The Division is an online open-world shooter set in Midtown Manhattan, and wow, it really is Manhattan." "Oh, yeah, before we get into the meat of this game, can we take a moment to appreciate how realistic this city looks?" "The snowy streets, the classic architecture, the garbage bags, the dogs pooping in the street." "'Oh!" "I'm pooping' here!" "'" "Um, is that dog pooping?" "Yes, it is an absolutely stunning recreation." "The detail in every zone is incredible." "When you're not fighting for your life, it's worth just taking the time to stop and soak in the city." "Look at this, is that the Empire State Building?" "♫ Start spreading the news" "♫ I'm leaving today. ♫" "Oh, shit!" "But also, it's a city under lockdown." "A virus resembling smallpox has hit the town hard." "I'm Agent Philau, Division." "You're a Division agent, a sort of super-trained sleeper soldier with a fancy watch." "We are your co-workers, we are your neighbours." "This is a video game, though, so you can't speak or ride any of the bicycles." "They're not even locked up, Hex!" "This city does feel a little bit like a movie set at times, but what a movie." "You are called into action to try and contain the city and keep order." "Welcome to Hudson Piers." "I'm not sure what you're looking to get out of this, everything behind this gate is a goddamn war zone." "Who's in command here?" "Captain Benitez was in charge." "I really like this set-up, Bajo." "It doesn't waste you're time, there's no mucking about, you're just straight into it." "Yeah, I like it, too." "It is a dark story, though, isn't it?" "Every character you meet talks about someone they've lost in the resulting chaos." "Fucking city got my wife." "Miracle I'm still here, really." "And the reality of that situation is even more apparent as you wander around collecting intel videos and discovering echoes." "These are kind of like crime scene recreations and some of them are really full-on." "As a storytelling mechanic, though, it's really effective and it adds to the narrative of the world." "They're fantastic, but as much as I liked how dark and gritty this world was, after a while I did find myself craving some levity." "At least let me have a snowball fight or something." "So, what do you actually do in The Division?" "Well, a lot of shooting and a lot of busywork." "It seems repetitive at first, and then, all of sudden, you've been playing for ten hours straight and having a great time and wondering why you can't log off." "Behind you, David." "I can sense something coming up behind me." "You know, Hex, after the beta, I was not excited about this, 'cause that beta was pretty dull." "But then, after playing the final version," "I was like, 'Mm... yeah, this is actually pretty good.'" "The most fun, though, is when you're playing with friends and, happily, you can fast-travel to any of your friends at almost any time." "There's a chest over here." "You can play this game solo, but Ubisoft has created a near flawless hybrid with this game and it's worth your time to jump in and play with others." "Manual override required." "Matchmaking is quick and lag is rare." "Ow." "Oh, he's right here!" "Oh, shit!" "He's gonna blow!" "Woah!" "And, for the first time in years, we had absolutely no problems just connecting to each other and jumping into a mission." "When was the last time a big game released with absolutely no issues at all?" "I'm impressed, Bajo." "Me, too." "And it is so seamless." "There's virtually no loading screens." "This guy's name is Love To Kill." "Says it all, really." "Sounds really friendly." "Yeah." "Warning, you are exiting the safe area." "Oh, you've left." "Levelling up is important in this game, but only really to be able to equip gear." "Your abilities, talents and perks are all unlocked by upgrading three main sections of your base of operations." "We can get our medical facilities online." "Medical gives you medic-focused abilities," "Security gives you combat talents, like using ballistic shields and Tech gets you things like turrets and roly-poly mines." "I found the tech stuff to be the most fun, especially when you start unlocking mods for your gadgets." "I love a little turret." "He's a good little guy." "Upgrading your base to help people and for the greater good gives you a nice feeling of progression and accomplishment in this game." "It also helps justify the 'work' you're doing." "The work being murder." "There is a lot of unapologetic murder in this game." "But, in fairness, they were murderers first." "You're just murdering the murderers." "It's true." "Street gangs, escaped prisoners, sanitation workers who are burning out the virus." "Time to get out of here I think." "Whoop!" "No, there's two down there." "Oh, no!" "And the AI is so sophisticated." "They'll dive for cover of course, but also flank you, hobble when shot, avoid and throw grenades, all in realistic ways with impressive animations." "The AI is so good, you quickly start taking it for granted." "The MPCs, however, they're a bit boring." "Yeah, some of them say the same thing or they just garble on about something that isn't quite right." "They give you shoes for food, though." "He's making out with me." "Thanks for the shoes, mate." "Oh, he didn't drop anything for me." "I got the experience but no shoes." "And I really liked that your cosmetic costume options are separate from your stat-based gear." "You can always look how you want to look." "I wasn't so impressed with the costume selections, though." "I wanted more hilarious hats." "Yeah, I think Ubisoft have tried to curate a very specific aesthetic for this world and with this game, and they've carried that through to the costume options and that kind of limits, you know, you're ability to personalise it I think." "There's a whole lot of stuff going on with your outfit that I don't understand, but I like it." "I like the look of the weapons, though." "I find the realistic look of all the guns, all their mods and attachments, that all looked really good." "And the detail and quality of the graphics, you know, of the actual items, is amazing." "Oh, sick tatts." "Oh, yeah?" "Sick beard." "All the weapons and throwables you have on you will appear on your actual character, though, which is so great, I love it when games do that." "Me, too." "And there's so much modding with the weapons." "Once you get deep into crafting scopes and underbarrels, and unlocking stations to craft more things and muck about with stats, and unlock new vendors, oh!" "Lots of blueprints." "Oh, there's purple stuff in here." "So Division Tech's used in crafting." "It's very easy to get lost down a rabbit hole of equipment management." "And whenever you finish a mission, there's always some new weapon or piece of gear to test out and play with." "Which I want to do straightaway, naturally." "And then it's 3am." "How does it happen?" "Can't figure it out." "Driving me nuts." "I really need to go to bed." "The gunplay is thrilling, though." "It's all balanced like it should be and all the weapon types feel useful in different situations." "There's a real art to timing your reloads and they've got that recoil down perfectly for each gun." "Ow, ow, ow, I'm on fire." "Stop it." "And you really want to have a shotgun handy when those baseball-bat axe guys come running at you." "Oh, shit, no!" "Come on, Hex." "So hectic." "They're keen, aren't they?" "I know what we'll do, let's send three guys with sticks against the heavily armed super soldiers." "Yeah, they definitely drew the short straw." "And yet, if they catch you off guard, it's really intimidating and often deadly." "We played this on PC and I actually ended up playing with a controller the whole time, Hex." "Mostly because I felt the shooting was really good with a controller, but also all the menus were really built for it." "I think that was the way to go because I kept hearing people moaning about the UI when they were using a mouse and keyboard." "I have a love-hate relationship with Ubisoft interfaces and menus in general." "There's a reason that traditional RPGs and MMOs used a kind of box grid, drag-and-drop formula." "It was always really clear and easy to see what you were doing." "Maybe I'm getting old, but this is all just a bit too cluttered for me." "It's pretty fancy, isn't it?" "I found it cluttered at first, too, but then I started to really like it." "You can customise a lot of it and I really appreciated all the information I was getting about what was happening." "The feature I'm actually most excited about, though, is the Dark Zone." "This is a closed-off area in the map where you wander about fighting mobs and collecting contaminated loot." "Then you have to try and send it off through extraction points." "Starting extraction." "Crazy pilot." "Go, go, go, go, go." "Yay." "Free gear." "Ah, it's so addictive." "I want more." "But the big difference is there are other players wandering around and they want what you've got." "They're coming up the..." "One's down." "We should be able to flank them." "It's a touch of dayz in my Division and I really liked it." "There are some PVB paranoia there." "It certainly makes for some tense moments when that chopper is taking off." "If you kill other players, you go rogue and get a bounty on your head." "Survive that and you'll get rewarded with Dark Zone points that you can spend on gear." "I like that the Dark Zone has its own rank and points, so you can spend heaps of time there and you won't outpace your friends in the cooperative part of the game." "Well, yeah." "I mean, one of my major criticisms of this game is that if you're playing with friends that are more than a few levels higher than you, it just isn't fun." "Mobs get scaled and averaged, so if you're a lower level player, you're going to get one-shotted a lot." "The difficulty scaling does work well when you're all about the same level." "Enemies feel just the right amount of tough for the size of your party." "What did you think overall, Bajo?" "I get the feeling that Ubisoft is setting themselves up for a Destiny-like long haul with this one." "I think so, too, and they're getting most of it right." "I was just so surprised at how much I loved this game." "It is mindless busywork and I loved being busy." "So I'm giving it 4.5 stars." "It is a super-polished game, but it can be quite repetitive." "I mean, there's a lot of wave modes in there." "Yeah, great wave modes." "But I do see myself losing motivation to stick with this because, just personally, I think I need the lure of an open world fantasy landscape to really sink serious time into a game like this." "I'm giving it 3.5 stars." "Can I escape for a few minutes?" "Um..." "Can I go...?" "Do you think maybe you could let me out of the bathroom?" "Gonna go reset my passwords." "I'll be back in a few minutes." "Whoa, what kind of party was this person having?" "Alright, back in a minute." "Hex!" "Hex!" "Oh, hi, Bajo." "What are you doing in the TV?" "I'm trapped in here." "It was the Glitch." "Oh, do I have to come rescue you?" "Yes, hurry up." "Alright, but are we still doing that X-Files thing?" "Uh, no, we're backing out of that." "The series got pretty stupid towards the end." "Right." "OK, so what do I need to do?" "I don't know, but I'm going to start by naming the game for this week." "Is this only standard definition?" "Yeah." "You're heaps low res." "Sorry, dude." "It was Freedom Fighters on PC from 2003." "This third-person shooter cast you as a plumber-turned-resistance leader fighting against a Soviet invasion force on the streets of New York." "You needed to gain charisma points in order to recruit more fighters to your cause." "For freedom!" "And it's our Name The Game this week because it was developed by IO Interactive, the same team behind the Hitman series." "And funnily enough, it kind of reminds me of The Division." "Next week on the show, we get ready to meet the Grim Dawn." "And vomit buckets at the ready, we get our first taste of PlayStation VR." "Oh, it's going to be so immersive, Hex." "I think we actually need to make a rule right now - we don't use the word 'immersive' when we're reviewing any VR game." "That will be so hard." "What about 'involving'?" "Enveloping." "Absorbing." "Don't forget, you can catch NichBoy on Good Game Pocket every day of the working week." "And you can find Hingers on our eSports show, Good Game Well Played, and both of those are available on iview and YouTube." "Until next week, Bajo out." "Hex out." "What do you want from a pre-order bonus?" "I mean, it's just like a really nice figurine, and I guess game soundtrack." "Yeah." "I like it when I can wear something that a character wears, like in Uncharted, the Sic Parvis Magna ring." "In the past I always wanted cool gadgets, like night-vision goggles and stupid stuff." "But now, as I get older, just underpants and socks would be nice." "Oh, yeah, like branded underpants." "Always running out." "Every time you..." "Ran out today." "Yeah, OK."