Sniper Elite 3 (Xbox One) - Review

Sniper Elite III is available now for multiple formats. The price on the Xbox One Marketplace is around £40/$50.

Sniper Elite v2 was my gift to my Dad for Father's Day the year it came out. He has always loved playing games, but has found himself becoming irritated with the fast paced, run and gun mentality of  the newer releases (CoD I'm looking at you!). He likes to be methodical and wants to be able to take his time and take the shot he wants to, rather than the shot the game makes you unless you wanna die.  He LOVED Sniper Elite v2 so much that my partner and I bought it for us too. He has played it, but I am ashamed to say that I STILL have not gotten round to it - I'm still pretty immersed in Skyrim on the 360. 

So when we got the One and found out that there was going to be a Sniper game released for it shortly after I was pretty excited. This gave me the chance to play it on the next gen and given that there are still not that many games out for the One I was unlikely to be distracted by another game. I was excited to see what they could do with the increased power of the One and eagerly awaited release. 

For me I think that being available digitally is a brilliant idea for this game, merely because I feel like this game is a good drop-in drop-out title. Don't get me wrong, there is a story, it's just not particularly immersive or - dare I say it - interesting. I am the type of gamer that once playing a story has to continue with it, for fear of getting them mixed up if I try and play too many narratives at one. So with that in mind it is great to just load up, do a mission and go onto something else. No disc changing required. Whilst I was playing this I was also attempting to 100% Watch Dogs (I'm around 97% now and just SO bored with it!) so to mix things up when I felt like Watch Dogs was just getting far too dull I loaded up Sniper Elite III and made myself feel better, before going back to my disc and boring myself to tears (seriously WHAT IS WITH ALL THE FIXER MISSIONS!). 

Great looking scenery

But anyway, I digress. Graphically Sniper Elite III is pretty impressive. As with all Xbox One titles to date, I feel that they're not groundbreaking and often times when you look closely they are pretty patchy, but for the most part they will do nicely. From what I have seen of the previous Sniper game graphics have been improved massively, but that is not to say that this games graphics doesn't have it's faults. I've encountered a fair bit of texture popping and the frame rate drops pretty frequently too. The maps are huge, and pretty detailed so I guess I could say this was to be expected. The graphics are definitely not bad enough for this game to lose any points. And let's be honest the graphics we most look forward to in the Sniper games are the gruesome slow-mo bullet trajectory cinematic kills, which are pretty spectacular. Saying that if you're getting a lot of good shots this feature can get tiresome and make you wish you had a 'skip scene' button available. Never-the-less it is a great feeling when you get THAT particular shot! Yes as I'm sure you all remember it is possible to shoot someone through the testicles on this game. And you're even treated to a graphical representation of whats going on internally. Aren't we the lucky ones?!

Hey little fella...

This game has allows you to exercise decent control over your difficulty settings. Custom allows you to independently choose the difficulty setting for your sniping and for the AI which I thought was a nice touch - just because I want to ramp the difficulty of the aiming up to realistic does NOT mean I want the AI to notice a fart from a radius of 20 miles. So for my play through I decided to use the top level of 'realism' for my shooting and just normal enemies, and for me this game was a much more enjoyable experience because of that. 

Gameplay is pretty good. The controls feel pretty intuitive and I like the weapons you have at your disposal, which are easily accessed through the D-Pad. I LOVE that this game allows you to take your time, think about what you wanna do and scope out the competition. It reminded me of Far Cry 3, which was one of my favourite games from last year in that you could hide in a bush with your binoculars and tag the enemies, making them visible through walls etc. Which yeah I guess seems kinda dumb, but I appreciated it! 

The game is basically map after map of clearing out the enemies and maybe their tanks and vehicles. Yes it does get repetitive, but so does every other shooter going. There are sweet points in each map where there is a generator or something that makes a lot of noise, therefore masking the sound of your gunshots. Get to one of these and your golden, line up your shot and wait for the noise to start. I liked this feature and felt it was definitely more immersive for it. 

So up to now this game is coming up smelling of roses really. But the multiplayer is broken, and I mean BROKEN. You can wait forever to actually be put into a match then when you are chances are its a 2v1 which is laggy as hell. It is in desperate need of fixing, but once it is it will be a pretty good multiplayer experience, as when I did make it into working multiplayer games it was great and nothing like CoD. There was real tension when deciding whether making the shot was worth giving your position away. I haven't had a chance to try the co-op modes, as there isn't an option for public matchmaking, and none of my friends have this game on this system. I think this should be changed, as this for me would be a brilliant addition to the game. Don't get me wrong though, even though the multiplayer is broken, it is a game I will be going back to, even solo. The game is pretty easy to just pick up and play when only a sniper will do. Saying that I have encountered the bug which says you haven't left the area when you clearly have a couple of times, meaning I had to redo the mission. That was pretty annoying.

Sniper Elite III is pretty good. Not great nor groundbreaking but pretty damn good. It is what it is I suppose, and makes no apologies for that. You don't like slower paced shooting? Look elsewhere. Hate sniping? Well the clue is in the name. And whilst it is not just a sniper game, it is when using just a sniper and CQC that this game shines. If you're doing it right and sneaking around taking the right shots then there are very few reasons for you to ever break out your MP40. And the CQC is good, like really good. Yeah you could try and run and gun it, but then you may as well have spent your money on something else. 

Overall I would feel happy to recommend this game. I feel that the price point is possibly a little high for the game as it is at the moment, but for what this game can become with a bit of patching it is a steal. If you're tired of CoD but still enjoy a shooter, definitely pick it up.

 8/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review. 

The Dannie Kitten Gaming Awards!

So I've been thinking long and hard about this. It's been another good year for us gamers and I wanted to acknowledge the best with the Dannie Kitten Gaming Awards!

By the end of 2011 I had had a pretty good year...I had a difficult pregnancy which meant plenty of bed rest and time with my Xbox just as Skyrim hit the shelves. Then my life as I knew it ended. I wanted to spend all my time as Thalia, my Redguard adventurer.

This year couldn't possibly have topped that....or so I thought. But it turns out this year had some goodies in store for us. So here it is, The Dannie Kitten Gaming Awards 2012:

Game of the Year: The Walking Dead

This was by far the easiest decision I've made. This game is perfect! The first episode was amazing when I first played it, but TRUST ME it gets so much better. I know a few people who didn't buy the game based on the first episode and all I can say is PERSEVERE. I enjoyed it anyway, but when my save miraculously disappeared most of the way through Ep.4 I had to go back and replay and yes I did think it felt pretty slow and drawn out. But by then I knew the awesomeness that was coming next so it was easy to go through it again. The game is game-as-storyteller at it's very best and should be way up there on everyones lists of favourite games. To cut a long story short...GO BUY THIS GAME NOW!

XBLIG of the Year: Smooth Operators

Now I know I have already given out my award for Game of the Year but I feel this game deserved a special mention. So I created an award for the Indie games and this is the winner! God this game is good! I have long since been a fan of sim games such as these and when one came to the XBLIG market I had to have it. And it really didn't disappoint. Giving this game this award was such an easy choice to make. It is easy pick-up-and-play fun, but trust me it isn't so hard to put it down! I have sunk many many hours into this game and I still find it fun. Pick it up guys!




Character of the Year: Kenny (The Walking Dead)

This is probably the toughest decision I have made in this post. We have been treated to so many convincing characters this year. But Kenny had to win it. Kenny has been one of my favourite characters from a game EVER let alone this year. This guy is amazing. A family man from Florida who just wants to protect his family from the Zombie infested world. He goes through a lot, and comes out the other side pretty broken. The emotion that went into animating this character and voicing him is truly experienced as you play alongside him. I love Kenny. That guy deserves a medal.



Biggest Surprise of the Year: Shark Attack Deathmatch

Let's be honest here, when an Indie game attempts to do something different, it almost always falls flat on its backside. This game really doesn't. I don't know why I was expecting this game to be bad, I just was and it was actually REALLY GREAT. The single-player Survivor mode is fun enough, but this game has fully-fledged online multiplayer mode which always seems to have plenty of people ready to play. For 80MSP this game is a real steal and again, should feature on everyones game list.




Multiplayer of the Year: Mass Effect 3

This game carried with it A LOT of controversy when it was released way back in March. I'm gonna hold my hands up and say this...I don't know what all the fuss was about. I think the game was great. For me Mass Effect was about the journey, I wasn't too fussed by the 'three choice ending' because I actually thought it tied up all the stories pretty well.

So now I've got that out of they way, let's get on with explaining why this game wins this award. For me it's simple....it's bloody good. But for those of you wanting a little more explanation than that (can't say I blame you!) here goes. This is the first time Multiplayer has been included in a Mass Effect title. So it could have been shocking. It isn't though, and in the first few weeks of owning this game I sunk as much time into multiplayer as I did the campaign. I think it ties in nicely with the campaign too, increasing your 'readiness' for the grand finale. And it works well. There isn't really anything I found annoying with Mass Effect multiplayer, which is pretty rare. And they gave us TONNES of new content for free so it didn't get old. You can play as so many different races and classes that you can make the experience different every time. There are varying difficulty levels, and trust me they get hard! But it's all part of the fun with this game, it doesn't get as annoying as other online shooters and added bonus for me and my fella...the game has two discs, and BOTH of them include the multiplayer, so we can play together without forking out so much! Yay!

Co-op Game of the Year: Minecraft

I doubt there are many of you that haven't at least played Minecraft or one of it's many, cheaper clones. I hadn't played Minecraft until it was released on XBLA this year and my boyfriend begged me to buy it. So I did, and so did our friends and we spent agggggeeess building a world together. This game gets co-op game of the year because it never really gets old. If you read my blog you know I'm always on the look out for co-op games to enjoy with my friends and family, but many of them get old fairly quickly. This one doesn't. Maybe it's because it doesn't really have a main objective so you can set your own depending on what you feel like. I don't know what made this such a favourite for me and my friends but it is and it is a game we keep going back to. It is pretty dear at 1600MSP but it is a game that you will never actually complete...so that seems like pretty good value :p

Most Fun this Year: Rock Band Blitz

This game is another I have reviewed this year and loved. Living with a guitarist means we have every music game ever in our house. It also means that, unfortunately he wasn't ready to even give this game a chance, due to the lack of a plastic guitar (sad I know) I made him try it and he actually likes it. But I LOVE IT. For me it has taken everything that is most fun about a music game and made it even better. Listening to music...yes fun. Playing a game whilst listening to music...yep fun. Doing it without going through the rigmarole of digging out paraphernalia...EVEN BETTER! The tracklist for this game is amazing, and even better all of my DLC moved into there to make for a pretty full roster. The power-ups make this game a must have for me, and it is a game I keep going back to if I want some quick, easy fun. Pick it up guys!


Graphics of the Year: Far Cry 3

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder so I don't expect everyone to agree with me. I gave this award on the basis of what game, upon entering the game world, made me say 'wow' and this has to be it. This game is beautiful! The characters are well envisioned and the Island is simply gorgeous. Climbing to the top of a Radio Tower and looking out everything looks amazing. There doesn't seem to be any rendering, like in Skyrim, everything is there in all it's beauty. It is an astonishing world that has so much to offer to us gamers, it's amazing graphics are just the icing on the cake.





Shooter of the Year: Sniper Elite V2

I wasn't originally going to create awards for specific genres of games, but I thought I would make an exception with this one. Almost everyone has got at least a little disheartened by all the carbon-copy shooters coming out year after year. This game offers something a little different. Yes it's still a shooter, and you don't have to play solely as a sniper, you can still run and gun. BUT if you persevere and stick to being a sniper, you are rewarded with some amazing slowed-down close-ups of your victim. The camera follows the bullet THROUGH the body, wherever you hit and goes into X-Ray vision, showing you the shattering bones in all their glory. SO MUCH FUN. My dad even managed a shot straight through the enemies testicles...now that was fun to watch!


Most Frustrating Game of the Year: Spelunky

Now I know frustrating is a negative thing. SO why am I giving an award out to a frustrating game? This game is one of the most frustrating games I have ever played, but it is also one of the best. It features four player coop (yay!) and is easily one of the most annoying games I've ever played. But it has us all hooked. The fun is in the challenge in this game, if it was too easy it would not have sold half as many. This game is just as hard as it needs to be to create a challenging environment in which the right tactics can thrive. A brilliant, yet frustrating game.





And now, simply because I don't feel like I have enough of my favourites of this year on this list I am going to give you a list. This list will contain my top ten picks of the year, after all of the above. It's a kinda 'Best of the Rest' if you will. So here it is:

1. XCOM
A truly great turn-based tactical shooter. I'm not one for turn-based games but this one is brilliant!
2. Dishonored
Reminds me a lot of the old Tenchu game on PS1. Play how you want, sneaky or full scale attack. Amazing game with great graphics.
3. Spec Ops: The Line
A great cover-based third person shooter that actually makes you feel bad for the decisions you make.
4. Deadlight
This 2D platformer features beautiful 3D environments and is SO much fun to play.
5. Game of Thrones

As a massive fan of the show and the book, this had to feature on the list!
6. Real Steel
I have never watched the film and don't even have much interest in Robots or fighting games, but this game had me hooked.
7. Hitman Absolution
Whats not to love about this return to the amazing Hitman games?!
8. Rocksmith
It's strange that I like this so-called 'game' so much, but it does provide some fun whilst teaching you to play your favourite songs on the real guitar.
9. Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse
I know it got slammed pretty much everywhere, but I had a lot of fun gunning down my friends on this game. Take it as a bit of fun (and get it cheap) and this game can provide a lot of laughs.
10. I Am Alive
A game that was originally meant for retail release and instead released on XBLA. The characters are well written and the graphics are beautiful. A great post-apocalyptic game.