The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

In the Witcher series you play as Geralt of Rivia, a mutant human who specializes in killing monsters. He's your archetypal lone gunslinger who strides into town with a smoky voice, seems world weary and despite claiming to be neutral somehow gets tangled up in the massive schemes concocted by the big players in the Witcher universe. At the start of the Witcher 3 the Emperor of Nilfgard tasks Geralt with finding his adopted daughter Ciri, a child of the elder blood (she can literally control time and space) who is being pursued by a group of elite inter-dimensional elves known as The Wild Hunt. It's one giant search across multiple zones encountering old friends, reuniting with lost loves and getting embroiled in all manner of hijinks that encircle the goings on of the larger world like the on going war between Redania and Nilfgard or the increasingly powerful Church of the Eternal Flame who are burning mages at the stake. It's an enormous game split into separate episodic chunks and could quite possibly be one of the best RPG's ever made.

Story is far and away the main focus of the Witcher 3. It's why I love RPG's so much, they have to give you a compelling reason to keep going amidst these incredibly long beasts of a game like the Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Dragon Age or Mass Effect titles and narrative is the crux that these games often rely on. It feels a lot more pronounced in 'Wild Hunt' though as there's just so much of it, and it's all quite good! Nowhere is this more evident than the game's starting zone. The lengthy prologue set in White Orchard (I must have spent seven hours here before moving on) condenses everything you need to know about the game's structure into a fairly smallish map that's packed with quests and stuff to do. It's does a great job of not making the player feel overwhelmed and the interconnecting quests rewards the player for doing everything by forming a much clearer picture. In one quest you'll find out someone was killed by an angry lord, in another you might just figure out his motivation for doing so. If you complete this zone you should have a good idea about whether this game is a must play for you or not, you're generally getting the same thing throughout the rest of the game but on a much, much larger scale. Suffice to say I was hooked and felt surprisingly attached to the characters, their motivations and the world at large after just a few hours of questing. Pass this point and the world fully opens up (or at least the first of the two massive area's in the game) and you are free to do whatever you want, provided you don't stumble into late game content of course.

The world of the Witcher 3 is vast, so prepare to be overwhelmed.

The main story of The Witcher 3 took me roughly 50 hours to complete, and this is without counting an array of secondary quests that oftentimes will tie in and change events of the main path. It's quite the marathon but you'll never once feel like you've had enough, there will always be something going on that will keep you hooked and sink into that 'just one more' mentality. It's very Game Of Thrones-esque in it's mature bent so expect to see a lot of tits and gore and the way it manages to juggle a massive cast of characters with diverging plots is impressive. The similarities also continue with a grim fantasy world with a land that's oftentimes beautiful but would be awful to live in: the oppressive Church takes advantage of peoples fears, there's a war going on and the battlefields are littered with corpses, women and peculiar folk are often mistreated/abused...yep this all sounds like the familiar sh*t hole we know and love. Add to that Charles Dance as the Emperor of Nilfgard (who's Tywin Lannister in everything but name) and I think it's safe to say that the Witcher is the closest you're going to get to a GOT style game. The Witcher isn't entirely as serious though, you can still have a laugh among the oftentimes tragic tales being told. 

In terms of structure, the story is very episodic. The various strands are divided by area, so you're only really focusing on one part of the map for that period in an effort to find out what activities Ciri got up to on her travels. The structure for the first half is somewhat repetitive: to hear someone recap Ciri's misadventures (segments where you play as her) and advance your search you either have to a) find them, which involves a lot of convoluted shenanigans or b) do them a favor first, which involves more convoluted shenanigans. This might seem frustrating but all the distractions are a lot of fun and intriguing like finding a Baron's missing wife, taking part in a play or solving a bankheist with the help of a troll. Ciri is essentially a carrot on the end of a stick, a Macguffin that ties everything together. Once you DO find Ciri though and head towards a big climax, you're probably thinking the game's close to finishing. Nope, still got a good chunk of game after that. I was surprised to find that the titular Wild Hunt despite having the game named after them only really show up in the last 15 hours or so and barely have a lot to say other than standard baddie talk. Having a main villain that's poorly defined was a flaw in 'Dragon Age: Inquisition' but it doesn't register here, there are better villains littered all over other parts of the story (shoutout to the Macbeth-ian Crones, they were great). Despite playing as Geralt most of the time 'The Witcher 3' is really about Ciri, just like how 'Bioshock: Infinite' was really all about Elizabeth and 'The Walking Dead Season 1' was all about Clementine. Geralt is basically a supporting character in his own game, and I like that. 

Choices also have considerable impact in 'Wild Hunt'. While you can't define Geralt as a character much, he's not a blank slate for the player to mold, the decisions you make in dialogue options do change the game in big and small ways. How you choose to handle Ciri will determine which of the three endings you get and it's not as simple as the 'good' or 'bad' choice. I got the bad ending unfortunately (let's just say I was extremely depressed for the rest of the day), and that was playing the goody two shoes. In other choice based games you can generally be guaranteed a happy ending so long as you play the nice guy but that is definitely NOT the case here. A lot of the time I didn't even know I was making choices, that's how well integrated they are. It's a bit like real life in that regard, with all three endings being equally valid and satisfying in my opinion. 

Taking down this brute is going to be tough.

If you were to ask me before playing 'The Witcher 3' what I thought of Geralt I'd say he was a pretty bland loner with a cool voice and likes to get busy with the ladies. My biggest complaint with 'The Witcher 2' is that it was hard to connect with Geralt due to his inability to give two sh*ts about anything. He's difficult to pull off as his mutations stop him from crying and he's not the kind of guy who's going to to make a big speech about his feelings. 'The Witcher 3' solves this by making the quest to find Ciri a personal one and making him a lot more expressive. He's a lot more open in this game than at any point in 'The Witcher 2' and has matured a lot since then. He's also capable of humour, and can be quite funny with his dry remarks. Overall he's been made into a lovable character now, so my worries about him as a protagonist were unfounded.

The rest of the cast are also stellar, every character you meet is so well drawn and voice acted that you end up falling in love with them too. They're all just so f*cking good: off the top of my head Ciri, Triss, Yennifer of Vengerberg (what a name), Dijkstra, Dandelion, the Red Baron, Priscilla, Kiera, Lambert, Cerys, Vesemir, Roach, Thaler....(I could go on) were all really, really well written and acted. I also appreciated the naturalistic dialogue, in the sense that human beings talked like real human beings in thus game and didn't feel like they were going to burst into a philosophical debate anytime soon.  

Quests in The Witcher 3 are very meaty and can technically be completed in whatever order you choose but the game 'locks' you out of them because you're often severely under-equipped for the job: trying to complete a level 24 Witcher contract as a humble level 4 is suicide, so you should wait a bit. Don't wait too long though, if you're six levels above the recommended level requirement for a quest you won't be getting any experience. It applies to main story quests as well, they give you a ridiculous amount of xp and you will find yourself struggling to complete both side and main quests in the 'correct order' before you outlevel them. This weird system of giving you all of the quests at the start (most side quests are acquired through notice boards or accidentally bumping into someone on the road) that are all way beyond your current capability is a little anxiety inducing for people who crave precious xp. It urges you complete the main story missions at an even pace so don't count on wondering off the beaten path for 30 hours and feeling detached when it's time to get back into the story (Dragon Age Inquisition had this problem). No, in this game you will always be moving forward in the seemingly never ending quest to find Ciri and that helps a lot keeping me as a player invested in the long run, main story stuff keeps happening and I'm not getting distracted by tasty side quests. 

The game benefits from a really great cast of characters. Expect a lot of badass women.

The real reason Witcher 3 has raised the bar for all other RPG's is in the quality of it's side quests. To be frank the secondary quests in Witcher 3 would be considered main quests in most other games, they get really involved and are great at messing with your expectations. This is a quest I've made up but let's say a guy wants you to get him a fancy trinket, which is a classic boring fetch quest premise. In most RPG's you would simply return with the pearl and be greeted with a simple thank you from the quest giver. The Witcher 3 goes three steps further: you return with the trinket only to find out that the quest giver is missing. If you use your Witcher senses you deduce that someone kidnapped him, probably because they want the trinket. When you track his scent to the abandoned location where he's being held. It turns out he's being held hostage by a troll who ATE his kidnapper and can be persuaded to let the quest giver go free. When you finally give him the trinket, it turn's out it's for his wife who has amnesia. THEN the quest ends. See what I mean? The quests constantly constantly mess with your expectations, turn out to be a lot more meaty than what you might think (a rabbit hole of content if you will) and generally reward you for your time and effort in retrieving said trinket. After experiencing all that, why would I want to go back to the standard fetch quests? Sure it's still technically 'go from point A to point B and kill some dudes in your way' but it's been disguised by a good team of writers to the point where I would do the quest with or without the reward at the end just to experience the story. 

I could go on a while about how big this game is, the whole 'OMG it's close to 200 hours long!', my long list of completed quests or it's incredibly dense open worlds but that's quickly becoming norm these days. There are games with as much content as 'Wild Hunt' but none of them have a narrative as consistently rewarding, satisfying or intricate as this game, it's revolutionary in that way. It's just so big and so good that you wonder how on earth developer CD Projekt Red managed to make a game of this size but have the story be as polished and focused as more linear experiences. It also appears to have been done for a fraction of the cost: Witcher 3 was made and marketed for roughly 60 million euros, whereas other big hitters like GTA V had a budget of 250 million $ and somehow 'Wild Hunt' is bigger, better (arguably) AND longer than that game. What the hell?! It puts other game's to shame and made me realize how shitty other titles are in comparison like 'Dragon Age: Inquisition', a game that I thought was really good BEFORE Witcher 3 came out. Now I see it as an average 30h story that's been stretched out to 100h by ten extremely pretty open area's full of boring fetch quests with characters that while good, have nothing on Witcher 3's cast. The bar has been set so high by CD Project that I never want to see another fetch quest or grind heavy RPG again in my life, and I regret wasting my time grinding away in other games like DAI. CD Projekt Red as a developer are leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, they have spoiled me rotten.

Skellige is incredibly pretty. And yes, you can climb that mountain.

Visually and aesthetically the game impresses. Every medieval town you walk into has a really good 'lived in' feel, there's generally a lot of mud and dirty faced villagers going around. The big city of Novigrad captures the city feel perfectly, it's dense enough and full of twisty paths and tall building's that's it's easy to feel lost. The viking isles of Skellige however are far and away one of the most beautiful locations I've seen in a game. It's snow capped mountains, wooden fortresses and bustling dockyards are gorgeous when matched with an early sun rise. In terms of graphics, this game is definitely a looker. Lighting and weather effects are some of the best I've seen, and character models are all detailed. The material and fabric textures are also very impressive, the costumes are extremely well done. The game does suffer from performance issues and glitches sure, but that's expected for a game of this size at this point. The only real complaint I can give to the graphics is the subpar and jaggy texture detail on a few things like foliage. It's nitpicky but with games like 'Arkham Knight' coming out that raises the bar in terms of graphical fidelity you do tend to get spoiled on these kind of things.

Another big advancement on your typical RPG is the lifelike facial expressions. Facial animations have come a long way since the days of Witcher 2 and despite not doing a lot of motion capture the animators have done an incredible job with conveying a lot of emotion in peoples eyes or subtle facial ticks. Geralt in particular stands out, so much emotion is conveyed on his face at points that it really affects you. Put it this way, when Geralt smiles you smile. The acting on display wouldn't be complete though without a great score to back it up, and Wild Hunt's mix of celtic and slavic tunes are kind of perfect. The game's soundtrack adds a loft of heft and emotion to really talky scenes but also gets you super pumped during rousing combat sequences. It's just all round fantastic and great at fulfilling every role it needs to fill in every single one of the big story beats. Especially when roaming Skellige...oh my god. Dat ambient music.

Geralt has the wounded puppy dog look down.

So what about the game isn't all that great you ask? Well, the Combat is fine and all for what it is but I wouldn't call it 'great'. Any RPG worth it's weight needs to have solid ground on which to place it's marathon long questlines and the 'Wild Hunt' makes sure combat remains rewarding and tense throughout a large portion of it's running time....as long as you've got the difficulty cranked up. I made sure to turn up to 'Blood and Broken Bones' (basically hard mode) when I booted up the game because part of the Witcher experience is that you have to prepare yourself before every fight i.e applying poisons to your swords, drinking potions that give you buffs, crafting better armor, putting points into your 'Signs' (= magical spells) ect... it just generally makes fights a lot more tense and engaging. With the difficulty removed The Witcher 3's combat is slightly lackluster, because you aren't forced into using or exploiting any of the tactical tricks in Geralts arsenal that deepens the experience. Plus to be honest, it wasn't really that hard. The first twenty hours are the best from a gameplay perspective simply because with low level armor every enemy can rip you to shreds if you're not careful, which makes dodging attacks and spamming Quen (a force field sign that deflects attacks) a must. These tense encounters were sadly erased the more the game went on as you inevitably get more powerful and have more tricks up your sleeve. Thankfully a good number of late game Witcher contracts that are all about Geralt tracking and facing particularly tough monsters keep the challenge afoot. Despite wearing good late game armor a few of these nasties gave me a run for my money, but the hand holding detective style of following the blood trail to find the monster gets repetitive really quickly as all you're basically doing is following breadcrumbs.

In addition to Geralt the game also smartly gives you control of Ciri at certain points allowing you to see the world through her eyes and give more her more definition other than a generic Macguffin. She even has her own powers, unfortunately they're far too awesome and OP to be part of the main game. All in all her segments are short but well placed as they give you nice breather from playing as Geralt all the time and introduce you to her a long time before the two eventually meet. As for non combat gameplay the Witcher 3 also features a surprisingly addicting card game called Gwent which could easily be it's own game. There's an oft cited joke online that the Witcher 3 is the best card game add-on ever and it's fairly accurate. Suddenly I found myself spending all of my time trying to 'collect them all' and spending hours battling other opponents to win their cards. So yes, the Witcher 3's moment to moment gameplay is quite good, although taken on it's own it's not quite the reason I love this game so much.

Most games would have you pay for this stuff.

Last but certainly not least the developers at CD Projekt Red deserve a round of applause for being extremely consumer friendly. They've simply gone beyond what was required of them as a game developer: the standard addition of the game comes with a map, a info booklet, a manual, the frigging soundtrack AND a 'thank you for buying this game card' which is just sweet. In addition to the high value for money they've also been releasing free DLC and major updates every week since launch, (they plan to support the game all the way through to 2017!) even going so far as to admit they messed up handling one of the game's characters and saying they will fix it! It's simply unheard of in this industry for a developer to be this generous to it's fanbase, and it's smart. The high quality releases along with dedicated support will gain them a lot of new fans in the long run, and if sales reports are to be believed then this game is doing extremely well. So everybody wins I guess?

This is one of the best RPG's of all time, one of the best games I've played and the developer behind it all could not be more generous and talented. It's easily the best game on PS4 right now and a must play for everyone. Nothing less than an outstanding achievement, the bar has been raised incredibly high with 'The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt'. Now excuse me, there's an incredibly powerful level 30 Leshen I need to slay...

Positives:

+ Great writing and voice acting all round
+ A grimy, Game Of Thrones-esque fantasy
+ Long and meaty main quest
+ One of the biggest games ever
+ Massive open world areas that look pretty gorgeous
+ Characters can be really endearing
+ Fantastic supporting cast
+ Huge amount of interesting and involved side quests
+ Satisfying ending(s)
+ Great post launch support from devs

Negatives:

- Combat gets a bit too easy after the first twenty hours
- Combat without difficulty is a bit boring
- Underdeveloped main villain
- A lot of high level quests are given to you at the beginning
- A few glitches and frame rate drops (to be expected)
- Some blurry textures on PS4

Batman Arkham Knight

When you look at a list of great video games, and you see classics like Super Mario Bros, Final Fantasy VI or the original Bioshock you might be surprised to find the Rocksteady Arkham games are on there. Superhero adaptations are all the rage right now but when it comes to video games I'm surprised at how limited your options are when it comes to genuinely good superhero games (there are a CRAPTON of shitty licensed ones). The LEGO games and various free to play MMO's are a thing but they don't really count, I'm talking about a fully fledged AAA experience that fully takes into account just what it's like to be the shoes of your favorite superheroes. The Arkham games are somewhat of an anomaly in their excellence, when 'Arkham Asylum' was released in 2007 (a year before superheroes became a big thing) it became a beloved classic overnight. It's free-flow combat system, fantastic execution, engaging storyline and genuine love for the Batman mythos just all came together in a way that made you stand up straight and pay attention, while also putting the previously unheard of UK developer Rocksteady on the map. 2011's 'Arkham City' took the standard sequel approach by upping the stakes and moving away from the confined spaces of the Asylum to a fully fledged open world, and that's exactly what we wanted. If 'Asylum' was a proof of concept that a good Batman game can exist, then 'City' was all about filling out that dream even more. Fast forward three and a half years later and we've finally got our hands on Arkham Knight, the supposed final chapter in Rocksteady's 'trilogy'. So, how does the latest Batman simulator stack up?

Like most final chapters this game starts with a gloomy narration: 'This is how it happened. This is how the Batman died'. What warrants such a gloomy narration you ask? One year after the events of 'Arkham City' Scarecrow decides to step into the limelight by threatening to bomb the city in fear toxin. Everyone evacuates, which leaves the entire city susceptible to Batman's rogue gallery looting the place and doing whatever the hell they want. Working in cohoots with Scarecrow is the mysterious Arkham Knight, who invades Gotham with a massive, unjustifiably big army equipped with hundreds of tanks and airborne drones. Batman literally has to go to war against an entire army and a large handful of his rogue gallery all at once. Suffice to say, it's going to be a busy night.

The first thing you'll notice when booting up the game is how slick and shiny this thing looks. The power of next gen is in full effect here, this is easily the best looking open world game you can buy right now. To justify the presence of the Batmobile Gotham is a lot larger in 'Knight' however it retains Rocksteady's attention to detail and succeeds in capturing your eye at every turn. It's also packed full of fun easter eggs if you're a DC fan. Everything just looks gorgeous, I spent a good chunk of time just looking at the reflections on the rivets of Batman's armor because HOLY CRAP I CAN SEE THEM (nothing sells graphics like pretty reflection/rain effects). Even ignoring the visual fidelity you'll still find an incredibly polished experience. Aside from moments of extreme Batmobile chaos Arkham Knight's performance is buttery smooth: I don't think I've encountered one single glitch or framerate drop in the entirety of my 30 hour playthrough which considering the state that games launch in nowadays is a minor miracle. The presentation is flawless, every cut scene and scene transition is incredibly well done (props to the director) and you'll often find yourself wondering how the hell they pulled some of this stuff off. Few games I've played come close to this level of slick cinematic greatness, the direction and presentation are leaps ahead of the competition. Now add in destructible terrain as you're cruising around on the Batmobile along with a high amount of enemy density this is a remarkable technical achievement, as close to perfection as you can get. 

Batman's family have a big presence in this game, so expect these two to show up a lot.

The next gen jump doesn't just mean a better looking game, the patented Arkham combat has also been refined to perfection this time around. This franchise's claim to fame will always be in it's free-flow combat system, it's so good I can't count the number of games in the past few years that have tried to imitate this style imperfectly. No matter how hard they try, nobody gets the 'rhythm' as right as Rocksteady. It treats Batman's fighting style like a dance, chaining attacks seamlessly from enemy to another while also piling on layers and layers of special moves, different enemy types and complexities that resemble a fighting game. For example Medics will revive fallen allies, brutes are heavyweights that require a lot of attention to take down, shields are a nuisance because they block your attacks and let's not get started on the shock stick guys *SHUDDERS* After three games of adding new abilities/enemy types/mechanics into the mix the complexity, and therefore difficulty of these free flow fights are at all time high in 'Arkham Knight'. I got my ass handed to me several times in normal mode, and that was just the free flow combat. Pretty much every aspect of the game has once again been refined, rather than scrap it they just keep adding new wrinkles into the mix that throw you off guard. The biggest shake up to the free flow system is dual-play, which allows you to control Batman's allies during the diverse range of side missions offered to you sporadically throughout the game. Switching mid fight to play as Catwoman, Nightwing or Robin for a while is fun, and while they control similarly to Batman they still have unique gadgets and finishers to keep things fresh. Unfortunately dual play is severely underused, I would love to see more of it in the future. 

The second major pillar of gameplay in this game are the classic predator takedown sequences, essentially a game of hide and seek as you creep around spaces taking enemies out one by one and trying to avoid being spotted. At this point you can hide in vents, hack drones/turrets, blow up walls, fake voice commands, disable enemy weaponry, perform multi-takedowns (a new favorite of mine, essentially the most badass way of taking down a group of enemies), disable doors, sabotage ammo caches....it'll be quite frankly overwhelming to a newcomer. Enemies are also equipped with new tools, you'll often find you can only perform one trick once. A bomb in the vents will make it harder to sneak up on them, a drone can scan the ceiling and overusing your detective vision will get you caught. Everything they've added makes 'Arkham Asylum' look like child's play, so prepare to have your ass handed to you. 

The third pillar of gameplay in 'Knight' is a brand new addition to the Arkham formula: the Batmobile! Integrated into nearly every part of the game, the Batmobile is half unstoppable race car, half tank and this cool beast of a machine justifies why Batman can take on an army and win. Think of it as a swiss knife of different abilities that can aid you on the streets or in puzzles, it's hardly just a fancy looking car that gets you from A to B. Nothing can match a high octane chase through the streets of Gotham smashing through anything in your pursuit of a militia commander. Can't get to a group of bad guys behind a wall? No biggie, just blow up the wall with the Batmobile's weapons. Speaking of weapons, the tank battles are equally satisfying, dodging enemy fire and unleashing a barrage of missiles blowing up all kinds of armored warfare is fun and helps demonstrate the increase in stakes from a gameplay perspective. Using you shiny new toy is fun but my biggest complaint about the game from a gameplay perspective is how much they shove the Batmobile down your throat. Those tank battles were fun the first fifteen times, but do we really need to include the Batmobile in every single mission? The last third of the story is a near constant onslaught of tank battles and the endless fanfare really starts to get monotonous after a while. I was genuinely getting sick of it by the end. It seems that because the Batmobile is the big new feature of the series they decided to cram it in as much as they could into the main story, which overall weakens the game. The car looks, feels and plays awesomely but it's too much of a good thing, which segways into a few critiques I have of the game's side missions. 

This isn't a pre-rendered cutscene, this is IN ENGINE. Holy sh*t.

Side missions in Arkham Knight are called 'Most Wanted' cases, and for the most part they're fun diversions that mix up the gameplay beyond the Batmobile heavy main story sequences. Two Face is robbing banks, Nightwing wants Batman's help to destroy the Penguin's weapon cache's, there's a serial killer on the loose ect...there is a lot of cool stuff to see and do. Quite a few of them suffer from bloat though: yes taking out military checkpoints and watchtowers are fun, but why do the developers think that including twenty of them was in any way a good idea? There's a lot of padding unfortunately, I'd say a good chunk of the fourteen 'Most Wanted' missions could be cut down a bit, as they only serve to extend the game's duration. I know I'm criticizing a game for having too much content, as It's all optional of course....unless you want to get the full ending of the game. YES, YOU HEARD RIGHT. If you want to get the 'full' ending to 'Arkham Knight' you have to 100% complete the game, and that means collecting ALL of the 243 riddles scattered around the city. F*ck that, just go look it up on Youtube like I did. Either way, cutting down on the length of some of these quests and putting more effort into challenge maps would be appreciated.

Storywise the Arkham games have always been pretty good, they do a good job of making there are plenty of twists and turns to keep you hooked or another objective in reach. Well 'Arkham Knight' is just as deceptive. Narratively this game has a massive WTF under it's belt, a killer twist that adds a third wheel to the Scarecrow/Arkham Knight conflict that hasn't been shown in any pre-release footage. It's therefore impossible to talk about this game's story in-depth without going into spoiler territory, which I'll mostly side step. In my mind though it's the single best thing about the entire game, it gave me pretty much everything I had hoped for and reminded me about what the Arkham games are really about. Hint: it's not Batman. Aside from this genius twist however it pretty much goes exactly where you expect it to go, I was a bit disappointed the third act didn't throw in a major curve ball like the other two Arkham games. The over-use of the Batmobile tank sections and an incredibly unsatisfying reveal to the Arkham Knight's identity in the latter half left a sour taste in my mouth (seriously, he's the first guy you think of). But it's hard to nitpick something when the execution is so flawless, and HOLY CRAP this game's ending sequence delivered. Seriously, very few games have utilized narrative told through gameplay this well. 

There is a lot to do and see in Gotham city.

Another misstep the story takes is making Batman an emotionless a-hole. He's a massive dick to everyone in this one, which is fine but why do you get legendary Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy to come in and deliver incredibly boring lines in a story that's all about breaking Batman down eludes me. Batman can be an emotionless brick, but especially considering certain scenes of a spoilery nature in the story some emotion other than 'I AM BATMAN!!!!' is sorely needed. Also don't be expecting a ton of character development, because there isn't any. For anyone. There are a lot of interesting potential relationships hinted at in this game but the story fails to include an interesting conversation with any of them. Catwoman probably gets the most out of Batman but even then all the brooding twat can say is a variation of 'I must go.' F*CKING EMOTE BATMAN YOU DICK!!!! ALL of cast are incredibly well voice acted though and the villains are perfectly portrayed....even if Batman refuses to have a conversation with any of them. Overall I'd say that the only thing the story is lacking is more characterization on Batman's part, which seems like a big flaw but the tremendous voice acting and directing makes up for it. It still feels like you're watching a great episode of the Batman animated series, and that's one hell of a compliment. 

It might use the Batmobile a bit to much, feature an emotionless lead and has quite too many firefighters to save but 'Arkham Knight' is still a great game and an amazing ride. The presentation and combat is about as perfect you can get, and the story overall satisfies. Sure narratively it's not quite as good as it's predecessor, but 'Knight' trumps 'City' in every other aspect. I cannot accentuate enough that this is an extremely impressive game and definitely one you should consider buying (as long as it's not on PC, I hear the port is crap). It would be my favorite game on PS4 if the Witcher 3 hadn't come out a month earlier, but I'll get to that game soon. 

Positives:

+ Flawless presentation, directing
+ Lot's of variety, plenty of stuff to do
+ Combat has been ridiculously refined at this point
+ Good story, voice cast
+ Driving the Batmobile is a dream come true
+ Anything related to a certain character that I will not mention because *SPOILERS*
+ Imaginative ending sequence

Negatives:

- Side missions are prone to 'do X of X', feel a bit padded out in length 
- 243 Riddler trophies: F*CK YOU GO TO HELL.  
- 100% completion is required to get the full ending
- Batmobile tank sequences are overused towards the end
- Lack of any arcs or meaningful characterization on Batman's part
- Arkham Knight's identity is so obvious it hurts

Game Of Thrones: Mother's Mercy

A lot of GOT finale's have been more sedate affairs. If episode 9 is the climax, then ten simply picks up the pieces and puts them in place for the following season. It's not a bad format, and allows audiences closure before waving goodbye to the show for another year. Then you have 'Mothers Mercy' where sh*t hits the fan: about a million characters died, Cersei went through an incredibly arduous journey, there were cliffhangers were abound then to seal the deal they ended on one of the show's most shocking scenes yet, which is quite a feat. For people who thought that episode 9 was lackluster it seems they saved the best stuff for last. Here are my untethered thoughts: 

- Wow, I don't think we've seen a character fall so low so fast. 'The Dance Of Dragons' was a difficult watch, we went from cheering Stannis on as an underdog to suddenly wanting to mount his head on a pike. Stannis' eight minutes of time in the finale turned the tables again, suddenly I pitied him. Only a show like this can make you feel for a leader who burned his daughter alive, and that's partly because of Stephane Dillane's incredible way of conveying a broken shell of a man who is walking to his dearg. Stannis' arc turned out to be tragic in many ways, he ended up losing so much in such a short span of time this episode it was almost comical: the moment crazy Mel realized that Stannis was doomed, and the overhead shot of the Bolton's vastly superior army in comparison to Stannis' was priceless. There was clearly no way Stannis could have won this battle even if Shireen wasn't burned alive, which makes his courageous side step to the Wall in season 4's finale his undoing. It's ironic, because Stannis giving a sh*t about what's going on at the Wall and the White Walkers made me like him in the first place. Season 5 then made us buy into his relationship with his daughter, and we know how that turned out. While I was secretly hoping for a one on one fight between Stannis and Ramsay it felt right to have Brienne finish him off, even if it felt predictable after her none too subtle hint earlier in the season. Overall I'm sad it ended this way, I was really rooting for Stannis to pull through and he possessed many great qualities as a leader. Credit to GOT, they handled his fall from grace well and gave us a fitting (but tragic) end to his character. 

- What the hell happened to Brienne, Littlefinger, Tommen and the Tyrells this season? Varys I can understand but it seemed odd to front load the first half of the season with these characters (making them seem important) only to never see them again or barely have them feature in the second half. Brienne had a brief cameo to finish off Stannis sure, which was fitting, but she spent most of the season waiting for something interesting to happen. The Tyrells were a non entity in the last three episodes, I'm assuming they're still locked up plotting revenge. Littlefinger was the most egregious absence out of all of them, it seemed like he was potting something with Olenna AND was planning on attacking Winterfell with his army from the Vale. This could still happen in season 6, but it felt odd for all his plotting to be left hanging for another year.

He's having a bad day.

- Sansa's arc was one of the storyline's that didn't meet the mark in season 5. We were promised dark revenge fueled Sansa, and instead we got a return to snivelling, defensless Sansa. Just what is it going to take for her to grow up? I get that Ramsay is an evil bastard but she should have done something this season that redeemed her. But nope, all that screentime with her and Bolton's has had little impact on any character development. I desperately want to root for Sansa and I get that she's been in the company of the worst people in Westeros but for gods sake have her do something that's proactive rather than reactive. She doesn't really do anything, as she's constantly in victim mode. The initiative in the finale is actually given to Theon, who finally decided that enough was enough and ended Ramsay's psycho girlfriend....and then seemingly committed suicide with Sansa by falling from the same height as the fall that KILLED Ramsay's girlfriend hoping to escape. I know there was a good covering of snow on the ground but if they make it out of that jump unscathed I call bullsh*t, at least break one of their legs because that's one hell of a hard sell. 

- Tyrion's plot this season has been very good, there's just no beating Peter Dinklage's seemingly endless supply of charisma. Every season he gets the best material, and it's clear why. When you think about it his arc in season 5 has been incredibly compact, Tyrion started season 5 in a crate covered in his own sh*t and finished it ruling the biggest city in Essos. That's quite a jump, even if statistically he was rewarded the most time this season. Overall I'd say this was the only happy ending of the season, with Varys returning at the end being the cherry on top. Varys and Tyrion ruling Mereen together? F*CK YES, GIVE IT TO ME NOW!!!!! 

- Also yay, Jorah isn't dead yet! I was so sure this season was going to be his last but I'll be damned the old bear has still got life in him yet. He's still got greyscale though, so he has to die at some point. And he also got what he wanted, Dany taking his hand at the end of Ep 9 seemed to indicate that Dany x Jorah could still be a thing. More fun times are ahead, his pairing with Daario has a lot of potential for a new bromance. This is GOT however, Jorah will probably end up killing Daario so he's the only one left to woo her. *SIGH*, I hate second guessing this show sometimes.

I think we can all see where this is going...

- The scene between Jaime and Mrycella in the boat was another scene that I found unintentionally hilarious because it was clear right from the start what was going to happen. Letting the woman who wanted to kill her ANYWHERE near her let alone engaging in any form of physical contact was severely dumb, especially seen as poison is this family's M.O. I feel sad for Jaime though, Cersei is not going to be happy when she finds out.

- Now that the season has fully wrapped I think we can all safely say that the Dorne thread was a complete and utter f*ck-up. Easily the worst the show has ever been, everything about it seemed off from the start. The scale and stakes were oddly absent, we never got a good impression of the culture/place, the Sandsnakes were a bunch of generic power puff girls, it squandered the potential in a Jaime/Bronn pairing after two episodes and now that Mrycella is dead what was the point of reintroducing her character again? I suspect the writers just wanted to set up a conflict for season 6 and give something for Jaime to do while Cersei f*cked everything up in Kings Landing. The only good thing that came out of this plot alive was Alexander Siddig's Doran, who seems like a genuinely nice guy and smart ruler to boot. Despite the mishandling of Dorne I hope we see a LOT more of it in season 6, mainly so this plot won't seem like a complete and utter waste. There is potential in a conflict with Dorne, but what little we have seen so far is not encouraging. In a show as well crafted as Game Of Thrones, you have to wonder why they dropped the ball with this one.

- Appreciating that episode 9 was the climax of Dany's arc this segment was mostly teasing us for next year. The return of the Dothraki was unexpected and made me feel weirdly nostalgic for the first season of the show (so much has happened since then you kinda forget they are still a thing). What will be interesting is how she manages to get them under her rule again, as killing her off via Dothraki would be a bit anticlimatic at this point. I suspect finding out she has a massive f*cking Dragon nearby will be more than enough to sway them. In season 1 the original plan was to use the Dothraki as an army to sail across the sea and conquer Westeros, I suspect that's exactly what will end up happening. Surely now we are going to see her on the offensive, with the plan being roughly seven seasons we should start to see her make her move towards Westeros next season. Plus with Tyrion in charge any conflict in Meereen should soon be resolved.

Arya is blind now? Sure, whatever.

- Poor Arya, her storyline this season has just been so slow. You can summarize her entire arc this year with one sentence: she goes to the house of black and white, mops the floors for a few episodes and then kills off one of the people on her list. I know this happens in the books, but why does she suddenly lose her sight? It's not really explained but I gather it's some sort of punishment for failing to let go of her identity. Arya is going to be blind next season? Hmm, okay. The big problem the show is having with these Arya segments is justifying why they should exist. So far none of her stuff is tying back into any of the main storylines, so why are we watching this stubborn girl trying to become an assassin? Previous seasons have got away with this by making all of Arya's scenes with the Hound compelling, a team-up so great you forgot it literally had nothing to do with the main story whatsoever. Now she's on her own and confronted with a mysterious assassin organisation that we don't know a lot about. That's fine and all, but you could at least give it some agency. As satisfying as her kill was (holy crap Trant got what was coming to him!) this was an event that should have happened mid-season and propelled her storyline forward a bit more. Arya is one of the show's best characters, it's a shame they gave her nothing interesting to do this year.

- The writers postponed Bran's storyline this season to skip 'the boring training stuff' with the intention supposedly being that by the time we return to him in season 6 he'll already be a seasoned badass skilled in the art of taking over peoples minds and seeing through trees. If that's true then why didn't they do the same to Arya? Assumingly she's going to come into play later as an assassin so why not skip to that part? Season 5 despite it's apparent slowness is still bursting at the seams with several different plotlines, cutting Arya out entirely and giving the time to someone else is much more preferable in my opinion. 

- Cersei had the best scene of the episode (yes, it was better than Jon's denouement), her naked walk of shame perfectly captured that feeling of helplessness and made you, once again, feel for a character you despise. This is all down to Lena's Heady's award worthy performance, you felt every bloody step she took. For a finale packed with events I appreciated that they took the time to really nail this scene, watching the slow degradation as she goes from being humiliated to full on breaking down was just amazing. Better still I'm pretty excited for next season because there's no way in hell Cersei will let the Faith Militant get out of this one unscathed. I can't wait to see her put Frankenmountain to use and tear some sh*t up. Beware Jonathan Pryce, Cersei is coming for you.

Even Jon seems shocked! To be fair, we should have seen this one coming.

- The show obviously saved it's most shocking scene for last, and in true GOT fashion they hit us hard. I loved the trolling at the start by showing Benjen Stark in the recap, even if you knew something was up the moment Jon was given the final scene of the finale. But instead of showing us a White Walker army outside of the Wall or the LONG awaited returned of Benjen they just straight up killed one of their top 3 principal characters (I consider them to be Tyrion, Dany and Jon). I love how hard they rammed it home, they made sure he was stabbed several times just so it dawns on us viewers how dead Jon is. But yes, Jon probably isn't dead dead, we have to see more of him at somepoint. There is far too much unfinished business for it to not make sense narratively, although even the mere thought that Jon might not be coming back next season is enough to fill our souls with anguish. On any other TV show we would all be expecting him to come back, but on Game Of Thrones? It could honestly go either way. The showrunners have definitely set up several outs though: we know people in bed with the Lord of Light can bring others back from the dead, and what do you know crazy Mel is hanging out at the Wall after dumping Stannis and is very interested in Jon. Why did she go back to the Wall anyway? Hmmm...other theories such as Jon warging into Ghost or being resurrected as a White Walker are less likely but could still happen, what interests me more is how will this affect Jon's character when he does come back. His death must serve a purpose other than shock value, and what's next for the Night's Watch is what I'm interested in finding out.

Season 5 of Game Of Thrones wasn't a perfect season. A lot of the plots were slow going, Dorne sh*t the bed and Sansa went nowhere, but the last three episodes made up for this by packing in enough blockbuster style events and crazy character twists to make you feel satisfied and more importantly, excited for season 6. 'Mother's Mercy' was one crazy episode, I have no idea how they managed to pack so much into an hour and make it work. It fully redeemed the rest of the reason, and along with 'Hardhome' and 'The Dance Of Dragons' you can't deny this season went out in style. GOT Ranking: 9,5/10