Top Gamer

The act of hunting and efficiently dispatching an important target has been incidental to the series for too long, so I'm glad Unity does it justice. Targets are hidden away in in sandbox locations—castles, prisons, palaces—that you have to crack like a violent puzzles. At the start of the mission Arno, poised like a fancy Batman on some dark rooftop, assesses the area to pick out gaps in the target's defence and note local disturbances that could serve as a distraction. When the mission starts you're free to find your way in and approach the target however you wish. These missions remind me favourably of Hitman: Blood Money. The levels lack the complexity of IO's sandboxes, but manipulating them is great fun. I whipped a cover off a hidden stash of food in front of a starving crowd. They flocked angrily to the cart and offered cover that got me closer to my target. I've set fire to sniper towers to expose targets, dabbled with poison and done other terrible th...

Following last week's lovestruck special and this week's Battle Pass season three announcement, Fortnite's update v3.0.0 lands today. Focused on building improvements for the most part, loads of changes befall both Battle Royale and its Save the World counterpart. But you're here for the former, yeah? Let's focus on that. Turbo Building, says Epic in this blog post, lets players hold down their primary fire button and continuously place a pre-selected building piece. "Now you can 'paint' building pieces into the world quickly," says Epic—which it suggests will come in handy for throwing up defenses, or crafting ramps while simultaneously climbing them.  Moreover, Automatic Material Swapping, or "Auto Change Materials" as it's known in-game, lets players immediately switch to another material whenever their primary source runs out. With this in mind, Epic notes that it's changed Battle Royale's netcode so that switching b...

The revitalized Toronto Maple Leafs are currently third in the NHL's Atlantic division and sixth in the league with a 36-20-5 record as we approach the season's final stretch. But what's their K/D ratio? Speaking in a recent Sportsnet interview (watch below), star forward Auston Matthews said his Fortnite skills are "unbelievable." "I've been playing a lot lately," said Matthews. "Off days, I don't really leave my apartment too much, just because you know, you want to relax, so I've been trying to get better every day in Fortnite, and it's been going pretty well, honestly." It's not just Matthews: apparently Fortnite is now a team pastime, replacing Call of Duty. As for who needs to improve most (in Fortnite), Matthews called out starting goaltender Frederik Andersen, who responded by saying that he's a "team player." In an extended cut of the locker room interview on TSN, Mitch Marner agrees with Matth...

Think of a compromising situation, a worst-case-scenario type dealio. Got one? Okay, now add a jetpack into that mix. Better, right? If there's a circumstance that jetpacks can't make better I'm yet to hear it. Fortnite understands this, which I imagine is why jetpacks are "coming soon" to its Battle Royale variation. At this stage it's unclear when or even how jetpacks will be applied. I grabbed the screenshot above after logging in, and besides boasting a gold background—reserved for legendary items—nothing else is mentioned in the game's launcher. Epic hasn't officially announced anything either, and whether jetpacks will be cosmetic items or have tangible in-game value remains to be seen. Pockets of players on the game's subreddit have suggested the new tool could be a portable version of the jump pad, while others pine for fully-fledged air-based combat. Naturally, I've my fingers crossed for the latter but I guess time will tell...

You're cruising the downtown streets in a shiny new Lamorghini when – gasp – you spot an equally gorgeous Maserati tucked away down a side-street. What do you have to do to possess that delicious new motor? What challenges do you have to beat, races do you have to win, pockets do you have to pick? None, actually. Just pull up alongside it and it's yours for the taking. Most Wanted's sprawlingly open world, Fairhaven, is a free-for-all. Every location, every nook and cranny – and all 123 vehicles – are accessible from the off, you just have to explore and discover. If that sounds too easy, the real challenge, as in Hot Pursuit, Criterion's previous entry in the Need for Speed canon, is beating your friends' records to creep up that leaderboard and gloat like the obnoxious owner of a German sportscar that costs more than most peoples' houses. Almost everything you do in Fairhaven is cross-compared with your friends and other players, from highest jumps to h...

Anyone who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area will feel right at home in Watch Dogs 2. The important landmarks are there, even odd intersections that may only stand out to residents. But I don't think you need to be familiar with the real Bay Area to appreciate how Watch Dogs 2's mix of nature and urban sprawl makes for a picturesque, playful open world. Its people and places are colorful and over the top, kind of like the real thing. And whether or not you understand the references that drive Watch Dogs 2's twisted take on Silicon Valley shouldn't matter either: This outing errs on the side of irreverence and unapologetic fun, trading in the original Watch Dogs' rain-soaked trenchcoat and drab demeanor for a neon-colored assault rifles and a pair of skinny jeans. The new attitude and setting are a great combination that allow you to experience the dream--rather than the nightmare--of living in the digital age. That doesn't mean the world of Watch Dogs 2 i...

Need For Speed: The Run nails it – you can recreate that experience perfectly, even down to the masterfully-pitched, twanging country music. This would be brilliant if the game didn't replicate the realities of a road trip as well, which include repetitive scenery, the boredom of maintaining a largely constant speed and the realisation that at most of your stop-offs there isn't a great deal to do. You play as the excruciatingly smug Jack, a man so fist-gnawingly in love with himself he probably announces his own arrival in a room. He's in trouble with the mob in San Francisco, but after QTEing his way out of a near-fatal conversation with a car crusher he's offered the opportunity to race his way to freedom, which lies 3,000 miles away in New York. And that's about it. For a game that's apparently about reintroducing a plot to racing games, there's embarrassingly little to the narrative. There are only two and a half characters in the entire game and th...

Rockstar Games' decidedly adult-oriented GRAND THEFT AUTO V puts players in the shoes of a trio of criminals in Los Santos, a fictionalized version of Los Angeles. One protagonist is a middle-aged gangster who begins the game as a recently retired criminal; another is an unpredictable, drug-addled psychopath; and the third is a young man just starting out on a life of crime. Players have the ability to switch freely among these men as they work through a dramatic criminal saga that sees them carrying out heists, stealing cars, taking revenge on rivals, and killing anyone who gets in their way, including police officers and innocent civilians. The immense world they inhabit is sprawling and free for players to roam, providing them the liberty to do anything they want -- from piloting boats and ATVs in rural settings to playing golf and tennis at local country clubs -- whenever they like. Though story-progressing missions, which are usually major criminal acts, are always avail...

While it's common practice in the music industry for a band to have a self-titled album, it's not too often that you'll find something similar in the gaming world. But here we have Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights from Juice Games, the sequel to the original 2005 release of Juiced. The follow-up sees a large number of changes in the series' overall design - the calendar-driven event sequence is gone, you no longer have to pay to repair damage after a race nor pony up a race fee to enter an event. It's a sleeker experience to be sure, but it's still far from perfect. You'll immediately notice issues with the game's control system. There are two distinct driving mechanics - racing and drifting. Neither is perfect, and they almost feel like polar opposites. The racing controls are overly touchy, where if you tap the stick to the side your vehicle will veer quickly in that direction. When you enter a drift event, however, you'll feel like you're in a...

Around the launch of the Wii, some of us were concerned that publishers would go for the easy out by simply tacking on Wii motion controls to existing games, rather than building a game around the unique features of the Wii itself. With Far Cry Vengeance, Ubisoft did a little of both. This first-person shooter takes some of the content and plot elements that appeared in Far Cry Instincts Evolution for the Xbox and weaves in new sections and levels designed for the Wii. It's an interesting solution, because this allowed Ubisoft to recycle existing content while also creating some unique content for the Wii. However, Far Cry Vengeance is a game that delivers some mixed emotions, as well as plenty of lackluster visuals In Vengeance, you get to play as Jack Carver. Who is Jack Carver? That's a good question, since the game throws you in with relatively little introduction to the character, his earlier adventures in Far Cry Instincts, or the reason why Jack possess powerful ani...