Dead or Alive 6 ★★★☆☆

I’ve never been one to take sides and call out one beat ‘em up over another, I just like fighting games and play as many of them as possible. I find they all have particular things they do better or worse than their rivals. Mortal Kombat has its brutal violence. Tekken has punishing juggles and arcade-perfect gameplay. Virtua Fighter pretends to be good, but really it’s just floaty and slow and hasn’t shown its head in 15 years. Street Fighter has fans with lightning hands, for the lengthy combo chains required to win at high-level play and Dead or Alive has boo... Multi-tiered and highly interactive level design and a counter system that’s hard to master but will help you win against even the best of players.

Sadly DoA6, like every game just mentioned, is a slight victim to the DLC plague with two of the characters locked off behind various pre-order bonuses and paywalls. All other current DLC is purely cosmetic, just character costumes, so I can happily ignore that. The game itself includes a bunch of costumes for each character to unlock in-game but doing so was a complete ballache until a recent patched helped speed that process up. So yay for patches. 

Most of the modes you’d expect to be here make an appearance with some bizarre exceptions for the series. Story Mode will take you about two hours to play through as each new segment unlocks and plays out in some Tarantino-esque, out of sequence, haphazardly told a bunch of events. Quest Mode is a set of quick challenges and objectives propositioned by the new character and crazy scientist, Nico, trying to collect information on all the fighters. These require you to finish fights meeting certain criteria and simultaneously teach gameplay elements and strategies. Arcade, survival and time attack are pretty self-explanatory. 

Training mode is really in depth, to the point of I don't understand half of the info it's possible to display on screen. You’re given frame analysis for attacks and reactions in real time, this will be really helpful to those that know how to use it correctly. Taking us to Online mode, which as of right now is Ranked Matches only. Having no lobby so I can fight against my friends is my main big complaint about the game. I don’t think any other fight has launched without this ability - just one missing an arcade mode...  *cough* Street Fighter 5 *cough* - The lobby system is supposedly coming later in March but why it was missing in the first place is anyone's guess and only goes to hurting the game’s launch. The next glaring omission is the lack of Tag Battles, which have been a series staple since DoA2.

Dead or Alive 6 sees 27 fighters enter the tournament. Two of which are the previously mentioned DLC characters, two new faces and twenty-three of which are returning characters. The new updated character models are definitely a step up from their last outing, 7 years ago. The dirt and damage modelling has also been improved with clothes getting shredded and torn as the fight draws out. Most of the gameplay is predominantly the same but with the inclusion of this gen's favourite fighting game mechanic, the special meter, allowing for some powerful finishers or some interrupting counter moves, to change the tide of the battle.

As aforementioned, the level designs of Dead or Alive are what make this game stand out from its competitors. Most stages contain many hazards and destructible elements to smash your opponent into, though or off of. A few of the new levels have bystanders stood watching as you kick the crap out of each other and will throw you back into the fight if you get too close to them. That said, many of the DoA6 stages feel less inspired and not quite as many multi-tiered as previous entries in the series, some are straight up lifted from previous games with a few new additions and hazards added. I’m yet to find a level with seemingly endless cliffs to punch someone off or a multi-walled dojo to keep kicking someone though; until you eventually go through the buildings exterior and land in the courtyard below.

I hope DoA6 can fix its few issues, as I do really enjoy the games combat mechanics, I don’t hold out much hope for a Tag Mode but an online lobby will help with the games acceptability to the masses quite a bit. Add an extra point to the score once the lobby is in there.

★★★☆☆

Bry Wyatt

Dead or Alive 6 at CeX

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Devil May Cry 5 ★★★★★

As we’re nearing the end of this console cycle, we're starting to see game engines other than Unreal, which has been by far the most dominantly used engine of the generation, pulling off some of the best looking games to date. Once again Capcom show us that the RE engine, originally constructed for Resident Evil 7, is more versatile than originally perceived. Resident Evil 7 was an excellent showpiece for the engine. The recent remake of Resident Evil 2 is my favourite game of the year, so far, and shows just how a remake/reimaging should be done. Hitting every nostalgia beat, whilst making enough changes to keep it fresh for those of us that picked it up twenty years ago. The engine showed it was capable of more than just horror in first person... It could make zombies terrifying again, in third person as well. Then Devil May Cry 5 comes along two months later to show it has no problem doing fast-paced, hack and slash, action games without dropping any of its graphical prowess whilst still targeting 60 frames. 

DMC's opening few stages are far wider than any of the claustrophobic environments seen during the Resident Evil games and with some boss enemies larger than an average house. That said, the camera can become an issue within some of the tighter segments of the game, getting caught up on geometry and trapped in corners. The detail in the level design and on characters clothing and faces are some of the best I've seen, and the extensive destructibility of the objects in the environment makes for some great action scenes as bookcases and books smash to pieces and fill up the room. After about mission 8 though, the level design becomes far less inspired and more or less starts to look the same, over and over, with only the odd exception. Most of it is the same hell tunnels and caves.

The opening 10 minutes of the game are more Devil May Cry than the entire 2013 DMC “reboot”, so we can all forget about that one now. DMC5 is far closer to DMC3 in the way it plays, looks and feels; with the odd elements of DMC4 showing their head. Dante, the white-haired John Wick of demon hunters, plays very similar to his outings in DMC3 and 4. He acquires a tonne of weapons and sidearms, that are all changeable on the fly, as well as his four different fight styles from DMC3 making a return; (Trickster, Gunslinger, Swordmaster and Royalguard) allowing for boundless combo potential as these are mixed up and chained together by someone with some Street Fighter levels of command input reflexes. 

Nero, Who's now out for revenge after having his arm ripped off, is still very much the same from DMC4 with his big change being that he's lost his demon arm and has replaced it with some very capable prosthetic ones, called Devil Breakers. Each different arm has a subtle variation of moves to add to Nero’s combat arsenal and change up his combos. V, somehow a more emo Kylo Ren, is the new mysterious poetry-loving guy of the group and comes with the biggest change in terms of play style. Whereas Nero and Dante are very much up close and personal, V stands off keeping his distance and commands three demons to do the fighting for him. Shadow, his black panther, does the up-close fighting and mostly excels fighting ground-based enemies. His demonic eagle thing, named Griffon, takes care of anything aerial with some decent ground attacks to boot. 

And lastly Nightmare, a big golem that V can summon once his Demon Trigger meter has been charged enough. I found the V sections of the game to be the more boring of the levels and just wanting to get back to being Dante or Nero. Standing back and mashing buttons never came off as very fun. An auto assist option is available from the start, that even the game recommends not using, which basically makes chain combos, for all characters, much easier with fewer button inputs and simplified commands.

The story plays out by jumping back and forth in the timeline. All of the game’s missions and cutscenes start with a date and time and load in with a timeline chart, so you don't end up too lost of when events are happening. This plays out particularly well as many of the levels are parallel to one another, showing what each character was up to at any given time. This is where the online crossover mechanic come in. During a lot of the stages any time another character is in a scene or in the distance fighting,  it's likely another real player in control. Mostly they're on their own path and don't interact with your own gameplay, aside from the odd occasion, but this is quite cool to see and wasn't something I was expecting. The game is possibly one of the shorter of the Devil May Cry titles, but the intention is to go back and redo levels with the other characters adding much to the replayability.

If you're a fan of the originals or just after a new hack and slash adventure because you've already played God of War to death, I couldn't recommend this more. Now I need a new Ninja Gaiden and DMC6.

★★★★★

Bry Wyatt

Devil May Cry 5 at CeX

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Soul Calibur 6 ★★★☆☆

Welcome to the stage of history... retold. Because Namco has now changed the game's lore more times than they've changed the name of the series and assumed someone was paying close enough attention to the story, that they might pick up on the plot holes of a demonic sentient sword and its goody goody twin (that was probably the school snitch).

Soul Calibur 6 feels like it was built for people who like to play alone. The game is full of single player content, which is good because right now the online doesn't work quite right. Hopefully, all the issues will be fixed soonish but currently it has problems finding matches and horrible input delay (which is also present in offline modes). This likely won't bother anyone after a casual match, with friends, but is quite noticeable when trying to time a block/parry at the last second; when you now have to somehow predict your opponent's move before they even know they're about to do it. Aside from the standard Arcade Mode, there's an additional Story mode called Soul Chronicle's which starts in 1584 and plays out over 8 years of the game's timeline, with a main focus on Kilik. Kilik's story takes around an hour to get through and then you have the remaining twenty-ish character’s stories to play out. Using a rather cool timeline menu, you get to see where all the events of these eight years overlap and characters come in to play. 

Still not done with single player content, Libra of Soul (yup, just Soul. Singular and awkward to read out loud) plays like a visual novel with RPG elements and combat. You start out by creating a character from the games rather decent character creator. If you have the time, patience and imagination it's possible to create some really cool things. Libra has you wondering a basic world map, levelling up and earning gold for new weapons with better stats. I'm glad it's back after being missing from the last couple of entries, but I was a bit disappointed that this mode didn't grab me the same way Conquest Mode, Mission's Mode, or Weapon Master Mode, from the earlier titles did. I ended up skipping past the bad story to just get to the fights, but at that point, I may as well just have been playing Arcade mode.

The series has always balanced the “easy to pick up and play but hard to master” thing fairly well and six is no exception. The pace of the game seems to have been picked up somewhat and a ton of new mechanics have been implemented. While they look nice and flashy, I'm not really a fan of the added Critical Edge attacks. An ultra move, as made popular by Street Fighter and recently added into Tekken (7). These change fight situations with the implied opportunity for a comeback, when in reality it becomes more strategic to get your ass handed to you and then execute your Critical Edge, with a simple press of one button. While these have been toned down a lot since the beta, a few of them still feel very unbalanced and will become mildly frustrating to newcomers who aren't aware of the timing required to avoid them. The next new mechanic is called Reversal Edge and one stolen from DC's Injustice, where you play a visual version of rock, paper and scissors for who gets to attack (Square beats circle, circle beats triangle and triangle beats square).

It's rather weird Namco are trying to reboot the game's storyline, as it's always best not to think too much about Soul Calibur, otherwise, it all falls apart anyway. There're characters that wouldn't exist within the same centuries, lizard men, sentient mannequins, Taki's iconic spandex ninja suit wouldn't exist for another 400 years, a pirate that died when the game was still called Soul Edge, a German Berserk fan that turns into a Tyrant from Resident Evil and a fire skeleton from another dimension. Using their broken timeline they've always managed to acquire interesting guest characters. SC2 had Link or Spawn, depending on what console you were playing on) and SC4 had Yoga and Darts Video. Soul Calibur 6 get Geralt, from the Witcher series, and he fits the game surprisingly well. There are notable absences in the roster, but it wouldn't be a current gen game without some controversial DLC packed on top. The first character announced is 2B, from NieR Automata. I'd take a guess we'll also see some older fan favourites such as Rock and Hwang, from Soul Blade (but that's purely speculation). If Namco is listening, I'd buy another port of Soul Calibur and Soul Calibur 2 HD.

★★★☆☆

Bry Wyatt

Soul Calibur 6 at CeX

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Annihilation ★★★★★

‘Annihilation’ (directed and written by Alex Garland) was described as a bit of a risk before it came out, with the premise that it would be too intellectual, too trippy, and really just too much for the audience. It was sold to Netflix who thankfully went ahead with it and I’m glad because a really interesting sci-fi moving has come from it – originally a book and now adapted for the big screen.

Lena (Natalie Portman) is a cellular biology professor with a soldier background and her husband, Kane (Oscar Isaac), has been away for around a year on a covert operation. He finally comes back as the only surviving member of his team but things quickly turn bad, and Lena finds herself being asked to enter The Shimmer, a mysterious expanding zone that scientists just can’t seem to explain, to investigate why his team were killed in there, and to find more about what it going on within. With an all-female crew of military scientists led by psychologist Dr Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh) she ventures into the unknown, determined to get the answers that will help her husband.

The whole concept of ‘Annihilation’ is fascinating, and generally I’ve found with sci-fi that combining it with another area of interest really adds to how good it is. ‘FILM’ did this really well by looking at an alien invasion from a linguistic perspective, and now ‘Annihilation’ has done a similar thing but with a biological perspective. Even without the plot behind it I found it so interesting, and once I’d witnessed The Shimmer I was completely pulled into the film.

Aside from the plot, The Shimmer also stands out because of it’s incredibly stunning graphics – so many colours, and such realism. The CGI team have really outdone themselves with this one, and it’s so pleasing to look at. The high level of CGI is also used to create a real sense of uneasiness and horror during scenes – some such scenes are horrifically gory and stayed long in my mind after I’d watched them, and others aren’t gory at all (or even scary) but are so realistic that it’s quite disturbing to witness. The film is intense, as the makers predicted, but it’s that trait that makes it so absorbing to watch.

This intensity is not only apparent in graphics – the sound is so well-done as well and complements the visual side perfectly. You find yourself feeling so tense and unsettled at times because of it, especially when added to the fact that we as an audience are kept so in the dark about things. We know there’s something out there but we’re not quite sure what, and so share those anxieties with the team. 

The lead actresses are also superb in their role and bring to us characters so developed and real that you can’t help but feel as if you are journeying with them. From the alpha Anya (Gina Rodriguez) to the reserved leader Dr Ventress, every character has something to contribute and their individual story is just as intriguing as the next. It’s refreshing to see a film so female-heavy, and these women certainly prove that gender isn’t a factor when it comes to raw acting talent.

I can understand why people were worried about the reception to the film – it is incredibly thought-provoking and ambitious, with some really surreal scenes at times. It asks us some very big questions and I don’t think the answers are what we want to hear, but it’s important to portray that within cinema as life isn’t all happy endings and humans coming out on top. Not everyone will want such a philosophical and intellectual film as ‘Annihilation’ and that’s okay, but if that is what you want then you just can’t miss out on it. 

★★★★★

Hannah Read

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Apex Legends ★★★★☆

Apex Legends is the latest free-to-play battle royale game to hit the market, coming out early in February with no marketing or prior announcements. Originally intended to be a sequel in the Titanfall series, Apex has dropped the giant mechs in favour of team-based combat on the ground, and it’s surprisingly good considering the stealth release.

Blackout, PUBG, and Fortnite have secured a majority of the market, but Apex is already carving out a piece of the pie with 25m players worldwide. I decided to give it a try on the second day, dropping into a hectic world where half of my teammates didn’t know how to aim properly, and the other half seemed to already have mastery of the game. Aside from a brief tutorial, there’s nothing stopping anyone with an internet connection, Gold/PS+ and a console from hopping on, so my first few games involved running around like a headless chicken while following more experienced teammates. It was taking a while to adjust, so I convinced a couple of friends to join in, downloading it in time for day three. 

Apex improves on the battle-royale formula in a number of incremental ways. The Jumpmaster is a randomly selected player who decides where the team goes, so you don’t have to worry about wayward members being left behind. The characters compliment each other in a number of ways, and there’s no real OP trio as of yet. Communication is simplified with the use of different tags for enemies and locations with the quick tap of a button, so it’s easier to show where you’re being shot at from. (Or at least, it should be in theory.)

Neither of my friends had bothered to pay attention to the tutorial, so I was forced to talk them through what the tags meant, and how they worked. One flat out refused to continue playing because of the complexity involved with pressing R1, while the other failed to grasp the concept, although he probably wasn’t listening in the first place. If you hadn’t guessed, we struggled for a few hours, barely making it to the top 10 once or twice. A dedicated team is ideal if you want a chance at being the kill leader, which comes with bragging rights and your name lit up throughout the match. Sadly, even my two useless friends were more help than the average teammate you’ll find online, but the player base is getting better as the game slowly begins to mature.

Gunplay is fast and fluid, with 20 weapons found dotted around the map and dropped in via supply drops during games. Movement feels weighty and the guns do a fair amount of damage, so it’s less frustrating than facing level 2/3 armour in Blackout. The map is compact compared to everything else, so there’s always a good chance that you’ll see an enemy team as you move into the next circle. It looks and feels great, and the shooting is as tight as you’d expect from Respawn Entertainment, who made the classic Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

It really depends on what you’re looking for from your battle royale game. If you’re sick of Fortnite and PUBG, and team-based action sounds compelling, there’s a good chance that Apex Legends could be right up your street. 

★★★★☆

James Millin-Ashmore

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The Umbrella Academy ★★★★☆

The Umbrella Academy is the latest superhero adaption to hit Netflix, despite the streaming platform recently cancelling popular Marvel shows like Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. It features a group of gifted children who were taken in by an eccentric billionaire, who aims to train them to stop the end of the world. In an alternate reality where JFK survived, nothing makes sense and the audience are faced with more questions than answers as the story unfolds.

The show kicks off with the death of the children’s mentor, Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore). He’s as callous as they come, evidenced by the way he named the kids in the numerical order in which he bought them. Number One/Luther Hargreaves (Tom Hopper) is almost impossibly large with extreme strength, and takes on a role as a leader of the group. Number Two/Diego (David Castañeda) has the ability to always hit his intended target. is Allison/Number Three (Emmy Raver-Lampman) has the power to warp minds through suggestion, Klaus/Four (Robert Sheehan) is an addict who can converse with the dead, while Five (Aidan Gallagher) can travel through space and time. Justin H Min plays the deceased Ben/Number Six, with a Kraken-esque power, while last, (and least) Ellen Page plays Vanya, with no discernable talents aside from playing the violin. Phew.

We still haven’t been through half of the main characters, and the full ensemble splits the action between a range of perspectives during each episode. Casting is a particularly strong point, as each of the students has a distinct feel and personality. The same goes for actors in supporting roles, which include contract killers, a Stepford android, and a talking chimp. It’s not as outrageous as it sounds, and it tries to ground itself in reality wherever possible.

As a deconstruction of similar shows like X-Men, The Umbrella Academy shows the potential for things to go wrong within such a dysfunctional setup. Children are always going to struggle in an unhappy environment, and powers come with complications you’d expect. People don’t take well to having their minds warped, while The Sixth Sense already showed that “seeing dead people” probably isn’t ideal for kids. The hierarchy of the group isn’t always firmly established, and it’s fun to see them bickering after spending the last few years apart since Ben’s death.

The premise is well worth an expensive first season, and a lot of the show takes place in the sprawling academy, which drips with detail. From the bedrooms to the art on the walls, it looks lived in, with similar attention paid to other settings throughout. Of course, it’s not perfect, and some parts do drag over the 10 episodes. Some plot threads are slower than others, and the lack of mobile phones or the internet, (possibly due to the changed timeline) lead to problems that would probably be solved with a quick call in our universe. It’s worth persevering with slower scenes to appreciate the story coming together at the end, with a strong finale and a strong sequel hook. 

★★★★☆

James Millin-Ashmore

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Anthem ★★☆☆☆

After the lukewarm reception to ‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ a few years ago, a lot of Bioware fans were pinning there hope on ‘Anthem’, a multiplayer/RPG hybrid looter shooter. From when it was originally shown years ago there was a lot of promise in the game and also a lot of hope from RPG fans around the world that it would be able to compete with the likes of ‘Destiny’ and ‘The Division’.

I’m going to start by saying that on a purely graphics side the game is utterly beautiful, whether you’re flying around in the open world or walking through your main hub, a gorgeously rendered city. This really is something that ‘Anthem’ does well, and the main characters you interact with are also very well done, with amazing attention to detail and great facial animations (unlike ‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’). Sure, the world is pretty, but what’s the point of a beautiful game without anything to actually do within it?

‘Anthem’ has a main story campaign which will take you between 15 and 20 hours to complete and it includes some exciting missions, however, these are intertwined with some awful trials which just seemed to me like padded outside content with no real purpose. I got the feeling they were shoehorned in purely to increase the length of the main game, which isn’t particularly inspiring. These types of games are supposed to shine with this extra content once the main story is completed, but sadly ‘Anthem’ lacks in this respect.

There is no raid at launch and only a few strongholds (known as strikes in the ‘Destiny’ series) which are all repeatable, but after a few hours of doing the same grind and with a roadmap of content for the next 90 days just released by Bioware showcasing little to be playing the game for, I am still a little concerned about what I will be doing in the next few months.

The gameplay, however, can be quite exhilarating – your character is human but plays the majority of the game locked up inside a Javelin, a highly capable suit that can exhibit incredible feats of athleticism and fly around like Iron Man. You have a vast array of weapons and abilities which are all interchangeable based on the loot drops from fallen enemies and caches within the world. This brings about a whole other issue though – for some reason, the developers decided it would be a good idea to only allow gear/ability changes whilst in the main hub, which is infuriating and leads to a myriad of loading screens (which I assumed we were trying to move away from, but obviously not everyone follows this line of thought).

I think the problem is that ‘Anthem’ feels like it should have come out about four years ago. The developers haven’t learnt from the mistakes that games like ‘Destiny’ and ‘The Division’ made, even though these are being rectified by their own developers in the latest releases. This leads it to fall short of its competitors and makes it feel like a lesser version of them.

I’m hoping that in time there will be updates and content releases from Bioware that will be able to fix these gameplay issues, and hopefully ‘Anthem’ will eventually become the full package we were all expecting. At launch, there just haven’t been enough for us to play with and despite being given a glimpse of something that could be incredible, it just doesn’t feel like a finished product. 

★★☆☆☆

Hannah Read

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Trials Rising ★★★★☆

Trials Rising is Ubisoft’s latest venture into the puzzle platformer genre and looks to innovate on the previous entries of the series in many different ways. I’ve always found the ‘Trials’ series to be great games that are easy to jump in and out of, but because of the similarities between levels I’ve never really continued past the initial excitement with them. Now ‘Trials Rising’ is out, I think that might be about to change.

The main idea of the game is that you are a biker who will be competing in various tracks made by the developers to beat other players’ times and get gold medals (and eventually platinums when you unlock them), and when you get these medals you gain experience and unlock newer and more menacing tracks. The tracks start off fairly simple as you’d expect but get challenging fairly quickly and will really test the player.

The game starts off with Trials University’, a series of tutorials and training levels that teach you all the skills that you need to surpass every obstacle that gets in your way. Some of these training levels are locked as you level up (generally more intense courses and techniques) so you are constantly learning throughout the game, rather than the standard “learn and do” model you often find in these sorts of games.

It’s 2019, so of course one of the new features of the game is… loot boxes and micro-transactions! You’ll receive a loot box each time you level up which is filled with goodies to customise your character and bike with. I’m one of those people that gets quite obsessed with opening loot boxes (must be my inner gambler) but for me, these just didn’t do it – the variety isn’t great and most of the prizes are stickers for your equipment, which I’d say are the least exciting thing to receive. You can randomise your winnings using the paid for currency and also unlock certain emotes and other customisations, but of course actually paying real money to receive virtual leather jackets and face masks isn’t really what I want to be doing. You can earn this currency in-game as well, but the collectables to do so are very well-hidden so it would be nice if there were more options for earning them.

Graphically the game is very similar to the previous entry in the series, ‘Trials: Fusion’, but there are improvements in the backgrounds and graphics that bring it to life more, and it’s certainly pleasing to look at. Performance-wise the game runs very well with hardly any frame rate drops – something you’d probably expect from a game like this. The only issue I’ve had with performance is the loading times which feel just that little bit too long, and sometimes the loading time and the time it takes to actually complete the track are just too close for my liking.

The game offers a vast amount of content from different tracks, Trials University tutorials, and skill games, and as well as this you can also have a go at custom-made tracks added by the local community (a feature I absolutely loved in ‘Trials: Fusion’, though I never actually had a go at making my own). Within the main game you get to traverse the entire globe for your ‘Trials’ career, and I love how each track is so unique – there’s always something going on in the background (often producing effects for the track, such as bulldozers crashing into it), and the novelty danger endings for each race are also still present. There’s pretty much a limitless amount of content, with DLC already planned to come out within the coming months, and I could see myself losing potentially hundreds of hours to the game.

If you’re already a fan of the ‘Trials’ series then there’s no reason why you wouldn’t enjoy this one – it’s a brilliant upgrade on the games you’ve already played, and more expansive as well. If you’re new to ‘Trials’ then I’d say this is a really good one to start with – the abundance of tutorials available means it’s a great place to really learn how to become a ‘Trials’ master. 4/5

★★★★☆

Hannah Read

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Google Stadia - Cloud’s the Limit

Google has just thrown their infinity gauntlet into the ring, specifically calling out PC, PS4 and the Xbox by name. To be fair, if anyone has a chance of standing up to them, it’d have to be a megacorp like Google, the people that already own all your info and browsing history. And why not? Sony was initially laughed at when they first pitched the Playstation around as an idea.

This isn’t the first time a cloud-based game streaming service has claimed to be the next big thing. Nvidia has tried this before with the Shield, and are about to give it another shot with newer hardware and then there was the ill-fated Onlive which ended up being bought out by Sony and integrated into PS Now. In Japan, Nintendo has cloud streaming on the Switch; running Resident Evil 7 and Assassins Creed: Origins.

Unlike these services that are still hardware reliant, Stadia (which is a really stupid name) will be fully run via 4500+ dedicated Google data centres around the world straight to any device, there’s no external box needed, meaning there is less interference for the signal to have to travel through. The fewer things a signal needs to jump through, the less lag is going to be an issue. Multiplayer could run on the same data centres, no more need for servers, eliminating the time it takes for all players systems to talk to one another. Everyone would already be connected, kind of like Lan but without the miles of cables snaking around the house. On top of this, it’s possible to use most current gaming controllers you may have laying around but Google’s own controller, that looks like a bad Switch pro pad and has an awful looking D-Pad, has built-in WiFi that connects straight to the same data centre to further cut out any input latency.

Games will load instantly. No install, no updates required. They just launch straight from the YouTube Client, be it a PC via browser, tablet, phone or even a Tv (using a Chromecast HDMI streamer). It’s then possible to switch what device you’re playing on and pick up right where you left off, seamlessly. Google already has many of the big name studios working to get their games running on the Stadia. Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey was the main showpiece and id software have Doom Eternal running at 4k60 after just two weeks of work. Not only that, Google revealed their own Game studio, Stadia Games and Entertainment, headed by Jade Raymond (the producer behind Assassin’s Creed 1+2) but didn’t have any games to show at this time.

Google “promise” that at launch the Stadia service will be capable of targeting 4k at 60 frames per second and is future proofed for 8k at 120fps and upgradable beyond this when needed. I find this hard to believe as Google have trouble getting YouTube to stream at a proper 1080p, let alone 4k and their video compression doesn’t do content any favours either. Just look at the newest Unity tech demo to see how YouTube's compression can kill a video. Those poor crushed dark areas. Even Netflix only “targets” 1080p but is more likely to be closer to 720-900p. A lot of this is all very bandwidth dependent and relies on a consistent speed and connection rates, and right now I’m just not sure much of the world is up for this. Here in England, most of the country has access to fairly decent internet speeds but even in somewhere like America, unless you’re living in one of the big cities, a good broadband speed is hard to come by and much more expensive and with data caps. To receive 1080p60 the recommended speed is 25mps, that's eating a lot of data, fast. In four or five years however, when providers have got their act together and stopped ripping off their customers, streaming could well be a legitimate way to play.

Personally, I’m sceptical but very interested and still have many questions. The price of entry being the main one. Assuming it’s a subscription-based system are there multiple tiers for better quality gaming and how much are compression, artifacting, graphics settings, textures, scaling and resolution affected by bandwidth? Things like game mods will also be out of the question as you never have the files to tinker with. Not sure pc players could go back to vanilla Skyrim.

Google has more to reveal in the summer, so hopefully, this is all laid out than before the Stadia is set to launch later this year.

Bry Wyatt

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Samsung Galaxy M Series ★★★☆☆

Samsung's latest budget offerings are the M10 & M20 phones launching in India this week. Whilst reviewing the M20, I'll also be comparing it to the M10. Both the M series phones look & feel very different from any of the previous Samsung phones.  Plastic build with a glossy finish, “Infinity-V” dew drop notch and a massive battery are the features that are most noticeable. 

Both phones are dual SIM VoLTE enabled & have extra storage option available. The M20 has a 5000mAh battery & M10 has a 3400mAh one, both of which work pretty well, support fast charging, and last almost an entire day considering the massive 6.3” screens. Thankfully both variants still sport the 3.5mm jack, although there are no earphones bundled in the box.  

The major difference in the 2 variants, besides the battery size, is the missing Type C Charging port (has a micro USB) & fingerprint sensor on the cheaper M10 model. The Exynos 7904 CPU on the M20 is a new launch from Samsung and very similar to the Snapdragon 600 series of processors. 3GB RAM & 32GB storage or 4GB RAM & 64GB storage are 2 options available in the M20 with a colour choice of Ocean Blue or Charcoal Black.

The M20s dual rear camera setup has a 13MP & 5MP lens while the front is an 8MP shooter. The camera app is similar to what you see in most Samsung phones, with fast focusing speed. This is perhaps the first time ever the image and photo quality disappointed me on a Samsung device. They look decent on the phone but once you see them on a big screen the fine details were lost & it looked grainy. Low light shots were poor and looked blurry. Surprisingly, Live Focus mode for Bokeh effects, works only on a face and not on objects. Video recording maxes out at 1080p.

Device security includes Facial Recognition, which is a bit slow but more useful since the fingerprint sensor is not easily accessible on the 6.5” body when using the phone in one hand.

Overall usage does not show any lag and games run smoothly even with multiple apps open in the background. 

On the software front, both devices run on last year's Android Oreo 8.1 with Experience UI, possibly an update to Pie later this year & Samsung's own One UI. A huge turn off is the number of Ads placed on the lock screen and constant notifications coming from the My Galaxy app. This can only be disabled by selecting “wallpapers” on the lock screen rather than “wallpaper and stories”.

With the Galaxy M series, Samsung is challenging Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro, Asus Zenfone Pro M2, RealMe U1 all of which have some features better than the M20.

Both phones could've done a better job. 

★★★☆☆

Pritesh Khilnani

Samsung Galaxy M Series at CeX

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February Phones Video Round UP!

Have you watched our February Phone review yet?

Lewis takes a look at the best phone releases and updates for last month. February brought us:

Moto G7 Series / Huawei P Smart / Huawei Mate 20 X

Enjoy!

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WIN a Switch + 2 Mario Games!

Yes, you read right!

Want to win a Nintendo Switch with Mario Odyssey & New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe?

To celebrate Mario day (MAR 10) we are giving you a chance to win these amazing Nintendo goodies! Just leave a product review of anything on webuy.com between Sunday the 10th of March & Sunday the 17th of March. The winner will be picked at random from all published reviews and contacted to receive their prize. 

Participating countries are Australia, India, Ireland & United Kingdom. Only one winner will be picked between all regions.

To leave a review, head to webuy.com and search for the product you want to review. You can leave your review by clicking the “write review” button which is either found just below the product title (if it has been reviewed by others) or at the bottom of the page (if you’ve been lucky enough to get there first!).

TERMS

Your review must be approved by the BazaarVoice* moderation team. Product reviews will not be approved if:

• There is no review of the product itself
• Contains links to other sites
• Contains foul language, threats of violence or illegality

It is important that your review is about the product in question, not about the service or the status of the product (for that there are other channels). If, for example, you want to review a movie, say "American History X", you should discuss the film in question (eg "the movie is too slow", "the movie is too violent", "the movie has a great script, accompanied by a great direction and an excellent performance by Edward Norton, highly recommended ", etc.). If in the review you do not refer to the product in question but to the state in which it has arrived or the time it has taken to arrive, then that review will not be included for the draw. And as always CeX's decision is final on all competition matters and whether a review is published.
Good Luck!

* BazaarVoice are an online review company.

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February TV / Movie Video Round UP

Have you watched our February  TV / Movie review yet?

February was the month of the Oscars and boy what a month it was! Sam looks at the winners and... not so winners that last month had to offer. In this video, we have:

The Hate U Give / First Man / A Star Is Born / Halloween

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February Tech Video Round UP

Have you watched our February Tech review yet?

February was a good month for Samsung. This month, we saw the release of the:

Galaxy Buds \ Galaxy Tab S5e \ AMD Radeon VII

Enjoy!

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February Xbox Video Round UP

Have you watched our February Xbox review yet?

Time for the 3rd instalment and our list of the amazing games Xbox had to offer in February! This month, Lewis will be looking at:

Far Cry New Dawn /  Anthem / Metro Exodus

Which was your favourite game this February?

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International Women's Day - The women we want to talk about

Happy International Women’s day from all of us here at CeX! 

In the spirit of the day, we’ve made a list of inspiring women from the tech and entertainment industries that you should know about. These women have helped shape tech, gaming and entertainment today and we can’t wait to see what’s next!

Jameela Jamil

Star of The Good Place, Jameela Jamil started out as an English teacher and has now risen to fame as Tahani in NBC’s The Good Place. In 2015 Jamil launched Why Not People? An events and membership community dedicated to hosting accessible live entertainment events. In March 2018 Jamil started the social movement I Weigh and was subsequently named in BBC’s 100 Women. This year, she won Stylist’s Woman of the year. Jamil is unapologetically frank and we love it. Definitely, one to watch. 

Carol Shaw

One of the first female game designers makes our list. Carol Shaw’s the one to thank for retro classics like 3D Tic-Tac-Toe (Atari 2600), River Raid (Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit & Atari 5200), and Happy Trails (Intellivision). Her unpublished Polo is the first documented game programmed & designed by a woman. In 2017 she won The Game Award - Industry Icon Award. She was quoted by a colleague as being “simply the best programmer of the 6502 [an 8-bit microprocessor] and probably one of the best programmers, period.” She was so successful in her career that she was able to retire at 35 and along with Dona Bailey and Carla Meninsky, opened the door for women in gaming. 

Kim Swift

Previously noted in Forbes “30 under 30” influential figures in the video game industry, Kim Swift made her name as one of the developers for Valve’s Portal. Described as one of the most recognized women in the industry and “an artist that will push the medium forward”. Swift has also worked on Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Quantum Conundrum, Half-Life 2 Episodes One & Two and Star Wars Battlefront II. Still, under 40, she has achieved so much and is definitely a name to look out for. 

Amy Hennig

Video game director and script-writer Amy Hennig started her career with Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City on the NES. Hennig has a had a lengthy career and some highlights include Jak and Daxter, The Uncharted Series and Battlefield Hardline. Hennig has won a BAFTA special Award and is due to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards later this month. Hennig is a fantastic example of a successful woman in a male-dominated industry and we can’t wait to see what she does next.

Rana El-Kaliouby 

Computer scientist and entrepreneur Rana El-Kaliouby specialises in expression recognition research and technology development. El-Kaliouby is CEO of Affectiva, an emotion measurement technology company that has developed software to recognise human emotions based on physiological responses. The technology has a multitude of uses that range from helping brands improve their advertising - to working with games, enabling them to change user experience based on reaction. Affectiva has also developed a sensor to measure changes in emotional states via their skin. The technology has limitless applications and is ultimately looking to help on the autism spectrum.  El-Kaliouby was also part of the team that developed the “emotional hearing aid”, glasses that read emotion and was featured in the New York Times top 100 innovations in 2006. To see more, El-Kaliouby features in Do you trust this computer?

Happy International Women’s day to these trailblazers & to all women across the world! 

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