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Star Wars Battlefront 2 Campaign Review
This preview contains plot details for the first three missions of Star Wars: Battlefront 2’s campaign, roughly the first two hours of the game. Additionally, one of Battlefront 2’s writers is former IGN editor Mitch Dyer. The author of this preview was hired after Dyer left IGN and has no relationship of any kind with him.
There’s an old Star Wars joke (best known from Kevin Smith’s Clerks) about all the janitors and construction workers who were innocently working on the second Death Star when it blew up. Sure, the Emperor was finally defeated, but what about the little people? Was working a day job for the Empire really deserving of such a grisly fate?
While Star Wars: Battlefront 2’s single-player story didn’t put me in control of anyone nearly as hapless as a space janitor, it does present a similar question. It pushed me to consider the Force-less faces on the other side, the people who were born and raised knowing nothing but the Empire, and the people left behind after the Galactic Civil War was “won” in Return of the Jedi.
The video above is a new gameplay clip from the Battle of Endor mission.
I got to play the first three missions of Battlefront 2’s campaign over the course of about two hours, and really enjoyed what I saw. EA has referred to the single-player mode as a “tour” of what the multiplayer modes have to offer, and while the core of those multiplayer influences can still be seen throughout the campaign, I was glad to discover it also felt like a substantial and fleshed out experience of its own. It looks, sounds, and feels like a Star Wars movie, but from a unique perspective we haven’t seen much of since the likes of 1994’s Star Wars: TIE Fighter.
A Parsec in Imperial Shoes
You play as Iden Versio, an Imperial Special Forces trooper who was standing on the moon of Endor looking up as the second Death Star exploded above her unit, Inferno Squad. And that’s not just backstory: it’s literally the second mission of the campaign. I was clearing out straggling Rebel forces amid the wreckage of the shield generator Han and Leia had just destroyed when, all of a sudden, the Empire’s second attempt at a spherical space station went boom.
It’s a strange, emotional moment for a Star Wars fan - one that was previously nothing but a climactic success. But I wasn’t watching a montage of fireworks and digitally touched-up celebrations across the galaxy after the explosion, I was looking at Iden Versio coming to terms with the loss of her Empire’s greatest symbol of dominance over the galaxy. It’s a complex and horrible thing. I don’t want to sympathize with her, but I do. That sympathy doesn’t come lightly, but it’s a testament to the sincerity of the story being told that I could already start to care about a diehard Imperial soldier this early in the campaign.
The discomfort of playing as an Imperial is part of the point
Still, it’s an adjustment that didn’t quite settle into place in my time with Battlefront 2, and I think that discomfort is part of the point. As I ran through the forest back to my ship to escape Endor’s moon, I regrouped with a Storm Trooper battalion and instinctively opened fire at them on sight. Years of Star Wars games have trained me to consider that white armor the enemy, and I was genuinely caught off guard as I remembered they were my allies.
Also, for the record, this mission had the glaring absence of any ewoks, dead or alive, despite the tree huts suspended overhead. I missed those fuzzy little guys, but I suppose I’m glad they weren’t around as I’d have to be the one to shoot them in their fuzzy faces, or face the wrath of their magically armor-piercing arrows and rocks.
That being said, it’s not like Battlefront 2’s campaign is lacking in movie callbacks. Characters and story references are sprinkled throughout, and most of what I saw was treated with respect rather than just being included for fan service. The campaign’s plot moves away from the movies after that Endor mission, but the prologue mission before it is still rooted in reenacting Return of the Jedi.
That prologue has Iden breaking out of custody on a Rebel ship, but not before destroying an intercepted Imperial message with details about their ambush at Endor, meaning her actions had a tangible (if retconned) impact on the events of the film. At one point, I sneaked past a group of Rebels listening to a hologram of Admiral Ackbar detail the plans of their attack. These moments could have felt heavy-handed, but instead pushed Battlefront 2 deeper into a genuine Star Wars setting and made Iden’s story feel like a real, living part of that conflict.
There were surprises to be found in the campaign as well, with the opening of the prologue putting you in direct control of an Imperial droid, flying through vents and stunning Rebel guards to rescue Iden from captivity. It’s a cool and somewhat silly segment that helps set up abilities you can use later, though I was a little disappointed that the bot was only ever called “droid” by Iden and her squad. That prevented it from really becoming an interesting character like so many previous Star Wars droids have.
The video above is a new gameplay clip of the droid section of the prologue mission.
Battlefront 2’s dialogue, though voiced well, can be pretty stiff - but it feels stiff in a traditionally Star Wars way. The Original Trilogy are some of my favorite movies, but exposition-heavy dialogue is pretty much a defining trait of Star Wars, and Battlefront 2 follows suit. It does a great job of replicating the style of the original Star Wars movies, for better and worse.
Blasting Rebel Scum
Still, moments like that droid mission helped assuage my fears that Battlefront 2’s chapters would be restricted to multiplayer-style game modes against bots. Looking at each mission in the menu, it seemed like they’d be broken up into discreet categories - sneaking, ground fights, space fights, etc. - but I was happy to see they were much more mixed than that.
Mid-mission variety was a big part of why I enjoyed the campaign so much
The Endor mission concluded with me flying my TIE Fighter through the wreckage of the Death Star I’d just watched explode. Fighting different groups of flying AI targets was a lot of fun to manage - and while dodging space debris could be a thrilling challenge, it didn’t feel great to graze a piece of space-rubble toward the end of the mission, instantly explode, and then have to do the whole thing again.
The third mission I played started in my TIE Fighter as well, and I assumed the whole thing would take place there, but it wasn’t long before I boarded a Rebel ship and hopped out to fight my way through its crew. That culminated in a point-defense scenario to disable the ship before I jumped back out into space and returned to the dogfight. That mid-mission variety was a big part of why I enjoyed this level of the campaign so much.
By comparison, the previous mission felt a lot less dynamic - which, to be fair, makes sense given how early on it takes place in the campaign. It mostly involved walking down a linear forest path, stopping to fight some Rebels, then repeating, which was fun if uninventive. There were a few interesting set pieces thrown in, like a hijacked AT-ST to fight, but that rhythm persisted. Thankfully, I really enjoy the gunplay and reload systems in Battlefront 2, which carry over from the multiplayer, but it felt a lot more like your standard big-budget shooter campaign.
If you take a gun off a rack, you’re stuck with it until you find a new one
The biggest annoyance I encountered in Battlefront 2’s campaign is gun swapping. You can’t gather the weapon of a fallen enemy for some reason – instead, there are special crates placed around each level that let you customize your load out You can pick your gun from a surprisingly wide variety of options right off the bat... but Iden can disappointingly only carry one at a time.
That limit was frustrating in its own right, made worse by the fact that these crates were few and far between. There are individual gun racks scattered between them that let you swap out for a specific weapon, but once you drop a gun you can’t pick it back up. That means if you take a gun off a rack and there are no other racks around you, you’re stuck with it until you find one.
Discovering this odd design quirk the hard way soured my experience on Endor when I naively picked up a sniper rifle toward the beginning of the mission and was unable to swap back. I didn’t come across another crate or rack to swap weapons for at least half of the mission, which left me with a sniper rifle and nothing else for far longer than I wanted. That’s a stupid and easily fixable problem to have in a single-player FPS.
The video above is a new gameplay clip from the third mission of the campaign.
While I loved the way the third mission pulled me between different situations, I’m nervous the loadout system’s lack of flexibility will lead to more frustrating moments throughout the campaign. Battlefront 2 shined brightly when it gave me a varied, Star Wars-filled toolbox and threw me into unexpected scenarios, so I’m hoping there’s more of that to come and less unsatisfying gun-choice traps to fall into.
But Iden Versio’s story is a compelling one so far, and it’s exciting that I honestly don’t know what direction it will go. It’s easy to assume that she’ll see the evil in the Empire and heroically join the Rebellion - there’s already a bit of foreshadowing in place to set that up - but I genuinely can’t tell if it’s going to be as simple as that.
Verdict
It’s a strong start to a story I’m excited to finish, one that’s already made me care more about a villain I’ve been programmed to hate than I thought I would. Similar to my impressions of the multiplayer beta, Battlefront 2’s single-player isn’t without its problems, but I’m enjoying it so far nonetheless.
Assassins Creed Origins Review
Assassin’s Creed Origins is a dark, multifaceted, deep dive into one of the series’ most alluring settings yet: ancient Egypt. As Bayek of Siwa, who is simultaneously compassionate, bold, and driven by revenge, you’re strung through a twisted story of pharaohs and corrupt leaders, of love gained and lost, and the plights of the lower class in a time when they were routinely worked to death and nobody batted an eye. It’s a tense journey that challenges your concepts of right and wrong, making you consider the morality of those you kill in the process – and, in a dramatic shift for the series, it’s all part of a full-on roleplaying game.
I spent 30 hours finishing the main campaign, which took me through just over half of the expansive and beautiful map that recreates ancient Egypt’s varied architecture and environments. It’s filled with areas of soft sand that are swept by dynamic sandstorms, ranges of treacherous and rocky mountains, catacombs of towering ancient structures built in the names of the gods, and the decaying shacks of the common people. Refreshingly, I discovered all of these things through an organic drive to explore, rather than through the series’ traditional structure of climbing to viewpoints to have them unveiled for you. There are plenty more secrets to uncover, and the delightful sense of discovery still hasn’t left me.
This is also the biggest and most connected map we’ve seen in an Assassin's Creed game. Even the seemingly-empty desert regions having their own treats, like the breathtaking view from the highest elevation point, with an impressive draw distance, whether you’re playing on Xbox One X or PlayStation 4. There are multiple cities, too, each with their own unique culture featuring different gods, politics, race relations, and prejudices to uncover. They’re distinct in architecture and environment, and that makes the significant time commitment one that’s consistently varied and surprising.
The delightful sense of discovery still hasn’t left me
The density of it is made more impressive by being able to explore it in its entirety without any loading screens, with the exception of some story cutscenes, and if you choose to fast travel. If you want to get around quickly, a smart in-universe transit system lets you call your mount and press a button to follow the main road, or to head to a custom marker you’ve placed on the map – all fully automated, letting you take in the scenery around you.
While the main story is delightfully mystical and elaborate on its own, Origins also has some of the strongest actual mission design I’ve encountered in the entire 10-game series – and maybe in any open-world RPG. From collecting clues to solve mysteries, to chariot racing and gladiatorial arena fighting, to chasing down leads and assassinating high-level enemies hidden in fortresses, to Black Flag-style ship-to-ship combat, I was pleasantly surprised by how each of them felt like a self-contained short, well-paced story. Another highlight is the series of hidden temples, which – without spoiling anything – tie into Assassin’s Creed’s overarching sci-fi story, among other things. They are distinct from every other tomb you’ll find in ancient Egypt, and even include some throwbacks to the fan-favorite, timing-based platforming puzzles introduced way back in Assassin’s Creed 2. I rarely felt like I was doing too much of any one thing.
While there are quests that simply involve finding a hidden location or looting a building, Origins has largely done away with the cluttered mini-map full of useless chests. Instead, the vast majority of quests require multiple steps to complete and have multi-faceted, interesting characters with believable motives. Even when I really only began a quest for the XP, many of them ended up distinctly memorable. I’ll remember the man who was poisoning poor Egyptians so he, as a Greek, could acquire their land when they died, and I’ll remember the little girl who was selling fake Siwan artefacts for her mother, repeatedly assuring me they were real. My sole complaint is the NPCs’ overuse of ‘my family member died!’ and Bayek’s constant outrage at someone’s disrespect of the gods as the driving force of a quest.
The most seamlessly executed parkour and climbing yet
Of course, being an Assassin’s Creed game, there’s a whole lot of parkour and climbing in Origins, and this is undoubtedly Ubisoft’s most seamlessly executed version of that well-rehearsed mechanic. Things that can be climbed are blended more organically into buildings and the act of climbing feels clean and almost as passive as running. True, that removes some of the challenge that existed in previous games where you’d have to figure out the best route up a building, but it takes a fair amount of frustration out the door with it. I never had a moment where Bayek failed to climb something I thought he should be able to, and that smoothness put Ezio, Altair, and the rest of the previous Assassins to shame.
The notably strong XP-based RPG progression elements are what make Origins addictive on a new level. Assassin’s Creed has let you unlock and upgrade abilities for a while now, but Origins does it in a way that enables multiple creative options that can cater to your playstyle, rather than just things that you’ll pick arbitrarily. If you want to approach missions stealthily, there are abilities that give you bonuses for stealth kills, ones that let you control arrows in the air after you’ve fired them for more precise headshots, and ones that let you visually predict the path an enemy will walk on. If subtlety isn’t your thing, there are options that make you a beast in melee combat, others that increase the amount of money you get from looting, and some that mostly just look cool (like activating slow-mo if you’re mid-air with your bow out). In the earlier stages, there are some plainly obvious picks, but I think most people will end up with very different sets of abilities by the end of the main story.
Thankfully, Origins does away with previous games’ auto-fail stealth missions and its heavy-handed suggestions for how you should approach certain objectives. Instead, it finally gives you absolute, almost Hitman-level freedom to approach a target however you’d like, and your choice of abilities can unlock new solutions. For example, as soon as I gained the ability to befriend animals, it changed the way I approached any mission locations where they were in the area. I’d survey the area with Bayek’s bird companion, Senu, then stealthily take out the guards at the front of a camp with a predator bow, sneak through to a caged lion, befriend it, and release it. That’s generally more than enough of a distraction to get past the remaining guards and break out the hostage I was sent to free from another cage, then slip out totally unseen.
There is quite a lot of 'grinding' to be done
While unlocking new abilities and story missions generally happens at a smooth pace, there is quite a lot of ‘grinding’ to be done in Origins. This happened to me when the recommended level for a new main quest mission appeared as several levels above where I was when I first unlocked it – a difference that can render enemies all but unkillable. That’s usually no big deal, since Origins is flush with side activities that can help you make up the difference, but on two separate occasions, I couldn’t find any side quests at my level. That meant I had to go for much lower-level quests for small rewards, which stretched out the process uncomfortably. If you do urgently want to get to the next story event – as I did at one point towards the very end of the story – this stymied progress can be a little frustrating.
hat said, one of my favourite things to do (and one of many options for grinding) is to attempt to infiltrate and liberate a fortress manned by enemies that are a few levels higher than me, just to challenge myself to see how long I can survive against opponents who could kill me in a couple of hits if I’m discovered. For me, the biggest appeal of Origins’ introduction of a level system is in that optional, self-induced challenge. Previous Assassin’s Creed games don’t have anything to put up a fight once you feel confident in your abilities, but there’s challenge in Origins every step of the way if you go looking for it.
Combat has been significantly rebuilt for Origins
In some cases, though, it will come looking for you. The world is also full of mini-bosses called Phylakes who’re constantly seeking you out, and – when they’re first introduced – are a dramatically higher level than you. If you’re careless and one of them shows up at a bad time it’s almost certainly a death sentence, and finally working up the courage to face one of them intentionally was one of my favourite parts of the endgame. (It’s not unlike taking down Guardians in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.) It’s made even more satisfying by the fact that they’re named – you’ll remember the guy who killed you, and it’ll mean twice as much when you can finally return the favor. It’s not quite as elaborate as the Nemesis system of Middle-earth: Shadow of War, but you get some of that same grudge-match flavor.
Those fights feel immediately different from anything we’ve done in an Assassin’s Creed game to date because combat has been significantly rebuilt for Origins. One of the biggest differences is the introduction of hitboxes, meaning that when you press the attack button you have the potential to hit multiple enemies, or hit none of them and leave yourself very vulnerable to attack, depending on where your weapon actually strikes. (That’s different from the previous system, which was focused on one-on-one combat.) And because your enemies do significantly more damage per hit than we’ve seen before, there’s more urgency in knowing when to block, when to dodge, and when to parry; that, of course, depends entirely on what kind of enemy you’re fighting, what their specific combat animations are, and how many of them are attacking you at once. It creates a whole lot more thoughtful tension than has existed in previous games.
There’s a fair amount of enemy variety, too, pitting you against shields that require heavy attacks to knock back, archers who’ll quickly pick you off if you ignore them (especially since the AI is smart enough to predict your next location and shoot arrows accordingly), rogue assassins who’re almost as quick and impenetrable as you are, and even wild animals who might show up at inconvenient times (taking a page from Far Cry’s playbook). Each enemy presents their own challenge, and the combination of them present makes combat encounters feel a little like a puzzle.
You also have the ability to lock onto one specific target at a time, and while I used it constantly for one-on-one encounters, swapping between enemies in the heat of battle rarely worked. It’s supposed to be as simple as moving the right stick, but most often, my lock-on target just didn’t move at all, no matter how hard I tried. Thankfully, it worked perfectly in stealth moments where enemies weren’t moving quite as erratically, and assassinating an enemy from the safety of a bush or a haystack is just as satisfying as ever. My only gripe there is the inability to get double hidden blades, but the ability to upgrade the amount of damage your singular hidden blade does through Far Cry-style hunting and crafting did make up for that a little.
Combat is a constant decision-making process, and it's richer for it
Then there are weapons, which vary in type, rarity, and effect. Some give you health on a hit, or issue bleeding damage, and they let you cater pretty specifically to your preference of playstyle while also regularly feeding you new loot to make you consider trying something different. Once I’d picked them up and learned their uses, I always kept three different bow types handy and swapped between them regularly depending on the encounter, like using the light bow for hunting animals since it locks on, the predator bow for one-shot killing enemies where I had time to wait and take aim, and the hunter bow for combat encounters with bigger enemies who were right in front of me. That same variety and choice helped with boss fights and tougher enemies who might be taken down faster with a heavy but slow mace, where amongst a group of enemies I wanted to stay quick with a sword. It’s a constant decision-making process and the combat is much richer for it.
There are Legendary and Rare weapons in Origins, too, and while finding a Legendary weapon is a thrill, it’s not as dramatic as it is in a game like Destiny 2 because Legendary weapons are easy to come by in main story quests, and most have unexciting benefits. I ultimately ended up with a very obvious choice for each type: the one that did the most damage, maybe occasionally considering swapping for something that had burning damage or health on hit, but there are no dramatic variations there that might change the way you play or make you reluctant to trade out a lower-damage weapon because of its other benefits. There are rare exceptions, but I didn’t encounter anything major. One of most unique weapons I found was one that had stronger buffs, but was also ‘cursed’, meaning you lost two health bars if you had it equipped. I was intrigued, but it ultimately it wasn’t worth suffering through the ‘curse’ to use it.
Decisions for clothing and mounts are even easier to make since they’re purely aesthetic and there are limited choices... unless you opt to buy them as part of Origins’ microtransation system, where you can even buy a unicorn for $4.99 USD. Because of the generous way the loot system works, though, a lot of people are likely to end up with the exact same weapons and there’s almost no need to spend much money or even to visit a regular blacksmith, since anything you buy or craft will be redundant or obsolete in no time.
Microtransactions feel a little gross
On the topic of microtransactions: I started out Assassin’s Creed Origins with 200 Helix coins - the currency that you have to buy with real-world money. There are cosmetic items that are locked behind Helix coins and don’t exist in the game world, meaning you can only get them if you pay real-world money. The same applies to maps that can give you locations for collectibles, which did exist in the game world in previous Assassin’s Creed games. That, combined with the lack of outfit and mount options, feels a little gross. I spent my 200 coins on crafting supplies, which were listed under the ‘Time Saver’ category (where you can also buy in-game money), and got a bunch of materials to spend on upgrading my ranged damage, melee damage, hidden blade damage, and overall health. Those supplies are easy enough to find in Origins’ Egypt through hunting or other side activities that I don’t think the presence of these microtransactions will affect players who don’t have interest in purchasing them.
I did also have some minor issues with environments popping in, a hand full of bugs (mostly Bayek or his mount getting ‘stuck’ on something), framerate drops even on the Xbox One X, and two crashes during my time playing. But it should be mentioned that Ubisoft says some fixes will come in the day-one patch, and we were playing on Xbox One X development kits instead of retail hardware, so some benefit of the doubt must be given. Origins seemed to have more bugs than the average Assassin’s Creed game, including some funny ones like a shirtless character’s nipple textures appearing considerably higher on his body than they should’ve. But none of these came close to impacting me enough to impede my progress or make me want to stop playing.
Verdict
Assassin’s Creed Origins is a deep-dive into a truly stunning realization of ancient Egypt, with a rich series of cultures, genuine characters, and more mission variety than any other game in the series. The combat is challenging and thoughtful, and while the loot system doesn’t match up to games like Destiny 2, there are enough different weapon types and enough enemy variety to keep you swapping between weapons, catered to the situation. The RPG elements encourage challenges of their own, and even despite a handful of bugs, I desperately wanted to keep playing.
Super Mario Odyssey Review
I literally applauded as the end credits rolled on Super Mario Odyssey. I’d spent the last 15 hours with a giant grin on my face, and somehow the climax put the perfect surprising and delightful exclamation point on the plumber’s latest adventure. This is another brilliant redefinition of the very platforming genre he helped popularize 30 years ago.
And best of all, even with the story complete, Odyssey has so much more fun to offer.
It evokes, honors, and is sometimes directly inspired by the games that came before it
Odyssey looks like a straight successor to the Mario 64 and Sunshine line of sandbox 3D Marios, but it is much more than that. Naturally, it evokes, honors, and is sometimes directly inspired by the games that came before it in its characters, music, and mechanics. But it also has new things to say as well, like fusing classic-style 2D gameplay with the 3D world and using a completely new possession mechanic to add constant variety to Mario’s abilities and exploits.
That possession power, embodied by Mario’s new sidekick/headwear Cappy, is Odyssey’s big new idea. In keeping with Nintendo’s decades-long tradition of charmingly nonsensical storylines, he’s a hat with a soul, and he’s teamed up with Mario in order to rescue his sister Tiara who… wait for it... has been kidnapped by Bowser along with Princess Peach. (I said it was charming, not original.) Cappy’s power allows you to possess many other characters by throwing Mario’s hat at them, which bizarrely slurps Mario’s physical body inside of the enemy and gives you full control over their powers. Cappy’s also used as a jumping pad and a weapon, sparing Mario’s tuchus from an untold number of butt-stomps this time around (though you can still do that, if you wish).
Throughout the entire campaign, you’re using new creatures in new, game-changing ways on a regular basis
Many of the cleverest and most smile-inducing possessions are best left to be discovered for yourself, but whether it was thrashing about as a huge, realistic-looking T-rex in the prehistoric-themed Cascade Kingdom or becoming a lowly Goomba but then making a stack of Goombas 10-tall to win over a hard-to-impress Lady Goomba, Odyssey mixes up the gameplay in surprising ways in each of its 16-plus worlds. Throughout the entire campaign, you’re using new creatures in new, game-changing ways on a regular basis.
Odyssey’s inspired integration of 2D gameplay – complete with Super Mario Bros.-era 8-bit art – deserves special mention. Entering into a pixelated pipe in the 3D space transports you to a side-scrolling 2D challenge that takes place on the surface of an object in the world, almost like Link’s 2D transformation in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Most of these sequences aren’t too long – I wished they were longer, in fact – but each blends pure, weapons-grade retro gameplay with numerous other callbacks while still mixing things up in ways they never appeared in those original games, such as flipping gravity or wrapping the 2D scene around the corner of a 3D object. They bend the rules so far they go beyond even the most ambitious creations we saw in Super Mario Maker.
It’s super fun seeing Mario’s new costumes get translated into the old 8-bit art style
It’s also super fun seeing Mario’s new costumes get translated into the old 8-bit art style. My favorites include the aviator suit and the retro-colored builder outfit, for no other reason than them being fun looks for the veteran plumber, but you can also mix and match hats and outfits to your heart’s content.
Of all the disparate lands Mario visits in his Odyssey, the urban-themed Metro Kingdom is my favorite. We’ve never seen anything like its semi-realistic look of New Donk City in a Mario game before. Not only do its urban obstacles allow for some kinetic platforming – bouncing off of the hoods of cars and flinging yourself off of city poles, for instance – but tucked-away minigames like an RC car race and a jump-rope challenge are great diversions. All the while, the sheer artistic contrast between the city and Mario’s consistently cartoony look and proportions have already generated interesting discussions about who – or more specifically what – Mario actually is. (Was “plumber” just a euphemism for some kind of goblin all along?) The end of the New Donk City portion might, in fact, be the very peak of the pleasure that Odyssey delivers on a consistent basis. Its conclusion is a literal celebration that doubles as a figurative one; Odyssey is pure joy that seems to understand and relish that about itself.
I wasn’t prepared for just how much there is to do after it’s “over”
On that note, I strongly recommend playing on a TV whenever possible. It’s not that it plays poorly in handheld mode – it runs perfectly smoothly at 60 frames per second in either mode, although there are no touchscreen controls even in minigames where they’d have made sense. The drawback to playing on the go is that the tiny screen doesn’t do nearly as good a job of showing off the scope and detail of the characters and worlds, such as the funny faces Mario makes when performing certain actions and the tiny 8-bit icons hidden on some walls. (Toss Cappy at them to get a quick gold-coin reward!). Of course, it’s every bit as good a game in handheld mode.
I expected to be able to continue playing even after the plot had been resolved, given Odyssey’s 3D sandbox structure, but I wasn’t prepared for just how much there is to do after it’s “over.” In fact, some of its finest moments follow the credits, from new unlockables that nod lovingly toward the past, to a clever new implementation of an old friend, to entire new worlds. I’m still not ready to put Odyssey down, nor do I expect to be for quite some time.
Its challenge lies in exploration
That said, like internal Nintendo studio EAD’s other top-shelf Mario games – and unlike the “adapt and survive, or die trying” philosophy of Nintendo’s other 2017 masterpiece, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Odyssey isn’t particularly difficult. Most boss fights are over a bit quicker and easier than their gorgeous designs would suggest, and when you do fail, deaths tax you an almost meaningless 10 gold coins to try again from liberally distributed checkpoints. As such, you rarely lose much progress.
Instead, its challenge lies in exploration. There are hundreds and hundreds of Power Moon collectibles to discover, and you’ll want to gather them because they are the keys that unlock new worlds – including the aforementioned post-credits locales! Many Moons are quite difficult to track down, and even once you’ve located them, it’s enjoyably challenging to try and suss out how to get your white-gloved mitts on them. Some are behind classic invisible walls, others are tucked away in linear areas that try to fool you into thinking there’s only one Moon inside of. Each is a fun mini-puzzle to solve – particularly the ones that newly dot the landscape after the story mode ends. I did my best to search thoroughly on my first pass through the campaign, but only ended up with a little more than 200, or less than a quarter of the total complement of collectible celestials.
While Odyssey does a great job of thinking outside of the 3D platformer box, it doesn’t invent a way to slay all of the genre’s demons. The camera, for instance still causes trouble sometimes, leading you to whiff on a jump or get the wrong angle to see a boss attack coming.
On a logistical note: despite the fact that Nintendo recommends playing with separated Joy-Con controllers when you first start Odyssey up, you can play with whatever you like and not miss a beat in the gameplay. In fact, I felt much more comfortable with the fantastic Pro Controller, which lets you do most of the same motion-based gestures by waving the gamepad. It also supplies all of the same HD Rumble feedback the Joy-Con do.
Verdict
Mario’s games have been around for almost as long as game consoles have been a thing, but thankfully, he’s always evolving. We rarely get the same Mario twice. Super Mario Odyssey delivers on that ongoing promise of originality and innovation: It distills the venerable series’ joyful, irreverent world and characters and best-in-class platforming action, and introduces a steady stream of new and unexpected mechanics. It’s all spun together into a generational masterpiece.
TinyTake Review
Best Free Screen Capture & Video Recording Software
TinyTake is a free screen capture & video recording software for Microsoft Windows & Mac. With TinyTake, you can capture images and videos of your computer screen, add comments and share them with others in minutes. TinyTake is built by MangoApps - The Team Collaboration Software and Intranet Software Company and is available for free.
- Screen Capture
- Annotate
- Share With Anyon
Capture A Video Or a Screenshot
Capture a screenshot or video (upto 120 minutes) of what you see on your computer screen.
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| Select the type of screen capture you would like to make from the desktop client menu. |
Annotate Your Screenshots & Videos
Mark up your screenshot with a text box, arrow, highlight and more
Share Online & View Full History
Easily publish your screen capture online, get a shareable link, and reference your history.
Simple, Free and Feature Rich
- Record a video of your screen (upto 120 minutes)
- Record a video using your web-cam
- Capture a region, a window or entire screen
- Capture an image using your web-cam
- Open, annotate and share an existing image
- Copy to clipboard or save it locally
- Store screenshots & videos in the cloud
- Share a link to the stored screenshot & video
- Zoom in / zoom out
- Assign custom short-cut keys
- Proxy server friendly
Where to download: https://tinytake.com/
Type: Video streaming
Operating system: Windows
Version: 4.0.1
VERDICT
The most powerful free screen recorder and streaming tool available for gamers, with everything you need to achieve professional results. It might take a little while to familiarize yourself with its interface, but the effort will pay off.
Check it Too
Ezvid review
Ezvid is a free screen recorder that won’t spoil your footage with unsightly watermarks, but with a significant caveat: it can only export recordings to YouTube. There's no way to save them to your PC.
It can also only record for up to 45 minutes at a stretch. If that’s likely to be a problem for you, you’re better off with a different tool like OBS Studio or FlashBack Express.
If neither of those are causes for concern, Ezvid is well worth your consideration. It’s wonderfully easy to use, and includes a built-in editor with text-to-speech and voice recording so there's no need for additional software.
Type: Screen recorder
Developer: Ezvid Inc
Operating system: Windows
Version: 1
Experience
Ezvid is very easy to use, with quick keyboard shortcuts for hands-free recording. The graphical interface is simple too, though the button to activate recording isn’t as clearly marked as you might expect (it’s the monitor icon on the left-hand side, next to the game controller). A red button would be more intuitive.
While Ezvid is capturing your screen, a small widget is displayed on screen enabling you to stop, pause or make annotations. The latter function is very handy for tutorial and walkthrough videos, and is lacking from many other free screen recorders. Unfortuantely, although you can make it semi-transparent, there’s no way to fully hide the widget while recording unless you select Advanced Screen Capture and only record a section of the screen.
If you make multiple recordings, they will be automatically pieced together in Ezvid’s recorder. This is quite a simple tool, but is perfect for small projects. You can delete clips, split them in half, and add images and other video clips from your PC. You can also create text slides, which can be converted to natural-sounding speech.
Although you can use Ezvid to record games, you might need to run them in windowed mode, which is a little inconvenient. Ezvid is great for making YouTube videos that explain how to use desktop software, but If you want to make let’s play videos or walkthroughs, you’ll be better served by OBS Studio or FlashBack Express.
VERDICT
A great little screen recorder for work projects and software tutorials, with an excellent text to speech tool and built-in editor, but the inability to save recordings to your PC is a serious drawback.
Check it Too
Flashback Express Review
Flashback Express is a free screen recorder from the charmingly named Blueberry Software, and it’s a great little tool for capturing footage from your desktop ready to share online. Unlike some free screen recorders, it won’t leave unsightly watermarks on your videos, and doesn’t impose time limits on recordings.
Flashback Express can record audio and sound from your desktop, or a webcam and microphone, making it an excellent choice for vlogs as well as software demonstrations, walkthroughs, let’s play videos and tutorials.
Flashback Express lacks some of the Pro version’s more advanced features, including the ability to edit video and audio frame by frame, add picture-in-picture video and annotations, and save your clips to your PC in formats other than WMV. That’s certainly not a deal-breaker though, and if you want full control over your recordings you’ll get great results using a separate free video editor like Shotcut or Lightworks afterwards.
Where to download: https://www.flashbackrecorder.com/
Type: Screen recorder
Developer: Blueberry Software
Operating system: Windows
Version: 5.25
Experience
It takes a few minutes to get FlashBack Express installed and running, but it’s well worth the effort. Before downloading the installer you’ll be asked to specify how you’re planning to use it (for gaming, hobbies, student projects etc), and to provide an email address so the company can send you a license key. Don’t worry if you’re told it’s a trial license – this is a mistake. You can use FlashBack Express offline for a week, after which it needs to connect to the internet to verify the key.
Although FlashBack Express isn’t as feature-packed as OBS Studio, its interface is much less intimidating for new users. For basic recordings, just decide whether you want to record from your screen (the full display, a specific window or a custon region) or your webcam, pick an audio source and hit the Record button.
That might be all you need, but the real beauty of FlashBack Express is its scheduled recording, which lets you begin capturing your screen at a certain time and date, or when a particular program is run. This means you don’t capture footage of yourself starting the recorder and launching the game or other program that you want to record. You can also stop the recording automatically after a certain time, or when the program being recorded closes – a great way to avoid creating enormous, unwieldy video files.
Additional options include the ability to use a custom resolution while recording, use a plain desktop background, hide icons, and limit the file size for recordings. You can even define the FPS for game recordings, choose the recording quality, or let FlashBack Express determine these settings itself.
Although FlashBack Express is less powerful than its paid-for counterpart, it’s an outstanding screen recorder – and it’s free.
VERDICT
If you're looking for a screen recorder, it's tough to choose between FlashBack Express and OBS Studio. If you're relatively new to making your own videos FlashBack is the better choice thanks to its more streamlined interface and straightforward settings.
Check it Too
OBS Studio Review
YouTube gives anyone the opportunity to become a broadcaster, but in order to get started you're going to need some sort of software to mix together your content. It may be that you're just recording a straight piece to camera, but it’s more likely that you'll want to create something a little more complicated that involves the use of multiple sources.
Using OBS Studio you can not only record directly from your webcam and microphone, you can also incorporate footage from games, add in existing videos and still images, capture a window or portion of your screen, and much more.
As you might guess from the name, OBS Studio is a software studio. It enables you to work with these multiple sources, mix between them and create one seamless broadcast.
This can take the form of a record video – a good option if you would like the opportunity to go back and edit out mistakes, or you just want to be able to give things a check through – or you can live stream and mix at the same time.
With support for Twitch, YouTube, hitbox.tv, DailyMotion, beam.tv, Livecoding.tv, Facebook Live and Restream.io, all of the major streaming services are covered.
Experience
At first OBS Studio feels a little mysterious; there's little guidance or indication about what you need to do first, and you may well find that getting up and running is a matter of trial and error if you're unfamiliar with this type of software.
 |
| OBS Studio is the perfect tool for live streaming to Facebook, Twitch or YouTube |
Mixing sources can be intimidating if you're doing it live, so you might want to get used to how things work by recording a few test videos. The workflow does take a little getting used to because it's not entirely intuitive, but nothing is so complex as to be unusable.
Latest updates
The latest version of OBS Studio features a new modular interface that lets users enable, disable and move elements to suit their preferences. There's also a new streaming option for Twitch that selects the best server automatically. For a full list of all changes, see the full release notes.
Where to download: https://obsproject.com/
Type: Video streaming
Developer: Jim
Operating system: Windows, Mac, Linux
Version: 20
Where to download: https://obsproject.com/
Type: Video streaming
Developer: Jim
Operating system: Windows, Mac, Linux
Version: 20
The competition
Another free screen recorder with a dedicating gaming mode, FlashBack Express is a great choice if you find OBS Studio's interface a little intimidating.
This free screen recorder lets you capture up to 45 minutes of watermark-free footage from your desktop, but you can only upload it to YouTube.
A neat, no-frills recorder ideal for capturing quick snippets of footage for tutorials, but not intended for gamers.
VERDICT
The most powerful free screen recorder and streaming tool available for gamers, with everything you need to achieve professional results. It might take a little while to familiarize yourself with its interface, but the effort will pay off.
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Asus ROG G752VS OC Edition Review
Review
Powered by a new generation of mobile graphics starring Nvidia's brand-new GTX 1070 graphics card, Asus' ROG G752VS OC's offers record-breaking gaming performance for hundreds less than older notebooks featuring Nvidia 900-series GPUs. And despite the savings, Asus hasn't skimped on other features, as the G752VS features a massive 32GB of RAM and a bright, 17.3-inch full-HD display in a refreshingly sleek gray-and-copper body. And while there's a number of other 1070-powered systems yet to come, for $2,499, Asus' ROG G752VS OC has set a new standard for high-powered gaming rigs.
Powered by a new generation of mobile graphics starring Nvidia's brand-new GTX 1070 graphics card, Asus' ROG G752VS OC's offers record-breaking gaming performance for hundreds less than older notebooks featuring Nvidia 900-series GPUs. And despite the savings, Asus hasn't skimped on other features, as the G752VS features a massive 32GB of RAM and a bright, 17.3-inch full-HD display in a refreshingly sleek gray-and-copper body. And while there's a number of other 1070-powered systems yet to come, for $2,499, Asus' ROG G752VS OC has set a new standard for high-powered gaming rigs.
Design -- A welcome deviation from black and red
Clad in gunmetal gray and copper, the ROG G752VS OC sets itself apart from all the red-and-black gaming laptops we've seen from Acer, Lenovo and MSI. Asus even pulled off a futuristic spaceship vibe without treading on Alienware's territory, although I must admit I'm still not a fan of the overly edgy ROG logo. It kind of looks like the logo for Bad Boy clothing, which isn't a good thing. 
The back of the G752VS OC features my favorite design choice on the whole system: glowing red lights that shine through the copper and red venting. While some may think these lights are a bit silly, they remind me a bit of a Lamborghini Reventon. 
Inside, you get a two-tone gray-and-black deck, highlighted by copper and red accents. Although I wish Asus had stuck to its guns and gone whole hog with the copper color scheme. 
Clad in gunmetal gray and copper, the ROG G752VS OC sets itself apart from all the red-and-black gaming laptops we've seen from Acer, Lenovo and MSI. Asus even pulled off a futuristic spaceship vibe without treading on Alienware's territory, although I must admit I'm still not a fan of the overly edgy ROG logo. It kind of looks like the logo for Bad Boy clothing, which isn't a good thing.
The back of the G752VS OC features my favorite design choice on the whole system: glowing red lights that shine through the copper and red venting. While some may think these lights are a bit silly, they remind me a bit of a Lamborghini Reventon.
Measuring 16.4 x 12.7 x 0.8-1.5 inches and weighing 8.9 pounds, the G752VS OC sits between behemoth 10-pound machines, such as the Origin Eon17 SLX and the 8.4 pound MSI GT72 Dragon Edition. Even if it were a little lighter, you wouldn't want to drag a system this size around on a regular basis.
Display -- Bright, but could be richer
The 17.3-inch full-HD G-sync display on the ROG looks so sharp that sometimes it seems like it has a higher resolution than it actually does.
The screen made watching the new Rogue One trailer an absolute delight as it recreated every nook and cranny on the Death Star and Star Destroyers. Although, if I have to nitpick, I must say that I noticed that its colors were slightly off, which caused the red cliffs in the beginning of the trailer to look a bit faded.
At 326 nits, the G752VS OC's screen is a tier brighter than other VR-ready gaming laptops. Its closest competitors are the Acer Predator 17 X and the MSI GT72 Dragon Edition, which both sported brightness of 288 nits, while the Origin Eon17 SLX was further behind at 275 nits.
The G752VSOC's color accuracy is pretty exemplary, too, as it notched a Delta-E rating of 0.88 (numbers closer to zero are better). We generally consider any number under 1 to be pretty solid, and only the MSI GT72's score of 0.7 was better. While still good, Origin's Eon17 SLX and Acer's Predator 17 X were a touch less accurate with Delta-E's of 00.9 and 1.13, respectively.
The Asus' screen covered 114 percent of the sRGB spectrum, which is quite good. The Predator 17 X, the Eon17 SLX and the MSI GT72 also featured color ranges spanning between 112 and 114 of the sRGB spectrum.
Gaming Performance
With the newest generation of graphics in its Nvidia GTX 1070 GPU, the ROG G752VS OC is practically begging you to put it through its paces. Complemented by 8GB of blazing GDD5 video RAM, we found that the ROG's gaming performance is 10 to 15 percent faster (or more) than systems with Nvidia 980 GPUs, which were already pretty potent.
On 3DMark's Fire Strike graphics test, the G752VS OC scored 13,916, higher than the previous top mark by the Origin Eon17 SLX (12,011). And with scores of 10,970 and 7,667, what were once jaw-dropping numbers from the Acer Predator 17 X and the MSI GT72 are now just pretty good.
And it's not just synthetic tests that give the G752VS OC an edge, either. In Rainbow Six: Siege at 1920 x 1080 and very high settings, the G752VS OC pumped out 187 frames per second. That's nearly 50 fps ahead of its next closest competitor, the Predator 17 X, which reached 129 fps.
It was the same story in even more demanding games such as Metro: Last Light, where the G752VS OC got up to 70.3 fps at full-HD resolution and very high settings. Once, again the Predator 17 X was the closest at 63 fps, but definitely still behind, while the MSI GT72 and the Origin Eon17 SLX struggled to crack 60 fps, at 49 and 57 fps, respectively.
When you compare the G752VS OC to another system with Nvidia 1070 graphics in MSI's GT62VR 6RE, the Asus maintains a slim lead over its 15-inch competition. On Rainbox 6 at full HD on high settings, numbers were identical as both systems reach 187 fps. However, in Metro: Last Light on very high, the G752VS OC pulled slightly ahead as it reached 70.3 fps versus the MSI's 65.
Finally, with a score of 10.5 on Steam's VR performance test, the G752VS OC isn't just VR-ready, it's VR-hungry. By comparison, the Nvidia 980-powered Predator 17 X notched a score of just 8.1, which was already classified as very high by the benchmark.
General Performance -- Everyday tasks are child's play
If you have the self-control to turn off the games and get some actual work done, the G752VS OC offers blindingly fast productivity speeds as well. With a base 32GB of RAM and an overclockableIntel Core i7 6820HK CPU, there's effectively no limit to the number of browser tabs you can have open. In multitasking situations, for example, playing a game while downloading another in the background wasn't even a challenge.
On Geekbench 3, which measures overall performance, the G752VS OC busted out a pretty impressive score of 15,554. That figure is almost 15 percent higher than what we got from Acer's Predator 17 X (13,763) and MSI's GT72 Dragon Edition (13,869), although Origin's Eon17 SLX still holds the top spot with a score of 18,779.
And when you want to crunch some numbers, the G752VS OC has you covered there, too. On our spreadsheet test, the Asus sorted 20,000 names and addresses using Open Office in just 3 minutes and 23 seconds. That's slightly faster than the Predator 17 X (3:35) and the MSI GT72 Dragon Edition (3:31), even though they also have the same 6820HK CPU. However, the Origin Eon17 SLX and its Core i7 6700K CPU was a bit quicker with a time of 2:46.
The G752VS OC's 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD is no slouch, either, as it posted a transfer rate of 848 MBps when we asked it to duplicate a DVD's worth of mixed media files; a number that's on a par with other laptops in this range.
Keyboard and Touchpad -- Where are the colors at?
With key travel measuring 2 millimeters and an actuation weight of 62 grams, the G752VS OC's keyboard feels pretty great. It's crisp and springy in a way that feels like it's asking for more. However, the one thing I'm missing is the RGB backlighting that you get on other premium gaming laptops, because on this ROG, all you get is red.
The keyboard also features a set of full-size arrow keys and a number pad on the right, along with five macro keys and a dedicated screen-recording button on the top left.
The 4.7 x 2.6-inch touchpad sports an appealing trapezoidal shape with a smooth matte surface and fast and accurate gesture recognition. Below that, the mouse buttons feature separate discrete buttons, but because they felt a little loose, clicks were never as smooth or as crisp as I would have liked.
Audio
Equipped with Asus' own Sonic Studio speakers, the G752VS pumped out decent, but unimpressive audio. Compared to systems such as Acer's Predator 17 X which features a full 4.1 setup complete with its own subwoofer, the Asus' bass was often a little lacking, as was overall volume, which made listening to anything from Ratatat to REO Speedwagon less than exciting.
Battery Life -- It's a superfast gaming machine, what did you expect?
With a time of 3 hours and 42 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test (continuous web-surfing over Wi-Fi), the G752VS OC's longevity isn't good, but it's not worse than other high-powered gaming laptops, like the MSI GT72 (3:31), the Origin Eon17 SLX (2:54) and the Acer Predator 17 X (3:13).
While it doesn't have the same gaming chops, the Nvidia 980M-powered Alienware 17 lasted almost twice as long with a time of 6:07.
Heat
During everyday use, the 752VS OC's thermals were well in check. On the Laptop Mag heat test (15 minutes of streaming HD video), the hottest spot on the laptop was the plastic paneling on its bottom that measured 94.5 degrees, which is safely within our typical 95-degree comfort threshold. The spaces between the G and H keys and the touchpad were even cooler at 89.5 and 87 degrees, respectively.
However, after a session of intense gaming, temps on the notebook's rear vent rose to nearly 130 degrees. Thankfully, excess heat is pretty much isolated to the two rear vents, because while temps on the bottom rose a bit to 105, the touchpad and keyboard remained under 90 degrees. I still wouldn't use the G752VS OC on my lap while gaming, but the same could be said of pretty much any superpowered gaming notebook.
Software -- Overclocking made simple
Asus knows better than to gunk up a system like the G752VS OC with unnecessary bloat, which means you get a pretty clean install of Windows 10 along with a handful of helpful apps and utilities.
The most important of these is Asus' ROG Gaming Center, which gives you an easy-to-use interface for overclocking the laptop, and the ROG Macro key app, which helps you assign what the programmable keys do when you hit them. I'm also a big fan of the Eye Care Switch app, which helps reduce excess blue light, so you suffer from less eyestrain during late-night gaming sessions.
Configurations -- Do you really need that much RAM?
There are two basic models of the G752 OC: the $2,499 version we've reviewed here, and an even higher-end $2,999 model that doubles the RAM and the size of the SSD to a whopping 64GB and 512GB, respectively.
Bottom Line
If you were considering buying a laptop with a Nvidia 980 GPU, stop. Because the G752VS OC offers gaming performance 10 to 15 percent better than last-gen systems for hundreds less.
The $2,499 Asus also sports a sleek and refreshing gunmetal and copper design, a bright, 17.3-inch full-HD screen and a ton of customizable settings and overclocking utilities, thanks to the ROG Gaming Center app. As new gaming laptops with 1070 GPUs come out this fall, the G752VS OC has set a higher bar for what other laptop makers will have to beat.
SPECIFICATIONS
| CPU | Intel Core i7 6820HK Processor |
|---|---|
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
| RAM | 32GB |
| RAM Upgradable to | |
| Hard Drive Size | 256GB |
| Hard Drive Speed | |
| Hard Drive Type | M.2 SSD |
| Secondary Hard Drive Size | 1TB |
| Secondary Hard Drive Speed | 7200 |
| Secondary Hard Drive Type | HDD |
| Display Size | 17.3 |
| Native Resolution | 1920x1080 |
| Optical Drive | BDRW DL |
| Optical Drive Speed | |
| Graphics Card | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 |
| Video Memory | 8GB |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11ac |
| Wi-Fi Model | Dual-band 2x2 802.11ac + Bluetooth |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 4.1 |
| Mobile Broadband | |
| Touchpad Size | 4.7 X 2.6 |
| Ports (excluding USB) | Headphone |
| Ports (excluding USB) | HDMI 2.0 |
| Ports (excluding USB) | Ethernet |
| Ports (excluding USB) | USB-C |
| Ports (excluding USB) | Audio-out |
| Ports (excluding USB) | Thunderbolt 3 |
| Ports (excluding USB) | Mini DisplayPort |
| Ports (excluding USB) | Microphone |
| USB Ports | 5 |
| Card Slots | SD memory reader |
| Warranty/Support | 1-year limited warranty |
| Size | 16.4 x 12.7 x 0.8 -- 1.5-inches |
| Weight | 8.9 pounds |
| Company Website | www.asus.com |