CougarOnXbox REVIEWS

World of Warships: Legends Review

Raise the anchor and full steam ahead as World of Warships sails onto Xbox One in Game Preview. Wargaming.net brings another one of its fantastic PC titles to the console. Warships joins World of Tanks in the Xbox Store and both titles are Free To Play. But I don’t want to do too much comparison between Tanks and Warships because these games are different entities for sure. World of Warships seems more inviting and accessible for players than World of Tanks. I loved Tanks, but I never seemed to do very well. In Warships I feel like I am on a level playing field with everyone in the battle. So, is this a game you should have in your library? Well yeah. Its free first of all and secondly, it’s a fantastic game.

World of Warships follows the same premises that World of Tanks did. You have several different tiers of ships that currently span across three classes: Destroyer, Cruiser, Battleship. Each ship offers up its own strategy and playstyle, but you will definitely want to work your way through unlocking multiple ships from each class. You’ll unlock new ships through playing and you’ll be able to purchase them with  in game currency. There are currently 7 tiers for each class and you can unlock US, British and Japanese ships. Don’t worry there is plenty more to come. Remember, this is in Game Preview so expect even more content down the road.

Realism at its best.

Visually, this game has every little detail down and it looks absolutely fantastic. I am playing on an Xbox One X which is connected to an LG 4K HRD10 OLED display. The water surface swells and whitecaps giving you an authentic feeling of being at sea. The detail in the background is also a site to behold with varying items to see like storms off the distance, blimps and fighter squadrons flying across the sky and island towns scattering the island landscapes. Each ship is meticulously recreated in full detail from their real-life counterparts. Steam full ahead and you’ll see puffs of smoke come from the smokestack as the engine gets going.

The controls are pretty straightforward and easy to master. You’ll have varying speeds, on your throttle and multiple weapon systems to manage again dependent on your ship. Everything on your ship is accessible with the press of the button which makes this game very controller friendly. All of the ships handle differently so you wiil want to find your favorites and add upgrades to them in order to make them even better.

Much like World of Tanks, you will have a variety of ships to unlock. The ships will require both XP and credits to unlock which are obtained by just playing the game. The upgrades for each ship are unlocked through playing and gaining XP as well. You can increase your XP and credits earned by using boosters on your ships which are represented by flags and can be equipped in your ship loudout. Each ship has its advantages and disadvantages. Battleships are big and clunky, but have a ton of armor and can take quite a beating. Crusiers and destroyers are a bit more nimble and can quickly maneuver around the map shooting off torpedoes or leaving smoke screens behind to hide the fleet.

Take your favorite historic warship to sea.

There are also Commanders to unlock for each country and they can be used to gain all sorts of skills. You can level them up as well by using them in battles. Do not ignore this feature as it can really make a difference in battles at time whether its less visibility from the enemies to a stronger offensive presence.

Finally, there are several missions to complete which will yield you credits, boosters and even at times a ship. You don’t have to do anything special to activate them. You will get the reward when a mission is completed. So for instance, maybe a mission is to win a battle in a destroyer. All you have to do is take a destroyer into battle and hope your team wins the match. If you do, you will be rewarded with the items the mission carries.

There are stats galore in the game and you can view battle history which I found pretty awesome. I do hope that we get full stat roundups for each ship once this game gets closer to full release. Now recent battles tab does reset over time. So, it’s not like you can go back and view a battle you had 3 months ago. Or even 2 weeks ago.

Various ships from several different countries including USA, UK, Japan, and Germany.

Is World of Warships a pay to win game? Technically, yes, it is. But I do not think you gain huge advantages over your opponents. Sure, you’ll have some especially against brand new players but I think that is also chalked up to experience. Basically, paying to get the best ships is more of a bragging right than anything. Don’t get me wrong. I would love to have the best ships in the game, but I’ll stick to earning them the old-fashioned way and that’s through grinding away matches. Why? Because the game is so much fun and before you know it you are unlocking things left and right. Just play it and enjoy it because it’s a fantastic game.

Do I recommend World of Warships? Well, seeing as it’s a Free game to download and play you bet your bottom I do. You’ll never feel overwhelmed by the competition or feel like you may be at a disadvantage because you started later than others. This game balances very well and experience is what will make you a good commander. Go download it today and check for yourself. You can also choose to buy the game, which obviously supports the developers and there are multiple versions of the game to choose from each giving you a bit of a boost in your ship commanding career. What are you waiting for? This is one of the best games out there right now with tons of content and plenty more to come. Download it today.

Final Score: 90/100

CougarOnXbox REVIEWS

Monster Jam Steel Titans Review

Fully Licensed Trucks and Arenas

I’ve adored Monster Trucks since I’ve been a kid. I remember going to see them at the local Tractor Pull arena where they would crush cars, jump really high and do lots of stunts. Everyone always looked forward to when Bigfoot came to town. The sport and the trucks have evolved so much through the years and while the premise of the sport is basically the same there are still differences that stand out to me being an old school game. Capturing this sport in a video game would prove challenging and the folks at Rainbow Studios have a history with dirt motorsports. So yup, I had high hopes for this game from the onset. Unfortunately, those hopes were tossed into the mud with unrealistic physics, spastic environment collisions and just a lack of any sort of realism whatsoever. Folks, this game is not very good and while I continued playing it hoping it would get better I would experience moments that just made me want to turn it off.

Visually, the game looks great with various environments and some pretty outstanding arenas. The trucks look great and the tearing sheet metal is exactly what I would expect. But there was one glaring issue with the visuals. Where’s the mud caked onto the tires and trucks. Where’s the dust? The trucks are perfectly spotless throughout events and never get dirty. Never. Not acceptable. You can do better than that guys. As a whole though, the visuals in the game looked super promising and I figured if this much detail was apparent here then the gameplay should be stellar too.

Lots of dust kicking up but the trucks are so squeaky clean.

I was wrong. The gameplay is plagued by clunky physics that result in almost ragdoll style reactions with your vehicle. Your truck can barrel around 20 times in mid air if you hit something just right. You’ll also see quite a bit of clipping and warping through terrain. I was racing across a bridge when one of the AI trucks hit me into the side of the bridge causing a catastrophe of bad physics and resulting in me warping through the bridge to a canyon below. This was just my first instance and it happened live on stream. Oh it got some great laughs that’s for sure.

The game offers up a career mode as well as quick play modes. The career mode is a little irritating because you have to race through various series compiled of multiple events. Those events include one on one brackets, 8 truck races, freestyle events, and checkpoint races. The thing about these Series is that there is no way to view the schedule of events for that specific series. So, you just go through and race each event until it tells you that you’ve completed the series. You’ll have to finish in the top 3 to unlock the next series.

This could be so much fun!

I’m telling you, I wanted to enjoy this game so much and take it in as a casual monster truck game. But the bugs and physics just seem way to prevalent to really be able to dig my teeth into the game. More frustration arises than smiles and that is really disappointing. I enjoy the first Monster Truck Jam we had on the Xbox One. Sure, it was a bit tedious at times but at least it was fun. I can’t even go into free play and have too much fun with Steel Titans. I am not sure if the developers tried to make the game more realistic but then regressed from that thought and made it more casual because honestly something feels really off.

If you are looking for a fun Monster Truck Game then I have to suggest you pick up a copy of Monster Truck Jam and steer clear of Steel Titans. At least until they fix what I think is a very broken game. It breaks my heart because I know Rainbow Studios are good at what they do and I can’t fathom what happened here. Sim or not sim? It somehow got stuck in between.  I’d definitely wait until you can pick this one up cheap before investing any of your hard-earned money in it. Again, that pains me so much to say that but it’s true.

FINAL SCORE: 60/100

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Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

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