TUROK Review for XboX 360

 Turok

Xbox 360/PS3

First Person Shooter

I love the original Turok games, with a passion. The games were so fun and were enjoyable titles for the N64 and I think the PC. So obviously I was excited hearing that a new Turok was going to be coming to the next gen consoles, especially after the underwhelming yawn that was Turok Evolution. This game should have been awesome, but instead we got this....

Ok, Ok on the box it doesn't look too bad, but if you were to play the game you would see.
In this version of turok, you play as Turok (Which wasn't even the name of the original protagonists) who is a marine for a future group of mercenaries. He is a 'bad ass' who once apart of an elite assassin team called wolf pack, but has disbanded from them to take wolf pack out on an alien planet somehow infested with dinosaurs.


Just before we start, this game has literally nothing to do with turok, except for the name and the dinosaurs. Nothing!

Gameplay: Gameplay is typical FPS fair. Controls are typical, right trigger shoots the gun, left trigger either zooms a bit or shoots a second gun if it's dual wielded. There are also a few things like evading by pressing A and a direction. Controls are fine, but at some parts of the game there was a bit of frustration where I had to use the dodge move and it didn't work.
In the game there are dinosuars and guards, in which surprisingly, the guards are the more dangerous. Both come in hoards and aren't too hard to dispatch. Dinosaurs however, are really not utilised well, I literally killed nearly every dinosaur by equiping the knife and just activating the quick time events.
Another thing that annoyed me was the randomness of the game, It just felt like a load of random maps joined by BS dialogue. Basically you are running through a jungle for the majority of the game, without giving away any spoilers, you end up in a cave. However after a constant romp for a few hours through a jungle without any special events except for a random assault on the base, you get a boss. A very random boss just appears in the game, it just felt stupid, for half the game we got loads of dinos but no bosses. However going to a cave, a very repetitive cave, we are assaulted by a very frustrating boss battle.


Graphics: Turok uses the unreal engine like most generic FPS', it looks decent still and looked pretty good during it's release. I can't really comment on the graphics.
However the aesthetics do get really repetitive as the jungle just decides to drag on, continuing the backdrop like a hannah barbara cartoon.Character designs look ok, but the facial expressions they give are really unbelievable and just detract from the game.
Dinosaurs are extremely boring, they are nearly always brown, and I think the only time I saw variation was with a few white velociraptors that appeared for about 6 seconds of the game.


In terms of being a turok game, this is shameful, actually it shouldn't even be called turok. This game from now on should be called Generok, because that's basically what it is GENERIC. It amounts to nothing, it doesn't even include any of the cool weapons that the original turoks were so cool for. Instead, we get SMG, Shotgun, Pistol and oh the obviously original pulse rifle....Woo. Turok does have the Bow and a Knife, which are staples of the orignals but then again brown was a staple to the last shit I took.
In all fairness, this game can be gotten very cheap, and in all fairness it is a cheap bit of fun....if your not a turok fan. I picked this game up for about £5 for the tin edition, I completed it in about 5-6 hours with little challenge.

I'd say it is a buy, however, it is only a buy if you find it really cheap and you have absolutely nothing else to do with your time.


I'm giving this game 6/10. So buy Generok at your own whim, it's ok and may offer a few hours of entertainment.

Wii-U My thoughts

So after the Wii-U was unveiled a few things went through my head.

1) WTF
2) Is this a controller or a console
3) What about games?
4) OMGWTF is that zelda.....Oh it's a tech demo
5) WOW


Not everyone loves the wii, that's for sure, with it's inferior graphics and really bad online capabilities. I do personally prefer it to my ps3 and 360, and I also think it has done some major good for the gaming industry.
So what about the Wii-U? It promises to please everyone, from casual players to hardcore gamers alike.
I was really sceptical hearing this, I had no clue how he was going to do it, but honestly I think they may actually have done the impossible. Firstly, with the wii they have built up a massive fan base with non-gamers, siminlar to back in the day when we would say 'wanna play nintendo?', older people are now saying 'wanna play some wii?'
So this new fan base will definitely bring in new people to buy what seems like gateway gaming, i.e starting off with wii sports or something then ending up playing zelda skyward sword to completion.

The other thing that excites me about this console is the power, Ok I'm not a graphics whore or anything but I can see this really benefiting the console by far.
Firstly, We will be getting all the first rate nintendo exclusives that we would never see anywhere else, that's awesome.
Secondly, developers won't be as scared to bring out hardcore games onto the console. Unfortunately the wii suffered this problem as developers didn't want to lose out on money.
Lastly, Developers can really make pieces of art on this console. On the wii there was hardly any room to make a truly stunning game in the same vein as final fantasy 13, which in turn cost the wii some really good games. It's the same with a painter, they wouldn't use inferior paints on the wrong canvas to make their finest work.

Next, The controller. The controller in my eyes actually looks like a really clever idea. Obviously the main attraction of this is the screen in the middle, which could be implemented fantastically. You only have to watch the ghost recon online trailer to see that.

Despite the terrible and cringy acting, we can easilly see an already amazing way to implement the device into more than a gimick.
I can see lots of games really using this well, especially RPG's and even sports games.

The controller itself looked very awquard at first (Awkward enough to make nintendo's stock drop), apparantly though it is a very comfortable controller and is surprisingly light. (If you haven't seen a picture of the controller, check out my previous post or google it)
The only problem I really have with this controller is where the analogue sticks are. Firstly, They aren't actually analogue sticks, they slider pads similar to those on the 3DS. Secondly, the sliders are above the face buttons as opposed to being below them, this could make things difficult when playing games in my oppinion.


So am I going to buy it when it comes out?
No, not at launch. Reason being that when I bought the 3DS on launch day I was very upset with the game selection and there was nothing really to tickle my fancy (Well not untill zelda comes out on friday).
I don't want to see this happen with nintendo's new love child. Also the thought of Ubisoft providing a 'killer' amount of launch titles sends cold chills down my spine. Sorry, but ubisoft have really annoyed me with the amount of crap they provided at launch for the wii and 3DS, I don't hate the company but I think they are shameless. (Lest not forget GT PRO for the wii and the terrible ports they released for the 3DS.

However, saying all this, I believe the wiiU will be an amazing console, if there are good games out at launch I will buy it. Apparently it's coming out in summer 2012, so that should be a good way to shift units.

Oh and by the way, SMASH BROS IS GOING TO COME OUT FOR THIS.......(Although production hasn't even started yet)

The deal With E3 and my picks.

So it looks like E3 is well over and done with and the dust cloud is starting to settle, I think it's safe to safe it's time for a recap....


So who won:

I think this year none of the big 3 brought their A-game at all. But I think it's safe to say that nintendo definitely won hands down. In terms of the other two, sony was better than microsoft, but I think even EA's presentation on fifa was better than microsoft's snore fest of kinect exclusives. I didn't mind what sony had to show, but nearly everything we already knew of already.

My favourite part:

What else, the WiiU. After all the wait, all the leaks, all the fake info....We finally got to see what the elusive project cafe was:

Yeah this.....

I think a big problem with the unveiling of the WiiU was that the actually didn't show the new console enough, all they were able to show was the controller, which in term has created mass confusion among the gaming community and also stock holders. (Nintendo's stock instantly dropped after the event, but the same happened after the wii was shown)

But for all people who haven't seen it here is the new WiiU console, I will be doing a thoughts post soon so look forward to that then.

Looks nice doesn't it.









TBC