The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U/Switch) Review

March 25, 2017March 25, 2017 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Zelda Everyone on the internet is raving about the latest game in the Legend of Zelda franchise and its all for good reasons, Breath of the Wild was originally announced in 2012 when the Wii U was released and it had an expected release date of December 2013 but unfortunately due to development issues it got delayed multiple times before it was finally released to the general public five years later on March 3rd 2017 along side the companies latest gaming system the Nintendo Switch.

zeldabreath2-625x352 So the reason a lot of people are falling in love with this particular game in the franchise is because when compared to the earlier 3D Zelda titles this is a brand new and unique experience, instead of the usual formula of controlling Link from the first dungeon to the last while following a linear path Breath of the Wild takes place in a free roaming environment and even though there is a main objective the player is encouraged to explore Hyrule to its limits in order to find secrets and gather side quests.

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Dungeons are now called shrines and are much shorter and simpler than usual, shrines are small puzzles that the player can try and solve in order to unlock new fast travel points on the in game map and along with this each shrine contains a Monk that will reward Link with a spirit orb once the shrines trial is completed.

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Link can trade every four spirit orbs he obtains for either a new heart container or increased stamina by praying too one of the many goddess statues that have been placed throughout the world.

3085837-screen+shot+2016-06-23+at+5.50.35+pm The shrines make up the bulk of the game and even though they are not necessarily important to the plot it is still highly recommended that you solve as many of them as you can in order to make the game a little bit easier, if you would rather challenge yourself to a really difficult run of the game then you could skip all of them and remain at minimal health, however the first few shrines are forced upon the player as these shrines are needed in order to unlock runes.

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Runes replace the traditional items from previous Legend of Zelda titles and unlike the older Zelda games the runes in Breath of the Wild have an unlimited stock, these runes offer a number of abilities available to Link throughout the game including Magnesis which allows Link to pick up heavy metal items with ease, Stasis which allows Link to temporarily stop time, Cryonis which grants Link the ability to spawn large climbable structures of ice in watery areas and the remote bomb which is simply an unlimited stock of bombs that only explode when prompted by the player.

Finally the most useful ability in the game is the wind glider which allows the player too glide through the air with ease, this is useful when trying to reach areas that would be difficult to reach by other means, however the glider does use up Link’s stamina metre and therefore the player must use cation so that they don’t fall to a most unfortunate death.

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There are a lot of things to do in Breath of the Wild and personally the best part of the game for me was all of the additional content other than the main quest, it is obvious that the developers took inspiration from other franchises such as the Elder Scrolls and Assassins Creed by adding the large open worlds, the ability to steal horses, climbing towers and other Buildings, needing to kill animals and collect plant life in order cook food so you can heal since the game does not use the usual system of collecting hearts from pots and bushes, Link can now buy multiple outfits to help him survive in different climates such as intense heat and freezing cold environments and on top of all of this the game even follows a similar system where your weapons and shields will break over time but unfortunately I can not recall any repair system in the game for fixing these broken weapons, thankfully there are plenty of replacements spread across the map so this wasn’t much of an issue for me.

the plot is very interesting to say the least and I really don’t want to talk about it in this review as a means of avoiding spoilers since the game is still essentially brand new, I will however say that it does still follow some of the traditional Zelda formula which is to be expected, Link still needs to defeat Ganon and save Hyrule but everything else that has been built around this allows the game too stand out as a very story driven game which may be the darkest the franchise has seen yet, this is the first time that Nintendo have added voice acting to the Legend of Zelda series and personally I hope it stays, I think they did a stellar job with the voice cast and unlike Super Mario Sunshine the voice acting here is not in the least bit cringe worthy.

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Graphically Breath of the Wild is the most outstanding game in the series, Nintendo has really gone out of their way to make game feel real and alive, the original Wii U version pushes the console to its absolute limits and the final results are breath taking, this the cleanest and smoothest graphics you will ever see on the Wii U and it really is a shame that not many other games pushed the console for its visuals quite as much as Breath of the Wild does, the Nintendo Switch port has all of the vibrant colours and smooth textures of the Wii U version but pushes the visuals to look even better, more depth and shadow effects are added to the in game textures and other small details such as dust floating around the sandy areas of the game and snow falling from the sky help to bring more realism to the game, one issue I found was that occasionally during my play through the game suffered from lag spikes that really took me out of the experience and I believe that this was caused by the game trying to load too much at once, it should be noted that the Wii U version is known to have pretty horrendous loading times so keep this in mind.

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I played the game on the Nintendo Switch and as can be imagined from Nintendo’s quality of service the controls were absolutely flawless, the clever thing about the Nintendo Switch is that it can be played both at home and on the go, the new Zelda is an amazing experience from the couch but every time I played the game while taking the bus or during long train journeys it was really difficult for me to see most of what was going on, the screen on the switch is way too small for a game of this size, it was difficult for me to read the map and plan routes and exploration is one of the biggest selling points of the game so I would recommend playing from the TV unless you have no other choice.

I have never disliked a Legend of Zelda soundtrack to this day and Breath of the Wild may have one of the best soundtracks yet, the entire soundtrack was created by Manaka Kataoka who had worked on previous titles in the series, there are a lot of points in the game that are silent and this is due to the player needing to listen for approaching enemies they may need to take care of as well as any wild animals that can be killed for food, I have linked the entire soundtrack above so please click play if you would like to listen to it.

The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild is my new favourite game in the series which is something I haven’t been able to say since 1998, however the game is not flawless and I don’t think its fair to say its the best of all the 3D titles since it is so different from the previous games, I think it stands out in its own way as a unique and individual title and should only really be compared to the next Zelda game that follows this new formula, I had a blast playing this game and the only real complaint I have are the occasional lag spikes which is why I wont be giving Breath of the Wild a full score.

it’s not perfect and it isn’t flawless but no matter what at the end of the day its still may be Link’s best outing yet.

9.7/10

It was very difficult for me too not give away any spoilers in this review so I hope you enjoyed it for what it was, it may be a while before the next Nintendo Switch review since the console isn’t even a month old yet,in the mean time there will be one more review coming out this month so I will see you then.

I hope you enjoyed my review of the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (PC) (2002) Review

March 13, 2017March 13, 2017 ragglefragglereviews2 Comments

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A year and a half ago I reviewed a mediocre Philosophers Stone game for the PC, it was a fairly bare bones 3D platformer that was way too short and it skipped over many of the best moments from the film and the original novel, today we will be taking look at the PC video game of the second book in the series Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

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You play the game as Harry Potter the boy who lived who is attending his second year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, just like the first game this is a 3D platformer where the objective of the game is too attend classes and beat challenge maps, a huge difference here is how you learn spells, in the first game learning magic was awkward because you needed to trace over shapes with your mouse and with such a limited amount of time performing this task became very difficult, thankfully the game designers have taken a different approach with the sequel as now instead of tracing we instead need to hit corresponding keys on the keyboard in a specified order in the style of a rhythm game.

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Quidditch matches have also been heavily modified and I don’t like the changes they have made here, instead of having complete control over your broom so you can fly freely the game controls the broom for the player and all you need to do is bump into the enemy seeker until you are close enough to catch the golden snitch, its boring, it has no challenge at all and the worst part of it is that it feels like the game designers were just being lazy and were trying to rush out the game.

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The graphics are impressive when compared to the first game, everything is smoother and less pixelated but for a game from 2002 they are still pretty bad, on the bright side the level designs are more detailed and are genuinely more interesting to explore, the best part of the game is finding all of the secrets around Hogwarts castle and the castle grounds, through out the game you will learn an array of spells which can be used to defeat enemies and open up secret passageways where you may find a famous witches and wizards card.

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The first game had only 25 cards to collect and for doing so all you would receive was a slightly extended ending, this game has a whopping 101 cards which is the staple for the majority of the Harry Potter games, the cards come in three categories, gold, silver and bronze, the bronze cards are common and for every 10 you collect you will gain an additional health bar, the silver cards are uncommon and for every ten of those you find you will come one step closer to accessing a bonus area which can only be accessed once the player finds all 40 of the silver cards, the bonus room is a platforming level, which is full of enemies and puzzles, the player has a set amount of time to try and find the 11 rare gold cards in the game, again I don’t think its worth going out of your way to collect these but honestly it was much more fun to do so here than it was before.

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You can buy cards from other students around Hogwarts by using Bertie Botts every flavoured beans which can be found throughout the game, this isn’t necessary since every card can be found hidden inside and around the school but it is helpful if you don’t want to back track later on, the best way to collect beans is by entering the bonus bean room which you can only access if your house has the most points during the segments of the game where Dumbledore tallies up the house scores.

The music in the game is what can be expected from a cash grab title that was made to help push DVD sales but its fun to listen too and not once is it annoying nor does it take away from the game play experience.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the PC is a fun little game that is worth picking up if you manage to find it really cheap but if you cant your really not missing out on much, I can quite happily say that this is a good game but its far from a great Harry Potter gaming experience 6.3/10

I hope you enjoyed my review of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the PC

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

DLC in Nintendo Games?

February 28, 2017February 28, 2017 ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

One of the biggest announcements for the new Zelda game coming out in the next couple of days was that Nintendo is adding Downloadable content which is a first for a main series Zelda title, as you can imagine this announcement has split fans, some people including myself couldn’t care less but others have been cancelling their pre-orders for the game.

First of all this is not the first time Nintendo has added DLC to their games, they added new tracks and characters to Mario Kart and new stages and fighters to Super Smash Bros Wii U/3DS, I don’t recall so many people complaining when DLC for those games were announced but to be fair Breath of the Wild is a bit of a special case because not only is it a single player experience but Nintendo announced DLC before the game had even been released which lets be honest was a fairly stupid move on Nintendo’s part.

So whats my stance on this whole DLC malarkey? well like I said I don’t care about DLC in general and it isn’t likely that I will buy DLC for any games that are not Mario Kart or Splatoon, I don’t agree with any first party single player games having DLC (Zelda, Mario, Metroid and so on) but I can understand paying to add new content in multiplayer games at a reasonable price of course, I feel that having DLC in single player games takes away a lot of the fun, I remember when I was younger you could unlock additional content in games by performing certain tasks, I will still never forget the first time I unlocked the original Prince of Persia game in the Sands of Time.

On a final note though I will say that we shouldn’t look at Nintendo as if they are different to every other game company in the world, yes they are late to some of these awful video game practices but every other company has been doing it for years and we all seem ok with them so why shouldn’t we give Nintendo the same respect and just accept the changes they are wanting to make, even if we don’t particularly agree with those changes.

Either way in only two days we will all be able to play on the Nintendo Switch and I personally cannot wait to run around Hyrule again without the dumb expansion packs.

I hope you enjoyed this semi rant

That’s it for Nintendo Switch Content now until we eventually get around to Reviewing Breath of the Wild which I’m hoping to have reviewed by the end of April depending on how long the game is.

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

The top 5 unannounced games I want for Nintendo Switch

February 22, 2017February 22, 2017 ragglefragglereviews2 Comments

The Nintendo Switch is officially less than 10 days away from release and while there are a lot of games which have been announced I am only genuinely excited for three of them, those being Mario Odyssey, Splatoon 2 and of course the long awaited Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but what about the games that haven’t been announced?

These are the 5 games I want to be announced for the Nintendo Switch…..hopefully at E3

HD Remakes

Lets get the boring one out of the way first, Nintendo are great at making new games and expanding the universes of their video game characters but I still want to see more of their old games getting remade with modern graphics and controls, we all want Mario Sunshine and Luigi’s Mansion HD and so do I but I think some of Nintendo’s older titles would benefit from HD remakes, imagine being able to play Mario 64 in 1080p and without the dodgy controls and what about a HD remake of Donkey Kong 64 or Pilot Wings, there are a lot of titles that would be great as HD remakes but for me personally I would like to see a HD Metroid Prime Trilogy or HD Pikmin and Pikmin 2.

Animal Crossing

This November will mark the fifth anniversary of Animal Crossing New Leaf for the Nintendo 3DS, I think its time for a brand new Animal Crossing game and what better system to do this on than the Nintendo Switch, honestly I have never enjoyed the handheld Animal Crossing games as much as the ones released on stay at home systems and if released on the switch an Animal Crossing game would suit what I want and it could also be played as a handheld game for those who prefer playing on the go, so everyone wins however there are some major changes I want made to the series, first of all I want more creativity when it comes to building your town and by this I mean that players are able to build the islands themselves from the ground up also I think at this point we should be able to play as an animal if we want too, how about a character building mode where we can create our own characters in very unique and creative ways, I wont go into too many details on this as it may become an article of its own at some point.

Pikmin 4

Ok so Pikmin 4 has technically been announced for years but it hasn’t been announced for the Nintendo Switch so I still think this counts, I love cute things and the Pikmin games are no exception I like how Nintendo have taken a subject as dark as the extinction of the human race and made an adorable game series where you play as space captains who run around earth and control strange plant creatures to collect fruits and relics that have been left behind by humans, I haven’t gotten around to playing the third game yet but its on my to do list but in the mean time I hope Nintendo hurry’s up with Pikmin 4.

F-Zero

I think Mario Kart is a great game series but we get one or two of those every year, but we havent had an F-Zero game since 2003, for those who don’t know F-Zero is a fast paced racing game that takes place in space, the games went on to spawn an amazing anime series and F-Zero was one of the biggest inspirations for the Hovercraft’s in Mario Kart 8, I don’t know why this series stopped but many would agree that it needs to return in big ways.

Luigi’s mansion 3 plus a Dark Moon Port

I loved both of the Luigi’s Mansion games and I would really like to see a Luigi’s mansion 3, the changes I want to make in these games may surprise you but I think they could work, first of all I want Mario out of the game completely I think Luigi’s brother gets enough of the spotlight already, I want multiple playable characters which all have unique abilities and must be switched constantly to solve puzzles, some ideas of characters could be a toad, Luigi (obviously), Professor E-Gadd and Princess Daisy, also a new and more menacing villain and a scarier premise, that is my dream Luigi’s Mansion game and although I cant imagine this will ever happen I will still want a Luigi’s Mansion 3 and I know a lot of you guys do too.

Those are the top 5 games I want announced for the Nintendo Switch

Which games are on your list

I hope you enjoyed this article

Next week will be an article of my opinions of Nintendo DLC and how it could either succeed or fail

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

The Pros and Cons of the Nintendo Switch Live Presentation

February 11, 2017 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

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We are officially only three weeks away from the release of the Nintendo Switch and in celebration every week up until the release I will be releasing articles expressing my excitement for the system.

On the 12th of January 2017 Nintendo released an hour long presentation discussing important information about their new system, I have watched the presentation multiple times and although I am very excited about the new console I do feel that Nintendo have made some rather critical mistakes.

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Lets start by going over what I consider to be the most disappointing parts of the presentation

Here are the Cons of the Nintendo Switch

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Apart from a couple of games the launch line up is not very exciting
At the moment games are very expensive, you wont likely be paying less than £50 for a game and some games cost even more
Accessories are also ridiculously over priced but to be honest Nintendo have never had great deals on their accessories.
There is only 32GB of internal storage but you are able to expand the storage by inserting a micro SD card
The battery life while you are out and about is between 2-6 hours which isn’t great but could be much worse
Only 1080p resolution on the TV and 720p on the tablet, may not seem like a huge deal but when compared the competition this is fairly low
No pack in game comes with the system
You need to pay to play online now

With the worst out of the way, I can finally talk about the Pros of the Nintendo Switch
The price of the system is only £279.99
The release date (March 3rd 2017) is earlier than we expected
Lots of third party developers are creating titles for the system
For the first time ever Bethesda Game Studios are developing for the switch,The Elder Scrolls Skyrim is being released on the system

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Two brand new IP’s were announced, out of the two IP’s that were announced the most exciting for me was ARMS, ARMS is a non traditional boxing game that uses extendable arms to fight, it looks really cool and I am really looking forward to playing it
A sequel to Splatoon was announced
A brand new 3D sandbox Mario game was announced, Super Mario Odyssey has not had too much information released about the new game but we do know that it has a release date of Holiday 2017
A direct sequel to the ever so popular Xenoblade Chronicles was announced, Xenoblade 2 will be released sometime this year
Hyrule Warriors fans will be pleased to know that a Fire Emblem Warriors game is coming to the Switch
A HD port of Mario Kart 8 is coming in April, it includes all previous DLC, A brand new Battle Mode and new characters and tracks
Breath of the wild has a brand new trailer complete with voice acting and a release date of March 3rd was announced meaning that Zelda will be there for the launch of the system

So that was a basic breakdown of what I consider to be the best and worst parts of the Nintendo Switch Live Presentation, Next week I will be discussing the top 5 games I want for the switch which have yet to be announced.

I hope you enjoyed my look at the Nintendo Switch Live Presentation

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

Netflix Original: A Series of Unfortunate Events Review

January 28, 2017January 28, 2017 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Let me be completely honest I was afraid for this show, an adaptation of the book series by Lemony Snicket had been done in the past in the form of a movie starring Jim Carrey and even though the film was somewhat entertaining and Jim Carrey gave one of the best performances of his career, the film was a terrible adaptation of the books and this was one of the many reasons why it bombed and none of the planned sequels were ever released.

This time the notorious Count Olaf is portrayed by the multi-talented actor Neil Patrick Harries who does a fantastic portrayal of the Count, Jim Carrey gave a more serious and sinister version of Count Olaf while Neil Patrick Harries gives a more silly and comical peformace while still managing to remain threatening and scary enough to help the show remain family friendly, the rest of the main cast are also very well portrayed and the actors and actresses who play each role put a lot of effort and love into their peformances, the show so far has shown a few other famous faces aside from Neil Patrick Harries including Patrick Warburton who plays Lemony Snicket and Joan Cusack who plays Justice Strauss, cast members who are less experienced in acting also do a fantastic job at playing their assigned characters but out of the entire cast my favourite actor was Louis Hynes who plays Klaus, i found that he was very similar to the character in the books and I cant wait to see more of his work in the later seasons.

Speaking of the books the TV show is such an impressive adaptation that I only noticed very few differences between the two, the first season of the show covers the first four books which are spread over eight episodes, at first I was concerned because I didnt believe that two episodes per book was enough to cover everything but I was wrong because now that I have watched the first season several times I have to agree that two was more than enough, the show is much more light hearted than the books which is understandable as the books can at times be a little much esspecially for very young readers but I honestly believe that it would be fine for any one to watch the show no matter what age they are.

It was very difficult for me to talk about this without giving away any spoilers but I am pleased that I got the chance to share my thoughts, if you would like to see the first review of the books I wrote you can do so by clicking on this link.

https://ragglefragglereviews.com/2016/10/31/book-review-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-1-3-by-lemony-snicket/

What did you think of this latest adaptation of a Series of Unfortunate Events?

You can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

Civilization 1-3 (1991-2001) (PC) Review

January 12, 2017January 19, 2017 ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

Civilization is one of the most popular strategy games of all time, the series was created by legendary game designer Sid Meier who had already made a name for himself in the game industry before Civilization was released, one of his most popular games was a game called Pirates, I am planning to play through and review all six games (six games as of now) in the main series but with there being so many of them and not too many differences between each version we will be taking a look at three games per review.

Civilization (1991)

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We begin our look into Civilization with the original game which is often referred too as classic Civ, the goal in Civilization is that you are a world leader who is essentially in complete control over a continent (you choose a race of people before starting the game) I chose to play as the Zulu’s meaning that I was playing as the world leader of Africa, the goal of the game is to try and build as many cities as you can while also being able to maintain the safety and happiness of your people.

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You will often find that other world leaders may visit your cities offering to make trades of knowledge or money and far too often they will start a war if you refuse these offers, I had particular trouble with Frederick the world leader of Germany, he would often make a peace offering if I gave him knowledge, not much later he would offer to keep peace between our two continents, this kept happening multiple times before I had enough and took over the entirety of Germany so jokes on him.

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The game is a lot more complex than it may seem, first of all its your responsibility to see that your continent and people are able to evolve over time as the game takes place over hundreds of thousands of years, you can actually play the game for such a long time that you end up in the space age which is very cool, during the course of the game you will need to send your wise men to research new topics which will allow you to build more useful items such as defenses which surround your cities, the ability to attack over seas and more powerful armies, the game will often give you historically accurate information making it a fairly useful learning tool.

The original Civilization is a great game and a classic that will always stand the test of time, a lot of DOS games were not capable of producing very good sound so the lack of music and audio is not something I feel is fair to complain about, graphically the game is fairly impressive for a DOS game but some parts of the game are much more visually appealing than others but again that could be DOS limitations but I suppose we will see if this improves in the sequel.

7/10

Civilization 2 (1996)

After enjoying the original Civilization I really wanted to enjoy the sequel just as much but to be honest I couldn’t get into it, I realize a lot of people really like this game but I just found it to be really boring and not very interesting at all, for some reason they removed a lot of the small animations the first game had and chose to stick with just text to commemorate you on your achievements, they did however add live action cut-scenes with dialogue if you chose to speak to the advisers or the high council, i couldn’t find any images of this but I will provide a youtube link below showing some of the cutscenes

Another thing that was a great addition was the much easier to use cheat mode, in the original game you could use small cheats to activate certain features including showing the entire world map, in this game you can access all cheats from a click of a mouse and as much as I dont condone to using cheats myself i am sure that some people would enjoy giving themselves a full treasury,unlocking all skills and other special unlockable features.

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Graphically the second game is a massive step up compared to the original, with windows being able to produce more colours and detail the world map is more appealing and more details are shown when you upgrade your cities, I found it very difficult to move my troops around the map, it felt as if the keyboard was confused because every-time I tried to move a player they would usually head off in a different direction and this made it very difficult for me to try and plan my moves appropriately, the game includes the ability to use online multiplayer but I didnt test this as its a very old game which wont run on modern operating systems but hopefully a steam remake will get released at some point as I would like to give this game a second shot with multipayer included

Not a terrible game but its wacky controls and fairly boring design choices made it no where near as enjoyable as the original

4.3/10

Civilization 3 (2001)

After my disappointment with the last game thank god I enjoyed Civilization 3, first of all this installment brought back everything that I missed in the second game, it had great animations, a full cgi opening cutscene, lots of choice for land customization and you can finally play as either males or females for each race in the game, not only that but as well as the usual Civ game mechanics Civ 3 tops both previous installments by adding online multiplayer (that works) and challenge modes.

One thing I didn’t like about the gameplay in Civ 3 was the lack of player support on the lower difficulty settings, the other games both gave you advisors that would help guide the player step by step through the matches and I found that the support although complicating did help teach me the main mechanics of a Civ game, in Civ 3 this was still available but the player needed to seek out the advice by speaking to each advisor individually and it was very daunting

The graphics are outstanding, the game uses an art style that looks as if you are playing on a painted canvas, as per usual the game is shown from a birds eye view and the visuals really help it seem as if the player is looking at a physical world map, the animations from the NPC’s are smooth and simple which honestly is all you need in a game like this

the soundtrack is very good here, I complained that I was annoyed with the lack of ingame music in Civ 2 but in Civ 3 the music is relaxing to listen too and is not on a constant loop so you can enjoy a large variation of music tracks during your long Civ games.

Civilization 3 is the best Civ game out of the first three in the series and for what it provides it is worthy of its £2.99 steamprice, however this is not the best Civ game for new players, I give that title to the original for its simple design and much more useful advisors who advise the player without needing to be asked.

7.8/10

I had a blast playing these old Civ games, out of these three which is your favourite and do you agree with my opinion on the games so far? Hopefully it won’t be long until we are reviewing the next three games but until then.

Thanks for reading

you can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

Book Review: Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

December 25, 2016December 25, 2016 ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

Please sir can I have some more?

1402754256 So I have always wanted to read a classic Christmas story around this time of year and since the many Oliver Twist films always air near the end of December the original novel seemed to be the perfect choice but honestly after reading it I don’t think this is a Christmas story at all or at least I don’t recall the book ever referring to Christmas so it makes we wonder why so many people associate it with the holiday but unfortunately I read the entire thing so……. Merry Christmas?

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This beautiful man is none other than Charles Dickens the world beloved author of such classics as A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations and well Oliver Twist

yhobpdnesiupuajk5pjr Oliver Twist was released in 1838 and it follows the adventures of a young Orphan called Oliver who is sent to a private juvenile home after his mother dies in child birth, any one who has seen one of the many films based on the novel knows that Oliver is met with a lot of bad luck throughout his adventure and a lot of this bad luck causes him to seem like a bad kid which results in him being sent to live with many different characters throughout the book since each one of his new masters eventually dumps him on someone else but none of these people are as manipulative and genuinely cruel as the homeless man Fagin who has taken on homeless children to steal goods for him to sell for profit, one of these children is none other than the Artful Dodger who is fan favorite character of the many renditions of the classic tale, the book does have some very graphic scenes, one scene where the character Sikes Murders his prostitute girlfriend Nancy is very grizzly and I have been told that it is one of the most terrifying scenes that Charles Dickens ever wrote.

To be honest apart from two characters Oliver and an old man he gets caught stealing from, I didn’t care for any of the other characters in the book, now just because these two are some of the only nice people in the story that is not the reason why I didn’t care for the others, every one else I found to be boring and not very interesting which is a shame because I love a good villain and I just couldn’t bring myself to love any of the sadistic or more horrible characters in the book and before anyone goes nuts in the comments I am aware that a lot of people love Fagin and Sikes and I do like them in the made for TV movies I just found that they work better on TV than they do on paper but that is only my opinion so take it with a pinch of salt and please take this next opinion with that in mind, I dont like this book very much, I was really bored throughout my entire reading and honestly I think it might have been Charles Dickens writing style that didn’t work for me but I wont really know that until I read another one of his books so until then, Merry Christmas and I hope that you have an amazing day, remember to think of those less fortunate than yourselves when you are opening all of your presents and eating your home made Christmas Dinners because just like Oliver there are children out in their in world who have nothing to live for and would give anything to have just a bed to sleep on and someone to love them so this year lets make a toast to all of those amazing people who are making the most out of their lives even though they they have suffered such hard times.

Thanks for reading this review of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

By the way my two favorite versions of this story are Oliver and Company and the 1968 musical Oliver so if you get the chance this year I highly recommend you check them out also in Oliver in Company instead of an orphan its a kitten which is just adorable and its Disney so you know its gonna be good

Happy Holidays from Raggle Fraggle

Walt Disney’s Mickeys Once Upon a Christmas (1999) Review

December 16, 2016December 16, 2016 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

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Mickeys Once Upon a Christmas was a massive deal when it came out in 1999 and I fondly remember my mother fighting her way through our local Tesco’s (Our version of Target for you Americans) to get it for me so we could watch it together on Christmas Eve that very year.

By the way this is not the Christmas Carol with Disney Characters, that movie came out in 1983, this is an anthology of three Disney cartoons which all share a similar Christmas theme and have slightly altered morals for the kids to learn from

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The first cartoon titled Donald Duck stuck on Christmas is a holiday classic. Huey, Dewey and Louie wake up on Christmas morning and act like little dirt bags throughout the day, they open their presents before the family arrive, they go outside on their new sleds without reading the card from Uncle Donald and Aunt Daisy and when the family sings Christmas carols they play with their toys instead, later on that night the boys wish upon a star that it could be Christmas every day, their wish is granted and a massive time loop begins where they are repeating the same Christmas over and over again until they eventually learn to stop being so selfish.

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A Very Goofy Christmas is the next cartoon to be shown and whats particularly cool about this one is that its actually a cartoon which takes place in the Goof Troop universe but the catch is that Goofy’s son Max is still a young child here so its actually a prequel to Goof Troops first episode, in the cartoon Goofy and Max are having relationship problems after their neighbor Pete tells Max that Santa doesn’t exist and its up to Goofy to prove to his Son that Santa is real, but Max is so torn up about what Pete told him that he manages to convince Goofy that Santa being real is an impossibility which leads Goofy down a path of pretty major depression and its up to Max to cheer his Dad up, about mid way through the cartoon Goofy makes Christmas dinner for a poor family who could never afford to do it themselves so this segment actually has two messages the first is to always respect and be charitable to those less fortunate than yourself and the other is to quite simply not be a complete arse by telling an eight year old that Santa doesn’t exist, honestly I don’t why Goofy didn’t just pelt Pete in the nose.

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The final segment Mickey and Minnie’s Gift of the Magi is based on the classic short story by William Sydney Porter where a couple go to extreme lengths to get Christmas gifts for each other and both of them even go as far as selling their prized possessions just so they can afford the perfect gift, this cartoon follows that same idea and also has a very similar ending, this may sound like the most boring cartoon out of the three of them but to be honest its probably the best one, its short, simple and it has the most Christmas themed message of them all which is that the greatest gift you can give on Christmas is yourself and you can give that by simply spending time with your family and loved ones.

So is Mickeys Once Upon a Christmas the greatest Christmas movie to be based on classic Disney characters? no its not even close but its still pretty good, I can’t consider any of the cartoons to be bad but at the same time apart from the last one the first two are not great but they are still entertaining and with voice talents such as Jim Cummings and Bill Farmer involved its definitely worth a watch, even Kelsey Grammer is in this movie voicing the narrator and that in itself makes it worth your time to sit by the fireplace and watch these silly but wonderful Disney cartoons.

Thanks for reading

you can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone by JK Rowling

December 1, 2016December 1, 2016 ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

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Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone was the first book in a long and beloved series of books written by one of the greatest authors of our generation JK Rowling shot-a-014n

I cant imagine that anyone one on the planet doesn’t know the story of Harry Potter but just to be safe the first book is about an eleven year old boy who suffers tremendous abuse from both his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon who legally became his guardians after his parents Lily and James were killed by an evil Wizard known as Lord Voldermort, Voldermort tries to kill Harry as a baby but Harry survives hence why he is known as the boy who lived, while he grows up with the Dursleys who make him sleep under the stairs, praise their other son Dudley for hurting him and are genuinely terrible people, the only surviving memory Harry has of his parents is a lighting bolt shaped scar on his forehead that he was left with after the attack.

After receiving countless mysterious letters in the mail all of which are destroyed by his Uncle, Harry eventually finds out that he is a wizard and is sent to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry so that he can learn to become the legendary hero he was born to be, by now we have been introduced to one of the most important characters of the franchise Hagrid the grounds keeper and not too long after that we meet some of the other very important characters including Hermione Granger an intelligent but rather bossy young witch, Ronald Weasley who is very clumsy but has a good heart, Draco Malfoy the snobby school bully who thinks that his family is better than everyone else, Neville Longbottom who is the most important character in the franchise other than Harry but we will get to that another day, Severus Snape a potions master who really dislikes Harry, Albus Dumbledore the Head Master of the school and most importantly in this book is Professor Quirrell a seemingly nervous wreck of teacher who stutters every sentence and is constantly on edge.

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Hogwarts has four school houses Hufflepuff, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor each student is placed in one these houses depending on their personalities the bravest and most courageous students are placed in Gryffindor, the most knowledgeable and witty students are placed in Ravenclaw, the most caring and loyal of students are placed in Hufflepuff and the most ambitious students are placed in Slytherin but a clever detail JK Rowling has hinted at in the series is that Gryffindor is the only house you can choose to join since you have to choose to be brave and if you have seen the movie or read the book then you know that this small detail plays a very important part in the Harry Potter story.

While on break after learning new spells and how to make potions Harry, Ron and Hermione accidentally enter a forbidden area on the fourth floor corridor and what they find behind the door is what leads them to start trying to unravel the mystery of the Philosophers Stone and who they believe may be trying to steal it.

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone is one of the most important books in existence, not only was it the start of Harry’s journey into becoming a wizard but more importantly it was the start of JK Rowlings journey of becoming one of the most influential writers of all time.

This is a fantastic book, its well written to point where JK Rowling doesn’t explain things in a lot of detail so the reader is able to use their imagination to create a vision of the magical world in their own minds instead of how the author sees it, the characters are perfect you will find Hermione annoying just like Ron does but you will learn to warm up to her through out the book, Draco Malfoy and Dursleys are all really unlikable and you will hate them which is great because you are supposed to dislike them and Albus Dumbledore really does seem like a very wise old wizard who has a unique perspective on life,however there are one or two plot holes in this first installment but obviously due to spoilers I won’t go into them, if you are unsure as to whether you want to check out the Harry Potter books this is a really good place to start because not only is it the first of the franchise but its also the shortest and in my personal opinion one of the very best.

Thank you for reading this review of Harry Potter and Philosophers Stone by JK Rowling

you can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

and yes Christmas reviews are coming, I promise 🙂