LEGO: The Hobbit
RELEASE DATE: APRIL 11, 2014
REVIEWED FOR: PS4, XBOX ONE

THERE AND NOT QUITE

To the great surprise of no one, the Lego games are finally going there and, well, not quite back again in Lego The Hobbit. The game follows the first two films of the Hobbit movie trilogy, giving us a chance to lead Bilbo and company all the way from the comforts of Bag End to the dwarf home beneath the Lonely Mountain. It’s a fun journey to be sure, but confusing at times, and not entirely satisfying.

An Unexpected Party
Lego The Hobbit clings to the series’ standard combat and exploration, but, as usual, a handful of welcome twists make things a bit more interesting this time around. A few different rhythm-based challenges, an item creation system tied to resource collection, and the “find the missing piece” mini-game from February’s Lego Movie game make The Hobbit more than just a button masher, although it is still mostly just that. Thankfully, the environmental challenges and enemies are sophisticated enough to keep the action engaging.

In comparison to the roster in last year’s Lego Marvel game, many of the characters in the Hobbit feel like, at best, minor variations of each other. It certainly doesn’t help that they all sort of look alike, and it can get a little confusing to tell the dwarves apart. But you’ll need to pay attention, as each dwarf has one unique ability, like Bombur’s ability to turn into a bouncing platform or Bofur’s mining power, that needs to be applied to the narrowly scripted environmental challenges.
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Chip the Glasses and Crack the Plates

The extended action sequences and sometimes slapstick humor of The Hobbit films make a good fit for a Lego game. Honestly, there’s always been something a little disjointed about watching Cyclops wreck the X-Mansion or Luke Skywalker destroy Yoda’s house, but seeing the Dwarves go to town demolishing absolutely everything in Bag End or Rivendell makes perfect sense. When you see them literally start smashing Bilbo’s cupboards and Elrond’s tables, it just feels right. From the plate juggling in Bilbo’s kitchen to the golden toilets in Smaug’s hoard, there are also loads of humorous little touches that keep the charm going.

Lego The Hobbit also looks beautiful. The settings are very convincing, with loads of little details and plenty of suitably moody lighting.  The world is filled with fantastic creatures and monsters, and developer Traveller’s Tales has done a great job adapting the giant eagles, goblin kings, and dragons to the standard Lego models. The only real problem with the graphics is that the more realistic color palette and sheer density of some of the scenes can make it very difficult to see who you are or what you’re doing. The sometimes inconsistent camera angles don’t help things much. More than once, I just found myself just attacking and jumping at random in the hopes that I would eventually figure out where I was.
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To Dungeons Deep and Caverns Old

The main story clocks in at about six hours, but there’s much more to do and see in the world once you’ve completed the main missions. Each mission unlocks events around the map, and you’ll be able to spend hours digging into the recipes, errands, and encounters around Middle-earth. A campfire system lets you change the time of day to open up new events, and you can always call on a giant eagle to get you from one end of the map to the other.

While most of the missions are fairly predictable, I was impressed with the Hobbit’s take on the solo sections. For Riddles in the Dark, Bilbo’s joined by a dazed goblin, for instance. There are also some tremendous set pieces where the characters are facing off against the dragon, or climbing up the body of a very active and very angry stone giant.

Unfortunately, the story sort of goes by in a flash. Last year’s Lego Marvel showed what Travelers Tales can do with an original story, so The Hobbit’s abbreviated, sometimes scattered storytelling feels like a step back. There are narrative bits tying the missions together, but the whole game presumes that you already know the source material well enough to fill in the gaps yourself. (You probably do, but if you’re playing with kids it might not be clear to them.) It’s particularly troublesome to track the events between the spider attack and the dwarves’ arrival at Lake Town. The game also ends where the second movie ends, which left me wanting more – and not in a good way.

THE VERDICT
Lego The Hobbit won’t surprise fans of the Lego series, but the new gameplay systems add just enough complexity to keep things interesting. New events and mining opportunities make exploration of the open world almost as fun as the main missions. The storytelling presumes you already know the source material by heart, which means things are sometimes a bit disjointed, and the game, like the movies it’s based on, ends at an awkward place. But like almost all the Lego games, this is a journey worth taking.

LEGO: The Hobbit
on PS4, Xbox One
7.4
GOOD

A fun and charming extension of the film that nevertheless suffers from some disjointed story problems and some sameness of characters.

MLB 14: The Show Review

MLB 14: The Show
RELEASE DATE: APRIL 1, 2014

My beloved Arizona Diamondbacks have improbably finished exactly .500 (81-81) in each of the past two seasons. That means my Snakes have been good, but clearly not good enough to make a serious postseason run. Such is the case for MLB 14: The Show on PlayStation Vita, an enjoyable handheld baseball sim that, for another year, has enough holes in its lineup to keep it out of legitimate championship contention.

The Vita version of MLB 14 shares many of the same features and, fundamentally, all of the gameplay of its big brother on the PlayStation 3. The one that matters most is Road to the Show, which a riveting mode on the PS3, but an even better fit on the Vita thanks to its quick five-minute rounds. Create your amateur and get him drafted by a pro team, then work his way up through the minors and make it to the major-league club. The hook is that, like always, you’ll only ever participate in plays that involve you. So for stud Houston Astros (sigh…) 2B prospect Ryan McCaffrey, that meant 4-3 putouts, pop-ups, and double-play balls, as well as my at-bats. And to this end, Cross-Save support (but not Cross-Buy) means you can take your same budding RTTS star with you no matter which version you’re playing.

Miggy can walk around the bases...and all the way to the bank after signing his mega-deal.

MLB 14 looks good, but not great, on Vita. Stadiums and player faces are particularly lifelike, though they’re somewhat juxtaposed with the odd body shapes of many players (seriously, take a look at Phillies outfielder Marlon Byrd and then wonder why they decided to model him after Oswald “The Penguin” Cobblepot). The framerate also takes a noticeable dive at times, though fortunately not during critical gameplay moments like the delivery of the pitch, the swing of the bat, or a ball in play that you’re trying to field.

What matters most is the key batting, fielding, and pitching mechanics, and there MLB 14 mirrors the great console edition – with an enormous caveat in the latter department. Classic, Pure Analog, Meter, and the Pulse Pitching style introduced last year all make their way over from the PS3, but the Vita’s thumbsticks are so sensitive that it’s almost impossible to put a pitch exactly where you want it. Only Raylan Givens might have hands steady enough to paint the corners the way you can with a proper DualShock controller. On the PS3 version Pulse Pitching is my go-to control method, but here it’s completely unviable, so Meter has become my preferred and recommended pitching method on Vita.

The hair is in there somewhere.

Hitting and fielding, though, feel as slick and empowering as they do on the PS3. The new Quick Counts feature makes its way into the Vita version, and like Road to the Show, it’s especially useful on the handheld. Activate it before a game (though sadly not during it) and every batter on both teams will start with a deep count (i.e. at least two pitches, usually 3-5). It’s a smart, fair way of accelerating the pace of a nine-inning game without sacrificing strategy or realism.

THE VERDICT
MLB 14: The Show on Vita is once again a step or two behind its console companion in a few key areas, but that still means it’s a good portable baseball sim. Cross-Play for Road to the Show and Franchise are tempting lures for owners of the PS3 version of the world’s only current hardball sim series, though with the PS4 version likely set to widen the gap between The Shows, I’m hopeful that the Vita will be able to step up its effort in the coming years.

MLB 14: The Show
on Vita
7.1
GOOD

MLB 14: The Show is a good portable complement to your console game, but it has a couple standout issues.

Football Manager Classic 2014

platfrom ps vita

DECENT FORM AWAY FROM HOME.

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”

I reviewed Football Manager 2014 for PC last year, and as much as I loved it, I have to say that I was I pretty pleased with how I weaned myself off it afterwards. You see, as fellow players know, few other games are this addictive and all-consuming; even when you’re not playing, it can never truly leave you. Now, it never actually has to. The series’ debut on PlayStation Vita, Football Manager Classic 2014 (FMC 2014) is a solid start, not only letting you play the most fully-featured handheld version of FM wherever you go, but the cross-save system means you take your PC progress with you. Dangerous!

It may not bring your Vita to its knees, but I assure you it's all very exciting.

The Classic mode on PC has proven something of a revelation over the last two iterations of FM, providing a less time-intensive alternative to the main career that doesn’t compromise on the fundamental experience. That makes the cut-down career a perfect starting point for Vita, where surprisingly, the online mode and instant results are the only obvious omissions. Challenge mode also makes the welcome journey over from PC. Using the same set of clever scenarios, you’ll strive to perform such miracles as winning silverware with an inexperienced or severely injury-plagued squad, trying to beat relegation, or going an entire season unbeaten. These are fun little asides that have you playing in different ways, and their generally shorter nature makes them a particularly great fit for the Vita.

At a glance, you could even be forgiven for believing that both versions are visually identical, but minor adjustments have been made to help the data-packed screens fit more comfortably. The main menu ribbon that’s usually found at the top of the screen on PC, for example, is hidden on Vita, easily summoned or dismissed by a tap of the right shoulder button. It’s a great illustration of how space on a much smaller screen has been cleverly maximised, although FMC 2014 does misstep in other areas. In keeping most of the screens as close to the PC version as possible, some of the text can be on the small side and while never outright unreadable, swift analysis can be a bit of pain.

Will you interfere with your team's training schedule?

The Vita’s touchscreen does mean that FMC 2014 can be navigated almost identically as it can on PC. You can hit any link directly for further information, scroll through important data easily or, by holding down the left shoulder button, even drag players and items around during tactical changes. Unfortunately, some actions can prove to be a little finicky, especially if you have sausage fingers. FMC 2014 requires a precise touch and I did have more than a few instances where I hit the wrong option as a result of tiny text or buttons.

Despite that, I still found managing the finer elements of my club an enjoyable experience, as mainstay functions like negotiating transfers, tinkering with tactics and guiding your team through the match days all work almost exactly as they do in Classic mode on PC.

The 3D match engine is also present, correct and in impressive form, taking only the slightest of graphical hits. It is prone to a little frame-rate choppiness on certain camera angles occasionally, but it plays the same believable and engrossing game of football as its bigger brother. More remarkably, full functionality is intact; from actionable assistant manager suggestions and the new tactics system to live team changes. All these important new features have been successfully ported to make the portable touchline experience a pleasurable one.

Is that a streaker? Or does the ref just like pink?

As mentioned earlier, FMC 2014 has cross-save functionality with the PC version. Once you’ve performed some very basic setup (enabling Cloud Saves on Steam and allowing your Vita to connect to Steam via API), you’re able to transfer your Classic and Challenge mode saves freely between both platforms via the cloud. The process is incredibly smooth and it took just moments to move my PC save to my handheld for the first time, where I was able to carry on my campaign during my commute the following day and then put it back on PC when at home. Lovely stuff!

THE VERDICT

Football Manager Classic 2014 performs decently as both a companion app to the PC version and as a good standalone game in its own right. It’s true that this surprisingly feature-packed portable effort does have a few issues - the small text and fiddly touch controls being the main offenders - but the core experience of tactical battles, financial and man management remains as addictive as ever.

Football Manager Classic 2014
on Vita
7.5
GOOD
Football Manager on Vita performs decently away from home.

Dont selfish comment please