Recent reviews by Rex MI

If you've ever sat there and stared at a blank Photoshop document, wondering where to even start then this is the video for you.

This video has quickly become an invaluable asset whenever I start working and practicing with my Intuos.

This is a fantastic starting point for beginners, looking to build up speed and confidence with a tablet.

Recieved for free as a birthday gift from a friend.

For a very reasonable price, you'll get three videos demonstrating how to create original character illustrations from scratch. You'll be shown in-depth, how to start with a randomised idea, move it along to thumbnail concepts and then produce a full-detail illustration.

The videos are as entertaining as they are informative, they also make for some great background noise as you work.

Don't be put off by the 'fantasy' title, you can apply these lessons to any genre. This is an invaluable asset to any digital, or even traditional artist looking to create original, creative character designs.

I would happily recommend this to artists of all skill levels. Design knowledge is emphasised as much as skill here, which is an aspect of this series I love.

Recieved this for free from a friend as a birthday present.

Ignore the seemingly generous price point* of Black Ink, it's simply missing too many key features to be seriously considered as a competitive art application. I've rarely seen this software updated in 3 years of ownership so I'm not holding my breath that any missing features will be added.

Tablet functionality is pretty lacking with an Intuos 4. Beyond the basic pen functions, there's no real advanced functionality available. Forget about dynamic zoom or adjusting brush size on the fly.

Whilst a GPU accelerated art application soley focused on digital art is a novel idea, you'll be infinitely better served by the usual Photoshop, Corel Painter or even Manga Studio. From a professional standing, Black Ink just isn't powerful or robust enough to compete with these packages. I wouldn't even recommend it for a casual/hobbyist user.

*It's worth noting that when Black Ink first hit Steam in 2013, it was supposed to be ~£70, with the current price being an early-access special. At some point that original price was dropped.

A fantastic concept ruined by shoddy netcode and a plague of bugs.

I have quite literally spent half of my time played waiting in loading screens.

The hit detection is, in a word, garbage. What you see, compared to what the server sees is woefully out of sync. Completely unnaceptable for an FPS with competitive aspirations, let alone one that costs this much. An FPS with bad gunplay is simply not fun.

The game was extremely buggy at launch. The most severe problems have been stamped out but this game still has a ton of issues, months down the line.

Micro-transaction cosmetics in a full priced AAA? No thanks. You can of course, purchase skins and DLC operators with in-game currency but it's horrifically grindy.

I have simply lost all patience with this title.

A very short, but very sweet game.

The Old Blood plays like an over-the-top, condensed version of The New Order (Similar to what Blood Dragon did for the FarCry series).

The plot, setting and themes have been taken from Return To Castle Wolfenstein and reworked into a completely new Wolf experience.

There's enough secrets to find, challenging difficulties and arcade challenges to warrant a second playthrough.

The Old Blood is an excellent companion game to The New Order but ultimately if you weren't impressed by the latter, you won't find much to enjoy here.

Buy it if you enjoyed The New Order and want to extend that experience.

Easily the worst PC port of a game I've ever played. Terrible and inconsistent performance on a GTX670, DX11 features cripple the already low frame rate and cause insane amounts of mouse lag. The game seems to have a problem with high DPI/high polling rate gaming mice since crosshair movement becomes smooth and consistent when using a controller. The lack of an FOV slider is downright idiotic, especially following on from the comparitively well optimised Black Ops 2. Prettier shaders than BO2, but ultimately not much of a visual upgrade at all.

For some reason IW have elected to throw Treyarch's design ideals out of the window and created boxy, large maps with no 'lanes' and no real flow to them. Spawns have a random feel taking any semblance of control and pacing out of the matches. It's very clear that the game has no competitive aspirations, which is fine, but it doesn't make sense following on the heals of Black Ops 2. Could be good for quick, dumb fun if the optimisation didn't completely get in the way.

Oh and the fish AI was a lie.