Stefan L's Reviews
Overcooked and the Nintendo Switch are really a perfect match of frantic co-op cooking and a games console that's all about taking games on the go and sharing them with people. Right now it's difficult to wholeheartedly recommend this version though, given the widely reported frame rate issues. Here's hoping they can cook up a fix sooner rather than later.
Despite many expectations, revisiting a younger Chloe Price and Arcadia Bay is very rewarding for fans of Life Is Strange. Deck Nine have found a story of discovery, growth and friendship that's well worth telling, and doing so in a delightfully unexpected manner. Especially if you're already a fan of the series, Life Is Strange: Before The Storm is easily recommended and I'm eager to see what's next.
On the whole Mass Transit is a more than welcome set of additions and improvements to Cities: Skylines, but there's just that nagging feeling that it could have gone a little bit further in some areas and a couple of options could be a little smoother to use.
Utopia and Banks amount to a significant improvement to Stellaris that rewrites and overhauls a lot of the game for the better, adding yet more ways to try and build your empire. However, it also feels like Paradox are still just getting started with exploring everything that the game can be. It might take time for them to get there, but it's a journey I'm looking forward to taking with them.
With divergent paths to choose through the final two episodes, my eventual encounter with Dent was one that focussed on that original friendship and common ground between Bruce and Harvey. It was one the brought forth some of the compassion in Bruce Wayne’s character and, because of that, felt satisfying, even with moments of awkward and repetitive dialogue.
There are five scenarios built into the expansion, just to give you a little idea of what’s possible. They’re actually rather tricky, with a mixture of disasters being flung at you, time limits and tough targets to meet.
Guardian of Gotham is a solid episode, but outside of a few little flashes, doesn’t excite or intrigue me as much as what went before. I’m torn on whether or not I like the Joker’s appearance, it doesn’t have time to really linger too much in the moment, and ultimately, it’s just one of those episodes that takes you part way on a journey without getting you to your destination.
Overall, this is a strong end to the series, taking one step towards a more difficult, more restrictive level design, but still with a certain leniency once you get past those barriers.
Telltale continue to forge their own path through the Batman mythos, picking and choosing how to stay faithful to the comics while also trying to catch people out with new and inventive takes on some characters. This episode was a little scattershot at times, but had it where it counts with some strong character progression and one almighty twist at the end.
A strong second episode that rattles along at a fast pace and includes no shortage of surprises and reveals. And now that we know what the Children of Arkham in the title refers to, I’m definitely looking forward to the third.
While it’s far removed from Call of Duty of old, it can still be fun. I enjoyed good fortune in my first match back since the last DLC to have a positive K/D ratio, just managed to win an incredibly tight match of Domination on Cryogen, out-scored a ludicrously dominant team in the second half of another Domination match a map later, and so on.
The actual puzzles are very well thought out, but the graphics are simplistic and, to be honest, the reason why there’s lasers being bounced around doesn’t make much sense.
Translating the physical contact between putter and golf ball to the player needs a little work and, as with SelfieTennis, the physics can sometimes feel a bit simplistic at times.
As with many early VR games, it’s bright and colourful, with simplistic graphics, but that does nothing to explain the green cat with building items sticking out of its back or the magical hat that you pop onto your head to reach the game’s menus. Those just help to add a touch of whimsical charm to a very well done puzzle game.
Falls into the same traps of “simulator” games on any platform, with not quite enough variety and substance to get by.
In retrospect, adapting Flight Control to VR is a no brainer, but Phaser Lock Interactive have endeavoured to build on that games core idea, and pretty much pulled it off.
I find that simple back and forth oddly compelling in its own right.
The controls for your ship feel just a little bit awkward, and it can be tiring to hold your arm up to move around – I took to lazily resting it on my leg and using this as the new centre point. More jarring is the way that every time you load to a new location, you’re booted out to the SteamVR void for a few moments, which led me to believe the game had crashed the first couple of times.
Valve have absolutely perfected a number of the necessary ideas for room scale VR, it’s just a shame that they’re not tackling a more fully fledged experience.
All together, they make for a map pack that’s really quite strong and distinctive visually, but also has some good variety in what they offer. Certainly, it feels more interesting and varied than Awakening did a few months ago.