Rossko Keniston
It simply doesn’t hold up ten years after release, and whilst we can kick back and enjoy the wanton destruction for a little while, it just isn’t enough to hold the attention for as long as the game is asking of you.
rather enjoyed my time with The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit. It’s essentially what you come to expect from Life is Strange condensed into a two-ish hour experience that isn’t going to cost you anything to play all the way to the end. It’s very obviously a prequel to something much bigger, and it ends a little abruptly which I found a little disappointing, as I was ready to play for another couple hours. What it has achieved is make me excited for LiS 2, more than I ever was before. I still have no real clue what the sequel might be, or how this plays into its story, but for now this was a touching experience I’m really appreciative of.
Onrush is an excellent reimagining of the driving genre. It’s Evolution Studios greatest hits smashed together with the ultimate competitive traits of the very best modern multiplayer games. It stands alongside its peers as a reason to invest in premium online services, laughs in the face of those who would dare pigeonhole it and demands your attention.
For £25 though you are getting your moneys worth. There’s a hefty amount of classic gaming here and if you can look past the somewhat iffy versions of your childhood titles and you aren’t too bothered amount what’s missing, the added extras and the included challenges may this your go-to collection if you’re playing on PS4. Anywhere else? You’ll find superior standalone versions of these games on the Xbox Store and Steam. Spend your money on those instead.
If there’s one type of game I never thought I’d be praising to the high heavens in 2018, it’s a 2D Metroidvania-esque puzzle pinball platformer featuring a Dung Beetle as its protagonist. Even those words written together make very little sense to me, and on paper Yoku’s Island Express should be an absolute trainwreck. Keeping as many genre balls the air as developer Villa Gorilla are doing here Yoku feels like somewhat of a herculean task, and yet here we are. Yoku’s Island Express is my favourite platformer of 2018 so far, and I’m not even sure it’s a platformer at all.
Conan Exiles is a staggeringly deep adventure game, but you may get too frustrated to bother making it to the end.
Warmind does little to save the end-game appeal of Destiny 2
You’re going to want to take some time to learn the mechanics of Death Road to Canada. It’s surprising and tough, charming and intricate, full of depth and stupidly fun. No, it won’t be for everyone, if you want a game where you just straight up bash some zombies into kingdom come then go play Dead Rising, this is far more nuanced and focused on achieving an RPG-esque roguelike adventure that I was ever expecting.
There’s plenty of fun to be had if you turn off your nostalgia goggles, but there’s little denying Raging Justice doesn’t do an awful lot else to escape from that particular shadow.
If you’re in the market for a Baseball game, or a new sports game at all, you could do a whole lot worse than Super Mega Baseball 2. If you’re a Baseball fan at all and you’ve dreamed of starting up your own team and taking on the world, you’re not going to find a package more enjoyable than this.
There’s plenty to love about Don’t Die Mr Robot!, especially now it’s on Switch which seems a natural fit for ISG puzzler. I’ve been playing it all week as I travel and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I just want to apologise to Mr. Robot as I’ve murdered him many, many times.
So Battlezone Gold Edition is a disappointment, and the more you play through the more it’s apparent that VR is probably where this belongs. It’s a shame, I mentioned up top I was interested to see if this was still as fun as it was when you’re actually sat in the middle of a tank with enemies surrounding you at every turn. I wondered if the experience could translate to our traditional realities. It isn’t. And it doesn’t.
It’s a game that wears its heart on its sleeve and is full of fun and exciting gameplay, which in its more tricky areas requires your attention. It looks terrific and runs like a dream, you may expect it considering the 2D visuals but there are moments I felt like I was playing a cartoon and the grin wasn’t going away.
Exctinction does precisely one thing very well. Over and over again.
Octahedron is a delightful puzzle platformer with the best soundtrack of the year.
It’s the best in its field and now it’s on Switch, which makes it more or less essential and yet another cracking indie port to Nintendo’s delightful handheld hybrid.
Kite is going to appeal to those who are after a little bit of a nostalgia hit. And in the times where nostalgia is almost a selling point for games, TV shows and movies, Kite has flown in at precisely the right time to hit that sweet spot. It has been designed by a single man with a passion for the genre and it shows throughout. It’s not perfect, it’s not even brilliant, but what Kite does well it does really well. If I had this game as a kid I would have been delighted.
Subsurface Circular isn’t just a good game to kill time but a great all round experience that you can have done in no time – about the length of two TellTale episode. For less than fiver you can get transported into this future dystopia where robots fear the wrath of humans and discuss this on train journeys away from their gaze. What a terrifying thought.
Where The Water Tastes Like Wine is a colossal re-imagining of what a narrative driven game can be.
Gravel does precisely one thing well and that’s be a competent, fun racer that’s worth checking out if you’re looking to just find exactly that with very little else sprinkled on top.