While the racing is fun and the customization is deep, Need for Speed: Heat feels far too familiar. The day-night gameplay loop does mix things up a little but this racing title does very little to separate it from its predecessors. Its story is predictable and its presentation is underwhelming. Need for Speed: Heat is fun but predictable and slightly stale.
I enjoyed Whipseey but I wish it had deeper gameplay mechanics and maybe some sort of progression system. Its bright, clean and not very expensive. Its a good one for trophy hunters, it has a fun trophy list to complete and does not overstay its welcome or become repetative.
At the start of my playtime with Mini-Mech Mayhem, I thought that the whole game was a bit too random and made any tactical judgements pointless. After a bit longer playtime though I think I realised this was intentional and the true knack of this game is to maximise your chances of gaining points, watching the action map and using your interventions wisely.
A few technical issues aside, if you are looking for an old-school platforming title with quite a bit of gameplay variation then look no further, Effie is a fun game to play.
Falcon Age was a joy to play, I loved looking after and interacting with my new found friend. Its design and personality made it feel real, especially in VR. The VR implementation was flawless and I would even go as far to say that this is definitely the way to play the game.
While Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is fun, I sometimes wished it pushed the envelope a bit more and tried something new. The game excels in multiplayer and playing your favourite characters from the Marvel Universe never gets old. Its combat is fun and gets better the more you upgrade your heroes. Its story is very cliche but that's expected. All in all its a fun pick up and play multiplayer brawler.
It’s a game for a living room full of friends or to play in small sessions online. The perk system is nice and does lead to close, manic and very tense matches. If your in the market for a local arena brawler that does offer something different, Hyper Jam will keep you entertained. If you are looking for a deep, all-encompassing game to eat away your free time, look elsewhere.
Most of the time Mages of Mystralia feels like your standard adventure RPG, most of the stuff is well-trodden ground and not very unique. It really does set itself apart though with its spell augmentation system and environmental puzzles. These two systems alone are worth playing it for.
If you are into these management-style games, Mad Games Tycoon does have something to offer. Just be prepared to put in the legwork early on.
I love music and I adore video games, when these two hobbies clash in an out-of-the-ordinary way, I am all ears… and possibly eyes too! We are OFK is a unique experience that follows an eclectic band over five emotional episodes while they record an EP. Each episode finishes with a controllable music video and each episode is chock full of feelings, angst and other socially-based nightmares.
If you are as old as me and let’s be honest, you’re probably not, you would have loved thumbing through choose-your-own-adventure books as a kid. If you are a whippersnapper and have no idea what I am talking about then these were adventure books with choices. At various intervals in the book, you would be given a choice, to attack the snake turn to page 10 or to give it a wide berth, turn to page 20, those kind of free-flowing shenanigans.
From the moment I started Mini Motorways on the Nintendo Switch, I had a nagging thought of familiarity in the back of my mind. A scratching déjà vu sensation like I had been here before. When I did some research, I quelled that feeling and realised I had played the developer Dinosaur Polo Club’s previous outing Mini Metro on my phone. They both feel similar and the mechanics are very much aligned. Phew, I am not going mad!
Triangle Strategy may be a bit of a weird name but it’s another role-playing game from the mind behind Bravely Default and Octopath Traveller, so everyone knows roughly what to expect. Lovely warm pixel-art, a tightly-woven narrative and a rewarding combat system are what I want, so let’s dig into it.
About a year or so ago the internet went a little insane over a little indie game called Loop Hero. Unfortunately, at the time it was PC only and due to me working with the darn things all day, I use them as little as possible at home. (He says as he types up a game review on his laptop, life eh?) The buzz words surrounding Loop Hero were, alone, enough to get me salivating. Deck-building and Roguelike are two of my favourite mechanisms, so I am already on board. Does it live up to the hype? Let’s find out!
Let me start this review by saying I loved the Pixel Ripped games on PSVR. They were unique, brilliantly implemented and a boatload of fun. So when the opportunity to review ARVORE’s latest foray onto PlayStation’s VR headset dropped into my inbox, I jumped at the chance. I had also heard it was a roguelike, one of my favourite genres, colour me intrigued.
Well, here we are, my first ever Xbox review and what an uncanny game to choose to start with. Golf Club Wasteland is an arcade-style golf game much like many others but its atmosphere, sound design and bleak narrative elevate it above other games of this ilk.
Everyone knows how much I love PSVR. It may be a bit outdated now but it is still a very enjoyable experience. The Move controllers are now three generations old but still, it was a great, affordable entry point to quality VR gaming. I used to write a monthly PSVR column and I really miss it. Anyway, enough of the pointless rambling, let’s talk about my Synth Riders PSVR review.
I had previously heard people talk about Monster Train First Class without really paying too much attention. Then I heard a review code was available for the Nintendo Switch version, so I gazed at it a bit closer. Deck-builder, rogue-like with a bit of tower defence sprinkled in, has someone been peeking at my Christmas list? Monster Train First Class sounds like everything I want from a portable Switch game, so, let’s get into it. All aboard!
Is it just me or are there not enough arcade shoot-em-ups these days? Back in the day, I used to adore these games. I needed nothing more to occupy my small child-like mind other than shooting baddies, collecting power-ups and dodging a screen full of projectiles. I miss them dearly.
There is a small slice of the gaming genre spectrum that I really find fascinating. It’s that miniature sector of games that are amazingly enjoyable but at the same time incredibly frustrating. I don’t know what it is about them, whether it’s the massive boost of joy I get when passing a deeply technical segment or the amount of love the developer has poured upon it to make it so challenging, there is something amazing about them. I’m thinking Dark Souls, I am thinking Celeste and I am certainly thinking about Super Meat Boy.