I came into Astor: Blade of the Monolith with all the hope and promise simply because it was NOT a souls game. I still love it for that, but as much as I enjoyed the bright and colorful vistas, the vivid and detailed graphics and the cute characters; I just can’t get past the clunky feeling of the combat. Late game weapons and abilities make things feel better but never perfect. Despite the combat and the forgettable story, I did have some fun in Astor: Blade of the Monolith at the end of the day; the cuteness of the characters won the day.
I know I have been critical of the developer in the past, and while I, myself didn’t really vibe with their marketing techniques; at the end of the day developer Digital Cybercherries’ freshman offering is a joy to play with others. It can be rather difficult alone due to having to defend multiple towers, but with others, online or split-screen I cannot deny this is a fun game. Its not going to set the world on fire, but for a group of buddies on a weekend; this one will definitely make you smile.
I came away impressed with Fabledom, it offers something unique and new to the city builder genre. Some of the humor was a little dry for my taste, but its impossible to deny this games cutesy charm. It’s a very likeable and chill city builder and aside from the AI still needing some work; despite being in EA for a year, Fabledom is a relaxing and wholly enjoyable game.
Even with my somewhat minor complaints, I walked away from Killer Klowns from Outer Space wholly impressed with the gameplay, the faithfulness to the movie and the graphics. For a budget title this is a great looking game, textures on the klowns faces are lifelike and creepy, cotton candy that is literally on everything as the match progress has a light and wispy look as one would expect. With everything that this game is doing, for me; Killer Klowns from Outer Space feels like the best version of these asymmetrical multiplayer games. I love, love that the team at Illfonic found a way to keep players engaged even after they died in game. With a great balance between puzzles, scares and fun; each match was a blast to play, even if I have yet to escape as a teen. Burnt out on DbD, tired of being turned into chili by Leatherface and his fam? Killer Klowns from Outer Space deserves your attention, I just hope it retains its player base.
Having never played the original, I can say that I enjoyed Freedom Planet 2 even if the combat annoyed me at times. The Sonic like speedy traversal of each level was a joy to complete, the real issues only crept up when combat was needed. While it was nice to have some advanced moves, given how fast FP2 plays; the combat kind of felt out of place. Floaty combat with the high speed makes the boss battles frustrating; If people can get around that, they will find that Freedom Planet 2 is a peek into Sega’s heyday, with a cheesy story and heroes that ‘gotta go fast’ if you are in the need for some Genesis vibes, take a trip to Freedom Planet 2.
By far and away the best thing about Tales of Kenzera: Zau is its narrative, Surgent Studios have proven themselves to be quite the masterful storytellers. A story tackling grief, acceptance and loss is rare in this day and age and the team have done extremely well of making it relatable. Not only that but the world and imagery in Kenzera is some of the best I’ve seen and I hope that this is just the beginning for these tales of Kenzera, as I am certainly ready for more.
I hadn’t heard anything about Heading Out before it landed in my lap for review, and I am so grateful it did. I absolutely loved the gritty, 70’s feel of the racing and multiple vehicles. And I already gushed over the awesome soundtrack and radio personalities, as a fan of the talk radio in the recent GTA games this felt right up there as far as production value, content, and laughs. Mix all those things together and you end up with one mesmerizing road trip, that fans of the genre will be glad they took.
The one thing I was most excited about with Sons of Valhalla was the city-building aspect but sadly this ends up being a really shallow experience. As a fan of StarCraft, WarCraft and any number of games like that, I had hoped this would be similar but on a 2D plane. There is no real depth or strategy that takes place when building the city or training units. If you have a lot of big units, chances are you will prevail. I didn’t hate my time with Sons of Valhalla, I had just expected more from it.
I enjoyed my time with Sand Land, the adventures of Beelzebub and team was often times funny but really had a great story to tell. I loved the banter between them, and even helping to build up Spino City, which opens up new venders. I wish the team had put in more interesting side quests and enemy types but even though it felt kind of repetitive, as I said I had fun in Sand Land and that’s what it really is all about anyway.
All in all I expected more from this horror game. My nephew has raved about how good the first two were and even though this has been in EA on PC for years I was eagerly awaiting the console release. Sadly, The Outlast Trials just didn’t live up to the hype for me. With monsters that didn’t really feel scary, and maps and objectives that just start to feel repetitive really quickly, I can really only recommend this one for the real Outlast fans.
All that being said though Star Wars Battlefront Collection isn’t a terrible game by any stretch, its just very much a game of its time and sadly I just don’t see myself playing it with the same vigor that I did when these games originally released. I think Ryan said it best, when he said in the year 2024 with so many great games out currently and on the cusp, I don’t think I would play this like it deserves. And he’s not wrong, Helldivers 2 has been that new hotness but we have a little game called Dragon’s Dogma 2 on the horizon as well as Rise of the Ronin and others that could be huge games. Listen, I know it sounds as if I don’t recommend this game but that is quite the contrary. For as long as the servers can attract players this will be a blast to play with friends. But if nothing else I hope this does the sales numbers to show that THIS is the type of Battlefront game that fans want, not what EA released in the reboots. The whole time playing this I yearned to be able to play the cancelled and leaked Battlefront 3 game. A man can certainly dream.
I wanted to love this game, especially when I heard that Matt and Trey wanted this as an avenue to have a sort of metaverse with the show. So, events can happen in the show on one night and the next it picking up in the game. The premise is very cool, but sadly this game ain’t it. Its going to take a lot of patches and things to get this up to snuff, which is sad because it does some neat things. The different cards in game that work as powers for one, players can choose one ‘bullshit’ card to use which is some uber power like making someone vampires, or giving super strength. All of it with the vibe that these are still kids playing outside. Sadly, it’s all just wasted in its current state, I really hope the developers can turn this around because I want to go on down to South Park and meet some friends of mine.
Rise of the the Rōnin doesn’t feel like a game that is worth $70 in my opinion, it is a hodgepodge mix of some of gaming’s biggest trends lately but never amounts to the sum of those parts. I really miss when Tomonobu Itagaki was at Team Ninja; and NOT for the oversexualized women in DoA or crazy volleyball games but for the awesome ninja action games.
I have played a lot of the current survival games including Grounded and I got to say that Smalland: Survive the Wilds ranks really high on the list about it. The amount of polish was surprising to see from such a small team and the number of systems and size of the map are just proof that they have wizards over at developer Merge Games. Smalland even simulates the 4 seasons and the storms that come with them and these are some visually impressive parts of the game. I loved every rainstorm, just the peacefulness of it…at least while I was in my base. If you enjoyed Grounded or are just a fan of a good survival game, I highly recommend Smalland: Survive the Wilds
I said this on the podcast, Slave Zero X is a weird game. On the surface it appears to have little to do with the original, but the story does reveal some threads The bad thing is the combat and levels just feel so frustrating and difficult that most players will never even get to see any of it. This game didn’t make me feel like a “killing machine” with its clunky combat and constant difficulty spikes. I don’t know who this one is for, I just know it isn’t me.
As I said I don’t know what cricket is, and to be honest this game helped me expand my knowledge of the sport. Knowing things like the fact the Queen got involved at one point and demanded a rule change about it being boring to try and hit the goal post. And they even took cricket to outer space and would play in zero gravity. It was fascinating to see how much the game of cricket has intertwined with human history. While Cricket thru the Ages isn’t a long game, it is quite a fun one, made even more so if players can find a player 2. And with its simple one button controls literally anyone can play.
If this review reads odd, I apologize; I always try to be real with y’all so I want to be upfront about the state of things with Helldivers 2. Yep, it sucks we can’t play right now due to stressed servers, the good thing is that the game is obviously hot but the bad is that it could lose the player base if this isn’t fixed quickly. Y’all know me, I am an optimist, I have high hopes for Skull & Bones and I am sure that Sony will step in and get this resolved and we can all get back to fighting for freedom and democracy together. But in the meantime, if you don’t mind maybe not being able to play when you want, or having random crashes and missing rewards then dive into Helldivers 2. These are all growing pains and can be resolved, at the end of the day this game is blast, made more so when you are playing with friends which is evident if you watch any of our gameplay videos. If you all pick this up and happen to be teamed with ZeroTolerance, just watch ya back because he is all about completing the mission, teammates be damned. LOL.
Lil Guardsman is a perfect palate cleanser in this sea of bigger releases in early 2024. Its heartwarming and genuinely funny story and cast of characters make multiple playthroughs a joy and not a chore to replay. I have become a huge fan of indie games in the past few years, and developer Hilltop Studios have come out swinging with Lil Guardsman. Perfectly walking that line between cozy and comedy, I loved every minute of this one and if you need a smile; I highly recommend it.
Phantom Abyss can be a run roguelite with its free-running, puzzle solving, and trap avoiding adventures. But throw in the phantoms of real-world players who act as a guide of what to do and not do through these temples takes things to another level. Mileage can vary though as a lot of the puzzles, temples and traps are reused and thus can make the game start to drag on and feel repetitive. Being in early access for so many years though there is quite a lot of content here that players can dig through before fatigue will set in. And with all the talk about Indiana Jones lately, why not start practicing your whip skills.
With a full explorable River City, a story with multiple endings and the surprise Double Dragon fighting game; there is a lot on offer in Rivals Showdown. Unfortunately, it’s held back by an overly repetitive soundtrack which will start to grate on one’s nerves, and some very uneven combat until the late game. These games are usually good for some fun beat-em up action but it takes so long for this entry to hit its stride with the combat that by the end I was just running on auto pilot. I think there is a lot here for fans to discover but this isn’t going to bring in any new fans, especially when the last two entries in the River City Saga were much better.