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With choices between flat or VR, solo or co-op, and Explore vs. Engage, Downward Spiral: Horus Station can be tailored to the player's preference. I found the solo VR mode to be an amazing VR experience that amply demonstrated the incredible immersion value of VR in a spooky, broken space station. The Engage mode, which translates to "you get shot a lot" when playing, was not as compelling - the shooting aspects weren't all that good and served only to detract from the somber, creepy mood.
A great pickup at such an inexpensive price, Dead Man DLC gives a solid short campaign and the addition of new two-handed weapons for you to use as well as better network code.
The new Star Trek: The Next Generation DLC for Star Trek: Bridge Crew offers even more of what made the base game fun: fantasy fulfilment and the chance to tool around the universe with some buddies on a Starfleet vessel. While there isn't a ton that makes Bridge Crew feel different, it is fantastic to have some new enemies to fight, and fun to figure out how to navigate some new wrinkles in the bridge positions. After all is said and done, this DLC gives me more of what I love, and kudos to Red Storm for taking on that challenge when I thought they had abandoned the game and moved on. Now, can I get some Cardassians?
This is a transhumanism story for the android set. I devoured every chapter of these artificial intelligences shedding their artifice. And I learned that being human is filled with daily acts of self-sacrifice.
Trailblazers is a race-and-paint game for children. With its smooth, consistent gameplay and simplistic challenges, a group of toddlers could be content for hours. Just don't be surprised when the 12 year old is reaching for Grand Theft Auto instead.
Killing Floor Incursion reminded me of the old Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyworld, in the way that it careened wildly from place to place, oscillating between thick tension and psychotic action, keeping me totally amused and off balance. From some of the best (and well-earned) jump scares I've experienced in a game, to one of the greatest boss fights in recent memory, Killing Floor kept me gasping and laughing for its entire duration. The tension ratchets unbelievably high, and the simple act of peeking around a corner can lead to coronary trauma when you realize that something is standing right behind you. Like any good rollercoaster ride, Killing Floor Incursion delivers the chills and the fun in equal measure, and is well worth the price of admission.
Starship Corporation has the features you would expect from a vehicle designer / guy-in-charge game, provided in an easy to use set of menus and helper screens. A thorough tutorial gives the player a good background for moving forward. We did encounter some stability issues, though.
I was very pleased with the simplistic, fun-to-play nature of Super Mega Baseball 2. The game plays very well with only a few shortcomings and does so for a small amount of bucks. You will not see Mike Trout hitting a home run, but you can have Tony Stark stealing home.
City of Brass is the sort of game that certain gamers will treasure. It is a beautiful, well-polished first-person rogue-lite that will not hesitate to regularly reward diligent players with a quick and horrible death. City of Brass is not for the faint of heart, but for those that put in the time to hone their skills, the rewards of City of Brass are great (and I'm not talking about the in-game treasure). A visual treat, City of Brass never feels unfair, and learning to overcome its many challenges can be vastly satisfying.
The tables in the Pinball FX3 Bethesda Pack are all pretty solid, though they can get complicated at times, namely the Skyrim and Fallout tables. While those two contain RPG-style elements to them to match up to their original video game counterparts, the Doom table is more of a traditional pinball table, though all three do have missions and quests to complete. Overall, eleven dollars for these three tables is a pretty good deal, especially given how complex Fallout and Skyrim can be.
Monitoring everything from your debits and credits to your hit points and heat levels, BattleTech is brutal, fragile, smart, and struggling a little under its own weight. It has more heart than you're expecting. Couldn't stop playing.
Tera is a six-year-old MMORPG that is showing its age, but not in the way you might think. While the combat and dungeons are fast and fun and have been translated to console successfully, the over-world has been sliced and diced in a manner that removes most reasons to visit it. If you have a group of friends and you want to run through the game, quickly leveling up and taking down giant monsters, Tera will be a blast. But if you actually enjoy the journey to the endgame, good luck. Tera has lost its patience for players like you.
Infernium is a survival horror game with a creeping, insidious kind of logic. It gives you very little to go on and punishes nearly every wrong turn you take. If you're a fan of old school survival horror you might get into this one, but most other players will probably just get frustrated with the repetition and trial and error.
Toki Tori on the Nintendo Switch is an excellent puzzle game. The difficult progresses naturally, the puzzles themselves will make you think about solutions other than what seem obvious, and the wild card and rewind functions are great for newcomers and veterans alike. If you have five dollars to spare, definitely give Toki Tori a shot.
If you're looking for a mobile puzzle game worthy of your time, then Umiro is where you should turn. It's short, with admittedly low replay value, but hey—it's a mobile game, primarily. It's not the place to look for a fully-fledged, complex plot, but it does the job on the puzzle front, and is great at keeping you engaged for however long you have to play it.
Brakes are for Losers is a fun throwback to the racing games of yore. Fans of RC Pro Am or Super Sprint ought to feel right at home once they stop freaking out about having a basic racing control pulled out from under them. Single player has a number of good modes for practicing, but the game really comes to life in multiplayer. If you are like me and are constantly on the lookout for local multiplayer titles, this is an inexpensive way to add a fun title to your library.
I really loved playing Skyrim with my HTC Vive and even with the bugs that it has, the game's great fun. Add in a bunch of mods to really up the game.
Atomic Heist is a side-scrolling action shooter in the same line as the NES game Gradius, but with a harsh difficulty level and a beta-looking design. I've never played a game this unforgiving and could not find anything - music, story, sounds, features, or graphics - to bring me to play any longer.
The pieces were all in place for ARK Park to be something brand new and highly compelling in the VR market, but fails to maximize on the opportunity. While it can be spectacular to look at, the gaming elements just feel tacked on as if there was a checklist of features to build in, whether they made sense or not.
It would be easy to dismiss Layers of Fear as a funhouse, but the reality is that this game goes far deeper than a ride through a spooky house. As an examination of family, artistic obsession, alcoholism and regret, Layers of Fear hits on a deeper level while still delivering quality scares.