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Dead in Vinland is a nice mix of RPG, simulation, and exploration elements. With nearly a dozen party members to recruit, multiple tasks to assign people to, and many different ways to interact with the island's inhabitants, there are multiple ways to go about playing the game and every decision you make will matter in the end.
While selecting individual cases from the full game leaves the player with a disjointed and incomplete story, enough of the 1940's ambiance and the rough and tumble crime fighting of that era is included to offer up a compelling preview of what will hopefully become LA Noire 2: VR. There is some work to do on some of the mechanics, most notably the way in which weapons are handled, but this weakness is easily offset by the compelling, immersive world and some of the action sequences that occur in it.
They make the game better. Definitely worth picking up.
Playing Surviving Mars is like watching someone put a kitten in a plastic bubble. It's cute for a while, wobbling around in its new environment. But then you realize that the kitten is going to suffocate, and you are going to spend hours watching it slowly run out of air and die. Trying to get the kitten out of the bubble is hopeless. You don't know anything about bubbles, and the kitten isn't telling you. Have fun, kids!
Dressed as a lion-wrapped Roman or a hawk-headed god of Egypt, season one takes Bayek above and beyond the events of Origins. Building up the Brotherhood in the Sinai Peninsula is solid and unsurprising, while becoming a god killer in eternity is surreal and unexpected. The season goes from monotonous to magnificent and back again in several imaginative leaps.
Titan Quest is a hack-n-slash game that captivated a great many players for over a decade. There have been thousands of mods, skill-sets, skins, and even a few full games made in its wake because of how good it was. Now on console, the game lives again. Maybe a bit too close to the flawed original, and maybe not as hack-friendly as the original, but it gives a chance for a new set of players to battle a titan… and that should be good enough for anyone.
This historian notes the progression in the pirate's attitude. At the outset, she is optimistic at best and infuriated at worst. Her outlook seems to peak when she first joins a crew and sails with friends, but she cannot maintain that energy, and eventually devolves once again into frustration—primarily, it seems, with other pirates of the time, who show little to no restraint in their violence for no reason. However, she maintains a constant love for the sea, and seemed to greatly enjoy the time she spent in a full crew; even throughout misfortunes, such as lost ships and chicken mishaps, there seemed to be great amusement. Perhaps, had she a more accessible and constant crew, her piracy might not have ended so soon after her arrival in the Sea of Thieves.
With a great balance between playability, ominous ambiance, and well-designed VR elements like mobility and weaponry, The Wizards is an excellent model of the compelling and enjoyable things that can be done with VR. It is attractive and enticing without being too easy or too hard. Level designs are challenging but fair, although they may not feel that way at first exposure.
If you have wasted great gobs of your life playing Civ 6, or feel like you have figured it out, this is a good expansion to make you rethink a game you thought you knew.
I've never played this type of game before, and although I didn't necessarily enjoy every single minute of gameplay, it's memorable for the ideas it presents, and the different ways in which it plays out.
If you embrace the madcap, if you let go of expectations of narrative and plot and just give in to the cult of Far Cry, then there is a lot of entertainment to be had. It's not a game I would describe as good so much as entertaining.
I almost feel amiss even giving this game a score. But then again I feel the same about even calling it a game. It's an $11 demo. You'll be hard pressed to stretch your total playtime past half an hour. The worst part of it is that it's actually pretty good, but as soon as the story feels like the prologue is over and it's time to take off, you get kicked right to the title screen and it's all over.
I had hoped that after a few initially rocky hours, The Alliance Alive would somehow turn it all around and be a game that I would love. Unfortunately that's not quite the case here, and on a system with no shortage of good RPGs, it's hard to sell The Alliance Alive to anyone but the most ardent of fans.
Ni No Kuni II is a machine that runs on beauty, fun and delight. With simple storylines and engaging characters, it weaves a narrative that captures the optimistic nature of childhood, without forgetting to deliver deep RPG mechanics. Utterly abandoning many of the confounding elements of the original title, Ni No Kuni II marches to its own quirky beat. This is a game that will be remembered as a classic.
Pit People is one of those games that I enjoyed despite being terrible at the genre. While the game can be simple compared to other games in the genre, the combination of the easy to pick up gameplay and the graphics and humor that The Behemoth is known for makes this a game worth checking out regardless of whether you've played other tactical RPGs or if this is your first one. Plus, who doesn't want to hear a giant space bear taunt you throughout the game?
It is a truly welcome gem in the medium that takes risks and propels the experience with new energy nearly every step of the way. The player constantly moves forward and the game gets tension done in a way seldom seen in gaming. A Way Out is an example of a triumph in new ideas, while using traditional methods of gameplay to get the point across that this is a different beast.
Super One More Jump is a fun and addicting game that's simple to pick up and has a gradual difficulty curve. With over 100 levels to play and a few extra game modes to unlock, plus the two multiplayer options including two- to four-player co-op, Super One More Jump is definitely worth picking up.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus takes an already fiendishly addictive arcade game and adds a fantastic multiplayer mode. At $20 it's an impulse buy for any Switch owner.
Castle of Heart goes for that Souls level of challenge but without the nuance and balance needed to make that kind of difficulty satisfying. It's visually striking for an indie game but it needs some fine-tuning; for now it's mostly just frustrating.
With its fun visuals, finely tuned difficulty, and inherent physicality, Blasters of the Universe stands out in the crowd of VR wave shooters. While a late-game bug was disappointing, I still had a great time and plan on returning to it. Bugs can be patched, and game design this strong doesn't come knocking every day.