AusGamers's Reviews
Ultimately it's the setting, art direction, and non-verbal cinematic storytelling where Somerville excels. But even here there are long lulls and a few sections that begin to feel bland. Like when you’re in a cave system trying to avoid attention in a way that feels like a homage to Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. And outside of the emotional notes touched upon when it comes to trying to reach your family in an oppressive situation, the ending and final act are too obtuse and abstract to make any sort of lasting impact. Somerville is a visually impressive, relatively short cinematic adventure held back by its ambition.
Another average, but ambitious, outing for the blue hedgehog.
We wanted to experience a different saga, and God of War Ragnarök feels like the expansion of one we’ve already heard around the hearth, seen in a beautiful tapestry and heard on the high seas venturing towards more loot. Though it’s still a very, very good saga. One worthy of the Edda.
Hellena turned down the role in the end, and that public dispute is still bubbling along in the background in Twitter's cauldron, and while it hasn't affected the product before you today, the spat has certainly soured the behind-the-scenes of it all.
Even if you've never played a Call of Duty, or dipped in and out of the franchise every so often, you'll probably be okay with not knowing who Task Force 141 and Soap MacTavish, Ghost, and Captain Price are before jumping into the campaign.
Take your pick of the four aforementioned proteges listed above, team up with another player, and take-down syndicates and streetcorner thugs using combat inspired by the popular Batman Arkham series of games.
This is the best the franchise has looked from a purely cinematic level. In the end, New Tales From The Borderlands succeeds because it lives up to its namesake and presents the best Borderlands storytelling since the original Tales.
If themes exist across these games -- the first being Mushroom Kingdom focused, and the second Donkey Kong, then Sparks of Hope is a riff on the Super Mario Galaxy games as it features the Lumas of those games, only they're now Rabbidified and called Sparks, as well as some planet-hopping for differential fun and a broad spectrum of environments to play within.
Unfortunately not much has changed where that sentiment is concerned. And if we’re looking solely at the studio’s technical and artistic strengths, it doesn’t need to prove this aspect of its game anymore, but looking at things purely from a gameplay perspective, Asobo might need to come out of the Dark Ages.
I think the best thing they've done this year is they've made the stickiness of players feel less oppressive.
It's fantastical, cartoonish, and realistic in equal measure, with a sense of fun and even dread, expressed through impressive art direction and a moody synth-driven soundtrack.
It was perhaps around the time I found myself feeding mulberry leaves to my silkworms so they could produce the silk I need to run through my loom in order to make the fabric required to produce the parachutes the island's meteorologist had requested for her research balloons… somewhere in that long chain of intertwined chores, anyway… that I realised Wylde Flowers was indeed a very good chore game. And by this point my wife was very much in agreement.
Wayward Strand is a delicate piece of work, as its title might imply. Despite the flight of fancy proposed by the very idea of an airship hospital, it's a remarkably unassuming game–not literally down-to-earth, but certainly grounded in its portrayal of lives nearing their end and one just beginning, and the common hopes, dreams and fears that connect all those lives together.
A joyous adventure game that, if you've ever been a fan, should be savoured like a tall glass of aged grape juice.
Ultimately the new Saints Row is a disappointment, especially if you’re a fan of the series.
There's just so much to learn and find and unlock in your first playthrough, and I'm not sure I even want to get into the prospect of follow-on sessions, armed with the knowledge that wood is your earliest friend and that you really shouldn't build with a hodgepodge sense of <i>whatever</i>, <i>wherever</i>, because I guarantee you it'll come back to bite you in your cute little lamb ass later.
In the end, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered presents the most visually impressive version of a brilliant comic book adaptation to date. And a game that feels every bit as big now as it did back in 2018. Insomniac nails the swinging mechanics to the point where it kind of feels like a magic trick, and the cinematic spectacle is just about always next-level.
Like any ongoing series, it's enhanced if you're well versed in all of the verses, but as a first-time Xeno Chron, I say… jump on in.
The characters too feel real, down-to-earth, and the sort of archetypes you'd expect to see in a branching crime drama.
Outside of a handful of action sequences, the pacing here is slow and measured. And without any real difficulty or challenge, there’s a meditative quality to Stray.