AusGamers's Reviews
A visually impressive remake full of detail and polish for what is for the most part a painfully average platformer. From a time when the genre was moving forward and delivering better traditional efforts than this.
As loud, brash, and in your face Trials of the Blood Dragon is, it’s all over after a few hours. So it doesn’t outstay its welcome. Which is about the highest praise you can assign to this oddity. Part ‘80s love letter, part Trials game, part mash-up of new and mostly terrible play styles.
About a gazillion times better than Rugby World Cup 2015, but it's just not able to compete in the big leagues against well made, polished titles like FIFA 16, NBA 2K16 and Madden 16.
If you want to focus just on the racing itself, there is always the challenge of chasing your online friends' times, but with such uninspired tracks I doubt we'll see quite the same buzz around Fusion as there was for Evolution. What we're left with is a product that relies more on promises and potential than what is actually playable. The tracks are boring, the tricks not worth bothering with, the attempt at storytelling laughable and far too much expectation rests in the audience to shape Fusion's potential.
The core shooting mechanics are quite possibly best in class. It's a shame then that everything around them fails to reach those same heights. Destiny Expansion II: House of Wolves is no exception, and seems to be an expansion in name only. If anything, it makes the already overplayed sections of the core game feel smaller. And for a grand sci-fi universe, that's a bad thing.
Thief isn't a bad game, but it's not a good one either.
Ultimately the new Saints Row is a disappointment, especially if you’re a fan of the series.
Another average, but ambitious, outing for the blue hedgehog.
Much like the origins of Space Hulk it feels true to the tabletop roots of the series - but also lacking in its limited scope.
The casual gaming market Peggle occupied at release has come such a long way that Peggle 2 can't help but feel a little stale.
And really, when the crashes look like simple physics experiments from the late-90s that can trigger from the slightest of scrapes – it was destined to fall short of hitting its lofty Burnout spiritual successor goal.
Which, in case you were wondering, isn't a good thing for a, you know, racing game.
Things go horribly wrong and fall apart.
Instead what we've got here is a HD misfire of a motion-control misfire from over a decade ago.
Shotguns sound like small calibre rifles, grenades and C4 detonate with the force of a small firecracker, and the heavy machine gun sounds like someone spilled a box of tic-tacs on a wooden floor. They get the job done; multitudes are massacred, the world is a safer place, etc etc, but without decent sound effects to back up the zombie slaying it's about as satisfying as watching a Michael Bay movie on an iPhone.
It doesn’t become great, but there are flashes of brilliance and promise.
As it stands it's still a few meaningful patches from becoming something that we'd recommend.
It's a tragedy to see Lords of Shadows 2 arrive in this form. Rather than focus on what made the first game so much fun, the designers seem to have totally misunderstood what gamers wanted from the sequel, and delivered something that was utterly alien to the first game.
Though it has to be said, the somewhat janky real-time cinematics, not to mention seeing so many others running around as you're trying to trigger an important event, hinder the dramatic impact of the story being told.
The mid-to-late 1990s. And it's here where we bring up the obligatory <b>StarCraft</b> comparison, mainly because the iconic RTS from 1998 drew inspiration from a number of classic sci-fi properties including Starship Troopers.