Chalgyr's Game Room
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Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds is a historical fantasy visual novel set in the Bakumatsu period in Japan and puts you in the shows of Chizuru-san, a young woman determined to find her father in Kyoto. As part one in a two-part series that is the retelling of the original Hakuoki released in 2008, you will romance a number of handsome samurai (some are new to help justify the cost of Kyoto Winds) in search of details surrounding your father's whereabouts. Though it pushes over 80 hours of content with 30 unique endings, Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds feels more like a prolonged cash grab in a genre that is often taken advantage of.
The Keeper of the 4 Elements isn’t a bad title by any means but it doesn’t bring anything new to the field. Stages are over too quickly with the above described tactic changing what looked like it could have been a challenging experience by having to strategically use all four elements into essentially stoning the enemies to death with very large boulders.
Look, by no means is Loading Human: Chapter 1 a great game. There is some potential there, and the use of VR elevates an otherwise very average adventure title. I enjoyed the premise and it reminded me of one of the reasons I was interested in virtual reality in the first place - because VR can help to make more personal, relatable stories. However, that being said, Loading Human: Chapter 1 has too many rough edges to completely overlook.
There really is no other way around it, so I'll be blunt: King's Quest Chapter 4: Snow Place Like Home is the weakest entry in the series to date. More numerous puzzles replace the previously clever ones, substituting quantity for quality and while the narrative itself continues to remain charming, overall my decisions felt as though they lacked some of the punch found in earlier entries.
Solar Shifter EX is a solid shooting game more often than not with excellent visuals but a camera system that does the title no favors in the end. The experience is a decent one for fans of the shmup genre, but Solar Shifter EX is nowhere close to being one of the best shooters have to offer.
Acorn Assault: Rodent Revolution is a fun little title that at its asking price provides a good time for those looking for a tactics game without the need to study an entire encyclopedia of knowledge just to play. The rules are simple but fun, and the premise is silly but entertaining. There are certainly worse things in the world. However, those elements of charm and simplicity give way to a feeling of repetition by the game's end, and the joy of the first hour gives way to something that holds few surprises or rewards for your persistence.
Audio Arena is a fairly simple game offered at a budget price that makes it fair value for what you are getting. It is a nice little rhythm game that does feel a little gimmicky, but still delivers on what it sets out to do in creating a somewhat casual yet still challenging action experience.
From a technical standpoint, the port to PlayStation 4 that supports 4k textures, is excellent; it is smooth (minus the wooden, garbage-like animations), bright, and full of intense colors and detailed hand-drawn textures, but a new paint job is not enough to fix what is wrong with The Legend of Heroes: Trails Of Cold Steel … and that is that it is old.
With their own stars dying, the Dwarves set out in order to find a new source of energy to live by. Because there would be no adventure without something going wrong, their ship gets caught in an energy current that throws them off of their original course and destroys their ship. The survivors must now find each other and survive the hostile environment that they find themselves in.
The Town of Light is a fascinating if unsettling story that is seen through the eyes of a sixteen year old girl. The visual style is unique if not fantastic, with a thick atmosphere that is held back by limited gameplay. This is an adventure game that can fall into the walking simulator category for the most part, which allows you to explore - but at a pace that is going to be too slow for some gamers. There is some payoff here however, for the patient who are willing to survive not just the tale, but some technical challenges along the way as well.
I think that the most shocking aspect of Blood Bowl is that it has been around since the mid-80's, with the first tabletop release being in 1986. I guess that goes to show how much I paid attention to it when walking into a GamesWorkshop retail store (when they still existed in abundance here in the States), though I was admittedly staring at the gorgeously painted models, so I had eyes for little else.
Overall, at least on the Switch, I could not get into Wasteland 2. Clunky controls combined with performance issues kept holding me back from even getting pasts the oddness that ranged combat could often have. I hope to revisit this soon upon a PC, but in the meantime, I'm feeling disappointed because it has been a title that I've been looking forward to for a long while and after reading Nick and especially Robert's reviews, I had expected to be blown away.
I simply didn't like this game. I went into it with high expectations, after having loved playing through the first game past its prime, and ended up being utterly disappointed. Between the numberous gameplay problems, between combat feeling weak and clunky, movement being gutted in favour of a progression system, and the open-world making the game repetitive, this was not something I found almost any fun playing. It's not the worst, but there are so many things done wrong, and so little done right, it just wasn't an experience I could personally enjoy, and I wouldn't recommend it unless you're a die-hard fan of the series.
Cities: Skylines has successfully stolen quite a few hours of my life and taught me that the urban architecture in my home city leaves a lot to be desired. With its ability to create your own city design right down to the roads and the great detail available on each of your denizens, Cities firmly rivals, and in my opinion passes SimCity. It’s the only game I have even bought computer parts specifically so I could play it. I had to install a heat sink the size of my fist into my computer to keep my core from becoming a puddle of useless metal. Totally worth it though because this game is one of my favorites of all time. However, I’m a firm believer that not everything should be brought over to console. Although the developers did an amazing job in converting a quintessential computer game for the couch warriors, it just doesn't work.
All in all, REKT! High Octane Stunts feels like an old-school arcade game. It is a bit of a misnomer to call it a racing game, despite having a car in it. At its core, REKT is all about the stunts and points, and while the game handles well and delivers on that promise, the number of environments and differences in unlocked cars are somewhat limited. There are not a lot of modes here either. What is there is great deal of fun for a time, but REKT! High Octane Stunts’ overall content is somewhat lacking.
Overall Daymare 1998 isn’t a bad zombie title, but it isn’t a great one either. Sitting somewhere in the middle, there are both classic and newer elements that blend together nicely but when added with the visual issues and the more mechanical ones like zombies not dying, there’s a bit of work to be done in order to make this the amazing title that it should be.
No one is going to mistake AeternoBlade II for a AAA effort due to its writing, voice acting and visuals, and that is okay if you are a fan of the Metroidvania genre enough to focus in on the gameplay. Here the gameplay is merely average by and large, though the time lapse / recording element is a really great twist that does elevate the experience a little. The ideas seem to be there, but the polish is lacking and there are better examples of the genre out there to be had.
There is a target audience for Sniper Elite V2 Remastered - but it is something of a narrow one. If you are late to the Sniper series, having only played it on the current generation of systems and are curious what came before, this is an excellent way to go back and experience an earlier release in the series. That being said, if you are not a fan of the Sniper games or you already own the original, there is probably not enough reason to go back to the well yet again here. There are some improvements to be had here, but not enough to really differentiate this updated version dramatically from its prior release.
Dick Wilde 2 is a decently made game that really does nothing new. If you enjoy these kinds of wave / rail shooters in virtual reality, odds are you will enjoy your time spent with Dick Wilde 2. However, for those looking for deeper mechanics or a more engaging story, you will likely find this to be a shallow adventure that you are done with in relatively short order. Dick Wilde 2 does what it sets out to do rather well, just set your expectations accordingly if you are looking for anything more than a goofy arcade shooter.
SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy has some really great franchises to draw from (I have been playing various SNK fighting games for years, and immediately felt familiarity with the cast of characters), and it has arguably the most accessible fighting mechanics of any game to date, but the fanservice and modes really only go so far. SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy has a nice, fast combat system in place that makes local play with friends zany and entertaining, but the modes themselves and modest number of characters probably are not meaty enough to encourage me to spend a ton of the time with the title either. I've gone through and beaten the story mode several times just so I can see the various interactions and endings, but outside of trying to unlock a few more items, I am not sure the hook here is going to be enough to keep me coming back on a regular basis unless I have a few people over looking to play a quick, accessible fighting game.