Stevivor's Reviews
Sadly Carmageddon: Max Damage was seemingly built just for those that want to re-live the original game, including literally all of its flaws. Had the target audience been expanded to those that like playing games that are fun, it could have been a huge hit.
That’s really it — you draw Disney characters. As such, this will work for die-hard adult Disney fans, but is best suited for children with long car rides in their future. It’ll be engaging and involving childhood heroes, making it hard to fail.
My 3DS gets a ridiculous amount of attention (mostly because of Pokémon) so it’s fair to say I’m familiar with it. I’ve upgraded a bunch of times over the years and I’m current sporting a new 3DS XL. I’ve always wanted something to test out the nub… thing so I was keen to give it a go with Monster Hunter. It was a disaster. It doesn’t reflect poorly on the game itself as it’s completely a hardware problem, but I would suggest a Circle Pad Pro instead, or just avoiding the nub altogether. The controls are tricky enough as it is and take a bit of getting used to without the headache of using the damn thing. There also is another control system for people without either that works almost as well as the Circle Pad Pro. You’re spoilt for choice.
Prison Architect is an excellent sandbox, a throwback to the days of Bullfrog's Theme series that forces you to balance an eye for aesthetics with pure functionality. Those who don't need to be led by the hand to explore the deep systems at play will find an excellent simulation to lose themselves in, with online sharing options providing a huge selection of prisons to explore, tear down and rebuild. If you can stomach the morality of prisons for profit you will enjoy Prison Architect.
Give this one a miss unless you’re a huge fan of getting really angry at video games.
7 Days to Die is awful. I’d imagine this is how the PC release initially played back in 2013 as part of Steam Early Access; I’m utterly confused as to why there’s no polish at all on this new console release. There’s no excuse for such a flimsy mess, and I’m quite surprised Telltale Games would permit its name to be associated with such tripe. Avoid the game at all costs.
All things considered, “Underground” is a true evolution of the MMO, provided those who had a passing interest in it can be bothered jumping back in.
The Chris and Jake campaign should have been less of a testosterone fest, instead playing more like Leon’s campaign instead. Or, better yet, Resident Evil 5‘s “Lost in Nightmares” DLC. Sherry and Jake’s campaign has a nice balance between tension and action that should have been fleshed out to a far greater degree. The problem that Resident Evil 6 has is that it’s three — or four — games squashed into one, desperately suffering from an identity crisis. With such an emphasis on choice and variation, it does nothing well. We get suspense with Leon, a thriller with Jake and action with Chris, but by the time you get into the groove of each campaign, it’s over. Capcom has tried to do a far too much with just one title, and the franchise moves backward as a result.
Resident Evil 5 was released to the market in 2009 with a lot to live up to; RE4 took the “survival horror” genre the series was so famous for and introduced so many different gameplay mechanics that it was thought of as an “action horror” title instead. The series was flipped on its head; old fans either loved it or hated it, but a new group of gamers found the series for the first time and fell in love. In 2016, this game still holds its own, a refinement of the franchise rather than the train-wreck, ‘everything including the kitchen sink’ mentality that befell Resident Evil 6.
Honestly, I’m disappointed that The Technomancer couldn’t deliver. I want to like it so much! The seeds of an excellent game are there, but they just haven’t been tended to a level that really needs to be played. Hopefully Spiders will patch the game to improve some of the difficulty wall issues and this will become a more enjoyable experience, but I don’t think it’s a must-play for now. Overall it feels like an atmospheric step forward for the developer, but a mechanical trip backwards. Until that gets sorted, the red planet can wait.
With 30 levels, too few of them being actual trials and too many being stupid platforming, Trials of the Blood Dragon seems nothing more than an attempt at showing off what a few developers could do after getting drunk and watching 80 action movies and Saturday morning cartoons. The disappointing thing is this could have been so much better by simplifying the concept and making it a DLC map pack for Trials Fusion. Die-hard Trials fans will play this once, but probably never again; that said, they might enjoy it. Die-hard Blood Dragon fans will be unimpressed.
If you still enjoy the campaign aspects of Total War then you will find Warhammer simply brilliant, the Warhammer license makes this the most interesting Total War game in years. If the promise of the most exciting battles isn’t enough to stir your loins then this is just a game of more research trees, resource grinding and shoddy diplomacy, the same you have played for the last decade.
Alienation is a must-buy for any fans of twin stick shooters. Featuring fun gameplay, a deep weapons system (for the genre), smooth visuals and plenty of reason to repeat missions it’s certainly worth your $30.00 AUD.
While Battleborn is a fun game with a lot of depth, there are a few things in the game that are currently problematic and will hopefully be resolved soon.
Rugby Challenge 3 brings menus, fonts, controls, modes and gameplay over wholesale from Rugby Challenge 2, adding only token extras and spicing up the graphics to fit a current generation release. Not that Rugby Challenge 3 looks great; to compare it to Madden or FIFA is embarrassing.
Dark Souls III is not for everyone, but for those that do give it the time required that it takes to learn, they’ll hopefully walk away from the game satisfied like I did. Because what they’ll end up playing is one of the best games of this year.
As a mixed martial arts simulator it fails in some key areas and as a balanced, competitive fighting game it just doesn’t compare to the champions of the genre, 2D or 3D, offering limited depth and distinction between fighters.
For how great the core mechanics of Superhot are, I wish there was more to it and much more of it...Superhot leaves plenty on the table, there is more these mechanics can do and for how great the game is it is a shame that it only scratches the surface of its ideas.
Just Cause 3 is purely an entertaining game; it’s not trying to tell a complex story with plot twists and deep characters. It knows it’s ridiculously over the top and it has fun with that. If, in your video games, you like explosions and causing serious amounts of destruction, you’re not going to find a better game this year to do so.
This is yet another rugby league game that requires patience and understanding to enjoy, compromises we have been expected to make for 20 years now and with so many other legitimately great games out there, both sports and otherwise, they are compromises few should or will make.