Thumb Culture
HomepageFrostpunk is in a word awesome, it’s beautifully crafted, enticingly simple and wholly captivating. Words truly do not do the magnificence justice, buy it, play it, love it. Many hours are going to be lost, my children’s names will fade from my mind as I plan my next move. Frostpunk is a city-building game fan’s delight. 11 Bit Studios need to go out and have one hell of a celebration unless that hell freezes over of course. Frostpunk romps it’s way to an easy Thumb Culture Platinum award.
The Fisherman is a very enjoyable and relaxing game, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time playing it. As a new player, I can recommend it, for the initial purchase you get a lot of game for the money and the removal of the microtransactions and the reworked economy make for a much more enjoyable and relaxing game, which in my eyes a fishing game should be. If however, you’re a seasoned Fishing Planet player I can’t see it being a worthwhile purchase, If you’ve already invested 100’s of your own hours or more importantly money into the free game, it’s a lot to give up for reworked mechanics. I feel The Fisherman deserves the gold thumb award!
Vampyr is a flawed gem which is unfortunately a bit more flawed on the Nintendo Switch. It feels a bit like a game from a by-gone era, when technical issues and rough plotting often went hand-in-hand with passion and a unique vision. If you’re willing to turn a blind eye to the technical issues you’ll most likely have a ghoulish time, even with the Switch port. I give Vampyr a vampire-destroying Thumb Culture Silver Award.
I don’t know how simply I can put this: Close To The Sun is brilliant. I’ve already gone back to play it and I’m still getting caught out by the jump scares and the wrong-turns when being chased. It’s bloody fantastic. The game encompasses all of the best parts of survival horror games, brings to life alternate realities with adaptations to non-fictional characters such as Tesla and his wacky inventions, and really grips you with the storyline. If you haven’t already got hold of it, go and get it. However, I can’t just let the graphical deficiencies slide, so as much as I like the game and I do recommend it, I’ll be giving Close To The Sun a Thumb Culture Silver Award!
I fairly enjoyed Disco Elysium. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very impressive game in its deep approach to role-playing but I found it extremely text-heavy and with no combat, was for me at times quite mundane. Disco Elysium is a very well written RPG, with deep conversations and an intriguing city that will make you want to make sure you are constantly on top of all things regarding your investigation. Whether that be talking and then re-talking to characters to see if you’ve unlocked some new dialogue to extend the investigation, or whether you’re constantly roaming around Revachol making sure you haven’t missed out on any new areas to look into, I just felt it was a lot of slow grinding and to bridge that with a bit of an un-motivating story, it didn’t keep me wanting to play all the time. Politics play a huge part in the story and I kind of got the feeling that as we have enough politics in the world right now what with BREXIT, that having it within Disco Elysium it’s got on my nerves a little. I am making Disco Elysium sound like a chore of a game, but I was, for the most part, enjoying it. Disco Elysium is currently £34.99 on Steam. I am awarding Disco Elysium a Thumb Culture Silver Award!
Into the Dead 2 is astoundingly expense for an auto-run game. There are two DLC packs, Ghostbusters and Night of the Living Dead, which look better than the base game however, these are available for an additional £4.49 each! The game’s core mechanic will most likely bore most people. It may appeal to the casual gamer and if you’re interested in the title then download the free to play mobile version as the Switch version is definitely not worth your time or money. This game needed to stay dead. I award the game a Thumb Culture Bronze Award.
Wrapping up, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a fantastic game and well-deserving of high praise. Between the goofy dialogue, lovely cartoony art style, and super-smooth gameplay. I’m ecstatic to be able to award them with the Thumb Culture Platinum Essential award. If you own a Nintendo Switch, you don’t want to miss out on this gem of a platformer. Available now on the Nintendo eShop for £24.99, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is every bit worth your time and money.
Farming Simulator 19 Platinum Edition is immense, tricky and certainly not a walk in the farm! There is a handy tutorial to set you on your way but be warned, you will lose many days if not months of your life to this game in order to perfect your farm. As a father of 4 boys I would personally struggle to sit down every day for a few hours to carry on what I was doing from the day before. That said this is the perfect form of escapism if you just need to go chill and take time out from your life, which let’s face it, we should all do from time to time. The attention to detail within the game as well as the amazing CLAAS vehicles that have been included in this edition really bring something to the table if you love your farming and engineering. I award Farming Simulator 19 Platinum Edition the Thumb Culture Gold Award!
I’m happy to report that the game is worth checking out. I was surprised with the quality of the game in terms of level design; it’s varied, challenging and feels like classic Monkey Ball. Unfortunately, the party games lack the quality and depth of its predecessors and due to this, I award the game a Thumb Culture Silver Award!
CHIKARA: Action Arcade Wrestling IS the wrestling game I have been waiting for after the slew of WWE games that really hasn’t been great. Sure, Fire Pro Wrestling World is good but its a bit hardcore for those that are looking for some quick-fire wrestling action. With its button bashing simplicity but allowing you to do some amazing moves along with fighting with your makes. I hope the Online play gets busy as this game will be doing some high flying manoeuvers off the top ropes. For this, I’m going to give CHIKARA: Action Arcade Wrestling a Thumb Culture Gold Award