Games Xtreme's Reviews
It's tough to define what genre this game really belongs to, but let's say that what we have here is a level-based score chaser. You need to scare away the unsuspecting people in the subway and take their food. To do that, you need to get behind them and bark (well, that's what dogs do anyway, right?). Eating their food will increase your score counter and, at the same time, it will keep your dog's stomach full. Once you have enough points, you can move on to the next level. Of course, the premise is quite straightforward but, I can guarantee, the actual gameplay is much more frantic in practice. You need to think quickly and you need to have fast reflexes. The starter levels are not very difficult but, as you progress, the later sections of the game will be a lot more unforgiving. Sometimes, to get really high scores, you will need to perform some very complex combos and this requires serious effort from your side as well.
The graphics are not overly impressive but they fit the purpose well. From time to time, you will see some rather amusing glitches, though, but none of them is game-breaking. The music is pretty good and, just like the graphics, it really fits the atmosphere well. I'm not sure I can pinpoint my favorite track, but I can say that I didn't dislike a single one, which is more than great.
We begin with Billy Bridger being slammed down on the floor of a prison block floor. Two guards fiercely doing their job while holding the prisoner down. A man of military stature greets this well-known criminal with an offer that is way better than his odds in prison. Bridger's expertise are explosives with the mix of attempted armed robbery and a hint of assault. Explained by Mason, the mysterious army figure, he is willing to offer him freedom in exchange for Billy's recruitment in the army. After a reluctant 5 seconds of being in the "hole" Billy opens the slide and asks what type of unit was it that he had in mind, a slow turn around with a humorous "do you like the seaside" reply form the man while wearing the most dangerous smile ends our scene. At seaside, a dark, rainy and gloomy afternoon Mason and Bridger get ready for an off the grid mission. Thus, starting us off with the first War Story mission.
Super Smash Bros, as a series, has been...Not necessarily one of a kind, but of a rare breed, in how hard it's stuck in with only a few actual entries. If we consider the two forms of the previous entry to be a single game, this is only the fifth game in the series' almost 20 year history. In five games, we've gone from 12 characters to over 75. From Ness being the most obscure character in the roster, to god damn Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles being playable. His game only even came out in the US because of a fan campaign! And in that span, the series has managed to have five unique identities. The original N64 entry, and to a far greater extent Melee, are still played regularly and competitively to this day. It's the only series to my knowledge, to have actually held two separate main-stage slots for the EVO fighting game tournament for multiple years.
Rockstar have pushed out the boat in terms of every single system at play in this game, from the amazing world itself - which is one of the best looking games, with some of the best looking effects and atmospherics, to the level of detail on the characters and physics simulation for clothing and other materials. This is what I really call a Next-Gen game, and it pushes the bar so high it's going to take a while for the rest of the industry to catch up to this one. The AI is fantastic, for every single entity in the game. From the townsfolk, to the gunslingers, gangs, animals, and tiniest critter -- it's all working madly to bring this world to life. Enemies won't rush at you blindly, unless they think you can be flanked, or that's how they're feeling in terms of the fight. Mostly though, they'll use cover. Wolves will hunt in packs, cougars are ambush predators and they hit and run...
This is not that good of a game but is certainly not the worst. I could sit down and play this with my daughter just to let her have fun playing such a simple game with simple controls and end game. This is not something that I'd say I could come back to and enjoy time after time.
I am the biggest fan of creating your own character! I was absolutely blown away with the selections of gear and the different ways to customize your fighter. Pick all the gear separately or throw on a whole outfit already premade. You can choose every single piece of gear with various colors and or designs that are of a vast selection. I have not seen a Fighter as well put together as this and is pretty amazing they could pack so much into this. From the hair styles, stance, clothing and even the items that can be placed anywhere on your character. They missed nothing here and I was absolutely thrown back. I almost, almost had a hard time making my character due to all the items that can be selected, though I wasn't, it is saying a lot that I almost was. I can get into making a character, all day if need be to make it perfect. Well done, well done indeed.
You wake up to a faint voice, whisper and can barely make it out. After gaining consciousness you call out a name, Astrid! In front of you are multiple fires of what was once your plane. A cave lies ahead in the distance, you slowly make your way to it. Your breath forming in the cold winter night. If you look around you will see some of your belongings, get them. They are key to your survival. Once in the cave your very first mission for staying alive and bringing your body temp up is making a fire. So, you head back outside to collect sticks, branches and cedar. You will need tinder and other items to make this fire that is needed to survive. Directly after your achievement, you pass out.
Don't let looks deceive you. Sure it looks swell, and OK colours are somewhat restricted, being desert and all that, but the textures are well rendered. Dust and mud stick to the cars as you race, very nicely rendered clouds of dust rise up around you but that does not detract from the fact that this is a game that just does not thrill and excite you like Forza 7 or Forza Horizon 4, in fact it is just NOT fun. It's hard, frustrating and vehicle handling, don't get me started.
What can we talk about, then? Well, even without giving spoilers, quite a few things. Let's start with the most standout of the gimmicks and tricks 428 has, and one you probably already noticed. The graphics. They're not 3D rendered, they're photographs and video clips. Even at a glance, this makes the game stand out sharply in an era where this hasn't been done unironically in years.
The actual story is pretty solid: After the events of the first game, one Lt. Kai Tana finds herself on the far side of a wormhole with vicious injuries. Her ship's repair systems attempt to keep her alive, integrating mechanical components into the very core of her being, and Kai eventually awakens to find herself with new abilities, and the would-be prisoner of an alien empire... This leads to the major twist of the gameplay. While the classic shmup gameplay is still here in spades, with the usual Velocity twists, 2x introduces a new element into the mix; sidescrolling platformer sections. At various points in stages, Kai can, and often must, exit her ship to go into a base and hunt down controls or resources.
This is a beautiful game. The bright hues make this platformer stand out well. The mystic dinosaur creatures and the lively green life sources give you a vision of a beautiful land that is inhabited by an alien life source. In my mind the possibilities seemed endless. Imagine seeing this type of platformer back in the day, what would the evolution of VG'S be today? The Devs at Planet Alpha ApS did a great job and are highly commendable for making such an impressionable game.
It's nice to see a 3d ARPG that's not made by Blizzard get the bombastic sprawling fantasy epic feel fairly right. There are a few things that grate (the purple prose for one) in the game, and there's not many bugs that I've been able to detect - no broken quest chains or triggers that failed. Everything has been smooth sailing barring the dropped frames now and then, and even they don't actually spoil the game. The dual world and puppet mechanics provide a big draw to the game for me, and I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more of the different characters as I progress through the huge game before me. There's a lot of dialogue to listen and read, so if you're into lore-rich worlds, you've come to the right place. The bonus here is that much of it is narrated by Tom Baker.
I have been hooked. I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. With over 400 vehicles to choose from and the various types, there is plenty of gameplay still left. From Trucks, Hyper Cars, Formula Drift, trucks and even vans. I have never seen so many vehicles in one game. This is the most fulfilling game I have played. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys past Forza games or any racing game for that matter, FH4 tops them all.
The 2nd Runner, as a sequel, builds a lot on its predecessor...But perhaps the simplest place it builds from is in sheer content. The first Zone of the Enders game is, in all honesty, practically a tech demo, with a very short story across only a few areas that mostly look similar. The 2nd Runner, meanwhile, does a lot to improve on that, with more actual story, more things to do, and more places to do them in. It's still a lean game without a lot of sprawl, but it feels like it's actually complete.
Change can be scary, but this time it paid off big time. In the past NBA live would not be a game I'd talk highly of. The slow pace of the players and the too realistic play style and the shooting mech was just all messed up. If you stood in front of another player and tried to shoot the ball, even if it was an easy shot, there would be no way you'd make the basket because of the simple fact someone was in front of you. It would require you to juke, run or somehow shake the player off you so that you had a wide-open path. For me, that was too much and too realistic. Yes, I love realism and the fact that games have player motion to make it look absolute, but the past Live games were out of hand. Luckily that has changed.
So, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy is a fighting game. It's also a cheesecake fanservice game, and a casual-friendly fighting game. Premise is thin on the ground in a lot of fighting games, and this is no exception; There was going to be a King of Fighters tournament, then a bunch of the women who were going to be there (plus Terry, who has been turned into a woman) wake up in a freaky mansion instead wearing skimpy outfits. That's the whole premise.
The game actually puts more of a central focus on combat than a lot of Metroidvanias, too, with new areas often making you stop for a Lucha battle your first time through. These little combat challenges test various skills, from basic brawling to dealing with aerial foes to turning environmental hazards to your advantage. But where things get interesting, in my mind, is when you compare this to the first game. Because, see, I really liked the first Guacamelee. I thought it was a solid little game, but its single biggest problem was that it was slight and brief, over before I was done with it and kind of too easy for most of the experience. None of that is true in the sequel. Oh no. It starts off nice and low and lets you get used to things, but even early on, you've got these little optional challenge rooms to collect heart or mask pieces(for health and stamina, respectively) that give a real solid chunk of platforming to chew on. And the very last dungeon stands out as just plain brutal at times.
Diving in, you're put into a campaign type mode where you go from hospital to hospital with different scenarios and challenges to work on. As you move from one to the next, you start to notice that you're in a living tutorial that never really feels too heavy or confusing. All the introductions of game mechanics gently trickle in, giving you plenty of time to learn as goals urge you to implement them as you go along. This is something that I'm absolutely raving about--the rate at which you learn how to run new equipment and gather unlockables is at a fantastically thorough pace. Have you unlocked something later down the line but wish to use it in a previous hospital? No problem! Just go back to whichever hospital at any time and you can drop whatever you've earned back into it. All the unlockables and research span across the whole account, which is brilliant and makes going back into your first hospitals so much fun.
If youi're a Warhammer 40K fan, and you're a fan of Diablo-style games then Inquisitor Martyr is definitely a game for you. There are still a few bugs, and some mission triggers don't fire correctly at the end of certain missions. But, all that aside, it's a great fun game that's worth getting for sure!