Games Xtreme's Reviews
I love Far Cry, I really do, there's something about this series that makes me smile no matter what the game. I might be horribly biased by the open world nature of the games, and like many of my favourite titles before it, it's the mix of unpredictable gonzo fun and sudden random nature elements that combine to make it such a great experience. Far Cry 5 seeks to keep that flavour from previous Far Cry titles such as 3 and 4, and push the boundary of its design a bit further.
Warhammer Vermintide 2 is the much anticipated sequel to the violence-laced title sharing game before it. With a bleak outlook of a story, you're meant to take down hordes after horde for the Empire. Various beloved faces make their way into this pre-apocalyptic setting, ready to fight by your side. The entire game tosses you into the idea that you're biting off more than you can chew. Not that it will stop you from gritting your teeth and trudging on.
Darkest Dungeon is a beautifully atmospheric side-on animated hack and slash, dungeon crawler that lets you assemble a party of four stalwart heroes. You begin your journey in a Hamlet that you can eventually restore and build-up to accommodate new buildings and new features to allow you to survive that much longer. Here you'll recruit your heroes from a roster in the Stage Coach, which initially starts out pretty thin with only a few members and low-rank heroes to choose from.
It's a game that feels right at home on the Switch, and is well suited to ducking in and out, putting 20 minutes in to do a little grinding or wrap up a sidequest, or just get to the next point in the plot. Its writing is a bit archetypal but sells itself well, and the characters have just enough meat on the bones for me to really want to see them come together and win.
Ultra Sun and Moon follow pretty much the same script as Sun and Moon. However, there are several things along the way that make the adventure feel slightly different. There are new trainers to battle, new Pokemon to catch, and new items in different places. A number of locations got a few touch-ups, not in a drastic way but enough to make you notice that they didn't look that way before. And a few Island Challenges received improvements, though they still remain easy because of the lack of challenging puzzles. You also meet a group called the Ultra Recon Squad, who play a significant part in the story, early on. Aesthetically, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon feel like the developers simply rearranged the furniture to give us a better view of their wonderful creation - and the resulting product is way better than the original.
The Star Wars universe is rich with lore and mystery and we get a bland badly smashed together piece of gaming. For each highlight of the game, such as the well done space battles there is an equally poor stealth mechanic. Fortunately the story is short at around 5 hours and so if you are determined to get through it you won't waste too much time. If you enjoy short and bland this could be the game for you.
Overall it is an enjoyable experience, with a solid story line some high energy or tense experiences and straightforward enjoyable combat, though it just doesn't feel in the same league as the best in the Call of Duty series.
It has potential but just does not live up to it. Looks good, and sounds great but oh my, it falls short in too many other departments. This will appeal to those that have a great deal of patience and tolerance, if you don't have those in great abundance stay clear.
Do I think this is the game that's saved the franchise, yes I do. It needed a shot in the arm, the corpse of Assassin's Creed was starting to shamble around and lurch like a mummy rising from Sneferu's Tomb - AC: Origins is the best thing to happen to the series for a long while and I'm going to keep my eyes on what Ubisoft does next with the game. The future is bright, shimmering, like the heat-haze over the Pyramids of Giza. Only it's not a mirage or a false dawn, this is a new breed of Creed and the change was right on time.
Battle Chasers: Nightwar is a refreshing take on the J-RPG formula. It has enough new stuff in there to make it really cool to play, and enough nods to old school J-RPGs to please that side of the equation. In other words, definitely worth a punt!
The latest refinement to the Warriors series formula, Fire Emblem Warriors brings some new mechanics and ideas to the franchise that give it that fresh dose of life.
Shadow of War is a worthy sequel and we've given it a Must Buy. However, note that the Loot Box system is optional if you're willing to work with the game's system and actually play the game (which is what you should be doing!).
DD:DA HD is a great game made even better by the high res texture packs and tweaks. It is a game that everyone who loves Dark Souls and Action-RPGs needs to play at least once, or twice, or forever. No other game quite presents dragons like this one either!
Quality central gameplay unfortunately proves marred by decisions that don't mesh, producing a game that's better enjoyed in brief spurts than something you can actually chew on and master.
I enjoyed the single player campaign for the most part, even though I whinged all the way through it. However, the lacking roster, annoying sound, unimpressive graphics and visual aesthetic, crappy boss fight design, auto combo problem, and power of Infinity Stone spamming mean I doubt I'll ever choose to bust this out to play with my mates when I have them over for a game night. Most of the Capcom characters left me cold (except Dante, sigh, you handsome rogue, you) and even the Marvel characters have some weird choices. All of the style and humorous panache of MVC3 are absent, and in general this was a solid 'meh' of a game.
The Prize Crate system is the downer here, it ruins what could have been a perfect game. It doesn't put the game in the bargain bin of course, or detract from the actual game itself, but it's a nasty sour taste that doesn't really fit with Forza. Of course, this is just my opinion and you can take it, or leave it as you desire. It's not as mode rich as Forza 6 at launch but there's time for additional modes and the like post-launch, as well as tweaks and the changes coming to the VIP pass. In the end though it is pure racing fun at heart, stripped of the useless tat and dazzle of the previous games - left for people to do the one thing they bought it for. The sound of the cars, the look, the feel, the thrill of the race and of course to collect badass rides and drive them at breakneck speeds in places they might never visit.
Of course, no game is without its problems, and much as I really like Gundam Versus, it has a few. For a series whose home entries used to have quite a fair bit of single-player content, the relative lack in this entry has an extra sting to it. And the localization is a bit...Limited, for something with a retail release. A lot of incidental dialogue has no subtitles, so it's just a steady stream of stuff you have no hope of understanding unless you know Japanese. There's also the issue that the game is online-multiplayer-only, limiting options for things like LAN play or, even better, split-screen.
In regard to new content and improvements, DX is a bit light, especially when compared to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The graphical boost thanks to the superior Switch hardware is noticeable. But the developer could have gone for more, especially when it comes to the arenas, which show their blandness when you look at them in detail.
When it all clicks, it is quite brilliant. When it all clicks that is, otherwise you're left with a game that's not quite going to win first place compared to the likes of Forza. Normally I try not to compare these things, but if you asked me to choose at the moment, even with the loot boxes - I'd say Forza 7 wins there in terms of delivering a better experience and racer out of the gate.
An absolute gem of a game to play--Jettomero doesn't take long to dive into, nor is it too deep. You're a robot who is slightly confused on everything around it, blasted into a galaxy you don't know, and events taking place around you with the human civilization that you haven't quite caught up on yet. It's an adorable story that unfolds like a comic book, with super hero pacing that can only leave you feeling pumped up!