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Warsaw is a turn-based 2D strategy game with RPG elements. It is great for anyone who fancies themselves a World War II history aficionado and those who want a new take on the 2D genre. Despite the occasional glitch, it is still completely enjoyable. Pixelated Milk continues to develop the title, so what we see here may not be the finished product.
Overall, Doom Eternal is a great game I would recommend anyone get into. It offers the best of all worlds, from music to the general combat of the game and even the platforming sections and story. Doom Eternal is a must for ALL to play!
Shot in the Dark introduces an innovative mechanic and then builds perfectly on it. At all times, you are compelled forward by the promise of exploring more of the twisted, dark world that Possum House Games has created.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a fantastic game, that both previous and newcomers to the game’s style will be able to hop in and enjoy. The game is marked for it’s intense combat, strategic thinking, and beautiful world design, while only suffering from some minor polishing issues as well as a questionable amount of replayability.
In the end, I loved playing Killer Queen Black even though I didn’t manage to play much of it. The gameplay is fast-paced and exhilarating. The ways to win were well varied and open to a lot of replayability. The art style is delightful enough that it didn’t get old to look at. The music and sound effect were amazing in my opinion, managing to somehow fit into the overall style of the game. If you’re looking for a fresh new competitive multiplayer game, then you might want to check out Killer Queen Black. I definitely will be playing it a lot once it’s officially released to the public.
In the end, I had a blast playing through Planet Zoo. Sure there were a few hiccups once a while with some minor glitches and some features that I feel need improving. But the amount of creativity you can achieve, the fun and varied game modes, stunning visuals and appeal, and more. It’s so hard to let these minor flaws affect my experience. If you’re looking to get into these types of simulation/management games, then Planet Zoo is the best way to start. And if someone who loves these types of games like Zoo Tycoon and Tropico like I do. Then I promise you will have a great time!
To sum up, Stranded Deep is an absolutely fantastic game. It looks great, it sounds great, and it plays great. I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves survival games or sims, anyone who loves crafting, and anyone who needs something either immersive-enough or peaceful-enough to help them through lockdown or quarantine. If you love the ocean, you are bound to love Stranded Deep. I’ve been passionate about the sea and everything in it since I was tiny, and this game does not disappoint. I was horribly disappointed with Sea of Thieves because of the sheer lack of anything to see or find underwater, but Stranded Deep does not fall into this trap at all. I was overwhelmed with the attention to detail on things like a shark — you can even see the markings on their skin. For an indie game, it’s astonishing that so much time and money has been spent on their oceans. A lot of devs would have cut corners here, but Beam Team Games didn’t. Check out more fantastic game reviews at OpenCritic.com or have a look at our recent articleslike us looking back at The Last Of Us. How do you feel about Stranded Deep? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter @thecognetwork. As always, thanks for reading COG!
Despite the setbacks and delays, Crackdown 3 has put the franchise firmly back on solid ground and that is mostly because of the exceptional work and dedication of developers Sumo Digital. They have not only addressed all of the shortcomings of Crackdown 2 but they have improved upon the core gameplay and the experience itself. Crackdown’s future is so bright the cigar chomping, slave driving, blow hard, sour puss of an Agency Director would be cracking a smile if he could. Good things come to those who wait and Crackdown fans have certainly had to do that.
Link Evolution has some cracks in its otherwise pristine armor. Some bugs carry over from the 2015 release of Legacy of the Duelist. Some cards don’t function as they’re supposed to (though the impact is minor for those I came across). Particularly, cards which activate in specific phases of battle have some issues. There is also an unfortunate lack of settings to adjust. One of my biggest bugbears is the lack of an option to disable unique card animations. Some iconic cards have fancy animations that play when you summon them, and whilst this little touch is charming at first it quickly becomes an irritating break in the pace of duels. It would be a simple fix to just add the option to switch these animations off but unfortunately, it just isn’t there. When you consider some of the issues with card acquisition and these minor bugs and annoyances, it’s frustrating. Link Evolution is without a doubt the best Yu-Gi-Oh experience on offer, but there are caveats to consider. If you’re a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh or you’re just looking for an excellent TCG for the Switch, Link Evolution is a winner. The price tag is a tad higher than perhaps it should be, but with no additional microtransactions or DLC, it’s safe to say Link Evolution is a complete package well worth your time and money.
Super Mutant Alien Assault is a fast paced and action packed joy ride. It’s always rewarding the player and poses new options to create interesting loadouts while maintaining a fair balance of skill after each level. It does suffer from a repetitious level design but the fun is learning how to use all your weapons and powers in unison.
Overall, Trials Rising has a lot to offer, I found myself spending loads of hours just grinding through tracks and listening to awesome music while I was at it. From challenging courses and challenger events to filming movies while performing 12 backflips at once, Trials Rising offers the player just enough crazy to draw them in and keeps them occupied by making them feel like a racing god. This is by far one of my favorite Trials games to date. Definitely pick this one up if you want to spend a couple of hours at a time being a stuntman. After all, it is only US $34.99.
Jon Shafer’s At the Gates is a great 4X game that is promising and will keep you coming back for more. It’s beautiful, it has deep engaging systems and it’s flexible enough for players to experiment and optimize their playstyle and builds. Hopefully, At the Gates minor flaws can be worked out with post-launch support or by the time the next installment comes along.
I’m not going to mince words. This game is fantastic. Even with minor annoyances, I still had a fantastic time. There might not be more than two options for controls. There is every racetrack from both Crash Team Racing and Crash Nitro Kart, beautifully recreated in 4K resolution for the current generation. The rubberbanding might be annoying, but the races are so fun that I didn’t care for long. If you don’t like kart racers, this game might not change your mind. If you do like them, you should definitely give Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled a try, especially if you were a fan of the original. It takes what’s great about Crash Bandicoot and puts it into the kart racing genre.
Throughout his lifetime, I have introduced my technological spoiled Generation Z son who has grown up on blockbuster movie quality games like the modern day sequels to Halo and Call of Duty to the more simpler Time Pilot, Pac Man, Defender, the arcade, Atari and ColecoVision games I grew up with. He often placates me with a polite…That’s cool, dad!..before turning on his game console with its 4K resolution and Dolby sound. What he doesn’t understand is that there is often beauty in simplicity. What really matters always is not the graphics or the sound but how fun a game is to play in the first place. The 16-bit art style, the gameplay, the cut-scenes, even the music makes Stranger Things 3: The Game a perfect sequel to those adventure games of the past. If you grew up with them as I did, you will appreciate Stranger Things 3: The Game on a far higher and different level than someone who might not have still, if you are a fan of the series and adventure gaming in general, just living out, playing out those famous scenes may be worth the $19.99 bargain price tag.
It’s a very solid game that does everything it’s trying to do very well. It manages to weave a narrative seamlessly into rogue-lite gameplay and maintain the standard mechanical progression alongside it. Space rogue-lites are a genre I’ve been desperate to love for a long time, but between FTL and Space Traders: Frontiers I just couldn’t. This one is the exception to that rule. It takes the same formula and makes it far more palatable. It’s well worth playing.
Resident Evil 3 is the video game equivalent of Die Hard. It has great characters, a simple yet effective story, a terrifying villain, astounding action, and it’s a great time. Also like a movie, the remake of Resident Evil 3 struggles under the weight of what came before it.
A superb video game that will appeal to a broad range of people. This is a developer to watch.
Despite a fair few niggling gripes with it, Deep Sky Derelicts is a damn fine game. As far as roguelikes go, it manages to be something new and different while still staying true to all the things that make the genre great. It’s stands out in an overcrowded genre on the ingenuity of its setting and a few unique mechanics. It can be brutal at times, but compelling enough to get you through it. I played a lot more than I need to. It’s a solid example of a tried and tested genre. For their second game, and their first PC title, this is an excellent showing from Snowhound Games. I look forward to their next offering. If you want to see more reviews like this, head on over to https://opencritic.com/and look for us there.
Chances are that if you’ve been a long-time fan of the Earth Defense Force games, you already made up your mind. For everyone else, this can be a harder sell to make. The charm of Earth Defense Force 5 doesn’t come from trying to be the best-looking game. It’s charm is all about having too much action crammed on-screen. In the past, this would’ve been difficult to help persuade people into trying out the game. With Earth Defense Force 5 though, I would say that it’s definitely a sleeper hit. With the amount of content in Earth Defense Force 5, it’s the perfect game to play in small chunks at a time. There’s an actual challenge to this game while also being as engaging and hilariously over the top as ever. It isn’t a game that many people would say is a standout in 2018, but if you’re looking for a fun side game to enjoy, Earth Defense Force 5 has you covered. So, pick up a gun and some explosives, and start blasting away as the alien menace!
Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain continues the EDF tradition and lets you have fun blasting away thousands of alien monsters. Everyone might have their nitpicks, like repetition stemming from failing missions, but Yuke’s did just enough to advance the series. I hope that they have another chance with the franchise in the future.