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We played Dying Light 2: Stay Human on an Xbox Series X and it’s a gorgeous-looking game and does offer a few graphical options from the menu. Three to be exact: “Performance”, “Quality” and “Resolution”. Performance mode runs at 1080p while offering a smooth 60fps, the Quality mode offers 1080p but adds ray-traced lighting support, while Resolution is all about hitting 4K, with both Quality and Resolution aiming for 30fps. With a game like Dying Light, I personally found the game and parkour more enjoyable to play running at a smooth 60fps, as long as you don’t mind the visuals taking a bit of a hit.
Taking place around 6 months after the events of Horizon Zero Dawn, Forbidden West begins with a recap cutscene of the events of the previous game before Aloy heads off where she must rebuild a super-AI called the Gaia in hopes to save her world. This is the part where I say, if you’ve never played Horizon Zero Dawn, I strongly suggest you go back and play through that first. Horizon Forbidden West is easily my current contender for game of the year. It’s got everything you need, an interesting story, satisfying combat, and visuals so good you’ll be forever in “Photo Mode”. Horizon Forbidden West is a must-own for anyone with a PlayStation 4|5.
An absolute master class in game design, storytelling, and world-building come together to make Elden Ring the game to beat in 2022. It can be daunting knowing the history of From Software producing difficult games, but if you have the patience to learn the rules of engagement in this tough but fair experience, you will achieve some of the most exhilarating achievements a video game can offer.
n true Borderlands style, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands features the same graphical flair we all love, with its heavy outlines and amazing cel-shaded models. It has amazing vibrant and contrasting colors and the visuals are equally rivaled by the audio. The audio is as epic as always and smoothly transitions between the high-action insanity to the calm adventure tunes when exploring the lands. The only thing that trumps the soundtrack is the insanely good audio casting! Andy Samberg (Brooklyn 99, The Lonely Island) joins us as Captain Valentine, Wanda Sykes (Over The Hedge, Bad Moms) joins as Frette, Will Arnett (Bojack Horseman, Parks, and Recreation) is the menacing Dragonlord, and Ashley Burch reprises their role as the ever-insane Tiny Tina. There are also a few other roles that have been reprised and returning characters but you’ll have to experience the game and find out for yourself.
Nightmare is a great 2.5d FPS game with heavy inspirations from times long past and modern influences as well. The game takes roughly 8 hours to complete and with randomly as well as manually generated levels, replayability is high. The looter shooter aspects although only minor kept me engaged in the game for hours. I wanted to explore all the weapons and test them out to continue to reap in my nightmares.
Kirby’s new adventure is a home run of epic proportions! It is more than just a successful entry into the long-running franchise, it is also a fantastic addition to the Nintendo Switch gaming catalogue in general. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is yet another reminder that Nintendo can continue to be a consistent powerhouse, despite the limitations of the Switch console. The dream is built on the powerful exclusives and Kirby is officially back in business!
Nothing gets the heart pumping like a good gun battle, and the combination of different weapons firing, people crying out in pain, and flames licking the walls will lead to some wonderfully exciting gameplay. This is followed up with some amazingly eerie music that changes depending on where you are. Worried townsfolk are accompanied by haunting music. Caves are filled with near-silence, only the pitter-patter of rodent feet and the occasional drip of water is punctuated by the distant roar of an angry creature.
Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Game 5 has some great improvements over the past games Milestone has released, but they still have a long way to go to make a staple of a game for the Supercross/Motocross fans. Other than that, it’s a fun game to pick up if you’re a fan of the sport and want to do some easy drop-in drop-out online racing.
Monark has to be one of my favorite JRPGs I have reviewed so far and I love the tactical gameplay that encourages you to change up your play style depending on what characters you have, and like chess, keep your main character alive, like the King. I found only one true annoyance for me while investigating the mist areas – you can get a phone call to go to the Otherworld and fight level 90 enemies.
FixFox is a top-down, story-based, point-and-click adventure. This cute little indie game was developed by Rendlike, published by Joystick Ventures, and is out now for PC and Mac. It is an extremely charming indie game with a great story. It’s a great game for all ages and with the ease of access throughout, everyone including your pets could sit down and play through the game for hours.
All in all, a solid performance, and I did appreciate the fact that they had some of the iconic lines scattered throughout. I'd almost go as far as to say that LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga could be the best LEGO game I have played so far, and I am pretty keen to see where they will go with some of the other licenses.
Dead Man’s Diary does not disappoint in its execution in creating a detailed world that gives a sense of a world taken back by nature and decay. Those creepy sounds in the night or the game’s background music all help create a post-apocalyptic world that drives the world’s atmosphere, and these are combined with beautifully generated areas to explore.
When I think of a good old fashion stealth game, I think of a hooded figure with a blade as sharp as his skill set. Throw them into a Victorian-esque world with a classic revenge tale with nothing left to lose and you will have painted the picture for Sky Machine Studios’ latest accomplishment. ‘Winter Ember’, an isometric stealth action title with a flair for vengeance, is a carefully crafted modern take on an age-old game style. Thanks to Blowfish Studios, we got to check out the Xbox series X version of Winter Ember, and for a bit of added lore, I would recommend looking into the Graphic Novel of the same name.
I was really happy to hear that Road 96 was coming to console. I loved playing it on the Switch and while playing again for this review, I fell in love with the game all over again. I recalled certain choices I had made in the past and went with another option so that I could experience all-new moments, and this had me hooked again. Road 96 is a great game and one I will urge people to try out. You will not be disappointed.
Having a team of six Sentinels rain down clusters of missiles, bust out special finishers, and slink in and out of combat to repair was like watching a neon rave party on screen. Building a diverse team pays dividends and perfecting your strategy to time your cooldowns or minimise damage to the city, and with the addition of a bit of party management, all lead towards a ranking system per engagement.
To tell such a cohesive and well-thought-out tale across several perspectives in just four chapters was impressive. With the enhanced edition, two more chapters have been added, but not necessarily to end the narrative. It was more of an additional segment to further iterate the story that was already told. The entire game including the extra chapters can be knocked out in sitting of fewer than 4 hours, which makes repeat sittings to explore alternate choices much more manageable. It was a game that did not overstay its welcome while still delivering an immersive experience that didn’t feel too short either.
This game is as every bit of fun as it looks. Each mission gives you as much time as you need to drive vehicles into walls or just drive a front-end loader straight through a house. The first mission makes you take down a house for a land development company and I didn’t swing the hammer once, instead, I was straight in with the front-end loader, but after a few runs, I lost the bucket and started taking damage. Costly, but in the end, it was all worth it.
There were no spoken words to explain the story, yet they were still able to convey emotions through body language. Small cutscene moments would play out as you found statues that revealed the character’s life journey to the player. To bolster the impact of these moments, the orchestral melodies became a major contributor to emotional impact. It was amazing to be led down the garden path as the atmosphere would shift from mysterious yet hopeful to immediately hitting me with a pang of sadness. Even when things seemed to be at their lowest, they still managed to circle back the feeling of happiness with the addition of collectable hand-drawn memories of his happiest moments with his partner.
So does Nintendo Switch Sports keep the flame alive for Wii Sports? Yes. It delivered an amazing throwback. I look forward to playing this with friends at gatherings because it will be a barrel of laughs and hours of entertainment. I do feel that with badminton being just a two-player Tennis, it took a core slot from a mode that would’ve been unique, but since there are already announcements of new game modes coming, I can’t even say I am disappointed that “X” was not added – they may just add it in the future.
As cliche and tropey as these types of revengeful samurai stories are and it is quite that in the beginning, once you peel the initial layer off it is actually quite a different story. In saying that, don’t we just love a traditional samurai story, especially with a mythological twist when presented in a classic Japanese arthouse style? You can’t help but eat it up over and over again as you bathe in these Japanese cultural elements all married together.