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Running Fable has taken the concept of kart racing games but made it slower and shorter. With children being the targeted audience, it does not really have a difficulty setting and can be finished quickly, but it feels like there is no reward for winning – you just unlock a decorative item, but it’s something everyone gets. If you were able to change the colour of them, atleast you would be able to stand out a bit more.
Trials of the Dragon King gave a great boost in difficulty that will challenge the end game players, but as a whole, it felt empty and seeing how the DLC can not be bought separately, it did feel like a bit of a letdown for the story driver players as they would’ve bought the season pass to find that the new content is locked behind a massive grind before they can even start it. I personally don’t mind a grind in games but the lack of new bosses and areas is a big letdown in my opinion, but hey, at least we got a summoner job, so there has been some hope from this for all players to enjoy.
Metro Simulator 2 is sound technically on the Xbox Series X. The tunnels look like tunnels, the stations look like stations, and the inside of the two trains looks like what you would expect a train in Russia would look like.
There are moments where the narrator delivers some zany one-liners that do land and there’s surprisingly dark, profound, and confronting moments, especially in flashbacks, but mostly these moments fall flat. The most beautiful moments in the game for me were through the music by the talented team of composers, fantastical orchestral music with some Asian instrumental influence tied to its martial arts inspirations.
The graphics are a beautiful cartoony hand-drawn art. It reminded me of what a child would do with a combination of charcoals and coloured pencils. It was expertly presented with a dinginess and brightness that complimented the tone of the game, and while the cutscenes between gameplay are done in the same style, they are presented in a comic book style.
For long-term Smurf fans and younger audiences, The Smurfs – Village Party might tick several boxes on your party must-haves. With a nostalgic feel and loving tribute to The Smurfs, there’s plenty to entertain. Still, it all depends on whether you’re keen to attend despite the party’s little problems.
LEGO Brawls was initially designed as a mobile game and can be an enjoyable way to kill some time playing online matches. As a console game that doesn’t add anything new to the gameplay, it’s just a generic platform fighter with little to no excitement. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if the game was cheap or just free, but it’s shockingly priced at $60 AUD which makes it impossible to justify. There are tons of indie games out there that offer so much more at a cheaper price. Even with some interesting ideas, LEGO Brawls offers very little and is probably more fun to watch than play, but the novelty wears off really quickly. The biggest letdown overall is its generic gameplay that just isn’t much fun at all. Non-fighting game players often describe the genre as button mashers, and this game accurately fits that description and is a poor representation of the genre. Even stepping on a LEGO piece is more entertaining than this.
While the environments do give off a retro eeriness to them, the sound design and general graphics are dated with awkward polygons and jarring instrumentals. The run animation in itself is comical not a feeling wanted from a survival horror title but here we are. The inspiration is clear but an over-reliance on nostalgic gameplay such as a fixed camera and tank controls doesn’t necessarily add to the fun factor. While the throwbacks to classic horror games start strong, it isn’t strong enough to survive among more modern mechanics. SENSEs: Midnight shows promise in theory, but in practice, it doesn’t stand up to its spiritual predecessors.
The most beautiful part of the game is the soundtrack, which makes the experience much more serene. When I enjoyed the game, I had the music turned up during a dive. The ambient score was stunning and made the journey relaxing.
The mechanics are pretty simple to master. You can walk around the many environments you are presented with and can access a shop menu using the R3 stick.
The main draw that will keep players invested and are most likely the reason most even picked up the game – collectible lewd images. Keeping with the modern pixel art style, there will be collectible images that progress the story as Sofiya discovers herself and offers herself in increasingly more provocative poses. It was innocent enough for the most part and offered tongue-in-cheek humour at the same time. The overall play time meant that you could burn through the game quickly, and if you put in a bit of exploration, you would be able to fill the galley for your viewing pleasure with ease.
They each have their own ‘Turtle Power’ which players can initiate anytime the meter is full to clear out the enemies on screen or deliver extra damage to the bosses. Leonardo creates a tornado, Raphael punches the ground causing an earthquake, Donatello channels his inner Thor and shoots lightning from his staff and Michelangelo throws pizza everywhere. Even though three of those make absolutely no sense with the character’s personalities and backgrounds, the Turtle Power is still a really handy tool for when things get tough.
Both the French and English voice cast from the show reprise their iconic roles in the game, meaning fans can choose to listen to their favourite characters in either language, and everyone sounds just like they do in the show. A lot of work was clearly put into the dialogue during the cutscenes and character conversations, and every character stays true to how they are in the show. Unfortunately, this only applied to the cutscenes, and any conversations during the game are text-based, leaving this feeling like a missed opportunity.
You have people coming in and out all day to answer questions or give you ideas, whilst also needing to check social media and if you are so inclined, you can start wars with other countries. I found the game gets a little repetitive super quickly, and not to mention sitting there talking to people every minute got old super quick.
There are not too many games that can have fart sounds on demand and be so accepted but in true South Park form there are farts but that is the smallest part of the audio in this title. The audio of this game was spot on and felt like I was watching an episode of the TV Show. It was weird that I loved that your character “New Kid” never spoke once but everyone knew what was going on. The fact that the group of fellas would always break the fourth wall of the game, mentioning previous titles and the fact it’s a game was great. If you wanted to find one excuse to play the game the audio would be by far the greatest excuse and is a perfect tribute to animation and cartoon production.
Garfield’s Lasagna Party can be a fun little game to enjoy with the young ones in your family, although I might recommend waiting for it to go on special. It would most likely be a game you only pick up once in a while because it can be very repetitive, so you’ll possibly find yourself putting it down after an hour or 2.
For what it is, it is a fun game, especially for people with a sillier style of humor. It’s not a game I could play constantly but could jump on every now and then. Some frustrating solutions are included for the sake of comedy, which did not outweigh the answer to the puzzle.
Harvestella gets close but doesn’t quite strike a balance between JRPG elements and farming sim, but feels focused on having more done adequately than less done better. For players looking for a fairly casual JRPG experience, Harvestella is a palatable taster, but combat or farming fans may feel hungry for more or become bored with chores. I have enjoyed my time in the world so far, and I’m curious to see how the story continues and whether I run out of stamina in the 50 or so hours to reach the endgame.
Playing through I never really fully understood what was happening, or why I was the last human alive. There were diaries around with information but most of them seemed like nonsense to me. Eventually, I found myself at the end of the game with questions and feeling inconclusive. The gameplay itself was enjoyable and the world was fun to explore even without a map most of the time, the challenge will keep you on your toes.
Outriders: Worldslayer is great for the end game as the rewards are worth the grind, though the story is short and to the point with no side quests at all to confuse the end goal. Still having some bugs and issues that were there at the launch of the core game is still a slight disappointment as they have had plenty of time to iron these niggling issues out already since the first time around these issues outright made me stop playing it and was the reason a monitor was destroyed by a coworker. I do hope they are still working towards fixing the issues that have plagued the game. The price tag of the DLC is a bit high in my personal opinion, I would’ve expected the amount of content given for half the price asked for.