Author: Gerard Campbell

GamingGame ReviewsPC / MacPlaystationPS5Sony

God of War, PC

A new year and another PS4 console game has made the jump to PC, with Santa Monica Studio’s God of War now available to PC gamers – and what a beauty it is.

When the game came out on console in 2018 it quickly became the poster child for how a talented development team could make games on Sony’s console sing.

On PC the graphical fidelity has been turned all the way up to 11 – and it looks bloody fantastic.

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GamingGame ReviewsMicrosoftPC / Mac

Age of Empires IV, review

t’s been almost 15 years since the last instalment of Microsoft’s seminal real-time strategy (RTS) game. Man, it’s good to be back playing the newest game in the series, Age of Empires IV. Back in the day, Ensemble Studios was the proud custodian of the Age of Empire mantle but that developer has sadly long since departed.

The reins have now been handed to Canadian development studio Relic Entertainment, an experienced developer with a fine pedigree of RTS games behind it like Homeworld and the Company of Heroes series.

Returning to the medieval age, AOEIV offers eight civilizations (English, Chinese, French, Rus, Roman Empire, Delhi Sultanate, Mongols and Abbasid Dynasty) and a handful of single-player campaigns running from the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066 up to the Russo-Kazan wars of 1552.

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GamingByte Size ReviewPC / MacPS5Xbox Series X

Alan Wake Remastered: Have torch, will travel

Alan Wake is not your typical video game hero.

He’s not a former soldier skilled in the art of warfare or a wronged man out for revenge: He’s a writer in a tweed sports jacket with leather elbow pads (over the top of a hoodie) who runs out of puff after he’s sprinted for a few seconds. He’s an every day man.

Alice. He’s hoping to cure the writer’s block that has stifled his creative flow for two years but he quickly finds out that all is not what it seems in this seemingly sleepy town.

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GamingByte Size ReviewIndie GamePC / Mac

Hell Architect, Byte Size review (PC)

The management sim genre is one that has been around for as long as I can remember but I can’t say I’ve ever played one set in the realms of Hell that tasks you with making hell a better version of itself (is that even possible?)

That’s the idea behind Hell Architect, a management sim from Polish developer Woodland Games where you’re tasked as Hell Manager who is in charge of, well, developing the nine rings of Hell and making it a place Lucifer himself would be proud of.

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GamingGame ReviewsMicrosoftPC / MacXbox Series SXbox Series X

Psychonauts 2, review

Five years.

Five long years (actually, it’s more like five and a half years but what’s six months?)

That’s how long I’ve been waiting for Psychonauts 2 from Lucasfilm alumni Tim Schafer & his Double Fine Productions studio to be released since I backed it on crowd-funding platform Fig in January 2016.

I’ve long been a fan of Tim Schaefer’s work – don’t get into a conversation with me about how good Grim Fandango is – and while Broken Age didn’t do it for me, despite funding that, too, I jumped at the chance to crowd-fund Psychonauts 2 when I learned it needed help to be made. This was a chance to be part of game development history, right?

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Hardware ReviewsGamingHardwarePC / Mac

Intel i5-10600K CPU review: The heart of a new PC build

Recently, Intel Australia/New Zealand got in touch and offered me the chance to test out its 10th Generation i5-10600K CPU – and I jumped at the chance.

I was keen to have the chance to re-build my PC with a newer generation CPU & see how Intel’s 10th Gen chip compares to the i5 8400 that I had been using for the past four years or so.

A big thanks to Intel Australia/New Zealand for the opportunity.

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GamingByte Size ReviewPC / Mac

Byte Sized review: Red Solstice 2: Survivors

I never played the original Red Solstice so I can’t offer an opinion on its merits, good or otherwise, but Red Solstice 2: Survivors seems like a solid real-time action game with RPG mechanics.

It’s set on Mars where you control a battle-hardened marine having to help repel an invasion by the mutant Strol.

The story might not be original and the gameplay is nothing new but Red Solstice 2: Survivors is an enjoyable romp in a sci-fi inspired universe if you’re a fan of X-COM and it’s ilk.

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GamingFeature ArticleIndie GamePC / MacPreviewXbox Series SXbox Series X

Death’s Door preview (PC)

If Devolver Digital is the king of the independent video game, then Death’s Door is the latest jewel in its already glittering crown – and what a big, beautiful, glittering head piece it is!

In fact, Death’s Door could be the sleeper hit of the year that I knew nothing about, but I’m glad I know about it now.

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GamingFeature ArticlePC / MacPlaystationPS4PS5Sony

Days Gone PC technical review

Once upon a time, you would never have imagined seeing a PlayStation game appearing on a Windows PC but now it’s becoming more and more common place.

First, we saw Guerilla’s Horizon Zero Dawn make the leap from PlayStation to PC, then we were graced with Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding (although HZD was a rough port at launch that required a fair bit of work to get it working properly). Now, it’s the turn of Days Gone PC, a zombie-filled adventure across a post-apocalyptic American mid-west, starring grizzled biker Deacon St John. It’s a technical marvel that really show cases what is possible with PC gaming.

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GamingGame ReviewsPlaystationXbox OneXbox Series S

Judgement review (Xbox Series X)

I reviewed Sega’s Judgement, a spin-off from the company’s Yakuza series, a year ago on this site.

Now that I’ve played it again on Xbox Series X, my opinion still hasn’t changed: It’s one of the best games from studio Ryu Go Gotuku and if you’re a fan of the Yakuza series then you need to play this. It really is that simple.

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