Game Reviews

Crash bandicoot 4
GamingGame ReviewsPS4Switch ConsoleXbox One

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, XBOX Review

Dylan Burns 1970 Views ,  ,  ,  , 

Crash Bandicoot 4 is a difficult game. Negotiating this platform-hopping, crate jumping, dimension-swapping, time-slowing, enemy-infested gauntlet feels like you are learning a blistering guitar solo one note at a time, until you can almost play through it without stumbling. Almost.

It’s a journey conquered inch by inch, checkpoint by checkpoint, until you stand at the end, panting, spent.

Every level takes the form of attempt, die, repeat, die, repeat again. Usually, this is enough to make me bounce right off a game, but there’s something about Crash Bandicoot 4.

Read More
PES21 Season Update
GamingGame ReviewsPS4Video ContentXbox One

PES 2021, Online Edition, PS4 Review

Richard Armitt 2649 Views ,  ,  ,  , 

PES 21 or more accurately Pro Evolution Soccer 2021 has arrived in an unusual year.

Historically 2020 is going down in flames and across the world sport is no stranger to lockdowns, delays and cancellations. What better way to get the rush of live soccer when you can’t, than to fire up a crisp new game and kick a virtual ball?

This year’s Season Update to last years very good PES is the answer.

Read More
Star Wars Squadrons
GamingGame ReviewsPS4PSVRXbox One

Star Wars: Squadrons (Playstation 4 + PSVR)

Guy 2066 Views ,  ,  , 

Star Wars Squadrons, you say?

The close of 2020 is fast approaching, not to mention the end of the current generation of consoles. I for one did not expect this late in the piece to be blindsided by a wee budget priced title made by EA!? of all publishers, to come out of nowhere and insert itself squarely in my 2020 game of the year considerations.

Finally someone at EA has seen fit to make a game worthy of the juggernaut IP that is Star Wars. And to boot, they have drawn heavily from one of the all-time great video games of the past Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.

Back in 1998 it was THE flight/space combat game to play. It has baffled many a gamer pundit why it has been over 20 years since we could strap on an X-Wing at shoot stuff.

Read More
Mafia Definitive Edition
GamingGame ReviewsPC / MacPS4Xbox One

Mafia Definitive Edition, PC Review

Richard Armitt 2412 Views ,  , 

With the release of Mafia Definitive Edition last month, 2K’s Mafia trilogy is now complete. 

When I reviewed Mafia 2 in August this year, I ended my review (based on the lacklustre Mafia 2 remaster) by saying: “I can’t recommend this package right now, especially given it’s incomplete until Mafia is released in August.”

Well, now that I have finished Mafia Definitive Edition, my verdict is easy: It’s definitely worth your time. Especially with the love that has been lavished in updating the original Mafia for today’s modern gamer.

A game that tells the rise [then fall] of Lost Heaven (New York) taxi driver Tommy Angelo through the ranks of a feared crime family during the 1930s.

Read More
Ride 4
GamingGame ReviewsPS4PS5Xbox OneXbox Series X

Ride 4 Review (Xbox One X)

Barrie Clarke 1970 Views ,  ,  ,  , 

Here in New Zealand Spring is in full swing and the weather is warming up. Cue all the fair weather motorcycle riders dusting off their leathers. I prefer to take to two wheels in a safer manner, from the comfort of the couch. And the Ride Series has been cruising along since 2015 for just that purpose.

And here in 2020 is Ride 4.

So the time is here to dress in tight leather and stick some high powered machinery between my legs. Lets ride!

Read More
Serious Sam 4
GamingGame ReviewsPC / MacPS4Xbox One

Serious Sam 4 (PC review)

Gerard Campbell 1501 Views ,  ,  ,  , 

The Serious Sam games have always been about staying on the move, especially when the going gets tough and the odds are stacked against you – and in Serious Sam  games the odds are always stacked against you.

The first Serious Same game graced PCs way back in 2001, and in the intervening years there have been a few games bearing the Serious Same moniker.

The series’ core gameplay has always remained the same: throwing countless numbers of enemies against the player, forcing them to keep moving. Circle strafing and running backwards so as to avoid the enemy onslaught and their attacks.

Read More
GamingGame ReviewsIndie GamePC / MacPS4Xbox One

No Straight Roads – Byte Size Review (PC)

Barrie Clarke 1258 Views ,  ,  , 

In No Straight Roads self confessed hard core rockers Mayday and Zuke are out to take down the powers of Vinyl City and their music of choice, EDM!

As a big rock fan myself it is easy to side with our rocking duo and take the fight to the evil EDM empire.

There is only one small problem with the pair who are collectively known as the Indie rock band Bunk Bed Junction. That is that their music, in my opinion, is not even remotely rock.

Ignoring that small point, lets rock on and take down that nasty EDM!

Read More
Avengers Assembled
GamingGame ReviewsPS4Xbox One

Marvel’s Avengers, PS4 Review

Dylan Burns 1567 Views ,  ,  ,  ,  , 

The best choice Crystal Dynamics made with Marvel’s Avengers was to have the story told from an outside perspective. The Avengers of this universe are already established heroes, legends amid a festival of fanfare and merchandise. The subjects of enthusiastic fan fiction, which is how the main protagonist of this game, Kamala Khan, is introduced.

Her and her adorable dad are on an Avengers Quinjet, alongside fellow writing competition winners. Given the opportunity to rub shoulders with the desultory heroes themselves on their impressive Helicarrier. Kamala encounters several of the Avengers as a young fangirl, geeking out at collecting comic books to gain entry to the VIP area, after which all hell breaks loose and the Avengers are swiftly dealt a master blow that sees their reputation in tatters, their assets seized by the government and the team itself thrown to the wind.

Marvel’s Avengers is a perfectly enjoyable, if not particularly well assembled, superhero action title with looter-shooter influences. A well written main story will give you ten hours of enjoyment.

Read More
Windbound
GamingGame ReviewsPS4Switch ConsoleXbox One

Windbound (Playstation 4)

Guy 2000 Views ,  ,  , 

Stranded on a desert island, what do you bring? As much as I would love to say…. “a PS4 and a copy of Windbound”, alas I cannot.  Its beautiful art style and fun sailing mechanics, have been scuttled by the tough rogue-like penalties and clunky combat encounters.

Windbound is a survival game built around rouge-like mechanics and procedurally generated islands. Anyone who has played “Don’t Starve” will have a very good understanding of the design philosophy.

Windbound initially presents as a sort of paired down version of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Which, let’s be honest is a great place to start. Windbound will not however, have the broad appeal of Zelda. I think it’s going to be an acquired taste for many gamers as they will need to be patient and forgiving lovers of rogue-likes, to find joy here.

Read More
Railway Empire Complete Collection
GamingGame ReviewsPC / MacPS4Switch ConsoleXbox One

Railway Empire Complete Collection [reviewed on PC]

Gerard Campbell 2199 Views ,  ,  ,  , 

Railway Empire Complete Collection doesn’t know I’ve never been one of those people that has found trains fascinating. Sure, I’ve been on trains but for me they’ve always just been a means of getting from point A to point B. There’s no denying that the steam locomotive was a pivotal instrument in the industrial age of the late 19th Century.

Railway Empire, which first came out in 2017,  builds on that pivotal time period and publisher Kalypso have just released the Complete Collection. The definitive edition, I guess, that comes with two years worth of updates, as well as eight pieces of released DLC. Which let you set up train networks in Mexico, the Great Lakes, The Andes, Great Britain & Ireland, France, Germany, Northern Europe & Down Under.

I can see Railway Empire Complete Collection appealing obviously to people who love trains. As well as those gamers who love the city management/tycoon games where you get to micromanage every little aspect of what is going on. If this is you, you’ll find hours of enjoyment in this empire builder.

Read More
Game PassGame ReviewsGamingPC / MacPS4Xbox One

Wasteland 3 Review (Xbox One X)

Barrie Clarke 1582 Views ,  ,  ,  , 

I have made no secret that 1988’s Wasteland from Interplay is my favourite game ever.

It was ground breaking for the good old Commodore 64 and saw many, many hours of play from me. It even accounts for my greatest gaming achievement. So to see a official sequel in Wasteland 2 was just fantastic. A third, Wasteland 3, well, it is definitely a highlight of an otherwise pretty shitty 2020. With names like Deth, Vargas, and Brygo bringing a big smile to my face.

I was ready to return to the Wasteland.

Read More