Elite, Wing Commander: Privateer, and Freelancer are games I grew up with and still have fond memories of. Many have tried to recreate, or even reinvent, the open galaxy space trader mercenary game (No Man’s Sky) and many haven’t quite hit the mark. Take the stage Rebel Galaxy Outlaw.
Well, all hail Double Damage Games, they have nailed it, really, really nailed it.
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I’ll be honest, this has been a tricky Review to work on. Wolfenstein: Youngblood, thanks to collaborative talents of Arkane Studios and Machine Games, is a weird mash-up of video game ideas that I could have loved.
However due to poor characters, bad gameplay mechanics and literally idiotic design choices around a reliance on Co-Op, I grew to seriously dislike this series off-shoot.
Even the franchises you love can have bad days…
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To be honest, I’m not sure what I just played… when you enter the land under constant threat from the Titans. And unless you are have seen the Anime series of the same name I’m willing to bet that you will have the same ‘What the hell?!?!’ moment I had.
I guess you could could call A.O.T.2 – Final Battle the ‘Lady Gaga in a meat suit’ of gaming. It is pretty good at what it does, but really? What are you thinking???
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I absolutely love Sega’s Yakuza games, a rich, slightly quirky crime series set in the fictional Japanese city of Kamurocho, so it’s no surprise that I have fallen head first into Sega’s Judgment (PS4 exclusive), a game not directly set in the Yakuza universe but there’s some elements that the two games share, nonetheless.
It’s hardly surprising there are similarities in game play, though: Judgment’s made by Ryu Ga Gotuku Studio (Ryu Ga Gotuku is actually Japanese for Yakuza), the same studio behind some of the latter Yakuza games, and while there’s no appearance of the Dragon of Dogma Kazuma Kiryu in Judgment, the setting is a familiar one for fans of the Yakuza series: Kamurocho, a fictional Japanese city modelled on the real-world Kabukich?, Tokyo’s most well-known “red-light” district.
I have to say, it’s great to be wandering the streets of Kamurocho again with it’s bright lights and streets layered with signs and craziness.
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Previously posted at Gerard’s own blog GameJunkieNZ, here’s his view on Observation.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the team behind sci-fi thriller Observation – were fans of movies Alien, Event Horizon and 2001 A Space Odyssey.
The game opens aboard the international space station Observation which is above Earth’s orbit after suffering a catastrophic event. The ship’s medical officer Dr Emma Fisher eventually manages to reboot the ship’s AI Sam [System Administration Maintenance] but Sam receives a strange transmission telling him to “BRING HER”.
Fast forward a bit and after a second event, the Observation finds itself above Saturn, Sam’s core functions compromised and the rest of Observation’s crew missing. Emma tasks Sam with finding out what has happened.
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OK, so firstly I must apologise for the delay in getting this review done. I have only just been able to consistently log in to the ESO servers in this last week. Now every time a new DLC is released for ESO there is a spike in users and some problems are expected but typically you get in within a few attempts. Not this time.
Welcome to the land of the Khajiiti, cat-like desert dwellers, famed for their prowess in the mercantile arts. Elsweyr is a diverse land of grasslands and canyons. Unfortunately the growing of Moon Sugar has been rudely interrupted by the return of dragons to the area.
Can you save the land from the dragons?
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I had no idea what to expect when my editor asked me if I was keen to take a look at Octopath Traveler on PC.
I’d obviously heard about Octopath Traveler on the Nintendo Switch but that was about as far as it went. That said, I’m about mixing things up, so I said “Why not?”. The game is, after all, a big deal apparently.
It’s fun, too.
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Dear readers, before I start this review, I want to apologise. Apologise for how late this write-up is.
I really wanted to get my thoughts on Total War Three Kings posted sooner than I have but I blame Asobo Studio’s [simply amazing] A Plague Tale: Innocence, a game I bought a few days after a download code for Total War Three Kings landed in my inbox. “I’ll look at it for a few hours then get stuck into TW,” I said. “It’ll be all sweet,” I said.
Well, best laid plans of mice & men and all that …
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Look, I am the first to admit I can’t play rhythm games, my physical structure does not generally move to music in any shape or form without a massive amount of encouragement or threats.
Yet, here I am, really enjoying the music and movement co-ordination with BoxVR.
Overall, BoxVR isn’t going to replace an actual gym or a six mile run, but it does get you off the couch and it does help you to break a sweat. I can’t say it has changed my life, but I will say this, there is a spring in my step that wasn’t there in this tired old body a couple of weeks ago and I am looking forward to my next session more than the Triple A game I’m supposed to be playing.
Think on that.
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They say a change is as good as a holiday. Well, me playing a Major League Baseball video game is certainly a change, but a holiday, mmmm I’m not so sure.
That said after a fair bit of work and outright learning the hard way about baseball type-stuff, I have come to appreciate and enjoy MLB The Show more than I would ever expected too.
I actually came to really enjoy MLB The Show 2019. Which surprises me as the first 30 minutes was confusing and frustrating. But after some self-education I appreciated the attention to detail and the clever application of a real world sport to the digital realm.
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I’m hunkered down in the second floor of a bombed-out building in war-torn Berlin. It’s 1945, World War 2.
Out of a window to my right, I see a gaggle of German soldiers, gathered behind barricades. The troop truck they jumped out of is parked nearby. Lying on the ground is the body of a Nazi collaborator, his body limp and lifeless, taken out earlier by a sniper shot from my trusty Springfield M1903 sniper rifle. He has papers I need to retrieve – but I need to clear the area first.
Making things a tad difficult is the German tank parked to my left, its turret trained on my position. I start to sweat and weigh up my options.
I decide I’ll take out the soldiers, one by one, with my sniper rifle then deal with the tank – and this is where Sniper Elite V2’s single greatest feature comes into play: The focused sniper shot.
Click through to see ‘what happens next’…
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