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New Star Manager, PS4 Review

Richard Armitt 1715 Views ,  , 

There will always be room for more takes on soccer manager genre, at least there is if you’ve ever let one get its hooks into you.

For me the Holy Grail has always been CM97/98, many wasted weekends as nights turned to mornings and you’d catch an hour of sleep while a creaky 386 PC ground out the close season update. There have been all sorts of attempts to capture that lightning, sometimes they have just been too complex for their own good.

New Star Manager brings a fresh take and more importantly for consoles a better user interface than suits the medium. No more snapping to and fro between far too many icons, no more floaty cursors relying on your thumbstick that wished it was a mouse, you have to appreciate the design path going from mobile to Switch before PS4 being one of the core drivers here.

New Star is a relaxed and enjoyable take on the manager sim, the pace is fairly pedestrian which makes it a top-corner chill-out game and the mini games along with the in-match controls have raised more than a few smiles in my dugout.

If you are looking for something different that tickles your soccer fantasies, I’d be giving New Star a run out, new signings, fresh legs and all that.

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Feature ArticleGamingPS4PSNetworkXbox One

Rage 2, a late review, PS4

Richard Armitt 1667 Views ,  ,  ,  ,  , 

Bethesda seem to have their fair share of ups and downs, especially if you pay much attention the media, social or otherwise. Rage 2 was an interesting moment on that roller coaster given its lukewarm reception after a full-on and suitably anarchic promotional campaign.

Apart from the usual web, bus, media ads. It was interesting to see the local community team stacking their chips on more than a few expo appearances. Their Rage2 Tattoo drive certainly got people talking with mixed feelings, and being right on top of release without any sign of review code, obviously set a few reviewers off on the wrong foot.

I have been toying with these words for a while, and its fair to say Rage 2 got short changed in the review period after release.

Give it a go, because once you do – you realise that Rage 2 is the first person Crackdown you never knew you needed.

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Byte Size ReviewGame ReviewsGamingPS4Xbox One

Byte Size – ESO Elsweyr Review (Xbox One X)

Barrie Clarke 2163 Views ,  ,  , 

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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Game ReviewsGamingNintendoPC / MacSwitch Console

Octopath Traveler, PC review

Gerard Campbell 2018 Views ,  ,  , 

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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Byte Size ReviewGamingIndie GameNintendoPC / MacSwitch Console

My Friend Pedro, Switch Review

Richard Armitt 1327 Views ,  ,  , 

My Friend Pedro has been coming for a while and every clip I’d seen surface on Social media from developer Deadtoast only got my appetite wetter. Mainly due to it being an ultra violent 2.5D cutout of a shooter with buckets of slow-motion-bulletime-matrix-backflip-shooting to boot.

Once upon a time Jon Woo and Chow Fun Fat brought their movie magic to games with Stranglehold, this is everything they did not achieve; Hi-Octane destruction with very forgiving systems to make it a fun ride.

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Game ReviewsGamingPC / Mac

Total War Three Kings: Chinese dynasties & tactical battles, PC Review

Gerard Campbell 4237 Views ,  ,  ,  , 

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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Byte Size ReviewGamingPS4PSNetworkPSVR

Blood & Truth, PSVR Review

Guy 1360 Views ,  ,  , 

Every now and then I play a game and it floors me. It’s not often mind you, I’m talking once or twice in a console generation. Anyone who reads my stuff or follows me online, knows I am a PSVR fan and I love it, warts and all. But ‘Blood & Truth’ is something special, it’s a leap forward in mainstream big budget VR experiences and I am going to break from the traditional idea of a “Review” for this one.

So here we go….

“Do you and your PSVR a favour……….Go and BUY Blood & Truth”!

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Game ReviewsGamingPS4PSNetworkPSVR

BoxVR Review, PSVR

Richard Armitt 2003 Views ,  ,  , 

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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Byte Size ReviewGamingPS VitaPS4Switch ConsoleXbox One

Shakedown Hawaii: A dinosaur making his way in the modern world, PS4 and Vita

Gerard Campbell 1709 Views ,  ,  , 

Shakedown Hawaii is a cynical statement about today’s modern age told through the eyes of a dinosaur who is stuck in his ways & is unprepared to change.

Shakedown Hawaii is an open-world game with a mix of driving, shooting and wandering around where missions can be as simple as stealing a speed boat for some misadventure to renaming an unpopular energy drink so it appeals to gamer culture.

You can also literally buy every single building in the game. From shoe shops to clothing outlets to automative dealers that repossess cars, the world is literally yours for the taking. Shakedown Hawaii doesn’t take itself too seriously, either.

Shakedown Hawaii is just the ticket to scratch that 16-bit itch.

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Feature ArticleGamingPC / MacPS4Xbox One

A 2019 look at… Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Guy 1340 Views ,  ,  ,  , 

March 2017- Donald Trump, the freshly minted 45th American President, was banning US travel from various middle eastern countries, London was the subject of a brutal terrorist attack, the UK Prime Minister invoked Article 50 to trigger Brexit and to top it off, a man’s body was found inside a 7m long reticulated python in Indonesia. So, to put it bluntly, March 2017 was a bit shit. 

Thankfully over the same period, the world of Video Games was fucken brilliant, with some of the best games of the generation being released, all to help gamers escape to worlds full of adventure and fun.

The title I wish to revisit from the month of March is a game which has become hugely important to gamers such as myself, Gamers who grew up playing Baldurs Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Dragon Age and the Mass Effect series…I of course speak of Mass Effect: Andromeda.

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Game ReviewsGamingPS4PSNetwork

MLB The Show, PS4 Review

Guy 1411 Views ,  , 

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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