PC / Mac Archives - Page 14 of 20

Serious Sam 4 (PC review)

Sep 30, 2020 Gerard Campbell 1360 Views alien invasion, Dad jokes, one-liners, run-and-gun, Serious Sam

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.

Byte Size Review Gaming PC / Mac PS4 Xbox One

Control: AWE DLC (PS4)

Sep 20, 2020 Guy 1764 Views Alan Wake, Control, Jesse, Strange House

I am a big fan of Control. I said pretty nice things a year ago in my review, such as…”It was mind-bendingly magical”. It was even my Game of the Year for 2019!

So, any offer to dive back into Controls twisted world is met with giddy laughs of excitement and much wringing of hands.

The second and final (AWE) DLC for Control has just arrived. Remedy have fully bridged the world of Alan Wake and Control in this 3-4hr DLC pack. I won’t spoil any story from here on in, but suffice is to say. Mr Wake’s typewriter is hard at work leading Jesse into darkness, hunting an escaped Bright Falls monster who is loose in the Strange House.

Gaming Game Reviews Indie Game PC / Mac PS4 Xbox One

No Straight Roads – Byte Size Review (PC)

Sep 18, 2020 Barrie Clarke 1146 Views EDM, Music, Rhythm Games, Rock

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!

Gaming Hardware Hardware Reviews iOS PC / Mac PS4 Switch Console Video Content Xbox One

JBL QUANTUM Wireless 600, review

Sep 14, 2020 Richard Armitt 2226 Views 3d Sound, Boom Mic, JBL, Quantum 600, Quantum Gaming Headsets

JBL ANZ very kindly supplied us with a set of Wireless 600 headphones to celebrate their Australian launch last week. Over the course of this year they have made a big impact in New Zealand with their gaming range and we have been able to review some of the range previously.

Of course JBL are not only known for their Gaming Headsets, as part of the Harman Karman Group they are responsible for a range of lifestyle audio devices too. Some of which will be finding their way to Australasia soon.

The Wireless 600 is a set that is easy to put on, the packaged (braided) cables make it simple to swap out from PS4, to Mac, to Xbox to Switch. I am happy with it and will be making the most of them.

Gaming Feature Article Nintendo PC / Mac PS Vita PS3 PS4 PS5 Xbox One Xbox Series X xbox360

10 annoying things in video games

Sep 13, 2020 Richard Armitt 2380 Views Annoying Games, Dark Souls, Gears of War, Modern Warfare, Sekiro, Spider-man, Too Human, Top 10 List, Uncharted

The Top 10 annoying things in video games.

There are Top 10 lists for all sorts of things, but today it hit me there’s a list we don’t speak of. So here it is, in no particular order.

01: Pointless Boss Fights.
02: Non dodge-able Attacks.
03: The End of Level vehicle run.
04: Choices, choices, annoying choices.
05: Buying Loot from an NPC, then finding something better.
06: Busy Work.
07: Racing in non-racing games is annoying.
08: Learning the ropes with an established character.
09: The A.I. never drives.
10: Backtracking by design.

Gaming Game Reviews PC / Mac PS4 Switch Console Xbox One

Railway Empire Complete Collection [reviewed on PC]

Sep 7, 2020 Gerard Campbell 2044 Views building an empire, city builder, micromanagement, Railway Empire, steam locomotives

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.

Game Pass Game Reviews Gaming PC / Mac PS4 Xbox One

Wasteland 3 Review (Xbox One X)

Sep 4, 2020 Barrie Clarke 1451 Views Action RPG, Fallout, Isometric, Post Apocalyptic, Wasteland

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.

Gaming Byte Size Review PC / Mac PS4 Xbox One

Tell Me Why – XBOX review

Aug 28, 2020 Dylan Burns 1309 Views DONTNOD, Life Is Strange, Tell Me Why

Guest contributor, Dylan Burns makes a welcome entrance:

One might see Tell Me Why (Chapter One) as DONTNOD’s distillation of everything they have learnt.

Sure, there’s DONTNOD’s distinctive sense of place and domestic design, as well as their ability to create the illusion of small town America, but when distilled down to what you actually do in this first chapter, the handful of location changes and flashbacks cannot hide the fact that this is quite a bare-bones offering.

I was impressed by the first Life is Strange and a big fan of the deliberate mundanity of Life is Strange 2, but in Tell Me Why I found myself struggling to get through the languid pacing, boring dialogue and questionable characterisation. Rather than being intrigued, I just wanted the story to hurry up and happen, for the characters to do something other than wander about each location looking at things and remembering the past.

Due to the episodic nature of Tell Me Why, we’ve added Dylan’s review of the following chapters here.

Gaming Game Pass Game Reviews PC / Mac Video Content

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020: Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away

Aug 28, 2020 Gerard Campbell 3278 Views Flight Simulator, Gamepass, Global Mapping, Microsoft

I didn’t expect to love Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 as much as I did when I first started playing it but I do. I love it.

There’s just something therapeutic and relaxing about taking to the skies in a Cessna or a Daher TBM930 single-engine and just flying from point A to point B. Heck, often there is no point B involved at all. I often just found myself taking off from an airport, be it Christchurch, in New Zealand, or Tekapo or Brisbane or Melbourne and just flying around, looking at houses and seeing how close I can get to the ground before the plane’s warning klaxon does my head in.

I’ll be completely honest: I’m a hopeless pilot. My first few take-offs were sketchy af. They still are sometimes, actually.

Gaming Hardware Hardware Reviews PC / Mac

Epos Sennheiser GSX300 external sound card

Aug 27, 2020 Gerard Campbell 1558 Views external sound card, Sennheiser, Sound

For those older gamers reading this, you’ll remember vividly how it used to be commonplace to have a dedicated sound card in your PC: On-board audio encoding wasn’t a thing back in the days of beige boxes, shareware and 486CPUs.

As PCs became more and more modern, motherboards started appearing with in-built sound cards offering OK but often not stellar sound. Still, it was early days and you made the most of what you had. I still remember my Creative Labs Sound Blaster sound cards with fond memories.

Fast forward to today

Gaming Byte Size Review PC / Mac PS4 Video Content Xbox One

Relicta, PS4 Review

Aug 25, 2020 Guy 1856 Views First Person, Portal, Puzzler, Relicta

Relicta does not make a good first impression.

The opening puzzles which serve as the tutorial feel very, “seen that sort of thing before”. The tutorial then leads into a fairly drawn out story delivery sequence told by disposable radio chatter. I will admit, I rolled my eyes and did not have high hopes for my next few hours of gaming.

But poor introductions aside, when the gameplay proper kicked off and some headscratcher puzzles where unleashed upon my brain. I completely changed my views on Relicta. It’s actually a super solid wee puzzler.