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HALO Infinite, Review

Microsoft are on a roll there’s no debate Gamepass is the service du jour, Flight Simulator made a massive splash and now we get the Master Chief for Christmas.

Make no mistake the silly season is going to be peppered with the screams of a billion Grunts.

Thanks to Microsoft for supplying the Korucottage team with early review code.

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Football manager 2022 review

Football Manager 2022 brings me back to one of my most beloved genres. Having spent the best part of 40 years playing these games. All the way from Kevin Toms’ 1987 Football Manager, through my love affair with CM97/98 to here and today. Sports Interactive are way ahead in this game and it shows.

Yes.It’s make believe and even the best of them look like a spreadsheet, a keen eye soon learns where to look. But, once you’re under and engaged with these players it all starts to become important, to you, personally.

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G-Darius HD, Switch review

The 90’s gave birth to some classic families of Arcade Games, and for the time the original G-Darius HD was among one of them. Now iningames.com have brought it back.

The formula is classic Arcade, side-scrolling shooter, Bullet Hell and Boss Fights. What could go wrong? Well, back in the day not a lot, it was challenging and fun with some interesting nuances.

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GamingFeature ArticleHardwareVideo Content

Building the Arcade Dream, Part 2

Part 2 of the series, where I build my own Arcade Machine.

There is plenty of mystery surrounding the homemade arcade scene, until you get under it’s skin. Wherever you live there will be local knowledge and country related forums. This is as true in Australia as it is elsewhere. On the way to picking up and deciding on which cabinet I was going to tackle first I came across lots of useful resources.

Google and Youtube are absolutely your friend, especially if you’re an okay-ish handyman like myself.

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Building the Arcade Dream, Part 1

Growing up in the 80’s gave the Arcade Machine a special place in my heart. While I wasnt ever able to fervently feed all my money into them I knew my way around. There was a time when you could stumble across a cabinet literally anywhere, from the local greasy spoon cafe to the common room at college. It was the best of times, etc. Even school swimming lessons would see us running across the road at the last minute after crowding a dark back room in a takeout. Shouting out ‘dibs’ on your mate’s last man in Frogger.

This is part one of a series. I’ve made my decision to go with the path of least resistance, in the next instalment I will share a wealth of useful resources I’ve been finding to make sense of the process. Along with some updates on the build itself.

For now, join me in wistful yearning to be able to play The Speed Rumbler again.

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Biomutant, PS4 Review

Biomutant, where to begin? A post apocalyptic RPG set in a world not unlike ours, albeit when ours is the ‘before times’.

We felt the sprawling nature of Biomutant would be a good opportunity to team up Richard and Dylan, let’s see.

A world poisoned by toxicity, inhabited by mutated creatures instead of people. Living their simple lives in a pseudo medieval-samurai-esque setting.

Biomutant has a colourful open world, liberally peppered with ruins of humanity. Shells of buildings and rusted cars, intersected with skeletal tracks of Chuggers, sorry, trains.

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GamingGame ReviewsPC / MacVideo Content

Evil Genius 2: World Domination (PC review)

It’s hard work being an evil meglomaniacal dictator in Evil Genius 2, believe me.

I mean, between ensuring you have enough energy to keep the lights on in your ever-expanding lair where you’re plotting world domination, you also have to deal with workers (aka minions) who are more concerned with what’s for lunch.

A sequel to the original Evil Genius, a real-time strategy/world builder game from Elixir Games in 2004, Evil Genuis 2: World Domination has a real Austin Powers/Despicable Me feel to it.

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Endzone – A World Apart Byte Size Review (PC)

The year is, well, this year, 2021. And some nut jobs have finally gone too far and blown up nuclear power plants around the world. Some are lucky enough to seek shelter in an “Endzone” underground bunker, and now their offspring are returning to the surface, 150 years later. All sounds pretty familiar really.

Endzone – A World Apart is a city builder, a post-apocalyptic SimCity if you like. Very much like the enjoyable Frostpunk you are tasked with collecting resources, building a community and surviving the harsh environment that is now home.

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Pioneers of Olive Town, Switch review

The Story of Seasons is a series that admittedly has escaped me, Pioneers of Olive Town being my first foray. Having experienced a fair bit of Harvest Moon over the years it was a fair bet I knew what I was getting into.

This time round and post an 2020 Animal Crossing addiction, I stumped up the cash in curiosity.

Pioneers of Olive Town is undoubtedly wholesome, comfortably reminding me of my Harvest Moon years. The jolly exchanges with the Mayor, the cute animals and safe sojourns into nearby caves.

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Olija Review, Nintendo Switch

A note from Dylan on his ‘unconventional’ review of Olija.

I just wanted to try and convey how cool this game manages to make the player feel uncomfortable. Like, it’s a horror game but without proper scares, just menacing and uneasy throughout.

Therefore, I decided to have a bit of fun and play with the reader, make it uncomfortable for them to read and – hopefully – make it engaging and something different to the rest of the online echo chamber.

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Everdure Force BBQ – Review

We tend to be a pack of nerds here at the Cottage. So as a slight departure from the normal Video Games and Tech reviews, I have found myself reviewing, of all things, an Everdure Force Barbecue.

Going into this Covid-free Kiwi summer I needed to upgrade my old BBQ and wanted something better than ‘average’. So I looked into various top of the line brands like Webers, Broil Kings and the Everdures.

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