I first discovered Need for Speed : Hot Pursuit around ten years ago.
It came in an unmarked padded bag and was a surprise review.
Knowing nothing about the game I went in blind, it was early in my ButtonmasherNZ days and I was keen.
Out of that came an overlong and excitable review, the game was good and had its turbo boosted hooks in me.
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I’ll come straight out with this, Microsoft and Xbox ANZ very kindly supplied us with an XBOX SERIES X in their review window. That means we’ve had it for about a week and a half. What follows are my thoughts after unboxing and those first steps with the next generation of gaming.
Don’t judge an Xbox Series X by its cover.
At least until you’ve read a bit.
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Kingdoms of Amalur on the xbox360 was a cult hit before it stopped being mainstream. Action RPG fans loved it and even with rough edges, it had popular appeal. There weren’t many gamers of that age that didn’t glass over and have nice things to say about it.
There’s always a game you regret selling or trading, for me this was it.
When I heard that KoA: Reckoning was getting the HD treatment, I was over the moon. One of those games that guided us out of the last generation with fond memories. I thought I knew it fairly well, but the first couple of hours were not lodged in my memory.
I selected my character, for some reason a shapely dark elf (again) and set off.
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Crysis (Remastered) is one of those touchstone titles that most gamers have heard about, being released on PC back in 2007 to rave reviews. It was the “Ultimate Test” of a PCs graphical prowess.
Later in 2011 Crysis landed on Console, which is where I experienced it on the Xbox 360. Even in the paired down console version, I loved it, its was beautiful, unique and I even got 1000/1000 achievement points!
13 years have passed since its initial release. Which is a long time in game design terms. Unfortunately, even though Crysis has had the “Remaster treatment” to make it all pretty, the titles old bones are showing their age.
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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.
Originally released in 2007 for the Xbox 360, Halo 3 returned to the Xbox One as part of the Master Chief Collection in 2014 and now in 2020 it comes to PC.
So here we go, a review for a 13 year old game that any gamer worth their salt has played at some point. Hell, even my Wife recognises the Master Chief.
To be honest, even just hearing the Halo theme music brings back memories and a huge smile to my face. And going by previous reviews by Richard and Gerard, it seems we are all in agreement when it comes to how iconic the Halo theme track is.
Let us once more don the green Spartan armour and go kick some Covenant butt.
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Back in the day when Saints Row first hit the market it was pretty much known as nothing more than an ok Grand Theft Auto knock off. And it was. Volition’s response, over the top silliness. And in my opinion this move worked. Each title after the initial release managed to get even stranger and push the limits of decency.
To the point where Saints Row: The Third is definitely not a game for the kids.
The Saints Row franchise has never hidden its roots, on the contrary, it has dyed them bright purple, and put on a g-string. Saints Row The Third is a solid piece of gaming aimed at the adult market. Even just running around with a giant dildo in hand brings a smile to my face.
We are in a very serious world at the moment. Take this piece of entertainment for what is meant for, to bring a smile and some escapism from real life.
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I’m not one of these gamers who bleats that every triple A title should come to the Nintendo Switch just because it should. However, Metro 2033 Redux and Last Light make the grade.
No, I’m strongly of the belief that the Switch is best suited to games that make the most of its unique features. In my humble opinion, there have really only been a handful of “AAA” games that have managed to be ported successfully to Nintendo’s handheld in recent times. Among those; The Witcher 3, Doom (2016) and Wolfenstein The New Colossus.
Now you can add 4A Games’ Metro 2033 Redux and Metro Last Light Redux to that list of ports done right.
Set in post-apocalyptic Russia, the Metro games are based on the books by author Dmitry Glukhovsky and focus on Artyom and the survivors he lives with deep in the Moscow metro system. Not forgetting the mysterious Dark Ones that appeared, throwing life into more chaos.
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I’m not sure how it came about, probably one marketing person talking to another, maybe they wanted to do something about influencers smelling of Bullshit, maybe it was because Gamers alledgely smell of teenage stockpiles stashed under their beds.
Also, it’s been around for well over a month, but sometimes when the PR guys decide not to send you something to review, you have to buy it yourself if you really want to try it out. This is just as true for games and hardware as it is for grooming products.
So here we are, a week after I spent $12 in Coles to try out the Xbox flavour Lynx and to see if it really did lift my game.
Overall, it has been a neat little spike for exposure on both brands, has it won over consumers? Probably not. Has it won over the Influencers, streamers and gang that gushed over their care packages? Well, let’s file that under Anthem shall we.
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Borderlands, a franchise and a genre flag bearer.
Now we get to go back to where it all began – with all DLC and shiny new graphics along with a few tweaks here and there.
As a warm up to Borderlands 3 this is the perfect introduction for players that weren’t around ten years ago. Fire up the Hype Train there’s a new ‘Old Loot Shooter’ in town.
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A long time ago when the xbox360 was young there were games that defined the console, one of them was Crackdown.
Putting you in the shoes of a super-human Agent, the game had you reclaiming an open world one task at a time and mowing down a hefty roster of bad guys. All sounds pretty familiar, well yes it was, but then there were Orbs and the way you skilled up and the subtle effects that came with those skills, not to mention the small army array of weapons at your disposal. Having recently hit the backwards compatible pile and being free to download I had a recent spin around the original and it didn’t disappoint.
Yes, by today’s standard the open world was fairly bare and the cel-shaded aesthetic wasn’t much to write home about. However, the game had chops, big furry, playable chops and people loved it.
There is a lot to like about Crackdown 3, while it may feel like an older game, it is built using a formula that works and you don’t have to worry about getting chores or conversations. As a great example of keeping it simple we have a Crackdown for people to enjoy, a game that doesn’t get bogged down in drawn out narrative, rather a game that wants you to play it.
Get out there and kick some ass Agents.
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