Space Combat games have always been a favourite genre for me. Starting with Descent back in 1995 and most recently with the excellent Star Wars: Squadrons on the PSVR.
But the genre often struggled to get AAA quality outings. Certainly, any tangible story and world building rarely occurs within them.
BUT, Chorus has literally come out of my blind-spot and some how managed to be both an awesome arcade space combat game, with an interesting story.
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In my musing on the last 7 years of gaming, a few titles stood out for their impact on me. More specifically, there were certain games that were unique experiences worthy of a “Games of the Generation” title. Keep that term in mind. “Unique”. For me, for a game to hit my list it needed to be more that just graphically stunning. It needed to be like a fresh experience, not just a incremental refinement of previous titles in a genre.
I have been reflecting on this generation of consoles, specifically the Xbox One and Playstation 4. I must admit though, the Xbox One failed to capture my attention this gen. There was a couple of awesome months of replaying the Halo games in the Master Chief Collection. However, shortly after it was left unplugged and unloved, as the PS4 amazing exclusives captured much of my attention.
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How do you have a 2020 Roundup? A year that has put the Annus in Annus Horribulus. The ongoing pandemic notwithstanding its been a year where everybody seems to have shared tragedy on some level. Having lost close friends, dear pets and suffered a weather event catastrophe I’m just glad COVID has not yet reached my door.
Here we at the dawn of a New Year, and just like twelve short months ago. Everybody is wishing that when that calendar clicks over the trend gets better. We should take a quick spin around the highlights of what we managed under such adversity.
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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!
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The best choice Crystal Dynamics made with Marvel’s Avengers was to have the story told from an outside perspective. The Avengers of this universe are already established heroes, legends amid a festival of fanfare and merchandise. The subjects of enthusiastic fan fiction, which is how the main protagonist of this game, Kamala Khan, is introduced.
Her and her adorable dad are on an Avengers Quinjet, alongside fellow writing competition winners. Given the opportunity to rub shoulders with the desultory heroes themselves on their impressive Helicarrier. Kamala encounters several of the Avengers as a young fangirl, geeking out at collecting comic books to gain entry to the VIP area, after which all hell breaks loose and the Avengers are swiftly dealt a master blow that sees their reputation in tatters, their assets seized by the government and the team itself thrown to the wind.
Marvel’s Avengers is a perfectly enjoyable, if not particularly well assembled, superhero action title with looter-shooter influences. A well written main story will give you ten hours of enjoyment.
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Minecraft Dungeons is an exciting addition to the Minecraft family. We’ve been playing the Mojang block builder for over a decade on a multitude of platforms. Since the Microsoft acquisition in 2014 Minecraft Earth, Stories and Minecraft Dungeons have been the diverse additions, on top of regular world updates.
Personally I love a good Dungeon Crawl, because nothing beats the smell of loot in dank tunnel.
The ingredients were already there after ten years of creativity and the story probably wrote itself. Surely it was easy to put together the landscape and inhabitants. The Minecraft palette and world are so familiar now and the engine breathes life into well lit scenes. This isn’t an RTX shaded version of the game, it’s pure and simple and full of joy.
Thanks to Microsoft / Xbox ANZ for providing the review copy.
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Easter 2020 came early when Sony Interactive Entertainment revealed: “the first images and design details of the DualSense wireless controller, the new wireless controller for PlayStation 5”. Being a few days before the holiday weekend it certainly gave all the thirsty gamers something to discuss. Fervently.
Given the consumable nature of Social Media and the way it spreads virus-like at unknown speeds. It was not surprising that the negativity outweighed the positive commenters. Because “Its the internet” and “They are all bored on lockdown”. Here’s an idea:
DualSense: Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover.
All the discussion and ribald rivalry was only concerned with how the controller looked. The news being supported by a decent rap sheet of features was devoid of interest for many. Personally and to get it out of the way, I love the look. Love, love, love it, love the look.
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How do you review something like Dreams? You can’t, not in the traditional sense anyway.
Dreams is an ever morphing mass, a creative community always shifting and growing and being unique. Each and every user will connect to the Dreamiverse (Media Molecule’s big concept) in different ways, wanting different things and walking away with a different take.
I have suffered with a condition most of my creative life. From school to now I always want to ‘do’ something. That something always escapes me, either the painting in my head is nothing like the art I produce or worse still life goals just never get it into the box. That was a soccer euphemism.
My condition is the age old struggle of Ambition vs Ability.
Dreams is bringing out the worst of that in me.
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The rest of the team have had their turn. It is interesting to see that we have all been touched by different games over the last 12 months.
The standout for Guy being Control, although we do agree on Blood and Truth being a landmark title for PSVR. Whereas Barrie loved Outer Worlds, I tried it, but wasn’t in the right space. Maybe I need to give it another spin now the fuss has died down. Gerard plumped for Plague Tale, which is title I have seen often recommended, but never looked close enough.
The great thing is, it looks like my Pile of Shame is about to get at least 3 games bigger.
Right now, looking back at 2019 we had some great titles to play and it really is hard to pull out a shortlist of favourites. That said, here’s my take.
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Guy takes a quick spin around his highlights of 2019 in gaming, it’s a mixed bag topped off with the evergreen action of Destiny2.
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This was supposed to be a cool Advent Calendar, but December ran away with itself and formatting became an issue.
So here are the survivors, things we can heartily recommend as Last Minute Gifts for the Gamer in your life.
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