Who doesn’t like LEGO? I have always been a bit of a AFOL, Adult Fan Of Lego if you were wondering.
Whether it is physical LEGO or LEGO games I have been keen. In recent years LEGO games have been more diverse than the classic movie tie-ins we all love.
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nd the first Forza Motorsport on the original Xbox, it had me hooked. But then in 2012 came the first Forza Horizon on the Xbox 360.
It was the Horizon Series that reeled me in. The freedom and forgiveness that Horizon has over its Motorsport brother is far more to my liking, and driving style. And here we are now in 2021 with the fifth instalment in the Forza Horizon franchise.
Viva Mexico!
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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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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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Lonely Mountains Downhill began life as a Kickstarter project by German game makers Daniel Helbig and Jan Bubenik.
Full disclosure here: I backed the project and my name’s in the game’s credits. It also got a mention in my pick of 2019.
As an ageing mountain biker the game appealed to me as a way to enjoy one of my passions. When I’m stuck at home and the weather’s too horrific to don the rain jacket and hit the trails. I was also attracted by its low-poly graphical style, with a blocky, chunky biker and vibrant environments.
Thanks to Lonely Mountains Downhill on Switch, I can now “ride” my mountain bike any time I want. At the office, while I’m lying in bed, while I’m, ahem, in the bathroom. It’s also the perfect thing for when I just can’t bothered kitting up and hitting my local trails. Especially with winter looming and its inevitable wet & chilly weather.
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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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After all the build up and fervour PAXAus 2019 has been and gone. It was a first visit for me, probably not the last, but my old bones are currently arguing against it. Having become something of a big hitter on the gaming calendar I was keen to see this year what all the fuss was about.
As an eclectic gathering of Gaming, Pop Culture and Cosplay it does the job well, and you can see from the eyes of the consumer that wanders the floors glassy eyed that they are getting all the shiny things they need. I enjoyed the relative tranquility of the table-top game area and retro section, it was a relief from the pressing crowds squeezing through the aisles.
The main event was loud, brash and exhausting, especially when I flew in for a single day with a maximum of six hours on the ground.
But, that’s me, at PAXAus 2019, being there and slightly square.
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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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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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Even though this is a remake I don’t want to spoil anything for first time players or absent minded older gamers who are revisiting Raccoon City.
So consider this a SPOILER FREE REVIEW.
Now you would have to have been living under a rock not to have heard of Resident Evil, or Biohazard for those from Japan. The games have been around for over 2o years, along with comics, novels, toys, several movies, and now rumours that Netflix have a Resident Evil series in the works.
I guess that all this longevity and multi format content just shows how good the story and characters are in the Resident Evil Universe. Obviously this game isn’t the second release in the series but a remake of the 1998 version.
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So here we are, a new year and a new slew of games to look forward to. Most have been in the mix for a while now so there are no real surprises here but still an impressive list none the less.
Personally I am looking forward to The Outer Worlds and Wasteland 3 the most, but am also keen have a crack at Anthem and Metro Exodus. And lets not forget that all Microsoft Studios titles will release straight to Game Pass so if you aren’t a subscriber what more reason do you need?
Cheers, Barrie.
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