Since the days of Wasteland and Fallout, fans of post-apocalyptic wastelands have longed for a new addition to the genre that is even worthy of being mentioned in the same discussion as the masters. Some titles such as Fallout 3, Wasteland 2, and UnderRail have tried with varying degrees of success, but none have been able to properly recapture the same radioactive magic of their elders. That is until now. Beginning life as a Kickstarter project, ATOM RPG is an isometric RPG developed and published by AtomTeam with the sole intention of recreating that sense of wonder and fulfillment that RPG fans haven't experienced since the days of Fallout 2 and Baldur's Gate.

What I love, perhaps, the most so far is the story. Despite the main quest tasking you to investigate a conspiracy that threatens all remaining life on Earth, it's entirely up to you if you even want to go about that. You are not "the chosen one." You are not a fabled hero tasked with saving the people of the wasteland. You are a survivor. Plain and simple. Your goal is to survive. How you choose to do that is up to. Yet, despite all that, if you wish to choose to play as some kind of messiah, you can. Your story is your own. How you want to leave your mark on the wasteland is up to you.

The setting itself is also quite interesting. Instead of the cliche post-nuclear remnants of the United States, ATOM RPG is set in an alternate version of the Soviet Union circa 1986 where both sides of the Cold War settled their differences through a mutual nuclear holocaust. While a post-apocalyptic Russia setting isn't exactly new for a video game, it's still a nice change of pace from the good ol' US of A.

As of writing this review (11/28/17), there are currently over 20 quests in the early access build of ATOM RPG which will take anywhere from 8 or 9 hours to complete. AtomTeam plan on adding much, much more for the final release.

Anyone even remotely interested in ATOM RPG has spent some time with Fallout 1 and 2, and fans of the original Fallouts will find that almost everything, in terms of gameplay, has been either lovingly recreated or painstakingly improved upon; even down to the nearly identical HUD. Turn based combat is very much an acquired taste. It's difficult for people nowadays to come from Fallout 4's borderline Borderlands gameplay to an isometric turn based action game, and there's nothing wrong with that. You just have to know what you're in for. Enemy encounters are just as tactically challenging as they were in Fallout 2. You have to weigh your options against each other due to a limited number of action points per turn. For example, you could attempt to kill a bandit nearest to you, but risk being attacked by his buddies, or you could take cover and wait for an opportunity to take out any bandits in your vicinity, but they may run to cover as well.
If you have a basic understanding of turn based combat, you don't need me to explain ATOM RPG's gameplay to you; you'll do just fine.

Either in 1988 or 2017, graphics have always been the least important aspect of any RPG. The same can be said for ATOM RPG. While the visuals aren't exactly photorealistic, the graphics are serviceable and lend themselves to the authenticity of the Soviet Wasteland. The best part of this, of course, is that if you don't have the shiniest new GPU or CPU, you can still probably run ATOM RPG at 60fps. If you can run Fallout 1 and 2, you can run ATOM RPG.

It's difficult to criticize an early access game because any problems that are observed by the community will more than likely be remedied in future updates. The few issues I did fine are hardly worth mentioning. For instance, you can see the edges of locations you're in as plain grey textures and once you find an AK47, you become a walking god of death. The former can be fixed by simply adding a desert texture overlayed with a green light indicating that you are about to be transported to the map screen to walk to another location, and the latter can be fixed with a balancing patch. Other than that, ATOM RPG is one of, if not the most, stable early access game I've played.

Even in its current early access state, ATOM RPG is a love letter to the fans of the original Fallout games and is, without a doubt, worthy of your time. With a couple of patches to fix simple issues and the future release of the rest of the promised content, ATOM RPG is a great throwback experience for a reasonable price. ATOM RPG is the post-apocalyptic RPG fans have been waiting over 20 years for.
This review will be updated and added upon as updates are applied over time.

Your Lie in April begins with an scene that will always stand out to me: Kousei Arima, sitting at a piano in front of hundreds of people — and he is just frozen.

Not from stage fright. Not from forgetting the notes. He freezes because he literally cannot hear himself play. The sound disappears. And in that silence, all he can hear is his mother's voice telling him he's worthless.

That scene shouldn't work as well as it does. A boy who can't hear his own piano playing sounds like magical realism dressed up as drama. But the reason it lands — the reason this entire show lands — is that the music is just set dressing.

The piano, the competitions, the sheet music — they're just the shape grief decided to take.

What this show is actually about, is what happens when grief takes something from you so completely that you don't know who you are without it.

Kousei grew up being called the Human Metronome - a nickname that was technically intended to compliment, yet lands more like an insult. Technically flawless, emotionally absent, the kind of player who made judges nod and audiences feel nothing.

His mother, Saki, made him that way. She was sick, and afraid for Kousei's future after she was gone. As a result, she trained him the best way she knew how - with an iron discipline and almost no mercy. He obeyed, because he loved her, and because love at that age doesn't leave much room for conditions.

When she died, he expected grief. What he didn't expect was silence.

In this respect, the show is smart about how trauma works. It doesn't give Kousei a clean psychological explanation for why he can't hear himself play. It just shows you the result — a boy standing at the instrument that defined his entire childhood, completely cut off from it. His body made a decision his mind never consciously agreed to.

That's what real grief often looks like. Not dramatic collapse. Just a quiet, bewildering absence where something used to be.

Then Kaori Miyazono shows up — and she is, deliberately, everything Kousei is not.

She plays like the sheet music is more of a suggestion than a rulebook. She's loud, chaotic, physically expressive, even occasionally out of tune. A competition judge would, and funnily enough DOES, tear her apart. But the audience can't look away from her, because she's playing like it means something.

And this is where the show makes its central argument: technical perfection, divorced from feeling, is just noise. What makes music — what makes any art — matter is the human presence trying to reach you through it.

Kaori doesn't rehabilitate Kousei gently. She drags him back into the world by sheer force of personality. She's pushy, demanding, and admittedly not particularly fair about it. Yet the show is honest that this is sometimes what a person in that kind of withdrawal actually needs — not patience, but interruption.

Here's where the series gets philosophically interesting.

Kaori knows she's dying. We figure this out gradually. She, however, has known from the very beginning. But rather than retreating from life, she chooses the opposite — she runs head first into it. Every moment is played at full volume because she is keenly aware that the curtain is coming down.

This is a very specific Japanese aesthetic idea called mono no aware — roughly, the bittersweet beauty of impermanence. This is embodied in the cherry blossoms that appear throughout the show — they aren't just pretty background art. They're the whole thesis. They bloom explosively, last about two weeks, and then they're gone. And somehow their brevity is part of what makes them beautiful.

Kaori is a cherry blossom. The show knows this. She knows this. And the tragedy isn't that she's dying — it's that she is more alive than almost anyone around her, and she won't get to stay.

Your Lie in April is often called a romance, and it is — but it's a strange and melancholy one, and it's worth being precise about what the show wants to say about love.

Kaori doesn't heal Kousei. Not really, anyway. His trauma predates her and will outlast her. Instead, what she does is give him a reason to walk back toward the thing he abandoned — not because the pain has been lifted from his shoulders, but because now there's someone on the other side of it worth reaching.

That's a much more honest take on what love can and can't do. It doesn't erase wounds. It doesn't fix people. What it can do is make the distance between you and your own life feel worth crossing.

And then there's Tsubaki — who has loved Kousei quietly, in the background, for years. Her arc is the show's most overlooked tragedy. She realizes what she feels too late, or at least too slowly, and the show doesn't punish her for it, but it doesn't save her from it either. Not all love gets to be the story. Some of it just aches, left incomplete.

Now, if you haven't seen the finale, close this video now, or pause here and feel free to watch it yourself. The rest of this video will only makes sense if you know what's in Kaori's letter.

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At the end of the series, there is one more moment that truly stands out. After Kaori's funeral, when her parents thank Kousei for his presence, they hand him a letter from Kaori. And in that letter, she finally reveals the titular Lie in April — that the girl who claimed to like Watari was in fact, in love with Kousei. 

She loved him. Not Watari — Kousei. She loved him since she was a little girl, watching him play on stage. Watari was just the excuse to get close. And she never told him the truth. All because she was afraid — afraid that naming it would somehow make the loss heavier for both of them.

So the lie in April isn't really a betrayal. It's a form of protection. Or perhaps, it's a form of cowardice. The show doesn't entirely let her off the hook, and honestly, it shouldn't.

But what it does — and this is the devastating part — is reframe the entire narrative. Every scene between them now plays wholly and completely differently. Her urgency, her demands, her constant pushing — it all had a second layer you couldn't see. She wasn't just a free spirit dragging a broken boy back to life. She was a girl in love, running out of time, trying to leave something behind that would outlast her.

And it worked.

Your Lie in April ends in April. Kousei plays his final performance while Kaori, we understand, is dying in surgery. He plays as a message for her. He plays knowing she may never hear it.

And then the cherry blossoms fall.

What this show asks, underneath all of it, is something genuinely uncomfortable: what would it take to make you fully present in your own life? What would it take to play at full volume — knowing it ends, knowing the notes disappear, knowing the audience will eventually empty out?

Kaori's answer was: exactly this. Exactly now.

That's the lie she told. That's the life she lived. And somehow, even from the other side of a story, it's hard not to want to be a little more like her.

Tengami is an amazing point and click puzzle game, that uses a stunning pop-up book mechanism along traditional Japanese art and storytelling. While being a short game with only three levels I still logged 2.2 hours of gameplay from start to finish.

With a 3D environment made in a origami style world. This is one of the most amazing games I have played. Along with amazing Dynasty era soundtrack that fits the mood of each level. After an update this game is flawless, there are NO bugs, and everything works perfectly.

The puzzles are fairly easy, and even if you get stumped there is an official walkthrough, along with a few secrets.This game is a great stress reliever, it plays like a virtual zen garden. This game has a great replay value, I have seen others log in as much as 13+ hours of game play.

This is a great debut for Nyamyam, the UK developer of Tengami. I can not wait to see what they come out with next. I see a bright future for them. Released last year on IOS and WII U. Now the game is available on Steam for PC and Mac for only $.9.99.

The NES Classic Edition is a miniature replica of the Nintendo Entertainment System that was released in the mid 1980's. While it can't play any of the cartridges that were released for the console, it does have 30 games selected and pre-loaded onto it which are listed below:

1. Balloon Fight
2. Bubble Bobble
3. Castlevania
4. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
5. Donkey Kong
6. Donkey Kong Jr.
7. Double Dragon II: The Revenge
8. Dr. Mario
9. Excitebike
10. Final Fantasy
11. Galaga
12. Ghosts 'n Goblins
13. Gradius
14. Ice Climber
15. Kid Icarus
16. Kirby's Adventure
17. The Legend of Zelda

    

18. Mario Bros.
19. Mega Man 2
20. Metroid
21. Ninja Gaiden
22. Pac-Man
23. Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream
24. StarTropics
25. Super Contra
26. Super Mario Bros.
27. Super Mario Bros. 2
28. Super Mario Bros. 3
29. Tecmo Bowl
30. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Not a bad list if I do say so myself. In addition to that, every game has 4 save states that can be saved at any time when you press reset on the system. Very helpful for some of those games that use a password system.

The pricing isn't too bad; at $59.99USD it could be much worse, but when you consider the fact that the second controller is sold separately for an additional $9.99USD, that can make or break a deal in some cases.

The emulation is top notch; the colors are nice and crisp and the audio is just as I remember it, plus I love that it has the option for a scan-line screen filter, but then again what would you expect from an emulator that was made by Nintendo themselves?

As far as originality goes, plug-n-play systems are nothing new, however the execution is what sells it. High quality games though HDMI output, nice and sturdy hardware and fantastic emulation that rivals the original console from which it is based. If you're a parent that wants your kids to experience your childhood with you, or are even just an enthusiast like me who lacks self control, this is a great gift that won't break the bank. Plus if you're a more daring individual the system can be easily modded so you can add more games, but you won't get any of that knowledge from me. Just be careful when shopping for one online; bootlegs of the console do exist and look just like the real thing at first glance. Be sure to do your research and buy from a trusted seller.

AUDIO

CHALLENGE

CONTROL

VISUALS

ORIGINALITY

EXECUTION

PROS:

• Good game variety
• Sturdy construction
• Not too expensive
• Easy to mod
• Controllers are compatible with Wii/Wii U Virtual Console

CONS:

• Second controller sold separately
• Low availability
• Can't play the original NES cartridges

The latest in the Super Mario Bros series is New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe. The game is both New Super Mario Bros U and New Super Luigi U from Nintendo's Wii U system, now combined for the Nintendo Switch. I haven't played a platform Mario game since Super Mario Land 2 and Super Mario Run. That is what NSMBU Deluxe reminds me of the best and worst Super Mario Bros games put together to make an Ok game. It's not game changing like Mario Bros games from the past. Super Mario Bros 1 helped popularized the platforming genre. Super Mario 3 gave us a way to reply levels and a new structure of gameplay. Super Mario 64 gave us our first open world to the universe that led to some of the best sandbox games we have ever played. The mod community forced Nintendo to create the best Mario game of them all, Super Mario Maker.

Though we are not here to talk about that amazing game, we are talking about a port of a Super Mario Bros game from one of Nintendo's most disappointing console next to the Virtual Boy. NSMBU Deluxe may be easy, this is the first time I've seen an option for an easy mode since Super Mario Land 2. A lot of people have talked about the controls and I couldn't agree more, unlike Super Smash Bros you can not remap these to your preference. Playing with one hand using the pro controller I found it kinda of hard to do things like getting a boost with the flying squirrel power. It was also tricky to do a butt breaker first try.

I know we are in 2019, though it is sad when retro looking indie games look better than a triple-A title like NSMBU Deluxe. I wish they gave us a downgrade option in the graphics to give it more of that classic look. To me, it just feels like Super Mario Run meets Super Mario Bros 2 for NES. The reason why I compare this to Super Mario Bros 2 for many reasons. It's the first time you have the option between different characters since Super Mario Bros 2. There are aspects of the game people love about it, along with dislikes. Though even if there is a love/hate relationship with Super Mario Bros 2, which I found out a few years ago was originally Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic (translated as Dream Factory: Heart-Pounding Panic and usually referred to as Doki Doki Panic) in Japan, and remade into Super Mario Bros 2. You'll always be pleasing the hardcore Mario fans. If you're really good at platformers this is a short experience with story mode.

(History of Super Mario Bros 2 by the Gaming Historian)

There is some ok level design in both Super Mario Bros 2 and NSMBU Deluxe. I feel NSMBU Deluxe will have the same fate as Super Mario Bros 2. It seems like RND took the worst parts of the Famicom Super Mario Bros 2 controls and tweaked them to be even worse for NSMBU Deluxe. Though there are some fun aspects to NSMBU Deluxe. The challenge mode is actually quite fun. It's a great break from the story mode. Though I don't know if it is enough to keep people playing. Like I said there are some great indie platformers that have a great balance and are expanding on the genre for a third of the cost of NSMBU Deluxe. You could get four or five indie titles for the same price as NSMBU Deluxe. Though if you are a lover of Super Mario, this game may be for you. For me, I'll play this off and on throughout the year, though I'm holding out for SNES ports to finally make their way to the Switch.

Like I said in the beginning, I have not played a platformer Super Mario game in a long time. I wanted to see what I was missing seeing I never owned a Wii U because I thought it was a waste of money for me because I could never play the gamepad with one hand. So Nintendo graciously sent me a copy to play. I just hope we see some really good stuff seeing January was not so good with first-party titles and delaying Metroid Prime 4 for a few more years. We believe in you Nintendo, you can do it!

Scott Pilgrim Graphic Novel

Scott Pilgrim vs The World (Film)

Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game

Well, that's all I can say about this. If you wish to buy the books or the movie, you can get them from Amazon for pretty reasonable prices and if you wish to buy the game, you can download it to the PS3 and XB360 for about $15USD. But until then, I'll be seeing you.

Graphic Novel Score:

Film Score:

Game Score:

So from the get go I noticed that the wireless controllers that came with it used infrared instead of radio waves or bluetooth. It was incredibly annoying to try and play the games like this as the controller needed to be pointed DIRECTLY at the console's face in order for it to properly work. Luckily, I had some wired controllers from a previous iteration of the system that I could use. This is when things started to get weird. While the Flashback lists itself as being a "classic" game console, in actuality there is a small chunk of the 101 pre-installed game on it that are homebrew games (like Chase It, Miss It, and Shield Shifter) that were released within the last decade and a couple of them were games that were never officially released at all (like Tempest, Wizard, and Save Mary). While this is nice, it kinda undermines the "classic" aspect that the system is advertising on the box.

Next is the fact that many of the games in this compilation were designed to take advantage of the manuals that originally came with them. With the manuals being absent, much of the gameplay that was used in some of the games (like in the Swordquest series) is now extremely cryptic or utter nonsense as there is now no way to figure out what they mean without looking up a walkthrough online. Even Atari Anthology on the PS2 and XBox had scans of the original manuals that you could access at any time. This is just lazy.

Finally, we have the fact that a small handful of the games in this system like Off the Wall and Circus Atari are best played with the rotational paddle controllers. Now I didn't get the special bundle pack that already had these controllers, but I wasn't willing to spend an additional $20-30 just so I could play with these cheaply made controllers; they feel like I could break them if I just sneeze in the wrong direction. In addition to this, this console is composite output ONLY. There is no way to get this thing to work on an HD TV unless it already has a compatible input or if you have an adapter of some kind.

Overall, this plug-n-play is baffling to say the least. It calls itself classic even though about 10% isn't, it has games that work best with controllers that it doesn't have (unless you pay extra), and the lack of manuals make the rest of the compilation confusing to figure out. If you already know the solutions to the games then that should make some things easier, but all in all this console is pretty lack luster for the amount it costs. It would make more sense to buy Atari Anthology, so until then, I'll be seeing you.

Score

So what is Marathon? Marathon is a game that was developed and published by Bungie. A continuation of sorts from their late 90s IP, it takes the Extraction Shooter approach, while you explore the long-abandoned colony of New Cascadia on the planet of Tau Ceti IV. While on this planet, you take control of a Runner, an artificial shell housing your consciousness, and are thrust into one of four different maps currently available on the planet, where you search for loot like health packs, consumable buffs, and weapons. At the same time, the map is littered with other players looking for the same, and it essentially turns into a "kill or be killed" battleground similar to competitors like Escape from Tarkov. The loop itself is satisfying, rewarding players who are resourceful and cunning.

Despite its positives, I have personally found a few things that can be pretty jarring. First is the contract system. With this system, players are given tasks to complete by the many factions while exploring each locale. Difficulty increases with each completion, which is to be expected. That said, it is also not the most consistent system, as some contracts require tasks to be done in a single run, while others can be done over the course of several. This makes for an inconsistent difficulty that is unnecessarily tedious, and can potentially leave you feeling "stuck" in a contract for a prolonged amount of time.

Another issue I have found is with the way your Vault works. In game, the Vault is your storage space where all your equipment and consumables are stored. The issue stems from initial size, as the expectation is for you to gather as much loot as possible, yet the starting amount of Vault space makes it difficult to keep everything you have gathered. Even with the most recent changes to how items stack in your Vault, Vault space being as limited as it is when you first start playing feels unnecessarily restrictive. To make it worse, upgrades to Vault space feel too spread out between faction levels, making people who prefer keeping a larger arsenal have to choose what to keep, which feels unsatisfying.

While the gameplay is well designed and fun to interact with,  getting to release was not without some bumps in the road. Before development was completed, issues began cropping up surrounding art theft . In May 2025, there were a number of articles released discussing Bungie's use of art strikingly similar to art originally made by AntiReal (@4nt1r34l on the site formerly known as Twitter) in Marathon's early builds (see an example of one such article, from Paul Tassi at Forbes, here). At the time, AntiReal expressed issues with similarities between their own art and in-game assets (see below):

Despite all that, the game that has been released has been nothing if not impressive. Gameplay is what we have come to expect with Bungie titles: solid movement mechanics, satisfying gunplay, and a rich lore heavy world for people to experience.

This sparked a lot of discussion surrounding the game's quality, as this wasn't the first time Bungie had faced similar allegations. Most notably, a lawsuit was settled in November 2025 for plagiarizing a storyline that was then used as the first story focused campaign in Destiny 2 (initial suit was filed in October 2024, as reported in this Gamespost article, and the settlement report in this Gamesindustry.Biz article). This, along with the apparent winding down of Destiny 2's PvP content, combined with the lack of quality narrative content that players were accustomed to, has left the community with a lot more skepticism about the studio's future direction.

Ultimately, despite the controversies that have plagued the studio, Bungie has managed to deliver an experience that both feels similar to current competition like Tarkov and ARC Raiders, while giving a unique and refreshing spin through their shell system and heavy focus on narrative. Marathon stands as a solid foundation from which Bungie can build something special. There is so much on the horizon, with their latest roadmap promising plenty of content worth getting excited about. And while the art and plagiarism allegations had given them some difficulty, it clearly didn't dampen their creativity when building this world. I look forward to the next update, as I myself will complete "one more run".

The mechanics can be a bit rough without any prior knowledge, since the game can overload you on information. The tutorial can help, but you may find that it's easier to learn on the go, playing a few practice games is the best way to understand the mechanics. Don't be discouraged right at the start. The game is rewarding to learn, and eventually you'll find yourself managing an entire empire AND an army at the same time with a few clicks. 

Endless Legend possesses a fairly powerful non-player AI at its disposal. Past the normal difficulty the AI expands quickly, and falls into their preferred victory type quickly. You'll find that the more militant AI will expand and build armies quickly while the more political will send you compliments or peace treaties, hoping to win by forging good relations with all other players. The competent AI provides an enjoyable and challenging option for players who cannot play online or chose not to. For those who look towards the challenge of real players, you might find that online matchmaking is poor, so you may have to do a bit of searching looking for players. This is a problem all 4X games possess, the time requirement for games such as these means you cannot knock one out in an hour, games can span days or even weeks, depending on settings. Building up a friends list and setting times to play is crucial, since most evenings will end with a save to be picked up later. 

It would be remiss not to mention the flaws in the game. It contains some minor glitches and bugs, such as quests not working properly or minor crashes, but considering the quality compared to more recent releases, they are only minor inconveniences. Considering this, the overall quality far outweighs this tiny issues. The online works fantastic, and rarely do you experience crashes or internet issues that would impede gameplay. 

Easily a top 5 game of 2014, it was easy to miss Endless Legend if you don't actively monitor alphas or 4X games. But I highly recommend anyone interested in joining the 4X genre or just looking for a fresh start try out Endless Legend. The developers are still actively patching and updating the game with new content, and I see a bright future for the series. 

Having recently played ODST for the second \r time, I can still say with confidence that it's my favorite Halo simply \r due to its narrative. Of course, if you were to ask me the before to \r explain why, I'd honestly be stuck in just saying the structure. I \r couldn't tell you why the structure worked so well, the theme it \r carried, and what it does for the player. I'd almost leave the \r impression that you could impress me with that kind of narrative \r technique despite its use. Now, after about five years, I can do all of \r that. But in doing so, I can't help but see where it fell short of being\r something more than just the beatnik of the Halos.

In ODST, the main character is Rookie, the newest member of the \r squad. He is silent through the entire game, and only becomes a vital \r role to the game's sub-plot at the end. Even then, however, his role is \r to simply act as another gun or driver for the more important characters\r in the sub-narrative.

Early on in the game, the squad gets scattered as they drop into an \r invaded city. The Rookie is knocked out for several hours, and wakes up\r lost and alone in the city. The plot, at this point, is simple: reunite\r with the rest of the squad.

As the game begins, the player, as Rookie, is introduced to the city \r they came to. Being several hours after the initial invasions and \r battles, the city is dark and generally silent. Deep neon lights dot \r along buildings in a jazzy green or red that stand out along a lot of \r black, and dark iron. It's a color combination I can only describe as a \r war-torn poetry club. The music adds to this, by clashing with the tone \r of being alone in a warzone with a dreamy piano tune accompanied by low \r brass and strings.

The low tension, yet mysterious atmosphere almost feels disneyesque. \r There's a sense of wonder that comes over the player- a child like \r desire that demands to slowly stroll through the streets and take in the\r low lightning and dark towers as just another mystery to solve. The \r idea of being attacked or harmed is almost out of sight, and the player \r feels more relaxed. They end up craning Rookie's head around, not \r minding the lack of action or speed as they soak in the world around \r them, a world that's all too inviting to tell you a wonderfully \r fantastic tale.

This is when the theme is starting to get pushed. Rookie isn't a \r desperate, scared, and battle hardened vet looking to find his squad \r and save the day, he becomes something smaller and more naive. Rookie \r becomes a child lost in the expansive and dark woods behind his \r backyard. He's lost, but unafraid. He's focused, yet curious. Little \r trinkets he finds, become artifacts from a great warrior from long ago. \r Shadows are mysterious woodsmen or monsters, hiding and watching him as \r he travels through, but scared and hesitant of the strange thing in \r their woods. Everything he finds tells a fantastic story, despite how \r trivial the object may be, and that's where the rest of Rookie's plot \r comes in.

As Rookie wanders the rest of the city, he comes across items of \r interest that relate to his squad. He uses these items to follow\r their trail and eventually reunite with them. Whenever Rookie does find\r an object of interest, the player is temporarily taken out of the shoes\r of Rookie as one of his squadmates to experience what \r happened to them when they were scattered. This tells the story of how \r they came together, and then accomplished their mission from each \r member's perspective. While this does well to serve the purpose of \r fleshing out the squad, and organically giving players the typical Halo \r experience, this could also be interpreted as a part of Rookie's own \r character.

When Rookie finds an object, his interactions with the object can be \r seen as somewhat childlike. He'll get scraps of metal to poke at a \r hanging rifle, he'll jump on a broken turret and aim it around, as a \r child would play pretend. The idea here is Rookie is drawing his own \r conclusions, and while what the player sees during the flashbacks to the\r teammates could be very well how they transpired, they are also in huge\r contrast to Rookie's own situation. There's a lot more shooting, \r explosions, bravado, and drama. The term unreliable narrator comes to \r mind when thinking of these sections. Like how many children would over \r dramatize an object they find, the Rookie could very well be doing the \r same. Maybe his squad didn't kill that many aliens, or had so many close\r calls. Maybe one just took a fall and got hurt, or tripped and lost his\r gun.

It's a journey of discovery where a person can only understand so \r much thanks to the little they find, and due to these findings, their \r imagination runs wild. The game feels less like a war simulator, and \r more of just a lost simulator. Discoveries carry a lot of weight, and \r constantly bring you towards something familiar that's buried in all the\r mystery the city holds. It's a story that illustrates value on what we \r know, and how it can affect our perception of realities. These realities\r can be very fantastic, and exciting. Maybe not true, but the point is \r they cause us to create our own narrative and expand on what may or may \r not be real. And sometimes we need those fantasies to keep moving, and \r to hold out hope for finding our own familiar security- to find home.

Rookie could have assumed at anytime that his squad had died on \r arrival, or killed in action, but he didn't, because he created \r narratives that kept him motivated. They kept him alive.

Now with all of that said, you might be in agreement that Halo: ODST \r did have quite the story to tell, right? Well, it's all the more sad \r that the game abandons this approach as soon as Rookie does find his \r squad. Nothing is talked about, but the currently front-running sub-plot\r of saving a specific alien due to its knowledge. While this plot \r doesn't necessarily come out of nowhere, it does undermine all of \r Rookie's story before hand. Rookie's experience never truly feels \r complete and concluded, despite him achieving his goal. The focus is \r quickly changed to a very forced and cliche love story, as well as the \r rescued alien. And this focus is so strong, it makes me feel like that \r Bungie only did it to remind the players that ODST was a Halo game.

It's such a shame that such a much more interesting narrative had to \r be sacrificed for the sake of the source material, which did well to \r simply act as a base for the rest of ODST and Rookie's story. It's \r almost offending how quickly Rookie is tossed aside for two much less \r developed sub-plots.

If Bungie had somehow kept to Rookie's story of simply finding his \r way home, I think they would have been able to make ODST stand out more \r in the Halo crowd. It was the first game to not feature Chief, and \r instead emphasized on the struggles of the human characters. This let us\r get closer to Rookie already, and his journey felt much more human than\r anything else in the franchise. Maybe it wouldn't be considered the \r best game in the series, but I believe many more people would appreciate\r it, had it stuck to the path.

It's a bit ironic, and also quite sad, that a game about being lost, ended up lost in the shadow of it's older brothers.

But I can hear your clamor, "It has a seamless storyline, so what? It's a video game, there's more to it". I couldn't agree more my hypothetical straw-man gamer, but would you believe me if I told you that wasn't all there is to this game? Gamers of old had to have started playing somewhere, and if you were like me it was with Jumpman 'Mario' Jumpman; And if you remember playing that game, don't worry, we're not that old yet. The controls of this game are as clean and simple as they get, you can jump, you can dig and hit things with your shovel. Gathering treasure is still important to shovel knight apparently because there's a tonne of it wherever you go, and you'll want to pick it all up; because who doesn't .There's some extra power ups, but otherwise there are no combo's you need to memorize. It feels clean, plays like a charm on any platform (and every platform). Shovel knight has made it to pc on steam, to the 3DS, to OS X, Linux and will be coming to playstation 3, 4 and vita (I'm looking at you xbox one).

These days, platformers have made a return through indie games. A strong return too, as well as pixel art. So if you like that, this will blow your mind. The art is easily one of the games strengths. Each level is crafted with awesomeness, from the plague infested castle of the aptly named plague knight, to the icy landscapes of polar knight. It's glorious in all it's pixely splendor. The music on the other hand, is amazing. Every tune is beautiful, and the best thing is their collectible. They really set the atmosphere for every level, its like actually being there; and if you stayed for the retro art style then you'll stay for the chiptune goodness that is crammed into every second of this game. The music is easily my favorite aspect of this game and I think Yacht games hit this nail right on the head.

So if you find yourself with a couple of hours with nothing to do, and have an affinity for retro games and a flair for odd weapons. Then you'll love digging yourself into this game.

Where do I begin? Lawbreakers is an arena shooter that really brings downright fun to the table. It is slightly reminiscent of old school shooters of its genre like Quake or Unreal Tournament, with a modern shooter twist to it. Lawbreakers can be summed up in a couple of words: dazzling, but lacks a bit of luster (hopefully these things will be fixed by the time of the full release). But where does it fail? Where does it succeed? Well first off, Lawbreakers fails at a couple of things that I noticed right away.

CONS:

For one, the classes seem to be really unbalanced as of now. I started off playing as the assassin and being completely new started cleaning house without even knowing how to effectively use my specials. The reason being is that the two daggers you have seem to have a ton more reach then they should. All the other classes are okay and have problems but they work to how you would expect.

Another is the game mode they offered for the often beta, which was great except for one detail. For all of you that don't know, this game mode is charging a battery that both teams need to fight over and who ever charges this battery first will win. This is where the problem lies. In this game mode the battery cannot lose charge. So say red team has the battery charged at 98%, but the blue team comes in with three of the Titans, come busting down your door and all activate their special and shock the shit out of everyone, steal the battery bring it back to their base and by the time everyone has spawned they've already won. Might seem unlikely but it happens!

PROS:

Now for the positives! One thing I would like to say is to say how thankful I am to Boss Key Productions for really working with the Alpha community and listening to the problems we have had and actually fixing them to our satisfaction. Sure there is a ton more that still really needs to be fixed, but just seeing the forum and seeing them to respond to almost every single one of the pleas is fucking amazing. You guys should really pat yourselves on the back.

Another thing, the game's atmosphere is goddamn gorgeous. The visuals are amazing, everything is animated very well, you name it and it looks great! The only thing I would say that is wrong with the visuals is the more photo-realistic art direction than one more cartoon-like which would have made the game a lot more timeless. It would have fit the game a lot more in my personal opinion.

The game-play is great. Shooting at your foes, finding a way to sling behind them with your grappling hook and go for the kill is so much fun. I have to admit here that over time I really start getting angry with PvP games. This one however really didn't do that. I was very shocked at myself that I wasn't getting mad at the game; everything really seemed like it was all out of good fun! Honestly I really like that about this game because when you die, you can only really blame yourself for what happened because there are so many ways to avoid death. There are heath stations on the map where you can stand in and get healed to get back into the fight. There are also so many different ways to escape combat that you know you cannot handle alone. Zero-G is where the game gets fucking crazy now. There are these anti-gravity zones that seem to randomly appear through out the arena and really change up the way combat works. Almost all the classes have one special dedicated to how you move. This really comes into play as you are drifting about in zero-g, you really have to rely on that to keep you moving and dance your way around your foes before you run out of juice. When the cool-down starts you feel hopeless. Just trying to defend yourself in any way you can 'til you can get the hell out of there.

Verdict:

Overall, while I enjoyed my experience with the alpha, there are a lot of minor adjustments that do NEED to be fixed. I would really recommend this game to be tried as of now. Boss Key said there will be more Alpha tests down the road! So while you can, I would try to squeeze your way into that Alpha before it's to late! Expect a better review when it's released!

INITIAL THOUGHTS-

For those who loved the original resident evil this game is a god send! For those who never played it, even more! The game is new and improved, featuring updated sounds, graphics, lighting and even some new puzzles.

VISUALS-

The game looks stunning, the lighting is gloomy and fits the tone well. This is the type of game I would love to get an art book for. The redone textures look amazing and the player models look great too.

CONTROLS-

When starting a new game, players are given the option to play with the original controls or the remastered controls. People have described the original controls as 'tank like' and I agree, but don't think it's a bad thing. You adapt to the controls and the it puts you on edge during intense situations. The new controls allow for easier use of the joystick and I feel take away from the experience. It allows for faster and more precise turning and overall more accurate movement. However if you were put off from playing because of the original controls are recommend using the new controls, so you can still enjoy the experience.

COMBAT-

Scary. The encounters with enemies are few and far between until later in the game. Making every new room you enter your possible final resting place. You may think you've got the controls mastered, but when you hear the sound of a zombie shuffling towards you, your hands will become a water park of sweat, and the controller will slip and slide around in your hands like no ones business. You will be on edge. And when you think you're safe. Ka-POW! You're dead.

COMPLAINTS-

- The addition of new puzzles might confuse fans of the original.

-Lack of understanding at the beginning of the game can have major consequences later, and this might turn players away.

-Zombie models repeat each other (not really a complaint but could have been easily changed).

OVERALL VERDICT-

Excellent game. Fans of the original will want to replay it, new players will love playing it. Would recommend!

I've recently learning a lot aboutTurtle Rock Studio'snew gameEvolve. One of the first games that I watched was hunt mode, I thought the concept of hunt mode was awesome. In the game after the monster reaches max level it is able to attack the reactor. After watching about a dozen matches it always ended with one of the two teams dead and the reactor mostly untouched. My first though was entire addition of the reactor was pointless and stupid, but after thinking about it the game can't work without it.

A hunt match takes ten minutes to play max. If both sides are still standing at the end of the matchTurtle Rockmade it so the hunters will win automatically. In doing so there is no reason for the hunters to attack the monster. As long as they can avoid the monster for the ten minuets they are in no trouble and can win without engaging the monster. Because of this they added the reactor so the hunters "avoid strategy" is useless. If the hunters choose to avoid the monster, it can attack the reactor instead.

The reactor itself can't regenerate lost heath and the monster could solely attack the reactor and win knowing every hit he made is permanent and he knows the hunters can't kill him quick enough to stop it, butTurtle Rockwas cleaver in their solution.Whenever the monster wants to damage the reactor they approach it, press a key and let the animation do it for them. If the monster would take any damage during the animation, it would stop. Because of this the monster can't damage the reactor whenever the hunters are nearby, preventing the monster from getting a cheap victory.

The sole purpose of the reactor is to kick-start the final confrontation andto make the hunt meaningful. The reactor draws both sides to it to kill each other. If ether side fails to show they would lose. The high stakes ending that makes the game fun to watch wouldn't happen because the hunters would avoid the monster the entire match and walk away victorious. And the reactor give purpose to the hunt because the hunters don't want to fight a max level monster. The hunters willactivelysearch for the monster while it's low level and try to kill it before they areforced to fight the monster because they need to stop it from destroying the reactor.

Sources:

https://www.turtlerockstudios.com/

http://evolvegame.com/media/images

Image URL:

http://downloads.2kgames.com/evolvev3/images/uploads/markov-hunter-evolve-1024x576-0042.jpg

JUST A HEADS UP
Unlike my past reviews, this one contains major spoilers to the game's rebooted story.
If you do not wish to be spoiled on the game's altered plot, please stop reading now.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Now as I was saying, Star Fox Zero has been completely rebooted and everything in it was re-imagined from scratch. Shigeru Miyamoto has even described it has being neither a sequel or a prequel, so I guess that would be an apt enough description. The game for the most part has the same design as the previous games where you would either fly down a predetermined path and shoot anything that impedes your progress, or have free-range flight where you need to actively hunt down your targets. But an additional level element was added to the game to make it feel a little more cinematic: Target Mode, where the target enemy is always the focus on the TV screen. This is where the game's new control gimmicks come into play.

Unlike Star Fox 64 or Star Fox Assault, Star Fox Zero has a brand new control scheme that tries to take advantage of the Wii U GamePad as much as possible. The GamePad's screen always has a first person view from the cockpit of the Arwing, the radio transmissions from your squad-mates and enemies only come from the GamePad's speakers, and aiming the targeting reticle is primarily done with the GamePad's gyro sensor. In addition to these GamePad gimmicks, the controls were mixed up a bit as well in an attempt to try and emulate the controls of a fighter jet (all steering is on the left stick, thrusters and rolling is on the right stick, and the ship's guns and bombs are on the ZR and R buttons respectively). And if that wasn't enough, there are three vehicles that each have different controls with two of them having the ability to transform which alters their controls even further. With these new controls and gimmicks, it makes the game feel a bit awkward and confusing to play, especially during the Target Mode segments where the camera focuses entirely on the enemy. It all makes it feel not fun...AT FIRST.

You see, this game had a very unusual form of Stockholm Syndrome on me. After I did a few missions in the game (about 2 hours worth) and played through some of the alternate paths, it all suddenly clicked for me and the controls finally started to make sense. From that point on, I was starting to enjoy the game much more than I was previously. The action was fast and exciting, the varied gameplay styles were a nice change of pace, and the environments were creative and colorful. I was even able to finally enjoy the music as well as most of them were remade from Star Fox 64. The amiibo features were also quite fun; playing as the Retro and Black Arwings gave the game a new challenge to it I was hoping for. It's just a shame that after I had gotten used to the controls that there is no multiplayer (local OR online) outside of the local Co-Op Mode (which is basically a Han & Chewie mode where one pilots the ship and the other mans the guns).

Now the story and level progression is where this game takes an unprecedented turn. Unlike Star Fox 64 which is where Zero gets most of its inspiration, the game is mostly linear with branching paths having little to no impact on the ending of the game. This is a rather big oversight as Star Fox 64 had a great reward system where in most stages if you did an unknown additional task during the level such as killing a certain number of enemies before the end or by keeping a certain character alive, you were given the opportunity to take a harder path which would lead to the true final battle and the canon ending of the game. Because that is no longer the case, there is now a lack of motivation to unlock the alternate paths (even though I did it anyway). In addition to this, many of the stages from the original game have been renamed, removed or completely changed to fit the new story. The Nebulae Sectors are now Alpha, Beta, and Gamma instead of X, Y, and Z; Area 6 has been replaced with a new Sector which appears to be a black hole called Sector Omega; Aquas, Katina, Macbeth, and Bolse are completely absent; and the biggest offender, Venom has been reduced to the size of a small moon and remodeled to be a Death Star like device. This last bit right here is why I can safely say that Zero is a reboot and not a re-imagining; it makes the plot of Star Fox Command completely null and void. That being said, I still really liked the level design and I loved the boss fights.

Now the post-game content is probably where a lot of players will get the most enjoyment assuming they stuck around long enough to beat the game. Finishing the main story once will unlock Arcade Mode which is a one sitting play-through of the game with no system map, and only ONE life. You can collect three gold rings to store an extra life for later, but they unfortunately don't stack. That means, one extra life is all you can keep at any one time. This, and the fact that the game keeps track of your high-score and all of the different flight paths you take during a single run is what Miyamoto was talking about when he and Platinum were trying to make the game as replayable as possible. And every time I beat it, I can't help but shed a tear whenever I see that dedication to Iwata in the credits.

All in all, Star Fox Zero is quite fun, but only after you get the hang of the controls. As such, I will not be giving this game a star score like I usually do since it is very much an acquired taste due to the steep learning curve. The remade story completely changed the timeline for the earlier made games, but if Nintendo were to continue the series, I'm sure they could figure out how to reintroduce old characters and worlds. Now the physical version of the game also came with Star Fox Guard as a bonus, but I'll cover that another time. But until then, I'll be seeing you.

While attending this year’s New York Comic-Con, I\r had the rare opportunity to use the Oculus Rift for the first time. The Oculus\r Rift is a three dimensional video gaming device that tracks the motions of your\r head in order to control your character’s movements. The game system’s technology utilizes a\r strap-on visor and headset in order to immerse the player into the world of the\r game with a full range of vision and surround sound capabilities. The game I played was a flight simulator\r based on Dreamworks’ “How to Train Your Dragon.“ As my character flew over the ocean, I was in\r awe of the spectacular graphics and accurate motion tracking capabilities of\r the visor as I looked in all directions.\r The experience was so immersive that an attendant had to tell me to “take\r it easy on the controls.“ In those two\r minutes I spent playing, I had become more immersed in a video game than I had\r ever experienced in the countless hours I have spent on other console and\r computer games. This technology heralds\r a new era for the gaming industry. In\r only a few decades, video games have gone from 8-bit graphics to complex three\r dimensional worlds. With the Oculus\r Rift, the concept of virtual reality gaming now seems feasible, and with it, a physical and mental evolution of the gamer.

I feel that the goal of gaming has always been to\r immerse players in a new world, inhabiting another person’s body, and\r experiencing physical and mental challenges that may not be possible in their\r own lives. Games as they are now rely on\r joysticks, buttons and triggers in order to carry out an array of functions\r such as running and picking up items.\r These factors ground the player in reality and keep them detached from a\r heightened experience of gameplay. Basic\r motor functions are carried out by pre-programmed functions and animations\r within the game. What if these functions\r depended upon the player’s own physical actions in order to be performed (beyond the motion sensor capabilities of the Wii and Kinect)? What if video games immersed the player\r through senses such as touch, instead of just sight and hearing? Any person is sure to notice a distinct\r difference between swinging a sword using the B button on a controller, and\r holding the simulated weight of a sword in their own hands. Physical stimuli evoked from a video game\r would have major health benefits for players.\r Playing video games would no longer be limited to problem solving and\r hand-eye coordination. It would be an\r experience that requires players to engage their minds and their bodies in\r order to complete challenges, resulting in a new form of exercise. The adrenaline released from this exercise\r would serve to increase a player’s overall physical health and mood. Enjoying all of the fantastic experiences\r some games would have to offer would be dependent upon how much a player is\r willing to improve upon themselves both mentally and physically. "Achievement unlocked" would no longer be a generic means of praise for the players doing what they are supposed to do in the game, but a true sense of achievement from pushing their minds, bodies, their entire being, in order to accomplish their goals. Eventually, this same feeling will inspire gamers to push their limits in other parts of their lives, such as their careers.

However, I believe it is important to remember that\r games such as this must also be designed to accommodate physically challenged\r individuals, as basing a game’s functionality on complete body control would be\r discriminatory toward the handicapped.\r While some might like the idea of complete physical control of a\r character in a game, there might also be individuals who enjoy the prospect of\r complete mental control of a character.\r What this would entail is using a person’s brain activity and thought\r patterns to control video game characters.\r Joysticks only have so much accuracy when aiming at a target or changing\r direction, but future technologies might be able to calculate a character’s\r movements based on factors such as a player’s eye movements and focus, creating a new level of\r precision control. Complete mental\r control would also provide handicapped individuals with realistic simulations\r of physical functions that may no longer be available to them, since thoughts\r would dictate actions. There is always the fear that individuals might become dependent on this type of escapism, choosing to experience simulations of a fully-functioning body more often than experiencing life in their own limited ones. However, if video games can be programmed to react to brain stimuli, who is to say they cannot be programmed to respond to the brain with stimuli of their own? The clash of swords could replicate the feeling of an amputee player's arm tightening. The sensation of running could simulate the feeling of weight pressing on the feet of a paraplegic person. Eventually this technology might yield advancements in the production of prosthetic limbs, electronic eyes, etc., allowing the brain to recognize these appurtenances as part of it's organic makeup.

In USBB you have more range than up and down. You have full 360 degree movement along with the classic fighting power move. I'm not going to say this game is easy, though the more I played the game the more I felt like Esports master.

The game has ten characters to choose from, all with different stats and abilities. Just like Street Fighter, every character has a backstory on why they are at USBB which gives the player that desire to win to see the outcome of each character. You will not get bored trying to master your favorite few, or the whole roster.

I've seen USBB on sale a few times over the summer, so you might want to put this on your wish list for that next time you are looking for a fun game to play that may become the next Mario Tennis Aces killer.

Ah, the MMO...

A genre seemingly dead, yet somewhat alive; In a coma would probably be the best way to describe it. Why? Well, could do with the standstill and/or the lack of innovation, and the easily accessible multiplayer games out there, such as RUST and ARK of the survival genre. But that innovation thing is the big problem. You see, for those who are living on a rock in the middle of the Indian ocean, World of Warcraft dominates MMOs. While some MMOs started and stayed small time players in the market working hard to keep their niche player base, others just sort disappeared as quick as they existed, almost like bubbles. MMOs and their fans really haven't moved in the past decade and a half. EVE Online and WoW just sorta are the kings; they were early adopters of the MMO genre and people flocked to them, and back then showed new and wonderful things.

But there is a new player here to have a go at recreating the MMO...

Introducing Chronicles of Elyria.

Started as a dream in a bar almost ten years ago by a handful of game developers, the people at SoulBound Studios have poured their time, effort and dosh (roughly a million) into creating the player-run MMO of dreams. Calling the features and mechanics ambitious would be an understatement... unimaginable would be a closer word. Chronicles of Elyria is a MMORPG with a story and economy run by the players. NPCs are simply extras to help mold your characters' ripple on the world of Elyria and push their epic with some engine generated storylines; We'll get to that later.
Here is my understanding of what the game will be like:

SKILLS, LEVELS AND CLASSES

The game lacks an overall level and classes and replaces it with overall skills which umbrella over specific skills;

-Combat: which covers unarmed, one-handed, two-handed, thrown and ranged as well as duel wielding and sneak attacks.
-Survival: which is specifically the skills of surviving out in the wilderness. It covers finding food and water, tracking prey, bandaging wounds and navigation.
-Crafting: the art of turning raw goods into useful items, covers producing meals and drinks, armors and weapons, furniture and fine jewlery.
-Gathering: the skill of being able to procure raw goods from various sources covers identifying and handling organic materials (such as plant or animal based items) as well as inorganic materials (such as ore, stone, metals and gems)
-Deviant: the skills of thievery and stealth. This skill allows pickpocketing, purse cutting, crafting false identities, disguises and forging documents.
-Bardic: the skills and arts of academics and performing. This allows characters to play music for buffs and entertainment, reading forgotten languages on ancient documents, performing forensic actions to hunt down criminals and the art of map making.

These skills are taught by either books, NPCs or other players. Someone who has never done smithing will always fail and must procure some style of training to begin. Once someone has learned basics they will be of Novice level. Continuing learning and grinding of skills will eventually bring them to Apprentice, then Journeyman, Expert, Artisan, and eventually to Legendary if enough dedication is given towards a skill. Specific combinations of skills will create player made classes; perhaps you want to become an explorer and map the world? Survival and Bardic would be your best bet. Or perhaps become an assassin? Deviant and Combat would do the trick. But no matter what, it is for you to decide.

CHARACTER CREATION, SOULS AND PERMADEATH

On the subject of skills, I must talk about those learning it; your character.
From my understanding there are two separate entities when referring to "you"; your soul and your avatar (or character).

Your avatar is the physical embodiment you play as in the world of Elyria. You are born either as a ward of the state or into an actual player family (each of these have their pros and cons). Your character will develop skills, battle scars, physique and a story over your life time. They will eventually die of wound or old age, depending on how physically damaged they are or how many times they have been forced to "Plane Walk" (past KO, before perma death. Similar to WoW were you have to walk to you dead body). The average played life span is between 80 and 120 in game years, and each in game year is 4 IRL days (And each of these days will be a different season). But your character will die, and you can't stop it. When you die, you have the chance to pass on your belongings in a will. Perhaps, if you have a family, it will be your next of kin played by another person or yourself? It's up to you.

Your characters body will die, but your soul will live on. Your soul will have passive skill attributes given to it by default and over the course of multiple lives, affinity (basically karma) and talents; bonuses in specific skills and special abilities such as magic or the ability to soul walk when one pleases. Achievements are things that players do over time that are bound to a soul over the course of lifetimes; Maybe you were once the champion of the arena for a kingdom, maybe you were the master and founder of a very successful guild, or an adventurer who chartered far off lands never seen before; what you achieve is up to you.
Each soul is also given a "destiny" which can be unlocked by doing specific tasks unknown to the player. Once these tasks are completed the player will then be able to follow their destiny, and once completed will have changed the world of Elyria forever in some way. Perhaps it is your destiny to adventure into a deep dark ruin, battle great beasts and retrieve the blade of kings? Or perhaps it is your purpose to FORGE the blade of kings?! You'll never know unless you trigger it. Every soul is also given a soul mate. You don't know who they are, but they share a bond with you like no other soul; their destiny is the same as yours, their talents are identical and their skills are yours if you find them. You won't know who they are unless through pure luck you find them; you can tell if they are near you through some undisclosed mechanic. And if you're forced to plane walk while you're near them you will most certainly be able to find your body with ease and plenty of time. But of course, there is a catch; your soul mate may develop to become your rival through either affinity or politics (such as guilds or kingdoms)

Oh, by the way, there is a weird soul-based subscription system..? Apparently once you perma-death (which is no easy feat) you have to cough up around 30 USD to start a new character? I don't really know, I'd love someone to clear this up for me, but a "Spark of Life" apparently should last as little as 3 months and 3 weeks to as long as a full year, which is good value since that's roughly 7 USD per month if you last as long as the minimum

TRADE, CONTRACTS, CRIME AND "OPCs"

Chronicles of Elyria removes the well known trade system and market houses and instead picks to go with contracts and player based couriers or merchants. Trading is done in two ways; face to face where you simply exchange goods or services to receive goods or services, nice and simple, and there is over trade agreements.
You sign a trade agreement (or contract) with someone when giving them a task or making an order/promise for items with a written document to prove it to them or authorities. Say, for example, you are a mercenary and have been tasked to protect a merchant shipment or cart, and in return you'll be paid. You both sign the document, you do the task and you receive your payment. But what if they want to swindle you? Then you have a document to prove it and can be given a bounty token, which depending on the laws of ye kingdom will allow you to have authorities go after them, to rob their house in compensation or to brutally murder the goy. Or perhaps YOU swindle them? Well they can do the same and go after you for not delivering, and you'll have to either flee or change identities through the use of forgery and disguises. However, what if you want to set someone up? With the skills of forgery you can trick authorities into allowing you to go after the poor bastard and stealing his stuff with a fake document.
And how would you get caught? Well, someone with forensic abilities might be able to identify a fake document, and will have you jailed or executed by authorities for your vile ways; as you should be, criminal scum!

What happens when you go offline? You don't disappear, you become a "Offline Player Character" or OPC. You can "code" your OPC to do specific tasks, such as act as a vendor or guard a specific area. But what happens if you die when offline?..I actually don't know. But it's safe to assume you'll either want to go somewhere safe in the middle of nowhere or be guarded by other characters.

EDIT- OPC deaths while the player is away will begin your Spirit Walk on your next log in. Permanently die after ~30 IRL days if you don't log in

CITIES, BUILDINGS, MAPS, RESOURCES AND RUIN

From my understanding of the game this is how it is; there are finite resources, but items that aren't so easy to replace such as metals can be replaced at a 1:1 ratio via a smelting process. Cities and buildings are also made by the players of CoE in a style that I'd say is similar to Starwars Galaxies and RUST or ARK. But the finite part of environments creates dilemmas and problems; people demolish a forest and don't plant new trees? Well the trees won't be coming back naturally. People manage to flatten an entire mountain? It won't ever be coming back either. The Soulborn engine, an engine that creates the stories, recognizes player developments and other dynamic things, and will work server side and separately to the Unreal Engine, with the ability to recognize new towns and cities through different criteria and account for them. For example, a leader has amassed enough people and resources to start building a town, then a city and eventually a kingdom. The game will start to work around this, marking on a server side map this creation. Cartographers begin creating new maps marking this city with the name of "Derginsaw" and the engine will recognize this and so on. But the city is one day attacked and razed mostly to the ground, and is left forgotten. Eventually cartographers will start not marking this place as a city, or not marking it at all and the engine will eventually turn it into a dungeon of sorts for adventurers to explore for ancient treasures and, more importantly, more old maps which will show the way to other ruins. But let's say Derginsaw was captured by a different faction, and the king wants to rename it to "Krathlanaw"? Well, he'll have to pay a huge amount of cartographers to update their maps with this new name and make it the mainstream name (like Constantinople Istanbul) and eventually the Soulborn engine will recognize this change on the back end. Oh, by the way, maps are created by players, which means people will go out of their way to map new areas, then detail them with different things such as forests and names, and then sell these to people so they can be copied or used for navigation. This hefty job will be most valuable to tacticians, adventurers and anyone who likes knowing where the hell they are. You will also have to rely on sun dials to reliably get the time of day,use a compass to find north and use astronomy to find where you are at night. Players also have a "Sensory" mini map which will show temperature, smells and sounds heard by the character, allowing you to notice finer details impossible with current technology, such as the smell of wood and cooked meat from a nearby camp that you haven't seen yet whilst hunting for bandits.

Farewell, and I hope to see you in the lands of Elyria!

Along with watching movies, I found myself playing video games in the same vein. I was introduced to them by my buddy Dylan who had become a YouTube gaming content creator. One of the games he made a series on was Layers of Fear from an indie studio called Bloober Team out of Poland.

If you didn't know the gaming industry is really big in Poland. So big in fact that the Prime Minister gave President Obama a copy of The Witcher II as a gift. Some of my favorite indie games like Layer of Fear, GoNNer, and Butcher have been ported to the Nintendo Switch are from Polish developers.

Bloober Team solidified themselves as a studio who could sit at the adult table with Layers of Fear. Now with Observer, there are talks that Bloober Team could be one of the studios to remake Silent Hill. That's only if Konami wants to follow the trend set by Capcom with the Resident Evil 2 remake.

Observer takes the theme of a futuristic Poland where cybernetic enhancements are a common medical practice after the last world war. You play as Observer detective Daniel Lazarski (voiced by Rutger Hauer of Blade Runner) who gets a strange call from his estranged son Adam. Like in most horror games taking place in one place. You find that Adam has been living in a rundown tenement building (which is a real building that one of the developers live) where drug and hologram addicts live.

(Screenshot taken from Nintendo Life's video on making the Observer)

You get yourself in Adam’s apartment, which has been ransacked. You find a body with its head cut off, which triggers a security shutdown to the building. Without being able to get a positive ID on the body Dan has to find a way to get out of  Adam’s apartment to find the killer. This starts the more core mechanics of the game. Opening and scanning everything you can, searching for clues, and hacking into keypads. Once you override the security system to the apartment you roam the halls trying to find a way out. Along the way, you have the opportunity to interview the other tenants.

With clues leading you to other dead bodies, you use your title as Observer to link into their memories to find out who and where the killer might be. Though linking up doesn't just give you access to the victims past, your past with Adam as a boy mixes in with those memories. The way these memories play out is where the horror and puzzle aspects of the game shines. With winding hallways, and puzzles where if you take the wrong turn you are back at where you started. Observer builds on what Bloop Team learned with Layers of Fear and ramped it to 11. This time around you have villains, the murderer and this rag doll monster that looks like something out of the movie 9 that you have to sneak by while trying to find an exit.

The story is well thought out. You have multiple people this time telling their side of how they either fought against Chiron (the mega-corporation that took over Poland and started the Fifth Polish Republic) or those who were apart their cybernetic experiments and the people who are addicted to drugs and/or holographic stimuli. If Layers of Fear deals in psychological horrors of a painter in the 1920s, Observer deals with the psychological choices made in a future where we can be anyone and have anything, though it may cost us our life.

That is the real horror about this game. That this fantasy could someday be our reality. This game may have been overlooked, but this game is just as brilliant as Detroit Become Human, and if you just own a Nintendo Switch longing for an immersive thought-provoking game, Observer is that game. This is already a cult classic, why not let us make it a critical success.

The game is still in development, with no release date set. But for those who enjoy the kind of games where the action is mad quick, the pain is real and the points don't matter. Then you should keep your eye on this one.

But every game has it's flaws as much good as I wanna say about Hotline Miami. One of those things would probably be that while playing Hotline Miami you die a lot. The game play is extremely fast paced and doesn't pull punches. Getting hit once with a weapon or by even one bullet will kill you in this game. If you mess up for even a split second you're likely to die.

\r

Regardless I like the challenge and the fast paced gameplay. I'd definitely reccommend playing this game if you're looking for something to take up your time when you're bored and have nothing else to play.

All in all I rate it 8.5/10

Momodora: RUtM (Reverie Under the Moonlight) is a game about a small priestess named Kaho who comes across the lands to a foreign kingdom where a dark magic has been slowly encroaching into hers. Kaho is no ordinary priestess though; she wields a small maple leaf that doubles as a sword/fan/thing? She also wields a bow, of which she is seemingly a master at. Her travels bring her to Karst City, the home of the kingdoms queen and hopefully an answer to where the curse is coming from.

Don't Ask me to explain. It's magic, there is none.

The games art style is obviously pixelized, but it makes the game look very charming. Combined with the music it can be very atmospheric at times. Mechanically the game works very well, combos feel satisfying to land, multiple times in a row with a few shots from the bow for good measure. But the thing to tie it all together is the dodge mechanic. A short and simple roll in one direction is by no means exciting on its own, but with a quick paced combo'em up style combat system it makes everything feel tighter. Granted your i-frames won't always save you. The game also packs a few upgrades/items that make things a little bit spicier. As well as the staple healing item in the form of 'Bellflowers' that work on a charge system (reminds me of orange juice for some reason).

Its obvious that Momodora: RUtM pulls inspiration from several sources, being a metroidvania, but packs quite a unique feel that sets it apart. It is however fairly short, and is possible to finish in one sitting (including all item collection, if you really wanted to). But has an NG+ system along with several hard to get achievements for those completionists out there. If you're experienced with metroidvania styled games you'll find this one easy enough to progress through, with just enough challenge to keep you trying again and again. If its too easy you can ramp up the difficulty all the way to hard, you masochist.

Beware amazing chest, in short try attack.

In my opinion the game was a blast; a short little gem packed with action and some good ole-timey exploration. However I feel like it could have been so much more. More enemies, more bosses, more challenge, more areas, more more more! But having played the previous iterations of the series I can say for damn sure that this is by far the best, in every way.

The story however for me is the most lacking aspect. Characters in the game operate similarly to those in Dark Souls where you'll encounter them at certain points of the game if you aid/interact with them. Dialogue is sometimes weird in English (likely a byproduct of translation), and the story arcs are a little confusing sometimes, but it's a minor gripe.

Whatever you say, Sans.

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight is now available in the Steam Store for 8.99 Euro, 9.99 USD. A reasonable price when you consider its replayability.

Recommended? Yes, definitely for those who enjoy the metroidvania genre. And for some if their looking for a game to pass a couple hours with and not have to get completely stuck in.

A solid 7/10. Hopefully enough incentive for another one to be made.

http://www.bombservice.com/momo4.html - Dev's Website.

Developed by id Software and published by Bethesda, Doom is a first-person shooter with a nostalgic feel. This is the fist major installment in the Doom series since 2004 and has been anticipated by the loyal community. After playing the early access Doom beta, I thought the newly releasing game has a lot of potential but still isn't quite there. What I mean by this is that there were a lot of aspects of the game that didn't quite seem fully developed. Obviously this is a beta so the game isn't finished, but it still is a good representation of what it could look like when the game launches on May 13. Here were my initial thoughts after playing the beta for a couple hours:

Pro Features:

-Graphically looked absolutely stunning

-Movement felt very smooth and fluent

-Lots of customizable features for your character and weapons

-A brand new game that contains a nostalgic feel when playing

Possible areas of improvement:

-The guns seem VERY week and take a ridiculous amount of shots to kill an opponent

-The demon is extremely hard to kill and quite rare to obtain

-Weapon choices are very limited (most likely due to beta stage)

-Only 2 maps and 2 game mode (also most likely to to beta stage)

If you have not played the beta yet I recommend you download it and play it while it is open. The beta is open from April 15-17 and the full game launches on May 13. If you want to learn more check out my gameplay video on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF1BVKVnGbnZNwItlH50I2A

Noble Team are the stars of Reach. The squad consists of Carter, \r their commanding officer, Kat, their technician, Jorge, their explosives\r and big arms expert, Jun, the marksman, Emile, the close quarters \r specialist, and finally Noble Six who is the rookie of the group, and \r the player character. Of course, Six is unnamed for the sake of the \r player's immersion.

The chemistry the group has is done fairly well thanks to dialogue \r that helps the soldiers be more than just their jobs. Carter often\r has to check in with command to get green lights for ideas from his \r squad, making him a very by-the-books kind of leader. Jorge acts as a \r translator for the group, speaking and comforting some refugees they \r find in the story. He becomes the gentle giant. Kat is protective of her\r tech, and often challenges Carter's authority, befitting her name as a \r rather "catty" character. Jun seems to be a bit shady, and maybe a bit \r cocky? Emile appears to be the violent, but silent type. Notice how the \r descriptions of each character got shorter and more uncertain.

The time spent with each character is far too short before they begin\r to be killed. This causes a few problems as well. With how early the \r deaths come, the player already knows what to expect. The player will \r have less interest in caring for the squad if he already expects them to\r all just die for one reason or another. Another issue this causes is \r taking screen time away from development and shoveling it into each \r dramatic moment, which isn't even done thoroughly anyway. And of course \r with the characters being shot down like flies, they don't even get the \r chance to develop enough to care about before they die. You can even see\r the developers and writers trying to compensate for this by giving the \r next person on the list to die some extra screen time.

Jorge had his moment with the refugees, and the scientists before \r dying. Kat had her confrontations with Carter before dying. Carter had a\r confrontation with Halsey, the head scientist before dying. Emile had a\r final stand moment with some powerful enemies before dying. Jun didn't \r even die, the guy just left, leaving his part of the story \r hanging. All these sequences do, is prepare the player for their \r inevitable death, it doesn't make them want to live, just guess when.

But let's get into a bit more detail with the actual deaths.

Jorge sacrifices himself to blow up a starship. There's a wonderful \r scene where he tears off his dog tag, holds Six's hand, and carries him \r to the edge of the ship before tossing Six out. As Six floats through \r space and back into Reach's atmosphere, the ship explodes with Jorge \r still inside. This all occurs while in the first person perspective, as \r well. It's a great scene that's timed so poorly, the effect is drained \r almost entirely. With how early this takes place, it makes it feel \r pointless, and undermined by the idea that there's simply more of this \r to come. The fact that the act of blowing up the ship did little for \r them plot-wise doesn't help either. Of course this could be used in a \r powerful way, a motivation to try and make Jorge's death not in vain. \r But we already know it is, so the whole scene feels hallow.

Kat is the second spartan to die. And her's is perhaps the most \r offending of the lot. As the team is running through a corridor, she's \r shot in the head by a sniper in a ship above them which flies off. She \r falls, the dramatic music kicks up, and there's a long shot of the team \r waiting for a ship to arrive, presumably to take her body away as one of\r them holds her in his arms. The entire sequence is so brief, and sudden\r it makes it feel like the developers simply decided to cut time here \r for the sake of the rest of the game. Even if we did have plenty of time\r to grow to love Kat as a character, we wouldn't even get a chance to \r grieve.

Jun leaves. As one of the two least characterized Spartans, we aren't\r even humored with his death. Jun simply leaves the squad at some point \r with orders to protect a scientist. His part in the story is over, \r nothing comes of that. He just leaves.

Carter is next. The scene starts with an AI the squad has demanding \r he seek medical assistance. Blood is on his armor, and his helmet is \r off. The ship he, Emile, and Six are on is being shot at, and he's \r piloting. Telling Emile and Six to abandon ship, he says he'll draw fire\r and give them air support. There's no real suspense here, the scene is \r set; he is going to die. With as much death as there's already been in \r the game, any idea of tension of him maybe shaking the enemy off and \r surviving is simply laughable. You're just waiting for him to blow up at\r this point. Later in the level a Scarab stands in Emile's and Six's \r path. Without a chance to get around or handle it another way, Carter \r quickly throws himself and the ship into the tank-like opponent. With a \r corny one-liner, and brief encouragement from Emile, he's gone.

To a level, I don't mind the dialogue here, however. They are \r soldiers, after all. They do expect to die and give their lives for what\r they need to do to win. So, instead of making Carter's last moment one \r of hatred, anger, and sorrow, they let it be one of victory and bravado.\r If there's any bones I'd throw at Bungie through this, that's the one. \r It makes sense, it feels right. Too bad the timing and set-up, is again,\r way off. It's just another “there goes another one“ moment for the \r player.

Emile's death is another mix of some good and some bad. The timing \r isn't bad, and the set-up isn't awful. While sitting on a large cannon \r to shoot at incoming ships, he's overwhelmed by some powerful enemies. \r He's stabbed and mauled before taking some down on his own. Six has to \r go to the gun himself to use it just as Emile was, and when you do get \r to the cannon you come across his body. This is important. This gives \r the player a moment to mourn. Despite how little I knew of Emile and how\r little I cared, coming across his body still had an impact. It made me \r stop, and my heart dropped just a bit. And after a heavy sigh, I \r continued. It was so close to being a great moment, stolen by the fact \r that when I did stop, I didn't have much to reflect on when it came to \r him.

After five characters, and Bungie has only scratched the surface of \r the emotional shock a death should have. After Six man's the cannon, and\r the VIPs get away to trigger the rest of the events in Halo, he's left \r alone, his objective complete, and his teammates dead. Reach is lost, \r but thanks to him and his team's sacrifice there's still hope for \r humanity to win the war. Their role in the rest of the universe is done.\r The credits roll.

But Six's own journey hasn't yet ended. Once the credits fade out, we\r find Six standing in the middle of some torn down buildings. An enemy \r ship passes by overhead and drops off a group of aliens. The player is \r back in control and an objective is presented: Survive. With nothing \r left to do, no one left to protect and fight for, Six has only this \r instinct left. He won't make his last stand for humanity, for his team, \r for a future, or a past. He won't fight for Reach, or even just because \r it's right. Six's last stand is for him, and him alone. It's a moment, \r one last moment, to just be who he is: a warrior. A warrior in its most \r purest form.

With enemies coming from all directions, the player is able to live \r and experience Six's last moments of being a solider. The player fights \r for as long as he can, killing as many as he can, and running for as \r long as he can until he's finally overwhelmed. It's a moment of \r catharsis for both Six and the player, to just let loose and kill \r everything just because they can, just to prove how strong their own \r resolve is; counted by bodies.

When the player finally submits to the onslaught we have a scene \r where Six falls to the ground as aliens surround and overcome him. Some \r are shot or hit away, until one is able to deliver the final blow. \r The scene is drawn out, and doesn't provide hope, but instead a point. \r It doesn't try to be dramatic, because you wanted to live. It's \r dramatic, because you want to keep fighting, you want to keep standing, \r you want to survive. And when you die both Six and the player feel the \r sword pierce into their heart, punctuating the end of Halo: Reach.

The post-credits final stand of Noble Six was a perfect example on \r how to handle a protagonist's death. It's a moment where the player and \r character finally meld together. Their motivations are the same, and \r held in fiery passion. Together, Six and the player have one last moment\r to truly test their skills, ambition, and will.

Obviously, I found Six's death to be the strongest part in the game, \r and maybe even one of the best deaths in video game history. It's just \r such a shame it took Bungie five characters to figure it out.

November 4^th marked the release of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, the most innovative of the franchise, and in turn one of the worst of its series. Sledgehammer Games has made some changes to how players move in Call of Duty via what is called an Exo Suit, but have failed to tap the potential of these new movement options.

Before in Call of Duty games, players could only walk, run, duck, crawl, jump, and climb. Advanced Warfare expands on these movement options by giving players what is called an Exo Suit. The Exo Suit more or less acts like a jetpack, reinforcing the futuristic setting the game is in. On top of what has already been stated, players can now slide in any direction, double jump, hover, and dash in the air.

• By expanding the movement players have by so much, the rest of the game should be built around these new movement options. Maps should include more verticality, be wider, and give players several paths both vertically and horizontally to encourage the use of the Exo Suit. The size will also allow players to plan their approaches. However, the maps in Advanced Warfare feel as small and congested as ever.

• The Exo Suit seems only allows players to find each other and kill each other even faster than they already could before. While maps have generally lower buildings now for players to jump up to for vantage points, they are also very open. Teams can move across the map, getting around and behind defensive positions so quickly that players are more inclined to keep running in circles to try and keep up with the chaos rather than hold back and let it come to them. Also when players respawn after dying- spawning being the act of being replaced in the map after being killed- they usually are immediately greeted with more conflict, having no time to strategize their next move.

• Despite how conflicting the elements are, the goal is more or less achieved. The Call of Duty franchise does highly value constant high impact action. The Exo Suit makes conflicts almost impossible to avoid, appealing to audiences who love the constant engagements. However, this can also turn off a lot of players who want to take the military genre more true to its name with tactics, strategies, and a playstyle that emphasizes survival over kills.

• After several hours of trying to adapt to the new movement and ever increasing speed of the game, I find myself turned off by the emphasis on reaction and lowered value on strategy. Due to this, I believe Advanced Warfare's addition of the Exo Suit was bold, but hardly considered when creating the rest of the game. I just hope that Sledgehammer will make maps in the future that will better utilize the changes they've made.

Military shooters are no stranger to World War II, Vietnam, modern day terrorist insurgency, and even the far off future, but what about World War I? Well Verdun has come to consoles to show that you don't need gimmicky gadgets and killstreaks to make a great shooter, but will the transition from PC to console affect the quality of the game?

Being that Verdun is multiplayer only, you would think that there is no story. That isn't necessarily true. The story of Verdun is WWI itself. Now that may sound like a cop out for writing an actual story, and it is and it isn't. During loading screens, there will be a short paragraph either stating little known facts about WWI or quickly summarizing the battle that was fought in real life on each map you are loading into.

Although I am already fairly well versed in the history of the first world war, I still found these loading screens to be incredibly interesting and overall helped bring the maps to life. If you aren't too familiar with the actual history of WWI, then Verdun is a great starting point to get you interested as well as being nearly 100% accurate. Who would have thought that a gritty first person shooter could be considered an educational game?

A game touting itself with a realistic setting and story needs equally realistic gameplay. Thankfully, Verdun delivers precisely that. In an industry where firearms have the penetration power of an airsoft gun on Viagra, it's so refreshing to play a first person shooter where guns behave how they're supposed to. Your enemies will go down in only one or two shots depending on the gun, and so will you. The amount of recoil each weapon gives off seems to be accurate to their real life counterparts, and they just seem like they have a certain weight to them while moving around.

You will have 3 game modes to choose from: Attrition, Rifle Deathmatch, and Squad Defense. Attrition is similar to team deathmatch in that whichever team gets the most kills wins, but in Verdun, each team has a set amount of "tickets." Whenever a player is killed, a ticket is deducted. The team with tickets remaining wins. Rifle Deathmatch is the standard free for all where there are no teams and everyone must kill everyone. Squad Defense is similar to any horde mode in other games. You and 3 other players must defend various positions on a map from waves of the enemy AI. This is the only mode that can be played solo. Attrition quickly became my favorite since it's the closest to an actual battle in WW1. Squad Defense was my least favorite due to the enemy artificial intelligence lacking any intelligence.

It may not seem like it, but Verdun is actually a tactics based game. Each team and subsequent squad have to work together to win. The team that has players running around trying to shoot everything that moves is very noticeable and will quickly lose to a well coordinated team. Your best option would be to use a headset as the leader of a squad to issue orders to other players, but you can also issue orders in game. Not everyone listens though, so you could be the only one working hard for victory whilst everyone else on your squad is running around looking for enemies.

Picking your squad, class, and weapons can be a bit of a pain. To do so, you must first pick which squad you want to join, choose which squadmate you want to play as, choose your weapon for said squadmate, then you can play. Problems arise when you want to play as a certain squad member or use a certain weapon, and another player is already using them. You can ask them in game if you can play as that character, but you will more than likely be ignored. It's not a horrible system, but perhaps being original isn't the best option in this sense. Creating a loadout for whichever team you're on has proven to be tried and true.

Artillery and phosgene gas mix things up in the heat of battle. As soon as you either hear or see the tell tale signs of artillery coming down, it's time to run, usually into the longing arms of your enemy. Same goes for running into phosgene gas, but you has a gas mask to help in that situation. The only drawback is that the mask significantly obstructs your view. I'd say that's better than destroying your lungs and dying painfully though. The frame rate does suffer a bit due to both of these. Whenever artillery rains down or you find yourself in a yellow cloud, there will be noticeable dips. Nothing too severe, but something worth noting and looking out for.

Verdun actually looks fantastic for an indie game. Weapons, clothing, and items look incredibly realistic, the firearms especially. The amount of "little details" is a work of beauty as well. Whenever you reload, you can actually see your character press the magazine release, watch the magazine release slide into the gun, and pull the magazine out. I've never seen that level of detail in a first person shooter before. I was actually so impressed that I had to constantly reload to take the best possible screenshot. See for yourself. Being able to turn off the HUD entirely to either take screenshots or to add to the realism is a welcome touch that more developers should consider implementing.

Sadly, environments don't get the same level of detail though. Dirt, grass, and foliage look alright, nothing special, but you can't inflict any damage to them. And I'm not talking about there not being destructible environments, which there aren't. I'm talking about just cosmetic details. Shooting anything in the environment won't yield a little cosmetic bullet hole. It may only be me, but that's something that really stuck out to me in an otherwise gorgeous game. An exception also comes in the form of the fire effects for the flame thrower. The fire looks so bad that it actually affects gameplay because it's often too hard to tell where your flames are going and how close you need to be to your enemies. Explosion, screen, smoke, and gas effects all look great as well. The blemishes the graphics have aren't enough to poison the well though. Verdun can be just pure eye candy at times.

Now just how authentic is this realistic WWI first person shooter? In a word: very. All weapons and armors are all period accurate and associate with the right military and nationality.

You won't find an American soldier with a German weapon here. Each nationality speaks the correct language and you can even shout orders to your teammates in that language.

Every map is based off a real battle fought in The Great War. The trenches give off claustrophobic feelings that triggers a sense of paranoia that an enemy could be right behind you at any moment. Given how authentic Verdun is, there is no flashy over the top action. Almost every battle will be in a trench whilst attacking or defending a part of the map. This will no doubt be a turnoff to those looking for cheap thrills, but those of you that can take the time to appreciate the authenticity of Verdun are in for a great and original time.

Verdun was already a fantastic game on PC, so it's a pleasure to see it translated near perfectly to consoles. Verdun doesn't need lensflare, dubstep, or cartoonishly over the top action to be a great game set in World War I. As cliche as it sounds, Verdun has a heart and soul that will be nearly impossible to recreate by another game. Simply put, Verdun is well worth your time.

I came across this game called Sisters: Faye & Elsa Episode 1, a puzzle-driven horror game. You play as Emmanuel Burke in the year is 1993 in Willahauk, Massachusetts. Your Aunt Faye has gone missing and you get locked into her house only to discover it may not be so empty after all.

The game is very creepy, there is no background music, only ambient sounds of your surroundings. I found a few of the puzzles so challenging I had to watch a walkthrough on YouTube. There were no hints throughout the game so you have to look for a puzzle within every interaction. I think if the game had some hints I could have enjoyed myself a little more. I found myself frustrated to the point where I couldn't play the game for a few days, though I am invested enough in the game that I want to finish the series.

The gameplay and the immersive environment that Otherworld has created in this game is astounding, and definitely worth the $7 price tag. This is a full 360° game unlike some other games I've played where you only use about 180° of the range to play the game in. It really helps give that horror atmosphere you would get from a PC or console game.

Pre-Word

So it seems like (for me at least) the general consensus about Assassin's Creed Unity is that it was a major hit and miss. All the reviews and message boards Iv'e read through have said similar things ranging from moderate praise to downright hatred. Iv'e even tried talking to people who haven't even played the game themselves and I hear a lot of complaints. As I was blessed with a seemingly perfect copy of the game and never experienced any graphical issues or game play issues whatsoever (Playing on PS4) I think I can give a pretty good summary of the game as a whole!

BRIEF BACKSTORY-

Assassin's Creed Unity is the latest game in the Assassin's Creed series and is set in Paris during the French Revolution. This is a bloody and dark time period, full of strange characters that were really alive during the time period. The main character Arno Dorian is a handsome, young man who after the death of his father was raised by the Grandmaster of the french Templars. Thirteen years after his fathers death, Arno is framed for the murder of the Grandmaster and sent to prison in the Bastile. Arno is accepted into the Assassin's order after being trained by the assassin Pierre Bellec in prison and the plot of the game begins.

INITIAL ANALYSIS-

What sticks out like a sore thumb immediately is the similarity's between Unity and AC:2. Arno and Ezio are very similar, both womanisers, masters of romance and quick to get into a fight. But as the story progresses they become more mature and focused. These similarity's aren't a terrible thing, AC:2 is considered by many to be the best in the series, and I really appreciate Ubisoft's efforts to bring the series back to it's roots. With the introduction of ship battles in AC:3 and then the pirate simulator that was Assassin's Creed Black Flag, the series seemed to get off course (pun intended). Black Flag barely had anything to do with Assassin's and Templars! The side missions are all interesting and hold a lot of content, the Characters you meet are all really cool to look at and have their own identities. It brings the series home and does it well!

THE WORLD-

The world looks beautiful. The colours are all very vibrant and everything is textured well.

 Broad open cities with so much going on in them. Side missions and collectibles that will keep you entertained between story missions. They've introduced random encounters throughout the city. People getting extorted for money, fights between citizens and royalists. These seem to pop up whenever you start to get bored and makes for some interesting scenarios. It's so easy to just zone out and run around Paris, getting into fights and doing side missions.

COMBAT-

The combat in Unity is personally the best it has ever been. Moving away from the one hit kills and chained combos in favour of a brutal, sophisticated combat system. Three buttons are utilised: Roll, Parry and Attack. A bar above the enemies heads represents the timing at which to either roll or to parry (depending on the enemy type). Getting into fights with large groups of enemies can be devastating and only gets harder. Enemies can throw flash bangs, knock you to the ground, shoot at you and parry your attacks. Combat becomes a wild dance as you dart around enemies, picking your targets and desperately trying to hold your ground. Button mashing is a thing of the past.

CUSTOMISATION-

A really neat addition, and the game is better for it. You can customise Arno to look however suits you (using the possible combinations). By adding in this customisation, it's much easier to feel like you're progressing through the game and getting stronger. Weaponry is varied and interesting, and allows for many different styles of play.

MULTIPLAYER-

Multiplayer is excellent when you are playing with your friends or with expierenced players. I advise to avoid the Multiplayer until you are pretty far through the game, as I encountered many players who simply wouldn't cooperate and had little experience with the new elements of the combat. There is no real way of communicating with other players without a mic, except for a Portal 2 style 'Go Here' marker. The Multiplayer missions are really interesting and add alot to the game, definitely play through them all if you have a couple of friends on Skype to play with.

FREE RUNNING-

Not much to say on this topic other than it's been improved simply by adding a 'free run down' feature. This new feature allows you to vertically climb down buildings, giving a lot more control to the player

MICRO TRANSACTIONS-

I have little complaints about the micro transactions. Micro transactions are really only used as a way of getting to content before you have enough in game currency to do so. I personally never felt like they were being shoved in my face or that I needed to spend money to play the game, the option is just there for people who might not have enough time to get all the in game currency required for items.

COMPLAINTS-

- The story goes on for a little too long, and it became a drag to play story missions towards the end.

- Some of the 'Legendary; equipment in the game is locked. You can only unlock it by participating in big multi player events which are confusing and often difficult to complete. 

-Towards the end of the game, almost every enemy can shoot at you and this is a major issue. When you try to run they will never miss, and the only way to dodge is to roll when in a combat situation. Getting shot will take major chunks out of your health.

-Glitches. I didn't encounter any but many people did. Frame rate drops and graphical glitches are all possible while playing.

- One of the major selling points of the game was its massive crowds, but the game doesn't really really pop them into existence until you get really close, which creates a really distracting effect. Major complaint, has been slowly getting better each patch but is still an issue.

OVERALL VERDICT-

I love Assassin's Creed Unity, it is by far my favourite in the series. It does everything AC:2 did and better. I personally don't believe in putting a number to something but I would absolutely recommend at least borrowing it from a friend, if not buying it yourself. With the amount of people trading it in, it will probably be really cheap, really soon!

First review ever really so,tell me if I should never write anything again?

Before I begin, I'd like to explain that I previewed/played the Xbox One version of The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited beta. So any and all problems I found within the beta may be resolved before the game's official release date of June 9, 2015.

That being said, I found the controls to be fine. I never found myself tripping over the controller trying to remember which button does what. You still use the left stick to move, the right stick to move the camera, Left Trigger blocks, and Right attacks. Those are the controls that need to stay the same to keep the game playable, and they are the same. 

I couldn't shake the feeling of how strange the first person camera feels. It feels....wrong. Like it isn't meant to be in the game. It's clear the developers put more time and polish into the third person camera, which works well.

The graphics for ESO on Xbox One can be very pretty at times, especially far off vistas. Standing on a mountain over looking Tamriel is a good example of that. ESO definitely has the look of a Bethesda Game Studios Elders Scrolls entry. The textures are a bit of a different story though. 

If you run up to an NPC or any texture in the world too fast then you have to wait a second or two for that texture to fully load. This is especially apparent when you run up to an NPC to open up dialogue and turn in a quest. And even with the texture fully loaded it isn't as pretty as the Elder Scrolls has been before. 

Though, I suppose this is excusable considering it is an MMO with a huge world and dozens of players with you at times. If ZeniMax Online tried to implement Skyrim level graphics into a game of this magnitude then it would more than likely run very poorly. Fortunately, ESO runs rather smoothly. One thing I have to commend ESO for is that there are no load times going into major cities. Similar to Morrowind. This was minor annoyance in Oblivion and Skyrim so it is nice to see it ironed out in ESO. The load times going into buildings is near instantaneous, which on console is a rarity so it's a nice touch. 

Magic also isn't as streamlined as it was in Skyrim. Your melee attacks are interrupted to use any magic attacks which are mapped to the face buttons. I found myself not using magic attacks at all really. Strangely enough, magic doesn't seem to be as important in ESO as it was in previous entries even though the game still encourages you to play with a magic style. Though, this didn't bother me very much because I rarely use magic in Elder Scrolls games; a lot of players still enjoy playing in the Mage class, but here it feels watered down.

In there attempts of being WoW, ZeniMax Online, have watered down the Elder Scrolls experience to the point where it, sadly, feels like a generic MMO with an Elder Scrolls coat of paint. 

Some things are strangely taking out of ESO that were in previous Elder Scrolls game. Like being able to loot all bodies, not in ESO. Only certain bodies can be looted. I suppose it's to help preserve the economy of the game so players can't farm the same types of enemies for hours. Not being able to read every book is gone too. Now, you can only read "lore books" which, yes, are still nice to read if you are into the lore, but there aren't many of those. Also, how is "The Lusty Argonian Maid" in ESO when it was written by an Imperial in the Third Era? I know this sounds like I'm really nitpicking, but it just furthers my concern with how canon this game is when the developers can't even get Bethesda's original lore right. 

You can't loot every object in the world either anymore. So no more stealing goblets and plates to sell for a few gold each. Strangest yet, no more sitting down on chairs and benches. Why this was taking out? I have no idea. Why couldn't the developers go for a more original experience rather than a WoW clone? It's the Elder Scrolls. It was one of the most original games back in the day.

If you aren't an Elder Scrolls fan, this isn't going to be the game that converts you. I am, however, a huge Elder Scrolls fanboy so I can still see myself getting lost in this game for hours upon hours when it officially releases despite these flaws. But again, like I said, this was a beta so everything I just said could be completely different when the final game launches. Maybe, and hopefully, all these issues and concerns are ironed out in the final product. 

I also recorded some gameplay if you are interested in watching the beta in action:

A big thanks to ZeniMax Online Studios and Bethesda Softworks for allowing me to participate in the limited access beta of The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited for Xbox One.

Now because of how new this app is and because no-one knows whether or not more game demos will be added to it in the future, it's only really best used as a "try before you buy" type program, but you can't really "try" unless you have enough amiibo to unlock everything so you can play them "before you buy." All in all, it is only really good for people like me and have a large collection of amiibo to use. Maybe you'll get some amiibo yourself so you can use this app, but until then, I'll be seeing you.

Score:

Gameplay

The Pokemon Rumble games are somewhat unique to the Pokemon franchise. Unlike their predecessors, they do not use the traditional Pokemon gameplay mechanics. For those of you who are unfamiliar with how the classic Pokemon games are laid out (you poor souls), the traditional game always has you play as a brand new Pokemon trainer who must choose their very first Pokemon and set out on a grand Pokemon adventure. During your adventure you must capture and train your Pokemon and then use them to defeat gym leaders, crime syndicates, and eventually The Elite 4. Pokemon Rumble World, on the other hand, is essentially nothing like this. Instead of playing as the young hero of the Pokemon world you will be playing as your Mii, as well as a variety of wind-up toy Pokemon. In Pokemon: Rumble World you will have to unlock hot air balloons in order to explore new and exciting dungeons, most of these balloons are purchased with poke Diamonds that can be obtained in game or by purchase with real money. Once you have traveled to a dungeon you will use A and B to hack, slash and bubble beam your way through hoards of Pokemon, this is quite different from traditional Pokemon games which utilize turn based combat. There is also a dramatic change in how new Pokemon are acquired; instead of throwing a Pokeball at that lowly weakened caterpie you will have to rely heavily on luck and a little bit on timing to put it into a "wobbly" state and then KO it. You are only able to befriend Pokemon that have been knocked out while wobbling or sparkling. Aside from the dungeon crawling aspect of this game, there is a King who will provide you with daily quests. These quests vary, and they range from more dungeons with a boss that must be defeated to an arena style match where you must defeat all of your enemies in a limited amount of time. By completing the Kings quests you can earn diamonds which can then be used to purchase hot air balloons. One of the more unfortunate aspects of this free to play Pokemon game is that it is entirely funded by micro-transactions and this, as a result, heavily influences the pacing of the game. For example: the hot air balloons have cool down periods, that range from a couple of minutes to over an hour, during which they cannot be used, unless you use diamonds. Once you have used your hot air balloon you will be randomly placed in one of several levels, each of which have unique Pokemon, but it is often the case that you will play every level except the one you want, possibly several times (this becomes incredibly frustrating with the cool down times that are over an hour). In the non-free Rumble games levels can be selected, this is likely because they do not utilize micro-transactions in the same way that Rumble World does. The online features in this game are also minimal. Streetpassing with players who also play Rumble World will generate the passed players Mii in a dungeon, you will then have to complete the level while keeping the rescued player alive. Once the level is complete you will see the rescued Mii's in the kingdom where you can then talk to them, sometimes they will offer to take you to a specific stage for a small amount of in-game currency. You can also set rescued Mii's to play the roles of the characters in the kings quests. The short and sweet of the gameplay for Pokemon: Rumble World is simple but addicting. 

Story

There is a minimal amount of story used to progress Rumble World, the biggest driving factor that will keep a player going is their desire to collect as many Pokemon as they can. Non-collectors will grow bored of this game quickly. At the start of the game you will be introduced to a king, who's only Pokemon is a pikachu, and basically this king is jealous of a magician who has more Pokemon than he does and so he asks you to upstage the magician by obtaining a bunch of Pokemon. The rest of the quest narratives are of a similar nature.

Aesthetics

All in all this is a good looking game for what it is. Now we can't expect Witcher 3 quality graphics from a free to play Pokemon game, but given the context the visuals work well. While I was playing through Pokemon: Rumble World I got the sense that this was a playful game that did not want to be like other Pokemon games, and instead of trying to address deep questions like whether or not forcing Pokemon to fight was ethical or not (Pokemon Black/White) it simply wanted to be fun, cute, and a little bit whimsical. During my play through I was brought back to my childhood and the games I used to play with my little Pokemon figurines, and I believe that this is what the developers of this game intended. As for the dungeons, I found the map layouts to be fairly simple, but the maps looked good for a free to play game.

Overall Impression 

Overall there are some less than amazing aspects to this game. The story is lacking and the game play is simple. There are some redeeming qualities however. I personally enjoyed the cutesy sprites and the simple levels. One of the biggest turn offs for me was the waiting in between balloon uses, but I am also the kind of person who likes to binge watch/play/read just about everything. Despite its flaws I did enjoy Pokemon: Rumble World enough to play for over 10 hours, and enough to consider buying other games in the Pokemon Rumble series. This is not a game for someone who is looking for a heavily detailed narrative, this is not a game for someone who needs complex gameplay to enjoy a game, this game is for someone who has a Nintendo 3DS and no money who really wants to catch all of the Pokemon. 

Acclaim also acquired an Austin Texas developer Iguana Entertainment. With the growing popularity of the first person shooter genre, Acclaim gave the team at Iguana a chance to turn Valiant's dinosaur Hunter into an FPS for Nintendo's upcoming home console the Nintendo 64. With a few months of delays Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was released to the North American market on March 4, 1997. The game paved the way for the FPS genre on the newest home console, selling 1.5 million copies and boosted sales of the N64.

After three sequels, one reboot, and three Gameboy games Nightdive Studios acquired the rights to the game and put out a remastered port of the N64 version on PC in 2015, then last year the studio ported the game to Xbox, now in 2019 Turok made its way back home to the Nintendo, and all I have to say is I want more N64.

Growing up my next door neighbor Ryan had the latest consoles so when he got the latest thing from Nintendo I was over at his house play the N64 after school, weekend and all summer long. I played Mario 64, Wave Racer and when Goldeneye 007 came out I tried to play it, though being disabled with only one good hand to use I couldn't due to the control layout itself and the mapping in the game. I wasn't able to play an FPS until I got a PlayStation.

So this is my first time playing a classic console FPS. Even though the game has retro graphics, primitive controls, and game play, I have been able to enjoy the game. I've enjoyed it so much I'd love to see more classics like Turok 2, Doom 64, and Quake on the Switch.

If you have never played Turok you play as a native American named Tal'Set, who is the protector of the barrier between Earth and the Lost Land. The Lost Land is a primitive world where time has no meaning, it's inhabited by a variety of creatures, from dinosaurs to aliens. Along with weapons from bows n arrows to staffs that shoot a lasers. 

The game is everything I'd want from an N64 port, mappable controls, cheat codes and a way to do away with the things like fog people complained about when the game was first released. Though we have to wait for the second game to get everyone's beloved multiplayer feature. Besides that, and no true save state to start the game where you left off, this is a great first N64 FPS port for the Switch. 

With this new budding relationship with Microsoft and Nintendo, we may be able to see a Perfect Dark port from Rare. Though Nightdive is the leader of the pack and they are not stopping with just one. I hope to see as many classic games they can get to bring back to life for us retro gaming fans. For $20 this is worth the price for this classic FPS. Pick it on the eShop or right here online.

Story followed the main dude who wants to be a Marine biologist and study abroad in Mexico. He has 2 friends he works with a dude and a chick. He is going to college and working multiple jobs. The main girl Josee is paralyzed from the waist down and while out with her Grand Ma she goes down a steep hill out of control and the guy catches her saving her from injury. Josee is a bitch to him and Grand Ma offers him a meal and then a job as Josee's caretaker while Grand Ma is busy doing other things. During this time Josee is a major bitch and bratt to him but we find out while. Grand Ma has kept Josee in basically a gilded cage of spoiling and infantizing her. Shes not allowed out on her own even though shes an adult. Ever since Josee's parents died. Shes never had friends, and Grand Ma doesn't let her even get a job. So it becomes apparent Josee's bad behavior is a result of being coddled and sheltered away. Josee runs off to try and go to the beach because she wanted to know how ocean water tasted after she remembered one of the last converstations she had with her dad before he died. Grand Ma panics not knowing where Josee went and main dude finds her struggling to figure out how to get a ticket. He takes her to the beach and she has this child like wonder of never seeing a plane on being on a train before. Dude decides to take her to different places she has never gone before sneaking behind the Grand Ma's back. Which gets Josee to start opening up and gaining confidence and main dude finds out Josee is a decent artist and she loves the sea like him. During this the female friend gets jealous because she likes the main dude. Josee's Grand Ma dies and Josee has to fire the main dude but he keeps showing up cause he cares for her. Not love yet but as a friend. Female friend basically tells Josee to not hold the main guy from his dream of going to Mexico and he only takes care of her out of pity. Josee freaks out gets in a mood and tries to roll away to the beach without him. Dude tracks her down but while in the same mood she tries to roll off and he chases after her and gets hit by a careening car in the rain giving him a bad shin fracture and he loses his chance to go to Mexico since he is on the mend. He kinda takes it out on Josee and gets all mopey since he cant walk for a while (even tho all this stems to the female friend trying to crash the budding relationship between main dude and Josee) Josee draws up a story that is a thin analogy of her relationship with the main dude and how she knows he will be able to recover and "fly" again even if that means leaving Josee. He feels better and does his best in rehab and Josee rolls off again and goes missing, he chases after her in crushes and saves her from a snow hill crash and confesses. They start dating he finishes  healing up and they date long distance in the end her getting a real job and doing her art on the side as he studies abroad. That's where it ends.

So the story shows that people can grow and change and help each other. The girl was a brat but its because of her sheltered up bringing and paralyzed state where she couldn't really escape the cage her Grand Ma kept her in. He helps her grow up and gain confidence and find friends.
While he gets injured because of her and the female friend. When hes at his lowest she does her best to help cheer him up and cheer him on to the best of her limited abilities. Was it the best love story? No, but it was sweet and showed their imperfections rather well. I don't think the movie or the characters deserve the hate they got. Though if any characters deserve hate it's the female friend of the main character telling a cripple girl her first friend only cares for her out of pitty and the Grand Ma for basically keeping Josee under lock and key. For the guy the start it was just a job but he grew to care for the girl behind the layers of sheltered brat her Grand Ma kinda forced on her. He didn't take advantage of her or anything he was just the first one to let her be herself. But that's my opinion you guys will argue anything in the comments. Let me know if you want me to review anything else.

-PhoenixQuill

Following the plot from Soldak Entertainment's previous titles Zombasite and Din's Curse (both of which are not necessary for following the plot of Din's Legacy), the lands have been afflicted with zombism causing a schism in the Orc population and creating the Mutated. You are a Mutated under the service of the God Din tasked with unifying the lands and quelling the madness. 
Sound simple enough? Well, with the inclusion of many varying gameplay factors as well as a plethora of difficulty adjustments, your quest may come to an abrupt end sooner than you may think. You know your game experience will be difficult when the lowest difficulty is Normal and the highest difficulty is four tiers up at Ultimate.

If you're the kind of person that enjoys making life needlessly more difficult, then Din's Legacy has you covered. There are player difficulty modifiers that can make your experience all the more challenging.
Hardcore, which implements permanent death on your character. Semi-Hardcore, which causes your base health to be lowered upon death - not unlike Dark Souls II. 
Then there are difficulty modifiers for each game world you generate. 
Exploration, which features less monsters for more exploration of the world. Dangerous Monsters, which also features less monsters, but boosts their health and damage points. Overrun, for those who felt their weren't enough monsters in the world. Raging Hordes, which also includes more monsters than usual, but their health and damage points are lower than normal. And less stress, where harder quests are no longer offered to you, but you will earn less experience points overall.
All of these options are amazing to have, but a novice player will still have a difficult learning curve to overcome in order to progress and enjoy Din's Legacy. To them I give this most welcoming set up: Normal difficulty with the Exploration modifier enabled. While still not perfect for those new to action RPG's, that set up should be enough to keep you from throwing your keyboard through your monitor in frustration. 

Soldak Entertainment are no strangers to sophisticated leveling and role-playing mechanics, and Din's Legacy is no different. Din's Legacy features 39 playable classes with 8 of those classes playable from the get-go and the rest unlocked through certain conditions and/or challenge completions. These classes range from what's to be expected from any RPG to classes that are unique solely to Din's Legacy such as Reaper, Black Guard, Minstrel, and many, many more. With each class comes with base passive abilities, special attacks and the type of armor you can wear. This is where we enter mutations.
As you progress and complete certain actions your character will unlock mutations; be it positive or negative. These mutations can either boost already unlocked abilities or grant all new ones. For example: early into the life of my second character, I unlocked Extra Lungs which gave a permanent 15% boost to movement speed. That may not sound like much, but Din's Legacy can be much harder without positive mutations to give you a boost in battle. So here's another tip for the action RPG novices out there:
Pick the Necromancer class for your first playthrough. Once you've gathered up enough experience, unlock the Blight ability and use it as liberally as possible. Couple this with an NPC companion and you will be nigh unstoppable on your quest for Din. 

Just as your own character, enemies can also possess varied passive and status mutations and abilities that could even possibly match your own, and these aren't just bosses. Even regular enemy types can possess these abilities and kill you relentlessly until you've leveled up your own abilities to surpass them. Admittedly, this does sound frustrating on paper, but in practice it's actually a genius concept that's even better executed. Having standard enemy types that are genuinely on par with you in terms of abilities and combat prowess creates a natural difficulty curve that encourages the player to continue playing and leveling up in order to progress to the next area. 

Once you've created your character, you will be prompted to generate your world. Again, don't let this scare you. Din's Legacy does feature procedural generated worlds, yes, but each world you create is almost indistinguishable from a handcrafted world. There you can adjust pretty much everything to your liking including the world's pacing. Want a slower, more layed back paced game? No problem. Just set the pacing to Very Slow, but you will earn less experience points as a trade off. Are you awake at 3 in the morning on your sixth bottle of 5-Hour Energy and want a fast paced game? No problem. Just set the pacing to Very Fast, and you'll even earn more experience than you would on Normal Pacing. 

Many other developers boast about having a dynamic game world influenced by the player's actions, but so far Din's Legacy is one of the few games to actually live up to this promise. Each region you generate comes with unique win/loss conditions, typically being to keep your town safe and to push back the enemy, and your foes are plotting against you just as you are against them. Quests sometimes have certain parameter that must be met in order to complete them. Should you fail to, for example, kill an enemy boss, that boss' army could grow in numbers and make it much more difficult for you to defend your town and continue on your ultimate quest. From fortifying their defenses to initiating raids on your town, your enemies are just as cold and calculating as you are. 
War and Diplomacy are crucial to your success. If you are unable to strike up an uneasy cease fire with the enemy through quests, you may quickly find your town burned to the ground from an inevitable raid. Of course, every time one of these events are triggered, you will be notified and given the chance to defend your town, so you aren't completely blindsided when you return home and find only a single NPC left alive. 
Your character's world can quickly escalate from bad to very bad in a matter of moments with just how dynamic enemies and quests are. Should the enemies feel like it, they very well could commence a raid on your town the second you spawn into your world while you helplessly try to defend yourself and your town as an under-powered level 1 nobody. While uncommon, this certainly can happen. 

While Din's Legacy provides everything I, and many others, want out of an action RPG experience, there are some issues. Namely the difficulty and quest system. With the difficulty, some people will have a hard time getting deep enough in Din's Legacy to become hooked. As someone that played Diablo II to death years ago, even I had issues with constantly dying, failing quests, and ultimately watching my town burn to the ground and the game ending. I had to figure out which class, weapons, and abilities were over powered enough to get me through the difficult starting areas and eventually play the game as intended. While I do not mind a challenge, I can foresee this being an issue for some potential players.
This leads into the quest system. With a procedurally generated world, there are bound to be a few quirks. During my time with my first character, I was handed two quests to complete that were, unbeknownst to me, bugged. I was tasked with the killing of two mini-bosses, but once I arrived where these bosses were located, I realized they had spawned out of bounds and there was no way to get to them or bring them to me. Just to make sure, I scoured the surrounding lands to makes sure I wasn't in the wrong area, but to no avail. Sadly these were the only two quests I could take even with the entire map searched, and with no way to progress, I had to abandon this character and create another. I hope this was an isolated incident, but be wary should you choose to venture into Din's Legacy. 

Through the good and the bad, Din's Legacy is absolutely worthy of your time and money. Truly the most unique action RPG in over a decade? Yes, I would say so. Din's Legacy is just another example of just how great a game can turn out when it is made from the love and passion of a dedicated developer rather than for the corporate obligation of a AAA studio. There are certainly issues present, but the good far exceeds the bad in Din's Legacy's case. From the incredibly in depth role-playing mechanics to a truly dynamic world, Din's Legacy is unmatched in pure content for an indie game. The most heinous crime surrounding Din's Legacy is just how underrated it is. Do yourself a favor and check this one out. 

So you are now free to explore the land of Pharloom. Standard Metroidvania stuff of side scrolling platformer with enemies to face and hazards to avoid. Bosses were charming and fit the areas they were found in. Some enemies are passive but only deal damage on contact while others dive bomb you like missiles or stay out of needle range and taking well timed dive attacks or pot shots from the air. I loved learning how to deal with all the creatures I encountered in my journey, some bosses were definitely more difficult then others to learn and finally beating them was such a relief. But some normal chump enemies deal 2 damage out of no where, which is a problem when you only get a max of 9 masks in acts 1 and 2 and 10 max in act 3. This is balanced out by Hornet's heals doing 3 HP compared to the Knight's 1 HP. With bosses always having a standard of 2 damage. So in bosses or in areas with the 2 damage enemies or hazards cuts your HP total in half. It was frustrating but not anything that kept me from moving forward. But I would be lying if there wasn't a few bosses that walled me so hard my first play through that I had to get up and take a walk to my local game store to calm back down. Then I would sit down throw myself at the boss a few more times until I stopped being bad at it and finally started feeling like the demi-goddess batman that Hornet is supposed to play like. Which her tool belt is massive and the many ways to swing her needle change with the various crests you pick up along the way. 

Pharloom is full of characters Hornet can interact with and get the stories of and some stories are harder to get to the end then others. Some are part of the main story and the NPCs just do their thing as you do yours while others require Hornet's involvement for the story to go forward. You even get someone who feels like a rival named Lace, who ends up being the silk made daughter of Grandma silk, the final boss. The art style is just as charming if not better than Hollow Knight and the world is massive and expansive but not being too big to feel overwhelming. I do think that SilkSong is missing a lot of the normal back tracking that Metroidvanias are supposed to have but it still exists mostly to find hidden tools, mask shards (which are this games health), or spools (which are this games mana). But every time I got a new movement ability I would turn around find the nearest Bell Beast Station and call over my trusty steed so I could run the map all over again just checking to see where else I can go now. This game is very much about exploration and persistence. No matter how walled I would get I would know it was my fault for not being good enough and not the game being too hard. So I would just keep working to "get good" and finally see this game to the end. The first wall I hit was The last judge but I eventually made it through. The next wall embarrassingly was the dancers and they telegraph their attacks so obviously and it was my fault for being greedy on damage and not dodging, my final wall was the high halls gauntlet. Which was honestly harder then the "final" boss. Grandmother Silk. Once you beat her you get the credits and the first ending. But if you are awesome, saved all the fleas, did all the quests, bought yourself a house, and seen your local map mommy to find her master, then you can get a final quest that unlocks act 3. Getting here is where the real challenge begins. Grandma silk is trying to pull herself and her daughter out of the abyss you cast her into as part of the quest to get into act 3. Hornet now needs to find a way to survive the abyss and kill Grand mother silk to save all of Pharloom from her Abyss soaked threads. You go track down old leaders of the areas around Pharloom, enter dreams and fight dream variants of them at their peaks to get their hearts for a spell. You need 3 hearts but there are 4 bosses. So 1 gets to be a trophy in your house. Which ever 3 you choose to kill gives you their hearts and the ingredients to the spell to get the item you need to survive the abyss, 1 Boss is much easier than the others and in my personal opinion easiest to hardest was Nyleth > Green Prince > Khann > Karmelita. Though my first play though I killed Khann last because he has a big multi level gauntlet before you get to him. My issue is the long drawn out fights where my resources run thin. But as far as the actual boss fight he was a chump and Karmelita is a dancing singing badass. Finally you have your true descent into the abyss. Where you fight corrupted Lace and Grandmother silk is trying to maintain a protective cocoon in the abyss, you best Lace in her 3rd fight Grandma silk gives you the last of her strength so you can escape with her youngest daughter. With an ended that was so hype I was genuinely excited.

Over all this is my game of the decade not just my game of the year. Was it the perfect sequel to Hollow Knight? No but it was pretty damn close. As I said the random hazards and random fodder enemies that can deal 2 masks of damage are far too common but hey just teaches you those areas are supposed to be the toughest, but the way Hornet moves feels so much better than the Knight that going back to Hollow Knight honestly feels like a downgrade and I was missing the freedom of movement that Hornet has to her sibling. The 7 crests give such a unique way to play for her though one of them gets you back to playing like an upgraded version of the knight. All the various tools and upgrades just feel marvelous.

I would give this game a 9.5/10 and I have played through it on my Switch 1 so many times. If you have $15 to spare team cherry has made a game that is well worth the price and blows all current triple A game devs out of the water and shows them what gamers want and the experience they deserve with free DLCs already announced and the first one being claimed to release 2026. The 7 year wait was well worth it. Good Job Team Cherry and thank you for the experience. 

-Ignus PhoenixQuill

Vigilantes follows 3 people Koichi, Kazuho, and Iwao. Who take on the vigilante mantles of The Crawler, Pop ⚝ Step, and Knuckle Duster. Though Pop ⚝ Step isn't so much of a vigilante and more of a street performer. Koichi didn't start off as a vigilante either he just wore an All Might hoodie and a mask to clean up trash around his neighborhood and be the friendly neighborhood Nice Guy which was his name before The Crawler. He gets around with his quirk called Slide N Glide which lets him create friction-less fields he can use to slide long surfaces not just forward, backwards, and side to side but up and down walls too, but only as fast as a bike. Pop ⚝ Step's quirk is called Leap, she can super jump and land safely as long as she had a steady jump point. Finally Knuckle Duster, he is investigating into a drug problem in the area that has a side effect of turning people's tongues purple after using it. He is quirkless just a buff boxing brawler who uses brass knuckles as a weapon and he drags Koichi and Kazuho into his technically illegal hero work. As Japan has strict licensing laws on what heroes can use their quirks to fight villains and wear those costumes. As of right now the manga has been finished for a few years and the anime just got its season 2. So I am not going to say much here other than this series is something I am excited to see in action and to the people watching the anime and not wanting spoilers you have a great story to look forward to. This series is a prequel to MHA some fan favorite heroes make cameos through out the series but since this is prequel you know that they will be fine. I will say this series is going to be much shorter than MHA with Vigilantes only have 126 chapters so I can only see this series having 3ish seasons. But this story is much darker and much grittier with the story following a college kid and a very much adult man dealing with drugs and some implied sexual violence. Don't worry its all implied nothing shown or anything actually happens more of just threats. Nothing like Goblin Slayer. All I can say is buckle up anime watchers and get ready for a superhero ride that I only wish still existed in the American comics industry. 

So if you have somehow lived under a rock for the last 3 decades roughly, the Pokemon series is a game about exploring a new area, catching the magical elemental creatures that fill the area, and using them to battle other people in the world. There are also multiplayer features such as trading and battling with your friends, with some Pokemon only evolving via trade to promote the multiplayer element as back in generation one some of those Pokemon were the best you could get as well as get some exclusives that are only available in 1 of the games. We have gone through many regions through out the main line and spin off games and 1025 different Pokemon with more to be released. So now lets talk about the games.

Generation 1- Every series has a start and for Pokemon it was back on the Game Boy and the Game Boy Color with Pokemon Red, Green (japan only), Blue, and the Special Yellow edition that let you have a Pikachu as your first partner Pokemon. Pokemon Yellow also followed a story closer to the anime rather then the games. The generation 1 games have you travel through the Kanto region. The plot of almost every Pokemon main games follow is you are a new trainer just in the 10-16 year old range, depending on the region, you get your first Pokemon from that region's professor, then leave home to beat the 8 gyms of the region deal with the evil team of the area, then challenge the Elite 4 and their champion to take the title of best trainer for yourself. Then the post game tends to be just catching them all or training a team to play against your friends, with the post game changing from game to game. Generation 1 didn't have anything to do outside of catch them all and raise a team. Many people look at gen 1 and think its the best in the franchise but I disagree. We have gone back to Kanto so many times and I have had many chances to evaluate the region and I gotta say its one of my least favorite when I look back on it. Guards that will only let you into a town if you bribe them with team, glitchy game play, nearly nothing to do after you catch them all, poor level spread for wild Pokemon leading you to having to do a ridiculous amount of grinding between the final trainers and the Elite 4. Wild Pokemon even give less experience then their trained counterparts which feels so taxing to run around the final cave, Victory Road, and running back to the Pokemon center to heal up to repeat over and over until you team is strong enough to survive the final challenge 5 trainers in a row with the highest level Pokemon in the game with only the items you can carry as the way to heal. The evil team of Kanto is iconic, Team Rocket, which are basically the Mafia who catch Pokemon to use for extortion and stealing from others. You fight many of their grunts throughout the area and stop them from stealing from people and taking things that they will just use for their nefarious purposes. When all is said and done with the evil team in Kanto feels like a threat when they take over a town and keep you from being able to go to the gym as you storm a large office building to defeat the mafia who infects in. But otherwise their goals aren't clear unless you read the Pokemon Adventures manga. All the Pokemon manga follow the story of the games rather than the anime that is the story of Ash. Turns out Team Rocket created the strongest legendary Pokemon in the region Mewtwo, a human Pokemon hybrid with incredible psychic powers. In the games you get a bit of lore on Mewtwo in the burned mansion, a old destroyed lab that was created and funded by Team Rocket to make the most powerful Pokemon. When you defeat the leader of Team Rocket the final time he disbands the team. You get the opportunity to catch Mewtwo once you have beaten the Elite 4 but that is your last challenge. But with the end of generation 1 we move to the next games. 

Generation 2 - This was a big jump for Pokemon we get to go to a new region with a whole slew of new Pokemon to find and a whole new world we live in. This generation was made up by Gold, Silver, and Crystal version. Crystal being similar to Pokemon yellow with being a game released after the initial 2 and it adding new stuff to the story and cleaning up the games just a bit. Now gen 2 was a fantastic sequel but feels like it lingered too much in the leftovers of gen 1. So in this game you are now in the Jhoto region a new land that shares a border with Kanto. This region has all the same story beats as Kanto, new trainer, go battle the gyms, deal with the evil team and then go challenge the Elite 4. But this game takes place a few years after generation 1 story wise. You find that the remnants of Team Rocket are still active here in Jhoto. You beat the remaining admins of Team Rocket and get them to fully disband. You also have a different Legendary Pokemon to catch in each region Ho-oh for Gold, Lugia for Silver, and a whole new side story for one of the legendary trio Suicune in Crystal. The end game of Jhoto though is miles above Kanto. Once you have beaten the new Elite 4 and their champion you now get the chance to go back to Kanto see how its changed and fight all their gym leaders in their prime. Then once you do that you can climb Mount Silver the most dangerous area on the map, and at the peak you can find the main character from Generation 1 with an iconic team, sporting all the starters and some other powerful members for one of the harder battles throughout the whole series this game also has its issues of a poor leveling spread that feels like it stagnates a bit mid story as you get the chance to take on 3 gyms in any order you want which means they had to keep them all around the same level range so you don't feel like you go against any of them too early. You also had access to transferring Pokemon between Gen 1 and 2 via a time machine that lets you send Gen 1 Pokemon between both games but you can't send any new new Pokemon back to Kanto. Jhoto also added a feature that becomes a staple in the franchise and one of my favorite things Shiny Pokemon. Shiny Pokemon are just a color palate swap but its incredibly rare to run into with a 1 in 8192. So any shiny Pokemon you find is sure to be a status symbol. Is gen 2 perfect, still no but the series is gaining momentum and it feels like a definite step up that sadly lingers a bit too much in the story and success of generation 1 with the whole post game revolving around exploring Kanto again and finding and beating the player character from Gen 1. Next is one of the most controversial jumps in the series Gen 3. 

Generation 3 - These games are where I feel Pokemon starts to hit its stride and reach the pinnacle of its s game play to me, its not quite there yet but its close to that peak. These games are Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. We also get 2 remake games where they took Red and Green and made Fire Red and Leaf Green, where we go back to generation 1 with generation 3 mechanics and graphics. Generation 3 is where Pokemon moved from the Game Boy to the Game Boy advance and with a big change in the coding and mechanics game one of the more controversial things in Pokemon, the break in transferring Pokemon up the generations. You could move your Pokemon from Generation 1 to Generation 2 with the time machine which means you can play with your favorite partners from your first story. Due to coding changes and huge overhauls in design change in the games Pokemon from Gen 2 couldn't get transferred into Gen 3. Which many people couldn't get past and caused Gen 3 to be many people's dropping point in the Pokemon series. So lets get into the new games. Ruby and Sapphire got released at the same time with the differences being the version exclusives and the evil teams being different in each game. Team Magma for Ruby and Team Aqua in Sapphire. The story is ultimately the same with the Pokemon used by the evil team being different and this is the start of the legendary Pokemon on the box being the goal of the evil team you fight. But this generation also had Emerald the first in what can be considered the combined or true story of the region, we get a few of these from the generations here on out. Emerald has both Evil Teams at different parts of the story and it is up to you to defeat both evil teams. Now lets talk about them since they are the biggest difference in the games and the only games to have 2 different evil teams, Team Magma are wanting to expand the land and Team Aqua the Sea, both are looking for the Legendary Pokemon that expanded the land and sea to complete their goals. Team Magma is themed by like devils while Team Aqua pirates. In Emerald you run into both in different parts each trying to complete their goals of Eco-terrorism with Emerald adding story for Rayquaza the large green dragon who lives a top a giant pillar and who embodies clear skies. Ruby and Sapphire added the end game of the battle facility of the Battle Tower which was a single battle arena where you climb a tower of elite trainers who's Pokemon are built for competitive battle. You have to keep battling till you beat 7 or you are defeated. This gets fully fleshed out in Emerald with the Battle Frontier which hosts 7 unique battle facilities to test your teams against. Now you can just go at them with your existing Pokemon but you are likely not to go far. But if you E.V. train and breed up a team then you have a chance at winning. Each facility has a different gimmick some you use your own Pokemon, one you use rental Pokemon, another you just chose your Pokemon and based on their nature they will battle on their own. You have to win 7 in a row 3 times on both the level 50 run and the level 100 run in order for you to complete and beat all the frontier brains. Its a very rewarding experience and probably a bit too difficult for some kids but going back and replaying Emerald and prepping for the battle frontier was a delight. This generation also added what becomes a staple in the rest of the games, Double Battles. Where you use 2 Pokemon on the field at one time, so some moves can get both targets or even damage your partner if you aren't careful. Finally this generation added secret bases where you could make your own little room and if you mixed records via the link cable with a friend they get your based in their world and you get theirs. Their trainer avatar will be there and you can battle them with whatever team they had equipped when you guys mixed records. Otherwise Ruby Sapphire and Emerald hit the same story beats that all the main line games do. 8 gyms yada yada I have said it twice before. Now to address the remakes, Fire Red and Leaf Green, they are faithful adaptions to Red and Green from generation 1 but with graphics and mechanics updated. I am going to sound like a bit of a broken record but this is now the 3rd time we have gone back to Kanto. Its nice to remember your roots but never leaving them and dragging everyone back to the old story over and over again can get a bit waning. But there is a new addition to these games via the Sevii Islands which you get to go to the first 3 after you beat the 7th gym and the rest as part of the post game. Finally gen 3 added one more final kinda questionable gimmick to the mix which we never see again. The E-Card Reader. This was a special expansion to the GBA that let you swipe cards to get special events unlocked in your game. Stuff like event legendaries in R/S/E and new islands to go to in FR/LG. The issue is is some cards you could only scan at participating locations which there is a chance that you were no where near one and you had to have the e-card reader to be able to even swipe the event card. Meaning if you don't emulate the games or use an action replay or game shark you are locked out of so much content for the game. We also see this issue in a few other games in the franchise where local events are a timed part of the game but the E-Cards just feel bad to me. Gen 3 to this day is my 2nd favorite generation despite all it does wrong though. Anyway it time to leave the tropic region of Hoenn and head to generation 4 in the cold mountains of Shinnoh. 

The game plays almost exactly the same as the God of War franchise so if you know how to play those games, you'll be able to pick up and play this one without much trouble. However, while the game is virtually the same as God of War in terms of gameplay, the environment and atmosphere is vastly different and where this game really shines. The music is one of the most atmospheric details about this game. It has a very demonic feel to it and it sends chills down my spine when it starts to crescendo at the right time and place. And don't get me started on the environment. The depictions of the various levels of Hell and the eldritch horrors that occupy them is extremely detailed and imaginative, ESPECIALLY with the fight against Cerberus. I have never seen such a unique interpretation of the 3-headed hellhound in my life.

In conclusion, I had a lot of fun with this title mostly from the atmosphere alone, but if you want to play it for yourself, I highly recommend that you get one of the console versions as the PSP version has quite a bit of content cut from it in exchange for a digital comic which really isn't worth the amount of game that was removed. But until then, I'll be seeing you.

Console Score

PSP Score

Lets\r face it, we all hate chores, running errands, and pandering to the needs of\r annoying neighbours, but for some reason we just can't stay away from\r games that incorporate these aspects of life into game-play. Fantasy Life, for the Nintendo 3DS, is\r essentially what you would get if Final\r Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and Harvest\r Moon had a baby; it's a magical RPG packed with quests, weapons, fishing, flower\r picking, crafting, and monsters. Like Harvest Moon before\r it, Fantasy Life allows you to explore and\r immerse yourself into a colourful world filled with a wide array of charismatic\r NPC's and their never-ending requests. 

In many\r games the class you choose during character creation is the class that you are\r stuck with, one of the key features that Fantasy\r Life offers is the opportunity to have your character switch between 12 unique\r classes at almost any point during game-play. This allows the player to embrace\r their inner miner while living the peaceful life of a fisherman but still being\r able to kick-ass as an adorably ruthless mercenary. Additionally, each class\r has unique goals which will no doubt keep the player occupied for hours. One of\r the more disappointing qualities of the 12 class system is that the fundamental\r game play does not change in any way when you switch between classes, and aside\r from gaining new skills and quests when you switch classes (which are retained\r when you switch again) there is no real change in how the game is played. In\r some respect this makes the 12 class system unnecessary, but at least the class\r specific costumes are cute. 

Fantasy Life also offers a main quest\r that involves the player running about, defeating monsters, and saving the\r world. Despite following the standard RPG archetype the story line it is quite\r charming, and besides, if you're already venturing out into the world to\r improve the rank of your life-at-the-time you might as well get some of the\r main quest done too.

The\r majority of time spent with this game will involve forging swords, sewing hats,\r and mining gem stones for NPC's, and aside from being able to purchase a few\r different homes and a wide array of items there isn't much to work towards\r financially. That being said Fantasy Life\r is a game that you will either love or hate; if you enjoy games like Animal Crossing you will no doubt be\r hooked on Fantasy Life after an hour.

I'm typically not one to review games, or to read a whole lot of reviews unless they're from people that I value the opinions of. These are people that play a lot of games and know when something is good and well, when it isn't. 2014 was a slow year for video games in my opinion, and Titanfall stands out as one of the few "diamonds in the rough" that we were gifted last year.

Now, let's get on with the actual review. The multiplayer, (which is all this game is) is an overall solid experience with a nice amount of variance in weaponry and loadouts, albeit reminiscent of the "Call of Duty" franchise that the dedicated gamer community loathes. But hey, in a game that literally boasts "Crafted by key developers behind the CALL OF DUTY franchise..." on the back of the box, what more can you expect?

Game Modes

Titanfall has a number of different Game Modes to pick from when you initially load up the game, some of these are well known, such as "Capture the Flag" and "Hardpoint Domination", but others are a bit more unique, such as "Last Titan Standing", and "Pilot Hunter". Attrition, which is the main mode that you'll see played, is very simple and basically "Team Slayer". Using your standard loadout weapon or Titan mech, you kill enemy pilots, grunts, or titans to earn points. These points go towards your overall team score, and the first team to reach 300 is the winner.

Another Game Mode featured is "Campaign", although it hardly lives up to the name. Campaign mode consists of cooperatively playing with other players as well as against enemy players. You play as one of two teams, The IMC, or The Militia. This is where the story really shows its thin, underdeveloped plot. Basically, the IMC is the big-bad government that wants to have control over all of the colonized planets, and the Militia is primarily made up of those on the frontier that want to have their own independence. Not much more to it than that, unless you attempt to externally dig deeper for the lore. All I could think of while playing was the Insurrectionists vs. the UNSC from the Halo franchise, but maybe that's just me.

Anyway, Campaign places you into a battle on one of these two opposing sides, as well as giving you a very brief explanation of what purpose the battle holds. For example, one assault by the Militia on an IMC refueling depot was to prevent the IMC from having the capacity to refuel their warships, thus being unable to make the jump into the frontier effectively. Hardly anything new or inspiring, but hey, it is what it is.

Gameplay Mechanics

Gameplay is where Titanfall really shines. Your pilot is given a standard loadout at the beginning of each match. This can vary from your Automatic Carbine or SMG, to a Semi-Auto Rifle or Sniper. You're also given a sidearm, explosive ordinance of your choice, and a pilot ability, which range from increased running speed to cloaking. Perhaps the unique part of this loadout is your Anti-Titan weapon, such as a massive homing rocket-launcher or a slow-yet-deadly laser. These are the weapons that give you a fighting chance against the behemoth mech-suits called Titans that fall out of the sky when you've earned enough points to acquire one.

Speaking of Titans, this game is called Titanfall, and the real reason anyone evem bothered to play this at all.

Titans

Titans are large, mechanical suits constructed for pilots to battle in. There are 3 basic chassis in which Titans can be built from. Atlas is the All-Around body, with a balance of both maneuverability and durability. The Ogre is a slow moving tank, able to take massive damage before going down. Finally, the Stryder is the fast-moving hit-and-run mech, able to dish out serious punishment, but is taken down easily with concentrated fire due to a lack of armor. Which you choose is up to you. Titans can also be custom-built to suit your playing styles with main weapons such as electricity-cannons and rockets, we well as abilities like nuclear ejection and temporary shields.

Overall Judgment

There's more to this game than I can personally fit into this review. To experience what Titanfall really has to offer, you're gonna have to play it yourself. The Game is available for Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC This gives you a wide array of platforms in which to enjoy the title. Overall, Titanfall is a solid title that will give you hours of mind-numbing entertainment, but at the end of the day, what is does is cool, but not revolution. It feels like a recipe with all of the ingredients taken from other existing titles like CoD, Halo, MechAssault, etc. Still, it's fun to play, and that's what I truly value in a game.

FINAL SCORE: 8/10. Fun to play. Lack of campaign story and originality are drawbacks.

Rather than the deluge of Mountain Dew and Doritos filled Bro-filled shooters available for every console, Adr1ft aims to be everything Alien:Isolation was not. Rather than a horror-survival sim everyone expected A:I to be it still contained many action sequences that put a gun in your hand and told you to shoot your way out of a situation rather than building up the tension as Alien did. Adr1ft aims to change that by presenting space as it really is; A horrifying void of death and silence.

You start of in the shoes of a cosmonaut staring across space at the stars and of course the debris of your newly destroyed space station, this visually stunning opener is quickly forgotten as you make your way to the bulk of your once safe home through the eerily silent void of space with a pinch of dead friends scattered along the way. With the lack of communication and setup in play during the first few minutes of this game, it looks as if 505games have put a lot of effort into making this a proper FPX (First person experience) without the compulsive need to put a gun in your hand and slaughter waves of seemingly endless grunts.

The Aim of Adr1ft is to make it back to the surface in you EEV ( Emergency Escape Vehicle) While collecting canisters of oxygen scattered around to supplement your rapidly deteriorating supply in your broken EVA (Extravehicular activity) suit. All this combined with the eerie soundtrack should make for a powerfully frightening puzzle adventure game with the enough tension to keep you on the edge of your seats at all time.

Hopefully the visuals and soundtrack aren't there to distract from a lack of substance a large portion of games released onto next gen consoles seem be suffering with at the moment.

The premise of the game at first glance seems to be like most in the survival horror genre, survive until you die. What makes the game unique is that its utterly pitch black all day, everyday. Thankfully it seems like you can through various means and tools, create life affirming light. Unfortunately for you there are mobs of zombies who are attracted to any and all sources of light. So an interesting dilemma is offered to the players, how do you survive when you can't see anything and any light you turn on will bring zombies like flies to a neon light. Live only off what every light your torch provides or look for greater sources of light, and of safety or at least some safety.

Darkness Overrun hopes to be a open world, with a lot more ground to explore that what was shown in the reveal. It also will have base building. So hopefully you'll have the chance to go full I Am Legend and pimp a sweet pad to keep the zombies out and the light in.

The game is obviously in pre-alpha so it's a very long way from being done, but Shadow Zone is going to have a alpha demo live soon so you'll have a chance to play for yourself. If you're interested in keeping up to date with whats going on you can follow the studios Twitter @SZSGames.

As the title suggests, rupees play a very large part in the game's mechanics, so much so in fact that they also act as your health. Because of this, the standard shop system from the normal Zelda titles was removed in favor of a haggling system which punishes you for going too high or too low with your offer. An easy way to get large sums of rupees is to find a map and fill in the landmarks that are missing from it. Selling the completed map back to the old woman at the end of the town strip will net you some easy money. Extremely large sums of rupees are also needed as offerings to Uncle Rupee who will open up the way to Rupeeland and also gradually opens up the new areas of the world which contain progressively stronger and more annoying enemies and increasingly more difficult dungeons.

Now since Tingle isn't exactly a fighter (with the exception of Hyrule Warriors), he can't really defend himself effectively, so to protect his hide, you need to go to these taverns called "Salons" and hire a bodyguard to help you fight and collect treasures. Bodyguards range in 3 different sizes and 3 different AI patterns and as such, their fee for hiring them also differs significantly. Bodyguards also have unique abilities dependent on their size: Small ones can enter tight places that Tingle cannot enter, medium ones can open locked gates, and large ones can break boulders. Almost all areas that only a bodyguard can access usually guarantee a Rupee Good of which there are 30 to collect.

Now the combat system is extremely simplistic. You walk into an enemy to engage the fight and the entire ordeal is played out in a cartoon dust cloud. You can round up more enemies to fight and even your bodyguard for help while the battle is happening, but the way to win is to rapidly tap the cloud on the screen to help tip the scales in your favor. The more enemies you run into and defeat at once, the better your rewards are after the fight, many of which can be sold or used for cooking in Tingle's kitchen which in turn can be placed in empty jars for use on the field or to be sold for some extra cash later.

Now come the words of warning: This game was rated PEGI 12+ when it was released in Europe. The reasoning behind this is because of the suggestive and somewhat homosexual tone a small handful of characters emit. If this might damper your decision on getting the game, then I would suggest you watch Vinesauce's stream of the game on YouTube instead before you make a final verdict. If it is the region where it was released that is causing a problem with your decision, then I should probably note that Nintendo DS games are region free meaning they will play on any DS regardless of the country you bought it in. If it some other reason, then I honestly think you would be missing out because I had a lot of fun with this game and I think you all would have fun with it too if you gave it a chance. But until then, I'll be seeing you.

Game Score:

Recent years have been good to indie games, with recent releases like Transistor, Shovel Knight and Freedom Planet becoming more than just diversions from our big-budget entertainment; these games are now commonplace, and many see them as a breath of fresh air in an era of developers who, despite deploying decent products, might be playing things a little too safe. Risk is the key element to an indie game. A smaller development team means a more unified vision, and that means an indie game can take risks.

That brings us to a very niche genre of indie games: Dating simulators. Immediately, some people will groan. Dating sims are often associated with an exaggerated portrayal of perverted young men looking for an easy, vicarious solution to romantic issues. Distaste for this genre of games is not unwarranted, as dating sims go against almost every standard of gaming. 

In the mind of this author, most games are based around both escalation and reward. Escalation can come in the form of a growing world (sandbox games), increasing difficulty of levels (platformers), or character growth (RPG). The standard dating sim normally plays scene-by-scene, with little conflict other than the goal of dating (and potentially sleeping with) one or more romantic interests. Reward can be something as simple as beating a level or boss, but more and more games have a player's actions rewarded with in-game money, experience points, items, concept art, and so on. Dating sims, more often than not, do not reward the player with much more than what is expected (bow-chicka-bow-wow), and that is only gained by playing through the scenarios provided, which usually don't require more than a few dozen clicks of the mouse.

There have been two dating sims in recent years that have included both dynamic change and rewards for your troubles, and as such have earned their popularity among gamers who don't often play dating sims. Katawa Shoujo included escalation and reward in its story, in which the player must be cautious in what they say and do, seeing as only one love interest can be pursued, and every single one has a physical disability. Good players are rewarded with a sensitive and heartfelt story, while less successful players will meet a depressing ending. Another dating sim to break the mold is HuniePop, which makes escalation and reward part of its gameplay.

Nikki likes Talent (blue tokens) and dislikes Sexuality (red tokens). Better plan ahead.

The fact that HuniePop even has gameplay is one of the reasons it stands above most dating sims. While it is, at first glance, an average dating sim, it's actually a puzzle game, not unlike  Bejeweled and (Blargh) Candy Crush. In the game's dating portions, the player must fill their date's affection meter by performing matches of three or more of the same tokens. While that alone is simple enough, HuniePop manages to up the ante by cleverly integrating dating sim elements with the puzzle elements. For instance, each token represents a particular trait, and each girl you meet in the game has a most desired and least desired trait, giving the player incentive to match up certain tokens while avoiding others. Further, special tokens will earn the player sentiment points, which can be used as currency to give the girl a present. Every present gives the player a different perk, which can make the puzzle easier, making a successful date more likely.

What gives HuniePop an edge is that the player has to make a genuine effort to succeed. Between dates, the player is encouraged to get to know each girl on an individual level, learning about their daily lives, their goals, their occupations, and their personalities. These girls aren't cliched archetypes, either. While they aren't overly complex, HuniePop's roster of girls are three dimensional, some with surprisingly subtle traits that are fun to analyze (most of them, anyway). It's important for the player to pay attention, as they will be regularly quizzed for facts on each girl. If the player does well, they are rewarded with experience points called Hunie, which can be spent on upgrades for the puzzle segments.

Don't worry, Jessie is only twice as slutty as she looks.

It's a continuous cycle. The player must upgrade themselves to do better on dates, which become harder as the game goes along. Doing well on dates gets the player a higher money reward (ironically), which allows the player to buy food and drinks for the girl between dates. A well-fed girl can have more conversations with the player, and drinks can be used to earn extra Hunie, as well as a sentiment bonus during dates. The player has to summon their inner strategist to ensure they do well in HuniePop, and in doing so are rewarded with the necessary assets to do well in later gameplay. The ultimate reward for succeeding in repeated dates with a girl is, well... Let's just say it's a bonus round, and even those segments provide a reward. For best results, play the non-Steam version.

HuniePop is a winner because it takes risks with the dating simulator formula, without abandoning the qualities that dating sim fans love. It strikes a fine balance between fun puzzle gameplay and the thrill of getting to live out a romantic fantasy. Combining a form of escapism with gameplay that challenges the mind has earned HuniePop overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam. As such, even if either puzzles or dating sims don't appeal to you, you should at least give this one a try. It's an example that many dating sims should follow.

Have you ever completely failed to make a jump from one platform to another, again and again? Well Wings of vi will kindly reintroduce you to that feeling you get when you do. The game is no joke, supposedly opting for a complete 'skill based game play' over pixel perfect jumps and luck. If you have some serious focus and mad reaction speed then you'll do fine. If you're not a super human warrior, then you might find yourself having a struggle once in a while.

Mechanically this game is smoooooooooooth. It plays and feels like a glove, so there's very little input lag. Not that there's much to input. Akin to earlier platformers Wings of Vi has simple controls; up, left, right, down bound to their respective arrow keys. In addition to a jump, action and restart (or suicide) button. Getting used to the controls won't be tough, mastering them is another thing however.

If one thing can be said about Wings of Vi, is that they don't shy from fleshing out their characters (if ya know what I mean). Or the rest of the game for that matter. Another flashback to platformers of old is the pixelated art style that Wings of Vi sports. The style is akin to the megaman series in the way area's are designed and given filling. You won't be focused on whats around you most of the time however. The little angel sprites are cute, as well as the many other things you may come across (except the demons, not cute). One thing I might add as well is that you can customize your character; but if you want them, you'll have to work for them. Flawlessly beat that boss and maybe you'll get a hat to wear, who knows, it might look badass.

Indie games are quite unlike any other genre of games. They can take an idea that would sound crazy in any other format, and turn it into a compelling, immersive game. 'Lets make a game where the players move giant blocks, to survive', sound familiar? That's because I just described Minecraft. One thing I like about games like this is that it has so many different aspects that don't seem like they would mesh well, but somehow they manage to conceive a game that does exactly that. Sounds a little like a chef just throwing random ingredients into the pot. Some rhythm, a little dungeon crawling, RPG, and rogue-like for good measure. Eh, Voila Crypt of the Necrodancer.

   The music, it compels me to WRECK SLIMES! The game play in CotND (Crypt of the NecroDancer) is most interesting in the fact that everything revolves around the music. Why? Because you're a zombie whose heart is controlled by a NecroDancer. The story is simple, Candance (you) is looking for treasure, but when she enters the dungeon she falls to her death. When she awakes she finds that her heart beats as if it were a drum, eager to get her heart back she goes in search of the NecroDancer.

 Move over WASD

The game uses only four keys, the arrow keys. These control where you move: up, down, left or right. They also control what items you use, which are selected by inputting two keys at once (for example left + right). There is nothing else you need to remember in terms of controls. But don't let the simplicity of the controls fool you, the dungeon is anything but safe. The game doesn't try to hold your hand too much. There's a short tutorial, but that's about it. Mostly you've got to figure it out on your own.

But is the music good?

For a game based completely and utterly around music, the music needs to be good. That depends, for instance, is the color purple your second favorite number? It's a matter of opinion, as it always is with music. If you're asking my opinion (and I hope being a total retro head has some merit), then yes, the music is bloody terrific. No tune is a pushover, each one is absolutely amazing in its own right; and they never grow old. You might have to replay a level hundreds of times because you are a scrub and you need to 'git gud' (i know that feel), so replaying a level with the same song will happen. I found that no matter how many times I had to replay a level, it was always amazing to listen too.

If you do somehow get tired of a song (no idea how that would happen), the developers added a truly magnificent option. The ability to add your own songs, indeed. Ever felt like cracking skulls to Daft punk? Perhaps stomping wraiths to Prince? The possibilities are as endless as your music library. You'll have to have mp3's however. So perhaps not endless.

Pixel art? What's that?

So as you might be able to tell, I enjoy pixel art. So let me tell you that this game doesn't disappoint, but then again its nothing spectacular. There are no wondrous views like in Dark Souls and the dungeons aren't as atmospheric as Shovel Knight. But it fits sooo good. I honestly have a hard time thinking of a different art style that would work, plus, pixel art, am I right?

Mod it till it crashes.

Maybe you get bored with playing as Candance, or you want the shop keeper to be that creepy old man who gives you the sword in legend of zelda. Well guess what, you can. I love games that allow for modding, and actually encourage it. You don't limit your game to whatever you put in, but you give the community free reign to craft as they see fit. The amount of content in that game skyrockets, as does re-playability. Some mod for the 'kek', others for creativity's sake. Don't ask whether you should, ask if it'll look alpha when you wield the master sword.

Final say:

I am enjoying every second I play this game. It looks amazing, feels amazing, and sounds like the gods had synthesizers instead of lutes. The game is still in early access in steam, but with the amount of content already in the game, and the active community, there's a whole lot more game to look forward too. So if you don't mind paying up early, this game is definitely worth it.

            So hold on to that dagger son, and what ever you do. Don't you drop that beat.

Minecraft is a powerful sandbox video game that has really impacted gaming history.The game was conceived by a Swedish programmer by the name of Markus "Notch" Persson, who founded the game. The idea was to allow player's to build anything they wanted out of 3D textured cubes among neat things. The possibilities are endless,  such as slay zombies, ride pigs, make mansions, even make music. 

The game Is widely popular and very well known for its capabilities. Like fun with friends, real life building designs, and just to play when you're bored.  Some schools even use Minecraft as a way to teach kids about design and creativity. This game can and has been used for many different purposes.

There are many Blocks, items, and resources in this game, also including several modes that can be played. Survival mode is the most basic, that you can play.  The player will get a health bar, hunger bar and an experience bar where the player can level up and use those levels to enchant his or her weapons and armor. This help increase the destruction they inflict upon their mortal enemies. A key mechanic is the hunger bar, which slowly depletes as the player does actions such as running, mining, chopping, fishing, or even walking, all except for just standing still.  This can easily be filled back up by making food such as bread from wheat, steak from cooked cow, cooked pork chop from the pigs you kill, and many other wonderful dishes.

The next game mode is the Creative mode which was made for players who don't want to spend hours on end mining and collecting resources; and  instead want everything handed to them for easier and faster building.  The player also gets the power to fly and instantly break blocks which players do not get outside of this mode.  All this for the main purpose of testing designs and building things quick and easy.  But of course using this mode is less prestigious due to the fact that everything is just given to you.  

Lastly the Adventure mode where the player is in a survival type game but has many restrictions to their player.  This mode was made for the purpose of playing on adventure maps that other people have made such as Mario party in Minecraft, or an arena game, or perhaps some Zelda related games.  This mode helps give the player a lot more to do since they can experience.  More than just vanilla Minecraft.

Minecraft is a wonderful game in my own opinion and in the eyes of millions as well.  This game has grown from such a small place and has grown a long time into something so beautiful its almost blinding.  Overall this game is very fun and needs to be played, at least for the experience. Having played the game and seen what it can do, I give Minecraft a  9/10.