The original Moving Out was not only one of the more successful and charming runs at the “chaotic co-op sim” crown worn at the time by the likes of Overcooked, but it was a neat little Aussie success story with the folks at SMG Studio behind the wheel of the world’s hardest-working removalist truck. Fast forward three years and the team is back with a full-on sequel, revisiting the concept with an itemised list of new ideas and an already-solid foundation to build on and around.

As someone who’s just done the end-of-lease moving dance, a journey I had the distinct privilege of paying what might have been the world’s worst professional movers to accompany me on, I was excited to jump back into Moving Out to prove that I could have done an infinitely better job at it myself. Forgetting, of course, that the poor folks at Smooth Moves Inc. have a lot more to deal with than millennials with too many overpriced gaming collectibles to fret over.

Moving Out 2 opens with an excellent animated intro that perfectly captures the vibe of its 80s setting, before launching into its sizeable campaign. The team at Smooth Moves has run into a spot of bother after their boss, a sentient cardboard-box-person, accidentally rips open the fabric of time and space during an attempt to boost company efficiency by 90% with 90% less employees – a classic workplace caper. With the town of Packmore sporting some fresh new gaping portals into alternate universes, it’s up to you and the Smooth Moves crew to put everything back in its rightful place and restore order to the moververse, one truckload at a time.

The game’s campaign follows a pretty similar structure to before with a handful of “worlds” containing multiple levels (over 50 in total this time around) to play through, gradually unlocked as you complete objectives and raise your F.A.R.T. (Furniture Arrangement and Relocation Technician) ranking.

Each level presents its own spin on the task of loading up your truck with the correct bits of furniture, appliance and decor within a time limit. Like last time, what starts out as a mad dash to get everything in the truck as fast as possible while fighting intentionally-wobbly physics and physical conundrums in early stages quickly becomes so much more with out-of-this-world levels adding new opportunities and challenges outside of the realm of good customer service.

One level might see you and your team attempt to sort magical baubles onto their corresponding freight trains, or use drones to carve out new paths or cross chasms, there are even levels designed around moving in which challenge players to put items from the truck into their correct places within a building. Without spoiling too much, the situations in Moving Out 2 get a lot more wacky a lot faster than in the original, almost to a fault. There were times when I’d be flinging giant candies into basketball hoops with a slingshot or jumping through magical portals and wished I was just hilariously trying to drag an L-shaped couch through a narrow hallway or flex my Tetris skills to fix the horrendous packing job my partner had done on the truck.

It’s ultimately a good problem to have though, as the majority of Moving Out 2’s gimmicks make for a perfect blend of problem solving, teamwork and laugh-out-loud catastrophe when playing with others – which remains the undisputed best way to play this game. Whether you’re playing in couch co-op or (for the first time in this sequel) cross-platform online with up to three others, the game does a great job of scaling the challenge of its frankly loopy concepts for all team sizes and skills. I did find that a few levels veer wildly into overly punishing or absurdly easy territory seemingly at random, but with so many on offer a couple of duds doesn’t hurt too much.

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There are also some great assist options on-hand to help smooth things out if the team isn’t gelling or on even ground in terms of capabilities, like extended time limits, lighter items or even the ability to have objects disappear into the ether once they’re on the truck to make packing easier. I can’t speak so much to the actual accessibility of the experience but the settings there are fairly basic. With increased gameplay and visual complexity in the sequel it might still present some insurmountable hurdles, but the assists are definitely a welcome feature. The game manages to get a pass on some frustratingly inconsistent control and collision stuff as well, purely by virtue of frustrating inconsistency being its whole schtick, but it does wear a bit for anyone genuinely trying to achieve those Pro times and extra challenges.

SMG has absolutely nailed the presentation though, building on the visual blueprint set out by its predecessor and polishing it up to a sheen to be much more lush, vibrant and dynamic. It feels much stronger in its identity too, coming across as an overall more high-quality production. It looks nicer, but also more cohesive, and far richer. There’s plenty to unlock again as a reward for completing a litany of optional objectives in levels as well as discovering hidden secrets, including challenging new Arcade levels and over 30 characters to play as once you’ve unlocked them all.

Massive props has to go to Moving Out 2’s writers, who’ve really out-punned themselves in this effort. In fact, I reckon this game probably has the highest per-page saturation of puns in a video game to date, and the dialogue as a whole is thoroughly entertaining at every step of the way.

The post Moving Out 2 Review – Boxed Office Smash appeared first on Press Start.

There’s a lot of friction in Atlas Fallen. Some of this is intentional; grinding across sand dunes and slamming overpowered attacks into fantastical creatures that are hungry for your blood to stain the earth below. Some of it isn’t; those same overpowered attacks in a constant wrestling match with the game’s camera while its overarching plot and writing catch like sand between gears. A slow but undeniable churn of grit in the machine that undercuts the game’s best ideas and brings an otherwise cool set of mechanics low.

I can always see the vision in a Deck13 game. The German developers have spent the better part of a decade emulating the FromSoftware house style, transplanting challenging action combat systems into fresh settings on a much leaner budget. The Surge games, both of which adhere much closer to the team’s inspiration points in terms of structure and theme, also embodied some of its best work. Tightly crafted experiences that introduced unique layers to the formula and successfully lifted it all into a gritty sci-fi world. Atlas Fallen pivots in almost every way; deliberate play spaces traded for open-zones, discreet encounters for bombastic rumbles, sharpened storytelling for genre pastiche. It goes on, but for the pockets of fun I had in Atlas Fallen, I struggled to see the vision.

Atlas, the titular world, has fallen. A harsh and arid land of rocky mountains, sandy dunes and dying pockets of forest, this primordial plateau has been the stage of a centuries long holy war. In the process, the land has been systematically strip mined of its Essence, a glittery sand-like substance that fuels the magic of the realm and is now solely meant for Atlas’ looming god, Thelos. Having taken the form of a massive stone idol that floats above the land, tracking its denizens like a fucked up Mona Lisa, Thelos has weaponised humanity’s belief systems and forged a religious army to do his bidding. You play as a Nameless, an underclass of people who form the worker backbone of the continent with very little in the way of compensation or basic respect.

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Once you’ve customised your hero from a decent enough selection of hairstyles, you’ll be quickly introduced to the game’s central idea – the Gauntlet. Found during a disastrous trip across the country and quickly wielded to set herself free from servitude, the Gauntlet is 2023’s third sentient, magical handheld that cracks wise at the player while offering them access to escalating powers to use in combat. Atlas Fallen’s Gauntlet houses Nyall, a Na’vi-looking blue man with a vendetta against Thelos and a tremendous arse to boot. Nyall will be with you across your whole journey, granting access to a plethora of RPG systems, traversal tools, plotty dialogue and game hints, the latter of which can be thankfully toned down in the game’s settings.  

From here, Atlas Fallen is a pretty straightforward action RPG affair. You’ll be sent out across Atlas to collect pieces of the Gauntlet to power it up enough to progress to the next story beat, each portion of the map a discreet but interconnected series of open zones that house side quests and challenges to complete. The Gauntlet allows the Nameless to shift the sands of Atlas, raising platforms, activating timed magical puzzles, and best of all, propelling themselves across the sand like an ice skater. Deck13 use this to great effect, turning any open space into a slip and slide for the Nameless, and solving the open-world traversal slowdown effortlessly, if not seamlessly. You can only glide if the game registers sand beneath your feet, making some areas a clumsy stop/start experience as a small rock abruptly stops your flow in frustrating ways.

These flow issues are writ large in the game’s combat, an uneven and sporadically fun collision of systems. Atlas Fallen gives players an impressive arsenal of tools to play with, layering basic weapons like axes and whips with several types of modifiers and an underlying risk/reward micromanagement in Momentum. Landing consecutive blows against enemies raises the Momentum meter, unlocking evolved versions of your base weapon along with tiered special abilities, but also making you much more vulnerable to damage. Momentum can be expelled through critical strikes that deal massive damage and lower the bar again, making for a constant and engaging push and pull between power and limitations. It’s also consistently undercut by an unstable camera that pulls focus in frustrating ways during group encounters, endlessly fighting with the lock-on function to make for a disorientating experience.

Doubly so when camera control is essential to fully engaging with Atlas Fallen’s enemy designs, most of which require targeting specific body parts to deal meaningful damage. In concept it rules, harkening back to The Surge and allowing you to incapacitate certain attacks or cleave off new weapons by focusing on armoured limbs and the like. In practice, it wears thin, as to actually defeat a foe you’ll need to focus damage but the camera makes this an exercise in frustration. Atlas Fallen’s menagerie is detailed but limited, a rotating door of Wraiths who escalate over the course of the game but never vary all that much. It’s a combination of issues that take a baseline solid combat system and dulls its shine like sand slowly but surely burying a treasure.

Elsewhere there is a loose set of RPG systems churning away, most of which can be ignored to no real peril. There are a few currencies to collect to spend on vendors, leveling and perk slots; a crafting system that requires you to collect plants and ores from the world; a bunch of side quests and NPCs; armour customisation; the list goes on. The bulk of essentials will be given to the player via the main questline, but what really makes these systems forgettable is the overarching world of Atlas Fallen. It’s not bad, as such, but it’s shockingly dry. Voice acting and dialogue is about as unenthused by it all as I am writing this, and the repetition of the game’s missions and puzzle challenges quickly dispels any real sense of adventure.

Which is a shame because Atlas Fallen is partway to being exactly the kind of elevated action experience the genre deserves right now. A comforting throwback to design ethos of old, happy to let the player just wail on some monsters in a cool looking world. And there are elements of that kind of fun buried in here. Atlas feels grand, a massive playground to whip across the sands on and marvel at the imposing natural beauty of it all. Claiming it back from an evil god with these particular tools should be a great time. Instead, for the moments of fun I had at this beach, I just feel sunburnt and ready to wash the sand off.

The post Atlas Fallen Review – Sinking Sand appeared first on Press Start.

Once known as Chorus, Stray Gods is the ambitious debut title from Summerfall Studios, a new independent studio spearheaded by David Gaider, who cut his teeth in the industry taking the lead writing a number of BioWare games. The fashion in which it tells a fantastical story within a regular, urban setting reminded me a bit of Fables—the graphic novel on which The Wolf Among Us is based. However, it remains a novel experience by delivering much of its story through song. 

We’ve seen television veer into musical theatre from time to time, as shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Scrubs have produced big, lavish episodes brimming with catchy songs and dance numbers. The results often speak for themselves, but they’re a creative, light-hearted departure from the main story arcs. I’ve not played every game ever so I won’t confidently declare Stray Gods to be a trailblazing first. However, given the team at the helm, it’s undoubtedly the highest-profile title to make the jump from game to musical. 

After the idol Calliope is unceremoniously killed under mysterious circumstances, her eidolon, the essence of an idol’s godlike powers, passes to Grace following a chance encounter the pair share during the latter’s band auditions. Calliope’s death becomes the subject of Grace’s trial at the hands of Athena and you’re tasked with proving your innocence before your trial and likely execution. I think the story is clever, especially the way it presents these gods within the context of a mortal world, and how the fatigue of their constant transmigration weighs heavily on them. 

Though it’s a big cast, with the likes of Laura Bailey and Troy Baker in the lead roles of Grace and Apollo respectively, you’d be forgiven for thinking Stray Gods is top-heavy in terms of talent. I’d argue that the game has a deep bench in terms of voice talent, even if they’re not as capable on the microphone as the leads—Rahul Kohli, who plays a bashful and bumbling Minotaur, remains a baffling choice as his singing chops are non-existent, leaving his comedic timing as his singular attribute in this particular performance. Similar deficiencies can be heard during harmonies, or in any of the many call-and-response phrasings involving more than one singer. There’s a lack of confidence that is audible from certain performers, whether it’s the material itself or their own hesitance; it does stick out like a sore thumb.

It’s evident that representation was a focus when pulling the ensemble together, the team even went as far as to reflect their actor in their god, where appropriate. For example, voiced by Erika Ishii, Hermes is presented as a gentle, genderfluid emissary, while Apollo is a shirtless surfer bro—so perhaps they’re not all one-for-one. It feels like an ensemble of angsty millennials, except the dialogue isn’t remotely as exhausting as that makes it sound. 

Though it is billed as a roleplaying musical, Stray Gods delivers more on the latter than the former. While you shouldn’t expect skill trees and stat distribution, your choices, and how you attempt to curry favour with the gods, can branch the narrative off in some significant ways which should come as no surprise for anyone familiar with Gaider’s work on Dragon Age and Knights of the Old Republic. Rather than accruing stats or having your choices ultimately unlock dialogue options, you’ll choose from a few proficiencies to carry with you throughout. I opted for charm and, later on when the option presented itself, I went for a more abrasive, ‘kick ass’ attitude adjustment. Like a lot of other narrative-driven, choose-your-own adventure-likes, these choices will open up dialogue options that, without providing much story craft, fill out the narrative’s flavour.

Stray Gods is also a very horny game. In fact, my biggest takeaway was that these idols have likely spent their era-spanning existence on the mount and the invitation is definitely extended in bulk, and accepted by, in my instance, Grace throughout her investigation. That said, pursuing these romantic interests didn’t really feel earned during my play through and felt like something of an afterthought and a means to fog the windows up a bit.

Another area where choices can create a bit of flavour is within the songs themselves. During a bunch of the numbers, Grace is able to interject or steer the arrangement in a particular direction, whether that’s an aggressive or passive path is up to the player. Not only does this provide a replay value, but it’s also a neat feature to offer a bit of agency over how a song pans out. I can’t help but feel that the songwriters might have been spread a bit thin considering every permutation, however. Except for a select few, the songs in Stray Gods don’t get their hooks in and are fast forgotten as you advance the plot. I do think the songs they choose to reprise and use as motifs throughout are well-picked, particularly Grace’s first solo which features prominently throughout. 

The game’s story unfolds similarly to a visual novel, serving the player with beautiful, hand-drawn frames that have small flourishes of expression to help make the cast feel alive. Excluding the few that don’t reside among mortals, the design of these idols remains pretty grounded throughout, though I would say their appearance reflects their personalities. One touch I loved was how the aspect ratio shifts to letterboxed for any of the musical numbers, it gives it a cinematic quality that flouts its low-cost presentation.

I also feel like Stray Gods aimed to present itself as a non-linear game all about choice but fails to deliver a compelling way to get from place to place. Picking whether to visit Apollo or Persephone from an over world map, for example, isn’t exactly an exciting transition. In fact, this game’s strengths from a visual design perspective definitely do not extend to the UI and UX, which is rather drab and had me wishing the team managed to implement a more appealing means to present the player with choice. 

The most damning thing I can say about Stray Gods is that it’s a musical with very few memorable tracks. Otherwise, it’s well-written and offers up a novel way to experience the gods among us trope. 

The post Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical Review – A Pitchy Performance appeared first on Press Start.

Exoprimal feels like it’s from another era. It harkens back to a time when Capcom was slightly more experimental in its approach to making games. A time when they weren’t relying on remakes of tried-and-true classics but instead were creating new and engaging IPs. It’s a gamble, then, that Capcom would create a new IP and a new multiplayer IP in Exoprimal after their numerous successes with their flagship franchises. But Exoprimal is much better than I expected and does more for the hero shooter genre than I ever thought possible. The gamble paid off.

And there is a story to it all too. It’s 2043, three years since dinosaurs were unleashed worldwide from portals and tears in space and time. You play as a pilot who has crashed and landed on Bikitoa Island following the opening of another portal during a routine flight. Here, on the island, you’re greeted by an AI named Leviathan, who forces you and others into simulations of wargames while wearing powered exosuits against hordes of dinosaurs. It’s ridiculous, but it’s the right kind of ridiculous that lends itself well to the concept.

The fact that there’s even a story to follow in Exoprimal is also a bit of a miracle. Story progression is tied to how many battles you complete – you don’t even have to win – and they’re mapped out in a separate menu to look at in your own time. Some cutscenes are played after specific matches, further detailing the goings-on of your squad, but for the most part, you can engage with Exoprimal’s surprisingly robust story as you see fit. It’s certainly a nice inclusion and hopefully, the beginning of yet another universe for Capcom to pull from.

But it’s easily how Exoprimal carries itself in battle that makes it stand out. There’s technically only one mode called Dino Survival, but within that mode, a lot is going on. More than the game itself tells you. Each match pits two teams of five against each other in two phases. The first phase has the teams fighting to complete objectives faster than the other team in PvE situations. The second phase then moves both teams onto the same map into a PvPvE situation in a battle for the win.

For example, the first phase might have your team fighting waves of dinosaurs, defending a point on the map and then escorting to a certain point. The second phase might have your team protecting a payload (think Overwatch) while dinosaurs and other enemy players attack it. The assortment of objectives and activities you’re given is random, to a point, but there’s a lot here to keep the whole experience both engaging and enjoyable.

Exosuits are essentially heroes as they appear in other shooters of this ilk. There are ten suits to choose from in three categories – Assault (DPS), Tank and Support. Each suit has its own abilities and can be outfitted with unique modules to improve their performance and, more importantly, feel balanced. The exosuits are fun to learn and use and have wildly different ways to approach battle baked into their design. Even support, a category you rarely see to be so popular in games like this, gets a fair shake of the stick when players are building their teams.

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Even better, you can switch at any point in the match. With a button, your pilot can eject themselves from their exosuit and change to something else. I regularly switched up my suit depending on which objective was in play, which encourages experimentation with the numerous suits and their abilities.

But it’s not just about the players either. There are over fifteen different types of dinosaurs that the game will throw at you, big and small, that ensure that the action in Exoprimal never gets old. From the most basic form in the raptors and the Pteranodons to the history-bending neosaurs that mix dinosaurs we’ve come to know with outlandish mutations to make them more dangerous than ever. The game does a great job at mixing up the combinations of dinosaurs that it throws at you, and some of the heavier ones especially are difficult enough that they encourage you to work as a team to feel them faster than your opponents.

From time to time, the Leviathan AI will get testy and throw a random mission at you that becomes really intense. These are the moments where Leviathan will open a portal and pour out thousands of dinosaurs that attack you. Sometimes he’ll even cut a match short and transport you to an alternate dimension to fight a boss, turning respawns off and bringing together two competing teams of five to throw a ten-player co-op mission at you instead. It’s an incredibly dynamic system, and these set pieces seemingly bridge the gap between what you’d expect to see in a single-player campaign and the multiplayer game that Exoprimal is.

Of course, there is a big dark cloud looming over Exoprimal, and that’s the way that progression is handled. After competing in a certain number of matches, your party will eventually be interrupted by a “story” like mission that’ll pit you against a unique threat. Around six of these encounters’ll happen across sixty or so matches. They’re incredibly fun. But it’s what happens next that might be annoying or just too vague for some players.

Completing these missions then “opens up” more of Leviathan’s simulation for you. So future games you’ll play will have more objectives, maps, and dinosaurs thrown at you. Exoprimal isn’t forthcoming with how this content is dished out nor how you gain access to more of it. Playing with friends who are lower level than you will essentially “lock” you into the lower-level missions, creating an illusion that there’s only one map and a handful of dinosaurs. This is especially obvious in the opening weekend, where your average party level will be lower due to many factors, including the ease of access with the game’s inclusion on Game Pass and the like.

I’m trying to say that as time passes and the overall player population increases in level, the content on offer in Exoprimal will be more obvious to the broader player base. But the other side of this argument is that many players would not necessarily be bothered to get to this point but that they’ll assume Exoprimal is so much less than what it is. 

Exoprimal currently has five PvE objectives and five PvP objectives that can be played out across six unique maps. But most players will easily only see almost half of these if they are playing for several hours. Capcom is promising multiple free updates – including exosuit variants with new weapons, new objectives to complete, new maps and even new dinosaurs. If they keep the content coming, Exoprimal will be something special. It already is, but it needs to put its best foot forward now to convince players that there’s more to it than their lower-level parties might be showing them.

Regardless, at the end of the day, Exoprimal does what I previously thought was unthinkable. It makes a competitive multiplayer game fun, even when losing a battle. There’s a good breadth of balanced exosuits to play with and many activities and dinosaurs to mess around with. Mix this with a unique approach to storytelling and some pretty fantastic setpieces, and it seems Capcom may be on to a winner with some tweaks here and there.

The post Exoprimal Review – Don’t Call It A Dino Crisis appeared first on Press Start.

As someone who primarily watches the McMahon-Helmsley federation, because who could resist that Bloodline story arc, my familiarity with All Elite Wrestling is limited to an all-too arrogant-champion whose dedication to kayfabe knows no bounds, buckets of blood, and a little bit of the bubbly. When I heard that the upstart wanted to create a video game to recapture the feel of Nintendo 64-era games like WWF No Mercy, rather than compete with their 2K contemporaries, my ears pricked up. And then when I heard they managed to jag Hideyuki Iwashita to direct, I began to believe.

Almost immediately, AEW: Fight Forever captures the spirit of those AKI games I used to adore. It features the same arcade framework, and feels like No Mercy’s classic engine made new again. However, emulating a quarter-century old game can tend to expose a few gaps in budget and feature-suite, no matter how good the game’s feel is.

The wrestling itself feels very much like No Mercy or Wrestlemania 2000, mixing both regular or strong strikes and grapples to wear your opponent down. In a system that mirrors even modern wrestling games, the aim is to wear opponents down, causing limbic damage, while building enough momentum to perform your signature and finisher moves. In an effort to modernise its aged systems, action and passive skills can be assigned similarly to stat points, giving a variety of buffs that can help turn the tide of a match—desperation kick outs, kip ups, and first-strike buffs all add a strategic layer to the classic No Mercy formula. 

I also feel as though the way momentum is handled can lead to unbalanced experiences, from time to time. Unlike finishers, signature moves don’t seem to drain momentum which led to me giving out Stunners as though they were charitable donations. Similarly, I feel like frustration when playing is set to stem less from the difficulty itself and more from all-too-common cheap losses in the game’s bigger four-way matches. 

Although there are a good amount of match types, Road to Elite will be the main draw for people wanting some form of structure and story, a term I use loosely. It’s digestible and crafted with replay value in mind, and I’d sooner liken it to Mortal Kombat’s Tower than its story mode. With either a created or rostered superstar, you’ll progress through one year of AEW programming broken up into four blocks full of weekly shows leading up to the brand’s quarterly marquee events.

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Even if it’s largely forgettable to play, it’s the moments of history peppered throughout Road to Elite that make it feel special. It’s not exactly their rival’s seventy-some years of history they’re drawing from, but it’s nice to see all of the company’s defining moments across four years touched on, from the brand’s formation, to Jericho’s inaugural reign as champion, to CM Punk’s debut. It’s all framed within this weird, jet-setting adventure that highlights all of the lesser-thought of parts of the business—meet and greets, enjoying local cuisines, and even lifting weights. It all ties into the mode’s management busy work which lurks on the periphery of the fun stuff.

Though there are other superstars on the way courtesy of a season pass, Fight Forever’s roster of around fifty is pretty comprehensive. There’s one or two omissions I am a tad curious about, but it’s hard to fault the selection. It’s definitely big of those making the call to keep Cody Rhodes in the game in spite of his defection back to WWE to “finish the story”. His place in the startup’s history is assured, so it was nice to see. Similarly, the match types that are on offer cover off on everything the brand is known for, the most extreme being the Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch which is as nuts as it sounds—I can’t believe it’s a real match type. 

In one of the more unexpected twists, Fight Forever has a small selection of Pokémon Stadium-like mini-games to really hammer home that absurd, arcade feel the game has. Although the list of challenges alludes to more being added post-launch, the three we’ve got so far are a bit of fun. As a sucker for trivia, my favourite of the bunch is certainly the pop quiz full of deep cuts only fans could appreciate.

In addition to its season pass, Fight Forever has some other “live service” features like challenges, including both dailies and weeklies, that’ll line your pockets with credits to buy things like superstars, arena decor, and taunts from the shop. Some moves and taunts walk the line of trademark infringement, with Brock Lesnar’s devastating F5 featuring under the tongue-in-cheek name “Diverticulitis” while Roman Reigns’ lock and load taunt serves as acknowledgement of The Tribal Chief. As I’ve already unlocked a decent portion of what’s available, I look forward to seeing how often the shop’s stock is refreshed, if at all.

Because it’s a first effort, I didn’t want to be too critical of the game’s creation suites. I mean, you’re not going to see big communities emerge for created superstars in Fight Forever, and stitching together entrances using other star’s music and moves feels appropriately dated, given it’s something I recall doing back in No Mercy. Though I couldn’t manage to find anyone else playing pre-launch, I expect the game’s classic and largely accessible systems will breed a pretty fun and competitive space for people to enjoy wrestling without all of the deck-building nonsense its contemporaries have forced into the mainstream.

Through cartoonish, chonky character models, Fight Forever carves out a fun niche right beside the realistic presentation of the WWE titles. Chris Jericho’s keg-chest and CM Punk’s “most punchable face in wrestling” are both realised with comical accuracy, with all the roster looking the part aside from a couple of so-so renders. I wish I could say the presentation was spectacular throughout, though when you’re chasing the past’s glory as Fight Forever does, graphics ends up being an area where corners can be cut. Long, flashy entrances make way for truncated strolls, and blood spatter—as cool as it is to have a serial-bleeder like Moxley leaking claret like he was born to do—looks like a stamp that appears on the canvas, without any semblance of dynamic at all.

There are a lot of known graphical hitches that I’m sure will be ironed out by launch, including a lot of clipping and render issues. Though, that same cheapness extends to the voiceover efforts which are basically reserved for owner Tony Khan. Beyond that, the written word does the heavy lifting of the oddball drivel that comes out of other superstar’s mouths. A few gimmicks land within the scope of Road to Elite’s script, though it’s a bit of a mess considering I saw Kenny Omega referring to others as Kenny when cutting promos. 

It’s that kind of oddity that sums up the Fight Forever experience. For every bloody perfect thing it delivers from the vintage No Mercy experience, it serves up something you wish was left in the 64-bit age.

The post AEW: Fight Forever Review – Old, Elite Wrestling appeared first on Press Start.

Although it wasn’t overly surprising (but very welcome) to see Activision release the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy back in 2017 to properly capitalise on nostalgia for the IP that it acquired in 2008, I’ll admit I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see the manic marsupial continue to star in his own titles in the years since. We had another re-do in the form of Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, followed by a wholly original (and shockingly punishing) platforming sequel with Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, and now yet another new and original Crash game has arrived – Crash Team Rumble.

Despite its initial reveal summoning my deepest desires for a return to the Crash Bash/Crash Boom Bang! party game school of mayhem, Crash Team Rumble is instead a competitive, multiplayer online battle arena-style effort where players compete to collect and deposit Wumpa fruit for the team across a variety of maps. As someone that’s largely steered away from even the most basic of MOBA-esque games, it’s certainly not something I would’ve considered dipping my toe into were it not for a lingering penchant for its mascot. That said, after spending a solid amount of time with Crash Team Rumble I can genuinely say I’ve been having a fair amount of fun with it – though glaring, foundational issues with its content offering and structure make it sadly difficult to recommend.

Let’s start with what works though, because my initial experience with Crash Team Rumble has been surprisingly positive. The basic premise is fairly easy for players of all ages to grasp (if I can do it, so can your kids), pitting two teams of four against each other to run around the selection of nine unique maps and collect Wumpa before bringing it back to their team’s scoring area and depositing it as quickly and completely as possible.

Nuance, and opposition, comes from the opposing team’s ability to interfere with that process. Players can attack each other, causing their opponent to drop Wumpa, activate score-boosting gems around each map, use unique character-based abilities and special items, and spend collected relics on game-changing powerups unique to each map in order to get a competitive edge and reach a total of 2000 points before the other team.

Like any good game of this ilk, it’s all about each player in a team working in tandem to manage these various mechanics and become a well-oiled machine of mayhem and Wumpa-hoarding. The included roster of eight recognisable Crash Bandicoot characters is divided into three categories – the Scorers whose characteristics and abilities make them the best fit for zipping around the map to pick up and deposit Wumpa, the Blockers who are more capable of attacking players and obstructing their goal zone to prevent scoring, and the Boosters who want to be activating boost gems around the map and otherwise acting as a support.

The synergy between these classes, even when a team is stacked in one direction or missing one of the three entirely, is pretty remarkable most of the time. In my many, many matches so far I’ve rarely seen anything get too one-sided with the majority of my bouts turning out to be thrilling nail-biters right up the finishing score. The game seems to do a pretty good job of matching and sorting players into appropriate teams before each round, which is great. All of the maps, though on the smaller size, feel unique in their layouts and the various power-ups they offer and are well-designed overall. Coupled with the fact that special abilities are charged by performing the actions your chosen class is intended for, it makes it easy to jump in with randoms and feel assured that everyone’s going to play their part.

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I’m embarrassed to admit that on more than one occasion I’ve found myself yelling at teammates and opponents alike through my TV screen (not into any actual comms, of course) as things got particularly heated. I haven’t managed to convince any of my mates to get into a game with me for some genuinely strategic play but my experience playing with silent strangers so far has been excellent. I have run into the occasional instances of particularly nasty Neo Cortex duos from players clued into the meta but those are few and far between and rarely soured my enjoyment.

So it’s a success on the gameplay front then, but the issues with Crash Team Rumble exist in just about everything outside of the matches themselves. For starters, there’s just that one game type to play. With nine maps and eight characters, repetition can set in pretty quickly. I’ve been playing a maximum of a couple hours a day since just before the game officially launched and I’m already feeling bored with the content on offer. The only thing keeping me going currently is the game’s Battle Pass-style progression, which in a game that’s boxed up and priced on shelves is also a disappointing choice. Between an anemic content offering and the slog of grinding out character levels on top of a timed, seasonal pass, Crash Team Rumble feels like it should’ve been a free-to-play game and not something that you’d pay up to $69.95 for.

At present, there isn’t any way to spend real money on anything, which is nice. But I also don’t know how that’s all going to shake out as far as future content goes, as much as I’ve enjoyed unlocking a heap of character skins and even iconic music from across the franchise that plays when I put the opposing team in the ground. It feels wrong to suggest, but I honestly might have been more optimistic about Crash Team Rumble’s future had Activision decided to make it a freemium release with a paid battle pass. It could have meant more people willing to give the game a go with friends, and as a paid product in the state it’s in right now I just don’t see it garnering the kind of audience to justify a continued investment in Toys For Bob putting out regular content updates.

At least it’s already seen some hefty discounts retail.

The post Crash Team Rumble Review – A Crateful Of Fun While It Lasts appeared first on Press Start.

Between Diablo III’s disastrous launch and the egregious monetization of Diablo Immortal, one of Blizzard’s most defining IP hasn’t been in a great spot as of late. It’s in these circumstances that Blizzard have decided to pivot back to what made Diablo special to begin with in Diablo IV. Moving back to a more grounded setting, honing focus on characters as opposed to spectacle, and polishing a beloved formula up to snuff for 2023 standards are just a few of the things this game has set out to achieve.

Diablo IV harkens back to Blizzard’s glory days, a time where the developer’s titles stood out on store shelves thanks to chunky boxes synonymous with quality and polish. It remains to be seen how its live service offerings will pan out over the coming months and years, but the day one package feels undeniably feature-complete, rich with content, and brandishes impeccable presentation informed by an unwavering commitment to the vision of a redefined Sanctuary. It might not break much new ground, but Diablo IV is a hell of a good time.

Some 30 years after the events of Diablo III, the war between angels and demons has taken its toll on both sides, and on Sanctuary itself. It’s in these moment of vulnerability that cultists have summoned Lilith, daughter of Mephisto and mother to Sanctuary. Her awakening brings only chaos, as demons and humans alike are overtaken by their sinful desires when graced by her presence.

In the absence of Tyrael, Lilith has claimed herself as the new protector of Sanctuary. The flipside of this coin is Inarius; co-creator of Sanctuary and founder of the Cathedral of Light. A fallen angel seeking redemption through ending Lilith’s newfound control, so that he can return to his rightful place in heaven. It’s in the midst of this conflict that the wanderer and the Horadrim set out to thwart Lilith’s plans and defend Sanctuary from the inevitable fallout of a foretold prophecy.

The conflict between Lilith and Inarius is grey and ambiguous in nature. Inarius’ goal is to the benefit of humanity, but his actions are driven by a prideful ignorance and want for acknowledgement from the high heavens. Lilith’s plans are portrayed in a similar light, but there’s always an undertone of uncertainty and manipulation whenever she’s stealing the scene on-screen. It’s a more nuanced and intricate take on the never-ending war between heaven and hell that prompts you to read between the lines as opposed to just taking a side.

Character development is similarly engaging when it comes to the Horadrim. Lorath and Donan represent everything wrong with the Horadrim as they tackle personal demons, where newcomer Neyrelle embodies everything the Horadrim are meant to be. Her naivety is sharpened into cautious optimism by the time credits roll, but the dynamic between these three always delivers, even if they don’t come together all too often.

Where the character stuff is mostly great, the pacing of the narrative itself is a bit of a mixed bag. The opening chapters work to lure you into a more grounded version of Sanctuary, with a seemingly innocuous string of events that take a hard left turn into the despair and corruption brought by Lilith’s summoning. Things do slow down quite a bit from there though, with Acts IV and V feeling particularly side-tracked by a game of cat and mouse. These sluggish middle chapters eventually give way to an Act VI that careens towards the finish line, punctuated by one of Blizzard’s hallmark CG cutscenes that really earns its scope and grandeur through subtle tension building.

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Perhaps the most interesting detail in regards to narrative structure is its non-linear progression. Acts II and III, alongside certain quest chains in other acts, can be completed in any order you see fit. If there’s a particular character you want to see more of, or a zone you want to explore, you can do so without hindering progression. Most zones scale to your level, so there’s never any worry of being over/under levelled for a particular area. This also lends tremendously to replay value and character progression, as you can tackle certain dungeons for class specific rewards whenever you feel like it.

I came to appreciate it even further as I explored Sanctuary. This is an open-world packed with stuff to do, from single-room Cellars and multi-floored Dungeons to world events and hidden Altars of Lilith that provide permanent stat bumps to all characters you make on that Realm. Despite some of the content feeling recycled, there’s something around every corner, and not being railroaded into a single zone at a time makes for a refreshing sense of freedom in a genre that typically herds you down its golden path.

While some of the content on offer here can get repetitive after hours of play, there’s always a worthwhile reward to come by the end of it. Everything you do is also earning you reputation for whatever zone that activity is in, with each reward tier offering useful character upgrades, most of which are account-wide. Whether it be loot or playstyle-altering Aspects that can be previewed before you commit to running a dungeon, Diablo IV’s grind respects your time without ever taking away from its inherent satisfaction.

The biggest choice you make when starting a new Diablo game is almost always which class you’re going to descend into hell with first. I spent the majority of my time with Diablo IV’s Rogue. After some experimentation through the ability to respec at any time, I eventually landed on a glass cannon build that incentivized teetering on a knife’s edge, imbuing weapons with shadow damage and hitting enemies with hard and fast barrages of arrows and blades while making ample use of traps.

While I stuck with this core build once I landed on it, it’s remarkable how quickly you can flip a build onto its head and change the entire dynamic of a class. Rogues can go down many different routes, from melee or ranged only, to a hybrid class that makes use of stealth to reposition. Other classes offer a similar level of flexibility, but there are some clear balance issues at the moment that position certain classes as better than others.

Instead of redefining character progression, Diablo IV opts to add new layers of power onto your builds and gear through a few systems. Aside from being inundated with new equipment and gaining skill points each level, Aspects can also be unlocked through various means. Most of these are class specific, but there are a few that are universal. Earned Aspects can be imprinted onto gear to give bonuses that alter or compliment your playstyle. It adds a new layer to gear progression that isn’t as passive as simple stat bonuses, and instead incentivizes you to play around with new skills or build for ones you’ve taken a liking to.

The core gameplay loop will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s played Diablo before. It falls more in line with recent entries as opposed to the more deliberate nature of Diablo II, but that isn’t a detriment. Combat has a visceral flow to it that fits with the overall world and atmosphere Blizzard are looking to establish here in Diablo IV, where bodies ragdoll and rip apart due to the sheer force of your blows. Fallen enemies result in countless loot drops to bolster your character’s power, and the ever satisfying ding of a legendary drop still taps into a primal part of the brain. Aside from being Diablo IV’s highest rarity tier, legendary gear brings playstyle-altering passives and even bonus skill ranks for all manners of play.

A special mention should go to Diablo IV’s boss fights, which are almost always excellently designed, and represent the best of what ARPGs can achieve. I played all of my campaign on World Tier II, which offered challenging boss encounters that forced me to play in a more considered manner as opposed to hammering on my abilities and basic attacks. Dodging projectiles, reading tells, and making smart use of potions all coalesces into exhilarating encounters that kept me on the edge of my seat. Completion of the campaign also allows you to work up to higher World Tiers, further bolstering difficulty with the incentive of increased reward.

The other notable end game content comes in the form of Whispers of the Dead, and Helltides. The former sees you completing favors for The Tree of Whispers in specific zones as you build up to a point cap. These favors are often things you’ll already be doing, like Cellars, Dungeons, and world events. Once you’ve completed enough favors, you can turn in your Whispers for a cache of loot, containing a bunch of armour or weapons, gems, gold, and experience points.

Helltides are only unlocked and present on World Tier III and higher, where empowered demons spawn in a specific region. These demons drop Cinders, which can be spent to open Helltide chests scattered in the area, creating potential for top tier rewards if you’re willing to take the risk. These empowered demons are no walk in the park, but my experience with Helltides prop it up as some of the best content to engage with for high quality gear in the post-game.

Similarly interesting is the Plains of Hatred, which functions as a PvPvE zone. Defeating other players and demons in the Plains of Hatred will net you Seeds of Hatred, which need to be purified into Red Dust to be used as currency. The catch, is that players are free to attack you while you’re purifying, adding an inherent risk/reward factor in the process. You can of course opt to only engage in PvE, but you’ll need to purify at some point, so the Plains of Hatred are best ventured with friends. Earned Red Dust can later be spent on ornamental rewards like cosmetics and mounts.

This is all without discussing Strongholds, Capstone and Nightmare Dungeons, levelling other classes, the myriad of side quests available to you, and so much more. There’s a wealth of content to engage with across all skill levels in Diablo IV at launch, and it’s only going to get bigger with incoming seasonal offerings.

The biggest question mark at the moment lies in Diablo IV’s monetization. Blizzard have been clear that there’s no pay-for-power in Diablo IV, but it remains to be seen how egregious pricing is for the cosmetics and mounts on offer. The press build didn’t have a functioning store to peruse, but the easily accessible and simple transmog system allowed me to tailor the way my characters looked without spending a dime. It’s also worth mentioning that there’s going to be premium battle passes for post-launch seasons, but specific details on this were also absent in the review build.

Diablo IV’s impeccable presentation is the glue that holds this experience together. A more muted color palette stands in stark contrast with Diablo III and Immortal, falling much more in line with the first two games. Catacombs and dungeons are decorated with viscera and gory remnants of battles long past, bodies are posted up in the arid wastes of Khejistan as a grisly warning to adventurers and would-be heroes, and Scosglen’s countless ruins mark the history of its former inhabitants. It goes a long way to building a moody atmosphere and tone in this gothic wasteland.

That isn’t to say that Sanctuary is a landscape of dull greys and limestone yellows – quite the opposite, in fact. Each region offers something visually distinct from the last. Where the frozen Fractured Peaks is a frigid wasteland of cold death, Haweza is festering and humid bog filled with all manner of abominations. Each zone seamlessly blends into the next, all while offering their own interpretations of hell and how it spills over into the land. This is further bolstered by a diverse array of grotesque enemy designs that mix the familiarity of Diablo’s demonic trappings with eldritch horror.

Polish is also unsurprisingly up to snuff for Blizzard standards on the PC side of things. Performance was silky smooth across 30 or so hours of play, with the only real issues I encountered being some rubber banding when moving too fast on a mount. I’m unsure how things are on the console side, but I suspect that a similar standard is upheld.

Diablo IV doesn’t just feel like a return to form for the franchise, but also for Blizzard as a developer. There’s a keen awareness for what makes Diablo special present in Diablo IV. It’s as contemporary as it is traditional, understanding that ARPGs have evolved past the days of button mashing, but also paying homage to its forebears and legacy. It’s not without issues, but Diablo IV delivers where it counts.

The post Diablo IV Review – A Superb Return To Form appeared first on Press Start.

I’m a sucker for a good arcade racer, and even more of a sucker for anything LEGO, so when LEGO 2K Drive was announced I knew I was all in from the get-go, even if I’ve never been a huge fan of developer Visual Concepts usual output – largely the NBA 2K and WWE 2K franchises. Still, I was pinning a lot of my hopes for a worthy successor to the classic LEGO Racers games, and thankfully this has delivered in ways I hadn’t even expected.

Accompanied by the legendary Clutch Racington and his robotic assistant, S.T.U.D., you play LEGO 2K Drive as a voiceless driver of your choosing, on a path to winning the coveted Sky Cup Grand Prix Trophy. The core of the game’s single-player offering is a hefty adventure through four distinct, open zones in pursuit entry into this ultimate race where you’ll find yourself completing quests, earning experience and taking on a series of entertainingly unique rivals across 24 main races – each with their own quirks to contend with on the track. It’s a bold mix of ideas plucked from open-world racers and LEGO platformers where your avatar is less the minifigure behind the wheel and more the brick-built vehicle surrounding it.

Whether it’s burning miniature rubber on the two dozen well-designed tracks or roaming free across the four maps that they exist within, the simple act of driving in LEGO 2K Drive is an absolute joy at all times. No other open-world driving game can boast the kind of freedom that exists here thanks to the combination of transforming vehicles and highly-destructible environments. The roads here are barely more than suggestions, with every point-of-interest a completely straight shot away if you’re creative enough. When you’re not screaming across the map you can just as easily move with the precision of a platformer using the dedicated jump and quick turn buttons, making navigation feel super approachable even for those less familiar with driving games.

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The real feat is that, despite possessing the traversal chops of an open-world action game when the situation calls, the actual act of racing feels as tight and skilled as the best arcade racers out there. Vehicles handle superbly no matter what form they take, with the nuances coming from a combination of how they’re built, the stats they possess and any added perks. Even before factoring in the ability to build new rides from scratch using hundreds of different LEGO pieces, there’s a heap of variety on offer to unlock and custom loadouts let you preset different trios of street, off-road and water vehicles for different situations.

You’ll race across these three different surface types in LEGO 2K Drive, with the game automatically switching you between your three preset vehicles for each situation. It took a hot minute to get used to seeing my ride rebuild itself into another form each time the ground beneath me changed, but it’s genuinely impressive to witness and makes the racing and action feel impressively dynamic. It’s not an understatement to say that the folks at Visual Concepts have nailed how this game feels to play in just about every moment. Even when you’re driving around in a giant hamburger, or some ridiculous creation of your own design that you spent hours building brick-by-brick to look utterly hilarious, it always works and always feels fantastic.

If you want to, you can really hone in on the brick-building aspect as well and carefully craft an arsenal of different builds for every need. Whether it’s gearing your vehicles to be more offensive or defensive in races, or specifically suited to certain types of open-world challenges, LEGO 2K Drive throws up a huge amount of different gameplay scenarios and you can tackle them with as much or as little engineering as you’d like. It’s a perfect match to the fun of LEGO itself, especially so when combined with the fact that your vehicles fall to their individual pieces with damage – and driving through all of the destructible LEGO bits throughout the world adds pieces back on.

It quickly becomes something more akin to an open-world adventure/RPG than a pure driving game, throwing new and more challenging obstacles your way through its series of quests that can be overcome with pure skill or navigated with thoughtful vehicle building. The world itself can even change in ways that affect races, like being rewarded a lawn mower in an optional side quest that can clear out patches of weeds across each map so they’re not in the way during races. There are a handful of “minigame” type main quests that are nowhere near as fun as the regular races and so feel a bit overused by the third time you’ve been forced to do each, but it’s a minor mark on an otherwise excellent 8-10-hour main run of missions.

Completing just the primary stuff still leaves about 80% of the game incomplete though, with LEGO 2K Drive stuffed to the gills with challenges, optional missions and a plethora of collectibles all offering up experience and cash to get even more out of the customisability of your LEGO rides. The primary way to get new drivers, LEGO pieces and vehicle perks is to complete more of the game, but there’s also the ever-present “Unkie’s Emporium” premium store beckoning at every garage stop. Being a 2K title it’s perhaps not surprising, but 2K Drive features an enormous catalogue of drivers, vehicles, LEGO pieces and decorations that can only be purchased using an in-game currency that’s drip-fed for free but buyable in bulk with real cash.

So far, so expected for just about any modern game, and it’s ultimately not all that intrusive on the fun of the game as a whole. This is a full-priced title though, one that’s already being supported by a paid season pass model, and yet a huge chunk of the coolest stuff is locked behind in-game purchases. By the time I’d completed every main and side quest in the game I’d earned enough currency to buy maybe three or four of the roughly 200 items on offer. Some younger players with enough time and patience might be able to grind out the bucks they need to get a good portion of it, but the rest are very likely to succumb to Unkie Monkey’s in-your-face salesmanship, which feels grubby.

[Note: The 2K team has reached out to inform us since this review was published to say that they’ve made some adjustments post-release, significantly increasing the payout of in-game currency from story progression and races. I’d already completed the vast majority of everything in the game by the time these came into effect so it’s difficult to test out how impactful this change is, but it’s worth highlighting that a change has been made.]

Putting the 2K-ness of it all aside, this is still a game built for pure joy, and that never lets up. It’s all superbly put together as well, with a well-realised aesthetic combining the plastic and organic worlds to great effect alongside flawless and fluid performance – at least as far as the PS5 version that I played. It’s easily the best-looking LEGO game that I’ve encountered, and by far one of the best-looking arcade racers around, with huge and detailed environments and massive amounts of LEGO-based destruction. Particularly impressive are the real-time cutscenes that use the same stop-motion style character animations as the excellent LEGO Movie, making me wish that TT Games had adopted something similar for its recent entries.

Oddly, the audio side of things in LEGO 2K Drive is a bit of a mess. I don’t know enough to know if it’s a low bitrate thing – the game’s paltry 8GB download on PS5 might suggest it is – but all of the voice work in the game sounds tinny and awful. It’s not just the sound quality either but the mix itself with volume issues in abundance that ruin the otherwise-great sound effects and mostly-good music. The trademark LEGO humour still manages to shine through though, with gloriously bad puns, visual gags and slapstick comedy in a relentless abundance that kept a stupid grin on my face the entire time.

So there’s a whole lot to love in LEGO 2K Drive, and I’ve not even touched on all of the multiplayer potential with the entire campaign playable in online co-op and all 24 superb races available to play locally or online in single race and cup configurations. It’s a fully-fledged adventure game and a top-notch multiplayer kart racer combined that easily trumps the likes of Mario Kart a run for its money as far as its content offering and variety goes, while also being shockingly competitive when it comes to the quality of the racing itself. This could’ve been a half-bricked grab at the LEGO crowd and still somewhat landed, but instead it’s thoroughly impressed me in just about every way.

The post LEGO 2K Drive Review – A Brickin’ Great Car-PG appeared first on Press Start.

Allan Jeans once famously compared a drawn footy game to “dancing with your sister”. You can put on your best shirt, cut up shapes on the dance floor, but at the end of the night, there’ll be no result. It’s a quote that feels analogous for the latest iteration in the rather niche AFL video game series, which Big Ant Studios returns to after a decade-long absence. It’s flashier than before, it pulls a few more tricks out of the bag, but ultimately feels as hollow as gazing up at a tied-up scoreboard after a two-hour slogfest. 

There’s no denying that AFL, as a sport, is extremely complex. The real players and officials can barely keep up with the ever-expanding laundry list of rule changes year-to-year, so to expect a game developer—on a wafer-thin budget—to realise it 1:1 is pie in the sky stuff. Big Ant Studios developed the first modern AFL game, AFL Live, about a decade ago only for Wicked Witch to take over as custodians from then on.

Although they’ve cut their teeth developing other sporting titles, Big Ant’s return to AFL felt like a coming home story bigger to rival Jason Horne-Francis. Unfortunately, several of the persistent issues to plague these footy games remain, leaving us with yet another product befitting the sport’s niche status.

As Big Ant are still aggressively patching the game to mend its launch issues, I expect that in time many of my gripes will be fixed. Things like errant handballing, missed tackles, and frequent failure to actually deliver on the rules of the sport can all be tweaked and improved as time goes on. I do think there are some fundamental issues with momentum in the game when you turn the ball over against even the weakest of sides, as they seamlessly move the ball coast-to-coast like an unstoppable wave. The skill ceiling and learning curve for AFL 23 are both astronomical for a sports game, but when I look at the opposition move the ball in a way that would otherwise be impossible for the player, it becomes frustrating. 

It also doesn’t appear as though you’re able to implement much strategy to curtail ball movement like this. You can’t control eighteen players at once and there’s no meaningful way to tighten up formations, or instruct players to man-up in dying stages. It’s small omissions like this that makes this game in particular feel a little feature incomplete.

When it’s on your terms, however, the game can feel very satisfying. I think shorter field kicking is the best it has ever been and A.I. teammates always lead into space to make each kick look like a million bucks. Similarly, goalkicking takes on its best form and it’s the one facet of this game that players should immediately be able to pick up and play. The pendulum-style power and accuracy meter is instantly readable in a way many of the sport’s other systems are not, and it’s not like the game has a great tutorial to begin with. 

The entire suite of modes in AFL 23 is rather limited, in all honesty. There’s the bog standard season mode that sees you make your way through the fixture in pursuit of the Holy Grail. The game’s attempt at a management sim is much the same, except you’re charged with list, contract, and recruit management. For those that really like things like SuperCoach and other fantasy leagues, it might scratch an itch, but it’s largely bare bones. While the big leagues are certainly involved, it would appear that state and grassroots teams have been left on the bench this time around, which feels like a sad back step.

In the past, the online modes in AFL games have at least had some form of ladder or ranking system to tie it all together. Not only is that absent here, leaving the multiplayer side of things feeling rather pointless, with only a quick match option on offer, it’s impossible to find a match against.

This is a huge shame as, of the games I’ve played against randoms online, the game feels far more tense and balanced. It might expose shortcomings in the way ruck contests are handled because Max Gawn is effectively cheat codes, but I’ll admit happily I had the most fun with the game when not getting exposed and split open by improbable A.I. Despite its hang-ups elsewhere, latency surprisingly wasn’t a huge drama when it came to online play. 

In terms of presentation, it’s the best a footy game has looked. Of course, the bar has never been that high, but perusing the academy within the game’s menu and admiring the player’s models shows that a level of care has been put in here. A lot of effort has been put in to emulate the broadcast aspects of the game, from pre-game warm ups, the coin toss and the celebratory team song in the rooms after the final siren—they pulled real-life audio to make these as authentic as possible. It’s a shame there’s just no way around the same old stilted, robotic commentary we’ve always been treated to.

I wish more effort was put into bringing the crowd to life, nothing about it feels real. The polygonal cost might exceed a few hundred while the chants and cheers are piped in. To see the top deck of the Melbourne Cricket Ground vacant during the pointy end of September is baffling. 

There also seems to be less avenues for the sharing of user-generated content, most of which would already be the pits. It’s an area that Wicked Witch excelled at nearer the end of their tenure, but it has clearly not been a focus of Big Ant’s. Within the academy you’re able to knock up players, entire clubs, logos and stadiums, but the systems to do so are undercooked and the communal search functions to find something you actually like aren’t great. It might have been a glitch, but there’s no function to preview a piece of content before downloading it—a bare minimum in what is effectively a hub free of quality control. 

It’s probably never a promising sign when the minor, somewhat forgivable bugs become almost an unintended marketing beat for the game at launch. Things like the model for the head coach appearing as the goal umpire and the physics-defying “90m handball” have been everywhere, and it just speaks to a product that needed a little more time. Of course, releasing a game like this is never easy, especially in conjunction with the actual ongoing footy season, but you’d hope future patches to not only sharpen up this particular title but firm up the foundation for next year’s—if it happens.

With things like the Legends roster and Pro Teams to come, time is fortunately on Big Ant’s side to keep refining the experience for players. What’s there is good, but it’s light on many features that make it a fuller product. It’s a long season though and premierships aren’t won in May.

The post AFL 23 Review – Like Dancing With Your Sister appeared first on Press Start.

Strayed Lights is a game that came out of nowhere to land on my radar, but it landed hard. I’m a massive sucker for a simple, stylish indie adventure that can be blown over in an afternoon and straight out of the gate I can tell you that this game has all that and then some.

French studio Embers’ first outing casts players as a being born of light, taking them on a journey from birth to ascendance in a dreamlike world where they’ll need to battle their inner demons to bring about peace and a balance of energy. It’s a wordless and esoteric narrative that, at least as far as my own experience goes, serves primarily to offer up a cool-looking world and contextualise some inventive and exciting combat mechanics.

As you make your way through this mysterious world, split into two hubs of interconnected biomes, you’ll happen across its less-than-friendly denizens. Rather than a traditional blow-by-blow combat system, Strayed Lights’ is one of an exchanging of energies. You can certainly take swipes at them, but the true tactic is to carefully party every blow they send your way until you’ve successfully absorbed all of their energy meter into your own, at which point you can end things at the touch of a button.

The added complexity in all this is a colour-based system that rewards you for switching the ethereal glow of your body between orange or blue to match that of your enemy at the moment of parry. Parrying as the correct colour is how you’ll successfully absorb energy (and regain health) while getting the timing right but the colour wrong will still negate any damage but without the other benefits. It’s simple enough but deceptively engaging, as you’re not only learning each enemy type’s attack patterns but memorising which colour they’ll be at key points in their combos, including a third, purple colour signifying an unblockable attack that you’ll need to dodge instead.

This comes together wonderfully during the game’s marquee boss battles, which up the scale of your foes significantly while giving them unique extra mechanics to contend with. These are unanimously great fights that feel increasingly satisfying as you hone your partying and dodging skills against the regular enemies in the lead-up. There aren’t all that many encounters across the game’s four-hour runtime, maybe a dozen for each of the major areas, making them all feel like crucial steps in your journey.

The one concern I do have with Strayed Lights’ otherwise-commendable take on enemy encounters is that there’s a bit of built-in exclusion that comes from the colour aspect. With no settings to tweak how these are displayed or alternative method of delivering the information needed, those who struggle with colour vision could find themselves at a huge disadvantage, doubly so given there are no difficulty settings to speak of either.

Outside of combat, Strayed Lights’ loose exploration serves well enough as a stroll through its oneiric landscapes. There are some collectibles to be found off the beaten path that add towards character progression, and a smattering of abilities to upgrade as you go, but it’s otherwise fairly basic stuff. The positive there is it makes this an easy game to slip into and vibe with minimal interruption, and it keeps things nice and succinct. Upon finishing the game I was a little stung to find that it’s not possible to go back to the pre-climax state and search out anything I missed along the way – the game simply throws players back to the main menu with only “New Game” as an option to dive back in.

I’d happily take the plunge again though, not least because Strayed Lights is a beautiful experience. From the breathtaking environments and their abstract-but-endearing inhabitants to the awe inspiring boss designs and anime-as-hell set pieces tussles you’ll have with them, this is a very handsome title indeed. The music, dreamt up by Austin Wintory (Journey, ABZÛ), is equally gorgeous even if the games overall audio mix is a bit dull throughout.

It’s not out to shake up the indie video game space, but thanks to a uniquely engaging combat system and a consistent stream of wonderous sights and sounds, Strayed Lights is a worthwhile little journey that makes for a great lazy afternoon play. It’s unfortunate that the user experience has suffered an oversight or two, especially in areas of accessibility, but mainly because it’s a quiet gem of a game that absolutely deserves to be played.

The post Strayed Lights Mini Review – Colour Me Impressed appeared first on Press Start.

It’s finally here. Almost a decade after its announcement and changing developers no less than three times, Dead Island 2 beats all odds. Having spent so long in development, I’d wondered if it could best the original game. It does in many ways, but it still feels like it came out of the same era of games, for better or for worse.

Dead Island 2 occurs a few months after the original game’s events. An infection has found its way to the sunny state of California, infecting everyone there and turning them into grotesque zombies and monsters. You play as one of six survivors whose plane crashes while trying to escape the quarantine zone. You’re eventually bitten, discover that you’re immune, and begin your journey, meeting up with survivors to plot your escape. It’s a done-to-death story but simple enough that it carries the action well.

As I mentioned in my preview last month, Dead Island 2 is most certainly going for a more tongue-in-cheek approach with its storytelling, for the most part. The game is loaded with humour and comedy that will land differently with different people, poking fun at the most vacuous of celebrity culture. The plot is serviceable at the most basic level but introduces a few mysteries about halfway through that aren’t entirely resolved when the credits roll. Perhaps this is the beginning of a new thread of stories for a sequel to deal with or even some hooks for DLC. Regardless, it’s incredibly simplistic.

Similarly, Dead Island 2 plays like almost no time has passed since the original was released over a decade ago. Like nearly anything that’s come before it, you’ll be thrown into California to complete optional side quests, quests that advance the plot or find weapons hidden by people throughout the map. It’s a typical open-world experience that anyone who’s played a Dead Island, Borderlands or Dying Light game will be familiar with. It’s a tried and true formula, but it’s not breaking much new ground.

One point of difference that Dead Island 2 is determined to make is that you can choose a playable character from a roster of six. Each of these characters has different strengths and weaknesses to suit your playstyle. But it ultimately doesn’t mean much. One, for example, boosts damage to enemies that aren’t surrounded by other enemies. This situation rarely happens in Dead Island 2. Another can create an explosive effect when hitting an enemy with a type of attack. The same effect can be stacked on weapons as you progress through the story. These innate skills are only meaningful in the opening moments of the game.

Every character has their own dialogue and personality too, but your character’s lines are chopped and changed around the dialogue of NPCs so that it rarely sounds like two people are in a room having a conversation. It removes so much from the story’s presentation, which was already lacking that I can’t help but feel like pulling them all together would’ve helped serve the story better.

But it’s not all bad. The FLESH system helps to make the combat much more satisfying than it has any right to be. It stands for Fully Location Evisceration System for Humanoids, and it’s a system that offers greater realism in how you rip, burn or tear your zombies apart. Every zombie you attack in Dead Island 2 will react differently and realistically to whatever weapon you’re using.

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It’s a system that, in real time, is pretty impressive. Constantly hitting a zombie with a blunt weapon will see bones dent, crack and break. Slashing with a bladed weapon will separate the skin from muscle until you’re hitting bone. Attacking joints in a zombie’s leg will drop them to the floor. It’s a macabre system separating Dead Island 2 from those that came before it, even if its addition to the game is mainly cosmetic.

Another aspect unique to Dead Island 2 is the reliance on a card system rather than a traditional skill tree. These cards are decorated with some pretty gnarly artwork. They are given as rewards for completing certain challenges or through story progression. You can equip any combination to best create your perfect build – like giving your character an evade or a block. Others heal you when hitting a zombie with a heavy attack or boosting your damage after a successful block. There are over fifty cards to mix and match to suit your playstyle, a degree of flexibility that I appreciate more than a skill tree with respec.

A crafting system allows you to add certain elemental traits to your weapons too. Certain enemies are weaker to certain elements, but it adds a very satisfying tinge to the already satisfying combat. Hitting enemies with a spray of acidic bullets and watching their skin melt away down to bone is a fun, if not slightly disturbing sight. Similarly, hitting a zombie with an electrically charged weapon will fry them but also arc out electricity to enemies around them. In a body of water? The effect is amplified. It’s a fun little system that was a joy to engage with in a genre that usually has me rolling my eyes at crafting.

Depending on how much you engage with optional content, most players will get around fifteen to twenty hours out of Dead Island 2. Whether you’ll want to is another matter entirely, though co-op certainly helps make things a lot more fun, though the lack of any crossplay options in today’s climate feels like a miss. Despite there being multiple characters, too, there’s no reason to play through the game more than once as the plot progresses in the same way. While I’m not quite at the point of finishing the entirety of the game’s side quests, I’d estimate most players would get at least thirty hours out of finishing everything.

But I will warn you – Dead Island 2 is repetitive. So many objectives will have you heading to an item to activate, realising the item needs power to work, and then fighting off hordes of zombies while you wait for the power to be restored. You’ll reattach a valve to a pipe multiple times and turn it to access a new area. It’s, once again, bound to be an experience only saved by the funny interactions you have with zombies as you complete these objectives, but they’re still repetitive as ever.

In terms of presentation, Dead Island 2 hands in a decent performance. California as a setting is beautiful and almost genius or a game of this ilk. From the sweeping hillside neighbourhoods of Bel-Air to the sunny sands of Venice Beach, Dead Island 2 successfully captures a sense of paradise like Banoi in Dead Island before it, just a different type of paradise. It’s an immaculately realised setting I can’t find much fault with. Some visual glitches led to limbs dancing long after the zombie they were attached to had perished, but this only added to the comedy. Intentional or not.

Despite its shortcomings, I still had fun with Dead Island 2. It should grow old quickly on paper, but even playing by myself, I never tired of destroying countless hordes of zombies in exciting and varied ways. It’s by no means a perfect sequel, but it does a great job of channelling the spirit of the original, regardless.

The post Dead Island 2 Review – Trouble In Paradise appeared first on Press Start.

With the inherent success of Minecraft, we were always going to get plenty of spin-offs of all kinds that explore a diverse array of genres and experiences within the IP. 2015’s Minecraft: Story Mode and 2020’s Minecraft Dungeons have marked the beginning of this with varying levels of success, but there’s no denying their originality in comparison with vanilla Minecraft. The next title in this slew of spin-offs is Minecraft Legends, a self-described action strategy game that’s most comparable to the Dragon Quest Builders series, with a unique Minecraft flavor.

After my brief hands-on preview with the game in Tokyo, I mentioned that I’d had a good time with Legends, despite being worried about game length and how it would keep things fresh throughout its runtime, and that my brief hands-on with the multiplayer mode was a blast. After spending much more time with both of these modes, it’s clear that the preview I played had barely scratched the surface of what Legends has to offer. The end result is the best Minecraft spin-off yet that, despite some niggling issues, offers a satisfying and moreish gameplay loop and an intensely engaging versus mode.

The narrative here is about as deep as you’d expect from a Minecraft experience, but it is positively bursting at the seams with the charm the IP is known for. A dangerous threat from the Nether known as the Piglins have been spilling over into the overworld with plans of conquest and domination. Their bases poison the natural landscape with noxious gasses and Netherrack creeps further out as more Piglins pour in from protected Nether Portals found within each bastion. It falls to you to expunge the Piglin threat and send the three distinct factions back to the Nether.

Overall, it’s a feel-good narrative that employs plenty of slapstick humor and Minecraft trademarks to get you onboard. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t chuckle at a few of the visual gags, and the cutscenes on offer here have incredibly high production values that expand the sense of scope within Legends and mythos of Minecraft. It’s ultimately a good time, one that kids will likely get more of a kick out of, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing here for older fans.

Gameplay is where Minecraft Legends differs the most from its source material, offering the same core tenets of mining and crafting, in an entirely different format. Everything you do in Minecraft Legends comes back to the Allays, which are your main tool for gathering materials and building structures. A quick button combination can send these little guys out to harvest resources like wood, stone, coal, and more. Gathered materials can then be used by Builder Allays to form structures, mechanisms, and much more.

It’s a more passive way to engage with what’s effectively the core loop of Minecraft, but this is only to make room for all the extra stuff Legends brings with it. It’s through the gathering and utilization of these resources that you can push back the Piglin threat. From setting up defences around liberated villages to constructing a Redstone Launcher to blow open the gates of a Piglin base, everything eventually comes back to mining and building.

This core loop of gathering resources in order to bolster your own defensive and offensive capabilities is incredibly moreish. Where flexibility isn’t afforded in the structures you create, it is in the way you place them, the way they interact with each other, and in the way you pick and choose how best to use certain materials when trying to overthrow a particularly difficult Piglin base. It helps greatly that there’s an immense variety of things to build here that steadily unlock over the course of the campaign, constantly offering up new strategies and game plans to employ against the Piglins.

Your main method of siege comes in the form of Golems. These little guys can be amassed from crafted spawners, and brought along with you to tackle Piglin outposts. Each one specializes in different abilities, from healing and de-buff cleansing to stunning enemies or bringing down structures. You have to consider what kinds of Golems you want to bring with you on a siege given the obstacles, and that’s without talking about the ability to employ hallmark mobs.

Creepers, Skeletons, and Zombies are here in full force, united against the Piglin threat. You can also spawn these mobs alongside Golems, each one costing a little bit more in terms of resources in trade-off for extra power. The Skeletons, for example, excel at ranged combat and taking out enemy units, where Creepers make incredibly short work of enemy structures, making them useful in a pinch if you need a last ditch assault to bring down a Piglin base. While your army is initially limited to a total of 20 units, you can expand that number further, and simple commands can be issued in combat to have them focus on particular enemies or structures.

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Clearing Piglin outposts and liberating villages rewards you with Prismarine, a resource that’s key to upgrading your capabilities, resource capacity, and total army count. Prismarine is doled out often enough that there’s always something new to invest in upon returning to the Well of Fate, which almost always leads to meaningful player progression. It’ll have you constantly eyeing your Prismarine count so you know when you can get your next upgrade.

The general flow and progression of the campaign is also something I really enjoyed. After a brief tutorial and some opening objectives to get you to grips with the many systems of Minecraft Legends, you’re let loose to tackle the Piglin threat as you see fit. Three unique factions have setup three bases throughout the overworld, each one varying in difficulty and rewards. You’re encouraged to tackle the easy ones first, but there’s nothing stopping you from knocking on the doors of the most fortified of forts if you really want the challenge.

It’s this non-linear structure in combination with some extra-curricular open world activities that makes Legends so easy to play. You’ll stumble across mob outposts that have been taken over by Piglins, abandoned towers that can be deconstructed and tucked away for later use, and huge golems that’ll join you in your fight should they be resurrected. There’s always incentive and reward to explore outside of just gathering resources.

It comes to a head when all three of a faction’s bastions have been felled, and one final outpost makes itself known. These provide some of the best strategy Minecraft Legends has to offer, and are punctuated with explosive boss fights that test every skill you’ve learned during the campaign. It makes for a solid difficulty curve if you tackle bases in the right order, though I’m sure you can circumvent that order with some cheeky tactics and ample use of the game’s more powerful structures and minions.

Another thing to consider is the way that Piglins will launch attacks on allied villages when night falls, incentivizing you to build up defences around each one once liberated. You’re always warned in advance which village is going to be attacked, and it’s rewarding to see all your efforts pay off when a village successfully pushes back the Piglins without your help. One irk I had with this, though, is that if a village does fall, you have to retake it from the Piglins, which got tiresome in the second half of the game, especially when it means rebuilding defences.

While the campaign mode is able to be played in co-op, where I think Minecraft Legends is really going to take off, is in its versus mode. It’s a simple 4 versus 4 affair with either team trying to siege the other’s base and destroy their Fountain. All of the systems from the campaign are intact here, from Prismarine progression and Piglin outposts to resource harvesting – it’s all here in full force, and is of great importance.

While you could absolutely band together and launch an all out assault on the enemy base, there’s just as much value in spending time gathering resources and Prismarine to gain access to more structures. I can’t begin to fathom the kinds of long-winded matches that will come out of this mode once players jump into it. It has a MOBA-esque quality to it that instils an inherent tension in the experience, and it’s easily some of the most fun I’ve had with Minecraft Legends so far. While it’s a great time with friends, the mode does struggle with the inherent limited communication brought by matchmade games, as a lot of the enjoyment comes from planning and collaborating with allies.

As mentioned in my hands-on preview, everyone knows what they’re getting into when it comes to the visual presentation of anything related to Minecraft. Legends doesn’t shock or surprise in this regard, offering a tried-and-true art style that’s bolstered by a diverse range of biomes and some snazzy particle effects that tie the whole experience together. There’s plenty of new stuff to see here in the broad scope of Minecraft and the game always looks great, but don’t expect Legends to reinvent the wheel in this regard.

Performance on PC is similarly reliable, and I experienced very few technical issues aside from one notable audio bug. I’m not sure if it was something to do with the mixing, but some sound effects and dialogue lines were extremely quiet during my time with the game. This made it hard to get properly invested in cutscenes and did create a bit of a disconnect in battle as my sword swipes didn’t yield much feedback. It wasn’t enough to rip me out of the experience entirely, but the absence is notable enough to mention it here.

I’ve come away from my time with Minecraft Legends pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The campaign is a tightly paced jaunt through a new Minecraft experience that doesn’t outstay its welcome and offers a fresh spin on the strategy genre with a distinct Minecraft flavour. Despite having my fill of the campaign, I have no doubt I’ll be returning to Legends over the coming months to play its outrageously fun versus mode with friends, and I can’t recommend enough that you check it out to do the same.

The post Minecraft Legends Review – Building A New Kind of Strategy appeared first on Press Start.

Citizen Sleeper was, and still remains, one of my favourite releases of last year. It had one glaring problem though, at least on a personal level – it wasn’t available on PlayStation. My patience in waiting for all three of its free DLC episodes to launch before diving back into the game has paid off though, with the release of the final episode, Purge, coinciding with the game’s debut on PS5 and PS4.

I’m going to abstain from re-explaining what Citizen Sleeper is – you can read my full review of the game’s original release right underneath this write-up – and speak strictly to the new stuff, namely the PlayStation release and the full run of story DLC.

The long and short of it all is this; If you’re a PlayStation player and haven’t played Citizen Sleeper yet, please do. It’s an intoxicating mix of sci-fi flavoured capitalism critique aboard a diverse and characterful space station, tabletop mechanics, time management and branching narrative that’s deceptively simple with a powerful mechanical underbelly. There’s not much to say about the game’s port to PS5 and PS4 specifically, it’s by and large the same game available on other platforms, but it’s (hopefully) a whole new community of players given the chance to experience this indie masterpiece.

Returning as someone who’d played the game on another platform, I did find Citizen Sleeper a lot less daunting this time around, and felt a lot more confident in my ability to establish myself on the Eye and game its systems to pull myself out of poverty. I’m not sure that’s the right angle of attack for this game, but I kind of appreciated it.

The other side of the coin here, of course, is the availability of the three episodes making up Citizen Sleeper’s DLC sequence, which sees players navigate a spot of turmoil as a flotilla of interstellar refugees arrives at Erlin’s Eye, the station’s proprietors at Havenage unwilling to take a few thousand new souls into the already-struggling ecosystem. This trio of chapters arrives toward Citizen Sleeper’s “late game” with a simple item exchange requiring some degree of progress acting as a gate to entry, and definitely brought me back down to Earth (heh) when it came to my confidence as a veteran Sleeper.

The first episode, titled Flux, introduces players to Eshe and Peake, two new arrivals along with the refugee ships that act as a catalyst of sorts for the player, as the titular Sleeper, to understand that the plights of these people mirror much of your own. It’s an interesting shift in perspective after having worked and scraped and sacrificed everything to make a place for yourself on the Eye, only for thousands more to arrive looking to you to help them do the same. This 1-2 hour first chapter is a stressful one too, giving players a tight window of time to achieve quite a few tasks to make sneaking the refugee ships through quarantine and onto the Eye possible.

The next episode, Refuge, turns the attention to the flotilla itself and the three subgroups of people aboard its ships. Hailing from three different moons of a larger, inhabited planet, these groups have come from a three-way political tension to wind up displaced in unison. Thus, most of this episode focuses on getting to know each of the groups’ leaders and the individual needs of their crews to establish some degree of understanding. It’s a far more relaxed and text-heavy chapter, with plenty of new and well-written characters to get to know.

The final of these DLC episodes, Purge, is a special one and it’d be remiss of me to spoil just about any of it, suffice to say the tension and time critical panic of Flux returns here, and culminates in a hell of an ending, using all of the groundwork and character building established in the previous two episodes to great effect and tying up a bundle of threads from the base game in the process. I came away feeling the best I’ve felt about any of Citizen Sleeper’s prior possible resolutions, and I would absolutely urge anyone that’s played the main story portion to come back and play through all three new episodes.

Read my full review of the game’s original release below:

It was right around the point that I made the choice to go foraging for rare mushrooms over helping a stranded father and daughter get their one shot at a fresh start, that I realised Citizen Sleeper had made an arsehole out of me. I don’t know what it is about tabletop or tabletop-like games that does it, perhaps it’s the combination of high stakes and low odds that triggers a certain response, but I wind up looking out for me and myself alone. The dozens of names and faces aboard the doomed company-town-on-a-space-station-turned-intergalactic-refuge, Erlin’s Eye, became little more than stepping stones on my path to freedom but now that I’m on the outside I can’t say I care to look back in.

How did we get here, though? That’s the blank chapter in Citizen Sleeper’s slice-of-life narrative that you’ll be filling in. This bold new title from In Other Waters developer Jump Over The Age (Gareth Damien Martin) casts you as a ‘Sleeper’, a digital copy of a human consciousness in an artificial body, that has escaped the clutches of corporate ownership and found themselves aboard the Eye without so much as a plan to hang onto life let alone start a new one. Thanks to a built-in planned obsolescence, time is ticking before your physical form falls apart and so every moment and every decision counts as you explore the station, make allies and enemies and do what you must to survive, thrive or leave alive.

To say I fell in love with the world this game presents would be an understatement – I’m obsessed. Here’s a genuine sci-fi adventure game packed with intrigue, drama and challenge, but one that eschews putting a stick in your hand in favour of putting the world in your mind. Or is it your mind in the world? Citizen Sleeper tackles the heady subject matter of the coalescence of biological and synthetic life and the blurring of the lines between nature and data. Then it imagines how we might fuck even that up in the name of greed, putting your synthetic arse to work for scraps in the shell of a corporate space station like the data-digging equivalent of a hard-rock miner in a company town.

All of this is put together through the lens of a tabletop RPG, the world around you barely more than a top-down map of Erlin’s Eye adorned with icons representing places, people and tasks. The game plays out in Cycles that represent the passage of time – within a Cycle, you’re able to explore the Eye and take various actions, most of which require a roll of a dice to perform and determine their level of success. The number of dice you have at your disposal each Cycle depends on the current condition of your physical form, which degrades as your progress time and also as a result of work done. You’ll be able to take measures to ensure your energy levels stay high and your condition gets better before it gets worse, but it’s a careful balancing act between keeping yourself alive and using your time constructively.

The actions you’ll take aboard the Eye, things like undertaking work in a scrapyard, extracting data from terminals or navigating tricky social interactions, are all means to fulfil your Drives. Drives are your goals, they unlock as you meet new people and uncover new mysteries and they’re what will eventually see your story through to some kind of conclusion. Some can be treated with a certain degree of leisure, but others are at the mercy of Clocks – meters that count up as you perform certain actions or simply as Cycles pass. Between trying to achieve your Drives and manage the various Clocks around Erline’s Eye it almost feels like juggling pins and spinning plates at the same time. The juggling part is fine on its own, but those plates are a constant, looming threat to your ability to keep the pins up in the air. Also some of the plates will cause intergalactic bounty hunters to come and shoot you in the face if they stop spinning.

The result though is a game that hinges on two things – hard choices and bold risks. Not only will you need to gripe with your own time management, forethought and conscience when deciding what to focus your limited efforts on each Cycle, but even once you’ve formulated a plan there’s an element of chance that can completely undo everything. Actions that work on a dice roll can have positive, neutral or negative outcomes that are dictated by both the value of the dice you choose to play for it and your character’s own affinities. At the beginning of the game you’ll be asked to choose one of three classes with their own stats and unique buffs that can then be augmented with upgrade points earned from completing Drives.

The way that all of these different systems interweave and feed into the vast many narrative possibilities is an incredibly slick feat of design, especially once you get over the initial sense of being overwhelmed by them and start to understand how to focus on the outcomes you genuinely want to see. After that it’s just a matter of praying things work out – if you’re anything like me trying to leverage my Interface skill to score a job on a colony ship as a Junior Tech you’ll learn that part the hard way. It can all be quite stressful initially, but also just forgiving enough in the early hours that your failings feel more like new forks on your road to success than genuine disasters.

Citizen Sleeper is also a game that feels genuinely replayable. It can easily be finished in around five hours or less if you can stomach leaving friends, enemies and answers behind for a quick getaway. Or you can push yourself, play the long game, explore deeper and deeper into the Eye and seek out everything the game has to offer. Luckily, finishing the game creates a return point right beforehand so you can easily go back and forge an alternate path ahead should you want to, but it’s just as rewarding to start completely fresh and see how differently it can all go.

Life aboard Erlin’s Eye is presented with a clean and stylish aesthetic that works far harder than its combination of mostly static environments and text-based narrative would imply. For starters, the character portraits from acclaimed comic book artist Guillaume Singelin that accompany story beats are gorgeous and add incredible dimension to the game’s already-fantastic writing. When it kicks in, the game’s soundtrack from returning composer Amos Roddy swings deftly between ‘illicit underground fetish club in the year 2090’ and ‘metaphysical contemplations on a Korg MS20’ and it honestly slaps fucking ass. For a game where the most important bits are delivered mostly in text and numbers, Citizen Sleeper is an absolute vibe

The post Citizen Sleeper (Complete) Review – A Sleeper Hit Made Even Better appeared first on Press Start.

If a game offers a fishing mini-game, I tend to seek it out. Ever since Ocarina of Time introduced me to the concept of the trophy catch, games have been a convenient avenue to take part in a pastime I’ve never gravitated towards despite my late-grandad’s wishes. The exception is Dredge. It’s all fishing and dragging the waters in search of secrets that lurk in the undercurrent. And quite frankly, it’s a bloody riveting video game. 

Something that’s inevitable every calendar year is the handful of independent games that come as if from nowhere and ultimately feature heavily during end-year commendations. Celeste, Hades, Disco Elysium, and even last year’s Cult of the Lamb. All of these went on to transform the teams behind them into household names overnight.

I feel that Dredge has that special something that might see it cause ripples for the team at Black Salt Games across the pond in New Zealand.

Dredge is a pretty simple sell in terms of its darkly spun story, as you’re cast ashore by a fierce storm and come to capsize in the quaint, seaside village of Greater Marrow, the nucleus in this particular archipelago. You trade favours for a replacement vessel to get your sea legs back under you, only to discover the islands—as well as those who dwell there mostly in isolation—harbour some twisted, nasty surprises.

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One way you pick yourself up by your bootstraps is to ply your trade as a fisherman, collecting all manner of ocean life and selling it back to the town fishmonger for the right price, throughout your travels you’ll be able to dredge the sea floor for both trinkets and salvageable materials that, in turn, can be used to refine your boat like the Ship of Theseus—until its every part, from the lantern to trawl net, is better than before. There are several little systems at play that all interlink to make Dredge a surprisingly complete, and fun, fishing game. 

Rather than struggling against a tense line by mashing buttons, fishing in Dredge is a mostly peaceful test of timing. Depending on the magnitude of the catch, you’ll either deal with up to a couple of spinning rings with broken paths that you’ll hop between or a singular ring peppered with prompts to speed up the angling. Time is of the essence after all, as the clock ticks over quicker when you’re luring a shoal and you don’t want to get caught out at night—at least at first. 

Another of the game’s mild challenges come with its Resident Evil-like inventory management. Everything consumes space, from your boat’s components—although they become more compact the more you spend on refinements—to the fish you haul in. It’s a game within a game as each catch has a peculiar shape, it almost becomes a game of Tetris trying to wedge that last cod onboard. 

Whether it’s recovering mysterious artefacts for an enigmatic “collector” or assembling a mortar to help a marooned pilot, you’re given a lot of varied objectives to keep you occupied throughout the game’s ten hour story. Dredge’s showpiece, however, is absolutely the fishing. Mastering the day and night conditions and acquiring the perfect equipment depending on where you’re dropping a line are two key pieces of the puzzle when it comes to filling out your journal like it’s a National Geographic guide for the cruellest of seas. 

I’m delighted at just how much Dredge feels like a Pokémon game at times, and how much joy I felt trying to catch them all.

Aside from the regular cod, mackerel, eels, and sharks, nightfall brings a particularly macabre twist as aberrations of these fish are pulled up from the briny depths. I kind of see this as the Dredge equivalent of shiny Pokémon, even if they’re eye-catching in a different way. Slick with grime rather than a glittering sheen, the distorted monstrosities are the prize catches that’ll net you both renown and a handsome payday.

Nighttime fishing is a perilous endeavour however, as the untameable beasts of the deep tend to wreak havoc if you stay out after sundown. This is wonderfully juxtaposed by how peaceful fishing can be under the safeguard of the sun’s rays, although the tension and danger is ultimately undercut by the game’s end as you’re granted protection spells from the aforementioned “collector” that’ll let you temporarily ward off any danger, overload the boat’s engines with a burst of speed, or even simply instantly transmit yourself back to the safety of his manor-side dock.

In certain areas of the archipelago, these spells are a must. Frustratingly, and perhaps it’s an effort to not directly gate progress, if you find yourself in the Twisted Strand early on, you’ll quickly find it was a journey wasted—and it is a good day’s trip with an undercooked vessel. It’s commendable that the entire map is open from the jump, but discovering through sheer trial and error that the road through lies elsewhere can be a drag.

Dredge’s presentation is absolutely lovely, from its simple and readable UI to the game’s positively eldritch art direction that truly encapsulates the sinister scariness of the unknown that comes with a vast, open ocean. While it is a strong direction, certain things are clearly hampered by a shoestring budget—although none ultimately hamper the fun.

Character’s avatars are voiceless drawn stills and the comical animation of the truck-sized angler fish that can wreck your boat undercuts the terror to a degree, but it matters not when you’re teetering on sanity’s edge after a dangerous, sleepless night at sea and your mind plays spectacular tricks on you. Beautiful waves of light dance atop the still water, stunningly destructive whirlwinds blow through, and woes of fog cover cause jagged rocks to appear out of nowhere.

Dredge is a fresh take on the collect ‘em all trope and I particularly adore its eldritch dressing. I’m one who’s particularly petrified of the unknown, with the ocean and outer space being specific triggers of this in different ways. While not as infinitely vast as space, a fine case for the crushing scariness of the ocean is made by Dredge and you’ll long for the warm-glowing lantern, dangling like a beacon for safety on the dock in the distance.

Dredge will be a contender this year. And that’s not limited to the indie scene either, as I expect it’ll make waves and be Game of the Year bait in its own right.

Dredge is out on March 30th for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch and PC.

The post Dredge Review – A Trophy Catch appeared first on Press Start.

Last year’s complete revamp of the WWE 2K series was a much-needed breath of fresh air, receiving a proper rebuild from top to bottom. In WWE 2K23, Visual Concepts has smartly tinkered with what made 2K22 so good, improving the game in key areas where it needed small but necessary improvements. Because of this, 2K23 is more about slight reinvention than it is complete revolution. That’s not a bad thing, though, as WWE 2K23 is more of what made last year’s game so damn good, and then some. 

Those who have played 2K22 will feel right at home when they fire up this year’s entry. Tweaks and refinements have been made to general gameplay – such as using your momentum meter for signatures and other ring antics, like possum pins and payback moves – alongside the addition of the excellent WarGames match type.

WarGames pits two teams of three or four against one another in two rings side by side. As expected, this immediately transcends into pure chaos, but the moment-to-moment action is stupidly enjoyable. Memorable moments arrive in spades thanks to the sheer amount of action going at one time, which is further made apparent when you take the action online and against friends (or rivals). While some connection issues hampered the fun online, it’s still silly, hilarious fun that is a welcome addition to the plethora of content already available in 2K23. 

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Aside from the sheer chaos of WarGames, the mode works because 2K23 controls excellently and looks great. Whether you’re a newbie, haven’t played a WWE game in a while or are a returning veteran of the series, the game caters for you and your skill level. And I can confidently say I’ve had more fun with this year’s entry than I have with any other wrestling game in over a decade. Whether it was performing something ludicrous off the stage ramp or hitting a perfect set of finishers to end a tough match, there was always something that captured my attention and made me smile. This also translated to the myriad of silly glitches I encountered throughout my time with the game, which were never too game-breaking to completely kill my enjoyment but certainly reared their head a little too much for my liking.

John Cena is the focus of this year’s Showcase mode, and I enjoyed my time with it. I particularly enjoyed the focus on Cena’s biggest losses rather than his victories, from his debut against Kurt Angle to getting properly dismantled by the Undertaker at Wrestlemania 34. Cena’s commentary provides some fascinating insight into his preparation behind these key matches, though there’s just not enough of it. This, combined with a lot of dead air during each match (thanks to the fact there’s no commentary, which is substituted for some truly awful b-tier rock music), makes for a fairly subpar experience on the presentation side of Showcase.

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That said, by taking control of Cena’s opponents throughout the years – following objectives and watching footage spliced in with gameplay as the match plays out – you’re never really doing the same thing twice, which was an annoyance of mine from last year’s Showcase mode. A lot of the matches have different opponents, meaning you’re rarely playing as a superstar more than once. This adds a decent amount of variety to the mode and kept me interested throughout, and while it was short (at around 2-3 hours) it was a nice trip down memory lane. 

If you’re sick of beating up John Cena, MyRise offers two stories to play through in 2K23 with a created superstar. Both are generally pretty enjoyable to venture through, giving you a handful of choices to make that slightly alter the story and encourage some replayability, while doling out some of the most cringe-worthy dialogue you’ll hear in a game this year. It’s not all that bad, but there was a certain point during The Lock’s story where I really began to hate my own character for being such a whiny brat. That said, I did enjoy the superstar cameos and variety of matches thrown my way during each story. 

A major gripe I had with MyRise were the loading screens, however. Loading screens were so consistent that I was constantly pulled out of any bit of immersion I’d had with the story. 2K23 is plagued with loading screens in general, but the issue really comes to a head when playing MyRise thanks to the consistency of them – whether you’re going between cutscenes or wanting to change your character’s entrance, moveset or look. They’re everywhere, and it was incredibly bothersome.

MyGM, 2K22’s flagship mode that puts you in the role of a GM competing with the other WWE brands, returns this year with some well-needed tweaks. You can now compete over the course of multiple seasons against up to three other players (whether that’s via local play or against AI), giving the mode some much needed longevity. It’s an absolute blast to play, too, though I do wish I was able to play against mates online in a sort of Mario Party-style format, as it seems almost geared for that. 

Even so, MyGM has been one of my favourite modes to jump into across both 2K22 and 2K23, and the addition of Hall of Fame and seasonal challenges, new match types and new GMs to pick from has made the mode a heck of a lot better. It’s a massive improvement over last year.

WWE 2K23’s Universe mode is the best it’s been in many years, too, giving players an unparalleled level of freedom to customise the WWE universe to their heart’s content. Whether you want to create dream rivalries and scenarios or bring in created wrestlers, shows, arenas or championships to spice things up, it’s entirely up to you. Both the manager and superstar modes in Universe mode impressed me with the amount of customisability on offer – there’s just so much to do and involve yourself in.

On the topic of customisability, the creation suite on offer in WWE 2K23 is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a sports game. Returning customisation options, like the ability to create shows, arenas, championships and the like are great, however the welcome return of advanced entrance customisation options gives players an unparalleled level of freedom. There’s truly so much room for experimentation here that I felt constantly overwhelmed with the options at hand. Community creations have already blown my mind during release week, whether they’re bringing old wrestlers back into the game or creating brand new ones, and that’s a testament to the options available.

The most disappointing part of 2K23 continues to be its MyFACTION mode, which sees little improvement this year. Much like last year, the mode did very little to entice me to play when every other mode was more enjoyable, rewarding and fun to work through. The rewards in MyFACTION are relatively meagre and it can feel like a slog at the best of times, making for the weakest mode of the lot by a decent margin.

Even with some minor disappointments and some of the most frustrating load times in a current-gen game I’ve experienced, I’ve had an absolute blast with WWE 2K23. It continues Visual Concepts’ upwards trajectory of the series which kicked off with WWE 2K22, and improves on the formula in small but significant ways. The addition of WarGames, a great new Showcase, an awesome roster and welcome tinkering of MyGM make for a game that wrestling fans should get plenty out of. And that’s not even mentioning the creation suite, which I have no doubt will continue to boggle my mind throughout the year. Wrestling fans can rejoice – WWE 2K23 is a triumph.

The post WWE 2K23 Review – Still Head of the Table appeared first on Press Start.

If you’d asked me how I felt about Destiny’s latest expansion, Lightfall, prior to release, I probably would’ve insinuated it was a homerun waiting to happen. It felt like the writing was on the wall – high stakes, a swanky new subclass in Strand, a new city to explore, and so much more. It’s these hopes and expectations that set a bar for Lightfall that it simply couldn’t meet.

Does that mean Lightfall is a bad expansion? No, I don’t think so, at least. Where Lightfall crashes and burns with its character writing and narrative, it excels in its new gameplay additions and changes. Where difficulty has been adjusted to be more in-line with the ever-looming threat of power creep, Neomuna can feel disparate and empty. For every step in the right direction, there’s also a step backwards that feels more tangible than ever given The Witch Queen’s myriad successes.

If you equivalize Destiny’s decade spanning saga to that of the MCU, Lightfall is essentially the Infinity War of this narrative. The threat we’ve all been waiting for is here – the Witness, alongside a transformed Calus as its newest disciple. After attacking Earth and taking the Traveler captive, the Witness sends Calus to Neptune in search of a mysterious paracausal object known as the Veil.

Lightfall’s opening is firing on all cylinders, properly establishing the threat of the Witness and a sense of urgency about the whole campaign as our guardians hitch a ride to the hidden city of Neomuna. There’s a sense of rivalry between ourselves and Calus as years of conflict have built up to this moment. It’s unfortunate then, that after the first two missions, the campaign comes to a screeching halt on all fronts.

There’s a few key offenders, the most glaring of which is the general lack of explanation and characterization. Despite it being mentioned multiple times over the years in the lore, the Veil is never fully explained or explored here in Lightfall. Jargon and technical terms are thrown around in similar fashion to that of Destiny’s original campaign – only there’s no external lore to properly support it. Not only does Lightfall leave you with more questions than it does answers, it does so in an unsatisfying manner.

It’s clear that Lightfall’s seasons are going to delve into these subject matters deeper. I’m sure we’ll eventually learn what the Veil actually is, what the Witness wants with it, what the Radial Mast was meant to do, and more. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s hard not to feel short-changed when we’re essentially back where we started before the expansion dropped. As we move into the final year of this saga, it’s a time to provide answers, not shroud players in more mystery.

The Cloud Striders in concept are a great idea – defenders of a city separated from Guardians and the Traveler’s protection. Rohan in particular is quite engaging as he nears the end of his tenure as Cloud Strider and mentor to Nimbus. There’s a lot of parallels to be drawn between him and Osiris, and there was great opportunity for real growth between them. Unfortunately, Rohan just doesn’t get enough screentime to become the fan favourite character he had the potential for.

Nimbus is similarly misspent, largely in the way that their dialogue betrays the tone and atmosphere Lightfall is trying to establish. They’re constantly quipping, even after traumatic events, often resulting in cringe inducing moments. A lot of their writing does fare better in the post-campaign quests, but it feels like too little too late for it to have any long-term impact on players.

Arguably the biggest problem with the Cloud Striders, is that time spent with them is time that could’ve been spent with established characters. Osiris and Caiatl, who should’ve been pivotal to the plot of Lightfall, have very little to do, filling minor roles at best. Caiatl feels especially wasted given the conflict with her father should’ve taken centre stage here. Calus also feels unexplored given how often he’s served as our adversary over the years. One character that undeniably delivers, though, is the Witness, who commands every single scene they’re in. It’s in brief and fleeting moments that we see them, but it’s clear Bungie has a handle on this character and its otherworldly nature.

One of the most lauded inclusions in The Witch Queen was a new approach to campaign design and difficulty. Lightfall continues the trend with a new Legendary campaign, bringing eight tightly-paced missions to surmount on Neomuna. I don’t think the quality is quite at the same level as The Witch Queen’s campaign, but still offers an enjoyable romp from start to finish. It feels more coherent with the 80’s action movie inspiration Bungie was going for. Tormentors also accomplish what they set out to do remarkably well, serving as a terrifying yet engaging enemy unit that feels distinct from any other.

A large part of this success is thanks to Strand, our second Darkness-based subclass. Learnt over the course of the campaign, Strand is all about tapping into an ethereal weave that connects everything. This core concept gives way to some truly whacky ideas like a grapple hook, suspending enemies with threads, and unleashing sentient Strand constructs called Threadlings. Each Strand subclass feels incredibly distinct and immediately powerful with proper buildcrafting. You can really get into a flow with high actions per minute and flexible gameplay loops with each ability at your disposal.

From the mobile and powerful Hunter Threadrunner to the minion master Warlock Broodweaver, Strand has much to offer in countless facets of Destiny 2. It also helps that there’s a decent selection of Strand weapons to pair with these subclasses, offering new Strand-based perks and abilities that really freshen up the sandbox. The grapple is a particular standout, offering unparalleled movement and interactions that weren’t possible before. It feels truly distinct in the broader scope of Destiny’s subclasses, which isn’t such an easy feat nowadays given the complexity of the pre-existing four.

Destiny has often struggled with recent destinations being empty and lacking in things to do. They’re visually stunning and offer some degree of exploration, but don’t have the same enemy density as other aspects of the game. Neomuna is an improvement in this regard but there’s still work to do be done. General exploration can often feel quite barren and lifeless, with all of Neomuna’s citizens residing in a state of digital consciousness. It means you’ll only ever come across enemies, digital constructs, and other Guardians.

Terminal Overload and the Vex Incursion Zone do quite a bit to alleviate how empty it can feel at times, providing activities with loads of enemy density and worthwhile rewards. The city itself is gorgeous, offering neon-soaked skylines and high-rise buildings that feel distinct in Destiny’s slew of locations. It’s a shame it isn’t more vertically inclined given Strand’s inclusion, but swinging around the city is still a blast nonetheless.

There are few things that players look forward to more in new expansions than the introduction of a brand-new raid. Lightfall’s comes in the form of Root of Nightmares, set in a pyramid ship belonging to the Witness, only terraformed by the Traveler. It’s a truly gorgeous raid, with some of the best visuals we’ve seen in a raid to date – which is no small feat.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Root of Nightmares sticks the landing in terms of gameplay and design. It’s a combat focused raid, which there’s nothing wrong with, but it comes at the cost of mechanics. While there’s something to be said for simpler raids, I’d argue that RoN is overly straightforward. Three of the four encounters feel as if they could be Dungeon encounters, requiring little to no communication and collaboration between players. There’s nothing wrong with a short and sweet raid ala Wrath of the Machine, but the limited mechanical complexity means a lot of time is spent dealing with combatants as opposed to engaging with mechanics and puzzles. Where Vow of Disciple maybe leaned a little too hard into mechanical depth, Root of Nightmares is skewed too far in the other direction.

While the seasons that launch alongside major expansions are typically lighter in content, they’re also some of the most consistent. It’s still early days for Season of Defiance, but what’s been released so far has been quite enjoyable. It offers a pretty standard Battlegrounds activity that’s made more engaging through difficulty and high enemy density. The new exotic mission, Avalon, is also a hit for many of the same reasons. The writing here is also leagues above that of the main narrative, and I look forward to tuning in every week to see how the battle on Earth unfolds now that Neptune is (relatively) safe, even if the seasonal model is feeling tired.

Power creep is a concept that frequently rears its head in live-service games, and Destiny 2 is no stranger to it. Our power has grown exponentially over the last few years, and Bungie have decided to reel it in a bit by raising the game’s overall difficulty floor. The changes mostly land, making general playlist content more engaging than usual, incentivizing players to make use of buildcrafting and loadouts.

Not all of it works, though. There’re a few kinks to be ironed out within certain difficulty tiers, Nightfalls, and even Root of Nightmares. A flat increase in difficulty doesn’t work for all aspects of the game, though I suspect it’ll take some more extensive playtesting and feedback to get these activities to where they need to be. As a veteran player, I appreciate the overall increase in challenge, but can also see how it’s alienated some of the casual player-base, and can feel inconsistent.

You could also argue that Lightfall’s best inclusions come in the form of its quality-of-life changes, which are plentiful and vastly improve the overall experience. The mod system has been streamlined to demystify buildcrafting, with many mods being rolled into the new Armor Charge system. While I was initially hesitant at how simplified it seemed to be, I’ve come around to the system quite a bit. Buildcrafting is much less convoluted and you spend less time in menus as a result, while also cutting down on the overall messiness of the inventory. Loadouts and the new mod screen similarly streamline the process of managing armour and mods, making for a much more seamless experience overall.

Another long-standing point of pain, Champions, have also been addressed via using built-in subclass verbs and abilities to stun them. This seemingly insignificant change allows for much more freedom in terms of loadout and weapon choice, and adds a much needed fluidity to the combat loop when dealing with Champions. Artifact Mods have also been reworked to always be active, with the caveat of only being able to unlock 12. You’re free to reset the Artifact whenever you’d like, but its once again another example of cutting down on monotony while still placing buildcrafting at the forefront of Destiny 2’s RPG systems.

Destiny has long had an issue of bringing new and returning players into the fold. Its lack of tutorials and seemingly convoluted systems were alienating to those looking to get into the game. Bungie have made many attempts to address this issue, the latest of which comes in the new Guardian Ranks system. Guardian Ranks acts as an account rank that is meant to display how experienced a Guardian is, while also pointing new players in the direction of what to do next. While I can’t speak for the new player experience (which still doesn’t seem all too great), Guardian Ranks are a nice way to signify a player’s experience with the game, though it has some problems.

Because Guardian Rank unlocks are retroactive, its as if every single player is rank six – the highest you can be when a season begins. This already poses some issues, as someone with 3000 hours versus someone with a few hundred will start a season with the same rank. Unlocking Advanced Ranks allows you to grow further, but they reset at the start of every season, bringing everyone back down to six.

The biggest problem with this is that the system doesn’t really function as intended, and going to all the effort to earn Advanced Ranks feels wrong knowing it’s going to reset. The decision to tie achieving a certain Commendation Score to Guardian Ranks is also a baffling decision, completely undermining their purpose as people hand them out left, right, and centre to bolster their own scores.

If there’s one thing you can always count on with Destiny, it’s that the art team is going to deliver – and deliver they did. Neomuna is positively brimming with detail and architecture that feels almost alien and out of place – the way that a hidden city should be. Root of Nightmares is a visual feast as previously mentioned, and the few forays we’ve had into the Vex Network have me yearning for more. The visual effects of Strand also really pop with neon green threads exploding in every direction as you unravel your foes.

In saying this, Lightfall does continue the trend of buggy expansion launches. While the actual day one experience was remarkably smooth, numerous issues have reared their heads since launch, some of which have yet to be fixed. Aside from the usual weapon and armour bugs that have them doing ludicrous amounts of damage, there’s also an issue with character and weapon models turning invisible during long play sessions, which is seemingly linked to the commendations system. There’s also countless enemy attacks and environmental hazards tied to framerate, which actively punishes players for playing at higher frames. I think its fair to expect bugs on launch, but it’s disappointing that these nagging issues have yet to be fixed.

Expressing my opinion on Lightfall has been tricky. I don’t think this expansion is nearly as bad as some are making it out to be, there’s plenty of good on offer here. Strand, loadouts, mod changes, the post campaign activities, and more are reason enough to argue that Destiny 2 is the best it’s ever been from a gameplay standpoint. Narratively, though, Lightfall objectively fumbles what should have been a homerun at a time where Bungie really can’t afford to do so.

I sincerely hope that the stuff that’s come after the campaign is a signifier of what’s we can expect with future seasons as we build up towards The Final Shape. Despite the disappointing narrative, I’ll keep coming back to Destiny 2 because the other inclusions are just that good, and if you can move past the shortcomings, you might just have a similar experience.

The post Destiny 2: Lightfall Review – Underwhelming Finality appeared first on Press Start.

Having not indulged in the first Figment game, to which this is a sequel, Creed Valley feels very much like another relapse within a disturbed mind. It tells its own contained story, complete with teaching moments. It does feel more like Dreamworks than Disney in its ability to deliver characters and dialogue to help stitch the gorgeous, hand painted world together, but it’s ultimately tough to fault this little indie that could.

You play as an elvish lad named Dusty, the embodiment of courage itself within the mind palace that Figment’s story takes place in. With Piper, his avian aid, he’s tasked with achieving peace inside of a headspace still plagued by nightmares. A day inside the mind is realised creatively, not only do you rhythmically dispatch nightmares but you wade between open-minded and closed-mindedness to converse with anthropomorphic, and quite frankly shaggy to an adorable degree, Opinions—which range from some profoundly important things like self-help to inane topics such as how to leave the toilet seat. 

Which is down, by the way.

There’s a meta story that exists beyond Dusty’s perception, as the nightmares he wrestles with serve as manifestations of external stresses that concern our hero’s owner. It’s not exactly Inside Out in terms of delivery, and it’s kind of just there—it’s doled out in between major story beats and in conjunction with the game’s sole collectible. 

Figment plays kind of like a game jam version of Bastion had it been mashed together with the concepts behind Psychonauts. It’s ultimately an isometric action game that incorporates environmental problem-solving, a small amount of detective work, and some humour to break up the action. 

That’s where the game does experience a few hang-ups. While it’s apt for what it is, Figment’s combat is rather one note. Where a game like Bastion has many weapons on top of many systems to give the gameplay a bit of heft, Figment arms you with a lone wooden sword that can attack lightly, slightly less lightly following a roll, or deflect comically drawn rockets that fire from the periphery of the mind’s defences.

It is simple, which will suit its intended audience, which I’m guessing is younger teens. But if you’re hoping for a rollicking action game with meat on the bone, this one is certainly style being favoured over substance. 

Figment’s marketing certainly promised a musical adventure and I feel like the game does ace this in a few key areas. Music is simply present everywhere in different forms, whether it’s a bridge made of piano ivories or boss fights dressed up as full blown musical numbers. Figment is certainly a theatrical game, and I couldn’t wipe the grin off of my face during any of the handful of original compositions. 

As far as ads go, the enemy variety is rather sparse too. Reflecting now, I can recall perhaps three or four enemies that’ll aim to cause you grief. While this’d spell trouble in a twelve hour game, Figment’s brevity serves it well here, ensuring that neither its limited mechanics and cast of villains overstay their welcome. If nothing else, Figment delivers a brief adventure fitting of its budget price.

The game’s art direction is one of its strongest points, without doubt. While mindset, which as I established there’s two to hop between, can guarantee varying moods, there’s a lovely assortment of colours this game leans on to deliver its oil paint on canvas aesthetic. I actually adored the imperfections too, especially the unevenly dried globs of paint. I feel like it has an almost rushed look that, in tandem with a particular scenic vista near the endgame, speaks to the inability of Dusty’s surrogate to slow down enough to smell the roses and ultimately embrace joy. 

I encountered only one game-halting bug in my handful of hours, but fortunately due to the rather short chapters, I was simply able to restart and quickly catch up. The game performed well otherwise, save for a few moments of slow down when one of the bigger skirmishes took place.

Figment 2: Creed Valley is a quaint game that’ll warm a lot of hearts. There’s nothing it does particularly wrong, in fact it’s quite capable in all facets of what a game can be. It’s simply a case of where less isn’t more, it’s just less. The combat is fun, but one-note and there aren’t enough enemy types to warrant strategic thought. Fortunately, the moxie of Dusty, the gleeful exuberance of the world itself, and the big showman-like show tunes from the roided-out baddies would make our Hugh blush.

It’s a fun romp, you’ve just gotta put your mind to it.

The post Figment 2: Creed Valley Review – In One Ear And Out The Other appeared first on Press Start.

Despite the massive impact that FromSoftware’s titles have had on the games industry over the last decade, there are very few experiences that scratch the same itch. From’s world building and sense of place is unrivalled, it’s a daunting task to make a “Souls-like” and have it constantly compared to one of the most timeless franchises of the last decade. This is something Team Ninja has been keenly aware of in their forays into the genre, opting to focus on the combat and RPG aspects of these games to deliver something action-heavy and high-octane.

If the Nioh duology is Team Ninja’s answer to Dark Souls, then Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty serves the same purpose to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Much like Nioh, though, Wo Long’s comparisons to its parallel are surface deep, offering an experience that’s much different to From’s 2019 hit. It leans more heavily into the combat fantasy of split-second decisions, speedy reflexes, and flashy action to make for an immensely satisfying and mechanically deep experience that insists you step up to the plate and surmount its seemingly insurmountable challenges.

Set during the Later Han Dynasty of China, specifically the Three Kingdoms period, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty follows your unnamed player character navigate their way through the murky waters of war and chaos. Despite starting out as an unremarkable militia soldier, you’ll quickly gain notoriety as you rise up to fight back a demonic outbreak plaguing China, often crossing paths with notable figures from Chinese history in the process of dealing with the source of this supernatural threat.

Wo Long’s narrative ultimately serves as a sort of adaptation of these events with a dark fantasy flavour, imbuing it with supernatural elements and twisted takes on Chinese mythology. All the carnage and chaos that transpires really sells the idea that the long-standing Imperial dynasty is on the verge of collapse. The story itself is relatively paint-by-numbers, with a few interesting elements that might keep you from skipping cutscenes, but won’t necessarily have you on the edge of your seat. The most alluring aspect of it is interacting with storied heroes like Lu Bu and how they fit into Team Ninja’s take on a more dramatised retelling of the period.

Where Wo Long categorically excels, though, is in its combat. It’s similar to Sekiro at its core, but has so many in-depth systems built around it that it becomes a much more involved and measured process. That isn’t to discount the challenge of Sekiro’s rhythmic flow, but Wo Long has a much faster pace to it overall that demands your full attention at all times. Between regular encounters and boss fights, there’s much to look forward to for fans of the genre.

It’s all built around the Spirit Gauge, which acts as a sort of posture/poise meter, while also doubling as a resource in combat. Proper deflect timing, counters, and light attacks will build up this meter, while using heavy attacks, Wizardry Spells, and Martial Arts will expend it, as well as getting hit. Using any of the aforementioned attacks costs Spirit Gauge, but also grow in power in accordance with how much you have.

Breaking an enemy’s Spirit Gauge opens them up for a critical attack, but your own can also be broken, leaving you completely defenceless for a short window of time. It lends to a constant risk/reward factor in combat where you know that one more successful deflect means you can unleash a nasty heavy attack for big damage, or cast a Wizardry Spell without putting your own Spirit Gauge in danger.

Even dodging and deflecting costs Spirit Gauge to use, so throwing them out in the hope to survive will set you on path towards swift demise. It can be overwhelming at first, but you’ll quickly find that you perform every action in combat with intent, and the decision to tie your Martial Arts and Wizardry Spells to a consistently renewable resource means you’ll engage with them much more than you otherwise would.

The cherry on top are Critical Attacks and Divine Beasts. The former are heavy hitting attacks that can’t be blocked. Successfully deflecting these results in a large chunk of Spirit Gauge damage, as well as shortening the enemy’s overall Spirit Gauge until their next break. Divine Beasts function similarly to the Guardian Spirits of Nioh, where you can summon an equipped beast when the Divine Beast Gauge is full to gain advantages in combat, or use to them unleash a powerful attack.

Progression throughout levels is also another novel concept that Wo Long builds on in interesting ways, namely through the Morale system. While you’ll level and gear your character as you play through missions, each one also has its own Morale ranks to raise through exploration. You and your enemies have your own Morale ranks, which determine your overall strength within missions. Generally, you don’t want to go up against enemies with significantly higher levels of Morale than you. You lose Morale through death and getting hit by critical attacks, while it’s gained in a few ways, most notably through dispatching enemies, and via the brilliant Fortitude system.

Fortitude represents the lowest that your Morale can drop to. You’ll start main missions with zero Fortitude, while side missions are usually higher. As you explore levels, you’ll find Battle Flags and Marking Flags, both of which increase your Fortitude, meaning you’re slowly lifting your minimum Morale as you venture through each mission. This mechanic alone if enough to incentivise exploration in Wo Long’s environments. You can absolutely try to beeline to the boss room while gaining Morale on the way, but without hitting any flags, you’ll lose it all as soon as you die, and it isn’t exactly easy to recover.

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Morale applies to your enemies as well, which is another thing to consider. Hitting an enemy with a critical attack after breaking their Spirit Gauge will drop their Morale by one, and some enemies can boost their allies Morale passively. Additionally, you can find groups of enemies guarding Battle Flags that need to be dispatched before you can claim them, and picking them off one-by-one is incentivised to slowly whittle away at their Morale. Not only is it a fantastic form of progression within each level, but it also goes hand-in-hand with the setting and themes of Wo Long.

I will admit that there’s a lot to contend with here. Even the most seasoned of Souls-like veterans will need to take some time to adjust and learn all the systems at play here. It can be confusing at first, especially when so much is thrown at you in the opening hours of the game, but sticking with it gives way to systems that intertwine to create a cohesive combat system that’s incredibly satisfying to master.

A combat system like this is nothing without good enemy design, but this is another area where Wo Long delivers in spades. Both visually and mechanically, there are many foes to contend with here, each with unique move sets and capabilities that keep you on your toes. Seeing these Chinese myths converted into more demonic forms is fascinatingly morbid that always had me keen to see what was up next. The boss fights are a particular highlight, serving as firm punctuation marks to the end of each level. Some of them are definitively better than others, but they’re still always something to look forward to.

The other core form of progression is your traditional levelling, but there’s also some changes made here that keep Wo Long unique within the genre. Instead of investing points attained with each level in traditional stats, you can put it into one of five Virtues, each one scaling with different weapon types, boosting their own stats, and grating access to specific wizardry spells. There’s less incentive to generalise and a push to spec into one or two Virtues specifically to build out your character. The high level wizardry spells require quite high Virtue levels, so investing in a particular type yields worthwhile rewards.

When it comes to weapons and armour, there’s a tried and true focus on acquiring loot from chests, enemies, and by completing levels. Unfortunately, much like Team Ninja’s other titles, there is far too much loot to collect and manage. Stranger of Paradise made some progress in this regard via the inclusion of an auto-equip function, but even that is sorely lacking in Wo Long. You end up spending long stretches of time in menus, picking and choosing which armour and weapon combinations you want to use, along with ranged weapons and charms also.

A vast majority of the loot you’ll get across your first playthrough will eventually become useless, and ends up getting sold or tossed away at some point. One welcome inclusion is the ability to upgrade weapons and armour with materials, but it’s hard to commit to making a proper build when a bulk of the best gear drops in the post-game.

Speaking of weapons, there’s a wide array to choose from here, each with their own string of light attacks and a heavy attack. Each one also comes with a unique set of Martial Arts, and higher rarity weapons drop with special effects that can further cater to a particular play style. There’s a lot to sink your teeth into here if you’re a fan of Team Ninja’s post-game build crafting, but it can feel arbitrary outside of that as you constantly cycle through gear for better stats.

Wo Long isn’t a particularly pretty game in the traditional sense. It’s rife with grunge and rancid corruption that go a long way to building up the world and the events transpiring within it. Each battlefield you’ll visit is remarkably unique, from towering forts to serene mountainsides. No matter where you go, though, Demonic Qi has taken hold. It’s an all around well-realised setting that I never got tired of exploring despite how desolate and war-torn it can be at times.

The PS5 version features two visual presets, one that prioritises frame rate, and another that focuses on resolution. I found that the resolution mode, while gorgeous, often dropped below 60 frames when the going got tough, which isn’t ideal for a game as reflex based as this. The performance mode is what I spent my playthrough on, which sports a consistently smooth 60 frames no matter what was transpiring on screen.

While Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty falls victim to the problems of Team Ninja’s prior Souls-like outings, there’s no denying that there’s an excellently crafted game here that’s unique among their offerings. It has such strong combat, and some really great ideas that execute just as well, that it’s easy to look past what few flaws there are and really enjoy what’s on offer here. I’ve always enjoyed Team Ninja’s games, but Wo Long in particular is an experience I won’t be forgetting anytime soon, and one I’ll surely be revisiting over the years.

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Initially revealed at Gamescom last year, Scars Above is a challenging action game set in a science fiction-inspired world full of places to explore and creatures to survive. In truth it’s a little bit Souls, a little bit Metroid, and a lot of fun, elemental combat. It’s a lot smaller in scope than any of the games it seems inspired by, but Scars Above is a decently exciting romp through an alien planet, acquiring knowledge and burning things on your quest for truth and the scientific method.

Scars Above put you in the shoes of scientist Dr Kate Ward, one of a team sent to investigate a strange object in space. Soon enough though, things go awry and Kate finds herself stranded and alone on an alien planet searching for her colleagues and struggling to survive. You’ll encounter a strange, ghostly being that seems to be encouraging you to explore this strange planet, beckoning you to discover how it came to be as it is.

The game gives you three main ways to engage with its world – explore, do science, and fight. Exploration is fairly enjoyable, but don’t expect something as complex or rewarding as Metroid or Dark Souls on that front. Areas are structured around big alien objects called pillars. Think of these like checkpoints – you’ll start at the last pillar you checked in at if you die, and all the creatures you’ve defeated will return, but you’ll also reload your ammo reserves and restore your health.

Between pillars there is usually a path forward, and side paths that you can explore for collectibles and occasionally to open shortcut paths. Both are worthwhile. Finding a shortcut can help you get to areas more easily after dying and returning to a pillar, and collectibles are useful for upgrading your character and weapons for combat. Environments are varied enough to remain interesting, and you generally don’t spend long enough in any one place for things to feel stale. Exploring in Scars never really gets more cerebral than making sure you go down each fork in the road to find the goodies at the end, but it helps keep the pace brisk.

Science and the pursuit of knowledge as a theme is something that sets Scars apart, even if it is mostly set dressing. A few times during the game you’ll encounter situations or mechanisms you need to visually analyse to find important elements and then come to a conclusion about what happened or how a device functions. You don’t earn experience by defeating enemies like in most games, but by gaining knowledge about the world around you. This can be done by scanning the bodies of defeated creatures (only once per creature though, so there’s no grinding) and in a way that ironically engaged my ‘brain off’ mechanism – by finding ‘Knowledge Cubes’ littered around the environment.

The science theme is an interesting one and it’s used mostly to good effect. Your character becomes stronger through knowledge rather than strictly through violence and training. Just try not to think too hard about cubes that make you smarter.

Combat, then, is the other major piece of Scars Above’s gameplay, and it’s where the game shines brightest. Your main weapon is initially not a weapon at all, more a general science tool, but it unsurprisingly finds usefulness in combat. You can use different elemental projectiles which all have some effect on enemies and the environment around them. A lot of enemies have glowing weak points and some have moments of weakness you can exploit if you pay attention to their animations. Your initial weapon fires bolts of electricity and you’ll soon see the effect this can have on enemies that are wet or standing in water.

Later elemental upgrades like fire are used to set enemies or areas alight, and ice can slow quick enemies down to give you a chance to collect yourself. Throw in the gadgets you unlock throughout the game that give you even more options (highlights to me were capsules of flammable liquid that can set groups of creatures alight and a gravity well that can hold enemies in place for a short while) and you get a combat system that is easy enough to grasp but rewarding to experiment with.

Visually, Scars Above has it’s ups and downs. Cutscenes in particular bring things down quite a bit. The animation is quite wooden in both general movement as well as faces – it reminded me of scenes in the first Mass Effect and it feels a generation or two behind compared to its contemporaries. Once you’re through the cutscenes though, actual gameplay looks quite decent. There are some definite standout creature designs that I really enjoyed and some varied, well-realised alien environments to admire and move around in.

Sound design has some highlights as well. Music generally is pretty sparse during the experience, but some particularly cool moments are accented by fantastic sci-fi synth music that bring scenes to life.

I had a pretty fun time with Scars Above. Its themes of science and the pursuit of knowledge are a neat idea and the story goes to some interesting places that I found fairly compelling and even timely given recent advances in AI technology. The elementally-infused combat is engaging enough to feel fresh throughout and environments are varied enough that the exploration doesn’t get stale until a section in the late game that I found killed the pace a bit right as things were getting interesting.

Scars Above is out now on PlayStation, Xbox and PC. Amazon has the game for $59 with free shipping.

The post Scars Above Review – The Pursuit of Knowledge appeared first on Press Start.

Atomic Heart is all at once the strangest, most off-the-wall, most bombastic game I think I’ll play this year. It’s got a self-referential, almost self-deprecating sense of humour that surprised me to no end and its nods to the games it so badly wanted to be—see any BioShock game—were so on the nose. 

To put it the only way I feel I can, Atomic Heart is unadulterated, pulp schlock. 

Based on my preview of the game, I’d expected Atomic Heart’s story to do its best to emulate BioShock’s musings on determinism and free will. Sadly, those that expect caviar and get served mince and mash are bound to be disappointed. That said, mince and mash is perfectly serviceable in a pinch and Atomic Heart gets the job done, it just never rises to the lofty heights of those it imitates. Its cast of characters, from top to bottom, is thoroughly repugnant and the “hero” has levels of vulgarity that should have died when Duke did forever ago.

There’s a particular character whose mad turn feels so unearned that it’s almost insulting. Hilariously, it all feels like another self-sabotage gunning for an impossible gold standard. Atomic Heart’s biggest sin, in the end, is that it forces us to reminisce about what is ultimately a better game.

It’s a shame because I feel as though all of the game’s action, if it were condensed down into a more linear experience, could make for a much better game. The two prongs of attack both feel great and feel like the only area where Atomic Heart might even edge out its precursor. I might have only secured blueprints for no more than a handful of the weapons on offer, but they all felt powerful in their own right. I’m a sucker for a shotgun and seeing the shells in Atomic Heart tear shreds off of the several automatons lining the halls—and even shearing them in half—never gets old.

The game’s most dazzling minutes, the ones that truly sell to me that fragments of the Atomic Heart game I wanted does exist, belong to the magnificent boss fights. Granted, they’re as plainly signposted as the story’s many “twists” by obvious arenas, but they’re a thrilling showcase of what the game does best and that’s its combat. 

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And on the other hand, literally, is Charles. He’s a polymerised artificial intelligence that rides sidecar throughout your journey and serves as the other offensive prong in your arsenal. With Charles, you’ll be able to deal elemental damage, wield the wild powers of telekinesis, and shield yourself. Now, while the gunplay is a treat in Atomic Heart, all of the trimmings, such as the player’s upgrade paths—for guns, for Charles, and for the agent himself—feel like a bit of a mess. There’s simply too many currencies to keep straight, especially when it comes to sprucing up your gun shed.

As I gleaned from my initial preview, the game is structurally probably a bit more like Metro Exodus than it is Halo Infinite. The game is a series of overworlds separated by a series of facilities. The former are vast enough, though they’re ultimately void of anything worth seeing, so much so they might as well be a tunnel from point-to-point. Atomic Heart’s corridor crawling is the game at its best, and I’ll recall the game’s first handful of hours fondly. It doesn’t do anything particularly creative with how it structures fetch quests, but I do admire how it creates a sense of place and lets the untapped creativity of Atomic Heart’s design team run rampant.

When I previewed the game on PC, performance was as crisp as you’d hope for. Sadly, things aren’t quite as smooth for its console counterparts. The frame rate was largely inconsistent, pop-in was always a given, and I encountered a couple of hard crashes in one particularly theatrical boss fight. Other niggles, such as UI persisting throughout cutscenes, were present and kind of undercut the attempt at establishing some tone.

Another area that Atomic Heart has great success in is its art, although I’m prepared to omit any human characters from that otherwise blanket statement. Like in other areas, it borrows from BioShock’s handbook in delivering a world of several extremes—it showcases capitalist decadence through its lavish marble auditoriums, it also places man’s hubris on a pedestal through its dilapidated laboratories. As barren as it is, even the overworld, for all its lush greenery juxtaposed by abandoned cars, has a real Tales from the Loop appeal. I’ll go so far as to say if your interest in Atomic Heart is mainly from a design standpoint, buy the inevitable art book instead. 

While I ultimately did enjoy my time with Atomic Heart, I can’t not view it as a disappointment. For the few things it does well, its ambitions ultimately cripple it, leaving it firmly in the cold shadow of greater titles that it so desperately seeks to emulate.

Atomic Heart launches on February 21st for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC. Amazon has the cheapest copy at $84.99 with free shipping.

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Nostalgia sells. And in few places is that more true than the video game market. Whether it’s remakes, remasters, cheap ports or new ideas spun from old IP, nostalgia remains a potent force that’s often wielded with reckless abandon. 

When THQ Nordic first teamed up with Purple Lamp Studio to capitalise on their hold of the rights to the beloved PS2 platformer, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, it resulted in a surprisingly good trip down memory lane – one that no doubt resulted in the kind of easy money that would make Mr. Krabs swell in his shell. Purple Lamp clearly proved itself too, because it wasn’t long before it was handed the reins to develop an original 3D platformer based on the franchise – albeit one still largely powered by nostalgia. Enter, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake.

If there’s one thing modern popular media, especially in things like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s that the quickest and easiest way to tap into nostalgia and fandom is with a multiverse storyline. How better to squeeze a metric ton of references and cameos in than whisking our heroes through a bunch of mashed up and barely-connected realms? That’s where The Cosmic Shake comes in, sending SpongeBob and Patrick on a world-hopping journey through several “WishWorlds” based on iconic locales and events from the Hillenburg-led first couple of seasons of the show.

That’s this game’s biggest drawcard too – if you were a fan of the yellow sponge in his earliest outings, you’ll instantly recognise the vast majority of the gags and situations here, and no doubt appreciate that they’re all wrapped up in a fresh story about a deceptive mermaid witch named Cassandra tricking SpongeBob and Patrick into tearing apart the fabric of Bikini Bottom and all delivered by the entire original voice cast.

It’s important that you enjoy that stuff going into The Cosmic Shake, too, because everything around it is about as bog-standard as it comes. As a 3D platformer it feels less like an iteration on what was delivered in Battle for Bikini Bottom and more like a direct continuation of that 2003 release. That’s not necessarily a bad thing on all fronts, but it’s an expectation that begs setting because it’s definitely a far cry from what one would expect from most modern platformers. 

As a licensed tie-in game based on a Nickelodeon property, it’s honestly still a cut above, though. For the budget price of entry, you’re getting an 8-10 hour adventure set across seven worlds and a sizable hub with tons of collectibles to find and easter eggs to do the Leo DiCaprio pointing gif at. Each world sees SpongeBob don a throwback costume and endeavour to rescue one of his friends from their own twisted wishes with Patrick in tow as a helpful, airborne balloon (there’s a reason for that) on hand to point him in the right direction or drop a fresh pair of health undies in a pinch.

Clocking in at anywhere up to an hour in length, each of these worlds represents a decent jaunt with a good amount of gameplay variety switching between precision platforming, light combat, minigames and the obligatory SpongeBob sliding sections. I can’t say I found the actual level design anything close to inspired, but if you enjoyed what BFBB had to offer, Purple Lamp has clearly set out to replicate the same simple, no-frills vibe that would definitely go down well with younger audiences who are less likely to baulk at its flaws. There are some interesting enough new wrinkles, like SpongeBob’s bubble attack that traps enemies in place or his karate kick, which is routinely combined with jumping and gliding to make for some pretty engaging platforming sections. 

There’s a lot that feels rehashed from the last game, for better or worse, but I feel it’s important to stress that I absolutely did have fun playing through this new adventure as a fan of collectathon 3D platformers. It’s not going to have an moustachioed Italians lining up to renew their plumber’s certification but it’s a far sight better than most of the licenced junk aimed at kids and parents out there.

It’s really the joy of the SpongeBob property and its cast of characters that carries The Cosmic Shake, a fact that I’m sure doesn’t come as a surprise. It’s here that Purple Lamp has really nailed the assignment, giving fans an enjoyable new story that’s positively stuffed with nostalgia for the earliest era of the cartoon. Only now it’s all presented through some genuinely attractive cutscenes backed up by brand-new voice work from the show’s cast. Despite being relatively simple, the in-game visuals build on what worked for Battle for Bikini Bottom and look perfectly pleasant, plus the 30+ unlockable costumes are a riot.

It’s tough to complain about a game like this with the context of its place in the landscape, but there are definitely some gripes I had that felt warranted. Enemy variety is just okay, with less than 10 different jelly-based bad guy types, but SpongeBob’s limited combat prowess makes them feel even more repetitive to fight. And you’ll do it a lot as you return to each world looking for collectibles with nearly no method of tracking beyond a number total, making constant backtracking a reality.

The post SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake Review – A Decent Bit Of F.U.N. appeared first on Press Start.

I used to adore the Need for Speed games. Underground on the GameCube was my obsession for a time with its combination of slick, night-time visuals and great-feeling arcade style racing absolutely slathered in early 2000s tuner culture. This time around we’ve got a full open city area full of events, traffic, collectibles and cops to escape; a hip hop laced soundtrack and cel-animation inspired visual flourishes. Need For Speed Unbound has some great aspects and absolutely kept my interest for the length of the campaign with new and faster cars to drive as I progressed – but a few annoyances dragged Criterion’s NFS experience down from greatness for me.

Unbound didn’t make a fantastic first impression on me. Likely due to my lack of experience with modern NFS games, I was expecting near Mario Kart levels of easy drifts and high speed races. I found the game much more demanding of control finesse. Especially in the fairly high powered car you get initially it was very easy to lose control around corners if I expected to just hold the accelerator and drift like it was Ridge Racer. Once I came to terms with actually needing to learn the racing model, adjusting handling of cars to suit my style I found keeping the car under control much easier. Challenging enough to feel rewarding (especially when the game rewards you with boost and a sweet visual flourish for nailing a corner) but still more forgiving than say Gran Turismo. Driving in Unbound feels pretty fantastic.

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The game’s campaign is split into four weeks of driving in Lakeshore, each day split into day and night sessions and the week culminating in a qualifier event to eventually enter the Lakeshore Grand – the ultimate race to earn glory and fame. Each day and night will have a wide variety of events to compete in like races, drift events and takeovers (where you show off combos of drifts, jumps and target smashing) allowing you to pick your preferred way of competing. I really enjoyed the way the game is split into calendar days. It meant I could play for just a day, lock in some wins and reach a logical finishing point – or I could play an entire week in a play session if I felt like it.

It’s important gameplay wise too, as the more events you do in a single day, the more attention you’ll get from the cops. Racing for big rewards increases your heat level so there’s a constant risk/reward going on that keeps things tense. Winning big bucks only to lose your entire days winnings when you’re busted by the cops in the evening feels horrible, but is an effective way to encourage you to find better ways to lose the cops or maybe be a little more considered with how many events you participate in on a particular day.

The cops though, are one of my main annoyances with Unbound. They’re just so damned persistent. Things get easier as your car gets faster and more capable, but in the early days if you build up a decent heat level it can feel damn near impossible to lose the fuzz. Even when I had a fully upgraded, top of S+ tier car it was still more annoying than fun to lose cops given that the moment a helicopter flying overhead or a patrol car driving a nearby road spots you it’s fully back on with the map suddenly peppered with all terrain vehicles and police helicopters. Things get a little more manageable on the relaxed difficulty mode at least, but even there the police’s ability to spot and rain hell upon you at a moments notice gets tiring when all you really want to do is start the next event.

Unbound’s aesthetic is something that I think will be divisive, but personally I love the way it sticks to a very specific vibe. The visual style is semi-realistic with cel-animation flourishes which I think look fantastic, and the music is 100% hip hop. As someone who listens to quite a bit of the genre I recognised quite a few names, but there were some artists I’d never heard before. While I think I wore out the soundtrack by the time I finished the campaign, I love that the track choices had the breadth to introduce me to new music. The characters and dialogue you need to listen to while driving around though, I definitely found grating. It was hard to have all that much sympathy for a bunch of kids tearing up the streets, smashing up people’s cars and then getting on their high-horse about the cops daring to try breaking up their street races.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the Lakeshore Online mode of Unbound. It is entirely separate from the campaign, with a separate money balance and garage but functions in a similar way. You jump into an online city, drive around to events and invite the other players in the city to compete. I think if you enjoyed the campaign and wanted more, this could be a way to keep the whole thing going. I can understand why they’re totally separate garages, but it was a bit of a bummer to have to start from scratch again in the online mode for me.

There’s a lot I liked about NFS Unbound. I love that the game doesn’t expect you to come first to progress, and often I wasn’t even close. Higher places are in most cases just a slightly bigger payday so continuing on a 4th place still gets you some cash to upgrade and hopefully do better next time. I loved the commitment to modern car culture aesthetics, events like the takeover are a great addition along with the distinct visual and musical style choices. While I found the cops mostly tedious rather than exhilarating, once I lost them and got back to the racing I had a great time climbing the ladder, upgrading my cars, learning the city and eventually nailing the corners in races.

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After playing through the already-excellent Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII for a third time in its newly-refreshed and revitalised form in Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII– Reunion, one fact rang true throughout – this is a proper remaster. More than just a simple upscale or even a new coat of paint, it’s a carefully reconstructed and retooled product that wonderfully modernises a 14-year-old handheld game without any sacrifices to the core of the original. In short, it’s both the best way to play Crisis Core and a great new release in its own right.

Some context for those who’ve not played Crisis Core before, though: In this prequel set seven years before the events of the original Final Fantasy VII, players take on the role of Zack Fair, a Shinra SOLDIER operative that becomes embroiled in the fallout after his mentor, Angeal, and another SOLDIER 1st Class named Genesis seemingly turn on Shinra for reasons later explained. Set to the backdrop of a war with Wutai and the rapid takeover of Shinra and its clamour for the world’s precious resources, the game’s narrative ultimate leads players to a deeper look into the origins of Final Fantasy VII’s star players from Cloud and Sephiroth to Tifa, Aerith, Yuffie and many more.

Over the course of the 15-30 hour experience on offer, Crisis Core was an occasionally messy but ultimately clever prequel that quickly became the highlight of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII media blowout of the 2000s that also gave us the likes of the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children film. Back then, it was an exclusive to Sony’s PlayStation Portable handheld console, where it impressed with production values beyond what anyone was used to in such a small format and a compelling gameplay loop that included a unique, real-time combat system.

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Fast forward to today, and Final Fantasy VII is seeing something of a renaissance thanks to 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake kicking off a trilogy set to explore the original’s story and setting anew. Where that game was a wholly new take on the early portion of the main Final Fantasy VII game, Crisis Core Reunion is closer to a “remaster” of the PSP prequel, updating the presentation and crucial gameplay elements but leaving the core of the game largely intact. It makes a lot of sense too, where the PS1 original’s old-school JRPG sensibilities were due for an update in the remake, Crisis Core’s action-oriented gameplay and snappy pacing still hold up fairly well.

The biggest and most immediate changes in Crisis Core’s move to modern platforms nearly all stem from the vast gulf in functionality between the PSP’s restrictive button layouts and the controllers available to players on home consoles and PC. The simple addition of camera control with a right stick has a transformative impact on how the game is presented and how Zack handles in the moment, but the team at Square Enix has risen to this new challenge admirably by both ensuring players have stuff to look at outside of the confines of the original perspective and also taking the bulk of its combat gameplay back to the drawing board to rethink how it should work in the new format.

I mentioned a lot of what’s changed in my earlier preview impressions of the game, but the crux of it is that combat in Reunion feels vastly more fast-paced and reactive than in the PSP version of Crisis Core. Gone is the clunky, scrolling menu that bound all of your actions including basic attacks and magic, and now everything is mapped to the multitude of face and shoulder buttons available instead. With full, immediate control of Zack’s actions and a freely-adjustable camera, fights feel much closer to something like Final Fantasy VII Remake or even Kingdom Hearts.

All of the neat little wrinkles and ideas that made combat in Crisis Core unique and interesting the first time are still here, mind, like the compelling and unpredictable DMW system, the way Materia is incorporated into the flow of the action and the need to think hard about your equipment layout when facing down the game’s toughest foes, it’s all just a lot more manageable in the moment. Some new tweaks have been implemented to take advantage of Zack’s enhanced playability as well, such as the ability to cancel powerful foes’ ultimate attacks by pummelling them with strong abilities. In its new form, I’d almost be bold enough to suggest it’s one of my favourite takes on real-time combat that the Final Fantasy franchise has dabbled in thus far, despite a noticeable lack of challenge even on the Hard difficulty setting.

Outside of combat, the general gameplay and structure of Crisis Core is a lot more recognisable and true to the handheld original, although again the addition of full camera control does give everything a different feel. There are times where it’s more noticeable, in fact some of the late-game set pieces and minigames seemingly had to be modified to fit, but for the most part it’s the same game. That means what’s here is a mostly-linear jaunt through 10 distinct chapters where you’ll trek through a few key locales while occasionally being afforded the opportunity to wander sections of Midgar and other places of your own accord and pick up side content. Funnily enough, anyone coming to this game from Final Fantasy VII Remake will feel right at home with how everything is laid out, albeit of a much smaller scope here.

The one quirk of Crisis Core’s that might come out as a bit of a rub with new players is its reliance on bite-sized, self-contained “Missions” to pad out its gameplay offering. There are 300 of the bloody things, and while they were a fantastic way to offer PSP players short bursts of gameplay that they could knock out on a commute or during a bathroom break, they make less sense here. Each one is a barely minutes-long endeavour where you’re dropped into one of only a small selection of environments to navigate, picking up treasures and engaging in combat encounters on the way to take down a predetermined foe. 

These missions aren’t not fun, largely thanks to how good Reunion’s revamped combat is, but they get grindy real quick and they’re unfortunately quite essential to obtaining the game’s most useful items and abilities and keeping Zack levelled up to meet the challenge of the main content. At the end of the day there’s no getting around the fact that they’re a core component of the game and something returning fans will have already accepted, but new players might question what they’ve gotten themselves into after around the 150th mission.

Elsewhere, some very welcome quality-of-life improvements do go a long way to alleviating any frustration or tedium that might arise from the original’s design. All fights can be instantly restarted upon dying, for example, also offering players the opportunity to tweak their character build before going back for a second beating. Throw in auto-saves, increased checkpointing amongst multi-stage encounters and a vastly improved UI that pretty closely resembles Final Fantasy VII Remake’s menus and there’s much to appreciate about how Square Enix has considered where it presents Crisis Core warts-and-all and where it smooths off any rough edges.

Of course another huge selling point for Crisis Core Reunion is the massive upgrade to its visual and audio treatment. Built from the ground-up in Unreal Engine 4, it’s pretty well night-and-day compared to the PSP version, with model, texture and effect work that feels on par with the gorgeous Final Fantasy VII Remake. There are definitely some obvious holdovers from its origins, environments for example are packed with tons more detail but they’re still built on the same compact, basic layouts. Likewise character models are gorgeously-rendered with sharp texture work and new geometry but they’re placed on the existing rigs which means they animate like it’s still 2008, which can be awkward at times.

It’s still an enormous glow-up overall though, all of the new assets and effects combined with the razor-sharp resolutions and fluid performance afforded by new platforms make it an impressively new-feeling iteration that goes well beyond what’s expected from a modern remaster. It doesn’t stop at in-game visuals either, with Square Enix using a combination of AI-upscaled and edited original CG animations and some completely new content (gorgeous new summon sequences being a great example) to tie everything together.

There’s also the small matter of the game’s voice work which, shockingly, has been completely redone with the voice cast updated to match the Remake more closely and voice acting added to all of the previously text-only dialogue. It’s a pretty big deal and another stark example of just how much work has gone into updating Crisis Core beyond the expected new bells and whistles. It’s seriously impressive stuff, and the new cast does a great job overall, especially when it comes to characters who had zero voiced lines the first time around. What’s more, Crisis Core’s original composer, Takeharu Ishimoto, is back with brand-new arrangements, making Reunion just as much an updated aural experience as a visual and mechanical one.

To be frank, assessing this “remaster” as a whole is a difficult task, as anyone’s enjoyment of it will largely come down to what Crisis Core means to them. Devout fans who played it on PSP are going to see an old favourite in an entirely new light through well-considered updates designed to delight returning players, but those coming into it having missed the game in 2008 or entering fresh off of Final Fantasy VII Remake may find it a jarring transition. That said, critiquing it purely on the merits of the work done to enhance the base game it’s a stellar effort and a commendable commitment to producing something worthy of Final Fantasy VII fans’ love for this world and its characters.

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I’ve always been a big fan of Dead Space, so having a new game of that ilk in The Callisto Protocol was always going to be appealing. From the minds that brought us Dead Space, it’s occupying the same space as other fantastic spiritual successors like The Evil Within, Bayonetta, and even Lost Odyssey. After playing The Callisto Protocol, it’s clear that the Dead Space DNA has been left intact, but much like the new Biophage threat, it’s mutated into something entirely different.

The Callisto Protocol sees you taking on the role of Jacob Lee, a freight transporter pilot running jobs for the United Jupiter Company. His latest assignment is simple but lucrative – move some unlabelled but volatile cargo between Jupiter’s moons – Europa and Callisto. His ship is ambushed by a terrorist group, leading to a crash and subsequent imprisonment in a facility built on Callisto. Of course, while imprisoned, Jacob is broken out of his cell during an outbreak of an unknown pathogen and realises that he has to escape.

What follows is a story that is ironically only surprising in that there are almost no surprises. The Callisto Protocol wears its influences on its sleeve, no doubt, but it feels like a real missed opportunity to play with and subvert players’ expectations with how the game plays out. Instead, The Callisto Protocol delivers a sci-fi story shamelessly derived from the stories that inspired it – think Alien meets Dead Space – with little artistic flair to truly establish it as its own. That being said, The Callisto Protocol does feel more grounded than Dead Space, so anyone who found the gigantic space-faring bio-recombinant necromorphs obnoxious will find solace in the simplicity of The Callisto Protocol.

So as you’d expect, the game plays similarly to Dead Space. It’s a largely linear, narrative-driven thriller that sees Jacob working his way through Callisto’s facilities in an attempt to escape. But even though it’s clearly inspired by Dead Space, The Callisto Protocol does a few things that you’d never see in a Dead Space game in an attempt to carve out its own niche. It does this in a few ways – from telling a more grounded story and handling combat and encounter design.

The Callisto Protocol’s combat isn’t about dismembering but instead more about heavy hitting. With more of a focus on melee, you’ll spend much more time up close and personal with your enemies. With such an increased focus on melee, it also means that you’re given a whole bunch of manoeuvres to evade and block attacks from incoming enemies. This is done by holding the stick to the left or the right of an enemy as they attack or holding it back to block. While the game insists that there is no timing requirement, there were times when a successful dodge still led to me taking damage. It’s a cool system in practice and one that feels so good when you pull it off correctly, but one that could have been more consistent.

This dovetails rather awkwardly with the fact that while the combat has some great weight and is relentlessly satisfying, things start to fall apart when you’re being attacked by more than one enemy. Jacob can’t dodge more than one attack at a time, and you’re given few options to take on multiple enemies simultaneously. A heavy melee strike can hit multiple enemies, but it’s so slow to wind up that it is impractical in the middle of a pile-on.

If you’re not reading between the lines enough, I’ll say it. The Callisto Protocol is a challenging game. For the most part, it’s challenging in that you have to manage your resources effectively when engaging in battles with your enemies. In some aspects, and this is the minority of my experience, it’s challenging to the point where it can become frustrating. The combat system falling apart when faced with more than one enemy and attacks that kill in one hit are bound to frustrate players. As a massive fan of horror games, these kinds of challenges are ones I’m accustomed to (and perhaps even welcome), but for some players, it will be more frustrating than fulfilling. Accessibility options will no doubt remedy some of these frustrations – including auto-dodge and lock-on aiming, but Callisto can be a challenging game.

The weaponry you’re outfitted with is relatively modest, offering players variations on the typical pistol, shotgun, and assault rifle. None of the weapons ever really have a purposeful use – you can easily finish the game with the gun you’re given at the start – and it feels like a missed opportunity to have such simple weaponry.

That said, the combat does a fairly good job of forcing you to mix it up between weaponry, melee, and your telekinetic power (called GRP). There wasn’t a single time in the game when I relied on one more than the other. Pummelling an enemy in melee highlights an area on the enemy, which deals better damage if you shoot at that point quickly after dealing damage. It’s a simple system that never gets old. Throw in the ability to grab and throw enemies onto traps such as spikes, fans, or rotating blades with your GRP, and you’ve got a pretty strong combat system that The Callisto Protocol builds itself on.

It’s a shame that the enemy variety is so low. The new threat is called the Biophage, and there are only about six or seven enemies that you’ll encounter throughout the game. Perhaps even more disappointing is that about half of these enemies behave the same, merely looking slightly different. Games like Resident Evil 7: biohazard did so much with so little, so it can work, but the lack of enemy variety in The Callisto Protocol did mean that encounter design towards the end of the game did get a bit repetitious.

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Once again, some creative flourishes do their best to keep things interesting here. The second act encourages you to play stealthily due to the design of the enemies there, feeling more akin to the encounters found in games like The Last Of Us. Similarly, leaving enemies damaged but not dead for too long will see them mutate, but all this ever amounts to is literally turning them into bullet sponges who deal more damage. These are both great ideas, in concept, but I’d love to have seen different mutations that altered the flow of battle in other ways rather than just having to spend more ammo on them.

I previously referred to Callisto Protocol as a thriller, which was a deliberate distinction that I made. If I had to decide how scary a game like The Callisto Protocol is, I’d liken it closer to games like Dead Space 3 or Resident Evil 4. It’s a tense experience constantly throwing things at you, but it never quite reaches the lofty heights of terror similar to games like the first two Dead Spaces or even something like Resident Evil 7. The Callisto Protocol is a loud game, constantly throwing music and loud stingers at you to the point where it doesn’t give you the space to even build tension. Such a loudness takes away from the scares, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a tense experience.

As alluded to earlier, there aren’t any corners cut either. Your first run will easily take you upwards of fifteen hours to complete. My first run took almost twenty as I was taking my time to explore everything and defeat some of the more challenging encounters on the hardest difficulty. The game gives you some “optional” paths that further flesh out the story and rewards you with extra loot, but you can see everything the game offers in a single playthrough. There are no unlockables, unfortunately, and the new game plus mode is coming later too. So while the game is lacking in the replayability department, I never felt short-changed by the experience The Callisto Protocol provided “out of the box”.

When you start thinking about Callisto’s presentation, things get a bit more complicated. This is the first game in which I struggled to choose which mode to play in. One thing is sure, however, and that’s the fact that the production values are through the roof. Every cutscene has been well directed to the point where it would stand alongside games like Dead Space or even the recent God of War games – mimicking the “continuous cut” style that those games employ.

It is harder to deduce whether you’ll want to play this game in its performance or resolution modes. The 60fps option is fantastic, and post-patch works wonderfully. But it comes at the cost of reduced lighting effects, which is a pretty big trade-off in a game as atmospheric as this. Regardless of your choice, The Callisto Protocol is a great-looking game. The characters are well-detailed, the locales are beautifully realised, and the atmosphere is absolutely on point.

Although it might seem like I’ve been overly critical of The Callisto Protocol, it’s still one of the most enjoyable horror experiences I’ve had this year. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel in any tangible way but still offers up an engaging and enthralling experience from beginning to end, even if it’s devoid of surprises. It’s a cliché to say, but I’ll do it anyway – essentially, The Callisto Protocol feels greater than the sum of its parts – and I think any self-respecting horror or even action game fan owes it to themselves to check it out.

THE XBOX SERIES X VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Although they’re not short of wins with the terrific Spider-Man games, after the underwhelming response to ensemble-led misfire that was Marvel’s Avengers, it feels as though Marvel Games would be hungry for a win in the guise of a big, exciting team-up. On paper, Firaxis is the studio you’d put in charge of bringing a turn-based strategy flavour to one of the comic giant’s many properties. However, as fascinating a brood as the Midnight Suns are, this game’s strongest features are totally eclipsed by plenty of jank, a lot of cringy and uninteresting hangouts at home base, and presentation that doesn’t feel even remotely current.

The game’s most interesting ideas posited revolve around the turbulent peace treaty between the sides of might and magic in the Avengers and the Midnight Suns as they band together under one roof to put a stop to Lilith. As her reanimated progeny, “Hunter”—an imaginative name and occupation double—you’ll be recruited by the group to unlock the dormant memories that helped you fall mother dearest the first time around. I think it’s the attempt to do so much that sees Midnight Suns come up short in telling a focused, engaging story front-to-back. The relationships between the game’s several characters tie it all together, but there’s no belief behind any of them. The game might be crammed full of wall-to-wall heroes and villains and yet a meaningful arc never really emerges.

Midnight Suns is a toxic marriage between two ideas that, in theory, should work. Firaxis’ ability to iterate on their distinguished brand of turn-based strategy, through the implementation of free movement and a deck system, is undeniable and clearly is this particular game’s strength. But as with their last game, XCOM: Chimera Squad, their want to place the interpersonal ties on equal footing comes up short as pretty much any second spent on the Abbey grounds—which serves as both Hunter’s once resting place and the base of operations for the mission to take down Lilith—feels like a waste of time.

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Although the combat bonuses granted can be handy, building these relationships up through inane hangouts and jaw sessions is painfully lifeless. With dialogue and line delivery fit for a ham sandwich, I dreaded any moments of forced conversation.

Just as I think there are simply too many awkward pleasantries shared in the Abbey’s halls, I feel like Midnight Suns lobs a few too many ideas into the mix as far as upgrading your heroes goes. A few of the ideas, including rolling two identical cards into a souped up “+” variant and visiting Tony’s forge, work for me, though I fast gave up on sending heroes out on solo ops and other seemingly inconsequential things. 

Thankfully, the meat and bones of Midnight Suns’ squad-based strategic combat feels like Firaxis firing on all cylinders. Although I miss the easily quantifiable rules of grid-based movement, there’s certainly a cinematic feel to having the likes of Captain America, Captain Marvel, or Blade freely moving around the play space. Managing your heroism level, which can tick up or down based on cards played, is certainly the most strategic part of the fray, even it feels a bit random given the unpredictable nature of the draw. Of course, on the middling difficulty I played on, Midnight Suns is rather forgiving—when a character is downed in combat, you’re likely to be dealt a revive card, so the fall of the cards can fit the circumstance you’re in. 

Despite there not being a heap of variety within Hydra’s ranks, there’s enough going on per fight that you’ll need to keep your wits about you. After a while, already toppled bosses can pop up to mix things up and turn fairly standard battles into pressure cookers. The boss fights themselves have a big feel and are this game at its most “Marvel”. 

I feel like Midnight Suns’ presentation is several rungs below what should have been expected, and it’s even well below Marvel’s Avengers which, despite its undoubtedly larger budget, is still years older now. To say Midnight Suns is hamstrung graphically by its support of older tech is an understatement, which is a shame because its art direction isn’t bad. There are unfortunate masked loads like passing through a portal in Limbo which is every time backed up with a literal loading screen, it stutters, and on Steam Deck—which in fairness isn’t an optimised platform yet—it crashes after nearly every operation. The transitions between Hunter’s sleeping and waking existence are cumbersome and clunky, it feels as though the entire game is at times a stitched together Frankenstein’s monster. 

Outside of the aforementioned cringe line delivery pretty much across the board, Midnight Suns has pretty great sound design and an original score that’s suitably epic. 

Marvel’s Midnight Suns feels like proof that, at some point, Firaxis will perfect this formula they’re going for. Their handle for turn-based combat is top notch, it’s just all of the role-playing lite elements that ultimately hampers the experience. It has its share of issues but Midnight Suns is an easy enough recommendation for both strategy enthusiasts and those swept up by the Marvel machine. 

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Gungrave G.O.R.E. looks like it would have a heap of ingredients for a great game. Stylish gunplay, slick combos, a cool early-2000’s era property and mountains of bad guys to deal with – it almost sounds like Devil May Cry with a heavier focus on gunplay. I wish that were the case. While there is some fun to be found in developer Iggymob’s Gungrave G.O.R.E., it thoroughly outstays it’s welcome and ends up being a tedious, repetitive experience.

The setting is classic video game – you play as Grave, an undead near invulnerable soldier wielding dual pistols and a giant coffin for close-range bashing. You’re introduced to a series of mob bosses in an opening scene and then let loose to beat them one by one, area by area. It’s a story that harkens back to an earlier time in games, mostly serving as an excuse to blast a bunch of guys.

And blast you will. I hope you’re not prone to RSI symptoms if you want to play Gungrave because you’ll spend nearly the entire time pulling the right trigger to repeatedly blast wave after colour coded wave of bad guys the levels throw at you. There are a couple of neat systems that help make things a bit more engaging than just mindless blasting. There’s a ‘Beat’ meter which tracks your consecutive landed attacks while contributing both to your end of level score and your Demolition meter. Demolition moves use this meter to pull off flashy attacks which do big damage and refill some lost health.

You have a shield which recharges if you avoid damage long enough and you can help boost it back up by performing an execution move on a stunned enemy, Doom-style. This can be combined with a whip that you can use to pull stunned enemies to you, or zip yourself to them as a way to move around the battlefield. You’ll gradually unlock more close-combat moves which can be used to break enemies with shields, as well as Destruction moves and general character stat boosts like extra health and gun damage.

Even with this variety of actions and unlocks though, I found the game stopped being all that interesting after the first few levels. Each factory, warehouse and city street setting begins to blend into the next – to the point where it felt like a breath of fresh air once I reached a level with some vegetation. But more than the repetitive environments, the repetitive enemies and combat encounters really began to grate well before getting to the end. New enemy types are introduced so gradually, and half the time don’t really demand a different method of play to anything you’ve encountered before. Mash the trigger, use the Destruction moves as they charge, and dodge when you can.

Every time I played I got the distinct impression that the Gungrave G.O.R.E. needs a bunch more polish. I found some consistent bugs through my play through like a door that was supposed to open after an encounter just… not opening. Walking into a room, being blasted back through the door just as it automatically closed so I was stuck in a hallway until I restarted from the checkpoint. Music that doesn’t loop properly, instead just reaches the end of a track and begins again. And maybe most annoyingly, cut scene audio was consistently blown out. Volume was considerably higher than the regular game audio with voices sounding like they’d been amplified to within an inch of their life. This persisted even after closing and re-opening the game. Level and encounter design was messy as well. Bosses that are just sudden difficulty spikes, and some regular level encounters just threw an unreasonable amount of tanky enemies in an extremely uninteresting attempt at creating difficulty.

Having done some research on the original 2002 Gungrave game, it makes me wish Iggymob had borrowed from it’s cel-shaded anime-like visual style. While G.O.R.E. looks technically impressive, it definitely doesn’t have the same personality with it’s lightly stylised visuals. On PS5 it held up a consistent 60 frames per second in performance mode even with waves of enemies and objects in the scene breaking all over the place. There’s a quality mode which turns on ray-tracing at the expense of a 30-fps cap, but

I found the less fluid movement didn’t suit an action-focused game like this. I didn’t do any Digital Foundry style pixel counting, but in performance mode everything was super sharp on a 4K display. Things can look pretty spectacular when you’ve got the environment smashing around you, enemies coming from all directions and shots flying every which way – it’s just a shame the environments and enemies are so repetitive and soulless.

There is absolutely some fun to be found in Gungrave G.O.R.E. The over-the-top combat is spectacular to watch at times, and blasting at waves of various colour coded enemies is definitely fun for a while. Sadly, it is only a short while. For the majority of my 7-ish hours of play time I just found myself going through the motions. The story didn’t do much to invest me in the world and the environments and enemies were just so repetitive.

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Given the whirlwind of releases over the last month or so, you’d be forgiven if Evil West has slipped under your radar. A brand new IP from Flying Wild Hog of Shadow Warrior fame, Evil West is something of a relic of the past, with a linear single player campaign, secret collectibles, weapon upgrades, perks, and so much more. This isn’t to say Evil West feels archaic, though, with a tightly paced campaign, satisfyingly brutal combat, and flexible progression that all coalesces into a thoroughly enjoyable carnage filled adventure.

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Set in a Wild West under the threat of supernatural beings known as the Sanguisuge, you step into the shoes of Jesse Rentier, a vampire slayer and heir to the Rentier Institute. Headed by Jesse’s father, William Rentier, the Institute’s sole purpose is to eradicate the vampiric threat that has a stranglehold around the United States. With the Rentier Institute having weaponized steam and electricity, the Sanguisuge are desperate to survive against all odds, and launch a nation-wide attack to stamp out humanity for good.

It’s a fairly by the numbers narrative that’s made entertaining by its exaggerated characters and overt cheesiness. While Jesse himself is a pretty cookie-cutter protagonist, it’s supporting characters like long time vampire slayer Edgar Gravenor and doctor Emilia Blackwell that bring out the best in him through their interactions. The dialogue between them has a tongue-in-cheek awareness to it similar to Flying Wild Hog’s Shadow Warrior 3.  It’s also chock-full of references to longstanding franchises like DOOM, Castlevania, and more, further adding to the self-awareness. While it’s nothing to write home about overall, it serves as an engaging backdrop for the blood-soaked action built around it.

If I had to describe Evil West, I’d say it’s most akin to a third-person DOOM Eternal. It has a taut focus on resource management, target prioritization, and making you feel as badass as you look. The core combat revolves around ranged and melee attacks, where Jesse has access to close-quarters combos and long range guns. It’s a seamless and fluid melding of the two that make for an entirely unique and kinetic style of combat, where you swap between weapons as needed, weaving punches in between and tying it all off with a finisher for a much needed health drop.

Combat only deepens further when you unlock an electric powered gauntlet which has a slew of capabilities. It’s primary use is for electrocuting enemies, which allows you to follow up with a high damage beatdown, but it’s the way in which you can zap your foes that allow you to get creative. Whether it’s successfully timing parries, pulling foes towards you with a whip, or unleashing electric hell on the Sanguisuge in an overdrive mode, the gauntlet is consistently satisfying to use in combat, and this is only reinforced through progression.

As you move through linear levels, you’ll level up and obtain perk points which can be spent on new skills for Jesse. There’s a few different trees you can spec into here that provide unique and distinct playstyles, such as maximizing your energy regen to make the most of powerful gauntlet attacks, or exploiting environmental hazards against enemies to get the upper hand. Every perk point obtained is an ever alluring prospect of new ways to dispatch foes in a gloriously satisfying manner.

The plethora of weapons you obtain can also be upgraded over the journey as you collect Bucks. From a standard six shot revolver and bolt-action hunting rifle, to a literal flamethrower, there’s always a way to power up and customize your favorite weapons further. Everything combines to make for a certifiably bonkers combat system that’s practically begging for a new game plus playthrough once you roll credits, which really cements how much Jesse’s slaying capabilities expand over the course of the game.

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All of these aspects, alongside the ability to refund perk points at any point, means you have a robust and flexible progression system that encourages you to experiment with Jesse’s skills. One playthrough wasn’t enough for me to obtain every upgrade, but I’m sure a new game plus playthrough will result in a fully upgraded and equipped Jesse which I’m sure is as crazy as I’m anticipating it to be.

The game is somewhat slow to get going, though. I found the first few missions fell into repetition in their combat arenas due to a relatively limited move set and weapon choice early on. This only lasted for the first 3-4 missions, but left combat feeling more mundane in its opening hours in comparison to how chaotic it can get in the second half of the game.

A combat system like this is nothing without enemy variety, though, and Evil West delivers on that in spades. It’s constantly serving up new combinations of enemy types that demand you to pick and choose what you want to focus on first to make things as easy as possible. During my roughly 10-hour playthrough on normal difficulty, I died a handful of times but ultimately felt like the difficulty curve was satisfying and rewarding. This is most prominent with Evil West’s bombastic boss fights, that demand a higher level of focus, prompt dodging, and exploiting enemy weak points.

While the missions in Evil West are remarkably linear, that certainly isn’t to its own detriment. Each mission hangs around for just the right amount of time, never overstaying its welcome or bowing out too soon to where its ideas can’t breathe. Despite the supernatural setting, Flying Wild Hog still finds ways to weave cowboy staples into these levels, such as an explosive train heist and tense bank robbery. Each level still has some hidden collectibles, skins, and upgrades to find, so it’s never as simple as walking straight ahead.

While I wasn’t able to test the coop during my time with Evil West, only the session host can progress through the story missions and character upgrades, meaning anyone who joins up to a session as a guest will lose all progress made when returning to their own file. Enemy health and damage is scaled up to account for the extra player, but it’s disappointing that a 10 hour experience like this is lacking in the ability to save progression between solo and coop play sessions. Still, though, the entire thing is playable with a mate, so there’s definitely some value to be found in that.

While the Wild West might typically be synonymous with rolling deserts and tumbleweed, Evil West bucks the trend by including a myriad of environments to explore, all as captivating as each other. From your typical western towns to blood leech ridden forests, each mission is a visual delight with a suitable amount of spectacle to each of them. It adds to that already tight pacing to keep you engaged and involved in each part of the world you visit.

While it doesn’t quite stand up to some triple A juggernauts of today, Evil West’s visual allure is in its style, bursting with the vibrant colors of blood and electricity in direct contrast with a steampunk aesthetic. It also ran remarkably well on my 3060ti, and I only ever encountered a few audio bugs during my playthrough.

THE PC VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Another year, another Dark Pictures game. Little Hope was my least favourite, and last year’s House of Ashes was easily my favourite. So far, all of the games have taken some great horror concepts and flipped them on their head, subverting most, if not all, your expectations. The Devil In Me, then, is the ultimate subversion. That is to say, it’s exactly what it presents itself as, and as a result never quite feels like it capitalises on its fantastic premise. That’s not to say it’s bad – it’s heads and shoulders above Little Hope and better than The Quarry despite it’s significantly smaller scale – it’s just lacking any surprises.

Like the previous games, The Devil In Me is an interactive drama like Until Dawn and The Quarry. You play as a group of characters and must make decisions to navigate them through the story (hopefully alive) to the credits. Each decision you make can have rippling effects on how the story plays out, leading to multiple potential outcomes. Like the other Dark Pictures games, The Devil In Me is entirely self-contained, and you don’t need to play (or have liked) the previous games to appreciate this one.

The Devil In Me follows a crew of documentary filmmakers looking to revitalise their in-trouble series. The team is working on a project about one of the first serial killers in America, Henry Howard Holmes. Stuck on how to make the done-to-death angle interesting, the team receives a mysterious invite from an eccentric millionaire to come and visit his modern-day replica of the H.H. Holmes Murder Castle. In real life, the hotel was unremarkable, but in most fictional depictions, it’s portrayed with impossible spaces, dead-end hallways, and all kinds of other architectural idiosyncrasies designed to trap and kill people.

But I’m getting a bit carried away here. The Devil In Me follows the crew as they visit this totally-normal replica of a serial killer’s playground, but as they arrive, they realise that perhaps they’re being watched and even manipulated. Throw in a crazy masked serial killer and some SAW-esque traps and you’ve got yourself a horror movie, or in this case, a perfectly solid concept for a Dark Pictures game. A mysterious looming threat, a band of characters who love to hate each other, and a setting that’s ripe for scares.

It’s a bit of a shame then that The Devil In Me fails to capitalise on the potential of its concept as much as other games in the series have. I really enjoyed the journey from beginning to end, don’t get me wrong, but it did feel like the writers were playing it safe in some ways. I obviously will not spoil the places that the story goes, but I was waiting for a huge holy shit moment, as usually happens in the Dark Pictures games, and it never came. I’d even go as far as to say despite the grotesque nature of the plot and the violence in The Devil In Me, it’s easily the most grounded and restrained of the games yet.

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It just feels like that Supermassive could’ve done a lot more with the clear SAW inspiration they’d taken for The Devil In Me. I was excited to have to, in the heat of a moment, perhaps do something horrible to my friend early on and then see how that would carry out for them as the story played out. Almost all the “SAW” like moments of The Devil In Me seem to result in somebody dying, and their story closed off. None of the decisions in these moments specifically ever felt especially weighty, and the odd moment where we did kill a cast member, it felt like an almost comical Final Destination-esque moment. I appreciate a good kill as much as the next person, but too much feels left to chance.

Thankfully, the improvements added in House of Ashes carry over with The Devil In Me. Fixed camera angles are still gone, and the useless dedicated flashlight button has been removed. Instead, we have a cursory inventory system that stores keys and unique items for each character. When I played a few chapters of the game last month, I was excited to see if this meant we’d be getting more of an exploration-based Resident Evil-like experience rather than a linear story. While character-specific items and abilities introduced new ways to explore the world of The Devil In Me, it never feels as dramatic a departure from the linear series formula as it could be.

Of course, the elements that do similarly work return here. Besides playing solo, Shared Story mode allows you to tackle the entire experience with a friend online, just as if you were playing together locally. Movie Night, on the other hand, lets you assign the five characters to up to four other people in the room to control. The game subsequently prompts each player when it’s their turn. I adore this mode and will never play a Supermassive game without it. However, I still wish that characters with lower screen time were marked somehow so they could be evenly divided between players.

But as always, each player in Movie Night can have the difficulty of their experience altered. Suppose there are people in your group who are terrible at QTEs or wanting more of a challenge. In that case, they can individually increase or decrease their difficulty. I think it’s a great idea, as these games tend to skew towards more casual audiences anyway, so being able to invite anyone into the fold is well worth the inclusion of difficulty options.

I can’t talk about a game like this without talking about the scares, either. The Devil In Me, as previously mentioned, feels a lot more grounded than in previous games. As such, your mileage may vary as to whether you could find this to be a truly terrifying experience, though for me personally the only scares I got here were from jump scares. Nothing as egregious or as annoying as Little Hope, mind you, as many of The Devil In Me’s jump scares feel well-measured and earned. But The Devil In Me lacks the tension that House of Ashes had.

Similarly, The Devil In Me’s presentation is very much all over the place. It’s hard to work out just how it doesn’t manage to look as good as its predecessors, but so many scenes feel like they’ve been lit incorrectly, or facial animations animated strangely. The central location that the game relies upon has a lot of charm, for sure, but overall, this is one of the most inconsistent-looking Supermassive game thus far. Some of these issues can be fixed with updates in the future, which is a shame because when The Devil In Me looks great, it looks really great.

Thankfully, the entirety of the cast feels really on point this time around, which is great given how flat Ashley Tisdale’s performance was in House of Ashes. The cast is led by a sensational Jessie Buckley, who keen eyes might recognise from Chernobyl, Fargo, or Taboo. The rest of the cast, who’ve made supporting appearances in Game of Thrones, Dune and Coronation Street all hand in decent enough performances to the point where I think they could be the most likeable protagonists in a Dark Pictures game.

THE PC VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Obsidian, since their acquisition by Microsoft, has impressed with their ability to diversify, scale up and down and, most importantly, produce a finished product. Just like their sandbox-survival riff on Honey, I Shrunk the Kids in Grounded, Pentiment has been lovingly cobbled together by the big hearts of a small team. It’s certainly not going to be for everybody, but as this game aptly portrays: you can’t be all things to all people. 

While contracting at the scriptorium at Kiersau Abbey, murder befalls the rural town of Tassing. As Andreas Maler, an illustrator, you find yourself fast entangled in the lives of both the abbots at the monastery and the Bavarian peasants they keep under their toe, by way of land tax and restrictions, at the foot of the meadows. It’s a superbly written, layered narrative that spans decades and details the prominence of religion and art during the period. It also speaks to a beautiful concept of earning the admiration of those who came before us, and it’s this notion that fuels the inciting event as an elder monk is hung out to dry by the church over the murder of an outspoken baron.

Stepping out from your role as a simple journeyman artist, you investigate the details of the grisly murder by engaging with both the brothers and nuns of the church and the townsfolk to reach a consensus. It’s almost as if Knives Out met Downton Abbey, so enjoyable and authentic are both aspects of the premise. Even as a role-playing game with layers, Pentiment respects your time because it is, after all, a fleeting commodity. Knowing I couldn’t speak to everyone, or cross check everything, meant that regardless of the evidence I put forward, doubt still lingered over whether justice is ever unclouded. I liked the ticking clock aspect and it left me wanting to return to the scene of the crime, so to speak, to explore other paths, despite the game being a respectable twenty hours long. 

Which sounds short for a role playing game, but long for a game with as few strings to its bow as Pentiment has. That said, despite its length and heavy admiration for the written word, Pentiment never outstayed its welcome. I felt awash with relief to roll credits, but not so I could move on but so that I could talk about it. I felt the mystery of who’s pulling the threads for all of the murders in Tassing culminates in a satisfying way, and I was compelled throughout the narrative’s many bait and switches.

I’d be fascinated to learn more about the development of Pentiment because it is such a niche idea. To have such heady concepts and grand ponderings delivered through what is a rather simple game is a choice, but one that doesn’t feel like a miss for the team. All of your time is spent either in the abbey, in the commons, or the surrounding woods, speaking to all manner of people with all manner of ideologies. It has exploratory aspects, though it isn’t open-world. Tassing has obvious limits, but rather than feeling restrictive and underdeveloped, it feels communal. You buy into what the team presents, even through the game’s hand-drawn aesthetic. 

Could Pentiment have worked better as a greater scope role playing game, knowing full well what Obsidian’s pedigree is? I actually don’t think so. Much of its charm is in its ardent commitment to the period’s art, which wouldn’t have worked in any other format. Andreas’ adventure feels like it exists within the margins of a living book, the game does not hold back from referencing history as it was—albeit dramatised for effect. Just as “Pentiment” means to a painting that has altered by simply drawing over the top of it, the game speaks to chipping away at falsehoods to unearth a hidden truth.

Although Pentiment can be a violent game, it’s all consequential to your testimony. Regardless of whether your suspect is guilty or dead, they’ll meet a confronting, grisly end in the town commons. What became of the first suspect fingered by Andreas actually came as quite a shock, as Pentiment’s sketched visuals did little to soften the gruesome death blows. Like all good game towns, the streets of Tassing fast grow memorable and it all becomes as familiar as the back of your hand. Inspired by illuminated manuscripts of the time, Pentiment’s lovely period-inspired character models pop against the more roughly detailed country backdrops, although it’s the smaller details that made Pentiment’s aesthetic so unforgettable. The sheen of the pencil’s lead scribing out the dialogue gives the sense you’re inside a retelling of a famous story, even the most intense, blunt comments mark the page with lead fractures as if the pencil were under great stress. Even the little gags like correcting incorrect spelling on the fly, it’s all so clever.

Although there’s nothing by way of spoken dialogue in Pentiment, it’s carried along by a performative medieval score that couples together with the almost-woodcut illustrations to capture the turbulence and dark undertones of the game’s whodunnit narrative. 

There are so many stars in this game’s conception. Josh Sawyer’s boldness to go out on a limb and direct a game that’s perhaps as niche as it gets is striking, but it’s sure to pay dividends. It’s a first-rate role playing game from a team who knows a thing about making them, though even all of the beautiful, stimulating writing is swiftly undercut by Hannah Kennedy’s art direction. When all of these powers combine, the story of Andreas Maler—a good man—is a powerful rumination on church and state, and riveting mystery, and a late charger for Game of the Year.

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I can’t help but feel for Sonic Frontiers. At a glance, it’s almost too easily categorised as Sonic Team’s attempt at Breath of the Wild, a comparison point the team has been quite doggedly avoiding during preview coverage of the game. This is, partly, kind of absurd given how obvious the comparison point is. Sonic Frontiers plops the titular blue blur into large, open-zone environments in which ancient technology has broken down and nature has largely returned to claim its land. Mysteries abound, friends must be rescued and existential questions answered. But Sonic Frontiers is so much more than its surface. It’s deeply strange, often throwing conflicting ideas at the player at breakneck speed, and ultimately not entirely successful. But it makes a bold and earnest attempt at the genre and despite losing a few rings along the way, still clears a comfortable A grade.

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Sonic Frontiers sees Sonic and friends thrust into one of the series’ more touching tales. Eggman has meddled with forces far greater than even his genius and inadvertently trapped himself, and Sonic’s best mates, in a digital realm known as Cyber Space. Here, memories are warped by Godly AI processing power and rendered into explorable manifestations (in this case old Sonic levels and subtext-packed cutscenes). With the Chaos Emeralds and his loveable roster of friends and foes trapped on Starfall Islands, Sonic must venture forth into the unknown and explore a series of loosely connected open-zones, solving puzzles, completing levels and generally being a snarky little hero.

These islands arguably serve as Sonic Frontiers’ biggest formula shift since the series’ jump to 3D back in the late 90s. Massive in scale and crammed full of small activities to complete, these spaces are borderline seamless playgrounds designed to push Sonic’s speed and your platforming skills to new limits. Equipped with the divisive Boost mechanic on the right trigger, Sonic is effectively encouraged to tear arse through the five available islands, utilising a simple but engaging loop of momentum, combat and exploration geared toward constantly rewarding the player. To complement the speed of the Boost, Sonic is also able to create whimsical trails of light with the new Cyloop ability that has you hold down a button and draw a loop in any shape you can muster. This is often used to activate puzzles, lower enemy defences or uncover rings and other useful items.

The five islands are an amalgamation of gameplay ideas that individually function quite well but collectively can wear a little thin. There is great fun to be had in simple exploration with approachable momentum-based platforming and rail building for convenient traversal ala Death Stranding. The overworld is littered with springs, platforms and rails to bounce between, offering some form of collectable as a reward for the thirty or so seconds it might take you to complete them. It all works, managing to blend fixed and free camera work in a split second and realising the best of Sonic’s movement. Those collectable rewards are also directly impactful of your progression, as Sonic will need to gather up a surprising number of resources to move the story forward and unlock new things to do.

Cyber Space levels, the game’s small but gorgeously rendered line-up of classic Sonic platforming levels, need to be unlocked using gears that you can nab from harder combat encounters. These levels are all themed around old-school Sonic aesthetics and while not the biggest roster of influences has been drawn from, what’s here is some of the most fun you can have in Sonic Frontiers. Depending on how well you complete each level you’ll be rewarded with keys (one for finishing, S rank time, red coin collection and ring numbers) which are in turn used to unlock Chaos Emerald vaults.

There are also friendship tokens that are given liberally and used to unlock cutscenes with your mates, and some fishing coins you should absolutely keep an eye out for. The game’s fishing economy is wonderfully broken, allowing you to effectively buy your way through an island if you wish, all while chilling with Big and catching random junk as a goof. Along with the skill points to earn, attack and defence tokens to uncover, and the admittedly wonderful Kocos to collect, Sonic Frontiers can often feel a bit much. The tone of the open-zone is so deliberately serene and begs a flowstate from the player but the game’s overarching systems can harsh the vibe as it were, even if they’re relatively harmless individually.

As Sonic Frontiers begins to expand its adventure and you push from five to ten to the roughly twenty or so hours it takes for a first pass, these systems lose some shine. The back end of the game increasingly wrestles camera control away from you in unforgiving platforming sections while the level design itself begins to constrict your speed potential, effectively snuffing out a lot of the fun. There is also the game’s severe pop-in problem that can sometimes snap a new rail into existence mere meters away from you. The speed at which Sonic moves through these environments means I can empathise with the difficulty of rendering it all at once but when you need to be making split-second directional choices, it can be immensely frustrating to not know what might pop in next.

Given the shift to freestyle adventuring, Sonic is also forced to engage in combat more directly than ever before. Sonic Frontiers certainly understands the need for style and flair, often making you feel like a badarse with its flurry of hyper-speed, vibrant animations as Sonic lobs energy balls and booms at foes. Better still that all of this can be achieved in a remarkably approachable way, whether actively through basic button combinations or passively through the auto-skill ability you can toggle on and off once unlocked. Like exploration, combat just feels good to use, and just like exploration, it can wear thin over the game’s run.   

You’ll be unlocking high-level skills quite late in the game, though these are just additional button combinations to add to your roster, combat itself only fundamentally evolves based on what you’re fighting. Sonic Frontiers’ roster of robotic foes is largely a delight, a hobbled-together assortment of vaguely humanoid/animal creatures that require slightly different approaches to defeat without incident. The islands are also home to several larger-scale fights that utilise platforming and tighter timing to take down, often serving as a nice precursor to the game’s exceptionally cool major boss fights, the Titans.

Sonic Frontier’s Titan bosses are a standout of the game and are best experienced firsthand for a multitude of reasons. The first of these fights, Giganto, has been featured in marketing so I’m at least comfortable enough to talk about this walking anime cutscene of a monster. The Titans tower over the islands, using that scale to implement platforming segments before and sometimes during moment-to-moment, intensely cinematic combat sequences. All of this towering scale kicks off with unique, pop-rock tracks that bellow earnest lyrics about hope and new horizons while you effectively fight mecha-God. It rules so incredibly hard and I’m glad we have creators in the AAA space willing to be this dorky.

It’s a sense of style the rest of the game largely carries too, with a vibrant, if sensible, art direction and a general understanding of the power of going really fast through well lit-environments. The islands themselves aren’t anywhere near as varied as I would have liked though, with the initial greenery of Kronos dominating the palette for much. Ares was my favourite play space, with its harsh topography and small oasis pockets to discover in the arid deserts, but Chaos’ volcanic slopes and fragmented land mass left me a little cold. The final two islands, one of which is more of a gimmick, do lean back into forestation but the last one is a wonderful spot that made me wistful to be wrapping up.

Sonic Frontiers presents its story in a rather odd way though, which is especially sad given that the narrative beats and character interactions are all fairly compelling and fun. In an attempt to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds, Eggman has made himself a daughter in the form of an AI project named Sage. As Sonic races against time to save his trapped friends, Sage will frequently show up to observe or interact with the gang and their impact on her is not inconsiderable. It’s a simple tale but ends with surprising weight, made all the more impactful by the game’s background narrative that doesn’t shy away from some pretty heavy stuff.

The game’s final moments had me cheering a little, and the cut to credits is shockingly poignant (even with the mid and post-credits scenes evening out the tone a little). The moment-to-moment writing is clumsily pronounced but again in an endearing way—Sage’s ruminations on what a “real” family is, Knuckles lamenting his life of service, Amy pondering love and Tails fighting imposter syndrome. The only one without a clear arc is Sonic but he works as a mirror to the cast in many ways and is more of an observer to the game’s true story. Which is all wonderful and good, but pacing issues and obfuscation dull its best qualities. There are some great Sonic lore elements at play here but you wouldn’t know it from what the main story gives you alone, instead, you’ll need to dive into menus and memos to find out.  

All of these disparate systems and uneven feelings can’t fully derail this ride though and despite my many small grievances, I still look back fondly on my time with Sonic Frontiers. Its open-world adolescence is awkward, yes, but endearingly so— you can feel how badly this game wants to impress and that carries it far further than I imagined it could. Its moment to moment gameplay remains fun from start to finish and while the middle section slumps somewhat, it pulls up just in time to deliver a gorgeous and absurd final act. At some point in the story Sage observes Sonic trying to help his friends and shakes her head, “He never stops. Clarification, he never gives up”. And yeah, Sonic Frontiers stumbles often, but just like its titular hero, it never gives up.

The post Sonic Frontiers Review – Brave New Zone appeared first on Press Start.

This is the single player/campaign portion of our Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 review with our multiplayer/full review to come following the game’s launch this weekend.

Despite still emerging as the best-selling game of last year, the disappointment around Vanguard was profound. So, as has happened a few times before, the eggs have returned to the safety of the Modern Warfare basket. And in delivering a follow-up to 2019’s reboot of the franchise’s most popular sub-series, Infinity Ward has played a rather safe hand. It delivers a familiarity and fan service only they’re capable of, built upon the bones of the original Modern Warfare 2 while telling a starkly different story. 

Modern Warfare feels like a snapshot of the last two decades of geopolitical tensions, but the line it walks has never been more grey. Not that it ever has, but the conflict Task Force 141 finds tangled up in doesn’t have archetypal heroes and villains. It’s men and women doing what they believe is right, regardless of their alignment within the bigger picture. Though it’s tough to follow at times with its tiny moving parts, the idea of “the team” is really sold throughout. I felt the choice to have Ghost be something of a pointman for the story, emerging from the quiet mysterious type to a slightly louder mysterious type, is inspired. I was actually surprised with how often Price, who is often seen as the series’ lead, took a backseat to let the remainder of the team shine. 

Not only do Gaz, Soap and Ghost all shine, I particularly grew attached to both Alejandro and Rodolfo. Their sub-plot, which saw them trying to wrestle control of Mexico back from the weapon-smuggling cartel aiding Al-Qatala, was an engrossing distraction from the bigger picture. 

We’re introduced to twisted versions of the characters we think we know, and our expectations of the narrative to be are subverted deftly in yet another globetrotting, geopolitical Mission: Impossible-like romp. It’s semi-grounded by real-world technologies, which I appreciate, but it certainly still lets loose like only a Call of Duty can.

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It’s also amazingly nostalgic for the “original trilogy,” for want of a better term. There are some surprisingly wonderful character moments, full to the brim of the bravado and brotherly love you’d expect to see on an episode of Sons of Anarchy. There are also many callbacks to missions held dear, including storming a rain-slick freight ship, a prison break, and the obligatory aerial overwatch op. These aside, Modern Warfare 2’s campaign has tremendous variety, even if not all of the game’s seventeen levels hit the same. I felt the levels that served to showcase the shiny features in the game’s multiplayer were bottom-rung, especially ‘Violence and Timing’—a vehicular convoy mission which is meant to get players excited for driving jeeps in competitive modes. That said, there are some great open-ended stealth missions—‘El Sin Nombre’ for one—that felt almost like Hitman in their execution.

This newest instalment of Call of Duty continues the franchise’s consistent delivery of industry-leading mechanics, to the point where it’s hardly fair at this point. As a shooter it’s exceptionally tight, and it’s not easy to fault the game’s feel. I didn’t quite get a sense that the A.I. had improved out of sight, despite the team’s focus on creating a greater sense of immersion with enemies that were still easily duped and companions that, despite keeping their heads on a swivel, pathed rather awkwardly. Despite its clear strengths as a run and gun shooter, this game spent a lot of time turning the player into a vulnerable glass cannon in a handful of stealth missions. I’d never baulked at the slow burn ops historically, in fact I adore ‘All Ghillied Up’ from the first Modern Warfare, but the team’s decision to include mandatory crafting felt ill-considered. Scavenging for materials to cobble together smoke bombs and pry bars never feels as interesting as the covert stalking through enemy territory. 

The fidelity of the game’s pre-rendered scenes, much like Black Ops Cold War, is unbelievable. There were moments of such intense expression, captured in such detail, that I found myself questioning whether the scenes had been filmed live-action or not. It’s more or less matched by the in-game visuals, although there were noticeable pop-in issues in some of the larger open areas. 

Another vast disappointment is how the game performs. It does maintain a steady frame rate and runs rather well, it’s just that there are rampant bugs that mar nearly all facets of the game’s presentation. Hard crashes to the dashboard are one issue, though it’s the audiovisual glitches that cheated me out of truly experiencing some of the game’s key beats unfettered. On one occasion, no audio outside of gunfire was sounding while on another a black screen lingered in place of arguably the story’s biggest plot twist.

It was discovered, after some troubleshooting, that a simple mission restart from within the menu should do the trick. 

It might be a result of having been worked on by just about every studio under the Activision banner, but Call of Duty has always kind of been a benchmark for consistency within blockbuster video gaming. Modern Warfare 2 isn’t a bad outing by any means, I just don’t feel it plays to the series’ strengths. The overabundance of glacial stealth missions and the crude introduction of crafting mechanics two-thirds through the game continually stalling any momentum the game kept mounting. It eventually roll starts and emerges as a decent war thriller, underpinned by the camaraderie of Task Force 141.

The Xbox Series X version of this game was played for the purpose of this review. 

The post Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Campaign Review – Playing It Safe appeared first on Press Start.

It’s no secret that for a long stretch of the last console generation, Telltale Games and their brand of point-and-click adventure was a real mainstay in the zeitgeist. Of course, their fall is also well documented, but there’s no denying that, at the height of their powers, they told some tremendous stories that put player choice—or at least the illusion of it—at the heart of the experience. Tales from the Borderlands, through it all, reigned supreme as my favourite IP they tackled, and now Gearbox Quebec has resurrected the brand with a spiritual successor of their own making. 

New Tales from the Borderlands certainly recaptures the essence of what made the original enjoyable, and while it does circumvent some of the pitfalls that ultimately saw Telltale fail, it does careen headfirst into others.

As has always been the case, New Tales from the Borderlands is delivered across five roughly two-hour long episodes. Fortunately, all of the episodes are launching simultaneously, so there will be no poorly-cadenced release schedule for the season. The pacing felt a bit disjointed and for a Borderlands title, the game’s events felt less bombastic than I had expected. The finale, for example, for all of its reflective, existential ruminating, is a drag for much of its runtime. It has considerable heart and does manage to close out some character arcs in a satisfying manner, but it ultimately fell a bit short of the heights the original hit. 

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The lure of these ‘choose your own adventure’ games is the lure to return and explore the many narrative permutations but that lure simply isn’t there for me with New Tales. 

The three leads—Anu, her brother Octavio, and ‘fro yo’ slinger Fran—build up a fun camaraderie throughout the season, although I found their in-jokes to be very hit or miss. Louie, Octavio’s assassination bot of choice, is very much a tangential character and gets sidelined far too often. He’s absolutely the funniest part of New Tales, and never has a running gag about learning people’s full names dished up repeated yucks.

One thing New Tales does well is tie itself back to the franchise at large. Showing a small slice of life on Promethea, a slumly planet introduced in the series’ third mainline instalment, it really ramps up the conflict between Atlas and Tediore. Somehow, it feels like the most grounded Borderlands game of the lot, but it certainly has its moments of absurdity. 

Obviously, New Tales serves as Gearbox Quebec’s first venture into the genre Telltale lived and died by. Despite the opportunity to analyse where it stopped working for them and really carve out a unique interpretation on the well exhausted ideas we’re so used to, New Tales feels far too familiar and doesn’t manage to innovate at all on the genre’s tired concepts.

As you’d expect, the gameplay loop in New Tales is a balance of dialogue-heavy conversational pieces and free-roam areas where you’re able to explore, take in the environmental storytelling before arriving at the objective to push things along. I can’t fault the game’s ability to manufacture tension through the dialogue trees, throwing in a mix of scarily brief opportunities to respond and quick-time events, but the free-roam portions felt a bit like filler. They’re not exactly dense for lore to uncover, there’s a shit load of inexplicably ‘hidden’ cash money haphazardly stored in crates throughout the world, and the collectible Vaultlander figurines—despite being another very enjoyable recurring joke—weren’t exactly off the beaten path and felt like cheap busywork. Where settlements in Telltale’s The Walking Dead felt lived in and had lore in most corners, it doesn’t feel as though the same consideration went into the open areas of New Tales. 

I did truly admire the team’s commitment to accessibility, which should be a standard and not something that requires lauding but until that’s the case I’ll continue to pay credit where it’s due. They’ve provided a wealth of options to make things more enjoyable for those who might struggle with quick-time events and quick-reflex inputs. 

New Tales absolutely nails the Borderlands aesthetic with the cel-shaded world, and the characters that inhabit it, standing out as one of the game’s real highlights. The presentation, as a whole, is pretty great. Each episode opens with an opening credits montage set to a playlist of banger rock tunes. It felt like a bit of a spiritual extension of that infamous first Borderlands trailer set to Cage the Elephant. One thing I’m thankful for is how well it runs. Obviously, it isn’t being funnelled through the Telltale engine—which got flogged to within an inch of its life for a generation without much iteration—but for it to hold a solid frame rate, render properly, and have swift loading times is a refreshing marvel in its own right.

Although New Tales does some things right, I can’t help but see it as a missed opportunity to really take the bull by the horns and create something that feels unique in this space. Instead, New Tales feels dated and of a time that’s now far gone. 

I expect fans will still glean a few belly laughs from it and ultimately rally around Louie, who absolutely needs his own spin-off.

The post New Tales From The Borderlands Review – Tale As Old As Time appeared first on Press Start.

When I reviewed No More Heroes III just over a year ago, I absolutely adored how it attempted to wrap up or at least provide a definitive end to Travis Touchdown’s story. For the most part, my opinion hasn’t changed but playing on the Nintendo Switch last year led to a myriad of performance issues. Now something we’ve come to expect from third parties on the Switch, No More Heroes III rectifies these performance issues by making the jump to other platforms. Make no mistake, this is the same game, but one with better performance and, without a doubt, the best way to play.

No More Heroes III takes place nine years after the events of the second game and two years after the events of Travis Strikes Again. Travis Touchdown is once again the star and takes it upon himself to protect the planet as an alien ship descends on Earth. Onboard is an intergalactic alien prince known simply as FU, who has brought with him a troupe of other aliens who want to conquer the planet out of sheer boredom.

No More Heroes III continues the story of Travis Touchdown from previous games. Still, as a standalone game, it is easy enough to follow. The history of the characters is rich – some of which spanning over a decade of games – but I wouldn’t be put off if you haven’t played the first two games or even Travis Strikes Again. Certainly, the direction that No More Heroes III takes might seem a bit out of the left field, but it naturally progresses from where Travis Strikes Again left things.

Regardless of your experience with the series, there’s no denying that No More Heroes III is a stylish affair. An endearingly potent love letter to video games, it’s clear that this is a product that auteur director Goichi Suda had every hand in creating. This isn’t just a tribute to No More Heroes as a series; it’s a celebration of Suda and his distinctly endearing style of game-making. It’s self-aware and fantastically written. That being said, one or two characters definitely didn’t need to make a return and aren’t entirely developed as much as the others, but overall, No More Heroes III is Suda’s stylish best, easily.

No More Heroes III plays closer to the original game than its sequel. You play as Travis Touchdown as he works his way up the Galactic Superhero Rankings. Essentially, you have to kill ten different bosses to save Earth from destruction. But this competition is run by the UAA, so in between missions, you’ll have to scrounge the open world for jobs and money to pay for each of your ranking battles. It’s a simple premise held together by the strength of its set pieces.

Speaking of simple, the combat inherits aspects from previous games while adding its twist. Travis will now fight with the identical beam katana from beginning to end but still retains his wrestling move repertoire. In addition, the death drive device on his arm can now be equipped with skills that are a little wackier – including installing turrets, teleporting dropkicks, and telekinetic throws. These do a great job of keeping the combat fresh without completely overhauling it – which is great as the combat in No More Heroes III is the smoothest the series has ever had.

Such streamlining has been applied to the structure of the game too. In previous games, you’d enter a level, fight through enemies and then battle the boss. In No More Heroes III, you’ll be treated to some scenes detailing the boss and their relationship with FU before being thrown straight into the battle. This revised structure has proven to be divisive between fans in the past year, but I feel that it results in a much better-paced experience with little to no downtime – a common issue that I found with both of the previous mainline titles.

But don’t fret – this doesn’t mean there is less “game” on offer. Between missions, Travis can explore five districts of an open world. To progress, you’ll find preliminary qualifying battles to take place in or pick up odd jobs to make money to pay for his entry fees. The battles are all single-room affairs that have you fighting all kinds of unique enemy types. These admittedly feel super game-like in how separated they are from the story, though it also, once again, means that No More Heroes III feels immaculately paced.

I say this because No More Heroes III commits to throwing new stuff at you regularly. I can probably count around ten unique enemies in the game, but mixing those battle encounters with other activities keeps things fresh to the end. These other activities include collecting scorpions, shooting crocodiles off the coast, going into space to defeat flying space peacocks with a mech suit, and mowing the lawn. It’s a wide variety of activities that never force themselves onto the player excessively but never feels like grinding if you want to go for extra resources.

But what would a No More Heroes game be without boss battles? Absolutely nothing – so it’s a boon that pretty much every single one on offer here is fantastic. Where previous games would throw ten battles at you and rely on the uniqueness of each boss to shake things up, some of these battles can even be described as genre-bending. I’m not going to ruin any of them here – that would be cruel – but every one of them has a uniqueness to them that can’t be understated.

Regardless of which difficulty you play on (though I warn you – Spicy is HARD), using extra resources allows you to improve Travis and his abilities however you want. You can invest in some pretty standard upgrades to health, damage dealt, and the like. But you can also craft chips that will improve some aspects of Travis while reducing others. I favoured wrestling moves more during the later battles, so I equipped chips that would enhance my wrestling damage while dropping damage of moves I never used. It’s a system that never feels one hundred percent necessary but is there to tinker with to get that extra edge on harder difficulties.

Most players will get twelve or so hours out of No More Heroes III depending on how much you do, though my first run took around fourteen. But there’s so much more to it than running through and doing all the battles. All kinds of collectibles are strewn throughout the open world. While they’re unnecessary, they will help those who want to finish the more formidable difficulty modes on New Game Plus. There’s, of course, a bunch of shirts and collectibles to find too.

In my original review, I was a massive fan of the artistic direction of No More Heroes III. It’s a bright style that pops with vibrant and numerous colour, though different from the previous two games in the series. It’s never dull to look at, and the bump in both resolution and framerate with this updated port only helps the game’s presentation. Where the original Switch version performed well during battles, there were still some pretty noticeable framerate drops during more intense battles and when exploring the game’s open world. Thankfully, with these ports, these performance issues are almost non-existent. They’re not rock solid, mind you, but the faster load times and better performance make this version of No More Heroes III the best you can buy.

The soundtrack is bold, brash, and vibrant on the other side of the presentation coin. An eclectic mix of electronic, industrial, and even some reggae-tinged pieces permeate every battle and every menu to give the game a vibe like no other. The voice work is similarly fantastic – and it’s such a joy to see everyone return to voice their respective characters, no matter how small their roles might be. As expected, Robin Atkin Downes is the standout here, lending Travis a cocky bravado like never before. Other highlights include Noshir Dalal, who voices FU with so much charm and intensity that I want to be mates with him, even if he wants to conquer my planet.

As I played No More Heroes III again, I continued to be enamoured with just how engaging an experience it is. At first glance, it looks like a retread of the things that No More Heroes has done before – a bunch of boss battles with some kooky direction and a cringe-worthy protagonist. But No More Heroes III is so much more than that – it subverts all your expectations to offer some of Suda’s best work. And this updated port makes things only better.

THE XBOX SERIES X|S VERSION WAS PLAYED ON A XBOX SERIES X FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post No More Heroes III Review – An Even Better Experience appeared first on Press Start.

There’s a lot of confusion surrounding what Overwatch 2 actually is. Is it a fully fledged sequel? A glorified update? Is it worthy of the 2 appended to its title in a seemingly desperate fashion? Even after its proper reveal in June of this year, many were left wondering that the game would actually entail. The answer lies somewhere in the middle of all the discourse and conversation surrounding the sequel to Blizzard’s seminal hero shooter.

Fundamentally, Overwatch 2 is a reworking and revamping of the original experience, made free in an age where live service games are becoming more and more accessible to the masses. With a shift to 5v5, an increased emphasis on teamwork, and thoughtful new hero designs, Overwatch 2 makes a good first impression, but ultimately, it feels incomplete and lacking in content.

A vast majority of the changes in Overwatch 2 come with changes to its core foundations and overall structure. The change to 5v5 as opposed to 6v6 is one that feels thought out and deliberate, placing more emphasis on the role of tanks and teambuilding for particular playstyles. It ultimately makes way for a quicker, more frenetic moment-to-moment experience that feels different from its predecessor but not to the point that it abandons its core identity. It’s clear that Overwatch 2 is going in hard on being a team-focused game, which comes with it’s own set of pros and cons.

While it’s relatively fun to solo queue into quick play matches, the real satisfaction comes from playing with friends, regardless of whether or not you want to coordinate and play seriously, or just casually and for fun. Being able to communicate and play as a team always was core to Overwatch’s core gameplay loop, but it feels even more paramount here, and is all the more rewarding for it. The downside to this is that the game just isn’t as fun playing solo, often feeling somewhat mindless and mundane outside of a competitive setting.

To adjust for the shift to 5v5, a few of the original heroes have been tweaked, adjusted, or straight up reworked to fit better into the new team sizes. Each role has their own passive abilities now to help them further, from support heroes gaining passive healing after a set amount of time or tanks taking less knockback and generating less Ultimate charge for healing and received damage.

Heroes like Orisa and Bastion have had their skills changed for the better, placing stronger emphasis on their roles and gameplay loops, giving them more identity in what’s grown to be a large roster. A special shoutout should go to Doomfist, who’s been entirely reworked into the Tank role, functioning as a sort of hybrid between offensive and defensive heroes. He’s loads of fun to play and balancing high-speed aggression with trying to stay alive was constantly entertaining and engaging. There are definitely some heroes who feel lost in translation, such as Widowmaker and Symmetra, who haven’t been adjusted to work better within a 5v5 framework, which is made even more noticeable by the heroes who did get brought forward.

The three new heroes coming at launch, Sojourn, Junker Queen, and Kiriko are all a resounding success as well. Each one has a kit that feeds into itself and flows with clear strengths and weaknesses. Sojourn, for example, is a high speed damage dealer with a rail cannon that’s charged up by its primary fire. She also has a projectile that functions as a vortex on impact, making for easy headshots with said railgun. Junker Queen and Kiriko have similarly coherent designs that feel like a definitive step up from some of the stuff we saw in the first game – especially at launch.

Not all is so consistent on the game mode front, unfortunately, and it’s made even more apparent here with the core changes made to Overwatch’s foundation. The new game mode, Push, sees teams going head to head over the control of an endearing robot, who will push a barricade towards the enemy’s spawn when in control of either team. It makes for a dynamic and ever-shifting battlefield where you constantly have to adapt to new terrain and evolving team compositions, and often results in some tense tie-breakers. The downside to this is that some of the other objective based game modes like Escort feel archaic in comparison, especially when the core gameplay has potential for so much more.

Map design is similarly untouched, with a few of the old ones fitting into the changes and others not so much. The six new maps coming with launch feel tailor designed for it, though, so I often found myself more excited to play on those than a majority of the returning maps. These maps are also set in new and interesting locations that hadn’t previously been explored before, including the likes of Rio De Janeiro, New York City, and Rome.

If all of that sounds bare-bones in regards to new content, that’s because it is. Overwatch 2 is launching with one new game mode, three new heroes, and six new maps, which feels decidedly lacking for what is meant to be a whole new sequel. The most glaring omission is the lack of the new PVE mode due for release sometime next year, which one can only assume is the reason things are so content-light on the multiplayer side of things. Still, though, it’s hard not to feel like Overwatch 2 is more of a glorified content update as opposed to a whole new beast at launch.

As with any live service game, Overwatch 2 is adopting the seasonal model, with roughly nine-week long seasons introducing new heroes, maps, game modes, and a season pass. While every new hero is automatically unlocked upon purchasing the season pass, players who choose to stick to the free track can only unlock them upon reaching tier 55, which is another strange decision given the already lacking number of brand-new heroes. Battle pass progression is also noticeably slow, even for those who pay for the premium track.

There’s also some baffling decisions that have been made in regards to the new player experience. As a first time user, you have to unlock the original cast of heroes from the first game over roughly 100 matches, limiting the potential pool of playable characters for new players right from the start. While I can understand the amount of options might be overwhelming for some, it’s a strange decision given the emphasis on teamwork and teambuilding, especially with competitive play unlocking at 50 quick play match wins.

One thing you can always count on with Blizzard, though, is production values and polish. Overwatch 2 is yet another outstanding showcase of attention-to-detail with characters that are positively bursting with emotion and personality, a timeless art style that’s quality is only emphasized by the engine upgrades, and fine-tuned optimization that leaves every aspect of the game feeling smooth and seamless. The new heroes, maps, and design reworks are particularly inspired, but even if some aren’t for you, there’s the option to opt for their Overwatch skins as well. Thankfully, all of your cosmetics also carry over to Overwatch 2 here, so there’s no need to worry about any precious skins or gold guns.

THE PC VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Grounded is finally finished. Is that even the right word? When the unexpected project from a small team at Obsidian hit Xbox in the form of early access two years ago, I was shocked at just how much I enjoyed it. While it’s firmly in a genre that I generally don’t enjoy, the premise and the setting were just unique enough to really grab me. But that was two years ago. Now, Grounded has expanded in so many ways and finally branded itself as finished with the much coveted 1.0 release. The backyard has changed a bit two years on, but the general vibe has remained the same. So, is Grounded great with more to do and see as well as a proper story to play through? Mostly.

The crux of the Grounded story surrounds four kids who wake up having been shrunken down to the size of ants. Or slightly smaller. I’m not sure. The story takes place in the early 1990s, offering up a tone and atmosphere, not unlike comic sci-fi films from the same era as Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. The kids must investigate the backyard they’re in to discover just how a shady corporation is involved in their predicament and, hopefully, return themselves to normal.

While it’s a reductive comparison to make, Grounded plays most similarly to games like Minecraft. The kids start with nothing and scavenge the world to retrieve ingredients and resources, which can then be used to craft weapons, armour, and items that help you survive in this world. The premise of Grounded really separates it from its contemporaries – you’re exploring what is undoubtedly a version of your own backyard. Usually this would be boring, but when you’ve been shrunken to the smallest thing in the yard, everything is terrifying.

There’s a nice variety of enemies here too. From something as small and unassuming as an aphid to something as terrorising as a spider or praying mantis, there is always something to either hunt or run away from in the backyard. Slowly, as you spend more time in the world, you’ll come to recognise the friendlier creatures versus the aggressive ones. And, similarly, it’s incredibly rewarding to hunt creatures that, at the beginning of your journey, you couldn’t best. All in all, this incredibly enemy variety comes together to make Grounded feel like a real living breathing ecosystem, well beyond the state that it was in when it first launched years ago.

Grounded can be played as a focused story game or a more open-ended survival game, no matter your preference. But a lot of the story elements that have been added do their best to play like other Obsidian games you might have played. While it liberally borrows crafting aspects from games like Minecraft and even The Forest, I can’t help but look at the map and quest logs and be reminded of games like Fallout: New Vegas or even The Outer Worlds. It’s a lot of this interstitial material – like a bestiary filled out with kids cupping their hands to their eyes as if to be playing with binoculars – that gives Grounded a signature sense of charm that separates it from its contemporaries.

But it’s not just the enemies. It’s the entire backyard. It’s a joy to explore, and you’ll come across so many structures like you would in an Elder Scrolls game or a Fallout game, except they’re often just rubbish. A discarded soft drink can serve as a fantastic shelter from big spiders. A Battletoads figurine just smooshed into the dirt, abandoned by the children playing with it. A packet of mints. A juice box. All boring things normally, but coming across them with the same sense of wonder as I would coming across a daedric shrine in Skyrim is a testament to Obisdian’s worldbuilding here. It’s just a really, really good world to explore.

The most talked about aspect of the final release is the story mode, which feels welcome in a genre that usually doesn’t bother. The general flow of the story is good – the kids will travel from different areas in the garden to uncover the truth about their predicament. Along the way, they’ll encounter better equipment and even some boss battles with some more menacing creatures. I enjoyed playing the story mode, but I often ran into some difficulty spikes that made me think Grounded would be better enjoyed with friends.

I say this because Grounded is, from the get-go, a pretty tricky game. You will have to manage your hunger and thirst fairly regularly, which can often take you off the critical path of the story. In doing that, you might even be attacked or killed on the way and face an even greater setback in terms of both time and physical distance. Having other players with you just feels like the way the game is meant to be played. Being able to split up and delegate tasks between yourselves feels like not only the spirit of the game but the spirit of the story too.

That being said, you can adjust the difficulty to be whatever you want it to be. Whether you want to manage your resources less or remove thirst and hunger entirely. The accessibility options in Grounded are some of the best – letting players have the experience they want and even giving options to tone down the appearance of spiders for those with arachnophobia. In a first from me, I’d recommend playing Grounded on the Mild difficulty initially and adjusting from there – you’ll get the most out of the game this way, especially if you’re playing it solo.

Presentation-wise, Grounded is similarly strong. While the cynic in me thinks Grounded is trying to riff off of the popularity of series similar to Stranger Things, the presentation is still excellent. The whole experience is soaked in upbeat and synthy tracks, alluding to the high-tech nature of the situation the kids find themselves in while successfully calling back to the era that the game is trying to hard to emulate. The visuals are similarly beautiful – seeing the sunshine through the blades of grass on newer hardware gives a sense of depth and place to the surface of the backyard. It’s, all around, a great-looking game.

So, Grounded is finished. Or at least it’s ready for prime time. Looking at Obsidian’s plans for the game, I’m excited to see they’re not quite done with it yet. What’s here is already fantastic and feels complete, but the potential to keep on expanding is also quite exciting. For now, there’s never been a better time to jump into Grounded and, even better, jump in with friends and discover all of the mystery the backyard offers. Literally, go touch grass.

THE XBOX VERSION WAS PLAYED ON AN XBOX SERIES X FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Visual Concepts has finally found its groove with this year’s NBA game, knuckling down on the fundamentals while improving on a range of modes both new and old. It’s still not without its shortcomings, but there’s never been a better reason to jump back into the series than now. 

A lot of this comes down to the gameplay, which has seen significant improvement across the court. New animations make the game look and feel more like the real thing, while a welcome refresh to passing, in particular, provides a sense of freedom for players on offence. All players now have adrenaline boosts, too, which has been implemented to stop players from overdribbling. Each player has three boosts, which are consumed by performing explosive sprints. When you’ve consumed these boosts, your player will be noticeably slower until the shot clock is up or possession changes. It’s a welcome change, though it’s a bit odd that every single player has the same amount of boosts, no matter their experience or rating.

Defending has received a notable uplift, with well-needed refinements to shot blocking, steals, and ball strips, allowing for a range of different defensive maneuvers to call on throughout the course of a game. Similarly, match ups across the court are closer to what you see in the real world, with the game actively rewarding you for stacking the right player up against a dribbler and making the right decision when electing to block or steal. It’s a well needed refresh that injects a better sense of reward when taking risks, whether you’re on offence or defence, and it’s something that the series has desperately needed of late.

A refined focus on the court allows for NBA 2K23’s returning mode to shine, too. The Jordan Challenge, which looks at 15 of the biggest moments in Michael Jordan’s career, is a fantastic trip down memory lane of one of the all time greats of the game. The mode walks you through moments that defined Michael Jordan’s career, from his early college days to the iconic Bulls vs Jazz 1998 NBA Finals game.

THE CHEAPEST COPY: $68 WITH FREE SHIPPING FROM AMAZON.

Throughout each of the games, you’ll be asked to complete a range of tasks. These range from relatively basic requirements like winning the game to scoring a certain amount of points or getting a particular amount of rebounds. This, combined with the excellent presentation package on offer, makes the Jordan Challenge one of the standout modes in 2K23 by some distance. Whether you’re an avid fan of the game or have dabbled in the sport every now and again, there’s something on offer for everyone in the mode.

MyNBA has seen a welcome refresh this year with the introduction of MyNBA Eras. Rather than focus on just the present, the mode now allows you to jump back to defining eras in the sport. Whether it’s the Magic vs Bird era from the early 80s to the Modern era, MyNBA Eras gives you the reigns to play through (and potentially change) iconic moments that changed professional basketball as we know it. Presentation packages, commentary, kits, courts and players are all expertly recreated here, making for one of the deepest modes in a sports game by a mile.

The Jordan Challenge’s visual presentation packages also make their way to MyNBA Eras, adding a nostalgic flavour to the mode. Jumping into the early 80s, for example, brings all of the classic presentation packages over while fuzzing up the visuals to look like you’re watching the game on a much older screen. While the filter can be turned off, it definitely adds to the immersion of playing those classic match ups and is a nice option to have.

I was particularly happy to see a bigger focus on the WNBA in this year’s game, with the inclusion of the Commissioner’s Cup a notable highlight. These inclusions are positive steps forward for the series, and there’s no doubt the mode is well above anything else seen in any other sports game right now, with a raft of options available for those wanting to play through The W or a WNBA season. 

NBA 2K23’s MyCAREER mode includes a range of improvements across the board, opening up a range of new ways to carve out your own story as an up and coming NBA star. Whether you want to dominate the paint or dip your toes into the world of a modern basketball star – where fashion, business and music are also huge parts of a player’s career – there’s more than enough content here to keep you entertained for a long while.

That said, the game’s story still finds itself going a bit too over the top for my liking and is filled with lots of grinding for those that don’t want to cough up some money to improve stats. Because of this, I found myself gravitating towards the more rewarding modes, like MyNBA Eras and the Jordan Challenge, rather than getting bogged down in the MyCAREER grind. Microtransactions are littered throughout MyCAREER, unsurprisingly, making the mode feel like it’s more keen to grab your money than it is about rewarding you as a player.

It’ll come as no surprise to hear 2K23’s MyTEAM mode continues to be the weakest mode of the bunch. Filled with predatory microtransactions, I found myself bouncing off of this mode relatively quickly. That said, there are some nice minor additions, with the single-player focused Clutch Time mode a particular highlight. Looking past this, though, it’s still easy to see the litany of issues I have with the way the microtransactions are structured and pushed. Your time’s better spent elsewhere in 2K23. 

While it still has its issues, Visual Concepts has done a good job in setting the NBA 2K series up for a positive future. The Jordan Challenge is excellent, and the improvements across almost all of the main modes are well appreciated. The game’s core gameplay has seen some well-needed revitalisation, too, coming together to form one of the most enjoyable basketball sims in many years.

The post NBA 2K23 Review – A Solid Step Forward appeared first on Press Start.

I don’t think I’m alone in being more conscious of time these days. These past couple of years haven’t been our collective best, a daily reminder that very little can be taken for granted. Likewise, we have witnessed our national healthcare system pushed to the limit and then some, another unavoidable example of who we are and what we stand to lose. What this nationwide freefall has left me with is a keen awareness of time and the indispensable nature of human kindness. Wayward Strand is a game that fundamentally understands this too. The ways we use and waste time, the passage of it, the warmth of memory and the pain of an old wound. It achieves this vision while being earnestly Australian too, with a familiar vibe that encompasses this simple but effective narrative experience.  

Wayward Strand sees you fill the shoes of Casey Beaumaris, a young teenager trying to make the most of her school holidays in the summer of 1978, Australia. Bored and restless, Casey has thrown herself into her writing and is looking to pen the ultimate expose for the school paper. Her subject is the magnificent airborne hospital that floats gently above the red earth, filling the blue skies with its lavish and omnipresent design. Joining her mother for the long weekend aboard the ship, Casey must use the three days to both investigate the ship and try to help the elderly patients who occupy its aesthetically rich halls.

Melbourne based developers Ghost Pattern have been open about the intentional limitations of Wayward Strand’s narrative design. Aboard the ship are over a dozen folks to interact with, but as Casey’s three days march forward, she won’t have time to discover everyone’s stories. The game wants you to make choices and make your peace with what you may miss, a built-in hook for replayability and a nice mechanical riff on the game’s thesis on time itself. To help you keep track of all these threads, Casey comes equipped with a journal for noting routine times, locations and points of interest. You can also be quickly directed toward a resident by clicking on their portrait in the journal and following an arrow.

Guiding Casey through the ship is a smooth experience, requiring no more than basic inputs to move about and interact with the game’s many friendly faces. Using simple arrows at the bottom of the screen, Casey will either walk or jog left or right, stopping to allow contextual options like going up or down stairs, entering a patient’s room or talking to a passerby. Casey can also be a bit of a snoop, hiding behind walls to eavesdrop on conversations and overhear clues or hints as to where to go next. It’s all very open, a freeform experience that allows the player to dictate their own path and pace.

Once you’ve chosen who you’d like to spend some precious time with, Casey enters into a charming conversation wheel system with them. Baseline options usually allow you to start a chat with branching dialogue, have a bit of a nosey around their belongings, leave or simply sit a while and allow the air to settle. Which of these you lean toward will vary based on the person you’re trying to talk with. Some patients prefer a slower-paced conversation, the silence you leave allowing them to bring up topics of their own choosing. Others will gleefully answer your questions, even if it’s with polite bemusement. Others still will tell you to bugger off if they’re too tired.

Wayward Strand does a terrific job of situating you in Casey’s reality thanks to its writing. Every single one of the people you can meet on the good ship feels unique and fully realised. By the end of my first day onboard I had already fallen in love with the kindly, slow talking Mr. Pruess, and promptly decided to walk the other way when Esther Fitzgerald would be moseying down the hall. You’ll undoubtedly find your own favourites, your own stories and worlds that appeal to you and make you compelled to spend your time in your own manner. The collision of the game’s Australian nature and its gorgeous writing results in a feeling not too dissimilar to visiting your grandparents when you were a child. A luxury so few of us have these days.

The writing is in turn elevated by Wayward Strand’s amazing cast of voice actors who bring their respective quirky characters to life. Nancy Curtis plays Casey with pitch-perfect youthful earnestness, a layered portrait of a young woman confused, intrigued and frustrated by the world around her. Elsewhere a litany of Australian stars grace the halls, including familiar faces from iconic shows such as Neighbours, Blue Heelers and more. All of these performances go a long way to realising Wayward Strand’s unique Aussie world, a place that manages to capture the light, and grit, of people just trying their best.

Wayward Strand is also obviously a game with things on its mind. The heightened reality of its airborne hospital is something of a cosy trap. A warm and vaguely familiar glow obscures some deeply meditative words on medicine as a system, the power of people, war, and of course, death. Ghost Pattern’s public decrying of crunch culture in game development feels of a piece with the commentary in the game. A definitive and gently amusing riff on how certain systems can steamroll good people and the damage caused in turn. It never shies away from the harsher truths of the human condition but is always ready to offer a shoulder when it all feels a bit overwhelming.  

While the game is a visual delight and a moving meditation on emotional subjects, it can sometimes waver in its ability to grasp the player. Wayward Strand is a strikingly slow experience in ways I often adored but its pacing being player-driven can lead to some slumps. The inability to save is the real killer here, as the game only autosaves after the completion of a full day at the hospital, approximately an hour and a half in real time. I can appreciate that this is done to avoid save scumming the narrative but in practice, it can lead to some tiring pushes or even lost progress.  

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It’s been a long time since mascot platformers dominated the gaming landscape. 20 years ago when the original Pac-Man World was released platform games were king of home consoles, and the king of arcades wanted in on that action. For better and for worse, playing Pac-Man World RePac took me right back to my weekends playing random platformers I rented from the video shop on my PlayStation back then. I

t feels dated in level design and general gameplay but as someone who enjoyed games like these growing up I definitely developed a soft spot for the way it so faithfully recreated a style of game that isn’t much in fashion anymore.

RePac opens with Pac Man returning home to a party in his honour, only to find that his entire cast of family and friends have gone missing. So begins our spherical hero’s quest across a bunch of themed platforming worlds to collect letters, waka-waka some pellets and defeat the forces of Toc-Man to save his friends. It’s not exactly an inventive story, but it only really ever intends to be set dressing for the main focus of the kid-friendly platforming so I won’t hold it to too high a standard.

The platform gameplay on offer feels pretty ancient, which makes perfect sense when you consider the original game that forms the mechanical basis for this one is over 20 years old. The platform game was on top of the world, but was still very much designed the way it had been in the 2D age – just with some extra depth to play with.

Pac-Man World RePac faithfully recreates these old worlds with a layer of modern paint, without changing the way it plays in any significant way. You’ll need to play through a series of mostly side scrolling levels, maneuvering your way to the end of the level using Pac-Man’s jumps, butt bounces and charge moves, dodging or dispatching of enemies to progress. A range of optional collectibles add a fun and necessary twist to the otherwise pretty dull A to B.

Collecting fruit adds to your score and can unlock some doors, finding floating letters to spell P-A-C-M-A-N unlocks a bonus round after the level, and you can even find special classic style Pac-Man mazes which give some extra variety to play. Collecting all of these things will require some back tracking to doors that are now unlocked. None of it feels particularly interesting, but I will admit that it tickled the collector in me. Knowing there’s an A sitting somewhere in the level that I’ve missed was enough to make me want to explore every crevice of the levels to find it even if it felt like a cheap way to extend your time in a level sometimes.

Boss levels add some welcome variety to proceedings, as well. It’s a relic of the past where games seemed to pack in seemingly random gameplay one-offs but much appreciated here. Cute touches like a Galaxian-esque shooter boss and a grand prix kart race against a line-up of circus clowns are surprisingly fun. Fleshed out just enough to be fun for their quick one-time levels, they make for a nice break from the regular platforming levels.

While the game plays very much like the PlayStation original did, the presentational overhaul makes a huge difference for the game and brings it much closer to modern expectations. Everything is presented in lovely high resolution graphics, environment and character models completely overhauled while staying mostly faithful to the original game. Visual design stays pretty similar as well and as a result looks really nice at times (the beach area comes to mind) but can be horribly garish at others like the Funhouse area. I found the funhouse maze levels particularly bad, the garish colours and unclear design made it difficult to see what was a maze wall and what wasn’t.

Music too has been fully re-created and for better and worse is fully based on the original compositions. Expect some very short repetitive loops that will, if you’re anything like me, slowly drive you batty.

The PS5 version if this game was played for the purpose of this review.

The post Pac-Man World RePac Review – A Platforming Relic appeared first on Press Start.

Massive Monster’s Cult of the Lamb has all the makings to emerge as the Death’s Door of this year. It has an anthropomorphic animal lead and dynamite combat that, in a lot of ways, feels like an homage of sorts to a title of old. But Cult of the Lamb also feels like a game of two very distinct halves, and they’re halves that are exceptional individually but never seemed to complement each other throughout twelve wholly enjoyable hours of preaching and plying my trade as a false idol to an impressionable flock.

Cult of the Lamb casts you as the titular lamb, sacrificed by bishops of an old, ancient faith in an effort to thwart a tired prophecy that told of a woollen warrior that might overturn the status quo and free the grim spectre known as “The One Who Waits” from his exile. In exchange for a second chance at life, you must build a cult in his name and crusade against countless eldritch nightmares and rival cults. Cult of the Lamb divides your time pretty much straight down the middle between crawling through dank dungeons and tending to your twisted settlement, which really is like a cute Animal Crossing village plagued by shit, sickness, and ritual sacrifice.

I’m not one to gravitate toward the micromanagement of erecting a settlement and pandering to the every need of your devoted followers, but Cult of the Lamb keeps things engaging and chugging forward by tying everything under together under the guise of a Midsommar-like murder cult full of woodland critters. With the flock at your disposal, often monotonous busywork, like gardening and custodial services, can be streamlined through delegation, leaving you to focus on the more enjoyable things on offer.

Whether you’re putting the finishing touches on your temple, or declaring doctrines to help you further exploit the cult’s devotees, Cult of the Lamb’s upgrade paths and economies are all accessible and straightforward—though they’re all driven by maintaining the faith of your flock. If their belief in you wavers, it could be a bit of a slog to see all of the game’s more imaginative rituals—which range from Pagan bonfires and group psychedelic trips to marriage and a barbaric bloodsport that sees followers battle to the death—unless you’re a merciful idol.

Your gathered resources aside, managing your flock and the moral decisions made don’t ever really seem to have an impact on your holy crusade. It really does, at times, feel like two separate games.

Not only does Cult of the Lamb borrow its cutesy juxtaposition of sweet and savagery from The Binding of Isaac, much of its roguelike combat feels inspired by it too. While Binding of Isaac is for all intents and purposes a shooter, Cult of the Lamb feels more like Death’s Door or Hollow Knight, opting for an up close and personal brand of combat that emphasises timing and dodging. It’s tight and well-crafted, it’s hard to fault the game’s grittier portion. Similar to Inscryption, you carve out a path through four or five levels, opting for either physical challenges or levels that might offer a cache of resources or even a would-be follower in need of rescuing.

Each crusade begins with a random weapon and curse—a supernatural secondary fire that often deals area of effect damage. Throughout a run you’ll pick up tarot cards that buff your lamb’s powers, which further emphasises the game’s roguelike prowess and keeps each crusade feeling relatively fresh. Cult of the Lamb has four distinct areas, each with its own theme, safeguarded by a pious bishop. Before you meet them, you’ll need to run any given area four times and leave all heretics in your wake.

The side content is ultimately limited by the game’s indie sensibilities. With only a couple of worthwhile extracurricular activities in fishing and Knucklebones—a surprisingly riveting game of chance—it doesn’t always seem worthwhile veering from the main path to venture out and spelunk Midas’ golden caves or trudge through the mushroom grotto. With plenty to unlock, including gaudy decorations for your village and wearable fleeces that toggle modifiers, the game does a fine job to encourage replayability. My village is full of flower arches, all that’s missing is Florence Pugh’s triumphant grin in the face of death.

Cult of the Lamb’s art direction is certainly one of its great triumphs. It’s so bright and exuberant, delivering the same blinding brand of daylight horror as seen in Ari Aster’s subversive film. Of course, it’s even more disarming to see a cute bunny sacrificed to the gods, but that’s what is so clever and memorable about Cult of the Lamb. The game’s world is presented almost like a pop-up book, it really is a sickly sweet diorama of hand-crafted critters. While it can be ethereal and moody when required, River Boy’s score can be a bit of a bop.

The theme for “Knucklebones” is an earworm. Despite there only being four adversaries, I couldn’t help returning from time to time to toss them bones and jam along to a tune that’s Darren Korb-like—which I feel is decent praise given his body of work.

Ultimately, I think Cult of the Lamb is a great example of flipping the power fantasy concept on its head, framing that thrilling pursuit of all-conquering omnipotence through the eyes of a once-hapless lamb is a stroke of genius. The dissonance I felt between its colony simulation and dungeon-crawling halves is unfortunate, though it doesn’t keep said halves from being brilliant in their own right. You’re getting an exceptional roguelike hack-and-slasher and an adorably dark and dramatic settlement-builder that will test your moral compass more than once.

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW

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Two Point Studios made a name for itself when it came careening into the emergency ward with 2018’s Two Point Hospital. That game did incredibly well by recapturing sim fans’ love for the Theme Hospitals of old while injecting its own prescription dosage of charm with tongue-in-cheek humour and making things super-accessible for curious newcomers. Now comes Two Point Campus, a follow-up effort with an entirely new hook that puts players in the virtual shoes of an omnipotent university administrator with a goal of offering the finest and highest education that money can buy. And hopefully that’s a lot of money.

If you’ve played a management sim game in the vein of Theme Park or Planet Zoo or certainly Two Point Hospital, you’ll pretty much know the score here. It’s your job to take the bare bones of a functioning campus and grow it into something spectacular via careful management of your space, your staff, your incoming and outgoing funds and most importantly your students. Where this game differs from a lot of what’s out there is that last bit – the students. Rather than paying customers frequenting your park/zoo/hospital, these people are here for a good time and a long time. Retaining them, catering to their base needs and ensuring they have the support to score high marks is key to getting the best financial return and increasing the prestige of your school to attract even more new students.

It’s this new twist on the management sim formula that’s the most interesting and compelling part of Two Point Campus. On a surface level it’s all relatively simple and accessible but, as you’ll grow to learn throughout its dozen or so campaign levels that throw in all manner of unique twists, spinning the right plates at the right time takes a particularly humanistic approach. Yes, your campus needs to look good and you need to be turning a regular profit, but if you’re not properly taking care of your student body and campus faculty you’re going to wind up fighting an incredibly uphill battle. Creating spaces for people to live, to relax, to seek support and to socialise is just as important as creating ones to learn but as we all know full well there’s little money to be made in looking after people. So what you end up with is a very tight balance between your reputation, your results and your coffers, and it’s an intoxicating challenge if there ever was one.

The best place to start in Two Point Campus is in its campaign, which takes you across a spread of bespoke scenarios in which you’ll take over established or semi-established campuses with their own hurdles or idiosyncrasies to navigate. The first few are basic enough and mostly there to show you the ropes, but eventually you’ll be doing things like helping rebuild a copyright-skirting wizard school after it’s been attacked by an angry witch, trying to strike rich at an archaeological campus built amongst ancient ruins or selling your students’ souls to a creepy orb-obsessed cult at an arts school that otherwise doesn’t charge tuition fees. It’s a great mix that’ll see you spend at least 10-12 hours just bringing your campuses up to a one-star rating with plenty to do and improve beyond that.

Once you’re done with being gently told what to do in the campaign, you can also delve into the game’s Sandbox mode which comes complete with multiple ways to play. You’re able to fire up a standard-difficulty game on any map of your choosing, challenge yourself to a harder mode with fewer starting resources, customise your own difficulty or just go for broke in a creative mode with everything open and free for the taking. Thankfully there doesn’t seem to be any ties to your campaign progress in terms of which maps you have access to, you’ll just need to re-unlock any in-game items or research per map. As fun as the campaign is, Sandbox is a great way to give yourself room to really sink your teeth into the nitty-gritty of campus management without being semi-directed by level goals. There’s a lot to get into and tweak beneath the surface level so hardcore sim fans should get a lot out of the game in the long term.

If it wasn’t already obvious, part of Two Point Campus’ appeal is its tongue-in-cheek approach to its subject matter and general air of silliness. With course offerings like Knighthood, Virtual Normality and something called “Money Wangling” this is far from serious stuff, and the background noise of Two Point Radio serving up nonsense talkback and irreverent advertising further drives the point home. Best of all, the flippancy of its attitude towards any degree of success means that even the most dire situations you’ll find yourself in are routinely hilarious. Case in point, the time that I blew all of my reserve funds on decorating my campus before the school year (and thus, tuition income) had even started. That resulted in me falling so far behind that I wound up selling my school’s fancy fountain to pay for a start-of-the-year student party, which I used to keep everyone occupied while I quickly spent their fees on my unfinished lecture halls.

For all the good that Two Point Campus does I do have some reservations. For a wacky game about the joys of higher education there are relatively few antics to witness. Students from rival schools will occasionally “invade” your campus until your staff run them out, and your own flock are prone to the odd sweeping craze, but it’s all pretty tame. There’s also a notable lack of fanfare for anyone’s individual achievements bar a basic slideshow that plays after each school year.

More genuinely frustrating were a bunch of issues that plagued my time with the game on a PlayStation 5. The control layout itself is mostly okay, an achievement in itself given the very controller-unfriendly genre, but there are a few specific menus and situations where things become finicky or too easy to mess up – especially when building rooms. Worse than that were a host of bugs that brought the experience down, things like inputs not responding or menus getting stuck to the screen, and an especially annoying issue where items I placed would report their positions as invalid until I picked them up and set them down again in the exact same spot. Hopefully these things are ironed out either at launch or shortly after, though.

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It’s bizarre to think that just nine months ago, MultiVersus leaked. A seemingly random collection of characters from Warner Bros. wide range of properties, it was hard to not write it off as a cynical Smash Brothers cash-in. Following several leaks and an early preview several months ago, MultiVersus is finally here. And while I was wrong about quite a few things from my initial impression of the reveal, it’s easily one of my most played games this year.

At first glance, you’d be forgiven for assuming MultiVersus was a clone of Super Smash Bros. The premise is remarkably similar – four players enter an arena and battle it out until nobody is left. The damage system is identical, too, with higher damaged enemies flying further when attacked. Flying out of bounds of the arena results in death and a point scored to the other team. But that’s where the similarities to games like Brawlhalla and Super Smash Brothers end – there’s a wealth of options in MultiVersus whether you’re playing with someone or solo.

When I previewed the game a few months ago, I was taken aback by how similar the game was to other successful service games like Apex Legends, Fornite and even Fall Guys. I even expressed some concern about the pace that you progress through the game. There are heaps of tasks to undertake to unlock currency, which can be used to purchase characters and cosmetics. As someone who lived through the first six generations of gaming, I will forever be skeptical about games that hinge their progression on lengthy time commitments from the player. But after two to three hours with the game, I had enough to unlock another character which felt reasonable given that the game is free to play.

Now that I’ve clocked over thirty to forty hours of the game across multiple platforms, I’m inclined to say that MultiVersus is a pretty good time and value for players. So far, there are around sixteen characters, and each has had so much love and care put into them that I can’t help but be excited to see who the team brings to the fold next. My favourite is still Velma, who fights with speech bubbles, calculations, and idea light bulbs. But other characters like Bugs Bunny play true to their Looney Tunes origins with over-the-top, brash cartoony special moves that add to the chaos of the fight. It’s a well-varied roster with a surprising amount of depth that I absolutely adore.

Similarly, the game still plays as well as I played it several months ago. It’s incredibly fast-paced, but at the same time, the controls are tight enough that it doesn’t feel slow or floaty. While not as tactilely satisfying as Smash Brothers, the heft of the attacks makes the game feel expensive. That might be a bizarre term to use. Still, the dedication to ensuring MultiVersus has a solid fighting engine and mechanics to build upon by the developer will surely pay off in the long term. It, quite simply, is one of the best-feeling platformer fighter I’ve played.

But perhaps the only barrier to my enjoyment was my initial expectation with MultiVersus. It’s most definitely not to be played or experienced like Smash Brothers. Whereas Smash Brothers has a shallow skill floor and mechanics that mean you can achieve basic competence with any character, MultiVersus almost demands you pick a main and stick with them for a bit. The depth of each of the characters’ move suites is so vast that, like other competitive fighting games, you’ll get the most out of it if you learn the ins and outs of a single character.

The most unique thing about MultiVersus is that the game is ostensibly designed around it’s primary mode – 2v2 teams. The characters in the game all have moves that usually have some kind of benefit to the team. Velma can buff her teammates she hits with her attacks but similarly debuffs an enemy if those attacks land on them instead. The all-original character Reindog can tether themselves to their teammate and pull them in should their teammate be in peril, though anyone touching the tether in the meantime still takes damage. Wonder Woman can even shield her partner from attacks. They’re all great touches that make this game feel like something more than the other platformer fighters on the market.

It’s the sense of team that really brings MultiVersus to life. The best matches I’ve had are the ones I play with friends – and while they’ve not all been well versed in how to use the buddy abilities – it’s been a real joy to either be saved or save them from danger at the end of a very dicey match. Other modes are on offer here, including a free for all mode that introduces items, but given how chaotic things get during 2v2, I found just throwing something else into the mix makes things even more so. Still, it’s an excellent option and one that I’ve especially enjoyed playing locally. I have and will continue to enjoy 2v2 when playing online, personally.

I’ve briefly touched on the nature of character unlocks, but everything else operates slightly differently. While I think the progression required to unlock characters feels adequate, the progression for everything else feels slow. To compound this, there doesn’t look like a lot to unlock or work towards in the current season pass. This is something that I’m almost certain will improve with time, but right now (besides characters themselves), things unlock slowly, and there isn’t a whole bunch to unlock. Skins are expensive too, but this is no different from other games of this ilk – they offer nothing of value in terms of gameplay and can be easily ignored.

A word of advice is that you can access any of the characters in The Lab offline. Think of it as a try before you buy system and one that I implore you to engage with before spending your precious gold., especially for some less conventional fighters like Arya or Tom & Jerry.

From a presentation aspect, MultiVersus is a great-looking game too. It boasts some rock-solid performance, and the art direction is similarly fantastically consistent. I’m genuinely excited to see how the developers will bring in other characters from more realistic franchises and match them to the art style of the roster here. If Arya Stark and LeBron James are indications, it’ll be incredibly executed. While the characters and art direction are great, the same can’t be said for the levels. While they’re all different locations, MultiVersus definitely has a variety of problems with its arenas that I can only hope will be fixed with future updates.

But perhaps the most prominent aspect that sticks out as being incredibly lacklustre is the music. Where there are so many fantastic franchises to pull some incredible music from, MultiVersus instead offers up dull and generic music that does little to inspire or motivate. It feels like the music you’d hear at a low-rate theme park rather than an inspiring medley of themes or motifs. Once again, I can only hope it improves as time goes by, but for now, it’s sorely lacking.

While it’s clear that some things need work on MultiVersus, it’s encouraging to see that the things that truly matter – the unlocking of characters and the core gameplay systems – are the things that have received the most attention. These are easily the two strongest tenets of MultiVersus’ offerings thus far. With time, I can only hope that the lack of variety in levels, lacklustre music, and slower cosmetic offerings can be remedied.

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Update 22/7/2023: High On Life is now also available on PlayStation 5, and while my below review and the recommendation to give this a go on Game Pass to decide if it’s your thing or not still stands, a second playthrough on PS5 has definitely given me mixed feelings.

On the one hand, it’s a touch awkward to hear so much of Justin Roiland’s voice post-everything-that-happened and his unceremonious exit from developer Squanch Games. Obviously it would’ve been an expensive endeavour with little return to go back and retroactively replace him, but I reckon if anyone could have pulled that off with a clever, meta spin it would’ve been the folks at Squanch.

On the other hand, this is still a pretty fun little first-person adventure with splashes of the design chops of the games it riffs on. It can be grating and exhausting, especially on Round 2, but that’s (at least, I hope) a mostly intentional vibe choice that I’ll respect even when it misses more than it hits.

The only downer on the whole PS5 release? Unlike on Xbox and PC, it’s not a part of PlayStation’s subscription service. Instead, it’s a whole $90 – which, whatever your tastes are, feels shockingly steep. Maybe if only by comparison to the value proposition that is Game Pass, but $90 certainly isn’t chump change. If you’re currently rocking Rick and Morty bed sheets and can’t start your mornings without yelling something about being a pickle, you might be fine with forking out for this one. For everyone else, try it out on a different platform or if you can’t do that, wait for a sale.

Comedy must be a tough thing to pull off in video games. When something as crucial to a joke as timing is left almost entirely in the hands of the people consuming it, that’s a challenge. Some of the funniest games I can remember, like The Secret of Monkey Island, Portal 2 and even Katamari Damacy, work by keeping things relatively simple and playing within their respective wheelhouses. High On Life, the latest effort from Squanch Games and led by Justin Roiland of Rick and Morty fame, attempts a kitchen-sink approach to humour and gameplay, throwing high-frequency, high-intensity gags at players with reckless abandon amid a surprisingly solid Metroid-esque action-adventure shooter.

High On Life begins on Earth, casting the player as a regular, human teenager who finds themselves at the centre of an alien plot to kidnap all of humanity and turn them into space drugs at the hands of a group called the “G3 Cartel”. After attempting to call on the help of an alien bounty hunter named Gene, and subsequently discovering that he’s washed up and immobile, it falls on you to become the bounty hunter and take down a growing list of G3 Cartel leaders and save Earth. You won’t be doing it alone either, with the support of Gene and your sister at your home base and an increasing number of sentient, extra-terrestrial guns called “Gatlians” at your side, this is an adventure where you’ll almost always have someone to talk to. Or talking to you, rather. All. The. Time.

In case there was any doubt to be had, this is a game that revels in exactly the kind of humour that Squanch/Roiland are known for. If you’ve ever caught an episode of Rick and Morty and thought, “This isn’t for me”, the same will no doubt apply here. It’s a mixed bag of video game parodies, gross-out sight gags (so many things look like buttholes in this game), profanity, clever subversion of storytelling and gameplay mechanics, more buttholes, and constantly being yelled at.

There are definitely times where the constant grabs for “edginess” manifest in unfunny and mean-spirited gags or toilet humour, but it’s more often than not the delivery that drives the gags home more than the punchlines themselves. Hell, there’s an achievement for buying alien cum from a shady street dealer and finishing the game with it in your inventory (therefore carrying said load to completion). If that crosses your threshold for good taste, good humour or both then you’re probably safe to skip this one.

That said even when High On Life was doing bits that comedic video games coined yonks ago (an intro that parodies early 3D PC shooters, really?) or making me look at yet another weird alien butthole, it’s rare that it didn’t elicit at least a chuckle from me, and there were plenty of genuinely laugh-out-loud situations and one-liners to balance out any duds.

Plenty of players will be reaching for that toggle that lowers the frequency of the chatter of your Gatlian weapons, especially after listening to Roiland’s classic, whiney Morty/Lemongrab voice for hours on end, but a clear stand-out character for me comes in the form of Creature – a Gatlian whose unique ability is to rapidly birth weird, little dudes who can attack enemies or activate switches before quickly dying. Creature doesn’t seem to mind one bit that they’re creating and subsequently ending life with a pace that would make the good Lord blush, mostly praising the joys of never-ending child birth and incredibly short-lived parenthood.

It’s these Gatlians that really make the game unique and interesting from a gameplay perspective, as well. Laid out across a handful of bounties that take players to a variety of biomes from slums to forests and desert towns, High On Life presents players with an eight-plus-hour adventure that offers plenty of opportunity to explore off the beaten path and return to previous areas with new Gatlians and Bounty Hunter Suit upgrades to traverse previously-inaccessibly areas.

It’s familiar territory but it works well in the context and gives Squanch a lot of room to play with genre conventions in their signature, absurdist style, like giving every Gatlian a “Trick Hole” secondary fire mode that matches their personalities. Oh, and a foul-mouthed knife with a thick Aussie accent that loves stabbing. Level designs make good use of the abilities these sentient weapons offer like slowing down time, creating platforms or slingshot-ing to new heights, and it’s genuinely satisfying to puzzle out some of the more well-hidden caches of currency to spend on further upgrades.

Other than exploring, you’ll also spend a lot of your time in High On Life engaged in combat with an admittedly-small selection of generic alien baddies. There are some ant-looking guys, some yellow guys and the odd flying guy, but it really doesn’t amount to much more than the standard shooter enemy fare. Still, there’s some fun to be hand in popping alien heads (complete with a very gratifying sound effect). Playing on the standard difficulty, I was disappointed to realise that strategic use of my entire cohort of Gatlians wasn’t especially necessary, as the pistol-esque mainstay, Kenny, was usually more than enough to take care of all of the standard mobs. Boss fights are a different story, and a definite highlight, with their big personalities and unique and exciting attack patterns making them a ton of fun to take down.

One thing that’s clear when looking at High On Life in comparison to Squanch Games’ older titles like Trover Saves the Universe and Accounting+ is that the production values here are far and above what’s come before. It’s a handsome-looking game, no doubt helped along by the stylised and mismatched design choices that are expected of the studio but still impressive overall for a game of this scope. There’s a nice amount of detail packed into every scene, and it all runs nicely on the Xbox Series X aside from the odd, harmless bug here and there. The game’s voice work naturally features a heap of Roiland, but also ropes in some recognisable voices from across games and TV/movies, including some fantastic cameos.

The only sore spot in the overall package is the game’s background music, which is routinely dull as hell and may as well not feature at all in a lot of places.

Overall, High On Life is a very competent action-adventure shooter that feels good to play and doesn’t ask for too much of your time. The real consideration will be whether or not its specific brand of humour appeals to you. If it does, I would absolutely urge you give the game a go – it’s available through Game Pass on both Xbox and PC, after all. If the answer is a resounding no, on the other hand, then don’t waste your time. This is Squanch firing on all cylinders and that can be… a lot.

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Capcom Fighting Collection brings together ten titles from the arcades between 1994 and 2003. Each game is brought together with arcade-perfect parity and other features of modern fighting games like training modes, spectator modes, and rollback style online play. It’s a collection of firsts for the Japanese publisher. The first time Capcom has touched Darkstalkers in almost ten years, the first time that the RPG-tinged Red Earth has been released on home consoles, and the first time the entirety of the Darkstalkers games have been made available outside of Japan.

Much like the Street Fighter collection before it, Capcom has made an effort to ensure this is a collection that fans will appreciate. These games have all been modernised to be playable today – including with the aforementioned online play – and a slew of extras are included as well. Every game has save state support, which is nice, but also a heap of concept art and design documents to pore over. It’s interesting stuff, especially if you’re into game development, with some of these materials having never seen the light of day. It’s always interesting to see how a game begins and how it comes out at the end of development.

The games are all largely fantastic – though this is arguably a Darkstalkers collection with five extra games thrown in. Besides the five Darkstalkers games, you also get Red Earth, Cyberbots, Hyper Street Fighter II, Super Puzzle Fighter II and Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix. Besides Puzzle Fighter, all the other games are fighting games with distinctly different styles.

The crux of the package is dedicated to Darkstalkers, and for a fantastic reason. The series has always been in the shadow of Street Fighter despite offering a faster and more fluid flow to combat and a, by comparison, even zanier cast. I’d often thought that these games were just Street Fighter but gothic. The latter might be accurate, but these games feel more like precursors to the more fast and frenetic games like Marvel vs. Capcom. They still play as smooth as ever today, and I’m kicking myself for not having dived into them sooner.

Besides the Darkstalkers games, the other arguable standout here is Red Earth. First released over two decades ago in arcades, it has you picking one of four heroes to battle a gauntlet of eight bosses. The twist here is that your character gains experience with each hit to level up and discover new moves. A password system saves your progress (much like it did in the arcade), and each character has multiple endings. It’s a simpler game than others – especially with such a small playable roster – but it’s one of the stronger single-player offerings from this era of fighting games, and the sprite work is just gorgeous.

The other three games are great but not ones I rush to play. Hyper Street Fighter II is a souped-up port of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, but easily the best-looking Street Fighter II version that wasn’t included in the anniversary collection from 2018. Cyberbots is interesting – it has you choosing a pilot and a mech and then doing battle – but lacks the personality or the thrill of the other games in the collection. Puzzle Fighter feels like Capcom’s take on Puyo-Puyo, similar to Tetris and games like Columns. Super Gem Fighter is great fun, if a little ridiculous, and sees chibi versions of Street Fighter and Darkstalkers characters battling it out.

Online modes are included and are fantastically implemented. Each game has casual and ranked matches available to players, but you can also switch which games you want to find while matchmaking rather than just matchmaking for a single game. It’s more minor touches like these that help contribute to the online health of a game. However, other more significant missteps like the lack of crossplay seem like a major missed opportunity here. Thankfully, the online works fantastically despite all of this, though I still hope there’s some way to make things crossplay in the future.

There’s also a bit of an issue with the Darkstalkers games. There isn’t a single game that features all eighteen characters playable. Instead, the full roster is scattered across the three later games in the collection that players will have to jump between. It seems like something unreasonable to complain about but a definitive version of the latest Darkstalkers game with all characters already exists. The home port of Darkstalkers 3 for the original PlayStation was originally released in 1998 with the full roster, so the choice to exclude this more “definitive” port over dedication to arcade perfect emulation irks me a little. Still, the menus are snappy, and it’s quick to get around the collection, which somewhat makes up for this.

Besides the slick menus, an excellent level of production value holds this collection together. You can adjust the size of the screen and the background surrounding the screen and apply filters that alter the game to look like the screens you might have played these games on back at the arcade. Viewability aside, the sprite work on many of these games is still fantastic. Red Earth is easily the standout here – though the character that each of the Darkstalkers characters has with their expressive and over-the-top animations is genuinely something to behold. These games don’t look photorealistic, but they’ve aged fantastically over two decades.

Capcom Fighters Collection brings together some great games you couldn’t play until now – the cornerstone of a good collection. They play fantastically, the online functionality is more than welcome, and they all still hold up visually. Despite there being no crossplay and no singular definitive Darkstalkers game, it’s still a well-rounded package that any self-respecting fighting game fan should try.

THE XBOX ONE VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Few video game franchises have endured as long as Sonic the Hedgehog, but those that have typically haven’t had as rocky an existence as our spiky, blue friend. Where his rivals have gone from strength to strength, Sonic’s catalogue of releases has become more and more mixed over time. It makes sense then, that SEGA is keen to continue reviving and re-selling Sonic’s earliest outings. Sonic Origins is the latest example of those efforts, and it’s a surprisingly decent package overall.

Sonic Origins serves up the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis versions of the original three Sonic the Hedgehog games as well as Sonic CD, all recreated in the same “Retro Engine” used to power 2017’s Sonic Mania. On top of the games themselves, there are a handful of extra modes and a museum of unlockables spanning the blue blur’s most historic years. It’s not quite the all-encompassing collection that we’ve seen in the past, omitting games like Sonic Spinball and Sonic 3D Blast, but the trade-off is these are faithful and pristine ports. Each game also has its own animated intro and ending sequences, which look fantastic.

There are also multiple new ways to play the four included games, with everything tied into a central ecosystem of collectible coins. You can play the games in their original, 4:3 forms in Classic Mode if you like, but the new Anniversary/Story modes are where it’s at. Playing any of the titles in Anniversary Mode gets you essentially the same game, but with widescreen support and the ability to choose Sonic, Tails or Knuckles as the playable character (no Lock-On technology needed!) as well as the removal of lives. Yep, no game over screens here – with unlimited lives everything instantly becomes a lot more accessible than before. 

Story Mode, on the other hand, puts all four games and the new animated sequences in chronological order (Sonic 1, Sonic CD, 2 and then 3) in one long run with Sonic as the only playable character. Then there’s also a Boss Rush option available for each game as well as a Mission Mode that offers up a series of objective-based versions of levels where you’ll need to meet goals in order to unlock harder missions and earn plenty of the all-important coins.

Those coins, which you earn across the extra modes as well as Anniversary/Story in place of life pick-ups and are carried across every game, are useful for two things. Firstly they’re used to unlock everything in the Museum, which is stacked full of a bunch of pretty cool memorabilia from covers to manuals, never-before-seen art and documents and of course a ton of music. More useful though is the ability to cash them in to restart any of the bonus stages across the games, which have always been a bit of a pain point given they’re incredibly easy to fail and crucial to seeing the true endings of each game. If you’re keen to finish all of the titles in Sonic Origins you’ll definitely want to hang onto your coins for that purpose.

All said, this is a decent little package with a few neat wrinkles to make playing these games more enjoyable than ever, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thoroughly impressed with the way it’s all presented. The games themselves look razor sharp and run impeccably, though it’s a bit disappointing that there aren’t any extra visual options or filters made available given these have been rebuilt from scratch. I also really wish a “rewind” feature not unlike those included with previous emulated Sonic collections was available in at least the Classic mode to further mitigate frustration. The front end menu, which presents each game as a gorgeously-rendered 3D island, is totally unnecessary but looks great, and you can even zoom into and inspect each one – provided you paid for the privilege.

Yep, the one real blight on this whole collection is that SEGA has seen fit to nickel-and-dime fans out of a bizarre selection of extras that are locked to its “Digital Deluxe Edition”. While only $7 or so more expensive than the base version, the fact that the more expensive version contains stuff like camera controls and animations in Sonic Origins’ menus feels a bit gross. It’s also a touch jarring to play Sonic 3 & Knuckles with what’s seemingly a very early iteration of its soundtrack, included here in place of what’s long been suggested was a soundtrack composed in collaboration with Michael Jackson, but that likely couldn’t have been helped if there’s any truth to those rumours.

We’ve had plenty of retro Sonic compilations before, and the cynic in me wants so badly to see this as just another in a long line of nostalgia grabs amid the continued futile attempts at modern franchise entries. The thing is, for the first time in ages this feels like a genuine celebration of the blue blur’s beginnings, made with care and a reverence for the source material. Weird Deluxe Edition choices aside, anyway.

The post Sonic Origins Review – A Blast (Process) From The Past appeared first on Press Start.

The God of Citywide Beatings and Bin Chicken Dinners smiled upon me recently. He arranged it so that I might smash through the entirety of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge in its intended form—with a party, dudes. Crowded around one TV as a six-some, my turtle powered posse and I kicked things up to Gnarly difficulty. Then, we gave the titular Tin Grin absolute shell.

What followed was basically one of the best side-scrolling brawlers I’ve ever experienced. This is high praise coming from an ’80s kid who’s more or less beaten ’em all (up).

Anyone familiar with Dotemu’s pedigree won’t be too shell-shocked to hear that the bar of quality has been reset to Turtle Blimp heights in Shredder’s Revenge. This small publisher is known for championing a number of exemplary 2D game remakes. One pertinent example being the studio’s stellar efforts on Streets of Rage 4 (2020) and its dream of a DLC, Mr. X’s Nightmare.

Within Dotemu’s small stable of studios, the collective understanding of the beat ’em up genre is second to none. Their ability to capture the essence of a classic formula— while also tastefully ‘roiding it up with clever twists and modern creature comforts— is a special technique that few others possess.

Speaking of authenticity, it’s also worth noting this game bears the full endorsement of Nickelodeon, holder of the TV series rights. Any OG who grew up with the first batch of late ’80s Turtles (plus the ’90s films) will recognise the telltale OCD detailings of a bunch of super fans let loose. One gets the unmistakable impression Shredder’s Revenge was a dream project for the team at Tribute Games.

There’s no secret to the ooze that’s been smeared all over this. It’s love.

And do you know what represents the extra jellybeans on this pepperoni pizza? All of the original voice actors have returned to quip up a storm as Leo, Raph, Mikey and Don. The other playable characters—Splinter, April and the unlockable Casey Jones—don’t sound too far off what your crusty old ears remember, too.

In terms of plot and purpose, this is an original adventure which smartly cherry picks and mutates the best moments and mechanics from Konami’s watershed TMNT arcade cabinets. Via a top-down overworld reminiscent of the (vastly inferior) Ultra Games turtle titles, you’ll hop around a super deformed NYC and Dimension X. The basic gist: stop Krang, Shred-head and more or less every major antagonist in the show, from taking a bite out of the Big Apple.

To thwart them, you must once again hew through mobs of enemies in an ever rightward push to an end boss, followed by a modest pattern memorisation test. There is of course the odd palate cleanse here and there— environmental dangers to dash or leap over, radical hoverboard sections, etc. That said, for the most part you’re here to ruin more Foot than a work experience podiatrist.

On the lowest difficulty in Story Mode, these fisticuffs can be pedestrian enough to let anybody reach the final cutscene within 2 and a half hours. Credits are endless in Story, and your stock of individual lives are generous (and will even reset to “full” for every level attempt). Honestly, smashing through this way is a decent training montage to (mostly) grind your fave characters up for a serious run on Gnarly difficulty. It’s also the best way to tick off the trickier mini-cheevos in each level, which typically ask you to kill a set amount of foes with certain techniques.

Be that as it may, the Finish The Level Without Getting [Hit/Knocked Over By Obstacle X] challenges are clearly aimed at very skillful soloists. Because if you’re playing as a group, one turtle’s screw up is applied to all. I appreciate that the loners have something difficult to shoot for that will require many a restart and likely gobble up additional hours like a Mouser does rodents.

When it comes to kicking shell, Shredder’s Revenge clearly has way more depth than the mashy arcade titles that inspired it. However, it’s not quite as layered as the likes of the almost “side-scrolling Street Fighter” complexity of Streets of Rage 4.

The first thing that becomes apparent is the effort Tribute put into making each turtles look and feel unique. With a simple rating system on the character select screen you can quickly gauge who excels in Power, Speed or Range, not to mention who’s a good all-rounder.

Hit the mean streets and you’ll quickly spot a bunch of other nuances for these amphibians. Subtle differences bubble up in their various basic moves—like a flashier jump attack, a swifter evade animation, a faster charging ‘heavy’ attack, or a dash slide that goes farther or trips Foot…uh, feet harder.

This individuality bleeds across into the Special attack maneuvers. These Y button techniques grant you momentary invincibility and crowd control benefits, providing you’ve punched your way into earning a full ‘Special Bar’ for their use. Depending on the character selected, some of these might flare out with a greater diameter, last slightly longer or allow you to pivot yourself about, like some sort of roaming sai tornado.

Better yet, a few new special techniques (and more health/lives) can be earned through diligent play. The game tracks each character’s kills across multiple playthroughs, with a modest supply of perks and new mechanics unlocking every 200 murders or so. Max out at 2000, and you’ll be a fully fledged ninja master with 5 lives, a larger HP bar, a trebled Super bar and access to these frankly OP slam dunk and dash Specials.

Oh, and you can earn a Radical state which gives you a bodacious afterglow effect and the ability to deal shellacious damage for a time. It’s very much as advertised.

Marry the above with the ability to grab enemies—then either smash them into the pavement, hurl them at their mates or “out of the screen” entirely as a one-hit KO – and yeah, Shredder’s Revenge is reasonably complex and tons of fun.

While I certainly enjoyed my run through as “no bros” Leonardo, the game shines brightest as a multi affair. In my 4-player and 6-player playthroughs, communication and collaboration were imperative. In the roiling madness of limbs and technicolour explosions you will often need to ask an ally to run interference as you spam Taunt to replenishing your Special bar faster. As you’d imagine, talking smack for two seconds draws serious AI aggro.

The Foot also love to stomp anybody holding LB to revive a fully downed mate. They also interfere when you tap LB to high-five two points of your own life across to a weakened bro. Cool, camaraderie-enhancing mechanics both.

These moments of goodwill and skill elevate Shredder’s Revenge from a good beat ’em up to a great all for one, one for all hoedown. However, that’s purely the local expectation you should have, where everybody is within physical punching distance. Your experience may vary in an online setting where you’re forced to lobby in two distant friends or *shudder* two Internet randos. I predict the needless pizza theft is going to be off the scale.

Beyond those infuriating moments, I’m confident Shredder’s Revenge will attract a new generation of fans while also delivering the classic sights and sounds expected of sore eyes. As with all Tribute titles, you’re getting apex level pixel art and animations teeming with references to the wackiest TV ep plots. It’s clear that they’ve mined the toy line figures/vehicles for gold, too.

Soundwise, this is an aural injection of sheer, unadulterated Nineties. We’re talking bodaciously boisterous rock anthems and even the odd ninja rap for good measure (quick props to Wu Tang). That’s all complemented by some satisfying thwack effects, authentic Turtle boy bantz and those triumphant special move shrieks which used to dominate arcade halls and lure in lunch money like a Siren’s song.

Even today, Konami’s Ninja Turtles beat ’em ups are revered, replayed and resold in ridiculous numbers as 1UP branded cabinets. With Shredder’s Revenge, Tribute has studied the blueprints of the best titles this genre produced and expanded and improved upon them in every conceivable metric.

Not to turtle wax lyrical, but I reckon you owe it to yourself to have this turtle celebration waiting in your collection for when friends (of any age group) drop by. This has the universal appeal of pizza and can be partially consumed in sixteen ten-minute slices at a time. More likely, you’ll scarf it all in one binge, multiple times. Possibly as you seek all seven endings. Maybe to get your amhibian arses kicked as you chase the Arcade clear on Gnarly that’s harder than a Rock Soldier’s abs.

The post Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge Review – Love-Letter Has Dimension X-Factor appeared first on Press Start.

Despite drawing inspiration from the best horror of the eighties, The Quarry takes place in the modern-day. You take control of a group of camp counsellors who decide to stay on for an extra night at Hackett’s Quarry, following their duties as camp leaders during the summer. A lot of bad stuff goes down, and things eventually unravel as alliances are tested, and things aren’t quite all that they seem. As with other Supermassive games, you’ll have to do your best to try and keep everyone alive and, as always, sometimes doing nothing is just as valid as a response as making a choice.

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You’ve probably already got an idea of what to expect from The Quarry. Suppose you’ve played any of Supermassive’s previous output, whether it be Until Dawn or The Dark Pictures games. In that case, there’s not a lot that’s changed here. An interactive drama of sorts, you’re tasked with making decisions and guiding your characters (ideally) through to the credits of the story. Every decision you make, no matter how innocuous, will usually affect how things play out. Like those that came before it, The Quarry tells a completely self-contained story, so you don’t have to play Until Dawn or any other games to appreciate it. It’s a very simple-to-play experience that I adore sharing with friends, no matter their skill level. 

While the story is the focus here, I’m wholly divided by it. Last month I was able to play a segment of the game and was excited to see how each character played into the mystery and just what the mystery was. I think that mystery wraps up nicely in the end – there’s nothing I was unclear on as the credits rolled – but I’d felt like I’d seen this story so many times before. That’s not to say it’s a bad story, I enjoyed the journey it took me on, but given Supermassive’s pedigree, I can’t help but feel they’d played it safe. I found beauty in the simplicity of Until Dawn seven years ago, but in the time since then, so much has happened in the genre. Even in the wake of Supermassive’s own Dark Pictures games, The Quarry feels almost pedestrian.

The most remarkable aspect of The Quarry that no other medium can ever accurately reproduce is how choices affect how the story plays out. As I mentioned previously, seemingly innocuous choices you make throughout the story may have instant consequences or latent ones much later in the game. Choosing to break into a cabin to get your belongings early on out of pure laziness might mean that same door won’t lock later on. Choosing to defend yourself in a fight (rather than run) might see your character mess up and die or cause a chain of events to get another character killed.

The choices you make aren’t ever visually documented in a way as simple as games like Detroit: Become Human did it, but I’d argue that’s because the consequences are so much more multi-faceted. A nice touch is that, at any point, you can pause and browse each of the “paths” you’ve chosen. They’re styled as old-school VHS horror films, and while they don’t show you the path you didn’t take, they do give some clues as to how each of your choices might have interacted with each other.

There were so many moments in The Quarry where I’d have this moment of realisation. This mental backtracking is where I realise how my actions have affected the result I’d come to. None of them ever feel unfair or unwarranted. Still, hindsight is always 20/20, so it’s perhaps I’m overcompensating for my own biases.

The main collectible in The Quarry is Tarot cards. At the end of each chapter, you’ll be able to give them to Eliza. She’s a fortune teller played by Grace Zabriskie, who plays a similar role to the psychiatrist from Until Dawn or the Curator from Dark Pictures. You can give her a tarot card on each visit, and in exchange, she’ll give you a short vision of the future. You’ll see a small piece of vision play out that’ll show you a character potentially dying in a future chapter. Of course, armed with this knowledge, you can attempt to avoid it, though the right way to do so isn’t always the obvious one.

I talked previously about how I felt that The Quarry was playing it a bit too safe, and I think that way, especially with the quick-time events. They’ve been grossly oversimplified in The Quarry (compared to Until Dawn and Dark Pictures). Most of them involve either moving the stick in a direction, mashing A, or holding A. There’s no mix-up to the buttons you have to press. Just putting these words to paper, I realise some might prefer that, but it meant that I almost knew what was coming whenever a more tense sequence started playing.

This is a shame because the accessibility options that The Quarry provides do a great job at adjusting the experience so that everyone can enjoy it. The difficulty and timing of the quick-time events and other aspects of the game can be adjusted to ensure that those who are naturally slower to react can still enjoy the game properly. I can appreciate this move towards accessibility, but at the same time it feels like, as a result, almost all of the challenge evaporates.

The breadth of multiplayer options returns from previous Supermassive games and, as always, is a welcome addition. Couch co-op is a blast and allows you to add as many characters as you want to each player in the room with you. While I will continue to enjoy this mode, it feels like each character has a different amount of screentime so some players might naturally be left playing less. I don’t know what the perfect solution is – but even a percentage indicator to indicate how much each character appears in the script, or something, would do wonders. In my session, I found myself selecting two characters who got the most runtime, so it felt like I was playing for most of the time.

Other ways to experience the story are also appreciated. Movie Mode allows players to just watch the story play out as film but choose whether everyone dies or lives. There’s another third option here – where you can adjust the individual personality of each character and just watch things play out too. This mode is a nice touch for those who want to see how things might play out without committing to a full playthrough, but it’d be so much better if (like a movie) we had ways to fast-forward it.

Of course, there is an online mode coming too, so if your current situation prevents you from catching up with your mates physically, hold out until that functionality is patched in sometime next month.

So is The Quarry scary? I’m hesitant to say so. While I derided Little Hope for incessantly throwing jump scares at the player, I adored House of Ashes for its restraint and the way it built tension. The Quarry doesn’t really do either – it feels more like a mystery thriller with a psychotic third act rather than a full-blown horror experience. That being said, some incredibly Gorey (and notably tense) sequences play out here, so it’s most certainly not for the squeamish. Stylistically, I adore how the creatures in this game “appear,” though I won’t say much more so as not to give away. So is it scary? Not outwardly, but it sure is tense.

As a whole, the entire cast turns in a decent performance. There were so many standouts here that I couldn’t possibly list them all, though my favourite was easily Lin Shaye as Constance. She plays so against type here that it felt a shame to see her relegated to so little screentime in the big scheme of things. I get it – this is a big cast – but so many of the older celebrities especially were more or less glorified cameos who showed up and then disappeared for a while. In particular, David Arquette is just playing a slightly savvier version of Dewey from Scream. However, this might be intentional given that a very similar tune plays when he’s on-screen in The Quarry as when he’s on-screen in Scream.

It doesn’t have to be said either. The Quarry is a stunning game and easily the best looking out of the Supermassive catalogue. So many times, I’d pause and be shocked that I was watching a game rather than a film. A few characters, especially Laura, have some facial animations that cross the uncanny valley a little bit too often. Still, on the whole, The Quarry is immaculately presented.

THE PC VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post The Quarry Review – An Enjoyable And Tense Cliché appeared first on Press Start.

As something of a platformer aficionado, I’m surprised that it’s taken me this long to play a Kao the Kangaroo game. The series first found life on home consoles with the Dreamcast original in 2000 before seeing a sequel on the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube, but neither game or any subsequent spin-offs did particularly well with critics or audiences. It’s interesting then that some 20-odd years later we’re getting a brand new Kao game thanks to Polish studio Tate Multimedia, but unfortunately it seems Kao is destined to live in obscurity a little longer.

Kao the Kangaroo starts off much like any of its genre peers – a dark power has invaded Kao’s (pronounced K-O) world and spirited away a loved one, in this case his sister, Kaia. Armed with a pair of magical boxing gloves inherited from his equally-lost father, Kao decides it’s up to him to go and rescue Kaia and bring peace back to his world. I’ll admit, that’s about as much as I remember of this game’s plot despite how simple it is in theory, and that’s because as soon as the game’s events kick in it stops making any sense at all.

It’s probably a bit much to ask of a B-grade platformer to have any kind of compelling narrative, but Kao the Kangaroo’s writing is frankly dreadful. Plot points are introduced and dropped without warning or context, and at no point did I feel like I knew exactly what Kao was actually meant to be doing. Dialogue wavers between nonsensical and woefully unfunny, relying on borderline offensive stereotypes and punchlines based on horribly outdated memes. Worse still, in a world populated by kangaroos, koalas and plenty of cheap Australiana there isn’t a single Aussie accent to be heard.

All of this would be easily forgiven if Kao’s platforming was more interesting than its world or story, but gameplay here is unfortunately just as derivative and uninspired. Kao controls well enough and the game at least attempts to create a point-of-difference with its melee combat that grants its hero a scant few combos and a finishing move but it’s all bound to tepid level designs with annoyingly missable collectibles and boring puzzles. Kao’s gloves can be powered up with three different elements (fire, ice and wind) that allow him to manipulate different parts of the environment but every single one of the game’s puzzle sequences simply throws the necessary elemental power-up at you as it’s needed which takes away any and all challenge.

That’s not to say I never enjoyed the 7-8 hours I spent completing everything that Kao the Kangaroo has to offer, it’s still a classically-styled collectathon platformer so it’s sure to please long time fans of the genre even if it does nothing surprising. This is definitely a game better suited to young children who might want a Crash Bandicoot-inspired experience without so much challenge and who won’t balk at the middling boss fights and forgettable characters. Each of the 15 levels and 4 hub worlds at least looks nice as well, with plenty of striking and lush environments to explore. The game’s voice acting and music on the other hand are… decidedly average, and so I wound up switching them off in lieu of listening to my own music while I played.

Less forgivable are the constant bugs I experienced, everything from getting stuck in geometry to objects not disappearing, enemies wigging out, audio playing incorrectly, sound effects looping and UI elements lingering on screen. I didn’t experience anything that broke the game entirely or halted my experience but there were far too many times where I got stuck and wasn’t sure if I was doing the wrong thing or the game was behaving incorrectly. Usually it was the latter.

One particular issue, which isn’t a bug but as the game’s developers told me directly is intentional design, is that the game has no option to invert its camera controls. Such a basic feature being omitted with no plans to add it in after the fact is downright bewildering and sure to alienate a whole bunch of players – as an inverter myself I had to push on for the purpose of this review but I struggled with the camera throughout my entire playthrough.

The post Kao the Kangaroo Review – A Mediocre Blast From The Past appeared first on Press Start.

It’s been almost five years since we’ve had a new Sniper Elite game, and it’s safe to say it’s what developer Rebellion does best. They’ve dabbled in other experiences like Strange Brigade or even Zombie Army, the spin-off of this game. Still, none feel as slick or as polished as Sniper Elite. That being said, Sniper Elite 5 represents a major turning point for the franchise. It’s easily the best the developer has put out, but it’s also an indication that the series is perhaps in need of a bit of a refresh. And that all starts with its setting.

Sniper Elite 5 continues to follow hero sniper Karl Fairburne a year following the events of Sniper Elite 4. The US Rangers have tapped Karl to assist in weakening the Axis defense. It’s about a year after the events of the fourth game, and most of the major events take place around D-Day in France. Eventually, Karl contacts members of the French resistance before uncovering a secret Nazi plot – Operation Kraken – which he must both investigate and ultimately destroy.

There are some great attempts here to make Sniper Elite 5 more attractive, including introducing some more memorable supporting characters than ever seen before. Still, the truth is that the game’s plot is a little bit too pedestrian. We’ve perhaps had too many games take place during this conflict, and there’s really only so much you can do with it before it all feels like a retread. It’s a story rife with stereotypes and tired war conventions that I struggled to empathize with.

Thankfully, Sniper Elite 5 as a game is much better than the story it’s trying to tell. While it’s a fairly typical third-person shooter at a glance, there’s a lot to be found in each of the game’s wide-open levels. Continuing the design philosophy that I really appreciated in Sniper Elite 4, every level feels like a mini open-world. Large, sprawling and most importantly – alive. Each level is filled with things to uncover, whether main objectives or smaller optional objectives that provide greater experience rewards. There’s a lot to do in each level and they’re clearly built for replayability to, as each one has multiple entry points that must be unlocked and heaps of intel and collectibles to uncover.

Intel is the most interesting aspect here. In my first run of the first level, I found a radar tower that I had to destroy. The most obvious way the game led me initially was to scale it and use satchel charges to destroy it. Another way, however, came up on a repeat playthrough where I grabbed some intel from a dead body (or maybe somewhere else, I can’t be sure) and was instead given the location of a breaker box that would short the radar entirely without the need to collect explosives or scale it. It sounds minor, but it feels like a more natural progression from what Sniper Elite 4 offered and clearly highlights that there’s a lot more freedom in how you can approach your objectives.

Of course, the game is called Sniper Elite, so it would be remiss of me not to talk about the sniping. One thing I really appreciate about Sniper Elite 5 is how it allows you to customise the realism of how everything works. There’s an incredibly robust custom difficulty system that allows you to adjust how enemies behave, how much damage they’ll take but also other things that offer a more realistic sniping experience. The world is designed so that you’ll have to handle aspects such as bullet drop distance and wind into account, but if you want a more arcade-like experience, all of these features can be turned off. The result will appease both those wanting a more simulation-like experience with the game’s shooting or those who just want to line up the perfect shot and worry about nothing else with a less realistic, more game-like experience.

The X-Ray kill camera returns, too, as do options to either decrease or increase their frequency if you so wish. I thought I’d grown tired of this aspect, but it honestly never gets old. To line up the perfect shot and watch the bullet shatter the bone of your opponents or rupture their organs is a bit macabre but endlessly satisfying. The X-ray aspect has been expanded now, too – so sub-weapons can trigger them, too – but I’ll never get tired of watching a bullet pass through an enemy’s brain before splattering out the other side of their skull. I probably sound a bit unhinged talking about this, but it’s one of the most simple yet effective ways to make the kills in Sniper Elite 5 so gratifying.

Progression is similarly handled quite well. You are given a player level that raises with the completion of objectives and the achievement of specific kills that award you skill points. Points can then be invested in three (very modest) skill trees to improve how your character plays. Guns are also very customisable, and rather than obnoxiously tie these to grinding or levelling up, customisation parts are unlocked by finding gun workshops located on each level. Progression is fairly typical on the multiplayer side of things – level up to unlock load-outs, skins, and perks from one of four specialist classes.

While the open-level design is to be admired, and the kills are always so satisfying, some aspects of Sniper Elite 5 feel like they’re still stuck in the past. For a game that emphasizes exploration and openness, I can’t count how many times I’d go to run through a bush or past a fence and for it to be an invisible, impassable wall. This kind of game design feels, quite frankly, quite dated and is what’s really holding Sniper Elite 5 back. Too often, I’d be running from vantage point to vantage point, in a rush, and be stopped by a barrier that simply feels like it shouldn’t be there. I was frustrated with this in Sniper Elite 4, and it’s a shame to see it hasn’t been rectified here.

That being said, it’s admirable to see how many different ways you can play Sniper Elite 5. The whole campaign can be played with another person in co-op. The open nature of the level design lends itself nicely to splitting up and getting stuff done if you want to be efficient. I find it more fun to have one player on the ground and another spotting from a distance as a sniper – but that’s what makes Sniper Elite 5 so fun – the choice really is yours. More interestingly, another player can also invade your game at any point as an enemy sniper (though this can be turned off if you want a traditional experience), and it adds just another element to the already layered campaign.

There’s a suite of competitive multiplayer modes available too – though I didn’t spend much time with them during the pre-release period – they’re bound to appeal to series traditionalists as they return from previous games. Survival mode allows up to four players to take on waves of enemies and feels weirdly similar to Rebellion’s spin-off series, Zombie Army, sans Zombies. The other typical modes are here – free for all, team deathmatch, squad match and no cross modes. Squad match is the newest and has four teams of up to four players, whereas team deathmatch has two teams of eight battling each other. No-cross returns from Sniper Elite 4 and has two teams battling it out across long distances, separated by an impenetrable barrier to keep things fair and ensure its truly snipers only.

Sniper Elite 5 is easily the best looking of the series thus far in terms of presentation. The team at Rebellion has used photogrammetry to bring many of these locales to life, and the result is something that looks both realistic and crisp. The game runs at a very smooth sixty frames while looking beautiful on the PlayStation 5. While the original score is quite pedestrian, I appreciated the subtle accordion added to the music to really sell the idea that you’re shooting Nazis in France, even if it does feel a little on the nose.

THE PLAYSTATION 5 VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Sniper Elite 5 Review – Slightly Short Of The Perfect Shot appeared first on Press Start.

So many horror franchises are being adapted into the asymmetrical, four versus one multiplayer format. It makes sense – so many of those games often have groups of people running from a more powerful but solitary killer. Dead By Daylight is especially impressive for the licenses it manages to bring into its world, but none of these experiences has ever had the production value or competent gameplay to back it up. Evil Dead: The Game bucks this trend. Not only does it play remarkably better than its contemporaries, it is without a doubt the most fun I’ve had with a horror adaptation in a long, long time.

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Evil Dead: The Game doesn’t so much as tell a story as it celebrates one. A multiplayer game at its core, it brings together the best of the revered franchise. It fittingly adapts it to the ubiquitous asymmetric multiplayer experience that so many horror films seem to be co-opted for. Evil Dead feels quite appropriate for this setup – the franchise has previously been adapted into a Resident Evil-like horror experience and Dead Rising-like action adventure to average reception. For now, I’m confident in saying that this is the best adaptation of Evil Dead so far.

The premise for Evil Dead: The Game is simple. Four human survivors must rally together to defeat the Kandarian Demon. This unseen force can possess and manifest beings called “deadites,” which are creatures pulled from the franchise’s history. It’s a simple premise, though it feels more like an action-adventure style of game rather than the hide-and-seek style seen in games like Dead By Daylight, Friday The 13th and presumably the upcoming Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The twist here is that players can step into the role of the survivors or the demon, though you can play against an AI demon if you so wish to.

While it’s only been a week since launch, there is clear debate on which side of the battle is easier. My first instinct was that it was much harder for the survivors to be victorious, but playing the amount that I have for the past week, it’s been clear that a good team of well-coordinated survivors can easily beat the demon. Perhaps that’s what sets Evil Dead apart from its asymmetrical contemporaries – the fact that good teamwork is almost essential to survive. You’ll rarely be able to “wing it” by going solo.

Regardless, the survivors have a bit more to do than the demon. In each match, your team will have to explore a (rather large) area to find three pieces of a map. They’ll have to defend two points against waves of enemies for a certain amount of time before heading to an area to vanquish a demon and then protect another point. It’s a simple set of objectives that could get old quickly, but playing with different groups highlighted how dynamic the game could be. This fed into a set of new challenges to face every time I would play.

The survivors themselves are all uniquely tailored – each of them has a unique ability and unique stats that affect how they play. Your character’s stats can be boosted temporarily, like a MOBA, and are wiped at the end of the match. The other, more expansive skill tree gives you the ability to increase more permanent traits about your character. The latter can’t be completely filled but can be changed at any time, so you’ll have to really dedicate your points to a specific build of your character rather than just work towards maxing everything out entirely. I like this approach – it means that even though everyone might get to a max level with a specific character, their specific builds on the skill trees might ensure the player pool doesn’t all play the same.

Obviously, the demon plays solo but can summon a wealth of AI-controlled creatures to assist them. Each of them plays differently, too, but the demon’s gameplay emphasizes attempting to separate and pick off the survivors. The demon can do this by setting traps for the survivors and possessing certain inanimate objects to instill fear in the survivors. Raise their fear enough, and you’ll be able to possess the survivors themselves to either create in-fighting amongst the team or just waste precious resources. It’s well and truly griefing, but it’s so fun to mess around with players that it cleanses me of any guilt I feel.

Games like these will live and die on how they’re supported in the future, though, and that’s where it becomes difficult to predict Evil Dead’s longevity. At the moment, there are only really two maps with the same sets of objectives. Although there is great effort to make them feel different with weather effects and time of day, it feels a little light. Upcoming updates promise to bring at least one new map to the fold, and there’s potential to introduce content from the 2013 soft reboot. It’s much too early to make a call, but if the content keeps coming and things continue to be balanced, Evil Dead could have longer legs than any of the asymmetric multiplayer games.

I say this because there is one thing that’s absolutely obvious about Evil Dead: The Game, and that’s the fact it feels very well put together. Combat is responsive and fast whether you’re fighting with a gun or a melee weapon. There’s an Alan Wake-esque dodge, which is remarkably powerful if you learn to use it properly. So even under insurmountable odds, it’s possible to escape dicey situations. There’s no doubt that this game flows and plays better than, say, Dead by Daylight or Friday The 13th, so the foundation is well and truly there to overtake those games with enough future support. It’s just whether Saber will capitalise on that is to be seen.

There are also some single-player missions and options to play against the AI for those who don’t want to play against other people. Though they’re reasonably short, the missions offer up vignettes inspired by the films and recent television series. There’s also little to no production values here – expect to see some text with some (admittedly very nice) artwork to push the story along while you run between objectives and fight waves of enemies. To put it bluntly, even if you’re a fan of the franchise, these missions are well and truly not worth picking the game up for.

Overall, Evil Dead: The Game offers up a rock-solid foundation upon which I hope the developers will continue to build. While I’m getting close to spending thirty hours with it, I’m still having a lot of fun and do not want to stop anytime soon. Some little niggles that will no doubt be fixed, such as certain button prompts not working immediately, are outshone by what is an otherwise robust and cross-play enabled netcode.

THE XBOX SERIES X VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Evil Dead: The Game Review – A Surprisingly Robust Multiplayer Experience appeared first on Press Start.

Growing up my family didn’t have much disposable cash to spend on entertainment, let alone video games, so when I did eventually come to possess a PlayStation console it was by way of a hand-me-down from a relative. This particular PlayStation happened to be modified too, so it came with a bunch of highly questionable copies of games ready for me to play. This instant inherited library was what kickstarted my love for JRPGs and where I discovered my favourite game of all time in Final Fantasy VIII. Little did I know though that I’d also been blessed with access to a ton of games that were never actually released in Australia or other PAL regions. Games like Chrono Cross, the highly-regarded follow up to the SNES classic Chrono Trigger, and a game that’s never been (legally) available outside of Japan and the US before now.

That all changes with the release of Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, which not only plants the game firmly in the hands of gamers the world over and on a multitude of platforms but updates it with modern visuals and a few extra features to sweeten the deal.

The original version of Chrono Cross released to critical acclaim back in 2000, and with good reason. Rather than rehash what had come before in Chrono Trigger, the PlayStation sequel brought entirely new gameplay systems along with a compelling and well-told story that stood triumphantly on its own. By some black magic, the team managed to pull together 40-plus playable and swappable characters amongst a parallel-world plot with all of the bespoke dialogue and scenarios that involved and still come out with an end product that worked. It didn’t hurt either that it continued Square’s penchant for gorgeous visuals and CG cutscenes in its PS1 releases and came complete with one of gaming’s all-time great soundtracks thanks to Yasunori Mitsuda.

The game’s gameplay and battle systems were equally praised for bucking convention in the turn-based JRPG space. Combat deftly combined a risk-reward attack mechanic that balanced hit percentages and stamina with a meta where characters would receive buffs when the field of battle filled with an element they favoured. It also eschewed the idea of invisible random battles as well as employing a rudimentary point-and-click style of item interaction, all things that made it stand out against its contemporaries as the plucky and slightly experimental cousin to Final Fantasy. Of course there’s not much I can say about Chrono Cross itself that hasn’t been said many times over (and better) in the last 22 years. What I’m really here for is to break down what’s changed in the Radical Dreamers Edition and whether that makes it worth your time and money to play the game again or for the first time.

The biggest difference in Chrono Cross on modern consoles is obviously the HD graphical upgrade and this is probably the Radical Dreamers Edition’s most contentious change. See, it’s great to be able to play the game in much more modern resolutions but due to this being an upscaling of the source content and not a full-scale rebuild the results are a mixed bag. Much like Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, it’s a case of the updated character models and UI elements looking markedly better than their original counterparts while everything around them somehow looks slightly worse. The re-done 3D elements are sharp and new character models remain faithful to the originals while being given a tasteful update that still feels in step with the time, and the new character art in menus and text boxes is fairly nice across the board as well.

What’s most disappointing is the vaseline-smear filter applied aggressively over every pre-rendered background making them even less cohesive with the other visual elements. You’re able to switch back to ‘Classic’ visuals if you really can’t stand it, but only from the main menu and only with all the other HD updates turned off as well. Factor in as well the inconsistent frame rates and there’s a roughness that just doesn’t feel right in a modern HD re-release of such a revered title. It checks out given this release is an emulation as opposed to a full-on rebuild but it still sucks that more couldn’t be/hasn’t been done to make this the best way to play Chrono Cross. Hell, fans have done an excellent job with this on their own in the past.

It’s in the quality-of-life updates to the battle system that returning fans will likely find the most joy in replaying the game with this version. For starters you can turn battles off entirely which is a godsend during exploration, especially given that grinding battles isn’t really a viable way to progress in Chrono Cross anyway. When you do get into a fight you’re able to switch on an auto-battle that lets the game handle everything for you, as well as toggle on what is essentially an invincibility mode that causes every enemy attack to miss your party. Combined with a fast-forward toggle, this can really help with monotony out of fighting basic monster parties if you’re comfortable with breezing through everything. 

Not everyone will be compelled to tap into these options all the time but there are definite moments where they take the edge off of some of the game’s pain points. Dealing with that frustrating horse-feeding minigame in Viper Manor? Just switch on slow-motion mode and show those horses who’s boss (it’s them, they’re being fed literally hundreds of times in one night). The fast-forward and slow toggles are actually a holdover from the original but they’re available right away now, as opposed to unlocked after completing the game, and they really come in handy for the impatient among us. I just wish there was a quick save/load option outside of the occasional auto-saving, it seems like such an obvious inclusion for a title such as this.

So far, so very much like every other HD port that Square Enix has brought to modern machines in recent years. One very cool point of difference here though is the inclusion of Radical Dreamers, a text-based adventure that predates Chrono Cross itself and was never officially translated to English before now thanks to its existence on the Japan-only Satellaview device for the Super Famicom.

As a kind of a side-story/parallel to Chrono Cross, Radical Dreamers follows Serge, Kid and Magil in a heist attempt at Viper Manor that would later go on to inform one of the main game’s early missions. It’s hardly essential playing/reading over its 3-4 hour runtime but definitely an interesting look into the attitude of the franchise’s creators heading into Chrono Cross, while also offering a unique take on text adventure gameplay with its choice-based combat scenarios, timed events and light relationship building. It also feels quite dark and violent in comparison to the main game in ways I hadn’t expected. Overall, it’s just nice to see it finally translated and released in an official capacity (and the translation work isn’t half bad, either!)

With the inclusion of Radical Dreamers and the handy quality-of-life stuff, there’s definitely good reason to check out this re-release of Chrono Cross if you’re a longtime fan or curious JRPG enjoyer. It’s not all good, the visual update swings wildly between pleasant and puke-inducing for one, but the more available this game is the better I reckon.

The post Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition Review – A Welcome Bit Of History appeared first on Press Start.

In my household, the expectations for this LEGO game have been built up. Bigger than a UCS Millennium Falcon #75192. My two sons, Luke and Ben, are budding master builders of actual physical bricks and TT Games’ full catalog. And when it comes to Star Wars, well, they were sired by a Sith who covertly manipulated events to get them named after his favourite Force users. By the time anybody caught on, it was way too late.

So yeah, we’re a triumvirate of veterans who really wanted LEGO Star Wars The Skywalker Saga to be a new hope, not another half-baked clone. You can imagine our surprise, then, when we played a fully armed and operational reimagining that represents a Force-jump in evolution for this franchise.

It’s important to manage expectations on Skywalker Saga from the get go, however. For starters, it’s not simply an up-rezzed, level-for-level remake of 2007’s LEGO Star Wars The Complete Saga. Obviously, that game only covered six films as opposed to the full complement of nine movies here. And though you’ll spot a tiny handful of similar gameplay sections and reused cutscene gags, this is very much a page one rewrite of the greatest Star Wars piss-take this side of Spaceballs.

For seconds, you’re getting full VO this time around (calm down, there’s a mumble mode for you purists). With a few exceptions, the soundalike actors they went with are excellent. They nail the little inflections your brain expects when hearing those classic movie lines for the umpteenth time.

Lastly, when we talk of mechanical upgrades, what’s been done isn’t the equivalent C3PO getting a red arm after ten years—somebody has taken a serious hydrospanner to the combat and class systems. They’ve even bolted on a universe scale sandbox—24 planets with three or so settlement areas apiece, orbit arenas encircling each world, and an absolute bantha load of collectables.

Honestly, what’s here makes the 2000s games look like LEGO DUPLO Star Wars.

If you’ve somehow never played one of TT Games’ titles, you should know that they’re best consumed in 2P split-screen co-op. (Online would have been nice, but it’s somehow gotten the saber chop.) Play this (Han) solo or with “another” as a Force-dyad, and the experience will be relatively the same: slapstick melee/pew-pew combat, mass destruction of property, some class-specific puzzling and simplified jumpy-jump platforming. However, with two people, you can have these emergent, low-stakes frenemy fights along the way.

Understanding that everybody Stans a particular trilogy, TT has wisely opted to let you kick off at the three generational entry points of Phantom Menace, A New Hope or The Force Awakens. If you stick to the breadcrumbed objectives markers and ignore the many, many opportunities to go off track, you can clock a single movie in roughly an hour and a bit.

That runtime is roughly in line with the prequel and OG LEGO Star Wars titles which spun their respective trilogies out into four hour campaigns each. Mind you, when you consider we got a 6-hour story from a single film, LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens, Skywalker Saga feels like it’s paced like a pod race.

On a more positive note, there are the many enhancements I alluded to earlier. There’s now a four-button combo system that thwarts button mashers while monetarily rewarding speed, consistency and timely counter presses. Gunplay includes a cover system, body part damage, gun crate “trade-up” weaponry, and a third-person cam that requires some recoil control. Though it has to be said that the latter frequently reduces you to squinting through an X-rayed version of your avatar to get a good shot off.

As you’d expect, your fisticuff capabilities are determined by the unique class-type of your current minifig—Jedi, Hero, Scavenger, Scoundrel, Bounty Hunter, Villain, Dark Side, Astromech, Protocol or ‘Extra’. Including DLCs there are 380 characters, each of them offering a means to circumvent specific environmental obstacles, decipher new quests or just fold in a cool combat skill. Case in point: using Jedi to fully possess enemies.

Oh, and it’s also worth mentioning that there’s a sprinkle of stealth in here, too. You can slowly acquire stormtrooper armour to go incognito or stay out of enemy vision cones in these My First Metal Gear sections. Like most of the game, there’s not a huge amount of depth or challenge to any of it, but TT earns solid points for mixing it up.

If your pants piece ever gets tired of legging it everywhere, you can always whip out your holoprojector and take to the stars. While this game is no danger of being mistaken for Rogue Squadron IV or a mini No Man’s Sky, the dogfighting and level of freedom impressed me quicker than the mishap had in the droid assembly line level.

You can get nice little space battles going with your favourite starship, each of them with the ability to roll, boost and lock on with homing torpedoes. The orbit areas around every planet are decently populated with asteroid fields, multi-ship dogfights, spawning aces, Capital ships to board, and stud comets to vaporise.

Even though I had to finish this on a deadline tighter than a mynock’s embrace, I got led astray by the side-opportunities in Skywalker Saga. Let’s do this by the numbers: if you want to earn the mysterious 100% completion reward, you need to tick off 225 minikits, 135 level challenges, 140 side missions, 731 puzzles, 38 trials and 10 challenges. One of the latter is my personal favourite, a Wandering Wookie who repeatedly Where’s Wallys his furry butt around this colossal universe.

Double—possibly triple-digit—hours of quality gameplay aside, Skywalker Saga isn’t without some misses. In the movie retellings, some barely significant parts in the series are given altogether too much screen time. Quick example: you have to physically hop in an X-wing after exploding Jabba to fly into orbit, go through a light speed load, land on Dagobah, and do an uneventful slog through the swamp to Yoda’s place to watch him die. Level complete.

Conversely, some cracking setpiece moments in the films can get lip-service in a cutscene, even though they’re fertile ground (read: a nice flat green piece) for gameplay. Quick example: the TIE escape with Poe and Finn gets a five second nod. That was a 10-minute affair in LEGO The Force Awakens.

It also has to be said that the new upgrades system is thicker than a Hutt but roughly about as useless in places. The four odd perks for every class are heavily weighted towards making the incredibly simple combat even easier. I honestly forgot all about it until the end credits of Rise of Skywalker. You’ll probably invest in the perks that reward you with extra studs for doing [class-specific menial task here], then ignore the rest.

Oh, and if you’re playing co-op, may I suggest you quickly secure the significantly higher ground that is your first controller. Often will be the time when a climactic 1v1 boss battle reduces player two to that of an awkward extra. Typically that’ll be a droid who’s about as useful as a poodoo-flavoured lollipop.

Be that as it may, the positives more than outweigh the negatives with this game. Genuinely humorous games are in painfully short supply in our medium, and Skywalker Saga is one of the rare few that can make you chortle like Salacious Crumb on red cordial. When it comes to mission titling and Easter Eggs in the sandbox, this game has clearly been made by a bunch of super nerds whose meme game is utterly on point.

Likewise, the slapstick antics in the mid-mission movies are brilliant. Quick example: Han telling his co-pilot to punch it, whereupon Chewie misinterprets and hauls off into C3PO’s face. We’ve all wanted to do it at some point. Let’s be honest.

The good times elevate even more when you factor in the stupid fun of co-op, particularly if you do literally Force lift your friend over a chasm and let them drop. Even better, there are a host of ludicrous bonus modes to chase, like “pew pew” sound effects, baguette sabers and a universe-wide rave dance. These are the rewards that make the blue milk worth the massive bantha squeeze.

THE PS5 VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Review – Feel The Co-Op Within You appeared first on Press Start.

When looking back on Borderlands 2 and the way that it influences the games industry today, its hard to omit its fantastic slew of add-on content that released in time after launch. One of the most well received packs was Tiny Tina’s Assault On Dragon Keep, where players are plunged into Tina’s Bunkers and Badasses campaign, which is Pandora’s equivalent to Dungeons and Dragons. Its success can be attributed to so many reasons; an entirely unique setting, a funny narrative with a surprising emotional pay-off, its sporadic and off the wall nature, and more.

Almost 9 years on from its release, we have Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, a spin-off of the main series that takes the ideas brought to the table by Assault On Dragon Keep, and extrapolates them into a full game. While Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is a Borderlands game through and through, it manages to carve out its own identity among the pack, bringing new and interesting ideas to the series while still retaining the core elements that hooked players in to begin with. It’s not without its own drawbacks, but Wonderlands is an enjoyable experience from start to finish – especially with friends.

One of the main things people took issue with in the long awaited Borderlands 3 was its main narrative, and villains – the Calypso Twins. Most of the humour didn’t land, weird story decisions were handled poorly, and it was an all-around uninteresting plot that lacked a lot of the charm from the first two games. Gearbox Software seem to have taken that criticism to heart because Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is mostly a step in the right direction in this regard, bringing with it a different kind of humor better suited to today’s world, well-written characters, and side quests that have no right being as entertaining as they are.

After crash landing your ship on Pandora, you join Tiny Tina and her group of friends as they embark on a new campaign in Bunkers and Badasses, with Tina at the helm as Bunker Master. After creating your Fatemaker, you’re dropped into the Wonderlands with the task of stopping the Dragon Lord. Its a simple, and easy to follow story that excels not in its premise but in its writing and characters.

It leans heavily into the themes and trappings of DnD, but much like Dragon Keep, the Wonderlands are ever-changing and unpredictable thanks to Tina’s explosive personality. It provides meta commentary on not only DnD, but video game design in general, with fourth wall breaks and constant prodding at tropes we’ve all come to expect. It’s brought together by another excellent performance from Ashley Burch as Tiny Tina, as well as a solid supporting cast with Andy Samberg as Valentine and Wanda Sykes as Frette.

While a lot of Borderlands 3’s jokes ended up falling flat for a lot of players, I found myself always entertained by the bickering and back and forth between these characters, as well as the occasional one-liner from Tina here and there. There’s a deadpan delivery to a lot of the humour here that feels much more suitable compared to the often cringe inducing monologues of the Calypso Twins. A lot of this is also carried over into the side quests you’ll find scattered about the Wonderlands, making each one worth investigating to see what kind of ridiculous situations they confront you with.

The core appeal of Borderlands has always been the progression, loot, and customization, all of which are retained in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and in some instances, improved. Instead of choosing a class based on a preset character, you’ll create your own Fatemaker from scratch with an extensive character creator. Leaning heavily into DnD, you can tailor almost every aspect of your character to your liking. From physical traits to choosing an upbringing that affects your base stat spread, there’s a startling amount of control here that allows for a more personal attachment to your character and class.

Speaking of which, there’s a whopping six classes to choose from in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, each with two Action Skills, a passive ability called Class Feats and one skill tree to invest points into. While each one has its own unique playstyle and incentivizes you to use particular weapons for maximum effect, they’re not as fleshed out as previous offerings, but for one reason. In true DnD fashion, Wonderlands eventually opens up the option of multi-classing to you, allowing you slot an additional class, giving you access to that class’s respective Feat, Action Skills, and skill tree. Every time you level up, you also gain a point to allocate into your stats, which influence things like weapon damage, spell cooldown, action skill cooldown and so on, allowing for even more flexibility.

It goes without saying that there’s so much here to experiment and play around with in regards to class synergies and build crafting. My main class was the Spore Warden, sporting a poison-farting mushroom companion and an affinity for applying elemental status effects. Combine that with the Clawstrider, which also has a companion, with a focus on dealing lightning and fire elemental damage through various means, and you have one of many lethal builds you can use in throughout the Wonderlands. The ability to respec all skill and stat points, alongside changing your secondary class means this system gives the player plenty of breathing room and agency in regards to trying new things, which is refreshingly flexible and can alter your gameplay loop quite a bit.

The other big new addition in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands comes in the form of the overworld, which connects all of the areas you’ll explore for actual quests. As you traverse it, you’ll come across random encounters, dungeons, collectibles, side quests, optional areas and more. Each major segment of the board has a Shrine that can be activated by collecting all of the shrine pieces in the area. These can be found in overworld challenges, dungeon encounters, or even backtracking, and they permanently boost things like loot quality and experience gains once unlocked, making them well worth the effort.

It’s a great inclusion that adds more depth and personality to the Wonderlands, providing an explorable hub world to move throughout as opposed to a standard hub that you teleport to levels from. There’s a lot here to be found for those who love secret hunting, and while dungeons rarely do much to change up their encounters, the enemy and location variety is enough to keep things feeling relatively fresh.

As expected with anything Borderlands, there’s a metric ton of guns and loot to be found that improve your character in a myriad of ways. There’s a lot of returning weapon archetypes here that behave how you’d expect, but some of them are more than meets the eye. There are assault rifles that will fire cross-bow like bolts, or submachine guns that fire out homing balls of pulsating energy. It all fits nicely with the overall setting and theme that Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands establishes, and this extends further to the Spells and melee weapons.

Funnily enough, grenades aren’t really a thing in the Wonderlands, but Spells most definitely are. Spells are abilities you can slot that are also on a cooldown alongside your Action Skill, but each one behaves differently and has varying fire modes. From Fire and Forget Spells to Hold and Charge Spells, there’s plenty here to choose from and they drop just as often as guns do. Melee weapons also add an extra wrinkle onto combat, allowing you to customize your build even further and placing more emphasis on a typically mundane and one note action – especially if you’re playing the Stabbomancer class.

Once you reach level 40 and you start working out the finer details of your class and build, you unlock Mythic Ranking. Similar to Badass Ranks in previous games, Mythic Ranks are an extended progression system where levelling up nets you tokens you can use to slowly increase your stats to the highest they can be. The core difference in Wonderlands, though, is that Mythic Ranks are in the form of constellations, each one correlating to a particular playstyle. If you put a point into a particular tree, you have to move to a tree clockwise to the one you just invested in for the next point, which makes it feel rigid in comparison to the flexibility of other systems.

Where Borderlands has always allowed players to truly flex their build, is in the end game content. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands main end game comes in the form of Chaos Chamber, a randomly generated run through encounters that you can make easier or harder for yourself depending on how handsomely you want to be rewarded. As you clear waves, you can opt to activate modifiers that increase how many crystals you get as you complete a run, which are eventually used in the final room to chase certain weapon archetypes. The catch is that if you use up all of your lives in any given run, you’re booted back to the world and have to start fresh, making it a sort of rogue-lite mode.

It’s an addictive risk versus reward loop that incentivizes you to challenge yourself in the never-ending chase for loot, and it can all be played with friends or matchmade with strangers. Couple this with the Chaos Levels unlocked upon beating the campaign where you can increase enemy difficulty for more loot akin to Mayhem Levels, and you have plenty of reason to come back to Wonderlands after the credits roll. One weird omission that I couldn’t find was the option for new game plus, a staple in previous Borderlands games that’s seemingly absent here. I’m not sure if Gearbox want to pivot to a different kind of end game or if it’s being added in at launch, but its definitely disappointing that it’s missing here.

That’s another thing that Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands should be applauded for, the cooperative play available at launch is mostly comprehensive. Aside from the disappointing lack of local PC coop, there’s almost everything else you could possibly want from a Borderlands game. Both the campaign, and Chaos Chamber are fully playable in coop, and both can be matchmade for those looking for people to play with. On top of that, all platforms will support cross-play on launch, meaning players can venture through the Wonderlands together, even if playing on different consoles.

If there’s one thing that never seems to get old about Borderlands, its the tried and true cel shaded art style that defines the visual aesthetics of these games. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is no different, but there’s something special about the way this world has been translated into this art style. These are some of the most diverse locales we’ve seen in a Borderlands game yet, from sand swept Sunfang Oasis to the lofty Tangledrift, there’s so much to see here within the trappings of fantasy that wasn’t explored in Assault On Dragon Keep. I’m also happy to report that the game feels very polished aside from one crash and some odd frame drops I experienced in one particular area.

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands Review – More Than A One Shot Adventure appeared first on Press Start.

WWE 2K22 is a shining example of what taking a year off to reassess can do for a series. Following one of the worst WWE games to ever see the light of day in WWE 2K20, Visual Concepts has done an extraordinary job in executing the ultimate babyface turn – delivering one of the best wrestling games in years.

This starts with 2K22’s gameplay. What used to be one of the worst elements in recent 2K wrestling games has now become one of the best. The redesigned gameplay engine allows newcomers to pull off awesome-looking moves while being deep enough for veterans to seek their teeth into. Animations are less janky when compared to recent entries as well, making every move look closer to the real thing. The camera’s positioning, now much closer to the ring, plays a big role in enhancing the moment-to-moment action and is another welcome change to the game’s general presentation. This all comes together to form a more cohesive presentation package that kept me captivated throughout the many matches I played.

The control system’s revamp is a particular highlight this year. Light attacks, heavy attacks and grapples are assigned to individual face buttons and can be chained together to form devastating combos against an opponent. Reversals can still be performed through the assigned reversal button; however Visual Concepts has added a ‘breaker’ option – a new type of reversal that can quickly put you on the front foot. These are executed by guessing what the opponent is about to press – whether that’s the light attack, heavy attack or grapple button – and pressing the corresponding button at the same time. This will put an end to whatever move they’re trying to execute – whether it’s a chained combo or a few basic attacks – allowing you to then start going on the offensive yourself.

When executed correctly, breakers can change the entire flow of a match. On harder difficulties, these become necessities and ultimately make matches in 2K22 feel more fluid and enjoyable to play. They add an extra element of strategy to the mix, taking a step closer to what we watch on television each week all the while adding to the fun of the experience. After many years of the same old formula each year in these games, 2K22’s gameplay feels as fresh and exciting as a wrestling game ever has.

This year’s Showcase Mode covers the long-running career of one of my favourite wrestlers of all time, Rey Mysterio. Most of the matches included in Showcase Mode are pivotal matches in Mysterio’s career, like the Wrestlemania 21 match against Eddie Guerrero and his match for the World Heavyweight Championship against JBL at Judgment Day 2006. It was great to revisit these with commentary from Mysterio himself, as it provided a deeper insight into the importance of each match. Given Mysterio’s long-running history in the brand I was disappointed that only one WCW match was included, and the recent matches included were all relatively insignificant. It seems like a lot of the classics – like the Wrestlemania 22 triple threat match and his match against Chris Jericho at The Bash in 2009 – weren’t included due to the opponent either leaving WWE and/or joining up with rival brand AEW. All-in-all, it’s a nice look back at one of the most storied careers in WWE history, but it could have been done more justice.

On that subject, WWE 2K22’s roster is the weakest in some time. Neither good nor bad, there’s an odd mix of wrestlers in this year’s entry. A surprisingly large chunk have now either departed WWE or have been released, yet still made it into the game. In some ways this is great, as still having access to wrestlers like Jeff Hardy (one of my other all-time favourites) and Samoa Joe gives the roster some depth. Yet legends of yesteryear and notable up-and-comers are few and far between. Lucky those omissions can be downloaded through the rather excellent creation suite, huh?

MyGM suffers a bit because of this, but that still doesn’t take away from what is one of the best modes in WWE 2K22. Taking the reins of a WWE General Manager and battling it out against a rival with the goal of becoming the top-rated show, MyGM sparkles by shining a light on a different side of wrestling than what’s offered in the game’s other modes. Here, you pick which brand you’re going to take to the top, draft superstars to your chosen show and schedule matches and rivalries that will captivate the crowd.

Throughout the mode you’re able to directly control superstars in matches or simulate to your heart’s content – whatever you do, success is determined by examining wrestler types and setting matches up between wrestlers who can produce exciting matches with each other. This is where MyGM can get a bit confusing, though, as dream matches you thought would be instant classics – like Drew McIntyre vs Goldberg, for example – can earn underwhelming one-star ratings for being too boring. Drew McIntyre vs Riddle, though? Potential gold. It’s a bit bizarre, and it most definitely feels a bit wrong to pit superstars like Rey Mysterio up against Brock Lesnar, but there’s enough offered up in the mode to make it feel unique.

Throughout the MyGM season you’re able to sign free agents (as most of the big hitters won’t be available in the draft, weirdly enough) on either timed or permanent contracts as well as legends. You’re also able to use power cards, which can be earned by achieving a goal set by your commissioner each week. These give you bonuses to use on your superstars, on your own show or against the rival brand and play an important role in coming out on top.

You’re also given a budget in MyGM and need to keep a close eye on it as you progress. You’ll earn money for well-received shows which can be then used to buy more power cards, put on a better show (with a bigger arena, better lighting and pyros) and/or sign superstars to join your brand. MyGM rewards strategy first and foremost, and I enjoyed carving out different rivalries with wrestlers and having them crescendo at PPVs.

It’s a shame MyGM maxes out at 50 weeks long and only allows you to have two titles per brand (alongside a limited amount of match types), though I’m hopeful that this is a starting point for future iteration. I’d love to see more than just one rival brand to take on at the same time, while a long-winded schedule would call for some proper strategic planning. There’s certainly a lot of potential with the mode.

MyRISE takes a solid step forward this year, throwing away the wackiness seen in 2K20’s MyCAREER mode. Starting out at the WWE performance centre, MyRISE takes your created superstar through the ranks of the WWE, ultimately carving a path toward winning titles and achieving ultimate glory as a legend of the business. The voice acting here is still a little bit wonky, but it’s a more refined, grounded take on wrestling this time around. The sheer number of things to do gives the mode more than enough staying power and is a marked improvement over previous iterations.

The well-loved Universe Mode returns in WWE 2K22, too, allowing you to play through as a superstar or control all facets of the WWE in Classic Mode. There’s not a whole lot that’s changed here, but it’s the go-to option for those that want to dive deep into the business, controlling the many different storylines that run each week. Superstar Mode bakes that down to just playing as one superstar, forming rivalries, competing in a variety of different matches and attempting to win championships along the way. I found Classic Mode to be more rewarding than Superstar Mode, given the sheer number of options available in the former. It’s another solid option to sink your teeth into — just don’t expect any shiny new changes.

2K22’s MyFACTION mode, a single-player collectible card game that focuses on building a strong faction and competing against other factions, is rather dull. You earn points for completing objectives, earn tokens to spend on WWE superstars and, of course, buy virtual currency if you so desire.

I found MyFACTION to be the weakest mode available in 2K22 as progression felt slow and I have a particular disdain for 4v4 matches. They’d go on for far too long and I didn’t feel like I was really achieving anything by going through the mode’s proving grounds or towers. Progression in the game’s other modes will give you tokens to use in MyFACTION, but again I couldn’t help but feel like it was the least interesting mode of the bunch by some margin – especially when there’s so much fun to be had elsewhere.

It has its issues, but there’s no doubting WWE 2K22 is the best 2K wrestling game in many years. The new modes on offer, the gameplay revamp and the reworking of controls makes for an immensely engrossing experience. There’s still some way to go in making MyGM feel truer to its strategic aim and the Showcase Mode is missing some major matches in Rey Mysterio’s career, but there’s no doubting this is a significantly better product than what came before it.

The post WWE 2K22 Review – Head Of The Table appeared first on Press Start.

It’s no secret that Bungie has had innumerable ups and downs with Destiny over the last 8 years, but never has this been more evident since 2018’s Forsaken. Shadowkeep and Beyond Light, while bringing plenty to the table, often felt like expansions built to lay new ground for the core of the game to build itself upon. Expectations for the next major expansion were high, touting a long awaited villain in the form of Savathûn, a renewed focus on campaign design, and weapon crafting. It’s not without its growing pains, but after some time exploring what The Witch Queen has to offer, I’d argue that The Witch Queen isn’t just the best Destiny 2 expansion, but the best piece of content Bungie has put out since The Taken King, if not better.

If you aren’t familiar with the happenings of Destiny 2’s world, the last few months have been tumultuous to say the least. In the aftermath of exorcising Savathûn’s worm, Mars is suddenly returned to the solar system from the clutches of the Darkness, with Savathûn’s very own ship in tow. Upon boarding it, our guardians quickly discover that she has somehow stolen the power of the Light, gifting it to her very own Hive, and is using it to rebuild her Throne World. What follows is a 6-8 hour investigation into how Savathûn and her underlings came to gain this power, and how we can take it back.

Without spoiling too much, this is undoubtedly the best campaign Destiny has ever seen. Bungie had stated multiple times that there was a renewed focus on campaign and storytelling, but I don’t think anyone was quite ready for what we actually received. Eight extremely high quality missions, all superbly paced with engaging boss encounters, thrilling set pieces, and plot twists that even the most die-hard lore fans couldn’t have seen coming. Savathûn is more than just a typical antagonist – there’s merit to what she’s trying to achieve here, and what we find out about not only her and her Hive, but also the true nature of the Darkness is truly gripping from beginning to end.

There’s also the inclusion of a Legendary difficulty, which caps your power level below the mission’s recommended level, and will really put you to the test for those extra rewards as you play through the campaign. The cherry on top of all this is the option to replay any of the missions on either difficulty, meaning you can go through again on a higher or lower setting to see how it differs. For the longest time Destiny has struggled to turn its fantastic lore into immersive storytelling, and it feels like The Witch Queen – much like the last few seasons of content – is a real turning point for the franchise and a true return to form for Bungie.

While The Witch Queen doesn’t bring something as pivotal as all-new subclasses, it does mark the start of something much more important – the reworkings of the old Light subclasses, starting with Void 3.0. Those familiar with the way Stasis works will be right at home here. Each class can pick between different Super abilities, Grenades, Class Abilities, Aspects, and Fragments to allow for more customization and control over your builds.

The end result is truly remarkable, breathing new life into subclasses that felt ancient in comparison to the flexibility and adaptability of Stasis. Each class has a lot to play around with, and while there’s definitely some tuning needed for certain classes, there’s more reason than ever to be excited for Arc and Solar to receive the same treatment over the coming months.

There’s also the long awaited weapon crafting, which as of now feels like it’s going through some growing pains as Bungie works out how they want to implement it properly. A huge part of Destiny is the loot – chasing the rolls you want on all the new weapons that come out with each content drop.

It’s clear that weapon crafting isn’t supposed to replace this chase, but compliment it instead, allowing players to craft the roll that they covet for a particular weapon, and make it theirs. Unfortunately there’s quite a small pool of weapons to craft right now, and the caps for crafting materials are slightly too small, resulting in a lot of wastage as you earn other essential materials. While the core of it works and it serves its purpose, it’s clear that crafting is going to grow and change quite a lot over the next few seasons, which leaves it feeling like more of an experiment as opposed to a concrete addition to the game.

Weapon crafting is also the means by which we create the new weapon type: Glaives. A ranged/melee hybrid, the Glaive is unlike any other weapon type we’ve seen in Destiny before, boasting an energy blast, combos, and a shield that’s recharged by dealing damage with the projectile, it’s all about carefully weaving these actions together to become a lethal killing machine at close to mid range. While it remains to be seen how this archetype will fit into the broader  scope of content – especially endgame – there’s no denying that Bungie are still creating some of the best feeling weapons in first-person-shooters today.

The post-campaign content is also some of the most enjoyable we’ve had out of an expansion thus far as well. Wellspring is a 6-man matchmade activity that rotates between Attack and Defense everyday. Attack sees players launching an assault on the Wellspring to take it from the Hive, whereas Defense sees them protecting it from hordes of Scorn, eventually resulting in a chase against a Hive Lightbearer. Weekly Story Missions make their return here, allowing players to play specific story missions at a higher level for gear and weapon crafting materials.

In terms of more unique content, there’s also an all new Exotic Mission called Vox Obscura, which involves sieging a Cabal fortress under the cover of night to stop rogue transmissions from reaching their ominous receiver. This mission is a thrilling race against the clock as players blast open the doors to the Cabal installment with hijacked tanks, culminating in a boss fight and an all new Exotic weapon, the Dead Messenger. There’s so much variation in what The Witch Queen’s activities have to offer, and plenty of reason to engage with them, and that’s without mentioning the raid.

If there’s one day that the Destiny community comes together like no other, it’s during the first 24 hours of an all-new raid release. After a number of completions, both with the day one Contest modifier and on its normal difficulty modes, I think its safe to say that Vow of the Disciple is my new favorite raid in all of Destiny.

Without spoiling too much, the atmosphere and theme fits exceptionally well into the coming war between the Light and the Dark, and there’s a palpable sense of foreboding and dread that emanates from every major encounter in the raid. The boss fights in particular are undoubtedly some of Bungie’s best, bucking typical trends we’ve seen with bosses from previous raids that were becoming tired and overused. A special mention should go to the final boss, Rhulk, who is not only a spectacle to fight, but also has the lore and narrative chops to give the encounter meaning and context within the broader scope of the universe.

The final piece of the puzzle is the new season: Season of the Risen. While I can’t comment on its quality entirely as it hasn’t concluded yet, what’s here now continues the trend of challenging the beliefs of pre-established characters and throwing them into unforseen conflicts to gauge new perspectives and opinions, namely Lord Saladin and a vulnerable Crow, still reeling from the shock of Savathûn’s impersonation of Osiris.

This season is largely focused on working with Empress Caiatl and her legion to further uncover how the Hive came to posses the light. This is done through PsiOps Battlegrounds, a new 3-man matchmade activity that retains the trademark enemy density and fast paced gameplay we’ve seen from past seasonal activities. We’ve yet to see if this season will reach the heights of Season of the Chosen or Season of the Splicer, but Risen is off to a promising start, and I’ll be logging in every week to see how it develops.

It goes without saying that the state of PvE in Destiny 2 is arguably the strongest its ever been, unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Crucible, Gambit, and Trials of Osiris. While Bungie have been very transparent about the current state of Crucible and Gambit, the efforts made in The Witch Queen to help them maintain relevancy aren’t quite enough to bring them up to the same level as the PvE content. Crucible is still in dire need of maps, modes, and matchmaking adjustments, while Gambit is still largely uninteresting and frustrating despite the changes made at launch.

Trials of Osiris is its own bucket of worms. While a major shakeup in Season of the Lost saw player populations shoot up to an all time high in the playlist, it quickly becomes clear to anyone who engages with it that matchmaking is fundamentally flawed, and high-skill players abuse certain systems to get matched with low-skill players and promptly mop the floor with them. It’s not quite as bad as it was this time last year, but there’s still more work to be done to make Trials a much more healthy competitive experience compared to the luck-of-the-draw nature it currently suffers from for most players.

Bungie have always been praised for their excellent art direction, skyboxes and environments, and The Witch Queen is no different. Savathûn’s Throne World is distinctly divided between boggy swamps and Dark City ruins and a risen luminescent fortress built in the image of Savathûn’s newfound light. There’s a stark visual juxtaposition here that also communicates her developments as a character, further accentuating the themes of deception, and light versus dark. Once again, a special shoutout goes to the raid, which will constantly have you in awe as you ascend through one of the most visually unique raids we’ve seen so far.

While launch was surprisingly smooth, The Witch Queen wasn’t without its technical issues. Numerous weapons were disabled due to bugs over the last few weeks, certain activities can soft-lock players forcing a restart, crafting materials couldn’t be purchased, and the raid also suffered from various error codes on launch. While Bungie should be applauded for jumping on most of these in quick fashion, a few of them still plague the game today, and occasionally rear their heads to hamper the experience.

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Review – An Immense Payoff appeared first on Press Start.

I’ll waste no words here. It’s remarkable that Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is actually fantastic. The first trailer was so misguided as a first impression that I’d argue it’s become a meme in and of itself. The demo wouldn’t work for several days following its upload. So many people I’d speak to have even forgotten this game exists beyond that first trailer. So much was against this game, and I was ready to be too. But now, having played from beginning to end, while still a bit rough around the edges, Stranger of Paradise is a fantastic Final Fantasy spin-off and perhaps even one of the best.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is essentially a retelling of the original Final Fantasy game, though told through an alternative “what-if” kind of scenario. You play as Jack, a man thrown into the world from another reality who barely remembers anything of his past. He meets up with four other similarly forgetful people. They set off on their merry way to restore four crystals in a bid to finally defeat Chaos, the evil being and final boss of the original Final Fantasy game.

There’s no sugar coating it – Stranger of Paradise’s story is the greatest most concentrated example of “so bad it’s good” that I think I’ve ever experienced in a video game. Jack himself is comically overwritten, and most of the game events occur with little connection between them. The opening scene where the major characters meet feels like it’s missing dialogue and context. It’s entirely cringe-worthy, but to the point where it was incredibly entertaining. I can see the plot and characterisation of Jack, especially being divisive amongst players. However, despite the fact this is abhorrently bad in terms of video game storytelling, it’s still remarkably entertaining.

It’s extremely fortunate, then, that Stranger of Paradise is a fantastic action game underneath it all. Much like Nioh before it with Dark Souls, many have been quick to compare this game to Nioh. While both are action RPGs, Stranger of Paradise carves out its own niche to offer something entirely its own. However, it’s similarly structured to Nioh. Each level is selected from a world map and offers a dungeon to crawl and a killer boss at the end. Some locations have more than one mission to offer too.

This means that Stranger of Paradise is comprised mainly of what it does best – combat. It’s without a doubt one of the fastest Team Ninja games I’ve played (second only to Ninja Gaiden itself) and has all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a game of this ilk. There’s parrying, evading, and blocking, and there are regular attacks and special attacks too. The most unique aspect is Soul Shield, a special block that depletes your stamina meter but recovers your MP.

The crux of the combat is around managing your MP pool, which powers both magic and special abilities that you’ll learn as you level up. Stranger of Paradise isn’t like other games in its genre – dying won’t lose you any experience. Instead, as you finish off enemies, you’ll be able to expand your maximum MP pool. Dying in Stranger of Paradise merely resets your maximum pool to its base levels, with an opportunity to return where you died to restore it too. It’s a much gentler way to punish players than games like Nioh, Dark Souls, and even Elden Ring did.

It’s all pretty standard stuff for an action game, though Stranger of Paradise does its best to fold Final Fantasy into that mix to offer up something much cooler.

Enter the jobs system. There are over twenty-five of them in Stranger of Paradise, and any Final Fantasy fan will be familiar with how they work. The job you choose for Jack governs what weapons he can use and what abilities he has access to. Most of these are pulled from classic Final Fantasy games – think the warrior, dragoon, or black mage. Each of them has their own skill tree that improves their abilities and grants bonuses no matter which jobs you have equipped. It’s a friendly system that encourages you to change things up, and, even better, you can hot-swap between two jobs at once on the battlefield.

What I really liked about the jobs system in Stranger of Paradise is how much flexibility it gives you in combat and how much depth there is to it. I’d often spend my time with the Sage – a master of both black and white magic – but also switch out my second job with one of the games many physical options too. Dragoons are masters of spears and can use the series signature “jump” move, while the Monks can buff themselves to deliver more damage per hit, as an example. There’s a heap on offer here, and being able to mix and match from a pool of over twenty jobs means there’s bound to be something here for everyone.

Similarly, while some abilities are tied to your job selection, others are bound to whatever weapon you have too. Learning one of the weapon-based abilities in one job unlocks it for any other job as long as you have that same weapon type equipped. These abilities are great, too – they can be slotted in between your regular attacks to alter your combos and create combos that best suit your playstyle. Top this with abilities that you can absorb from certain enemies and throwback at them, and you’ve got an excellent pool of options at any point in combat to pull from.

If I’ve not made it clear – the combat in Stranger of Paradise has greater depth and scope than I could have ever hoped for, and it’s why it’s such a joy to play no matter your playstyle or skill level.

The enemies and locations are similarly pooled from classic Final Fantasy lore. It’s fun to see all these classic creatures be tweaked to better suit the faster paced gameplay in Stranger of Paradise, and the boss battles can get especially hectic. Locations are similarly, while not exactly as they appear in other games, inspired by the classic games’ locations. It’s a bit of a shame then that about two thirds of the way through the game, the enemy variety is stifled considerably – you’ll fight pallet swapped versions of enemies you’ve already seen, though with different abilities.

Most would quickly take the mental shortcut and assume that Stranger of Paradise is as hard as games like Nioh or Dark Souls. While Stranger of Paradise can get pretty tough – it not only has selectable difficulties but even a casual mode that does a lot of the heavy lifting for you. I’m all for more people playing this game the way they want – even though I switched to Hard about a third of the way through to give myself more of a challenge. That being said, I never found myself stuck on any of the games’ numerous boss battles for more than an hour at a time. If you’re not as stubborn as me, you can lower the difficulty on the fly on a per-mission basis at any of the save points in the game.

Following completion of the game, there’s a brand-new mode called Chaos Mode, which feels like a new game plus mode of sorts that’s more difficult and tuned more with end game progression. Similarly, your job trees can be “mastered” to improve their benefits. So even though Stranger of Paradise will take most players between twenty-five to thirty hours to complete, there’s more to keep coming back for. Even cooler, two other players can tackle the game’s numerous main or side missions. Those who join their friends’ game will earn more than usual EXP through a consumable called anima shards, so there’s a nice incentive there to do so too.

The game isn’t without its faults, though. While it’s fantastic to be able to see all your collected gear appear on your character, Stranger of Paradise does fall victim to the dreaded looter-shooter mentality. I picked up over fifty pieces of equipment once, all with marginal stat differences in one level. To the game’s credit, it’s effortless to select multiple and discard them or dismantle them for components that can improve other weapons. But it feels pretty unfocused and, without a doubt, is one of the game’s weakest aspects. I rarely ever selected my equipment and just used the series-standard “optimise” option instead.

The game’s biggest downside is also the most obvious – its presentation. Stranger of Paradise looks great at times, but its production values feel remarkably low for the most part. I opted to play the game in performance mode, which meant an apparent reduction in resolution to get the game running as smoothly as it was. The worlds themselves are beautiful and well realised, as do most cinematics; it’s just that the game is lacking some kind of shine or polish to make it look as good as it can be. Mind you, it’s come a long way since the demo, with clear changes in lighting in an attempt to make it brighter and colourful, but it’s still a bit of a strange-looking game. It’s good that the music is great Final Fantasy fare, consisting of entirely original pieces and joyfully remixed pieces from older games.

THE PLAYSTATION 5 VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin Review – Deep Chaotic Action appeared first on Press Start.

Since the release of Demon’s Souls in 2009, FromSoftware’s titles have blown up from cult followings to some of the most pivotal cornerstones we have in the industry today, influencing hundreds of games, and even creating its own sub-genre in the process. There’s a palpable and emphatic excitement present in the lead up to the release of a new From game, and never has this consensus been more apparent than with Elden Ring. It some ways, Elden Ring is a celebration of all that came before – a culmination of everything people love about Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro – while also elevating a well established formula to new heights with an open-world design philosophy similar to that of Breath of the Wild. The end result is one of From’s best experiences yet, positively dripping with creativity, attention to detail, and a sense of journey that will undoubtedly leave Elden Ring as one of the most talked about open-world games of this generation.

THE CHEAPEST COPY: $79 WITH FREE DELIVERY AT AMAZON

Elden Ring is set in The Lands Between, a once prosperous and peaceful land that has since been plunged into chaos and desolation after a war suitably dubbed: The Shattering. The Elden Ring, now broken into pieces is held by six demigods, each of them corrupted by the very power of their Great Runes. It falls to you as The Tarnished to journey across The Lands Between, and fell these once great heroes so that you can rebuild the Elden Ring, become the Elden Lord and restore order and harmony to The Lands Between. If it sounds similar to Dark Souls III, that’s because it is, but where Elden Ring differentiates itself is in its setting, world concept, and characters.

Elden Ring’s founding world concept is the brainchild of a collaborative effort between Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R. R. Martin. While I’m not too familiar with Martin’s work on Game of Thrones, it’s clear to me where he’s had an impact on the way this world has been built and on the rules that it abides by. This is still a FromSoftware experience through and through though, you’ll meet an eclectic cast of superbly written characters, each cemented firmly into the world by their backstories and motivations. Whether it be the joyous and jolly Alexander, a sentient warrior pot, or the ever enigmatic Patches, there’s a little something here for everyone to gravitate towards. Likewise, the environmental storytelling on display here is as good as it’s always been, and every landscape effortlessly paints a picture of what we once was. No where is this sense of world and place more apparent than when exploring one of the many regions of The Lands Between.

Where Elden Ring separates itself the most from its predecessors, is in its structure and the way you progress through its world. After a short tutorial area, you’re dropped into Limgrave, a vertically varied landscape of lush greenery, and ruins, all of it punctuated by the mighty Stormveil Castle towering overhead. From this point, you’re free to explore to your heart’s content, with only the Sites of Grace – the new Bonfires – to nudge you in the right direction via an indicator on the map. While it’s easy to get lost exploring and sidetracked by all the optional content you can engage with, Elden Ring’s open world is at its best when you’re stumbling across things, spotting structures in the distance and thinking “What’s that?”, only to be rewarded with something upon further investigation.

These optional objectives can range from small-scale dungeons and enemy patrols, to overworld boss fights and new Sites of Grace to expand your fast travel options. Each region is densely packed with things to do, and none of them feel like bloat or wasted space, not once did I ever feel like I had to engage with them to progress the main quest. What’s more telling, perhaps, is the fact that I had to rip myself away from Limgrave to move onto the next area – a testament to the quality of these optional activities.

While you can fast travel to the different Sites of Grace you’ve unlocked across The Lands Between, your main means of exploration is via your spectral horse, Torrent. After progressing through the early areas of Limgrave, you’ll be given an item that allows you to summon Torrent at the press of a button. While mounted, you can double jump and make use of geysers to propel yourself up into the sky, making traversal that little bit more seamless. You can also engage in horseback combat, which more often than not feels clunky and lacks the impact of regular combat. Fortunately, the situations that require you to use Torrent to gain an advantage are far outweighed by those that don’t, but it’s still an awkward blemish on an otherwise polished combat system.

As you’re exploring a region for the first time, you’re almost always slowly moving towards that area’s Legacy Dungeon, an intricately designed exploration area that retains From’s expert level design that intertwines its own pathways and loops back on itself in unexpected ways. A special mention should go out to The Academy of Raya Lucaria, in the second area, Liurnia of the Lakes. Without spoiling too much, it’s a school ravaged by its knowledge-maddened alumni, with a thick fog that envelopes every aspect of its outside environments. It’s a dungeon that screams Bloodborne in its concept and design, and it’s a true wonder to explore as you ascend it’s gilded halls. All of these Legacy Dungeons are bolstered by some of From’s best boss fights yet, that will test your skills, and always seem to up the ante as you move forward, providing a challenging yet satisfying difficulty curve. Some are previous concepts taken further, classic one on ones, or wholly new ideas, and a vast majority of them – especially the end game ones – are thrilling to surmount.

Now for the elephant in the room – difficulty. While I wouldn’t say Elden Ring is the hardest of FromSoftware’s world renowned challenges, it definitely isn’t the easiest either. It is however, the most accessible. It’s clear that there’s a concerted effort here to explain systems and mechanics to newer players who mightn’t have much experience with other titles of this Ilk. Similarly, the non-linear design means that if you get truly stuck on a particular boss, you can leave, level up your character, upgrade your weapons, increase your Flask charges, and come back more powerful than before. There’s also the inclusion of Stakes of Marika, which will typically spawn you closer to your death location, making the inevitable trips back to the boss room relatively painless. Still though, this won’t trivialize encounters, so if you haven’t been one for smashing your head against a brick wall until the cracks start showing, Elden Ring won’t be the FromSoftware game to change that.

Then we get to the RPG elements present in Elden Ring, and they mostly behave how they have in past games. You’ll start out by creating your character with From’s most extensive customizer yet, and you’ll be prompted to pick a background for your base stats. While this doesn’t necessarily reflect what your build will look like by the end of the game, it sets a trajectory for what to focus on in the early game. Whether it be a full strength build with focus on wielding colossal great-swords and hammers, or a combined dexterity magic build that allows you to weave sorceries into your combat flow, there’s a lot to pick and choose from in Elden Ring.

The Weapon Arts system from Dark Souls III has also been reworked into Ashes of War. Each weapon comes with its own intrinsic Ashes of War, which behaves the same as Weapon Arts – powerful attacks or buffs at the cost of FP. The major improvement in this system, though, is that Ashes of War can be assigned to different weapons, as long as the archetype matches. Certain Ashes of War will also let you assign elemental affinities to your weapons, further deepening customization and build crafting. It’s a brilliantly free-flowing system that allows for deeper player choice, and creates a more meaningful bond with your weapons.

As if that wasn’t enough to begin with, Elden Ring also introduces Rune Arcs and Spirit Summoning. The latter allows you to summon AI spirits to fight with you during boss fights at the cost of FP, and these spirits can also be upgraded to bolster their HP and damage output. There’s all kinds of spirits with different strengths, so you’ll often have a suite you pick and choose from depending on the occasion. Rune Arcs are most comparable to Embers or Human Effigies from past games, but are far more rare, and introduce an interesting risk/reward system in the way they’re implemented. Every time you defeat the demigod of any given region, you’ll receive their Great Rune, which can be activated at a Divine Tower in their area.

You can only have one Great Rune equipped at any given time, and their bonuses are only active when a Rune Arc is used. These aren’t small bonuses. The first Great Rune, for example, boosts all of your attributes, effectively increasing your character’s level by 40 until your next death. Due to how rare Rune Arcs are, there’s a lot of deliberation to be had in regards to when you use these so you don’t waste them. The boost they provide might be all you need to bring that boss down, but make one mistake, and it’s gone. This system is less of a necessity and more of a bonus buff to use sparingly, but its inclusion is welcome nonetheless.

Lastly, there’s the return of player summoning, and invasions. PVP diehards will be glad to here that the addition of anti-cheat software on the PC version should hopefully result in less compromises. On the co-operative side, things are a bit mixed. While it all works good, players can only be summoned from Summoning Pools, pre-determined spots on the map that define the explorable area when a co-op session is active. All of the dungeons are fully playable in co-op, but if you were hoping to explore the overworld with friends in limitless fashion, you might find that the implementation here is restrictive. While I can understand trying to retain the somber and isolating experience of exploring The Lands Between by yourself, I can’t help but wonder what a more freeing and open co-op experience would’ve brought to the table.

I played Elden Ring on PC, and across the almost 60 hours I spent with it, I’m pleased to report that it’s a mostly polished experience. It’s goes without saying that this game is absolutely gorgeous, maybe not to the same capacity as another big triple A title to come out this month, but still had my jaw on the floor with some sweeping vistas and landscapes to take in at every turn. I’ve already spoken about how excellent I think Liurnia of the Lakes is, but that shouldn’t taken away from the crimson covered lands of Caelid or the golden sky perpetually hanging over the top of Altus Plateau. I did experience a few hiccups on PC, though, namely some stuttering and a couple crashes due to the anti-cheat software. I’m sure this will be ironed out by launch, though, and at the end of the day they were minor stumbles in a broadly polished experience, which is impressive considering how large the game world is.

THE PS5 EXPERIENCE

Whilst the majority of our time with Elden Ring was spent on PC, we did get to also play the game on PS5. There’s two modes, one that prioritizes framerate and one that prioritizes quality. As you’d expect, the framerate mode is closer to 60FPS whilst quality mode maxes out at 30FPS. Both see drops in frames, but you’ll absolutely want to go with the framerate mode to provide the most stable performance as possible. There was a noticeable amount of pop-in with the world loading in as you look around occasionally, but on the whole it is a stable experience and does not detract from the fantastic experience that Elden Ring is.

The post Elden Ring Review – A Formula Perfected appeared first on Press Start.

Although Skate is a franchise on the mend thanks to the revitalising powers of an EA realising the potential their dormant IP holds, OlliOlli has been the last decade’s most enduring skating franchise. Although it maintains the series’ accessible and fun control scheme, OlliOlli World enjoys a totally rad coat of paint that serves to completely reinvent the game’s visual identity and attitude in fitting with what most stereotypically think of when they consider skater culture.

There’s plenty of lingo, baggy shorts, big grinds, and even bigger slams. And although the game can be hard to a hazardous degree, especially if you’re trying to clock every level’s toughest challenges, OlliOlli World doesn’t demand it of you. In fact, you’re able to experience as difficult a game as you choose as the pass mark, in most cases, is simply beating the level. In that sense, and coupled with its easy-to-pick-up controls, OlliOlli World pretty deliberately feels carefree and a perfect representation of that cruisy, laid-back skateboarding ethos that’s all-inclusive, non-competitive, and promotes growth at a steady pace. 

The point of OlliOlli World is to determine whether you, through your gnashing and shredding mastery, and with the help of a ragtag group of friends, are capable of easing Chiffon into retirement by taking over her nebulous, and apparently godlike, role as a ‘Skate Wizard’ of Radlandia. It’s an absurd premise that serves as a pretty outlandish backdrop for the game’s main event: good old-fashioned skating. 

Impressing the other, positively cartoonish, deities of Radlandia’s handful of regions is a towering task and requires you to skate through somewhere in the range of fifty levels that do certainly get tougher as the journey nears its end. Like previous entries, OlliOlli World’s levels play out in a side-scrolling fashion and require a certain aptitude for rhythm to chain together combos throughout the many obstacles you’ll face. The level design is layered, offering multiple paths that often lead to ‘gnarly routes’ that house the tougher tasks doled out by Mike, the brick shithouse dullard of the group. As they always have, OlliOlli’s controls borrow from the Skate playbook more than Tony Hawk’s. A controlled flick of the right stick determines the flip trick, grab, or grind you’ll pull off, while triggers control your skater’s rotation—a must for keeping those combos alive, along with wall rides and manuals. Quarter pipes are a new addition to OlliOlli World and, while they’re great for catching air and changing lanes, they create a certain unreadability to the level and, through constantly switching between left and right movement, makes the way forward harder to anticipate. 

Straying from the main course is a great way to unearth the side quests on offer, most of which involve tracking down the strangest of people who call Radlandia home. Although reaching them can be tricky, there’s a certain, disarming charm that comes from chatting with a buff, roided out seagull. 

While joining the Skate Wizard ranks and reaching Gnarvana is your skater’s ultimate goal, it serves as a bit of an endgame for those who reach it. Players who vibe with the chill, aimless act of skating can opt into the Gnarvana Portal and enjoy levels generated by certain parameters, like difficulty and length, by the player. It’s ultimately pointless and doesn’t quite hit like proper user-created levels might, but serves as a good means of practice. Each generated instance is given a postcode that players can share, creating a kind of competitive aspect to an otherwise meaningless aside. 

The Gnarvana League, on the other hand, could be the beginnings of a more durable reason to return to OlliOlli after the credits roll. Although it’s in its infancy and feels rather bare-bones, existing only as a daily challenge at the moment with a rudimentary ranking system, I feel as though it could evolve into something pretty cool. Being able to watch the table-topping runs through a replay is a good way to learn a trick or two. 

OlliOlli is like a rainbow-coloured fruit, now rich in colour and personality having shed its pixel art rind. As far as reinventions go, it’s hard to fault the game’s new direction. It’s a gorgeous hand-drawn approach that feels like it’s pulled from the pages of some coming of age, summery graphic novel—almost as if Bryan Lee O’Malley tried his hand at an Adventure Time, except it’s full of backwards caps and anthropomorphic ice-cream cones. The game’s soundtrack, a curated selection of warm and welcoming house music, fits the mood like a glove, including ‘Darling Gardens’ from Melbourne’s own Midflite. 

I’d go so far as to call OlliOlli World a feel-good game and it’s one that’ll catch a lot of people off guard, despite the franchise’s more than confident beginnings. I hope, through a bit of post-launch support, it continues to grow, especially when it comes to the lighter competitive aspects of Gnarvana. 

THE XBOX SERIES X VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WERE PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post OlliOlli World Review – Skate Or Die appeared first on Press Start.

The fact that Dying Light 2 Stay Human is even finished feels like a miracle. The game felt like it was in development hell for so long that I’d thought it’d ironically gone the same way as Dead Island 2. Now, almost six years after Dying Light, Dying Light 2 Stay Human has not only seen the light but come out swinging. And while its primary new focus – its story – falls flat, everything else about Dying Light 2 is a triumph.

Dying Light 2 takes place sometime after the events of the original. You play as Aiden, an infected survivor in a world infected by a new virus variant from the original game. Aiden is lucky – he has some kind of resistance to the virus – allowing him to remain human under the right conditions. The game follows him on a quest to find his sister in the oddly non-specific “City”, while also looking to shed light on events in his past that could explain his immunity. It’s a more personal story than Dying Light ever was, but such a story comes with a significant caveat.

That caveat is pretty damning – the overarching plot of Dying Light 2 just isn’t engaging. So many times, I’d find myself quite bluntly uninterested in Aiden’s personal quest to find his sister. It’s a shame, given that this is the most significant area that the game is trying to improve upon, but it falls flat. Techland has gone on record to say that there’s so much dialogue in this game, presumably to illustrate how seriously they’re taking the story. But given how meandering the plot is, I can’t help but wonder – what’s the point?

Much like how I felt about Dying Light, the ho-hum plot is mitigated by a core gameplay loop that is the strongest that the developer has ever put out. At its core, Dying Light 2 is a first-person open-world game. The core difference between Dying Light and its contemporaries is the parkour mechanics, which dovetail beautifully with the zombie chase mechanics. Thanks to these mechanics, Aiden can run, jump, and climb across almost any surface in the game world. They’re well developed when compared to the original Dying Light.

Dying Light 2 also replaces the City of Harran and the countryside of its expansion with a completely new setting in “The City”, a non-specific European locale that’s split into two distinct regions. The first region feels similar to Harran in the original Dying Light. The second region feels more unique and more akin to a proper city – tall skyscrapers and the like create a true concrete jungle where Dying Light 2 really finds its stride.

Tools such as the grappling hook and UV light return from previous games, but the paraglider is brand new. Perfectly adapted for the new setting, it allows you to use wind currents to glide from building to building. Throwing the paraglider into the mix with the parkour mechanics gives you a lot of flexibility in how you reach your locations, bolstering Dying Light 2’s already robust traversal mechanics.

Combat has also been tweaked but still feels satisfying. There are no more guns in abundant supply, so most action is relegated to rudimentary bows and crafted melee weapons. Single-use shotguns are craftable too, but otherwise, you’ll be beating zombies senseless with your creations. Combat in Dying Light 2 feels just right – the weight and heft of your weapons feel appropriate. Quite simply, it’ll never get old to send a zombie flying with a heavy weapon.

Yes, weapons have durability and will eventually break, but resources are so numerous that it nary becomes an issue in the game. But yes, the rumours are true; the weapons in Dying Light 2 can’t be repaired – so don’t go getting attached to anything.

Weapons can be bolstered with modifications carried over from Dying Light that make them behave differently, too. Some add poisoning effects, others are given more physical blowback, and some even freeze enemies in place. It’s rather goofy but feels like a nice callback to the cheeky tone Dead Island and Dying Light had.

With a game of this breadth and size, you’d expect to see the quality of the quests falter. The main quests are filled with some fantastic and tense gameplay moments, though the final act did grow tiresome and felt like it should’ve wrapped up a few battles earlier. Similarly, while there are many side quests on offer, none of them feel like throwaways, with production values (often but not always) on par with the main ones.

Putting quests aside, there’s also a heap of activities to distract you in the City. While these peppering across the map feels a little dated, the sheer variety here really saves things. There are climbing puzzles in the form of radio towers, water towers, and windmills. There are even quarantined areas that you enter from the top, descending deeper and deeper as you open shortcuts like a small self-contained rogue-like dungeon.

The most notable are the electricity stations and water towers. Both allow you to reroute resources to a settlement. Electricity stations, in particular, are fun puzzles that require you to connect two power sources with a cable, having to find the shortest distance between them to join them. Completing either of these locations will allow you to alter the world – rerouting to the military faction creates more traps and weapons in the open world. In contrast, the other faction places more components in the world to facilitate your parkour. Think more jump pads, ziplines, and air vents for your glider.

I’ve never quite seen an open-world game reward the player by changing the world they exist in so much, and while it doesn’t quite have the far-reaching consequences you’d expect on a story level, on a gameplay level, it’s a nice touch to be able to mould the City in the way that best suits your play style.

The day-night cycle in the original game was both unique and integral, so it only feels fitting that it be improved upon here. Where you’d previously have darted for a safe house at the first sign of night, Dying Light 2 makes an earnest effort to incentivise you to stay out. Chases themselves are now tiered similar to wanted levels in Grand Theft Auto, giving a better idea of when to bail yourself out. New indoor locales are also better explored at night – as the infected won’t be inside them at night but rather on the streets. Finally, some missions can only be completed at night.

While I enjoyed the nights of Dying Light, there was little reason to stay around for too long when the sun disappeared. Dying Light 2 does a great job of rectifying that issue rather well.

That being said, there are still a few things Dying Light 2 doesn’t get right. I’ve already detailed how the story is lacking, but the dialogue system it borrows from games like Mass Effect, and later Assassin’s Creed games lack any meaningful sense of consequence. Typically, tough choices rarely branch out too much and are often met with responses that almost always can be reduced to “that’s annoying to me, but I understand why you did it!” and the story just moving on. I understand what the team was aiming for here, but it feels glaringly inconsequential with how it’s presented here.

Much has been said about just how much content there is in the game. I’d estimate my first run easily took around twenty or so hours to finish. Doing absolutely everything the game offers could easily balloon that time to over a hundred or so hours. But I struggle to see just how someone could pull the much talked about five hundred or so hours out of Dying Light 2. Thankfully, if you’re really keen to know how the story progresses, joining another players game in co-op would let you do so without having to play the game all over again (as it’s just not worth it, honestly, to do it all again yourself)

From a presentation standpoint, Dying Light 2 offers three visual options. Resolution and quality options feel like a bit of a sore point where – they feel like they run at the same level of fidelity and performance as the original Dying Light did on base hardware of last generations consoles. My personal choice – performance mode – runs flawlessly. Everything looks crisp with some breathtaking locales and buttery smooth framerates that allow Dying Light 2 to put it’s best step forward both figuratively and literally. It just lends itself better to the game’s fast platforming and pacing.

The original score is similarly uneven. Sometimes it sounds like the media it’s doing a great job of emulating – with grim orchestral pieces akin to John Murphy’s work on films like 28 Days Later. There’s enough dark synth here to similarly give the game a futuristic yet desolate feeling that it’s gunning for. But the upbeat ones feel remarkably out of place – so many of these tracks feel like they were made for a different game.

The voice work is similarly mixed, and I was surprised to find Aiden’s voice actor wasn’t the same as Kyle’s from the original game. Surprisingly, Rosario Dawson steals the show here as Lawan. While I’ve made it quite clear how much I didn’t enjoy the story, every scene she was in was bizarrely compelling to watch. She does well here, even if the script sometimes gets a bit tawdry.

It might sound like I’m being harsh on Dying Light 2, but at the end of the day, it’s a fairly remarkable game and infinitely more enjoyable than Dying Light. It’s easily, without a doubt, greater than the sum of its parts.

THE PLAYSTATION 5  AND XBOX SERIES X VERSIONS WERE PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. DIGITAL COPIES OF THE GAMES WERE PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Dying Light 2 Stay Human Review – A Fluid & Frenetic Adventure appeared first on Press Start.

Rainbow Six was my first introduction to the world of Tom Clancy. Subsequently, it’s also the Tom Clancy franchise I’ve more closely aligned to since the original game hit the Nintendo 64 back in 1998. That being said, the Rainbow Six games always had you tackling a terrorist threat backed by a story of political intrigue. Never would I have expected to be fighting aliens in a Rainbow Six game, let alone a Tom Clancy one. But, differences aside, Rainbow Six Extraction is a surprisingly well-put-together experience that I enjoyed much more than I ever had imagined.

Keen players of Rainbow Six Siege would be familiar with the Outbreak event, which Extraction follows on from. Several years after the events of Siege, a meteorite falls in New Mexico, bringing with it a slew of deaths caused by a deadly pathogen, eventually discovered to be a parasite. Extraction has members of Team Rainbow entering areas ravaged by the parasitic outbreak, now called the Archaen, to collect intel on this new threat and save the locals. The plot is a nice bit of set dressing for the world of Rainbow Six though it ultimately plays little role in the game overall.

Rainbow Six Extraction takes the core concept of Rainbow Six Siege, flipping it from a competitive experience to a cooperative one. A purely PvE experience, you’ll tackle a set of objectives (called “incursions”) in groups of up to three people. Each of the areas you’ll be infiltrating is infested by the Archaens, and objectives are more than just killing them. Sometimes you’ll have to lure them back to a specific area. Other times you’ll have to cross an interdimensional portal to defeat a powerful boss. It’s kookier than you’d expect for either Rainbow Six or Tom Clancy, but it is something different.

There are around twelve or so objective types. They’re on such regular rotation that things rarely get as tedious as you’d expect them to.

After selecting an area to infiltrate, the game creates an incursion for you. Each incursion is divided into three phases of increasing intensity, with a specific objective being assigned to each stage. The further into an incursion, the better the rewards, but the more difficult the approach. After each phase, you can choose to progress to the next one or “cut your losses” and extract. Extracting yields the most points, but going deeper is almost always tempting to promise more points. It’s risk-reward in its purest form, and it’s addictive enough that I rarely extracted when I should have.

When I talk about risk, it’s more than just losing your progress or points. Each of your operators you take into an incursion is at risk of being injured or missing in action. If you get downed and aren’t rescued by your teammates, your character will be lost in that area until you revisit it. The next time you play it, one of the three objectives in the incursion will be a rescue mission of sorts that’ll add them back to your roster.

The kicker is that each of your characters’ won’t count towards your rank until they’re rescued. So, losing your best operator means will impact your team’s level more than if you lose one you’ve barely played with. Sometimes, it might even be more strategic to leave your partner behind during a mission as the risk of leaving the objective for rescue might be greater than the reward. It’s these on-the-fly changes in objectives and priorities where Rainbow Six Extraction really shines.

Thankfully, failure to rescue someone doesn’t mean they’re gone forever. While it could be a fun temporary twist, Permadeath isn’t a feature of Rainbow Six Extraction. Failure to rescue someone from their parasitic prison means they’ll still return to you, but with less experience points. It feels like a reasonably balanced way to punish sloppy plays without being needlessly cruel to the player. It’s so reasonable, in fact, that I’d want to jump straight back into a map to rescue an operator as soon as I lost them and try it all again.

Repetition and procedurally generated elements of games often leave me feeling short-changed or bored as things begin to repeat endlessly. Extraction does a great job at remedying this, drawing from a wide pool of variables – be it the Archaen you’ll encounter or the objectives themselves – to offer a unique incursion every time. It’s the type of repetition that fosters addiction, and it’s the reason I always kept Extraction feeling fresh, whether I was succeeding or failing.

The Archaen themselves add a lot of spice to the proceedings. Amongst all the types, they’ll alert the others and nearby nests to produce more if you’re seen. These moments, though seemingly impossible, are survivable but will often leave you crippled in some way or another. The enemy variety here is excellent – some will melee you, others take shots at you. Some might even explode when damaged, though they can damage fortifications you might set up too. Like mentioned previously, some even mimic other operators (like Sledge) in boss battle-like encounters.

When you bring together all the things that Rainbow Six Extraction does, it feels different from other PvE experiences on the market. So many of them are wave-based, action-packed thrillers that rarely require a true sense of strategy. Extraction feels more strategic in its approach. You can attempt to speed run the levels, but you’ll often be met with failure or severe crippling to the point where you’ll rarely make it to the end of an incursion scot-free. Stealth is the name of the game here, as pulling off takedowns and headshots literally clears a path through the player-slowing sludge the parasite creates, allowing you to move without hindrance through the maps.

In terms of progression, I previously eluded how the game handles your rank. The stronger your roster, the stronger your rank. Successful extractions with bigger groups also multiply the points you bring back with you. Being an entirely PvE experience, Extraction’s progression and rewards aren’t merely cosmetic. You’ll unlock new gadgets, new weapons, and other improvements that give the game an almost rogue-like sense of progression. There are still cosmetic customisations, some of which can be bought with real money, but nothing feels egregiously grindy. I’d often find myself trying “just one more” incursion to see what I’d get next. However, the lack of grind does make me wonder what will happen when players get to the end of the very achievable progression tree.

Enter the Maelstrom Protocol. Rainbow Six Extraction’s endgame mode remixes more or less everything, offering weekly assignments with specific operators that are more challenging than previous engagements. At the time of writing, it was difficult to grasp what Maelstrom Protocol looks like beyond its first week. Still, it has the potential to lengthen the replayability and replay value of Extraction well beyond what was initially expected.

While Rainbow Six Extraction does so much right, there are a few niggles I experienced during my time with the game. Less seriously, we often encountered a glitch where holding a button to revive a teammate wouldn’t work correctly. Whether this resulted from a congested connection or a simple glitch has yet to be seen. More subjectively, Extraction doesn’t really put its best foot forward when playing solo either. Perhaps this is a moot point given that this game is ostensibly designed for multiplayer, but it is worth mentioning for anyone who wants to tackle it all by themselves.

From a presentation standpoint, Extraction doesn’t break much new ground, if any. From a technical perspective, Extraction is a very dark affair. However, it uses this darkness to offer some moody lighting which is disappointingly not quite as good as it could be due to a distinct lack of HDR. That being said, the artistic direction and musical score are both fantastic. The parasite and its surroundings feel genuinely alien, and wading through these dark and infested worlds for the first time is a true treat.

All in all, we could argue about just how Tom Clancy or Rainbow Six the experience Extraction offers is, but at the end of the day it’s a remarkably strong if not modest PvE experience.

THE PLAYSTATION 5 VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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It’s best to start with the obvious and address the Pelican in the room, Halo Infinite is still the game it was the day ‘Craig the Brute’ arrived. Though it has a bit more spit and polish, it isn’t a far cry from the game that, at a fundamental level, had people optimistic for the first time in years that Halo might be back. 

Halo 5: Guardians failed through its aggressive attempt at contemporisation—Cortana’s heel turn betrayed the series’ one pivotal relationship and the multiplayer’s play for a place on the esports pantheon missed the mark. More than anything, Infinite walks back these errors and returns the series to a place that breeds instant familiarity—a place that captivates like Combat Evolved did when first taking in the ring world’s majesty. 

While Guardians’ closing scenes promised Cortanna’s tyrannical reign would rally all of the galaxy’s rogue A.I. against humanity, Infinite’s opening salvo sees Master Chief handily dealt with and cast into the void of space by the Banished leader Atriox, which is then followed by a time jump. By the time John is fished from the vacuum of space by the character who is known for the game’s majority as ‘The Pilot,’ the war is over, Cortana is gone, and a new threat is at humanity’s doorstep. Given the vehement response to Guardians, I do feel Infinite does a good job of begrudgingly honouring the established material while trudging forward in a new direction and, ultimately, it does feel redemptive. 

Although Cortana is no more, Chief acquires ‘The Weapon’—an A.I. practically identical to Cortana whose aim it is to infiltrate her network, retrieve her, and prepare her for deletion—who, voiced again by the venerable Jen Taylor, serves as the emotional and hopeful foil to John’s battle-weary facade. There’s a quality to Steve Downes’ performance that is only possible after two decades of service to this character, and it’s fascinating that my nostalgia and the character’s overt stoicism combine to create several character moments that really worked for me.

After the initial gut-punch of The Pilot’s introduction, his role felt a bit diminished for a majority of John’s fight against Escharum and his war troop. He’s vulnerable in a way John isn’t, which helps establish stakes for a character who has already failed too many of those close to him, but I felt he was under-utilised. Especially after initial expectations that he’d serve as the emotional lynchpin of the narrative. 

The original promise of an open-world Halo game doesn’t exactly come to fruition here, as the campaign plays out in a surprisingly linear fashion. Of course, there are instances where Chief is thrown into a big sandbox but these feel rather disconnected from the game’s driving narrative. None of the activities within the world—whether it’s clearing an outpost or rescuing enslaved marines—feel of consequence when considered alongside the plot. They’re things for a hero to do, sure, but aside from the overarching notion of purging the ring of Banished forces they feel disconnected from the game’s A and B plots. 

Infinite seems to borrow bits and pieces from past Halos. Its broad, open play spaces and huge battles feel like an homage to both Combat Evolved and the franchise’s real-time strategy spin-off Halo Wars while I think the surprising amount of boss encounters, and a slightly less egregious cliffhanger ending, are ripped right from its sequel’s playbook. I say less egregious because of the expectation that Infinite will serve as a platform for future content, so it shouldn’t be a half-decade long wait to finish the fight. 

There is still a lot of fun to be had going around and working through the open world’s menial checklist because the game’s combat is so airtight. To borrow a phrase from the game’s creative lead, Halo’s regular three-legged stool approach to combat quickly became four through their greater focus on equipment. Infinite is a far more interesting game thanks to things like the Grappleshot—or as I call it, the singular reason I never bothered calling in a Warthog. It’s courtesy of the grappling hook alone that I spent as much time as I did exploring the open space of Zeta Halo.

It’s just a bloody shame that four-player co-op, a feature so bred-in-the-bone to Halo, didn’t make it to launch because I think this world, with all of its high-value targets to kill and secrets to uproot, is begging to be put to the sword by the chaos a band of four would be capable of. 

The ‘four-legged stool’ approach works tremendously well within the game’s campaign and it translates to the game’s multiplayer suite too, helping to create an incredibly fun, competitive environment. I do wish Infinite handled playlists differently, but I do appreciate that their approach will ensure all of the modes included—there are some that are missing at this stage—will remain active. And although the entire selection isn’t out yet, the maps in the beta have been some of the best the series has seen in a decade. A personal favourite of mine is Bazaar, it is reminiscent of Counter-Strike and its verticality lends itself to Capture the Flag so perfectly.  

Much has been said about the game’s progression system which has gone from ‘bad’ to ‘not as bad, I guess’ in the weeks since its surprise launch. As someone who’d constantly grind games like Destiny, exhaust challenges, and hit power ceilings within a fortnight of launch, I can appreciate why the game’s only means of measuring progression—its battle pass—might feel glacial to some. I expect a better balance will be struck down the road, and fortunately, it’s a long one ahead. I don’t think the progression is as offensive as some believe it to be because ultimately it’s all centered around player customisation and expression. The number next to your name might not tick over as often as you’d like, but it’s not as though it’s a measure of anything. 

If the point of the game’s multiplayer is to harness the game’s exceptional combat and let players loose into a warzone of unbridled fun—and it is—then it well and truly understands the assignment. 

It mightn’t be the best looking game out this holiday, but Halo Infinite’s art direction is rooted in nostalgia and there’s still a lot of spit and polish that has gone into getting this vast and beautiful world to where it currently stands. The most impressive thing the team has managed to achieve here is to create a game that’s so stable from front to back. The frame rate is unflinching and the resolution is up to standard, and it’s a standard the team has ensured remains consistent regardless of whether you’re in campaign or multiplayer. It’s also impressive that, in a time where other big-league shooters are experiencing their share of woes, Halo Infinite’s net code seems extremely reliable—for it to withstand the day one crush as it did is a testament to the team’s hard work. 

Without friends to wreak havoc with, the game’s open-world feels like a bit of a waste for now. That aside, Halo Infinite’s story is the franchise’s most personal yet and leaves the door open for plenty more when the time is right. With other big holiday shooters floundering at the moment, timing could be everything for what is essentially the second coming of Halo. 

Master Chief’s one-liner in the early game which sums up whether one bullet would be enough to take out an army also manages to speak to what Halo Infinite brings to the table for players this holiday season. 

“It’s enough.”

The post Halo Infinite Review – A Note-Perfect Revival appeared first on Press Start.

The sci-fi fantasy of zero gravity dogfights between over-engineered fighter ships in nothingness of space has always been an alluring one, and its a thrill that video games have sought to capture since their very inception. Chorus takes the modern idea of spaceship combat and attempts to fuse it with a tale of cults, cosmic horror and personal redemption to somewhat successful results.

In a galaxy under the threat of the Circle – an intergalactic cult that wears its intentions on its gold-hewn sleeves and its critical power cells on the outsides of all its best ships – a former Circle warrior turned defector named Nara takes up her old vessel to face her past deeds and prevent the cult’s ‘cleansing’. Chorus takes players on a journey through a number of distinct sectors where Nara will need to earn the trust of the residents and resistance, building a network of allies to assist her in taking down a foe that’s backed by the mysterious powers of a faceless and ancient force.

For a game full of side characters and citizens in need, cutthroat pirates and sinister cults, Chorus feels alarmingly lonely. Part of that comes from the way that most of its key players are never seen save for the ships they get around in, which might have worked if their rides were more memorable. It’s also in part an issue of perspective, where your own experience – also confined to a pulled-back view of your ship – makes the spaces around you feel like model representations of places more than a living, breathing world. Enemies especially amount to little more than the UI markers attached to them that tell you where and how alive they are.

It’s not that an indie-scale spaceship shooter needs to have a terribly deep or detailed world or ridiculous production values, but it’s clear that Chorus is trying to tell a story with nuance and depth and in these attempts it constantly comes up against itself. The writing simply doesn’t shine well enough to make the format work, exacerbated by stilted dialogue and characters whose motivations swing wildly from one direction to another with little context. Nara and Forsaken’s joint personal journeys feel hamfisted and betrayed by angsty exchanges and frequent tonal shifts. 

It’s disappointing because the dual-protagonist concept does work quite well when it works and gives the game a nice point-of-difference to the many other titles it cribs from. There are lessons taken from games like Returnal and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice informing Nara’s design and arc here, but it misunderstands the important qualities of those stories and draws only from their most surface-level ideas.

That said, the symbiosis of Forsaken’s engineering and Nara’s spiritual awakenings does make for a nice twist on other spaceship combat experiences. Controlling Forsaken can get awkward in the heat of the moment, but once you get the hang of it you’ll be boosting and drifting through tight spaces like a champ. Throw in some light puzzles that use Nara’s abilities to detect points of interest and teleport short distances and you end up with a handful of genuinely cool sequences.

Combat itself makes good use of both Forsaken’s trifecta of weapon types and Nara’s Rites, offering up enemy ships that have set attack patterns and weaknesses that need to be countered with the right tools. Certain ships will shield themselves from the front for example, meaning players will need to use the Rite of the Hunt to quickly teleport behind them and unleash a barrage of missiles to break through their tough armour. The strategic play is solid, but basic skirmishes are let down by messy controls, a lack of lock-on and the constant need to dip out of the action to recharge your shields thanks to often unavoidable barrages of fire from unseen foes.

Chorus excels in its tighter, more focussed moments. Moments where the pair are tearing through the insides of huge ships, or navigating otherworldly structures touched by cosmic horrors and the sins of her past. Some of the touchstone battles across its 10-12 hour campaign can be exhilarating in spite of the awkward controls, tasking players to fly through enormous warships and blow them up from the inside out or square off against multi-stage ‘bosses’ that make effective use of Nara’s unique Rites.

These moments are too few and far between though, sandwiched amidst dull fetch quests and inane conversations with featureless NPCs in open space. When Chorus isn’t forcing you to fly dozens of kilometres to each arbitrary new mission point and listen to its one-dimensional characters prattle on about things you won’t care about, it’s drawing on open-world game tropes that died off a generation ago like escort and tailing sequences.

There are some very basic RPG elements such as weapon and armour enhancements and mods, and proficiencies that grow through use, but they muddy the allure of Chorus’ skill-based action. The game even seems to recognise this as it force-feeds you upgrades at set intervals to keep pace with its difficulty curve. There just aren’t enough opportunities for players to form their own strategies and masteries given the game’s arcade-y combat and enemies with clearly-defined weaknesses. Compared to a game like Everspace 2 with its hefty loot and levelling systems, what’s here feels too much like an afterthought.

Chorus does offer up a handsome slice of space to explore though, the handful of expansive sectors available to navigate through packed with impressive vistas and intriguing points of interest. Ancient structures birthed by old and terrible beings are among the most interesting places to behold. As mentioned it is betrayed somewhat by perspective, as the many ships and human habitats you visit tend to lack personality or detail purely because of their scale. The overall presentation is decent though, and the few cutscenes where we get to see Nara are quite nicely rendered and acted. There’s even a rudimentary photo mode to snap those gorgeous views of space or heated combat moments.

The post Chorus Review – More Wrongs Than Rites appeared first on Press Start.

My fellow GTA fans must be feeling like the “What Year Is It?” Jumanji meme today. Firstly, because it’s like we’re all laying virginal eyes on the cities of Liberty, Vice and the grand state of San Andreas again. Secondly, because these three iconic games seem to be hot button topics once more. Controversy, it seems, doesn’t have a used-by-date.

Fortunately, what’s being energetically debated isn’t too big a deal – nobody’s thinking of the children and yanking this Definitive Edition from store shelves. A hacker hasn’t discovered a Hot Coffee 2.0. [Edit: hilariously, this has come to pass since publishing the original in-progress review – Rockstar has reuploaded a sanitized version to servers]

That said, everybody seems to have a fiery opinion on a few other things. The rights of unofficial, currently being litigated modders is one. What’s to be visually and aurally expected from a “definitive” product being the other.

Frankly, we’re just going to have let the Ken Rosenbergs of the world figure out the former in court. I’d much rather spend what little space I have today dissecting the latter. More specifically: you’re getting an honest, opening hours appraisal from a middle-aged-cheese who lived and breathed these titles on day of release.

Grand Theft Auto III Definitive Edition

Straight off the (practically useless melee weapon that is the) bat, I can admit to feeling a sandbox load-in “wow” moment. 2001-me would’ve never dared to hope for this sort of to-the-horizon draw distance, object crispness, readable sign textures, dynamic lighting or frames per second.

If you gave him that back then, it’d be like handing fairy floss to a caveman. His mind would have exploded.

This will be taken for granted and lost on you younger gaming brethren, but watching stuff reflect off the duco of one’s Banshee is way more impressive than it should be. Grove Street Games has also massaged in some extra polygons here and there to make the car models less boxier than I recall. Don’t expect too much from that statement. I’m talking small degrees. Like transitioning from 1980s DUPLO to a modern LEGO set.

Like that first inhale of SPANK, I became hooked on the admittedly simplistic campaign of being a voiceless (and at the time nameless) criminal errand boy. While it’d be weird to call this “My First Mob Job” experience quaint, that’s exactly what it feels like now. Mission difficulty and complexity is low, to the point where over half the game feels like an extended tutorial mission.

Part of that is due to a lack of modern systems, though GSG has made a valiant effort to update that old, borderline unusable aiming system. You’re now getting a weapon wheel that slows time to allow tactical gun swaps, lock on aiming with better target outlining and free/strafe aiming that’s like a rudimentary version of how GTA V gets down. The downside: some heavy weapons still arbitrarily root you to the ground and throw you into a gun-less first-person mode.

While we’re on cameras: it feels amazing to have San Andreas-like free cam as you’re driving around Liberty. GTA III had this bloody awful “press a shoulder to look 90 degrees” solution that’s now gone the way of the dodo. (Note: I’m not referencing The Dodo here – that piece of crap, non-flying plane still features.)

Is combat and driving vastly improved? Absolutely. Is it frustration free? Certainly not. Weapons are still incredibly short range, they sound like coughing typewriters, you have to tactically reload them by awkwardly flicking about the weapon wheel and “directional” drive-bys require a press of a face button. I’m still having way more fun than the OG version, but absolute newbies to these games had best curb their enthusiasm. There’s still some residual jank to forgive.

This is particularly true in the frame rate stakes (on PS5 at least). Early on, I had to swap from Fidelity to Performance mode to escape some jarring hitches. Even then I wasn’t free of the occasional chug when the screen was (literally) exploding in a heated car race, vigilante mission or desperate five star last stand.

All of that — along with the odd floating car glitch — is pretty isolated, intermittent stuff that won’t really impede your grand thieving or autoing. However, GTG’s “new and enhanced” rain effect probably will — it’s distracting and sometimes clips weirdly through covered areas. Patch, please.

Last but not least, I would like to praise be to the person who thought to shoehorn a map into the pause screen. Back in the day, we had to unfold a physical paper one. Like some sort of clueless, Clark Griswold tourist.

GTA: Vice City Definitive Edition

Vice City is the entry in this trilogy that I have the fondest memories of. That lush, neon soaked ’80s aesthetic, the brilliant soundtrack, helis, motorcycles and an actual voiced protagonist (!!!) who waded into sexy, Scarface-esque adventures.

Mercifully, the look and feel of the era in question has not only been preserved, but chromatically enhanced. I love that GSG has gone a little nuts with the coloured lighting – cars, streets and peds wearing just as garishly coloured clothing get bathed in hot pinks and electric blues. But, once again, those low-level frame rate issues persist (though definitely not as bad as it is in GTA III).

Vice City is also noticeably more cutscene heavy compared to the previous title, which serves to bring these “improved” player models into more regular and closer proximity. Honestly, the results are pretty up and down. While polys have been added and textures have been improved – most notably in the now-fingered hands and slightly more expressive faces – more work was needed.

It’s also obvious that not all digital actors were recreated equal here. Main characters and secondary mission-giving folk look ok, albeit cartoonish – kinda like a bunch of Disney Infinity figurines come to life with criminal intent. However, the faces of tertiary characters, scene extras and peds can look like they’ve been run through some sort of Mii updater algorithm.

Interestingly, while old details can be depressingly lost on the textures wrapped around humanoids, a lot of the store signs look sharp as hell, but probably shouldn’t be. Now that we can actually read stuff, a number of typos are clear as day. The fact that they’re mostly in Comic Sans doesn’t really add much to the visual feast either.

Here’s a loose list of some other random things I took note of. Vice City is a larger playspace, so the trilogy-wide inclusion of a “restart mission” function saves a lot of backtracking hassle. I had a false memory that Tommy could swim a little – he (and Claude Speed) really, really can’t. So don’t get your hopes up there.

Basically, the biggest stand out thing for me is the alterations to the soundtrack. I’ve played the mobile versions and endured some painful cuts already, but it’s sad to know that my hope for the reinstatement of some key tracks has been in vain. Which piece of music you’ll miss is going to be subjective. But yeah, I think we can all agree that this package loses something iconic with the removal of Michael Jackson’s work.

Before we move on, I should say that I hit a number of weird bugs on the mean streets of VC. Genuinely amusing stuff like AI cars accelerating to ludicrous speeds, and one time a poor ped spawned inside a bridge instead of on top of it. Nothing truly game-breaking, but it sure wasn’t immersion-enhancing.

GTA: SAN ANDREAS DEFINITIVE EDITION

Let me be clear on this from the outset, the off the beaten track / wilderness areas in San Andreas Definitive look pretty amazing. Rockstar has done a noticeable amount of work on the old trees and lower lying vegetations. That aforementioned increase in draw distance can be fully appreciated so much more outside of those urban box factories.

Some other things I immediately appreciated include the GTA V-style drive-by targeting. It’s a shame that GTA III and Vice City don’t share in said upgrade, though I daresay it’d be so effective in those games it’d destroy all challenge.

In no time at all, I renewed my vows and fell in love with the Boyz n the Hood love letter that is CJ’s story. Since playing this as an adolescent, I’ve managed to visit LA a bunch of times and now have a better appreciation of the tone Rockstar managed to capture in its Los Santos.

It’s great to get back to some RPG-lite elements that really should have featured in every subsequent sequel. Being able to get buff in the gym (or big-boned in your local Cluckin’ Bell) is such a cool little cosmetic wrinkle.

Much like it happened 17 years ago, I got fully invested in the Respect system that gives you prop boosts based on your hairstyle, tattoos and clothing. I also caught myself going out of my way to be rolling in a self-modified whip that boosts sex appeal stat. A player’s gotta play, after all.

Mind you, after meeting one of CJ’s early prospective girlfriends – Denise Robinson– I felt less than amorous. Sadly, she’s become a victim of the aforementioned “tertiary characters neglect”. Her endearing, bad-ass bitch style has been replaced by a bug-eyed, expression lacking stranger. Heart container: broken.

As for downsides, there are a few. I don’t know who pulled the wrong lever during this reissuing, but for some reason the actor characters in a cutscene can get run over or beaten up by marauding AI who are not in the scene. It happened to me once, and caused a mission fail. I’ve also had mates comment on similar incidents as well.

THE PACKAGE SUMMED UP

I’m a diehard fan of the GTA series, but I’m of two minds about this up and down port to the Unreal 4 Engine. The initial wow-factor of the visual upgrade is undeniable, but the more you play it, the more cracks appear in that pretty veneer. Some of those are legacy fissures that have not been repaired. Others are eyesore imperfections wrought by a new team of less-than-master craftspeople.

Make no mistake: every game in this package remains a touchstone moment in gaming. These are time capsules which deserve to be experienced by a new audience, and I still think there’s more than enough merit for an open-minded modern gamer to do so. Likewise, they should obviously be revisited by older fans who yearn for a version that plays and looks like what they remember (or rather the visuals their brains half-filled in with imagination). There are reasons why these masterpieces were money-earning behemoths on the best-selling console gaming ever saw (PS2). Those reasons mostly persist in Definitive Edition, despite it being a tepid celebration of yesteryear.

If you do partake, know that you’ll have fun while also being nagged by a thought more persistent than any 6-star level SWAT team — this could have been done better. These GTAs not getting the full reverence they’re owed, ultimately, feels a little criminal

THE PS5 VERSION OF THIS GAME HAS BEEN TESTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW.

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Far Cry 6 was great fun, and I was even more excited to give its upcoming season pass content a try as it revisits the thing we love most about the Far Cry games – the villains. Whilst I enjoyed Far Cry 5, the season pass was just so unremarkable that I was worried the same might happen with Far Cry 6. Thankfully, while I’ve only played the first experience – Vaas: Insanity – I’m excited to say that it’s more interesting than anything offered up by Far Cry 5, and it’s also an interesting take on the tried-and-true rogue-like formula.

Insanity opens with Vaas waking up following his lethal altercation with Jason Brody in Far Cry 3. He’s woken up inside of his mind, however, and must follow a mysterious voice to reassemble the three pieces of the silver dragon blade to escape. From the get-go, it’s made clear to Vaas that he won’t just grab them, and that he must confront some of his past enemies and relive his most traumatic memories to be strong enough to retrieve them. It’s a very introspective set-up for one of Far Cry’s most notoriously unstable villains and perhaps the smartest way to bring Vaas back in a big way without it being too tacky or unnecessary.

That being said, I’m not entirely sure that we even needed to see this much more of Vass Montenegro. So much of Insanity is designed around the premise of better fleshing out the characters of Far Cry 3, with a focus on Citra and Vaas. But it always felt like we knew just enough about Vaas to understand him as a villain as the credits of Far Cry 3 rolled. The extra backstory and context provided here will appeal to some people, no less. Still, it felt slightly unnecessary in the big scheme of things.

We’ve all heard that age-old adage that Insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly, expecting a change in result. That seems befitting for how Vaas: Insanity plays as a game. The experience is a smaller, more contained map that sees Vaas start in the middle. He must travel to the three ends of the island to assemble the pieces of the dragon blade and escape his mind. As a player, it’s technically possible to go to each of these areas and finish up everything quickly, but without completing side missions and building up Vaas and his abilities, it’s going to be incredibly difficult.

Vaas: Insanity is a rogue-like at heart. You can use gathered cash to purchase permanent abilities for Vaas to make him more resilient and dangerous in combat. Weapons can be earned in trials scattered throughout the map (as you only start with a pistol on each escape attempt), but dying loses your guns too. Thankfully, any trials you complete adds those weapons to the armoury, which can be bought with cash without completing the trials again. Weapons in the armoury can similarly be upgraded with cash.

The permanent traits themselves are what you’d expect from a standard Far Cry skill tree. Better takedowns, more health, more healing items, and more equipment to aid in traversing the map. Certain traits can be unlocked that allow Vaas to keep larger amounts of cash when he dies, which alleviates the frustration of repetition that naturally comes with the rogue-like design.

Besides the three primary missions, which are the most difficult, there are other things to do inside Vaas’ mind. Mindfuck missions are pretty much what they sound like – impossible spaces and trippy visuals – but they offer a deeper insight into Vaas’ character and his relationships. Armoury challenges allow you to take on a group of enemies to permanently unlock weapons for your armoury. The most difficult optional content – the Citra Trials – are almost as tricky as the main missions and offer better powers to Vaas not found elsewhere.

There are other (silver) powers to be found throughout each escape attempt at random intervals. Powers take the shape of human hearts in the game world and can be equipped on Vaas for his current escape attempt. These offer a few less traditional buffs to Vaas – like refilling ammo with every headshot and the like – but can only be equipped to slots that can be unlocked with cash. They also disappear whenever Vaas dies, so getting a good run filled with powers that complement one another is helpful, and experimentation is encouraged.

There’s a running theme here, and that’s the fact that cash really rules everything you do in Insanity. You can use it to prioritise weapon upgrades or use it to bring a larger number of weapons into battle. You can even use it to unlock more power slots, potentially removing the need for arming yourself up with firearms in the first place. There’s enough flexibility here to build your Vaas the way you want to which I can appreciate.

These elements come together to offer a surprisingly enjoyable rogue-like experience that does things a little bit differently. It feels like what downloadable content should always strive to be – something in a similar vein to the main game while experimenting with concepts that might’ve been a bit too different to fit there. Vaas: Insanity does a great job at making repetition engaging, though I struggle to see why people might return to it after finishing it the first time. You can increase the “mind level” to up the difficulty and your dividends of rewards. Still, beyond that, I struggle to see much reason to replay it after uncovering all the secrets it has to offer. That being said, there are a challenging six or so hours here if you do the bare minimum, perhaps even more if you go for more or attempt to finish all the mind levels.

Of course, I can’t get through talking about this experience without talking about Michael Mando. He’s the voice and likeness of Vaas, and he slips straight back into the character like no time has passed at all. A lot of Insanity is spent inside Vaas’ mind, both literally and figuratively, so hearing Mando speak to himself so often gives great insight into Vaas’ character and a solid reminder of why fans loved him so much.

Similarly, given that the game takes place inside the mind of somebody so unhinged, it’s visually a feast to truly sit and take in. So much of the world is bright and colourful – recalling the best bits of Far Cry 3. But it’s so abstract and out there that it does a great job of really selling the idea that we’re inside the mind of someone whose thoughts aren’t as collected as ours. The map might be one of the smaller ones in Ubisoft’s repertoire, but Insanity’s world is easily one of their most interesting.

THE PC VERSION OF THIS CONTENT WAS PLAYED ON A LENOVO LEGION 7I FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE CONTENT WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Battlefield games are at their best when all hell breaks loose – vehicles converging on a central point, firing on one another while you and your squad try your best not to get caught in the crossfire. It’s in these moments where you tend to find yourself fully immersed in what DICE’s long-running franchise wants to convey. That, of course, is pure action. And while it has its fair share of missteps along the way, DICE’s latest entry in the series, Battlefield 2042, is a solid step forward for the franchise, bringing in everything that makes the series so bloody fun while mixing it up with handful of new modes to keep the experience from getting stale.

Battlefield 2042 sets a bleak scene for players. The game takes place in a near-future setting where a majority of the world’s global powers have collapsed and two major forces have formed to oppose one another. The globe has been completely turned over thanks to devastating climate change, while the two remaining players in the game – the US and Russia – have brought in no-pats, trained soldiers devoid of any real connection with either country, to try and turn the tide in their favour.

As far as the game’s story goes, that’s about all you get. Battlefield 2042 has ditched the series’ War Stories single-player mode, favouring a story told across the multiplayer battlefield instead. As someone who really liked the way War Stories were integrated into both Battlefield 1 and Battlefield V, I was disappointed about this omission. This is mainly because the game’s setting is rife with potential to tell a variety of interesting stories.

I say this because throughout my time in Battlefield 2042 I rarely felt a connection to the game’s premise or story. Squadding up with buddies and jumping into the desolated maps, plagued by destructive weather events and eviscerated locales, did well to set the scene but never went any further than that.

It’s lucky the gameplay is spot on, though. While I had my initial reservations after venturing through the game’s beta, I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of fixes and changes were made to 2042’s core gameplay – addressing major complaints from the community. Gunplay feels snappy, while there’s a big focus on vehicle combat thanks to the huge, sprawling maps with little to no cover. This makes for riveting vehicle chaos but little fun for players venturing on-foot – something that has been an issue in previous entries at launch, too.

That said, I do like the new additions to the game’s gunplay. Being able to actively swap attachments on the fly thanks to the ‘plus’ system works wonders as you make your way across the game’s seven maps, with each section throwing a different kind of combat situation at you.

In a move that’s properly divided fans, the lack of classes in 2042 took some getting used to. Rather than having the faithful Assault, Medic, Support and Recon classes that define the weapons you have and gadgets to use, Battlefield 2042 has 10 specialists to choose from at launch. Each specialist has a unique ability to call upon — like a grappling hook or a wingsuit, for example – and can effectively play the role of any class you want. The benefit of this is that you’re given a fairly endless amount of customisation options, as specialists aren’t limited to the weapons they can equip. It wasn’t a surprise to see wingsuited engineer-types careening across the map throughout my time in the game, and I feel like it was a bold move from DICE. A move that tends to work, in my opinion.

Battlefield 2042 is split into three major game modes – All-Out Warfare, Hazard Zone and Battlefield Portal. All-Out Warfare includes the well-loved Breakthrough and Conquest modes, designed for players who want the classic Battlefield experience across 2042’s massive maps. While jumping into All-Out Warfare didn’t throw up any major changes bar the increase in player count on current-gen consoles and PC (128 players as opposed to 64), I did appreciate how well the game works with each of the new maps given their size. Conquest zones, for instance, are extremely spread out but you can get in on the action quickly if you jump into one of the many vehicles available or spawn in on a squadmate. The times when this wasn’t an option made for a jarring and boring run into battle, though, but that felt relatively few and far between.

One thing I did notice was how unforgiving the spawns could be in both modes. There were many occasions where I’d think I’d spawned in a relatively safe spot only to be decimated by a vehicle or an enemy who was close by. Again, I feel this is due to the openness of each map – with sprawling open areas giving on-foot players very little cover. And while that can be a good thing, finetuning of vehicle damage will be required to make ventures across the vast landscapes a more successful undertaking.

One of the other main modes in Battlefield 2042 is Hazard Zone, a squad-focussed mode that has squads of four dropping into a map to try to secure data drives and extract before time runs out (or they’re eliminated). Unlike All-Out Warfare and Battlefield Portal, Hazard Zone is less forgiving – if your squad’s taken out, you’re eliminated from the game. Teammates can be revived and there are redeploy beacons you can pick up that’ll allow a teammate to drop back into the action, but they’re few and far between.

Collecting data drives and successfully extracting from the map will see your squad awarded with a heap of dark market credits – Hazard Zone-exclusive currency that allows you to kit up before dropping into a match. Credits are essentially what will get you by in a successful Hazard Zone run, allowing you to equip better weapons, gadgets and items to help your squad survive.

Matches aren’t as populated as what’s seen in the game’s other modes, with 32 players entering a Hazard Zone match on Xbox Series consoles, PlayStation 5 and PC. If you’re playing on last-gen hardware, you’ll have a total player count of 24.

One thing I really liked about this mode was that it encouraged consistent communication. Before you jump into a match, you’ll see an overview of the map with key locations to note — these locations will have a set of probability factors: uplink probability, data drive probability and enemy probability. The former two are worth taking note of, as uplinks allow you to call in teammates who have been killed alongside vehicles and the ever-handy robodog.

Data drives are scattered throughout the map, with one of the mode’s free gadgets, the data drive scanner, being your team’s ticket to locating drives. The data drive scanner will show locations where data drives could be and the amount of data drives there are in a container, yet it isn’t always accurate. There were times during my session where my squad ventured into a part of the map with confidence of finding a set of data drives, only for the signal to be incorrect. We then found ourselves in the thick of things between two other squads battling it out, having to then try and get out unscathed. As is always the case with these kinds of modes, there’s a certain element of risk versus reward. Deliberation, careful consideration and a sound strategy is key to a successful round of Hazard Zone.

I didn’t mind my time with the mode, though I certainly found more fun in Battlefield 2042’s other modes. There’s a lot going on and players who love a good squad-focussed game will get a lot of out of it, though All-Out Warfare’s Conquest mode and Battlefield Portal were easily my picks of the bunch.

Battlefield Portal, Ripple Effect’s ode to classic Battlefield titles, could have its own separate review. There’s so much to devour, from the in-depth Battlefield Builder website to the variety of modes on offer and potential to uncover. It’s truly something that I feel every Battlefield fan will be able to get behind and enjoy.

The mode launches with the seven maps seen in Battlefield 2042 as well as six maps from classic Battlefield titles. Maps like Battle of the Bulge from Battlefield 1942 and Caspian Border from Battlefield 3 have been brought to life in the 2042 engine and playing them again brought an immense sense of nostalgia – iconic soundtracks in tow.

Classes, weapons, vehicles and general gameplay tweaks have all been brought across, too. This means you get the proper experience from each of the three Battlefield games making their way to Portal from the offset – from battling out across El Alamein with 1942 weaponry to taking on enemy forces in Battlefield Bad Company 2’s ever-popular map, Valparaiso. Each map brought back for this mode looks beautiful, while staying true to the gameplay that made these classic titles special.

The beauty of Battlefield Portal is that it’s designed to be a sandbox for experimentation. Ripple Effect will support the mode with curated playlists to venture through, bringing back classic modes like Rush while also giving players the ability to carve out their own modes to play with others. Community created modes that are popular will be brought into a curated playlist by the devs, too, but you’re also able to jump into any community-created game mode by searching for it.

The editor itself is on another level, from being able to finetune the way characters reload weapons to making headshot-only game types. There’s an incredible amount of depth to it and it’s something I’m confident players will absolutely love digging into. And that’s the most exciting thing about Battlefield Portal — the sheer amount of potential at hand. I can see the team continuing to iterate on the mode, bringing in other classic Battlefield maps and games altogether (hopefully), making for an endless, chaotic celebration of the long-running series. It’s genuinely brilliant.

While it has its issues, the litany of modes on offer in Battlefield 2042 makes it an exceptional value proposition. Whether you want to venture through the ravaged locations of 2042 in All-Out Warfare or ply your trade in the squad-focussed Hazard Zone mode, the core offerings are great. Battlefield Portal offers an entirely different experience, though, presenting a look back at the Battlefield series in the best way possible. As has always been the case with Battlefield titles, launch is just the start for the game and I’m excited to see where it goes in the future – the potential is seemingly endless.

The post Battlefield 2042 Review – A Fantastic Blend Of Future Meets Past appeared first on Press Start.

Critiquing each annual entry into the Call of Duty franchise is getting increasingly difficult. A victim of its own success, each release treads treacherous ground; whilst fatigued fans want something new, millions more are content with it staying the same. 

The task, therefore, falls to Sledgehammer to iterate on a near twenty-year-old formula whilst introducing new modes and mechanics that millions of players won’t openly reject. It’s a challenging balance act that I’m sure factored into Vanguard’s strangely turbulent development cycle.

And iterating on what Call of Duty diehards know and love, Vanguard stands up alongside some of the series’ best. Whether it be a bombastic, action-flick inspired campaign, endlessly addictive multiplayer or now-staple zombies mode, the game feels like comfort food. However, I remain doubtful that the game’s new and updated modes will do enough to win over anyone that needed convinced.

A couple of the game’s new additions come the way of multiplayer. Notably, there are two new modes: Patrol and Champions Hill. 

Patrol riffs on the Hardpoint mode, asking two opposing teams to hold and control a single zone that gradually moves about the map. Rather than jumping from point to point, it’s continually crawling about the map, moving the fight about the place. It’s a solid addition to the lineup and one that’s earned a permanent spot in my preferred list of modes. Using the new match filtering options, I kept Patrol on rotation throughout my first weekend with Vanguard.

The new filters are rather useful. Allowing you to tailor your experience, Vanguard adds the option to set your preferred pacing of the game. For a more traditional, tactical experience, you can specify a preference of 6v6, whilst the ‘Assault’ and ‘Blitz’ options allow for up to 24 and 48 players respectively. Of course, it’s never so clean-cut and depends on maps and modes, but greater preferential control is very much welcome.

The other new mode is Champions Hill. Somewhere between round-based matches reminiscent of Counter-Strike or Valorant and a battle royale, the mode pitches teams of 2 or 3 against each other. In a short match on a close-quarters, Gunfight-esque map, you’ll fight one opposing team and eat away at a limited pool of lives.

Survive the match with some lives left, you’ll progress to another game against another team, continuing to whittle away at their respawns as they chip away at yours. Collect currency each match to buy extra lives and upgrades at ‘buy rounds’ between matches. Eventually, only two teams remain with the last one standing crowned champion.

It’s a decent mode that results in some tense fights — and is indicative of a tilt towards an esports space dominated by other first-person shooters — but I can’t see it pulling people away from the core multiplayer experience, or Warzone which has taken on a life of its own outside of each annual release.

Of course, that is largely because the multiplayer experience is as rock-solid as we’ve come to expect from recent releases. With customisation and progression abound — and one of the more impressive lineups of maps I can recall in a Call of Duty game of late — the same addictive gameplay lives on.

With each release, the balance feels more refined too. A wide palette of weaponry seems perfectly viable; no one weapon seems dominant. Drop-shotting is seemingly non-existent, killstreaks don’t rain death from the sky, and spawn points aren’t easily pinned down. Of course, experience may vary, but in my time playing the game as a somewhat average Call of Duty player, the things that usually frustrated me seemed sparse.

Of course, you shouldn’t spend all your time with Vanguard in multiplayer; skipping the campaign would be a shame. Opening with a train heist in the pouring rain on the outskirts of Hamburg, the story starts with a bang. Impossibly detailed, spectacularly lit and running a smooth 120Hz, it feels like next-gen Call of Duty has arrived.

Following a handpicked bunch of Allied soldiers, the story sets a similar tone to Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds; you play as some of the German’s most feared adversaries out to seek revenge. With unique abilities that alter gameplay, I had a ball getting to know each specialist. It’s a shame these abilities don’t translate in any substantial way to multiplayer.

The Russian sniper, Polina, is among the best of these characters. With an ability to move quicker crouched she move through levels that have clearly received more design work, she stalks enemies through combat arenas.  I’d gladly take a standalone Polina game. With two standout missions before you meet other characters, I reckon it was obvious to the devs too that they were onto a winner. 

As an Aussie outlet, I’d be amiss not to mention the campaign’s rather faithful portrayal of a couple of Aussie larrikins, right down to the quote, “we’re not here to f*** spiders.” Although it’s starting to feel like an unfairly crass representation of Australians, I did take offence at a British superior remarking, “typical Aussie: no loyalty, no honour.”

Shout out to the Melbourne-based arm of Sledgehammer, who I’m sure had a major role in making Lucas Riggs a somewhat likable rogue.

Ultimately the campaign is short but sweet, taking me roughly three hours to play through, if that. Indeed, it doesn’t overstay its welcome and serves as a neat introduction to everything else the game has to offer now, and into the future as more content is drip-fed to players. You’d be forgiven if the formula is feeling a little tired and uninspired, but the game is enough mindless fun I keep coming back for more.

All that leaves left to mention is the ‘zombies’ mode, which I’ll say is a pleasantly more simple package this time around. Featuring just the one map at launch, you spawn in and explore a hub-world encircled with portals. 

Go through a portal and you’re transported to another location where you must complete a certain task. It might be to survive a period of time, kill zombies and load runes they drop into crystals, or escort a glowing yellow orb to a certain location, with each challenge you complete rewarding hearts you can trade for perks.

Completing challenges allows you to level up your perks and weapons and increase your odds at surviving longer until you eventually exfil, in an almost roguelike, run-based fashion. 

But that’s about all there is to it at the moment. It does feel like a victim of the games rockier development. In continuing the Dark Aether saga that started in Cold War, I’d have hoped there was more to it at launch, but no doubt more will come over time.

And that’s just it. Vanguard will continue to evolve and expand over the course of the next year, but at the moment it amounts to ‘just another’ solid entry into the Call of Duty franchise. If you still love Call of Duty, you’ll no doubt play and enjoy this game. You’re probably already doing so.

If you’re on the fence, however, I’m not sure if I could convince you to give it another shot. Yes, aspects of the multiplayer that’d infuriate me have been stripped back, and yes, the campaign is a fun next-gen experience, but I cannot, with confidence, tell you Vanguard could win you back.

THE PS5 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW.

The post Call of Duty Vanguard Review – Sticking With What Works appeared first on Press Start.

Riders Republic sets out to accomplish a lot, a tour-de-force of extreme sports and multiplayer-focussed insanity. And while the moment-to-moment gameplay can be as riveting as the game’s excellent premise, it misses the mark a bit too much through inconsistencies in the sports on offer and the plethora of frustrating bugs and glitches that plague its gigantic map.

Divided up into five major careers — Bike Race, Bike Tricks, Snow Race, Snow Tricks and Air — Riders Republic offers up a smorgasbord of extreme sports to sink your teeth into. Taking place on a huge map filled with other real-world players, you’re given the freedom to dive into three of the five careers from the outset. In the mood for SSX-style skiing or snowboarding? Hit the slopes and check out the Snow Tricks events. All about that Descenders lifestyle and want high-octane bike races? Jump into the litany of Bike Race events on offer.

As you play through each event, completing side objectives and earning stars that go toward your overall ‘level’ in the game, you’ll unlock XP and level up careers. Levelling up each of the five careers nets you better gear to use, more events to participate in and sponsors that’ll give you some coin for doing specific objectives. Each career has a handful of big events, too – marquee-level events that culminate in one major event to cap off the career.

While there’s a bit of build up to the bigger events in each career (in the form of some cringe-worthy character monologues), they feel mostly akin to what you play through in the game’s regular events. I would have loved to see more of a story weaved into these big moments in the game, and they’re usually over before you know it. With licenses like the X Games in tow, it’s a surprise to see these dazzling moments thrown to the side so quickly.

Each major sport feels noticeably different from one another, however that’s both a good and a bad thing. Skiing and snowboarding, for instance, feels fantastic – easily the best in the game by some distance (and unsurprising coming from the Steep developers). Bike controls took some getting used to, but I’ve generally come to like how it feels even if it is a bit slow. The air racing is easily my least favourite of the bunch, though, offering controls that feel more imprecise than anything else on offer. It just doesn’t feel quite right to me, and nailing those sharp turns in air events became more frustrating than anything else.

As such I spent most of my time in the slopes and careening down mountains on a bike, with the game doing just enough to make each event feel somewhat different to the other. Whether that’s by a major change of scenery, through a variety of secondary objectives to meet or courses to nail, there’s enough here to keep someone who has a vested interest in raking up high scores entertained.

Navigating the landscape does taking some getting used to due to the control schemes on offer. Racer, the control scheme the game encourages you to use to begin with, has a handful of automatic assists in place like evening you out to land a spin or flip easily and being able to control the camera with the right thumbstick. The other, dubbed Trickster, is more focused on creativity, taking the training wheels off and letting you go all-in on manual controls while allowing tricks to be performed with the right thumbstick. The former is a great way for starting off in the game and coming to grips with what you can pull off, however the manual mode is where Riders Republic really shines.

There’s no doubt it took some time to get used to, but the game feels like it’s meant to be played with the trickster control scheme – especially for those wanting to rack up the highest score possible. Being able to nail those perfect landings and play around a bit more with spins and flips gives you an unparalleled amount of freedom when executing tricks, whether you’re out on the slopes or on the dirt.

Aside from the tried-and-true career events, there are also a handful of other things to get involved in with Riders Republic. There are Shackdaddy events, which put you in the driver’s seat of a ‘funkie’ vehicle (something that’s a bit more whacky than the average bike) and complete a set of objectives. Some of these races had me ploughing through the map on an automobile with jets attached, while others had me cycling about on a pizza delivery bike. It’s bizarre but lends well to the overall tone and theme of the game.

Stunts are littered around the map, too, with each giving you a time limit to get from point a to point b in a specific vehicle. Stunts tended to be a lot harder than the regular events, forcing you out of your comfort zone and pushing you through races that require a lot of precision in controlling the vehicle you’ve been given.

This is where the best and the worst of Riders Republic really came to the fore. Being able to cruise through the often-gorgeous landscape on a jetpack weaving around canyons was a thrill, however small bumps and inconsistencies in the map would send me flying – forcing me to ‘rewind’ back to a point and continue from there, losing time in the process. Bike races are plagued by these kinds of problems, with tiny bumps and rocks in the terrain sending you off in a completely different direction than you were anticipating.

I found similar inconsistencies trying to execute grinds while in the Snow Tricks career. Grinds I’d think were guaranteed to land easily would send me flying into the snow, whereas I’d pull off grinds that came off the back of two front flips and a tricky grab. These kinds of weird glitches and annoyances plagued my time in Riders Republic.

This was also a problem I noticed in the game’s Mass Races – huge events of 50+ real-world players that has you venturing across the map, using a variety of vehicles to try and earn that coveted top spot. While the premise here is excellent, I found it frustrating that one simple mistake (or unavoidable knock from another rider) would send you hurtling to the back of the pack, unable to make up any ground. And while Mass Races are a test of skill across all facets of Riders Republic, it’s a shame that the game can be the one to let you down – taking away any potential reward you might have rightfully earned.

Customisation is a big part of Riders Republic, though I was surprised to see how expensive most items in the store are and how limited the customisation options can be. You’re able to deck out your rider in separate gear for each of the main sports and careers on offer, though don’t be surprised to see lots of players donning the same gear for some time given how expensive even some of the most basic bits of kit are. As well as this, you can’t change the colour of the gear you’ve equipped – it’s all pretty stock standard. Unless you’re inclined to spend real-world money to make your rider look suave, expect to grind out lots of events in order to afford new threads.

Turning attention to the game’s map, in its best moments Riders Republic looks gorgeous – the scenery on offer in the game is striking. It’s unfortunate the game doesn’t quite hold that candle up in moment-to-moment gameplay, though, as some textures and graphical glitches completely take away from the experience. The same can be said for the game’s music, which is better left off. For a sports game that is heavily dependent on immersion and exhilarating moments, it felt like the music choices here do everything to pull you away from that.

Riders Republic shows promise, there’s no doubt about it. At the moment, though, there are a lot of small issues that completely derail the experience (sometimes literally). The sheer variety of extreme sports on offer is impressive and I’m excited to see it grow with the addition of BMX Sport in the future, however between the lines there’s just not a lot to get too excited by. That, combined with the lacklustre soundtrack and graphical inconsistencies, makes for a game that will likely need some time to bring it all together.  I am hopeful, though, as there’s definitely something special hidden underneath all of the problems.

The post Riders Republic Review – Master of None appeared first on Press Start.

Though I’ve been vocally excited for Unpacking since first trying it out at the last “irl” PAX Australia back in 2019, it wasn’t until finally sitting down and playing through the finished product that I truly understood exactly how special it is. The team at Brisbane-based developer Witch Beam hadn’t been shy about the gorgeous, zen pixel art puzzle game they’d been cooking up all this time, but they sure did a good job of downplaying just how unique and unmatched a narrative experience it would be.

At its core, Unpacking tells a story that spans 21-odd years, focussing on a character as they move from place-to-place from their childhood to adult life. This story is experienced through a simple gameplay loop that has players removing the character’s possessions from their moving boxes, one by one, and placing them into each room in each new location that they move to, from single rooms to shared flats, studio apartments and whole houses. 

The gameplay mechanism for the “unpacking” part of Unpacking is devilishly simple – playing on PC is a matter of just clicking on a packing box to remove the next object and then setting it down with a second click. Objects can be rotated manually and also naturally align themselves to structures and other objects, like books standing themselves up on shelves or stacking on top of each other when laid down. Cupboards and drawers can be opened for storage and things like towels and clothes hang where they should.

At the beginning, the goal is as simple as fitting everything into the given space in a way that makes sense, but as you progress through the game and the locations become larger and more complex, your story also starts to take a more deliberate shape. Blank canvases of rooms turn to half-finished compositions, where the game’s unseen main character and their story are shown with more intent than implication. It’s here that things get a little more puzzle-like and players need to not only find a home for their possessions but satisfy some unseen conditions that can be inferred from the environmental storytelling.

There’s an unmatched cathartic joy to the simple act of freeing an object from its paper-packed prison and setting it down in the room. From the cheerful little leap it does into the cursor to the sound effects of the packing materials rustling as well as the unique sounds each thing makes when it’s placed down, including the type of surface it’s placed on. Everything clicks together in a really satisfying manner. Objects interact in all the ways you’d expect – towels hang on racks, brushes sit inside containers and so on.

Though most things can be placed with a certain degree of freedom, within the bounds of logic and reason, the odd moment where something has a more specific placement can often have the biggest narrative payoff. These ingenious sections where the game takes the reins away from the player and tasks them to puzzle out not just the placement of an item but its meaning to the moment offer some of the purest and most concentrated notions of storytelling I’ve experienced in ages.

Anyone who’s moved enough times in their life will likely appreciate the brilliant little touches that really sell the whole unpacking experience. The stories within aren’t just about the destination, each new box holds its own tale of how it was packed – the possessions inside, the order they were placed in, the rooms they belonged to – everything has the potential to be another thoughtful introspection. 

The first time I unpacked an entire room and found myself missing one shoe out of a pair had me grinning in an uncomfortably-relating kind of way. I also had a legitimate moment of crisis in an early stage, where a graduation certificate that was obviously very important to my unseen character and that they’d carried with them to their very first co-living situation suddenly had no place on any of the walls.

There’s so much to learn about this character that’s embedded in the act of unpacking – their love for video games, their favourite books, preferred brands of shampoo and tampons. The things they carry through the years and the things that slowly disappear over time, all of it paints a picture that’s far greater than the pixelated images on-screen. There was one incredibly memorable turning point for me, something as innocuous as a new pair of socks that tipped me off to an impending change in this person’s life that came almost immediately after. That was when I knew just how special this game truly was.

Indie games and pixel art are common bedfellows, but Unpacking nails its isometric aesthetic with some gorgeous, pixelised versions of recognisable objects that remain shockingly recognisable – a special mention to the blu-ray and video game covers that I spent far too long attempting to name each time. The surprisingly-robust photo mode and exportable timelapse gifs keep things fun well after the core five-ish hours are over as well.

It’d be remiss of me not to shout out the game’s music either, which is pure perfection, the chill chiptune soundtrack complementing each new scene wonderfully. There’s even an adorable vocal track in the game’s credits.

With barely any text to speak of, an easy-to-understand interface and just enough accessibility toggles to smooth out most potential progression blockers or comfort issues there’s clearly been a lot of thought put into making Unpacking a game that almost anyone can pick up and play. Any studio that’s willing to let players circumvent the inherent challenge in their game, in this case the ability to completely switch off the puzzle element of correctly placing objects, is doing the right thing in my books so it’s great to see that here as well.

The post Unpacking Review – A Pixel Tells A Thousand Words appeared first on Press Start.

Video games based on blockbuster media franchises tend to have a hard time. That was especially true of superhero games before the likes of Rocksteady and Insomniac led the charge toward something better. The success of titles like Batman: Arkham Asylum and Marvel’s Spider-Man rests entirely on the way they utilise the medium to empower players to feel like the heroes they love, to give them the hero experience. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, a fresh effort from Eidos Montreal, of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Shadow of the Tomb Raider fame, should be lauded as another great example of this.

There are things that Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy absolutely nails – things like the tone, humour and character work that fans expect from the property. Eidos Montreal has done an exemplary job of taking cues from the comics, and of course the globally-recognised MCU films, while forging their own unique take on the world and characters. The result is something recognisable that still stands on its own as a fresh take, a target that 2020’s Marvel’s Avengers aimed for and missed.

It couldn’t be further from last year’s ill-received Avengers title in fact, trading the multi-threaded, multiplayer game-as-a-service for a tightly-directed, single-player linear experience with a sole playable character in the form of Star-Lord, leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy. The game finds the Guardians still in their infancy as a collective, desperately trying to build their reputation one misguided con job at a time. It’s here that the decision to capture a ferocious monster to trade to a cosmically-renowned monster hunter lands the crew in multiple pots of hot water and kickstarts a twisted religious sect’s rise to power. So just normal outer space stuff.

It wouldn’t make sense for me to go into much more detail about the twists and turns of Guardians of the Galaxy’s core narrative, those are best left experienced first-hand, but what I can say is that the studio’s writing chops have never been put so confidently on display. Every single bit of dialogue in this game captures the tone, the charm and the wit of the franchise, carrying through to some truly exemplary character work. The overarching story is exciting on its own, but it’s the way it portrays its key players – their personalities, personal journeys and their arcs over the course of the game – that makes it something special.

It’s also wonderfully goofy at every given opportunity. Though it’s a given with a property like Guardians of the Galaxy, it’s still refreshing to play a video game with this much charm, where brainwashing cults and intergalactic gods meet psychic space dogs with Russian accents and alien llamas. The full space-faring crew experience is here in full effect too, from heated strategy meetings to arguments over borrowed toothbrushes and fridge doors ajar to… sing-alongs? The Guardians franchise has a very distinct found-family vibe that hinges on comedic timing and the studio has very evidently understood the assignment.

Still, if it raises red flags to know that Eidos Montreal has put so much love and care into some of Marvel’s most unique heroes and then cast players as arguably the least exciting of the lot, well, you’re not mistaken. That said, and it’s something I’ve spoken about following my earliest hours with the game, one of the game’s most unique offerings is its ability to impart Star-Lord’s experiences as a leader through gameplay. Making leadership calls in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy feels as crucial to selling the fantasy of its central character as web-swinging does in Marvel’s Spider-Man. As Quill, you’ll be consistently called on to make crucial decisions, settle arguments, solve problems and keep your teammates inspired and engaged.

This is achieved in a few ways, depending on the context, with decision-making playing a key part. Quill is called upon often to have his say in discussions with the other Guardians, in a very simplified system of dialogue choices. Minor decisions tend to affect immediate scenes and character interactions while major ones can have major impacts on how gameplay sequences play out, but the broad strokes of the narrative remain mostly the same no matter what.

Leadership also plays a big role in combat, to the point that for a large portion of the game fights can feel oddly hands-off. Star-Lord’s an adept and valuable member of the team in a scuffle with his blasters and jet boots, but the game doesn’t ask much of players as far as shooting skill and reaction times go. With a generous lock-on and auto aim and simple movement, the focus is less on what Quill does and more on how he directs the other Guardians through a Final Fantasy VII Remake-esque strategic pause. As occasionally clumsy as it can be, combat is surprisingly fun once you understand the synergy between Quill and the rest of the team and how best to string together elemental shots, your own abilities and those of the other Guardians.

The biggest problem with Guardian’s combat is simply that it takes too long to play all of its cards, giving the incorrect impression that it lacks depth or panache for far too long into its overall runtime. Coupled with enemies that aren’t particularly inspired or interesting and the predictable rhythm of ‘walk into a room full of waist-level cover, fight waves of enemies, move on’ it gets old before it gets good. Which is disappointing, because it does eventually come into its own in the later stages, especially once Star-Lord’s full gamut of elemental abilities are available and his contributions have more impact.

Like combat, the game’s level design in most areas goes a long way to help sell the team dynamic, but it’s also decidedly old-school in a lot of ways. It’s an incredibly linear experience, for one. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, in fact it works to the benefit of keeping the game moving at an exciting clip, but it keeps things fairly basic. Comparisons to PS3-era Uncharted and Tomb Raider games are probably unfair, but not entirely inaccurate, especially with the sheer number of times it forces Quill to shimmy across ledges, squeeze through gaps in walls and slide down long slopes. It does that a lot. “Acknowledge my velocity!” is the greatest Drax line ever though, so there’s some good to come from those.

Every new location that the Guardians visit in-game is a stunning showcase though, from the sweeping vistas and improbable nature of alien worlds to some of my favourite sci-fi mainstays like intergalactic black markets. Likely owing to its linearity, there’s a thoroughly impressive level of variety across the many places you’ll visit that makes every new chapter fresh and exciting. It really needs to be stressed just how gorgeous the game is overall, especially in its character models that are some of the best I’ve seen in a video game in how they marry technical prowess with great design. Motion capture and animations across the board are fantastic, materials and effects have incredible presence, it’s ridiculous just how expertly Eidos Montreal has pulled together so many disparate aesthetics and principles into something so razor-sharp.

And yes, the 80s pop/rock soundtrack is absolutely killer. Not just the amped-up moments where you’re soaring through space to the opening of “White Wedding” or wrecking shop to the tune of “Kickstart My Heart”, but gleefully goofy moments where your mid-combat huddle throws out a song like Rick Astley’s ”Never Gonna Give You Up” as a backdrop to fighting hordes of cultist fanatics.

Somehow, despite the uneven nature of both combat and general exploration, everything in the game comes together into something that’s far better than the sum of its parts. A lot of that is to do with the pacing of the game as a whole, another crucial area where Eidos Montreal has leveraged their many years of expertise in storytelling and game design for Guardians of the Galaxy, making the choice of a hard linear structure feel earned with a fantastic sense of momentum. A roaring stream of explosive set-pieces, wonderous planetary sightseeing and quieter moments of reprieve and reflection roll into each other over a packed 15-20 hours where no single moment feels needlessly drawn out.

It’s one of those titles that I fully expect players to smash out over a marathon weekend session because there’s simply never a time where putting the controller down feels like a good idea. It may take a touch too long to get there, but the power climb for both Quill and the Guardians as a team picks up to a fantastic crescendo. As the game’s closing chapters come around and your crew is autonomously solving problems and blasting through enemy waves in unison there’s a sense of pay-off that few games achieve.

Oh, and the ending is triumphantly on-brand.

THE PS5 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Review – Pure Blockbuster Entertainment appeared first on Press Start.

The Dark Pictures Anthology is shaping up to be like any great horror series. It’s getting regular instalments, they’re all of variable quality, and each person has their own opinion on the best one. These games also remind me of the time of horror franchises like SAW and Paranormal Activity – where no matter the quality of the product itself, I can look forward to enjoying it with friends with each annual release. But with House of Ashes, that comfort is bolstered by confidence. Simply put, it’s the best Dark Pictures Anthology so far, and Supermassive is truly listening to the fans and finding their stride here.

Much like the previous games in the anthology, House of Ashes is an interactive drama similar to Until Dawn and Detroit: Become Human. You play as a group of characters collectively and must make decisions to navigate them through the story and (ideally) to safety as the credits roll. Each decision you make, no matter how innocuous, will usually have some effect on how things play out. Much like its predecessors, Man of Medan and Little Hope, House of Ashes is entirely self-contained. You don’t need to have played the previous Dark Pictures games to appreciate the experience and can jump straight into this one if you so wish.

House of Ashes takes place during the Iraqi conflict in 2003. You play mainly as a squad of US soldiers sent to investigate and procure weapons of mass destruction during the conflict. The arguable lead here is Rachel King; a CIA officer played against-type by Ashley Tisdale. She’s joined by Jason Kolchek, Nick Kay, and her estranged husband Eric King, leading the operation. Keeping things interesting, you’ll also play as someone from the other side of the war, an Iraqi lieutenant named Salim searching for his son amongst the conflict.

The plot starts to get going when the squad arrives at their mark and is attacked by Iraqi forces. In the chaos, it appears that the group has awakened strange creatures that begin to hunt the group down as they try their best to escape. Eventually, through a bizarre earthquake, they’re dropped into an underground Akkadian temple built to appease the gods during a cataclysmic event. If you’ve seen films like The Descent, you probably have an idea of the mood and atmosphere House of Ashes is going for – it’s dark, tense, and oppressive.

I’ve briefly alluded to this previously, but House of Ashes is a huge step up from Man of Medan and Little Hope. I’d had some concerns when I had hands-on with the games twice earlier this year, but so many of those concerns fell away as the story progressed. Man of Medan and Little Hope both went in unexpected directions, too. However, the way House of Ashes executes its grand finale is so much more satisfying. I’m not going to spoil anything – to do so would be neglectful on my part – but House of Ashes goes in a direction that you’ll never guess. I’m excited for more people to experience it.

As a game, House of Ashes plays better than its predecessors too. Fixed camera angles (though I adore them) have been scrapped for a complete player-controlled camera. A dedicated flashlight button also lights up the room. Still, it slows down your character – though the trade-off feels inconsequential as there’s never a moment where your character’s speed matters. Hence, we spent most of the game playing with our flashlights on anyway.

I say we because House of Ashes brings back the multiplayer options that the previous two games did. Shared Story allows you to jump online and play with a friend, just as if you were playing split-screen locally. Movie Night allows you to assign characters to each person in the room, and the game will tell you when that person needs to have the controller passed to them. You can even assign more than one character to a person if you don’t have four other people in the room with you. The only real downside to this mode is that some characters have a more prominent role in the story than others – so some people in the room might not get to play as much.

That being said, difficulty options, which can be set individually for each player, are a welcome addition to the series. House of Ashes is all about the quick-time events, as you’d expect, but being able to adjust their leniency for more casual players is welcome. Unfortunately, it still didn’t save one of the members in my group from killing their character in the final act (you know who you are). However, it’s still a welcome addition that makes the game playable for people regardless of their experience with video games.

Little Hope had a remarkably annoying habit of throwing the same tired jump scares at you until they weren’t scary at all. Thankfully, House of Ashes does the opposite. A lot of the scares are achieved the good old-fashioned way – by building tension and a sense of dread and not ending every possible moment with a loud noise. There is still some jump scares and some fantastically achieved ones, but overall the game is a lot more subdued in its approach to scaring players. Especially at the end of each act, I’ve never been so tense in trying to make sure I do all the right things to keep my characters alive at the climax of each act.

With the jump to the new generation of consoles, House of Ashes looks fantastic. There’s still the odd case of the uncanny valley in some characters – Clarice is terrifying whenever she moves her mouth – but everyone else otherwise looks and animates well. In my Little Hope review, I’d lamented that these games would never quite reach the visual fidelity of their bigger budget cousin Until Dawn, but House of Ashes comes pretty close. The lighting, the beautifully designed locales, and even the creatures themselves all come together to make this the best presented Dark Pictures game so far.

Despite being the star, Ashley Tisdale is a little bit flat here in her performance though the rest of the cast does a great job at selling the drama and tension in House of Ashes. Add to this a great and intense score by Dead Space alum Jason Graves, and you’ve got a thrilling soundscape to run away from monsters to.

THE PLAYSTATION 5 VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes Review – Supermassive Surprises Once More appeared first on Press Start.

It’s been two years since Demon Slayer took the world by storm in 2019 with its first season of anime adapted from the popular manga penned by Koyoharu Gotouge. With the second season having just kicked off, it only seems fitting that CyberConnect2 helms a game adaptation. Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles is a retelling of the first season of the anime, alongside the Mugen Train arc that came out in theatres earlier this year. Much like CyberConnect2’s other work, The Hinokami Chronicles doesn’t do anything extraordinary or step outside of its comfort zone, but it’s bound to please Demon Slayer fans and newcomers alike.

While this isn’t a one-to-one recount of the events of Demon Slayer’s excellent first season, it gets pretty damn close without resorting to just playing clips from the show. Much like Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, The Hinokami Chronicles has an Adventure Mode that’s split into the most important arcs, opting to explore the pivotal beats of Tanjiro’s journey as opposed to fleshing out the characters and world building. For the uninitiated, Demon Slayer follows Tanjiro Kamado, whose family has been slaughtered by Muzan Kibutsuji, king of the demons. His only surviving sibling, Nezuko, is turned into a demon, and Tanjiro takes it upon himself to avenge his family and revert his sister back to her human form.

It’s a simple premise that’s as typical as a shonen can get, but it’s the characters and moments of major development that shine through here alongside the excellent animation work. All the hallmark moments are treated with great respect, most of which either receive gorgeously animated cutscenes or the eye-catching quick time events that CyberConnect2 executes so well. There are also optional vignettes you can unlock throughout the levels that further flesh out the story, which work as a great way to catch up newcomers on the characters and world events that don’t get explored in as much detail. The Mount Nagumo and Mugen Train arcs in particular are handled brilliantly, and fans will no doubt enjoy reliving these moments again. It’s definitely not the definitive way to experience the first major leg of Tanjiro’s and Nezuko’s journey, but it’s all killer, no filler, and I’m positive that’s what most players will want.

If you’ve played any of CyberConnect2’s previous titles, The Hinokami Chronicles will feel very familiar. You have a standard combo which is performed by mashing light attack and can be further changed with a directional input. These can lead to air combos or hard knockdowns, and are your primary means of squeezing out damage. Each character also has three unique special attacks that have a myriad of uses. As you take and deal damage, you build meter for Ultimate Techniques, and a Burst mode. You can also call in your partner for offensive and defensive assist actions or to tag out and play as them.

It’s an extremely simple combat system that gets a little deeper with the inclusion of a high risk, high reward parry mechanic, but it’s by no means the new gold standard for fighting games. What stands out the most is the flashy animations and particle effects that really deliver an experience that looks and feels the way you would want a Demon Slayer game to present itself. It really provides the power fantasy and player experience of what it would be like to be a demon slayer, and playing your favourite characters only empowers this further.

A fighter is nothing without a good base cast of characters, and the Hinokami Chronicles is mostly great in this regard. Besides the distinct lack of any playable demons at launch, every character you could want is here. From staples like Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu, to smaller picks like Sabito and Urodaki. There’s a little bit of something here for everyone, and while each character fundamentally plays the same, they’re visually unique enough to feel like you’re playing a different fighter. A special mention should go out to the Ultimate Techniques, which are universally stunning to look at and brilliantly recreate the moments they’re inspired by. 

Most of the story mode is played by moving through small open spaces from the series. Each area is largely linear and there isn’t much room for exploration, leaving it feeling extremely surface level and lacking any real purpose. There are some collectibles scattered about for extra unlockable content, but the areas mostly serve as a means to fight demons and progress the story. Each playable chapter takes place in these zones, as you progress, you’ll almost always fight demons and eventually partake in a boss fight. There are quite a few regular demons to fight in each chapter, and while it never gets truly stale, some repetition does set in before you get to the boss. The boss fights are easily the highlight of each chapter, each one providing a new challenge and experience different from the last. They’re more complex than just the simple hacking and slashing you get used to against regular demons and provide a refreshing change of pace. They typically end in flashy quick time events, and while I’m not usually a fan, I can’t deny that these are excellently animated and satisfying to pull off.

If there’s one thing that CyberConnect2 always nails, it’s translating the aesthetic of anime to a video game world. The Hinokami Chronicles is given the same treatment, with beautiful 3D character models, environments and cutscenes that stand alongside the quality of the anime instead of trying to live up to it. The end result is a game that’s always a treat to look at, with vivid colours and that trademark Demon Slayer flair that drew so many in to begin with. Performance is also rock solid here, and I encountered nothing in the way of bugs, making for a polished experience with great production values.

THE PS5 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles Review – A Remarkable Retelling appeared first on Press Start.

It’s been almost three years since a brand new Far Cry has graced our screens and even longer since I genuinely enjoyed a Far Cry game. Far Cry 6 is a return to form in many aspects for Ubisoft. It brings back the exotic locales that I enjoyed from the earlier games while also doing its best to implement so many lessons learned from 5 and New Dawn. The result is quite possibly one of the best Far Cry games thus far.

Far Cry 6 arguably places more of an emphasis on its plot than any other Far Cry game. This time around, you’ll play as Dani Rojas, a guerrilla soldier fighting to return their fictional, Cuban-inspired nation of Yara to its former glory. In their way is a group of lieutenants led by none other than Antón Castillo, a ruthless dictator who has assumed immense control over the entire island. It sounds like your typical Far Cry story, but Far Cry 6 does things very differently to those that came before it, and while it’ll upset some purists, I think it’s for the better.

That being said, it’s hard not to notice that two different storylines are playing out in an oddly separate way. Almost every scene with Antón and his son Diego has little to do with what Dani is doing until the very end of the story. Both Dani and Antón’s stories are interesting. However, they’re almost so separate that they could easily be from two different tales told in the same world. That being said, both are still compelling, and when they do converge, it does feel satisfying, if not a little bit predictable. I’d be remiss to not mention that both Giancarlo Esposito and Anthony Gonzales do great jobs bringing Antón and Diego to life, even if Giancarlo’s character is erring dangerously on the edge of being a typecast for the actor.

It’s no secret that I’ve been slowly losing interest in Far Cry since Primal. I was absolutely enamoured with the changes and the exotic locales explored in Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4, but each game after that seemed to step away from what I enjoyed about the games. Far Cry 6 is a return to form. It brings back everything I love about Far Cry in droves – a compelling yet charismatic villain, an exotic locale to explore and chaotic free-form gameplay that gives me the freedom to play how I want. It’s a truly remarkable step up, but it’s not afraid to tinker with the tried-and-true formula too.

The most immediate and noticeable change is the complete removal of the skill tree. A staple in almost every open-world game of this ilk, Far Cry 6 instead offers specific skills and abilities through pieces of gear you find throughout Yara. From the get-go I enjoyed this system because it kept me on my feet – too often, I’d get to the end of a Far Cry game and be unstoppable to the point where there was no challenge. Now, I can go through my gear and choose the best set for the operation I’m taking on. I also found myself being encouraged to switch up my gear much more regularly to find the perfect combo of skills given what I had at any given moment.

I’d had mild concerns that this meant that Far Cry 6 was firmly pivoting to RPG territory in similar ways that Assassin’s Creed Odyssey did after the fantastic Assassin’s Creed Origins. I didn’t feel like this approach would work for a first-person shooter like Far Cry 6, and thankfully this wasn’t the case. Your experience and ranking in Yara will affect the gear you have access to and the strength of the enemies that’ll come after you. However, a headshot is still a headshot. If you’ve got the right equipment or ammo, it’ll still kill someone in one shot. This isn’t Borderlands or Destiny; it’s Far Cry.

The pool of equipment you have to choose from is vast too, but not to the point where it feels auto-generated or like a looter shooter. Far Cry 6 divides its weapons into Standard Weapons, Unique Weapons, and Resolver Weapons. Standard Weapons are what you expect from any game – traditional weapons. You can modify them however you see fit. Unique weapons have a unique look and often a unique perk but can’t be modified as much – though they still resemble most of the Standard weapons you’ll find in form and function.

Resolver weapons are what Far Cry 6 does differently and where a lot of the character lies. Like the Elite weapons from Far Cry New Dawn, these are more chaotic handcrafted weapons that are slightly zanier. From flamethrowers to sniper rifles that shoot cluster grenades to a gun that spins CDs that play the Macarena before launching them at high velocities. There’s a great range of weapons here, and they’ve all got a great sense of humour and are similarly quite upgradeable too. Perhaps the only bad thing about the Resolver Weapons is that they’re so good that I’d be surprised if you’d bother even using the Standard or Unique weapons after kitting yourself out with them.

The other significant new addition to Far Cry 6 is the Supremos. They’re custom-made backpacks that each have a unique ability (think an ultimate in other shooters) as well as many slots to outfit with all kinds of gadgets. Gadgets are what you’d expect from other Far Cry games – from as simple as throwing knives to something as complex as auto-turrets and proximity mines. However, the ultimates themselves are pretty fun abilities that only add to the chaos that we’ve come to expect from Far Cry games.

Some Supremos allow Dani to launch a volley of rockets at the nearest target – a boon for newer players but others are more out there. My favourite not only gives Dani the ability to lay down a loop of fire to her surroundings but a double jump that leaves behind a trail of destructive fire too. Others can emit poisonous gas to brainwash enemies to fight for you or even allow you to self-revive. There’s a wide range of Supremos to grab, and each of them is upgradeable too, once again with mods that will enable you to alter them to fit your playstyle.

If it sounds like there are many upgrades and crafting with Far Cry 6, that’s because there is. But Far Cry 6’s willingness to remain a shooter and not become an RPG means that you can engage in whatever manner you wish. I’m the first to roll my eyes at the first mention of customisation and crafting in a game, but Far Cry 6 does it in a way that feels all-encompassing without feeling intrusive or forcing itself on the player. In short, you can play around with the upgrades or crafting however much you want; if it’s your thing, great. If it’s not, there’s still a solid shooter underneath it all.

I haven’t even spoken about all the surrounding stuff in Far Cry 6 but rest assured, there’s a heap of it. Some might have thought that other Ubisoft games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla were a bit too long, but with Far Cry 6, there’s a lot to do, but it doesn’t feel too excessive. There’s more typical side quest content – like destroying Castillo’s military installations and smaller self-contained stories from the people of Yara or hunting mythical beasts. There are kookier ones, too – including treasure hunts often framed as puzzles of sorts that lead to cool loot. Even a cockfighting mini-game plays like a legitimate fighting game, complete with ultimate attacks and a roster of ten unique roosters.

While there’s no in-game timer that I can see or reliably work off of, Far Cry 6 is easily the biggest Far Cry game thus far; it’s a solid offering that doesn’t feel too bloated but doesn’t feel like it short-changes you either. If you want to go straight to take on Antón, you can. Still, to do absolutely everything to prepare a bit better, it would easily take upwards of forty to sixty hours, depending on how speedy you are. Full co-op options are also welcome, though I wish achievement and trophy progression through the campaign would work for both players (at present, it doesn’t, similar to previous Far Cry games).

I’ve alluded to previously that I’ve wanted Far Cry to return to more exotic locales after spending two games in North America. Far Cry 6 delivers on that desire in droves. Yara is undoubtedly the most beautiful locale that Ubisoft has ever set a Far Cry in – featuring clear inspiration from the Caribbean but with a bit of a unique spin. The lush jungles, the picturesque beaches, and even Esperanza’s urban jungle are all incredibly inviting and just dying to be explored.

The soundscape is similarly inspired. At any given point, as you walk through Yara, you’ll be treated to a myriad of noises that help sell the idea of this torn nation. Afro-Caribbean music fills the streets of the local villages while loud, bold, and disruptive military propaganda is broadcast across the islands. It’s a great atmosphere, if not a little depressing, given the situation. Pedro Bronfman, who scored Narcos, provides great orchestral pieces for crucial story moments too.

As mentioned previously, in terms of voice work, the star of the show is far and away, Giancarlo Esposito as Antón Castillo. He is menacing, if not slightly typecast, at this point. But worth mentioning especially is Nisa Gunduz, who voiced my female Dani Rojas with a fiery disposition and did a great job at bringing the guerrilla fighter to life.

That’s really what sums up Far Cry 6 – it’s full of life and one of the most earnest distillations of the formula so far.

THE XBOX SERIES X|S VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON AN XBOX SERIES X FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER

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When talking about a developer like Remedy Entertainment today, it’s almost inevitable that Control will come up in some capacity. It’s arguably the perfect encapsulation of what you’d expect from a Remedy game, but it’s also important to remember the foundation that Control finds its roots from. For its time, Alan Wake was unlike anything else, an experimental hybrid of Remedy’s trademark visceral action with the timeless mood and atmosphere of something like Twin Peaks. Alan Wake Remastered modernizes the classic for current consoles, and while some aspects of its design are definitively stuck in the past, the majority of the experience is timeless, unforgettable, and a must play for anyone who hasn’t been entranced by the captivating world of Bright Falls before.

In an attempt to try and ease his writer’s block, author Alan Wake and his wife Alice decide to holiday to Bright Falls, a small, quaint countryside town with a tight-knit community. Without spoiling too much, Alice seems to have been kidnapped by a malevolent force that haunts Bright Falls during the night, and Alan takes it upon himself to fight back in order to save Alice. It’s a surface level premise that gets deeper and deeper as you progress through the six different episodes, each one ending on a cliff-hanger as if it’s a weekly TV show.

It twists and turns in so many unpredictable ways, and it’s an experience best played blind to truly appreciate it. Comparative to Control, it’s a narrative that is all about player perspective and theory building. Alan Wake never outright tells you why, what, or how these things happen, it merely gives you some facts, and it’s up to you how you want to put it all together. What really sells the experience is a fantastic cast of varied and unique characters. Some are weird and kooky, while others are seemingly crazy and will often leave you feeling uncertain about the true nature of Bright Falls. To add on to this further, Alan Wake Remastered also includes the 2 special DLC episodes, which further flesh out the world, characters, and the story of Alan and Alice.

If there’s one thing that’s consistent across all of Remedy’s titles, it’s that they always have a unique way of telling stories. Whether its Quantum Break’s episodic TV series, or the distinct comic book panels of Max Payne, there’s a signature flair to be found in each game that separates them from the rest. Alan Wake is no different, with Alan often narrating story events as they unfold from his perspective. It’s written as if he’s writing a novel based on his experience, which is a nice nod to the initial premise of the story, but also ties into the broader narrative in ways I won’t spoil. There are also manuscript pages you can find scattered throughout each episode which further add on to the world building, characters, and setting. Needless to say, it’s this kind of storytelling that creates such a unique experience, and it still feels fresh nearly 12 years later.

The core gameplay loop of Alan Wake is relatively simple, but it lends itself to the themes and narrative nicely, even if there are a few missteps along the way. A small portion of gameplay is spent investigating Bright Falls and talking to its residents during the daytime. These sections are somewhat explorative but are often very short and serve as a means for the narrative to move forward. Most of your time will be spent during the night, where Bright Falls is under the stranglehold of darkness, a force that takes people and objects, and uses them to do its bidding. As Alan, your main weapon against the taken army is light. Torches, floodlights, flashbangs, and flares will all weaken taken enemies, making them vulnerable to traditional firearms. While there’s a limited selection of guns on offer here, each one has the kind of punch and tactility you expect from a Remedy game.

Where the combat stumbles a bit, is in its boss fights, and encounters with possessed objects. Boss encounters boil down to some big darkness possessed object that needs to be exposed to light for however long. While it has a novelty at first, it quickly wears out its welcome and becomes a frustrating and boring affair that had me wishing I was fighting regular enemies instead. It also doesn’t help that Alan’s ability to dodge feels near useless when a harvester is hurtling towards you at high speeds.

When you aren’t in combat, you’ll often be exploring or engaging in the odd puzzle. Resource management is paramount in early episodes, if you don’t actively look for ammunition, you will find yourself struggling to take down the unrelenting hordes of taken. Unfortunately, the inverse is also true in later episodes, where being thorough can lead to an over-abundance of supplies, often trivializing the encounters that were clearly designed to be filled with suspense. This issue is somewhat alleviated in Nightmare mode, but I doubt most players will be inclined to choose Nightmare on their first time through. Unfortunately, there isn’t much else to the gameplay than that, and you’ll find that repetition can set in quickly, no matter how good Remedy’s gunplay feels. Puzzles navigational or otherwise help a bit to break up the monotony but are too sparse and spread apart.

That being said, though, there’s something innately terrifying about an intangible force that’s constantly hunting you, and no amount of ammunition or repetitious gameplay is able to change that. Trees are uprooted from the ground like it’s nothing, school buses land mere feet away from Alan, and boats are plucked from the sea and thrown at you as if there’s a storm that’s constantly raging. It’s this fact that makes the mad dashes to checkpoints in the hope to conserve ammunition so thrilling and suspenseful. Alan Wake has atmosphere in spades, with the only respite from the oppression coming from the sparingly placed light sources in each episode.

You don’t have to look too hard to find out that the original Alan Wake is a gorgeous looking game at points, but the Remastered version takes that further without compromising on the timeless art style and contrast between shadow and light that made it special. The lighting here is positively excellent, with Bright Falls looking picturesque during the day, and terrifying during the night. Thick fogs cover the landscapes and weave in and out of its dense foliage. While it’s easy to think that most episode would largely look and feel the same, each one is set within its own unique environment that gives it its own identity. It’s obviously not to the same level of a full-scale remake, but its remarkable that this game came out on hardware that’s two generations old now and looks this good. Performance on PS5 is also rock solid, and no matter how crazy the action got on screen, the game held a smooth 60 frames per second.

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In the 20 years since the original release of Super Monkey Ball in arcades and on GameCube, nothing has come close to replicating the magic of the first three games. Best described as a high speed physics based platformer, Monkey Ball has always been an addictive and challenging franchise, but it’s always been hard to go back and play the original games due to platform and arcade exclusivity. Despite a few small missteps, Banana Mania provides a means to access these titles as a remastered collection that’s positively stuffed with content, accessibility options, and quality of life improvements that make this collection one of the best Monkey Ball offerings in recent times.

Needless to say, there isn’t much in the way of narrative when it comes to Super Monkey Ball, and what little there is mainly serves as a backdrop to the gameplay. Instead of remaking the original stories, though, Banana Mania serves its story through a TV show, where AiAi and crew watch the events of the original games unfold as Dr. Bad-Boon attempts to steal all the bananas on Jungle Island. It’s very surface level, but the manner in which it’s presented feels suitable for a celebration of the franchise, almost as if we’re looking back with the cast at past adventures, and it’s incredibly charming.

It’s hard to describe the allure of Monkey Ball to someone who’s never played it before. It seems really simple on a surface level, but there’s so many different aspects that contribute to a deeper, more meaningful gameplay experience than most would expect. Each level is extremely short in nature, with each one limited to a 60 second timer. Your job, is to complete each level within the timer, collecting bananas along the way. They start out relatively easy but steadily climb in challenge, eventually resulting in some of the most devious platforming you’ll ever put yourself through. It’s incredibly rewarding, but to get through each level with every banana takes a serious amount of skill and dedication.

The real fun comes after your first clears, as you attempt to collect every banana in each level, and beat your previous times. If this sounds daunting, there’s no need to worry, levels can easily be skipped over so you can move onto the next, or you can opt to enable an assist mode, where you can slow down time, and disable the 60 second timer. It’s a brilliant way to make the latter half of the game accessible to newcomers, without tossing out any of the original challenge fans know and love.

There’s a reason people constantly go back to play these original three games, and that’s because the level design here is universally fantastic. There’s so much variation and unique concepts on show that nothing is similar to anything else, which is no easy feat when the main campaign alone is comprised of 100 levels. What accentuates this further, is the tight controls that provide the level of precision needed for this kind of platforming. You never feel cheated out of a death, and there’s always ways that you can improve and find shortcuts through levels to make the challenge that little bit easier.

There’s also a slew of minigames here from Monkey Ball games new and old to choose from. All of these are multiplayer, and offer some fun party distractions to play with your friends. Monkey Bowling and Monkey Golf are as good as ever, but a few classics feel a bit off in the way they control and play, almost as if they weren’t given quite the same treatment as the core game. What’s here is still great, but it’s definitely a difficult adjustment if you’ve played plenty of the original versions of these games.

Additionally, there’s online records you can race for, challenge courses made up of levels of varying difficulties, missions to complete and more. All of these alongside the main game, grant you banana coins that you can spend in-game on new modes, characters, gallery unlocks, and visual filters. Needless to say, Banana Mania is bursting at the seems with bonuses and extra content which makes it well worth the money. Who doesn’t want to play as Sonic, Kiryu and Beat in a Monkey Ball game? SEGA and Monkey Ball fans will no doubt love a lot of the inclusions here, even if the inability to play these characters in the minigames is disappointing.

Where Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania makes the most changes, is in its production values, background visuals and textures. All of the colourful worlds and levels really pop here, and each one has eye-catching elements in the backgrounds that only get old as you move on to the next world. It really feels like RGG Studio have treated the franchise with a lot of TLC, and it leaves the experience feeling fresh and new. Additionally, performance is great, load times are sharp, the UI is cleaned up a bit and the soundtrack slaps as hard as ever.

THE NINTENDO SWITCH VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER

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One of the big questions when thinking about remastering a game is whether it needs to change at all to be viable in the current market. For Diablo 2: Resurrected, Blizzard has stayed absolutely true to the original game while giving it a complete visual makeover.

Diablo 2: Resurrected is an action heavy RPG built around choosing from one of seven distinctly varied character classes, exploring dangerous places, slaying innumerable monsters, gathering new items and using the experience gained to improve your character’s stats and unlock new abilities so you can explore ever more dangerous places filled with ever more dangerous monsters. It’s a compelling hook – one that had me enthralled for years in it’s original form and which inspired more caffeine and sugar fueled dungeon crawling nights in my past than I can count on two hands. That hook is well and truly still here, and as potent as it ever was.

It’s important to understand exactly what kind of re-release Resurrected is. While Resurrected gives Diablo 2 a humongous graphical and audio overhaul, transforming the characters and environments into full 3D, the game running underneath it all is Diablo 2, same as it ever was. Aside from some inventory management improvements and reasonably good controller support, Resurrected plays exactly as Diablo 2 always has – evidenced by the fact you can switch back to the original visuals at any moment. Doing so was quite a shock to me. It’s hard to remember just how Diablo 2 looked twenty years back – and being able to directly compare gives a real appreciation for the remastering process here.

The graphical overhaul is quite phenomenal. It looks just how my rose tinted memories of Diablo remember it but in sharp, high fidelity. Things move at a smooth and consistent 60 frames per second on PlayStation 5 (if you switch to Performance mode at least) and characters keep the late 90s 3D animation vibe while looking entirely modern at the same time – like they’ve jumped off the cover of a fantasy themed rock album of the time and on to the screen. Environments have had a complete overhaul as well, and generally stay true to the original’s aesthetic however I feel they lose some of their charm and texture. Things have become minutely detailed as is expected in the 4K era, but the punchy contrast of the past environments is sometimes lost in the transfer. It’s minor and absolutely not game breaking but I found things like paths much less clear than they used to be.

Music and audio have been revamped as well with more spacious sounding recordings that, for me, still kept the personality of the music from the original game that’s been seared into my brain for all these years. The prog-rock inspired music that accompanies your exploits in the first act is just awesome to hear in either remastered or legacy form – staying mostly ambient but always evoking the perfect mood for horror fantasy dungeon crawling.

Under the hood, Resurrected is Diablo 2 for better and for worse. Movement, combat, character building, AI – it’s all exactly as it was in 2001. I do consider Diablo 2 to be a milestone for the genre especially for it’s time but if you’re well experienced with it’s follow-up Diablo 3 you’ll definitely notice some quality of life improvements that were made there that are missing from 2.

The most impactful for me personally is the lack of couch co-op. While it’s understandable that the original Diablo 2 was made for PC where the idea of sharing a screen is nigh unheard of – I felt it’s inclusion with the console releases of Diablo 3 transformed the game by making multiplayer infinitely easier to organise. It would have been nice to have some degree of same-machine multiplayer but given it wasn’t in the original its absence is understandable. Be prepared for other challenges as well like dropping your entire inventory on death, requiring a tense unarmed dash to retrieve your stuff. Your character skills and stat bonuses are locked in the moment you choose them as well – which might come as a shock to people used to Diablo 3’s more flexible ability system. This will all be second nature to people forged in Diablo 2’s hellfire but are changes worth noting for new players.

Resurrected brings with it a full suite of online features, many of which existed as an option in the original release but which gain prominence in today’s more connected world. The default way to make a character is Online – these characters will be able to participate in online parties, join in ladders and can use cross-progression systems to play across multiple platforms. The catch being that in Online mode you’re playing on Blizzard’s servers. This won’t necessarily be a problem for everyone and the benefits of cross-progression and online multiplayer will be well worth it for many – but this all comes with the caveat that your character cannot be used without an internet connection, and playing online brings with it other issues like short pauses while buying, identifying and managing items.

During pre-release and post-release I found my game lagging behind the server regularly enough for it to become bothersome – often I’d walk into a room teeming with monsters and start dealing with them only for the game to zip me back to the entrance, surrounded by the monsters and with a good portion of my health gone. This could be improved as time goes on, but it’s a less than perfect experience currently. There is of course the option to create an offline character if you only want to play locally (on your own system or through a local network), but offline and online characters can never mix – so if you ever want to use a character online with friends then offline isn’t an option.

While I’d have loved couch co-op to find a way in to the console version and the server issues are a nuisance, to me they don’t truly mar the game underneath. The gameplay is a little dated and might be a shock to people used to Diablo 3, but the fact I still found myself mashing monsters for hours on end is testament to the compelling core gameplay hook that was present in the original and is still very much here underneath the beautiful high-resolution veneer.

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FIFA 22 finally feels like it’s fulfilling the series’ potential. Armed with HyperMotion technology that makes the flow of a match look and feel more realistic than ever, alongside major new changes to the game’s Career Mode, there’s no doubting this is the best entry in the series for some time.

HyperMotion is the star, here. This has been the biggest selling point throughout the advertising campaign for the game, and it’s easy to see why. EA’s updated the game with over 4,000 new animations, covering every piece of motion you’d expect to see in the beautiful game – from set pieces to shooting, dribbling to goalkeepers being lobbed, everything looks more realistic this year.

This drastically changes the flow and general gameplay of FIFA. Whether that’s for the better will depend on how you play the game, however I generally loved it. The game seems to mimic the real sport a lot more accurately than before. And while it took me some time to get used HyperMotion – I even had to drop the difficulty down to get a better feel for it before moving back up – it’s worth it. The technology makes the game look and feel more immersive and smashing in a sweet volley has never looked so good. It’s a shame this tech is exclusive to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series consoles and Stadia, though.

Even so, this year’s all about slow build up play and the driven finish, with goalkeepers significantly upgraded in FIFA 22. Shots that would easily bypass a keeper in FIFA 21 are almost always saved, and I appreciated the way goalkeepers now properly guard their net. It made me think more about shot placement and how to guarantee my strike would end up in the back of the net.

General A.I. seems to be improved across the board, too. Opposition players track attacking movement a lot better this year, and simple through balls I often relied on in FIFA 21 were cut out often. This made possession-based play even more important, with the A.I. more than capable of pulling off a quick and decisive counterattack. I liked the fact overlapping runs were mostly accounted for by the opposition this year, and general defensive positioning was spot on. It made me think more about where to place a pass while noting where my midfielders and defenders were in case we were sprung on the counter.

Most of the series’ modes have seen some sort of improvement in FIFA 22 yet the biggest changes come to Career Mode. Managing a team in Career Mode this year gives you the ability to create a club from scratch, adding them into any league of your choosing. You’re able to customise the club’s kit, crest and stadium, bringing randomly generated players into the side and assigning a specific budget and board expectations.

As someone who spent way too much time dabbling with club creation back in the Pro Evolution Soccer days on PSP, I was overjoyed to see club creation make its way to FIFA this year. The creation suite is somewhat limited but is certainly a solid foundation to work from.

You can’t add any sponsors onto a kit, for example, which makes the general design a bit plainer that I’d have liked. As well as this, numbers and names on the back of the kit don’t follow the design of the league you’re in, which takes away from the immersion. I’m curious as to why this couldn’t have been done given licensed club kits are updated with the relevant league designs when they’re relegated or promoted in Career Mode. Needless to say, it’s a step in the right direction. I also really liked the fact you’re able to update your team’s kit at the start of each season as it keeps things feeling fresh.

Another great bit of customisation comes by the way of the stadium editor. Taking a cue from Ultimate Team’s FUT Stadium, you’re able to adjust a multitude of things in your created club’s stadium – from the colour of the seating and pitch design all the way through to crowd chants during a match. This can be customised at your leisure, and makes the experience feel more personalised.

Player career has had a bit of a rebuff, too, with the Volta-styled skill tree making its way across. Subsequently, this mode feels more like a sports-RPG than ever before. You now level up throughout the mode, allocating skill points, perks and archetypes to your player as you go from being in the reserves to a first XI player.

Perks are the biggest shakeup in player career, giving you a specific boost depending on your actions in a match. These range from a temporary boost in finesse strikes to better long-range passing accuracy. Similarly, in-match objectives help push you along the way in player career. Whether you’re subbed on or start a game, you’ll always have three objectives to aim for. Completing these objectives will earn favour with the coach, allowing you to move up the ranks and into the club’s first XI. You can also ‘enhance’ an objective, pushing the designated requirement up a bit, which will net you additional XP.

This all comes together to form a mode that feels like it’s finally progressing forward. It’s no The Journey, of course, but I do like the fact there’s more of a story embedded into player career. As such, I hope to see a deeper dive on this in subsequent entries of FIFA, like being able to play in the youth team or something along those lines.

Disappointingly, Volta, FIFA’s street football mode, sees very little change this year. A skill meter has been added, which fills up by pulling off skill moves in a match. If you’re able to fill it up entirely, you can score more than the traditional one point a goal entails, earning up to three points with one strike. Signature abilities also make their way to the mode, giving you a specified ability that you can call upon in-game when your personal meter fills. Each of the signature abilities are different, based around a more powerful shot, faster pace or stronger tackles.

Volta feels more arcadey than ever before thanks to these additions. And while I don’t mind EA taking the mode in this direction, I’d have loved to see more focus on single-player game types and tournaments within it. Volta feels more like a multiplayer time sink than it has before, lacking any notable component that’ll keep someone who prefers to play single-player matches coming back.

FIFA’s other main multiplayer modes have seen minor change. Ultimate Team continues to have an insidious grip on most players, and microtransactions are encouraged at every turn. You can now customise the VIP area of FUT Stadium if you so desire, while Division Rivals will reward time spent in the mode, whether you win or lose. FUT Champions is split into Play-Offs and Finals in FIFA 22, which should give competitive players a nice change to what’s come before in Weekend League. It’s nice to see some quality-of-life improvements in FUT, but after spending a couple of hours opening packs and playing around with what’s on offer, I still find myself quickly gravitating away from it – it’s just not for me.

Women Virtual Pros are the big change to come to Pro Clubs, and it’s a change that’s very welcome. I’d had hoped we’d have seen a lot of representation across FIFA’s game modes when women’s football was introduced some time ago, yet the implementation has been going at a snail’s pace. I hope that one day we get the women’s leagues into Career Mode, but I feel that’s some way off. Needless to say, it’s a step forward.

DualSense support is, once again, great in FIFA 22. I love the way the controller feedback works as you crash into tackles or take an all-important shot. I do continue to worry about the adaptive triggers, however, as it feels like I’m in a constant battle with them as player stamina begins to drain at the tail-end of a match. It’s been almost a year and my original controller marches on unbothered, though, so it mustn’t be having that bad of an effect.

Even with some issues and shortcomings, this year’s FIFA is the best in some time. HyperMotion accelerates it ahead of the competition, and it’s great to see some major changes to Career Mode. Stewart Robson coming in for commentary, alongside Alex Scott as pitchside reporter, has also given some much-needed revitalisation to the commentary in the game. All in all, there’s something here for everyone, and the series is finally charting a course I can get behind.

THE PS5 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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NBA 2K22 is a step in the right direction for the long-running basketball series. Thanks to some welcome refinements to the game’s MyCAREER and MyNBA modes, alongside more robust defensive AI and a sleek presentation to boot, 2K22 feels like it’s properly planted its feet and has room to evolve.

As has been the case for some time now, MyCAREER takes you through the early steps of pursuing a professional basketball career all the way through to winning it all in the NBA. The City returns in 2K22, becoming fully integrated into MyCAREER this time around. You’re now able to roam around the hub world, taking on quests and levelling up your character in whatever way you see fit. The quest-based system, almost like a sports RPG of sorts, is something that I particularly liked. It’s unashamedly grindy, as you’d expect, but it does feel like a nice change to the formula.

Exploring The City was relatively enjoyable, too. Bar the abhorrent (sub 30fps) framerate on Xbox Series X, there’s enough to do to keep yourself occupied within the neon-lit streets. Often, I just enjoyed being able to cruise around on my skateboard, taking some time to reflect on areas where my player could improve.

With that said, I have a particular distain for the voice acting and writing in MyCAREER. It’s cringe-worthy, to say the least, and often pulled me out of the immersion more times than I’d have liked. I get it’s supposed to be edgy – and I wasn’t surprised to see the litany of licensed shoe shops and clothing brands sprawled throughout The City – but I found it hard to properly connect with my player when all that came out of his mouth was slang straight out of the late 2010s.

As you make your way through MyCAREER you can choose to take some time to learn the ropes in college, compete in the G-League or throw your name in the hat to be pulled into the NBA draft. You can tackle any of these right off the bat, though it’s recommended to start with the former two if you want any chance of extended playing time and time to level up your stats.

You can use earned (or purchased) virtual currency (VC) to upgrade your character’s stats and progress their overall rating, which does take some time if you elect not to drop some real-world money. It is worthwhile committing, though, as the MyCAREER experience is fun for the most part. There’s a plethora of things to do and explore and aside from the awful voice acting I had a great time with it. It’s worth mentioning multiplayer matches in The City will wreak havoc on you if you don’t have a high overall rating, though, with players in the high 80s regularly being matched with players that are just kicking off their basketball career. It’s not a good sight to see.

MyTEAM includes a handful of improvements and new inclusions compared to last year. MyTEAM: Draft making its long-awaited debut, giving players a more casual mode to play around with. Much like my experience with 2K21, I didn’t really gel with MyTEAM at all this year, though. I like the ability to build a dream team to take on others around the globe, but the means to get there are surrounded by a litany of microtransactions. I wasn’t surprised to see this continue in 2K22, with the mode quite happy to shove new packs and card opportunities my way from the beginning. It’s not something I particularly enjoy, and while the new additions are great on paper I quickly moved on to other modes that weren’t so keen on taking my money.

MyNBA and MyWNBA both make their way to 2K22 this year, exclusively tied to current-gen systems. As someone who loves dabbling in the series’ Franchise Mode, I was pleasantly surprised to see how robust these modes were. There’s a lot on offer for management gurus who want to get into the nitty gritty of a basketball sim, and the improved MySTAFF hub gives full control to players wanting to make staffing choices. These range from basic department coaches all the way through to sports medicine staff, allowing you to fully invest if you want. As someone who just wants to play some basketball over a couple of seasons, I found it relatively easy to drop in and let most of those things be taken care of by the AI.

Unfortunately, The W, the WNBA-focused MyCAREER-like mode, suffers in 2K22 thanks to very little refinement or change. It’s a shame, given how much of a focus is placed on MyCAREER, that The W feels more like an afterthought than an accurate representation of the WNBA. Visual Concepts has some way to go before this becomes a fully-fledged, go-to mode for those wanting a break from the other modes on offer.

While the NBA 2K series has had its shortcomings of late, something that I very rarely fault the series on is its excellent gameplay. That, unsurprisingly, doesn’t change in 2K22. The game feels fantastic to play, leaning in on momentum and encouraging slow build up play and calculated shot selection this year.

If this is your first 2K outing, it’ll likely feel daunting. There’s a lot to learn in 2K22, and the multitude of tutorials on offer will be hugely helpful in getting the basics down. When you start getting an idea on how to execute successful fakes and work with the rhythm of the game, it’ll all start to feel like second nature. This year punishes sloppy passes and even on rookie difficulty you’ll struggle to fully bulldoze opponents if you aren’t familiar with how the game plays. That said, defensive improvements have been made across the board and when playing in player-focussed modes like The W and MyCAREER, you’ll come to appreciate (and hate) how much better the AI is on both sides of the court.

Presentation, as always, is fantastic in 2K22. I’ll always maintain the NBA 2K games blow other sports titles out of the water with the dynamism in commentary and general presentation. It’s on another level entirely.

NBA 2K22 comes together to form a solid basketball package and a marked step forward for a series that has tripped up of late. While I’m completely against the microtransactions seen in MyTEAM and found MyCAREER to be rather grindy, I can’t fault the gameplay and presentation of 2K22. The slight improvements in MyNBA and MyWNBA help salvage a package that is still the best basketball sim on the market. I just hope these improvements and refinements are the beginning of some big changes coming in future entries.

THE XBOX SERIES X VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS TESTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post NBA 2K22 Review – Not Quite A Slam Dunk appeared first on Press Start.

CW: Lost Judgment’s story contains themes of bullying, sexual assault and suicide. The following review touches briefly on these without going into detail, but please keep this in mind if you plan on playing Lost Judgment. Be sure to take breaks where needed and reach out to a trusted person or service if you feel that you need support.

Visit here for a list of mental health support networks and contacts.

When Ryu ga Gotoku Studio released 2019’s Yakuza spin-off, Judgment, it felt like a departure mainly in tone. It swapped the larger-than-life stories of organised crime syndicates, government conspiracies and sympathetic, Robin Hood-type antiheroes for gritty noir fiction with a significantly darker feel, but otherwise built off of a similar overall game structure. Fast forward to 2020 though and the mainline Yakuza series took a massive detour with Yakuza Like a Dragon’s pivot to JRPG combat alongside a brand-new setting and protagonist, resulting in arguably the best entry yet but dividing fans of the original format. 

Enter Lost Judgment, a direct sequel to Judgment and the new flag bearer for the real-time flavour of Yakuza-universe titles.

Lost Judgment finds lawyer-turned-detective Takayuki Yagami once again being called on by his old haunt, Genda Law, to assist in an assault case with a shocking twist. Apprehended for groping a woman on a crowded Tokyo train, former police chief, Akihiro Ehara, willingly admits to committing the act. While in court though, Ehara drops the bombshell that a murder has been committed and reveals the location of the body, belonging to a man who’d driven Ehara’s son to suicide years prior due to bullying. This immediately raises the question of how Ehara could possibly know about the murder before anyone else, and what his involvement might be given his clear motive but watertight alibi in the heavily-witnessed sexual assault and subsequent detainment. Along with his ex-yakuza buddy, Kaito, and a few familiar faces from the original game, this sequel takes Yagami across both Kamurocho and Yokohama to unravel the thrilling mystery.

Lost Judgment’s core case has enough twists and turns to be a high-level Dragon Kart track, with Yagami’s resolve and ability to see through his emotions once again tested as human lives begin to become collateral in his relentless need to unfold a mystery that has a reach beyond what he could fathom. Admittedly, once some of the bigger revelations come to the surface leading into the final chapters it loses a little steam, but by that point the sheer conviction of Yagami and company is strong enough that you’re left rooting for them until the bittersweet end. I just wish it treated its women better, pushing Saori to the background of her own case and then doubling down on the uncomfortable dress-up segment from last time is certainly a disappointing choice.

Whether or not the game’s core narrative compels you, the subject matter of bullying, suicide and sexual assault make for quite jarring tonal whiplash against diversions like skateboarding, battling robots and beating up high schoolers. These games have always struck a balance between hard hitting storytelling and straight-up ridiculousness, but given the much darker tone of the Judgment games it feels like the needle swings more wildly than ever here. Separated by a short loading screen, transitioning from the streets of Isezaki Ijincho to Seiryo High School almost feels like watching a double feature of Takeshi Kitano’s Outrage and High School Musical. That’s either going to sound like a word of caution or a glowing endorsement depending on your tastes – I would very much attend that screening.

As successful as Judgment was in establishing a new identity and incorporating lite-detective gameplay into the Yakuza framework, criticism was levelled at the simplistic nature of its investigation mechanics. Every facet of these has been fleshed out in the sequel, and even more have been introduced, though the issue of a lack of player agency still persists. 

Yagami’s objectives now routinely include stealth portions, parkour, brand-new gadgets and even a canine companion to sniff out trouble. These are all plenty of fun, but there’s rarely ever more than one way to tackle a problem. Stealth sections especially tend to go one of two ways – either a heavily predetermined path or a Game Over screen. There’s a silly sort of joy to be found in some of the new twists though, like pretending to look at your phone if a subject you’re tailing looks your way or being able to slow down a runaway by kicking stray objects at them with a force and accuracy that’d land Yagami a lucrative football career.

As usual, side cases are universally great and provide Yagami plenty of opportunity to flex his upgraded investigation skills. Optional side content has always been an opportunity for RGG’s writers and designers to loosen their collective collars and get a bit weird with things and that’s no different here. Ridiculous plots like thwarting an ex-editor stealing book ideas with a wiretapped cat, investigating an antique roadshow with a side of murder or tracking down a runaway video game producer are all true to the Ryu ga Gotoku DNA and continue to be a true highlight.

Though the quality of Lost Judgment’s extraneous content is as high as ever the ties holding it all together feel a little more loose than usual. Effort has been made to communicate Yagami’s detective skills through its gameplay structure – you’ve often got to put in the legwork to unearth new things to do – but navigating the possibilities can feel needlessly obfuscated. Being able to find things to do organically in the map, through side quests, by progressing school stories, by poking at random civilians with detective tools or flicking through social media makes sense but often gets in the way of actively looking for content you want to play. Despite going in excited to try various bits of content I knew were in the game, not once did I have a clear idea of what I needed to do to gain access to any of it, even after I’d finished the main objective and started playing the post-game.

Where the districts of Kamurocho and Yokohama have previously held starring roles, they feel a little less pivotal this time around, but a large part of that comes down to the addition of Seiryo High School. There’s a strange void left where the school storyline and the main case veer off in two different directions early in the game, allowing players to decide which to tackle at any given time but portioning off most of its minigame content to Seiryo. That leaves the city streets feeling emptier than fans might be used to, at least until the later stages where side cases begin to ramp up. It’s hard to tell whether the ‘correct’ way to play is by running both storylines in concurrence or leaving the optional stuff for the endgame, but I chose the latter and found going through all the wackier stuff at the end to be a nice palette cleanser at least.

It’s almost as though Lost Judgment is suffering from an identity crisis of sorts, attempting to continue its darker brand of storytelling while also pushing the envelope when it comes to zany diversions and minigames. The problem isn’t necessarily that these activities exist – I can think of few things I want to see more than Yagami tearing up a skate park, burning rubber in biker gang death races or coaching a dance team all the way to finals – but they’d all work just as well without the added bloat of the High School Stories questline. It’s just not overly interesting, even with the promise of finding out the mysterious identity of The Professor, and the idea of a 38-year-old private investigator with ties to gang violence traipsing the halls of a high school joining various clubs is a stretch even for this series.

For anyone that missed the real-time combat of the Yakuza titles when the series pivoted to turn-based battles in Like a Dragon, the good news is that Lost Judgment continues where Judgment left off. The even better news is that this is arguably the best iteration of melee combat that the studio has put together thus far. Adding to the existing Tiger and Crane fighting styles, Yagami gains a third in the form of Snake – a more defensive style that allows him to disarm enemies, redirect their blows and even scare them into submission. This new style feels almost necessary in the context of the high school portions of the game where facing off against teens is frighteningly common, allowing players with consciences to defend themselves in a mostly-passive way.

Fights in general feel as fast, fluid and over-the-top as ever and hold up shockingly well even with a dozen or more combatants in the fray, but one small addition makes all the difference in Lost Judgment’s moment-to-moment gameplay. Yagami now gains bonus SP (used to unlock new abilities) for fulfilling certain conditions in combat, such as using takedowns, knocking enemies out in quick succession or even things like throwing them into oncoming traffic. These stack and can be multiplied with unlocked buffs and become a core strategy for amassing huge amounts of SP, which helps significantly cut down on the fatigue of being harassed on the streets by thugs or kids – what would normally be a nuisance just turns into a new opportunity to test yourself and see how many points you can farm. Where I’d normally be inclined to sprint away from enemy groups as the game went on, I found myself actively picking fights throughout the entire game because of this one small change.

While definitely bound by the shackles of its last-gen version, this is still by far the best that Kamurocho and Yokohama have ever looked. Lighting and environmental detail continue to the RGG’s strong suit and here that’s bleedingly obvious – the atmosphere is palpable whether you’re soaking in sun by the shore, hitting the Chinatown alleys by night or scoping out dingy abandoned apartments for clues. Combat remains incredibly flashy as well, cinematic cutaways of brutal takedowns an endlessly rewarding reason to do more than button mash your way through encounters. I constantly found myself in awe of Lost Judgment’s characters and scenery, especially on the PS5 where I had the option of either a higher resolution presentation or a 60fps mode, the latter of which is definitely the better way to go given the pace of combat.

Lip syncing for the English audio is noticeably less accurate than in Like A Dragon or even the original Judgment, though that can be attributed to a first-ever simultaneous global release. Less forgivable are the surprisingly frequent moments in which character’s mouths don’t move at all, usually in scenes where faces are only briefly visible or seen solely in reflections – almost as if the team working on the English animations mistakenly skipped over numerous shots. Still, both Japanese and English dubs are excellent across the board and seeing RGG and SEGA’s increasing commitment to localisation has me excited for the future. The game’s music is as great as ever too, and the battle themes in particular are some of the best yet.

At the end of it all nothing about Lost Judgment, good or bad, should come as a shock to Ryu ga Gotoku fans. And it’s a great game – fantastic, even – but after the bombastic, emotional masterpiece that was Like a Dragon its small missteps do stand out that little bit more. If you’ve been craving a return to Yagami’s story and the brawler combat that now belongs to the Judgment games this is absolutely another worthy addition, though.

THE PS5 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS TESTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER,

The post Lost Judgment Review – A Bigger, Better Brawler appeared first on Press Start.

My experience with Life Is Strange is tumultuous at best. I adored the first game. I found the prequel to be disappointing. I struggled to connect with Life Is Strange 2. So when I heard that the developers of the prequel, Before The Storm, were taking the lead on the next true Life Is Strange game, I was apprehensive and almost disappointed. Now, after giving Life Is Strange: True Colors the attention it deserves, I’m pretty happy to boldly proclaim it’s one of the best, if not the best in the series.

Life Is Strange: True Colors has you playing as Alex Chen. She’s been in and out of foster homes and had a troubled childhood all her life. After spending some time together, she’s invited to the idyllic mountain town of Haven Springs in Colorado by her brother Gabe. Once Alex arrives in Haven Springs, she discovers there’s more to the idyllic little town than meets the eye and must investigate a suspicious death in the process too. The kicker? Alex has a bizarre ability to not only visualise other peoples’ strong emotions but take them on and live in them to help determine their root cause.

Keeping spoilers to an absolute minimum (as perhaps surmised by my vague story summary), True Colors is one of the stronger Life Is Strange tales. From the get-go, I found Alex to be a remarkably likeable protagonist. Even though she has her fair share of issues and pathos, there was nary a time where I didn’t want to stick it out with her to the very end. With other characters in the series having a penchant for devolving into annoying caricatures, Alex felt like a real person from beginning to end in True Colors. Given that so much of True Colors and, well, most Life Is Strange games hinge on their characters, it’s a relief to find Alex to be so likeable.

The plot itself is slightly predictable but still engaging. I was disappointed to see things unfold in a direction that I’d surmised the story would take early on, but the strength of the characters and their subplots works wonders in keeping things interesting regardless. So much of Haven and its character is built by the game’s optional content exploring the side characters, and I’d argue they’re perhaps the highlight here. That being said, the main story does have one or two surprises in later chapters but otherwise feels like it’s been done-to-death in terms of the overarching structure.

Max could rewind and pause time, and Daniel could move things with his mind. So what can Alex do? She is more or less an empath – she can visualise strong feelings of anger, fear, sadness, and joy as colours and engage with them to solve problems or learn information for her use. It’s without a doubt the most interesting power that a Life Is Strange character has been given. And I can appreciate how the knowledge you’d garner from these interactions could influence the dialogue as you played. Still, it ultimately boils down to nice-looking mind reading.

True Colors central conceit feels more passive than previous games – expanding dialogue options but still resulting in what feels like an ultimately more linear experience. While I thought this was a significant step back at first, I’ve come to appreciate that this is perhaps why I like True Colors so much over previous Life Is Strange games. The relative linearity means that the writing and story are more honed than in previous games.

That’s not to say that this is a linear game by any means. There are still heaps of choices to be made throughout the story of True Colors, and so many of them have real consequences later on. So many of the choices that I’d be faced with while playing True Colors were (ironically) firmly in the grey area. I’ve never stopped to think about the consequence of my choice as much as I have during True Colors – and this is a testament to the strength of the writing. I cared, which was something I rarely discover in games recently.

However, when you’re not playing through the main story, things are a little less linear. You’re eventually given a slight free roam of the major streets of Haven Springs, and it’s here that True Colors deviates most from previous games in the series. You’ll be able to explore so many locations and engage with the townspeople to help them solve their problems. It’s not as open as games like Assassin’s Creed, but it’s undoubtedly the most open a Life Is Strange game ever has been.

Solving jobs for the townspeople or helping them out is surprisingly satisfying, though. Doing so does a great job of building the world and believability of Haven, which is so inviting and idyllic I want to pack up and move there right now. While I appreciated the inclusion of optional content, I’d have preferred a bit more of a robust side quest tracker or even a character tracker to summarize what we know as in previous games. I’d get lost early on as I was learning who everyone was – probably a personal thing, but still worth mentioning and something that never happened to me in previous games.

Speaking of previous games, True Colors is more or less the same structurally. It’s still split into five chapters, though the entire experience is available from the get-go. It lasts about the same length as the first or second game (it’s longer than Before The Storm) and has multiple endings. Even better, the various endings aren’t fed into binary choices but seem to be actual endings you work for through choices, which these games often get wrong. True Colors is also priced a bit higher than the first two games were despite being roughly the same length and scope, which might be a sticking point for some.

That being said, it’d be remiss of me not to mention that the production values for True Colors are well beyond anything you’ve seen in a Life Is Strange game. The first thing I noticed before any characters even spoke to each other was the solid and striking cinematography and the sheer improvement in visuals from the previous games. Everything looks much nicer and higher budget with smoother animation and lip-syncing. It’s a bit disappointing, then, to note that there are no high framerate modes even on the newer consoles. The whole experience is 30fps.

Such an otherwise strong attention to visual presentation is underscored with similarly strong attention to the musical score. Composed by Australian duo Angus & Julia Stone, the score is as folksy and indie as you can get – the group absolutely nail the Life Is Strange vibe while adding their unique twist to the game’s music. There’s still some excellent, licensed music sprinkled throughout the story, some of which were unexpected but perfectly punctuate the more intense moments of the story. The voice work is similarly strong, and no performances are weak or immersion-breaking.

There’s no denying that Life Is Strange: True Colors does things a little differently from previous games while retaining that signature look and feel that we’ve come to expect from the series. Overall, it’s a solid effort from Deck Nine and a considerable step up from their last take on the series, Before The Storm.

THE PLAYSTATION 5 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Life Is Strange: True Colors Review – A Bright And Vibrant Adventure appeared first on Press Start.

Bandai Namco’s Tales series has a long and storied past. Always second fiddle to the Final Fantasies of the world, it nonetheless has a dedicated following for it’s unique approach to action combat in the JRPG genre. After the longest break in releases in the series’ history (the previous game in the series, Tales of Berseria, came out in 2016), Tales of Arise has the weight of a long wait on it’s shoulders. As someone who has only dabbled in Tales in the past but generally loves JRPGs, I found Tales of Arise to be so enjoyable that I’m questioning why I haven’t paid more attention to this series until now.

The first thing that really stands out about about Tales of Arise is the high production value. The whole production looks and sounds like it’s had a lot of care, passion and money poured into it. The game begins with a slick 2D anime introduction sequence, complete with extremely anime intro music, and the high production value continues into the game itself. Characters have interesting designs and are well animated, both in cut-scenes and in-game – some of the fight scene choreography especially was breathtaking. Music beautifully accompanies dramatic reveals, exciting exploring and high-energy battles – running the gamut from orchestral choruses to string laden metal. The pivotal dialogue between major characters is fully voiced and really adds to the energy of any scene. There is far more character pop-in than I’d expect from modern game however, which detracts a bit from an otherwise stellar presentation.

That presentation makes the story of Arise great fun to take in. We begin with a mysterious masked protagonist, without memories or even a name. He lives among a group of people called Dahnans who for three hundred years have been oppressed by a ruling class in their home of Dahna. Dahna is ruled over by the Renans, a group from another planet who have asserted themselves as rulers. He comes across a group of resistance fighters who want to fight back against the Lord that rules over their region, along with a mysterious woman who has her own reasons for wanting to remove the Lord from his perch – and thus begins a tentative alliance.

Arise’s narrative moves at a quick pace, and while you can spend as much time as you like dawdling and pursuing side quests, there is always an exciting development in the overall story just around the corner. Along the way you’ll meet new characters, many of whom play an integral part in your quest, some of whom share your goals enough to join your group for the long haul – each bringing a unique perspective to conversations and the quest overall with their varied motives and interesting backstories. While the story doesn’t explore it’s themes in huge depth, the quick pace means it’s always enticing to see what’s coming next.

The world in which you meet these characters is joyous to explore. Landscapes vary from vast green fields to snowy mountains and intricate cities. Between the safe havens of cities and towns you’ll explore more dangerous areas populated with monsters (curiously names ‘zeugles’) that must be reckoned with to progress. There are no random battles here, so generally fights can be taken at precisely the pace you desire. If you’re feeling more like exploring you can sprint past and avoid battles for the most part – and when you feel like taking on battle after battle, Arise has a smart system to make it worth your while.

Winning battles in quick succession causes you start to building a multiplier for outcomes like experience and items. This means that if you’ve been avoiding battles you can easily make up for lost time by smashing out a bunch of them in quick succession and reaping the benefits of multiplied rewards. It’s a clever system that doesn’t let you avoid battles entirely but lets you have more agency over when you want to engage in them.

And engage in them you will. The battle system is reasonably straightforward but requires some skill and understanding to take full advantage of. Battles are fast paced and have you control your party in real-time action. You directly control one character, while the AI controls the others according to your preference. You can use one of a few pre-defined useful behaviour patterns like focusing on attacking or healing – or you can go super in-depth and define more specific parameters about when you want characters to use certain abilities or items. You can even limit the pool of abilities your characters can use so they focus on exactly the ones you need in any situation.

Battles are kinetic and action-packed. Your character has a standard attack, a dodge that allows for a quick counter when timed perfectly and an array of special ‘artes’ mapped to the face buttons. Each has different effects on the enemy you’re attacking, and costs energy to use. Your other party members can be called upon to unleash a Boost Attack as well, which can turn the tide of battle by stunning an enemy or breaking it’s attack – while also recharging your artes. Using all of these abilities in concert is key to success – and it’s a winning formula for battles that are exciting to play, if more than a little chaotic when more than a few enemies are involved.

Thankfully even during the most intense of battles, performance was smooth, with nary a stutter to be found. I found the difficulty on Normal to be just right for me. Some bosses necessitated a few tries, but generally they could be overcome by changing up my equipment or taking mental notes on how to break certain attacks. Difficulty is adjustable at any time, so if you prefer an easier time in combat or extra challenge it’s just a menu away.

The post Tales Of Arise Review – A Solid Entry appeared first on Press Start.

While you can argue now that the blue blur isn’t in the best of spots, the release of Sonic Colours in 2010 marked the start of an upward trend for SEGA’s spiny mascot during its time. The problem, though, is that it was released exclusively for Nintendo platforms, making it hard to go back and experience one of the franchises best. Sonic Colours: Ultimate is seeking to fix that, serving itself up as a HD remaster with a few new bells and whistles for both new players and old. The end result is a package that might be a hard sell for returning players but is packed with value for those who’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing this classic.

By today’s standards, Colours has a narrative that’s nothing to gawk at, but that’s a good thing. Previous Sonic games tried to hard to include narratives with dark themes and ideas, more often than not, they don’t stick the landing and come off as edgy more than anything else. Colours is nothing more than a good old Sonic versus Dr. Eggman plot with sharp writing, entertaining characters and a simple premise. Seeking to right his past misdeeds, Eggman opens Dr. Eggman’s Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park and invites all to attend. Suspecting an ulterior motive, Sonic and Tails investigate the park to find out what’s really going on. It’s something akin to a kid’s movie but serves as an appropriate backdrop to the gameplay.

Sonic Colours falls into what most fans would refer to as the “Boost” formula, where Sonic has a boost gauge that he can expend to reach even higher speeds. Colours boasts a plethora of short and sweet levels that combine thrill inducing 3D sections, and 2D sections that require more precision and intent. While most levels tend to be a bit heavy on the latter, it keeps things interesting and challenging while they last. I say this because Sonic Colours is a relatively short and easy Sonic game, and most of its value can be found in replaying levels for better times, finding collectibles, and exploring routes you might’ve missed on your first run through. Ultimate doubles down on this with the Rival Rush mode, where you can go up against Metal Sonic in a rush to the goal ring. There’s only one Rival Rush per planet, making for six total, but each one feels appropriately challenging and worthwhile.

Each of the 6 planets on offer have 6 acts each, and a boss fight. None of these acts are particularly long, but its these short and sweet bite sized levels that lean into the kind of platformer that Sonic Colours is. There’s some really stellar level design on show here that emphasizes optimization and memorization to get the best times possible. Where the game stumbles a little bit is in its boss fights. Almost every one is disinteresting and to make matters worse, half of them are reskinned with a few new attacks.

Every location is visually distinct, and each one is home to a different type of Wisp that Sonic can use to traverse levels. These are mostly optional abilities that allow Sonic to explore alternative routes and hunt for collectibles. Each one is unique and offers something new to play around with, from the Green Wisp that allows Sonic to hover and chase down chains of rings, to the Purple Wisp which sends Sonic into a frenzy, destroying all in his path. New to Ultimate is the Jade Wisp, which turns Sonic into a ghost, allowing him to pass through walls to reach certain points that typically hide goodies or a new route to the goal ring.

Also new to Sonic Colours: Ultimate, is the cosmetics store, an in-game shop where you can buy clothes and effects that alter Sonic’s appearance while playing. You’re constantly rewarded with tokens for getting high ranks, exploring levels, and even completing Rival Rush races, and while it seems surface level at first, I found it quite fun to customize my Sonic in a way that was unique to me. There’s also a new pickup that has Tails swoop in and save Sonic from falling down a bottomless pit, mitigating some of the more frustrating platforming found in certain levels. As found in the base game, there’s five red rings to find and collect in each level and nabbing all of them will allow you to eventually unlock Super Sonic, which gives you plenty of incentive to chase after them.

Sonic Colours: Ultimate’s biggest changes, come in the form of its technical changes and visual improvements. On a PS5, Ultimate holds a steady 60 frames per second at 4K, and while it can’t compare to the juggernauts of today, it still looks great, far better than it did in 2010 on the Wii. There are small and smart changes made to some of the texture work to support the new vibrancy that comes with HDR, and everything really pops on screen. The soundtrack is also another killer piece of work from Sonic Team, featuring the same tracks that have been heavily remixed. It’s clear it wasn’t made to replace the original OST but stand alongside it. It has more of an upbeat, electronic jazz feel than the original, which works for almost all of the major themes except one as mentioned in my preview. One weird omission on this front, though, is that the cutscenes are seemingly untouched, leaving them with an almost compressed and blurry look to them.

Additionally, you can change controller bindings, adding a layer of accessibility that wasn’t previously there. I did run into a few problems during my roughly 12 hours with the game in the form of two hard crashes that required an application restart, and a few different visual and gameplay related bugs that I found frustrating. I wouldn’t say it’s bad enough that it drastically hurts the experience, but its something to be aware of going in.

THE PS4 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Alien, as a franchise, is sadly no stranger to being done dirty. 

Following Ridley Scott’s original 1979 sci-fi horror and James Cameron’s 1986 action-packed successor, subsequent films became bogged down with studio interference, questionable narrative choices and tie-ins with the Predator franchise. 

Of course, video game adaptations aren’t much different. Bar a few exceptions, most notably Alien Isolation, Alien games have often met a lukewarm critical reception.

Perhaps you could mount a defence for some films and games along the way, but my hope was brighter days were ahead following Disney’s takeover of the franchise as part of the acquisition of 21st Century Fox.

If Aliens: Fireteam Elite, is indicative of the quality we should expect from the franchise under Disney’s helm though, I’d be concerned.

Purposefully pluralising the ‘Alien’ in the title, Fireteam Elite, does what these game adaptations often do, leaning into the action elements of the franchise. Assembling a fireteam of three, the game pits you against what I can only describe as an onslaught of Xenomorphs — or ‘xenos’, ‘morphs’ and ‘bugs’ as the game often describes them.

Progressing through a campaign divided into four chapters, each with three missions in each, you play as a team of marines treading a well-trod path and responding to a distress signal to discover a Xenomorph presence. You soon discover Weyland-Yutani are up to their usual antics and it’s not long before you confront surprisingly well-armed synthetics or ‘synths’, too.

The story unfolds almost entirely through off-screen dialogue, narration and written objectives proceeding each mission. Although there’s a handful of NPCs you can interact with on your ship, dialogue is stilted, with no lip-sync on the characters models.

Consequently, the story takes a backseat. It’s simple enough to follow should you be paying attention, but fending off wave after wave in seemingly endless shooting galleries keeps you distracted enough that I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re left wondering what the hell you’re actually doing.

However, you can argue in a cooperative, survival shooter like this, the story is ultimately unimportant; it’s all about the experience you can have with your friends. Sadly, if your experience is anything like mine, you’ll find the game so monotonous and miscalculated that the tedium will make your friends very reluctant to stick around.

Although there’s been a clear effort to vary up the enemies, you’re never asked to approach a fight any differently than shooting straight. Be it your standard ‘bug’, the bursters, the spitters or the larger Xenomorph Drones, Warrior or Praetorian Guard, don’t expect to do anything different to take them down. Rather than pick off bits of armour and expose weak points, or make use of elemental damage with the flame thrower (one of my favourite weapons in the game), emptying whichever gun you’ve equipped does the job. 

Rather than make a point of introducing these new enemy types, they’re just thrown at you. You’d be forgiven for not realising if you’d come up against new variants. Your friends might have dispatched them before you’d realised, or they could be eaten up in the swarm of enemies coming your way.

It’s relentless. Right from the get-go, a menagerie of aliens scuttles your way, with very little in the way of escalation. Weirdly, you come up against literally thousands of Xenomorphs before you even get a glimpse at a face-hugger. Zero suspense is built; thrown right into the action, it’s guns blazing for the handful of hours it’ll take you to mop up the alien threat.

Strangely, one of the positives I can point to is the Prowlers, which will sometimes hide in adjacent rooms or around corners and jump you, triggering a quick-time event to shake it off you, or a friend to rescue you. Face-huggers and some of the larger Xenomorph variants act the same. I usually wouldn’t celebrate a quick-time event, but in this case, it’s a momentary change in pace.

I appreciate too, that Xenos — god, it’s starting to catch on — crawl along the floors walls and ceiling, keeping you on an eye out for that one elusive enemy that’s preventing you from moving onto the next stage in the level. However, the famous motion sensor, relegated to the UI in the bottom right corner of the screen rarely serves much purpose. The threat invariably comes from one direction: straight ahead of you.

A staple of the Alien franchise, synths have a predictable murderous streak, but this time with the ability to throw grenades and snipe you from a distance, sometimes in heavy variants, other times with a riot shield or a flamethrower. Like every other threat in the game, all you’re asked to do as a player is point and shoot.

Rarely are you expected to make use of the cover mechanic. On occasion, utilising consumables you collect in each level, throwing down cryo traps and automated turrets, are useful in fending off attacks, but min-bosses just ask you to shoot at them longer.

I was pleased with least that there was a passable level of loadout customisation offered through five different classes, each with its own equipment and weapon variants. I spent much of my time with the Demolisher class, as I developed an attachment to the flamethrower and Micro Rockets, but you benefit as a squad from diversifying, ensuring you have Doc ready to throw down a Trauma Station, and maybe a Gunner or a Technician to protect your rear.

However, other systems that make other cooperative shooters work are missing from Aliens: Fireteam Elite. Players only have access to missions they themselves have unlocked, meaning you cannot have friends drop in and help you out unless they’ve progressed that far too. There’s no option to invite a friend to join you mid-mission either, should you need the help. With no checkpoints either, even on the lowest difficulty, you’ll need to make sure you’re up to the task to avoid having to restart missions repeatedly and add to the tedium.

Thankfully, if you do have a hard time convincing your friends to stick with it, the game incorporates matchmaking and scales accordingly should you switch to a private lobby and fill your squad with bots.

Harder difficulties unlock upon completing the campaign, along with a Horde more that challenges you to survive as many waves as you can. Why you could be bothered sinking much time into either is beyond me.

Challenge cards and the prospect of more upgrades, weapons and cosmetic unlocks through repeating missions add to replayability, without giving you much new to do in moment-to-moment gameplay. 

Retailing at just $60 AUD, the game’s lower production budget is evident, not only in the brevity of the game, limited variety and shallowness of its mechanics but in the presentation of the game. 

The script is at times laughable and the delivery is not much better. With chapters divided up, individual missions often end abruptly, your character freezing as you pass through a door as you work towards what you thought was a climactic moment in the story. Breaking the pace up more, you can only customise your loadout and character at your ship, which serves as a sort of Tower-esque, hub world from Destiny. Although you can navigate through your loadout customisation screen mid-mission, you can’t change anything. Equipping a new unlock means navigating back to the ship, to reload the mission after you’d dug into your inventory.

I was pleased to see the Xenomorphs all looking like you’d expect, sound effects pulled straight from the source material and close enough attention to detail to include the edging on the sides of the guns in James Cameron’s Aliens as customisable weapon decals.

However, with such strong visual design stemming from H.R. Giger’s work on the original film and Ridley Scott’s affinity for practical effects, I can’t help feel the environmental design of the game lacked the same impact and believability. They seemed light on detail, and almost like a knock-off version. Arguably, Returnal and the upcoming Scorn do a better job of pulling off the H.R. Giger stylings.

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Its been over fifteen years since the first Psychonauts came out, and despite not playing the original, I was surprised with how much Psychonauts 2 instantly clicked with me. It made me feel nostalgic, and yearn for the days where games were able to do so much with budgets that were only a fraction of what we see today.

Psychonauts 2 takes place after the events of the previous two games, though the game does a great job of catching you up if you didn’t play them. You play as Raz once more, following his rescuing of the head Psychonaut Truman Zanotto and eventual induction into the Psychonauts. Through careful interrogation of the parties responsible, Raz discovers a plot to resurrect a dangerous villain and perhaps even a dangerous threat within the Psychonauts itself.

As I lamented in my preview, I was worried that Psychonauts 2 wouldn’t be as accessible for me having never played the original games in satisfactory depth. I’m happy to make clear that it’s almost a non-issue. Not only does the game catch you up on every major detail that you need to know, but it’s also a new story that fleshes out backstories while still working entirely well on its own too.

Just like the original, Psychonauts 2 is A 3D platformer at heart. The game has you playing as Raz to enter the minds of various characters to solve either their own problems or your own. If I had to compare the game to other 3D platformers, I’d probably compare it to something like Banjo-Kazooie or Spyro in terms of structure, though filtered through a much more modern lens.

What really sets Psychonauts 2 apart from its contemporaries is its strong art design. I’m a big fan of variety in games and the amount on offer here is astounding. Every area in the game looks like it could be from a different game and while it doesn’t feel cohesive, the sheer variety of environments and locales on offer is to be commended. Some will evoke the feeling of being disgusted – the opening level that is built out of gums, teeth and flowing nerves is truly revolting. Others are either colourful or abstract – like a psychedelic music festival or living library. It all looks great, and not a single one felt out of place.

In between the major levels there’s a nice open world to explore – including the Psychonauts academy and its surrounding areas where Raz’s family eventually settle. It’s here where you’ll be able to embark on optional content as well, though said content is of variable quality. The open world isn’t quite what you’d expect from a typical open world in the sense that it’s not vast or sprawling, but it does feel dense and alive.

When you’re not platforming, you’ll be in battle with the game’s strong cast of enemies and that’s where a lot of your abilities will come into play. Psychonauts 2 brings back pretty much every major power from the first game while adding a bunch of new ones too. Each of them has a distinct use during combat to make things easier against the games well thought out bestiary.

Tying in perfectly with the overall concept, each of the enemies is themed after negative emotions or thought processes that would often bring us down in real life. Regret is a flying enemy that carries a huge weight around whilst Bad Ideas are four legged beasts that blow up in your face when they get close. Doubt is a gooey creature that drenches you in goo and slows you down. Almost everything about Psychonauts 2 is cleverly designed and done so with so much love, but there’s especially some great creativity on display here for the types of enemies you’ll encounter.

Expanding on that, the boss battles are similarly fantastic and some of the highlights of the entire experience. To put it simply they just don’t make boss battles like this anymore and the idea that these were almost not going to make the cut is shocking. Each of them fantastically punctuates each area and are spectacularly choreographed.

A lot of your abilities have use outside of combat too though the best new one is easily the Mental Connection, a grapple hook of sorts, you can use it to pull yourself towards enemies or pull smaller enemies towards you. Outside of combat, it can be used to latch on to floating thoughts and connect them to change the opinions of the mind you are inside. It’s an incredibly satisfying way to zip around an arena and ties perfectly into the Psychonauts aesthetic.

I can’t overstate enough just how great Psychonauts 2 looks with some fantastic artistic direction that I’ve not seen in a game in a long time. Every locale you’ll visit has been crafted with so much care and love and even areas where you’ll spend only a short amount of time in have had as much work put into them as the ones you’ll spend hours in with no corners cut. Nothing is symmetrical, everything is colourful and the whole vibe of the game is akin to a gross-out cartoon from the 90s.

The presentation is similarly bolstered by a strong soundtrack and performance from the cast. Everyone from the original game returns to voice their respective roles – which is appreciated given the gap between the games. New roles, including none other than Jack Black, also do a great job at making the cast feel alive. The score is similarly fantastic, employing an upbeat and jazzy soundscape to create a fun atmosphere akin to Double Fine’s greatest like Grim Fandango but also films like Monsters Inc. and The Incredibles.

Psychonauts 2 is a fantastic romp that manages to channel the vibe of the original while expanding on everything it did. It by no means revolutionary but given how strong the original game has been and the reverence so many players hold for it, just having more is hardly anything to balk at.

The post Psychonauts 2 Review – Playing With Emotions appeared first on Press Start.

Watch Dogs Legion’s central premise was that revolution was people – that no single person could ever be held responsible for leading a resistance. It was a point of difference that separated Legion from the rest – both intriguing and concerning to not have a singular main character. When I got to play Legion last year, it was unsurprisingly my biggest issue with the game. With no character to focus on, the story didn’t feel as personal as it could have been. With that context considered, Bloodline looks to be a course correction for Watch Dogs, even if it ironically throws out the unique thing about Legion in the process.

Bloodline takes place between the prologue and the main game of Legion. You play as Aiden Pearce, who was the protagonist of the first game and made a brief cameo in the second. He’s drawn to London by Jordi Chin to assist his nephew on a supposedly routine fixer job. But everything goes south as soon as Aiden arrives. Not only is he embroiled in a crossfire between two major players in the London tech landscape, but Wrench from Watch Dogs 2 is in London too on his own mission working against Aiden.

I enjoyed Legion, but a major disappointment was that its choice not to follow any specific characters led to it feeling impersonal. Bloodline does wonders at creating the opposite effect. I forgot just how much I liked Wrench when I played Watch Dogs 2, and even though it was released only five years ago, it felt oddly nostalgic. Aiden Pearce returning is bound to be divisive – he is a broody edge lord after all – but I found him much more likeable here. His motivation to not repeat the errors of his past plays well here and his now-older nephew chastising him for everything we as players did when the first game released felt surprisingly self-aware.

Focusing on these two characters makes Bloodline feel something like a Watch Dogs 2.5 or 1.5 if you will. An expansion that throws familiar characters into a brand-new story set in Legion’s ever-so-engaging recreation of London. DedSec doesn’t exist yet, so there’s no more recruiting to be done and no more characters to switch between. Instead, Bloodline follows Aiden and Wrench on their journey through London, and I’m pleased with the result. It is perhaps a little superficial or even premature to make this claim, but it feels like a genuine throwback to the first two games.

The structure is essentially the same as the other games. Outside of the main quest, you’ll be able to tackle optional missions as both characters. Each mission has a task to carry out, and completing each unlocks a new skill on the skill tree. It’s more simplified than Legion’s already simplified skill tree, but more surprisingly, they’re rather compelling stories too. Granted that they’re pretty typical given the setting, but they’re still nice little diversions that don’t feel like cheap padding.

While you’re playing as both Aiden and Wrench at different points of Bloodline, they both have unique skills and abilities that set them apart from one another. They also have their unique side content to tackle separately too.

Aiden has an active reload mechanic, like Gears of War or Returnal, that improves his damage output if successfully activated. He also is privy to a total ctOS blackout ability, which hacks everything close to him to create a hectic and chaotic situation. Guns jam, electronics explode, cars move in different directions. It’s a chaotic ability and a carryover from the original game that I didn’t realise I missed so much until I used it more and more in Bloodline.

Wrench, on the other hand, has a little bit more fun with things. As established in previous games, he’s an avid inventor, so many of his weapons and abilities are a bit wilder. Each of his weapons has effects that “transmit” a hack to objects near his targets. Shooting someone and subsequently hacking the drone or person next to them is fun but almost sure-fire way to create chaos quickly. Where Aiden and his combat style represents the more subdued and gritty original game, Wrench is more colourful and fun like the second. His weapons are customised with flashy LED lights, his gadgets named playfully, and his abilities centered around messing with people.

While I love the angles that Aiden and Wrench bring to the proceedings, the flow of Bloodline does feel a little bit off. So early into the game, I was locked out of side content until I’d finished the rest of the main story. I understand there are story reasons for doing so, and the game did warn me of this, but it seemed a bit jarring not to pop in and out of whatever mission types I wanted to, given how much it happens in other games of this ilk.

I can only assume this is probably because it would be too resource-intensive to produce dialogue for Aiden and Wrench to take on the same missions twice. Still, it did feel like it perhaps happened a little bit too early in the course of the main story. Thankfully, the main storyline is pretty compelling. While a brand-new villain is introduced for Bloodline, Skye Larsen also has a role in the plot, which I appreciate as she was the most interesting villain in the base game.

Beyond that, not a whole lot else is new for this expansion. Most of the objectives remain the same as the ones encountered in the base game. The gadgets are similarly not too remarkable, though the addition of a device that can switch between a spider bot or a flying drone with the press of a button is more than welcome. The major new enemy type, robots that must overheat before being destroyed, are a neat idea but feel a little bit too whacky for this setting. 

Similarly, not a whole lot has been changed upon a presentation level here either. This is the same map as Legion, with little to differentiate it from the base game if anything. From a visual standpoint, not a lot is done that’s too visually interesting or different from what we already saw in Legion. Legion’s London is fantastic, so it’s hard to fault them for wanting to tell more stories in it, but given the period this takes in, it would’ve been nice to see a bit more changed up. 

The original scored music for Bloodline is fantastic, however. There was nary a time where I didn’t notice the thumping electro-infused beats completely elevated both cutscenes and critical combat moments. The voice work is a noticeable improvement from Legion, given that everyone is voicing a character with a script now, though Aiden’s gruff and moody voice does get a bit grating after a while. 

As I think about all of this, I can’t help but feel how much better Legion could’ve been if it did what Bloodline set out to do. Throwing characters into a new dystopic setting to mess shit up for the big guy sounds quintessential to what Watch Dogs is all about. Bloodline bringing together two fan favourite characters from the series history is equal parts genius and nostalgic, with their polar opposite personalities playing well off each other. 

While Legion was an interesting experiment, playing Bloodline makes me remember what I missed so much from the former. Given that I’d never thought I’d be nostalgic for Watch Dogs, that feels like a huge compliment.

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON A LENOVO LEGION 7i FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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One of the most notable postponed events in a year full of cancellations and delays was the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Pushed back due to the global pandemic, it was the first time the Games were delayed in their history – although there has been cancellations in the past. And with the delay in the Olympic Games came the delay in the video game released to celebrate the event. Initially released in Japan on July 24, 2019, Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – The Official Video Game is the first traditional Olympics video game since London 2012. Boasting a wide range of events from Track and Field to Aquatics and even competitive team events, the game brings players to the heart of Japan to compete in worldwide events for the pursuit of gold.

Before you dive into the events you’re given the opportunity to customise your very own athlete, and this exercise basically gives you a taste of things to come. I’m not the skinniest of people and tried to make my character accurate, but accidentally made him too overweight, and from there the game just got funnier. You can customise everything from facial features and hair colour to the athlete’s voice, and by earning points in the game you can unlock better skillsets for your athlete too, focusing on speed, technique or power to give yourself boosts in these areas.

In fact, the game’s customisation is an absolutely enjoyable quirk that I spent way too much time with – not only crafting athletes to look like myself or people I know, but making them look ridiculous and then hitting the field to compete. The same can be said for the outfits available too, with more points you can unlock more outfits and have some hilarious looking teams and athletes. Keep an eye out for the Sonic the Hedgehog outfit too – but whether it makes you faster or not will be in your mind. You’re not limited purely to sports outfits either; there was absolutely no way I was passing up the opportunity to have an athlete play Rugby Sevens in a space-suit.

When it comes to the events that you can participate in, not only does the game deliver when it comes to variety, but each event plays noticeably different. The simple ‘how to play’ tutorial is easy to understand, but it misses the complex button taps and tactics you can implement that will help you push for the gold medal each time. Not only that, but there is a distinct challenge for each event as well – it isn’t simply a breeze each time, and I found myself getting frustrated thinking I was hitting the right spots only to come second or last in events that I was getting good with.

The first event I started with was the 100m sprint, and I blitzed that in no time, capturing my first gold medal. My portly athlete avatar crushed the competition, and celebrated in his singlet and short shorts on top of the podium. But the glory was short lived, as I moved into competitive climbing and didn’t even make it past the qualifier despite trying three times in succession. In fact some of the events have a steep learning curve that even after a bit of practice could still mean you miss out on the gold. While that sounds frustrating, it is actually a good thing – it adds to the challenge and pushes you to get better, in the true Olympic spirit. Additionally, you can practice all of the events in training mode, and even complete challenges to test your skills against licensed players, as each nationality and team plays differently based on the athletes selected.

Playing online was mostly a breeze too. You can set up medley events or play single events, even pairing up for doubles events or team sports. For the most part there was very little lag in events making things pretty even, however there was a bit of noticeable lag in events such as Baseball between pitching selections and batter movements – and while not a game-breaking issue, made things run a bit slower and added some frustration.

The initial ‘uncanny valley’ visuals take a while to get over too – while the graphics are actually really smooth and crisp, the opening visual where real athletes turn into a cartoon-ish version of themselves running through the streets of Tokyo makes things feel a little strange, and the game follows suit with blurred lines between looking really smooth and realistic, and equally as cartoonish. After a while of playing you’ll also start to get frustrated at the audio – while upbeat and peppy, it starts to get grating and repetitive.

Fun at face-value with significant underlying depth, Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – The Official Video Game bursts off the blocks at lightning speed and doesn’t break stride, pushing for gold and delivering a fun experience along the way. With clean and crisp visuals and gameplay that’s easy to learn and more intense to master, the only jarring thing about it is seeing crowds of people huddled together in the audience – but that could be the 2020 shellshock speaking.

THE PS4 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON A PS5 FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW.

The post Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Game Review – Going For Gold appeared first on Press Start.

BANDAI NAMCO Studios is a developer that’s tackled all sorts of games over the years, from collaborating with Nintendo on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and New Pokemon Snap, to creating their own Souls-like anime game in the form of Code Vein. While Scarlet Nexus looks similar to most of the other new IP the studio has come up with, it’s a title that is unique from anything else they’ve created, reminding me of 2019’s Astral Chain more than anything else. It’s an experience that’s confused as to what its priorities are with a few glaring flaws, but I ultimately enjoyed the time I spent with it, even if it was a bit too long-winded at times.

Set in a near future alternate reality Tokyo, Scarlet Nexus is about a world where humans have developed psionic powers and technology based on the brain that changes the fundamentals of its society. Most importantly, is the existence of the Others, super-natural mutants that descend from an otherworldly barrier of deadly particles called The Extinction Belt. Humanity has created The Other Suppression Force (OSF) in response, a band of members with the aforementioned psionic powers who protect humanity from the endless onslaught of brain eating monsters.

Scarlet Nexus is a story that follows two main characters, Yuito Sumeragi, and Kasane Randall, two fresh OSF recruits that specialize in Psychokinesis. Yuito is the more idealistic and energetic of the two, while Kasane is more emotionally disconnected to those she isn’t close to. At the start of the game, you’ll choose who you want to play as for that playthrough, experiencing the events of the narrative unfold from that character’s perspective. Both protagonists are likeable in their own ways, and go through satisfying character arcs throughout the story. While this seems like a surface level choice at first, you’ll quickly find that the differences between their perspectives are quite drastic in some ways and that there’s plenty of incentive to do a second playthrough if you’re willing to slog through the game’s final act again.

It takes around two hours for things to fully kick into gear, but once it does, Scarlet Nexus provides an engaging plot with plenty of likeable and diverse characters, even if they can come across as a bit tropey. It goes far deeper than you’d initially expect after the introduction, but I found myself enthralled in the way that it twisted and turned across both of my roughly 18-hour playthroughs. It occasionally suffers from pacing issues and may bombard players with an overabundance of information at times but there’s an in-game narrative summary that can easily clear up any potential confusion. There’s a catch, though, and it’s that the final act of the game is drawn-out, and a slog to get through. Just as you think its going to wrap up, it keeps on going, climaxing with a final dungeon that goes way longer than it has any right to. This is by far the game’s biggest problem, and its accentuated further by the simplicity of its core melee combat.

Scarlet Nexus is best described as an action game with limited RPG elements both in and out of combat. Both Yuito and Kasane have melee weapons with a three-hit combo, a launcher, and a heavy attack. You can further upgrade both characters in their respective skill-trees increasing the hit-count of their main combo, expanding on aerial options, and increasing synergy with psionic powers. The core hacking and slashing is fine for the most part, it feels satisfying, and looks stylish, but leaves a lot to be desired when all you’re really doing is hitting the same button over and over. It’s easy to fall into a repetitious rhythm of ground combo, launcher, air combo, finisher. It gets the job done, but the combat system would be made so much better by the inclusion of some more in-depth combos. To be fair, I don’t think this would have been as much of an issue if the game was a few hours shorter, but it really starts to wear thin by the end of a single playthrough’s runtime.

Where combat really comes into its own, is via the inclusion of the psionic powers that Yuito and Kasane have access to. While both characters specialize in Psychokinesis, the way in which you utilize these powers is different because of the ways their weapons behave. Yuito’s sword allows him to get up closer and personal, weaving in and out of harms way to throw an object at your enemy. Kasane’s knives are much more elegant, incentivizing you to play at an optimal distance where you can deal damage while staying just out of harm’s reach.

These powers can also be used on contextual objects for big damage after a short quick-time-event, none of which ever feel intrusive or out of place. All of this alongside the inclusion of a flashy execution mechanic called the Brain Crush makes for an incredible visual showcase that feels natural and fluid to chain together. One touch I really appreciated about Psychokinesis, was the use of the adaptive triggers on the DualSense. Every time you pull a trigger to throw an object, the resistance sets in, really selling the weight and impact of every object sent hurtling towards an enemy.

The best part of combat, though, is the SAS system, where you can tap into the psionic powers of your allies in combat. These powers range from something as simple as imbuing your melee attacks with fire and electricity, to as complex as the ability to duplicate all objects you throw via psychokinesis. Each of these SAS skills can be upgraded through Bond Episodes, which much like Persona, sees your skills improve as you strengthen your bonds with your party members. It’s a nice way to see how people are feeling about the narrative as it unfolds, while also tying it to gameplay.

You also eventually gain access to Brain Drive, and Brain Field, the first of which activates automatically as you fight, improving almost all of your combat capabilities. Brain Field is a bit more interesting in the way that’s more of a traditional awakening mode, but requires you to deactivate it before the timer expires, failing to do so will result in death. It tempts you to push it to the last second for big damage, while also morphing the arena into a gorgeous cyber-scape that I could stare at for hours. While all of these systems do make combat much deeper, there isn’t much more to experiment with past the eight-hour mark, and all of it quickly falls into repetition until you start your next playthrough.

From a visual perspective, Scarlet Nexus is a bit of a mixed bag at times, which is a shame considering it’s been designed for the PS5 and Series X. Firstly, character models and animations are gorgeous, it’s that perfect gamification of anime-like visuals that BANDAI NAMCO Studios are known for with an increased fidelity and attention to detail. Particle effects also look great and carry the same vibrancy and visual detail that the characters do. Every environment you explore feels distinct from one another, but the texture and color work can sometimes look a bit drab in comparison to the character models.

That isn’t to say that these locales aren’t well realized, Suoh City’s Ryujin Ward is plastered with holographic neon signboards, and Kunad Highway’s cherry blossom-clad surroundings are always a sight to behold, but it makes areas like the Abandoned Subway and Kikuchiba’s Construction Site stand out like a sore thumb. Performance wise, though, the game runs like a dream on the PS5 no matter how much chaos is on-screen, and during my time with the game I only ever experienced one technical issue when the game froze up.

THE PS5 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Scarlet Nexus Review – A Mind-Bending Experience appeared first on Press Start.

There’s an episode of The Simpsons where Homer is invited to design a car for his brother to reflect a vehicle that the people want. Anyone who’s seen that episode can attest to it becoming a disaster, an over-designed hodgepodge that subtly offers a strong cautionary tale as to the perils of feature creep. Biomutant, from its initial announcement almost four years ago, had potential as a concept. But it’s, in a similar fashion to Homer’s Car, a clear reminder that simple is sometimes better. Because while Biomutant is an ambitious debut from a passionate development team, it’s trying to do too much at once and never quite finds its furry footing.

To set the scene of Biomutant is easy – the world has ended. A natural disaster has seen all kinds of strange things happen – bringing toxins to the planet’s surface to mutate and proliferate across the globe. But, unfortunately, the central life force, the Tree of Life, has also been corrupted; itslong reaching branches being gnawed at by vicious beasts. As the protagonist, you must restore the tree to its former glory while also uniting or conquering the tribes that are warring over it. It’s a simplistic story of warring nations filled with many characters, but it never goes anywhere you want it to.

This is where Biomutant makes its first misstep. The Tree of Life angle would be enough to carry the adventure with our little furry friends. But the story of the warring tribes is then thrown into the mix. With five other tribes to conquer, each with varying political ideals, it sounds like an exciting idea. But these tribes are never given enough personality to distinguish them from one another beyond their looks. Sure, some are “evil” aligned, and some are “good” aligned, but they all behave the same at the end of the day, just with different flavour text.

Even though Biomutant is an open-world RPG, it’s suffering from an identity crisis. Borrowing liberally from other games, it’s relentlessly throwing new mechanics at you. I’m all for variety in games – it’s a hill I’ll always die on for my favourite art form – but none of these mechanics are given room to develop or breathe. It’s a true jack of all trades, master of none situation, and it’s a huge shame given the concept has such high potential.

So, the structure is what you’d expect from any open-world game released in the past decade. Each region has a few distinct quest givers; some move the story forward while others are optional with new items to collect. So many of these quests feel like busywork, which again feels like a step back from where open-world games are today. But the map is intuitively designed and a subsequent joy to navigate – I rarely fast travelled and it didn’t feel any bigger than it needed to be.

When you’re not exploring, you’ll be fighting, and Biomutant has a combat system with many options. Attempting to bring together melee weapons, guns, and psychic powers, it sounds like a system that has the potential to be quite dynamic. Unfortunately, while it’s a fast-paced combat system, none of it ever feels satisfying. Every attack, every psychic power that your mutant has access to feels weightless. There’s hardly any satisfying visual feedback, no oomph to any of it, and it’s a real dealbreaker.

This issue is compounded with the fact that there’s little enemy variety. You’ll encounter a lot of different-looking enemies, but so many of them behave similarly. It got to the point where I was rolling my eyes when I’d engage a new enemy, but it would jump towards me and attempt to use the same tail whip attack as all the others I’d encountered before it. Giving so many tools to the player, even if they’re blunt, is one thing; but giving them so little to use them on is another.

But one thing I really appreciated in Biomutant was the crafting system. It doesn’t necessarily do anything revolutionary, but it allows you to visually assemble the scrap you find into a weapon that genuinely feels like your own. You can mess with different aspects here; the grip can be adjusted to give stat boosts or buffs, while different blades or blunt objects can be attached to the end to alter how it behaves in combat. It’s a well-presented system that had me keen to try out many different combinations.

The open-world itself is serviceable.  If you’ve played Far Cry or a recent Assassin’s Creed game, you know what to expect here. Each location has a little checklist of what can be found within, and you can optionally ransack each one you come across. Much like Far Cry, the more prominent locations are outposts that must be cleared out to conquer opposing tribes. Of course, they never amount to anything more than destroying all enemies, but there is the odd point at which you can just persuade people to leave the outpost to you.

And that’s because Biomutant borrows a conversation system from games like Mass Effect and the more recent Assassin’s Creed games too. The choices you make in each conversation usually feeds into a morality system that determines what powers you can unlock. It’s a great idea on paper, but it feels surprisingly bare bones. Your conversations barely have any consequence, and, to put it bluntly, not having these conversations properly voiced struggles to make you care about what’s going on. Imagine if Banjo-Kazooie had a Mass Effect-style conversation system but with the narrative depth of the former. Unfortunately, that’s what Biomutant is, and it just doesn’t land where it wants to at any point.

This leads into one of my most significant issues with Biomutant, which is how it presents its characters. There’s a surprisingly large cast of characters, each of whom communicates through grunts and noises. It’s a cool idea and feels decidedly old school, but a discount David Attenborough-style narrator voices every single one. Given how much personality seems to be flowing from these characters, it feels like a bit of a cop-out to have every single one of them narrated by the same actor in the same tone for over twenty hours.

It’s not even the fact that these characters are all (but two) narrated by the same person; it’s the fact that it’s done in the same humdrum tone and in such a weird, detached way. You’ll sit there as you listen to a creature growl or grunt at you for a few seconds before hearing the narrator say, “thinks that you should do this” or something to that effect. It’s a crying shame because I can see the interesting cast of characters that the world of Biomutant has to offer. I can see their potential from their visual designs and personality quirks – but their spirit is completely betrayed by flat narration. Perhaps even the developers realised this, as you can adjust the frequency of the narrator’s comments.

Biomutant is designed from the ground up to be about player choice. You can choose which tribe to align yourself with. You can decide how you want to do battle. You can make a choice as to which characters you’ll help, which you’ll mess around, and which you’ll save if another apocalypse is coming. But for a game that hinges so much of its design on choice, it struggles to make you care about the choices you make. You can’t connect with the characters because they can’t directly speak to you. You can’t even struggle to make the hard choices because there are no real consequences to it all. It just all feels a little bit too surface-level ever to elicit a genuine response.

That being said, it’d be remiss of me not to acknowledge Biomutant’s visual presentation, which is nothing short of stellar. This is a visual feast – seeing both fur and grass sway in the wind is truly something that I’ve not seen in games for some time. Even better for a post-apocalyptic world, bright colours pop to create a lavishly bright world to explore. If there’s one aspect of Biomutant that I want to praise undoubtedly, it’s that it’s a beautiful-looking game. Playing on the new consoles especially, it runs as smooth as butter.

The same can’t be said on the audio front, however. I’ve already talked about how the narrator brings down the game’s vibe, but the soundtrack on offer for Biomutant is almost non-existent. A few tracks for ambient exploration, a booming horn-filled track for combat, and what I can only describe as a “story exposition” track filled with Chinese-inspired string instruments like the guzheng. It’s an authentically crafted soundtrack that nails the vibe the game is going for, but using the same four or so tracks across a game of this scale becomes grating quickly.

As the credits rolled on Biomutant, I couldn’t help but wonder why there was so much in the game and yet so much that was distinctly unmemorable. It’s got jet skis, horses, Titanfall-esque mechs, and even bug catching. There are psychic powers, real guns, boomerangs, and a mountable walking mechanical hand that shoots from its fingers. But none of it ever comes together in a way that makes sense, and that’s Biomutants biggest problem. It’s just trying to do too much and, in the process, lost sight of what it sets out to do.

THE XBOX ONE VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON A XBOX SERIES X FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Biomutant Review – A Misguided Debut appeared first on Press Start.

I’ve not been taken aback by how strong my nostalgia has been for something as I have with Mass Effect. I’ve played all the games, multiple times, across hundreds of hours. Still, I’ve never revisited them properly outside of their respective launch years. Rumours abound of a remaster; I’d held off, but part of me was worried that my nostalgia was entirely rose-tinted. Now, over a decade later, I’ve spent a considerable time with Legendary Edition, and I’m enamoured. There is just something undeniably comfortable about sinking into the original game after over a decade and knowing that just some things never change.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition brings together the original three Mass Effect games and downloadable content to offer up the story of Commander Shepard and their journey through the galaxy. Considering nothing else and the amount of content on offer here, there’s at least sixty hours of content here, and that’s if you’re skimming things. This is easily over a hundred hours’ worth of content and good content too. Controversial artistic choices aside, the Mass Effect trilogy are some fantastic games.

But the original Mass Effect was released for the Xbox 360 over a decade ago, and it was when developer BioWare was at a point of transition. Neither fully committing to a shooter nor an RPG, the original Mass Effect was a fantastic game that I and many others remember fondly. It’s an awesome game and one of my all-time favourites, but the original version doesn’t stand up to modern scrutiny today.

RELATED: WIN COPIES OF MASS EFFECT LEGENDARY EDITION ON PS4, XBOX ONE & PC.

Arguably the centerpiece of Legendary Edition, the original Mass Effect has been completely revamped to resemble something a little bit more contemporary. There’s a laundry list of specific improvements available elsewhere, but many of the changes are welcome. Purists need not fret; the original game still feels like more of an RPG than others. But the aspects that didn’t make sense have been adjusted accordingly to provide a better experience and closer mimic the better parts of Mass Effect 2 and 3’s combat.

In the original, weapons would be exclusive to the class you chose. Of course, choosing any weapon not for your class would be possible, but they’d have such insane spread and so little accuracy that it pointless. This is a key example of where the RPG aspect got in the way of the shooter aspect of Mass Effect and has been corrected in Legendary Edition. You can now use any weapon with any class, but specific weapon skills are still exclusive to your class. This feels like a healthy compromise for both purists and newcomers. For one, Mass Effect now plays more like a shooter. But keeping the weapon powers exclusive to your class is a better way to honour the original game’s RPG roots without betraying them entirely.

Other minor aspects have been adjusted that might not seem like much but make a lot of difference. Movement, squad AI, enemy behaviours, and general aiming controls have all been tweaked to bring the game more in line with Mass Effect 2 and 3. More notably, the cover has especially been improved – ironically to the point where it feels a bit more modern than the later games – with Shepard able to automatically enter and exit cover without the press of a button. They sound like small additions to the gameplay, but trust me, go back and play the original Mass Effect. It’s obvious just how much has improved for the better.

These improvements are all great, but there’s still only so much you can do without veering into total remake territory. While I’m convinced that Legendary Edition is, without a doubt, the best way to play the original Mass Effect, two leering issues are perhaps untouched blemishes from its past. For one, the sprint is horrendous. I understand not improving it for balance purposes in combat, but it feels entirely pointless outside of combat when you’re exploring and finishing quests. I’d have loved to have seen that improved.

Similarly, and perhaps due to its roots, the autosaves in the original game felt too few and far between .I’ve spent hundreds of hours with the original game, and to the developer’s credit, I’m sure Legendary Edition includes more frequent autosaves. But it doesn’t feel like enough. Too often, I’d find myself losing thirty minutes to an hour of progress after a quick death on an Insanity mode run. Perhaps I’m completing quests in a different order than intended. However, it still feels like a bit of an oversight especially considering how much has been tinkered with and improved here already.

The core of the original Mass Effect’s identity was the uncharted worlds. Big open maps with almost nothing in them, they’re one of the resounding triumphs of Mass Effect. They perfectly encapsulate a sense of isolation and a sense of exploration of foreign alien worlds. You’d often explore these barren locales with a vehicle called the Mako, and it’s been overhauled too. I struggle to think anyone would be upset with this – it controls better, still has a bit of goofy physic defying jump but now has a separate boost with a separate cooldown and better aiming. It’s an immediate improvement and, once again, a strong case for Legendary Edition being the best way to play the original game.

I’d be remiss not to talk about Mass Effect 2 and 3, however, as those games make up over half of this package. These games haven’t needed anywhere near as many adjustments to play well today.

Mass Effect 2 was a critical darling when it was released, and you can see why. It still plays like a dream today, even if it has strayed from the exploration and RPG roots that the original game so firmly planted. There have only been some minor adjustments here – ammo has been rebalanced, and morality point requirements have changed to make things a bit more manageable and less obtuse if you’re gunning for a specific response from your team members. Nevertheless, it’s still a great game and arguably the best of the trilogy.

Mass Effect 3 has had the multiplayer component entirely dropped. However, this has brought with it some interesting opportunities to balance all three games. No longer do you need to participate in multiplayer to get the best ending; instead, completing quests across all of the games will contribute to the game’s conclusion. Mass Effect has always been about player choice – with your choices in each game having some kind of ramification in future games – and this change further doubles down on that notion.

A huge aspect of this collection, then, is how it all comes together. If it weren’t apparent by now, brilliantly, but it’s clear that the original Mass Effect is the real highlight here. Every planet, every area, has been redesigned from the ground up to give it that pulpy sci-fi vibe to create worlds that, quite frankly, I want to go and live in. The collection includes many visual options, too – favouring framerate or quality, that elevate the game higher than it already was. I’ve played these games so much that I would remember when the frame rate would drop when using certain powers. To be able to use those same powers without any visible frame rate drop today is the stuff my teenage self would only ever dream of over a decade ago.

There were some bizarre visual glitches, though – sometimes Shepard would get stuck in a walking animation and start animating as if to walk sideways while still walking forwards. The most glaring (perhaps literally) is on any surface with a reflection. The original engine didn’t support them, so the team has had to implement some interesting ways to mimic them. But on higher framerates, it’s as if the reflections can’t keep up with the camera and keep “snapping” back in place after they linger for a while. It’s a minor issue but one I noticed a lot, especially on Noveria.

Given that the original Mass Effect has been given such a visual overhaul, it’s to a point where the improvements to Mass Effect 2 and 3 are much less pronounced. But, of course, both of the latter games are still offered up with improved framerates and resolutions. In addition, the textures have also been improved where possible to offer better overall image quality. But make no mistakes, Mass Effect is the star here. But it’s a testament to how strong the art direction was in both those games was.

Legendary Edition is more than a remaster. It’s possibly one of the best re-releases I’ve ever played. But it successfully does what it seeks out to do – offering the best way to experience Commander Shepard’s story and celebrate what we love so much about Mass Effect.

THE XBOX ONE VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON THE XBOX SERIES X FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Review – A Worthy Celebration appeared first on Press Start.

Six months after the launch of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla comes the launch of its first major piece of DLC, Wrath of the Druids. It’s a rather substantial experience and one that I’ve put quite a bit of time into already. But much like Valhalla, there’s a lot to do – but just how much does it add to the experience? Quite a bit, it turns out, and yet another huge map to explore too.

Wrath of the Druids takes the action out of England and into Ireland. At face value and potentially a show of my own ignorance, I thought this direction wouldn’t be all that interesting. Thankfully, it turns out Ireland has a rich history in this time period and it’s an especially key region in the history for the Vikings.

The journey begins as Eivor is visited at Ravensthorpe by Azar, the economic chief of Ireland. They request Eivor to carry out some quick tasks for them, before coyly revealing that they’ve been sent by none other than Eivor’s cousin, who is now the king of Dublin. Enticed enough by this proposition, Eivor sets sail for Ireland to reunite with his cousin and attempt to bring together a divided nation. It’s a simple, politically charged story at first glance.

The first thing you’ll notice once you arrive in Ireland is that it has an entirely different vibe to it than any of Valhalla’s other five maps. Ireland is a beautiful locale, teeming with vast green plains peppered with lots of stone throughout. It’s always a sight to be seen when Ubisoft brings life to yet another locale for Assassin’s Creed, and Ireland is no exception.

Given that Valhalla had so much included in it’s initial offerings already, I’d questioned just how essential this new expansion would be. For the most part, Wrath of the Druids is more of the same – so if you liked Valhalla it’s hard to imagine you’ll find an issue with what’s on offer here. There’s obviously a new storyline to delve into which surrounds the occult, so this will be hit and miss with some players. There’s the hearty combination of politics and intrigue, as per usual with Assassin’s Creed, but this story definitely errs more on the side of the occult.

But I really enjoyed the cultist aspect of the last three Assassin’s Creed games, so I enjoyed that Wrath of the Druids introduces a brand new cult to hunt. Called the Children of Danu, they’re a cult that worships deities known as Tuatha Dé Danann, the presence of which were most prevalent in Irish mythology pre-Christianity. It’s once again mythology that not many games tend to explore, so it’s a nice angle to take for Wrath of the Druids.

From a gameplay perspective, this doesn’t lend itself to too many changes. If you enjoyed hunting down the members of the Order or the Cult of Kosmos in other games, this will appeal to you. Outside of the cultists, there’s still a brand new storyline to get through here too, but it doesn’t revolutionise much of what Valhalla already introduced – though I’m not sure it needed to either. This is more or less what you’d expect – more of the already substantial Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. 

Much like the way you built your settlement in England, in Ireland you’ll also be able to collect materials to establish a base of operations. Newer features include trading posts, where you exchange materials for other rare and exotic materials from faraway lands. Royal requests are the other main addition, which sees Eivor carrying out requests sent by Gaelic Kings via carrier pigeon. It feels like a neat throwback to Assassin’s Creed II but is really just a different way to give the player quests.

I’ve put in a good ten or so hours into Wrath of the Druids and there doesn’t seem to be an obvious end in sight. Some are opposed to Assassin’s Creed tendencies to jam-pack their games full of content, but Wrath of the Druids has done a great job of keeping me hooked from the moment I’ve started. There are some great mysteries to solve here, even if they’re recycled from previous games (how many cult leaders do we need to be surprised by, again, after all?). There are even new mythological beasts to track down too, once again drawing from oft unexplored mythology.

All in all, Wrath of the Druids is a great addition to Valhalla’s already well-bolstered package. Visiting Ireland, learning about its rich history and mythology is something I’d never thought that I would be interested in. But Wrath of the Druids is so engaging that it’s hard not to recommend to people who enjoyed Valhalla. Just don’t expect it to reinvent the wheel, but instead, bring a few more.

THE XBOX SERIES X VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Wrath Of The Druids Review – More Viking Goodness appeared first on Press Start.

When Subnautica came out of early access for its full launch in January of 2018, it was met with widespread acclaim from numerous critics and fans of the survival genre – and for a good reason. There’s little on the market that can emulate the feeling you get from playing something like Subnautica. An undeniably alluring combination of oppressive isolation and peaceful ambience as you explore the depths of Planet 4546B. Subnautica: Below Zero relies on much of the same atmosphere and tension that made the first game special while adding an array of new additions that further strengthen the formula.

Set one year after the first game, Subnautica: Below Zero sees players taking control of Robin Ayou, trying to find what led to her sister’s sudden death on Planet 4546B. After narrowly escaping death when a stolen life pod collides with a meteor and crash lands in a frigid region of the planet, Robin is forced to adapt to the cold climate to survive and find answers. Although the story slowly unfolds as you explore new biomes and hunt for clues, you’re never really pointed in a particular direction, and the game doesn’t hold your hand along the way. Instead, most of the world-building and set dressing you’ll find comes in the form of environmental story-telling and collectibles. Recorded PDAs, research notes, abandoned bases, and information you find via scanning are all things that contribute to painting a picture of what has happened.

While the core narrative thread of finding out what happened to Sam is resolved in a relatively anti-climactic way, Below Zero’s focus shifts to another thread that links back to the first game in interesting and engaging ways that fans will adore. Ultimately, it’s a serviceable narrative that serves as a basis for the core gameplay but suffers a bit from some hit-and-miss voice acting and lacks some of the intrigue that came with the first game’s plot.

At its core, Subnautica: Below Zero is a deep-sea survival game with a heavy emphasis on exploration and base building. As you explore the different biomes, you’ll gather food, water, and materials to create tools and vehicles that allow you to go deeper for story progression, rare resources, and crafting opportunities. It’s a simple yet addictive gameplay loop that always begs you to do just one more thing before ending a play session, and that one more thing almost always snowballs into another hour of play. There’s always something to work towards in Below Zero, and that was what always kept me coming back for more. The most frustrating thing about it is the inventory and crafting UI, preventing you from crafting multiple of the same item at once and being a pain to navigate and manage in some circumstances.

Aside from keeping your food, water, and oxygen levels high at all times, there’s also all sorts of wildlife native to Planet 4546B. Some of it is completely harmless, like the adorable Penglings and the cheeky Sea Monkeys that try to steal and swim away with your items, but others are out for blood and will attack you on-site when venturing into their territories. Many of these monsters become less terrifying as you obtain better vehicles and means to circumvent them. Still, nothing will ever take away from the terror you experience when encountering leviathan class creatures. These behemoth sized beings can only be found in the deepest depths of Below Zero’s world, but the sense of awe and dread they fill you with is a feeling that is one of the best parts of Subnautica.

New to Below Zero is a heavy emphasis on land exploration as well as the regular underwater stuff. Research centers and bases dot the frozen wastelands above the ocean, with their unique predators and wildlife to encounter. While not nearly as expansive as the numerous biomes found in the sea, these areas provide a much-needed break from all the swimming and existential terror that comes with exploring the ever-expanding depths. While above water, you’ll have to find ways to keep yourself warm, whether that be through crafting a new set of gear, making smart use of the PRAWN Suit, or taking advantage of the environment. There’s a lot to think about at any given time, but that makes preparation in Below Zero feel rewarding and well worth the effort.

As you slowly unlock new tools and vehicles to fabricate, you’ll also gain the ability to create structures underwater. This means that you can build an underwater base almost anywhere as long as you have the resources. The core building system is intuitive, easy to use, and heavily customizable. For example, suppose you’re regularly using the scanner when you explore. In that case, you’ll quickly unlock new types of furniture and room layouts to use for your center of operations. It’s easy to get excited at all the potential building opportunities as you play and provides a nice break from the exploration and story if that’s what you’re looking for.

As terrifying as the ocean may be to some, it’s home to some of the most beautiful, jaw-dropping environments you could ever hope to see. Below Zero capitalizes on providing all sorts of gorgeous biomes to explore that feel visually and tonally distinct. The harsh sunlight punctuates the dark-green tinge of the Lilly Pad Islands as huge whale-like creatures swim overhead. In contrast, the Crystal Caverns are laced with purple shards, creating massive natural formations of violet that also cover the predators that lurk within its depths. Below Zero is constantly a feast for the eyes, and it’s hard not to get mesmerized by the equally beautiful soundtrack. It’s a shame that visual bugs pop up quite frequently to pull you right out of it. It’s inevitable in a game as big and expansive as this, but it’s even more noticeable when your entranced state is suddenly shattered because Robin can’t climb a ladder properly.

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY OF THE GAME WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Subnautica: Below Zero Review – Anything But A Cold Reception appeared first on Press Start.

While Capcom has been doing a great job with Resident Evil in recent times, their upward trend arguably began with Resident Evil 7. Upon revisiting that game earlier this year, I was taken aback by how the team at Capcom was able to do so much with so little. Before playing it, Village seemed to be doing the opposite, attempting so many things to the point where I’d worried it might be a bit too busy, losing some of that charm that the last three games have had. Thankfully, it hasn’t, and while Village is an entirely different beast from those that came before it, it will no doubt stand proudly in the Resident Evil pantheon.

I won’t go into the story too much – but Village follows on from the events of the last game. We once again play as Ethan Winters, who has since moved to Europe under witness protection and had a child with Mia. After sitting down for dinner one night, Chris Redfield, one of the series’ staple heroes, barges in, with some serious events quickly taking place. Chaos ensues, and Ethan finds himself on the outskirts of a mysterious village. His escort murdered; it’s here he begins his search for his daughter and find answers from Chris.

A rare direct sequel, Village attempts to continue the story of Ethan and weave itself into the already complicated series canon. In that regard, Village is a twofold success. It ties up many loose threads left hanging when the credits rolled in Resident Evil 7 and gives a great (if not hokey) explanation of how everything fits into the overarching canon. The result is a story that can be enjoyed by almost anyone who played the last game and satiate long-term fans looking for more connection to the previous games. But those jumping straight into Village may be a little bit lost, so be sure to watch Ethan’s recap in the menus before beginning.

RELATED: THE CHEAPEST COPY OF RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE. 

Given that there are so many wild theories being thrown around about certain characters’ identities and how things happen, I can almost guarantee the plot won’t satisfy everyone. But I struggle to envision somebody playing this game and not liking Ethan – he’s given a great run and becomes his own likeable character here.

In my Resident Evil 7 review, I spoke with great fondness for how that game managed to channel the identity of the original game while adding its unique twist. The same can be said for Village; while a direct sequel to Resident Evil 7, it’s using Resident Evil 4 as a base. The result is a game that’s invariably tense but only slight as fervently terrifying as Resident Evil 7 was. It feels appropriate that Village releases during the 25th anniversary of the series, as it feels like a greatest hits package of all the styles of tension and horror that have come before.

This is a sequel to Resident Evil 7 through and through, still played from a first-person viewpoint. Credit where credit is due, even though Village is bigger in practically every way than its predecessor, it never bombards you with constant jump scares. The tension, especially in the second lord’s region, is masterfully crafted. I was worried that with a more explicit focus on action, aspects like this would be neglected, but that’s most certainly not the case.

There’s definitely a bit more of an emphasis on action in Village, but the game incorporates a few new tricks to be more congruent with this new direction. Ethan can now immediately push an enemy back after blocking their advances – a slight touch but an integral one to prevent being surrounded. Ethan can also block off certain doorways to better control crowds. They’re small additions but helpful ones in the fight against more intelligent enemies.

The clear and obvious Resident Evil 4 DNA persists with The Duke. He’s this game’s version of the merchant, allowing you to buy and upgrade weapons as well as sell treasures. Every gun is still found in the game world – as it was in every Resident Evil game – but The Duke can upgrade them to pack more of a punch. He also sells recipes to craft ammo and can cook up ingredients found hunting animals in the village to increase Ethan’s stats permanently.

I raised concerns in my preview that being able to buy and craft ammo might mess with the game’s balance, removing the “survival” aspect. Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the case. The Duke’s stocks are limited, and all pickups feel pretty balanced across the board. I’d often find myself having to actively think about my inventory so that aspect still feels intact. But anyone looking for a challenge should consider starting on hardcore difficulty.

The general structure of the game sees you hunting the four lords of the village, each of which represents a specific theme or type of horror. Two of them, the Castle and the Factory, feel the most traditional. An equal mix of cinematic moments and classic Resident Evil exploration – though the latter will divide players with its bizarre tone. The other two, the Reservoir and House, feel like longer set-pieces than fully fleshed-out locations. Both tap into different themes. These two showcasing some great horror in a similar vein to P.T. and Resident Evil 7. I enjoyed all four, as they all offer up something new and exciting from beginning to end without the pacing suffering.

But it’s what Village does between these major areas that I enjoyed. Each time you revisit the Village, you’ll have a new item or key that’ll let you explore some more. It’s simple, classic Resident Evil, but the atmosphere in the Village itself is so thick and so inviting that I couldn’t wait to get back to find new secrets and treasures. It would amount to a little bit of exploration each time, but it helped sell the village and its surrounding areas as an actual location with heaps of history.

Without a doubt, Village is the biggest Resident Evil game in recent years. A blind play will easily take you upwards of twelve hours (perhaps even more) if you endeavour to find absolutely everything the village has to offer. But the game is still well geared for the ever-infamous speed run, too, much like classic Resident Evil, and feels very replayable. When finishing the game, The Mercenaries is also unlocked. Leveraging Village’s improved combat and enemy variety, it’s an arcade-like mode where you compete for a great score among four different areas. It’s Mercenaries in name only, honestly, but it’s a fun little distraction that gives you some wicked unlocks for the main story.

One thing always a given with recent Capcom games, and that’s whether it’ll deliver visually. While it’s a stark departure from what we’ve seen in recent games, Village is a true artistic achievement. The world that has been crafted feels not only lived-in but is teeming with atmosphere. Sporting some of the strongest art direction in the series, I was impressed with how good the game looked while maintaining a stable framerate. Even better, with ray tracing on, the game performs much smoother than I anticipated. There is a smidge of slowdown when outdoors, but otherwise, it’s a good experience and a tantalising taste of what next-gen consoles can do.

Such a commitment to presentation is especially evident in the sound design too. Guns rattle as you run with them, floorboards creak, and snow collapses as Ethan moves through this fascinating world. There are some great original pieces of music here too, but it’s the moments where there’s no music that are equally well done. Good sound design isn’t just great music and sound effects, it’s knowing where to ramp it up or dial it back, and Village nails it. Speaking of which, Ethan is the main attraction here, so it’s great that Todd Soley has stepped it up to make Ethan his own character with a great but hammy voice performance.

All in all, Resident Evil Village is a staunch reminder that Resident Evil is consistently reinventing itself. While Village isn’t the same vibe or the same kind of horror that Resident Evil 7 was, it’s still a strong outing in the series that’s bound to impress both new and old fans alike.

THE PLAYSTATION 5 WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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The original NieR is one of those games that best demonstrates that a killer story can exist without stellar gameplay. When I first played it over a decade ago, I found macabre enjoyment in how bleak and depressing it was. Then, on a second playthrough, how it recontextualised everything. It was a tall ask back then, admittedly. Still, it prepared me perfectly for NieR Automata and its non-conventional ending. 

Returning to NieR, especially in a post-Automata world, it’s clear that the original NieR hasn’t aged well. With NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…, an attempt is made to bring the game up to speed with all the advancements that Automata brought. Is it a successful attempt? Mostly. And I’d go as far as to say it’s eclipsed Automata in some respects as well.

NieR Replicant opens with our protagonist, who is only known as Nier, defending his sister against a group of enemies known as Shades. His sister is sick – infected with the same disease that has wiped out most of humanity in a cataclysmic event. Following this vague prologue, the story skips ahead a thousand years. Don’t worry – it’ll make sense, and it’s not what you expect either. Nier lives in a quaint little village with his sister and sets out to look for the rumoured cure to his sister’s condition. It’s at that point where the true adventure begins.

The crowning achievement of NieR was its story. Two years before Spec Ops: The Line was praised for its commentary on violence in video games. NieR offered up an interesting comment on the same topic. While more abstract than, say, Spec Ops, but more approachable than Automata, it’s hard to fault what NieR tries to do. More importantly – in an improvement over Automata – the characters are all compelling to the point where you can’t help but invest in all of them. It’s a great story from beginning to end, and while it’s wildly depressing, it still hits the mark a decade on.

Given this is a reissue of the original Japanese release, you’ll notice something different about Replicant. You play as the brother to Yonah and not the father, as seen in the initial release outside of Japan. I was hesitant to accept this change, but the way it all plays out makes me realise this is really how the game is meant to be experienced.

With so much hesitancy to call NieR Replicant a complete remake from the developers themselves, it’s hard to distinguish just what NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… is. Essentially, the package brings together literally everything in the original release, including downloadable content. But there are some new quests and routes that fans will appreciate – though I won’t spoil them here. Rest assured – even if you played the original game, ver.1.22474487139… is worth your time.

From the get-go, the most apparent change is the way the combat flows. Replicant rebuilds the original game into a flashier, showier action game in a similar vein to Automata. It’s fast but still simple enough that it doesn’t betray the spirit of the original game. Combat is faster and snappier – you can even quickly switch between weapons without a menu as well as charge magic mid-combo now. Jumping feels more natural, and as a result, platforming is a little bit (only a little) less frustrating. It still feels as simple as the original NieR was but modernised.

But what NieR does best highlights its creators’ love for videogames. There’s a lot of different types of games crammed into NieR. The game’s overall structure is typical Zelda, while the side-questing and upgrade system feels straight out of any RPG made in the last few decades. There’s a fixed-camera exploration of a creepy mansion with a lab underneath it, just like Resident Evil. Said lab quickly pivots to a Diablo-esque dungeon crawl. Even a text-based adventure is hidden within a forest of trees. There’s a wildly eclectic mix of gameplay styles crammed in here, and they’re not only enjoyable but memorable too.

To this day, the most unique aspect of NieR is the way it handles its story. Much like Automata, the entire plot isn’t unveiled to players without completing the game multiple times. It might sound tedious – and anyone who’s played Automata can perhaps attest to how tedious it could be – but it’s better executed here. For one, the brevity of this game’s second half means subsequent replays are less of a bother. It’s still going to put some players off; having to replay the story to get the whole story, but finishing the game just once feels satisfying too.

When you’re not playing the main questline, though, there are over 70 side quests to engage in. In recent years, optional content in games has evolved to the point where it’s often indistinguishable from content you’d find in the main questline. But in NieR’s case, this is one area where the game feels a little bit of its time – they’re repetitive and rarely consequential. Even worse is the grind to upgrade weapons. Though the fan in me enjoyed how the unlocked weapon stories tied the world of NieR to the games it’s spun off of.

Often when any reissue of a game comes along, there’s controversy about the presentation. NieR Replicant is no different. While obviously upgraded on a technical scale – the resolution is tripled and framerate doubled – the game’s change in art direction is bound to divide. Irrespective of the latter, NieR Replicant is without doubt miles ahead of the original technically speaking.

But with the cleaning up of the visuals comes a change in art direction. The original game had a dirty, grimy look to it that was impossibly imperfect but lent itself well to the bleak and depressive atmosphere the game was trying to create. With ver.1.22474487139…, draw distances are more significant, and character models are changed, removing a lot of that moody atmosphere. I personally didn’t mind – the game looks like it belongs in the same series as Automata now, but it’s bound to annoy some purists.

What did annoy me though is that in cutscenes, the framerate is essentially halved. I’m not sure if this is a stylistic choice, but given how smooth the framerate is in main gameplay, it’s very jarring to switch.

The other contentious issue that seems to be alarming fans of the original is the soundtrack. Keiichi Okabe’s magnificent score was the perfect counterpart to the bleak world that NieR took place in. While the music has been seemingly re-recorded, this feels like an expansion rather than a replacement. Each track still sounds familiar, only with added depth and more length to avoid repetitive looping. It’s still as otherworldly as ever, and I struggle to find much wrong with the new arrangements, honestly.

But like with any change in presentation, your mileage will vary. Everyone has different tastes, and there’s bound to be something in here that might not entirely vibe with what you liked about the original. But putting aside aesthetic changes that are completely subjective, it’s hard to argue that NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… isn’t the definitive way to experience NieR. 

THE PLAYSTATION 4 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON A PLAYSTATION 5 FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW.
A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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From the outset, developer People Can Fly have been adamant that Outriders is not a game as a service game, instead insisting that it’s a complete game with no planned expansions on the horizon. The need to clarify this is obvious as it looks to borrow so many elements from looter shooters like Destiny and The Division. However,  Outriders is admittedly a bit of a confused experience, because while it’s fantastic on almost every level, its insistence on online-only restrictions holds it back.

The plot of Outriders is straightforward – Earth has ended, and the humans are looking to colonise the alien planet of Enoch. There’s a bizarre accident, fuelled by a massive energy storm the locals call “The Anomaly” and you’re left with powers as a result. Following the accident, and a lengthy time jump, you awaken to discover that the colonists have separated into warring factions. Your job is thusly to explore the planet, learn more about The Anomaly and learn about humanity’s fate.

Outriders has one of the worst introductions I’ve ever played in a game, betraying everything about it’s unique spirit in the opening hours, including a very ho-hum story setup. I urge you to persist though – as even though the story is a little bit done-to-death, it’s got some nice twists and turns as you progress. The Outrider themselves is a genuinely funny character too – a surprise given that they’re not a specific character and a player creation.

On a surface level, Outriders looks like yet another games-as-a-service fad, a looter shooter looking to capitalise on the status quo that games like Destiny and The Division permeate. But underneath that loot filled veneer is a surprisingly meaty campaign and, even better, a great set of combat mechanics that channel some of the most enjoyable shooters like Mass Effect and Bulletstorm. More importantly, despite having such an emphasis on equipment and character building, the conclusion can be reached rather comfortably without incessant grinding.

It makes sense, really, given that developer People Can Fly also developed Bulletstorm, an often-underappreciated game that had similarly fun shooting mechanics. A far cry from the games it’s often compared to, Outriders puts your characters abilities front and centre. In my preview earlier in the week, I compared it to the Doom reboot and that comparison still stands. Outriders combat loop is fast and frenetic, and you need to get out from cover and be aggressive to come out on top.

The crux of the combat is built around your abilities – each of the four classes is in possession of eight of them with varying effects and cooldowns. Where other games that look like Outriders make your abilities feel rare and spaced out, Outriders does the complete opposite. You can use many abilities within ten seconds of each other – and with the right build you can manipulate said abilities to come out even quicker. More importantly, barring one skill that enchants your bullets, every class has seven other unique skills that makes each class play completely different from one another.

The Devastator is a close-range tank, dealing heavy damage while also taking the brunt of the damage in any firefight. The Pyromancer can, obviously, conjure flames and lay flame-based debuffs on enemies, performing well at medium range. The Technomancer performs best at long range, summoning gadgets to aid your team in battle and effects that cover the whole battlefield. The Trickster is close-range too, but more concerned with mobility and fast-paced hit-and-run mechanics. Each of the four work well individually but work even better together.

Similarly, each class has specific quirks that complement their play style. Technomancer heals purely by the damage dealt, encouraging more of a distant support role than anything else. Pyromancer heals when damaging enemies that have already been debuffed by their own skills, encouraging the use of said skills. Trickster and Devastator only heal when defeating enemies up close, but Trickster generates additional shields to give them the leeway to stay mobile during battle. Each class has a unique melee too, which can also debuff enemies, further differentiating them from each other.

But what’ll influence how you play your character most is the progression system. Abilities are unlocked automatically and are the bread and butter of combat. The skill tree, however, adds certain attributes to your attacks as well as special modifiers to better suit your playstyle. Each class has three distinct skill trees which you can fill how you see fit – one tree might improve the damage your debuffs do, while another tree favours defence if you want to play like a tank. Such a system does give you the flexibility to say, spec your Pyromancer more towards a tank if you so wish, but obviously you’ll want to play to the strength of your class.

But one of my favourite aspects of Outriders is the flexibility it gives you in how you approach the campaign. The game scales appropriately no matter if you’re playing solo or with friends, but it also has a “world tier” system that adjusts the difficulty of your game world. Borrowing a little from Diablo III’s Torment system, the higher your world tier, the higher your enemy’s level scales. Of course, this also scales up the equipment you’ll earn and the chance to earn much coveted legendary weapons too.

After you’re done with the campaign, Outriders isn’t quite done with you. The campaign itself is well put together – a twenty-to-twenty-five-hour romp that continues to throw new locales and enemies at you. It’s remarkably repetitive, I’ll admit, but it’s also so enjoyable that it’s hard to say this hampers the experience. Some of the game’s best arenas, it’s best encounters, however, can be found in the Expeditions mode. These are the hardest of the hardest battles Outriders has to offer – there’s fifteen of them to get through and they are all fantastically unique with a general feeling of good balance between them.

Built from the ground-up to accommodate your team, I was surprised at just how seamless Outriders was in terms of how it handles co-op play. Players can drop in and out at their leisure without detriment to the other players. Similarly, the game dynamically scales everybody to the right level to ensure that even overpowered people can’t ruin somebody’s game if they’re lower level. It’s a system that works beyond the already well implemented world tier system, and one that means nobody truly ever gets left behind.

But I can’t not address the elephant in the room.

When Outriders works though, it’s a remarkably seamless experience, though I can’t help but wonder why this game had to be online-only. At the time of writing, a lot of Outriders problems have already been fixed. But I’ve experienced many of the issues that I’ve seen online – and many of them stemmed from this game being an online-only experience.

Random disconnects, random crashes to dashboard, inability to join games, objectives having strange waypoints, disappearing weapons and even disappearing friends. It’s all frustrating stuff that’ll hinder your enjoyment of the game, though I’ve no doubt it’ll be fixed in the very near future. Your mileage may vary, of course, but most of these happened to me at least once in the first few days of playing the game.

From a presentation standpoint, Outriders is fantastic. It’s a little bit done-to-death, for sure. I even mistook it for Destiny on more than one occasion before I even knew what it was. But there’s such a sheer amount of variety here that I am still in awe as to how much world People Can Fly produced for this game. Enoch is a beautiful planet and one that I hope I’ll be able to explore even more in future games. The score is similarly well produced, though it does fade into the background of more frenetic battles.

THE XBOX SERIES X VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW.

The post Outriders Review – A Unique And Surprising Adventure appeared first on Press Start.

It was after A Way Out that I came to realise that Josef Fares is a game designer like no other. The once filmmaker creates strictly cooperative experiences which force players to band together to get the job done. In that sense, It Takes Two is the perfect title for his much lighter, more jovial exercise of couples therapy. As a two-player experience, it’s second to none when it comes to cooking up engaging ways for players to come together while creating a real shared joy that outlasts, outshines and, in some regards, makes up for other areas where It Takes Two doesn’t quite get it right. 

The focus of It Takes Two is the splintered marriage of Cody and May and its effects on their daughter Rose, who inadvertently turns the pair into small, handmade dolls with her spellbinding tears. Once pint-size, the two must work together to navigate and survive the underfoot terrors they once had the good fortune to overlook.

Although their bickering acts as a playful foil for the pair throughout the game’s opening acts, I feel much of their development feels forced and never amounts to anything that feels remotely organic. There’s moments that stick out as a result of the game’s fantastical premise that just seem outlandish and insane, such as Rose — a child — not paying any mind at all to her mother taking the world’s longest nap on the couch while her dad sits upright in a fugue state in his study. It’s absurdist levity, never taking itself serious even for a beat.

It’s apparent that the moment to moment gameplay is the true driving force of It Takes Two and perhaps that’s why I found the narrative didn’t resonate with me, from the premise itself right through to its safely played, cliche closing — which is surprising after having been wounded by Fares’ past works, which I feel took greater risks. 

Where the narrative falters, the game part of It Takes Two is a genuine blast. It’s pure, unadulterated fun that focuses on variety as much as anything else, so much so that Hazelight took the care to craft entire game mechanics for throwaway moments that last sixty seconds. Though it’s largely an action-platformer, It Takes Two has nods to isometric dungeon crawlers like Diablo, brawlers like Street Fighter and rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution. It Takes Two winds up being a clown car of video game homages that is insanely fun to play, though the often tenuous dot-connects made between the several unique mechanics and the plot don’t often serve to drive the story forward. It’s a problem It Takes Two suffers from nearer to the end of its ten-hour journey as the stranger links to Cody and May’s life — his green thumb and her penchant for singing — seemed far less inspired.

Exactly like A Way Out did before it, It Takes Two has a lot of extremely well hidden mini-games for players to strain the friendship with. From a simple tug of war to an actual working game of chess, there’s certainly a lot of laughs to be had in revelling in each other’s many failures. 

Perhaps it’s A Way Out’s fault for giving me a preconception of what to expect from a Josef Fares title, but It Takes Two doesn’t nail it when it comes to pacing. It felt as though the game’s more memorable moments were flash in the pan while later areas tended to drag due to a constant stream of roadblocks being thrown at the players — often perpetrated by that blasted Dr. Hakim, the anthropomorphic guide to love that serves as the pair’s unwelcome quasi-counsel.

With the exception of the human characters, who we fortunately don’t spend a great deal of time with, It Takes Two is a beautiful game. The game’s many worlds, which felt both grounded and fantastically conceptual all at once, are so well-realised and established within the pair’s home and history. I particularly loved the game’s first level, which takes place in the shed which is under threat from an oppressive, neglected toolbox. There are many highlights though, I also enjoyed the level that took place inside the inner workings of a cuckoo clock, which serves as a hamfisted but heartfelt nod to the lack of time Cody and May spared for each other during their marriage. Although it’s not as consistent across the board, I got a real Banjo-Kazooie vibe from the many worlds of It Takes Two, each with its own self-contained story within a story.

Similar to Obsidian’s Grounded, It Takes Two does a nice job of playing with scale. Having our heroes explore a pretty common home and have it be this overwhelming, massive obstacle was so clever and I particularly enjoyed how often we’d come across regular household items as bosses. Running into the discarded vacuum, hurt at being replaced by a newer model, made for a pretty hilarious interaction, which is something It Takes Two does very well. For our miniscule man and wife, it’s a big journey with a big heart that suffers from a disappointing ending as well as a bloated runtime.

THE PS5 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post It Takes Two Review – Larger Than Life appeared first on Press Start.

Choosing a headset has become one of the most confusing things about owning a video game console and it hasn’t been made any easier with next-gen consoles. We saw the Pulse 3D Headset launch alongside the PS5 and a comparative headset was missing for the Xbox Series X/S until today’s release of the Xbox Wireless Headset.

Taking the headset out of the box, it feels absolutely premium. For only $150, there was a chance it could have felt cheap, but it’s certainly not the case. The band feels durable, the earcups are an extremely comfortable fake leather that can also be taken off and replaced and the fit feels exceptional, without pressing down too much on my glasses. In terms of build quality and fit, I’d put this ahead of the Pulse 3D Headset, which is the same price. You’re not getting any kind of noise-cancelling with this headset, which is to be expected for the price, but it does a good job of blocking out external sounds.

My absolute favourite thing about the headsets is how accessible the buttons (or lack of them) are. I really dislike how many buttons there are on the Pulse 3D headset and the fact that they’re all on one side but on the Xbox Wireless Headset, the entire earcups act as volume controls, so your right cup controls the main volume whilst the left earcup does your game/chat balance.

You’ve also got an easy to access mute button on the microphone as well as a button to turn the headset on and off (complete with a matching startup tone to what you’d be used to with your Xbox Series X). As far as buttons go, that’s literally it and compared to other units on the market, that’s a godsend. Xbox has kept it simple and that’s exactly what you want with a headset. Even on day one, I was never second-guessing where to find one of the buttons or how to turn my chat volume up. It’s perfectly designed.

The headset is incredibly easy to pair to either your Xbox Series X/S or PC and all it takes is just holding down the power button to set it into pairing mode. Your Xbox or PC will then recognise the headset and connect each and every time it powers on. You can also connect the headset to multiple devices at once, meaning that you can connect to your mobile via Bluetooth whilst playing on your Xbox, and hear both devices at once, which is really helpful. You can also connect the headset to an Xbox wireless adaptor, which I highly recommend if you’re using a PC as it’s just going to be more stable than Bluetooth.

As far as battery life goes, Xbox says that you can expect 15 hours out of the headset, and I can vouch for this. There are longer-lasting headsets on the market, but again, at this price point, 15 hours is as good as you’d expect if not better and you’re also able to play with a wired connection via the included USB-C cable. When it comes to connectivity, you won’t be able to use this headset with your PS5/PS4 or Nintendo Switch as there’s no dongle (and no 3.5mm line in), so it’s purely connecting via Bluetooth which PlayStation and Nintendo don’t allow on their devices. That’s one reason why I’d point you towards the SteelSeries Arctis 7X as an alternative, even though it’s nearly double the price. With the Arctis 7X, you’re going to be able to use it with all of your devices.

The microphone on the headset is usable but not the best. Where it differs from others of its kind, however, is the fact that it has an auto-mute feature that will basically filter out unwanted noise, which is useful for when you’re crunching on some snacks, or have a fan in the background when you’re not talking. This was fairly hit and miss whilst I was testing it, with the headset doing a good job of recognising me not talking most of the time, but still letting some noise through occasionally. The sensitivity can be controlled by the Xbox Accessories app on Xbox/PC, so it might just need some adjusting. The microphone has a little LED, at the end, which will tell you when you’re muted or not. It can get a little bit distracting as it’s white, but this can be dimmed via the Accessories app.

I was pleasantly surprised by how good this headset sounds for $150. Whilst it doesn’t experience the deep bass that I got with the SteelSeries Arctis 7X or SteelSeries Arctis 9, those headsets are more than double the price. What I did get though, was an exceptionally crisp sound even when at the loudest volume. The difference between these and something like the Arctis 7X is probably closer than it should be given the price difference. The headset is compatible with spacial sound codecs such as Windows Sonic, DTS Headphone:X and Dolby Atmos. You get six months of Dolby Atmos with the headset, which I used and was really happy with the results when playing games such as Forza Horizon 4 and The Medium.

I did experience a little bit of delay at times, and the Bluetooth connection did cutout a time or two, but I hope that these improve with software updates as time goes on. For the most part, it’s going to be very, very hard to not recommend these to any Xbox Series X owner, for the price and the features that you’re getting. It’s ridiculously easy to pair the headset to all of your devices (PC/Xbox/mobile) and everything performs exactly as you’d expect, if not better.

The post Xbox Wireless Headset Review – Premium Quality At A Great Price appeared first on Press Start.

Five years after IO Interactive rebooted HITMAN, HITMAN III promises to conclude the events that the original game started. It’s both a culmination of everything IO has done with the franchise thus far while being an astute subversion of all your expectations that you might have. It does try to experiment with its structure a little to keep things fresh, though to varying results.

HITMAN III follows on directly from the first two games in what feels like a conclusion to the trilogy and the series. Agent 47 and Diana are still working with Lucas Grey to bring down secretive leaders of the group Providence and end their hold on the world once and for all. The story is certainly front and centre in HITMAN III, much more so than the previous two games, to the point where the missions warp themselves to accommodate it. It’s a strange and dramatic shift to make so far into the trilogy but still helps keep things fresh.

As with the first two games, there are many ways to play HITMAN III. You could easily play through the story and quickly call it a day, but to do so would pay a disservice to the robust design that’s once again on show here. Each level is an intricate clockwork of moving parts that seamlessly create believable, living worlds. Whether it be the smaller scaled ones like Romania or the larger-scale ones like China, each of the levels of HITMAN III are genuine attractions that I didn’t want to leave even after I was done with my targets.

The previous game introduced the briefcase and the ability to hide in crowds and vegetation. The new features in HITMAN III aren’t anywhere near as numerous. Perhaps the most important one is the addition of shortcuts – pathways that, once unlocked, that stay opened permanently on repeat playthroughs. I love the idea – they’re satisfying as hell to uncover, and they aid replayability a lot. On the other hand, the camera, a new gadget that can remotely activate certain switches, feels undercooked and is barely utilised as much as it could be. A taste of what’s to come with IO’s new 007 game, perhaps, but one that doesn’t gel with the world of HITMAN.

But how does it compare to the previous games? You’d be forgiven for thinking this was just another expansion – offering another five new locales to explore using already established systems and mechanics. But that’s only half the story. HITMAN III makes a concerted effort to make sure each mission feels unique and better bridge the gap between story and gameplay. Each mission now has a gimmick of some sort that separates it from previous HITMAN games.

In the original two games, “Mission Stories” were an excellent way to focus players who found each level’s open design too overwhelming. They’re essentially paths within each mission that often leads to a unique kill or opportunity with your target. In HITMAN III, some of these mission stories have expanded dramatically – usually containing other objectives within objectives to make them feel more involved. The trade-off is that there’s considerably fewer of them in each mission. On average, most areas in HITMAN III have about three mission stories. Previous games had anywhere between eight and ten.

That’s not to say they’re bad, mind you. The main mission story in the second location has you solving the murder of a family member to secure some alone time with your target. It has you exploring an English manor for clues, interviewing family members to discover alibis, and delivering a solution to get closer to your target. I’d never thought a developer would be able to accurately capture the vibe and feel of a film like Knives Out in a video game, but IO has done a stellar job here. It’s just a bit of a shame that this massive mission story has led to only two other smaller ones being available in the mission.

Other missions don’t even have mission stories, though do their best to flip things on their head. Like I alluded to earlier, HITMAN III does it’s best to try and subvert your expectations with each mission. Some of them will have you collaborating with another agent out in the field, and another sees you hunted by other assassins. Each mission does it’s best to be something more than just another location with another set of kills. There’s a fun twist on each one that I could appreciate, even if it meant there were physically fewer ways to kill somebody on each one as a result.

While HITMAN III does it’s best to experiment within it’s missions this time around, all the interesting extra modes they tried in HITMAN 2 have unfortunately got the cut. There are no additional Sniper Assassin maps, which seemed a bit strange. There’s also no sign of the next evolution of Ghost Mode – a competitive mode in which two people race to kill the same target but get a better score. There’s……not anything extra on offer here if you liked those different modes in previous games. Of course, each level still offers a lot of replayability, but it is a glaring omission coming straight from HITMAN 2.

Three years ago, I expressed disappointment in HITMAN 2 for presenting the story using static images with voiceovers rather than full-motion cutscenes to tell a story. With such an emphasis placed on the plot in HITMAN III, that decision has reversed. From the get-go, there’s a lot of crucial moments that play out in conclusion to Agent 47 and Diana’s story, and it’s so, so fantastic that they’re told in a much more impactful way with real cinematics. While they’re not as flashy as the Square Enix co-produced cutscenes of the first game, they are still well directed and well produced. They help elevate HITMAN III to be that right conclusion, that epic cinematic feeling the series was so desperately trying to capture.

The first game to launch on next-gen platforms goes without saying that HITMAN III is a beauty. While there’s no visual options, the engine has been tweaked to offer full 4K resolution at a buttery smooth sixty frames per second on the newer consoles. While it’s not quite ray tracing, screen-space reflections and lighting have also been improved. It’s not quite cutting edge next-gen technology, but I dare you to take a walk through that grimy nightclub in the Berlin level and tell me you even cared. Each world, each sandbox you play around in during HITMAN III is an artistic triumph.

THE XBOX SERIES S|X VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON AN XBOX SERIES X FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is one of the most cautionary tales in video game licensing. When it was released ten years ago, it was a joy to play, an earnest tribute to the series of graphic novels it drew inspiration from some of the best video games of the nineties. But four years later, it was delisted and lost to the annals of history. Now, over a decade after the original release, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game returns as a Complete Edition, and it’s just as fun as you remember.

If you haven’t seen the film or read the comic books, the plot is straightforward. Scott Pilgrim has his heart set on Ramona Flowers, a tough but free-spirited Amazon delivery girl who’s recently moved into the area. Smitten with her, Scott professes his love to Ramona, but there’s a catch – to be with her, he must defeat her seven evil exes. Thus, in the name of love, Scott embarks on a quest across Toronto to defeat Ramona’s evil exes so he and Ramona can live in peace. It’s a fun romp that you shouldn’t take too seriously, peppered with some excellent video gaming references along to way.

So what’s in this “Complete Edition”? Everything. Complete Edition includes the game and all its downloadable content wrapped up in a nice little package. You get both Knives, Chau and Wallace Wells, as playable characters on top of the already available team of four, as well as online multiplayer and a few other fun arcade-style modes. It might seem weird to have had to pay for online multiplayer eight years ago, but thankfully, it’s all here with Complete Edition. There’s nothing new here for the die-hard fan, which some might find disappointing, but the fact we’ve even got Scott Pilgrim back is to be celebrated.

The game itself is a side-scrolling beat-em-up similar to Streets of Rage and River City Ransom. Each player can select one of the game’s six characters and battle their way through seven levels, with an evil ex being a boss at the end of each one. Each character has a unique set of moves, with each of them learning more as they earn experience and level up. The only real disappointment here is the last character to bad added, Wallace, who serves only as a basic recolour of Stephen. Given that every other character has a unique set of moves, it’s a glaring dip in the roster’s quality. Otherwise, everyone plays differently enough to incentivise repeat playthroughs.

Each of the characters you’ll play can have their stats upgraded by purchasing food and vinyl records from Toronto’s many shops. It’s a simple system that could be abused a little too quickly to make the game too easy. I recognise that’s perhaps on me for grinding early in the game. Still, I suppose it’s nice that players can either indulge in or ignore the stat upgrades to adjust their game’s difficulty.

In addition to the main game, many modes offer a little bit of a different experience to the main game. Dodgeball is as it sounds, throwing balls at each other until a single winner emerges victorious. Boss Rush is, once again, as it sounds. Battle Royal lets up to four players enter the arena to fight each other, while Survival Horror is a survival mode with players fighting waves of zombies. These modes are all cool diversions from the main game that help round out Scott Pilgrim as a package, but something is annoying about all of them that feels like a bit of a letdown.

As mentioned previously, Scott Pilgrim features online multiplayer for up to four players. Ubisoft initially added it into the game with a paid downloadable content pack, but it’s included from the get-go here. What’s disappointing with Complete Edition is that the online multiplayer doesn’t apply to any extra modes. Having played a few rounds of Dodgeball and a short-lived run of Survival Horror, I was excited to be able to jump into both these modes with my mates. But you can’t – it’s only the main game that has online functionality, and that seems like a bit of a missed opportunity to correct a minor issue with the original game.

I’d be remiss also to mention that the game does feel easier than when I first played it on the Xbox 360, though maybe this is me misremembering. Still, Scott Pilgrim is better enjoyed with other people more than anyone else – so having the option to play with friends, either online or off, is appreciated.

From a presentation perspective, it’s hard to fault Scott Pilgrim. It might’ve been over a decade since the original game was released, but it’s a testament to its artistic direction, just how good it looks today. This isn’t a game that would’ve benefited from excessive increases in visual quality, so I’m glad the team saw fit to leave it as it was and not mess with it too much. My only gripe is that I wish the menus were a bit snappier, but this could very well be a stylistic choice to emulate the era this game pulls so much inspiration from.

Before I even played the original game ten years ago, the most talked-about aspect of the game is the Anamanaguchi-produced soundtrack. I had a (probably unreasonable) paranoia with the woes of licensing that this wouldn’t be brought across with the re-release in full. Thankfully, I was wrong. Given that Scott Pilgrim pays so much homage and so much love to the 8 and 16-bit eras’ best games, their chiptune laden music fits perfectly here. It’s a fun and joyous soundtrack and still, ten years later, one of the best on offer in a video game.

THE XBOX ONE VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON AN XBOX SERIES X FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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I adore DONTNOD. They’re one of my favourite studios, and one that I feel is oft underappreciated when it comes to storytelling in games. I adored Remember Me. I loved how simple but effective Life Is Strange was. I was enamoured by how different and ambitious Vampyr was. I struggled to connect as quickly with Life Is Strange 2 on the same level as their other games but found Tell Me Why to be a refreshing and enlightening experience. My point is that all their games up until this point have been fantastic in one way or another. It pains me to say, then, that Twin Mirror fails to deliver on its intriguing premise.

Twin Mirror follows the story of investigative journalist Sam Higgs, returning to the fictional town of Basswood, West Virginia, following the death of one of his close friends. However, as both Sam and his friend’s daughter suspect foul play, not all is as it seems. Adding to the investigation’s challenge, Sam isn’t very well-liked in Basswood, having written a controversial expose piece that not only closed the booming mine that the town built upon economically but also left many people unemployed.

At first appearance, Twin Mirror’s premise sounds like a sure-fire hit. A small-town mystery, a central protagonist with tumultuous history with literally everybody in the town, and a dark and seedy underbelly disguised by a typical middle America. It sounds great! But unfortunately, Twin Mirror fails to capitalise on its tantalising ambition, instead plodding along as Sam sleepwalks through the plot. None of the characters ever experience meaningful development, and there’s barely any twists or turns that you either didn’t see coming or were revelatory enough to shock. It’s just there, and that’s unfortunate given DONTNOD’s otherwise stellar pedigree.

Twin Mirror attempts to shakeup the now ubiquitous DONTNOD formula to introduce two elements of Sam’s personality. The “Mind Palace” mainly represents his more analytical side. It’s a place that Sam can escape mentally to piece together his investigations and come to accurate conclusions. The other is “Him” or “The Double”, a cooler suaver version of Sam that appears to Sam to help him overcome social situations while still overly analytical. Both sides of Sam’s psyche are at odds with each other – and most players will eventually find themselves gravitating towards one more than the other.

Given the way Sam acts and behaves, it seems that DONTNOD is dancing around the fact that Sam is meant to be somebody on the autistic spectrum, but the representation here is spotty at best. It’s incredibly disappointing given how closely the team worked with GLAAD for Tell Me Why and is just another thing about Twin Mirror that feels half-baked.

The Mind Palace is where the crux of the “game” aspect of Twin Mirror happens. In it, Sam can adjust certain aspects of a crime scene to play out a hypothetical situation. In doing so, the Mind Palace will help Sam to highlight why his hypothesis might or might not be correct. Anyone who played DONTNOD’s 2013 debut, Remember Me, will be familiar with this setup. You essentially backtrack along with a scene, changing key details until they line up with what happened. These moments are reasonably engaging, though they feel ultimately lacking in their consequence. There are rarely any adverse outcomes for coming up with the wrong conclusion, which once again falls short of what we know DONTNOD are capable of as storytellers.

The Mind Palace is also where you’ll go to view memories, each providing some key backstory to Sam’s history with the town and some of its residents. But once again, they rarely offer any penetrating insight, and most of the surprises are ones you would’ve naturally assumed anyway. Perhaps these aspects of the plot were to be explored when the game was presumably a more extended, episodic experience. But Twin Mirror feels, quite frankly, only barely finished.

Anyone who is still morbidly curious to see how Twin Mirror is both equal parts compelling and meandering will discover quickly what I mean by this as the credits roll on their five-hour run. The story feels like it’s building up to something much more remarkable, the characters feel like they’re all bound to developed a little bit more; but the game wraps everything up in an oddly paced final chapter. It feels like the penultimate episode of a miniseries that’s had its budget pulled at the last second. All of it’s extraneous plot points are either excised or quickly tucked in to allow only the main plot finish at a breakneck pace.

There’s even five endings, but a single choice determines these in the penultimate chapter and a few in the final one. It feels a little bit shallow in that regard.

There’s twenty-one characters in Twin Mirror when all is said and done. But I could only tell you about less than five of them in detail – and that’s only because I’ve recently finished it. The game doesn’t have the strength or depth of writing to have you remember characters like Chloe, Max, Tyler, or even the Diaz brothers did.

But one thing I can praise Twin Mirror for is that it’s easily DONTNOD’s best game on a technical level. While a little bit generic on the artistic side, the game looks and performs superbly well. Lip syncing still leaves a lot to be desired. But the game has some great character models, superbly moody lighting, and performs rather well. I should qualify this by saying that I’m playing on an Xbox Series X, which for the most parts provide a crisper image quality as well as a buttery sixty frames per second. Regardless, this is easily DONTNOD’s best-looking game, even if it’s a little bit less distinct than Life Is Strange.

What’s a little bit less of an apparent success is the voice work, which feels flatter than ever. Throughout the game’s story, there are ample opportunities for the cast to hammer home some of the more emotional scenes in the plot, but it all comes across as flat and stilted. Sam and his alter ego “Him” could’ve played off of each other here, but, once again, it just never amounts to anything.

Which is the way I feel about Twin Mirror as a whole. It’s a great, tried-and-true concept that brings nothing new to the table, despite having so much potential. Made even more potent by the fact that we know what DONTNOD as a team is capable of.

THE XBOX ONE VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON AN XBOX SERIES X FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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When Gods and Monsters was first revealed at E3 in 2019, I was intrigued. Combining the whimsical art direction of games like Breath of the Wild with the tried-and-true story of Greek mythology, the project looked like it held promise. As the game evolved, and the project slowly transformed into Immortals Fenyx Rising, the elephant in the room grew larger and larger. The Legend of Zelda very clearly inspires Immortals Fenyx Rising, and many fans would not be wrong to have genuine concern as to whether it can live up to the name. Well, it can and does. And I’d argue in some instances even surpasses it.

Immortals Fenyx Rising follows the Greek soldier Fenyx. They’re stranded on an idyllic island named the Golden Isle following a fierce and ferocious storm. Following the loss of most of their crew, Fenyx becomes embroiled in a plot to save the Isle from the recently resurrected titan named Typhon. Typhon is moody because he was banished to Tartaros by Zeus and the other gods. Upon his seemingly accidental release, he’s managed to suppress those gods. With no other way to save their men, it’s up to Fenyx to help the gods restore themselves to their former glory and bring the full on assault to Typhon.

While Immortals comes to us from the same team as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, the writing takes on a much more light-hearted tone. While Fenyx is their own character, the game is framed by a conversation between Prometheus and Zeus towards the end of the story. A recount, of sorts, except one in which the narrators embellish to comedic effect. It’s incredibly engaging as the game opens, with the same level of humour as you’d expect from a Disney production and some creative use of the narration to play around with what happens during Fenyx’s journey. Initially, I was skeptical about whether I could care about these done-to-death characters in this original story, but I finished Immortals with a genuine attachment to the cast and the desire to see more of them.

It’s a fun, light-hearted take on the typical Ubisoft open-world formula and one that I didn’t know I needed.

But Immortals isn’t completely typical. Wearing it’s influences on its sleeve, the game borrows heavily from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and I’m frankly surprised it’s taken three years for one of the big publishers to capitalise on the success of Nintendo’s multi-million unit seller. But where I’d typically lambast a game for borrowing liberally from another, Immortals forges its own identity enough that I find it hard to criticise it. Instead of merely copying other games, it builds upon them to offer an experience that’s perhaps even better than its inspirations.

The structure of Immortals is predicated on most conventional open-world games. The Golden Isle is divided into separate sections. Each one is home to a god who Fenyx must carry out quests to restore them to their former glory. Each questline is comprised of a few major missions as well as a bigger dungeon-like challenge to complete too. A simple yet effective twist is that each of these questlines has a unique structure that keeps things from being rote and formulaic. While there is a little bit of a story-first design philosophy at play here, it offers a better sense of pacing, so I can’t fault it.

Fenyx has an array of weapons and abilities to assist them on their journey. The main three weapons are a sword, an axe, and a bow. Each operate how you’d expect. The sword is your main method of attacking and is easily the fastest in your loadout. The axe is slower but hits heavier and breaks through the shields of enemies. The bow and arrow is better suited to puzzle-solving, but it is great for hitting enemies in the air. It’s by no means as exhaustive as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – you’ll only ever have these three weapons with you for the entire journey – but it makes progression and upgrades less monotonous.

While the weapon count is low at first glance, there are still many different ways to develop Fenyx meaningfully. See, you can always find extra weapons in Immortals, but they’ll have different effects that’ll either bolster your other abilities, recover health, recover stamina, or both. Even cooler, and borrowing from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, you can pick your favourite weapon with its effects and then customise it to look like any other weapon you’ve already found.

Each of these weapons is accessible on-the-fly during combat, which is fast and snappy. Easily Ubisoft’s most responsive battle system to date, Immortals is a joy to play. Every move, every attack has a certain level of responsiveness to it, and dodges give a sense of mobility that separates Immortals from the rest. Throw in some fancy moves – including a meaty dash and a flashy area of effect attack – and you’ve got an excellent combat system. Coming off the back of Valhalla, it doesn’t have as much weight to it, but given the nimble nature of Fenyx, I’m not sure I need it to.

Odyssey took Assassin’s Creed into full-blown RPG territory, but Immortals does it’s best to balance those aspects a little bit better. Weapons themselves don’t have stats, nor does armour. Instead, you’ll use materials collected throughout the Golden Isles to improve the stats of Fenyx – whether it be damage, defense, or capacities – rather than weapons. This means that after the journey is over, you’ll have a small selection of weapons rather than hundreds of the same sword with minor stat differences. It also means if you have a favourite weapon, it’ll remain just as useful at the end of the game as the beginning because you’re just upgrading Fenyx.

The other major piece of equipment you’ll use in Immortals are the gauntlets, which have practical applications in both exploration and battle. For one, Fenyx can use them telekinetically lift objects to fling at enemies, catch their projectiles to throw back at them, and pull themselves closer to enemies. Outside of combat, Fenyx can use the gauntlets to move big blocks, spheres, and other objects to solve puzzles and activate switches. Sound familiar?

While it’s by no means an original idea, the crux of Immortals is spent inside the Rifts of Tartaros. These short, bite-sized challenges allow you to use your abilities to solve bite-sized puzzles. They’re without a doubt riffing on the shrines from Breath of the Wild, but the puzzles hidden within them are some of the best types. While incredibly simple in their design, solving every puzzle felt rewarding in Immortals. As they became more complex, I would find myself revelling in how I would solve them using abilities I’d unlocked. I’d almost feel like I was gaming the system, even though I wasn’t. But that’s what good puzzles should do.

The concept of rifts comes full circle with vaults. There’s around five of them in the game, and they’re the closest thing that Immortals have to dungeons. Each of them is built around a central gimmick, with several puzzles that escalate in complexity and difficulty. There are no items to be found, but there’s usually a big boss to fight at the end. Each of the bosses is just larger, more capable versions of the enemies you’ll encounter on the Golden Isle, but it feels a bit bigger budget by just having them than having nothing at all. Do the vaults stand-in for the classic Zelda dungeon? Not quite. But they’re pretty damn close.

In terms of extracurricular activities, this is perhaps where Immortals best capitalises on Ubisoft’s experience with open world games. Outside of the mainline quests, you’ll be able to find other items and solve all different kinds of puzzles to unlock materials to upgrade Fenyx. The team could’ve easily filled the map with an excessive amount of busy work but instead what’s here feels approachable and manageable and never feels bloated. Most players will be able to get through the story in around twenty or so hours, but there’s easily enough satisfying content here to double that. There’s even a New Game+ mode too.

While not quite reaching for the stars with photorealism, Immortals Fenyx Rising is one great looking game. The Golden Isles is one of the most idyllic looking locations I’ve had the joy of exploring thus far on the new generation of consoles. The lighting is quite simply breathtaking, and the game is one of the most colourful and vibrant I’ve played in years. Experiencing them on the new consoles is similarly a treat, running at a rock-solid 60 frames per second. Maybe it’s more reflective of my tastes, but it’s refreshing to play a game that looks so colourful, fresh, and vibrant. If 60 frames isn’t your thing, you can choose Quality mode instead.

On the other side of the presentation, the score is similarly refreshing, offering the perfect backdrop to your odyssey through the Golden Isle. The voice work is excellent, if not a bit spotty at times, and sometimes even leans a little bit too much into the camp. Still, given the Disney-esque vibes the game is leaning into, it oddly fits. It’s an authentic as ever representation of Ancient Greece in which perfect presentation only helps to nail the delivery.

It’s a fantastic romp through a great Greek fantasy and one you’ll want to keep exploring long after the credits have rolled.

THE XBOX SERIES X VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS TESTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER. WE LOVE BRINGING YOU THE BEST GAMING AND TECH BARGAINS. WE MAY GET A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THE SALE THROUGH AFFILIATE PARTNERSHIPS

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Just as last year’s Modern Warfare served as a soft reboot for Captain John Price’s exploits through current day counter-terrorism, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War fulfils a similar purpose. Along with being a mouthful of a title, the game’s campaign sees the return of familiar faces as they’re injected into a new context. Although we’re not entirely through sampling the game’s multiplayer suite—Toby’s thoughts on the multiplayer will follow in the coming days—we have paid a visit to big hair 80s, where greed and conflict drove the decade into some particularly dark places. 

Although Cold War sees the return of popular characters like Mason, Woods, and Hudson, it ultimately feels like an alternate-universe version of them. They’re similarly nuanced and share the same ticks except, just as Barry Sloane took over the mantle of Captain Price, none of the big players returned to voice their roles. Of course, the 80s context sees the introduction of new faces, from the scar-faced, Robert Redford-like Adler, who serves as the Hannibal of your covert A-Team, to real-world historical figures who don’t always enjoy a flattering spotlight in this political powder keg of a plot. 

The plot starts explosively, kicking an intercontinental manhunt into effect as your team hunts down the game’s big bad, a Soviet spy named Perseus. Armed with one of America’s once-secret, eleventh-hour nukes, his threats to frame the United States for a Cold War catastrophe acts as a brilliant catalyst for a standard, punchy six to eight hour Call of Duty single-player campaign. Being a Black Ops title, the final act sees the screw turn with a somewhat derivative, mindfuck plot twist that only the sci-fi subsect of Call of Duty can get away with. I wholeheartedly expected it so it didn’t hit quite as hard as the original Black Ops. 

All in all, it’s a serviceable and more grounded return to the Black Ops formula that hits a lot of great heights, all the while forming a compelling connective tissue between it and the Modern Warfare games with a crossover that’ll catch many off-guard. 

Although you’ll certainly serve time as Mason during the game’s campaign, the majority of it will be spent playing as a character codenamed ‘Bell’. All of the finer details are up to you—name, place of birth, gender—and you’re also able to build out the character’s psychological profile in the form of two attributes that offer two passive buffs such as greater health, greater damage output or even damage reduction for explosives. There’s a little bit of option to mold Cold War into an experience that better suits you. The only unfortunate thing is that you, as Bell, choose between dialogue options throughout the story, though with no voice-over work done they remain silent throughout which seems like a small thing, but it does dent the game’s selling of the character in this setting.

I really enjoyed the way the Cold War campaign unfolded. An elaborate, connected web of leads you’ll circle on a pinboard before finishing in the middle, where Perseus is waiting. With his cold gaze watching you scramble for leads, I felt his presence even in his absence as the tension and urgency of the narrative felt earned. While the pinboard always points you toward the next story mission, there are also a couple of side missions you’re able to explore once you’ve compiled the necessary evidence—which can be unearthed in many of the story’s replayable levels. They’re not essential to reaching the endgame, but whether to succeed or not will play a role in what ending you see before the credits roll. Cold War has multiple endings, so despite the brevity of the experience it at least warrants a return visit or two. 

Although it doesn’t seem to ever reach the lofty heights of the original Black Ops, Cold War’s campaign is full of some terrific moments. For a change, it isn’t thanks to the explosive, sledgehammer moments that the series has become known for, it’s instead the nuanced, subtle moments—full of tension—that stand out here. The mission that takes place within the walls of the KGB is a certain highlight, it’s a multi-path espionage effort to frame and betray countrymen all for the greater good and it’s a phenomenal slice of layered design not common to Call of Duty. Of course, there are still plenty of big blockbuster set pieces that’ll get your blood pumping. 

As it always has been, the gunplay in Cold War is tremendously tight. It’s the reason Call of Duty has existed as the primetime shooter for over a decade and, fortunately, not a whole lot of refinement has been required here. With a campaign that drifts between decades, there is a lot of variety in what’s on offer. Plenty of guns withstanding, Cold War has spectacular moments where you’ll utilise explosive-strapped remote control cars, fly choppers through the irregular Vietnamese mountainscape, and bear down on your enemies with the fearsome AC-130—it wouldn’t be a Call of Duty game without it. 

Cold War is a beautiful game that, like most Call of Duty games, takes you to plenty of places with great seasonal variety so that the environmental artists can flex their muscle a little bit. Cold War features a cracking era-appropriate soundtrack that inserts itself from the first second as the opening crawl is backed by Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky” which came as a nice surprise to someone expecting the lowest hanging fruit in Creedence Clearwater Revival. 

It’s short and doesn’t exactly reach the soaring heights that Black Ops did a decade ago, but Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War throws out the template for how to knock together a Call of Duty game and presses on in an unexpected direction that combines the traditional spectacle the series is known for with thought out, methodical spy heroics that transform moments from Cold War’s campaign into a pressure cooker. 

THIS GAME WAS TESTED ON AN XBOX SERIES X FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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There’s a moment in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla where protagonist Eivor is given the hidden blade. It’s an undying symbol of the franchise – a staple that fans have come to expect in every game for the last thirteen years. But Eivor wears it differently to the other Assassin’s throughout the series, much to the chagrin of the person who gives it to him, but still respects what it represents. I can’t think of a better analogue to describe Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. It dramatically departs from both Origins and Odyssey in many ways and harkens back to what many people loved about the first few games. But it’s a tad more complicated than that.

Valhalla takes place in the ninth century across mainly Norway and what would become England. You play as Eivor, a Viking warrior of the raven clan, as they begin their taking of Europe against King Alfred and the Anglo-Saxon faction in England. During their initial settlement, Eivor begins the expansion, forging allegiances with warring factions in different kingdoms to take the continent and expand their presence. In doing so, they embroil themselves in the age-old conflict between the prototypical Assassins, the “Hidden Ones” and their rival faction “The Order of the Ancients.”

Two years ago, I was excited to proclaim that Odyssey presented a story that had me enamoured from beginning to end. Despite my initial apprehension about the setting and mythology the game was drawing from, I’m chuffed to be able to say Valhalla does the same thing. Equal parts political intrigue and family drama, Valhalla has several plot threads and characters that grabbed me from the get-go and never let go. The modern-day plot continues too, and two years ago, I surmised Odyssey was building to something, and oh boy does Valhalla humour me in a big way.

Valhalla’s unique storyline brings with it a unique main quest structure too. In your settlement, Eivor can select a territory to “pledge” to, thus beginning an “arc.” In that arc is a self-contained story (though some elements carry over). Eivor carries out quests and tasks to win that territory over as an ally for his clan. You can sometimes choose which pledge you can take on first, though each one is power graded to give an idea of what order they should be completed in.

This system makes sense – bridging the narrative and gameplay gap beautifully. But it makes Valhalla feel a little bit modular, like a television show. And with that format comes warts and all, such as the filler episodes. While Valhalla’s overall narrative arc is compelling from beginning to end, one or two of these individualised arcs could be removed to improve the game’s pacing. Is Valhalla too long? Yes, it is, but its central gameplay mechanics are strong enough that it only just scrapes over, but some might find it a tad bloated.

Punctuating each arc tends to be a full-blown assault, which is where the Viking experience in Valhalla really comes full circle. Atoning for the morose conquest battles in Odyssey, these marquee battles are a joy to participate in. Whether you’re commanding the battering ram as it explodes through a castle gate, destroying armaments on a castle wall, or just fighting on the ground, the assaults are some of the highlights of Valhalla.

Following more in the footsteps of Origins, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla keeps what worked from the last two games while also reincorporating what’s sorely missed from as early as Assassin’s Creed II. The result is a game that’s less of an RPG – to the point where you won’t have to incessantly sift through equipment, stats, numbers, and levels to work out if an assassination will work properly. Instead, Valhalla rewards skill instead of “playing the game” with numbers. If you enter an area with powerful enemies, it’s theoretically possible to down them but much, much harder. And yes, assassinations work like they used to.

The combat itself is, without a doubt, the most significant achievement in Valhalla. Easily the series best, every move in the game has a hefty weight to it. Eivor can dual wield almost every weapon in any configuration, even the heavier ones, as you progress up the skill tree. With such weight comes careful consideration too, though, and the games twenty-plus enemy types encourage you to be more cautious with your strikes than just mashing. You can parry and counter in Valhalla, just like in previous games, but you can’t just sleepwalk through battles countering like in previous games.

Abilities and skills have been completely revamped in Valhalla too. A starry constellation acts as your “skill tree” which you can respect at any time, offering improvements to stats and unlockable passive skills. Unlike other games, the more substantial combat abilities are tied to collectible tomes, which are hidden in the game world. It’s a choice that makes exploration feel a little more critical, though I feel like it wasn’t completely necessary. The abilities themselves feel like a huge step up from Odyssey, which often had skills bordered on magic. Valhalla, while still fantastical, feels a lot more grounded with its abilities.

And honestly, I’ll never get tired of grabbing enemies with a harpoon before flinging them into a wall or another enemy. Or throwing a flurry of axes at a ring of oncoming enemies. It’s a satisfying combat system with heaps of abilities that never gets old. Oh, and you can decapitate and dismember enemies. Which is barbaric, but so bloody good.

The boat makes a return in Valhalla, except this time it’s more for transport than anything else. Eschewing the previous games’ naval combat, you’ll mainly use your boat to traverse the complex network of rivers throughout England. You can ram other boats at times, but it’s otherwise a transport method rather than another method of combat. The boat is integral to the activities you’ll be performing, too – often to raid monasteries to pillage and plunder materials for your own settlement.

The settlement is the other significant and new addition to Valhalla, but the franchise’s keen fans will recognise Ravensthorpe from any angle. Essentially, Ravensthorpe works similarly to Monteriggioni from Assassin’s Creed II. Using the resources garnered from raids and assaults, Eivor can restore buildings to open up new quest lines, unlock new abilities from it’ sits settlers, and purchase equipment and customisations. It’s lacking the lengthy history that the real-world Monteriggioni had, but it functions pretty much the same. You can customise certain positions with relics and the like, but this feels decidedly old school, and I only say that with praise. You can even feast before a raid to grant your team buffs.

Beyond the main quest, there’s heaps to do in Valhalla, and even though it’s optional, it still feels meaningful. Whether it be flyting, hunting, witch hunting, fishing, or even drinking games, there’s always something to do in England. Flyting is my personal favourite – allowing you to exchange insults that rhyme with someone to improve Eivor’s charisma. Better charisma leads to extra dialogue choices during missions, so it feels like a no brainer.

But side missions are done so differently in Valhalla that I’d be remiss not to talk about them. Called “mysteries” in each region, Valhalla’s side missions are so short that they don’t even make their way into your quest log. They’re commonly short, self-contained stories that take less than five minutes to complete. And while they’re small, they’re often so well-written and so quick-witted that I find it hard to be mad. To get me invested in such a short period is a testament to their writing strength and means they don’t feel like padding.

Both Norway and England are brought to life with beauty in Valhalla too. While not quite as exotic as Egypt and Greece, Valhalla’s England brandishes a different yet equally mesmerising sense of beauty. There was never a point where I thought Valhalla looked bad, though there were moments where I felt the lip-syncing could’ve been a little bit better. It’s not a deal-breaker by any means but having these realistic characters in these beautiful locales slapping their lips together brutishly sometimes takes you out of the mood.

Owing to Valhalla’s general feeling being a throwback, the game is scored by Jesper Kyd for the first time in ten years, since Brotherhood. The result is an ambient score that is equal parts tranquil and haunting. On the other side of the coin, the more action-oriented music is scored by Sarah Schachner and Einar Selvik, who ironically makes the music for the television series Vikings. As you’d expect, these pieces are distinctly unique to Valhalla and help sell that Viking experience the game works so hard to build.

Xbox Series X Impressions

(Words by Brodie Gibbons)

When running at 60 frames per second in full 4K HDR, Valhalla stands up as the most visually pleasing game of the series so far. Although its colour palette is a bit more muted in the early going against a wintery Norway backdrop, the English sun breaks through after a few hours and lifts it up nearer the lush sheen of Odyssey’s Grecian gardens. The lighting is stunning and there aren’t many open-world games that look quite this good in motion. 

Load times are vastly improved from Xbox One X to Series X. For example, fast travelling between continents alone shows a staggering difference in speeds. It should be noted that these times were tested independently by James and myself, and therefore the times for continued save in particular could be skewed by our respective progress—James is obviously far ahead of me. 

Continuing a game save: 

• • Xbox Series X – 0:17:10 
  • Xbox One X – 1:29:00

As for sailing the North Sea: England to Norway, the latter of which is the smaller of the two maps takes 0:56.2 on Xbox One X while it only took 0:16:32 on Series X. And the return journey took a staggering 1:32.1 on the older machine and just 0:17.5 on Series X.

And of course, thanks to Quick Resume, all of these loading screens fast become negligible for Series X users once the game has already booted. In just a few short seconds, you’re able to pull Valhalla back up from its suspended state and pick up right where you left off after time away from the game. It’s insane and I can’t get over how convenient the feature really is. 

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla feels like a subtle reversion to how the series felt in its early years, recapturing the old glory of the franchise while bringing forward all of the best parts from recent iterations. The experience is made all the smoother thanks to next-gen hardware. 

THE XBOX VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS TESTED ON AN XBOX SERIES X/XBOX ONE X FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER. WE LOVE BRINGING YOU THE BEST GAMING AND TECH BARGAINS. WE MAY GET A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THE SALE THROUGH AFFILIATE PARTNERSHIPS

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It’s hard to believe that 2010 was already a decade ago. Nonetheless, here we are. 

Marking the tenth anniversary of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Criterion Games and Stellar Entertainment have once again come together, as they did for Burnout Paradise Remasteredback in 2018. Much like last time, they’ve remastered and repackaged the original game, updating the visuals for the current generation of consoles and bundling in additional DLC.

Needless to say, this feels like a bit of a stopgap. Solid an arcade racer it may be, it’s worth noting the first remaster in Need for Speed’s history comes on the precipice of the next-generation of consoles. Perhaps this is more of a pitstop, refueling for bigger and better things ahead.

Whilst I still dream about a return of the Carbon or Underground subseries — albeit with a new game and not a remaster — the Hot Pursuit games are among my favourites. Long time listeners of the Press Start Podcast might remember I played so much of Hot Pursuit 2on the PlayStation 2 that the pause screen was permanently burnt into the display.

Of course, this is a far cry from what I spent hours playing back then. As you’d expect from a remaster, the graphical fidelity is hugely improved. Going back to the original PlayStation 3 version was a shock to the system seeing how far we’ve come since then.

All the licensed cars look as good as you’d expect these days, but the surrounding environments — which are the same sections of forest, coastline, countryside, or desert on repeat — all seem rather flat and lifeless. Of course, with the cops hot on your tail, you’re not likely to be taking in the surroundings.

With only a handful of exceptions, the roster of cars is mostly the same as they originally were. With the Super Sports Pack, Lamborghini Untamed, and Porsche Unleashed, the game’s DLC, now integrated into the main career, expect more than your fair sure of Porsches and Lambos stocked into your garage.

Disappointingly, they all feel exactly the same to drive, however. Nothing feels like it handles any differently; the speed and acceleration sliders are just adjusted here and there. These are all cars designed to go fast, and that’s where the variety ends.

As far as I could tell, the soundtrack is mostly the same too. In itself, it’s a bit of a musical time capsule. Hearing ‘Opposite of Adults’ by Chiddy Bang was a throwback.

As far as the gameplay checks out ten years on, it a rather unobtrusive, easily accessible arcade racing game. True to form for Need for Speed, tracks are rather forgiving and invite you to maintain a high speed and slide around every corner. Keeping your foot down, picking the right shortcut, and refilling your boost is the key to posting the fastest times.

Here comes in to play the much-talked-about Autolog system, which features in the marketing today as much as it did back then. Capturing your fastest times and achievements, Autolog records you and your connection’s accomplishments and pits you against each other for bragging rights. At the time, I understand it was a point of difference, but is part and parcel of multiplayer racers.

Whilst I couldn’t find a race pre-launch, everything you’d come to expect from multiplayer is carried over. I appreciate that you can set up custom races for just you and your friends and split up into racers and cops. 

Of course, the fundaments of the police pursuit orientated subseries are all here. The titular mode, Hot Pursuit, sees a point to point street race thwarted by a police chase. Suddenly having to concentrate on more than holding your racing line, these chaotic modes are where the game shines. It can get quite desperate stuff, as your car’s health dwindles low and you duck and weave between traffic to scrape across the line in the first position.

Whilst the game’s slow to start, as soon as you open up the full gamut of races and modes it picks up pace. Of course, in Hot Pursuitthere are two separate careers which you can complete simultaneously: one as a Racer and the other as a Cop. I’d recommend bouncing back and forth between the two, swapping shoes every so often to break up the rather tedious time trials.

I had as much fun sabotaging races as I did evading the law.

As you unlock extra equipment races heat up even further. Not only do the Cops have an arsenal of helicopters, spike strips, and EMPs at their disposal, but the Racers also have a few tricks up their sleeves. In some of the most adrenaline-inducing modes where you have a set amount of these powerups from the jump, you’d be forgiven for confusing this with a combat racing game. 

All this aside, it’s a rather no-frills racing game. Absent is any sort of real narrative or car customisation. The former isn’t missed, but the latter is a little bit of shame. Limited only to a palette of colour options and a pretty rudimental photo mode, it’s hard to get excited about poking around the garage despite the litany of licensed vehicles.

Still, the sorest letdown of the game is the tracks and the setting. The tracks aren’t anything special, lending themselves to sprinting from A to B without giving it much thought. One alpine course with a series of hairpin turns is a notable exception, but otherwise, they’re pretty bland.

Weirdly, half the time the ‘shortcuts’ feel like a waste of time. Besides getting a little bit of refill on your boost, often it’s a short jaunt offroad that doesn’t feel like it’s closed the gap on the race leader at all.

A free roam mode is available too, which can drop you in on the map at any of the race starts. Why you’d ever bother to do this is beyond me, unless maybe you wanted to test a car or mess around with a photo mode that does afford you a few more options drive. The world’s terribly empty with no real offroad areas to poke about or collectibles to uncover.

Perhaps my biggest complaint with this remaster is how unnecessary it is. They had already remastered the better game in Burnout Paradise and this just doesn’t feel like it was necessary. Again, it feels like a stopgap. Unless you’re bored to death with Burnout or Forza Horizon 4 and have an itch to scratch, I can’t recommend what is a lesser game.

THE PS4 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS TESTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

The post Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered Review – An Unnecessary Detour appeared first on Press Start.

The Yakuza series has long subscribed to the ethos of narrative and setting first, with gameplay designed specifically to complement those coming in a close second. When it was announced that Yakuza Like a Dragon, the seventh mainline game in the franchise and the first to replace series staple Kiryu with a new protagonist, would also do away with real-time combat in favour of a turn-based JRPG battle system, fans might have been (rightly) concerned. I know I was. It’s nice to be wrong on occasion though, as it turns out that not only is this a worthy entry – it’s the most Yakuza Yakuza game yet.

Like most new crime family inductees, Ichiban Kasuga is an orphan. Raised in a ‘soapland’ where he spends most of his youth playing Dragon Quest in the back office, Kasuga’s life hits rock bottom when his de facto father, the club’s owner, dies. This prompts him to leave school and fend for himself on the streets of Kamurocho, eventually finding his way into the Arakawa family branch of the Tojo Yakuza clan. This is about where the game begins, with Kasuga working small-time beats for the family in the very red light district that series fans will be all-too familiar with. Kasuga’s life as a young Yakuza isn’t exactly glamorous, in fact it’s a lot more fetching toilet plungers and chasing down fake porn peddlers more than anything, but he quickly finds himself with a bigger job than most – taking the fall for a higher-up in the family and going to prison for 18 years.

Those heroic aspirations carries him through at least one more life-altering event after his prison term too, as a betrayal quickly leaves him for dead in an entirely new location, the Ijincho district of Yokohama. The game’s lengthy introductory chapters have a big job to do in setting up a brand new main character in this established series, but the most important groundwork laid is Kasuga’s obsession with old-school JRPGs and its significance as the lens in which he views the world, especially having spent the majority of his adult life in jail. There’s no shortage of irony in a protagonist who’s obsessed with being a hero but has been raised on Yakuza values, giving him an entertaining and ultimately endearing-ly warped perspective that results in one hell of a character arc.

I hesitate to delve too much into the game’s overall narrative (these games don’t deserve spoiling in any capacity) but what follows is very typical of the series, rife with clan wars, political intrigue and more than a few holy shit moments.  Some of its big reveals, especially in the game’s latter half, require such strong suspension of disbelief it might as well be expelled, but that’s Yakuza in a nutshell. The story does benefit heavily from being something of a fresh start, meaning you don’t need a series worth of knowledge to fully engage with the story, but if you’re going in with experience you’re sure to appreciate the nods to entries old that range from subtle to an emphatic “Did that just happen?!”.

The district of Ijincho where you’ll spend the majority of the game is also an extremely interesting setting rife with tension and turmoil, as the de facto home of displaced Chinese immigrants pushed out of Yokohama’s Chinatown who find both kinship and purpose in a trio of controlling crime families. It’s probably one of the most diverse settings in the series and easily has as much personality as Kamurocho. Gorgeous waterfronts, city centres, restaurant strips, slums and highways add up to a far bigger single area than I can recall experiencing in a Yakuza game. Just be careful crossing roads – you can totally be hit by cars again.

So far, so Yakuza. But if you’ve been following the release of Like A Dragon you’ll already be well aware that this isn’t the same Yakuza that fans know. In an impressively bold effort to support Kasuga’s character and narrative, the game features JRPG-style turn based combat instead of the usual real-time brawling. It’s a huge departure, and one that long-time fans might rightly be apprehensive of, but I’m happy to say that it absolutely works.

There are two sides to what makes combat in Like A Dragon make sense, starting with the full context of its narrative. We know that Kasuga and his newfound crew aren’t actually waiting their turn to get a punch in when they’re rumbling with thugs on the street, rather what the player experiences is our hero’s unique perspective made tangible in the mechanics of the game. From the way random crims and creeps on the street seemingly transform into outlandish caricatures with delightfully-bad pun names like Steamed Punk and Dotcombatant to the menagerie of mundane items like soup ladles, wine bottles and even the odd ‘massage wand’ standing in as powerful weapons, there’s no pretense of realism here. It’s all a game to Kasuga, and it’s quite literally a game to the player, so why not embrace that?

This is bolstered by a job system that takes the idea of job systems very literally, forcing Kasuga and co to attend a job placement program called Hello Work that helps them enrol in a variety of new career choices ranging from bar hosts/hostesses to chefs to street musicians. Like enemies, the party transforms themselves into these roles when a battle starts, and half the fun is just seeing these characters dressed up in what amounts to vocational cosplay complete with the aforementioned ridiculous weapons and themed abilities.

The other side of the combat equation is simply that it’s still a ton of fun. Despite the shift to a turn-based system, it’s anything but passive. The way a battle pans out isn’t solely dictated by the actions you pick for your party members, with plenty of opportunity for shenanigans both intentional and otherwise. Taking a leaf from the Paper Mario games, characters’ unique abilities can often be made more effective by executing command prompts in time, which goes a long way to making combat feel more involved. Positioning also plays a critical role with classic Yakuza environmental objects like bicycles and traffic cones still coming in handy – if there’s on object in-between a party member and their chosen target they’re likely to make violent use of it along the way. Likewise if an enemy gets in the path of an attacking there’s a good chance they’ll interrupt the move, or get swept up in it, and vice versa.

This all adds a much-appreciated but unobtrusive layer of strategy and viscerality to combat that goes a long way to make what could have been a jarring transition feel more like a natural side step. Having a whole party to play with works really well with a lot of traditional Yakuza systems too, like touching base with people in bars – when you chat to your team mates at Bar Survive not only do Kasuga’s personality traits level up but his bonds with the others strengthen and that in turn gives them bonuses like passive EXP gains and new job aspirations. It borrows as much from games like Persona as it does Dragon Quest, not least when you start finding actual Persona soundtrack CDs to play at the bar while you work on your social skills.

There’s even a whole, optional sewer ‘dungeon’ not unlike Persona 5‘s Mementos that’s made available for grinding EXP. You’re first introduced to it in an early-ish chapter, as part of the story, but you’re able to revisit it nearly any time. The unfortunate thing is its grey walls and repeated corridors are super boring to look at, and not overly fun to play in either. I never found that I really needed to venture down there, and a dungeon built specifically to get around an imbalance in the game’s challenge climb works as a silly homage to the concept in other RPGs. Still, from a fun perspective it’s… well, it’s just not. Especially when the very first time you’re forced to run it as part of a story beat is the longest and least interesting go around, and will probably make you never want to go back again.

So that’s a lot about what’s new in Yakuza Like a Dragon, but diehard fans should fear not for this is still very much the series they know and love. From a structural point of view, not much has changed. The game’s fourteen chapters are rife with opportunities to be distracted, whether it’s exploring character side stories, helping out Ijincho citizens with their troubles, unwinding at a Club SEGA with playable arcade classics like Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown or getting in a few rounds of karaoke. Nearly every staple mechanic has been carried across either wholesale or rolled into the new systems in some way, which goes a long way to making its massive departures feel a lot less massive.

New mini-game content runs the gamut from a seriously-involved business management sim that sees you answer to a chicken named Omelette as well as a Mario Kart clone called Dragon Kart. The latter is a personal favourite of mine, not only because kart racing is a ton of fun but because it’s wrapped up in a dramatic and personality-filled storyline to rival the most intense sports anime.

Like a Dragon is also an impeccably-presented game, as you would expect from the series’ modern entries. Utilising the same engine that powered Yakuza 6 and Judgment, the streets of Ijincho are dense, intricate and full of life. It’s the character models and animations that continue to be a highlight though; in the game’s impressively-cinematic cutscenes they’re rich in detail and personality, and their animations in traversal and combat are both masterfully-crafted and super stylish. When we previewed the game a few weeks ago we played on both PC and the Xbox Series X and came away very impressed, and while the game running on a PlayStation 4 Pro for this review definitely comes at a cost of resolution, framerate and some texture detail but it still looks fantastic. The occasional pre-rendered cutscenes also stick out far less on a current-gen platform than they do on the newer hardware where video compression and a lower framerate can be jarring.

The game’s English cast do a commendable job nearly across the board, lending charm and personality to the characters, though Greg Chun’s version of Nanba took a bit to grow on me. The inclusion of an English dub at all, something the mainline series hasn’t had since the original release of the very first game, is a sign of commitment from Sega of America that’s almost worth double when you consider how much more batshit this entry is compared to the last. The English translation is stellar as usual, delivering the narrative with exactly the right mix of nuance and goofy humour and even taking some hilarious creative liberties with scenes in the game that might’ve otherwise played awkwardly. The team has clearly had a lot of fun with some of the incidental text and dialogue too, with an abundance of puns and plenty of references for the Yakuza fandom (and plenty of others) to pick up on. Plus, an English dub means we get English versions of the game’s karaoke tracks and… well, they just need to be experienced.

That said, there’s definitely content here that Western audiences might find more objectionable and/or uncomfortable, which again won’t be new to series regulars, and the game does at least highlight this in a splash screen when it boots up. Cultural differences, especially when it concerns things like gender power dynamics and the treatment of sex workers, are seemingly baked deeper into the game’s identity than a translation can dig out.

So much of both Kasuga’s story and the setting of Ijincho centres around its homeless community, which winds up playing a fairly big part of the game, and is something that might not land the same for Western audiences. I’m on the fence about whether its representation is explicitly malicious in moments but, even in the English text, there are a fair few throwaway jokes and flavour texts that feel out of line. It tends to turn on a dime between being an earnest portrayal of homelessness and then giving you a Pac-Man inspired can collecting minigame and enemies named “Hungry Hungry Homeless”.

THE PS4 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS TESTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Though I freely admit I came into Dirt with a preconceived notion about what to expect based on decades-old dabblings with Colin McRae Rally, it was soon evident that this is a series that has undergone a real identity-shift. Though there are still moments where you’ll be tasked with tactfully managing hairpins during a bleak, midwinter snowfall, the responsive arcade-feel of this newest Dirt coupled with a youthful aesthetic make it one of the most accessible, welcoming entries the series has seen. 

Even if the driving itself and the cars remain the main event of Dirt 5, Codemasters has knocked together a career mode that’ll serve as background noise for players who’ll work their way through the game’s exhaustive list of events. I say background noise because, even though the talents of both Troy Baker and Nolan North were enlisted, their performances are voice-only and are relegated to infrequent in-ear exposition and spatters of trash talk with the game’s pair of radio jockeys who fill the airwaves with the goings-on of our driver on the rise. 

There’s no shortage of events to pick from in Dirt 5’s career mode. The first chapter offers sixteen races, the last chapter offers almost thirty, and there are so many more within the game’s middle acts. There’ll be no shortage of globetrotting as the career takes you to plenty of the world’s beautiful corners, with each offering several circuits that best showcase each of the game’s eight event types. So even as the scenery grows increasingly familiar, the experiences manage to feel fresh throughout. That said, even though it’s bound to be on the to-do lists of completionists, Dirt 5 doesn’t funnel you through each of its hundred-plus events, instead, it allows players to pick a path through the bracket and have the experience that suits them. 

You’ll gradually unlock Showdown events, once-off clashes with other up and coming drivers of repute—they ultimately feel inconsequential to the career and exist to serve as a challenge greater than that already on offer but, by offering one lone rival who’s no more cunning than those you’d already left in the rearview, they miss the mark. Sponsors also help flesh out the career experience, giving players that repetitious dopamine through completing race objectives, racking up the rep, and unlocking stickers and liveries to kit out your cars with.  

The career is broken up into five chapters and, although you become the voiceless middleman in a sour rivalry between your mentor Alex “AJ” Janicek, voiced by Baker, and Nolan North’s cocksure Bruno Durand, it’s clear the two are having a little bit of fun with it even if they’re not turning in the calibre of performance they’re capable of. Considering the last thing you see before the credits roll is a short, sharp farewell and kudos from AJ that’s nearly compressed into oblivion, it feels a little lacklustre. 

Dirt 5 feels like a distant departure from the Colin McRae games of old, it drastically lowers the skill ceiling needed to take the wheel and have a bit of fun. It’s far less tactical, instead opting for a simpler arcade feel that does remind me of MotorStorm, which makes sense, given the underrated off-road racer appears on the resumes of several developers that worked on this game. That said, despite having that pedigree, I don’t feel Dirt lets its hair down enough. The game is at its best and most fun when it leans into the unconventional and you’re soaring through the air or taking to the rock faces of Mesa Valley like a mountain goat. Each of the game’s car classes handles distinctly, from the lighter built classics to the far finickier sprint cars but the biggest tactile difference comes from the many different surfaces you’ll take the cars screaming around. Of course, there’s bitumen, dirt, ice, and everything in between, especially once the game’s dynamic weather blows in and transforms the track in the middle of a race. 

Unfortunately, although there’s a neat Garage where you’re able to browse the cars in your collection, as well as those that aren’t, the game doesn’t offer any real, meaningful under the hood customisation. It exists as a means to inspect, study the set performance and handling stats for each car and customise the livery—not being able to tune and tinker keeps Dirt on that tier beneath games like Forza Horizon which have offered deeper, more mechanically-minded features like this for a long time now. 

One area where Dirt 5 makes the most of user creativity is in Playgrounds. As a map editor, it’s primarily limited to the game’s spectator events so while you can make a traditional little race circuit with it, I wouldn’t say they’re the focus of the tool. There are only a few playgrounds you’re able to create with—and two of them are in the Mesa Valley, so there’s not a lot of variety just yet—but there’s an impressive breadth of placeable objects. Like most editors, Playgrounds will live and by on user engagement but it appears as though there’s enough here to keep people occupied and the stuff I’ve played even pre-launch has been super fun.  

In an attempt to appeal to a younger audience, the game has adopted a real vibrant, pastel colour palette that looks as though a paint bomb has exploded all over the in-game menus. All of the player profile unlockables share this fresh vibe, with hundreds of cool stickers, lanyards and cards to mix and match. Although the indoor drift events share in the multicolour spectacle, the game outdoors is an otherwise straight-laced beauty. There’s a lot of stunning scenery to drink up on tour, from the bamboo canopied roads of China to the breathtaking northern lights that blanket the night skies of Norway. As the game has a focus on all of the off-road debris like dirt and mud—it’s in the name, after all—Dirt 5 has some terrific particle effects, from the way a fine-powdered track becomes one with a car’s body kit to the way autumnal leaves surf the wind currents that run across the track. 

Although it’s beautiful for much of the time, there are some small visual hang-ups that often accompany these smaller flourishes. On occasion, the same windswept debris, like leaves, balloons and even confetti if you’re so fortunate to enjoy the spoils of victory will simply become stuck in midair. It’s a passing inconvenience, but it does distract briefly from an otherwise gorgeous presentation. I also noticed instances of screen tearing and artifacting in the peripheries of my screen, but it was limited to my sampling of the game’s frame rate setting rather than the one tailored for graphical fidelity. 

The game has a pretty standard serving of rock tracks to accompany the traction-packed ride that is Dirt 5—the kind of pub rock your dad probably listens to. However, the game strangely defaults to a 3D audio setting where the currently playing song can only be heard when passing populated spots on the track. For the most part, this makes it impossible to hear a song when you’re far from spectators and areas where it’d make sense for in-house speakers to be, leaving only the sounds of nature, the churning of engines, and burning of fossil fuels. Fortunately, it’s as simple as popping into the menu and switching it over to 2D audio, the only appropriate option for a soundtrack that includes The Killers.

Although we’re not able to speak about our experience with regards to the performance on Xbox Series X yet, you can still read our initial impressions about Dirt 5 running on the new console here.

The post Dirt 5 Review – A Traction-Packed Ride appeared first on Press Start.

The Dark Pictures is a concept I’m totally on board with. Shorter games are released in quicker bursts of time that tap into some of the horror tropes we’ve come to know and love. It’s very similar to American Horror Story really, except there’s obviously a lot more to consider when making a game versus making a television show. I had my concerns about whether Little Hope, the second volume of The Dark Pictures, would be up to par given how quickly it’s been put together. Thankfully, it’s mostly better than Man of Medan, but not without some caveats.

Little Hope follows four college students who are on a field trip with their professor late at night. Due to traffic works, the bus is detoured and must travel through the small town of Little Hope. Located in New England, Little Hope is a town infamous for witch-hunting trials in the early sixteenth century. Suddenly, the bus crashes, leaving the group stranded in Little Hope with no way of escaping. It’s there that, through a flashback, they witness the execution of a group of settlers who look just like them. Naturally, the group just wants to escape and discover their connection to Little Hope and why these people look just like them.

Tonally, Little Hope continues the pattern we saw in Man of Medan, opting for a more psychological and suspenseful thriller than the campier and over the top Until Dawn. The story is serviceable, drawing liberal inspiration from gritty horror media about witches, including both The Witch and The Blair Witch Project. The result is something a little bit predictable. However, there’s no subverting of your expectations in the same vein as Man of Medan did with Manchurian Gold.

One of the things most of these games struggle with is creating a cast of characters that are all likeable. Little Hope does a surprisingly good job of making you actually want to save each of the characters. It’s a bit of a triumph, given the cast is entirely comprised of college students, a mature age student, and a professor, but it gives more weight and pressure to every sequence in which they find themselves in danger.

Returning from Man of Medan is the suite of multiplayer options, Shared Story and Movie Night. Shared Story allows you to jump online and play with a friend as if you were playing split-screen locally. It’s this way you’ll experience both sides of the story, especially when your group splits up. Movie Night allows you to pass around the controller amongst a group of up to five, to work together to make sure the cast survives. They’re both smart ways to take the formula established in Until Dawn to new levels and experiencing this kind of story with friends is a joy.

While it’s clear that the Dark Pictures games will be primarily designed around these modes — it is the first menu option, after all — Little Hope does a better job at being a solo experience. I’d often feel like I was missing parts of the story in Man of Medan, thus not getting the full experience when I played solo. In Little Hope, the extra stuff only seeks to strengthen the development rather than explain it, so it’s not a huge deal if you want to play solo.

There was rarely an instance where time felt wasted in Little Hope – it’s a surprisingly well-paced experience. It’s bizarre because the gameplay doesn’t even feel that much different to Man of Medan, but the way the story and the characters are written just seems to carry Little Hope with a bit more bravado seems to be a winning formula. Where I’d been tired of Man of Medan before the credits rolled, Little Hope left me wanting to do another playthrough immediately after.

The game does a great job of informing you about which events and which decisions you make impact your relationships with everyone else. At any point, you can open a menu to explore your characters, their relationships, and how your choices influence their personalities. Such traits will then influence how they’ll behave in future scenes. Sometimes, even the smallest thing will have huge repercussions later in the story, and I love getting insight into how each of my actions affected my personality traits for each character.

But let me talk about the thing I liked the least about Little Hope, and it’s a bit of a big one but one that’ll be entirely subjective. Little Hope is obviously a horror game, but it’s filled to the brim with incessant jump scares and loud noises after extended periods of silence. These are understandably a stalwart when it comes to cheap horror, especially with the advent of Blumhouse films, but I really wished that Little Hope would try to do better.

The game is continuously throwing jump scares at you to the point where it simply wasn’t scary anymore. It even uses the same jump scare multiple times as a scene transition, and it was quite honestly tiresome. If I had to see another ghost girl grab my wrist and scream at me again, my eyes would’ve rolled up into my brain. It’s the video game equivalent of a popcorn movie that streamers will no doubt eat up, but I felt like they could’ve done a bit more with the horror to make it more frightening.

That being said, significant work has been done to improve the player experience in Little Hope, and that’s not to be ignored. For one, every character controls a lot better than previously but can also speed walk to help the pacing for those long stretches of walking and talking. Similarly, there are little prompts that appear before quick time event prompts to get you ready for whatever the game is about to throw at you. I’m in two minds about this. For one, it’s much more user-friendly, but it made the game feel a little bit easier to get through without killing anyone. Perhaps that’s just me, but I felt like I really had to fight harder in Man of Medan to keep my crew alive.

The presentation is pretty much what you’d expect from a Supermassive game at this point. While the Dark Pictures games are never going to reach their magnum opus Until Dawn’s lofty production values, Little Hope still looks phenomenal. Consider that this game was produced in under a year and sells at a budget price, it’s a pretty stellar achievement. Sure, there are times when the uncanny valley hits, and things look decidedly off. Still, Little Hope offers tremendous production values and bang for your buck without a doubt.

THE XBOX VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS TESTED ON AN XBOX ONE X FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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With the advent of Assassin’s Creed Origin, I was a little bit worried that Ubisoft might try to make Watch Dogs into another lite RPG. While the series hasn’t had eleven games to experiment with its formula, Watch Dogs, as a series, felt pretty feature-complete with the release of Watch Dogs 2 a mere four years ago. Watch Dogs: Legion throws out everything that didn’t work with the first two games and delivers an experience with an ambitious twist—albeit to varying results.

Watch Dogs: Legion takes place in near-future London, following its controversial exit from the European Union. The propagation of technology throughout society has led to economic collapse with the workforce being wiped out and most jobs becoming automated. In the chaos of this bleak and depressing future, several key private figures slowly usurp and become more powerful than local government. Legion opens with a terrorist attack on London and sees hacking collective DedSec framed for it. A relatively new movement in London, the group mobilises and begins recruiting to take the city back.

RELATED: SIX TIPS TO RISE UP FOR LONDON IN WATCH DOGS: LEGION.

Legion represents the first time that I’ve been invested in the story and most of its characters from beginning to end. Perfectly teetering on the edge of fantasy and reality, perhaps the scariest thing about Legion is just how believable it is despite its outlandishness. Make no mistakes, it’s definitely concepts you’ve seen before: consequences of technological overreliance, misuse of technology by those in power, and even transhumanism.

But hanging over Legion’s head is an issue I had trepidation about when it was first announced. Legion has no main character. I understand the concept artistically, to highlight the importance of everyone in the role of revolution. But Legion’s need to have every character voiced with dialogue and reactions creates issues with the plot. For one, the supporting cast tends to talk around your character rather than directly to them. Sometimes, this can feel natural while other times it’s clear the lines weren’t as well fitted, and some interactions can come across as awkward and flat.

It’s disappointing, of course, given the strength of Marcus and his crew in Watch Dogs 2, of whom all have been thrown away now. In their place is a supporting cast that exists purely to exposit when your own character can’t. Bagley assumes this role the most, a Wheatley-type A.I. who does most of the talking in Legion and delivers most of the exposition. The villains are similarly all engaging, but the most interesting ones are relegated to the least screen time. There’s even a huge choice to make at the end of their particular arc — which is bizarrely the only choice in the entire game you have to make — that isn’t ever revisited throughout the game.

Looking at it purely from a design perspective, Legion choosing to make every NPC playable is ambitious. While I do miss playing as a fully decked out Aiden or Marcus, having to correctly assemble a diverse team based on their ability adds a whole layer to the proceedings. Every character you encounter in Watch Dogs: Legion has specific attributes or traits for themselves or that buff your entire team. It’s simple but feels like a natural evolution on the main gimmick that the original Watch Dogs sold itself on.

There are heaps of attributes here that, while procedurally generated, come together to make every character feel unique. Some offer lower cooldowns for hacking abilities. Others provide greater melee damage. Some give you immunity to tear gas. There are probably hundreds, and it’s fun to look through the denizens of London and try to handpick the best ones for your team and to join DedSec.

Similar to the Middle-earth games, each character has a relationship with DedSec, which in turn affects how easily they’ll join your cause. Some will join you after completing a recruitment mission. Others will be a little bit harder to woo and require a bit more work.

So let’s share an anecdote. During my time with Legion, I had my eye on a security guard with excellent skills. Eventually, I accidentally knocked her out during battle — Legion’s weapons are mostly non-lethal by default — but came across her in three separate battles later. Understandably, when I put the time aside to recruit her, she wasn’t interested at all. But after studying her schedule and helping her complete a case by eliminating someone she was investigating, she came around.

It sounds simple, but it’s another layer to the world that many open-world games never really stop to consider implementing. Of course, recruitment missions are also randomly generated, but they’re retrieved from a pool so deep it’s hard to notice the usual caveats that come with procedurally generated content.

But don’t worry — there are still “unique” characters that every player will come across and be able to recruit if you can’t be bothered headhunting through London. The beekeeper is probably the most well known of these, but the James Bond-like spy and professional hitman were some of my own favourites. The former has a silenced weapon and a missile-equipped car, while the latter has unique takedown animations and is a generally better in-your-face fighter.

The moment-to-moment gameplay remains as strong as ever in Legion, too. However, the game simplifies and streamlines a lot of the systems in Watch Dogs 2. The result feels dramatically different from its predecessor but somehow still offers just as much depth. Dipping a little bit into the immersive sim genre, if you can think of doing it with the tools you’re given, then you can pretty much pull it off in Legion. The game feels a lot freer in that regard, and while the obvious solutions are always there, I enjoyed thinking outside of the box and having it actually work.

The changes from Watch Dogs 2 are numerous, though progression feels like the most significant adjustment. Instead of having a sprawling skill tree, Legion lets you upgrade skills and gadgets from a pool of 24, which then carries across to all your operatives. It’s a much more approachable way of handling progression, and relegating these upgrades to gadgets means you can customise any of your operatives to complement their already ingrained traits and attributes. Yes, it’s ostensibly simpler than Watch Dogs 2, but it works better to remove the bloat from progression that so many open-world games lose themselves in.

The commitment to painting a picture of a dystopian London is especially evident in the score, one of Ubisoft’s best. Composer Stephen Barton, of Modern Warfare fame, does a great job of pulling together sounds from the many genres that the UK is perhaps best known for. Be it some transporting trip-hop, smooth electronica, or jagged grime and garage, the original score for Watch Dogs Legion is fantastic and sells the mood oh-so-well.

There’s a nice arrangement of licensed music too — including a memorable use of The Prodigy in one scene — and other acts such as Fatboy Slim, Foals, The Chemical Brothers, Gorillaz, Bring Me The Horizon, and Lily Allen all make appearances. It’s a great and eclectic mix of the best of Britain.

There’s not as much consistency in the voice work, though, which is all over the place. Pascal Langdale, who voices Bagley, does a great job of bringing fun to the whole experience with a witty and dry delivery. Others, such as whoever is playing Sabine, sleepwalk through the script, and rarely inspire their character’s morale. The voicework for everyone else is very hit and miss. Some of them are so exaggerated to the point they borderline on cartoonish. Mary Kelley, one of the villains, tries her best to be threatening but comes across a cockney Catherine Marlowe instead.

Visually, the game looks fantastic, bringing many famous landmarks and boroughs of London to life. Although there are times when it could have been a bit more colourful, the cynic in me continually had to remind myself that well, this is London. But perhaps more importantly, despite Legion running great at 30fps, it serves as a poignant reminder that next-gen is just around the corner. You can expect five to ten seconds of load times between mission areas in Legion. Sometimes, my initial load would even spill over into the minutes. Obviously, this should definitely be improved with the next-gen consoles.

THE XBOX VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS TESTED ON AN XBOX ONE X FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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Doom Eternal was a great experience for me. It took everything I loved about Doom and just expanded it to the point where I didn’t think it could get any better. With the announcement of The Ancient Gods – Part One, I was a bit sceptical as to whether the team at iD could pull it off one more and build upon the strong foundation Doom Eternal had already established. Now, after having spent some time with The Ancient Gods, I’m of two minds.

The Ancient Gods begins shortly after the events of Doom Eternal. The demons that were left in the holy realm of Urdak have stayed behind and corrupted the essence of the sacred place, threatening to use this newfound position to continue their conquests. Of course, Doom Guy has been summoned by a figure from his past to locate the Seraphim to seal the realm of Urdak off from the demons.

The thing about The Ancient Gods is that it doubles down on everything you either loved or hated about Doom Eternal. There is still a plot here, and a basic one at that, that is still fleshed out by a lengthy and detailed codex. There are still some absolutely baller action set pieces that incorporate a wide variety of Doom Eternal’s already meaty bestiary into the fray. But what is different about The Ancient Gods is that it feels like it’s designed for somebody who absolutely knows Doom Eternal inside and out. It takes no prisoners.

While the experience is available separately, you’d be mad for jumping into The Ancient Gods without any former experience. When I first booted up the imaginatively titled “Part One”, I was met with surprise that Doom Guy was already fully upgraded. I was worried that my experience with the game and my fully upgraded Doom Guy would dull the edge of The Ancient Gods for me.

I was very wrong.

The Ancient Gods is best likened to that crazy, post-game content you’d normally unlock in any other game. Content that’s so difficult that it’d seem impossible to conquer without some serious practice, goals that are almost unreachable. The Ancient Gods is exactly like this. It’s some of the longest, most grueling battles of attrition that you’ll fight ever in a Doom game. Most of the battles take upwards of ten minutes, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say they were tiring.

This is where I’m a little bit in two minds about The Ancient Ones. On one hand, it’s incredibly rewarding to come out of these battles on top. A sobering yet triumphant reminder of how far I’ve come as a Doom player. On the other, it’s hard to pretend that it wouldn’t be a fucking nightmare for some players. Remember Marauders? Get ready to fight two of them at once, as an example. The Ancient Gods doesn’t care about what’s fair, it cares about how many enemies, and how many different types of enemies it can fit on the screen at once.

The result is absolute madness – for sure – but one that Doom Eternal has the flair and confidence to pull off. Perhaps a testament to how strong the moment-to-moment gameplay is, I have enough tools at my disposal to come out on top with enough effort. Albeit it’s almost always coming out on top in a tired and exacerbated state, but it’s still a win, nonetheless.

Part of me thinks that The Ancient Gods is a little bit lacking in the variety that Doom Eternal established – after all, it is hard to build on the already strong foundation that the base game established. But what’s being introduced in Part One isn’t the strongest that Doom has ever had to offer.

The good first. The three new levels are beautiful – each as different as the last. They have that “expansion pack” feel to them, twisting familiar locales from the base game into new and wonderful backdrops. Each of them manages to combine that stellar combination of fast gunplay and satisfying platforming that I’d absolutely adored in the original game. I’d have loved some brand-new locations of course, but perhaps they’ll be coming in Part Two, though what’s on offer here feels varied enough.

Perhaps the less clear-cut winner of the expansion is the new enemies. The new Turret enemy is a solitary eyeball that pops in and out of a demonic sheathe to take potshots at you, retreating if you look at it for too long. Not only is this design uninspired, but it can also dramatically bring down the pacing of battles while you wait for it to expose itself to attack back. The Spirit possesses other demons to buff them, and can only be vanquished with a specific weapon and upgrade, which is also jarring if you don’t use that upgrade already and have to switch mid-battle. If you’re too slow, it’ll just possess someone else and start again. Blood Maykr is the more interesting of the three, but feels like more of a nerfed Marauder-style enemy.

With a new expansion comes a new composer too. Mick Gordon’s music was ostensibly integral to the identity of the new Doom games, and it’s a shame to see he’s no longer involved with the project. However, while this new music does a great job of channeling his vibe with an acerbic mix of heavy metal and electronica, the new tracks simply don’t pop as much. They’re still great tracks, but just don’t have as much oomph as what’s in the base game.

Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods – Part One does a great job of setting up some genuinely intriguing plot points while also committing to the aspects that I loved so much about the base game. In the process, it’s bound to frustrate some players – it’s bloody difficult, has more platforming elements and the Marauders just keep on coming – but it’s still more of Doom Eternal and that’s hardly a bad thing.

The post DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods – Part One Review – Relentless But Rewarding appeared first on Press Start.

If you’d told me a year ago that Activision, along with Skylanders and Spyro Reignited Trilogy developer Toys For Bob, were set to release an honest-to-goodness sequel to Crash Bandicoot: Warped in 2020 I might not have believed you. After the runaway success of the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy it was always obvious that Activision would continue the franchise in some way, but choosing to further the N.Sane Trilogy canon and gameplay and effectively overwriting the history of The Wrath of Cortex is a big move.

It’s About Time starts with Crash in a familiar position – lounging around under a beach umbrella, taking a break after having foiled the dastardly Doctor Neo Cortex and Doctor Nefarious Tropy’s time-twisting schemes in Warped. Trapped in a timeless void with Uka Uka, the evil counterpart to Crash’s mask companion Aku Aku, the pair invariably manage to escape by tearing a rip in dimensional space and begin wreaking havoc yet again. It’s as basic a set-up as they come, and definitely not the most interesting premise the series has offered over the years, but it works in much the same way that Warped did in providing context for a romp through all manner of places and times.

It’s slightly disappointing that the narrative is fairly barebones because while a platformer like this admittedly doesn’t need to be deep or thought-provoking, Toys For Bob have done a great job on the dialogue and sight gags that are here and I’d love to see more of it. Still, there are some neat little nods and easter eggs to see throughout the levels thanks to the dimension-hopping premise, and even one or two cheeky references to past/future entries in the series.

It’s definitely a very handsome game to look at, though. Every level in It’s About Time is lively and packed full of detail, and the animation work is stellar both in and out of gameplay. It’s to be expected from Toys For Bob, who’ve always done a great job with the Skylanders series and the Spyro remasters, but this is without a doubt their best-looking product yet. The use of perspective in levels and the way they twist and turn in and out of themselves makes the space feel far more tangible than they ever have, even if perspective does often wind up being an unseen enemy in the same frustrating ways as the original games. It’s hard not to be entranced by how energetic and colourful everything is, though. Calling it one of the most beautiful platformers around wouldn’t be an exaggeration at all. What little voice acting there is sounds great too, lending cutscenes an authentic cartoon feel (though I wonder how much of that is to do with the excellent Richard Steven Horvitz as Lani-Loli).

As a continuation of the remade version of the original trilogy of Crash Bandicoot games, it makes sense that Crash Bandicoot 4 builds on the same pseudo-on-rails 3D platforming popularised by those early games. If you’ve put hours into the original trilogy, N.Sane or otherwise, you’ll feel right at home (and quite nostalgic) the moment Crash gets up from his shady nap spot and control is handed over. If you’ve never played the originals in any form, there’s not much to it – levels in It’s About Time typically involve running and jumping from the beginning to end of a mostly-linear path, avoiding hazards and attempting to fulfil a handful of extra completion objectives.

As the main playable characters, Crash and Coco Bandicoot play largely similar to how they did in the N.Sane Trilogy, albeit with a slightly tweaked range of movement and jumping physics that admittedly took some getting used to. Still, a couple levels in and I was pulling all of the same tricks from muscle memory, so Toys For Bob has done a decent job at laying a familiar foundation for fans to get acquainted with before the new ideas start rolling in.

Of these new ideas, the most immediate are the four new Quantum Masks that join Crash and Coco on their journey and give them access to brand-new powers. Lani-Loli, Akano, Kupuna-Wa and Ika Ika show up in specific sections of levels to aid the bandicoots with their unique abilities like slowing time, defying gravity and phasing objects in and out of the plane of existence. These sections are usually brief diversions that do a good job of shaking up the standard gameplay and making individual levels more memorable, especially in later areas that have a couple of different Quantum Mask sections. Akano’s tornado-like destructive form is probably the most fun (and dangerous), letting Crash or Coco take giant leaps and cut loose on baddies and crates without pause while also spelling immediate doom should they accidentally come in contact with a TNT or Nitro crate, while the late-game Ika Ika’s gravity-flipping magic makes for some mind-melting acrobatic sections.

It’s About Time also deviates from the standard template with offshoot levels that feature Cortex and returning faces Dingodile and Tawna as playable characters with their own unique spin on gameplay. Not all of these levels are mandatory in completing the main story, but they do a decent job of breaking up the standard gameplay and giving Toys For Bob some room to move in level design. Dingodile’s terrible Aussie accent and destructive vacuum weapon are a good time, heavy-stepping through his levels and tearing everything apart is just the right level of catharsis after Crash and Coco’s precision platforming. Thicc queen Tawna is equally good, with her hookshot ability letting her interact with things in the background and foreground of levels and adding an acrobatic flair that makes her incredibly fun to play. Cortex on the other hand is as much of a dud in-game as he is at being a supervillain. He’s less agile than the bandicoots and his gimmick, a weapon that turns enemies into makeshift platforms, is wasted on boring levels that are more frustrating than genuinely challenging.

The best thing about these new masks and characters is the new layers of level interaction they afford, especially when it comes to objects in the foreground or background, areas that the traditional sections mostly ignore. Toys For Bob has done a great job of lifting familiar ideas from the original trilogy while adding just enough new gameplay tricks that every stage has unique, memorable twists that set them apart both from each other and from previous games. They all share one thing in common though – a level of challenge that Crash fans will no doubt enjoy sinking their teeth into. This new game actually tweaks things slightly in its default difficulty setting, dubbed ‘Modern’, which removes the concept of limited lives and level restarts and instead challenges players to try to complete levels with less than three deaths to earn a gem. A Classic option is there too for purists who want the old-school experience.

There are some genuinely great levels in Crash 4, but they’re definitely not all winners and it’s going to be interesting to see which stages the community at large gravitate towards and which become the new Slippery Climb/High Road. They’re all quite long too, most feel somewhere between two and three times longer than what was standard in the N.Sane Trilogy. The N.Verted levels are a cool twist on the idea of mirrored stages that add a host of unique visual filters and gimmicks but again the strength of these is largely dependent on the quality of the original level (though they do at least provide extra avenues to earn gems for skins). Given their length, having an N.Verted variant of every level might honestly be overkill, but at least there’s plenty of content here to keep players going.

There are also the Flashback Tapes, another set of super-tricky bonus stages that play like extended versions of the traditional ‘bonus’ sections inside levels, where the goal is to try and destroy every crate. These are a lot more interesting because not only are they deviously tough to complete, they’re a neat little lore device framed as Crash and Coco’s childhood tapes recorded while they were raised and experimented on in Cortex’ lab. Good luck actually unlocking all of these stages though, because similar to the previous two games’ Death Routes the tapes needed to unlock them will only show up after getting through significant portions of some fairly hard levels without dying.

With hundreds of gems to collect (both regular and N.Verted), time trial relics to score, flashback badges to earn and some good old-fashioned gem routes to find there’s a lot to keep you going in It’s About Time after smashing your way through the core path’s 40+ levels. With the variety and scope in content it’s only natural that not all of it lands, and the boss battles in particular are almost universally bad, but it’s a commendable effort for a brand-new game that hopes to capture the ‘old’ Crash magic. It’s nice to be taken back to a time where bonuses were given out for surmounting the insurmountable too, with no paid unlocks in sight for the game’s plethora of included skins (save for some pre-order bonuses).

THE PS4 VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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This review is based primarily on the game’s campaign as well as offline time with the multiplayer suite. We will update it as we play through more of the multiplayer.

When the large-scale intergalactic space-skirmishes of Starfighter Assault was added to Battlefront II, fast emerged a subsection of that community that hungered for that particular type of competitive outlet, one not tied to throwing Stormtroopers about with the Force or, with a false sense of hope, spattering a looming Luke Skywalker with blaster fire. Star Wars: Squadrons feels very much like an evolution of this mode, though it also speaks to an older generation of Star Wars and feels like a modern take on X-Wing. 

The game’s core premise walks the fine line between arcade and simulation, playing much like the space battles found in the often-maligned Infinite Warfare iteration of Call of Duty. Unlike that particular take, the dogfighting in Squadrons is clearly the game’s main event and has much more depth than Infinity Ward’s effort. With a fleet of ships on offer all with their own strengths, weaknesses, and small particulars that set them apart from one another, it seems apparent that a lot of effort has gone into building up the meat and bones of this game to be as balanced and multiplayer-focused as it can be. It’s clear from the get-go that the game’s story mode was the afterthought of the project, it’s a slice of not-thought-of lore that falls in place after Return of the Jedi. It’s a tidy, self-contained narrative that doesn’t amount to a whole lot, despite sprinklings of fan service in there such as cameos from characters like Wedge Antilles. 

As the campaign is built with the scope of the game’s multiplayer suite in mind, it all felt a tad rigid and lacking in variety. The objective-driven, multi-stage modes of Squadrons didn’t transfer over too well in trying to dole out an eight-hour narrative, there’s plenty of escort missions and although downing Star Destroyers never gets old, the whole thing feels tacked onto the multiplayer which has clear star-billing this time around. The story is told from both sides of the fight, though unlike the disillusioned Iden Versio, it’s hard to find any semblance of empathy for these Imperials. 

Squadrons asks players to customise both their Imperial and Rebel avatars at the opening of the game’s story and this comes off a bit jarring as, being that the game is built very much with VR in mind, our character never actually features. After the apprenticeship offered during the first handful of missions, the game even recommends jumping across to experience the multiplayer which speaks volumes on where the team’s focus was. All of the game’s out of ship moments take place in hangars from a first-person perspective, this is where much of the game’s exposition trickles out as shooting the shit with your squadmates is the sum amount of what’s possible outside of the ship aside from mission briefings and inspecting whichever ship you’re using at that particular moment.

Though the game features hands-on throttle and stick as well as VR compatibility, my Squadrons experience was limited to a controller and it’s no secret that the game is slick and handles superbly. The pitch, roll, and yaw of each ship feel dynamic, and it’s accessible to the point that I think most everyone who picks the game up will find some value and enjoyment out of the arcade side of the experience. Though on the flip side, there’ll be a lot of top-tier players that’ll be tough to beat as the simulation aspect is sure to draw in a crowd of die-hards. It’s no surprise that the development codename for the game was ‘Maverick’ because there’s a real Top Gun feeling to not only the dogfights but to the over-comms banter between both Vanguard and Titan squads. 

The game’s main draw is bound to be the Fleet battles which is a large-scale, multistage event that ebbs and flows much in the same way as Battlefield’s Rush mode. Though I didn’t get any valuable time in against fellow critics, the game does offer a handy Fleet vs. AI mode which I was able to stress-test to get a feel for the mode and it’s pretty hectic. The aim is to win the territory battle and whittle down your opponent numbers to gain a clear path to destroy the Capital Ships which in turn leaves the Flagship exposed, once it falls it’s game over. There’s of course a lot of twists and turns and, like its spiritual predecessor Starfighter Assault before it, the games tend to be contested until the end. 

Fleet is just one of two modes that Squadrons offers out of the box, the other being Dogfight. I couldn’t get into an instance of this particular mode, though as a Team Deathmatch-like, it’s likely to play out like the ‘numbers game’ first phase of Fleet which will appeal more to people who want to hop into a more casual, less-structured game and just shoot things with friends.  

Squadrons is a beautiful game, for the most part, particularly in-engine. There’s a level of detail in the characters and skyboxes that is somewhat lost during the story’s cutscenes. I’m not sure if it’s a compression issue or whether it’s the pre-rendering, but it just doesn’t look as clean as when your hands are on the stick. It’s a night and day difference and, for the most part, it looks like a surprisingly big-budget game on a shoestring budget. The skyboxes, in particular, are tremendously jaw-dropping, one that springs to mind is the ‘Skies of Yavin’ mission with its pastel, nebulous clouds swirling in the atmosphere. The game’s music is also so stunning, paying homage to the franchise’s classic compositions while forging forward in a style clearly inspired by John Williams.         

After fellow entries in Battlefront II and Jedi: Fallen Order, Squadrons is yet another credit in EA’s pocket as far as the recovery of the Star Wars license goes. It’s a tailored, focused experience that knows what it is and though it might have shoehorned in a largely inconsequential story, treating it as a taste-test for the game’s multiplayer main event should serve you well.

THE PC VERSION OF THIS GAME WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.

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