Latest Reviews
Lovely, Not Friendly
It's always strange for a gamer to admit defeat. After all, many games are predicated on being the hero, and accomplishing a goal such as saving the world. Sometimes this just doesn't happen, though. There isn't always a happy ending, and in many cases there is no conclusion at all. Not due to a developer ending the game after...
To Boldly Go...
Starpoint Gemini 2 is a direct sequel to Starpoint Gemini, which was released for PC back in 2010, developed by Little Green Men Games. It's described as a "space trading and combat simulator" which takes place in the Gemini system, a large area of various interlinked regions. There are upwards of 70 individual ships to pilot, which...
Just the tip
Couch multiplayer has really been making an indie gaming comeback recently, with varying levels of success. The latest guest to the party is four-player space combat title Starwhal from Breakfall in which players control unicorn of the sea, the narwhal. In space. Obviously. From the off, Starwhal will put a smile on your face as it's...
Review Super Party Sports: Football
Off your head
Indie titles are coming across to the Xbox One thick and fast and while some publishers are trying to port any old mobile game to the platform, that approach isn't necessarily going to work as gamers are getting wary. Fortunately though, some titles work just as well on console as they do on mobile. Super Party Sports: Football is one...
Or: How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Post-Apocalypse
Let's make no bones about it, it's clear from the outset that with Fallout 4, Bethesda have created a wonderful thing. The preamble leading up to your entry into Vault-111 – complete with the much-ballyhooed character creation system - is nicely detailed and believable enough to draw...
A New Hope?
There's been an awakening. Have you felt it? From soup commercials to comic books, toys to movies, it's impossible to ignore the force that Star Wars has over the entertainment realm this holiday season. The hype even extends to the video game world, as the beloved Star Wars: Battlefront series is making a return after a 10-year snooze...
Review Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition
Certainly not definitive
Considering how much better PC versions of games generally were in the last generation, it's been nice to see so many titles make the jump from Xbox 360 to Xbox One. Games such as DmC: Devil May Cry: Definitive Edition have seen huge improvements both graphically and gameplay wise. For the most part, these enhanced versions...
Review The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone
Itchin' for more witchin'
CD Projekt RED sure knows how to treat its fans. Not only was The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt a fantastic and deep RPG, but fans were rewarded with a consistent trickle of free DLC that ranged from new quests, outfits, and even a "New Game+" mode. Now, Hearts of Stone — the first paid expansion for The Witcher 3 — has released...
We can dance if we want to
Once upon a time, if one wanted to play a dancing game, it was a case of heading down to the arcade to show your expertise (or flail about hopelessly) on a Dance Dance Revolution machine in full view of the general public. Playing at home meant fastening a plastic dance mat to the floor with increasing quantities of...
Monsterous
We thought we'd take the "in-your-face" approach to reviewing Ghost Games' apparent "reboot" of the Need for Speed franchise, which we were disappointed to learn has very little to do with 1994's Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed. We will not apologise for it because nothing can hold us back. We're edgy. We're cool. We're...
Far from the bottom line
Good games are usually more than the sum of their parts. You can have an average story and average gunplay going on, but still find that the game as a whole is fantastic fun because of the way it all comes together. On the other hand, you can have the best suite of options and the greatest game world ever, only to find that...
Review Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Back but not better than ever.
Having three different developers at the helm of video gaming's biggest franchise has been an interesting move by Activision, and one that has put Call of Duty in a bit of an identity crisis. Last year, fans were treated to the excellent Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The first offering from Sledgehammer Games took an...
Not enough meat on its bones
Before setting off, let's get one thing clear: Fat City is not out there fat shaming anyone. It's a reference to the rich affluence of New Orleans' "Fat City" neighbourhood, as well as talking about all the fat wads of banknotes the game's main protagonist Chris Knox is banking as you play through this simple, yet at...
Review Rise of the Tomb Raider
Rise again
It isn't really the job of a review to comment on the business decisions that led up to a game being released as a timed exclusive on a platform, so if you're hoping for us to praise or admonish Microsoft for throwing a bundle of cash Square Enix's way to bring Rise of the Tomb Raider to Xbox platforms first, you're going to be...
Partly party
Toto Temple Deluxe is yet another entry into the recently bulging "party game" segment of the Xbox One market. We all know the type of game that the description of the genre conjours up, with those titles generally being a bit limited in single player, but coming alive when like-minded friends pop round with some intoxicating liquor, or...
Striking the right chord
Had you asked us two years ago if we'd be reviewing a Guitar Hero game in 2015, the chances are that we would have laughed you out of the building. So, we were as surprised as anyone when Activision announced that they'd be reviving the franchise this year and attempting to bring it into the current generation. And...
Combat Evolved
343 Industries took a lot of risks with Halo 5: Guardians. Tampering with the fundamentals of a series as respected and beloved as Halo could be disastrous, but the Microsoft-created studio went ahead and did it anyway. Considering Halo 4 divided the fan base and caused many to worry that the franchise might be in the wrong hands, you...
Going viral
Plague Inc made a splash on mobile when it launched back in 2012 and millions of copies have been sold in the three years since release. With the strategy genre still under-represented on consoles, this pandemic simulator is a welcome addition to the Xbox One store, but the question is whether or not there have been enough improvements...
Revolutionary
You have to hand it to recently formed Norwegian developer 4Bit Games; getting your first title straight onto the Xbox One store is no small achievement, especially when your company had no prior games industry experience. Orbit is a retro-styled space brawler which combines the intensity of four-player multiplayer battles with the...
Review Wasteland 2: Director's Cut
Putting The Fun Back Into "Dysfunctional"?
First released on the PC back in September 2014, Wasteland 2: Director's Cut is a sequel to the 1988 title Wasteland, a game that has been credited with providing the inspiration for the Fallout series of games. So, it has quite a legacy to live up to, and some mighty big boots to fill! The question we hope...
Review Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations
Adventure Crime
The first hour of Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations is a bit rocky. If you've played a classic adventure game before, you should have an understanding of the agenda almost immediately: search the environments as thoroughly as possible by talking to NPCs, interacting with objects, and collecting items that could be useful...
The only bay in the pillage?
There seems to be an increase in low price titles from smaller studios in the Xbox store recently, offering a range of gaming experiences for budget-conscious gamers and giving independent developers an opportunity to break into the mainstream. Monkey Pirates is a naval combat title from the five man team over at...
Review The Escapists: The Walking Dead
Pixel Zombie
The Walking Dead is one of those franchises that seems to be everywhere. From television to every other type of merchandise, Robert Kirkman's comic series has become a global phenomenon and the video game industry has more than taken note, with mobile iterations and story-telling masters Telltale Games giving the zombie epic a highly...
Review Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
Back on track
When it comes to the recent history of the Assassin's Creed series, do we really need to talk about the last version all that much? Surely, everybody knows that at launch – although post-launch patches alleviated some of the issues – Assassin's Creed: Unity was a buggy, broken affair that even Ubisoft acknowledged just wasn't good...
Kaijuuuu!
There's no getting around the fact that tower defence titles have been done to death in recent years. Checking the genre listings on Steam shows that 135 of them are up for grabs on PC at the time of writing. With that said, the apparent limitations of using a controller as opposed to a keyboard and mouse means that not a great deal of...
Review Rock 'N Racing Off Road DX
Bunkered
It's been way too long since the incredible Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off-Road was released. Since the game's debut in 1989, nothing has come remotely close to improving on the mix of sandy arcade vehicle jumping fun, so when we heard that a game with a similar feel - Rock 'N Racing Off-Road DX - was coming to Xbox One, we sat up and...
Fumbling the ball
Blood Bowl 2 comes to Xbox One as part of Games Workshop's continual use of their fringe franchises away from the tabletop. Blood Bowl was a popular tabletop Gridiron and Warhammer violence-laden mashup first introduced in 1987, seeing numerous re-releases since, the most radical of which occurred in 1994. With Games Workshop now...
Spilling the claret
Gaming these days can feel more like work than play. When you've weighed up the 800 million different options that you have to be able to just buy a game (and the preorder bonuses, and the Season Pass, and the holographic Steelbook case, and the "Limited Edition" statue) and finally got your new game installed and patched, you'll...
3, 2, 1... Draw!
Games that have an interesting or unique premise are always going to grab attention in today's expanding market, as they promise an experience unlike the ones that have come before. Draw a Stickman: EPIC is one such game. The player starts the game by drawing their very own stick figure, who then serves as the protagonist of the...
Underwhelming
Imagine a fast-paced brawler where players can chop and change the rules mid game – switching the objective from chaotic deathmatch to a more strategic king of the hill, or switching up the rules and mechanics to directly influence everyone's abilities and sabotage your enemies. Sounds pretty great to us, and with the distinct lack...
