- By Ash
- in Reviews
I can only assume Factorio exists in some sort of a magical time bubble. Every single time I sat down to play the new Space Age expansion I'd spend an hour tinkering with my space ship or exploring a new planet, only to then get up for a drink and realize an entire day has passed, it's now 5am, and I need to wake up for work in an hour!
If you're curious about what exactly makes Space Age so addicting, as well as what sort of challenges you'll have to brave in order to start an interstellar empire, all me to share with you my thoughts after spending way, way too much time playing Factorio this past week.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Heavily inspired by the works of Junji Ito and H. P. Lovecraft, World of Horror is an extremely stylish, 1-bit tribute to cosmic horror as a whole. All of that is fairly obvious from even a single screenshot, but what isn't so easily apparent is that World of Horror is also a surprisingly compelling roguelike that will have you face an endless array difficult choices as you attempt to single-handedly avert the end of the universe as we know it.
So if you're curious about what exactly makes the gameplay tick, as well as how the horror aspects tie into everything, allow me to share with you my thoughts after repeatedly getting bludgeoned, devoured or simply going insane over the course of the past week.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Following in the footsteps of the Dragonflight expansion, World of Warcraft: The War Within has attempted to uplift a variety of side-activities in order to prevent the endgame from being exclusively focused on hardcore content like raids and Mythic+ dungeons. In some ways this has been a success as there is a lot of different things to do for max-leveled characters, though unfortunately some of the solo-focused additions like the Delve mini-dungeons have failed to impress and don't feel like they'll be a true alternative to the usual endgame gear grind.
If you're curious about what exactly makes these Delves so messy, as well as how the rest of The War Within fares, allow me to share with you my thoughts after playing it all rather religiously throughout the past week. Without further ado, let us begin!
- By Ash
- in Reviews
With the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion fast approaching, I figured this would be a pretty good time to play through Elden Ring for the umpteenth time and do a bit of a retrospective. However, instead of just gushing about how awesome the game is, I'd instead like to talk about some of its major shortcomings and how they could be fixed - either in the DLC or whatever the next Souls game might be.
This is obviously going to be very subjective as what one person finds annoying another might find utterly captivating. So before you get mad at me, just remember that all of this comes from a place of love. After all if I wasn't a massive fan of Elden Ring, and Souls games in general, I wouldn't have spent the past couple of weeks redoing the entire game in order to get into a proper mood for the new DLC.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Broken Roads, more so than many other games I've reviewed, made me upset. Not upset because it's bad, mind you, but rather because it managed to get me completely hooked on its world and premise, only to then pull the rug right from under me just as things got interesting. There is a core of an amazing game here, but whether due to a lack of resources or time, that idea just wasn't carried through all the way to the end. So despite having a blast with it, I just can't help the feeling that Broken Roads is actually the first half of a much grander storyline that simply doesn't exist.
If you're curious what exactly makes me say that, as well as how Broken Roads managed to get me so invested in it, allow me to share with you my thoughts after spending the past few weeks desperately scrounging for scrap in a post-apocalyptic Australia that, for once, isn't just ripping off Mad Max!
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Harvest Hunt, as a concept, is amazing. You and an eldritch fiend are stuck playing a game of cat and mouse in a world where the rules constantly change. Sometimes lady luck will favor you and you'll be chasing it with an axe while laughing maniacally, and other times you'll be forced to trudge through a poisonous swamp of sadness and suffering. Usually you'll find yourself somewhere in the middle, but the extremes are definitely where the concept truly shines.
Unfortunately, a concept is all that Harvest Hunt really is. With only one monster, one location and one objective, it takes only a couple of hours to thoroughly explore everything it has to offer. The various roguelike elements do their best to keep things fresh, but there's only so many ways you can remix the duel against Blobbimus Bloo, the Amorphous Blob of Evil before the tension goes away and you start thinking up stupid names for the thing you're supposed to be running away from.
So if you're curious about where Harvest Hunt succeeds, as well as where it stumbles and falls flat on its face, allow me to share with you my thoughts after spending so much time running through an accursed swamp that I now consider Blighttown a vacation destination.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Inspired by Starship Troopers, Helldivers 2 is a highly satirical shooter that has you spread peace, liberty and managed democracy across the stars through the use of overwhelming firepower. And much like Starship Troopers, despite obviously being cannon fodder with the life expectancy measured in minutes, Helldivers 2 does a phenomenal job of making you feel like you're an unstoppable badass... all the way until you accidentally call down an orbital bombardment directly on your head and send yourself flying into the stratosphere Team Rocket style!
So if you're curious about where exactly Helldivers 2 excels, as well as where it misses the mark and falls flat on its face, allow me to share with you my thoughts after spending well over 70 hours playing it since launch. Spoiler alert: it's pretty darn good!
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Following in the footsteps of Owlcat's previous games Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is an immensely vast and deep ocean of cRPG goodness! It's filled with all sorts of interesting characters to chat with, locations to strip bare of anything that looks even remotely valuable, a plethora of insane cultists to squash in turn-based combat, and as is tradition, a dazzling array of bugs that would make even Papa Nurgle proud!
So if you're curious about what exactly Rogue Trader does well, as well as where it strays a big too close to heresy, allow me to share with you my thoughts after spending a frankly unhealthy amount of time playing it over the past week.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
True to its name, Turbo Overkill is a celebration of over-the-top action, completely unphased by such silly little things like common sense or the laws of physics. Your guns can rip and tear enemies into thousands of tiny pieces, you can barrel through the levels at such insane speeds you might have trouble even seeing what you're trying to hit, and the fact that you can replace all four of your limbs with chainsaws isn't even the best bit!
So if you're curious just how ridiculous Turbo Overkill gets, as well as how the fully completed Version 1.0 looks like compared to the Early Access builds, allow me to share my thoughts after gunning down a couple of gods over the past week.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
[Update]: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide studio Fatshark are suspending new content, microtransactions and the Xbox version in order to focus on much-needed fixes.
Much like the Vermintide series that came before it, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is a remarkably enjoyable co-op game that has managed to vacuum up all of my free time over the past few weeks. Its combination of extremely tight and satisfying gameplay, a world that couldn't be more Warhammer 40k if you plastered skulls everywhere, and an arsenal of intentionally absurd weaponry proved to be simply too fascinating to resist!
However, despite recently launching from beta, Darktide is still nowhere near finished. Core features like crafting are barely implemented, some of the quality-of-life tweaks I've come to know and love in Vermintide 2 are nowhere to be seen, while annoying technical issues frequently appear to throw a wrench into the works. So even though there's a whole lot to love about Darktide, there's also a fair bit to criticize!
As such, if you're curious about what sort of things Darktide does well, as well as where it stumbles and falls flat on its face, allow me to share with you my thoughts after nearly eighty hours of gameplay across all of the difficulty levels and classes.