"A mix of tabletop card games, Dungeons & Dragons and some real time
Arkham style combat brings you a video game that you just got to sample
for yourself....
Step into the world of Hand Of Fate 2 with me and i'll
guarantee you wont want to leave!"
When I was growing up in the 80’s and 90’s I would often visit my friend Lee’s house to play video games on his SEGA Master System.
For some reason, we played a lot of World Cup ITALIA 90 which was an awful game but nonetheless held our attention for countless afternoons after school.
Whilst playing on Lee’s Master System we would have to play in Lee’s brother’s bedroom as he had the only TV upstairs.
It was whilst in Lee’s brother’s bedroom that I discovered something called Dungeons & Dragons.
Iceberg Interactive has published some great video games over the years, Conarium, Starpoint Gemini: Warlords, Darkness Within, The Lost Crown (and hopefully, one day before I wither away and turn to dust, its sequel Blackenrock) and many others. Inmates is the newest release from the publisher and whilst it does have nice moments, a great tagline and a very moody atmosphere, it isn’t up there at the tip of Iceberg’s catalogue.
I make no secret of my love for co-operative video games, growing up in the 80’s and 90’s and having a younger brother; co-operative games have been a huge part of my personal gaming history. I’ve played truly great local co-op games over the last few years, games that were fine in single-player mode but elevated immeasurably when played in local co-op. Games such as Hunted, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Dead Nation, Mother Russia Bleeds, Broforce, Crimsonland and 7 Days to Die spring to mind as recent titles I’ve played through and I’m sure there are many more that I’ve missed.
Much like the great traveller Odysseus, who spent so many years from home, I have also been on a long journey back to that place. No, not Ithaca—for me, the Mushroom Kingdom, and my passion for exploration. I just finished my first of what will be many playthroughs, and I did not want it to end.
Nintendo wanted to send their hero on a far-reaching adventure as he sought to reclaim his bride—again, like in Homer’s Odyssey—and some will boil it down to an attractive looking collect-a-thon—attempting to separate pieces of a wholly blended experience—but for me it was a joyous epic that came close to recapturing more than just what I could throw my hat on.
Mario’s next great video game experience is here, and it is time to dive into the craziness, moustache first.
Evil Genome - PC Evil Genome is Metroidvania style video game from Crystal Depths Studios, whilst a solid and enjoyable futuristic action/adventure with RPG elements, it is let down by a woeful translation that could, for some be a deal-breaker. (for me it was the only aspect of the game that stopped this from being an ‘ice cool’ recommended purchase, the Games Freezer seal of approval)
After playing through the 21 great video games included on the Nintendo SNES Classic I thought it would be a good idea to do 21 reviews of those great games.
It seemed like a good idea at first but then I tried condensing my thoughts into 140 characters and I regretted it instantly!
Wulverblade - Nintendo Switch Wulverblade is a cinematic side-scrolling video game brawler from developer Fully Illustrated, set in 120AD during the Roman invasion of Britain; it expertly melds extremely solid gameplay with tight design and presentation whilst also being an interesting education on the era.
Numantia - PS4 With this not normally being a video game type I get stuck into on a regular basis this was a true learning experience for me. Couple with this the fact that these type of games rarely exist on consoles this was really untouched territory for me in the video gaming landscape of 2017. Numantia is a strategy game that takes you back to an ancient battle that is rarely covered in history let alone in console video games.
Morphite - Nintendo Switch Morphite is a Casual Atmospheric FPS video game that has been released on iOS, PS4 and has now made its way to the Nintendo Switch. Whilst graphically the game may draw comparisons to No Man’s Sky, Morphite is driven more through its narrative and works out all the better for it. Having been in development for some time, a lot of pressure seems to have been placed on Morphite, especially after the debacle that greeted No Man’s Sky upon release. I actually hadn’t been aware of the game until being sent it for review and so I had no preconceptions about its abilities.
When I got Atari XEGS video games system for Christmas around 1989 I
was about 9 years old and I remember this feeling that I was a part of
something futuristic.
I had a computer with a keyboard, a cartridge
slot, a light phaser and a tape deck that was living
in my bedroom!
Project Remedium is a first-person video game shooter that is developed by Atomic Jelly and published by Movie Games. Atomic Jelly is games development studio from Poland, which was founded in 2016. Movie Games SA is a Polish company founded in 2015 by Aleksy Uchanski
The grand old lady of video games is Nintendo and the history of Nintendo is something special in all gamers hearts. This timeline shows Nintendo starting all that way back in 1899 with playing cards right up until today with their formiddable Switch console.
When I first read about The Norwood Suite video game, the premise of a mystery protagonist arriving at a secluded hotel to solve a mystery had more than a touch of ‘The 7th Guest’ about it. The Norwood Suite is light years away from the 90’s Trilobyte classic (and its dodgy sequel) in a tonal sense but has a lighthearted style all of its own. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the gameplay to back up its audio and visual aesthetic.
Those lovely people at Prima Games are constantly spoiling gamers with their awesome array of game guides and console accompaniment books.
When the NES Classic came out Prima lavished gamers with a nostalgic masterpiece which looked back at the NES Classic games with love and attention to detail. That book is a must in your collection if you can get your hands on one do it now!www.amazon.com
Now the SNES Classic has landed and we’re all going Super Nintendo Super Crazy the Prima Games guys have followed up the NES book with an awesome SNES book.
Echo is a new third-person stealth-adventure video game that from the studio Ultra Ultra, a team of developers who are based in Copenhagen and formed from ex-staff of IO Interactive (Hitman series).
When you begin to dig into the SEGA console timeline you realise that the amount of consoles and add ons was an absolute mess!
You have to give it to SEGA though, they went out with a massive bang of consoles and add ons. In order to try and make sense of it all I decided to write it all down and then create an illustarted timeline to show you all. So here it is, hopefully you all enjoy!
The Solus Project - PS4 As I tread carefully through a particularly claustrophobic cave system I begin to fear that I may become dehydrated any time soon as I can see my hydration levels drop. I then come across an opening area of the system and I breathe an audible sigh of relief as I spot the trickling water coming from the ceiling cracks. I hastily make a bee line for the water and take the time to refill my water bottle just in case I get caught short again on my next branch of exploration.
This is a typical spell of game-play in The Solus Project and it's the thing that keeps me playing to find out what is going on and how my character will fare at the end of this mission to report back my status to the mission control.
The Darkside Detective is a 2D point and click adventure video game from developers Spooky Doorway (a very apt name for the Halloween season) that follows the adventures of Twin Lakes’ finest supernatural police squad, Francis McQueen and his sidekick Dooley.
It is a charming, snappy and surprisingly funny selection of episodes (the game comes with all six episodes included) that I heartily recommend for all the family.
The game consists of six ‘micro-adventures’ (the developers’ own words) that make up case files for the protagonist, Francis McQueen.
"Sony just announced at Paris Games Week that The Gardens Between, the adventure puzzle game by The Voxel Agents, is coming to PlayStation 4 in Q3 2018.
Back in the time before FIFA ruled the soccer video games landscape PES was the game of choice. The fun that the game brought me is incomparable to the sterile relationship I have with the current crop of FIFA reproductions we get handed every year. I have said it before and it's most definitely true, the fun of football games has been drained out of the genre and replaced with a desire from developers to create a realistic as possible product. The problem with this is that realism brings boring to the table. The fact is that 80% of real football matches are actually tactical boredom. Just look at the recent Liverpool vs Man Utd match to see how an overhyped product generally fails to deliver on the media frenzy from Sky and various media sources. Now, why the heck would you want to spend your time playing a football game that makes it as hard to score in a game as it is in real life? It's just not fun, is it?
I like to think that it doesn’t matter whether I’m good at fighting video games or not, as long as I have fun; right?
Some of the people I play against in Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat make that really hard to buy into though, and then there is my wife, who still beats me at Tekken.
I love playing the genre though, trying new systems, figuring out styles, learning how different fighters work, but have never mastered the finer techniques.
The first time my college roommate attempted to explain dash cancelling to me I honestly thought my brain was going to implode.
I have gotten way better over the years, even if I still lose a lot and have to take pride in my own style and flashy alternate costumes, but along has come a game that I think many more will appreciate.
I really wanted to like Riskers, all of the ingredients were here for a great game, but sadly it spreads itself too thin to be memorable.
The story that drives Riskers is that you play a garbage collector who finds a briefcase filled with cash, merely days later when you arrive home, you find your brother killed and head off to chase down the assailants.
Coatsink’s cyberpunk RPG Augmented Empire launched in July, exclusive to Samsung Gear VR and now Coatsink have released a mini-documentary featuring the cast which includes the legendary Nick Frost!
Take a peek at it now and let us know what you think...
I’m not going to sugar-coat it, West of Loathing is my single-player game of the year.
I have never played any of Asymmetric Publications’ previous games but I will absolutely be front of the queue for their next release.
West of Loathing is a joyous, hilarious and occasionally touching gem of a game that conjured up feelings that I haven’t had whilst playing a game since The Secret of Monkey Island.
Sensible Soccer has a long and illustrious history and sits in the hearts of 90's gamers like no other football video game from that period ever did. Lots of games tried and failed to replicate the perfect blend of fun and depth that was baked into Sensible Soccer's DNA. In 2017 Jon Hare and co. are back with a next generation of the Sensible Soccer lineage that is looking to reinvoke memories of those heated and frantic 2 player matches that you had with your brothers, mates and family. Sociable Soccer is everybody's favourite second team right now and we're all rooting for the legendary midfield maestro as he comes back for one last go at lifting the cup. Can Sociable recreate the glory days of the golden generation or will it fade like Kick Off Revival did? Let's Kick Off with a Rabona Kick and find out, shall we?
I have recently played through Offensive Combat: Redux, an online First Person Shooter video game with multiple game modes like Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag.
There are also single player modes where you can explore the maps, a shooting range to test your weapons, and an Annihilator mode where you basically play against bots that run around the map.
Procedurally generated video games can be a real mixed bag. Sometimes they can really work well (Nongunz) and sometimes the design can falter, the balance not quite right and the punishment outweighs the rewards too much for the game to be truly enjoyable (Tangledeep).
A Robot Named Fight is definitely in the earlier camp. A 16-bit style Super Metroid-esque romp through a futuristic flesh-filled labyrinth that changes each play-through.
When I think back through all the football (soccer) video games that I have played over the years, and there’s a lot, I’m trying to think back to the game that really changed the landscape of football games and paved the way for the likes of FIFA and PES.
Naturally, people tend to think back to the first FIFA game on the SEGA Mega Drive or maybe they look at Kick-Off or maybe Sensible Soccer.
Those games were awesome and I loved playing those games as they were fun and intuitive.
For me though the game that truly paved the way for the future of football games had to be International Superstar Soccer Pro Deluxe. This game swept me away when I saw it.
Back in 1989 SEGA released the awesome SEGA Megadrive video game entitled Revenge Of Shinobi and it rocked!
Do you remember playing this awesome retro game from back in the day?
Do you remember that SEGA were treading on some mega shaky ground at the time with the use of not just one character outside of the SEGA world but 4 characters that were definitely not theirs to use!?
Have you ever played a video game that is so pure and perfect that any further iteration of that game would only ruin it?
Well I’m guessing that you have all played the game that I’m thinking of and you may disagree with my thoughts but in my opinion the first in the long running series is still by far and away the best in the series.
The series has had around 13 games released since the first game was released in August 1991 and that ’91 version is still the best.
Any trip to EGX is a special event for video gamers and this years EGX was no exception. It actually felt bigger and better this year which sounds cliche but it felt exactly that way this year with all the BIG BOYS being there and the venue just feeling that much more filled out with awesomeness. Naturally I took a lot of pics in between playing a lot of games. In my previous EGX article I told you all about the 5 games from EGX that you're not playing right now and now i'm going to shower you with some cool pictures from the UK Video Games Event Of The Year!