Game Reviews

Review: RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic – A Rolling Good Time

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

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Pros
+Being able to build your own roller coaster
+The Two Expansion Packs
+Fast Forward feature

Cons
-Not one park has unlimited income resources
-Loan on the money
-Having to buy everything, nothing is free

If you’ve ever played the endless fun game of building your very own amusement park also known as RollerCoaster Tycoon then you are obviously familiar game with the annoying song that we’ve all grown to love. We are all familiar with that annoying background music, now let’s be completely honest with one another, that song has gotten stuck in your head once or twice or once while you were creating a path to the water ride you just built.

It starts out slow and sounds like you’re driving in one of those old black hearses, then it picks up and gives you that first theme park ever vibe, you know the song I’m talking about, and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you are not true Tycoon Builder.

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Review: Warriors All-Stars – Some Stars Shine Brighter Than Others

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

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Pros:
+Offers an excellent mash-up between the Warriors franchise and previously established franchises.
+Combat feels solid and well delivered across all twelve characters
+The over-arcing story feels quite unique and well delivered
+Each character offers unique approaches to each encounter

Cons:
-The game grows stale over time due to the unfortunate overuse of combat field designs
-Enemies pose no threat throughout the game, leaving difficulties worth being questioned
-Conquest mode would have been a solid addition for the title

At times, it’s hard to imagine what it would be like when some of your most absurd characters from the franchises you love cross paths. I’ve affectionately taken to such concepts thanks to the countless cross-overs we’ve seen in recent years with titles such as Capcom’s Project x Zone series and even Sony’s PlayStation All-Stars title. It’s interesting to say the least, but cross-overs sometimes have a lot of work cut out for them in order to bring together a cohesive story.

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Review: Evil Genome – Some Evil’s Shouldn’t be Toyed With

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment
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[Credits: Crystal Depths Studio]

Pros:
+Extremely well done terrains and character models
+Stage designs are interesting, providing plenty of challenge to the player
+Talent trees and itemization create a rather nice challenge for RPG fans

Cons:
-Extremely poor quality voice acting from supporting cast members
-Extremely high difficulty spikes
-Story was hard to enjoy from beginning to end
-Enemies are predictable and at times offer no challenge
-Poorly optimized

Evil Genome is a game that undoubtedly flew under the radar. Developed by Crystal Depths Studio, Evil Genome tells the story of our lady of the hour, Lachesis and her witty, but at times annoying sidekick Alfa, an A.I. designed to aid her in her ventures. To help us get started, I was quickly taught several things. First, pay attention to the difficulty. The game comes with an unstated difficulty curve, one that fans of Castlevania, Metroid, and even the Contra franchises should be well acquainted with over the past two decades.

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Review: Shadow Warrior 2 – Wang Jokes Are Abundant in the Shadows

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment
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[Credits: Flying Wild Hog]

Pros:
+Absolutely stunning graphics on PC and PlayStation 4
+Smooth combat and ability mechanics allowing for fluid movement during encounters
+Some of the best sound effects to date allowing for a cinematic like experience
+70 guns to enjoy and equip based on your play style

Cons:
-The dick jokes finally get old
-Minor crashing issues on PlayStation 4

Y’know, it’s hard not to point it out first thing that comes to life in the game. To kids, it’s almost embarrassing to say without making a few laughs, and us adults tend to face palm at the word, but Shadow Warrior 2 wants you to know that people seem to have a penis. Something that the game seems to be rife with due to Wang’s abundance of dick jokes. So much so that eventually, one of the NPC’s began to question Lo Wang and his constant use of them.

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Review: Rock of Ages 2: Bigger & Boulder – Rockin’ and Rollin’ Through Time

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

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Pro’s
+Great Soundtrack
+Family Appropriate Game
+Easy to learn and play
+Entertaining level of Difficulty that doesn’t frustrate players
+Video clips are satirical pieces of humour based on history.
+ Offers Offline and Online Multiplayer

Con’s
+Levels, at times, can prove to be more difficult than necessary

It’s been nearly six years since we’d seen anything to do with Rock of Ages, but for our very own writer, Dustin, it was for him, an interesting take on mechanics normally seen in titles like Monkey Ball, a series we’ve come to know, and love over the years as gamers. The game was filled with the wacky weirdness of ACE Team, the minds behind games such as The Deadly Tower of Monsters, Zeno Clash, and Abyss Odyssey.

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Review: Raiders of the Broken Planet Ep. 1: Alien Myths – A Game That is Anything, But Broken

/ Dustin Murphy / 1 Comment

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Pros:
+Graphics used provide a strong cinematic experience
+Provides high replay values even with only four core-missions for the first episode
+Unique heroes, each offering their own experience with each lobby
+A Triple-A experience from an indie developer
+Solid gameplay mechanics featuring gun play, hero-based abilities, and cover systems

Cons:
-Alternate skins range from 5-20 bucks a pop
-Queue times can, at-times, exceed 5 minutes.

When I first was introduced to Raiders of the Broken Planet, I had prepared myself for another tactical cover-based shooter, that I would uninstall quicker than I’d enjoy it. After having played through plenty of them through the Xbox 360 era, I had already had a gut feeling I knew what I was getting myself into with MercurySteam’s newly released ‘episodic’ indie game. Little did I know, my assumption was completely wrong, and it would have cost my dearly for thinking of this game as just another Gears of War clone.

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Review: Dishonored: Death of the Outsider – One Last Job,One Last Kill to End it All

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment
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[Credits: Arkane Studios]

Pros:
+Memorable graphics engine and art direction providing a unique and immersive experience
+One of the strongest stealth games on the market
+Leaves open a possibility for future Dishonored titles

Cons:
-Character building seems forced and rushed between Daud and Billie
-Level design feels lacking in comparison to Dishonored 2

I’m in a bar, the guests have been subdued by the use of my hyperbaric grenade, and a steady amount of guards have been executed as needed be. This action is something I’ve done many-a-times before without raising an alarm and once again have done without drawing attention to me. It’s something I’ve become well versed in doing since Arkane Studios introduced me to the city of Dunwall in 2012.

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Review: Maize – A Corny, Not-So-Good Time with a Russian Teddy Bear

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment
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[Credits: Finish Line Games]

Pros:
+Fourth-wall breaking jokes that honestly deliver a good few laughs
+Voice acting is superb
+Aesthetically a rather beautiful game thanks to Unreal Engine

Cons:
-Extremely linear gameplay
-Puzzles are barely challenging, if at all
-Intermittent crashes while playing
-Backtracking is impossible due to some orange boxes
-Would have worked well as a VR title

Through all the years of games I’ve played, I’ve been hard pressed to find those that are truly unique, abstract, absurd, and even challenging in any form. More-often-than-not, I’ve been challenged to do so. While there are certainly indie games out there proving to be unique and challenging, there’s still very few that have intrigued me into the point of finding some wacky form of fulfillment. If you’re here for story, you may be in the wrong place, but if you’re hear for a challenge, you’re definitely in the place to be.

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Review: Mary Skelter Nightmares – No Nightmares Here, Just Good RPG Fun

/ Dustin Murphy / 2 Comments
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[Credits: Idea Factory/Compile Heart]

Pros:
+Astonishing use of audio and visual approaches, helping immerse players
+Combat scenarios are fun and at times quite difficult
+A nice change of pace compared to Compile Hearts’ previous titles
+Fun and traditional gameplay using normal dungeon-crawling experiences

Cons:
–At times, the game seems to try hard, and seem rather “edgy” when using controversial approaches such as undressing characters
-Over-sensualizes the idea of self-harm to help heal party members out of their “Berserk” style state.
-Third-person gameplay would have been astonishing to have had in the games gameplay mechanics

 

For the PlayStation Vita, 2017 seems to be one of its biggest years. We’ve seen it get some admirable titles ranging from Tokyo Xandu, to the enigmatic and well scripted Utawarerumono: The Mask of Truth, to the interesting, and once-completed, enigmatic Caligula Effect. It’s been a year that Sony should take notice of when it comes to the PlayStation Vita and it’s third party support that keeps the handheld afloat, but that’s not to mention the many other games the handheld has received in recent days.

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Review: Utawarerumono: The Mask of Truth – Where No Lies Exist

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

Pros:
+Ends the current saga with a solid and great conclusion.
+Character development has been highly improved upon since the previous titles
+SRPG elements such as combat have been vastly improved upon and appear more frequently
+One of the most solid soundtracks and voice tracking to date

Cons:
-Quite a few scenes that serve almost no purpose to the game, but instead play out as filler content from the main story.
-Choices seem not to matter when asked to make them.
-Back story explanation to new players could have used a bit more detail and or a video recap that sums up the entirety of the past two games.

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Utawarerumono is a unique series. It’s one that has grown rather popular overseas due to the manga as well as anime adaptions the series has received in recent years, it was only time before this extremely niche title would get a release in the United States, and draw in the Japanese SRPG.

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