After 20 years of playing every game I can get my hands on, I can now be found selling my soul for anything Resident Evil, Gears of War, or Gamerscore related... all of which will be mastered after a good cuppa!
Should you be after a game that can provide hours of fun or even some engaging experiences with friends, then Tetsumo Party isn’t likely to be your go-to game. It has a nice idea and if done better - dare I say maybe even with Kinect from back in the day - we could have been looking at a very interesting game. Sadly, that’s not the case
For a yearly release based on one of the biggest racing franchises, NASCAR Heat 4 doesn’t quite do it justice and even though those wanting a functional racer will find enough to be going on with, there aren't many reasons to pick this over any other racer on the market.
When it comes to survival horror, the first thing that many will want to talk about are the classic titles that kicked it all off; the Resident Evil’s and the Silent Hill’s of this world. Of course, since that point, survival horror has come a long way, evolving a lot, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t people out there who appreciate the roots of where it all began. With DAYMARE: 1998, that’s what the focus is centred around.
This year is a big year for the Resident Evil franchise, with the series reaching its 20th anniversary in 2016. Of course, back at E3, Capcom made headlines with the announcement of the highly anticipated Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. But Resident Evil is no small series, and for Capcom this meant releasing something special in the form of HD re-releases of Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6 in reverse order. With Resident Evil 5 and 6 already arriving earlier in the year, I jumped back into the year’s final release to see if Resident Evil 4 had stood the test of time.
Local multiplayer seems to be on the rise this year, with 2016 already seeing an abundance of games releasing for those still feeling a level of appreciation for some same screen multiplayer madness. With the release calendar showing no signs of slowing down any time soon, it seems there may well be plenty more arriving in the coming months. The latest introduction to the genre comes from Brazilian developer Unnamed Fiasco Team with their game of the same name, Unnamed Fiasco.
When a game series is big enough to consistently generates interest from millions of fans with each release, any announcement is big news and with each new detail comes a certain level of excitement. When that news comes in the form of letting you know you’ll be playing the latest Battlefield a couple of months before release however, it’s no longer early 20’s me sat patiently listening for what’s to come next from the geniuses over at DICE, but rather a guy with the excitement of a young kid on Christmas Eve looking at all the presents sat under the tree and wanting to rip them all open like a carnivorous beast!
Obliteracers is the latest title to embrace the wacky racing genre and with childhood memories in hand I jumped in to see what was on offer in one of the latest indies to grace the store.
Racing games are never in short supply, with an abundance of new additions gracing our consoles in various forms, at a rather frequent pace. Recent years have even seen the arrival of a genre only seen on PC, with hardcore racing simulators now finding their way to consoles. Last year saw the arrival of the well-received Project Cars to compete alongside the already popular Forza franchise, with Project Cars aiming to offer a more ‘realistic’ approach to racing. This year however brings the arrival of a direct competitor within the simulation genre with the release of Assetto Corsa pushing realism as a top priority.
As gamers we’re quite a spoiled bunch! Each passing month sees countless titles come and go, with each one begging for our attention for extended periods of time. It can become quite the gargantuan task figuring out which one to invest in next. With the year’s biggest titles right around the corner and a plethora of Indie titles each vying for their own place in our gaming hall of fame, finding the title most deserving can require some outside help. With that in mind I took a look at one of the store's latest additions, Cannon Brawl, to see how it stacked up against the rest.
With the recent release of MXGP2 becoming the first realistic dirt bike racing offering to grace the Xbox One, it was only a matter of time before we saw competition popping up, vying for the top dog status. MX vs ATV Supercross Encore is that competition, and with the added vehicular option of the four-wheeled variety thrown into the mix, with ATV’s running riot throughout, you’d expect that the guys over at Rainbow Studios would have created a clear winner in the fight for best Supercross game of the year.
In recent months, the platforming genre has been subject to a vast rise in popularity. But even with so many titles available, finding a game that really harks back to the original platforming days (those that the retro gamers among us will remember only too well) can be quite difficult. With that in mind, I took a look at Super Mutant Alien Assault, the latest to arrive on Xbox One.
Every once in a while a game comes along that truly tests the boundaries of what’s acceptable in gaming. Carmageddon however, is a series that takes the subconscious rule book and throws it straight out the window, unleashing some of the most unique and brilliantly barbaric moments seen on console. After a long break, those moments have finally returned to console with Carmageddon: Max Damage.
Scavenge, craft, build, manage, survive.
This is just a quick outline of some of the many things we are expected to achieve when playing through an open world survival game. For many people (myself included), this used to be all you needed to hear in order to splash the cash on the next open-world survival title claiming to offer that truly immersive experience set in a brutally challenging world. But with so many to choose from already, does this title have what it takes to compete with the best?
Resident Evil 5 is best described as a third-person, action-shooter with the game driving further away from the survival horror experience seen in the early entries in the series and instead opting to follow a more action packed and intense adventure. When originally released, Resident Evil 5 received a mostly positive reception with the only concerning criticisms to be found with the controls. However with seven years passing since the original release, surely any previous issues would have been ironed out by now?
Run, Jump, Dodge, Roll, Attack... Die, Try again! – You’d be forgiven for thinking the game I’m talking about is the latest entry in the Dark Souls series but this isn’t the case. The game causing me to put down the controller in order for some calm time this week is the latest Indie title to join the ever growing line-up available on the Xbox store, Heart&Slash.
HeartZ: Co-Hope Puzzles is a charming and quirky new indie title developed by Upper Byte and published by Neko Entertainment. HeartZ is a new addition to the ever growing puzzle platform genre, with aspects very reminiscent to the popular 2014 hit game, Velocity 2X.
The guys over at the Upper Byte studio are no strangers to the platforming genre with them having previously developed Wooden SenSey, but having not heard anything about HeartZ before its release I had no idea what I was about to get into. However, with early screenshots bringing a promising look and my hunger for a memorable puzzle platformer growing more and more, I jumped in to see what it was all about.
Mimic Arena is a colourful and frantic game - the first to be developed and published by indie studio Tiny Horse Games.
Having heard nothing about Mimic Arena, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect but with couch co-op games always being in supply on the Xbox store I was happy to see what the guys over at Tiny Horse had in store for us. Mimic Arena is in fact a local multiplayer-2D-platform-shoot-em’up with gameplay that relies heavily on fast fingers and even faster reactions in order to stand a chance of victory.
Indie games are evolving, with many of the ones currently available having already shaped the gaming industry in more ways than we often appreciate. But with E3 on the horizon and more and more developers stepping into the indie market, the time has come to shed some light on the next indie titles preparing to make their mark on the gaming world! Which are the smaller games we want to hear about at E3 2016? This lot are amongst the must-haves.
If you're clicking through to this article, then we would hazard a guess that you'll have a bit of interest in the world of MotoGP 24. In which case, all you need to know is that it's time to grab the leathers and slam down the skid lid - MotoGP 24 is here!
Inescapable: No Rules, No Rescue isn’t a bad game, it’s just that others of a similar ilk, like Danganronpa, do the social thriller visual novel concept much better.
