2018 has seen a bit of a jump in the number of roguelike experiences hitting store shelves; the space has become quite crowded of late and developers really have to try and stand out amongst the crowd now. Enter Polygod then, a genuinely unique take on roguelike with a blend of fast paced FPS and a punishing difficulty curve. This one takes an iron will to overcome!
Back in 1998 I had been the proud owner of the original PlayStation, however I was beginning to tire of it slightly. Many of my friends had instead opted for the more expensive Nintendo 64 and were having all sorts of fun with it. I realised I had been missing out. During the holidays that year I arranged with a friend to swap my PlayStation for his N64 during the summer break. One of the games that I jumped on to first was Forsaken and I instantly loved it. Now in 2018 - some 20 years later - Nightdive Studios have released a remastered version of Forsaken. So have they done justice to the original or is it a game best viewed through rose tinted spectacles?
Back in 2015 Rusto games released Drunk Fu for Android and iOS - it quickly gained a cult following although struggled to hit the download numbers of other, more popular games. Despite this the game continued to be updated right up to 2017. Here we are a year on and Rusto games have rebuilt the game from the ground up for Xbox One. So is this still the fun little time waster that the mobile version manages to be, or is it a drunken stumble down the gutter?
Management simulators are having a bit of a renaissance of late with the likes of Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing all seeing solid sales and good critical reception. tinyBuild however have decided the genre needs something a little fresh (well, rotten depending on how you look at it) - the result is Graveyard Keeper.
Let’s be honest for a moment, survival games have been hammered to death lately. It started with zombie survival and moved through most genres, until now we see battle royale games using survival as a key mechanic. It’s therefore refreshing to see a developer be able to find a genre that has, as yet, mostly been untouched by the ever moving survival genre - in the case of Frost it is the deck building card game that receives the survival makeover this time around. So is this unusual mash up of genres any good or is it a Frankenstein that should have been left on the drawing board?
I have to admit something straight from the off here, 2008 saw me fall for the hype over and over again. Timeshift, Brutal Legend, and Kane & Lynch, all got me with thinly veiled promises and in your face marketing campaigns. One game in particular though grabbed me from the very beginning and hyped me right up to release. Too Human.
Ten years on, Too Human remains an interesting tale of what can happen when development hell hits a company.
Racers can finally live the handbrake yanking dream with the announcement of three new accessories from Thrustmaster. Helping racers of all types reach new levels of realism with these great new accessories, races will feel more authentic and drifters will be in handbrake heaven.
This year’s E3 saw Microsoft storm the show with some big announcements for the coming year and beyond. There were so many games that a few were actually announced after the show, during the daily Inside Xbox stream. One of those games was Vigor from Day-Z creator Bohemia Interactive. From the off it left everyone a little confused.
State of Anarchy: Master of Mayhem is something I can only describe as truly unique. It sparks fond memories of the doodles many of us drew while bored in a classroom, only here it’s all interactive.
ONRUSH the team based racer from Codemasters has been out in the wild for a couple of months now, injecting a refreshing take on racing with objective based modes rather than the race to win found in most racers... there isn’t even a finish line!
Welcome to Flatwood Peaks, a small whimsical town with a problem – death is on vacation. Can you help the ghosts of this quaint town solve their curious problems while also solving the mystery surrounding your own demise? You'll find out more with Flipping Death!
Over the years, horror games have tackled most genres from first person right through to driving games. You would be hard pressed to find a genre horror hasn’t touched. The Long Reach takes the choice of bolting horror on to the 2D side scrolling genre, and while it certainly isn’t the first game to tackle the genre, it at the very least tries something a little different with it. But how does it stack up?
Are you ready to hack, slash and cast your way through the hordes on a quest to stop evil invading the world? One More Dungeon has you covered - a roguelike FPS RPG that has more than a hint of early '90s about it.
Join Kelly and her band of misfits hackers as they take on the world in #Wargames, shaping the story as you play and leading the band from lowly pranksters to international hacker celebrities in this interactive reimagining of the 1983 movies of the same name.
In the world of Mugsters the aliens have invaded and it’s your job to save the last of humanity, all by working through multiple levels. The objective is simple; save the humans in any way you can - but does Mugsters please, or should it have been beamed up along with the rest of the human race?
Are you ready to take on the final dramatic chapter in the Banner Saga series? In Banner Saga 3 the world continues to crumble around you while you make decisions on just who you can trust, how best to protect those close to you, and just what to do about the darkness that is drawing ever closer.
There’s no doubt eFootball 2024 is a flawed game and, if a measly update is all that’s coming each year, it’s hard to see it ever being worthy of your time.
Available now on Xbox, Game Pass and PC - a console-exclusive, mind you - Party Animals sees up to eight online players (local split-screen is also available) face off in a variety of crazy fighting matches.
Week two of Series 25 carries on where week one and Summer left off in Forza Horizon 5, as Autumn blows into Mexico and the Festival Playlist Weekly Challenges.
Bluey: The Videogame is the first ever video game to feature the little pup, as Outright Games and BBC Studios come together for release on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and PC.
BamTang Games and Gamemill Entertainment are here to bring us a new adventure in the Avatar: TLA universe, with Avatar: The Last Airbender - Quest for Balance!
Party Animals is, in a word, promising. Whilst the launch version of this incredibly cute and colourful physics-based brawler is missing some key features that will boost replayability, the foundations are there for an excellent foray into the genre.
What starts off as a seemingly impossible challenge quickly becomes one of the best POWGI games for logical thinking. Word Web by POWGI not only ramps the difficulty up, but also the satisfaction of completing a puzzle.
Ad Infinitum is disturbing, confusing and horrific, much like the WWI setting. It tackles some interesting themes and tells a story that is hard to get a handle on. But the gameplay is solid, as are the visuals and brilliant soundtrack.
Overall I enjoyed my time playing HUMANKIND and would recommend it to both strategy game veterans and beginners. It can be extremely enjoyable however it is held back by some bugs and half-baked gameplay mechanics.
