Come with me to the seven seas as I cobble together a list of my favourite gaming marine creatures for National Dolphin Day - and yes, it includes the good old dolphin. Obviously.
Element Space on Xbox One is a game that apes two of the giants of sci-fi gaming - X-COM and Mass Effect - and instead of using this as inspiration and building on them, instead tries to ride two horses and ultimately ends up falling down the gap in the middle.
The original version of Dark Souls 2 was released on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC in March 2014, to a pretty good reception. However, the edition of the game that I'm looking back to here is the first of the series to make its debut on Microsoft’s shiny new Xbox One (as well as PS4, obviously) - Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin. A suitably doom-laden title for an oppressively difficult game, to be sure, including all of the previously available DLC as well as upgraded visuals, new online features if that was your bag and some slight tweaks to the storyline.
With the world on lockdown, with increasingly stringent restrictions in place on our daily lives, video games may seem to be a strange answer to the world's problems, but there's no doubt that they will play a role. But at the risk of sounding like an old man, there's only so long in a day that I spend staring at a screen, at the risk of developing square eyes, as my mother used to say. Now, I am, and have always been as long as I can remember, a very keen reader. If only there was a way to combine my love of reading with my love of video games, and somehow shoehorn my love of writing into an article. What's that? There are novels based on popular gaming franchises? Hold my coat, I'm going in!
In my book - a book with lots of pictures and big, easy to understand words - there are two types of gamers on this planet. There are those who know, deep down in their hearts, that the Battlefield series of games are better than the juggernaut that is Call of Duty, and those that are wrong. However, that isn't to say that all Battlefield games are masterpieces, and the game I'm casting my mind back to now is one of those difficult titles that tried to move away from the established Battlefield formula, attempting something new. Now, change can be a good thing, and without innovation there is no evolution, but was EA's gamble on Battlefield Hardline a good one?
If you have a regular group of friends who can be gathered together, thrown on a couch and want to play games as a few drinks are taken in, then Baron: Fur Is Gonna Fly on Xbox One is a great entry into the genre. If, however, you don't have that regular group who are always around, drinking your beer and eating your biscuits, then it’s most definitely a somewhat harder sell.
Visual pop-in and map confusion aside, this game is a great deal of fun, and with so many characters to choose from finding your ideal team has never been so challenging. If you have enjoyed the previous games in the series, then this is a no brainer, but if you haven't then Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate could well be the stepping stone you need.
In my mind, the only thing better than sniping Nazi heads off is sniping zombie heads off. So a game like Zombie Army Trilogy that lets you combine the two? Amazing!
There are a few games in most people’s gaming history that can be pointed at as turning points, or at least as significant in some way. For instance, for myself it was a game called Combat on the Atari 2600 - a title that got me into gaming in a big way, followed by Street Fighter 2 in the arcades, then Goldeneye. The biggest, most significant game of my own Xbox 360 era though is without doubt Battlefield: Bad Company 2. So come with me on a trip back in time while I attempt to explain why it meant so much then, and still continues to be important even today.
For a real challenge, and for a quick blast when you have a few moments to kill, One Finger Death Punch 2 on Xbox One is perfection. It’s not the deepest game ever, but it’s not trying to be: it’s been designed to deliver fast, fun, furious martial arts mayhem, and as such it’s a success.
It’s not going to set the world on fire, but Hovership Havoc is certainly worthy of a closer look. And if you like spaceships and twin stick shooters with a twist of rogue-like action then this will fill a gap.
Deadly Premonition plays out in the now traditional third person, over the shoulder camera view that has become de rigueur for survival horror games. The graphics, even back in the day, weren't the stand-out feature of the game though. They had a certain muddy quality, a low-res look that, while not impressive, did sort of suit the game's style. Certainly once I got into the story, the visual look ceased to matter to me.
Rivenaar’s Grove is an extremely simple yet mildly enjoyable puzzler. It provides a way to kill an hour or two, and isn’t remotely taxing on the old grey matter.
