- By Ash
- in Reviews
Inspired by Borderlands 2's highly popular Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep DLC, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is a charming and explosion fueled homage to the RPG genre. With some top notch action and an excellent cast doing their best to portray completely ridiculous characters as straight as possible, it's also a highly enjoyable game in its own right.
So if you're curious about just what all of this looks like in action, as well as how Wonderlands compares to its predecessor Borderlands 3, allow me to share my thoughts after a very explosion-filled adventure!
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Like any great adventure, Tunic begins with a light bit of grave robbing in order to arm yourself, immediately followed by a spree of vandalism as you run into the nearest temple to smash all of their priceless pottery. Needless to say, Tunic is an action-adventure heavily inspired by the classic Zelda games, something it's so proud of it wears it as a shirt!
So if you're curious just how deep that comparison runs, as well as what sets Tunic apart from the rest of the genre, allow me to give you my thoughts after spending the past week getting thoroughly lost in its world.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Dying Light 2 is a game that tries to take itself seriously with a bombastic plot and massive stakes, yet it's at its best when you're smacking bandits off buildings with your magically enchanted table leg of pyromania. Even climbing up to the rooftop is just as much fun as chucking someone off it, because between the expansive open world and some top-notch parkour movement, messing around in Dying Light 2 is a delight!
So if you're curious about how Dying Light 2 compares to the original, as well as what the narrative is even all about, allow me to share my thoughts after spending about thirty hours falling off all sorts of buildings!
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Monster Hunter Rise continues the proud tradition of poking oversized monsters with ramshackle things vaguely resembling weapons while accompanied only by household pets. It might drastically reduce your life expectancy, but you can't deny that it sounds like a remarkably fun way to spend the evening!
So if you're curious just what Monster Hunter Rise has to offer and how it differs from the excellent Monster Hunter: World, as well as what the freshly released PC port is like, allow me to share my thoughts after a rather eventful playthrough.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Even though Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous continues on with many of the ideas and gameplay elements from Pathfinder: Kingmaker, the two games aren't really connected on a story level. There's a few little references sprinkled throughout the world, and one major character does make a reappearance alongside a seemingly immortal pet cat, but for the most part you can have a great time with Wrath of the Righteous without even touching Kingmaker once.
That is exactly what I would recommend as well given that Wrath of the Righteous functions essentially as a bigger, better and bolder version of Kingmaker. There's a lot more variety in character builds and options, the combat encounters are expanded and the maps are more interesting, the story is better paced and doesn't take nearly thirty hours to get started, and there's a whole assortment of quality of life features to tie everything up in a nice little bow.
So if you're curious about what exactly Wrath of the Righteous does well, as well as where it stumbles and falls flat on its face, allow me to share my thoughts after rolling so many dice over the past week that I think I'll be seeing skill checks in my dreams for months to come!
- By Ash
- in Reviews
[Update]: As a part of the January 2022 update, Ys IX: Monstrum Nox has added a co-op mode on PC!
Despite being a long-running series the premise behind each Ys game can be very quickly summarized. You play as the ever-adventuring Adol Christin as he crashes yet another ship into yet another island, becomes involved in some sort of grand mystery, saves the world in a heroic fashion, and eventually leaves everyone behind with smiles on their faces and their priceless monuments in ruins.
While this does get a little bit silly sometimes, there is one very important upside - you can pick up just about any game from the main series and start there without worrying about previous context or who the characters even are. So if you're thinking about doing just that with Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, or if you're simply curious about how it compares to its predecessor Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, allow me to share my thoughts and impressions now that I've spent two rather eventful weeks with it.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
[Update]: The Chaos Wastes expansion has now finally arrived, and as expected, it's a pretty good one!
Once it arrives this April 20th, Vermintide 2's newest free expansion Chaos Wastes will have you brave the corrupted northlands in search of ancient and supremely powerful artifacts. Given that reality tends to take a back seat whenever the Chaos gods are involved, it should come as little surprise that these expeditions into the Chaos Wastes will have you venture across a variety of strange and surreal lands, consort with whatever benevolent gods will even listen to you, and naturally, explode thousands upon thousands upon thousands of rats and Chaos cultists.
Over the past few days I had a chance to explore pretty much everything Chaos Wastes have to offer, so if you're curious how all of this madness translates into actual gameplay, as well as how the rogue-lite Expeditions compare to the dreaded Weaves, allow me to share my thoughts now that I've managed to finally scrub the smell of charred Beastmen off my clothes.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Despite having some incredibly tough competition in the Souls-like genre, Nioh 2 has managed to genuinely impress me with its balance of combat, customization and exploration. Rather than simply copy games like Dark Souls and call it a day, Nioh 2 has brought in plenty of its own unique and interesting ideas, some of which are very likely to become staples of the genre moving forward.
So if you're wondering what the PC version of Nioh 2 is all about, as well as how exactly it fares when compared to the rest of the Souls-likes, allow me to give you my thoughts now that I've lived and breathed Nioh 2 for well over a week.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
During the first part of my World of Warcraft: Shadowlands review I detailed my thoughts on the leveling process, the Covenants and their themed zones, the overall presentation, and just how it all blends together. This second review, however, is going to be all about the endgame and the sort of content you'll be spending the vast majority of your World of Warcraft time on over the coming months.
So if you're curious what in the world Torghast is even all about, as well as how the new dungeons and raid compare to their Battle for Azeroth predecessors, allow me to share my thoughts after spending about a month delving through literally everything Shadowlands has to offer.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
[Note]: Shadowlands Review Part 2 - If you're curious about Torghast, Castle Nathria, the dungeons or the endgame as a whole, make sure to check out the second part of my review as well!
Instead of taking place in another set of previously unseen islands, World of Warcraft's Shadowlands expansion has decided to take things in a completely different direction by having us invade the afterlife itself! A good thing too, because as it turns out the Shadowlands are having an even bigger crisis than the one we faced with the Burning Legion. Luckily for everyone, there's nothing that solves problems faster than an entire avalanche of players that are willing to do literally anything for pair of slightly better pants!
As for what exactly the Shadowlands expansion has to offer, as well as how it stands up to both Battle for Azeroth and Legion, that I'll do my best to illustrate now that I've lived and breathed World of Warcraft for two full weeks.