- By Ash
- in Reviews
I spent over a thousand hours with Team Fortress 2, but as it grew progressively more ridiculous and characters started strapping bottles of questionable liquids and live weasels to themselves I slowly realized that the once stylish and charming game I knew had been replaced with something... else.
Ever since then I was looking for another team based shooter that I could sink an equal amount of time into, but unfortunately, not a single one of them could recapture the emotions Team Fortress 2 first inspired within me, until I heard of Blizzard's newest IP in many, many years.
From even the earliest announcement it promised everything I could've ever wanted: stylish visuals, characters oozing with personality, and most importantly, team orientated combat with plenty of opportunities to mix up your strategies and approaches. Now that I've spent over 20 hours playing in the Open Beta, the question is, does Overwatch manage to live up to the piranha-like frenzy of excitement it succeeded in creating so far?
- By Ash
- in Reviews
On first glance it might seem that Gearbox has gone flat out insane by deciding to challenge Blizzard's Overwatch with their own team-based FPS, but the truth of the matter is that the games have very little in common once you get past the cartoony graphics and ability-based gunplay.
Whereas Overwatch is a pure team-based FPS most similar to Team Fortress 2, Battleborn draws its inspiration from both Borderlands and Super Monday Night Combat, with the end result being a MOBA that plays like a fast-paced FPS, rather than the opposite. Another key difference is that Battleborn actually features a fairly lengthy campaign that can be played in either singleplayer or co-op, though the overall focus is quite clearly on the competitive multiplayer.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada is an incredibly faithful adaptation of the Warhammer 40k universe, a notion that doesn't sound very impressive until you notice the mountain of corpses from former games that have attempted, and failed miserably to capture even a sliver of the grim cheesiness that permeates the 40th millennium.
When it comes to pleasing fans Battlefleet Gothic has it all: over-the-top weaponry fitted on equally titanic ships, characters that are only capable of talking by yelling ominously at each other, a plot that threatens the destruction of everything humanity holds dear, casualties numbering in the billions, and most importantly, factions that perfectly represent both their lore and combat style, which in the case of Orks means yelling, shooting, and literally launching themselves inside torpedoes in order to get to the action as quickly as possible, sanity be damned.
But even when you ignore all of the Warhammer 40k elements, Battlefleet Gothic is still one of the most interesting strategy games I've played in recent years, simply because it manages to make each of its 10 minute long matches feel fresh and explosive, and I don't just say that because my ships tend to spontaneously ignite due to the crew being a bunch of bloodthirsty, but still lovable morons.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
After playing the Doom multiplayer beta for what feels like an eternity now, but is actually only a couple of hours, I've come to realize that its not the worst game in existence as the Steam reviews might lead you to believe, but rather a deeply troubled one that is so desperately trying to please everyone, it ends up pleasing no one.
Its obviously catering to the old school FPS crowd with the small arenas and constant focus on action, but its too slow and far too shallow to appeal to those players; its also trying to win over COD fans with the loadout system and constant trickle of mostly pointless "upgrades", but the weapons are imbalanced and the mostly pointless upgrades are just that, mostly pointless; and finally, it tries to appeal to Halo players, but the weapons and abilities are just not exciting or unique enough to keep anyone's interest for very long.
So where exactly does Doom make its cardinal mistakes, and how could Bethesda and Id go about fixing them?
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Ever since I got my hands on Dark Souls 3 I was simply transfixed. All of my waking hours have been spent in an endless pursuit of souls to feed my boundless hunger for fancy new armor sets, and despite praising the Sun I don't remember the last time I've seen it. I have become something alike the hollows that roam the land, utterly consumed by Dark Souls 3.
At this point its fairly well known that Dark Souls 3 is good, but I don't think simply 'good' does it justice given that I am currently thinking long and hard on whether Dark Souls 1 is still my favorite game of all time. So what exactly makes Dark Souls 3 so compelling, and how does it match up against the entirety of the extended Souls family?
- By Ash
- in Reviews
My initial plan was to first finish Dark Souls 3 and then do a proper review, but after spending around 6 hours getting stabbed, chomped on, and thrown off every scenic vista Lothric can provide I've come to realize that I really need to a share a bit of my enthusiasm, or I might just burst.
So here are my current thoughts on Dark Souls 3, from the perspective of someone that has spent far, far too much time playing the Souls series, as well as an analysis of the PC version and its technical qualities. For those of you that are purely interested in the analysis, you can skip to that point by pressing here.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
[Note] You can find my review for Sorcery! Parts 1 & 2 here.
It is quite fascinating to see how much the Sorcery! series has changed from game to game. Part One is a fairly linear affair that offers you a choice between a variety of branching corridors, Part Two takes things a bit further by giving you a large open city to roam around in, and Part 3 completely rips off the training wheels by dumping you in a massive zone that you can explore in any direction, both in the present and the past.
The almost limitless freedom doesn't simply apply to the exploration aspects of Sorcery! Part 3, it also extends to the amount of choices you're able to make when interacting with other characters and solving problems. For example, in Sorcery! Part 1 if you get attacked by a bear you can use the LAW spell to pacify it and then quickly make your getaway. In Part 3, however, you can use the LAW spell to not just pacify the bear, but to use it as your own personal mount with which you can cross wast distances unimpeded, because let's face it, whose going to stop a guy riding a bear!
- By Ash
- in Reviews
I never was much of a point & click fan, mostly because their convoluted, alien logic tends to clash heavily with my "keep it simple" style of thinking that was beat in to me through years of programming courses. That doesn't stop me from giving the genre a try every so often, but despite my best efforts I frequently either resort to a walkthrough or just get frustrated enough to quit entirely.
Out of all the games I've puzzled my way through, I can only really say a couple were genuinely fun to me, from the beginning to the very end. This exclusive company contains games such as: The Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Machinarium, Deponia, and now Samorost 3.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
[Update]: Overprime is a third-person MOBA heavily based on Epic's long-canceled Paragon.
After spending around a week with Paragon I've come to realize that it makes me feel the very same emotions Dota 1 evoked back when I first tried it, eons ago: the thrill of experiencing something completely new, the utter confusion about how anything works, the "AHA!" moment of finally figuring it out, and the eternal rage of a thousand stars at some of the more broken elements.
Much like Dota 1 at that point, Paragon is currently unfinished. This isn't one of those fancy beta tests where you are essentially playing a demo, instead its one where you are presented with a game whose core is complete, yet everything surrounding it is held up with a few sticks, some gum, and a whole lot of good will.
- By Ash
- in Reviews
Blade & Soul is a fantasy, martial-arts MMO with a heavy focus on combat, PvP and anything else that involves beating up scores of enemies. It initially released in Korea back in 2012, and has only made its way to the West near the end of January, 2016.
I'm doing this review/critique after about 60 hours of play, mostly because it took me this long to properly form my thoughts on Blade & Soul given that for each element it does right, there is an equally annoying counterpart.