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Hands on with Immortals Fenyx Rising, a new open world RPG best played with the voiceover turned off
Ubisoft’s new IP is beautiful, fun, and completely overshadowed by its nonsensical narrators
Hands on with Crayta, an ambitious Stadia exclusive that will certainly die without a strong creator community
If you build it, they must come
Crayta, the latest exclusive title for Stadia, is perhaps the most ambitious project to hit Google's cloud gaming service since it launched in late 2019. Instead of being guided by a central storyline or rigid set of mechanics, Crayta is an “anything goes” online platform where players can both play and build their own unique games. Like any good multiplayer experience, Crayta needs a strong player base right out of the gate for it to succeed, a stake that's raised even higher amid this title's launch-day limitations. I've been playing Crayta for a full a week, and here are my thoughts.
Five months in, Stadia is, ever slowly, packing its library with more and more quality titles. With the release of Doom Eternal earlier this month, the platform hit a major milestone: its first major AAA game to launch day-and-date with PC and consoles. Should you be lacking the local hardware horsepower to bust demon skulls but you're reluctant to stream a game as notoriously fast-paced as Doom, I'm happy to report that, if your network is up to snuff, Eternal runs wonderfully on Google's cloud platform. It's also an intense and immensely gratifying experience.
Over the last few years Ben Yahtzee Croshaw has become something of a legend among game reviewers His relentless loquacious and foul mouthed video reviews have skewered hundreds of video games and become a Wednesday ritual for gamers everywhere To be lambasted by Croshaw is to have your game laid bare all corner cutting exposed all dull and unimaginative choices derided before an audience of hundreds of thousands A profanity laced put down from his tiny invisible cartoon mouth has become a rite of passage and a trial by fire for all but the most fortunate of developers and publishers
The second mobile title based on The Witcher series of games has arrived on Android, and it's a bit more action-packed than the board game from a few months ago. The Witcher Battle Arena is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game based on The Witcher universe. It's free-to-play, but the developers say it's not "pay-to-win."
TellTale is getting really good at this. In the developer's short history they've released more than ten games that have adapted the classic point-and-click adventure template to modern pop culture licenses, improving on both the classic formula and their own unique approach. Game of Thrones, like The Walking Dead game first introduced in 2012, is a particularly timely addition. With excitement bubbling over for the fifth season of HBO's adaptation of the fantasy novels, the GoT license is a hot item, and one that TellTale is uniquely qualified to explore.[EMBED_YT]https://youtu.be/GRMoVJReI9U[/EMBED_YT]That said, the very nature of the Song of Ice and Fire franchise means that the developer is more limited than it might otherwise be. Compared to The Walking Dead, where TellTale has a more or less wide-open apocalyptic world to play with, almost every part of the narrative of Game of Thrones affects the other parts. In placing its episodic story within the same universe as HBO's TV show, the story of the Game of Thrones adventure game is oddly constrained. It follows the events of the HBO series while trying to tell its own story with new characters and locations, which can only interact with the televised world of Westeros in very specific - and not overly important - ways.
Like a great many developers, Gameloft has resorted to rolling in-app purchases into most of its games. One notable exception to that de facto rule is the new installment of the Modern Combat series. These games have much more production value than any other mobile first-person shooter, but this is a genre that's notoriously hard to adapt to touchscreens. So, can a big production budget make Modern Combat 5: Blackout worth your time?
Being completely covered in blue (or greenish blue, whatever) fur is not enough for Leo, the protagonist fluffball in Leo's Fortune – he also has a stylish mustache. Leo was a well-off ball of fuzz when suddenly bam. All his gold was stolen. The thief made one mistake, though. A trail of coins could lead Leo to his fortune, but only if you can navigate this lush world brimming with danger.
The Hitman games have been a staple of third-person stealth action for years. I still remember playing the original on PC many moons ago and being absolutely floored at the detail-oriented gameplay – you had to actually hide unconscious bodies to avoid raising the alarm and disguises only worked so well. Gaming as a whole has advanced considerably since then, but Hitman GO is an attempt to distill that stealthy combat experience into a clean and easy to play package for mobile devices. So, will it strangle your free time?
If there's one thing I can say for Out There, it's that this title does not sugar coat the harsh reality of space. Things go wrong that are totally out of your control, and sometimes that means you're going to die. If that was literally the only thing I had to say, this game would be pretty lame. In fact, there's a lot going on in Out There. This is a sci-fi choose-your-own-adventure game that doesn't fall back on laser blasters and explosions to create tension – it's all about survival. And really, isn't that the ultimate challenge?
Badland is a game about adaptation – the rotund birds you control in this title are simple things that fly up and to the right at your direction, but they're always changing. Toss in a few power ups, and things get wild really fast. The game can change in an instant and you have to be ready for it. Just survive – that's all you need to do, but the assortment of unexpected dangers and physics puzzles make this game something to take a closer look at.
Humanity came out on top in the previous Anomaly games, but apparently that was just the beginning – a test invasion, if you will. The alien towers have returned with a vengeance in Anomaly 2 and the world is a little worse for wear. In fact, we kind of lost the war. This is the backdrop for Anomaly 2, which employs the same reverse tower defense gameplay that made the original games so much fun. Is this just more of the same, or does Anomaly 2 bring something new to the table?
The original Plants vs. Zombies was a fabulous mobile game even though it didn't debut on a mobile device. It launched on PC and Mac way back in 2009, a full year before it landed on iOS. Still, Plants vs. Zombies turned out to be ideal for an immersive touchscreen experience. The sequel has many of the same gameplay elements that made the first one so compelling, but there is more going on here. Plants vs. Zombies 2 arrives after developer PopCap has been acquired by Electronic Arts, which has not exactly won the internet's everlasting love. So, can the fun of plant on zombie violence make up for a new focus on in-app purchases?
All you have to do is get to the luminous beam of light at the end of the level. That's all it takes to progress through Incredipede. However, actually figuring out how to get there is a bit of a challenge. In each level your buggy avatar has to mutate to make its way onward, growing new limbs and muscles as needed. This kind of experimental gameplay has a tendency to go wrong, even if it starts out strong. Incredipede might have things figured out, though.
Hexage has been creating some of the best games on Android since early in the platform's run. It has a distinct style that has evolved through the years as Android acquired more graphical prowess. That leads us to the newest Hexage title, Reaper. This is a 2D hack-and-slash RPG with a casual style of gameplay and a ton of pizazz. Unlike some previous Hexage games, this one is not free-to-play. You can try it out, but you've got to make a decision about buying the full version. Is a casual RPG worth owning forever?
Turn-based gaming is making a bit of a comeback these days, but such titles can easily end up painfully tedious or just not compelling. Breach and Clear is a top-down shooter that seems to aim for a middle ground. You have to carefully position units, leverage special tactics, and keep track of enemies. However, some of the busywork is taken out of your hands. This game has the potential to scratch a tactical itch in a big way.
I spent a measurable amount of the early 90's playing Contra on NES. Admittedly, I lacked the manual dexterity at the time to beat the game without using the Konami Code, but now I can take another swing at it on Android. Contra: Evolution is the same game it was in the early 90's, but with a few extra elements.
A superhero is likely to have various powers suitable for defeating the forces of evil and causing a ton of collateral damage. You know, leaping tall buildings, conjuring fireballs, and so on. But can they fill out health insurance forms? Collate printouts? Can a superhero – no matter how powerful – navigate the murky waters of human resource complaints? The answer to all these questions is no. The venerable middle manager is the only one with these skills, and now you can slip on the sensible shoes of such an individual and manage a branch of Justice Corp. in the newly released Middle Manager of Justice. Does this game successfully turn office management into a treat, or will you be anxious to punch out for the day?
[New Game Review] TurtleStrike: A Somewhat Successful New Take On Old-Fashioned Gameplay
TurtleStrike: A Somewhat Successful New Take On Old-Fashioned Gameplay
Turn-based strategy is a classic style of gameplay, but it's still pretty big these days with titles like Frozen Synapse hitting Android. But sometimes these games can be a little slow, or even tedious if a not designed well. The developers of TurtleStrike are trying to combine real-time with turn-based gaming in what they call "live turn-based" gameplay. This approach has the potential to make matches proceed quickly, but still allow careful tactical planning. If it's done well, this could be very cool, but is it?
The backstory in Bombcats is bizarre. The felines in this particular title have found that their offspring are imprisoned in glowing blue bubbles. Now, the most rational course of action might be to calmly find a way to get the kittens safely out. But no... this is Bombcats, and these cats blow up to break their kittens out of their prisons. Of course, the kittens also blow up. I'm really not sure what you accomplish in Bombcats, but it's pretty fun.