Ahhh! It’s great to be back in Harran! Am I right? Beautiful views, plenty of work and hordes of zombies! I tell you, if a zombie apocalypse ever comes to be within my lifetime, I’ll be just fine. Wink, wink! Anyway, for starters, if you haven’t played the first Dying Light, you’re missing out. Not only is Dying Light a great game, it helps you appreciate and understand Dying Light 2 much more than you would a newbie. So, if you haven’t played the original, I suggest you go pick it up and play it out! It’s worth it. Moving on, let’s go over the good and the bad until we reach my final score of the review. Graphics are pretty good on the PS5 and the game doesn’t seem to stutter and buffer when playing through and of course, there are no real loading times to contend with on current Gen consoles, so we’re happy there. Parkour games don’t always play well, and it’s far from my favorite type of playstyle, but Dying Light does it so well, I forget just how much I hated Mirrors Edge. The developers at Techland definitely offer great parkour gaming! The controls work great all the way around. Very responsive and the button layout works well without needing to make changes, at least for me. You’ll find that as you level up and upgrade your character, the controls become much more important than meets the eye, so pay attention to those upgrades! The storyline is alright, but not great. I thought the story in the first entry of the series was better, but that’s just my humble opinion. The story is just fine and as you play on, it does get better. I found myself becoming more emotionally invested half way through my playthrough. We may not always realize we are invested with characters we play, but it goes to show just how good a game can be. Sometimes you just don’t care about the characters or stories because a game is just that bad. Thankfully, that’s not the case here. The audio is also spot on. Sound effects and music together really make the setting come to life. There is some licensed music in the game, so if you’re streaming, check the audio settings and turn off licensed music to avoid any copyright issues you could run into. Upgrading your character isn’t the only upgradable thing in the game either. You can mod your weapons which is practically an upgrade in itself. You can also upgrade crafting recipes. If you have a recipe for medicine to heal yourself, you can upgrade that recipe and make the medicine more powerful and quicker to use. You can also upgrade your weapon mod recipes for even more powerful weapons all around. As far as the bad goes, I haven’t had too much trouble with bugs, but I have had my instances where I couldn’t complete a … Read More
Battlefield 2042 review
This is a tough review for me right now. I had the highest of hopes that Battlefield 2042 would be an amazing frigging game and if I’m being completely honest about it, I’d have to say this game is one the most lackluster titles available right now. Bugs aside, where is the content? It’s like the developers cut everything out that you were expecting and said here, have a couple game modes to play online and be happy about it. Granted, the publishers often have a lot to do with decisions in how a game shapes up, so I can’t put it all on the developers. I’m looking at you right now EA! As I was saying, the game is lacking a lot of content. No solo campaign, only a couple of the modes to pick from (that God for conquest)! There are plenty of weapons and soldier customization options, but nothing much else. Southern goes at least 2 points for lacking content. Graphics are OK. I did expect a lot more on the graphic front of things with BF 2042, but we can’t have everything we want. I guess I feel like the maps themselves are missing detail that I have come to expect in this day and age. Graphics don’t make an entire game, but they aren’t something to overlook. Graphics are definitely an important part of immersion. Audio is excellent! They definitely got the audio right on this one. Enemy footsteps, weaponry firing off, even voice chat audio is good in this game. I have been using the PS5 wireless headset from Sony to play through, but I believe the audio is well tuned for most outputs. It sounded great on my TV, but obviously not as immersive as a headset. Let me know what you’re using for audio and settings and if you find it satisfactory! As mentioned above, no campaign and not much to choose from in regards to multi-player game modes. There are plenty of bugs to contend with which is normal, but these bugs are littered in there a little more than most games. I really do hold EA responsible for the faults in this game. They control the budget and make a lot of decisions and there is no doubt in my mind they messed this game all up. What does the future of Battlefield 2042 hold? Well, hopefully more game modes, more maps and better visuals. The bugs definitely need to be squashed, but I’d take with a grain if there was more content. All in all I’m giving Battlefield 2042 a 5 out of 10. Without the content, the game feels empty and reduced from its former glory days. Of course most long running franchises have gone downhill over the years and none of the publishers seem to care. Maybe someday they’ll open their eyes and realize they’re making mistakes and not good games. That’s just my take on it, so feel free … Read More
Call Of Duty Vanguard Review Part 3: Multiplayer
Welcome to part three of the Call of Duty Vanguard review! In the final section of this review, we’re going over the most popular aspect of the CoD series… Multiplayer! We love to play it and love to hate it! At least that seems to be the ongoing trend when it comes to CoD titles. So, without further ado, let’s get started! Call of Duty’s Vanguard multiplayer variant is alright. It’s definitely not anything that stands out in the franchise. It feels rather plain and already done a bunch of times over. On the one hand, everyone seems to want the game to change, but everytime it does, people complain. On the other hand, everyone seems to get upset when it feels like another copy and paste. While it may be the best selling video game year after year, the developers just can’t seem to win us over no matter how hard they try. As far as I am concerned, Vanguard isn’t anything new and it is disappointing in the sense that this game was delayed last year and they put 4 years into this one. Granted, Sledgehammer Studios had a lot of changes in personnel including leadership, but I can’t really excuse the lack of innovation this time around. Not after 4 years. I will start you off with the good and work my way down to the bad. Keep in mind, this my opinion and it doesn’t have to line up with everyone else’s and it’s not meant to be insulting to those that thoroughly enjoy the game. Graphically, this game isn’t special on any platform. It’s obviously better looking on a PS5 versus a PS4, but not enough of a difference to really care. It’s smoother looking and all, but it may as well have been released on the PS4 and forget about current Gen platforms. It’s not bad, it just doesn’t live up to expectations. Audio is pretty good with this title. Footsteps sound much better than they have in recent years. I can tell the difference between my teammates and my enemies when playing matches and that’s pretty important to me. When I’m rushing to the other side of the map to find the enemy team, it helps to hear them coming in from any direction. I don’t use my mini map like I should, so I don’t always look up and notice the blue friendly markers. I feel like the sound of guns firing weapons and kill streaks has been brought back to a level it needs to be on. Since Modern Warfare, I thought the sound effects were too much and overpowered everything else in my headset and even though I made adjustments, it was still a bit much for me. I know I’m not alone in this opinion, but I also know there’s a good amount of players that disagree with me as well. All that being said, I’m definitely happy with the audio settings. Controls … Read More
Happy’s Humble Burger Farm Review – Much More Than Just Flipping Burgers
There are games so prominent that they create their own subgenre on arrival. A perfect example is Dark Souls, which gave rise to the “Soulslike” term used on all manner of hardcore RPGs. Similarly, regardless of the creator’s shortcomings, Five Nights at Freddy’s spawned its own subgenre of horror punctuated by cutesy mascots that hide a deeper, more diabolic intent. Not only that, but these types of games often place you in a mundane setting, like a restaurant or fast food joint. Welcome to the latest entry in this subgenre of horror: Happy’s Humble Burger Farm. This title combines restaurant management with a wider setting that seems to hide something sinister beneath its surface. Does this unique combination produce delicious horror, or is this burger undercooked? Let’s find out. A Solid Cooking Game Wrapped in an Insatiable Mystery When I first booted up Happy’s Humble Burger Farm, I thought I knew what to expect. I figured I would be confined to the titular restaurant and would be subjected to jump scares while making sure some exhausted and hungry customer gets their burger and fries (or possibly salmon nuggets, which I didn’t know were a thing). Instead, Happy’s Humble Burger Farm (HHBF?) immediately opens with something unexpected, tossing you into your apartment and into the wider environment of New Elysian City. From the onset, the game has this aura of mystery about the town you’re in and the nature of your place within it that I found irresistible. Whether it’s the locked doors in your apartment building that possess keypads, the fever-dream content that plays on your television, or the buildings that loom just outside your reach as you walk through the city streets at night on your way to a shift, everything in Happy’s Humble Burger Farm seems to belie a deeper mystery, and as you progress, you’ll find that these instincts are correct. A brochure menu that you can pull up at will gives you some basic information on the cooking mechanics, and quick tutorial brings you up to speed when you first arrive at the restaurant, but things like being able to pick up multiple ingredients and distribute them across the grill or onto a bun weren’t immediately apparent to me. Part of that comes down to how things in the world are presented. While I loved the in-game representation of mechanics and story, stylized on colorful backgrounds and featuring the mascots that you’ll soon content with as the game goes on, without any kind of text or zoom option, it was very difficult to read items I found in the world or messages written in my brochure menu. I imagine this would be easier on a monitor, but I was sitting on a couch in front of a 65-inch TV, so the readability here was an issue for me, doubly so because you need to read a lot of things to gather story elements and when using the game’s vending machines to buy collectibles or healing items. … Read More
Call of Duty Vanguard Review: Part 2 – The Campaign
Welcome back to our ongoing Call of Duty review of Vanguard. In part 2, we’re discussing the campaign! Believe it or not, there are a lot of people out there still buying the game for the campaign only. I personally could care less for the campaigns, but I still play through them for principal reasons and obviously so I can complete the reviews. Moving forward, let’s discuss the storyline first. We kicked things off in 1945, during World War II. You are part of the Vanguard Task Force One and tasked with finding enemy intelligence and ultimately making sure the good guys win the war. Your team is made up of characters from the USA, Russia, England and Australia. A touch crew of misfits at that. As you play through the game, the story isn’t that great. I won’t spoil anything for you, as I try to avoid that, but I want to. I want to tell you exactly why I don’t like the sorry, but I’ll save that for a time where spoilers aren’t so much a concern anymore. Let’s just say, it’s rather mediocre and there isn’t very bonding with the characters. They are less than memorable. The graphics of the game irritate me because this game should look amazing. Unfortunately, it’s watered down and doesn’t look very next/current gen. This game was pushed back in 2020, and we got an underdeveloped version of Black Ops Cold War instead. Well, the extra year working on Vanguard didn’t help very much. Audio is definitely in good standing with me. Footsteps are where they should be and the sound effects aren’t overpowering each other like they do in Cold War and Warzone. A silenced weapon sounds silenced and you can still hear enemy and friendly footsteps over it. I typically turn the music level to zero and make other minor adjustments to fit my play style with little distraction. I use the same settings in the campaign as I do in Multiplayer. I probably shouldn’t as I’m sure I’m missing out on some things, but as I said earlier, I only play the campaign for principal and review reasons. Controls are tight and work flawlessly, but that’s definitely to be expected. Where the Call of Duty franchise falls short, one thing I can always count on is controls that aren’t clunky or wonky. Responsiveness is extremely important and Vanguard is no exception. The campaign is of course rather short. I managed to complete it in under 7 hours and that’s with looking around and taking my time to explore what I could when I could. Unfortunately, the storyline isn’t great and the campaign is easily forgettable. I just can’t imagine buying a game at full price and playing it for 7 hours and feeling like I got my money’s worth, but some do, so hopefully they’re satisfied with their purchase. All in all, I rate the Vanguard campaign a 6 out of … Read More
Aliens Fireteam Elite Review?
Some of you have been wondering where our Aliens Fireteam Elite review is. I’m here to clear that up for you. It just wasn’t good enough to bother publishing a review. No, it’s not a 1 out of 10 title, but it is closer to a 4 out of 10. It feels and looks unoriginal and doesn’t come close to providing a long run experience before it becomes repetitive. Graphics are bottom barrel and controls aren’t that tight. Sure, it costs less than your typical triple A title, but even a lower cost can’t justify paying full price. No matter the price (even if it was free), it would still be a disappointing third person shooter that would be better as a poster and not much more. Granted, that’s my opinion and not all of us will agree, but that’s my stance. 4 out of 10 and even that’s giving it too high of a score for my taste. What did you think of the Aliens Fireteam? Were you lucky enough to pass or did you play? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
DeathLoop Review
DeathLoop is a masterpiece that should be played by anyone that has even the smallest interest. Playing through DeathLoop only saddens me further when I think about Microsoft buying Bethesda, but at least we got to play DeathLoop. Ok, enough of the sappy and more of the happy, right? Right! DeathLoop is a fun first person shooter that dives deep into the concept of time. It’s complicated in ways and can be confusing at times. It can drag on a little of the repetitive side, but for me at least, there is little to complain about. I have heard a lot of players complaining about how they had to try and keep up with unfolding the storyline through side missions and the main game and I kind of surprised anyone would think this is something to complain about. A lot of games use side missions to expand the game and offer more options to the player. You don’t have to play all the side missions to understand the story. Playing them just gives you a better understanding of the story on top of it. To sum it up, the story is really good. Well written and mind boggling at times. I would love to meet the minds behind the storyline because there was a lot of creativity with this one. I can respect that the storyline isn’t for everyone, but I think if someone wasn’t interested in a sci-fi story type about time and assassins and borderline rewind and try again scenarios, they probably wouldn’t pick up the game. That being said, it’s a good story… Let’s just leave it at that. Gameplay mechanics are responsive and not complicated to learn. This isn’t really a surprise because most games have tight responsive controls, it’s still important to mention. If the mechanics were not so up to par, I’d have to mention that too. Just sayin. Graphics… boy oh boy are the graphics something to whistle about. Now I know that if someone has a nice PC rig, they’re gonna find a way to mention it because they can’t help themselves, but this is about the PS5 and this machine can deliver quite the experience. DeathLoop is gorgeous on a million levels. Well, that’s an exaggeration, but it is beautiful to say the least. It really does take talent to put something like that together. Without spoiling the story, you are an assassin that is being antagonized by another assassin. You’re out to eliminate your enemies, while surviving everything in between. You will have to use your thinking cap to get ahead of the game (no pun intended) and solve a lot of puzzles to get there. Don’t worry though, you’ll be in a “death loop” that allows you to learn from your mistakes. It’s sci-fi fun with a lot of twists and I highly recommend anyone with a PS5 to try this game, unless of course you just don’t like First Person Shooters. … Read More
FORECLOSED Review – Putting The Punk in Cyberpunk
While the term “cyberpunk” may remind most people of the rocky launch of Cyberpunk 2077, other games have leveraged the sub-genre over the years to great effect. It goes beyond a style, however, and invokes a deeper look into futuristic societies and the things that can happen if we’re not careful to keep the powers that be in check. FORECLOSED, a new comic book style cyberpunk action game, leverages the style to great effect, but does this sleek look translate to compelling gameplay? Let’s find out. Stylish Looks Can’t Hide Less Than Ideal Story and Gameplay One thing no one can fault FORECLOSED for is its style. The game oozes comic book cyberpunk style that’s immediately eye-catching. The premise too is interesting. You play as Evan Kapnos, who wakes up one morning to find out his company has gone bankrupt and as a result his entire identity has been, you guessed it, foreclosed. While he starts out trying to do the right thing, Evan is quickly pulled into a conspiracy that has him on the run and dodging bullets very quickly into the story. The story itself is solid, but not incredibly compelling. There are some moments of downtime where you can choose dialogue options, but the game goes through long stretches of fighting rooms of enemies between exposition, so it doesn’t quite have the narrative-focused feel the game’s official description would suggest. One thing that’s really exciting in the opening hours of the game, are the ways that it transistions between comic book styled cutscenes and gameplay. For example, you’ll often see the screen split into panels before transitioning seamlessly into gameplay. An early chase sequence also has you running from armed enemies through the perspective of security cameras, allowing for a visual treat beyond the standard third-person gameplay. FORECLOSED is stylish, and it knows it. For a while, that was enough for me to look past some gameplay issues, but when we stop and break it all down, there are a number of problems with how the game plays. For starters, there’s a sort of hacking minigame that involves pressing directional buttons in sequence. It works perfectly fine, but it never gets more complicated than that. The same goes for these hidden switches you can find inside of walls using your vision, or ones that are scattered across an area. You’ll need to find and hack them all to move forward once the enemies are down They’re interesting at first, but soon become a repetitive aspect of progression. Combat is a mixed bag as well. No matter how much I adjusted the aim sensitivity and aim assist in the options, I could never get the gunplay to feel responsive enough. It was always a little sluggish and difficult to make precise movements. More often than not, I would just resort to strafing to line up my shot. Enemies also flood areas and just stand in place, which leads to simple shootouts. On the default difficulty, you’ll also find … Read More
Black Ops: Cold War – The Harsh Review
Well, here are. After a month of the initial release, I can confidently share my thoughts on Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War. I wanted to wait long enough for a couple of meaningful patches to update that game and see if the improvements would give it a better review or if the patches would give anything meaningful at all. The verdict? They kind of don’t. I try to keep in mind that this title was originally being made by the developers over at Sledgehammer and that Treyarch was called in to take over 2020’s release one year before the game dropped. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if this game is made up of coding from one studio and mixed from another or if this game was built from the ground up in 12 months. All I know is, something is off about this game. I’m pretty good when I play Black Ops: Cold War. I don’t fare so well when I am obviously playing against a couple of cheaters on the enemy team, but even then, I manage to find ways to shut down the handful of jerks I come across that are using rapid fire mods, wall hacks and aimbots. Cheaters aside, I’m definitely above average with my strategies and gun gameplay. I can’t say I don’t like the game because I do. I like alright, but it is as they say, a step back. Treyarch is known for the more arcade playstyle in their games. You don’t expect too much realism with the fast pace movements, and that’s some of the charm Treyarch offers with their games. Unfortunately, the way the game looks and the long list bugs that dropped upon release and not to mention the large number of map exploits, it is clear that this game wasn’t ready and you know what? I don’t blame Treyarch. I blame Activision. Instead of taking a loss for the year and maybe even using Warzone as a backup for revenue, Activision forced this game out the door and put immense pressure on Developers involved with the game. If this was a launch PS4 title, it would seem to fit right in, but it’s a launch next gen title that was rushed out the door and took away any magic we fans might have seen with the first CoD title on a PS5 or Xbox Series X/S. The campaign is ok. The story was kind of dull, but it had it’s fun moments. I completed the story on the default difficulty mode in about 4-5 hours. It felt like I was playing through a bad 80’s action movie. I know that sounds like an insult, but a bad 80’s movie is kind of a compliment since so many of us think fondly on crappy over the top films that have bad writing and even worse dialogue. I guess it’s charming in its own right. I don’t play CoD games for their … Read More
Immortals Fenyx Rising Review – PS5
Immortals Fenyx Rising is one of those games that come along once every blue moon. A game that just doesn’t have any real flaws to complain about. At least in regard to the PS5 version. I think it’s unfortunate that Fenyx Rising released when it did and Ubisoft didn’t put a lot into the advertising. Sure, we knew it was there, but it’s ultimately the timing that is wrong with this game. While it did release a week ago, it inevitably has to compete with all the hit titles that dropped in November and taking on Cyberpunk 2077, is enough to squander sales. That being said, let’s move onto what the majority is missing out on. Immortals Fenyx Rising is an open work RPG that looks cartoony in essence. I personally don’t opt for games that have this look, but this game has taught me that I cannot use that as a reason to pass on a game anymore. Fenyx Rising might not have the “real life” look I would normally want in a game, but everything about this game had me hooked from beginning to end. Taking elements from games such as The legend of Zelda and Monster Hunter world to name a couple, gives this game a great environment with simple gameplay mechanics that get slightly more complicated over time, but the transition comes easily. Immortals Fenyx Rising has a great story that is told in a way that keeps things interesting. You can stay focused on the main quest, but there is so much to do and see, it’s easy to get distracted and complete a bunch of side quests along the way. The story is initially told by Greek god Prometheus. He tells his brother Zeus, the story of Fenyx. As the story evolves plenty of conversation breaks out between the gods as they watch you play from above. I found the story to be fun, well told and it had a great ending!! I mean, endings can be difficult and sometimes they’re just ok, but this game has a great ending. I loved it and it came as a surprise to me because I really wasn’t expecting to enjoy that much. You really can’t judge a book by it’s cover. Graphically, this game is just fine. There is nothing I can really complain about. The style of art chosen to create the world and characters fits well with the story and how it is told. This is a game that you can take seriously and have a lot of fun at the same time. In the end, the cartoonish style gives the game some of the charm I enjoyed so much and I don’t think having it appear to be more live action, would make it any better. The audio is good in this game for sure. Music that plays through is often fitting for the scene. Playing through a Greek open world filled mythological creatures and puzzles, I often felt treated to my very … Read More