Games Xtreme's Reviews
It's everything that made the first Splatoon good, but now there's more of it, there's new modes, and need I remind you, it's portable. A top-notch entry in what's fast becoming a beloved franchise.
Shadow of War is a worthy sequel and we've given it a Must Buy. However, note that the Loot Box system is optional if you're willing to work with the game's system and actually play the game (which is what you should be doing!).
You wake up to a faint voice, whisper and can barely make it out. After gaining consciousness you call out a name, Astrid! In front of you are multiple fires of what was once your plane. A cave lies ahead in the distance, you slowly make your way to it. Your breath forming in the cold winter night. If you look around you will see some of your belongings, get them. They are key to your survival. Once in the cave your very first mission for staying alive and bringing your body temp up is making a fire. So, you head back outside to collect sticks, branches and cedar. You will need tinder and other items to make this fire that is needed to survive. Directly after your achievement, you pass out.
A prime example of how retro console gaming can still be fun AND relevant. Cracking good fun...
Do I think this is the game that's saved the franchise, yes I do. It needed a shot in the arm, the corpse of Assassin's Creed was starting to shamble around and lurch like a mummy rising from Sneferu's Tomb - AC: Origins is the best thing to happen to the series for a long while and I'm going to keep my eyes on what Ubisoft does next with the game. The future is bright, shimmering, like the heat-haze over the Pyramids of Giza. Only it's not a mirage or a false dawn, this is a new breed of Creed and the change was right on time.
Careful research, great character writing, and a stunning feeling of being true-to-life carried the original game far, and Yakuza Kiwami marries those qualities to more refined gameplay and slick HD graphics.
Right here, right now, Windjammers is an excellent port of an absolutely amazing game. And while all the platforms are good, I think the Switch might be the single best platform for it. Between the easily learned mechanics, their smooth compatibility with a single Joycon, and the speed of a match, this is one of those games that is perfect for those magical moments where you just set the system down and start playing with someone.
Steamworld Dig 2 is a top-notch game that so succeeds at what it set out to do, that calling it merely "retro-inspired" almost feels like an insult. It's a fantastic 2D title, and belongs in anyone's collection.
An absolute gem of a game to play--Jettomero doesn't take long to dive into, nor is it too deep. You're a robot who is slightly confused on everything around it, blasted into a galaxy you don't know, and events taking place around you with the human civilization that you haven't quite caught up on yet. It's an adorable story that unfolds like a comic book, with super hero pacing that can only leave you feeling pumped up!
ArenaNet really listened to the players on this one. They took great care to craft something to be proud of, and I believe that shows ten-fold. They're listening and watching and really striving to create an expansion unrivaled. It's more than worth the play--hours of content, amazing rewards and fantastic surroundings. This is the expansion that Guild Wars 2 deserves.
Battle Chasers: Nightwar is a refreshing take on the J-RPG formula. It has enough new stuff in there to make it really cool to play, and enough nods to old school J-RPGs to please that side of the equation. In other words, definitely worth a punt!
Easily the best version of the game, Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition comes so packed with content that it boggles the mind. It's a game well worth revisiting, and an amazing value if it's your first time visiting this take on the land of Hyrule. Don't let it slip you by.
Say hello to Will, Will is a nice guy, a nice guy who inherited his family-owned shop known as Moonlighter, as time passed and Will's family declined in years he eventually ended up as the sole owner of the business. Will is also an adventurous sort of lad who loves nothing more than to grab a sword, a shield, and go wandering into the nearest dungeon to test his mettle and grab a bunch of bits and bobs that he can sell in the shop.
The game uses a similar style of art to Don't Starve, only there's colour, and a whole slew of gorgeous animations to go with it. It's a gorgeous, if somewhat bleak (due to the Underworld) game packed with lots of nice little touches and a beautiful hand-drawn/animated art style. What begins as a simple exercise in survival turns into a story about a parent and her child, and the love a mother has for her son. Sure, there are survival elements and the need to craft and create bigger/better things so that you can extend your ability to survive as well as explore more places to unravel more of the plot. But there's a real heart here to the game, and this is where Smoke and Sacrifice shines the brightest.
We begin with Billy Bridger being slammed down on the floor of a prison block floor. Two guards fiercely doing their job while holding the prisoner down. A man of military stature greets this well-known criminal with an offer that is way better than his odds in prison. Bridger's expertise are explosives with the mix of attempted armed robbery and a hint of assault. Explained by Mason, the mysterious army figure, he is willing to offer him freedom in exchange for Billy's recruitment in the army. After a reluctant 5 seconds of being in the "hole" Billy opens the slide and asks what type of unit was it that he had in mind, a slow turn around with a humorous "do you like the seaside" reply form the man while wearing the most dangerous smile ends our scene. At seaside, a dark, rainy and gloomy afternoon Mason and Bridger get ready for an off the grid mission. Thus, starting us off with the first War Story mission.
Super Smash Bros, as a series, has been...Not necessarily one of a kind, but of a rare breed, in how hard it's stuck in with only a few actual entries. If we consider the two forms of the previous entry to be a single game, this is only the fifth game in the series' almost 20 year history. In five games, we've gone from 12 characters to over 75. From Ness being the most obscure character in the roster, to god damn Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles being playable. His game only even came out in the US because of a fan campaign! And in that span, the series has managed to have five unique identities. The original N64 entry, and to a far greater extent Melee, are still played regularly and competitively to this day. It's the only series to my knowledge, to have actually held two separate main-stage slots for the EVO fighting game tournament for multiple years.
The game actually puts more of a central focus on combat than a lot of Metroidvanias, too, with new areas often making you stop for a Lucha battle your first time through. These little combat challenges test various skills, from basic brawling to dealing with aerial foes to turning environmental hazards to your advantage. But where things get interesting, in my mind, is when you compare this to the first game. Because, see, I really liked the first Guacamelee. I thought it was a solid little game, but its single biggest problem was that it was slight and brief, over before I was done with it and kind of too easy for most of the experience. None of that is true in the sequel. Oh no. It starts off nice and low and lets you get used to things, but even early on, you've got these little optional challenge rooms to collect heart or mask pieces(for health and stamina, respectively) that give a real solid chunk of platforming to chew on. And the very last dungeon stands out as just plain brutal at times.
Diving in, you're put into a campaign type mode where you go from hospital to hospital with different scenarios and challenges to work on. As you move from one to the next, you start to notice that you're in a living tutorial that never really feels too heavy or confusing. All the introductions of game mechanics gently trickle in, giving you plenty of time to learn as goals urge you to implement them as you go along. This is something that I'm absolutely raving about--the rate at which you learn how to run new equipment and gather unlockables is at a fantastically thorough pace. Have you unlocked something later down the line but wish to use it in a previous hospital? No problem! Just go back to whichever hospital at any time and you can drop whatever you've earned back into it. All the unlockables and research span across the whole account, which is brilliant and makes going back into your first hospitals so much fun.
This is a beautiful game. The bright hues make this platformer stand out well. The mystic dinosaur creatures and the lively green life sources give you a vision of a beautiful land that is inhabited by an alien life source. In my mind the possibilities seemed endless. Imagine seeing this type of platformer back in the day, what would the evolution of VG'S be today? The Devs at Planet Alpha ApS did a great job and are highly commendable for making such an impressionable game.
If Exodus is the future of the series then sign me up for more. If it's the future of single player games, then sign me up doubly-so since there's not a single scrap of online, micro-transaction, or live service bs in here. 4A have really done me proud with this one. Perhaps I'm easily pleased or I can ignore certain things - not many bugs came up and one graphical glitch happened on the Volga level which has since vanished after a patch. Apart from that, the game is fantastic, and I'm having a blast playing on the harder difficulty now to push myself and my skills even further. I love Metro's world, the design, the aesthetic, and the whole package in general - Exodus takes everything I love about it and amps it up to the next level for me.