Archives July 2022

Century: Age of Ashes, a game of dragon combat, collecting gold and killing other players.

The folks at Playwing brought us the latest in MOBA gaming with Century: Age of Ashes. When we first started playing the game there were three classes to play and at the time we sat to write this a fourth was added. Each class gives a different list of dragons to collect and eventually use. Additionally you can unlock different cosmetics for each and choose between two abilities for their dragons. Game modes cycle daily but two are a constant- Spoils of War and Carnage. These two modes are chosen at random when you choose to play them. Spoils is my personal favorite where teams shoot down each other as well as dragons carrying gold around the map. This gold is then collected and placed in your safe. Carnage is a team based PVP battle where the quickest reflexes and most aggressive teams are the winners.

When I first started playing I played every day as completing daily challenges gave you chances to unlock dragons. Now though, the team at Playwing have decided to require you to get a BattlePass in order to continue unlocking dragons and cosmetics. All of the dragons, at least for the current season appear to require the paid BattlePass to have a chance to earn, or spending actual money to purchase them from the shop. I understand the company needs to make a profit but when the game had six months of daily play working towards earning more dragons to then require spending money in order for players to continue getting what they were getting for free prior makes it feel more like a bait and switch. The gameplay is great but gets quite tedious after a little while.

Controls are smooth and visuals are stunning but the way they handled the changes between season 0 and 1 took a lot of the fun out of the game. For those that don’t mind spending a little money will enjoy the game but Free to Play players like myself will get bored and quit before long, unless you have a ton of patience.

Warcry returns with a new starter, two new warbands and a new setting- outside the Eight Points in the Realm of Ghur with The Heart of Ghur!

With the official preorder of the Heart of Ghur starting on July 30th and the official release on August 13th we have a new edition and a very different roadmap for Warcry than we have experienced previously. Officially this is the fourth starter box for Warcry itself, but if you are anything like me all Age of Sigmar starter boxes are secretly Warcry boxes as well. This is the third box to feature only Chaos warbands, this time with the Nurgle themed Rotmire Creed and the industrialist Horns of Hashut. So why are warbands venturing further and further away from the Eight Points?

To really answer the above question we have to first look the changes to the region and then the reasons for THESE two warbands. The location itself underwent a massive change after a Seraphon Templeship crashed and to protect itself and it’s contents it reshaped the area around it, turning it even more inhospitable. The Rotmire Creed has been promised by Grandfather Nurgle that he will gift them with an elixir of immortality if they retrieve the ingredients from the area. The Horns of Hashut are looking to make room for their forge fires to further expand their industry, this means leveling it all to the ground. Now if they worked together they would be able to achieve both goals but when has the forces of Chaos ever really worked smarter? I can say this with certainty as a Slaves to Darkness player, they don’t unless it is the most direct path to their goals.

To go with the new locale we have the start of a themed collection of terrain. I say a start because it is exactly that. You receive enough to play the game but to truly capture the wilds of this forest it is a bit lacking and that’s where the roadmap comes in. Every three months we will be new box similar to this in scope with new warbands and new terrain. If you collect all of the boxes you will have an impressive table with a single terrain theme. I am predicting (I have received no information that this is true or not and is purely my own guess) that the final box will have a either a related Age of Sigmar release that will incorporate this themed terrain OR a campaign book like what we have that followed the recent Thondia boxset- I’d place my money on the book direction.

What are the biggest changes between both editions of Warcry?

To start with we have something that I have personally thought should have been included for years in nearly all tabletop games- Reactions. If these two forces were to face each other in the real world (abilities, gods and magic aside) when one unit attacks the other there is a brief period with the other can react, whether it is turning and running, throwing a rock, stabbing the attacker or something else, they would still react in some way and most games don’t account for this. Warcry finally fills this need and makes planning your actions even more strategic as you have to be aware of which units still have the option to react. Like Counter for example could potentially be more deadly than that fighter’s normal attacks would have been.

Final thoughts on the new edition:

The models alone make The Heart of Ghur worth picking up but the promise of a huge thematic table if you collect each starter over the next year has me beyond excited. Reactionary rules added to the game took Warcry from my favorite title to whatever you would call something ranked above it especially since the overall mechanics are relatively unchanged meaning most players won’t have difficulty transition between play styles. Venturing outside the Eightpoints is HUGE. This opens up the possibilities between ALL of the other realms. #WarcryHoG

IT IS RARE FOR ME TO SEE A MOVIE WHEN IT’S STILL IN THEATERS BUT THANKS TO 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS I WAS ABLE TO CATCH UP ON A FEW THAT I MISSED!

Recently the fine folks at 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios- their home page is here) had sent me codes to several of the movies I missed so that I could share my thoughts on them with you. Part 1 was all about Underwater and Part 2 focused on The New Mutants. Part 3 we talked about The Personal History of David Copperfield. Part 4 discussed The Empty Man. Part 5 talked about Nomadland and Speed 4K Ultra HD. Part 6 discussed The Night House and Free Guy. Part 7 focused on The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Part 8 had The Last Duel. Part 9 discussed Ron’s Gone Wrong and Part 10 talked about The King’s Man and Summer of Soul. Part 11 discussed Nightmare Alley and West Side Story. Part 12 highlighted Death on the Nile and we’ve returned with Part 13 to talk about The Bob’s Burgers Movie!

The Bob’s Burgers Movie

Having never seen a single episode of the show before I didn’t know what to expect, however, many friends rave about how great it is. After watching it I spoke to several of those friends and they all absolutely loved it, I however did not. I suspect it was built up too much by them and having never grown to enjoy the show I didn’t love the movie. It was an entertaining movie, good enough even to convince me to give the show a chance, until then the jury is still out on this one for me.

Formerly a “Games With Gold” title, is Mulaka worth your time and effort?

Mulaka is loosely based on the Tarahumara, an indigenous people found in New Mexico and a portion of the proceeds for the game go to help fund preservation projects to safeguard this legacy. Lienzo developed this game specifically to showcase the culture and locales of these people. You play a shaman that must defeat evil monsters pulled from the area’s mythology. As the game progresses you pull on powers of demigods pulled from the same mythology to make your shaman stronger in order to rid the world of evil.

The combat is surprisingly fluid as you mimic this race of extremely agile people. Visually the game looks like a neon skinned Prince of Persia from the Xbox 360. The story is a fresh change of pace in that it is mostly told visually without an overabundance of text. Controls are easy to learn without feeling simplistic. Overall I found the game to be surprisingly good. Most games that were offered from Games with Gold are ones I would consider throwaway titles that I would not play more than once but Mulaka pulled me back in on multiple counts.

Music Racer Ultimate is a racing game about music and enjoying the drive, despite the random obstacles and some absurd vehicles.

Sometimes You has ported over another title for the current generation of consoles and this time they set their sights on Music Racer Ultimate. The focus of the game is to enjoy the drive while enjoying the music you’ve selected. Each map is modified based on the choices you’ve selected between song, gameplay style and the course theme itself. As you drive you need to collect little white bricks, they look like frets on a guitar, and doing so earns you points. These points are then spent on new vehicles and tracks and each of those unlocks nets you an achievement (on Xbox).

With most rhythm games I have a tendency to panic and hit the wrong button as notes appear but with Music Racer Ultimate it is much easier. Unlike other rhythm titles where you are penalized for missing notes in MRU you are only penalized if you crash into an obstacle. For achievement hunters this game is quite easy but time consuming to achieve the perfect Gamerscore. The easiest way to grind this out is to choose the vehicle of your choice, the track of your choice and set the mode to Zen. Doing this removes all obstacles which means double points at the end of the map and you can literally just leave your car in a single lane to collect points and do something else at the same time!

My biggest complaint about the game is the music options. You are limited only to the titles that came with the game and none of them I have heard prior to playing the game. The first song in the list seems to consistently get the most points without having to move the vehicle at all. If you are after the three star achievement I suggest doing what I suggested but on the Retro map as it is the easiest to see where the notes are ahead to capture more of them in a single turn without much effort. Overall I found the game to be enjoyable but a bit tedious with having to grind what feels like close to a million points to unlock everything.

35mm is a survival horror game centered around two travelers and taking photographs in a Post-Apocalyptic Russia.

Sometimes You has ported over Sergey Noskov’s game 35mm to the current generation of consoles. The world has been ravaged by an epidemic that crippled most of the infrastructure throughout and the timing of this rerelease feels almost prophetic considering we are still coping with our own global pandemic these days. As you and your partner navigate the new landscape you will find abandoned settlements, homes, cities and will need to escape the dangers of this new world, the first of which is a massive bear.

At nearly any point you can pause time and use your trusty 35mm camera and the mechanics of which feel incredibly accurate. You can adjust the focal length, depth of field and exposure, all to make sure you capture the perfect vision of your target. The story is mostly delivered through discussion with your companion and he walks incredibly slow. The plus side is you can still hear the conversation as the companion continues the defined path while you explore the surrounding area. The ambiance in the woods can be a bit off-putting as everything is a bit muted and some parts seem completely void of life.

Going into the game I had no idea this was a survival horror title but when I stumbled on an abandoned cabin I learned quickly. There weren’t grotesque scenes of butchered bodies or anything like that but something about it was extremely eerie. Overall pacing of the game is quite slow but it left me with feelings of anxiety and trepidation as I explored, realizing quickly that the wrong turn or the wrong step could be my last. Once you outrun the bear, or fail to a couple times like I did, you learn to be more cautious pretty early. For survival horror fans I can honestly say this game is worth picking up even though the graphics have not been updated for newer consoles.

Jax returns to protect Magalan from a new threat in THQ Nordic’s Elex II.

In Elex II you play as Jax, the hero of the first Elex title and the savior of Magalan. A new threat has fallen to the planet and it will take all of the factions working together to survive. Obviously Jax is needed to unite them all but doing so is easier said than done.

Visually the game looks like it is on par with the previous generation of consoles for the gameplay, however the trailer and some of the cinematics have some stunning effects. Controls felt rather intuitive, even when adding jump jets that allow you to reach greater heights when jumping. The game’s story felt slow and failed to engage me early on, even when forcing myself to push further I couldn’t find a reason to get interested in it. The early foes are more or less feral creatures you will have to face but don’t get cocky. That’s what I did and found myself surrounded by them and killed easily.

Overall gameplay felt uninspired and failed to keep my interest beyond the minimum time I had allotted to play the game prior to writing my review. A big reason for that is behind the stamina mechanics, simply they are broken. Recharging the stamina is slow to the point of frustration and your attacks simply use too much of it. This leads to a combat system that makes you want to shut the game off early into your journey.

PowerSlave returns to current Gen consoles with PowerSlave Exhumed from Nightdive Studios.

PowerSlave Exhumed has made it’s way to the current generation of consoles from Nightdive Studios and combines all of the content from both the Playstation and Dreamcast versions of the original release. Players take on the role of a covert specialist sent to investigate a recently sealed Egyptian city. While being trained for any manner of event you are still somehow not prepared for what awaits you within the sealed city of Karnak.

Graphically it is on par with the original Doom game with similar mechanics. Controls are reminiscent or the classic title as well. Compared to the original version of the game though I can’t say how it compares as I never played either edition on the older consoles. Where Doom sucked you into the world with it’s dynamic sounds and music, PowerSlave failed to keep my attention in the same way.

The story felt a little forced, like it was included as necessity and not part of the actual experience. The game felt more like it was made just to check the boxes that Doom created in order to capitalize on that market. If you are looking for a game that looks and feels like it was intended to be a Doom clone without the ambiance or story then look no further.

Who doesn’t love a good “who done it” story? Lacuna brings that to a retro 2D platform and is the first release from DigiTales Interactive.

DigiTales Interactive is an indie developer that first released Lacuna directly to Steam and later to consoles and we had a chance to try it out. A few acts of terror threaten this dystopian world where things aren’t as perfect as they first appear. These acts sow the seeds of chaos and risk setting the universe in flames. This slippery slope begins with the death of a diplomat who was actively working to broker peace with your own nation and it is YOUR job to investigate the who, what, where, when (not so much this one) and why.

The game itself feels similar to those “Choose your own adventure” books where your actions and choices determine the outcome of the story. Graphically it looks and feels like some of the old 16 bit games from my youth and the gameplay very much solidifies this feeling. This was one of those titles that checks a lot of the boxes I look for in an entirely new experience but failed to hold my attention even with the promise of more action to come, many of the puzzles and investigation elements just felt tedious.

Our friends at Iceberg Interactive shared their remastered Eldritch horror title Transient for the Xbox One.

Iceberg Interactive updated their classic title, Transient, for the current generation of consoles with the Extended Edition. The game begins in the distant future, the world was nearly ended and a scientific effort strives to carry the world through the fallout. You wake up in a facility with a weird skull mask on your head and start on your adventure. With the music and the overall ambiance the game is very much meant to be a horror title but as you explore the world this adventure honestly feels mores like the game was more of a game of exploration.

The game is extremely linear but is full of puzzles to keep things interesting. Best part of these puzzles is that they feel organic, none that I have experienced so far felt forced. Any game that brings in inspiration from HP Lovecraft is worth a try in my book but when you add in a gorgeous world and engaging story and you have a game that is worth playing until the end.