Category computer

Beyond Blue is the title meant for every aspiring marine biologist or anyone that wanted to be one as a child (myself included).

Beyond Blue from E-Line Media is an adventure where you play as Marine Biologist Mirai as she explores the ocean collecting data. Her primary focus is on studying a group of whales, or a pod, specifically Humpback whales. Each in game day gives a list of tasks to perform like scanning the pod of whales and fixing buoys. With the couple hours I already put into the game the worst of the tasks was holding the X button down for about five seconds. The game has a story but it is far from exciting, however it does have a bit of backstory you can pick up regarding Mirai and her family.

Visually the character models look like they belong to some of the classic Xbox days and not the Xbox One. The best thing though is how natural the underwater creatures move. The reactions of the AI have a bit to be desired as you can swim through a school of fish and the just keep swimming instead of darting away from you like real schools of fish would. The game is easy to pick up to play and can be played with your whole family in the room. It was an enjoyable game that was a bit too slow to keep my attention for more than thirty minutes at a time.

Many games allow you to play as an insect and many more allow you to play in a first person perspective but only Metamorphosis allows you to play both!

Based on the writings of Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis begins with players waking up in a hotel room, vague memories of the night before. After leaving your friend behind you enter a strange hallway and start to notice things about yourself changing the further you get. Soon after you realize you have not only turned into a bug of some sort but see a letter offering you employment at a secretive location called The Tower. Deciding to accept the offer the page sucks you into a dizzying world where you use the written words as stones to bridge your path.

Along the way you encounter various dangers and puzzles to solve to bring you closer to The Tower. As a bug you find that traversing steep slopes is far easier and with the help of something sticky can easily walk along vertical walls. One of your first tasks is to return to your friend and wake him up to try to get him to see you as yourself and not just the bug you have been turned into.

Visually the game leaves a bit to be desired as an Xbox One title I would expect the visuals to be a bit cleaner. Gameplay is quite fluid as you traverse the many varying terrain in ways you never expected but can be quite glitchy. Multiple times over the course of an hour of play the game crashed and required rebooting the system before I could return to the game to only do it again. Glitches and visuals aside though, the team at All In Games made an enjoyable title that is well worth playing for the mechanics alone, not to mention an interesting story that will leave you wondering what’s at the tower? After nearly four hours of play (including two reboots) I feel like I am nowhere near the tower but wanting to get there and learn it’s secrets.

Ever wondered what the world would look like if you woke up from a coma? With Neversong you can!

Neversong is a side scrolling platformer from Serenity Forge that requires ingenuity to solve it’s many puzzles and defeat the many adults. I mean monsters. The world has become much darker upon Peet’s waking up from his coma. His best friend (and possible love interest?) has been kidnapped and it is up to Peet to find her. She has been taken to Blackfork Asylum and her fate looks grim.

The puzzles require some thought and many can’t be completed until returning later with new abilities. Graphically the game is rather simple but quite endearing in its simplicity. You are greeted with a dark story-line where this same darkness permeates everything and yet still manages to feel like a game to be enjoyed by the family. Neversong looks and plays similar to games like Limbo and it’s sequel Inside.

When I first started the game I felt a weird kinship with Peet having been in a coma myself at the beginning of the year. The coma was handled tastefully and was an interesting starting point for a story. For someone that barely recovered from a coma he is quite athletic.

Overall I found the game enjoyable and look forward to being able to spend more time helping Peet save his lady love.

Have you ever wanted to punch a luchador with an elf or brawl as a character from Battle Chasers? In Bounty Battle you can!

Bounty Battle from Merge Games is a meta fighter that doesn’t require a classic fight-stick. Huge vortexes have opened and pulled dozens of heroes from not just different video game titles but different genres as well. As these vortexes pull our different combatants to the field of battle the throws you right into the game with your menu. For this game I started on the tutorial, more so because I assumed there would be an achievement. The tutorial takes you through the basics of the game, focusing mainly on grapples, hard and light hits.

By performing different chained attacks and hitting the opponents you build up a combo which gives you an increasing amount of bounty points. Get defeated and lose your points. It’s rather straight forward. The goal is for you to defeat all of the characters in the multiverse and bring glory to your home world. What’s unique about this brawler is that as you get wounded your character starts to glitch. We’re talking like Penelope in Wreck it Ralph but without the benefits.

Overall I found the game to be easy to pick up and learn but found it severely lacking in terms of story. This is brawling for the sake of brawling.

In Save Your Nuts players control various animals in search of hording all of the nuts. Will your animal come out as king?

Have you ever wondered which animal can horde the most nuts? Traditionally you would think the squirrels would be masters of their nuts but Save Your Nuts, from Triple Scale Games, puts players in command of various creatures to steal all of the nuts. Each animal has it’s own boosts like stronger hits, more durability or more speed.

Each game my son would insist on changing animal types to keep the game fresh along with new maps to enjoy the full experience. There are dogs, wolves, turtles, raccoons, squirrels and armadillos. Wolves are the quicker option that is more durable and because I’ve always had an affinity for wolves so they were my go to. Each map offered new obstacles and new ways to screw over the competition. The power ups can be quite entertaining as well- its hilarious to watch a 12 year old fall over laughing when dropping toxic poop piles all over the ground.

Overall I found the game to be great fun when playing as a family but against the AI it is more frustrating than enjoyable.

Adeptus Mechanicus troops face off against Necrons in this latest issometric Warhammer 40,000 tactics game from Bulwark Studios!

Feeling old? I know I am! Join the Adeptus Mechanicus today to replace your aging parts with tested machines! In Warhammer 40K: Mechanicus players take control of a small band of adepts in search of new technologies to exploit in the name of the Omnissiah. Borrowing from the classic Tactics format of game play, Bulwark Studios brings us a smooth foray into the world of Warhammer 40K and specifically that of the Adeptus Mechanicus and Necron tomb worlds.

Game play feels like those classic and oh so good tactics games, taking advantage of the simple mechanics to build an engaging game full of 40k lore, characters and models. The fact that the weapons effects and overall graphics are stunning is not to be looked over either!

The timing of this release though seems interesting as only a few months after the initial release the Indomitus boxset with the new Warhammer 40k edition was released. The two main factions were Necrons and Imperium of Man- Space Marines. The Space Marines are not quite the Adeptus Mechanicus but they fight for the same team and fight together often. The fact that this was first release some time prior on pc/steam leads me to believe this is more of a coincidence than anything else.

In West of Dead players work to remove the many outlaws from Purgatory, Wyoming by any means necessary.

West of Dead is the brainchild of Raw Fury, a studio known for “indie titles” with some cool concepts and a flair for the unique. You play as the deceased William Mason. Typically I play games with the volume low but when you have someone with real acting talent like Ron Pearlman then you need to turn that shit right up!

Mason’s character design was clearly inspired by Marvel’s Ghost Rider but with a wild west twist. Controls are easy to pick up, even without following the tutorial, and fit the world dynamically. The visuals were one of the best things about this game. It feels surreal, like the world is twisted by you rejecting the afterlife in search of punishing the outlaws. Tension is built up quickly as you step into each room to discover treasures, weapons or more often enemies who can use their own paranormal soldiers to fight you. You can easily pick it up and play it for hours or just a few short levels.

With smooth visuals, controls and game play that are appealing to players of all types it will bring you back wanting more.