Tag xbox one

Let’s face it, humans are terrible creatures, just look at what they’ve done to the planet. With Destroy All Humans you can give them what’s coming to them.

Who wants to help Destroy All Humans? They suck, well most of ’em anyway. I am a firm believer that if more people had even a slight sense of decency this world would be so much better than it is and these last four years make that even more apparent. Hell, even this pandemic has highlighted the selfish nature of the human race. THQ Nordic and Black Forest Games bring us this classic kill ’em all video game with a full High Definition overhaul.

I had never played the original but had always heard that it was a fun game. When offered the opportunity to play and review this remake I jumped at the chance. Players take control of Crypto as he attempts to harvest brain stems to harvest the intermixed DNA that is stored there. Between abducting random citizens, killing cows and burning buildings to the ground you can quickly become overwhelmed but with some time spent unlocking abilities you can soon turn the tide.

Overall the game is quite goofy and entertaining but other than the ability to raze the world around you there wasn’t much to keep me engaged for a long period. Cutscenes are quite long, voice acting tolerable and the controls were easy to pick up. There are worse games out there but this one fell short of my expectations.

Suicide is never a good thing but what makes the Suicide of Rachel Foster particularly noteworthy?

The Suicide of Rachel Foster by Daedelic Entertainment is a video game that focuses on investigating not only her final moments but how it affected Nicole and her family. Immediately upon starting the game you learn that Rachel Foster was you father’s mistress and soon after the breakup between them she had committed suicide. Nicole, our protagonist in this story, reads about this briefly in a letter sent to her by her dying mother, asking her to close the story and sell the family hotel.

If investigating a suicide from years ago while trying to sell a hotel wasn’t enough you arrive during one of the worst storms hitting Montana in decades. When I heard about this game I was told it would be an investigation based narrative and based on that description sounded like it would be quite dull. Playing through the first few minutes after arriving at the hotel it feels suspiciously like it was hiding a horror game under it’s mundane dressing. The music and effects add a bit of tension (or perhaps that’s my lack of sleep after working the graveyard shift) but is offset by the slow movements and bored dialogue- Nicole sounds dreadfully bored.

The visuals of the game are quite detailed but many of the more interesting sites cannot be interacted with in any way. Gameplay is maddeningly dull and tedious. Movements slow without any options to speed them up (it seriously needed a jog option while navigating the hall of the hotel. Playing over an hour I am no closer to unraveling the secret of the suicide and wonder if perhaps she played her own game. I expected much better from Daedelic and unless it is a free title I would avoid this one, of course if you need help going to sleep at night playing this before bed just might help.

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.

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.

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.