Category ps4

Geography of Robots and Raw Fury bring Norco- a narrative adventure game that is unlike any other modern game we’ve played.

Norco is my first experience with the Southern Gothic genre, at least where it was labeled as such. Where Gothic stories and games focus on suspense and the supernatural, Southern Gothic focuses more on the darker side of humor. It is meant to focus on exposing societal problems through the creation of complex characters. Isolation is a common theme in the genre and is a central theme to the game itself from Geography of Robots and Raw Fury.

The game centers around your brother Blake’s disappearance after the death of your mother. Teaming up with a fugitive security robot you follow the clues to find him. Along the way you learn more about your mother’s time leading up to her death. Near the very start of the game you have the opportunity to fight the former employee of the gas station- do it, seriously. I think the story would force it eventually but still do it. He’s a douche and deserves it, plus you earn an achievement for it. Who doesn’t like achievements? I know I do! The combat system is rather straight forward too.

The controls are simple, the entirety of the game is a point and click adventure where you need a cursor and a single button. Graphics aren’t the best but some of the scenes stand out as a fantastic use of the style they’ve chosen. The game’s slow pace was a bit distracting but the attention to detail in the story was much higher than I expected. Overall I would say the game is worth trying out at the very least if you can.

The Void threatens to devour the entirety of the known and unknown universes. In Togges it is up to you to save everything.

Thunderful Games brings a new 3d platformer that is family friendly and yet a real challenge with Togges. After completing the most basic of the tutorials you meat the King of the Togges. They are simple creatures made of yarn that love to be close to each other and be stacked. They also LOVE fruit. The first few areas you are tasked with collecting fruit to improve their strength.

Your end goal is to help the king take over the known universes. Sounds more like a villain but his goal is to do so to protect all life from the Void. Early on you don’t learn much about the threat itself other than the fact that it devours anything and everything in it’s path. Sounds like the Nothing from Never Ending Story. Along the way there are threats to these peaceful creatures but not really to the player. Falling to your death usually means the end of the character’s life but in this game it just places you back where you were before you fell. Spikes that will kill the creatures cause you no harm.

This is an adorable game you can let your kids play but I wouldn’t. As mentioned before there is a good deal of difficulty here but it’s not impossible. The complexity of some of the puzzles means I would only have older children play it to avoid their frustration and anger at them. Some of the puzzles simply require too much patience and critical thinking for younger children to complete easily. Overall I found the game to be challenging but adorable. Meaning you can play in front of the younger children but shouldn’t hand them the control.

If Sweeney Todd and Ghost Town Games worked together to make a new Overcooked game it would be Godlike Burger.

Have you ever been cooking all day and you get that one customer who just pisses you off? Have you ever wanted to show them how sharp your knife is? I can’t be the only one. With Godlike Burger you can live out those fantasies without the fear of incarceration. Of course if you kill enough customers the customers will catch on and try to kill you as well.

Visually the game has the same isometric view as Overcooked and from a control perspective has the same commands. For graphics though this game just doesn’t quite match that cutesy look and feel of Overcooked. It would be even more shocking if it did though. As you feed your customers you have limitations on your ingredients. Once you run out you will either need to purchase them or in the case of the meat you will need to kill someone and harvest them to feed to future customers. Overall the game is shockingly fun and worth the play if you like the Overcooked style of games.

Space Lizard Studio and Thunderful Games bring us Paper Cut Mansion- a horror game with Paper Mario graphics with a sinister twist.

Not many games give you the chance to expand on the story by getting yourself killed. Paper Cut Mansion does that and so much more. Sure each time you die you have to start the puzzles and the maps over but you get a slightly deeper look into the overall mystery when you do. The game features a paper/cardboard art style the is reminiscent of Paper Mario but with some cardboard thrown in. The music is subtle but when overlaid with the shadows that surround you there is an eerie sense of something dark around each corner.

Visually the game is truly captivating. The controls are quite simple to learn and only give you issues if you have a problem with a drifting controller like I do. Gameplay is full of tension and can be quite overwhelming at times but the mystery of the Mansion makes you want to continue deeper and further.

Skirmish Mode Games brings the latest in console warfare with Warpips- a game where 8-bit and 3d rendering coexist.

Skirmish Mode Games brings the latest in console warfare with Warpips- a game where you must prioritize the financial cost of war against beating your enemy. The units you use to fight are rendered in chunky 8-bits where your base and some of the terrain have 3d rendering. It makes for an odd pairing that simply works with the game. Even the blood on the ground is rendered in a pixilated 8-bit style on the ground.

Players gradually earn money automatically which they then use to purchase troops. The troops follow some basic AI to always move forward and kill the targets they find. Some will even search for traps and remove them. Are you smart enough to survive the coming onslaught? I played the game campaign AND the additional Endless mode and must say I am terrible at this game. Of course I set the difficulty to the maximum but most games I start there. Seriously though, DO NOT start on the hardest difficulty for your first try. Try the easiest and build up from there, it will make a huge difference.

Graphically, as mentioned before, is an odd hybrid that works well for the game. There isn’t much of a story to speak of other than go and kill. Why are we killing each other? I don’t require much reason mind you but something is better than nothing. Even if it is just a single cutscene and then done. Of course I have not completed the campaign so it could be there and my bitching is for not. The game is unforgiving at almost all times and still a bit of fun.

Wayward Strand is a story that takes place on a hospital that is also an airship where you help your mother tend to patients.

In Wayward Strand, by Ghost Pattern, you play as Casey, a journalist who must help her mother tend to patients on a floating hospital. You are there to both write a story on the airshop and, as far as your mother is concerned, to help care for the patients. What this means for Casey is she is expected to interact with each of the patients and improve their demeanor in the process. To get every story told in the game will require multiple playthrough as some characters will overlap each other in availability. Eaves dropping on one conversation may catch the attention of one of the nurses since you aren’t talking to patients.

The game’s art looks and feels like a children’s storybook. Controls are very simple to learn and the overall story takes a while to get moving. If you are looking for a game with some depth to the story but not a fast pace then you will enjoy this game. However, if you are playing late at night or early morning you may just take that nap your body will be craving.

Missile Command is the latest to get the Recharged treatment from Sneakybox and it is just as chaotic as it has always been.

Sneakybox brings us another Atari title getting the Recharged treatment and this time it is absolutely brutal. Missile Command was always one of the most brutal titles I’ve ever played. This is by far worse than I remember. By worse I refer to the insanity of the game, or my skill, or both. I remember playing this game and being able to get several levels into it before losing my base. With Recharged I couldn’t complete the first level. The missions however I could complete a few.

This game is pure chaos. Simple as that. You man orbital cannons that are tasked with destroying missiles as they fall from the sky. Placing your shots you must lead the missile and force it to crash into it. Graphically it is crisp and yet simplistic. It really captures the look and style of the classic game. Controls are easy to learn but a nightmare on a controller with drift. If you deal with drift this game will be virtually impossible. All of my controllers drift.

If you are looking for a game like the classic or something you can easily pick up and dive into without much effort you’ll enjoy this one.

Lego Bricktales is both an entirely original story as well as supplying entirely unique worlds to explore.

In Lego Bricktales you play as an adventuring minifig without a name who must help their grandfather. The grandfather also doesn’t have a name and is simply referred to as Grandfather. Who would have guessed it? All kidding aside I think this move was brilliant. Leaving the names out allow the players to fill the roles themselves, they can become the character. To further emphasis this, they are able to fully customize their minifig.

The story is centered around going to an abandoned amusement park where your grandfather is working on his inventions. He’s been tasked with restoring the park or lose it forever and his inventions have been distracting him from that role. He you come to save the day, put him back on task and restore the park. Can you do it? Like all Lego games this is not overly complicated but for once forces you to be creative. You get to build objects with Legos! I don’t just mean the classic Lego game builds where you hold a single button. I mean you actually choose the pieces and place them where you want them. There are limitations to the builds but it’s up to you to design and complete.

Controls are simple to learn and graphics are as good or better than most of the recent Lego games we’ve played. Overall the game is a ton of fun and the creative building features make this game so worth getting and playing and the best part is there is no risk of losing or stepping on Legos!

They say the show must go on and at the Circus Electrique that is just as true, whether it is battling robotic police or fighting to recruit a new circus member.

The folks at Zen Studios are mostly known for their Pinball centered game but sometimes branch out and do something new. Circus Electrique is one of those attempts by venturing into the turn based JRPG genre. Players take control of managing the circus and part of that is protecting the Ringmaster’s niece. Starting with only a clown and a strongman you must beat back the two police officers that wish to take her and her lion away.

Visually the game looks great with the old time vibes of the circus mixed with a steampunk aesthetic. Controls are extremely simple to learn and the story is a bit slow, requiring lots of reading. I don’t mind reading a subtitle here and there but the amount of dialogue there is would have been much improved by including some audio to either narrate or voice the characters. The turn based mechanics work well and the give a ton of options for each character. Overall I enjoyed the game but would have enjoyed the story much more had the characters been voiced for their conversations.

The Entropy Centre is a temporal puzzle game designed like a first person shooter by Playstack London on Next Gen consoles.

The Entropy Centre looks and feels like a cross between Faraday Protocol and Superliminal. Both games take you one a puzzle filled adventure where you have been abducted and have no idea where you are. Playstack London deliver a world that is beautifully rendered, seemingly void of life and full of dangers. The danger however seems to be more implied than actually dangerous.

As you navigate the facility you first pick up a temporal gun of sorts that can rewind time up to 30 seconds for any given object. Of course even that isn’t exactly right. One of the first things that you rewind time on is the collapsed ceiling of a hallway you need to take. This ceiling collapsed way more than 30 seconds prior. Based on the rules of this gun rewinding a maximum of 30 seconds should have no effect on the rubble. Ignoring the flaws in this logic though the effects are very well done. I suspect the danger has far from begun though.

Visually the game is simply stunning. The controls are simple enough to master and the puzzles are creative. Some can seem maddening but with a little creativity they aren’t too bad. With the aid of a cheerful robot guiding you the game leaves you wanting to know more.