Journey to the Savage Planet immediately conjures images of those classic, bonkers films where a spaceman finds himself facing down alien monsters on a strange planet. It sounds like a B-movie, which is fitting because Journey to the Savage Planet is a B game; it doesn’t have a big budget or a huge development team or even a full asking price. But that doesn’t stop it from being a good time
Frostpunk wasn’t just a great strategy game that demanded all of your concentration, it was also an interesting journey down the rabbit hole of good intentions. As you attempted to supply enough coal to keep a massive generator running to supply heat to your population the pressure made it all too easy to begin taking desperate measures: recycling corpses, child labour, propaganda and controlled religion are all tools that can be used to keep your society running. It was a game that fascinated me, so much so that I gave it a glowing review and a place in my top games of 2018.
Somehow we’ve made it into a whole new decade. It’s 2020 now, and that’s problematic because I’m still struggling to remember that it’s not the early 2000’s. But anyway, with the coming of a new year means reflection on the last one. I’ve seen some people who appear quite disappointed with 2019, and while I’d certainly agree it wasn’t a vintage year there were still a lot of awesome games released. And I’m going to subject you to the horror of having to read my list of which ones I thought were the best of the best, the creme of the crop, the champions of 2019.
The sniping franchise returns having somehow managed to find a way to tack yet another word to its already clumsy name. Sniper Ghost Warrior: Contracts is the 4th entry in the Ghost Warrior sub-series but this time it’s a budget release, retailing for £25 on Steam and thus […]
How damn long has it been since we’ve had a properly good Star Wars game? We used to get loads of them. Now we have things like Star Wars: Battlefront 2, which is admittedly a much better game than it was at launch, but it still doesn’t scratch that itch for a Star Wars adventure in video game form. Our saviour has come though, in the form of the fine folks over at Respawn entertainment. They are the Chose One, and they have brought balance to the Force. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a singleplayer Star Wars adventure bereft of microtransactions or tacked on multiplayer. And it’s pretty bloody good.
Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare and its sequel were both games that I spent a lot of time playing, their cutesy visuals and fun multiplayer shooting acting as a great alternative to the more serious Call of Dutys and Battlefields of the world. But a third game never appeared, and Plants vs Zombies sort of faded away, its days as a multiplayer shooter nearly forgotten. Until now, that is. Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville may not have the Garden Warfare name but it’s most certain a sequel, one that has snuck under the radar. Released this past week with very little hype or advertising it has sucked up hour after hour of my time.
Let me preface this review with an important message: I didn’t play The Surge. It has been sitting in my teetering tower of backlogged games for ages now and I just never found the time to get around to it. But when review code for The Surge 2 dropped into my inbox, I couldn’t say no to some challenging combat in a sci-fi environment. So this review won’t be talking about what The Surge 2 does better than The Surge 2. Instead, it’ll be about what The Surge 2 does right, and what it does wrong.
What the hell is it with companies and their confusing naming systems? We kicked off back in 2008 with Racer Driver: Grid, then the Race Driver part was cut out for GRID 2, then came GRID: Autosport and now finally after a six-year hiatus we have GRID. Just GRID, all capitals like someone is yelling it you. Confusingly this is also technically the 10th game in the long-running TOCA franchise. On top of that, GRID (2019) is a reboot for the GRID series, not that you can really tell. Yeesh. But weird naming conventions aside, it’s good to series the GRID series back again and I’m delighted to say that this latest entry is a solid racing game, albeit with a few key issues.
Spiders are an interesting little company who have been consistently putting out RPGs that feel inspired by classic BioWare yet have never managed to completely nail their visions. Their last game was The Technomancer (review HERE) in 2016 which had some great ideas but clumsy execution. Now Spiders are back with Greedfall which has gotten a good amount of attention leading up to its release. So does their latest RPG finally level Spiders up?
It’s an undeniable fact of life that geese are colossal arseholes. They waddle around with an uncaring swagger, aggressively assault any living being that isn’t another goose and generally just act like douchebags. The cleverly titled Untitled Goose Game lets you be a goose and wreak havoc upon an idyllic little town filled with people just going about their days. Little do they know what awaits them in this absolutely fantastic little indie game.
