If Pacific Rim, Godzilla and Cloverfield have shown us anything it’s that we really like giant monsters smashing buildings. And why not? It’s awesome. It’s also something Extinction wants to capatilize on by tossing together destroyable buildings and huge beasts that have an appetite for destruction
For better or for worse Far Cry 5 is very much a Far Cry game. Ubisoft isn’t known for their big risks, though, so it’s hardly surprising that six Far Cry games in (not counting Blood Dragon as a full game) they don’t want to take huge risks with a series that has clearly been selling well. However, like with Assassin’s Creed: Origins we are seeing a gradual change in the Ubisoft open-world template, most of which are for the better.
Mars, the Red Planet that has always held a strange fascination for us little Earthlings. Like so many, I watched the film adaption of The Martian and was intrigued by the story of survival on an alien world. Scientists and regular ol’ people have long dreamed of colonizing Mars, but just how difficult a task would it be? Could it ever be done? Well, Surviving Mars wants to know that too, so for some baffling reason it puts you in charge of turning Mars into a new home. A really, really dusty home.
Let me preface this review by stating that I didn’t play the first Vermintide game. I had a few chums slicing and dicing the Skaven hordes, but I never found the time to pick up the Left 4 Dead style game set in the Warhammer universe for myself, so this review of the sequel is coming from the perspective of a new player wondering what all the fuss is about. Thankfully you don’t need to have played the first game to have an absolute blast with Vermintide 2; all you need is a desire to shatter some skulls.
The Isle of Man TT is absolutely insane, a relic of a bygone era where racing was raw and dangerous. It’s 37.73 miles of public road weaving through several towns and then up the Snaefell Mountain that gets shut down so that a bunch of lunatics on beautiful motorcycles can scream around the epic track, taking the 274 corners at horrifying speeds while blasting between houses, barely missing pavements and even leaping into the air. It’s simply amazing to watch, a yearly spectacle that has given birth to legends like John McGuiness, Michael Dunlop, and Guy Martin.
Milestone have been around for years, quietly pumping out a variety of racing games that have rarely amazed but have clearly found themselves small audiences. Now, though, Milestone are back with another original IP and while it’s unlikely Gravel is going to be competing with the big boys of the genre it’s a surprisingly robust and enjoyable arcade racer that revels in letting you scream around corners.
Although it seems to have been forgotten about Metal Gear: Survive is not actually the first Metal Gear game without the legendary Kojima at the helm. It is, however, the very first Metal Gear game produced since Kojima and Konami parted ways in less than ideal circumstances. The pressure was on Konami to show the world they could handle the beloved franchise, so what was the first thing they did? An open-world survival spin-off. With zombies. *facepalm*
