Doug Mercer
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COGConnectedLatest Reviews
The Ascent was originally released as a timed exclusive on Xbox Series X in July 2019 and we loved it then. Now, the timed exclusivity is over and The Ascent is making the trek over to PlayStation 5. While the game is essentially the same game as when it originally launched, there have been some significant updates, additions and patches to the Xbox version over the past year – and all of that content will be available to PlayStation gamers on day one. In some ways, it was probably worth the wait! If you’re looking for a fast and fun twin-stick shooter with gorgeous visuals and some RPG-like elements, The Ascent has got you covered.
The world of racing games is quite expansive and has two camps firmly situated in it. In the one corner, the more of a video game it is with weapons, mods, and gravity-defying stunts, the better. In the other, the gamers who demand hyperrealism. While I am firmly in the former, it doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the latter, even if the latter is gruesomely punishing. MotoGP 20 is both beautiful to look at and a lot of fun, and it has a ton of ways to enjoy it but boy, is it ever not for the casual player.
Set in a steampunk world where humanity has been crushed by the zombie hoard that brought about the apocalypse, you start with a command center, four rangers, and a soldier armed with a machine gun as you try to build a colony to help restore the human race. From there, you build your homes, your resource collectors, your barracks, etc. until you become a thriving community. As you work your way through, research trees help grow your colony as you upgrade your troops and buildings. As you work through the tree you can upgrade the buildings you currently have built which is much handier than destroying and rebuilding everything like I did the first two games before I realized this fact…
The past few years has seen a boon in all things nostalgic, so much so that it has become a genre unto its own. The 80’s and the 90’s have been mined for all their goodies as the people who grew up in that time frame now have expendable income or children that they wish to show what they grew up with. This brought about a somewhat ill-advised Power Rangers movie trying to capitalize on that and when that failed to seriously ignite the box office, other avenues were sought out. Which brings us to Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, a fighting game that utilizes tried and true gameplay styles, solid and accessible mechanics, and mashes them up with some of our favourite characters to bring us a very enjoyable and very replayable brawler.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Brittannia is a new game from Bandai Namco, a company who has been producing a lot of content that crosses over into other Japanese media for many years. In case the name of this game doesn’t ring a bell to you, Seven Deadly Sins is a hit manga and anime of the same name – a fact that I had a very little knowledge of when I started this game up. I knew I had seen some of the anime, but that was pretty much where my knowledge stopped, so a little research had to be put in so that I could fully appreciate not just the game, but the tale it was trying to weave at the same time. From the story that I played through in conjunction with what I read up on about the anime plot, it seems that Knights of Britannia adheres quite close to its source material, which is great for fans! Looking strictly at it from a gameplay stance, Sins breaks down to a fighting game at its core and that’s where the trouble starts.
If I was to refer to 2017 as the re-age, I think we could all come to a consensus that it’s a fairly accurate statement. Remaster, reimagining, reboot, remake, however, you want to put it, it’s become the new status quo. Case in point, the movie It, a remake of an adaptation, is currently annihilating box office records. Enter Baja: Edge of Control HD, an HD remaster of a game released way back in 2008 that’s made its way back to consoles. I’ll forgive you if you don’t recall it making a splash nearly 10 years ago because I definitely did not. So, you can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was to find a solid, big, and pretty fun game dropped into my lap that looks damn good for a game older than my nephew.
There are two types of people reading this Arslan: The Warriors of Legend review. First, there are the people who saw the title and immediately became interested in the game adaptation of the long running novel/manga/anime series. Then, there’s people like me who saw Omega Force and decided to see what the very prolific studio churned out this time. What has been rolled out is yet another Musou from the masters of Musou, but this one at least has a pretty good story – if you can follow it.
It came after a slightly lengthy delay, a lot of speculation and much anticipation. Now, you can ‘Be the Bat’, as the ad campaign promised, and assume the mantle of The Dark Knight in a last ditch effort to save Gotham. This time, it’s not from the recently deceased Joker, but from Scarecrow and his hired gun the Arkham Knight, a man whose hatred for the Bat runs deep and cold.
I’ve always been a big fan of the strategy genre and have always loved throwing my life away on a good 4X game. But in the past little while, I found it harder to find a truly great one. I could play to my heart’s content on other 4X-ers I’ve reviewed, but I always had to overlook some serious bugs in order to enjoy dominating the universe. So it was with some trepidation that I took on this review, thinking that I didn’t really want to have to tough out another rough around the edges exercise in galactic domination. What I got from Galactic Civilizations III, however, was a well made, well balanced and a hugely fun game where my only thoughts were on domination, not the bugs I had to deal with.
The newest entry of the Total War series plunges you head first into the Fall of Rome. Well, maybe a few years before, but the Fall is definitely in the midst of happening. Aptly titled, the Huns are knocking on Rome’s doorstep and the mighty Attila is looking to subjugate Europe under is superior forces. Whether playing as the Huns or one of the European civilizations trying to cling to your land, Attila, while not exactly reinventing the genre, brings a different approach to the RTS and the Total War series that is quite engaging.