Patrick Anderson
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COGConnectedLatest Reviews
I am sure I have not mentioned everything this huge game offers. But Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is a great game that I wholeheartedly recommend. It’s got the many-games-in-one content extravaganza that previous Rune Factory games have had. But unlike Rune Factory 5, this time it really works together and meshes into an addictive and immersive experience. I’m no series expert, but I played dozens of hours of this. And I feel like I barely started. If you’re looking for an action RPG where you can play music, fight monsters, grow turnips, and get married, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is the game for you.
As it is, this is a great, relaxing, and yes, very fun game. I love the look and the intuitive design. The addition of expeditions is a great idea that works. It’s an easy game to pick up and just start having fun from the first moment to the 50th hour. It might not be perfect but Two Point Museum is another example of why Two Point Studios is the standard for sim games.
The scene is London in 2070. Crime and poverty are rampant. Technology rules and the line between corporations and criminal syndicates has become as blurry as security cam footage from a liquor store robbery. Point and Click adventure Sunday Gold, from BKOM Studios and Team17, puts you smack dab in the middle of this rather grim little scenario, as you lead a trio of underworld ne’er-do-wells taking on the city’s brash criminal CEO, Kenny Hogan. They’ll need to use all their heisting, problem solving, and even fighting skills to get their latest job done and live to tell about it. Sunday Gold’s combination of excellent combat sequences and clever puzzle solving will leave you gobsmacked, even if its clichéd story falls a bit flat.
Over the past two weeks, I’ve spent countless hours in Rigbarth, the main town of Rune Factory 5. And I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. That’s a double-edged sword. On one hand, it’s a compliment to the massive amount of sheer content that this game delivers. Rune Factory 5 has a lot going on. On the other hand, it also points to a general lack of focus that could bring all those disparate things together.
Back when I first covered Yakuza 6: The Song of Life on PS4, I found it to be a worthy swan-song for one of gaming’s most badass antiheroes. And now, 2 years later I’ve been pulled back in to Kiryu’s world one last time for the Xbox version and with all due respect to current series protagonist Ichiban Kasuga, it’s been a great homecoming.
I was fully prepared to not like Persona 5 Strikers, coming later this month from Omega Force and P-Studio. Koei Tecmo’s hack and slash franchise, Dynasty Warriors, was never a favorite of mine and when I heard of its influence on this latest Persona offering, I feared I was about to encounter another mindless Dynasty Warriors clone with a Persona skin. That fear, as I have learned, was completely unfounded. Persona 5 Strikers is a deep, multifaceted game experience that respects its Persona roots. Despite the new hack and slash combat, Persona 5 Strikers could legitimately be called a full standalone Persona title, and if you’re a fan of the Persona franchise you’re in for a treat.
It’s been days since I’ve finished Tell Me Why, from DONTNOD, but I’m still thinking about it. To answer your first question, no it’s not another Life is Strange game. But it could have been. It’s got a lot of the same aspects – a choice-based episodic story, duel protagonists, a small town setting, a search for the truth. But it feels different somehow, more mature. The story of Alyson and Tyler Ronan as they dig up the past to find out where their lives went to hell just grabbed me from the start and didn’t let go. I would give it full marks in every aspect, except for the disappointing way it ends.
As a gamer who has always owned both the Xbox and PlayStation consoles, I have felt bad for Xbox-only players for many years in one big respect: they couldn’t play the amazing Yakuza series of games. But now, it’s the opposite – I envy them. With Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami and now Yakuza Kiwami 2 all releasing on Xbox One just in the last 6 months, they’ve now got the chance to experience this legendary series for the first time, with fresh eyes. And oh, what wonders await them.
So, I just finished saving the universe. Well, technically, a weird purple guy named Trover saved the universe, but I helped him along from the comfort of my couch. Along the way, we electrocuted a guy in a bathtub, pushed someone’s house off a cliff and yanked two dogs out of the eye holes of an evil dude named Glorkon. And it was awesome.
Spread over 20 missions, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown puts you in the cockpit of modern, realistic fighter jets as Trigger, the game’s unseen protagonist. I’ve never played the previous titles in the Ace Combat series (it’s been around for decades) but I was able to quickly pick up the Campaign’s cliched but passable narrative basis – a fictional Earth-like world faces all-out war between the Osean, Usean and Erusian forces, and as an ace pilot, you’re sent on various missions that mostly involve aerial dogfights and taking out land-based targets.