Dominic L
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Writing For
TheSixthAxis Latest Reviews
Crimson Desert does not make a good first impression. Imagine an episode of Game of Thrones, but you’ve taken a blow to the head and can’t remember much of anything. You’re hanging around with Jon, but you’ve got no idea about the Starks, no idea about the land they preside over, and, frankly, no idea about anything that’s going on. Imagine then, that the game version of this has the most convoluted, overly-complicated controls you’ve ever come across, and any tutorials use the vaguest words possible. It does get better, but this is the opening of Crimson Desert.
Monster Hunter is a series obsessed with its starring creatures. Every moment is spent in service to immense dragons, fire-breathing dinosaurs, and giant spiders, toads and squirrels that could bring down your house. However, the mainline series brings its own sense of melancholy with it, as you repeatedly kill and carve up these incredible creatures, using the parts to craft new and stronger weapons and armour. Continuing the spin-off RPG series, Monster Hunter Stories 3 feels like a direct reaction to that melancholy.
The Nintendo Switch was not home to many great racing games, especially ones that didn’t feature karts and moustachioed drivers. So far, that’s continued to play out for the Switch 2, but there are some key signs of change with the arrival of GRID Legends last month. Drafting directly behind it is Gear Club Unlimited 3, an arcade/sim-cade racer that also boasts its own storyline, licensed vehicles and updated visuals, hoping to snatch its own place on the podium. While it puts up a valiant effort, it feels like it’ll remain firmly in the middle of the pack.
Sometimes, you do have to wonder what’s wrong with people on the internet. Wildlight Entertainment’s Highguard sure has come in for a cavalcade of online hate, because… erm… it was the final trailer shown at The Game Awards? Or was it because it wasn’t Half Life 3? Maybe because it was just a bit different? It’s hard to tell sometimes.
No matter whether it’s a book, movie or video game, there’s a special, deep-seated satisfaction to returning to a world that you know and love. Pandora is such a world. Home to the Na’vi, and bursting with neon flora and fauna, incredible creatures and the iconic floating islands, James Cameron’s fictional planet remains amongst the most vibrantly-realised sci-fi settings of the modern era. From the Ashes takes us back to this place, a new expansion for Ubisoft’s excellent Frontiers of Pandora, while tying in with Avatar: Fire and Ash, the brand-new cinematic outing for the franchise. It’s a return that’s well worth making.
Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road is a football game that feels, almost wholeheartedly, like it’s not really about football. This is a sports drama through and through, focusing on the interpersonal relationships, the individual journeys, and the yearning for acceptance that epitomises our teenage years, rather than sporting glory. You play as Destin Bellows, a young man with a heart condition, who appears to hate football and attends South Cirrus Academy, a school where football is banned. None of this really screams the word ‘football’ – or ‘soccer’ if you’re so inclined – and yet, Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road also revels in the joy, the purity, and the companionship that football can bring. This juxtaposition also makes it one of the best sports RPGs you’ll find.
If you’ve been gaming for as long as I have, there’s now a period of your gaming life that falls into the ‘classical’ era. The 8-bit and 16-bit consoles forged gaming as we know it today, with 2D sprites and burgeoning 3D techniques transporting us to worlds we’d previously only imagined. Zenovia Interactive want you to remember those days, with their latest title, Neon Inferno, set to revitalise the 2D run ‘n’ gun genre, while leaning on modern technology to make this one of the best-looking side scrollers of recent years.
The original Aaero came out of nowhere, and remains, to this day, one of my favourite rhythm-action games. Merging the classic gunplay of Space Harrier and Panzer Dragoon with musical movement was an inspired creative decision, and Aaero had you riding the rails – called ribbons here – in time with a bass-heavy electronic soundtrack, using your craft to mimic the changing notes. Aaero2: Black Razor Edition sees the Mad Fellows team returning to their signature series, this time boasting a stellar soundtrack from Monstercat, new multiplayer modes, and additional music packs, promising to take players on an even wilder ride through space.
You might wonder how a demon making a pact with the Devil to eat the Moon translates into a game about skateboarding. I’ve played Skate Story and I still can’t entirely answer that. What I can tell you is that Skate Story is a beautiful, surreal, poetic journey through the underworld, emblazoned with neon, crystal, and hellfire. It is unlike anything else you’ve played this year, and about as far from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater as it’s possible to be, while sharing the same basic mechanics. Somehow, it works. Perhaps developer Sam Eng might also have made a pact of their own.
Role-playing video games have been around almost as long as D&D itself, but for every step they take towards modernity, many of the fundamentals remain the same. Octopath Traveler 0 is a game that’s more aware of that than any other AAA release this year. It readily leans on RPG fundamentals like turn-based combat, grinding for experience and epic storytelling, while aping the 16-bit visuals of classics like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI. It’s also a reworking of the mobile title, Champions of the Continent, but, for all of that, Octopath Traveler 0 looks and feels every inch the modern RPG.