Jon "Sikamikanico" Clarke
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XboxEraLatest Reviews
Split Fiction is, at its heart, a celebration about how wonderful, imaginative and downright clever videogames can be when they choose to embrace what they are – an art form that thrives on interactivity, creativity, and boundless possibility. Hazelight have proven that once again, when it comes to building distinct experiences that blend storytelling, mechanics, and player agency – they have no equal.
Whether you’ll enjoy MechWarrior 5: Clans depends very much on your own personal tastes. If you’re an existing BattleTech or MechWarrior fan, I think you’ll adore this latest entry in the franchise. If your preference is centred around the more simulator-like aspects of the series, that adoration will be mostly reserved for MechWarrior 5: Clans excellent narrative.
Despite feeling somewhat like well-trod narrative ground, Neva is a beautiful game, skilfully made with a lot of heart. The bond it fosters between you and your canine companion cannot be understated, and is likened to that of a parent and child. Alba becomes the parent figure, and the protector during Neva‘s youth.
The Plucky Squire is a game clearly made with a serious amount of love for the wonderful medium of glorious interactivity that is video games. And for it being the first title from development team All Possible Futures, it’s a staggering achievement in art, design and ideas. It’s just a shame the gameplay didn’t get as much attention as the nostalgia it so skilfully indulges.
If you’re a fan of the movies, a fan of narrative adventures and are looking for a more thoughtful and importantly faithful adaptation of a classic movie franchise ripe for a great movie-to-video game conversion, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle might be right up your alley. This might be the continuation of the franchise I’d always wanted.
An incredible, nigh-on herculean effort from a very small team, developers Microbird Games have made something very special in Dungeons of Hinterberg. In my 20 or so hours exploring, I found a successful medley of genres with enjoyable combat and a variety of gameplay mechanics resulting in something uniquely memorable.
The plot thickens as a family yearning for power ‘battle’ over the Idol, and there’s a neat twist to the proceedings that I won’t spoil here. But I fear that many will struggle with the sheer patience required to play on controller, and while it all works just as well it can, it’s a case that many players may not want to solve in the end. And that’s a shame. Here’s hoping touch support on Cloud can step in!
Every one of the fights and combat sequences I played through felt like a boss-level face off in some way. It always felt like a true survive-or-die moment – all or nothing. It’s the only time in my entire gaming memory, that I can remember being so in the moment that I let out some sort of animal war cry during a particularly intense sequence. Sitting in the dark, late at night, headphones on, genuinely screaming as I swung my virtual sword – it is so utterly immersive that I felt like I was there.
Revisiting Braid: Anniversary Edition has been a nice nostalgic experience for me, having not played the original since I fully completed it back in 2008. I was amazed at how some solutions had been completely forgotten by my aging brain, and it was lovely to get that feeling of being a genius all over again. Equally though, I found the discordant screeching of the audio mix combined when rewinding time to be too loud and more than a little irritating, but it’s a very minor niggle indeed. Maybe I’m just getting old.
If you’re expecting more action and puzzles, then boy, you might bounce right off this one once you’ve finished gawking at how pretty it all is. My advice? Take it slow, and enjoy every moment with this bizarre and eccentric cast of characters. Games like Harold Halibut don’t come around very often.