Tag: Games

theHunter: Call of the Wild – Game Feeders Pack 2 DLC

TheHunter Call of the Wild is back with DLC Feeder Pack 2, and once again, Avalanche Studios was nice enough to send me this one to check out. The price of this one is about $7, and it comes with 3 feeders. Honestly, how good these feeders are comes down to how much you enjoy hunting the animals they attract. So let’s take a look and see if this is worth the money for you.

First, we have a Mineral Lick, which helps bait herbivores you couldn’t bait before. Mostly, this is things like goats and bovines. I didn’t use this too much because, honestly, I never found these animals hard to shoot in the first place. It does work; however, shot a goat right in the head thanks to this thing. I was aiming for its neck. I am not good at this game, but I simply enjoy it.

Next, we have the Scent Tube Feeder. This one is nice and attracts things like foxes and wolves. This one I liked because hunting these is always annoying, and this makes it a bit easier, so if you always wanted to shoot a fox or a wolf but could never quite get them often enough, toss one of these down where they pass and give it some time, and you will be happy.

Last is my favorite, the carcass feeder. Just a huge chunk of meat hanging from a pole meant to attract huge meat eaters. If you like hunting gators for money, just toss this bad boy down and wait, and something that was already easy becomes easier. Want to get that large cat that’s long eluded you? This is your ticket to heaven, quite literally, if you aren’t careful.

This is honestly a 9/10 DLC for fans of the series, but it won’t be worth it for everyone. Like the other feeder pack DLC, whether it is worth it very much depends on whether you care to hunt the animals these feeders help attract. If you like to hunt ducks and birds, this is completely useless to you; there is already a DLC out there for you. For most of us, however, this is great. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring yoy glory.

Laysara: Summit Kingdom Playstation 5 Review

Laysara: Summit Kingdom on the PlayStation 5 is a city-building game focused on building small outpost cities as you climb to the summit of a mountain. Nejcraft was nice enough to send me a copy of Laysara: Summit Kingdom to check out, and I always appreciate it.

The game starts with a rather in-depth but simple tutorial taking place across multiple villages. Each one will teach you how to do different things with the next, reiterating it and building on what you just learned. I really liked this setup because in the campaign, you will be doing basically the same thing. As you move up the mountain and build new settlementss your old settlements will act as sort of trade hubs with the new ones.

Now, this concept may sound easy, but later it will get much harder. Growing each city gets harder because while your lower citizens are happy with things like simple food and a place to pray, artisans want things like higher-end food and metal workings. Monks needed to collect honey from bees want even more things to be happy.

This is before we add things like avalanches to the mix, which will add their own set of issues for you to deal with. This brings me to my own warning about the game; it isn’t an issue, but I can see it being an issue for some people. The game simulates very little in many respects. For example, you won’t find any typical storage buildings, and people won’t be moving in or out of your towns. If things are in range of your Market, they work; if they aren’t, they simply don’t. They have more or less simplified things so that if you are in range or have enough supplies, the buildings work, and if not, you simply fix the issue. You don’t have to worry about the act of it getting moved back and forth physically, and I like this. It lets me focus on things I care about.

Laysara: Summit Kingdom is a great city builder. Fans should definitely pick up this 8/10 experience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Popular medieval survival RPG Bellwright coming to PS5 and Xbox Series consoles

Bellwright is a medieval open-world survival RPG where you can establish and expand your own settlements, liberate the land and assist its villagers, and recruit others to your cause while learning more about a life you had to leave behind. Command your forces, prove your valor through combat, and cement yourself as the hero of your people.

Now available on Steam Early Access, Bellwright recently saw a massive expansion with its Maiden Voyage update last December, adding the new Halmare Isles map, which is roughly 25% the size of the original game! At over 10 square kilometers, this region includes all new story-based quests with multiple progression lines, expanded armor and equipment, new animals and buildings, and introduces a Loyalty & Faction system.

The Severed Gods Steam Demo Review

The Severed Gods is an upcoming fantasy roguelike RPG that if you have ever played the Octopath Traveler series you already know how to play. You fight enemies in a turn based style, hit their weaknesses to break them and cause massive amounts of damage. Some times an almost cartoonish amount if you do it right. (compared to when you start) I have never achieved these numbers, but you can see some of their numbers over one Twitter. (I refuse to call it X)

I hate this guy.

The biggest difference is the levels of combat, and I mean that quite literally. Take the above skeleton, his feet are considered low, arms are mid and head is high. Attacks each attack one or more levels. If you use them on a wrong level they can still hit, but they do face a penalty on accuracy. This adds a great dynamic to combat, you won’t be able to simply worry about the kind of attacks you learn but also the levels they strike at.

The demo is great, picking which path to walk isn’t a random thing, you have to decide to take battles , head towards a camp, fight mini bosses and while there are random events I never felt they were forced on me that often. I truly felt like I was on an adventure and failing didn’t feel like anything other than a consequences of my choices. More importantly, the improvements and changes made between runs didn’t feel abstract or pointless. The world changes and my characters and runs felt better and like progress was being made. I went into this excited to try something new, and I left excited for the full release. This is absolutely a demo you will want to play. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Dark Quest Remastered Playstation 5 Remastered

Dark Quest: Remastered was sent to me by Brain Seal Entertainment, and as the name implies, it is the remastered version of the 2013 Mobile and 2015 Steam release. The game has been fully remastered visually, and the gameplay has been polished up nicely while still maintaining what people loved about the original.

The game itself is a simple turn-based game with characters and enemies moving along a grid. You will start with the classic barbarian, wizard, and dwarf in a tutorial dungeon, which you will probably want to run through a couple of times to earn some money for items and new skills.

Honestly, I wish I had a ton to say about this one, but I truly don’t. The game is $7 and is a throwback to a time when games were simple. There were no deep mechanics to learn, hidden mechanics to figure out. The story is a simple story of good versus evil. The battles are faster than the original release, which is great in my opinion. It can be a bit repetitive since you will have to do each dungeon a few times to truly progress, but that is also a normal thing in older games. It may have been a game from 2013, but it plays like a game from the 1990s, and I don’t mean that as an insult. The game is a 7/10 experience, and for its price point, that makes it a damn good game. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Star Trek Voyager Across the Unknown Playstation 5 Review

Some of you may have noticed I have covered Star Trek Voyager Across the Unknown quite extensively since it was announced. As a lifelong Star Wars fan, I’ve always wanted to play this game since I saw Voyager as a kid. Not only did Daedalic Entertainment make that happen, but they were nice enough to send me a copy to review. To say this made me happy would be an understatement, but was it worth the wait?

Well, for those not familiar with the game, you are in charge of guiding Voyager across its entire journey. From the moment you are dragged from the badlands into the Delta quadrant, you will play a what-if scenario in this survival strategy game. Want to take the array home instead of destroying it? Give it a shot. Want to let Tuvix live? That is an option. Never liked how Janeway treated the Kazon? You can do it differently. To be fair, all of these choices may have unintended consequences for you. That, however, is the point of the game.

The survival aspect is where the real challenge comes in, and even on easy, it can be challenging. Without enough cargo bays and without them set to hold the right things, problems can come up suddenly and quickly later on, even when you think you are doing ok. Not researching the right technologies or upgrading rooms quickly enough can also have long-lasting problems. The flip side to this is homesickness. The Voyager crew does not take well to you just hanging out, collecting resources. Staying in a sector for too long upsets them, and morale will drop fast.

The combat is quite simple to learn and is mostly done on its own as you give commands. You simply tell them how to fight. Do you want them to be defensive or attack the enemy’s weapons? You can do all this with the touch of a few buttons. You also tell your battle party when to use commands or use torpedoes. Phasers are fired automatically; however, how fast or strong they are depends on the level of your phaser room itself and certain technologies.

I could honestly go on about this game far more, but I already feel like I have taken up enough of your time. I won’t pretend the game is perfect; there were certainly some decisions on design I question. For example, I don’t know why there is an engineering room and a warp core room; this was always the same room in Star Trek, and I really don’t know why they are so far apart. And why can’t I rearrange my rooms more easily? Regardless, this is an 8/10 game that I have already spent plenty of hours in and will spend many more playing. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Death Howl Playstation 5 Review

Death Howl is a deckbuilding RPG that promotes itself as a soulslike, and 11 Bit Studio and Evolve PR were kind enough to send me a copy so I could find out just how accurate this was. Spoiler alert, it is a fair assessment.

Fill disclosure, this was one of the hardest games I ever had to review, not in the sense of the game’s difficulty, but in the sense that I work very hard not to spoil anything in my reviews, and I found everything I wanted to tell you fell into this category. The story is beautiful and heart-wrenching, but I can’t tell you why. The symbolism and such are also amazing, but I can’t explain that to you either. Suffice it to say, if you have ever lost someone you loved, and I feel like that is most of us, this story will hit home pretty hard in a lot of ways.

The battle system is where it matters, however. After all, if this is bad or just not fun, what is the point of such a touching and beautiful story? There are no random or surprising battles here, really. You can look at your map and see where they all are, and even teleport to spots you have unlocked to heal. Doing this will, of course, revive all enemies. This is a soulslike after all. Enemies won’t try to ambush you like in Dark souls however. This is turn-based combat; you will pick where you start from a select number of spaces. From what I can tell, each battle has specified opponents. Ran into two crows in a spot last time; that is what will be there next time. This allows you to grind out Death Howls and items for new cards easily.

This is where my only issue comes from. You can do a lot of work in each region, grinding out Death Howls from enemies, and getting all the cards in each region, and in the next region, you are essentially back to square one. Yes, you can bring those cards with you, but using one region’s cards in another makes them more expensive, bringing their usefulness way down. This forces you to restart in each region.

This gripe aside, the game is a lot of fun and quite challenging. It is an 8/10 experience that fans of card games and soulslikes should check out. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Game Feeder Pack 2 launches 24 February for theHunter: Call of the Wild

As many of you may know, in my downtime, I enjoy shooting virtual animals even though I haven’t gone hunting in probably 12 years. So I am happy to announce that Game Feeder Pack 2 will be launching on the 24th of February for TheHunter: Call of the Wild. You may remember I reviewed the first one. So enjoy some details and the trailer, happy hunting, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 Avalanche Studios Group has announced the Game Feeder Pack 2, featuring three new game feeders for theHunter: Call of the Wild for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC via Steam, the Epic Games Store, and Microsoft Store. This latest DLC pack will be available on all platforms from 24 February. 

Game Feeder Pack 2 introduces three new specialised feeders to attract herbivores, omnivores, and even predators. This solid and indestructible trio of feeders – the Mineral Lick, Scent Tube and Carcass Feeder – are specifically designed to attract a diverse array of species, including elusive carnivores and predators. Study prey, find the perfect location and bait, and beware, or you might just become the bait yourself.

Sirius Dice Balurs Gate 3 Treasure Pack Review

Recently, Sirius Dice teamed up with the creators of Baldur’s Gate and created treasure packs. The description on the website reads as follows.

Step into the world of Baldur’s Gate 3 with this collectible Dungeons & Dragons Treasure Pack, packed with surprise and excitement worthy of your next campaign. 

Each blind pack includes:

  • 1 oversized D20 featuring icons from fan-favorite characters like Astarion, Gale, and the Dark Urge
  • 1 collectible coin with a Baldur’s Gate theme
  • 1 embroidered dice bag to store your treasure

40 Possible d20s
21 Possible Metal Coins
9 Possible Embroidered Dice Bags

With stunning Rare, Legendary, and Artifact dice designs hidden inside, every pack is a roll of the dice and a thrill to open. Plus, lucky adventurers may uncover an exclusive Replica Astral Prism, a limited prize item straight from the world of BG3.

They were kind enough to send me a few to check out, which I am always grateful for. The sets are honestly really nice. The bags feel nice, they don’t feel cheap, and they are all pull to close and have some sort of design on them, which changes depending on who is inside.

Forgive the not-so-great camera work with my phone

The collectable coins are solid. I’m not sure what they are made from, but they should stand up well as a collectible item. I wouldn’t recommend flipping them like a coin or anything like that, but they are definitely safe to handle.

The dice themselves are nice. I was lucky enough to get the Bloodless rare dice, and they are certainly usable. I wasn’t able to get a decent picture, unfortunately. It does look pretty cool, however, and I do want to purchase more of them. For collectors and fans of the game, the cost of less than $14 is worth it once they are back in stock. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Dark Souls Revisited

Dark Souls is a game I have a long history with. I played it years ago when it was originally released back in 2011 on PS3, and while I enjoyed it for what it was, I was one of the few people who recognized its flaws, I felt. Not only did it have a ton of frame rate issues, but its hit boxes were also a mess, and platforming was a nightmare. Places like Blighttown were a trainwreck due to its horrible lighting, and the frame rate drops made it even worse. Most of the levels weren’t even that good for me. When I heard about the remaster, however, I was excited because I knew most of these issues were about to be fixed, and they honestly were.

The problem is that with all of these issues fixed, the game isn’t the masterpiece people have convinced themselves it is. Most of the time when people talk about the game, it’s how crappy Blighttown is or how awful Bed of Chaos is. They say things like or well once you open up fast travel, the game really opens up. This doesn’t happen until the last 4 or 5 mandatory bosses of 23 total bosses. 26 if you count the DLC, which, honestly, without a guide, you won’t find. The DLC is possibly the most assinine thing in existence to get to.

Most of the areas in the games challenge also rely on things like walking on an invisible path that you will see if the snow falls on it, or if someone left messages. Find this random candle so you can see, or be the right build so you can cast the right spell. These aren’t good designs in all honesty; this is pretty much RNG.

None of this is to say Dark Souls is a bad game; it’s not. I’ve finished it. It is, however, not worth being so highly regarded as people think it is. It has many flaws, many of which I didn’t list. Dark Souls is a solid game, but not only is it not the first of its kind, but it isn’t the best of its kind by any stretch. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.