Tag: Games

Bus Simulator (PS4 Review)

As always, huge shout out to the ladies and gents over at Astragon Entertainment for hooking me up with a copy of Bus Simulator. When I first got this one I thought to myself there was no way this game would be interesting or fun, and I would play it for an hour and regret that decision. Well before I go further here is one of my busses.

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Cute isn’t it? Like the color? I got a bunch more some bigger some smaller, all different colors and designs. Yea what I thought would be a one hour and dislike game turns into one of the most relaxing games I have played in years. The graphics aren’t stellar but they are nice.

The game has some issues like any game. For example, pedestrians seem to just walk in front of your bus, which isn’t a big issue but it has still happened to me a couple times. This can cost you a lot of money. You also don’t get to see it, they just kinda disappear and your bus just teleports back to the road. You can however just plow over cars if you want. This will, of course, cost you money, but it is an option.

The real joy here tho is just making bus routes and taking a relaxing drive. The controller functions well with the L1 and R1 buttons turning on and off your blinkers, the D-pad controls other functions and open menus while you drive and you can mostly look around to hit stuff as well. You can also just use the square button, for example, to open and close the bus doors. Don’t do this while driving tho, it engages the parking break so to speak and slams the bus into stopping.

The game also sadly gets very repetitive quickly, like most driving games. This has less to do with the game itself and more to do with the genre itself. It is very relaxing tho and a joy to play, but it is a very niche game. For me, it is a 7/10. It is a must-buy for fans of simulation games, but everyone else should really wait for a sale. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Tropico 6 (PS4 Review)

As always I want to take a moment to thank my friends over at Kalypso for hooking me up with a copy of this one prior to release. It is always great to be chosen to receive a review copy of a game but when it is a series you are a long time fan of, it is truly special, and this time I abused the privilege

For those that are unfamiliar with the Tropico franchise, you will play the dictator of a tropical paradise. You will run every aspect of this tropical paradise. You will choose what to build, where to build it, what to important export and who to kill and imprison. That isn’t a joke, by the way, you can imprison and kill people if their existence annoys you, after all, you are El Presidente.

We will get into all that in a bit, but one of my favorite things they added is the ability to customize your palace in new ways. You change the layout and color, the windows or even what it is made of. Want to change that fountain into a hedge maze, have at it. Here is a picture of mine for exampleTropico 6_20190918151721. Honestly, I just wanted it to stand out so I could find it easily, plus I really just wanted to play with stuff and this is what I ended up with. You can also separate the building so it is on different spots of the compound, stuff like that.

Another great thing they have done is it is now easier than ever to sift through the information you need. There are separate tabs so you can see where the pollution is or happiness levels, just everything you can need. This for me made things run much smoother. All this info was available in the other games of course just this time around it seems much easier to find and utilize.

Speaking of utilizing information, you can now plan most of your island beforehand. You can now see the best places to build which types of plantations, where you can find what types of metals for you mines or even oil and fish. Honestly, I didn’t do this because I am kind of an idiot, but it can be done. I also encourage you to do this since you can for example build stuff on the best places to dig for oil or minerals.

Graphically the game isn’t a huge achievement but it does look great for what it is. I enjoyed watching the people run around and the fire trucks putting out my buildings that a volcano set on fire, a lot.

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The control are also great to me, tho I do have some minor complaints. For example, the combat is still pretty terrible. You basically just build towers and bases and attacks happen. You have some control obviously, but I feel like if you had more the game would really benefit from it.

Another small issue I have is trade seems to be a bit unbalanced to me. I always seem to have a ton of money, or I am pretty much bankrupt and it really seems like this kind of discrepancy shouldn’t be so frequent.

None of this hurts the overall experience too much, the game is still beautiful to play and fun and I will continue to play it long after this review is posted. It is also worth noting the console version comes with a few things that weren’t with the PC release and those will be listed below. As for a score, easily a 9/10 for me. If you enjoyed the rest of the games in the series or are looking to get into it, this one is a must buy. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

  • Four new traits for El Presidente
  • New edicts (e.g. Free Housing)
  • New overlays
  • Special effects of buildings are visualized
  • Revised balancing (e.g. tourism, media building)
  • Revised pathfinding of the Tropicaner
  • New variations for parks and squares
  • New Decoration: Space Monument
  • New decorations for El Presidente in character adaptation
  • The language can be changed at any time during the game.
  • color-blind mode
  • More than 300+ bugfixes

Civilization 6 Coming to Consoles

For fans of the Civilization serious some amazing news for console players, you will finally get to experience it in all its glory. Yes, it is coming to consoles in November, and yes the expansions are coming with it. Sold separately the expansions bundle includes Rise and Fall as well as Gathering Storm. Enjoy the trailer below and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Football Field Kick (Mobile)

Foot Field Kick is a Mobile game from that is pretty simple to play. All you do is tap the screen when the meter gets where you want it and your player will kick the ball. As you earn money you can upgrade your stats and kick the ball further, make the ball bounce higher and so on and so forth. The game is honestly fun for about 3 minutes until the ads every 30 seconds will drive you nuts.

Seriously, this game would have been perfectly fun to me if it wasn’t for all the damn ads. I get companies need to make their money, but these ads make the game pretty much unplayable for me. Skip this one guys, there are better free games out there that are far more interesting and engaging that won’t give you ads all the time. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Imperator Rome Cicero Update Launches Today

For those that love the Paradox Grand Strategy Games, the long-awaited Cicero updated has come out today. The 1.2 update is basically a complete game-changer in a very real way. There are new buildings and laws and, well just check out the video below for all the details. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha

Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha will be released on January 21st 2020 for the Nintendo Switch by NIS America. They were kind enough to send me over a gameplay trailer so I didn’t have to go searching for it on youtube, and now I will save you guys that same 12 seconds. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Classic Dragon Quest Games Coming to Nintendo Switch

Honestly, the title of this really says it all. September 27th. Known as the Erdrick Trilogy, the first three Dragon Quest games are coming to the Nintendo Switch. The first will be $4.99, the second will be $6.49 and the third will be $12.49. Here is an excerpt from the official Email about the games that will be available digitally. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The iconic Erdrick trilogy begins in the acclaimed DRAGON QUEST where players begin their voyage as the “Hero,” a descendent of the valiant hero Erdrick in an epic journey through the historic realm of Alefgard. DRAGON QUEST II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line takes place a century later, where the young prince of Midenhall embarks on a journey to find the other two descendants of Erdrick in order to defeat the nefarious Hargon. The third and final title in the Erdrick trilogy, DRAGON QUEST III: The Seeds of Salvation, takes players through the land of Aliahan, where a young hero has been charged with an impossible task of slaying Baramos, the master of darkness.

Super Dodgeball Beats (Review)

As always, huge shout out to Playstack to hooking us up with a review code for this one. Always an honor to be chosen to review a game and this one is no exception.

I am going to preface this review by saying this, on a personal level I did not enjoy playing this game. Rhythm games are always hit and miss for me and this one was a huge swing and a miss for me. My personal enjoyment out of the way, everything after this will be based solely on the game itself because I do have quite a few positive things to say about the game.

First, the music in the game is catchy. It matches the atmosphere well and I was never sitting there wondering why it was chosen. I even found a few times I just left the game on while I was doing other stuff listening to the music because honestly I kind of suck at the game anyway and my daughter liked dancing to it.

Graphically the game is also very nice, I loved the art style and how the story played out in a sort of graphic novel comic book effect The gameplay itself is on the surface pretty simple at least to learn. The characters on your side of the screen are lined up in the same order of the buttons, for example on PS4 the circle square triangle and X buttons. (I’m not calling it a damn cross) As the white circles get where they need to be you hit the corresponding button. Sometimes you need to hold the button or use the left analog stick.

The game itself is pretty well made and as the difficulty ramps up it can become insane, challenging and frustrating in a good way. While the game was not fun for me, I understand the appeal and I would never discourage anyone from buying it. It wasn’t fun for me, but it will be for many others. The game is a solid 7 of 10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Final Fantasy 8 Remastered

Oh Final Fantasy 8, how I have loved thee since I was a child. The GF’s, the characters, the world itself and the monster designs. As a kid, I used to love these things. However, did this translate to modern times and how did this remaster come out? According to my Platinum trophy pretty damn well.

The story is as you remember, that hasn’t been altered. You play as Squall Leonhart. Student of Balamb, member of SeeD. After being sent on his first mission and meeting Rinoa Heartilly things suddenly take a weird turn and our crew ends up on a quest to stop the Sorceress.

The story aside that I don’t want to delve into deep. The graphical upgrades to the characters are amazing, tho I am a bit disappointed the same treatment wasn’t given to most of the environment. The upgrades to the combat system are nice for an odd reason. You can up the game speed by 3 times, have no encounters and easy combat which basically makes you invincible unless you get killed in one hit, makes your gauge charge almost instantly and your limit breaks will always be charged. This makes the game a breeze to play outside of certain battles. However, if like me you are impatient and hate how long drawing all the magic takes, you can now do in minutes what used to take hours. That alone for me is worth it.

For the trophy hunters in this group, I won’t call this one easy but I will call it straight forward. Only about 3 of them are missable and if you are careful, those aren’t hard to get anyway. You only have to go slightly out of your way for them the benefits for doing so are pretty worth it.

The only issue is if you use the 3X speed upgrade, the game feels really slow in combat when you stop, and it’s really tempting to use the combat assist to heal yourself. Unless you are strong-willed or just want to experience the story avoid using them at all.

I did, however, love the game and have no real complaints with the remaster itself. I for one am glad to finally see this on a modern console and encourage everyone to give it a shot. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.