Having not played the original Code Vein, I have no idea whether Code Vein II is effective in building on it, or whether the two games are related at all. What I do know is that Code Vein II is an excellent soulslike. One that starts quite slowly, but has an odd way of getting its hooks deep into you.…
Sacred 2 Remaster is such a hot mess of a hot mess of a game. To be very clear: I love it so, so much. Sacred 2: Fallen Angel was released back in 2008. Remember those days? We all had PlayStation 3s and Xbox 360s. Physical retail for games was…
Of all the empires in all of history, the Roman Empire seems…
The best way to think of Tormented Souls 2 is as an…
It’s been a difficult few years for Level-5, from the highs of the likes of Professor Layton, Ni No Kuni and Yo-Kai Watch a decade ago to the lows of… well, everything that it’s done with those properties in recent years. Level-5 just hasn’t been the same company since the…
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It’s easy to understand why Elden Ring Nightreign exists. The multiplayer side of Dark Souls and, later, Elden Ring has been enormously popular over the years. So too are games designed around an endless gameplay loop, whether that be Fortnite, roguelikes, or anything in between. Nightreign will be loved a…
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Look, I don’t know who decided that King Arthur worked well with grimdark, but I’m going to convene the Round Table of artists and put a stop to this nonsense. The actual fantasy of King Arthur and his knights should be flowery bastions of virtue doing good things for the…
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Scar-Lead Salvation is very close to being a very good game. The creative energy is good, the aesthetics are appealing, and the action is tight. Unfortunately, while it was clearly inspired by Returnal, it misses the mark in several critical areas. You play as Willow, who is either a woman…
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Onimusha 2 is the finest in the series. Yes, Onimusha 3 had Jean Reno, and that remains objectively hilarious, but if you’re looking for the heart of what the Onimusha team has tried to achieve with the series, it’s here. Now, with the remake in hand, we’re able to revisit…
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Like its predecessors, Death end re;Quest: Code Z looks like it should be a pretty standard Idea Factory JRPG. You’ve got cute anime girls, most of them with very large assets, and magical girl-style transformation screens that make full use of those assets for maximum impact. Then you have long…
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AFL 23 grew from a shaky start to become something that most fans of the sport could love. It followed Big Ant’s usual MO of, shall we say, responsive patching post-launch, as the feedback rolled in and the ever-vocal sports game community made it clear what they liked and didn’t.…
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I prefer playing games on consoles, as a rule of thumb. I’ve said this often enough, but to repeat the reason for it: I spend so much time working on PCs that I struggle to sit down and play games on them without something kicking in my brain and telling…
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One of my first observations about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, was that it was very, very French. Having no idea about the developer prior to playing it, I immediately said to myself, “This is a French game.” Then I saw all the jokes about it being a “J’RPG” and realised…
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The original release of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is still very playable on a lot of devices. It is (or, at least, it was) readily available on Game Pass. I haven’t checked that since the release of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Remastered, but I assume it’s been replaced now. Either way,…
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