![Headphones Review Round Up [Hardware]: SIVGA SV021, VR500, UX3000, and VR2000](/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/unnamed-5.jpg "Headphones Review Round Up [Hardware]: SIVGA SV021, VR500, UX3000, and VR2000")
Headphones Review Round Up [Hardware]: SIVGA SV021, VR500, UX3000, and VR2000
Update: SIVGA SV021 tested and rated!![Boulies Elite Max Chair [Hardware] Review – Assemble, Adjust, Relax](/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/boulies-elite-max-chair-review.jpg "Boulies Elite Max Chair [Hardware] Review – Assemble, Adjust, Relax")
Boulies Elite Max Chair [Hardware] Review – Assemble, Adjust, Relax
What do we think of the Boulies Elite Max Chair?![Red Magic 9S Pro [Hardware] Review – The New Standard For Mobile Gaming?](/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/red-magic-9s-pro.jpg "Red Magic 9S Pro [Hardware] Review – The New Standard For Mobile Gaming?")
Red Magic 9S Pro [Hardware] Review – The New Standard For Mobile Gaming?
My Red Magic 9S Pro Review puts this incredible bit of tech through its paces to determine whether it's worth your money.
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Category: Reviews
Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition Review
The overhaul of Baldur's Gate by Overhaul Games scooped up many deserved plaudits for bringing a true classic to a new generation of gamers. But while it was a reminder of how great old games can be, it also demonstrated how much things had improved in terms of graphics and user interfaces.I was expecting a similar experience from this enhanced and extended version of the sequel, Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition. It is after all, a similar package: the original game with its expansion, plus some new characters and their plotlines and an arena mode focussing on the battle engine."So I was pretty shocked to end up comparing it to much more modern RPGs like The Witcher series. The graphics might not be directly comparable, but the original game looked stunning on release, and a little spit and polish has left it looking perfectly respectable today. And this is a much more party-based affair than the modern fashion for single-character focus.But in most respects Baldur's Gate II can stand toe-to-toe with its antecedents and come off proud. Vast amounts of content are crammed into the three gigabytes of download: horrible villains, lich-haunted libraries, and vibrant cityscapes.
Meltdown Review
Meltdown is one of the most unique experiences I've had playing a mobile game. Like a confused college student, it has a few ideas on what it wants to be, but it gets lost in its own search for an identity. On paper, that identity is easily understandable. In practice, there are two experiences that are nearly identical. The single difference between the two is enough to shake the game's foundation.Upon first glance, it'll seem like Meltdown is a lot like Bastion, which is a fair assumption. The birds-eye camera view and the 360-degree motion result in this game controlling much like Supergiant's indie hit. Your character carries two guns and a melee weapon. Each gun can be purchased and upgraded by spending coins and upgrade cards dropped by enemies.Customization is one of Meltdown's strong points. Projectile weapons and your character all have individual skill trees. When a gun has been upgraded nine times—it's maximum—a new one will appear in the shop. Your character's skill tree is similar, but lacks the hard limit. You can choose to obtain skill boosts in damage, health, and weaponry. You can ultimately fill it out completely, so there's not much risk in selecting the wrong path. Regardless of skills and which two weapons you equip, you'll play the game the same way, only ammo types and meter regeneration changes.Meltdown's level-based gameplay is the bulk of what the game offers. The default controls are annoying, at best. I found myself trying to adapt to the touch-heavy controls, only to become frustrated and quickly go digging in the options menu. Fortunately, there's an excellent control scheme that mimics a game pad. This setup lets you move with a virtual thumb stick and press virtual buttons for shooting, dashing, and using a melee strike. There's also controller support for those with a compatible pad.
King’s League: Odyssey Review
The King has put forth the call for the mightiest in the realm to contest for a spot at the Round Table! The path will be difficult, but fame and glory awaits the one bold and powerful enough to seize the opportunity. From humble beginnings, you must rise through the tournaments, forge your legend across the land, and lead your party to victory in a game that's both simple to play and surprisingly complex.King's League: Odyssey is quite the thing. It starts off simply enough, with hazy shades of something from Kairosoft, requiring you to recruit a small band of knights, mages, and archers, who sally forth to complete quests, conquer villages, and take part in monthly tournaments. But before long you'll find yourself clearing out dungeons, laying siege to larger, tougher cities, upgrading your facilities, specializing your troops, and more; and yet it happens so gradually and it's all so easily accessible that you won't even notice it happening until the first time you get clobbered and realize that you need to actually think about what you're doing."The game plays out in monthly cycles, the days ticking off inexorably (unless you're in a menu) toward the tournament battle at the end of every month. You begin with a single knight and enough money to recruit one or two cohorts: another knight, a warrior, or perhaps an archer or a wizard. Each character has four ability-determining stats that must be trained as often as possible, but training is limited by points, which are awarded in very limited quantities at the beginning of every month. While training, you can also embark upon quests, which earn you gold and sometimes crystals that are used to increase your character levels, earn specialized abilities, and upgrade your facilities. But you can't be training while you're questing, so you don't want to be questing all the time - and since questing also takes time, you sometimes have to take a break to ensure that you can attend the monthly tournament.Neon Shadow Review
The AI is relentless. It is reprogramming itself to wrest control of the station, and it appears on my comms to enlighten me as to what my fate will be. It appears as a "he" and, though polite, he carefully informs me that I am a little more than a virus to him - a bug that must be eradicated. What follows is nothing short of soul-crushing monotony and a host of poorly conceived control and mechanics issues that leave Neon Shadow feeling bogged down and nearly unplayable.The evil AI has been a staple of sci-fi within the world of entertainment since 2001: A Space Odyssey's Hal was asked to open the pod bay doors. And yet, despite this well-worn material, the concept itself is rife with opportunity. Think to such classic gaming experiences as the Mother Brain of Chrono Trigger and you've got a recipe for multi-genre overlap. Unfortunately, any subject matter is only as good as its execution, and Neon Shadow is executed poorly."Controls are of the virtual variety, an element that has certainly become common enough to be implemented well. The option to lock the virtual joystick to a static location is helpful enough, but the camera and shooting buttons rest right on top of one another: meaning you'll either shoot when you wish to move, or vice-versa. Additionally, it is uncomfortable to switch between camera control and firing, and this often results in little choice beyond coming to a complete stop to survey your surroundings.A learning curve is implied within the framework of today's modern gaming experiences (especially mobile), but when enemies swarm from multiple directions and make movement impossible, all you can do is stand in one place, hope for the best, and curse your depleting health bar as you frantically try to locate that incoming fire, that ill-intentioned quad-copter, or what appears to be some sort of laser-mounted robotic vacuum cleaner.
Football Heroes Review
Evidence is rapidly mounting that the physical abuse real football players take on the gridiron is bad for their long term health. Happily, football players in video games suffer no ill effects, so we can pile on the excessive violence guilt-free - especially when it comes via Football Heroes and its nostalgic, over-the-top arcade action. It's a big play concept that sadly comes up short of a touchdown due to frustrating controls and annoying glitches.Run Games pitched the Kickstarter community on the idea of a football game with beat 'em up and RPG elements inspired by classics like NFL Blitz and NBA Jam. Not surprisingly, backers rallied around that concept, and the result is a game that challenges you with building the best possible team for winning at a, shall we say, very physical style of football."Since one of the main offensive and defensive techniques is punching opposing players, that's possibly an understatement. You start Football Heroes with a full squad of 18 (the games are 8-on-8, plus you get a kicker/punter and a kick return specialist) athletes ready to take part in a series of tournaments and leagues. They're just not very good at first, so you've got to train them up by playing, and hopefully winning, some games.The controls are simple enough for anyone to understand. A virtual thumb stick makes players run, and can appear nearly anywhere you touch on the screen. Tapping the screen throws punches, while tapping on players either switches who you control (on defense) or throws a pass to that player (on offense). Swiping in any direction launches your guy into a head-first diving tackle.
Juice Cubes Review
The new trend in match-three games is to draw lines through matching icons rather than shifting their positions. This interesting evolution not only gives players a new way to enjoy matching three, but it challenges them to solve similar issues by distinctly different means. Pocket Playlab's free-to-play Juice Cubes embraces the trend in hopes of attracting some of the Candy Crush Saga crowd; unfortunately, it fails to convince us that fruit is better for you than candy.Juice Cubes (which I keep wanting to call "Juicy Fruit") is born of a collaboration between Rovio Stars, the publishing arm of Rovio Entertainment (known for the Angry Birds franchise) and Pocket Playlab, the makers of another cube-themed game, Lost Cubes. (Fans of Lost Cubes, be warned—Juice Cubes' gameplay is completely different.) It's set among a series of small islands inhabited by things like sentient hermit crabs, pirates, and giant octopi, and these nautical natives all have one thing in common—they have problems. In their fancifully fluid world, those problems are solved by clearing levels using an easy-to-learn match-three technique, and who better to do that than you?"As mentioned before, Juice Cubes employs a match-three method wherein you connect static icons by drawing lines through them. The nine-by-nine board is covered with apples, strawberries, bananas, and coconuts and these can be connected vertically, horizontally, and diagonally. As "match-three" implies, matches require three or more of the same icon; matched icons burst, allowing the remaining ones to cascade toward the bottom of the screen. Unlike other games in the genre, in Juice Cubes there's no such thing as automatic matching, so cascades do nothing but rearrange the board. This makes for slightly different gameplay, but also eliminates the possibility of achieving the explosive random combo-chains achievable in games like Bejeweled and Candy Crush.
Big Action Mega Fight! Review
There has always been a certain feel that sets arcade games apart from their console and PC brethren. Their unique sights and sounds have fallen alongside the arcade in western culture. Once in a while, a brand new game releases and successfully captures the unique feel of classic arcade games while mixing in modern elements. Big Action Mega Fight! from Execution Labs is a wonderful example.Big Action Mega Fight! takes inspiration from old-school beat 'em up titles like Final Fight and Streets of Rage. Players take control of Brick, a rough and tough gentleman with an amazing mustache. Like those other games, Brick will venture through a ton of stages. Each stage is made up of multiple screens and Brick will need to wipe out each enemy on screen before the "GO!" message allows him to move on. Brick's combat ability is a simple method of tapping and swiping, allowing him to punch, uppercut, and throw enemies. The controls suffer from occasional confusion, such as uppercutting instead of throwing. This doesn't hurt the overall experience too much, but accidentally punching a chicken bomb can be frustrating.Combat reeks of old beat 'em ups. A lot of the enemies' designs are nothing more than palette swaps with each other. Meanwhile, destroyable objects litter the stages, allowing players to throw enemies into soda machines or piles of tires. Everything drops cash or food, as well. Collecting food is the easy way to replenish your health during a fight. Cash is where the game's modern features start to show off in a huge way.After you complete a stage, you'll collect all the coins you picked up during the level, as well as earn a bonus for your performance. Coins and gold teeth (the premium currency) fund Big Action Mega Fight!'s upgrade shop. Between battles, there are three upgrades on which you can use coins. Players can boost their overall level of health and/or damage output, which makes later stages much easier. There's also a menu for unlockable specials. Only one special can be set at any time. These range from temporarily turning Brick into a tornado, to making chicken bombs rain from the heavens. Some specials are much more powerful than others, but there is something that caters to everyone's play style.
Mush Review
On paper, Mush should be fantastic. You are a crewmember aboard a spaceship, and each other crewmember is also a player online. You're tasked with working together to keep the ship safe and stocked, while venturing out to surrounding planets to gather information, resources, and whatever else you can find. But here's the catch: there's an alien disease spreading throughout the ship, and you have no idea who has turned.A great idea indeed, and one that I was eager to jump straight into. Unfortunately the proof lies in the execution, and this isn't so well thought-out. Clumsy, slow-moving free-to-play action means that it's difficult to truly immerse yourself in the drama, and eventually you end up just bounding around the ship every so often, completing a couple of menial tasks here and there that aren't exactly what I'd describe as exciting or fun.The game starts off pleasingly enough. You choose a character, get plopped onto the ship, and are then shown the ropes, from keeping yourself fed to manning the turrets and taking down enemy ships. This is all told from an isometric viewpoint, with the various rooms on the ship separated up as to show what you can see at any one point.Mush is a semi-turn-based style affair. You're given action and movement points, and once these have run out, you then need to wait for the start of the next "cycle" - i.e. 3 hours of real time - before you can make another move. Hence, it's all about making the best of your actions, and preparing yourself for what you hope to achieve in the next round.