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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
Batman: Arkham Origins Review
As a huge fan of Rocksteady's Batman Arkham series on home game consoles, I've been one of the many fans eagerly anticipating the release of the gritty prequel, Batman: Arkham Origins, coming up at the end of the month. But in a much-welcomed and surprise move, NetherRealm Studios has graced us with a mobile tie-in version of Batman: Arkham Origins. Coming from the same developer who gave a similar mobile treatment to other big-time superhero games like Batman: Arkham City and Injustice: Gods Among Us, how would this latest touchscreen brawler hold up to the expectations of excellence that Batman has brought to the gaming world at large in recent years?Spoiler alert: it holds up well, very well. The fully voiced and animated opening cinematic of Batman: Arkham Origins is simply astounding, and it made me feel like I was watching a full-fledged console game right there in the palm of my hands. The graphics elsewhere in the game are also up to the highest of caliber, from the fluid combat animations to the nice variety of thug types and environments, and the dark and ominous tone of the Batman Arkham console games has been revitalized here quite gloriously. Much like its upcoming big brother console game, the story of Batman: Arkham Origins involves a number of deadly assassins all vying to be the one who kills Batman once and for all, in order to win a substantial monetary reward. This allows the game to incorporate some wonderful and frightening boss fights against these assassins, like Deadshot, Copperhead, and my personal favorite, Deathstroke.The actual gameplay of Batman: Arkham Origins is extremely top-notch, and should be familiar to anyone who's ever played Batman: Arkham City Lockdown or Injustice: Gods Among Us. In each combat mission, players simply tap on the screen to pummel oncoming hordes of street thugs and other devious villains, while holding down two fingers on the screen to defend against blowbacks and other cheap shots. What's great about this is that the control scheme is so easy to get into, but offers just as much depth for those players who really want to make the most of it. Batman is capable of holding two different battle stances, an Assault Stance and a Guarded Stance, and activating each one opens up a number of additional special attacks or healing boosts that you can activate mid-fight.
Rabbids Big Bang Review
The wall-eyed, buck-toothed Rabbids have had us doing silly things for years, and now these loony lapins have us hurling them through space. In Rabbids Big Bang, we take part in the Rabbids' very own space program (which consists mainly of trying to collect floating coins and bouncing off planets) and learn to use their proprietary methods for intergalactic travel. Although fun at first, in mastering the game's surprisingly challenging physics-based proceedings, too many similar missions make for quickly-developing monotony.As we all know, the Rabbids are doers, not thinkers. In Rabbids Big Bang, what they're doing is seeing how much adrenaline they can get out of flying around the Universe, powered by nothing more than a strapped-on soda bottle. There's no story to Big Bang, so don't look for one. You simply begin with two Rabbids standing on the surface of a planet, one wearing a jetpack and one holding a baseball bat. Around the planet float other planets, fuel bubbles, gold coins, UFOs, cows, and other weird and inappropriate things, and your goal is to land on, collect, or run into each of these.At the start of every mission, you tap and hold on a round aiming reticule that determines your jet-pack Rabbid's trajectory. Once you let this go, the Rabbid with the bat slugs the Rabbid with the jet-pack, sending him shooting into space. Tap-holding again activates the jet-pack, as long as there's fuel to be had in the on-screen fuel gauge, and allows the jet-pack Rabbid to keep traveling in whatever direction his head's pointing. It sounds simple, but it's extremely unwieldy at first. In fact, many players are likely to spend the first half hour watching in horror (or laughing diabolically) as their jet-pack Rabbid repeatedly slams head-first into its home planet.
Neurokult Review
Rhythm games and match-3 puzzle games are typically regarded as quiet, soothing fare - games that are good to play while you're winding down in bed with a steaming cup of chamomile tea on your nightstand. Joerg Doneit's Neurokult, however, combines elements from the puzzle and rhythm genre, and it's anything but relaxing. Seriously, you'll get a better night's sleep if you snort Red Bull in lieu of playing this title.Not to suggest that Neurokult is a bad game. Far from it. But if you let your attention wander for even a fraction of a second, you'll wind up as pixel-dust floating through the emptiness of cyberspace. It's a brutal little bugger, and for that reason you'll be compelled to try again and again.The premise for Neurokult isn't complicated, but it ultimately explains the game's neon phenotype: you're a voyager exploring the vast reaches of "neurospace," but your journey isn't an easy one. You need to bypass security measures by tapping on colored buttons while avoiding the many traps, bosses, and pitfalls that aim to blast your mind out of existence.Indeed, getting beyond the first level of Neurokult requires superhuman reflexes. Colored pieces slide across the screen at varying speeds, and you must tap them to be rid of them before they hit the right side of the screen and deplete your synaptic plasticity (er, health bar).
Device 6 Review
It's rare to be able to point to a mobile game and say, "This title fits this platform as snugly as a wax cylinder fits a phonograph," but that's where we are with Simogo's Device 6. This interactive novel works beautifully with the touchscreen rather than in spite of it. More importantly, it delivers a remarkably unique and engaging experience that carries on Year Walk's spirit, but is considerably more polished than its predecessor.Device 6 gradually tells the story of Anna, a girl who wakes up alone in an opulent, seemingly abandoned setting. There are two things on her mind: escape, and figuring out where the heck she is. All she's carrying is a massive headache and a vague memory of a creepy doll.Device 6 is told across six chapters, which double as interactive escape situations. Reading through these chapters isn't as straightforward as beginning at "Once Upon a Time" and concluding at "The End," however. The narrative twists and turns - figuratively and literally. When Anna turns right down a corridor, the on-screen text may take a sharp right, forcing you to turn your device accordingly. If she descends down a staircase, the text does as well. It's easy to get lost in Device 6's words during these moments (again, literally), which can be frustrating - until you begin to notice that there are arrows beside the text that quietly herd you in the correct direction.
Real Steel World Robot Boxing Review
The Hugh Jackman flick Real Steel made $85 million domestically with its "What if Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots was a real thing?" concept. That may or may not be enough money to warrant a sequel, but Reliance Games feels there's more life in the franchise to make Real Steel: World Robot Boxing for iOS and Android. It's free-to-play, simple to learn, and full of cool visuals, but some unfortunate design decisions keep it from being a knockout.Set after the events of the movie (and knowledge of the film is absolutely not necessary), World Robot Boxing features Atom, Noisy Boy, Midas, and some of the franchise's other stars, but also expands both the scope and the cast of characters. Your ultimate goal is to dethrone Zeus, the WRB champion, by fighting your way through multiple increasingly difficult circuits of robot fighters. Three bots are yours to choose from to start, with a fourth available if you can convince a friend to play too."Let's get the obvious part out of the way: boxing robots is just a flat out awesome idea, and one that appeals to the five-year-old boy or girl in all of us. This game doesn't disappoint in its efforts to bring those clashes to life, sporting better graphics than the first Real Steel mobile game and some creative robot designs. The themes are great - there's a football-inspired fighter, one with a blackjack motif, a cowboy bot with arms shaped like six-shooters, and more.Pitting them against each other is fairly straightforward, with a virtual d-pad on the left and buttons on the right. Boxing is a strictly 2D affair here, which limits you to punching and blocking, but there's still some strategy required as you look to counter when your opponent's guard is down. The game doesn't explain this fully, but pressing the pad while hitting the light or heavy attack buttons throws a slightly different kind of punch for each direction, so there are more options than it may initially appear.
Big Business Deluxe Review
Big Business Deluxe is a follow-up to Game Insight's 2010 simulation title Big Business, a Facebook game that leaped to the mobile world with no shortage of applause. The sequel keeps the basic framework the same as the original, only now there's more of pretty much everything! And if you played Big Business, you know that's a very big deal.Big Business Deluxe can broadly be described as a city building game combined with Farm Frenzy and doled out in short, free-to-play doses. The game places heavy emphasis on creating structures that produce basic items that are then transformed into more complex (and more valuable) things. For example, growing grain on a farm, and then turning it into flour. Instead of simply tapping icons to make things and turn a profit, you have to concern yourself with all the little details of the city/business, such as where the warehouses are and what kind of trucks are running. It sounds like a mess, but it's strangely captivating once you get the hang of it."As you slowly gain money, unlock new buildings, and improve old ones, you get the wonderful honor of being able to expand your city's footprint by purchasing adjacent parcels of land. Not only does this give you additional space, but it can also uncover nice rewards in the form of new buildings, new quests, or other small rewards. It's a nice incentive to reach out and seize property as soon as you can!
Pocket Titans Review
Known for convoluted skill trees, multiple-layer menus, and complex gear load-outs, role-playing games can be daunting to the casual gamer. With Pocket Titans, new indie developer Noisy Orc Games removes much of what generally bars the way for players unfamiliar with RPG mechanics. What's left is a fast-paced, streamlined fantasy role-player that, though repetitive and largely automated, is a fine introduction to one of the game industry's most venerable genres.Briefly, Pocket Titans' narrative involves a group of young apprentices attending the Titans Academy where they hope to become full-fledged heroes. The gameis built upon a foundation of fantasy archetypes, but rather than coming up with thinly-veiled terms for them, Noisy Orc presents them as literally as possible. For instance, characters announce themselves not with bombastic titles like "Tim, the Nefarious and Deadly Enchanter," or "Rothelm, the One-Eyed Orc-Beater," but simply as "Mage" and "Warrior" (or Healer, Ranger, Paladin, Hunter, Warlock, and Rogue)."These practical-minded mercenaries sign up to help their king defeat an evil Orc horde, and as such, must fight their way through swamps, skeleton-filled passes, and forests until facing down the Orc King in his castle. In a typical role-playing game, this process would be fairly elaborate. Before battle you'd choose your party members, equip them with the best weapons and armor possible, set them to perform certain actions by assigning their skill points, and maybe even spend time crafting healing potions and other useful items. Some gamers love this kind of micro-management, but for others, it's an unnecessary delay that prevents them from jumping into the action.
CSR Classics Review
Kids these days, they just don't appreciate the classics. Well, CSR Classics is going to teach those whippersnappers about the oldies but goodies - and in a slightly more suspect lesson, something about racing in the streets as well. It's all in good fun though, as this free-to-play follow-up to the original CSR Racing challenges you to both drive fast and fix up classic cars. Now get off my lawn!Born from the same companies that brought you its predecessor (namely Boss Alien and NaturalMotion Games), CSR Classics sticks pretty close to the same formula while adding an additional focus on restoring once-beautiful older rides to their former glory. That's because you can acquire cars in either "Loved" or "Unloved" form, with the latter option costing considerably less but also giving you a vehicle that needs some work in pretty much every area: body, engine, tires, you name it."Fortunately you begin play with enough cash to snag a Tier 1 car, providing you with your introduction to the apparently hot world of underground street racing between classic car aficionados. The guys and gals in the crews you have to defeat even talk like they're still living in a previous decade, and they scold you if you show up in a beater.Of course that's basically what you're doing until you master the gameplay and have a few wins under your belt. Since these are drag races, you don't have to worry about pesky things like steering or braking. Going fast is strictly a matter of timing and reflexes, as every vehicle has optimal launch and shift points, and tapping the gas or the paddle shifter at the perfect moment is the key to victory. There's also nitrous for a little extra boost, though I don't think that came standard in mid-20th Century cars. (Note to the GZ editors: please have one of our interns check on that!)