Thumb Culture - Gaming

Pathfinder: Kingmaker Review – Choose Your Path, Be The King

17Oct

By KevinNo Comments

Pathfinder: Kingmaker Review – Choose Your Path, Be The King

Owlcat Games have dug deep into the Pathfinder universe to bring us Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Start from humble beginnings and begin your epic quest to rule the lands. Pathfinder has been a popular role playing game for many years and Owlcat Games have brought the experience to the keyboard warrior. Time to strap on some full plate and grab my shield, I feel a campaign coming on. Gameplay Pathfinder: Kingmaker is set in a 3D isometric view. You can zoom in and out, but that's all the control you have. Use your mouse to control the players and get them to interact with the items in the scene. There are several useful functions as well, such as pressing Tab to highlight anything you can interact with. This saves time, a lot of time. What's the plot? You play whoever you want really, jus...

NASCAR Heat 3 PS4 Review – Dizzy My Head Is Spinning

16Oct

By TC Staff WriterNo Comments

Gaming, PlayStation Reviews

NASCAR Heat 3 PS4 Review – Dizzy My Head Is Spinning

The market for retro gaming is huge right now. Since Nintendo have released two retro consoles, Sony recently announced their first and you know there will be a mini PS2 to follow. Xbox users mock PlayStation fanboys for a lack of backward compatibility, which does seem to be a real oversight on the part of Sony. But if I put aside the nostalgia of playing childhood games, and the cool factor of having a mini console by my TV, I do often wonder if I really miss the way games used to be. Were they any good? Did the simpler controls make for more fun? Does mo-cap and 3D rendering make for better games? Well wonder no more, with NASCAR Heat 3 you can remember exactly how bad games used to be. 704 Games is the latest studio to release a NASCAR title. The original came out in 2002, NASCA...

The Light Keeps Us Safe – Early Access – Death is Coming

12Oct

By KevinNo Comments

Gaming, PC Reviews

The Light Keeps Us Safe – Early Access – Death is Coming

Big Robot Ltd bring us The Light Keeps Us Safe an exploration game where the planet has been taken over by machines. Stay safe, stay alive and save yourself. Time to find a few AA batteries and journey out into the world of darkness for an early access look. Gameplay The Light Keeps Us Safe is the standard mouse and WASD format. Move around, look around, interact with objects and use your resources wisely. The premise is simple, stay alive by the clever use of light. The world has been taken over by machines that seem to have an inexplicable aversion to light. You have a torch. It was a marriage of convenience that worked out well. Keep the torch charged and in return it will keep you safe. Instructions are forthcoming on the screen and there is a strange woman doing a voiceover, ...

Online Trophies – Should they be tied to a Platinum Achievement?

11Oct

By JohnNo Comments

Features, Gaming

Online Trophies – Should they be tied to a Platinum Achievement?

With the upcoming release of Red Dead Redemption 2 in just a couple of weeks, more and more information is coming out about what we can expect and one of the things that jumped out at me this morning while I was flicking through the little bits of info (when I was supposed to be working) was the inclusion of Online only trophies. What’s the big deal? You might be asking. Tons of games have online trophies! And you are correct, they do. BUT, my question is: Should they be tied to the 100% Completion Platinum trophy? I’m sure this is partly my age creeping in, but I remember a time when you didn’t need all the extra bits and DLC and paid content to be able to complete a game fully. Hell it wasn’t really that long ago that online content didn’t really exist and 100% of the content y...

Construction Simulator 2 US PS4 Review – Building for the Future

10Oct

By Kevin1 Comment

Gaming, PlayStation Reviews

Construction Simulator 2 US PS4 Review – Building for the Future

Weltenbauer. Software Entwicklung GmbH bring us Construction Simulator 2 US, a building and tycoon game all rolled into one. The big question is, has it laid a solid foundation, or will in crumble under pressure. Hard hat and safety goggles at the ready, I'm going in. Gameplay Construction Simulator 2 US puts you in charge of a construction company. Learn to drive a truck and then heads out into the world and start a business. This is clearly the American dream in full force. A brief tutorial will guide you through the basics of driving and navigation, then you are on your own. Having said that, you get a lot of tutorials on vehicles as you purchase them. With each job completed you gain money and experience to level up, once levelled up you get skill points. These skill point...

Unearthing Mars 2: The Ancient War PS4 Review

9Oct

By TC Staff WriterNo Comments

Gaming, PlayStation Reviews

Unearthing Mars 2: The Ancient War PS4 Review

In our latest PSVR game review, I have dug into Unearthing Mars 2: The Ancient War (pun intended). It is the sequel to (no surprises) Unearthing Mars and is billed as a fast paced VR First Person Shooter. Having not played the first I was pleasantly surprised by a good looking intro that gave me a backstory and purpose and then a sleek tutorial to get me up to speed on how to play the game. With some strong PSVR titles released in the last month, like Astro Bot and Firewall Zero Hour, I was looking forward to getting back into my Virtual Reality for some sci-fi blasting! Released by Winking Skywalker Entertainment a year after the original, Unearthing Mars 2: The Ancient War features Aim Support, a good range of weapons and even time control elements (think Max Payne). Winking...

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Review – An Insurmountable Greek Tragedy?

5Oct

By JohnNo Comments

Gaming

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Review – An Insurmountable Greek Tragedy?

When Ubisoft first announced that they were bringing us an Assassin's Creed game set back in Ancient Greece I was super excited. Finally I was going to get the setting that I’d always wanted this series to explore. Was I concerned that it was coming hot off the heels of AC Origins? A little as I started to wonder how many new things they could include when developing the two games side by side. So does Assassin's Creed Odyssey live up to the expectation? Here are my thoughts: First thing I want to mention is that I splashed the cash and went for the Medusa edition which comes with a very nice statue and artwork book etc. (Yes I know, feel free to criticise but I did). I won’t go into too much detail about what’s in this edition as there are plenty of unboxing videos online and...

Fire Pro Wrestling World PS4 Review – Woooooooo

4Oct

By JohnNo Comments

Gaming, PlayStation Reviews

Fire Pro Wrestling World PS4 Review – Woooooooo

Fire Pro Wrestling World from Spike Chunsoft has finally made its way over to the PS4. It’s very much a niche title and the good thing is that most people will know from the title and a screenshot if they will enjoy it. Fire Pro Wrestling World slots very nicely into the 2D Wrestling game genre and aims to fill that void in today’s market... The question is; will it Suplex its way into new gamer’s libraries or should it finally submit to the modern day 3D games? Gameplay Fire Pro Wrestling as a franchise has been around since way back in 1989 and definitely has its own fan base that would be salivating at getting a new game in 2018 on a current gen console. As a fan of retro gaming in general this franchise has always peaked my curiosity and since I was a huge fan of the 90’s WWF game...

8-Bit Armies Review – Welcome Back Commander

3Oct

By JasonNo Comments

Gaming, PC Reviews

8-Bit Armies Review – Welcome Back Commander

8-Bit Armies developed by Petroglyph and published by Soedesco is a fast paced real-time strategy game that has a strong similarity to the Command & Conquer franchise and is depicted in a voxel manner, i.e the graphics are made up of blocky pixels. I have been yearning for a game to come along for console that is along the lines of Dune, C&C, StarCraft etc. Is 8-Bit Armies to be that salvation? Gameplay From the off you are greeted by a curiously similar voice from Commander & Conquer times "Welcome Back Commander". Already I am getting excited in anticipation as to what will come next. The options you have are to start a campaign, skirmish or online multiplayer session. Campaign mode it is! Selecting between the two available factions; Renegades and Guardians, ...

Tyler: Model 005 Review – Reboot, Retry, Respawn

2Oct

By KevinNo Comments

Gaming, PC Reviews

Tyler: Model 005 Review – Reboot, Retry, Respawn

Reversed Interactive bring us the slightly oddly titled Tyler: Model 005, the story of a robot. Not sure if I need to read up on robotics, but rest assured that's not going to happen. Time to put my I into this AI and go on an adventure. Gameplay Set in the 1950s, Tyler: Model 005 suddenly gets booted up after a rather long period of down time. It's my job to guide Tyler though the house to see if I can help him remember who he is. The camera is set to third person so that interacting with my surrounding is easier. Tyler is solar powered and needs light to recharge, any source will do. Fortunately several lamps have been left around the house to help me survive longer. Keep the energy up and everything will be alright. I also have a level of H2SO4, or sulphuric acid to use it's more ...