Jason, Author at Thumb Culture

Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy – Yes it is that good!

10Jul

By JasonNo Comments

Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy – Yes it is that good!

Wow, just wow! From the moment that family friendly Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy was delivered through my door last Friday we as a household have been hooked. As soon as the familiar voice-over begins on the intro screen it is as if I have been transported back to when I was 16 years old when the original first edition came out on the the Playstation 1. I must confess that at this point I wasn't a huge console gamer, the PS1 infact belonged to my 8 year old sister who had parted with her birthday money earlier that year at Woolworth's. I was still pretty much hooked on the Atari ST however changes were beginning to happen as many of my friends began to go down the console route. So does Crash Bandicoot live up to the hype that it has generated since its release? Well quiet si...

AereA Review – Musical Hit or Musical Tragedy?

4Jul

By JasonNo Comments

PC Reviews

AereA Review – Musical Hit or Musical Tragedy?

AereA is a music themed action RPG (ARPG) developed by Triangle Studios and published by SOEDESCO. Presented in 4K resolution, you are to play as one of the Great Maestro Guido's disciples as you explore the mysterious floating island of Aezir. Your quest? to find 9 primordial instruments in order to restore balance and peace to the world. With a fair amount of ARPGs currently currently on the market such as Victor Vran and Super Dungeon Bros, I was wondering how AereA would squeeze itself into the genre and set it apart from the others. Gameplay The intro kicks in and a simple menu appears set to a background containing Aezir broken into a number of smaller islands and a floating airship. Selecting "start game" I embark on choosing my save slot and selecting my character. ...

27Jun

By JasonNo Comments

PC Reviews

Nex Machina Review – Dodge, Dip, Dive, Duck and Dodge

Nex Machina, a collaboration between Housemarque (Resogun and Alienation) and legendary game developer Eugene Jarvis (massively famous for Defender, Robotron & NARC), is an explosive arcade experience that gives a strong nod towards the fun coin-op games I used to play down the arcades in the 80s/90s. As I patiently wait for the game to load I am greeted by the intro screen showing a machine of death, its eyes glowing on and off, red with power. The retro arcade electronic music kicks in and I am prompted to press X to continue. Gameplay A list of game options presents itself and allows you to either experience arcade mode; an arena; or a single world. A grin crosses my face as I see that local 2 player co-op is supported (I'm easily pleased as I seldom get to play on my own...

Victor Vran: Overkill Edition Review – Wanderer, Adventurer, Hunter

21Jun

By JasonNo Comments

PC Reviews

Victor Vran: Overkill Edition Review – Wanderer, Adventurer, Hunter

Victor Vran: Overkill Edition, developed by Haemimont Games and published by Wired Productions is an award winning isometric action RPG crawler that lets you take on hordes of demons and clever bosses as you battle through your adventure as Victor Vran. Originally made for PC, Victor Vran: Overkill Edition makes its debut on Playstation 4 & Xbox One. Having been completely rebuilt from the ground up, the new improved version running at 60FPS includes two new expansions; Fractured Worlds and the head banging Motörhead: Through the Ages. “We’re delighted to finally bring Victor Vran to consoles, answering the call of many Victor fans,” said Gabriel Dobrev, CEO at Haemimont Games. “We are incredibly proud to have collaborated closely with Motörhead during the development of Mot...

14Jun

By JasonNo Comments

PC Reviews

Renowned Explorers: The Emperor’s Challenge Review – Let’s Go Exploring!

Renowned Explorers, by Abbey Games, is a turn-based strategy adventure game available on PC. Set in the 19th century, you are in charge of putting together a team of explorers each with their own skills and traits in a global search to seek out legendary treasures. Following on from their successful launch back in September 2015, Abbey Games released their first expansion More to Explore in May 2016. This included for two new expeditions and introduced a new gameplay mechanic whereby resting the crew around a campfire revealed crew back stories and the chance to gain upgrades. The expansion had such a great response that a second expansion called The Emperor's Challenge was introduced a year later. The Emperor's Challenge expansion takes you and your team of explorers to the Far ...

The Town of Light Review – A Chill Down Your Spine!

12Jun

By Jason1 Comment

PC Reviews

The Town of Light Review – A Chill Down Your Spine!

The Town of Light, by LKA.it and Wired Productions is a first person story driven game that tells the chilling tale of Renée as she returns to her former home, the Volterra Psychiatric Asylum located in Tuscany, Italy, where she had spent much of her youth. Here Renée goes back to discover the secrets of her past and reveals the psychological, sexual and physical abuse that happened within her asylum. The Volterra Psychiatric Asylum has been inspired by real life Italian institutions that were shut down in the late 1970's due to the passing of an Italian law that instructed all asylums to immediately close and return civil rights back to patients. As a result, the now derelict asylum is strewn with the haunting remnants of wards, operating theatres, kitchens and through the eyes o...

11Jun

By JasonNo Comments

News & Updates

E3 2017 – EA Conference Round Up

E3 has officially kicked off for 2017 and here at Thumb Culture, we thought we would round up all the good bits so that you’re kept in the know with what’s coming up in the next few months and beyond! EA has kicked off this year with a pretty strong conference which detailed a whole host of content for existing games and games coming in the future. Some gret titles were detailed by EA, the main one being Star Wars Battlefront 2 which featured about half an hour of pure game play footage played by notable members of the community LIVE on stage. Before we get into the details of the games, a very good point to note right now is EA/Origin Access is currently free for the next week so jump on and give all those yummy EA games a play before the free week ends! Battlefield One A who...

9Jun

By JasonNo Comments

PC Reviews

Rising Storm 2: Vietnam Review

1960’s music blaring – check. Helicopters – check. 64 player US versus Vietnamese matches on a variety of interesting and unique maps – CHECK. Rising Storm 2 puts you in the shoes of one a range of different soldiers and classes with the aim of battling it out in an unforgiving and hard-core FPS where team work and communication is vital. Gameplay Rising Storm 2 is a follow on PC only FPS title from the makers of Red Orchestra, a hard-core and challenging range of FPS titles which really does rely on good team work and not Call of Duty-esque run and gunning. With the choice of two battling sides, both equipped with a variety of different solider classes, you are tasked with finding a class suited to your play style and then either attacking or defending points from the onslaught ...

Crossout Review – Craft, Ride & Destroy!

5Jun

By JasonNo Comments

PC Reviews

Crossout Review – Craft, Ride & Destroy!

Crossout, by Targem games in collaboration with Gaijinent Entertainment (the people behind War Thunder), is a thrilling free to play battle set in a post-apocalyptic world whereby you get to craft and drive your own vehicles into the arena. The year is 2021 and a mysterious viral epidemic known as the "Crossout" has swept the planet killing or changing people into suicidal maniacs. Those that are left on the planet conceal their mutated features and battle with one another for their survival. Gameplay My first impressions of Crossout was that of Mad Max meets Destruction Derby however there is a lot more going on than just driving around and bumping into other vehicles, oh no, you have guns, rockets, chainsaws, spikes and blades as well as a whole host of other vehicle stopping weapons...

1Jun

By JasonNo Comments

Features

Exclusive Interview with Battle Chaser’s Joe Madureira

Following on from my Battle Chasers article that I wrote the other week (which can be found here), fellow Thumb Culturist Jason was lucky enough to meet the creator of the comic book come computer game Joe Madureira while he was at the THQ Nordic London ShowCase. Enjoy his interview! Jason: Hi Joe, I’m Jason and I’m from Thumb Culture and the guys have come up with a list of questions for you. One of our guys Glyn, really wanted to come down but couldn’t unfortunately. Joe: Did you guys just do a write up, like a preview? I feel like I may have read something. Jason: Yeah, Glyn did a write up and absolutely loved the game. Joe: Yeah it was a glowing and positive preview, it was really cool. Jason: He said the soundtrack was really amazing. I was listening out for it and it...