Jason, Author at Thumb Culture

15Oct

By JasonNo Comments

Industry Giant 4.0 – PC Preview

Industry Giant 4.0 is a business simulator game by Munich-based devs Don Vs Dodo and published by Toplitz Productions. Launching on PC on 24th Oct, I had the chance to play the demo of what is a hopeful revival of the Industry Giant franchise. Ah, Breaker One-Nine, This Here's The Rubber Duck! The first Industry Giant game was released in 1997. Oasis had just released their 3rd album "Be Here Now", and Backstreet Boys were telling everyone that "Backstreet's Back" while the Spice Girls were getting us to "Spice Up Your Life". Meanwhile, gamers around the world were playing GoldenEye 007 on their Nintendo while others were venturing into a strange top-down game called Grand Theft Auto. Life was good. There were subsequent offerings of Industry Giant 2 in 2002 and then a spiritual 3rd e...

7Oct

By Jason1 Comment

Features

Dig VR Press Event Roundup

Recently I had the amazing opportunity with Thumb Culture to attend a Dig VR press event. Just Add Water and Wired Productions held the day-long event at the awesome DiggerLand theme park in Kent. Not only were we given the chance to experience the new Dig VR simulator game, but we also got to have a go on real-life diggers. Needless to say, mud was thrown around! We recently covered the news about the game releasing on 24th October. And so getting the chance to play Dig VR and chat to everyone involved made for a fantastic occasion. Enter Thumb Culture After having a meet and greet, and winding up Wired's Community Manager Steve with how close we lived to the venue, we were sorted into our groups and given a timetable of events. Our first item of the day was to go and play the Dig...

Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged – PS5 Review

1Oct

By Jason2 Comments

PlayStation Reviews

Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged – PS5 Review

Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged, is a remastered point-and-click game by York-based devs Revolution. Originally released back in 1996 on PC, this game is the first in an amazing adventure series of 5 that follow the exploits of an American tourist named George Stobbart and French photojournalist Nico Collard. Back Once Again With The Point & Click Master Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged was digitally released this September on PC, PS5 & Xbox X|S. The Reforged release on Nintendo Switch has been delayed until October, with date TBA. The forthcoming collector's edition (physical) was fully funded on Kickstarter within 30 minutes of going live and appears to be shipping around the end of March 2025. I was lucky enough to play the PS5 version and was in...

24Sep

By JasonNo Comments

PC Reviews

Supermoves – PC Review

Supermoves, developed and published by Finland-based Makea Games, brings the exhilarating world of parkour to life with a variety of game modes, multiplayer action, and a powerful level creator. Similar to the outstanding Mirror's Edge, minus the combat, this game promises fast-paced movement, creativity, and thrilling gameplay, making it a unique addition to the parkour genre. Everyone Loves A Bit Of Parkour! Supermoves is available on Steam for £12.79 at the time of writing and is out now. For an extra £4.29 you can buy the deluxe version that includes some holographic cosmetics as well as the Supermoves original soundtrack. Gameplay Supermoves offers a range of modes, from single-player career to 40-player online multiplayer races and challenges. The core of the game, being park...

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 – PC Review

4Sep

By JasonNo Comments

PC Reviews

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 – PC Review

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is a follow-up to the first Space Marine game that was released back in 2011. Developed by Saber Interactive and published by Focus Entertainment. With a 3rd person aspect and combining a hack-n-slash with a shoot-em-up, Space Marine 2 is by far the most brutal game I have played in a long time! Releasing on PC, PS5 and Xbox X|S it utilises the amazing Swarm Engine, first seen in the immensely popular World War Z. Space Marine 2 will be fully crossplay from day 1! Space Marine 2 - Making Destiny Look Like a Disney Film Warhammer 40,000, in some shape or form, will have waltzed into your gaming life at some point. For me it was during the early 90s, my school had a Warhammer after-school club. Carefully painted lead figurines were deployed onto a makesh...

23Aug

By JasonNo Comments

PC Reviews

House of Golf 2 – PC Review

House of Golf 2 by developers Starlight Games (originally named Atomicom), is the second entry in the crazy golf series. Released on the 16th of August on PlayStation, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, the Liverpool-based studio affectionately touted the game as "a labour of love", as well as a collaboration with Razer. Couch-based Crazy Golf with Family Fun! Does House of Golf 2 make it to the green following the 2019 success of its predecessor? Or does it find itself out of bounds? Let's take a quick putt over on PC! Gameplay House of Golf 2 allows you to play across unlockable crazy golf courses via either single-player or up to 4-player couch co-op. There is also a practice mode and an online championship for you to take part in. Starting at Beginner, you play through a series of cou...

1Aug

By JasonNo Comments

Hardware & Tech

be quiet! Dark Power 13 PSU Review

Power supplies for PCs continue to evolve, as does their efficiency. Did you know be quiet! who are renowned for their fans and water coolers, also make PSUs? They kindly sent across one of their units from the Dark Power range for me to try out. be quiet! Got the Power! The Dark Power fully modular ATX 3.0 range, backed by a 10-year warranty and housing many onboard protective circuits, starts at 750W and climbs to 850W and 1000W before going Pro at 1300W and 1600W respectively. Whatever your power demand, either now, or in the future, one of these 5 PSUs will suit you. Unboxing be quiet! sent me the 1000W version, however, it is worth noting that all of the range has 80+ Titanium certification when it comes up to 95.8% power efficiency. In a nutshell, this means that the PSU is more ...

24Jul

By JasonNo Comments

Previews & Early Access

Whirlight: No Time To Trip – PC Preview

Point-and-click games are always welcome here at TC Towers. It was certainly awesome to be able to preview Whirlight: No Time To Trip, by Italian devs Imaginarylabs. There is something nostalgic about being part of a story that you need to progress through by solving logical puzzles. It is certainly good to have a break once in a while from all the fast-paced action shoot-em-ups, and instead give that grey matter a bit of a workout! An Adventure Awaits! If Imaginarylabs sound familiar to you then it maybe because they are also the entity behind the highly acclaimed point-and-click game Willy Morgan. A game that I also got to preview and review back in 2020. My review can be found here! How will Whirlight stand alongside Willy Morgan? Let's take a look. Gameplay Hector is your...

16Jul

By JasonNo Comments

Switch Reviews

Let’s School – Nintendo Switch Review

Let's School by devs Pathea takes players into the unique world of school management, offering a blend of simulation and strategy. The game invites players to build and run their own school, focusing on both the academic and extracurricular development of students. As a fan of simulation games such as Two Point Campus, I was eager to see how Let's School would stack up on the Nintendo Switch. School's Out For Summer! Will this be a summertime handheld game to put on your wishlist? Gameplay The core of Let's School revolves around managing various aspects of a school, from constructing classrooms and hiring teachers to organizing events and ensuring the well-being of students. There is a career mode and a sandbox mode, each with a choice of 3 maps. You can customize the game spee...

7Jul

By JasonNo Comments

Hardware & Tech

Zotac GeForce RTX 4080 Super GPU Review

When it comes to PC gaming, every component and peripheral brings something different to the party. Each ultimately affects your gaming experience. From the speed of the SSD. Clock of the RAM. To the processing power of the CPU. The ability to quickly load into a game and play smoothly on the best graphics settings aids your gameplay and immersion. I decided to take the plunge with building my own PC 4 years ago. It was great fun and very rewarding. I started with a Ryzen 5 3600, 16Gb of RAM and a Palit 1660 Super GPU. It was all I needed to start playing alongside my friends as well as sometimes using it for work. I upgraded to an Nvidia 3070 GPU after a couple of years. Then upgraded the RAM to 32GB as I was running a lot of applications at the same time. For me, winding down for the ...