Stuart, Author at Thumb Culture

Official Sony PlayStation Gaming Glasses Review

9Nov

By StuartNo Comments

Official Sony PlayStation Gaming Glasses Review

Recently through the post at Thumb Culture we received a pair of the Official Sony PlayStation Gaming Glasses, designed by our good friends over at Numskull and delivered from our pals over at Yellow Bulldog. They looked good and with the promise of reducing eye strain on my gaming marathons, what isn't to like about these. Let's take a closer look. On the packaging of the Gaming Glasses we are given an insight into what these revolutionary goggles are designed to do for you. Lot's of taglines that could all be total horse doo-dee but lets see, Improve Vision, Play Harder, Play Longer. These are a few of the killer lines that get gamers' excited I guess. But what do they mean! Play Longer - Lightweight and stylish frame for prolonged comfort during marathon gaming sessions. I...

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Review – Controversially Beautiful

7Nov

By StuartNo Comments

PC Reviews

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Review – Controversially Beautiful

So recently we received a copy of Bethesda Softworks and MachineGames' Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus through the post, and with all the recent controversy surrounding the game I was eager to get the game loaded up and start playing through. So in went the disc replacing my copy of Dying Light and as per usual, a day one patch was required. Coffee Time. Eventually after it had finished downloading and the proverbial mice had run in their wheel for long enough, I started the game up. What came next was a mixture of joyous applause as well as hiding behind a cushion cringiness. Want to know why? Of course you do! Gameplay Loading up Wolfenstein II and deciding which difficulty setting to play the game on was the first hurdle that I came against. Do I opt for the harder than granite...

Citadel: Forged With Fire Review – Old Man Mordaith

30Oct

By StuartNo Comments

PC Reviews

Citadel: Forged With Fire Review – Old Man Mordaith

So gather ‘round y'all, and listen to the ol' fella for a moment. Once again we’re taking a look into the guts of an Early Access promise. Yeah, that’s right... A promise. Sure it is technically a game, but when a product’s in Early Access it may as well be strung together with hopes, dreams, and unicorn blood. That isn't to say they're necessarily bad products, but consumers need to take a good long think about what they’re getting into. There are great companies that have used Early Access to engage with their fan bases. We'd be remiss not to mention them, companies like InXile and Larian that have shown us gamers how positive an experience the Early Access path can be. But, we can't ignore the risk. For every InXile or Larian, we have half a dozen or so companies that produce unfinis...

24Oct

By StuartNo Comments

PC Reviews

Rugby 18 Review – A Perfect Union

Rugby 18 is developed by French studio Eko Software and published by Bigben Interactive. Eko Software might be known for their diversity in game genres, creating both the How To Survive games as well as a game about Handball. The game boasts 65 officially licensed teams with more than 2,000 licensed players and bringing teams from some of the biggest divisions including the Pro 14, TOP14 and the Aviva Premiership. So with a break in the Rugby games for a few years, is Rugby 18 going to revolutionise the genre and bring life back to a neglected sport? Let's find out. Gameplay When you first load up Rugby 18 you are taken through a tutorial match, and explained each of the controls. Well that is if you happen to be in the situation where you need instruction. For example, if the ball go...

The Indie Dev Showcase Templarius Studios – Don’t Die

23Oct

By StuartNo Comments

Features

The Indie Dev Showcase Templarius Studios – Don’t Die

Welcome to the first in the series of the Indie Dev Showcase, where we aim to help Independent Developers get their games out there for people to see. What we will be doing is asking a series of questions and bringing you their answers, as well as a short video to give you a glimpse of what their game is all about. So without further ado, let's move onto our first game! Knowing Me, Knowing You Name - Michael Cox Age - 21 Lives - USA Studio Name - Templarius Studios Website - https://harbingersoc.org/templariusgames Time Being A Dev - Coming up on 5 years. Digital development for 2 years. Previous Work - Completed several prototypes, but putting out my first commercial release Game Name - Don't Die Explain what your game is in 15 words - A challenge of extraordi...

19Oct

By StuartNo Comments

PC Reviews

Deceit Review – Big Trouble

Deceit is what you’re doing when you cheat somebody by concealing or misrepresenting the truth. This game involves a little bit of that, but mostly shooting your teammates who haven’t done anything wrong. The original concept of Deceit is simple. A team of people exist in a world somewhere and roughly a quarter of them aren’t who they say they are. They’re the bad guys in disguise. So, while they are taking a lot of precaution to make sure you don’t find out who they are while they position themselves to murder the rest of you, your job is to figure out who is who, and murder the ones that are bad. If this story sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Garry’s Mod has a game inside of it called “Trouble in Terrorist Town” and… it’s pretty much the exact same game. “Trouble in Terrorist Tow...

18Oct

By StuartNo Comments

PC Reviews

FIFA 18 – A 2 Good 2 Bad Review

It's that time of year again when EA release their iteration of FIFA to go up against Konami's PES, this year FIFA getting the 18 treatment. So how does FIFA 18 hold up against the rest and what do we think of the game as a whole. Rather than give you a run down of what the game is about, i'm going to come at this from a different angle. For those of you that watch Match Of The Day 2 you will know all about this. The feature on the show where the pundits look back at the weekends action and give their best and bad bits. So without further ado, lets take a look at the 2 Bad side first (I always have bad news first) 2 Bad New Standing Tackle So a new standing tackle system has been introduced where you have to charge up your tackle, the further your tackle bar goes up the harder the tackl...

18Oct

By StuartNo Comments

PlayStation Reviews

WWE 2K18 Review – Laying The Smackdown

WWE 2K18 is the latest iteration of the WWE franchise from 2K Sports. Being developed in collaboration between Yuke's and Visual Concepts we are treated with some great visuals, but some frustrations at the same time. Let's take a look at how the game stands up in a market where it has no competition. Gameplay Controlling your wrestler in WWE 2K18 is straight forward, left stick to move, left stick in combination with a specific button to carry out grabs and strikes. It starts getting a bit confusing when you are trying to perform a specific move, say for example picking an opponent off the mat when you have downed them. This became my first frustration, each button has a number of actions assigned to them depending on the type of button press you carry out. Example in point, the Circle ...

12Oct

By StuartNo Comments

Hardware & Tech

Fanatec CSL Elite Wheel Review

Having spent a number of hours, a large number of hours racing using the Fanatec CSL Elite wheel it was about time I gave my review of the hardware. Firstly I need to say a big thank you to the people over at Fanatec for being so generous with their hardware and providing us a CSL Elite setup and for making this article series possible. Videos will be going up on the YouTube channel which will include unboxing and setup as well as just some random fun videos that hopefully you will enjoy. Thanks and enjoy the article. Now this review is going to vary from the usual reviews you will see on the site and I will attempt to split it into a few different categories. So bear with me as this all comes together. First Impressions When you start to open the box on your shiny new CSL Elite wheel...

EGX 2017 – Interview with COO of Slightly Mad Studios Rod Chong

5Oct

By StuartNo Comments

Features

EGX 2017 – Interview with COO of Slightly Mad Studios Rod Chong

So whilst at EGX I got the opportunity to ask Rod Chong the Chief Operating Officer a few questions about Project Cars 2. So here for your reading pleasure is the transcript of that interview. Stu: This game feels a bit more raw, its different, its definitely more realistic. I play with a Fanatec wheel and its ridiculous. Rod: The philosophy behind the tyres in particular has changed, it was a couple of months after project cars 1 was out and we sat down with a couple of Bentley racing drivers (Guy Smith), put them in their cars and they were going around Bathurst and going up the hill and the back end stepped out, he corrected as you would a real car and spun. He looked at us, "that's not real, i would have been able to catch it" and then we stuck David Brabban in the simulator,...