TC Staff Writer, Author at Thumb Culture

Pixel Worlds Review – Minecraft This Is Not

12Jul

By TC Staff WriterNo Comments

Pixel Worlds Review – Minecraft This Is Not

In Pixel Worlds players can create their own worlds with building blocks and different items that range from furniture to clothing items. Players also build platform levels for others to play, marketplaces for trading the ingame items and info worlds to help new players, among other things. Privately held mobile games developer, Kukouri Mobile Entertainment developed this game for high end mobile devices like Apple iPhone, iPad and Android platforms, but for this review I played through Steam. Gameplay I had very little expectations going into Pixel Worlds. I knew basically nothing about it other than it was something like Minecraft, which I have played and enjoy for some relaxing building, but boy was this nothing like Minecraft! The first faux pas for me was that you had to choose ...

Drifting Lands Review – A Nostalgic Return To The Shmup Era

22Jun

By TC Staff WriterNo Comments

PC Reviews

Drifting Lands Review – A Nostalgic Return To The Shmup Era

There ain’t nothing wrong with a little shmup and grind…or is there? Alkemi is a small french independent studio focused on creating original and polished games with a tendency to mix genres in unexpected ways. The main goal of the team : creating medium sized games with high production value, appealing to hardcore players but not exclusively. Story Drifting Lands takes place in the skies of a shattered planet. Centuries ago a huge cataclysm fragmented and froze this world in a state of partial disintegration. Powerful and mysterious gravitational anomalies keep the huge chunks of rock from drifting away in space or collapsing into a single body. The last floating continents fit for human civilization are controlled by big private corporations acting as totalitarian states. These so c...

Microsoft Showcase at E3 2017 – Trailers And All You Need To Know

12Jun

By TC Staff WriterNo Comments

News & Updates

Microsoft Showcase at E3 2017 – Trailers And All You Need To Know

Microsoft have been teasing us with so many promises since their last E3 in 2016. From how powerful and truly amazing the “project Scorpio” will be, even tagging it with "Feel True Power" to the long awaited exclusive Xbox one games. According to Phil Spencer, who said that their showcase would run for more than 90 minutes this would lead us to think they have a jam packed event for us to behold. This is all well and good, but will this powerful beast actually have any worthwhile games to run on it? And what really is Project Scorpio? I stayed up through these crazy American times to bring you all the answers! Xbox one X What we have all been waiting for and what Microsofts showcase is built around. Here it is! The official name is Xbox one X. I’m personally not so won over on the na...

7Jun

By TC Staff WriterNo Comments

News & Updates

E3 2017 – Predictions and Hopes

So, here we are at that time of year again. While some people can’t wait for World cup football or the French open, I personally can’t wait for E3 2017 and this year I’m particularly excited. Taking place from June 13-15 in Los Angeles, it’s where all the big guns announce their exciting new games which will be launching in the busy holiday season and beyond. June is set to be an early Christmas for fans. As with every E3 we can expect some surprises, but what games do I and the rest of team Thumb Culture most looking forward to? Here’s everything we’d love to see. The Last of us – Part II THIS is the game that I am most excited about. Being a huge naughty dog fan and playing TLOU at least 5 times since its release on the PS3 and then the remastered version on the PS4, not counting the f...

Portal Knights Review – Did Anyone Say Minecraft

18May

By TC Staff WriterNo Comments

PlayStation Reviews

Portal Knights Review – Did Anyone Say Minecraft

Portal Knights is a cooperative 3D sandbox action-RPG, developed by Keen Games and published by 505 Games. It's a game about mining and crafting for a better arsenal ready to take on fiends on your quest, trying to restore peace to the universe. The plot of Portal Knights is quite simple but it adds a nice context to the world and whats going on. The game is available on PS4, Xbox One, PC and Steam. Story "In the forgotten days, the world was peaceful and whole. But the Fracture arrived, and tore the realm apart. Now the only connection between disparate lands are the ancient portals... and they are guarded by covetous fiends who thrive in the darkness. The world awaits heroes who will restore light to the portals, and reunite the peaceful realm." Jumping into the game, it gave me the o...

15May

By TC Staff Writer4 Comments

PlayStation Reviews

The Surge Review – Mechanised Mayhem

The Surge is a hard-core action RPG from Deck 13 and Focus Home interactive, the studios behind Lords of the Fallen. Although The Surge bears some similarities to Dark Souls and Bloodborne, it is more than capable of standing up on its own merits, and in some ways manages to improve the tried and tested formula. Gameplay The Surge starts off with an impressive little cut scene that sets up the story and introduces you to your character and CREO, the antagonist organisation. You are then presented with two sets of starting armour, after which the game begins. You are dropped immediately into a combat situation with a handy tutorial. Tutorials are handled very well by placing the text on the environment itself, making for a less intrusive and more immersive experience. On the surfa...

Seasons After Fall Review – Ori For The PS4?

15May

By TC Staff WriterNo Comments

PlayStation Reviews

Seasons After Fall Review – Ori For The PS4?

The very first thing you will notice about Seasons After Fall, this charming little puzzle platformer developed by French company Swing Swing Submarine is its gorgeous audio-visual presentation at the start of the game. It reminded me very much of a scene in Watership Down (If you haven’t seen this movie yet, make sure you do and have a box of tissues at the ready) I was very excited to receive this to review because I just love platformers, and platformers with puzzles involved are a win win! Plus, who doesn’t enjoy playing as a cute fox? Join me as we look at the aspects of this visually delightful game. Gameplay To put it as simply as possible, it’s a beautiful 2D Puzzle Platformer, but let’s get you up to speed a little better…The title starts you in the role of a ‘seed’ or a sp...

Waddle Home PSVR Review – A New Gem Or Left Feeling Frosty?

4May

By TC Staff WriterNo Comments

PlayStation Reviews

Waddle Home PSVR Review – A New Gem Or Left Feeling Frosty?

Waddle Home is a game about rescuing cutesy little penguins, what I'm saving them from is beyond me. Although I'm leading them to a rescue ship which looks exactly like a UFO. Wait it is a UFO, surely that's abduction right? Am I leading poor, defenceless penguins to be abducted by aliens for testing? For all I know I could be sending these helpless penguins to their doom. Luckily the game leads you to believe you're doing good, so I'll just agree for now. The game is available on PSN, Steam, Oculus and Samsung Gear. This was on PSVR Starting the level off, you see a caged penguin. Aiming the beam 'emitted from the PS4 controller' towards the cage then a simple tap of the X button releases the penguin. When I think about penguins, I think of them waddling along anywhere they please,...

Induction Review – Mind Altering Puzzle Perception

3May

By TC Staff WriterNo Comments

PC Reviews

Induction Review – Mind Altering Puzzle Perception

Induction is an indie game that centres on using time travel to create time loops, in order to solve mind bending puzzles. Whilst this concept will be familiar to fans of Valves series Portal, it is used in different ways to great effect in Induction, and has caused me to ponder the solution to puzzles for days on end. You take control of a cube and can move in 4 different directions to push objects around and reach the goal area of that level which appears surprisingly easy at first. However you are swiftly introduced to the key ability of this cube, which is the power to create one clone of your cube that will then play out every action you have performed up to the point you made a clone. The aim then is to manipulate a variety of objects across multiple timelines to proceed into the ...

Crawl Review – Retro Hit? Or Creepy Miss?

25Apr

By TC Staff WriterNo Comments

PlayStation Reviews

Crawl Review – Retro Hit? Or Creepy Miss?

Crawl is a roguelike, brawler indie video game by Australian developer Powerhoof and I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to review this quirky retro gem. Crawl is (appropriately) a dungeon crawler with an 8-bit heart of gold. The art style and music are pure retro: Modelled after arcade dungeon crawlers, they manage to somehow give the hero and monsters their own personalities and a trippy, kinetic feel. If Atari’s classic Gauntlet (the 1985 original) was three-quarters view instead of top-down, it might have looked like this... Gameplay The main player advances through randomly generated dungeons as a human hero while up to three other spirit players control the dungeon's enemies and traps to kill the main player. The spirit player who kills the human hero swaps roles to ...