Wednesday, October 15

Author: TC Staff Writer

The Turing Test Review – Descartes for Dummies
14Feb By TC Staff WriterNo Comments
Switch Reviews

The Turing Test Review – Descartes for Dummies

My last review for Thumb Culture concerned an AI achieving sentience and hectoring humans who sought to take it down a peg or two. Bulkhead Interactive's The Turing Test once again asks us to question what it means to be alive, and once again borrows heavily from 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Portal games in its depiction of an AI which is suffering from growing pains. The game was named after The Turing Test, which was developed by mistreated mathematician Alan Turing as a theoretical means of testing if an AI is sentient through a task in which it is to imitate human responses to questions.   In the distant future, a small team of scientists have travelled to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, on a mining expedition. You play as the conveniently-named Ava Turing. Ava has been w...
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Top 10 Narrative Games of the Generation
13Feb By TC Staff WriterNo Comments
Features

Top 10 Narrative Games of the Generation

As the curtains are closing on the 8th generation of consoles and the bigger, more powerful consoles are eagerly awaiting to take centre stage, I believe it’s time to reflect on the generation. As a film fanatic, I adore cinematic games. In my opinion, the medium can explore narratives in a fascinating way. Not only can games tell stories through characters, but they can also intertwine gameplay and the environment in order to build a world around the core narrative. So, not including re-releases (sorry Last of us) and focusing solely on games that were released on the PS4, Xbox One and Wii U (Yes, it’s an 8th Generation console), let’s look at the Top 10 Narrative Games of the Generation. God of War God of War is a cinematic masterpiece. The execution of the single-cam...
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Super Tennis Review – Ace or Fault?
12Feb By TC Staff WriterNo Comments
Uncategorised

Super Tennis Review – Ace or Fault?

Back in the halcyon days of the early nineties, half of the games that came out on the SNES were prefixed with the word 'Super'. Super Star Wars, Super Bomberman, Super Soaker, Super Souper (a fascinating game regarding the Irish Famine, look it up). The list was endless. It was a simple time for simple people and I should know. In fact, I'm old enough to remember that Super Tennis was one such game. It was glorious and I so wish that I could play it again- what's that you say? Super Tennis is available on the Switch and it needs to be reviewed?! Aw hell yeah! ... It was only after signing the review contract that I discovered that this was NOT the same Super Tennis. You cannot be serious! Oh well, tennis games have come on a lot since those days. I'm sure it'll be just fine...right? Ga...
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The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Review – Not Half Bad, All Bad!
12Feb By TC Staff WriterNo Comments
Switch Reviews

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Review – Not Half Bad, All Bad!

Towards the end of 2019, Netflix released the lovingly crafted prequel to the classic fantasy adventure film The Dark Crystal. Following the critical and fan admiration to the series, BonusXP announced The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, a new tactical game based on the Netflix prequel. Instantly this grabbed my attention. I love Jim Henson’s work and had recently finished the fantastic Fire Emblem: Three Houses. To me, this sounded like the perfect game. The time came. I loaded up the game and was greeted with that familiar title, which hit me deep in my nostalgia balls. The initial cutscene was a throwback to 80s gaming, with cool hand-drawn graphics and text boxes to introduce the narrative. The game started, and that’s when it went downhill. Gameplay Creating a game bas...
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4Feb By TC Staff WriterNo Comments
Switch Reviews

Speedrunners Review – No Guns Needed

Speedrunners is a multiplayer side-scrolling racing game developed by DoubleDutch Games and published by tinyBuild. Speedrunners was originally a free web browser game. It was then expanded into a fully released game via Steam on 19th April 2016. It has been in Steam Early Access since 2013. Speedrunners were later released on Xbox One in June 2017, PS4 in June 2017 and just recently on Nintendo Switch on January 23rd, 2020. Gameplay I must start off by saying I already love Speedrunners. Currently, I have it on PC and it is a must game to play with friends. I have countlessly played this fun little side scroller with 3 friends for hours on end laughing our heads off whilst being very competitive at the same time. So when I had the opportunity to give this title a go on my 2nd favour...
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Zombie Army 4: Dead War Review – Dead Shot
3Feb By TC Staff WriterNo Comments
PlayStation Reviews

Zombie Army 4: Dead War Review – Dead Shot

Lumbering on to the PS4 this week is Rebellion's Zombie Army 4: Dead War. Is this the heart pumping, sphincter tightening zombie action game you've been waiting for, or a decomposing, rotten entry in an over-saturated genre? Gameplay The cor(ps)e mechanics of Zombie Army 4 are the same as previous entries. With tight shooting and some hellish slow-motion sniper kills, the game feels responsive and satisfying when annihilating the countless amount of zombies. Each of the game's 9 missions is themed and presented like a classic Hammer Horror, showing that the developers understanding of the genre. Missions are quite simplistic and as a result of this, you may feel a bit brain dead running from one point to another and then shooting endless zombies. There is some variety, such as blo...
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Heroland Nintendo Review – The Backseat Warrior
31Jan By TC Staff WriterNo Comments
Switch Reviews

Heroland Nintendo Review – The Backseat Warrior

Have you dreamed of being the hero of your own epic adventure? Heroland is the place for you. Face epic monsters, explore the darkest of dungeons and carve your legend. Well, that's on the pamphlet for this park at least. Pick up this game, and you can live out your dreams of being a tour guide! Ok, so it's not the conventional dream. But when members of the development team worked on Mother 3, what else would you expect? Developed by FuRyu, and published by XSeed Games, Heroland opens for business on the 31st January, for Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PC. Gameplay What sets Heroland apart is how its battles are fought. Simply put, you don't fight, that's all down to the guests. As a tour guide, it's your role to give advice during a battle. If you think one guest should use a certain...
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The Surge 2 The Kraken DLC Review – Get Descartes
30Jan By TC Staff Writer1 Comment
PlayStation Reviews

The Surge 2 The Kraken DLC Review – Get Descartes

The Surge 2 released on PS4 on 24 September 2019. You can check out my review here. The Kraken is purchasable as part of the Surge 2 season pass, which also comes with additional weapons and gear, for £19.99. You can also grab the mission on its own for £9.49. The Kraken takes place aboard, well, The Kraken; a sea-faring vessel housing a retro-futurist town which has been designed to allow residents to escape the tumult of the mainland. You are lured to the ship by Sidney Turner, who is attempting to withstand an attack from a troupe of robotic pirates and a troublesome rogue AI. Expect rather shallow musings on what it means to be alive (with the "I think therefore I am" quote from Descartes shovelled in for good measure) and a couple of choices over the course of the narrative. My ...
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Stories Untold Review – Stranger Things Could Happen
27Jan By TC Staff WriterNo Comments
Uncategorised

Stories Untold Review – Stranger Things Could Happen

Stories Untold is a creepy collection of interconnected short stories that will have you gripped from beginning to end. The spine chilling text adventure, which is smothered in 80s nostalgia, will leave you in awe, pondering what you just experienced. Gameplay The game has four distinct episodes that all have unique gameplay mechanic. The first, House Abandon, is text adventure. You are seated at a desk in front of a Spectrum-esque computer and a CRT monitor. The game starts innocently but soon, it takes a dark turn. It was during this episode that I realised the pure brilliance and innovation of the developers No Code. The atmosphere that they create during the episode is astounding and that is due to the fantastic writing and sound design.  After finishing the first episode, I c...
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Northgard Review – A Blessing From The Gods
24Jan By TC Staff Writer3 Comments
PC Reviews

Northgard Review – A Blessing From The Gods

Today I'm looking at the RTS game Northgard on the PS4. Northgard has been developed by Shiro Games and published by Shiro Games and Merge Games. It's available now on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh operating systems, Linux.   Gameplay As I have mentioned already, Northgard is an RTS game. I admit I'm not a massive RTS fan with an exception for a few WWII RTS games. Not because I don't like them, but because I suck at them. Northgard has a tutorial which I'm grateful for, I'm curious about the translation of this game to a joypad. First off as I started this game I realised I couldn't cop out with switching this game over to easy mode. There is no easy skill level to help me relax into Northgard. Tutorial wise, Northgard does a fine job gui...
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