PC Reviews

The Council, Episode 1 Review –  How To Make Friends and Influence People
PC Reviews

The Council, Episode 1 Review – How To Make Friends and Influence People

The Council is a wonderful episodic game like no other I’ve played, at least not for a long time. It’s brought to us by Big Bad Wolf Studios who developed the game, Focus Home Interactive who published it and with some help from Cyanide Studio also. The Council is available on PS4, Xone and PC so, you shouldn’t have too much of an excuse not to buy it but, of course, let me tell you why you should. Gameplay The Council is an adventure game that tells the story of Louis de Richet’s search for his missing mother, the leader of a secret society called the Golden Order. It’s 1793 so everyone talks like they actually have an education and wear very tight garments (No pants hanging around the buttocks here, oh no ) Louis’s search brings him to the private and grand island of Lord Mortimer wher...
Cold Iron Review – Tumbleweed or Triumph?
PC Reviews

Cold Iron Review – Tumbleweed or Triumph?

I always wondered what Jamiroquai were going on about when they sang about the return of the Space Cowboy (I’m showing my age) and now I may finally have my answer!  New to PSVR comes Developer’s Catch & Release’s genre bending ‘Cold Iron’ billed as the world’s first puzzle shooter.  The game invites you to don your VR headset and channel your inner cowboy to shoot it out against a host of weird and wonderful opponents from the Wild West and beyond. Gameplay The game starts off as a classic western, with even the central game hub being set in an old time saloon. The titular Cold Iron turns out to be your father’s trusty magnum which ends up in your hands when he is gunned down by a posse of outlaws. You start the game looking to avenge your father’s death by duelling his three ki...
TT Isle of Man – Riding on the OMG I FELL OFF!
PC Reviews

TT Isle of Man – Riding on the OMG I FELL OFF!

The Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy) is possibly one of the most intense racing events in the world, claiming many lives throughout its history, but with the dangers come one of the most beautiful and challenging races. With all this incredible history and importance, Bigben Interactive have taken on the mantle to recreate the beautiful event with TT Isle of Man - Ride On The Edge Gameplay In essence TT Isle of Man is a street racing game, around the picturesque Isle of Man, the race itself covering 61km of public roads that each year gets closed off to allow Superbikes and Supersport bikes to fly through. With its 264 turns it is more dangerous than all of the GP tracks put together. Each year claiming brave riders lives who push their bike to the extreme limits and beyond. Bigben...
De Blob 2 Review – Unleash The Rainbow
PC Reviews

De Blob 2 Review – Unleash The Rainbow

Painting its way onto PS4 and Xbox One, de Blob 2 by THQ Nordic is the second instalment in the de Blob platformer series and brings with it a new action packed colour adventure. The evil Comrade Black has returned once more to wage his war on all things colour!  Currently unchallenged, he is hell bent on letting his brainwashed new cult take over Prisma City and remove all colour from the world...that is until de Blob arrives on the scene bringing with him the colour revolution to try and thwart Comrade Black's despicable plans. Gameplay From first impressions on loadup, de Blob 2 opens as a bright and colourful game and its cartoon graphics will certainly appeal to the younger audience as well as to your inner child.  My children were quick to ask me if I was watching a Pixar mo...
Gravel Review – Spiritual Success
PC Reviews

Gravel Review – Spiritual Success

Gravel from Milestone has dropped down some steep hills and brings a taste of what rally games could be. It could potentially be classed as a spiritual successor to Sega Rally. I know, that is some big claims, but with its straight forward racing and responsive controls, you could be fooled into it. Gameplay Gravel is classed as the ultimate off-road experience, now that is some hefty claims, but it does live up to it in some respects. During the main portion of Gravel you are taking part in the wildest show on the Gravel Channel web TV, travelling around the world, discovering the wide variety of environments and defying the Masters! Enjoy four different disciplines throughout your Career as a star of the off-road racing – Cross Country, Wild Rush, Stadium and Speed cross –and live t...
Where The Water Tastes Like Wine Review – A Mesmerising Folklore Adventure
PC Reviews

Where The Water Tastes Like Wine Review – A Mesmerising Folklore Adventure

This gritty and dark American Folklore tale is by Dim Bulb Games and Serenity Forge. It was also founded by Johnnemann Nordhagen, co-founder of Fullbright and programmer on Gone Home and BioShock 2. Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is a surreal, poetic journey through American legend and fantasy, featuring delicious art and toe tapping original folk music. It spans a century of US history in the depression era, introducing players to a vast cast of drifters, fortune tellers, and magical creatures – and there’s Sting, yes the musician Sting. https://youtu.be/fnznWYE_wxc Gameplay Having lived for a while in the south, I loved hearing all the old stories, getting lost in the music and visiting vast places of cultural interest on my journeys around Mississippi, Tennessee and New Orleans, ...
PC Reviews

The Sims 4 Review – Console Controls Conundrum

The Sims has always been a staple of my now limited gaming time. Whenever I get the chance I do tend to load up The Sims 3 and spend an hour or so continuing the mundane life I've created for myself. Now it seems I can do such mundane tasks on a console, with The Sims 4 on Playstation 4. I've never been a fan of The Sims on console, as to be fair it's much more suited to the keyboard and mouse than controller. But, I was willing to give this a shot and to see where it would take me. After the disappointment that was the Xbox 360 version of The Sims 3, I was extremely hesitant to play this. So much so that upon receiving my review copy, I put it off for as long as I could. I lasted about a week before surprising myself and popping the disc into my console. Usually at this point in the...
RiftStar Raiders Review – Loot Your Way To Greatness
PC Reviews

RiftStar Raiders Review – Loot Your Way To Greatness

Space shoot-em ups were pretty much the first style of computer game I ever played as a kid and wow they have certainly come a long way from the days of Asteroids on the Atari ST! RiftStar Raiders by independent developer Climax Studios based in sunny Portsmouth alongside Vision Games Publishing is a top down space shooter that brings the genre to the modern era with 2.5D graphics. Gameplay The story behind RiftStar Raiders is that an alien AI known as Warswarm have waged war on humanity and are attacking the Federation.  It is up to you and your team of Raiders to basically shoot all the Warswarm baddies while scavenging and collecting loot to better your weapons, shields and engines. Based on the orbital sin city of Arcadia in the centre of the Far Reachspace, it is down to you ...
Rad Rogers Review – Shoot Em Up Brilliance
PC Reviews

Rad Rogers Review – Shoot Em Up Brilliance

Rad Rogers published by THQ Nordic, is a new take on an old classic. The side scrolling platformer! You take the controls of Rad Rogers, a rambunctious but spirited young boy who maybe plays too many video games. After dozing off at the tail end of a long night of gaming, Rad awakens to find his dusty old console has turned itself back on. Suddenly a vortex emerges and he's sucked into his TV, where he finds himself the star in his very own video game adventure. Dusty is Rad's good-hearted but foul-mouthed, now-sentient game console. His clock speed isn't what it used to be, but what he lacks for in megahertz he makes up for with experience and attitude! Rad & Dusty's adventure begins in the First World, taking them through seven dangerous stages of action-packed, humor-filled, h...
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Review – Supernatural Sherlock
PC Reviews

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Review – Supernatural Sherlock

A handful of developers that used to be part of Developer, People Can Fly teamed up to create their own development studio, The Astronauts. These people created a title back in 2013 called, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, which eventually saw a Redux version arrive in 2015, with the game being remade in the Unreal Engine 4 rather than the previous, Unreal Engine 3. The game also landed on PS4 around this time, and as such it was exclusive to PC and PS4. However, fast forward to 2018 and the Xbox One version has arrived. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a first-person mystery title in which players control a Detective with a supernatural ability -more on that soon- who is on a case to find a missing boy, Ethan Carter. As he wanders around a large map he stumbles across bodies of the kidna...