Previews & Early Access

Swords ‘N Magic and Stuff – Skyrim Meets Minecraft

8Sep

By MikeNo Comments

Swords ‘N Magic and Stuff – Skyrim Meets Minecraft

Developed and published by Kindred Games comes Swords 'N Magic and Stuff. Made over two years by just three people; following Kindred's vision and made possible with a very successful Kickstarter campaign. Kindred set out to make the kind of video game that could be enjoyed with people of all ages. Inspired by open-world fantasy RPGs like the Elder Scrolls series and sandbox games like Minecraft. Swords 'N Magic and Stuff blends these elements and, like the title suggests, offers many options with how to play from slaying goblins to treasure-seeking. Swords 'N Magic and Stuff is still in alpha early access and so not everything was available. "Discover ancient ruins, hunt for treasure, defeat bosses and decorate your house in this immersive, handcrafted, casual online RPG." The game ...

Pacer – A Refreshing Hit Of Nostalgia That Won’t Leave You Feeling Wiped Out…

17Aug

By Jay ArmstrongNo Comments

PC Reviews, Previews & Early Access

Pacer – A Refreshing Hit Of Nostalgia That Won’t Leave You Feeling Wiped Out…

As if 2020 wasn't already chock-full of nostalgia, with the likes of Half-Life: Alyx and Final Fantasy VII launching, we now have a new Wipeout. Well that's not strictly true, Pacer is actually a spiritual successor to Wipeout and also the re-imaging of Formula Fusion. Formula Fusion was the debut game from R8 Games launching back in 2015 as an early access game on Steam. It would seem that things didn't quite go to plan for R8 Games with them needing to explore Kickstarter as a funding option back in 2019. With a successful Kickstarter campaign behind them, and a rebranding of the game to Pacer it would seem the team at R8 Games has cracked the formula and is ready to unleash the game on the world. Coming from a team who worked at Psygnosis Leeds and actively contributed to Wipeout...

30Jun

By DanNo Comments

PC Reviews, Previews & Early Access

Population Zero Preview – Zero Or Hero

A couple of months back, Enplex Games blessed us with some news of a new release. That new release is what we are looking at today, the MMO Survival, Population Zero. Originally released on Steam Early Access reviews started to come thick and fast. This, is to no surprise and survival games are extremely sort after, and decent ones at that. Read on to find out how I get on! Gameplay We all pretty much know by now what an MMO Survival game is going to be like. This includes gameplay and mechanics, they are all near enough the same in some shape or form. Obviously storylines can differ vastly. Keeping it simple, you are stranded on Keplar and alien planet. Your ship was destroyed and you have 7 days (168 hours) until human extinction. Meaning you have to repair the reactor and restart ...

Inkulinati Early Access Preview – Time To Draw Your Weapons

9Jun

By KevinNo Comments

PC Reviews, Previews & Early Access

Inkulinati Early Access Preview – Time To Draw Your Weapons

Yaza Games brings us an interesting take on Medieval warfare with Inkulinati. Pen and paper at the ready, or possibly quill and parchment would be better. Draw your armies and get ready for war, this is no Battleships, this is real blood and guts stuff. Time to see if Inkulinati is worth the paper it's written on. Quill sharpened and inkwell filled, time to draw my weapon. Gameplay Inkulinati is like no other game that I have played, and in today's market of repetitious releases it certainly got my intrigue awakened. Multiplayer wasn't available so I had to play the single-player side of the game. I figured it would work the same but I would die less. I was assigned the name Godfrey and my opponent the rather holy Hildegard. First up was the tutorial. This can make or break a game f...

Cranked Up Early Access Review – Rolling Around

3Jun

By KevinNo Comments

PC Reviews, Previews & Early Access

Cranked Up Early Access Review – Rolling Around

BBlack Studios bring us Cranked Up, the mesmerising adventure of a doughnut trying to get dunked into coffee. If that isn't enough to sell a game, then I dunno what is. Actually in hindsight, I don't like coffee, but I'm all over the sugary goodness that is doughnuts. So I decided to pop to the local doughnut shop and stock up for the adventure of a lifetime, and probably gain a pound or two as well. Gameplay I honestly do'nut know where to start with this. Cranked Up has left me in a little bit of a state if I'm honest. I kind of feel like I took a lot of acid before I had sweet cravings and the result may just have been the inspiration for this game. After several hours of phone-based therapy at huge cost I feel like I am now human enough to continue. Fortunately there is a tuto...

26May

By CraigNo Comments

PC Reviews, Previews & Early Access

Paradise Killer – Trouble In Paradise

It's not often I get to take a look at pre-alpha builds of games, so it's not really one of my strong suits to critique a game that's so early in its development. But when I was given the opportunity to look at Paradise Killer, I was instantly intrigued by its weird aesthetic and its detective-driven mystery-solving gameplay. I felt like it would be an interesting puzzle to solve. With that in mind, I set out on the timed demo build to see how far I could get. The following write-up is based entirely on an early pre-release build of the game that could be subject to major changes. Gameplay Paradise Killer is a whodunit murder mystery game, set on a strange island inhabited by gods. There have been many iterations of the island. It is destroyed and remade. Each iteration of the island is ...

Arcade Tycoon Preview – Come Push The Buttons

28Feb

By CraigNo Comments

PC Reviews, Previews & Early Access

Arcade Tycoon Preview – Come Push The Buttons

Developed by Squidpunch Studios, Arcade Tycoon is an Early Access management sim in which you take control of and maintain an arcade. I'm not usually one to look at early access games for review, however, lately I've been curious about giving this type of a game a try, so what better opportunity than to take one for a review spin. Arcade Tycoon released on Steam's Early Access program back in September and it was pretty bare-bones at the time, So I figured I would give the devs the chance to put some more content into it before I tackled the write-up. So let's get in and see where it's at right now. Gameplay Arcade Tycoon has a very simple gameplay model. It is a management simulator set in an arcade. You start the campaign by selecting a building, then start purchasing arcade machines i...

Warcraft 3: Reforged Review – Humans and Orcs And Undead

14Feb

By CraigNo Comments

PC Reviews, Previews & Early Access

Warcraft 3: Reforged Review – Humans and Orcs And Undead

Way way back in the distant year of 2002, Blizzard Entertainment launched the third instalment to the genre-defining Warcraft franchise. Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos released to both critical and commercial success, selling over one million copies by summer of 2006. The expansion, The Frozen Throne came out just a year after the original game, again, to amazing success. Fast forward to 2020, and Blizzard Entertainment remastered and re-released Warcraft 3 as Warcraft 3: Reforged. Let's jump in and see how Blizzard has done, remastering one of their greatest games. Gameplay Warcraft 3: Reforged is a high fantasy-set real-time strategy game. Taking place in the fictional world of Azeroth, Warcraft 3: Reforged follows the story of several different heroes from different factions. Warcraft 3: ...

Nanotale: Typing Chronicles Preview – Casting The Spell

13Nov

By KevynNo Comments

PC Reviews, Previews & Early Access

Nanotale: Typing Chronicles Preview – Casting The Spell

Introduction Early access title Nanotale: Typing Chronicles developed by Fishing Cactus and published by Fishing Cactus, Plug In Digital and 2P Games. Currently available on steam, Nanotale is the new adventure from the Typing Chronicles franchise and spiritual successor to Epistory. In a nutshell, it’s a dungeon crawl style RPG game that you can play purely with the keyboard. Replace frantically clicking your mouse button with desperately trying to accurately and quickly type words from fox, to flammable to cynicism. Think Mavis Beacon teaches typing, whilst casting spells to ward off hoards of enemies, it’s frustratingly fun! Nanotale: Typing Chronicles is an Early Access title, so expect the usual teething issues and bugs. However, the developers are constantly releasing fixe...

28Oct

By TC Staff WriterNo Comments

PC Reviews, Previews & Early Access

Planet Zoo Beta Preview – It’s The Shih Tzu

Planet Zoo is an upcoming management and construction simulation game developed & published by Frontier Developments. The game is a spiritual successor to the studio’s Zoo Tycoon release and gameplay similar to that of Planet Coaster. “Manage an amazing living world that responds to every decision you make. Focus on the big picture or go hands-on and control the smallest details. Thrill visitors with iconic exhibits, develop your zoo with new research and release new generations of your animals back into the wild”. Planet Zoo is scheduled to be released on 5th November on PC via Steam and you can pre-order today for £34.99 or £42.99 for the deluxe edition. Gameplay Planet Zoo is quite simply the ultimate zoo simulation game. It features authentic living animals who think, f...