Barely two weeks ago, in case you missed it, my review of Marvel’s Midnight Suns was published. While I strongly encourage you to take a read if you have a moment, Firaxis and 2K have sent over some additional news about the second Marvel’s Midnight Suns DLC (downloadable content) to share.
It’s been three days since a goth witch with a cute haircut pulled you out of a tomb. You hear the Abbey waking up, complete with the usual sounds of bickering, wisecracks, and your Superhero Twitter feed buzzing. You’re eager to get the next few mission to, you know, save the world, but your laundry list of chores grows long. You’ve got to pet the dog, listen to Iron Man be a dick, train in the yard, and figure out where the fire gem was hidden to unlock cosmetics. Endless tasks; that’s the vibe of Marvel’s Midnight Suns.
A wise man once told me that while getting to your destination is nice, the journey there is the true reward in the end. Spoiler: It’s me, I am that wise man. At the core, Desperados III is a Rube Goldberg machine masquerading as a spaghetti western. It’s the video game equivalent of a packed freeway, with you being a jumped-up motorcyclist who has a perpetual hard-on for “shooting the gap.” You’ve got to be fast, accurate, and adaptable, or this one may not be for you. I beat this game in 40 hours; here are my thoughts.
You gaze into the sunrise as the blightstorm and barrier fade away. Terrible yet beautiful, it has once again scoured the land and reduced all you have toiled for into naught but ash and ruin. The cycles are unending, an inferno that knows no mercy. But it’s time; time to set out into a world striving to repel your very existence and forage fuel to keep the fires burning. You are not deterred. You are loyal to your people and to your Queen. You are the bending reed amidst the hurricane. Against the Storm, you will not be broken.
Control Ultimate Edition is a bit of a strange one; I’ll come right out of the gates with that notion. Numerous people in my life applaud Control, and others have gotten very frustrated with it. As I played it for my review, I could absolutely see both camps’ merits. It’s a detailed narrative/world that didn’t engage with me; it’s intricate yet simultaneously straightforward in terms of progression, and it has a few satisfying gameplay elements that failed to hook me for more than a few hours at a time. I beat this game in 25.1 hours; here are my thoughts.
In my opinion, the recent rash of superhero games has been predominantly pish. All Flash and no substance, more akin to a Beast than beauty; you’d have to be a real Iron Man to stomach some of them. Now that I’ve gotten those superhero puns out of my system, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered for the PC (Developed by Insomniac Games/Nixxes Software, Published by Playstation PC LLC) stands out from the pile by being competent…and that’s a huge compliment. I basically 100%-ed the game in 40 hours; here are my thoughts.
I’m going to come clean; I bought this game because I thought I’d hate it. Out of the box, Days Gone read as “an open world game with shallow mechanics that tried to be too badass and edgy.” With bikers vs. cultists vs. bandits in a zombie apocalypse as the setting, can you blame me? For the first two hours, the game did nothing to suppress my acid reflux, but the more I engaged with it, the more pleasantly surprised I became.
Steam Next Fest 2022 runs from October 3rd – October 10th this year. This is the week where developers and studios from all over the world get a chance to livestream their upcoming products, provide demos for potential customers, and engage with the community. There are hundreds of titles being showcased right now, but here are the six I’ll be keeping an eye on ahead of their official releases. These are not ranked in any particular order, and there is zero analysis to be found here, just my thoughts pouring onto the page.
Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment) is a post-apocalyptic merger of “Zelda:Breath of the Wild” and Transformers. You play as Aloy, a former outcast tasked with solving the problems of the community that ostracised her. The twist that differentiates this product from the pile of open-world, map clearing, objective hunting games is that in this one, the large majority of your obstacles will be in the form of giant machines shaped like animals. These machines are big, these machines are aggressive, and these machines want to kick the tar out of you.