Organizer
Gadget news
Lenovo Legion Go review: this is the true Steam Deck contender
5:00 pm | November 10, 2023
Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming | Tags: , , | Comments: Off

Lenovo Legion Go: Two-minute review

The Lenovo Legion Go is the latest in the PC handheld market trend, following Valve’s Steam Deck and the Asus ROG Ally. Though my expectations were suitably tempered, getting to fully test out the portable gaming machine has convinced me of its superiority compared to ROG Ally and even compared to the gold-standard Steam Deck.

At first glance, it’s almost laughably large and weighs far more than its competition. Normally this would mean that its portability is shot, but Lenovo was ingenious in this regard and included a built-in kickstand right in the back. It’s a simple feature but absolutely game-changing, as it allows for long sessions without suffering fatigue from having to hold it. 

It also means that if you want to use it either for gaming or a PC replacement, there’s no need to purchase a separate docking station. It won’t be replacing the best gaming laptops or best gaming PCs anytime soon but it still adds more flexibility to this device. The portable runs on Windows 11 and, unlike the ROG Ally, this version of the OS is fully optimized for the Legion Go making for an incredibly smooth and perfectly intuitive UI.

The side controllers can also be detached a lá the Nintendo Switch joy-con style and wielded in each hand or attached to a piece and made into its own controller. You can also take one of the controllers and activate FPS Mode with the click of a switch, allowing for precision control with shooters and other genres that benefit from the best gaming mouse.

There are plenty of buttons scattered throughout the system as well, which are all fully customizable, and even a touchpad. It can get overwhelming, as it feels like everywhere your fingers go, there’s a button to press, but nothing activates without you setting it.

Performance-wise, the Legion Go can handle a wide variety of titles, from less demanding ones like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge or AAA titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur’s Gate 3. What’s impressive is how the portable can juggle multiple games at once without a hint of slowdown, and how easy it is to switch between said games, even if they’re from different PC storefronts. There is some slowdown and slight freezing in between gameplay, especially loading, but the gameplay itself remains smooth as butter for the most part.

Of course, the Lenovo Legion Go’s Achilles heel is its terrible battery life. You’ll only be getting a few hours of gameplay at most unless you turn down the settings significantly. But there’s hardly any point when the sole purpose of a PC handheld is to play the best PC games the way they’re meant to be played, so best keep the charger handy for this one.

Lenovo Legion Go: Price and availability

Spec sheet

Here is the Lenovo Legion Go configuration sent to TechRadar for review:

CPU: AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme
Graphics: AMD RDNA Graphics
RAM: 16GB LPDDR5X (7500Mhz)
Screen: 8.8-inch QHD+, 144Hz, 500 nits, 97% DCI-P3 color gamut
Storage: Up to 1TB M.2 2242 SSD
Ports: 2x USB Type-C ports, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD slot
Connectivity: 802.11ax 2x2 Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.1
Weight: 1.88 lbs (854 g)
Size: 11.76 x 5.16 x 1.60 inches (298.83 x 131 x 40.7 mm; W x D x H)

The Lenovo Legion Go starts at $699.99 / £700 (inc. VAT) / AU$1,299 with availability in the US, UK, and Australia. In the US market, there are two models, with the base version being an already steep $699.99 and including 16GB RAM and 512GB of storage. The more expensive $749.99 ups the storage to 1TB. Lenovo has stated that it plans on releasing cheaper models using the AMD Ryzen Z1 CPU in the future.

The UK only has the 512GB model for the same price as the US version, meaning that UK buyers are actually paying more. In Australia, there are two modes with the cheaper version coming with 256GB of storage and the pricier version equipped with 512GB of storage space.

Lenovo Legion Go: Design

Lenovo Legion Go on wooden table

(Image credit: Future)

Your first thought while looking at the Lenovo Legion Go is how large and weighty it is compared to its competitors, which is more than enough for it to be off-putting. However, there are several benefits to this. The first being that it ventilates much better than smaller handhelds like the ROG Ally, which meant I was able to game for long periods without dealing with any overheating issues, even when pushing through with more graphically and performance-intense titles.

Lenovo knew that it had to offset the weight issue of the portable, which is where the kickstand comes in. It’s built into the handheld and of very good quality, both the stand itself and the hinges. This lets you rest the Legion Go on reasonably-flat surface without the need for a separate docking station, while you use the portable as a gaming device or desktop replacement.

The bulky side controllers aren’t just window dressing either, as they’re detachable controllers similar to the Nintendo Switch’s joy cons. And like the joy cons, you can use them with each in one hand while you have the main display supported by the kickstand, though there are no motion sensors in them. There’s also a handy LED light ring around each joystick that indicates the controller’s current power and connection state.

Image 1 of 6

Lenovo Legion Go on wooden table

(Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 6

Lenovo Legion Go on wooden table

(Image credit: Future)
Image 3 of 6

Lenovo Legion Go on wooden table

(Image credit: Future)
Image 4 of 6

Lenovo Legion Go on wooden table

(Image credit: Future)
Image 5 of 6

The Lenovo Legion Go gaming handheld.

(Image credit: Future)
Image 6 of 6

The Lenovo Legion Go gaming handheld.

(Image credit: Future)

If that isn’t enough, one of the controllers can be mounted on a base, and then activated with the click of a switch into FPS Mode. This mode allows for precise gameplay akin to a PC mouse, perfect for first and third-person shooters, as well as other genres that work best with a mouse.

The display is an absolutely gorgeous 8.8-inch QHD+ and comes with a great refresh rate of 144Hz, perfect for most gamers’ needs. It also has a surprisingly high 97% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which shows how eye-catching and vivid the colors are. It sports an excellent touchscreen too, which pairs perfectly with the well-optimized OS.

And though Windows 11 is far more functional here than with the ROG Ally, its limitations show that when it comes to an optimized OS made solely for its PC handheld, Steam Deck is still king in that regard. For instance, when booting up
the Steam Deck for the first time, setup is so refreshingly simple and takes a mere minute. But the Legion Go's Windows 11 forces you to suffer through the same setup as any other Windows PC or laptop.

There's also the issue of Legion Space, which is pretty useless. Unlike ROG Ally's Armoury Crate CE which lets you at least log in directly to your storefronts of choice, Space gives you that illusion at first and then opens up a webpage. You have to install your storefronts first, then access them either through that or Legion Space. But at that point, the latter is useless.

Lenovo Legion Go: Performance

Lenovo Legion Go on wooden table

(Image credit: Future)

Thanks to its impressive specs, especially the miracle of the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme with AMD RDNA Graphics, the Lenovo Legion Go is an incredibly powerful handheld that’s capable of handling anything from 16-bit indie games to the most demanding of AAA titles. 

While there are longer load times for more demanding games, and even rare instances of brief freezing, during actual gameplay the experience is a smooth one that’s coupled with some truly impressive graphics. You have to be patient with the handheld but it returns the favor when you finally get to your title.

For instance, I tested out the Legion Go with Forza Horizon 5 on both Low and Medium settings. Though the game recommended Low and the framerate was indeed averaging around 59fps, I found that it ran quite well on Medium with ray tracing turned on, averaging out at a still solid 51fps. 

I was blown away by how beautiful the car, physics, and environments were while racing – it felt like I was gaming on a laptop for a moment. This was all done on the maximum resolution by the way, and I never felt the need to turn it down, though the option is there in the menu along with decreasing the refresh rate and more.

Lenovo Legion Go on wooden table

(Image credit: Future)

The audio quality is excellent as well, surprisingly so. Testing out the speakers with Forza Horizon 5, as music and sound design are vital to a racing sim, you could hear the roar of the car’s engine just over the commentating and fast-paced music with such clarity that I once again forgot that I was playing on a handheld.

The controls themselves are incredible, with the analog sticks moving the car with remarkable precision. They also feel good to use for long durations thanks to the high-quality padding on each one. They're hall effect joysticks which, according to Lenovo, ensures no joystick drift and minimal dead zones. As a bonus, they have an LED light ring, which alerts you to your controllers’ remaining battery power and connection. It’s particularly handy as an easy and immediate way to discern that information without having to check through the menu.

There are several of what Lenovo calls Thermal Modes, which control how powerful the performance is compared to the fan volume, similar to a gaming laptop. The highest performance mode is meant for a plugged-in experience, though you can still use it with battery-only power, and there’s also a balanced mode that’s meant for switching between tasks and a quiet mode that works like a battery-saving mode. You can of course customize your own mode too.

There’s also a separate menu option to maximize fan speeds, and it works wonders in keeping the whole system cool. The ventilation in general is impressive, with a smart design that keeps the majority of the heat away from where your fingers rest. It's most likely due to what Lenovo calls its Coldfront thermal technology, which features a liquid crystal polymer 79-blade fan.

Lenovo Legion Go: Battery Life

Lenovo Legion Go on wooden table

(Image credit: Future)

Just as with every other PC handheld, the Lenovo Legion Go’s Achilles' heel is its abysmal battery life. You’ll only be getting a few hours of gameplay at most before it shuts off unless you turn down the settings significantly. But what’s the point in that, when you’re buying a portable like this to play AAA titles at gloriously high settings?

And like the Nintendo Switch, the controllers are separate entities to be charged as well. Though everything can be charged at once, the two additional accessories increase the charging time.

Should you buy the Lenovo Legion Go?

Buy the Lenovo Legion Go if...

Don't buy it if...

First reviewed November 2023

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 review – the fighter Nick fans have been waiting for
5:00 pm | November 7, 2023
Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming | Tags: | Comments: Off
Review information

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Release date: November 7, 2023

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is a refreshing and feature-rich platform fighter that should be on your radar if you’re looking for your next party game mainstay. With gorgeous cartoon-accurate visuals and a helpful serving of modes and surprisingly deep combat mechanics, it’s essential play for those after a new Super Smash Bros.-like experience.

This sequel substantially builds upon the original’s foundations with plenty of compelling new content. The star of the show is the all-new campaign mode - complete with boss fights - which incorporates fun roguelite elements that kept me coming back for more. The further addition of items and a new Slime meter also helps to spice up the action on a moment-to-moment basis.

Some frustrations do linger, though. The game’s overall performance can be very inconsistent even when there’s not much happening on-screen. At worst, this led to fumbled inputs and mistimed jumps. This is a shame, as Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2’s mechanics lend it the capacity to become a fun competitive fighter, but these performance hiccups will need to be ironed out post-launch. 

Bring it around town

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2

(Image credit: GameMill Entertainment)

If you want to get a grasp on just how much of an improvement Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is, you’ll want to jump head-first into the brand-new campaign mode which is surprisingly brilliant. The campaign is fully-voiced and includes simple-but-charming cutscenes to string you along.

In the campaign, you’ll begin as SpongeBob, who chases after Patrick when the starfish gets sucked into a mysterious wormhole. What follows is a series of challenges where you’ll typically fight waves of enemies (including the jellyfish from SpongeBob or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’s Foot Clan henchmen) or other combatants on the roster to add them to your side. 

In between missions, you’ll be able to spend earned currency on perks to give you an edge in battle, heal damage dealt to you, or stop by the hub which you'll populate by unlocking fighters.

The best part about the campaign, though, is that you won’t get it all done in one attempt. That’s because there’s a roguelite formula applied here that’ll take you right back to the beginning upon death. However, any perks you unlock can carry over between runs, so there’s always an element of getting stronger as you progress.

There are some pretty creative boss fights sprinkled throughout the campaign, too, which serve to add even more Nickelodeon rep to the game. Each boss is pretty varied in terms of moveset and how you should be approaching them. King Jellyfish is a solid introductory boss, blasting the arena with electrical projectiles. The Flying Dutchman, meanwhile, is a little more interesting, occasionally summoning barrels that must be destroyed, or else they buff his attack power.

Slime time

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2

(Image credit: GameMill Entertainment)

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 brings a slew of compelling fighting game-adjacent mechanics to the table. Overall movement is very responsive, and you’ll quickly get into the flow of chaining together standard and charged attacks in combo-like fashion, with the occasional special sprinkled in to keep enemies on their toes.

This time around, there’s a new Slime meter, segmented into three chunks. Accrued by dealing damage to opponents, you can spend one of these to add more power to charged and special attacks. Save up all three, though, and you’ll be able to unleash your characters’ signature move for massive damage. These are all wonderfully animated and call back to the fighters’ series of origin. 

Patrick, for example, repeatedly smashes his opponents with his own rock-shaped house. Then there’s Jenny Wakeman - star of My Life as a Teenage Robot - who adopts a meditative pose before slicing enemies with a variety of sharp utensils. These finishers are especially charming additions that not only add an element of risk-versus-reward to Slime meter management (if you fail to hit with it, that’s your whole meter gone for nothing), but the references themselves never failed to put a smile on my face. 

Best bit

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2

(Image credit: GameMill Entertainment)

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2’s campaign is a real treat, featuring neat roguelite progression and no shortage of fun nods to Nickelodeon franchises throughout. The addition of voice acting from original cast members only serves to add to its authenticity, too. 

Hopping across worlds

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2

(Image credit: GameMill Entertainment)

One of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2’s best aspects is its awesome visuals. Stages both look and sound exactly as you’d expect from the source material, and there’s an impressive level of depth and detail to each and every one. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Rooftop stage, for example, has a lively New York skyline backdrop. The Wild Thornberrys Safari stage is wonderfully unpredictable, too, seeing the titular family’s wagon caught in vines before shooting down a rapid ravine. Elsewhere, the Rocko’s Modern Life stage is delightfully chaotic, featuring rather unconventional stage design and a painfully 90s aesthetic.

The game’s roster of fighters match this level of quality, with a high degree of expressiveness and lively animation. The developer has done an incredible job recreating their TV likenesses, with a special shoutout especially going to 2000s-era characters like Jenny and Ember, as well as classic characters like Ren and Stimpy and the Angry Beavers. They both look and animate like they’ve been ripped straight from a grainy CRT screen, and it’s brilliant to watch in motion.

It’s just a shame that even on current-gen hardware, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 suffers from fairly frequent performance dips. Even when there's not much action happening on-screen, it was common to witness the framerate buckle slightly, taking much of the fluidity out of matches. Roughly once or twice per round, I noticed slight framerate hitches that sometimes threw off a combo, or made jumping across the stage a touch more difficult. It’s a notable blemish on what’s otherwise a highly polished package, and I hope it’s something the developer is able to iron out via post-launch support.

Another slight issue is with the game’s roster of fighters. While strengthened by the addition of characters like Hey Arnold’s Gerald and Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Azula, it’s seen some confusing omissions. Several iconic fighters from the first game, including Shredder, Oblina, Toph, and Powdered Toast Man, haven’t made the leap to the sequel outside of the odd cameo appearance. I’m hoping these can be added in through future updates to help the already excellent roster feel that much more complete. 

While frustrations exist in regards to performance and a wonky roster, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is a fantastic platform fighter and a game that Nick fans both old and new should have on their radar. 

Accessibility

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2

(Image credit: GameMill Entertainment)

At launch, there’s a complete lack of accessibility features. There’s nothing in the way of subtitle customization or colorblind options, for example, which is pretty poor showing for a game that’s aimed at both kids and adults.

How we reviewed Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2

I played roughly 10 hours of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, which included playing through the new campaign and several fighters’ arcade mode ladders. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to test the game’s online suites ahead of launch, but the use of rollback netcode bodes well for stable matches and the game fully supports cross-play.

Interested in more games like Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2? Consider checking out our list of the best fighting games and best Nintendo Switch games, many of which will be discounted over the upcoming Black Friday gaming deals sales period.

You Will Die Here Tonight review – taking the fun out of zombies
8:37 pm | November 3, 2023
Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming PC Gaming | Tags: , | Comments: Off
Review infomation

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PC
Release date: October 31, 2023 

You Will Die Here Tonight is a short but not entirely sweet horror game made by Spiral Bound Interactive, which puts players in the shoes of six high-level special ops characters with whom you’ll navigate a haunted mansion. 

This top-down survival horror sees a special-ops task force invade a suspicious mansion in hopes of capturing its deranged owner. But with little information to go on, the group’s mission is further thrown into chaos when they are sabotaged and blindsided by a mysterious attacker. After you get split off from everyone else, you must use your wits and foresight to plan an escape, but unfortunately, you probably won’t be taking the whole group with you; some of them will die there tonight. 

You must gather materials and puzzle pieces to fend off the undead that roam the mansion and solve riddles along the way. Once one character dies, you take control of the next, and then the next one, and so forth, until you’ve expended your resources and have no one else left to help escape.

At face value, there’s a lot of promise in You Will Die Here Tonight. The basis of the story, fight mechanics, and unification of characters are all interesting ideas that could help form an excellent twist on the usual zombie horror genre. However, sadly, this horror title just falls short of polishing up these factors and also fails to deliver some basic requirements. It’s for this reason that you won’t be seeing it on our best horror games list.  

Blast from the past 

Fighting zombies in a dungeon

(Image credit: Spiral Bound Interactive LLC)

When it comes to looks, You Will Die Here Tonight certainly does deliver, however. The top-down perspective combined with its retro aesthetic makes it stand out from other horror games that may have a similar premise. 

Best Bit

Zombie butlers attacking

(Image credit: Spiral Bound Interactive LLC)

Being trapped in an underground cavern and surrounded by attacking zombies. The transfer from a top-down perspective to a first-person point of view to shoot down all the oncoming attackers is a nice change of pace and adds to the horror.  

The retro art style means that every location looks fantastic. There are gloomy libraries, mysterious subterranean lairs, and even some beautiful gardens decorated with ivy and sparkling fountains. It also makes exploring each setting far more enjoyable if there are tons of great places to admire. 

Each one of the characters also looks excellent. While in top-down mode, you can only make out some minor details with the simple character outlines, but each one comes alive the closer you look. When a character begins to talk, we get a close-up static headshot; here, we get to see them better. It doesn’t stop with the cast of protagonists, though; the evil undead also benefit from this cool style. 

While they can look pretty flat from afar once you enter combat mode in first-person, these creatures truly do look horrifying. Creeping up from the shadows, these undead experiments crawl and shift toward you at varying speeds, making every face-to-face encounter horrifying. 

Some missing parts 

Solving a puzzle

(Image credit: Spiral Bound Interactive LLC)

You Will Die Here Tonight may certainly look the part, but unfortunately, it has several glaringly obvious rough edges. While there aren’t any real technical issues, there are some features that haven’t been well-rounded or are missing some features or tweaks. 

Entering into the narrative, you get almost no time to get to know the other characters in the story. Besides walking into a room and listening to a couple of them talk about an event you have no memory of, there’s not much to tie you to these people. This means when many of them eventually die, in an assortment of weird and brutal ways, it doesn’t matter. Instead of fighting to get everyone out alive, every character is no more than a heart in the top corner of your screen. 

There are also a couple of twists and turns in You Will Die Here Tonight that don’t hit as hard as they probably should. There’s a betrayal that fell flat because not only do I not know or care about the characters, but the reveal felt so wooden that I brushed straight past it. The character designs are pretty cool, and some of the one-liners they dish out can be strangely hilarious, so it’s a real shame that I didn’t feel more connected to them. There’s also the unimpressive reveal of what is truly going on in this mansion; you encounter a zombie almost straight away, which kills off any suspense. 

This survival horror has high aspirations but manages to fall short of them in most aspects

There were also a couple of issues with story progression. At times, running around the mansion gave me tunnel vision; despite being in a huge area, every door would be locked to prevent straying off course. More often than not, it felt as if you were jumping through hoops and simply completing tasks for the sake of it and not because you truly wanted to find out more. 

It’s a shame. This survival horror has high aspirations but manages to fall short of them in most aspects. The story isn’t that engaging; the riddles and puzzles can be long and quite boring, and the crafting and exploration aren’t fully fleshed out. 

That being said, if you are a fan of top-down retro survival games and have a few hours to kill, You Will Die Here Tonight will scratch an itch. The entire game can be completed in less than five hours, so it’s pretty short, and while it’s not necessarily that straightforward to finish, I can see it being a satisfying puzzler for some.  

Accessibility 

accessibility features

(Image credit: Spiral Bound Interactive LLC)

There are no accessibility features in You Will Die Here Tonight, and the overall options are pretty sparse. There are a few audio settings that let you tweak the volume or general audio, as well as a couple of display options that allow you to alter the brightness, but that’s it.

How we reviewed

I completed You Will Die Here Tonight in less than five hours on PC. I tried to explore as much as possible, so it’s highly likely that you can finish this survival horror game in less time than that. I didn’t encounter any technical issues with it, and it was also pretty simple to interact with and not that taxing on my PC.  

If you’re in the market for new games right now, then be sure to check out these great PC games and these fantastic Black Friday video game deals, which are starting to really pick up. 

WarioWare: Move It! review – innovative and ambitious
5:01 pm | November 1, 2023
Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming Nintendo | Tags: | Comments: Off
Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch
Available on: Nintendo Switch
Release date: November 3, 2023

If there’s one thing you can count on the WarioWare series for, it’s simple, silly fun. On that, WarioWare: Move It! certainly delivers - the latest in Intelligent Systems’ fast-paced party microgame series has pulled out all the stops to ensure that anyone playing looks as ridiculous as possible, with motion control-based activities that are designed to utilize all of the Joy-Con controllers’ features, and your entire body to play. 

The story’s premise is simple: Mario’s garlic-munching rival manages to win himself and his friends a holiday to a faraway vacation resort, where they’re each handed their own Form Stones (which, spoiler alert, look suspiciously like your own Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controllers). Everyone must then partake in microgames (incredibly short minigames which are played back to back until you lose all your lives, and increase in speed the longer you keep going), which require the mastery of various Forms, using said ‘stones’. 

Throughout the short but sweet story mode, you’ll gradually be introduced to these Forms - such as Choo Choo (in which you must position your arms like you’re impersonating a train) and Knight (which has you place your Joy-Con controllers on top of each other, holding them like a sword). Different microgames call for different Forms, and as you progress, you’ll be expected to switch between Forms freely to perform numerous motions.

Before a microgame starts, you’re clearly instructed as to which Form position to take, but the actual movement within the game switches around based on what’s happening on the screen. For the most part, if you allow yourself to get lost in the game and pretend that you’re acting out a motion rather than trying to input a specific control, it’s clear what you should be doing. You might find yourself imitating a car’s windscreen wiper, scrubbing a floor with a broom, or adjusting your arms to block a giant nose’s nostrils. The free-flowing movement is extremely satisfying, and when it works properly (and it usually does), you feel truly engrossed in the action.

Get in formation

WarioWare: Move It! screenshot depicting a microgame where you must pretend to be a train.

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Anyone who’s played WarioWare: Smooth Moves on the Wii will immediately see a resemblance between the 2006 game and Move It!, and for good reason. In many ways, Move It! very much feels like Smooth Moves if it was created solely for the Nintendo Switch, and that’s not a bad thing. Some of the quirky poses you’re forced to pull, like Ba-KAW! (which, as the name might suggest, has you impersonate a chicken using a Joy-Con for your beak and tail) could only ever work with the Joy-Con controllers’ more advanced motion controls. 

Best bit

Kat and Ana in WarioWare: Move It!

(Image credit: Nintendo / Future)

The first time the game prompted me to use the Hand Model Form, I was tasked with making gestures at the Joy-Con controller’s infrared sensor. It was exceptionally impressive for this to work as flawlessly as it did, but it was made even cooler since the infrared scan of my actual hand was shown on screen as part of the microgame.

This is a double-edged sword, however, as despite the motion controls working most of the time, the precision needed and expected from you means that you won’t always be able to complete a microgame’s action successfully before the time is up, either due to it not being detected properly or simply because you were holding the controllers slightly wrong before starting. It needs to be said that when you’re getting used to the different Forms, switching between them when they all require the Joy-Con to be held or placed in different ways can be overwhelming. This makes it difficult for anyone who’s not already familiarized themselves with the Forms via Story Mode to simply pick up some controllers and join in - far from ideal for a party game that’s got a significant focus on multiplayer.

Additionally, since the actions you must perform are so varied, it isn’t always obvious what you’re actually supposed to be doing, especially at the first time of asking. Given that you’re only given a few seconds to both work out the action and perform it correctly, it’s infuriating to lose a life when you feel you were just thrown in at the deep end with no concrete guidance - and that’s coming from someone who’s played the game for several hours. Again, it’s hard to imagine this being a game that can easily be shared amongst a group of people who haven’t played before, given that there’s pretty much no time to explain what to do from game to game. 

This confusion is ramped up a notch further when you unlock the microgames that call for button inputs as well as motion controls. When the button-control Form is first explained, the game tells you to simply go with your heart when choosing which buttons to use from game to game. You’d be forgiven for thinking that this means any will do, but that’s not the case. Specific ones must be pressed, and despite the game’s belief that your heart will tell you the answer, chances are you’re going to guess wrong. Practice makes perfect, of course, but WarioWare games thrive on offering simple games that are immediately understandable with even the briefest instruction on what to do, and many of Move It!’s additions fail to fit this brief. Not only that, but there are no options to change button mapping to make the controls more accessible, and this is just one fault that the game has when it comes to accessibility (discussed further below).

Switch hardware at its finest

WarioWare: Move It! screenshot depicting a microgame where you must block a giant nose's nostrils with a doll's arms.

(Image credit: Nintendo)

For those who can get used to WarioWare: Move It!’s restrictions and frustrations, there are some genuinely genius uses of the Switch’s hardware to marvel at. My favorite microgames are those that ask you to use the Hand Model Form, where you hold up the right Joy-Con so that it’s facing your palm, and make gestures that are detected by the infrared sensor. For example, you can close your fingers together to catch a frisbee, or make different hand gestures in order to crack a safe. It’s not often that Switch games use the Joy-Con’s infrared sensor like this, and in Move It!’s case, it never loses its charm.

Another surprisingly innovative feature is Move It!’s use of the Joy-Con wrist straps. I’ll admit, in the seven years I’ve owned a Switch, I’ve not once attached the straps to my Joy-Con, never mind my wrists, so when the game instructed me to do so, I let out a sigh as I had to dig them out of my console’s box. However, this slight inconvenience is well worth it - certain microgames will have you purposely drop your controllers (one has you swing the remote like it’s on a vine to reunite two characters), and some will have you pull them back up with the straps, too - one has you drop food into oil and pull it back out when it’s cooked.

All in all, WarioWare: Move It! is heaps of fun, and I can imagine it being a hit with groups of friends who are all willing to put in the time to learn the different whacky Forms in order to play. Sadly, this only goes for anyone who’s comfortable with playing most of it standing up, as those who can’t may well find its inflexible control scheme limiting and frustrating.

Accessibility features

A screenshot showing the left and right hand option in WarioWare: Move It!

(Image credit: Nintendo / Future)

Accessibility is a huge problem in WarioWare: Move It!. Although it provides the option to specify whether you’re right or left-handed and presents alternative instructions for the different Forms, there are no further ways to customize the controls in any way.

This is problematic since a number of the Forms - such as Squat, At Attention, and Big Cheese - are clearly intended to be performed in a standing position (upon loading the game, a message states that the “best results” can be achieved standing up). It’s difficult to replicate all of these sat down, and as such, some microgames can be very finicky to complete for those who aren’t able to play the game standing up. 

Additionally, for the microgames that require the use of the Joy-Con button controls, there’s no way to adjust button mapping for ease of interaction. One of the games asks players to press several random buttons simultaneously while the Joy-Con controllers sit flat, and this could prove troublesome for anyone with limited mobility in their hands. 

How we reviewed

I spent around six hours playing WarioWare: Move It!, and in that time, I completed the main story (in around two hours), unlocked all of the 200+ microgames, and tested out the game’s various single-player modes. I played on a Nintendo Switch OLED console mainly in docked mode on my TV, although I tested it in handheld mode too (by using the console’s kickstand with the Joy-Con detached). 

If you’re on the lookout for more fantastic games to play on Nintendo’s hybrid console, be sure to check out our list of the best Nintendo Switch games. To keep up with future releases, you can also read our roundup of upcoming Switch games.

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria review – all ore nothing
8:30 pm | October 30, 2023
Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming | Tags: | Comments: Off
Review info:

Platform reviewed: PC
Available: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC
Release date: October 24, 2023 

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria has the potential to be something much greater than what it is. The premise of fighting and regaining power over the grand halls of Moria is enough to spark excitement in any fan. Unfortunately, the stumbles over this great potential and the result is very disappointing. 

In multiplayer crafting survival game The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, you can venture forth by yourself or in a group of up to eight players to conquer the orc-infested mines of Moria. Instead of speaking friend and entering the Western Gate, you break through the side of the mountain to find another entrance into the depths. Once inside, you slowly make your way through the abandoned halls, fixing up old buildings and discovering new pathways, reclaiming the Dwarven home as you go. 

While there may be a lot to see here, there is almost nothing to do. Crawling around the mines becomes monotonous as everything looks the same, with only a few pieces of scrap metal, ore deposits, and barrels to distinguish different hallways.

Master craftsman

Dwarf making tools

(Image credit: North Beach Games)

Return to Moria starts strong with a customization menu that’s surprisingly detailed and fun to use. This menu lets you choose from numerous hair and beard options as well as voice, origin, and other features that help create a Dwarf that’s unique to you. 

I’ve always loved the Dwarves for their unique style, which has never shied away from non-binary features. Anyone can have a beard or facial hair, while body shape and clothing tend to be indistinguishable between the sexes. Luckily, Return to Moria managed to stay true to this essence with its customization options. I spent almost 20 minutes cycling through all the options available, rejoicing at all the face shapes that had no focus on sex or gender. I chose to have a regal face, broad shoulders, red hair, and an outfit from the Misty Mountains. 

Unfortunately, this was the first and the last time I was pleasantly surprised. While there were brief moments in which you could relish your choice of voice actor while singing mining songs as you broke down a coal-riddled wall, most of the time my Dwarf felt lifeless and generic.

One is the loneliest number

Dwarf running from monster

(Image credit: North Beach Games)

After you set up your first base by the entrance to Moria, you can finally adventure ahead and discover what else lies in wait for you. At first, I was expecting to find some grand mines full of gigantic forges or maybe fiery braziers that lit the path through the mountain. Unfortunately, what I was greeted with was much less impressive. 

Best Bit:

Dwarf standing in elven grotto

(Image credit: North Beach Games)

Finding an elven grove inside the mines of Moria was beautiful and reminded me of how spectacular The Lord of the Rings is. Thanks to this poignant moment, I’ll start rereading the books.  

Most of the spaces look remarkably similar. So much so that it’s very easy to get lost in the endless halls. Many of them are littered with buckets and broken wooden chairs, with rats, badgers, and wolves loitering around, but apart from these wild animals, there isn’t much else to see. While the rubbish left lying around can be helpful if you’re gathering crafting materials, they mostly just get in the way and, after a while, blend into the background.

I wanted to reclaim Moria for its rightful owners, the Dwaves, so badly. I set out with grand expectations of building magnificent dining halls and creating vast mining networks. Unfortunately, I ended up spending more time than I’d care to admit cleaning away broken buckets and making small forges and fires in derelict houses. No matter how hard I tried to breathe life back into the cold, dark halls, I just couldn’t create anything worthwhile or characterful. The crafting options were limited to basic forging tools, walls, and ceilings. It was even impossible to use warm decorations such as carpets or curtains to create unique spaces. 

Orc-estrated attacks 

Dwarf fighting orc

(Image credit: North Beach Games)

There are more than just aggressive badgers and wolves in the mines, though. Every now and then, you’re greeted by raiding orc parties, who have traveled from the depths of Moria simply to break down one of the walls you just finished building. 

These green menaces arrive in groups of three or five, armed with swords and axes. You’re alerted to each raid by the sounding of a horn that’s followed by rapid footsteps that close in on your location. They tend to attack the closest hearth or base, so if you aren’t home, you usually return to see orcs destroying your dwelling like some underwhelming house party gone wrong. However, if you are close by, then you’re high on their hit list. If you have an iron sword on your hip, then these attacks are more frustrating than fearsome. One at a time, you can take out an entire party in less than a minute.

I’m just trying to sweep up the market; I don’t want to engage in some bar-side brawls

It’s unfortunate that these hunting parties are so underwhelming. The orcs found in these mines simply aren’t as terrifying as my younger self remembered. It’s also annoying how, no matter where you are, these raiders always find you. There’s no way to prevent incoming attacks or disengage from fights without dying. I’m just trying to sweep up the market; I don’t want to engage in some bar-side brawls. 

Many of these evil-doers also end up embedded in my walls, forcing me to either destroy the entire structure or be forced to take a hit every time I go to collect stone from storage. They aren’t the only ones to get stuck in precarious locations, either. On my travels through the mines, I often encountered badgers who were wedged into the walls. I also found it difficult to consistently place items intentionally as they would rapidly glitch around when I tried to put anything in a tight space. 

Unfortunate misstep

Dwarf standing in front of a statue

(Image credit: North Beach Games)

So, unfortunately, it’s another sad day for Lord of the Rings fans. This year has been unkind to the fantasy universe, with the Lord of the Rings: Gollum also releasing in a state that left many players and fans utterly dismayed and disappointed. Return to Moria follows this pattern as the title was unable to capture the incredible scope, adventure, and fantastical setting that this series is loved and known for. 

I’d love nothing more than to play as Dwarves retaking their homeland alongside friends, but sadly, this is not the game to do that in. Besides the setting, there’s not much else to celebrate in Return to Moria. 

For the time being, it seems like the only thing Lord of the Rings fans can do to maintain their immersion in Tolkien’s world is to rely on the books and movies, and, if you’re desperate to create your own Dwavern city, try to do so in Vanilla Minecraft - you’ll likely have far more success than if you try to do the same in Return to Moria.  

Accessibility 

accesibility features

(Image credit: North Beach Games)

There's not much in the way of accessibility settings in Return to Moria. Apart from basic subtitle settings enabling you to change the size and background, there isn’t much else in the way of customizing your in-game experience. However, you can change the volume levels for voice and UI effects if you want a quieter playthrough.

How we reviewed 

I played Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria for around 10 hours on PC. I encountered multiple glitches that impacted my experience in the game, from orcs and badgers being trapped in walls to storage pallets shifting all over the place if I set them down in a tight spot.

While I tried to explore all the mines had to offer, I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to get too far by myself, so I spent a lot of time fixing up and clearing the chambers I did have access to while slowly trying to weed out all the orcs which were found in the elven sector.

If you're a fan of exploration, then check out these brilliant adventure games on PC and the best RPGs that are available to play right now.

Sony Inzone Buds review – fantastic sound that comes with caveats
5:18 pm | October 27, 2023
Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming | Tags: | Comments: Off

The Sony Inzone Buds for PlayStation 5, mobile, and PC, are a seriously impressive pair of gaming earbuds that surpass the competition in several aspects. It’s quite clear that Sony wanted its new gaming earbuds to be best-in-class, and there are many areas where it achieves as such.

It’s absolutely nailed the design of the earbuds with premium build quality and intuitive on-board touch controls. But things get even better when it comes to the Inzone Buds’ overall audio performance. Presenting richly detailed audio that’s enhanced by a wide dynamic range and spatial audio support, they transcend being just ideal for casual music listening and are incredible for all media and games.

Performance in-game can vary, though, with a rather muddy register for audio on the lower end of the sound stage. Throw in an additional blemish when it comes to awkward Bluetooth connectivity and you’ll find there are some frustrations to be had with the Inzone Buds. However, superb battery life does help to sweeten the deal here, and it’s easy to place them among the best gaming earbuds you can buy today.

Price and availability

You can pick up the Sony Inzone buds right now for $199.99 / £179.99 / AU$249.95. That puts them in the same ballpark as the Apple AirPods 3 in terms of price range, and slightly more expensive than the PS5’s Razer Hammerhead Hyperspeed gaming earbuds.

Design and features

Sony Inzone Buds

(Image credit: Future)

Out of the box, the Sony Inzone Buds come housed in a sturdy, but rather basic charging case. This features a pairing button, a USB-C port on the rear for charging, and a sole LED up front that handles signifiers for things like battery and pairing. Pop the magnetically-sealed case open to reveal the Inzone Buds themselves and the included USB-C 2.4GHz dongle slotted between them in a dedicated space. The package handily includes six additional tips of varying sizes and a USB-C cable for charging purposes.

The flat base of the carry case means it’ll sit on any level surface easily. Though because the earbuds rest flat inside the case, it means it’s got a rather wide build compared to the likes of the Turtle Beach Scout Air and Razer Hammerhead Hyperspeed. As a result, it’s not really the most pocket-friendly carry case out there.

The Inzone Buds themselves are expertly crafted. Whether you opt for the white or black colorway, the simple yet classy design doesn’t draw much attention, making the buds perfect for both indoor and outdoor use. I’m especially a fan of the contrast between the matte chassis and glossier material used for the on-board touch controls.

The ear-facing sides of the Inzone Buds are also handily marked with left and right ear designations. Lifting them out of the case and placing them in your ears, you’ll hear brief but audible jingles letting you know they’re switched on. A voice will also relay to you which mode the buds are currently in - either Bluetooth or USB transceiver.

One of the best things about the Sony Inzone Buds is their high level of comfort and non-slip design. During longer listening sessions, I never once felt I had to readjust the earbuds, nor did they ever run warm or begin to irritate my ears. This allowed for a sublimely unintrusive listening experience.

Lastly, the included USB-C dongle features a switch with two settings separating PS5 and mobile use from PC. A white LED on its base indicates it’s turned on, and there’s a handy reset button should you need to revert its settings back to the default USB transceiver option.

Performance and battery life

Sony Inzone Buds

(Image credit: Future)

The Sony Inzone Buds provide a joyous listening experience. Music and vocals are rendered clearly and with rich detail. I found them to be especially nice for tracks led by electronic instruments or powerful vocal performances. Sonic Frontiers’ EDM-laced Cyber Space levels sounded extra punchy, and in Final Fantasy 14 Online, Amanda Achen’s impactful voice helped tracks like Flow and Return to Oblivion hit especially hard. That strong vocal register means the buds are similarly excellent for podcasts and audiobooks.

One area where the earbuds don’t perform as well is in that lower profile. Bassier audio, or particularly loud sound effects, came across as fairly muddy and lacking in detail. It’s by no means atrocious, but when playing Gran Turismo 7, I noticed that the low engine roars and tire screeching sounded noticeably lower quality. They’re also not fantastic when several sound effects are occurring all at once. That’s a common situation in Final Fantasy 14 Online, where there are weapon skill effects and character chatter happening constantly. In busier eight and 24-man raid content, it all registered as rather soupy.

On PS5, the Inzone buds are helped by support for 3D audio, be that Sony’s own Tempest 3D or Dolby Atmos which was recently added to the current-gen console. While these modes did help to elevate the sound stage somewhat, it doesn’t quite compare to the transformative effect offered by some of the best PS5 headsets or best wireless gaming headsets out there like the SteelSeries Arctis 9 or the Sony Inzone H9.

The spatial audio experience is improved somewhat on PC, as here’s where you can download the Inzone Hub app for a greater degree of customization. There’s a rather irksome setup process here, though, as you’ll need to physically take pictures of your ear for the software to generate an audio profile that suits you best. The effort involved, sadly, isn’t really worth it, as again the spatial audio provided isn’t as rich or dynamic as you’d get on a traditional gaming headset with larger drivers.

There is also some frustration to be had with the Inzone Buds’ approach to Bluetooth connectivity. While they paired just fine on my Android phone, my Nintendo Switch OLED wasn’t able to recognize them at all. You won’t be able to hook them up to an iOS device via Bluetooth, either. Once in Bluetooth mode, the right bud simply refused to switch back to USB transceiver mode, too, even when unpairing them from my phone and slotting in the USB-C dongle. A hard reset via the bottom switch of the dongle was required here. That fixed the problem but was an annoyance nonetheless.

The buds have a built-in microphone as well, and while it’s fine for general phone calls, voice chat performance in games left something to be desired. My voice came across as fairly quiet, even when adjusting settings to compensate. They get the job done, for sure, but if you’re getting caught up in the heated firefights of Fortnite or PUBG Battlegrounds, you may wish to swap out for a more traditional gaming headset for more reliable communication.

Thankfully, the Inzone Buds greatly impress when it comes to battery life. Offering a huge 12 hours of battery life on a single charge through 2.4GHz connection (and roughly 24 via Bluetooth), there’ll be more than enough battery there for most users in a single day. The charging case also provides an additional 24 hours of battery before needing to be juiced up.

Should I buy the Sony Inzone Buds?

Sony Inzone Buds

(Image credit: Future)

The Sony Inzone buds are easily some of the best gaming earbuds out there right now. With impressive audio in spite of those muddy lows, and superb noise canceling and battery life, they’re absolutely worth the price of admission. While I do wish they had better spatial audio performance and a more consistent Bluetooth performance, they are overall a step up from most gaming earbuds on the market today. 

Buy them if...

Don't buy them if...

How we reviewed the Sony Inzone Buds

I tested the Sony Inzone Buds over the course of about a week, switching frequently between PS5, mobile, and PC use. As a versatile set of buds, it was important to get a feel for musical performance as well as how they handle gaming audio. As a result, much time was spent in games with excellent sound design, such as Gran Turismo 7, Control, Demon’s Souls and Final Fantasy 14 Online.

Prefer a headset over earbuds? Be sure to take a look at our best Xbox Series X headsets guide, as well as our more general look at the best wired gaming headsets. 

Alan Wake 2 review – a once-in-a-generation scarefest
4:00 pm | October 26, 2023
Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming | Comments: Off
Review info:

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC
Release date: October 27, 2023

Survival horror Alan Wake 2 is hands down one of the best games I have ever played, thanks to its fantastic narrative, horrifying exploration, and beautiful setting. You are dropped back into Bright Falls, a quaint town, where you must help free Alan Wake from his watery 13-year prison sentence, after the events of the first game. You also get to play as Saga Anderson, an FBI agent written into Wake’s horror story to help defeat the evil Mr. Scratch once and for all. Both characters are controllable in the third-person, just like Alan Wake, but while such controls and perspectives might remain the same, the spooks have been amped up. 

That’s not the only thing that has been amped up. Alan Wake 2 is as high-stakes as you can get from a survival horror game. You are dropped into a strange town and forced to piece together an ever-changing puzzle while fighting off plagued residents known as the Taken. The eerie setting and unsettling creatures will make you jump right from the very beginning, providing some of the worst scares I’ve experienced since Amnesia: The Bunker. However, like any spooky survival game, the more you play, the better it gets as you familiarize yourself with the location, and rhythm of attacks, while also, most importantly, finding plenty of resources to help along the way.

A better way to play

Anderson looking at her detective work

(Image credit: Epic Games)

The narrative in Alan Wake 2 is one of its most compelling features, as it should be. Instead of relying on horrific scares, beautiful scenery, or fantastic soundscaping, as so many horror games do, the developers at Remedy Entertainment go the whole nine yards and perform an excellent medley with all these aspects while ensuring the narrative remains the star of the show. 

This sequel was set up wonderfully by its predecessor which provided a fantastic premise and location. However, Alan Wake 2’s story means this second installment really comes into its own and feels like an airtight, complete package that newcomers can also enjoy. This accomplishment is partly thanks to one of the protagonists being a detective; it’s Saga Anderson’s mission to get to grips with the twisting narrative in Bright Falls, which means you can get your head around all the plot points vicariously through her with ease.  

Best Bit

Wake fighting through Taken

(Image credit: Epic Games)

Getting to stroll through an expertly crafted musical set piece while trying to escape the talk show. I got to see the live-action cast perform a terrific ballad that stayed with me for the rest of the game.  

Instead of being bombarded with endless chit-chat from a partner NPC whose job it is to follow you around and explain needlessly obvious things, you’re left to piece together everything for yourself, at your own pace, and in your own time - made easier by the assistance of an extraordinary gift and various manuscript pages you can find lying around the town and its surrounding area. It was a terrifying pleasure to simply exist in this liminal space for however long I wanted, walking the line between dawn and dusk, following a spider web of pathways in the deadly, quiet forest. I enjoyed it so much that I often spent hours searching the woods for strange clues or cultist supply boxes that I could pillage for resources.

Anderson’s special gift is her mind palace. However, instead of sprawling halls of say, a Sherlock Holmes mind palace, this is simply a dimly lit room with various utilities inside. You can profile the people you meet here, ask their subconscious questions, and read through manuscripts left to help you decipher the past or warn you of the future, but most importantly, it is here that you can plot out the story and piece together clues. 

Each case in the game has its spot on the wall where you can place all the clues you have gathered in a sprawling mind map, which helps you think up questions and propels the narrative forward. There are so many reasons why I love this technique, but the best one is that it provides scared players a refuge to take a breath and recap on what they know, fixing one of the problems from the first game: Wake’s endless monologues. Instead of listening to Wake ramble on about everything that's happening, you can read about it at your own pace in a more engaging way.

The future is now 

Anderson and Wake

(Image credit: Epic Games)

While the narrative is fantastic, delivering an engaging way of experiencing what is a near-confusing and mind-bending story, the icing on top of the cake in Alan Wake 2 has to be the imaginative cutscenes and fantastic art style. 

Melding together reality and games, you come across multiple instances, while playing as Wake, of the real actors performing scenes. The actual actors are usually found in a late-night talk show studio laughing about all of Wake’s wonderful crime books while a highly disturbed Wake looks on in confusion, questioning his reality. 

These short scenes are wonderfully creepy and beautifully artistic

Fusing these realities gave me the same chills I felt all those years ago when I first realized I could control my character during Half-Life’s cutscenes. This always looks fantastic and bends your mind, as from here on out, you’re not quite sure what reality looks like. 

There are also the beautifully shot cutscenes during Anderson’s profiling sessions in her mind palace. These seamlessly combine real actors with their in-game counterparts as they flash on and off the screen. These short scenes are wonderfully creepy and beautifully artistic, as they add another layer of confusing and thrilling scares to the game. 

Overall, Alan Wake 2 simply looks terrific. From the first moment you walk down the crooked and root-riddled forest pathway during sunset to the murder site to the reality-distorting sequences in the Dark Place, it never fails to look its best. Even when being chased down bloody halls riddled with mutilated bodies, I still had brief moments where I thought how pretty everything looked.  

Some serious entomophobia

Anderson shining a light on mysterious cult symbols

(Image credit: Epic Games)

My time in Alan Wake 2 wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, however. Unfortunately, there was one instance which stopped me in my tracks. Towards the end, I found myself trapped in a room, unable to get past a bug that prevented me from getting further. 

Even in the dead of night, when I wanted nothing more than to shut my eyes and pass out, I tinkered around with this bug in hopes of finding a way to pass through it, simply because I didn’t want to stop playing, I was having that much fun. For prospective PS5 players, worry not; the issue has already been patched out of the game so that all new playthroughs will be unaffected by this game-ending bug. Were it not for this bug, it’s easy to imagine slapping a five-star score onto Alan Wake, but as I can’t see how the story ends and what happens with the game after this point, I can only talk about what I’ve seen so far.

Sign of a good horror 

Anderson walking through a forest

(Image credit: Epic Games)

Despite my time in Alan Wake 2 being cut slightly short, I enjoyed every second of the thrilling and terrifying survival horror game. It scared me so badly that I woke up my neighbors; I didn’t realize how horrifying this game would be in its first few acts. However, I also couldn't ever put it down, despite its scares giving me the shakes. 

Exploring the beautifully terrifying locations, immersing myself in the thoughtful and expertly crafted narrative, and simply experiencing the joys of watching something so artistic and well-choreographed was a pleasure. 

I’ll be playing Alan Wake 2 repeatedly, exploring new undiscovered crevices of its map, uncovering more clues about the true nature of the townfolk in Bright Falls, and looting the local cult for everything they have. There are so many sides to Alan Wake 2 to enjoy, which is why it easily earns its mantle of being my game of the year.  

Accessibility  

Anderson looking over forest

(Image credit: Epic Games)

There are average accessibility settings in Alan Wake 2. While there isn’t a dedicated accessibility page in the menu, you can find multiple features that will help ease your time in this frightening game. For those playing with controllers, there's aim assist, single tap walk, and quick turn. There are also general interface options such as subtitles, which you can change the size and background of, and HUD alterations for visual accessibility. Finally, there are a few audio accessibility options which can help customize how intense you want the experience to be. 

How we reviewed Alan Wake 2

After over 18 hours in Alan Wake 2, I made it right to the end before I was prevented from going further. However, over those dozen and a half hours, I managed to experience every aspect that the survival game offers including side cases such as cultist supplies or trying to unravel the mysterious case of the children’s lunch box. I played it at the standard difficulty and am pleased to say that while it’s challenging, it’s by no means impossible. However, there are options if you want to make it easier or harder. 

I reviewed Alan Wake 2 on my PS5 preferring performance over quality. I didn’t encounter any hiccups until the end, and there were smooth transitions, and quick-loading screens, and the visuals were beautiful despite not choosing the quality setting.  

For more spine-chilling titles, check out our list of the best survival games, and best indie horror games that you can enjoy right now. 

Ghostrunner 2 review – Blood, sweat, and mostly tears
6:00 pm | October 23, 2023
Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming | Comments: Off
Review info:

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
Release date: October 26, 2023

Gliding through Ghostrunner 2 can be a balancing act. On one end of the precarious see-saw, you feel like an unstoppable cyber-ninja that can defeat even the fiercest of foes. On the other, you’re faced with furiously complex challenges and frustrating bugs, which go a long way in slowing you down. 

Luckily, the objective of Ghostrunner 2 is simple. Mr tall, dark and swordy is set in an apocalyptic future where humanity is confined in one last liveable city, Dharma Tower. Here, there is a dangerous threat of the Asura, a group of Ghostrunners hunted to near extinction. This blood-thirsty organization plagues Dharma Tower and is hell-bent on destroying it and bringing about a new age ruled by Ghostrunners. Alongside the Interface Council, a group of humans fighting for freedom, you must navigate the tower and the outside world to bring down these enemies. 

It’s a lot of pressure to place on a new Ghostrunner; for better or worse, you’ll feel this stress throughout your time in Ghostrunner 2. While you’re gradually introduced to all the mechanics in your arsenal, meaning you can slowly get to grips with traversing the high-stakes and dangerous environment, the skill ceiling spikes and ebbs throughout your playthrough. The next challenging section could be right around the corner, and you won’t know until you’re in the thick of it.  

Soaring through the skies 

cyber cathedral

(Image credit: 505 Games)

Ghostrunner 2’s biggest draw is its fast-paced traversal and action sequences. You can’t help but feel cool as you’re racing through cybernetic cathedrals and pokey alleyways that crisscross Dharma Tower. You have multiple abilities that make navigating these locations simple, which is more than welcome when you’re flying hundreds of stories up in the air. 

The setting is incredible; as a fan of futuristic cityscapes, Ghostrunner 2’s environment is a predictable win for me. But to be fair, it is expertly crafted and beautiful. Inside Dharma Tower, you’re constantly bombarded with cybernetic neon lights and ominous towers that reach up into the heavens. Outside in the wastelands, you’re greeted with a different reality, one full of monstrous creatures and magnificent landscapes that reach as far as the eye can see.  

Best Bit:

Ghostrunner riding on his bike

(Image credit: 505 Games)

Slashing my way through a gigantic cyber worm whilst riding a rocket-fast motorcycle. This beast took 10 minutes to drive through and presented multiple new and dangerous obstacles for me to overcome in mere moments. It was an adrenaline-filled ride that left me shaking.  

It’s here where you also realize the scale of Ghostrunner 2. Climbing to the top of old derelict factories set in the apocalyptic deserts in search of Asura members is frighteningly beautiful. I’m not a massive fan of heights, so when you’re skimming the cloud line standing on a precarious rusty sheet metal, my heart starts to race more than I’d like to admit. 

You can’t wall run and latch onto every structure, but this isn’t an issue, as everything you can use is signposted to make snap decisions in the heat of the moment. While I did have more than a few fumbles where I just missed a ledge or overshot a jump and tumbled into a black abyss, the environmental traversal was easy and fluid almost all of the time. 

Having something simple and fun to rely on when the stakes are so high is excellent. Usually, you’re racing across corridors filled with enemies, so not having to think about whether you’ll make that crucial jump is a stress reliever. Instead, you can worry about the several enemy types that all call for different attacking approaches and when mixed, may change your way of overcoming a problem. 

Know your enemy

mutant enemy in the wastelands

(Image credit: 505 Games)

You’ll have to face up against several types of goons while navigating Ghostrunner 2. You have the classic enemies, which merely hold a blade, as well as two kinds of gun-wielders, one with an automatic rifle and another with a slow-firing rifle. There are also various other types with more complex abilities. Some shoot a laser beam that you cannot block, some jump towards you, crashing down and knocking you back, while others dual wield katanas and must be stopped with pinpoint timing. 

All these enemies call for different attacking approaches; some you can face head-on, others you need to conserve stamina during a fight to dodge or block. More complicated enemies call for careful planning and the use of barriers as shields. These groups of enemies are also found in various locations, all of which are laid out differently. This means no encounter is the same; you’ll likely have to consider different approaches and strategies when encountering a new group of enemies. 

While it may seem like a lot of effort, the quick respawns help ease the pain. It means you can rapidly dive in and out of combat, trying new strategies or killing off the enemies in different orders to see what works best. However, killing off every single enemy in a complex and nail-biting acrobatic fight only to be shot by a lone ranger hidden up in a corner is still infuriating. It puts a dampener on what are otherwise fun fighting sequences. 

A glitch in the system

Ghostrunner in hacking sequence

(Image credit: 505 Games)

Despite Ghostrunner 2 being full of astounding settings and thrilling fight sequences, a couple of aspects weigh it down. In a few instances, I encountered rendering issues, which saw my character fly into a glitching maw of darkness, unsure where I was meant to go or if one step would send me flying off the map; I had to stay deathly still. This problem didn’t happen often, but combined with the long loading screens, pausing the fast-paced action can be quite frustrating. 

The problem lies in the random encounters with mere goons, which are made needlessly hard

There were also a couple of times when the difficulty became too much with no real sense of progression. One of the boss fights you come up against involves you fighting the Architect; this is an excruciating sequence that demands flawless accuracy and fast reactions. However, the difficulty here isn’t the issue; it’s a major boss fight. The problem lies in the random encounters with mere goons, which are made needlessly hard thanks to the layout you’re fighting in, and the groups of enemies attacking me.  

On a few occasions, I was forced to forgo the fast-paced fights for hiding behind barrels and waiting for my shuriken ability to charge up so I could take enemies out one at a time from a distance. This isn’t how you’re meant to play Ghostrunner 2, but sometimes all you need to do is progress, so cyber ninjitsu be damned. The worst part is that all this pain and hard work is ultimately useless, as all you’re rewarded with is an open door, and more enemies to fight off. Ghostrunner 2’s reward just isn’t worth the risk.  

Coming out on top 

Ghostrunner fighting an enemy

(Image credit: 505 Games)

Despite its fluctuating skill ceiling and occasional rendering issues, Ghostrunner 2 is still a fantastic thrill ride through a cybernetic and dystopian world. You not only get to enjoy the creative and marvellous settings but also get to know the group of humans striving to make Dharma Tower safe for all. While you don’t get to spend much face-to-face time with your team, you do get to have a chat over your intercom every now and then, usually whilst you’re fighting through hordes of undead wasteland creatures. It’s not a game-changing feature, but it does make for some nice background noise. 

If you’re a fan of fast-paced, action-packed games, then Ghostrunner 2 should be high up on your list of titles to check out. Its fluid fights, thrilling abilities, and fantastic visuals will keep you hooked from start to finish. 

All I’ll say before you dive in is to remember to take deep breaths often, and regardless of what happens, don’t take it out on your controller; it didn’t do anything to deserve being broken into a thousand pieces. 

Accessibility  

Ghostrunner 2 settings screenshot

(Image credit: 505 Games)

There isn’t a dedicated accessibility settings page in Ghostrunner 2. However, you can find some features that may help customize the game to your liking. For example, there are subtitles which you can change the size of. As well as turning the camera shake or the UI on or off. Otherwise, there is a combat assistance that you can use to help during brutal fights. Like the first game, this feature gives you a shorter cooldown for special skills, slower fights, and even the ability to take more than one hit.

How we reviewed

There aren’t various difficulty settings in Ghostrunner 2. However, I refrained from using combat assists to better understand how difficult this cybernetic slasher is. While I did manage to complete it, it wasn’t necessarily the cleanest run, as I replayed various sections a tear-inducing number of times. 

I also had some technical difficulties while playing through Ghostrunner 2. My PC isn’t the newest spring chicken, but with a 3070Ti, it can often handle everything thrown at it, so the hitches and stutters were disconcerting.  

For more thrilling fights, check out these best fighting games, as well as the best survival games, which are sure to keep you on your toes. 

Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 review – solid sneak
10:00 am |
Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming | Tags: , , | Comments: Off

Platform reviewed: PS5

Available on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC

Release date: October 24, 2023

It’s rare to see a series commit to a feeling as hard as the Metal Gear stealth games. Whether you’re diving into Metal Gear or Metal Gear Solid 2, you’ll fill the same role: a super-spy sneaking his way into an enemy stronghold with nothing on you but a pack of smokes and a will to succeed.

From there, each game plays out like an action-thriller, equal parts stealth and explosive violence as your operative pulls a thread and unravels a sprawling conspiracy as time ticks away. Often this will involve throwing down with some fantastic bosses and a few giant mechs too - the Metal Gears hinted at in the title. Meanwhile, the same motifs come up again and again: terse radio calls, military firepower, and that slightly anxious feeling in the pit of your stomach, the nervousness you get just before you get spotted in a neighborhood-sized game of hide-and-seek tag. 

Later games in the series amp up the cinematic production but also the intricacies of the stealth action and the combat - the latter of which making you feel like a cornered animal with your back to the wall, desperately trying to hit the enemy hard before scurrying back to a safe place to lick your wound and count your remaining ammo. But no matter how much extra computing power flows into the series, the original Metal Gear and the games that crept out after it never lost that core feeling of stealthy action.

Excuse the history lesson, but there’s no way around it. Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 packages up the first five games in the franchise into one bumper collection of tactical espionage action. This means you get Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, in addition to a heap of special features and regional add-ons like the superb VR Missions. These are re-releases rather than full remasters, so fans of the original games will find that they play exactly how you remember, and look a tiny bit shinier. 

A solid recommendation

Screenshot of Snake's face in Metal Gear Solid 3

(Image credit: Konami)

For new players, it’s hard to emphasize quite how influential the Metal Gear Solid games in particular were, and the good news is that they’ve mostly aged well, and are definitely worth picking up even now all these years later. Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 are top-down and have a sort of retro chic because they’re old enough to be the sort of games that current indies are trying to riff off of. Metal Gear Solid is the only one in the bunch to have aged badly, but there will still be a good audience for how difficult the stealth actually is here to pull off, compared to the more forgiving - and much more interesting - detection systems in Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3. 

In every case, the mechanical act of playing the game is tight and interesting. The systems here are every bit as solid as stealth games like Hitman, Combat still works. Later games have location based damage and you can take soldiers out of the fight by shooting their gun arm, or slow them down by hitting them in the legs. However, it's imprecise, so often you'll find something cool has happened by accident - a grenade you threw in panic has crippled a response team's ability to keep up with you, or a stray bullet meant for someone else has stopped a guard being able to shoot you. Better yet, hit an alert guard in the radio in Metal Gear Solid 2 and he'll be unable to report seeing you, keeping the alarm un-raised and giving you time to clean up your mess. 

Best bit

Snake hiding on board an oil tanker

(Image credit: Konami)

Metal Gear Solid 2’s tanker prologue was iconic then, and it’s iconic now. Sneaking around a rain-slick tanker’s deck picking off Russian Spetsnaz is a perfect example of how auteur Hideo Kojima obsesses over not just the vibe of his work, but also the way each mechanic interacts with each other. 

But the controls are where things start to suffer. Holding your gun ready to fire and moving requires you to hold two of the face buttons on your controller in tandem, and it’s often easier to move yourself into position to take out an enemy than to actually aim your weapon. Bizarrely, this works to make combat feel like something to be avoided, and it encourages you to get your sneak on. 

Although how you do that is up to you. Something quite incredible about all three of the Metal Gear Solid games included here is how intricate they are, and the options that they give you. Take the humble cardboard box. In Metal Gear Solid you can use it to hide yourself from enemies and surveillance cameras, but you can also use it to ship yourself around the Shadow Moses facility by stowing away on trucks like an early iteration of fast travel. You can even get a wolf to urinate on it, covering you in their scent so that wolves in the game no longer attack you. 

This is a recurrent theme - the intricate interactions, not the wolf urine. Although cardboard boxes do play a large part of every Master Collection game - who knew - there’s a huge number of simple systems that actually turn out to be incredibly complex, making the games feel impossibly deep even though they’re actually very simple.

Sneak and destroy

Solid snake hides in first area of Metal Gear Solid

(Image credit: Konami)

Soldiers in all three games feel intelligent but are actually very stupid indeed. They follow pre-set paths and behave in predictable ways, but the first time you’re cornered in Metal Gear Solid 2 and the game’s radar turns off to give way to a tight-angle shot of a squad clearing out the area they had previously trapped you in? You’ll jump to your feet. You’ll feel a rush of adrenaline that few games can match. Better yet, each of the stealth masterpieces have tight runtimes. Players used to the long-winded arcs of modern games will probably be stunned by how quickly Metal Gear Solid lets you get into the heart of its mystery, and it’s easily finishable in a handful of hours if you’re moving with purpose. The other games in the collection are the same: you get to the meat quickly, and then things keep moving at a steady pace until the credits roll. 

I don’t know how much I subscribe to auteur theory, but I will say Hideo Kojima and his team of collaborators managed to make one of the most interesting stealth games of all time with Metal Gear Solid, before doing it all over again with Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and then accidentally inventing the survival genre with the slightly lesser Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 10 years before anyone else. Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake are also worth playing, but don’t quite hit the same high notes. 

The games’ stories pinball between spy fiction and some absolutely ridiculous conspiracy theories and supernatural elements. It’s to the credit of the writing team that these twists always feel earned and no matter how ridiculous things get, most players will be along for the ride every step of the way. Where it gets grim are the archaic parts that fans have long tried to wave off as foibles of auteur Hideo Kojima. There’s no other word for it but gross when Metal Gear Solid hero Solid Snake celebrates sneaking into an enemy base by skeezing all over his school-age intelligence operator Mei Ling, before immediately changing tack to hit on the older doctor that was on the same call. It’s easy to see the tip of the hat to James Bond , but it feels less like leading-man charm and more like 007 had drunkenly staggered into a family reunion to try his luck with everyone he wasn’t related to. 

In Metal Gear Solid 2, Snake can hide inside a locker and kiss the posters of half-naked women taped inside with a loud lip-smacking noise. I grew up with these games, and I adore them even now, but it’s hard to defend the treatment and view of women in just about every game in the series. Metal Gear Solid 3 lets you switch to first-person mode during cutscenes just to look at the barely concealed chest of the KGB spy Eva during cutscenes. It won’t hinder most people’s enjoyment of the game, but this is the sort of thing that titillates teenagers, and as a man now in my mid-30s often spending cutscenes trying to shovel snacks into my mouth, I often found myself wishing Hideo Kojima and his team of writers had made their spies a little less horny and a lot more covert with their intentions.

Regardless, this collection is both a treasure trove in terms of video game preservation but also a terrific option for new players who are starved by the drought of top-notch stealth. While the fact these versions are a repackaged collection of the 2012 remasters may annoy some, there's no denying that every game here has stood the test of time, despite the fact half of the games included are over 25 years old. 

Dig in, they don’t do tactical espionage action like this anymore. 

Accessibility

Outside of basic subtitling, there's next to nothing here. Each of the games in the collection comes with its own option menu, but it's exclusively full of options to turn off blood or other details related to how the game works. Accessibility isn't catered for at all here. 

How we reviewed

I played through each of the games in the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 on PS5. This took around 35 hours, but I found I already had the muscle memory to get through most of the areas in Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2 promptly, massively reducing how much I had to puzzle or stealth my way through as long-optimized routes from over a decade ago appear to be seared into my brain.

I also tried several of the included extra content packs, which added more stealth but felt somewhat superfluous; a nice addition for players who  may feel the need to sneak even after the credits have rolled. 

If you're craving more sneaking, see how Assassin’s Creed Mirage is the series’ first true stealth game. For more general recommendations, check out the best single-player games on PC. 

Cities: Skylines 2 review – road to success
7:17 pm | October 19, 2023
Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets | Comments: Off
Review info

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC
Release date: October 24, 2023

Cities: Skylines 2 is the perfect stepping stone for those seeking world domination via industrialization, or those who simply want to explore and enjoy a fantastic city-building simulator. 

Usually, my biggest gripe with city-building sims is that they can be too realistic. This may sound counter-intuitive as some will enjoy the hardship, but, for me, it turns what should be an engaging and fascinating experience of creating a working metropolis into something that feels like homework. With a little cholera in the water pipes sprinkled in for good measure. 

Thankfully, this frustration is not the case in Cities: Skylines 2. While the 2015 predecessor had a relatively steep learning curve, the sequel is intuitive and easy to pick up. This is largely thanks to its fantastic UI, which helps explain every inch of city-building to the player seamlessly.

This means players are free to enjoy all the new features in Cities: Skylines 2 without worrying too much about the finer details. Now, you can build towering skyscrapers or bustling commercial districts without worrying about how each building will be connected to sewage, water, and electricity, as roads automatically link buildings to these utilities.

Serve your country 

Farm outside a city

(Image credit: Paradox Interactive)

This freedom means that you can really focus on the bigger picture in Cities: Skylines 2. At first, there’s a lot of joy in fine-tuning your small village with enough houses and shops to keep the cogs turning. However, as your town begins to grow, so do your ambitions. Suddenly, trade moves up your priority list, and you’ll start being interested in things like industrial actions and public services.  

Best Bit

Budget charts

(Image credit: Paradox Interactive)

When a surplus of materials and electricity meant I was finally profitable after sinking all my cash into a starter city. This affirming moment was when I realized I could actually do this - and I had some extra cash to flesh out my city's public services.  

What appealed to me in Cities: Skylines 2 was originally the city-building rather than the management. Usually, I put up with upkeep to simply finance the growth and design of my dream city, but this time, it’s different. I’ve found myself painstakingly tweaking service budgets, managing trade, and shifting taxes, all so everything works just right, providing enough money to upgrade services while keeping taxes fair. I never thought I could have so much fun managing trade and budgets, but here it’s more than compelling enough to keep me invested.

The main reason I can have so much fun fine-tuning these tiny details is all thanks to the brilliant UI, which makes tweaking services feel like second nature. It also helps that some brilliant charts can relay a large amount of information quickly and simply. With this at your fingertips, you can keep track of all your budgets, taxes, and exports or imports in the blink of an eye. Currently, I’m focusing on trading wood, electricity, and minerals, but recently, my software and finance industries have boomed, meaning that I’m slowly shifting my city's future from industrial to technology-minded. 

The detailed services and trading features don’t just make the process of city-building seem more realistic as the outside world plays a role in your experience, but they also give you something to do when you want to take a break from creating suburbs or financial districts. It bolsters out Cities: Skylines 2 and is one of my favorite features.

Small stories 

Townhouse with details on family

(Image credit: Paradox Interactive)

Apart from the beautiful charts and engaging trade systems, Cities: Skylines 2 also has the scope to tell some personable stories. I have over 60,000 residents currently in my city, Nika, and while most of the time I’m occupied with big-picture planning, sometimes I enjoy looking at the personal lives of my residents. 

Reading the complaints on the in-game social media platform can help you better understand the problems facing your community

Each citizen has a name, an occupation and, most likely, a family. This means you can drop in on any of the thousands of houses or apartments and check on the age, education, and, crucially, well-being of each dweller. You can even see which households have a pet, which is a small but sweet addition. 

The information available to players is yet another example of the high level of detail in Cities: Skylines 2. If you want to be involved in the lives of your residents, then you can check in on their needs pretty easily and shape the world around them to meet their needs. For example, if I have a block of flats with a lot of children, I make sure to build parks and elementary schools within walking distance. 

This gives every action you take significance; it’s hard not to want to do the best for your population when you can see them trying to live out their lives in the best way possible. It’s also fun to see their daily lives play out, and while it can get annoying at times, listening to the radio and reading the complaints on the in-game social media platform can help you better understand the problems facing your community. 

Call pest control 

Road networks

(Image credit: Paradox Interactive)

Unfortunately, it’s not all smooth sailing. During my time playing Cities: Skylines 2, I did encounter a couple of bugs and graphical issues. If I had the graphics set on high (the second highest option), the ability to move around the map and zoom in and out was considerably slowed, with it buffering most of the time. 

There were also some instances in which characters would phase through buildings or cars. One such moment involved me looking on in horror as a moose glided through traffic and walked straight into one of the terraced houses. It never left, and to this day, I still fear for the family inside. While this was pretty funny, it did take me out of the realistic experience slightly.

However, none of these bugs impacted my experience in Cities: Skylines 2 to any detriment, and they certainly don’t take away from what the game achieves. It’s also important to note that Paradox Interactive has admitted to these faults and promised that if they aren’t fixed on launch, they will be soon after.  

(Sky)scraping the barrel 

sky scrapers lit up at night

(Image credit: Paradox Interactive)

All in all, Cities: Skylines 2 succeeds in raising the bar for city-building sims. Features such as smart AI, which allows your population to make sensible choices in where they live, or brilliantly built trading and resource management systems, breathe life into this simulator game. 

There’s more than enough to keep you busy here for a very long time. Even after you’ve achieved the highest level for your city, there’s no stopping you from expanding and perfecting it. There are also multiple maps, and anyway you want to design your city is acceptable, so there’s a ton of replayability. 

If you’re a fan of city-building sims or want to get involved in the genre for the first time, then Cities: Skylines 2 is the game for you. It will guide you as much as you need it, without it feeling like someone breathing down your neck every time you create a road that can only be described as a hazard to public safety.

Accessibility  

options screenshot

(Image credit: Paradox Interactive)

While there aren’t any specific accessibility settings, there are a few tools that can help you tailor your experience in Cities: Skylines 2. You can change the quality of illuminations if the standard setting is too bright, toggle day/ night visuals if the darkness makes it hard to see, or change the UI style and transparency if the current one doesn’t work well for you. 

How we reviewed 

Before buying or installing Cities: Skylines 2, you should check out the performance requirements which were recently raised. I had a little problem playing the simulator on high settings with a 3070Ti, although moving rapidly around the map would cause slight buffering. Although, as soon as I changed the graphics settings to low, I stopped encountering any of these problems. 

After spending 25 hours in Cities: Skylines 2, I reached level 13 out of 20. At this point, I also unlocked almost every extra feature available in the skill trees. I’ve also gotten to the point where I’m close to opening up all the additional map space.  

If Cities: Skylines 2 sounds like your kind of game, then check out these other fantastic simulation games that are available to play right now. 

« Previous Page — Next Page »