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Ayn Odin 2 review – a portable powerhouse

3:54 pm | November 6, 2023

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Tags: Nintendo Switch | Comments: Off

Important note

Picture of the Ayn Odin 2 portable android gaming device — (Image credit: Future/Gerald Lynch)

Note that the Ayn Odin 2 doesn’t ship with any games and that the downloading and distributing of ROMs is a well-documented legal grey area. Please note the use of emulators may violate game developer and publisher terms and conditions as well as applicable intellectual property laws. TechRadar does not condone or encourage the illegal downloading of games or actions infringing copyright.

Building on the great work of its predecessor, the Ayn Odin 2 arrives as the premier handheld games console for anyone looking for an Android-based gaming device. It improves upon the original Ayn Odin in almost every way, from its faster chipset to its more ergonomic controls - not to mention capitalizing on the broader growth of Android as a gaming platform.

With the full Android app store at your disposal, the Odin 2 lets you tap into pretty much every conceivable aspect of gaming: whether you’re looking to stream from Xbox Game Pass, or fire up an old-school classic with emulators, it’s only limited by your patience to learn the intricacies of, and configure, varying gaming applications.

And that’s even before considering all the other handy Android things it can do, from streaming Netflix to browsing the web. There’s a lot to love - and a lot to get through, so let’s crack on with what makes it so great.

Ayn Odin 2 review - Price and availability

Like its very popular predecessor, the Ayn Odin 2 has been fully funded via an IndieGogo campaign. It's still available to order ahead of mass production, with early backers set to receive their units in December 2023, before it goes on general release.

The Ayn Odin 2 comes in three different configurations, with each also available currently at a pre-release early bird pricing. Here’s a rundown of every model and pricing level:

Odin 2 Base: 8GB RAM / 128GB storage, $332 / £274 (Early Bird pricing $294 / £242)
Odin 2 Pro: 12GB RAM / 256GB storage, $435 / £358 (Early Bird pricing $371 / £306)
Odin 2 Pro: 16GB RAM / 512GB storage, $511 / £422 (Early Bird pricing $447 / £369)

Five color schemes are available: a Wii-like white, a SNES-like grey with purple buttons, an all-black model, plus purple and blue transparent options. All other specs remain the same across all three models.

For this review, we’re looking at the Odin 2 Pro, the middle-of-the-range option. We’d say this is the sweet spot here for price to performance - while more storage is always welcome, you’ll be hard-pressed to find Android gaming experiences that take advantage of the 16GB of RAM found in the Max model.

The Ayn Odin 2 is on the premium end of the scale for Android devices of this kind but is priced favorably against similarly-spec’d Android smartphones, and doesn’t look too bad against the attractively-priced Steam Deck either - though that Linux-based PC gaming device, while serving a similarly entertaining purpose, is quite a different proposition in practice.

In addition, Ayn offers a ‘Super Dock’, a USB-C dock ($64 / £53) for hooking up external displays and controllers. However, a standard USB-C dock gets the job done just as well.

Ayn Odin 2 review - Design and features

The Ayn Odin 2 is, effectively, an Android phone wrapped in a gaming controller. That’s not as unusual a concept as it was when the original Ayn Odin launched in early 2022, with many rivals (such as the Anbernic RG552) and controller grips for your smartphone (like the BackBone One) available. But the Ayn Odin 2 beats out all these alternatives, and its trail-blazing forebear, thanks to excellent ergonomics and powerful internals.

Let’s look at what’s going on inside first. Every model of the Ayn Odin 2 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, with a 64-bit Kyro CPU and Adreno 740 GPU. It’s a beefy chipset - though it’s coming up to a year old, it’s still one of the most high-performance options out there, similar to the guts behind flagship devices including this year’s Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Depending on the model you opt for, that’s backed by 8GB, 12GB, or 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB of built-in storage. The 12GB / 256GB Pro model we’re reviewing is the sweet spot between price and performance in our eyes. Storage expansion is easily afforded via a microSD slot.

It’s no slouch in connectivity terms, too. A speedy and stable Wi-Fi 7 connection makes for a super game streamer from services like Game Pass, while Bluetooth 5.3 is onboard for hooking up wireless controllers and gaming earbuds. There’s no cellular connection here despite the smartphone-like underpinnings, but there is a gyroscopic sensor for any apps that support them.

The build holds up just as well externally. A solid 6-inch 1080p touchscreen display in landscape orientation sits in the center of the device. It’s colorful and responsive, and reasonably bright, too - though, strangely, there isn’t a huge degree of difference between its brightest and dimmest setting, which can be slightly annoying during late-night play.

The Ayn Odin 2 uses Hall Sensor analog sticks in an asymmetrical (Xbox-style) arrangement. Hall Sensors use electrical resistance rather than physical contact between parts to interpret movement, and are excellently smooth in operation, protected from the dreaded stick-drift that’s plagued Nintendo’s Switch over the years. Adjustable LED lights, which can be set to any RGB color with adjustable brightness, sit both under the joysticks and around the edges of the device. They add some flair to an otherwise reserved design but can be switched off entirely if you find them distracting.

An excellent D-Pad, perfect for a swift Street Fighter shoryuken, sits under the left stick, while well-sized A, B, X, and Y buttons, arranged in the Nintendo style, sit above the right stick. These buttons are a touch smaller than you’d find on an Xbox or PlayStation pad, but have just the right amount of resistance, and are responsive in play. They’re very similar to what you’d find on a Steam Deck. Start and Select buttons sit at the top of the front face, and are easily reachable. Stereo speakers sit along the lower edge and are surprisingly loud and clear given the size of the device.

For anyone familiar with the Ayn Odin 2, there are two significant changes. The first is a physical ‘Return’ (or ‘Back’) button below the right analog stick (a ‘Home’ button sits below the D-Pad on the left-hand side). This Return button wasn’t present on the last model and is a handy additional way of navigating the Android interface without resorting to swipes and touchscreen gestures (the more you can avoid touching the screen, the less often you’ll be cleaning fingerprints off it).

The second, and perhaps more important change, is the overall depth of the device. The controller grips are deeper than the previous model, and though it makes for a fatter device, it also makes for a more comfortable one. It gives you more to wrap your fingers around, giving you a better hold of the device, and easing fatigue over long play sessions. It’s a fair trade against making for a bigger overall device.

Around the top edge, you’ll find the R1 and L1 buttons, and analog R2 and L2 triggers, capable of discerning between slight taps and full presses. Along the top is also a volume rocker and a fingerprint-scanning power button, a microSD slot, a micro HDMI-out for hooking up to a TV, and a vent for pumping hot air from the internal fan.

The bottom of the device keeps things simple with a 3.5mm headphone jack and USB-C 3.1 charging port. That port also features Display Port out functionality, letting you easily hook it up to a monitor and power from a single cable.

Turn the device over and you’ll find a large air intake grille, with an active cooling fan keeping the Odin 2 from getting too toasty. Sitting where your fingertips rest are two programmable buttons which can be set as shortcut buttons.

With measurements of 8.9in x 3.9in x 0.7in / 225mm x 98mm x 17mm and a weight of 15.17oz / 420g, it’s not a pocketable handheld, and a touch chunkier than the original Odin. But its weight distribution and ergonomic grips mean it’s comfortable to play with for hours without much strain. It’s way more portable than a Steam Deck, at any rate.

Overall it’s an impressively comfortable and well-constructed build. There’s no sense of flex to the chassis, smooth travel to all buttons, and no worries about the device overheating, even under the most intense load.

Ayn Odin 2 review - Interface

The Ayn Odin 2 runs off a relatively bloat-free version of Android 13 - so you get full access to the Google Play Store, pre-installed Chrome, the standard Android file browser, and other stock Android apps. You could essentially just live in this view of the device. But Ayn has also tweaked Android with some smart gaming-focused additions courtesy of the pre-installed Odin launcher.

Accessed initially like any other app, it makes for something approaching a more console-like interface. Apps are arranged into a grid and can be organized and sorted by category type (such as Games, Entertainment, and Productivity). Swiping from the left lets you access these different app groupings, as well as letting you tweak the RGB lighting and cycle through three different performance modes for when you want to push the chip a bit harder. Swipe from the right and you can access connectivity options, check storage, tweak brightness, clear the RAM cache, and change device behavior when hooked up to an external screen. The aforementioned performance options, LED settings connectivity and brightness tweaks can be accessed by swiping from the top too, as well as letting you cycle through three fan settings (plus switching them off). However I rarely found the need to go beyond the default performance and fan settings, such is the power and thermal efficiency of the chipset. If you like what the Odin launcher offers, you can set the device to launch straight into it from boot.

When in an app, a swipe from the right also opens up a performance overlay. Here you can check FPS readouts, temperature readings, CPU and RAM usage, and another brightness slider, as well as live streaming app shortcuts, screenshots, and screen capture options. There’s another RAM cache toggle here too, plus a notifications toggle. But the most important part of this interface is the keymapping software - turn it on, and you get a drag-and-drop interface that lets you tie the device’s physical buttons to touch-only games’ touchscreen buttons. It’s a great, intuitive feature that works really well, with profile support letting you test out any number of button mappings for each game.

The joy of being Android based of course is that there are plenty of other ways to customize the device, from home screens to widgets. If you’re running lots of apps, streaming services, or emulated retro games, it’s worth considering configuring a front-end launcher, which can be used to organize your apps and games into a jukebox-like library, complete with game box art, manuals, and other metadata. I’ve had great fun using the Daijishō retro launcher (free, pictured up top) and Launchbox (free, with in-app purchases). But remember that a side effect of tapping into the many apps available, created by different developers, means the experience isn’t as unified as you’d get with a traditional console.

Ayn Odin 2 review - Performance and battery life

If it runs on Android, it runs on the Ayn Odin 2. It’s the best possible praise you can give a device like this - no matter what you throw at it, the Ayn Odin 2 will take it on at the maximum performance settings.

If you’ve got a mind to indulge in retro gaming emulation, there’s no better Android device out there. Using apps like Retroarch or standalone emulators, you’ll be able to play anything from 8-bit classics up through and beyond the 128-bit sixth-generation consoles like the Gamecube and PS2. Not only that, there’s enough power to considerably upscale these later-day systems, as high as 4K resolutions for outputting on a 4K TV. Though the original Odin could touch upon these 3D systems, performance was a mixed bag, and upscaled resolutions of these advanced consoles would cause the Odin to stutter. Here, it’s almost flawless - better in some ways even, than on original hardware, given the resolution bumps.

The complicating factor, beyond the legal grey area emulation sits in, is that the apps that make this possible aren’t always immediately intuitive. But the retro handheld scene is a growing one, and you’ll find plenty of guides and documentation online to talk you through getting started if you’re interested.

High-end Android gaming is a breeze with the Ayn Odin 2, too. Demanding titles like Call of Duty Mobile, Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, and Diablo Immortal can be run at their highest resolutions and graphical settings without dropping frames. More lightweight games like Vampire Survivors benefit from a traditional physical control scheme. And if you’re not a fan of touchscreen controls, you can use the launcher’s keymapping tools to bring the physical controls into play on games even where they’d otherwise be unsupported.

If you want to play the latest console or PC games, they’re not out of reach either, provided you’re set up with subscriptions to streaming services. I had lots of fun streaming titles directly from my Xbox Series X and PS5 to the Odin 2, as well as from the cloud over Game Pass and Nvidia GeForce Now. Wi-Fi 7 ensures a smooth experience provided your broadband speed is up to the task, and latency is an increasingly minor side effect of the non-native gaming experience.

Taking streaming into account, the Odin 2 has the potential to be a whistlestop tour from the earliest days of gaming right through to modern releases, and being able to have them all on one portable device feels like magic.

And of course, being an Android device, other experiences are open to you, too. You’ll be able to browse the web, stream films from Disney Plus or Netflix, listen to music and audiobooks, catch up on your YouTube subscriptions, plug in a keyboard and mouse, and much more. Like I said - if it runs on Android, it runs on Ayn Odin 2.

As for the battery, it’s a whopper. With a capacity of 8,000mAh, it’ll last as long as 24 hours between charges. It’ll vary depending on the intensity of the application you’re using. A retro gaming session will take baby sips at the juice, while high-end Android games or 3D emulation will see it drain far quicker - perhaps as quickly as six or seven hours. But even at the low end of the scale that’s a respectable performance. You’ll get a full recharge in around two hours with 65W quick charge. Regardless, the Ayn Odin is going to be an excellent travel companion.

Should I buy the Ayn Odin 2?

Whether you’re looking to play the latest, most graphically-intensive Android games, stream from your console or the cloud, or tap into gaming’s rich past through its wide-ranging emulation capabilities, the Ayn Odin 2 puts awesome power at your fingertips. Take the time to learn the Odin 2’s every trick and you’ll be unlikely to ever need another handheld.

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested the Ayn Odin 2

I spent two weeks with the Ayn Odin 2, using it daily as my main gaming machine during that period. I tested it with Android gaming apps including Call of Duty Mobile, Vampire Survivors, and Genshin Impact, streaming apps such as Xbox Game Pass and Moonlight, as well as emulator apps including multi-system emulator Retroarch.

I was also able to take the Odin 2 away on a flight during a trip to put its portability and battery life through its paces, as well as compare its performance directly against the first-generation Odin, which I previously reviewed for TechRadar and have also used extensively over the past year.

For more portable options, see how the Odin 2 compares to the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite, and Nintendo Switch OLED.

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: Black Friday, PC | 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

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.

Football Manager 2024 review – extra time

6:00 pm | November 2, 2023

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Comments: Off

Review info

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
Release date: November 6, 2023

When football fans talk about the beautiful game, there’s a pretty good chance they’re not talking about football, but management simulator Football Manager, a grand strategy game about looking after a real-world football team and taking them to glory. Football Manager 2024 is the latest in the series, and there are so many spreadsheets here you’ll truly feel like you’re a key part of a huge, unfathomable business.

Never played? Football Manager 2024 and the games preceding it put you into the shoes of the manager of a football team, trying to balance the transfer and wage budgets to bring in the right players while ensuring you’re keeping your squad happy and training well enough to perform. Get it right, and your team is a well-oiled machine capable of taking on the world. Get it wrong, and your team is still a well-oiled machine, but that machine is a motorized scooter barely capable of taking on a drive to the supermarket.

Endless possibilities

Screenshot from Football Manager 2024 — (Image credit: Sports Interactive)

You can control pretty much any team in existence, too. Want to play as minnows Maidstone in the Vanarama South League right down the pyramid? You can do that and take them all the way to winning a Premier League title or winning the Champions League final, with Harry Kane scoring the winner. I did this last year, in fact. Want to control Manchester City and spend your countless millions on every player you’ve ever imagined? Paris St Germain? Hemel Hempstead? Catania? Nearly every team is in here, and nearly every player you’ve heard of, too, in addition to a host of those you haven’t.

If you’re coming to a Football Manager game for the first time, you may well feel like you’re drowning. If you’re already one of the Football Manager faithful - hello, me too, sorry for the lost nights of sleep - you already know you’re going to buy this. But read on, at least while the game’s downloading, because a few new systems are ticking away under the hood that will change your experience, even if I can’t say I’m 100% certain it’s worth buying the latest title in the franchise just because of the new additions.

New signings

Screenshot of home screen in Football Manager 2024 — (Image credit: Sports Interactive)

There are a few tentpole features: a new - more complicated - set piece creator, smarter transfers and finances from AI managers, and the ability to incentivize your players with performance targets.

The set piece creator is probably the most involved change, but I found it worked best when I answered the game’s opening questions about my tactical style and then delegated it to my assistant manager (and later, a set piece coach). There’s an unprecedented level of control here for set pieces, but it’s going to take time and tinkering to get the best out of it, and I’m not quite there yet, even with a couple of weeks and more than two dozen hours of game time spent trying to figure it out.

In reality, the thing that will have the biggest impact on your game is the changes to how transfers and finances are worked out. I’ve noticed a lot more movement in the league. I always play a team from the Vanarama South League in order to complete the journey all the way up the pyramid to the Premier League, and I have found that my youth players are being approached for trials far more often than in previous entries. In contrast, my younger first-team players are being chased more often. It’s always been the case that approaching a free agent often meant other teams would leap into action to try and sign their services, and that is still happening here, but other clubs also seem to be trying to sign players that fit with their tactics at least.

You’ve been able to make promises to your players for several iterations now, but now players can make promises to you, and you can work together to set goals for players who are perhaps not pulling their weight. This often gives you a way to ditch members of your squad without them getting in a grump, but it’s a very niche tool.

Tactics screenshot from Football Manager 2024 — (Image credit: Sports Interactive)

Best bit

Screenshot of manager of the year post from Football Manager 2024 — (Image credit: Sports Interactive)

Winning the league is incredible, no matter who you’re playing as or how you lift the trophy. You’ll learn to love these faceless players and will feel proud of your little collection of pixels.

Elsewhere, you can play with a new real-world transfer option that will see the game ape real-world transfers from the first summer, with players dropping in as and when they do in the real world, and there are even intermediaries that can try to flog off players that aren’t working out, or you’ve just decided you hate for no real reason. These are all nice additions, but they add extra options rather than redefining the way that Football Manager 2024 plays.

Ball physics, lighting, and player movements have been given a bit of polish too, and it means you’ll see some screaming goals and also get a much sharper sense of how a match is going if you have your highlights turned on. However, much like the other additions, it’s all more window dressing than anything else. The data crunching underneath each match feels largely the same, even with the addition of more positional rotations and a new inverted full-back player role.

Look, I’ve played every Football Manager since 2010. For a month every year, I lose a chunk of time playing the game, and not all of them are big winners. It’s hard to tell them apart, year on year, much like the FIFA - sorry, EA FC - titles. Football Manager 2024 is an iterative release in a series that gets a pass for not moving too quickly because the yearly update brings the new players and squads that are so prized. So, many people will buy Football Manager 2024 anyway.

Scores of details

My constant argument, a hill I’ll die on, is that Football Manager is still a cracking strategy game, even if you’re not that into football. The man management and the idea of putting a squad together to execute a plan is unlike anything else on the market; if you’ve played Crusader Kings 3 and found yourself buying into the fortunes of a family in Iberia during the Middle Ages, you’ll fall in love with Football Manager 2024. I took a break between writing this sentence and the last to scream in joy as Scott Quigley - a real-world footballer for Eastleigh - scored on his debut for my team, Hemel Hempstead, earning us a crucial win.

There are several interlocking systems that you’ll try to manipulate for success, too. You’ll have to dig into things like the size of your pitch, the surprisingly political task of assigning shirt numbers, and even where the squad goes to train during the summer. The highlight has to be the Sisyphean task of keeping your team in top form, at all times, in every way. As well as when your players age, as their skills wax and wane, and the team’s stature in the footballing world changes too. This means watching how your players train and perform is a constant priority, with the matches you play serving as a constant reminder of how well you’re doing.

Football Manager 2024 will also, for the first time, allow you to load saves from a previous game. This means you can load your Football Manager 2023 save if you want to take advantage of the all-new features. However, it’s soon to be all change: developers Sports Interactive have previously claimed that from Football Manager 2025, they’ll be building the game in Unity, meaning it could be all change for the all-star management simulator.

In the meantime, though, Football Manager 2024 looks strong and competent, even if it’s not going to bring home any new silverware. Fans will love it, but for everyone looking for a strategy kick? I promise, Football Manager 2024 is a blast and will eat your life if you let it.

Accessibility features

Preferences menu from Football Manager 24 — (Image credit: Sports Interactive)

It’s mostly a game of looking at nicely presented spreadsheets and walls of text, so things will generally move at a pace that works for you. However, outside of options allowing you to choose how spaced-out the user interface is, there’s not a lot here to allow you to tweak the experience to your liking. Those who struggle with dense text on screen may have difficulty.

How we reviewed Football Manager 24

I played 30 hours of Football Manager 2024, with five hours spent managing my beloved West Ham United, and the rest of the time managing Hemel Hempstead, getting them promoted from both the Vanarama South and Vanarama National leagues (the lower echelons of the English football pyramid). Before this year’s game, Steam’s hours played count, and some quick maths suggest I’ve played nearly a thousand hours of Football Manager since Football Manager 2010.

I’ve just realized how much time that is, and I am not happy about it.

Looking for more inspiration? Then check out our guides to the best PC games and best PC strategy games you can play right now.

WarioWare: Move It! review – innovative and ambitious

5:01 pm | November 1, 2023

Author: admin | Category: Computers Consoles & PC Gadgets Gaming Nintendo | Tags: Nintendo Switch | 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.

Jusant review – vertical limit

6:30 pm | October 31, 2023

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Comments: Off

Review info

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: October 31, 2023

Don’t Nod’s climbing adventure game Jusant has an epic tower at its center that has the same hypnotic pull on me as that of the best video game mountains. Be it the epic peaks or sweeping mountain ranges, whenever I see a huge mountain in a game, my first thought is: ‘I’m absolutely going to climb that’. And Jusant’s impossibly tall structure that sits right at the heart of the game is no different.

Playing as a young traveler, you're tasked with vertically traversing this colossal structure with nothing but your climbing gear and a watery alien friend to lend a hand. The goal of this endeavor is to reach the top, navigating your way up the tower’s treacherous cliff face while piecing together its mysterious past. Those not keen on heights might want to sit this one out, as Jusant majestically captures the dizzying thrills but also quiet reflections found in climbing.

The climbing can be as simple as maneuvering through the man-made structures that are scattered throughout the tower - the only things left of a lost civilization - but for the most part you’ll be using the natural grip holds of the rock face together with your own tools and climbing techniques. Abseiling, wall running, and rope swinging are all part of your move set, but the most nerve-shredding is Jusant's jump where you hold down a button to power up before launching yourself in the desired direction, and then scramble to find purchase when you connect with the wall again. It's wonderful, if terrifying and Jusant's climbs have plenty of heart-racing thrills - and frightening drops.

Get a grip

Screenshot from climbing game Jusant — (Image credit: Don't Nod)

Thankfully, there's no way you can plummet to your death if you do mess up a maneuver. You’re always attached to the rock face thanks to your trusty rope, and pitons you can bang into the wall, a safety feature and vital progress saver if you mistime a jump. However, both have their limitations. Your trusty lifeline is not infinite, meaning if it runs out mid-climb you'll need to back up and find a more efficient route to your destination. You only have four pitons so you need to be strategic when using them on long stretches of climbs. And finally, there’s your stamina meter which depletes as you climb. You can partially refill it by resting regularly, but you'll need to find solid ground to stand on for it to completely replenish. All these restrictions mean that you need to carefully plan your route, mentally mapping how you’re going to navigate tricky stretches as well as how to overcome environmental obstacles. You're essentially trying to solve one big vertical puzzle.

Sometimes solutions won’t present themselves until you're mid-climb, and that’s where Jusant’s flair for drama kicks in. On top of figuring out what climbing technique is best for this situation, how many pitons you've got, and how much rope you have left, you also need to grapple with the game's control scheme. Jusant takes influence from 2015's climbing game Grow Home, where the controller's two triggers control each of the character’s grip - the left trigger for the left hand, and the right trigger for the right hand. This means as you climb, you need to keep switching between triggers as the traveler climbs the wall. It’s an incredibly tactile climbing system, and there's always a constant underlying tension that if you let go, they let go.

Best bit

Jusant’s environments get more treacherous the further up the tower you go, putting all your acquired climbing knowledge to the test. Each stretch of the climb you complete - no matter how short - feels like a massive triumph, especially when up against an onslaught of elements like heat, wind, and rain.

Everything comes together to create some sensational climbing sequences, and you can feel the drama from the tips of your fingers through to your toes. In moments of pure adrenaline as I hurled myself at a ledge I wasn’t sure I could reach, I gripped the controller like my life depended on it. My toes would curl when I mistimed a jump and ended up slamming into rocky wall. My heart leapt into overdrive at one point when I had to climb over the side of a cliff face that was so vertical the climber was forced to use only their hands while his feet dangled into oblivion. My entire body would sigh with relief as I pulled myself to safety over the last ledge after a long stretch of treacherous climbing. Jusant has a wonderful way of connecting with your body - it’s incredibly visceral.

Jusant isn’t a complete thrill ride, though. When you get into the rhythm of climbing - sensing it’s time to put in a piton for safety, the rhythmic switching of left to right, making careful and informed decisions based on the rock face - there’s a genuine feeling of flow. Between the nerve-shredding jumps and dizzying heights, there’s a sense of peace, too. Taking the time to plan your route and then carefully carrying it out step by step has its own quiet satisfactions, and together with the game’s peaceful music, it can be incredibly serene.

Catch your breath

Most of Jusant is pretty sensational, but there are some frustrating moments. When exploring on foot, the climber easily clips into objects and can accidentally wedge themselves in environmental nooks and crannies if you’re not careful. There’s also a mechanic (that thankfully doesn’t hang around) where little light creatures can boost you a short way up the rock face. You'll be connecting with the tower's critters on your journey, but this particular instance feels lofty and fumble-prone, not fitting in well with the game’s overall appreciation of careful and accurate climbing.

Making mistakes stings and losing progress on a climb can be disheartening, but it often happened when I wasn’t paying enough attention or was too keen to finish a long stretch. Jusant is a game that can't be brute forced, and the sooner you learn that the fewer mistakes you’ll make.

The environment tells a quiet history too, with peculiar sights like boats nestled into parts of the tower hundreds of feet from the ground

There's also Jusant's story, a big contributor to the game's more tranquil moments. You're ascending but also exploring, poking in and around the long-abandoned villages and rickety structures embedded into the tower. Letters and notes scattered around these living spaces tell the story of the civilization that once lived here and, eventually, decided to leave. The environment tells a quiet history too, with peculiar sights like boats nestled into parts of the tower hundreds of feet from the ground, and caverns filled with plantlife that usually thrives under the ocean. I enjoyed finding these oddities, but the tower's elusive history might have been better told if Dont Nod let the environment do the talking, instead of pages upon pages of text.

Regardless, Jusant’s story hits home. It tells the tale of returning to a place long forgotten and restoring something that was once lost, a pursuit the young traveler finds so important that they'll undertake this mammoth venture. Together with its tactical climbing system, heart-racing thrills, and tranquil reflections, Jusant's climbing adventure is pretty epic, and definitely its own endeavor worth pursuing.

Accessibility features

Jusant has a handful of accessibility options. You can completely remap the layouts for controllers as well as keyboard & mouse inputs. Game text size can be altered (and there’s also a dyslexic font option). Hints and mechanics reminders can be toggled if you find them interruptive and the level of camera shake can be adjusted and set to auto-follow if needed.

How we reviewed Jusant

I played Jusant for around 12 hours: my first play-through took five hours, and then I replayed levels from a chapter menu to find all the secrets and collectibles in a second playthrough which took me around seven hours. I played on PC with an Xbox controller. The game recommends playing with a controller which is something I echo, notably for game feel rather than for any particular practical reasons.

If you're looking for more small adventures check out our rundowns of the best indie games, and best cozy Switch games too.

Robocop: Rogue City review – aye, robot

5:51 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Tags: Mortal Kombat | Comments: Off

Review information

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: November 2, 2023

It only takes the length of the pulse-pounding TV station shootout that kicks off first-person shooter Robocop: Rogue City for you to feel like ol’ chrome dome himself. Whether it’s the recognizable Auto-9 in your hand, the clunking gait, or just the fact your 9mm pistol is blowing off limbs with spurts of claret, it’s immediately apparent that this isn’t just another run-of-the-mill shooter, but a faithful adaptation of the Robocop universe.

Rogue City makes a hell of a first impression, and while it doesn’t deliver on its promises all of the time, it’s charming and full of ambition. It’s also a hell of a lot of fun, a combination of my own personal nostalgia and the fact that it’s a very solid shooter that constantly mixes up what you’re fighting against. There are, however, a lot of bugs here - I had to restart at a checkpoint several times because a gate wouldn’t open or a hidden enemy was blocking progression, and when that happened I was happy with the generous checkpointing. Elsewhere, some assets were in Polish and had not been translated, and at the start of one gunfight, I strafed left and dropped through the world.

These experiences showed off the game’s low-budget status, but they didn’t really hinder my enjoyment.

If you’ve never seen RoboCop, it’s a dystopian vision of the '80s but flung into the future. It’s 2043 in Detroit, Michigan, and capitalism has won. The police force is privatized and Robocop is a, er, robot cop. It’s a vision of 2043 where people still use VCRs and payphones, a terrible future where the criminals are all tremendously evil people and nuance is just a thing Robocop has crushed under his big metal feet on the way to gunning down another perpetrator.

The Robocop of the films immediately feels like a video game character already, with an unlimited ammo sidearm built into his leg, nigh-invulnerability, and a built-in targeting visor that highlights enemies and has a little heads-up display too. As a result, developers Teyon have merely lent into this and given us a faithful rendition.

He’s the cop that can’t be stopped

Robocop: Rogue City screenshot — (Image credit: Nacon)

In the original trilogy of films, it’s all a satire - although I try to forget the terrible Robocop 3 exists - and the game is clearly swinging for that same position. This is, ultimately, a story about corporate greed and the militarization of police that’s as relevant today as it was back in the late 80s. It doesn’t quite have the same bite of Verhoeven’s original movie, but it feels like a facsimile of this, and the branching storylines and skill-specific dialogue options remind me of Alpha Protocol, an unsung classic that I suspect will be joined in the cult status basket by Robocop: Rogue City.

This story is set between Robocop 2 and 3 and does a much better job of capping things off than the third movie, and it’s incredibly compelling. Welling returns to give his likeness and voice to the role of Robocop, a role he’s returned to for KFC commercials and an appearance in Mortal Kombat 11, but hasn’t been the lead in since 1990’s Robocop 2.

Best bit

A shootout at an arms fair highlights everything Robocop: Rogue City is best at. The flimsy walls come apart under the heavy gunfire and explosives while you can get your hands on some of the meatiest weapons in the game, even hurling prototype missiles at your opponents. It’s an arena shooter moment in the best way.

When you’re not blasting baddies you’re digging into investigations and exploring a chunk of downtown Detroit in a hub world that you’ll revisit time and again. This is most involved the first time and has you solving murders, investigating an arcade, and issuing citations for crimes, with the choice often being a binary one of warning the criminal or fining them for their misdemeanor. This can be a little agonizing because the area is decently sized and Robocop moves slowly, but it’s almost like the game is bored of serving this up to you too because there are fewer and fewer of them each time you revisit the hub.

Combat feels pretty distinct in Robocop: Rogue City too. Part of this is down to your sluggish movement and the fact you feel like a tank, with even sustained small-arms fire being barely an inconvenience. Enemies will throw grenades at you or open up with heavy machine guns and sniper rifles to do damage, but generally in the early days, you’re free to move through combat in a fairly relaxed way, a predator amongst a pool of enemies that really can only hope to overwhelm you with numbers.

Later, you’ll fight more heavily armed gangs, corporate mercenaries, and even a variety of different robots, but the power curve is often just about right and you never feel outmatched, at worst it’s just harried by the enemies that have the sheer insolence to try and bring you down.

Of course, Robocop’s iconic Auto-9 is the star of the show. This would have happened regardless - the three-round burst is iconic and makes an absolute mess of enemies. But the game has a ridiculously convoluted upgrade system for the sidearm that means you can power it up and ensure it’s a high-quality weapon throughout. Elsewhere, every weapon from the Robocop series shows up for a little bit, whether it’s the Steyr Aug’s used by megacorp OCP, junky submachine guns, and even the iconic Cobra assault cannon, used in one memorable scene.

There’s an RPG-lite skill system that gives you percentage-based increases to different stats (the worst), which is a series of linear paths with unlocks given when you hit certain milestones. These are often very powerful: max out your armor and not only will you negate 50 percent of your damage, but all small arms fire will also ricochet off you, hitting nearby enemies. Max out your health and you’ll regenerate 75 percent of your health without needing healing items.

As you can see, I built my Robocop in the “being a tank” style, but I felt like the combat was already punchy enough. I also put a lot of points into scanning so I could ricochet bullets around corners to hit enemies - a cool idea that rarely works in the game as I just throw explosives at anyone silly enough to hide and most enemies just assault you regardless - and deduction which gave me a 30 percent experience point boost, which is incredibly useful but very boring to write about. It’s a lightweight system but like everything else in Robocop: Rogue City punches way above its weight class.

You can feel this particularly in how authentic the game feels. Whether it’s in how “Robocop” you feel as the leading man, the exhausting police griping in the station, or even just the way everyone in a suit is trying to ruin your day. It also looks the part, whether that’s the grainy scanlines when you hold right-click to enable Robocop-vision or just the haze coming off the streets. It’s also clearly made by fans, because there are a lot of fan-serving moments here, both in terms of some impressive boss fights but also in terms of beats of dialogue and even some of the areas you’ll throw down in.

At times, Rogue City feels like a five-star game. Flashes of brilliance that go above and beyond what I’d expect. Sadly, the lack of budget means that things feel unpolished and occasionally cheap. Again, it doesn’t hinder my enjoyment, but with a little extra polish, this could have been an all-timer, instead of a faithful adaptation of the franchise.

Still, perhaps that’s fitting. The game here feels like Robocop himself, a shiny exterior sitting on top of a mechanically sound but clunky chassis, backed up with a human side that elevates the mechanical.

Accessibility

There’s no dedicated accessibility menu here and the offering is fairly weak. Subtitles can be turned on and off and there are options to lessen screen shake, but that’s about your lot. There’s also a toggle to reduce how loud Robocop’s footsteps are, which may not seem useful now but is likely to feel incredibly worthwhile after playing the game for ten hours.

How we reviewed Robocop: Rogue City

I played Robocop: Rogue City for 13 hours on PC, finishing the main campaign, every quest, and only missing out one secret area - I have 25 of 27 achievements for the game so I feel like I’ve seen pretty much all of it.

There’s no New Game+ mode or anything of the sort, so it feels very much like a one-and-done game.

Want even more game recommendations? Visit our list of the best FPS games or the best free 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: PC | 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.

Quantum Error review – playing with fire

5:00 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Gaming | Tags: Dead Space | Comments: Off

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: November 3, 2023

Quantum Error is a cosmic horror shooter action game from TeamKill Media that has a very original premise, one that I’m surprised hasn’t been explored more in games: putting you in the boots of a firefighter and having you utilize their specialist skills and tools.

You are Jacob Thomas, an accomplished firefighter Captain. On a regular search and rescue fire mission that goes south - and spookily supernatural - you soon become stranded in a research facility and have to rely on your distinct firefighter skills as well as the weapons you find on-site. Throughout the adventure, you'll need to save employees, liaise with survivors, and find out what’s at the heart of a cosmic horror nightmare - all while confronting terrorists and otherworldly monsters.

Quantum Error is an intriguing horror game that’s well done, uses the PS5's DualSense controller smartly, has robust weapons, and deploys its firefighter USP terrifically. However, frustrations affecting pacing, progression, gunplay, and art direction hold the game back.

Fanning the flames

Screenshot from cosmic horror action game Quantum Error — (Image credit: TeamKill Media)

Quantum Error’s setup is a mix of original and familiar. The former is the concept of being a stranded firefighter in a high-tech facility, trying to save lives, find your crew, and rely on your vocational talents and tools to get to the bottom of a dark mystery. The familiar part is quite familiar, however: a solo protagonist, cut off from their team, is on a rescue mission gone wrong and must navigate a dark and mysterious facility taking on terrorists and supernatural enemies with whatever tools they can find. This gives Quantum Error some particularly strong Dead Space vibes, making protagonist Jacob reminiscent of Isaac, the frontman of EA's own seminal sci-fi horror series.

The meat of the game is set in the 22nd century at the Monad Quantum Research Facility, an installation on the cutting edge of quantum travel. You traverse multiple floors of the Monad, following objectives and uncovering information, but there’s no strong USG-Ishimura-type sense of place here. It’s rather monotonous and samey by design, and unfortunately, a lot of the Monad is just too dark to appreciate. The approach in Quantum Error does seem to be ‘more dark = more scare’. However, the darkness also helps reinforce the sensation of Jacob being alone and isolated which ramps up the fear factor. It still successfully gives you the jumps when hearing cries or whispers in the distance or rounding a corner and getting rushed by an enemy. Skulking around the corridors and rooms of the Monad is rewarding, too, offering the chance to find new weapons, resources, or even NPCs to save. Some of the side quests to rescue folks are particularly enjoyable to pull off, and it’s always satisfying to solve a puzzle using your firefighter's brain or lead stranded Monad employees to escape points.

Jacob's face in Quantum Error — (Image credit: TeamKill Media)

Several well-designed and helpful safe spaces throughout the Monad facility help Jacob survive, along with plenty of resources and ammo to assist your journey through each zone: Firewings and armories offer safe rooms in which to stock up, change your suit depending on the specific fire or damage resistance you need, and upgrade your weapons (with the firmware resource found throughout the game); and ARGUS (Advanced Retinal Global Unity System) sites provide place to upgrade Jacob and to save progress. A mysterious substance called ‘quintessence’ - introduced to you without comment, somewhat frustratingly - is used to upgrade Jacob’s stats, and overall, his personal and weapon upgrades are pleasingly simple and streamlined - there are no branching skill trees here, just good old-fashioned numbers that you can make bigger.

The healing system is particularly satisfying to use. Jacob can boost his health with a syringe (the ‘E.M.I’) but you can store healing items up to ‘stock up’ said syringe. This means you can gather healing packs to both top yourself up in the short term, and prepare for future encounters in the long term. The game encourages you to maintain full health and stock up so Jacob is in the best possible condition and position going forward.

A lot of Quantum Error plays as a straight-up action shooter, that can be played first-person or third-person. The firefighter tools are weighty and brutal when used in melee combat; smash the fire axe or halligan into enemies and you’re met with heavy and satisfying thuds which yield explosive results. Most of the guns are cool in and of themselves, and deliver solid punches and satisfying blows on enemies. The shotgun. great for cutting enemies in half, and the spitter (a heavy-duty shotgun-type gun that fires clusters of ammo) are definite highlights, and I had great fun laying into all the different enemy types with them too. However, the actual gunplay is a bit sluggish: fire rates and reloads are very slow, weapon switching takes an age, and there are no automatic reloads when you get to the end of a mag. At best this could be interpreted as something to remind you that Jacob is only a firefighter, not a soldier, but at worst (and most of the time) it slows down the action, is frustrating, and can leave you helpless in a fight if you’ve emptied a clip.

Burning bright, and burning dim

Best bit

The DualSense reflecting and assisting with firefighter skills is always very cool - receiving localized rumble when checking the temperature of doors, performing CPR compressions and mouth-to-mouth with the triggers and mic, and feeling the intense rumble when porting open doors with the halligan are particular highlights of the tech.

Where Quantum Error shines brightest, however, is when you can go hard on playing Jacob as a firefighter. There are a host of firefighting tools at your disposal which are so cool, and that are implemented very successfully. From simple things like working out how to restore water supplies to hosepipes when fires are blocking the way ahead or using a mallet to slowly close heavy-duty valves, to more specialist abilities like identifying gas flows and pinching the pipes off with the jaws of life, prying open closed doors with a halligan bar, checking doors to avoid backdrafts, and venting rooms with a saw, are all incredibly well done and satisfying, adding to the immersion. So much so that these are some of the best bits of the game - something further enhanced when putting some of those specialist tools to very good effect against bosses; knocking a boss down and then laying into them with the K12 saw is grimly satisfying.

These tools and skills are then terrifically deployed with the PS5’s DualSense controller: when checking to see if a door is hot with Jacob’s left hand (to work out if a deadly backdraft will occur if you were to pry it open), the left wing of the DualSense will subtly vibrate to indicate that the door is hot, and the room on the other side needs venting first; the adaptive triggers will resist and then rumble intensely as your halligan jams into and then opens doors; the haptics will alter according to the intensity of flames and how you’re approaching them; and you can blow through the microphone to deliver breaths when performing CPR.

There are a host of firefighting tools at your disposal which are so cool, and that are implemented very successfully

However, it’s not all white hot. Quantum Error’s art direction is very over the top at times, to the point of being cringeworthy. It feels like it's trying to be so cinematic and cool with the amount of lingering close-ups on character faces, super slow-mo sequences, and forced faux-dramatic delivery of lines. The eyebrow-raising art direction also extends to the characters: Jacob is another member of the wooden-voiced, blank-expression protagonist club, for starters. Elsewhere, especially in cutscenes, there are strange poses, weird animations, inaccurate lip-syncing, and very wooden voice work and facial expressions, all of which are jarring and falter the immersion and storytelling.

The pacing throughout the game is strange, but also annoying at times. Especially in the first few hours, the story is hard to follow due to the implementation of flashbacks, and elsewhere cutscenes can just suddenly appear in areas of otherwise normal game time, causing you to be on hold for a few minutes. I also had to wait for what felt like an age to get the second main weapon in the game. The pacing also affects some levels with long gaps between save points making for frustrating checkpointing - some particular enemies that are thrown at you along the way make this even more annoying and can quickly ruin progress.

Quantum Error’s use of Unreal Engine 5 is splendid and gives the game a slick and chic finish, but, overall, the title does show some signs of its small-scale development. I’ve had multiple instances when the weapon and item menus would just not appear when pressing the appropriate buttons; Jacob often struggles with ladders and has strange transitions between standing, crouching, and going prone; and, at one point, I managed to skip a level’s whole main objective by using a save point. When I booted up after this save, the companion I was escorting disappeared and I could only go into the final area of the level with the game starting the end boss fight as if nothing happened.

Quantum Error is a well-executed mystery horror game that realizes the childhood dream of “being a firefighter”. Broad chunks of it are robust, such as its guns and Jacob’s specialist skills, but numerous frustrations hold it back. In the year of Dead Space Remake and Alan Wake 2, Quantum Error struggles to burn as bright as its contemporaries.

Accessibility features

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Screenshot of the menu from Quantum Error — (Image credit: TeamKill Media)

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There are no dedicated accessibility features in Quantum Error. Subtitles are present but small and there is no way to change subtitle size which is a huge problem at early points in the game where some tutorial boxes are unbelievably text-cramped and hard to read - so much so that I had to get close to my TV to read them. Elsewhere, the best-looking features that would benefit accessibility - ‘cheats’ offering things such as infinite oxygen and health - are unavailable until you finish a playthrough (this qualifier is not displayed).

How we reviewed Quantum Error

I played Quantum Error on PS5 for nearly 15 hours enjoying its full technical capabilities on a Samsung Q6F QLED TV. I explored as much of the Monad facility as I could in my time with the game following the main story as well as exploring and finding side missions. I used as many weapons and tools as I could find to get a handle on all that the game offers in that respect, and I enjoyed the game’s creepy audio on both a soundbar and with a PS5 headset.

If you’re looking for more inspiration for PlayStation 5, then check out our guides to the best PS5 games and best PS5 exclusives.

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: Final Fantasy | 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

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

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?

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.

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Ayn Odin 2 review - Design and features

Ayn Odin 2 review - Interface

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Should I buy the Ayn Odin 2?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested the Ayn Odin 2

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Price and availability

Design and features

Performance and battery life

Should I buy the Sony Inzone Buds?

Buy them if...

Don't buy them if...

How we reviewed the Sony Inzone Buds

A better way to play

The future is now

Some serious entomophobia

Sign of a good horror

Accessibility

How we reviewed Alan Wake 2

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