Will be the first to admit that review scores play a heavy role in my game purchasing decisions. From the moment I got my first GamePro magazine in 1994, checking the opinions of critics before plunking down the funds on a game is a must. It sucks to spend so much on a game and not have it meet your expectations. Most recently, I cancelled my Crackdown 3 preorder after reading the reviews and watching its Metacritic score crash to a 60 out of 100.
Having said that, Anthem came out not long after and also was smacked with a 60 out of 100 Metacritic score. With the BioWare pedigree behind it, this seems like an even bigger disappointment than Microsoft’s exclusive offering. Yet, here I am, playing Anthem and generally having a good time with it.
My brother Randy and my cousin Jenna join me for a number of Overwatch matches! While we play, we chat about eating exotic meats, the Phoenix Wright series, Jenna’s epic freeze, and my toddler nephew makes his streaming debut!
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The Advance Wars series is one that I remember fondly for introducing me to the world of strategy games. When Nintendo first iced the franchise, I was deeply disappointed. But the more I thought about it over the years, the more I was okay with letting it go.
I think the fundamental reason why its sibling franchise Fire Emblem took off but Advance Wars didn’t was that the former was built around characters with names, faces, and a progression from beginning-to-end (assuming they didn’t die). The latter used nameless soldiers and disposable units. After a few iterations, Nintendo hit a wall with what they could do in digital version of Chess, ultimately pushing forward with a gritty tonal shift that failed to appease existing or new players while adding little to the tired tactics that had worn out its welcome.
With time and advents of game design on its side, the creators of Wargroove leveraged the modern design trope of hero units as a means of adding personality and emotional weight to the moment-to-moment tactics without going full-RPG. It may not seem like much, but it makes a tangible difference towards my enjoyment of the game.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the makers of the Titanfall series surprised the world with Apex Legends. No, this is not the next real entry in the Titanfall series. Instead, this is a standalone battle royale game in the vein of Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
My initial reaction before playing the game was to groan at the notion of Respawn Entertainment putting the Titanfall series on hold to chase the trends. While this statement may be true, it doesn’t mean that Apex Legends can’t be a quality title in its own right. Based on my limited time with the game thus far, it may be too soon to brush this off as money grab.
Best known for making meaty single-player RPGs with a heavy emphasis on storytelling, BioWare is trying something different with Anthem. They don’t completely leave the RPG genre behind, but this is an action game to the core. So much so, that it’s heavily recommended you play the experience online with friends or strangers through matchmaking. Does BioWare have the chops to create a game this far out of their comfort zone? And for fans of their previous works, does Anthem provide enough reasons for you to join them on this journey? The full game isn’t out yet, but I tried out the demo to get a taste of what’s to come.
This is it! Does Madeline have what it takes to finally reach the peak of Mount Celeste? And what will she do if she gets there?! One more time in the world of Celeste let’s go!
Starting at noon EST today and ending at 9pm EST on Monday, February 4th, the Anthem demo will be playable for all. As a huge BioWare fan whose had this game on pre-order for years, I’m really excited to give their next adventure a shot! Will have more to say on the demo soon, but for now, I’ll be anxiously awaiting for it to launch!
Admittedly, I haven’t followed the Power Rangers since their original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers run in the early 90s. Having said that, I know the franchise continues to thrive with new stories being told in that universe all the time on TV, in comic books, and even in the theatres. As far as games go, Power Rangers: Legacy Wars has been a popular mobile fighting game for some time.
Now the Power Rangers are jumping back onto home platforms, and hopefully leaving the most broken fighting game character of all-time behind. Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is a 3v3 tag fighter that stars a whole bunch of rangers from different generations. I have my concerns, but I also have hopes that this won’t be terrible.
I like the idea of this being a tag fighter. The Power Rangers fight as a team, so of course they would team up. This looks to borrow the basic framework established by the Marvel vs. Capcom series, where you control one “point” character, while the others can be called upon to perform assist moves.
From the little we’ve seen in the trailer, it looks like the game is going to make good use of this mechanic. In this one GIF above, the classic red ranger does a move that allows him to dash behind his opponent, while his yellow ranger assist continues to hit him from the front. Classic tag fighter tactics right there.
However, the animation of the game gives me pause. Movements look stiff in a way that is jarring to my eye. Combine that with the game’s overall pedestrian presentation, and I’m a bit concerned with how the game is shaping up.
POWER RANGERS FIGHTING GAME!!!!
Here is a fun fact about this game
I am currently helping balance the game and making sure this game is AWESOME! Please tell me how awesome my balancing skills are when you try this game out
At the very least, I’m glad to see the developers taking this game at least somewhat seriously. Fighting game legend Justin Wong has announced that he’s involved in the project in a consultant role. Not sure what his abilities are as a fighting game designer, but he’s phenomenal at playing them, even if he did lose to me once (and no, I will never let him live that down). Hoping his expertise helps take the project to the next level while possibly opening up more career opportunities for him!
We won’t have to wait too long to see how Power Rangers: Battle of the Grid turns out. The game is set for release this spring. Fingers crossed that it shapes up to be a quality fighter!
Years after the Toys-to-Life bubble burst, Ubisoft took the bold step into the deserted space with Starlink: Battle for Atlas. Unlike Skylanders or Amiibo figures, Starlink takes a modular approach with its toys. As such, you can customize your loadouts by strapping a unique pilot, ship, and weapons to your controller before entering warp speed. It doesn’t hurt that the Nintendo Switch version gets access to console-exclusive Star Fox content, including a sweet-looking Arwing toy. Is the game worth the trouble of slapping all of this extra plastic onto your Joy-Con controllers?
After a lovely fireside chat with Theo, Madeline directly confronts Part of Me. Is she making the right choice by attempting to divorce herself from her other half? Join me for the penultimate level in Celeste!
In Third Person 