Tag: Software

The Nazi front is collapsing. An armored division has broken through their lines, dashing toward their supply dumps. My limited air force is working to cover them. Meanwhile, my infantry-focused divisions are advancing deliberately, keeping as many Germans occupied as possible. I’m also trying to avoid losses by making liberal use of artillery. But some units found themselves isolated, and an emergency planning session was required to split off some forces and task them with saving them. With night falling, I’m thinking about how to safely and effectively exploit the gap in the Wehrmacht lines tomorrow. Battleplan is developed by Foolish Mortals Games Inc. and published by Slitherine Ltd. I played a preview version of the title on Steam. The video game is part of the real-time strategy genre, with a focus on force composition and careful planning. The incredible familiar World War II is the stage for the player’s actions. After the first two training missions, whi...

While not a lot of people played Anima Gate of Memories: I & II when those came out, the truth is they were a solid and very fun RPG experience. With this remaster, we get both games in a bundle, and it’s quite the bargain in my opinion. The first game puts us in the role of a young girl with no memory that’s paired with a companion book. Then, we have the role of the Nameless One in the second game, as we prevent the end of the world. Although the story is rather wacky and full of twists and turns, I found it to be incredibly engaging at times. It leads you to some interesting and very well-made boss battles, along with a variety of enemy encounters that are very surprising, and which I won’t spoil here. The remaster doesn’t touch the story, so the stiff voice acting and lackluster level design in some spaces like sewers is still there. However, they did include more assistance for new players, including quest markers. The initial version didn’t have those, so hav...

Ghost stories always feel very exciting to listen to, but what if you were at the center of creating that story? That’s what Ghost Keeper brings to the table, the opportunity to be the person behind a haunted mansion and thus handle all the ghosts that would scare all the inhabitants living there. It’s a game similar to Ghost Master, but with a modern twist, and it always keeps you on the edge. Ghost Keeper has a rather simple gameplay loop. You manually select a level, and every level has its own objectives and layout. Once you study the level, you then move onward with your mission. And in most cases, that’s to either scare off or kill humans using abilities provided your team of ghosts. Your ghosts have various special effects, abilities or traps that can affect humans. Thankfully, you can unlock ghosts as you play, and it gets quite interesting to see how every ghost will affect your gameplay. Not only that, but as you get more ghosts, you can make some interes...

Star Trek has always been one of my favorite sci-fi series, and I enjoyed everything from the early seasons with Jean Luc Picard to even the newer movies. Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown wants to bring back that feeling of exploration, excitement and challenge in a videogame format, albeit with its own, interesting story. And for me, this is one of the better iterations of Star Trek I’ve seen in recent years. The game is focused on ship management, but also on advancing the story forward. And the nice thing here is that you have a large variety of choices. In fact, as you start playing, you can use the caretaker’s relay to send you back, or you can move onward and uncover new things. They also touch upon the show, with characters like B’Elanna, Tuvok and so on. You might find familiar faces, increase the level of your crewmates, but also advance technologies you will need later on in the game. It’s all about making the right choices, and the potential conse...

The reptilians have summoned their laser raptors to try and stop my four heroes from winning this battle. The might of Caesar, Robin Hood, a 21st-century hacker, and one medieval knight will be enough to kill them all. Although it might take a few more turns, I might lose some health in the process. The key is to move quickly and claim enemy time crystals as quickly as possible. Sure, some cultists might land hits. But it beats facing the bigger reptiles. Recruiting the stranded hero in each battle helps a lot. And it’s important to keep an eye on enemy movement ranges and try to place vulnerable heroes where no opponent can reach them. Reptilian Rising is developed by Gregarious Games, Robot Circus, and Hyper Luminal Games, with publishing in the hands of Numskull Games. I played a preview version of it on Steam. The video game features turn-based battles built around a surprising cast of heroes. There’s a big dollop of Saturday morning cartoon in the game’s fict...

After the great success achieved by Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, the team at Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio decided to focus on revamping one of the older entries in the franchise, mainly Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties. That title was released in 2009, and it was generally well-received, but it had issues like uneven pacing and sluggish combat that made it age not so gracefully. And while the series has evolved with bold spin-offs and turn-based systems, the old-school Yakuza titles are still worth playing. But is this Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties remake worth your time? For the most part, the enhancements are worth checking out, especially if you wanted to play this older entry. The main change comes in the form of an improved combat. Yakuza 3 had enemies that were very defensive, they were interrupting combos and blocked very often. That’s why many battles felt very laborious. Yakuza Kiwami 3 fixes that, since battles are faster and enemies have become more reactive....

DON’T NOD is one of those developers that always makes games outside of the norm, and Aphelion, their latest creation, is a prime example of that. In Aphelion, you play the role of Ariane, an astronaut stranded on a frozen planet, as she tries to find her wounded partner called Thomas. Being stranded on such a planet is by no means easy, and the game successfully manages to capture the intensity, struggles, but also fear you have when you’re alone in such a dangerous place. The world of Persephone, this planet where Ariane is stranded, is downright beautiful. I am a huge fan of the openness of the world, but also the visual details, weather, constantly changing terrain, and also the various platforming challenges. Aphelion manages to successfully combine a multitude of genres, since it has platforming similar to Tomb Raider, but also old school Assassin’s Creed stealth scenes, among others. And thankfully, everything adds up to deliver a very intense, sometimes sca...

How would you tackle patients dealing with all kinds of mental health issues? What medication would you offer them and what diagnosis would you provide? These are all great questions that a doctor in a mental asylum would try to answer. And that’s exactly what you are in Sanatorium. You take the role of a doctor in the Castle Woods sanatorium in the 1920s. Your focus is to try and figure out what diagnosis each patient has and then treat patients. You’ll have a deck of symptoms, tests and a variety of different treatments to use. The game does have a twist here, you’re an impostor and not a doctor, and you try not to get caught with your lies. That’s where the game manages to stand out, and overall, it’s incredibly fun and interesting. What I like a lot about this game is the fact that you’re actually an investigative journalist trying to figure out what’s wrong with this mental asylum. That’s why you are a fake doctor, and it’s very difficult to keep your cover. B.

We’ve all played Need for Speed and other games that touch on the underground racing culture, and they’ve all been fun. Underground Garage tries to go another route, since it doesn’t focus as much on the racing aspect. Instead, it’s a playground where you can test and even improve your mechanical prowess. You will get various cars that need major fixes, tune ups or all kinds of repairs. Then, you will be able to test the cars and see how good your build truly is. At times, you will even get to deliver those to the client, after a thorough test. As you play the game, you will have access to over 20 different cars, all of which pertain to various categories. That means you will be able to check compacts, sedans, sports cars, muscle cars and so on. You will have a detailed depiction of their interior, which is great, because it allows you to narrow down what’s wrong with the vehicle, and then you can repair the issue as quickly as possible. It's interesting to see a h...

I’ve always liked action-adventure games of the golden era of gaming, and Sub-Species is a title which tries to bring those back with a great twist. This 2.5D arcade and action-adventure game puts you in a submarine that can easily go underwater and help you explore the ocean which is said to be infected with a lot of alien monsters. And that’s true, even if humanity tried to contain the alien invasion underwater, things are not going really well. In fact, the main challenge in Sub-Species comes from trying to survive, which is actually a whole lot harder than you might expect. The demo for Sub-Species gives us a good taste of how the game plays, and it’s actually quite engaging, albeit rather stressful as you try to explore all these levels and complete missions. Your focus is on fighting aliens and eliminating them from the contaminated zones. Of course, every level will bring their own mission and challenges, which is quite fun, because there’s always something ...