Here’s a small confession: sometimes I chose to play a game simply because the art style speaks to me. I may know absolutely nothing about the game, but if I think what I’ve seen is pretty, I’ll go for it. This was the case with Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon. Having never played the original, and knowing only that it was an action RPG, I excitedly decided to give it a go. Unfortunately, my rushed excitement was quickly dampened and then slowly turned into complete disappointment.

Made by GUST Studios, the same developers who brought us the Atelier game series, Nights of Azure 2 is set in a world where apparently there’s no such thing as men. There’s also no such thing as day, but we’ll get to that. Being as there don’t seem to be any men in the world but it’s still an RPG, there of course needs to be some sort of sexual tension/relationship weirdness.

So, within about two minutes, two of the main characters establish an awkward relationship that had me rolling my eyes and saying, “Will you two just get a room?” Ironically, I was taken to the “base camp” about ten minutes later…which just happens to be a hotel. Another annoying aspect that hit me right away was the played-out “character design” in which tattered lingerie counts as “armor.” Honestly, most women wear more clothes to the beach than some of these knights wear to go out fighting demons. Am I playing a secret Dead or Alive title?

Once I got past the overt “teenage wet dream” elements, I was pretty happy with the battle mechanics. Battles reminded me of early Devil May Cry titles, and I enjoyed stringing combos together to completely annihilate my foes. Then, to my surprise, I discovered the “tension gauge” (don’t get me started on that name) and the special double attacks that can be activated with each battle partner. Neat! Of course, after seeing the special attack animations about 125 times, I began to really resent not being able to skip them ever.

Feeling a bit better about the game, I was guided along the storyline, introduced to new characters and an increasingly-complicated web of undisclosed feelings. Insert eye roll. By the time I got to the hotel, had made peace with the character design and completely useless pool scenes I was forced to endure, and gotten a couple of little demon companions (called Servans), I was feeling pretty good and back to liking the game. That was until I was introduced to the timers.

Timers, when used judiciously, can be a really great gameplay mechanic. Stuck in a building that’s about to blow up? It makes sense to race against the clock! Fighting an ultra-boss who’s building up a world-destroying attack? You’d better beat that darn timer! But when “beat the clock” becomes the schtick for the entire game, it can get real old real fast.

Not only do you have a timer in the phases of the moon, you also have a timer for how many days you have to beat the game AND a timer for every mission you choose to do. Because you’re a half-demon, for some reason you can only operate at night and (for reasons that still make zero sense to me) can only be active for 10-15 minutes (depending on your level.) If the moon drops to the new moon phase, game over. If you run out of days, game over. If your mission timer runs out, you’ll be sent back to the hotel and will have wasted that day/night. You can buy more time here and there by beating certain bosses or gaining certain skills, but the game will never, ever, ever stop reminding you that the clock’s a-ticking.

This means that one of my favorite aspects of any RPG – free exploration – is out of the question. Sure, there are a few side missions you can choose to do (note you cannot do them all), but basically, this entire adventure has just boiled down to an exercise in time management. Now this may come as a shock to some, but by day I’m a boring adult with a boring job. And a huge part of that boring job is time management. Every. Single. Day. You know what I really DON’T want when I sit down to play a video game? To do more of the boring junk I already did all day long. Not only this, but it takes a lot of the fun of self-direction out of the game.

But fear not. If you’re worried the multiple timers means you won’t get a chance to see all of the areas the game has to offer, you can rest easy. Because the fact is, you will see all of the six map areas of the game so many times you could draw them in your sleep. And for an extra-fun bonus, the enemies will be exactly the same each and every time you go to these map areas, so you’ll probably be able to run through them all in your sleep, too.

I believe it was around the 27th time visiting an area when I thought, “I wonder if there’s anyone I can hire to go through the repetitive parts of this game for me and have them just call me if anything new or interesting happens.” But then I realized that I wasn’t just putting myself through some particularly painful level-grinding. This was not optional side-stuff I was doing…this was the game. That was when I made my final verdict in the rollercoaster of my thoughts on Nights of Azure 2 – it’s boring.

I tried. I tried real hard to like this game – for it’s art style, battle mechanics, adorable Servans, and even the main story. But for all of those positive points, overall the game suffers from chronic sameness. In the end, most all of the map areas just bleed into one colorless blob of perpetual night, and I stopped caring about the characters or side quests or anything and just wanted to “get it over with.” This is not a thought you ever want to have as a player. I’ve read there are multiple endings to the game, and the one you get depends on how you play the game, so there’s a big “replayability” factor. I find this an impossible lie, because I can’t imagine myself ever wanting to play the same six levels 312 times again.

Overall, I’d say that Nights of Azure 2 is a game that could have been good, which of course is the real tragedy. It’s easy to rag on games that are just terrible in every way, and share a good laugh at their expense. But when a game has elements that are awesome at war with elements that are awful, it’s just sad when the awful wins out.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.

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What can possibly be better than a really good platformer? A really good platformer with ninjas, of course! This is exactly what we can expect a little bit later this year from the guys and gals over at Sabotage Studio as they bring us The Messenger.

The new year is here and if you are already tired of all the cool games that Santa put under your tree, Sony is here to hand out a few other gems that you might have missed to give you even more gaming goodness to enjoy. That is, if you are a PS Plus member, of course. January’s allotment of free PS Plus games are out now on the PlayStation Store.

It’s been less than a year since the shock disappearance of well-known third party gaming brand Mad Catz. Today, Mad Catz have announced that they have revealed that they will be returning to shelves, complete with a brand new line-up of PC gaming hardware, which will be showcased at CES 2018 in Las Vegas from the 9th to the 12th of January 2018.

Mad Catz are known for their award-winning range of R.A.T. gaming mice, arcade FightSticks, gaming headsets and much more. The new range of Mad Catz gear will first focus on quality innovative gaming products, designed and engineered in-house to stand out among the competition.

The following new items will be on display at CES:

NBA Battlegrounds, ahem, I mean Playgrounds, has gotten an enhanced version with a new online mode and smaller storage size for the Nintendo Switch. A game that most of you probably have not touched in awhile is getting content that should have been with it months ago. Better late than never?

When NBA Playgrounds first released in May 2017, Switch owners were told that an online version would be coming. They only had to wait about seven-eight months, but they finally got it. If the wait was worth it can be completely up to you. The game’s update/patch/replacement/whatever you want to call it will minimize the game’s original storage size by two gigs. All post launch content that has been on the other platforms has made its way to Switch as well, including 100 hundred new classic and modern characters, new jerseys, an improved rebounding system, and more.

Saber Interactive, the developer of the NBA Jam/Street blended game, has said that all Switch owners will receive the upcoming Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn for free. Because we all know that is what the people want.

Personally, I probably have not touched the game since May. When it was first announced I was excited to see how much the game could capture that NBA Street magic that got me when I was younger. The game was not bad by any means when I played it, but it could not keep my attention for as long as I had hoped.

Original article from Gamespot HERE.

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I happen to have an interesting bit of news for Switch-owning brawler and roguelike fans out there. Heart & Slash, a release by aheartfulofgames, has just appeared on your Nintendo console. Interested? Well you probably should be, as this title has already done pretty damn well with it’s PS4, Xbox One and PC releases.

I love strategy games. Quite a lot of you will probably know this by now. What I absolutely don’t love is that too many companies out there are using this genre as a cash cow. I really loved games like Dungeon Keeper, Settlers, Age of Mythology, (check that one out it’s amazing,) and so many others back in the day. I was part of that generation that saw the original release of Command and Conquer before Westwood Studios got eaten … but that’s a rant for another time. There was a definite golden age in both turn based and real-time strategy. Then the clever sods out there realized that something being turn based meant they could unbalance things with micro-transactions, making it impossible to build and progress without dipping into your wallet. Then a genre that I really loved all went a bit dark and sour for me.

Thankfully, it would appear that in a sea of unscrupulous greed there are a few companies that just want to make games for people to enjoy. This, for me at least is a bit of a bright light because it tells me that there are still gamers out there writing and making games. As long as this continues there will be something to temper the hard business aspect to the craft that we love. This brings me nearly on to one such crew of devs and more specifically onto the game I’m going to be discussing today, Post Human W.A.R.

Post Human W.A.R. is set in an era where the human race has done what the human race does best and made itself extinct. The game focuses on three factions namely the R-Patch, robots that were looking after humanity before the fall and a race of parasites called the Wraak. The later is broken into two factions. You have the larger race of Wraak who attach themselves to various different species of animal and want to see all traces of humanity removed, then you have the Anthropists. These are a specific group who reside on simians, (apes, monkeys, sloths etc.) These mimic the behavior of humans and believe there is a lot to be learned from them. Suffice it to say none of these factions are fond of each other.

I have to say that I’ve really enjoyed playing this title thus far. One major problem with any building game it that it often comes down to who has the biggest army and can squish their opponent. You can’t do this with Post Human W.A.R. and this instantly makes the game a lot more appealing. You select your troops at the beginning of the match and that’s all you get. If you do something daft and get your units killed off that’s just your look out, you won’t be getting any more. Another important point is that this isn’t a resource management game. You’re not interesting in building various structures so there isn’t any micro-management necessary. So why is the game fun? It makes you think differently and that’s good enough as far as I’m concerned.

The best way I think I can describe Post Human W.A.R. is that it’s a little bit like chess with a few objectives thrown in. There is very much a board game feel to this title and this is something I really like. Each map is broken into a series of hexes and your units move around these tiles and attack depending on their movement scores and their range. Some of these tiles add other effects to the units standing on them, so the map’s terrain actually becomes part of your strategy. You don’t want your troops moving on ground that’s going to slow them down for too long but you might want your enemy landing on tiles that will damage them if they stay put. The more options you are given to improve your strategy the better as this all makes for fun play.

The campaign mode currently consists of six levels per faction, each with a different objective. I’ve been playing through the Wraak campaign and I’ve actually had to re-start each level a few times before completing it. The thing about being able to choose your troops at the beginning of the level, (within reason, they cost points and you only have so many to spend,) is that you need to select the right ones. The Wraak army contains everything from penguin tossing polar bears, to owls, to armadillos.

Each of these animals his it’s pros and cons. Some of these beasts are ranged, others airborne, then some are faster or beefier than others. One of the missions I’ve completed, for instance, sees you attempting to take out an Anthropist force before it escapes. You need to find a balance between fast units that may be able to outrun the enemy but aren’t very strong and your slower ones that are much more adapt at meting out damage. It takes a few goes before you get that balance right. This makes for replayability and is therefore definitely a good thing.

I’m talking about one force here so I’d best give you a speedy overview of the other two. The rules remain the same in that units fall into several classes but there are differences between the factions. Don’t expect miracles, these differences are generally, (but not always,) fairly cosmetic. The R-Patch are re-purposed household appliances and the like. I have to admit, there’s something pretty disconcerting about getting hunted down and butchered by a machete wielding oven on legs. The Anthropist army contains everything from pistol toting chips in kaki’s and safari hats to chilled out but amazingly lethal gorillas, to the obvious crossbow carrying sloths. This is totally a matter of what floats your boat but there’s definitely enough humor embedded in this game to make you smile.

Post Human W.A.R. is also very much a multiplayer affair and will see you taking charge of one of the three factions and going out to decimate your opponents base or kill their commander. Something else that’s interesting in this game is that destroying a base doesn’t equal an instant win, instead it starts a timer. Each turn from then on sees your opponent’s entire force lose life and it’s warriors start dropping dead one by one. The ultimate goal is to wipe out your opponents army and this is a very good way of doing it but it doesn’t guarantee a win. What does is killing your opponent’s champion. At the beginning of a match each player chooses a unit to take charge of the rest. This is done in secret. If you find and kill that unit it’s game over and you win. This obviously adds it’s own level of strategy and brings another layer of depth to the game.

Talking nuts and bolts, controls are smooth and responsive, which they should be, this is turn based strategy not a lesson in rocket science. Graphically the game is colorful and the animations are light-hearted and smile inducing. The sound is a slightly different matter. The music is fine and the sound effects are good but get fairly tired quite quickly. Talking monkeys are great as long as they aren’t saying exactly the same thing over and over. This won’t bother a lot of you but it became a bit cringe inducing to me after a while.

So I think I’ve pretty much done the overview and the bits I liked about my time with the game thus far … now what don’t I like? First is that the multiplayer seems really quiet at the moment. I’m not going to be too hard on this, it’s a new game and Rome wasn’t built in a day. This might be a time zone thing or it might come down to a lack of a large player base, (new game syndrome,) but sitting waiting for a match gets really old really quickly. Lets hope that this rights itself in time. The other thing that’s making me a little bit nervous is the appearance of a shop. You get coins by completing so many matches with a certain faction etc etc, (you know the score,) and you spend these on new avatars and skins for your units. As long as this is all you’ll ever be spending them on I don’t have any issues but the minute I see a shop I can’t help but see the lingering shadow of mico-transactions. My little note to developers. Please find other ways of giving us cool stuff. I remember a time when you were genuinely rewarded with unlocks by being good at a game and this didn’t come down to how many matches you could win each day, it came down purely to skill.

All in all, Post Human W.A.R. is a pretty solid start for an interesting little title. Is it world-breaking? No it isn’t. Is it going to win any awards for being the most different thing to hit the market in ages? Not really. Is it something you can play for a good few hours knowing that you’re enjoying yourself and will probably have quite a bit of fun with your mates? Yes it is and as far as I’m concerned this is enough. Not every game needs to be a ten out of ten title to be good. This falls into the category of well worth playing but probably isn’t going to win many awards, still, well worth a go.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.

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Last fall, TVGB had the opportunity to preview Battlerite during its early access phase. We were incredibly impressed with the game and looked forward to its future. It didn’t disappoint. One year later and Battlerite is going strong and gaining quite a few accolades in its wake. In the month of November, it made Steam’s top 10 list for player count with an astounding 45,000 active users. It also ranked as the #2 top-selling free-to-play game on Steam. That’s right. This amazing arena brawler that gamers are crazy about is now FREE-TO-PLAY!

I got a little excited in the first few levels of Glo when my little black square illuminated some cryptic text as it moved through the darkness. The minimalist graphics combined with the unexpected intensity of storytelling, reminded me inexorably of Thomas Was Alone, the incredibly popular minimalist puzzle platformer from 2012 which told a rich story using only colorful, four sided shapes. As the levels progressed, they required reflexes that began pushing the game’s genre more solidly to platformer that puzzle. And my mood quickly deteriorated from excitement to whatever you call that feeling that makes you want to throw your computer against the nearest concrete surface.

As several of the reviewers on Steam have noted, Glo is a novelty among platformers for two aspects:

Capcom’s most self-explanatory title is back after a lengthy absence. Monster Hunter has always flown under my admittedly blinkered radar, and though the game was originally released on the PS2, I’ve only ever known it in the context of handheld consoles. I mean heck, until last weekend I’d never played a Monster Hunter game, but in this instance, I’m gonna go ahead and play the preconceptions are bad card: it’s clear from the get-go that Capcom are looking to re-imagine (though not re-invent) their franchise, so what harm can it do to come to Monster Hunter World with fresh eyes?

Can we talk about the amazing theme music and in-game score?

The quest selection screen. Yeah, it’s a little dated-looking, but that’s endearing.

Dark, confusing, but not endless. Actually, pretty straightforward.

Oh, wait. That IS the monster.

Yup, there he is again.

There. There’s my feathery spear. Or, in MH speak: the Insect Glaive.

Bad. Ass.