Warcraft II: Remastered – Orc Fest [Review]

Put on your troll-skin boots—it’s time to return to Azeroth, where the orcs are once again restless and in need of a lesson in etiquette. While Warcraft II: Remastered has seen a little more effort put into it than Warcraft I: Remastered, it still suffers from the same issue: cheap AI slop, masquerading as improvements. Now, to be fair, it runs better and much smoother than the original (I tried), but the new visuals and the upscaled CGI cutscenes are of poor quality. This means that the only part you pay for is the increased performance, as everything besides that is worse, or on the same level as the original.

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Warcraft I: Remastered – My liege? [Review]

I decided that I wanted to experience the canonical storyline of Warcraft up until World of Warcraft. Where else to start than the beginning with the first RTS game in this legendary franchise. Now, I’m not playing the original release, but a remaster simply called Warcraft I: Remastered—made by Blizzard themselves. While it left me with a disjointed feeling towards its presentation, it’s probably the best way to play the original campaign. Many mechanics have been made modern in terms of gameplay, like being able to select larger groups, and hot-key support.

However, as mentioned, the presentation is questionable at best, with the “improved” graphics seemingly only getting a cheap AI upscaling instead of genuine care to keep the aesthetics and feel of the original game. So, is the remaster worth the trouble, or does it undermine its own legacy?

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Dead Space: Ignition – Puzzle Engineer [Review]

In space, nobody can hear you puzzle! Just recently, I bought this little spin-off called Dead Space: Ignition on the Microsoft game store for the Xbox 360. Yes, original hardware this time around. It was pretty cheap, around four euros for me, so not too much of an investment regardless of how it now turns out. The main reason for my purchase is that I am a Dead Space lore junkie, loving most of the franchise thanks to its cool dystopian sci-fi setting, and of course: horrifying monsters ready to slice off your skin with precision.

Considering what it’s part of, you might expect limb-cutting and body-horror coming out the ears, but nope. This is surprisingly enough a puzzler, best described as a game with typical mini-games at the forefront with an animated comic attached.

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Star Trek – Redshirt Genocide [Review]

Star Trek caught a lot of flak when it was released back in 2013. It was a broken and boring game with supposedly no redeemable features at all, according to game journalists at the time. So, it was a given I had to try it. But first, before we get into the game, I want to say that I’m not the biggest fan of the Kelvin Star Trek universe which this game is set in. It’s too flashy, with focus on action, and making everything typical “Hollywood”, instead of the cerebral entertainment of the old show.

Despite that, I had to give it a go, since I have a soft-spot for third-person cover-based shooters, and military science-fiction. Yes, I’m a pop-a-moler at heart, or at least partly.

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Syndicate – Corporate Assassin [Review]

Syndicate is the 3D visualization in the form of a first-person-shooter and reboot of the classic game from 1993 with the same name. While I think Starbreeze (the devs) managed to capture cyberpunk aesthetics and the dystopian corporate warfare, the story could have been a lot better. It’s somewhat disappointing, considering the rich setting the game has to pick from. What’s much better is the gameplay. However, this part is not without problems either, even if it’s fun. Before diving into the story and gameplay details, we will have to go over some technical hurdles!

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