Ghost Recon: Future Soldier – What the hell?

I was feeling for some casual tactical pop-a-mole, so I popped the Ghost Recon: Future Soldier disc into the good old Xbox 360—a game I bought for this specific reason months ago. What I didn’t expect was that the series had turned so casual, it now ventured into Call of Duty territory. It had become so casual that the incredibly heavily scripted nature of a CoD campaign was now part of the Ghost Recon franchise. I was actually taken aback a little, since this is the opposite of what the series once was.

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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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Hypogea — Vaulting for Freedom [Review]

Who knew that even robots made for war and industry don’t like to live in vast underground rusty metallic tunnels—left to rot after the end of humanity. I can’t say I blame the poor things, since while these massive subterranean constructions look wondrous and are very atmospheric—they have an air of decay to them, as they’re all that’s left of a bygone era. With that, welcome to the review of Hypogea, which is a moody third-person platformer set underground, with no voice-acting, and no enemies—except the water that will rust your bolts within seconds if you miss that crucial jump!

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Gothic 1 Remake – Video Dev Log #4 [Video]

Despite the recent controversy regarding the uglifying of Gomez’s sex slaves, I’m still excited about the Gothic 1 Remake—at least, as much one can be for a recreation of a classic. This latest devlog goes into depth of the story, and to me, it seems clear a lot of effort has been put into maintaining what the original was, yet expanding it in parts. What’s interesting here is that they are collaborating with Mattias Filler, one of the original writers—and you can say that his role in the franchise, and Piranha Bytes (RIP) games are legendary. So this must be a good sign! Going by what he says in the video, he seems genuinely glad to be able to fix some writing inconsistencies that he missed back in the day. Check out the devlog video after the click!

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Of Ash and Steel – Seven Points of Critique

I’m far from finishing Of Ash and Steel, so this is not a review—just a critique of the game and its mechanics after about fifteen hours of playing. While I think it’s a good addition to the specific Gothic/Risen/Skyrim lineage of RPGs, I do find it falls short in places—in areas where they could have found easy inspiration. It’s not something that overly disappoints me, but thanks to these issues it will probably never reach the same level of appreciation (at least from me).

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