Thoughts on Civilization 6

Today’s piece isn’t so much a review of a game, but my thoughts on it. I guess that’s true of all reviews, but I quickly realized the game in question wouldn’t work for me. Civilization 6 is a game I’d had my eye on for some time. Never bought it. Recently, it came to Xbox’s Ultimate Game Pass. Big win for me. So I thought. I enjoyed playing Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution years ago on the Xbox 360.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (2022) Review

The subject for today’s review was one I had hopes for, but wasn’t sure about what I’d get. As a child of the late 80s/early 90s, I loved me some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Who didn’t at that age at that time? We got a new video game, released on June 16, 2022, from the franchise. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, developed by Tribute Games and published by Dotemu, hearkens back to the old “classic” TMNT game. Same form, same style, and thanks to the Xbox Ultimate game pass, I got to play it.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey (2019) Review

I hate wanting to play a game for years, but seeing reviews that make me question if I should give it a try or not. Then, I finally get a chance to play said game, and I absolutely hate within 10 or 15 minutes of firing it up. This, dear friends and fellow gamers, is a review of such a game, 2019’s Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey. Released on the Xbox One/PS4 on December 18, 2019, Ancestors is a Panache Digital Games creation. That studio developed the game, while Private Division served as publisher. A true waste of time, and a below the bottom shelf “DNF” entry. I’m horribly disappointed.

NHL 24: Be A Pro Career Mode (2023) Review

No rinse. Just repeat. Slap a new year on the title and away we go. That’s the EA way because in the world of sports gaming, there is no competition. My Xbox Ultimate Game Pass subscription is still good, and as it’s playoff hockey time, they added NHL 24 from EA Sports. Again, I’m not reviewing the entire game. Only what I care about, and that’s a single mode. NHL 24: Be A Pro Career. Christ. It’s the exact same as the previous year. Which is the exact same year as the year before that, and so forth.

Hollow Knight (2017) Review

This isn’t going to be a long review. I also plan on writing a piece on why I’m not a fan of these “Metroidvania” games. I don’t think I’ve ever played on before, but recently it seems I keep running into them. Take, for instance, 2017’s Hollow Knight. Sometimes you just start playing a game and realize early, or you should, all the game will do is frustrate you to no end. I play for fun, not frustration. Hollow Knight is an indie game. A 2D side-scroller, adventure/explore, “Metroidvania” game. Team Cherry served as both developer and publisher. The original release date came on February 24, 2017, for PC. The Xbox One/PS4 release came over a year later, on September 25, 2018. There’s also Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition, which is like the complete game with all the DLC stuff included. The reviews are a mixed bag on opposite ends of the spectrum. Either you love it or you hate it. I hate it, and for me, Hollow Knight gets the dreaded “DNF” tag.

NBA 2K24 MyCAREER Mode (2023) Review

I don’t know why I even bother with some things sometimes. I guess, partly because I hope enough people feel the same way about the same thing that I do and things change. Even if the first is true, the second isn’t because sports video games are basically “rinse and repeat” from year to year within a franchise. I love the career mode in sports games. Well, I should. I used to. The NBA franchise from 2K makes it so hard and so frustrating. In the latest installment, NBA 2K24, it’s the same frustration. “Rinse and repeat.” Why? Simple. It’s entirely too hard to level up your skills, your player. NBA 2K24 features the MyCAREER mode.

I Hate Fallout

So, one of my friends at work loves the Fallout series. Anytime I say, I’ve finished my current gaming endeavor and I don’t know what to play next, he always says play Fallout. According to him, it’s Skyrim in an apocalypse Mad Max style wasteland after, well, a nuclear fallout. Just because the same company, Bethesda, makes both the Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises doesn’t mean it’s the same game. Far from it. I love Oblivion and Skyrim. The whole medieval sword-and-sorcery package. I can’t do Fallout, and I went in with every intention of hoping to like the series, so I’d have multiple games lined up to play.

PGA Tour 2K23 (2022) Review

As my dad, a former high school and college golf coach, says, “it ain’t golf if you aren’t cussing and throwing a club.” That may be, but video game golf is a slightly different creature. Sure, there’s times you want to throw the controller, but it shouldn’t be a constant because of bad game mechanics. Unfortunately, that’s what we have with PGA Tour 2K23. Released on October 14, 2022, it ain’t the “good ol’” EA Sports golf games. HB Studios serves as developer while 2K is the publisher. The game shows a lot of promise with the golfer creation and “My Career” modes. They even give a training tutorial. However, none of that matters because the swing mechanics are downright dreadful. I got PGA Tour 2K23 for free recently as a monthly game with PlayStation Plus. I love golf games.

Sea of Solitude (2019) Review

Indie games get a bad reputation. Not that they don’t deserve it, but as of late, I’m come across several that aren’t too bad. Be it a book, film, or in this case, a video game, the best you can really hope for is a nice, solid, enjoyable third shelf selection regardless of who makes it. That’s what I found in my experience playing 2019’s Sea of Solitude. Released on Xbox One/PS4/PC on July 5, 2019, I didn’t really know anything about the game. I stumbled across it here and there as it seemed to move in and out quickly on the various game libraries. I found a copy to play on PC. Jo-Mei Games developed Sea of Solitude as EA took care of publishing.

Deadlight: Director’s Cut (2016) Review

I just finished playing a game I’ve played before, but it’s been many a year. I’m not a fan of zombie stuff outside of the 1931 film with Bela Lugosi, White Zombie. This game is one of those “post-apocalyptic zombie” genre offerings I’d normally steer clear of, but it’s actually not too bad. The original Deadlight hit the Xbox 360 era of console gaming on August 1, 2012. Back at the height of The Walking Dead. Tequila Works developed the game. Microsoft Studios published. I’m sure I played the original at some point, but this review is for Deadlight: Director’s Cut. That one hit both Xbox One and PS4 on June 21, 2016 with Deep Silver handling the publishing duties. Deadlight: Director’s Cut is really a remaster, touching up textures and controls and that sort of stuff. The story, gameplay, the important aspects, remain the same.