Category: Gaming

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Entertainment Gaming

What’s Been In My Gaming Cycle?

Hi all, it’s been a while! I was thinking it would be a good time to give an overview on what’s been in my gaming cycle recently, as well as what I’m looking forward to!

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated

The remaster of what appears to be a collectathon title that many looked fondly upon its release in the early 2000s, the game tells a fairly basic but charming plot around Plankton unleashing robots within Bikini Bottom, with the objective being for SpongeBob (as well as characters such as Patrick and Sandy) to collect Golden Spatulas (the game’s version of Stars/Jiggies) and put a stop to the techno-menace.

While mainly put on my radar due to my enjoyment of the chaos that was ai_sponge (may it rest in peace), the game is filled with charm and characters on a show that I very much enjoyed growing up. While the gameplay isn’t groundbreaking, and some voice acting is a bit off (e.g. not having Clancy Brown voice Mr. Krabs), it was an enjoyable and inoffensive experience with an approachable level of difficulty for the most part, with exception of some the slide levels!

THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE

No, … Read More

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Gaming

Final Fantasy XVI – The First FF I’ve Completed! (Impressions)

Hi all, Andrew here – I appreciate it’s been a while since I’ve written an article, so I hope it’s not too rusty! Anyway, on with the topic – I, as a gamer who’s approaching his 30s, have completed my first ever Final Fantasy game – the recently released Final Fantasy XVI. While I have dabbled and played a bit of Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy XV, this is the first one where I got to the credits. As a result, I thought it would be interesting to put down my non-spoilery thoughts on what I felt worked well, and what I felt would be better built on!

What I Liked

  • As a rule, I’m generally not a fan of turn-based combat (with exceptions such as Persona), so having a more real-time combat focus was definitely a plus for me, and made the series feel a bit more approachable for a beginner.
  • The graphics were fantastic, with a minimal difference between the cutscenes and the actual gameplay – it certainly makes the best of the PS5 technology, with some breath-taking scenery and set pieces!
  • They used QTEs in a way that make sense – while I personally don’t
… Read More
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Gaming

WB’s MultiVerses: Thoughts and Comments

When WB announced a universe-merging, Smash Bros-Esque fighting game that would bring together characters from many different franchises I was hooked immediately. This concept had been borrowed from Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros before but never from such a vast catalog of characters such as that of the Warner Brothers banner. So far the game seems the be leaning on its DC and Cartoon Network properties, WB owns a lot of different characters and I hope a lot of them make an appearance. My faith was rewarded a little when Arya Stark was added to the roster, and she is a very non-kid-friendly character. Yes, Im nostalgic for the cartoony selection that makes up most of the roster, but I already own Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, and that’s all the cartoon character smash-em-up action I need plus, they have the Ninja Turtles.

-picture-Before I get into the gameplay or features of this game I want to talk about the roster a bit. Right off the bat, we have an unbalanced amount of DC characters and I hope that changes. Every other property has one or two characters to represent, but DC has the main trinity of Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman. This … Read More

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Gaming Reviews

The Unboxing of Isaac (May 2022 – Dogma) – What’s In It?

Warning: This article covers a franchise that is fairly morbid and grotesque. If you find that sort of content is upsetting, this article may not be for you.

The Binding of Isaac, the notoriously difficult roguelike game, has gone through many changes and updates over the years. Starting as a Flash game in 2011, it has since gone to Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, iOS, and even the more family-friendly Switch and 3DS platforms. It has also received multiple sizeable updates:

  • Wrath of the Lamb;
  • Rebirth;
  • Afterbirth;
  • Afterbirth+;
  • Repentance

There has also been a physical card game released called The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls, with a new expansion, Requiem, being made. Not satisfied with this large list of accolades, Edmund McMillen and the staff at Maestro Media have announced a limited run of The Unboxing of Isaac – a monthly Isaac-themed subscription box. As a huge fan of the franchise, I immediately signed up for it and felt it would be useful to show others what each box comes with. The first month’s theme is Dogma, and here is what it came with!

Greeting Letter

A suitably morbid greeting card is at the top of the box, making … Read More

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Gaming

Evil Dead: The Game – A Groovy Review

Okay, so I’ve had Evil Dead: The Game for a week now and I’m ready to speak my piece on it. I could just tell you I love it and we roll credits, but that’s no fun for any of us, is it? Do you know what is fun though? Teaming up with 3 others to fight the Evil Dead or go it alone as the titular Kandarian demons and swallow the souls of anyone that shall oppose you. I’ll give some pros and cons of both, but a major spoiler, I LOVE this game. However, I fully feel that you should be able to make your own opinion, so I will try to be as unslanted as possible.

If you read “Something Old, Something New: Part 2, Slasher Edition”, you already know that I love the Evil Dead franchise and anything that furthers the property. If you haven’t, shame on you. Now, this game does not push the story any forward as the show ends with Ash waking up in the far future and this game features playable versions of characters that died on screen. What it does do is capture the essence of Evil Dead oh so well. … Read More

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Entertainment Gaming

Limited Run Games Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game K.O. Edition – What’s In It?

Hi all – this time, I’m bringing you something different from my Andrew’s Angles articles – in this case, it’s a breakdown of the K.O Edition of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World from Limited Run Games (LRG)!

As ashamed as I am to say it, while I did have the game back on Xbox 360, I did not play that much of it, and then, sadly Ubisoft pulled the release from digital stores (the only way that the game could be obtained originally). However, my fiancé (who has helpfully taken the pictures for this article – thank you, Dan!) is a massive fan of Scott Pilgrim – the books, the movie, the game, anything you can think of. So, when LRG announced that they would be releasing the game, it did not take much convincing for the order to be placed for the K.O. Edition – one of the most jam-packed versions available.

The collection itself comes in a large musician case and a slip cover, both adorned with the Sex Bob-Omb logo.

For the musicians out there, this edition also comes with not just one pair of well-made drumsticks, but 3 guitar picks, also unmistakeably part of the Scott … Read More

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Gaming

Andrew’s Angles – Demo Days

Sadly, this piece will not be about the album made by one of my favourite bands (one day, perhaps I will put something Gorillaz-related together!), but there is something similar between it and my topic of conversation today – they last came out in 2005 (or, near enough). The topic in question? Game demos.

Now that we’re in full swing into the period of gaming with patches, updates, live services, etc., it seems that the average consumer needs to take a gamble with more and more games based on reviews, previews, live streams, opinion pieces, and so on, without actually getting to try before they buy. With standard editions of games generally running from £50-£70 each, that’s quite a gamble, especially with how hectic launch windows can be. Should you pick up Cyberpunk 2077 or Assassins Creed Valhalla? Kirby and the Forgotten Land or Elden Ring? With the size and price of games nowadays, that can be tricky to answer.

So, when I heard about Sony is mandating that some of the game developers for the games on their platforms include demos/timed trial periods for subscribers to PS+ (the paid subscription that allows for users to play … Read More

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Gaming

Unpopular Opinion: Why I’m not playing Elden Ring.

A wise man once said, “If everyone is Han Solo, No one is Han solo.” This is in reference to why Junior Brown doesn’t like Firefly. While he’s wrong for that, The statement did stick with me and I feel like It can and should be applied elsewhere. Also, he’s a fictional character so I shouldn’t let it hurt me as much as it does. I freaking love Firefly.  So as unpopular as my opinion on some games is, I just can’t help but have no interest in the most recent gaming and streaming sensation, Elden Ring. The idea for this article came from a random encounter with an old friend earlier this week. He used to stream a lot but hasn’t done so recently and we talked about how I’ve been going twice a week for our channel here on the Domain (twitch.tv/thedomaingpce if you aren’t already following us there) and how everybody keeps suggesting I play Elden Ring. It’s almost annoying how much I get asked to play this game. I have zero disrespect for it or its community of players, I even have a great deal of respect for the speedrunners out there. However, it’s just not … Read More

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Gaming

Andrew’s Angles – LEGO Star Wars – May The Force (To Achieve 100%) Be With You

So, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has come out! Let me preface this piece with a couple of key points:

  1. I am not huge on Star Wars – to date, I have only seen Episodes V and VII.
  2. I am also not huge on LEGO – the only major kit that I’ve got is the Super Mario Question Block which I built last year.

However, despite this, I feel that the LEGO Star Wars franchise was instrumental in my collector/completionist mindset. For those of you not in the know, LEGO Star Wars was the first in the Traveller’s Tales series of LEGO combined with other popular franchises and since then, there have been many entries in the franchise:

  • LEGO Star Wars (2005), which covered Episodes I-III
  • LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (2006), which covered Episodes IV-VI
  • LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (2007), which combined the first two games and added in some extra features
  • LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (2011), which is based on the Clone Wars franchise
  • LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2016), which covered Episode VII
  • LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (2022), which covered Episodes I-IX

Now, it’s all well … Read More

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Gaming

Andrew’s Angles – Are Games Becoming Too Bloated? – A Completionist’s Perspective

I believe it was around Christmas 2020 that I had my first experience of feeling that perhaps some games are becoming behemoths of content – the culprit? Putting 135 hours into Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and deciding that enough was enough after a particular challenging standing stones side activity.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I am a fan of games with lengthy campaigns and enjoyable side content, but in recent times, I have noticed more and more titles where I’ve thrown in the towel after completing the main narrative. My issue with this – it’s at odds with my completionist nature. I’m not going to pretend that I’m some sort of person who needs to get a Platinum in every game I play before I’m ready to move on to the next one – you’re not going to see me get all relics in the Crash Bandicoot series. You’re not going to see me get everything unlocked in online games. I’m not going to play every game on the hardest difficulty. But I am one of those people that does get a sense of satisfaction of getting all boxes ticked, checklists completed, all collectables, well…collected.

I know that this … Read More