Graveyard Keeper

September 16, 2022September 16, 2022Random Game ReviewsLeave a comment

The Game

Graveyard Keeper developed by Lazy Bear Games and published by tinyBuild is an indie game that revolves around managing a graveyard (much like the title suggests). The game is comparable to Stardew Valley in many ways: the aesthetic, the fun characters, the crafting, combat to name few. Graveyard Keeper starts you off in a world you are unfamiliar with (you’ve come from present day) , it seems you are stuck in some sort of medieval fantasy world and you need to figure out how to return home to the present day. As it turns out you are the new keeper of the village’s local graveyard, after the previous one mysteriously disappeared. You are introduced to various characters in and around the village and their weekly schedules and quests (the game has 6 days with various events or NPC appearances being tied to each one).

Over time you develop and fix up the old graveyard and your house, you unlock farming, beekeeping, wine and beer making. As the graveyard gets nicer and filled with better “quality” people you will unlock the church which is where the game really takes off. You will be tasked with doing a weekly prayer, this will help you generate faith which leads to the most powerful unlocks in the game. Doing tasks and work generates points – there are three types of points – red (generated by wood/stone/metal work), green (generated by doing farming work) and blue (generated by researching things and high level item crafting). These 3 types of experience points are used to unlock things in the research trees, and there is quite a good amount of things to be unlocked.

Worth it?

The game is incredibly addictive. It has that typical element of “just one more day” or “just one more task” that keeps you on it for crazy amounts of time. What makes the game even more clever is the way the days work – often times quests will require you to do something that’s basically 5 days away, meaning that you have to wait almost an entire week to complete a phase in a quest (during that time you’re obviously doing other quests or tasks). This has the effect of keeping you super busy all the time, following NPCs schedules and working around having a corpse delivered to you every so often as well. The game’s aesthetic is well delivered and can be very eerie at times (especially when the fog roles in). It’s perfectly matched by the sound design of the game and some of the rather dark and funny humour.

Graveyard Keeper will generally set you back around £10, which at first may seem like quite a lot, but the game really offers quite a lot, it’s also cheaper than competitor Stardew Valley. If you can grab it while it’s on sale for around £5, then you’ve got yourself a steal; it’s worth noting the game is also free with PS Plus Extra. While the game’s ending leaves a lot of questions unanswered and there are 3 DLCs that attempt to answer those, each of the DLCs will set you back around £7-8 and add a variety of new stories and gameplay mechanics (like being able to make zombies to automate tasks). The game is highly addictive and will keep you hooked for a considerable amount of time – overall the story can take around 40 hours to complete, but that could easily stretch towards 50-60 depending on what you end up doing.

Tips

Get the teleport stone from the Dark Horse tavern as soon as you can afford it – it makes moving around the map so much easier
Try to only put high quality corpses in your graveyard, red skulls reduce the appeal of a grave
Focus on opening the church in the early game so you can unlock the weekly prayers – these will generate faith for you and unlock the church basement where you can do alchemy and craft new types of items
Meet Clotho to unlock the alchemy workbench and skill tree
For a perfect 12 skull corpse you will need to have unlocked and use the various embalming injections
Blood and fat always remove 1 red skull, organs will account for a random amount of red/white skulls in each body, flesh will always remove 1 white skull
The Quarry lets you set up a little base where you can mine iron, stone and marble for extended periods of time – just make sure you have enough materials to build the workstation and storage there
Save blood – there’s a late game quest (and speed potions) where you will need quite a lot of it
The dungeons save your progress – so if you’ve killed half the mobs on a floor and exit it, that will be saved when you return
Throwing bodies into the river is ok, but if you have a poor quality body you’re better off burning it as you still get the burial certificate
Once you unlock alchemy and the tier 2 bench get speed potions – but only take them after you’ve had a sauerkraut (as it increases the duration of buffs)
Gravestones and fences generate a lot of blue points when being researched
You can purchase books containing a specific number of red/green/blue points from the astrologer

Useful Links

Perfect corpse guide: https://graveyardkeeper.fandom.com/wiki/12-Skull_Corpse_Preparation
Wiki: https://graveyardkeeper.fandom.com/wiki/Graveyard_Keeper_Wiki
Kinguin Cheap CD Keys

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

September 8, 2022September 8, 2022Random Game ReviewsLeave a comment

The Game

Marvels’ Guardians of the Galaxy is an 3rd person action game developed by Eidos-Montréal with some interesting combat and puzzle mechanics. Fight as the 5 guardians and utilise their unique abilities to progress the story and fight off your enemies. The game sees the iconic Peter Quill, Drax, Gamora, Rocket and everyone’s favourite Groot appear in a story based just after Thanos’ end and storyline. The Guardians quickly end up triggering an unfortunate series of events that sees them let loose an ominous world destroying energy upon the galaxy. They quickly get themselves into even more trouble with the Nova Corps. As the team embarks on the adventure Rocket and Peter end up in a bit of a quarrel. As the team manages its dynamics and learns to work together effectively they also work their way around the galaxy making new friends and enemies. Characters such as Lady Hellbender, Mantis, Adam Warlock and Cosmo the Spacedog make an appearance to help the Guardians on their way.

Each character has 4 unique abilities that can be unlocked and used in combat. They will also have various skills that can be used outside of combat in order to traverse the world. This makes for quite an interesting gameplay experience. Different skills will synergise differently, making for some very exciting combinations and combat mechanics. Overall the combat is quite fun, Peter makes use of various elements that different enemies are weak to. The others make use of AoE or CC moves or alternatively focussed heavy hitting moves. The boss battles prompt some thinking and interesting combinations of characters, overall it’s not difficult, but reasonably challenging – making it quite fun.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy_20220801211838

Worth it?

The game will take you around 17 hours to complete, currently the game will set you back around £20-25 on most gaming sites, up to £60 on the PlayStation store (or free if you have PS Plus Extra). The game is a great addition to the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise keeping the good humour, great music and awesome characters. The environments, worlds and monsters are all beautifully modelled. The rather basic combat is made much more engaging with the different character abilities and the different elements that Peter unlocks throughout the story. There are times where the signposting could be a bit better and it’s possible to get a little confused or stuck (especially the Creepy caverns), but as long as you keep a look out for interactive objects and listen to the dialogue or prompts from your teammates you should be ok.

While the game is very linear the choices offer some small variations in how exactly the story pans out – most often offering shortcuts and quicker ways out of certain situations or some alternative dialogue. Overall the game lasts around 25-30 hours, it doesn’t really offer great replay value other than for completionism, it does offer a new game plus mode for an extra challenge, but realistically you will likely only play it through once. The game is definitely worth playing, especially if you can pick it up on sale (avoid paying £60.00) or free from PS Plus and even more so if you’re a fan of the franchise.

Tips

Unlock the visor ability to see /show spare parts as early as possible
Keep a look out and destroy the dark material whenever you see it
Decisions don’t really impact the overall game, but can sometimes make it a bit quicker to get through a certain area, depending on the choice you make. Overall however the game is quite linear.
Make use of elemental weaknesses – you will tear through enemies a lot easier if you hit them with the right element from your guns
Look around and behind you when you start/enter an area for spare parts or unlockable skins
Unlock the ability to scan enemies in combat – it will tell you what the best approach to taking them down is and of any weaknesses
Look out for things you can use in combat that are triggered by your team mates
Try to fill stagger meters for easier kills

Useful Links

Kinguin Cheap Steam CD Key: https://www.kinguin.net/category/100462/marvel-s-guardians-of-the-galaxy-deluxe-edition-steam-cd-key?r=rndgamereviews
IGN Walkthrough: https://www.ign.com/wikis/guardians-of-the-galaxy-the-game/Walkthrough

Maneater

August 26, 2022September 14, 2022Random Game ReviewsLeave a comment

The Game

Maneater is the spiritual successor to Hungry Shark that we’ve always wanted. Developed by Tripwire interactive, the game lets you take control of a mutant shark and wreak havoc on the local wildlife and humans in a satirical version of Florida where the waters are rife with toxic waste and pollution. The game is narrated by comedian by Chris Parnell, which makes for some fairly comic moments.

You start out the game as a full grown shark on the hunt for some human flesh and quickly encounter your arch nemesis – Scaly Pete. A rather absurd character Scaly Pete is a professional shark hunter who you engage in battle with and sadly defeats you, only to find a baby shark inside your stomach, which manages to eat his arm and escape. This is when you really begin your adventure as this newly born baby shark. You quickly learn how to eat and survive in the harsh environments around you. You can upgrade your shark and it’s abilities in mysterious caverns marked by fairly lights.

As you progress through the regions you take on bigger and bigger wildlife and you can also eat your way up the list of Shark Hunters in order to unlock other special upgrades. You quickly begin to realise that this is no ordinary shark and that you are actually creating somewhat of a monster.

Worth it?

Overall gets repetitive towards the end, but still quite satisfying to play. The game is very easy to complete and if you’re playing on PlayStation, it’s one of the easiest Platinum Trophies you can get. There are various CD Keys where you can get the game for around £5 or up to £20. It’s free with PS Plus Extra. It’s hard to justify more than £10 for this game, especially without the CD as it’s quite basic and quite repetitive, it’s also extremely easy to complete. However when it comes to senseless violence and being a fun sandbox game, Maneater really excels. Simple concept, crazy upgrades and Chris Parnell’s narration make this a very amusing game that will keep you busy for around 8-12 hours depending on whether your 100% it. The Truth Quest DLC only adds an extra hour or so of gameplay.

Tips

You can explore all landmarks in the first areas quite easily – do this to gain access to the Shadow upgrades
There’s a sewer pipe with a grate (Teen) connecting Fawtick Bayou to Dead Horse Lake – I had issues finding a way out of the first zone as I just kept missing this
The bone build is best for taking on boats
Don’t be afraid to mix and match various body parts – the shadow jaws, electric fins and bone for the rest make a nice versatile build
For the final battle with Scaly Pete use the electric fins to dodge and disable his torpedoes – this makes them very easy to pick up and tail whip right back at his ship
You can always hide in a grotto, no one will try to get you there
When taking on tougher enemies try to avoid their attacks and study their moves to find an opening during which you can attack them
Once you’re an adult you can grab and fling stuff with your tail whip – a carefully aimed such shot can open gates or be used to hit targets/prey

Useful Links

Interactive Map: https://mapgenie.io/maneater/maps/port-clovis
Kinguin CD Keys: https://www.kinguin.net/listing?active=1&hideUnavailable=0&phrase=maneater&page=0&size=50&sort=bestseller.total,DESC&r=rndgamereviews

Stray

July 26, 2022July 26, 2022Random Game ReviewsLeave a comment

The Game

Stray developed by Annapurna Interactive is an adventure puzzle game that has been in the works for some time. Before you proceed, this review may contain some light spoilers – so if you want to fully fresh experience avoid the screenshots and maybe go play it first. Announced a couple years ago, the game really got cat lovers around the world hyped. The game lets you take control of an adorable kitty in a post apocalyptic world where humans no longer exist. After a misadventure with your fellow kittens you end up deep underground in a forgotten structure where you find some rather strange larvae (known as Zurks) and a hidden city of friendly robots. On your adventure you befriend a little drone, known to you as B12. The drone seems to remember a time when humans existed and the things they used to do. The robots in the city, known as Companions have adapted to the underground way of life, but some of them yearn to return to the Outside once more and to see the sky once again.

As you find out more about this world and the Companions you are tasked with collecting various items, exploring parts of the city and ultimately making your way to the outside. The core gameplay loop focuses on really satisfying puzzles that are delivered in a variety of ways: from jumping (parkour or is it catcour), to following cables, pulling levers, stealthily avoiding enemies or completing tasks for various Companions. The story takes you on a captivating adventure in a beautifully designed and crafted world with amazing attention to detail.

Worth it?

While it’s not the longest of games (first playthrough may take around 4-5 hours depending on how much you mess around and explore) the game certainly delivers in charm and story. The beautiful world, satisfying puzzles and amazing story will make you want to complete it while at the same time wishing it doesn’t end so you can explore and learn more. The game does also autosave quite frequently which allows for shorter play-sessions. The simple controls and short playtime also mean that you could hand it to a “non-gamer” and let them enjoy the experience (although they may need a hand with the Zurks). The game will currently set you back around £25, but I expect we will see it in some sales later this year, but even at this price it is worth getting. For PlayStation extra members it is included in the available games at no extra cost. There are currently some speculative rumours around an Xbox release, but it will be some time away with the earliest being October, some estimates even saying 2023.

Overall Stray is a beautiful game, with a captivating story and really satisfying gameplay. It goes above and beyond being simply a cat simulator (although it does that pretty well). It is a pretty unique game in terms of allowing players to see the world form the perspective of a cat which will make it a firm favourite amongst cat lovers (maybe also dog lovers alike). It is really hard to fault the game and it even has a bit of replay value in the music sheet or plant collection side quests and the memory collection element. The game also provides a solid base for the speed-running community and it will be interesting to watch some of those attempts as get better at it. I’d highly recommend checking this game out.

Tips

Follow red painted air conditioning units with orange streamers
Follow orange lights, cables, wires or arrows
You cannot go back for the music sheets after leaving the slums to go into the sewers
Hide in boxes to avoid sentinels, or in other areas where you break their line of sight
Scratch things when you can (pretty much anything that isn’t a carpet will lead to something)
The purple, yellow and red plants can all be found within Antvillage
Meow to distract/attract enemies
B12 can remind you of your current objective should you forget
Your backpack will light up if you can interact with nearby objects/NPCs
Interact with vending machines in order to be able to get all of the Barterman’s items
Talking to companions can give you hints or other objectives that will help you along the way

Useful Links

Kinguin Steam CD Key: https://www.kinguin.net/category/120559/stray-eu-v2-steam-altergift?r=rndgamereviews
IGN Wiki/Guides: https://www.ign.com/wikis/stray/
Developer website: https://stray.game/

Jotun: Valhalla Edition

April 12, 2022April 12, 2022Random Game Reviews1 Comment

The Game

Jotun: Valhalla Edition made by Thunder Lots Games is an amazingly aesthetic game based on Norse mythology. Battle your way past gods and figure out weird puzzles on your way through the afterlife. You play as Thora – a recently deceased human wielding a massive two-handed axe. This is quite a challenging game which will have you in potential fits of anger as you face up against some of the later bosses. Each big boss (known as Jotun) fight is preceded by a couple of relatively peaceful missions to find some runes, often accompanied by a puzzle of sorts. Often you will also find special shrines that give you some interesting skills ranging from healing and shields to decoys and even the blessing of Thor’s hammer.

Once you have collected the appropriate runes you face off against a boss, and boy do these bosses pack a punch. The sense of scale is something the game plays with really successfully by pitting you – a tiny human against some truly gigantic deities. Each Jotun will have various phases, attack patterns and timings that you will need to learn and master in order to get past them. These fights can be very frustrating and you will suffer a quick death if you make too many mistakes. The process of figuring these bosses out and beating them is extremely satisfying.

Worth it?

Generally the game will set you back around £12 depending on platform, but is very often on sale up to 75%, allowing you to pick it up for less than £5. At that price it’s a must have. The game is an acquired taste in terms of difficulty, but an audio-visual masterpiece. The narration, soundtrack and artwork are something truly special and a testament to indie game development. If you see this game on sale make sure to pick it up. Overall it’s definitely worth the purchase and while the gameplay itself won’t last you more than around 5-6 hours, the world is so beautiful and the gameplay is extremely satisfying (and also challenging), making it an absolute must have.

Tips

Keep on the look out for Ithunn’s Apples – these will upgrade your health bar
The shrines of Mimir will replenish your skills and health, but they can only do so once
Take time to study a boss’ movement patterns and attacks
Heavy attacks will often do different things than basic attacks – experiment with this
Look for openings between legs arms or other bits where you can avoid being hit

Useful Links

Kinguin Cheap CD Key: https://www.kinguin.net/category/29712/jotun-valhalla-edition-steam-cd-key?r=rndgamereviews
Wiki: https://jotun.fandom.com/wiki/Jotun_Wiki
Nintendo Tips Video (Spoilers): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4WvivL0R_M

City Skylines: Airports

April 7, 2022April 6, 2022Random Game ReviewsLeave a comment

The Game

City Skylines: Airports is the 10th expansion pack for City Skylines published by Paradox Interactive. In this review I will just be discussing the DLC in isolation. Similarly to some of the previous DLCs released (Campus, Industries, Parklife) the game focuses on zoning new areas and levelling them up over time. As the name suggests this DLC focuses on airports. You get to zone out an airport area, which conveniently flattens the ground in the area (longer term City Skylines players will know the pain of flattening land to fit in an airport). Once an area has been dedicated for the airport you can choose from some basic airport components in 3 different styles. Using these modular components you build up the airport, adding terminals, runways, taxi roads, stands, parked airplanes, cargo planes and even hotels. There is a really nice range of cosmetic items to add and even some new public transport links that can go straight into your terminals – subway, train and busses – all with some new unique skins for the vehicles. Your airports will level up as more people use them and you will even be able to create your own airline charging extortionate prices.

Worth it?

The DLC will set you back around £10 on consoles with CD keys being available for PC around £5. You will get 3 new maps and the addition of the airport zones with loads of customisation options and new public transport skins. The game also comes with a handful of new achievements, which are pretty easy to complete.

Overall for £10 I cannot say this DLC is worth it. While the customisation options are nice and you can get some really cool looking airports, the money really just isn’t worth it. I opened up a fairly late game city, set up a couple airports and got all achievements in about 5 minutes of playing. Within 30 minutes I had the highest level airport. Aesthetically speaking the DLC does add a nice amount, but in terms of depth and playability there really isn’t much there to keep you in long term. Comparing to the other similar DLCs like Parklife and the Industries this one is quite lacking and a little bit disappointing. If on sale it does become a little bit more sensible so do look out for it on sale or pick up some discounted CD keys.

Tips

Metro station and Train station link directly to concourses
You only really need 1 runway per airport
Make sure your airplane taxi routes link up correctly in the one way system

Useful Links

City Skylines Airports DLC Wiki: https://skylines.paradoxwikis.com/Airports#:~:text=Airports%20is%20the%2010th%20expansion,Air%20Radio%20music%20pack%20DLCs.
Kinguin CD Keys: https://www.kinguin.net/category/109299/cities-skylines-airports-dlc-steam-cd-key?r=rndgamereviews
Wiki: https://skylines.fandom.com/wiki/Skylines_Wikia

Minecraft (Bedrock Edition) – Coming Back to Minecraft After 10+ years

March 22, 2022March 22, 2022Random Game Reviews1 Comment

The Game

Minecraft a game developed by Mojang needs little to no introduction. The game started in Alpha in 2010 and was officially released in 2011. There are technically two independent versions – Bedrock and Java edition, where Bedrock is the version available on all consoles, mobile and windows 10. Over the years the game has continuously been developed and grown far beyond what it was in those very early days. It still carries on growing even today with the recent 1.18 Caves and Cliffs update and the upcoming 1.19 Wild update.

If you haven’t played for as long as I have you really are in for a treat. The world generation, biomes, creatures, NPCs, crafting and literally every single element of the game has had some sort of addition or expansion over the years. There are new animals like pandas, bees, axolotls, alpacas and more. The Nether has been completely overhauled with new nether biomes and structures like bastions, there is more to the End than just the dragon – end cities allow for late game dungeons and loot to be obtained. Oceans have changed massively, sunken ships, buried treasures, corals, sea turtles, ruins, ocean monuments and elder guardians and many other additions have made the oceans of Minecraft a lot more interesting and worth exploring as much as any overworld biome. There are now various types of mountain, taiga forests, ice biomes. There are new types of caves and the world goes deeper than ever before.

Villagers were only just introduced when I last played Minecraft all those years ago and while initially they didn’t have much purpose, they are now an integral part to surviving. There are a variety of villages depending on the biome they spawn in, various villager professions, each with its own set of trades. Trading with villagers will level them up, unlocking new trade options – sometimes even allowing you trade for incredibly rare items. The villagers now also have enemies in the world, their evil counterparts – the illagers. These can spawn on patrol in the world, in woodland mansions, at pillager outposts or during raids. There are various types of illagers each with their own skills, weapons and abilities. There is also a sequence of events whereby killing an illager captain (gaining the Bad Omen status) and then walking into a village will trigger a raid by consecutives waves of illagers. Defeat the raid and you might get an amazing drop – the Totem of Undying (hold in your hand when you die to instantly respawn).

Worth it?

Generally speaking whichever version you may choose you will likely be spending anywhere from £10 to £20 for the game. There are various CD Key outlets offering lower prices too. What’s most important is to define that any platform other than desktop will be the Bedrock Edition of Minecraft. On PC you will have a choice between the original Java edition and Bedrock Edition. While the majority of the core game mechanics are the same between games, there are some very key differences in terms of mob spawning and various other niche elements that could potentially make all those tutorials for farms you are watching irrelevant to your version. The other very notable difference between the two is that on Java you will have access to endless free mods, texture packs and other community content. On Bedrock you will need to purchase Minecoins in order to buy the same types of things.

While on the one hand the store in Bedrock is a nice chance for content creators to get recognised and make money from their work it also takes away from so much that Minecraft originally was and feels like a bit of a cold attempt at squeezing more money out of the player. On consoles you cannot play split-screen unless the other player also has a purchased version/account on Minecraft – making local/offline couch co-op not an option, which was actually a major disappointment and feels like a bit of slap in the face. Changes are also being made to bring Java edition more in line with this, under the guise of improving player safety.

Overall it’s very difficult to fault Minecraft as a game – it really has withstood the test of time and coming back to it after being away for so long is like rediscovering something you loved as a kid which has kept growing and changing over all these years. The game has proven itself in terms of depth and potential and the continuous work on it means there’s always something to look forward to. If you want to lose potentially thousands of hours building and surviving in your very own Minecraft world, or last played it more than 5 years ago – then by all means give it a go.

Tips

Make a shield and equip it as soon as you have access to iron
Donkeys can be equipped with chests to help carry more
Animals can be leashed to fence posts
Scutes dropped from baby turtles can help make a helmet that will help you spend more time underwater
Mobs cannot spawn on bottom half slab blocks (or other non-whole blocks like rails, string, carpets)
Traveling 1 block in the Nether is equivalent to travelling 8 in the above world
Enable coordinates on Bedrock – make note/screenshots of coordinates you want to come back to
Keep a water bucket on you, it can be useful to go up/down into ravines or to put yourself out if you’re on fire
Mending is a great enchantment for your high-level gear – it will repair your equipment with exp
Automate things using redstone contraptions
You can reset villager trades by removing their work station and replacing it – once you have made a trade with a villager that will lock their trades in even if the work station is moved
Check a seed map to find out where various things in your world are located

Useful Links

Cheap CD Keys Kinguin: https://www.kinguin.net/listing?active=0&hideUnavailable=0&phrase=Minecraft&page=0&size=25&sort=bestseller.total,DESC&r=rndgamereviews
JC Playz – YouTube Bedrock Tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC28FPve5TtZ469khubfiAPw
Pixlriffs – YouTube Survival Guide (Java): https://www.youtube.com/c/Pixlriffs
Wiki: https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Minecraft_Wiki
Seed Map: https://www.chunkbase.com/apps/seed-map

GTA V Online: The Contract

January 28, 2022January 28, 2022Random Game ReviewsLeave a comment

The Game

Rockstar recently released another update for GTA V Online – The Contract featuring Dr Dre himself. The DLC focuses around the new business (Agency) run by your character and Franklin from the GTA V story. The Agency offers up a bunch of new ways to make money and a series of VIP Contracts in which you focus on retrieving Dr Dre’s stolen phone, containing previously unreleased music. There are several types of normal contracts, varying in pay and difficulty – some will task your character with retrieving stolen valuables or vehicles, destroying caches, killing gang officers or protecting valuables. Each of these jobs can pay anywhere from around $30 000 to around $70 000.

In addition to these jobs, the update has also added payphone hits. A throwback to the original story mode and some of the older games, the player is tasked with carrying out hits against various VIP targets across the city. Each hit comes with a variety of ways in which it can be completed in order to gain the hit bonus, which massively increases the pay for the kill from $15 000 to a total of $85 000.

The Agency itself (which can be purchased from the Dynasty 8 site) comes with a couple of special rooms – an armoury allowing the purchase of specific items (like the taser) and a garage where cars can be customised with some of Imani’s special upgrades. The special vehicle upgrades include remote control over a car, various explosion methods and weapons too.

Worth it?

The DLC adds tons of new content from weapons to vehicles and clothes. The new missions offer an amazing way to make money as a solo player. All agency missions, contracts and hits can be completed solo in an invite only session, essentially making this an amazing single player DLC. The Agency will set you back a couple million dollars, but completing the Dr Dre story line will put $1M back into your account, so that alone makes it quite worth it. With a MK2 the contracts and hits are extremely easy to complete and will massively help you on your money grind. These missions may also come back as 2x or 3x weekly specials which offers up some great earning potential. The unreleased Dr Dre tracks which you then get to listen to and keep are also a really innovative approach to releasing music. My single biggest issue with the DLC is that the tour of Dre’s studio is a mission that requires two players and it seems near impossible to find a second if you don’t have any friends that play GTA V.

Tips

You can run over trolls for the payphone hit missions using a MK2
The Stone Hatchet (reward from Maude’s bounty hits) is very useful for a lot of the contracts and recovery missions as it will allow you to chain together kills and run through an area unharmed
There are some hits that require multiple players working for you
All DLC contracts and hits can be played in a Invite only (single player lobby)
Completing more contracts will increase the passive income of the agency (stored in the safe in your office) up to a max of $50 000 for every in game day
Purchasing the armory allows you to purchase the Stun Gun and the EMP Launcher
You can listen to Dr Dre’s tracks (after completing the quests and receiving the USB) from the Media Player radio station – you can select what it plays through the Inventory option in your context menu

Useful Links

GTA Web EU: https://gtaweb.eu/en/
Tylarious Youtube (weekly bonuses, guides): https://www.youtube.com/c/Tylarious
Rockstar Newswire: https://www.rockstargames.com/newswire
Kinguin Cheap CD Keys: https://www.kinguin.net/listing?active=0&hideUnavailable=0&phrase=GTA%20V&page=0&size=25&sort=bestseller.total,DESC&r=rndgamereviews

Punch Club

December 10, 2021December 13, 2021Random Game ReviewsLeave a comment

The Game

Punch Club developed by Lazy Bear Studios and published by tinyBuild is a pixel graphics fighting simulation game. With elements reminiscent of Sims and loads of references to cult classic films there’s quite a bit to unpack with this game. The game has a fairly simple and straightforward gameplay loop consisting of training to level up your stats, working to earn cash and fighting your way to becoming champion of the world (technically you watch your character fight).

Every day you will have to balance exercise, work and other tasks to progress, at the end of every day you will lose a significant chunk of your stats. There are three main attributes that you can develop – strength (red), agility (blue) and stamina (green). Different gym equipment will level you up at different speeds, exercise too long on one piece of equipment and you’ll start earning less points, so make sure to change up your routine as soon as that happens. Your stats tie in to your fighting abilities and skills. After each fight you will learn skill points which can be spent learning new skills, moves or perks. As if all of that wasn’t enough you also have to ensure you’ve got enough food, energy and happiness each day. In the early game finding the balance between working to earn money and training is particularly difficult, so you’ll probably be stuffing yourself with frozen pizzas for quite some time.

The story focuses on a character who dreams of becoming a great fighter and avenging his father’s death. As you become a better fighter more elements to the story will unfold, as well as some side-stories, which actually get pretty weird after a while. The game world is packed with references to movies like Fight Club, Rocky, The Simpsons, John Wick and even Jay and Silent Bob (if you look outside the store) and some truly beautiful pixel art.

Worth it?

This isn’t an easy game. Especially the early game can be particularly hard as you balance working, training and fighting. Once you start to unlock better jobs, some home equipment and more skills things begin to get a bit easier and the game starts to click. The mid-game (from Din Kong) onwards begins to get a bit easier, however it is also worth noting that this is an extremely grindy game. While losing some stats every day makes sense and is an established mechanic it also makes the game really hard and you will be spending an extremely long time levelling up your stats (especially for the final fights). While it is quite punishing, it also makes for a good challenge. Some story lines will also present you with choices which will affect them, potentially making completion for those story lines unachievable.

You can get the game for around £1.50 on sale, which is absolutely worth it. The game provides a good challenge, is wonderfully aesthetic, has an interesting story and loads of film references to keep you going. It will take you quite a few hours to complete your first playthrough and you may be tempted to do a second one after (maybe even a speedrun). The sound track can get a bit repetitive after hours of grinding and the game itself can get a bit repetitive and grindy towards the end, but other than that it is quite difficult to fault it. If you see the game on sale, grab it.

Tips

In the early game meat is the most effective cost per food item, however pizza is better at recovering your health
Making money is only difficult in the early game – focus on getting your own equipment at home so as to avoid the daily cost of the gym
The skip attack skills is very useful if you are draining your energy very quickly
Adapt your strategy from round to round – try out different moves, counters and defensive moves
Fights will teleport you directly to the location so you can save yourself the walking
Keep skills just above a level if the day is about to tick over, so you can easily get it back up again at the start of the new day
Focus on unlocking the extra skill slots early in the skill tree
Look ahead at what gets you where in the skill tree, plan ahead
Once you are living with Din Kong focus on upgrading daily allowance asap, money will also become a trivial concern pretty quickly then
You can collect the prize from Mickey in the trailer park twice
Skill unlock cost caps at 25
The flower locations for Adrian are: Roy’s garden, the Warehouse, the Bar, Mick’s office and your house
Check out the wiki for more tips/tricks

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Valthirian Arc – Hero School Story

November 14, 2021November 14, 2021Random Game ReviewsLeave a comment

The Game

Valthirian Arc – Hero School Story by Agate Games is a rather weird, but strangely addictive game available on PC, PS4 and Switch. A quirky art style and a mix of anime and cute characters make this quite an interesting game. There are two aspects to Valthirian Arc – on the one hand you are a principal managing a school for heroes. You will need to build and upgrade various classrooms and facilities around the school while also upgrading your students and crafting them new gear. At the end of each academic year you have to graduate some of your students in order to obtain a large lump some of cash and experience.

The second aspect of this game are the actual missions that your students are sent on. These are essentially little randomised dungeons in which you usually have to find some items or kill some mobs. This encompasses the core gameplay loop in which you go out on missions, find loot, gain experience, followed by levelling up your students and eventually graduating them and enrolling new ones to repeat the process with. As you advance the story and acquire more experience your school will grow, allowing you to place more buildings and unlock specialisations for your students.

Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story_20210930205408

Worth it?

The game is available on Steam for £11.99, I got it on sale on PS4 for around £2.50. Realistically, the game isn’t really worth much more than £5.00, but it does have an addictive quality about it where you keep thinking to yourself – “just one more mission or one more graduation”. The gameplay does get quite repetitive quite quickly, but the prospects of improving your students further and further and unlocking the various specialisations can keep you engaged for quite a while.

Overall the story isn’t anything overly compelling, although it does appear to have a couple of variations on the end result. There’s an interesting variety of mechanics, from managing and building the school, to crafting gear and upgrading students. It has a weirdly addictive side to it that does make you want to keep playing for some time. If you focus on doing only the main story line missions you can probably complete it in around 5-10 hours, however doing side quests and favours is a great way to earn more cash and upgrade your students even more. If you spot this on sale, it’s definitely worth a try if you fancy something a little bit more quirky.

Tips

Do not send all parties on idle missions (ones that play out on their own) as time advances really slowly when you are not out on a mission.
Always ensure you have on party with which to play out missions while the others can go on idle ones. You can use the main party to advance time by completing the missions.
Don’t get too attached to your students, you will have to graduate them at some point as newer students joining will have a higher level cap.
The dirk is a great weapon for the lowest class students.
Always buy everything you can from the travelling merchant.
There’s little point in crafting most of the lower class weapons as you’ll tend to find a lot while out on missions.
Invest in buildings and rooms that give you extra cash early on, you can always delete or replace them later on.
Item drop rate is capped, regardless of how many rooms you have that buff it.
Look out for students’ base stats when enrolling them – you can specialise them based on these. Focus on their strengths.

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