I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t considering picking it up just because of that.

Aaaall the Features

Loaded with redesigned gameplay engine, new controls, and upgraded visuals. WWE 2K22 is set to look, feel, play, and “Hit Different.” It has an updated and intuitive control scheme. Along side that is an immersive presentation with varied camera angles. This will let you feel the pressure and reward of every punch, kick, and slam.

Popular game modes including the returning 2K Showcase – starring Rey Mysterio – incorporate new features and updates, allowing players to relive the iconic moments behind Mysterio’s most famous matches. In MyRISE, players chart their own paths to superstardom. With Universe Mode and the upgraded Creation Suite, WWE 2K22 offers players the ability to fully customise their WWE experience down to the smallest details. From taking control over brands, premium live events, match results, rivalries, and more – or creating the ultimate custom Superstar personas, arenas, and championships – players can share all their creations with the global WWE 2K22 community with first-time-ever, cross-platform sharing.

In addition, WWE 2K22 will introduce new modes to the WWE 2K experience: MyGM and MyFACTION. In MyGM, players step into the role of a WWE General Manager and call the shots on their way to building the biggest brand in the WWE Universe. From drafting the ultimate roster of WWE Superstars and Legends to developing iconic rivalries and championship showdowns, players will get the chance to take the reins and prove themselves on sports entertainment’s biggest stages. With the franchise-first MyFACTION mode, players can collect and manage their dream faction with weekly events and regular updates, providing tremendous challenges and replay value.

WWE 2K22 Editions and Pre-Order Bonus

WWE 2K22 features four editions of the game. The first three are the Standard Edition, Cross-Gen Digital Bundle, Deluxe Edition. In celebration of the 25^th anniversary of the New World Order faction there is the – nWo 4-Life Digital Edition:

• The Standard Edition will be available for $109.95 NZD on previous-gen platforms (PS4, Xbox One consoles and PC). For $119.95 NZD you can grab it on current-gen consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series X|S) physical and digital.

• The Cross-Gen Bundle will be available for $134.95 NZD and includes the digital Standard Edition and the Starrcade ’96 Rey Mysterio Pack across previous and current-gen within the same PlayStation and Xbox consoles;*

• The Deluxe Edition will be available for $159.95 NZD. The Deluxe Edition includes the Standard Edition plus the Undertaker Immortal Pack;a Season Pass to all five post-launch DLC content packs; the MyRISE Mega-Boost and SuperCharger packs; limited edition WWE SuperCard content (included in-box for physical copies only). The Deluxe Edition will be available from March 8, 2022.

• The nWo 4-Life Digital Edition will be available for $189.95. It celebrates 25 years of the faction that turned the sports entertainment world on its head. It starts with the Standard Edition, and all bonus content included in the Deluxe Edition. Then on top of that the nWo 4-Life Edition comes with MyFACTION EVO Cards and alternate nWo attires for Hollywood Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Syxx plus a playable Eric Bischoff character, WCW Souled Out 1997 and WCW Bash at the Beach 1996 arenas, and the nWo Wolfpac Championship.

• Pre-Order Bonuses: Players who pre-order the Standard Edition and Cross-Gen Digital Bundle will also receive the Undertaker Immortal Pack, which includes three additional Undertaker personas, MyFACTION EVO cards for Undertaker, plus MyFACTION Perks and Bonuses, including an Undertaker MyFACTION Logo Card, Undertaker MyFACTION Wallpaper Card, and Undertaker MyFACTION Nameplate Card. This pack is also included in the Deluxe Edition and nWo 4-Life Digital Edition at launch.

The post The iconic Rey Mastrio is the cover star for WWE 2K22 appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

With so many speaker options, the question is where do you want to drop your $600? Well if that is your budget then the JBL Partybox 110 certainly makes an argument for itself.  

Do you want a way to enjoy some jams on a Sunday? How about pissing your neighbors off as late into the night as you can get away with it? maybe you believe you can sing and want the neighbourhood to have the chance to decide for themselves? Then the Partybox 110 will definitely help you with all of these.

One tall portable speaker.

The JBL Partybox 110 is billed as a portable speaker, and it kind of is. Traditionally when you think of a portable speaker it is lighter and smaller. This beast looks and acts like a traditional free standing speaker. The difference is it is a bit smaller and has a handle. It’s not light, but not that heavy. So it is certainly portable, but not what I think of as a portable speaker.

On top of this, on the bottom is a panel you can remove and the speaker can be mounted on a speaker stand. This means it can be used easily for that corporate function so the boss can speak to the back of the room as well as your weekend jam machine.

Hypnotic lights

As you will see in any of the promo pictures, the speaker has an impressive area that can light up. This will be especially useful for those Friday night parties with the lights dimmed as you fill your flat with more sound than your neighbours could have ever asked for.

The lights are one thing that is going to be a love or hate aspect of the speaker. With the unit’s size it becomes almost more of a feature of the room, and with the large amounts of lights going up it draws the eyes. Fortunately if it isn’t your thing then you can turn them off with the press of a button on the speaker itself.  

One thing that annoyed me is there are two little white strobe lights on the unit, one at the top and one at the bottom. They are bright as hell and even in the middle of the day it hurt my eyes looking at them. Using the app you can turn those off while leaving the rest of the light show, so my inner old man disabled them for good. Damn kids with their bright lights.

Volume to annoy your neighbours

What you lose in mobility with a speaker like this, you gain in volume. To give it, as well as my relationship with the neighbours a test, I used it to belt out Let it Be and Helter Skelter. Yes I have been watching Get Back on Disney+ so have been listening to a lot of Beatles. The Beatles are typically not my jam but man they have some bangers.

The sound blasting on my deck was loud enough that someone had to yell to be heard. If you are looking for a speaker for parties at your house I suspect you will not need more than this. As it rumbled the walls of the house without even using the Bass Boost button. This makes the unit a real option to be your home jams while being a practical option for the MC’s among us.

Fully Featured

The speaker is water resistant, but weirdly only up right. If it is a bit wet you will want to make sure it isn’t being used horizontally. May seem odd, but it is what it is. The back of the speaker has a nice big rubber cover that pulls off to reveal heaps more.

There is an input for your guitar so you can use the speaker for an amp and another for a mic. So if you are running a corporate event where you do motivational speeches and motivational guitar licks then boom, you have expensed it. 

There’s a USB port which can also charge your phone, and you can run it straight from AC when it’s being used inside so you don’t run the risk of losing the party. Of course it can link up to more than one speaker so you can use it quieter with multiple speakers throughout the house.

One big small speaker

When looking at tall standing speakers, this is definitely a small portable unit. It acts like it wants to be the life of the party and to be fair it is. The $600 price tag isn;t small but you get a lot of bang for that buck. If those additional features like using it with a stand and for a mic is what you need then it is kinda of a no brainer.

The post JBL Partybox 110 Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

Microsoft has absolutely blasted the competition out of the park with their Surface Pro’s and Surface Laptops. Their formfactor with surprising amounts of power have made for the most premium of work and play devices. So how does the third iteration of their mini device the Surface Go hold up?

Well it depends on what you want to use the Surface Go 3 for.

It’s so little

The obvious benefit that the Surface Go 3 has is a 10.5 inch screen which is the same as previous models. The benefit to consistency can’t be understated when you have a stack of accessories, but also it means this device has a purpose that bigger counterparts don’t. It is more of a tablet.

This little beast is perfect for using on a mini train table, or when you are using it to read a long document or book. The size makes it super practical to replace your tablet, but it likely won’t replace your laptop or desktop.

So is the battery

The biggest issue that I encountered is the battery life. It boasts an 11 hour battery which I didn’t manage to replicate. I easily got a work day out of it when I used it casually to read documents, do some writing like this review, and watch movies on my commute. When I had it under proper load like using Chrome and running a few apps I easily stripped it in an hour.

Pretty big features though

The Surface Go 3 has a modest upgrade in power from the Surface Go 2 but nothing massive.What is impressive is the screen, cameras and sound. It belted out some high quality sound when I was watching videos. That and the video quality was pretty extraordinary given the size. I jammed some Netflix and Youtube, you know, scientific tests right here. But I was happy with the experience.

The webcam at the front is a 5MP model that can achieve 1080p at 30fps. On the rear is the 8MP camera which is fine for a photo if you needed it in a pinch but it wasn’t that great. But in reality when it comes to web cams, it is so people can see your lovely face on Teams and Zoom meetings. Given the size of this device, I am sure your friends will love the view up your nose. Or you can put it on something so it is at eyeline, whatever suits. Sorry to my friends that got a lovely up nose shot when testing.

It can see you

I was impressed with the Windows Hello 3D camera. This lets you unlock the device with your face and it works so damn well. No matter which way my messy beard pointed it recognised who I was. Even in variable lighting it was good at spotting me.

It didn’t recognise who I was behind a mask. Now I know that is an unrealistic expectation, but the new normal is us wearing masks 80% of the time. So if Microsoft can figure out some tech to recognise who I am behind a mask that would be great. Wait, that could be creepy. Can they find a way to recognise me through masks, but it only works on my laptop. The more I think about this the less of a smart idea of this face scanning tech that can see through things is.  

Actually scratch the whole idea. I’ll use my pin when I have a mask on.

You can buy so much more

As with all the Surface devices, you don’t have to stop at the Go 3. You can buy the mini keyboard and a pen to make your Surface life even better. They work well, as all the surface suite of hardware does, and is absolutely perfect if you need to type on the go. The on screen keyboard will definitely do in a pinch but the detachable keyboard is far superior.

Though to be fair if you have big lunky hands like I do that little keyboard gets pretty awkward, but again it depends on what you need the device for. If you are doing a lot of typing then you might be better suited looking at the Surface Pro or Surface Laptop. For that ability to do plenty of typing in a pinch, it’s pretty damn good.

Windows 11

This slick new Go comes with the slick new Windows 11. So what better time to take the new OS out for a test drive. Well I can honestly say … I am having mixed feelings. The start button has been centralised along with the majority of the task bar. It certainly has a feeling like the operating system that shall not be named. Oh wait, I don’t work for Microsoft… It feels a bit like MacOS.

Now I should note it feels a bit like MacOS, but that doesn’t mean it is MacOS. The same settings and open Windows File Explorer are still here. So it looks like that OS and feels nice to use once you are used to it, but is functional the way we expect from Windows. In fact it didn’t take long to adjust to and start liking this new look.

If you have been using Windows 10 for a while then you have probably started navigating the Start menu by clicking it and typing anyway. This functionality is absolutely critical with Windows 11 because the Start Menu feels a bit more like a mobile phone’s front screen. That’s not the only thing Windows 11 does like a mobile phone.

You can download the Amazon App store and start running Android apps…as long as they are supported. This means it is super easy to install apps like Kindle and your tablet winds up with the best of both worlds. Windows and Android apps in harmony. 

The OS is in its early days so no doubt there are features coming. I did find when the Surface Go 3 started up it took a while to load. Now I don’t know if that is because of the OS, the power of the tablet, or a combination of the two but it did underwhelm there a little.

You can Go get 3 if you need

I have been a little critical of the device, but that is kinda my job. This is a review after all. Ultimately this device is perfect if you need what it offers. The limited battery life and limited specs will mean it is likely to be anyones main device, but if you use a tablet for e-reading or video watching, then this one will smash that for you.  

It comes with the benefits that the Windows OS under the hood offers that many other tablets don’t offer. Starting from $720 for the lowest end model, even for tablets this is pretty cheap.

The post Surface Go 3 Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

$500 is a lot of money to spend on anything and when it comes to portable speakers UE Boom seemed to have the market covered with form factor and ease of transport. So the question begging is whether another competitor can make a more awesome portable speaker.  

It is summer after all and it is time for jams down at the beach, or at the work Xmas do, or heck while you are sitting outside wondering how you managed to burn through five annual leave days already. Well the Sony XG500 is making a pretty good argument for it to be your next speaker.

The Style

If I know anything about style, and I don’t, this speaker has it in spades. The handle looked like it could have been clunky but actually in real life it has been designed well and looks slick. The functionality this provides when carrying the speaker can’t be understated. The handle is nice and big so it is super comfy to carry and it is relatively light for size.  

The speaker mesh style going all the way around the unit makes it look like a tidy bit of kit that will fit in any room or with anyone’s personal style. The matte plastic used for the handle and the ends means it retains that understated but super awesome look. It looks awesome but you wouldn’t notice in the corner of the room unless you were looking, and I like that.

The Flashy Lights

How do you know something is expensive and awesome? Flashy lights of course. The XG-500 keeps style going when it comes to lights too. The lights sit below the subs at both ends of the unit. This means it pumps out some colour which definitely looks cool as the evening darkens.  

But again it enhances a room, it doesn’t draw all the attention to itself and I like that. It means it will fit in any room in any house and it won’t upset people watching sports on the TV or people wearing glow bracelets, or whatever kids do at house parties these days. 

If the lights aren’t your jam, that’s all good, you can disable them or turn them to a fixed colour using the Music Center App. After poking around, I found myself right back at the default, it works well.

The Sound

I mean it is a speaker so one of the most important questions is how it sounds. The answer: bloody amazing. I cranked it up to a level that I was uncomfortable with and it sounded so damn clean. No crackling or fuzziness which is excellent. Africa by Leo has never sounded so good. I mean it is a banger of a cover so it sounded good already but cranked up through the XG500 it sounded so damn good.

I cranked a range of music varying from Childish Gambino, to Iron Maiden, to The Beatles to Distubed. No matter what I played it was amazing, well except when my son got hold of Spotify. But the terrible sounds that came out were the fault of the content, not the speakers. The Speakers played that awful music perfectly.

It has a Mega Bass button which certainly pumped up the Bass but not in a better way. I found the speaker had the perfect amount of Bass in normal mode but if you want to tweak it you may be better off playing with the features using the Music Center app.

The Features

The speaker is dust proof and water resistant but not waterproof. So if you are jamming music at the pool it will handle some splashes, but don’t drop it in the pool. Hidden at the back of the speaker is a nice big rubber cover that pulls off to reveal heaps more.

There is an input for your guitar so you can use the speaker for an amp. There are USB ports which can also charge your phone and a 3.5 mm jack in case you aren’t the bluetooth type. It has a charging port back there so you can have it running on AC in the corner of the room and of course a Party Connect button.  

This last feature lets you connect multiple Sony speakers so they act as one, though to be fair, unless you live in a mansion and want the sound to be seamless as people walk from the lounge to the 78th bedroom, this speaker will probably be all the sound you need.

The Speaker

XG500 is an insanely good speaker. The sound is beyond excellent.  It is portable thanks to the  handle with some weight but it’s not heavy. It’s style would see it sit happily anywhere in your party. On a table, on the bench, in the car, or the middle of the room, it fits in anywhere and doesn’t draw attention. With a 30 hour battery life it will keep pumping the tunes no matter where you put it. At $500 it isn’t cheap but if you have the money it will be worth it.

The post Sony XG500 Portable Wireless Speaker Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

Since I reviewed the Fitbit Sense I have had it attached to my wrist basically ever since. It is an absolutely fantastic watch with some extraordinary features and a good battery life. The only issue is that $450 is a lot of money to spend on a watch. Even if that watch is filled to the brim with features.  

If only there was another watch with a lot of these premium features but with a lower price tag. Oh hello Fitbit Charge 5, when did you walk in the room?

Living that slim life

The first question will be your personal style. I definitely like the chunkiness of the Fitbit Sense, it has that classic Smart Watch style. Though it is hard to deny that the sleek look of the Charge isn’t appealing. The smooth line as your eyes follow the band to the watch back to the band is pretty awesome.

This watch will appeal to different people in different ways and I can’t tell you your style is wrong. I mean I am a dad rocking the sneans combo with a Last of Us T-Shirt so who am I to judge? The watch’s interface is built beautifully to use within limited space so have no fear, the loss of real estate isn’t lost when using the device.

If my stubby fingers can use it, then you’ll be sweet.

Battery is life

Before I tested out the Fitbit Sense I was used to terrible smartwatch battery life, examples being the Oppo I got a day out of and the Samsung Galaxy watch I could get two days out of (sometimes).I didn’t know how good life can be with a watch that doesn’t need to be charged every night and now I can’t turn back.

The Charge 5 doesn’t have the massive battery life of the Sense, but I easily got between four and seven days out of a full charge. This is pretty impressive when you think about how little the device is, and charging once a week or so is pretty damn reasonable.  

Of course it retains one of those useful features that I loved when using the Sense. When the battery level dropped low I got an email and a notification on the app on my phone saying to charge it. When you get this alert, you still have at least a day left of battery life. This is bloody brilliant because you won’t be caught out with it dying halfway through a workout.

Well unless you ignore it. If this is the case then stop ignoring your emails, your grandma is getting worried.

Walking through life

With previously used watches the steps were all over the place, with many days they reckoned I walked 10 steps. Even at my laziest I can walk from the bed to the couch which is more than 10 steps. This kind of tracking is where the Fitbit is king in the industry. The Charge 5 continues to make this a part of your life.

With a sedentary job that has me at a desk for hours on end, those prompts to get moving are actually kind of useful too.

The one omission is it doesn’t have an altimeter so it doesn’t pick up how many floors you have walked up. Not the biggest deal, but a thing if that is important to you.

Living a stress free life

OK maybe not a stress free life, but you can see how stressed you are.

What is impressive is the premium features slipped into this watch. Things like the NZ ECG app which first featured on the Sense is included here. You can also do things like the EDA scan which checks the electrical charges in your skin to tell if you are stressed. 

To do this you put your hand over the watch for a minute and you close your eyes and chill for two minutes. The process of doing this for a test tends to wind up creating my  most stress free moments. This is because I try to regulate my breathing and before I know it, I am ready to get back to being stressed at work.

Sleeping through is the best kind of life

What is cool is that it picks up a lot of info throughout the day and night. It generates scores based on how well you slept including in the different states. With a six month old in the house who hates sleep it is anyone’s guess on how accurate it is. I know that the Sense did a good job of picking up when I had a shit night’s sleep but when all your sleep sucks it’s hard to tell a better one from a worse one.

It wasn’t always perfect but it was pretty good. I then combined info including your exercise and heart rate to give you a health score for the day. This cool feature has it balancing multiple important aspects to live a balanced life.

Charge your life

The Fitbit Charge 5 is an excellent watch for the price. Some premium features make this one a no brainer for someone looking in that price bracket. At $299 it has a great battery life, a heap of cool measurements, and is super comfy to wear. It doesn’t let you control your music could be a minor annoyance. Though I image most do that with their earbuds now anyway. There are some cool features behind the Fitbit Premium paywall like the Daily Readiness score too, but these aren’t essential.

On the whole when it comes to features for money, you would be hard pressed to find a better option.

The post Fitbit Charge 5 Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

Call of Duty is an interesting series. Due to excellent gameplay the series has made some excellent and enjoyable fictional stories. The issue has always come in when the game tries to tell relatively true stories and things can get uncomfortable in the middle. So with Call of Duty: Vanguard telling some individual stories from WWII I was getting nervous about this one.

The Ultimate Collaboration

I tried to stay blind going into Call of Duty: Vanguard. I knew it told a bunch of different stories but assumed it was going to be individual chapters about different people in the war. Instead these stories are framed in a more interesting way. I was glad to have done so.

From the outset you are thrown in as a group of special forces soldiers with varying accents as they assault a train. This is a solid introductory mission as you get a taste of stealth right before you go bang bang shooty man on everything. The train ride ends with a lot of fire and blood where your team then assaults a submarine dock while they find out some information about Operation Phoenix.

This is where the action ramps up and you…no wait your team gets captured. Oh well. Short game aye?

Successful Solo Projects

This is where your team starts getting interrogated by Meriadoc Brandybuck, I mean Dominic Monaghan, I mean generic German sounding name number four. Each team has a scene where they speak to their captor before we learn more about their past by… doing a mission in their past. I should say here I am being a bit mean, but Dominic Monaghan does a pretty damn good job in the role. As a LOTR fan I can’t help but see Merry every time he shows up in anything.   

I mean how much fun was he as Merry? Loveable and mischievous at all times, while teaming up with Pippen made for some excellent cinematic moments. Especially when they kick it with Treebeard. Then the Battle of Isengard, man there haven’t been many battles that good on screen, that and Helms Deep. Wait where were we? Oh yea WWII.

Each of our characters take us to different battles. There is of course D-Day…because it is a WWII game of course. More interestingly we get to take the part of a sniper hoping to keep those darn Germans out of Stalingrad in one of the better missions. After an aerial battle in the pacific we find ourselves stranded in Papua New Guinea wounded and armed with a knife. You’ll even spend some time with some subordinate Aussies in North Africa.  

What this does is it helps keep the game feeling fresher. If we spent eight hours in Berlin going toe to toe with Nazi’s it would get pretty repetitive quickly. The change of scenery, enemies, your situation and skills kept me engaged the entire time. The framing of the fictional story around it helps disassociate it with the serious matters dealt with in the flashbacks.

Not everything a supergroup makes is a hit

So much of this game is excellent, and like COD does so much of the gameplay feels so good. One thing I hated with a passion was flying. There are a couple of significant chunks of gameplay that had you in aerial battles and I only fluked my way to the end, I never got the hang of it. This wasn’t helped by a lot of boundaries that if you went out of it would tell you to return to the missions area. I would do this regularly trying to regain my bearings and I died too often with it.

Despite this the rest of the gameplay is bloody good as usual. This carries over to multiplayer which is, you know, COD multiplayer. I am not the biggest fan of online shooters anymore but I enjoyed dabbling in some battles. God some people are far too good at online though.

Not the Final outing for this band

Call of Duty: Vanguard has an interesting story. I enjoyed the way that it was framed, with short blasts of different gameplay styles and environments helping to keep it running well. It took me about eight hours to finish the story, and I am slow, so it isn’t overly long. Despite this I wouldn’t want it longer because that’s when games drag, and this felt like the perfect length for the story told.

I suspect it will have some kind of sequel…

The post Call of Duty: Vanguard Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

There are two types of games that appeal to me. The first is a game that makes me think and feel things in ways that only games can do that push the medium to new, innovative heights. The other type is a dumb fun popcorn adventure that is fun to play, good story optional. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is the latter and what an adventure.

If you have watched the MCU Guardians of the Galaxy movies then you have a good idea of what you should be in for. The game is unrelated and it has the characters supposedly more like their comic counterparts but the tone is similar. This either means the movies nailed the tone from the comics, or the game has borrowed from both. Either way the tone is absolutely perfect.

Going in, with the jokes from the trailer there was a real concern it would be cheesy and get old fast. I mean how long can they keep the silly humour up without it getting old? Well it turns out they can do it a lot. The game has plenty of cut scenes and slow walk scenes filled with well written dialogue, but also a lot of dialogue as you walk around the world.  

This is what surprised me the most. Normally with these kinds of games I put on the headphones for the cutscenes and take them off for the general action and read subtitles. The contact dialogue was well worth listening to as I changed depending on the stage of the story you are in and was entertaining. When you are exploring dead ends looking for collectables your team sounds annoyed at you faffing around, and you even get mocked for picking up scraps. When I would fire my gun when there was nothing to shoot resulted in some light ribbing.  At another moment Mantis saying Star-Lord needs to learn the hard way when headed in the wrong direction helped lighten the mood. 

The jokes aren’t limited to what is said, and the game has some clever moments that are funny as hell. The way an early boss fight ended rather abruptly had me kinda caught off guard, and then waiting for a next stage that never came had me chuckling. I don’t want to get specific because you deserve to enjoy the moment as it transpires. It is cleverly done is all I will say.

The story itself starts off feeling like a slice of life for the Guardians as they go on an adventure to capture a beast for a reward. They come across the Nova Corps as well as one of Peter’s ex’s and before they know it they are fighting a massive space cult that is taking over the universe. Many times I thought the game must have been getting ready to wrap up and it instead opens the scope more. Normally I like my games extra short so this would be annoying but Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy continued to delight. Every time we got a new character or more insight into one we already know the game was enhanced.

Gameplay is kind of a generic third person action game. You control Star-Lord throughout the game. There are puzzles where you instruct the Guardians to do actions and in battles you can instruct them to use special attacks, but for the most part they do their own thing. This is actually pretty good because it allows the solid, albeit not revolutionary, gameplay systems to not get overly convoluted and get in the way of the narrative.

The game takes you to a lot of different beautifully crafted and colourful worlds which are stars in the game. The use of different terrains, and different styles of life in each one makes the locations feel diverse. Even going through the inside of ships and cities offer a surprising amount of variety. This is of course laid on a soundtrack that is filled with 80s jams to make sure it ticks all of the boxes that made the movies so great.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is probably the surprise hit for me of the year. I figured it would be fun enough but would get a bit old by the end. Instead, by some miracle it held my attention and I spent the whole time enjoying the laughs, the above average story plus the well crafted worlds and characters.  

The post Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

If there is one thing I like about games it is getting to do absolutely awesome things that in real life I could never even dream of doing. If there is one thing I hate about games it is hearing lingo that makes me wonder if I or the game’s writers are old. Riders Republic is a healthy dose of both.

Stay breezy

If you aren’t aware of the premise, Rider Republic is a pretty awesome idea. Imagine Forza Horizon but with extreme sports instead of racing cars. You are dropped on a mountain with a few different terrains, well by different I mean snowy and not snowy. Here you get to take part in events or explore and find things in the wilderness. Sounding good so far?  

Well how about if you can do it on either a bike, a snowboard, skis, hell even a jet fuelled glider? Got your attention yet? You can jump from doing tricks on your snowboard, to smashing out a downhill race on your bike, to exploring the side of a mountain in your wingsuit looking for new things to find…or fluffing around on your scenic route to the next event you want to tackle.

If you have played Forza Horizon then that should have told you everything you need to know about the game, if not then you may need to read on.

Cool cats

The story basically has you joining this awesome festival. You are there to make a name for yourself across all the disciplines and the story … doesn’t have much more to it. But you don’t need much more story so I am not complaining there. The biggest issue the game has is there is a bit too much dialogue. For the most part it is fine but sweet mother of god the lingo.

Whether they talk about filthy riding, cool cats, how there is more radness, or being told to stay breezy. This feels like the kind of stuff an old man would think the cool kids say today because…it’s kinda what old farts said back when they were young. So either this is the current lingo and I am an old man (possible) or the writers are old so don’t know what the kids actually say (also possible).

Either way that shit got grinding fast.

More radness

Despite this annoyance, the game has something going for it, the fact that the game is awesome. Seriously, it is fun as hell. Take snowboarding for example, it plays way better than Steep but not quite as good as my brain remembers SSX being. So given my absolute adoration of SSX memories, this is pretty damn impressive.

Then if you throw on top of that mountain biking, wing suiting and skiing, you have yourself one varied game. Biking took a while to get used to the turning but once you get those corners down it is so damn satisfying. The game’s biggest strength is the variety as each piece by itself would be a good enough game, but as a group it is so fun.

Sick of snowboarding (like that’s possible) go for a bike ride. Sick of the ground, go for a jet powered wingsuit ride in the sky. Sick of snowboarding, skiing, wingsuit flying and mountain biking? Well then you are too hard to please.

The game also uses two different control schemes. One is best for racing and the other is best for tricks but you may find one works best for you. The game lets you try both as you are introduced to it and this is enough of a taste to feel what works for you.

You are so money

Riders Republic is a jack of all trades and a master of none, and in this context I am OK with that. The game is so much fun to play, each component works on its own and combined makes for a varied high energy experience. Skip the cutscenes that aren’t teaching you anything and you’ll be fine.

The post Riders Republic Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

It is easy to make and sell a platformer to me. Give it beautiful graphics that look like an animated movie, fun platforming, and a story to tug at my heartstrings. Well Ember Lab, you sold me on Kena: Bridge of Spirits.

The sweet story we need right now

In a beautiful land Kena is a spirit guide. Spirits that are lost and need help moving on to the next land become dangerous, Kena helps them move on by kicking their asses. Well sometimes that’s how she does it, it is a video game after all.

The story has Kena headed towards the Sacred Mountain Shrine … for reasons. She comes across the cheeky spirits Beni and Saiya who she wins over by being Kena and discovers their older sibling Taro needs her help. As the story unfolds she helps a few people, and discovers a little more about the mysterious darkness around the land. This darkness is causing a lot of havoc including blocking pathways and creating enemies to be beaten, because again… it’s a video game.

To help her with this mysterious darkness she enlists the help of the rot. If that is throwing you off, it threw me off too. Even now the name ‘rot’ keeps feeling like it should be the name for the darkness. Instead they are cutesy little black spirit creatures that can be adorned with hats…because cute. But also they can be used to destroy the decay, baddies, and help with puzzles.

All of this cutesyness is rounded out thanks to the sweet and caring personality that Kena exudes.

A simple but fun game

In a lot of ways Kena: Bridge of Spirits reminded me of a PS2 era game. The world is connected through a lot of connected corridors. Jumping is limited as you can’t jump through the bushes or anything. Sometimes you can’t jump on scenery even when it looks smaller than something you can jump on.

Despite this, I actually didn’t dislike it. The gameplay was relatively simple and the funneled areas to explore help the game flow. This results in a relatively short game where you can backtrack and complete puzzles but it helps cut down some of the faf. This would also help some younger gamers because despite some more adult themes, the presentation is built so that adults and kids will both be able to enjoy this beautiful story.

Combat is limited to dodging, swinging with a light or heavy attack, firing a bow and eventually throwing bombs. There isn’t too much depth to it, and in game the responses to trying to defend can be a little clunky. Outside of these specific situations the gameplay is simple but fun, and that helps enhance the feel of the game.

A treat to the heart and the eyes

Kena has an amazingly sweet story to enjoy. There is nothing overly new here, but it has been rearranged to feel new enough. In this way it is a cracking story that has been wrapped up in one fantastic looking wrapper. The graphics department of this studio has made it look so much like a movie and with Kenas sweetness she feels like it should be.

On top of the world looking like a treat, it sounds like one too. There is some solid voice acting work that helps set the tone, but also an utterly beautiful soundtrack. Sometimes you don’t notice a soundtrack as it has been blended beautifully into the surroundings, other times you notice it because it is out of place. Every so often a soundtrack will stand out for doing something right, and I adored the soundtrack behind Kena.  

Short and sweet

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an absolute banger of a game. If you aren’t going to hunt down every collectible and rot in the world, you can easily bang it out in a week. The game’s length absolutely serves to make it better by not losing the tension with too much faff. It is easy enough that the family can enjoy it, and sweet enough that… the family can enjoy it.

Seriously go play Kena: Bridge of Spirits.

The post Kena: Bridge of Spirits Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

I wasn’t a cool enough kid to be a PC gamer. As such some of the most iconic games of yesteryear never got to get their grips on my soul. Well now El Diablo can get his hands on me with the iconic Diablo 2 now that it has been Resurrected for current gen.

When I played Diablo 3 on Switch I discovered what I had been missing. An awesome fun isometric action RPG game. The combat was fun, the story was interesting and it looked gorgeous. I was hoping that Diablo 2: Resurrected would basically take the Diablo 3 power and tell the Diablo 2 story. What we have here is a lot more faithful to the original than expected for better and worse.

Aesthetically the game looks good. The whole game has been given a complete facelift from some great looking cutscenes to a beautiful environment. I had that moment of wondering if that much has been done because we remember games from that era more detailed than they were. That and an isometric game can disguise how detailed it is when you are busy playing them. Fortunately Diablo 2: Resurrected lets you switch to classic graphics mode and boy, that game has dated hard. So absolutely no doubt the new game is absolutely gorgeous, especially by comparison.

The biggest issue Diablo 2: Resurrected has is it is so wordy. Many years ago this allowed them to tell an interesting and unique story. This is because a small number of pixels could only be so expressive, and voice acting was not where it is now. So it makes sense. It is one of the reasons the game blew so many people away back then.  

Unfortunately in 2021, that much text to flick through is ruthless. For sure, I would love to tell you I read every word and got engrossed in every side quest narrative. I would love to tell you that but I won’t lie. Instead I just don’t have the ability to pay attention to that much text when I could be killing the undead, and I have the attention span of a sparrow.

Diablo 2: Resurrected is the best way to play Diablo 2. Built to run smoothly with controllers, and given a face lift, if you have wanted to play this classic it is a great time to jump in. If you are looking for something older, well you can turn down that facelift and enjoy the beautiful pixelated glory. Either way you win… unless in Hell mode.

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