REVIEW: King of Seas - Xbox One

Review by Jon Donnis

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a preview copy of King of Seas for PC last year, and I enjoyed what little I did get to play, so fast forward to now, and we have the full console release, so I was interested to see how the game had progressed, and if it fit well on consoles.

Let's remind ourselves of the story. In King of Seas, you find yourself in a time of pirates, sea battles, treasure, Islands and even sea monsters.

Your father has been killed, and you have decided to avenge that death by fighting your way from the bottom of the pirating world, trying to reach the very top and becoming The King of the Pirates! (I have not changed my opinion on this one point, The King of the Pirates is an infinitely better name for this game than King of Seas, which not only seems to be grammatically incorrect, but does little to explain what the game actually is.)

Once you get into the actual game you will find yourself with a basic ship, to start your adventure you will complete tasks, that might be to accompany another ship and to keep it safe, or perhaps to just got out and attack other ships and steal their resources. Of course, there are things that will get in your way, whether that is much bigger and more powerful ships, changing weather conditions, or a sea monster trying to sink you. 

As you progress you will find new places to trade, upgrade your ship, you might even stop by a seemingly empty island and find yourself some treasure. Basically, there is plenty to do whether you want to follow the missions strictly, or just sail about attacking people and looking for treasure. 

There are different ships to own, different weapons and upgrades, as well as skills to help you along the way.

The graphics are simple but detailed, the sounds are perfectly fine, and control of the ship is intuitive.

The Good

The game plays well on Xbox, no complaint there, you will soon get used to the controls, the graphics are detailed, the sound effects are decent. 

The Bad

Going from playing this game on a PC screen to a large TV one major issue I have noticed is that the writing on the screen, in menus etc, is rather small. In general people play consoles games while sat on a sofa, they are not 5 inches from the TV like you are when you play PC games, unfortunately this is a common problem when porting a game from PC to console, the game developers never consider the different way gamers will play games on different formats. 

Overall

This is a fun game, I enjoyed the PC preview I played a while back, and I am enjoying the Xbox release too. There is enough depth to the game that will keep you coming back. As I mentioned earlier, my only real complaint is the small writing, I really do hate getting up and moving closer to the TV to read something, I am not getting any younger.

Also worth noting that the Xbox release allows you to download a free trial before you decide whether to buy it or not, so you have nothing to lose. Get it now!

I score King of Seas on Xbox One a solid 7/10

Review By Jon Donnis

Out Now - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/king-of-seas/9pm0r43hpss7

 

Freddie Spaghetti 2

Freddy 2.0 is here! Freddy is spaghetti. Oh, and conscious.

Freddy 2.0 has got a job! The story starts as you plunge headfirst into the workplace. Overcome the environment, master your spaghetti and run to the coffee machine!

Don’t be late on your first day!

Freddy Spaghetti uses rope physics to simulate a squishy, stretchy, ropey character.

Features:
Fun and Easy Controls
Physics all over the place
Unique Levels
Hilarious and Captivating Story
Professional Narration
Heaps of Personality

Freddy Spaghetti 2 will be priced for 4.99 $ / € for all platforms, and it will launch on:
SONY America: July 23rd
SONY Europe: July 23rd
XBOX: July 23rd
Nintendo Switch (NA & EU): July 23rd

REVIEW: Yakuza: Like a Dragon on Xbox One

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

Yakuza: Like a Dragon is the 8th in what seems like a never-ending series of games.

But this is a new start in the series, unlike the previous games that followed Kazuma Kiryu, Like A Dragon follows Ichiban Kasuga.

"Ichiban Kasuga, a low-ranking grunt of a low-ranking yakuza family in Tokyo, faces an 18-year prison sentence after taking the fall for a crime he didn't commit. Never losing faith, he loyally serves his time and returns to society to discover that no one was waiting for him on the outside, and his clan has been destroyed by the man he respected most.

Ichiban sets out to discover the truth behind his family's betrayal and take his life back, drawing a ragtag group of society's outcasts to his side: Adachi, a rogue cop, Nanba, a homeless ex-nurse, and Saeko, a hostess on a mission. Together, they are drawn into a conflict brewing beneath the surface in Yokohama and must rise to become the heroes they never expected to be."

Using the same "Dragon Engine" from Yakuza 6 and Yakuza Kiwami 2, Like a Dragon will instantly feel familiar if you have played those two games, however there is one big change outside of the storyline elements. The real-time beat 'em up is gone and replaced by a turn-based RPG combat system.

This is a HUGE change, and if you are unaware of this change when you first start to play, that first battle feels weird as hell. Now I will admit I hated it at first, I really enjoyed the freedom of the real-time beat em up system of the previous games, the turn-based RPG system for the fights does feel constrained, especially early on, but you will soon get used to it, and as you unlock new special moves etc, then it does become enjoyable, if a bit tedious in a boss fight.

There is an auto mode when fighting, that enables the characters to do pretty much everything and you can just sit back, you still need to hit the odd button here and there to max out the power of certain moves, but it does make the fights easier.

Onto the game itself, like previous games there are endless sub-stories to complete, see a person on the street, speak to them, do a job for them, report back, collect a reward. You will also slowly build up a team, they can even join you in battles, and although you control them in the fights, outside of the fights, you will only control Kasuga. Another interesting element of the game is the jobs system, you can change jobs for your characters, and that in turn may change the way they fight in battle, upgrade their ranks and you will find you get stronger, faster and so on. Each job has a different look when you fight, different clothes to wear and more.

There is also the huge selection of mini games to play, whether that is heading into a SEGA arcade and playing Virtua Fighter 5, cart racing, collecting cans on a course, and the biggest one of all the management mini game, where you buy properties, assign employees, and try to raise the stock price of the business, hoping to eventually get to number one. If that doesn't sound like something you would like, well tough, because later in the game you will need to collect large sums of money, and one of the best ways to do that is the management mini game. It is a bit complicated at first, but you will figure it out, and there are plenty of guides online to help you out.

Although you can save your game at almost any time, there are some sections whereby you cant, usually it will be a scene where you need to battle through to an enemy boss, or the battle arena, or even under the city. In these situations a save before you start, and hope you are well prepared to get through it.

If you struggle in a fight and seem to be endlessly fighting and healing yourself, you are probably not strong enough and need to go away, grind a bit and raise your stats, or buy better weapons.

Regarding the weapons, you can buy them in shops, find them after battles, and even craft them.

There really does seem to be so much to do in this game, and you can get side tracked for hours doing things that have nothing to do with the main story. But that is fun. You will even fight a chimp, a tiger and a mechanical digger during this game!

The Good

The game looks and plays great, everything is smooth, the cut scenes although rather long at times, are all fun to watch.

The Bad

Although I have got used to the RPG elements of battle, I still prefer the beat em up style of previous games.

Overall

This is an epic game, if you went at it hard you can probably complete it in 12 hours, but then you won't enjoy it, sometimes the best parts of the game are the side stories, the silly things like growing pine seeds to then turn into a bonsai tree, to give to a girl to impress them. Silly but fun.

I score the game a solid 8/10

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

Out now on

PS5

PS4

XBOX

REVIEW: Just Die Already on Xbox One

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

In recent years the "Sandbox Game" has become more and more popular, for those unaware a Sandbox Game is basically a game that allows you to have much more creativity within the game to complete tasks towards an end goal, as opposed to a much more linear experience that many games have.

Just Die Already is an "old people mayhem sandbox game". You start off the game in a care home for the elderly, apparently you are living in the near future where people are no longer having children, and no one is going to work as instead they are playing video games all day, so with no one paying the bills to look after the elderly, you find yourself having no choice but to escape the retirement home (or are you kicked out?) and find a way to survive on your own in a world that just wants you to die. Hence the title of the game.

You now find yourself completing various tasks as a way to get retirement tickets which in turn will allow you to have free care.

Anyway, all of that is not really of much interest, what is of interest however is the gameplay itself, if you have ever played Goat Simulator, then Just Die Already will instantly feel familiar. At first the controls are a bit iffy, but you will soon get used to them. You can run around; you can pick up items with your left or right hand, you can pretty much do what you like, however you are still an old person, and as such you will break bones & lose limbs, luckily you can respawn and carry on your journey. But the fun is sometimes trying to carry on without respawning. For example, if you lose your head, you can pick it up and attack someone with it, you may end up just a body with no arms or legs, rolling about.

The single player mode is great, but there is also a multiplayer mode, whereby you can help friends to complete challenges or just attack each other, it really is up to you.

Much like Goat Simulator, you really can interact with almost everything, and there are loads of things out there to have fun with, and get killed by, or use to kill others. There are loads of secrets to find, hidden areas and so on. For example, find some wings, glue them to your arms and then fly around! Things really do get very crazy.

I've been playing the game for a while, and some tasks are easier than others, some are simple, some are hard, and every time I have played, I have found new unexpected things to do. 

The Good

A seemingly endless number of things to do, you really can find yourself "wasting" hours playing this game, without really achieving anything, but that is part of the fun.

The Bad

The graphics have their own quirky style, not really to my tastes though. And sometimes the controls feel a bit too light, like you are not completely in charge, but that is just part of the game mechanics.

Overall

If you liked goat simulator, then you will love this. If you have never played Goat Simulator, then the first 5 minutes of playing Just Die Already, you will hate, but then you will start to like it, and eventually love it.

I score this game a solid 8 out of 10.

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

Out now on Xbox

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/Just-Die-Already/9N9B1JC4DD2Q

REVIEW: Lambs on the Road: The beginning on PC Steam

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

Lambs on the road: The Beginning, is "episode 1" of a new adventure survival platform game from Flynn's Arcade.

You play as a character called John in a post-apocalyptic world, who is searching for his daughter Mary.

Inspired by the bestseller "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.

Lambs on the Road is a side scrolling platformer at its base, get from point A to point B without getting killed. Along the way you will need to avoid people that want to kill you, as well as solve puzzles that help you progress.

The Beginning as mentioned earlier is episode 1 of the game, and if the game does well, the game makers have promised to create more episodes and develop the story further.

Graphically the game has its own style, everything looks crisp, the animations are fine for what it is, the sound effects are also fine. No complaints there.

The puzzle elements of the game include things like powering on an elevator shaft, or working a machine to drop a car on some people who want to kill you. Pretty standard stuff.

You will complete Episode 1 relatively quickly, the game is not that hard, although some of the "puzzles" can be a bit tricky, and if you do die, you can try again easy enough.

The Good

The game plays and looks good, it is easy to pick up, and it is pretty clear what you need to do and where you need to go.

The Bad

A complaint I took direct to the game makers was that an early puzzle in the game tended to rely purely on trial and error, as opposed to actually figuring something out, there was no actual clues, or hints as to what you needed to do, this I pointed out, meant it wasn't actually a puzzle, but we agreed to disagree. I personally prefer puzzles to be more than trial and error.

Overall

The game comes in at a cheap price for episode 1 at just a few pounds/euros. I enjoyed the game despite my slight moan, and I hope they will release more episodes and develop the story. 

I score Lambs on the Road: The beginning a solid 7/10

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

Wishlist now at

https://store.steampowered.com/app/866270/Lambs_on_the_road__The_beginning/