Another weekend has come and gone like a slightly drunken ghost trying its best to haunt you. It was a busy one, so I’m looking forward to crawling into bed and forgetting about the whole existence thing for a while. Maybe in the morning I’ll make a pillow fort and refuse to come out for anything less than Sticky Toffee Pudding.
This week I rambled a bit in my review of Descenders, the arcade mountain biking game about going way too fast down big hills. It also quickly became about going crashing into trees way too fast. Anyway, I wound up really liking the blend of randomly generated tracks and fun physics. It had some big flaws holding it back, but for now it’s the best mountain biking game we have. The competition isn’t exactly vast, mind you.
My second rambling of the week came in the form of a review for Team Sonic Racing. Somehow I managed to do the entire review without bringing up the fact that it’s a little strange Sonic the Hedgehog would bother with a car. Anyway, bloody good kart racer that has the unfortunate problem of not being quite as good as its 2012 predecessor.
And finally my Patch Notes this week talked about Anthem being dead and the fact that we somehow have Call of Duty: Modern Warfare again. Speaking of CoD, I also chatted about the seemingly troubled development of 2020’s Call of Duty.
This brings me to the upcoming reviews. The first up (probably) will be of Draugen. If you don’t know what that is then never fear, because nobody else does, either. It’s a small indie game set in 1920s Norway where you play as Edward who is seeking his sister. Along for the journey is Edward’s ward, Lissie. It falls firmly into the Walking Simulator category with an emphasis on the story. My initial thoughts are positive, but I do have some big issues with Draugen as well.
I’ll also be reviewing Blood & Truth for the PS VR. Boy oh boy, what a game that is! I’ve been loving what developers London Studios have done with Blood & Truth. It’s exciting, immersive and the gameplay feels great. I just wish it was longer and had been on the Oculus so that free movement could have been possible. Ah well, more on that in the full review. I’m going back to shooting guns in virtual reality *pew pew*
Other reviews that may or may not appear depending on if code comes in for other stuff are Void Bastards and Assetto Corsa Competizione. Void Bastards looks amazing visually, but I’m actually more interested in ACC simply because I bought it in Early Access due to its VR support but now at launch the VR is apparently so broken that the developers removed the VR badge from the game’s store page on Steam! What the hell happened!?
But in slightly happier news I fired up Jurassic World: Evolution for the first time in ages and enjoyed watching a T-Rex eat people. Sometimes you just have to enjoy the simple pleasures in life.
I also caught the first episode of Good Omens, the six-part series based on Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s book of the same name. I’ve mentioned this before on this site, but I’m a massive Terry Pratchett fanboy. The man’s humour and wit played a massive part in shaping who I am today, although that should not be held against him.
Anyway, the first episode was appropriately barmy, wacky and bonkers. If you weren’t aware the story revolves around an angel and a demon who have been on Earth since the time of Adam and Eve. They became sort of friends and over the years have developed a liking for Earth so when the end of times officially comes knocking they want to stop it.
My brief synopsis doesn’t do the show justice. David Tennant kills it as Crowley the demon who knows he’s meant to help bring about the end but also really likes kicking about on Earth. Likewise, Michael Sheen does a terrific job as the good-boy Aziraphale who has a serious weakness for the finer things in life like a good wine or a killer meal. It’s the kind of zany that clicks with a very specific audience, but if you’re like me and love the work of Pratchett or Gaiman then I think it’s absolutely worth watching. You can find it on Amazon Prime Video, or on the BBC in about six months or so.
On a final note my German Shepard (he’s called Laoch) managed to get himself a big raised lump on the end of his nose. Looks like either an infection from somewhere or possibly a reaction to some giant Hog Weed. Either way he’s been playing the sympathy card for all its worth. Anyway, since I’ve never put a picture of him up here, here’s one in case you want to check out his Royal Furriness.
Right, I’ll wrap things up here. As always a big thank you for visiting the site. And please do let me know what you’ve been playing, watching and reading this week in the comments below!
Last modified: April 16, 2020
About the Author: Jeremy P.
