It has not been my normal practice in 2021 to buy games so close to their release date. Of all the games I’ve purchased throughout the year, there have been few exceptions, the most recent one being Far Cry 6. Last month, another exception was Tales of Arise. A few months prior, the game wasn’t even on my radar. But its name kept coming up in YouTube searches and I decided to watch gameplay videos of the demo. The day the game was released, I read the reviews on Steam indicating that there were no game-breaking or game-detracting bugs. One day later, I bought Tales of Arise. And I am so glad that I did. Continue Reading
I’ve always been a sucker for the Far Cry series ever since I played Far Cry 3. The idea of an open world, explorative first-person shooter full of explosive mayhem with a bunch of things to do and a variety of tools to create your personal brand of chaos has always been appealing to me as a gamer. That’s probably why I likewise enjoy the Just Cause series as it has many similarities to the premise of Far Cry but is instead a third-person shooter. The story revolves around ultimately overthrowing a tyrannical figure and liberating the country, island, etc. It should be old by now, but it isn’t. What probably helped with the recently released Far Cry 6 was that I hadn’t played a Far Cry game in a while. Far Cry 5 was the last game in the series that I played and I had no interest in the sequel, New Dawn. Continue Reading
I will readily admit that I wasn’t historically a Halo fan. When I saw people catching on to the Halo craze back in the early 2000s, I didn’t get it. Many gamers were having a blast on the original Xbox and I even remember friends of mine saying that Halo was the best game they had ever played at the time. When I first played the game for myself, I just couldn’t understand what the excitement was all about. To me, it was a decent shooting game with a decent story. I didn’t think much of the multiplayer aspect of the game, which many Halo owners spent most of their time on. So I was left baffled at this surge in Halo popularity. Continue Reading

Beat-em-up games were some of my favorite types of games to play during my childhood. They were prevalent in arcades and then established their place on home consoles during the 16-bit generation. The premise was simple. Side-scrolling brawling action with two to four players simultaneously against scores of enemies and bosses just made for a smashing good time. Final Fight, Streets of Rage, The Simpsons: Arcade Game, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were the most memorable games in that genre for me. The games had repetitive elements but it was so much fun. I even remember playing Combatribes, which had no business being as much of a thrill as it was. My childhood friend and I had great memories of joining forces to pound our enemies into oblivion in that game at the local Boys & Girls Club back in the day. Good times. Continue Reading
If you’ve ever wanted to play Marvel’s Avengers but didn’t want to have to pay a significant amount for it, Xbox Game Pass has introduced the least expensive option to try it out. By purchasing a basic Game Pass subscription for a month at $9.99, you will be able to not only check out the Marvel-themed game but also hundreds of other games offered in the Game Pass library. If you already have Game Pass, then it’s there waiting for you to install and play as part of your subscription. You can also play Marvel’s Avengers through Xbox Cloud, which is a game streaming service with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate ($14.99/month) that requires no installation at all. Continue Reading