The Game Preview

Category: Game Previews

  • Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle Preview

    Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle Preview

    Early last week, I had the chance to preview the survival horror game, Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle. This entry is set before the events of Daymare: 1998, which was released in 2019 to questionable critical reception. However, it was Invader Studios’ first release and was made by a relatively small team. Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle has a team of fewer than forty developers on it and looks to be a step up from their first release.

    First up is the graphics and it is impressive. Invader Studios uses Unreal Engine 4 to craft a run-down research lab that is relatively immersive. The team uses environmental clues like green lights to guide the player on where they should go. From an animation standpoint, everything was smooth except the backpack which would shake when riding up elevators. I was mostly impressed by the settings menu which not only featured a benchmark tool but also DLSS. Both of these features were surprising to see on a game this size. I personally didn’t need to use DLSS since the game ran at 80 to 110 FPS for me on 1440p max settings with my RTX 3080. Invader Studios recommends an RTX 2060 for an optimal experience since the build is still a work in progress, but they expect it to run even better in the months to come.

    Credit: Leonardo Interactive

    On the gameplay side of things, this game truly felt like a combination of Resident Evil and Dead Space. In the thirty minutes that I played, I experienced two puzzles. One was a computer game where you matched symbols which I enjoyed. The other involved the character having to freeze multiple pipes that would continue to get hot. It probably took a quarter of my demo time to finish this puzzle because I had figured that I missed something since the pipes would continue to unfreeze themselves. However, it turns out I wasn’t freezing them for a long enough period of time to last the entire duration needed. The combat wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as responsive as I hoped it would be. You would combine the use of the freezing tool and your guns to take down the creatures, but sometimes it felt like bullets were just bouncing right off them and they would grab ahold of you.

    There wasn’t much of a sample size since the protagonist Dalila didn’t actually have any conversations and just made quirky remarks, but the voice acting didn’t leave me impressed. However, my mind can obviously be changed once I listen to her in an actual conversation with someone. I didn’t experience any bugs or technical issues, but I did have one more complaint. I felt like Dalila moved a little bit too slow, even when sprinting. It wasn’t the end of the world in a thirty-minute demo, but I question how it would start to feel after a few hours of playing.

    Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle is scheduled to release sometime later this year, but you can play the demo that I experienced right now through the Steam Next Fest which will run from February 21st to the 28th. Thank you to Leonardo Interactive for providing the early preview copy.

    Credit: Leonardo Interactive
  • Madden 21 First Impressions

    Madden 21 First Impressions

    Thank you to Electronic Arts for providing the early review copy.

    As a huge National Football League fan, I was really hoping that this years Madden would be as good as possible since so much about the regular season is still up in the air. Please note that my final scored review where I will be able to go more in detail will be posted on Friday, August 28th at 12:01 AM ET when the embargo lifts.

    Game Modes:

    The Yard is Madden’s newest game mode which introduces 6v6 backyard style football. The Yard is a ton of fun…when it is working. Obviously keep in mind that I am playing on an early access version of the game, so there is a good chance that this and any other bugs that I mention will be patched by the time you start playing. My first couple games on The Yard took place at F.O.B Field and I had no problems there. It is completely what you would expect from backyard football. It is fast paced, trick plays are common and most rules go completely out the window. However, the mode broke on me after I unlocked the second field. Players went invisible and the ball couldn’t be hiked. You can see what I mean in the video below.

    Face of The Franchise: Rise to Fame starts out with a ton of a promise but its quality fades as the game continues. High School and College play out similar to how all of Longshot did in Madden 18 and 19. I am going to show a video of how conversations are handled earlier on in the game in case you never played Longshot. After that I will have another video showing how conversations are handled once you are drafted. I am only on the first year in the NFL on it, so hopefully it improves as I continue playing but I honestly doubt it will. I understand why they did it this way but I wish they didn’t. I will have a deep dive into the positives and negatives of Face of The Franchise: Rise to Fame in my full review.

    Franchise, Superstar Knock Out, and Ultimate Team don’t have any major changes unfortunately. Electronic Arts came out and recently said that Madden 21 post launch and Madden 22 will have a lot of new stuff for franchise after fans were outraged (as they should be) over the lack of new content between previous entries of Madden. Ultimate Team has ability caps, which adds a new layer of customization to your team. Superstar Knock Out plays similar to how it did in Madden 20 and is a lot of fun.

    Graphics:

    You can judge for your self based off the videos on this post, but I didn’t see any major enhancements. I am curious as to how the next-generation upgrades will look. If you want to read about how to get the next-generation version for free, click here.

    Gameplay:

    Gameplay in the normal modes feel slightly slower then Madden 20 and I like that. There are some updates to Skill Stick which I will talk about more in the full review. The changes to pass rushing will defiantly take some time to get used to but it is a much better system compared to button smashing. Tackling and the AI have both also seen solid improvements.

    Bugs:

    I unfortunately ran into my fair share of bugs and technical issues. As I mentioned earlier, there is a pretty good chance that these will be patched out by the time you play it, so I wouldn’t reach to much into it. On top of that, 2020 has been a crazy year for developers with everyone having to work from home.

    I will go more in detail about the bugs I ran into in my full review but in the two days that I have been playing, I have ran into four bugs. The only major bug was the one that took place during The Yard which I talked about earlier.

    Audio:

    The soundtrack and the in-game audio from the field is great. Unfortunately, everything about the audio isn’t perfect. There is one glaring issue that hasn’t been addressed. The announcers are dreadful. I have no problems with Brandon Gaudin or Charles Davis. It is just the amount of stuff they say that shouldn’t be said during a game. I will dive deeper into this in my full review but an announcer calling a completion a rushing attempt breaks the immersion.

    Overall First Impressions

    It is Madden. If you liked the previous games, you are going to enjoy this one. If you disliked the previous games, there probably isn’t anything here that is going to convince you to change your opinion.

  • Ghostrunner – Game Preview

    Ghostrunner – Game Preview

    When I first watched the trailer for Ghostrunner (PC, XB1, PS4), it appeared to me as a crossover between Dishonored, Shadow Warrior, and Mirror’s Edge; all wrapped up in a Cyberpunk setting. And while visually the game does draw from these inspirations, the gameplay on offer is truly something unique, yet familiar all the same. Throughout my 13 minute, 4 second run to reach The Whisper, the main objective of the demo, I learned a lot about Ghostrunner, and how wrong my assumptions about the title’s gameplay were. Make no mistake, this is no complaint, I just have to admit that I was surprised at the sheer difficulty of this game. The only other title I can compare it to in this regard is Superhot, at least in terms of how the death system works. You die in one hit, however, unlike Superhot where you can freeze time to stay alive and you go back to the start of the level when you fail, in Ghostrunner you are constantly on the move in order to survive and you revert back to the most recent checkpoint upon death. This is due to the levels featuring multiple combat scenarios, with checkpoints placed after each victory as you move towards an end objective. This leads into the next gameplay aspect that surprised me about Ghostrunner; you could almost say it’s a puzzle game. As the available methods of movement, enemy placement, and area layout are different in between each checkpoint, you’ll be experimenting (and as a result, dying) over and over again to figure out the right pattern, or puzzle solution if you will, to dispatch your enemies swiftly and cleanly with your Cyber Katana. This is by no means a complaint, as the challenge of constantly moving while finding the right pattern to success was always satisfying and rewarding. There were moments of frustration, though, as there is a steep learning curve before you get the fluidity of the character’s movements down to a science. Additionally, and although this only occurred twice, I did get stuck in the geometry while wall-running, resulting in unfair deaths. Other than those minor instances, I am happy to report that the overwhelming majority of deaths I succumbed to were from my own mistakes. Ghostrunner, in the end, surprised me with a constant, unexpected challenge; but also rewarded me with immense satisfaction as I cut down my enemies with seemingly the speed of light itself. Although the demo was short, it was lengthy enough to leave me wanting for more, and is definitely making me consider purchasing the game at release. Ghostrunner is definitely an upcoming title to keep a close eye on this year, just don’t blink or you’ll miss it.

    Credit: Ghostrunner Game