Arcade Paradise taps directly into this almost Neanderthalic part of the older gamers psyche and turns it all the way up to 11.

From the opening cinematic with its nod to early 90’s trends; the drone of the alarm clock everyone owned, the orange foam headphones and Walkman, and even the parody NTV music channel all draw you in to Ashley’s world from the outset.

You have just left your job at the “Pizza King” and your dad Gerald, voiced by the unmistakeable Doug Cockle, has seen fit to let you loose to run the local Laundrette he owns while he relaxes on the Riviera. This requires you to clean up after the slobbish patrons, load their laundry to wash and dry, while making sure the facilities don’t break down. The major perk is that the laundromat back room is kitted out with a couple of arcade machines from when your older sister undertook this parental rite of passage before you, and these are far more profitable than your first day washing clothes. Against your father’s instructions you and your sister conspire to make the Wash King Arcade successful to prove him wrong.

As you progress and upgrade the laundrette,  you will get tips and new opportunities from your sister as she tries to help you make a success of the business.

Most of the tasks you perform requires you to complete a simple minigame, from cracking the lock on your safe to deposit your daily takings, attacking the toilets health with a plunger to unblock it, or even timing the perfect pull to remove stubborn chewing gum, you will find yourself quickly getting a routine for these tasks as the days roll on, with some rewarding you additional cash depending how well you perform the task.

Thankfully, it is not long before you earn enough money to increase the arcade machines you have in stock, or even expand your property to give you even more room to fit cabinets. Playing and completing goals on each of the machines improves its popularity meaning more games per hour and more money in your coffers. There is a very well-balanced progression in the early game, with more of your time focused on the running of the laundromat, rushing off any time your watch alarm goes to notify of a completed wash. Delay too long, and your earnings fall rapidly so to begin it is quite difficult to balance the books while also getting time to play the arcades, until the cabinets become profitable enough that you never need to wash another garment again.

As you progress, you also unlock daily to-do tasks which reward you with a second, premium currency allowing you to buy upgrades ranging from reducing how often the facilities or cabinets break, unlocking new functions on your very basic PC, (including minesweeper and solitaire!!!), advertising your business, or hiring an assistant to collect your profits from the hoppers for you, all helping to leave you free and clear to play as many arcade games as you want.

The games themselves are pretty faithful recreations or interpretations of classic titles like Outrun, Pac-Man, Merc and even air hockey, and with over 30 cabinets there is bound to be a few that you will find yourself being told to leave the property at 2am because the working day is over. Racer Chaser featuring prominently with the additional mechanics of being able to pick up a speed boost that lets you outrun pursuers, or even run to a new vehicle whenever you are caught, stunning police with your Ghetto Blaster music, allowing a little more flexibility and survivability over the original game.

Early on you unlock a jukebox as well which has an eclectic mix of trance, grunge and pop all reminiscent of the hey-day of 90’s music which just elevates and accentuates that “lightning in a bottle” that was 90’s gaming.

Regrettably, during my playthrough I did have a few irritating bugs occur. Most are minor such as To-do tasks failing to update, individual hoppers becoming un-interactable until you return the following day or reload, and I even had a critical bug where the delivery guys dropped off a cabinet twice, locking me into the map as there was no space to place the second cabinet. (Thankfully this occurred early, as I had to completely wipe all saves to allow me to start again, but I was always wary about buying a new cabinet in case I didn’t have room).

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Starting with the first mode, All out warfare it’s here where the big battles take place. Conquest and Breakthrough are the two game modes available and are playable on the largest maps ever for the franchise and for the first time, up to 128 players on consoles and PC. As exciting as this sounds I found the experience to be pretty frustrating, with so many players the games become quite overwhelming and before you know it you are travelling a large distance to get back to action, which can take a while if you don’t have a vehicle.

The first new mode is Hazard Zone, which puts you in a team of four against 28 other players and AI. The objective is to find and extract as many data drives as possible, it sounds simple but the execution is much more challenging. At the start of each match you’ll need to perform some recon to establish where the drives might be, 

The gamble is whether you decide to extract straight away or gamble and extract at the end of the match. The risk is that you’ll face up against other squads and lose everything, you only need one squad member to survive in order to be rewarded but is it worth the gamble? If any of your squad die during the match you are able to revive them using a tactical upgrade or by finding a reinforcement uplink.

You’ll earn points for the drives you extract that can be used to buy better weapons and upgrades so that the next time you play you can improve your loadout. You won’t just be against other opponents, you’ll have to deal with that pesky tornado too. In one match my squad played we got hit by a huge sandstorm and it really added a lot of tension to the game.

In this mode you are restricted to one type of specialist per squad, in conquest and breakthrough however not only can you be who you want, but loadouts are not locked to a Specialist. Upgrading a weapon makes this version available to all Specialists, offering more freedom to play how you want. I’m a big fan of the new Plus System which allows players to swap out weapon attachments during gameplay to change their capabilities during the battle. I really love the flexibility this gives you as you.

Battlefield 2042 boasts some huge maps to battle in, you’ll fight in South Korea, India, Qatar and even Antarctica, they all look fantastic but what is particularly brilliant about the maps is the fact they are dynamic, there is destruction, ground deformation and weather states which can all affect the match you are in. If you played in the open beta then at some point you would have experienced one of two things; the Rocket taking off or the tornado moving across the map. Both are spectacular additions, even more so if you are up close. 

As you continue to play you will notice destructible antennae and large signage on the top of skyscrapers that fall to the ground on the Kaleidoscope map. Winches that pull down large sections of the beached ships on the Discarded map. The “Wall of Sand” event you see on the Hourglass map that sees you experience a massive sandstorm, and destructible fuel tanks and silos that create debris fields and permanent fires when destroyed on the Breakaway map. Moving up through buildings has also been made easier with plenty of ziplines to help you gain height, you can also move cranes and raise and lower bridges to help give you an advantage.

Visually the game looks great, the set pieces are fantastic especially when the weather events kick in. The gunplay is good although I wasn’t impressed with how the guns sound, compare the weapons to Call of Duty and you’ll easily notice the difference in quality.

The shining star in Battlefield 2042 is Portal, where players will have the complete Battlefield toy box at their disposal, featuring powerful tools to create new and completely unique Battlefield experiences.

Portal gives you the ability to join experiences that have been created by the community or you can build your own to share. What is most impressive is the huge array of options, you are able to bring weapons, equipment and vehicles from Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 3, Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 2042. You can build the experiences on the 2042 maps as well as 6 maps from the other games.

Some of the community creations are excellent, there are various versions of Gun Game, Snipers and Knives and there is even a mode where there are 116 Zombies vs 12 humans, it’s incredible to see the variety of modes. You can create public or private servers depending on how you want to play too. 

What’s most impressive in Portal is the online builder. You’ll need to set a few parameters before you get into building. You will choose a game type, choose which map(s) you want it to rotate through, then define weapons, attachments, vehicles etc before diving into the rules editor. The visual scripting tool that manipulates game elements using Logic Blocks, it’s quite daunting at first but there are plenty of tutorials to help you. If you find an experience that someone else has created you can take a copy and modify it as you wish, it’s a great way to learn how the different modes are put together.

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This year’s story has you working as part of a team of elite fighters, all with their own stories fighting a common goal, defeating the Nazis.

After the first level you’ll begin to learn more about each of the team’s past and it’s here where the game starts to get really good. Each character has their own unique ability, for example Kingsley is able to issue orders to his team to attack or perform a certain action, while Jackson is able to focus and see silhouettes of his enemies then quick scope allowing him to take down enemies quickly. Polina has quick movement and is able to climb and move around parkour style. While Riggs is able to hold multiple types of explosives and has an aim marker when throwing them You are are rewarded via achievements for making the most of everyone’s abilities and they do help you get through the game, especially on Veteran difficulty.

Each of the levels take you back to different stages of their careers to help explain why they are where they are now. I really enjoyed every level, whether you were dogfighting in the air or sneaking your way through the jungle, each level brought something different to the experience. The levels were well paced, full of action and they are arguably some of the best COD levels I’ve ever played.

It’s not all plain sailing though, in an attempt to reduce the file size of this year’s effort Sledgehammer has introduced Texture Streaming, high resolution textures will be loaded in when they are needed over your internet connection. The problem this seems to cause is four or five seconds of lag when starting new sections of a game, which isn’t great considering how powerful consoles are these days (I played this on and Xbox Series X).

You are able to turn this off and live with the default textures, you can also limit how much the game is allowed to download if you have a metered connection but preferably I’d rather use more disk space to store them for as long as I need.

With the surprise release of Halo Infinite’s multiplayer and Battlefield 2042, Sledgehammer needed to do something special with their multiplayer offerings and unfortunately it’s a little disappointing. Apart from the Introduction of Champion Hill mode the multiplayer doesn’t feel like it has improved at all.

The maps overall are pretty good, I really enjoyed playing on Demyansk and Numa Numa but to be honest there weren’t any maps I disliked. There are a wide range of weapons and attachments to use and create your perfect loadouts with and of course there is a Battle Pass if you want some fancy skins in your inventory.

The biggest change to multiplayer this year is the Introduction of Champion Hill, a multi-arena survival tournament, where tactics and strategy combine with quick-action, close-quarter gunplay. Everyone gets a quick explanation of the mode, receives $500 of in-game Cash, and is placed at the Buy Station Area. Over the next minute, players use this Cash to upgrade their weapons or purchase new weapons and equipment or add Perks and Streaks to their Loadout. The squads then fight on one of four maps against a random squad. Within an individual Combat Round, the squad that wins the round gets a $1,000 Cash bonus awarded to each member. Squads are eliminated if they run out of lives.

To get the most out of this mode you really need a close squad of friends who are willing to communicate, otherwise you’ll have to hope for a team of randoms that are willing to work together. Without this you are in for a hard time, matches are quick however so you can get back in the action quickly.

Zombies are also back, the four-person co-op mode continues and expands on the Dark Aether story first experienced in Black Ops Cold War. Set in World War II in the ruins of Stalingrad, this new incarnation of Zombies takes players to the darkest corners of the occult, where mortals bond with Dark Aether entities to gain immeasurable power.

This years version just feels a bit light compare to previous edition of the game, however there appears to be a big content drop arriving soon which is due to add more content so we’ll see. I did love the doom-esque vibes from the game.

Aside from the fantastic campaign I was left underwhelmed by the multiplayer, I’m sure over time things will improve but it seems like there was a rush to get this out before Christmas and they’ll just add to game over the next year, only time will tell.

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As you play through the different scenes you’ll have to make some difficult decisions that affect how you get on. As you would expect, there are plenty of twists and turns to discover as you make various choices in the game. After two full playthroughs you’ll be able to move through the game quickly by skipping to all the choices. With over 500 at your disposal there is plenty to discover. There is a tracker within the menu that gives you an idea of how you are doing across certain metrics, romance, insight and audience are just some of the examples.

Unfortunately the game is let down by some of the acting and characters, maybe I’m being really harsh but having just finished Squid Game (I appreciated the budgets will be significantly different!) and watching the amazing performances I found it really difficult to watch how some of the actors sold the way they reacted to shooting a gun to kill someone. At one point one contestant looks at someone he has just killed and says ‘Sorry!’ like he had just knocked a coffee out of her hand.

Despite my issues with some of the characters, they aren’t all bad. Nick Romeo, who you play as for example is a washed up movie star with a hidden agenda, so its will worth finding out why he is part of the game. The host was great as is one of the other contestants with a shady past. The rest are pretty forgettable to be honest.

I didn’t dislike the story, even after the sudden ending in my first playthrough. Having played so many of these titles I knew that playing in a different way would open up the story and I’m glad I did because I discovered some great story arcs. I really enjoyed how the game mixed between the contestants on the island, the presenters and those in the audience. Your decisions had an effect on their opinions of you which was good to see.

Look at his face!

You won’t be surprised to hear that the further you dive into the game the more you notice how some scenes are stitched together, unfortunately a couple of times I noticed scenes that you could tell they didn’t really make the effort with. I also had one choice use the same scene incorrectly no matter what choice I made which is frustrating.

Overall Blood Shore just didn’t click with me, despite enjoying unlocking more of the story to find out what was really happening. The acting and some of the production was frustrating at times and that ultimately lets the game down. Maybe with a bigger budget and more time this really could have been a good title. If you are looking to get into FMV’s check out Late Shift or the Shapeshifting Detective first.

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You play as Aiden Jackson, an up and coming driver on the brink of joining an F1 race team, you’ll need to finish his career in F2 first however. The story is pretty entertaining, as you play through the trials and tribulations of racing in an F1 team. I particularly enjoyed seeing the return of Devon Butler, who many will remember from F1 2019. As you progress through the different chapters you’ll be given different objectives to meet, if you don’t meet them you’ll need to play again until you do to progress the story. There are three difficulty levels to choose from, so depending on how good you are at keeping an F1 car on the track will decide which level to go in at.

As enjoyable as the story is, when you are moving between races all you can really do is check your emails and social media accounts in your trailer. I’d love to see this progress to a more open world scenario in future games.I’d also happily never hear a phone call between Aiden and his Mum, they are pretty wooden I’m not sure they add any real value.

The rest of F1 2021 is pretty familiar if you are a seasoned veteran of the game. For those of you that like full control of your team’s affairs then MyTeam is back and better than ever. For those unfamiliar with the mode, you’ll create your team, choose a sponsor, engine and team mate before starting your journey. New features include additional customisation, the revamped R&D system which can also be found in Career mode, and routinely updated Driver Stats based on real-world performance.

The two player career mode is a great addition to the series, you can take to the circuit as part of the same team or choose to race as rivals. Everything players have come to expect in Career, now with a friend. It would have been great to be able to play this mode locally but currently it’s only an online mode.

Unsurprisingly there is a big focus on e-racing, with lots of opportunities for players to race online for a chance to qualify for big events. I’ve never really got on with the online racing that F1 offers but I can see why those who love it continue to race. 

The F1 series has always felt very accessible, regardless of your ability, F1 2021 is no different and Codrmasters have made more changes to adjust the scale of difficulty work for everyone. They have introduced Casual, Standard, and Expert race styles which gives unprecedented customisation to multiple areas of the game. Less-experienced players may benefit from Casual options including easier to drive off-track surfaces, simplified menus, and setup wizards.  Whereas Expert options allow you to change the game in great detail. In Career for example, elements such as the frequency and types of faults experienced, the rate cash is earned, and how resource points are allocated can all be tweaked.

Whichever level you choose, the racing still feels brilliant, Codemasters make you feel like a racing driver, no matter your skill level. Managing races, whether it’s keeping your tyres as fresh as possible or planning the perfect pit stop strategy the racing is always exciting. It sometimes feels like your team is conspiring against you with some weird ideas about when you should pit, but ultimately you are in control.

Graphically, the game has improved too, the cutscenes in Braking Point all look superb, the character models are much improved although some of the characters still look a little dead in the eyes. Post race visuals have also improved however I’d like to see some more variation in the animations, things get a little samey a lot quicker otherwise.

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The premise is simple as it gets, a clip from a TV or movie plays, at some point the audio drops out, giving you a chance to get creative to complete the scene. 

Each player then has a set amount of time to type in their answers, the scene the replays magically dubbing each player’s answer. You’ll then be given the chance to vote for your favourite answer. Whoever gets the most votes gets the most points. 

In a similar fashion to the Jackbox Party games, only one player needs to own the game, everyone can log in to a website via their device and input their answers there. We didn’t encounter any issues, though beware of devices that auto lock, that could see you getting logged out.

What the Dub? Can be played with 3-6 players and the host can customise different features of the game, thankfully one of those features is the time you have to input an answer (because we aren’t as witty as we think), others include how many rounds and a profanity filter which we definitely did not turn off for our games!

The dubbing works really well, we threw all sorts of phrases at the game and the dubbing was seamless. As you would expect, you aren’t going to be dubbing Mission Impossible, you will be dubbing very old dramas and films with little or no copyright. We had more fun tearing down scenes with no context and it makes What the dub?! the game it is.

Of course it would be great to dub over more recognisable films/actors but we totally appreciate why that would be more difficult. 

Despite the lack of recognisable footage, What the dub?! Is a brilliant party for everyone to enjoy.

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It Takes Two tells the story of Cody and May, a couple whose marriage is at a breaking point. After hearing the news from her parents Rose is devastated and wishes her parents back together as her tears fall on her two dolls. In this moment Cody and May are transported into the doll’s bodies and begin a harrowing journey to reunite with their daughter. To make it, they’ll have to learn to work together and rediscover what made them a successful team in the first place.

Cody and May quickly meet a self-help book called Dr Hakim, who basically becomes their marriage counselor. Love him or hate him, he gets the troubled couple thinking about their relationship as they explore many different worlds without actually leaving their home.

You begin the game in the shed but you’ll visit various set pieces including a snow globe, a cuckoo clock and even Rose’s pillow fort. Each world introduces a special game mechanic to help the duo escape. In one level, Cody and May have opposite sides of a magnet that requires some clever thinking and good teamwork to solve some of the puzzles. Early on in the game, Cody has a nail gun while May has a hammer. 

Each level is so well thought out, not only do the puzzles hit the right mark difficulty wise, but there is also so much to discover through exploration. There is so much to interact with in each world that has nothing to do with progressing through the game, they are just fun. During the game, we rode a toy train track around a village outside a castle, we worked together to send a pull back car to perform a stunt jump into a huge ball pit. Levels take just over an hour to complete, but that’s without exploration – you could easily spend an extra hour just messing around.

If you played A Way Out, you may remember the random game of Connect 4 in the hospital. In It Takes Two there are 25 mini games to discover. These range from Tug of War to Ice skating. There are some fantastic easter eggs dotted around too, search really hard and you’ll find a sound clip of a certain speech made at the game awards. 

As I mentioned at the start of the review, as we made our way through the game we kept being shocked by the new areas we discovered and how clever the game mechanics were, we could reel the list of games we thought It Takes Two takes references from and how the game style changed on a sixpence. One minute it felt like we were playing Super Mario with the side scrolling platforming, when all of a sudden the world becomes isometric and we’re playing Diablo. What’s most impressive is how seamlessly the styles change and how natural the controls felt as the camera angles moved around. If I have a slight criticism, it would be related to some of the flying/driving sections and how they can be a little bit fiddly sometimes.

The attention to detail is brilliant, look carefully and you’ll actually see some of the levels you have already played from the vantage points you have in the newer levels. All of the characters you meet along the way are full of personality, from an overprotective toy monkey, to a psycho of a hoover. Even Dr. Hakim, who is pretty annoying for the majority of the game, brought a smile to my face at certain points.

Each level ends with an entertaining boss fight that requires proper teamwork. The respawn system works well, when a character is downed they can tap Y repeatedly to respawn, if both characters get downed however you’ll have to go back to your last checkpoint, this rarely happens however.

Of course, once you have finished the game as one character you can go back and play as the other as the experience will be completely different. Whether you play online with your friends or locally with your partner you are going to have an amazing time with this game. I’d love to play this with my kids but the themes are too mature for them, then of course there is Cutie the Elephant. I’ll let you find out about that yourself.Josef Fares and the Hazelight team have done an incredible job with It Takes Two. The game is full of variety, never feels dull and will send you on a rollercoaster of emotions. You MUST play this game.

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This is my first Bridge Constructor game, and I only managed two seasons of The Walking Dead before admitting that I had been routing for the zombies the whole time. While preparing for this review, I learned that The Walking Dead has an eleventh season set for release – big show.  To me, zombies are about jump scares, claustrophobic settings, and gore, so I was intrigued as to what would be on offer here.

There are five chapters to complete, with the first essentially being a tutorial. Each level is a static 2D setting with designated areas for you to construct within. I was half expecting each mission to be kill the zombies and move on but there is good variety here. You will be asked to transport vehicles and goods, move characters from a to b, trap other survivors, and even herd zombies rather than just mash them up. You construct with three materials – wood, steel, and cable, unlocking the latter two as you progress through the campaign. On top of that, levels feature your survivors, each of which have unique abilities.

Some can throw grenades, some can shoot, some can fight. Finding the answer can be tough but construction and level planning is wonderfully easy to get to grips with. Controls are simple and forgiving, and for those that need it, there is a constructor guide which you can access any time you like. Early missions are straight forward, but as you’d expect, they increase, with consistency, in complexity – towards the halfway point you’ll wish you had an engineering degree, and by the end you’ll feel like an evil Wallace and Gromit.

This is a hard game that can be beaten in under a couple of hours but almost every construction requires patience, trial and error, and fine tuning. You can’t ride this wave on dumb luck. The flip side of this is the sense of achievement you get when you find the solutions. For the hardcore, every level has a target budget for materials used and you will earn badges if you can stick to it.

The campaign features a story, which is updated in between levels but I did not care for it. Some characters and settings from the show make appearances, but for me no one was of any interest and the narrative was nothing new or special. The dialogue, which is text only, is bland and I found myself skipping large chunks because the fun of constructing far outweighed this aspect. I feel the same about the visuals. They are fine for what the game needs, but they are not the selling point. The gameplay loop more than makes up for this.

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Let’s Sing 2021 is developed by Voxler SAS and published by Koch Media, and is available on the Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. For me, it is the very first game I have played on my Xbox Series S. That poor machine gets turned on for the first time and is subjected to a 31-year-old man thinking he sounds like Katy Perry when in truth, he sounds more like a wounded moose.

I have played two games from this franchise and although they are essentially identical, that is not a complaint. This is karaoke and the standard here is high, so there is no reason at all to change the formula. This has a specific audience, and it caters to their needs with precision. The game is bright, crisp, and straight to the point. You choose an avatar for yourself, of which there are four to start with, but you have another sixteen to unlock through levelling up. Once you have chosen your character, you select a song and start singing. There are seven modes to pick from, including classic, world contest, and let’s party. You can perform solo, as a duet, in two teams of four that compete through different challenges, and once you have warmed up you can go online and pit your pipes for world domination.

I spent my time in classic mode and found 30 songs all ranging in difficulty from one to five stars. The game features hits from artists such as Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, Genesis, Justin Bieber, Kim Wilde, Lewis Capaldi, Maroon 5, Seal, The Lumineers, and Linkin Park. There is even a song from The Lion King which I had a blast with. A Disney version of this game would be wonderful. Songs are performed either via your headset microphone, a USB microphone, or your smartphone. I went with my phone and once you download the app, you are up and running in no time. Importantly, it does not matter if you cannot sing, this game is about having fun. You will not be punished in the slightest for missing notes or for being out of tune. Regardless of your ability, this game will lift your spirits. That is all it wants to do. The only reason I did not enjoy myself was because the music is not for me. The structure of music has changed over time, and I do not like a lot of modern stuff. Years ago you would have a couple of verses and then the chorus, followed by another verse and what we call a bridge (a small section to provide contrast to the rest of the song) and then the chorus a couple more times to finish off. The chorus is the hook, that is the part of the song you remember. In the digital age, with our attention spans getting shorter and shorter, the hook is coming earlier and earlier in the song. Now, it feels like you have one verse and then a chorus for three minutes. But I digress. Music lesson aside, this is another strong release for a game series that looks like it will not be slowing down any time soon.

My only genuine complaint is something I mentioned when reviewing Let’s Sing Queen. I had songs where I was singing Freddie Mercury’s lead as well as singing the harmonies. It is too much for one person. That grievance carries over into this game. There are songs where I am singing multiple parts that are back to back and it is all too easy to run out of breath. Not a catastrophe, just seems an odd decision.

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Monkeys abound! Within the first few minutes of the game, you will come across your first monkey to rescue.  They repay you by following you everywhere and doing your bidding.  Monkey helpers can craft items, gather resources, help fend off attackers, and carry your luggage. Having a large number of monkeys at your disposal is imperative for a smooth-running operation.  You’ll need help gathering a large number of resources so you can build everything you need to finally escape the islands. Traversing the many islands on the map is dangerous, so bring several monkey bodyguards to help fight with you. I enjoy the multitude of monkeys at the player’s disposal.  If you are worried about confusing monkeys, worry not, they are relatively customizable.  You can change their names and color of fur.  If you have purchased the 3 dollar DLC you can even give them adorable hats! The tutorial section of the game has a ton of information on all the things you can get your monkeys to do.

Once you have your monkey helpers you will need to build a base camp. You will start building small things like rope or wooden sticks.  Eventually, you will need to build a campfire and a crafting bench to build more complicated things.  You will find structures in your “blueprints” button.  When I first started playing my camp was just dashed together, I had assumed I would have the option of moving buildings later, however, that is not possible.  You cannot move your structures unless you destroy them first, and you cannot rotate any of the items to make it more aesthetically pleasing.  However, I did find that laying the blueprints of everything I wanted to build first gave me more of an idea of where I wanted to put things as I gathered the resources to build those structures. I was a little brought down by the fact that you also are unable to control the camera at all, so there are potentially lots of little areas that will remain undiscovered.  I was at least hoping for a cutaway of the scenery to still see my character, however, that is also not a feature.

Eventually, you will come across a group of orcs or very angry wildlife that will attack you, be sure to arm yourself to the best of your ability as these enemies have some really handy resources like meat and gold that you will want to stockpile.  Combat is fairly clunky on the Xbox as you can only target things immediately left, right, up, or down.  I found attacking things diagonally is incredibly difficult and usually ends in me getting my health reduced to zero.  This is where teaching monkeys how to fight becomes imperative.  You can arm your monkeys and have them battle for you, but you still may wind up dead and lose all of the items you are carrying.  I have found myself roaming the islands with five monkeys with me, four to fight, and one carrying a chest in case the worst should happen.  Bows and arrows can fire on a diagonal, however, I still haven’tquite mastered exactly HOW that works.  It seems to just do it randomly.  Of course, I survive on luck alone in most of the games I play.

All in all, I think The Survivalists is definitely worth your time.  We picked up a couple of extra copies to play together and even sprung for the extra DLC.  It is an affordable game and packed with lots of good times you can spend with your family and friends, braving the hostile island life. I would not only recommend this game, but I would also urge you to check out some of Team 17’s other games they have.  They may not be story-driven intense combat games, but I have found they are incredibly wholesome and enjoyable.  There are a couple of things I would love to see, but I don’t think they take away from the sheer enjoyment and novelty of this game.

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