DeadSix

Renegade was Westwood's attempt to enter the first-person shooter market by taking the universe of Command & Conquer and placing it into a new perspective. After 15 years, Renegade still manages to remain popular . The Single player at best, is a good few hours of play time. Taking on the role as Captain Nick Parker (Havoc), you tasked with rescuing three scientists from the Brotherhood of Nod, with many plot twists and turns along the way. There are 12 levels to get through, each in varying length and difficulty. If you want a true challenge, playing on Commando Mode is the best option, but with the AI's impossible accuracy, tough body armor, endless reinforcements, little health and ammo pickups, it's best to pick Soldier for a more balanced experience as Recruit is too easy to provide a substantial challenge. However, where Renegade thrives is in it's unique multiplayer. The primary goal is to just destroy the enemies base whether you are Nod or GDI. You are allowed to use tanks, soldiers, beacons, etc. to do this and with the active modding community, some maps even allow for vehicles and units that were not present in the original game. The multiplayer allows for teams to collaborate and form strategies to take down the enemy base so you'll never have to worry about going solo. The servers are only active from Friday-Sunday and usually confined to two but with up to 50 players possible, it makes for great battles. For a 15 year old game, it certainly has it's faults. Graphics are dated, getting stuck and glitching out in missions remain a problem, and enemy A.I. in the single player is trigger happy and surprisingly stupid. As this game hasn't made free anywhere yet, buy it for the multiplayer or if you are a C&C fan looking for a good First Person Shooter C&C experience. If this community can get more active, this game can get more recognition for what it achieved in 2002 and how that achievement still holds up today.

The 25th Ward: Silver Case offers a complex mystery that mixes supernatural and surrealism into a blender but fails to leave a proper lasting impact. There are three stories that the game offers, the Placebo, Correctness, and Match Maker. Each line follows a different side of the story with different characters but their are connections present. This is a port from a mobile game from 2005 and its interface is clunky and sometimes not responsive, especially in the segments where you have to move your character or when you are using the menu to save or load a game. There is no voice acting and the constant clicking sound from the dialogue appearing every time on screen will get annoying to the point where muting the audio is the only alternative solution. There are 100 possible endings in the game so replay-ability value is there but to get the true end you are required to view all of them and even with that, more questions are raised then answered. Unless you played the original game, take a pass.

Life is Strange: Before The Storm serves as a prequel to the original game but instead of Max, you play as Chloe, exploring her relationship with Rachel Amber. There isn't much to do in the game other then watch the story unfold and make certain choices along the way but they never seemed to impact the story in the way the first game they did. However, take that away and you are left with an emotional and complex story about relationships, family conflicts, and trust. It is a thrilling eight hour story that deserves attention whether or not you even played the first game prior to this.

Drive Girls is if you take the fun and charm of Hyperdimension Neptunia U and flush it down the toilet. Let me elaborate. The premise is that you play as girls who can transform into cars for the sole purpose of defeating bugs. The problem with this is that while you have five girls to play as, none of them have any redeeming qualities about them. Each girl is reduced to giggly laughs and squeals and act more like immature teenagers who whine about insignificant items. The girls themselves don't look that bad but the environments are bland and confusing. In some levels, you have to transform into car form to defeat enemies but the level purposefully lays bombs on the road that unless you use a certain move, will injure you and disable car mode. The same props are re-used over and over again over 27 repetitive single player missions, neither that stand out in any way. The game tries to "mix-it-up" with racing levels where you have to race one of the girls and beat them but they are simply too easy. too short, and too few of them to make a lasting impact. Controls never seem to want to work and you will often find yourself switching in and out of car mode when you are trying to power up or die trying to pull an item out of your inventory to use. Car mode controls are easy to get used to but controlling the girls is a jarring difference because of how slow they actually are. The game's multiplayer is forgettable and contains the same type of missions found in the single player and because you can play this mode solo, it makes little sense to play it unless you are trophy hunting are know someone who bought this game other than you. Bland, boring, annoying, and frustrating. Unless you like seeing anime girls in skimpy outfits and have a car fetish, avoid at all costs.

If you enjoyed Guardian of Rebirth, then I can guarantee Future Blessings will be more then worth the purchase price. While shorter then I would have wanted it to be, the after stories of the characters from the previous game tie up the loose ends left behind by Rebirth and allow for a wide assortment of endings depending on which story you choose. Their are three additional stories added here that run longer then the after stories that deal with side characters in Rebirth. I recommend checking those out first if you are seeking more story that Rebirth did not touch upon. Functionally, the game uses the same interface and graphics as Rebirth so previous users should feel right at home. There is no English dub but the Japanese voice acting is top quality and suits the designs and attitudes of the characters they voice. Overall, a great visual novel with great characters that carry the stories, albeit a bit short.