Category Archives: Video Game Reviews

How well did they create Nubia in Civilization VI?

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TL;DR – Nubia is a great, if overpowered, addition to Civ VI, and the updates to the UI are really welcome, but the AI still needs some work.

Nubia Civ VI
Review –

So it has been a couple of months since we have been able to do one of these, but with the new Nubia DLC, and the accompanying patch, dropping it is time to delve back in to see how well they have created Nubia. So there are three components to the DLC, first is the Summer 2017 update, then the ‘Gifts of the Nile’ scenario, and finally the Nubian Civilization itself. So to put this review together I have played through the scenario once, and the base game a couple of times with Nubia, as well as trying them out on multiplayer. Also, because I was asked this question last time, all my games are played in the vanilla game (no mods), on the huge map setting, continents, with the difficulty set at King. If you want to read my other Civ VI articles, you can look at my review of Civilization VI, my look at Australia, Persia & Macedonia, and even Civ VI mapped out.
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Map-It: Civilization VI (Base Game up to the Nubia DLC)

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TL;DR – Today we chart out Civilization VI in Map form the base game all the way up to the Nubia DLC

Civ 6 banner

Map-It –

So today we continue with our Map-It series by looking at one of my favourite video games Civilization VI. Given the amount of content that Civilization VI has that you can map, and since I do love maps I decided to create two maps, the first map has all the civilizations currently released, and the second shows the locations of all the World Wonders, Natural Wonders, and the City States. So for today’s maps, we are including everything in the base game of Civilization VI, as well as what was include in the Poland, Viking, Australia, Persia/Macedonia & Nubia DLC packs
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How well did they create Persia and Macedonia in Civilization VI?

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TL;DR – Persia and Macedonia are great new additions to Civilization 6, even if they do raise some questions about ‘civilizations’

Civilization 6
Review –

So the Spring Patch and new DLC for Civilization VI has been out for a week and now that I’ve had a chance to give Persia and Macedonia a play through I thought I would look at how well they have been implemented in the game. So to do this we will first chat a bit about the changes made in the latest patch to the game as a whole, we’ll then look at Persia and Macedonia focusing at how well they have been represented as well as, how well they have been implemented in the game, and then finally we will take a moment to look at the issue of ‘civilizations’ that this new DLC raises.

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Video Game Review – Mass Effect Andromeda

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TL;DR – Andromeda takes Mass Effect in a new direction whilst still remaining true to its roots, though some areas did need a bit more polish.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Mass Effect Andromeda

Review –

I can remember the first time I ever got to play Mass Effect, it was back in 2008 and my brother had to trade his Wii for his friends Xbox 360 and we had only one week to binge through the first game before we had to give the Xbox back. We were looking for something to rise to the same standard as Knights of the Old Republic, and Mass Effect exceeded them in every way. Since then I have played through the whole trilogy a couple of times, I’ve played as Male-Shep and Fem-Shep, I’ve reunited the Geth and the Quarians, watched a galaxy burn because everyone ignored me, helped a despot reclaim control of a smugglers headquarters, fell in love several times, told Kaidan to go jump when they accused me of cheating on them when they were the one who said we should be on a break, found friendship in one who is many yet still one, brought more than one race back from the dead, watched a trusted crew member sacrifice their lives with a song on their lips to put right the demons of the past, and explored ever single planet that the Milky Way had to offer. So to say I was excited about a new Mass Effect is a bit of an understatement, and now it is finally here I was more than ready to jump back into this universe, taking one more ride into this great space opera that BioWare created. But even though I was excited, that excitement was measured with a bit of hesitation, Mass Effect 3 was brilliant, one of the few games that have ever made me cry¹, however, that final decision left a lot to be desired, now I know that a lot of people liked it, but for me it was a letdown. So I had this combination of emotions going into this new game, but now I have played through till the end let’s look at how well they did with Mass Effect Andromeda.

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How well did they create Australia in Civilization VI?

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TL;DR – So how well does Civilization 6 capture Australia with its new entry? Struth, it’s a ripper of a new Civ.

Civilization 6

Review –

Civilization is one of the pioneers of the strategy genre a series that has lasted six iterations, numerous expansions, and last year on its 25th anniversary launched the next entry into the franchise Civilization 6 (See Review). Since its release, there have been new Downloadable Content (DLC) released and this week it was announced that the next civilization to be added would be Australia. So Australia joins the large and expansive franchise as the 55th civilization¹ ² to be added, but the question remains: Is it any good? And then also is it a good representation of Australia? These are the question we will be looking at. Now there were three components of the Australia update The Australian civilisation, The Outback Tycoon scenario, and Uluru natural wonder, and we will be touching on all of these facets throughout this analysis.

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Video Game Review – Civilization VI

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TL;DR – This is a fantastic entry into the series, and it had its One More Turn hooks into me from the start,  beautiful music and art, solid gameplay, however, there are a couple of small issues with some systems and UI

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Review –
So here we are and the year of 4X continues, and this time it is the granddaddy of all 4X, the next entry into the Civilization franchise. Now I am probably ageing myself here, but I have played every entry in the series so far from Civ1’s square everything and Palace that you could build, all the way to Civ5’s One-Unit-Per-Tile shake up and I have loved each entry. However, Firaxis’ last game Beyond Earth, while having some interesting ideas, left many people feeling more than a little meh, and while its one expansion pack Rising Tide [See Review] really improved the game, it left me and others wondering could they pull off a sequel to their flagship franchise? Well not to jump ahead, but can they even, Civilization 6 got its hooks into me right away, to the point I think I am done with Civilization 5 and I have (now this is a judgment-free space, I won’t judge you from watching every episode of Gilmore Girls if we just gloss over the next bit) over 1500 hours in that game. That’s not to say Civ 6 doesn’t have its issues, because it does, but most of them are minor compared to everything they get right.
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Video Game Review – Master of Orion (2016)

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TL;DR – A good entry into the 4X genre, but it does not quite have the staying power of others in the field.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Review –

2016 is turning out to be the year of the 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate) games, with a number of quality releases not seen since the mid-90s golden age. Already this year we have had the quite good Stellaris, and as well as this, soon we will get the sequel to the great Endless Space and then the next entry into the granddaddy of 4X Civilization. At this point, it should be clear that I love me some 4X, whether it’s turn based or real time, bring it on. So I was interested to hear that one of the classics of the golden era Master of Orion was getting a remake/sequel/reinterpretation, so now that it is out of Early Access I thought I would pick it up to see how it goes. Now I need to say growing up I did miss the original Master of Orion games, I was playing more Civilization at the time and we didn’t have the luxury of Steam or GOG for those more obscure games, but I did get to play some of the games it inspired, like Birth of the Federation, so while I won’t be able to personally compare Master of Orion with the original, I will be able to compare it with the 4X genre generally speaking.
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