Books by RedDogFun:

The claustrophobic press of frenzied melee, whistling of missiles, and thunderous charge of cavalry are often represented in games, but rarely so personally as in the Mount & Blade series. It’s not often I get the feeling I’m experiencing what must’ve been the needs of a commander at eye-level on the field trying to maneuver his forces, or being forced to desperately scramble among bodies for a quiver of arrows or fresh shield. This is the appeal of Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord, and it outweighs all of the holes, bugs, and underwhelming strategy and roleplaying mechanics you have to wade through to get here. When you reach the battlefield, this low-fantasy medieval simulation is unmatched.

Bannerlord drops you into the shoes of a capable, temporarily impoverished wannabe in a sandbox...

One part small-scale, isometric sword-and-shield skirmishing and one part continent-spanning treasure hunt for a powerful religious artefact, The Valiant is a medieval squad-based RTS that’s as much clicking as it is conquering. If you microwaved your copies Kingdom of Heaven and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade and made a scented candle out of the molten goop you might get a whiff of what developer Kite Games is going for here. However, while the result is a competent strategy game overall, it’s also a bit repetitive and shallow – and subsequently not quite as fun as that previous fusion sounds.

An adequate way to quickly describe The Valiant might be as a 13th century Company of Heroes. A more accurate parallel, however, might be 2018’s Ancestor’s Legacy thanks to its broadly...

My YouTube Channel: Red Dog Fun

Lara Croft Go

Lara Croft Go is a turn-based puzzle video game in the Tomb Raider series. The player moves Lara Croft as a puzzle piece through a board game while avoiding obstacles and manipulating the environment. The developers distilled major series motifs, such as boulder-chases and reaction-based gameplay, to suit Lara Croft Go's time-independent gameplay. Square Enix Montréal developed the game as a spiritual successor to its 2014 Hitman Go, based on another Square Enix Europe franchise. The company released Lara Croft Go in August 2015 for Android, iOS, Windows, and Windows Phone devices. Versions for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita[1] and Steam were released in December 2016. The game received generally favorable reviews...

My YouTube Channel: Red Dog Fun

Lara Croft Go

Lara Croft Go is a turn-based puzzle video game in the Tomb Raider series. The player moves Lara Croft as a puzzle piece through a board game while avoiding obstacles and manipulating the environment. The developers distilled major series motifs, such as boulder-chases and reaction-based gameplay, to suit Lara Croft Go's time-independent gameplay. Square Enix Montréal developed the game as a spiritual successor to its 2014 Hitman Go, based on another Square Enix Europe franchise. The company released Lara Croft Go in August 2015 for Android, iOS, Windows, and Windows Phone devices. Versions for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita[1] and Steam were released in December 2016. The game received generally favorable reviews...

Six years after Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness disappointed fans of the sci-fi JRPG series like me, Star Ocean: The Divine Force feels like a long-awaited return to form in many ways. Its revamped combat is a lot of fun, breathing fresh life into a system that certainly benefits by evolving with the times a bit. Other areas do stagnate, unfortunately, like its lackluster visuals and horrid user interface. But a respectable story full of likable characters makes this a sequel I’m still very happy to have sailed through the stars of.

The Divine Force tells a standalone story that isn’t directly connected to any other Star Ocean games, but it does contain quite a few references to past events and characters that were rewarding to catch as a series veteran...

Ever since I was a child rushing over to the VHS rewinder to queue up another showing of Ghostbusters, I’ve dreamt of a multiplayer game in its unflinchingly silly universe. Whether it’s the over-the-top spectral miscreants or the ridiculous ghost-sucking vacuums carried by phantom-catching vigilantes in janitor’s outfits, it’s hard to imagine a world more ripe for an asymmetrical multiplayer game where a team of ghost cops goes head-to-head against a vengeful wraith...

This is our single-player campaign review for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. For our thoughts on PvP, check out the in-progress multiplayer review, and expect our final verdict soon.

In five years time when we discuss Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, there will be no confusion as to which of the two games that share that name people are referring to. Thanks to a lackluster story, fumbled mechanical innovations, and largely underwhelming mission design, this year’s Call of Duty campaign is an unfortunate misfire that fails to live up to standards set by not only its unforgettable 2009 namesake, but also its 2019 predecessor...

Creating an entire universe of stars and planets is no mean feat, but Hello Games did just that in the 2016 game No Man’s Sky. However, as monumental a challenge as that was, getting the same universe into the comparatively itty bitty memory and hardware budget of the Nintendo Switch is nothing short of galactic.

Condensing the Universe

The Switch continued Nintendo’s trend of finding success within its own market, and has enjoyed those riches with the most third-party games of all its consoles. Many of those ports presented an uphill battle given the Switch’s limited processing power, but with No Man’s Sky the obstacles are a little larger...

My YouTube Channel: Red Dog Fun

Tomb Raider Legend

Tomb Raider: Legend is an action-adventure video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive. It is the seventh main entry in the Tomb Raider series and a reboot of the series that reimagined the origins and character of series protagonist Lara Croft. The game was released in 2006 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and mobile phones. A PlayStation 3 port was released in 2011 as part of The Tomb Raider Trilogy.

Legend details Lara Croft’s quest for the mythical sword Excalibur, racing across the world against her former friend Amanda Evert...

To use generic hockey vernacular, NHL 23 rebounds and scores. This is the first major, broad push forward for this series since the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 debuted in 2014. It’s overdue, but it’s good to finally see. It’s the little things sometimes, and enhanced graphics and audio in NHL 23 bring a notable freshness. Not everything receives the same makeover, but where the developers put their focus pays off.

Unlike last year, NHL 23 actually makes use of the hardware power provided by the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, and ice looks like ice. That doesn’t sound extravagant, yet seeing an overhead scoreboard reflect on the playing surface during a period’s opening moments is gorgeous...