Recent reviews by Shockal

A game that'll keep you on the edge of your seat, and your heart beating faster as you sink further into its ever-progressing stages. Lethal Company delivers a crunchy pixelated aesthetic, thrilling monster designs, and a whole lot of stupid things that a good party of friends will absolutely trash around with.

Yes, that's right. BRING FRIENDS. You won't get quite the same experience with match-made strangers.

I don't recommend this over World, but that doesn't mean Rise is bad at all. It's still an incredibly fantastic game, and while it lacks the outstanding graphics and sense of exploration that its larger counterpart offers, I find it to have a much more thrilling combat system, boasting a huge platter of new attacks and very unique armor skills. Rise also doesn't waste any time getting you to the monster, and so reveals your target on the mini-map without needing to search for it first. Overall, it's more focused on the fight than anything.

As for anything involving the DRM, I'm actually unsure if it's true or not.

Now you can show off your 72-vertebrae neck in amazing, glowing fashion.

Get ready for the most insane motion sickness you'll ever receive from playing a video game

You don't have to be a League of Legends fan to enjoy this.

Though this game can be burned through pretty quickly, I am honestly super impressed by this game. The music is catchy and clear, the animations are fantastic, and the stages are all both fun and challenging.

Not to mention it has references to Bit.Trip, which I am super delighted to see.

If you're into rhythm games, consider getting this.

An old game brought back to life, Primal Carnage: Extinction is definitely among the more unique first person shooters I've tried out. So many different classes are available, both Dinosaur and Human, and it almost feels like TF2 sometimes - in a good way, of course.

Get this game if you like wacky shooters and dinosaurs.

Change is good.
In this case, what do I mean?

Well, ARK: Genesis is truly the most unusual map in ARK. It does a lot of things that ARK maps don't traditionally do.

- You are given the ability to teleport to almost any location on the map
- The map is divided into five different biomes, instead of just being one supermassive biome. You have to teleport to get across biomes, as you are unable to travel across by foot (walled off by map barrier)
- Quests and missions that reward loot
- Loot reward includes in-game points called Hexagons that allow you to unlock various resources (You can also earn Hexagons by checking out interactable objects scattered across the map called Glitches)

These new mechanics are mind-blowing, especially with the new holographic guide HLNA, which comes with thousands of dialogue and cheeky voice acting.
The new creatures, though not as numerous as other DLC maps, are amazing in quality and are absolutely packed with their own countless mechanics and even easter eggs. You can mount them for hours, and suddenly discover something new that you didn't know about. For example, the Bloodstalker can dance to the Thriller if you use a Halloween emote while riding it. It completely took me by surprise.

Some tiny AI aspects got improved too. Creatures in the Lunar biome can actually detect cliffs and won't blindly run off them, and the Boss fight AI are masterfully done.

Additionally, the new biomes feel great. They REALLY bring the danger level to whole new heights, from space radiation to a cave about to erupt and you have 2 minutes to get out before it kills you.

Now I know many people have complained about the map size of Genesis. This is a bit of a personal opinion, but I feel like the map size is quite large enough - just enough to be feel ample and immersed. The ARK community has been demanding larger and larger in-game maps for years, which we already have (Ragnarok, Valguero and soon Crystal Isles), so it's sad to see that the one map that doesn't want to focus on size gets bashed on. After all, it's more of a quest-based map.

And just to clear up some more things that may possibly mislead readers:

- The in-game HLNA Hexagon store has NOTHING to do with real money. You get the credits from winning quests.
- There are tons of good building spots on the map.
- Teleporting to another biome takes 10 seconds at most. You can also choose which part of the biome you can teleport to, so you can teleport safely by choosing a safe destination (and not one infested with carnivores).
- New Genesis Official servers have been released that allow flyers.

And lastly, my negative opinions on Genesis.
- No option to buy Part 1 as a single price (there's been stories of third-party sites selling it for just $10 though)
- Teleporting a large creature with you might end up scrambling your player inside your large creature when teleportation activates, so both you and your dino get stuck in each other. This can be fixed simply with a Cryopod or whistling it away.
- Very rarely, a tamed creature may suddenly disappear. This only happened to me once, but later I found it not too far from where it poofed.
- Also rare, a tamed creature might not teleport with you
- FPS seems a bit worse compared to other maps

Overall, I think the pros outweigh the cons. I adore this map for its unusual direction in gameplay, and I'm curious what Part 2 will be.

The title of this game is way too simple for the amount of colourful content packed into this game.

MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD completely took me away. It wasn't just about hunting monsters.
It was a place to explore - a place to learn. A massive, fictional world complete with gorgeous fictional culture and traditions, alongside ecosystems of dazzling beauty and uniqueness, yet not leaving the bounds of realism. You can cultivate herbs, cook your own meal combos, even freely explore the wilderness for relaxation!

The graphics alongside were surprising - not because they were good, but because how good the framerate was on high graphics. For such a big game, it doesn't take much disk space either! It's only 20 GB, way less than others I've seen. Bugs and glitches were minimal, and I've had zero crashes.

As for combat, the most exciting part of the game, you REALLY get to express yourself. You must choose one weapon out of the total of fourteen available, so there's bound to be a type of hunting tool just for you, whether you're defensive, offensive, ranged, or just like to trap stuff. Furthermore, your choice of weapon still doesn't define you, as armour can be modified to affect how your weapon deals damage. Show off how you want to hunt in your own style! I myself choose a defensive Sword and Shield sleep-and-bomb styled build. It's unlikely you'll get bored from hunts too, given the sheer number of different kinds of monsters in this game that'll get you pumped.

However, all that I've mentioned so far were pros. There are some... concerns... I have with some people who wish to get this game. First off, it's actually really difficult in the later stages. Some monsters are just made outta tough stuff (literally), and I've had moments where I had to constantly whack at them for 20 minutes straight for them to KO, while trying to take as little hits as possible, because some of their attacks can bludgeon you like a bomb.... some of them even use bombs.

However, if you're one for difficulty, go ahead and dive right in.

Secondly was the price. Now, I wouldn't say this game is overpriced - in fact I think the content and patches are worth, but I know not everyone can afford it. So if you're gonna buy this game.. MAKE SURE you're gonna play it.

Overall I believe the pros overweigh the cons, and this game is as unique as it is, so I definitely recommend it.

As far as dino sims go, this one is... decent, I guess. The strengths of this game lie in its diversity of mechanics and abilities, especially in regards to the map's weather system and playable roster. However, the gameplay encourages hyper aggression/killing, so it will be very difficult to maintain your creature's progress in a server full of other players who are bigger than you - not to mention, growth is infinite. As expected, you'll find most of the playerbase occupied on unofficial servers.

Was about to give it a negative review due to the mass swath of glitches, but only some days later they released a major update that cleaned up a lot. There is still a lot of bugs, but, for now, my hopes are high.