Recent reviews by Rexus Hunter

Dark Souls 3 is one of those few games that are difficult and challenging for the fun of it these days. This game does not hold your hand, as the Souls titles tend to do, and you need to learn quickly if you can. That being said, there are many guides and walkthroughs by veteran players that you should not be afraid to utilize. Yes, this is a difficult game, but it is by no means impossible to beat. Here's my tips to success in this game:

1. Do not be afraid of your character getting killed. Death of a character is a natural fact of this game. Sometimes, even when you are completely aware, an enemy may get the drop on you or simply be too powerful to fight and kill you. That's okay. The Souls games are notoriously hard, so just perservere and don't give up. Heck, it took me 6 or 7 tries just to beat the first boss. Did I mention this game's first boss is something you encounter probably 10 or less minutes in? Yeah, that's Dark Souls for you.

2. Don't be too offensive. What I mean by this is that even low-level gruntheads can kill you easily if you are not careful. Don't get cocky in combat and don't let yourself be surrounded whatever you do. Enemies in this game have a way of trying to exploit what they perceive as openings or weakness. Don't let them. Keep your guard up no matter what. Also, don't go into boss fights thinking you can just swing your sword or whatever weapon you use until they die. It won't work 5 times out of 10. The lower bosses can be beat using a combination of all-in hack-and-slash and dodging, but don't assume every boss will be the same. If you don't beat a boss the first time, don't despair. Go in again, watch the boss carefully, and study their movesets so that you get a feel for how they fight. Then, build a fight plan that exploits the weaknesses of their combat style. Also, use any buffs that you have on hand to do extra damage or even inflict status effects like bleed or poison against a boss. It may not do much, but every bit of health you can take away from them counts. Use your smaller size and speed to your advantage. Such boss encounters are David and Goliath style fights, so take advantage of a boss's greater size or slower speed to outwit and flank them.

3. Upgrade your armor, tools, and weapons as much as you can when you get the materials for it. Making your weapons more powerful, your shield sturdier, and your armor better is a smart move. Also, level up your attributes when you can. You can't go wrong with more health, stamina, carry weight, etc.

4. Explore. There are many nooks and crannies hidden throughout the world and its various regions. Many items are scattered throughout, meaning you will come across some pretty useful things in your quest. Pick them up when you see them. You may get various buffs, consumables, and even weapons from downed enemies or random places in the world.

5. Be patient with yourself. Do not get frustrated. This leads to mistakes. Take your time. Farm some easier enemies for souls to level yourself up and improve your equipment until you feel confident enough to proceed. In my experience, this was of tremendous help, as it allowed me to shred through the second and third bosses with a very strong sword and good stats.

All in all, I've had fun with the game so far. I enjoy the challenge and the new experiences it has given me. Except for PVP, I've heard nothing but good things about these games. And let me assure you, they are true. This is a fantastic game and well worth your time. You will not be sorry you got this and you won't be bored with it either. So, to all who are brave enough to seek the Lords of Cinder, I wish you good luck and success.

I equate Hunt Showdown to a slower-paced combination of games like Depth (without the sharks), Legendary, and the Souls titles (specifically Bloodborne). Allow me to elaborate a little on that last one. Like the Souls games, Hunt is very atmosphere and immersion-oriented. The game feels genuinely spooky and unsettling even during the day, enemies are definitely no laughing matter (even the low level grunts can kill you if you aren't careful), and there is a sense of adrenaline and urgency every time you play. The boss monsters are a bit of a mixed bag (there are only two currently however and more will be added, so take this statement as you will). Some find the boss monsters super easy to kill by simple DPS while others, like myself, find them challenging at times depending on where you track them down, but not so hard that a single player with a bit of luck and strategy couldn't take them down.

The game is mainly played in teams of two with ten players total per match. The basic object is to track down clues that lead to the boss monster via Dark Sight and find and kill the boss before someone else does, although kill-stealing is a viable option if you didn't find the boss first and can take down the players who did get it and make it off the map alive with the bounties. Once the bounties from a boss are claimed, that's when the action really revs up. You have to make it back to an escape point (in the form of a horse-drawn carriage) alive and survive for twenty seconds to evacuate. The game is very high risk/high reward. If you make it out alive, you receive a lot of xp for your character and your bloodline rank goes up, allowing you to buy better weapons and gear for your hunters as well as recruit higher tier hunters. However, if you die and aren't revived by a teammate, that character is dead forever and you need to choose another you have or recruit a new one. The nice thing is that your bloodline rank always remains the same regardless of loss of a character, meaning you can still buy all the stuff you've unlocked and equip it to new hunters. One strategy I would recommend is this: if you recruit a character with some good gear you don't want to lose and have a better character than that one you just recruited, remove that gear, and equip that hunter with some more expendable stuff so you can save precious weapons and gear you haven't unlocked yet for your best hunters.

Overall, the game is a blast to play when you have consistent and good people to team up with. Once you do that, you can rest easy knowing that regardless of whether you win or lose, you will have fun doing it. Also, do yourself a massive favor and make sure you talk to your partner(s) through Discord. Noise is king in this game and every sound you make is a potential giveaway to hostile monsters, or worse, other players. Players can hear you when using the in-game talk function, so get yourself a Discord linkup to talk to your partners as soon as possible so you can talk freely without giving yourself away. In summary, I give this game a solid 9 out of 10 at the very least. I think this game is one of the best co-op FPS horror survival titles I've ever seen or played. Trust me, you will not regret buying this game. It is a very atmospheric, high-stakes, fun time.

For my review of Jurassic World Evolution (JWE), let me break down things into positive and negative sections just to make things a little easier to understand.

I'll get the negatives out of the way first. This game was rushed by Universal Studios top brass in order to meet the theatrical release of Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom in June 2018. This was a big mistake and hurt this game's ultimate potential. A lot of what was promised to be in the game pre-release was either delayed till after release or was implemented in a half-baked or compromised state due to time crunch. For example, this game was promised to, unlike many other tycoon games, have a proper story that would add to the overarching and lore-rich narrative of the Jurassic Park cinematic universe while not necessarily being 100% canon to the film series. The story that was implemented in the form of the in-game memos is there, but it's such a convoluted, incomplete, and inconsequential filler story. It suggests you, as the Director of Operations for the parks, had some hand in helping Dr. Henry "Mad Hatter" Wu create the hybrid Indoraptor from the Fallen Kingdom film in addition to some other miscellaneous FK-related plot lines including the suggested use of Owen's Velociraptor research in manufacturing command-receptive, combat-ready hybrids. But again, the story is mostly inconsequential to the main campaign of the game. Dinosaur AI was, and still in some respects is, a mess. Few dinosaurs have any behaviors unique to their particular species, a lot of animations and behaviors are copy-and-paste, and the dinosaurs, while they look extremely well-modeled, feel soulless because of this lacking AI. Recent updates have tried to fix this, but the game engine Frontier is having to work with is so constrained due to this game being a multi-platform release that it painfully hampers real progress in areas in need of attention. Terraforming and environmental tools are also painfully basic due to engine constraints. Management is also severely undercut. Guests are just visual effects in the game and don't have needs like most tycoon games, you can't interact with them in any meaningful way, dinosaur breakouts don't have particularly severe or lasting consequences for gameplay, natural disasters also have little long-term effect on normal progression, and money doesn't feel particularly hard to earn unless you are playing Jurassic difficulty challenge mode (or as I call it "masochist mode"). Speaking of challenge mode, the rewards for it are lousy with only individual skins for dinosaurs as rewards, even for Jurassic difficulty. I could go through even more points, but I think you get the idea.

Let be clear about something before getting to the positives: a lot of the criticisms I've just stated are, in my opinion, not Frontier's fault (or not entirely anyway). This game was rushed in production because of an arbitrary movie tie-in deadline, the game is not Frontier's IP so they are limited in some of what they can do, and Frontier is not known for making sub-par games. Quite the opposite. JWE is a victim of a similar syndrome to Zoo Tycoon XBox/UAC (also made by Frontier). You have a third-party IP holder that has a developer make a game, forces them to meet unreasonable deadlines, and then the developers are ultimately held to blame because they made the game. This game's rushed development could have been avoided if Universal had reached out to and hired Frontier to start making this game much earlier, like 6 months to a year after the release of Jurassic World in 2015. Most sources agree that the game didn't begin proper production until some time in 2017, way too short of a development time.

Now to the positive aspects. Each individual dinosaur species is uniquely and beautifully detailed in-game. Were it not for the lackluster AI, they would probably be the best dinosaurs ever made for a game. The attention to detail for objects and environments in the game is also spectacular with stunning visuals, graphics, and lots of small details that make the game look exceptionally crafted. The use of original voice actors for some of the characters in the game including the return of Jeff Goldblum, B. D. Wong, and Bryce Dallas Howard as Ian Malcolm, Henry Wu, and Claire Dearing respectively adds to the experience and nostalgia. Each character has their own personality quirks and will show as much via dialogue. The Ingen database (which is the game's knowledge encyclopedia) is very well-detailed and written, making it feel like a Jurassic Park movie universe ultimate guide and a helpful resource rolled into one. Unlocking different dinosaurs species to create feels satisfying because you have to find many fossils of a dinosaur to get the complete genome for it, making for slower-paced, but fair progression as you unlock more species to excavate. The cinematic style releases for dinosaurs out of the hatcheries also adds a majestic and up-close feeling to the dinosaurs at least for the first time. The dinosaur roster is also decently varied with DLCs adding even more variety to the game.

So, do I recommend the game? Yes, of course I do. I would not have pre-ordered this game and purchased all of its current DLCs if my passion and love for dinosaurs and the Jurassic Park franchise did not ultimately outweigh my criticisms of the game. The thing is, Frontier has at least been committed to improving the game post-launch and that is commendable to say the least. They haven't given up on trying to make it the game people wanted and I think a lot of people believe Frontier are sincere in their passion for the game and the JP franchise. Look, all things considered, this game is not bad, just lacking in certain areas due to rushed production and software/IP holder-based limitations. There have been rumors floating around of a sequel that could be released after the release of Jurassic World 3, so if Frontier can learn from their mistakes with this game and use what works from some of their first-party titles like Planet Coaster and the upcoming Planet Zoo, then I think a sequel game will ultimately be a great positive. For now though, I do recommend getting this game, especially if you love the JP franchise, dinosaurs, and/or tycoon games.

A good first expnasion for Ark. However, I feel that after all this time, like some of the the creatures in the vanilla game, this map needs a little TLC. Unfortunately, being all desert, this map gets pretty monotonous pretty quickly, especially after you have tamed all the unique creatures, collected all the artifacts and explorer notes, and beaten the manticore boss. After that, there is virtually nothing left to do. The way I see it, more unique creature species need to be brought in and the map needs more to it. Don't get me wrong, it's great, but as I said, the content and activities on this map are limited at best. Also, the Ascension ending is not in yet, even though it is supposed to be, since it comes before Aberration. Like I said, the map is okay, but right now, don't expect something that feels like a completely separate game. The ties to vanilla become apparent more quickly than you think.

Aberration is probably the most unique map for Ark. It's mostly all underground, which adds a new layer to experience. However, this makes navigation a royal pain since obvious markers such as those on The Island or Scorched Earth don't exist here. The obelisks are all above ground on the surface. Did I mention Aberration's surface is a sun-seared no man's land that during the day can burn you to a royal crisp? Yeah...that's a thing. Except for good loot drops on the surface at night, your best bet for survival is to stay firmly underground. And underground, you're bound to run into all sorts of dangerous creatures, old and new. And the further you go down, the worse it gets. At the bottom of the map lies the element zone, a toxic and radioactive purgatory that makes the ugliest landscapes from the Fallout games look like child's play. There are liquid element leaks everywhere down there and the threat of Reapers, not to mention their ugly little minions, the Nameless, is ever-present. There are 14 unique creatures on the map, most of which are tamable. The most coveted tames are probably the rock drakes (which have to hatch from stolen eggs like wyverns) and the four different species of lantern pets.

The main thing that this maps does right is the story continuation. There are a lot more secrets revealed in the part of the story for this map than any other before it. Only Extinction tops it in that regard.

I do recommend this DLC if you are invested in the game's story and the gameplay challenges that come with this map.

Don't really know what to say. I got this in the Explorer Edition Bundle for less than $15 and it so far has been good. Can't wait for the third DLC to come out.

This is the first Tomb Raider title I've ever played. From everything I've done with the story, solid 10/10. Being an Indiana Jones fan, I wanted to try this game for a while after I heard about it. There's a lot of similarities between Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider if you think about it, so I decided to give this game a shot.

I was not disappointed. Combat is great, environments are immense and well-detailed, and the voice acting feels immersive and conducive to the story. The open world play also gives you a lot of options as to what to do in most given situations. The game reminds me a lot of Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, but with even more intensity of action at times. Character development is also well done, again very Indiana Jones-like, especially with Lara Croft's backstory and experiences. All in all, a great game and definite winner. Can't wait to play through the sequel, which I also purchased at the same time as I did this.

I used to play this with my uncle off and on back in the day, so I grabbed it for myself immediately. Other than the graphics sometimes being lackluster, the game is a very immersive, decide-your-own-pace, strategy game. It's one of those games were your choices have consequences and decide whether you win over Japan or get crushed in the mayhem and the stampede. Defintely a must have for strategy gamers.

This game is definitely intense. It's like Primal Carnage and Primal Carnage Extinction, but with sharks instead of dinosaurs. When I've played this game, there has never been a dull moment. I feel that I definitely do better as a diver simply because I have a gun of some description, three teammates and S.T.E.V.E., and an arsenal of other goodies to defend myself with. It is an intense game and an exciting one too. Again, never a dull moment. Really glad I got this. Definitely gonna have to get Primal Carnage: Extinction and try it out too. Overall, a great multiplayer, skirmish-and-battle game.

A great RTS game with a twist. The fact you can create your own army with unique units is cool. Can't help but feel that the enemy AI is a little too aggressive, especially for players who are new to the game. All in all, a really nice game despite its age. I would say it has definitely aged gracefully compared to some other games out there. Kind of wish you had a system where you could bring in new animals to create custom and unique combinations. Oh well. I suppose there's enough entertainment in crushing Upton Julius, his right-hand cronies, and their plans for world domination. In other words, release the combined dogs of war upon the computerized enemy.