Giant Kings adds the ability to create factions led by a giant, however, it also expands the world in which you play quite a bit. Some of these additions are mechanical in the form of Fated Regions and Landmarks, while others are simple beautifications to the world generation.
Bloodlines is the newest expansion of the Dune Imperium Series and the first made specifically for Dune Imperium Uprising…well, sort of. Bloodlines feels like it’s made for Uprising but is compatible with the original Dune Imperium as well as existing expansions. In some ways that’s a good thing, and in other ways it further fractures Dune Imperium Uprising’s clear identity crisis.
For an old-time fan like me, Monster Hunter Wilds is incredibly frustrating because it’s simultaneously one of the best and worst games of the series. On one hand, the monster designs are excellent, the combat is more fluid than ever, the environments are beautiful, and the map feels like a living, breathing ecosystem.
On the other hand, half of those things are held back by extreme contradictions to the game’s design that clearly exist due to an absurd level of streamlining. I hate writing this review because I am absolutely going to be screaming into the void. I’m just an old man yelling at clouds, but I gotta yell just to let the screams out.
Avowed is an interesting beast because it’s a game I kind of enjoyed, but I was constantly nagged by how much better it felt like it should have been. That’s a step up from The Outer Worlds, which I thought was a badly designed experience from the ground up, but it’s still disappointing in its own way.
There is a kinship between the two titles, though. Just like in The Outer Worlds, entire mechanics exist in a play pretend kind of way. You can point and say that there is a purple squirrel doing the Macarena in the corner of the room, but it’s not actually there. That works for a child’s imagination, but less so for video games that you actually interact with.