Lyke Gaming - Who Doesn't?

I went to the Selangor Smart City & Digital Economy Convention last weekend, and it left me hopeful for the future of gaming and game development in Malaysia! I got the chance to play and talk with some of the local game developers in the convention, and I think they're really doing a great job! This is the first time I've ever went to such a convention before, but this is the 4th Smart City & Digital Economy Convention. There were quite a lot of stuff going on in this convention. There were esports tournaments, stalls selling books and merchandise and also several booths where you can try out games.  I went around the hall and looked around for a bit and I found some pretty promising games made by local developers!  One of the games I tried was called Re:Legend, a pretty ambitious game by Magnus Games Studio, it is a JRPG style game with monster fighting, taming, farming, fishing, mining and more! So basically its a merge between Digim...

Pros: + Fluid Combat + Easy to learn gameplay + A wide variety of characters to choose from + Managed to make quick time events good Cons: - Not a lot of single player content - Characters are not really well balanced  Graphics: 8/10 Gameplay: 7/10 Overall: 8/10 Overall a pretty solid fighting game, it's a satisfying final installment for the Naruto Storm franchise. Fun for the whole family, except when someone picks a character to spam skills, like Tenten or Shisui, yeah, then you'll have to look out of flying controllers. Read the full review here

General flow Naruto Shippuden Storm 4 did away with most everything that is not combat, there are no RPG elements, no exploration or anything much, even the story's told through fights and quick-time events, so it's a very simple game. Even so, the game works, because the cast is the renowned ninjas of the Naruto franchise after all.  Although the story is played through in an extremely bare-bones way, I feel like it still brings out a bit of the nostalgia in me, especially that one Naruto vs Sasuke fight at the end.  Gameplay The main way to experience this game is definitely with friends or family, I bought this game sole for the fact that it is a great local vs game to play on my PS4. Honestly me and my brothers had our fun on this game, the one thing I enjoyed the most, is definitely discovering special interactions and combo ultimates. And out of all the combo ultimates, I definitely like the Hokage one the most, the Hyuuga clan combo ultimate is also p...

Pros: + Engaging storyline + Your choices matter + Combat works + Many fun challenges and side quests + Beautiful Graphics Cons: - Story didn't end when it should've - Finding and killing every single cultist becomes a chore because a few were pretty hard to find - Side quests are not optional if you want to complete the story - Equipment with varying rarity have similar appearances Graphics: 9/10 Gameplay 8/10 Overall: 8/10 I haven't played a game for so many hours in quite some time now, so I was kinda shocked when I put in as many hours in Assassin's Creed Odyssey as I did. Overall, the game is a very solid one, not without its downsides but still managing to hold my interest right till the end. Read the full review here

Environment Assassin's Creed Odyssey is set in ancient Greece, where there are so many islands, and so many statues and temples. Honestly, aesthetically, the whole map is incredibly beautiful and scenic, but at some point in time, I just stopped being able to appreciate the beauty of it, it all became just like noise to me, except for the places significantly different locations, such as the slums on the outskirts of Athens, one of those marble mine or perhaps the Colosseum, other than that, as beautiful as the other places in the game are, they have not managed to capture my attention much. Maybe it's because I've played the game for too long, or maybe it's because, structurally, most of the cities use the same, or at least extremely similar looking building design, the streets look similar, the temples which you synchronize the locations look similar.  Although I do understand it's because the game is trying to look realistic, but still, I feel as if the...

Pros: +Interesting stealth mechanics +Graphics still hold up  +Sufficiently interesting plot +High amount of freedom in terms of ways to complete mission Cons: -Only lasts around 10 hours -Cutscenes are part of loading, can't skip immediately -Dead online component Graphics: 7/10 Gameplay: 8/10 Overall: 8/10 Hitman Absolution is a nice game for stealth shooter fans, it is creative and fun, worth it's price as is. Would be nice if the missions are not that straight-forward and maybe contain some amount of branching choices in outcome. Read full review here

Environment The stages in this game takes puts you in all sorts of different places, Chinatown, pubs, abandoned buildings, hotels, secret underground research facilities and more! Infiltrating and killing people is quite the thrill in this game, discovering secret ways to assassinate or hidden rooms are always so exciting. Gameplay The gameplay would depend on the difficulty you choose to play on, there are 5 in total, ranging from being able to just go in guns blazing and killing everyone to needing to plan your every move carefully to prevent being killed.   I'll talk briefly about my experience where I completed the game on normal, the 2nd easiest difficulty. To put it in a few words, it was immensely fun! Although you're encouraged to keep casualties to a minimum and only killing the main targets, I found killing and eliminating threats to be a more enjoyable approach. I'd usually circle around perimeters and eliminating as many threats unseen as possib...

Replayability: 7/10 Gameplay: 8/10 Overall: 8/10 Overall. this custom map is quite an innovative one for a TD, its also quite fun for me, I went from failing repeatedly to being able to unlock "Torment" difficulty. It is still quite a new game and the creators are still updating it with content from time to time, quite a good game for TD enthusiasts. Tips and strategies Here are some tips and strategies for you if you're interested in trying this TD. You need to increase your hero's star level with by building the unit indicated on your hero's 4th skill slot. You can only build a total of 3 SR/SRR heroes and 8 N/R units so you'll have to plan your builds carefully. Don't be afraid to demolish units and heroes for better ones. You'll get a part of the unit's/hero's cost back.  Don't spend too much money on rolling for new units in the early game, focus on items first. You can combine Granite Golem and Blight Soul to...

General Watcher of Samsara is a custom map in Dota 2, it is also a game where I've spent quite some time recently on, at its core, Watcher Of Samsara is a Tower Defense game, but what makes it so special is that it requires the players to have some degree of basic knowledge of the Dota 2 to succeed, due to the fact that the game builds upon Dota 2 hero units and items mostly from Dota 2. So, if you like Dota 2, this is a great TD, but if you're unfamiliar with Dota 2, you might need to take some time to familiarize yourself with the heroes and items. Gameplay In essence, Watcher of Samsara is a Tower Defense game, which you have to build an assortment of towers to prevent the creep count on the map from exceeding a certain threshold. The units are categorized into different rarity: N, R, SR and SSR,which is quite a unique approach in the TD genre, because TD games usually only require you to be familiar with the unit types and tower types to achieve success but Watc...

Pros: +Beautifully dark world +Great variety of weapons and skills +Amazing monsters and enemies Cons: -Soul crushing difficulty not for everyone -Pretty linear story and gameplay Graphics: 9/10 Gameplay 8/10 Overall: 8.10 A great game, not exactly considerate of the casual gamers like me, but if you like a challenge, this is definitely a game for you. Read full review here For Malaysian readers, here's way to get cashback when you purchase the game! Simply click through this  link  (register for an account if you haven't) then search for "Nioh" and get cashback on purchase! Of course you can also buy any other items you want! 

Environment The game is mostly set in a fantasy version of Feudal Japan, with demons and monsters roaming everywhere, the game takes on a dark and eerie vibe, not unlike the SoulsBorne games, and it does a very good job of delivering the dark beauty of the world that it is in. The ambiance is nice and enemies always seem to fit right into the maps, making it an enjoyable game to walk around in....when you're not being killed by the monsters, lol.  Gameplay Nioh is definitely a content packed game with a variety of weapons types, skill trees and guardian spirits that you can choose from to cater to your playstyle. In terms of weapons, there are swords, dual swords, axes, spears, Kusarigama, Odachi and Tonfa, all of them have their unique skill trees and provide you with quite a different playstyle, but from what I've played, I feel like sword is the most versatile for me. The mechanics I think were great are the Ninja skills and Onmyo skils, Ninja skills are tru...

Pros: +Stunning Graphics +Vibrant and lively environment +Loads of cool monsters to fight +Customizable Palico companion  +Deep and varied combat system Cons: -Quite a huge learning curve for newbies -Crafting equipment requires a lot of grinding  Graphics: 9/10 Gameplay: 9/10 Overall: 9/10 Monster Hunter: World is a game that's actually full of life, be it the maps, the content or the player base, a true masterpiece of recent years. Definitely a must have for gamers everywhere. Full review here

Environment Monster Hunter: World is one of the most beautiful games I've seen in recent years, all of the different maps always feel so vibrant and alive when you walk around in them, the Iceborne expansion does not disappoint in this aspect of the game, the icy map Hoarfrost Reach is a magnificent addition to the New World. One can seriously get lost in the maps themselves and spend hours and hours just exploring and going around collecting materials and fishing! Fishing is definitely one of my favorite side activity to do in games, and it is in MHW, which makes me appreciate the game all the more. Not to mention the music, the music really puts you in the right mood at all times, relaxing music for exploration and upbeat music for battle! Gameplay Iceborne did not only bring in new monsters for Hoarfrost Reach, but also quite a few for the other existing maps as well, a total of 27 new, returning, sub-species and variants are added to original number of 31 ...

Pros +Stunning graphics +Interesting world and good variety of biomes +Cool mech animals + Good variety of weapons Cons -Unsatisfying story  -Immense difficulty spikes -Uninspired skill tree Graphics: 9/10 Gameplay: 7/10 Overall: 7.5/10 I believe this is the best a mediocre game can get, real close, but miss the mark of a great game by a little bit, Horizon Zero Dawn is the kind of game I'd get if I had no better games to play, but even then, it would be a game worth 10-20 hours of play time. Full review here

Environment The game's set in a post-apocalypse earth where mech animals roam the land and metallic  ruins and abandoned buildings litter the map, and the humans set back to a more primitive time, using bows and spears as their main weapons. The map is a pretty wondrous place to explore, with a decent variety of biomes for you to walk/ride around in, and it is always a pleasant surprise to encounter newer species of mech animal. Not to mention how beautiful it always seems to look, no matter where you go, there's always gonna be a photo-worthy view! A beautiful and mysterious place that intrigues you to move forward the more you explore.  Gameplay Honestly. the game is harder than I initially thought it would be. I didn't expect to hit a speed bump on the "normal" difficulty, but I did, I died several times to the more aggressive mechs like the Snapmaws and the Bellowbacks, I swear, the Bellowbacks have such deceptive looks, they look damn weak, but t...