STACK #188 June 2020

GAMING REVIEWS

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MOVING OUT

GENRE: ACTION

PLATFORM: PS4, XBOX ONE, SWITCH

MULTIPLAYER: YES

Moving your life from one home to another is one of the most stressful experiences that you can undergo. Moving Out makes a game out of it, but is it any less maddening than the real thing? Designed primarily as a couch co-op

experience, but readily playable in alone time, Moving Out hastily trains you in the “art” of being a “Furniture Arrangement

& Relocation Technician” (yes, FART) before letting you loose

EVERYBODY MOVE! While set time limits are reasonably achievable for those who’ve been gaming since they can remember, others may not be quite as speedy. To make the game suitable for pretty much anybody – and possibly to avoid tantrum-induced controller hurling – everything from completion challenge times to being able to skip troublesome levels is on offer.

on various jobs in the town of Packmore. The aim? Shove a certain number of items into your truck as quickly as possible and trundle onto the next job. Windows? After a quick smash they’re conduits for quicker chucking of possessions into the truck! Basically, any shortcut you can find is a good one, as you’re playing for medals here – any indication of actual care for your client’s possessions is completely coincidental. All items marked for removal aren’t created equally. While there are boxes,

games consoles and other small electrical items that can easily be hurled truck-wards, there are also breakables, and those annoying bigger things like beds and couches to be somehow dragged through narrow doors, whereby any latent Tetris skills are handy. Speaking of, planning becomes crucial in order to make everything fit in later levels. Presentation is top notch, from music to animation to oodles of nods to pop culture history. There are even extra arcade games and bonus levels. Moving Out really is pretty much the perfect family game, providing challenges while rarely veering into hair-tearing frustration territory, and dropping genuinely amusing humour bombs more often than its nutcase inhabitants drop valuables. So, what are you waiting for? Get moving! AF

GENRE: ACTION RPG MULTIPLAYER: NO XENOBLADE CHRONICLES: DEFINITIVE EDITION PLATFORM: SWITCH

When the original Xenoblade Chronicles was released on theWii in 2010, it was a hit amongst both reviewers and players. It was so popular that it’s now received a major uplift for the Switch. Side-by-side comparisons with the original

highlight the work that’s gone into this faithful update. Developer Monolith Soft

promised to deliver enhanced visuals, updated controls and remixed music, along with a new epilogue. Unlike this year’s Final Fantasy VII Remake , which completely overhauled the game,

NO FETCH! The complete lack of circular quests in

and fashion choices that you regret now as an adult. Newcomers to the series are introduced to a collection of excellent game elements pulled together in a neat little package. There’s open world exploration, well-crafted stories, fleshed-out character development, and a singularly unique auto- attack combat system. The game’s story is one of the standouts. While JRPGs are often known to be terrifically fanciful and over-the-top, Xenoblade Chronicles manages to stay relatively grounded… or at least it’s as realistic as you could expect from a sci-fi fantasy epic about robots fighting humans on the time-frozen corpses of two space titans! Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition really captures everything you need to know about this game in the name. It’s the best possible edition that we’re likely to get, and it’s something special. DN

Xenoblade Chronicles is a MASSIVE bonus. Gone are the endless fetch quests which regularly require players to travel from one end of the map to the other, and back again. Once an objective is completed, it’s done, or you’re able to fast travel back to the delivery point. Immersion be damned, we’re sick of walking everywhere!

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition doesn’t deviate from the original content, providing a shiny new coat for an already polished product. It now looks vastly better than the original. Gone are the harsh angles and blocky textures, replaced by smooth lines and bright colours. It’s the gaming equivalent of going back to your high school photos and airbrushing away all of the hideous haircuts

16 JUNE 2020

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