We dive into the Game of Thrones-inspired Final Fantasy XVI, Amnesia: The Bunker and check out gaming on Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Final Fantasy XVII is an interesting video game to describe. It’s got shades of Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and the decades-long influences of its celebrated past. But it’s also new, exciting, radically different and an excellent action RPG.
It’s a tale centred around Clive Rosfield, a warrior caught up in a tragic revenge tale that starts off with a slightly confusing bang, but one that’s deeply engaging and intriguing at the same time. A large part of that is thanks to the inclusion of Active Time Lore.
Akin to Amazon Video’s X-Ray functionality, Active Time Lore allows you to pause Final Fantasy XVI’s action at almost any point and tuck into an ever-evolving scene-specific dossier.
That includes information on characters, locations and the many, many factions. In a dauntingly gigantic game such as Final Fantasy XVI the feature is an absolute godsend and an idea that developers around the world should take notice of.
When you’re not learning about lore or watching one of the many well-acted, incredibly pretty cutscenes you’ll almost certainly be on the battlefield going toe-to-toe with Final Fantasy XVI’s combat system and it’s here that the game truly shines. While the game has copped its fair share of raised eyebrows by doing away with the series’ traditional turn-based approach, the decision to embrace an action-heavy direction (more similar to the likes of Devil May Cry), it’s a move that absolutely gelled with me and was always a joy to take part of.
Things might start out simple, but once you’re a number of hours in and able to make the most of juggles, dodges, counters and flashy Eikon abilities every fight feels exciting – especially once the excellent soundtrack goes into high gear. And that’s not even mentioning Final Fantasy XVI’s truly outlandish and spectacular boss battles, some of which, truly need to be seen to be believed.
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Simply put, Final Fantasy XVI is a fantasy epic of gigantic proportions. It’s also one of the best PS5 games released in 2023 and is well worth your attention.
Final Fantasy XVI is out now on PS5. You can buy it on Amazon here.
Also out now…
Amnesia: The Bunker (Xbox Series X/S, XBO, PS4, PC)
More than 10 years ago Amnesia: The Dark Descent helped shape survival horror games for the years to come. While Amnesia: The Bunker might not pack that same level of influence, it’s still a highly polished horror that’ll likely scare the pants of you.
It all starts with the setting: a WW1 bunker that feels unsettling the moment your character, French solider Henri Clément, awakens. What makes it worse is that you share said bunker with a deadly monster hellbent on tracking you down. As a result, navigating The Bunker’s semi-open world environments was always an incredibly tense, light-scarce affair.
The fact that the monster was able to adapt to my actions only ratcheted that feeling up, especially considering how noisy my trusty dynamo flashlight was. While it never quite reached the cat-and-mouse heights of Alien: Isolation, the creepy bastard still made me jump more than a few times.
It’s also worth noting that much of The Bunker’s plot is delivered via note-driven storytelling which might not work for everyone, but I found it helped cement the solitary lonely atmosphere that the game is aiming for.
And at the end of the day, I can confidently say that Amnesia: The Bunker is one of the most stressful experiences I’ve had in some time, in all the best ways.
Gaming hands-on with Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra
Remember when the only mobile game you could play was Snake on a Nokia 3210? Well mobile gaming has come a long way since then, friends, and no modern device is perhaps better suited to help showcase those advances than Samsung’s S23 Ultra. And just to make sure of that fact, I gave one a whirl for a couple of weeks.
The first thing you’ll notice when picking up the S23 Ultra is the phone’s Game Launcher. This internal app neatly downloads all your games in the place, updates you on your friends and collates all your game data. It’s a great one-stop shop that avoided unnecessary clutter on my home screen while being much easier to manage day-to-day.
The second thing you’ll notice is the incredibly stunning dynamic AMOLED 2X display. It goes without saying that the screen on the S23 was stunning to look at and offered an incredible brightness that helped each and every game I trialled pop. Plus, due to the sheer size of the 6.8” screen, you’re less likely to block the action with your thumbs for touch-heavy titles like Call of Duty Mobile.
To make the most of my screen real estate though I paired a Turtle Beach Recon Cloud Hybrid Game Controller which was incredibly quick and painless. Once I did, the S23 Ultra smartly recognised the device for gaming – quickly becoming an absolute godsend for Xbox GamePass, which performed completely flawlessly over my Wi-Fi connection. I was able to boot up into games of Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 in seconds with absolutely no issue and with almost no serious lag.
To really test out the S23’s grunt though I booted up The Division Resurgence’s Android beta and was thoroughly impressed from top to bottom. The phone was able to easily handle 60fps and max settings with an output that was truly surprising for a mobile, and it didn’t totally drain the battery either. Rest assured, the unit was outperforming the Switch without even breaking a sweat.
It was also a test that, outside of some minor hitching with Diablo Immortal at max settings, was indicative of The S23 Ultra as a whole. Sure, it’s already a plenty capable phone with a beautiful display and great camera suite, but it’s also a wonderful gaming device.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra starts at 1,649.00 and can be purchased from the official Samsung website.
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