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One for the Grown-Ups

It’s that time of year again. Finding great gifts for people can be tough. Here are some of our recommendations for the grown-up gamers in your life!

Control

Control is the X-Files game we always wanted, but never got. You play as a woman named Jessie as she explores The Federal Bureau of Control in search of answers about her past. In short order, she becomes the director of the Bureau and acquires psychic powers and a transforming gun. Every twist and turn in the story (and the building itself) is interesting and you’ll be kept guessing until the very end. This is definitely a great gift for the grown up gamers on your list.

Resident Evil 2 Remake

A high definition remake made by game designers who grew up as fans of the original. This game is not only a visual upgrade, but an expansion of the original story that brought the zombie apocalypse of Raccoon City to the PS1 Era. Resident Evil 1 and 2 favored fixed camera angles and prerendered backgrounds as a solution for hardware limitations of the PS1. The RE2 Remake uses the power of modern gaming hardware to present an over the shoulder view made famous by more recent editions of the series with both visual and quality of life improvements. This game is a nostaglic horror experience, with the familiar suspense found in classic horror movies.

Sekiro Shadows Die Twice

Sekiro is the most recent title from From Software Director Hidetaka Miyazaki.

The game brings the complex storytelling and difficult, yet triumphant, combat of the Dark Souls series and sets the stage in a mythical feudal Japan. Produced in conjunction with Activision, this game is whirlwind of beautiful sound, visuals and actions and is well worth a holiday pick up.

Devil May Cry 5

Devil May Cry 5 is the most recent edition of an action/brawler series that is known bombastic action, sound and visuals.

The series refuses to take itself, or its apocalyptic stakes, very seriously. Game play focuses on performing stylish combat as one of three devil hunters. DMC 5 is a AAA title with B Movie sensibilities and is an inexpensive holiday pick up. 

Code Vein

Code Vein is the complex combat and cryptic stories known for in the Dark Souls series combined with beauty and bombast of an Anime art style and sensibility. The game’s story focuses on the remnants of civilization after a post apocalyptic encounter against an inhuman foe. Like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Code Vein adds a fully voiced cast of characters and allies. Action is the same brutality as Dark Souls, but supports a system that allows you to bring an NPC ally.

Mortal Kombat 11

Mortal Kombat is a legendary franchise that is, somehow, growing in popularity with every iteration. Netherrealm Studios has managed to create a game with an incredible competitive scene AND an interesting story mode that should be the gold standard in the fighting game genre. The story mode plays out like a movie. You jump from character to character in a fantastically over the top adventure. You’re forced to play as most of the characters by the end. This has the hidden advantage of both making the experience more interesting, and giving you a chance to learn characters you might never have imagined playing.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments and let us know your thoughts!

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By: James Pisano

Sitting down for Bethesda’s reveal of Fallout 76, I expected to see something very different from Fallout 4.  Maybe something between Fallout Shelter and Fallout 4… maybe something totally different. But I HOPED it would just be another open world Fallout game.  That’s where my gaming soul lives!

Turns out that it’s a prequel to ever other t game… a “softcore” survival game, set in a VERY different wasteland and with one MAJOR departure from the franchise. It would be completely online… massively multiplayer.  My heart sank. HARD.

Thankfully, the good people at Bethesda understand that people like me exist, and they put a lot of time and attention into crafting this always online foray into the Fallout universe.  My heart rose little by little:

  • You can play completely solo.  You can quest, gather, survive and BUILD your settlement (literally anywhere on the map that is 4x the size of Fallout 4’s map.)
  • If you want to play with friends, you can, and it’ll make survival “easier” but it’s not necessary.  Each server (Which apparently, you don’t need to sign into, you’ll “never see a login screen”. Sounds intriguing…
  • There is a VERY expanded home building system called “C.A.M.P” (Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform) that will let you build alone or with friends literally *anywhere* in the world, and if you want to move your settlement, you can totally do that.  Oh, and did I mention flying Deathclaws can totally destroy what you built? Well, I just did. There’s a lot to unpack there. Considering how badly I wanted to like Fallout 4’s construction features, it was hard because of how clunky it was. But this excites the heck out of me.  A LOT.
  • They peppered the landscape with nuclear silos that you can use however you see fit, if you gather the requisite launch codes.  And if you don’t, or only gather a few, you can trade with other players and shoot off nuclear fire together, arm in arm.

Why would you want to do that, you ask?  Maybe to get back at a rival faction, maybe because you just feel like it, but either way, you will irradiate the target area creating rare spawns, rare loot, and of course, an all new landscape.

Regardless, I trust Bethesda to get this right and create an online realization of one of my favorite worlds, that 38 year old “My job and family make it so I can’t play online games a lot” I can play on November 14th, 2018, and still have a literal BLAST.  

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What do you think? Sound off in the comments and let us know your thoughts!

Make sure to keep your eyes on Engaged Family Gaming for all of the latest news and reviews you need to Get Your Family Game On!

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By: Drew Habersang

***Mild spoiler warnings for those who want to stay spoiler free – I’ll be discussing game elements and largely avoiding plot, but there will be a few very small reveals – consider yourself warned.***

God of War -is back and it is better and more different than ever! 

In the previous games, Kratos ascended to Godhood in an all out one man war of vengeance against the Greek pantheon who betrayed him. This time around, Kratos is battling the Norse Gods and their underlings, but for entirely different reasons.

For those of you not familiar with the franchise thus far, don’t sweat it. The latest entry in the series is a soft reboot that leaves enough room for newcomers to get somewhat familiar with the story. Rest assured, you’ll have a deeper more meaningful experience if you’ve played the previous three playstation releases, but it’s hardly a requirement.

Until this release, apart from a few minor variations, the series has stayed close to the form and style of the first game. And, while fans would no doubt have been entirely fine to leap into another round of God-slaying, this game takes a decidedly different tone. Like many popular franchises that have gone the soft reboot route, the new God of War includes a number of open-world RPG elements. Kratos has evolved from the previous games and now has levels, armor, loot and different equipment, and his equipment will affect Kratos’ ability to take on various threats in their unique environments. Enemies in the new God of War have levels as well and these scale as Kratos levels up.


Note that, while these shifts constitute massive changes, the core of the game remains unchanged. Kratos is still absolutely brutal death dealer, but the tone of the game has changed considerably. The modulation in tone is largely thanks to the addition of Kratos’s son, Atreus. Kratos’s unhinged fury has been tempered into patient calculating resourcefulness. These changes are largely observable through Kratos’s relationship with his son, Atreus. Kratos has in no way abandoned the violent tendencies that made him a horrifying revenge-monster. However, with his young son Atreus to protect and guide, we also get to see Kratos patiently (most times) mentoring his son as they both discover more about the world around them and each other.
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Kratos as a dad is spectacular and his relationship with his son is the emotional core of the game. This almost goes without saying, however, this is where to storytelling really excels. What could have easily been an overwrought predictable maudlin “escort journey the game” is instead handled with deftness and subtly. My favorite scenes are spare in dialogue and disarmingly sincere. Kratos still wrestles with his past. The game acknowledges this, yet gives him a way to redemption by way of his son, Atreus.  If nothing else, Kratos is determined to guide his son toward a different path than the one Kratos chose for himself.


The original game was intentionally bawdy and fantastically violent. In this latest iteration, the quick-time sex events (seriously) and over-the-top violence have been replaced with something far more sincere – Kratos holds his son’s tear streaked face in huge blood-stained hands as they both cope with unspeakable grief and it is, without a doubt, a most natural and necessary evolution.

I’ve loved every game in the God of War series but this one managed to incorporate emotional scaffolding upon which new stories can be built.

I’m already chomping at the bit for the follow up.


What do you think? Sound off in the comments and let us know your thoughts!

Make sure to keep your eyes on Engaged Family Gaming for all of the latest news and reviews you need to Get Your Family Game On!

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