COMPUTER GAME: ROCKET LEAGUE (2015)

Rocket League is a game where you are driving around in a rocket-powered car. This car can perform jumps, barrel roles and other maneuvers inside an arena. The goal of this is to play a game of football, hitting a ball around until it goes in the other teams goal and scores your team of 3 cars a point.

At its core, Rocket League is simply a fun game. You are driving around, boosting and jumping to get the ball in cars that look crazy. There is a variety of different arena's with obstacles arranged differently (pits, columns, etc.) to challenge you as well as some different game modes. There are no paywalls, with only cosmetic items being available for purchase (although you unlock one every couple of levels). And there is a wide variety of cosmetic levels and bodies. If everyone is of the same skill level, it can be a fun experience.

The downside is when matchmaking pits you against people of different skill levels (or even your friends, if you don't advance equally in skill). This can be frustrating as they do trick shots and keep getting the ball in no-win situations for you (or vice-versa). Also, the servers lately have been filled with games where players appear to be running bots just to get experience.

Overall, this game is definitely good. A more beginner friendly atmosphere and better matchmaking would help it allot. But it does what it sets out to do- be a fun car-sports game that is a good time. It is also a shame that the game has microtransactions (even if they are just cosmetic) considering Steam still sells it for $20US.

3 out of 5 Rocket Waffles in League.

PC GAME REVIEW: SERENA

Serena is a narrative-driven game. It is quite short, but it was also free (on Steam). I thought its brevity was one of its greatest assets as it told the story it wanted to tell without overstaying its welcome. It took me only around thirty minutes to beat this game, but I considered that time well spent.

Serena is a point-and-click style adventure game. You wake up in a cabin in the woods wondering where Serena is. You then click around to move or examine different items. You also happen to be afflicted with that most common of videogame character traits-amnesia. As you explore different areas of the cabin you uncover more of your past with Serena as well as details about the protagonist, whose name I cannot remember.

The game tells its story entirely from the perspective of the protagonist and his memory as you slowly uncover the mystery. The voice acting is superb as it slowly alters its tone to match how you remember events occurring. The graphics also do a good job of getting across the tone that the designers were trying to go for. Neither the sound nor the graphics needed to be flashy but they did a good job of matching the tone of Serena.

The tone of the game continues to change as you discover that things are not as straightforward as they first seem. Without spoiling how the game progresses and ends too much, it seemed to foreshadow its plot twists and then deliberately invert them. This keeps the game feeling fresh as it moves towards the story’s conclusion as you regain your memory of what transpired.

Overall, Serena is a very good game. Although it is short, it is also free and doesn’t overstay its welcome. It has a very deliberate message and tone that it conveys really well. I definitely enjoyed this as a fan of story-driven games that have a satisfying conclusion.

4 out of 5 amnesiac-waffles.