Then The Culling<\/em> dropped on the gaming masses out of nowhere. I\u2019m mean, literally sight-unseen. Initially, I was more than a little skeptical, since during that period, it seemed like everyone and their mother was coming out with yet another \u201cme too\u201d Early Access survival game (and still are, actually). What interested me in The Culling,<\/em> however, was its funky gameshow sensibilities, including an announcer whose tongue-in-cheek comments throughout each match added a strange contradictory air to the grisly proceedings.<\/p>\n What also drew me in was that The Culling<\/em> was the first ever battle royale-style game built for that purpose alone, and all from the ground up. If you\u2019ve ever thought about playing something similar to The Hunger Games or the original Japanese Battle Royale films, this is about as close as you\u2019re going to get.<\/p>\n The Culling<\/em> presents itself as a gameshow in which sixteen \u201ccontestants\u201d are thrown together on a tropical island, and have twenty-five minutes to dispatch one another. It can be played solo or with a teammate. There are various buildings located around on the island which contain lockers and crates containing items and weapons. You can also gather natural resources to craft makeshift versions of these as well.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll never forget the first few games that I played. The Culling\u2019s<\/em> emphasis on melee combat was just what I\u2019d been looking for, as opposed to other survival games where ranged weapons were usually the focus. The melee combat system is also multi-faceted. You could attack, block, or push opponents, and this rock-scissors-paper dynamic always made close quarters combat exciting and unpredictable. Not to say that The Culling\u2019s<\/em> ranged combat wasn\u2019t fun as well, but there was just something so satisfying about smashing someone\u2019s body down with a heavy wrench or brass knuckles, and then running down their crippled mess of whatever\u2019s left, and finishing your business.<\/p>\n Combat also had a myriad of effects based off of what type of weapon you were employing. For instance, if you hacked away at someone using a hacking weapon such as an ax, you can afflict them with an exposed wound, which makes each attack after the initial one more damaging. Or, say you shoot someone with a poisonous blow gun dart\u2014you can then watch with glee as they become sick and begin retching and vomiting.<\/p>\n In all though, the combat is so over-the-top and bloody, and the setting so surreal, that I usually end up laughing my butt off while playing The Culling,<\/em> even those times when I end up with the short end of the stick. That\u2019s not to say that the game can\u2019t be intense\u2014there have been many times when I\u2019ve been one of the last two or three combatants left, sneaking around scanning for my fellow remaining contestants. It can really get tense, and I\u2019ve had my temples pounding with more red liquid than a blood bank on many occasions. And when you get to pull off that final killing blow and defeat that last foe, there\u2019s a real sense of accomplishment (along with some tension-reducing laughter) that lingers for some time. To put it short, The Culling<\/em> can be a great stress-reliever.<\/p>\n Since The Culling\u2019s<\/em> initial release, the developers have released update after update that seriously detracted from the original game\u2019s beautiful formula. The gaming masses responded by condemning the game, and it took a massive dive in popularity. For a long time, I thought that The Culling<\/em> would never recover. And then, just like that, Xaviant Games comes out of nowhere once again and releases one giant mammer-jammer of an update called The Big House.<\/em><\/p>\n The Big House<\/em> not only boasts a brand new map (which we\u2019ve all been waiting for forever) calling Cul County Correctional, but also new weapons, new game modes, and more. The new map is a prison setting, complete with cells, yards, parking lots, and tunnels. It\u2019s great for either finding a perch and sniping, or setting up close quarters ambushes.<\/p>\n There are several new game modes as well, including a Lightning Round mode, where matches are both smaller and shorter, as well as fun new game types such as Shake and Bake, where the sun will scorch you at intervals unless you take cover, and Golden Crowbar, where you can seek the titular item which opens up a crate containing a chainsaw.<\/p>\n New weapons and traps have also been added, including a pike, yari, pitchfork, camp hatchet, survival axe, steel caltrops, and steel punji sticks. And if that weren\u2019t enough, The Culling<\/em> now features a new XP and leveling system, along with new taunts, victory poses, and clothing and item skins.<\/p>\n The Culling<\/em> has a real chance of turning around the virtual titanic with this massive new update. I\u2019ve experienced only a couple of niggling glitches, but overall found the new updated game a ton of fun, especially if you partner up with a buddy. Give it a shot.<\/p>\n SCORE: 84%<\/p>\n The Culling <\/em>offers some excellent visuals that suit its grimy dystopian theme. However, you have to have a fast gaming PC or gaming laptop in order to play it at a decent framerate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:<\/p>\n WINTER TRACER II 15<\/p>\n Visit CyberpowerPC\u2019s website<\/a> to check out all of the other great deals as well!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Culling Xaviant Games I\u2019ll make no bones about it\u2014I used to be a huge fan of The Culling. Around the time that it debuted (March 2016) I\u2019d just become disillusioned by the big H1Z1 split\u2014into two separate games, with King of the Kill being one of them, which was a failed attempt at… Read More »The Culling (Early Access) The Big House Update Review \u2013 Turning Around the Titanic?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":5913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2732],"tags":[2520,2638,741,2624,2488,67,2486,2607,2639,2640],"class_list":["post-5906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games","tag-4k-gaming","tag-battle-royale-games","tag-cyberpower-pc","tag-first-person-games","tag-game-review","tag-gaming-pc","tag-ian-kane","tag-reviews-2","tag-the-culling","tag-xaviant-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5914,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5906\/revisions\/5914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"cul1\"](\"http:\/\/www.cpgaming.gg\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/cul1-915x514.jpg\")
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