GRcade

Assassin's Creed Revelations - 8/10

Been really blasting through these lately in my attempt to catch up on the series, AC fatigue definitely started to set in part way through this but I still ended up thoroughly enjoying it. Some of my favourite new additions in Brotherhood didn't feel quite as well utilised here, such as recruiting assassin's or building the economy which was disappointing. Additionally, none of the new features really worked for me, crafting bombs felt utterly redundant and the tower defence aspect was dreadful (fortunately only had to do it once), the new hook feature of the hidden blade was a nice addition and made climbing more fun, plus I enjoyed the addition of zip wires but they're hardly massive changes or additions.

The story did engage me though and it was nice to bring some closure to both Ezio and Altair's stories, I thought it had some of the better missions of the series too, each of the Masyaf Key missions in particular were really fun to play. Constantinople was a cool city to explore as well and a nice change from the locations in 2 and Brotherhood (As much as I liked those).

Overall not as good as Brotherhood but still a really enjoyable game, taking a little break from the mainline series for the next month but I'm going to crack on with AC3 in August which I am dreading a little after all the negative comments I've heard about it.

Dark Souls Remastered PS4 Pro - An epic quest that looks a lot better than it did on the PS3 and runs brilliantly. I gave up on Smough and Ornstein all those years back, but bested them with some online co-op help, which was very satisfying.

I do feel that the last quarter of the game really doesn't keep the quality going and it does end on a bit of a whimper in all honesty. There is also a marked difference in graphical quality between certain areas, which is puzzling. I have no idea how anyone without a guide would know how to access Artorias of the Abyss and theres so many little events that I just had no idea about, especially concerning the fire keeper in firelink shrine.

On the whole I appreciate being able to replay this marvellous game in 4K 60FPS on the PS4 Pro with a superior controller and a stronger online community, who have been very helpful.

I would rate this 8.5/10 after having completed DS3 and just replaying DS2, which is different, but in a good way.

I decided to buy DS2 and then DS3 on PSN and have already spent 35 hours on DS2 SOFTS.

I have that one next too, I really should get back in as the new one looks decent.

Bury me, my love. 9/10

Very good mobile game, effectively its a text based game done as a I'm chat with your wife who has left to seek asylum in Europe from Syria.

Lovely story, for me was 2 and half hours long and very very good. Highly recommend it.

What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4)

I'd read good things about this and was looking forward to playing it. Unfortunately, it didn't quite do it for me. It is another of those story driven games, this time relaying the goings on of Edith's relatives in the family home, specifically how their time ends. I'd read this was very sad and I don't think I'm a heartless bastard, but not once did this come anywhere near to bringing a lump to my throat. For each of the stories you "live" them (i.e. play them) and they are all quite different, preventing boredom from setting in. Some work well (such as the obvious nod to Creep Show) and others aren't quite as interesting (the "kite" story springs to mind). Although by no means game breaking, there are some performance issues on the PS4 version which are probably due to poor optimisation as the game isn't really anything that the PS4 should not be able to handle easily. If you have a mid spec PC or better, that will be a better place to play this.

Overall enjoyable, but not quite the heartfelt journey I was expecting. 6

The last guy

I haven’t finished but I’ve played more than enough to come to the conclusion that this game is an exercise in frustration. 2/5

Death's Head wrote:What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4)

I'd read good things about this and was looking forward to playing it. Unfortunately, it didn't quite do it for me. It is another of those story driven games, this time relaying the goings on of Edith's relatives in the family home, specifically how their time ends. I'd read this was very sad and I don't think I'm a heartless bastard, but not once did this come anywhere near to bringing a lump to my throat. For each of the stories you "live" them (i.e. play them) and they are all quite different, preventing boredom from setting in. Some work well (such as the obvious nod to Creep Show) and others aren't quite as interesting (the "kite" story springs to mind). Although by no means game breaking, there are some performance issues on the PS4 version which are probably due to poor optimisation as the game isn't really anything that the PS4 should not be able to handle easily. If you have a mid spec PC or better, that will be a better place to play this.

Overall enjoyable, but not quite the heartfelt journey I was expecting. 6

I wouldn't go that low, and a few of the stories (bathtub and fish factory) got to me, but it certainly I didn't click with it as much as other people. It felt like an idea spread too thin, with each of the stories having halfbaked mechanics that subtracted from the storytelling rather than helping me engage with it. The stories themselves were nice, and the overall design of the house walked the kind of magical realism path I love, but it all felt a little stretched.

Gone Home - 4/10

+ Atmospheric.
+ Exploring the house is fun (who doesn't like secret passages and compartments).
+ Piecing together the plot and other bits of info through letters and such is kinda interesting.
+ Lots of interaction…

- …most of which is completely pointless.
- Runs like crap despite my PC exceeding the recommended specs and it auto-detecting to max everything. Changing the settings made absolutely no difference to the framerate.
- You walk as if you're moving through treacle - painfully slow.
- Why is it so dark? Even with all the lights on it barely helps.
- What you actually need to know and do is very little, but because everything's so slow and tedious it takes far longer than it should. Basically dragging things out as long as possible.
- The central plot is just lame. It's like something out of a teen drama, just so 'meh'. Was hoping for some kind of conspiracy or crime, or something interesting at least.

Pretty disappointing overall. Quite how it got such high scores on metacritic is beyond me. For the whole game to essentially be 'I've come and my family's not there, there's a mysterious note, oh no what's happened, oh my parents have gone away for a few days and my sister's realised she's a lesbian'…just dull. At least it was short and so didn't waste too much of my time.

Saints Row The Third (360) - 7/10

+ Looks good
+ Decent soundtrack
+ Mostly enjoyable missions
+ Good customisation options
+ Solid shooting and driving
+ Lots to do

- Some frustrating missions
- Dumb AI 'homies'
- Some annoying design decisions
- Activities get boring after a few iterations

Completed the final mission and I'm at 76% completion overall. It's taken 18 hours, which has absolutely flown by. Felt more like 9-10 hours really. I've no desire to finish off the remaining activities and complete everything though, feel like I've had my fun with it. Good game!

Lotus wrote:Gone Home - 4/10Quite how it got such high scores on metacritic is beyond me.

I'd wager this is because you're playing it several years after its initial launch. At that time and place this was a remarkable game for several reasons.

It was amongst the first wave of the so-called 'walking simulator' genre and immediately set itself apart through its level design, attention to detail and writing. The latter at least still holds up today.

Secondly, it dealt with homosexual topics and themes in a mature and educated way, something games still fail to do in many cases. On release it was a revelation in this regard. It's also just a really well told love story.

Third, it's reputation has ruined the twist. The game was intended to be a rouse from the start: the ominous title, the spooky main menu art, the dark, twisting halls of the house. The whole thing was set up to be a horror game. The twist was, of course, that it was no such thing. Nowadays this is common knowledge, but on release the fact it was a slice of life based game was a shock to those who played it expecting a ghost train.

It's one of my favourites of the last few years, but I grabbed it on release. I tried playing it again a few months ago and although the writing is still excellent, the rest has aged rather poorly.

Stardew Valley (Switch)

Basically a cover version of Harvest Moon, but one of those rare cases when the cover is better than the original.

Quite brilliant. [8]

No Man's Sky (PS4 Pro)

I put 30-odd hours into NMS, I was sort-of enjoying myself but after spending 60% of my time staring at mineral deposits I had something of an existential crisis: was it relaxing and absorbing or just plain boring?

In the end I decided on the latter. There seem to be a lot of tasks intended to give the player a sense of agency which are just tedious. Why do I have to recharge my launch-thrusters after every fourth take off? Which numb-nut thought that was going to be fun?

NMS also runs poorly on the PS4 Pro. Planetary exploration is fiddly in a star ship because of the severe pop-in at any speed above a crawl. I could go on...

On reflection, NMS is a bit rubbish. It's supposed to express the joy of space exploration, but in an attempt to make it 'a game' Hello Games gate everything behind tedium. [4]

Fallout 4

I'm between a 7 and 8 on this. This is my second time going through it. The main questline is kinda boring, it was better this time as I did the Brotherhood questline as opposed to the Minutemen one, but it is still a bit dull. The end of the brotherhood questline is basically a retread of F3's end game. Absolutely hate the stuff with the Institute and synths. It just doesn't gel with this universe very well for me.

But that said, the game is pretty fun when you just go and explore, and it's the perfect game if you just want something to play after work. Also liked the modding stuff, which I dipped into more on this playthrough. I will probably keep this installed on my Xbox for those times when I want to just dip into something non taxing.

Phew!

Had so much damn fun Though I'm pretty sure I shortened my life expectancy through the stress of going for platinum time relics, oy.

9/10

Jazzem wrote:...Had so much damn fun ...

Well played, Jazzem - it was cool to see you tackling Crash on Twitch! The remake looked to be excellent quality; the core of the original game remained very much apparent and the enhanced graphics were great. I'm hoping that the upcoming Spyro remake proves to be equally good.

jawafour wrote:

Jazzem wrote:...Had so much damn fun ...

Well played, Jazzem - it was cool to see you tackling Crash on Twitch! The remake looked to be excellent quality; the core of the original game remained very much apparent and the enhanced graphics were great. I'm hoping that the upcoming Spyro remake proves to be equally good.

D'aww, thank you sir! Glad you enjoyed the streams

Aye it's easily one of my favourite game remakes now, Spyro's looking to be of immeasurably high quality too so can't wait for that! I want a remake of this caliber for every 32-64bit era platformer now, imagine Banjo Kazooie like this <3

Call of Duty: Black Ops III (PS4)

Haven't played a COD game since Black Ops 2 came out. Stopped playing after that as I disliked it so much, never enjoyed the Black Ops games as much as the Modern Warfare series. COD went all futuristic after and that turned me off even more.

However this was free on PS Plus, so why not give it a go?

Sadly I wish I hadn't.

Played through the campaign and it was just total nonsense. Story was ridiculous, and even the gameplay was boring. I spent the last 3-4 missions just wanting it to end. Such a stark contrast to the Modern Warfare games which whilst over the top at least engaged you. Deleted it without even trying the multiplayer, which felt weird as I've no idea how many hundreds of hours I put into MW 1-3 online.

4/10.

more heat than light wrote:Hue

Absolutely charming little puzzle platformer, this. A really simple mechanic (switch to different colours to make that colour platform disappear) is switched about, expanded and then turned upside down to great effect. It's on the gentler side of things, so if you're looking for a game to tickle your brain rather than break it, I can't recommend this enough. Free on Game Pass at the moment too.

8/10

+1 for Hue.

Have been playing it quite a bit on Vita recently as it was free on PS Plus a while back. Really close to the end now and the sense of achievement on completing these latter levels is quite something. Not finished yet but it’s a solid 7.5/10 for me so far

Until Dawn Rush of Blood (PSVR)
My mate actually played most of this as he is looking at getting PSVR. I only got to do the first 2 levels in VR, the rest I saw on the TV as he completed it. A mental Time Crisis / on rails style shooter with mad psychologists and demons/clowns, set in a fairground ride. Sounds weird but as was free on PS Plus and didn’t cost me anything, it’s certainly worth a play.

The VR works well and it’s sweat-inducing at times due to the relentless shooting at times. Recommended and a 7/10 from me

Assassins Creed: Syndicate

Pleasantly surprised with this, although it suffers from the usual AC problems. Would never of dreamed of playing it had it not popped up on Games with Gold but glad I did, Unity ended all interest in the series for me as I it was one of the worst games I've played this generation and while I'm not exactly rushing out to buy Origins this has restored some faith. Climbing controls still frequently infuriating, some of the side missions can get a bit repetitive and the historical accuracy is down the toilet more than ever at times, but main missions massive move in the right direction, assassination missions in particular are great, plenty to do, solid attempt at a recreation of Victorian London (It feels right, obviously never been to Victorian London personally ) Interesting characters and a passable story.

Can't see me persevering with 100% completion as all the achievements have bugged out as a result of me playing offline for 2 weeks due to having no internet, but may do the odd bit here and there.

7.5/10.

Wolfenstein The Old Blood. (Uber difficulty)

Loved it! Only started it at the weekend and ended up finishing it in 3 sittings. (I've been "working from home" this week)

It took me a while to get into New Order but now the series is becoming one of my favourites. Got TNC in the sale so will start that shortly.

9/10

Jamo3103 wrote:Uncharted: Lost Legacy - 9/10

Finished this tonight and wow, absolutely loved every minute of it. Some of the best set pieces in the series, glorious graphics and a really healthy balance between story, gunplay and puzzle solving. Loved Chloe and Nadine as the lead characters, really well written characters and a pleasure to play as.

Minor criticisms would only be that it's a little on the short side and as with any Uncharted game it has the occasional frustrating moments with enemies and their 'homing' grenades. Still, absolutely loved it.

Uncharted Lost Legacy 8/10

Went to write a review, but Jamo pretty much has written it for me. Cheers!

Just to reiterate, it's a supremely beautiful adventure. I spent a lot of time just gawking at the scenery. Thoroughly enjoyed it, could have done with another few hours!