GRcade

Guacamelee 2 - 9/10

I was a bit disappointed to find it didn't get a Vita release but after fully clearing the game I can see why. Tons of effects, enemies and madness that makes it a pure joy to play. I almost lost my nerve a few times on the key challenges, but as a game the controls are so reliable that you know with some practice it's manageable. Just have to run through the game once more on Hard for the platinum.

Battlefield 1 - PS4

I didn't finish it but I am finished with it. I am no longer the target audience for the Sisyphean multiplayer, the singleplayer episodes were interesting and tried to balance reverence with gameplay thrills in the best way the mainstream industry is capable of so far, but I ran out of patience at the last fight against the armoured train, that can strawberry float itself right off over a rainbow and never come back. Only paid a few quid out of my existing PSN balance so I'm not too bothered, at least now I've deleted it and freed up some space for the latest Gran Turismo patch.

Rayman Legends - 10

This is just brilliant. So delighted I picked it up for £20 (thanks to the forumites and my brother who recommended it!). Ridiculous value really as its' stuffed full of content and invention. It looks and sounds great (those music levels are amazing fun) and I can't really find fault with it. Most of the time I was playing with a big grin on my face. Love the online challenge idea too, a nice way of offering a reason to return to the game once you've completed the main levels. Perfect 2D platforming.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Didn't actually reach the end game, but I've gone as far as I'm going to go with it.

Beautiful game with some very nice touches throughout. However, melee combat is weak and I was disappointed that climbing was very limited considering the nature of the game. HZD is good enough, but not so good that I want to push on with it.

6/10

No Man's Sky

As above I've played as much as I want. Completed the Atlas path and maxed out my base. The last massive update brought a hell of a lot to NMS, improving it tenfold, but after 80+ hours I've seen enough.

7/10

State of Decay 2

I enjoyed this far more than I thought I might, however the core gameplay is quite limited and once you've been through the process of surviving several times it does wear a bit thin.

6/10

BioShock: Burial at Sea.

For some reason I thought I'd played this. Turns out, I only watched a Let's Play when it first released (when I happened to be travelling in Australia.) I had no particular memory of it, save being annoyed at Ken Levine's jackhammering of Elizabeth into the original BioShock's story.

But strawberry float, after playing through the two chapters I have to say it's up there as some of the best BS content. The first ep finally gave us the unspoiled Rapture that so many were asking for and it's marvellous. The weird stylised character models from Infinite try their best to ruin it, but it's still great. One of my great gaming wishes remains an RPG/investigation type game set in pre-fall Rapture.

It's the second episode where things really kick off though. The intro is...sublime. It builds and builds until everything falls apart and the contrast it forces recreates and reinforces the atmosphere of BS1, something BS2 never managed to accomplish. Rapture is made terrifying again. It even manages to make Colombia an interesting locale. It does have its missteps, the terrible retconning of Fitzroy's Big Decision being the main one, and I still resent Levine's love for Elizabeth once again making him make her The Most Important Person In The Multiverse, but it holds together much, much better than Infinite and hits the type of narrative beats that game could only dream of.

A fitting closure to the series*, which I'm very glad to have played.

*Which, of course, it isn't:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bioshock/comme ... k_4_is_in/

Spiderman

Gemini73 wrote:Horizon Zero Dawn

Didn't actually reach the end game, but I've gone as far as I'm going to go with it.

Beautiful game with some very nice touches throughout. However, melee combat is weak and I was disappointed that climbing was very limited considering the nature of the game. HZD is good enough, but not so good that I want to push on with it.

6/10

I've gone from loving it to here pretty quick. The combat is far to frustrating and clunky for me to enjoy and there is no real feeling of progression as despite being allegedly over levelled and with the best weapons available I'm still very weak and easy to kill. If I made a weapon selection only for it not happen one more time I might have thrown my pad out of the window.

Hime wrote:

Gemini73 wrote:Horizon Zero Dawn

Didn't actually reach the end game, but I've gone as far as I'm going to go with it.

Beautiful game with some very nice touches throughout. However, melee combat is weak and I was disappointed that climbing was very limited considering the nature of the game. HZD is good enough, but not so good that I want to push on with it.

6/10

I've gone from loving it to here pretty quick. The combat is far to frustrating and clunky for me to enjoy and there is no real feeling of progression as despite being allegedly over levelled and with the best weapons available I'm still very weak and easy to kill. If I made a weapon selection only for it not happen one more time I might have thrown my pad out of the window.

HZD definitely goes from wowing you in the opening few hours to revealing itself as quite a limited, generic experience.

I remember Eurogamer receiving grief from the community for not even awarding the game a recommended badge for much the same reasons, but I agree with their review. HDZ is hugely overrated.

Hime wrote:

Gemini73 wrote:Horizon Zero Dawn

Didn't actually reach the end game, but I've gone as far as I'm going to go with it.

Beautiful game with some very nice touches throughout. However, melee combat is weak and I was disappointed that climbing was very limited considering the nature of the game. HZD is good enough, but not so good that I want to push on with it.

6/10

I've gone from loving it to here pretty quick. The combat is far to frustrating and clunky for me to enjoy and there is no real feeling of progression as despite being allegedly over levelled and with the best weapons available I'm still very weak and easy to kill. If I made a weapon selection only for it not happen one more time I might have thrown my pad out of the window.

I just turned the difficulty down, a much more enjoyable experience. It has a great, fairly sad story that explains the robot dinosaurs.

Death's Head wrote:

Hime wrote:

Gemini73 wrote:Horizon Zero Dawn

Didn't actually reach the end game, but I've gone as far as I'm going to go with it.

Beautiful game with some very nice touches throughout. However, melee combat is weak and I was disappointed that climbing was very limited considering the nature of the game. HZD is good enough, but not so good that I want to push on with it.

6/10

I've gone from loving it to here pretty quick. The combat is far to frustrating and clunky for me to enjoy and there is no real feeling of progression as despite being allegedly over levelled and with the best weapons available I'm still very weak and easy to kill. If I made a weapon selection only for it not happen one more time I might have thrown my pad out of the window.

I just turned the difficulty down, a much more enjoyable experience. It has a great, fairly sad story that explains the robot dinosaurs.

Yeah the story is a cut above other open world games but the combat and movement just feel old after AC:Origins and Zelda:BOTW.

Zero Time Dillema (Vita)

This seemed to get a lot of unfair criticism from enthusiast websites, and whilst I do think it's the weakest of the trilogy, the bar was set exceptionally high by its predecessors.

Decent escape rooms and the choice of a Japanese dub meant that I found the game pretty enthralling to the end. I do think that the illusion of choice was less apparent in this one, largely due to the teams always moving together. Another criticism is that the puzzle rooms all seem to come in a lump, with a lot of story before and after them.

Certainly did not spoil the trilogy for me though, and I don't really understand why it would.

7

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.

I played the sequel 'Dawn of Sorrow' back when released. I bought it not realising it was actually a sequel. I played through it and loved the game, so, I after realising (quite quickly) that it was a sequel I always planned on playong it's predecessor. Finally after well over a decade I actually get around to doing so.

Aria of Sorrow, is very much in the Metroidvania style of Castlevania, and it also has the cool aspect that was squiring souls from enemies that you kill giving you their ability. It's a rather great idea. No idea if the previous game did this. As I know nothing about it. Anyway, my point is it's pretty unique, and playing it hasade me want Bloodstained - a spiritual successor to the Castlevania series - more than before I played it. The game is, quite frankly, brilliant. It's not massively long, but it is long so it never feels padded shoulder or a slog. Anyway, if you like Metroidvania and haven't played this, I can recommend it whole heartedly.

9/10.

Oh, I got the true ending as well.

Hime wrote:

Gemini73 wrote:Horizon Zero Dawn

Didn't actually reach the end game, but I've gone as far as I'm going to go with it.

Beautiful game with some very nice touches throughout. However, melee combat is weak and I was disappointed that climbing was very limited considering the nature of the game. HZD is good enough, but not so good that I want to push on with it.

6/10

I've gone from loving it to here pretty quick. The combat is far to frustrating and clunky for me to enjoy and there is no real feeling of progression as despite being allegedly over levelled and with the best weapons available I'm still very weak and easy to kill. If I made a weapon selection only for it not happen one more time I might have thrown my pad out of the window.

Wow. Pretty much the complete opposite for me! The combat was my favourite part; there's so much variety in both your arsenal and in how to take down the machines. I was level 50 by end game time and it was refreshing that big beasts were still an effort to take down. Yes, Aloy is vulnerable to a certain extent, but theres so many potions and herbs to heal with it that it rarely was an issue. I also made full use of the environment and corruption arrows came in very handy later on. The weapon selection wheel headache happened the odd time, but that was due to some hectic fights where I might have panicked a bit. Admittedly, melee combat is a bit weak, but I'd argue there's a reason for that; all those ranged options are meant to be used!

Horizon Zero Dawn - 9/10

A really beautiful game, with great variety of combat and a surprisingly, effective and interesting story that kept me engrossed throughout.

Very much looking forward to getting Frozen Wilds!

Brunch Panic (3DS) 8/10

Scratches the itch of those flash games where you have to assemble increasingly complicated orders and deliver them based on ever tightening deadlines.
Sounds like a recipe for stress- and it is if you get in a tangle, but get in the flow and you get "bubble-wrap popping" levels of satisfaction.

Got it cheap, got many hours of fun out of it, which has bumped the score a little. Ultimately it's a simple little game but it does it competently.


Enjoyed it enough to 100% it (bar one stupidly hard challenge).

Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Chaos; child - 7/10

Not good as Steins;Gate but still good story, does have lot of moments where I just roll my eyes at (mainly "positive" imagination choices and how "right-doers" MC is) but I do really enjoy it as whole.

Pokémon Fire Red. 8/10.

Great game, had my team of Pokémon and did decent with them. I actually, for the first time ever, struggled with Misty and the Elite 4/jawa. I think it's because I streamed the game I did little in the way of grinding as I didn't think people would want me to run in a cave for hours.

Was fun though. I still prefer Silver/Crystsl,.

Finished main Quest of AC origins so yeah it has been brilliant.

9.5/10.

Can’t remember a game that looked this stunning constantly and also delivered a quest line and side quests that pack (for me) an emotional punch. Roll on Odyssey in a sale.

Cock hero flux Dance 3

10/10

Tales from space: Mutant blobs attack

A fun relaxing game & the only thing which brings the score down ( I can’t decide, it’s either a 3 or 4 / 5)are the six axis motion controls for the bonus stages.

Motion controls.



I know it’s not your fault Drinkbox Studios (so don’t think I’m having a go at you), I imagine it was Sony been a pack of window lickers still with a raging on for Nintendo wii six years later forcing you to implement motion control on the Vita (Vita means life you guys) & the ps3.

Where Sony on crack?. Who knows wtf where they thinking?.