GRcade

Dream Land 2 is great. This is from a dude who never played until it came out on 3DS VC. It has aged well.

Xenoblade 2 - 9/10

I'm sad it's over. The rare blades random drops, ridiculous costumes and technical issues aside, the game was utterly fantastic.

Nia, Poppi and Morag 4 lyfe.

Shenmue 7/10

Was a 9 back in the day but it's really outdated control wise and it made parts a real chore. Still a very believable world that I'm sad to leave.

I see.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Torna The Golden Country DLC, 9/10.

I actually enjoyed this more than the whole game (I think I gave the base game an 8/10, still very much enjoyed it on the whole), not really sure why as its pretty much a slightly tweaked version of the main game but I feel like it did a few things better. Nowhere near as many blades so you actually felt more connected to them, not as many field skill checks (although still enough), side quests have been improved a bit, I actually preferred some elements of the battle system as well, like switching on the fly between your driver and your chosen blade.

Spider-Man - so good. Pretty much a perfect game. Brilliantly written, stunning graphics and swinging about just feels epic.

Might give it a break before the DLC and get back into Spyro.

Dusk (PC)

I really enjoyed this. A superb hearken back to 90's FPS games. A mixture of Quake, Blood and Doom that gets better with each episode.

8/10

Castle of Illusion on PS3. Having recently played all of the original games on Mega Drive and Master System I thought I'd give this re-imagining a go. It's decent enough if a little easy but I think it could have done without those occasional 3D sections as I found them a little frustrating. 6/10

Uncharted 4

It’s Uncharted, and it delivers. Perhaps playing it on the hard difficulty kinda spoilt it for me but it adds more stealth options.

The story is excellent. Loved every minute of it. But Uncharted 2 is still the best one in the series.

8/10

Slain: Back From Hell (PC)

That was a lot of fun. Frustrating, but fun.

It's not the longest of games, even with the DLC, it's length is drawn out by how tough it is. And is tough.

Lovely pixelated artwork, fun levels, daft story, great full on metal track.

Yeah, I really liked it and it has me hankering after more platform/Metroidvania titles.

8/10

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate



Well I've done Classic on 9.9, finished WoL, and only have one Challenge left to go that isn't stymied by my terrible online (anyone know how to get a Nat Type off sh*t if you've already tried DMZ, ports opening, and banging your head against a wall?), which relies on me playing through a good chunk of WoL again; so I'd say this is pretty much finished.


I tend to judge new Smashes on what they've added, on top of the wealth of content I take for granted. SSBU makes that a bit tricky: its whole shtick is, 'Hey, remember Pichu? He's back! Remember Ice Climbers? They're back!' It doesn't introduce many new characters or stages on top of what the series has already created. The most exciting thing about the series, and they've crippled it.

It also takes away quite a lot of stuff. A fully functioning All-Star Mode; most of the bonus games; a stage builder; Trophies. None of them deal-breakers, all of the irritating. It does then go on and add a whopping great one-player mode, but that mode doesn't have the character of Brawl's, and suffers from the aforementioned lack of Trophies. It's built around the replacement. They're not as good.

However... it's as fun as the series has ever been to play. Fast, furious, supporting eight players simultaneously or 32 in tournaments (locally), and with a cast of thousands (okay, 70-odd), it's the ideal party fighting game. Also Classic Mode is better than ever, and the story mode still has some neat tricks to play. SSBU renders the previous games in the series all but obsolete. Try going back to Brawl to enjoy its superior story mode (a feature which SSB3DS/Wii U didn't have at all), and I'd have to put up with its slow pace and lack of Ridley. I don't care for its slow pace and lack of Ridley.

All this on the bus, incidentally. All of this mahoosive amount of content on the flipping bus.


As an evolution of the series, it's probably an 8/10. As a standalone game and summary of the previous four, it's an easy 10/10 and in my top ten of all time.

Squinty wrote:Xenoblade 2 - 9/10

I'm sad it's over. The rare blades random drops, ridiculous costumes and technical issues aside, the game was utterly fantastic.

Nia, Poppi and Morag 4 lyfe.

Yaaaaay - wait, Poppi!?

Poppi really?

Anyway Red Dead Redemption 2 - 10/10 or as I will score it in my review 9.9/10

Closest thing I’ll see to perfection. Rockstar gave me everything I wanted and much much more. They created the best sandbox I have ever been in and whats more made a world where something new was always happening while travelling even after 100 hours of gameplay. Packed with so many easter eggs and nods to the sequel. I love this game so much

Rubix wrote:Poppi really?

Anyway Red Dead Redemption 2 - 10/10 or as I will score it in my review 9.9/10

Closest thing I’ll see to perfection. Rockstar gave me everything I wanted and much much more. They created the best sandbox I have ever been in and whats more made a world where something new was always happening while travelling even after 100 hours of gameplay. Packed with so many easter eggs and nods to the sequel. I love this game so much

It’s a bloody incredible achievement in world building, graphics are incredible for an open world game and the story is pretty good but the actual mission structure, variety and core gameplay is the same tired rockstar formula they’ve used the last 15 years. For that reason I can’t see it as a 10/10.

Phoenix Wright Spirit Of Justice - 9

It would be a 10 but I did marginally prefer Trials and Tribulations, and the Prosecutor is not the best. Other than that it has by far the most intiricate mechanics, the story is great, the characters likeable and great music and 3d effects. The DLC is decent and of a good length too.

FatDaz wrote:

Rubix wrote:Poppi really?

Anyway Red Dead Redemption 2 - 10/10 or as I will score it in my review 9.9/10

Closest thing I’ll see to perfection. Rockstar gave me everything I wanted and much much more. They created the best sandbox I have ever been in and whats more made a world where something new was always happening while travelling even after 100 hours of gameplay. Packed with so many easter eggs and nods to the sequel. I love this game so much

It’s a bloody incredible achievement in world building, graphics are incredible for an open world game and the story is pretty good but the actual mission structure, variety and core gameplay is the same tired rockstar formula they’ve used the last 15 years. For that reason I can’t see it as a 10/10.

Personal preference but here is my review

Edit: My Review

I agree with most of what you say but the missions are not memorable. There are maybe a handful of truly great ones but the rest are variations of traditional “rockstar” missions. Travel A-B have a shoot out then escape while being chased. I found the open and free form stranger missions more engaging than the actual scripted missions.

So there are poor controls, uninteresting missions and an opening that is far too slow. How many people would actively want to replay chapter 1? For me these pull the game down to an 8 maybe 9 out of ten.

Five hours from a 100+ hour game? And a chapter that teaches you the basics. Personally I didn’t mind some of the missions in chapter 1. I liked finding sadie and john

Balladeer wrote:

Squinty wrote:Xenoblade 2 - 9/10

I'm sad it's over. The rare blades random drops, ridiculous costumes and technical issues aside, the game was utterly fantastic.

Nia, Poppi and Morag 4 lyfe.

Yaaaaay - wait, Poppi!?

Poppi Alpha is strawberry floating great, she very nearly redeems Tora.

Torna - The Golden Country - 7/10

Padded too much. The community level thing was bollocks and killed the pace of the story, and it kinda didn't feel like we got to see the vast majority of characters develop. Also hated Lora. I didn't really like the Torna area as much as the areas in the main game.

The ending cutscene was pretty cool though. And the battle system was much improved over the main game. Also liked that the random blade system was banished to another dimension.

The season pass is recommended though.

Squinty wrote:

Balladeer wrote:Yaaaaay - wait, Poppi!?

Poppi Alpha is strawberry floating great, she very nearly redeems Tora.

Yes, but - the blushy-crushy cut-scene...

Balladeer wrote:

Squinty wrote:

Balladeer wrote:Yaaaaay - wait, Poppi!?

Poppi Alpha is strawberry floating great, she very nearly redeems Tora.

Yes, but - the blushy-crushy cut-scene...

That was all Tora's fault. He's a dick.

Eh. Can agree with that.

Onimusha: Warlords (PS4) - 6/10

Hardly a remaster tbh. The visuals does look good but seems like that this is more of a port than a full on remaster.

The free running controls is a godsend.

Play it if you’re a huge fan of Capcom’s early works. It’s Resident Evil but with demons rather than zombies.