GRcade

Resident Evil 2 (PS4) 10/10.

I absolutely loved it, as no other game has me hooked and it's pretty much the only game I've been playing nonstop since it's released date ever since I got the MGS HD Collection on the vita and Nintendo DS's Resident Evil.

Definitely on my GOTY games list for 2019, and probably up there in my top 10 games ever chart.

SUPER. HOT. / TEN

OrangeRKN wrote:Now play it as it was meant to be played, as Kassandra

Malaka!

God of War 10/10

A true classic; gorgeous graphics, superb gameplay mechanics (a perfect concoction of action and puzzling) and a compelling story (enhanced by 'the boy').

I enjoyed every moment; even my 4 day Sigrun run (made harder by being 7.5 and also not realising I already had the final blade upgrade ) Immense satisfaction when I ripped her bloody wings off!

Overall, there was very little to fault. One slight niggle was maybe the sheer amount of drops and customisation; was a bit overwhelming.

Think I'll try and platinum it; I'm not too far away.

Snake Pass (NSW)

Had a lot of fun playing this, and thought the mechanics were really enjoyable once i had a solid grasp of them. I actually spent a lot of time trying to get the collectables, which is something i rarely do in games. I kinda wish i did not spend quite as long searching as i did, as something unlocks at the end which will aid your completionist tendencies.

Music is absolutely wonderful, and i sense it will be popping back in to my head for many months to come. Graphics very nice in undocked and perfectly OK in docked.

I found a late game mechanic added towards the end of the game to be quite frustrating, slowing the pace of the game even further, and i almost quit and uninstalled on the last level when i died for what felt like the 50th time on a certain section.

Some people have complained about collectables not being retained unless you hit a checkpoint afterwards. I did not see the issue myself, you just had to be a bit careful on route to "banking" your orbs, coins etc. Seemed like a decent way to up the stakes.

Well worth it at £6.50 in the sale.

7

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Some people have complained about collectables not being retained unless you hit a checkpoint afterwards. I did not see the issue myself, you just had to be a bit careful on route to "banking" your orbs, coins etc. Seemed like a decent way to up the stakes

It's definitely better this way as it stops you from just flinging yourself into the void to grab a collectible.

What was the late game mechanic? I can't remember it

OrangeRKN wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Some people have complained about collectables not being retained unless you hit a checkpoint afterwards. I did not see the issue myself, you just had to be a bit careful on route to "banking" your orbs, coins etc. Seemed like a decent way to up the stakes

It's definitely better this way as it stops you from just flinging yourself into the void to grab a collectible.

What was the late game mechanic? I can't remember it

The gusts of wind. I found them a touch unintuitive to mitigate. But maybe that was just my experience. It seemed to accentuate the slightly troublesome camera issues from time to time.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - 7.5/10 (Switch)

Great cast of characters and a fun plot, but a paint by numbers shooter. Played on Normal difficulty, but was comfortably stocks with ammo and health through the whole game.

If this game were combined with DOOM (2016), it would be the perfect FPS. Unlike DOOM, this has no true boss fights, and smaller pool of enemies to keep things fresh.

Glad to support both Bethseda and Panic Button though. This ran near perfect in handheld, with the compromises being totally acceptable. Unlike DOOM, which had major audio glitches and some annoying crashes, this was clean from beginning to end.

OrangeRKN wrote:It's definitely better this way as it stops you from just flinging yourself into the void to grab a collectible.

I just read that as 'fingering'

I think i'm losing it.

Guacamelee - 8.5/10

Fun game from top to bottom. This is how self-referentiality in videogames should be done.

It does feel a little like 'Kiddies First Metroidvania' given all the signposting and outright instructions, but that said, the scaling of difficulty is pitch perfect.

Not going to bother with the True Ending because some of the platforming looks impossible.

The sequel is even better if you want more

It has harder platforming too

Spider-Man 9/10

Some of those side tasks things towards the end were beyond annoying, but I really enjoyed this overall.

The story was great and swinging about the place combined with the variety in the combat made general gameplay tremendously enjoyable.

OrangeRKN wrote:The sequel is even better if you want more

It has harder platforming too

Bought them at the same time when there was a combined discount available. Will be waiting a few weeks before starting, but looking forward to it.

Mother 3

Every bit as hilarious, heartbreaking and emotionally cathartic as its reputation suggests Plays a darn fine RPG too, streamlines Earthbound's structure and mechanics generally for the better.

Will get to M1 eventually! Probably should've done that first but M3 has been a big bucketlist game for...well 11 years now, since the excellent fan translation hit.

9.5/10

Observer - PC

A really enjoyable game with a fantastic aesthetic, some excellent performances (Rutger ) and a set of solid mechanics. Not sure if this fits under the "walking sim" category of games or not but it's certainly light on actual gameplay which I'm sure some will find off-putting, but at the end of the day this kind of experience is more about the story and atmosphere, about giving you a smaller world to operate in but actually making each part of it feel valuable and not just set dressing and on those points it scores very highly in my book!

Some of the tools the game has to work with could have been used more exhaustively, the player has a number of "vision" modes that let them inspect the environment in various ways and it never felt like this was used as well as it could have been. Additionally whilst the story is compelling and the way it plays out is well done for the most part, it felt like the ending was a bit weaker than I was expecting which was a shame.

All in all a fantastic experience and one that I'm really glad I finally got round to!

8/10

Sonic Forces

/10

Sonic R

10/10

Sonic R is genuinely great

D4 : Dark Dreams Don't Die - 7

Another great Swery game. Love the vibe of it and all the vocal performances. I just want the rest of it. That's my only criticism. Absolutely guaranteed to be enjoyed by fans of Deadly Premonition's quirkiness.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 8

First Tomb Raider game i have played since the original PS1 game. Absolutely beautiful on the Xbox 1X, with amazing use of HDR. Could hardly stop myself from using photo mode every time i played. Also thought the combat was good (although incredibly sporadic. Not a bad thing, but meant that the amount of skill tree dedicated to combat was a bit....odd).

The main event are the tombs themselves however, and they were incredibly atmospheric and fun. Each one offering a unique puzzle. The game provides just the right amount of guidance to prevent frustration (with switchable difficulties for puzzles, exploration and combat). Thought this was a really important touch.

Only negatives were some frame tearing in the busier areas, and as is usual for these semi open world games, there is stuff absolutely everywhere to collect, examine etc, which can become a bit exhausting.

Strong recommendation though, will probably give Rise a try at some point.

Tetris Effect - 8/10

A great game (cos Tetris gonna Tetris, innit?), but whoever put this forward as being the 2018 game of the year wants their head read. Yes, it's really enjoyable but it is just Tetris at the disco with VR camels/dolphins/navajo indians etc. Upon completing the game, I retrospectively read a few reviews and, by crikey, there's some guff out there - as clear a case of the Emperor's New Video Game as I've seen.

Yakuza Kiwami - PS4

Another of the Yakuza series in the bank, at least the main story. I'm going to go back and do more side missions and other stuff i missed, within reason (mahjong and the other tile games can do one).

The story is not as good as 0 and gets very meandering for a while, however all the twists, events and deaths mean a lot more having played it and knowing a bit about future games. It introduces too many bad guys at too short notice compared to 0, where you had a long time to really get to know/loathe them, making each escalating conflict mean something.

After i'm done with this i think i'll take a bit of a breather from the series before starting kiwami 2, hopefully the HD versions of 3-5 will be closer to western shores. I have them on ps3 but would like them all in one place.