Reviews

New Year, Same Game

I've got this game on PC, PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X. My son has it on Switch. Every year I say I am not going to buy it again, because I know that fundamentally it's the same game regardless of platform. Of course on the Switch it's a 10 year old game that's the same every year, but that's a different bone of contention for me. Realistically, you've already bought this if you like Football / Soccer, as it is really the only way to play a decent game of it on your device. Graphically it does the job, the sound is forgettable to the point where I just turn it off and put on an audio book when I play. I have no interest in the virtual football card version of the game (Ultimate Team) that my son loves, especially since it seems to be pay to win. That EA make more than $1billion per year in selling those cards staggers me. For all of this though, will I buy next years game? Yes Why? Well because it's fun making someone rage quit when beating them on Seasons.

Old Person Gaming

Good lord I'm old now, but at least I have MS Solitaire to keep my brain going Don't start playing this though please, it's a little too addicitive...

Further Impression = VERY GOOD

I've now played quite a bit. It's so very good. I would class it as Hitman-lite, but that would be doing a disservice. The game wants you to play stealth and clever, but doesn't penalise you if you have to go loud. It also has open levels that direct you nicely to the point but allow you to get there through multiple paths. To me this is good design. Speaking of which, based on the locations, Ken Adams has been channeled a lot in the production design. I think he'd be smiling at this one a lot. Carry on Bond Very early on, done the prologue and the wider tutorial. I couldn't stop smiling at the cut to proper Bond intro (including the made-for-the-game song). So far the only let down is the driving controls, but that's often the case with third person games with a driving mode, it's not Forza after all. I've just completed the first "main" mission, and I have to say it's a lot of fun. I do not usually like stealth games, but this one is not bad. Probably because it's not too punishing on normal difficulty when you get spotted. The fighting mechanics are a bit rough, it clearly wants to be a mix of Bond toughness with a Batman Arkham style flow, but it doesn't quite work as well. Or I am just rubbish at it of course. A strong start young Bond, a strong start. I've been expecting you, and there's more to come. But no Mr Bond, I do not expect you to die

Well Hello Again

My Mass Effect History Originally I played ME2 first and loved it. The suicide mission at the end really affected me when my team didn't all survive. I went back and replayed it, with all the DLC and loved it even more (though Shadow Broker is not enough Liara in that game). I bought ME1 and all the DLC, played that and while the game is ace, the inventory management sucks. So I played it once and then used the interactive comic if I wanted to set up a specific ME2 set of character decisions. When ME3 came out, of course, I was a day one purchaser. I bought all the single-player DLC as it came out (I can't bring myself to pay for multi-player DLC content). That you had to play the multi-player to get a decent war score was a bit of a fudge, but at least it gave me a reason to. Turns out it's a good multiplayer. Even the ending didn't bother me that much, as I could only imagine how hard it would be to get all of those potential decisions whittled down to something that gave every player the end they hoped for or wanted. I have also played (and completed) Andromeda... In summary, though, the Mass Effect universe is - for me - up there with Star Wars. I know this is a common comparison, but I think it a worthy one. The depth of the world creation, the different races and politics involved. The little intrigues and the quality of the writing give it all the depth that science-fiction needs to be epic. Of course, it's very gamey in its delivery. But, like Star Wars, the Mass Effect world is a fully-featured and rich one. It is a creation that will always stick with me, no matter how old I am, and these are games I would always keep playing again and again. Anyone that knows me knows that Mass Effect 2 is pretty much my favourite game ever. The Remaster Suffice to say I have played a lot of Mass Effect over the years, and when a remaster was announced I was both excited and slightly apprehensive at the same time. The idea that my favourite game, and therefore favourite game franchise was going to subject to a possibly phoned-in, purely for money remaster was quite an unpleasant one. There is a reason why We The Players wrote a blog about remasters. So what did we end up with the release of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition? Well, personally, I would compare it to getting your house professionally redecorated. Still the same house you know and love, but everything is new and bright and shiny. Your decorator also took the time to clear up some of the issues you had too, they fixed that squeaky step on the stairs, and made that door close properly. In this remaster. everything is pristine and how you remembered it at the time but brought up to date. Previously when I played Mass Effect 2, I would have to install mods like the ALOT graphical enhancements to make graphics look the way I wanted them to. Now I don't have to go through that faff, and have to worry about Origin overwriting the game files when I installed the mod, even if I installed the game through Steam... That all the DLC for all the games (bar Pinnacle Station in ME1) is available is an excellent addition too. The gameplay is mostly unchanged, but when the games are this good that is ok. It really is a graphical overhaul, that is what most people will notice, but that is no bad thing. There are some quality of life improvements, mostly those are limited to Mass Effect 1. The comedy that can be driving the Mako is now less comical, it's definitely harder to crash and need to flip the thing. The female Shepard has now got a consistent default face through the trilogy, something I for one welcome. Personally, I find the fem-shep voice to be the better option. I think the acting involved is better, and fem-shep is always my first choice. I will be using man-shep for my renegade run through though for sure. Mass Effect 1 definitely benefits from the most obvious graphics updates. Mass Effect 1 was first released in 2007, Mass Effect 2 in 2010 and Mass Effect 3 in 2012. The first game was one of the early major releases on UE3, so had access to fewer features released in the subsequent enhancements. With the remaster, ME1 is now an even more beautiful game. The colour palette used is slightly darker and colder than I remember, so maybe there has been a change to the colour balance used as well. That the textures have been uplifted to look good at the higher resolutions we now play at is a great thing. It is in the first game that you will see the most obvious graphical enhancements, assuming you're old enough to remember your original playthrough... Mass Effect 2 was always a pretty game, but again the enhancements are clear to see. The textures again look lovely, but again there seems to be a slight colour palette change. I struggled in some of the Collector missions to see some of the enemies, the combination of brown collector models on a dark brown or black ship backdrop made it difficult sometimes. Still such a good looking game though. Mass Effect 3, which I am still playing through, is the one game where the graphical enhancements are not immediately obvious. Of course, everything looks sharp and lovely, but being the newest game, I am not convinced there has been much updated here. Now, across all games, there has been one important addition. An addition that makes me at least incredibly happy about. An addition that normally wouldn't bother me, but now it does. We now have a photo mode. Not just a phoned-in one, but an actually fully featured one. A photo mode with all the camera controls that I don't really understand, but have a lot of fun playing with. Of course, the natural question is, for those that have already played (and hopefully) loved the original trilogy, is this remaster something to consider buying? Summary If you've never played the trilogy, yes you should buy this. The games are so good that to be able to play them on modern hardware in one package, with all the DLC you could want and all the newly flashy visuals should make this an easy purchase. If you've already played and completed the trilogy, then perhaps the answer is slightly harder. For me, it was a no-brainer. If you like the Mass Effect games, then I think the answer is yes. The fact that in one package you get all the games, all the DLC and all the enhancements, there is value there for sure. This is one remaster that has had some actual effort put into it. Or I could be blinkered by my love of all things Mass Effect. But since this is my review, I'll end it there and just declare this trilogy and remaster wonderful, and fully recommend it as a buy.

Not an RPG - But still Good

Remember also that a lot of work has clearly gone into redeeming this game, and its DLC is excellent. Also, this review is a legacy review from when the game was first released. Intro So here goes, a review of one of the most hyped games of recent times. A game that is at one step celebrated, while being derided in equal measure depending on where you look. People will mostly know the history of this game, but let's do a recap just in case you've lived in a gaming cave for the last few months/years. Originally announced in 2012, finally released at the end of 2020 after a team of around 500 people beavered away on it. Cyberpunk 2077 has been developed by the same team that developed the almost universally acclaimed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (a game I have restarted so many times but never got beyond the prologue on). The launch of the game could be said to have been challenging, you could go more severe than that if you want. It is fair to say that (currently) unless you have a high-end PC, use Stadia (apparently some people do), or were lucky enough to acquire an Xbox Series X or Playstation 5, then you are going to have a tough time with this game. The launch was so bad that Sony even removed the game from the e-store, something which is unprecedented for such a high profile release. Personally, none of the issues that are apparent on older consoles, or even the issues I myself have found surprise me in any way. You only have to look at what has been delivered to see how the game has such massive scale and ambition to see that it would be impossible for the hype and expectation to be delivered on. Does that mean that Cyberpunk 2077 is a failure, something to be remembered as a cautionary tale for older game developers to tell their children? Absolutely not (in my opinion). We do however have to be realistic about the game, now that we can look past the hype and actually play what has been delivered to us. Normally I wouldn't bother making note of the specs of the machine I am playing the game on, but for Cyberpunk 2077 I think it is important. Especially if you have doubts over whether to purchase or not. So here goes (this was about 3 years ago now, have since upgraded): Platform: PC Processor: i7 9700k Memory: 16GB (3000mhz DDR4) GPU: nvidia 2080ti Game installed on: Intel 660P NVME Screen Resolution: 2560x1440 (1440p) - RTX on, DLSS on Performance Usually I wouldn't even comment on this, since my PC is reasonably powerful. But with this game, performance is important depending on how you want to play the game (at least on PC where you have a lot of graphics options available). The chief option to consider is raytracing, the proper reflection of light and generation of shadows. Night City is full of neon, full of light and shadow and this should be generated properly. Normal rasterization techniques can only fake it so much. Currently it's only available on nvidia 2000 and 3000 series cards (not that anyone can buy 3000 series cards at the moment). The thing is that this option has a severe performance impact if you choose to use it. When I first started playing the game, on release, I was getting about 45fps. After a patch or two, I am now getting 60fps. So broadly speaking, performance is better, right? Well, that really depends on the options you have available. The thing with this game is that, graphically, it is BEAUTIFUL. But that is on the right hardware. Night City is such an astonishingly realised environment that it needs some powerful hardware to draw it at an acceptable clip. But I said that this was with raytracing on, and said it had a performance impact, right? That is true, and it highlights that for this game, if you want raytracing on, you have to have DLSS enabled. There's no other option. Without DLSS on, I get around 28fps on the same settings. But what of non-raytracing cards? > Simply put, CP2077 is a very demanding game. New AMD series cards can run the game quite happily on ultra, but not with everything turned on if you expect to get 60fps and you're playing at 4K. This game is a performance monster where the graphics are concerned. If you've got an older graphics card, you will definitely want to play with the settings and think about what resolution to run the game at regardless of the resolution of your screen. Graphics (and bugs) aside, the rest of the performance is pretty good. Despite all the graphics finery on display, load times to get into the game itself are really solid (might be down to my NVME). Texture pop-in is un-noticeable (at least to me) and there are no loading breaks when driving around the city itself. You just have to be aware that if you have slightly older PC hardware, or a PS4/Xbox One X, you may want to consider holding of buying until there have been a few more patches released. Visuals I've sort of talked about the visuals already, but it needs to be restated. Of the many open world games I have played, while they all have their merits and their beautiful visuals, in my opinion nothing comes close to the level of artistry and design shown in Cyberpunk 2077. Night City is an amazing place to just explore. It's a living, breathing city. It looks like the images I have in my head when I read sci-fi books (weirdly I am thinking of the Takeshi Kovacs series by Richard Morgan here). It has nooks and cranny's you will find interesting things in. The city has verticality, it's not just a big wide open space so that the developer can say the map is X amount of square miles for bragging rights. Now, it's definitely true that not every door can be opened, and there are lots of repeating NPCs wandering around, but I still maintain that I have not seen anything like this in a game before. For Night City alone, the visuals are without compare to me. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a beautiful game, the sun cresting over a hill in Assassin's Creed Valhalla is always a sight to behold, but the level of design and the execution shown in CP2077 (for me) puts it head and shoulders above other games. Don't get me wrong, it's not all beautiful. The inventory screens are functional at best, the crafting screens are annoying and whoever designed the UI elements for sending messages and reading shards needs to think about using space more effectively. But, hopefully, you're not playing the game for the UI screens... There are a few too many dildos onscreen in certain areas for my tastes, but I'm sure that wouldn't bother others. Sound Design Open world games usually have lots going on, so there is a lot to listen to. So, for me, in games like this I focus on the way the ambient sounds (radio tracks and NPC noise) help the game, and of course I think about the voice acting of the main voiced parts. So, radio, music and incidental sounds... The radio tracks are cool, if you like that sort of thing. I couldn't say there are any standouts (at least for me), when compared to something like the GTA or Saints Row radio tracks. They do what they need to do, but you can largely ignore them. NPCs are another kettle of fish altogether. Yes, there are a lot of repeated phrases, but there are some gems in there too. They certainly help with the atmosphere generated and I like hearing what they have to say. The overall soundtrack is also good too, the track(s) that jump in when you're in combat are really good. The voice acting is a mixed bag though. I am playing as a female V with the female voice chosen (you can mix and match in the character creation). The main V (female) voice is good, but not great. Some of the lines are missing what I think of as the right emphasis. It's not Kassandra from Assassin's Creed Odyssey or FemShep good, but better than most. The rest of the cast are all pretty good, and mostly don't sound like they're phoning in the lines which is good. Your pal Jackie is definitely a standout though, really good job by that actor. The rest of the sound design does what it needs to do. Guns sound suitably gunny, swords swoosh and cars make skidding noises at the right point. I could also talk about Keanu Reeves performance as Johnny Silverhands, but I do not really want to go anywhere near that. He's good, not great, and in the game more than you would have thought... Gameplay This is where things get a bit more interesting, because for me CP2077 is a bit of a mixed bag in the gameplay department. As said before, I love exploring the city and seeing what mischief I can get in to, but the game wants me to do missions and to craft and to RPG my character. It is in this that it is sometimes less than successful. The RPG elements are basically boiled down to spending points to upgrade your V with a few percentage points of ability, of course you could say that about every RPG out there. Thing is, I am not sure I see much of a change over time to make it something I care about. Crafting is something to do for a quick stat point upgrade, but looks like something you could ignore completely if you want to. Playing missions is good fun, as they vary enough to make them interesting. Perhaps not in their core theme, collect this, kill that, upload virus something else, but they are well designed and voiced and keep you interested. What I absolutely LOATHE is the hacking/stealth mechanic(s). The hacking mini-game when you find a thing to hack to get some money or items is fine, it does what it needs to do and is enough of a challenge to be interesting. But the hacking to be stealthy in an actual mission is really badly implemented for me. So bad that I just don't bother. Guns (or now swords since they are so much fun) is the way to go. This is NOT a stealth game for me. It just doesn't work. Besides, it amuses me when I get told off by my fixer for laying waste to the mission area when I wasn't supposed to... Honestly though, stealth (for me) in this game just doesn't work at all, and I would recommend others to avoid that aspect of this game. Again, your experience may vary, if it does then great. The story is interesting enough for me to want to see it all, and the side missions are well worth doing. I especially liked the talking vending machine I found last night. A very small, silly side mission that amused me greatly. If you have played previous CDPR games, you know they write a good mission, and they have done so again. The main problem is, that for me at least, this feels like an FPS more than an RPG, which is a shame. There's a lot to do in this game. Certainly a lot of highlighted points on the map. These could be main missions, side missions (gigs), random encounters and many others I am sure I have not got to. So far I have put in about 30 hours to this game, and I doubt I will get much change out of 150 hours before I have done everything I want to do. I read elsewhere that the main story is short though. So that just tells me I want to do the side stuff first, and as said before, there is enough interesting content here to keep me playing this game for a long time yet. Fun Hugely subjective though this (and the whole review) is, I am having fun with CP2077. Bar one really bugged quest and a few audio issues, I am enjoying myself immensely. I think this is because the city is just such an interesting place to explore, and that is good enough for me. Yes, the RPG mechanics seem very superifical. Yes, the crafting is a largely redundant thing. Yes, at its core it is an FPS game with TERRIBLE stealth, so might get a bit samey later. But for now, I love playing this game and will continue to have fun with it for a long time yet. The only thing that might not make it fun later is when it becomes too easy. I am not sure, but I think that quests etc have a set difficulty, and as your stats get better, that difficulty doesn't scale. So it might become a walk in the park the more I do the side stuff. Of course I could play it on a higher difficulty, but I don't want to so I won't. Me and my flame-inducing submachine gun are having more than enough fun right now thank you very much, and my samurai sword is now learning how to play too. tldr CP2077 is beautiful, over-hyped, graphics card munching open world fun. It displays a level of graphical design that is amazing to behold, that is bolted to a game which is very good but not the life-changing event we may have been led to believe it would be. It will make you laugh a bit, it will show you an interesting story or three if you let it. If you have a decent PC, or one of the new consoles, buy now and you will have fun. If you have older hardware, wait a bit for a few more patches, then you will have fun too.

Multi good, Single not

Single Player Campaign I wanted to like it, and for the first half I did. Good looking levels, great sound design and cut-scenes. Plays like COD greatest hits. Lovely. Then it makes you do stealth and crafting in a COD game. Then it makes you C4 a tank. Then it makes you do more stealth crafting nonsense again. In a COD game. So the single player campaign for me was an exercise in frustration and grind to get it done. Not impressed. Multiplayer Not bad overall. Gunplay is tight, time to kill is the best it's been in a while, and I managed to get a sniper kill or two (which never happens normally). Love most of the modes which helps, and the maps seem well designed and not just a graphics update of old ones. Conclusion Now that the annoying campaign is out the way I can grind the MP and enjoy myself. Is it better than its predecessor? No. Is it better than the first MW2? No. But it's COD and you know if you're reading this you've either bought it or are going to. So get it cheap and have some fun with the MP. ---

Man buys Xbox Series X

Man then remembers playing this game on his xbox 360. Man then remembers buying said xbox while on a year secondment in Bangalore, India. Man remembers that xbox fondly, it surviving a red ring of death. Maybe man should see if it still works? Man is impressed his new Series X remembers he owns this and allows it to be played. Man then realises it is a great time wasting game and he likes it a lot. Finally, man realises that he is old now and should put away such childish games, but man doesn't want to and you can't make him... Besides, man now has kids and they will love it (that or Minecraft I guess, thanks Xbox Game Pass Ultimate).

Yummy crunchy humans

*Played for "Free" thanks to the MS Xbox PC Pass You are the blob, you have to escape the nasty humans holding you captive. Along the way, predictably, you get more abilities to help you to solve the relatively simple but growing number of puzzles that you face. These new abilities also help you to navigate to parts of the map you couldn't access. Pixel graphics, sort of Prince of Persia movement from the humans (the original rotoscoped one) and forgettable sound apart from when you munch the puny humans. So here we have a sort of rogue-like, but with you playing the monster rather than slaying them (well unless the humans are the monsters I suppose). All in all, it won't live long in the memory, but I will play it to the finish for a couple of reasons: 1) It's good fun 2) The sound of terrified humans, and then the sounds of your monster munching on them

I might not hate AC games

So, here we are again. Another year, another Assassin's Creed game. But are they really Assassination games nowadays? Especially since we're now dealing with Vikings, a group of people that television/movies at least tell us were about as stealthy as a bull in a china shop. I'm not sure it is about Assassination, though the option still exists. This is primarily because things have changed since Odyssey. The primary change being that your raven is basically pointless. Whereas in Ghost Recon: Greece, you could fly your bird over an enemy base, tag the baddies and plot your way round to kill them all quietly, now you can only tag 3 at a time. Yes, you can get a perk to make enemies visible when crouched, but stealth is now much harder if you choose to do it. Maybe that's a good thing, and it certainly is challenging, but somehow it's not as much fun. > Stealth is probably not as much fun because the violence in this game sure has hell is. Melee is king in this game, because it turns out that killing people with double axes, arrows, spears, flails and cudgels is SO MUCH FUN. The animations are BRUTAL while still maintaining a (thankfully) slightly comedic edge (at least I hope so). My current plan of attack is to thin out the heard with my bow (not the predator bow because it's terrible), then to play hacky hacky with the enemies. Never gets old. So, what else does AC: Hack'n'Slash do that I like? Well, hands down that has to be Orlog. Such a great mini-game. To the point that when the physical release of it comes out, I will be buying it. No idea if I can get my wife to play it, but it's so much fun. Also great? Well pretty much everything. The map is HUGE, there's lots to do and more keeps being exposed. I'm 90 hours in and apparently only 2/3 through the main progression, so the Ubisoft stats tell me. Side missions have changed to world events, and this is a magnificent idea. No more fetch quests, no more kill x people quests. Just fun little stories or events that with amuse or challenge you enough to play them and can be avoided if you don't. Personally I recommend doing them because they are just good fun. While the map is huge, it's chunked into areas that have a relative power level so you can consider if you want to go into them or not. Selecting to pledge to an area kicks off that areas story (though they are not independent of the main arc). The area story varies nicely per area, while keeping to a relatively similar structure of a 5 mission arc. They all do a nice job of telling a chapter in the overall novel well, and given the variety they have I think they will keep people interested in exploring all the areas available. Graphically it is of course (on the right PC hardware I assume) absolutely stunning to look at. I thought that AC: Odyssey was good looking, but this takes it that little bit further. Mainly because there is greater variation in location, weather and effects. Odyssey could get a bit samey (though I will not hear anyone else say that). This game has summer, autumn and winter locations (once you get past the prologue) on the main map. When you go to other places it changes things up enough to keep it interesting. I get that sometimes you can critique Ubi open world games for being identi-kit in their mechanics, but no one can deny the level of design and artistry that has gone in to this game. Sound is good overall. I picked the female Eivor based mainly on the strong voice performance of the Kassandra in AC:O and so far I have not been disappointed. There are bugs, I have mainly encountered sound issues, but I imagine the new patch has fixed a lot of that looking at the release notes. The only issue I think I have is that if you spend time doing all the side stuff, if you explore and gain more XP to develop your character, you can end up overpowered very quickly. This makes some of the areas easier than they probably would have been otherwise. But hey, give me an open world I actually want to explore, I'm going to explore it first... Overall, it's really good. There are issues of course, but AC:V is really good. If nothing else, it's made me take pictures of the fish I have caught. No other game has done that. Recommendation to Buy: Yes, just buy it UPDATE Don't do like I did and finish off as much as possible before the last mission, especially The Order. There is a bug which renders it impossible to complete the game if you kill too many of them before the end game. My advice, don't touch the order unless you have to until after completion... Currently I have the head of the order left to go and no way to start the post-endgame quest to get them... After 122 hours of playtime, to say I am annoyed by this being the ONE bug I found is an understatement... Of course by now it might be patched, but forewarned is forearmed

Get FORZA

I know this is a bit old now, but it's on playstation plus so I thought I'd give it a bash. 97gb download later and I wish I hadn't bothered. Couldn't get past the prologue. Controls feel squishy, no real physics or handling to speak of and just doesn't compare to FH5 (or 6 for that matter). If you're a playstation player xget FH5. It might be similarly old, but it's night and day better.

Forza goes Japanese

FH4 was great, FH5 was greater, from what I have played so far, FH6 is the greatest. Everything is just dialled in. It looks great, cherry blossom everywhere. It sounds great because vroom vroom noises never get old. It plays so well. Really it was never in doubt, but good lord what a package. I am lucky enough to have the xbox ultimate pass, and a Series X and PC. Thanks to play anywhere via the xbox store, I bought the premium upgrade for the price of the base game (which is free on the pass). Sure £60 is a lot, but this game is a lot and is well worth it

Another banger to follow Artful Escape

Another game with an excellent soundtrack and enough mentions of other music (Dummy by Portishead especially) that it's a 10 from me. It's short, but perfectly formed. I could take a point off for David Gray, but I won't. Keep up the good work development people. Keep doing what you do.

Simply put, a masterpiece

It won't resonant with everyone, and some would say it's not a game. But they're wrong. It's genius and the soundtrack is a banger. It tells a good story of self discovery and acceptance, and it's just great. The soundtrack is a banger (yes I said that before, but it needs repeating)

A co-op / team-based masterpiece

I’ve spent three decades playing games, and I can tell you that most games treat "teamwork" as an optional buff. Left 4 Dead treats it as a survival requirement. Back in the late nineties, we had LAN parties where the biggest threat was someone tripping over a power cable. Now, the threat is a Hunter pinning you in the dark while your supposed friends are fifty yards ahead looking for a shiny new shotgun. This game isn’t just a shooter. It is a digital litmus test for your friendships. If you want to know who among your circle is truly reliable, put them in a cornfield with a chainsaw and a thousand screaming zombies. The art direction here is a masterclass in "less is more." It doesn’t need the flashy, overblown lighting of modern titles because it understands the psychology of a shadow. The environments feel like a forgotten America, dusty and blood-stained, capturing that specific grindhouse cinema aesthetic that makes every safe room feel like a genuine sanctuary. It isn't about how many polygons are on the screen; it is about the way the moonlight hits the fog in a way that makes you second-guess every silhouette. Then there is the soundscape. Valve managed to create a language entirely out of audio cues. You don’t need a mini-map when you can hear the distinct, wet gurgle of a Boomer behind a brick wall. The music isn't just background noise either. It’s an adaptive conductor that swells and crashes based on your stress levels. When that frantic piano starts hammering, you don't just see the horde; you feel them in your chest. The banter between the four survivors adds a layer of soul that most modern "hero shooters" fail to replicate with a thousand lines of scripted dialogue. Bill, Zoey, Louis, and Francis feel like people you’ve known for years, even if you’re just meeting them for the first time. However, let's talk about the chaos. This game has a mean streak. The AI Director is a sadistic puppet master who watches you struggle and decides to throw a Tank into the mix just for the sport of it. You know the feeling when everything is going perfectly, you’ve got full health and a surplus of pipe bombs, and then a single misplaced shot startles a Witch? That is where the game lives. It lives in the panic. It’s incredibly easy to get overwhelmed, and once the momentum shifts, the game doesn't just push you; it tramples you. It forces a level of communication that can be exhausting if you aren’t in the right headspace. You can’t just "zone out" here. If you stop talking, the silence is usually followed by a Game Over screen. I put so many hours into this. For a game that only has a handful of campaigns, that should tell you everything. The average run might only take you an hour or two, but the variables are infinite. No two sessions feel identical because the Director is always learning how to break you. It captures that elusive lightning in a bottle that the industry has been trying to clone since 2008. It’s a reminder of an era where games were built on tight, unbreakable loops rather than bloated open worlds and microtransactions. It’s honest, it’s brutal, and it’s still the best way to spend a Friday night with three people you (mostly) trust. THE VERDICT Visual Design 9/10 Perfectly captures the gritty, cinematic 70s horror vibe. Sound Design 10/10 Audio cues are legendary and provide essential gameplay feedback. Gameplay 10/10 Tight, responsive, and rewards high-level coordination. Longevity 10/10 The Director adds infinite variety. Fun Factor 9/10 Pure, unadulterated co-op chaos that never gets old. OVERALL 10/10

A great return from a venerable franchise. Great game of running, shooting, and maybe running away.

Look, I remember 1993. I remember the pixelated chaos that felt like a fever dream in a dark basement. For years, shooters tried to be "smart" or "tactical," losing their soul in the process. Then Doom (2016) showed up, kicked the door off the hinges, and reminded us that we don't need a reload button to have a good time. It is a massive return to form. This isn't a game about hiding behind waist-high walls. It is a game about forward momentum. You run, you gun, and you perform glory kills that feel like a jagged shot of adrenaline straight to the heart. The loop is simple: see a demon, turn it into red mist, and keep moving before your brain has time to realize how ridiculous it all is. The graphics are sharp, though the sound is mostly there to keep the blood pumping rather than win any awards for subtlety. It is challenging, but it never crosses the line into being unfair. It respects your time by giving you exactly what you want: pure, unadulterated carnage. If you miss the days when games were about the dance of death instead of navigating menu trees, this is your sanctuary. THE VERDICT Visual Design 9/10 Hell has never looked this crisp or beautifully oppressive. Sound Design 8/10 Functional and heavy, though it leans on the music to do the heavy lifting. Gameplay 10/10 The most satisfying movement and combat loop in a decade. Longevity 9/10 I finished the 12-hour campaign and immediately wanted to go again. Fun Factor 10/10 Pure, cathartic joy. It makes you feel like a god. OVERALL 10/10

A rock-solid, if slightly repetitive, retro-feeling blast.

Back in the day, we used to get our stories from the back of a box or a manual that smelled like fresh ink. We didn’t need a twenty-minute cinematic to tell us why we were shooting robots; the flashing red lights and the "danger" siren did the heavy lifting. Deadzone Rogue feels like it was born from that same DNA, but it’s trying to wear a modern suit that doesn't always fit perfectly. You know the story already. You wake up on a derelict ship-the ISS-X, because apparently, space naming conventions haven't evolved since 1998—and you start blasting. The first thing that hits you isn't the story, but the sheer weight of the gunplay. It’s meaty. It’s responsive. It reminds me of those late-night Quake sessions where the movement was so buttery you forgot you were holding a plastic mouse. Prophecy Games nailed the "feel" of being a walking tank, especially once you start stacking elemental augments. Turning a standard shotgun into a void-spewing harbinger of death is the kind of power trip that keeps you clicking "one more run." But then, the cracks start to show. While the art direction is sharp—leaning into that gritty, industrial sci-fi look that would make Ridley Scott nod in approval-it’s like a beautiful stage with only three sets. After ten hours, you’ve seen every metallic corridor and reinforced blast door the ship has to offer. The enemies suffer from the same "clone-wars" syndrome. You’ll be fighting the same robotic spiders and biomechanical drones in Zone 3 that you were swatting in Zone 1, just with more health bars. It’s a bit like eating a great steak every night; eventually, you’re just chewing for the sake of it. The biggest missed opportunity here is the storytelling. I’m all for mystery, but relying on "Data Pads" scattered in random rooms feels like a chore from a 2004 RPG. I want to feel the ship’s history through the environment, not by pausing the frantic action to read a digital diary. That said, I’ve put 27 hours into this thing. Why? Because the difficulty curve is a more than good enough. It respects your time. Whether you’re chilling on "Adventure" mode or sweating through "Nightmare," the game scales the tension without ever feeling like it’s cheating. Plus, the devs are actually listening-dropping new content and tightening the screws faster than I can clear a sector. It’s a solid, reliable shooter that just needs a bit more soul in its machine. THE VERDICT Visual Design 8/10 Gritty, cohesive industrial aesthetic. Great lighting and feedback. Sound Design 6/10 Clean gun sounds and a decent OST, but overall unremarkable soundscape. Gameplay 8/10 Buttery movement and addictive, elemental-based gunplay. Longevity 10/10 27 hours in. Average "Main + Extras" is ~21h. I'm clearly hooked. Fun Factor 7/10 High-octane fun, slightly dampened by repetitive enemy types. OVERALL 7/10

I am a mighty Pirate named Chop

You know the feeling. It’s that phantom itch in the back of your brain that only a good "Game of Chop" can scratch. You start the evening thinking you’ll just gather enough fiber for a bedroll, and suddenly it’s 2 AM, your floor is covered in wood shavings, and you’ve somehow pioneered a new era of naval architecture.Windrose is that kind of obsession. It’s a pirate-themed survival crafter that understands the primal satisfaction of a well-felled tree. In an era where "survival" often means "struggle against a menu," Windrose makes the act of gathering feel like a rhythmic dance. On land, the loop is tight; you’re not just surviving, you’re conquering. The tech tree is a traditional grind to "just one more unlock," branching out with a logic that feels earned. You start with a stick and a dream, and before long, you’re looking at blueprints for frigates and Caribbean-style haciendas. The transition from land to sea is where most games of this ilk usually trip over their own anchors. Not here. Slipping from the shore onto the deck of a vessel you built with your own two hands-literally-is a high I am looking forward to as my starter dingy just doesn't cut it. The sailing isn't just a loading screen with extra steps; it’s a genuine extension of the gameplay. However, the "Soulslite" combat on land still has some barnacles on it. While the posture-breaking mechanics and parrying are responsive, the game has a nasty habit of throwing "death-by-numbers" at you. I spent 4.5 hours in this world, and a significant chunk of that was spent staring at a "You Died" screen because a pack of boars or a horde of undead sailors decided my personal space was an open invitation. But even when I was dying, and I was dying a lot, I wanted back in. There’s a soul here that modern AAA "pirate simulators" (looking at you, Skull and Bones) completely missed. It’s the difference between a theme park ride and actually holding the compass. THE VERDICT Visual Design 8/10 Stylized realism that nails the "Gloomy Baltic" meets "Tropical Caribbean" vibe. Sound Design 6/10 It's good but I can play it on mute Gameplay 8/10 Exceptional tech tree and building; land-to-sea transition is seamless and satisfying. Longevity 8/10 4.5 hours is just a drop in the bucket, and I'm playing more Fun Factor 7/10 Addictive "Chop" loop hampered by frustrating combat spikes and frequent deaths. OVERALL7 /10 A diamond in the rough that needs a bit more polish on its blade.

I used to hate AC games

Since this is a game about history, let’s start off with my history with the Assassin’s Creed games. I own AC1, AC2, AC3 and AC4: Black Flag. I disliked all those games (well at least the first 3 anyway) because they force you to do stealth and it is game over if you don’t do it right. Trailing someone on your first mission is basically (in my head anyway) **NOT FUN**. Since I disliked the first few games, I did not bother with the rest up to now. To salve this apparent gaming slight (according to some of my pals), I read the books by Oliver Bowden (well most of them anyway) and I found them to be fun, if rather generic. Let’s call the books a good summer read over a pint, forgettable by the time you’ve got home. Since I am an avid reader of genre fiction, this seemed to be enough for me where the AC world was concerned. Spinning this out to with wider net, I have mostly avoided the Ubisoft identikit open world games that seemed to start with Far Cry 2. Yes, I played FC:5, but mostly because I could shoot my way through things. I also played GR:WildLands which was amusing multiplayer for sure, but mostly those open world games leave me stone cold. They become an exercise in painting a map more than playing a game. Anyway, back to AC:O. It turns out I have spent 147 hours on it (so far). I have bought the Season Pass separately, something I would never do as I’m old enough to believe that DLC has no place in the world. It took me 11 hours just to complete the prologue of this game, because I had to explore everywhere on the first island. But why? To be honest, I don’t know. If I was being unkind, I could just dismiss the game as Ghost Recon: Greece, since AC:O and GR:W share similar mechanics. There’s a story, that involves doing missions. When you find a base, or any area of interest, you spin up your device for viewing the map (a bird or a drone). You scope out the baddies, and then either go sneaky-sneaky or go loud to kill them all. Rinse and repeat (for apparently 147 hours) while the story revolves around you. That to me is about a 5/10 game at best. So why did this one grab me so much and thus become a 8/10 game? Is it the (now that I have a rig to run it on Ultra everything) absolutely stunning art design? Maybe. It is an undeniably wonderful looking game. It must be because I now understand why taking in game photos is a thing that should be applauded. Is it the overall setting, since I am a sucker for a good swords-and-sandals epic? Quite possibly. Let’s face it, ancient Greece is a fascinating time in human history. If nothing else from an architectural standpoint. I was listening to the No such thing as a Fish podcast the other day and learnt that the concrete they used around that sort of time is better than the concrete we use today (something about sea water). How can that era not be absolutely intriguing in real life, even if the plot of this game itself is fairly boilerplate? Is it because they have made it into a sort of RPG? More than likely, since it makes it more like Mass Effect 2. While the plot is mostly predictable, the fact that they have bolted RPG mechanics to it that affects how the plot unfolds deviates sufficiently from the formula to make me interested. The addition of cultist hunting is padding, as is becoming top mercenary, but it’s not arduous to do the side quests (though there is a bug which can prevent you some becoming top mercenary). To be honest, I think the reason I love this game (and I must do since I have just bought AC: Origins as well since apparently it’s similar) is because it’s quite like Mass Effect 2, it looks stunning, it plays well and it doesn’t penalise you for not doing stealth. It might have taken a lot of AC games to get it right, but I think this one is just plain right. It has taken something generic and now formulaic and made it better. All the others don’t really appeal and I won’t go back and play them. Yes, I might miss out on the over-arching plot, but to be honest I don’t care. I’m off to Greece to battle with the gods of Atlantis (the second DLC), much better than trailing someone for information. Well done Ubisoft, you’ve changed the formula and made a fan out of me again.