Reviews

Now this is pod racing

Obvious review title aside, who knew that a Star Wars themed racing game with roguelite was just the game I needed? Cleverly the devs did as they made me that game. It looks like Star Wars, plays like Burnout and is genuinely good fun. It's not going to change your life, but it's a cracking game that shows there's some life in SW games. Between this and Zero Company it's been a good few gaming months for the franchise. If only the movies / TV shows could have such a streak. The more I play it, the more I realise the depth of the mechanics. Creating a build for one track screws you on another on the next planet. It's deep, it's challenging, and it's just great racing. Well done devs, you smashed it Buy it...

If Mortal Engines ever got a game, this would be it

Driveable cities that have to battle other cities and castles in an never ending quest for resources. Apart from it being an easy comparison with the current corporate and country based greed world that we live in, and clearly inspired by the Mortal Engines trilogy of books (we can forget the film), this is a fun little game in the mold of Brotato and Vampire Survivors. The deeper you get into a run, the more major bosses appear. Kill four bosses in a run and you win. The challenge it positions is how to do those runs quickly, competing for time against your friends and the wider game playing world. Performance in a late stage run needs work (there's a lot of stuff on the screen by the end) but other than that this is another good little game that you can play with the sound off while you listen to something more interesting.

Great atmosphere, great setting, interesting characters all point to a positive experience

I'll need to come back to this one, as I am only 8 hours in but so far I really like this game. Technically, at least on PC, it's sound. For an unreal 5 game to run without stutter, without massive shader complication time and other issues is a rarity, and this game just runs well. This helps with getting into the game itself and bimbling around the open world. Characters are well written and engaging, even if the main character seems to be a bit of a drop so far. It would be interesting to go full vamp later and see what differences there are in the plot and dialogue, but I've got to get through my first playthrough first. Essentially the plot boils down to vampires own a village, things happen resulting in the hero having to rescue their family from the coven. Cue a Mass Effect style gather the team and defeat the bad guys arc. Given my love of Mass Effect, this works for me so I am on board with it. Along the way I anticipate the team being interesting, but the game also suggests that I can go straight to the end and hope for the best. Not doing that as the well implemented combat mechanisms are already quite a challenge for my poor old keyboard and mouse hands. So, TLDR, it's a good open world game that looks good (so far), plays well (so far) that allows me to chomp on the bad guys while bimbling along. Recommended

British Humour, The Game

I feel like I should have known about this already, but I fired up the xbox series x and gave this a go via the xbox pass. It really is British humour the game with a side order of game designer in jokes. Just a delight. Also, death hates cats. Genius

Solid Game

It fills in the gaps between T1 and T2, all wrapped up in lovely pixel art. The only issue with it is that the soundtrack is not the proper music. That said, all hail the chip tune. It's not that hard a game, at least on normal. You'll have fun with this one. Recommended.

What Happened?

This is so frustrating. It's a relatively interesting story and world, but the engine and control issues mean I am out. I played this on the Series X, and it feels like a choppy and barely 30FPS experience. I played this on PC, and had to force it to run at my monitor's native resolution. It wanted to run at 1080P and the only way I could make it run at 1440P was to put it into windowed mode then change the resolution then change it back to borderless. On PC it doesn't support DLSS, and FSR is a big old mess. If you want to play it, go for it but do it on the XBOX / PC / Microsoft Pass where it is (currently) free. I wouldn't pay money for this mess in its current state

Co-Op Perfection

You should all know this by now, but it needs repeating. This is an excellent co-op experience. I use that work because it is an experience. Multiple genres in one package, that demands you pay attention and work with your second player to get the job done. Again I played this with my daughter, and she and I absolutely loved it. To quote her, "I wish I could go back to not having played Split Fiction so I could play it again like new". If that isn't a recommendation then I do not know what is.

One of the Best

I started playing this with my wife, but she is not a gamer. So I finished it with my daughter. What a great dad gaming experience, she and I working together to solve puzzles and finish the game. The story is not really suitable for her, at least I am not sure I want her understanding the themes just yet. But the game itself is a delight. It looks great, plays amazingly well and is a joy to experience. Not a lot of replayability though. Hight recommended

A forgotten gem

I was idly thinking the other day, that I needed a new racing game to play. So off I went to the playstation store and there was Burnout on sale. So I bought it for the PS4/5 to enable my son to play it, and promptly installed it again on my PC. What a great game this is. Racing is great, soundtrack is great, destruction is all of the fun. In an alternate universe somewhere, Forza has married Burnout and their babies are magnificent. Periodically they invite cousin Blur to play too and that world is a good one.

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...

No Mr Bond, I expect you to Game

Update on 14-Jun-2026: If you look at the fundamental blueprint of a James Bond film, it reads like a master design document for a video game. You have the globe-trotting exotic locations, the bespoke high-tech gadgets, the explosive vehicle chases, and the quiet tension of infiltrating a heavily guarded compound. On paper, this is a franchise that should have effortlessly dominated the gaming landscape for years. The medium of video games was practically built to simulate this exact brand of escapist power fantasy. Yet, looking back over the decades, it is genuinely baffling how under-served this iconic property has been. Sure, there were a few fleeting moments of brilliance (I never played Goldneye though), but for the most part, the gaming industry seemed completely incapable of capturing the true soul of Ian Fleming's creation. There are plenty of games that are very Bond-like in their construction, but nothing has ever given us a proper Bond experience in recent times. Then I booted up 007 First Light. You know the feeling when you start a new game attached to a massive cultural license. You brace yourself for the inevitable disappointment of a shallow corporate cash grab, especially given the Amazon ownership and takeover of the brand. Yet, within the first five minutes of the opening sequence, I realized I was in the hands of absolute masters. The developers at IO Interactive have not just made a competent game. They have delivered the absolute best piece of James Bond content we have been gifted in a very, very long time. Playing this game is like slipping into a comfortable pair of slippers. It is like those times when watching a Bond movie at Christmas was the tradition you knew was coming every year, and you looked forward to it. Sometimes it feels slightly stiff for exactly one second before you realize it was constructed entirely for your personal agility and style. The respect this game shows you as a player is immediate and profound. The introduction and tutorial setup are a masterclass in intuitive design. Instead of bombarding your screen with intrusive text boxes or treating you like a complete novice, it elegantly and quietly guides you into the shadows of MI6. What follows is a proper, spectacular Bond story. It is a narrative dripping with international intrigue, unexpected double crosses, and the kind of high-stakes espionage that feels incredibly authentic to the cinematic legacy. The key characters deliver stellar, grounded performances. They breathe genuine emotional weight into a script that could have easily leaned into parody but instead remains gripping from the title sequence straight through to the credits. Naturally, being a Bond story, if you don't know who the bad guy is when they are first introduced, then you are not paying attention. It's not original, but no Bond story ever really is. Of course, a spy thriller lives and dies by the strength of its core mechanics. I am happy to report that First Light gets the delicate mix of stealth and action perfectly right. In so many stealth titles (looking at you early Assassin's Creed games), getting spotted meant staring at a frustrating fail screen. Here, you are never severely penalized for a clumsy footstep or a blown cover. When your quiet approach inevitably goes south, the game seamlessly pivots into a high-octane shooter. Or if you are lucky, you can bluff your way out of it. You adapt on the fly, swapping your silenced pistol for a scavenged assault rifle, and it all feels completely organic. You genuinely feel like a highly trained operative improvising in real time when a carefully laid plan goes entirely wrong. It's only at this point that some of the controls get in the way, especially on mouse and keyboard. There are lots of YouTube videos of people disarming baddies, getting their guns and throwing them, but it's too many buttons to push. That said, the missile watch is good fun every time. Also, the driving SUCKS, though you are mostly on rails for it. Visually, the entire experience is an absolute triumph. The art direction is simply fabulous. Legendary set designer Ken Adam would shed a tear looking at these sprawling, brutalist villain lairs. Every environment captures that grandiose, classic aesthetic perfectly. Accompanied by a soundscape that nails every metallic click of a fresh magazine and every swelling brass note, the immersion is absolute. My single-player campaign wrapped up in around 18 hours, but I did die a lot. There's a solid campaign here though, and it's well worth its runtime. The post-game challenges are incredibly robust. They are absolutely worth doing, and the fact that the developers are actively extending them keeps our licenses to kill active long after the main plot ends. If you are on the fence, please hear me out. Do not wait to play this. It is a phenomenal return to form, it respects your time, and it is worth every single penny of the asking price. We finally have a spy experience that lives up to the immense weight of its own legend. THE VERDICT Visual Design 10/10 Fabulous art direction that perfectly captures the grand, classic aesthetic; Ken Adam would be proud. Sound Design 9/10 Grounded performances from key characters and a rich, immersive soundscape. Gameplay 8/10 A fluid, brilliant mix of stealth and action where you are never penalized for breaking cover. it is not a driving game though Longevity 7/10 I finished the campaign in 12 hours and the extended post-game challenges add great value. Fun Factor 10/10 Do not wait to play this; it is incredibly satisfying and entirely worth the full price of admission. OVERALL 9/10 Update on 10-Jun: I think I am quite close to the end of the story, and without spoilers it's been a Bond adventure. Almost a Bond greatest hits. It also looks in places like the Bond movie that Christopher Nolan wanted to make when he made Inception. Certainly my Ken Adams mention holds up true. There's a lot to like, though it is not a perfect game. Driving definitely needs work, though thankfully there is not a lot of it. The shooting is good, but the controls (at least the mouse/keyboard controls I am using) need work to get the best out of all the options. It's a bit fiddly to press ALT then a button to use a watch power when in the midst of combat. I also cannot remember the button combination to wrench the gun out of the hands of a baddie, or to throw it at their head. I look at Youtube videos of people doing this with envy, but I am not a good enough gamer to play these sort of games with a controller. That said, it definitely looks and sounds like a Bond game. It has a Bond story, and the usual Bond highlights. I never played Goldeneye in its pomp, and when I did later I didn't get the appeal. So this, for me, is the best Bond game there is 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.