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PSVR Setup and Impressions Picked my PSVR up from my local Smyths on Tuesday, had downloaded quite a few games and various demo's the night before so I was all ready to go as soon as I set it up. The setup process was pretty simple thanks to the instructions, the processing box complicates things a little, but you have a huge A4-sized instruction book that gives you where to plug 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 cables and when so it's all pretty easy, took me longer than I thought to get everything plugged in though, maybe 30-45 minutes. I underestimated the cable clutter too, there is a ridiculous amount of cables behind my TV cabinet now, it's an absolute mess, but yeah, until VR goes wireless I think this is what we've got to expect. Got to setup the PS Camera so it can recognise the headset at all times, at first I put it below my TV but it wasn't ideal and lost focus a few times whilst on a game, but I used the included clip to put it above my TV earlier today and it was way better, never lost focus at all and saw me at all times. It even measures your eye width as well for the best possible 3D effect. The headset itself is a great bit of kit, feels incredibly well made and very sturdy, you feel like even if you dropped it it would be ok. It is super comfortable as well, I'd heard a lot above Vive/Rift about pressure on your specs -if you're 4-sighted like myself- and the Vive in particular feeling like it was putting pressure on certain parts of your head, but this has none of that, I've used it for 1-2 hour sessions so far without many breaks and not once has my head hurt or anything, Sony have definitely nailed the design. PS Worlds So I've spent most of my time with VR Worlds, it is a 5-game collection of small games. I initially thought this would be just a tech demo collection, and I'd be done with it in an hour, but boy was I wrong, I can't believe how much depth some of these games have. First I tried Ocean Descent. This is the one you'd show friends and family members to show off the technology, you're in a Diver's cage and sent to the depth's of the Ocean in 3 different scenarios. The first (Shark Encounter) is easily the most impressive, it feels like a theme park ride, but I couldn't get out of my mind how it was a bit gimmicky really, I thought it went on a bit long too but experiences all the gleaming Jelly fish and seeing a Shark in that much detail up close and personal is rather great in its own way. The other two are forgettable really, the second is a retread of the first without the background chatter and exposition, the third just puts you down in a Coral Reef for about 3-4 minutes and that's it. But yeah, the first is impressive, and I was blown away the first time a Jelly Fish brushes past your face or you feel a chill of fear from the nearby Shark, but it is a very shallow experience. Next on to VR Luge. I was worried this was going to be the one that made me motion sick, but luckily I didn't experience any issues. This is again quite basic, but at least it's an actual game rather than experience, you race down 4 different Hills against a timer and it's surprisingly difficult to get to the end of the 'tour', rather addictive trying again and again trying to get to the end, I managed it to the final race but failed about 30-40 seconds into it. A nice addictive little game, quick play and time attack modes are available too if you just want to jump in to a race. Danger Ball was up next. It's basically Pong in VR, that's the easiest way to describe it, it also reminded me of that Kinect game where you fling the balls back with your hands, but that's probably an unfair comparison to make as this is far superior. You face 6 different foes in a tournament all with different abilities and skillsets, some are far more basic and much easier than others, I've made it all the way to the final opponent before losing spectacularly, going to try to go back and defeat the 6th opponent sometime. Again, a nice addictive, simple little game that is much better than it had any right to be. Then on to Scavenger's Odyssey. I'd enjoyed the previous games I'd tried but they were all short, somewhat shallow experiences, but this, this was the first game that truly sold me on VR. This is the first one where you control yourself with the DS4 (others used the headset itself) and being able to pilot a mech-ship thing, move in full 360 degrees whilst aiming, shooting enemies and jumping from asteroid to asteroid was exhilarating. I was completely immersed, completely entranced within this world, me and the ship were at one. This is the first game that felt like a fully-fledged game, it had a cinematic feel about it, you were sent on a mission and it is all very well fleshed out with data capsules you can find and things like that, it is pretty long too, it took me 45 minutes and I only got up to Chapter 3 of the first Act. Unfortunately, this game came with a pretty bad caveat, motion sickness. It didn't help that I played it 45 minutes after eating a spicy lunch, but still it was pretty bad and I had to stop playing and put the headset away for the day after that, I think it's the 360 degree movement that does it, something about the motion of that combined with hopping about on Asteroids and stuff is just going to make you prone to barf-city. But yeah, early days, I've only experienced it in that one game and I understand very few titles play around with full 360 degree motion, so I'm not expecting to experience it again, I need to build up a tolerance to it anyway, it is only the 2nd proper day I've used the headset. Already very impressed with VR, and the VR Worlds package as a whole, I was expecting nothing more than a load of very short boring tech demo's but what I got was a couple of addictive fun little games, and a fully fledged one that sold me on VR completely. Still not done with it either, not touched London Heist yet, looking forward to that tomorrow.

They put loot boxes in Toy Soldiers. I’m a big fan of the previous 2 games so even though this has had middling reviews and general feedback, I’ve kept an eye on it but only bought it now the full DLC pack version is on sale for 7 quid. I’m too early to know if this is a BF2 situation and how bad the grind is but at least you can specify what’s in the boxes you buy. I only did the tutorial and got 700 coins where you need 1000 to buy one, so i’m hoping this is just one of those “for truly lazy people” kind of things. Other than that the big hook is how they’ve expanded the play set. The first was all WW1 toys, then the second went Cold War complete with a Rambo knock off. This one has unofficial Care Bears, My Little Pony, etc, but then also has officially licensed stuff like G.I. Joe and He-Man (which I was all about when I was a kid), along with Ezio from Assassin’s Creed because of reasons.

This is Neverwinter but with Marvel Super Heroes instead. Free to play MMO stylee. Its pretty simple shit on the surface, the campaign is set in 9 chapters and you run around the level looking for the exit to the next part and spanking enemies while you go so as to level up and become more powerful. Enemies drop equipment which comes in different types, head, chest, boots, weapons - all that jive. You just gotta decide whats right for you as they offer a fuck ton of different ways to change your characters powers. As you level up you unlock fighting abilities that you can assign to the four buttons, then when they are all assigned and you level up further you can assign another four that are activated by pressing the L trigger and one of the four buttons. It has a massive character roster. Here's the catch though - you can play every one for free but only up to Level 10. After you hit level 10 you can continue to play but they wont level up anymore, you have to purchase them. Now, you can pay real money but, I SAID BUT, there is a way to do it for free if you have the time by collecting Eternity Splinters. These are dropped during combat like equipment but they are only dropped once every five or six minutes and your gonna need around 500 to unlock a character so you can understand they won't unlock quickly. And so the incentive to spend some real money - If you make any actual in game purchases you are awarded VIP staus, Daredevil becomes fully unlocked past level 10 and you get 5 Eternity Splinters as a daily log in reward. Characters currently cap out at Level 60. Content wise aside from the campaign is a patrol section, kinda like Destiny where you are in a free play zone populated by other players with events popping up for you to partake in (or so I read, havent tried it yet). Also, there are 14 "Operations" which are similar to the campaign chapters but give you a chance to get good loot (cos that's what gaming is all about) and fight naughty people from the Marvel universe. I played enough to know I'm going to play it for a while, I find these games oddly addictive so I dropped a purchase, bought the War Machine pack and that's it, i'll be around for the next 80 to 100 hours.

Played and finished this in one sitting earlier today. It's definitely an interesting game and attempts to be an Interactive Film in lots of ways really, got that art style from Firewatch and The Witness about it and its told in a very filmic way with lots of fast cuts between scenes never staying in one place too long, the price (£6.99 on Steam) is very much the kind of price of a film ticket/DVD too and its only 2 hours long. The game has no spoken dialogue and you're left to your observations and readings in first person to put together the plot. You start as a young FBI Agent tasked with locating a missing person in a small Virginia town who's partnered with an older more experienced Agent to show you the ropes and things go on from there. Music is a huge part of the game and helps tell the story in lots of ways, making up for the lack of spoken dialogue, the score is spellbinding, fantastic, incredibly powerful and moving at times and fits the game perfectly. I loved it up to the final third and was following the plot intently, but the last third of the game gets a bit too clever for its own good and becomes too bizarre to make sense of really unfortunately. Would still recommend it though if you're in the mood for a short game or fancy a slightly different film experience. Added a few pics:

Before I start, I've got to say I didn't buy this collection. Instead, as I had the three games in my Steam account, they kindly upgraded them to the remastered versions. Well, BioShock 1 and 2, that is. It seems the PC version of BioShock Infinite was the best version already, so the consoles got that version, and I kept what I had. Anyway, for those who don't know, The BioShock Collection is all three BioShock games and their associated DLC in one package. BioShock 1 looks great. I'm running it on my new upgraded PC at 1080p 60hz, and all the sliders turned up to 11. Yes, it's not as good looking as a brand new game could be, but there's a noticeable difference between this new one, and the original. There's also an unlockable video diary of the making of BioShock, and apparently a museum you can walk around with prototypes and old ideas. All three games have challenge rooms now. I've not played BioShock 2 yet, but I've read that the upgrade is more subtle, and the multiplayer has been taken out. Anyway, my main thing with this free upgrade is I forgot how good a game BioShock 1 was. I booted it up last night, just to see what it looked like. Two and a half hours later, I'm still wandering around Rapture, and I'd freed my second Little Sister.

Been playing this a bit since I got back from holiday. I had a lot of trouble deciding on Fight-Stick or DS4. I did the tutorial once for each and both have their pros and cons really, the biggest downside to the joystick is I'd have to use the crappy L1 and R1 for Infinity storm, but the stick is so much more attuned to performing moves and combos feel much easier to pull off on the Fight Stick. It was an easy decision for IJ2 but with this it's not quite so easy to decide, I've stuck with the stick for now but pulling off the Infinity Storms and switching stones in some Story-Mode battles is a bit of a pain in the arse. Then I started the Story Mode today. Wow, what a steaming pile of garbage this is, it's hilarious how bad it is really, the voice-acting is absolutely horrendous, the close-ups of the faces just look goddamn awful and the story just doesn't really go anywhere, there's a few twists and turns you won't see coming and there's some great 'wow' moments where you see Hulk and Ryu team up to Hadouken/Hulk Smash a giant desert worm in Valkanda but it's just all so cliche and poorly put together. It says a lot when the SFV cinematic story mode and the characters stories are actually a whole lot better than this, they aren't great by any means but you can have a laugh with some of the characters and there's some great personalities that shine in there like Rashid but with this it just feels like every bloke is Gruff man 1, every woman is anime VA actress 1 and you just don't give a fuck about any of them or the cataclysmic events that they're going through. There's a lot of jokes and banter between the cast members but they largely fall flat and I think I've only once tittered with laughter throughout the 3 hours I've spent with it thus far. Thankfully though, the fighting itself is excellent. It feels much more automatic than Injustice 2 and SFV, but then that was to be expected, it also feels a little more automated than my vague memories of MvC3 which I was surprised about, I do think it's great that newbies can pull off all this cool shit at the drop of the hat. Just by button mashing you can do some insane air combo into switch into another air combo into an easy hyper combo and your face just lights up with joy and excitement, it's just such a great sight to behold. I may be wrong (I've only tried about a 1/3 of the total characters probably) but it seems almost all major combo's and important actions are the same across characters, which means that even if you pick up a new character in the heat of battle you don't necessarily have to worry about not knowing any moves and getting pummelled, you can usually get by with button mashing and basic DR1/DR2/DUDU1 combos and the homogenisation is great for folks like me. I love fighting games to make me feel like I'm an absolute badass and this makes you feel like that within such a short space of time, sure it feels a little artificial at times and that the game is playing for you but when you're doing some mad hyper combos on screen I don't think you'll worry. As I get better and spend more time with the game I'm sure some of the harder combo's/techniques will present themselves

Where to start. What it is. It is definitely an old school Rare esq 3D platformer. From the music to the grunty dialogue, the duo of characters and the cohorts you meet along the way, it's pertty much Banjo Kazooie 3 in all but name. It's good from what I played so far but I know it will annoy people due to being the above. You can scale a height of platforms only to find you can't progress. Certain characters won't talk to you yet untill you do something later to unlock their progression. Everyone talks alot and makes bad jokes. You can see things you can't get to as you need to learn a move that comes later on and I think this kind of thing will piss people off. I love this kind of game, i'm on board, I knew what it was and that's what i want so im cool with all that shit. What i'm not cool with is the shitty camera. It feels like they've brought that with them as part of the nostalgia. It's not game breakingly terrible by any means but, for example, the boss of world one is up a slope. He's chuckingshit down at you and you have to avoid it. For some reason they've loked the camera really low down so it's hard to judge when to jump. Also, the movement when you move up slopes using your slope run move is awful. It's realy fast and even when you press left or right you go up a little bit first. This is super fucking frustrating on his third attack pattern and I felt like I shouldn't be getting this pissed of with the game on the first boss. It can also be hard to judge where platforms or collectibles are a la Banjo or Mario 64. They slightly deeper in to the background or more in to the forefront than you sometimes expect - extra annoying if that is a misplaced jump that sends you falling to your death or back to the beginning of a climb. But but but, it's great platforming for the most part. The controls are slick, it's a beatiful colourful world and it's all very jolly. Littered with collectibles and tons of stuff to do, it seems certainly great value for your money. It's just weird I have the same beef with it that I did with the Nintendo 64's flagship game. I'm only a couple of hours in, watch this space I guess.

I've seen a couple of people on my Switch friends list playing this. I completed the first one on the PC and then got it for free on PS4 so played through it again but I'm having difficulty remembering what is new in this and what isn't. It seems more focussed on exploring as a platformer - I don't feel like I've done anywhere near as much digging down as I remember doing in the last one. One ability I have unlocked which may or may not be new is the hook shot, which is pretty cool and I've gone back to old areas to find secret places. So far I give it the thumbs up. I was itching for a Metroidvania to play and this is more or less that.

So this is a weird one. It's a 'cinematic FMV thriller' developed by Wales Interactive. It's basically a modern re-read of the FMV games that seemed to be really popular in the days of Sega CD, except the compression isn't godawful. The tagline is Your Decisions Are You, which I think is an awesome line and gives great scope to the 'game' as a whole. The story follows Matt, a student who is working the titular late shift in a secure car park. Basically, shit happens and he gets roped into a heist with a bunch of supposed organised criminals (they can't be that fucking organised if they're forcing a stranger to tag along, but whatever). As with all thrillers, twists and turns happen along the way and before you know it you're trying to keep yourself from being murdered. I'm keeping it intentionally vague because I don't want to put major plot points down, even in the spoilers. Anyway, it plays out like a streamlined version of a Telltale game. All the decisions, none of the bloat. No wandering off, investigating the environment etc, just watch the show and make your choices. And it's filmed like a half way decent BBC drama too. The camera cuts in the right places, the music suits each scene, and for the most part it's acted pretty well. Except the lead weirdly. He didn't quite hit the mark on a couple of sections. That's how I felt anyway. What I really like though, is that the choices you make do seem to affect the story. So I watched the trailer as I was making the Mrs a cuppa, and there's at least two scenes I haven't seen. That's on top of the different direction one of the scenes I did see can go. Looking at the main menu option Your Decisions, it seems I've found 1/7 endings, 11/14 chapters and I've made a total of 62 decisions. It's only about an hour long, so I've already played it start to finish, but I really want to jump straight back in and try to find some more of the chapters as well as getting a couple more endings. I got this for £5-6 on PSN, if you can get it cheap I'd definitely recommend.

Watched the story mode from the first Injustice the other day to prepare myself for this, couldn't believe how good the story mode was in that game, honestly better than some DC movies in fact (the whole premise would've made a far better Batman v Superman movie than the one we got).Started this today and right from the off it puts you into a very comprehensive tutorial that goes through all the controls in detail. Blocks, Clashes, environmental attacks, combo's, special moves, meter moves and all sorts. It was actually kind of overwhelming really and a bit too much to take in, I prefer SFV's approach of just teaching you the basics and getting you fully versed in that before learning combo's as if you're always trying to remember which combos to do you'll get your ass whipped in that game. But yeah, some of it must of gone in because I seemed to be able to do a lot of combos and a lot of damage.Dived straight into the story mode after this and it didn't disappoint, I think the facial animations are the best I've ever seen in a game, the story mode is just ridiculously good for a fighting game. Still essentially a series of fights bookended by cut scenes but they're so well done and so well connected that you'll feel like you're playing/watching a Justice League movie than a fighting video game, it really is that good.I'm only playing on Medium but it was surprisingly difficult at times when I had to play as characters I couldn't get to grips with (Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Black Canary etc.) But very easy when I got a character I liked (The Flash, Catwoman and Arrow were my favourites so far).I find the combat far more button-mashy and less precise than SFV's, which I guess is good in a way as it looks amazing to watch it all unfold and its very easy to pick up and play but I didn't really like that I never felt fully in control compared to SFV, and it didn't feel anywhere near as satisfying, I guess they're completely different philosophies in fighting game design to be fair, I've not played online yet in this either yet.The loot and loot boxes are a bit of an odd addition on the face of it, but it does just kind of work and its got that Overwatch-style addictiveness to it of getting new skins, upgrades, suit shaders etc. for the characters, they go a bit further than purely cosmetic but every character is set to a certain Level when playing online I believe so there's no pay to win elements that come into play.So yeah, I'm very impressed by it, if you're into Comics especially the DC side of the Comic world then I think you'll get a lot out of this whether you're particularly into fighting games or not.

Ok, so let me preface this by saying I know it's an entirely questionable game with a fucking horrifically weird premise. That being said, I had a run through of this at a mate's house last night (because there was no way I was playing it on my own the first time), and it wasn't entirely terrible. So basically, the setup is that an angel shoots you with a fully charged love gun that makes all the girls in your school fall for you, charging at you to scream their love, beat you with handwritten love notes or push you over and stamp on you (not sure how that one equates to love but whatever). This is all in an effort to get a girl of your choosing to fall in love with you within 24 hours, or you'll never find love for the rest of your life. This leads to you having to target their 'sensitive parts' (either their head, chest, hips or legs)and fire your pheromone shots, leading them into a state of euphoria. Remember where I said it was weird/questionable? On top of this, you also have the ability to zoom, allowing you to see through bushes (leafy ones, get your mind out of the gutter), locker doors and certain windows, allowing you to find/shoot hidden girls and collect hidden items. Honestly, if the PS4 had a lightgun, this would have been a fun game, and surprisingly worth the £8 I paid for it. And now that the main overview is out of the way, I'm going to move into the REALLY weird shit. Every girl moans when you defeat them (makes sense, you've made them euphoric), and remember that zoom function I mentioned? Well that doesn't just see thigh the environment - it sees through the girls' clothes to their underwear. The schoolgirls clothes. Who range from first to third year (I'm hoping someone can translate the ages of this to make it less creepy?). Oh and then there's the euphoria minigame. So you're defeating girls left, right and centre, going great guns. All of a sudden you realise your euphoria meter is full. So you tap triangle, hit square on up to three girls and then got triangle again. This takes you out of the scene with these girls and puts them into more questionable poses. You have to tap and rub specific positions to make all three girls euphoric within the time limit, manage that and the scene switches back and sets off a euphoria bomb that defeats all girls on screen. Yeah, this is all seriously stuff that happens. Thankfully the script is very self aware, makes jokes about how pervy the main character is, how what he's doing is weird and doesn't try to make itself super-serious. Now, the weirdest level. One of your love interests gets stuck in a window. I'm gonna let this video do all the talking and leave it there. So yeah, one of the weirdest/most questionable games I've ever played, but thankfully not the worst on top of that.

I see a couple of cheeky chappies from here playing this! It's essentially exactly Wipeout HD and the Fury expansion again, plus Vita's 2048, all remastered in 4k with all the bells and whistles. It looks really really sexy, but in fairness it's just Wipeout again (fine by me). Would be nice to get some new content, but part of the reason I bought this was to hopefully show Sony that there's still an appetite for new Wipeout, and if it sells okay maybe they'll consider throwing in some DLC, or even a new game. So, yeah... Wipeout!

Well so far, I'm doing rubbish. I've died maybe 10 times so the captains keep getting stronger. I am upgrading my abilities slowly but so far it's more frustrating than fun. My one true criticism so far is that the text is really tiny and when moves have come up I've had to guess whether the button is R1 or R2.

I'll just put a general thread down for Xrd. I'm currently playing - Revelator - though there was - Sign - that came out last year (or the year before maybe?) to keep you up to date. I don't actually think there is much difference in the versions apart from a couple of new characters, some on disc that were DLC in past version and some other minor changes that spruce things up a bit more in-game. I think one is the ability to cash in your 'Burst' to make a stronger super and not you can tech throws. I'm sure that stuff makes a difference to those that play a lot, especially the throw tech-ing, but it isn't as dramatic a change the series usually sees with each iteration (from what I've been lead to believe). I don't really know where to start describing it. In a way it's kinda easy because most attacks chain so you can mash out combos that look cool, and most special moves can be used an an ender, much like any other fighting game. What I'm finding unusual so far is just how long these combos can go for. When I was messing around I discovered I could cancel a special move into another then into another which would make the opponent bounce on the ground left open to juggle some more. That is unheard of in SF so even getting in the mindset to do that is odd for me. Having it that open ended is scary. But it is all in the mind as from I can tell there is some major damage scaling with long combos so I suspect it isn't so much about doing optimal damage but showing off. There is a lot of movement in GG as well, what with your air dashes and stuff but it does mean I have no idea how to be defensive other than be as wacky as the other guy. I'm sure there is a method to the madness that happens in a GG match but I haven't found it yet. But it is a lot of fun even though I've not totally grasped it yet. The game looks amazing. I still can't get over what they did to the Unreal Engine to get it to do this. Special mention goes to the tutorial as it is a lot more fun than any other. It basically turns the game's mechanics into a mini-game that gives you a good idea of how the things are working. There is also a more challenging mission mode that teaches you match-up specific techniques and common tactics used by certain players. It is all very educational. But at the same time I still don't think it prepares you for going against someone. Like any other fighting game the best lessons just come from diving in and being mindful of what is happening, but it does prep you better. There is a lot of game here but it is mostly tutorial stuff. There is an arcade mode to go through which alters it's difficulty from match to match by how well you're doing and there is a 'M.O.M' mode which I don't understand at all but doesn't seem all that interesting in my opinion. There is also a story mode which, again, is just watching anime. So I guess it's not a game to get unless you do want to learn it. It's not like Mortal Kombat where you can get a lot of enjoyment out of it without getting competitive. I wish there was more of that here. But it's fun. I'm giving it a college try. I've not won a game online yet out of 10... I did take a round once... But it's fine, fights are close, I'm just not pushing the envelope and the only people that play it clearly have a decent grasp of it so things could be a lot worse. I just need to improve my muscle memory and know what to do to defend then the wins will roll in.

So this is a comilation of 6 games from the NES. The name comes from the fact that (in America?) there was a 2 hour block showing the cartoons these games come from called The Disney Afternoon. The games in question are: Duck Tales Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers Talespin Darkwing Duck Duck Tales 2 Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 2 So I'm working my way through them and quite enjoying the experience. If you just play the regular game option you can pick your difficulty from the regular three options AND have the ability to rewind mistakes using the LB/L2 button. There's Boss Rush mode which just chucks the games bosses at you one after the other. There is no rewind feature and the difficulty is set to Normal (i think). I think you have unlimited tries to beat each boss but you are going for the quickest time possible so time is of the essence. Then there's Time Attack mode. This is the cunt of the bunch but also where I find I'm having the most fun. So in this mode you have to beat the game like you would have had to back in the day. No rewinds, no save states, just you with the lives you're given or find, limited continues and the potty words that come out of your mouth when you fuck it all up. Just a quick summary of what I've done so far: Duck Tales I have more of an appreciation for this game than I did back in the day. It's quite a solid platformer and I cant think of another game that's that much like it. Normal mode is easy with rewinds etc. Boss Rush Mode was fairly easy, clocked in about 8 minutes. Time Attack I actually managed first go, got the final boss with my last life and last heart remaining. Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers At first this game kind of sucks a bollock but I've played it enough now to appreciate it. The platforming is tight and the controls are responsive but it's fairly hard. I think there are 7 initial level and three levels unlocked after it teases you in to thinking you've beat the game. You only have to do four of the levels as you can pick a path through on the map screen but you have to do the final three levels every time. Normal Mode is easy with rewind. Boss Attack was no worries as I had already figured out all the patterns during Normal mode and fucking aced Boss Attack in about 4 minutes. Time Attack was a big step up from Duck Tales in difficulty. The first level was giving me problems, I died alot but I was progressing a little each time (well, not every time). I ended up playing that first level enough times to kmow it like the back of my ass. Once I got past that I cracked on through, there's a tricky vertical jumping section on the sewer like level which I practised a few times in Normal Mode using rewind and this paid off as I nailed it first time in this mode (it's a fall and you die type scenario). The asshole of this game is the last three levels (named H, I and J). H wasnt so bad but I is a bastard. It has fans which blow in to you and make you walk at a snails pace. Jumping on top of them doesnt stop this slow 'blowing' effect, that stops a few pixels in. This becomes super tricky when a Pelican (or Crane) is stood on the fan which needs a near pixel perfect jump to clear. Knowing when the fan effect will stop and when you can jump is so fucking hard and the game was just mullering me untill I realised you can kill these cunting birds by throwing objects at their feet (normally boxes that are scattered throughout all the levels). Once I knew I could kill them this level became a piece of piss. I made it here without using a continue (after I mastered the first level) but the last level, J, is the toughest in the game. Some of the platforming is tough, some of the enemy placements make progress difficult and I ended up using all my continues on it. Last continue, second to last life I made it to the final boss and died when he was one hit away from death. Last continue, last life I killed him with one hear of energy left. Job done, Talespin I knew from the off that this game on Time Attack was going to be a world of fucking pain. This game has you as Baloo from the Jungle Book flying a plane through side scrolling levels whilst being pounded by seemingly extremely unpredictable enemies and finishing off each level with some super tough bosses with crazy attack patterns. You collect money which is scattered around the levels as you go and at the end of the levels themselves you can upgrade your plane- increase defence, increase shooting speed, speed up movement OR spend your money on continues or extra lives. I used rewind sooo much during Normal Play. So fucking much. I hit up Boss Mode as soon as I beat Normal Mode whilst it was all fresh in my mind. Luckily this mode gives you all possible power ups which made it pretty easy. But fuck my arse, Time Attack is killing me. I've played it about 15 times now and I can get to the end of the third level using all my continues. The third boss is tough with my pissy, slighly increased gun speed and without any extra movement speed but I still cant get to the third level consistenly. There is a tough part on the second level when you go underground and have to fly through a tight maze like section. It's easy to get stuck on a wall here and there are mines to shoot that block progress, these two situations combined make it real tricky and I pass it 50% of the time. I'm determined to beat this game old school so I'm just going to have to persevere I guess. So that's where I'm at. I forgot to say, It's on sale on the Xbox at the moment, it's normally £15.99 but its currently £11.99 which is why I bought it.

i like this rally stuff so here we are. the game is good imo. seems a bit low budget compared to previous dirt games, but low budget in a good way, the menus are much less fancy, lack of crazy cool people calling you dude (i like being called dude :() and more basic like dirt rally - much quicker to navigate, i like it. the rally tracks are initially a bit boring and short, but soon get much longer and better, but still (so far) no match for the great tracks in dirt rally. i was expecting much wider tracks than dirt rally, as the narrow tracks make that game really difficult, but they aren't much wider at all, maybe a little wider depending on the stage, so it's still really hard...but i'm playing on simulation handling with a wheel, this has another handling mode which makes it easier, but i haven't tried it yet (a friend says it's good). the handling on simulation mode is a bit different and maybe even better and more difficult than dirt rally, well it's too early to say really. certainly i enjoyed the handling on tarmac, and on dirt/tarmac the cars seem to have less grip, and if you're sliding you can't change direction as easily, which always seemed a bit unrealistic in dirt rally, and even more so in previous dirt games. i don't think there are as many different types of cars as the previous dirt games (but more than rally), but it seems like there's a lot of content/stuff to do still. land rush is great, the handling is ace, although very hard to cope with being hit, or hitting someone else, it makes your car very unstable. and there's a rally school area where you can do lessons or timetrials/bilboard smashing stuff - there seems to be loads of these, and the two i tried were pretty fun. haven't tried the other modes. it also has the daily/weekly/monthly events that dirt rally has. i like these. and it has some other online modes i haven't tried. oh, it also can randomly generate tracks, which sounds cool but i'm dubious, not tried it yet mind. oh oh and the pace notes are sometimes pretty bad. anyone else picked this up?

I can't decide whether to play Mass Effect, Yakuza 0 or Zelda at the minute so I decided to distract myself with one of this months PS+ offerings, and to be honest, I've kind of fell in love with it. The concept is that you play as a colon (one of these ':', not the place where poo travels through) platforming through the history of writing, from the first known cave paintings back in 30,000 BC up until today. You collect asterisks as you go, and each one gives you more information on how the written word has evolved. For example, I've just completed the Garamond era which led me through the first printing presses and the way they improved to make it easier and more accessible for people to get hold of books. Part of this area also has burning books, so I assume it's around this time that actually happened. You also collect the letters of the alphabet and ampersands along the way too. As far as I can tell these aren't essential, but you do have to stray off the beaten path (barely) to collect everything. It's such a simple idea, but it's one they seem to have balanced beautifully. The music is nice and relaxed, and the actual levels seem pretty simple up to now, so it all just culminates to feel like a super-chilled out game. I'm liking it a lot, although barring the possibility that the levels become much more difficult, I can see me finishing it tonight.

Started this earlier with a 4 hour session. Didn't really know what to expect really, I liked the original game but thought it ran out of steam within the first 2-3 hours really, with the sequel being set in a completely different locale, with large parts of it outdoors this always seemed like it would be a very different beast. In some regards it's largely the same premise, you get a video recorder very early on, look for collectibles and film key moments to keep a record of your adventures whilst running away and hiding from monstrous looking people. It definitely feels much more polished though, the camcorder itself now has a microphone so you can hear where enemies are at all times and the game has now adopted a Far Cry-esque bandage mechanic which allows you to heal a certain number of times after getting hit by an enemy. The flow of the game is completely different, yes you're still largely running away and hiding from people but parts of the game now have an almost Uncharted-esque/Tomb Raider 2013 feel to it where you'll transition directly into a set-piece, a whole village will be chasing you, you'll be forced to find a path under a house, crawl through blood/guts etc. whilst the townsfolk are poking holes into the floor to try to stab you, you see torches light up in the distance of folks looking for you and if you look behind during one of these sequences you'll see guys chasing you, you then have to make your way up some kind of lift or through some kind of hatch usually to escape them. When these set-pieces work they're so incredibly exhilarating, they get the heart pumping and the adrenaline pumping like not many other games can, certainly no other horror games I've played and they're truly a joy to play through. But the problem with them is is that some of the time they're just a massive exercise in frustration, not finding a small hole in a fence, a place to crawl under a building or a mechanism to move forward in time will end up with you getting killed over and over and over again, and it, unfortunately becomes incredibly frustrating, boring and not scary in the slightest. You kind of have to luck out with the set-pieces, find the path the game wants you to find on your first attempt and then they're incredible, but if you have to repeat the same section ad nauseam the fun and excitement wares off somewhat. I even had to resort to looking at a guide to help me progress in some instances as I was just so lost at where the game wanted me to go. My other slight disappointment is it's just not that scary really, the sound design is excellent and some of the sounds you hear whilst walking about are truly horrifying and make you wonder how the hell the design team came out with them but apart from that I just haven't been that scared by it. There's some flashback sections which take place in a School which have a creepier vibe to them and caused me to get some chills down the back of my neck, but the Ranch parts of the game aren't really that scary, I don't find the monsters scary at all, just ugly as hell to look at in that mangled-mutated The Hills have Eyes kind of way. The vibe of the game is very much The Hills have Eyes mixed in with Resident Evil 4's Los Ganados and Tomb Raider (2013)'s Solarri cult, you creep through corn fields, tons of rickety looking wooden huts, Ponds/Lakes, mines and lots of religious sites like Church's, chapels etc. Lots of horrible religious imagery as expected, TONS of gore, mutilated bodies, children's corpses etc. which is all pretty dark, most of the notes you pick up and read on your travels are rather grim too, especially the stuff about pregnancy. The production values are WAY higher than the original game, and almost on-par with Resident Evil 7 I'd say, I cannot believe an Indie studio managed to make a game that looks this incredible, you really wouldn't know this was worked on by a very small team at all, the scope of the game is huge too, the original Outlast took me about 4-6 hours to finish (maybe a little longer) but I'm just out of Chapter 1 and have 4 hours clocked so far. So yeah, despite its flaws it's one of the most compelling horror games I've ever played, I really hope it doesn't suffer by being too long but at the moment it's just enraptured me like not many other horror games this year have, at this early stage I'd even put it on par with Resident Evil 7, a completely absorbing, tense thrill-ride so far, lost all track of time and space whilst playing it, really hope it continues. A few pictures too:

The first game tagged for a next gen system! Anyway, this is a first person survival horror, much like Amnesia, but in my opinion, not as slow-moving or hard to get into. It has a light mechanic like Amnesia, but it involves using your camcorder as a torch. You use battery power on your camcorder but I've always had at least 3 batteries on the go so far so that doesn't seem to much of a problem. The art style and setting is far more like Condemned and it is grim as fuck. A fair few jump scares so far. I'm playing with a pad in my bedroom with the curtains closed and headphones on and I've literally jumped a few times. I guess I'm coming to the end of the second part and other than one section that I was nearly stuck on and seemingly only got past it by the AI being too stupid to try opening more than one locker to find me, I've been enjoying it massively. There's no combat whatsoever though there is sneaking and some fairly simple puzzles. If you struggle to play scary games, you will poo yourself, because I rarely get affected by them and I've found it the most intense game in a long while. Also the game opens with a warning about gore and sexual content but so far all I've seen is a couple of digital wangs.

Picked this up while it was still 20% off. (It no longer is, I don't know why I'm telling you...) The game has a bunch of options allowing you to mix and match remastered visuals and audio (voices, music, sfx) with the old visuals and audio. It seems to be a recurring theme with these games but the "remastered" visuals are just awful compared to the original, at least to my eyes. It's probably subjective. I've been playing with the original graphics and remastered audio (you can change on the fly to compare). The game also has a developer commentary that you can activate manually in each room. I've listened to around five snippets so far and none of them have been very interesting. I might turn it off because the commentary automatically plays during cut scenes, and drowns out the audio in cuts-cenes which is annoying. It's my first time playing the game and I've really enjoyed it so far. The animation in the game is beautiful, and the voice acting and music is very good. It seems to be quite a cinematic game with as many cut-scenes as there are puzzles. The game has a lot of character and the writing has been very good so far. From what I've read Full Throttle has the reputation of being "short but sweet" so I'm looking forward to playing through it.

Way back in April 2013 Tides of Numenera was pitched as a sequel to Planescape Torment and managed to raise over $4 million on Kickstarter.. It was released this year to excellent reviews but in the bastion of good taste that is Steam its user rating is "mixed". I've played three hours and it's a very interesting game. Personally, I liked Planescape Torment but I can't say that it changed my life when I played it five or so years ago. I'm not really carrying any expectations into Numenera other than hoping it lives up to the reviews. First things first: it is way more of a text adventure (or straight up fantasy/science fiction novel) than a combat heavy traditional rpg in the vein of the old Infinity Engine games. In the opening three hours the game has consisted almost entirely of reading dialogue and making dialogue choices. I was ready for that from reading the reviews though. This has a big influence on the gameplay mechanics. InXile have replaced the tradiditonal D&D stats with Might, Intellect and Willpower. These stats are used in conversation to "win" challenges. In addition to your base levels of might, intellect and willpower (which you can raise), there's also "effort" and "edge". Effort involves you spending one or more points (e.g. might in a might challenge) to increase your chance of success, up to whatever your effort limit is (the effort limit can also be raised). These points you spend are lost until you rest. Edge means that you can use effort without losing points, so if you have one point of edge in might you can use one point of effort without losing a point in might (edge can also be raised). That's just your stats. You also have skills. There are certain skill specific challenges in the game that you can improve your changes of success by training that skill. I guess obviously the trick is to spread these skills out among your party. So far I have picked up three companions, I'm guessing that the limit is five. I haven't talked about combat because I've barely experience it in the game. But you can even talk your way out of combat. All in all, this is a very different game to some of the other recent kickstarter rpgs that have been released - Divinity Original Sin, Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland 2 etc. But, so far, it's been very interesting. And it looks beautiful. The environments are really nice. I'll post more opinions as I get deeper into it.

Fucking hell! You should play Layers of Fear. I've not finished it, I'm not even halfway through even though it's a short game, but fucking christ It's not Outlast, which is probably for the best because my mind was racing with ways they could fuck with you, but it's brilliantly well done as a creepy horror game. It's free from combat, you're basically walking from room to room, and as you do the layout of the house changes. Enter a room with no exit other than the way you came, and the way you came won't actually be the way you came. I won't spoil anything that happens, but there's bits that have made me jump, and bits that have made me laugh at how brilliant they are, it's like what you remember Eternal Darkness being

Yeah I'm starting a topic for a PS4 launch game. Sue me. Picked this up for £5-odd yesterday in the PlayStation sale as I've always been curious about it and spent the majority of today playing it. I only put it on because I wanted to spend an hour or so working up the motivation to get off my ass and install a couple of games for my hospital admission tomorrow but ended up completing around 2/3 of it (I think). It's good fun, if incredibly frustrating at times. You can fly through a few sections absolutely owning everything in your path only to be taken out by a section multiple times because you can't get the timing down. Thankfully though, near instant restarts cut down on any 'controller through the screen' moments. I love the way Knack grows bigger the more health you collect for him too, from a 2-foot nothing cute little dude to a 3-storey tall monster who launches cars at airships. Kind of like a katamari with punching. The story is as twee and predictable as you'd expect for a cutesy platformer - the big bad guy is going to be one of the main character's exes who disappeared in a cave and became a goblin queen. Yeah, basically bullshit to tie some pretty levels together. I'd like to see Ratchet and Clank take some cues from this game though - although I'm not entirely sure what exactly... Anyway, yeah, it's been good fun up to now. I expect to finish it tomorrow night, and I'm ok with that. Nice little game.

Played this instead of starting Persona yesterday. It's not the longest game in the world, 4 hours or so, but it's one of the better puzzle platformers I've played in the past few years It's mechanic sounds pretty simple. You start off in a black and white world and periodically add another colour (or hue). When you change colour everything in the world that's the same colour, be it walls, lasers, platforms, blocks, disappear. You have to use that to solver the levels and make your way to the next room It's presented really well, maybe a little too well. Initially the music makes Hue seem really morose, but it's not especially. The story is decent, although some of it is dumped at the end It's a cool game, I really like Hue, and it was pretty cheap on PS4 when I picked it up, I'm not sure if it's in the latest sale but it's worth picking up

Stupid name, his name is Guts (which you could argue is also a stupid name) not Berserk, so it should be Berserk: The Band of the Hawk Anyway, it's a musu game, like every franchise is at some point, but more so than Zelda, Dragon Quest, and Fist of the North Star. I think because it lends itself to it so much. If you've never played a Dynasty Warriors game, you smash through hundreds of enemies. Where the game comes in, and why they aren't always as bad as their reputation, is that you have manage the battlefield. You aren't just pushing through killing everyone, like First of the North Star, you have to rush to zones and follow instructions. You aren't defending like Dragon Quest, and while there are 'boss' fights, they aren't tied to game mechanics like Zelda's. I'm still in the Golden Age arc, although towards the end of it. I don't know if anyone else on here is a Berserk fan, but if not, there's a split in Berserk. It starts with, then returns to after the Golden Age arc, hellish demons and twisted fantasy tropes. Think Witcher but even grimmer. The bit that keeps being made in to animes is a more traditional war story. Griffith wants his own kingdom and has a mercenary group, Gutts ends up joining the Band of the Hawk, and they work their way up to revered knights of the kingdom of Midland. Eventually some stuff happens and the world turns to shit Anyway, to my point. When it's a war story a lot of the manga has Griffith plotting elaborate battle strategies. That's kind of what Dynasty Warriors is, particularly when you pair it with Gutts ripping through hundreds of enemies. I'm not at the point where things take a turn yet, so we'll see how the game changes when that happens The story is done ok, ish. I wonder how well it would come across to someone who doesn't already know it. During battles you've got no chance. It's all Japanese voices with subtitles, you can't take it in with everything going on. There's some anime, and some cg cutscenes. One thing they do is push some of the more horrible stories to little side vignettes. I'm not sure if it's deliberate, but it's probably better to not have conversations about child rape while you're slaughtering 800 men It's alright, bit dull to play a lot of, but it's not the worst musu game so far