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I'm only a couple of missions in so far. Very much what it said it was - a Diablo clone in a Minecraft skin. Very simple, at least so far. The reviews have been all over the place, from slagging it off, meh, to highly recommended. Early on, seems fine to me. It's on GamePass so worth a download regardless.

This is this month's PS+ game. Its been on my Switch list but I'll have it here for now. It's been a good, chill game to play at during these times and I reckon I can do better than those that run things now. Its kinda cathartic. Yeah, my first attempt I fucked up the water lines and poisoned everyone but it's a learning process... I've built a fairly well functioning city. Its a modest little place but everyone's happy and healthy. It's bustling and pretty green; it's nice. I've bought up some more land to expand but I need more money to build. I could really do with a university as occasionally a place goes out of business due to my undereducated population. But industry keeps complaining when I tax the dirty, polluting fucks. Maybe they're just mad because there was a point their building kept burning down and fire engines couldn't get to them because of my incremental and patchy expansion. It is a bit of a mess. But my next section will be city planning perfection.

I've only played the first couple of bounties, but so far I'm really liking this. As per the trailer, it captures that 80's violent action film vibe really well. The 16-bit style graphics look really good, and the the synth soundtrack is great too. It has tons of character. Gameplay wise, it's a run and gun platformer. You fire forwards in the direction you're facing, you have a jump, a dash and a thrown weapon, and can duck or take cover from enemy fire in doorways. You have a pistol weapon with infinite ammo, and can pick up more powerful sub weapons with limited ammo, or a melee weapon. Each bounty (level) is a short action platforming section that leads up to your target, which is a mini boss fight. It's fairly straightforward, but is smooth and plays very well. I've only tried one player character so far, so don't know if they have gameplay differences. It's Epic exclusive on PC at the moment. With the £10 coupon thing in their sale going on right now it only cost me £7.99.

Chose this as my free game for NHS staff. Already happy I went for this. It looks absolutely glorious, and the story is definitely interesting. A space station on the Moon was providing a rapidly deteriorating Earth with power. Until the station went unexpectedly silent, and all contact was lost. 5 years later, you’re assigned to head to the station, and find out what happened. Looking forward to seeing how the story develops.

Ok, so this is pretty cheap on PSN right now (under £4). I remember enjoying the first T&E back in the day, so I figured I’d give this a go. If you ever played the first one, you know what you’re in for, as this is kind of a remake. If you didn’t? Well, how to explain it.... So, you accidentally blew up your spaceship into 10 different parts, and sucked the Earth into a black hole. Now you have to traverse multiple levels, slowly rebuilding your ship. There’s various types of humans that want to kill you, which you can dodge by either jumping in a river, or hiding in sunflowers. There’s tons of presents throughout the levels, which do either good things (jet powered skates, spring shoes) or bad (damage you, set off an alarm so enemies home in on you). You can gain XP from finding items, or taking part in a rhythm-action music game. Its weird, definitely. But then the rest of the series was too, so I’d expect no less. And at £4 (on PSN, other formats will vary) you can’t go wrong really.

So far, it's pretty good. Very responsive, means early on you can spin around and attack enemies coming from behind, you can feel good at the game the way I felt I'd mastered SOR2. I like the juggling, I've seen people coming up with stuff I'd never think to do, but again, you can start to put some stuff together that shows you're learning and improving. I do kind of wish, as much as I'd accept that changing too much might be a detriment, that there was a parry in there somewhere. You don't have a lot of options defensively, even the special attack doesn't quite work the same way as it did in past games as an escape, some sort of counter, or even a roll like in (but better than) SOR 3 would help on that front. I've only played as Axel so far, I've just unlocked another character but I'm only 5 levels in. It's relatively tough, Iv'e used a continue, it puts you back to the start of that stage, but it did mean I had to learn the boss battle. A couple of the other levels I've beaten on my last life. Streets of Rage 2 I could beat on hard without losing a life, I don't see that happening here

I'm glad this is (reportedly) a short RPG. Not that I'm not enjoying it, but it's incredibly simplistic. Everything is telegraphed to keep u on the right path; every time u get to a new town there's one, just one, upgraded weapon waiting for u in the shop, same with armour. The enemies are perfectly scaled for, and u never take a wrong turn and find some beast far out of your compass (who u can get your revenge on later). And I'm going to have to read up on the upgrade wheel, where u spend experience points. It seems simple enough. You have many things to upgrade in the usual strength, intelligence etc paths, but then you seem to have to assign these various upgrades to your character, and u only get a couple of slots, rendering most of your upgrades meaningless. I'm pretty sure I'm not quite understanding it tho. It can't be as I've described. There must be something I'm missing.

Well, decided to pick this up while it’s still half price in the PSN Spring Sale. As you’d expect from the guy that brought us Katamari Damacy, it’s mad as a box of frogs. You start off with the Mayor, a green Cube. And as you interact with the environment, you gradually unlock new friends, and more stuff to play with. The more you do so, the more extra friends you unlock, and that’s pretty much the gist of it. All while a Katamari style tune plays in the background. It’s obviously not going to be everyone’s jam. But I’m quite enjoying it, it’s certainly a fun chill out game, while I wait to rip peoples spines out in Predator.

This game is an absolute gem. I’ve played it for five hours since yesterday. It’s a first person exploration game, with no combat. Instead you play as a painter, exploring an island, talking to its inhabitants and painting pictures of various things on the island. I’m hooked. It looks and sounds beautiful. The island of Eastshade is a fleshed out world with its own history, visiting the opening village of Lyndow and the large city Nava is as impressive as the first time you arrive in Oxenfurt or Novigrad in The Witcher 3. All of the characters are animals. I’ve been playing on PC using the Xbox controller. Top stuff so far.

Not just for @bellow, but in general. With the recent multi-platform re-release, it is as good a time as any for those looking to return or jump in for the first time to one of the least contentious fan favourites in the series. With a little something, to set the mood... (Yes, this was a real thing)

Well, this is a weird one. I’ve always enjoyed the EDF series. With its army of enemies, terrible dialogue, and absolute carnage, it’s consistently been a fun series. Many people don’t touch it due to its janky looks, but it’s certainly a good time. This one was developed by a different team, Yukes. And it definitely tells. It looks slightly graphically better than say, EDF5. It’s still not ‘triple An quality, but you can definitely tell the difference. However, that does go against one of the series’s main high points. Quite often in an EDF game, you get bombarded with enemies. To the point where you can barely see what’s going on. Chaotic, sure. But fun to blast your way through. That unfortunately never happens here. Sure, there’s the occasional swarm attacking you. But never on the scale that EDF5 provides. The series trademark awful dialogue is also absent. There’s no furious chants of EDF, or ridiculous conversations between allies. Everything said in this one is instantly forgettable. Combat wise, you have 4 classes to choose from, ranging from your standard Soldier, to being able to jet pack around, to wiring around the level Spider-man style. All with the typical range of over-the-top weapons. I was mostly having fun with this. Until I reached the final boss of level 52. There, it stopped being fun, and became a frustrating chore. Throughout the fight, the boss has its energy recharged by support ships. If you haven’t brought in a good long-range weapon, this renders the fight impossible. Enemies constantly respawn, and choose to ignore your squad and go straight for you. So while you’re trying to aim a rocket at the bastard health recharging ship, an enemy will often run into your face, and into your rocket, damaging you. Then, as if that’s not bad enough (and it is), multiple more recharge ships show up. Just to make your life a misery. I was hammering away at the fucker for a good 20 minutes, at least. Eventually, a further form of the boss appeared. By this point, the health recharge ships were constant, and the respawning enemies constantly got in the way of my line of sight of the boss. Then without any warning, it activated a massive area of attack energy blast, that killed me instantly. Do all that again? Fuck no. I’d seen online various people say “the last boss is fucking awful”. So I thought I’d prepared for it as best as I could. But that motherfucker, can fuck right off. I’m done.

I massively bounced off the first game, Grow Home. It was awkward, a little too twee and just not a game I had a good time with, at all. So obviously it's only natural I try this one anyway. And I'm really glad I did. I had so much fun with this game from start to finish. I just really enjoyed it. The artwork and animation were adorable, the gameplay was still incredibly awkward, with your character, B.U.D. seemingly having legs with a mind of their own. Once you built up a little bit of momentum it became really difficult to slow down or stop. But that also tied in with the other systems in play. It was all based around climbing. The story involved collecting the parts of your crash landed ship, M.O.M. to reach orbit and jet off home again. Her 9 different parts were scattered all over the planet, and your job was to navigate your way to each one. Climbing was done with the shoulder buttons, LB/LT made his left hand grip, RB/RT the right. So when you built up a little bit of speed and needed to stop, pulling back then hitting the shoulder buttons would get B.U.D. to grip on to the nearest surface. There were a few other goals - scanning all of the planet's flora, growing star plants, that kinda stuff - but as long as you were restoring your ship you were heading in the right direction. I played it start to finish over the last week or so, and had a lot of fun with it, but at one point my brain said 'this is like a cute assassin's creed'. I'm really starting to enjoy Ubisoft's more artsy stuff. It wasn't fantastic, but I did have a lot of fun with it.

Ok, so I wasn’t sure about this one. Sure, the Predator license is ideal for a quality gaming experience. But I was a bit weary, as the team’s previous game, Friday The 13th was a mixed bag. A fun concept, let down by a toxic community, general jankiness, and lack of consistent support (though that was due to the court battle relating to the franchise). So, I downloaded the demo for this last night. And it’s definitely made a good first impression. There’s no team-killing for a start, something that constantly ruined the experience for Friday. You have a choice of either Fireteam (4 humans), or Predator. The fireteam has to complete various objectives (hack computers, take over control points). Multiple enemy AI will try to stop you, so it’s most effective to team up, and defend objectives when you’re capturing them. It plays like pretty much any FPS, with your typical selection of weapons (Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Pistol). Firefights can feel pretty tense, especially if an alarm gets triggered and you start getting swarmed with enemies. Then....you hear THAT sound. The tell-tale clicking of the Predator. Or it’s cloaking device activating. Or worst of all, see the red beam of its laser cannon pointing directly at you. At that point, all hell breaks loose. The Predator takes quite a lot of damage to take down, spraying recognisable green blood all over the place. Taking it on, one on one, is an extremely bad idea. If you get downed, there’s a chance your team can get you back up. Unless the Predator rips your spine/head off. Though that’s a gamble, as in doing that, you’re locked in place for several seconds, giving the rest of the team time to pump the Predator full of lead. Once the Predator finally dies, two things can seem to happen. If you’re quick enough to shoot it in the head after pulling it’s mask off, you can capture its body. Though you’ll get attacked by a ton of mercenaries for a few minutes, who can shoot up the body and decrease its value. Or, the Predator activates it’s self-destruct mechanism. A large red circle appears on the map. Anyone left in it after it detonates, is going home in a matchbox. If a member of the fireteam is killed, it’s possible to respawn them by “calling for reinforcements”. Which involves legging it to the specific radio point on the map, and defending it for a short time before your team-mate respawns. Though again that’s a gamble, because if the Predator is attacking you, you’ll have your hands full as it is. I spent last night purely as Fireteam, and had a bloody great time with it. I played as Predator for the tutorial, obviously it’s more complicated to play in comparison to Fireteam. Practice will certainly help, no doubt. There’s also a decent ammount of customisation options for both sides. Some are locked behind level progression, others in lootboxes. Lootboxes are earned in game, or bought with in-game cash. The game seems quite generous with money, and duplicate items give a decent bit of cash. Overall, I really enjoyed my time with this. More than I thought I would to be honest. I’ll certainly sink some more time into it over the weekend. And I had that much fun playing it with Gary, that I’ve preordered the full game. Well, I’m hardly spending money on petrol travelling to work for the next few weeks.

I played 30 minutes of it. It asks you to create a bethesda account before even being able to play which is really annoying but you can get around by setting steam to offline. Anyway it seems good. Kind of more focused on just murder arenas from the look of things. But I'm totally ok with a game like that. You can turn HUD off but it's hard to play. The HUD is a bit much tbh, I need to spend some time figuring out what parts I can turn off. Playing on ultra violent

This is just for the demo so far... release isn't too far away now though. I'm presuming this isn't too far in to the game, you start out already having met Carlos and entering the Subway train, after a brief conversation you're free to head up to the streets. First impressions... and it's a big one, HDR is vastly improved over RE2... I wish they'd actually go back and fix that but after a year its highly unlikely, anyway it's a lot better in this game. It controls very similar to RE2 but with the added dodge, I actually had to go and change the controller setup as I didn't like where they'd put run (clicking left stick) with the change it felt much better. Obviously it looks lovely, already it's a much more colourful game than RE2, shooting feels pretty much identical... all though I think they may have toned down the zombie dismemberment a tad... presumably because there's more on screen. I've had a good wonder around, it's got some nice little shortcuts you can open up to move around easier and I'm surprised at how many shops you could actually enter. I didn't actually get to finish the demo though... Nemisis killed me...? Everything is looking good to me so far, fingers crossed that shitty real life virus doesn't delay the game.

Mutazione is a narrative game following a 15 year old girl who sets off to a distant town to visit her estranged grandfather, having received news he's on death's door. The titular town was once a busy place until several decades ago it was destroyed by a meteor, and which slowly mutated the people animal and plant life left. The game itself mostly involves talking to the townspeople and getting to know this community and their lives, planting musical gardens, and solving the mystery of the giant tree in the middle of the town which sustains the island. It's gentle, slow-paced and relaxing stuff, lasting about 5-6 hours. I had a lovely time with it.

Just to let you know what you're in for, Sea of Solitude starts with this screen: It's a beautiful game in places, similar in visual style to Rime. The introduction sees you in a boat in the titular Sea of Solitude. Playing as a young girl who's quite literally overtaken by darkness (seriously, she just has facial features, the rest of her form is just black and a little undefined), you're given a guiding light in this sea of darkness, and that provides the only source of light around you. It's a platformer in nature, so from time to time you have to leave the safety of your boat and walk around the flooded city its set in. When you do climb out of the boat the world around you becomes dark and stormy, and there's a creature that stalks you in the depths of the water. Basically, everything feels like a very heavy-handed discussion on depression. As you work through your problems and face your difficulties, you eventually bring light to the world around you. This is where the visual beauty kicks in, because it becomes bold, vibrant and just stunning to look at in a very stylised way. One touch I adore - you have to remove corruption from the world (this is what makes the world brighter again), but your character's backpack gets more and more full as the game progresses. Again, a very obvious metaphor, but one that's done in a subtle way. It was only near the end of my session last night I actually noticed it. This isn't a game that's ever going to set the world on fire - the controls sometimes feel a little loose, the story has less than zero subtlety, and the graphic design is an acquired taste (but exactly the kind of thing I love). But given that it's a very stark look at the different aspects of depression, it also feels quite brave in a way. I also don't want to give spoilers away, which is why I haven't discussed any of the main story beats, just given a little overview. It feels relatively short, I reckon I'm about half way through it - but I'm really enjoying it at the moment. As much as you can 'enjoy' a story about a young girl's crippling depression.

I've not posted about this because I've not had a lot to say about it. It's a decent enough game, and this is going to sound like more of a slight than I mean it to be, but that's it. It's not bad, it's not boring, but nor is it anything special. It's a good palette cleanser, enjoyable without staying with you The gameplay loop is very set. You play as Ash, your town is seeped in darkness, and it's affecting people, the whole town is angry and depressed, with local kids bullying you and chasing you if they see you. You need to use your magic paintbrush to graffiti the walls, lighting up string lights, when you light all the lights in an area it clears some of the darkness, opening up the next area. The titular concrete genies are figures you'll be prompted to paint on to a wall, you'll need them to solve some simple puzzles. They'll in turn prompt you to use certain items from your paint box, stencils in a way, so they'll want a sun painting, or grass, a tree, these are things you select and place using the motion of the controller. This will get you super paint which can be used to clear areas that can't be cleansed with normal paint Clear enough of the area and you'll get to make a masterwork, it's the same mechanic as the previous paragraph, your genies will tell you what to paint, do that and it will clear the area. Beyond that there's pages from your drawing book to find, you'll need these to make the requested designs, and there's a few walls where you can make bonus murals. I'm not sure if these are needed beyond just being another thing to do and ostensibly a collectible. There's light platforming, Uncharted style where you're grabbing ledges, it becomes more important as the game goes on, but it's never especially taxing And that's the game, that's Concrete Genie... until the end. I've not seen this happen for a while, it feels like something game's have got past, they've become more confident in their own ideas and not felt the need to add combat. Concrete Genie all of a sudden throws in a combat mechanic, I'm glad it's not running through the whole game, and it's not unplayable, but it is a bit of a shame, I'd rather have just had to draw one last big picture. Anyway, I've got, presumably, 2 more parts of this combat section, then maybe a final boss, so nearly done. It's been decent, if I was going to write more I'd maybe focus on how all the bad kids have had awful shitty lives rather than just being dicks, sometimes people are just bellends

This is fantastic. Apparently it’s inspired by a comic book or something. It’s an rpg where overworld traversal takes place on like a beautiful board game map, which then transitions into proper exploration for dungeons and other “explorable areas” (not unlike the transition in the PS1 Final Fantasy games). The character art and background art is lovely. Combat is turn-based, jrpg style. But the game has a couple of original, interesting ideas. Aside from default attacks, characters have abilities that cost mana, but you also have a stat called overcharge. Default attacks give you overcharge, and if you use abilities that cost mana, the game uses your overcharge first before taking from your mana. So if you have 20 overcharge, and you use an ability that costs 25 mana, you lose 20 overcharge and only 5 mana. It’s an interesting system that differentiates the game from other turn based RPGs. Also, attacks and abilities have casting speeds (eg instant, very fast, fast) which is another thing you have to take into account. I bought it heavily discounted but it’s been easily worth that so far.

FAR: Lone Sails is a beautiful indie game that definitely has that special something that the best indie games have, at least in the opening 30 minutes that I played. It looks like this: You’re basically piloting this hunk of metal across a barren wasteland. Gameplay has been very simple so far. The ship will move slowly if you open the sails but you can also fuel it to make it move faster. And then occasionally you come to roadblocks like this which require some gentle puzzling (so far). It looks beautiful. And everything is communicated visually. There’s no dialogue or tutorial. Very impressed so far.

Demo is out, first chapter of the game. I made a video fighting the demo boss. I did really bad, maybe you can do better. It feels well designed but lacking in polish, I dunno. There's a lot to like here but I hope they get it up to a better standard for release edit ok I spent time practicing and took a better video of the boss fight. This game has really good combat. It's so mechanical, a nice amount to think about. Some AI problems tho. I wish you could call characters to a position but it seems you need to babysit them with switch mechanic

Well. I usually enjoy Rebellion’s output. Sniper Elite is always good for a laugh (who doesn’t enjoy shooting Nazis in the bollocks?). Strange Brigade was a lot of fun. And I mostly had a good time with Zombie Army Trilogy, until I got close to the end, and the massive difficulty spike really pissed me off and stopped me from playing it further. So, I was certainly interested in renting this. First impressions were good. It has the satisfying combat of the Sniper Elite series, and at first, it seems like it could be fun. However, there’s a significant problem: it’s fucking ridiculous, even on Easy. I’m playing Solo, but it’s quickly becoming clear that its going to be nigh on impossible. Most games are generous with health packs, or regenerating health. Not so here. You can hold one medkit maximum, and they’re pretty rare. Your health doesn’t regenerate at all. Well, there is a way to get some health back, by performing a melee kill, but the ability to regain health from that requires you to have killed 10 enemies in a row. There is an ability that lets you get back up after being downed, Borderlands style. But you can only use that once per level. Each level consists of 4 chapters. I just finished Level 2, and that really tested my patience. Especially when the “special” zombies start making an appearance. Those often require to hit a specific weak point. Good luck doing that when you’re constantly getting ganked. I fluked my way through the last two chapters of Level 2, the final one consisting of having to defend two generations, for a stupidly long time. All while horde of zombies keep damaging them, meaning you have to repair the bloody things. All while constantly running out of ammo, or health, or both. The words “for fucks sake” were uttered multiple times. With a team, it would be more bearable. But as per usual, Rebellion don’t seem to understand how to make a game fun in single player. With at least 4 more Levels to go, I don’t imagine finishing it. I play games to have fun, not have my patience tested to breaking point. A challenge is one thing. Taking the absolute piss, is another.

Well, this was surprising. Coming from the people that brought us the god-awful Rambo game, and having pretty much zero hype, I wasn’t expecting much. But this was actually alright. Certainly the best Terminator game in years, though that’s not saying much. Combat wise it’s pretty decent, though it’s a bit annoying that Terminators more or less insta-kill you, and your weapons do absolutely no damage to them. Thankfully the next level gives you a plasma rifle, so it’s payback time. There are Telltale style conversation choices, that affect the ending. Though not dramatically so. Still, the writing is decent, and the voice acting is good. It’s not massively long, I played most of it last night, and finished it this afternoon. But I had fun while doing so. It was certainly worth a rental.

Great! A game in a series I've enjoyed on and off since the third installment on PS1 has gone 'free' on Game Pass - let's try it out. Hmmm... It's taken me 5 minutes of scrolling and about 15 button presses just to get to the main menu. This isn't the greatest start. No matter, let's see what's about... Wait, what? It's automatically taken me to the options screen now? Ok, ok, I'll just back out of there, then I'll see what's going on. Mishima Saga? WTF is that? Fuck it, let's go. Oh yay. More menus to click through. JUST LET ME PUNCH SOMEONE DAMMIT! Ok - difficulty on Normal. Finally into it. Punching time. Wait. No. No it isn't - I'm dropping young Kazuya off a cliff. Nice throwback, but I just want to fight. Yay, fighting time! The above was a description of my first 10 minutes with Tekken 7. When I finally got into it, the story mode was AWFUL. I played on normal, because fuck it, it's Tekken, how hard can it be? Turns out it gets very difficult, and extremely cheap. To the point I had to play cheap myself to even it out. One fight pits you as Heihachi against Akuma from Street Fighter (because remember when SFxT was a thing? What happened to TxSF? I wanted that so much more). That was tough, but I got through it. Then a little later it switched the roles, and I almost threw my controller at the screen. Then, putting you back in control of Heihaci, it had you fighting against Kazumi. Who can fire lasers, fly, has a fucking tiger that can attack you, can disappear and has unblockable attacks. But the sidestep isn't responsive enough, so you just end up repeatedly getting wailed on. Oh and she has regenerating health. And the final boss is demon Kazuya. Who can do all of the above (except for the tiger bullshit) but stronger. On each of the 13 chapters you have to beat most characters twice - the only exception to this is where you have to defeat 5 army grunts or 5 of Jack-4/6 in a row. But you can't lose a round either. You have to win two rounds without taking a loss on every single chapter. There's also a final chapter that I didn't see last night where you have to defeat Devil Akuma. Really not looking forward to that bullshit. All I wanted was an old-school Arcade mode. Ten fights, best of 3, stupid character movie at the end. What I got was this fuckery. I'm gonna go back in the next few days and look for some traditional modes, but last night I had to take my Kindle up to bed with me to try and dispel some of the irritation. That shouldn't happen with a game.

Wow, no thread for this? I'm surprised. Been dipping and diving into lots of different PC games and struggling to find something that really grabs me. This is it, I think. I'm only about 90 minutes in, so far it's an adventure set in a dilapidated world that feels marked by communism, or on the verge of some sort of ugly class upheaval. You're a very hungover detective who doesn't really know what's happening but there's a case you got to investigate. But maybe the real thing you got to investigate is who you are and what has happened to you. Sound familiar? I really like it so far. It's basically just a game about reading lots of text so far and passing/failing speech checks. I don't really get all the systems yet, but it's like PS:T through the lens of Jack Kerouac or William S Burroughs. Absolutely fucked up and manky but very beautifully written heaps of text everywhere. The screen where they show you all your perks/specialities is so aggressively wordy. I don't know if there is actually any combat in the game because every perk seems to be based around some personality trait