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So after, what? 9 or 10 years Dead Island 2 is finally here and you know what?... I'm having a pretty decent time with it. The first thing I'll say is it feels like an Xbox 360 game... and it's a matter of opinion if that's a good or a bad thing. For me after Dying Light 2 tried to do far too much (in my opinion) having a game that just wants me to hit things until they fall over in a bloody mess is more than OK. The other thing I wanted to say is the opening hour or so is pretty bad... shit weapons that break way too easy and spongy enemies that hit way too hard... or maybe that's my own fault for picking the poor, frail girl character... who knows... anyway things liven up when you get your first real mission and access to a workbench. Anyone who's played the original games (or the Dying Light games) will feel right at home with the modding of weapons and such, electric swords and and flaming golf clubs... all that good stuff. The flesh system is really cool, thwacking a zombie in the face and seeing its jaw dislocate and detach is pretty mind-blowing and adds a lot to the melee combat (not found any guns yet) The other cool thing us being able to use liquids... I was doing a side mission and reached a part where ther was about 10 zombies banging on glass doors trying to get in... noticed a fuel can and explosive canister, picked up the can and poured fuel the entire length of the doors, hit the canister which ignited the fuel and blew out a window which allowed the zombies to walk straight in to my pre-made Inferno... no more zombies.😂 I've also just picked a perk for a pipe bomb... which is hilarious. Anyway, I like this game, admittedly I've only put around 5 or 6 hours in so far so we'll have to see if it can hold my attention but it's off to a good start.

So, this is the new game from the Civ and XCOM developers, Firaxis. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, it is a turn-based game. It's safe to say it's more closely aligned to XCOM than Civ though, but this has an ace (or many aces to be exact) up its sleeve that differentiates it from just being a Marvel XCOM game, and that's the largely divisive (from Previews) inclusion of Cards into the combat. As a result of the cards coming into play, the game isn't as rigid or locked into a grid like it is in XCOM, you're free to move somewhere within the little combat arena you're placed in once per turn, with certain placements being preferable, scoring knockbacks or environmental attacks. You can draw three cards per turn, but certain cards do get refunded as they're used up, giving you an additional card or two per turn, you can also redraw any card you're not happy with twice per turn. A lot of the cards so far are quite basic, in that they are 'standard' kind of slash/punch kind of moves, but they do come with additional benefits like knockbacks, chain attacks, inflicting bleed damage and the ilk, on top of these you've got ability cards which gives you and your team buffs as you fight and hero cards which are much more powerful and usually allow you to take out multiple enemies at a time, the kicker being that you need 'heroism' to use them, which is gained by taking out enemies. The enemies themselves have been fairly standard grunts for the most part, if you imagine the basic super soldiers from XCOM, then it's pretty much the same here, just they're now Hydra Soldiers. The bosses have been more interesting as they're now various Marvel villains instead of snake-creatures or something like they were in the XCOM titles. As established in the paragraphs above, the game shares a lot of DNA with XCOM, and that's no bad thing, the animations, certain effects you can pull of like the knockbacks mentioned earlier and the environmental attacks all look and feel very similar to XCOM but they've now got a more grandiose superhero sheen on them. You'll head out on missions from the 'war room' with yourself ('The Hunter') and two other heroes chosen at random to assist you. You'll about your task, fight a boss or retrieve an item at the end of it and then return back to your base. It's in this base segment of the game where you can see where Firaxis has been far more ambitious than their previous title. In XCOM, the base was an important part of the game where you'd build new sections, invest research points into them to help bolster certain specialisations, new weapons and all that good stuff. All of this DNA is contained within the 'Abbey' in this game, which is a huge Cathedral with sprawling grounds for you to explore to your hearts content, you explore this in 3D in your role as the Hunter, gone are the days of a 2D plain, seeing all your little soldiers move into their newly built wing. It's super impressive and such a great feeling 'base' right away that really makes you feel at home, all the segments you'd expect to be there are in their place but there's also tons of secrets to explore and a sprawling grounds containing blocked passageways which will likely reveal themselves to me later on. The Abbey has the feel of the School in Fire Emblem Three Houses or the Normandy in Mass Effect to it. This also takes inspiration from those titles in the new social links system, where you can sit down and hang out around the Abbey with your new team mates as you assimilate and get used to your new surroundings, doing so gets you friendship points which levels up your bond with your squad mates as the game goes on. I'm not too far into the game but I assume the more it goes on the more activities around the Abbey get unlocked and some of the more mysterious bits and pieces I've seen so far unveil themselves. The Abbey is the most ambitious element of the game and is almost a game unto itself, it makes me realise why it got delayed a few times. So yeah, I've loved my time with it so far (probably about 4-5 hours) and can't wait to play more, it's a real breath of fresh air compared to some of the other stuff I've played lately. To be continued and pics added.

It's a bit like deus ex/dishonoured but less stealth and more scary. i really like those games so i really like this game. it's also less level based as you can explore the whole space station. you can get powers to turn into a cup, although i didn't really use them. and i say it's scary but its maybe more that the music is scary, it put the fear of god into me and i had to keep taking short breaks to calm down, had some less intense music been playing i think i could have halved my completion time of around 33 hours. oh and you can do stealth but i didn't so not sure how viable it is, but it didn't seem as viable as in deus ex/dishonoured. you get upgrade points that you can spend on special powers/more health and stuff. some of the powers seem cool but i didn't really use them, i went for hacking/repair/heavy lifting stuff to open up more areas. some of the enemies can turn into in-game objects, like a book or projector, which can be quite freaky. the crafting/materials system is nicely implemented, didn't spend much time messing about in the inventory. the gloo gun is pretty cool, freezes enemies and can be used to aid platforming, although the platforming controls are a bit hit and miss. my basic tactic was to gloo gun stuff then shotgun it in the face - i was playing on easy mind so that might not be as effective on higher difficulties. the story is really good and intriguing, although the end was a little disapointing. lots of interesting side missions too. and the game makes you think about your choices, some side missions i didn't do because i was concerned about the consequenses. i played it on pc, my pc is old (2500k) but with a modern-ish graphics card (970) and the performance was great, looks really nice and ran really smooth, except for 1 room, where even on medium it was a little choppy. so yeah i liked it

If ever a game needed online play, then this is the one. You play as 1 to 4 people all doing jobs in a kitchen making meals for people to order. If you had a full crew then you could designate jobs like, "you wash the dishes, I'll slice the veggies", etc but I played it with 2 of us and it's tough going. The idea of playing it solo just baffles me. Strictly offline co-op though so I may never see a 4 player game happen. It gets pretty ridiculous as well when the stages start shifting and suddenly all your plans go out the window when you can no longer get to each other because the two trucks that you're cooking on top of have moved lanes and there's no way to get to each other. It's only 2 button and stick game, so if you're on the Switch you can use a Joycon each. Good fun but fucking stressful.

The very quickest of impressions as I've only gone through bootcamp (which I did in the beta) and played less than an hour of the campaign (as fucking work was calling) Obviously the game looks stunning, Gears was always an Xbox showpiece and this is no different and on the X it sings... 60fps in campaign means it feels a little more spritely in movement too. The first act has you controlling JD making your way through a destroyed Azura (from Gears 3) complex searching for a way to bring the Hammer of Dawn back online. It's a by the books start to the game... It's apparently chapter 2 where the differences kick in. Shooting feels tweaked but still has that weight behind it and we still have the best headshot in gaming.? I'm hoping this turns out to be an ode to Gears, I know we're returning to past area's, I know past characters are returning... I want lore from this game and answers. Old man Marcus is such a badass. I have a eight hour night shift that finishes at 7am, the missus will be leaving for work at 8am... You'd better fucking believe I'll be staying up until God knows when playing this tomorrow.?

Well, this is officially out now, I got my code from CD Keys around 7:30pm yesterday. Pre-loaded straight away after that on GOG Galaxy (28gb install), and after I'd watched this week's Game of Thrones I fired her up, played the first hour or so (headphones ran out of juice otherwise I would've played more) can't really give any thorough impressions just yet but the combat still seems a bit shithouse to me (never liked it in The Witcher 2) and the graphics look pretty incredible (despite the downgrade) in almost fully-Ultra settings on PC. Just within that opening hour I've found myself wandering away from the main quest, exploring little villages and cubby holes so it bodes well for the rest of the game, shall give it a proper run-through later today.

Played for a couple of hours and I'm happy to say that, so far, I've loved every minute... everyone already knew it was going to be a spiritual successor to Dead Space and apart from the inclusion of melee combat that's just how it feels. You play as Josh.... sorry Jacob.... who for reasons finds himself locked up and awakens in his cell with things very much already fallen to shit... not long after you receive your first melee weapon and after a quick tutorial you're left to it... I was worried by the dodge mechanic in this for a while but it's actually not too bad... there's no timing window, something I'm immensely grateful for as I have none, instead as long as you're holding left or right when the enemy swings you'll dodge... just don't dodge in the same direction twice. As for the hitting things, it feels meaty as in The Last of Us 2 meaty... and messy which I suppose trying to batter a monster to death would. I've picked up a pistol but so far I've not had much cause to use it... ammo seems sparse. As expected it looks really nice, they nailed lighting and sound... something that would've been criminal coming from the guy who gave us Dead Space... he sure knows his outer space. I've already died a number of times on the middle difficulty with some pretty disturbing death scenes... I think I'll be seeing lots more of these during my run time.😂

Only put about 1.5 hours into it but happy so far. Think Metroidvania X Dark Souls with some extra gruesome and stunning imagery and you’re about there. Feels a bit slower and more deliberate than what I was expecting - was thinking it was going to be more Dead Cells than Dark Souls in this respect - but most importantly it feels and controls really well which is essential because it’s bastard hard!!! Don’t know if I picked a particularly difficult route to take first (top left of the map) but I’m getting battered. Its got a upgrade system too and feel like I could do with a couple of the extra abilities. Got a fair amount of upgrade points but I’m miles away from the area where you buy skills. Hoping another opens up soon. Good game so far, recommend it if the Metroid x a 2D Dark Souls sounds appealing.

So, this has been out a while on PC and is soon coming to consoles and now i've finally got around to giving it a go. Like the first game, It's an insanely open CRPG where you can pretty much tackle most situations anyway you like and has an excellent elemental based combat system (cast a rain spell and electrocute it to shock everyone, poison clouds are combustible - that sort of thing). The customisation is nuts - you can spec out your starting character any way you like, even specifying the main instrument used for dramatic musical moments (I went for the cello). You can even choose which specialty you want any other characters who join to have. Once your past the first 'tutorial' area your left to your own devices exploring an area around a fort. There's very little hand holding here and every NPC is worth talking to - the writing is fantastic. The detail level in the areas is bonkers. I'm only a few hours in, and the fights have kicked my arse a few times (still working out a solid character load out) but it's awesome. Oh - and it has full co-op as well which i'm hoping to start up this weekend with three others.

I’m about seven hours into this and I’ve finished the first act of the game so I thought I’d share some thoughts. Pentiment is a very unique game. It’s not a point and click adventure, it’s a basically a visual novel, or an interactive book. It’s set in the early 1500s and is clearly a labour of love for the team that created the game at Obsidian (I guess they must have several teams now). It was written and directed by Josh Sawyer, who I’m guessing must be a massive history buff, or at least must have done a lot of research for this game. Many reviews made comparisons to The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco which is a good comparison I guess. It’s a very highly quality game. I don’t know if the music is strictly made by instruments of the time period or not, but it sounds like it, and it’s very impressive. The art and presentation are excellent as well. The game is unapologetically slow. It moves at its own methodical pace. It feels very much like the result of one person’s strong vision (although that’s just my assumption). I’m really enjoying it. I think it’s great. The time period setting and whodunnit mystery nature of the game make it somewhat comparable to The Case of the Golden Idol, but that was much more of a game and requires much more effort and thinking on the player’s part. Time will tell which I prefer.

Started this last week, putting about 12 hours into it and it’s safe to say it’s been a bit of a mixed bag so far. At the very beginning of the game you’re free to create your character as you so choose, there’s about 7 different classes (one of which is locked away behind a pre-order bonus for some reason) - like a Psychic specialist, ranged weapon specialist, all rounder and melee specialist - about 8 different animal-like races you can pick which have various strengths and weaknesses. Along with a way of picking various elements - like Heat, Cold, Radioactivity and Biohazard - you’re strong or weak to and the degree in which you’re resistant or vulnerable to said elements. The classes you pick, resistances you choose and breed of animal you pick seem more like starting points than a set class as you can put as many points into any stats you want to, deviating from your starting point drastically, sticking rigidly to it or ending up somewhere in between if you so wish. You’re then introduced to your mysterious protagonist, who has seemingly come back to town for the first time in awhile but doesn’t remember too much about who he/she is and what happened to the place he/she grew up in. Along with your Protagonist you’re also introduced to the Narrator, his dulcet tones permeate through an awful lot of the game, particularly in the early going. He is reminiscent of Stephen Fry’s performance in Little Big Planet, explaining a lot of the games various systems to you along with acting like a translator to the many weird and wonderful anthropomorphic characters you’ll meet along your journey. It starts off super slow in lots of boring industrial, factory type areas that attempt to introduce you to some of the basic elements in its eclectic crazy mix of various systems. It ends up holding your hand too much though to an annoying degree where you’re stopping to watch a cutscene or some kind of dialogue after every fight or action, not letting you off the lead so to speak until you’re about 2-3 hours in and even then the game still wants to explain a lot of stuff to you. Once you’re out of the early factory area and let loose into the open world things get much better. The moment you step out of the dull factory and gaze upon this luscious, striking world filled with greenery and bathed in sunlight it is a real wow moment that immediately put a smile on my face, it is reminiscent of coming out of the Vault in Fallout 3. I don’t know how they’ve done it with a team of 20 people but the world is an absolute sight to behold, it quite frankly looks ridiculously good and with the added photo mode you can't help but stop and take a snapshot every few minutes. There is a clear Eastern influence running throughout the game with the music, ‘Wung Fu’ combat and design of the characters and world, from the Buddhist shrine-like Tribe outposts to certain enemies wearing Samurai-like armour. The good/bad scale (represented by two light and dark sprites) is a clear nod to the Asian concept of Yin and Yang as well. Even once you’re outside the factory the game still loosely holds onto the reigns for awhile pushing you towards making your first big choice in the game, aligning yourself with a Tribe. On the face of it the choice is a clear cut good vs evil but there’s shades of grey in there with good parts of the seemingly ‘evil’ choice and bad parts to the seemingly ‘good’ choice. I really like this as the whole Renegade/Paramore good/bad swinging scale stuff has been done so many times before and rarely gives you pause for thought, some of the events so far feel a bit like New Vegas where you’re damned to some degree no matter what you choose. The world itself is absolutely massive, as said above I’ve put 12 hours in and have barely made it out of the opening Southern zones you first get to as you get out of the factory. At the centre of the world is the Tree of Life with the different biomes located around it much like a Clock, I haven’t explored much of the world yet but it’s clear there is a lot of variety in its design from the mountainous greenery of the first area to the flooded plains of the next, with the latter being explorable by a makeshift jet ski. There are some biomes that are locked off due to being too hot, cold or radioactive which requires you to get a special suit to be able to venture there safely. The game throws so much stuff at you that it is hard not to be bewildered by it all. There’s about 4 different types of upgrade points you can put into things (character stat upgrades, Psi-points, Bio Points and combat move upgrade points), a loot system where you can find and equip better equipment depending on its rarity, a crafting system where you can make pretty much anything providing you have the right materials, numerous strange animals you can recruit as mounts, numerous machines you can pilot to make your job easier and a multitude of other bits and pieces. The combat is perhaps the most interesting part of the game as it is extremely customisable and it’s possible to play the game however you want once you master or unlock the right elements. On the surface of it, it’s a bit DMC mixed with Max Payne, you have a ranged weapon and a melee weapon (or two) you can use in combination with each other. It’s super fun to just mess about with an experiment, but can feel a little loose and imprecise at times, with hits not quite registering with the required oomph to make them truly satisfying and a somewhat delayed response to your button presses. The world design is possibly the least interesting part of the game. It is very much like a Ubisoft game of 4-5 years ago or perhaps a better comparison would be the Mad Max game of 2015 or Just Cause (as this is made by ex-Avalanche devs), filled with lots of meaningless shite you can do, pickup, explore and engage with. Me being me, I can’t leave these symbols sitting on the map untouched so go around looking for 6 billboards out in the world when my time would be better spent doing a story mission or some of the more interesting side quests. It is a truly fascinating, beguiling and bewildering game that has plenty of promise to it in these somewhat early stages but I’m not sure if all that promise will add up to something in the end or not. I will say again though how astounding it is a game this large was built by 20 developers, it is crazy how big this world is and how much detail, dialogue and character development it has going on in it. The story is genuinely intriguing too which I didn’t expect and I can’t wait to see where things go next.

Spent about 5 hours with this yesterday and just left the first planet. I really like that sort of game design in open world games. A complete but bite sized chunk to get you ready for the rest. Places like White Orchard in The Witcher 3. As for the game, it's okay. Crushingly okay. There's nothing in the game I don't like but there is nothing I love either. The writing is pretty good and there have been a few funny moments but there hasn't been a character introduced yet that really connected me to the world and the world itself is your generic capitalism gone wild scenario. Which I like, I'm an easy sell on that sort of thing but it's been done so often that it's just okay. Combat is okay. Loot is okay. Graphics are okay. Character creator is okay. Skills are okay. Player choices are okay. You get it. I'll be putting some more time into it today so hopefully it just starts off slow because there is definitely potential but I worry that they have spent so much time on giving the player a million different choices that none of them really mean anything.

Started this early this morning, put in 6 hours over 2 sessions. The start is possibly one of the most harrowing starts to a game I've ever endured, it's fucking horrific. Luckily it goes back to the present day after this, with you on a U-Boat after the culmination of the first game (which I barely remembered to be honest). BJ is in a bad way, in a wheelchair and you have to wheel yourself around the U-Boat whilst killing tons of Nazis (of course) and kick them off the ship, events conspire and you have to rescue one of your team members (one of the prominent members of the squad in the first game) from a Nazi ship. You naturally make your way around the U-Boat, which is your resistance base this time around, eventually making it to the US to attempt to make a dent into the Nazi scum here. I think what impresses me the most about it is just how natural it feels, none of the levels feel like game levels if that makes sense, there's no lava, ice, fire etc. level thrown in there with a questionable explanation, everything feels natural and all the levels feel like exactly where you'd need to be if you were in BJ's shoes. The gameplay loop is very reminiscent of the first game and DOOM 2016 really. You pick up health, armour and collectibles whilst sneaking or shooting the fuck out of people, the guns have a good weight to them at times but the sound seems a little off, all the guns seem a little quieter than they should be to me? But maybe this is an early bug they can iron out. It has that fast pace about it that DOOM had, running around levels at breakneck speed dodging Nazis and delivering punishment dual-wielding some sub-machine guns or similar. It's just such an engrossing game to play, I've never once got bored or wanted to put it down, I want to continue on and see what's next in BJ & co's story, it just feels so natural how the game progresses that you stay immersed the entire time. The only niggling issue I've had is repetition, most of the combat arenas involve you sneaking/shooting your way through a load of enemies in a set stage, there'll be a commander up ahead that the game will point out on your map, if you take him out you stop reinforcements. The problem is is that almost every combat arena I've gone into has gone the same way, you walk in, discover a commander on your HUD and know exactly what to do, it's just rinse and repeat really and there's no surprises. If this continues for the rest of the game it will get very old very quickly, I do hope they mix things up a lot as it goes on. The last level I played was the Roswell (Diner Milkshake) that was in all the previews around E3. It's such a powerful image being dumped into this idealistic Americana town and seeing KKK milling about the streets and Nazi regalia everywhere, you're free to walk about at your own pace and some of the conversations you overhear about slavery and other such topics are incredibly hard hitting too, this game definitely pulls no punches when it comes to taboo topics that's for sure.

Spent a few hours with the game during this afternoon, suffice to say it's bloody amazing to look at... The whole driving to the festival segment right at the start of the game just put a massive smile on my face, it's so stupidly over the top that you can't help but grin. So far there's not been anything massively different from the 4th game but to be honest that was already the best open world racer by a huge margin so this just has to build on that. So far I've I think the game has been hand holding me through the early parts but not enough that I can't decide to put whatever the game is suggesting on hold and do something else, which is nice. I also think that the map is definitely going to encourage going off road far more than Britain did in the previous game. Anyway, so far so gorgeous!

Got stuck into this earlier today, only played the Prologue (Act 1, Scene 1) but so far I like it. You can definitely tell it's by the same guys that made Max Payne and Alan Wake that's for sure, the attention to detail in the Prologue Level and how great the character models are, it's definitely been made with a lot of love this game, not got onto any action bits yet, so can't comment on that, but the storytelling and environs have been great thus far. Also really like that collectibles they've put into the game, explored every nook and cranny of that Prologue and still managed to miss one though think this may be the kind of game I'll obsessively have to go back to via Chapter Select just to make sure I've picked everything up. Also found a really cool Easter Egg in the Prologue level that references another of Remedy's games...but I won't spoiler that. So, yeah, very early days but it definitely left a good first impression.

Only played a few minutes before I go to sleep, but yep, pretty sweet so far. One thing I thought was really cool is that one of the menu options is you can change the appearance of the food in game. Could be as simple as you’re veggie or vegan and you would rather not everything be meat, but there’s also some silly options like “Castlevaniaesque” and “monster”. In related and weird news, IGN (or their freelancer) appear to have stolen an indie guy’s video review script. Apparently IGN hav taken down their review while they investigate.

So the full game is out, I've spent the morning playing it... bear in mind I didn't play any of the demo's so the opening is all new to me. I think everyone by now everyone should be able to gather what happens in the beginning, Chris being all dark and barrel chested, anyhow you soon wake up at night, in the snow... looking for Ethans baby. To me the game looks really pretty, the lighting is really good and so far (using RT) the performance seems to be holding up nicely. I never overly liked the shooting in 7 and this seems very close, I've recently picked up an add on to my pistol and that's definitely helped... I feel much happier in these third person Resi games with a shotgun in my hands though. The start of the game is almost a bit too much, there were times I wasn't sure if I should be trying to kill all these things or running away... that's also happened a couple of times in the castle where I'm up to now. Things have calmed a bit since getting in there though and it's a gorgeous place to explore. I do wish the movement speed was a bit quicker though. So far so good then, looking forward to finding out a bit more on these freaks who are making life a tad rough for old Ethan.

Well, the reviews have not been kind to this. I’ve certainly played far worse. But in attempting to reboot the franchise, it might end up killing it stone dead. I’ve always enjoyed the Saints series. It found its footing with SR2, then went completely mental in tone, for 3 and 4. Personally, I loved it. It was over the top, ridiculous, and just a sheer joy. When the trailers for this first hit, with a new cast, concerns were raised. The devs tried to pass those off, that we needed to “wait to the final product” before judging it. Part of the hate being thrown it’s way comes down to the story being crap, and the characters being total wankers. Unfortunately, that’s a claim that’s bang on the money. I hate these fuckers already, and I’m only a few hours in. You get zero introduction in to who they are, or how you came to friends with them. It’s just “here’s this dickhead, here’s this arsehole”. Everything that comes out of their mouths is pure cringe. Johnny Gat might have been a bit much, but at least he was a laugh. At one point, Kevin whinges about never having a Happy Meal toy, so off you go on a killing spree to get some. Finishing with him saying “I only want one, let’s drop the rest off at the orphanage some day”. Sure, we can do that, while passing the funerals of the multiple people we killed along the way. Bababababa, they’re lovin’ it. Then later he even talks in hashtags. Prick. It also feels dated already. Nerdy bow tie wearing black guy, enemies wearing neon masks. Watch Dogs was doing that ages ago. Combat wise, it’s fine. Though having your melee attack be on frequent cool-down gets a bit annoying, especially when things get busy. I’ve not had the glitch that stops you from firing your guns. But I have had a couple of hard crashes while customising my character. So that was fun. The driving feels off, in as much as everything you hit just seems to fly off into the air at top speed. I drift around the streets, sideswiping everyone in my path, and nobody seems to give a shit. I’ve not had the police be even remotely bothered about me yet, other than in missions. The reviews claim it’s an open world that feels totally lifeless. They’d be right. There’s no character in the city, nothing worth parking up to take notice of. It doesn’t feel “next gen” at all, and makes you wonder what they’ve been doing since Agents Of Mayhem wrapped up. I’m glad games like Gotham Knights are sacking the PS4 off, because it’s time to properly use the PS5 hardware. Nothing has really stood out in the soundtrack thus far. Maybe it will later. I’ve had the bank holiday weekend off, and I’ve barely bothered to play this. When I do, It’s for an hour or so at best. I’ve been playing the vastly superior Cult Of The Lamb instead. Something different needed to be done by the end of SR4, it’s hard to really top going into outer space. But this doesn’t really feel like a story worth carrying on to a sequel. Fans of the series aren’t too impressed. Newcomers are left thinking “Is this it?”. Its not terrible, but it’s not great either. Just feels like a real missed opportunity. The character creator is brilliant. Just a shame you can’t use it to make a crew of Saints that aren’t colossal wankers.

Yay! Mine came. Dope delivered it to wrong address. Neighborhour just dropped it off. Let the survival begin ?

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

yeah so, i like this, it's a bit different to previous mgs games, in that the map is massive and you do missions in smaller parts - and you get a horse to ride around on - bit like the witcher 3. controls are confusing like normal, but pretty well explained. there seems to be a lot of scope for sneaking and doing things differently which is cool, but i am a bit rubbish at it and often get spotted while trying to be sneaky and end up killing loads of people - which is what i usually do in mgs games. doesn't seem to be an easy mode but it's not been too difficult so far. there is a chicken hat you can equip that stops you getting spotted a few times after you fail once or something - that might be the easy mode - unclear. you can hide while riding your horse by sort of hanging off one side of the horse, i thought that sounded ace so... the into/prologue part is a sort of long interactive cutscene, which has some funny/cool bits, and some rubbish/boring bits imo. after the first bit there hasn't been that much dialogue/cutscenes which is odd. but i'm not too far in so there's still time. extracting stuff is awesome.

Thought I'd make an impressions thread before illdog gets upset and pops his hip out. I've played about 3 hours, and have opened up zavalla's patrol area after having done a few patrol kind of areas on earth. I think the way that the missions have been set out so far has been really good, its nicely integrated with the traditional patrol stuff so it isn't just select story or patrol. And the patrol type 'adventures' have been good so far, slightly more there than go and kill this random guy or scan this random thing its like a mini mission as it should be. Gun play is, in my opinion, fucking great. I found a scout rifle called thistle and whistle or some nonsense and it was just fun to kill things with, felt great to use and I was genuinely sad to see it get out levelled by an assault rifle that was twice as powerful. Also got a hand cannon called headstrong I think and it looked and felt great, like the gunslinger uses in Dark Tower if anyone has seen that, looks proper clunky and felt like it packed a real punch too. The way that power and light and all that bollocks is done has changed too. Haven't quite grasped the nuances yet but its generally the same principle, better stuff drops from baddies and mission rewards and vendors and so on and you equip it to increase your 'power'. The early game sees you pretty constantly changing gear as more and more formidable stuff drops, and I'm guessing this will cap out to the point where you find a nice set you are happy with and then try and tweak that until its perfect. Not done any multi or anything yet, going to finish main missions first. Oh theres a story too this time, like a proper one with a more coherent plot. Jury is still out on that one though, seems okay so far?

Originally a PS3 game with a PS4 version, Ishin has now been remade as a PS4 and PS5 (and Xbox) game, and you do get the sense it's probably the final game we'll get that feels like 'old' Yakuza. It's hard to place what exactly makes it feel like an older take on the game, possibly the movement, it's a bit haphazard, I can't see a lock-on, it's not as refined and flowing as it could be. It's the difference between playing Kiwami 1 and Yakuza 6. It also feels less mental with its missions, but I don't know how many of them are just lifted from the original game. In terms of the story, it's not quite a retelling of the first Yakuza game, but it's pretty close. Not-Kiryu (the cast is made up of renamed characters from past games) comes back to town after time away, ends up having to avenge a paternal figure, after being blamed for a crime he didn't commit. From there it does become its own tale, with enough to it that it doesn't feel like a 2nd-rate spin off Again, I don't know if this was in the original, but it has its own take on 0's switchable different fighting styles. There's the standard Yakuza brawling, plus the swordplay you'd expect playing as a samurai. Less expected is that you are also carrying a gun and can just blast away at people (I suppose this will have followed Dead Souls originally), and a style that combines sword combat with your firearm, which leaves you defensively vulnerable, but it's the most fun to control and the most flowing style (Sword has been my do to). I've been using fewer Heat actions, they seem to have been downplayed this time, and access to them is more part of the skill tree As you use a style you'll level up, unlocking specific and general orbs that unlock the next skill in the various combat styles. There's gear with stat boosts, and some with perks attached. I've got a sword that recovers a very small amount of help every time it causes damage, which is great, but the headband I've got with the most defence points blocks me from earning heat, which means it can go in the bin as far as I'm concerned I'm enjoying it more than I expected, I thought I was a bit Yakuza's out, I never finished Kiwami 2, I never finished Judgement, and haven't touched the games that came after. But this feeling a bit archaic has helped it I think

I finished it this morning [spioler]I can't believe they brought Marcus back just to have him killed by Dom's ghost. I was enjoying it until that bit [/spoiler]

I managed to play a few hours last night, managing to get off the starter planet and visit five or six more. My first thoughts are that it's not a game for everybody - but i'm enjoying just pottering around the planets, hunting down points of interest and making a killing by trading on the galactic exchange. The starting ship looks a bit like a bath tub with rockets strapped to it so i'm prioritising a new one that looks better and has more space to haul my loot. Out of the five or so planets i've visited, i've found an ice planet, a planet of toxic rain covered in phallic looking bright green tree's, and a planet covered in mostly water, where I lucked out and found a bunch of monuments clustered together that taught me some new alien lingo, which by understanding the word 'rare' made me give a load of rare minerals to what looked like a third member of Daft Punk and make him happy. My favourite animal so far is what I can only describe as a meat based slinky with an elephant face, although seen plenty of variety - followed a weird bouncing sea anemone type thing around for a while as it was so bizarre. My only disappointment so far is that they seem to have made it impossible to crash your ship. Theres an invisible barrier above all planets that means you can only get as close to 50 or so feet above the ground. Landing is simply holding down square for a few seconds. But so far so good - as said, not a game for everyone - it's a really slow/gentile game to play - in fact probably one of the most relaxing games i've ever played. And i can't stop thinking about it either.