What Games Have You Completed? (2021 Edition)

Retr0gamer

Game|Platform|

1. Megaman X2|SNES
2. Streets of Rage 4|PC
3. Sekiro|PC
4. Megaman 7|SNES
5. Megaman 8|PS1
6. Megaman X3|SNES
7. Megaman & Bass|SNES
8. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim|PS4
9. Broken Sword: Director's Cut|PC
10. Command & Conquer: Red Alert|PC
11. Mischief Makers|N64
12. Wolfenstein 2: New Colossus (DLC)|PC
13. Deception 4: Blood Ties|PS4
14. Final Fantasy Adventure|Gameboy
15. Virtua Racing|Switch
16. Thief 2: The Metal Age|PC
17. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault: Spearhead|PC
18. Crysis Remaster|PC
19. God of War: Chain of Olympus|PS3
20. Resident Evil Village|PC
21. Live a Live|SNES
22. Clockwork Knight|Saturn
23. DuckTales|NES
24. Drakengard 3|PS3
25. Double Dragon|NES
26. Secret of Mana|SNES
27. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions|Android
28. Halo 5: Guardians|XBox One
29. Air Combat|PS1
30. Kamui|PC
31. DuckTales 2|NES
32. Turok Dinosaur Hunter|PC
33. Professor Layton and Pandora's Box|Android
34. Ape Escape|PS1
35. No One Lives Forever|PC
36. DuckTales Remastered|PC
37. Yakuza: Like a Dragon|PC
38. Asterix|Master System
39. McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure|Megadrive
40. Fuga: Melodies of Steel|PC
41. Quake|PC
42. Return of the Obra Dinn|PC
43. Tail Concerto|PS1
44. Contra 3 (Hard Mode)|SNES

Contra 3 (Hard Mode)

A common misconception about the NES and SNES contra games. They aren't that difficult and perfectly manageable. The difficulty is fair and it shouldn't take more than a few evenings to beat them.

Turning Contra 3 up to Hard difficulty however is another story. Hard Mode subtly changes the enemy behaviour of the game to make it a different experience from normal. It's a ball buster but it's mostly fair once you get used to it. I say mostly because the overhead stages which are the weakest part of the game add some bullshit that is annoying to deal with. You also get a special boss fight at the end that is exclusive to hard mode. So it's well worth trying once you have mastered normal.

As for Contra 3, it's a classic. It's not my favourite contra, the Megadrive's Contra Hard Corps is for me the ultimate Contra experience, but it's a great 16-bit update to the series. It really takes advantage of the 16-bit hardware to add some cinematic set pieces that might look quaint now but had my jaw hitting the floor back in 1992. There's some great homages to the older Contra games and even Hideo Kojioma's Snatchers make an appearance as bosses in Stage 3. The only weakness are the mode 7 overhead stages which are far and away the weakest part of the game. There's only 6 stages and it's such a pity that 2 of the stages are wasted on these overhead stages. It's why for me Hard Corps is the much better game.

da gamer

Call of duty cold war - PS4

A plague tale innocence - Xbox one

Fifa 20 - Xbox one

Hotshot racing - Xbox one

Mafia - PS4

Resident evil 3 - PS4

The walking dead a new frontier - Xbox one

Hitman 2 - PS4

What remains of Edith Finch - Xbox one

Beyond 2 souls - PS4

Ion Fury - PS4

Mad Max - PS4

Assassins creed valhalla - PS4

Dead space 3 - Xbox 360

Apocalypse - PS1

Gamer Bhoy 89

GAME: Gears of War: Ultimate Edition

PLATFORM: Xbox One

This game is comfort food for me. It's not overly long, and is mostly set-piece after set-piece. There's very little filler.

I've beaten it so many times (this includes the original 360 game, as well) I could play it with my eyes closed at this stage. I love Gears, so much.

Retr0gamer

Gears gets flak for being a bro game but the mechanics and combat are really solid and enjoyable.

I wish more games would rip off the active reload mechanic.

wotzgoingon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117938304#Comment_117938304

I've beaten that game three times as well. Twice on the Xbox 360 different difficulty levels and then once the Xbox One OG with the Ultimate version that you played.

The Phantom Pain

Love Gears; it's the one thing I really miss about X Box. Even beat Judgement which was not as good as the original trilogy. 

I remember playing on the hardest difficulty on the third one and really struggling with the final mission. I was going to turn the difficulty down but then the game threatened to make me replay the entire chapter if I did, so I pushed through it and whatdoyouknow I beat it immediately after lol

Can't wait to get my series X. Next year is gonna be Microsoft's year I can feel it.

Gamer Bhoy 89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117939566#Comment_117939566

I second this.

There are two specific sound effects that just melt the eardrums in the best way; the sound of a successful active reload, and the sound of a headshot.

Beautiful.

johnny_ultimate

I’ve always been fond of those first three Gears of War games. Certainly they’re repetitive and silly, but there’s a true heft to both the combat and movement which always feels great. The shotgun, chainsaw gun and roadie run make for a great mix of basic mechanics.

I played the most recent one, and while it’s obviously an accomplished game (and a hell of a technological showcase) it did feel like it had sort of lost some of the core magic despite the foundations being so similar. Just didn’t feel quite right in ways I find hard to describe. Its admirable ambitions to actually expand the gameplay with some small open world hub areas to navigate added variety but also made it feel like an awful lot of AAA games out there. Decent game, just a very careful, safe step forward.

It also really suffers from the same problem as Halo: there was something lost when the original team left. There’s an attempt by a new studio to put their own spin on things, but in the process they’re also expanding a story / world way beyond its natural endpoint.

Still, lots of fond memories of those first three games both in single player and multiplayer. Also good to see an active reload pop up in Returnal not so long ago :)

The Phantom Pain

50. Heavy Rain Remastered. Completed and platinumed.

Or as I like to call it, “JASON!”

I beat Heavy Rain years ago and decided to go for the platinum after playing Last Stop and being reminded of how talented David Cage and Quantic Dream are at the choose-your-adventure genre. (In Heavy Rain, a change of camera angle does not shift the direction of the character’s movement. If you’re pushing in one direction on the joystick when the angle changes then continuing to press in that direction won’t turn the character around unless you take your thumb off the joystick. Really exposes just how amateurish some of these indie games are.)

I realise it's not currently fashionable to say this but I don't care: I love David Cage as an artist. He is the master at getting the player invested in his characters, even if he has to emotionally manipulate you to do it. Yes, the finicky motion inputs are there (before refinement in Detroit: Become Human). Yes, there are plot holes abound, not least of which is the infamous twist that I had to do some mental gymnastics to accept. There’s also Cage’s signature shoehorning of over-sexualised female characters, including a masked-burglars-break-in-and-have-their-way-with-slut rape fantasy that takes place in a gorgeous flat that I’m not entirely convinced can be maintained on a journalist’s salary. And a hilariously awful sex scene that someone, anyone, should have taken one look at before placing a soft hand on Cage’s shoulder and whispering, 'no'. But Cage is an auteur and the industry needs more artists like him, rather than robots who just churn out mindless battle royale and 4 person co-op games every month.

Heavy Rain is such a beautifully tragic film noir story that actually examines the effects of trauma on mental health without feeling exploitative, and looks on even its most contemptible characters with compassion and empathy, whereas a lesser writer would be dismissive. Replaying this was strangely nostalgic as it was my first Quantic Dream game and I remember being blown away by the amount of choices and consequences – moreover, how the game seemingly just carries on regardless of how badly you cock things up. Cage once said that ‘game over’ screens are a failure of game design and in some ways - hear me out - he is correct... but that’s a debate for another time.

The platinum includes witnessing all 17 endings and it was fun having to figure out specific choices to make, who to get killed and when just to grant a certain outcome. I have enough distance from the story now that I could make out-of-character choices without cringing; most of the time it only reaffirmed my canon choices anyway. Other challenges require flawless quicktime event performance…which is where I noticed this game’s excellent checkpoint system.

Anyway, it’s redundant to gush extensively about a decade-old game so I’ll simply end by saying that if you somehow skipped Heavy Rain but like Cage’s other games like Beyond Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human this is a must-play. It’s a well-constructed film noir story that offers multiple gripping choices with legitimate consequences at every turn. Obviously, if you didn’t like those games you’ll hate this even more. (Bonus points: the score music is still fire.)

Retr0gamer

Game|Platform|

1. Megaman X2|SNES
2. Streets of Rage 4|PC
3. Sekiro|PC
4. Megaman 7|SNES
5. Megaman 8|PS1
6. Megaman X3|SNES
7. Megaman & Bass|SNES
8. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim|PS4
9. Broken Sword: Director's Cut|PC
10. Command & Conquer: Red Alert|PC
11. Mischief Makers|N64
12. Wolfenstein 2: New Colossus (DLC)|PC
13. Deception 4: Blood Ties|PS4
14. Final Fantasy Adventure|Gameboy
15. Virtua Racing|Switch
16. Thief 2: The Metal Age|PC
17. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault: Spearhead|PC
18. Crysis Remaster|PC
19. God of War: Chain of Olympus|PS3
20. Resident Evil Village|PC
21. Live a Live|SNES
22. Clockwork Knight|Saturn
23. DuckTales|NES
24. Drakengard 3|PS3
25. Double Dragon|NES
26. Secret of Mana|SNES
27. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions|Android
28. Halo 5: Guardians|XBox One
29. Air Combat|PS1
30. Kamui|PC
31. DuckTales 2|NES
32. Turok Dinosaur Hunter|PC
33. Professor Layton and Pandora's Box|Android
34. Ape Escape|PS1
35. No One Lives Forever|PC
36. DuckTales Remastered|PC
37. Yakuza: Like a Dragon|PC
38. Asterix|Master System
39. McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure|Megadrive
40. Fuga: Melodies of Steel|PC
41. Quake|PC
42. Return of the Obra Dinn|PC
43. Tail Concerto|PS1
44. Contra 3 (Hard Mode)|SNES
45. Rocket Knight|PC

Rocket Knight

I don't know what possessed me to try this game. The mere existence of this game has disgusted me for years and put me off playing it. Well it definitely wasn't the train wreck I was expecting but it wasn't amazing.

I've a lot of nostalgia for this series. I knew I had to own the original Rocket Knight Adventures. It looked incredible when I saw it on Movies, Games and Videos and it got glowing reviews in magazines at the time. When I finally got my hands on the game it didn't disappoint. For me it's the second best game on the Megadrive just behind Gunstar Heroes. It's got the classic Konami style in spades right when they were at the height of their greatness. RKA is your standard action game with the stand out difference being a rocket pack strapped to the protagonist Sparkster's back. It's a really fun mechanic that the game explores through constantly surprising set pieces. It's very boss heavy but the bosses are quite simply incredible. It looked and sounded gorgeous with a soundtrack by some of Konami's greats, including Michiru Yamane how would go on to compose the symphony of the night soundtrack. There's a great sense of humour throughout with some funny visual gags and homages to Konami's past.

The game would get two sequels, both called Sparkster. One was made for the Megadrive, the other for the SNES. Both games were totally different to each other. Reviews for the megadrive game were pretty decent, around the 80's. I had to get it of course. When I did eventually play it, it was massively disappointing. The game was no longer a linear game composed of a gauntlet of creative boss and set piece designs. Instead the levels were large sprawling affairs, emphasising exploration. There was a severe lack of bosses and the ones that were in the game just weren't as well designed as the first game. It also somehow managed to look worse than the original and had none of the cutscenes that provided continuity to the levels and world. It isn't a bad game, just no where near as good as the original and played like a totally different game. At least the soundtrack was amazing.

To make matters worse, the SNES Sparkster looked incredible and seemed to play a lot closer to the original RKA. It mostly garnered 90's from the magazines. I felt betrayed! I'm playing the SNES version now and while it's also nowhere near as good as the original game it does play closer to RKA and is a much better game than the Megadrive Sparkster.

Anyway after the two Sparkster games there were no other games in the series. The team that made Rocket Knight games were the same team that made Contra and they would sneak cameos of Sparkster into their games such as Contra Shattered Soldier and Track and Field on the DS. There was no sign of a new game until the PS360 era when a new Rocket Knight was announced by Konami for XBLA and PSN. I was initially excited until I saw the developer would be Climax. They weren't a bad studio and had made the pretty decent Silent Hill: Shattered Memories but nothing about them said they would have the chops to create a classic japanese action game.

Climax gave it a good shot but the game just feels lacking. It feels a little bit cheap. Sparkster looks all wrong. His 2D promotional art is on point but the 3D modelling was outsourced to a chinese studio and it's very weak. Rocket Knight doesn't follow the setpiece and boss gauntlet design of the original RKA and instead focuses more on bigger levels that are more open for exploration. It feels a lot more like the Megadrive Sparkster. You have a lot more control over Sparkster after a rocket boost and there is some advanced movement tech but it's only really required if you want to go for achievements. There's not a huge variety in the level design, it's all pretty standard platforming with few surprises. The levels are a little too long at times. The final stage I did enjoy as there's a real focus on challenging the players mastery of Sparkster's movement, I just wish there was more of this. There's one really naff stage that freezes Sparkster's rocket pack. It takes away the game's central mechanic and ends up turning hte game into dull bog standard platformer for the entire stage. There's a few side scrolling shooter levels sprinkled through out the game but they are pretty weak. There's a boss at the end of each of the 4 main areas but they are pretty easy and not that solidly designed. The soundtrack is totally forgettable.

I expected the game to be awful but it's not bad. It's a pretty solid game that's just a bit unremarkable. I expected more from the series considering how close to my heart it is. Sparkster's movement is great it's just that there's not many levels or set pieces that really take advantage of it. Now with Konami being a shadow of their former selves I guess I'll never get that sequel to the original Rocket Knight Adventures I've always wanted.

dreamers75

Aragami 2

Fun little game, not a full price game and it has some bugs which can be infuriating, by the time you hit level 20 you are a ninja god.

50 missions in total to complete the game, you can replay all levels and only 4 have to be completed without being detected or killing anyone, so for 46 levels you can murder the **** out of everyone. Each level is repeated in various forms a few times and there is no map so you kinda have to stumble upon the objective. The maps become familiar easily enough and when new enemies are added its up to you to figure them out.

Entire game can be played in Coop with 2 other players. Which can be hilarious and terrible at the same time depending on who the other players are.

Played on game pass and took 18 hours or so to complete, towards the end the new skills you gain make almost every enemy trivial.

Gamer Bhoy 89

GAME: Gears of War 2

PLATFORM: Xbox 360

More of the same.

Not much else I can say.

Playing it on Xbox One X meant I was able to play it fully rendered in 4K, which, aside from the obvious 7th-gen texture work, it looked pretty good. Gears Ultimate Edition didn't even get any 4K treatment at all so I was stunned to see Gears 2 look a lot sharper in detail, despite the former being a remaster.

There was one small aspect that I wasn't getting used to, at all, and that was the omnidirectional jumping mechanic not being implemented in here (it was first implemented in Gears 3, and ultimately the Gears 1 remaster), so when I made an attempt to dive at an angle, it would just straight-up throw me 90 degrees to the left/right. Frustrating to say the least.

Another thing that grinded my gears (ha!) was the checkpoint system. Maybe I'm spoiled by newer games but there were times where I'd get to the end of what was 2 or 3 set-pieces one after the other, dying, and being thrown back to the very beginning of the set-piece. It made what should've been 10-minute sections into about half an hour. Speaking of time, this one felt like it started to drag near the end. There was one particular boss fight that made me think, after I beat him, I would be really close to the end of the game. Turned out I had another hour and a half to go.

There was a lot I forgot about Gears 2, so there were a few moments that made me go "oh yeah I forgot about that bit". Of all three original games in the series, this was my least favourite. I even remember the online mode being horrible to play. The bullet lag that was infamously bad in Gears 1 (unless you were the host - damn P2P servers), returned for Gears 2 and it was even worse. The only thing I really played online for was the newly added Horde Mode. Other than that, I often went back to Gears 1.

Gears 3 ended up being my favourite -- it added so much QOL fixes and the bullet lag was almost completely removed for online. But I also found the single player to be much better than Gears 2's offering, so I'm buzzing to dive into that one again.

TinCanMan

Bioshock Infinite [PS4] - I loved this game but not quite as much as the first. Although very different from 1 & 2 there are some slight similarities with weapons and vigours(plasmids). If you've never played a Bioshock game then the collection is available quite cheaply. I would highly recommend all three for those that haven't played them. They are masterpieces and should be played in order of release date i.e. 1,2 and then infinite.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider [PS4] - If you've played a Tomb Raider game before then you'll know what to expect. This one is slightly less combat heavy than the first two in the trilogy and more focused on stealth and exploration. It's a beautiful looking game and whilst I enjoyed it I found it to be the weakest of the three.

Astro's Playroom [PS5] - First things first, this game is seriously fun with so much nostalgia thrown in from Playstation history that I was grinning like an idiot at times. But what's most impressive is that they used this game to highlight the new features of the Dualsense controller and boy does it shine. This is a revolution in controller design and I can't wait to see how other games will make use of it in the near future. There's a real wow factor about the Dualsense and it lives up to all the hype.

Ghost of Tsushima [PS5] - This game is something else. The visuals are pure eye candy and the gameplay and story are excellent. Whilst the visuals on the PS5 are the same the 60 FPS makes a huge difference. I enjoyed this game so much that I went on to get the platinum. I have yet to try out the online mode though as I don't really play much online.

Uncharted 4 [PS4/PS5] - What a way to finish the series. If you've played the others then you'll know what to expect but boy does this game look beautiful and also plays really well. Looks amazing for a 6 year old game at this stage, great story and voice acting as well. I would advise on playing them in order though to get the most from the story and characters.

Days Gone [PS5] - What an absolute masterpiece this is. Although slow to get going things really pick up after the 10 hours mark. The only downside is that the human AI are as dumb as a bag of rocks. Fighting the hordes really gets the adrenaline flowing as well. I thoroughly recommend this and loved it so much that I went on to get the platinum.

The Phantom Pain

51. Infamous 2. Completed and platinumed.

I have such warm feelings towards Infamous: Second Son because it was my return to Playstation after having deviated away with X Box. In addition, I only heard good things about Infamous 2 but this game was highly disappointing to me.

The basic premise is you play a 'conduit', a sort of X-Man if you will, with electrokinesis. Long story short, our “hero”, Cole MacGrath, is on a quest to absorb more “blast cores” to restore his powers having been drained of most of them during the battle at the beginning of the game with a mysterious “Beast”. The Beast was established in the first game which I haven’t played so that’s about the extent of my knowledge.

I’ll start with the good. I like the fact that what powers you gain access to are determined by your karma rating, actions you perform in the world and the amount of XP currency you possess – and in that precise order. “Actions you perform in the world” could be anything from, say, ‘get 5 precision head shot stunts’ to ‘get 10 environmental takedowns’. This is a clever way of tutorialising the mechanics as well as nudging you towards more creative ways of defeating enemies in future. I also really like New Marais, itself. Despite the PS Now stream quality doing its best to ruin it I can see it’s a really well designed city (I think it’s based on New Orleans but don’t quote me on that).

The missions in general are excellent, especially how whenever you acquire a blast core in the story (which opens up new powers) subsequent main and side missions are designed around getting you to use those abilities, giving you the chance to really test them out. It’s a very, very well paced campaign that never outstays it’s welcome... Unfortunately, a superhero game lives and dies by its combat, and the combat in this is just not very good, I’m afraid. In fact, this is a wonderful example of how nostalgia for old-ish school difficulty is often confused with just poor game design.

It plays like a third person cover shooter…but without any cover. The enemy A.I. is too aggressive, throwing grenades and rocket launchers every 5 seconds and they are far too accurate. Often an enemy has launched a rocket at you before you’ve even had the chance to strike first even if you sneak up on them – they just instantly turn around and shoot one with pin point accuracy. To make matters worse, rocket hits put you in a near death state so just one bullet from another enemy and the fight is over before it’s barely begun. Enemies also tend to attack all at once so using the Alpha Blast skill (which knocks multiple enemies down at once) becomes mandatory to the point where you’ll never swap to the alternative skill mapped to the same button. When enemies are down you can perform a finishing move but they never stay down for long so you’re often getting shot in the middle of a long takedown animation you can’t get out of. Good Karma Cole eventually gets a shield that blocks projectiles (and restores energy with each hit), but enemies always circle around him so unless his back is to a wall it’s useless. The fact that I couldn’t really feel much of a difference between normal and hard difficulty in A.I. behaviour or damage input/output just illustrates how ill balanced the combat is.

Cole also has an ‘ultimate’ move which decimates all enemies within the vicinity. In order to use it you need to gather an ionic charge which you obtain by killing a certain amount of enemies. For some dumb reason though you have to manually collect these charges so more often than not they fall into the water – which is obviously harmful to Cole – and other unreachable areas. There’s no meter to tell you how close you are to getting a charge either so I didn’t know when to kill enemies in strategic spots; it was just guess work.

Additionally, enemies are  spongy to the point where you’re forced to use the special abilities like rockets and grenades to make quick work of them, and even then “quick” is 4 or 5 hits for them to go down which is utterly ridiculous. The aiming reticle is completely off – where Cole’s projectiles land have no correlation to the sights. And of course, these special attacks deplete energy far quicker than normal attacks which means collecting all the blast shards to extend Cole’s energy meter becomes mandatory. Blast shards are everywhere but unfortunately a lot of them are in high areas requiring you to engage with the game’s clunky, slow and imprecise climbing mechanic. You do get an ability later on that allows you to Batman your way across buildings but even that doesn’t function very well, and it comes too late.

Ugh, and the boss fights. Very lazy, most of them are just larger or smaller variations of one another and they all have the same problem whereby the only opportunity to attack them is as they are attacking you since they only expose their vulnerable parts when shooting projectiles. The problem is these projectile attacks always stun or knock Cole back which, in turn, cancels your move…

What really irks me though is that the combat is so obviously biased towards the evil karma playthrough and the game doesn’t even try to hide it. It’s impossible not to harm civilians on a good karma playthrough since they run into the middle of shootouts, and the kidnapped ones are right in the middle of the enemies escorting them. Also, on evil karma they become an additional resource, granting XP per kill and health/energy when draining. Likewise, you can also drain enemies to regain health making it much easier to stay alive during combat. In fact, the hard difficulty on evil karma was easier than my good karma playthrough on normal. Does that make any sense? I think not.

If the game just wanted you to be a super villain why not just go all the way and do away with the karma system? It would certainly fit Cole who is a selfish, boring, jerk no matter how you play him.

Spoiler Warning

At one point a female conduit is describing to him the process of how she was tortured (because female superheroes in the Infamous series only get to be empowered through trauma) and he is literally like, ”ooh, shiny blast core” right in the middle of her speech. Later on he yells at her for not being instantly competent with her newly acquired powers. He’s awful.

Admittedly, I prefer playing as the good guy in games but I don’t mind playing as an arsehole so long as the game acknowledges the protagonist is an arsehole, which Infamous 2 does not.

And that’s just the protagonist. The supporting characters or, more specifically, the female supporting characters are some of the most indefensibly misogynistic depictions of women in video games I have seen in all my gaming years. I mean I’ve been gaming since I was a kid and the fact that this industry still manages to find creative ways to make some truly horrific female and black female characters is remarkable. Basically, other than Cole, there are these two conduits which are the aforementioned Asian American woman in spoiler tags that Cole craps on all the time, but also a grotesquely dressed black American woman. Throughout the campaign they represent both sides of the good/evil karma system (the savvy will know which is which) and choosing to do their optional missions will affect your karma rating. When they’re on screen together all they do is bicker about who is gonna bang Cole and call each other ’bitch’ all the time. The latter, in particular, is a textbook misogynoir (google it) depiction with a highly suspicious running animation, and her over-sexualisation convinces me the script was written by someone with a serious madonna-whore complex. Also, spoiler alert for a decade-old game:

Spoiler Warning

The “swamp witch”, as she’s so colourfully referred to, dies no matter what ending you choose, as do all the black characters in this.

Spoiler Warning

To wrap up, there is a mission with the “good” female conduit character where you have to teach her how to use her far superior ice powers. At one point she is flying around and mocks Cole - who can’t fly - by asking him if he’s jealous. 

That was the moment I finally lost my temper with Infamous 2.

And on that note, no, I don’t recommend it; it’s annoying. My issue with the blatant misogyny and misogynoir won’t bother other players but the combat is objectively a mess. I can’t say whether those who liked the first one would enjoy this one as I haven’t played the original but I think going from Infamous: Second Son to this was a definite downgrade.

da gamer

Call of duty cold war - PS4

A plague tale innocence - Xbox one

Fifa 20 - Xbox one

Hotshot racing - Xbox one

Mafia - PS4

Resident evil 3 - PS4

The walking dead a new frontier - Xbox one

Hitman 2 - PS4

What remains of Edith Finch - Xbox one

Beyond 2 souls - PS4

Ion Fury - PS4

Mad Max - PS4

Assassins creed valhalla - PS4

Dead space 3 - Xbox 360

Apocalypse - PS1

God of war 3 remastered - PS4

Retr0gamer

How did you find it? Found it really poor after how good 2 was. The opening was spectacular but it ran out of steam after and felt nothing with the story.

da gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117969083#Comment_117969083

I found it really good, a solid 8/10. Great epic scenes and battles. I never play god of war games for the story, find them all over the place (apart form the most recent game).

da gamer

Call of duty cold war - PS4

A plague tale innocence - Xbox one

Fifa 20 - Xbox one

Hotshot racing - Xbox one

Mafia - PS4

Resident evil 3 - PS4

The walking dead a new frontier - Xbox one

Hitman 2 - PS4

What remains of Edith Finch - Xbox one

Beyond 2 souls - PS4

Ion Fury - PS4

Mad Max - PS4

Assassins creed valhalla - PS4

Dead space 3 - Xbox 360

Apocalypse - PS1

God of war 3 remastered - PS4

Quake - Xbox one

Gamer Bhoy 89

GAME: Gears of War 3

Platform: Xbox 360

A solid trilogy that had a perfect conclusion. Nothing more I can say. It was the best from a gameplay perspective for me. They fine-tuned every aspect to perfection in my books.

Onto Gears 4 (f*ck Gears of War: Judgment lol)

The Phantom Pain

52. Life is Strange: True Colours (PS5). Completed and platinumed.

Let me get my only negative out of the way: no 60 FPS on current gen versions is unacceptable. This game does not even have a performance vs quality mode option (which in itself is an industry con IMO). Hopefully, they will patch in a 60 FPS option further down the line but as someone who prefers high frame rate (in games) I had to mention it.

Anyway. Life is Strange: True Colours sees the return of Deck Nine to the series since Before the Storm – a prequel to the original game that had no business being as excellent as it was. Upon how well that was received by fans, Square Enix has granted Deck Nine the full AAA treatment this time round and the latter doesn’t squander any of it.

You can’t decide on the subtitle of ‘True Colours’ and then not make an absolutely stunning game – the art direction here is gorgeous and Deck Nine knows it (hence why no 60 FPS mode is a tragedy!) There’s almost a paradisiacal aura about it; like traversing through a beautiful painting. It’s definitely the most confidently and creatively directed in the series with camera and editing techniques that feel like an artistic choice as opposed to a compromise. Life is Strange is known for its relatable characters and they’re now complimented by fully motion captured performances. I couldn’t help but be impressed with the lead’s facial expressions - particularly the eye movements - because they’re some of the most realistic I’ve seen, even outclassing so-called photo realistic games.

But Life is Strange isn’t famed for its visuals (even though, again, this one is super pretty). The story and characters are what fans come back for and this time it follows 24 year-old Alex Chen. Alex has had a hard life, having been separated from her older brother, Gabe, by the foster care system at a young age. Reunited with Gabe in the mining town of Haven Springs she hopes to reconnect with him and hopefully establish a home there. If you know anything about the series you’d know it’s not nearly that straightforward a premise: What Alex has been hiding from her long lost brother is that she actually has an unexplained superpower of being able to feel the emotions of others and, furthermore, when the emotion is intense it infects her and she loses control. 

Alex is older than previous Life is Strange protagonists and her powers being already established means we’re spared the superhero origin story which is refreshing. Within that provides the unique setup of Alex already having a relationship with her powers that we, as the player, never got to build. Due to the historically destructive nature of this ability she views it as a curse and when we meet her she’s essentially running away from her past. So, by the virtue of this being a video game, one of the most rewarding things you get to do as the player is change how Alex views her powers and herself for the first time. You get to be the direct cause of her realising that her powers are a gift and that, yeah, she’s kind of a superhero. On that note, one of the most heartbreaking moments in the game is actually when Alex experiences joy through someone else because she doesn’t immediately recognise the emotion. It was such a subtle way of conveying that she has seen very little joy in her troubled life. It also perfectly demonstrates what makes Life is Strange so nostalgic feeling: even in its characters’ happiest moments there’s always just a tinge of sadness on the fringes.

Like Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture – another game I played this year - True Colours perfectly captures the small town feeling of Haven Springs. All the characters have long, established relationships with one another that are shown, not told. You quickly realise through wall plaques and other discoveries when you explore that the town has a long memory, honouring or condemning its legendary residents as far back as the 1800s. It has its own small town traditions (one of which you get to partake in) and culture. You quickly gain familiarity of its landmarks including the local pub, the flower shop, the record store etc. It even has its own online community group chat! What I'm getting at is that I believed that this town existed before Alex showed up. I also believed that Haven Springs was very much living its life even when I wasn’t playing True Colours, with Alex’s text messages and the community group chat showing banter between residents about stuff they got up to in the weeks between episodes. I would spend several minutes just catching up with them through these messages at the start of the episodes because I cared about what the characters were doing even when I had no part in it. That is the mark of great video game writing for interactive stories like these.

My personal favourite Haven resident is Gabe who is just…awesome. He’s kind of like the homecoming/prom king of Haven Springs but he's also a big dork. The town adores him because he’s both charismatic and warm hearted, and he is Alex’s ultimate hype-man so every resident you meet for the first time is super excited to get to know the legend having heard so many great stories from Gabe. The fact that he spent so many years searching for his younger sister and couldn’t wait to see her was truly touching (notgonnacry, notgonnacry, notgonnacry) and their relationship is so beautiful. Another character I really liked was Ryan, one of the two potential love interests for our heroine. His voice acting is probably the best of the cast especially during moments of rage. While the villain is predictable (if you know your television tropes) that doesn’t make the reveal any less effective, especially because of the excellent foreshadowing in previous episodes. And it’s not just the named characters that make up the small town feeling of Haven Springs either - you’ll repeatedly encounter ‘the student’ and ‘anxious couple’, to name a few, who have their own mini story arcs going on. There’s no random NPC generation as far as I could tell; all of Haven Springs residents are handcrafted.

I can’t talk about this game without highlighting my favourite episode and I was surprised to learn it was divisive in the main thread. Without giving away too much, it gets real meta and the way Deck Nine incorporate this meta storytelling within the context of the narrative is so clever and innovative, and just when you think it can’t get any better it has a delightful surprise at the end of it. And it does this while taking what we traditionally view in television shows as the A and B plot and turning them on their heads without, in my opinion, detracting from the main narrative.

Prior to release there was much snickering about the, “power of empathy!” but, in a series that is all about emotions and relationships, fans are realising that this was a very clever superpower for Deck Nine to choose in hindsight. The series has never been about the powers, themselves, but how they serve as metaphors for the protagonists’ flaws. Also, turns out it’s actually a very useful superpower that if previous Life is Strange protagonists had acquired would have solved their particular problems before they even began! But the fact that I have to prove that empathy is a cool superpower is sadly indicative of where we’re at in our society right now: I was watching a certain spoilercast on YouTube and one of the hosts very much enjoyed the game but was so dismissive of the residents in Haven Spring, referring to Haven as a town full of “old white Suburban men”. It was no surprise to learn that he got the worst possible ending. Rather than reflecting on his obviously poor choices he was angry about the outcome and blamed the characters. Upon hearing his reasons for his decisions I could tell he meant well but he clearly didn’t understand or listen closely to what the characters wanted, and writing the town off as, “old white suburban” from the get-go evidentially impeded his ability to see inside the soul of those who needed help the most. That’s what I love about the ending of this game – that in order to get a good one or even the best one (as I did, super flex!) it’s not Alex’s power of empathy that is needed, it’s yours.

Which brings me to my (too long) TL;DR: Life is Strange, in general, is a hard series to recommend because its charm is not immediately obvious. If you heard a single line of dialogue, watched a trailer or even just played one episode you’d think it was trite and you wouldn’t be wrong. The beauty of the series is in its unspoken everyday relatable moments. It’s the little things like taking a sit by the lake to think about your day, or a young woman finding comfort in her in-ears to tune out the sea of bodies in her school hallway that you can’t sell in a trailer. You kind of just had to be there. On that note, if you’re even remotely interested in True Colours do not watch the trailers. They give away something that I’ve deliberately left out and really wish I hadn’t known going in because the inciting event doesn’t happen anywhere near as early as the trailers let on. I sympathise with Square Enix here as you’re not going to sell a game like this on the “power of empathy” alone but perhaps there was a way without outright spoiling the plot.

So, if you’re a fan of the series, Life is Strange: True Colours is essential. I wouldn’t put it above the first game or even Before the Storm, but on some days this is my GOTY. Oddly enough, I would also say that if you’ve played the previous instalments but didn’t get along with them, True Colours might be the one that grabs you. The cast is older and the subject matter of huge corporations preying on small towns (again, no spoilers) is perhaps more adult than anything we’ve seen in the series before. Personally, I think the game is absolutely magical and I cannot wait for the next instalment from this excellent development team.

(Oh, one more thing: There’s a seriously addictive arcade game in Alex’s flat. Beware of this devil machine!)

Retr0gamer

Game|Platform|

1. Megaman X2|SNES
2. Streets of Rage 4|PC
3. Sekiro|PC
4. Megaman 7|SNES
5. Megaman 8|PS1
6. Megaman X3|SNES
7. Megaman & Bass|SNES
8. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim|PS4
9. Broken Sword: Director's Cut|PC
10. Command & Conquer: Red Alert|PC
11. Mischief Makers|N64
12. Wolfenstein 2: New Colossus (DLC)|PC
13. Deception 4: Blood Ties|PS4
14. Final Fantasy Adventure|Gameboy
15. Virtua Racing|Switch
16. Thief 2: The Metal Age|PC
17. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault: Spearhead|PC
18. Crysis Remaster|PC
19. God of War: Chain of Olympus|PS3
20. Resident Evil Village|PC
21. Live a Live|SNES
22. Clockwork Knight|Saturn
23. DuckTales|NES
24. Drakengard 3|PS3
25. Double Dragon|NES
26. Secret of Mana|SNES
27. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions|Android
28. Halo 5: Guardians|XBox One
29. Air Combat|PS1
30. Kamui|PC
31. DuckTales 2|NES
32. Turok Dinosaur Hunter|PC
33. Professor Layton and Pandora's Box|Android
34. Ape Escape|PS1
35. No One Lives Forever|PC
36. DuckTales Remastered|PC
37. Yakuza: Like a Dragon|PC
38. Asterix|Master System
39. McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure|Megadrive
40. Fuga: Melodies of Steel|PC
41. Quake|PC
42. Return of the Obra Dinn|PC
43. Tail Concerto|PS1
44. Contra 3 (Hard Mode)|SNES
45. Rocket Knight|PC
46. Enemy Zero|PC

Enemy Zero

Enemy Zero is a game that is more interesting than good. Enemy Zero was created by the late Kenji Eno's company Warp and was a follow up to their first game D. D was a pretty big deal on release. It came right at the dawn of CD based consoles and its pre-rendered graphics and graphic true ending were mind blowing at the time. It's a Myst type adventure game. I beat it last year and it hasn't aged well. The mind blowing story is tame and just bad by todays standards and the CG is laughable.

It's worth reading up about Enemy Zero's development as it's pretty nuts. Fumito Ueda (Ico, Shadow of the Colossus) got his start doing CG animation on this game. The score is by famed film composer Michael Nyman who Kenji Eno convinced to write music for the game by locking him in his own hotel room until he agreed to it. And the reveal of the game was equally bizarre. It was revealed at Playstation's Tokyo expo in 1996. Kenji Eno was pissed off at Sony for screwing him over with the marketing of D which meant lower than expected sales on the Playstation. So at the end of the trailer for the game at Sony's press conference the Playstation logo morphed into the Sega Saturn logo and Kenji said the game would be coming exclusively to Sega Saturn.

Warp tried this weird digital character thing years before the likes of Hatsune Miku and the like. Their character 'Laura' who is the star of D was used in multiple Warp projects, up until D2 on the Dreamcast. Many of the other Enemy Zero characters would also translate to other Warp games. I think they were trying to make her a Lara Croft type mascot before Lara existed and were beaten to it by Core Design who frankly put out much better and marketable games. It's curious even though it's a never quite worked out. There's some nudity in this game which is pretty risque for a 1996 console game but it's very tame. Laura appears naked but she looks like a barbie doll. Kenji Eno said there was supposed to be visible nipples but the team had massive arguments over the size of them that he just said she will have none. Probably the right call and it's kind of creepy enough without this detail.

But anyway, the game. The game follows D in that about half the game is moving about prerendered CG environments solving adventure game type puzzles. The puzzles aren't too difficult but the fact you can't skip the animations between transitions means doing anything can be frustratingly slow. The game however expects the player to hit arbitrary triggers to advance the game at points which can be really frustrating. The CG rendering of these scenes look bad today but for a game in 1996 they are really impressive. Warp traded in their Amiga's for Silicon Graphics workstations and the jump in rendering is easy to see. The rendering was probably the best seen in a game until a month later when FF7 blew it out of the water.

Linking the CG prerendered areas are true 3D first person section. These areas can have a few enemies wandering around and this is where the game gets interesting. Said enemies are totally invisible. You have to guess their position using the sound emitted by a detector. Also your gun can only fire off 2 or 3 shots before needing to be recharged. To make matters worse, the gun is useless except at point blank range. These sections are super tense and can be genuinely terrifying, especially when you have multiple enemies and find it hard to pin point them. And it's one hit kill. The tension is also raised by the fact that you save on a handheld device with a very poor battery. This means you can only save and load your game a set number of this. This might seen tough but I found I had plenty of saves to get through the game but it does mean you have to be careful not to be sent back a long way if you get careless.

The story is frankly complete shite. The game came out when games were attempting to get more cinematic but being very amateur about it (and probably still haven't gotten over the amateur bit going by the vast majority of triple A games). Enemy Zero just rips off the alien films' story beats and it's all very predictable. Characters die, there's emotional scenes and it all falls totally flat as none of the characters are fleshed out at all. It hurts me to say it as I respect Kenji Eno a lot but this is sub-David Cage at his worst. The soundtrack and sound effects are a highlight. Michael Nyman's soundtrack kicks in at key points and while simple is very effective. It really should have been attached to a better game. Sound design is excellent throughout and helps build atmosphere.

The final disc does feel quite rushed it it mostly consisting of maze areas filled with enemies and big gaps between where you can save to artificially pad out the game. I suppose that's par for the course for games of this era where the rental market was an issue for publishers but it's pretty frustrating to get one hit KO'ed deep into these annoying mazes.

Enemy Zero is interesting enough to be worth playing even if it's not great. It succeeds as a horror game with it's gloriously tense 3D sections but the adventure sections are bogged down by poor design, awful writing and a story that is just pure cliche.

Mr.Fantastic

1. Streets of Rage 4 | Switch
2. Cyberpunk 2077 | PS5(PS4 version)
3. Remnant from the ashes | PS5(PS4)
4. Life is strange Season 2 | PS5(PS4)
5. FFX HD remaster | Switch
6. AC:Odyssey | PS5(PS4)
7. Resident evil 3:remake | PS5(PS4)
8. Halo 5: Guardians | Xbox Series X
9. State of Decay 2 | Xbox Series X
10. Nioh 2 remastered | PS5
11. Astro's Playroom |PS5
12. Crash 4 | PS5
13. Gears of War 4 | Xbox Series X
14. Dex | Switch
15. Valkyria Chronicles 4 |PS5 (PS4)
16. Resident evil 8: Village | PS5
17. Outriders | Xbox Series X
18. Mass Effect 1: Legendary Edition | Xbox Series X
19. Blood and Truth | PS5(PSVR)
20. Dead Space | Xbox Series X(X360 gamepass)
21. Disco Elysium Director's cut | PS5
22. Mass Effect 2 : Legendary Edition | Xbox Series X
23. Returnal | PS5
24. Ruiner | Switch
25. Zelda: Links awakening (remake) | Switch
26. Mass Effect 3 :Legendary Edition | Xbox Series X
27. Untitled Goose Game | Switch
28. Yakuza Kiwami 2 | PS5 (PS4)
29. FF7 Remake :Intergrade Intermission DLC | PS5
30. Children of Morta | Xbox Series X
31. 12 Minutes | Xbox Series X
32. State of Decay 2: Heartland DLC | Xbox Series X
33. Spiderman: Miles Morales | PS5
34. Metro Exodus | PS5

Metro Exodus

Finished this last night, was very good near the end and the different semi open levels were good. Bit of jank though you know its not a triple AAA, Story was very meh but look was not too long and glad I got it off the backlog. Playing the DLC sam's story it seems okay, but I might leave it off and start something else as I am kind of done with this game.

For next game its either going to be one of the games off gamepass I have to play ascent, subnautica below zero, scarlet nexus or start either Judgement PS5 version or 13 sentinels aegis rim. I have heard great things.

Kingp35

1. Resident Evil 3 - PlayStation 4
2. Resident Evil 4 - PlayStation 4
3. Yakuza Kiwami - PlayStation 4
4. Yakuza Kiwami 2 - PlayStation 4
5. Endless Fable 3: Dark Moor - PlayStation 4
6. Cube Escape: The Lake - Android
7. The Secret Order 7: Shadow Breach - PlayStation 4
8. A Plague Tale: Innocence - PlayStation 4
9. Ghost Files: Memory of a Crime - PlayStation 4
10. Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka With Love - PlayStation 4
11. Anodyne - PlayStation 4 (PS Now)
12. Dandara - PlayStation 4 (PS Now)
13. Chronicles of Teddy: Harmony of Exidus - PlayStation 4 (PS Now)
14. Dead Space 2 - PlayStation 3
15. Dead Space 3 - PlayStation 3
16. Medievil - PlayStation 4 (PS Now)
17. Broken Age - PlayStation 4
18. Call of Duty Blacks Ops 3 (Campaign only) - PlayStation 4 (PS Now)
19. Unmechanical Extended - PlayStation 4
20. Marvels Avengers - PlayStation 4 (PS Now)
21. Far Cry 3 - PlayStation 3
22. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon - PlayStation 3
23. In Rays of the Light - PlayStation 4
24. Yoku's Island Express - PlayStation 4
25. Borderlands 3 - PlayStation 4 (PS Now)
26. Streets of Rage 4 - PlayStation 4 (PS Now)
27. Judgement - PlayStation 4 (PS Now)
28. Astro's Playroom - PlayStation 5
29. Red Dead Redemption 2 - PS4 game on PlayStation 5 (PS Now)
30. Nier Automata - PS4 game on PlayStation 5 (PS Now)

Nier Automata

I'm very conflicted about this game. I really enjoyed the gameplay in this, especially coming from RDR 2, it was fun from the off and I loved the variation between side scrolling sections, shooting sections and bullet hell sections. All were great fun. However it also suffers from some serious issues which mostly come down to Route B - to put it simply it is a complete waste of time and an insult to the player. There is absolutely no reason why it should exist, it is almost entirely the same as Route A bar some minor sections meaning you're effectively playing Route A twice! It could have been slightly better if the story wasn't complete nonsense. Either Route B shouldn't exist or you should be permitted to skip it as Route C is effectively the second half of the game and is very enjoyable.

In the end Nier Automata is a fun game with a great variety of gameplay but suffers from some idiotic decisions.

Retr0gamer

Spoiler Warning

I could actually see what they were going for with Route B. It was to show that 9S was actually far more powerful than 2B. However there was probably a much better way of doing this than having you replay the entire route A. Even the original Nier which performed a similar trick only had you complete the game from the halfway point.

The Phantom Pain

@Kingp35

I totally get it. The routes nonsense is what dropped an otherwise 10/10 game to about an 8 for me; it was that frustrating. The only reason why it didn't completely ruin Nier Automata is because of the story (for me personally), combat and chip system. I get why many would resent route B as the idea of just repeating literally the same campaign but with hacking and a few perspective changes here and there is a deliberate waste of the player's time. I differ slightly in that I loved route B more than route A because at least in route B the game was no longer locks you out of content. Yoko Taro should have just combined route A and B as one by having you play as either 9S or 2B - no need to play the campaign twice - and then just continue straight to route C. Would have had exactly the same effect. It even disrupts the endgame because in chapter replay you have to remember what vendor sells what in which route etc and I just couldn't be bothered.

The Phantom Pain

1.      Tomb Raider Definitive Edition.

2.      Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Remastered (The Ezio Collection).

3.      Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.

4.      Astro’s Playroom.

5.      Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

6.      Bugsnax.

7.      Cyberpunk 2077.

8.      Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered.

9.      Spider-Man: Miles Morales DLC.

10.    Rage 2.

11.    Rage 2: Rise of the Ghosts DLC

12.    Rage 2: TerrorMania DLC.

13.    Mass Effect Andromeda.

14.    Late Shift.

15.    Subnautica.

16.    Anthem.

17.    Tacoma.

18.    Days Gone.

19.    Assassin’s Creed: Revelations Remastered (The Ezio Collection).

20.    Battlefield 4.

21.    Concrete Genie.

22.    Rise of the Tomb Raider.

23.    Rise of the Tomb Raider: Lara’s Nightmare (DLC).

24.    Rise of the Tomb Raider: Cold Darkness DLC.

25.    Journey.

26.    The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

27.    Maquette.

28.    Watch Dogs: Legion (PS5).

29.    The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone (DLC).

30.    Gris.

31.    Watch Dogs Legion: Bloodlines (DLC) (PS5).

32.    Return of the Obra Dinn.

33.    Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Wraith of the Druids (DLC) (PS5)

34.    Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Wraith of the Druids (DLC) (PS4)

35.    Ratchet and Clank (2016)

36.    Subnautica: Below Zero.

37.    Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.

38.    Sherlock Holmes: Crime and Punishments. 

39.    The Suicide of Rachel Foster. 

40.    Legends of Talia: Arcadia.

41.    Nier Automata.

42.    Donut County.

43.    Last Stop (PS5)

44.    Last Stop (PS4).

45.    Outriders (PS5)

46.    Spyro the Dragon.

47.    Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter. 

48.    The Forgotten City (PS5)

49.    The Forgotten City (PS4)

50.    Heavy Rain Remastered.

51.    Infamous 2.

52.    Life is Strange: True Colours (PS5)

53.    Deathloop. 

54. Life is Strange: True Colours (PS4). Completed and Platinumed.

See Life is Strange: True Colours (PS5) for thoughts on the game, itself. As for the PS4 version it’s as one would expect: a less sharp version of the PS5 version with noticeably longer load screens. I also encountered the infamous T pose bug that I didn’t experience on the PS5 but I hear this has been patched anyway. If you don’t have a PS5 but you’re interested in this game go for it. The art direction is still gorgeous and a great game is a great game regardless of platform. 

Retr0gamer

I expected the underhanded snarky comments because you seem to be someone that just can't let anything go but I can't really let slide the fact that you are insinuating that I'm a racist now?

johnny_ultimate

Mod note: Accusing other posters of racism because of disagreements over a video game is completely unacceptable.

Infraction / ban issued, and I have deleted the post as there’s some actual libellous allegations in there. Let’s leave it at that rather than drag another thread off track with this nonsense.

Gamer Bhoy 89

Awh, what did I miss? (rhetorical) 😂

GAME: Gears of War 4

PLATFORM: Xbox One

Completely forgot this game ended on a cliffhanger. No other game in the series did so. It was very abrupt.

What else can I say? It's more Gears.

Not a fan of the new protagonist, but the new female addition has a great arc, plotwise.

Looks stunning in 4K as well.

Jumping onto Gears 5, although I'm pushing my luck because I'm supposed to leave for work in an hour. I might go later just to get an hour into this :P

Mal-Adjusted

This is my first update in a while, so bear with me.

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge

I haven’t done a full playthrough in years. It still holds up exceedingly well. Great controls, cheesy, fun story, likable hero. I love the map designs and settings of the game (with maybe the one exception of the lost city) Thoroughly brilliant.

Moto G.P. 2

Pretty much more of the same as the first game…it’s grand.

Ghost Recon: Future soldier.

This was great fun. The shooting was enjoyable, all the gadgets were nice to play around with. The stealth sections were fantastic, especially the lone wolf mission where you insta-fail if you trip an alarm. It’s probably the last proper Ghost Recon we’re likely to get for a long time.

Project Sylpheed.

A bit of a strange beast. As a spaceship shooter, it’s fun and bright, if a little easy. It’s story is ripped straight from Gundam. It’s Achilles heel is every mission has an invisible timer counting down. You only get a warning when it goes below three minutes and you better prey that you have all your objectives done because otherwise f&^k you! I just can’t understand why a developer would willingly sabotage an otherwise decent game like this.

Battlefield: Bad Company

The gunplay is good if a little sticky. The maps are nice and big and the characters are fun. I know battlefield’s big selling point is the vehicle combat but I really only got into tanks and jeeps when I had to. It got old driving a tank and then 50 RPG soldiers spawn in the hills around you.

Battlefield 1.

This was a massive improvement. Visually it’s stunning and the controls are much more fluid. I liked the war stories format for the campaign but I don’t think I’d prefer it long term (not much danger of that happening now though) The vehicle controls were much better than Bad Company. Setting it during the Great War was a masterstroke as the world is so different to the other big games out.

COD: WWII

The campaign is standard enough and the characters are…grand, but COD always has great set-pieces. The presentation is fantastic and the gameplay is smooth (The M1 Garand is more fun here that I think any other WWII game). Iv’e stormed Normandy about three times in the last year and a half and while Allied assault is by far the best, this is a respectable second.

Battlefield 3

A short campaign isn’t a bad thing. B3 is grounded as oppose to COD’s ott extravaganza. My biggest issue is that you can be running around and get caught on a tiny pebble in a car park. It’s decent but still comes off as a cheap mans COD.

Battlefield 4

A step down from 3, I encountered a few minor bugs, most notably where the NPC’s wouldn’t follow me and I had to mission restart. There was the odd design choice in the campaign that don’t really work following on from 3. The multiple choice ending is laughably lazy. There was one apart I found really frustrating. At one point you have to cross a large area filled with about 20 normal enemies, snipers and armour, then go through a short tunnel into a second area filled with normal enemies, snipers and rpg troops as well as another armour. Any sane person would put the checkpoint in the tunnel but not DICE, clear both areas as well as the park behind or it’s back to the start again. The game looks great though.