Boggles the mind how people can play FromSoftware games and be like "Oh these games are amazing, they don't hold your hand or tell you where to go and they're incredibly hard to master but so rewarding when you do" then they play OG Tomb Raider and just instantly assume it's shit because the controls are hard to get used to.

Maybe it's because platforming in AAA games has been dumbed down to an insulting degree or maybe it's because modern Tomb Raider is more action focused, but these games have always been primarily exploration, puzzle and platforming games with a specific control set designed for that, not action games with shit controls.

If you're new to this trilogy then please, take your time to get to grips with it and you'll experience some absolute masterclasses in level design and atmosphere.

What an absolutely beautiful remaster so clearly made by people full of love for the source material. Tomb Raider fans spent well over a decade begging for this to happen and it's far better than I could have ever imagined. Fingers crossed for The Last Revelation, Chronicles and Angel of Darkness next, then even Legend, Anniversary and Underworld.

Lara Croft is back, baby!

I think I'm just so disillusioned with gaming these days. When I see a game getting universal acclaim I thought it must be something worth experiencing, when instead it seems to be a reflection on how big a budget the game had.

The basic combat is fine but wears thin quickly and when it tries to add more variety it becomes more of an annoyance than a fun challenge. The rest of the game is just running or forced walking from place to place whilst characters speak to you, with the occasional branching path (barely even a path) where you can get some dohicky which makes your very specific type of arrow do 0.2% more damage. The platforming is basic, which for a modern AAA game is saying something.

The worst aspect is the puzzles. Not only easy as piss, but every single time the game shoves the solution in your face with dialogue mere seconds after entering a puzzle area. I have never played a game so intent on insulting the players as God of War Ragnarok and there is no way to switch this off. It was four years before this Shadow of the Tomb Raider at least gave people options to change the difficulty when it comes to this condescending game design, but so many games are terrified of you having to use your brain for so much as a second because you might get frustrated and miss the next super emotional cutscene. Has the success of the Souls series not shown that gamers enjoy frustration as it can lead to an incredible payoff? One this series denies you.

The story is fine, the characters all talk like you'd expect in mainstream American entertainment but besides that I was interested until the actual game part of the game became too boring and insulting to carry on.

Ah well, I'm glad lots of other people enjoy the game even if I can't stand it. I think if I've learned anything from this it's to not get sucked into hype and learn to accept when I'm not enjoying a game and give up rather than force myself through it.

Right so Deadly Premonition is my favourite game of all time. Not because I think it's so bad it's good, but because I think it's a masterpiece with a couple of rough edges.

Yes there was some jank, yes the combat felt like a cheap Resident Evil 4 and yes there were some incredibly frustrating quick time events, but the voice acting was fantastic and fit with the characters, every character from the main cast to the side NPCs were all unique, Greenvale felt like a real place with a deep and fleshed-out world and it's one of the very few games to make me shed a tear with how much it grabbed me in and made me care for its characters.

This sequel was never going to live up to the original for me, I knew that, yet I'm still let down. An average of 15fps and three crashes in 20 hours isn't acceptable. Yes, Deadly Premonition was known for running terrible but only in ports on PS3, PC and the Switch prior to some patching. The original Xbox 360 version ran at a mostly stable 30fps and technically worked fine. It frustrates me that people are excusing that state it's in as part of the charm when it never was to begin with, even more so that I can imagine the devs knowing this and using it as an excuse to release it in such a state.

Even more so, if this game gets patched and works at a solid 60fps it won't fix a lot of the problems. Le Carre feels mostly lifeless and empty, the cast doesn't have anything on those of the last game, the trans character is handled pretty terribly, York impersonating an African man is needless and pointless, the otherworld sections are far worse than before as they have been reduced to a few hallways with nothing but full combat where at least the first had puzzles and was scary and the new cartoony art style just doesn't fit the tone.

As for what good I can say, the soundtrack is great even if half of it is from the original, the cast all give good performances and the 2019 sections are really intriguing even if they can drag on a bit

Even if it's patched I find it hard to recommend this to anyone unless you absolutely loved the original and need to know what happened after it like me, even if I would have preferred that story to have stayed contained.

Can be a good amount of fun at times and looks gorgeous, but the more emotional moments failed to connect with me even though I can admit they're done well. Surprisingly glitchy on Series X as well but nothing games breaking.

I think I'd have eaten this up a few years back but I'm at a point where I'm so tired of overly cinematic games with all of their forced walking sections and constant dialogue. The game also rarely lets you figure things out for yourself.

In short, a decent ride but nothing memorable.

This game is getting brutalised in Metacritic user reviews but as a big Dontnod Entertainment fan I gave it a shot and it's pretty decent.

Looks much better than their previous games, the mind palace sections are a lot of fun and the characters are likeable enough even if you won't remember them in a few weeks.

As for the bad It's much shorter than the Life is Strange games and Tell Me Why so feels a little rushed so unless you're desperate for this kind of thing I'd recommend waiting for a sale.

Solid 6/10 for me keeping the £25 price tag in mind. Nowhere near as bad as I've been reading.