Fuck the whip. If you have played this you will know what I mean. Call of Juarez is a very interesting and quite unique FPS with a Western setting. Originally released for the PC in 2006, we got a 360 release in 2007 and if you can handle a bit of jank it holds up pretty well. The story is really nice. You play as Ray, a former preacher, hunting Billy (some random kid IDK), who has been accused of killing his parents. You also Billy running away from Ray (Your Uncle) and trying to find out who really killed your parents. The way the story untangles as you alternate between the characters is surprisingly good and will keep you interested for sure. The setting is also very nice and you can tell the developers put a lot of effort into making you feel like you are in the wild west. Jumping between gold mining towns and lush forests, with a nice selection of weapons and even some fist fighting. It also has a concentration gauge, allowing you to slow down time to blast enemies. Best of all, at the end of some levels you have a one on one pistol duels, just like in the movies, excellent. Consensus is that Ray's levels are more fun. He can lob dynamite and use twin pistols. Billy on the other hand has a bow and a whip. The whip is really the downfall of the game. I would argue that the reason Billy's levels are worse is because of the use of the whip. There are a few platforming sections in the game where you need to use the whip to jump over gaps or traverse rocks and it just kinda doesn't work very well. In addition to that, there are a couple of sections where the game isn't super clear on what you need to do next, but nowadays there are loads of video guides online, so you should be fine. This is not a perfect game, it's janky as hell, sometimes unfair and often confusing. Yet, I can't help but appreciate COJ for trying to do something a bit different and succeeding. In 2023 the datedness of this thing only adds to it's charm, an interesting addition for any collection.

Did you know that Warriors Orochi 2 was actually intended to be an expansion of the first game? The answer to that is probably yes because it's basically the same game. If Koei Temco are one of the worst companies for the copy and paste theory of making games, this might be their worst offence, and it is really difficult to see the differences between the two games bar the story (which isn't that much different). So what do we have here? Well, some more hack and slash action in ancient China and Japan, with a huge cast of characters. These games pit you against huge armies of enemies who seem to stand there and do nothing. It is kinda fun smashing through literally thousands of enemies in one battle, but the lack of effort from these enemy "warriors" is a bit concerning. It's very much one of those games that you either love or hate. For Orochi 2, they have kept the mechanic that made Orochi 1 more interesting than other warriors games, in that you play as 3 characters. Swapping between the characters does still feel good, yet it's less novel this time around, and a lack of any further innovation or polish is disappointing. However, Orochi does solve one issue that plagued the first game, the need to grind out levels. For that reason alone, 2 is a little better, because no one likes to grind. For the majority of us that don't really have the patience to get that far, even this doesn't really matter.

Game collections disks on the 360 can be split into 2 categories, those which bundle in games from older consoles and those which bundle arcade games which were released on the console. This is Capcom's attempt at bundling some of their arcade releases onto a physical disk. This all seems well and good, as you probably end up saving a bit of money from buying the games digitally, and some people like to have physical disks. The issues with these games seem to really outweigh the advantages. For a start, it's unlikely that you will enjoy all the games on the disk. This collection includes 7 Capcom games, with big hitters such as street fighter and puzzle fighter, along with very obscure titles such as flock and rocketman. It's unlikely that you will enjoy all of these games, in fact for me I was only really into final fight. This is especially the case when rocketman is absolutely horrible. Secondly, these games aren't particularly classics and don't really have any history. This means that there are no unlocks, no bonuses and no benefit of owning these games in this collection format. Finally, and probably worst of all, if you want to swap between games you need to go back to the dashboard and load up the game again. Aside from owning these games when they are delisted, there is really no point to this disk. Yet, with 7 fairly decent games on the disk, I shouldn't be too harsh.

Do you like angry birds? Do you want to play the first 3 angry birds games on your console. That's about all you need to ask yourself with this one. It's a very simple package of the first 3 games with little added or taken away. It seems a bit sparse for a full disk release, but nowadays you can probably find it for much less than that. As a window to the golden era of mobile gaming, it does it's job, it just doesn't really seem like the type of thing you need a console to play, but it's fun nonetheless.

Do you like angry birds? Do you want to play the first 3 angry birds games on your console. That's about all you need to ask yourself with this one. It's a very simple package of the first 3 games with little added or taken away. It seems a bit sparse for a full disk release, but nowadays you can probably find it for much less than that. As a window to the golden era of mobile gaming, it does it's job, it just doesn't really seem like the type of thing you need a console to play, but it's fun nonetheless.

Another Dragon Ball game, another one I didn't really enjoy. The weird lack of story and very poor voice work was off-putting, so if that is what you enjoy from these games look elsewhere. The camera is even worse. That being said, compared to other DB games, this one is a bit more complex and has a bit more substance in terms of tactical fighting. You can't just button mash in this one (well at least not to the same extent), it requires some blocking and dodging to get through the missions. It's all well explained in the tutorial and if you are looking for something to sink your teeth into, this is definitely an improvement over most DB titles. While this game isn't really for me, I can see it being enjoyable for DB fans willing to invest a bit of time.

It's not a thing you would hear people say now, but I really like the call of duty campaigns. Call of Duty 1 was one of my first forays into modern shooters. It got better with United Offensive and then Call of Duty 2 blowing me away with how well it ported over to consoles. It really gave you the feeling of being a nameless grunt in a horrible situation. Call of duty 3 is the third in the mainline series and I have to say it really misses the mark. Now keep in mind I'm focusing on campaign only, because even though some of these games are still populated in 2023, most of them don't deliver the complete original experience. The campaign seeminlgy changes very little from the previous games. It looks similar, the same weapons and enemies. It feels the same, the controls work as intended. But it's just not as good. It's difficult to put your figure on exactly what they messed up here, but I'll try my best. Firstly, the campaign feels a lot more linear and less open, feeling a bit more like a corridor shooter. Epic battles where you are working which big groups of AI teammates were one of my favorite aprts of 2, and it is really lacking in 3. Yes you have AI teammates, but you often end up ploughing through areas on your own. Small tweaks like the annoying mini games, the less interesting locations, the ammount of time spent in the car and the unskippable cutscenes just seem to detract from the immersive and epic hell that was call of duty 2, and give more of a sloppy feeling. The AI also feels like a step down, both in terms of friendlies and the enemy. I can't recall an instance of a teammate coming to my aid or feeling stuck in a certain corner as the enemies had my number. It just feels average. It's kind of difficult to explain nowadays as COD isn't what it used to be, but going from COD1 and COD2 to this, felt like going from Call of Duty to Medal of Honor or another lesser copy. Still a fine game, but nowhere near the feeling of 2. With the sheer number of COD games on the console, this is definitely one to avoid.

Rugby League Live 3, is a decent rugby league experience. It's a polished and well-made game, not far off the likes of madden and FIFA in terms of quality.it has a nice variety of game modes, be a player, be a manager, season modes, decent menus and all without the micro transaction BS that comes with these kind of games. It is easy to pick up and the controls work well. Even as a novice, I was able to pick the game up and quickly figure out what to do without resorting to tutorials. It's also a lot smoother and easier to control than the older games, with a very modern feel and a nice flow. Now, this is also coming from me, someone who doesn't really know much about Rugby League. In fact, being honest, I find the game of Rugby League not that interesting and not really worth being made into a game. This may sound a bit harsh, but the 6 tackle only rule means you spend a lot of the time kicking the ball back to the other team. It makes it difficult to build momentum and ruins the flow of the game. Now, this doesn't really matter, as it's unlikely that you would pick this up if you didn't like Rugby League. So with that in mind, I can recommend this one. It's a nice Rugby League package with nothing I really dislike except the sport itself.

As a huge fan of the SNES classic Zombies Ate My Neighbours, I was pretty excited for this spiritual successor. Zombies was a top down coop zombie killer which had a lot of character. With it's cute graphic, funny enemies and vibrant well thought out levels. From a first glance, Monster Madness Battle for Suburbia appears to match the feel of the SNES classic. In some ways it does. You can really tell the developers have taken most of the ideas from that game and tried to modernise it. There's a nice selection of varied levels, from your house to the streets of the suburbs and even hell. There's a decent selection of silly weapons and a nice variety of enemies. Yet, something is off about it. First thing I noticed was the way the game looks. It's really ugly. The style attempts to match the cutesy and silly visuals of ZAMN, but it's a lot more brown, bland and in general less appealing. The generic high-school stereotype characters are annoying and offensive and the enemies are just weird. Then we have the camera and controls issue. The top down camera straight up doesn't work. With this game being more focused on 3rd person shooting than hand to hand combat, the camera angle means you can't really aim properly or even see where enemies are. IF you play alone, you can set a different camera angle (by pressing y - thank me later), which makes it slightly more playable but with the game itself being pretty boring to play alone, this isn't a great option. The difficulty is also problematic. There are 4 difficulty levels, but unless you pick easy, it's just way too hard. After playing a few hours of the game, I realised that no matter how much I wanted to like it, I wasn't having fun. Don't bother with this one.

I'm weirdly nostalgic for movie tie in games. At the time, everyone hated them. Yet, I can't help but feel a bit of happiness when I see a random movie tie in game from previous consoles. Pirates of the Caribbean, only one on the console thankfully, is a quite decent action adventure game. You play as Amber heard's ex husband on an adventure through parts of the movie? To be honest, I haven't seen the movie, BUT the game does look nice. The areas are all detailed, colourful and varied, and I really enjoyed exploring them. Gameplay is a mix between hack and slash, platforming and some elements of puzzle solving, with a few collectables thrown in there. The gameplay is simple but varied and the levels do feel realistic. The game also has quite a nice plot with some great cutscenes. Did they get Legolas to do the voice lines? No idea. But the story was interesting and didn't feel tacked on. There is a quite unique duel system to the game, in which you sword fight one on one which was enjoyable and worked well. I also like the variety with different weapons and enemy types. Overall it's a game which appeals to both adults and children and will keep you entertained through it's short campaign. It's nothing incredible, but we rarely see games like this nowadays and I do miss them.

If you are nostalgic for some oldschool sega fun, these are the games for you. There is something so unique about these very arcadey and very japanese sega titles. The upbeat music, the calm and cool menus, the warp sound as you move through the menus and best of all the way the announcer shouts virtua tennis as the game starts. Super Monkey ball fans and Dreamcast owners will know what I am talking about. Virtua Tennis, or Power Smash as it's called in Japan, is an arcade style tennis series, which doesn't take itself too seriously. It has the standard tennis modes and a bunch of fun mini games to play. If you are looking for some fun with friends and the occasionally non commital round on the courts this one is for you. However, if you are looking for depth, this is probably not for you. The controls are very simple, there are not to many different tactics or shot types, the main campaign is very similar to top spin, but again simplified without the in-depth stat building mechanics. On top of this, there is not a great deal of progession between games. Virtua Tennis 3 holds up pretty well against Top spin 2, but there is a pretty big gulf between Virtua Tennis 4 and Top Spin 4. All these factors make it a worse series, but they are still fairly fun to play and really saved but the top notch audio. If you are looking at picking up a game from this series, you can't really go wrong with any of them, but I would probably pick 3 as my favourite and likely the cheapest of the bunch nowadays.

As a mid 30s dude, WWE (we all know it's WWF really) games hold some form of nostalgia for me. I was a kid at the height of its popularity and loved wwf warzone and attitude. If you go back now, these games are almost unplayable. The controls are mental and you need to remember a bunch of random button combinations. The later WWE games on the system realised this and have simplified things a great deal. You now just need to grapple and use the right thumbstick to pull off a variety of moves, which personally I think is a good thing. One nice thing I will mention about 2K16 is it has a stone cold story mode, where you play out scenarios from stone cold's career. As a fan of this era, that was a nice touch and it has been done well, feeling like a quality package. Aside from that, there are not a great deal of differences from the other WWE releases around this time, and unless you are a big stone cold fan, you can probably also look at 2k15 or 2k17. I quite enjoyed this one, but I'm not a huge WWE fan so take it with a pinch of salt.

The golden compass is one of two games on the console that features a mission asking you to sweep up shit. Just like Risen (the other of the two games), I actually quite enjoyed this one, and consider it quite underrated. Based on a movie, which I haven't seen, which is in turn based on a kids book that I haven't read, this game really stands out for both good and bad reasons. Starting with bad, the story makes absolutely no sense. The levels are cut with various clips from the movie which seem to have tenuous links at best to whats happening in the mission. It's a shame because it does seem like quite a nice idea for a story, particularly for younger players. The game also isn't great at explaining at what you have to do and I had to use a guide a some points, which isn't great for a kids game. To be honest I'm probably just an idiot. On the positive side, its really quite different from a lot of other movie tie in games. For a start the levels look really nice, the graphics aren't anything special, but many of the levels are very colourful and the variety of levels really stands out. You go from a frozen tundra to a stately home in oxford to a pirate ship. It's a nice change from the dull gray levels we see in a lot of similar budget games. The gameplay also is quite unique. There's a mix of some platforming, fetch quests, puzzles and simple combat and dialogue challenges in the form of mini games. None of them are anything special, but all fairly enjoyable. My favourite aspect is the alethiometer. There are hidden symbols that you can find throughout levels. These are used to solve riddles using the aethalometer. If you find them great, but if you don't you can still make educated guesses. Its a nice incentive to explore levels without forcing you to replay them, and a unique gameplay feature I haven't really seen in other games. If you are looking for something a little different, I would recommend giving this one a try. A worthy addition to any collection.

I haven't got through all the Moto GP games yet, but I'm predicting this to be my favourite of the series. Moto GP 14 was great, it added some interesting features and just made racing fun. Moto GP 15 is very similar to its predecessor, but polishes things up where they really matter, in the racing. The bikes feel better than ever and handle very well. It's difficult to explain what changes have been made, but the racing just feels right. Different bikes handle differently. Different race strategy can really make or break a race. You'll find yourself remembering corners from previous races and whether the tactics that you used on that corner worked or not. While I'm maybe not being critical enough of milestone for how similar this is to 14, I had a lot of fun with it and that's what counts.