Although Far Cry 3 is showing its age, it is still a highly enjoyable action adventure game set on a couple of tropical islands.
You play as Jason Brody, a spoilt rich kid, who quickly finds himself fighting for his and his friends' survival when their dream holiday turns into a nightmare.
If you have played any Ubisoft open world games before, then the gameplay loop will be familiar to you: unlock map details, complete side quests to level up and upgrade your equipment before tackling the main storyline.
Far Cry 3, despite some technical hitches, is a fun, crazy game that doesn't outstay its welcome., offering an explosive, off the wall adventure for gamers who just want to have some fun.

An interesting world that wasn't fully realised. It is a beautiful game with your standard adventure game gameplay. The game works fine, with few issues encountered but it doesn't bring anything new to the genre.
The game felt like it ended just as it was getting interesting. It felt like some of the storylines were left open to serve as plot hooks for a sequel but all this has done has left me feeling annoyed at the unresolved plot points.
A solid gameplay experience that was a bit on the short side. I wouldn't recommend buying it at full price but if it is on sale, it is worth a go.

Marvel’s Spider-Man allows you to take control of Spider-Man as he tries to keep New York CIty safe. The game starts with Spider-Man helping the police arrest Fisk in a well constructed, action packed tutorial sequence. You would think that taking down the biggest crime lord in New York would give Spicer-Man a break but it quickly turns out to be the catalyst that would see New York under siege from several well known enemies from Spider-Man’s past. Overall, I really enjoyed the main story. It felt like it would make a great story arc in a Spider-Man comic and is also able to maintain a great balance between keeping the story accessible to newcomers to the Spider-Man universe and paying a little fan service, with cameos, to long-time Spider-Man fans.

The main story is only a small part of the game. Marvel’s Spider-Man has a lot of side quests, activities and collectibles for you to get sidetracked with. Initially, the side quests and optional activities are quite varied, such as a mixture of fighting criminals and using your gadgets to support the research stations. However, once you get about half way through the game, you start to see a bit of repetition in these tasks. For example, you will start the game being able to uncover Fisk’s hideouts. There aren’t that many on the map and is easily doable in the first act of the game. So, you clear them and move on to the second act, which reveals another factions' hideouts, which have to be dealt with in the same way as the Fisk hideouts. This happens three times throughout the game with just the hideouts alone- same thing just cosmetically different looking enemies. I personally would have preferred either fewer side activities with more variety in the tasks. That being said this is only a small negative, as these are all optional activities and there were plenty of tasks that I really enjoyed, like exploring New York city in order to take pictures of famous landmarks.

Speaking of exploring the city, let’s talk about the mechanics. Web swinging is easily one of the best aspects of the game and Insomniac Games should be praised for how well they implemented it. I found myself just enjoying building up my swing speed and performing aerial acrobatics through Hell’s Kitchen. The other mechanic that I felt was well implemented was the spidey sense. It is very similar to the combat mechanic in the Batman Arkham games but it still feels like it fits into a Spider-Man game. I also like the implementation of suit powers and gadgets, which allow you to play Marvel’s Spider-Man the way you want to play.

The final two elements of the game I want to talk about are the setting and the music. Insomniac Games have done a great job in creating a city that feels like a city. As you swing by on your way to your next crime scene, you will hear the citizens of New York yell out to you, car horns and subway trains. You will experience the city through different times of the day and in all weathers- all of this just helps to immerse you into the world of Spider-Man. I also like the fact that Insomniac Games avoided the temptation of making this a huge sprawling open world game. Yes, New York city is big but you can still web swing from one end of the city to the other in a reasonable amount of time. The final thing I want to briefly mention is the music. John Paesano has done an incredible job with Marvel’s Spider-Man’s musical score. It fits so well and gives the game an epic cinematic feel. I love the soundtrack so much that I have saved it on Spotify so I can listen to whilst writing these game reviews.

I think it is pretty clear that I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Marvel’s Spider-Man. It is clear that Insomniac Games had spent a lot of time and care in creating a game that feels like it is part of the Spider-Man universe, rather than a game that has Spider-Man in it. Some of the quests do feel a little repetitive but that is a small part of the experience and did not detract from my experience. Overall, I highly recommend Marvel’s Spider-Man, especially of you are looking for a game to play on your PS4.

Let me start by saying that Bad North is one of those 'easy to learn, difficult to master' games. The goal is simple: use your soldiers to defend your island from the invading vikings.
Sounds easy, right? Well, the first few islands are, but then once you have come across the different enemy troops, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, you realise there is osme depth to Bad North. You have access to three different types of soldiers: warriors, archers and pikemen. Like with the enemy, each of these soldier types have their own strengths and wekeness, such as the pikemen are great at holding a gap but cannot attack whilst moving. Your limited choice in troops, combined with the varied enemey troops, are what helps create the challenge for the player.

Bad North has a high level of replayability as each campaign has a randomly generated set of islands, which can have a huge impact on your game. I found that I was better at defending islands that high ground for my archers and narrow paths that my pikemen could defend but I struggle with the flatter islands, taht required more manoeuvrable troops to defend them.

Overall, I really enjoyed playing Bad North. Its simplistic visuals and gameplay hide a strategy roguelike game taht will offer a decent challenge for strategy fans.

I think I should get this out of the way first: Skyrim is easily one of the best open world RPGs that has been released. I have played it on and off since it was first released in 2011, yes that makes me feel old, but back in December I decided that I was going to play through the base game and all of the DLC. Fast forward to 25th January and I finally finished the last of the DLC content. So with my experience fresh in my mind, I thought I would share my thoughts on Skyrim.

One of Skyrim’s strongest aspects is its world and the way it encourages exploration. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, Skyrim is a fantastic open world game. After the tutorial-like area of Helgen, you are pretty much left to your own devices. In fact, you can completely ignore the main story and instead set off on your own to discover your own destiny. It was this freedom, in fact, that resulted in me taking years to actually see the main story to its conclusion. It is clear that the land of Skyrim has been lovingly crafted. Each location seems to have its own history, even if it doesn’t have a quest tied to it; which encourages you to just delve into a cave or enter a seemingly abandoned fort. The environment is varied from the open grasslands around Whiterun to the frozen wasteland of Wintehold. In fact, each of the cities has its own look and character, my favourites were the medieval feeling Windhelm and shady Riften where everyone seems out to con you. I can easily say that each time I played skyrim, I played longer than I planned to just because I wanted to explore just one more tomb.

I should also point out that for a ten year old game, Skyrim doesn’t look that bad. Yes, it shows its age when comparing to the latest releases on PS5 and Xbox but it certainly doesn’t look as old as some other games that were released around the same time. I particularly loved the use of lighting, such as in the Bleak Falls Barrow when you reach the cavern with the word wall or the Eldergleam Sanctuary. I also loved Skyrim’s night sky, asit wasn’t just black or dark blue but instead was a bend of different colours that reminded me of the northern lights. The visual design definitely helps to encourage players to explore the land of SKyrim.

Like with the visuals, the music and use of sound is also well executed. To this day, I still think Dragonborn is one of the best pieces of menu music used in a video game. It just feels epic and will get any player excited to jump into a fantasy world. I also love the inclusion of bards in the inns, who will also perform a small selection of songs. This just helps bring the cities to life, as well as further the worldbuilding. In fact, I often listen to the soundtrack on Spotify and it is one of my favourite fantasy themed soundtracks.

So, I have talked about the environment and music, now let’s talk about the story. Your character is the Dragonborn- an individual who is able to slay dragons and absorb their souls. Your arrival to Skyrim couldn’t have been at a better time, as dragons have also returned, after centuries of absence. The dragon leader, Alduin, is determined to suppress humanity and make the dragons the dominant sp[ecies in Skyrim and it is up to you to stop him. Initially, the story is quite epic, as you will travel across the length and breadth of Skyrim as you try to find a way to stop Alduin. However, the story is let down by the final quest. I won’t spoil it here but the final battle felt a little anticlimactic after such a build up.

It is not just the main storyline that suffers from this. There are a number of factions that you can join from the Thieves Guild to the heroic Companions. I would say that the Dark Brotherhood, a group of assassins, has the best story but even that felt a little cliche; whilst the Mages College was quite boring and repetitive. The storyline that had so much potential but did not live up to my expectation was the civil war storyline. Not long into the game, you will discover that Skyrim is divided by two forces competing to rule it. You can choose to get involved in this conflict and pick a side to support. You would think that a civil war would have battles, sieges and moral dilemmas. Unfortunately, there are two ‘sieges’ and a couple of forts you will fight to take over. Again, it just feels anticlimactic. It is a shame but in some ways the story is the weakest part and it is easy to see how some players will choose to make their own stories and find their own adventure in Skyrim.

Another aspect of Skyrim is the combat. If you are going to be a melee fighter, be prepared for hours of just running around and wildly swinging your weapon in the direction of the enemy. Magic users do have a bit more complexity, as there are plenty of different spells to use but ultimately you will be holding down a couple of buttons to whittle the enemy’s health bar down. As for stealthy archers… there isn’t much combat to speak of if you hit the enemy. Admittedly combat has always been one of the weakest elements of The Elder Scrolls games but hopefully we will see an improvement in this in future releases.

Skyrim does tend to divide RPG fans with its skill trees and levelling up system. Unlike traditional RPGs, in which your character will have a class and statistics, Skyrim is much more streamlined. There are no classes- your character can be a mage wearing heavy armour or warrior that uses fire magic and summons weapons. Any character can learn and use any skill. I personally don’t mind this. It offers a lot of freedom and replayability. I also think that it is a great system for someone new to the RPG genre.

Finally, the DLC I have to be honest, the three DLCs are not that great when compared to the base game. The first DLC released was Dawnguard, which delves into a conflict between vampires and vampire hunters. It sounds interesting but soon enough you will be delving into familiar looking tombs and dwemer ruins. Then there was Dragonborn which takes you to the island of Solstheim, which mixes Nord and Dunmer culture. This was actually my favourite out of the three DLCs just because you got to explore a completely new location. It did have a strange difficulty spike, so I would advise players to leave it until after finishing the main game. Finally, there was Hearthfire, a DLC that allowed you to build three houses. Unfortunately, there was little customisation, so you were essentially building the same house three times. Oh and you could adopt two children for some reason. The best way to sum up the DLCs: the developers had some great ideas but didn’t really expand those ideas to realise their full potential.

Overall, I love Skyrim. Yes, its story is not the strongest and some of its mechanics feel simple. However, Skyrim’s strength and charm lies in the world it created. It is truly a game that offers the player a feeling of escape and wonder. In Skyrim you can feel like a hero straight from your favourite fantasy story. It is also a great entry point into the RPG genre. If you have never played Skyrim I highly recommend you do, it is an experience you won’t easily forget.

Assassin's Creed had a great concept and setting but was held back by the repetitiveness of the gameplay. Each memory sequence was the same: get your target, go to relevant city, speak to assassin, complete the same three activities, go back to assassin, complete assassination and then return to Masyaf. At the halfway point, I did struggle with this but Altair's journey and the Crusade setting kept me playing.
I would recommend Assassin's Creed to people who have played some of the later titles, especially Assassin's Creed II, who want to see how the series began. However if you are a newcomer to the series, don't start with this game but i would recommend Assassin's Creed II instead.