The game looks great and it's cute but I didn't really enjoy it all that much. The platforming isn't fun to do because of the lack of a free jump button. I imagine the game would have broken apart if there was so I don't blame the developers but the designated jump spots just don't feel great. The puzzles aren't anything to write home about with some feeling way too basic and others basically just coming down to pixel hunting. I found myself not caring at all about the world or the characters. It was ok for a playthrough on PS+ Extra but I'm glad I didn't pay for it.

Horizon Zero Dawn is the type of game that you want to keep playing for the story. Even if you get bored by the gameplay, you'll want to uncover more about the world. With a lot of post apocolyptic fiction, the actual cause of the apocolypse isn't that important and it's usually more a way to explore human relationships in a new world which often boils down to everyone killing each other. Although, Zero Dawn has quite a lot of that which is pretty interesting with how the different tribes see themselves and their relations to one another, the actual apocolyptic event and immediate response to it is probably the most interesting one I've experienced in fiction. It very layers it as a mystery that you uncover more and more of as the story goes on. It connects it deeply to the journey of the protagonist, Aloy which does do a decent job in making it feel more personal even if it can skew into a chosen one narrative which aren't always the best. A lot of it is told with audio and text logs which a lot of people are tired of but I was interested enough that I sought them all out.

Horizon is an open world game and it doesn't do anything particular unqiue with the format. You have to climb towers to unveil map icons although those towers are moving machines which doesn't actually add much to a rote mechanic. There's areas to clear out whether they're filled with bandits or murderous machines. There's also hunting spots that offer time trial challenges. Fortunately, the map isn't completely littered with these activities so the repitition you'll feel when going for 100% completion. There's a decent number of side quests in the game. These definitely fall under the post Witcher 3 era of side quests where the writing is attempting to be more engaging than side quests of past but still ultimately being fairly standard. The game has a skill tree which you're just going to get everything by the end of the game and some light upgrading of weapons and gear.

The combat in the game is quite good, at least when dealing with machines. There's a pretty large variety of machines to fight that all have different tactics. You also have a large amount of weapons and it is always worth it to swap them around and use different ones for different situations. Playing the game on ultra hard, it felt very rewarding to figure out how every machine works and the best ways to take them down. The DLC adds some new harder enemies which are almost ridiculous but still fun to fight. As good as fighting machines is, human combat is the exact opposite. It's very boring and unsatisfying. There isn't that much of it in the game, especially compared to machine combat but it drags the game down whenever you have to do it.

It is a decent game but I felt it was mostly the story pulling me through. The DLC adds another area with you doing most of the same stuff from the main game with its own self contained and good story.

I'm not sure why I skipped this series when it was coming out but looking back, I definitely would have enjoyed it in my youth. It's still pretty fun today. It's a fairly breezy playthrough where doing the collectathon is easy but still pretty satisfying. The levels are good for the most part with an interconnected structure that makes it easy to get to and from any part of it. The jump feels a bit weird which is a bad thing to say about any platformer but it didn't get in the way too much. The game is absolutely worth a shot.

Toys for Bob really did a wonderful job at updating and following up the original trilogy. In some ways, it feels like the series hasn't missed a beat in twenty years. It controls better and although there is still some problems with depth perception, the added marker for where you will land helps a lot. The visuals are great and the setpieces are very fun. The masks and additional characters add a layer of complexity to the platforming which feels rewarding when you learn the mechanics.

Crash, whether it's accurate or not, has a reputation for being hard and I feel that Toys for Bob perhaps over steered in that direction when making this sequel. Some of the challenge is quite fun but there are a number of areas that are just downright frustrating and there are a lot more cheap deaths. I'm very a completionist in games but I knew going in not to bother here. What they expect from you to get 100% or 106% is crazy. The levels have way more crates than previous games with a lot of them being hidden in ways that you would never notice in normal gameplay. Plus they expect you to get all the crates without dying once and these levels are long filled with tons of ways to kill you. On top of that, there's the inverted levels where you have to do it all again with a slight twist on the level that doesn't really add much. If you managed to do all that, then you'll definitely be sick of the levels before you start doing time trials. Because of this, I just mainlined the game which despite enjoying it and praising aspects of it made it end up feeling like a quick forgettable experience. I think the developers did a great job but they really need to design the optional content better if they make a sequel.

It's hard not to be too critical of these PS1 games since it's an era of gaming that has not aged the best. Syphon Filter very much feels like a game from over twenty years ago. It doesn't give you much direction and it's easy to get lost because everything looks the same and the in-game maps are terrible. The controls are weird and simple moving can be aggravating. The story is dumb with some horrendous voice acting. All that said though, I didn't hate playing through it. I got bored and frustrated a few times but I was at least willing to play through. Third person shooting, or any shooting on a console, hasn't really been figured out by then but that aspect wasn't as bad as I was expecting even if the crosshair movement is very slow. It's at least worth a playthrough but I'm very happy to use the emulator rewind and save states offered on Playstation Plus Premium. I don't have the patience for old game checkpointing anymore.

I remembered this game being my favourite in the series when I was young and that opinion has not stood the test of time for me. The gimmicky levels get annoying after a while even if they can be fun. There aren't any real standouts in the regular levels. This remake is perhaps a little too faithful in terms of control and depth perception is still pretty challenging. The boss fights are fairly enjoyable. The developers did a great job of updating the look of the game; the whole remake trilogy looks fantastic. I had a decent time with it but I'm happy to leave the game in the past.

Uncharted 2 is one of the best games ever made and it's not surprising that the gaming industry desperately kept trying to replicate it for years afterwards. Nuaghty Dog offered an incredibly polished package where almost everything is stellar. The shooting feels great and often takes place in areas that have level design that promotes moving around. The platforming is a bit simple but still pretty fun and the things you're climbing usually look incredible. The climbing also makes the shootouts more dynamic. I do wish there were a few more puzzles with some complexity but the ones that are there are fine.

The graphics were some of the best when it came out that, while going for a realistic look, has a great use of colour so it has aged pretty well. The story is a lot of fun and the characters are great with some fantastic performances. The set pieces were what set the game apart when it came out and they were unbelieveable back in 2009. The train set piece is still one of the most exhilarating sequences in games but there's still plenty of memorable ones outside of that such as the truck convoy, the collapsing building and being chased by the tank. The game has a really good pace which makes it easy to play in large chunks. The only part that drags is the extended amount of shootouts in the snowy temple area near the end of the game. In almost every other way, the game is just a joy to play through from beginning to end.

Xenoblade Chronicles is one of my favourite games so it was nice to play a new little epilogue to the story included in the Definitive Edition. And it's just OK. I do think for the most part that these smaller episodes usually done with post-game DLC for role-playing games or any game with leveling and upgrades can be unsatisfying. Separated from the main game where your character(s) don't carry over can be annoying and they're usually too short to have any sort of enjoyable progression.

Bionis' Shoulder where Future Connected takes place was a cut area from the main game and it probably was left unfinished for a reason. Mostly because it feels very similar to one of the early areas in the main game and it doesn't offer much new sights. Monolith Soft are the best in the business at world design and although this isn't them at their best since I doubt there was much resources designated to this epilogue but it is still fun to explore in the way that all their games are. There's still beatiful views to see with the great draw distance of the environment to always give you context of where you are in the world. There's nooks and crannies to poke your nose into and unique monsters to fight. The settlements there are pretty light but there's a decent amount of NPC's to do quests for. The story is also pretty light which is possibly offering a bit of setup for Xenoblade Chronicles 3. It does focus on Melia who is the best so I'm certainly not going to complain about that. I enjoyed this epilogue well enough but it's not something sepcial like the main game.

Max Payne 3 had the best third person shooting mechanics in games when it came out and it's still true 10 years later. It feels really great to play which can be annoying since it takes control away from you quite often. There's a lot of cutscenes and most of them are unskippable. The story it tells is decent enough if a little convoluted. Max's narration is pretty entertaining even though it can get overly indulgent. The game has a really cool stylistic presentation and there's a great flow between the cutscenes and gameplay even if you get annoyed by the sheer number of gameplay interrupts. Still, when you are diving and shooting in slow motion and admiring the great destruction physics, there's few games that play as good as it.

I'm probably kinder to this game than the rest of the world but I really do think it's great. Hangar 13 may not be great at filling their worlds with interesting gameplay content but they sure do know how to set a scene. The opening sequence is fantastic which transports you to this fictionalized New Orleans in the 60's and gives you a firm understanding of the characters and their motivations. The story being through a documentary structure with interviews and old footage is an inspired choice that works really well. Lincoln Clay is a great protaganist and the supporting cast is also wonderful with the cynical and hilarious CIA agent, John Donovan, and the the relucatantly supportive priest, Father James.The game is absolutely not afraid to shy away from the horrors of the setting with Lincoln Clay frequently encountering racism. This is used well in the story but is also woven into the gameplay as Lincoln can't enter certain stores without the cops being called and the cops being less responsive in poorer areas in New Bordeaux. With so many games being terrified of taking a side or being "too political", it's refreshing to see a game present this stuff for what it is.

For the gameplay, there is a very obvious point of criticism and it is the repetition. I actually don't dislike the loop but it is undeniably repetitive. You're taksed with taking down the various rackets throughout New Bordeaux. First you have to cause a certain amount of damage to the racket such as killing enforcers or destroying assets. This then draws out the rackets boss who you have to go kill or turn over to your side. Doing this twice in one district then allows you to go after the lieutenant or capo of that district which are essentially the main story missions. There is 18 rackets to take over so you'll be doing a lot asset destroying. The racket business is different for each one to create an air of variety but you'll be doing mostly the same stuff every time. You sneak into an area to kill someone or blow stuff up. The gunplay is really solid though and I felt the need to use different guns for different scenarios. The stealth is fairly simple but mostly satisfying. There's often vehicles you can randonly encounter driving around that your can blow up or tail. As bad as tailing missions are in games, I give Mafia 3 some credit for having probably the best tailing system in games ever as you're actually penalized for having a giant gap between you and the vehicle your tailing with no cars in between you. For some reason, that was always the thing that annoyed me the most about tailing missions rather than the tedium. Anyway, the worst part of the repitition is when a racket boss is in an area that you already cleared out in the asset destruction part. This can mostly be avoided if you know what assets to focus on but it is pretty annoying when it happens. I did quite enjoy sneaking into the areas as there are usually a few entrances and ways to tackle them.

When you actually get take down the lieutenant and capos in the main story missions, they are pretty good. You don't see a lot of these characters for very long but they leave an impression in their cutscenes with some very strong performances. As repetitive as taking down the rackets can be, these missions are pretty distinctive and memorable. They are also often enhanced by a fantastic selection of licensed music. These songs can also be listened to on the radio while in cars but they are used very well throughout the story.

When you claim a district, you can assign it to one of your three underbosses. They offer different services and a set of upgrades depending on how many districts you're willing to assign to them. They can ever turn against you if you don't give them any districts. It's not a particularly deep system but it gives a fun sense of progression and some decisions to make if you would rather have more health or more ammo capacity.

The DLC included in the Definitive Edition is pretty good. It doesn't have any rackets to take over so it strictly sticks to the more linear story missions which are mostly good. I liked having a weed business even if cash mostly becomes useless by the end of the game. Rebuilding Sammy's Bar was also a nice satisfying side activity.

I do really enjoy the game even if I am very understanding of why people got sick of the gameplay loop pretty quickly. The main reason I'm not rating it higher is the unfortunate amount of bugs. The game was famously buggy on release and there's still quite a few here in this so-called "Definitive Edition", some of which are actually new for this release. I really do think Hangar 13 have some talent and I'm not sure if the team still exists as it was so I don't know what the future holds for this series but I like what they managed to produce, warts and all.

There's definitely some fun to have with Shadow Warrior 3 even if its awful humour tries to make you regret it. The shooting usually takes place in designated battle arenas with ammo and health strewn about. You shoot enemies to get health and you slash enemes with your sword to get ammo. You build up a finisher bar that gives you a flashy gore kill and which gives you a gore weapon which have some powerful effects and are unique to every enemy. It's not massive but there's a decent variety to the weapons and enemies that you at least have to have some thought in how you deal with certain situations. There's also a fairly light upgrade path for your character and weapons. It is a satisfying enough loop even though I was beginning to get tired of it by the end of a pretty short game. The platforming while pretty simple is surprisingly fun which you rarely say about first person games. Unfortunately, the humour is awful and there's constant stupid dialogue coming from the main character filled with pop culture references and sex jokes. I haven't played the previous two games so I may have missed some stuff with the story but this game certainly didn't give me reason to care. There's still a decent few hours of fun to be had though.

SMTV may be lacking in some areas but its strengths are really strong. Its main strength being the combat. It is one of the best turn based combat systems I've ever played. It isn't entirely different from the previous games but it has such a tight design, it's hard to get tired of it. The Press Turn system is as fun as ever and really makes you consider aiming for weaknesses or crits and your team formation. No matter how hard a boss seemed at first, I loved that there was always another option to overcome it. Rather than grinding which I never felt the need to do, you can start fusing demons to both up the level of your demons and get a particular skill that may target the enemy's weakness. You can also use essences which allow you to take certain abilities as well as switch your main character's affinities which can be useful if an enemy use skills that you are weak to. Sometimes just rethinking your strategy such as how you use buffs/debuffs, team formation or what items to use can turn the tides of a difficult encounter. This remains satisfying throughout the whole game.

Exploration is also a lot of fun and very rewarding. There's always something to find while roaming that is useful. I mentioned the essences above which you can find in the world, as well as buying some from the vendor. You can find these cute mimans all over the world that gets you a set of items every five that you find as well as some glory. Glory which can be found in other means while exploring allows you to purchase miracles that upgrade your character such as allowing you to have more demons in your roster or have more skills. You can find demon statues that level up all your demons and there's various useful items strewn about. You uncover these things on the map by clearing out abcesses which are usually challenging demon fights. There are, of course, plenty of demons to encounter while exploring who you can recruit onto your team by talking to them. This process can be fun but it's perhaps a bit simplistic with not much strategy to it. There are four main areas to discover which do have an oddly enticing apocolyptic look to them with lots of sand and ruins but they do look a bit too similar with little variety. There is a decent verticality to the areas though which I appreciate. There isn't much in the way of towns to explore and NPC's to intereact with. The side quests are mostly rote too which is dissapointing.

A story involving different deities is usually something I enjoy but the plot and characters here are incredibly dull here. It mostly feels like an afterthought going through the same beats of order and chaos that the series usually deals with. The story is so uninteresting that it makes it easy to ignore it completely.

The combat and exploration being as fun as they are along with a fantastic soundtrack make it easy to recommend. I hope they continue to refine what they have to give us an even better sequel like Apocolypse was to SMTIV.

There are a number of game series where after their main story is told, they make a pointless prequel or a spinoff featuring a character that isn't worth focusing on. 2013 saw a few of these boring games like God of War: Ascension or Gears of War: Judgment. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance coming five years after the Metal Gear Solid series felt concluded in 2008 by Guns of the Patriots did feel like it was going the boring spinoff route. Fortunately, boring is the last thing you would ever refer to this game as. It takes familiar things from the series and pushes it to an almost parody level and it is wonderful. It's one of my favourite Metal Gear games and one of my favourite games of all time.

It's a Platinum game so you know it feels good to play. The combat is whole lot of fun. Admittedly, I've never been great a learning combos in character action games but it isn't really the focus. There's a few combos that are definitely useful for certain situations but the combat focus is really on the parry. You get a perfect parry and riposte when you attack in the direction of an oncoming attack right at the moment it's about the connect. Once you learn how to do it consistently, it feels amazing and never gets old. Another key element of the combat is the Zandatsu. This is slicing the enemies at their weak points to get their juicy cybourg spines which recharges your health and fuel cells which allows you to get more zandatsus. This keeps you on the offensive and the combat fast paced. There probably could have been a little bit more down with the zandatsu system since there are limited animations for it but it's still pretty satisfying the whole way through.

Boss fights are a crucial part of both character action games and Metal Gear and Revengeance does not disappoint in the slightest. The Winds of Destruction as they're known as (because Metal Gear bosses like to have a gimmick or theme to base their personalities around) are all larger than life characters that, despite having little screen time, are all very memorable. The boss fights generally keep the focus on parrying which feels great to get the timing down. The fights have multiple phases that keeps upping the ante. This is helped by the game's amazing soundtrack. It's so over the top and has incredibly cheesy lyrics but it works so well. The lyrics kicking in during the last phase of the fight also makes them really exciting. The game keeps topping itself with its boss fights culminating in Senator Armstrong who has one of the best boss fights ever.

I said above that Revengeance is essentially a parody of Metal Gear so the story takes itself less seriously which is probably for the better. That said, there is definitely some continuation of the themes from particularly MGS2 and some of MGS4. The man character, Raiden, still generally is a serious character so it's not like it's overly wacky. The main appeal of the story are the fun villains and their ridiculous dialogue which the localisation team might deserve some credit to. It all leads to an incredible climax with Senator Armstrong whose dialogue ended up being weirdly prophetic but also just hilarious. It should also be noted that the optional codec conversations are actually fairly in-depth. There's quite a lot more there than some of the later MGS games even if Raiden's crew aren't as charming as those found in the earlier games.

The game is quite short but it makes for a fun breezy playthrough and I always feel compelled to give the game another run to get some better rankings. There VR missions included are pretty fun and give you quite a challenge if you want to get the best times. The DLC episodes that feature a playable Sam and Wolf are also definitely worth a playthrough. It's an excellent game from top to bottom.

It is very difficult to not compare this game to Breath of the Wild since the similarities are pretty obvious. Although Immortals Fenyx Rising does not have the stellar world design and interaction that Zelda has to offer, it still does have some things going for it.

Although the world design and discoverability isn't amazing, it does present a beautiful world to explore inspired by Greek Mythology. It does somewhat lose its lustre once the repetition starts to set in that's typical of open worlds, especially ones made by Ubisoft. The starting area and subsequent four areas do generally have you doing same stuff even if there was at least an attempt to keep it visually different. One of the final areas does have you climbing an icy mountain which did feel a little different from a gameplay perspective which I liked. I did always enjoy coming across a puzzle out in the open world. You generally are doing the same thing for a lot of the puzzles but there was usually enough to the puzzle design that it remained engaging. The puzzles in the seperated Typhon Vaults are a bit tighter and are also quite fun. The combat is fairly simple but is quite satisfying. There's enough armor and weapon that have various buffs that you can focus on the aspect of combat you enjoy. I liked doing everything to fill the stun meter as quickly as possible and then lay in with a lot of damage.

The progression in the game has a very satisfying loop. It feels almost everything to find in the open world will lead you to getting something that will benefit you. I imagine some people may be annoyed by the different currencies but I really enjoyed it. You can find ambrosia out in the open world to upgrade your life. There is Zeus' lightning in Typhon Vaults to upgrade the stamina. Certain puzzles give you Charon Coins that will allow to unlock and boost abilities. Chests around the open world which can be blocked by puzzles or combat encounters give you materials to upgrade your potions and your weapons and armour. The weapon and armour upgrades are universal so you don't have to worry about spending materials on equipment you're going to replace. Fighting side bosses out in the open world gives you new abilities for your bird sidekick. Even when you've upgraded things to their maximum, you still get to use your various materials for minor stat boosts. The progression kept me hooked even when the activities were getting pretty repetitive. You can also find new cosmetics and it has a transmog system for people who care about that stuff.

The story is simple and can be enjoyable if you are into motifs from Greek Mythology. Unfortunately, it gets very bogged down by the incessant humour. Adam Jensen Prometheus narrating the story is alright but Zeus constantly chiming in with terrible jokes is infuriating. I actually don't mind when mythological characters talk like modern people but it can really begin to grate on you after a while since he never seems to shut up. It really drags the whole thing down even if overall, I did have a good time with the game.

Despite the many problems of Assassin's Creed: Unity, I felt it provided decent model to build more of these games from. Although Syndicate is very much following in the footsteps of Unity and feels like a more complete and refinied game, it also is a step back in certain areas.

The main area that I think is worse in Syndicate is the parkour. A lot of people did not like the movement in Unity so perhaps they made the right call but it's just so much less interesting for me. They give you a zip launcher which essentially replaces to need to even use the parkour. One button press will bring you all the way to the top of buildings in no time or bridge the gap between buildings without having to think about it. The streets are much wider here to give you room to drive carriages so the gaps between buildings are massive and you're going to need to keep using the launcher if you want to stay on the rooftops. They take away a number of your parkour options too such as the game not allowing you to make unsafe jumps. It's pretty frustrating when Evie or Jacob just stop at the edge of platforms and refuse to jump. Although you can sidehop in Syndicate, it feels a lot less consistent so I rarely used it. Overall, I feel London here is little less fun to move around in and there were less interiors to jump in and out of.

I can go back and forth on the stealth in Syndicate. It does have some of the best stealth missions in the series. The black box assassinations, which were already pretty good in Unity, are fantastic in Syndicate and its Jack the Ripper DLC. I'm not saying they're are as good as the Hitman series but the unique kills are usually pretty fun and there are still a few options if you don't want to follow them. The toggle into stealth mode felt a bit weird compared to the hold to crouch from Unity but it was at least funny to see Jacob take his top hat on and off. The tools don't feel as fluid to use in Syndicate and I do miss the phantom blade. The throwing knives essentially serve the same purpose but they're not as fun. The combat is certainly better in Syndicate even if the sped up animations look weird but it somehwat discourages stealth since it's fairly easy.

The game is more refined than Unity which is most obvious with the side content. It is mostly the same stuff as previous games where you clear out areas and although it can get a bit repetitive, they do a decent job of making the veraious activities feel different. Adding the loyalty meter for the game's side characters makes it all a bit more satisfying to do. Although I don't like exploring London as much as Paris, I really did enjoy how fun crossing the River Thames is.

The story is pretty standard Assassin's Creed stuff. Assassins tearing up Templar influence, magical Pieces of Eden, modern day barely existing. Evie is a pretty charming character but Jacob is annoying goober. I'm not sure how intentional it was but I found it interesting that they explored the overly simplistic Assassin philosophy of just killing the bad guy in front of you to fix all your problems. Jacob keeps doing that and then there's a mission afterwards of Evie trying to fix the mess he created. Jacob does start to realise by the end of the game how short sighted he was so at least there's some growth for him. It just is unfortunate that you are saddled with him for most of the story missions. He gets most of the assassinations despite Evie being the more stealth focused character. At least we get more playable Evie in the Jack the Ripper DLC.

Overall, it is an enjoyable game but it's not going to sway anyone if they are done with this formula. It is essentially the last AC game in this format. AC is probably my favourite 3/5 series. It's rarely amazing but I always have a decent time with them and Syndicate certainly captures that feeling.