This is an interesting one. It's more serious than Read Dead Redemption, but not GTA4 serious. It's a hard game to pick apart. Some of the things that you could find wrong with it could be considered design choices. The story's pacing is slow (but then that has it's benefits) and some of the systems that it introduces turn out to be a little pointless (but then you could point to that helping the story).

The whole thing gets really depressing near the end and it just feels muted and hopeless and ... well that's appropriate I guess. But it is a bit of a slog.

It's entertaining to watch how things pan out in the gang and watching how things fall apart very slowly is great. Some of the missions were a pain, but on the whole were enjoyable. And running around as a cowboy is always a joy.

And the post game.... delightful, possibly a little long, but also heartbreaking.

But I don't know. I enjoyed the game and the story, but if you're playing it and are ready to throw it in the too hard basket, I'm not sure I'd tell you to continue. I think it's worth it to get to the end, but your mileage may vary...

It's interesting in comparison with RDR2, some of the systems aren't as good as RDR2, but it does feel a little more wild. Mexico goes too long and I don't know why I should care about anyone there.

Oh and I committed 1 crime during the entire game according to the stats, which I'm pretty sure was stealing a horse which a mission required me to do.

But yeah I got teary at the end and that's gotta count for something right?

It was strange the things I remember from the first time I played it, which must have been on the DS not long after it originally came out.

The stories are interesting and rather quirky at times. Though some characters seem rather dated today (the weird writer of the Steel Samurai for instance).

And there's some of "I know what the contradiction is, I just don't entirely know how the game wants me to present it".

But an enjoyable ride nonetheless. The last trial seems strangely placed... it introduces new mechanics and while it resolves a lot, feels like a very long epilogue. Still...

So this is a goofy little game by HAL Labs featuring a UFO with one of those claws like a arcade claw machine and you'll take up various part time jobs which generally involve stacking things on top of other things.


So you'll work on a farm, putting animals and vegetables on a truck, in a mueseum repairing exhibits, stacking cheerleaders in a pyramid and so on. There's 27 levels (9 unique scenes) and each one has a challenge that you need to complete along with bonus challenges.

You're rewarded with money, which can be spent on costumes, some of which are cosmetic, but others make you move faster, make the claw carry more or swing less wildly.

Just like the arcade machine, things can slip out of your claw when you don't want it to (though this usually depends on how well you grabbed it and how fast you're moving). It can be frustrating and it sometimes took multiple attempts to clear a level at all, let alone it's bonuses.

It's a silly little time waster with some challenge and it's fun to replay some of the levels again.

A simplish puzzler that throws in some small twists. In the main, you adjust the height and shape of hills and other terrain to allow the old man to reach his destination. The hills have limits on how far they can move and a and you can never adjust the terrain that the man is currently on.

So much of the game revolves around moving the man from one hill to another, readjusting the hill he was just on, then adjust a third hill and moving him back to the second to get him back on that. Which sounds dull, but it's fairly relaxing.

There's a few spots where it adds in a few bits, flocks of sheep that block the way and have to be moved to different pastures or adjusting hills to make a giant coin slam through fences.

At the end of each chapter you're rewarded with an animation which tells the story of why the man is travelling and that's nice (and a bit sad).

And it's kind of impossible to get stuck, if you can't figure it out, just keep adjusting slightly and walking around till it works.

Though one level was rather confusing as it wasn't entirely clear where I was supposed to be sending the old man. Took quite a bit of time to discover, though nicely the level became quite odd after that.

The graphics are lovely as well

This is a fine game of returning home after dropping out of college and discovering that your home town isn't they way you remembered it. The conversations that Mae has with Gregg and Bea are nicely written (much better than Life is Strange) and the activities that they go on are varied and interesting.

I found myself going to visit every character I could and checking in all the little things. Bouncing around with Mae was quite entertaining and when you aren't allowed to jump and run around like a goof, it changes the mood drastically.

I really wish the controls were different for the bass sections, I can't get a handle on 4 strings on an xbox controller using the ABXY buttons. I have a bad habit of messing up the middle ones.

The dream sequences started of intersting, but I wish they were more different to each other. At a point I was disinterested in going to sleep, which I'm not sure if that was the intention or not.

I wasn't as taken with the mystery, maybe because it kicks in so late or maybe because I just enjoyed the small town stuff so much. Ended up with a Bea ending as I felt like she was a better influence on Mae than Gregg. Still I hung out with both almost equally so not sure if what I did or said during the activities impacted on the ending.

Anyway, good game, recommended.

So this is a graphic novel set in Melbourne Australia, which tells the tale of two people falling in love and continues past that point.

It's a touching story and the artwork is lovely. There's interaction (there are a few non-challenging puzzles and some parts where you do trivial stuff), but you don't seem to influence the story.

Played with my six year old for about half the game and while there's no sex or violence, the game deals with relationships, so I had to do some explaining to do. But she was cool with most of it.

I'm not sure how much of my love for this is due to it being about my home town... but eh, try it and see.

This is not a hard game and nor is it a particularly long one. However it is very playful, entertaining and rather calming.

Getting big enough to swallow things is very similar to Katamari Damacy, but it does some interesting things to mix it up a bit and there a few puzzles.

The storyline is a little siily but enjoyable and my daughter (6) is enjoying playing it to.

So Telltale's Back to the Future has been one of those that I've started a lot but never finished. Which is odd, because it's not actually that long. Maybe I kept playing the demo over and over again (having forgotten that I didn't like it).

Having now completed Episode One... eh... it's OK. What puts me off are the amount of invisible walls and the time it seems to take to get from where I am to where I need to go.... it took me quite a while to discover the run button.

Maybe the story just didn't grab me enough in this one.