Reviews

Tom Clancy’s The Division – Review

I’ve officially reached the end-game of Tom Clancy’s The Division, which was something of a bittersweet moment in many ways, but it does mean I can now crack on with my Full Review type witterings. Lucky you, eh!? In order to not repeat myself too much, I’ll try not to go over the same ground as my First and Second Impressions pieces, but obviously some degree of repetition’s inevitable so, like, apologies in advance.

Tom Clancy’s The Division was, by almost any conceivable measurement, a hugely anticipated Next-Gen release, and in many ways it’s been an ever-present “event” hovering over Next-Gen consoles since their own launch nearly two and a half years ago. Continue reading “Tom Clancy’s The Division – Review” →

April 6, 2016 7

Monday Morning Procrastination Pack #8

The Monday-pocalypse has arrived. Again. Instead of Zombies, or rivers of fire and brimstone, or, like, Nuclear Winter though, Monday-pocalypse is basically time-sheets, and commutes, and dealing with the boss! Which is obviously much, much worse! Still, as per usual (if you ignore last week’s balls-up) I’ve put together a little bug-out bag of great Gaming reads to help you survive the End (of weekend) Times. Continue reading “Monday Morning Procrastination Pack #8” →

April 4, 2016 10

Battle of the Publishers: Introduction

Not too long ago, I was playing the ‘If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?’ Game (the answer was Pizza, obviously), but being a Gamer, it wasn’t long until I got to thinking about that kind of question in Gaming terms. More specifically, I was wondering whom I’d choose if I could only play games by one particular publisher from here on out. It turned out to be an interesting internal argument for a while – and given I didn’t reach a satisfactory answer then, I thought I’d take a crack at turning it into a thing here. Continue reading “Battle of the Publishers: Introduction” →

March 29, 2016 0

Tom Clancy’s The Division – Secondary Impressions

So, turns out I gone done got a bit addicted to The Division. And when I say “a bit”, I mean like, properly, wake-up-thinking-about-it, currently-smelling-a bit-funky-because-I’m-foregoing-showers kind of addicted. It’s not the first time that’s happened to me, for sure (see also; the Fallouts), but it’s not a regular occurrence – and as much as I love playing games, and as much as I’m often itching to turn them on, it’s rare that I get to the thinking-about-a-game-all-the-damn-time stage. I wrote my First Impressions piece having played roughly 10 hours of the game, but that’s now increased to around 30 (which I know thanks to that handy and helpful ‘here’s how much of your life you’ve wasted with this game’ stat that’s prominently displayed when you load up your game – cheers, Ubisoft), so I figure I’m in a position to write a Secondary Impressions piece. Which is what I’m doing. Like, right now. Continue reading “Tom Clancy’s The Division – Secondary Impressions” →

March 27, 2016 4

Tom Clancy’s The Division – First Impressions

OK, so I’m a couple of weeks late to this particular party – which in Gaming terms might as well be years – but I’ve been wanting to play this game for sooooo long, and you are not taking this away from me, D’ya hear!? In fact, back when I was thinking about making the leap to Next-Gen, I distinctly remember that it was a brief little video of TCTD that sealed the decision, even though it was all still unclear quite when it would be released, or even quite what it would be. Two years, two PS4s, and a little bit of a Puppy-related delay later, I finally, finally got to play the damn thing. Obviously, that’s quite the build-up of expectations, so….did it meet them?

“Hell yeah!” is the short answer, and “Hells to the Fuck Yeah” would be the slightly longer one. Basically; yes, yes it did. Continue reading “Tom Clancy’s The Division – First Impressions” →

March 22, 2016 6

LEGO Jurassic World (PS Vita) – Review

As a general rule, the Lego games seem to divide the Gaming community, and whilst there are plenty of us who find them fun, entertaining and eminently payable, there are many others who feel they’re childish, facile, and that they’re perhaps not even “proper” games. I’m in the former camp, but even so, I can see why other people aren’t overly fussed by them (I wasn’t until I played one that came free on PS+) – although I’m not at all convinced by the ‘not proper games’ thing. Sure, they’re not as challenging as, say, a Bloodborne, and they’re not as intense as an FPS, but they’re usually very well-made, hugely addictive and – more often than not – genuinely quite humorous (there was one recurring joke in the last Batman game that cracked me up every time I heard it). Continue reading “LEGO Jurassic World (PS Vita) – Review” →

March 9, 2016 0

A Few Thoughts on The Uncharteds, and a Look Ahead to Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

Over the course of a fortnight, I’ve collected 260+ treasures, shot a zillion dudes in the face, shimmied along countless ledges, made approximately 748 wisecracks, and all whilst cunningly disguised as a fella by the name of Nathan Drake. Over the same period, I’ve discovered some exquisite locations, gotten into some ill-advised fisticuffs with a tank, shot some more dudes in the face, and seen some shit that’d make the guy with the big hair from Ancient Aliens be all like, “C’mon now guys, that’s a bit too far-fetched”. Continue reading “A Few Thoughts on The Uncharteds, and a Look Ahead to Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End” →

February 18, 2016 6

Deadpool Review

Even as a fan of Superheroes and Crime Fighters and whatnot, I think it’s fair to say they’ve been enjoying a fairly considerable amount of (big and small) screen time lately. I mean, they’re everywhere now, all the time, and we’re getting re-boots of re-boots, re-imaginings of re-imaginings, cross-overs, extended universes and, because that might not be enough, a sprinkling of origin stories too. I suspect that, at any given time, there’s a fair chance that any comic book store is filled with Studio Executives working their way through the shelves hoping to find the next (as of yet, unlicensed) money-spinner. Continue reading “Deadpool Review” →

February 16, 2016 0

Ori and The Blind Forest – Review

Part of my gaming New Year’s Resolution this year was to “mix shit up a bit” and I’d decided to make a conscious effort to play a broader spectrum of games. In doing so, I’m hoping to avoid just playing the same type of game, and particularly if it’s at the cost of other types. I mention this because, having just finished Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, I moved onto Ori and The Blind Forest and, to be honest, I’m not sure if there could be a greater degree of contrast between two games. Where the former is an uber-violent FPS with an oppressive palette of browns, blacks and greys, the latter is a colourful, vivid platformer, with glowing balls of light and magic. Essentially, one’s a direct descendant of the evolutionary line that began with first person shooters back in the 80s/90s, and the other is the direct descendant of the gaming line that began with the side-scrolling platformers of the same era, and all the cumulative adaptations in that time mean the games couldn’t really look, or be, more different.

Continue reading “Ori and The Blind Forest – Review” →

February 2, 2016 2