TastyRetroGaming

Ball X Pit

Holy Shit what an amazing game this is. Honestly for 40 hours straight this hit me like crack directly being pumped into my veins. I haven’t being hooked on a game like this in such a long time. Its all I wanted to for the time it took me to get the platinum trophy nothing else was remotely good enough. So I can imagine you’ll already know what my overall review score will be for this indie game.

I was aware of what this game was before getting it but I wasn’t fully aware which I am so glad for. Its a real mean blend of a brick breaker game with roguelike runs that change every time you play it. But each level ends in a bullet hell style boss battle and in- between you are invited to have a light sim city base builder.

Everything in the base building is fully designed to help you on your runs through the 8 main levels, each come with their own sort of theme or biome and enemies. Which is where you get blueprints for new buildings. These buildings unlock new playable characters and stat boosts buildings like a barracks or schoolhouse. Each character starts with their own varying stats and ability but as you rinse through hordes of enemies before you, you collect exp orbs which level you up and allow for new balls to be added to your arsenal. Each of these buildings aid in stat increases per their own level and your characters boost they receive in battle.

My extremely neat and priductive little town for harvest, im aware its actually a bit of a shit fest but it did the job. I found dumoing all the fully upgraded buildings out of the way allowed for a more optimal bounce for me workers.

You harvest three resources in your little city, wheat, wood and stone, these resources can be upgraded to yield more per turn you send your characters bouncing around during the harvest time. You get one free harvest per turn but you can pay gold for more turns, as gold can be mined but each new building to be built or upgraded has to hit the scaffolding the required amount of time. And once you unlock the infinitely upgradeable versions they start taking 1000s to upgrade. With the standard building capping out at level 5 at most. The more characters you unlock the more workers you have for the harvest. They also come with their own boosts, like more harvest time on the harvest clock, double wheat or ignore stone and drill straight through it rather then bounce off it.

Just a slight insight into levelling up and what options are laid before you, plus the extensive list of what sort of damage your balls can do.

Unfortunately as previously said there is only 8 main stages, but there is 23 playable characters now I believe with the last free content update dropping recently. So there is a whole heap of replayable content to be had plus new game plus which allows you to just endlessly play each stage and worryingly for me I would. Its a small package with a shit tonne of reason to keep returning. If you are in a rush each run initially take about 15-20 mins and eventually once our loaded with boosts all over the place it become snug 10 mins. So you can pack a good chunk in if you only have like an hour of free time or just waiting to pass a little bit of time. It’s perfect for it.

The beautiful fusion process of improving the already lethal Nosferatu ball, which is the hardest fusion you need as it requires 3 specific fuion path ways. Its totally worth it though.

If you think that the game isn’t already giving enough at the end of completing the stage for the first time you are awarding with a trophy that also gives you passives stat boosts and for each character you complete the stage with that boost ups as well. Plus the characters house also comes with abilities better harvest if close to the wheat fields, better exp for characters if used, more harvest time, more gold coins. These aid in all of the other helpful buildings you get where you can set a worker to have a designated route for harvesting, auto harvest, start with more passive or special abilities, start at level 2 or 3 versions of these. Everything and I mean everything is perfectly designed to make each run as optimum as it can be.

A breakdown of what your stats start looking like once you’ve upgraded loads of the buildings and have even more passive boosts. PLus you can eventually get two characters at once to start with both of their abilities.

Now the main meat of this game is the combat. At its core it so simple but its so fucking goof. Your character will start with one ball, this could be a burn ball, a ghost ball, a bleed ball or an earthquake etc. Plus an ability that affects gameplay in some way like the balls are lobbed or start from the top of the screen. Quick side note I’d fully recommend whacking on auto fire as well saves yours trigger finger. Back to it, you then kill waves and waves of enemies and you hit 2 mini bosses who also widen the playing field for more enemies to appear. As you cut down hundreds of these fuckers, you are awarded with exp orbs with each level you get to pick another ball type from 4 options or a passive ball again of 4 options. You can also choose to pick one you already have to level it up to a maximum if level 3. Each level improves its stats from outright damage, to passive extra damage from burn damage or ball shooting speed, more baby balls so you shoot more each go. As you go along you can pick up fusion, this is where the depth comes in. You fuse two level 3’s together and they become both ball types with both lots of abilities plus a new ability. But it doesn’t stop there you can do it again with another to and then merge them together and if your lucky anf done two fusion routes correctly you then fuse them bad boys together. You end up with pure fucking carnage. You even can make special fusions like a nuclear bomb, a top tier option which I fully recommend to do as often as you can. Plus the Vampire route for Nosferatu or Satan as why not. But this also applies to some of the passive balls its oddly super engrossing and if you have your initial 4 slots filled you get annoyed you missed a better yielding fusion combo. This can be upgraded via the right buildings to 5 slots this is where the fun really kicks in for the later stages.

The very spinny neon final boss who absorbs your characters at the end and begins to transition you into new game plus.

Overall I’d rate this a solid 10/10 it’s real Fuckin’ Tasty. I can’t justifiably rate it anything lower.

This isn’t a masterpiece of gaming but it is an unreal piece of gaming. It’s one of the most fun games I have ever played and its utterly fantatsic. And at this point in my life I have legitimately played hundreds and not many have ever had me so engrossed in about an hour of play time. It’s so simple in every area whilst also being perfectly designed and balanced to make everything you do feel worthwhile. Each run is rewarding if you fail you never feel annoyed or overwhelmed. You just go back to your town do a few harvest and upgrade a few buildings. And if you need more harvest but are out of funds you can pick up another character and do an earlier stage gain some extra passive boosts from another stage completion. Its a lovely looking game for what is and everything is distinct in its own right. I have only two complaints, the first one I’d love a much more in-depth sim building aspect of the game because I fucking love me a sim management game. And number 2 there just isn’t enough of the game for as much as I have replayed it since completing it id love for more stages or eventually a sequel. The synergy in all aspects of the gameplay are only outshined by the synergy of the ball fusions themselves. This is a game I feel everyone should experince once just for the thrill it gives you if nothing else.

Released 15th October on Sony Playstation PS5

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.

For some reasons unknown since Resident Evil 6 I just basically ignored this series. I think the only logical reason being was 5 wasn’t great and I distinctly remember 6 being the drizzling shits. Its one of the few games I just chose to not complete rather then forgetting about it which is usually the case. It just soured the series for me, I do have an inclining that I played the first 30 mins or so of this not long after the PS5 released but I didn’t remember any of it. And I am so glad I didn’t.

Holy shit what a game and re-entry to this horror series for me. Now I imagine considering this game will be 10 years old the beginning of next year and selling a whopping 15 million plus anyone who wanted to play this game practically has. I am exceedingly late to the party and I’m kinda glad of that fact.

The baker family in all their twisted glory.

I love horror as a genre it’s my favourite sort of film it’s just the absolute best and back in the PS2 days I loved me a bit of this series and the likes of Silent Hill. So steam rolling straight into the deep south of the swamps of Louisiana. Even if the area is fictional was a twist on the usual racoon city centric series. It’s a bit like Tatooine in Star Wars its always fucking set there for some reason. But this direct take really helps set up a whole other sense of dread. Especially once caught early on and you immediately have your hand cut clean off and then reattached by a miracle liquid. You know exactly what you’re in for over the next 12 hours.

Something that stuck out to me considering its age was the graphics. Now I know graphics don’t make a game but it does help for the immersion in a game like this I find. Having more realistic graphics and having a high level of detail which for a 10 year old game this definitely doesn’t look its age. The hair graphics are a bit dicey at times, but the rotting houses that have fallen into a complete state of decay due to the bakers possession is a highlight. It helps build the atmosphere as you are mercilessly hunted around the new and old house. Both of which are equally falling apart and loaded with bugs, dead things, piles of rot, hanging meat and what id expect to be bagged victims. The filth and decay that pervades through the residence is highlighted by the photo realism and light particles that show the peeling wallpaper and dust covered surfaces in the most horror fashion and tighten the sense of claustrophobia that really tightens its grip on Ethan as the game progresses.

Just some of the usual creepy shit you’ll stumble upon in this game.

Now I mention horror films up above because this film is nothing short of being a long brutal 18 rated horror film or whatever the top rating your residence has. The violence comes thick and fast in this game, you play as Ethan Winters who has gone looking for his missing wife Mia. Now this will have minor spoilers but considering the games age I feel I can be let off a bit here. She is corrupted by a toxic mold along with the Baker family who are the primary antagonists of this title. Jack the father of the family is the best villain of this whole game you fight him multiple times and his insanity isn’t directed just at you but his family as well and he often causes self inflicted injuries which luckily he can heal from. This can range from setting himself alight, shooting himself point blank in the head or cutting chunks out of himself. Its insane, the violence is visceral like when the police officers head is shovelled in half and it slops off. Then later on to help solve a puzzle you’re forced to put your hand down his neck stump to pull a key out. It’s utterly unforgiving and would shock any one watching a film in the cinema with such scenes. The gore is high in this game but not all the time it’s spread out as the entire game takes place in the Bakers new and old home with a bit of the surroundings where the gardens are. Outside of the last section or so the amount of enemies in this are pretty sparse.

The survival aspects of this game are pretty tight with very few items you can use for crafting and ammo is plentiful enough but still not too be wasted. You can find mods for the guns or if you get the repair kits attain better pistols and shotguns. With health upgrades and the best .44 magnum locked behind bird cages in the caravan which cost the hidden antique coins you have to find. I would’ve preferred a better knife even if it was late into the game cause that just don’t do shit even for when you are attacked by swarms of bugs. The guns which are the thing you see most hanging out in front of you due to the fist person perspective look great as do the animations when pouring a first aid kit on yourself to heal from your injuries. The screen getting more and more red which helps signal its time to med up. These all have small gameplay nods to take note of like reloading as well as how the enemies and bosses move these all help with things like ammo conservation and when to run away instead of wasting bullets. Bringing the survival aspects directly into your control as well as what the game gives you.

You’ll find a random selection of weaponry in this game as I’m sure the average person doesn’t stash a grenade launcher. You unlock the magnum via the birdcage and the old faithful of the phone going off to help you progress.

One part of the narrative I did enjoy was the story has playable flashbacks which explain later parts of the games and help you track items or hidden objects you need for later on. With the clown puzzle game in the happy birthday tape being top end fucked up. It’s a shame that the story overall isn’t the strongest. It’s held together by finding and reading the files and documents as per usually with these sort of games. I’d also argue once you end up going onto the boat and playing as Mia for a bit which does explain the story a lot more the game tails off and doesn’t fully recover steam from it. I’d also day Ethan isn’t the strongest of protagonists there’s a fleck of personality but not a whole heap and you never see his face. So the idea I’m sure is you are the main character more so as you play in first person as well.

Just some of the bosses in this game which are all totally fucked anatomically. It wouldn’t be as scary if they looked normal though would it?

I’m big enough to admit I also played this first run on the easiest mode, I ain’t got time to be playing survival horror on hard difficulties from the get go. Especially as these games are designed for multiple re-runs. The first time round you explore and take your time, learn what works best against the enemies and bosses, where all the good stuff is. Then you can do the speed runs and health limiting options etc. Now on easy I didn’t really struggle but I can imagine if you wanted to go for the platinum and play it on madhouse difficulty then that’d be nothing short of a right fucking nightmare.

Some more weird shit, an arm you fuse with the fetid thing for the serum and the poor police officer who gets shovelled early on.

There are couple of add ons for this as well with a couple more mini episodes that fill in some slight gaps of the main story, but the two meaty ones are Not a Hero where you play as Chris Redfield and its more action heavy. Far more molded to kill and is around an hour and a half or so and is self contained story that centres around the Bakers son Lucas whose a right ballbag so it’s nice when you eventually kill him. Then you have the End of Zoe where you play as Jacks brother and you have to save the daughter Zoe who helps you in the game via phones calls but doesn’t do much else outside of the pointers she gives you. But this one is way fun you just go round punching the fuck out of everything and find little voodoo dolls that increase your damage output. Whilst finding something akin to the ballistic fists in Fallout. I’d have happily taken a DLC a good twice the size of this. I had a blast playing this one and I found it a reasonable send off to the story before jumping into Village to finish the Winters saga.

Overall I’d rate this a highly Tasty 8/10.

The horror and gore are tight as can be here and the terror is right up there for the first two thirds of the game and it drops off a bit for my liking. The gun play is a bit dicey which I think is more purposeful but not great when ammo at times is fairly scarce and there isn’t a learning curve to master. The story could’ve been stronger and Ethan could’ve been highlighted a tad more. But none of this detracts from the immediate return to form for one of the best survival horror series of all time. It hooked me enough to pretty much jump straight into number 8 so it did many many things right.

Released June 13th 2022 on Sony Playstation 5.

Control Ultimate Edition

I am fully reinvesting myself into the Remedy verse this year, having already completed Alan Wake Remastered Control Ultimate Edition was next on the agenda. I would play Quantum break but I am unable to play that title with my consoles. However that’s neither here nor there and from what I can make out its only slightly relevant when you get to Alan Wake 2. Which I have every intention of getting done prior to the sequel of this game resonant dropping in September of this year.

I had already completed this back on PS4 not long after it initially dropped and I was a fan of it then, but honestly it quickly faded into the dark recesses of my mind. This isn’t the case this time round, I really enjoyed this game with round 2, far more then before.

This game is full of the floaty people who if positioned right you can levitate onto their backs and jump to hidden platfroms. Also theres just bodies and pools of blood everywhere. The staffing once the hiss are gone would be severely effected.

The game takes place solely in a maze like office tower which due to its links with the supernatural there is pockets of other dimensions that pop up for you to explore as well. The story is simple at it’s core you play as Jesse who is looking for her missing brother from an incident that happened many years prior. Where naturally she developed this symbiotic other entity known as polaris who goes everywhere with her. Upon entry to the Oldest House, she finds the director has committed suicide and when picking up the gun or service weapon as its known. She embarks on a journey of becoming the new director and repelling the hiss who have taken over the oldest house. Theres a whole heap more to it involving frequencies, giant eyeball creatures and the board of directors that call on a red phone that speaks in coded riddles. It’s horror tinged sci-fi at its best.

I’m not sure what you call this effect but I dig it, its another great stylised choice for the ambience of the game and overall tone of the setting.

The office building itself gives me Loki vibes with the setting and the objects of power or altered items which are usually everyday items such as a fridge that is possessed. With the fridge in particular being kept in check by having shifts where people have stare at it without blinking for hours at a time. Its always referred to as paranatural and theres also a mold substance you fight back at behest of Ahti the janitor who pops up at random times to help you move forward.

Your main man Ahti who talks in weird riddles.

This game is far more action heavy then Alan Wake where you fight of hundreds of Hiss the main enemy of the game who often are these red floaty creatures that are just angry all the time. They have also taken over security so you have grounded enemies with some serious fire power plus the hiss like to bum rush you and explode or launch shit at you. The firther you go into the game the harder the waves of these enemies become, which is standard practice but if you aren’t prepared or your laodout isn’t up to scratch you will be in for a much harder time then you need.

A couple of the bosses you face and the astral plain which is often used for training purposes and more of a central element in the Foundation DLC.

Your only weapon in the game is the service gun but you are able to unlock and craft alternating forms for it. The standard option is grip and honestly it’s probably one of the better forms when fully kitted out. I primarily used shatter a shotgun type weapon and the spin option for an smg type fire rate. Now they all share ammo, and ammo in this game is self replenishing so if you run out in one form you run out in the other. A weird choice you can only have 2 modes active at once but considering they share ammo it doesn’t really matter if you were able to cycle through each option. You can upgrade them twice and are able to equip up to three mods to them which can aid in damage,fire rate, area of effect, extra headshot damage, chance of ammo etc. There is a good few options. These mods also go for Jesse herself where you can increase health, effects of unlocked powers, launch damage, the energy bar recharging faster etc. Now launch is probably the best offensive play in the game. Anything that is highlighted when triggered this includes enemies, with the right skill upgrade can be pummelled at high speed into the hiss. It wrecks full powered and combined with the shield bash you can do some serious damage even without the gun.

Your skill tree and the mod section for Jesse and the Service weapon.

You don’t get any standard rpg upgrades in this game and now bumps from levelling up but you are awarded skill points for competing main missions,side missions and finding hidden areas which range from a locked room to floating up to a ledge or shooting through a plywood wall. I’d highly recommend going for health and launch primarily, melee was pretty much worthless in this game its a strange choice to upgrade it when you really don’t need it. You then have levitate which is mainly traversal outside of a cool height slam which blasts an area of damage and the recoil sends the enemies packing. The last two then are evade which I’d go for after launch is done and seize which I didn’t really use either but that allows you to temporarily control a nearly defeated enemy. But all the stat multipliers and that come from the mods which are levelled themselves and the rarer it is the better it’s effects and you can craft them yourself from a fast travel point. This is also where you can upgrade your weapons and make jukebox coins.

A couple of the few hundred collectibles you can find, plus the maps which eventually free flow into one another. Then you have board Countermeasures which are small optional objectives like go to a specific ara and kill hiss with headshots or use a specific service weapon mode.

The many sectors of the Oldest House ranges from your standard office blocks, to your underground maintenance sector which rips through into the earth itself and loops back round. Then you have the mining area which is connected via a lengthy elevator system and is littered with just enough lights so you can evade the hiss, theres a giant furnace that you have to quell just between regular corridors bridging sectors. The science sector, long sweeping staircase leading to a canteen area. It’s all over the shop and just cause theres also a massive mail sorting area. The astral plain is used to tie the worlds together and often used in aiding jumps between broken corridors. Now I did find that astral plain to be very reminiscent of Astral Chain which is a very good thing as that is a title I heartily recommend. Often at the end of these little detours you’d find yourself in a hotel room where you’d be tasked with a puzzle to active the light pull to jump back to the correct location. The best section of the game is the maze which I won’t spoil here as it’s cool as fuck. Now the best bit comes from all the destruction you can reap, blasting chunks of concrete of columns pulling up bits of floor, annihilating desks and computers littering the place with broken glass sand paper. It really aids in the immersion of the skirmishes you are often involved in. Which for the most part I felt the service weapon acted and handled very well. I was bad at aiming but I can’t fault the systems for my own shortcomings.

I’d say difficulty wise it’s not the worst game out there but I did find the further I got into the harder it became and the hiss became actively more bastardised. The hardest part of the game was definitely the main boss of the DLC for the tie into Alan Wake, where you have to fight Dr Hartman, fuck that guy and fuck that fight. I died so many times. The other DLC is the Foundation a main narrative story to sorta close of the game that I didn’t find nearly as bad. The AWE DLC was nice horror side quest though with returning aspects from Alan Wake like having to destroy the darkness with lights first and the entire area being just generally much darker to see, which I am too blind for sometimes. Gotta crank that brightness options right up.

The return of the prodigal son, Alan Wake himself, even beack with the wierd uncanny implementation of having the actor hes based on pop up behind for his inner monologues.

Overall I’d rate this game a hefty 9/10, Some Pure Tasty Gaming.

This game has a lot going on especially narrative wise, with a lot of information being packed into the letters,files and audio clips you find. With many of the main points coming from the live action videos of the Dr Darling who has gone missing and then his replacement of Emily Pope who fills all the blanks in with Jesse. It all ties in very nicely once you start reaching the climax of the game and its a great pay off especially with the branching parts linking and leading into other games. I think the mods could be better used and the skill trees tweaked a bit more with making two of them more worthwhile. The side quests which are fun could’ve been more in-depth at times as well just to help flesh out the side characters and all the nuance with the Oldest House which in it’s own right is very much one of the central characters of this world. It’s an easy platinum trophy if that floats your boat. It’s basically just do everything plus a few sidey bits and one grindy trophy with the 100 ability points. If you don’t really find any hidden ones you can only get this if you finish both DLCs and most of the side content in them as well. So its very doable but can be out of reach if you don’t want to go traipsing through the areas again or do the extra content. But its an action heavy, rpg lite with semi open areas which all link and loop into one another with a stellar art direction and story. You can’t not be in for a good time if you want play this.

Released on 2nd February 2021 on Sony Playstation 5.

Game Collection Update, June 2026

Yo, it’s been a while since I’ve done a little round up of some of my newer additions to my collection. Its been a somewhat slower year so far new games, but on the flip side I’ve slowly been making my way through the backlog of PS5 games I’ve amassed. This is currently at the detriment to any other console era though as I’ve pretty much neglected them. I’ve put a mighty amount of time in Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate on my Switch but other then that I’ve not strayed to far away from the PS5. However I’m not here to talk about that currently, I’m here for a small round up. So lets get stuck into that shall we?

Kicking things off is a good one if I do say so myself. For PS3 we’ve got the Metal Gear Solid HD collection. Now I am a massive fan of Kojima games and I do love me some MGS. This is a collection that I am trying to slowly amass all of them across every generation. It’ll take some time and money but I’ll get there one day. So finding this for cheap was a good day for me.

Next a couple of PS2 games, purchasing the O.G Destroy All Humans and Mortal Kombat Deception. Now both of these are replacements for me as naturally I regret trading in pretty much every game ever. And Deception is by far my favourite Mortal Kombat game, everything about this one is just spot on. In fact this is the sort of game I’d want remastering or remaking it’d be nothing short of incredible by today’s standards.

Swapping PlayStation for Xbox, in the 360 title and spin-off game of Halo 3 ODST. I never played this originally and admittedly I still haven’t its been a good while since I whirled up my original Xbox 360. I probably should at some point soon, I feel the need to run through the original Gears of War Trilogy with E-day dropping soon. Not that I have a series X to even play it, just makes me want to relive the good ol’ days.

Two for the PS4 now. Assassins Creed Origins still my favourite AC game since Brotherhood and nothings lived up to it since. I will get to Shadows sooner rather then later and I may even give Black Flag Resynced another go as my hot take is I didn’t particularly enjoy Black Flag when it initially launched but the new version does look worthwhile for another go. Then we have Killzone Shadows Fall. Now, I will never understand why Sony and Guerilla games killed this series off, it was a peak IP and in today market done correctly could steam the competition. It baffles me that it’s basically just being ignored and all but forgotten today. A waste of a top tier series.

An arcade break off here for the NEOGEO Arcade 1 Collection on the Evercade. Now if you have seen anything by before then you’ll know how much love I have for this little system and bringing back the Metal Slug games was fucking inspired. Plus you always get more then one game on these cartridges so having Sengoku and the King of Fighters 2000 as well is just the cherry on top.

A random title for the Wii is up next. I say random as for me when it comes to game collecting I only actually buy stuff I’m interested in or what to get again. I don’t personally want to buy every PS3 game ever or have every international variant of a specific title. I think that these are perfectly acceptable things to do and in most cases end up looking hella cool. But I just don’t necessarily want that. So I wouldn’t normally purchase Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party. But hear me out it was a quid and still sealed. Now it is still sealed and will remain that way for as long as I keep it. It’ll probably never be worth anything but finding a sealed game whether a good or really shit game from 2008 is a weird treasure.

I think to finish this brief interlude between my actual reviews will be a 3DS title. The one in question is Hyrule Warriors Legends. What’s not to love about this game one of the best and my personal favourite series of all time in Zelda smashed with a musou game. I have actually played this a fair bit i’ve just never written anything up about it. But the typical Dynasty warriors 1 v 1000 combat here fits like a glove for the Zelda inspired spin-off. It’s fun and the levelling up plus weapon upgrading is highly in-depth and you could easily sink hundreds of hours into this game if you wanted to aiming for 100% completion. Plus if you don’t have a 3DS there is a fresher Switch version with more stuff in it. I haven’t got that version but I can imagine one day I will. As this game collecting is fully a curse well an addiction if nothing else.

That’s it for now my good people. Next will be my main reviews of Control Deluxe edition and Resident Evil 7. Plus the mighty Ball X Pit. All 3 titles are absolute belters in my humble opinion. Then we move on to Resident evil Village as I’m finally choosing to play catch up on the remakes and newer relasese. Then finally last years game of the year Clair Obscur Expedition 33. I realise I should probably play some older games and review them as well but that’s a different challenge I face but there is a heap of PS3 games I wish to get on to hopefully sooner rather then alter. Anyway as always stay frosty and take care my gaming companions.

Pokemon Legends ZA

With anything game related for the past year and half I have tried my hardest to be better and not buy games on release. I managed 2 days after this launched before cracking, I’m overall improving and slowly making a good dent in my backlog, only diverging a bit here and there. No matter how good or bad a Pokemon game is I’m just weak to them. The only reason I haven’t got Pokopia yet is because I’ve relented in buying a Switch 2, but the time for me slipping and buying that is nigh I feel.

Now I was going to try and wait for the Switch 2 version of this but honestly I’m not entirely sure the better hardware is worth it for. I can’t personally compare but it looked and played good enough for me. I’ve sat on this review for a while having actually completed it a while back and I’m waiting for a gap to play the mega dimension DLC which I’ve had since it dropped as well.

I loved Legend Arceus it’s my favourite Pokemon game in a long time it did loads of things right and a few more tweaks it could’ve been even better. I’d hoped this entry in the spin-off series from the mainline titles would build on everything Arceus did. In some regards it does but others it dropped the ball on.

The whole crew and the ceo of quartsico who is in charge of the wild and battle zones.

A big drawback is the map itself with the entire game taking place in the city of Lumiose, now being a sequel to the 3DS titles of X and Y. It makes sense. However for all the grandeur of the more fleshed out map. It needed at least another smaller area of some sort or a few outside wild areas just to help expand the world. As it does feel a bit tiny even with the freedom of running around the rooftops. There’s a few section that involve the underground of this city but again its real small. They could’ve easily made this area a lot larger and increased the amount of base Pokemon available to catch. Give it a bit of tears of the kingdom feel to it. It’s all very much crammed into the modern urban setting, even littered with scaffolding for that real life city feel where everything is pinned up with metal.

An overhead view of the map and the very cleat nod to the land of France, and a picture of a fish Pokemon just being summoned to the cold hard pavement for shits and giggles. Only slughtly cruel in a real life context.

Graphically again another step up for the usual lagging behind of Pokemon games, the Pokemon themselves look good, the textures look better. The character animations are improved less of a clunky marionette. There’s more expression to help convey stuff which would be even better if some form of voice acting made an appearance in these games. Its still a bit choppy and all over the shop with a mix of higher rendered cell shading era with some more realistic graphics for backgrounds. It needs to meld better to find its own footing still, somehow which for a series going this long is a weird statement to make. For me I enjoy a graphically technical marvel in gaming but it isn’t everything, having a far more enjoyable gameplay loop is more important and Pokemon does always scratch that itch, luckily.

One of my biggest gripes of Arceus was that there needed more variety and a large pool of mons to collect. Now this title has less, if you take away the mega evolutions which makes a triumphant return. Easily my favourite gimmick of the games. I wish however they’d figure a way out to over stat Pokemon and just let them have alternate permanent evolutions of a fourth tier. That’d properly tickle ma pickle, but I digress. There’s 232 base Pokemon and 65 megas before the DLC. It’s again not enough a cool 400 or so would be the sweet spot, and the wild zones that open up as you progress through the story to catch them is limiting. It’s a cool idea to make a living breathing cohabiting relationship in this fictional world. But when they open they take a chunk of the city away and they aren’t all that big. Some smaller areas of them can be opened up with a particular ability like burning a vine, or breaking boulders, even washing away sludge. This goes with what I’ve already said having one or two areas outside of the city could’ve expanded on the amount to catch with a better variety of explorable areas without taking from the city itself.

My starter choice in Chikorita may not have been the best starter from its inception but i’ve always had a soft spot for it.

This title is a lot more battle heavy then Arceus which preferred the capturing of Pokemon in large quantities to fill out the Pokedex. Which I really loved doing it made you feel part of the history of the series. I overall preferred the older setting and more laid back approach to that game. Now I’m all for battling and this really reminds me of Colosseum for some reason which is no bad thing as love that game. Its definitely more engaging but it’s missing the grit bags to help build up your teams personal stats. The optional battle styles for attack with agile or strong which is an odd choice to remove as it makes more sense for this game being more battle orientated. The more dynamic approach of feeling like the battles take place in real time being able to run around the battlefield and your moves having a range or chances to miss is cool, as well with the limited pp gone becoming a cool down option for the four moves that are chosen. I think that’s all a great improvement. But to launch an attack you have to hold the ZL button down at all times which doesn’t quiet hit the mark 100% of the time it should’ve been more of a toggle

There’s more of a story here and it’s slightly longer to complete and without going into the plots of X, Y and this its a decent way to wrap it all up. The use of Zygarde being the main legendary is well used and is merged more into the entire plot which makes a change as well. The side missions are still there even if they aren’t normally that tasking. You unlock these once you meet Emma the detective, and she gives you some quest if you’ve downloaded the free gifts to get a couple extra legendaries.

The ZA tournament is the central part of the game and is even the end game content once you’ve completed the main missions, outside of mopping up side quest and capturing everything if you wanted to. Again something that is a step back is you have trade only evolutions again rather then being able to buy the items you need to keep the entire game self contained for a solo player.

Now the tournament in the story has a big jump from rank V to F which is annoying but does help progress the story but this is kinda filled in by the end game content. With the wild zones used to capture Pokemon you get sectioned off areas where free battles take part, where these are filled with trainers all wanting to battle. They give you points per victory to aid in your rank up battles. Your main source of income comes from here as the mpre you beat the higher the multiplier is at the end. You can also pick up little battle cards which if you do the optional objective it rewards you with more coins. You can only hold three t one go however, they can be swapped out if you find a better one.

I really enjoyed the rogue mega battles, these were the boss battles of the game replacing gym leaders to some extent. The were always fun and they did pose more of a threat then a standard battle. Not having the right elemental advantage within a mega yourself would really prolong the battle especially after a couple of hits to your player you blacked out even if your team was at 100% health.

Some of the new megas, and Starmie had to be captured in all its leggy glory.

An odd choice I find id the removal of crafting which at long last had finally been added. I really enjoyed making everything I used to catch Pokemon and getting new items as I ranked up or purchased new recipes. I think that’s a real step back for this title.

I found catching Pokemon wasn’t as fun either, it’s more auto-locked then in Arceus and doesn’t feel as fluid or interesting when you miss or you score that sweet sweet head shot from a weird angle. The need to crouch and use items to help increase your chances has gone, sneaking doesn’t aid you. When these were primary functions of the initial entry I don’t get why they’ve suddenly gone.

The final form of Zygarde who you use to fight the big boss at the end of the game. I enjoyed how they just become a massive fucking cannon. Its almost like a digimon in the ebst way.

A few more quality of life features have been added, like passing time on benches which helps with filling out the Pokedex as some only come out at night etc. If your Pokeballs miss when trying to catch something, some guy stands outside of all the healing centres to give you them back. You can fast travel to any important location or wild zone from the off set.

Overall I’d rate this game a positively Tasty 7.5/10.

If you like Pokemon games the you’ll love this, it has the strong roots that we’ve all come to love and the battling this time round is more fun then it’s been for a good while. There is some lost ground here and the bits they’ve improved upon don’t make up for it. The playable world is too small including the weird choice of not being able to enter basically any of the buildings in a map designed to feel like a living,breathing city. And there needed to be at least another 50 or more Pokemon needed for variety instead of relying on new mega evolutions to pad these numbers out. Omitting crafting is an odd choice I can’t get behind either and reducing the prominence of the Pokedex once more is weird. But this is a fun,vibrant extension of the Pokemon franchise which really needs to find the ultimate middle ground between the Legend titles and the mainline ones. There is truly something special to be had here if they game freak can do that.

Released 16th October 2025 on Nintendo Switch 1/2

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.

Time for another deep dive into one of the mighty worlds from the team of Bethesda. This time returning to the mega RPG classic that is Oblivion which first released in 2006. The fact this is twenty years old already makes my hairs go that little bit greyer just writing this.

I won’t dive to much into the specifics of this game as I suspect that there’s a high chance that if you’re reading this you are well versed in the original already. However, to be called a simple remaster feels a slight on the effort that would’ve gone into this. It’s not just overhauled 4k visuals and lighting. Its new textures, overhauled assets, new models, redesigned environments in and outside of the cities. New animations for everything which is a blessing for combat with better hit boxes. Especially if you wanna play as an archer. The upgraded system has been tweaked, health regenerates out of combat which is a nice bonus. I’m sure I’m missing something. But the sheer amount of quality of life upgrades are immense. Nothing against Bethesda games, but they are normally gammy as fuck, littered with bugs and glitches. Some of which are endearing and can be fun overs not so much.

So naturally being a massive Skyrim player completing it in its entirety on 4 different consoles across 3 generations. I went Nord with my character choice along with the option of picking their area birth being the western side for higher endurance. I couldn’t be to arsed in character creation so I just hit random a couple times, a splash of ageing and some facial hair. I felt that did the trick. But you can used the enhanced character creation to do far more then me. And because I’m edgy and like to be different I went for a crusader build under the warrior star sign. Which is daring I know, but it means I can pick up a stick and beat shit out of everything out with it. What can I say and I’m an easy type of guy effort ain’t my thing. However full magic or stealth builds are completely doable from the get go, with the race you pick also aiding in your chosen play style, from Orc, Breton, Redguard or any of the Elves you can choose. You unfortunately can’t respec in the game once you leave passed the sewers. But that doesn’t mean you can’t mix and match your play style to be a hybrid of another vocation if you wish. Its more akin to the special system in fallout where you main attributes do the heavy lifting and everything around it can still aid you even if not to its full potential.

A few select pics for the Oblivion gates and the darth maul looking mother fuckers that try to run your day whilst in there.

Another bit with the skills is every 25% of filling out to level 100 you can a permanent bump and it ranges from damage boosts,stamina boosts, new abilities like dodging. Even gaining the shield bash which can be handy as you can multi hit with either hand like in skyrim, the dexterity isn’t there in the system. You can only defend, attack or cast spells which can be a tad annoying on some occasions when you’re surrounded by multiple enemies who just start to really lay into you from all angles and you can only really hit slowly, waiting for a gap in between defending and trying to heal yourself. You do have potions that replenish all these things or give you temporary boosts or scrolls that acts as one time use spells. Like fireball or summoning a one time monster.

These were my final stats and build by the end of the game.

One of the best things from Skyrim for me is crafting, it’s not the most in-depth system in the world. But I fucking love me a crafting system. Now there isn’t one in oblivion which I think limits your weapons and armours a tad. Having the option to bump it all up by a few points would go a long way here. You can if you max out your armourer with repair hammers at level 100 over repair temporarily but it dips off quickly.

The books and lore in this game far surpass Skyrim something that needs to return when 6 is eventually released at the turn of the century.

There’s a deeper enemy pool then Skyrim as well, and the dremora are more on focus as well with the closing of the Oblivion gates. However it lacks a lot of the cool shit from Skyrim you know with the dragons, giants, mammoths etc.

A few of the bosses you may enounter in this game.

I’d say there’s gotta be around 200 explorable locations in this game. So there’s much spelunking to be had if you really want to explore everything this world has to offer. I would say on average though the chests and loot in theses kinda fucking suck. It’s mostly shit potions or gold and if you sell everything like me once you hit the item weight limit you’re caked up pretty early on so it becomes a wee bit redundant. Better stuff appears on your enemies as you hit personal level miles and around 15 is where it hits it stride. This helps the rng chance of the best version of rare stuff or named items. This is where the dungeon bosses start to come in handy if you need an easy enchanted weapon or armour piece to buff you up a tad.

The continent of Cyrodiil has a real wayward wondrous nature about it as you plip plop around. It’s odd as you feel you need to do the main quests or jump into the nearest mining cave you find but simultaneously you don’t ever feel the need to rush yourself. Everything has it’s time and place and if you only wanted to do the main stuff and the bigger side quests in the guilds. So the mage, fighters, thieves, dark brotherhood and the arena. Now I’d recommend smashing out the arena as soon as due to the easy levelling up and skills you get and its not particularly difficult to rinse your way through and earn a few septim along the way. The dark brotherhood is the best side questline by a long mile, the fighters and thieves guild are a bit naff but still worth your time to explore more of what this sprawling rpg has to offer.

The two world maps with only a small chunk cut off for photo capturig but you can see how populated the map os with things to do and i’ve probably missed a good wad still.

Now this being a bethesda game it does come with its bugs and glitches. For the most part it’s just part of the charm that comes with them. Many games suffer the same sort of fate but often these come in spades with these titles. I got mostly lucky except for at one point a will-o-wisp was hunting me down like the fucking terminator on every single save option. It wouldn’t take damage and it was mercilessly cutting down the npcs. It was nearly game breaking, funny but ass-clenching as I was like 50 hours deep at this point. It eventually gave up after I ran the length of the map from one end to the other and it allowed me to finally fast travel and then I never saw it again. Hopefully it died. This was the only one that caused any real issue nothing a quick load of a quick or auto save didn’t fix if anything else appeared.

The dlc for this game even when it initially dropped was the gold standard and it still is. The two main ones are the path of the nine and Shivering Isles. The path of the nine is a fun linear experience which rewards you with some of the best armour, sword and shield. However, as previously mentioned it sorta matches with your level. I didn’t realise this and did it a bit early on my final defence and attack I got form it was a wee bit shite. Also it’s best to do it after the dark brotherhood and thieves guild quest lines as it gives you a negative morality standing with the games system. The first quest clears all this off for you and you can redo it anytime but you need to have only like 2 points max going against you else you can’t wear or use anything which you need to finish the missions.

Some of the DLC armour sets make you look fresh on the killing fields.

Now the Shivering isles is magnificent, just everything about it is amazing. The weird and wonderful dialogue especially from the Daedric Prince Sheogorath. This particular plane of oblivion does feel like an extension of the main game but with it’s own odd flair. The strange creatures you come against and the odd flora that inhabits the land. The plot is great and easily stands on par with the main story but in some regards I actually preferred it. It has more choices in it which don’t do a lot but make you feel more involved. It adds a good 20-30 hours for your playtime if you wish to explore everything and do some of the most tedious collecting side quests going. But it adds new weapons, armour types, spells to help flesh out the game more. It”s everything you’d need in an expansion which is often missed in most games nowadays. I would complain that it should be harder and feel more of an endgame expansion though whereas you can kinda just do it whenever. This could more be a complaint on my particular preference then an actual grievance.

A few more poorly taken photos to attempt and capture the essence of The Shivering Isles.

I did find lockpicking to be the absolute drizzling shits and I can’t recommend enough to do the daedric quest for Nocturne. This rewards you with the skeleton key which is an unbreakable lockpick so you can just spam the auto chance option. All the while reaping that sweet sweet skill exp. Ironically by the end of the game I was pretty decent at the very hard lockpicking an often didn’t need to use the auto chance. So perhaps its just a skill issue on my part.

Overall i’d give this a massive 9/10, some Pure Tasty Gaming.

Its not a 10/10 for me though just on the basis of the main quest feeling lacking and the oblivion gates kinda being sucky and a bit boring after a few off them. Along with the dungeons often feeling a bit rinse, repeat. However, the world is great, the variety is there in all other aspects. So for me to only rate it down for these minor things should show you how amazing this 20 year old game is. It is a masterclass in the genre still, not as in-depth as Morrowind or missing the less lore-heavy books and stories of Skyrim. All three have there merits and there is some quality of life and improvements that went into the more casual Skyrim which after replaying this I can appreciate even more. I definitely enjoyed the more rpg heavy mechanics, the clunky combat could’ve felt a bit more modern still but it fits the game perfectly. I never felt bored at any point in this game. In- fact once I had finished all the main quests and did nearly all the other quest I could find I felt sad to be finishing it. Luckily though its always there to dive head first again when I need too.

Released Aprill 22nd 2025 on Sony Playstation 5.

Alan wake Remastered

I’d like to say I vividly remember playing this on the Xbox 360 back in 2010 having fond memories of really enjoying it and always wondering if they’d ever continue it. However, it transpired I remembered I borderline nothing. This isn’t a bad thing this time round as It meant outside of gameplay the story was somewhat new again. Plus it’s nice its available on a Playstation console this time.

The game mechanics fighting off the Taken, the poor unfortunate souls who had been possessed by the Dark Presence. The overall bad of the game is what I remembered most. Blasting the poor fucks with the light of your flash light or eventual lantern beam before filling them with lead. Turn this writer into a bona fide monster killer or just serial killer depending how the denizens of the fictitious Bright Falls reacted to hundreds of their fellow neighbours disappeared into nothing. As he hunts down this malevolent force in the hopes to save his wife who was abducted by this spooky old bitch.

Aesthetically this games narrative and setting are a superb mix between the Twilight Zone and Twin Peaks. With just a dash of some of that uncanny valley weirdness. This helps give this game its own sorta special horror vibe which helps let it stand out. With the intention of the game being released in an episodic manner much akin to a limited TV series you’d watch. It breaks the story up without actually breaking it up, it’s weird but it works. It really invites you in with it’s strong narrative and constant twists and turns.

The world that Bright Falls inhabits is a tight little area strewn together with a real sense of travelling through a part of rural America. You can tell that it was supposed to be an open world game as initially intended. I’m not entirely sure how that game would’ve felt but this more linear story driven experience was definitely the better choice.

Some of the sights of Bright falls, i’ve missed mnay but you can get the jist of it.

To give it that extra spiciness to the horror aesthetics, most of the gameplay except a few small interludes takes place at night. Fully allowing the game light mechanics to shine (i’m not sorry for the terrible pun). Using lights is the primary way you fight off the taken, possessed machinery or objects that launch at you with no wanton care. They are kinda annoying as you can’t really deal with them in an orderly manner. Nothing major but can be a bit annoying when you’ve got 5 concrete tubes launching at you around mach 10. Every time you hit a light you get a checkpoint or save plus an instant top up of your health. The constant encroaching darkness closing in allows for a claustrophobic impending doom to always linger over Alan’s head, before some farmer with a sledgehammer or something appears from behind aiming to cave it in.

I’d say for the most part the combat and dodging you can do is functional at best and feels mostly satisfying when you finish them off. But at several points you lose your entire inventory, ammo can be sparse at some points and can be a bit tedious if you aren’t near a lamp post or flood light. You can dodge which causes a bit of a time delay to help you manoeuvre the camera in your favour. But as the enemies get harder to take down and some of them hit 3 times in a row which can’t be dodged or parried if caught and you can only take 4 hits before dying. It’s a bit unforgiving for no real reason. There is no way of upgrading weapons or ammo capacity or even your health. With each of the weapons, the revolver, either of the two shotguns or the hunting rifles being ammo capacity locked as well sometimes you think you’ve saved up a good amount only for a checkpoint to rinse you of everything. So you end up back at square one. The best items by far are flash lights and the mighty flash-bangs, they fuck shit up real good along with the flare gun. Which is ideal for taking out the many flocks of demon birds that pop up to ruin your night regularly. I just think one or two more guns just to pad the armoury out a bit more wouldn’t have gone amiss.

Your weapon quick change menu, the street light savepoint and tool box for some ammo. Plus them pesky birds.

If you are aiming for the platinum trophy of this title it will take you a clean 2 runs minimum due to having to play it on the hardest difficulty and some of the collectibles are locked behind this which you have to find nearly all 291 on them. For me that was a no go, I just don’t have it in me for this particular game. It’s a bit of a cheap way to bloat gameplay for no real cause you don’t get anything for finding all of a certain thing whether it’s the manuscript pages which are narrated by Alan himself which is a nice way of reading the story for extra context. But there’s a few hidden TV shows which are fun to watch I won’t give them away to much, radio shows, can towers to shoot, signposts, some hidden chest for extra ammo or weapons and the biggest chunk the coffee thermoses. I’d probably say it’s not horrific to collect them all but without following a guide there’s a good chance you’ll miss a couple which even though each episode can be played at any point once completed. It’s always from the start with the basic set of weapons or flash lights not your previous loadout. So it’s always a bit of an annoying soft reset.

Just an example of the many collectibles to be found in this game.

I did start the DLC for it but for whatever reason they decided to up the difficulty without any real way of balancing it on your end. The waves of enemies is upped significantly and usually padded out with the harder ones to take down. It also comes with a new mechanic for the flashlight activating the floating word and its’ following action. Which I think in principle is cool but in action it kinds didn’t work all that well. When you haven’t got the time to point or waste the limited amount of battery you have whilst your about to be gang jumped by scythe wielding maniacs and exploding the bang option also inflicts damage to yourself its a bit asinine.

This a cool feature they added if you scan these in game it leads to some pre release stuff for Alan Wake 2.

The story is the strongest aspect of the game, its a nice twist from the standard sort of horror game by having an unravelling author who is trapped in his own work of fiction with his own words having a deadly effect to the real world he lives in. I’m not entirely sure how it all pans out into the expanded universe yet, I am working on that slowly. I have completed Control previously but prior to the releases of the story DLC and I’ve never played quantum break. I’m really looking forward to getting through most of these and wrap up with Alan Wake 2 soon. Hopefully before Control Resonant drops. So I can really get into the very expanded lore of this converging game universe.

Overall I’d rate this game a very high 7/10, Positively tasty.

I feel I enjoyed this more the second time round, so having very little memory of the story made for a more enjoyable time. The remaster elevates the graphics and textures a little bit more with enhanced character models but I’d probably say not enough to make it a must have if you have access to the original. The biggest highlight is having the extra DLC in one disc as well. I think if the game itself had a few more enemies and this was balanced out with a few extra weapons and 1 or 2 ways of upgrading Alan it could’ve been that little bit better. As it nots a fully fledged action shooter nor is it a full survival horror. It falls nicely in the middle but could’ve dipped its toes more in one aspect of it. But its a great story and a fairly compelling way to wrap it up, it’s a shame it took 13 years for a sequel but I feel it was worth the wait.

Released October 5th 2021 on Sony Playstation 5

Game Collection update, March 2026.

It’s that time again whilst I finish working on a couple other reviews including Pokemon Legends ZA, and the mighty Elder Scrolls IV, Oblivion. After the dismal year of gaming that was 2025 for me. I’ve managed to hit the ground running this year, solidly working through my main backlog. I’ve still got a long ways to go and it will undoubtedly get worse, even in my best attempts of not buying new games. The same doesn’t apply to older games or repurchasing games I regretfully traded in many a year ago.

But until the next wave of reviews drops for now I’ll do a small collection round up as I try and get on top of this as well as the playing of many, many games.

Kicking this collection round up, is The Lord of the Rings, Battle for Middle Earth II on Xbox 360. Anything Lord of the Rings related is worth a purchase in my books. This entry into the greatest literary series of all time, I’m right on that and you can fight me about it. I’l never change my opinion. This real time strategy game is the second and last entry into this series which is a true shame as it definitely deserves a third part. However at this point i’d guess not likely at all.

Next up on the PS5 is the game of the year for me. Death Stranding 2. I got this beautiful creation on launch and it took me a fucking long ass time to complete it. By my god what a ride it was and was it worth it. I whole heartedly recommend this to everyone. And for a wee bit of self promotion, that was my last game review to see why its a 10/10.

For the Switch we have the House of the Dead remake. No I made a boo boo here. I have a bad tendency to not read things properly and I’m turbo shite at proof reading which is especially bad considering I’m doing a uni degree currently. But this was just a game code in an empty case. I mean what’s’ the fuckin’ point. I want my cartridge considering I’m paying the same price, but what’s done is done.

Something that I patiently awaited for and pre-ordered as soon as I was able to, the Soul Reaver 1 and 2 remaster. The Legacy of Kain series is one of my all time favourite gaming series. And it’s legacy has somewhat been lost in the shuffle as the years went by. Now we also have the remake of Defiance, which I can only pray for a physical edition so I may get another copy of that as well.

I got two decent charity shop finds in Bloodrayne and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for PS2. I think both for like £1 each so I helped myself to them.

Here we have an absolute classic on the PS1, the Alien trilogy. This was a happy find for me as it was a game I had when I was younger and had long since disposed of. I even got it in its Platinum cased edition which for the most part disgusts me but its how I originally had it so I had to do it for memories if nothing else.

Next up another passing random find, Naruto Ultimate Ninja for PS2. Naruto being in my top 5 Anime of all time and having completed a shit tonne of the games over the years I’d never played this entry in the earlier gaming series. So I was pretty chuffed with this one.

And finally for this round up another Switch title, in Daemon X Machina. I played the demo for this when it initially released and ad every intention of buying it. I did not. Now jump along like 6 years this was oddly hard to find. It didn’t cost a whole lot but trying to find a decent copy proved an effort.

So for now I’ll leave things here my tasty chums, as I do some actual life and some gaming for more mediocre reviews of mine which I often realise after I’ve posted that I’ve missed crucial points I wanted to include. But never come back to include because I’m that type of guy, I hope you also continue to thrive in your daily endeavours and continue to keep up the good fight against your gaming backlog. And if you feel like by all means follow me on my socials for even more updates and random nonsense. You can find me on FB, insta and threads. But fuck X, that’s a real pit of shit. But stay frosty my friends and see you soon for another one of my riveting reviews.

Death Stranding 2

Well this was always going to be either a train wreck of a sequel or another masterclass in gaming from Hideo Kojima. For me Death Stranding on the PS4 was easily a top 5 of that generation and it became one of my favourites of all time.

Luckily for me and everyone else who enjoyed part 1 this was not a let down. Easily my game of 2025, granted I didn’t play a whole heap and I do have expedition 33 to sink my teeth into eventually.

This title sticks with the decima engine which Kojima has used previously and its the right choice, this gaming engine is nothing short of incredible. Visually this game is stunning, it’s probably the best looking game I’ve played on the PS5 and I’d hope it would look even better on the pro or the top setting on the upcoming PC port. The world is stunning from the lighting and photorealistic textures, it’s an incredible achievement. Not too mention the likeness to the many famous faces who play the central characters are second to none. The were already impressive on the PS4 but the fidelity has somehow been ramped up again. Along with the uncanny valley addition of Dollman who acts as the Mimir type figure from God of War.

Just some of the many amazing views that transpire in this world.

Once again this is a game that centres heavily on the blurred line between gaming and a full series or film. Kojima really nails the direction on the head here this can be shown with the emotionally driven story and the motion capture of the main characters coming in from top notch actors from the industry allowing for more nuanced storytelling. Along with more precise camerawork as it were which is bundled up in the 6 hour worth of cinematics within the game.

The full connecyed chiral network at the end of the main game, the red areas are the extra facilities at this time i had yet connect too.

The game world you inhabit whether it be the opening area of Mexico or the main area of Australia which I believe is three times the size of the first game. Really expanding the differing biomes within the open area you can explore. This become especially apparent towards the end of the game when you have to traverse all the way from one end to the other. The landscapes are bigger, more impressive and imposing, there is a vastness that comes along with unlocking new facilities. The environments seem more detailed and individual. The world is more reactive with the timefall rain, which effects rivers causing floods, theirs rockfalls, avalanches along with sand and snow storms. Most of these are luckily are relatively trivial but are nice addition to give a sense Sam inhabits a real breathing world. Especially once you get a truck for the most part you can just power through and normally a good egg has left a conveniently placed charger to use allowing for ease of travel.

Sam remains a psychopath, sleeping with neither the pillow or blanket gicen to him and full covered in blood and other shit, hes truly unrepentant.

One of the parts I enjoyed the most in the first game was the horror aspects of the beached creatures and how they would often stunt your progress until late into the game when you were better equipped. Now they still do what they did the first time round but straight out of the gate you are loaded up with better weapons and ways of dealing with theses beasties. The need to sneak round holding your breath isn’t as necessary every weapon can near enough annihilate them. The only ones that cause you to stop and fight a bit are the bigger ones which can kill you causing avoid out. They seem more minimalist but from a story point of view it makes sense seeing as everything you learned has carried over and acts as a general civilian/porter improvement between each of the facilities. Showing how what Sam achieved connecting North America. I find this has inadvertently watered down the horror aspects just by giving you the player all these quality of life improvements, striping away the terror these otherworldly creatures bring forth.

The quality of life don’t stop just at better weapons and easier transportation. You can now fast travel via the DHV Magellan to any place you have connected. That is unless Tarman has popped up tot tell you the tar currents are unstable or some shit which happens a lot. Hindering your fast travel, late game this can become somewhat tiresome. What else helps is you can once again rebuild roads,along with a monorail system. These allow for transporting heavy loads especially from the mines you can reactivate for materials. These are a specific connected line between the bigger facilities so you can directly travel albeit a slow travel to a specific destination with relative ease.

Some of the pavers creating the roads you can use. And the Monorail you can use to get around ableit a slow choice which you cannot skip.

I think in a lot of regards the game does seem easier which could be seen as a detriment especially to the games aesthetic. As this is a game at its core a delivery sim, I mean that does belittle the game somewhat but its true. But the gameplay loop is so fun, it’s oddly relaxing and this is probably helped by the stellar soundtrack, this time coming from Woodkid who deserved to win the soundtrack at the game awards. You always know you’ve hit the right path when a haunting yet beautiful song kicks filling in the usual gloomy and lonesome vistas.

The improvements to on foot traversal and the vehicles you can use can also be seen in the higher amount of weapons and gadgets at your disposal. This makes for multiple ways in which you can tackle the entire game or type of delivery you have taken on. You can choose to be heavy handed with the action side by shooting the fuck out of everything, my approach. You can be stealthier take limited items to help with silenced weapons or the melee choices. Or you can just be all about the delivery time by streamlining your load-out, dumping everything up on a bike or truck ignoring everything else in your way and driving straight to the destination.

These dance scenes happened, i’m not mad at them if nothing else they were excellently done but they come outta nowhere.

I feel the story this time round isn’t as strong as the first game, it starts off like a crack of thunder, then just dawdles. However by chapter 8/9 it really hits its stride and picks up the pace. The best physical direction of the game starts to shine through here as well, with some very cool cutscenes. I won’t give to many details away but I probably will, but Higgs is fucking fantastic even better this time round. He’s just a horrible asshole for the sake of it mostly. He does some truly wicked shit and Troy Baker is as excellent as he always is. Neil Vana whilst crucial to the story is just a replacement for the superior story of Cliff Ungor. It’s nothing against the actor but filling Mads shoes is a hard ask anyhow.

One of the most visually impressive things i’ve seen in a game, such a cool way to intorduce the character.

The ending is nothing short of mental though once on the APAC beach it just turns batshit it the best way. With the personal highlight for me is the game shift of a 1v1 fight against Higgs which then has a ripping guitar solo battle. All the while giant super BTs are brawling in the background and a giant baby Lou is being birthed out of the tar in a lava filled display. Not many games can go from delivering an albino kangaroo one moment to this the next. It’s truly wondrous in the most mental of ways. This can also be said of the flying whale missile strike that happens from time to time as well, I can’t help but feel somewhere out there Gojira are smiling about this.

Some shots from the final mission, including the amazingly random guitar battle sequence.

You get to experience all the cool stuff the dualsense controller can do, with the colour changing light that wraps the touchpad depending where you are and what you are doing. The speaker acting as an extra level of immersion, with talking coming through it. The warning ding of the odaradek to tell you something unruly is coming your way. The sound of rain rattling around the controller or the sound of footsteps sludging through the mud. The trigger feedback is responsive and adds to the feel of losing control going down a hill or falling arse over tit into a fast flowing stream. Giving a bit more of a weighted feel to the controlling of Sam whose saddled with a shit load of cargo.

Just a couple of the new enemies in this game, two of which are big ol’ boss battles.

There is definite nod to the Metal Gear series in this game and not just the obvious ones, the sheer amount of VR missions you can do which amps up the action shooter aspect of the game. Which I think is more solidly integrated into the gameplay for me personally once I got the level 2 shotgun it was go time. I just fucked everyone up, need to clear a mech facility no problem, need to rescue someone from a brigand camp, no problem, a BT pulls you from your truck, no problem. I enjoyed the offence but it did make the stealth options and a good chunk of the equipment pointless for me. If you’re that way inclined there is a hella lot of fun to be had playing a sneaky approach to a lot of these areas.

The online connectivity is still prominent where you all act as a porter within the game world and share built structures which then bleed into one another own games. Its still a really cool socially team-driven idea and brilliantly executed again. Even the delivery of materials and upgrading of roads along pre-existing structures benefit each other which makes them worthwhile doing. You can do it all by yourself but it’d be seriously heavy going along with a metric fuck tonne of time ferrying all the materials.

I just really appreicate the entire art direction of this cult Higgs uses.

I reckon I sunk around 50 hours into this by the time I finished the main story. Now I’d argue there is around double that left if I want to 100% the game and achieve the platinum trophy for it. This is down to achieving the 5 star rank on all 42 facilities you connect up. Some of these aren’t too hard to do with the more deliveries unlocking which give higher likes but there are some that take the piss. I have done some post game clear up and I would really like to go for the full trophy listing but its a hard slog sometimes no matter how enjoyable the gameplay is. I’ve left it installed and have periodically gone back to do a bit here and there so hopefully I’ll chip away at it slowly.

Overall I’d rate this a stellar 10/10, Real Fuckin’ Tasty.

I’d imagine much like the first game this won’t be for everyone but if you can stick with it you’re in for nothing more then a masterclass of storytelling, with stellar art direction. The ambience and aesthetics of this game really are phenomenal and its the lynch pin for the strand gameplay which is what both games are built around. With hyper refined gameplay that has improved on everything that came before. Making everything you do worthwhile irrespective of your preferred play style.

Released June 26th 2025 on Playstation 5

RoboCop Rogue City: Unfinished Business

I am back for round 2 of the RoboCop Rogue city games, With the stand alone expansion of Unfinished Business. I do feel this could’ve easily been an expansion pass but it works perfectly fine as a stand alone entry.

This game follows much of the same as the first title, which in this case is a good thing a very good thing. If you’ve played it then diving straight into this will feel like a warm night home after being run ragged at work all day. It is a direct extension of the original game only building slightly on the gameplay and systems that came before it.

Robocop looking clean and crisp again showing off how good the unreal engine can be.

The game is a lot more action centric, there is a whole heap more enemies that you gun down gleefully as you work your way through the many levels of the slum filled omni tower. Which is the only location you can explore in this title. I think considering you act in the name of justice racking up a body count of about 200 by the end of the second main mission I’d argue at this point you are firmly the villain of the story with the amount of orphans and and broken families you leave in your wake. Luckily this is a game aye?

The outside of the Omni Tower where the entirey of this game takes place outside of two flashback missions.

But don’t you worry the game is as full of blood and guts as it was before, shooting chunks off the mercenaries and leaving them in a pile of their own blood and misery still remains firm. Leaning into the ultra-violent gritty nature of the original film. You can even get an extra gore perk depending on which chip board you use for your trust PCB hand gun. Allowing for more maiming, head explosions and rivers of viscera painting the walls. Allow for quick efficient and brutal dispatching of your foes. Luckily the gunfights are still tight as can be, you do however still have to act as a sponge due to know cover system in place. But there is now more things to help you, you can hit a one shot finisher if you are close for an immediate melee take-down and some convenient placed ricochet pads that ping your bullets off to hit hidden enemies.

The gore remains, you can at times utterly eviscerate the poor souls in front of you.

There still lacks much depth to the shooting outside of the builds that you make for the auto-9 and the few power ups you have, a dash, temporary shield boost, and an explosive burst. You can still pick up dropped guns, from pistols, grenade launchers and gatling guns. You can’t improve any of these and once in a no fight zone off they go. I think if there is another title, there needs to be some improvement here even if it’s a skill tree overhaul. It can only lean into the nostalgia and nicheness of the auto-9 so much. I fully agrre it should be the primary weapon but I want to fuck the waves of enemies in other ways. Pack some oomph into the bullets, its sci-fi as anything. Nothing wrong with some elemental damage. There is an ice gun but its kinda wank it’s cool freezing the place up and it looks solidly done with the particle physics around it. But gun attachments would work nicely as well. Ramp up the physical upgrades to the tin man himself. Also some form of duck and cover would be great even if it does look great shattering the concrete off everything.

The new cryo gun you get to use absolutely freezes the area around you off a full shot.

The upgrade system is exactly the same as rogue city. Just slightly re-jigged to accommodate the slight variation in gameplay. I’d still recommend going for deduction first as fully kitting that out allows for more XP to be earned for everything. As well as helping you with a few dialogue options when dealing with the npcs. So you can then plough all the remaining points into whatever you want. I think I all but filled out two rows of skills by the end of it. The auto-9 chipboard upgrades for your gun is still not properly explained like previously which is an odd choice. But I’d take either the starting one for a single rate fire handcannon that rips through anything in a couple hits. Or the last one you can get 7.3. Which allows for high fire rate without the need to reload so you ca just obliterate the fuck out of everything with very little standing in your way.

The returning upgrade systems from the previous game, basically just a copy and paste job.

I’d argue the story is a bit more fleshed and more interesting then rogue city but ultimately only acts as the backdrop to the incredible fun gameplay. I mean I’d play the shit out of these with minimal story so it’s nice that they still try to fit the continuity of the first two films by fitting a narrative that seems like it’d work as a film in it’s own right.

A new enemy type, which leaves katanas for you to throw at unsuspecting law breakers.

Many aspects of this once again showcase the unity engine in the way it should be with the main man himself looking fantastic and the side characters looking just as good in many ways. It’s got the vibe and aesethetics nailed down. Many fine points including the neo noir grit reflected neatly in the dismal conditions these people live in. The dimness that bounces back off the puddles that litter the living areas and the muddled neon glow of the living hubs. There’s still jank to many points of the game. Some of which are returning from numero uno. The mouth movements are off the character movements at times in cutscenes are a bit funky. But it’s an improvement over rogue city and some improvements on textures and the frame rate is a bit more balanced. Not juddering out as much. There is glitches but nothing game breaking, nps falling through the flaws bouncing around. Multiplying themselves. Mostly funny things that you just pass by and can carry on with your day.

Doing his best Captain America impression.

You are awarded with a performance rating still at the end of each main mission. Which getting an A is top marks where you need to have found most if not all of the side missions you can do which aren’t many or overly taxing. Finding contraband worth a certain amount of XP. And the omni crates which give you auto-9 chip board chips. Which can be merged to give a higher percentage to it’s boost.

I’d say this is roughly the same length as the first title with a higher focus on slightly longer main missions for a linear narrative and a sparse sprinkling of side quest and cat petting. It’s a great game to play in-between longer titles or if you just want an hour or so mission to blitz through causing a shit tonne of carnage. It’s a perfect length which would be made better with new game plus which I thinks a strange choice not been included as it’d work perfectly as a two run game for a platinum trophy. It’s an easy list to go for if that’s your thing only a like 4 maybe 5 trophies you have to go a smidge out of your way for.

And the new bad guy for this story, pretty standard villian stuff. Especially if you watch a lot of 80’s early 90s action films.

Overall I’d rate this a beefy and highly tasty 8/10, a whole point higher then Rogue City. Even though I think it carries over many of the worst parts from Rouge City it also subtly builds on a lot points and shows an overall improvement in many small ways. I do wish there was some more variation in skills and character builds, and some new mechanics for the shooting but you can’t complain too much when the shooting is ass responsive and on point as it should be. But this is such an unbelievable fun game and if they continue to make more games and keep improving the developers could end up being something special.

Released 17th July 2025 on Sony Playstation 5.