It’s finally time to plunge back into the post apocalyptic, Dino robot filled world of horizon. This time into the forbidden west. I should start by clarifying that I am a major horizon and robodino fan and I will have to try my best to be less biased then I would normally be.
With that gubbins said and done, I’ll start by simply saying. Bang tidy. As expected I loved this game and while keeping this review as spoiler free as my tiny mind can manage, I’ll tackle the number one aspect first. This game continues to explain how everyone on earth, pre Dinobot, tackled the end of everything and their inevitable demise. Then post robosaur, how Aloy tries to stop it all from happening again. I’m in two minds on this games story, on one hand I enjoyed that the trailer for the game is the first 4 hours of story and everything after seems fresh and unknown, while some areas of the story are predictable, something I didn’t feel in zero dawn. I’m not sure what happened to the red blight. I don’t know if I missed something mid or post game, but it didn’t seem to explain if you manage to stop the expanse of death plant. It certainly mentions mid game slowing it down along with the storms plaguing the land however once the third act starts, it’s full focus on the central threat of the game.
That aside the mechanics of the game are much improved, everything seems more fluid and combat is enhanced a great deal over its predecessor. The melee combat now involves combos as well as special moves you can team with the bow to deal considerable damage. In tandem with this the A.I has also improved, what was once a fairly easy ordeal clearing an eclipse base, is now much more difficult with the improved A.I’s way of rooting you out and alerting other forces to your presence, not to mention them riding and owning tamed Dino-death machines.
The graphics are much improved in this game. Aloy’s facial features look much more real than the previous game, the dimples and imperfections in the skin can been seen and the hair texture and movement is more realistic. The same applies for the scenery, all highly improved with top notch PS5 graphics.
There is now also many more dinosaurs. From the lowly otter like burrower all the way to the aptly named SlaughterSpine, a massive Spinosaurus that’s mush more threatening than the fleshy one in Jurassic park 3. They all feel familiar and yet new at the same time, with new and old attacks along with an improved A.I.
All in all I really enjoyed this game, however I did find the story lacking somewhat, which is a shame because it was absolutely banging in the first game. That being said everything else is fantastic, maybe a few more trophies for side quests as I platinumed this game after around 50 hours and had a fair few side quests left, but that’s being a bit picky.
I’d certify this game 8/10 A highly Tasty Game … Lower than I thought I would but I feel it’s fair with the few glitches I had and the slightly lacking story. Well worth buying though.
I bought this game with no prior knowledge of what it was really, plus it’s the only Yugioh game on my beloved Gamecube. With it being somewhat rare to buy, I went out of my way to purchase it. What a fucking disappointment it turned out to be. It’s truly shite, like I managed a couple hours with it and just don’t get what it’s supposed to be. So you’ll be pleased to know there won’t be much to this review, as there isn’t much to talk about.
This is the main menu and map of the realm of ‘Kingdom’.
I truly find that, it genuinely only has one saving grace and that is the monster graphics and attack animations are fairly nice for the age of the game. Seeing as this is based off a popular trading card game you’d expect the game to be card battles, no. It’s a turn based strategy game where you control three monsters in your team and take turns attacking the opposition, but fret not each encounter is turn limited so it can take several battles to defeat one opponent and honestly the game doesn’t really take off much from that starting point. It is almost as if the developer themselves saw the game as a sinking turd in their own toilet.
Select your Marshall.Then selcet their team and items etc.
The game takes place in a fictional world within the already fictional world of Yugioh, and initially you choose to play as either Kaiba or Yugi which gives a slightly different story but the game plays out the same. You get transported to the virtual reality world of ‘Kingdom’, a hard thought out name I know. You are then tasked with joining, and controlling marshals in a warring realm, where you fight in next to non populated or animated worlds with some forts dotted about. The aim is to fight over and have to take control of it as your own. Don’t worry though, each lead monster you have will walk at the pace of a dying snail, it’s tedious just waiting for anything to happen. These forts once taken after a literal arduous confrontation offer rewards. Mainly shit rewards I might add. They then act as strongholds you can then move units to and from as well as buy some optional extras, like cannons to aid in damaging enemy units prior to the fight.
One of the graphically dead forts you use.The vibrant land around you, becoming even more lifeless in darkness.
The premise of this game could be really good, even with the limited monsters you gain on your adventures and eventually I’m assuming the Egyptian God cards. Let’s be honest as youths were the cards we all wanted, the ones you would show off to your friends until they then got three shiny blue eyes white dragons but I never managed to put enough time into it to get that far. I just don’t see how or why you would want too. There is no real distinguish between anything, and the weird paper thin plot is the only thing that makes the game move. Each individual monster have levels and stats that increase with XP, and can take battle items with them which after a while unlock new moves, effecting the state of play. There really isn’t much more to it than that, anything and everything all seems lacking in content everywhere area like they thought of the starting point ideas, and then proceeded to just end as they began.
A couple attack animations for ya.I’ve had more potent sharts in my life.
This is a strange game, that lacks content for a style of game that needs, hundreds of items, attacks and creatures to all effect the style of play to your selected team for attacking and defending. It’s all wrapped in a strange story with a half arsed attempt at a tactical turn based RPG. Limp dicking around in a dead looking world, which hit 0 – 50 straight away and then coasted off the path into a ravine as the car ran out of petrol and then the driver just sat in the dead car hoping for a kind stranger to pass by and help.
A complete battle scape that consists of pretty much nothing and everything the game has to offer in one go.
I can only certify this a 3/10 just about tasty, and that’s mainly due to it being a Yu-Gi-Oh game, which comes from the fact the TCG and original anime holds some very fond memories for me. In all serious buy it for your collection but otherwise ignore it’s existence.
Tales of Arise is the seventeenth game in the long standing and console generation spanning Tales of series. Not much I can say about my time with this game other than how utterly enjoyable it was to play and complete. Sinking in around 65 hours into this game to 100% and to platinum it didn’t even feel a chore or a drag at any point. This is largely due to it’s incredibly satisfying and engaging combat that only got better and better as the game went on.
MenanciaMore MenenciaThe Ranch you unlock
The plot to the story is a bit too deep to go into here, but mainly consist of the group led by Alphen on his travels to regain his memory and save his planet Dahna from the tyrannical overlords from the twin planet Rena. Throughout this journey you pad your party out with Shionne, Rinwell, Law, Kisara and Dohalim, which can all be party leaders and thus playable to free roam the areas and control in combat.
One of the map areas for an idea of how each look.Fast travel and location menuThe training ground options
The game runs similarly to how Dragon Age games work blended with Dragon Quest XI, with lots of fully explorable areas. Every area is region specific to another kingdom and all look beautifully different from one another allowing for a distinct individuality. The Fiery, drought ridden deserts of Calaglia, to the lush greens of Menancia. Or even the technologically advanced Lenegis. With each new area comes new enemies or variants of previously seen ones. As well as the Gigants variants which there are 20 to hunt down over the course of the game, which are bigger, stronger and have far more HP then regular enemies, with some even being harder than in game end bosses.
The Owl forest where all the hidden owls you find go.
As you plod around the world of Dahna, you have a few other activities to partake in, from your standard side quests, resting at your campfires which also act as fast travel points which allow you to cook food which grants temporary time allotted boons, from extra defence to attack up, or even higher chances of ore to be collected at mining points. Here you can also further your bonds with your party member through individual skits and at max friendship you gain an ultimate move to add to your repertoire. At each of these points is also a merchant, which acts as an on the go blacksmith,accessory forger and can access your ranch you unlock into the game to farm animals for their meat. You have training grounds which act as challenges for various rewards, from artifacts and special armour, but the most fun mini game is the fishing. Having to collect 44 different fish around the map, along with better rods and lures so you can catch those hidden boss fishes which are caught through button prompts and angling the line the right direction.
The character skill panels, where you unlock new cool shit.Each characters move load outs.
The entire game is dialogue heavy especially towards the end of the game, where it really turns the exposition right up to 11. Luckily for me I enjoy a good story driven story laden with dialogue. The game also contains 320 mini skits which are activated by R1 prompts throughout the game and even I have to admit at times it did really get too much doing 2/3 hours of game where you barely do anything but talk. Thankfully this only happens the once though, and doesn’t detract from the rest of the game prior to it and afterwards. But fret not, there is a trophy to view 300 hundred of them and it is as grind as it sounds, you won’t get this until nearly 100% the game.
Fighting looks absolutely stunnong in this game.Boost attack trigger screen
For me the biggest draw and highlight of this game is most definitely the combat. It’s hella fun. Its super fluid and flows perfectly and as you buy the character specific skills and unlock new Artes, or forge new powerful weapons it only gets better. Fighting is super simple as well, attack with R1, dodge with R2, and use X,square and triangle to unleash your Artes, with the aid of artefacts you can add extra sets being triggered by L2. Over time the boost gauge fills allowing you to call in your pals with the corresponding D-pad button, to deal high damage via a very nicely animated attack sequence. In this party based RPG, where the main combat you only have 4 out of 6 members active at any time, I found for once no matter who you controlled directly or you had out with you, you were never at a disadvantage making each party member worthwhile as well as engaging. As more often then not you can easily have 1 or 2 characters you’d forget exist and leave all the shit equipment and items on them to not waste the effort on your main.
One of the many Boost attack animations.One of the Gigants you can fight.
The entire game from start to finish is highly enjoyable, and very well written, especially highlighted within all the distinct personalities of the main characters. I do feel enjoying anime would help in your overall enjoyment of this game though, as it does tend to dip it’s toe into character tropes and styling you would find in that medium. Even having a couple very high quality animated scenes which break up the game but don’t affect the pacing. Mind you if you choose to not watch the skits and that, you’d still be able to play the game understanding everything as they don’t add to the plot, just to thicken the world around it. So I would recommend watching them.
Overall this game gets a high 9/10, certified Pure Tasty Gaming.
I’d honestly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys an open world RPG, with the typical craft, find new weapons and armour. Fight bigger, harder enemies all the while unlocking new magic moves, like Dragon quest, Final Fantasy 7 Remake aside. Just because it doesn’t necessarily bring anything new to the table but it does everything incredibly well. With a phenomenal combat system wrapped around a tight knit layered story, with great characters all accentuate with great design, a fantastic soundtrack, making your battles feel bigger and your adventure larger.
As someone who doesn’t give a rats ass about UFC, and I never watch anything to do with it, I always seem to play the games. It does help when it was one of the free PS Plus subscription games of the month though. It also makes for a great quick take review for this game as it doesn’t really warrant a full blown one.
The game itself looks pretty decent, and handles well, especially in the main area of combat, with the different actions, and the fighting itself being fluid. Swapping stances and striking from a boxing strike, to a rear naked choke submission is easy as anything, just merely flip the right stick in the direction you want it to do and then partake in the mini game to fully submit your opponent.
The online play is a bit weak, it definitely suffers from if you aren’t good or new you will lose, much like any online shooter. It just takes practice but I doubt you’ll want to sink that many hours into it to be honest. Also by doing certain actions online or offline will gain you rewards and level rank. Which unlocks stuff for your player card which isn’t that much of an incentive either, as it doesn’t affect the game a whole lot.
The career mode is fine, but ultimately lacks any real substance to it. Once you’ve become the G.O.A.T, outside of creating a new character and doing it again it’s dull. The fighting is fun, and learning certain fighters moves, in a sparring match is a nice touch adding more moves to your repertoire never hurts. But you select how many weeks you want to train before the fight, and you have promotional, learn about the opponent, social interactions and sparring for fitness to do and that’s it. You have a 100 points to divide out over all these actions a week, and it doesn’t go far. Every fight you will start with no fitness. Over the sparring you will level up used moves and gain experience to put in them from the fighter menu. You will definitely notice the difference as you go from no rank to a 5 star fighter. So in that aspect the game has done very well. The social interaction could be fun, if it wasn’t worthless, occasionally if you’re lucky you will get a tweet from another fighter, and you can pick to either improve or reduce relations with them which only affect learning a move, and price reduction for it. Outside of promotional bonuses and side objectives on contract bonuses there is nothing else to do other then maybe customise your characters design slightly.
The game isn’t bad, and is really only worth picking up as and when you feel the urge to. As every part of the game is just missing that extra bit of content. There is a depth of a roster to pick from in men’s and women’s divisions, with all the weight classes. Career mode is thin, and online isn’t that fun so you are better off just playing offline against the standard arcade CPU.
I’d certify this 5/10 barely tasty as it’s not inherently bad, and it looks good graphically even with the occasional weird rag doll physic, but it’s just bare bone across the board, and doesn’t invite replaying all that much.
With this being the last mainline entry of the Wario Land games coming out on the Nintendo Wii back in 2008, it’s fair to say it was a good send off if it stays the last. Which is strange considering the overall popularity of the games that started on the Gameboy. With the popularity of the Switch it’d be a great time to bring it back, as the closest we’ve got in years was the newest Wario Ware game, which is more akin to the Mario party games rather than the side scrolling platformer of the Land series.
The main menu.
This game oddly ditches the Nintendo Nunchuk completely and only uses the main Wii controller, horizontally. At this is were all the gimmicks that come with the game are controlled, as normal you have the shoulder bash, and the ass drop move in previous entries, but now along with vigorous shaking mechanics. These can be used on enemies to shake health or coins out of them, you can use it to aim your throws, and the direction at which you shoot out of a canon to destroy objects or reach a higher platform. Or the main shake component where you punch the ground which can trigger explosions, lower/higher areas or even change what a particular enemy can do. My favourite bit though is controlling the unicycle with it, however it can be a bit tedious.
Area select and as you can see i’m very good and miss nothing.Optional mission objectives.
The games premise is simple enough, the queen of the shake dimension is kidnapped by the shake king and the Merfle ask Wario for his help. Due to the returning Captain Syrup he his able to travel to the shake dimension. There is five areas which consist of main missions and bonus stages you unlock by finding the hidden maps in the stages. Each area has it’s own nicely animated design so each stage feels different along with the terrain and enemies you’ll face. Each mission will only take a couple minutes, and consist of you reaching the end to find the caged Merfle, which the triggers a count down and you have to race back to the start before it runs out to save the Merfle and exit the stage. The last stage of the area is the boss fight which awards you an emblem and once you’ve collected them all it allows you to face the shake king.
Have to shake the controller to spin around and jump up.The trademark shoulder bash.
The whole game is exceedingly short, which is nothing new for the series, but like super short. I mean it’s a bitesize game at it’s core so you can really pick it up as and when and achieve something in it. Each stage has hidden items dotted around it you need to find, and separate goals like amass 16,000 coins, take no damage, defeat the golden enemy etc. So to do everything will take several attempts at each stage. Making for a highly repayable game and it is really fun to be fair to it, not to challenging and different enough each stage to be engaging every time.
The Merfle you have to save.Back to the start to finish the stage.
It does stylistically do enough to stand out from the typical Mario game, as even the Kirby games tend to look and feel the same. Having it’s own cartoon aesthetic helps set the tone for the game along with the weird grunts and noises he makes for conversation. Having a few nicely animated sequences through out the campaign is a welcome bonus. Also having the shop on Captain Syrups ship allows you to buy items, some you don’t have a choice for you have to buy each areas main maps to unlock them. You can buy extra hearts, revives, and bonus stuff that can be viewed in the extras part of the menu.
One of the hidden chests you can find.Captain Syrups store
All in all it’s a fun little game, and it’s a real shame Nintendo haven’t made any more, as for the most part the series sold well, this one not as highly as anticipated but it’s been long enough to maybe attempt a new addition to the series.
I’d certify this game a good 7/10 Positively Tasty. For the most part it’s a solid fun game, lacking in content pretty much everywhere, and once you’ve done a couple areas the new gimmicky stuff from the motion controls wears off pretty fast.
The PS Vita, the successor to the Sony PSP 7 years in the making, initially released in Japan in December 2004 ahead of North America, Europe and elsewhere. Boasting impressive power, far superior and upgraded over the PSP and having the capability of low end PS3 graphics meant for a truly impressive showing on certain games. With the added right analogue stick, being missing prior on the PSP making one of the only gripes I had with the portable console. Adding a touchscreen and rear touch pad to help combat against it’s main competitor in the Nintendo 3DS, and to allow for games to be able use the rear pad as the R2/L2 buttons would allow for greater ease of playing. All of this should have made for a winning combination.
Having the back catalogue of Sony behind it, and initially launching with ports or new addition in triple A games, such as the incredible Borderlands 2 with all the DLC, little big planet PSVITA, Uncharted Golden Abyss, just a few to name. You’d suspect Sony would go lets make sure we put out games like this and of this calibre regularly to help sustain growth, interest and sales. But they went Nah fuck it, it’s not selling as well, let’s can every current big game plan, release some random shit on it, and then be confused later on why nobody is buying it. Honestly in this case Sony was their own big bad, they literally shot themselves in the foot and then watched it slowly rot from lack of medical care.
Ignore my terrible photography and table cloth.The game Menu Interface.
This console by all accounts at the time was impressive, once again shitting on Nintendos’ counterpart. But what the 3DS lacked in power, it sure made up for in an incredible game library, even pinching the Monster Hunter series from Sony, upping the niche market prior to the booming Monster Hunter World. Having the capability of video playback, audio playback, a built in camera for augmented reality games, decent graphics, load times and expendable memory. Even if those bigger memory cards would require you to re-mortgage your house as they were specific built for the Vita. It also had proper online on the go multiplayer shooter games in Killzone and Call of Duty. Everything should have gone to the moon but once again because Sony went nah fuck it again, and it crashed and burned. Which ultimately has left this console a bit of a forgotten treasure.
I love my Vita and still play it regularly, especially when I can afford a cheap new game, as for the most part most of the Vita games now are fairly rare and nothing short of extortionate. I used to love the store, as this was a great place to buy and horde loads of PS1 classics, or earlier PSP titles, making it a decent retro game player in it’s own right as well. Having a more reliable and better battery and brighter OLED screen, making for a spruced experience on the older games. Not to mention the cross play feature on PS4, where you could stream and play your PS4 games on your handheld, if your TV was currently preoccupied. Or if you had the PSTV which certain games and downloaded games from your vita could be played directly on your TV with a dualshock 3 or 4. This is a cool premise seeing as there were initially specific mini games developed for the console and some games would benefit from being on the big screen, but you can guess what Sony did. They went Nah, fuck it, it’s not selling well, as we released it and then did shit all with it again, so lets can it.
The PS TV
Having sold in the region between 15-16 million which is a whole 65 million short of the PSP by many accounts it is considered a commercial failure. Even though it enjoyed a full 8 year life span up until Sony officially stopped making the game carts, and allowing new digital games. It gained a cult following like market as it become some what of a JRPG game machine for the latte part of it’s life allowing that fanbase to enjoy the likes of Persona 4 Golden, Danganropa series, Atelier, Trails series to name a few.
Even with this it still wasn’t enough to salvage the smouldering wreckage unfortunately. It died a true death in 2013 once the PS4 officially released. This in my opinion is the main cause of the failure. It came to late into the PS3 life cycle and was always overshadowed by the incoming PS4 even from a company perspective. They probably should’ve waited and joint released it with the 4, allowing for a slightly better machine and better cross-play capability as well as an extended library from the get go. All this could’ve been avoided if Sony had a better attitude then, Nah fuck it, for the entirety of the Vitas run.
I could go on more about some of the smaller features on the Vita, like the menu shuffling, the AR game it came with, some of the cooler games available on it. Or even the fact that every game now came with trophies like any other normal big title on the home consoles unlike the PSP. But there isn’t much point. It’s a great little machine and deserved to be treated far better and no matter how much I can go on it doesn’t change that Sony fucked it from the get go, but perhaps it can at least allow for a few more people even if a tad late, to enjoy what it has to offer.
I certify the Sony PS Vita a mighty 9/10, Pure Tasty Gaming.
Hey all you tasty folk, it’s your glorious leader here, for another update. Much is the same I’m still playing far too many games at once, on over a hundred consoles a time. Slow progress is always being made here. As much as I’d like to be a millionaire blogger by now the realism of that is slim but maybe one day attainable, probably after I’m dead and people realise I was a genius all along. So the usual shit really.
I do post on Twitter if that’s up your alley, even if for some unbeknownst reason all my thumbnails like to fuck off and go blank. With no obvious fix either, it is a right kick in the nads. But feel free to follow me on there, with a link at the top of the homepage for your convenience. I don’t post as much as I’d like on there or Facebook but as this is still a fairly new adventure and in the process of racking up a loving and devoted following I will post more, the more I am clamoured for.
I have finally managed to get the leads and splitters for PS1,2 and 3 footage, but fool me once, you need another one for Audio cause life hates me. So one day I’ll get that sorted, and soon hopefully I’ll be uploading video clips, for a more engaging environment, as video is a far more tasty stimuli.
Finally settling into my new job, after the past month or so has allowed for me to begin getting into a new rhythm. And as such I have got a few more reviews well in advance ready and should be back to at least one a week again soon, with more guest ones also lined up.
So my fellow tasty friends, be prepared to get your life spiced up with extra zest and zeal. As I am here for you in the form of my piss weak reviews that I will contain to pump out of games you forget existed or straight up don’t care about. But I will not be deterred, nay it will only spur me on further. As I will not rest until my gospel is spoken with true reverence.
Stay safe, stay strong and stay fucking tasty my peeps.
Well what a mixed bag this game is, even if you ignore all the controversy of the infamous 1.7 patch and server down time. Which cut racing prize money amongst other things, all seemingly geared toward the optional micro transactions to buy more in game credits for real money, taking away from the fun grind of racing on your favourite tracks to earn enough credits for the multitude of cars you’d want.
The wierd new Music rally mode, oddly doesm’t come with too many tracks considering it was a high vocal point in the state of play stream.The new central hub map where you control all aspects of the game from here.
On the surface, honestly this game series has never looked any better, the car detailing is phenomenal. The scenery really stands out, and doesn’t look as out of place as normal, unless you zoom in super close to a pedestrian, but we’ll ignore that. Where there could be detail there is, all the different surface textures, showcased especially in the interiors is fantastic. The minute lighting details as you drive and pass different times of day, with the weather effects bringing brighter surfaces, or darkening skies before a rain storm. Or as you cross into night the amusements in the distance begin to light up in neon. With the highlight of the graphics coming from the ray-tracing utilised, Scapes mode, which allows for you to make hyper realistic life like photos of any car within your garage, with a plethora of real places for backgrounds.
The returning Licenses, where I am a great believer in bronze is enough cause i do struggle with gold timings. These are like the other license challenges from previous games, like the coffee break options in 6.
The car handling is better than ever, and using the dualsense controller on PS5, which brings another 10 out of 10 feature with the haptic feedback. What a game changer that is, so far no game has taken the full advantage of that feature like this. You feel everything, within the menu, to the track, every bump, or different surface, gear shifts, wheel locking, or the furious clicking from spinning out, only touches on the surface of what you can feel. With the controller speaker also acting as the race countdown, all this adds another dimension of immersion to the game. This title also comes with a revamped braking assist system, which on some corners work perfectly, couldn’t be any more spot on but then other corners, even if used just as a point of reference seem off, and some bends, are just over looked completely. As a casual player who probably won’t ever get to the point where I can drive a clean lap fully with out the driving line and braking warning this is a bit shit really.
The stunning GTR-Nismo on the Nordshcleife.The new braking system in action.
Having 424 cars to own in the base game, this comes in around 800 less then in 6, it’s still a fair chunk of motoring history you can virtually collect but it misses something of the previous full instalment of the series. The game initially comes off more beginner friendly with the cafe menu, these act as a sort of campaign where you have to collect certain cars to complete a menu page in the cafe. These to begin with are a great touch, really helps you come to terms of how it works, rather then assuming everyone gets the licenses from the get go. With rewards ranging from new cars, classic cars, to new tracks and races, or championships. It fully pads out the game for you and walks you through each major mode, missing off drift, time trials oddly though. But with only 39 menus to complete, with a third of them easily being shitty little tasks like widen your cars body, wash it at GT auto, the initial fun fizzles out, as well only unlocking a couple of different races for each tracks and 10 championships. The content just dries up, and with the missing endurance races, absent from the get go, it just gets boring fast. Grinding out races doesn’t seem as fun as a direct result of it. It doesn’t help that the AI couldn’t give a fuck less about your existence, at times just ploughing straight into your side as you take a corner to slow or as you accidentally stuck to the driving line. Or if you are unfortunate enough for a parade of 13 cars, gleefully and thoroughly ass blasting your car into oblivion as they take turns to smash into you at 140mph one by one.
The used car dealership makes a return minus the ability to sell our cars, which is fucking stupid.How to swap out your cars manually in the garage section of the menu, bringing up all your purchased beauties.
You have licenses from B to the S license, which is 5 ranks of 10 each mini challenges, which are aimed at giving you a basic grasp of how to brake into turns properly, applying lighter acceleration and so forth. But even this seems watered down, with many of the fun mini like games being relegated to it’s own level specific unlocked missions, and many of them just seem tedious. Some are plain dog shit to just get bronze on the timings. I mean it doesn’t help I’m woefully bad at the game, so it begs the question as to why I play the series so much, sinking hundreds of hours into the predecessors. Living with the moto for this as bronze will do. As like fuck I have the patience to try and gold all the licenses.
How to pick your course/championship.Each course has several pre-set races and then the option for the different modes and custom race.
The game as a whole doesn’t like shortcuts, everything is it’s own menu, and to do anything you have to back out of a menu to get to another menu. If you buy a new car, you can auto swap to it,but if you need to tweak it in garage, or before a race. But you have to go back into the tuning shop to buy the upgrades for your car, then to mod it is another menu for each separate option. The daily workout after driving around 26 miles, gives you a free roulette ticket, from 1- 6 star rating with 6 being the tippy top shit. But don’t think you’ll get anything but the lowest 5,000 credits everytime you use it, even though you can win up to 500,00, or a nice new car.
The fastest car in the game the SRT Tomahawk X, caually hitting 394 MPH on a straight line.
Having spent well over 25 hours plus in the game, I honestly love the driving and how fantastic the game itself looks and feels to race. All the different engine sounds, especially with electric cars having that sweet sweet battery hum as well, and all the finer details they didn’t have to add in but chose too. Even with the strange new music rally mode, which I’ll just let you play yourself rather then explain here. It just feels lacking in content, like so much is just missing and for a half car collecting game, half driving sim at the moment it kinda feels like it doesn’t want you to do either. Which realistically is an odd way of releasing a game. Not to mention a massive disappointment for me as this was by far one of my most anticipated games for PS5 and a firm favourite series of mine, having enjoyed the mega highs of 4 and 5, I expected more from this.
So for the moment as much as it pains me I can only certify this a 7/10, so Positively Tasty, even though many aspects of this game are clear 9 – 10/10.
On the plus though with the latest message from PD announcing the addition of new tracks,endurance mode, re-jigging prizes from the basic in game races and online in sports mode in the very near future. Plus more cars, the function to sell cars which should have always been in the base game and other new stuff coming at a later date, this has the potentially to be a genuine 10/10 racer that it should be with a multitude of racing options and top notch credit earning/buying economy. This currently is definitely worth your time now even with all the current flaws, and I can only imagine how much better it’ll be in only a couple months time. And at that time I will be writing up a follow up review as that’s how much faith I have in it. Keep tuned my tasty brethren.
A quick take one again, as opposed to my usual amazing, long picture filled reviews, which are obviously world renowned at this point, well maybe not. This is due to some changes within my life mainly with swapping my jobs over, and other things getting in my way of playing my games, it’s a real shitter to be frank with you. So I went with an absolute banger, that really I’m sure most people played at some point during the life cycle of the 6th Gen of consoles.
A game that really brings back the memories of playing on my PS2. For me this is a double whammy of goodness, being a great game and being part of the greatest film series of all time, and I’ll have no one say otherwise on this matter. With the battle of Helms Deep, being the highlight part of the trilogy for me and of this game, it ,makes for a truly underappreciated classic.
Graphically, it isn’t the best, not bad by any means, with the game flicking through pre – rendered CGI cutscenes that blur seemlessly to actual snippets from the films. Albeit a little bit dark in places making it more difficult in certain places than it needs to be, like the second part of the cave troll fight. With levels designed straight from the films as well, with audio either captured by the actors themselves or new lines added in, makes for a faithful adaptation of the first two films. As this game covers bits from the fellowship through to the two towers. Each design differs massively to make the linear levels all feel different, from the harsh mountains leading to the Mines of Balin, the sprawling forrest laden battle field for Amon Hen, and the choatic battlefield of Helms Deep.
The gameplay of the levels allow for multiple replays with different playable characters, the main being Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas. For the most part, the game plays the same, a bit of sword fighting, or axe if you are Gimli, with the addition of archery or throwing axes, which can be triggered by the L1 button, with either random health drops, or arrow resupplys from downed enemies. If you are lucky, you’ll find a crate that when smashed does the same.
Each character levels up to a max level of 8, which with every second tier comes new, combo moves, health increases or damage upgrades. This is obtained via how well you do during the missions, as every action is tallied up from a gauge in the bottom left. This ranges from; fair,good,excellent and perfect. The better you do the more exp you gain. All of which prove to be helpful, as the missions go on. Surprisingly I found this game harder than I remember, nothing too bad, probably just in the middle ground of where it needs to be. This makes it all the more miraculous that I finished it when I was younger and I’m admittedly awful at most games.
Overall I’d certify this game a solid 6/10 so some Tasty Gaming.
Six may seem a little low, considering it’s a fun game, but the missions are fairly short, taking only like 5/6 hours to do the main missions and with some multiple replays using the different characters. Combat is a but clunky, and oddly misses out certain big parts of the first two films like the Balrog fight. As the missions go along you unlock some nice behind the scenes stuff from the actual films, to peruse at your leisure. This being only short snippets so are some good bitesize fun, unless you are like me and have relentlessly watched the extended editions with a fuck loads of extras which obviously I have watched. But it just always feels like little bits were missing or were snipped out during development of the game.
Firstly I will actively give a warning to those who haven’t played this game, as I will be posting NSFW pics from this game at some point. And these pics you ask obviously, they will be of Lucifers giant horsecock and ballsack. I mean what else would you expect?
At the very core this is based off the epic poem from the 14th century, comprising the first part of the divine comedy. The plot is pretty simple, man goes to Hell to save his dead partner. Or the slightly longer plot, Dante goes to Hell to follow his beloved Beatrice to save her soul from Hell and go to paradise (Heaven) Instead. And he has traverse all the nine circles slaughtering and saving many souls along the way. With the game being a perfect blend of the old devil may cry, God of war and Prince of Persia games.
Ooh ominous.
The game itself is from way back in 2010, honestly graphically as well it still ain’t bad. Through the game with the basic animation at hand, there is also CGI cutscenes which are very well done, wouldn’t look amiss from a full blown animated film a couple years back. As well as cartoon sections that come from the self stitched cloth to Dante’s skin, metal as fuck, right?
Looks a little sore if you ask me.
It probably isn’t for everyone, especially if you are religious, but then again maybe it is for you still, who knows certainly not me. Amidst all the extreme blood and guts you wade through the story is woven tightly in the realm of very strong religious horror as well as body horror, and psychological. Everything is designed to be grotesque and the game follows a simple principle, if it can bleed it will. This goes from enemies, walls of corpses, even the gargoyles on the door have to be severed in order to pass through. The game is a strong 18 rating over here and is rightly deserved.
So casual Demon Slaying.
The combat is slick, fluid and hyper violent stylised hack and slash, and it only gets better the more upgrades you attain from adding extra moves and even magic to expand your arsenal. You have two skills trees two follow for upgrades, holy and unholy. Which are unlocked in tiers by either punishing or absolving certain enemies. This is usually done through a quick time event of 2 or 3 button prompts.
About to rip this meaty boy in two.This is the skill tree availabel to you ti improve your time killing shit.
The whole game is linear so it’s near impossible to go wrong, everything is straight forward with only a few hidden areas, or small paths which leads off to hidden artifacts, souls to be purged or equipable relics which grant extra useful boons. Health/mana are collected from enemies or fountains which fully replenish you but are one time use. All saves are manual at beatrice statues. The path is littered with puzzles of various kinds, and are mostly all there to kill you rather than be too solved. Nothing will kill you more than the uneven jumping which normally makes you miss the ledge or platform you are trying to reach. This goes hand in hand usually with the fixed camera that you have no control over, which I liked to forget and use the right stick instead which is for a rolling dodge which also would cause me problems.
Lucifer pre horse cock.Lucifer post horse cock. Well goat if you wanna be pedantic.
For a 12 year old game, I have very few gripes about it, it’s fun, the story and animation is interesting, as is all the visual level designs for every individual circle of Hell. From the boiling swamps, rivers of blood, the suicide forest. Every level is designed well enough to come off fresh and new each time. Combat is fun as hell, fun boss fights, the whole game has a great sense of size and scale. Other then at times a shit camera angle, the only other thing i’d say is bad it’s not particualry long only clocking in around 7 hours to complete. But on the plus size it’d take about two playthroughs to platinum if that interests you, and even then it’s easily replayable and not too tasking to be picked up as and when.
For all the remasters, remakes that we are given nowadays, I feel the newer engines and consoles would do wonders for this game. A fully fleshed out explorable map/area for each circle of hell, with new; weapons,armour and magics would be nothing short of immense. Really build on the new open world style games of today with everything they already did well here with more bosses,side quest stuff even crafting, it would be money.
Have another mega dong picture, cause why not.
So with all that said i’d rate this a solid 9/10 some Pure Tasty Gaming.
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