TastyRetroGaming

Gran Turismo 7

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sony PS5 March 4th 2022

Lord Of The Rings – The Two Towers.

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.

Sony PS2, 21st October 2002

Dante’s Inferno

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sony PS3, 4th February 2010.

Killzone Mercenary – Quick Take

As this was my first Killzone experience not having played any on the PS2/3 or 4, as a portable game and not a fully fledged console game I was pleasantly suprised by it. I particulary enjoyed that your character was a mercenary for hire. So for all your kills and the miraid ways of doing them is what gained you money throughout the game which you would then use for your new weaponry and armour.

Overall for on the go gaming from back in 2013 the graphics and gameplay were all top notch. The use of the touchscreen and rear pad is pretty nifty and aids in the overall gameplay. I’d argue it does this better then most new switch games which is largely a forgotten option.

At the simplist form it’s your typical shooter game. The missions are well designed, which allows for some good duck and cover shooting, or optional stealth with melee kills if you are able to be super sneaky, which for the most part I failed miserably at. The interstellar war between ISA and Helghast is highlighted fairly well, with all the different futuristic landscapes you pass through as you have shootouts in skyscrapers or trying to save royalty in crumbling mansions, or even slinking round giant flying labratories. The campaign itself isn’t anything impressive storywise nor the longest, with most missions lasting around 20 minutes. But they are fun bitesize missions, which if you wanted to play in the go commuting you wouldn’t ask for more. The touchscreen which can be used for swapping guns, using grenades, locking on to enemies. As well for the variety of the melee kill that will be performed, interragation to gain intel, planting bombs and the hacking minigame.

The missions are bare boned, you have your objectives you hit throughout the level and move on. As for difficulty it can be shifted to the different contracts modes unlocked on first time completion. In which you gain additional objectives making for a slightly harder time, such as only use certain weapons, time constraints etc. What makes for the most change to each playthrough is what sort of weapon you use, with; machine guns, shotguns, LMGs, RPGs and snipers at you disposal. With over 30 different weapons and gadgets, to be slotted into your primary, secondary and gadget slot, there is a fair chunk of variety to be had.

The online multiplayer which isn’t massively active nowadays but is still live, which was not expected at all. So I only managed to get a couple of games with a full lobby. It comes with three different modes the standard free for all, (mercenary warfare), team deathmatch, (Guerilla Warfare) and objective based deathmatch (Warzone). It’s no full fledged COD or Battlefield up to 1 when it was still good. It still contains one of the best crossover features form the single player campaign comes in. This is blackjack, your friendly shadowy arms dealer. All money earned over every mode allows new weapons to be purchased and can be used in either mode. With further rankings unlocked with exp for more loadouts to be saved for an easier transition which can be swapped at any dealer crate for a small fee, luckily these are amply dotted around every mission.

Certified 7/10, Positively Tasty.

Quick fun, simple misisons, with high replay value that is perfect for on the go even now with the Switch and even mobile gaming. And it still can be played online for a decent online shooter experience if you can get into the right lobby.

Sony PS Vita 6th September 2013.

Astro’s Playroom

I waited a year to get a PlayStation 5, managing to snag one in December 2021.
First thing I did was install Spider man Miles Morales and have a quick whip on Astros playroom. I did the controller show case at the start and shortly after Spider man had installed and I went balls deep straight into that game, leaving Astros playroom to gather virtual dust while I swung around Manhattan. After finishing Miles Morales, and trying to fill my time until Horizon Forbidden west release’s, I gave Astros playroom another bash. What a banging little game.

For anyone that doesn’t know. Astros playroom is a little platform game that comes pre installed on the ps5 and was made to tickle your senses with the new haptic feedback, beautiful graphics and crazy loading times. It smashes all those targets and hits you with nostalgic pieces of PlayStation history as you complete levels designed to showcase the new features.

From controlling a space rocket with haptic feed back on your triggers, to a robo-monkey that vibrates your socks off and blowing on your duel-sense to power windmills, the new controllers immersive capabilities are incredible and need to be felt to be truly understood. Pairing this with finding a VR headset or a ps1 memory card makes a truly grand experience for fans of Sonys gaming work.

The levels are well designed and visually spectacular. Vibrant colours and textured blades of grass would be more than enough, but the levels are littered with snippets of all Sonys masterpieces. It did take me until around half way through and seeing an adorable robot Kratos sat on a boat with his little robo-son to realise they were all game snippets, and I probably missed quite a chunk of them but nevertheless, I enjoyed trying to find as many as I could.

My favourite though was probably collecting the pieces of PlayStation history and having them displayed in the vault. Upon finishing each level you are gifted with each mighty console from the PS1 to PS4, and after nabbing then all, you can climb the path to gaming heaven and are met with the big grand daddy PlayStation 5 to complete your journey.
This all brings back memories from whatever era you played as well as giving you a taste of the future.

The only thing I can think of that i’d really want added is the ability to play snippets of old games in the vault, like classic Crash bandicoot but with Astro wearing a pair of ears. Maybe that’s wanting too much from a free game however and all in all I totally enjoyed it.

Certified rating 9.5/10 Many Big Tasty

By, MoonHead

Sony PS5 November 12th 2021

Nintendo Switch OLED model – Quick take.

With the sad demise of my original switch which I had owned since release back in 2017, coming to fruition on the day of Pokemon Legends Arceus release. I was saddened at the abrupt death that unfolded before me. However skip to three days later after taking the back off a having a little looksie, realising there was nothing to be done. I hop off to the shops and purchase the white edition of the OLED model. For the extra £50 over the standard edition I thought I may as well get the supposed better model.

Too my complete and utter suprise when docked it made zero difference, literally just the same as before. However in handheld mode though. From the bigger, better 7 inch screen which fits the face more with less room to spare. Which from boot up immediatley out classes the standards screen. It rounds off the rough edges from the standard 720p LCD screen, with a brighter smoother picture.

The battery life as well, what an improvement from going to the near 2 hours in handheld if I was lucky enough to 4 hours playtime with battery to spare. There is nothing worse then having been on a online lobby hunt in Monster Hunter and you get the battery level low ping up in the top corner. Having doubled the internal storage to 64gb as well, which means you can easily save for a bigger library without needing to buy a SD card, if you prefer game all digital.

Having also fixed what i’d say was always a wierd design flaw over the original as well is the full length kickstand which also has more constitution to it then the piss weak stick one from before, which barely let the console stay upright. This one also allows for more versatile positioning so you can really set it up how you want for on the go, or if you just don’t want to hold the console for a couple hours.

Overall, for something that for all purposes is just the switch V1.5, the few small design upgrades make for a whole host of improvements which is honestly worth going out of your way for. I’d recommend upgrading more if your old boy decides to give up the ghost, but even if you just want the best the Nintendo switch can give you it’s worth your time.

Certified 9/10 Pure Tast Gaming.

Released 8th October 2021

Introducing … Sneaky Snesly!

Welcoming the newest Mascot to the tasty family … Snesly, who now alongside Mr Tasty will be a constant and familiar face to all you loyal tasty folk. Expect to see more from these tiny tasty people and with more soon to arise on the not too distant horizon.

Plus a quick update as you know I like to keep you all in the loop, having hit a lil’ Snagfoo with PS3 Gameplay capture, I will be moving onto some earlier games back to the Gamecube and too the PS2 for a while as I attain the required splitter I need. Look forward to hearing more exciting tales in my gaming adventures in the very near and dear future my chums.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond

Another Pokemon review here just in time for Pokemon Legend Arceus release in a couple of days, and safe to say it’s not even close to being the last one. Aren’t you all so lucky? Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are remakes of the 2007 original DS titles. On the surface they are the same game, even bypassing the slight changes that came from Platinum which I’d argue is one of the best Pokemon games of all time and eras, up there with Crystal and Emerald.

We once again return to the Sinnoh region and this time artistically it’s a fresh full fleshed out chibi style, which at it’s core is an updated version of how it used to look, just not as flat in places. For me I actually like that they went with this style for the remaster instead of the slightly more realistic approach of the Sword and Shield. It makes the world feel bigger than originally it was and makes for how it should’ve looked back in 2007. All the while making the terrain edges of the map feel like there is a bigger world out of the linear path you tread on your journey. What has let it down is the unevenness of the graphics as they aren’t as crisp and whimsical as the Links Awakening Remake. Which looks incredible! Some bits like the water graphics look better than the world around it, and even has better physics on it when using surf than a lot of other minute details. Then when you enter a battle the chibi style is dropped and becomes fully rendered like Sword and Shield. This makes for the battles to seem larger and more engaging which is good but it’s an odd choice. Not to mention everyone’s floors are highly shiny and reflective, for no real reason, always making the inside of buildings seem peculiar.

The gameplay is as fun as it ever was, and brings back the more traditional style of gameplay which the series has slowly been shifting away from. It does bring back the full party EXP share, and this seems way more giving than normal as well. Fielding a high level team for the entire game is of no worry. You will always be way above, level wise which is and isn’t a problem depending on where you stand with it. Also one use TM’s make their return, rather then the unlimited uses of later games. This also brings back HM’s but you no longer need them to be taught they are added to your Poketch and can be triggered as long as you have the relevant gym badge and a wild pokemon will do the move for you. Which I think is a welcome addition as before you would always have to catch a shitty low levelled Pokemon to become a HM sap and have to waste a valuable slot on your team to use flash once, creating a deep inconvenience.

To make the game feel more personal as well, once you reach Veilstone you can go clothes shopping and change your style up and dress your character how you want, instead of the same clothes all the time. You can have a Pokemon of your choice follow you around as well. The size and quality of the walking animation is to be deservedly questioned. I mean having a only 5 foot Deity of time trundling behind you is a strange at the best of time, instead of the towering behemoth it’s supposed to be, but even more strange that no one seems to give a shit a legendary Pokemon just ate some poffins in front of your house. This probably comes from what I can only assume is the booming economy in the world of Pokemon, from everyone giving you fairly expensive TM’s, items and even team galactic paying you once you’ve beaten them. Cause nothing says world domination then a battle wagered moral compassion. Everyone is just too happy most of the time it would seem.

One returning feature that did make me very happy as I spent a questionable amount of time on this back in my youth is the explorer kit. This along with Dive are two things that have needed to be brought back since before the 3DS titles started to drop. This time the underground system has been expanded. As you run around doing the usual digging for gems, and occasional fossil you now have little caves that act like an overworld with wild pokemon walking about. This can allow you to catch slightly rarer Pokemon without being in the habitat of them and makes for easier shiny hunting if you are into that.

Digging for them gems is a fun pass time, when furiously stabbing the screen.

A certified 8/10 a Highly Tasty Game.

You can see the moment I finally beat the absolute shit that is this Garchomp.

It’s a very fun game still, using all the same old Pokemon formula which has had a nice glow up and quality of life enhancements. Even having two features that are touch screen as seemingly every other switch game has forgotten that is possible. This all adds up for a stellar remake that falls a tad flat as it does absolutely nothing new, I mean this isn’t a bad thing as it is a remake but for a full priced remake you expect a little bit more, adding the fan favourite mega evolutions would’ve been a nice touch. Or even if it just looked a little bit better graphically. None of this takes away from the fun of saving the Sinnoh region and once the National Dex is unlocked you have a island which does allow for many past Legendaries to be caught. So all in all it’s well worth revisiting these classics remade anew.

Nintendo Switch November 19th 2021.

Death Stranding – Director’s Cut

Well where to begin with this review. It took me a bit longer than usual to sit down and complete this game. Having originally owned it since it came out in 2019, and put it down around chapter 5. This time though I made sure to just stick with it and I’m so glad I did. I haven’t enjoyed a game as much as this since Ghost of Tsushima back in July 2020. Initially it does come off as a UPS simulator game but it’s so much more than that. Especially as the game progresses and the story opens up. With BB – The baby in the Jar. All the side character’s back stories, and the terrorist/Mules that are out to hinder your progress.

For the seventh generation consoles it easily boasts some of the best graphics it has to offer, and being upped to the PS5 it looks even better. The world is highly detailed and even so on the graphically rendered characters who are predominantly based on really people. Sam Porter Bridges is played be Norman Reedus, Fragile by Lea Seydoux, Cliff by Mads Mikkelsen to name a few. With the biggest change coming from the dual sense additions, with all the haptic feedback coming through, so every step on all the different types of terrain you’ll traverse all individually feel unique. What adds to this is the speaker on the controller as well, from the crunching of the snow, or the sound of running water in the streams you can cross.

The game takes place in a sort of post apocalyptic style world. The world is riddled with voidouts where a giant BT appears and basically nukes an area killing everyone on site. You as Sam have the task of crossing the country linking everywhere up via the chiral network to rebuild the nation of America. Without going into too much detail and ruining the story for those who have yet to play it, BT’s are Beached things and are creatures that come from the Beaches that everyone get’s when they die which opened up with the first death stranding. Which bought along with it the timefall, which is a rain storm that ages everything it touches. So Sam as a porter is tasked in delivering parcels to those that need it whilst reconnecting the broken world.

The second area and the main base of the game initially seems huge due to all the walking, but as you head up to the mountains you get into a snowy setting complete with snow storms. With the gorgeous landscapes with the mountains in the distance, they’ll you will eventually have to tackle and the finer details of ruined highways and desolate buildings in a rusted grassland.The game online functionality means that any thing other players have built will pop up in your world which once connected everywhere up to the chiral network become available to you, making your life easier. Which is great as with the timefall degenerates everything it touches, including the cargo you carry on your back.

All the upgrades and unlocks in this game are designed to help you and make your life easier. Everything works off likes, any building/centre that can be connected to the chiral network awards likes on deliveries they recieve, with them having a max of a 5 star connections with Sam, as they increase it unlocks new blueprints which could be better boots, new weapons, vehicles or even exo-skeleton type legs which make you run faster. Or even interviews, new music. And as you go on about your day you get mail which along with the interviews fills in more details of the world. The best thing to build and invest early on as soon as you can at chapter three though is roads. With certain terrains being a nightmare to drive over having a near direct route to use can be nothing short of a life saver. This goes along with timefall shelters as naturally there isn’t many areas to get out of the rain and it does constantly get worse as the game progresses. The only thing worse than the rain is the snow which is worse in every way.

In an odd sense this is one of the only games I’ve played that comes off peaceful as you play. This is due mainly to the excellent music score and in game music player thats available to you. Which is strange as at any time the BT’s could drag you into a tar pit and make you fight a catcher with is basically a giant tar/liquid Squid or lion like creature. Not to mention the mule areas which are basically weaponized theives after your cargo, and they will mercilessly track you down if you ping in their territory.

In terms of story it doesn’t start to get too spicy until chapter 9, this is the point where everything you’ve done and unlocked starts to all interlink and make sense. As BB (the bridge baby you have which is a baby in a jar which is connected to the beach so they can allow you to see the BT’s which are otherwise invisible to you.) gives you intermittent flashbacks which all tie into the main story of it all which is rescuing Amelie (Sam’s sort of step sister) at Edge Knot city the furthest away Bridge station in America. The main story is highlighted by the Mo-capped and acted performances for most of the main characters, which in my opinion is what really carries the flow of the game as it is a rich story driven experience, and at times can plod along a tad, as it isn’t the most action filled game in existence, this doesn’t mean it lacks action though. This is exemplified by chapter 3 which is by far the longest chapter and the game doesn’t really get going until you’ve completed the final delivery for that chapter. Even still you can still get into shootouts, boss fights and the war sections are super impressive, and the stealth mechanics to try and avoid the BT’s all add for a varied game across the board.

Ultimately this game was designed to make everything you do help later on in game. As on the chiral network to aid in your deliveries as everything is connected to the same grid, everyhting is battery powered. So for easier traversal you can make; bridges, genertors to charge up on the go, timefall shelters, pop up safe houses,ziplines and even parcel catapults. These all stay where they’ve been built but can corrode over time so resources will have to be used to fix them again. You can even leave little signs up which affect you as well, from likes, restoring stamina even a boost when driving. But the most helpful would be the little warnings to show your in BT territory or it’s a place of heavy timefall.

I would write up about the negatives but from how much I enjoyed my play through I hardly found any massive ones to mention. Theres a few small iffy things, shooting isn’t as crisp as it could be, driving can be a bit off especially in the trucks and occasionally some tedious deliveries. But I found the story so engrossing that it didn’t bother me enough to stop wanting to play. With the ever expanding improvements on all your equipment and new equipment you could build, the game never stumbled or got harder as such just smoother.

Honestly I’d certify this game nothing short of a 10/10, real fuckin’ Tasty.

This game in my opinion is just shy of a masterpiece of gaming up there with the likes of the Witcher 3 and God of War 2018, it’s visually impressive with a rich interesting story which could’ve only come from Hideo Kojima. A really unique and fun game to play and get accustomed to all of the interesting mechanics, which over time only add to the overall experince. It’s also fairly hard to write a review on this game without spoiling any of the story as everything is so interwoven that culminates perfectly in the last two chapters that any small detail could give too much away. I can’t recommend this game enough though if you haven’t played it yet.

P.S – I forgot to record any game play for pics as I was too busy playing it, so if you Google it I’m sure you’ll be able to see a lot of what I was on about.

Sony Playstation 5 24th September 2021.

Gear Club 2 Unlimited, Ultimate Edition PS5.

A new review for the new year, and obviously not one of the previously mentioned games. But rest assured they are still coming. This time round it’s the juiced up version of Gear Club Unlimited 2, the Ultimate edition for the PS5. Originally a Nintendo Switch exclusive back in 2019, they re-released this updated version with all the previous DLC and add-ons that had dropped for it.

On the surface this game is identical to the switch game. The same map, cars, events and cartoon character dialogue that gives the game a bit of a story. With the added bonus of decent load times, as the Switch’s can drag for a few minutes on the inital load, on the flip side though the graphics have been amped up cross the board. The cars look more polished and shinier. The smaller details of dirt flecks and sparks on collision are richer and more noticeable. The in game world in races seem bigger. I think that comes from better draw distances, more foliage and the open roads being seemingly wider. Where it looks best though is in the visually improved car garages and the performance workshop. This is where the hardware really shows its power boost over the switch. However for even last gen game on PS4 it’s still not all round up to scratch, still looking outdated on the scenery as you whizz round the races. One thing it does particularly badly is the lighting especially out of a tunnel , it’s so bright as you exit it you feel as if your car is being birthed by God themselves it’s so blinding. And I’m not one to moan too much about frame rates as more often than not it doesn’t really affect gameplay that much for me, but in gear club it can be choppy as fuck. Randomly stuttering in a corner or shadows appearing whimsically like the sun is playing peek-a-boo for shits and giggles.

The A.I on opponents does feel improved as well, but again not in every aspect, if your car’s performance level is lower than the top three it can pose a more engaging race. But once you’ve upgraded your car enough you just shit on everything. The main opponents in the A,B,C,D ranked races which also locks the cars you can buy by rank difficulty within the races are sporadic to say the least. With the same car, one race you’ll leave them hundreds of yards behind then the next you’ll struggle to catch up, even if you car is better. They run like a scalextric with random boosts dotted around and only for them. They are also not affected by the dirt and snow like you which obviously slows you down if you go off track. The main gammy part for me though is the car turning, your car is just so rigid in turns it’s mad. Not to mention the odd aggression of the other drivers, who will just ram you into oblivion if you are on the racing line.

However it’s not all doom and gloom, the game itself is pretty fun. With every track being different, with different surfaces to tackle, and a variety of different modes; laps, sprints, last man standing and time trials. The driving itself isn’t too bad either with decent handling and responsiveness that comes along with a good racing line to follow if you need it, and with good assists options you can opt to turn off or up. I’d recommend turning off steering and brake assist leaving the lowest option for anti-skid on because of how upgrading works too much power will make you kick out on certain tracks. The highlight of the game for me, being the workshop, which you can customise your own garage like a working race team. You buy different upgrade stations, so performance for engine, tyre workshop for brakes and tyre’s obviously. Rally station to make you car rally worthy, so on and so forth. There is one big but though, each upgrade is expensive as is the actual part upgrades, I mean some paint’s will cost you $48,000. You don’t start winning big money until the C3 championships. So upgrading can be a ball ache. Even with the optional events dotted around, as you have to spend to upgrade older cars you were using. It takes a while but it does even out . In game there are over 50 fully licensed cars. Which isn’t a lot for certain racing games but the selection is good, with the like’s of; BMW,Mercedes,Porsche,Pagani,Bugatti etc. You will never not have a nice looking super car at your disposal. With a modest amount of customisation available to you, you get make your cars more to your design, unless it’s a special livery in which case you can’t do shit.

The game comes with online multiplayer, clubs which give you timed events to participate in and get specific rewards usually decals for your car so nothing major. The two big DLCs that come with it are the Porsche series which works a little differently and you are given a car to use, and at the end of the championship it gets auto-upgraded dependant on where you finish, with the final one being the grand prize of a Porsche 911 type 930. You also have the endurance tracks that adds the Le mans course and another upgrade station to make your cars track racers instead and through that you can win the Ford GT40. This is more like a simulation then the rest of the game. Think Gran Turismo light as you have tyre wear and fuel consumption.

A tad fuzzy and grainy in comparison to the shot on the PS5

The only other in game option you get is off-road racing which to me should be a separate part of the game with it’s own dealerships and cars, as at the moment it works by paying to have a Separate rally upgrade list and spec for the some car you are already using. It just doesn’t make sense to me, when you could be running rally championships with the ability to mess with your cars set up which to me would be a fun extra.

Overall I’d certify this game a very strong 6/10, Suitably Tasty.

For me this polished version is the ground level that can be built upon for the future entries of the series. Increase the amount of car’s available, add an arcade type option so you can set up your own races. Improve the smaller parts of the game engine, frame rate, lighting and add to the performance shop make that a real sim like game in it’s own right, as building up your own team and getting the right upgrades would be welcomed addition to the racing genre. As it stands, it’s a fun racer that’s easy to pick up and put down at a whim, with slight balancing issues with opponents and how much upgrades cost. Fix that and add to the replay value along with more customisation options especially in the rim/body department and honestly this could easily turn into a great racing franchise.

Sony PS5 30th November 2021