TastyRetroGaming

RoboCop Rogue City

This was a game I had seen good things about and it was firmly on my list to acquire at one point or another. So when it became one of the games included in the monthly line up from PS plus I was pleasantly surprised. As more often then not I either already own or have no interest in what is available.

Now I won’t say I’m a massive RoboCop fan I have seen the original films years and years back but I can’t recall a lot of what happens. So to some degree this is very much all new to me again. I know there is general complaint of how the series went from the second film as to why I’m not sure. This game looks to rectify those issues and then some.

For me this game was a real treat for several reasons. The biggest is the overall aesthetic and world design. The game highlights the use of the unreal 5 engine, showcasing some particular highs of its capabilities. Thus allowing for some real crisp looking graphics. It’s a generally a decent looking game but not across the whole board. The eponymous robocop himself looks incredible and I do believe it’s the original actor who voices him as well for that added level of nostalgia, if not highlighting nuanced authentic details. The environments looks great from the reflections in the glum puddle laden streets of old Detroit or the dull 80’s styled offices of the police precinct that acts as the central mini hub of game. Now it could be that Cyberpunk takes some visual nods or acts as homage to the original films as I often thought how the vibes of the game made me think of Night City. Which is no bad thing considering how immense Cyberpunk 2077 is.

Just a couple nice stills form Detroit showing how nice the game can look.

There are some graphical drawbacks such as how the NPC’s look janky as fuck and their dreadful clunky movement or facial animations in cutscenes. When you’ve got some decent voice acting going on and the face of the character moves like a robotic poundland sex doll it’s a tad off putting.

The game took me around 15 hours to fully complete and pick up the platinum trophy. All of which are easily obtained via just playing the game. Well three are tied to a highscore on the shooting range and one is clearling a warehouse of enemies under 10 mins.

A few evil bots you kill and the big boss at the end of the game, which is basically you just holding the fire trigger to unload hell into this big mechanical bastard.

Both of those extra trophies are easily obtained late in game with the upgrade system and the interchangeable PCB boards for ol’ Robo’s gun. The upgrading system is a slightly lacking but does the standard of upgraded health, damage, armour etc. Then every couple notches you get an extra boon like focus where you can slow time down for a bit or extra health replenishment slots. The gun upgrade system is a bit convoluted and as far as I’m aware, unless I’m being thick as shit, the game doesn’t really explain how it works. Which in itself is a weird choice, as you plod along and I say plod as you walk like you’re scraping dog shit of you shoe and the run option doesn’t increase speed all that much. Even if it’s for immersion a bit of a faster pace wouldn’t hurt the game any. Now back to the PCB upgrades you have an option to find different boards that come with specific tailored builds as it were and as you, ‘plod’ around you find crates with chips that are used to upgrade fixed stat percentages. As you plop these chips in you can then get say fully auto fire, no reload which is a god tier build may I add, board 5.3 look out for it. Helps with the highscore trophies as well. You can however activate the red nodes which add a minus valuation. They are useful but I think it could’ve been implemented better. As these don’t help for any weapon you can pick up along the way they have set damage, clip capacity and fire rates.

There isn’t a whole lot to the story it’s pretty much the standard bad guy trying to stop Robocop for revenge reasons whilst ruining it for everyone else along the way. The missions are linear and have no deviation. A couple of side objective will pop up but ultimately it always falls to go here shoot the ever living shit out of everyone, move on. It does enough to get the game form point A to B you can trudge through Detroit three times in between a couple of main missions. Where you can do a couple of side missions or hand out fines to the citizens. This is an aspect of the game I think could’ve been fleshed out more as if you got rid of it outside of maybe some easy XP it doesn’t do anything for the game. I’d argue that it’s a shame as it really could’ve made the game slightly longer for the better. There’s a couple of open dialogue options that appear and can attribute to the ending you unlock but again the developers could easily just have a set ending if it wasn’t there.

The shooting in this game is gloriously gorey in the best ways. The violence reminds me of Fallout where you just exploded everything leaving blood and viscera everywhere. There’s even a nod to the first film where you get a trophy for shooting someone square in their johnson. What’s not to love about that. You can pick up a plethora of extra guns from pistols, rifles, grenade launchers even explosive round snipers. You can only carry one extra gun which can’t be held permanently either, again a separate upgrade branch would’ve made sense here as some of these weapons are straight up trash. You have to basically act as a sponge in all shootouts as there’s minimal cover and now way to crouch or hide around corners for covers which is a bit detrimental late game with how many enemies start appearing. The second to last mission really started to lag causing some very noticeable dips in frame rates as a direct result.

Not for the faint heartened as you casually explode some gang members head into buckets of blood.

Overall I’d rate this a hefty 7/10, Positively Tasty.

From all accounts this is a very faithful representation of the original films and as such I think some of the niggling points may come from the developers not wanting to ruin that. The shooting is fun and responsive but lacking in depth, the game is probably near perfect length for what it is. It looks good to great most of the time. A bit more side content along with better versions of the two upgrade trees available would help really cement this game if there is plans for an official sequel. This isn’t to say this game is bad or lacking in enjoyment. I had a really good time with it in 1 to 2 hour chunks. Nothing overstays its welcome and delivering justice in an uber violent shower of blood and guts is immensely satisfying as it is disturbing.

Released 2nd November 2023 on Sony Playstation 5.

Baldur’s Gate 3

After waiting for a physical edition I jumped onto this game after it had already won game of the year 2023. I started a character, was baffled by the amount of genital options, and started my first play through. I’m not sure if it was because my setup was so bad, or maybe because I wasn’t in the right mindset but I bounced off it after 6/8 hours. I put it away and vowed to try it again at some point.

Fast forward to February 2025 almost 9 months after first attempting it, I started a new character and dived back in with fresh eyes and let me tell you, this game deserved game of the year and every other award it got. I played between 60-80 hours, hard to specify because I had to keep loading previous saves that were an hour or so earlier because I decided I’d go in on tactician difficulty, not a good idea. I did drop the difficulty on the massive end of act 2 boss fight because it was just too difficult for me having not prepared at all. That being said the whole game was fun even with the replays.

The story is sublime, with several different endings as well as complete freedom to change it however you want. I loved the companions I chose and all of them are very well voice acted, you can really feel the emotion in Karlach’s story and the charisma from one of my new favourite voice actors in Neil Newbon or Astarion in game.

JK Simmons as one of the bosses in game is great as well as Jason Isaac and Maggie Robertson, they all did a great job along with the character designers to make you detest them and want nothing more than their virtual deaths.

This game has an insane amount of detail in the world from random side quests to stumbling upon huge quest lines that end with fighting a huge iron golem of death far too early in your game. I love the idea of having a world that changes while you’re playing and this game excels at making you feel like you’re making a different to your environment and the npc population within the game.

The turn based combat is very well done and is in tune with the DnD theme of the game. Keeping most of the dice rolls in the background is great because it helps to keep the pace of video game combat going. Dice rolls are however used for lock picking, persuasion and other skill checks and other non combat situations which greatly helps tie back to the best and most fun parts of DnD. In my opinion there’s not much better than walking into a huge camp of goblins and rolling a natural 20 while convincing them your the new messiah and having them all allowed you to do and take whatever you please, then you can kill them all afterwards while your 10 levels over there’s to fulfill your characters murderous ideals.

When it comes to the RPG aspect there’s nothing better than DnD and this game does an incredible job of showing that. The only thing I’d change is increasing the level cap from 12 to 15 because I maxed out 1/3 of the way into act 3 and actually skipped some side stuff because I felt like i wasn’t gaining much other than story and finishing quest lines. This however does leave me with some more options as I go onto my 2nd play-through that I have started immediately after finishing this one.

I’ll be playing this time as the dark urge which adds different interactions, a new companion that is used as one of the mini bosses previously and an almost completely different act 3 as you can become the slayer of Baldurs gate which leads to different endings and in some cases having to fight your own companions that are more light sided. I’ll be attempting tactician mode now I know what to expect and can plan for some of the more insane boss fights.

Overall there’s no way I can give this anything less that 10/10, Real Fuckin’ Tasty. It’s been my favourite game since probably the Witcher 3 from 10 years ago. Nothing else to say other than I’d urge anyone that likes RPG games to give this a go.

Revieded by MoonHead

Released on Sony Playstation 5 6th September 2023.

Super Mario RPG

A title that was originally released back in 1996 when I was barely 1 years old. The reason I didn’t play it though wasn’t due to my inability to keep my head up and grasp the controller in anyway to touch the buttons. Rather it was never released on PAL regionally so even when I was older, outside of importing the game itself and a Japanese or North American SNES I was unable to play it. We as a community were denied for many a year.

Now, well I say now the remake itself has been out well over a year I’ve only just got round to it. Either way I now have the joy of finally playing this.

The game in terms of plot is a pretty standard Mario affair. Nothing to wrong with this seeing as not many games or characters can boast such a depth of history, or the breadth of the gaming catalogue the tiny moustached plumber has. You start off by rescuing Peach from Bowser, the same old obviously. This is where it changed though when a giant sword descends from the sky and pierces bowsers keep. Where both Peach and Bowser go missing.

Your party at full capacity with a nice CGI cutscene once you’ve defeated the boss of the area to reclaim the star.

You then set forth in search of Peach you run into Mallow, Geno and eventually Princess Peach along with Bowser joining your party.

Bowsers castle gets fucekd at the beinnging by this big ol’ sword. I just enjoy the longing look these constatnly beseeched citizens give to a castle of a near tyrannical overlord who tries to oppress them at any given moment. You’d think they’d be a little bit happy.

The party system isn’t particularly revolutionary, you can have two other party members active at one go with Mario being a mainstay. Depending on the combination you have you can perform special moves. Deciding on your battle tactics you can swap out in the throes of battle anyhow allowing you to perform them every couple of battles.

Each character has their own stats that increase in increments up until the level cap of 30. You also get the bonus stat boost of either HP, damage and defence or the choice of Magic attack and defence. This just helps to give a bit of more of a dedicated build to each character. I imagine though if you choose to give everyone extra HP or attack overall it wouldn’t hinder you all that much.

The levelling up cycle, initial stat boosts then you shoose from the three extra to pump up the damage that wee bit more.

Battle is your standard turn based system. You take it in turn to attack or hit a special move. This can be Marios’ jump, Genos’ magic blast or Peach with healing etc. You can choose to skip a turn for defence or using an item instead. What spices the fighting up is if you hit the A button as the exclamation appears above your characters head. You can inflict critical damage which also has a shock-wave effect injuring the surround enemies. Likewise when they attack you can negate incoming damage. This all helps to build up your special move meter. Which once it’s at 100% allows for the aforementioned special move to be triggered.

A small quick time event for some of the special moves Geno uses. GEtting all 5 red stars deals peak damage.

As far as I’m aware this game is a pixel to pixel remaster. You also have a choice of the original OST or the new soundtrack. Apart from some name changes and hidden chest locations it’s the same game. The game is bought up-to modern standards. Better or for worse.

The game looks as a good as any top title for the Nintendo does especially a Mario game. It’s no 4k behemoth like Horizon or God of War. This doesn’t need to be that, it’d be kinda strange if it was to be honest. The world is as bright and joyful as you’d expect. Having that very distinct Mario aesthetic that just promotes wonderment. All neatly tied together with the very distinct world that’s carefully been built for decades. As you travel this compact world you’ll come along many familiar faces and locations which make it feel that little bit more alive.

Even with my many interruptions when I play a game this took me around 13 hours. I could’ve shaved potentially 2 off that if if I hadn’t just left my Switch lying around as I did others tasks or paid more attention to the TV etc. It’s very much a chunk game, you can easily run through an area or two in a couple hours and make decent progress. Along with the limited items and buffs you can use or weapons and clothing you equip. Nothing is imminently pertinent to collect. Which is also a shame as adding a few more in would’ve padded out the game that much more helped in stat allocation for team builds. Even post game content is basically just re-doing the boss battles but a slightly tweaked for a different battle experience. Outside of doing personal goals, finding all the hidden chest, collecting all the items which some mini games are required to do. You won’t come across any side quests or much other reason to re-visit any areas. Unless you wanna 100% the bestiary and get all battle data against the enemies. As nothing extra is really required it’s a strange design.

A quick look at the world map which allows for fast travel.

What lets it down is that game is small. The story isn’t long nor that in-depth, neither are any areas you battle your way through. It’s no slog just underwhelming. Now nearly 30 years ago I imagine it’d look far more impressive, especially when compared to some of the juggernauts of today’s rpg ilk. We have been spoiled many times over. Even still it is a neatly packaged and complete game that comes with two difficulties standard easier. Which at least makes for a reason to return for a couple play-throughs. Especially if you want to play first time on standard mode and second on the harder difficultly.

The goal is to collect the 7 fallen stars to form the Mega star.

Overall I’d give this game a a deserved 7/10, Positively Tasty.

Don’t get me wrong it’s a very concise and tightly built game. Everything runs smoothly and the game is a joy to play. It’s just too short, not enough of a challenge in the battle, a distinct lack of weapons and clothing to aid in character building. Which is also hampered by the level cap being set to 30. I’d happily play it again but it’s only worth going through a second time if I’d want to play it start to finish again.

Released on Nintendo Switch, November 17^th 2023

Game collection update January 2025

Well now the new year is well and truly upon us and the 2024 Christmas festivities have firmly finished. It’s now unfortunately time to crack on and get back to the normality of life. I was well and truly spoilt with many a good new game. And I can only hope to that you my fellow and dear readers were also spoilt. After all tis the season, if nothing else it’s to get lots of new goodies, along with some socks and deodorants. The way God intended it to be.

Well this will be a just a quick update as it’s just a showcase of my newest acquisitions. The are predominantly on the PS5.

So i’ll get stuck in. First up we have Dragons Dogma 2. This for me was definitely a long awaited sequel. I was a big fan of the original completing it twice on the Xbox 360 and once more for the remastered version on PS4. For a long while a just assumed it’d never happen.

Next up we have a remake in Persona 3, Persona 3 reload. This is a mega helpful as finding the older Persona games is rare at the best of times. Finding an old game in good nick is even harder. Add that together you get some wildly over inflated prices. As with any collecting hobby you’re beholden to the whims of the seller and the greed of chain stores. It’s a real shit show on occasion.

For number 3, Sonic Frontiers. Sonic finally stepping back into the limelight wit the first feature length film. Luckily we dodged the un-godly abomination that was the first CGI attempt. And we were given a new trilogy and spin-off series. Sonic games were always a main stay but the popularity had dwindled over the years. Stepping into it’s first foray of an open world title I was highly interested in this. I always enjoyed the older titles and spent many an hour on my gamecube playing Sonic adventure 2 Battle when I was a wee whipper snapper. Now I’m an ageing meat sack covered in hair languishing in work with back pain setting in. But that misery is another issue entirely and most definitely not for here.

Up comes number 4. Insomniacs Marvels Spider-Man 2. With number 1 being a certifiably banger. I naturally got Miles Morales. Both of which I got the platinum for. So, 2 was a no brainer. The unbelievably slick web slinging combined with the freedom from wall running, bouncing and whatever else a spider does, Altogether they alone are worth hours of gameplay. I may be abit behind on some of these titles but if you’ve read anything i’ve posted before then you’d know I love a bargain. I really fucking live a bargain, especially when it’s game or console related. Plus £70 a game is a tad steep I find. Not many games feel worht that price tag on release. Now, i’m not gonna get into developer time,crunch or engine costs blah blah blah. Some of these things really need fixing along with these bigger companies cutting studios and peoples livelihoods. I just think 10 hours or so of game ain’t worth that cost regardless of what happened during the development time.

Lastly I have Nintendo Switch title. Just to change it up a tad. This is the remake of Super Mario RPG. Originally on the SNES but it never came to Europe so we never had the pleasure of it. That is until this remake. I have nearly completed this game already and that’ll be the first review of the year and will be coming very soon. As for what’s next I’m not too sure. I flitter between games along with this new stack of backlog to keep me going. My wayward gaming pattern only worsens. Luckily for me it’s the best past time and not much else comes close to it for me.

As always my fellow gaming friends. Stay well, stay happy and stay heavily pre-occupied with the many gaming delights out there. Regardless of whatever genre or game tickles your pickle. But the most important part of all. Stay tasty. Until next time.

Devil May Cry 5 special edition

This isn’t my first foray into Devil May Cry V nor the series as an entirety. I’ve been a massive fan of this series since playing 2 on the PS2 back in like 2003 or so. I was blown away by the action of the game and having two discs with dual protagonists to play as with slightly differing missions taking place at the same time.

Turns out 2 is the worst one and I still kinda like it. The first entry is great, 3 is incredible, 4 is meh at best and then comes 5. What a game. Honestly it’s just so much fun. If you are after an older aesthetic hack ‘n’ slash style game in the modern era, look no further.

It’ll definitely help playing the entire series up until this point unless you played the light reboot DmC that doesn’t matter it isn’t canon to this games universe. As this game has returning characters and overarching lore that if you want to know what’s going on then it’s pretty vital. The game can be played blind and it does give exposition within cutscenes and with information imbedded in the games menu if you search it out.

This game has 3 playable characters as standard, Dante the main character of 1,2,3 and V, the returning Nero from 4 who looks and plays so much better this time round. And, finally the mysterious V. If you get the special edition you also get Vergil, who is one of the main antagonists and twin brother of Dante.

Your main three characters from left to right, V, Nero who mustve been modelled on Cody Rhodes this time round and finally Dante.

Each character has their own distinct play style, Nero has his gun,sword and devil breaker which arm weaponised arm attachments. Dante has dualling pistols,shotgun,RPG and Dr, Faust hat, plus his devil sword, nun-chucks, demonfied gauntlets and chausses. On top of the best one which is a bladed motorbike that splits in two. Then V fights with his summons, Griffon, Shadow and Nightmare then finishing off the downed foes with his cane. Each play fast and heavy. With separate skills to unlock for each which come with additional, jumps,dodges,attack chains and combos which all flow seamlessly heightening your offence. I wont go into it too much, but Nero is heavier hitter with more methodical combos. Dante is all about very fast paced exploitation, swapping between your available arsenal on the fly to break shields/armour then swapping again to hit as hard as you can. V uses his three familiars to overwhelm with sudden mid range continuous damage. All along with the returning devil trigger for each where you get health replenishment and extra damage for a brief period.

Killing hundreds of demons over the 20 missions couldn’t be more fun and engaging. The combat is a precise flurry of perfectly executed mayhem. This game is very much an arced style game in its increasing difficulties. Where learning to dodge perfectly and execute the right combo on the specific enemy at the right time is highly rewarding. Having a distinct lack of big damage moves or quick time events to help turn the tide. It’s very much skill based. This shouldn’t be a deterrent as the easiest difficulty which is what I started on again isn’t particularly difficult and is still just as fun. The game is designed around all levels of players and re-playability so if you want more of a challenge then those difficulties unlock along the way.

A few of the enemiesmyou’ll come across in game, with the returning Cerberus boss from 3.

The game is completely linear and lasts for around 11 hours I’d say but it could be less or a bit more depending on how you play. Each area is designed to be followed in one way. Occasionally they divert off to find a branch to cut down blocking a path or to complete a blood puzzle. There’s a few extra rooms with blue, purple orbs in which with 4 increase vitality and the Devil trigger gauge, allong with a secret mission which if you look at the ritual markings at the correct angle unlock. These are mini games comprised of killing waves of enemies or collecting red orbs in a certain time. Red orbs are the main currency of this game, which you use to upgrade the characters and buy items.

The in store upgrades from the few items you can purcahse, weapon set collection you can customise order in once unlocking more as well as unlocking new moves/combos.

For a game that originally came out on PS4 and Xbox One with minor graphically upgrades this game still looks incredible on PS5. The character models are second to none. The world and bigger enemies usually the boss show their age a tad but nothing too glaring. The new ray tracing is used to add more depth to reflections and reflective surfaces. Along with the particles on screen at once. I had no lag or crashes. It was a flawless experience. The blood soaked underworld with pulsating plague like skin looks just as gruesome as ever and when in the Londonesque world it takes place in that looks fully realised.

There’s a healthy amount of enemies to fight with each mission adding a newer nefarious foe to do battle against. Which is normally capped off with a big ol’ boss battle. Something this series has predominantly done right is boss battles and this is no different. They are always engaging and hard hitting as you’d expect.

the two big bads this time round in Urizen ad Vergil.

I don’t think there are too many negatives to this game. A few are I’d say the game moves as fast as the combat which can leave a few key points in the dust along with not necessarily being friendly to new players. It could’ve done with having a tad more cutscenes or the ones they had having just the extra but in them. I feel it’s a bit too short not by a lot though. The red orbs you need to fully complete each character comes in at a might 12 million and that’s hard to farm. I hit about 700 thousand by the end of my first play through. If you want to 100% the game for the platinum or achievements it’s particularly grindy. As it locked between 6-8 full play-throughs along with the bloody palace 101 floors of enemies to defeat. It’s absolutely catered towards a particular sort of play base.

The story isn’t the strongest and is kinda there just to hold the game together which obviously sounds a bit stupid. But I’d argue you could easily have just as much fun hacking your way through thousands of enemies for shits and giggles due to how good the combat is.

Ultimately this game is a score chasing arcade game. With the stylish ranks coming from the way you fight. Starting at D all the way to SSS. The higher damage and chained hits you get the more multiplier for red orbs you receive at the end of a mission. As long as you treat the higher difficulties this way the lack of a strong story doesn’t matter. Just keep on grinding and keep improving that’s the core of this game and series.

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

As a 23+ year long series now, this 2020 entry is peak DMC and if there is never another mainline entry it’s a hell of a way to go out. It so close to being a 10/10 for me. However the drawbacks are it’s a bit short story wise and has an over reliance of people knowing the entirety of the story from the previous entries, even if there is a short recap you can access in game. There is a steep learning curve once you go up in difficulty as well but that’s where the fun really starts I’d argue. But the missions are beyond fun and the combat is an utter masterclass in the genre. It’s never a dull moment and with the constant addition of newer enemies to mix up the predicaments you find yourself in and the many boss battles. The increasing difficulty means the call of a replay is never too far out of reach.

Released November 2020 on Sony Playstation 5.

Game collection update – November 2024

It’s my favourite time of the year, where I have to spend all my spare money on my car with insurance renewal, servicing and an M.O.T. Chucked on top with the festivities and all the money that disappears with that and finally the myriad of family birthdays. Now, if that wasn’t bad enough my uni year kickstarted again at the beginning of October which I already juggle around my full time job and now alongside my daughter who is oh so very close to walking. It’s basically game over for my free time along with me buying any really rare goodies. It saddens me.

But, not all hope is lost. No no no. As I am still fully able to horde games like the treasure hoarding cave goblin I truly am.

Now, I haven’t done much of an update since August. So I can’t be entirely sure if i’ll end up missing anything out but imma give it a blast.

The most important thing I have attained though is my Evercade which I have spammed a bit. Nevermind though. Also if you wish you will find my review on this handheld console from a wee while ago. (a lovely bit of self promotion there if I do say so.) I really enjoy this bit of kit and my small collection which will most definitely be growing in the near future.

Gotta promote this some more people need to know of its existence.

I also round off my mainline Gran Turismo collection for the PS1 by finally purchasing 1 and 2.

Gotta love a bit of Gran Turismo. My top racing series by far.

I have purchased a few WWE Smackdown games for the PS2 in Here comes the pain and Shut your mouth. In my quest to get every WWE wrestling game. Which is far more vast then I had anticipated. Especially when you consider older WCW and WWF games.

Really starting to build up a decent collection of WWE games now. With here comes the pain being one of the all time greats.

Theres only 1 PSP and 3DS game. For the PSP the Metal Slug anthology. And for the 3DS Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance. I still really need to work on my 3DS collection,as i’ve had one since it came out and I basically just neglected it’s existence outside of Pokemon and Monster Hunter games.

I chose to re-buy all Assassins Creed games. Having made the poor life choice over the years to trade every single one of them in. I started with the PS3 era. That is now complete as I have; 1,2,Brotherhood, Revelations,3,4 and Rogue.

I even sneakily put in AC 3 Liberty on the PS Vita to pad out the collection.

And finally to round off as complete at the time of writing this. I have two new PS5 additions. As I may buy many a game over the year. Its less often that they are new games. As previously mentioned with my lack of time to play games I don’t see much point in spunking off £70 on a new game very often. I caved in pre-ordering Dragon Quest 3 -HD-2D Remake though. I wanted it, I wanted bad so I got it like a real chump. No regrets. I also bought Planet Zoo for my PS5. As I fucking love park building games and with added depth of park management it makes my knees weak. Being on offer for £20 also really helped, and I can’t move onto Planet Coaster 2 until I have attained complete mastery of this earlier entry in the planet games.

Two absolute bangers. I’d recommend you waste your money and time on both of these.

So there it is folks until sometime after the new year now. I’ll be out wasting my hard earned cash on games. And i’ll have 1 or 2 more reviews up before then as well hopefully. I have just completed Jedi survivor but no need to review as my compadre has already done one like a year ago. If you so wish to read. (Again, more self promotion. I’m feeling it today I tell ye.) I’m currently on 100% Platinum run of that bad boy cause it slaps real fucking hard. It’s great. I’ll have Planet Zoo and DMC V Special edition in the works. I do need to work on my older games which is super hard to do. Especially considering i’ve started Ratchet Gladiator, Enter the Matrix and Call of Duty 2. I may be dropping a whole plethora of content soon, who knows? I doubt it but alas I can dream.

However, I wish you all to keep up the good fight in this mostly horrid retro game market. Buy, sell and complete as many games from whatever year and generation you please. Just unwind, relax take a load off and have a banging time. You deserve it.

As always though my Tasty brothers and sisters. Stay fucking Tasty. Until next time.

Assassins Creed Mirage

I do love me some Assassins Creed. Initially I was a naysayer ignoring their existence until revelations. Once I chose to actually play them I was firmly hooked by Brotherhood and since then I’ve played every mainline console title other then Rogue, which is on it’s way to me as we speak. I’ve played the PSP and DS titles, and I’ve got liberation on my Vita which admittedly I haven’t gotten that far in, so I was always going to get Mirage the same way I’ll absolutely be getting Shadows when it eventually releases.

This game serves as a precursor to the story of Valhalla, as that is when we first meet Basim and learn of his past and ties into the overall story of the AC world and less then confusing lore. Granted I had forgotten a lot of what happened and had to refresh myself with what was going on. I have weak memory retention for these sorta things. Which is a shortcoming of the game, as one of the defining features of the main line titles in the series is the duelling stories of your assassins past and the protagonist of the future. This game omits the secondary protagonist so there is no present story this time round.

Another issue with the story is I found to be brutally honest it doesn’t serve any purpose overall. Sure, you can say it’s nice to see how Basim was originally and ultimately became. From unlocking his true memories and inherited legacy he gained via rebirth. However, it does nothing to enhance or progress what you already know from Valhalla.

Your main interface where you can pick your outfit and weapons. The talisman doesn’t do anything other than add to your outfit. which I find is an odd choice.

The gameplay is more tightly focused on stealth again. As even by AC 2 the games had made combat basically primary with optional stealth kills, along with infiltration etc. Mirage really went for the assassin lineage in this game as the game really wants you to be a real sneaky boy. Combat blows major ass, I mean it’s pure dog shit. You can do light or heavy attack with the same trigger button, parry which hardly works, dodge with a roll physic that likes to roll you back into the enemy your aiming to avoid. It’s highly counter productive. Your swings are combo limited and don’t get any better from the skill trees. You get a roll over move that lets you vault over the bigger enemies. Which by then if you just pop a smoke bomb you can go behind and assassinate them anyways.

Whilst clearing out this location it devolved into a straight slaughter. It shows combat can work but it’s nowhere as near as fluid or as useful as it should be.

Your primary way of getting around your targets is the tools you get which honestly just pump your resources into throwing knives and smoke bombs. Once they’ve been fully upgraded you can fuck major shit up. Don’t worry about running out. Most your victims will carry some item or another plus most places contain replenishment loot boxes so you’ll never be short.

Your main three skill trees. Other than the last few most the skills don’t really do anything .

You can only chain two assassinations together which is weak and if the focus skill wasn’t available you’d be a really weak assassin by previous games. Once you have all three upgrades for focus, you can one shot five enemies in a row which is fairly helpful.

The world looks utterly incredible even if this game is limited to just the area of Baghdad. One thing the AC games always knock out the park is the worlds. Hardly any other title or series rarely manages to create games that look so impressive. Off the top of my head I can think of maybe the Witcher 3, or Ghost of Tsushima that creates such a striking world to explore and complete.

One of the synchronisation points showing how tightly designed the explorable map is.

As graphically impressive as the game looks, on occasion character models often looked less then impressive. With character movement and facial expressions being kinda janky, but I can find that forgivable for the most part.

For the main story you are tasked with taking down the order that is controlling Baghdad with five targets in total to kill. The first four allow some freedom in that you can find the headquarters and start that chain of mission if you choose. It’s a bit like breath of the wild in that you have objectives and it’s your decision in which order you complete them.

All missions, whether main or tertiary come here and once red they are complete. As you can see not a great amount.

Along with the main missions theres a few side quests I say a few as there are 7. You also have contracts which again there aren’t many. These are mostly kill missions, extractions or escort someone to safety. All of which are highly missable unless you are going for the platinum trophy. The same goes for the collectibles which are gear chests which give you weapon or outfit schematics which again are few in number, and honestly don’t do much outside of damage, defence and maybe noise reduction.

You have notoriety again in this game, which you can pay to clear it or tear down a couple of wanted posters. But the game doesn’t care f you are wanted or not most time and guards will just swarm you like a fly to a freshly plopped shit. So you often end up running round waiting to clear your name to get back on with the story.

A good chunk of the explorable world is the wilderness and it’s basically empty. Therea no outposts to clear, no real threat from wild animals even though you encounter a rogue Ostrich from time to time. It’s just lacking in content all round. I don’t think every game needs to be the size of Valhalla or Odyssey. Probably somewhere between this and Origins just so you aren’t swamped by an overbearing sized map or having nothing to do.

Best glitch I ran into basin just spontaneously ignited and spent the rest of the time in fire. There were a few others, like bodies spinning around or floating off in mid air. But nothing too game breaking.

You can pickpocket anyone that has a purse strapped to their back, but there is an over reliance on getting your money and bribe tokens this way. There aren’t many items to collect and most are junk you just sell to merchants anyway. Once you’ve hit the midway point of the game you don’t even really need bother with it.

Oddly this game comes with new game plus as well and honestly I don’t see why you’d bother going through it again. You can 100% this game easily in one playthrough with only missable trophy/achievement which is fairly hard to miss if you just do what the game tells you to do.

Overall I’d rate this game a Tasty 6/10.

I know a lot of people enjoyed this return to more stealth game play, but I just think even in that regard there wasn’t much. I think nostalgia goggles play an important part in that sentiment. The game has few big locations to enjoy and often you end up in combat even when playing as sneaky as you can. Then it just unfolds from there. The world is mostly empty. And, I’d argue this comes from the fact it was originally developed as DLC for Valhalla and you can see that in the finished product. With every area lacking in depth or content. It’s worth a go but if you don’t want to miss it out you’re not even losing any extra long term story development. It’s not as essential as it should’ve been and that’s what let’s it down the most.

Released 5th October 2023 on Sony Playstation 5.

Evercade EXP

Obviously this hardware review was coming, if any of you follow my socials, it’s what the vast majority of my posts have been the past month or so. I have so many others I could finish or start but I’m having way too much fun with this device which I ignored for far too long.

I have known about the Evercade systems for a while, I just kinda waded past them like a rogue floating turd in the ocean as it didn’t seem something I necessarily thought was for me, I’m not sure how really. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

This nifty little gadget has been my go to handheld since purchasing it, now it’s not your full console experience nor your Switch or Switch OLED, let alone a steam deck, Odin or whatever else you might choose to play. And, granted all these other devices are probably perfectly capable of running homebrews or emulators but they aren’t the real deal. Not like this. These gaming systems run either relicensed games for their cartridges or even newer indie games stylised and purposely developed for older styled game systems. All neatly packed in their multi game cartridge, as each one comes with a range of 2 to 20 games loaded onto them.

My current little collection. I’m sure it’ll swell in due time.

As for the version I chose to buy, I purposely chose to get the white EXP rather then wait for the shinier more spangled version the EXP-R dropping soon. I was far too enticed by the 18 pre-loaded Capcom titles on the system. Namely the original SNES version of Breath of Fire. Having a super Nintendo system myself for a while now, I admittedly haven’t bought any new titles for it as much as I’d like too. This particular title however outside of the re-released Gameboy Advance version I have I can’t get for my region. So, outside of buying a pal or Japanese region SNES and importing this game I can’t play it the way the good lords wish me too. This all changed the moment this glorious little console graced my sweaty palms.

Your homescreen once you’ve got a game in. You can’t beat a jovial jaunt through Nosgoth in the original PS1 games of the Legacy of Kain.

Again a few other titles installed that gave me a happy twinge were Mega man, Mega man X and Street Fighter II Hyper fighting in its full arcade version beauty. So even before any cartridges are snuggly fitted into the back of the console you’ve already got a sickening back catalogue of games to come too terms with. It’s any avid collectors moist laden dream, why complete a game I’ve had collecting dust for three years when I can start 18 more at the same time?

Just a few of the titles loaded for your enjoyment.

Not to mention the extra 9 hidden games, which can be unlocked in the settings menu under secrets input the correct codes or on the main menu screen, even more endless hours of fun can be had. I won’t ruin the codes for you, but it’s easy enough to find with a certain search engine.

Again just a few of the hidden titles you can play.

Something small I do enjoy about evercade game boxes are along with the cartridges come these nifty game manuals. Now I think the art of a game manual being included with a game seems to be dying and it’s not particularity a trend I appreciate. These tiny folded laminated joys, come with the games controls and if it’s a fighting game it will even list each characters combos. I just love it. I’m what you’d call a forgetful gamer or just genuinely bad. So, having these to hand make my life just that little bit better.

The game manual that comes with the console itself. All you need in life a good manual.

Depending on what sort of game you are playing, there is a wee button on the bottom left of the console with the letter ‘T’ on it. This being the tate button allows you to flip the rotation of the screen so you can play with just the D-pad and the extra A and B button. This is one of these features that when you read you can do it you kinda just ,’oh cool’ and move on with your life. I say nay to that sort of thinking. It’s old and outdated. Say yes to forward thinking, especially these neat little functions. Some games excel with the in game switch, making for a more fun time.

The old switcheroo, this is NNNNNN a game I may genuinely be addicted to.

Even though you can buy a more traditional style home console version of the Evercade, something I’m sure I’ll get in the near future, if you wish to still sit in front of your tv you can get yourself a mini HDMI to HDMI cable slap that bad boy straight into the back of your tv. Then, ta-daaah! You’ve got your EXP as a controller and all the marvels of the games that become alive and in technicolour, all in glorious 50 inched 4K.

The screen isn’t the biggest and ideally for my dead eyesight, it could do with being just a smidge bigger. It’s a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things. The IPS screen that is used is lovely and bright though, the colours do really come through. Having a vibrancy that lets the older games pop more.

I think the system itself has a decent heft to it, it doesn’t feel too over cumbersome and in my beastly hands it does fit nice and snug. Much like the cartridges that slot in and out all nice and smooth like.

I personally find this hard to not give it a 10/10. I just can’t find any faults with it. It does what you want if you want old retro games from the Atari or C64 days. Plus some more modern titles like Duke Nukem, Tomb Raider and some of my personal favourites in the Legacy of Kain series. The battery lasts me about 4 hours which is reasonable. The one big downside I will say there is revolves around the games themselves. Having come somewhat late to the game, with licensing it means some of the cartridges aren’t in print any more as it were. Meaning, they now class as legacy games. Making a couple hard to find and already falling into the deep crevice of second hand store pricing if you can find them. It’s not completely horrendous now but I can imagine in the future it’ll definitely be something that’ll cause a sense of grief.

As previously mentioned overall I rate this a real big 10/10. Certifying this properly Fuckin’ Tasty. I love this contraption and hope to enjoy many more fruitful years enjoying old but new titles all these years later.

Released 15th December 2022.

High on Life

I was interested in this title from when it was first announced being a fan of Rick and Morty. So being an Xbox exclusive a console I don’t have I just assumed it’d fall into the category of games I may play one day. Then on top of that all the stuff Justin Roiland had been doing came to light and caused it’s own controversy which effected this game along with Rick and Morty. With him voicing the main gun Kenny in the game plus many many others NPC’s. I decided to go ahead and purchase it still whilst it was on sale. If for no other reason it supports everyone else involved,with Roilands involvement ending before the DLC High on Knife was released as well., squanch games acknowledging the wrong doings he’d done as well.

Now, I wasn’t completely sure on what the entire game would be outside of a first person shooter set in alien worlds and that all your arsenal are alien life forms that are talking guns.

It’s not a massive game by any stretch and even though the planets are slightly open world, the game is linear. There are no side missions to be had only story missions which are objective orientated. It’s mainly go here and kill these enemies along the way, with new weapons you unlock and the occasional new enemy type that appears.

Just a few snippets into some of the lcoales you explore.

The main plot involves the silent as well as faceless hero finding Kenny the Gatlian sentient gun. Whilst the G3 cartel invade Earth and begin smoking humans as a new high. Get the title now, ey ey? Your house gets teleported to Blim city and you meet a now injured and retired Bounty Hunter named Gene. You take up his place along with his bounty hunting suit. Where you then kill the G3 officers one by one.

The big bad of the gameand the head of the G3 Cartel. Who ends up getting an unfortunate explosive anal passage death.

There is five guns in the game all of which are their own personality and come with their own skill set. Now I’d argue Sweezy is the best weapon as you can fire multiple rounds into an enemy and use her special ability to multiply all the effects in one blast from holding down the firing button. Gus is the shotgun style gun, Kenny the pistol and creature shoots his own babies who attach to enemies and explode. Plus the best character is knifey who pretty much gets forgotten about once you get Gus. You have Lezduit for the final mission only who is the most powerful gun in the game.

A family pic, these are the five main guns of the game and Gene.

Combat is mid in this game, its competent enough and each weapon does feel different when fired, so not entirely bland, but it’s nothing like what you’d expect in a standard AAA budget game or even a lot of AA games. There isn’t much to it to be even remotely be counted as standout and the enemies aren’t particularly numerous or difficult. Just a few variants in melee, shooting, sniping or the bigger hulk, bullet sponge style character. It’s all cut and dry stuff you’d expect. Knifey only stabs or you can do a critical execution style move, something that could’ve had more life put into it. He also doesn’t get any upgrades in the base game.

In terms of setting each area isn’t massive and the only explorable parts are when looking for lugboxes which are chests that contain either money, weapon upgrades and collectible cards. This is mostly only worthwhile doing if you want the platinum trophy.

This is a Lugbox that gets gored by knifey to obtain it’s treasures.

The worlds and creatures that inhabit each place though are colourful and varied enough to give the game enough setting and world building. With a start of in game lore coming from the many talking npcs who talk loads. You traverse across a jungle mining planet, a desert and futuristic cities. They are similar in style and aesthetic to that of Ratchet and Clank, but lacking the part where you return to find golden bolts whilst unlocking new areas.

Your portal interface and bounty board to complete the main campaign.

The game won’t be for everyone as well, due to its humour and the sheer amount of swearing. It’s offensive and definitely aimed for fans of rick and morty style comedy with the toilet humour cranked up to a rather healthy 10. At one point there’s a drug addict who’s coming down and ends up passing out in his own ‘shit piss’. I found this game to have some real funny moments in it but I can definitely see why someone wouldn’t.

Your invenotry, standard stuff. Outside of where you meet an alien who gives you this if you so desire. Carrying it until the end and you ping a trophy as well.

Something else the game would do that if the humour isn’t for you the 20 adverts that are in the game will annoy the shit out of you. Some of them are fairly funny others do grate on you a bit after the third or fourth time you’ve seen them.

Also if you don’t fancy playing the game there are I think four full movies in game you can stand your character in front of a TV and just kick back and watch it in their entirety. There’s also a warp disc that can be purchased that transports you to a cinema which is dedicated to this past time.

You can buy and find upgrades as well, so you can increase ammo capacity, fire rate, damage, health and shield capacity. So all of the usual suspects in these sort of games. I’d argue they are lacking a bit though as if you didn’t purchase or find any of them it wouldn’t really impact you’re ability to complete the game in anyway.

The remaining few upgrades i had yet to buy. Mostly limited and don’t really add all that much to the gameplay.

In terms of traversing around the game, again, it isn’t world breaking you can use knifey to latch on to points, magnetic boots to help climb silver paved areas and a bit of a weak jetpack. Which even once it’s fully upgraded the fuel still runs out quicker then what’s useful. Plus it has a weird height restriction on it. Sweezy and creature help unlock hidden areas for lugboxes but don’t do much else.

These forums are in game challenges, you unlock more as the game progressive and you are rewarded with in game currencies. I’d argue this is only worth going out your way for if you intend to do a platinum trophy run.

I can’t say I ran into any technical difficulties or glitches during my play through. Something that was an issue on release for the Xbox Series. This could be due to patches and fixes it’s since received but my experience was pretty solid. I’m not one that cares all that much about frame rates or other nit picking shit like that. As long as it doesn’t freeze, crash and stutter I’m a happy guy. This falls straight into that category.

Overall I’d rate this game a decent Tasty gaming 6/10.

The game isn’t too long about 10 hours to complete so it doesn’t over stay it’s welcome. I think the shooting could be a bit tighter and a bit more to combat as a whole. A few side missions to help build the world up and give you more of a reason to explore. Better upgrades and more challenging enemies. All of which could easily be corrected in a sequel. I find myself often saying this for first entry games of a new series. That it’s a strong foundation, and that is the truth here. Keep everything they’ve already done and just add to it. A few passive skills to unlock wouldn’t hurt. The humour isn’t for everyone but if it’s cheap enough it’s worth giving ago if you’re a bit short on anything to play at the moment.

Released July 22nd 2023 on Sony Playstation 5.

Cat Quest 2

I bought Cat Quest 1 and 2 on a bit of a whim due to the fact they were both like £2 on sale from the PS store. So I thought, why not? And, i’m so glad I did. As you can see in my previous review of Cat Quest 1 I really enjoyed the quick and nifty RPG.

With this sequel they’ve improved upon nearly everything. The first noticeable improvements are the graphics. Immediately you notice the higher quality of detail. From the shading on the traversable map. The water, the translucence of the floating clouds above. All the while losing none of the charm of part and whimsy of part one.

The two kingdom capitals that house the waring faction of cats and dogs.

You have two playable heroes this time as well, whom you can swap between at anytime. Having expanded the map to contain two kingdoms, one is the land of the cats and the other is dogs.

Having two heroes you have even more weapons and armour options, which function the same as in the first game. You initially find them in chests or you get them as rewards and they can be upgraded at either the armourer or blacksmith to improve their stats. This time round the game feels more balanced and the builds you choose to use feels more worthwhile as a direct result.

Your new and improved menu UI, it’s still not the best but far better then in Cat quest 1. You swap between each character to select what weapons/armour and magic to equip to them.

There are more dungeons to be spelunked this time around, and they have been overhauled. They still aren’t massive and only take a couple mins to run through. Still quick, fun and to the point. But they look better along with having more traps and better enemy variety. Plus a few of them are now trials, which are three to four enemy waves you have to defeat. A small improvement but in the platinum run it helps out instead of the same sort of monotonous dungeon each time.

The vastly improved dungeons you come across 73 of them on your way to 100% the game.

The main story is better, it’s still not the best but there’s a slight continuation from the first game. Some returning side characters appear and even smaller ones for a few side quest as you go along your journey. Which even if you haven’t played the first, it won’t infringe upon playing this game in anyway.

Combat is pretty much the same as last time. You can attack and roll once the red circle triggers on the enemies to allow time to dodge the incoming attack. You have magic attacks returning again. This time you have 12 to choose from, each hero can equip four ago once you’ve found the corresponding rune stones. Which also boost your overall mana pool.

The three shops you use to upgrade any of your spells or equipment.

Along with these, there are four royal arts which are passive abilities. A new feature to this sequel. You get water walking, added damage to your roll whilst you dodge into your enemies. A power smash attack with critical hits doing added knockback damage. You don’t get flying this time round which would’ve been a massive help in mopping up during the last few hours. However, water walking is still mightily helpful.

They’ve added a few quality of life improvements as well, you can scourer the map properly this time it still doesn’t come with a zoom function though. The menus are better to navigate through and there are fast travel points dotted around for slight easier travel. If you want to do multiple playthroughs there are three save slots and multiple difficulties with new game plus. Now it took me 11 hours to do everything and that’s with me playing it slightly badly. So it’s not the longest game, nor the shortest. The quick fun, nature of the game really shines through each time you play it. Whether for a quick half hour or a few hours a go.

The fast travel hub to a few helpful markers around both traversable kingdoms.

I’d argue the side quest still suffer the same as the last game, now the idea is supposed to be quick and easy. Which they achieve and they are fun, don’t get me wrong. It just misses the mark in that there needs to be a few bigger side quests that are bit longer then go here, kill these monsters or clear this dungeon. Just something a bit meatier that could award you with bigger stacked upgrades for you weapon or they end in a much bigger dungeon with a bigger mini boss to defeat.

The world and lore of the game is expanded on as well, adding to the story started in part one. I have high hopes for three and have seen good things from it. As long as it follows the improvements from 1 too 2. I can only imagine those few niggle points will have been addressed and will make for an even better game which is already really doing most things right.

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

A great sequel too an already slightly hidden gem of a game. Where it only gets better from the moment you boot this game up. A quick, fun and easily replayable game that hopefully sets up the third game just as well as one did for two.

Released September 24th 2019, Sony Playstation 4.