TastyRetroGaming

Destroy all Humans 2 Reprobed

I said in the review for the remake of Destroy All Humans on the PS4, that I’d be getting the remake of the second one. And, well … folks, here it is. Much like the original on release in 2006 on the PS2, well the platform I played it on. It almost eclipses the first game in every way.

Everything about this on the scale of a remake even if it is more of a remaster, alone is impressive. What they’ve done here is keep everything the same but bring it up to date. Which most remasters fail to do or just give it a reskin and a bit of gameplay tweaking which ultimately falls hollow.

The game looks super nice, it’s a real visual upgrade. They’ve redone just about everything from the ground up. Whilst the maps themselves are no bigger then they were,with updated engine and technology. Everything is scaled so much better. Bringing more height to the mountains and buildings, the bridges look more imposing, the maps seem denser and more full, along with much greater detail. Whether it be the brick work, the surfaces of roads, Cryptos skin and illuminating brain, or to the thicker foliage. Then there’s the graffiti sprawled across the streets and buildings. So much has been improved and for someone who played the original a lot, its great to see how far the world of gaming has come along.

Aside from the visual overhaul and greater sense of detail, the games controls are smoother as well. Handling the saucer isn’t as tedious and even the weapon firing seems more precise, and this is just coming off the last remake. The biggest quality of life definitely comes from the PK handling, and trigger sensitivity as it was utter balls last time.

I’m not sure if this time round the game is just better balanced with damage given and received in ratio, but I didn’t die all that much. Except for the pig shit mission where you have to destroy the Blisk warship in Tunguska. I mean fuck me, they really didn’t think that one through. Having 500 laser, missile and anything else shot at you continually. Take a tip from me go in cameo and health drain all the smaller blisk warriors, something that took me far too long to realise. Even the option objectives aren’t as tedious, I only dropped 3 the entire playthrough, making the mop up super easy. All the side quests are quick and easy to do. Whether it’s an assassination job, an Arkvoodle landing zone or cult mission, it really makes playing the game for small chunks quiet accessible. It took me around 25 hours to complete and that was at a leisurely pace, I didn’t play it very effectively either to be honest so you may be able to do it all much faster.

It wasn’t the buggiest experience I have ever had, though nothing game or save destroying, but during missions certain items for objective wouldn’t trigger, or dead bodies I’ve got to carry around would seemingly enter the void of it’s own free will. The biggest glitch was as I was playing mop up in Albion the games music and sound completely vanished, until restarting the game. Shadows and NPC would flicker in and out of cutscenes from time to time as well. It’s got nothing on an average Bethesda game though, even to this day Skyrim and fallout games are riddled with bugs. Nothing here effected the overall fun I had or interfered in anyway, so should only be seen as a small take away from the overall performance.

Whilst playing this game, I couldn’t help but draw comparisons to the newer Ratchet and Clank games. Especially with the weapons, and how much better the game would be with a weapon upgrade system like that. You get furotech cells from every mission that improve your weapons, health and saucers. But having weapon levels and cool animation upgrades would really build up the game that little bit more. Added with the gene blender, where you use the Slurp master V8 to abduct a specific NPC type be it a soldier, cop or KGB agent, with a few other as well. Then once you’ve abducted the pre-requisite amount from each region, their being 5 maps in this game. You gain added or improved abilities. Again having a few more or freedom to choose what they do more like a spec limited skill tree would improve and vary play style just that bit more.

The game is fantastic, it’s fun and the humour still shines through, especially with Crypto’s fourth wall breaking, or relentless teasing of Pox being dead. (a near 20 year spoiler) All with looking top notch, handling great and performing mostly okay, with a few hic-ups here and there. However what it does do along with bringing a new audience to this classic is show that even with a spruce up. It’s lacking somewhat. Most missions only take like 10 minutes if that. With odd jobs taking even less. Even having a variety of weapons, with small upgrades, mostly doesn’t effect gameplay. Ammo being the only nuisance and as long as you effectively transmog everything into ammo in between shoot-outs that’s not much of a problem either. The maps even though now scaled, and designed far better then they were originally able too shows outside of collectible hunting there isn’t much too do in this well populated areas. Once your alert level is high enough you’ll just get the military after you but once you’ve levelled the area in your saucer there isn’t much left to do. It does however show the potential in an official sequel game built and designed for the new generation of console and how fun a bigger more varied game could be.

Overall I’d give this a meaty 8/10, A highly tasty experience. This is the same rating I gave the first remake. Even though this one is better in almost every way. It’s lacking the depth of newer games and that does shine through. With the help of Nostalgia and top tier remaster of the original by bringing all that made it great in the first place and not changing anything. This remake is worth anyone’s time old or new to the series.

Released 30th August 2022, Sony Playstation 5

Gran Turismo 7 Part 2 – Road to Platinum

Well I said I’m my review of GT7 that I’d leave it a few months and write a follow up review. However why get myself to do it when you’ve got someone who’s put in the miles and went for the 100%. The Part 2 review of the every updating GT7.

When I finished the main campaign I was fully prepared to fail at this venture, but after a LOT of hours I’ve managed it.

So first off I finished the licences to a bronze standard, and after finding these fairly difficult, it led to my previous doubt of achieving that desired platinum, I went through the ‘story’ and grabbed a few of my favourite cars and was prepared to leave it at that.

Little did I know I was actually addicted to this game, it’s far from perfect and many things could be added to make it a 10/10 stunner, but I was enjoying it. So I threw caution to the wind and began my golden hunt and after a few weeks of hard work, I managed to nab all but the last few golds. Some of these last ones took an awful long time, but nothing compared to the final S10 challenge. A full lap around the Spa circuit, in wet conditions with a dry line, using a Porsche 917 Le Man car with dry slick tyres. A 2 min 26 second lap to achieve that, no word of a lie, took 4 hours of straight driving to achieve. I remember being on chat with the Big Tasty (this sites owner) and getting more and more angry as this went on, but the elation when I completed it was only comparable to some NSFW occasions no one wants to hear me talk about, and understandably so.

With the golds smashed in record time, I moved onto grinding out money, using some of the tomahawk exploits and found myself with a colossal amount of cash dollar. This is essential as one of the trophies was for collecting 3 unique cars that cost a ridiculous amount each. This was the trophy that required the most patience. The system for legendary cars works by rotating the stock of 10 odd cars every 4 to 5 days, and with a large amount of legendary cars, this means checking the store every couple of days to see if one of those three has been added. I’ve got the 9 million credit Ferrari 330 within a few days, and the 4 1/2 million Ford mark IV around a week later. The elusive Jaguar XJ 13 however, took around two months to appear in the shop, and this meant I was putting in Gran Turismo, checking it every two days and taking it back out again.

In this time, however, I was grinding out another trophy. In-depth mastery is a trophy that requires 50 sport races to be completed. This doesn’t sound horrendous, but when every race takes about 20 minutes to restart, it can take an awful amount of time. The only saving grace to this as I was moving house at the time, and this meant that during each loading between races, I can do some packing. This keeps the wife from flying into a rage, and means that I do some trophy progress along the way.

There are a few trophies on the trophy list that sound pretty bad, but in all honesty they are okay. They’re going the distance trophies are added together with other racers online, so the trophy for 13 thousand kilometres raced, means you only have to do around 500 online. Complete 100 time trials is easy there’s a track in which you can finish a lap in eight seconds with the tomahawk.

So finally, the day came where I put the game on and the Jaguar XJ 13 was in store, and an unfathomable amount of credits later, that sweet, sweet platinum trophy popped. I’d actually recommend trying to platinum this game. The amount of satisfaction when you get the platinum, after all the work with the Golden licenses is worth it.

I don’t really know how to rate a platinum trophy, they’re all very satisfying to look at. I suppose I could give it a rating out of 10 for difficulty, and for me, it was around an 8/10. A highly Tasty game. The difficulty, of course it’s all placed on the licenses, and if you’re good at stuff, unlike me, this will probably be a lot easier for you. Nonetheless I enjoyed this platinum, as much as I do every platinum.

Stay tasty friends.

Reviewed by MoonHead

Released March 4th, Sony Playstaion 5

Super Smash Bros Melee

Nintendo’s flagship fighting series, started back in 1999 on the N64, this being the second instalment on the Nintendo Gamecube. Released in 2002 in my end. Having a bit of a lapsed play through of this particular title. With my first experience of this series coming from the Wii title Super Smash Bros Brawl. Having sunk an incredible amount of my time into that particular brawler. I then moved onto the Switch title when that was released and as far as i’m concerned, it’s one of the best fighting games going. So I wasn’t sure how it’d add up comparing to the newer titles.

Basic character choice before unlocking hidden characters.

Honestly it’s nothing short of a pleasant surprise. Still following the same crossover 2d fighting formula of characters ranging from; Mario, Pokemon, Kirby, Fire Emblem, Legend of Zelda etc. It obviously has less characters and stages from the monster sized Ultimate on the Switch. Having 25 playable characters and 29 stages. It’s still a good chunk to keep variety going at the very least. Most are playable from the offset, others are unlocked as it goes on, just from playing along .A new challenger appear,s smack them out the ring like Team Rocket in the Pokemon series. They get added to the playable roster. All characters have their own distinct play style, with moves/weapons carrying over from their respective original series.

The fighting itself is easy enough, and not much of a learning curve, the A button is for basic attacks combos, B button for slightly more damaging special moves. L and R for defence, Z trigger for throws, and then movement is standard and Y/X for jump or double jump. It’s mostly just getting used to not suiciding off the edge of the maps and timing that sweet sweet extra jump to save your life. The fighting is just as fast and frantic as in the newer games, other then the moves, controls are slightly different, It plays the same, the developers clearly not fixing what doesn’t need to be. Only improving the overall performance, which you’d expect would come naturally with better hardware and game engines.

After finishing a round, you get the chance to face, beat and unlock a new character this one being Marth from the Fire Emblem series.

You can easily sink hours into the tournament it’s if you play with friends, just cranking the tournament up to 64 and playing through them one by one. The thing that always makes this series more fun for me is the dynamic stages. Where some are static, bits falling off, making sure you don’t fall onto the racing track and get twatted out by f-zero racers. Or climbing up as the stage disappears below you. Along with these are the sprinkling of special items that fall down, these can range from straight hitting weapons, explosive canisters, red shells, Pokeballs that summon, a host of Mons that deal damage for you. Anything that can help me is a bonus, free damage to my opponents is always a plus.

One of the stage transitions, from my favourite stage, the Pokemon stadium.

The game looks great, considering it’s age coming up 22 years old, you can’t fault it really. Especially in the character designs, I especially like the chunky Pikachu design, obviously still before the rounded out the flagship mascot of the Pokemon series. Every stage feels and looks great, with diverse design, with appropriate stylised textures or designs to look straight out of their respective series. Nothing beats the soundtrack though, the orchestral songs as you go through 2,3 minutes of button mashing fighting is top. A good soundtrack whether it be a film, series or game always helps build some sort of extra atmosphere and adds to what’s going on. Here though it just adds another level to it. Really helps amp up the tension and epic feel to fighting on a moving ship up in the clouds.

Just some of the items that drop around as you brawl

Even if you aren’t necessarily into fighting games, this is just a great game. It’s fast, fun and easy to get into. With more depth coming if you want to get into the specifics of defending, and move times, reaction speeds. Allowing for a competitive experience if you really want too. This is a series that heavily leans into if it isn’t broken don’t fix it. However they continually improve and add more too it. I have yet to play the original, but having played all the others since this, it’s highly impressive to see where it was all these years ago.

I’d give this a Positively Tasty 7/10. I could rate a smidge higher, but I think a solid 7 is fair. The game looks, performs amazingly well for it’s age. The controls are simple but effective, and there’s enough choice to keep you going. However in knowing what the series became and how polished ultimate is I think I’m being a bit harsher on it. Don’t let this detract or turn you away from trying for the first time or even returning. It’s still a massively fun and precise game. Even more so if you go for co-op mode with some chums.

Released 24th May 2002, Nintendo Gamecube

Yu-Gi-Oh TCG update

In my newest endeavour of this blogging quest of mine, I chose to add another expensive hobby to my list. As collecting legit and old retro games wasn’t enough for me. So collecting Yu-Gi-Oh cards now and mainly ’cause I just like the artwork. I used to dabble playing in my youth. How legitimately I played it though is another question. Plus scouring through my childhood collection I found many of my prized cards were fakes. Some really bad ones as well, so fuck knows how I missed them.

Just a small amount of the many, many elemental hero fusions.

What I have done as I don’t really get to actually play it properly, I bought some of the older GX speed duel boxes. Also cause they were on offer and super cheaps. That is beside the point. The closest I get is playing the few years old Legacy of the Duelist on my Switch. Which I am neither that far into, nor am I good at it. I try my best but the games A.I hates me and just wants me too suffer. I am trying to use this as my re-introduction of how to play the game, before everything became a way of fusing monsters from what I can tell. As well as the all important deck building.

The two speed duel starter boxes I chose to acquire.

Even though the rules slightly differ, small decks, less life points, skill cards etc. Primarily usd for fast duels hence the name, who’d have thunk. I’m not even sure when the last set or decks for this variation was released, or if more will be released. The ones i’ve got are from 2020. Hoenstly i’m just happy to have some cards that I never got as a kid. I’m especially thrilled at having the Gate guardian and three monsters for summoning this card. Suijin, Sanga and Kazejin. Honestly it gives me slight tingles. You can take that statement as you will. I’m also all for the never ending amount of elemental hero cards and the various fusion monsters as well.

This is definetly a slow reintergration to the world of Yu-Gi-Oh TCG, as I am so far behind on what’s what, what’s happened, what’s being added/changed. Having barely added much more to my minimal and weak collection. I will one day be more in the loop and dueling away merrily, as I begin to collect more of the standard sets, and try to amass all of the cool old cards. But most importantly as previously mentioned in my lst post of this I will one day have a functioning duel disk so I can be the coolest adult on my street and everyone will fucking know it.

As always my tasty followers, keep your eyes peeled here for future updates and new testaments that will be written in time. So that one day I may field a deck of nothing but blue eyes white dragons regardless if that’s even allowed, and as I work on purchasing Yu-Gi-Oh the 2004 Xbox exclusive The Dawn of Destiny. To give that a bash even if it did get mixed reviews, can’t be any worse then the dogshit falsebound Kingdom which i’ll always bring up and slander when given the chance. Most importantly though stay Tasty.

Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga

Having played the first Lego Star Wars game back in 2005 on the PS2, and subsequently played it many times in the various forms since, played 2 on the PS2 and PSP, the complete saga on DS and 360, The force awakens on PS4, now I am playing it on PS5. I mean I even have the complete saga on my phone. I’d go as far to say that along with all of this and my physical Lego Star Wars collection, that I sometimes forget it isn’t a Lego IP and the story was always told this way. Not in big budget live action films.

Some nice stills looking straight from the films themselves.

This game shows how far the video game adaptions have come for Lego, and this spans the other franchises it uses as well, from Jurassic world, Batman, Lord of The Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones. Marvel, The Incredibles etc. Having a fully fleshed out galaxy with multiple hub planets, that all contain Kyber bricks, data cards, unlockable vehicles, characters and side quest to complete. There is 24 planets to be exact. There is 19 data cards which have replaced red bricks here but still unlock stud multipliers and other bonuses, and there are 1200 kyber bricks to find which are now used to upgrade your characters over all, or their individual sub class of say Jedi. Each mission now has 5 minikits to find across the 5 missions for each film as well as the three hidden level tasks to do as you go along.

The game has even spruced up combat, allowing combos now which help break the enemies defence or to get a higher string of attacks into a boss. There’s a cover and shoot system in play now, so you have more accuracy when in a fire fight. This also all comes neatly in a combo multiplier as you fight your way through waves of stormtroopers. This is another part where the skill trees come into play being able to increase your health and damage output overall.

Graphically speaking the game looks great, the facial expressions and detail on the mini figures really stand out and make the characters look individual. Not like in the originals where they didn’t even have voices they just sorta grunted and mumbled along. Which if that’s your cup of tea then you can pay 500,000 studs to unlock that mode and reminisce of easier times before bills and adulthood ruining your life. Every explorable planet hub looks fantastic and all feel independent from one another so you aren’t just trudging along looking at all the same scenery. Honestly for what it is, it doesn’t really have any right to look as good as does.

In terms of a standard Lego game though it’s huge, with 45 main missions to work through and 140 side missions, 384 characters, and 114 vehicles. Every planet area is jam packed, worth exploring every nook and cranny. Do all the activities for kyber bricks as well. I think with having so many levels this time round, some of the story ss filled in mini activities and cutscenes between missions. This however for the better allows for the levels to focus more keenly on the bigger, more memorable moments of the films.

Just a taste of how many characters you can unlock and play as

To go along with all this there is loads of open space areas, which contain races, beat the clock, shoot the targets in the time, dog fights and even chasing down gold ships. So even just flying between planets there is stuff to be done. If you just wanna play through the missions it won’t take that much time probably around 15/16 hours maybe a bit longer if you do a bit of side stuff along the way. However trying to 100% the game which is the point I’m at it’ll easily put you into the 80+ minimum region, easily twice the length of a normal Lego game. I find that a lot of it is fun though as well it doesn’t feel too tedious and it’s most quick fun. Most of the main missions are more succinct and shorter then normal and as previously mentioned there is only 5 mini kits per level now as well. The real fun doesn’t start until you’ve hit free play and can go round with first stud multipliers as who you want. Nothing better then playing a new hope and wrecking shit as Darth Maul.

The sheer amount of content I’ve barely done.

Oddly though, one feature that isn’t that prominent is the building aspect of the game. I found a lot of the time you don’t really need to build anything to by in most missions it’s very minimal. It more focuses on have the right character selected so using the force as a Jedi, or Sith. Even being a storm trooper to detonate silver blocks, or the one that pops up the most is the droid gates. So using R2-D2 or BB8 to bypass something.

Overall I’d rate this game a very strong 8/10, Highly Tasty.

The game is really great fun especially in bite-size chunks if you haven’t got the time to play for hours and hours. It looks and plays amazingly. Having overhauled the combat and added mini skill trees to beef up the character repertoire slightly. All tightly packed in fun and highly designed levels with the trademark Lego humour. All makes for a game well worth your time just a casual fan of either fandom or a die hard fan.

Released 5th April 2022, Sony Playstation 5

Christmas additions

Once more I have added a plethora of games to my humble collection. Namely Gamecube and PS5 games this year. Even with the 9 new additions, it took all my might not buying the remake of Crisis Core. I mean I am most definitely gonna purchase it in the near future but for now. I more then have enough to work my way through. A review on Pokemon Scarlet is coming up on the not so distant horizon, as i’ve all but finished the main three branching stories of Paldea.

My new fat stack of games. Taken in crystal clear 4k with no signs of reflection whatsoever.

Then I will attempt to work my through this delightful stack. Which as you can see is an eclectic mix. From timesplitters 2, the super gorey Callisto Protocol and Dying Light 2 which i’ve holding off on getting for a while, all the way to Shin Megami Tensei 5. With a splashing of the original Luigis Mansion on the side, a gem of horror game in Eternal Darkness. Then Super Smash Bros Melee, and soul Calibur 2 which I already have on PS2 but that version is lacking the playable version of Link. And finally the remaster of Destroy All Humans 2 a personal favourite of mine from my youth.

For me this is a top tier list, paddding out my beloved Gamecube collection, adding some new games and a reamke of a classic. I have no doubt that they will all make for some extremely tasty gaming.

But more then anything heading into the new year I will be aiming to continue the growth of TRG, with some potentially big news on the skyline of this dreary bakdrop of winter. As for following me I hopefully at the very least I ignite some fond nostalgia in you or for you to start your own collecting journey. As long as it’s a game you enjoyed playing or if you only play an hour every now and then but have kept all your old games. Any game you buy and keep makes for a great start or great addition to any collection.

As always, stay fucking tasty my brethren.

Happy Christmas

Here’s hoping you all have a very merry Christmas and great new year. From me here at TRG. Hoping that Santa brings you all your gaming wishes and dreams.

For me I’ve added to my never ending stack of games, that is surely going to outlast the remainder of my hours of life with play hours the way it’s going.

As we head into the new year I want to thank you all for following along this year where I have slowly but surely grown from nothing to a slight something. With heading into the new year with only more growth here.

Let’s hope that as for me the new year brings only good things to all of you my fellow gaming enthusiasts and followers.

Enjoy your holidays stay fucking tasty, and be ready for new reviews in the new year.

God of War Ragnarok

My oh my, what an utterly incredible game this is. Having played every entry including the two PSP titles, this has been a hell of journey to follow and witness what has unfolded from the original back in 2005.

With the sort of soft reboot in 2018 moving from the Pantheon of Greek Gods, to the Norse saga of these two titles, I didn’t know what to expect, I mean honestly they are both nothing short of phenomenal. This is mainly due to the directing style, the story line, the voice acting and the motion capture. I mean to be fair everything about these games are pretty much 10/10 in all aspects. But the character work and writing is where it truly shines. We follow Kratos from being the angry Spartan boy of the old games to that of a man who just wants to be a good dad and move on from his past mistakes.

The dynamic between Kratos and Atreus is just top. Not from just the excellent cutscenes between them, but from the joint combat and puzzle solving that you do. I mean I don’t wanna be too spoiler heavy here but I will probably spoil some stuff so if you haven’t finished or completed it yet I can only apologise. At the heart of this concluding game of the Norse Saga is Kratos finally becoming the God he should’ve been with people actually revering him and Atreus moving on from being the Loki of the Ragnarok prophecy to being his person. Having a good few missions where you control Atreus, in fact the entire Asgard and Jotunheim story unfold through his eyes, his combat his highly different from Kratos, quick strikes, archery and smacking the bad guys on the head with his sturdy bow. Unlike the crushing, heavy blows with precise striking and combos of Kratos. Having the blades of Chaos, the Leviathan axe and the new Draupnir spear, which quickly became my favourite weapon.

Every realm looks, breathe and feels different. They all feel so alive in the way the need to be, Vanaheim having thick forests and foliage. Midgard submerged in Snow, Svartalfheim covered in rocky landscapes. They all feel huge and that there is more past the small snippets you are privileged to explore. Each area is made for you to want to explore with some areas blocked until after the main story is concluded. Every corner seems to be a mini boss of sorts, which isn’t a bad thing. With the highlights of this for me being the dragon hunts in Vanaheim, and if you find the right relic you can even unlock a few extra secret bosses. You can go searching for Nornir chests, legendary chest, artefacts from other far away lands. Release the spying Odin Ravens, favours from the dead or other characters you meet along the way. One nagging problem I did have though and honestly it’s about the only one, was the lack of fast travel. You can travel between the many gates, but only from another gate. It’d have made life so much easier if you could just ping over to the right gate you’d want without having to traverse all the way back.

I was going for the platinum on this one, having 100% the last game, I had every intention of doing the same again. I still might, having got to the last two final Hurdles though. The two super bosses of the Game the new Valkyrie queen Gna and the big bad berserker boss King Hrolf. I am at level 9 meaning I have maxed armour, weapons, shield and upgraded hilts. They can both eat shit. Honestly only thing that ruined the game somewhat. Having a mixture of not having the time just battle the same boss for hours straight hoping I get lucky enough to win and wanting to play the PS5 upgrade of the Witcher 3 I decided to move on for now. But seriously fuck those guys, the are unnecessarily hard, considering how the rest of the game isn’t that bad even the 12 berserkers you have to fight to unlock King Hrolf are pretty standard as you keep on top of improving your strength,defence and vitality.

Each weapon has it’s own skill trees that add new function or added combo strikes to your arsenal. The same works for the companion trees of Atreus and Freya. I’d argue the best part of this is each new move or skill has it’s own 3 tiered system, so once you’ve used it enough to hit the gold level you can use experience points to add a sub feature to it, so it can say stun more or even cause slightly more damage. So through the endless slaughter it’s worthwhile swapping between the three weapons and hitting all the different combos just so you can fuck shit up just that little bit more.

I can’t do a review without pointing out how fucking amazing the game looks. Graphically it’s nothing short of immense. In fact all the pictures in this review are basically just stills from parts of the realms that just show off how good everywhere looks. The siege on Asgrard at the end of the story really exemplifies this. Having Surtr and Jormungandr in the background fighting with Thor. Whilst all the realms are bearing down on Odin in a unified attack. Speaking of Jormungandr, one of my favourite parts of these games is the way Atreus on his journey inadvertently created him, using the giants souls in Jotunheim and the fight he had with Thor at the end which sent him back in time to the 2018 game. There is many there other small details like this dotted around, and hidden in dialogue. Something the Santa Monica writing team truly excelled at.

I could probably make this review twice if not thrice as long, with what I could talk about, but ultimately it boils down to just playing it yourself. Which I’d imagine pretty much everyone who wants to has by now. This game talk me to around 45 hours to do everything bar those dickbag final bosses. Having the returning trials of Muspelheim as well, which ain’t that bad really, just a bit repetitive in the way you unlock the final six challenges. A couple bigger side quests and the small favours, finding all the hidden lore and buried treasure. There is a lot to do, not as much as other games of the same style. I’d argue this game though is more concise and in wanting you to be able to do everything without it becoming a bore or slog.

This game now firmly sits in my top 3 games, just under the Witcher 3 and just above Death Stranding. So you bet the announcement of DS2 rustled the ever loving shit out of my jimmies. In all the games I have played over the years not many reach the rich detail and story driven excellence this one hits. All encompassed in the best looking game I’ve seen off the PS5 so far, and intertwined in the rich lore of Norse mythology. Even though DLC for this probably won’t happen there is so much that can be done, and the same can be said for if they choose to continue the story. However if they choose not too. This is definitely the right end for Kratos’s story. Having made him so much more then one dimensional character of the original trilogy, and this is largely due to the performance of Christopher Judge and that can’t be understated enough.

This game gets a definitive 10/10, Real Fuckin’ Tasty.

It looks phenomenal, the combat is fast, fluid and brutal when necessary. The plot and overall story is brilliant, the writing and directing of the game is top tier. Honestly just play the game, you won’t regret it. I also realise all my pictures are just screenshots of nice views, i’m not sorry for this. I wish for you all to experience how immense it looks.

Released November 9th 2022, Sony Playstation 5

Ghost of Tsushima

Well where to begin with this one. Having already dome a 100% on the PS4 version I thought it’d be well worth my time to enjoy the upgraded version. Along with the DLC in Iki Island, for a bit of extra stealthy samurai action. So here’s the review on Ghost of Tsushima Directors Cut PS5.

Both parts of Tsushima Island, that you get to fully explore.

Honestly this game even at a few years old looks incredible, not necessarily up there with the likes of Horizon Forbidden West of the newly released God of War Ragnarok. I think the main thing that allows it still stand out is the art direction and over all design. The game just looks amazing especially with the tall grass with the blowing of the wind. The nice feature of how to track where you need to head to, swiping the touch pad and the passing wind guiding you where to go. It even comes in an artist option of black and white if you so desire and the blood staying red to add in the brutal nature and setting of the game.

You get given gifts at the various ghost shrines.

The combat in this game is great fun. The particular highlight for me though comes from the stand-off. Fully upgrading that along with the armour perk to allow to add one more in the chain. Quickly dispatching 5 enemies in one go, with a one hit kill, hitting the strike button before your foe gets a hit in. The upgrades in this game don’t really make too much of a difference until you’ve upgraded your sword, picked a style of armour you want to go with and have upgraded the four different stances. As these allow for added combo strikes, new parrying options to keep all the different types of enemies at bay. Archery is pretty fun and serves one of the four main side quest chains you can do. Which gets more fun with fire arrows and the great long bow exploding ones.

With the main plot being Jin leaving behind the teachings of the samurai for a more stealthy and dishonourable road. The stealth in this game whilst fun, and you gain throw-able weapons and chain assassinations. I do feel this is one aspect that lacked some depth, whilst fun and always a good time trying to take out a mongol stronghold without being caught. It could definitely used a bit more to aid in tactical options, maybe a dedicated skill tree for it. As for the most part it just makes you slightly more silent and allows you to see and hear enemies from further away.

The game is bleak, I mean, turbo bleak everyone in it basically dies or has some close to them die. With most of the side missions you tracking someone down who ends up being dead or someone you put down for being a piece of shit. I mean spoiler, in my defence the game has been out for years not, but even your first horse dies, and that scene fucking hurts to watch. Like the developers and director knew full well what they were doing when they chose to add that cutscene in. You can’t forget the missions of a disease that’s killed off a small holding, or the warrior monks who have all been killed, and Norio’s brother who instead of killing the decide to just fucking de-limb him completely. The story of the invading Mongolian army and the change within Jin itself is great, and his clash of ideals with his uncle. But fuck me it’s not happy, it makes for a great backdrop and setting though. Everywhere is on fire and littered with blood or corpses and rogue samurai patrol the land looking to hurt you at any point. Not to mention the pin cushion peasants filled with arrows for practice. Don’t let this bleakness detract you from playing this game if you haven’t already though, a small price for an incredible story and fun game.

Weapon upgrades using the resources you pick up on your travels.

The world design is great, with a shit ton of side activities to do, fox dens, where you follow a fox to the shrine. With the best bit being at the end where you get to pet them and they get super happy. Bamboo strikes to increase your focus metre. Hot springs to increase your health. Haiku’s for new head gear. Shinto Shrines for new charms, Mongolian outposts and the bigger town areas you have to liberate. Farmsteads which unlocks a new set of armour. The tales that give you new armours, special moves or even the longbow, where you get to do the coolest part of the games with boss duels. You also have new sword skins, ronin duels I might be missing something, but the point I’m trying to get at everything is worth your time. Everything helps to build you into the unstoppable machine that you are. With most open world games especially when aiming for a platinum trophy it can feel a slog having to find very collectible and there’s always that one that you can’t find, or you have to do a side mission first that doesn’t unlock until you’ve done this. Here though I honestly wanted to do everything, In both play through’s, I felt fairly empty once I did finish it though. I clocked in around 50 hours to do everything, so it’s not a short experience nor the longest. I long for the day soon when I can complete the Witcher 3 on death march difficulty again in glorious 4k. This is truly one of the best PS exclusives and is well worth your time if you haven’t played it yet. The story DLC is a much of muchness in that it’s good fun for the extra hours, and some nice back story for Jin, but ultimately just gives you more time to enjoy being the Ghost.

Slaughtering a camp leader auto fills your ghost bar where you can one shot kill enemies for aperiod of time inducing fear as well.

I’d give this game 10/10, real fuckin’ Tasty.

A great story told through great voice acting and motion capture all neatly packed into one of the nicest looking and designed worlds of last generation. All complimented with great combat, fun if slightly lacking stealth mechanics and super tailored side activities which make for trundling along the bleak land that little bit more palatable.

Released August 20th 2021, Sony Playstation 5.

Yu-Gi-Oh TCG

A blog within a blog. I have decided to broaden my horizons as well as for a new tasty avenue for you my beloved readers to follow. As I have pondered for a while to get back into card collecting. And as i’m currently trying to play GOW Ragnarok and Pokemon Scarlet back to back. I have no idea when my next review will be ready. On top of that I have work and doing a uni degree, I feel the only way to make my life easier is to not only continue with this mini side hustle I already have, but to infact add to it. As that’ll make my life so much easier. I’m starting to think I may be the root cause of a lot of my problems, but that’s for another day, I digress, back to the matter at hand.

Many years ago I was very into Magic the Gathering and I collected Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards when I was just a wee lad. I like to dabble in the Dragon Ball Super card game as well. However that’s a ball ache to get ahold of by me unless I want to spunk £60+ on a booster box every time a new wave comes out. Which every once in a while isn’t too bad but you then suffer from getting 34 of the same shit card, and having no idea what to then do with the multiple copies.

As someone who loves the Pokemon game series I can safely say i’m not really a fan of the card game, i’m not sure why. I do find the super rares namely the legendary Pokemon cards tend to be really nice, but the standard cards don’t do it for me. Whereas I have always being a fan the design for the Yu-Gi-Oh cards. I have always appreciated the good game adaptions of them as well. Which is why I was so bitterly dissapointed in that shit show of the Falsebound Kingdom on the Gamecube. Have ever mentioned how much I hate that game.

So alas I decided to get back into Yu-Gi-Oh having never collected it that much, I thought it was time to basically buy myself all the cool cards I wanted as a child. So to begin with I got the new Slifer and Obelisk starter decks. It’s a pity they don’t do a winged dragon of Ra one, cause i’d sure as shit be the coolest kid in my neighbourhood with all three of them bad boys. (Who am I kidding i’ve got all three upstairs already, I just wanted the new variations of them.) Most of my cards are turds, except for my beloved Red eyes black dragon and darkness dragon. Which when going through my old collection thankfully turned out to not be fakes. Unlike many of what I thought were my good cards, my friends of yester year did me dirty there. As that’d have ruined my week for sure.

One card I never had though was Blues White Dragon, the real cool kid card. So naturally I went a bought myself one, and I will be getting myself some more of those fuckers I tell ya. I bulk bought a tin off ebay to bolster my fledgling collection out as well. That was a punt, from what I can tell they are all legit but strangely an ommited fact on the listings was that a third of the collection being Korean prints. However me being the man of culture that I am, have accepted them for what they are, and what they are I don’t fucking know cause I can’t read Korean. But they belong to me now and will sit comfortable collecting dust somewhere very soon.

Ultimately I don’t know what i’m doing and from what I can tell every card is a new form of summoning from what it used to be. I just thought we were supposed to believe in the heart of the cards so we can pull Exodia out of thin air and fuck everyone up. I will come to grasp the new rules one day. As I will update my collection on this page. How often i’ll post on here who knows, I certainly dont and it’s my blog. What I can say for sure is though, I will be looking out for a duel disk as if i’m out and about without one how will anyone know i’m ready to duel. Just a shame they cost far more then I was expecting, so it can go down on my list for now, along with the hundreds of games I have yet to acquire.

So look forward my tasty brethren, for new chapters of the gospel of tasty are to be written and added to the holy scripture of TRG. I am here for the ride and I sincerely hope you will enjoy it with me.