Gaming During Lockdown

  Before I begin my review of this game, I think that it is important to address the controversy surrounding it. I will, try to keep spoilers to a minimum but in order for me to be summarise the backlash I have to mentions specific sections of the narrative so be warned when reading this. Firstly, the actions and conduct of Naughty Dog in regard to this game cannot be condoned and are simply immoral. Any quality the game possess simply was not worth the extreme crunch that Naughty Dog placed onto their employees and the company were justly presented in a negative light because of this. The amount of respect I have for the company has diminished since these allegations have surfaced and I hope the next game they release does do not compromise the safety and health of their staff as this one did. With this in mind though, let’s talk about the second piece of controversy, the leaks. I do not believe that leaking an entire geme's plot in order to get back at a company is the ri...

  Persona 5 was a game I tried on a complete whim. I had obviously played both Persona dancing games on the PlayStation 4 and realised that 2017’s Persona 5 heralded as one of the greatest JRPGs of all-time had been given an update with the new Royal edition. So I immediately headed over to Amazon, saw the game was 49.99 (with a steelbook ), ensured with my partner it was ok for me to spend so much money on a game I may not have even liked and finally ordered the game right then and there. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this decision to buy a game based solely from what I new from friends and from the two dancing games I’d played before has arguably changed the way I look at and critique games from now on. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t think I was going to hate Persona 5, but never in a million years did I believe I would love it as much as I do today. The idea of becoming a high school student during the day and a dungeon crawler by night didn't land with me as...

  So the original Ratchet and Clank remains one of my favourite games of all time. As far as new Ips go that I loved the first time I played it and still adore today, that game leaps above many newer and arguably better titles based solely on how much I enjoyed the characters and the interactions between them. The gameplay to me has not aged particularly well though so going into the 2016 reboot/remake I was excited to see how they could update the Ratchet formula, without crippling the original’s charm and humour. Strangely this year was actually the first time I had given Ratchet’s most recent adventure a go. I remember the game being liked a bit when it released four years ago but clearly just couldn’t find the time to fit it into my busy schedule (I imagine this was because I played a lot of Overwatch and Uncharted 4 back then). The fact the game tied into the upcoming film probably steered me away from it too given the poor track record of video game movies. However, after ...

The Persona series is one that honestly, I have really never been that interested in because of my apprehension towards JRPGs in general. I tend to find that western Roleplaying games are far more accessible to newbies and feature more mature content that basically just more interesting to me. These two games however, are not RPGs and looked like an absolute blast to play so Idecided to pick them up (they also both have easy platinums). The reason I decided to bundle the two together is because frankly, the only differences between the two games are the cast of characters and the track listings. The core dancing gameplay works exactly the same across both titles, making it easy to jump straight to the other one at any time. The dancing works off six buttons inputs that when timed effectively increase a metter that determines whether or not you pass a song. These metters will become more challenging on a higher difiiculties but players like me who just want to enjoy te music will like...

  Burly Men at Sea is a colourful, thoughtful, and unique point and lick adventure game that tests the player's ability to conjure up scenarios and tell the story they want to see. The game’s humble beginning places it on a dock where you control bearded sailors as the set off on an adventure that may see them meet various creatures from folklore. The trek the fishermen take across 20 th century Scandinavia is entirely in the hands of the player who assumes the role of storyteller for the game. The simple decisions made by the player, dictate how treacherous the day will be for the men and place player agency right at the forefront.   Most point and click adventure games tend to make serious decisions feel important by thrusting them in the players faces and showing the immediate consequences of these decisions. This game however, tends to allow the player to decide what the decision to be made actually is and the first decision inside of the whale (it makes much more ...

  I love the Hitman series and have done for a very long time. Some of my first experiences with a PlayStation 2 revolved around the quirky, bald assassin with a keen eye for sharp suits and homicide. Agent 47 to this day remains one of my favourite anti-heroes of all time. He is cold and calculated without coming off as a psychopath. So obviously I have played Hitman Blood Money before. In fact, I have played the game many times on both the PS2 and Xbox 360. But since it has been many years (and the HD enhanced collection featuring this game and Absolution was on sale on the PlayStation store) I decided to play through the game fully instead of picking my favourite missions as I usually would. The fact that around this time I was also hunting platinum trophies and I believed I could easily get one for this game also influenced my decision to get the collection on my most used console.. Blood Money’s gameplay loop of tracking targets, learning their routines, and executing a succes...

Telltale's Game of Thrones immediately has the issue of being placed between season 3 and 4. This knowledge that the Lannister’s will still have control over Westeros at the game’s conclusion is something of a         double-edged sword. It essentially tells the player that no matter what Mira, Asher, Rodrik and the rest of the Foresters do, they are still likely to perish in the end. The family have never been mentioned in the show even after its conclusion so their impact on Westeros is clearly minimal. However, this also works to prove to the player the hopelessness of the show. The Forrester’s sorrow mirrors that of the Stark’s, creating some interesting dynamics between the characters given that most of the Stark’s have been killed by this point. The games separate its six episodes into four characters that you will take control of for about 30 minutes per episode. The most compelling characters to me were Asher and Mira. Asher’s story mostl...