Ian

About Ian

Ian likes his games weird. He loves his Vita even if Sony don't anymore. He joined the PS4 party relatively late, but has been in since day one on PS5.

Here’s something we don’t get to say very often. From Chilean developer Ace Team, we have the survival adventure game The Eternal Cylinder. Hailing from Santiago, you’ve probably never heard of them but you may have heard of their previous output in terms of the Zeno Clash and Rock of […]

The Eternal Cylinder – PS4 Review

October 15, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged ace team / cylinder / good shepherd / survival / trebhum by Ian

From Italian indie dev Studio Kiku and publisher Innovina SRL by way of PQube, we have dystopian nightmarish isometric adventure The Plane Effect. The setting will be familiar to anyone who worked in an office in the before times. A slightly downtrodden male individual finds himself the last person in […]

The Plane Effect – PS5 Review

September 30, 2021 in PS5 / Reviews tagged forza italia / plane effect / pqube by Ian

It’s the year 3174, and your reviewer is celebrating their twelve hundredth birthday. Woo. Meanwhile Age and his robot pal Helvis are tearing it up on an planet killing the mutated fauna and multiple robots of varying hardness while also trying to unravel the mystery of what happened to the […]

Ultra Age – PS4 Review

September 17, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged drapoel / free / helvis helvis let me be / janky / prick bosses / ultra age by Ian

Napoleon tried it in 1812, just as the massed German forces tried similar a hundred and thirty years later. On both occasions they embarked on the grand folly of a land war in Asia. Extended supply lines being their undoing. We had a similar feeling when playing Greak: Memories of […]

Greak: Memories of Azur – PS5 Review

September 15, 2021 in PS5 / Reviews tagged azur / courine / get in the sea / greak by Ian

We’ve been reviewing games on this site a fair few years now, yet we’ve never reviewed a Madden series game on PlayStation Country. Heck, this reviewer has been playing the series since the 2003 iteration on Gamecube. After playing pretty much every 360 version, it’s fair to say we’ve lapsed […]

Madden NFL 22 – PS5 Review

September 6, 2021 in PS5 / Reviews tagged ea sports / how about dem bengals / it's in the game / madden by Ian

From three-man Kiwi developer Rainbite (of Vita/PS4 adventure Reverie) and prolific shoot-em-up publisher Eastasiasoft comes Trigger Witch. This reviewer was a little twitchy to start with as the title had us recalling the frankly risible 360-era third person action game Bullet Witch. Thankfully for our sanity and those with good […]

Trigger Witch – PS4 Review

August 6, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged ballisticism / eastasiasoft / guns guns guns / rainbite / tonz 'o' gunz / uzi lover / witches by Ian

Loopindex (with the oo stylised as ꝏ denoting infinity) had us baffled at the outset. You see, one of the first mechanics it introduces seems like it has the game built around it. We may have been a tiiiiiny bit drunk. Only it turns out to be pretty much secondary […]

Loopindex – PS4/PS5 Review

August 5, 2021 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged even a stopped clock / loop / puzzle / ratalaika / somepx by Ian

Freddy Spaghetti was an unexpected delight from Ratalaika Games and Playful Pasta at the tail end of 2020. You might then conclude that a sequel would be more of the same. Well, it is up to a point. One of the good things about the first game was the imagination […]

Freddy Spaghetti 2 – PS4/PS5 Review

August 4, 2021 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged lazy sequelitis / pasta / ratalaika / this joke isn't funny anymore by Ian

From boutique developer Ametist and prolific Spanish indie publisher Ratalaika, comes Within the Blade. Previously known as Pixel Shinobi, we’re glad of the name change at least. At the outset you’ll be asked to pick a difficulty level: easy, normal or permadeath. We went with the middle option, though we’re […]

Within the Blade – PS4/PS5 Review

July 22, 2021 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged ninja / Pixel art / ratalaika / ronin / stabby by Ian

Chicory: A Colorful Tale is brought to us by developer Greg Lobanov and friends with publishing by Finji. It’s a fairly lengthy action RPG with a painting mechanic that is key to solving all manner of environmental puzzles. At the outset you’re asked what your favourite food is. In our […]

Chicory: A Colorful Tale – PS5 Review

July 10, 2021 in PS5 / Reviews tagged amazing music / chicory / dog / food / painting / rabbit by Ian

Before we get started, let’s address the elephant in the room. Seventy pounds. Or if you’re in the US, seventy dollars. Yes, our price includes 20% VAT, but even taking that into account buying a full priced game, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart in this case, is only going to […]

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – PS5 Review

June 27, 2021 in PS5 / Reviews tagged insomniac / Lombax / ratchet & clank / seventy fucking quid / tonz 'o' gunz by Ian

From developer Out of the Blue and publisher Raw Fury, we have puzzle adventure Call of the Sea. Originally released on Xbox consoles in December 2020, it was an id@Xbox timed exclusive to start with. Besides the fact that in our view, indies being timed exclusives on consoles is fucking […]

Call of the Sea – PS5 Review

June 24, 2021 in PS5 / Reviews tagged call of the sea / cthulhu / out of the blue / raw fury / summer and lightning / the old ones are the best by Ian