Reviews

Falcom’s JRPGs have become firm favourites of mine. I’ve reviewed a few Trails games over the years and they’ve all hit the spot for old school JRPG enjoyment. They’re not trying to modernise the genre, they’re taking its strengths and applying them as best as they can. The Legend of […]

The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero – PS4 Review

September 23, 2022 in PS4 / Reviews tagged falcom / jrpg / legend of heroes / trails from zero / trails of cold steel / turn based battles / world building by Gareth

Attempts to make World War I’s trench warfare compelling have been made before but I’ve never really seen them as great successes. At best, they recreated the meat grinder nature of an attritional conflict and, at worst, they become a lesson in frustration. Taking a more vertical approach with less […]

Isonzo – PS5 Review

September 20, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged astro-hungarians / blackmill games / class warfare / first-person shooter / isonzo / italians / mustard gas / online multiplayer / trench warfare / verdun / world war i by Mike

Akane is a top-down assassinate ’em up from Brazil coders Ludic Studio. It actually came out for Windows back in 2018 and had a Switch release a year later but now it’s here on PSN and ready to break some skulls. You play as the titular heroine who begins the game […]

Akane – PS4 Review

September 20, 2022 in PS4 / Reviews tagged akane / anime / assassin / difficult / hack and slash by Richie

The title Soulstice probably has you thinking this is a Souls-like game but this is not the case. It is a third person hack and slash game but in the character action genre, more specifically influenced by Devil May Cry. How that information colours your interest in the game is […]

Soulstice – PS5 Review

September 20, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged challenges / character action / combos / Devil May Cry / ghost / soulstice by Gareth

XIII is a first-person spy shooter which has had something of an interesting history that we really have to talk about before we get into the merits of the game itself. Based on the Belgian comic of the same name, XIII was originally released in 2003. We played, finished and liked […]

XIII (Remake) – PS5 Review

September 19, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged first-person shooter / remake / spy / thriller / xiii by Richie

Wayward Strand, from developer Ghost Pattern, takes part during a very specific window of three days in early 1978. Friday 27th January to Sunday 29th January in fact. It’s also very very Australian. It’s not quite the stereotypical Joe Mangel “you little ripper, let me get the ute!” levels of […]

Wayward Strand – PS5 Review

September 18, 2022 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged flying hospital / rack off you dag / straya / wayward strand / you flaming galah by Ian

We originally reviewed Biomutant from developer Experiment 101 in May last year, now we’ve a PS5 version to cast our eye over. Though we wish we’d just waited and got the free PS5 upgrade that all other owners have now got too. Due to our having played the EU version […]

Biomutant – PS5 Review

September 18, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged biomutant / experiment 101 / ps5 port by Ian

I think annual sports games run a perpetual tightrope of trying to freshen up a familiar series on a limited development cycle. Visual Concepts have certainly rose and stumbled over the duration of their seminal basketball series. NBA 2K23 enters the court with a lot of historical content and a […]

NBA 2K23 – PS5 Review

September 16, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged basketball / historical content / larry bird / magic johnson / michael jordan / nba 2k23 / sport / sports management / visual concepts by Mike

The venerable old Puzzle Bobble series came back in 2021 thanks to a PSVR-enabled outing and this game here is the non-PSVR PS5 port of the same game. But without its virtual reality gimmick have State-side software specialists Survios, got enough here for the game to standalone? Let’s find out. For the […]

Puzzle Bobble 3D: Vacation Odyssey – PS5 Review

September 15, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged bubble bobble / bust a move / not psvr / puzzle / puzzle bobble 3d by Richie

I do love a bit of digital tourism. There’s a great swath of the world I just wouldn’t visit if it wasn’t for public transport. Train Sim World 3 looks to scratch that itch with another edition of Dovetail Games’ series. It feels very familiar to me with some new […]

Train Sim World 3 – PS5 Review

September 13, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged digital tourism / dovetail games / freight / job simulator / passenger / steam engines / train sim world / trains by Mike

We’re nearly two years into the PlayStation 5’s lifespan now and it’s pretty well established that remakes and remasters are very much an integral part of PlayStation’s ecosystem. This year alone we’ve seen Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy receive shiny next gen updates courtesy of […]

The Last of Us Part 1 – PS5 Review

September 12, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged adventure / naughty dog / remaster / survival horror / the last of us by Gorilla Stephens

Disney Dreamlight Valley is a chilled-out life-sim/adventure game from veteran French publishers Gameloft which looks to take the well-loved gameplay mechanics of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley but with an abundance of Disney characters and lore. The concept of the game is quite straightforward. All your favourite Disney characters live in the titular valley […]

Disney Dreamlight Valley – PS5 Review

September 8, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged animal crossing / chilled out / disney / dreamlight valley / farming / life simulator by Richie