As I’ve said in previous Call of Duty games, I actually don’t mind th franchise as a whole. I understand it’s cool and hip to hate on the popular franchises these days, but Call of Duty games have always managed to entertain me for the few hours I need to put into them. There’s something about the sheer bombastic nature of the campaigns that’s both lethargic, and somewhat entertaining. All this is to say, it’s awesome to see the fruits of a publisher/developers labour when money is (almost) no obstacle, especially when Call of Duty games of years past have been able to generate billions in revenue within the first 24 hours alone. So with all that being said, we move on to the uncomfortable middle game of the series, one that could even be argued has stated the demise of on of the biggest sellers in gaming history; Call…

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It’s been a while since I’ve played an incomplete, rough indie game, and weirdly enough, I wasn’t actually going out of my way to do that. But that was the case with Submerged – a weirdly ambitious indie platformer that proceeded to push the boat (literally) in the graphics department, but also felt so rough that I ended up almost quitting the game. Lets take some time to disseminate why. Submerged has you playing as a teen who is looking to help her injured brother. The very start of the game makes you know this is a world unlike our own, as the whole world is “submerged” in water, with only the tops of skyscrapers being accessible for humans. Playing as the unnamed girl, you proceed to sail the sea hoping from one building to another finding collectibles and old medical equipment for your ill brother. With that context out…

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Nintendo’s first foray into mobile gaming may have been a massive hit (Pokemon Go) but their first premium game is certainly a mixed bag of weirdness. Super Mario Run costs the grand old price of £7.99, not an extravagant price when comparing it to the traditional games market, but certainly pricey on mobile platforms. So what do you get for your money? Let’s find out. First up, Super Mario Run is a running platofrmer, but because you can’t control a phone as easily as you would a traditional console and controller, the game is a forever runner – Mario himself moves forward regardless as to whether you actually press anything or not. This is a massive break from previous mario games, with their precise controls, but is understandable due to the constraints of mobile phone’s designs. Nintendo made a big point of advertising the fact you control Mario with only…

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I’ll tell you what, it’s been a while since I’ve gone out of my way to find an indie game. Given how much work I find myself doing these days, that’s a massive shame; it’s always good to see what’s on the market and what your fellow developers are up to. So with it being the Steam Summer sale, I saw one game that peaked my interest: Refunct. The minimalist trailer certainly done it justice, and showed off how simplistic the game truly is, so I’m sorry if this review is a little on the short side. Regardless of length, it’s 64p pricetag interested me so much, that I immediately downloaded the game and proceeded to play through all it had to offer. Refunct is a parkour platformer that has you jumping across many 3D cubes on water, both to turn them green and give them life, but to also…

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Hey all, This week, I’m looking at another Mike Bithell game. This one come out of nowhere, which in turn made me push back quite a few other reviews, but for good reason. It’s a short, narrative driven game which could be considered a text-adventure game. You play as a Tek (this world’s robots), who has to investigate and get to the bottom of why Tek’s are disappearing. Through sitting down and not moving at all, you interact with other Tek’s as they get on and off the subway cart you’re on. It’s a unique concept, and one I really enjoyed. If you want to read my full review, you can do so at the link below: http://www.vgchartz.com/article/269115/subsurface-circular-pc/ Anyway! Until next week! -Dan

Hey all! Welcome back to weekly gaming! This week, I review Sonic Mania, a game I’ve been waiting to be released for a long time. Having been raised on Sonic, Sonic Mania manages to hit all the right nostalgia notes, all whilst bring lots of new and refreshing ideas to the table. You can read my full review at the link below, but SPOILER ALERT: I like the game, a lot. http://www.vgchartz.com/article/269085/sonic-mania-ps4/ Anyway, until next week! -Dan

Deary me has it been a while since I started playing Pokemon Moon. Having preordered the game last November, I proceeded to play the game straight for 20 hours, loving every moment of it. But for some reason, I fell off the Pokemon bandwagon and never actually got around to completing it – until now that is. First up, you already know how Pokemon games go: As a 10 year old boy or girl, you proceed to meet the new professor of the place you’ve moved to, attaining your first pokemon, making you a newly qualified trainer. You make your way to the first gym, and proceed to take on the gym owner to gain a badge. Except! Not so this time round. The start’s the same in that you gain a starter pokemon, but everything from there changes. Gone are the gym’s from every other game in the series,…

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As some of you may be aware, I started Tales from the Borderlands just over 2 years ago when the game was first released. As a Borderlands fan, I couldn’t wait to see Telltale’s take on the series, especially given how much I loved other franchises Telltale took on. The issue is, the game completely forgot that I had completed the second chapter, meaning it had lost all of my choices and decisions. Whilst some would say “Just select the third chapter and let the game randomise it for you!”, I felt this was horrendous – the whole point of a telltale game is to see the consequences and results of your actions, something that would feel contrived and wrong should I not have made those decisions myself. Alas, I gave up. For the last 2 years I’ve proceeded to ignore the game even existed, Let alone see it through…

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I know this first sentence is getting old, but I’ve been meaning to play Valiant Hearts for years. Something about the fact a games publisher like Ubisoft funded a studio to make a fairly indie-looking WW1 game that would include historical facts resonated with me in such a way that I was excited to get my hands on the beauty. Alas, 3 years after the game was originally released, I finally managed to sit down for one weekend and put the gorgeously hand-drawn puzzle platformer thorough it’s paces. So what is Valiant Hearts? Put simply, Valiant Hearts is a 2D hand drawn puzzle platformer where you take control of 3 different characters all just trying to make their way through WW1, the “great” war as it were. You start each characters story at the start of the war, and proceed to find out how they became involved in the war,…

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It’s been almost 3 years to the day since I reviewed Monument Valley; the fantastically gorgeous mobile indie game that absolutely blew me away, and made me look at mobile games in a whole new light. A year after that, I took on the game’s DLC, and found it evoking the same kind of feelings as the original, albeit at a much reduced price. This year I finally got my hands on the game’s secret sequel: Monument Valley 2. To be honest, the announcement of the sequel was something of a surprise. There I was just watching Apple’s WWDC keynote, and suddenly, the app store section was showing Monument Valley 2. Rushing to the app store, I found it by searching, and immediately gave Apple (and the developers at ustwo games) four whole pounds and 99 pennies for the pleasure of owning this great game. So first up, what is…

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As with many of the games I review on this site, I’ve been meaning to play Jotun for a while. It always intrigued me on the Steam store, and even peaked my interest when I saw that the whole game was hand-drawn. Alas, many years after purchasing the game, I finally decided to sit down one afternoon and put the game through its paces. Join me as we investigate what kind of game Jotun is, and whether it has much past it’s hand drawn art style. First up, lets get the basics out of the way. Jotun is a top-down action/boss-rush game where you play as Thora – a female viking tribe-leader who was sent to her grave in an undignified manner. Upon coming to the afterlife, she wants to seek vengeance on her terrible death, and vows to impress the gods enough to be let into Valhalla. To do…

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Hey all! This week, I take a look at Bandai Namco’s new weird FPS horror game, Get Even. It was a strange game that tried to do too many different genres in my opinion, and never really mastered one. It’s ambitious, and genuinely worth a play, but man oh man does it not hit on any of the mars it attempts to. You can read my (heavily edited) opinion on the game below: http://www.vgchartz.com/article/268505/get-even-ps4/ Until next week! -Dan

Hey all! So this week, I take a look at the latest of one of my favourite game franchises of all time: Tekken. Whilst the graphics are as gorgeous as ever, I certainly missed the old arcade mode with multiple random endings. Overall, I’m glad the game exists, but it definitely feels a bit of a hollow package considering the value of previous titles in the series. You can read my review below: http://www.vgchartz.com/article/268324/tekken-7-ps4/ As always, I hope you enjoy the review, and until next week, have a good one! -Dan

Hey all! So this week I need to apologise: a while back I had so much work to do that I ended up reviewing Tokyo 42 for VGchartz.com, and even making a video review, but never actually linked to it. So here’s my blog post about the game! (finally!). Overall, I enjoyed Tokyo 42 quite a bit, the soundtrack rubbed me up the wrong way, but from start to finish I genuinely enjoyed the aesthetic and great gameplay. Shame it gets hard towards the end, but that may have been my own incompetence rather than the game itself. You can read my full review below, and watch my video review at the top of this page! http://www.vgchartz.com/article/268196/tokyo-42-pc/ As always, thank you for your continued support! ‘Til next time! -Dan

Virginia (PS4) Those of you who’ve been reading this website for a while may know how much I adored Thirty Flights of Loving; the extremely short indie game that showed you can evoke drama, emotion and story from any game, even if it has no voice acting or dialogue. Virginia is one such game that was also heavily inspried by those weird and wonderful experiments all those years ago. Set in the town of Kingdom, Viriginia, you play as Anne Tarver, an FBI Special agent which is assigned a partner who is already working on a case of a missing teenager called Lucas. Throughout the course of the campaign you’ll be given control of Anne as you make your way from one location to another, seeing what unfolds before you. Since there’s no dialogue, it’s up to you to determine the intention of what is happening in each scene, making…

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