Weekly Gaming – Crash Bandicoot N’sane Trilogy (PS4)
I apologise that this is a day late! It’s always hard to start the year if you haven’t prepared accordingly, and this week was no exception. Being 3 games in one, Crash Bandicoot Remastered was always going to be a struggle to finish, and as I write this I have two worlds left in the final game. So whilst I would usually make a point of completing every game I review, here I don’t feel so bad as I 1. played the games when they first came out in the 90’s, and 2. I feel I’ve played enough of the games to get a feel for the quality of the overall package. So without further ado! Here’s my impressions/review of Crash Bandicoot N’Sane Trilogy! Nostalgia is most definitely a weird quality we all seem to share. We look back on our childhood memories with awe, and proceed to place many…
Weekly Gaming: Grow Up (PS4)
It’s been years since I sat down and gave Ubisoft’s Grow Home a go, and looking back, I remember being rather fond of BUD and his weird adventures in creating a star fruit for his mothership, MOM.With those fond memories in mind, this past weekend I decided to sit down with the sequel to that surprise hit, Grow Up, and it has to be said, the game is just as fascinating and charming as it was the first time round. Let’s explore why. Grow Up starts out with BUD riding within MOM, playing Tic-Tac-Toe indefinitely whilst exploring the cosmos. Unfortunately, with MOM concentrating on Tic-tac-toe too much, she accidentally hits into an asteroid, causing her to explode across a planet leaving BUD falling through it’s atmosphere. Upon landing, you’re straight back to where you were in the first game – controlling the weird physics of BUD and navigating an alien…
Weekly Gaming: Bound (PS4)
Man oh man has playstation Plus been a roller coaster of a service over the years. When it first started out all those years ago I couldn’t wait to get my hands on most of the games that were offered. Triple-A titles left right and centre, all whilst being the same price (if not cheaper in many instances) than Microsoft’s Xbox Live service. I open with this context, as Bound comes to me courtesy of the Playstation Plus service, and my oh man has it been a let down these last few years. Nothing but indie games people haven’t heard of combined with Sony published games that never reviewed well in the first place. Polygon’s Owen Good wrote a fantastic piece on this exact issue just a few days ago, and I feel it explains my feelings on the service perfectly: https://www.polygon.com/2017/12/2/16728566/games-with-gold-and-playstation-plus-free-games-2017-analysis-opinion So with that being said, is Bound a…
Weekly Gaming: Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens (PS4 Pro)
It’s been a while since I sat down with my other half and played some good old light hearted lego. These times aren’t only about the fun of playing with your partner, but also the fact that Lego games are just as enjoyable as ever, with a funny and mundane story all set in the same universe of brands/franchises you love. It’s this lightheartedness that makes me more than happy to sit down and play the game, even if I have other things I should be doing. So, to start off with, what is Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens? It’s a lego game which retells the film’s story, albeit in a more light-hearted and fun tone. You play the actual characters at the story-beats of the film, and proceed to re-enact the scenes, all with lots of gameplay thrown in inbetween. For example, early on in the game you…
Weekly Gaming: Uncharted 4 (PS4 Pro)
Unchartered 4 Review (PS4 Pro) As those of you may have seen from previous reviews, I like the Unchartered games, but always found them a bit hollow. In fact, it was the original Unchartered game that put me off the series for so long, with its mediocre presentation, lacking game design, and weird characterisation. A started to warm towards the series throughout playing 2 and 3, with both games not only pushing the limits of what was possible in the graphical department for such an old system, but also making the characters more likeable. So here we are at the fourth title in the series, and what have Naughty Dog managed to do? They’ve managed to learn from their previous titles, that’s what. You see, what I didn’t mention is that between 3 and 4, Naughty Dog released The Last of Us, a great game that I reviewed when it…
Weekly Gaming: Call of Duty: Ghosts (PS4)
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…
Weekly Gaming: Lego Jurassic World (PS4)
Whilst playing through Lego Jurassic World one thing constantly surprised me; everytime I brought up that I was playing the game to friends and family the absolutely universal love all people (gamers and non-gamers alike) have for the series is shocking. I was surprised for example that my own girlfriend, a lady who rarely plays games, loves the Lego series, so much so that it was her that bought this copy. There has to be a reason for this universal love, and one which by the end of this review, I hope to get to the bottom of. First up, the graphics, which given this is a Lego game, you can imagine there’s not much of the stuff. It doesn’t take much to make simplistic figures with next to no geometry look like real-life plastic, and Jurassic world does it with ease. Oddly enough, despite the lack of need for…
Weekly Gaming: The Order: 1886 (PS4)
Oh The Order: 1886. It’s been many years since your first trailer when Sony announced the PS4, and holy shit were gamers the world over blown away by your visuals. Then you finally got released after many delays, only to get shit on and end up in the bargain bin for £12. Was it gamers expectations that let you down, or was the criticisms against you valid? Well lets take a look as over the course of the last week I finally managed to play through this gorgeously astonishing game. One thing can be said about The Order from the offset: it’s aimed high in it’s setting. You play as sir Galahad, a knight of a secret order that protects Great Britain and all it’s domains from mythological creatures that see fit to kill innocent people. Set in 1886, the world is going through turbulent change, with the British empire…
Weekly Gaming: Hohokum (PS4)
I remember seeing Hohokum announced for the PS4 before the consoles inevitable release. It was charming to watch in action, but I couldn’t help but feel confused as to what the game was actually about. Here was a tadpole-like creature that was going around weird but colourful worlds in a seemingly random fashion. Needless to say, I had to give the game a go, so when I got it as a part of Playstation Plus many months ago, I decided to finally sit down with Hohokum and see what it was all about. The game starts off in an abstract black circular area. You proceed to move your “tadpole” around the black circular area whilst button prompts come up showing you how to move your tadpole through the world. Pressing X speeds up your character, whilst O slows it down, and Square closes your tadpoles eye. That’s it, simple controls…
Weekly Gaming: TTR: Table Top Racing (PS4)
It’s been a while since I’ve downloaded a game on my monthly subscriptions and instantly given a game a go. Most of the time I forget I own games and end up purchasing them on another platform (cause I can be an idiot at times). But given how it’s been a lovely few weeks, and how I’ve managed to get caught up on a lot of work, I decided to jump into one of the games I downloaded for this months Playstation Plus (I’m writing this in May). I didn’t have much criteria for what I was going to play other than it needing to be simple and laid back enough that I wouldn’t have to concentrate too hard. TTR fit that need perfectly. You see, like Super Toy Cars that I reviewed last year, the game takes place around miniature toy cars that are racing on table tops. The…
Weekly Gaming: Furi (PS4)
Hi all! So this week I review Furi, The Game Bakers epic boss-rush game that’s a staggering success by my standards. The game both infuriated me and delighted me, and I have to give it a massive thumbs up, especially for those of you who fancy a challenging game. As always for my articles that are published over at VGChartz.com, you can find the full review here: http://www.vgchartz.com/article/264984/furi-ps4/ As always, thanks for visiting, and until next week, have a good ‘un! -Dan
Weekly Gaming: CounterSpy (PS4)
Being in the mode for some stealth games is rare for me, but it does happen, occasionally. The last time I played a stealth game was Mike Bethel’s Volume, and even that didn’t really quench my thirst for the stealthiness. This week I was browsing through my PS4, to see what games I could maybe complete in the spare afternoon I had, and happened across Counterspy in my library. I gave it a quick download and decided to get on with playing it. Right out of the gate Counterspy warns you that it’s randomly generated, so not all players experiences are going to be the same. Nice, I thought to myself, this should make for an adventurous play through. So off I set on being a stealthy spy. The game takes place at the height of a nuclear war between the soviet state and the imperialists (USA). Both states are…
Weekly Gaming: Sound Shapes (PS4)
There seems to be a theme going recently. First I review a simplistic platformer with amazing music called 6180 The Moon, then I review another simplistic platformer with fantastic music called 140. Whilst Firewatch broke that combo (ccccccc-combo breaker!), here I am yet again writing about a simplistic platformer with amazing music. Where Sound shapes differs is in the fact the music isn’t just awesome, it’s a part of the game’s core mechanics. It all starts off simple enough, and like any normal platformer, the controls are straightforward: move from left to right, making sure to avoid any red items on the screen. You play as a blob of sound which is able to stick to some surfaces that match it’s own colour, or turn black to move faster (without the benefit of sticking to surfaces). As you make your way through levels you’ll notice that everything around contributes to…
Weekly Gaming: Rocket League (PS4)
It’s a strange thing to be addicted to a game you never thought was your type or genre. I genuinely can’t explain how it makes me feel. I genuinely do not enjoy sports games, so to get hooked off a game I was sceptical of in the first place is weird, and not something that happens often. So, how did I come by Rocket League? Well luckily, it was free for Playstation Plus in September, a fantastic offer for a game only just released. For weeks I’ve been listening to the Giant Bombcast talk about how they’re all hooked to the game, so one afternoon, in my downtime, I decided to give the game a go. Booting the game up, I was greeted to a stunningly brilliant rendering of a car on a field, a weird sentence I wouldn’t ever have imagined I’d ever write! (first time for everything today…
Weekly Gaming: Call of Duty Advanced Warfare (PS4) Review
It’s been years since I’ve played a call of Duty game. That’s not to say I don’t like them, far from it in fact, I spent hundreds of hours playing Call of Duty 4 and World at War with friends whilst at uni. The problem is, in subsequent years since I fell in love with the series, not much has really changed in the way it’s played out. I found my time in COD Modern Warfare 2 mediocre at best and only entertaining because me and a work colleague brought it at midnight on release day and managed to finish it within a day. COD Modern Warfare 3 didn’t fare much better, as I only played it purely to finish the story, and purely to see how to game turned out considering all the controversy that happened around infinity ward’s directors. I picked up Advanced Warfare as it’s genuinely one…