Games

Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition (XBOX 360 / PS4) Review

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Sleeping Dogs was a great game roughly 10 years ago, something I was reminded of when I did my “Games of the Decade” list. When Cyberpunk got delayed to right before Christmas I passed on it for now (and as it turns out I dodged a bullet there…) so I didn’t have a new game to play in late November and up to the holiday, so I looked through my digital collection of mostly Playstation Plus games I’ll never play but I added to my library “just in case” and saw this sitting there. It was under £5 at some point and I brought it for the hell of it, and combined with it still being on my mind I decided to play through it again, plus play the DLC for the first time. So what’s it like in 2020, and given there is very little difference, what was it like back then? Let’s find out! (note that all pictures are from the PS4 version as I can actually get screens from that console…)

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Crisis Beat (PS1) Review

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Ah, Crisis Beat… A game I had no idea existed until one day I found it in a local second hand shop, read the back of the box and thought “A new scrolling beat ‘em up? I thought I knew all of the most recent ones!” and brought it for … less than £10, can’t remember the exact amount. Turns out, of course, that I hadn’t heard of it because it was a tiny, off-the-radar release that wasn’t well received by those who had to review it. The important thing though is this: did I enjoy it, and do I enjoy it now?! Let’s find out!

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My Top 10 Games of 2020

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2020 was a weird year, but for games it was pretty much business as usual (if not bigger business than usual due to so many people staying at home!) and the same goes with my experience with them. I played quite a few 2020 games this year, but once again I lost a couple of months to a Super Robot Wars game, plus I played a lot of older games thanks to both the Games to Movie marathon and the “Scrolling Sundays” weekly feature. That’s not me complaining, for the record! Just explaining why some big releases are missing (with the exception of The Last of Us Part 2, which I didn’t end up getting due to having a bunch of things spoiled for me by whiny idiots… Stupid internet! *shakes fist*), and with that: let’s take a look!

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Fighting Force (PS1) Review

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Fighting Force is one of those games I have a fond memory of, but the experience has gotten a bit worse every time I’ve got back to it. STILL, I will say that at the time I saw reviewers complain that it was “just like the old school 2D beat ‘em ups” and give it a low score and go “Wait, just like the old ones?! Great!” I was worried at the time that the scrolling beat ‘em up was pretty much dead, and to be fair it was, but this was a nice ray of hope. Playing it in 2020? Well…

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Fantastic Four (PS1) Review

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This was an odd one, as I remembered quite liking this when I brought it at the time, and I know I at least played through it once with a friend, but then when I started looking at this retrospectively the online opinion of the game was rather harshly negative, including appearing on some “worst games ever” lists. So, now in 2020, do my opinion match up to the general consensus, or do I have some sort of blind spot for this game? Let’s find out!

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ECW Anarchy Rulz (PS1) Review

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ECW games are like buses, you wait forever for one then two comes along at once! … then the company goes bankrupt. Oh well! Anarchy Rulz sees us wave goodbye to the “War Zone Engine”, and not a moment too soon as it started to get old during Attitude, and Hardcore Revolution didn’t do it any favours. Still, this game features a match where people explode into flames when they get tossed over the top onto lava-like “hot coals”, so… hooray?

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Battle Circuit (Arcade) Review

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With Battle Circuit we have several lasts, most notably the final CAPCOM game, the last Arcade game and the last of the original 2D games (it’s all 3D graphics from here until retro 2D indy games become a thing…) It’s also the last game from the CAPCOM Beat ‘em up Bundle, so I can finally delete the folder of screenshots that’s been in my Pictures folder for nearly a year… Battle Circuit is also the last game in the marathon where I’ve only just played it, so there isn’t a “Thoughts Then” category… Also, it’s bloody weird! Let’s have a look then!

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Die Hard Arcade (Saturn) Review

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Behold! Most likely the only Sega Saturn review to go up on this blog! Yes, I own a Saturn, but I brought it at a car boot sale roughly 15 years ago, so a good while after it was still relevant. It was super cheap and had a few games with it, among them were two Saturn exclusives that I always wanted to play: Fighting Vipers and Die Hard Arcade. I remember seeing this game in magazines at the time and being extremely jealous of Saturn owners getting a 3D (!!) beat ‘em up, and with the Die Hard license no less! Was it worth the wait? Erm… sort of? Let’s take a look at the first 3D entry in this marathon!

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Alien vs. Predator (Arcade) Review

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We reach the end of the “licensed games from Namco and CAPCOM” period of this marathon (ignoring the side-step last week) with one of the best of the lot: Alien vs. Predator from CAPCOM. It’s a game I never knew existed until the days of the ROM in the mid-2000s, and man oh man was I annoyed this never got a home release. Does it still hold up now? Silly question, but let’s have a good look anyway!

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GoldenEye 007 (N64) Review

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Little known fact (because how the hell would anyone else know?) I was going to review this all-time great alongside my review of the film, but decided to hold off on it because it’s arguably my favourite game of all time (I say arguably because I’d have to sit down and really think for a very long time to come up with any actual all-time best list…) and I wanted to give it more attention. Well, when better than a series of reviews celebrating 1,000 reviews? This was always hanging over my head as something I “had” to review at some point, so may as well make it now! Let’s have a look at this classic and see if it still holds up!

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