Games

Assassin’s Creed: Shadows (PS5) Review

David HoganLeave a comment

I’ve said before on this site that I’ve been a fan of Assassin’s Creed since the very first game but Ubisoft certainly make it hard to continue to be one, and Shadows is very much a continuation of that. The gameplay is great and the visuals are absolutely stunning, but the story is non-existent and even worse ends on something of a cliffhanger that won’t be resolved until paid DLC expansions… Throw in a bunch of online challenges and currency cluttering the map and ruining immersion (that thankfully play no role in completing the game, but still…) and this is mixed bag. Let’s take a look anyway and try and see where it lands…

Continue reading →

Bleach: ReBirth of Souls (PS5) Review

David HoganLeave a comment

I was cautiously optimistic about ReBirth (yes the B is capitalised for some reason) of Souls going in as the presentation looked spot on and the combat seemed fresh and exciting, but at the same time it was a modern Shonen-anime based fighter released by Bandai Namco, a lot of which has been bare-bones and subpar to say least in the last 10 years. The truth has ended up somewhere in the middle, where it plays better than most of its contemporaries and the presentation is indeed spot on, but it’s far from perfect. Still, it’s a brand new console Bleach game, something I literally assumed would never happen again, so I’m just happy it exists at all! Let’s take a look…

Continue reading →

Star Wars: Battlefront II (PS2/PS5) Review

David HoganLeave a comment

I’m not sure why it’s taken me a year to get round to writing the review for the second classic Battlefront game, but here we are anyway! Battlefront II was one of those sequels that improved on the original in literally every aspect and then added a whole bunch more besides. Dedicated space battles, playable heroes, the ability to actually run… you name it, they added it or improved it. That being said, what’s it like to play now in the mid 2020s? Well…

Continue reading →

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Nintendo DS) Review

David HoganLeave a comment

It’s time to wave goodbye to the “Metroidvania” style Castlevania games as we look at Order of Ecclesia, essentially the swan song of the original timeline/run of games, minus a few multiplayer and phone things anyway. It ends the series with a bang though, not just presentation-wise or gameplay-wise but also a “bang” in the sense of knocking into something hard as the game is really challenging, to put it politely. They knew the people playing at this point would be veterans rather than newcomers, I guess. Well, let’s take a look then, and bring an end to this particular brand of Castlevania on this site (I will get round to the classic and 3D games one day, I’m sure…)

Continue reading →

Phantasy Star Online: Episodes I & II (GameCube) Review

David HoganLeave a comment

Ten years ago today I posted my first review ever as I kicked off the blog that would become this site. It was of “Last Battle” one of my least favourite games ever (which you can still look at by clicking here!) So I thought to celebrate ten years I’d do the opposite and review one of my favourite games ever, which given I’ve reviewed a lot of those already it was initially hard until me and my friend started replaying Phantasy Star Online Episodes I & II for the GameCube and I remembered why I’d sunk well over 100 hours into it back in the day. Sadly I can’t capture original hardware so I can’t show you my Level 60+ Hunter character but oh well, this new run via an emulator has been plenty fun as well. So let’s take a look at what will probably be the only online multiplayer RPG to appear on this site (as I played it exclusively offline single player/split-screen multiplayer…)

Continue reading →

Warriors Abyss (PS5) Review

David HoganLeave a comment

Well this was a surprise, literally as it was suddenly revealed and shadow dropped last month! I was expecting the first and only new Warriors review to go up on this blog to be Dynasty Warriors Origins but as that still hasn’t dropped to a price I’m comfortable with I’m happy to get this rather addictive Roguelike with nostalgic characters (i.e. reused models) from the peak of both the Dynasty and Samurai Warriors series instead. Is it perfect? No, but it’s relatively cheap (so long as you’re not interested in vastly over priced costumes!) and really fun. Let’s take a closer look, as the game has understandably gone under the radar I feel this is one of the few reviews that might actually matter in the long run!

Continue reading →

Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix (PS4) Review

David HoganLeave a comment

After mistakenly playing the next game release-order-wise last time (thanks PS4 collection menu!) it’s finally time to tackle Kingdom Hearts II in this on-and-off marathon of my first time playing the series, and I was excited about this more than most because it’s often cited as the best one. Now obviously I still have three main games and two spin-offs to look at yet (not counting mobile titles, which I won’t be covering gameplay wise at least) so I can’t say “I agree!” but I did enjoy myself a lot, which can never be a bad thing… let’s take a closer look at the game then, nearly 20 years after its initial release (Coincidentally!)

Continue reading →

Persona 3: Reload – Episode Aigis (PS5) Review

David HoganLeave a comment

(My Review of Persona 3: Reload proper can be found by clicking HERE!)

I don’t normally dedicate a separate review for DLC expansions, the one exception so far being the Yuffie DLC for Final Fantasy VII: Remake, but “Episode Aigis: The Answer” took me roughly 20 hours to complete, making it just as if not longer than a lot of games featured on the site. Plus there are some things I want to say about both the game and story that can’t really fit into Persona 3: Reload’s DLC section, so this seemed like the best choice! Let’s take a look.

Continue reading →

My Top 10 Games of 2024

David Hogan2 Comments

I knew going in that 2024 might be a bit more of a lean year game-wise, but thanks to games like Star Wars: Outlaws just disappointing me (to the point of an extremely rare giving up halfway through and selling it scenario) and the latest Assassin’s Creed game, normally good for an early Top 10 placement, getting delayed to next year it’s more lean than I’d imagined. Plus due to its length and having already played through a similarly-lengthy Atlus RPG a few months earlier I haven’t played Metaphor: Refantazio, nor have I played Astro Bot, two games that dominated most Top Games lists elsewhere. It’s so bad I’ve thrown in a few compilation re-releases to make up the Top 10, something I really didn’t want to do but a “Top 7” just sounds weird, so… Hey-ho. Also every game this year is either a sequel or a remake, so either I’m getting old and refusing to look into new things or the business has really gotten lazy… Either way, let’s take a look!

Continue reading →

Mario Kart 8 (Wii U) / Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch) Review

David HoganLeave a comment

Back in March of 2022 I started a look at all the Mario Kart games tying in with each DLC release for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and stated that I’d end with a look at the game itself, so let’s do that, even though it’s been nearly a year since I looked at Mario Kart 7, but hey… it’s been a busy year. I’ll be looking at both versions but let’s be honest, 8 Deluxe is just 8 with more stuff so there isn’t really any reason to look back at the Wii U original too hard…

Continue reading →