Playstation

Urban Reign (PS2) Review

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Urban Reign was a surprise hit for me. I hadn’t heard of it at all until I saw it on some random website, not even a review I think it was talking about the hidden characters from Tekken being in it… anyway, it looked fun so I rented it out from Blockbuster and sure enough! It’s like a scrolling beat ‘em up, except you select missions in locations rather than move from one to the other seamlessly. I brought it a few months later and me and my friend played the hell out of it. What’s it like now? Let’s find out in what is the last console game of this generation, as well as the second… See what I mean about the genre falling out of fashion?

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WCW Backstage Assault (PS1) Review

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You know what I really hate about wrestling games? The wrestling ring! THANK YOU BACKSTAGE ASSAULT. Seriously though, when is a wrestling game not a wrestling game but instead a vs. fighting game with wrestlers? It might be WrestleMania: The Arcade Game and its sequel, but even those games had a ring in it… Oh well, let’s take a look at Backstage Assault, both the first game to feature only backstage environments and the last game released with the WCW logo on it. Yep, this is how WCW’s gaming legacy ended…

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State of Emergency (PS2) Review

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State of Emergency was one of those game I hadn’t heard anything about until it was suddenly on shelves, and the mix of scrolling beat ‘em up-like action, loads of people on screen and the Rockstar logo on the front meant I brought it immediately. While parts of the game might be hitting home a little too much right now (but I’m sure as hell not changing the Scrolling Sundays order right near the end!) it’s still a good laugh, but at only four levels, how long can it hold your attention, both then and now? Let’s find out!

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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

David HoganLeave a comment

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

David HoganLeave a comment

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

David HoganLeave a comment

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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Ghost of Tsushima (PS4) Review

David HoganLeave a comment

Ghost of Tsushima was released back in July but I didn’t actually get it until I collected some money for my Birthday in late September. The extra two months wait only made me look forward to it more as the game racked up more and more praise from critics and fans alike. So did the much touted “last PS4 exclusive” impress me in a similar manor? Let’s find out!

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