Sparking! Zero has finally arrived after months of hype thanks to a great marketing effort and my own nostalgia for the Budokai Tenkaichi series this is a sequel to, and I’m relieved to tell you the game lived up to that hype, and then some! It goes without saying that if you want a more serious, competitive fighter then this isn’t the game for you, but if you want a fun Dragon Ball game then you can’t get much better. Let’s take a look!
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Persona 3: Reload came out around the same time as Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth back in February and I knew I’d only have the time for one so I chose the latter, but come mid-June I knew I had a good stretch of time with no new major releases I was interested in and so finally got round to purchasing it, and you know what? It’s actually quite hard which of the two RPG remakes I liked more. P3 has always appealed to me but I never actually played it, I saw a friend play through about a third of it and watched (and reviewed!) the four movie adaptations, plus played the Persona 4: Arena games that featured the P3 cast, so I was very familiar with it and really enjoyed the characters and setting but this was actually my first time playing the whole story myself. So let’s take a look!
After the marathon that was Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, and before the equally long game I’m playing now, I wanted a couple of smaller games to wind down to. As if hearing my call this game was dramatically reduced to the point where it would have to be REALLY bad to not be worth the price. The “gamble” paid off, as while I wouldn’t rank the game as a great it did keep me entertained for a couple of weeks. Let’s take a look!
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Here’s a review I never really thought I’d do, or at the very least it wasn’t on my mind, but thanks to the re-release of the two “Classic” Battlefront games I thought there would never be a better time to look at these PS2 greats from my early 20s than now. The original Battlefront was interesting because most things I remembered about the PS2 era Battlefronts comes from countless hours playing Battlefront II, I mean I played this a hell of a lot, don’t get me wrong, but as soon as BFII came out the following year I naturally stopped. So I made sure to play this a bunch (including a couple of hours of multiplayer with the same friend as the first time round!) before touching its sequel to make sure this review is focused on just the original. Oh and yes, the Battlefront Classic Collection was rough on launch, but for me who just plays offline by himself or with friends/family split-screen after the first patch I’ve had no issues… Let’s take a look!
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Time to take a look at one of my most anticipated games of recent memory with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. The second part of the Final Fantasy VII “Remake Trilogy” arrived back at the very end of February and I’ve been playing it like a man possessed! Taking characters and a world I already love and not only expanding the already great combat system from the last game but also adding in fun open world exploration with great graphics and no pop ins and errors like the PS4 Remake was a recipe for greatness in my eyes, and I’m thrilled to report it lived up to those heights. So let’s take a rather unavoidably long look at the game!
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A short while ago I mentioned starting two game review features on one series I’ve always wanted to play, Kingdom Hearts, and another I’ve played many times and the Metal Gear series is the other half of that, as after the likes of Sonic and Resident Evil it’s probably the game series I’ve replayed the most across my life, and pretty much all entries to boot. Speaking of which, I went back and forth on where to start from, since I’ve already reviewed the first Solid game, but since Snake Eater is getting a full on remake in the near future I thought I’d give as much time between them as I could, plus it’s the earliest game in the franchise timeline-wise, so it made sense in that way too. Sadly it’s often considered to be the peak of the series, especially story-wise, but is it really all downhill from here? Does it still even stand up? Let’s take a look!
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Now I don’t normally review DLC add-ons separately but given this was released a while after the original and exclusively on the PS5 (well, and PC) instead of the console I reviewed the original game on (that review can be found HERE) it didn’t really fit discussing it there, so here we are! INTERmission (I guess because it’s an extra mission in Intergrade? Maybe?) is set during the latter half of Remake and focuses on Yuffie, a character who didn’t get much story in the original due to being an optional party member. Given Rebirth is just a few weeks away I thought I’d better finally get round to playing through it, so let’s get to it!
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“What’s old is new again” is the motto for Assassin’s Creed Mirage as it’s far closer to the original 7th Generation XBOX360/PS3 Assassin’s Creed games in structure, scope and a lot of the gameplay mechanics too. The only problem is the story itself isn’t very interesting, especially as our lead’s final fate was revealed in the previous game, which is especially frustrating because this is the first AC game to not have any modern day story content at all, something I’ve wanted since day 1 of the franchise… Oh well, let’s take a look!
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Frankly given how much I love the Persona 5 story, characters, and general vibe with the presentation and music as soon as this was announced I knew I’d be getting it day 1, even though I’m not a big fan of the art style they went with and I’ve never really played a Tactics RPG before (beyond X-COM, I guess?) and while I wasn’t as into it as I hoped I’d be I still enjoyed my time with the game. I think I was most disappointed with the storyline, which was weak compared to even fellow spin-off Persona 5 Strikers, and at the lack of challenge the game gave me. There were plus points though, so let’s take a deeper look!
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The first Spider-Man game took me by surprise because I assumed I’d like it and due to that didn’t really pay much attention to it until playing it, where I was blown away by not just the fun gameplay and open world but the new spin on some old favourites in the storyline. Spider-Man: Miles Morales was released alongside the PS5 but given I didn’t actually buy one until a few years later I never got around to playing it, despite it being on my “must get that at some point” mental list. Anyway, fast-forward to now and Spider-Man 2 was this time something I knew would be great, at the most it would more of the same with a few added bits and another great chunk of story, and … yeah, that was what we got! I think a Spider-Man 3 might have to at least change locations to freshen things up, but for now I was pretty damn happy with what we got! Let’s take a closer look.
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Hogan Reviews 