Saturday 5 December 2020

DIRT 5 Review Xbox One

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I've never been a big fan of driving games, with only a few clicking with me be it RalliSport Challenge 2 or the Forza Horizon series with their off-road antics. 

Which is why Dirt 5 was on my radar from the trailers we have seen, with its outlandish feel to it with the use of pink and purple smoke along with speakers around the tracks blaring out music.

And how its career mode is told in a rather simple way of picking an event which could be racing around an ice circuit drifting around every corner or racing against 12 classic rally cars like the Ford RS200 to get the finish first, whilst the guess you'll call it story is told via a Podcast with some enthusiastic characters talking of your progress over the game's 5 chapters.

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You'll find 120+ events to do in the career mode, along with some special one on ones to unlock some neat decals for the 60+ cars, you don't have to do all these to see out the career mode and myself I've done about 40%  of them but I plan to come back to do the rest when my Xbox Series X arrives as Dirt 5 uses Smart Delivery and one of a few games that has a 120fps mode if you have the right setup.

Outside of career mode you have online and playground which is a tad like Tony Hawk create-a-park or the stuff you find in Trials Rising where you build or play playgrounds created by the community. I'm hopeless at building but from what I've seen from the few playgrounds I've played a lot can be done in the mode and can see this keeping people busy for a while.

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Overall Dirt 5 is a fun arcade racer which come along at the right time as the racer to check out at the start of a new console generation and you won't be left behind on current gen either, just maybe single player is a tad lacking as maybe some simple time trail modes or basic cups could have added a bit more to the overall package. 


 




Thursday 15 October 2020

10 Most Anticipated Nintendo Switch Games (October 2020)

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I've mainly been highlighting games coming to either the PS5 or Xbox Series X|S even games that will only be playable via backwards compatibility. This doesn't mean I've forgotten about the Nintendo Switch which does have a few games I'm excited about coming to the system.

Bayonetta 3


BRAVELY DEFAULT II

 

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

 

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2


Monster Hunter Rise


Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin


New Pokémon Snap


No More Heroes III


Rune Factory 5


Shin Megami Tensei V

 


Sunday 11 October 2020

10 Most Anticipated Current Gen Only Multi-Format Games (October 2020)

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In my last post I brought up my ten most anticipated multi-format games that will be on either Microsoft's and Sony's next gen systems, those games that will take advantage of the new consoles in some way. I did mention however that there are still a few games that I'm excited for which won't be on the new systems.

Now these will still be playable on PS5 or Xbox Series X|S via backwards compatibility but just won't have things like ray tracing or other next gen features.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX


Digimon Survive

 

The Good Life


 

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory

 

Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139...


 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake


 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game - Complete Edition

 

She Dreams Elsewhere

 

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster

 

Twin Mirror


 

Saturday 3 October 2020

10 Most Anticipated Next Gen Multi-Format Games (October 2020)

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The last two days I've listed ten games that are PlayStation Console Exclusive and same with Xbox, which will be coming to PS5 and Series X|S respectively.

Now it's the turn of the Multi-Format which I'm looking forward to play regardless of the system I will be playing them on. Some of these will still be arriving on PS4 or Xbox One but will take advantage of the next gen features the new consoles will have.

I will also point out that I'm excited to play likes of Nier: Replicant ver. 1.22474487139... which isn't coming to PS5 or Series X|S but that is a list for another time.


BALAN WONDERWORLD

 
 

 

Cyberpunk 2077

 

DIRT 5

 

Gotham Knights

 

Immortals Fenyx Rising
 

 LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

 

Pragmata 

 

Resident Evil Village
 
 
Scarlet Nexus

 
 
 

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2



Friday 2 October 2020

10 Most Anticipated Xbox Series X|S Games (October 2020)

 

 

We continue on from yesterday, with a look at what I'm looking forward to on  Microsoft's next gen offerings with the Series X|S consoles.

 

12 Minutes

 

As Dusk Falls


 Avowed


Call of the Sea


Everwild


 

Fable

 

Halo Infinite


Last Stop


The Medium


Senua's Saga: Hellblade II

 

Thursday 1 October 2020

10 Most Anticipated PS5 Games (October 2020)


As we move ever closer to the launch of the next gen consoles and since my last Top 10 Anticipated lists there's been some more events and info on titles, that I've decided to update my lists and add a third as well.


Demon's Souls


 

Final Fantasy XVI


Ghostwire: Tokyo


God of War: Ragnarök


Goodbye Volcano High

 

 

Horizon Forbidden West

 

Kena: Bridge of Spirits

 

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

 

Sackboy: A Big Adventure

 

Spider-Man: Miles Morales


 

Wednesday 23 September 2020

PlayStation Afterwards

Just over a week ago now Sony held a PS5 showcase which showed us games such as Final Fantasy XVI and many more including Spider-Man Miles Morales and SackBoy Big Adventure which we later found out after the showcase those two and Horizons sequel Forbidden West will be coming to the PS4 as well as the PS5.

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This is a bit of a back track of the previous statements of new generation new games, with PlayStation head honcho Jim Ryan talking about how they've supported previous consoles in the past after the new one had released and that is what they're going to do again. 

I was curious, so I did some research on what did Sony bring to the PS1 for instance after the PS2 had launched and so on, as I could only think of a few games but not many.

Going through what I could find that Sony had published on the old console after releasing a new console is a tad interesting as we do see some big hitters that could easily be compared to Spider-Man Miles Morales at the time.

I'm in the UK but I used the North American dates as those seemed the simplest as PlayStation's have moved round in other regions for launch dates.

This might not be a hundred percent accurate and you may think of something I've missed.

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Anyway the PS2 released in late 2000 and after that date from what I can find Sony published 34 games for the PS1. Looking at what was published out of the 34 games it does include four NBA ShootOut, five NFL GameDay games and oddly a bunch of Disney games such as Monsters, Inc. Scream Team.

You might be thinking those aren't very big games well Crash Bash, Spyro: Year of the Dragon and    Syphon Filter 3 are all rather decent.

Similar story for the PS2 after the PS3 launched in late 2006, the PS2 had 38 games published from Sony which again included nine Buzz, five EyeToy, five MLB The Show games. I can certainly see a pattern of sports and more family friendly games still coming out for the older console for those not moved on to the next gen.

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This still doesn't mean the PS2 didn't get some big hitters, even though the PS3 was out the most famous and the first game I thought of when doing this was God of War II which came out four months after the PS3 did in North America and it doesn't stop there as the PS2 got things like SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Combined Assault, Wild Arms 5 along with a few games shared with the PSP such as Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier.

At the moment Sony are averaging 36 games on the previous console when the new one is out, well that's not the case with the PS3 even though it was getting a 10-year life cycle. Now I don't know if this is down to the PS3 being less popular than the PS1 and PS2 (PS3 still sold 89m) or the PS4 took off so fast that the PS3 didn't get many Sony published games as I can only find 11 with two being MLB The Show and Wonderbook games.

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I feel there might be more than 11 games due to games on PSN that Sony published, yet out of the ones I can find there was still a rather big one and due to the PS4 not being backwards compatible, I know I didn't play it and that's Gran Turismo 6.

So yeah Sony have in the past supported the older console rather well even with the new system on the market with some big titles such as Spyro, God of War and Gran Turismo.




Wednesday 15 July 2020

Panasonic 3DO in 2020 - My First Impressions


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Yesterday afternoon I picked up a Panasonic 3DO from my local independent game shop. This is the first time I've owned a 3DO and one of a few relatively decent consoles I've never owned as well. 

That I was really curious to get my hands on this and I have some thoughts with my first day with the machine along with games I managed to get as well so far.

First the console, I like the look of it personally and nice to see the different connection options to connect to a TV that I had mine running via a Scart to HDMI adapter, decent in terms of picture quality all told.

The OS is basically a screen saver over and over, which is a tad annoying as to get to the saved data for games you have to use certain games or the sampler disc which I do have.

On the sampler disc is just a chap narrating going on about enjoying your new 3DO and what it can do like play Music CD's and VCD's with an adapter which only came out in Japan in the end. Does have 5mins of Batman the animated series which is good but overall this will be only used if I need to delete stuff of the memory. 

Controller has a super long cable, which was handy how I set it up as the power supply is attached to the console I had to put it close to an outlet. Controller is like a big SNES pad, which is fine part from the tiny d-pad.

Last Retro Game You Finished And Your Thoughts - Page 4 Starblade31Last Retro Game You Finished And Your Thoughts - Page 4 Starblade4

Now on to the most imported part the games as this is a games console at the end of the day. First up is Starblade which has the honour of being the first 3DO game I've ever finished, Starblade is a port of the arcade game which has two modes on 3DO. First is Arcade Mode which looks like Star Fox with the graphical style of the low 3D polygons but really impressive for something from 1991, this is the mode I finished which takes about 30mins that I may have been annoyed if I bought this new for my 3DO being that short.
 
The other mode is the 3DO mode which adds textures to those low poly graphics. Which in practice looks impressive especially in 1994 yet everything now is grey and boring & harder to see that I prefer the low poly mode instead. The game itself is fun to play it's an on rail's shooter like a Star Fox but in First Person, just be nice if more than two levels unless you really want to chase high scores.

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Next game I took a look at was Blade Force this has awful poppin and the box mentions how it runs in film like 24fps which I find hilarious as selling point where in 2020 people moan if a game 30fps, will say though the cutscenes with the characters are like the early Fallout games.

PO'ed, I did the first level and seems an okay FPS but the second level due to everything being purple I had no idea where I was going but gives me hope for Wolfenstein 3D which is a near perfect port.

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Then the big'un which may have been a system seller back in the day Wing Commander III, I didn't play much but the FMV stuff is fantastic with Mark Hamill so far and the game bit wasn't bad either, can see me coming back to this one soon'ish.

First impressions are mixed as nothing part from Wing Commander III really stood out on why you maybe want one of these but with what I know about the 3DO if I can get my hands on the likes of D, Street Fighter II (like the best console version), FIFA, Road Rash, Gex, Night Trap from the 300+ games then it be a good time.

I can see why at one point this was deemed the best place for games especially for sports titles compared to the Mega Drive and SNES but it's in the same gen as the Saturn, PS1, N64 which will all blow it out of the water.

Feels it either came too late or to early depending on what you compare it to.

Tuesday 16 June 2020

10 Most Anticipated PS5 Games (June 2020)

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A few days ago now we had the PS5 Reveal where 25+ games were shown and with previous events over 50 games are confirmed for the upcoming console. 

These are my 10 most anticipated games that will be coming to PS5. 

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Deathloop this Action Adventure FPS from Bethesda will launch first on PS5 in 2020.

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Where it all began with the souls series returns to PS5 in this remake from Bluepoint.

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Ghostwire from Tangoworks will be coming first to PS5 in 2021.

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The sequel to one of my favourite PS4 games comes to PS5.

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Kena will launch this year on PS4 and PS5.

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The due of Ratchet &  Clank are back this time on PS5 to show of what the SSD can do with the rift game mechanic.

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RE8 looks to continue in the direction of RE7 in this next gen Survival Horror. 

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From the team that brought us Hyper Light Drifter comes this spiritual successor.

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The game that that looks to be launching alongside the PS5 in this Spider-Man title starring Miles Morales. 

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Yeah, so you play as a cat with this little backpack it seems, what's not to like?


Sunday 31 May 2020

Maneater Review


Maneater recently released on PS4, PC and Xbox One. I've been playing Maneater on Xbox One for the past week and have mixed things on the game.

Maneater starts out with a tutorial on how all the controls work along with the game's setup of it being a reality TV series over 8 episodes much like Deadliest Catch, just narrated by Jerry from Rick & Morty. 

This builds around the plot of you playing as a baby shark who is out for revenge on the antagonist Scaly Pete.


Over the game you level up, get stronger, unlock new abilities and eventually go from baby shark to a mega shark who can spit lightning. You do this in various ways such as a mission to chew up 10 humans or take down an alligator.

The narration over this and the games overall tone, makes it what it is, a quite funny game and reminded me of things like Goat Simulator and Untitled Goose Game in a lot of ways.


However, that is also an issue as over my almost 10 hours to finish the story and do every sidequest (I didn't get all the collectables, so missing the1000G) which was needed to level up to take on one of the bosses, is the joke gets old.


Why I said at the start I've got mixed feelings on Maneater as the first few hours was really fun but by the end I just wanted the game to be over. 

This is very much an example where less is more, as I would have much sooner had a 3hr game which fun all the way through then this what just becomes boring at the end due to lack of variety in the missions as you can only chew up so many humans.

Sunday 10 May 2020

10 Most Anticipated Xbox Series X Games (May 2020)



This past week we got our first look at some Xbox Series X games, now some of these are coming to Xbox One and PlayStation's that you might be excited about them coming to your PS4.

I do also want to point out that 13 games were shown on the Inside Xbox but actually over 30 games have been confirmed to becoming to Series X and from those 30+ games I've picked the games I'm excited about.


Ubisoft will be bringing Assassin's Creed to Series X in what looks to be a great Action Adventure game set in Britain with Vikings.



The first game shown during Inside Xbox was this time travelling FPS from a one man dev team. A previous entry is on PC if you want a taste of what is to come.


Call of the Sea is adventure game which from the trailer to have Firewatch vibes which continues as Cissy Jones will be voicing the lead in this Game Pass title.


Cyberpunk 2077 was a one of the few games confirmed for Series X awhile ago and to use the Smart Delivery system meaning you can buy on Xbox One and when the game becomes available on Series X you can upgrade for free.


Dirt 5 from the trailer looks a lot like Forza Horizon which is never a bad thing and always good to have a racer on a new system.


Now Xbox list would be complete without Halo which will be launching alongside the Series X and in Game Pass.


The Xbox One's biggest misstep for me has been the so-so Japanese support that to see a game like this shown is a positive.


My favourite game from the Inside Xbox this new horror title from the team behind the recent Blair Witch game along with the composer of Silent Hill working on the score for this Game Pass title.


The trailer was a tad rough that was shown for this but the overall look has me excited to play this Vampire RPG.


I was very pleased to this as for the longest time the Yakuza series has been on associated with PlayStation that the seventh entry to come to Xbox at the same time is great for gamers as more people get to play right away.

That's my 10 games, the one I was tempted most to include was Hellblade 2 but till we see more I decide to leave of this list which I will comeback to update every so often.

Wednesday 5 February 2020

Destiny 2 Forsaken on Stadia

Gylt on Stadia Review


Mortal Kombat 11 Joker Gameplay on Stadia


Darwin Project on Xbox One


Music Racer on Xbox One


Thumper on Stadia


Can Androids Pray on Xbox One


GRID on Stadia


Destiny 2 on Stadia


Tomb Raider on Stadia