Another game which has been often spoken about and recommended leading me to believe it was well worth playing. Unfortunately in 2024, 17 years after the game’s initial release, it has not aged well.

Heavenly sword is an action-adventure developed by Ninja-Theory set in a fantasy world. The story revolves around Nariko who has been entrusted with protecting her clan with the powerful Heavenly Sword. The game starts off with a fierce battle and Nariko’s death, the rest of the game is told in flashbacks and the events which led to that battle.

At the time, having motion capture as well as having the king of motion capture onboard, Andy Serkis was a massive selling point of the game. However compared to today's standards of motion capture the results in Heavenly Sword look so unnatural to laughably bad at times. More notably than the motion capture is how wild the animation of Nariko's hair is. It just flails around in the air like when you see alpha footage of an animated film.

The game has not aged well. The framerate absolutely drags at times with lots of screen tearing making some combat very frustrating. Also as the game was from a generation where the game data is read directly off the disc, the load times are very long. Other poorly aged aspects of the game are its gameplay mechanics such as Quick Time Events which happen completely out of the blue during the slow frame rate and screen tearing meaning you will most likely miss the prompts first time around. THe graphics though, for the time are fine, as an early PS3 game they aren’t terrible.

The controls could be better, this was still before the time of a solid standardised control set among games. Not being able to freely jump in a hack and slash game is such a mood killer. Using the right-stick to dodge is too far for the player's thumb to travel in a short space of time. There didn't seem to be any way to change this. The game, being released early in the PS3's lifecycle makes use of the sixaxis controller feature much to the dismay of many. Luckily this can be turned off.

The main combat with the titular Heavenly Sword is very unsatisfying and unrewarding. You are given with new combos and artwork unlocks but for me, someone who struggles to remember combos and didn't have enough interest in the game to care about the art this all amounted to nothing. Each chapter you are essentially moving area to area while the game throws a large quantity of the same enemy at you. It reminded me of those mobile games you see adverts for which is one player mowing down an army of soldiers.

I liked the combat where you used a gun of some sort to fire projectiles. I found this much more fun than fighting with Nariko and her sword, defeating the main purpose of the game. The arrow firing missions can be frustrating though as each slow motion arrow takes ages to reach its target.

All boss battles up to the last one, Bohan, were beaten due to a complete fluke as far as I’m concerned. Nariko would carry out random moves that I had no idea how I was managing to execute. The last fight against the flying fox heavily relies on you countering which I only learned but never mastered in the last boss battle. I threw the towel in during the second stage of the Bohan fight due to how frustratingly hard it was. I could never get the timing of the counter attacks right. I was relieved to hear I was not alone in this, other players have struggled too.

There were at least two occasions (usually at boss fights) where I almost threw in the towel, at roughly 7 hours long I pushed myself to at least try and finish it. The only thing I’m glad of is that I can say I experienced the game and made my best effort but it’s not one I would recommend to newcomers in this day and age. If you played the game on release and you love it then good for you, I wish I liked the game that much.

I was the prime age of 7 years old, vulnerable to the indoctrination of Pokemon Red/Blue when it was released in 1996. I was obsessed, I recently had my Pokemon Blue save file backed up and battery replaced by a company to ensure my many many hours of gameplay and 151 Pokemon were safe. Then I was gifted Pokemon Yellow for my Birthday with a Yellow Game Boy Colour and loved it just as much, the small changes to align the game with the TV show was enough to make it feel like a brand new game all over. Then Pokemon Silver came out, I enjoyed it but to be honest I cannot ever remember completing it. A few years ago I tried Pokemon SoulSilver and binned it out of frustration. It was too much like Blue/Red that I found myself putting together the same team from generation 1 and going nowhere near the new pokemon introduced in the game. I’d declared myself done with the franchise when I also saw the modern Pokemon designs and how absolutely bonkers they were. That was, until I got the itch again…

WARNING: If you are a big fan of the Pokemon games then I don’t think this review is for you. I am one of those 151 Pokemon lovers and nothing beyond so if you are a diehard fan I wouldn’t recommend reading any further as it may end in anger/frustration.

Sticking to the Chronological releases, Ruby and Sapphire were next. I chose to play the remake of Ruby as I really wanted it to look and feel as different as possible from the early generation games.

The game got off to a good start with me as it’s my first Pokemon with cinematics and it forces the player to learn the new Pokemon introduced into the series. A lot is the same from the previous games, the structure of the gameplay and story feels like it was taken from a template. You start off as a brand new Pokemon trainer in a small town. You still pick one of 3 starter pokemon, fire, grass or water. You still travel from town to town fighting gym leaders and chasing off a bad organisation, this time it’s team aqua and team magma. Depending on which game you play you will see either one of the antagonists. The goal of the main game is to beat the elite four and become the Pokemon champion however there is a lot more to be achieved outside of the main story such as collecting all Pokemon, designing a secret base and completing all side quests.

The graphics are lovely, using the engine from X & Y to bring new life into the older games. I would have killed as a wee boy to see Pokemon in such details as well as their attacks being played out with animations. The touch screen management of the inventory and Pokemon is great as it helps speed up healing and managing your team. Mega Evolutions are another carryover from X & Y and are pretty cool, bringing new stages of evolution to your Pokemon.

After I was halfway through the game I started to lose enthusiasm for it. I was enjoying the game and was keen to play but it didn’t excite me. It was different from the early games but also still quite similar. I did my best early on to grind levels, catch all Pokemon that I could but after a while that enthusiasm waned. I still caught Pokemon and levelled up but never went out my way to do it. I looked at a guide for all the legendary Pokemon available in this game and thought “fuck that”. Even the post-credit game available I had no interest in. I was genuinely just glad to see the end credits so I could move onto the next game.

It's worth mentioning that the story events and cinematics later on in the game are quite cool with the legendary Pokemon reveal, I just wished these cutscenes and events would have happened more often throughout the game.

What could have contributed to my limited enjoyment was playing on the 3DS, a smaller form factor than I’m used to. I think I prefer a large screen, sitting back, and being immersed by a fantasy world. Not hunched over a handheld device. I’m also aware that this isn't exactly the best Pokemon game to play as well.

Pokemon games are good, they are fun, easy to pick up and put down and can be very social if you know other people who are also into them. I can’t help but to feel that they are best enjoyed by fans of the franchise and not a casual or new gamer. Not like they wouldn’t understand the gameplay, it’s the lore that takes as passion for the series to appreciate.

I’ve not thrown the towel in again yet for the Pokemon games, I still plan to play Brilliant Diamond, then I will make my conclusive thoughts. Omega Ruby was fun to play but it just lacked excitement. I don’t feel I'm in a position to recommend the game or not, I enjoyed it for the most part and I’m glad I played it. I just didn’t come out the other end with a smile on my face.

The Darkness is actually the second Darkness game I played as I played The Darkness II on Steam years ago, probably because it was on a crazy low price. The Darkness is cited in the 1001 Video Games to Play before you die and has a lot of admiration from people who played it around its release date. I unfortunately, 17 years late to the party, do not see the admiration.

The Darkness follows Jackie who was once adapted into a Mafia family as a young boy, on his 21st birthday he learns his uncle is out to kill him as he feels threatened that Jackie is going to take over the family. Unknown to him though, Jackie’s family have a “dark” secret that on their 21st birthdays a Darkness takes over them. Jackie harnesses this Darkness to rise up against the man who wanted him dead.

The titular Darkness that you control alongside guns is Jackie’s way of dispatching with his foes and obstacles. Apparently if you learn to use the Darkness properly it’s a lot of fun but I could only see fun in the “Black Hole” technique, the rest were awkward to control. Therefore I resorted to using guns mostly. You can also summon little Darkness helpers to shoot at enemies, blow themselves up, or attack them. This only really worked as a distraction for the enemies as the AI was not all that great, they wouldn't move towards enemies ahead of you and the gunner would often just shoot at walls. I didn’t enjoy the Darkness heads taking up a significant portion of the screen either.

I played the game on easy difficulty but even then I would often find myself being overwhelmed with enemies. It only takes a few hits of a gun before you die and often you’re up against 4 or more gang members at one time. I also found that some non-darkness humans would fall to the ground as if they die but then immediately get back up which would often throw me.

As this game is part of Xbox’s backwards compatibility program it is playable on Xbox Series X with upscaled graphics which make the environments look amazing but unfortunately the character models and animations are left behind in 2007. I don’t get Jackie’s character design, how he looks like a “mad goff” straight away. Like what mafia member dresses or looks the way he does? Surely it would make sense if his look got darker as the Darkness took over?

The game’s world mostly takes place in the streets of New York. The subway acts as a sort of hub world which you use to go to each area. Every area is relatively small. The game doesn't offer you a map in the hud or menu, instead you need to find a map on the street and navigate yourself using that. I quite enjoyed this as often in games if I’m given a mini map I’ll just move around looking at that rather than my character’s view. I wish the game had a sprint button but due to the size of the areas players would probably complete the game very fast.

At one point, the game goes back in time to a World War 1 setting where it seems like the Darkness has taken over the land. I enjoyed these sections a whole lot better. It makes the game feel like 2 games in one that don’t really make sense together. Using Darkness powers in a World War 1 setting makes more sense than using them in modern day New York against the Mafia. I would have made 2 separate games, one with no darkness powers in New York and the Darkness and World War 1 as a separate game.

For a sense of progression, the game allows you to level up The Darkness by consuming your downed doe’s hearts. I found this to really slow down the pace of the game as you would need to play out the whole animation of the heads at the side of the screen eating the heart each time. I didn’t see or benefit from consuming hearts and levelling up the darkness as I never properly utilised it.

I know I didn’t learn how to properly use the darkness despite me trying to but there’s cutscenes towards the end of the game where you see Jackie fully utilising The Darkness to dispatch Mafia members and it feels like salt in the wound. That’s what I wish the game play was like rather than in cutscenes only.

I feel disappointed when so many people love a game but it just doesn’t gel well with me at all. I feel like I’m missing out despite actually playing the game. What didn’t help with my enjoyment of this game was the fact it was a first person shooter on a console. I find first person games more enjoyable and immersive on PC with mouse and Keyboard. I would love to see a remake of this game with more modern controls and graphics. The Darkness never felt anything more than most FPS games I’ve played. I don’t think the game has aged all that well and could only recommend the game to people who has a nostalgia for it already.