I've played through the first and second game in this series again on my PS5 courtesy of PS+ and the games being free because I bought the original trilogy for a dollar each in a flash sale during the PS3 days.

I loved these games back in the day, but man, they've aged like shit unfortunately. The controls are SO slippery and unwieldy, which makes gunfights a chore in general. Not to mention that enemies have a habit of ambushing you out of nowhere, so it's hard to contend with sudden combat encounters when aiming the reticle is akin to skating on ice while under the influence of a crate of Jack Daniels. The story is bog-standard Tom Clancy-wannabe guff, the actor for the Gabe Logan always talks like he is in fast forward and it's often unclear how you're supposed to carry out objectives exactly. I often had to resort to a Youtube playthrough to know what to do next.

There are plenty of games from the PS1 era that I can revisit and enjoy in this modern age. Syphon Filter 2 is not one of them.

An utterly fascinating but too-ambitious-for-its-own-good PS1 curio that often feels like it's being held together by duct tape. I'm grateful to the individuals responsible for making this game available to western audiences with a fan translation, but man, I sure can see why it wasn't localised, despite being so obviously influenced by Twin Peaks. The game is a mess. Trying to be Shenmue before Shenmue was a thing, and on PS1 tech no less, was one hell of a goal, but clearly not one that was realistic.

If you are going to brave a playthrough, then use a guide. I can't stress this enough. Use a guide, or you'll likely lock yourself out of anything but a bad ending early on. And play it on something that allows you to use save states.

Furi is bastard hard, but in the best way possible, and though I did get my ass handed to me on a frequent basis, there's an immense satisfaction in learning from your previous encounter and getting that little bit better with each attempt, until you're adept enough to bask in the glory of another fallen enemy. The game has little else to offer other than some lengthy, epic-scale boss battles, but the fast-paced and unrelenting mixture of melee-combat and bullet-hell provides such a thrill that it matters little.

Much like its predecessor, Lost Judgment's main plotline is excellent, and bar some expected Yakuza-esque schlock that doesn't exactly gel with the grittier scenes, is fairly difficult to fault. The core mystery is a compelling one, there are some hard-hitting themes of bullying, suicide and ill-conceived retribution that the writers aren't afraid to shy away from, and the cast comprises of many fleshed-out, impeccably-acted individuals. The two main antagonists in particular are pitch perfect; one of which is your typical heinous evildoer who sticks in the mind purely because of how despicable he is, while the other is a complex fellow of tangled intentions who can't help but elicit empathy from the player, even if his methods are dubious at best. It's a story on par with the very best that the Yakuza series has to offer.

What detracts from the overall experience are the lacklustre mini-games and an enormous glut of side content of varying quality. Chase sequences, of which there are many, aren't fun. Climbing sequences are not fun. Tailing sequences, which thankfully have been dialled down compared to the first game, still aren't fun! The school stories portion of the game, entirely optional it may be, represents almost half of the content LJ has to offer. Scope-wise, it could be a standalone game in its own right. But much of it just fails to grip on a fundamental level, and there are so many side activities that the game often gets bogged down in overwhelming bloat. You can't help but feel that a more focused and streamlined approach would've paid dividends in the end.

If there is ever a third game, I would like to see a focus on quality over quantity. Hone in more on the strengths, cast out the filler content, and rework the minigames so that they require more player agency. The third entry could be the undisputed masterpiece that this spin-off deserves.

In my mind, the most underappreciated of the Silent Hills. Ambitious to a fault, Downpour is a game that wants to be grand. It has a semi open-world environment packed with environmental details to explore and side-quests to stumble upon. The emphasis on non-linear exploration is commendable, but it comes at the price of poor technical performance and bugs. Downpour is riddled with them unfortunately. Due to its unpolished nature, Downpour took a beating from critics when it came out, which is a shame because the story is fairly intriguing, Murphy is a relatable protagonist who actually behaves how someone typically would were they to find themselves in the nightmare that is Silent Hill (he screams a lot) and overall there's a nice balance of puzzles, combat and big cinematic set-pieces to be experience. It just needed another 6 months or so to bake in the oven.

The best Uncharted game. Naughty Dog outdid themselves with this one. Yeah, it's a bit too long for its own good. Yeah, there's too much climbing at times and it drags. Other than that, I can't fault it. The game is escapism at its best. Anyone like me who grew up loving the Indiana Jones trilogy will treasure something like Uncharted 4. The exploration, the action set-pieces, the jokes, the banter, the camaraderie, the puzzle solving; it's a love letter to the movie serials of the old days of Hollywood in the same way Indiana Jones was.

A treasure.

If I had more time I would've delved deep into the whole creation aspect, but alas. The main appeal of Dreams to me is every so often whiling away an hour or two just picking random 'games' or short films or whatever and seeing what kind of madness the community has conjured up. Some of it is genuinely impressive and much of it is crap, but the game often serves as a fascinating glimpse into the mind of the creators who've dedicated time to realising their own vision. I''ve had many laughs playing Dreams, intentional or otherwise.

I wasn't expecting to like this nearly as much as I did. I thought it would be too punishing. Well, the story stuff is overly cryptic and not too interesting, but everything else is perfect. The controls are perfect, everything feels tight and right, the loop is addictive as hell, and the feeling of accomplishment is through the roof. Bonus points for incredible sound design.





If you want to play Returnal on easy mode, the Electropylon Driver is where it's at.

I'll just start off first by saying that Flipping Death holds the dubious honour of being the most spectacularly unfunny video game I've ever played.

I'm not sure where it all went wrong. It has been a great many years now, but I recall enjoying Zoink Games' cult hit Stick it to the Man! quite a lot back when it launched on PS3. It was a game I liked enough to get all the trophies for on THREE different PlayStation platforms, so it must've done something right. Maybe there was a shake-up in the writing staff since then, because Flipping Death flatlines right out of the gate with its obnoxiously loud brand of humour, and abides by it until the bitter end. The core mechanic of Flipping Death revolves around possessing a range of offbeat and deranged characters, which paves the way for an endless bombardment of inane shouting and the same 'hilarious' one-liners repeated over and over again while you try to transit characters from one end of the map to the other. Its screeching, forced and overly-quirky comedy stylings make an average episode of Friends look like an Ingmar Bergman movie by comparison.

"But Mr. Acqui Escence!" I hear you ask. "What about everything outside of the comedy? Doesn't that count for something?" Well that's the thing; Flipping Death's irreverent and brash 'jokes' are placed so far in the foreground that they drown out everything else, whether it's good or bad. The platforming itself sucks tremendously, but I could endure it no problem if the banter made me laugh. The same goes for the obtuse puzzles and the fact that the entire game essentially takes place in one location. But when comedic writing with this much emphasis placed on it is so bad that it makes an Adam Sandler Netflix movie look desirable by comparison, there's nothing that you could hope to redeem it.

Nothing but say, the sweet and merciful release of death maybe. Thankfully, I reached the end credits before that happened.

It has admittedly been a long time since I played this, but I just happened to see the alarmingly low Backloggd score and felt compelled to do my part to bolster the game's reputation a smidgen.

I LOVED this game back in the day. I got it day one for the Dreamcast as I remember there being a fair bit of buzz around it, and it mostly delivered. It was definitely influenced by Robocop and Metal Gear Solid, and it wore those influences on its sleeve. An ambitious game - maybe too ambitious for its own good - but for a Shenmue fan who wanted more adventures on a similar scale, Headhunter was a godsend. Yes it's derivative, yes it's a jack of all trades that casts too wide a net, and yes the motorcycle riding is utter tosh. But I respect this game for being only too happy to go big. It's very cinematic and movie-esque game in its presentation, which will turn some people off but delight others.

Would love to revisit this someday.