Borderlands is a very basic looter shooter which thrives on your desire to mindlessly shoot goons as they return bullets in your direction. Although the inclusion of co op presents the perfect platform for you to mess around with your friends, as a solo endeavour, there is much left to be desired. Ignoring the major objective optimization issues plagued with this version of the game, there are many questionable design choices that serve to dampen the experience of a single player playthrough.

As a standard, this game will become unplayable around 1-2 hours into every play session unless the program gets reset. There is a chance you are able to fix this by instructing the game to use the GPU instead of the CPU because apparently that is not the default already.

Combat is the heart and soul of Borderlands, as even when listening to quippy one liners, all you are typically doing is either shooting enemies, receiving a text prompt initiating a mission to shoot enemies, or activating a text prompt to conclude a mission where you shoot enemies. All missions are obtained through talking to any characters or interacting with objects or quest boards. Unlike how most games would tackle this, however, Borderlands just has each quest start and end with a notification pop up whilst the NPC talks about any relevant or story beats in the background. Due to this, the entire game just boils down to running over to a destination, sometimes across several of the small map hubs just to shoot some guys and run back to where you picked up the quest. Additionally any form of skill is thrown away through several different elements, including the weapon accuracy, feel of gunplay, and limited movement options.

The game includes an accuracy stat on every gun which creates an infuriating feeling of inability to improve. Especially when sniping, the accuracy stat can prevent you from making the perfect shot. This statistic is successful when balancing automatic weapons, but any semi auto or bolt action weapon becomes frustrating to use with anything less than a 95 percent accuracy stat.

On top of the accuracy shot causing missing bullets, most moving targets require shots to be aimed ahead of the enemy’s position for any chance of impact. The possibility of this being due to server issues is unlikely as it continued to persist even when playing in offline mode. The chances of this being a deliberate design choice is also scarce as there seemed to be an equal amount of tracking no matter how far or close the enemy is. Therefore it appears to be yet another issue with this version of the game.

Borderlands also has a sensitivity setting which ranges from 0-100, however it will only let you choose on increments of 10. This usually wouldn’t be too much of an issue, however where I am used to playing anywhere from 5/10 - 7.5/10 in most games, on Borderlands I had to play on 20/100 which was still too sensitive. Perhaps a 15/100 would have suited me better, however due to the increments of 10 I was unable to choose the perfect sensitivity. Although this shouldn’t be too much of an issue, what is really troublesome, is that this is using one of the lowest sensitivity settings available.

Most of the combat simply boils down to cover shooting or running and hiding whilst taking shots when you are healthy and reloaded. There are no evasive manoeuvres such as dodging, or sliding, only a very floaty jump which can be alright for platforming, but doesn’t do too much in terms of attempting to maintain momentum and avoiding fire. Actual combat also consists of shooting the enemy and aiming for their weak spot, whether this is their head, or something else. Although this can be satisfying at times, it all begins to feel very much as though the expected approach is using teamwork within a squad to have one player draw fire, whilst the others unload into the enemies, especially when it comes to boss fights. As a team based video-game, this could work, however when playing solo (as I did), the combat can feel very unsatisfying at times, with there being a constant overwhelming feeling of either cheating the enemy or being blatantly incapable of defeating the enemy.

To break up the shooter segments, the developers decided to add vehicles into the game. They can be enjoyable to drive once you become accustomed to the controls, however even then, vehicle combat is barely bearable. Steering is controlled through the direction you aim, which means that when in vehicle combat, such as one of the main story boss battles, it is impossible to shoot at the enemy without driving directly at them, eating anything they shoot at you. In coop this wouldn’t be a problem since a teammate can sit in the back gunner seat and shoot in any direction whilst you drive. Somehow, the developers didn’t consider what a player would do if playing solo, creating one of the most frustrating experiences I had in this game, only worsened by the fact that you lose money every time you die, causing me to have nearly emptied out my entire bank account just to complete this mission.

Obviously, as a brainless looter shooter, the story normally takes a backseat, and Borderlands is no different. The narrative is completely missable, and none of the other gameplay elements really pushed you to want to know what was going on. Overall the plot feels like more of a reason to have you shoot things than anything else. It especially doesn't help that the story is given to you entirely through audio logs and voice channels which can be drowned out and overpowered by the sounds of some guns and combat. On the opposite end, if you don’t care for a story and just want to run and gun, Borderlands may be what you’re looking for.

If you desperately want to play this game, do not play the Game of the Year Enhanced Edition. On top of all the subjective issues plagued throughout the design of the original Borderlands game itself, this version has the luxury of including several objectively game breaking issues that require meddling in the files of your computer just for a chance of them to be mitigated. Safe to say this version was not at all optimised as my research shows that many significant objective flaws are isolated to the “Enhanced” version of the game (regardless of the hardware you run it on).

God of War Ragnarok is a master of spectacle and storytelling, creating some of the best narrative and fantasy sequences in media. This however does mean that certain gameplay elements and sections can become negatively impacted by this narrative focus, even if few and far between. Particular design decisions can also take some getting used to, especially for gamers transitioning over from other titles.

The story of God of War Ragnarok, tells a personal story between a father and son, and shows their journey into a new stage of their relationship. It directs slightly more attention towards spectacle than its 2018 predecessor, whilst still being among the best narratives told in the video game media. After the MCU’s enormous stamp on modern pop culture subjected everybody to their version of the Norse mythology, it is both refreshing and exciting to see Santa Monica Studio’s take on the mythos, especially with their twist of a world without Loki.

Due to the direction of the narrative, there are sections which include altered gameplay mechanics. These temporary mechanics do a decent job at creating an enjoyable gameplay experience, but never come close to matching the in-depth and satisfying variety given through Kratos’ main weapons. To criticise these sections for this is not so simple though, as the narrative storytelling would be significantly worsened with their removal.

From the puzzles, and exploration, to the endless possibilities within combat, God of War Ragnarok is engaging and enjoyable throughout its entire runtime. Despite this, the combat can be overwhelming to players unacquainted with the modern God of War mechanics. This newest title also tries to include an additional level of complexity and variety through parries, and unblockable attacks. To those not yet accustomed to the fast paced combat, keeping track of every enemy is hard enough as it is. For these people, the tight camera angle can create a claustrophobic environment where it is difficult to see when enemies are behind you, let alone if they are about to do an unparryable or unblockable attack. Safe to say, this is not a game you can just breeze through mindlessly, and if this is your intention, then you best be prepared to lower the difficulty to its easiest setting. Once players begin to understand the intricacies of combat however, the floodgates open to a world of immense possibilities with several levels of mastery for each individual mechanic, each rewarded with extra buffs to help you further decimate your foes.

The Valhalla DLC presents itself as a brilliant epilogue to Ragnarok, bringing further conclusion to several characters and story lines, whilst also providing hints and questions about what is to come next, and it does this all for free. Although taking the intricate and in depth combat of the main game and turning it into a Rogue-like action game was never something requested by the fans, it is the perfect combination of satisfying and engaging. Every run ends only with the desire to continue forward and improve, with the game constantly incentivising you to play differently through run specific upgrades to particular weapons or attacks. Once again, in addition to the impeccable gameplay, Santa Monica Studios manages to tell yet another deeply personal tale throughout the DLC. Twists and reveals keep the engagement over the spectacle in this smaller scale cap to the overarching story told over the newer generation of God of War titles.

This game is a definite must play for anybody who enjoys action/adventure games, and/or emotional and engaging narratives within the video game media. Sony has once again knocked it out of the park with this latest exclusive from Santa Monica who continues to deliver stories and gameplay on par with other first party giants such as Naughty Dog and Insomniac.

This game is great, the perfect marriage of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Sunset Overdrive.

Although Rollerdrome may initially feel basic and simple, the difficulty quickly ramps up as you unlock more stages.

The introduction of extra enemy varieties can be overwhelming, but as you begin to understand the mechanics and techniques best suited for each enemy, the game becomes a symphony of focused movement where you start completing all the challenges you once thought were impossible.

Rollerdrome consists of a campaign with eleven different locations, with new enemy varieties and weapons becoming available the further through the courses you progress. Each of these courses come with its own checklist of objectives to complete, which is briefly used to level gate courses, however you shouldn't need to replay too many courses to get through the main campaign.

Instead, these objectives provide an incentive to replay past courses once you complete the main story, aiming for top scores, and doing specific tricks or challenges. This is appreciated, as upon completing the main campaign (finishing each of the courses a single time) my enjoyment was slightly dampened by my desire to play more.

The developers however, took this into consideration by creating an entirely separate second campaign called Out For Blood. In Out For Blood, every enemy type and weapon is in play from the very first course, making each arena feel fresh. The enemy damage is also increased, causing a significant difficulty jump from the final course of the main campaign.