Herodotus
The second best Bond game, barring Nightfire.
Bring back Cate Archer, this was fantastic. Gadgets, guns, worldbuilding and very funny writing - I need it.
Alice is atmospheric, fantastic to look at and pretty fun to play. Managing to stash an updated version of the original game in here is worth an extra star by itself.
Such a shame this is where it ends.
Such a shame this is where it ends.
An alternative take on skating to contrast with the arcadey Tony Hawk series, Thrasher was a game I ended up enjoying for brief moments. There's one thing that really makes this game stand out compared to THPS - fleeing. I grew up in a city that didn't have skate-friendly architecture or parks at all. Skating wasn't really a subculture here, really. Bikes were the big hitter. Thrasher and THPS allowed me to pretend I was part of a world I'd see on television a lot which was nice enough, but unlike THPS, Thrasher showed the risk of it. The allure of being where you shouldn't be, doing what you shouldn't do? That was interesting, and it was even more interesting that there were consequences for it.
Unfortunately the rest of the game isn't quite as good. The feel of it is comparable to GTA3, oddly enough, but the actual gameplay is quite sluggish and hard to get a grip of.
I saw the most recent review by largebagofrocks, where they wrote "It gets closer to imitating the experience of IRL street skating by putting you into a similar frame of mind that figuring to how to skate a spot asks of you" and that got me thinking of a glorious cross between Mirror's Edge and Tony Hawk.
Somebody, make that a reality. I'd buy it.
Unfortunately the rest of the game isn't quite as good. The feel of it is comparable to GTA3, oddly enough, but the actual gameplay is quite sluggish and hard to get a grip of.
I saw the most recent review by largebagofrocks, where they wrote "It gets closer to imitating the experience of IRL street skating by putting you into a similar frame of mind that figuring to how to skate a spot asks of you" and that got me thinking of a glorious cross between Mirror's Edge and Tony Hawk.
Somebody, make that a reality. I'd buy it.
If I had a pound for every time a game released that featured a team with the acronym SCAT, I'd have three pounds - which isn't a lot, but it's odd to have happened thrice.
1991
Mega Drive version is better, I think.
2003
I'd tell Kamiya how much I love this on Twitter but I guarantee he'd block me immediately.
2001
A cheap cash grab with surprisingly high quality (animation wise, not compression) cutscenes. Arguably better advertisements for M&Ms than the crap they put on TV nowadays.
Shell Shocked is not good. The Minis are mentally sick in the head and it felt like I was too by the midpoint - I haven't finished this game. I can't do it. I won't do it. The physics are janky. The graphics are stilted and ugly to look at. The hit detection is dreadful; getting slightly too close to something without actually touching it kills you immediately. The collision accuracy is about on par with Stevie Wonder using a Tommy Gun.
It fails at being a mediocre Crash clone and doesn't even succeed at making me want M&Ms. No wonder the developers just made shovelware until they closed.
Arguably one of the worst things to have happened in September 2001.
Shell Shocked is not good. The Minis are mentally sick in the head and it felt like I was too by the midpoint - I haven't finished this game. I can't do it. I won't do it. The physics are janky. The graphics are stilted and ugly to look at. The hit detection is dreadful; getting slightly too close to something without actually touching it kills you immediately. The collision accuracy is about on par with Stevie Wonder using a Tommy Gun.
It fails at being a mediocre Crash clone and doesn't even succeed at making me want M&Ms. No wonder the developers just made shovelware until they closed.
Arguably one of the worst things to have happened in September 2001.
An early 2000s Sleeping Dogs, but worse in every conceivable way. Props go to the absolutely fucking insane plot, though.
A good, solid beat 'em up that doesn't outstay its welcome. Was pleased to see it released on 360 but over 30 years on and it's a little strange that it only ever got two modern ports.
Suicide Squad has some massive Bat-Boots to fill.
1991
One of the first games I remember playing properly - but the sequel is better in every way.
1990
Up there with Tetris as one of the most perfectly made bits of entertainment ever produced. Solitaire got me through countless dull lectures, constantly chasing the high score. Can you speedrun this? Has this ever been at SGDQ?
1985
I'd be the guy in the car trying to run this little shit down, that much I can tell you.
2020
Insufferably mediocre. Irritating characters, an ugly aesthetic, and gameplay so stripped back from its predecessors that you may as well be playing an entirely different series.
The plot is forgettable, with tired cliches and a sixth former's sense of political commentary awkwardly inserted between forced attempts at humour. Watch Dogs took itself too seriously. Watch Dogs 2 didn't often take itself seriously enough. This is a bizarre, Frankensteined bridge between the two and it never ever works in my opinion. I hate to refer to a game's dialogue as cringeworthy, but this really is some shite.
That said - the Legion idea is fascinating. Every NPC potentially being a playable character? The routine system? The permadeath mode? The actual city of London that's probably the most well-realised since The Getaway in 2002? Great ideas! Shame they're in Watch_Dogs: Legion. This might have killed the series, I reckon. I hope.
Seemed to pull a desperate nostalgia bait by bringing Aiden Pearce back for the DLC, but even he is a shadow of his former self. Funnily enough, I'm convinced that transplanting Aiden into London would have worked if the entire game were just like the original in terms of tone and gameplay.
The plot is forgettable, with tired cliches and a sixth former's sense of political commentary awkwardly inserted between forced attempts at humour. Watch Dogs took itself too seriously. Watch Dogs 2 didn't often take itself seriously enough. This is a bizarre, Frankensteined bridge between the two and it never ever works in my opinion. I hate to refer to a game's dialogue as cringeworthy, but this really is some shite.
That said - the Legion idea is fascinating. Every NPC potentially being a playable character? The routine system? The permadeath mode? The actual city of London that's probably the most well-realised since The Getaway in 2002? Great ideas! Shame they're in Watch_Dogs: Legion. This might have killed the series, I reckon. I hope.
Seemed to pull a desperate nostalgia bait by bringing Aiden Pearce back for the DLC, but even he is a shadow of his former self. Funnily enough, I'm convinced that transplanting Aiden into London would have worked if the entire game were just like the original in terms of tone and gameplay.