Ryse is weird (its never really said why they spell it with the Y). Basically you play Marius (?) a Roman Soldier who is basically nothing like what a real roman would have been, nor is his world anything like Rome either. But sometimes it gets so silly its hard not to have fun. It's a good short length clocking in at under 6 hours, but by gosh that can feel long with the same pretty basic combat system. It's alot of fun slicing barbarians but you really are just pushing buttons in QTEs over and over. Still for Rome enthusiasts its a short sharp bit of fun that looks really nice and is worth the small time investment for the relative historically inaccurate chuckles and fun action!

Squadrons is a good, but very slender, game. The Campaign itself is passable with some fun cameos from the wider Star Wars universe but the missions essentially training you for the multiplayer and while you can talk to your squadmates the campaign is not truly crafted for you to actually feel like you're a part of them. The gameplay is first person only (which I don't love as I like third person flying better) and you get a kind of sim-lite version of the controls which is cool and adds depth but...it doesn't really hold up the mission design being a little bland. The VR aspect is REALLY cool if you can get it set up and afford the tech (Thanks to Gary for lending me his) but it also can give you a headache! The multiplayer aspect is fun but you really need a good squad to play with. For those looking for a good Single Player Star Wars fighter experience I can still recommend Rogue Squadron on Steam for $5 as a better time. It's got better missions, better music, and you play AS Wedge! Plus it has a lot of fun cheats!

The Last of Us Part II is one hell of a game. From a technical standpoint the game is nearly flawless (though we should always push back against the crunch that was used to make it). Still, Naughty Dog's insanely well made sneak/action/scavange cycle is mouth watering perfection and each encounter allows you total freedom to approach it whilst always keeping you on the edge of your seat. Marrying it almost perfectly (though maybe not as much as the first) with the story is the great strength of the game and you really do feel harried and desperate without it ever feeling unfair. Any mistakes here are yours, and it's up to you to be smart about what resources you are using and how you spend your upgrades. Graphically stunning and mechanically as perfect as any game since MGS V.

Of course the story of The Last of Us Part II is one that hits hard. Again, it didn't quite reach the heights of the original (what could?) but it basically got me to the point of feeling like a terrible person for what I was doing to enemies as well as bringing me to tears at the end, exhausted from all the violence and pain and suffering. The psychologies of the characters in The Last of Us Part II are deep and rich and by the end you'll marvel at the characters the game has created. That's to say nothing for the progressive casting of characters in the game (racially, gender, and sexual identity diverse) and the grace with which the game handles them.

The best thing about this game is the way it marries interactivity with story. So, so, so few games really manage this significantly - the original The Last of Us, Spec Ops: The Line, Death Stranding, and the Metal Gear Solid series are the only ones I can think of that really push the envelope in using the interactive nature of the medium to tell the story and communicate things in a way that only games can tell. The Last of Us 2 is a masterwork of this and fore that it receives a full score and the highest praise I can give.

An extremely solid and wonderfully cheerful game. Taking place on an Island that Link awakens on you must go through 8 dungeons and defeat the nightmares within to wake the Wind Fish. Filled with typical Zelda charm and puzzling just refined to a delightful degree. A remake of the classic Gameboy game, this Switch version looks gorgeous and toyetic and a full orchestral score makes it a delight to look at as well as hear (and boy of course we get to hear the classic theme). The dungeons and challenges are just challenging enough but not ever too hard or unfair. This felt like a breath of fresh air - a perfect game to unwind too, and irrepressibly fun; classic Nintendo.

The sequel to a game I played, Titanfall 2 improves this by adding an actual single player campaign. As I am an Old Man I cannot play snap shooting fast moving FPS in multiplayer (this old bones can only do arcade shooters like Halo, don't even ask me about fortnite) so I was keen to jump into the Single Player Campaign! And it was really fun! A surprisingly compelling campaign it is too, and although the story is pretty meh the fun central characters and really innovative level design were a blast. There was alot of cool inventiveness, and the Cause and Effect level where you play with TIMETRAVEL was awesome. The campaign was almost too short, but it didn't outstay its welcome. I can't tell you what the multiplayer was like because...like I said, I'm an old man. Overall I can heartily recommend Titanfall 2 if you want some FPS goodness, and one that isn't too short either. Plus - I had no idea this and Apex Legends are set in the same universe. Here's hoping Respawn gets time to make a third with a nice beefy single player.

This game was the first I have 100%ed in a long long time, so that should tell you something about the quality of the game. Featuring what would be one of my favourite versions of Peter Parker and telling a refreshing and moving story that benefited from the game's interactivity, Spider-Man was a total joy to play. The fact that it also had brilliant gameplay boosted the whole affair, a good story can help a game a long but when it's as fun to play as this one was it really is great how well it all comes together, I had such a great time with all the characters and I can't wait to return with Miles Morales on PS5. The DLC was not too bad either, more of what you like, if you will. Not mind blowing but worth it if you really liked the game. Overall this game was pretty great and I probably put something like 50 hours into it. Awesome stuff, 'nuff said!

This sold a lot of copies so you probably don't need me to tell you how good it is!

Bullestorm is a game I last played on Steam in 2012 for 7.5 hours. It was kind of memorable and I always meant to get back to it, but I had the Full Clip Edition through PS+ so I thought, why not clear it from the backlog. Well I'm not sure how much I actually played the first go round, but I've probably now played enough Bulletstorm for the rest of my life. Basically the hook of Bulletstorm is you do wildly over the top kills and get creative to score points. This was pretty fun and definitely has the hallmarks of Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski all over it, and I quite enjoyed trying to get all the skill shots, etc even if some of the controls were a little 2011. The not good of this game is that it can get a little stale after a while, even with all the variety, and also the script. My god. I'm not sure if it's meant to be a parody of edgy but WOW. Some of it is legit funny and talented voice actors Steven Blum and Jennifer Hale manage to pull of a few feats making sound half palatable. But racial, ableist, sexist, misogynistic slurs...even done "ironically" are still slurs and in the context of this game it's just too much; you could have achieved the same effect with better writing. That and the game trying to be SO edgy but also mix in a story about redemption etc, it really just doesn't land. Bullestorm is worth checking out if you want a different flavour of shooter and a curio from days gone, but you'll also have to check out your brain as well.

Episode 1 Racer is a game that my brother and I played a lot as kids, and I was really keen to revisit it as a break while playing Bloodborne. I was also interested to see how the game held up difficulty wise, and how my racing skills held up. Well, I'm going to put it down to half the Nintendo controller being nuts and half me being older and learned all the courses by muscle memory because I won first place in every race first time, apart from that one course that if you fall off the top track it makes you lose because the bottom track sends you on a super long way round (real ones know what I mean). The racing is pretty great though, the pods respond really well and feel fast and dangerous. The music samples of Episode 1 are also pretty stellar too. But it was still alot of fun blasting through courses as Anakin and actually paying attention to my parts this time rather than just winging it like I did back in the day. The racing is pretty intense and I did feel it was a testament to my skill that I won, as you basically can make 2-3 crashes a course at maximum without losing the prized first place. Definitely a game I'm glad to have replayed and now have all the courses unlocked for the next Boys Night (tm).

Bloodborne doesn't really need my endorsement to be known as one of the greatest games of all time. Still, I'm happy to add my voice to the choir. A truly stunning achievement, Bloodborne is both accessible and tough managing to train players so that each obstacle overcome feels like a true achievement. If someone is kicking your ass you either have to get better or think smarter (in terms of either levelling up or fighting). Ooozing lovecraftian atmosphere meets Victorian horror, Bloodborne's aeshetic is iconic and a (creepy) pleasure to spend time with. The lore is just right with more you can dig into online if you like, or slowly piece together the chilling story of Yarnham. Most importantly, this game makes you feel like a true hard badass. Very few games I go back and replay but I could easily see my self going back to Bloodborne, I sunk 50 hours into this in the end and I loved mostly every minute.

If you own a PS4 you must play this game. Don't worry about the difficulty, you'll get through it. A true hunter is never alone.

Life is Strange had alot of good reviews from friends and game critics alike but boy, I couldn't make it more than 5 minutes into the game's 4th episode. Sorry LiS.

Following Max - a teen girl who can rewind time - Life is Strange is an adventure game that seeks to have real impact on the world it exists in and present you with classic forking choices. This is done pretty well along the way and the time travel mechanic is neat. The idea, on paper, is not inherently bad.

That being said - the characters. The characters feel written by the idea of what someone who thinks teenagers talk and act like, without actually knowing. It was hard for me to find stuff here that hasn't been done with other teen characters but better and the time travel gimmic really didn't offer much insight into the characters until...well in ep 4 (spoilers) Max's choices in time altering put someone in a wheel chair in the present day. The way this was handled was just...pretty dang ableist (imagine the worst thing in the world - being in a wheelchair and disabled! /s) and also just felt extremely cheap. I was done with the game at that point and though I read the ending and I can see, again on paper, how it should work but for me I didn't care about any of the characters for it to matter.

I bought this game cheap both on steam and playstation store, so let this be a lesson to be to not be sucked into hype machines.

Devil May Cry 1 - 7.5/10 Pretty amazing for its time, and holds up real nicely as a quick game even two decades later. It's not hard to see how such an instantly iconic game spawned such a classic series that we enjoy to this day. It is the perfect balance of wonderful 00s edge ("I should have been the one to fill your dark soul with light!!) and cool (Dante himself). Some of the fights felt cheap and while Dante has limited combat here compared to what he's going to get up to in the future the most of the boss fights are solid and feel great when beaten. Worth checking out to any game fan and a great game.

Devil May Cry 2 - 2/10 Technically functional but really is just a piece of trash. Boring boring boring and easy and boring. Probably one of the most unpleasant game experiences I've ever had, insulting on most levels, and so far divorced from anything that made the original great. Worth it just to see for yourself how hard it actually is to make a good DMC game.

Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening - 9.5/10 Challenging boss fights, a great story, character progression for dante, wonderful combat, tons of replayability, what's not to love? The gold standard for DMC that has yet to be bettered. DMC3 is the perfect balance of all the things that make DMC great, it throws 4+ combat styles for Dante, adds Dante's brother Vergil as your main rival, has Lady as the best female character, and just feels like an epic great story. The Metal Gear Solid 3 of the DMC series, a masterwork in its own genre.

orizon Zero Dawn is a great game. It features a cast of likeable characters led but our protagonist Aloy - a welcome refresh amongst so many male protagonists. Aloy kicks ass and takes names and she's just a great character to be and play as; she grows through the narrative but she's also always self assured. No damsels here!

The gameplay loop reminded me most of MGSV in that it's quite simple but also quite deep and just a lot of fun to interactive with and play. This is important as you spend the story uncovering the truth behind Zero Dawn, why there are robots everywhere, and what is the deal with the entire planet. Making this a fun story to experience that encourages exploration and player choice in terms of how you tackle most objectives means that HZD always makes you feel like a bad ass and you always have options. Some people have told me this game is hard to get into (and I get it child Aloy is terrifying) but once the game lets you find its footing and you're out in the big world it opens up beautifully. Hang on for those first 1-3 hours and you'll be loving it.

If I were to sum up HZD in two words it would be: Curated Skyrim. This is not only because of the pseudo medival setting and the HUD but because it really does give you the joy of exploring a world with a little light roleplaying but finely curated so every area of the world is packed with meaningful things to see and do. If Skyrim was a long ass TV show, HZD is a blockbuster film. I managed to clock about 50 or so hours which involved basically shadow platinuming the game (basically I could have platinumed it if I did a few hours of busy work which, no). I was definitely ready to end the game by the end but the engaging story, great characters, and endlessly addictive and enjoyable gameplay loop made it easy to reach that 50 hour mark. If you like Metal Gear Solid, Skyrim, RDR2, and all manner of other AAA open world games - if you're a fan of games in general - you can't afford to miss HZD.