Tarnished

After persevering through Dark Souls 3 and Sekiro I was finally ready to experience a FromSoft game with the community and the hype for Elden Ring was REAL that first week of this games release combined with all of my friends talking about it and playing it was fkn awesome.

I am just gonna get my negatives out. I must admit I was slightly disappointed with the choice to use Souls' combat style rather than Sekiro's or perhaps something new. I know there were new playstyles introduced but the overall feel was very similar. I don't have a problem with it hell I went for a dual wield fuck off sword build and it was awesome it's just this felt like a Dark Souls 4 rather than a brand new IP. Also the performance across every release is just not good under 60 FPS on every console besides PS4 version played in backwards compatibility on PS5 and terrible stuttering on any PC configuration. FromSoft are notorious for terrible optimisation and I wish they ironed it out. Lastly the quests are just fucked like I refuse to believe anyone is completing these without a tutorial.

Now the world, it's probably the best gaming has seen to date right, the best way that I can describe it is that it is just full of layers so many different levels, areas, heights, depth, secrets and it's seriously on a scale and quality that no other game has achieved yet. The exploration is similar to BOTW and some inspiration can be seen from it but it is seriously turned up to 1000.

The art direction is on another level too, beautifully realised environments with amazing vistas. The character designs across the world are elite and it all comes together across the different areas you encounter in the game.

FromSoft games are obviously known for their difficulty and I have seen many critiquing the balancing and I agree it can be terrible at times but due to the nature of the game you can always visit other areas to explore and get stronger before returning to previous fights that I wasn't able to beat. There are also methods of grinding runes to level up earlier which result in an easier time if that is your style.

Soundtrack is elite too and you feel like a badass during boss fights.

I wasn't a fan of Zero Dawn when I originally played it, the gameplay and story was awesome and built an amazing foundation but the interaction in cutscenes was so jarring that I ultimately wasn't impressed.

Forbidden West improves on almost everything the first game laid down. The character acting and cutscene presentation have been improved dramatically. The art design and lighting shines in this game resulting in a bewildering atmosphere and the amount of detail in the visuals makes this one of the prettiest games on PS5 to date. There are a variety of graphics settings and I highly recommend the 40 FPS fidelity mode if you have the tech. The gameplay is improved with a larger variety of weapons, movement tech and Aloy's arsenal was full of useful equipment that is all made use of during the battles with many different robot dinosaurs.

The game still suffers abit from Ubisoft syndrome, there are bunch of side quests and camps to take down but I wasn't too bothered from it during my playthrough it as Aloy's tools allow you to experiment in different ways to have a unique experience at every combat encounter.

Crafting and levelling your items through the use of robot parts is a huge part of this game and I find it very tedious as shooting parts of different enemies can become a grind as you wait for them to respawn after each farm but accessibility settings allow you to adjust every part of the difficulty which is a huge welcome so I was able to change a setting to drop all items from a specific enemy while also being able to adjust damage input and output from the enemies.

The story built on the awesome lore that the first game introduced and I thought the story was strong overall, the new characters are awesome as are the returning ones and every voice actor gave a great performance.

You get an extremely polished game here and if you missed it due to Elden Ring, I would highly recommend it!

The audio and visual experience here is PERFECTION a lot of storytelling through colours, music and things of that nature. GRIS does a lot of showing but not a lot of telling when it comes to it's story and I appreciate that A LOT it is refreshing and beautiful. The animation and art overall is literally flawless. In contrast the gameplay is so much worse, it is a 2D sidescroller with very limited platforming, nothing to write home about.

The overall experience is spectacular and it is not very long so the gameplay suffices, it is also not very expensive so definitely worth checking out if you've got some spare money during a sale.

Yes it is difficult but when it finally clicks after you've learnt the mechanics, enemy patterns and the most efficient paths to take you just feel like John Wick in the club scene from the first film and I swear the club level in SIFU just fkn hit for me man I loved it.

Only thing I didn't enjoy was the aging mechanic. I feel like the combat is just that good to the point where the developers could have solely focused on that, meaning all upgrades would be available from the beginning with a set amount of health/damage output from the beginning to end. This would result on the progression being tied directly to you beating the levels and developing your skill as you start to introduce more combos and mechanics to your gameplay, similar to a 2D fighting game as SIFU does offer a practice mode too.

Still an awesome game though and I do recommend.

The open world traversal of Dying Light is it's saving grace as everything else is just okay. The multiplayer experience with friends is a great time, running through the visual treat that is the open world. The progression of combat is imbalanced as when guns are unlocked there is then no reason to return to melee combat as the guns are just so much more effective. The night time chases were extremely exhilarating combined with the excellent movement just created a pocket sized burst of adrenaline that I always think about when I think of Dying Light.

Catherine is just such a unique experience. Combining puzzle solving, platforming and an engaging romance story that has ending influences depending on RPG choices made throughout the story, it is safe to say that there is no experience like Catherine out there. The characters and locations are superb, the art style is beautiful as Atlus' Shigenori Soejima continuously provides excellent character designs and Catherine is no exception. The story is stressful and intense as our main character finds himself in an INTERESTING love triangle that I think everyone should experience at least once. The music absolutely bangs to complement the gameplay and I think everybody should try this game atleast once. I do think it is abit difficult and while I managed to get through it in about 15 hours I had times where I was completely stuck for atleast an hour, there is a very easy secret mode that completely takes the challenge away if you are interested in experiencing the story and getting your own unique ending of like 10 different ones, meaning that you can still experience it without completely losing your patience.

FF7 remake's characters are what really brings this game together, I love the over the top anime dialogue that just works for games like this, the story was action packed and the cyberpunk themed Midgar is the perfect setting to complement the characters and their goals. The spectacle of the remake really made me appreciate the adventure I was going on, although the pace does slow to crawl from time to time. The visuals and cutscenes in particular were very impressive and were just a treat to look at. I also enjoyed the combat but wish it had more fluidity, I thought Tifa's fighting style was fluid and enjoyable and Cloud's was almost right there but characters like Barrett felt way too clumsy, I know that Barrett is a bigger guy and Cloud wields a huge sword but at that point just make it fluid who cares about physics haha. The music also just slaps while accompanying the epic moments throughout the story.

Was aboard the hype train, beautiful cyberpunk aesthetic being translated into one of the biggest open world games ever, a true next gen experience was being marketed towards us, we were ready. BUT we were all ultimately disappointed when the game released. The gamebreaking bugs, glitches and terrible performance, the cut content all of this can not go unnoticed, it fucking blowed. I came back after patch 1.2 swallowed my pride and played the game at low settings 30FPS, it sucked but I had a great time, majority of the bugs are fixed the game actually works now and my playthrough was smooth sailing. Underneath everything you have a game with excellent characters and stories, honestly loved every single character and they were so memorable, highlights being Jackie, Johnny, Rogue, Panam and Judy for me. Gunplay is super solid, I loved how gory everything was like you can blow holes in people, crazy. RPG elements are pretty good, good variety of weapons, clothes (didn't like armor ratings being tied to certain clothing), cyberware that really open up the game, etc. If you are running a RTX card play this game just for the visuals because they are amazing! And with DLSS you can achieve good framerates too. Night City is breathtaking I really think it's one of the most visually appealing worlds ever made, it invites you to explore it with it's verticality but when you do there isn't much to actually see. Also gotta mention the voice acting and performance from not only Keanu Reeves, but the whole cast it really brings everyone to life. Main story is excellent. I think in a few years we will look back at this game when more patches come out and think damn that was fucking awesome.