The last few games you beat and rate them 5

[Ceremony]

​

Anthem (PS4, 2019)

When I bought my PS4 in 2017 it was around a year before I started playing it regularly. I still had some PS3 games to finish. Through 2018 and probably a year or two prior to that I had slowly amassed a decent collection of games for when the time to switch finally came. PlayStation Plus games made up a large amount, but I checked the sales regularly and picked up things that looked interesting. For that first year or so I was mainly finishing games on PS3, I think I only really played Gran Turismo Sport and Rocket League on the PS4 before making the full switch over to the new generation.

I felt like I was making up for lost time with Rocket League in particular. I played the original version, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, on PS3 and adored it, even if it felt like I was the only person who knew it existed. If you've never played it, imagine Rocket League with constant screen tearing, horrible collision physics, 20fps and actual good quality bots which you can only play with in pre-specified modes. I've played Rocket League regularly since then, alongside everything else I've played. Its nature makes it easy to dip in and out of for a few games at a time, and while I improved a lot over a period of what you can probably count as years I never really felt like I committed a significant amount of time to it.

In saying this, a lot of the time when I was playing I would feel guilt that I wasn't playing something else from the backlog. I was playing something that effectively wasn't achieving or finishing or completing anything. I played a match and it was largely inconsequential outside of the five or so minutes I spent on it.

One of the downsides to the free games I had access to through PS Plus from 2012 to about 2016 was that there were too many of them. I felt overwhelmed by an obligation to play all of them. There were times where this worked out and I played something I loved but would otherwise never have heard of or considered, and that's great. But as anyone with a self-declared backlog will tell you, the sense of having more video games to play than time to play them in isn't enjoyable.

I don't think there was a specific point where I made the conscious decision to change the way I approached things then, but I did and it was unquestionably a good thing. I don't need to play all of these. I ditched some things I had spent years assuming I would get around to. I even didn't bother redeeming free PS Plus games for PS4 because I thought that I would change the way I played games and the amount of time I spent on them and I might achieve something worthwhile and fulfilling with life outside of my room and my TV and sorry I'm rambling a bit here. The point is, I went from having a PS3 backlog, to realising I didn't need to have a PS3 backlog, to giving myself a PS4 backlog.

I had a PS4 backlog and what was I doing? Putting on Rocket League almost out of habit, absentmindedly spending an hour or so here or there when I could be doing other things. Did I enjoy playing Rocket League? Yes. Am I still playing it nearly seven years later? Yes, but my timing is shot and I think the collective level of skill has increased because my ranks have gone down but my opponents are better than they've ever been. Why, then did I so often feel like I should have been spending that time elsewhere? It almost didn't feel real. It was like I felt guilty for playing one game at the expense of several dozen others. Not anxiety, not anything else, actual literal guilt that I was choosing how to spend my time on things I enjoyed and things I wanted to do.

According to PSNProfiles there are 405 games on my profile, dating back to November 2008 when trophies were first introduced. There are 177 PS3 games, 190 PS4 games and 38 "multiplatform" games which can be played on multiple systems. There are a few discrepancies with these numbers. Some are PS Plus games I played a long time ago for a few minutes, unlocking one trophy then never touching again. These are mostly PS3 games. Oh let's not talk about the time I redownloaded LittleBigPlanet 2 because I'd done that, or the time I bought a PlayStation Eye camera to get the platinum in Burnout Paradise. Some of those games are also ones on my system I've technically not started yet.

In addition to the 190 PS4 games there the spreadsheet I keep with all the games I have and their time/difficulty estimates currently has around 130 games on it, although I've not updated it since January. I also think if I were to go through that right now you could count out at least half of it, so don't look at that as another 130 games that I 'intend' to get around to.

Whichever way you look at this, I play a lot of games. And even in the time I do, a lot of the time I'm still thinking of what I can play next. Very often I never do. In the past month I've been certain that I'm going to start the Crash Bandicoot trilogy, or download Metro Exodus, or try Vanquish again on PS4. I've wanted to play Days Gone for years. What's the deal with Subnautica? In reality I think my next game is going to be none of these things, because there's still stuff on my profile I need to clean up first. I want to get the Trackmania platinum before my subscription runs out at the end of May. I've been trying not have multiple games on the go at once and to go back and clean up things I've got bored/frustrated with in the past and finish them. I've been getting better with it. I suppose I'm not really free of that, even if I try my best to convince myself I am, or even if I actually do make progress and bring the numbers down to the levels I'd like them to be, while actually enjoying what I'm playing.

Over the past months I've had videos in my youtube recommendations I've not watched with titles like Why Isn't Gaming Fun Anymore? and How To Beat Your Backlog and, really, I think it's a very strange mindset to have for what is effectively a hobby. Is it healthy to effectively stockpile things you tell yourself you want for the future, without making any actual plans to get around to them? Is it sustainable, when there are endless sales and services which offer access to a set group of games at a given time? Is it necessary, even? I don't think it's a healthy thing to wilfully overwhelm yourself like this, or at least to feel as if you're overwhelming yourself. Looking at the amount of games I've played and finished since that PS3 to PS4 switch, by any measure it's a lot of time spent and a lot of games finished. I've played more PS4 games in a smaller space of time than I spent with the PS3. Yet looking at the numbers, to me there's still a lot of things I want to do.

I don't consider myself a completionist, but if I were to talk about video games with someone in real life and tell them how I play games and how many games I play they'd say I am. They'd say I'm nuts as well. Yet I know there are people who play a lot more than I do, and play just as many substantial games within that rather than purely the sort of number padding ezpz nonsense that's so prevalent now. I don't know what I'm writing about any more here, but what is the point? What's the point in playing and fully(-ish) completing games if there's a feeling that there's just as much still to come when I'm done? Will I ever be done?

In January this year I paid £1.59 for Anthem. Anthem is one of the most contentious video games in history, with a protracted development which was ruined by its publisher half-heartedly (or completely ignorantly) trying to get into a market they and the developer they used were completely unsuited for. I spent around 60 hours with it. It was a load of boring shite. Avoid.

 

[SimGrindcore]

Control - 7.5/10

What a weird and somewhat hard but fun game!

This game doesn't "take you by the hand" as there is no quest marker in the HUD so you have to figure out how to get to the objectives. Also, you have to manually unlock fast travel points. Sometimes it can be hard to navigate the map with the different level floors that are not really visible on the map.

You unlock cool abilities along the way and you can upgrade them in a skill tree. All weapons are on a cooldown but have infinite ammo.

There are some weird puzzle parts in a motel which I needed to check out on Google because I had no clue what to do.

The game can be pretty hard at time as there is no difficulty settings. But you can go in the settings and activate some options to help you along the way like auto aim and stuff like that.

I had fun overall. This was my 1st Remedy game and I look forward to try Quantum Break and Alan Wake.

 

[Unholy Diver]

Robocop Rogue City - 8/10

Great homage to the original Robocop movies, it felt gritty and rough around the edges, and would have fit right in with the first 2 movies, game was semi-open world, with a small neighborhood map where most of the action takes place, recommended for fans of the Peter Weller films

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Showgunners - 9/10

I absolutely loved this game. It's a turn based tactics game pretty much identical to the XCOM games. It's more like XCOM Chimera Squad where each battle is smaller and more focused in a smaller arena. The theme takes place in a game show that is focused around violence and murder which I always found a fun twist that not many games take on.

The combat is exactly what you'd expect if you've played XCOM. Each character has their own abilities and guns to feel fresh. You'll also progress and unlock new abilities for each character so while playing with a select cast, each level still feels like you're progressing even if you focus on the same couple of characters.

The interesting thing with this one is you explore the world in a sort of blend between isometric and third person camera between battles. While doing so, you'll run into some basic puzzles or explore for hidden collectibles. That part may not be for everyone but I really enjoyed it, it was a nice change of pace between battles.

This is a great turn based tactics game. If you like XCOM and want something new, you should absolutely give this a go. It's a bit less complex than XCOM so even if you're new to the genre, I'd still recommend this game. It's an absolute blast that I hope can lead to a sequel. I'll definitely be trying anything else this dev team puts out!

 

[SimGrindcore]

Robocop Rogue City - 8/10

Great homage to the original Robocop movies, it felt gritty and rough around the edges, and would have fit right in with the first 2 movies, game was semi-open world, with a small neighborhood map where most of the action takes place, recommended for fans of the Peter Weller films

I wish this was available on my Xbox One X

 

[Osprey]

A week ago, I finished the System Shock remake and really enjoyed it, but struggled with what I was supposed to do next and had to google for a lot of answers. I was also too conservative with my ammo use and barely used the more powerful weapons because I was saving their ammo for the end game (unnecessarily, as it turned out). Both of those things disappointed me a little, so I immediately played through it again (something that I never do), but this time on the hardest difficulty. I might've enjoyed it even more the second time, since I now understood the mission design and paid closer attention to the audio logs. I finished it in half the time because I knew what my objectives were and the 10-hour time limit imposed by the hardest difficulty forced me to focus on them and be fast. I also used the more powerful weapons more often, which was fun. All in all, the second playthrough felt different and was more satisfying. It's really a superb game and remake. Nightdive hit it out of the park.

 

[SimGrindcore]

TMNT: Shredder's revenge - 7.5/10

I realized I had Game Pass Core. I tried this nice little beat'em up game over the weekend.

Reminded me of the Classic TMNT NES/SNES games mixed with Streets of Rage and the classic Sonic games' bosses. The map layout has Super Mario 3/Super Mario World vibes.

I enjoyed it a lot as I was a big Streets of Rage/Golden Axe fan as a kid on my Genesis. Took less than 7 hours playing the 16 stages casually + finding all collectibles and popping almost all achievements.
I couldn't find any multiplayer games for the online achievements.

Sometimes, you just want to play a short and easy game for the nostalgia. This is this game purpose.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Evil West - 7/10
Evil West is good, it's not great, but it's good. The story is OK and some of the voice lines are rather corny. Vergil is supposed to be the comedic relief but the comedy wasn't good enough, he was just a bit annoing. The theme is what drew me in, you play as a cowboy fighting against demons and vampires. It's definitely a unique theme!

The gameplay is pretty solid. There are a lot of abilities you will be able to mix and match in every fight. There's a variety of enemies with their own strengths and weaknesses that you'll have to learn how to overcome. The combat is a little janky but can be really fun when you start to get into a rhythm and alternate between attacks. It feels really satisfying to punch a few times, blast your sawed off shotgun, stun them with your rod, punch some more, back away and shoot them in the head, all in one sequence. You're not limited to that combo, you can really take each fight as you see fit. That's definitely where the game shines. That being said, there can be some input delay, probably to make time for the animations, and sometimes, albeit not often, your action just won't seem to register. When this happens, it definitely sucks the fun out of the fight but fortunately heals can be plentiful if you aim for weak points and level up your healing abilities.

The main problem with the game is the fact that it can get really repetitive. The level design is practically non-existent. Every stage is just a different theme of run through this corridor until you reach a large empty room for an arena, rinse and repeat. There's practically zero exploration or choice in the game. It's completely on rails. As a result, it can absolutely drag you down a bit and make you want to stop.

That being said, I think the combat is engaging enough, even with its jank, that it was enjoyable enough to finish and see the end. It's a solid 7/10 title that mixes melee and ranged combat in a cowboy vs monster theme. I'd recommend at least giving it a shot. If you don't like it within the first couple hours, you won't like it at any point. Hell, even if you do like it, you may not want to finish it with how repetitive the level design is. However, if you really enjoy the combat, you'll have fun throughout.

 

[Osprey]

I read most of your review thinking that you were reviewing Blood West, which I played earlier this year and also happens to be a shooter in which you play as a cowboy fighting against monsters. I didn't realize that you were talking about a different game until you finally said that there's zero exploration and it's on rails, since that's the opposite of Blood West. I had to look it up to even remember the name of what I played. I repeatedly get Evil West, Blood West and Hard West confused.

 

[BobColesNasalCavity]

Metro Exodus on XBox 1

I know it’s a few years old, but I don’t play a lot and saw this on YouTube randomly and decided to try it.

I thought it was real good. I haven’t been that creeped out by a game. Had goosebumps quite a few times. 8/10? I’ll have to check out the rest of the Metro games

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I read most of your review thinking that you were reviewing Blood West, which I played earlier this year and also happens to be a shooter in which you play as a cowboy fighting against monsters. I didn't realize that you were talking about a different game until you finally said that there's zero exploration and it's on rails, since that's the opposite of Blood West. I had to look it up to even remember the name of what I played. I repeatedly get Evil West, Blood West and Hard West confused.

Don't forget Weird West! I've actually heard great things about that one, and it's on sale. My backlog is too long to be buying more games unless the deal is too good to not take.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Tyrant's Blessing - 8/10
This is a fun tactics game similar to Into the Breach. It plays a very similar style but the main difference is you leave a "shade" when you move. That shade could take damage. It will make you think a lot more than just where to attack, you'll want to make enemies move too.

The setting is more of a fantasy theme and you can power up each character. You'll be able to choose characters as you unlock achievements which I don't know how much I really like. I think it would be better to unlock an in game currency as you progress and use that to unlock new characters.

This is still a neat little game though if you're looking for a tactics game that is more puzzle focused like Into the Breach.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - 7.5/10

This is a pretty fun short but focused FPS game that focuses on arcade style game play. The gun play is good, all the enemies are kind of the same, and there's only a few guns in the game. However, that's all you should really expect from a game that will likely take you less than 4 hours to complete.

The story is really interesting and the main character is telling it in a saloon as you play through it. Every now and then there are some cool effects like the world changing around you as the main character recalls the story. It wraps up really nicely in the end as well.

My only real complaint is the showdown mode that is really janky. I feel like it was designed for a controller in mind but I played on keyboard and mouse where it just didn't feel good at all. It's still a pretty solid game that doesn't overstay its welcome though. I can see why people still talk about it 10 years later as more of a cult classic.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Mail Time - 6/10

Mail Time is quite literally a game about delivering mail. There are some light platforming mechanics here and you can glide as you can jump but it's hardly a platformer. It's really just a small little adventure where you speak with some animal friends and explore a small but focused world. You can 100% it in under 2 hours if that's the kind of thing you're into. If you want a cute little adventure about delivering mail, you'll be interested. If you want something else, don't waste your time here. It's pretty fun for what it is but it's certainly a niche genre for someone looking for a casual game.

 

[flyersnorth]

Mail Time - 6/10

Mail Time is quite literally a game about delivering mail. There are some light platforming mechanics here and you can glide as you can jump but it's hardly a platformer. It's really just a small little adventure where you speak with some animal friends and explore a small but focused world. You can 100% it in under 2 hours if that's the kind of thing you're into. If you want a cute little adventure about delivering mail, you'll be interested. If you want something else, don't waste your time here. It's pretty fun for what it is but it's certainly a niche genre for someone looking for a casual game.

Haha, I haven't played it, but the description instantly brings back memories of Paperboy from like the mid 80s.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Nah, Paperboy is a classic! There's actually skill involved in avoiding the obstacles and throwing papers accurately. Mail Time just really holds your hand. I got it in the AGDQ Humble Bundle recently, I would never have played it otherwise.

It works for what it is but the game style just isn't for me. Just run from marker to marker until you finish it while reading some dialogue at every stop. Halfway through, I stopped even reading the dialogue and was pretty much mindlessly going through the motions while watching the Oilers-Canucks game.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Control - 7.5/10

What a weird and somewhat hard but fun game!

This game doesn't "take you by the hand" as there is no quest marker in the HUD so you have to figure out how to get to the objectives. Also, you have to manually unlock fast travel points. Sometimes it can be hard to navigate the map with the different level floors that are not really visible on the map.

You unlock cool abilities along the way and you can upgrade them in a skill tree. All weapons are on a cooldown but have infinite ammo.

There are some weird puzzle parts in a motel which I needed to check out on Google because I had no clue what to do.

The game can be pretty hard at time as there is no difficulty settings. But you can go in the settings and activate some options to help you along the way like auto aim and stuff like that.

I had fun overall. This was my 1st Remedy game and I look forward to try Quantum Break and Alan Wake.

I just finished Control, really enjoyed it, but yes it can be a pain in the ass to figure out where to go.

 

[SimGrindcore]

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - 7.5/10

This is a pretty fun short but focused FPS game that focuses on arcade style game play. The gun play is good, all the enemies are kind of the same, and there's only a few guns in the game. However, that's all you should really expect from a game that will likely take you less than 4 hours to complete.

The story is really interesting and the main character is telling it in a saloon as you play through it. Every now and then there are some cool effects like the world changing around you as the main character recalls the story. It wraps up really nicely in the end as well.

My only real complaint is the showdown mode that is really janky. I feel like it was designed for a controller in mind but I played on keyboard and mouse where it just didn't feel good at all. It's still a pretty solid game that doesn't overstay its welcome though. I can see why people still talk about it 10 years later as more of a cult classic.

Because of this post, I started this game last night as it was on my digital backlog. The selling point was the 4 hours to complete. I love long open world games but sometime I just crave for a nice shorter game.

I completed the first 2 missions and I really like the storytelling at the saloon in between the missions and through the "nuggets of truth" collectibles. These set straight the wild west events and people who lived thos events. Gunplay is kinda satisfying but sometimes it's had to spot shooters from afar.

The part I like the least is the showdown mechanic. It seems a little too random for my taste.

 

[Ceremony]

​

Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier (PS4, 2024 - originally PSP, 2009)
I own three Game Boys. A Game Boy Color, a Game Boy Advance and a Game Boy Advance SP. I played these all regularly over the years I had them. As time went on I gradually shifted to playing full console versions of games rather than a handheld equivalent, but there was still occasion to play and really get something out of the games I had for these handhelds. There's a chance I'm just thinking of Pokemon and extending that to any other thing I might have played on them, but I definitely remember them being a significant part of my early gaming life.

I got a PSP when they were released in 2005. I remember trying to crack open the plastic case the discs were in because I didn't realise how they were supposed to work. My abiding memories of games on this platform are WipEout, Ridge Racer, NHL 07 and buying Final Fantasies 1 through 8 and getting about a quarter of the way through the first one and never touching them again. I also remember using my neighbour's wifi to do the sort of browsing an unsupervised 13 year old would do. Ah, youth.

Once it became apparent that digital distribution was the way forward for games I remember buying two games from the store - Gran Turismo and Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier. Looking back at the amount of content in Gran Turismo, the fact they managed to release it on a platform like that is remarkable. Looking back on The Lost Frontier and comparing it to my experience playing it now, I think I played it for about five minutes and then never went back to it.

Happily, because I bought it all those years ago on PSP, PlayStation decided that this entitled me to the rereleased versions on PS4 and PS5, without having to buy them anew or sign up to one of their hilariously overpriced PlayStation Plus subscriptions. It's rare that me managing to overpay for something video game related ever pays off, but I've managed it here so that's nice.

The Lost Frontier is the only Jak and Daxter game to not be fully made by Naughty Dog. Apparently they were too busy making the first Uncharted game, so we can add another victim to Nathan Drake's list of crimes against humanity. Set some time after the events of previous games, Jak, Daxter and Keira are... somewhere. And Eco is running out.

I'm writing this quite a while after actually playing the game but the plot was very, very thin even as I was playing it. Perhaps the game's biggest problem is shifting from the distinctive locations of the original trilogy to an entirely new setting. The game's story passes through five separate locations which you can also fast travel between, and there's little in any of them to really immerse you in. I feel as if I could talk about this game and write "this can be excused because it's a handheld game" but is it, really? If your game does end up lacking because of a clash between its scale and the capabilities of what it's being played on, does that absolve any issues? Am I just missing the satisfying sound effects that come from walking on giant piles of Precursor crap?

Gameplay is your standard Jak platforming/melee/shooting mixture. Each world also has an open, flying vehicle area with side-quests, collectibles, combat and races to participate in. These are enjoyable enough, but again there's very little variety between each of them. There is quite a substantial amount of variety in the ships and upgrades you can unlock though, so there's enough to provide a sense of variety in control, even if the things you do with them are ultimately quite repetitive.

On-foot gameplay sees probably the biggest additions to gameplay, which come with positives and negatives. Coloured Eco returns for the first time since The Precursor Legacy, with Jak unlocking new powers as you progress. Some of these are contextual like creating a platform you have to use before it disappears, some can be used in combat any time like making a shield or slowing down time. While there is strong variety here, there's almost too much. Some powers will only ever be used once or twice. Some might sound like a good idea like the shield, but actually coordinating the buttons to use them will confuse you and slow you down, making it more likely you'll be hit by enemies.

Remember that this is a port of a game from a platform which had fewer buttons than the one I'm playing on now, so switching between weapons and powers with the d-pad will, and does, lead to several cases of using the wrong thing and having to stand there as something hits you over and over while you eventually scroll through to the right weapon or ability.

I should also add here that since it only had one stick, camera control with the PSP was usually with the shoulder buttons. Not only did I never get used to this, but I'd almost always press the wrong button and rotate the camera in the opposite direction to what I wanted. And not only that, but I discovered about an hour before the end that there's an option added here that lets you change the camera to the right stick. Check for that if you're playing any PSP ports. Even with this in mind, aiming your guns feels very vague and it's never really a guarantee you'll aim it where you want to.

Characterisation has always been a strong point of Jak and Daxter games and this is largely still the case. Daxter is as brilliant as ever. Genuinely hilarious. There are sections (slightly tacked-on) where he transforms into a Dark Eco creature and gets all ugly and angry which add another layer to his character which is great. Jak and Keira are sort of... there, and even though Jak's usual voice actor was changed I, rather embarrassingly, didn't notice. The rest of the characters you encounter are largely all forgettable. As I've been typing this I think I've realised that any enjoyment I got from this game was about 99% residual appreciation for the familiar characters.

That said, there is still a simplicity to The Lost Frontier which I think anyone could appreciate. A game where you sit down for a period of 8-10 hours and experience a completely straightforward story, simple and intuitive gameplay and minimal external bullshit designed specifically to waste your time rather than provide anything thematically or mechanically satisfying. The game is lacking in areas - some due to the limitations of the format, some not - but ultimately I think I really needed to play this just to enjoy something simple and self-contained again.

All I need now is Daxter to be ported to PS4/5 and I'll have the complete set of Jak and Daxter games on my profile. Who says a creatively bereft, multi-billion dollar industry is at its worst when it's recycling itself?

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Hi-Fi Rush - 9/10
It's fascinating that Hi-Fi Rush is a story about taking down corporate overlords while sadly being taken down by the corporate overlords that own the development team.

This is basically a mix of a spectacle fighter and a rhythm game. The combat is very reminiscent of something along the likes of Devil May Cry or Bayonetta but focused on the rhythm of the music. The boss battles are all fun, none of the enemies feel cheap, you'll unlock fun abilities consistently as you progress. The combat is really solid.

However, what I really enjoyed the most is the Saturday morning cartoon vibes I got from this. The aesthetic is really well done. It truly looks like a cartoon all the way through from beginning to end whether it's cutscenes or gameplay. You never really see games with this style that consistently look this great throughout.

Furthermore, beyond just the aesthetic, the story and humor is great. I felt like a kid again playing this game and it was an absolute joy. I love the fact that they took some chances and tried to do some unique things and it absolutely paid off. There needs to be more games like this but sadly the corporate world of gaming hates innovation as evidence by the fact that there aren't many games like this and that the studio got shut down.

Hi-Fi Rush is a small look at what high budget gaming should look like if it wasn't run by investors. It's a shame we won't see more.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Patrick's Parabox - 9/10
Patrick's Parabox is a great puzzle game that throws new concepts at you while never really becoming overwhelming. Each world has a new mechanic that you are slowly introduced to and then slowly get grander and grander within each world. It's a puzzle game about recursion so it can be a bit mind bending but once you start figuring things out, it's really satisfying. This is a great puzzle game and if you're a fan of puzzle games, you should absolutely play this one!

 

[Osprey]

Patrick's Parabox - 9/10
Patrick's Parabox is a great puzzle game that throws new concepts at you while never really becoming overwhelming. Each world has a new mechanic that you are slowly introduced to and then slowly get grander and grander within each world. It's a puzzle game about recursion so it can be a bit mind bending but once you start figuring things out, it's really satisfying. This is a great puzzle game and if you're a fan of puzzle games, you should absolutely play this one!

I just played through the first few stages. That's a pretty cool and challenging puzzle game, like Sokoban, but with recursive twist. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Soedy]

Assassins Creed Rogue (PS5) - 8/10

I loved Black Flag and so I did love Rogue. While it feels like a glorified and massive DLC, the northern hemisphere is a nice shakeup from the carribean. I liked the length of the game and I am currently working on some extra like completely upgrading my ship, etc. Sea battles are a lot of fun. The combat is kinda lame though (old AC style) and there are some repetitive quests but overall I really enjoyed it.

 

[Jovavic]

Jedi Survivor - Pretty good despite the now normal "AAA multiplatform game runs like ass" the industry is going for now

 

[Beau Knows]

Animal Well - 10/10

A brilliant Metroidvania puzzle game. Fantastic art and sound. All from one developer, who even created the engine himself.

The game consistently hands you new tools for puzzles that have multiple uses, which aren't always immediately obvious. In a lot of these games you often kind of know what items/unlocks are around the corner based on the currently unsolvable puzzles you've come across and what you've seen in other games. But in this game it's always something surprising and creative.

I've played puzzle games where the "aha!" moments stop after the first few hours - you've found all the core mechanics and interactions and for the rest of the game you're just using them to solve increasingly more complex chains of those same interactions. Animal Well manages to have those "aha!" moments well after the credits roll. So besides the reward of having completed the puzzle, you want to keep going just to see what the next surprise the game has in store.

The game has several "layers", I completed the first two and made some progress into the third before deciding I'd gone about as far as I reasonably could without having to look up hints. I'm going to slowly take a stab at the rest of the layer 3 puzzles and see if I can complete them with some hints. But I think layer 2 is where the average player is meant to have "completed" the game on their own, beyond that it looks a community effort is needed. From what I understand there are still puzzles that haven't been solved by the community.