Dal_ReviewedDat

I never got into BR games before. I think the solo experience often felt as hollow as grinding through CoD to obtain prestige, only then to feel I can't be bothered to go round the clock again. Apex, somehow, has me hooked though. Perhaps it's the team play, each character having a few unique perks that can play well for others in the squad, or, perhaps its just that Apex is an incredibly polished game considering its free. I downloaded Apex within 24hrs of release "just to give it a go" and found myself squandering sleep to get one more round in. I started mic'd up and ready to chat, but found most people don't bother with mics at all, and whilst on most CoOp / team play games this would be a killer, Apex smoothly overcomes that with - what is - an epic means of communication by a simple 'ping' mechanism. It works so well, that I now only switch my mic on to congratulate our team on being the round Champions. Perhaps my love of Evolve and fact the community died long before my love of it did left a void of good team play FPS, and Apex has filled that void brilliantly. It's incredibly well balanced, no pay to win, and when you finish a round with 10 kills, be it 1st or 10th, you are rewarded for doing so. I don't feel I'm grinding levels to actually get anywhere, I'm just enjoying playing with random people and working alongside them to win. There's often frustration when you are teamed with people that quit on jumping in, or quit on the select menu (presumably as they've not got a 2nd character they wish to play as)... but these are easily forgotten as you start the next round, and a few times I've come top3 even starting with a 2 man disadvantage thanks to quitters. I've also used Facebook to gain more PSN friends and hook up with them when we're all on - a good idea if you want to make a solid squad, or prefer using mic to pinging (though if you don't learn to ping - then your dead meat anyhow really) Overall it's a solid 8.5/10. I think the User score of 6.9 is hilarious given people have given it Zero, for a free, very polished, very fun FPS with team mechanics, just because it's not some other game they play, or because it is BR. I do dislike other BR games, but it's less about the BR factor in Apex, it's more about headshots, reviving team mates and sticking together. If your considering downloading it, you've literally nothing other than 26GB to lose, do it and see for yourself - it's a fun game!

This is my first review at ZERO score. Here's why: I am a huge fan of the franchise. I got the game pre-order and cancelled during the Beta, because it was poor in both what I saw and not worth £60 when compared to Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2 which released within the month of 76, there's an epic void of quality between the two. Within 9 days 76 was on sale at half price. A reflection of its actual value. Make no mistake, this is not an original game, I've put in a good 40+ hrs and it's just a poor mans FO4. The AI is actually worst than FO4, honestly, it's really, really bad, and alone this beautiful yet empty world feels boring. With NPCs missing, the story is a fetch quest style Go To that only morons could possibly appreciate, logging in to a terminal to read and read then go to next place, pick up tape and listen and listen - it's all so hollow. Where are the characters... oh ...that's right "we are the NPCs" ...no, we're really not. In 40+ hrs my encounters have mostly been people running away from me, people waving and trying to give me free stuff, or me shooting people and them logging off / jumping to a new server. There's such poor PVP mechanics, that I wonder why they added it at all - and it's your fault, the solo players that whined when 76 was announced that they didn't want to be bothered by other players - well - they made a game so poor, such bad mechanics that if after a month of logging in your still going, you are alone as everyone else is bored mindless. Bethesda's desire to use such an old engine really shows when compared to other PS4 titles in 2018. The animations are 100% from FO4, the boss is from Skyrim, and they released this as a full price game. Bugs - seriously - from enemies appearing in walls, items causing crashes, workstations causing crashes and crashes just crashing - this is a total mess. I'm on PS Pro and it's ****. What Bethesda could have done: Released the game at £20 as 'early access'. Fixed bugs gradually. Added actual content. Not focused on a bizarre Atom store whereby you spend £20 for an emoji and santa hat. Released it with PVP or PVE servers for players. Let more people on a server. Given it a real story. Kept with lore from previous titles. Given it to another developer to make. Overall it really as bad as people say. I thought at half price I'd try it after completing RDR2, but I still want my £30 back. I got 9-10 months out of Ark online, and expected to get at least 2-3 out of 76, but it is so boring, so so boring. I've 68 PSN friends and 1 other played 76 - we hooked up once and had a fun evening - but that's because we have fun in any game, not because of 76. There's players out there trying to collect all the blueprints, trying to get higher level legendries - WHY ? Will a better gun make others want to pvp? Will having a new table type make the base building any more fun? No... your grinding your time out on a crap experience. I'd recommend ARK or any online PVP or even ESO over this ... Christ Besthesda, how could you do this to the franchise and not even openly apologise for it?

I picked up HZD in the sale for £15.99 - I expected a real treat, and I think at first I was really really impressed. The graphics on my Pro are stunning. Sound is excellent. Story is good. Game mechanics are great. Really enjoyed my first 20-30hrs. I don't know why, but towards the end of the story, I was losing interest, it felt I was doing the same thing over and over, and new weapons didn't keep coming to keep it interesting enough for me - that said, for £15.99 its a great game and one I've gone back to too mess about in a number of times

Having played Mafia 2 and not really having any fond memories of it - I got Mafia 3 on PS+ and added it to my library. 3 months later... Bored, I downloaded Mafia 3 to see what it was about. What I expected: Some bad driving mechanics, a cliché story line, a poor-mans GTAV. What I got: A really fun GTAV rip off with a story I really loved. The settings of 1960s America, the race riots and failed war on Vietnam, the anti communism racist Americans and playing as a black veteran, made for a really interesting set up, and from the first mission, you are on an excellent revenge story, slowly turning the knife on a mob boss who owns the city which is split between a handful of varied districts. There's a lot of duck-and-cover mechanics going on, and AI isn't the best, but it's relentlessly fun to play through. The limiting of ammo and weapons to begin with, made the first half of the game a pleasure as I was forced to grab guns from dead foes to get further in the ****. As games go, it's not terribly original, it's not anything you've not seen before, but regardless, when I watched the credits go after 50hrs of playing, I looked back and thought, that was pure fun. Don't listen to the negative reviews - if you can get this for £10 pre owned, its a fun as **** game to play through

Do you like making pretty looking or interesting structures? That's about all you'll get out of the vanilla game. When I read Sims4 was coming to PS4, I was pleased. When they said it'll feature all the modes as per the PC version, I was really pleased. Then I read the reviews on the console controls and I was a little put off. Overall though, it plays okay. Sometimes the building is glitchy and views are awkward to lay pieces where you want, but, overall I made a neighbourhood in about 20-30hrs which looked pretty cool, some massive flats and some traditional looking houses. My daughter plays the actual game with the Sims, she likes the role play and that's fair enough, I got bored very early on. It's not for me anymore. Why score a 5? I played the Sims1. I bought a few of the DLC packs and used to use the www.thesimexchange to download user made content onto my PC - it was fun (we're talking 15yrs ago or more) ... the Sims4 seems to have standard features from other games as DLC, like the garden stuff shoved into a DLC content pack, and even jobs as DLC. In fact, so much has been shoved into extra content, that to get ALL of the additional stuff for Sims4, at full price would cost OVER £350!!! That's the price of my PSPRO! No season pass to get them all. This is EA at its worst (and that really is a statement!!) Buyers beware - it's a fun for a few builds, but the cost of full content is an utter rip off and shameful

Other than being utterly beautiful, the Banner Saga ticks many of my strategy needs for the PS4. I'm a fan of turn based combat thanks to years of playing CiV games, and Xcom from PS3 /PS4 (Xcom2) ... what the Banner Saga adds to this is a story that actually does bend on constant decision making, which in my initial play though I found overwhelming and I was playing with constant regrets. I picked this up in sale at £3.99, which is an amazing price for what you're getting. I felt I could of picked up the trilogy in the sale, but wanted a try out first. I've been aware of this game for years, and was hoping it was very much as it is, so I'm not disappointed. However. It's hard. Really hard. I started playing on the hardest setting because I wanted the Platinum, which I instantly got upset about as died of frustration, so went down to Normal - which is still, really really hard work. It's the combat. It's not like Xcom frustration whereby you have an 88% chance of hitting the target and somehow still miss and scream with frustration, in fact, you rarely miss or have a hit deflected at all - what makes it hard is human error. A 20 minute battle can turn after a single character makes a bad move (obviously a bad decision by me) and then I find myself going from an almost injury free win, to a scrapped by win with 2-3 injuries at best. It's also frustrating that you win a battle and then get a chance to either regroup, or, chase the fleeing enemies off - which basically means without healing or regaining special moves, you just have a handful of new enemies to fight - this seems pretty random to me, as sometimes I'm doing well and get 1 or 2 new enemies enter who I quickly clean up, sometimes I've had 4 new enemies and just about managed a "win" but with everyone almost injured at the end. The prize for doing this is usually a pretty mediocre piece of equipment. I'm still early game after a good 30hrs + put into the Banner Saga. I kind of **** at myself whilst playing, but I'm addicted to it and feel it's a great strategy. I refuse to play on the easier setting, but I would like to get my tactics homed and start seeing real wins. It's easy to recommend this to any Xcom fan, any fan of strategy generally that has a spare £5-£10 ... it's not new, but thanks to its art style, it's timeless anyhow - enjoy!

10/10 Not much to add. The game, like the RDR1, starts with a slow grind of learning mechanics. I felt the plot was okay, and then I reached the end of Chapter 3, blew my mind, and what followed was an experience I absolutely loved. It's a fantastic, deep, story driven game with very few noticeable flaws, if any. Couldn't recommend RDR2 enough, it maybe the best game I've ever played in my life

I saw the Forest in the Jan'19 sale, having not known much about it - but thought at £12 it was worth a try. I was really pleased I did. Make no mistake, this is an indie game and not AAA. But, there's a lot of points throughout where I wouldn't have realised that. The basics of the game is your plane crashes, your son is taken and you have to find him. He's been taken by the local inhabitants - who happen to be 3 tribes of cannibals, nice. Your first day is manically scrounging basic resources together so that you can last the night in some relative safety. The chances are, you may not really see a cannibal on day one unless you go looking for them. Crafting is pretty deep, and early on I relied on putting things on my crafting matt and looking at the list of what it can be used for, but outside of crafting real assets can be found scattered around the island - and mainly in caves. This is a horror game. I went in my first cave and had a few cannibals run at me in the almost pitch black. My lighter (you start with) barely lit up anything apart from these faces jumping out at me, and I laid a few pant-eggs the first time down there. This is where the game excels. The AI of the cannibals is almost perfect. They don't just see you and run at you, they are inquisitive. They may follow you, stalk you, weigh you up. They may run at you and retreat if you (bravely) stand your ground, or, if your out numbered they'll divert your attention face on whilst others try and flank you. It's a nightmare I've loved. Fighting is pretty hard to start with, but after doing "cave 3" and getting the Katana weapon, and building a reasonable base with traps, it becomes less of a stress. Survival elements are pretty basic. You eat, drink and if you don't catch enough rain water - maybe drinking found cans or worst case, dirty stale pond water - which can give you infections etc / result in slow death without meds. The balance of exploration, survival and fighting is excellent, and you are free to build camps anywhere in the game, even caves. As the days go by, the mutants arrive, and they are a new level of weird and crazy looking - but with these you can make new armours with their skins, and even allow your character to go mad by becoming a cannibal and becoming more 'basic'. After my first week of playing solo, I joined up with players I met on a PS4 Forest Facebook closed group. You can have up to 4 people in a server as it stands, and the company makes the game slightly less intense as you discuss your daily missions and work together to make kills. With this though, you need more food, more water to all survive, and doing 'cannibal raids' on their villages becomes necessary more often. I spent weeks playing this with others, making cool camps, ziplines from cliffs to 2nd stories of our bases, and it was really good online fun. The lack of pvp actually adds to the Forest. In summary - the game is excellent. Seeing the Cannibals run their patrol routes whilst I'm hidden in a bush, filling my pants, is an experience I'll go back to again and again. It's a great survival horror and the developers are adding more fixes and updates all the time - including new enemies. I've read people complain about online duping bugs - but this isn't an MMO, so it's only down to the friends playing with each other that matters. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a new frill but isn't looking to spend £55 on a AAA title. It does help to watch a few YouTube videos of the basics etc - Farket is excellent for builds etc. Performance has been great, I've had 2 blue screens on other peoples servers in MP - which was probably because of the size of their build plans (laying blueprints everywhere) and because that guy duped a lot!! That's in 100+ hrs of the Forest, which I think is fair performance these days.... go check it out

I'd actually score this an 8, but so many people have harshly and prematurely rated this 0. So I bought KCD last week and got a good 20+hrs in to the story so far. It's exceptional story telling, voice acting and scenic as you like. Luckily, July 2018 at time of writing there has been over 600patches to quests and graphical issues. This level of fixes has hugely impacted the game vs the original released version. Basically, if you were holding off for fixes, as I did, the time is now. It's still a hard game, one that takes practice to improve in all areas. It's gritty, challenging and often frustrating when things go wrong, but it's very human for it. Henry, is far from perfect. Our errors add to the story that he's just some boy out for revenge rather than son ****, or in any way a chosen one. From the start the speech is amazing, and often very funny. This is a real survival rpg with nothing left out... Highly recommend if that's your genre. Bug wise, few things like overhanging trees get walked through without moving and music has cut out during combat a few times, maybe a few frame rate drops during larger battles. But I'm playing on ps4 not the Pro, so I expected it for a game of this scale. Go buy now on discount, you won't be disappointed

I am unashamedly a fan of South Park, and after a hugely enjoyable 35hrs, have platinumed the game. At first I was slightly bothered by the fact that the town and houses were the same layout as that in Stick of Truth. Then I thought about it, and realised of course it will be. It's South Park Colorado! The game starts after a brilliant character set up, straight off where Stick of Truth finishes. A few early battles let's you learn the new mechanics, the characters feel more like a "darkest Dungeon" strategy, and throughout the game this new mechanic made using new characters worthwhile. Often on losing a fight I would change up my squad and find others skills would hugely benefit the battle at hand. There are 10 playable companions, each with 3 moves and a special. For fans, the specials will often have you in tears at first, and never grow dull. For non fans, we'll I'm not sure why you'd buy a South Park game anyhow. The story is as offensive and wacky as the first. Additional characters in later series like PC Principle, bring a lot to the table, whilst the charm is still with the boys world being half real and half make believe. Some bookers you meet are hugely offensive and anti PC, but the ongoing back story of the protagonist, told by Cartman was the best running joke. I won't spoil it, but it's ridiculous. I used a guide to find the last 3 Yaoi pictures, other than that, I earnt a platinum all whilst playing. And it felt worth my time doing side quests to earn both. I admit in the Stick of Truth, I would avoid fighting the same battles, because I enjoyed the new mechanic so much, I actually fought every battle I could. The voice acting and script alone is a payoff always. Any south park fan will love this game as I have. I wish it lasted longer, I wish it had an online pvp mode, but as it stands, it's a hilarious fun RPG that'll have you LOL a lot

This is a 7, so close to a perfect 10. For £24, i was hoping for a good survival game in some jurassic park / Farcry mashup. I read reviews and was intreagued enough to give it a go. Last night i slept for just 2 hours. TWO HOURS. This game is much deeper than i expected, and ive barely touched the sides. ARK is either played out on The island or The Centre (Scorched Earth Dlc not played, yet). Two maps of mediocre size. Not the biggest, but as a living world it is impressive. These maps are 24/7 servers that are still playing whilst your asleep, meaning defence and forming Tribes becomes useful in PVP. This also is why im vey addicted to the game, as base building is a major part of surviving. First however, you create a character (very limited) and enter with just a pair of boxers on. ive not delved much into The Centre yet, as i wanted to learn a map well for PvP. Ive dabbled on unofficial servers in pvp, but my current character is a lvl 63 in PVE. Crafting and leveling, and lots of grinding is seriousoy rewarding in Ark. The early game is incredibly challenging, especially alone. In pvp people tend to group up for safety, but pve is usually a few well established groups of friends, and a lot of loners, as i was. Each server on the ps4 has a 70 capacity. Ive read tbat early days they had 80+ players in, causing crashes. My official pve server usually has 40/70 players on at any peak time and down to 20/70 in other. These low activity times are some of the best moments ive had in game, as the games huge flaw is lag time. The constant rendering of trees and dinosaurs often causes epic lag. It becomes part of the survival, getting used to it glitching back 5 seconds, its particularly tedious when on a boat. Theres a few AI glitches, but given the density of whats on screen, its acceptable. I think others like me that can see this being a longterm affair with Ark, theres hope in that the devs are relentlesly releasing updates. If they fix it, nothing would stop this being a 9 or 10. The graphics, when i saw the trailer, really didnt blow me away, mainly the buildings. What i didnt realise from the trailer are tribes build those towns in a minecraft style together. The freedom of how to play is brilliant in that you can train many different mounts, from sabres to t-rex or the meglo from the deep. You can train winged reptiles so large that you can make a portable base on their backs, same with some land and sea dinos. You can craft rafts and make ships from them, or build a perch top base on a mountain. But do expect a long grind to get what yoy want. This can be helped by using the dinos you train, which in itself is a slog to train the larger dinos (hours). The survival element hits the nail on the head flr fans. The map is large enough to get lost early game, and random respawns, a map that doesnt show where you actually are, or any landmarks as such, it really does start hard. This can be made outright impossible if you join a server that happens to be at mkdnight. In the pitch black, youll either fall to your death or more likely be eaten. Theres a nice horror element to nightime also. Resource crates come down from a beacon of light in the sky at night, inside could be a game changing tool or blueprint, but running over the hill with a naked flamed torch with dino snarls amongst the trees, it really does keep you on edge. In PVE/PVP mode, i also witnessed a played bludgeon another to death over a resource crate. Obviously with any mmo style game, community matters. So far, so good. Pvp is ruthless as desired, and pve often full of friendly neighbours. At half the price of a triple A title, and the fact this is deemed as "in beta" still, this game is excellent. If you can forgive its often shakey server performances, theres an epic challenge to have here, with potentially years in the community. In its current state though, half of gamers wont look past the lag. For me, ive loved it

With the last of my PSN credit, i saw this on sale for £7.99. i watched a review on youtube, from a very obese geeky looking man expressing a deep love for Mount & Blade on the PS4. This has been the most unexpected delight of my festive season purchases. I have been averaging 5 hours a day in one of the most challenging unique campaigns of any game, ever. Warband is in effect a sandbox realm of some 20 cities, dozens of castles and all with villages. Trade, fraction wars, deception, betrayal, crime pillaging and kidnapping, all happens all the time. To start, expect a grind. You start off as a nobody, free to wonder, but vunerable to looters and bandits on the roads. There is no right way of playing Warband. You can aim to be the hand of a king, who will lead other nobles under the fraction to besiege enemy castles or towns. Then, you may be chosen as lord of that castle etc. Earning rent to fund a larger army, or businesses in towns. Or, you could work as a mercenery for a kingdom, battling for a weekly wage. Or you could master coin and just make endless cash trading and questing for towns and villages. But the option i tend to sway to is to become a king and crush all the other fractions. My current play through, i am some 1000 days in. Ive 9 cities and some very powerful lords under me. I own businesses in all the towns in the realm and im at peace with all other fractions. Its taken years to gain the Right To Rule, so that other kings no longer see me as a warlord. I have a high honour rating and some 5k elite troops amongst my towns to defend. It doesnt sound a lot, but its a constant challenge dealing with the egos of the nobles beneath me, and here lies the genius in warlord. Its about managing nobles and ensuring you have as little betrayal as possible. This open ended gameplay and relationships i can really control makes this an endless stategic minefield. Battles are chaos. You will get odd glitches, but they tend to favour you. Such as enemies running into trees on horseback and taking a little time to wedge out. I found it essential to get a good mount and armour early on, as keeping mounted in battle makes it a hell of a lot easier to keep alive. Once levelled to 20 or so, your character should be strong enough to take on a group whilst mounted. It becomes a block and slash game. The graphics are very weak for ps4, but the 100 troop battles rarely have much FR drops and whilst somewhat last decade now, its still satisfying to be at the top of a ladder slashing at enemies, getting splattered red in their blood. The sounds are sometimes very satisfying when you charge an enemy mounted and slash their.throat on passing. Its not probably gory enough, but its addictive. The depth of mechanics going on all the time is really something unlike any other ps4 title, be it a caravan being raided meaning raw materials have increased in price, impacting your profits, or, be it you letting a defeated lord go free after battle gaining his favour and honour, or be it recruiting a companion you can level up how you like, the game keeps you endlessly on your toes. The grind is from the off to build reputation, but once youve got enough you can do as you please. Ive introduced Warband to a number of gamer-mates, non of whom have looked at all interested. This is a very solititude experience and not a game to watch someone grind through. Its always rewarding. Sometimes i would spend 60 days in game raising elite troops and befriending villages nearby a town i was plotting to.attack to help wirh enlisting new troops if i was successful in my attack and had to defend the inevitable strike back. Some of the most entertaining battles in game were being 230 men vs an epic 1300 or so. But on the walls, tactics and grouping makes a huge difference and even on harder game settings can be won. I wont lie though, warband is hard. Even on the easiest setting, auto saves mean you must expect to occassionally be captured by the enemy. Those troops you raised from bandits, dead. Having towns or castles helps tackle this loss by allowimg you to put whatever troops you like in there, at a cost. Overall, ive played about 10 years in game between a few play throughs. Taken 100+ hours and find myself dipping back into it over a number of AAA titles. I couldnt recomend this enough if youre a fan of sandbox games with huge freedom, this is still a bargain even at full price £29.99

It's hard to put your finger on why you are logging back in and playing this game after you've already played it the once for 30 minutes, and yet, here I am, logging back in to see what profit I've made whilst i slept. This "game" is an annoying spreadsheet made into a game. To begin with, you start with a singular lemonade stall and press SQUARE to "squeeze lemons" and make profit. The first 5 minutes of the game is literally pressing Square. Once you've built a certain amount of capital, you can invest in a manager that in effect, presses square for you. This is now automated, and you can build more lemonade stands to increase profits, or invest in the next business type. The game is timer based, like an annoying mobile app, it takes so many seconds to produce goods and make money, as you buy bigger businesses, such as Banks and Oil companies, the timers go from a second or two, right up to 12hour timers with very lucrative profits. Once you've employed all the managers, and log in to trillions of dollars, you are then able to 'sell out' in affect, doing so rewards you "investment angels". So you start a new session with these angels, and soon start getting better upgrades and make larger profits on items. Then repeat the whole procedure with the aim to unlock everything and score all achievements. Is it a good game? No, not really. But it appeals to the micro-management side of me and there's appeal in watching money racking up. I believe this game has converted from mobile/iOs etc, it feels like it. Thus free... but how FREE is this game? Micro-transactions... yup, plenty of them, but in the few days i've logged in, I'm yet to spend any Gold I've collected. I think this speeds up timers etc, which considering how un-competitive this game is, I dont really get why people would buy them. That's the games biggest flaw - its called Adventure Capitalist, but you have no strategy/competition to consider, no means to change prices to drive sales or anything linked to markets or capitalism. Seems a little odd. I'm still scoring this a 5 though as it's addictive and it's FREE. You can get a nights entertainment or even a weeks worth out of it - just lower your expectations of the end-game in this, it's just the same as the start with more money.

I am really really really struggling to understand HOW they converted this utter classic so well to mobile. It works a dream. If you know either Xcom, or Xcom EW, then this is just replaying the entire game with only very very very minor parts missed out (such as they all speak English, no choice to change them to their origins language). That doesn't take anything from this masterpiece to re-experience. If your new to Xcom, its a 4x turn based strategy, I like to think of it as an advanced version of chess, whereby each unit type has different movement and firing capabilities, to which the alien invaders also have unique skills to exploit or endure. It's simply brilliant. The perm-death of your units that may be with you for some 20 missions or more before his/her death, well its genius. You invest money and resources into units and there deaths are usually guttering, I recommend always opting for Ironman mode to make sure you experience the full game as it should be! Touch screen is perfect, I've not once accidentally moved my troops as i have done with a laptops touchpad, and all the familiar commands are just a slide between. I really was expecting chunks to be taken out of the game on a conversion: Less enemies. No animations. Less dialogue and cut scenes. No Building up the base. No satellites and Xcom funding concerns. But no... every little detail is there. It literally is playing Xcom on your phone/pad. I can't rate this anything but a 10. All PC/game to android/iOs conversions should be as brilliantly executed as this - best 2.7gb and £9 I've spent on my phone

Letter Quest is a scrabble based RPG. The basic principle is you fight enemies by spelling words to gain hit points, whilst their words damage your life meter. Power ups and developing your little guy are the main RPG elements that carry across charmingly. The game is very easy to pick up as a casual player and appeals for short gaming sessions. I tend to like strategy and like word based puzzles, so Letter Quest felt like a good change from the AAA titles i've been putting alot more hours into. I think its biggest flaw is in the questing itself. They are often as basic as spelling x2 words in a round with a given letter. I was ready for a harder challenge after 30 quests and never really got that in the later game. The game is ultimately an endless succession of enemies that have various weaknesses to exploit and grind through. The only enemies that really feel like they utilised the RPG element were those that only took damage from low count words. This meant you had to think of high-powered 3 letter words, alike scrabble, vowels are worth 1 point and you get bonuses for using Y,J,X,K,P,W, Z etc .. it's simple and will appeal to scrabble boffs. It's not a bad game at all, but with only a 1 player campaign + endless mode, I felt it really lacked a good head to head and online multiplayer modes. Fun game for a budget price - any scrabble gamer will enjoy the challenge im sure 6/10

Heavy Rain is a mixed bag It's certainly not a game for everyone in its actual gameplay, and fans of FireWatch and walking sims who are new to Quantic Dream (the studio behind it) may find its quick-time elements are more hands on than those in similar games. I actually bought and sold Heavy Rain on after its initial release on PS3. My first impressions of the game were that it looked stunning (at its time of PS3 release - probably unchallenged for how polished it looked) and I did love the story, but the mechanics and game style I felt hugely let it down, making an unplayable and far too challenging game that didnt really have a place in my collection. Since the PS4s release, I've got onboard with heavily narrative driven games, with FireWatch itself being one of the most memorable and enjoyable narratives I've enjoyed this year. I decided to give Heavy Rain another shot, maybe just to see if I can make it without all the characters dying... It turns out I can! For gamers contemplating buying Heavy Rain for the first time, I'd recommend it when on PSN discount etc. The graphics have been polished a little more for PS4, but the game itself hasnt changed (this maybe a flaw to some). The initial 30 minutes won't blow you away until the events tug the narrative to the game-title and suddenly the lore is a lot darker and deeper when you pick back up. Each character is somewhat a cliché in part, but always believable. This is one of the great strengths of Heavy Rain. The other greatest strength is the impact decision making makes on the outcomes of the game. Losing a main character can be frustrating (and when I say lose, I mean they are permanently dead!) but this adds to the panic you'll be under whilst he/she is struggling to keep alive. Heavy Rain almost created a genre on its own. It was a new bar set for gamer's and its uncompromising difficulty makes it re-playable as unless you are playing with YouTube videos guiding you through, people will die, and you will want to reload or replay through to see how to avoid that happening! The biggest flaw that still exists on either platform is the responsiveness to the controls. I often felt myself getting flustered and outright angry when the simple command to turn a door handle didn't respond. The red-boxes telling me I've not managed to open a drawer and having to recommit. At time it felt like the game was trying to troll my time and was purposefully doing so on some of the most pointless tasks in the game. This frustration is hard to measure. You quickly learn their system, what is expected on what quicktime event, you maybe reloading and playing a scene out for the 2nd or 3rd time, and STILL the red box flicks up to say "you didnt turn the door handle properly". i appreciate this was put in to make the game more immersive, and when it works, it does work well, but often I just felt the controls were lacking. Heavy Rain was a landmark ****, one I felt I'd revisit and I'm glad I did. The story is exceptional, the experience overall was rewarding and the darkest of scenes are my sort of darkness! Not for everyone, 7/10

Okay okay - PS+ release October 2016 I'm a huge horror fan. Love survival games. Hate Resident Evil. I can't put my finger on it, I appreciate there's a level of genius with the fixed camera angles in regards to suspense and horror, the forced view knowing as soon as you turn that corner that mumbling zombie will be lurching for your face, it's genius - I appreciate that - but for me, somehow tedious also. I find myself constantly doing 180 turns as the camera changes and walking the wrong way, then the right way. Perhaps through endless RPG playing (thanks Bethesda!) but I really really struggle to adapt to this camera. After 5 hours in RE:HD, I'm about done. For a RE fan, I'd still recommend this remake, and if your PS+, do download and give some respect to the title at least. Unfortunately, it just isn't a game I can enjoy, and that's what I look for over graphics or anything else, a memorable experience that's full on fun. I enjoyed a few good scenes (new cut scenes are good!), it made me jump a number of times, but overall, i really struggled with the camera which ruined the experience for me. If you're not as simple / conditioned as me, and can get used to set cameras, then you'll probably love this game. I think I'd have loved it had they added the option of FP view, or 3rd person over the shoulder ... but this, just frustrated my old brain.

I just couldn't bring myself to knock the 10 to a 9 for the hit-and-miss multiplayer, who the **** cares?! I have just completed Uncharted 4, and I've very few negative words in my mouth, head or anywhere. It was nothing short of mind blowing, with some of the most memorable set pieces I've ever played - and I'm a 35 yr old that's played all sorts since my ZX Spectrum days. I don't want to add spoilers, if you know the series, this is more of the same to a clearly higher spec. A few sequences in the game were literally the most impressive graphics I've ever seen in this generation. The action runs alongside such brilliant voice acting and landscapes that I wish I could wake up in. Just beautifully done. I am struggling to understand what some gamers expect from an Uncharted game, and as to how the hell anyone can rate this game a 7/10 or below, let alone a ZERO. Another game viciously hit by sulking xbox gamers perhaps? People moaning about cut-scenes - there's a button to skip them!! That said, i didnt skip a word, by chapter 7 I was so deeply hooked in lore, characters and events that I wanted to watch every doubt roll across drakes face, or every skit of banter between the gang. It really is so immersive as it's so brilliantly written and executed. I never fancied Uncharted 1 and 2 back in PS3 days, no idea why, I was hooked on other games and felt the series wasn't for me, without playing them. Probably a lot to do with its negative reviews from ****s saying its a movie you click buttons in occasionally. I got Uncharted 3 first after completing The Last of Us and having that void in my life for naughty dog games immediately afterwards (which is very much present right now after uncharted 4). Very few games grip me this way, stories twists and character development leave me often speechless, and eager to see whats coming next. The mechanics are not a million miles from U3. The shooting mechanic has vastly improved and the AI seems a lot brighter, often charging or flanking to compromise cover. This results in a more active shooting experience than I recently played in the tomb raider new games. As I progressed I really pushed the limits and by chapter 13, I found myself using anything in the scenery to swing from to get a new advantage point. On a harder level, this really pays off and looks extremely cool at the same time! I just dont have anything negative to say about this game. It's well written, made with a lot of love, made with fans in mind, polished to an extremely high standard - to date - the best the PS4 has to offer, and it is very VERY fun to play. I'm glad I waited for a price drop, but I'd have bought it at £55 had I known it would be so darn good! Ignore the trolls, Xbone fanboys and idiots... this game is a masterpiece. 10/10 all day long

PS+ freebie for October '16 Again, another AAA title on PS+, this time a step up from last months Lords of the Fallen. I had little expectations for Transformers Devastation (TD), I expected the usual licence game of all gloss and no substance/gameplay. Within the first hour I was incredibly wrong on the latter. Firstly, the graphics will punch you in the face. The game is a beaut. True cartoon characters, slick animations and a gorgeous rendered city to smash up. Drowning in nostalgia of the original tv series, transformers devastation is without a doubt the best tv series to game conversion I've played. It features 7 playable characters (some 10 hrs in now) each with it's own fighting mechanics to exploit to your advantage. I particularly like Grimlock so far. The game reminded me slightly of Devil May Cry in it's fighting mechanic. Slow-motion on blocks and upgrading characters with unlocks (which become addictive to work towards, with little 'grind factor'). It's incredibly slick fighting, visually stunning and immersive once your knee deep in Megatron's army. On the hardest setting it's still well below Dark Souls frustration + difficulty levels, but just enough to mean a number of bosses etc will require a few attempts. The downside of TD is probably the plot and story. I'm not a fan of the modern movies, but when you actually think of the synopsis of the original tv series, it's as unoriginal as it is comically cringe worthy. I've not really felt I cared about a single character or plot development, the voice acting etc isn't flawed in context with the cartoon, but that in itself was flawed, probably not when i was 10, but at 35 it now all seems daft. Regardless, TD has me eager to get home and plough on as the gameplay is really really fun! For fans of Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Mad Max style games, you will love this. For a hardcore Transformer fan, well you won't be reading this as you'll already own it - as this is to-date the best Transformer game ever released. Highly polished. Highly fun. Recommend you get PS+ and download now - or I'm sure it'll be in CEX for £15 by now. A great addition to anyones games collection

As the final DLC, I thought I'd complete it before giving it a review, rather than just 10hrs into it as I did Far Harbour. I struggle to understand what people expected from Bethesda for DLC on Fallout 4. Many people sharing negative feedback and general disappointment. I will state that I am somewhat of a fanboy of Fallout, I love the past few games and own every Fallout title there's been. In regards of Bethesda and their previous DLCs on older Fallouts, I think both Far Harbour and Nuka World far far surpass what Bethesda previously supplied! Why: Nuka World is situated North West of the Glowing Sea, a metro journey will take you directly to the new map. The map size is around the same size as Far Habour, probably about 1/4 of the size of the commonwealth. Unlike Far Harbour, which was one larger island with a few break away pieces, Nuka World is based in a valley. It was originally built as a theme-park before the bombs dropped, and the past 200+ years have left it out of power, full of ghouls and other new wildlife in the desert, but mainly full of Raiders. It is the Raiders who are the heart of Nuka World. Split between three rival Raider gangs who have all taken refuge around the entrance part of the park (as the rest needs 'cleansing') you meet and greet after the initial Running-Man-like Gauntlet (play on Hard or Survival and this is EXTREMELY challenging!!). It's obvious from the off that all raiders are idiots and slightly annoying in personality. As Fallout characters go, they lack the depth which a few in Far Harbour have, but they're raiders, the equivalent of petty thieves and thugs in the real world, I dont think depth is important here. What is, is power and showing it. Script wise, the lone wanderer can call out lies, he can intimidate and outright put people in their places. Given my level 96 characters stats, he easily managed to intimidate any of them, but it did feel out of place with the fact I'd already completed the game as the Minuteman general. All of a sudden his squeaky clean act was replaced, but the voice acting felt a little out of place, short of being sarcastic, he often felt displaced as a Raider leader. Overlook that though, get past it, Nuka World is about the Raiders, but its really about having a massive theme park to waste 50 more beautiful Fallout hours on. The park has some awesome weapons, awesome armours (best looking Power armour in game, hands down!), a cocktail of new enemies, a few new robots, insects, the welcome return of Ants, and Tremor/Dune-like sand worms that bust out at your feet like molerats, often causing slight heart attacks. The new enemies are placed in certain areas of the park, each area obviously having its own theme. Upon unlocking the areas and handing them over to the radier fraction of your choice, the park is still somewhat dead. It takes a lot more than this to get the power up and running, but with this is one of the greatest bits of gameplay in Fallout4: Killing your Own Settlements. It shouldnt be fun. Some Settlements I'd spent easily 30-40hrs designing in buildmode, huge defence buildings with sky-gardens to keep the settlers safe from attacks. On selecting (as part of the Nuka World main quest) the settlement I wanted to takeover by force, the quest giver looks up the list and then dares questions you by stating "er, boss, I've taken a look and this is one of your settlements, are you sure you want to hit it?" .. he then laughs and says that the minutemen will help defend settlements and they'll be shocked when they see their General amongst the raiders taken it down. I imagine if your settlements are lacking, if your population is like 2 or 3, if your defence sits around 20-50, then this whole process will be quick and probably dull. My settlements before starting Nuka World had a defence minimum of 200, they pretty much all have populations of 19, and some have 30+ settlers. This makes turning up with 2-3 raiders by your side to take down your own settlement, really hard, but really, REALLY fun! Whilst the park itself has some great places within it, rides to use, fun-houses to have shoot ups in and lots of side-games to complete to 100% the DLC, as well as places outside the walls of the park, the desert as such which have swarms of insects and enemies to uncover in, the real beauty of Nuka World is re-taking the commonwealth for the Raiders. Since I'd completed the main quest, this has given a new lease of life to the settlements, and has been a really deep challenge. Again, I'm playing on the hardest setting with settlements rigged for defences and this has really turned my game upsidedown. Has a Bethesda DLC ever changed the context of the vanilla game as much as what this has? I very much doubt it. Of course, if this isn't for you then it's not for you. Personally, I've loved Fallout4 and this was the cherry on top

As an epic fan of Risk as a board game, and a keen player both online and local since the release of Risk:Fractions on the PS3, I've always loved the simplicity and tactics of risk. Easy enough to pick up vs a noob and have a good challenge. I'd eagerly been checking for the release of Urban Assault since it first appeared on Haribos webpage as 'coming soon', over a year ago. I've reviewed the original Ubisoft RISK and had put plenty of hours into it (500+ easily). I felt that the game lacked the additional game modes that was featured on the Risk Fractions game, but was fun and a great little game. What I was hoping for with Urban Assault, was new game modes, fraction-like-teams, and plenty of new maps. What I found was, well confusing: Urban Assault breaks the world map of old, and now has a range of cities to fight in instead; London, New York, Paris, Shanghai and Hamburg. Each city has neighbourhoods replacing continents. When you take over the entire continent, you get to build a Town-hall that adds an advantage to your dice roll in defence. Additionally, you get a commander to place on any owned tile that also gives you a bonus. Each fraction has varied commanders to pick from, and each fraction has it's own perks. Additionally to this, by taking neighbourhoods you also gain extra stars. With these stars, you can build on owned tiles. Stars can be used to buy troops (as before), or defence bases (giving you a +1 to your defence rolls), or building farms (which give you extra stars at the beginning of the next go) or you can build gun-turrets (which can attack up to 2 tiles away from where it's built). These simple to use new builds add a much deeper strategy to the vanilla game, and therefore makes this a real welcome addition to RISK. Stars can also be used in the movement stage of the game to bribe a rival fraction into a ceasefire for a set amount of goes. They'll often ignore it, but if they dont you honour the ceasefire when it concludes by giving stars to that player. After each round (every fraction having a go) the player with the highest amount of territory is elected mayor, and gets to chose a few perks which can add more strategy to the game. So why have I rated it a 6 if its so good? Well, despite it's great playable set-up, Ubisoft have scored a number of own goals in this: Setting up local games is now MORE limited to game modes. In the previous version, you were able to play "secret missions" "conquest - take over the entire map" or "cities". Now, the local game is purely a version of cities, where you can edit it that the winner is the person with 3 to 5 townhalls (in effect, cities). This is a real shame. The lack of being able to completely take over the entire map - standard RISK, seems mad to me, and the Secret Mission games on the last ubisoft version was actually a good little quick skirmish game, that could be won in 30 minutes. I really struggle to understand why they took modes out from the last version. That, and the entire layout is unchanged. A few more animations that are still hugely underpar from PS4s capabilities. All in all, I bought this in sale at £6.70. The single player 'campaign' is short. The online mode has a small community - expect a wait of 10-15mins per game, and ultimately, this feels like a GREAT DLC for the last version on the PS4, not in itself a new game at all. I waited for a sale to get it as i was actually insulted that it wasnt a DLC on release anyhow - on playing it, I was more annoyed it wasnt DLC. It really really should of been. Ubisoft has no love for the RISK community! Anyhow - it's fun and will give you plenty of hours of gameplay for harden RISK fans, I just hope they DO do free DLC for extra maps etc down the line... which is what i said on the review of the last version!!

Another good PS+ release Coming alongside Lords of the Fallen, which is a AAA title, i didn't have much optimism in Badlands as I downloaded it. To my surprise, it's been a very fun, addictive little game. Whilst it's not by the same studio, the game has a real "Limbo" feel to it. It's art style isn't a million miles off, and the puzzle mix with platform is there, except you kind of float in badland. The levels are relatively short, but once you walk through the initial 15 levels, you soon realise that it's level length isn't the issue, it's the really taxing parts that come down to skill, and a little bit of luck (especially when you've duplicated your wee character into a dozen or more clones and most are getting sliced up or crushed by obstacles!) For what it is, this is a good little taxing game, pretty graphics and ease to control and master. That itself deserves a 5/10. Where this game becomes much much more fun is to go CoOp or vs mode against a friend on the sofa. I put a few hours into Coop mode and it's harder, faster, and more rewarding. You soon realise that in some parts, one must sacrifice yourself to ensure the other makes it through an obstacle, and you can work well as a team, which is essential for Coop play. The later stages are more manic and with new mechanics introduced, it's gradually more and more funny as it gets more and more taxing. The only reason I've not gone higher than 8 on this is it's not terribly re-playable. once you've completed the game, there's not much in it to want to revisit. That said, it's an indie title (free with PS+ for me) but if it was £5 or so in a sale, I'd pay for this as it's still very entertaining. I've not read others reviews - but anyone scoring this under a 5 has no sense of fun!

F**K THE POLICE!! Nah, don't this game's alright ... Pro's - > Really good script and voice acting > Love the art style and UI etc > Easy to start micro-management, feels rewarding when you bring a wayward cop out of the Dark side! > Original idea Cons > After day 60 it's pretty repetitive, the story is still there, but you feel the grind! > The Mayors office requests are ridiculous!! By day 4, when your still getting to grips with your new role and the game on the whole, you'll be asked to FIRE all your BLACK cops to HELP reduce racial tensions (which by today's standards is crazed, I think #BLM may be slightly pi55ed with the idea of not being represented at all in the force - I've had a google and I can't find any record of this ever happening - granted - it would probably have been brushed well under the carpet, but I just feel it's a really odd thing to add into a game. You then get punished for NOT doing what your told by the corrupt mayoral office. Overall, as an indie game, this is a great little buy, will burn at least 30 hrs + into it, but has it's flaws. The narrative is great, really good story and likeable characters. It will get repetitive, and feel more a grind in later stages. If you see this on a steam sale - go for it though!

PS+ August 2016 Despite what the trolls on PSN will say, this is the sort of game that PS+ should showcase each month. Original? No, not really - it's Tetris with a balancing physics mechanic added in. Fun? Hell yes. Alike the master of brick based puzzlers, Tetris, it loses nothing of the original, but actually makes it much more fun by being really easy to set up and play as P vs P on a sofa, or easy to walk into an online dual - in no time. The game has x3 game modes that can be played locally, online or a skinny 1 player mode thats like time-trials.. These are: Race / Puzzle / Survival. Race, is about getting your tower higher faster than your opponent, this sounds easy, but with a weak foundation you will see your peak swaying miles from side to side and makes laying the new brick almost near impossible! Puzzle, this is like a limbo style mode. You have to get as many bricks as possible under a bar to win, sounds easy, it really really is not! (my highest score so far is 22!) Survival, alike Race, but you have X amount of bricks to lay down without losing more than 3 to the waters below... it tends to be a much better challenge than a race, but with a worthy opponent, it's chaos still and really fun. I've played a handful of games online and its a good crack, but I've put in a good 6 hours on the sofa with the missus battling each other on Tricky Towers, it's fun, vibrant, simple yet skillful to master It may not come close to the fun of Rocket league of 2015, but alike RL, it's about pure fun and nothing beyond, indulge in the online community and get your skills on!!

I can't escape this game. Considering it was launched in November 2015, it's remained in my PS4 for that entire time, I bought the Season Pass at the lower rate, and have awaited all the DLC packs eagerly, and I'm looking forward to the PS4 Mods coming (note other reviews refer to mods which are not available on PS4 on a PS4 version review - Use Metacritic properly!!) Anyhow ... this means I'm a harden fan. I'm playing on Survival with a level 76 wanderer now, and I am still deeply in love with the game. So - Vault Tec DLC... what is is: Vault 88 is located just north of the glowing sea. Once you do the first mission of getting in and doing a few quests, you will have unlocked an underground area that I believe is bigger than any other settlement in the Commonwealth. It has 3 entrances, meaning for survival players you can look to build safe-routes underground between these places, and it comes with underground water supply etc so you can get everything your future 'guinea pigs' require. This is another giant pack of settlement goodies. For those, like me, that find spending 8 or 9 hours (and the rest) building an epic settlement as fun, will absolutely love the additional content available from Vault Tec DLC. Literally everything in Vault 111 or 81 can be crafted and built. The main area you first walk into can be heavily scrapped leaving a huge space to build a huge vault, much much MUCH bigger than any of the existing vaults. I've completed all the missions, unlike Far Harbour or other DLCs with quests in, these are all based actually in the vault itself, meaning no fetch missions and making it relatively quick to unlock. The enemies are nothing new or surprising, but still challenging on Survival mode (!) . The main purpose of the DLC is obviously settlement building, so I expect to hear a-lot of unhappy people that just haven't embraced or enjoyed that ****'t worry, the next DLC will be a lot more quest based! The actual building of the vault will take a little getting used to, I'm yet to work out a few of the new features and will probably watch a YouTube video once someone else cracks them... but on the whole it's more of the same, a lot more of the same. Really impressed with the scale of parts. Already about 8 hours in to actually building up 88, I've made something pretty impressive. It's also made me reassess my settlements, maybe looking to keep Castle, Sanctuary and 88 as my main places with settlers, while all others function as little outposts for sleep and surviving survival mode! I've rated this DLC as an 8, not a 10. I think whilst the scale is as big as I'd hoped, I was hoping the tunnels would run much further under the commonwealth and it maybe as useful as underground tunnels I so frequently used in Fallout3. Expect to be hitting vendors to buy up more steel etc also, regardless of the entire cave system being scrap-able once you unlock it all, you'll still use a serious amount of Steel, Rubber and nuclear material! I'll also add some of the content to other settlements, the chairs for instance (the barbers chair and surgeons chair) and also other little touches like the espresso machine that can be used to hydrate in survival mode. So, in summary I'd say Vault Tec is ESSENTIAL DLC for anyone that is loving their settlements, crafting and doesn't mind burning time in game. Outside of this, it's not bringing anything to the table unless you're playing survival mode.

Just when you thought you could leave all your settlements alone, they drag you back in. Contraptions is a new DLC pack, I believe reasonably cheap (im on season pass) and it is 100% only worth getting if you, like me, cant resist that urge to rebuild settlements, bigger better and stronger! This pack contains a range of new pieces, from greenhouse glass sides and roof tiles, to sheet metal bunker / container like set pieces. The range of stairs is really pleasing to a settlement geek like me. This is pretty much adding to what i'd expect the MODs to bring to PS4 upon their release. However, the DLC also comes with some pretty cool bits n all - I love the armour and weapon racks, make your shops look a lot more like shops with guns stacked etc, and the new range of signs etc means you'll be scavenging for copper forever! I've only just started to try and work the track and ball gizmo, I plan on running a mouse-trap style trap around my entire settlement, see if i can set off sirens etc with the balls weight hitting pressure pads etc... it's all messing about and wasting my own time, but its joyous to me, and i know there's a group of us out there that love building up settlements. I'm also just getting to grips with the production side, ideally i will look to turn Trading Co-Op into a factory of sorts, forging some stuff. Already, before i;ve started i can see its going to be another 30hrs+ of gameplay doing all this and making it look the nuts, value for money was passed long ago in FO4, so this just keeps adding to it. This is just a must purchase if you love settlement building, if not, it's not for you. Expect the same delightful frustrations upon laying tracks etc as you have trying to get walls to snap! Also, I see the potential with a lot of the elements here for the MOD community to go wild with! Can't wait to see what amazing things they can build for our mini worlds! Really enjoying this DLC - suspect others will too - it feels a lot more packed into this one than the workshop!

PS+ Freebie June 2016: After completing FireWatch, I was immediately directed to Gone Home as a similar title. Firstly, if you don't like games who's sole purpose is to tell a story and pull you into the narrative, this game is not for you. There's no shooting, no conflict and you are basically left to explore. And explore I did. It's not a huge game, there's not that many rooms and not an endless amount to interact with. But what is there gives the gamer a real sense of a family that 'something has occurred with' ...no spoilers here! With that, comes a real tenderness to the game. Early on you hear a disturbing voice mail, with thunder constantly giving the gamer a sense of dread and isolation, the remains of everything you find feels as melancholic and once-meaningful. There's an underlying heartache at the centre of the story that as it unravels, left a big impression on me. The voice acting, alike Firewatch, is excellent. It feels unscripted and natural, like any old family. This is such a huge part of the immersion of Gone Home. This game won't be for everyone. I completed it in just over 2 hours and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think Firewatch is still the better game, as the character interaction / script is even better. But the sense of dread, loss and melancholic bliss I got from Gone Home will sit with me for a long long while. Those people rating is ZERO just didn't read up on what the game was pre purchase, it is what it is, I don't buy NFL games and cry that it's not FIFA, read before you buy people!!!

PS+ freebie June 2016: So, PS+ time again, and at last another AAA title for free, £55, for free. I assume this is only on the EU release as free, given our lack of love for Basketball! It's true, I don't really understand or like Basketball, so this is a review from that view-point. Unlike other sports sims, I found my first game of NBA2K16 actually really REALLY refreshing. Firstly, no commentary. If you're going to invest a lot of hours into a sports game, as I have in ProEvo in the past, I've grown to detest the commentary. First few plays its always okay - after hearing the same comments over and over again, it becomes like a knife in the side every time they repeat the sentence for the 4th or 5th time within 10 minutes. Instead, NBA2K16 has a soundtrack. Which I've liked so far! My understanding of basketball is that it's a game of attrition. The matches aren't about scoring as much as 'breaking the oppositions serve' as such. It's a given that the majority of runs at the hoop will see points, and the game makes this very fluid and very easy. I found using the Square button to shoot a little confusing at first, and my first game vs a friend was dominated by both of us endlessly travelling - but a few games in, I started using the right stick and shoulder botton's more for tricks, quick turns and extremely fluid play. I also figured out the balance of the game sits with your defence line blocking more than they block of you. To compare this to another sports title - I would compare it to the old NHL on the mega-drive. Something clicked with that game, it was very fast, simple to play, hard to master - and NBA2K16 feels like that. It took me literally 8 games to get a slam dunk in as such. As someone that has little understanding of the sport, or any knowledge of teams past knowing Michael Jordan, I am surprised at how enjoyable this game is. If you don't catch it on PS+, I would recommend paying up to £25 for this on future sales - but given its a sports sim, it will probably have an annual release and this version will be bargain bucket on ebay within the year if not!

I've been playing Championship Manager since CM2. I remember waiting sometimes an hour for the new season to run / update on my Win 3.1 PC. I've played various versions since up till FM2013. It's a few years late I appreciate to be reviewing this, but I have recently redownloaded this from stream onto my work laptop and playing on my commute to and from work. I can't put my finger on when, but I've become severely addicted to FM13. It's Football manager. I dont assume many people will be reading this review (at all) and any that do will already know that FM games are in affect a database you play. FM13 is incredibly smooth going on my i7. I'm not much of a football fan anymore. There was a time I would get the pre-season over-view and edit the leagues and players to what teams they moved to, some 30-40hrs of using the editor. I don't bother anymore, if someone starts at their previous team, who cares. The engine works and works well, I'm currently 10 years into a career into my latest game and all the known stars of today are just old record holders and coaches now, so who cares. I'm giving this a 8 in the hope that others see this and think "I could down load FM2013 for pretty much free, compared to £30+ for the latest version, and I'm gunna get much the same experience" Do it. Be cheap and cheerful - this is a classic version, very playable and while it can frustrate the hell out of me when my top scorer happens to get a training injury 2 days before a huge match, that is life, sods law rules and its still as satisfying being an underdog and taking the bigger teams to town.

Suspect others are reviewing a PC version under the PS4 title here.... I've not had any frame-rate issues on the PS4. I tend not to use VATS, not sure if that can cause drag for others? So... about 10hrs into Far Harbour. Firstly, what you get: You get more settlement builds. Significantly the Barns - I assumed it would be a few default barns to place into settlements, but they've broken them down into walls / roofs etc ...and they're excellent. The roofs particularly go well with the vanilla wood builds. Everything else, and I do mean everything is pretty fishy. Fish buckets, fish signs, fish racks ... lots of fish related stuff, but some cool stuff amongst it. To be honest, it's not what this DLC was promising compared to the workshop DLC... SIZE matters. Er, sure does here. When I first landed on Far Harbour, I knew i had a handful of new locations and a new settlement waiting, i knew it was said to be large. It surpassed my expectations. I think it's just over a 5th of the size of the entire commonwealth, maybe about 22% or so is a good estimate. It's a little like the glowing sea as a lot of the area is baron. This sounds like it would be annoying, but it's actually well....just go there and see!! I expected the 'fog' to be a cheap ploy to hide the distant buildings and make rendering easier, it's not. Graphically some of the best parts of FO4 are within Far Harbour. The spooky swirling, almost spirit like, sweeping the roads and lampposts make it incredibly atmospheric. Like "The Fog" horror film, but better, The new creatures are brilliantly animated, and add to the horror backdrop Far Harbour offers. The new missions are much the same, a complete FO4 fan like myself was delighted by all the new characters, conflicts and dilemmas. It forced me into a corner with a few choices I'd not made in the commonwealth, but these were choices I'd been avoiding for a long while. (I've avoided completing the main quest in my 800+ hours gameplay - note at least 300-400 hours just building settlements, I'm hooked) I've not really used most of the new weapons, I've got my 5 guns of preference i carry and store the rest, but they are much the same with new perks. Some of the new armour is pretty cool though and helpful for rads! I hear another 3 DLCs are in the pipe-line + the MOD tool. For fans like me, this is such fantastic value for money for a season pass. £20 for Far Harbour as a standalone DLC, hmm... I'd pay £15 for it in a sale if I'd not got the season pass. To summarise I say this is a great DLC pack, surpassing expectations and adding easily 20hrs + gameplay, if not a lot more pending on your style of play. The new map is huge. The enemies are sneaky and enjoyable to fight and the lure keeps on building, probably now my favourite game of all time. Any fan will love this DLC, anyone that says FO4 didn't click with them or didn't enjoy it... well, that's the sort of **** a synth would say

Currently on PSN for free for PS+ members ... is it worth it.... yeah, just about. Styled like a mash-up between a cyber-punk-comic and F-Zero (Nintendo classic), Switch Galaxy Ultra is a reflex game. Already my partner has taken to it well as it's controls consist of "push left" go left, "push right" go right and X to boost. This simplicity is why the games actually okay, easy to pick up and put an hour or two into and casually return to another day. It is what it is - feels like a glossy app for a tablet, but it plays well. Perhaps more use of the music would of brought a little more to the game - ie - having the music in sync with movement or speed etc

PS+ freebie for May 16: That time again, and another few games to get my teeth into. Table Top Racing initially reminded me of Micro-machines for the Amiga 500+. The mods to cars are pretty limited, but actually mean the races are often down to skill and a little luck once you reach a championship race. The unlocking of events makes for addictive and rewarding early grind, or if your a natural, less grinding! I'm not a fan of cars. Motor racing i associate with 2hours of going round in a loop with a car winning from the off and finally winning it. Most car games reflect this boredom i feel for the sport - but this, alongside the excellent Rocket League make excellent exceptions to the rule. This is an arcade like driving game, it feels like a more physics based mario-kart than anything else. Graphics are ok, nothing special, and the music isn't really to my taste, but it works. My only real flaw in this game is how easy it is to go from 1st to 8th due to what i see as AI bugs - generally AI opponents use their weapons against the leader, but i do find sometimes I'd be in the middle of the pack and seem to be the only one singled out for a rocket in my face. A fun game though, for FREE, a great game, if it wasn't I'd still pay £10 for this

Please note I've got the Season Pass - therefore this DLC was just a little perk for me: And it's been a nice little perk at that. I've been a big time waster in regards to settlements, and since we're all waiting for the MOD pack to build our own stuff (I'm reluctant to have to much optimism as to how well that will actually work on PS4 - but all the same) ... then having more items for the settlements is always welcome. The new generator has made me rebuild ALL my existing settlements (about 18) - this has taken a good 13hours, so the DLC has paid for itself affectively just by me being anal with it. My main settlement, Castle, was previously 3 rows of wind generators to cover all the power needs (and I like to be Green with energy), the new generator does all of what they can in one, small piece. I'm loving it! I've not successfully used the cages as yet. I've trapped people, but I'm still working out how to stage battles between captured animals /raiders etc. Keeping in line with the precision and frustration with building settlements, learning seems to be a hands on experience rather than coached through. But I dont mind spending time to figure it out. I'm approaching 900hrs in total on FO4. It's an epic game on all levels and I'm loving the DLC thus far, given we've had the smaller instalments so far, I'm hopeful the new island with new enemies will be the 10/10 DLC pack we're all hoping for. People who like this are those that are free-styling FO4 as I am, anyone looking to just finish all the quests and not play the game like a Sandbox openworld, well they probably won't appreciate or enjoy these sort of DLCs. Especially if you're not interested in settlement building. For me, this has been great fun :)

One of the best dungeon crawlers of all time. I've been playing Darkest Dungeon on PC for about a year after getting a lite version off a friend, then getting another beta version until finally last month I purchased it in full. The basic set up is that of most good dungeon crawlers. Town. Heroes. Recruitment. Upgrade. Grind. Loot. Back to town and repeat. What makes DD so unique, is that outside the usual health, you also get a sanity meter. As your heroes get more spooked, they can become a handful to manage and often if not attended too, can end up making other heroes go off the rails. This micro-managing of personalities as well as stocking and choosing a team to delve into the dungeons with, makes preparation as important as pulling it off whilst down there. I like to enlist a few of each type of heroes, as you'll find some upgrade faster than others and dungeons require certain levels to enter - basically you maybe running x5 top level heroes and x5 half-good heroes and x5 noobs. The game-play is repetitive. But it's great. I read a comment from a **** complaining that a hero you've invested 12 hours in can die in 2 seconds - no ... they really can't if you play the game. Darkest Dungeon is massively reactive to your play style and decision making, but also, it often forces you to exit a dungeon before completing the task when your levelling up... retreating isn't dignified, and I try not to, but to master the game you must when you must, or simply lose all the heroes and then rage quit. If you don't mind the grind, this game will be a delight. I've returned to it 3 times now and I know one day I'll re-start and have another 50hours beautifully wasted ranking up a new selection of heroes. Best new RPG of 2015 for me. Great stuff!

Value for Money right here. As a DLC Automation opens up a smallish dungeon and story (no more than a handful of hours) and the ability to build your own robot companion - which is as deep as the rest of FO4! Don't see this DLC pack as meant to change the game entirely, but as someone that's wondering the wasteland some 700+ hours in, I find this DLC and the new mechanical gangs refreshing. People complaining it's to easy are ... ???!!! THERE'S AN OPTION TO CHANGE DIFFICULTY, USE IT!! Personally, I'm really pleased I bought the Season Pass the day I bought the game last year, this is just the beginning and FO4 is already a superb sandbox RPG now :)

Don't expect an unbiased review here, I am an outright huge South Park fan. Whilst it downloaded I remember thinking to myself, "Will I regret this pricey purchase", and "Will this end up just another South Park failure in the media of video games" ... It's been a long journey here, let's face it. All the previous South Park games felt like the scripts were lifted from the episodes and, if anything, made me think "Trey Parker, stop stealing my money for **** ... but then... the game opens... I create a character (charming, in that South Park way) and then enter the town of South Park and straight into meeting Butters & shortly after, Cartman. At this point, just 10 minutes in, I loved it. Unapologetically loved it. Like a giant ball of South Park memorabilia, exploring the town and playing "Lord of the Rings" with the kids was exceptionally fun, and I was happy. Then the game takes a darker turn. Then a darker turn after that. Then it goes to the bottom of the bucket of all that is poor taste and **** along eagerly to be the outright offensive. This is when you know the boys did good. Finally a South Park game gamers can not only enjoy for being the lure of South Park itself, but also for being a genuinely fun RPG! I won't put in spoilers, but farting on balls, Manbearpig, **** zombies and a lot worse make for an incredible little journey whereby you will get to meet or use every character in the South Park world. Why not a 10? The game ended. It ended and left me upset. It is only 30hours long or so, and I completed it in 38hours including collecting everything etc. I can't wait to get South Park Fractured But Whole in the near future now on my PS4 ideally!!

PS+ for March 2016: So another freebie for PS+ subscribers. And another little treat! I am a huge fan of Manga / Anime and instantly loved the 80s Neo Genisis feel to Galak-Z. The graphics and animated cut-scenes are drowning in retro-loveability. It's painfully appealing, but did the gameplay match? Yes, pretty much. At first I was really put off by the initial level. I avoided astroids and the cave system basically made me feel like this was a very linear game pretending not to be. But, I was wrong. The game overlooks the collisions if you've good shield levels and what could of been a pretty basic glorified-star-wars-1983 arcade coin-up, is actually a lot more rewarding and tactful. I've only put in 20hrs or so on Galak-Z, just because of my sick addiction to Fallout4, still, but there hours I appreciated! The only downside is some frame-rate issues, but these dont really hinder gameplay all that much all that often, but a patch would be nice. It's not the greatest of games, not even the greatest of PS+ titles in the past 12 months, but it is good fun and deserves your time - especially for FREE!!

Lol - some people rated Civ5 a ZERO. Who are these morons? So... a perfect 10. Well... it's not a perfect 10 on it's lonesome, but hold out for a steam sale and get ALL the DLC, and you will have that perfect Civ experience you've craved since you were a 10 year old boy playing the original CIV. Maybe just me, but hey. I think one issue I'd always had with Civ was time itself. Always starting 4000 BC and finding that by 0 AD you are mostly struggling to keep up with where science would be in real life, mainly because the game goes in huge chunks until it slows down in the 18c. Civ5 addresses this by slowing time right down (optional!) to a snails pace. This makes early exploration and warfare so much more interesting and unlike previous versions whereby I would rush to gunpowder to blow the enemy away, I now can take on other civs much easier with early combat units, and it's great fun! I found in my early play through's that I was consistently running at negative gold. Civ5 is a lot more rewarding than any predecessor come micro-managing. Never before has time spent on controlling workers yourself or manually doing city resources so effective. On the harder two settings, I find it near impossible to build an early wonder first without using workers to clear forests for extra production towards it. This feels more credible and stops the player running away with all the benefits come the medieval era. Trade reminds me of "Call to Power" slightly, in that you build the caravan from a city as you normally would, but you can't control them as normal units, instead you send them from a city on a trade route. The benefits of trading with other civilisations and especially city-states is hugely beneficial. This means I rarely have a play through whereby I'm at war with everyone at once. Balance feels a great deal more strategic than before. The culture element I still love. By increasing your culture, you move your boundaries out. Also, once enough has been accumulated, you can take up social policies. Instead of having flat governments, Civ5 gives you all the policies for all the governments and you can build up and unlock as you go, and develop them further in time. It works really well. Also, it affects the desire to build as many cities as you can. Instead, it maybe much more beneficial to have just 4 cities with high culture than 30 cities with rednecks in. Unlike previous versions, Civ5 rewards players for playing the hand their dealt. Often I would find on older versions that I tend to follow the same path and same achievements to get to any given end goal. In Civ5 this really doesn't pay off. Early research is much better to be aimed at resources and the land you've found yourself on. More than this though, Civ5 requires you to plan ahead. Decide early (by 2000BC at least!) what goal you wish to achieve, how you wish to win and then pursue it using all the elements. I love Civ5 for this. It's much more rewarding playing a 40hour game where the final 30hours have been pre-planned like a masters game of chess. My steam account shows I've put in nearly 1100 hours into Civ5. I think this says it all. A masterpiece I can always return to. For fans, it may take a little adjusting, but once you get the hang of it you will love it as I have. The DLC does add a lot more to it - but I won't go into that now

Stabbing people to death has never been such fun. If you can get Deadbolt on a steam discount, don't hesitate. It'll make you laugh and enjoy life again

Sitting somewhere between This War of Mine and Fallout Shelter, Sheltered is a playable but flawed game. I like the art style graphics personally, but it screams out indie game, and there's not a great deal of sound impact. If there were different levels of commitment on Sheltered, it would probably feel more playable. However, it feels pedantic on detail. Literally everything feels like it needs micro-managing and whilst in some titles this can be a benefit, here it really does feel like a chore. Crafting seems illogical at times and it becomes frustrating more than enjoyable pretty fast. Enemies can be really frustrating also. I can't recommend this over it's influences. Fallout Shelter feels more polished and as an app, it works really well, whilst This War of Mine feels like the more weighty game.

PS+ February 2016: As a fan of turn-based strategy, indie titles and exploration based games, this game had potential to tick many of my boxes and **** me in. It really really failed on that though. This game has two whopping great big flaws. Firstly, it's boring. Getting a number of levels in I realised it was much alike many mobile apps in exploration and glorified 2D plat-former. The graphics aren't terrible at all for an indie title, but it lacks real design on enemies etc, the art style itself was pretty bland. Compared to an indie title like Darkest Dungeon, the enemies were tedious to look at. The other problem is it is ridiculously easy. Combat is suitable for 7 year olds. Evasive action is a piddle and becomes more of a chore because it lacks any real challenge. I died once in a few hours of playing. This to me felt like I was just going through a linear game for children without having to think much throughout. Puzzle elements are the larger challenge, but even then offer nothing compared to an actual puzzle game. Shame really, as sounded good by description

PS+ game February 2016: Another freebie, and one that I was actually considering buying on it's release (but was released at a time of many good AAA titles!). Helldivers is an interesting game. It offers twin-stick shooter style action with multi-player chaos. What I wasn't expecting was the satire much alike star-ship-troopers. Which I absolutely loved. Organised chaos: Don't expect to be a camper, sniper, or tactician in any way when you get into the multi-player. As swarms of enemies approach, you will do well just to organise yourself enough with others not to have cross-fire! It's manic. Expect a high death count. Expect to die from players re-spawning landing on you. But with this, expect a lot of fun! The game feels familiar in combat and even the enemies, but the graphics are very polished and the sound is exceptional and very engaging. As a free game I think this may stay on my harddrive for a while

After reading IGNs 9.3 review on Firewatch, and seeing it for £13.49 on PSN (with PS+ discount), I felt this game ticks lots of boxes **** style I don't currently own, a walking Sim as they're currently called. Being a fan of non-fiction, I can appreciate good writing. Firewatch exceeded my expectations of script within the first few hours of gameplay. It's refreshingly witty, sensitive, emotional and well, real. Much like the banter I have with friends, I felt the game allowed and even encouraged it. As far as performance goes, I've read a lot about frame-rate issues on the PS4 version, but I've really not noticed these myself. It feels a good pace and to be honest, my boy-scout skills of map-reading weren't up to scratch and I found I spent a lot of time early on working that out whilst going to the wrong places! You really need to accept with Firewatch that it's a 5 / 6 hour journey to completion. That it's not going to demand frantic gameplay, and it wants to consume you into the character and natural world around you. All of these things it does fantastically, beyond that actually. This game will leave its mark on you. The weight of the characters past and the bitterness that consumes is melancholic-bliss. IGN reviewer said this was one of the most refreshing and memorable games of the last decade. I would agree fully. For me, I got it really as a break from Fallout4 whilst awaiting the DLC, and it has been simply a joy to play. Highly recommend this for people looking for escapism in gaming. Its a delight!

Finally Guitar Hero has reached the new Gen, and has it leapt on from the previous version, yes, yes it has. I've played guitar hero for years, and loved the PS3 version, so after seeing mixed reviews I was cautious with this purchase. Alot of complaining about the new layout - this is madness. Whilst it does create a learning curve for veteran players, as someone that has played guitar for over 20 years, the new layout is really a lot more realistic than the 5 colour PS3 style guitars. I found as a guitar player that the 'chord' structures a lot more familiar, it's like playing open chords a bit now. For my girlfriend, who also enjoyed it on PS3, this hasn't caused to much confusion converting to the new layout either. Ultimately, this is a guitar-simulation, and it feels that little more real with the new layout. The game itself is split between a gig mode and an ' MTV' mode. There's not a great deal of content on the gigs, a healthy song list where each gig will be a set of 3 - 6 songs. The leap from PS3 to PS4 is really apparent here in that the cartoon graphics are gone, and a mock tongue-in-cheek real life bands take the stage alongside you, giving you cheesy thumbs up and nods when you make good progress, and look like you've killed their first born when it goes to pot. I love this mode, but after completeing the songs on harder levels, I felt a bit over it in a short amount of time. Player vs player is less competitive, or directly fighting as such. This lack of re-playability on this mode would be a major flaw, but Guitar-Hero TVs 'TV mode' is therefore it's saviour. Endlessly streaming music videos to play along to doesn't sound breathtaking, but actually its the fun way to play. New music is added to the catalogue with updates (for free) and you can sit down without noticing the hours passing playing track after track. You're rewarded XP and coins to use to select the tracks if you wish to play a particular song. The only real downside to the game is that there's no '18' age band... it's family orientated, which is fair enough, but for me, when I play Rage Against the Machine, having the "F you I won't do what you tell me" entire verse removed is a downer :( This game is NOT pay to play - but - you CAN pay £4.99 for a 24 party pass to unlock all the songs to play . This seems pointless to me, but I appreciate if I had all the lads over and made a night of it, it would be useful. As said, if you grind the TV mode, you can earn endless amounts of 'free plays', I've about 30 something stocked up already. So - you CAN pick what you want, but why bother, I don't want to play the same song over and over till I 100% it, I'm happy to jam along to anything A good game, it has enough to call itself New Gen, and it's a great party piece. Well worth your time for GH fans

Free PS+ for December 15 This game is a little hit and miss for me. I used to love Adventure games, Secret of Monkey Islands, Simon the Sorcerer, Beneath a Steel Sky, the Amiga 500+ had an endless stream of great adventure games to play through. One thing I loved about those named is the randomness of solutions, having things at your disposal and trying to USE this with THAT and the sarcastic reply of the character, or, my surprise as he does something weird and wonderful with the mix of items. Kings Quest fails on this account. A lot. It's just too easy, the puzzles are between obvious and non existent. There's no setting to play on a harder level, making the puzzles harder would elevate this game from a 7 to a 10 in my opinion. Why a 7? Because this game is overspilling with charm. The graphics are exceptional, like watching a cartoon. The voice work in this game is as exceptional as the graphics. The playful story telling and wit reminded me a lot of the games of old, whilst the humour upon dying gets better and better throughout. The game works well, it's not glitchy or broken, no heavy load speeds and there's enough of it to make this a good little game to play through in an evening. If this is to be a long series of Kings Quests coming to PS4, I hope this was purposefully easy to not put people off, but please Sierra, you've made some amazing Adventure games of old, bring back the depth in the puzzles and you would have earnt yourself a born-again-Sierra fan!

Hurrah! PS+ provides a good time filler. Whilst Fallout4 still has me at it's mercy and most of my gaming time going to Bethesda, again, I have got the missus into Gauntlet as a 2 player game we can enjoy together. Given its not twin stick (such as Dead Nation) she can handle the simplistic controls. We've played a few hours so far and made our way through the vibrant and well designed levels. Alike the original series, this PS4 rebirth has kept to the swing and slash button bash fun that the original was made on. This true Coin-Op feel is something that's been missing I feel from modern games, and whilst I imagine the re playability may not be there particularly for Gauntlet, who cares. As a free game it's really fun, not Rocket League fun, but not that far off either! The graphics are pretty, the controls are very responsive and the local multiplayer mode is great fun - online seems pretty cool also. For what it is, this is a little gem **** and i think it would become repetitive after some time - but right now it's pure fun to play

45 hours in: I won't lie, I am a huge fan of Fallout 3 and since the announcement I've had the count-down clock on my mobile, and I've tried to realistically manage my own expectations as I did fear that they'd ruin a great franchise. So, as you can see I'm giving it a 10 and this is for numerous reasons. If you are a hardcore Fallout 1 and 2 or Tactics fan, and FO3 was a huge disappointment for you, this is not the game for you. The game feels like a natural progression from FO3, with most of the structure unchanged and changes that have been made have been done so to make the game more fluent, perhaps in this it's lost a little of it's tactical strategy. For instance, v.a.t.s is still used in the game, but the game no longer freezers still. This means in effect you no longer get to pause the game when in combat and assess each and every enemy and think of your way in or way out of the current scenario. Instead, the enemies continue to pursue or aim/fire at you but in slow-mo, this adds a whole heap of pressure onto your decision making and it will probably see you hip-firing like mad once your AP points are out - but is this a flaw in the game? No, not at all in my opinion. Fallout 4 is hard. Most encounters before reaching level 25 feel like stacked odds against you, and dying becomes a regular event (top tip - quicksave, a lot!) I read a review (Guardian I think) that mentioned that FO4 feels more like Fallout 3.75 - and I get this. The world itself, although stunning and vibrant, feels like FO3. If you've not seen the comparison screenshots of say Dogmeat from PS3 to PS4, you can see the graphics have been updated 'just enough' to get away with being new gen. While the map is bigger than that in FO3, it is remarkably more vertical (!) and you will find many buildings taller than ten-penny tower, and you will find more caves deeper than FO3 vaults. As an RPG, the levelling is a lot more straight forward and directly mixes perks with SPECIAL stats. Choosing wisely early on and pre-planning your character goes a long way. To be a jack-of-all-trades doesn't work as your damage will be to low against harder enemies. This means a lot of thought is worth putting in to your development from level 5 onwards! It's all about that Base: Hell yeah. The base building option in FO4 is a great addition. It means you can build an entire town from scratch, if you've the resources. Unlike FO3, everything you pick up can become useful. To be able to scrap anything into its basic form ie wood, steel, ceramics etc; means that scavenging is far more rewarding and becomes a task to perform ritually if you are focused on developing your new town (!). 45hours in, I can honestly say at least 8 hours play was building and scavenging. I really enjoyed this, as occasionally frustrating as it is when fences etc dont snap into place, you can pick it up and remove it so easily you can end up, as I have, with a base looking as good as anything already standing in the world. It's also really fun defending the bases once the raiders come charging in. Remember though, this is totally optional and you don't have to make bases. I do feel reading reviews on here though (ridiculous to score this game a 3 or below!) and most of the haters seem to have lost what RPG means. As a gamer who's played decades of RPGs, I find this style a joy to play as it has the right mix of action, adventure and exploration that **** me deeply into the world Bethesda have created. I think people like the ability to freeze the game and play it almost turn-based still like a strategy game, perhaps players that don't like the frantic moments. But evading death has sometimes been the best moments in the game for me, and yes, sometimes I've taken advantage of flawed AI, but I did so in F3 also and I think it's part of using the environment to favour you. Glitches. Glitches everywhere. One thing I did notice from my first few hours is seeing a graphical glitch is going to be part of the experience, end of. Most of the glitches I've noticed are within chats with NCPs, the most common of which is when you start talking a little to close to someone they lean in and their face disappears. No glitch in 45hrs though as prevented me completing a quest or made an enemy impossible to kill. So, I've overlooked them and just hope they patch them up for the future. Overall, FO4 offers much the same as FO3. Don't buy if you expect a whole new game, it really isn't - but in my opinion, FO3 is one of the greatest games ever made. Had they took the model and changed it radically, people would complain and hardcore fans would cryout. Instead they built on what they do best, and have offered a potential unlimited experience in FO4. With DLC and future modding being available (and free) for PS4, this game I maybe still playing in 1000hrs+ time. I don't say it often, but I love this game & perhaps it's nostalgia, but I missed Fallout!

Syndicate excels at re-creating a dingy dangerous London which is big and hugely populated. Graphically the game is beautiful and some of the highlights are simply exploring with the new free-run set up - basically free-run up and free-run down controls, it makes an epic difference from earlier versions. All said though, I wasn't blown away remotely by Syndicate. It's story is unoriginal, the missions are tedious from the off and you can't help feeling about an hour into the game, this is a redressed revamp of the last edition of AC. There's something cynical about Ubisofts obsession with making this an annual release. Consider Fallout 3 was 7 years ago now, that is why the world is eager to embrace FO4 in a few weeks, and why this just feels weak and like a re-branding of Unity. Personally, I'd like Ubisoft to go away and take a long hard look at what they haven't achieved and recognise that a franchise doesn't need an annual release to keep fresh in the buyers minds, it needs to be inspirational and enjoyable. After Black Flag, I would of happily awaited years for the next release and for the next one to blow me away - but instead we get Syndicate.

PS+ Sep 15 - Another flop for me on this months PS+ SuperMeatBoy is an app game in both graphics and game play. It's probably got high praise from people that enjoy the flow of 90s platformers or before, such as Super Mario Bros on the Nes. I compare this as it's that repetitive knowing the levels that get you anywhere in this game. Perhaps if I was 10 again, I'd find the ease of play and fluent platforming action enjoyable, but now I'm in my 30s and time dedicated to gaming is 'My time", wasting it on such an unrewarding experience isn't going to happen. I wasted an hour on SMB, and unlocked no achievements on my PS4 and didn't feel anything for it other than regret at the hour I lost of my life playing it. Sure, it plays nicely, if it was on my Android phone I'd waste a few train journeys completing it, but it's on my PS4 and it's just another 2-bit empty platformer. Download if free, but I'd not pay for this experience or lack of

PS+ September 2015 Probably the worst indie title to stain the PS store yet. 2D ugly looking basic platformer, repetitive and empty in both character and playability. Really poor. Don't bother