PsychoG

Prior to FIFA 15 I had only ever played FIFA games with friends and we had always had a great time with it and in terms of the game, it's more or less the same as ever with possibly slight tweaks to game play and noticeably improved graphics. Ultimate Team is a great mode that is a lot of fun and can be addictive. At least, at first. Having never played the Ultimate Team mode before, I was initially having a great time building my own squad and so on and I quickly won the division 10 title and moved onto division 9. Then suddenly, I hit a brick wall. I was being put up against full gold teams with 90% or higher chemistry in every single game (Keeping in mind, this is the 2nd lowest division). My three and a half star team of mixed bronze and silver never stood a chance. It turns out that players who performed well in UT in previous FIFA games are awarded with free packs and FIFA points, more or less allowing them a high quality squad from the get go. What this means is that UT is a great, competitive mode initially but it's rather inaccessible to new comers once they progress past the first division unless they're willing to grind match after match until they can afford to buy a high quality side with the coins they amass (Which, seeing as many players cost tens of thousands of coins or more. Will take a very long time.) Many will be put off by this, getting sick of suffering one demolishing defeat after another and end up giving up on the mode which is a shame. Besides that, most of the online features work nicely although lag can be an issue, sometimes only minor but I've also played games I would compare to power point presentations so bad was the lag. Overall, FIFA is a fun game to play with friends and with improved graphics and tweaked game play and online can also be quite fun but the fact ultimate team is more or less inaccessible to new players is a pretty large fault as it's probably one of the most fun modes to play when matches are somewhat even rather than massacres. + Looks great + Controls mostly work as intended + A lot of fun with friends - Ultimate Team is inaccessible to new players - More or less the same game we've come to expect every year - AI can be extremely stupid at times, which can cost goals and matches

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness is a brilliant strategy RPG that **** the player in with witty humor and often hilarious fourth wall breaking dialogue along with it's addictive game play. The main cast of characters are likable and the story is enjoyable even if the 'power of love' theme can be a little too cheesy at times. Game play is also challenging and deep enough to keep the player interested and wanting to continue down the storyline to it's conclusion. The graphics and sound are great for a port of such an old game and the master-pupil system allows for extensive customization of your party members to allow them to perform many different roles if you so wish. Overall, Disgaea is an extremely fun game that can keep the player interested for hours upon hours at a time (Especially if you feel the need to reach the insane maximum character level of 9999). + Excellent strategy based RPG + Interesting characters and storyline + Great visual and sound design + Deep game play and ample character customization options + Witty humor and entertaining dialogue - Can sometimes be necessary to grind old stages to pump up your characters levels - The 'power of love' theme is a little cliched and can be irritating at times

Hearthstone is a game that is ridiculously easy to become addicted to, it's simple to pick up and learn as the game mechanics are extremely straight forward, outrageously fun and the addictiveness of the matches leaves players wanting to play match after match, tweaking their deck as they go in order to achieve the best results. The ability to pay real money for card packs has given Hearthstone a reputation among some players as being a 'pay to win' game and that players have no chance of performing well unless they shell out for packs. This is, to an extent, true although the cards you are given to begin with and the extras you will pick up from packs bought with in-game gold from daily quests are generally enough to build a reasonable deck. If you want to be one of the top ranked players, then yes, you will likely need to shell out for packs. But if you're content with just having a good time competing with your friends and enjoying the game, there's no need as you should do fine with what you pick up along the way. Overall, Hearthstone is a simple but very fun game that can be enjoyed by both those looking to climb up to the top of the ranks and those who just want to kill some time or compete with their friends. + Extremely simple to learn with a well done tutorial + Addictive and fun game play + Great game to play with friends + Free to play and card packs can be bought with in-game gold for those who are patient enough to earn it - Reaching the highest ranks in constructed is very difficult without buying packs - Some balance issues with some classes feeling much more powerful than others

One of my personal favorite RPG's of all time, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter has an engaging story and extremely fun combat. It was a bold decision to have the game step away from the formula of it's predecessors and take the series in a different direction and while many loyal fans of the series were disappointed by the changes, it'd be fair to say that had the game not been labelled a Breath of Fire game most of them wouldn't have had an issue. This is most definitely a game intended to be played over and over again. Partly because unless you are extremely skilled, you aren't going to be able to get through the story on your first attempt due to certain boss battles being extremely difficult on the first play through and starting from the beginning or from your last save with some extra party exp to spread around can make all the difference and secondly in order to unlock all of the cut scenes to learn the entire story behind the events of the game. The limiting of Ryu to a single dragon form when traditionally he had access to many different forms was a risky one but in my opinion it worked. Instead of having 50 or more forms of which you'd possibly use 5 or 6 throughout the entire game. DQ gives you a single extremely powerful, almost invulnerable form with the catch being that you can only use it so much until you die from it and have to start over from the beginning. It forces you to be strategic about using the form only for tough fights you wouldn't be able to beat otherwise rather than being cheap and using your dragon form for every fight. Overall Dragon Quarter is a unique experience that changes up an old formula and adds an engaging story and likable characters to a new combat system like nothing any game had offered before it. + Great combat system + Engaging story + Excellent replay value + A bold step in a new direction for the series, it's different but by no means bad - The holding back of certain story elements can leave the player confused as to why certain things happen until later runs through the game - Environments are very repetitive, especially through the middle part of the game

The first Hyperdimension Neptunia game left me rather disappointed. Some clever ideas and humor were critically undermined by clunky and annoying combat and ugly graphics outside of the anime styled scenes, not to mention a little too frequent use of creepy sexual innuendos and imagery. However, I obviously thought it had SOME potential otherwise I wouldn't have bothered giving the second game a chance and I was pleasantly surprised. Mk2 makes major improvements in it's combat and healing mechanics. The combat no longer felt clunky and unresponsive, combos flowed much more smoothly without unnecessary pauses in-between strikes and the ability to actually move your characters around the battlefield adds a layer of strategy concerning where to position your party members to avoid damage or flank an enemy. The old healing system that copped so much flak in the first game has been completely scrapped in favor of a more traditional system that removes the frustration of the last game, returning control of healing their party to the player. The graphics are much improved although still not great compared to the original however the dungeon design is still underwhelming. Overall Mk2 is a much improved experience when compared to the first game although the sexual elements will still be too much for some to look past despite the improved overall product. If you're a fan of anime or JRPG's and can look past the overactive sexualisation of the young cast of characters and the sometimes cringe worthy sexual innuendo they often come out with then Mk2 is definitely worth a shot for it's much improved combat mechanics and smoother game play overall. + Clever game industry parody humor + Much improved combat mechanics and smoother combat animations + Traditional healing system replaces the percentage based auto-healing of the first game + Improved graphics outside of cut scenes - Still has rather uninspired dungeon design - The sexualisation of the characters and dialogue of the first game is still here and will alone be enough to put some players off despite the other improvements

As a fan of JRPG's generally speaking, I had high hopes that I'd enjoy Hyperdimension and initially I enjoyed myself, getting a few laughs out of the often clever game industry parody humor, even if the over-sexualised characters and innuendo occasionally made me feel a tad uncomfortable. However, once the actual game play was introduced, that's when things got pretty ugly. The combat felt extremely clunky and unresponsive with characters often taking a pause after each individual strike despite my having pressed the button to continue the combo and while it was something I could have adjusted to, the lack of a traditional healing system made things extremely frustrating. While I didn't hate the system and even believe it would be great in conjunction with a traditional system to make things more efficient (Ie, a character auto-heals themselves in battle using a specified item or ability when they drop too low instead of you having to tell them to do it), on it's own it quickly left characters too low on health to trigger the heal before they were knocked out, thus leaving them stuck on 1 HP. The graphics on the other hand, are a mixed bag. The anime-style frames and scenes look extremely nice and clean however the actual modeled game world and character sprites leave a lot to be desired. They really didn't look good and many of the dungeon designs were extremely simplistic and uninspired. Someone enjoying Hyperdimension Neptunia is going to ultimately come down being able to look past a multitude of problems with the core mechanics. If you enjoy anime or JRPGs and can look past the shortcomings in the combat system, the average game world graphics and the over-sexualisation of the characters and dialogue then there's enough clever humor to have your share of enjoyment. Otherwise, it's probably best to stay away. + Clever game industry related humor + Great game to play 'Guess the reference' + Anime style frames and scenes look great + Extensive combo building system - Clunky and unresponsive combat system - Frustrating healing system that takes too much control away from the player - Ugly and uninspired graphics outside of the anime styled scenes - Repetitive dungeons - Over-sexualised characters and dialogue can leave the player feeling uncomfortable (Especially due to characters being presented as quite young)