SamLang

Makes it seem like stealth is a viable option at the start and has a stealth heavy tutorial, then the main game is full of no stealth forced boss battles that I am woefully underpowered for because I invested in stealth thinking I would be able to use it. At least games like Skyrim or Fallout have items to help like potions/spells or stealth boys and stealth damage bonuses. This just gives you a sneaking bonus and nothing else, sure it might work well 100 hours in but I've just started and already had to slog through three unavoidable mission based boss battles with no possibility of using stealth. If you are a glorified FPS and nothing else then at least let the player know what to expect rather than lying to the player about there being any other options than full on gun combat and nothing else. Its basically a borderlands clone trying to pretend to be some kind of amazing RPG like Fallout, but without all the things that make borderlands or Fallout good. I should really restart and respec all points into guns but I am more likely to uninstall it and sell the disk on ebay at this point.

This is going to sound weird but... I hope this game WAS written by AI, the idea that an actual human, let alone an entire team of humans wrote this, make me loose faith in humanity and welcome the AI uprising. To be clear 90% of the game was fine, it was just the ending that was the lowest effort, beyond abysmal cliche and stupidest video game logic that I have ever seen since I played my first game (pong). I loved all the other games in this series, its not that they did the characters dirty, but I don't want to spoil anything, so i will just say it was mostly enjoyable but the ending ruined the whole thing for me purely from a bad writing standpoint and not for the actual concepts.

This would be a great game, the gameplay is mostly fun with some issues, sure the story is not that great, but it is very scary and has a great atmosphere. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sadly, the combination of a few design choices ruins the game for me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The save system: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Autosaves are fine, I have no issue with autosaves, it’s the way they are implemented here that is awful. They are story based, I have played games that have autosaved for story events before, just not one that only ever saves for story events. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This means that you can effectively play the game for an infinite time period of time without the game making a save at all, just don’t progress the story. I have played for over forty-five minutes and had to reset, and it took me all the way back to the start of the mission. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This makes it like you have never played the game at all, this may be fine in some hardcore games, but that’s not what this is supposed to be. Earlier games in the series had manual save points, as almost all games of this genre do (Silent Hill, Resident Evil etc.). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When this happens you have only two choices, quit playing the game (I feel most players would choose this), or run through the level without “playing” at all until you hit a story point that makes an autosave (this will give you a very low rating for that mission, and you will have to come back and play it again if you want a better rating). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I can’t see anybody willing to play the same thing they just spent forty-five minutes playing again. This would be like watching a show and stopping five minutes from the end and watching it again from the start. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The worst part of this is the many, many reviews and player discussion, that pointed out that this system was flawed and ill-fitting for a game of this genre, and the number of patches the game has had since. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It would have been very easy for the developers to change it so that autosaves triggered when you moved to a new area (load zone), as in games like Metal Gear Solid 3. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Walls and Corners: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes the game makes you fight ghosts in very tight indoor areas, this would be fine but the ghosts seem to tactically use the fact that they can pass through walls making you unable to target them, only to then attack you through the walls. You try to position yourself as much as you can to try and force them to leave the safety of hiding outside the playable areas, but they will always try to counter you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another gameplay problem is getting stuck in a corner, this is the main reason I would get killed by a ghost, if they get you in a corner, you can't escape, and they can just keep attacking over and over, too close for you to effectively attack them.

Ghost of Yōtei PS5 Pro ReviewScore: 10/10 Provisional score: 8/10 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Honestly this WAS a 10/10 game for me its amazing, the setting, the gameplay, the exploration, Erika Ishii’s amazing performance, the very emotional story that left me in tears multiple times… ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The final fight was hands down one of the worst things I have ever played, I can’t even tell you why, I honestly think that it is bugged and broken, like all the graphics in the background made the game slow down so it was unplayable or something, I have no idea. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What I can tell you is that for the entire game, I played on normal difficulty with no problem and loved every fight (even *that* really hard one, if you know…). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I could not counter or perfect dodge a single attack in the last part of the final battle, it was so bad that at one point, I thought I was supposed to lose (there is a reason for this I’m not insane) and just let him kill me. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, I put on the charm that makes counters easier, it didn’t help, I then put on the armor that makes counters easier, it didn’t help, I changed the difficulty to custom and turned counter timing down to easy, it didn’t help. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sure I’m not the master of counters but I would get maybe three out of five or more, I wasn’t awful, I tested this combo of items and difficulty later and I couldn’t miss a single counter, not one, it made the game unfun to play it was so easy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I’m not one of those people who say “change the game its too hard” I completed Elden Ring day one before the bosses got nerfed, I also completed Shadow of the Erdtree day one before that got nerfed. I was fine with it (a little bitter that people get it easier now though). This needs to be fixed, its not a difficulty thing, its fully broken, you should be able to counter a single move he does. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It’s such a shame that such an amazing game had to end like this, it reminds me of that Halo game that just had a quicktime event for the final boss, until they patch this final battle I consider this an 8/10 game, I gave it a 10/10 because I am hopeful they will fix it.

Review for Silent Hill f Score: 8/10 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is an amazing horror game… It is NOT however a silent hill game. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am not saying that as a Silent Hill purist, the only thing that this game has in common with ANY of the previous Silent Hill games, is a metal pipe used as a weapon. I could list all the things that differ from other Silent Hill titles but honestly it IS everything apart from a pipe. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a blessing and a curse; It feels like this game was a new horror IP that was picked up by Konami and renamed into a Silent Hill game. Although this brought it much attention under the umbrella of a known IP, but if it was a new IP I feel that it IS good enough that it would have become popular in its own right. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If not Silent Hill what is it? In terms of both gameplay, feel, atmosphere, progression, and story evolution, I would compare it most to Forbidden Siren / Siren, and lesser so to Project Zero / Fatal Frame. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gameplay: At the start it is fairly slow and plodding as you investigate the village setting seeking items and clues, you will fight the occasional monster and solve the occasional puzzle, the atmosphere is spooky and tense. As the game progresses the environment gets more hostile, and monsters become more frequent, the atmosphere becomes more horror orientated, with blood, gore and fleshy lumps accompanying the ever more invasive red flowers. Like other Silent Hill game the is another place but it is not like the other place or “dark world” (normally a version of the misty world but degraded and full of rusted metal). In this game it is mostly like a temple or variants on temples, one other area is like a traditional Japanese house. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Puzzles: Most of the puzzles are fairly easy, but some of them are just badly explained and you have no idea what you are supposed to do, once you do, they are generally easy and I played on the hardest puzzle mode. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrades: Another way this game differs from Silent Hill games but is more like some other Japanese horror games (E.g. Project Zero / Fatal Frame) is the ability to upgrade yourself, not only your stats but also by using special items that give specific bonuses, like lowered visibility to monsters. This in some way aids you as you progress and battles become harder, and also adds some strategic choices to the game. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Combat: Unlike most Silent Hill games, this game has a very competent combat system, this includes: countering, perfect dodging, power attacks, and a power up mode that makes you very powerful. This for the most part works very well and is enjoyable, sadly it fails when you are facing more than one monster at a time. Many times, I had perfect dodged one monster and was hit by a second one whilst still in slow motion from the perfect dodge. This game would benefit greatly from adding I-frames (a period of invincibility during dodging) especially during perfect dodges, as they seem pointless if you can get hit whilst performing them. I have heard many complaining about the combat in the game but really it comes down to a problem with monster placement and a lack of I-frames. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overall this is a great horror game that was clearly made with love and is very enjoyable, one thing I would warn about it that it does cover some sensitive topics particularly in relation to woman’s traditional place in the world and feminine problems in general, also featured and not limited to, metal health, body dysmorphia, trypophobia, body horror and bleed and gore. If any of these things trigger or greatly disturb you then this might not be a great game for you or maybe it will, it is supposed to be horror after all.

METAL GEAR SOLID Δ: SNAKE EATER This is a 2025 “remake” of the classic 2004 game “Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater” Lets start with the improvements to the game. Graphics Online updates That’s it. It is unacceptable to have a game this janky in **** controls feel so clunky and un responsive, it is like you are filing a request with the game to perform an action, and at some point in the future the game will decide whether to follow it or not. Admittedly some of the issues are copied from the original game, and some game purists will say they like them, if that is the case, go play the original game! I’m not even talking about the “legacy” classic controls I am talking about the new style updated controls. Here are a few examples. Creep mode: You can now toggle creep mode so you don’t have to hold the button all the time you are creeping. Great you might think, NO! If you want to change stance from walking crouching or crawling you have to deactivate creep mode and reactivate it. Q: Won’t they hear you and go on alert if you are creeping behind them and deactivate it to stand up? A: YES, YES THEY DO Lie down: When the enemy goes on alert because you changed stance, they will hit you, when they do you will fall to the ground. Ok that’s fine I will just stand up again wont I? NO! You don’t stand up ever again! You have to manually give the request to stand up and that takes a while, during which time the enemy will be ready to strike you down again. Putting you in a cycle of contestant and pointless paddling of the stand up button until you die. Grapple: If you have no gun equipped you cannot grapple people with your arms and choke them out with your bare hands for… *checks notes* NO RATIONAL LOGICAL REASON WHAT SO EVER!!!! You still have arms and hands but noooo you can’t use them without holding a gun! These are just a few examples of awful jank that make this game feel like you are playing a 2004 game and not a 2025 one, and to me, that’s not enjoyable. I played the game in 2004, I still have the disk & my original fat boi playstation 2. I could replay that janky 2004 game anytime, but I choose not to because this level of jank is not fun in 2025 when you have games like Ghost of Tsushima & Horizon. Why couldn’t they have remade it like Blooper team remade the fantastic Silent Hill 2 remake?With modern controls, modern game systems, modern game layout? If people are such purists that they don’t want that then they can play the original, its on every console and format in the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection. This is the kind of nostalgia I don’t want, to remember how bad and janky the games I loved when I was younger were. And how they were hard mostly because of the bad controls, camera and game systems. If this was a brand new game IP in 2025 and it was this janky, it would be a massive 3/10 failure and nobody would buy it. Also as a side note: They could have removed all of the “press a button to stare a woman’s chest” interactions, something else I feel is unacceptable in 2025.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Its like trying to play Temu Dark Souls with your feet. Input issues Performance issues Graphical glitches Bad gameplay A real shame, it started off so well. One of the things that I find disappointing, Monkey is mostly a silent protagonist, anyone who had read or watched any journey to the west knows that the best thing about it, is Monkey himself. His brashness and boldness, his humour and endless prattle IS what makes the stories so great and enjoyable. Something that is completely missing in this game. Also you would think that the Buddha was a violent murdering psychopath the way he is represented in this game.

Half-Life: Alyx – In Review “This game… It insists upon itself.” Un-immersive. From all I have heard about how immersive this game is I was disappointed when I got the gravity gloves & a gun, you press a button & open a two-dimensional menu to switch between them. There are only a few guns & a multitool, these could easily be fitted to your hips & back (like many VR games do) for a more immersive experience. Interact with everything or just don’t. Many think this game is revolutionary because you can “interact with everything” but it’s totally pointless. The only things you really interact with are weapons, healing items & a multitool. Everything else is set dressing & has no use apart from the occasional object you need to move out of the way of a door. Early in the game I had to pull a pipe out of a door to get through it, after picking up the pipe I came upon an enemy & tried to hit them with it… Nope. You can’t even swat away head crabs when they jump at you, your only option is to move (teleport) out the way or get head grabbed. At least 80% of the time that I interact with anything I become unable to turn for a few seconds, this is one of the most annoying (of the many) bugs in the game & as you can imagine it's great in combat or when you're navigating near deadly drops. Painful Traversal. This must be the only VR game I have played where I can move faster by physically walking in my play space than I can by using the control stick in the game. I have heard some say the developers implemented this to make it more immersive, if this is true how come you can still teleport in an un-immersive way? You still need to teleport all the time to jump or drop down & anything that is not walking. It got to the point where I was using smooth walking only in small areas after teleporting or just to back away from enemies. Un-immersive AI. The AI in this game is annoying & stupid, they just run at you using no tactics or intelligence. They know where you are all the time even before they have seen you & will try to shoot at you through walls. They don’t see doors & push themselves partly through them to hit you, I had one occasion where a head crab zombie was pushing through a door so I shot it & the head crab that he had pushed through the door was still alive & attacked me on the other side of the door. Dark but not in a spooky way. You get to a dark area & must find a torch to get through it, they tell you “it will turn on automatically in dark areas”. This is a lie, what they mean is that it will turn on when the developers want it to. Most of the time you will be left in the dark wishing you had a [working] torch. On more than one occasion I was grabbed by a barnacle that I could not see at all because it was too dark & I couldn’t even shoot it to defend myself while it **** me up because It was hidden in complete darkness. Retro Crashing. One of the many bugs in this over nine-months-old game will cause your headset screens to flash rapidly & asynchronously whilst freezing your pc to the point where you need to press the reset button on the pc itself. I have not had crashing like this since the original half-life! To fix it you must go into the game’s files in app data & delete them. Things I Like. This is the best glass smashing simulator I have ever played, glass breaks in a very realistic way & it’s very satisfying, the most fun I had in this game. You can place helmets, traffic cones, buckets & all sorts of things on your head! As a bonus if you walk under a barnacle you haven’t spotted, instead of grabbing your head they will take what’s on it instead. Summary. This game is a below par retro first-person shooter with some highly pretentious, non-useful or impactful interaction gimmicks crowbarred into it. Anything outside of picking up random useless scenery objects is handled in a completely non-immersive (& often glitchy) way. The graphics are pretty if you can run them but I would rather play something that is more immersive & fun. Three out of ten.