morjito

Highly immersive, unexpectedly fun and high replay value, the hours will pass by quickly playing this game. Plus, the controls are surprisingly easy and intuitive on a PS4 controller. Loading times between different areas are almost non-existent. Lots of mindless destruction and loot, spam that disintegration beam and obliterate monsters and demons in your path. Downside, the story needs more depth to actually care for the story characters. Finished the campaign using a wizard, playing demon hunter next, and glad the servers are still up and continue to support the season.

ME legendary edition gets an 8 for the nostalgia factor, its a decent compilation of the ME trilogy with slightly upgraded graphics, and retains most of the elements that made ME, a favorite for single player games. The controls are smooth and responsive, load times are few and tolerable, everything else seem the same as the original release. Except for the censorship, yes -1 for the censorship that is not even obscene, music videos can show artists excessively twerking and song lyrics contain profane and obscene words, but a butt shot in a videogame gets censored, WTH? Update: Got the platinum trophy and finished the whole trilogy at insanity difficulty, story-wise and gameplay, ME2 is still tops, but graphically ME3 just looks superb on the PS4. The ME3 DLC character made the ME3 experience much better, story-wise, and the finale was better executed with Legendary edition.

Surprisingly immersive with stunning graphics, action-packed game play, and RPG-like levelling system. Played most of the Tomb Raider games, and Rise is definitely top-tier and redefines Tomb Raider on the PS4. There is a balanced mix of story, exploration, puzzles, pinch of stealth and shoot the bad guys game play, and it all worked to deliver a really fun gaming experience. The game has enough cut-scenes to tell the story, and the transition between cut-scenes to game play is smooth and keeps the player immersed. There are also plenty of skills and equipment, including skins for various attires that are readily available and a few can be unlocked from game play. Controls are responsive but take a bit of time to get used to. AI in the game is pretty good and challenging, enemies coordinate to flank, throw grenades or rush to melee. Exploration and puzzles provide a nice change of pace from the intense fire fights, puzzles are challenging enough that you don't need to look at a guide. Downside, the micro-transactions for "virtual card collectibles" that thankfully do not impact the game play. Console game publishers and devs need to stop and leave the micro-transactions for the "pay-to-play" mobile games and MMOs. Overall, playing Rise of the Tomb Raider is a fun and immersive experience. Its like watching a movie and playing a game at the same time. The game is worth playing and at current sale prices (bought mine $15 brand new), its a must have game for the PS4.

Better Tales game to date, while retaining elements that distinguish tales game from the rest of the JPRPG crop. How is it better? The graphics, game play and story combined provide an immersive gaming experience. How about the characters? The playable characters are ok, each one based on typical RPG stereotypes, and the game provides just enough backstory and exposure to show the motivation of each character. The battle system is typical of Tales games, a bit of chaos with all characters shouting out their special moves, which is kinda fun until you get more battles, then you just mute down the volume, hahaha! By the way, kudos to the english voice actors, the voice-overs were well executed that its convincing to switch from original japanese voice-overs, especially since the text fonts are rather small and the walls of text are a pain to read. On the downside, the game has nothing new to offer, and after you finish the game, there is no replay value. The gaming experience is also not memorable, compared to Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Persona games that leave some lasting memory of the experience. Also, the paid DLC's **** and are obviously placed as an easy cash grab by Bandai Namco, such as DLCs for items to boost experience and gald drops (currency) that would lessen the grinding for xp and resources. Terrible, its like the game is tailored so the players are tempted to pay for the DLC due to the minuscule amount of experience, gald and item drops from defeated monsters. And that Sword Art online collaboration DLC, players have to pay for a training bout vs Kirito and Asuna, seriously, Bandai Namco want players to pay for a frickin' training bout??? Anyway, enough of the DLC rants, finished the game and got the platinum after around 60 hours of game play. Overall, Tales of Arise is an improved Tales game that is slightly above average, its playable with a pinch of patience, interesting enough to play from start to finish, but totally no replay value. If you want to play the game, just rent it, buy at discount or buy a used game, and yeah ignore the absurd DLCs.

After missing out on Liar Princess and Blind Prince, had to buy Cruel KIng and the Great Hero and try the game. Already watched trailers and reviews for Liar Princess, so I know what to expect from this new game. And it sure did not disappoint, bought a storybook game and got a storybook game. Graphics are hand-drawn yet pleasant on the eyes, controls are basic and intuitive, gameplay is simple and enjoyable, story so far is well told with decent narration. Oh, and the loading times are short and almost not noticeable, unlike some other game "cough" cris tales "cough". Plus, there is a feature that minimize random encounters once the hero's level is already higher than the monsters in the area. Downside, expect the game to be short and have repetitive errands, so am playing from time to time, in between other games. Overall, Cruel King and the Great Hero is a simple and fun game, that wants the player to have a good and pleasant story time. Wanted to give a score of 8 but the game is just too short and not enough depth so a high 7 is good. And to show support to the devs, bought the storybook edition that comes with a hardcover mini artbook and plushie of the great hero, so the devs can continue making similar games and hopefully, the devs can add more depth to future games

FF7 Remake is all of those hype and expectations realized! Played the original FF7 and completed all the secrets, so its a bummer that I already know the story. Nonetheless, this remake was still mind-blowing, and am pleasantly surprised with the gorgeous renditions and revised gameplay mechanics. The characters look more alive and complete with expressions and superb voice acting, especially Aerith and Tifa. And Midgar, wow just wow, is bustling with life, and the excellent soundtrack complements the various themes and stages. Once you play the game, you just want to continue to see how it will surprise you next. Downside, game is short, probably just 30% of the full story, and the motorbike mini-game is all eye-candy, and it seem confused on whether it wants to be Gran Turismo or GTA. Finished the game, and it was a fun ride, then waiting for the next installment, hopefully PS5 slims will be available at retail by then...

Hades is incredibly fun and immersive! Never a dull moment, the action is fast-paced yet the game play is surprisingly well balanced, not frustratingly difficult but gives enough challenge to motivate the player to move forward. The graphics are colorful and well-drawn, plus the characters are all interesting and given life with decent voice-acting. Controls are intuitive and responsive, movements are fluid, and load times between areas are tolerable. There are also a variety of weapons and skills to suit the style of the player, the bow is really fun so far. The only negative is the repetitive nature of the game that forces the player to grind, but its not as bothersome due to the fast-paced action, variety of monsters, traps and rewards. There is also a "handicap" system, that allows the player to customize various difficulty options to earn important items to unlock weapon abilities, and gift to each character to advance their own story lines. Overall, Hades is a superb quality game from Supergiant, well worth the price and sets a benchmark for future games. Update: After 50+ "deaths", finally reached the ending, the story is well told that even the game credits will keep you watching. And will keep playing the game to unlock more story lines and weapon aspects.

Having a hard time getting immersed in this game, though really liked past Vanillaware games like Odin Sphere and Dragon's Crown, on the other hand 13 Sentinels does not motivate to play. The battle system is good and the character stories are interesting, and yet, the game does not capture enough attention to immerse the player. After playing through the "tutorial", its difficult to pickup the game again and I tried... and tried... it seems the uniqueness of the game play is made for a niche crowd, and its not for me. Will revisit the game again later, but for now, there are better and more immersive games out.

Rarely pre-order games, and this is one of the reasons why. Cris Tales is a "promising" game, that is a tribute to classic RPGs with stylized animation reminiscent of Samurai Jack and Dexter's Laboratory, and with an interesting take on using "time" on gameplay. Unfortunately, the game is held back by terribly frequent random encounters, and.......... awful awful amount of loading screens and loading times that pop-up each and every time, whether exploring areas or from random encounters that ruin the immersive experience. Explore-loading-battle-loading-explore (rinse and repeat), and the high frequency of random encounters make it worse, it felt like half the time playing the game, is staring at the loading screens. Imagine watching a movie that gets interrupted by a frickin' commercial every 2 minutes. After defeating the 1st boss and reaching the 2nd town, just had enough of the "torture" and put down the controller. Really disappointed, wish the devs can patch and fix the amount of loading screens and loading times that "bombard" the game play, that is unacceptable at this age of gaming and ultimately "make the game unplayable". Until then, putting Cris Tales on the backlog and not buying games from the same publisher/developer again.

Fenyx Rising is surprisingly good, bought the Shadowmaster edition brand-new at $30, and it was worth it. Did not expect the game to offer an open world that is immersive and fun to play for days. The bright colorful 3D world was just beautiful, characters are interesting and the witty banters are entertaining. There are enough variety of skills, quests, sub-quests and challenges to keep the player's attention. The voice dubbing are superb and reflect the personality of each character, except Hermes who was quite annoying. The best parts of the game are exploration by using wings to glide or by riding variety of mounts, and solving puzzles that offer enough challenge and stimulate the player to think, and not just bash through the game. The loading times are also smooth and almost non-existent, except for the initial game loading. On the negative, the time-challenges need incredible patience and can be frustrating at times. There are also quite a few variety of monsters and bosses, that are mostly re-used by using different color sprites. There are micro-transactions built in the game that are obviously meant to cash-grab, but thankfully Ubisoft limited the micro-transactions to visual changes that do not affect the game play. Overall, Fenyx Rising is a super-fun game that offer the player an entertaining and immersive adventure into a colorful world of Greek mythology that is worth playing.

Odin Sphere is fun and immersive, the story is well-told and cleverly interwoven between different characters, and their relationships are fleshed-out. Its incredible to think this used to be a PS2 game, that up to now is able to immerse the player into the gorgeous 2D world. The characters are interesting, each with their own story to tell and unique skills to keep the player engaged. The stages, monsters and bosses can be redundant across each story, but somehow, it did not feel like a chore or a grind, "cough" Dragon's Crown. Instead, the game urged the player to move forward to find-out what happens next in the story. Odin Sphere is a must-play classic that all gamers who enjoy RPGs and good story-telling should play.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a "masterpiece" that is a worthy tribute to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The game is fluid, immersive, offers plenty variety of skills, items and equipment to suit every player. Was skeptical at first, knowing this was a kick-starter, but later, glad to pickup the game and immerse in it. Grinding is required to get the total experience that the game has to offer, and is finely tuned that its not boring or a chore, thanks to the fluid loading of areas and well-placed monsters. The story is good enough to build the characters and basic plot, while the variety of traps, monsters and bosses are also enough to challenge and engage the player. The game is quite immersive that getting the platinum trophy is just part of the experience.