The last game you completed, and rating.

Dishonored 2 9/10. The game always suffered with a framerate stutter issue like vsync was on all the time or something, but apart from that massive negative the game is great, classic stealthy or kill em all gameplay options, fun exploring the city maps, great replay value.
 
Watchdogs 2 - 6.5/10. The story was interesting but pretty straightforward. The graphics and gameplay were okay. Nothing special to talk about. Bar the addition of few gadgets, for me this felt quite similar to the first one from memory. As if I am just playing an extension of it in a different setting. Even with only half the skills tree unlocked, the game missions were quite easy including the penultimate one so didnt feel the game was challenging enough. Finished the main story in 25 hours , might linger for a bit to try some of the side missions. Glad I got it free.
 
Red Dead Redemption 8/10! Amazing game really amazing, the story, the characters very memorable. The only reason I didn't give it a full 10/10 was if it wasn't for me using a cheat to fast travel, I would probably not have completed it. Traversing across vast distances with my horse would've become a chore
 
Dishonored 2 9/10. The game always suffered with a framerate stutter issue like vsync was on all the time or something, but apart from that massive negative the game is great, classic stealthy or kill em all gameplay options, fun exploring the city maps, great replay value.
I wouldn't mind trying this one again
 
Shadow of The Tomb Raider - second playthrough with the couple of extra DLC missions this time and with the resolution VSRed up to ultrawide 4K. Enjoyed it just as much this time around. Perhaps the least engaging storyline of the three reboots but such a polished gaming and viewing experience. Loved the female leader of the creature with the messed up teeth - so cool. 8/10
 
Red Dead Redemption 8/10! Amazing game really amazing, the story, the characters very memorable. The only reason I didn't give it a full 10/10 was if it wasn't for me using a cheat to fast travel, I would probably not have completed it. Traversing across vast distances with my horse would've become a chore
I'm quite sure fast travel unlocks after a while. You can always jump on a train or coach too before that. I personally enjoyed traversing the map on horseback but I can understand peoples frustrations. Bit harsh to drop two points for it though! lol
 
Dyson Sphere Program
9/10

For an early access game, performance is flawless. Such a time sink, lovely to look at, scale is impressive and even though I just finished it.... i want to start again from scratch and do it all again.
 
Sekiro: Shadows die twice
11/10
Never liked (and still don't) other From Software games - Dark Souls, Bloodbourne etc), but Sekiro... Despite my low initial expectations it became probably my favourite game of all time, and definitely the best single player game of the past decade. Alien Isolation taking the second spot.

Style, atmosphere, adrenalin, mastery, the cognitive development of MY (not my character's) real life skills from a cowering noob to an OP bad ass shinobi - nothing else can compare in my video game experience.
 
Just Cause 4 - 6/10.
Its good fun like its predecessors but had quite a few bugs. As I was using epic games launcher, after the first launch the game could not connect to the server so had to disconnect internet to play the game otherwise it would keep showing the retry notification. Eventually it worked when launching through GOG without having to disconnect internet connection so ended up using that instead of epic games. Seems to be known bug from around 9 months ago. The game itself has other random bugs like being stuck outside of the structures like tunnels,mountains etc when grappling with no way to get back into the playable area. Some mission waypoints would not progress so needed to restart the objective. The character or car speeding/jumping in bits without doing anything.
It does not feel massively different to JC3 with maybe some minor improvements and the weather system doesnt exactly add any particular challenge. In fact in my 40h gameplay I only came across the tornadoes probably twice one of which was for a mission. The story is again similar, go and remove the dictator. Atleast this time they went to the effort of having cutscenes using the characters animation instead of the comic book strip style in JC3.
Overall good shoot 'em up, create chaos and destroy stuff kind of game but thats about the only enjoyable element.
 
Jedi Fallen Order
Star Wars done well! Lightsabers! Reflecting blaster bolts back at hapless stormtroopers! Fast-paced lightsaver duels with force powers!

Some things in the game are done fabulously well. A big shout out to the audio direction in particular. All the SW sounds working really well, and the soundtrack fitting in beautifully. And when you bring off some neat combination of force powers and lightsaber moves on the fly in the thick of combat it feels legitimately awesome.

There are also some things I would really like to see improved in the sequel, though.

The difficulty is a bit wonky, or at least I thought so. Jedi Master felt too easy in general (barring the last boss), but the step up to GM feels poorly managed. The parry timing goes from very generous to almost impossible. That was the main thing that kept me on JM despite feeling it was too easy - it felt to me like they effectively disabled the parry in GM but otherwise it was just about receiving a bit more damage, which was rather underwhelming. I would love to see something like the Nioh system of increasing difficulty, with varied enemy placement, more elites, and new boss moves and resistances.

The was far too much platforming for my tastes and the level design was frequently frustrating, especitally for a game that sets up the goal of revisting areas to grab collectibles. Zeffo I am looking particularly in your direction! Actually, also Dathomir! I really wanted a fast travel option between meditation points, even if it just unlocked near the end of the game.

I would have liked to see some build options rather than just getting all the possible force powers by the end. Some different combat styles would have been good, too. The combat is good in general, and very often great fun, but it is exposed as a bit basic in some of the bigger battles and boss fights.

It was also kind of short given the kind of game it is. I padded out my playime to only 20 hours or so, and that was with me going on a longish missed collectibles hunt prior to the final level (a hunt I gave up on in the end due to getting too browned off trying to get back to the place I needed to be on Dathomir...).

Enough here to really have me looking forward to the sequel, though.

7.5/10 for this one (losing at least half a point because I am still mad about how frustrating it was trying to back-track through Dathomir near the end...).
 
Underrail + Expedition DLC

One of the longest cRPG single player games I have played. Nearly 270 hours from start to finish. It has a very similar feel to the original Fallout 1/2 in that it is an isometric viewpoint and set in a far future bleak sci-fi dystopian future, with tactical movement/action point based combat. The combat is its biggest strength, at times it can become chess like to work out the optimum way to take out the enemies and stay alive, sine you are a one man band at all times, there is no party system at all, and no pets even.

The character build options are mind boggling. The game is famous for not holding your hand at any point. It is easy to completely screw up a character, especially if you try to be a jack of all trades and dabble in too many skills. Choosing the wrong feats can also bugger you up and no mistake. Some forums say play the game up to a certain point without following any char build guides, then restart once you know how the game works. The point at which it would become clear you have messed a char up comes after about 30 hours, so I ignored that advice and used an online char build tool to at least flesh out a viable build, based on the general char types people seemed to go for. I would recommend this approach if anyone takes this game up, as you run the risk of just quitting the game rather than restarting with a new build, as your backside can be handed to you in no uncertain terms at that point in the game.

Another strength is the general feel of the atmosphere and the lore, which you uncover as you go. Not much is fully explained to you though, it is one of those games where it feels like the developer has written like 3 complete novels of back story, out of which you are allowed to see small segments. But this is clearly deliberate to make you wonder how the place got like it is in game. Is it even Earth, for example.

I found the mechanics and story thoroughly enjoyable for 90% of the game. The last area however is a bit of a chore in terms of how the difficulty is ramped up and the leg work you have to do. However, I usually always find myself wanting a cRPG to be over by about the 200 hour mark, no matter how good it has been up till then, and so I usually do find myself just wanting to finish these sorts of games. I admit to using a guide for the last part, like I did with Pathfinder Kingmaker, so this could just be me.

Another thing with me is I am somehow addicted to collecting and storing virtually all loot I come across in cRPG's. With Underrail this was probably a mistake and added maybe 30 hours at least of trips backwards and forward stashing loot "for later use". Underrail is not scared to throw metric tonnes of loot at you, so bare this in mind. I guess a normal person could finish the game+dlc in about 160-200 hours if you avoid obsessing over loot and just got on with the game. Still a very long game though.

7.5/10 Overall the game is recommended if you like tactical combat and an oppressive bleak atmosphere to your games, and if you don't mind long slogs.
 
Resident Evil 2 remake - 8/10.

Good looking and fun game. Major negatives for me was the boss fight game design. Also hated unkillable walking guy, I get that they wanted to make the player on the edge at all times but for me it was just annoying and killed my immersion straight away.
 
Resident Evil 3 remake - 7.5/10.

A lot more action oriented. Not horror survival but rather zombie killing action. Not a fan of RE2&3 boss mechanics and the third game is mostly boss fights so I enjoyed it much less. Also the game was only 3.5h. At least RE2 has two different protagonists and game + mode, which has slight changes to the campaign. This RE3 only has the campaign and at 3.5h I would be very annoying if I paid full price for this game. At 3.5h I feel its only worth it for under a tenner.
 
Cyber Shadow - 7/10

I was expecting this to be as good as The Messenger but was disappointed. All the boss fights were excellent and well designed, so it was a shame that the rest of the levels were such a difficult slog to get there.

Controls need to be redesigned. I couldn't consistently dash using the thumbstick on an xbox controller. I had to ditch the controller and use keyboard for the last few levels!
 
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