Recent reviews by Grort

Just a thoroughly good romp, with options to make the game gentler for new Souls players but which is still challenging and enjoyable to veterans. The world itself is similar to previous entries but remixes and re-imagines a lot of the previous themes and plot points to create a fresh experience. Possibly my favourite FromSoft game, enough that I re-bought it on Steam after beating it on the Xbox. Simply a joy to explore the world and survive in it.

Still as joyously weird as the previous instalment was, with a more enjoyable and accessible layout. The dynasty and culture perk trees are also a wonderful additions that allow your dynasty as a whole to grow as it progresses and gains fame and influence in the world. Also greater ability to tailor your character after childhood education with the lifestyle focuses, which helps give you that little extra bit of control.

All in all, well worth grabbing if you were a fan of the previous one, and if you are new to the series this is a great place to jump in, being in general a bit kinder in its layout as well as possessing a moderately better tutorial.

Monster Hunter World is, quite simply, marvellous, and has quickly become one of my favourite RPGs to date. As you play you constantly feel like you are learning new skills, improving, combos begin to slot in with one another more seamlessly, and the ramp up of the monster and the compulsion to hunt each repeatedly and craft gear from their drops leads to an incredibly satisfying gameplay loop that never seems to bore. The variety of weapon types, all available from the start afford you a veritable chest of toys to take out and play with, to learn and grow with, while the fights themselves benefit from the periods of calm and the intense periods of combat, giving hunts a very enjoyable ebb and flow as you track, attack, and manage your sharpness and other tools.

Monster design is good, particularly in the early game when the variety is at its greatest from the slow, bloated Great Jagras, the bird like Kula-Ya-Ku, the ferocious and large Anjanath, tank like Barroth and the monstrous mix of animal parts that is Pukei-Pukei, but does end up with a lot of flying dragon like monsters later on. However, the attacks are varied enough that even the very similar looking Rathian and Ratholos pairing are sufficiently different to be enjoyable fights in their own right. The maps are also a joy to run around in and explore, with plenty of nooks, crannies and short cuts to keep them fresh.

At launch there were some online issues reported, but as I was in the countryside at the time, I did not play in online lobbies due to the inherently terrible internet speeds at my location. During the first month I hunted solo and the game was still immense fun, learning my weapon of choice, the Charge Blade, the enviroments, monsters and the game itself at my leisure and without fear of angering random players. That said, having now returned to the city, a month after launch, I have been playing a decent amount of online play and have not encountered any problems, so I can only assume that that issue has been fixed in post.

Graphically, the game is utterly gorgeous, at least to me. The beauty of the world is no more on show for me than standing on the balcony of my player housing, overlooking my pond as the sunset basks my characters face in its warm orange glow. Similarly, the animations, from the cats cooking your dinner as a cheery tune plays to monsters animations as they wander the landscape, drink from rivers and marshes, or challenge one another in turf wars, is wonderful, the odd janky animation from an awkward piece of terrain notwithstanding.

The game is also more accessible, and on a personal level, more enjoyable than MH4U. Part of this is admittadly the ability to use a comfortable 360 controller as compared to a 3DS with a Circle Pad Pro, but also in the presentation. The vertical enviroments are smoother and more enjoyable to traverse than compared to MH4U. You can hold sprint to scale the wall quickly, dodge to shoot out a grapple from your slinger and dodge on the the climbable, or use both in tandem. The detailed maps provide more terrain to manipulate in fights, making it feel part of the dance of combat, which I never really felt playing MH4U early game, and the paratoads, flashflies and sleeptoads dotting the map lead to some fun enviromental traps. Mounting also feels considerably better, with a flashy move pulled off at the end of the mount dropping them to the floor, while the hanging on and stabbing the beast balance is no longer a visual bar you have to follow, with the shake off chasing your stabbing quota, a change which makes it feel like a cleaner continuation of the fight and less of a little minigame interrupting it. A lot of this is likely due to technological difference in platforms, but it all adds to a smoother, more enjoyable hunting experience, one I have been able to keep with and continue enjoying much longer than MH4U.

It's certainly not for everyone, but there is a lot to like about Monster Hunter: World. While doing its own thing, it reminds me of Dark Souls, fighting large strong monsters whose weak points you have to exploit, as well as MMOs, with that familiar mob farming, equipment upgrading loop that makes MMOs so addicting and satisfying to play when you get comfortable with them. The variety of weapons mean you almost certainly will find something that'll suit you and eventually click, although if you're coming from outside the series, they will still likely feel 'odd' compared to their counterparts (if they have any) in other games. In all, the game is a very entertaining, continuously rewarding and challenging romp, even alone, and almost certainly improved with a few friends on teamspeak to hunt with.

One of the most pleasant platformers I have ever played and incredibly well narrated. Well worth trying.

Great atmosphere and in feeling with the general Borderlands feeling, with returning characters and some great jokes that really stuck out. Also, Kronk from The Emperor's New Groove is in charge of Hyperio and is your arch nemesis... if that doesn't sell you the game, I don't know what will. Definitely prioritize Borderlands 2 over this if you don't have that already, but if you do, this is a great addition to your Steam library.

What can I say? It's a fun role playing game, you're quite free to ignore whatever quests you don't want to follow and build your character as you please. Playing as a redguard, 40hrs allowed me to finish the main quest, become a werewolf, learn to decapitate enemies, helped random locals, decapitated some bandits, raided a wrecked ship for no reason, removed the head from a sailor, saved a Stormcloak from some tribal attackers, before stabbing a sword through is back, and enchanting a sword. There is plenty to do, and well worth getting.

The first thing I did as the King of England was assassinate the King of Scotland. It wasn’t for any particular reason. I had just started running the game for the first time, and wanted to check out the King of where I actually lived. But then I saw the assassinate button. I pressed the assassinate button. There was suddenly a dead Scottish monarch and a massive civil war.
Crusader Kings II is a ‘Grand Strategy Game’ by Paradox Entertainment, a lovingly created, complex board game of Europe, where you play as historical character. Unlike other strategy games, where you’re the godly hand that guides a country or force, here you’re a Count, Duke, King or Emperor, with all the extra complexities and joys that brings. You have to handle your lineage – marry, have children, assassinate children, change succession laws – so that the game continues. It is the only must in CKII: create an heir, or on death without one, it’s game over. The rest is really up to you. You could try and forge the Empire of Hispania as one of the Spanish Catholic kings, unifying the other catholic nations there and driving out the Muslim rulers. You could play peacefully as the King of Scotland in a different game, only stooping to war when vassals rebel for their own claims on your kingdom. With certain DLC, you could play as Muslim rulers in Africa and Saudi Arabia, Pagan rulers, or even as a patrician, vying for control of the sea highways and port to get the most profit possible.

The board deserves some explanation also: unlike many other strategy games, which use hexagonal or square tiles, here real counties are used, such as Gowrie, Cumberland, Middlesex, Badajoz, Leon, and Maine. And they aren’t just bits of land to get to make your Kingdom look bigger: they hold cities, castles and religious buildings that will increase the size of you or your vassal’s levies (army) when annexed and your income, from tax. You can even improve and build new holdings in these counties, to increase both of these. This is one of the many ways you spend your gold, along with creating kingdoms and duchies, hiring mercenaries, bribing the pope (yup!), assassinations, ect.

Though out the game, you will be collecting this gold from the taxes, which is the commodity you will be using most often. Also throughout your characters life, he’ll gain Prestige and Piety: both add to your end game score, which you can use to measure just how well you’ve done after playing all those hundreds of years. Both also act like currencies, with you gaining prestige and piety from certain wars and events, but losing them with other events such as destroying kingdom titles (prestige), creating empire and kingdoms (piety) and reforming pagan religions (piety). Upon your characters death, they add to your score – not, however, a reason to die early.

War is enjoyable in Crusader Kings II, but possibly not as important as in other strategy games. You can’t declare war, willy nilly. You must have a cause for war, the ‘cassus belli’. This at first feels very restrictive, as in some catholic countries, the only clear way to expand into neighbouring catholic nations is through the slow fabrication of a claim on the county. But eventually it blossoms into the complex strategy, as you juggle where to war with, with what cassus belli, to what end. It becomes delightfully full of opportunities. The Catholic Kingdoms can declare Holy Wars against Pagans and Muslims and claim their land, along with participating in the Crusades the Pope occasionally calls. You also have ‘De Jure Claims’, where you can conquer counties and land that belongs to the predefined ‘de jure’ duchies, kingdoms and empires, depending if you are a Duke, King or Emperor. Pagans can conquer any bordering counties, or subjugate entire kingdoms once in a life time. There is a treasure trove of reasons to war. And with your army, you can choose who leads the armies, and whether to engage them in battles against other armies, or to siege enemy provinces in the war. But it isn’t the only way to gain land: ensuring you’re the heir to the kingdom through assassinations and plots; through offering vassalization to the weaker, smaller independent rulers nearby. But wars are one of the more enjoyable points in the game, as long as you know how to handle them. There really is no better feeling than slowly building your independent duchy into a sprawling Empire over the years.

It is important to say that all the rulers on the map are actively acting towards their own goals, with the games superb AI letting hundreds of characters act and change Europe, even in places far from where you are playing. It is sometimes enjoyable to pause the game, and just look around the map, at what’s happening far away. Seeing distant kingdoms fracture, far of empires grow, really gives the game a sense of scale that is great.

And in multiplayer, you can have friends play in any of the Kingdoms, replacing one of the AI rulers. It can be incredible fun, with you playing as different Kingdoms, competing as you expand. You can choose whatever way you want to play with friends – you can assassinate them, declare war on them, or offer to join their wars. If they play as the same culture or religion, you may want to help them, to spread it, or fulfil goals that will help you all. With me and a friend playing Norse Pagans (Old Gods DLC), we started trying to expand my kingdom so that it controlled enough holy sites to reform the religion and grant us much needed security for successions. We’ve also had to aid each other during widespread civil and international war and bail each other out. It’s incredibly satisfying to bail your friends’ kingdom out of an independence war, and know they owe you one when you want to take over a nearby kingdom.

The downsides of the game is the initial bafflement due to the complexities of how to combine all the systems for your own benefit, and the occasionally irritation caused by wars for the kingdom after succession. Multiplayer also requires all other players must download the host save file every time they play, which can be a slow, but is thankfully all handled in game.
This game is one for those who wish to carve a story and a kingdom out of Europe, and are willing to learn through all the complexities and systems to do so. Once the game finally clicks and you’re away with it, it really is a magnificent game. Whole heartedly recommended.

One of the cleverest, funnest platformers I've ever played, but sadly also one of the shortest, with you being able to pass through the last room and complete a run through in under an hour. That is not to detract from it, it is a magnificent game, where you will die alot, with stragetically places checkpoints to throw you right back into those tiny, pixelated spikes.

To combat the short play through, VVVVVV has some tricks up it's sleeves. You will unlock Time Trials of stages you've completed, be able to return to the intermission levels, you can scower the world for all twenty trinkets, and even play the full game over with the entire world flipped upside down, which for some reason makes it more difficult.

Short, incredibly sweet and fairly cheap. Can't go wrong.

Normal GTA gameplay, and still remarkably fun to return to. Shooting feels solid, and satisfying to use, and the keyboard controls work well, although drive-by shootings are very difficult to perform, requiring you to drive using WASD, look out the side of your car with E or Q and press the left mouse button to shoot, while trying not to crash. But since you can get round most of the occasions where you may need to drive-by by running over people, it isn't an overwhelming problem.

Those used to the new GTA's may be upset with the lack of the ever fun motorbikes and aircraft in the game (the one plane, a Dodo, is almost impossible to get into sustained flight, which it isn't intended to do). But it makes up for this with a good story, a great New York-style world made of three island, and a enjoyable selection of cars, vans, lorries, supercars and a tank.

All in all, GTA III is worth a revisit, if only for a while and for it's story.

Quite horrible controls, cumbersome building and lackluster combat. It does not make a good first impression and doesn't even cast a small glimpse that it may ever make a good impression anytime in the future. Not worth even looking at.