Recent reviews by tamswe

After all the weird trailers in the last four years, all the speculation, and all of the thoughts of what Hideo Kojima’s first post-Konami/Metal Gear game would be, I finally got to play and beat Death Stranding. It’s definitely one of the most interesting...experiences I’ve had. The graphics are some of the best I’ve ever seen, especially the motion capture with real world actors! Gameplay is definitely unique, need an open mind to enjoy it like I did. The story is one of the most twisting, thought-provoking, emotional and crazy stories I’ve seen in a while, but also strangely relevant to current events. I definitely recommend Death Stranding if you want a new gaming experience and a roller coaster story.

Truly a work of art.

Short, simple and sweet platformer. If you are looking for something to escape to for a few hours that reminds you of 90s-2000 platforming, Kao will do that for you. It definitely satisfied that craving for me so it’s an easy recommendation, especially if it’s free (at time of writing).

I’d say it’s most similar to the old 3D Rayman games (2&3) or maybe even to an extent, Kao’s Australian cousin, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger (another early 2000s platformer). If that’s your cup of tea then you’ll love this game.

Also use a controller ;)

Simply Amazing.

I would have never imagined 20 years or so ago, that video games can be like Half Life Alyx. The immersion is mind blowing, the gameplay is top notch, the story is well written, and the dialogue between Alyx and Russell (recognized his voice from the new Jumanji movies!) is very enjoyable.

Definitely up there as one the best VR games, but also I consider Half Life Alyx to be as impactful as other important games in history, such as the original Half Life and Half Life 2 to change the course of games forever.

11/10

I’m a bit late to the Half Life party, haven’t played the series until recently, but for a 16 year old game it holds up very well.

Simply Amazing.

Please confirm Half Life 3 soon.

Sunset Overdrive is pretty fun & unique experience. You are thrown into Sunset City where an apocalypse has just started because the citizens drank orange radioactive soda. Here are my thoughts for the game:

Pros:
*Fun.
*The game feels like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater meets the apocalypse = AWESOME.
*Traversal is lots of fun, rarely had to use fast travel since it was really fun to grind & bounce around Sunset City.
*Music tracks are pretty catchy (again Tony Hawk vibes here).
*Love the humor & the constant real world references.
*Story is a bit silly, but that's the vibe the game gives off. Supporting cast in the story is great though
*Sunset City is a gorgeous setting.
*Boss fights were really fun.
*Guns...lots & lots of different guns.

Cons:
*Tower Defense missions are not fun, and especially if they are mandatory.
*As the game went on, the mission structure felt a bit repetitive (clear the area of OD, protect (insert something to protect here), go pick up X number of items). It just felt like I was doing the same thing over and over at some point.
*Optimization isn't that great on PC. Lots of bugs & glitches such as getting stuck in some spots, falling through areas that you aren't supposed to fall through, main character goes missing in one of the game's important cutscenes, green screen flickering etc.
*While the music was cool, got a bit repetitive at times.
*DLC while cool, just felt like some extra areas with a few extra missions, nothing substantial (though with the PC version it came with it so no biggie).

Overall the game is fun though and it amazingly enough, it somewhat scratched an itch for the Tony Hawk games that I've had for a bit. I did pick this game up while it was on sale & I'm pretty glad that I did. Not sure if I wanted to spend full price for it, but for what I paid for, I'm satisfied.

The ending makes me want to see Sunset Overdrive 2 come to fruition some day (though that might be a bit difficult because of the rights that MS has + Sony now owns Insomniac Games). One could dream though.

Final Score: 7/10

Sekiro is one of those games that starts off difficult, but if you stick with it, eventually everything just “clicks”. I don’t typically play From Software games, but decided to give this one ago, and it’s already a great contender for my GOTY. Story is really good, setting is fantastic (full Japanese audio is a plus too), and as for the difficulty, yes it is difficult. If you make mistakes, you do get punished. However, Sekiro is not cheap. There are games where some deaths are cheap but not this one. Once you recognize an enemy’s pattern, you see weakpoints and strategize from there and before you know it, boss is dead.

If you want a really good, but fair challenge, Sekiro will not disappoint.

If you want an easy, relaxing game, you might want to look elsewhere, almost threw the controller a couple of times myself ;)

Absolutely incredible. The level of detail is amazing and surround sound helps the atmosphere come to life. Haven’t gotten too far yet so can’t comment on the story, but already seeing parallels to Metro 2035, which this is based on. 4A Games hit this one out of the park. Metro Exodus is also known to be one of the first games supporting RTX and I got to say it makes a difference, lighting is incredible!! Shame what Deep Silver did to this game, but 4A Games does not deserve this backlash as they worked absolutely hard on this game and it shows.

UPDATE 2/20/18: Poured over 15 hours so far and still having a blast. Been playing on 4K+Ultra with RTX 2080, consistently at 60FPS, but a bit of stuttering at times. I really like the open-world feel of the game, but at the same time it still has some linearity and feels like Metro. You can take Artyom out of the Metro, but you can’t take the Metro out of Artyom I guess.

Dishonored is a very intriguing action game, there's nothing quite like it (although there is a lot of inspiration from the Theif series). I like the fact there are multiple ways to complete the missions and multiple pathways to reach your objectives. Also superpowers and stealth mix very well together.

My rating 9/10.

Mutants in Manhattan is a great TMNT game! I wasn't expecting to control all four turtles, but I can say it's definitely a different mechanic that makes this game unique. Also the art style is pretty cool and the story so far is good. Like all Platinum games, there's a bit of a learning curve but once you get your dodges and counters working, you can pull off some pretty satisfying combos.

All that being said, it isn't a perfect game. Sometimes the difficulty spikes up at random intervals, and it could be hard to focus with so much action on the screen.
Also at times, I feel the enemies can be a bit overwhelming.
Not a deal breaker though, if anything, just increases the challenge a bit.

I don't even care for the 30fps deal, game is still fine.

Haven't tried online yet, but I'm sure it would be lots of fun.

Overall I'd say I'm satisfied with this game. It isn't TMNT 2 Arcade or Turtles in Time, but it's still a cool entry on its own.

My rating: 7/10.

This is the most metal game I have ever played. DOOM is back!!