Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (PS5 Review)
Some twenty years ago when I first played through the original Yakuza on PS2 I had no expectation that the series would garner such a following that it would become as recognizable and as sought-after as it is today. Many likened the Yakuza games to a more PG-13 version of GTA, and I suppose that’s a fair way to put it. Personally, I prefer this franchise much more than GTA. Regardless, it&#...[Read More]
Flashback 2 Review (PS5)
Flashback 2 was released on November 16th, while the original Flashback was released thirty years prior. In 2013, a small, not critically acclaimed remake was made that tends to fly under the radar as it wasn’t particularly good. The original game was amazing for the time, and I actually just recently played through it on SegaCD and enjoyed it. Today, I completed Flashback 2, and while I app...[Read More]
Lords of the Fallen Review (PS5)
Nine years ago today, I reviewed Lords of the Fallen (LOTF) on the PS4. Today, I post a review of Lords of the Fallen on PS5. Two totally different games, sharing the same name, and actually sharing a lot of the same results, if you will, and that’s both good and bad. By this I mean that yes, LOTF (2023) is a great game, as was the one in 2014. However, it’s not polished in many ways, ...[Read More]
Ghostrunner 2 Review (PS5)
Ghostrunner 2, like its predecessor, was developed by One More Level and published by 505 Games. Taking place a year after the events of the first game, players reprise the role of the cybernetic ninja named Jack. Ghostrunner 2 (GR2) is what I would call a safe and faithful sequel in that it carries with it the look, feel, gameplay, and storyline of the first game, while adding some new mechanics ...[Read More]
Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition Review (PS4)
Nightdive Studios, one of my favorites, have recently teamed up with New Blood Interactive to release their remaster of Rise of the Triad (ROTT), the cult classic mid-90s FPS originally developed and published by Apogee nearly thirty years ago. First available on PC at the end of July, the console release is available now and includes everything the PC release has other than the level editor and m...[Read More]
Lies of P Review (PS5)
South Korean developer Neowiz leaps into the Soulslike genre with a powerhouse release this month, and that’s no lie. Lies of P is a dark take on the classic Pinocchio story that has players controlling Pinocchio in an effort to save the last bastion of humans in a fictional European city of Krat during an alternate late 1800s period. This once small, poor, coastal town grew to prominence wh...[Read More]
PC Engine: The Box Art Collection
Bitmap Books just released their first book in 2023, and their next volume in their wonderful Box Art Collection series. This time, Bitmap tackles the beautiful, the mysterious!, the legendary, PC Engine, or TurboGrafx 16 as it was known in America. No retrogamer’s library is complete without at least one of NEC’s consoles released during the late 80s/early 90s. Mastery in the PC Engin...[Read More]
Like A Dragon: Ishin!
One of my personal favorite franchises that was born out of the PS2 era and is as strong as ever is Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s ‘Yakuza‘ or as it’s now known as, ‘Like A Dragon.’ This epic series has spanned multiple console generations and has even seen a spin-off series (Judgment) that is doing very well for itself. A few titles remain Japanese exclusives as well, ...[Read More]
NBA 2K23
With the 2022-2023 NBA season starting to appear on the horizon, we have the return of the most robust basketball sim series ever made. 2K’s NBA 2K series returns with NBA 2K23, and makes a run for the c’hip. Let’s have a closer look. There is currently no annual sports series that I dive into every year, although I used to do so with the NBA and NHL 2K games back in the mid and ...[Read More]
Commandos 3 HD Remaster
I’m a big fan of the old Commandos games that came out on PC twenty-plus years ago. I had the big box versions of Behind Enemy Lines and Beyond the Call of Duty on my shelves for many years before selling them off recently. The Commandos games were originally developed by Pyro Studios and published by Eidos Interactive, but all of that has changed hands. The re-releases of these games in a H...[Read More]
Steelrising
French developers Spiders and publisher Nacon have teamed up to release a new third person action RPG that has gameplay design typically found in the Souls-like genre. In Steelrising, players control Aegis, a sentient automaton with combat skills, who is determined to repel the evil King’s automaton army in an alternate history take on the French Revolution of 1789. The mad king (Louis XVI i...[Read More]
Thymesia
I remember experiencing Demon’s Souls at E3 well over a decade ago, and later reviewing the game when it came out. It was innovative, and would go on to spawn many sequels and clones; imitation is the best form of flatter, they say. Still, I vividly remember struggling with the difficulty — respawning enemies every time you save or die, having one chance to get back to where you last d...[Read More]