Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom | PS4 | Review
Level 5 took a break from milking their cash cow Yo Kai Watch on the baby DS to do what, In the past, they’ve always done best: put square Enix to shame with another huge JRPG that outright rips off mechanics from a Nintendo game. Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is a sequel to the sublime Studio Ghibli collaboration...but Studio Ghibli have unfortunately not contributed this time.
5 Great Characters We NEED in Dissidia NT!
Square Enix announced a run of DLC characters for Final Fantasy Dissidia NT and as I'm a huge fan of the lore, writing and characters of the Final Fantasy series, I thought I'd give my opinion on the best characters we could possibly hope to purchase!
The Legend of Dragoon | PS1 | Review
It was the turn of the millennium & the golden age of Japanese RPGs was still in full swing. Final Fantasy was still enjoying its place at the top but many Playstation fans of the time remember The Legend of Dragoon to be one of the biggest contenders to the throne. Having never played the game myself I felt it was time to go back and see if this game by Sony’s own Japan Studio could hold a candle to the much loved Squaresoft.
Alyx Jones | Interview with the Composer
Alyx Jones is a UK based musician who has worked on a number of titles across many platforms. Elise: Unpainted Memories, Carnage In Space: Ignition & upcoming, politically charged, The Iron Flowers. She is also a game designer in her own right & in this interview we discuss her debut game The Quiet Things and much more!
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT Review
Translating the Dissidia Final Fantasy games that originated on the PSP system to the PS4 was never going to be easy. The original & its sequel Dissidia Duodecim were some of the most feature rich games, not just on a handheld but possibly of all time. But now that the series has been given more of an online multiplayer focus in an era of microtransactions & incomplete games, Square Enix & developer Team Ninja have had more ways than ever to mess this one up...but did they?
Retro Games Fair | Leeds, January 2018
Josh & Jake check out the Retro Games Fair at the Marriott Hotel in Leeds. We give a near full tour of the stalls and retro video game sellers & reveal our pickups for the day. We also catch up with Steve, the director of Retro Events & organiser of the Retro Games Fair, for an interview about video game collecting.
Puzzle Dimension Review | Successor to Kula World
On Puzzle Dimension’s official website it states that “There have been people asking for a puzzle game like Kula World for modern hardware” and it’s clear that this game hopes to be the answer to that. Directed by Kula World developer Jesper Rudberg, this relatively unknown game came onto my radar through researching the cult PS1 title but now with its spiritual predecessor fresh in my mind, it’s time to find out if Puzzle Dimension was worth asking for.
Kula World Review | PS1
Kula World is a rare Playstation 1 game by an obscure developer called Game Design Sweden. Nevertheless, Kula World seems a very well known game amongst Playstation fans, probably due to its widely played demo published in several playstation magazine demo discs. But how is the game beyond that demo & is Kula World deserving of its cult status?
Star Wars: The Last Jedi Review
In this review for Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi we discuss in depth the good and the bad of the new Star Wars film. It's a very divisive entry in the series & fans are finding it hard to agree on pretty much any point. Similarly, we each have equally varied viewpoints. Has Disney gone too far in a few places?
Top 10 Video Games of 2017...(That I Played)
To be honest, I haven't played many video games released in 2017 but I have played a lot of great games! So here's a list of 10 video games that impressed or surprised me this year.
Stranger Things 2 Review | Reel Talk
One of the most well received cult TV series is back! Let's talk about Stranger Things 2 and all the 80s themed goings on in Hawkins and the Upside Down. It took me a long time to edit down our discussion to just 45 minutes, so many strange things to talk about.
Jamie Dunlap | South Park | Interview with the Composer
I interviewed Jamie Dunlap who has been composing music for the South Park TV show since 2000. He also composed the soundtrack to the Ubisoft/Obsidian South Park video games The Stick of Truth & The Fractured but Whole. We chat about his workflow on the show, his influences for the video games & a bit about his other work too.
Kingdom Hearts III: Should You Be Worried?
Kingdom Hearts, what a unique video game franchise. Despite only having two numbered games in the series so far, Kingdom Hearts has a mind boggling amount of entries across an equally mind boggling amount of platforms many of which are essential to understanding the overarching plot. Kingdom Hearts 2.8 is the latest piece of the puzzle and all of it is meant to contextualise and precede the highly anticipated Kingdom Hearts III.....It’s also a load of old bollocks!
South Park: The Fractured but Whole | Review
South Park: The Fractured but Whole, the sequel to the critically acclaimed Stick of Truth is here at last to coincide with season 21 of the South Park TV series. A lot has happened in the humble town of South Park since The Stick of Truth: PC Principal took over South Park Elementary, SodoSopa brought gentrification to the town and the Canadian Devil Beelzaboot released his freemium Terrence & Phillip game to exploit children for money. So, has South Park: The Fractured but Whole changed and matured along with the show and how has Ubisoft inevitably managed to mess it up?
When It's Not Fair Use | Copyright & Plagiarism on YouTube
‘Fair use’ law is the backbone of the vast majority of gaming focussed channels on YouTube, so it stands to reason that there have been a whole lot of videos explaining just what fair use is...but unfortunately, sometimes it’s really not fair use.
Great Games With Bad Endings | The Retro Perspective
Here's a list of 5 great games that kept us on the edge of our seats right up until their bad endings. Some of them not just bad, but utterly terrible.
The King of Kong | Documentary | Reel Talk
This time on Reel Talk we review The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, the documentary about previous Donkey Kong record holders Billy Mitchell & Steve Wiebe. We discuss how this relates to modern gaming and the similarities of the arcade scene to the eSports of today.
Silent Hill | PS1 | Review
It's generally agreed upon that Silent Hill 2 is the definitive fan favourite of the Silent Hill series. Whilst I am still undecided on which game is my favourite, after replaying the original game there were many little details about it which I felt were worth covering in a Retro Perspective review.
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT Beta | First Impressions
Square Enix have allowed me access to the closed beta of Dissidia Final Fantasy NT for the PS4 so here are some thoughts and first impressions from a long time Dissidia fan.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice | Review
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is the latest game from English studio Ninja Theory. The studio is perhaps best known for developing the absolutely fantastic DMC: Devil May Cry which dragged the hit and miss Devil May Cry series out of the disappointment of Devil May Cry 4 and the general awfulness of the series’ plot to tell a genuinely intriguing story through beautiful & surreal imagery. DMC was excellent and it wasn’t even their best game, but as much as I love talking about the absolute fact of the excellence of that game, it’s now time to talk about Hellblade and how it might possibly be even better than DMC: Devil May Cry...which is a really great game by the way.