Darren Pearce


51 games reviewed
92.2% of games recommended
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Oct 6, 2014

Shadow of Mordor is an excellent game that is elevated by the Nemesis System and its many other features working together. It's a great tale in Middle Earth that is faithful to the concepts of Tolkien's world and echoes the tragedy of the likes of Hamlet and Macbeth. I highly recommend this game on new-gen platforms and PC where you can truly appreciate the Nemesis System and open world in all its hi-def epic nature.

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Essential - Darkest Dungeon
Mar 9, 2018

Darkest Dungeon is a beautifully atmospheric side-on animated hack and slash, dungeon crawler that lets you assemble a party of four stalwart heroes. You begin your journey in a Hamlet that you can eventually restore and build-up to accommodate new buildings and new features to allow you to survive that much longer. Here you'll recruit your heroes from a roster in the Stage Coach, which initially starts out pretty thin with only a few members and low-rank heroes to choose from.

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Essential - The Surge
May 15, 2017

The Surge is a refreshing take on the *Souls formula, it joins Nioh in that regard and forges its own path towards something quite unique and extremely interesting -- it's a definite must-own game for *Souls fans and could entice new players with its gritty sci-fi setting.

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Oct 17, 2017

DD:DA HD is a great game made even better by the high res texture packs and tweaks. It is a game that everyone who loves Dark Souls and Action-RPGs needs to play at least once, or twice, or forever. No other game quite presents dragons like this one either!

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Essential - Stardew Valley
Jan 27, 2017

Stardew Valley is a brilliant game, fun, engaging and packed with things to see and do. The gameplay loop is satisfying and one hour and easily turn into six when you play it.

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Essential - Gears of War 4
Oct 18, 2016

Gears of War 4 is an excellent game. Not only is it a fine looking title, but it plays smoothly and has a rock-solid frame-rate. The suite of multiplayer modes and the new Horde Mode are the icing on the Chainsaw Cake.

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Essential - Dishonored 2
Nov 16, 2016

Dishonored 2 is great, it manages to keep to the style of the first game, improve on it no end and provides a superb playground for stealth or out and out bloodletting.

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Jul 31, 2017

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a great game, one that has a ton of replay value and allows you to experiment with various ways to achieve your mission objectives. If you're a fan of Commandos from the old days, then this game will bring that back with a modern gameplay twist.

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Essential - Prey
Jun 7, 2017

Prey is a great game, one of the classic science fiction games that combines thoughtful design with kick-ass exploration and player choice -- you don't want to miss this one, just watch out for the photocopier -- I thought I saw it move!

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Nov 27, 2018

Rockstar have pushed out the boat in terms of every single system at play in this game, from the amazing world itself - which is one of the best looking games, with some of the best looking effects and atmospherics, to the level of detail on the characters and physics simulation for clothing and other materials. This is what I really call a Next-Gen game, and it pushes the bar so high it's going to take a while for the rest of the industry to catch up to this one. The AI is fantastic, for every single entity in the game. From the townsfolk, to the gunslingers, gangs, animals, and tiniest critter -- it's all working madly to bring this world to life. Enemies won't rush at you blindly, unless they think you can be flanked, or that's how they're feeling in terms of the fight. Mostly though, they'll use cover. Wolves will hunt in packs, cougars are ambush predators and they hit and run...

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Essential - Portal Knights
May 18, 2017

I've not had this much fun with any Minecraft style game for a while now, and the clever design of Portal Knights in terms of how it offers the adventure keeps me jumping back in. I take a break now and then to add a bit more to my home area, craft a few more bits of equipment when I have my resources and look to improving my storage at my home workshop. When a game can draw you in like this and the minutes turn into hours, you know you've got a good game with a solid foundation that the developers keep on building atop of. I've seen Portal Knights transform from the PC original build to where it is today, and honestly, I can't wait to see what they do next!

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Essential - Destiny 2
Sep 14, 2017

Destiny 2 is definitely a better game than the previous title. If you're not a Destiny fan you could try this one, if you're a Destiny fan then this should be a no-brainer. Everything feels familiar and improved, the perfect kind of sequel.

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Oct 18, 2017

Shadow of War is a worthy sequel and we've given it a Must Buy. However, note that the Loot Box system is optional if you're willing to work with the game's system and actually play the game (which is what you should be doing!).

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Nov 2, 2017

Do I think this is the game that's saved the franchise, yes I do. It needed a shot in the arm, the corpse of Assassin's Creed was starting to shamble around and lurch like a mummy rising from Sneferu's Tomb - AC: Origins is the best thing to happen to the series for a long while and I'm going to keep my eyes on what Ubisoft does next with the game. The future is bright, shimmering, like the heat-haze over the Pyramids of Giza. Only it's not a mirage or a false dawn, this is a new breed of Creed and the change was right on time.

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Oct 24, 2017

Battle Chasers: Nightwar is a refreshing take on the J-RPG formula. It has enough new stuff in there to make it really cool to play, and enough nods to old school J-RPGs to please that side of the equation. In other words, definitely worth a punt!

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Essential - Moonlighter
Jun 6, 2018

Say hello to Will, Will is a nice guy, a nice guy who inherited his family-owned shop known as Moonlighter, as time passed and Will's family declined in years he eventually ended up as the sole owner of the business. Will is also an adventurous sort of lad who loves nothing more than to grab a sword, a shield, and go wandering into the nearest dungeon to test his mettle and grab a bunch of bits and bobs that he can sell in the shop.

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Feb 5, 2019

The game uses a similar style of art to Don't Starve, only there's colour, and a whole slew of gorgeous animations to go with it. It's a gorgeous, if somewhat bleak (due to the Underworld) game packed with lots of nice little touches and a beautiful hand-drawn/animated art style. What begins as a simple exercise in survival turns into a story about a parent and her child, and the love a mother has for her son. Sure, there are survival elements and the need to craft and create bigger/better things so that you can extend your ability to survive as well as explore more places to unravel more of the plot. But there's a real heart here to the game, and this is where Smoke and Sacrifice shines the brightest.

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Essential - Metro Exodus
Feb 21, 2019

If Exodus is the future of the series then sign me up for more. If it's the future of single player games, then sign me up doubly-so since there's not a single scrap of online, micro-transaction, or live service bs in here. 4A have really done me proud with this one. Perhaps I'm easily pleased or I can ignore certain things - not many bugs came up and one graphical glitch happened on the Volga level which has since vanished after a patch. Apart from that, the game is fantastic, and I'm having a blast playing on the harder difficulty now to push myself and my skills even further. I love Metro's world, the design, the aesthetic, and the whole package in general - Exodus takes everything I love about it and amps it up to the next level for me.

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Essential - Farm Together
Jan 31, 2019

The game has been designed to take all of the hassle out of farm sims, to present the bare-bones, yet lavish enough love and attention to the product so you want to keep on playing - to grow the next crop, to get the next cool thing, to level both yourself and your farm and even then, keep on making money to unlock the higher tier items. There are no experience boosters you can buy with cash, there's no shortcuts you can do in this game - you have to play it - and in the game industry full of Ubisoft's time-saver packs, EA's short-cuts and publishers clamouring on about how no one has time any more to play games and unlock all the things - it's a refreshing game to play.

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Nov 21, 2019

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order is a great example of what a solid game developer, time, passion, and virtual hands-off by EA can do for a Star Wars game. No hidden charges, no bullshit micro-transactions or loot box rubbish -- just a solid game that entertains and rewards a player for playing it. Top quality!

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