John-Paul Jones's Reviews
A train-wreck spin off of a series that deserved so much better, Fellowship of Evil is an unholy combination of so many undercooked elements that it's any wonder the game made it to release. While Overlord certainly deserves better there is someone else who does too – you. Avoid.
Between the game breaking bugs, the glitches, the recycled moves, grating commentary, stale presentation and now the unneeded content barriers and paywalls, I have exhausted my patience with this series. WWE 2K20 is the worst wrestling game to come along in a decade and is in desperate need of a ground up rebuild.
The sort of crushing disappointment that only comes around once in a while, Left Alive feels like an emaciated, innovation bereft meditation on Metal Gear Solid and in matching up so poorly with its inspiration, provides the Front Mission franchise with arguably its weakest entry in years.
Though the setting is evocative, the poor combat, raft of bugs and meagre duration all conspire to ensure that Fimbul fumbles its setting and results in disappointingly poor roaming brawler.
A poor PSVR shooter, given the pedigree behind its development Bravo Team should have been much better.
Falling short in just about every way a title of this ilk can, everything Super Dungeon Bros attempts to do, the three year old Diablo III does better. Avoid.
As Soulslikes go, The Last Hero of Nostalgaia certainly boasts a neat hook on account of its smugly cynical narrative and frequent bouts of cheeky humour. However, the occasionally imprecise combat, uninteresting enemies and worlds coupled with a raft of frustrating bugs and a general lack of polish all serve to commit The Last Hero of Nostalgaia to an oblivion of mediocrity.
Between the poor, blocky visuals, the array of glitches and bugs, the sub-standard UI and lack of any attention given to making the game more accessible to a contemporary audience, it saddens me to admit that Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition should be avoided at all costs. Tragically, this is because under all of this scarred and badly implemented design, there's a roundly excellent and atmospheric detective yarn just bursting to come out, but is now seemingly condemned to be lost to time, like tears in the rain.
Though it boasts a resoundingly striking aesthetic, a haphazard save system coupled with a raft of glitches and a misjudged waypoint system all manage to tarnish what should have been one of the first major indie darlings of the year. Vane is simply too frustrating to recommend in its current form.
A sadly failed tribute to one of the greatest RPGs of all time, Underworld Ascendant is simply far too flawed to recommend to either fans of the original Ultima Underworld, or in-depth RPGs in general.
A great concept that summarily misfires on all cylinders, Milanoir is an admittedly stylish retro shooter that is simply too frustrating and poorly designed to recommend.
With the promise of far better PSVR horror titles on the horizon, not to mention the superior Here They Lie being available right now, the only thing that will be weeping will be you if you buy this subpar, scare-free effort.
An otherwise robust combat system is summarily undone by dunderheaded AI, repetitive grinding, a lack of modes and uneven presentation. We've wanted to return to Ancient Rome for years now on PS4, but not like this.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint is a game crying out to be more straightforward, more-focused, but instead it's added one more wafer thin gameplay mechanic after another, flying in the face of common sense, and now its bloated frame has exploded because it simply can not hold all that mess in and still function. A dull, frustrating misfire.
Timothy vs the Aliens is a sub-mediocre platformer shooter whose own tragedy is that, for anyone except for the youngsters, nothing of any real substance lurks under its frequently formidable and beguiling veneer.
Far less fun than both it could and should have been, Surgeon Simulator ER is undone by poor PSVR implementation and lack of additional content over the previous non-VR release.
A flawed take on the survival adventure template, The Solus Project's subpar execution ultimately undermines the few moments of true enjoyment that it occasionally provides.
A mediocre third-person stealth effort revolving around a singular gimmick that is both intriguing and also damning to its ambitions, Shadwen is nowhere near the lofty standard that we would expect from the house that Trine built.
The absence of the practiced creative hands of previous Transformers developer, High Moon Studios, is keenly felt as Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark has sadly turned out to be both the weakest Transformers licensed title and the most uninspired third-person shooter in sometime.
Cities XXL represents a serviceable starting point for beginners certainly, but is simply far too riddled with bugs, performance issues and recycled content to recommend to anyone else who has sampled the series previously. Much like how Cities XXL encourages the player to build their sprawling domains from the ground up, so too should the developer look to apply a similar work ethic to this tired series.