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Sammy Barker

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Favorite Games:
  • Shenmue II
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
  • Super Mario 64

345 games reviewed
66.8 average score
70 median score
38.9% of games recommended

Sammy Barker's Reviews

Sammy Barker is a product of the PlayStation generation. Having grown up with games, he decided to turn his hobby into a lifestyle. He's now the editor of one of the world's leading PlayStation publications.

If you’ve been looking for a colourful deck builder with a more anime art style than the decidedly heavy metal Slay the Spire, this should appeal.

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Feb 13, 2024

Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered Starring Lara Croft is a lovingly crafted compilation which may set a new standard for PS1 re-releases moving forward. Based on the original source code, this trilogy flawlessly reframes three iconic PS1 puzzle platformers as you remember them – warts and all. While you will need patience to navigate this trilogy of globe-trotting escapades, the upgraded art style sticks closely to Core Design's intended vision and it's a genuine pleasure to experience these 90s classics on all-new hardware. It's comprehensive, too, with each game's expansion pack included – and an enormous list of Trophies to unlock.

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Feb 11, 2024

Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash is unfortunately cursed trash. Its shallow, unsatisfying combat system fails to capture the balletic brilliance of the anime and manga's striking skirmishes, and its disjointed single player campaign is unlikely to be enjoyed by franchise faithfuls or prospective new fans. Given the enormous popularity of Gege Aktusami's series, it's frankly unfathomable how badly Bandai Namco has dropped the ball here.

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7 / 10 - Pinball M
Dec 1, 2023

Pinball M exists to provide Zen Studios with a venue to explore more mature material, but launching several months later than the underwhelming Pinball FX, it also fixes a lot of core structural problems with its peer. This is a more cohesive, rewarding package overall – and the first batch of five tables are bloody fantastic to boot.

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Oct 19, 2023

FIFA 24 in all but name, EA Sports FC 24 is not the bold reboot many may have hoped for when the publisher announced it was breaking away from football’s governing body. But beneath the air of familiarity is another slick soccer sim, with some smart new additions like PlayStyles and Precision Passing which help stamp a bit more personality on a previously robotic experience. Additions to Ultimate Team bring flexibility to the game’s flagship mode, while the developer has been listening to its fanbase, and is slowly iterating on oft neglected areas like Career Mode and Clubs.

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Oct 11, 2023

Honkai: Star Rail, already a tremendous success, transfers to PS5 flawlessly – and is almost guaranteed to become one of the most-played games on the platform. In some ways its bite-sized nature means it's more at home on mobile, but its beautiful anime art style and stunning animations deserve to be experienced on a big screen. While its narrative is occasionally overwritten, and it demands players invest a lot to experience it to its fullest, this is a live service executed impeccable. And the truly exciting thing is that the best is yet to come.

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6 / 10 - NBA 2K24
Sep 18, 2023

There's no doubt NBA 2K24 is the best presented sports game on the market, and it's also arguably the most complete, with a dizzying selection of modes and features to accommodate all playstyles and tastes. But an insidious overreliance on microtransactions and player retention yet again detracts from the MyCAREER mode, which to its credit feels much more focused this year. There's still a lot to like about this game, and depending on which modes you enjoy, you may never have to interact with the nefarious aspects at all. But it does sour what is otherwise an enjoyable game.

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7 / 10 - Madden NFL 24
Aug 28, 2023

Madden NFL 24 is a good sports game, a playoff contender even – but you just never really get a sense this game is going to win the Super Bowl. That's the fundamental flaw here: it's a good effort from EA Tiburon with a lot of strong under-the-hood gameplay and presentation improvements, but the annual development cycle is preventing this series from really taking meaningful strides forward. Superstar, the reskinned Face of the Franchise, is fine for a few hours – and even Ultimate Team has improved to be more accessible overall. But cumbersome menus and a general sense of familiarity drop the ball, and prevent the release from reaching its full potential.

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7 / 10 - Exoprimal
Jul 20, 2023

A white-knuckle fusion of Overwatch 2 and Gears of War, the excellent Exoprimal is one of the best co-op shooters in quite some time. With a varied, entertaining roster of characters, all with unique playstyles and synergies, there's tactical depth to this third-person shooter which only serves to make its pulsating prehistoric battles all the more rewarding. While it is a little lightweight at launch, and there will be questions over whether it'll receive the post-release support required to ensure its longevity, there's the foundation for something truly special here.

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Jun 18, 2023

And all of the customisation, the staple of the series, returns in the background – allowing you to build your own team, right down to the minutiae like uniforms and logos. While there’s no shortage of pre-created content, Super Mega Baseball 4 will reward those willing to invest the time to personalise it exactly how they want it. It’s that, paired with its very entertaining arcade gameplay loop, that ensures this fourth instalment doesn’t drop the ball – even if it never quite feels like the seismic upgrade we’d expected when developer Metalhead Software was acquired.

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May 30, 2023

Street Fighter 6 is an absolute humdinger of a sequel.

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May 21, 2023

While the game doesn’t look particularly pretty, it does run at 60 frames-per-second on PS5, and the developer has implemented haptic feedback and the adaptive triggers, which help communicate the feel of driving a gigantic double-decker. Post-release support is en-route, too, promising new school bus-inspired gameplay and trams, so there’s a lot of life left in this one even once you’ve mastered the extensive content available on day one.

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6 / 10 - TramSim
Apr 28, 2023

While there is a light sense of progression enabled by an XP system, the game generally feels quite hands-off in terms of guidance or direction. We enjoyed learning the operation of the trams and even the signalling system, but once we’d driven both routes a handful of times, we didn’t feel massively compelled to do it again. By comparison, Train Sim World 3 – with its medals, collectibles, and deeper scenarios – feels a lot more moreish, and thus we’d only really recommend TramSim: Console Edition if you’re comfortable with setting your own rules and rewards.

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Apr 12, 2023

Cannon Dancer is an obscure underground cult classic that's finally going to find the audience it's always deserved. That we live in an era where games like this can be made easily accessible is worth celebrating, but even taken on its own merits, this spiritual successor to Strider is a breathless, brilliant affair. A sharp difficulty spike, common in the arcade releases of the era, feels unfair – but it won't prevent you from falling in love with all of the high-stakes action that precedes it.

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6 / 10 - Atari Mania
Apr 10, 2023

It all just needs a little more polish: the execution isn’t quite tight enough, the pace not quite brisk enough to achieve that addictive, rapid-fire feel of WarioWare. It’s close, and certainly another entertaining idea from Atari, but unless you’re from the era of the 2600 and its ilk, you’ll probably struggle to look beyond the sloppy feel of this otherwise likeable release.

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Apr 7, 2023

EA Sports PGA Tour proves what the publisher is capable of at its pomp: this is a jaw-droppingly beautiful sports game, with a sublime selection of licensed courses and a surprising amount of depth. Its demanding swing mechanic is slightly let down by a sluggish frame rate, but its single player is boosted by a strong sense of progression – and in multiplayer there's tons to do. This is an impressively strong effort overall, and a sign of good things to come ahead of the company's other anticipated comeback, EA Sports College Football.

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Mar 28, 2023

The excellently executed Negro Leagues are the MVP of MLB The Show 23, adding an educational and entertaining interactive documentary to an already top-tier sports game. Diamond Dynasty sees some of its biggest structural changes yet, and has strengthened its already respectable single player slate with some smart additions to Mini Seasons. Meanwhile, rebalanced fielding and batter/pitcher matchups add more tension to the gameplay, but the graphics are starting to look stale and Road to the Show feels like it's almost been abandoned at this point.

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Until Dawn continues to elude Supermassive, and now even Rush of Blood appears out of reach. Switchback VR is a scruffy game that fails to match up to its well-liked PSVR predecessor, delivering low-budget visuals, lousy combat encounters, and some pretty low-energy level design. There are a handful of memorable moments, and some may find fun in the jump scares – but this should and could have been so much more.

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Mar 13, 2023

Of course, if you’re new to PSVR2, then this is pretty much essential: it’s not only an easy-going introduction into the world of virtual reality, but it’s also a hilarious game that executes on its ideas flawlessly.

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Mar 10, 2023

Before Your Eyes left a lump in our throat, which we weren't expecting at all. The game starts fantastical, but eventually matures into a relatably human tale, which we imagine will touch the majority of people who play it. Strong writing, fantastic voice acting, and an outstanding 3D audio mix all contribute to an impressively poignant campaign, which helps showcase how impactful interactive media can be.

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