Startup Company, PS5

Startup Company Console Edition brings a successful business sim to consoles after a strong outing on Steam. Danish devlopers Hovgaard Games have obviously laboured over this title with love.

Starting from the ground level with minimal investment, the aim is to manage your business empire “to the moon”. Interestingly the simulation is heavily geared towards the Social Media / Online Sales platforms we are familiar with.

On paper this game should be right up my alley, should be.

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Turrican Anthology Vol. 1 & 2, Switch Review

What’s better than yearning after some retro Turrican goodness? Playing all the Turrican versions on Switch of course!

Turrican holds strong ground in my Amiga memories, I know I played a couple of them right through. Although I cant remember exactly which episodes they were.

That said the gameplay was always strong, wide open levels, secrets, enemies and upgrades. There was a forgiving respawn system and enemies stayed dead, which was nice.

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Weird West, review

Weird West is truly is a weird one. Ostensibly a Western, yet nary a gee-tar twang or corny rattle of spurs. Instead, a strange, electronic ambience, a strong leaning towards the supernatural, and a distinct lack of darn-tootin’ voiced characters.

Weird West immediately puts you on the back foot, subverting expectations. For instance, I initially shot at a circling flock of vultures early in the game, collecting their questionable meat to cook at a fire for a health boost.

Only to realise that each bullet is precious in this world, and I had wasted all of mine.

A code was provided for review

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Dynasty Warriors 9 – Empires Byte Size Review (XSX)

Dynasty Warriors 9 – Empires is the latest in the 1 vs 1000 style of Hack ‘n Slash action titles.

Empires is basically the same game as Dynasty Warriors 9 with an added layer of strategic simulation in play between battles. The genre that also includes the likes of Samurai Warriors and Warriors Orochi has always been an odd one to me.

The popularity in Eastern cultures is undeniable, less so in Western countries. The shear volume of releases points to them being financially viable at the very least.

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Shadow Warrior 3 Review (PC)

Everybody likes a bit of Lo Wang. Unfortunately after his last adventure Lo is a bit well, low. Drowning in self pity, spending all day with no pants on, low. But yet again the world is need of a smart mouthed hero that is quick with a blade and a one liner.

A Shadow Warrior is needed.

Time to gather up your katana and guns, oh and your pants. It is one big nasty looking dragon that needs taking care of. Actually it might be a wyvern…

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Horizon: Forbidden West, PS5 Review

If anyone had doubts that Playstation is the unquestionable home of top-tier, master-class, 3rd person action games, then Horizon: Forbidden West will put any remaining scepticism to rest.

Guerrilla have taken the awesome 2017 ‘Horizon’ I.P and improved on every single element. Not so much as to lose what was unique about Zero Dawn though, they have just refined the overall formula to get about as close to perfection in the Open World genre as one could hope for.

Horizon Forbidden West delivers its story under the assumption that gamers have played and finished Zero Dawn. If you haven’t played it, then… you are crazy! Stop reading and go and play it first!! Or at the very least watch a good story run-down on YouTube.

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CHORUS, PS5 Review

Space Combat games have always been a favourite genre for me. Starting with Descent back in 1995 and most recently with the excellent Star Wars: Squadrons on the PSVR.

But the genre often struggled to get AAA quality outings. Certainly, any tangible story and world building rarely occurs within them.

BUT, Chorus has literally come out of my blind-spot and some how managed to be both an awesome arcade space combat game, with an interesting story.

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Call of Duty Vanguard, PS5 Review

Call of Duty : Vanguard, being the 2021 annual entry to the series Dylan takes us back to WWII to battle latency, with or without Zombies.

Until Vanguard, my relationship with shooters has simmered the last few years. I used to love them. Loved those AA and AAA shooters. I loved CoD 2 – the house-to-house fighting still jostles inside my gaming memories for prime position.

I loved Wolfenstein and Rise of the Triad and Doom and Quake and Singularity and even Timeshift. I’ve enjoyed quite a few Calls of Duty. I even got sent to LA to preview Black Ops 3.

We played MW3 on the morning of my wedding to take our minds off the day. But since then, I’ve just kinda . . . not played many.

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Hot Wheels Unleashed, PS5 Review

Well, the cars are the stars. It’s that simple, yes its a sturdy arcade style racer that’s accessible and entertaining, but grinding the collectible and familiar cars. That’s where it’s at.

It’s a cool game, with fun bells and whistles. I really like the concept, I don’t like getting frustrated at certain things. There is a buzz attached to finding a rare car, but under the hood, they’re not that different. Although I tend to melt them for Gear Bits or coins to upgrade or buy something else.

Hot Wheels Unleashed has plenty of fun factor for now, I just can’t see it staying exciting for long.

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Far Cry 6, PS5 Review

not looking forward to Far Cry 6 at all. I haven’t been interested in a Far Cry game since the brilliant Far Cry 3. I’m happy to say Far Cry 6 has grabbed me in a big way and it is great fun.

There is no great mystery around what sort of game and genre Far Cry 6 is. It’s an FPS open-world action game. Exactly like all those that have come before. This time round it is set in a fictional Caribbean archipelago called Yara, which for all intents and purposes, is Cuba. Ruled by the ruthless “El Presidente” Antón Castillo played by Giancarlo Esposito. Yara is controlled by his military and as expected, there is a grass-roots resistance movement. Which it turns out needs my special ‘Guerrilla’ gamer skills to overthrow the “El Presidente”!

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Gearshifters, PS5 Review

Gearshifters is a game that fits right into a classic arcade niche. Up until recently it was completely off my radar, but for catching a Tweet and having my fancy tickled. It turns out this indie game is right on the money.

Red Phantom Games have pulled out a fun, playable homage to cult car games and arcade shooters. Now, I’m off for one more go before bed.

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