Author Profile
- Username
- Anchorsam_9
- Articles
- 192 (90 reviews)
- First Article
- Tue 9th, June 2015
- Avg. Review Score
- 6.6
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Mini Review Signalis (PS4) - Last-Gen Release Has Its Feet in the Future
Stunning revival of classic survival (horror)
Keycard puzzles, limited inventory, scarce ammo. The survival horror formula may be nothing new, but the sheer tension of Signalis shows once again that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it — just move it to an eerily abandoned mining colony on the edge of a Nazi-like galactic empire. Even more...
Review Intelligent Qube (PS1) - An Iconic PS1 Puzzler
Blockstar
Republished on Wednesday, 22nd June, 2022: We're bringing this review back from the archives following Intelligent Qube's inclusion in All PS Plus Games. The original text follows. Originally published on Monday, 3rd December, 2018: You run around on a floating platform in the middle of a void, swallowing cubes into the ground one-by-one...
Review Weird West (PS4) - Ambitious Top-Down RPG Comes Close to Greatness
Darn shootin'
With the success of Deathloop last year, the comeback of immersive sims from their late 90s/early 2000s heyday seems to be in full swing. Through dogged determination and fantastic game design, Arkane Studios has almost single-handedly revived the genre a decade after releasing the first Dishonored title. So it makes sense that Weird...
Mini Review Shadow Warrior 3 (PS4) - A Very 2014 Shooter
Wang gang
Shadow Warrior 3 might be set in the demon-ravaged ruins of a futuristic Japan, but the game itself feels like a return to the early 2010s. Protagonist Lo Wang is constantly quipping, breaking the fourth wall and using his own name for dick jokes as he auditions to be the next Ryan Reynolds. There's parkour, grappling hooks, and an...
Review Crysis Remastered Trilogy (PS4) - A Franchise with an Identity Crysis
Squid game
Much like our own world, the Crysis universe changed irreversibly in 2020. We had the coronavirus pandemic, Crytek’s trilogy had an invasion of squid-like aliens called the Ceph. As depressing as it is to think the first Crysis represented 2020 as a far-flung future, it’s a wonder the series hasn’t been treated to a remaster until...
Review Cities: Skylines - A PS4 City Builder with Solid Foundations
Skyscraper
Republished on Wednesday 29th April 2020: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of May's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. In terms of city-building games, the PlayStation 4 – hell, every console in general – is pretty light. Simulation games as a whole seem to be married to...
Review eFootball PES 2020 - Same Shirt, Different Name
If it ain't broke, don't match-fix it
Just when you thought PES was getting old and stale, it gets a new name. That’s right, for a franchise that began as International Superstar Soccer, changed to Pro Evolution Soccer, and sporadically adopted and rejected the name of Winning Eleven, Konami has decided 2020 will mark the new era of eFootball PES...
Review Xenon Racer - Look Ma, No Handling
Race to the bottom
Xenon Racer is a racing game. That’s really the only way to kick off this review because there’s nothing memorable about it. Despite its 2030 setting it doesn’t try anything new – not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but something that becomes worse when you realise developer 3D Clouds hasn’t even got all the basics...
Review Hitman: The Complete First Season - An Exemplary Assassination Sandbox
Phwoar-ty seven
Republished on Wednesday 30th January 2019: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of February's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. Hitman: Blood Money is the golden standard for IO Interactive's stealth franchise; we can all agree with that. Hitman: The Complete First Season,...
Feature 10 Under-the-Radar PS4 Games to Look Out for in 2019
Insane in the mem-Vane
2018 was a pretty good year for non-blockbuster games: Hollow Knight made our Game of the Year list, while other gems like Dead Cells and Celeste also released. We’ve already taken a look at last year’s more underrated releases, so now it’s time to look ahead to 2019 and unveil next year’s possible diamonds in the...
Review Desert Child - A Fantastic Retro Racer That's Way Too Short
Eat my red dust
Desert Child is pretty special. Stylistically, it’s a magical experience, its ‘90s adventure game art style mixing well with an absolutely fantastic soundtrack. Set on Olympia, a city on a fully-colonised Mars, in a not-to-distant future, its world is an intoxicating mix of cultures, from Aussie beach bums to Middle Eastern...
Review Just Deal With It! - A Party Game without the Excitement
Bad hand
A theme in our reviews of the recent wave of PlayLink games has been whether a game is necessary. When PlayLink was revealed last year, it felt like something new: That’s You couldn’t have been made without smartphones, while other titles like Hidden Agenda at least attempted something interesting. Fast-forward to this year, though,...
Review Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six - Not a PS Classic, But Interesting Nonetheless
Back to basics
Believe it or not, but there was a time when the Tom Clancy game franchise that haemorrhaged titles in the 2000s was actually less popular than the legendary novelist himself. Even by the late 90s, only a handful of games based on his books had come out – most of them Hunt for the Red October submarine sims. That all changed in...
Review Melbits World - A Fun Little Puzzler for All
Melbits and Melbobs
The first thing you’ll notice about Melbits World, a new family game for the phone-based PlayLink series, is that it’s pretty. Very pretty. The sickly sweet, blocky Melbits themselves are cute, but the worlds that surround them are also eye-catching in a minimalist way. It’s certainly hard to think of a PlayLink game as...
Review Chimparty - Mario Party for Chumps
Monkeying about
Developed by NapNok Games, Chimparty is one of PlayLink’s first forays into the family game market, something it pulls off with mixed success. On first impressions, its art style is very endearing, with colourful characters and nicely-themed levels being easy on the eye. The fact that you can unlock items throughout the game for...
Review Knowledge Is Power: Decades - An Unnecessary But Functional Trivia Title
Decadent
We’re not sure if anyone needed it, but a new Knowledge Is Power game is here. Knowledge Is Power: Decades does exactly what it says on the tin, taking you through questions themed on the 80s through to the 2010s. That’s pretty much all there is to it, with Wish Studios not adding much to a game that was a solid addition to the...
Review The Jackbox Party Pack 5 - Fun and Games
You should know Jack
Another year, another Jackbox game. The master of the party game genre is back for the fifth instalment of the Jackbox Party Pack series, and by this game's indication, the developer isn't running out of good ideas. With every game playable on phone for up to eight players, it'll be hard to find a finer title to pull out when...
Review My Memory of Us - A Strong Stealth Puzzler with Educational Elements
And it's got Patrick Stewart
Part of a newly-popular genre we like to call 2D Puzzle Stealth Platformers About Living Through Hard Times – think games like Black The Fall or Valiant Hearts – My Memory of Us follows a boy and a girl trying to survive an invasion by the Robot King, which is an allegory for the Nazi invasion of Poland that began...
Hands On Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Blackout Gives Fortnite Stiff Competition
Nuketown funk
Another Battle Royale mode. As if the constant presence of Fortnite over our everyday lives wasn’t enough, we now have to deal with the increasing number of clones releasing. Grand Theft Auto V did it, Battlefield V’s doing it, and, of course, so is Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Those exhausted by the proliferation of the genre might...
Review Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut (PS4)
Memory block
Republished on Wednesday 29th August 2018: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of September's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. In Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut, you don't know who you are – you've lost your memory. All you know is what's fed to you by an astronaut aboard the ISS,...
Review Fire Pro Wrestling World (PS4)
Fired up
From it’s name, you probably already know if you want to buy Fire Pro Wrestling World or not. The niche 2D wrestling series, which started way back in 1989, is back for another instalment, and for the most part it’s unchanged, as a game in touch with its roots should be. It probably won’t attract many new fans, but you get the feeling...
Hands On PES 2019: Pro Evolution Soccer Stands Firm(ino)
On Klopp of the world
The PES 2019 demo is finally here, and encouragingly it actually has a player wearing the correct shirt on the cover; Konami must have learned its lesson after last year’s Neymar debacle. Still, seeing as Liverpool are an official partner of the game and all, it would be nice to see Andy Robertson’s lovely mug adorning the...
DLC Review Mass Transit Quietly Rounds Out Cities: Skylines' Season Pass
Mono... D'oh!
It’s another day, another DLC for Cities: Skylines. Mass Transit is the last full expansion of the game’s season pass and is arguably the best-value of them, bolstering Colossal Order’s already sizeable public transport options. However, despite all of these new additions, the DLC’s £10 price tag is still a too steep for what...
Hands On Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Multiplayer Changes 4 the Better
Get those boots on the ground
The first weekend of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 private beta is over and it’s been a surprisingly entertaining ride. The series’ multiplayer mode has always been very popular, but the last two instalments seemed a little too comfortable, despite their setting of the far future and World War II being very...
