Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

@RR529 Thanks for reading and yes, @nessisonett is right, it was Chex Quest, I believe! The one that makes me laugh the most is Super 3D Noah's Ark, developed by a biblical game producer. You run around Noah's Ark shooting food laced with sleeping drugs at angry goats. It's been a while since I read the Good Book, but I'm pretty sure I must've skipped over that chapter and verse!

So I managed to play and finish Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I was originally intending to write a full review (I might drop one later on), but tbh I'm quite exhausted with the series at this point so could do with a break!

Some quick thoughts generally:

• The game started off really strong. The strengths of this game are its setting (South America's jungle and villages are much more interesting than the barren Siberia of Rise) and its improved mechanics (pretty much every mechanic is improved, especially exploration and stealth; the swimming is perhaps the best I've seen in any game).
• This is the closest the reboot trilogy has come to feeling like the Core Design games, with a focus on exploration and, unlike Rise, an environment I want to explore. The crypts and tombs are generally quite interesting.
• That said, a lot of the puzzles were very tedious. Moreover, I encountered two puzzle-breaking glitches in my playthrough on PC (one fixed by simply resetting, the other resulted in me completely abandoning a sidequest). This really discouraged me and made me develop a distrust for the puzzle mechanics within the game.
• Although discovering new villages (e.g. Kuwaq Yaku, Paititi) was interesting at first (and also a first for the series - we'd never really seen much civilisation in previous entries), the overabundance of sidequests really put the game to a halt - affecting the pacing in a manner similar to Rise (and arguably worse - although fortunately this is all optional).
• The story again was fairly cliche and bland. I wasn't really sure, nor did I care, what the villain was trying to achieve, and the final few acts seemed a bit rushed. I did like the inner conflict of Lara having caused the natural disasters - but this was only sporadically brought up, and feel her inner turmoil was resolved too quickly.
• Similarly, the character development could've been better. This is the best relationship building that we've seen between Lara and Jonah, but Jonah again sat only the sidelines for most of the game. Other characters don't get much development or memorable moments.

Overall, a lot of issues I had with Rise carry over into this title, however I think the new setting and the improved mechanics go a long way to making me prefer this title overall. I feel that Shadow is the best realisation of classic Tomb Raider in the reboot setting. However, as a game, I feel that 2013 is most memorable to me and is the one I'd most likely go back to.

If I were to grade them:
2013 - B+
Rise - B-
Shadow - B

The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine DLC
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Completion Status: All main story missions completed; several side missions completed; roughly 30 hours of playtime

So, I've been sitting on this DLC expansion for a while. Unlike the first DLC expansion, Hearts of Stone, Blood and Wine is big enough to count as its own separate game, and gives you a large-ish separate region to explore. I didn't really want to go through the trouble of setting up Witcher 3 on my new PC, so I decided to get my money's worth out of the Switch version I bought for a while back and played sporadically. How would this DLC expansion fare on this generation's equivalent of the Game Boy?

Blood and Wine is canonically set after the events of the main game (and presumably the other DLC campaign as well), although, aside from some light references, it really functions as its own sort of thing. Geralt is summoned to the duchy of Toussaint, an idyllic region of the world that resembles classical imagery of medieval Europe, complete with virtuous knights pledging to defend the chivalric virtues. Something is amiss in paradise, however. A beast is terrorizing the land, and Geralt of Rivia is tasked by Duchess Anna Henrietta to find and stop the murders, which leads him directly into conflict with a mysterious and powerful Elder Vampire.

The name "Blood and Wine" communicates more than you'd think. Besides the vampiric connection, the land of Toussaint's primary export is wine, and much of the game's content involves settling land disputes over vineyards, dealing with wine theft, and even helping to restore a run-down vineyard and estate that has been pledged to you by the Duchess, where you'll eventually be able to grow additional herbs and display sets of armor and weapons. Otherwise, the gameplay loop will be familiar to veterans of the main game, as you travel around Toussaint and engage with fairly formulaic side content. None of the money/XP balancing issues from the main game have been addressed in this expansion, so your willingness to engage with everything this expansion has to offer comes down to personal enjoyment. With that said, I'm going to come down a little harder on how uninspired a lot of the side-content is in this DLC, because Toussaint isn't nearly as large as the wider Witcher 3 world, and more care should have been taken to furnish it with unique content.

Unfortunately, a lot of the visual splendor and charm of Toussaint were lost in the process of converting this game to the Switch. Granted, the entire game is here: there are no cut corners to speak of, and it runs surprisingly well on increasingly aged mobile technology, but the often pretty dramatic dips in resolution, texture quality, etc. are far more evident in this DLC than they were in the base game. Perhaps that has something to do with the art direction: Velen, Novigrad, etc. are generally pretty grim, dark, atmospheric places, but Toussaint is full of sunlit environs, and that clarity highlights the limitations of the technology all the more. I suppose it goes without saying: when people tout the impressiveness of the game running well on the console at all, that should probably tell you something about the capabilities of the hardware. Even as someone who often downplays the sacrifices needed to get home console-scale games running on this device (as they often aren't any more severe than similar cuts that are made to PS4 versions of games in comparison to their PC counterparts, while, IMO, the device itself offers much more in return for those sacrifices through the freedom offered by its hybrid form factor), I'd definitely say that playing Blood and Wine on the Switch should be a last resort.

Of course, there are ways to improve the experience via the options menu, which adds a suite of PC game-esque features to customize. First off, if you hadn't already, you'll want to turn off the anti-aliasing, which, as with the base game, makes the image appear uncomfortably fuzzy. Raw pixels aren't attractive, but it still results in a noticeably crisper image overall. Especially if played on the diminutive Switch Lite. The prospective player will also want to turn off "bloom" ASAP. I don't know what this DLC looks like with bloom enabled on other platforms, but on Switch it drowns the image in this horrible yellow tint.

I mentioned playing on a Lite, and that ends up being the best way to minimize the effects of the visual downgrade on one's experience with the game. The base version of TW3 looked better in handheld mode, of course, but it didn't look hideous when blown up on the TV most of the time. The same can't be said for this DLC, though. I remember docking it at one point when there were a lot of characters on-screen and then audibly gasping at how terrible the image quality was on my TV. It was... bad. Everything is so small on a Switch Lite screen that you can kind of fool yourself into thinking it looks better than it actually does, but put it on even a small monitor and you'll be faced with a game that, frankly, looks as bad as the most unattractive PS3/Xbox 360 titles.

But I won't keep ragging on the visuals. They're clearly not the result of laziness or a lack of effort. Saber Interactive, the company that ported this game to the Switch, did an amazing job stuffing a square peg into a round hole. If nothing else, this version of Blood and Wine still embarrasses existing home console ports of CDPR's embarrassingly unfinished sci-fi epic, Cyberpunk 2077.

The highest compliment I can pay to this version of Blood and Wine is that, more often than not, I was so fully engrossed in the story that I didn't even think about how basic everything looked. While I wasn't terribly engaged with the exploration (partly because of the lack of visual flair, and partially because, like the base game, TW3's open worldy aspects are half-baked: the side-quests are still unrewarding, it's still filled with unnecessary systems and mechanics, and its environments, while well-realized, have no interactivity or sense of mystery to them), the story in this DLC is surprisingly excellent. While the main game suffered from 'road trip syndrome' and featured a frankly pretty underwhelming main plotline, Blood and Wine's narrative is much more focused and immediately gripping, and the player will be thrown into a nuanced, tragic conflict that will have them sympathizing with everyone involved. A variety of memorable and mostly likable characters are introduced throughout. The smaller settings and narratives explored throughout are also compelling, in addition to the larger narrative. Blood and Wine weaves together a number of smaller stories and setpieces — freeing a woman afflicted with a terrible curse, infiltrating a swanky party to investigate a lead, exploring an ancient vampire castle — to great effect.

One area where the main game lacked a bit was in boss quality and variety. The Hearts of Stone expansion addressed this with some excellent boss encounters, but Blood and Wine's boss game isn't terribly impressive, although the final boss of the expansion is admittedly pretty challenging. Still, Toussaint would have fared even better with a collection of intimidating enemies to face.

For a DLC, though, this is still a pretty meaty, satisfying affair. I said it took me roughly 30 hours to get through, but that was just the main story and several side-quests. There was actually a lot of side-content I didn't engage with, and if someone felt like doing everything in Blood and Wine was worthwhile, they could probably get 40 - 50 hours total out of this campaign. I ignored a number of smaller side-quests, most of the unexplored map markers, almost all of the treasure hunts for special Witcher gear, etc. How much any of this content is actually worth engaging with is an open question, but its pure potential as a time-waster is impressive. And, you know, maybe I'll do that one day if I revisit the game on a different platform. I had a lot of fun with the PC version of the game just roaming around, soaking in the atmosphere, and, frankly, Toussaint is probably even better for that with its lush, technicolor environments.

I enjoyed my return trip to the world of The Witcher 3, even if the Switch port has a face only a mother could love. The storytelling in this DLC is the highlight of the package, and it highlights CDPR's strength when it comes to character writing and story-driven setpieces. I would love to one day see a Witcher game with more elegant gameplay, meaningfully streamlined mechanics, and balanced dolling out of rewards to the player to incentivize engagement with the (usually) well-written side-content. As usual, the art design and music are top-notch as well. I'm going to give the Switch version of Blood and Wine a 6/10. Tack on a point if you're playing any other version, but the image quality deficits here are too severe to ignore.

@timleon Nice impressions on Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Glitched puzzles sound... worrisome, though. Especially given puzzles are often required to complete if you wish to advance in a game.

The complaint about pace-destroying side-content definitely rings true. A lot of modern AAA games seem to suffer from design bloat, where the developers almost seem to feel the need to stuff extra quests and collectibles and whatnot in the game to pad it out.

[Insert obligatory 'I really need to play these games' comment]

Thanks!

Yeah the glitched puzzles really soured what was overall a good experience. Luckily the first was easily overcome by reloading my checkpoint, but I was almost afraid that the second had completely broken the game for me (long story short - I was only able to continue by reloading an old save - luckily the game keeps your latest save at a campsite to help prevent you from getting trapped in difficult areas).

With the pace-breaking...as mentioned, this at least is optional. Unfortunately I go in with an "all-or-nothing" mindset, and once I start chasing sidequest markers...I start trying to go for them all. I definitely don't recommend that in this game - maybe choose one or two sidequests to get a feel for them, and quickly move on. Otherwise the entire game becomes a bunch of fetch quests for villagers, distracting you from the main experience.

@timleon Great points made about Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and about the reboot trilogy as a whole. I can't fault anything you've said up there (you're right, the game's first third is its strongest, and everything slams into a brick wall as soon as Lara arrives in Paititi) and am sorry to hear you encountered some game-breaking bugs on PC, because I never had any issues on PS4. It's definitely the closest to capturing the spirit of the Core Design originals, but there's still some fine-tuning to be done. Fingers crossed for a game that nails the balance soon. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

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@Ralizah Well, at least you got some graphics options to fiddle with, in terms of making Blood & Wine look a little better suited to your preferences... but still, the fact that the Switch is running any of The Witcher III to begin with is a pretty impressive achievement, no matter the shape of the peg and / or hole (nice analogy). I'm glad to hear that the visual shortcomings and general design frustrations didn't detract from your enjoyment of the DLC's story, and a six (or seven) is still the right side of average. Given the wider praise of this game in general, it obviously does a lot of things right but, to echo myself from a half-dozen lines written above this one, here's hoping for a better balance next time around (providing the developers survive the current Cyberpunk 2077 debacle, of course).

@timleon I'm one of those people who gets anxious when side-content starts piling up, so, for me, it figures into the overall pacing of the game. In the best games, such content is meaningful and enhances the overall experience, but it doesn't sound like that's the case here.

It's good to hear the developer's built in a workaround to prevent players from losing too much in the way of progress, at least, but I think I'll probably do some investigating on how often these puzzle glitches crop up.

@RogerRoger Interestingly, the expanded options menu wasn't available at launch. But people with hacked Switches started messing with settings and showing off how much better the game looked with certain settings disabled, and the company actually responded by patching in the option to enable or disable a variety of post-processing settings. Very cool post-launch support.

In general, I remain impressed with how many games run well on the Switch. Even the base campaign of The Witcher 3, which, as mentioned, seemingly took less of a hit than the Blood and Wine campaign did. Granted, the drawbacks when playing on the system compared to something more powerful are obvious, but we're talking about simple differences in texture quality and framerate rather than the games needing to be entirely different to run on dramatically weaker hardware. I could see an updated Switch making use of some sort of DLSS solution to run games dramatically above its pay-grade, so to speak.

With that said, sometimes one is just flying too close to the sun with these ports, and I could feel the wax starting to melt with Blood and Wine.

And yeah, it's definitely a better than average experience overall. After 100+ hours of the base game and Hearts of Stone, though, the formulaic nature of the game has started to wear thin for me. Thankfully, it has the excellent narrative and character dialogue to fall back on.

I don't doubt CDPR will survive. I'm sure they still made mad profits on Cyberpunk, even with the huge number of returns, and consumers have short memories. CDPR will put out another game with a note thanking the player for buying it or something, and gamers will melt into a puddle and eat out of their hand again.

Thanks for the feedback! Yep, definitely agree that the first third of the game is the strongest - in fact, I was quick to write this up as my favourite in the trilogy until the rest of the experience pushed it down slightly. I think 2013 is a lot more consistent in quality, but is the least successful in capturing the Tomb Raider "feel", whereas that is what this entry excels most at.

I think the sidequests could go either way for you in that case. They actually do quite a good job of fleshing out the world and the civilisations that Lara encounters...but they bring the story to a grinding halt at a time where the story should be moving a bit faster, so they're really at odds with the rest of the game. In a way the main story and the sidequests almost feel like two different games. Personally I enjoyed the first few sidequests, but they became quite cumbersome after a while.

As for the glitches - specifically, I had these in the oil puzzle (which is the main story, but fixed by reloading the checkpoint), and path of fear (this is a DLC tomb, and the bug lost me the whole tomb's progress). There's quite a few reports of these bugs on Steam.

@timleon Great write up on Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I think you covered all the gripes I had. Oddly, I was really invested after the Tomb Raider reboot and played the heck out of it, then I played Rise and thought it traded the narrative for larger open world and side missions and then Shadow seemed to do the same but with a weaker plot and character development. Not a bad game, would say it is good but it was treading water imo.

@Ralizah Another excellent review. I've just gone back to Heart of Stone after finishing the main game a year back. I've been taking advantage of cross save with the PC version so been hopping between platforms. I still think The Witcher 3 on Switch is the best place to play because of the weakness of the open world design, being able to hop on and off on Switch fitted it better and was a trade off for good looking. It is a nice looking game on PC at Ultra settings but it isn't the prettiest game anyway. Think I will finish this DLC then wait a bit for Blood and Wine though I understand it is the stronger of the two.

I have been playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey for over a month and boy will I have some thoughts on that game when I finish it (nearly 45 hours in and I'm maybe over half way possibly?) so I haven't had much to add to this forum. However, as a break of fresh air, I played a game called South Of The Circle on Apple Arcade. Developer my (mainly) mobile developer State of Play, the game is a narrative adventure about a young academic working on a scientific mission in Antartica in the 1960's who is stranded in an airplane crash in the snow.

Approaching a review of a game like South Of The Circle is a challenge. It is a narrative story and one incredibly well told. However, so much of what the game is about is locked into its themes and story decisions that it is hard for me to pick apart how I feel about the game and how I felt about the narrative.

So I'm going to split this into two parts. The black and white description of the game itself and then some thoughts about the dangers of the narrative affecting reviews. I played the game on an Apple TV using a controller via the Apple Arcade service but can be played on any supported Apple device and touch screens will be simple enough. The story is set in an intriguing period. You play as Peter and involved with dual narratives. Via flashback you see him as an academic at Cambridge who has a good idea for a thesis but is struggling to flesh it out and gain acceptance of his peers in the early 1960's. At the same time, it charts his relationship with Clara a forward thinking academic who may be the key to unlocking his thesis with an angle that has international consequences. At the same time, you are charting Peter in Antartica trying to save a wounded colleague and find out where he is in the Antartic tundra. Against both threads is the backdrop of the Cold War, where it intrudes in both Cambridge life and the Antartic experience.

The gameplay, like many narrative games, is limited. You can control Peter in some sections but it is very much a forced path you must take. You can interact with some items, such as radios, but this is really done to break up the story slightly. The most interaction is where you choose responses in conversations based on mood, indicated by coloured options. These then affect the conversation. If you don't like these type of narrative games, then I've probably already lost you.

The graphics and animation are simple but effective, with a wonderful pastal colour scheme and design choice that is quite beautiful. The scenes and flashbacks of the narrative interweve beautifully, fitting the scenes and locales. It is rather stunning in places. The music is pitch perfect, often quite but sometimes punctuating the scenes. The game is entirely voice acted with some excellent performances that feel of the time period but quite natural. You'll find yourself attached to these characters. The game is about the perfect length of a game of this sort, roughly 3.5 hours so you can do it in one sitting. Performance is strong, even on the Apple Tv which isn't very powerful in the hardware stakes. In its presentation, its execution and for evoking emotions, this game is truly masterful.

Still, there is a but coming, and that is the direction of the narrative. The game has a point to make in its narrative and to even mention what that is thematically could spoil it. However, it is one of those choices that you will either find satisfying or frustrating. It is well told, it isn't based on a some sort of clumsy 'twist' and is told naturally through the game. On a personal level, I wasn't sure I liked the way the story went but that is probably to do with the success of the game in having me invested in the narrative and characters. I've seen others online (yes, I liked it enough to google it) split on this and I can see why. The story, as a whole, is consistent but will you like where it goes narratively and thematically? You might, you might not. It will certainly evoke an emotional response in you but I think your response cannot help but affect how you view the game. It has with me.

However, if you have access to the service and can play the game, I would recommend. I think this will be nominated for more awards and rightfully so. It is a story masterfully told. Just be prepared for it to go in directions you may or may not like.

@Ralizah Oh, wow! I gotta admit, I do love it when a developer acknowledges and incorporates the hard work of fans like that. Well done them!

And you're absolutely right, being able to take these modern games on-the-go is a remarkable achievement, no matter what minor technical compromises have to be made. Reminds me of what the PS Vita was initially marketed as, and how it attempted to run a few of its home console contemporaries with middling results (there's a port of The Amazing Spider-Man out there which really shows how it was punching slightly above its weight in this regard). It'll be interesting to see what the "Switch U" ends up doing with its guts, and whether Nintendo feels like these kinds of experiments have been financially worthwhile. That's what'll motivate their innovation the most, I'd wager.

You're also absolutely right about CD Projekt Red, unfortunately. I don't usually wish ill on anybody, but you just know that the scenario you describe will eventually come to pass, and it shouldn't because the contempt they've shown for their customers is staggering. Ah well.

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@timleon It's funny how a lot of older fans reacted against Tomb Raider (2013) for being so different but you're right, it's probably the most successful at what it does, carving out its own identity and being a satisfying experience from start to finish. I think all long-running franchises need a bit of variety every now and again, so there's room for both, but it's also impressive to step back and see how the reboot trilogy slowly brings Lara back to where she began. Put simply, it's all good!

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@Rudy_Manchego You've found a couple of hidden gems via Apple Arcade, haven't you? As stale as the narrative dialogue-choosing genre has become of late, this still sounds pretty neat; as always with such games, it's the presentation and story which seals the deal. I do have a fondness for Cold War history, so that's probably pulling me in a little here, as well.

But I'm both scared and fascinated by its narrative direction, given your reaction (and the reaction of others elsewhere being so divided). Since I don't have access to Apple Arcade, I'm tempted to go and look up spoilers, or watch a playthrough on YouTube. I'm guessing it'll never get ported elsewhere?

Great write-up. You've gotten me genuinely curious!

@RogerRoger Thanks! If you like indie games, I think Apple Arcade is possibly the best value subscription out there. At £4.99 a month, the quality and amount of new games added regularly is really good. Some of my favourite games of the last few years have been on Apple Arcade and they do fund a lot of games. The only downside is needing Apple devices and if you aren't a fan of mobile gaming then the reason isn't as strong. So the entry price is high and I couldn't say to go out and buy an iPad or iPhone just for Apple Arcade.

A lot of games do appear on other systems either at launch or months afterwards. However, the devs of South Of The Circle are primarily mobile devs so not sure if they will move it across. I hope so as more people need to see this gem of a game.

@Rudy_Manchego Yeah, I'm quite allergic to Apple tech, so I'm forced to live in hope of ports. I'll be honest, I don't engage with gaming news beyond PushSquare, so you're the only source of Apple Arcade information I've ever encountered. I'm glad that you get so much value out of your subscription, and it's nice to know that these experiences are out there, even if I can't quite get at them myself. Like I say, failing everything else, I can always live vicariously via YouTube!

In the meantime, I'll make a note of the game's name, and keep my eyes open for headlines.

@RogerRoger Well there are some great Apple experiences are also available or are coming to other platforms so do keep an eye out! Creaks, Mutazione, Neo Cab, Necrobarista and lots of others are on PS4 or Switch I think. They just seem to fly under the radar a bit!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Wonderful read Foxy and great to see another review from you. I've only played Devil May Cry 4 and a bit of Devil May Cry 3 SE and enjoyed both despite the high difficulty. I'm curious to go back and play the earlier ones (and finish 3), although have wondered if the first two might be a little too clunky and dated for my liking. It's interesting seeing the genesis of the series and how it initially started as Resident Evil 4. Have you seen the other prototypes for Resi 4? They went through quite a few unique builds over the years. Thanks for the video of Dante screaming about filling the dark soul with light, it made me chuckle! I also quite like the battle theme, but could see it doing my head in after a while.

@RR529 Nice, detailed review of Mario 3D World with a lovely assortment of screenshots! I'm glad you enjoyed it. In some ways it's the logical conclusion of design principles adopted in the Galaxy games - especially Galaxy 2 - but also takes a step back in a few ways. Characters are slower and less nimble, and it feels a little more deliberate and methodical. Levels themselves are full of imagination and are a lot more ambitious than those in 3D Land. The Nintendo polish to the visuals and sound is wonderful. I especially love the jazzier tracks! I haven't played the Switch version yet (it's on my shelf ready to play after Galaxy), but the speedboost will be most welcome. And I have never noticed that penis bridge before. Surely someone at Nintendo was being a little cheeky? 😂

@RogerRoger A fascinating read on a game I'd never heard of before, so genuine thanks for shining a spotlight on it. Releasing so soon before Doom was surely rotten luck, so I wonder if the game would have otherwise been more famous. I'm not a massive fan of these early corridor shooters but can respect their impact on the industry. The nostalgia factor is always powerful. Did it bring back some nice memories of your first PC? It must have been exciting back then.

@ralizah Excellent Blood and Wine review. I'm genuinely intrigued by the story and it sounds wonderful how sophisticated the storytelling is. It's therefore a shame that it's let down by such mundane side-content. Too many developers fall into the trap of thinking they have to stuff environments with content either to justify the existence of the open-world or to pad playtime. As for the Switch, while it's extremely impressive that developers are able to get certain games running on the hardware, I'm not entirely sure it means they should. There surely comes a point where visual or performance compromises go too far and begin to undermine the experience. The Switch's heavily underclocked hardware was a little dated in 2017, so I would personally rather developers crafted bespoke, unique experiences that make the most of the hardware without such harsh compromises.

@Rudy_Manchego Nice thoughts on South of the Circle, it sounds very interesting indeed and a nice change of pace. I've added it to my list (alongside Little Orpheus, which I think you reviewed a while back). My Apple Arcade trial runs out quite soon; I activated it to play World's End Club and still haven't got round to actually playing it!

@Rudy_Manchego Hearts of Stone was surprisingly good. You don't get a new region like in Blood and Wine, but, for my money, it has the best set of story quests in TW3 as a whole. Good call on putting some time between Blood and Wine and the rest of TW3.

Also, nice review of South of the Circle. I've not heard of the game, which I'm guessing is in large part due to my the complete dearth of Apple tech or services in my home (although I'll admit I'm slightly jealous of people with access to Apple Arcade, since there a couple of exclusives games on it I'd love to play), but it definitely sounds interesting. Especially given the controversial direction of the narrative. Even if it ends up not really resonating with me, I've always found myself drawn to artistic experiences that stick to their guns and challenge the audience, as opposed to pandering to them.

If this ever gets ported to a device I own, or if I ever get access to Apple's gaming service, I'll definitely consider playing it.

@RogerRoger If nothing else, the controversy over Cyberpunk and their deplatforming of Devotion has done a lot to quiet the obnoxious, cultish circle-jerking about how "consumer friendly" CDPR is in pretty much every gaming forum and website I frequent because the company offers DRM-free PC games and butters up the community in public statements every once in a while. One of the reasons it took me years to get to The Witcher 3 in the first place is because I knew I'd judge it more harshly than I should if I played it at the height of its popularity.

@mookysam Thanks!

I think there's a place for Switch ports of games like The Witcher 3, DOOM 2016, etc. But they're definitely not as easily recommended as many other ports and releases on the system are. I tend to play less demanding multiplats on the system because I'm a bit of a fan of handheld gaming tech and also because I want to support the third parties who are investing into an ecosystem that third party devs have traditionally been skittish about, but I think something like Blood and Wine is definitely on the edge of what I'd consider acceptable for the system. It's better than not playing the game at all, which is just going to be how it is for some people, who maybe don't have much access to TV time at home, but I wouldn't recommend it as a hybrid experience. With that said, the best platform on which to play a game is the one you're actually going to play it on. I think it's fine enough if you leave it undocked. Just... keep this version of Blood and Wine away from a TV, lol.

@Rudy_Manchego That they must do, given I've never heard of those games you've just listed there! I'll have to check 'em out and track 'em down. Thanks for the heads-up!

@mookysam No, thank you for reading! Our old family PC was one of those awful beige affairs, very chunky and slow even by the standards of the time... but of course, I loved it, and all the classic shooters we had on that free shareware disc. It was nice to go back for a brief visit, but I wouldn't wanna live there again. I had the same reaction when I got the original Wolfenstein 3D for my PS3 a couple years back. We've come too far, both in terms of the technology and general gaming!

@Ralizah Glad to know it isn't just me who suffers violent allergic reactions to such dogmatic displays of blinkered fanpersonism. Like you, I prefer to judge certain titles in a vacuum.

While I've reviewed all my PS5 games I've finished except Spider-Man Remastered because I have way too much to say about that masterpiece of a game and it would take a while, I thought I'd review a game that's very close to my heart. A game that I really enjoyed and a game of the year contender for me.

Game: Clubhouse games: 51 Worldwide classics/51 Worldwide games
Played on: Nintendo Switch

No. This is not ironic. No. This is not a joke. I genuinely believe that this is a 10/10 game and I will stand by that opinion. 51 Worldwide Games is a collection of, what else, 51 games from all over the world. From well known games like Uno (well, it's called last card in this game. Copyright, sorry!) and Draughts/Checkers to lesser known games like Hare and Hounds, Chinese Checkers, Nine Men's Morris and Mancala, all of which are really fun. 6 Ball Puzzle is a real stand-out for me. I suck at it but it's a really cool twist in the matching puzzle genre! You have to make lines of 6 balls with the same colour and if you make a shape like a diagonal line, lines of balls will crash onto your opponent's board. Even the graphics are amazing, which is something I never thought I'd say about a puzzle game so well done nintendo!

I need to say more about these graphics, man! They look pretty damn good for the nintendo switch! Yahtzee has an eerily hyper realistic table and the bowling alley looks really nice too.


The only thing I despise about this game is the videos that play before you play the games. The voice acting is, quite frankly, terrible and it just sounds so robotic and fake. No child has ever said to their parent "Dad! I wanna play Gomoku!" I think I hear the woman singing "WHoOoOos up for BoOowling?!" in my nightmares now.

Every game is accessible and really fun. I bet your mum could understand it right after reading the rules (Which is good because I play it with my mum). The touch controls are really intuitive and while having the puck smasher be in front of your finger in air hockey is really weird and not that great, everything else is.

The music is amazing! However, not all of it is available on youtube for some unknown reason. The four in a row/sliding puzzle music is really jolly and the 6 Ball Puzzle theme is actually a remix of the aforementioned four in a row song! I highly recommend you give the ost a listen.

Conclusion
While there are some niggles here and there, 51 Worldwide games is an amazing collection of some of the best tabletop games there are. It's a fun multiplayer game even though some of the games don't support more than two players which is weird. It has introduced me to so many fun games and I love it for that.

Pros
-Incredible Graphics
-Fun gameplay
-Lovely music
-Overall fun collection

Cons
-Terrible VA
-Some odd decisions in the control department
10/10 Outstanding

Nice piece on The Witcher III's Blood & Wine Expansion there @Ralizah!

I tend to be a rather adverse to the practice of DLC/Expansions for the most part as I rarely think they're ever worth the money.

I've never even bought one actually. Only if they happen to be some part of a complete collection edition/reprint of a game that I've purchased. Even then I've found them mostly underwhelming.

In fact the only game where I thought the add-ons were actually worthwhile was Fallout New Vegas purely because of how unique in tone they were compared to the base game.

I've only tried the vanilla Witcher 3 but Blood & Wine sounds like a rather unique experience, especially with you praising the main plotline in it as upon replaying the base game last year the road trip syndrome of the main plot did hamper the experience somewhat compared to my original playthrough (And gave up on it getting to Skellige).

It's a shame of the concessions that had to be made for Blood & Wine in particular to run smoothly on the Switch but at least you had an enjoyable time overall with it none the less Ral!

That horrible yellow tint with the bloom on is... Rather ghastly put it mildly

And uhh... As someone playing Cyberpunk 2077 on a slim PS4. Yeah I can't dispute anything you're saying, especially with my somewhat lacklustre shots in the screenshot thread or my thoughts so far in the PS4 games thread!

Whilst I am having a good(?) time with it despite having a rather large laundry list of complaints... I'd be pretty pi$$ed if I actually bought it for full price, especially at launch.

Thanks @mookysam! Great to be back writing them! You should totally try to finish 3 as it was easily my favourite of the series back when I played it years ago (And I have a feeling upon replaying them it still will be)... It'll be interesting seeing the evolution of the combat in the titles as I go along though.

Honestly I think the plot of 1 (Which is practically nonexistant and AWFULLY told and voiced when it is there) has aged much worse then the combat. 3 & 4 aren't exactly shakespeare... But they might as well be in comparison 😅

I haven't actually! I've seen footage for Resident Evil 2's prototype with Elza Walker and Resident Evil 0's N64 version but nothing on 4!

I love the way his voice cracks in that line too... Sheer perfection There are a few different battle themes but I don't think they're anything to write home about. I think the atmospheric exploration music stands out a bit more to me.

@Ralizah, nice review on Blood & Wine. Witcher III is a game I look at occasionally on PS4 as it's on sale all the time, though I don't think I've bit the bullet yet for whatever reason. I will say the expansion does look pleasantly vibrant, even through the Switch screens you shared.

@Jackpaza0508, nice impressions on Clubhouse Games! I've always thought it looked pretty cool, but I'd have no one to play with so I don't know how much mileage I'd get out of it. I enjoyed Go Vacation! well enough on my own, so I should probably just go for it.

@RR529 Clubhouse Games is actually good solo because some of the games are 1p only and the CPU is actually really good and challenging on the higher difficulties you unlock!