Ghostrunner PS5 Review

 

Ghostrunner is a 1st-person action-platform game was originally released in 2020 for PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC, and was later released on PS5 and XSX/S in 2021. 

It was both developed by One More Level and Slipgate Ironworks, and both published by 505 Games and All in! Games.

There are a lot of the FPS stuff nowadays that always about gun-shooting action instead of coming up any new ideas, so if you're one of the people are kinda got bored with the traditional shooting action, but wanted to focus on different style of game that involves heavily focused more on melee sword-fighting and cool platforming action then let me introduce the Ghostrunner.

It's a 1st-person action game with the combination of Platforming and Hack N Slash which seems to be an interesting title that I'd like to give a shot, so I decided to get a PS5 copy of this title to see if this game is anything good to play.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The game is set on somewhere in futuristic settings. So you're basically the Ghostrunner, an tech-enhanced superhumans who awakens with no recollection. He was contacted by the Architect, who established and ruled Dharma Tower, have order the Ghostrunner to free him from the Keymaster named Mara, who betrayed him in a coup that destroyed most of the Ghostrunner units. 

The story in the game is rather kinda mixed in my opinion because I find the plot and narrative throughout the game is kinda sounded like the low-budget Sci-Fi b-movies, so all you hear the story is to go on the mission and defeat the Keymaster to set the Architect free, and also you may hear some of the Architect's conversation about the Keymaster's leadership that could rule the cyberworld city and blah and blah.

I wasn't got into with the game's story as much beside I think I really liked the Ghostrunner as a protagonist because the way he talks with his gruffy tone and seriousness, and I got to like his super-suit appearance with the leather-jacket hoodie, metalic-arms, the futuristic black-mask, and of course his razor-edge samurai-katana which is quite tough as a chad.

The presentation is looking decent for the settings choices which I really liked how the environments are designed to be very cyber-punk themed.

Stuff like you see the futuristic city-buildings, backstreets, rooftops, factories, has neon-light signboards, and some warehouses which I find these concepts design for the game's presentation is very well done.

I also liked the enemy's types of units which shared with really cool armors and metallic suits, and I got to say these bosses are looking awesome in the game, so stuff like you have Hel which has ninja-like mask, blackened-red and white suit, and has long-pony tail, but due to her unstable personality which she can't filter her emotions just to make her colder approach.

Then finally Mara is kinda has the vibes of Marvel's villain like Dr. Octopus, judging with her mechanical tentacles attached on her back, and she also does a lot of crazy electrifying all over the stage which is one insane boss character.

   

Overall, an below-averaged story, but has cool protagonist and decent presentation.

Gameplay

You take control of Ghostrunner in 1st-person perspective, as your main goal is to beat the entire stage by defeating many of the enemies and being able to reach at the destination point that leads you to the next stage. 

To keep you in mind, my control configuration is played differently so if any of you have played the game with the default controls please don't get mixed up with my configuration choices while I'm reviewing the game.

You move the player with the left stick control while using the right stick control to use camera movement to look around. 

You interact stuff like opening doors with the switch by pressing the cross button which I've changed it to square button. Pressing the right shoulder button to jump which I've changed it to cross button, so you can use these jumps which allowing you to jump on platforms or jump towards a surface or wall which makes you automatically run across the wall, as well as doing the wall jumps which you can jump off from the wall while you're running on the wall.

Pressing the right thumbstick button to crouch which I've changed it to circle button, so you can also use these couch action to slide forward or slide down the slopes.

You can perform the dashing moves by pressing the left shoulder button which allowing you to use dash to reach the long-distance platforms or evade the enemy's projectiles.

You can also hold the dash button to perform sensory boost which allows you to slow time and useful for dodging left and right to avoid incoming attacks or jump away from the platforms to avoid hazardous objects such as electricals or fire. 

Pressing the left trigger button which uses as the grappling hook allowing you to attached on grappling spot which indicates the blue-rounded symbols on the above.

Hitting the right trigger button uses as the melee sword attack which uses to slice off the enemies or you can also use the sword to parry the enemy's melee attack or projectiles close to you when pressing the right trigger button in right timing. 

Pressing the left thumbstick button to use skill moves which I've changed it to right shoulder button, so these skills move will allow you to perform various of 4 skill moves such as the blink will enables you to target multiple enemies at once and kill them with single attack, the tempest allows you to use a blast to kills enemies or deflect projectiles, the surge which highlight an enemy and attack them with your ranged projectiles, and finally the overlord allows you to take control of enemies causing them to attack other enemies. 

You will able to gain the upgrades throughout the game which you'll have access to the calibration panel by pressing the touchpad button, so you'll have the list of available upgrades front of you and assign the ones you want to use.

Stuff like you have additional charge, cooldown system for faster re-charge, reflecting enemy's projectiles, absorbing projectiles charges the focus meter, the enemies are outlined for better visibility, the time moves slower during sensory boost, the blink has a significantly longer range, killing 2 or more enemies at once with tempest, the surge's wave travels much faster, and many more varieties of upgrades which improves upon your abilities and skills throughout the game. 

I say these controls are pretty straight-forward to play because all you do is to run, jump, slide, and of course dash which these of the movements are worked really smoothly to learn many of the manoeuvring techniques which requires to use these for being able to reach higher platforms and gaps, evading many hazardous stuff like grinds, electrical currents, and fires, and trying the best not to fall off the stage.

I really liked how the game like this involving the stunts-platforms where you can run across the wall and swinging around with the grappling hook just feels really fun to play this kind of game.

The combat system is well designed which requires you to learn how to slice and parry against the enemies are really dead on simple to play, so it's not really complicated at all.

I also liked using these skills which works very responsive because I really liked using these skill power just takes the advantages to defeat the enemies pretty quickly.

The upgrades are also quite useful because you really need these to enhance your player's abilities to perform better on the combat and skills just adds up the beneficial of the player's play-ability.

What makes the game quite challenging to play is mostly one hit death, a term where you really need to survive the fight against the enemies or some platforming stuff that has hazardous obstacles around it without taking one damage from them, so if you do get hit by the projectiles or obstacles then you're dead in action.

It makes you repeat the multiple attempts to solve the problem which it may going to frustrate most of the casuals players who really hated some of the tedious parts in some stages are filled with many enemies and obstacles to deal with in regards of aggressive enemy's A.I are being a cheap with attacks and some time the platforming design can be too complex for them is because this game is about learning all the trials and errors that you really need to get used with the game's design choices that requires you to play perfect at this game without making many mistakes, but thankfully it has the checkpoint system where you don't have to start the stage over again so instead it takes you the spot to continue where you're left off which really helps the player. 

You can also set the difficulty to assist mode where you can change stuff such as the game speed which you can slow down the game to give you more time to react, adding extra life to make mistakes less punishing, and shorten your cooldown ability time which may going to help beginners to enjoy the game quite more.

What I liked about the game is that you have each of the enemies that shares with their combat and abilities such as one of them has pistol, the other has auto-rifles, the big security guy uses their plasma shield to use it as defence or push the player off, the cyber-like samurai are really good at parrying and makes counter-attack, the reckless guy will make a launch jump at you from long-distance, the long-legged robot fires with horizontal-beam at you, and many more foes does a insane projectiles and melees which I see why the game is tough as nails, but also provides a really good challenge throughout the campaign.

Overall, it has well-designed combat and has good platforming design.

Graphics

The graphics is looking quite solid for the 9th gen title, as you see the visuals quality are actually looking incredible when playing on the PS5 consoles.                         

The level environments are sure quite big with great depths of height to make the whole game feels more like the platformer.

The textures are in sharper details on surfaces, it has the rain effects at the outside of the city and streets, the lighting effects made a good mix of bright and diming in some areas, and of course they made a details on the draw-distance are looking very good to keep the background environments look fine and crispy.

I also liked the use of the special effects on enemy's projectiles and some hazardous obstacles are quite easier to spot the dangers in surrounding areas.

The character's model is quite amazing throughout the game with good responsive A.I behaviours with their walking and running animation, and I really liked how they designed them to look quite so good in the stages.

The frame-rate and resolution quality in PS5 is bang-on 4K with locked 60fps on ray-tracing mode delivering a best visual quality, where as the performance mode goes up to just locked 120fps without running on 4K which you may going to lose a bit of the visual quality but also quite playable, so to be honest both of these settings are just plays absolutely fine with no sign of slow-downs whatsoever which seems to be a great news for the PS5 version, where as the XSX/S are completely different depending which model you're playing on, so on the X model which you still have the same configuration as the PS5 but its nowhere near consistent in terms of frame dips on the ray-tracing mode where as playing the performance mode are quite playable but doesn't adds-up the visual quality, and I got to say the S model are looking quite rough with the performance and visual quality just doesn't seem to play well as the X model.

I believe the PS4, XBONE, and Switch are running on between 720p and 1080p resolution but the frame-rate are kinda bit rough to play it on 8th gen with the 30fps, so it's better off playing on the 9th gen system and PCs just performed better than these version, so sorry 8th gen.        

Overall, it has solid level environments, amazing animation and some good special effects.  

     

   

Music and Sounds

The music in this game is actually sounds pretty good with synth-wave beats soundtrack which kinda gives us the style of the 80s cyber-punk themed.

It was composed by Daniel Deluxe did a remarkable job of adding the upbeating synth-wave to its action. 

The sound design is stunningly quite amazing with the environmental noises and has the surrounding atmospheric sounds throughout the stages are just sounded great on the audio sound system equipment goes thumping about everywhere.

The voice acting is pretty okay on the dialogue conversation, so to be fair on this I say the voice of the main protagonist is sounded quite better than the rest of the cast of generic supporting characters are not nearly sounded as great. 

Overall, it has really good soundtrack and amazing sound design.

Special Features

The game does come with extra DLCs campaign called "Project Hel" where you get to play as Hel in 7 campaign stages, and you can also participate with two extra modes such as kill run where you had to race through the stages within time limit, and you have wave mode where you had a task to beat all 20 waves of enemies using the randomised upgrades.

Overall, an impressive additional features.

Advantages

Cool main protagonist

Decent presentation settings

Well-designed combat and has good platforming design

Solid visuals

Really good soundtrack

Disadvantages

Below-averaged story

Some tedious parts in some levels

Final Verdict

Presentation 7/10 - below-averaged story, but has cool protagonist and decent presentation.

Gameplay 8/10 - well-designed combat and good platforming design.

Graphics 8.5/10 - solid level environments, amazing animation and some good special effects.

Music and Sounds 7.5/10 - really good soundtrack and amazing sound design.

Special Features 8/10 - has DLCs campaign and two game modes.

Overall 8/10 - Ghostrunner is a very good 1st-person action-platformer that does the job well done, so you got fun and challenged campaign filled with great combat gameplay, good platforming action, and of course dealing with the tough as nails enemies that keeps you busy with the game just for solid 7 to 10 hours length of playthrough.

Even though the story is not the strongest point of the game, but what really makes the game matters is all about having a good single-player campaign with unique combat abilities and skills to learn, and has the learning curves to find it's way to solve the platforming stages filled with many enemies and obstacles to deal is what makes the game plays really fun. 

       

The game is actually pretty cheap on physical copies which you can get it on the PS5, XSX/S (X Model), and Switch in between £15 to £25, where as you can get it digitally for PCs and consoles platform just for £25.

I say this is definite a buy for those who are interested in playing the action-platformer in 1st-person perspective will likely to give this game a go and see if they can enjoy this style of unique game.

Hopefully I will consider getting the sequel in near future and see if it's doing anything good as the original in terms of levels, combat, and platforming that has to be well structured and enjoyable to play.

 

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Resident Evil Village PS5 Review

 

Resident Evil Village is a Survival-Horror game was released in 2021 for PS5, PS4, XSX/S, XBONE, and PC, and then it got later ported to Switch in 2022 as cloud service version.

It was both developed and published by Capcom, and it is a sequel to the 2017's previous title such as Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.

Previously, I've already covered my review on Resident Evil 7: Biohazard for PS4 which I described it as the return of the Survivor Horror roots since after the previous entry such as RE 6 which was absolute nothing but a dog shit, so thankfully the RE 7: Biohazard just got everything right to create what makes the franchise quite successful back in the old days of gaming. 

I had a blast of playing RE 7 which delivers many great stuffs in the game such as showdown with Jack Baker breaking through the walls, and that crazy bitch surprises you with unexpected jumpscares just adds up the overall scare-fest level. 

The darker tone setting of presentation borrows the influence from 70s horror film like Texas Chainsaw Massacre in terms of crooked-looking house and the insane villains.

The gameplay mixes with the survival and puzzles that keeps you busy with the game to progress throughout the story campaign is what makes RE 7 just stepping in the right direction.

As I previously enjoyed the RE 7, I was hoping to look forward with the another RE games which is why I've bought a copy of RE Village for PS5.

Yes everyone, I've already talked earlier about that I've finally got a PS5 Slim last week ago which is why I am here to make my very first PS5 review that I'll be covering today.

So what is my thoughts on RE Village? well it's all depends on how are these story, gameplay, and presentation went, so is it another good RE games out there or is it not just what I've expecting from the title.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The game sets in 3 years after the events of RE 7, so it started with Ethan Winters, an main protagonist who survived from the Baker's house incident from RE 7, had been settled living with his wife Mia and 6 month daughter Rosemary until the house invasion had happened when Chris Redfield and his team came breaking in and kills Mia in cold blooded, and kidnaps Ethan and his baby daughter being transported in a van.

After the collision crash, Ethan wakes up on the outside of the village and began his journey to search his baby daughter, as well as uncovering the truth from Chris's action behind the house invasion incident. 

The opening scene in the beginning of the campaign is quite unexpected with brutally of teams starts breaking in Ethan's home and showered the f**k out of his wife with multiples of bullets, and knocks Ethan down unconsciously when he's trying to protect his baby from Chris and the teams.

This turns out to be sounds shocking to you fans which you did not expect your all-time favourite hero from the previous RE games had turned out to be bad guy in the game...well there's no explanation what was the main reason he did all that reckless shoot-out which remained mystery, so that's really getting very interesting stuff going on in the game.

First of all, I never been a fan of Ethan Winters as a faceless main protagonist, but in this game his character's development seems to be more of the same with no significant changes whatsoever meaning it's still has the same less emotions characteristics and lacks strong personally just like from the previous game.

Then you have the returning character such as Chris Redfield, as you may know him as the major important character from the previous entries of RE series. 

His appearance in the game are described as much darker and more sinister in contrast to his previous heroic portrayal in the series which I really liked the new changes on his character's role in RE Village a lot better than he was previously appeared in RE 7: Biohazard. 

The game also shares with many great villains that are quite just as likable, so stuff like you have Hammer-wielding asshole Karl Heisenberg, haunting ghost-like Donna Beneviento and her creepy doll Angie, supreme leader figure Mother Miranda, three crazy witches Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela, and of course everyone had talked about the tall-gigantic woman that breaks the internet after watching the trailer such as Lady Alcina Dimitrescu which I got to say it's clearly the best and most recognisable female villain in RE series...seriously no joke, I swear to you guys may going to agree with my view on this 9 foot-tall madam with big-long claws and the scary expression on her face.

I also liked several of the monstrous creatures like warewolf-like mutants, mold-infected human with mechanical modifications wield with scraped-metal axe, fungy-like zombie with claws and teeth, slow vampiric creature wield with melee sword, giant old-brute wield with large war-hammer, bat-like creature flying everywhere outside, mutated soldier wield with arm-mounted drills, and of course mechanically-modified creature with huge propeller stuck on the head, which I considered these concept design looking quite remarkable that fits really well in the game's settings.

The presentation in this game is actually does gives me sorts of Resident Evil 4 vibes to it in regards of these locations and environments are looking quite similar in both.

You have outside of the villages that are looking so abandoned and completely wrecked which really shows that there are many of poorly conditioned houses, churches, and graveyards just really adds up the game's creepiness.

I also liked three of these locations such as Castle Dimitrescu which are cloudy and gloomy at outside of the castle, and I really liked how they designed the castle at outside view just looks like it came from the Bram Stoker's Dracula, where as inside of the castle are described as dark and medieval with old-looking fashioned rooms and halls.

Then you have crooked-looking Beneviento house which appears to be unsettling and has disturbing stuff going on which I considered this ugly looking house as nothing but a most haunted places in this particular location.

Finally you have Heisenberg's factory filled with dark industrial room and has gritty environments all over the places.

Overall, it has brilliant story, incredible presentation settings, and terrifying villains and creatures. 

Gameplay

In single-player campaign, you take control of Ethan Winters in 1st-person or 3rd-person perspective depending on which are these two options suits your playstyle in the game, as your main goal is to rescue his kidnapped baby daughter but in order to do that you must complete several of objectives to progress throughout the game such as puzzle-solving, gathering info from documents and diary, collecting keys and items to gain access to new area, and of course defeating many bosses. 

Pushing the left stick to move player around, while the right stick are used as camera movement.

Pressing the left thumbstick to make player run, and pressing the right thumbstick is to make player crouch down can be used for stealth play.

You can interact and pick-up the objects by pressing the cross button, when the cross button symbol appears on the screen.

You can also go on the inventory screen by pressing the triangle button which takes you to the inventory stuff which allows you to equip and examine weapons and items, as well as re-organising stuff to fit in space for many weapons and items that you've picked up recently from. 

You can set 4 each of your weapons by highlighting them with short-cuts which allowing you to quickly cycle your weapons by hitting the d-pad buttons, so that you don't have to go back to inventory screen to equip others.

Holding the left trigger to make steady aim while moving around the targeting cursor with the right stick control, then shoot it with the right trigger to shoot down these enemies, but you can also reload the weapon by hitting the square button just in case if your ammunition rounds is quite bit low.

You can avoid enemy's melee attack by hitting the left shoulder button to defend yourself from taking damage, and you can use your first aid bottle by hitting the right shoulder button to increase your health when your health is been lowered down. 

You can gain access to your map screen by pressing the touchpad button will display full maps of the locations which helps you navigating the stuff like where you supposed to go and finding a way get to the new area.

You can also save progress by going to the safe room which can be located on your maps, so pay closely attention to the map which also has icons displayed. Once you're in the safe room, you can use the typewriter object which allowing you to save the game which you can always continue the game where you left off for later play, so thankfully you don't really need the ink item in order to save progress because you can save anytime you want in the game. 

So far, the controls in this game works really smoothly because I had no issues with the character's movement and camera system, as you can always change the control settings on the pause option menu such as your look sensitivity control and button layouts preferences to suit your play-ability.

The best things about the PS5 controller is that your adaptive triggers actually uses for the pressure sensitivity which means it's designed for the specific parts in the gameplay element that really adds up a new ways of experiencing to play PS5 games.

For example: when equipping the pocket knife which are lighter melee weapon made your adaptive triggers quite loose, while changing it to other weapons like pistols, shotguns, and rifles that made your adaptive triggers quite tighter to press, so it's like you're pulling the trigger from the gun on your hand just adds up the realism to the combat gameplay which worked really amazing for most of the part. 

It made really good rattling noises on the right trigger when using the machine-guns, and of course pushing the right trigger half-way hard with the pistols just seems to be very responsive which is why I'm amazed with the innovation that's being included on the 9th gen controller.

The gameplay as a whole are just plays great in terms of survival, combat, exploration, and of course the game's difficulty challenge. 

Having to play on casual mode are acceptable for beginners who aren't to keen with the challenge but rather focusing mostly on the story sequences, where as the standard mode delivers a decent challenge without being too difficult to complete, and lastly the hardcore mode is more of the full-on survival root which reduces the amount of resources and making the most of the enemies much tougher and difficult to fight are the best recommendation for most experienced players who loves to participate a bigger challenge.

The mix of combat and survival are nicely balanced as you may need to use some of the survival tool in order to survive in the game such as your weapons and ammunitions which you'll need these to fight off against these monsters when they get too close to you, but don't try to waste many ammunition otherwise you're screwed unless you can only use these when it's necessary, if left no other choice but to fight instead.

Same goes with the health items which you can only use it once if you think you really need to increase your health, so do it wisely or else you'll have no left to use it.

The stealth is the best way to avoid contacting with the monsters or other threats because sometime you don't really want to waste your time fighting with the enemies so much, as you're trying to get to the new areas, so you can hide inside the long furniture, under the beds, and behind the objects like boxes and walls are the best way to prevent getting caught in action.

You can meet up with the big fat Duke which can be found mostly in safe room and places, so you can able to trade stuffs like upgradable weapons which improves upon your weapon performance such as firing rate, power, and reload speed, and then you have attachable items that attached onto your weapon like keeping your aiming steady and adding scope to increase zoom-in distance, and lastly some resources like health and ammo items may come in handy.   

I also loved the exploration in the game is because I really liked how they designed the level environment to be larger than the previous games, so you can use exploration to discover collectable treasures and valuables, uncovering different discoveries, and some interesting stuff going on in these villages and other locations.

What makes the game quite enjoyable is the several of fantastic segments that doing the game's justice, so you have some of the decent puzzle-solving aspects such as changing and placing the portraits, re-arranging the statues, swing the flames left and right to light-up candle, play the notes correctly shown on the paper, shoot 5 bells in room, and many more puzzle stuffs that unlocks the un-reveal paths, as well as obtaining the key items that lead you to the new rooms.

My favourite part of the game is the creepy doll house event that kinda gives me sort of the Konami's cancelled P.T Demo of Silent Hill vibes to it in terms of settings and atmospheres where the whole doll house are fully cursed with disturbing stuffs going on such as the light generator just shuts off loudly, hearing little girl laughing in background noises, the radio shatters up like mad, and of course one f***ed up part in the game that I never forget is the ugly-looking deformed baby start chasing you around the rooms is the moment that I finding it quite terrifying, damn that larged deformed baby is sure one ugly mother-f***er.

I also did enjoy the showdown with the bosses are the best thing in the single-player campaign, so you have Lady Dimitrescu where not only she chases you with her deadly claws, but for later part where she's also turned into the final true form which you had to fight her at the rooftops, and then you have Heisenberg which not only he uses his heavy melee weapon, but also has ability to use his power that gathers his scraps to create his defense shields and armor, and of course the throwing attacking weapons, so these are the boss battles that I finding it quite entertaining to play.

I wanted to point out one of the criticism which is a Chris's mission are rather being too short because as I really liked having him as playable character in this story campaign start kicking all the creatures asses, as you can only as him just for half an hour mission which is not quite enough for those who really liked Chris from the previous RE games are expecting his mission to be bit more lengthy, so I wish his mission in the story campaign could have done a bit longer than the half an hour would have made it quite better in my opinion.   

As I did enjoy the single-player campaign, I also had a Gold Edition which Includes the extra Story DLC titled as "Shadow of Rose" where you get to play as Rosemary Winters entering her frightening nightmarish campaign, and you also got the mercenaries mode which is a score attack mini-game where you had to defeat all the enemies to gain more scoring points in time limit, and also I did mentioned the 3rd person perspective mode which are only featured on the gold edition version.   

You can also get a VR mode for free from the digital storefront, so you can able to enjoy playing the new VR mode on single-player campaign if you have the PSVR 2 headset which I also heard many good things about having to play the horror title with the VR headset delivers the new ways to gain the VR horror experience.  

Overall, it has responsive controls, challenging mix of combat and survival, great puzzle-solving, and of course enjoyable boss battles.

Graphics

The overall visual is surprisingly outstanding for the 9th gen system like the PS5 console makes the use of the ray-tracing technologies.

This will allow the system fully rendering the multiples of real-time techniques such as ray casting, photon mapping, and also capable of simulating a variety of optical effects such as reflection, refraction, soft shadows, and other types of effects are really designed to create the photo-realistic design for 9th gen consoles.

In this game, the environmental design of some buildings like Castle Dimitrescu which shares the great use of sharp and bold textures mapping on the walls, objects, and structures that are sometime shiny and smooth or others can be hard and solid just seems to be very well detailed. 

Stuff like you have the shiny floors, wavey puddle of water, smooth looking dinning tables, and those objects like wine glass and bottles are the prime examples of using the ray-tracing technologies that adds up the realism of game's design.

The lighting and shadow effects are quite spot-on where you see bunch of the light candles and chandeliers in some rooms just made it quite brighter where as you can see the dark shadows in corridors that are being reflected by surrounding like windows and objects just makes the good balance of the overall brightness and contrast level.

The character's animation is looking quite top-notch using the quality motion capturing system that made not just only the digitized movement and motions that delivers the great level of body and facial figuring technology, but the details that's been added on the characters are very much more of like a real people is just rather looking impressive throughout the cinematic sequences and real-time in-game playthrough. 

The frame-rate on each consoles has different advantages depending on which platform you're playing on, so for the PS5 and XSX/S both of them has two options like performance mode or ray-tracing mode.

The performance mode runs fully on 60fps delivering a smoother gameplay, where as the ray-tracing mode are mainly focused on full graphical power giving a console a full advantage of rendering a visual techniques.

To be quite honest, the performance mode is actually did a good job on both consoles with no slow-downs whatsoever but the visual quality level may not look as crisp, where as the ray-tracing mode are also did good too with the graphical level term but I also heard it ran mostly better on XSX/S (X model) takes the advantage of being able to run on between 55 and 60 fps, where as the PS5 just ran on between 50 and 60 fps, so to be fair it doesn't seem to really affecting on your experience which you may likely to enjoy the game in both ways.

I also wanted to point out that some say the S model of Xbox Series are looking quite bad in comparison with the X model are way better for the frame-rate and graphical level, so it's better off playing on the X model of Xbox Series instead.                    

Overall, it has outstanding environmental design, amazing character's animation, and stable frame-rate performance. 

 

Music and Sounds

The original soundtrack in the game is stunningly fantastic for most of the part. There are several of the soundtrack that are pretty strange but also quite an interesting choice for this type of horror game like "Village of Shadows" and "The Duke" are kinda gives me sort of Danny Elfman vibes to it, where as the others like "Promensons-nous dans les bois", "A Bad Feeling", and "Crisis" just sounded like it's belongs to other horror games that sounded quite similar like Konami's Silent Hill and Red Barrel's Outlast which really fits well on some chase sequences and in-game action.

It was composed by Shusaku Uchiyama and Nao Sato did a fabulous job of capturing a daunting level of scares throughout the game.

The use of sound effects did a splendid job on ambient sounds and background noises just makes the use of 3D audio technologies which allowing the player being able to hear the surrounding stuffs like the footsteps, dropped objects, and of course the sounds of the screaming and laughing voices coming from the other rooms just adds up the unsettling level which proves the overall sound design is indeed very good for the 9th gen standards. 

The voice cast did a excellent job on their character's portrayal especially Maggie Robertson's performance on Lady Dimitrescu are sounds really amazing in the game. 

Overall, it has fantastic soundtrack, very good sound design, and excellent voice performance.

Special Features

The gold edition includes Shadows of Rose DLC story, the mercenaries additional orders which includes more new playable characters, 3rd-person perspective mode, and of course online-only game such as RE: Re:Verse.  

You can also get the VR mode off from PS Store as free DLCs are recommended to those who had PSVR 2 headset may going to experience the single-player campaign using the VR headset.

Overall, an absolute solid content for gold edition and including the free DLCs VR mode.

Advantages

 

Incredible story presentation and settings 

Terrifying villains and creatures

Challenging mix of combat and survival 

Great puzzle-solving  and enjoyable boss battles

Fantastic soundtrack and sound design

Disadvantages

Unlikable main protagonist

Chris's mission in story campaign are too short 

Final Verdict

Presentation 8.5/10 - brilliant story, incredible presentation settings, and terrifying villains and creatures.

Gameplay 8.5/10 - responsive controls, challenging mix of combat and survival, great puzzle-solving, and enjoyable boss battles.

Graphics 10/10 - outstanding environmental design, amazing character's animation, and stable frame-rate performance.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - fantastic soundtrack, very good sound design, and excellent voice performance.

Special Features 9/10 - Gold Edition includes Shadows of Rose DLC story, the mercenaries additional orders which includes more new playable characters, 3rd-person perspective mode, and online-only game such as RE: Re:Verse.

The free DLCs VR mode are also welcome too.

Overall 8.5/10 - As much I've loved the RE 7: Biohazard back then, the RE Village is another great entry that does the series a justice thanks to story campaign, presentation settings, gameplay design, and of course the overall scare factor just got the whole game right that the fans of the series are likely to enjoy another RE entry. 

I am very glad that Capcom has started to improve the franchise since the early 2010s where games like RE 6 and other stuff are going full-on action-oriented which doesn't seem to satisfy many the horror fans who never really liked how the series went onto different direction doesn't seems to work well, so Capcom had decided to make the U-turn by going back to the main horror roots that is what made the franchise quite success back in the 90's era which is why we had RE 7 and this game is the huge step-forward for the franchise.

That being said, RE Village is a very good horror title for 9th gen system which is definite recommendation to buy it especially the Gold Edition in which you can get it physically on PS5, PS4, XSX/S, and XBONE for between £20 to £30 so be sure to get it in brand new condition because you really need the DLCs code voucher for Gold Edition to unlock it all, and you can get it digitally on PCs and Consoles just for between £40 to £45. 

For those who owns the Switch console are likely to play it on cloud services using the eShop's launcher application, but sadly I also heard it's quite poorly optimised due to it's running on the cloud services requires heavy use of internet connectivity makes the game ran very buggy, so it's best not to play it on the Switch and stick it to the other platforms like the Playstation, Xbox, and PCs are better ways to play and enjoy the game.  

So hopefully, I will look forward to get Resident Evil 4 Remake in sometime future.

  

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Finally got my PS5 (Breaking News)

 

Yes everyone, I just finally got a PS5 slim off from retail store such as Argos thanks to yesterday's sales deal cutting down prices from £480 to £420.

In case you've been wondering about what really took me so long to get a new system in my home after 3 years since the console launch release, so let's get started with my PS5 journey.   

First of all, I remember at the time when the horrible pandemics had already happened back in 2020, and after the system had launched in winter holiday I've began to notice the console shortages drama had happened when companies like SONY had shipped a small numbers of units which is not quite a lot on online retail store are the reason why it had sold out pretty quickly, and for those who wanted to get a hands on with the original PS5 console which unfortunately it filled with so many scalpers especially on online stores like Ebay or Amazon goes up to higher than the original price which led many consumers with disappointment when they cannot afford it with their budget.

It took about 2 years after the system launch release to restock more units, so that many consumers wouldn't had to go through with the console shortages and scalpers drama bullshit.

I wasn't really entirely being ready to get a original PS5 console because the system is quite big and bulky which is really going to be a real pain in the ass to fit on my TV cabinet, so thankfully around a year later when SONY had launched the slim version at the winter 2023 had shrink the console a bit little, so they'll be a chance for me to get a slim PS5 console in near future.

In around this year when the PS5 Slim had gone on sales deal at limited time in some retail stores like Amazon, Very, HMV, GAME Retail, and Argos, so I had to rush to get one off from Argos before the sales deal lasts which I am happy to say that I finally got my PS5 slim making it my very first 9th gen console to own.

I had the reason to have a PS5 Slim is because not only just the size of the console is quite compact and easy to fit in my TV cabinet, but also this system has 1TB SSD internally which is kinda sounds a bit tad too short but also 200GB bigger than the original PS5 console which has 800GB SSD...well you could say it's better than having a low storage capacity, so you could also have an options to add SSD M.2 slot inside the system up to 8TB size or use external SSD or HDD devices plugged with the USB connector to free up the space for games that you have installed.

Most of the PS5 consoles are also has the ability to play most of the PS4 games both physically and digitally as backward compatibility which is a great for those who really like to revisit their favourite past PS4 games.

Lastly I'm looking forward to collect many PS5 games that I really want to look forward to play such as mostly both the 1st and 3rd-party titles available on this system, as well as the upcoming titles that I don't want to miss out which I had the reason to own my PS5 slim.

      

I will consider making my future blogpost to cover further more details about owning the system as part of my "5 reasons" series pretty soon, as well as my very first PS5 games review which I'm hopefully to get that covered pretty soon, so stay tuned gamers.         

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Sonic Frontiers PS4 Review

 

Sonic Frontiers is an Action-Adventure Platformer was released in 2022 for PS5, PS4, XBONE, XSX/S, Switch, and PC. It was developed by Sonic Team and published by SEGA.

We all know Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the SEGA's biggest flagship franchise started back in the early 90's when SEGA had bought their killer software title for SEGA Genesis/MD at worldwide to introduce their blue hedgehog hero as part of the SEGA's own video game mascot. 

The first original Sonic the Hedgehog game was commercially successful and had gained universal praise for its fast-paced platforming gameplay, colourful detailed visuals, and had recognisable original soundtrack is what made the game quite success at worldwide which sold 2 million unit by the end of the year 1991 becoming SEGA's best-selling title that helped their console's sales market.

The success of the first original had spawned with numerous of merchandise, animated OVAs, TV series, feature films, and of course various of sequels and spin-offs games which proves that SEGA's own franchise had became so popular for over the decades building up many fanbases, communities, and of course the younger audiences got their hands-on with their favourite blue hedgehog hero, which many labelled Sonic the Hedgehog as an iconic video game mascot that deserves a similar recognition as their rivalry such as Nintendo's own plumber hero such as Super Mario.

Sonic main series are doing a fine job with the later classic 16-bit titles like Sonic CD, 2, and 3 & Knuckles, as well as the 3D platforming titles for Dreamcast such as Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 are the final last two titles that are so good on the system just before SEGA had ended the system's lifecycle in early 2000s to focus on the software titles for multi-platform instead. 

Sadly the later titles like Sonic Heroes, Sonic 06, and Sonic Unleashed are pure hot garbage that didn't do SEGA's justice with horrendous gameplay design, clunky controls, and out of date visuals that adds-up the huge injuries to SEGA's own branding, until it went better with Sonic Colors and Sonic Unleashed as this time when SEGA just finally got their game right, then it went down again with Sonic Lost World, Sonic Boom, and Sonic Forces are just as bad as the other threes titles that I've mentioned above.

Sonic Team are not quite as they used to be back then since the 90's when we had really great Sonic titles mostly from Genesis/MD and Dreamcast days, as opposed to later ones that aren't as good which adds-up really concerning about the future of the Blue Hedgehog franchise which has quite some ups and downs. 

They are quite lucky with some decent spin-offs titles like SEGA All-Star series and Mario and Sonic at Olympics Games, having Sonic makes his appearance as playable roster for Nintendo's Super Smash Bros Brawl and Ultimate, and of course the two of the 2020s live-action films like Sonic the Hedgehog 1 & 2 and 2022's animated TV series like Sonic Prime had received generally praised proving that SEGA had done better job on spin-offs titles and other medias then the main series itself which seems to be quite shocking that the SEGA couldn't do well on main stuff, but doing better on others.

Sonic Team had decided to create a new title of the main series that are quite different from any of traditional 3D platformer, so they bought Sonic Frontiers to the modern platforms in the year of 2022.

Instead of being stucked on the traditional 3D platformers like the previous Sonic games, it's more of the mix of 3D platformers and open-world adventures being combined together which I think the ideas from Sonic Team had gone into a different approach that delivers a entirely new Sonic experience.

You just simply start roaming around the areas to explore, completing numerous puzzle mini-games and side-story, and of course an adventurous single-player campaign with wacky main levels and cool boss battles is what gains me an attention to give this game a worth of try. 

The question is could it be a good Sonic game again? which is why I am here to review this title in regards of how are these presentation, gameplay, and visuals really helped the new 3D Sonic title in terms of quality overall.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The game starts out with when the all-time villain Dr. Robotnik travels to the unknown place called Starfall Islands to steal the technological secrets created by Ancients, a creatures related to Chaos.

Then he has his A.I unit named Sage which he began to upload her into the portal causing to summoned several of robotic defence unit, which led Sage ceases hijacking the portal and initiates a protection protocol causing Dr. Robotnik getting dragged into an artificial dimension called Cyber Space.      

Meanwhile, Sonic and his friends went to their flight trip at the islands to search for the Chaos Emeralds, until their plane is sucked into a wormhole to Cyber Space which separates Sonic and his friends.

Luckily Sonic had managed to escape to the islands in the real world, and he then discovers the disembodied voice gives him a tasks with findings the emeralds and destroying the robotic titans to remove the boundary between the real and digital worlds believing this will bring his friends back to normal.

The story in the game is somewhat pretty decent in my opinion. You do have a good opening scene which involves your friends got stucked into a different dimension known as Cyber Space, where as you as a blue hedgehog hero had managed to escape to the real world and being given a task to gather all the emeralds and defeating all titans are the only way to bring your friends back to the reality, while you had a villain Dr. Robotnik who are also got stucked in the Cyber Space aiding with Sage, an mysterious A.I girl who had been given an orders from crazy scientist to keep the track on Sonic and finding the way to escape from the dimension that he don't belong in, which makes these plot seems to be quite straightforward to follow.

Then you have several of memorable characters featured in the game such as Sonic the Hedgehog which we all know he's one of the greatest hero in the whole franchise without giving much explanation because...what do you know it's f***ing Sonic everyone, so we all loved him as our favourite childhood mascot.

Then you have three supporting characters like Miles Tails Prowler, Knuckles the Echidna, and of course Amy Rose which are also just as likable in Sonic franchise.

I also liked the Dr. Robotnik as a series long-running villain who are well you know, up to no good as always in entire Sonic games.

What I liked about him is that he seem to like being as the Sage's father-figure which proves that he created her as an A.I unit, so it's builds-up sort of a father and daughter relationship which is pretty charming to have connection between them that keeps the story worth watchable.

The presentation in this game is looking remarkable for its open-world environments because I would consider each of these islands is well-designed with constructive areas and landmark settings. 

Stuff like Kronos Island filled with ancient ruins, graveyard, giant waterfall, and fields and Forrest areas across mountainous terrain.

Ares Island is a desert land filled with rocky ground and high plateauing outcroppings, palm-trees and patchy grass, temples, and cave.

Chaos Island is a rocky land filled with lava, volcano, grey skies, dead trees and moss.

Lastly Ouranos Island has a similar features to first one, but has larger open-wide areas.

I really liked how are these island are being well structured with great landscapes, study mountains and hills, atmospheric backgrounds, and man-made pre-historic themes with ancient tech stuff going on which feels very unique for Sonic titles like this.

I also liked the Cyber-Space stages which feels like it's an reminiscence to early classic Sonic games that you may recognise some of the familiar looking levels like one of them are straight-up Green Hill Zone, and others are kinda like from Chemical Plant Zone which is why it made Sonic games well remembered throughout the years.  

Overall, it has decent storyplot, memorable cast of characters, and incredible presentation settings.

Gameplay

In single-player campaign, you take control of Sonic in 3rd-person perspective of open-world environment, as your main goal is to complete all the tasks in whole Islands such as various of main stages, puzzle challenge, side-missions, collecting chaos emeralds, and defeating all titans. 

Pushing the left stick which moves Sonic around the surrounding areas, where as the right stick are used as camera movement.

Pressing the cross button which makes Sonic jump, then double tap again for double jump to reach the higher platforms.

While in the air, hit the square button to use as homing jump attack on enemies or used for platforming on bouncy objects when the targeting symbol automatically appears on screen.

Tapping the square button which acts as melee attacking on enemies dealing with damages.

Holding the triangle button then push the left stick around to make a cyloop around which used as stunning or damaging the enemies, as well as activating the objects for puzzle elements.  

Holding the right trigger then push the left stick forward which makes Sonic run faster, so it traverse through the areas much quicker.  

Tapping the left or right shoulder button uses as dashing moves which allow Sonic to dodge enemy's projectiles or shift onto other rails.

After learning how to control Sonic, you'll be exploring around the areas in which you can able to access the map screen by simply pressing the touchpad button, so it will display the whole map of areas with bunch of icons that represents stuff, such as portals, key items, puzzles, emeralds, and etc.

So that you can able to navigate these by highlighting with the place marker which allowing you to traverse through the area till you've reached the destination.   

You really need to find a cog items which can be found in various areas or specific guardian enemy, so that you can use them to gain access to the Cyber-Space stages by activating the Cyber-Space man-made portal with the cog items. 

In order to get your friends back in action you must collect all the chaos emeralds which each of them can be unlocked by numerous of required key vaults to collect, in order to collect key vaults you must complete all Cyber-Space stages in each island to gain enough key vaults, so that you can able to obtain these emeralds which is required to fight against these 3 titans.   

Sonic are also requires to upgrade his skill levels such as his speed and rings requires many kocos to collect, as well as the bunch of red and blue seeds for his defence and attack system. Once you have collected all skill items then you will need to meet with the two elder kocos that they can able to increase your skill level which improves upon with your speed to boost even faster, ring to expand your health points, defence to reduce your health damage, and of course the attack to make your melee feel stronger to hit enemies with heavy amount of damage hit.   

You can also learn a new moves and techniques from the skill tree option by gaining enough skill points which can be done by defeating various of enemies, destroying objects, drawing a circle with cyloop, and completing the fish mini-game, but I highly recommend to unlock Air Trick which allowing Sonic to perform an stylish air stunts while in the air may reward you with so many skill points.

You can spend these skill points on stuff that you want to unlock various of new moves and techniques such as phantom rush when the combo meter is maxed out allowing Sonic to perform more powerful combo attacks, Sonic Boom is a high-speed kick that unleashes shockwaves that pummels the enemy, Wild Rush uses the zig-zagging attack, Stomp Attack that swoops down from above on to the enemy, Homing Shot launch a volley of energy spheres at the enemy, and various of the moves and techniques that really adds-up Sonic's fighting strengths. 

So far, I've managed to enjoy the main single-player campaign in the game because I really liked exploring around the island where I can able to spend time grinding many skill points, collecting red and blue seeds as well as kocos improving Sonic's attributes, learning new moves and techniques, and of course completing various of challenges such as puzzle mini-games that unlocks the new map display, collecting numerous of vault keys items that leads you to unlock chaos emeralds, meeting with the friends in side-missions, and of course defeating various of enemy's guardians will reward you with cog items which requires to unlock the Cyber-Space stages through portal is what really keeps me playing the game most of the time.

There's one of the problem that I encountered in the exploration is the mostly camera system that keeps switching places, so basically when you reached onto the platforming structures the camera system just purposely locks-on and turns into fixed angle which unfortunately I finding it quite distracting because if I wanted to start exploring around the areas by running though the terrains then the camera system shouldn't had to locked on to fixed angle, so I really understand it's useful for platforming segments but it's completely unnecessary for the exploration.   

I've managed to enjoy numerous of Cyber-Space stages which is similar to previous 3D Sonic games, so stuff like you have several of stages that gives us a throwback to earlier Sonic games, so for the platforming action I really liked the overall design because each of the stages has multiple short-cuts, has cool stunt objects like riding on the rails and jumping on popping balloons, and has so many hazardous stuff like spikey obstacles and enemies that flies around the level.

I got to say the titan boss battles are actually pretty fun to play because it had sort of trials and errors tactics where you had to find a specific weak spot which can be done by the parrying system, which means that you really need to use parry when one of your boss attempts to hit you, so you really need to make a perfect timing in order to evade the boss's melee projectiles then once you successfully performing the parry in time then the boss's weak spot may appear. 

This works pretty well in the game once you get used with the boss battles, so the more you practice the better you can able to play perfectly.    

The cool thing about the game is that it includes some unlockable stuffs like new game plus which carries the stuff that you've collected from the main campaign adding a nice replay values, and it does comes with battle rush which is basically a challenge mode where you had to defeat various of enemies alongside with their mini-bosses and main-bosses while racing against the time in order to get a high rank and then you have an arcade mode that let's you manually select stages from the core game are also a great extra bonus to this game.       

My least favourite part in the game is mostly the "Final Horizon" which is another story campaign that offers free downloadable for the game, introducing an alternative story ending, additional playable characters, along with new story elements, bosses, level designs and Cyber-Space challenges.

I don't really mind having the additional playable characters but sadly they're being locked in one Island instead of all 4s like the previous main campaign and it was bit let down for not having include them for Cyber-Space stages which is kinda shame because that would have made the game quite fun to play if they add them in the stages. The Cyber-Space does have some fair stages with different challenges like racing with hologram Tails and bomb-ticking stuff which is fine, but I'm never been a fan of other stuff like collecting flickies, speed boosting challenge, and moon gravity stage which is quite a time-wasting to play, so I rather stick with the main campaign's Cyber-Space stages instead which is way better in my opinion.

There are some stuff that I want to point out some criticism such as Master King Koco's boss trial where you had to beat all 3 bosses in time limit which unfortunately it wasn't as fun because of the annoying time limit are rather too short making it impossible to beat all 3 which took me about 5 tries to beat it. 

I got to say the one major flaw that I did not enjoy the most is the last final boss because I really don't like how these bunch of trees kept blocking my view during the battle, and I find these weak spot system is rather clunky compared with the previous ones in main campaign that I don't have an issue with, so this final boss fight is rather poorly balanced which makes it everything quite tedious to play.     

That being said, just stick it to the main story campaign which are way more enjoyable and better to play than the another story campaign that are quite disappointing, so don't get me wrong because it's just part of my opinion.

 

Overall, it has fine combat system and exploration, great platforming stages, and epic 3 titans boss battles.

    

    

Graphics

The graphics in this game is actually looking good on both the previous and current gen system. I say the open-world environment has a quite big landscape from draw-distance, the texture details on the grounds and wall surfaces are just as fine and smooth at outside, the water animation is bold and sharp at the ocean side, it has the lighting and shadow effects on some of the areas, and the character's design is looking quite great in the game.

I also liked the environmental design in the game such as having a large ancient ruins, has plenty of man-made sculptures, bigger mountains and hills, and has various of the objects and landmark stuff going on in the game.

The Cyber-Space stage are also looked pretty decent with good platforming design and fair sized-level is just looking right for recent 3D Sonic games, so you have a detailed environments on the background, and has colourful and wide looking foreground is just looking great so far. 

There are few things that I should point out is the skies that are stays on the static image instead of using real-time dynamic movement which is why the skies or clouds never moves during the in-game exploration, but to be fair on this game it does actually have a real-time day/night cycle system depending on how long the daylight cycle will last till it automatically changes to night time which is fine.

I got to mention the important thing in the game is basically the weird pop-ins objects on the platforms, so when you're standing on the higher platforms or you explore around the ground area you don't actually see many of platforms appearing in mid-range distance unless you had to move forward a bit till the platforming objects starts pops-in on the screen in 2 seconds which is kinda strange to see Sonic games like this are not nearly polished as the other action-adventure games which offers a better range of graphical details with clean structures and has no pop-ins delays whatsoever.  

The overall performance on any of these platform has some advantages of frame speed and screen resolution such as the PS5 and XSX/S has two performance options, so you have 4K mode which makes the game plays on 4K display for the cleaner images but it capped on 30fps, where as the 60fps mode which capped to 1800p but delivers a much faster-rate really fits better for speedy paced gameplay.

The 8th gen version are also look just as good with the PS4 Pro and XBONE (X model) system runs on 1080p, but capped on 30fps which is slightly bit less compared with the 9th gen consoles but still plays absolutely fine, where as the launch base model PS4 and XBONE has the same frame-speed as the later model version but the base PS4 version ran on 1080p resolution as opposed to XBONE ran on 900p, in which the base PS4 is slightly better for the resolution than the base XBONE but still they are both just as playable.

The Switch version runs on 720p docked and 480p handheld which I heard that it may not looked as good in terms of graphical design and frame speed are way better on the Playstation and Xbox counterpart that the Switch version had lacked, but overall it's still remains playable I suppose.

Overall, it has big open-world environments, good platforming design, and has fair performance for 8th gen console which makes the 9th gen console a clear winner overall.

Music and Sounds

The soundtrack are pretty solid in many ways, so you have several of amazing orchestrated music in open-world exploration as well as some of the story cutscenes just really fits the action-adventure personalities, where as in the Cyber-Space stages has some catchy electronic music just fits right for the platforming action.  

The best part of the soundtrack has to go for 3 of these titans boss themes which delivers awesome Metalcore songs such as "Undefeatable" and "Break Through It All" which sang by Kellin Quinn of Sleeping with Sirens, while you had Tyler Smyth of Dangerkids (who has previously sang one of the song such as "Infinite" from Sonic Forces) also provided his vocals for the song such as "Find Your Flame" just amps up the game's excitement.

The sound effect in this game offers really solid overall sound design filled with whooshing noises, collisions, and some ambient sounds in some areas just worked really well in the game entirely. 

The voice casting in the game is quite acceptable especially with Sonic and his friends are still remain sounded as same like from the previous game, so no complaints whatsoever. 

Overall, it has good soundtrack, decent sound design, and acceptable voice over.

Special Features

I did mentioned the "Final Horizon" campaign before which comes as free downloadable update to this game, but as I said earlier I never actually liked it.

The good thing about the game is that I also did mentioned earlier about the unlockable modes like new game plus, arcade mode, and battle rush are nice bonus to this game.

The physical PS4 copy comes with free upgradable PS5 version which is a fantastic edition for those who had a physical PS4 version will get to enjoy a free PS5 version for future play. 

Overall, it's okay features, but not perfect.

Advantages

Decent storyplot 

Memorable cast of characters

Incredible presentation settings

Fine combat system and exploration

Epic 3 titans boss battles 

Nice visuals 

Good soundtrack

Disadvantages

Annoying camera system switching

Weird platforming pop-ups

Final Horizon campaign nowhere good as the main game itself 

Final Verdict

Presentation 8/10 - decent storyplot, memorable cast of characters, and incredible presentation settings.

Gameplay 7/10 - fine combat system and exploration, great platforming stages, and epic 3 titans boss battles.

Graphics 7.5/10 - big open-world environments, good platforming design, and has fair performance for 8th gen console which makes the 9th gen console a clear winner overall.

Music and Sounds 8/10 - good soundtrack, decent sound design, and acceptable voice over.

Special Features 6.5/10 - crappy another story campaign (Final Horizon), but has cool unlockable game modes.

Overall 7/10 - Sonic Frontiers is yet a better than I've expected despite few flaws. Unlike some of the previous 3D Sonic games on 8th gen era that are nowhere near fun to play, this game could be an improvement for its main story campaign which provided a really good storyline and has the likable characters being featured in the game is what makes Sonic franchise quite interesting to play for its story development.

Having a Sonic title shifted to the open-world adventure is stepping in the right direction which I really had a ton of blast to speed through the Islands by running around the areas to discover, does a wicked stunts in mid-air, collecting chaos emeralds, upgrading Sonic's skills, solving puzzle mini-games, completing several of action stages, and of course fighting with the 3 titans just makes the Sonic's speedy adventure a positive experience.

Yes I know the "Final Horizon" campaign is not that great which is why I liked the main story campaign even more is all to do a overall balance and fun factor aspect is what really matters the most. 

Is it worth playing? the answer is mainly for Sonic's fanatics because it's nowhere near the same level with other action-adventure titles like the recent Nintendo's Legend of Zelda and Marvel's Spider-Man in terms of exploration, combat, missions, and quality which are so much advanced and better overall, but don't get me wrong because this game is still quite decent to play which is perfect for young players will likely to enjoy this type of Sonic games are great for beginners.

The price for physical copy for console platforms goes between £20 and £30 which seems to be acceptable purchase, where as the digital releases for both PCs and Consoles (via PS Store, Xbox Store, eShop, and Steam) cost about £50 are slightly expensive which it's better off getting the physical copy instead.   

      

I am hoping the Sonic Team will eventually gonna make another 3D Sonic games with better gameplay system and overall game's design in the near future, maybe just maybe they will able to succeed it someday...never know.  

That's being said Sonic Frontier is still good enough to play which I didn't regret purchasing this title, so this will going to impress you if you really love the Blue Hedgehog franchise like myself...just give this game a worth of try that will likely make you change the mind and see if you really enjoying it.

   

     

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5 Christmas Wishlist of 2023

 

Have you ever been wondering about what's all these decorations and all other stuff going on that keeps happening on every winter season year? well as you can see, these people are celebrating the holiday season that involves setting up the lights, bobbles and tinsels hanging on the trees, building up bunch of snowmens in every street homes, making roast dinners for families and friends get together, watching favourites family's winter films, singing jingle bells all the way, and of course Santa giving away all the gifts to kids while flying on the sleigh with the Rudolfs.  

So what do you know guys it's f***ing Christmas because it's one of the biggest and most common holiday celebration in every winter years.

I had done listing my 5 most wanted Christmas stuff that I'm considering to get it on the day of Christmas or maybe it's week before the Christmas depending on how my planning went.

Okay, enough talking for now because we should be enjoying the Christmas holiday for now and without go further do here is my 5 Christmas Wishlist of 2023.

1 - Sonic Frontiers (PS4)    

After struggling to find a decent Sonic titles over the years since my childhood starting from classic 16-bit platformers to modern 3D platformers.

Stuff like Sonic 1,2, 3, and Sonic & Knuckles are the prime definition of being a best 16-bit platformers that helped the hardware sales of the SEGA's 16-bit machine, and in years later SEGA had transitioned a Sonic titles into a 3D platforming action such as Sonic Adventures 1 and 2 which is heavily regarded as one of the greatest 3D platformer of the franchise, where as the games like Sonic Heroes, Sonic 06, and Sonic Unleashed are among being the worst libraries of the series that hurts the SEGA's beloved franchises.

It made a great comeback with the later games like Sonic Colors and Generations that got the game just right where it should be, then it became so bad again with the Sonic Boom and Sonic Forces, and then gone great again with the Sonic Mania.

SEGA's Sonic the Hedgehog franchise had a shares with flaws when SEGA's development teams hasn't had learned their lesson from the past which is why it couldn't able to beat their rivalry with Nintendo's most successful franchises such as Super Mario is the major examples of how to make a biggest quality platforming titles that attracted the attention of young audiences can able to pick-up and play it on their system, which SEGA couldn't do any better with their blue hedgehog franchise is due to polarising reception of some titles from the media critics and gaming fans which made them turned away from the flagship franchise that helped the company since the era of early 90's gaming.

SEGA then trying to win their trust back to their fans which they had bought a yet better again with Sonic Frontiers which many gaming critics had labelled it as an improvement over the previous installiment which seems to be a good news for the Sonic fans can able to give those a blue hedgehog title a second chance, so this is what SEGA could have done better with the previous titles from the past. 

As I am looking forward to play a Sonic's new installiment, this game is somewhat quite different from any of traditional 3D action-platformer with large open-world environments to explore, has multiple challenges, fight robotic enemies, gaining new abilities, and many single-player campaign levels, so this feels more like if SEGA had given us a new Sonic Adventure sequel which is why I am interested in playing Sonic games that doing something different rather than repeating a same old traditional 3D action-platformer from the previous titles.

2 - Virtua Cop: Elite Edition (PS2)

Being a fan of the light-gun shooter genre which is quite common back in mid-80s and early-90s. Stuff like the Nintendo's classics like Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley are the major examples of introducing the players with the light-gun controller that allow players to point and shoot things at the screen, which had became quite popular in Arcades and NES releases in 1985. 

Then Taito did a same with the Operation Wolf which popularised the military-themed light gun shooters at late-80s, and pushing forward with the early-90s titles like Midway's arcade hit Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Konami's Lethal Enforcers uses the digitised sprite visuals that are looking quite realistic at the time.

There's one of the SEGA's franchise that caught my attention which is Virtua Cop, the very first light-gun shooter title that make use of the real-time 3D polygons in shooter game genres. 

It was a huge success in 1994 on both the Arcade and Saturn releases which received acclaimed praise for its innovation such as 3D graphics, camera system, realistic animations, and ability to target specific body parts.

The success of the SEGA's 3D light-gun shooter title had influenced on later shooter games with 3D polygons being adopted by subsequent light gun shooters such as Namco's Time Crisis and SEGA's The House of the Dead.     

It had follow-up title such as SEGA's Virtua Cop 2 which was released in 1995, a year after the first original, which also received similar praise hailed the game as a improvement over the original game due to its more interactive environments and higher intensity in the chase sequences making it feel more of the big budget action movie.

Both of these Saturn's classics light-gun shooters are also received a fully remastered releases for PS2 titled as Virtua Cop: Elite Edition which featured an enhanced visuals, gallery extras, and implementation of Namco's G-Con 2 light-gun support. 

It's does sounds like a perfect titles for those who previously loves Virtua Cop 1 & 2 on Arcade or Saturn should consider checking these out for PS2.

 

3 - Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (Gamecube)

       

    

I really love the 3D action-platforming game in general which I grew up playing the classics from the mid-90s such as Nintendo's Super Mario 64, Rareware's Banjo-Kazooie, and SEGA's Sonic Adventure are the major examples of how to create the best 3D platforming title which fully defines not only it changes the whole gaming industries, but also our childhood that made me loved the video games as my all-time favourite hobbies.

I also being grateful with some of the 3D platformers like Rareware's Conker's Bad Fur Day and Ubisoft's Rayman 2: The Great Escape, as well as the later ones in modern day era such as Activision's own remastered titles like Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited Trilogy which is why I really loved playing the 3D title with real-time 3D environments, open-spaces levels with full exploration and goals, and platforming filled with puzzles and obstacles that keeps me playing all day night and long.

There's one of the game that caught my interest which is SEGA's own obscure title that some of you may or never heard of this before such as Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg which was released exclusively on Gamecube in 2003.

what made the game quite interesting is that the game was created by a same team behind the success of SEGA's flagship series such as Sonic the Hedgehog.        

It is a 3D platform game which involve rolling throughout the levels with the gigantic egg which allows the player to perform several of cool techniques with the egg, such as egg dunking, slamming, dashing, and shooting which adds the uniqueness of platforming gameplay style that are quite different from any of the traditional 3D platformers.

This is the kind of the 3D platforming game that I'd like to play that are doing something new which is why I really wanted to play this on Gamecube, so despite the game's poor commercial sales and had received an average reception from gaming media which didn't really stop me from picking this game up because I also heard plenty a good things from those who previously liked this 3D platforming title, so it's quite a shame that it never got any of sequel and remastered, and of course it still being remained stuck on one console platform which makes Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg as one of the SEGA's most forgotten gem in years.    

4 - Wolfchild (SNES)

           

Speaking of hidden gems related-stuff, I love spending my time to collect many games libraries to add it to my gaming collection, but when it's comes with the hidden gem titles that are sorely being long forgotten or is it a failed to notice that are being completely ignored by the public's eyes which is why we had an internet that allow us to discover and browse the games that are not being well remembered or is it met with the poor overall sales.

Sometime these forgotten games can also be labelled as an cult-following by the fans communities or maybe these games are actually plays pretty good that are worth owning to our collection. 

I was considering to get a copy of a obscure SNES action-platformer called Wolfchild, a 1992's title was originally released for Amiga, Atari ST, SEGA Mega CD, Genesis/MD, GG, SMS, and of course SNES was developed by Core Design, a development team behind the commercially successful series such as Tomb Raider. 

After watching the YouTube gaming channel such as Console Wars who recently made the video comparison between the SNES and Genesis/MD to see which are the best version of Wolfchild to pick up and play, so it's easy to say that I might be interested in to pick an SNES version in terms of gameplay and graphics quality.       

Even though it never been released outside of the U.S which likely the U.S imports will not work on PAL format consoles, but I also had a SNES converter adapter that allowing the imports games being played on any region consoles makes it easier to bypass the SNES's restrictive region-lock system.  

5 - Contra 4 (DS) 

  

Contra is one of the Konami's well recognisable series that defines the Run n Gun genres back in the mid-80s.

Stuff like we had Contra and Super C on NES which many of gaming press had labelled them as being one of the best arcade to console conversion for 8-bit platform, where as the later titles like Contra III: The Alien Wars on SNES and Contra: Hard Corps on Genesis/MD really showcasing the 16-bit hardware with greater level of parallax scrolling details and aggressive use of visual effects are surprisingly looking impressive for the 16-bit standards, while sharing with the solid gameplay action filled with over-the-top action-platforming levels, unique weapons power-ups, and of course frantic boss stages is what made Contra so special back then.

There's one of the game for DS that caught my attention which was came out at the year of 2007-08 in the U.S and Japan lacking the UK/EU releases, so that is Contra 4 developed by WayForward Technologies, a same development team behind their well-known indie series such as Mighty Switch Force and Shantae.

The game serves as a direct sequel to SNES's 1992 title as Contra III: The Alien Wars to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the franchise.

What made the Contra 4 so great is that it made the return to the form for the franchise since the previous entries such as Contra: Legacy of War and C: The Contra Adventure for the PS1 are completely flopped that destroys the franchise's legacy, where as the Contra: Shattered Soldier for the PS2 made an improvement over the previous twos.          

Contra 4 is one of the game that Konami should have been sticking to the traditional 2D scrolling shooter, instead of wasting their time on crappy 3D style top-down shooter like the two PS1's titles that I've mentioned above. 

The good news is that most of the DS games are fully region free which means that it can be played on any of the region DS system without any restriction, so there's the chance that I will able to play it on my Nintendo's dual-screen system someday. 

Honourable mention:

Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution (PS2)

Rygar: The Legendary Adventure (PS2)

Raiden 3 X Mikado (PS4)

Super Fantasy Zone (Genesis/MD)

Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes (Gamecube)

Bomberman Generation (Gamecube)

Maken X (Dreamcast)

New Super Mario Bros 2 (3DS)

The Lion King (SNES)

Super Smash Bros (N64)

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This is Zeeshan Mirza's Blog and I'll see you next time, happy blogging and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.