Recent reviews by Aston

Really fun game.

Everything from the aesthetics, to the humour, to the gameplay feels really good.

The level design feels fresh, and is the first game in this genre where I have actually enjoyed the platforming aspects and they feel natural. You're rewarded for exploring but the map isn't so expansive that you find areas are overly meaningless.

Also glad that the gimmick boss is way less annoying/boring that gimmick bosses usually are.

Minor things that I didn't like:
A few of the bosses/enemies felt a little repetitive as to how their attacks worked. There is enough variety overall that that's not a really big issue though.

Sometimes you can get your levelling resource stuck in an area where you can't physically get them back (obscured by urchins etc), and if you die trying to get them, you cannot use the recover microplastics assist. Could be resolved by giving the reclaim junk prompt have a slightly bigger AoE though.

Some of the levels drag on a little bit longer than they maybe should? Mainly the sections at the end of the game with the glowsticks and the bit after that. Won't describe more as to not give spoilers.

This is a game where I really wish there was a mixed review option.

The game is charming and fun to begin with.

The shop mechanic is quirky and its a cute little puzzle to figure out item prices.

Unfortunately, the game sort of falls over as you get further in. Weapons and gear are pretty much a soft difficulty lock to progression, so despite how good at the game you may be, in a normal playthrough you are going to have to grind a bit. I really hate grinding when I feel like its simply to meet a numerical threshold, especially due to the way the gear scales in this game, with huge number changes at each interval.

I think if this scaling issue were to be smoothed out, the game would be a lot more enjoyable.

Sekiro could be one of my favourite games of all time.

I really struggle when it comes to dwelling on it's flaws.

I think the usual FromSoft camera issues are still present and that is frustrating.

Spirit emblems can seem a little bit too restrictive or lacking, if we had a bit more of these to play with and they were easier to come by that would work best.

Similarly, it could do with being a bit easier to get status ailment alleviation consumables, as well as anti illusion consumables. They are a bit awkward to get more of.

This game is really a test of skill. I never felt cheated, and I never felt like anything was impossible to overcome. The only issue I had was with the Demon of Hatred, and this was likely the only fight I didn't enjoy, as it honestly was just a bit too long and exhausting to finish. Perhaps this one boss could have a little less health.

Hades is SO good.

The music is amazing. The art is amazing. The story is amazing.

This game feels like so much love was put into it and it comes through to deliver an amazing final product.

My only complaints are that past finishing the main game and epilogue, unless you enjoy speed-running, things can be very very grinding to hit 100%, but there is no reason to have to do that at all.

It is super pleasant if you are content with stopping and finishing at the epilogue, and is still fun to pick up to do a run or two from time to time afterwards.

Chained Echoes is such a wonderful game.

The characters, story, and art all come together to form what I feel is an absolute gem.
The story is probably one of the best and most well put together works I have experienced in a long time. If you enjoy a good complex story that comes together amazingly, the game is worth playing for that alone.

The battle system is refreshing and so far has not felt forced or tiring. The gears system pushes it at some points, but overall it is very well thought out and has complex decision making.

I am currently in Act 3, and have some small gripes with the game.

Firstly, the sky armour battle system is sort of fun, but you can run into groups of enemies which are clearly not meant to be fought on foot. The game lets you restart the fight in sky armour after you inevitably get wiped, but this always feels like a waste of time. An option to engage on foot with default no for the larger monsters would be preferable when you encounter them.

I find that the gear system is a little frustrating. Towards the end of the game you really get flooded with new equipment, meaning that meaningfully upgrading them with resources often feels like a massive sink which has no payoff. Weapons that are upgraded seem to have the same sell price later as those that aren't.

The crystal/socketing system is fine, but I think that they have made it a little too punishing, considering the RNG involved in getting crystals of the right grade and purity. If the limits were loosened up so that by act 3, you can sort of start getting the best tier of crystals that you want at a reasonable cost, things would feel much better.

Later on in the game, items using your entire action feels particularly brutal, especially when there are skills that do their job but better, and in a game where you are playing properly, you wont be running out of TP. The items simply are not impactful enough to warrant an entire action, with exception of the revive or full heal item (which skills can do much better).

Apart from that, I don't have many gripes so far. The combat feels pretty balanced, I lose if I make large mistakes and haven't found any area overly easy.

Potentially the Dry/Wet/Oil status conditions could feel a little more impactful, along with weaknesses and resists in general. At the moment they are a little lacklustre and would feel better if both ends were a little more extreme. Having more than one weakness and resist on later game and stronger enemies and bosses would be cool, alongside resists that change as a fight progresses for some bosses.

I really love this game and the hours I have spent in it can speak testament on how much there is to do.

Since it is easy enough to find praise about what is good about this game, I'll speak on it's flaws:

The RPG stat and number crunching elements are really intuitive and require you to look things up to figure out properly. That isn't great.

It falls into the trap of other souls games where you are given loads of gear but not enough upgrade materials to rotate between things equally, and so you're often stuck just using one or two weapons for a long time, further made worse by the feeling of sunk cost in resources.

The armour system feels really unimpactful, it really does not feel like you're making important decisions outside getting the best poise/defence for weight class. Would have been great to have more armour pieces with effects or set bonuses.

The game suffers from something seemingly unavoidable in open world games, which is a lot of empty space and repetition. A bit unfair to call this one out since it does it a lot better than many others.

Torrent can feel a bit awkward. It was clearly not designed to be used in combat yet the functionality is sort of there?

Some of the bosses can feel a little off or not fun to play against. Most of them are wonderful but the 'final boss' was a bit of a miss, despite changes to add Torrent to the fight, which was more of a bandage fix than an actual solution.

Game has some slight optimisation issues but generally runs fine.

Symptomatic with souls games, you will sometimes find yourself fighting with the camera rather than the enemies themselves.

All this being said, the game is excellent and I can't express enough how impressed I have been with it.
Regarding the issues above, many of them have been tackled over time by a very active modding community, which I suggest checking out.

Should definitely shout out my most used mods:
Elden Ring Reforged
Seamless Coop
ERDTools
Posture Bar Mod

Lies of P is such an excellent game, here are some of my key takeaways:

Positives:

Runs beautifully, no bugs, glitches or errors throughout the entire play through.

Beautiful graphically. They really hit the nail on the head with creating an unsettling atmosphere.

Boss fights are amazing. Really feel like there is no misses in this game at all.

Level design feels just right. Not too long, not too much dead space.

Wonderful music.

Combat system is rich and has a lot of cool tricks you can cleverly utilise to push the odds in your favour.

Consumables actually feel good to use!

Negatives:

A little bit of repetition with some events in levels. Too many obvious 'item with enemy that drops from ceiling or round the corner' ambushes, to the point where it becomes more of a chore than interesting.

The spectre and wish cube system feel like a bit of an afterthought and don't really feel like they belong or are fully fleshed out.

The legion armaments are quite neat but feel like they could do with some adjustments and expansion to feel a little better. Some of them are great and others are fairly useless.

As with all souls-type games (aside from sekiro) you are presented with a clunky weapon upgrade system. Upgrade materials are limited and so you cannot evenly upgrade all of your weapons. For a game in which you are encouraged to chop, change, and experiment with different weapon combinations, this seems counter productive. I wish it used a system where weapons simply universally upgraded.

Besiege is pretty great and a good passtime.

Positives:

Looks really beautiful.

Fun level design and loads of interesting tools to use.

Negatives:

Sometimes solutions to puzzles are just really inconsistent. You can run the same level with the same setup 10 times and often brute force your way through it, which doesn't feel great.

DOTA 2 is a beautiful game that really tests your ability to process information and act on it with pinpoint accuracy.

Matchmaking can be a bit grim at times, and sometimes the game will feel out of your control, but you can definitely measure improvements you make at the game, and grind it out to get really good.

I can't say I would recommend this game to anyone looking for something casual to play, but if you are in it for the long run, it's such a unique experience.

Lethal league is simple. It does everything it needs to right.

Charming art.

Wonderful music.

Crisp and responsive gameplay.

Fully recommend for some couch gaming with friends.