Recent reviews by ADMAN

Riding around on a Segway beating dudes. The characters are still great. The plot is a bit weird. Side quests are still fun. The arcade games aren't the best, except for SEGA BASS FISHING of course. I wish Sega would just build in a Saturn or Dreamcast into the game directly and let us play Panzer Dragoon or Skies Of Arcadia in it.

Anyway, it's an improvement over Yakuza: Like A Dragon (Ryu Ga Gotoku 7).

Damn this game is funky.
Well in lieu of SEGA making a new Jet Set Radio game, this game fills in some of that need. But adds in skateboards and BMXs into the mix, which is great. Combos are pretty damn smooth, it's very forgiving with its trick system, you can't bail or anything. It's basically a mix of Jet Set Radio and Tony Hawk. The levels are really fun to combo through. The music is outstanding, but I wish everyone's funky uncle got some more songs in there as well as some custom playlist for the in-game songs as well as maybe an MP3 player thing.

The visuals are very JSR, although the character models themselves lack the same level of detail. Not an issue though, the story isn't particularly important, especially when you consider that a major plot point involves swapping people's heads on to different bodies, so additional detail on facial expressions is not needed.

My big complaint is that once you're done with the story, especially if you're like me and do everything there is to do in a level before moving on to the next plot point, there isn't much of an end-game. You can get some new playable characters by racking up combos in the game's levels, but that's about it. Hopefully modding can add some meaningful additions in that department.

But to sum up, great damn game. Keep it funky.

EDIT: They've updated a few things to help with getting collectables and some general quality of life improvements.

I'm disappointed with this game. Its most interesting parts are very short and very linear, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But the greater open world stuff is really boring. Most the game is spent clearing out shrines and torii gates so you can clear out the fog to progress the story. Think Far Cry 3 but less fun.
Side quests pop up but the vast majority of them are not worth your time. Combat is trash and the enemies are very spongy. Going back the Far Cry 3 point, you do get a bow, but it's usefulness varies. I didn't really use it to its full potential because stealth rarely worked properly, so I fell back the magic powers. The boss fights are a joke as well.
Performances is OK, but there's not a ton of graphics options.
And I did not care for the story at all.

But to get back to the good points; the linear segments are the most visually interesting part of the game. There's stuff like labyrinth city segments, a side quest inside a school with some unique gameplay sequences, and a few others. If the game was more like these sequences it would be an overall better game.

I got the game on a heavy discount and I still feel like it was a waste of time, despite finishing it.

The original isn't on Steam yet, but this is still pretty damn good. And it has Rollback.

Keep in mind I haven't finished Kasane's side of the story yet.

This game is pretty good. Characters are fun, interacting with them in side-stories adds some nice character depth. The story overall is pretty ridiculous at times, but fun. Gameplay is solid, all the powers are fun to use.

As for the negatives; I don't like the resource gathering for materials for weapon upgrades and exchanges, there's a lot of RNG to deal with there, and the side-quests are just "Go kill these enemies in this specific way" or more resource gathering.

And just a last note, the soundtrack is fantastic, and the integration with the anime series is quite novel.

When I played the demo for this a while ago, I figured it would be a neat little game I could get a few hours out of before getting bored. Well after buying it and putting over a dozen hours into it, I can safely say it's been a surprise for me. I'm not a fan of the imprecision of the shooting at times, but I found it fairly forgiving in terms of taking risks to get the ball in the hole in the least amount of shots. The level design and loading screen descriptions for levels paint pretty clear hints as to how you're supposed to solve these. Furthermore, the hidden challenge levels and secrets are fairly enjoyable.

I was not expecting this to be as addicting as it is, and I enjoyed the experience immensely.

After an 11 month wait, we finally get Yakuza 7; and it is excellent.

I'll start with the complaints though:

The difficulty curve really swings around. Most fights are a cake walk and barely offer up any problems. Then you get to chapter 12 and the game rinses you like a rag. Then in chapter 14 is does it again just for good measure. Street fights tend to activate at a long range and are pretty much unavoidable a lot of the time. That can get annoying.

The other thing that bothers me is having to travel all around the map to manage your character. Switching jobs, handing in items for Part-Time Hero, and managing your money; require going to different places on the map. Would be nice to manage some of that from the in-game smartphone or something kinda like how GTA or Saint's Row do.

But on to what I like:

The story is bloody excellent. It's more personal and down to earth. Focuses more on the political scenes in Japan, prudish political figures, shutting down the red light districts, and so on.

Ichiban has some mighty large shoes to fill, and he does it with ease. The man is all heart, all the time. He might not be the smartest replacement for Kiryu, but he hits hard and in the right places. Your party members are also very well defined with fascinating backstories. I'd go into it more, but you should really check it out for yourself.

To top it off, WE FINALLY HAVE A PC PORT OF VIRTUA FIGHTER 5. THANK YOU SEGA.

Starting off, let's talk about the headset I used. An Oculus Quest using Oculus Link. It works well enough, but the tracking gets bit funky at times, had my hands travel across the room a few times. The resolution also does not do this game justice at all.

After 13 years, Valve has finally graced us with the new Half-Life game. It certainly is one of those. Headcrabs and Headcrab Zombies in dark, dingy corridors. The occasional outside section with the Combine and Antlions; and to top it all off, damn near everything is a physics object you can pick up and throw around. On one of the levels, I carried a bucket full of health items through the whole level.

The weapons are bit of a let down, only a pistol, shotgun, and SMG are available. Although with a weapon mod for the shotgun, you can get a grenade launcher. Which considering my tracking issues with the Quest, it was preferable to actually throwing them. Hopefully mods can expand the weapon list or provide some interesting alternatives.

The story is not really all that interesting overall. It most focuses on getting to a place known as "The Vault". However, the ending sequence (Without spoiling it) is probably considered to be a good payoff. I do miss the original voice actors, but several of them are dead now so it can't be helped. I do wish they kept Alyx's original VA though.

I'm looking forward to playing it with the developer commentary on.

To summarise, if you have VR, you need to play this. It's easily one of the best VR games out there.

This game is pretty bad. By default it starts up with a locked 30FPS with terrible frame-pacing. The boss fights and set pieces are pretty awful. Generally it just feels very unpolished. Story wasn't going anywhere in the time I played it either.

Don't waste your time.

As a fan of Hardcore History, I quite enjoy hearing Dan Carlin's perspective and narration on WW1. This experience certainly presents a very "in the moment" point of view as you go from point to point on various aspects of the Western Front.

That said, it's very, very short; so maybe don't spend more than a few Bob (About a Dollar for Yanks) on it if you're thinking of getting it. Also, using it with an Oculus Quest using the Link feature, I found it very difficult to actually quit the thing.