Recent reviews by Paradise: Ham Captain

No exclusive full screen as a display option.

Gears 5 is phenomenal game through and through. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the characters in the campaign. With a variety of locations, hidden items, enemy encounters, New Game+ customizations, and cut scenes that don't overstay their welcome, campaign mode offers a lot just on its own.

Online Horde and Escape are a lot of fun, with a wide variety of daily maps, challenges, and plenty of rewards. There is a ton of content to unlock even after hundreds of hours of gameplay.

Gears looks and runs like a dream. In particular, I appreciate being able to preview how the game's visuals are affected by different graphics settings before applying new settings. This is similar to Resident Evil 2's system, but with far more granular control.

You get far less content and far less replayability from other games. If you are into third-person adventures and shooting, Gears 5 should be something you own.

As many other people have said, this is a perfect co-op game. Take a simple premise: make some food, but add in chaotic elements, addictively fun music, and you have a recipe for hours of lost time. The developers have also done a splendid job of releasing good DLC, both free and paid. Just make sure to warn your friends or family members who've worked in the food industry that this game may cause their PTSD levels to rise.

Katamari Damacy is one of the best video games ever made. Full stop. From the gameplay to the art style to the story to the sound effects to the soundtrack, there is nothing like it. One of the most delightful points of this combination of story, visuals, and sound is how Japan itself is presented in the game. The mundane, normal, and extreme of everyday life all get their turn.
You can experience and learn about Japan as you roll up households and cities.

Another point that will delight gamers of all types is the endless replayability of Katamari. Challenge yourself or your friends to see who really is the true Prince of the Cosmos. You can do the same level as many times as you want to try to get that extra millimetre of love. REROLL brings additional visual enhancements so that you can soak up all the details as you roll up the world again and again. Buy it and love it.

Donut County is a joyful game full of cute surprises, delightful jokes, and a group of characters sure to amuse. The gameplay is simplistic but in a way that is relaxing and entertaining. What the game lacks in length it makes up for with a fun story, unique art direction, and groovy music. Spend a little time with Donut County to add a lot of cheer to your day.

Tomb Raider games are often weighed against their predecessors due to the longevity of the series. The series never appealed to me until I saw this iteration of Lara Croft's adventures. I took a chance on it, and was rewarded with a stunning game that quickly became one of my all-time favourites. This is a game that gets all the little things right.

Video game stories generally flesh out characters less than their literary or cinematic counterparts, but I found Lara's struggle on the mythical lost island of Yamatai to be a compelling study on how a character of her intelligence and strength could come to be. Whether or not the character created in this game is as successfully portrayed in the later games in the series matters less to me than how effectively she is rendered in her first outing. With just the right amount of journals and notes from the cast surrounding her used in combination with well-timed and unobtrusive cut scenes, the larger cast of characters is also given their due.

Graphically, this game is a stunner, and you can crank up the settings. I play this at 3200x at 60fps with the settings turned up, but it's entirely possible to play this at 4K with mostly high settings. There is a lot of detail to each environment, making it easy to backtrack without feeling like you're doing the same thing over again. The lighting and weather effects are beautiful. If you do not find all the treasures during your first playthrough, previous levels take on a new life when rendered at different times of the day. The one miss is the silly hair physics. Leave that setting off, give yourself a few extra fps, and the character designs won't suffer for it.

How the characters and environments are rendered is one thing, but what makes this game extra special is the cinematic decisions made by the designers. Camera angles change at the right moment to lend extra depth to your movements, or when highlighting the predicaments Lara finds herself in. Lara's movements seem natural. Light, shadows, fire, and colour are all used with precision. Weather is a key part of the game, and the use of weather effects never feels gratuitous. Even the overlay for QT events/button commands looks cool and feels like an organic part of the story taking place. There is artistry amidst the madness that takes place on Yamatai.

The game mechanics are superb. Running, climbing, shooting, and navigating menus are all intuitive and easy to do. The instincts mechanic is a nice touch in the game that can help you spot hard-to-find items. The gameplay is very satisfying from beginning to end.

Lastly, the music and sound effects in this game create a unique atmosphere that is both calming and unsettling. Some sounds I never tire of are the low notes of temple bells ringing, or the quick sound effects when opening helpful items like salvage crates.

When I first bought this game, it was on sale, and it's amongst a handful of games that I almost feel bad for having gotten at a discount. Even though this game was released in 2013, it stands up to newer titles. I cannot recommend this game strongly enough to anyone interested in platforming titles: a strong narrative, a compelling lead character, beauitfully realized environments, and great gameplay.

Just be prepared to see a lot of skulls.

When RE:5 launched in 2009, it had the unfortunate issue of not being RE:4, a game that set a new standard when it was first released in 2005. Many people derided the co-op play system, while others complained that the game moved away from the horror genre that the first Resident Evil games were famous for.

As of 2018, nine years have passed since RE: 5 was first released, and at it is every bit as good now as it was in 2009. In fact, I would argue this game was years ahead of its time, and continues to surpass even some newer games.

Let's start with the visuals. The graphics of some games do not age well, but RE:5 runs like a dream at 4K and even 5K. Go ahead, turn up the settings! You'll be rewarded with a game that looks incredibly good. and in some cases even better than current games.

Capcom got the character models right: skin texture, eyes, hair, and body movements are natural. There were plenty of games released around the same time and after that do not have characters that look or move this well. The textures of the clothing are also top notch.

The game's setting caused controversy when RE:5 launched. Personally, I think there is more nuance to the locales than the game was given credit for. The choice to set the game in a fictional area of Africa named Kijuju affects the character development in ways that differ from other "save the world" type games, and it offers a rebuke of shady corporate practices in marginalized areas. But setting that controversy aside, the game's environments are lush and detailed, and the variety of settings keeps the story and gameplay feeling fresh throughout. There is a lot to see as you make your way through the story. The story also connects to the broader lore of the Res Evil universe, and answers some questions for fans of the series.

The gameplay is top notch. Chris Redfield is partnered with a younger member of the BSAA, Sheva Alomar. I find the single player campaign to be fun, and the partner system to work well rather than being clunky. However, if you have the opportunity to play with a friend online, it really shows what Capcom was aiming for with the partner system. The moving and shooting mechanics build upon what Capcom began with RE:4, and this departure from traditional Res Evil games is polished in RE:5. The gameplay is smooth.

Another departure from previous Res Evil games is the method for selecting weapons and items. The game does not have a case to store items except for between levels. However, the in-game system works well, particularly if you use it to exchange items with your partner, and in subsequent playthroughs, it becomes evident why Capcom decided to use this item management system.

There is a ton of content in this game. The standard story itself is fun and engaging, but with two different types of The Mercenaries, extra levels, plenty of achievements, and a plethora of unlockable and collectable items, there is so much to do. And while the game is more action-oriented than early Res Evil games, it is not the over-the-top quasi action film that RE:6 was; there is breathing space in this game for you to take in and appreciate the little touches the designers created. In that respect, it succeeds as well as RE:4.

As with RE:4, the music and sounds in RE:5 are also excellent. There are some good chill out tracks when going through menus and collectable items, and the in-game sounds and music hit the mark to give the game its own unique atmosphere.

Yes, RE:5 is an older game, but it holds up remarkably well years after its release. If you want a game with a good story, good characters, a ton of content, beautifual visuals and music, and one that runs well on modern hardware, you won't be disappointed with RE:5.

ECHO is a game that would be better off as a film. The dialogue between the protagonist and computer AI provides decent patter to keep the walking elements of the game interesting, but only to a point. I can understand the appeal of a slow start to a game, but I found the long walking sections at the beginning of the game to be tedious rather than enjoyable.
Unfortunately, like some other reviewers, I also tapped out before getting deep enough into the game to try out the core gameplay elements that are advertised.

Perhaps the walking elements would have been more tolerable if the game itself ran better. The locations in the game are beautiful, but limited in what they offer: mostly cavernous rooms with pretty lighting, and not much else. Yet somehow, the game does not have a sweet spot between 1440p and 4k. Even on a Vega64 with medium settings, 4k only gets about 46fps, but at 1440p, it's a jerky up and down between 50 to 60 inside the palace. This might be forgivable if it weren't for the fact that changing the resolution requires a restart of the level, while other changes also necessitate a restart sometimes. And even that wouldn't be so bad if there were a save system that let you continue from where you left off instead of beginning the whole level again.

In addition to shoddy optimizations, the cutscenes are rendered with an ugly, low res codec of sorts. It's a pity the devs didn't trust their own engine.

If your system handles this game well, if you can really get into walking simulators, and if you can get deep enough into the game to actually try the gameplay proper, this title probably holds some value. However, it does not hold value for me, and I would suggest saving your money for better titles than this.

There is a lot of potential in Hover. You spend your time running, climbing, grinding and racing through a colourful and stylish futuristic city all while grooving out to some chill tunes. You can interact with a select few non-playable characters who will give you various challenges to complete, and you earn rewards and XP for completing these challenges. The rewards for completing these challenges level up your character's abilities, allowing you to customize your play style.

However, the charm of this wears off quickly. The city itself is fun to explore at first, but like many open-world games, the actual emptiness of the game becomes evident after running around again and again. Completing challenges can feel clunky due to poor climbing mechanics, course layouts, and controls. And while you can customize your play style, XP and rewards actually do little to alter the gaming experience, making these elements feel tacked on instead of a significant component of the game.

The game's graphics need to be better optimized, as anything over 3200x starts to make the framerates drop in both the Windows and MacOS versions. It's surprising that the Windows version is not significantly faster than the MacOS version.

Running and jumping around a unique world might be what some gamers are looking for when they want to have a quick and fun chillout gaming session. If you're looking for a tighter, more engaging experience with good narrative structure, this is a title best to skip in favour of other games like Mirror's Edge.

*This review compares the macOS and Windows versions of Bioshock Remastered.*


Long, long ago, a younger Captain picked up a hard copy of Bioshock. Playing through it on a much older Mac via Boot Camp, this younger Captain was taken in by an impressive world that had been fully realized through amazing art direction, a compelling story, and fun gameplay.


Flash forward a decade or so later, and the Captain found himself playing Bioshock Remastered on Windows 10 via Boot Camp. Bioshock Remastered on Windows, compared side by side to the original version included with the download, has some extra details that enhance the already-beautiful level art of the game. This is evident from the moment from when you first look up at the moon to when you dive below the water's depths down to Rapture. However, the game ran poorly on the Captain's iMac Pro, especially when water—and there is lots of water in Bioshock—was part of a level's design. Conversely, the included copy of the original Bioshock ran smoothly at 5K. The original still looked beautiful, but those extra touches were gone. Was there really that much added to the game to cause these slowdowns?


It's no secret that games almost universally run better in Windows than in macOS. However, this is a rare instance where the the macOS version is far superior to the Windows version on the same hardware. This might be an issue with the graphics drivers Apple has included for Boot Camp, but whatever the reason is, the game runs flawlessly at 4K with all settings at max in the macOS version on the Captain's system. Feral, who has made other excellent ports of other games such as Grid 2, is to be commended for their port of Bioshock Remastered.


If you have already played Bioshock but some time has passed, the remastered version is worth your attention. If you have not played Bioshock and are on looking for a game that runs well on macOS, you are in for a treat! Take your time to explore a game that uses a unique colour palette, art deco styles, jazz, clashing ideologies from the early- to mid-20th century, and strong gameplay mechanics, to deliver a game that continues to be a classic all these years later. On Windows, your mileage may vary, but you won't be disappointed by the world of Rapture when you play Bioshock Remastered on the macOS.