Retro Gaming Reviews right through to the Playstation 5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X by TheGebs24
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Celebrating Tomb Raider at TR26, Derb
Back in October of 1996, a special video game launched on the Sega Saturn followed by the PlayStation 1. Tomb Raider! Tomb Raider changed everything. Lara Croft changed everything. From the debates about her massive triangle tits to Lara traversing the lost continent of Atlantis; Lara really seemed to have it all. Behind the facade though, Lara had quite the opposite. I felt like she was alone. Read and watch more... |
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Final Fantasy VII (Remake) Review
In 1997 we were a couple of years into the PlayStation 1 life cycle. A lot of games had already been released over here in the UK and across the world by this point. Certainly in the UK, we didn’t get a lot of JRPG’s in this time, nor was the JRPG genre as prominent or as popular as it is now. Developers Squaresoft had always had their previous Final Fantasy games all on Nintendo Systems. That all changed. Sony managed to acquire Final Fantasy 7 to be exclusive to PlayStation. Read more... |
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Amiga 500 Mini (Review) - Is this the best Retro Mini yet?
The Amiga 500 Mini has taken 90’s gamers by storm! The A500 Mini: “A compact reimagining of the Amiga 500 home computer, featuring perfect emulation of not only the original A500 but also the Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA) of the A1200. Play one of the included 25 classic Amiga games, selected from a simple to use carousel, including all-time greats like Alien Breed, Another World, Chaos Engine, Simon the Sorcerer and Worms. Or play the games you own from USB stick. Read more... |
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Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart (PS5) Review
The Ratchet and Clank series is one of Sony’s most valuable and most loved IP’s. Ever since its inception on the PS2 way back in 2002, we have seen a number of games and sequels released on all Sony’s hardware since then. The tried and tested formula of 3D Platforming combined with a third person shooter has proven to be very successful. In addition to that, we’ve been treated to a great cast of characters over the years to fill out the great stories which have always been fun. Read more... |
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Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (PS4) Review
Up until this review, I had never played a Dragon Quest game at all in my life. In Japan this franchise is essentially a cultural phenomenon, it’s massive. I read articles where Enix and later Square Enix would only release a new Dragon Quest game on a Saturday. This was due to prevent kids skipping school and adults skipping work, just so they could play the latest release. I’d had the game for a while in my backlog, I picked it up on a whim and thought it may be worth a go. My inspiration for buying it and playing it was from YouTuber Happy Console Gamer. Read more... |
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Marvel Avengers (PS5) Review
Nobody can deny that Marvel and all of their IP’s have been flying high in a numerous media tie in’s over the last twenty years or so, and it certainly peaked with the Avengers. I’d go on record to say that even if you aren’t a comic book fan, all of the films in the MCU have been good to fan bloody-tastic. It would make sense that for AAA films we get AAA games wouldn’t it? Now before we proceed; I was lucky enough to get the PS4 version of the game of Marvel Avengers but you get the PS5 Upgrade for free as a digital download as soon as you pop the disc into the PS5 which was nice! Read more... |
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Spider-Man Miles Morales shines on PS5
Back in 2018 Insomniac Games treated us to an epic piece of gaming. In my humble opinion Spider-Man was one of the finest games I’ve played. Not only on the PS4, but in all my years as an active gamer. Being a fan of the Marvel universe and all of its characters, I felt Spider-Man was as near perfect experience of how playing the web slinging superhero could be. The graphics were great, the music was a delight and most importantly the combat was spot on. Read more... |
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Tomb Raider: The Lasting Legacy. The PS1 and Beyond
I recently completed Tomb Raider during a live stream. Fifteen brutal yet beautiful levels packed full of puzzles, wild animals, water, sand, oh and Pierre. Never before have I live streamed a game that stirred such strong feelings of nostalgia. This was something that I reflected on with my chat throughout every stream. What exactly was it that made the original Tomb Raider so special? Let’s take a Swan Dive in to the Core Design of Lara Croft’s Tomb Raider. Read more... |
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Resident Evil 3 Remake: Did it fail?
As I write this the Resident Evil 3 Remake has a 6.3 Metacritic score for the PlayStation 4 and an even more shambolic 5.9 on the Xbox One version. This forces me to question just how much of a miss the long awaited Resident Evil 3 Remake was for Capcom. This comes after last years Resident Evil 2 Remake; making a much bolder impression on the series' fans. At the time of writing this Capcom's Resident Evil 2 Remake rocks a bold 8.8 Metacritic user score. Read more... |
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The Resident Evil 2 Board Game Review
Remember the hype? The real genuine hype, not this meme hype of today. Hype like people buying Zone of the Enders mainly for the Metal Gear Solid 2 Demo? The hype around Tomb Raider and how channel 4 did a show during the release of ‘Last Revelation’ of Lara’s history? Remember that hype? The cynicism behind todays marketing feels more like Stockholm syndrome than real, honest hype. As the hundreds of suites with a default face pound on my door, telling me “You like this game, buy this game, you like it”. Read more... |
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Die Hard Trilogy Review - The Nakatomi Takeover
Die Hard Trilogy is much more than a game. It is an experience that many of us gamers smile about even in to 2020. I’m making specific reference to the Nakatomi Plaza campaign or rather the Die Hard campaign which sees John McClain jostle upwards through nineteen levels of terrorist action. Die Hard 2: Die Harder and Die Hard with a Vengence both add some fun play time but nothing quite compares to the forty of Die Hard. Read more... |
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Diving deeper in to the Sony PSX
The Sony PSX is rarely mentioned in the gaming world and that could be for many reasons. One of the most notable reasons for this was its inherent failure rate and due to very low sales numbers in the Sony PSX life cycle, the machine was never released outside of Japan. Now you might ask ‘how could a console made by Sony, at a time when Sony consoles were dominating; fail?’ The Sony PSX was a console secondary to being a Digital Video Recorder (DVR). The hard drive was encrypted to the console which made it very difficult for the hard drives to be replaced one the PSX had broken. Read more... |
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Days Gone is the PERFECT Games (well for me anyway)
Days Gone is much more than a game to me. Days Gone is my perfect escape from reality. Survival is a concept that we live by everyday. Most of us do our best to look after ourselves in order to survive the strongest way we can. Days Gone is no different. Survival takes a different notion in Days Gone and in particular Deacon is guided by finding his one true love amidst a Post Apocalyptic, Freaker infested world Read more... |
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Silent Hill: Homecoming review
Silent Hill: Homecoming tends to be the forgotten game of the Silent Hill series. During recent live streams of Homecoming some of my viewers commented that they had never played it. Luckily there remains a core group of fans of Silent Hill: Homecoming, that have cemented its position alongside the likes of Silent Hill 2 and the original. Admittedly, Silent Hill: Homecoming is not as enthralling as Silent Hill 2 but perhaps that’s because Silent Hill 2 came out first. I guess you never forget those early loves and let’s face it, the creepy roads, apartment blocks, hospitals and schools of Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2 were difficult benchmarks to follow with the proceeding games. Read more... |
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Super Ghouls 'N'Ghosts on the HARDEST difficulty
Sometimes you just need an adventure in life. Sometimes this urge for adventure can be fulfilled with a good video game. Graphics are becoming increasingly more life like and the worlds are open and seemingly never ending. The problem is not all of these modern games appeal, and we don't always have the time to explore these gigantic worlds due to the realities of life. This is where retro games come in handy. They provide an escape and can often be experienced in full within anything between 30 minutes to a couple of hours Read more... |
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198x is a MUST see Game
What is better than a game that drenches you in bone crunching nostalgia vibes that instantly transport you back to your childhood? Five games that drench you from top to toe nostalgia right?! I recently picked up the July copy of Retro Gamer Magazine and checked out a new game called 198X by a Swedish dev team; Hi-Bit Studios. What immediately struck me about 198X was just how stunning the pixel art looked. There's a luscious blend of styles ranging from steam punk to a Blade Runner-esque, Ghost in the Shell type vibe sprinkled with some Outrun on top. I reached out to Tobias Bjarneby (writer and director) and he sent me an awesome insight in to 198X the game. Read more... |
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Resident Evil 2 Remake Review
Resident Evil 2 was released 1998 on the the incredibly successful PlayStation. In fact the Resident Evil franchise has been fruitful on all consoles and arguably gamers have seen some interesting twists across all of the RE games. Now here in 2019 Capcom delivered an astounding remake of an already amazing Resident Evil 2 experience. Without dwelling on the original release of Resident Evil 2 I want to talk through my experiences of completing the Leon and Claire campaign in the frightening new rendition of Resident Evil 2. Both campaigns were completed on standard difficulty. Read more... |
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Yakuza: Dead Souls Review
Yakuza over the years has turned from a niche darling to a flagship title, with remakes of the first two games and now PC ports, the eastern answer to Grand Theft Auto has finally broke the western market. And rightly so. Yakuza is a sweet and sour type of game; two opposing flavours combine as one delicious whole. Sandbox design with arcade brawler, dating sim and arcade classic collection, melodramatic story meets self-aware camp comedy genre; the designers want you to be absorbed in the story and world but they -like Kojima’s team- know why you are here… too have fun Read more... |
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Detroit: Become Human - High Replay Value?
Quantic Dream are a game studio with a difference. See choice is everything! That’s also true in life too. So why not make a few video games that perpetuate the notion of choice determining the direction? Easy! Actually the concept sounds more logical than easy. Quantic Dream games like Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls and Fahrenheit provide challenges like no other. The latest edition to the Quantic Dream library is Detroit: Become Human. Read more... |
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Tanglewood Game Review - 2018's Latest Sega Mega Drive Game
If you’d have told me that a Sega Mega Drive game would be released in 2018 a few years back I would have told you that you were wrong. If you’d have also told me that that Sega Mega Drive game was going to be developed on original hardware like most other Sega Mega Drive games I would not have believed you. Well it happened and it happened in the form of Tanglewood. Read more... |
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Star Fox - Retro Game Review
Star Fox or rather Starwing in Europe made a huge impact on Super Nintendo players back on release in 1993. Personally I remember being flawed by the 3D rotation combined with fast paced gameplay, ultra kick ass sounds and with incredible 3D visuals; Star Fox was like no other game from that time. Do you remember the first time you saw the 4 ships blitz down the tunnel to the sound of the overarching alarm? Then the camera switched to the outside of the tunnel on to Corneria and we were off doing barrel rolls like never before. Read more... |
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Sega Mega Drive Classics (PS4) Review
It’s is fair to say that I love retro games. In fact when you’re done go and take a look in my games room to marvel at some of the many thousands of video games lurking in The Lady Lounge. Now recently The Sega Mega Drive Classics (Sega Genesis Classics) was released on the PS4 and Xbox One which bundles in 50 classic Sega Mega Drive titles such as the Streets of Rage trilogy, Sonic 2, The Golden Axe trilogy, Altered Beast and more. Sounds great right? Read more... |
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Silent Hill 2 Retro Game Review
Following on from a previous post of mine, covering my personal top 7 Survival Horror games, I thought I would fan the flames of controversy by reviewing Silent Hill 2 and explaining why it didn’t reach the number 1 spot on that list. After all, I value honesty when it comes to reviews, so that’s exactly what I am going to be with this one. There are some actual reasons for this too, and they don’t revolve around “I just don’t like it” or anything like that. Read more... |
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Resident Evil VII: Biohazard - 3 Reasons to love it
The horror genre is often praised within the gaming community for its high intensity jump scares, pulse racing moments and sheer immersion. Never before has a genre made grown men scream during their live streams; making this genre one of the most entertaining to watch on YouTube and Twitch. Resident Evil VII: Biohazard completely changed the foundations of the Resident Evil franchise with not one single zombie appearing in the game. Read more... |
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I interview the lead designer of the NES...
Masayuki Uemura; a mild mannered, friendly engineer from Kyoto, Japan is the brains behind the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System. The NES is just over 30 years old and still seems to be going strong within the retro gaming community. To commemorate the esteemed 8bit console Uemura travelled to the NYU Game Centre last year and presented a talk about the development of the Nintendo Entertainment System. That very same talk was presented to a small group of individuals, including myself on Tuesday 29 January 2016 at The National Videogame Arcade in Nottingham, England. A few hours before the seminar began myself and Retro Gamer Magazine had the pleasure of a more intimate affair in an exclusive interview which can be viewed above. Read more... |
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