Paul the sparky wrote:

Three had the sharks, which were simultaneously the best and worst thing about it.

Did they jump?

Bob wrote:

3 is the clear high point, Best location, Best characters, Most fun. Even the guy who made two thinks they made a mistake with the re-population checkpoints. It's not aged well.

4 is a solid entry.

Check points were easily avoided.
3 were the best.

Bastion’s great.

I gave up on Bastion too, did my best to like it but it just never grabbed me. No idea how far I got in the end.

The combat was merely serviceable, but the game was short enough that it didn’t grate for me. The art direction, style and narration was enough to keep me going.

AJ wrote:

I found the combat dull, got bored and gave up with Bastion. Sometimes I think I'm missing something when it comes to certain games.

This was my fourth attempt. On my previous 3 starts i got bored but kind of felt there was something decent there. 4th time i persevered and got lucky.

Is Bastion a dungeon crawler?  I don't tend to like them, Baldur's gate etc, but it turns out a simple thing like a neat voice over can be enough to see me through, definitely enjoyed it in the end.  Plus it was quite short iirc, I was thinking 3-4hrs, although HLTB has it at 6.5.

it's pretty much a straight action game imo.

Uncharted 4 (Story/Hard).

Grew on me as it went on, engaging story and as ever likable characters.

The combat can be clunky, and the QTE at the close almost ruined the experience for me, totally breaks the flow and pissed me off royally (took me a while to progress past it). The slide bits were also unnecessary.

Looks amazing (for ref I played on a slim so 1080p HDR) and the enviroments are wonderfully detailed. I (just) prefer Tomb Raider but more because it doesn't hack me off like this does, this is arguably the better story/adventure.

Great ending too though I wish it was a few minutes longer.

Refunct (PC)

Nice indie platformer, simple concept, well executed.  Not much to it really - short to complete, but it did what it tried to do.  A straightforward [7].

PEG (PC)

Pretty simple puzzler.  Pretty dull really, a few levels quite hard, but never very satisfying, and it was dull as to look at.  A bored [5].

Hmm. I'm close to finishing the first one (2 more levels to go if it's 10 total, which it suggests it is) and it hasn't been that challenging yet. I'm enjoying it, but it hasn't blown me away yet.

Arkham VR.

Going in I was fully expecting this to be "just" about the thrill of standing int he Batcave, putting on the cowl etc. It does do all of that, and it's amazing, but it's also much more. It's every inch a RS game and fits brilliantly, and surprisingly, within the trilogy. 

Another example of just how amazing RS are at understand and communicating what it means to be Batman through gameplay, here exploring entirely different facets of that fantasy and in ways that could only work in VR.  

It is short (about an hour maybe?), but it's wonderful and absolutely a lesson on the power of VR to provide completely new experiences. 

I'm sounding a bit over the top here possibly, but I'm excited about this one. 

Along with Star Wars VR, this has completely turned me from VR skeptic to true believer. 

10

Bioshock Infinite.

Played on PS3 when released, playing remaster on XBox One X. Still looks good, but there are some extremely dodgy textures. The NPC facial duplication is ridiculous. Excluding key characters, there can only be about six or seven different faces in the whole game. It’s a fine yet repetitive shooter and screams ‘we had lots of ideas, but didn’t really know how to implement them’.  Elizabeth is a perfect example,  a wonderful but completely underused character who throws ammo at you when your supplies are running low and that’s about it.

Irrational have created another thrilling world, but it’s not a patch on Rapture. There’s no sense of mystery or fear of what might be lurking around the next corner, you simply wonder when the next wave of enemies will appear.

I think this would be an eight, but loses a point for the appalling final battle, so seven sky-hooks out of ten.

I'd prefer a new Alan, but I'd take more Jack.  It's a nice little straightforward action game tarted up to the nines.  In fairness it's a solid [6] with a ton of varnish, but I'd still give it ten digits minus two little fingers.