It has been 19 years since Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee was released to critical acclaim back in the early days of the PS1, and almost two years since Oddysee’s remake, Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty, was released on PS4. Why write a review now? Because Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty was released on my beloved PS Vita in January, and I’m always quick to the mark.

Keeping up the tradition of releasing every single Oddworld game on the handheld none of your friends own, Oddworld Inhabitants and developer Just Add Water have done something not often seen in remakes: They have made a game that looks like how our rose-tinted nostalgia goggles make us remember the original looking. It’s quite an accomplishment. When I first started New ‘n’ Tasty, having not played the original in about five years, I had to YouTube comparison videos just to see what the difference was.

Hint: There’s a huge difference.

Rebuilt from the ground up, New ‘n’ Tasty features all new 3D character models and environments. Porting duties were handed over to Nephilm Studios, and they’ve done a fantastic job, with very little significant compromise. Obviously, the graphics did have to take a hit so the game could run on the Vita, so the backgrounds aren’t as detailed, lighting isn’t as dynamic and a lot of the effects like lightning and explosions don’t look as good as they do in the console versions, but it still looks great on the Vita’s screen.

The game also runs extremely well for the most part. However, there were some hiccups here and there. A couple of times, I had to close the game because I fell through the world and couldn’t reload a checkpoint, and there was also some fairly significant slowdown in a few areas where there was a lot going on, but they are few and far between. The majority of the time, New ‘n’ Tasty runs like a dream.

The solid gameplay and sinister-yet-silly story you know and love from the original game remains unchanged. On the surface, New ‘n’ Tasty is a platformer, but at it’s heart it is a puzzle game. As Abe, you have to direct 299 of his fellow dense-as-fuck Mudokon friends to safety, before they can be turned into food by the evil, corporate Glukkons Your goal is to lead these fucking morons to portals that will send them to safety, avoiding various hazards along the way like meat grinders, mines and electric barriers using GameSpeak, a mechanic that allows Abe to says things like “Follow me” and “Wait” in an effort save these idiots. Be careful, though! The Mudokons are frustratingly ignorant of their surroundings, and will walk straight into certain death if you don’t stop them. GameSpeak also allows you to learn and repeat passwords, like Simon Says, to unlock doors and access elevators. GameSpeak is a gameplay mechanic as enjoyable in 2016 as it was in 1997, and is wholly unique to the Oddworld series.

New ‘n’ Tasty also boasts multiple endings, online leaderboards and over 20 hidden areas for you to discover. If you want to see and do everything that is on offer in New ‘n’ Tasty, you’ll have to play through the game two or three times, which is a welcome amount for a game this enjoyable.

Almost 20 years since the release of the original, Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty breathes new life into an already solid game. It may have some hiccups here and there, but overall it as a greatly enjoyable experience that is right at home on the PS Vita.

Verdict:

Great

I don’t like losing. Actually, it’s probably my least favourite thing along with being wrong. Good thing I’m never wrong.

I do lose sometimes though, and I really, really don’t like it.

Supergiant Games’ incredible Bastion was released on PS Vita and PS4 last month, and I was eager to jump in. After having some problems getting around to it, I finally began playing and loved everything. The gameplay, art style, music and that brilliant narrator were all perfect.

After beating the game, I had a look at the Trophy list and liked what I saw. “This will be a piece of cake. I’ve just got to play through the game again, really. No big deal.” I thought. And for the most part, I thought right. Most of the game’s Trophies are easily achieved.

Except one.

For the uninitiated, the Stranger’s Dream is a challenge room that requires you to survive 30 waves of the game’s hardest enemies. It’s the fourth of these challenge rooms, and the most difficult. Shrine Idols are things that you can invoke (turn on) to make the game harder in a number different ways and also help you gain more currency and XP. Examples of the increased difficulty being enemies have regenerating health, drop bombs when they’re defeated, their attacks slow you down, they never drop health pickups, have increased attack damage, move faster etc.

Surviving 30 waves of enemies is a pretty easy task without the Shrine Idols invoked. I cut through it like a hot knife through butter. With five Shrine Idols invoked, it’s not particularly easy but it’s definitely attainable. With 10, though? It feels like an impossible goal.

As stated at the beginning, I don’t like losing, and I lost a lot. For days, I got my ass handed to me over and over again, and the results were completely inconsistent. I didn’t feel like I was doing better with each attempt. Sometimes I’d die six waves in, and other times I’d die 23 waves in. Frustration was setting in.

I’m Scottish, so naturally I swear a lot. Bastion made me ashamed of myself.

I’d attempted the Stranger’s Dream a ridiculous number of times over the course of three days, and I was starting to lose faith. In these situations, I turn desperate. I watched a number of walkthrough videos and read a number of strategies online, and I learned some new tips that I thought could help me achieve the seemingly unachievable. Armed with this new knowledge, I was ready to give it another go.

I still failed. Time and time again I got squashed by these fucking arseholes. On that Wednesday evening, I was done. Fuck this game. I’m going to go play Nintendogs or something, fuck this shit.

I wouldn’t stop though. After a good night’s sleep, I woke up and went back into the whipping room. This time, I had a plan though. I was going to stream it on Twitch. There’s only one thing I hate more than losing, and that’s losing in front of other people. The logic was sound: I would play better if I knew people would be able to watch.

The pressure was on. I had three viewers on Twitch. Three people I probably didn’t know. Did I want them to think I was a fucking loser? Hell no. Let’s do this.

I got 23 waves in until disaster struck:

I died. Again. The stream sat idle on the ‘Defeated’ screen for about a minute. I was not idle though. I was squatting in front of my TV, ready to pick it up and suplex it through my fucking coffee table. This cannot be happening. The theory was sound!

I calmed down, and tried again. I made it to the final wave. This was it! I was doing it!

I rage quit the game and the stream and just sat on my couch, sweating and seething. I was not playing this anymore. The PlayStation Gods can keep their fucking Trophy, I am finished.

I had things to do that day, I couldn’t sit and play this game forever. I have to leave my house in 30 minutes to go and….wait. 30 minutes? That’s about how long it takes to do a run through these waves.

Okay, one more time:

And it’s all over! Somehow, someway, I did it. Fuck you, Bastion. Fuck you, Supergiant Games. I am a God! A God that probably couldn’t do this again if he tried!

That one challenge room is significantly harder than anything else in the game, and I won’t be attempting it again anytime soon. For the most part, I really loved my time with Bastion. It’s a great game with a great story, but I can’t remember the last time a game made me literally want to suplex my fucking TV.

In recent years, I’ve been loyal to PlayStation. Take one look at some of the posts on this blog, and that’s pretty evident. I’m a die hard Vita enthusiast who refuses to let the little guy die, and I’m a whore for PSN Trophies. Sony have been hitting all the right notes since the PS4’s launch, and I’ve eaten it all up.

I wasn’t always this into PlayStation though. My first love was Nintendo, and you never get over your first love, apparently:

Yeah, whatever daddy.

Nintendo have lost me in recent years. About halfway through Wii’s life I fell from the Nintendo wagon due to lack of strong third party support, the casual focus and the inferior hardware on offer. Wii was around until 2012 and it didn’t even have HDMI output. What the fuck, Nintendo?

SNES through GameCube, however, I was Nintendo loyal. The GameCube is probably my favourite console of all time and nobody released games that were as fun and charming as Nintendo. Their games were the best in the business.

The Legend of Zelda series is one of the, if not the, greatest video game series of all time, but I only managed to get about halfway through Twilight Princess before I’d had enough of the terrible motion controls (fuck that compulsory fishing minigame bullshit), and I couldnt even get past Skyward Sword’s 10 hour tutorial session.The Super Mario series is consistently fantastic, and I was a huge fan of Super Mario Galaxy when that came out, to the point that I’m pretty sure that was the first game I ever beat 100%, but by the time it’s sequel was released I was running into PlayStation’s big strong, hunky arms.

It’s a really sad state of affairs. When craving that sweet Nintendo fix, I often thought about biting the bullet, dropping the cash and re-entering that abusive Nintendo relationship, but today’s Nintendo is not the same Nintendo I grew up with. I didn’t even know Wii U was a new console when it was released. I thought it was some kind of incremental N64 Expansion Pak nonsense.

News and rumours have been coming out in recent weeks that Nintendo’s next console, codenamed NX, is to be revealed around May and released around October/November 2016. I’ve been watching NX related rumours like a hawk for the better part of a year and everything I’ve seen so far has me hopeful.

First off, Nintendo’s new president Tatsumi Kimishima, in an interview with TIME, has said that the NX is “unique and different” and that Nintendo are “not building the next version of Wii or Wii U.” Nintendo seem to be aware of the Wii and Wii U’s shortcomings with gamers, and seem to be set on righting those wrongs.

Secondly, back in July at a Dragon Quest event in Japan, it was revealed that Dragon Quest XI, which runs on the powerful Unreal Engine 4, was announced for PS4 and Nintendo’s next console. Making the assumption that that same PS4 version will also be the NX version, that means Nintendo’s NX will have to be technologically on par with, or stronger than, the PS4.

And third, many rumblings have been going around that the NX will be a home console-handheld hybrid, theoretically letting you take games you started in the living room with you to work or to the bathroom. This has only been solidified by Nintendo’s recent patent filing for a touch screen controller that can be taken with you on-the-go.

Each of these pieces of information is a good sign that Nintendo is trying to grab back it’s audience it has lost over the last few years, and a console-handheld hybrid is right up my alley. Why do you think I love the PS Vita so much?

There’s one other piece of news, however, that is quite worrying. Nintendo filed a patent for a console with no disc drive. If this patent applies to the NX, it looks like Nintendo are embracing an all-digital future. That’s a fine stance if you have the system memory to back it up, and a pain in the arse if you don’t.

This also dashes any hopes of Wii U backwards compatibility, so unless Nintendo go the multi-platform route they went with Twilight Princess, I won’t be playing the new Legend of Zelda game that’s slated to release on Wii U this year anytime soon.

The anticipation is killing me. This could be another dud from Nintendo, and I might just be getting swept up in the hype, but all signs point to my Nintendo making their triumphant return, and I can’t wait to see what NX ends up being.

So, Christmas was less than a month ago. The busy season is over, and it looks like the big game releases have subsided for the time being. We are officially in the dead zone. The next upcoming big release is LEGO Marvel’s Avengers on January 26th, so now is a better time than any to try and fire through that ridiculous backlog you’ve built up over the last year, you hoarding mess. Where do you start, though?

I recently registered to The Backloggery which is a useful little tool to let you keep track of what you’re playing, what you’ve beaten and what you still have to play. It seems kind of pointless, but having it outlined right there in front of me has helped me make progress I don’t think I’d have made otherwise. Also, I like lists.

I’ve set up a rule for myself, though: I can’t buy any more games until I beat (or better yet, 100%) at least half of my immediate backlog. It currently consists of 11 games. Most of them are smaller titles that I could beat in a couple of play sessions and earn the sweet, sweet Platinum trophy in a couple more, like Bastion and Broken Age, so logic dictates that I should chip away at them one at a time until I’m done. Dead easy. Cakewalk. Piece of piss.

There is, however, another game that I’ve been playing on and off since September that I foolishly decided to chip away at a little more recently:

Persona 4 Golden.

I’m currently 30 hours into the game and I haven’t even met the whole cast yet. HowLongToBeat.com estimates that the average playtime is around 70 fucking hours. I should stop, and come back later. This whole backlog quest was a terrible waste of thought and effort if I devote all of my time to Persona. I’ll just turn it off, and play another game.

But I can’t. It has it’s hooks in me, badly. The game oozes style and charm, and it’s stopping me from turning it off and playing something else. It’s just that great.

What the fuck have I done?

If I can’t buy another video game until I beat half of my backlog, I’d be best to just shut this blog down. I need to get the fuck away from Persona or it is over.

Let me tell you a story about how addictive Amplitude is: The first time I played my plan was to make it through the tutorial and the first level before turning it off as my girlfriend and I were going to watch The Green Mile that night. I ended up playing “one more level” until 2am, well after she had decided to go to bed. I still haven’t seen The Green Mile, and I am a terrible boyfriend, but I got some pretty sweet scores on Amplitude. Swings and roundabouts.

Amplitude is just pure, addictive fun.

Amplitude comes from Harmonix, those guys that had everybody and their Mum jumping around the living room clicking and clacking on the insanely popular ‘Baby’s First Guitar’ in the 2000s. Now imagine that, but instead of playing the notes on a guitar, you’re shooting them from a spaceship. Hopefully this doesn’t make everyone think they’re a good pilot or something.

A reboot (if you can call it that) of the original FreQuency/Amplitude games on the PS2, this new version of Amplitude has been given a fresh lick of paint for the current generation PlayStation, and that’s pretty much it. It’s very much the same game from 13 years ago, and that’s not a bad thing. The controls are responsive and the gameplay is satisfyingly rewarding, especially on the fast paced higher difficulties. Each song has multiple lanes representing each instrument, and you have to jump between them and keep as many instruments playing for as long as you can. Since getting the game I haven’t really been able to put it down, and I’ve noticed myself making significant progress through songs I couldn’t dream about finishing a few days ago. Kind of like getting better at an instrument. There have been a few times I’ve said aloud to myself “Did you fucking see that?!” after pulling off an insane roll of notes without expecting to. And yes, I did fucking see that.

The game is split into two modes: Quickplay and Campaign. In Quickplay, you can play the songs you’ve unlocked again and again in an effort to perfect them and rack up some high scores. You can also battle with up to four friends in local multiplayer, using various stage altering and ship damaging power ups to mess with your opponents in an effort to hit more notes than they do. My time with the multiplayer hasn’t been as extensive as I’d like due to it being local only and me not having many friends, but the one match I did play with my reluctant girlfriend seemed like it could be fun if I was playing with someone who cared even a little bit so that’s a plus.

The Campaign mode is the means to unlocking more songs for Quickplay. There is also a story to the campaign, told over the course of 15 songs through lyrics, menus and voice-overs. A playable concept album. Now, I’m a sucker for concept albums, and the songs telling the stories range from good to amazing, but I don’t think a video game is the best way to consume the medium. Fortunately, the songs work really well as individual stages. There aren’t really any bad tracks in the game. Of course, that’s completely subjective, but I’ve found myself loving the fast paced, sludgey, electronic tracks and having the slower, catchier, more melodic tracks stuck in my head for most of the day. The campaign versions of the songs also contain more obstacles than their Quickplay counterparts. There are Multiplier Barriers which will let you through without damage if you match the 2x, 3x or 4x requirement, which is a fun and fair challenge. In the final level, however, there is a blur effect that goes over the whole screen that kind of makes it feel a little unfair, especially on the hardest song of the Campaign. For an effect that is only used once, in one quarter of one song, it felt a little cheap and unnecessary.

Aside from the main campaign tracks, which are all composed in-house by the talented people at Harmonix, there are also a number of bonus tracks to unlock for you to slave over in Quickplay, featuring guest appearances from notable indie game composers, including Danny Baranowski (Super Meat Boy), Jim Guthrie (Sword & Sorcery), and Darren Korb (Bastion) among others. There are also songs from various Kickstarter backers of the game which I thought was a nice touch. The songs they’ve provided are pretty good too, so that helps. Unfortunately, there aren’t any licensed tracks in the game. After my initial playthrough of the campaign, I couldn’t stop thinking of all the songs I’d love to see in future DLC for the game. It’s a Harmonix game, so obviously there will be some brilliant licensed additions in the near future. I can’t wait.

@shizzy1427 We don't have plans to release DLC for Amplitude at this time.

All in all, Amplitude is a thoroughly enjoyable game and well worth the £15.99 price mark. I know it’s going to keep me entertained for hours on end as I try to beat my own score and others’ over and over again. The music is mostly fantastic, even if the lack of licensed tracks is a little disappointing. If you like electronic music, leaderboard battles and concept albums, you should seriously consider buying Amplitude today.

Verdict:

Great

I’ve been pretty bad at updating this for the last couple of weeks, but I’ve had zero free time since about mid-December. Now that the Festive Hellfest has effectively ceased, I can get back to this.

As 2015 draws to a close, it’s time to sit and reflect on what a year it has been for video games. 2015 was the year of rocket powered cars playing football, a man dressed like a bat beating up bad guys (again) and endless countryside views plagued with horrendous monsters.

Here, I will list my top 5 games of the year but before we get started, I’d just like to say that this list is my list. It’s completely subjective. I’ve not played every game that came out this year, but I really love some of the ones I did play, and I’m going to write about them here.

Got a problem? Good. Let’s begin.

5. Helldivers

Early this year, Helldivers took me comepletely by surprise. Upon it’s release I decided to give it a go thanks to some buzz around the internet and that sweet, one-week-only PS Plus discount. What I got was my favourite online co-operative experience, ever. Helldivers doesn’t hold your hand, and each failure is entirely you and your team’s own fault. Everything is out to kill you and you have to stay on your toes at all times. Helldivers is a blend of punishing difficulty, hilarious moments, satisfying victories and constant replayability. That combination earns Helldivers it’s place on this list.

4. Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is a walk through the countryside gone horribly wrong. The game begins with you overlooking an empty town, each one of it’s inhabitants gone, and it’s your job to figure out why. There’s no real gameplay in Rapture. All you can do is walk and watch events unfold. It’s an interactive story, and it’s done incredibly well. The mystery surrounding the story keeps you interested for the entire duration and the music punctuating the significant moments is stellar. The voice acting feels incredibly real and the setting and presentation is beautiful. There’s nothing to dislike about Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.

3. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Step aside, Bethesda, there’s a new king in town. CD Projekt RED’s incredible The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of the biggest, most beautiful games I’ve ever seen. The only real flaw I can think of is that there is too much of it. I put at least 100 hours of my time into The Witcher and I think I’m only halfway through the main storyline. The thing keeping me from finishing it was the hundreds upon hundreds of sidequests that were just as well detailed and written as the main story quests. The Witcher‘s world is also something truly special. It feels endless, lived in and real. The Witcher 3 is an incredible accomplishment, and it’s a game I will happily keep chipping away it for (probably) the rest of my life.

2. Rocket League

The biggest surprise this year, for most, came from Rocket League. Released in July for free to PS Plus members, Rocket League came out of nowhere and stole all of our Summer away. Rocket powered cars playing football is an idea that doesn’t work on paper, but the execution was of the highest quality. Rocket League is simple and incredibly fun. It is, without a doubt, the best sports game this year.

1. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain disappointed me in a lot of ways. The story we were promised and the story we were given were completely different things. It felt unfinished. All of the game’s cutscenes were in pre-release trailers, and I had a pretty sour taste in my mouth when I realised that my favourite video game series of all time was finished without really finishing at all. As a Metal Gear Solid game, MGSV doesn’t cut it. However, MGSV done something no game in the series had done before. Up until MGSV, the Metal Gear games were story first, gameplay later. The focus was shifted dramatically for the fifth installment, and gameplay was at the forefront of the experience. Believe me when I tell you that for all of MGSV‘s narrative shortcomings, it’s gameplay more than makes up for all of it. The game never gets boring. I was constantly finding myself in new situations, even when I was 150 hours deep andno game has forced to me to experiment and improvise like MGSV has. Even after playing until I reached 100% I still wanted more. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is, without a doubt, my game of the year.

So, I own a PS4 and a PS Vita. They’re how I play my games. I used to play on Xbox 360, but I was never into Achievements. I’d usually play a game to the end of the main story then be done with it.

Something changed.

Once I went all in with PlayStation, something about Trophies grabbed me and I can’t explain it. Maybe because they’re shiny? Maybe because it’s not just a “score.” I don’t know. But they got me good. I now find myself playing games for Trophies first and foremost, and I kind of enjoy it.

If a game comes out and I really like it, chances are I’m going to try and Platinum it. This year I’ve achieved the Platinum Trophy in Batman: Arkham Knight and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (which is no joke, let me tell you) among other smaller titles. It gives me a great feeling of accomplishment to know I’ve beaten a game the most it can possibly be beaten, so it’s no surprise I’m currently trying to Platinum Fallout 4.

Looking at Fallout 4‘s Trophy list, it doesn’t look too difficult. Most of them seem like they would be achieved naturally over time. There’s a couple of story based trophies that require some strategic saving, but other than that there’s not much here that would require you to use a guide or anything.

Two of Fallout 4‘s Trophies revolve around the collection of Bobbleheads. One of them is achieved at 10 Bobbleheads collected and the other at 20. Very achievable.

I’m writing this today to tell you about how Fallout 4 fucked me out of those Trophies.

I occasionally work night shifts, and one of the perks of that is getting to stay up all night the night before my shift and play video games for like 12 hours without feeling like a fucking loser. I usually save my bigger Trophy hunting campaigns for these occasions, and collecting the remaining eight Bobbleheads I needed for part two of the Trophy seemed achievable in one of these sessions.

I could not have been more wrong.

It started off unremarkable enough. For quickness, I opened up an online guide and started chipping away. “Go to this location, it’s in this room.” Easy enough. This will be a piece of cake.

I collected three Bobbleheads (bringing my count to 15) before disaster struck.

There’s a location on the map called “Malden Middle School.” Underneath the school, past the basement, is the entrance to Vault 75. Using a Bobblehead location guide I made my way there, blissfully unaware of the fucking headache that awaited me.

Upon entering Vault 75 I was greeted by two Synth enemies who started raining lasers on me. I quickly dispatched them and made my way to the elevator. The elevator TO HELL.

The guide stated that once you entered Vault 75 you would be greeted by Gunners, Fallout‘s mercenary outfit, and the faction you didn’t side with in the main story. They would be fighting among themselves and with you. I was tasked with killing everybody, and making my way to the back of Vault 75 where I should have encountered a Gunner Commander, who had a keycard that would give me access to the rest of the Vault, where the Bobblehead was located.

There was no Gunner Commander. After scouring the scene for about 30 minutes, looting every dead thing there was to loot and even reloading a save before I had entered the Vault, I took to the internet. After a quick Google search, I found out that this was a bug that people were encountering, seemingly at random.

A bug. In a Bethesda game. That locked you out of 100% completion. Surely not?

Most of the solutions I found online involved console commands, but as mentioned earlier, I was playing on PS4 where no such luxury is afforded. I was tasked with finding an alternative solution.

After discussing it with a friend, he told me to wait 30 in-game days for the enemies inside Vault 75 to respawn so I could try again. My character slept for 30 days. 30 fucking days of rest. 30 minutes of my actual life spent watching a fictional character sleep. I set off for Vault 75 again, and repeated my initial murdering spree. Still nothing.

I was left with no choice. As I was playing through the game I made alternate saves so I could earn the Trophies in all of the game’s branching story paths. I sucked it up and loaded a save from around eight hours ago. I set off on my own personal Groundhog Day yet again, and yet again there was no Gunner Commander in sight.

“Luckily” for me I had made about four of these alternate saves in my quest to see all possible story options, so I loaded up an older one.

The result was the same.

I was down to my last alternate save. The save I made 20 hours ago. The save I made before I acquired my beloved Super Sledge. The save I made when me and my Power Armour were mere acquaintances and not life partners. The save I made at level 21. The save I made when I had two out of twenty Bobbleheads.

The Gunner Commander appeared.

Initially elated that I finally had access to the rest of Vault 75, and in turn the Bobblehead that had evaded capture for what felt like days, the celebration soon ended when I realised the severity of the situation.

I now had three Bobbleheads. I went from 15 to three. I would have to collect the ones I had already collected again, and then the other five I had yet to find. Not to mention I was far weaker than I was in my main save. I had dropped 26 levels and all my weapons were terrible.

I don’t know how, but I did it. I managed it. I collected 20 Bobbleheads and the Trophy popped, but I was done. I’d had enough.

I currently have five Trophies left. Four of them are very achievable, they just take time. The fifth is the dreaded “Benevolent Leader” Trophy, which is achieved when you reach 100 happiness in a large settlement, seemingly without rhyme or reason.

I can’t face doing it. I’m seriously tired of the fear that this game will fall apart like a shoddily constructed car while it’s driving 100mph down the motorway, killing me, my progress, and everyone I love.

I need to take a break.

I might go back, eventually, but right now I need to play something else. Something lighter. Something quick to digest.

I still love you, Fallout 4, but I think we should see other people for a while. It’ll be a long time before I’m able to trust again.