thefakepsychic's Reviews

The PSVR itself just can't keep up with this exciting action game.

Jun 19, 2019

Despite reaching consumer hands in 2016, virtual reality still seems trapped in a perpetual infancy. The hardware of the headsets is being slowly iterated on, with new options like the Oculus Quest or the Valve Index releasing every handful of months. In the interim, major software releases have slowed to a crawl. It’s what makes something like SIE London Studio ’s Blood & Truth somewhat exciting. Some money got…

Read the full review The PSVR itself just can't keep up with this exciting action game.

Marvel's Spider-Man2018

Sep 12, 2018

It’s easy to be reductive about the state of AAA development these days. The idea that more and more big games are taking the approach of taking elements from this game and that, spinning them to fit the theme and narrative the developers are putting forward, and booting them out the door holds water at first glance. And at first glance, Insomniac ’s Marvel’s Spider-Man seems to continue the trend. It’s an…

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Fire Pro Wrestling World2017

Sep 2, 2018

Like a plucky underdog against a dominating monster, Fire Pro Wrestling World is rough around every edge relating to presentation and usability, but if you’re able to get past all of that, there is championship gold hidden beneath the surface. One of the biggest strengths of Fire Pro Wrestling World is its character creation system. It’s simple enough that anyone can start to go in and create themselves, their…

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Far Cry 52018

May 31, 2018

In late 2016, Ubisoft ’s chief creative officer and man arrested for sexual harrasment Serge Hascoet made the rounds with a quote, saying that the company will focus less on scripted narrative and more on “living worlds.” The idea, he went on to say, was to create games to be “anecdote factories,” where the moment-to-moment gameplay driven by the player’s actions in the world becomes more important than any…

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Need for Speed Payback2017

Nov 19, 2017

Venerable street racing series Need for Speed has offered arcade-style racing thrills since 1994. Since then, the series has gone through multiple evolutions and refinements, from the cops-and-robbers gameplay of Hot Pursuit to the first glimpses at open world driving in Underground 2 . Current series helmspeople Ghost Games ’ latest, Need for Speed: Payback , a vaguely crime-adjacent thriller that’s lacking in both…

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Uncharted: The Lost Legacy2017

Aug 22, 2017

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End was an event. It’s still one of only a handful of games that I’ve seen an advertisement for before a movie. And Uncharted 4 certainly was a success, selling 8.7 million copies to date, according to Wikipedia. Another cursory search indicates that Uncharted 4 won the most Game of the Year awards from assorted publications for the year 2016. Needless to say, Sony was probably pretty happy…

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Get Even2017

Jul 24, 2017

There are certain areas of The Farm 51 ’s Get Even that, with enough refinement, could easily stand out on their own. The game’s environmental storytelling, dense mystery, and a few imaginative gameplay mechanics each worthy of praise on their own. However, these genius aspects lie muddled inside of a game filled with bloated encounter design and incoherent “choice” aspects so deeply that the strengths can’t support…

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Watch Dogs 22016

Nov 19, 2016

Allow me to get one statement out of the way early here, so you can decide whether or not you want to keep reading: I really liked Watch_Dogs . Maybe most of it comes from playing to reviewer's interests, but Ubisoft 's 2014 techno-thriller open world game managed to synthesize near-future dystopianism and dense underworld dealings and conspiracies in a way few games attempt. With a change of scenery and 2 years of…

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Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE2015

Jul 15, 2016

I don't think anyone could have possibly imagined the end result from the dramatic reveal teaser of a Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem crossover . I remember an incredible amount of late night discussions with friends, drawing in additional characters from spinoffs such as Devil Summoner and Persona , imagining possible scenarios, all star clashes between Demifiend and the forces of Black Fang , The Dawn Brigade…

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Mirror's Edge Catalyst2016

Jul 15, 2016

2008's Mirror's Edge feels like, love it or hate it, a game that turned heads. DICE , better known for their work on Battlefield , releasing a parkour-focused first-person platformer was already a wild idea. It being released during a banner year for EA , following up on games like Burnout Paradise and Dead Space made the idea seem shaky. While Mirror's Edge was certainly not as universally acclaimed or commercially…

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Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

May 23, 2016

Some games feel like an event. The advertising budget tacks on a few extra zeroes, publishers shell out for developers with an extensive pedigree, and everything just whips up into media firestorm, where on release everyone gushes about it, pats themselves on the back, takes a bit of a vacation, and then the cycle resumes for the next “event” game. Naughty Dog 's Uncharted 4: A Thief's End feels like an event. It's…

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Fire Emblem Fates2015

Feb 24, 2016

Fire Emblem Fates is the very definition of a mixed bag. With some interesting additions and intelligent subtractions from the gameplay systems that result in one of the better playing Fire Emblem games, it seems to come at the expense of moving forward with the wrong lessons from the past game, Fire Emblem Awakening . All three versions of the game, Birthright, Conquest, and the forthcoming Revelations all begin…

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Rare Replay2015

Aug 8, 2015

Rare Replay may just be the best valued video game anthology of all time. There's really no getting around that. And for that, even with what issues there are, it's incredibly difficult not to recommend it to anyone with an Xbox One. And even with these issues, the quality of the games included, as well as the flair and panache included in the presentation, make this collection outstanding, but a half-step away from…

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Under Night In-Birth2012

Mar 2, 2015

Soft Circle French-Bread 's latest (North American released) fighting game, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late is a highly competent, beautifully animated, and intricate fighting game. It's also unbelievably complicated, oddly paced, and rather generic. Even more than most fighting games, I would definitely call it not a game for everyone (myself included), but at the same time, the game is decisively proficient enough…

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inFamous: Second Son2014

Mar 23, 2014

Seriously. This game looks great. I'm not entirely certain at which point in Sucker Punch's inFamous: Second Son's incredible opening I realized I was not actually experiencing a sleep-deprived hallucination at around 4:30 AM, and yes, this was actually a game that I was playing. Drop-dead gorgeous, astonishingly fun, and surprisingly touching, Second Son is an experience that shouldn't be missed. For starters,…

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Contrast2013

Nov 30, 2013

Somewhere, buried deep, deep in the heart of Contrast , is a spark. The spark of a fantastic idea, one that could, with the right fuel, conditions, and maybe just a little luck, ignite into a tremendous fire. However, like a metaphor that begins to spiral out of control, Contrast smothers that spark with enough wet tinder so that all that remains is just that, a spark. In Contrast, players take the role of Dawn, an…

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Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc2010

Jun 27, 2013

(Disclaimer: I played the game using the translation patch by Project Zetsubou. In addition, I will attempt to remain as spoiler free as possible, but some will be inevitable.) High school. A time of raging hormones, weirdly inflated self-worth, and the conflicts that occur when those two things meet. Needless to say, I do not reflect on my time in high school as a positive experience. However, compared to the…

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