It has been a long way, my friends. I love my white German Shepard doggo (called Laoch) to bits, but as any dog owner will tell you life with a four-legged woofer can be tricky sometimes. At the moment we’ve got some field mice who have decided to set up home in our walls, and unfortunately the sounds they make as they move around is freaking my dog out during the night. He paces, he growls, he barks, he tries to hide in all manner of strange places. Because of this it means I have to be awake with him, so I’m operating on nearly no sleep. It’s not fun. It’s not fun for my dog, either, of course.

Just one, lonely little review this week my friends, but at least it was for an interesting game: MediEvil, the PS4 exclusive remake of the original game from waaaaaay back on the PS1. Ultimately I didn’t score the remake very highly because I feel that the game hasn’t aged well. There’s some fun to be had with it, though.

However, if you venture into MediEvil knowing exactly what you’re getting – a slice of the 90s that’s largely untouched – and can accept what that means then there’s a lot of nostalgic fun to be had.

MediEvil review

MediEvil did get me thinking about what games I’d like to see get the remaster treatment, now that almost anything seems to have at least a chance. At first I was thinking of my favorite RTS of all time, Total Annihilation. I’d love to see it updated with detailed models for the units and maybe even the ability to zoom the camera out a little, much like you could in the spiritual follow-up Supreme Commander. With a little more reflection though, I think the game/s I most want to see get remastered would be Knights of the Old Republic and the sequel. Both are outstanding games, and Knights of the Old Republic 2 still has one of the best Star Wars stories ever. With updated graphics and some quality of life tweaks I reckon the remasters would sell exceptionally well given how beloved both games are. The sticking point, I believe, is that Disney probably isn’t interested in resurrecting the game’s since they don’t fit in with the existing Star Wars canon. But can you imagine it? *orgasmic sounds*

Another game or even series of games I’d like to see get spruced up would be the Discworld point and click adventures, including Discworld Noir. Those games were a huge, huge part of my childhood as was Terry Pratchett in general. While I admit that the Monkey Island titles were probably superior games, the Discworld point and clicks hold a special place in my heart that even insult sword fighting can’t hope to replace. Sadly the chances of getting remasters or even just re-releases of the Discworld games seem massively unlikely because according to Rhianna Pratchett, the daughter of Terry Pratchett, nobody is actually completely sure who owns the publishing rights to the games. Because of that they can’t even get them re-released on GoG.

Anyway, what game or games do you want to see get the remaster treatment? Or would you prefer more of a ground-up remake instead of just slapping on modern graphics and calling it a day?

I also posted a Patch Notes for the first time in….er, too fucking long? You can go read that for some of my thoughts on a few of the news stories from the past week or two.

I’ve been delving into the new Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts game, which takes the Sniper Ghost Warrior idea and tries to meld it with a somewhat Hitman style mission design. At about £25 it’s relatively cheap and so far has proven to be surprisingly decent, though very rough around the edges. The actual act of sniping is pretty enjoyable, and I’m liking the large-ish maps with their multiple objectives. The more standard, close quarters gunplay is quite weak, however and the story is instantly forgettable. Anyway, a full review will be coming.

I’ve also wrapped up playing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the review for that is being worked on. I have to say that it’s not really the Star Warsd game I was expecting or that I even wanted, but having seen the credits role it’s the Star Wars game it needed to be. Much like the Mandalorian over on Disney+ it tells a tale that feels like fits into the Star Wars universe without being too big for its own good. It ties into the Star Wars canon, has some implications for it as a whole but is ultimately its own story that doesn’t feel the need to rope in too many characters, planets or events from the films in order to justify itself.

And the last game I’ve been playing is Stormland VR, the new title from the blokes and blokettes over at Insomniac. I’ve been lazy and only put in about an hour, so I’m not going to say very much about the game here except for a few general thoughts. For starters, this is one of the few VR games that do arms justice. Seriously, having full arms in VR is often immersion breaking because they move in strange, horrific ways that defy sense, but Stormland’s robotic arms are actually quite amazing. The elbows bend correctly, the hands twist and turn in a believable way. I love it. It helps bring me into the world of Stormland.

Like the rest of the world I’ve been watching The Mandolorian and absolutely loving it. I think I’ll be doing some separate posts about it, so for now I’ll just say that I’m pleased they’ve kept the story small, that they’ve gone with shorter episodes rather than trying to artificially pad out runtimes and that there’s quite a lot of practical effects. I have spoken.

Until next time, friends.