Review No. 146 Bioshock 2 Remastered - PC (18+)

Strong Points:
Great expansion of the world
Awesome voice acting
Interesting story concept - communism instead of capitalism
Sense of time running out
Gunplay was mostly great...
Plasmids were also fun...
Choices
Hacking was sped up a lot
Reduced sense of dread made sense in terms of story...

Weak Points:
Crashes
Slow start
Hard mode goes against the game design
...Felt the Rivet Gun wasn't different enough to justify
...Although not very different from the first game
...But removed some of the atmosphere
Removal of choice at one point felt odd

Note: this is a review of The Bioshock Collection rerelease version and won't include multiplayer or Minerva's Den (might come separately)

Also, some spoilers ahead:

Review No. 145 Mr Shifty - PC (12+)

Strong Points:
Great art style
Tongue-in-cheek humour without resorting to vulgarity
Teleport (Shifting) technique
One hit deaths add suspense...
Can pull off great moves
A large array of items at your disposal
Slow-Mo
Shift Meter adds risk and reward
A short, easily digestible game...
Satisfying combat

Weak Points:
...But can also lead to frustration
A few oddly placed checkpoints
Removing the ability to teleport to make the game artificially harder
...Which still suffers pacing problems
A tower block doesn't make for the most interesting environments

Review No. 144 Grand Theft Auto IV - PC (18+)

Strong Points:
Strong voice performances
Great animation for cutscenes...
Variety of missions
Niko is well rounded and complete
Strong supporting cast
Great story
Gunplay is tight and versatile
Lots of cars to drive around in, with them behaving mostly like they should
Niko actually questions what's being asked of him...
The detail of the world and dialogue
Plenty of references
Detail of world - being able to skip tolls if you are in an ambulance with sirens on

Weak Points:
...Even with the occasional glitch or pop-in
Seems confused as to whether Niko is the main character or just a vehicle for the player to see the city
...Although doesn't necessarily do anything about it
Dark and gritty city fits the mood but isn't particularly fun to drive around
Constantly jumping between islands can get repetitive
The chronology of the game doesn't necessarily fit with the amount of time you play it for
Constant phone calls
No checkpoints in missions
No quicksave option
Tolls and bottlenecked traffic slow travel down
Some interesting physics with the cars

Some spoilers ahead:

First Impressions: Trackmania Turbo

Vroom. Start your engines. Ready, set, go! Reverse bay park. Nitros activate. 6 point observation. Big jump ahead! Make sure your wing mirror is adjusted properly. 20th gear. Always wear a seatbelt.

These are all car terms, some more fantastical than others, showing the two ways a racing game can go - realism or arcade. Trackmania Turbo is firmly in the latter, and it loves it.

Review No. 139 The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition - PC (18+)

Strong Points:
References to the original game
Great graphics
Lots of customisation
Lore and story
Great voice acting
Choices in the game have far-reaching consequences
A brilliant array of characters
Dandelion's journal
Great combat when it works...
Preparation is key

Weak Points:
Some frame rate drops in battle
... although a sometimes clunky battle system
Certain difficulty spikes
Some choices are hidden behind dialogue I wouldn't have linked together
Can miss quests if not careful
Stealth
Preparation is key

Some spoilers ahead:

First Impressions: Snake Pass

I was going to do a snake joke but I thought that would be sssssily...

Snake Pass first came onto my radar when I saw a couple of YouTubers playing it. I've regained my appetite for bright, colourful 3D platformers in recent months and it looked excellent. I was torn between getting it on the Sssswitch or PC (as with any indie game these days). However, my choice was made for me when I was given the code by Martin (of blog fame) from the Humble Monthly for PC.

Review No. 136 Wolfenstein: The New Order - PC (18+)

Strong Points:
Involving story
Great voice acting
Subtitles for the Scottish voices
Good graphics and art style
Lots of guns
Satisfying gameplay
Collectables
Perk system - upgrades what you use not what you think you'll use
Varied levels
Good length of game
Slower paced levels in headquarters allow you to breath
Some great characters...

Weak Points:
Start each level with either no weapons or random assortment
The final boss is cheap and overpowered (in Uber)
Blazkowic's face just looks confused all the time
Maybe a tad too much gore
...Some annoying characters
Wire cutter puzzles can be too sensitive
Journal entries

Some spoilers ahead:

Review No. 133 Life is Strange - PC (16+)

Strong Points:
Superb voice acting
Nice art style
Choices that matter, and impact across all episodes
You can see how your choices stack up against others at the end of each chapter
Time travelling mechanics allow for interesting puzzles...
...As well as the chance to correct mistakes
Believable characters who are developed over time
Some surprising twists and turns
Great soundtrack

Weak Points:
Lip sync issues lose immersion
Art style sometimes comes in the way of detail
The pace can be slow
Not all questions are answered
This all happened in a week?

Note: as this game is episodic in nature I will also be giving mini-reviews and ratings to each episode as well as more general points

Spoilers ahead!:

Review No. 131 Abzü - PC (7+)

Strong Points:
Amazing art style
Relaxing
Superb orchestration
The water
Fish AI
Good story
Great set pieces

Weak Points:
The mine sections, later on, broke the original atmosphere a bit
Some control and camera issues
Your character doesn't always do what you want it too
Grabbing hold of a fish sometimes doesn't work
Lack of animations when interacting with certain objects

Some spoilers ahead:

(More) First Impressions: Alien Isolation

My dad played this game in EGX a couple of years ago and we released a first impressions for it. I've finally gotten round to playing it myself and thought I'd do my own first impressions as I wasn't restricted by the impatient line at a gaming convention. So here goes!

Some spoilers ahead:

Review No. 129 Spec Ops: The Line - PC (18+)

Strong Points:
Tactical gameplay
Interesting take on the shooter genre
Good voice acting
Intel fills in more of the world
Team AI can do things on their own...
Humour
A mature, complex story
Title screen degenerates as you do
Context-specific speaking parts
Loading screens

Weak Points:
Odd pacing
Difficulty spikes
Can be confusing in terms of story and what is a choice
Searching for intel becomes a bit out of character with the game later on
...but they sometimes take a long time to complete an order
You won't feel good while playing

Major spoilers ahead:

First Impressions: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

After completing Half-Life a couple of days ago and my thirst for a quick shooter quenched, I set my sights on the final obstacle before being able to play The Witcher 3 - it's predecessor. I'd already enjoyed The Witcher 1 (mostly) and had heard great things about its sequel. And after around 3 hours (and the prologue finished), I'm inclined to agree with them.

Some spoilers about The Witcher 1 and 2 ahead:

Review No. 127 Warframe - PC (18+)

Strong Points:
Lots of content
Lots of customisation
Varied Warframes
Frequent updates add more to the game
Nice voice acting
Lots of varied weapons
Archwings are fun to play
Deep lore
Everything can be made by grinding...
Frequent events mean that all players will have something to do
Daily rewards
Good controls
Can play solo easily
Mods allow you to make your character truly your own
Varied game modes...

Weak Points:
Frequent updates and overhauls can make the game overwhelming or plain confusing when going back on the game after a while
Solar map can be confusing
...Except for slots for the Warframes and weapons you gain by grinding
Frequent events make it difficult for new/returning players to gain a foothold in the main game
Can be buggy
Customer service is variable
Difficulty spikes
Mods fusion can be overwhelming and not very attractive to do
Syndicates have no way of you balancing them all, but still ask you to
...Some better than others

Nitpicks:
Updates don't update in Steam

Review No. 126 The Witcher: Enhanced Edition - PC (18+)

Strong Points:
Addictive one more quest style gameplay
Lots of meaningful choices
A proper sense of progression
Nice, in-depth combat
Some signs are great fun to use...
Characters are fully-fleshed
Great voice acting and sound
End battle is really clever
Lots of quests
3 camera styles
3 styles of attack give a lot of choice on how to play
Dice poker is a nice distraction...

Weak Points:
Run out of inventory space - a lot
Pace is variable
A lot of the same character models
...some aren't used often
You'll suddenly realise that you can't complete a quest and can't backtrack
An odd mix of open-world and linear narrative
Graphics are dated
Alchemy is difficult to do without dedicating time to collecting ingredients - won't get them naturally
Can get repetitive
Can be overwhelming
Can be confusing - read all the notes, and sometimes just go along with it!
A lot of backtracking
Some crashes (save often)
...even if it is luck-based
Can take a little while to switch weapons

Review No. 125 Saints Row: The Third - PC (18+)

Strong Points:
Varied weapons
Humorous
The opening couple of missions are awesome...
Variety of missions
Some standout missions
Activities are mostly fun
Great voice acting
Entertaining
Ludicrous story lines...
Buying up the districts is fun
Music choice is overall good
Decisions don't serve too much purpose - doesn't get bogged down
Whored Mode is fun

Weak Points:
...starts to run out of steam
Writings inconsistent
Can be confusing
Difficulty is inconsistent
...although sometimes plays it safe
The world isn't particularly varied or alive
Decisions don't serve too much purpose - makes them meaningless/annoying
Insurance fraud is more frustrating than fun

Review No. 124 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - PC (18+)

Strong Points:
Graphically stunning
Varied world design (Particularly with the addition of the Blood and Wine DLC)
Complex but unintimidating inventory and loot system
Interesting progression system
Visceral combat
Well written
Engaging storyline
Great music
Challenging bosses
Understandable pacing
Meaningful choices
Enjoyable, plentiful and substantive side quests
Well implemented New Game +
Extremely worthwhile DLC

Weak Points
Disproportionate XP coming from main quests making side quests less worthwhile
Uninspiring negotiation system
Late game drop off in difficulty
Incompatible with casual play
Somewhat awkward keyboard controls
Reusing of character models

First Impressions: Hitman

Another day, another series I've only just joined. Yes, Hitman, my first proper voyage into the series (which may explain my slightly differing opinions to series veterans) besides a quick go at Hitman: Absolution round a friends house, and it's been pretty good, to be honest. I've only played the prologue level so far but have really enjoyed the freedom to approach levels any way you want as well as the huge amount of features which make stealth games better than 'games with stealth in them' for example, moving bodies.

First Impressions: The Crew

Ah, Ubi 30, how we love you. The 4th free game in Ubisoft's birthday celebrations, The Crew was not a game I was expecting to be able to pick up due to its comparable young age compared to Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and the original Splinter Cell. But here we are, an open-world multiplayer drive-em-up with a story. Awesome.

First Impressions: Payday 2

Note: having only played offline so far, my opinions may be slightly different to the ones in the full review when it comes out. Having said that, though, I can honestly say I'm having a very fun time with Payday 2.

Review No. 123 Dishonored - PC (18+)

Strong Points:

Many ways to dispatch enemy
Lots of choices which affect story and gameplay
Nice art style
Great powers
Replayability
Good voice acting
4th mission offers a nice change for stealth missions
Great atmosphere
Can make you really think about your choices - you are not always the hero

Weak Points:
Amount of stuff to do in the first and second chapter (after prologue) can be overwhelming
Certain choices are black and white - even if you make a third option
The beginning can feel slow as you have limited powers
Quite large difficulty spikes
Has Bethesda's classic clunky animations
The enemy AI can be intermittent
Saving a civilian who then walks straight into danger again really hinders the job
More weapons and powers favour the lethal approach
Difficult to find enough mana potions, to begin with