Exploring Like A Dragon: Ishin's Quirky Substories
The substories in the Yakuza or Like A Dragon series are always top-notch, but what happens when the top-notch gets another notch above it? You get Like A Dragon Ishin's substories! The best in the series and a dive into Japanese culture, dialects, cuisine and most importantly...VEGGIES!
SEGA Powered | New Gaming Magazine | Writers Interview
Staff writers Marc (SEGA Mags) and Paul (Maximum Power Up) join me to talk about the new print gaming magazine featuring all things SEGA. Interview carried out at Doncaster Dome Retro Games Fair on December 5th 2021.
Laura Kate Dale's Yakuza: Like A Dragon Critique is Lazy & Dishonest
In a recent video, game journalist Laura Kate Dale criticized Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Yakuza 7) for including stereotypes of homeless people. Is representation & inclusivity something that Yakuza gets wrong or has there been a misunderstanding of this Japanese RPG and the artistic intent of its creators? Let's critique the critique.
Toy Commander | Review | Dreamcast
You’d be hard-pressed to find people with any kind of childhood that didn’t at some point arrange their toys in such a way to form some sort of city or contraption, guiding miniature figures through & imagining crazy stories & scenarios in their kid brain. I know I certainly went through a phase of driving toy cars along the carpet, up the wall, down bannisters...on the ceiling if I could reach it. So when I first played a demo for Toy Commander on the Dreamcast back in 1999, I was struck by how the game captured that essence of childhood imagination so perfectly and that short snippet of the game stuck with me ever since.
Two Point Hospital | Review
1997’s Theme Hospital is undoubtedly a classic in every sense of the word & it has never really seen a true successor but with the release of Two Point Hospital by a team consisting of some of the original developers of Theme Hospital, we could finally see a hospital simulation game that moves past some of the limitations of the 90s or even reaches the full potential of this unique idea. Two Point Studio’s Mark Webley & Gary Carr have seemingly been biding their time for many years, knowing full well that a spiritual successor to Theme Hospital would pique the interest of many PS1 era or classic PC gamers. They were there for many of Bullfrog & Lionhead studios’ best works from Theme Park to Black & White so they’re no strangers to sim games.
Yakuza 6 | PS4 | Review
If there's one good thing that has come out of the current generation of gaming it's the huge surge of people realising what they've been missing all these years in the Yakuza series. Ironic then that just as Yakuza explodes into bigger success than ever before, the final chapter in main character Kiryu’s story wraps up. On the other hand, the brand new ‘Dragon Engine’ & promise of future games makes Yakuza 6 both a fresh start & a final curtain. Does it pull it off? Let's find out!
Yakuza 5 | Review
Yakuza 5 is a fighting/driving/hunting/dancing/karaoke simulation/action-RPG game by SEGA. The Yakuza series, (known as Ryu Ga Gotoku in Japan) which has won excellence awards in its home country with practically every new release, is basically the Grand Theft Auto of Japanese gaming. Yakuza 5 was originally released in December 2012 but Western audiences have had to wait 3 years for a version which didn't require them to learn Japanese. Was it worth the wait? Oh god yes!