Recent reviews by ItsScottish

When it was first announced, Days Gone flew under my radar as another generic zombie horde open-world shooter. If I am completely honest with you, that’s the truth. Today we will forego the usual format in favour of just talking about the game over at my website. [itsscottish.net]

A TL;DR though - Worth playing

You know how video games have trends? Here is a thematic trend. First-person shooters are always popular and often lead the trend, followed up by RPG's. BPM: Bullets Per Minute jumped on that Viking trend that's going about. Can three games be classed as a trend - I don't know, but what I can say is that it's rooted in a few genres and creates an interesting combination. BPM: Bullets Per Minute is a rogue-like, first-person shooter, music and rhythm game set to a Norse mythological setting. So let's talk about it more over at https://itsscottish.net/itsscottish/bpm-bullets-per-minute/.

I am not a simulation guy, far from it. Yet if you ask me how I spent the eighteenth of November. Well, the lads and I played Firefighting Simulator – The Squad. In case you were wondering – This is a simulator game in which you and optionally a squad play as a firefighter and do what firefighters do. For some, this sounds mundane, but come with me and let me tell you why it isn’t.

To read more click here[itsscottish.net] to be redirected to my website

Phasmophobia is defined as 'An intense fear of ghosts'. Currently, Phasmophobia is an Early Access title on Steam taking your friends list and Twitch.tv by storm. So, given that it's the spooky season I thought I'd pick up this game and review Phasmophobia. Now given it is October and Halloween approaches I feel given the current climate, no trick or treating shall happen, this game, however... is a treat in of itself. As such, let's dive into this Phasmophobia review and I'll tell you what all the hype is about!

This full review can be found at https://itsscottish.net/itsscottish/phasmophobia-review/

Mafia Definitive Edition is something we all should have saw coming shortly after Mafia III and Mafia II got definitive edition releases. Well, its 2020 and we just got the Mafia Definitive Edition. So a few questions come to mind: Is it just as good as I remember? What did they change? but mainly, Is it worth it? Today lets discuss and review Hanger 13’s Mafia Definitive Edition – The good, the bad and the changes.

If you wish to read the whole review then head over to my website to read the full review
https://itsscottish.net/itsscottish/mafia-definitive-edition-review/

This game is AMAZING. Easily sinking hours into it a day without even noticing.
Gameplay first type of game.
I could not condense a review into this so I built a website just to review this game
https://itsscottish.net/itsscottish/descenders-pc-review/

Barebones content


This game is short and lacks everything that made the original RE3 good. Resident Evil 2 (RE2) was amazing and I could easily sit and replay that 4 times back to back (Which I did), but I can't stomach another play of this game, not yet anyway.

This game also saved and imported my settings from RE2 which was nice - not the graphical settings but the controls.

If you are a veteran to this series (played since PSX) then go against my recommendation here.


Lets begin a review like we always do - Specs.


I ran this game on a mix of medium and high due to streaming. That being said I can easily run this game on the highest settings with no issues and I can attain a solid 60 FPS. This game does run as good as RE2 and looks just as good.


Resident Evil 3 takes place 2 months after the incident in Resident Evil 1 (RE1). It is now September. You are S.T.A.R.S (Special Tactics and Rescue Service) operative Jill Valentine. After the incident in the Arklay Mountains (RE1), Jill has been suspended and is being watched by Umbrella Corp or Raccoon City Police Department. She is unsure but she continues to investigate Umbrella as she knows they caused the outbreak that is ravaging the city.

As Jill picks up the phone in her apartment she is immediately attacked by the new Bio-weapon unleashed by Umbrella, the "Nemesis-T Type" (Nemesis for short). After a short chase through the burning apartment, Jill makes her way to the street and meets with an old friend from S.T.A.R.S. He gets a bite taken out of him and leaves himself to perish allowing Jill to escape where she meets Carlos.

Carlos introduces Jill to the rest of his team, the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (U.B.C.S). Carlos (and the rest of his team) have no idea that the company they work for caused this. They only care about getting the civilians out of the city. As such Jill goes to turn on the power for the trains. What follows next is a gruelling run through the city being chased by the Nemesis.

You will make pit stops in the sewers, Raccoon City Police Department, The hospital and the Umbrella Lab beneath the city. Pretty formulaic stuff to be honest.


The gameplay of RE3 is good, it's not RE2 good though. You have your usual suspects of puzzle solving and inventory expanding but you lose the quick escape mechanic. I can safely say I failed every quick time event that would have negated all damage.

Having played through the game in such a short time (Play time 4 hours, 55 minuets and 1 second - Clear time 3 Hours 39 minuets and 1 second) I can conclude that: This is Diet Resident Evil 3. Many iconic parts of the game are missing, including the clock tower section. This in turn cuts the game time down and with the inclusion of the third person perspective makes the game significantly easier.

Fifteen deaths is a fair amount BUT the Nemesis is an unrelenting force of nature. If you manage to down this beast you will often get yourself a nice little supply case. This can have anything from ammo to a gun mod. You can only do this a few times and he is a bullet sponge but what do you expect for something that size? The biggest issue with the Nemesis though is that he just isn't that scary. The old PSX FMV is scarier than anything in this game has thrown at us.

Like previous entries in the series (Excluding 7) RE3 is more action focused than puzzle and survival focused. Though the puzzles and constant backtracking was a way to bring length to a game using the very limited 700mb on a PSX disc, puzzles define the earlier entries in this series. The puzzles in RE3 are laughable and simplistic. There are no head scratching moments, everything is spoon fed to the player. Last years RE2 was harder.


Just like last years RE2 - this game ran perfectly smooth. I did play a bit on the highest settings before I came to the realisation "Hold on I'm streaming" and lowered it down significantly. The game still looked damn good though. I saw no hangs, freezes or stutters. This game also has 2 API options - Direct X11 and Direct X12 - no Vulkan API here guys.

There really isn't much to say here in all honesty - unlike in Resident Evil 2 where we had many different areas with lots of different things going on, this time round its very linier. You can go only 1 way and that 1 way is around the hub areas of the game. Not much happens in these areas that isn't constant, be it fire or water running, the area you're in has its own little thing happening, but it can't be stopped or changed.


I have been struggling to write this review. I was honestly tempted to just post a score with the words "Buy it and see why" - but I wouldn't be doing you all justice there. Now this is where things get fun:


If you are new to the Resident Evil series then picking this game up is a good way to get the gist of the story and what is going on. Since both RE2 and RE3 take place parallel to each other you can pick up either RE2 or RE3 and understand what is happening. If you are a veteran to the series then this game is a spit in the face. Steam is Binary and if you are new to the series then go by the recommendation of YES but if you are like me - who grew up on Resident Evil then avoid this like the plague and keep your memory intact.

But was kinda good


-I played this game with a STEAM Controller... It was an experience

-I find it hard to talk about this game as it is easy to spoil






As the title says - this is a Prequel to the previous 3 games in the series. The most beautiful bit about it though is how it sets up the previous games in the series. War and Strife are sent by the council (as per usual) to unravel a plot by Samael (remember him?) and Lucifer. They soon find out that it's all Lucifer. This game is broken into 16 stages, each introducing new enemies and furthering the story. To top this off the levels are designed for back tracking. You received a new power-up? You could use that 4 levels ago. This game as overall fun and frustrating and let me tell you why.


Initially you will set out looking for Samael - it goes well. Samael found, mission finished right? Wrong. You learn from Samael and ya boy Vulgrim that Lucifer is making a big play and you need to take these plans and scrap them. Any devoted Darksiders fans can tell you, this is not a simple task. As you trek through the stages you learn more about Strife and his character gets to flourish. I don't want to give too much away but in the broad scheme of things: Everyone has ulterior motives and you are the unwitting duo carrying these plans to fruition.

Darksiders Genesis takes the gripping story of Darksiders 1 through 3 and just cans it. It serves as a backstory of how things came to be for the 1st game. This game focuses on why the 7 seals were created as well as touching on the backstory of the Horsemen. It is belated world building for a story that has an already brimming world. I don't want to spoil the story for you as it is the driving factor in this game, as such it has to be good, and it's great.


Genesis plays like the previous games but this time from an isometric view point. This allows for more arena based combat and helps when playing as Strife. For all the OG Darksiders fans, Strife has the most unconventional weapon. War - Sword, Death - Scythe, Fury - Whip. They all have one thing in common - Melee. Strife - GUNS. Now I never thought I'd say this but... Darksiders (Genesis) has excellent Gunplay.

This is facilitated by the isometric view. The view point allows you to wipe through hordes of enemies in a fluid motion. Atop this, the character switching is made simple and easy and allows for the flow of fights to continue. As the gap between yourself and the enemies shrinks you can essentially hotswap to War and just cleave through the enemies with effortless grace and destruction.

The power-ups you receive throughout the game can also aid in combat but as every Darksiders fan knows, they are for puzzles first and foremost. Strife seems to have the most puzzle orientated power-ups where as War has the Swiss Army Power-ups. Big fist to destroy crystals... or the enemies face, dealers choice. Enemies also like to drop orbs in the form of "Cores", these Cores are used to power the player though a "Skill Tree". Each of these core has 1 of 3 purposes - Life, Wrath or Power. Each enemy type drops them and each boss drops them too. Collecting multiple cores ups the core level and this in turn ups the buff it gives.


I am not a fan of the isometric perspective as a whole. Not just in this game but as a whole. This game helped me understand that sometimes it has more purpose than a tight budget. Though with War it seems a little redundant as we did have a War focused game, imagine the transition between Isometric and 3rd person - that would be jarring. For Strife it works well however and I cannot complain about a solid game.

The puzzles however... the weakest in the series. I found myself being lost due to the camera and the level design. Though the puzzles are a little easy. You will still spend upwards of 8 hours playing this game and you are recommended to have a certain power level to enter levels else they would be too challenging. This is where the aforementioned Cores come into play. Cores equate to power and matching a core with a socket gives you an extra little boost.

Apart from that - Its pretty standard Darksiders. Just 2 characters and an isometric view with a hub world and stages. There is a side activity in the Arena which is fun. Some enemies do end up getting stuck under the map but they just fall to their death after a few seconds - can't complain.


Overall this game is a solid addition to the Darksiders Universe. It provides backstory and foreshadowing for Darksiders 1 but I feel that is almost redundant - fans have just accepted that it's not vital. The hardcore fans read the book and bought the comics, but those take place before this game and just help to develop the characters more. This game does the same but mainly for Strife. I feel Darksiders 4 will benefit from this game more than Darksiders 1-3 will. Anyway - Scores:


As I stated: I am not a fan of Isometric Camera Angles - Though I feel it benefits this game it also hinders some of the beauty in the game. I bet so many man hours went into making every creature look unique and every detail of each outfit was planned and perfected to look its best... only for the player to never really be able to see it. In my eyes this game is blessed with a curse. Again though, this is a personal opinion.

((8*2) 7)/3 = Total score

But it's an improvement... somehow


-I beat this game in 1 sitting... and that was sub 24 hours ago






Sniper: Ghost Warrior is... good? I should rephrase that. It's better than SGW3 and SGW:C. In this particular iteration of the game, you are... a few different people. Initially tasked with the assassination of a corrupt leader of a country. Clearly if that is Mission 1, it does not go well. Pretty sure I hit the guy but whatever. Regardless he escapes and you give chase. This is where the main "Act Loop" as I will call it, comes into play. Your spotter gets hit and you decide to cover him on the evac and get left behind, this happens a lot.

Now you as Tyler have to evac from a different location, whilst doing that you are also tasked with helping free a POW from your military force. Now this game is pretty forgettable so I will gloss over a few details but take this as your SPOILER WARNING. In 1 particular part of the act you play overwatch for a team assaulting a town to take out a drug dealer. Here is another motif that you should get use to - It does not go well. However this allows you to then play as that team, Before, During and AFTER the failed assault. Nice touch. This happens a few times.

To bundle this up easily for you however, this game is like eating dry bread: It's something, not good, not bad... but something.


I said this game was forgettable but has a few loops, well... it's that bad. You play as Tyler (mainly) and you are the titular character. You go in to take out this bad guy and it goes poorly. You try to evac and it goes poorly - How ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ incompetent is this military? Regardless - what follows next is getting to the next safe point in order to make like Fred Flintstone and yabba-dabba-do one.

This ongoing quest to get out takes you through some fun segments like "Forced Stealth" and small villages. Par for the course when it comes to linier FPS games. You assist in a little drug bust. Guess how it goes. Like stated Prior though you play as the other team before during and after this mess, then back to Tyler as you FINALLY evac.

You do a little Jungle section to blow up some party snow fields then evac - How does this go? (Wrong answers only). Little bit of busy work and you get out.
You then go to a town to steal warhead plans for nuke. Remember that guy you saved... total left field move he betrays you. I kinda saw it coming... as I was handing him the disc, hes it's that far out of field it's like he just thought of doing it and he did it. You then assist some rebels, they help you track him down and you throw him off a bridge.

In the event you are thinking: "Wow and that's Act 1?" - Nope that's 1, 2 & 3... of 4. This next one is just about weakening the army a little. Sneak into a compound, get some plans and leave. Kill a high ranking general. Steal a truck and blow up a bridge. Assault a mine and free the prisoners. Kill the guy you didn't in level 1. Seems simple. I expect nothing less of CIGames -It's endearing.


Take everything you know from the Sniper Elite or Sniper: Ghost Warrior franchises and put them in their infancy. You have your standard "Bullet Cam" on good kills. Not as slow or as brutal as it is within subsequent games. Add some dodgey wind and you got it. It's all standard stuff by the standards of today.

The guns however, now here is a good talking point. Sniper: Ghost Warrior should really be called "Assault Rifle on Single Fire: Ghost Warrior" or "Marksman Rifle: Ghost Warrior" because nobody, absolutely nobody in this universe... can fire 10 rounds of .50Cal in under 3 seconds. Accuracy be damned but Tyler can. Mind you for a gun calling itself ".50", it's not very beefy, or good. The guns are actually one of the worst aspects of this First Person SHOOTER. The pistol is S tier however. Impossible to aim but really good when the shot decides to land.

On the occasion when you get to use fully automatic weapons the iron sights are good and the guns have recoil, then the iron sights get bad. The guns also do this thing where they are useless. Yeah mate just soak up 60 rounds of 5.56 whilst wearing your wifebeater. Clearly fighting terminators. This includes accuracy and how far they can spot you from... sometimes. On the chance they don't cut you down like lumberjacks hack down pine trees, the AI cant hit the side of a barn... with a bulldozer.

In case you take 1 too many hits you can also hold 5 injectors and if your health goes below 20 it regenerates back up. The screen needs a wakeup though. I died so many times at sub 20hp and the visual indicator was just missing.


Gameplay is exactly what you expect from reading the previous segments and reading the name of the game. It does seem to funnel you into a loop of not actually sniping through. Like I said, that pistol is a beast. The AI is a bit off though: killing one guy can alert the whole base INSTANTLY... or the guy standing next to him thinks his mates just taking a nap. So you obviously do the sniping thing and some segments are very focused on this point. All 3 of them.

You can't pick up any other gun unless it's a derivative of whats in your hands. That means the default sniper or a dragunov. Literally the only 2 snipers I found. You also get to choose between an M4 and a 10 round AR. Neither are particularly good. I actually found myself using the pistol more than the actual guns simply because of the recoil. It's not that you can't manage it but the ARs kick like mules. Grenades are also useless - the enemy just runs away the second they see it in the air.

Most of the game is running away from large groups of enemies or killing them off. Mandatory stealth sections seem to break the flow of the game too. There is about 1 per act and again, the iffy AI can make this very easy or frustratingly hard. To be honest I find it hard to write about this - the game is dull, boring and repetitive, its not winning any awards.


Gotta wrap this up as it seems to be a bit long.


The game is just average in every way bar the gameplay. For a game that came out in 2010 it lacks. 2010 gave us Bioshock 2, Heavy Rain, Darksiders, Alan Wake and Metro 2033 just to name a few. CIGames had 8 years before this game, compared to Avalanche Studios who in 2010 brought us Just Cause 2, It's hard to recommend this game as it already looks dated from release and is just so basic.. but I recommend this game.

Yes its shoddy, buggy, boring, horribly paced and easily dated, but it's not slow. If I didn't go and answer the door or fart about with streaming software. Easy 3 hours. Congratulations CIGames - I recommend this game, over the better looking SGW3 and SGW:C.

But I expected more.


So a few years ago - 25 Aug, 2017 at 4:06am to be precise - I posted a review of "Sniper Ghost Warrior 3".
Developer "CIGames" were happy to engage in some feedback on that review. I wonder if this holds true to this review.


We are walking into HEAVY spoiler territory through this review - If you have issue with this then I urge you to find another review as
this is more of a critique. Though there will be a review in here I feeel it best to also speak about these particular points.

As per all of my reviews we shall start with the specs.



This game was ran on the HIGH preset and was also streamed on Twitch at 720p 60FPS.


Out of the bag I want to say the story presents itself in such a way that it is only loosely held together by a single concept: Libération!

You are "Seeker". From what I gather you are a mercenary hitman who has been used all over the world by various groups and people to do the dirty as it were. You are hired
by a group and given a "Handler" and a mask. You are paid a nice fee and for lack of a better phrase told "See all these bad people, here is why they are bad... do your thing."

Simple stuff. Now when I say: But wait.. there's more! I am sure you have a few ideas as to what this is.
It's cliché. I do not want to give it all away here but if you think something smells off - You can guess the end of this game easily.

You go through Siberia and take out various targets within a corrupt government. Each and every one of these people are depicted as despicable. All bar the
Eugenics doctor. She's doing some good... but for bad people. Pretty sure we could convert her.

Either way - Bad people. omelettes, eggs and all that jazz. Each individual contract has their own thing and some of the information you can get from some "secondary" objectives
can give you some info on what you are actually in for: Bulletproof Glass, particular quirks for ID, potential meetings and the such. Good to know what you are looking for and for
that I do commend CIGames for rewarding the side missions on each map.

Overall however the story is very "one note", disjointed and short. If I didn't have a death count in the triple digits I doubt I would have spent 9 hours playing this game.

In my opinion: The story is as basic as a Nickelback song and as predictable as death is inevitable. Compound this with some good ole' sequel/DLC bait.
Left a bad taste in my mouth and I've tried marmite.


The mechanics of this game are very similar to the Sniper Elite series - The higher the difficulty the more you need to work for each kill. Take out cameras so you don't get spotted, adjust elevation and wind speed, tag the targets, hold your breath, fire.

I recommend a suppressor so you don't alert everyone and their cat within a 10 mile radius. These guns are meaty. Excellent sound design on this part.

The selection of bullets as well - oh my. Straight up decapitations and dismemberment, and the slow motion. Perfect chaos. We got .50 Cal bullets, luring rounds and even "Easy Mode" rounds - Make aiming a thing of the past.

If you ever played the previous game however this is all standard. The only difference is you now must do the side challenges of the contracts in order to upgrade
Seeker to hold and use these bullets.

Each missions has a few side challenges that unlock tokens used to unlock particular skills. Each skill helps in one way or another and each tree has a split choice for perks. You can only have 1 of the 2, example: More Stamina OR Faster stamina regeneration? That's smart.

The idea of the as a gameplay mechanic was a very good choice. The mask is the communication device as well as the HUD. All of the things you need are
essentially built into the mask: Map, Binoculars, Thermal Vision & objective tracker - Think the MGS4 Eye Patch. The most useful Milti-tool you never think of.

I do miss the cars and all other travel equipment however - the 5 (Yes count that, 5) contracts in this game are vast and you die fast. Compound this with the autosave function
that can just set you back a good 10 minute journey. Seeker can skip leg day for some time.

The cutscenes between each mission - your brief if you were so inclined - are some of the most beautiful cutscenes I have ever saw. Loved the style. I will say however that
more work was clearly put into handler than Seeker as every line delivered by Seeker was laughable.

If you had been a silent protagonist I would have been happy but no...
had to give him the most SyFy, B-Movie, Direct to DVD voice ever.

You also handle pretty bad. It takes a special breed of idiot to fall through the gap in some stairs because you slipped on solid, dry concrete in the sun. Every movement is
like walking on bananas.

I could understand this in the snow areas... not so much in the middle of a road when there is no snow... or ice... or bananas. Add on to this that when you come out of ADS it takes a week to turn in any direction. It's almost like you are in disbelief that you looked down the scope.

The AI By the way... they will zero right in on you but they are as dumb as bricks any other time. Unless you shoot near them, shoot at them or they somehow manage to see you - they are pitiful.

Mechanically - This game is almost solid. Clearly this game is built for multiple playthroughs but I could not bring myself to do it. The minefields man... PTSD. Add on to this
all the points above and you can find a balance.


As stated earlier I streamed this game on the HIGH preset and I got a solid 70 FPS with some minor jitters. My biggest concern though? It's 2019... Why no Borderless
window in the settings? Half-Life 2 has Borderless!

I suffered twice the game crashing to desktop - Call it "Launch Week Issues", benefit of the doubt there. Overall this game ran well... better than the previous instalment.
I literally have nothing else to say about the performance. Absolute Dream


Overall this game is as interesting as ready salted crisps. There is potential in there and many other interesting things can be done - but on it's own it's basic, uninteresting
and boring.

The highlight of playing this game was being 2nd on the Twitch page for this game. This game is better than SGW3 but to be fair it's not hard to improve on garbage.

This game however - in my personal opinion - is just nicer smelling garbage. Many good improvements and kudos on that. Hands up - I liked them, yet this game still has some issues that plagued the previous game - Simple gameplay loop, terrible AI, boring and predictable story.


I personally cannot recommend this game - though a fun romp overall it is still just a minor distraction with a flimsy story. I actually recommend SGW3 over this game - the story was
better and the gameplay was more diverse.

(Overall score based off of the average of all 3 scores [[[5 5] 10]/3])

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