Paul Renshaw

First up, a confession. I loved the first Mass Effect game and couldn't stop playing it until I finished it completely, then immediately embarked on a Renegade Shep playthrough. When Mass Effect 2 came along, I was so excited that I didn't bother reading any reviews, I just went and bought it and started to play. However, the new direction that that game had gone down didn't sit very well with me, and I never finished it, or even bothered to start Mass Effect 3. So now with the launch of Mass Effect: Andromeda, have EA and Bioware managed to recapture the spirit of the first game or am I doomed to disappointment again? With hope in my heart, I fired it up and blasted off.

As you can probably tell from the title, this game was released back in 1994 for the ever popular Neo Geo home console, and was an amalgamation of two of SNK’s popular fighting games - Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting. It took characters from these two games, mixed them with a few characters from Ikari Warriors and Psycho Soldier, along with some original characters, and created a three on three tag team style game out of it. Initially their idea was to draw fans of each franchise and get them to play KOF, and in that sense at least it was a success, so much so that SNK was able to go on to release games almost yearly right up to KOF 15 in August 2016. So the big question is this: does the mixture blend harmoniously, or is it a sunken souffle of a game? I strapped on my (virtual) black belt and got to grips to find out.

Nostalgia eh? It’s a funny old thing and make no mistake, it seems that at the moment there is a real fad happening for re-releasing old games on modern generation consoles. By and large this is a good thing. As I referred to in my Metal Slug review, I never had a Neo Geo as a kid, and consequently have never played any of these game that are hitting the store. This time, it is the turn of Sengoku to get the treatment, a game which first released way back in 1991, when this reviewer was a fresh faced 18 year old with the world at his feet. So, 26 years on, has time been kind to Sengoku, or should it have stayed a memory?

As I settled down to watch the latest of Bungie's Age of Triumph streams, my mind was full of the teaser shots of the new armour that Bungie had leaked. The still images looked great, and I was looking forward to seeing what community manager, Deej and co had in store. He was joined this week by armour and weapon designers Ian McIntosh and Josh Hamrick, and my goodness they have saved the best for last. As 73,569 people looked on via Twitch, Deej released the details we've been waiting for!

Back in the day, I was never allowed to have a Neo Geo console. The ridiculous cost of the unit itself (£399 at launch, equivalent to £700 now), added to the fact that the games used to regularly retail for over £100 a pop, made my Mum and Dad say "No!" and point out I still had a perfectly good Atari 2600 to play on. Parents eh? I think this is probably why my six year old son has a Wii U, 2DS and various other electronic devices to play with, if you'll forgive the amateur psychology. Anyway, moving on and as a result of this parental decision, I never got to play Metal Slug in the home until now, with the release of ACA NEO GEO Metal Slug for the Xbox One. So, has it been worth the 21 year wait?

First released back in 1996, both as an arcade cartridge and a home cartridge on the Neo Geo system, Neo Turf Masters was a fast paced, two player golf game made by Nazca, who are also known for their Metal Slug game. Neo Turf Masters has had a long and storied history, being converted and gracing such consoles as the PS2, Wii and PSP, alongside the well remembered Neo Geo Colour handheld (I personally don't remember this thing!). Finally showing up on the Xbox One, how have the intervening 21 years treated the game, and will it hold up today?

It's week two and the second livestream celebrating Age of Triumph, the final live update of the Destiny 1 era content which is due to launch come March 28th. "Rituals and Strikes," has taken place - but what did it show? We take a look.

First seeing the light of day on PC back in April 2015, and then PS4 in October 2016, it's finally the turn of the Xbox One to receive Verdun - "the first multiplayer FPS set in a realistic First World War setting", as M2H and Blackmill Games would have it. For the purposes of this review, I'm not going to take exception to that phrase, and I'll be pretending that whole Battlefield 1 game never happened. So, let's sally forth, go over the top, and see if the game has been worth the wait. Tally Ho!

Imagine for a moment, if you will, that all the previous RPG games and films have been wrong. Dwarves are not just a short tempered, mead quaffing, subterranean race with a penchant for big axes. No, instead the protagonists of We Are The Dwarves are interstellar explorers in a stone universe, boldly going where no short, bearded individuals have gone before. Got that picture in your mind?

In a Twitch livestream last night, Bungie stalwart Deej unveiled the path that Bungie have envisioned to get us, the Guardians, to Destiny 2. Entitled "Age of Triumph", it's a 13 page book of landmark moments and feats to help us celebrate everything the game has brought us.

I have to admit, when I first headed in to Ghost Blade HD, I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. Information seemed to be scarce, and even the official website for the game didn't tell me a massive amount. The words "bullet hell" and "shoot-em-up" seemed to be mentioned a lot. "What could possibly go wrong, I thought? I'm an old skool gamer, I played Axelay on the SNES, surely this is just a pretender?" (Google it, kids!). Thus thinking, I fired up the Xbox and sallied forth.

First released on mobile platforms back in June, 2015, Fallout Shelter charges the player with becoming Overseer of a new vault, which has to be built up from the ground, well, down! Making the move to Windows 10 in July 2016, it’s now hitting Xbox One as a free to play title, but is it a worthy port, and worthy of your time?

Destiny is great, but with my three guardians at 400, 399 and 399 light respectively (Titan being the highest because, well, Titan Master Race) my thoughts are turning to Destiny 2, and what Bungie can do to make the transition as easy as possible for me. I've come up with a few things I'd like to see, and that I think would make the game better.