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Is Blue Box Actually Kojima? The Viral Conspiracy Explained

16th February 2026

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of Blue Box Game Studios, Hideo Kojima and Silent Hills, let me take you back to late 2012… Gangnam Style was still in the charts, Django Unchained had just dropped in cinemas and cryptocurrency was still just a weird obscure thing that only sweaty nerds your paranoid uncle cared about. Then, – completely out of nowhere, – a trailer appears on the internet teasing a new trippy-looking game called The Phantom Pain. It is from a developer that nobody has ever heard of called Moby Dick Studios with some weird dude covered in bandages called Joakim Mogren at the helm. The code-cracking began in YouTube comments and on gaming subreddits. The conspiracy unfolded and eventually it turned out to to be a complex hoax that led to the unveiling of Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Then, a few years later, Kojima does the same thing again when he releases the red herring that was the P.T demo, which wound up being a “playable teaser” for the much anticipated, (sadly since cancelled,) Silent Hills. Could the same thing be happening once again with the upcoming PS5 exclusive Abandoned from unknown devs, BLUE BOX Game Studios? Could this title actually turn out to be the long-awaited resurrection of Silent Hills? Because it’s either that or a very clever marketing strategy from a small-time developer riding the Silent Hills hype train to promote their title. Either way, there are too many parallels that can be drawn for this whole thing to be a coincidence. Don your tinfoil hat and join me friends as we head down the rabbit hole together. I hope you all have your whiteboards and string at the ready, as I am about to blow your mind. Part 1: Previously unheard of developer BLUE BOX Game Studios announces ‘Abandoned’ On the 7th of April 2021, a post by Hasan Kahraman appears on the PlayStation Blog unveiling a teaser for a PS5 exclusive, first-person survival horror game titled; Abandoned. Kahraman is the Game Director at BLUE BOX Game Studios. The sleuths over on Reddit have since pointed out that if you go to the 49 second mark in the video above, you will see the image below showing writing on an outside wall that reads; “Kill The Trespassers.” A tree blocks a couple of letters of the text. Those letters being blocked just so happen to be “T” and “P,” or PT. Other than that though, upon first glance, the post appeared to be just like any other PlayStation Blog post announcing a new title. These kinds of posts certainly aren’t rare on the blog and initially nobody paid much attention to the post other than some negative reactions criticizing the amateur sounding VO work and the complaining about the poor frame rate. A few months down the line, BLUE BOX Game Studios announce that Abandoned will receive its very own PS5 app which will allow gamers to watch the game’s trailers in real time on their PS5 console. This is a notably odd thing for a studio to implement and it is certainly not something that is normally done by first-party PlayStation Studios whilst promoting their upcoming game. Therefore, this strange announcement left more than a few people wondering why this small, unknown game studio are the first to pioneer this marketing strategy. The app was initially slated to go live this Sunday on the 20th of June. However, another tweet from the developer states that the app will in fact go live on the 22nd of June. This date is probably the correct one as it is a Tuesday, which is normally the day that new games and apps go up on the PlayStation Store. Part 2: Why this could actually be Kojima leading up to the announcement of Silent Hills Shall we go deeper down the rabbit hole? A couple of days ago BLUE BOX Game Studios Twitter account posts a tweet suggesting that “Abandoned” isn’t actually the title of their game. They tease fans to “Guess the name, which begins with an S and ends with an L. This tweet perks up the ears of gaming conspiracy theorists all over the internet rumours start that Gaming’s God Of Mischief himself, Hideo Kojima is in fact behind this account and this title and Abandoned is yet another ruse concocted to lead up to the re-announcement of Silent Hills. The developer panics and quickly back-tracks to shut down any rumours that may have started based on this tweet. This back-pedalling only becomes more frequent over the next day in comment sections etc. This inevitably leads to the Streisand effect taking place and more people across the internet begin to take notice. In a later tweet, the developer refers to “Abandoned” in quotation marks, further suggesting that Abandoned is not the true title of the game. In yet another tweet, they confirm that Abandoned is simply a working title for the project. In another, it is stated that teaser that dropped back in April was only ever intended to be an announcement that the game was in development and that “the game itself has never been shown.” If we look again at the game’s title, the choice to use the word, “Abandoned,” could also be a reference to how Silent Hills and by extension Kojima were abandoned by Konami seven years ago. If this false project is actually an elaborate tease for Kojima Productions to eventually announce that they are in fact returning to work on Silent Hills, then Abandoned would a very apt working title under which to restart development on the game. Are you still with me? Because this is still just the tip of the iceberg. Part 3: You Wanna Get Nuts? Let’s Get Nuts! Strap in Alice, because we are past the point of no return. We shall begin with the logo for BLUE BOX Game Studios. Look familiar? That is because it is pretty much the exact same as the PlayStation Studios logo, right down to the font. Another parallel that can be drawn, is how the

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Review – Blacksad: Under The Skin

23rd June 2021

Blacksad: Under The Skin is a detective adventure game by Pendulo Studios, based off of an ongoing comic series of the same titular name by Juan Díaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido. Think the gritty realism of LA Noire meeting the charm and anthropomorphic style of Sly Cooper. Released in November, 2019 Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Classic Mac OS SUMMARY The stage is set, Bobby Yale VS the reigning champ Al Stone in a boxing match at Madison Square Garden! However, the shocking discovery of a beloved gym coach’s apparent suicide has put the match and industry in jeopardy. It’s up to private investigator John Blacksad to peel back the layers of chicanery and monkeyshines to reveal what’s Under The Skin. STORY Set against a backdrop of New York; the concrete jungle wet dream tomato (or whatever Alicia Keys said), you’ll find all manner of anthropomorphic animals from all walks of life, more often than not carefully reflecting stereotypes of the real world with exceptional voice acting and beautiful animation. Our titular character, Blacksad, is everything a crime solving cat should be; smooth, witty, handsome and a big ol’ softie or a brooding nihilist depending on how he’s feeling (or how you decide to play). A sultry silken voiceover by Barry Johnson combined with a stoically calm demeanour makes this character the coolest cat in town. The story is overly typical of your favourite noir and whodunnit stories and that’s never a bad thing. They’re always so much fun to unravel and solve, especially in this case with a wide variety of possible suspects and motives. I’ve yet to replay the game to try and invert my statistics so I am unaware if said inversion of my results will award me with an alternate ending, it looks promising though! GAMEPLAY As with any good detective game, you’ll be searching for clues and asking questions to solve a crime and Blacksad: Under The Skin is no different. It’s closest comparison is Rockstar’s LA Noire with some deviations, both good and bad. What separates this game from the pack is its logistical and varied mechanics, including an actual solving window where you combine the information you’ve collected to connect the dots. As a smooth-talking feline, your wits will only get you so far before you need to put your cat-like reflexes and enhanced senses to the test with slow motion hot spot scenes and QT events. As well as the primal tools of a cat, Blacksad never leaves his office without his trusty lockpick. On top of this, your quickdraw decisions and emotional connections to each character have consequences and this allows for an inclusive experience that demands your attention. The game is forgiving enough of your mistakes – if you don’t mind seeing your beloved Blacksad die in a variety of painfully callous game over scenarios, but some mistakes will stick with you forever. A problem with the game however, is that is riddled with bugs, and not the buzzing anthropomorphic kind. I initially put the game down months ago because the flow and my progress were interrupted several times by crashes. Upon returning to the game, those issues have mostly subsided but there are still fuzzy textures and choppy frame rates that could break the immersion. Alas, it’s part of the wider issue of releasing games before they are completely bug-tested. OVERALL In conclusion, Blacksad: Under The Skin is a gem of a noir detective story set in a coffee stained New York jungle full of interesting and likeable animals. With an initial playtime of 7-9 hours and the addition of replayability, there is more than enough gameplay to enjoy here. If it weren’t for the multiple bugs, especially of the game breaking variety, this game would be a cult classic masterpiece. Until such time as the developers continue to fix said bugs, I would say wait for a final update or discounted price. If you have an itch for a unique and engaging interactive noir story however, I suggest you have a scratch at this to once more with a brooding voice, reveal what’s Under The Skin. [yasr_multiset setid=5] [yasr_visitor_multiset setid=5] Let us know your thoughts on Blacksad: Under The Skin, your thoughts on the original comic series and what your favourite noir and whodunnit stories are! If you enjoyed our Blacksad: Under The Skin Review, you can check out what we thought of Cyberpunk: 2077 here. Buy tickets for BGCP Comic Con in and around Glasgow Scotland – BUY TICKETS Check out all of our Comic, Movie, Television and Videogame Reviews HERE and our Podcasts/Interviews HERE If you want to be part of the BGCP community, Join us on Discord, Twitter, Instagram etc then click HERE

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Review – Spyro Reignited Remake

2nd June 2021

Review – Spyro Reignited Remake Developer: Toys for Bob Publisher: Activision Genre: Platform Director: Dan Neil Release Date: 13/11/18 Is Spyro, everyone’s favourite purple dragon, worth revisiting? Think back to the heady days of the Playstation One and the times when you found yourself staring in open delight at what was the very pinnacle of technology for the time. All these memories of angular lines, of horrendously low polygon count and of grainy visuals and audio meant nothing at the time. This was as good as it got. It seemed impossible to ever imagine that it could get better. Plenty of us have series from the era that we poured hours into and hold a special place in our hearts. Smashing boxes and spinning to win with Crash, swapping discs in FFVII and marvelling at how big a game could be or knocking on walls as Solid Snake – there will be an example for most of a *cough* certain age. Maybe the image of Spyro and his egg and gem collecting antics might be the one that triggers happy memories for a few. Chasing down these blue thieves? Sparx being oddly infuriating? How about searching an area over and over again for the elusive last few collectibles : – there is no denying that there was plenty to enjoy. With all three games in the series having being reworked and reimagined in a collection for modern consoles, is it worth your time and money to replay or will the rose-coloured glasses of nostalgia trick you into parting with your hard earned cash? Read on to find out. Overview What are you actually getting for your money here? You not only get the updated version of the original Spyro, you also get the sequel “Ripto’s Rage” and “Year of the Dragon”, the third instalment. When Reignited loads, the three games are displayed for each save file alongside progress in percentage completion so it’s easy to hop from one to another and keep an eye on how you’re getting on. Published by Activision and developed by Toys for Bob and Insomniac Games, what you can expect overall is a cleaner, more streamlined and modernised version of all three games suitable for the current era. While all the voice lines and animations have been re-done, the level layouts, the mechanics and the characters are all faithful to the spirit of the original and make for a pleasant trip down memory lane. Issues No game is perfect, but before we get to what makes this offering excellent, it’s only fair to point out a few of the problems that it has. While there is a lot to admire, some of the issues from the original series have carried over. Take the flying levels for example. Arguably one of the harder challenges in the game, some negative aspects of the original series have bled through. While the controls for Spyro on the ground around the levels feel tight and responsive, they are suddenly “heavy” in flight. In the part of the experience that most emphasises the 3D space that you are in, it is as though you have the least control. I did encounter one major problem on my playthrough. Issues can be subjective (people reporting “odd” animation styles), but this one was fairly annoying. Progressing gradually through the game with my partner, we loaded it up one day to find our progress rolled back significantly with no method of recovery available. This issue affected many and no real solution ever found. When I say substantial, I mean going from 100% completion in one game and ~50% in the second to 75% in the first only. Luckily, this only happened the once, but it was a little worrying to cover all that ground again, always concerned that the game would simply wipe the progress at some point without any warning. Positives That being said, there is a lot to admire here. Ironing out some of the more egregious glitches from the original series is a positive (although speedrunners have found new ones to replace them, as they do). These new graphics overall feel close enough to the original to seem familiar without being jarring and it is simply a faithful upgrade by people who clearly felt a lot of love for the series in general. The game audio has had a revamp too, and a notable one. The tracks sound excellent, having been cleaned up and brought to a modern standard. As with the original, former Police drummer Stewart Copeland (yes, really) was brought back on board to oversee composition and his work remains as iconic as ever. All voice lines have been re-recorded to a high standard and the gameplay is every bit as engaging as it ever was. Spyro has always scratched that completionist itch for a lot of players and this still holds up to this day. Seeing your progress tick up is every bit as enjoyable as ever and it keeps you coming back for more. The refined mechanics make even the levels that felt difficult in childhood enjoyable. No more flashbacks to endless loops of “Trouble with the Trolley” and nearly breaking your only controller trying to get all the flying objectives in a single run. All that was enjoyable is here and better. Conclusion Whether you’re just looking to relive some memories or if you’ve never played the series before, it is a great way to get into it whether for the first time in years or the first time ever. The intervening years have not cost Spyro any of his appeal. In fact, a lot of it has improved. Three games for a single purchase? The answer as to whether it is worth the price of admission is a resounding yes. [yasr_multiset setid=5] [yasr_visitor_multiset setid=5] If you enjoyed our review of Spyro Reignited Remake, you can check out our review for Retro Machina here. Buy tickets for BGCP Comic Con in and around Glasgow Scotland – BUY

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FANTASY CASTING: Live Action Bioshock

22nd June 2021

FANTASY CASTING: Live Action Bioshock With so many reboots, serial killer documentaries and adaptations in the film and TV world today, I sit here and wonder why there’s no live action adaptation of Bioshock. A glorious art deco world full of substance, suspense and philosophical conundrums. While it is a pipe dream right now, cinema and TV have shown us that it is possible. Fans want to see it. Many creators WANT to make it. People NEED to experience it. And if it fails? Who cares, at least it’s not another reboot or serial killer documentary! Just as a heads up, if you’d like to listen to a more in depth discussion on this subject, our most recent episode of BGCP: Disassembled covers this very topic with myself, Ian and Dan! We can’t stress enough, this is NOT official, this is what we want to see from an adaptation. With that being said, here is our fantasy casting of a live action Bioshock. STORY So, what is our story? The game itself? Too well known. A totally made up scenario within the setting? Too dangerous. No, instead I have opted for the under-appreciated and in some cases unheard of prequel novel, Bioshock: Rapture by John Shirley. World War II has finally ended and the world sits in Atlasian contemplation of what comes next. One dreamer, Andrew Ryan, asks the question, is a man not entitled to the sweat of his own brow? With this and anyone worth their weight in gold, Ryan assures and procures his own future. His own Eden. His own Utopia. His own…Rapture; a shining city below the sea. A safe haven Atlantis for the idealist, artist and scientist, where no government, censorship or morals can stop you from being the best version of you. No gods or kings, only man. However, as Ryan will soon find out, give humanity an inch and they’ll take a mile. DIRECTOR & FORMAT For a story built on a lavish art deco utopia with a dark dystopian nightmare lurking in the depths, there are a bunch of directors you could choose to bring Rapture to life. One in particular already tried! Gore Verbinski (best known for Pirates of The Caribbean films) was lined up to direct a Bioshock film but unfortunately it never grew into a reality due to budgeting and an external concern for the subject matter. While we never got this film, Verbinski did in fact create the closest thing we have to a Bioshock film in 2016 with the underrated gem, A Cure For Wellness. Despite Verbinski’s noble efforts, I feel there are only two possible directors to undertake such a grand affair. The decision comes from a separate choice of whether to make this a feature length film or a systematic series. For a feature length film, I elect the Big Daddy creature creator, Guillermo Del Toro. Who else could bring the Big Daddy to life but the dark fantasy fanatic himself? With the success of his art deco fantasy, The Shape of Water, I feel that Del Toro would feel right at home in Rapture. On the other hand, if we were to get a TV series focusing on corrupt character developments and Electro Bolt shock horror, why not the TV storyteller terror that is Ryan Murphy. Best known for his terrifyingly diverse and engaging work on American Horror Story, Murphy would be the ideal candidate to bring Andrew Ryan’s vision to television so to showcase a fascinatingly frightening world without boundaries or limits. Not to mention much of his go-to cast would be perfect for several roles. Calling it now, American Horror Story: Rapture. FANTASY CAST Now for the fun part. With Rapture hosting only the best and brightest guests to live in an underwater world, who else but Rapture’s Best and Brightest to headline the film/show? ANDREW RYAN Who else to start off the fantasy casting than the Marxist man-made man himself, Andrew Ryan. An immigrant with a dream of a better world built on charm, patience and hardwork. Really anyone with a pencil moustache could do the job but that’s not what Ryan would want. We need someone that proudly holds an enigmatic presence with the words, “I am Andrew Ryan.” In an ideal world, we’d have Vincent Price to step into the dapper shoes of Andrew Ryan but alas that dream is just that, a dream. There are a multitude of secondary candidates that each could bring their own vigour and stoicism to the role; Evan Peters or Benedict Cumberbatch for example. My top two picks however are Johnny Depp and Ewan McGregor. Depp is no stranger to playing misunderstood outsiders, especially in a lavish setting. As well as this, he is a naturally enigmatic and charming individual with a darkness befitting of a mad man with a good point. Ewan McGregor is my wildcard for this. In contrast to Depp, McGregor is in waking life, an innocent and inviting gentleman; someone who you can trust and vice versa. With that being said, the twist of his gentle demeanour provides a perfect alibi for building a city of supreme freewill and moral corruption (this could also be flipped to Fontaine). BILL MCDONAGH Scarcely making an appearance in the main game, Bill is instead an important figure within the prequel novel Bioshock: Rapture. A cockney working Joe that believes in playing the cards he’s dealt and making the most of it with no time for outlandish thoughts or societal perceptions. Taken under the wing of the Ryan to become his right-hand handy man, his place in Rapture is paramount to its success…or it’s undoing. For this role, Bill needs an actor who isn’t afraid to get rough and has a commanding authority, but they also have to look the part. My first choice was Scotland’s resident grizzled badass, Tommy Flanagan. I wouldn’t be against his proud and powerful Glaswegian twang replacing a cockney accent as both are befitting of the character.

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Review – Sniper Elite 4 (2017)

2nd June 2021

Review – Sniper Elite 4 Developer: Rebellion Developments Publisher: Rebellion Developments Genre: Stealth/Action Director: Colin Harvey Release Date: February 14th 2017 I decided to revisit Sniper Elite 4 for review; the fourth game in the third person WW2 shooter series and I had a blast doing so. This game expands on the groundwork laid by its predecessors. If you are just coming off of a story driven game and are just looking for something satisfying and fun, then this is perfect for you. The story and characters are paper thin and the voice acting is all over the place in terms of quality, but that’s not why you come to Sniper Elite, you come to watch a Nazi’s brains explode from the sheer impact of your well placed bullet. This is definitely the best game in the series in terms of it’s game-play systems. The control given to the player is clear and specific and if you miss a shot, you have no one to blame but yourself. The infamous X-ray cam makes a glorious return and it is even more detailed and brutal than in previous entries. No matter how many times you make a pair of Nazi testicles go pop from across a beautiful Italian town, it never gets old. The other great thing about this game is its various lush environments. There is an array of different maps that you work your way through during the game’s campaign and each is unique and well thought out enough to give you a challenge, but also make you feel like a total bad-ass when you land a near impossible shot in equal measure. Although the landscapes are nice to run around in and function well in terms of matching with the game’s game-play style, the quality of the graphics itself isn’t going to astonish anyone. Even for a game released around halfway through the PS4’s life-cycle, this looks at best, like a late generation PS3 game. Again though, it doesn’t really matter here, as I don’t know anyone who is buying Sniper Elite 4 for it’s graphical quality. Overall, there is a ton of fun to be had here. Don’t think too much about the story and just enjoy systematically working your way through each various map, popping Nazi skulls as you go. I am very glad that I got to revisit this modern classic, so much so that I played it enough to snag the Platinum Trophy. [yasr_multiset setid=5] [yasr_visitor_multiset setid=5] If you are a fan of the stealth-action genre and you enjoyed Dan’s review of Sniper Elite 4, check out what he thought of Hitman 1, 2 & 3 here. Or if you want to see more undead Nazis, read his review of Overlord here. Buy tickets for BGCP Comic Con in and around Glasgow Scotland – BUY TICKETS Check out all of our Comic, Movie, Television and Videogame Reviews HERE and our Podcasts/Interviews HERE If you want to be part of the BGCP community, Join us on Discord, Twitter, Instagram etc then click HERE www.bigglasgowcomicpage.com

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Review – Cyberpunk 2077

12th May 2021

Review – Cyberpunk 2077 Developer: CD Projekt Red Publisher: CD Projekt Director: Adam Badowski Genre: Open-world RPG Release Date: December 10th 2020 As today marks the six month anniversary of its release, I decided that it was finally a fair time to review Cyberpunk 2077. Since its infamous release in December of last year we have seen a number of interesting things emerge surrounding this game. First of all, we saw the hype train for the game come to a screeching halt when its review embargo eventually lifted, (just a worrying 3 days before the game’s release, which is always a red flag,) and we first learned of the type of game that we were getting. The realisation hit gaming fans collectively that we were not getting the ultra-polished, smooth, flawless experience that we were promised in the game’s marketing and previews. Instead we were getting something that was janky, largely unfinished and even totally unplayable on certain platforms. The next scandal came when Sony announced that they were pulling the game from the PS Store following an overwhelming mass of complaints regarding the game’s lack of quality. Refunds on Steam also reached a quarter of a million the very next day after the game released on December 11th. Then in January of this year, Jason Schreier published an article via Bloomberg, where it was reported that the game’s developers knew that this game was never going to be ready by late 2020. The dev team apparently thought that they had another two years left to finish the game saying, “they expected the game to be ready in 2022.” Multiple memes, apologies, hotfixes and patches later and I finally feel that writing a critique of Cyberpunk is now fair game. CDPR have had their chance to fix their mess and if a game still isn’t ready to be experienced six months after its release, then it probably never will be. First of all, I’d like to say something in the game’s defence. As the internet likes to do with most things, the glitches and other technical issues present in the game were vastly overblown. While I did enjoy the memes that spawned from this, the game is far from unplayable. I played in on 3 platforms; a base PS4, a PS4 Pro and PC. Whilst it did run slightly better on the Pro and the PC, it was far from unplayable on the base PS4, – even back in January before the patches dropped. I did run into multiple graphical issues, lagginess, mini map problems and two or three crashes, but nothing that really made me feel that this thing was totally unplayable at any point. That said, a AAA game of this calibre still should not have launched with that many issues still present. Although I think that the technical problems were exaggerated, that does not excuse them entirely and I still don’t think that it is acceptable to let a AAA developer like CDPR get away with releasing a game in this state. The thing is though, most people would have been willing to suffer through the technical issues that plagued the game, if the game itself was an incredible experience that made it worth persisting with. Unfortunately, I really don’t feel that it is. Let’s start with the game’s plot as the story is usually my main reason for playing a game and the aspect of any game that I enjoy the most. The story in Cyberpunk is mediocre at best. First of all, just because Cyberpunk takes some of its aesthetic influences from Blade Runner, that doesn’t mean that you are going to get a story worthy of Philip K. Dick. Rather than that, you can expect to endure some of the cringiest dialogue I have possibly ever heard in a western videogame and some really try-hard edgelord quips. There were no characters that I ever felt attached to through this entire game. I won’t spoil it here, but a character dies early on in the story and the game tries to make a big deal out of it suggesting that you should care. I felt absolutely nothing during this entire sequence due to the sub-par writing and voice acting and eventually resorted to skipping through the dialogue just to get it over with. Still though I persisted, telling myself that maybe the game it will get better once Keanu comes into it. I like Keanu. Everyone likes Keanu. And then the game does the impossible, – it manages to turn one of Hollywood’s most beloved actors into an insufferable dick. I never thought that I would have said this in a million years, but Keanu’s character of Johnny is one of the worst parts of this game. Again, the dialogue that he is forced to spout is total bottom of the barrel garbage that sounds as though it has been written by a basement-dwelling 15 year old. Frankly the story’s greatest mercy is its brevity, as the main plot in Cyberpunk is a lot shorter that most people expected. A short game is usually fine with me, as it usually results in a tightly woven, well-constructed narrative that doesn’t overstay its welcome or drag on too long. However, that is not the case with Cyberpunk. Instead, the final mission is upon you like a slap in the face, without any significant build up or indication that you are approaching the story’s conclusion. I approached the waypoint for what I thought was just the next mundane mission and was greeted with an immersion-breaking ‘point of no return,’ dialogue box. That message doesn’t always mean that the game is ending though, as other games will hit you with this message when you are about to start a particularly long mission. I thought that this must be the case, but decided to look it up anyway on the off-chance and sure enough I had reached the final mission in the game. It genuinely left me scratching my

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Review – Fallout 4

22nd June 2021

Review – Fallout 4 Developer: Bethesda Game Studios Publisher: Bethesda Softworks Genre: Open World RPG Director: Todd Howard Release Date: November 10th 2015 Almost six years on from its initial release, I decided to go back and revisit Fallout 4 for review. This is also the first time that I have played the game in over half a decade. It was an interesting experience to see how the game has aged in that time and how different my modern perspective on it to the hype-ridden thoughts that I had at the time. When Fallout 4 dropped back in late 2015, it was a pretty huge deal for me. I love Fallout 3 and New Vegas, so the idea of an updated experience from a Bethesda who were riding particularly high at the time, was an exciting one. Ultimately, I was largely let down, not because the game wasn’t any good, but because the game couldn’t possibly live up to all of the hype it had garnered prior to its release. Fallout 4 was exactly what we had been waiting years for, but that’s just it. This game was exactly what fans were hoping for and nothing more, which felt fairly underwhelming at the time. A great deal has happened since Fallout 4 dropped six years ago. Bethesda released one of the worst received games of all time when they dropped Fallout 76 in late 2018, and in late 2020, Microsoft acquired Bethesda’s parent company, Zenimax in a move that is set to shift the entire paradigm of the videogame market. Therefore, playing Fallout 4 in 2021, it actually feels like you are getting to step back to a simpler time. Playing this game for the first time in years feels like slipping on an old pair of comfortable slippers. The controls all come back to you immediately, the charm of a Fallout game is immediately present and it feels like you are right back at home. The world is vast, beautiful in parts and grotesque in others and I’m not just talking about the intentional aesthetic ugliness of the game’s world. Stretched textures, dated character models, stiff animation loops, clipping, short draw distance and technical glitches are just some of the problems that come with Bethesda using the dated Creation Engine to create their open world games. The best thing graphically in this game are undoubtedly the lighting effects and the more vibrant colour pallet that was chosen. When the rays of sunshine hit the trees of Sanctuary Hills at the right moment this game can actually look quite beautiful, but that is immediately lost when you turn around and see the eerie face of Mama Murphy. So the presentation could be better, but I feel that’s to be expected from a Bethesda game and that is still a problem to this day. This standard of quality shouldn’t have been acceptable even from a game in 2015. If CD Projekt Red and Kojima Productions could put out large scale open world games in the same year that didn’t look like they were developed for early PS3, then there is no real reason that Bethesda couldn’t. The fact that we had to continually endure these flaws right up until as late as November 2018 is frankly ridiculous. The shooting still feels just as clunky as it did at the time, but I am a big fan of the VATS system and it feels really good to re-experience the feature after it was butchered in Fallout 76. The crafting system in this game is also a great addition. It obviously has its flaws and it is far from the smoothest crafting system I have ever used, but in a game like Fallout it just makes so much sense and it is truly astonishing that Fallout 4 was the first game in the series to feature this mechanic. I’ve never really been into the weapon, armour, chemistry or cooking crafting stations, but the ability to build your own settlements is still awesome. The companions in the game are all quite interesting, even if there is a strange lack of female options for companions. The worst companion though by far, is Dogmeat. He is the worst programmed and therefore the most broken. Constantly blocking corridors and doorways, not fetching items for you when they are within reaching distance and just being a general annoyance. He goes from being cute to extremely irritating in a couple of short hours. The voice acting in the game is also something that varies vastly in quality. Both the male and female protagonists are voiced excellently, (even if it is a Caucasian man and woman doing the voices, which means if your character is any other ethnicity, they will still strangely sound white.) However, the other voices of NPC’s etc are wooden and downright awful in places. Certain areas in the game are really cool, helping add to the tone and the immersion of the overall experience. The sound effects and score help with this too, but there is a level of polish that is clearly absent here. It lets the game down as a whole and is clearly the thing that stopped reviewers from giving the game a perfect 10 score at the time. People on the internet have given the game’s dialogue system a lot of hate over the years and while I can see where that is coming from, I’ve always personally thought that it functions perfectly fine. Fallout 4 was never going to break any major ground, it was never going to change the gaming landscape on any grand scale and it does feel like a 10+ year old game rather than just a six year old game. In hindsight, I’m okay with all of that, because at the end of the day, it is more Fallout and that was all that I needed it to be. Sure, it would have been nicer if the game had looked a bit prettier and some of

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Review – The Evil Within 2 (2017)

20th May 2021

Review – The Evil Within 2 (2017) Developer: Tango Gameworks Publisher: Bethesda Softworks Genre: Survival Horror‎ Director: John Johanas Release Date: October 13th 2017 I recently revisited the criminally underrated Evil Within 2 for review and I loved almost every second I spent in this insane world. The Evil Within 2 does what all great sequels should aim to do, which is to take the best concepts and systems from the first game and expand on them, while adding in some fresh concepts and discard a lot of the excess fat that dragged the first game down. This game is a much more streamlined action-horror adventure than the first entry and while it starts out with some creepy and uneasy moments, it focuses more on the action element than the horror side of things in comparison with the first game. I do however feel that the game finds a nice equal balance of horror and action, in a way that feels reminiscent of the modern classic, Resident Evil 4. Even though Shinji Mikami didn’t direct this game as he did the first entry, this one actually feels more like a traditional Shinji Mikami game. The villain that torments you for the first third of the game is brilliant, he is engaging, threatening and over the top in all of the best possible ways. The one issue I have with him is that he is sadly killed off far too early and replaced with a more bland, less entertaining villain. There is also some ropey voice acting present in the game, the actor who plays Kidman has been changed from the first game and the new VO artist isn’t quite as engaging in her performance. The actor playing the protagonist’s daughter Lily, is also quite awkward and stilted sounding. There are also some strange lines of dialogue that don’t feel very natural and come across a bit pantomime, but it should be remembered that this is a Japanese game, written in Japanese and then translated into English. I did experience some technical issues whilst playing through the final third of the game, mostly to do with the use of the radio transmitter and I experienced one slight hiccup with the in-game physics. Unfortunately, although these weren’t game-breaking issues, they are still present 4 years after the game’s initial release, meaning I am forced to knock a point off of my overall score. In summary though, this is a damn good time for any horror fan out there. The fact that this game is a great deal easier than the first may bother some of the more hardcore gamers out there, but for me it was fine as I mostly play games for the story anyway rather than the challenge. The optional first person mode is also a nice addition and adds a cool incentive to play through the New Game Plus. [yasr_multiset setid=5] [yasr_visitor_multiset setid=5] Read Dan’s thoughts on an inferior horror game here in our review for Vampyr. Buy tickets for BGCP Comic Con in and around Glasgow Scotland – BUY TICKETS Check out all of our Comic, Movie, Television and Videogame Reviews HERE and our Podcasts/Interviews HERE If you want to be part of the BGCP community, Join us on Discord, Twitter, Instagram etc then click HERE

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Review – Injustice 2

17th May 2021

Review – Injustice 2 Developer: NetherRealm Studios Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Genre: Fighting Game Director: Ed Boon Release Date: May 11th 2017 Quick disclaimer before I start my review for Injustice 2, I am not a huge online gamer. Whilst playing through the game, I dabbled in a few online fights and played a few co op games with my better half, but for the most part this will be a review of the single player story portion of the game. I was so pleasantly surprised when I played the first Injustice game. I am a big DC fan, but fighting games aren’t one of my preferred genres in gaming, yet this fighting game set in the DC universe blew me away. The story was intriguing, the characters were diverse and it was a unique taste on a beloved universe. Therefore, the sequel had a fair amount to live up to and while it is still a fun fighting game with a multitude of colourful characters, it doesn’t feel anywhere near as special as Gods Among Us did. The setup this time around revolves around Brainiac descending upon the earth in search of Kal-El and Kara, the last two remaining Kryptonians and eliminating them. Since the events of the last game, Batman has been keeping Superman in a special prison that suppresses his powers and the world has remained relatively free of crime, however Brainaic’s arrival changes all this. From here onwards we have our superhero story, which sees epic battles occur and mortal enemies being forced to work together against a common evil. Most importantly, the game is fun. Gameplay feels pretty tight, which is both a positive and a negative when compared to Gods Among Us. The controls feel more solid and purposeful, but also feel more restrictive and less forgiving since the last time. This makes button bashing a void method and forces you to learn intricate button sequences if you want to pull off a decent combo. Thankfully, the super-moves are really fun to watch and make you feel awesome when you manage to successfully pull them off. I was so looking forward to the story mode in this game, I loved the story mode in the first game and was relying on this one to deliver also, unfortunately I found it jarring and hard to swallow, even as a lifelong comic book fan. The story in Gods Among Us was controversial amongst DC fans, as it turned a number of iconic characters on their head, causing them to fight on the opposing side from what we are used to seeing. In that game though, I thought it worked, character motivations were clear and there was context given for the heroes and villains who switched sides. This time around, characters switch sides faster than a tennis ball at Wimbledon and half the time, there is no apparent reason for it. The most jarring moment came when Wonder Woman turned on Kara. In the mission that preceded it, Wonder Woman inhales Scarecrow’s toxin and through a hallucination and it is revealed that her worst fear is turning on her friends, yet in the mission immediately after this sequence, she turns on her friends in reality! With no apparent motive to do so other than she is unconditionally on Superman’s side, making no moral decisions for herself. It came across so awkwardly and felt lazy, it’s as if the writers totally forgot about the last scene that illustrated that the last thing that Wonder Woman wants to do is turn on her friends. I did appreciate the graphics in the game. Netherealm have really stepped up their game since the first Injustice and there are some truly stunning moments throughout Injustice 2 and I don’t just mean in the cut-scenes. The area transitions are gorgeous to look at, the super-moves are very visually impressive and the detailed locations where the fights take place are also effective. The multiple unique environmental hazards present in each environment add an extra layer of unpredictability and opportunity to the fights and they do a good job of helping a player on the back foot start a comeback against their opponent. Facial animations and voice acting across the stable of characters is also solid. Although the game is technically sound and the graphics are good looking, I wasn’t a fan of the character design overall this time around. The last game updated a few character designs, but for the most part followed the traditional style that the characters are portrayed in. This time, a lot of the character’s costumes look goofy and come off looking like toy armour rather than something a superhero would realistically wear. The redesign of the Joker makes no sense. Not only did it look like they were trying too hard to make him look edgy, but in this universe, Joker was killed at the beginning of the first Injustice game and he didn’t look like that when he died. In this game he appears to Harley through one of Scarecrow’s hallucinations and looks similar to the Jared Leto version of the character from Suicide Squad, but why? As far as we know, he has never looked like that in this universe during the time he was alive and if you are going to redesign him, don’t base it on Leto’s Joker, (AKA the worst version of the character.) The co-op is as much fun as you would expect and certain matchups are more interesting than others. As with the first Injustice, pulling off combos and super-moves on someone that is physically sitting next to you is a lot more satisfying than doing it to some AI or an online player thousands of miles away. There is nothing quite like the couch co-op experience when it comes to a fighting game. Injustice 2 is a lot of fun to play in a group as well, setting up a tournament and throwing in real life forfeits also makes

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Review – The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (video game)

23rd November 2025

Review – The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (video game) Developer: Beenox Publisher: Activision Genre: Action-Adventure Writer: Christos Gage Release Date: April 17th 2014 You are probably thinking Dan, why the hell are you putting out a review of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 video game in 2021? It was a poorly reviewed movie tie-in game that came out seven years ago. That is a very valid question. I chose to go back and review The Amazing Spider-Man 2 video game because I actually believe it is one of the most relevant games I have ever played in terms of the wider gaming landscape. So yeah you may have me rumbled, this won’t be so much a review of The Amazing Spiderman 2 for PS4 as it will be a commentary on bad games in general and their place in the modern gaming landscape. I first played this game about three years after its initial release; picking it up cheap in an era that was dominated by Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham games. I remember that I had just come off of finally getting around to playing Until Dawn after putting it off for a long time. Until Dawn is a well made, well written, well acted, well executed teen horror story that had atmosphere and intrigue in spades. I then went on to play a game that I thought was mediocre by comparison, DMC Definitive Edition. When playing through the story I remember being so underwhelmed and disappointed in what they had turned this once great franchise into; an angsty, melodramatic, arcade slash ‘em up with as much depth as the shallow end of the kiddies swimming pool. I remember thinking, what a waste of cash and time. What a piece of garbage. Oh how naïve I was, as I had no idea how much worse it could get. The first thing that I was painfully reminded of upon revisiting The Amazing Spider-Man 2, was that this game graphically is at the same level if not worse than the first Amazing Spiderman game that was first released back on PS3. In 2021, after playing Insomniac’s 2018 Spider-Man game it is even more pitiful to look at than it was at the time. However, games with under par graphics can still be fun and UI’s and poly counts aren’t everything, So I began working my way through the game. Let’s start with the only positive that this game has going for it, the web slinging. Traversal feels and looks great in the game, zipping around NYC is a treat and when everything works correctly, you can pull off some truly spectacular acrobatics while shooting around in mid air. The shoulder buttons on the controller are matched to Spidey’s arms, left trigger for left swing, right trigger for right swing, and unlike the first Amazing Spiderman game, in this one the web shooters have to be aimed at a building in order to perform a successful swing. The important phrase here, is ‘when it works.’ There were several times when I would be right next to a building and press the trigger to swing, only to hear Spidey say, ‘Hey, this just in, web slingers need something to stick to.’ I realise that Spidey, that’s why I’m pressing the trigger on the side where the huge goddamn skyscraper is. Also, there would be times when I had a decent amount of momentum going, swing left, right, left, right consecutively and as I pressed the left trigger again to attach to the building on my left. Then, for some odd reason, Spidey would fire his right hand web shooter, attaching to a distant building on the right. Thus, turning me away from the direction I was swinging and totally ruining my momentum. This was particularly frustrating during boss fights and chase sequences or when swinging against the clock. Still though traversal is fun, – it is not a patch on Spider-Man 2018, but it still holds up fairly well. Now that the game’s one positive is out of the way, let’s rip this thing apart. Animations are stiff, glitches are common and every cutscene in the game ends abruptly with an awkward animation that resembles the look of a news anchor when they run out of words to read off the teleprompter, but the camera is still rolling. I have no idea why they decided to add a dialogue system, it is so unnecessary and out of place and has absolutely no effect on the outcome of the game’s narrative. It was simply included just for the sake of having a dialogue option. The plot is fairly standard, but is bearable for the first two thirds of the game, however the point that the publishers told the development team to get a move on and meet the deadline to coincide with the release of the movie becomes instantly clear. The last 5 or so chapters in the game are so rushed it’s like going through a checklist. The first bossfight in the last third of the game is pretty mundane, but at least there is an attempt at a build up to it. However after that fight you are teleported to the top of a skyscraper to battle Electro in a boss fight with the least build up in any game ever developed. So you do that and then you are corrected, this next boss fight with the Green Goblin is the least build up to a boss fight in any game ever developed. You don’t see the transformation of either Electro or the Goblin and honestly, if I hadn’t seen the movie that goes with this game, I would not have had a clue about what was going on. Then it’s as if the game remembers that they made a half cocked attempt at introducing Carnage away back at the beginning of the story and so they throw in another out of the blue boss fight to end the game. This lack of story build

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