I have a list of games that I straight up just stopped playing for any reason called ‘THE BIN’ and I feel it is time to take a look at them and see if any have changed my mind, are in the process of changing my mind, could possibly change my mind or are just destined for life in the bin. I’m going to revisit this every now and again because with new information, I can change my opinion and never be wrong.

Raiding The Bin (March 2023)

Resident Evil Village

I really rate Resident Evil 7 and think the first-person perspective really worked in adding to the immersion, putting you right in the middle of a properly horrible place. Problem is, when you have a more ‘action’ orientated game like Village and retain the first-person perspective, it ends up feeling like a fairly mediocre FPS game over anything resembling classic Resident Evil. Also, big stalker/chaser enemies are done to death and powerfully boring at this point, even if you do give them tits. HOWEVER - they’ve added a third-person mode and I’m on a Resident Evil kick at the minute, so this one is a prime candidate for re-evaluation.

Status: PENDING

Prey (2017)

Was told this was the immersive sim that could offer genuine freedom of choice in regards to how you approach it, so I put a hard focus on playing it as close to a shooter as possible. Turns out, like almost all immersive sims, they're a stealth game at heart and it left me feeling a bit cold. Hit a point where I would either need to respec, grind a fair bit or load an old save to progress because I came up against a section that required a considerably different approach and I had opted against making a jack of all trades style build. Figured this was just me but quite a few people had similar experiences. Absolutely love the setting and the aesthetic though, so this one might get picked up again one day. For now - the bin.

Status: BINNED

The Artful Escape

Dogshit. Aesthetically unpleasant, smug dogshit.

Status: BINNED

The Last Of Us Part II

The problem with this game isn’t necessarily the game itself but the fucking people who go on about it like it is genuinely is the pinnacle of the medium. I found it fairly boring, far too beholden to AAA pacing and structure - treating me either like an idiot or like someone who actually thinks the story is good or unique. I did however, pick it up again for £7, which is pretty absurd. Maybe I’ll go back? I think I should finish it… even just so I can throw my opinion on it around with a bit more authority.

Status: PENDING

Alien Isolation

A fucking incredible hour long videogame that is, for some reason, stretched out to like fifteen largely boring, Alien-free hours. The second film was way better, too.

Status: BINNED

Left Alive

I'm a fan of PS2-era action/stealth games and despite hearing all of the concerns about this one going in, I genuinely felt it was a case of people just not really understanding this type of game in the same way I do. Just take a second to have a look at the names involved in this shitshow. How can it be bad. It was shite. Slow, frustrating, confusing and not by design but because of wild inconsistencies in what you can and can't get away with. Some enemies barely notice you setting off explosions directly behind them and some will hear you from across the map and snipe your moustache off before you even know they're there. They even patched it to make it easier and sort some issues and it was STILL rubbish. Honestly, I WANT to like this one but it’s just not good at all.

Status: BINNED

The Witcher 3

This wasn’t binned because it was rubbish, it was just binned because it goes on for far too long and the combat wasn’t engaging enough to justify all the fucking walking about doing fuck all. However, they’ve patched it to make it look really nice on my PS5 and I restarted the game on DEATH MARCH difficulty which instantly makes things far more… Witcher-y? You have to have your wits about you in all small scraps you get in and the big monsters you fight at the end of contracts require genuine thought to your approach. It is still probably too long for me to ever finish but it has definitely clawed its way out of the bin. For now.

Status: UNBINNED

Red Dead Redemption 2

There’s clearly some good in this but unfortunately everything in it takes really, really fucking long. Also there’s no chance I’m playing this until I’ve finished the previous one again.

Status: BINNED

Sable

Shite and it barely worked.

Status: BINNED

A Plague Tale: Innocence

A Poundland version of The Last Of Us - bang average stealth with some nice graphics. Apparently gets half-decent when you’re 2/3rds of the way through it but my word it is not good enough to hold my attention to get to that point. If I’ve not finished The Last Of Us Part II, this has got no chance.

Status: BINNED

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

I think by the time I had gotten around to this, its flaws were more pronounced than at launch. Combat is shallow and unsatisfying, puzzles are tedious and the way it handles mental health - despite all the effort they clearly put in - is entry level at best and tokenistic at worst. Still looks good and if the sequel gets good write ups I will HAVE to finish this first, due to my cunt brain.

Status: PENDING

Forza Horizon 5

Clearly very good but this is a Forza Horizon too far. I’m done, lads.

Status: BINNED

Days Gone

I spent far too long looking for an original idea in this and couldn't find a single one. It's far, far too polished to be totally worthless but there's just absolutely no reason to recommend this to anyone. And yet - the studio head keeps banging on to the press like this game was done some great injustice! It's a load of shite mate, fuck up and try harder next time.

Status: BINNED

Watchdogs: Legion

Yet another stellar example of the homogenisation of ideas that makes up the current AAA space. People are worrying about what will happen when all the companies are owned by a couple of mega companies but honestly the reality is most of the games are the fucking same these days already. Just slap a bunch of incredible polish onto the same 6/10 framework you've been selling millions of copies of for over a decade now. Not a bad game just one that is almost impossible to care about.

Status: BINNED

Battlefield 2042

I love Batters but this one, there was just something off with it at launch. I played a bit of it and it was so disappointing it promptly found itself in the bin. However, a recent patch added the traditional Battlefield ‘classes’ back into the game and now it is very enjoyable. Not quite good enough to replace Halo Infinite in my multiplayer shooter slot but definitely no longer bin fodder.

Status: UNBINNED

Psychonauts 2

If you're a 3D platformer and you're not as good as Mario 64, I recommend being half the length of Psychonauts 2. Enjoyed my time with it but fully ran out of steam. I'll finish it one day.

Status: PENDING

Breakdown

I love almost everything about this game except for the fact that all of the cool, weird and unique ideas are attached to a first-person combat system that doesn't really work and, although it is tolerable for a fair bit of the game, eventually the difficulty ramps up to a point where every fight is as much of a battle against the clunky, awkward controls than it is the enemies. There's also a truly terrible platforming section that it makes you do twice. That's not two similar sections but literally the same section, twice over, before the end of the game. With a couple of tweaks to the controls I think I'd be able to stick this one out to the finish (and I'm tempted at some point to use the Xbox's system level button binding stuff to switch around some baffling decisions, such as BLOCK on L3) but today is not that day. TO THE BIN!

Status: BINNED

Ghost Of Tsushima

When you're in the thick of this game's core missions, where you're tackling scenarios with a mixture of sneaky, versatile stealth and tense swordfighting action and furthering the storyline of honour and betrayal, Ghost of Tsushima feels like it should be a bit of a classic. Unfortunately, there's far, far too much time spent doing absolutely fuck all. Some of the worst open world bloat, gating fun combat mechanics behind skill trees and a world map that, although gorgeous to look at, offers little more than distance to travel ensures that you spend more time in Tsushima bored out of your mind than doing all the genuinely brilliant ninja/samurai hybrid stuff. A shame.

Status: BINNED

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

A genuinely good setting, pairing two utterly unlikeable arseholes together and sticking them in a Michael Mann flavoured urban thriller carries the first half of the game despite some awkward and unreliable combat controls. However, some bright spark decided to turn the second half of the game into a fairly by the numbers military shooter and all of the aforementioned problems are suddenly emphasised massively. You're thrust from these excellent thriller movie staples which drip with tension and atmosphere and end up in some generic cover shooter with shite controls, leading to loads of frustrating deaths and tedious shootouts where you're just waiting for lads to pop their heads out from behind walls.

Status: BINNED

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