Mawdlin

I'm enjoying this but I agree it needs some refinement. It makes me laugh when the contestants say they're sure they know who the traitor is or are shocked when the banished turns out to be a faithful. It's 100 percent guesswork as the format stands. The Mole worked better because the mole actively had to sabotage tasks so the others had something to go on.

I played a game that was free on PSPlus about 2 years ago and after about 25 hours (more fool me) it struck me as being the most average thing I'd ever experienced. It actually sapped my enthusiasm for games the further I got into it. It wasn't bad as such, just painfully derivative. Average combat, bland monster design, insipid puzzles, cheesy narrative. It sort of looked fun, but really wasn't. It was so average that for the life of me I couldn't remember its name when this thread came up. I'm typing stuff into google to jog my memory: Deathstalker Demonslayer Doommonster Even the fringing name isn't memorable. Eventually I got it: Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition I want those hours back. It fooled me with its blandness.

Another good month. There's absolutely no need to upgrade to Extra or Premium for me when there's so many good PSplus free games on the back burner. Along with the Mass Effect trilogy I've got Tony Hawks 1 & 2, Nioh 2 and Bioshock Infinite to get through. (Not to mention about 20 others that will probably throw up some good gaming hours like Hot Wheels and NFS).

I know he's hardly flavour of the month/year/decade but I'm enjoying Save our Squad with David Beckham. It's more Jossy's Giants than Sunderland Till I Die but if you're like me and a sucker for football docs then this is well worth a watch.

Thanks, I'd forgotten about that. 1998. If only it were remastered on Switch.

The Sentinel.

Saw this today and it was fine. Much of it sort of washed over me, if you'll forgive the pun. The valediction for Chadwick Boseman was well done but I think that was largely its problem: it couldn't get out of his shadow. Also, as has been mentioned several times, it had a very thin plot when you break it down and needed to be tighter.

I do like this game a lot, and have plans to go back to it after a 3 month break. It is the equivalent of overeating junk food though. (Arguably most Ubi open world games are).

I wonder if the casting is down to the producers looking to increasingly appeal to a wider, and therefore American audience. If it isn't due to this then some of the casting decisions are atrocious.

I gave this a try for an hour as it was free with PSPlus and was underwhelmed. The difference in difficulty between easy and normal is ridiculous. Easy: win every race. Normal: lose every race, unless you don't make a mistake on the last lap. Anyway, I was about to uninstall it but thought I would give it one more go last night. I'm now a fully paid up member of the Hot Wheels Fan Club. Something just clicked (playing it in normal) and I'm power sliding into corners and boosting out of them like a pro. I especially like the gravity and physics in this where you can find yourself going around a loop and fall upside down if you don't have the requisite momentum. Tremendous stuff.

Barbarian This is great until the last 15 minutes when it feels like the writer and director suddenly lost 40 IQ points. Despite that I still found it completely engrossing and compelling. Definitely worth a watch if you prefer suspense to gore. 4/5

I saw this a couple of weeks back and I can't remember who did it. It had that much of an impact on me.

I've always considered this to be a great movie. Good shout.

I'm enjoying The Mole, but you need to get past the first episode which is by far the worst and doesn't really capture the escape room-esque skulldugery at its peak. Shades of Survivor, Now Get Out of That and The Adventure Game.

Prisoners I have been going to the cinema most weeks for the last couple of decades but had never heard of this. It came up in some random facebook feed as an underground classic that should get more love. It is brutal and captivating and to my mind a response to Guantanamo. Available now on Netflix, though you will have to search for it. 4/5