Before Your Eyes

…is a deceptively dark game that will take you on an experience from charming to devastating.

PlayStation VR2 is really beginning to feel natural the more and more I use it. The motion sickness I would find with every session of the original PlayStation VR is not present here. Now without any sickness VR experiences are immersive, and the distractions of the outside world fade out. Before Your Eyes will take you on an immersive and emotional experience using only my eyes.

The game starts off with you as a soul on a ferry. The ferryman of the boat is a wolf who is taking you to be judged on the life you lived. On the way the ferryman wants to hear your story, all of it, from birth to death. Starting from a baby you experience some monumental moments, maybe too many, at first they are of birthdays, your first pet, learning the piano. As you age the weight of the world gets deeper, and more sorrowful. The ferryman brings you back from time to time and it’s here that you understand some unexpected events that reinterprets the whole story you’ve experienced. To say more would spoil a story that is one of the best narrative experiences I’ve played in a game.

Before Your Eyes is just that, every moment passes with the blink of your eye. The eye tracking never misses a beat, showing how well it works when the whole game is reliant on using it to function. When the narrative ramps up into adulthood I was blinking much more as my eyes tired and I would have scenes skipped faster than I wanted. Sometimes you blink forgetting that you shouldn’t and you are onto the next scene. When I was blinking more I enjoyed the pacing of the story better. Personally a downfall of the game is there is too much context to the story at times. One of my favourite games is Virginia and it cuts to the next scene before you are given all the context allowing for me to fill in the blanks and give my own interpretation to the story.

There was a bug that crashed the game for me when I was three-quarters through. When I booted it back up I had to start again, so I waited till the next day and finished it without any problems in one sitting. The game is so good that it didn’t even annoy me that I had to replay most of the game again. The second time I sat in a chair more relaxed and didn’t hold the Sense controllers. Towards the visuals, I think the screenshots in this post reflect an accurate look of how good the game looks in PlayStation VR2.

Before Your Eyes is a beautifully woven narrative that will leave you feeling very empathic by the end. This game is worth getting a PlayStation VR2 for.

Robert Ring

PS Plus Game Catalogue March 2023

February gave us the best month since the launch of the PlayStation Game Catalogue. Therefore it’s not easy to maintain new game additions and yet March looks to be another good month. These games are in addition to the PlayStation Plus Essentials you can find HERE.

All titles are available Tuesday March 21, 2023.

PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium

  • Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection – PS5
  • Tchia – PS4, PS5
  • Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction – PS4, PS5
  • Ghostwire: Tokyo – PS5
  • Life is Strange: True Colours – PS4, PS5
  • Immortals Fenyx Rising – PS4, PS5
  • Life is Strange 2 – PS4
  • Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot – PS4, PS5
  • Street Fighter V Champion Edition – PS4
  • Untitled Goose Game – PS4
  • Final Fantasy Type-0 HD – PS4
  • Rage 2 – PS4
  • Neo: The World Ends with You – PS4
  • Haven – PS4, PS5

PlayStation Premium Classics

  • Ridge Racer Type 4 (PS1) – PS4, PS5
  • Ape Academy 2 (PSP) – PS4, PS5
  • Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror (PSP) – PS4, PS5

Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection comprises of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, and spinoff title Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. These two games are marque PlayStation 4 titles that have been updated for PlayStation 5. If you haven’t played them yet, well, they would be on the top of my list certainly. With rumours of a follow up game on the horizon it would be ideal for you to play these two titles so you know why the next game will be a departure from these two.

Tchia like Stray before it is dropping day and date into the game catalogue. This gives the vibes of a more platforming Seasons. What is cool about it is the inspiration comes from New Caledonia. Many people that go on cruises particularly in Australia have been there and explored the beautiful islands surround it. This will be particularly cool for me to see how they do it.

It will likely be a while before we see another game come from Tango Gameworks on PlayStation, since Bethesda is now owned by Microsoft. Ghostwire Tokyo came out to good reviews although it’s a game that sounds more divisive from users. Rage 2 is another similar title coming to the Game Catalogue this month that I would not recommend.

We get two more Life is Strange titles, meaning they are all available in the game catalog now. The same goes with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD now joining the rest of the library. If you like smaller games the smash hit Untitled Goose Game will be for you. Immortals Fenyx Rising is the one I always feel is underrated, and you should absolutely check it out. Kakarot is another must play for Dragon Ball fans, my review can be found HERE. The PlayStation Classics don’t hold a light to last months picks, but we do get another Syphon Filter game so that’s good.

Overall, another good month with diverse titles that should fit to most gamers needs.

Are you happy with this month’s picks from PlayStation?

Robert Ring

The Last of Us – Season 1

HBO’s The Last of Us is a hit that rarely misses.

In 2013 the game studio Naughty Dog released The Last of Us. The game was a departure from the studio’s jovial action-adventure Uncharted series. Unlike Uncharted, The Last of Us was carried with dark undertones, horror, and survival elements. As time goes by the esteem this game garners has only grown, and today has solidified itself as a landmark game that is still stylised by PlayStation first party titles. A sequel was released in 2020 taking place after the events of the first game. Lastly a remake of the first game was released last year bringing the game up to scuff with modern gameplay and graphics in anticipation for the HBO show.

Since the launch of the game The Last of Us had been in the process of being developed into a feature film with Sam Raimi at the helm. Many video game properties were stuck in development hell finding it difficult to take an interactive property into a passive form of entertainment. The floodgates seem to be opening for video game adaptations now that HBO’s The Last of Us has given a workable blueprint to exploring an adaptation. Through standalone episodes and expanding on the world’s mythology HBO has made The Last of Us a unique television event that no longer belongs with gamers, but to everyone.

The Last Of Us

The Last of Us starts off with an interview from 1968 with a scientist talking about how he believes fungi is potentially much more worse than a virus or flu if there was to ever be a pandemic. The story then cuts to the day of the outbreak in 2003. Joel (Pedro Pascal), brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and Joel’s daughter Sarah (Nico Parker), experience their last normal day letting us get a glimpse into their life. The day unfolds with things happening in the background that show things are not right, much like how Shaun of the Dead reveals the zombies to the audience unbeknownst to protagonist Shaun. Once nightfall hits everyone is consumed by the chaos. Joel, Tommy, and Sarah leave their homes immediately for an escape as they experience the terror of this “zombie” outbreak. Not everyone survives the night as (Redacted) dies in a shocking scene that is also a revelation of how gone society is.

Twenty years later and we’re in 2023. The world didn’t recover, it’s barely surviving. The government is corrupt, and fighting with a resistance group called the Fireflies. Joel is changed, his humour is gone, and his occupation is smuggling. Between the infighting Joel has made a steady living for government rations. After a smuggling deal goes wrong Joel finds himself forced to smuggle the teen girl Ellie (Bella Ramsey) for the Fireflies to another town. The episode ends with another reveal that will answer what Ellie’s importance is to the Fireflies. The two will journey across the country over the span of a year to smuggle Ellie to her destination, between raiders and zombies this will not be easy. This is just the beginning of the journey and what an adventure it will be.

The high point of the season comes from the stand alone story of Bill and Frank found in episode three. Joel and Ellie bookend the episode to fit the story into the overarching narrative. The episode chronicles Bill (Nick Offerman), a conspiracy and survivalist hermit, and Frank (Murray Bartlett) who finds haven in Bill’s Town come to live in this world post outbreak. It is one of the most moving episodes of television that will bring tears to your eyes. It’s an episode that shows us why these people choose to live in a world filled with fear and destruction. The answer is love, and the fact that these two can share that for twenty years is why life is worth fighting for. If there was an episode you wanted to show off to someone uninterested in the show, put this episode on and this will have them invested.

HBO has always been particularly good with standalone episodes. By using them in The Last of Us reveals how we can learn more about the world and leave the confines of the game in favour of new material. After the reception to the Bill and Frank episode I’m sure HBO is looking into a spin-off show that can look at new characters and stories in the world. The thing about Joel and Ellie is it’s just one small story in this world, and there are so many more that can be explored in other characters if they can find an interesting narrative thread worthy of a spin-off.

The greatest weakness of The Last of Us is that we don’t get to spend enough time with Joel and Ellie together. The game has one of the greatest bonds and as Joel we would do anything for these two characters because we share so much time together. In HBO’s The Last of Us we spend small bursts with the two characters together. Two episodes of the nine are stand alone episodes, one has Joel out of commission, the first episode barely has Ellie in it. Overall, there are like five episodes where there is any time for the two characters to bond, but I don’t know if that’s enough time to earn the emotional payoff to come in the next season.

The Last of Us season one is a show well executed. I wouldn’t say it is one of the greatest shows ever, not even close, but it’s fun event television. The show will not replace my enjoyment or my continued replays of the game in the future. It’s nice knowing that the story and characters are breaking outside the sphere of gaming and into the greater pop culture. I fear the wait for season two will be a couple of years away, so you have time to experience the two games in the mean time. If you are yet to experience it, The Last of Us is a must watch.

Robert Ring

Check out my review for The Last of Us: Part 1 HERE

PlayStation Essentials for March 2023

This month has a lot of value.

Battlefield is a franchise that has managed to lose its identity more and more with each new title. It’s never a bad thing to see a franchise trying to stay fresh and evolve, but Battlefield has changed to chase the dollar over creativity. Even titles like Battlefield: Hotline was at least an intreating attempt at changing the franchise, but now with Battlefield 2042 it feels as if the franchise is flatlining. Critics gave Battlefield 2042 mediocre reviews, however the players spoke critically of the game due to game breaking bugs, and a lack of features missing from previous entries. Most notably Battlefield 2042 has no single player campaign. Battlefield titles usually launch broken, and by the time they have the game working properly the player base is gone, so maybe now is the time to check it out before the servers feel dead.

Mincraft Dungeons has always looked really fun. It does seem to look like it’s more geared towards children with simplistic dungeon crawling. Like Diablo it would likely be a blast to play with friends. It’s great to see Mincraft continue to be supported on PlayStation, and next moth Minecraft Legends comes to the platform too. Be sure to add Minecraft Dungeons to to your library.

Code Vein is another soulsborne inspired game that has always appealed to me through the artwork. It looks good and reviewed well. If you are not burned out, or are looking for another soulsborne game this one might be for you.

All three titles are available from the 7th March for the PlayStation Plus Essential tier until April 3rd 2023. Battlefield 2042 is the only PlayStation 5 title in the essential tier this month, and it is also available on PlayStation 4.

Are you excited with this selection of games?

Robert Ring

Kayak VR: Mirage

The promise of VR to me is having the chance to explore new worlds. Kayak VR: Mirage lets you do just that with real places, from Antartica to Australia. This was the first game I fired up on the PlayStation VR2, not to Kayak, but to relax in.

I’ve never gone kayaking, however I do believe this title lets you experience a glimpse of what it feels like. If you paddle like you’re meant to your arms will experience the burning pain from using those muscles. Originally I was using the oar right until I found I could twirl my wrists in circular motions to give the same feedback as if I was kayaking properly. I didn’t purchase the game to race against others, which is I’m glad it feels secondary to exploring the wonderful sights.

There is an optional quest that can be found in each area that has you take an inflatable toy to another area. To do so you need to manoeuvre it with your Kayak and Oar. This sort of thing is fun. You also find areas that seem to be a trick on the eyes from afar until you paddle up to them and find it was real. This could be where the title Mirage comes into the game. You can choose to experience each map by day, night, and even stormy weather. The variety is great and keeps the maps feeling new and unique.

My favourite thing I did was chased a whale that I saw from one side of the map going above water. It was gone by the time I got there. So I stuck my head underwater and sure enough was able to see the whale still under the water moving. Every time I thought I was catching up to him I would stick my head back under the water and course correct. If you are right above him you can see him from above your Kayak too. Whenever I was close I was met with a bit of fear in sticking my head underwater in fear I would meet him face on. The beauty of VR in a game like this is sensing the size of things. After chasing the whale for some time I ended up feeling like Ahab. Ironically once the whale came up from the water at the front of my Kayak I achieved the trophy Moby Dick for spotting a whale.

If Kayaking is not your thing and you would just like to float about in open water on different maps this game will still be a treat for you. The price point is good and I feel like I have had my money’s worth without even pursuing the racing components of the game. Kayak VR: Mirage is a great title to show the family and friends. It may even work for some as a gym workout for the arms. Or just a game to warmup with before jumping into some VR games. Overall, Kayak VR: Mirage is a lovely experience.

Available now on PSVR2

Robert Ring

PlayStation VR2 is the Road to the Future

Gaming has never been better, or bigger than it is today. The plateau has been reached as far as gaming generations are concerned. Leaps will continue pushing the specs, but the technology is here. Now it’s up to the creativity and innovation from developers to engage gamers. VR is a different story, and it will require generations of technical feats. As it stands today, VR is still in its infancy and sooner rather than later the way we interact with VR will truly be revolutionary in the way we interact with it, and of course they way we use it to play games.

PlayStation VR came out in back in 2016, and it was a modest intro into the VR space for PlayStation gamers. It hit the markets as the cheapest way to get into VR at the time just before VR was available. It didn’t take long for the PlayStation VR to leave the spotlight as more convenient devices like the Oculus Quest made simple innovations that created significantly better experiences. For one the tracking on the original PlayStation VR was difficult to navigate as the controls and headset needed to be in view of the PlayStation Camera. There were also at least three cords coming out of the headset that were immersion breaking as you fought the tangles. Seeing your surroundings was also impossible without taking off the headset and requiring you to spend minutes readjusting to get yourself back into the game. All these detractors would make it a chore just to choose setting up the VR resulting in gamers playing a non VR game instead. After the initial line up of games seemed to drizzle out it was questionable if another iteration would be made.

The PlayStation VR2 is the promise of Sony’s continued support for the VR peripheral. They quashed most of the negatives from the original and innovated. Most importantly the power of this machine comes straight from the PlayStation 5 without first being input into a processor unit. The image quality is fantastic, nearing clarity, although not crystal clear. The sense of immersion with haptic feedback in the headset, as well as the Sense controllers is tantalising to the senses. You put your hand in virtual water and the sensations are making that water feel real as though it is running through your hands. Eye tracking is like witchery allowing for you to select cursory items with your eyes. There is also the ability to see your surroundings without taking off the VR headset. Most importantly in competing with other VR headsets is that this headset is comfortable and easy to set up. Literally plug and play.

Games vary case by case. This is due to how much developers have worked towards porting the game for the PlayStation VR2. Exclusives are as good as it gets with games like Horizon: Call of the Mountain that have utilised the power of the PlayStation VR2 to what hopefully becomes the standard. The technology has brought PlayStation in line with competing VR devices so games can now be produced for multiple systems with ease. This should ease minds for gamers that worry if Sony were to stop producing exclusive VR titles since we will see most third party games come to this system.

In the time I’ve spent with PlayStation VR2 I have had nearly no motion sickness, whereas with the original I was hit with it during every session. There are plenty of games on offer already to fit any gamer. Even if you like simple experiences like doing a jigsaw or paddling in a kayak you can find them in PlayStation VR2. There are more high octane experiences like Pistol Whip, and exhilarating multiplayer in games like After the Fall. Resident Evil: Village will unsettle like you are playing it for the first time There are a range of demos available to try out if you can only afford a couple of games to begin with after the cost of the unit. I suspect that the free popular social game Rec Room will make its debut on PSVR2 soon opening up the fun to lobby’s of hilarious experiences with others around the globe.

Overall, the PlayStation VR2 is an exceptional leap over its predecessor with a future to flourish alongside the competition as they all work together in evolving the scope and the vision of where VR can go today. In a time met with financial hardships for many the PlayStation VR2 is a luxury, one that will only become more appealing as the library of games and players widen. With a year of big game releases ahead you may not find yourself feeling left out, although come Christmas time I imagine this will be found under many trees.

Look forward to VR game reviews to come in the future.

Robert Ring

PowerWash Simulator

From the outside, this game was a laugh when it came out last year. Are people seriously playing a power washing simulator? It’s popularity was in no small part due to it dropping on Xbox GamePass. The head scratcher wasn’t necessarily that people were playing it, but that they were saying it was great.

PowerWash Simulator is indeed just that, a cleaning simulator. Why not? Every simulator feels as though it has covered the rudimentary going ons of life. Simulators are popular and few stand out at the top like Farming Simulator and Train Simulator World. You approach every map with the goal to clean. Things are dirty like they’ve been sitting at the bottom of a lake. Starting with the simple power washer you can approach the dirt however you like from one side to the other or start in the middle. You can choose between different power wash models that offer stronger power, and attachments that allow for you to get into those hard to reach high spots.

One of the high points of the game is how beautiful looking it is. When you wash an area you don’t always know what exactly the colours are beneath the dirt, It wasn’t until the Playground level that I went from liking the game to loving it. In this level you when you wash the foam ground you get to see the colours come forth as if the playground was brand new again. Like an archaeologist discovering the past I was taping into my nostalgia and remembering playing on playgrounds similar to those. One of the down points is also in the game’s beauty because if you miss any specks of dirt it’s hard to complete some sections when it all looks clean to you.

This game has the most on point “ding” in gaming. Every time you complete one piece in a map to one hundred percent you are met with a “ding” chime similarly to the sound when you get a playstation trophy. Each time it gives you a slight endorphin rush for the next one, so you may think you are ready to call it quits for the session and instead find yourself finishing the map instead. Some of the bigger levels do feel daunting as they could take hours to finish, but I would suggest to split those up into smaller sessions because you do feel a bit of fatigue on the levels that span hours.

The Tomb Raider DLC is great. You get to go over Lara Croft’s Manor, her obstacle course, the Manor’s Maze, and finally the Manor’s Treasure Room. As you clean these maps you get messages from Lara’s butler Winston and Lara herself, making it feel a bit more engaging with the world. I did notice after every five minutes or so on these maps there would be a brief pause before the game continues playing again. Perhaps something that will be ironed out in the next update, or simply an isolated incident only I’m encountering. The quality of the Tomb Raider DLC is much better than I expected and seeing what’s to come with the Final Fantasy 7 DLC has me excited. I would love to see more of these post Final Fantasy 7, and I’m more than willing to purchase them because I don’t know how they could be just giving this content away for free.

This is a game I’ve spent the last couple of weeks engaging with as a relaxing game between other games. There is something to PowerWash Simulator that is hard to identify as fun, and maybe it’s not fun as much as it is a form of relaxation. What is the difference to something like this as there is to piecing together a jigsaw puzzle? PowerWash Simulator is a game to unwind with after a stressful day. I love that this game exists and will continue to be enamoured with it as they continue to support the game with further DLC. Give PowerWash Simulator a shot. Play it with some music, a podcast, or perhaps an audiobook. This is the universal simulator for everybody and with simple controls it’s made for everybody.

Robert Ring

Available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Ten Dates

The spiritual sequel to Five Dates is bigger, and better.

Five Dates saw you take the role of a guy and choose from five video dates with women during the Covid lockdown. It was small in scope with a lot of charm and emotion. Ten Dates leaves the Covid lockdown setting behind for the fast and fun world of speed dating.

In Ten Dates you choose to play as Ryan or Misha. Both characters are friends with Misha being the one that cons Ryan into jumping onto the speed dating circuit. Both characters will each have four dates, with a fifth potential date should you wish for your character to have a same sex date. After doing the rounds, you choose two dates for a second date (if you were successful enough), and then one of those two for a final date.

Choices are selected with no real gameplay. When you see the relationships in the menu you can see how many different options there were with each date. It’s an easily replayable game to see the many alternatives. When replaying you can go through the scenes very quickly by skipping the scenes you have seen to get to the new stuff. The game is quick enough for you to pass the controller to someone else to try their luck. My partner played through as Misha so I had another perspective to the choices I wouldn’t have personally made.

It was clear from the trailer there was potential for same sex dating. The way they input that potential was creative for the male as his fifth speed date had to leave so the male host fills the spot. It’s not a date, just casual conversation at first and then it becomes clear that the opening is there if you want to pursue that host. There is only one same sex date, which would be considered a downside for those after that. Having this choice alongside being able to date as a woman is a huge increase in the scope from Five Dates.

I would say there is room for more of these dating simulators from Wales Interactive. They can spread their reach further to a more diverse selection of dates, or could invest in an entire game just for the LGBT community. There is something here that may find a huge audience outside of gaming and on Netflix in the future.

Overall, Ten Dates is almost better in every way to its predecessor Five Dates. The dates themselves are downgrades in terms of personality. Each personality feels very stereotypical as soon as you see them you can tell who they are. In Five Dates with a smaller dating pool there were many deeper qualities to the women and they were not typical of most stereotypes. I enjoyed Ten Dates, and for now I will be interested in Wales Interactive on a game by game basis if I find the narrative interesting.

Robert Ring

Available on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Check out my Five Dates review here.

PS Plus Game Catalogue February 2023

February has given us the best month since the launch of the PlayStation Game Catalogue. These games are in addition to the PlayStation Plus Essentials you can find HERE.

All titles are available Tuesday February 21, 2023.

PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium

  • Horizon Forbidden West – PS4, PS5
  • The Quarry – PS4, PS5
  • Resident Evil 7 – PS4
  • Outriders – PS4, PS5
  • Scarlet Nexus – PS4, PS5
  • Borderlands – PS4, PS5
  • Tekken 7 – PS4
  • Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown – PS4
  • Earth Defines Force 5 – PS4
  • Oninaki – PS4
  • Lost Sphear – PS4
  • I am Setsuna – PS4
  • The Forgotten City – PS4, PS5

PlayStation Premium Classics

  • The Legend of Dragoon – PS4, PS5
  • Wild Arms 2 – PS4, PS5
  • Harvest Moon: Back to Nature – PS4, PS5
  • Destroy All Humans! – PS4

Horizon Forbidden West was always going to come to the catalogue at some point being a PlayStation exclusive. Now that we know it dropped nearly a year to the day from its launch, we can probably expect this to be the case in the future, so expect God of War Ragnarök this November. I missed out on the Horizon sequel, although I am still contemplating replaying the first one again beforehand.

Another big release of last year was The Quarry, similar to Until Dawn. I think this game will be a big draw for the many people who already own Horizon Forbidden West. You also get Resident Evil 7 (only the PS4 version), notably this was in the PS Collection that will be discontinued in the coming months. Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is the perfect sort of game I want to play through the game catalogue because in all likelihood it won’t be for me, however if it is I will be getting the Top Gun: Maverick DLC. There are some great RPGs to play like I am Setsuna. Another interesting pick is the mystery game The Forgotten City with the unique setting of Ancient Rome.

As for the classics we get the beloved game, The Legend of Dragon, as well as the sequel for Wild Arms. Finally Harvest Moon: Back to Nature marks three beloved PS1 titles this month. I think these three titles will see an increase in players joining the Premium tier. Personally, I will probably wait to see if there are trophies attached to these titles at launch or wait till they add them in.

Overall, a fantastic month with diverse titles that should fit to most gamers needs.

Are you happy with this month’s picks from PlayStation?

Robert Ring

Five Dates

The selection of FMV games seem to have increased substantially in recent years. Now with Netflix exploring the gaming space and experimenting with choose your own adventure style films we might see these games act as a gateway to gaming for non-gamers. FMV games no longer require long loading screens or jarring gameplay, as the choices you make can seamlessly flow during the videos as they play. Five Dates feels less like a game and more like a movie you are in control of.

Five Dates is a game where you take control of Vinny’s choices as he signs up for digital dating during the pandemic. The first choice is Vinny’s profession, and then you choose three activities you like, with the final choice being Vinny’s star sign. Next you choose three of five women to go on a date with. Each woman has their own quirks, profession, and star signs that will affect the selections you gave Vinny. They will all accept the first date, but you will have to work harder for the second and third final date. After you’ve gone on the first three dates, you choose which two girls you would like to see again. If those two dates go successful you may choose one of those two for the finale.

Playing through the game twice I saw two hundred of the nearly eight hundred scenes. On my first playthrough I didn’t get accepted for a third date with my choices. So I played through again and this time had each woman accept the next date. I also chose the two women I hadn’t selected to see the variety in the characters. Pleasantly, all the characters were not at all stereotypical and the ones that seemed to be at first glance were deeper the more you got to know them. The second dates reveal many details about your dates as you play games like “Truth or Dare” with them. The third date is a dinner date where you both lay everything out. Vinny as your conduit though every choice plays the part well whether he is agreeable, or argumentative. At the end of each date Vinny debriefs with his best friend about how the date went. These interactions sell Vinny’s character depth to the player because you are seeing the side of him that is unabashedly truthful because he can’t hide it from his friend.

The pandemic is a brilliant device for keeping the characters from meeting up in real life, and plays a major part in the game. It’s amazing how well produced the game feels considering it was released during the pandemic too. It feels like they actually had the actors shoot their scenes from their own home. They are all wearing the same headphones, and I imagine they were just sent a camera, a microphone, and a light source as well. The actors are all unknowns, yet they make the scenes flow and bring the right emotion with the right level of volume as if they recorded the scenes together. All these things make the scenes string together better than any FMV game I’ve ever played making every choice feel real.

In the FMV space Five Dates is great. The developer Wales Interactive has figured out the formula for making memorable choose your own adventure games. This is a fun one to play with your friends or significant other and choose the choices together. If you want more gameplay than selecting a choice this game won’t be for you. You can finish this within an hour, and when replaying you can skip the scenes you’ve already completed allowing you to see what could have been. Ten Dates, the spiritual sequel is out tomorrow and promises a bigger budget, with characters dating in person. If it’s anything like this it’ll be another enjoyable experience.

Available on PS4, XboxOne, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Mac.

Robert Ring