Diablo III: Eternal Collection

The road to Diablo III has been a long one. Heading back nearly twenty years now to secondary school, World of Warcraft was my favourite game which I played religiously, day-in day-out, with my friends for the best part of five years. I loved the world, the characters, the freedom, but most of all the community. Fast forward to 2012 and Diablo III releases by the same developer. Despite similarities, it didn’t click, playing solo it was lacking that community I so desired. Skip to 2023 and my girlfriend gets me Diablo III: Eternal Collection for Switch. Rejoice! With her in tow, the stage was finally set – let’s kill some demons!

Hogwarts Legacy

After an agonising wait having seen it release on all other platforms, just in time for Christmas Hogwarts Legacy finally arrived on the Nintendo Switch. Boasting a huge open world and receiving near universal praise, could the magic of this title be retained as it was shrunk down and ported over to the aging console?

2023 Nintendo Switch Year in Review

As someone that often waits for a sale before taking the plunge on a game, the titles played more often than not span releases from the past rather than those from present. This behaviour remained much the same this year, with my Nintendo Switch Year in Review proving just that, offering up a healthy dollop once again of gaming statistics to sink my teeth into and question whether I should try to cut down on my screen-time come the New Year… Nah!

Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition

If this time last year you’d told me I’d be playing, and enjoying no less, a first-person shooter, I’d have laughed in your face. Notoriously terrible at the genre, following a visit to an exhibit at the Science Museum, mine and my girlfriend’s interest was piqued as we teamed up progressing through the original Halo on Xbox. Sadly being an exclusive series, I sought the next best thing available on Switch, picking up Borderlands: Legendary Collection, and kicking things off with the first game.

It Takes Two

With my girlfriend finally moving over to the UK a couple of weeks ago, we fired up It Takes Two on the Switch by Hazelight Studios. Now I had heard big things about how good this game was, including a prestigious Game of the Year Award at both The Game Awards and D.I.C.E. Awards, so it had a lot to live up to. Reviews were mixed over the Switch port, but nonetheless we were excited to dive in.

Pokémon Scarlet

If you’re a Pokémon fan like myself, and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll be aware of the extreme controversy surrounding the recent generation of the Pokémon series. Setting out to be the first fully open world Pokémon games, Scarlet and Violet are vast departures from previous entries. Coupled with many new mechanics, the ambition is high yet, sadly, on a technical level the games don’t quite cut the mustard. Despite receiving the game for Christmas, I had delayed starting Scarlet in hope of a promised patch which never came, so jumping in at long last, would the games align with everything I’d read and heard?

Life is Strange: Before the Storm

Also contained within the Arcadia Bay Collection on Switch is the prequel to Life is Strange, Before the Storm. With the same setting and familiar characters, I was intrigued whether this game would live up to, or exceed even, the high bar set by the original.

Life is Strange

Life is strange indeed. I actually came to write my blog post about the prequel to Life is Strange today, so so convinced I had already written this review yet after a good fifteen minutes of detective work, apparently not! All I can think is that I spent so much time gushing to anyone and everyone about how amazing the storyline is that it felt like I had already done it. Oh well, here we go (again?).

Immortals Fenyx Rising

Let’s get the elephant in the room out the way first: Is Immortals Fenyx Rising just a cheap Breath of the Wild clone? My answer is, I have no idea – I’ve never played the latter. Before you grab your pitchforks, the game has just never had a key hook for me. In contrast Immortals has character customisation and a storyline centred around Greek mythology (a personal favourite), plus it is available at a much lower cost to boot. As such my choice of game seemed pretty clear.

2022 Nintendo Switch Year in Review

Rounding out another year, besides Spotify Wrapped, it is the play statistics from Nintendo that I anticipate most. Charting which games I played most and when causes memories from across the year to come flooding back as I connect each gaming experience with a time and place. Let’s dive in!