u/RobbieJ4444

And here we go, the start of the main tournament. For the first round, you must vote a game you want to see ELIMINATED. That’s right, you’re not voting for the game you want to win, you’re voting for the game you want to lose. The losers will be based on both the comment upvoting on this post, and the result of the included strawpoll.

Here is the list of one hundred games. Best of luck to your favourite game.

13 Sentinels Aegis Rift
A Plague Tale Innocence
Abzu
Ace Combat 7
Alien Isolation
Apex Legends
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Astro Bot Rescue Mission
Batman Arkham Knight
Battlefield One
Bloodborne
Bloodstained Ritual of the Night
Call of Duty Black Ops 3
Celeste
Civilization VI
Control
Crash Bandicoot 4
Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled
Danganronpa V3
Dark Souls III
Dead Cells
Death Stranding
Destiny 2
Detroit Become Human
Deus Ex Mankind Divided
Devil May Cry 5
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Edition
Dishonored 2
Divinity Original Sin II
Doom
Doom Eternal
Dragon Age Inquisition
Dragon Ball Fighter Z
Dragon Quest 11
Dreams
DriveClub
Fallout 4
Far Cry 4
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Final Fantasy XV
Fortnite
Ghost of Tsushima
God of War 2018
Gran Turismo Sport
Gravity Rush 2
Hitman (1 and 2)
Hollow Knight
Horizon Zero Dawn
Infamous Second Son
Injustice 2
Inside
Kingdom Hearts 3
Life is Strange
LittleBigPlanet 3
Marvel's Spider-Man
Mega Man 11
Metal Gear Solid V
Mortal Kombat X
Nex Machina
Nier Automata
Nioh 2
Overwatch
Persona 5
Psychonauts 2
Ratchet and Clank 2016
Red Dead Redemption 2
Resident Evil 2 Remake
Resident Evil 7
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Rocket League
Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
Shadow of Mordor
Shovel Knight
SOMA
Sonic Mania
Soul Calibur 6
South Park The Fractured but Whole
Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order
Stardew Valley
Subnautica
Tekken 7
Tetris Effect
The Binding of Isaac Rebirth
The Last Guardian
The Last of Us Part II
The Outer Wilds
The Witcher III
The Witness
Titanfall 2
Uncharted 4
Undertale
Until Dawn
Valkyria Chronicles 4
Watch Dogs 2
What Remains of Edith Finch
Wolfenstein the New Order
Wreckfest
XCOM 2
Yakuza 0
Ys 8

I'm hoping to perform a top 100 PS4 games tournament in this sub where everyone gets to vote what their favourite PS4 games are. In order to do this though, I need a list of 100 games. I tried to do this on the PS1 sub, but that didn't go down well for a variety of reasons, mainly because there wasn't much agreement on the games that I picked to take part in the tournament.

Here are the list of games I came up with:

• 13 Sentinels Aegis Rift
• A Plague Tale Innocence
• Ace Combat 7
• Alien Isolation
• Apex Legends
• Assassin's Creed Odyssey
• Astro Bot Rescue Mission
• Batman Arkham Knight
• Battlefield One
• Bloodborne
• Bloodstained Ritual of the Night
• Celeste
• Civilization VI
• Control
• Crash Bandicoot 4
• Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled
• Cuphead
• Danganronpa V3
• Dark Souls III
• Dead Cells
• Dead Stranding
• Destiny 2
• Detroit Become Human
• Deus Ex Mankind Divided
• Devil May Cry 5
• Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Edition
• Dishonored 2
• Divinity Original Sin II
• Doom
• Doom Eternal
• Dragon Age Inquisition
• Dragon Ball Fighter Z
• Dragon Quest 11
• Dreams
• Fallout 4
• Final Fantasy VII Remake
• Final Fantasy XV
• Fortnite
• Ghost of Tsushima
• God of War 2018
• Gravity Rush 2
• Guilty Gear Xrd Sign
• Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
• Hitman (1 and 2)
• Hollow Knight
• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Infamous Second Son
• Injustice 2
• Inside
• Kingdom Hearts 3
• Life is Strange
• LittleBigPlanet 3
• Marvel's Spider-Man
• Mega Man 11
• Metal Gear Solid V
• Mortal Kombat X
• Nex Machina
• Ni no Kuni II
• Nicer Automata
• Nioh
• Overwatch
• Persona 5
• Prey
• Psychonauts 2
• Ratchet and Clank 2016
• Rayman Legends
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Resident Evil 2 Remake
• Resident Evil 7
• Resogun
• Rise of the Tomb Raider
• Rocket League
• Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
• Shadow of Mordor
• Sonic Mania
• Soul Calibur 6
• South Park The Fractured but Whole
• Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order
• Stardew Valley
• Tales From the Borderlands
• Tekken 7
• Tetris Effect
• The Binding of Isaac Rebirth
• The Last Guardian
• The Last of Us Part II
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV
• The Outer Wilds
• The Witcher III
• The Witness
• Titanfall 2
• Uncharted 4
• Undertale
• Until Dawn
• Valkyria Chronicles 4
• Watch Dogs 2
• What Remains of Edith Finch
• Wolfenstein the New Order
• XCOM 2
• Yakuza 0
• Ys 8

This time, before I start the contest, I wanted to know if there was any games that you think should be on this list, but currently aren't (and which games you'd replace them with). I'll give you my reasoning for some of the games that are or aren't on the list:

• Games that were launched simultaneously on PS5 don't count (they will be part of the PS5 version of this if I get to it).
• Ports of PS3 games like God of War III or The Last of Us don't count.
• Indie games only count if they make their console debut during 2014-2020, so no Super Meat Boy.
• I didn't want to include remakes that were just graphical improvements over a previous gen title, so no Crash N. Sane Trilogy, Spyro Reignited Trilogy or Tony Hawk's Pro SKater 1+2.
• Remakes that were basically new games were allowed, such as Resident Evil 2 and Final Fantasy 7 made the cut.
• Crash Team Racing and Ratchet and Clank weren't entirely new games, but they weren't just the first game with nicer graphics either, so they made the cut.
• Cyberpunk, Street Fighter V and No Man's Sky were initially shortlisted, but were cut for other titles due to problematic launches.

In most voting contests, we vote for the games we want to keep. In this one, we're doing the opposite. Leave the game in the comments that you want ELIMINATED from the list. The five games with the highest amount of votes by tomorrow will be ELIMINATED.

• Ace Combat 2
• Alundra
• Ape Escape
• Arc the Lad
• Bloody Roar 2
• Brave Fencer Musashi
• Breath of Fire III
• Brigandine
• Bugs Bunny Lost In TIme
• Castlevania Symphony of the Night
• Chrono Cross
• Crash Bandicoot
• Crash Bandicoot 2
• Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped
• Crash Team Racing
• Croc Legend of the Gobbos
• Darkstalkers 3
• Dead or Alive
• Devil Dice
• Digimon World
• Dino Crisis
• Dragon Warrior VII
• Driver II
• Dynasty Warriors
• Einhander
• Fear Effect 2
• Final Fantasy VII
• Final Fantasy VIII
• Final Fantasy IX
• Final Fantasy Tactics
• Front Mission 3
• Future Cop LAPD
• Gex 3D Enter the Gecko
• Gran Turismo 2
• Grandia
• In The Hunt
• Incredible Crisis
• Intelligent Cube
• Jumping Flash
• Klonoa Door to Phantomile
• Koudelka
• Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver
• Legend of Dragoon
• Legend of Mana
• Lunar Silverstar Story
• Medal of Honour
• Medievil
• Mega Man 8
• Mega Man Legends
• Mega Man X4
• Metal Gear Solid
• Micro Machines V3
• Mortal Kombat Trilogy
• Need For Speed Hot Pursuit
• Nightmare Creatures
• Oddworld Abe's Exodus
• Pacman World
• Parappa the Rapper
• Parasite Eve
• Persona 2
• Point Blank
• Rayman 2 The Great Escape
• Resident Evil
• Resident Evil 2
• Resident Evil 3
• Ridge Racer Type 4
• Rival Schools
• Saga Frontier
• Saiyuki Journey
• Silent Hill
• Soul Edge
• Spiderman 2000
• Spyro the Dragon
• Spyro 2 Gateway to Glimmer
• Spyro Year of the Dragon
• Star Ocean The Second Story
• Street Fighter Alpha 3
• Suikoden 2
• Syphon Filter
• Tactics Ogre
• Tales of Destiny
• Tekken 3
• Tenchu 2
• Time Crisis
• Tomb Raider II
• Tombi
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
• Toy Story 2
• Treasures of the Deep
• Twisted Metal 2
• Um Jamma Lamby
• Vagrant Story
• Valkyrie Profile
• Vandal Hearts
• Vibribbon
• Wild Arms
• Wipeout 2097
• Wipeout 3
• Worms Armageddon
• Xenogears

We've seen contests like these before where the winner we all vote on who we all want to WIN. Now we're going to do the opposite. Of the one hundred games listed below, vote for the game you want to get ELIMINATED. The five games with the highest amount of votes will be eliminated in the next round tomorrow.

Here are the chosen one hundred games:

• Ace Combat 2
• Alundra
• Ape Escape
• Arc the Lad
• Bloody Roar 2
• Brave Fencer Musashi
• Breath of Fire III
• Brigandine
• Bugs Bunny Lost In TIme
• Bushido Blade
• Castlevania Symphony of the Night
• Chrono Cross
• Cool Boarders 2
• Crash Bandicoot 2
• Crash Team Racing
• Croc Legend of the Gobbos
• Darkstalkers 3
• Dead or Alive
• Devil Dice
• Diablo
• Digimon World
• Dino Crisis
• Doom
• Dragon Warrior VII
• Driver II
• Dynasty Warriors
• Einhander
• Everybody's Golf 2 (Hot Shots Golf 2 for the Americans)
• Fear Effect 2
• Final Fantasy Tactics
• Final Fantasy VII
• Front Mission 3
• Future Cop LAPD
• Gex 3D Enter the Gecko
• Gran Turismo 2
• Grandia
• Harvest Moon Back To Nature
• In The Hunt
• Incredible Crisis
• Intelligent Cube
• Jade Cocoon
• Jumping Flash
• Klonoa Door to Phantomile
• Koudelka
• Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver
• Legend of Dragoon
• Legend of Mana
• Lunar 2 Eternal Blue
• Medal of Honour
• Medievil
• Mega Man 8
• Mega Man Legends
• Mega Man X4
• Metal Gear Solid
• Micro Machines V3
• Mortal Kombat Trilogy
• Mr. Driller
• Need For Speed Hot Pursuit
• Nightmare Creatures
• No One Can Stop Mr. Domino
• Oddworld Abe's Exodus
• Pacman World
• Parappa the Rapper
• Parasite Eve
• Persona 2
• Point Blank
• Rayman 2 The Great Escape
• Resident Evil 2
• Ridge Racer Type 4
• Rival Schools
• Saga Frontier
• Saiyuki Journey
• Silent Hill
• Soul Edge
• Spiderman 2000
• Spyro Year of the Dragon
• Star Ocean The Second Story
• Star Wars Dark Forces
• Street Fighter Alpha 3
• Suikoden 2
• Syphon Filter
• Tactics Ogre
• Tales of Destiny
• Tekken 3
• Tenchu 2
• Time Crisis
• Tomb Raider II
• Tombi
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
• Toy Story 2
• Twisted Metal 2
• Um Jamma Lamby
• Vagrant Story
• Valkyrie Profile
• Vandal Hearts
• Vibribbon
• Wild Arms
• Wipeout 2097
• Worms Armageddon
• Xenogears

Remember we're voting who we want to see GONE, so if you love Final Fantasy 7, DON'T VOTE FOR IT YET. The games with the five highest amount of upvotes will be eliminated tomorrow.

I wanted to talk about this game for years, however I was scared to do so on so many other subs, due to a lot of the vitoral from both the hardcore haters and fanboys. I want to say off the bat that I did enjoy the game, and would rate it an 8/10.

What I liked:

• The graphical quality is astounding. Even on PS4, it looks more impressive than the majority of PS5 games. Bonus points awarded for the facial animation, extremely impressive.
• As annoying as some of the walking sections get in this game, I do like the introductory section with Ellie, as we see how the town has grown and developed since the first game. The begining of Abbie's section has a similar effect for me.
• I like how grousome the game is willing to get. It's dark, it's violent, it has nudity, sex scenes, drugs, it helps give the game a mature vibe that I find even the new God of War games to be lacking in.
• The art style is wonderful. It's so easy to make a world like this bland and forgettable, but not this game. The highlight for me would be when you're escaping the burning village via horseback.
• The level design is exceptional. It never feels like you're wandering down corridors, even though technically I'm sure you are so many times.
• I loved how brutal Joel's death is. I feel that if he died in a less violent way, it'd make The Last of Us 1 more laughable to me. "Seriously Joel, you died to a bullet in the sequel, but you survived all this in the first game."
• The partner AI is a lot less laughable this time around. How many times in the first game did it look silly when Ellie stood right in front of a licker, but they didn't notice her at all.
• Thematically, I like how Ellie and Abbie desire justifiable revenge leads to them losing everyone they still had.
• I really liked how this one random NPC from the first game was actually a super serious character withing the series' lore.

What I didn't like:

• I can't stand the cult faction. For a game that's trying so hard to push the narrative that even the minorist of NPC characters can be super important, these guys just seem to exist solely to be used as enemy fodder.
• I know that this game is supposed to be depressing, but I think that it gets to the point where characters dying isn't as dramatic or as shocking as it was supposed to be. By the time I had to go to the hospital to get supplies to save Lev's sister, I was thinking "What's the point, she's probably going to die anyway" which she did.
• While I think both Ellie and Abbie do need to survive for the game's theming to work, I don't understand why Ellie decided to let Abbie live in the end.
• On a similar note, it feels like Abbie's life didn't need Ellie in order to be changed forever, thanks to her subplot with the cult.
• This game interupts the core gameplay way too often for my liking. In the first game, you got a load of walking sequences to start with, but when the core gameplay started, they got dialled back a tonne. In this game, it feels like I'm always getting interupted with walking sequences or flashbacks. The gameplay is never allowed to take centre stage here.
• Abbie's faction's leader is a character I flat out hate. He's so stereotypically hateful of the cult to the point where he will mercilessly torture and murder all of them. He doesn't feel like a real person to me, he feels like a cartoon character.

This isn’t anything to do with LGBT, it’s simply down to the idea that I feel that this particular subplot works best if this ship isn’t canon.

For the first half of the game, Tenko shows a highly unsubtle crush towards Himiko, but it’s a crush Himiko doesn’t reciprocate. Tenko’s crush seems to mostly come down to the superficials. Himiko is small, cute and a magician (to be fair that’s why I liked her in the prologue). She doesn’t relate to her on any other level. She doesn’t have the same interests, has a completely different energy level, and is extremely lazy, which Tenko is the exact opposite of.

Then there’s the biggest elephant in the room…Himiko’s sexual preference is handsome guys. Apparently according to the art book, this is meant to be a surprise, but it’s a kick in the teeth for Tenko who isn’t into guys at all, and an even bigger kick when it’s Angie who Himiko ends up socialising with and not her. Something that creates a rift between Tenko and Angie.

This all leads to the final scene Tenko and Himiko share together, and the reason why I’m not a fan of this ship. Himiko wanted to become the medium to hold Angie’s spirit, but Tenko intervened and persuaded Himiko to allow her to do it instead. Her reasoning was that she wouldn’t be able to say goodbye to Angie if she was the medium.

Tenko was constantly trying to get Himiko’s attention, and tried to get her to fall for her, but this final moment represented some growth for Tenko. She offered to hold the spirit of someone she didn’t like, in order to do something nice for Himiko. For all her simping, this was the only time in the game Tenko genuinely cared about Himiko’s feelings.

That to me is lost with Tenko x Himiko. It becomes yet another moment of Tenko simping for Himiko. To me in her final moments, Tenko accepted Himiko for who she was, and I think eventually came to acknowledge that Himiko wouldn’t love her. And that’s ok. They still could’ve been great friends had it not been for a certain psycho’s seesaw fetish.

Donkey Kong 64 gets a lot of flack for being a huge collectothon, but I think everything people accuse that game of getting wrong, Banjo Tooie also commits, but far worse.

Backtracking: If you want to 100% each game (I've 100%ed DK64 but not Banjo Tooie) you need to backtrack through both games. In DK64, you do this three times. Once to Jungle Japes when you get all the monkeys, once to the desert level once you've freed Chunky Kong, and once to the mushroom level in order to beat the harder rabbit race. It's not the most convenient, but it's only three times, and it's very obvious that you need to backtrack in all three ocassions.

In Banjo Tooie, every level apart from the last one (I think, I never got further than world 4 in Tooie) has one jiggy in it that requires a powerup from the next level in order to get. It's very annoying, and it isn't always clear as to when you need to do so.

Needing to constantly retreat to change kongs: Yeah, this can be a pain in DK64, but I'd still argue that Tooie has a version of this that is even worse. DK barrels are usually placed close enough together that you don't have to backtrack to far in order to find one.

Banjo Tooie has multiple small items like jinjos and honeycombs that require you to transform in order to reach them. Only you can only transform in very specific huts, in which there is only one of per stage. That theme park level drove me nuts with how often I had to backtrack to the hut.

Donkey Kong 64 controls better: This bit may be me talking rubbish, but I always found DK64 to control more smoothly than Banjo. Even in the first game, I didn't find Banjo the most percise character to control.

DK64 has better level design: Say what you want about how big the levels are, I never got lost in any of them. Glitter Gulch Mine is a horrible level for getting lost in, and I've heard that Grunty Industries is even worse. I also feel like DK64 does a better job at hiding secrets than Tooie, but to be fair, I've only played four stages in Tooie, so I can't fairly judge it on that front.

DK64 runs better: DK64 isn't exactly smooth as butter (almost no 3D games from this era was) but Tooie runs at what feels like 10fps.

Forgive me if this is old news, but Star Fox Assault is getting REALLY expensive. I mean it was never a particularly cheap game, but now they seem to be going for three figures. I search for the game on eBay, and the first copy I see is selling for £100. I search for sold listings, and one sold for £130. Cex still price a complete copy at £70, but surprise surprise, they don't have any in stock.

I'm presuming this sudden surge is due to a combination of Fox appearing in the Mario movie, and the latest Star Fox game being yet another retelling of the original Star Fox story. Because I finally got the game for myself a few years ago, and whilst it wasn't cheap, it was nowhere close to what the game is going for now.

Hopefully for the sake of everyone who wants to own and play Assault on authentic hardware, this price surge is only temporary.

For reference, we'll be talking about candidates that are ranked from D-F. Candidates we all some to acknowledge aren't great, but in my view, we were still lenient on.

D Tier:

Adenike (series 1): The first ever firing was rather unmemorable aside from her arguing with Saira a whole bunch. I know Raj wasn't great, but E tier for him, whilst Adenike is in D?

Natalie (series 3): This woman I think got away with a lot on the tier list, because she was probably ranked around the same time as Geri and Sophie. But she still messed up the labelling of the orange lollipops, lied to Lord Sugar about him, botched up her PM stint, didn't bring Katie in and then cried "it was so hard to bring anyone in, apart from the guy who actually sold". E tier at least for me.

Felicity (series 7): Her PM stint was such a disaster, and I don't think she showed much potential prior to it.

Natalie (series 9): If memory serves correct, she was ranked alongside Kurt, and I do find it baffling that she was considered to be better than him. Both should be ranked together, if not Kurt slightly higher in my opinion. Natalie showed very little potential, her PM stint was a disaster, and I actually found her personality rather annoying (on the show, I'm sure she's very nice in person).

Gemma (series 10): I think she gets sympathy votes because of the way James treated her, but she did write "The girl who nearly wins" in her CV.

Lubna (series 15): Gets sympathy votes due to her feud with Lottie, but if we're being really honest with ourselves, she was approaching Noorul levels of not contributing.

Sophie (series 16): How did she get out of E? E tier was perfect for her. She was in no way comparable to Aaron or even Akeem.

Akeem (series 16): The Liam of series 16, somehow shadowed his way into the final five, and if memory serves me correct, there were calls for him to go into C tier initially too. In my mind, he should be ranked the same as Liam. I refuse to accept that Aaron wasn't easily the best boy of series 16 (not that it's much of an achievement).

Aoibhean (series 19): I don't have too much issue for her in D, but the most interesting thing about her was on the candidates revealed thread, where us non Irish speakers were trying to work out how to spell her name.

E Tier:

Matthew (series 1): How is this guy not in F? He was by far the worst boy of series 1.

Lindsey (series 10): She was rubbish and didn't do anything. I think the reason why she was ranked this high was because people wanted there to be a gap between herself and Scott, even though if we're being honest, they were probably equal to one another.

Rebecca (series 12): She's not as good as Karthik, I'd argue that she's worse than JD, I'd honestly put her in IVG. Rebecca wasn't bad on every task, but the ones she was bad in (most of them) she was really bad. Barely sold in week 1, was outsold by Mukai in week 4, aimed the camera at the passers by rather than the dancers in week 5, and after saying she'll be PM next week, she decided not to be.

F Tier:

Miranda (series 1): Anybody who thinks that selling flowers at a loss before the halfway mark in task one should be in IVG.

Alexa (series 2): This woman was so bad in week 4, she was fired over Syed.

Sophie (series 3): This woman had an ethical problem with selling a lollipop for higher than she thinks it's worth. This same woman also works (or at least worked) in the medical industry.

Nicholas (series 4): I think some week 1 firings get the benefit of the doubt, but Nicholas' boardroom defence of himself was such a disaster, it's surely worthy of an IVG.

Shibbi (series 6): Yes, he could sell, but he was also super sulky, super childish, and told Sandeesh that "you could've taken your top off to attract attention to the stand." How did he not get smacked for that, credit to Sandeesh for taking it on the chin.

Dan (series 6): This man thought that the Lex Luthor style of leadership would be effective. He was so dreadful, and he had the nerve to lean his legs up on the table. How is he not an IVG? Has to be week 1 bias.

Edward (series 7): Arguably the most iconic week 1 boot of all time. I feel that Edward should either be lower for how disasterous he was, or higher for how amazingly bad he was.

Jaz (series 9): Put it this way. Jaz by her own admission was a mum. Now imagine if you're own mum was in Jaz's place. I think IVG is warranted.

Dan (series 11): The most iconic non PM week 1 boot ever. Dan was so bad, he showed no skills whatsoever, and his defence was pathetic. By pure skill alone, he should be in IVG.

Lottie (series 15): Represents everything bad about The Apprentice. Easy IVG.

Carlo (series 19): How did he not land in IVG? He lost all credibility in about thirty seconds. This was a man who was so blatantly setup to be the fool guy, and we were all like "yeah, he had to go".

Note that this is my first mainline SMT game, and I was playing the original DS cartridge on a DSi

Sector A: Fairly difficult way to start the game, as I had to adjust myself to SJ's invisible doors and unique battle system. The boss that killed off Gore was my first big obstacle in this game (in which there are many) but I was able to beat him with the help of a full party of demons, and a little bit of grinding.

The big bad main boss of this sector I actually beat on my first attempt. Granted I was nearly out of healing magic, but I got it done in the end.

Sector B: This one increases the difficulty thanks to its trap doors and various danger panels. Yes, I could've walked around most of them, but that wouldn't fill in the map, so I made sure to cross every single one of them, costing me so many trips back to the healing tablet.

The boss here was also super hard. He kept on killing me effortlessly thanks to his instant kill mudo and mahama attacks. Upon analysis though, I realised that my current armour set was weak to mahama. That's when I learned my first BIG lesson about Strange Journey. It's better to have armour at low defences but resisting the enemy's attacks than to have armour with higher numbers. Once I changed the armour, I beat him faily easily.

Sector C: This is where one of my biggest problems with this game first came in to its element. Mandatory progress doors being hidden. This place also introduces the dark rooms which the game puts to maximum annoyance in the basement to this place. As for Horkus (yeah, I remember his name), went down like a chump. Easiest boss so far.

Sector D: I really like this dungeon. I thought the roller coaster current thingies were a lot of fun, and this game was slightly less egrigous with its invisible doors than some of the other ones. The boss was also a piece of cake, just as much as Horkus, but that's the last time I'm going to say that about a boss in this game.

Sector E: This entire dungeon was a pain. Mandetory pathways hidden behind invisible doors, having to backtrack through Sector C via ANOTHER invisible door, an annoying maze where you need to scout three items, and the hardest boss in the game so far. This was at the point where I realised that in order to beat the bosses here, I need to fuse demons more suited to this guy's weakness. With two more demons that knew fire attacks, I was able to beat the boss, but he was no pushover.

Sector F: The least annoying sector in a long LONG time. Three pathways, three bosses, kill them all to access the boss. The Captain Jack fight was much tougher than I expected, primarily due to his gun. One armour change later and I was able to defeat him, but he was no walk in the park. Little did I know, he was only the starter before the main course that was Tiatam. Here's a post of mine asking for help: https://www.reddit.com/r/Megaten/comments/1tebsc4/im_stuck_on_tiamat_on_strange_journey_and_i_have/

Sector G: This level was essentially one enormous maze to find the forma needed to access the boss, but strangely enough, I actually quite enjoyed this one. Every time I looped back round, I simply explored somewhere I haven't been yet, and I was eventually able to find my way to the boss. The boss here wasn't easy, but it wasn't as tough as the previous two. The big obstacle here was that she kept dodging most of my attacks, so it was a long hard slog of a fight, but one I eventually came out on top.

Gore and Cosmic Eggd: At this point, I was locked into the law path, so I had no choice but to fight him, and he's one hard son of a gun, mainly down to the fact that he can heal himself mid fight. I didn't give up though, after changing my team, a little bit of grinding and changing my armour, I was able to finish him off and delete Arthur too, YEAH!!! Now Zelenin sung her hymn, and I have the honour of being the soldier to save manking under the name of the lord.

The Cosmic egg hunt was a bit of a pain, mostly down to Sector C's invisible door behind a phase shift, but one thing I really liked about this point in the game is that you felt part of a team. Speak to the demons here, and shile the chaos demons all hate you, the law demons are like "Good work there, man, keep going." I especially like the detail that while each egg was found by a different demon, the ones on my side hand the egg over to us, wishing us well in our journey.

Sector H: This is one enormous dungeon, and to be honest with you, I loved it. I even solved the full moon teleporter riddle all by myself (I swear I heard a lot of people complain about this bit online). I had more problems with floor 6 and 7, but not enough to stop be from having fun.

That idiot Jimminez defected to the chaos demons though, and sadly he had to pay the price for not following the way of Zelenin. I did like the one demon afterwards who told me that they were impressed that I killed my old friend, and I shouldn't feel bad about it." Thanks man, I appreciate it.

The final boss: The final boss is too hard. I tried it about five or six times, got curbstomped almost imediately, and I decided to give up. It's a shame, because I'd love to finish the game, but this boss was so ridiculously hard.

I'm actually going to criticise the game for this. For me to get through all that dungeon, and to be nowhere close to optimal enough to beat the final boss, I think is a flaw. But I can watch the ending on YouTube. Outside of the final boss, this game is really good.

8/10 (It'd be a 9 if the final boss didn't suck).

Here are some games that come to my mind

Street Fighter 1: This one's so obvious, that the only reason why people talk about it is how much people don't talk about it. There's a good reason for that. Street Fighter 1 sucks.

The Elder Scrolls Arena: Maybe it's because I'm not a PC gamer, but I don't hear anybody talk about the first two Elder Scrolls titles. I hear about Fallout 1 and 2 all the time, but Elder Scrolls seems to be one of those series which may as well have started with the third game.

Revelations Persona: Speaking of games which might as well have started with the third game, Revelations Persona is so undertalked about, you will struggle to find anybody on YouTube even reviewing the original PS1 release. Even compared to Persona 2, the original Persona is barely mentioned.

Conker's Pocket Tales: Did you know that Bad Fur Day wasn't Conker's first game. He was the star of this family friendly GameBoy game first. Berri is even in this one, where she was kidnapped by the dastardly Evil Acorn. Considering what happened at the end of Bad Fur Day, she might've been better off with him than Conker.

SSX: I swear that everyone seems to ignore the original SSX. Whenever I watch retrospectives of the series, it's not uncommon for the reviewers to skip this one and go straight to Tricky. I even prefer the menus and vibe the first game has in comparison to Tricky.

Burnout: Whenever people talk about Burnout, it's usually about 3, Revenge or Paradise. I hear some praise every now and then for 2, but 1 might as well have not existed.

Grand Theft Auto: For being the biggest franchise in anything, you'd think the first game in it would be more talked about, but no. Even amongst die hard PS1 fans, barely anyone talks about GTA 1. Possibly because it kind of sucks. I'm sorry GTA 1 fans, but the mere fact that you control the character with the face buttons is a no go for me.

Hitman: Not only was Hitman 1 a PC exclusive, it was also another one of those first games that wasn't actually any good.

Similar rules to yesterday's post. I'll be talking about candidates who are ranked in at least D tier, as that implies that they are somehow bad, or at least disliked.

D Tier:

Alex (series 4): I think personality was key to voting here. Alex being in D tier seems especially harsh when you consider that Helene got ranked in B, which doesn’t feel right to me.

Alex (series 6): Alex didn’t have a good week 6, but he certainly wasn’t a bad candidate. Lord Sugar did say that he took into account the good things he did in the past few weeks, and when does he do that for a week 6 firing. He had a memorable personality too, so I think C would’ve been fairer for Alex.

Pamela (series 10): I like Pamela, I thought she had a fun personality and had a reasonable presence on the tasks. I liked her, I’d rank her in C.

Paul (series 12): I remember this one. The OP on the tier list wanted him in F tier, and I don’t think that can be justified. True, Paul had a temper only marginally better than mine whenever my sister enters my room without permission, but he did have skills.

Aaron (series 16): I’ve argued this before, but the fact that Aaron is ranked lower than Akshay and especially Nick is a crime as far as I’m concerned. If Stephanie is a B, then Aaron has got to be at least a C.

E Tier:

Gavin (series 7): Gavin’s an interesting one, because I don’t recall a candidate who looked so promising in weeks 1 and 2 get fired so early in the process and for it to not be controversial whatsoever. I’d have him in D tier at least, possibley C. Even in week 4, Lord Sugar commented on how much of an upset Gavin’s firing was.

Karthik (series 12): I get why Karthik can get on people’s nerves, but the guy actually did have legit skills. Even in week 2 when he was annoying as hell, a lot of what he had to say did make sense. To rank him alongside JD and especially Rebecca, I can’t agree.

Conor (series 16): I bregrudgingly have to accept this one, but I remember when he was in D tier, and yes, I did downvote everyone’s comments that suggested him to be relegated.

F Tier:

Kurt (series 9): As far as I’m concerned, F tier tends to be reserved for either early boots, or the shows all time worst candidates. I’m sorry, but I don’t think Kurt really qualifies. He made some bad mistakes, but he wasn’t incompetent. He was at least on par with Natalie, and I’d have both of them in the E-D range.

Riyonn (series 15): It’s not that I think Riyonn is good, I just didn’t think he was bad enough for a straight F. I’d rank him in E, because he did show some promise every now and then.

Reece (series 17): He’s one of those candidates who messed up as PM, and the community refused to forgive him. Yes, Gregory was a good character, but Reece did sell well in weeks 1 and 2. I can understand disliking the guy, but he isn’t F tier bad,

IVG Tier:

James (series 10): James was annoying in series 10, but to me, he was iconically annoying, and he did do so good stuff on the show. Even taking into account personality, I can’t have him in IVG and Lottie out of it.

Virdi (series 18): He was bad, yes, but again, worst of all time? He was at least likeable, and putting him in IVG tier puts him on the same level as Asif, and I cannot agree with that.

Liam (series 19): I suspect some recency bias is responsible here, because yes, Liam was rubbish, and it was annoying that other candidates were being called non contributors over him, but Carlo is in a tier above him. I’d directly swap the pair of them.

While we're waiting for the actual tier list to be updated with this year's candidates, I decided to go back to the tier list to take a look at which candidates were ranked where, and I have to say, I think some of these candidates are ranked a bit too high.

For reference, I will only be talking about candidates ranked C or higher, and those that have been ranked as high, presumably out of competence rather due to their entertainment value.

C rank:

Sharon (series 2): Extraordinarily highly ranked considering she didn't do a whole lot other than moan throughout her eight weeks. Series 2's cast is really bad anyway outside of the top five, but seeing Tuan and Samuel in E tier and Sharon in C? That seems a bit too high for me.

Shazia (series 4): A candidate who I think is ranked here due to sympathy. Yes, Jenny C should've gone that week, but Shazia was rather poor in both the tasks she's been in. I think E tier is a more appropriate placement for her.

Laura (series 6): A generous placement for a candidate who was mostly negative, didn't have any real shining weeks, was lucky to survive week 2, was lucky to survive week 6, and was by far the weakest candidate left by the time of her departure.

Bushra (series 13): If I recall correctly, the tier list was constructed from series 17 back to series 1. Because of this, I think some of the candidates from the later series got higer ranks than they deserved. Bushra was one of the better series 13 candidates, but that's not saying a whole lot. I think D tier would be better for her.

Anisa (series 13): A staggeringly high placement for a candidate who was as poor as she was. She was fired the same week as Charles and Andrew, yet they were both ranked in E and F tier respectively. She was easily on their level, and I would argue that she was worse.

Lubna (series 15): I applaud you for ranking her higher than Lottie, but let's be honest, this was a sympathy vote.

B tier:

Ben (series 5): Wasn't actually all that great in series 5. I used to think Ben was quite good until I thought about what he actually did more, and I suspect a bunch of you did the same. In no way was he a better candidate than Howard from the same series (albeit, he was more interesting than him).

Paula (series 5): I hope this is an entertainment vote, because under no circumstances should the woman responsible for the sandalwook and cederwood debacle be ranked in the same tier as Lee McQueen.

Leon (series 7): Leon did well in task 4, but is that really enough to slot him in B tier. Leon wasn't bad all the time, but when he was bad, he looked pretty dire. I wouldn't rank him higher than Natasha who was in C tier.

Katie (series 8): Ranked equal to Gabrielle and Jenna from the same series, and I just don't see it. Lucky to have survived week 1, and was ultimately fired for her overall poor performances.

Harrison (series 13): Harrison is one of those candidates who I think all of us (myself included) like to believe was better than he actually was. He was a likeable guy, but in reality, he didn't have many highlight moments, and his contributions were rather poor. I will be the first one to argue with Lord Sugar when he accuses someone of being a non contributor, but with Harrison, is wasn't unwarranted. I think C tier is more appropriate, because he wasn't better than James.

Stephanie (series 16): To be fair on you all, compared to the rest of the candidates you ranked at the start of the tier list, Stephanie probably was a B tier. The problem is when you compare her to everyone else in B, and she feels very out of place for a candidate who only made it to third place through good fortune. Aaron from the same series is in D tier, and the gap between them isn't very big if we're being totally honest.

A Tier

Naomi (series 3): At this point, all the candidates are objectively good at bare minimum, but I still think A tier is too much. Naomi was a competent series 3 candidate, but on the same level as the other A tiers? I can't bring myself to agree. Even compared to fellow A tier Lohit, I think she's a step below him.

Marianne (series 15): Who suggested Marianne to be in A tier, and who upvoted the comments. I want names, because she was pretty poor throughout the series. C tier I'd say is generous but understandable, because I honestly would have her in D tier.

A+ Tier

Vana (series 11): I feel that series 11 gets misremembered a whole lot. Vana, Richard and Charlene were all ranked in the A+ tier, and whils Vana was deserved of A tier, I feel that A+ is too far a stretch. I've seen a narrative brewing in recent years that Vana was easily the better candidate than Joseph, and should've won the show over him, but that is a viewpoint of hindsight. Joseph beating Vana in the final (whose business plan was rubbish) wasn't a shock in the slightest.

S Tier

Michaela: I agree that Michaela should be at least an A. But I do think S tier is a bit too high, considering that she very nearly went out in week 3.

Sometimes the culprits in Law and Order are hard to put away, but other times they rely on some of the stupidest defences I've ever heard in my life. Here are some of my favourites.

Men are naturally afraid of gays (S3 Manhood): Apparently, this is a defence that's actually been used in real life. Maybe if I squint my eyes and think of worst case scenarios, I can kind of understand why this would be appropriate, but I'm thinking of self defence due to genuine sexual assault, not leaving behind an officer who's been shot to die because he was gay.

The Black Rage defence (S5 Rage): This is one of my all time favourite episodes, partly because of how dispicable it is for Bud Greer to use his race as an out for his murder. Something particularly outraging considering that the murder had nothing to do with his race at all, and by all accounts, Greer was a nasty unlikable person anyway. Thankfully the jury saw right through him, and the fact that most of them were black makes it all the more satisfying.

Attorney Client Privilage (S6 House Counsel): As hard as it is to believe sometimes from watching this show, lawyers are supposed to have ethics. They're not allowed to knowlingly lie about their clients' innocence, and they're certainly not allowed to engage in their clients' illegal activities. Paul Koppell not only defended a murderer, he also conspired with his client to commit it, and tried to throw his own case away by sayin "attorney client privelage".

I didn't know the money was laundered (S9 Refuge part 2): I can accept that tracking down money laundering can be a complicated process, and difficult to recognise. However if a carpet cleaning company in Panama is suddenly dealing $1 billion in cash, that would set any reasonably intelligent person's alarm bells off. The bank manager tried to defend himself saying "I didn't know". This is why willful blindess is a law. No reasonable person can possibly be that stupid as to shrug their shoulders and think that business is legit, and the jury saw right through his excuses.

Sports Rage (S11 Thin Ice): Coming from the UK, I find the US fascination with school sports bizarre. I can't imagine anybody here going out of their way to get talent scouts to watch my kid perform in the secondary school hockey team, and I cannot possibly fathom a scenario where I could murder the teacher for not putting him on the team, and say that I was being a sore loser to get away with it. If that was a genuine defence, then Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris wouldn't even be alive anymore though granted that would probably make Leclerc champion soooooo.......

Racism is a mental illness (S12 Prejudice): From the same defence attorney who brought us the sports rage defence comes the need to treat racism as a genuine mental illness. Killed that black man because he had the audacity to grab a cab before you did? Murdering him out of hatred isn't a sign that you're an awful person, it's a sign that you need help.

Strange Journey is strangely enough (haha) the first core Shin Megami Tensei I’ve played, and so far, everything is going well. I’ve cleared the first five sectors of the game, with varying degrees of difficulty…and also varying degrees of quality. Sector A, B and D are easily the best designed dungeons so far. C is a pain in the neck, but it doesn’t come close to Sector Eridanus

Strike 1: key items being hidden behind invisible doors: The first objective in the dungeon is to find the power supply needed to activate the teleporter. Fair enough, but I ended up walking in circles because I couldn’t find it. Eventually I had to look it up, and figured out that it was behind an invisible door. (Sarcasm) yay…

Strike 2: backtracking to Sector C: This needs to be done twice, first to get the material gathering quest, secondly to deliver the materials. I get that it’s for plot purposes, but it’s time wasted. Why couldn’t the ship just be in Sector E?

Strike 3: teleporting maze: This part is infamous, and yeah, it sucks. It’s not just the teleportation, but there’s also stairs to climb and holes to fall down, complete with doors that only go one way. Bonus points given to the myriad of poison tiles that flood way too many of the teleportation destinations.

Strike 4: Ouroboros: It’s a hard boss, but that’s not the problem I have with it. It’s that he resisted physical that did me in. I did have a wide range of demons, but they were primarily physical attacker. Now, one more fusion later, and I did have a team good enough to beat this thing, but it’s still a boss which has only one viable strategy.

Honestly, if Sector E only had one or two of this setbacks, it wouldn’t be so annoying, but because it has all four of them, it became such an infamous dungeon. I’m planning on continuing Strange Journey next weekend, so can anyone please (truthfully) reassure me that I’ve completed the most annoying part of the game (I’m playing the original DS release)..

I always make my mind up on who my favourites are around the prologue, maybe chapter 1. My favourites for all three games were Celeste, Gundham and Himiko.

I love Celeste, and I will defend her when people declare her simply evil. That said, I did enjoy how cruel she was, and I was under no illusion that she’d somehow survive. I played all three games blind, but she was named “The Queen of Liars” in the opening prologue, and in a murder mystery game, that could only mean one thing. I had to battle with her Ace Attorney style at one point. Speaking of Ace Attorney, I played enough of those games by 2015 to realise that if a photograph of the killer dragging Hifumi is in evidence, we’re probably going to have to prove how it’s been faked, and if it was faked, then whoever took the photo must be the killer. It didn’t stop me from being sad when she was executed though.

Gundham won the hearts of many, including myself, but I highly suspected his death was coming in chapter 4, and I flat out knew he would be the killer by the start of the trial. The gender gaps were too big, meaning I knew it wouldn’t be any of the girls, Fuyuhiko already had his important chapter, and Kazuichi was declared to be innocent right at the start of the trial. It didn’t stop me from being sad though when Gundham died though (admittedly not as much as Celeste though, because the executions in 2 kind of sucked).

Himiko I loved from day one. She was so adorable, and I loved how she would go to the extremes to not give away her tricks, as well as how childish and kind of slow she was. I had no faith in her surviving though. Extreme gimmick characters don’t tend to survive Danganronpa. By chapter 2, I was like “right, that was Himiko’s chapter, time to cry when she dies in chapter 3”.

But she didn’t die in chapter 3. I was gobsmacked, I was fully expecting it to be Himiko and Angie, but it wasn’t. I didn’t expect Himiko to have a major role in two chapters in a row, and while it was an emotional roller coaster for her, I was secretly happy. “surely they won’t kill Himiko now. Surely.”

I could breathe for chapter 4, but chapter 5 got me panicking once again when Himiko was an early suspect. That eventually passed, so I was on tenterhooks for the entirety of chapter 6. Nobody other than the mastermind had ever died in chapter 6, but V3 did change some series staples, and if any series was going to make me suffer at the last minute, it was Danganronpa. I played through the chapter, got depressed like everyone else, fought back against hope, then braced myself for the execution of everyone. I only saw Tsumugi and Kiibo die though. Did Shuichi, Maki and most importantly Himiko survive?

I cheered so hard when the ending screen passed, as it meant that I could finally breathe again, knowing that Himiko was going to be ok.

I remember there being a lot of hate towards Kingpin's portrayal in the Hawkeye show, but honestly, I don't really get it. Now I wouldn't say it was the character's strongest appearance, but I didn't find it offensive or out of character either. I want to address some of the complaints I heard.

Kingpin would never do the dirty work on his own: He didn't. He sent in several hundred goons to do the dirty work for him. Just so happened that they all got beaten up or killed by Hawkeye. It makes sense that Kingpin himself would enter the frey considering his strength. That's always been what separated him from Lex Luthor esque villains. He would do the dirty work himself if needed.

Kingpin didn't act like Kingpin: Also disagreed, especially when it came to his backstory. Manipulating Ronin into murdering his competitors is the sort of thing Kingpin had been soing since Daredevil season 1.

Kingpin's silly outfit: I know this outfit was chosen by D'nofrio because it was part of the comics, but for an in lore explanation, it's not unheard of for dangerous criminals to dress themselves in outlandish attire when in public in order to draw less suspicion. The perfect outfit I would say if he had to murder Kate's mother out on the streets.