Recent reviews by Aussie Jim

Coming from Portal, the puzzles in this game are a step up and they’re incredible to play through. Storywise, Valve continues the story from Portal with a bit of a time jump. I really liked seeing Wheatley and Glados evolve throughout the story. Once you beat the story, find someone to do the co-op levels with, those levels in my belief bring out the best of what the game offers. If you’ve done absolutely everything in the game, you can also download new levels to try out. With custom levels on offer, you’re definitely getting your money’s worth.

Such a simple yet innovative puzzle game with a fantastic story and a dark twist at the end. Portal offers more challenges outside of the story for you to complete and prove that you’re the master at the game. Highly recommend this game, it is absolutely essential that everyone tries this game.

One of the best story games out there. The story itself is incredible, the collectibles fit the theme of the game and the gameplay is very chill and easy. If you’re a fan of the Telltale formula, I highly recommend this game.

It’s really hard to write this review since there’s a lot of positive sentiment around this game but it’s even harder for me to justify recommending this game to someone who’s never played it before.

The story is only good in the first and final episodes. I think the story loses itself in the middle by becoming uninteresting. Comparing it to other Telltale games, this one is very barebones. It doesn’t compare your choices to other players’ choices at the end of each episode just like every other Telltale game does. The performance has a few minor setbacks. It doesn’t offer fullscreen borderless and you have to disable v-sync in Nvidia control panel (or in your AMD/Intel equivalent) to run the game with unlimited FPS. Audio quality isn’t the best either especially for dialogue at times which was a missed opportunity since Telltale had a great voice actor talent lineup for this game.

Other than the great voice acting, there were a few other positives that stood out for me. Telltale and Gearbox worked well together to integrate that Borderlands level humour which I think hit well and never felt cringy or forced. I really enjoyed the unique gameplay offered in the final episode. I don’t want to spoil it but if you play it you’ll see what I mean. I certainly wish the game’s final episode played like it did throughout the entire game because I would’ve been more engaged.

Starting from season 1, I really enjoyed the story and the dynamic between Lee & Clementine. You can tell at the time this was a game that was very ambitious from Telltale. A lot of the assets they use in-game, especially the sounds, are reused over and over but the execution of the game itself was especially ahead of it’s time from when it was released. There wasn’t quite like anything like TWD. Even though the adventure gameplay for the most part is linear, the game offers a bit of exploration and items to scavenge to help with some side stories along the way. It gives you the opportunity to expand the story a little bit and play it out your way.

Season 2 pretty much follows suit and the game is more polished than the debut season. The story is still really good and it features a villain that overarches the majority of the season, something we didn’t see in the first season.

The Michonne season is much shorter and features some of the best action sequences in the entire TWD collection. However, because it’s not connected to the Telltale story, it’s a bit of a distraction game. If you’re a fan of Michonne and TWD comics then it’s a must play.

Season 3 starts off very strong with a new ensemble of characters which were all great but it does fall badly towards the end in episodes 4 and 5. Considering this was developed and released around the same time as the first Batman Telltale game I’m not surprised as the same thing happened with the Batman game. Episodes 4 and 5 feel incredibly unpolished and even then the story seems rushed to conclude at episode 5. A bit disappointing considering that I was quite invested in the new playable character Javi. There was also some really bad dialogue options appearing starting from episode 3 as well.

Season 4 introduces traditional third person perspective gameplay and I really liked it. What I didn’t like however was the new combat system. It felt underdeveloped and made the walkers dumber which I can’t believe I’m saying. The story excels here until the very last episode unfortunately, I don’t think the game ended well. It also introduces collectibles if you explore a little throughout the game. Overall the game is fantastic and it tells a great story therefore I recommend it for those who like a good story in a game. If you’re a gamer who likes engaging gameplay you’ll probably get bored of this quickly.

A really good follow up to a decent Telltale Batman game, The Enemy Within does everything better. It has a better story, tougher choices to make and more variety in it's quick-time events. One thing that this game excels at though is it's villian: John Doe aka Joker. Holy crap, that's how you make a villain. Telltale makes you feel sorry for John throughout the game which makes it hard to not see him in a better light. Riddler is second to none in the villain's category in the game. The other villain's aren't as impactful, not even close. Harley Quin comes off a bit obnoxious, Bane is meh, and Mr Freeze doesn't appear often enough to be impactful.

Compared to the previous Telltale Batman game, The Enemy Within performs much better and appears as a more polished game. It's still recommended to turn off V-sync in your graphics card settings as there's still a bit of freezing but outside of that the game runs flawlessly this time.

The game weirdly included an inventory system in The Enemy Within which isn't something that is featured in the first game. I don't see the point in it as there's no way to interact with the inventory system and it's not like the game makes use of it very much.

Outside of the mentions above, this is still a dark, interactive Telltale story that I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy.

Batman is my first Telltale series game that I’ve ever played. In saying that I already had an idea of how these games worked. For those who are like me and never played, it’s essentially an interative movie/cutscene. You have quick-time events that happen during the action scenes and dialogue options to choose from when there’s no asses to kick. Ocassionally you’ll be tasked to play detective and investigate a crime scene by picking up on all the clues and linking them together to figure out what happened. All in all it features a great gameplay loop if you want a game that you can kick back and relax with. Despite the Steam tags don’t expect to be plunging into a deep adventure with it. The game can be finished easily and very quickly. It’s not a difficult game in the slightest so it’s a game you could recommend to a fan of a good story even if they’re not adept with video games.

The game features different endings to the episodes in Batman based on the dialogue choices you make. Often you have characters remembering what you’ve said or have done previously to keep the story flowing which I have to compliment as a great detail. I found the story to be very engaging and full of great twists to keep you wanting to play more to find out what happens next. The story also features a few dark moments which I found a bit surprising.

Telltale doesn’t ask much of your PC for minimum specs but playing this on a 2070 Super GFX card the game seems to have micro-hitches and FPS drops when loading new scenes or having fast moving backdrops. Turning off V-sync in the Nvidia control panel helps a bit but doesn’t alleviate the issue. Having a look online it looks like the game was plagued with performance issues on day one so I think it’s a problem that’s still hanging around a bit. Despite that I haven’t had any critical issues with it but it’s certainly worth noting that despite the cartoony illustrations, this a beefy game. Later on through the game there’s some scenes where the audio isn’t consistent so I suspect Telltale began rushing to get the game wrapped up which is a shame.

Despite the performance woes it’s not enough for me to not recommend this game. They’re not a big enough problem to be more than a minor inconvenience in your playthrough. The story is great, the game is simple enough and it’s reasonably priced.

This game is so good but it stutters worse than Dan (Grade 3) from Billy Madison

Is competitive straight line speed coming as DLC or what?

PUBG is one of the premier battle royale games available to play right now. Throughout this review, I'm gonna do my best not to compare it to Fortnite too much.


Player controls are something you need to be careful of. One way to describe controlling your player is that the player feels like it's running on ice. When you're sprinting and come to a stop, the player slides a little forward. Perhaps PUBG wanted players to come to a gradual halt but they should definitely look at games like GTA V on how they do that with their in-game characters. Graphically, the game is just above average. It's nothing too amazing coming from the Unreal Engine. PUBG have come a long way with their optimisation though and I have to hand it to them for that.


Compared to Fortnite, PUBG is the more realistic and strategic battle royale game of the two. It's the "Battlefield" of the COD vs BF comparison. You can't go into fights without a strategy. The PvP is often dominated by riflemen from long range or a shotty by a camper. You'll sometimes come by a handful of players darting through the houses with SMGs but that briefly sums up the PvP in the game.


PUBG's player health and perks aren't plentiful. All players have health (obviously) but one thing that PUBG has that's unique is the perk system. There are two perks you can get while in a match, healing and speed boost. These perks can be obtained by taking energy drinks and supplements. These perks aren't permanent either and will gradually go away throughout the match. Sometimes you may come across situations where you need to dive and swim. The oxygen system keeps you from staying underwater forever but it can be a bit glitchy at times as you may still lose oxygen even when your head's above water. For obvious reasons, don't swim too much in a match.


The weapons are in a weird place at this current time. On paper, two of the game's shotguns are the least powerful weapons in the game. I'm not sure about you but you'd have less chance of survival after a point blank shot in the chest from a shotgun shell than a pistol bullet. One of these weak shotgun's is the S12K and I guess PUBG decided to make it weak because it's an automatic shotgun. You can only imagine how powerful an automatic shotgun would be if the damage count was increased. Speaking of shotguns, all of them are terrible to use and take considerable amounts of luck and skill (yes, luck) to use. The only one worth having is the S1897 because the rest are either too weak or require decent accuracy before having to wait around to reload. The pistols aren't worth using unless you really can't find anything else to use. They're incredibly weak and rightfully so. The SMGs can be used as a close range substitute for a shotgun. If a whole clip lands on another player, chances are they're dead. An assault rifle is perfect for mid-long range as their firing modes can be toggled. The snipers of course require absolute precision and skill. Perhaps save them for when you have more experience and time played in the game. Overall, the weapons aren't too bad with the exception of shotguns being unreliable more often than you think. Half the weapon attachments are useless, only go for the sights/scopes, suppressors and magazines.

The armour and equipment in game is sorted by levels. All your clothes come with a capacity amount so it's necessary to keep your clothes on. It's also a bonus if you've won a jacket from a crate drop as it allows you to carry more items. A little naughty of PUBG to have a cosmetic item provide a capacity advantage over newcomers. Back to the equipment levelling system, the backpack, vests and helmets all range from 1-3. To be honest I've been in too many fights where I felt like having armour on made no difference.

The looting system in game has improved. Most of the time when I've looted an area, I'm kitted out with the necessary gear.


Erangel is a forest map that's based in Russia. It's a map that has plenty of opportunities to hide and take cover. If you're in the middle of nowhere and you're being fired upon, chances are there's a tree next to you that you can hide behind. If you wanna hide from someone and you're in an open field of grass, prone. Surprisingly it works far too often. You also have plenty of towns to loot from as well as a whole prison island to hunt other players on.

Miramar is a desert map based in Central America. It's a lot more open than Erangel but there are more towns and villages for you to loot in. Early complaints about how open the map was made PUBG add more buildings and places of interest to loot from.

Sanhok is a jungle themed map set in Southeast Asia. It's half the size of the other two maps which makes for fast paced battle royale. It's something that's necessary to cater for the market with Fortnite dominating. It feels like Erangel but shrunk down, it's an excellent map with tons of looting opportunities and great areas to fight other players.

Out of the three maps, Sanhok is my personal favourite. Unfortunately PUBG has removed map selection with the release of Sanhok and you'll have to select regular battle royale maps (Erangel/Miramar) or mini royale (Sanhok). I personally prefer map selection because who doesn't wanna play on a map of your choice?


You have the options of solo, duos, squads and x-man squads (x = number of people in your squad). You also have the option to select whether to play in third person or first person. Third person allows 360 degree camera rotation and wall peeking. First person only allows 180 degree camera rotation and is challenging because it doesn't allow wall peeking so you need to be more aware of your surroundings. PUBG have also introduced limited time modes which are usually featured on the weekends only. These LTMs have variables such as a particular map, squad amount, weapons to use and player perspective. They're quite fun but it'd be better if PUBG allowed more time for these modes.


PUBG introduced a leveling system and revamped how you can receive rewards in the Sanhok update. As a casual player, it's extremely difficult to level up daily. You have 3 daily missions you can do to try get more experience but they don't provide enough experience in my opinion. The leveling system heavily relies on paying for the Event Pass. There are way more opportunities to earn experience and rewards by paying extra money for a game you've paid for which isn't exactly polished. It's a bad move by PUBG who are a multi-million dollar company already from game sales alone because it makes Fortnite a more viable option for the consumer. I really do like the idea of missions because that's something I liked about Fortnite. It allows me to try new things and makes games more challenging.


I only recommend this because there's no better realistic battle royale that requires thorough strategy. While it's a game that still feels like it's in early access, PUBG is definitely doing their best to listen to their playerbase and honestly, their only direction from here is up.