Signalis wears its influences on its sleave, taking the game-design developed by Shinji Mikami for the original Resident Evil and applying it to the psychological horror presentation of Team Silent's Silent Hill titles. It also incorporates film and anime influences, using concepts and framing from Stanley Kubrick (particularly The Shining and 2001) infused with Lynchian surrealism, all while taking philosophical and presentational notes from Hideaki Anno's Evangelion and Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell. The themes of identity, existentialism, and FLESH are all derived from those latter works.

Signalis is truly standing on the shoulders of giants, and yet while being derivative is typically counted against a piece of art, in the case of Signalis these elements are distilled into something artistically coherent. Taking all those influences and putting them in a blender doesn't just pump out Signalis, it takes a creative and dedicated hand to craft an experience around them that works, and Signalis certainly does. The new thing that Signalis is bringing to the table here is a queer, feminist application of these ideas, which allowed for fresh and exciting ways to explore these concepts.

Regarding some criticisms, I think the application of Silent Hill-style psychological horror to Resident Evil design concepts resulted in some awkwardness. In Silent Hill, the resource management is kind of there, but massively played down, with unlimited inventory space to keep the player in the moment. Resident Evil is more about planning routes, fussing over what to take and what to leave behind, being more of a pure gameplay experience. This is reflected in the tighter level and enemy design of Resident Evil compared to Silent Hill, where the latter has much less polished design for its enemy programming, but which never registers as a flaw due to the differing goals of those games. Signalis tries to have it both ways, which can lead to some frustrations and take the player out of the experience, with the limited inventory forcing the player to engage with the game on a mechanical level that undercuts the psychological horror. I think freeing up the inventory just a bit more could have alleviated this issue (Rule of Eight, anyone?), as well as allowing the player to combine items on the ground with those in their inventory, but most of the time the melding of styles works well. A bit of tweaking there and we're in the clear.

I think these minor gameplay problems hold Signalis back from being quite on the same 5/5 level as the two masterpieces from either side of the classic survival-horror spectrum, Resident Evil's 2002 remake and Silent Hill 2, but its probably the next best thing. I can't wait to see what the dream team of Barbara Wittmann and Yuri Stern are able to cook up next.

Mafia: Definitive Edition is a remake of the original Mafia game that was released in 2002. As such, it's natural to compare the two games. The Definitive Edition has beautiful graphics, and the lighting and overall look are cohesive and well art directed. The developers have done an excellent job in updating the game's visuals and creating an immersive atmosphere that transports players to the 1930s.

The story is similar to the original, and for its sake, the original is a very decent mafia story. However, the voice acting, especially from main characters like Paulie, can be over the top and seem like exaggerated bad Italian accents. Despite this, the cinematics are well-directed and engaging, and create the right mood in setting you up for missions.

The gameplay has its highs and lows (mostly lows, in my opinion). The game is at its best when it flows from car escapes to short gunfights and goes from different mechanics in short spans. The driving is fine, the car variety keeps it interesting and the detour zones to escape from cops are a creative mechanic that helps keep the driving/escape missions from becoming stale. However, the lack of diversity in gameplay and the long shooting galleries are a drawback. The shooting itself is clunky and unsatisfying, which can be frustrating. I played it in Hard mode and it made my experience boring instead of challenging. Dying feels cheap and unfair at times and the melee fights are basic spam fests with no depth.

The controls in a third-person shooting game can make or break the player experience. Popular games like GTA, like it or not, create habits for players, and developers should adjust the controls accordingly. In Mafia: Definitive Edition, the controls are adequate, but they could be more intuitive and easier to use.

The game offers two modes for playing, Story and Free Ride. Merging these two modes could improve the game significantly. Playing the solo story mode can feel like chugging along missions that are mostly the same. The race track mission was different and nice, and the developers should have done more of these things to make the game feel less repetitive.

In summary, while Mafia: Definitive Edition has improved the original's visuals and atmosphere, it still has some drawbacks. The lack of diversity in gameplay, clunky shooting mechanics, and basic melee fights make the game feel dated. The controls could be more intuitive and easier to use, and the story's voice acting could be less over the top. Overall, the game is enjoyable, but it could have been better if the developers had addressed these issues.

This is an incredibly weird spin-off. I don't know much about the first Ape Academy game, but this one is a Collectible Card Battling/Minigame compilation and it kiiiinda works? The cards have a Rock/Paper/Scissors gimmick attached to them as well as a specific Minigame. If your card is the winner, you play the Minigame of the card in hopes of winning to activate the effect of the card. This mostly results in your opponent taking a specific number of damage, but can also result in you stealing or gaining bananas from them as well, which can help you play more powerful cards. These cards can also be chained together in a combo to do even more damage to your opponent if you use your deck correctly. The minigames in the compilation aren't too bad either, and I even enjoyed and mastered a decent amount, but the main problem with this game is that it just plain isn't fun to play it alone. Playing the single player story is so boring and tedious. The AI is mostly really stupid and more time than not will never pose a threat to you at all, not to mention that the whole card/Deck building system becomes a bit moot when you realize you really don't ever have to change your cards out of edit your deck at all in order to beat the game. Sure, you can find better and higher powered cards, but you could also chain your lower cards together for bigger combos as well. Not to mention if you care about platinuming this game, the grind to Rank A is so incredibly tedious and mind numbing mostly due to the fact that you are never given a specific amount of XP to grind to or even know how much XP each of your opponents give you. Your best chance is to grind the final boss battle, where while his AI can be a bit unfair in a couple of games, is just as much of a pushover as every other character. Would definitely recommend playing this game multiplayer with a friend. I could see this being a fun afternoon where you play 2 or 3 rounds and fuck around with different cards and games, but I'd say it's not really worth it in the end. If you're a huge fan of Ape Escape, then I guess just play through the main campaign and stop once you beat the final boss.

I'm surprised how well this game ties up most loose ends and gives all the major characters a satisfying arc.
I wish I could play this without my pc overheating tho.
My only real complaint is that the boss fights (aside from the peak final fight) kinda suck and they're VERY uninspired.
The perfect gameplay-cutscene balance from the last game is completely gone and it can feel like a chore at times. But the positives greatly outweigh the negatives, this game rules.
Edit: Crazy how I forgot to mention the best thing about this, Liquid himself. I was anticipating each time he appeared and he never disappointed.