Really wished I wasn't so overly-exposed on almost every facet of this fucking game before I played it - if Odyssey was the Sun, I would have 3rd degree burns by how many rays have penetrated my skin.
Anyway I like the game! Mario's most maximalist adventure yet and oh boy, they sure didn't know when and where to stop!
Maximalist because, Mario neva felt more free-a to play and be played! Jump, ground-pound, roll (I fuck with that heavily) and cappy trickshot your way to A-B, however you wish. Or remember, because they really infused those two joycons (it really do be the best way to play the game) with as many actions it could possibly fit through it's buttons and motion flicks that it kind of overwhelmed by the beginning. I still felt a certain unease of overcoming larger gaps, not by skill, but by praying that my brain and muscle memory wouldn't falter and send me to my fatal demise. But at it's best, you be shmooving like a butter knife through butter. Fashonin' Mario up is so cute and fun I adored it, love just how much there is :)!
Maximalist because, the sheer variety of worlds through play, size and visuals. I always fuck with games that can yield such different visuals ends in the same game while maintaining cohesion: The dark and semi-realistic dragon kingdom in contrast to the heavily poly-reduced gradient landscape of the Luncheon Kingdom still feel like they fit the plumber on his 'venture. How even the worlds structurally feel different: to the linear vertical climb of the Wooded Kingdom to the open-ended Seaside Kingdom with the map-sized Boss-battle. They really tried everything and anything I respect that.
Maximalist because obv. the moons lol. It is kind of insane how they just keep adding more and more moons and how in 3 minutes you stumble into three, four- no 5 different Hänsel & Gretel breadcrumb trails to the next Moon right around the corner, like it's a McDonalds in a densely populated city. Some moon feel cool to get, most have been dropped by someone on their hurried way to work.
Maximalist because,...more. More moons, more costumes, more enemies capture mechanics that barely scratch their mechanical surface but you don't notice it cuz it happens to fast, more set-pieces, more everything.
And the game never really stops with that. After the credits roll, there is just a lot more to do now. I respect it, but no thanks! Luigi's Balloons is really cool, I do love me that. But if I want to experience a Dark(er) Side of the Moon, imma stick to that Pink Floyd im good thanky.

An excellent game with probably the best sound design in any video game. While the story and audio are sublime, there are still some flaws I hope are ironed out in the sequel. The combat, while functional is incredibly bland and repetitive. Combat encounters are far and few in between so it doesn't hurt the experience too much, though they are the worst parts of the game by far. While the puzzle designs are pretty amazing, the game keeps going back to the "look for the symbol in the environment" and hardly shakes up the puzzling with new mechanics.

Amnesia: The Bunker starts strong. Intuitive and economic on its mechanics, it wastes no time in introducing you to a world of horrors even before the actual horrific part begins.
World War I is such a perfect setting for a horror story that it surprises me we don't have more of them, not only in video games but in other media as well. With its claustrophobic corridors, filth and dangers, the introduction of the trench warfare brought to life a new kind of martial misery, in which long stretches of squalid tedium were cut short by impredictable spasms of abominable terror. A continuum so gruesome that the philosopher Walter Benjamin would note how the soldiers who came back alive wouldn't return filled with experience, as expected from former combatants up to that moment, but rather poorer, more emptied of stories, especially stories that could ultimately make sense of what they lived. It was also around this period that mental health concepts such as PTSD started getting formalized as we understand them today.
So, needless to say I had high hopes for this game.

After a short introduction/tutorial, it leaves you mostly free to explore at your own pace. The goals are simple: find dynamite, find the detonator, explode your way out of the bunker. The player has a fair notion of how big the bunker is since the beginning, and there's only one save station. Which means the basic gameplay loop consists on planning short excursions back and forth towards smaller objectives that in the end will bring you one step closer to your major goals. I really enjoyed this approach, that along with some minor procedural aspects, gave the game quasi roguelike vibes.

The Bunker begins strong, but unfortunately its shortcomings appear as soon as the Beast is introduced. Frictional Games was probably inspired by the excellent mechanics of Alien: Isolation, but my two cents on this matter is that maybe they should have tweaked a little bit more with the Beast's AI. It starts appearing so frequently that at some point it stopped being scary and became more of an annoyance. Worst of all, this made me stop engaging with the diegetic elements of gameplay (for instance, avoid being noisy so the enemy doesn't "hear" me) and start finding it easier to just engage with the metagaming instead (I no longer worried about making sounds when I was not in obvious danger, since the game seemed to trigger the Creature at key points anyway, disregarding how silent I was; so why bother). The result is a bit of a moody killer and makes exploration less intriguing and more annoying than scary, with lots of backtracking and waiting around that may or may not end up with you dead anyway. And while I would love to say this is just the game leaning on its allegories of the horrors of WWI, I think this would be just wishful thinking on my part, especially considering its lackluster endings.

All and all, I think this is a good game. There's a lot to love about it, such as its mechanics of scarcity and having to decide if you want to burn fuel or risk a more dangerous excursion surrounded by the darkness. But considering what it could have been thematically, I can't help but being somewhat disappointed.
Besides, when your Survival Horror Monster starts showing up so frequently, your audience starts sighing and saying, "Ugh, that guy again...", it's probably time to realize that, sometimes, less is more.

Vou começar falando que se não fossem os diversos problemas técnicos esse era um dos melhores jogos de 2023, tirando as frequentes quedas de frame e a engine mal otimizada vamos pro que interessa.
Fantástico, é uma narrativa excelente que conseguiu me prender do início ao fim, história emocionante de como a linha dos Jedi pode ser cruzada, grandes reviravoltas e personagens interessantes. Cal Kestis é um personagem muito mais interessante que a maioria dos personagens de grandes e pequenas produções da Disney. Espero que o final tenha sido um gancho para o terceiro jogo pois estou no aguardo, o elemento de mundo aberto ao mesmo tempo que agrega pra história me deixou um pouco entediado pois não sou tão fã de explorar. O elemento nostalgia foi muito bem utilizado e nada forçado, concluindo é um excelente jogo com problemas técnicos ainda não resolvidos mas que se apagam em meio a excelente narrativa.

Pros:
•Sam Lake does it again, with a really engaging story that leaves you raring for more.

•The game nailed its paranormal atmosphere, the main setting had a lot of mysterious vibes and non-Euclidean design. The various files and items that you find around the Oldest House add to this.

•I really liked the lore and how it connects with Alan Wake.

•The gameplay was intuitive, with great utilisation of the mechanics like telekinesis and levitation to give you several approaches to enemy encounters. The customisation aspect was good also.

•Graphically impressive, the amount of detail in the game shows a lot of intricacy.

•Breaks the mould that Alan Wake had regarding linearity, by giving you a range of different sidequests to tackle at your leisure.

•The final act of the game was immaculate in its presentation.

Cons:
•The characters were pretty boring and not very memorable. I wish they had more screentime or development or anything.

•The navigation in the game didn't feel particularly good. I don't mind getting lost in games, but I just found the map to be really unhelpful, with me often wandering around aimlessly.

•I still think Remedy needs to get a better grip on designing shooters. The game could get frustrating at times, and the way the checkpoint system worked didn't help.

•I experienced a couple of crashes.

Overall rating: 7.9/10

Sable is my Breath of the Wild. An open world design staple that is second only to the super condensed A Short Hike.

Stellar art and music. Lovely map design that invites you to sit down and take the world in.
Writing, both dialogue and world building, is very good and often can get emotional. Sable's world is intriguing from the get go and unravelling its history was very fun.

It's a tragedy that a game this pretty and clever runs so very poorly.

I took my time with Sable's Gliding and did nearly everything the game has to offer, part of me didn't want to let go of the beautiful desert scenery and serene music. Part of me didn't want to let go but as the game keeps telling you. Journeys must end and that's part of what makes them special.

A straight up improvement in every regard from its predecessors, PaRappa 2 easily lands its place as the best game of the trilogy. I love a lot of the PlayStation 2’s early offerings as they almost represent the end of an era, back when short, sub-20 hour games were commonplace in your console library alongside your 40+ hour behemoths. In less than two hours I finished the main game while having pure groove injected into my veins. The game overall just strikes that specific hip-hop chord for me especially compared to the first game. I’m also happy to say that PaRappa 2 unironically has great gameplay! It’s extremely easy on the default difficulty but I love the looseness of the freestyle system and the input interpreter feels just right. This is a fantastic game, emblematic of my favorite era of games and the attitude surrounding their development. It’s short, fun, and worth your time. Play this!