They remembered that they have made Ratchet and Clank and decided to go silly with the story, this has made this surprisingly a much more enjoyable experience than the OG.
It still has a lot of the same flaws that have been talked about to death and a really weak first 4-5 hours, but it’s actually a very fun take on the symbiote story even if a lot of plot beats are underdeveloped however I’m glad they made a more video gamey spiderman plot, it even helped a lot introduce suits and quirky missions that have helped shake up the repetitive gameplay.
Probably won’t hold the same value for me in a replay but yeah I was surprised to enjoy this one a little bit more as someone who’s not the biggest fan of this series.

I’ve played this as a palate cleanser after DS2, and I’m glad to say that even when I avoided the game’s pre release hype as I don’t assume that indie spiritual successors are good by default it turned out to be a very neat experience.

The story was surprisingly decent, nothing huge, but it tries to have some character which is good since it was going to feel very tacky if it felt like they’re aiming to make their own JSR3.
The gameplay is actually faithful to its inspiration at least from memory, and all the new ideas are welcome even if the execution is not really the best (why did they decide to add combat and why it worked this way?) but there is a solid foundation for a very good sequel if it happens.
Also, I didn’t expect the music to be different in sound but similar in spirit to what you can expect in a game like this, to be fair there are some meh songs over the course of the game, they’re the type of tracks that you’d hate if you hear them outside, but it’s fine if you hear it in game since it works with the overall feel and setting, but that’s an exception and not the rule as the majority of the songs here are actually enjoyable.
It's very good for a first attempt, I’m going to keep this installed in case I want to chill for a bit with mods and custom music until they decide to make a better sequel.

Similar to this year's Hi-Fi Rush, this is a game in a genre that is inflicted with the curse of an eternal discourse that revolves around one question: is a game good for its robust mechanics or its overall variety of gimmicks?
Both platformers and character action games are plagued by this kind of discussion, but as we've got the freshest hack n slash since DMC5 we've also got the best platformer since Celeste, people really underestimate "theme park" gaming when it's really done well. Even if Wonder isn't really that new, it's at least unique and fresh, which substitutes for the lack of power-up variety and how the badge system can overall make the game less difficult.
It's not without its flaws but this is arguably the best Mario in a long time.

I was having a bit of a game block recently and I wanted a palate cleanser, nothing seemed more fit than Marvel’s Spider-Man, I just watched ATSV before starting this game and considering that its now both on PC and remastered I felt that it was the right game to revisit, and with games I revisit I tend to have completionist tendencies.
As a lot might expect it was indeed a chore but that’s on me (and insomniac too but mainly me for pushing through even though it is WIDELY known that Spiderman is literally fast food gaming).
What caught me by surprise is how the story took a 180 degree shift in my mind, what seemed to be a decent spiderman story is now an plot full of highs such as a really unique spiderman ending, some interesting conflicts especially with Oscorp and Sable and a cool new take on MJ which all happen in the second half and also a plot full of lows that makes the first half appear as test scenarios to try out how to make a spiderman game, I also don’t really know why they made spiderman that friendly with the police, I get that he doesn’t have to hate them but it feels like he’s uncharacteristically not witty.
The game pulls off the grounded spiderman feel very well even when it goes into MCU territory when it mentions tech and gadgets, it’s a good balance obviously made to help the IP become more video game friendly, the story starts becoming interesting in the last 4 hours or so in which it demonstrates a good take on the whole Oscorp shtick which makes a genuinely decent baby’s first political thriller.

As for the actual game I decided to play it on Spectacular, and while they nailed the game feel it is an extremely exploitable combat. Sure, I like the idea that I have an option to web someone if he’s close to a wall instead of beating them down, but I don’t think it’s really that balanced because you can do it on every single enemy. I also really wish they implemented a combat system that doesn’t feel so 1v1-ish like the Arkhams. There’s a lot of gameplay flaws that most people (including me) would not really care about because you play as spiderman.
Overall it’s a really average game that ventures into amateurism occasionally only saved by the fact that this is Spiderman despite of it all.

Feels more prideful than celebratory.
I don’t like being rude to fangames, especially for a game like BM in which it’s one of the more polished and scaled ones.
I get that people disliked Xen, here it’s definitely more polished..just in a very traditional sense.
Xen feels now like a cop out for game design bros, as it feels more designed and thought out. What I implied by traditional is how Valve-esque it feels, plug in a cable, move something etc. etc., but now you have to play through a section as long as 60% of pre-Xen, as much as delightful as it looks, it’s still exhausting and tiring and a big pace breaker for the remake.
OST was pretty unremarkable throughout the game except when I’ve reached Xen where I’ve heard a soundtrack that with proper budget could be featured in a big high profile release. Art direction doesn’t look weird since this is still Source and really works for the game’s calmer brooding horror tone, but I still prefer how the original looked in comparison.
Overall its a fine game, but still a demonstration of why going bigger in scale doesn’t match the brilliance of the subtler design decision.

Remake discourse has been tiring but this was such an incredible remake that it has to revive the conversation again. I'd argue that the gen 8/9 games that got remade in the recent remake resurgence have different philosophies on how a game can be remade, this falls between the recent Dead Space and FF7R in how it's incredibly faithful while changing and recontextualizing some of it's events.
I actually didn't really want them to change how some of the story elements are presented, but I didn't mind them in the end. I feel like there were no casualties aside from maybe Ada and Ramon, in fact I kind of loved the new Luis and Ashley.
The gameplay blueprint is practically the same which makes the remake practically as engaging as the OG although different in how it feels. People have criticized the new knife mechanics but it really falls in line with how the gasoline/crimson red system worked in REmake, if you liked that system then it makes absolutely no sense you'd hate the knife durability. The most mind boggling change thus far is the stealth which is easily ignored, but it's an option nonetheless if you wanna clear 2-3 enemies before eventually getting caught.
All in all it's a very good reimagined RE4, and I'm gonna be okay with it as long as I'll still have the original available unless Capcom decides to treat this as the replacement.

There's a certain enjoyment that I usually get for R*'s games, partly due to nostalgia and the vast (even if usually empty) nature. It's still a completely free sandbox in which you can do what most games does not provide, and here it's at it's most detailed and reactive.
The enjoyment that I got here is mainly for the simulation aspect, going on rides while listening to music while seeing how you and the extremely reactive AI react to each other, as Rockstar does it best with It's competent driving mechanics and great music choices (it's a soundtrack that's composed by people like The Alchemist and DJ Shadow and with original music from people like Freddie and Tyler in a game that has fictional radio channels run by Frank Ocean and Flying Lotus, you can't go more overkill than that).

All that being said, I'd be lying if I said that GTA V isn't one of gaming's biggest blueballs imo.
Rockstar's design has been criticized lately a lot, with systems and world that'd allow so much if only the games weren't like "drive here, shoot this and loot that", so there isn't much to be said here that wasn't said already. The aspect that bothered me the most however, is how interesting the story premise is before cannibalizing itself with it's satire and critiques on modern day Americana as well as general inconsistency and lack of focus.
We have here a rich Californian ex criminal that realized that money cannot fix how disgusting his life is while having to oblige to literal feds just to keep his already awful situation from being worse, and his mentally deranged friend which tries his best to show his loyalty despite of it all, both influencing a troubled kid that was only raised by the fact that he cannot escape gangbanging and that the only way to be better is also through crime, but just through a more organized and ambitious way. What does the game do with that premise? Nothing. It will only showcase how "relevant" and punk the world is compared to ours. Facebook is Lifeinvader, car names are sexual puns and people are caricatures of their real-life counterparts. Plot points are forgotten and side characters that should enhance the supposed themes of the game are almost disregarded after a couple of missions (Lamar my beloved, I won't forgive them for butchering your screentime). Part of my positive score comes from the fact that unlike most GTAs, this was actually the one who made me crack a couple of laughs even if the completely unsubtle humor got on my nose so damn much. But still, it's a GTA game. You'll know how it will end and you'll know who the bad guys are.

I know that I most probably didn't put in any constructive opinion on this, that's because this all has been said before more profoundly and it can be applied on every GTA. I'm just disappointed that they almost got their narrative right for once but they decided to ruin it both by design and unintentionally. It's still fun to fuck around and wreak havoc in those games but I always feel like punching whoever was in charge of that take after I finish them. Maybe that was the purpose of GTA after all.