Acquiescence
2019
As naff as the day it was shown. The very definition of the word 'generic'.
I didn't gel with PSVR when I had it, but I suffered through the nausea and hot flushes to play this experiment in joy and creativity. Sony should fund more games like this and less like Days Gone/GoTsu/Death Stranding.
2016
This was written for a GOTY piece back in 2016...
Feels like it was designed to cater too much to the fighting game community and otherwise hardcore players. I found it wholly inaccessible. I wasn't very good at it to begin with, and when I tried to get good through training mode, I felt like I became even worse. It's also hurt by a widely-publicised lack of single player content to keep a casual like me on board and playing.
Feels like it was designed to cater too much to the fighting game community and otherwise hardcore players. I found it wholly inaccessible. I wasn't very good at it to begin with, and when I tried to get good through training mode, I felt like I became even worse. It's also hurt by a widely-publicised lack of single player content to keep a casual like me on board and playing.
2016
This was written for a GOTY piece back in 2016...
As someone who is hardly beholden to the glory days of the old-school first-person shooter, I admittedly gave DOOM a shot only because it was receiving such strong word of mouth amongst the gaming community. I don't know if I would say the game has much to contribute beyond the satisfaction of running rampant in a space station and obliterating an onslaught of hell demons in some ridiculously violent ways, but you've got to give credit where it's due, it gets that part very right. The controls are tight, the combat is fast and adrenaline-fueled, and there's zero pretense involved. Repetition does set in towards the end, but for the most part DOOM is some classic running and gunning fine-tuned to a high degree of precision. Insta-killing a Mancubus with a chainsaw like a hot knife through butter shouldn't feel this good.
As someone who is hardly beholden to the glory days of the old-school first-person shooter, I admittedly gave DOOM a shot only because it was receiving such strong word of mouth amongst the gaming community. I don't know if I would say the game has much to contribute beyond the satisfaction of running rampant in a space station and obliterating an onslaught of hell demons in some ridiculously violent ways, but you've got to give credit where it's due, it gets that part very right. The controls are tight, the combat is fast and adrenaline-fueled, and there's zero pretense involved. Repetition does set in towards the end, but for the most part DOOM is some classic running and gunning fine-tuned to a high degree of precision. Insta-killing a Mancubus with a chainsaw like a hot knife through butter shouldn't feel this good.
This was written for a GOTY piece back in 2016...
I'm not all that familiar with the PS2 version of this side-scrolling JRPG that came out nearly ten years ago, so I'm not privy to comment on the various adjustments and enhancements the remake has made over the original. What I will say is that Leifthrasir is the Vanillaware formula honed to (almost) perfection, a dark fairy tale slathered in theatrical storytelling and complimented by that familiar-but-pristine painterly art style, a heavenly soundtrack and a generous dose of chaotic, combo-based brawling that never grows old.
More of an 8.5 than an 8.
I'm not all that familiar with the PS2 version of this side-scrolling JRPG that came out nearly ten years ago, so I'm not privy to comment on the various adjustments and enhancements the remake has made over the original. What I will say is that Leifthrasir is the Vanillaware formula honed to (almost) perfection, a dark fairy tale slathered in theatrical storytelling and complimented by that familiar-but-pristine painterly art style, a heavenly soundtrack and a generous dose of chaotic, combo-based brawling that never grows old.
More of an 8.5 than an 8.
Insomniac brought their A-game during the darkest and most desperate era of PlayStation history - the early lifecycle of the PS3. Of all the R&C games I've played (which admittedly isn't close to all of them), this is the pinnacle. In terms of gameplay it hits all the familiar and dependable beats, but what sets A Crack in Time apart is that it's the funniest, the most epic and (story wise) the most engrossing entry in the franchise.
A shame that it's practically lost to time now. No pun intended.
A shame that it's practically lost to time now. No pun intended.
2016
Just a complete and utter mess of a game. It's damn near miraculous that this even came out in a playable state. It does have its charms and there's a nice camaraderie between the main cast, but man... I completed it and I still never really felt like I understood how the combat was supposed to function. Felt like I was pressing random buttons the whole time.
2006
After the massive winning streak of VII, VIII, IX and X, this was an absolute crushing disappointment. An unfinished story, bland environments, paper-thin characterisation, and a shift to a more MMO-style combat system that let's just say I didn't exactly appreciate.
2009
Not as bad as a lot of people make out, but not great either. The combat actually becomes quite engaging, but you have to put a lot of hours into the game to get there. Otherwise, blah blah blah, you've heard it all before - ultra-linearity, woeful writing, a deeply unlikely cast of characters (sans Sazh, who deserved a better game), so on and so forth.
2016
To call Oxenfree a walking simulator would be doing it a disservice. It's actually a Select-An-Answer-While-You-Walk simulator. In other words, it's a complete borefest. Also, none of these characters convince as a teenager. They're all clearly voiced by people that are in their 30s, and they sure as shit don't talk like teenagers.
Ah well, at least it was cheap. I paid a small amount of money to ensure I won't get duped into playing the sequel.
Ah well, at least it was cheap. I paid a small amount of money to ensure I won't get duped into playing the sequel.
2016
Never understood the wild praise for this. It's essentially a bunch of set pieces that bear little relation to each other, connected by the most threadbare of narrative strands. It all feels very disconnected and cryptic and impersonal, so that when the truly wild shit happens at the end, there's no meaningful context for any of it, and so none of it has any impact. INSIDE is basically a story of "And then THIS happened, and then THIS happened, and then THIS happened...", so on and so forth. Yeah, that's great, but if there's no convincing connective tissue for it all, then how am I supposed to care?
2018
It's amazing how much a game can coast by on its traversal alone if said traversal is liberating and exhilarating to control and never grows old. Spider-Man suffers from some landfill open-world design, with plenty of bog-standard, repetitive objectives to tick off a list, not to mention some truly abominable stealth segments that accompany the main campaign, but so much of it can be forgiven because you really do feel like the world's most popular superhero while playing it. Everything about this game feels so right when you're swinging from one waypoint to the next that you can't help but question why it has a full-fledged fast travel system in place and Red Dead Redemption 2 doesn't. Extra points for the top-tier production values.
2022
It's more of a 8.75 than a 9, but y'know.
1997
The best goddamn game of all time.
An incredibly uneven experience. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes dumber than an Elon Musk Twitter thread. It's a hodge podge of different locales, different scenarios and different tones that lacks even a little bit of cohesion. This feels like five 2 hour games meshed into one.
A veritable explosion in a stupid factory.
A veritable explosion in a stupid factory.