Condenses the Crackdown formula to ~8 hours while also having way too many side objectives. I was getting a bit burnt out on it roughly 6 hours in but it turns out in that time I pretty much set up a domino effect to just run to every boss and knock them all down. You level up much faster in this one than the previous games, which would be nice but you also never really seem to be more powerful. The triple jump in this still feels less impactful than the full-agility level jump in the first game. Vibes in this one just aren't as distinct either and it's funny that it just plays the story straight instead of the twist of the first two. Overall pretty okay game, not as bad as its reputation, but could've been much better.

The bridge between a budding studio and the powerhouse they've become. What is so inspiring about King's Field IV, and those that came before it, is that From's approach to design is not new. Their fascination with exploration, dying worlds, challenge, and hands-off approach have been cultivated for decades now. These games seem vastly under-appreciated now when compared to this same approach years later finally being embraced.

I think the biggest hurdle with these games now is accessibility combined with a straight-up intolerance to failure. I'm not sure how long it would've taken for me to get through without save states, it surely would've added at least a couple hours. But these are also pretty much unattainable on original hardware. This one alone goes for $170 at the very least, for a US copy, jumping up hundreds of dollars more for sealed/graded copies, but I digress.

I tried playing this years ago and was immediately stumped by controls. Despite moving to the PS2, this title does not use both analog sticks and keeps the same layout set by even the first Japanese title. Forward and looking side to side with the left stick, R2 and L2 to look up and down, and R1 and L1 to strafe. I managed to at least remap to where i could look up and down with the right stick, but still had to strafe with the bumpers. So, if you can get past these insane controls, and it really only takes a little bit to get used to, you are in for a real treat. Also for some reason this title is like, super interlaced and visually breaks if you try to do any higher res rendering. I am now BEGGING for some sort of modern ports, I think these could look and play wonderfully if given the treatment. I'm sure that is not some moneymaker, but maybe From/Bamco/whoever (no clue who owns the rights to these) could package it now as "From the creators of Elden Ring" and it would fly off shelves (probably not but I badly want this.)

This is my favorite of the series, and would make a great starting off point if someone is at all interested in these games. It fits nicely between the smaller scope of the first two titles and the more epic scope of 3 to create a more linear, dense, atmospheric experience. Tsukasa Saitoh's score is incredible, especially the Holy Forest track. It manages to convey the sorrow of a world long gone with the hope that it may be renewed in one track, and really hammers home the tone and themes of the entire game. A one of a kind experience.

Rolled credits on this a couple days ago, but ended up spending twice as much time scouring every inch of this stunning and mysterious world for all its secrets...and there are many. Rooms, puzzles, eggs, and the elusive bunnies which at this point I've given up on. I've seen and done far more in this than I ever thought I would. Visually dense, vibrant, kaleidoscopic. This is matched perfectly by its precise mechanics, it just feels incredible to play. You master its simple movements gradually as more is added to your toolkit until you find a sense that you are breaking the game the way you combine them. Recommend going for the true ending, it's a feast, and the secrets you find along the way open this right up. Brilliant game.

Glad to finally have my hands on this childhood classic of mine and it has aged more brilliantly than I'd hoped for. A grounded, atmospheric, and even sometimes terrifying survival game. The default settings are HUD-less, not even a crosshair. You use every resource available to you, mostly bone spears, to navigate the hostile Skull Island. Fight dinosaurs, giant centipedes, primordial gators, you name it. All of these monsters eat each other as well. Kill one and use it as bait to make your escape. Stick a big bug on a spear and throw it into thorny bramble to lure them in then set the bramble on fire to burn them all to death. It's filled with these little emergent moments. Then suddenly you play as Kong in a big monster brawler, climbing vines and breaking V-Rex jaws. Easily the gold standard for movie tie-ins, a genuinely great survival game on its own. The best game Ubisoft have touched.

Zenozoik looks more alive now thanks to UE3, but I can't help but miss what Source brought to it. Narratively this is the more impressive game, peeling back layers of this world I hadn't foreseen. My initial pull to Zenozoik was thinking about it's place in time, whether it was of Earth or a distant planet. These secrets are (partially) revealed in a way that makes you question the order of this world. Are the Zenos worthy of existing in a world of order? Can they even respond to order? The Corwid are seen to the inhabitants of Halstedom the same way the Zenos on the whole are likely seen by the world outside, if that world even still exists. They are a people without history or the means to live in a world devoid of chaos.

Anyways, mechanically this is more complex, but I feel a bit like I miss the simplicity of the first. The introduction of combos is welcome, but there are 2 combos taught at the end of the tutorial that will carry you right through without error. The ally system is cool, but also sort of needless. You're pretty capable of taking on most enemies in the game on your own, even in groups, and the healing time on allies can mean you won't even be able to summon them when you most need them. You can level up now, but I wish this was a little more fleshed out and that maybe the XP was tied to enemies encountered rather than tokens found in the world but it does reward exploration and I was all too ready to explore.

This all may sound a tad underwhelming, but I can't speak more highly of the atmosphere these games offer. The design and mystery of Zenozoik make me want to see every corner, better understand the lives of these chimera. The score in this one is evocative of a time and place beyond ours, it's so good. A fantastic game and sequel and I'm looking forward to Clash. I'm late to the ACE party, but I'm eager to play more of their games.

Really loved this, even as short as it is. It took roughly 3 or so hours to finish and I was fully immersed the whole time. This world has such a unique atmosphere and mystique, brought to life in Source. It looks just phenomenal, the animations and design of the world and its inhabitants feel so raw and bizarre but also impressive and inspiring. The combat loop is just complex enough, brawling and blocking, dodging and punishing, even shooting. It's enough to give you a good amount of control in how you play, with a decent skill ceiling that I never got a chance to master by the time the credits rolled. I'm glad I have Zeno Clash II and Clash: Artifacts of Chaos to look forward to.

Dragon's Dogma II is beautifully idiosyncratic, if not lacking somewhat in enemy/location variety, but makes up for that in it's open-ended approach to design. Changing your class whenever you like adds so much to this game that is lacking in most other fantasy RPGs. Grounding the way you traverse its world makes you put thought into how you navigate it. Creating your own skillset allows you to build weird and wonderful characters, a very fun way to experiment with how you will approach combat. The way it doesn't hold your hand, making you pay attention to the inhabitants of the world or even becoming obtuse and confounding separate this from your typical game. Overall it's almost like they turned Monster Hunter into an open world RPG, it's really something. I never played the first, something I'll likely rectify, but I really enjoyed my time with this and will probably return for a quicker second run.

I wrote out a short review a couple days ago because I'd believed I had finished the game when I sat on the thrown, becoming the Sovran. I was mistaken, Dragon's Dogma II had just begun. A gorgeously textured "epic" fantasy that became a deconstruction of the hero's journey. The submission of your pawn and the other pawns you encounter is turned into a mirror where you are faced with your own lack of will in the grand scheme of this world. That this was all designed exactly for the Arisen's journey. You don't take on quests, they are mandated by the game's creators just as the Arisen's path is to carry these quests out in a facsimile of will. A game greater than the sum of its parts, and there are some very strong parts.

The Automatons were eradicated yesterday, something I wasn't present for since I realized I haven't really played it in the last couple of weeks due to moving and the release of Dragon's Dogma 2. I loved my time with Helldivers 2 and there will likely be more time I spend with it. I could not have anticipated its incredible success, I even nearly didn't buy it day one because as a fan of the first I wasn't sure it would have a player base and for a multiplayer game that is everything.

What really sets Helldivers 2 apart from pretty much every game in its class is its tactility and chaos. Your first few missions feel like you're just flying by the seat of your pants and it's such a thrilling first couple hours as you discover all the little things the game has to offer. The first time you call in a precision strike or an eagle, the satisfaction of its visual and audioscape overtaking you. Every dropped bomb looks and feels tangible and pulse-pounding, every movement precise as you sprint, dive, crawl, and crouch. And then your buddy throws down a turret machine gun that proceeds to cut your whole squad into ribbons. It's controlling that chaos where the game really starts to shine as you communicate with your fellow Divers and expertly complete missions, sweeping whole battlefields for every morsel. I've played it for about 80 hours at the time of this log and had immense joy that whole time.