Just 2 years after Codename 47, IO interactive released Hitman 2: Silent Assassin - capitalizing on the success the first game was despite it's mixed to above average critical reception, there was clearly promise in the franchise.

Silent Assassin saw improvements in every single aspect compared to it's predecessor, the level design was much better, the animations and visuals popped a lot more, qualiy of life was given to the map and general feel of the gunplay was improved a lot.

While Silent Assassin does have a few stinker missions, namely the ones in the snow mountains of Japan like Hidden Valley and At the Gates, the vast majority of the missions are designed in a similar vein to Thermal Bath Hotel from Codename 47, which was by far the best mission there.

Every single mission is something you can tackle in complete stealth, you're no longer forced to go guns blazing in specific segments, the game also introduces a nuanced ranking system with various labels depending on your playstyle and performance ranging from :
Mass Murderer - killing everyone and everything you see to Silent Assassin - Unseen, efficient with no wasted kills or gunshots.

The only real gripe I have with Silent Assassin is the unpredictable AI, it works fine for most of the time but it can get frustrating when they see you from the back of their head or immediately open fire because you jogged for 1 second.
The suspicion system is not as consistent as future entries, sometimes they just decide to open fire as you're passing by, sometimes they dont. Granted, the less you linger around them, the less likely they are to notice you but it does make close encounters frustrating at times, while working in favor of the game at others like in Tubeway Torpedo where you constantly have to walk past other guards in extremely tight corridors, giving the mission a kind of tension you won't really be able to get in any other Stealth franchise except Hitman.

As for the soundtrack, it's amazing as usual. Jesper Kyd like always delivers top notch compositions that enhance the experience and give Hitman it's unique atmosphere and mood it's known for.
There is a bit of a tonal shift compared to the first game's soundtrack, Silent Assassin has a more impactful and orchestral sound whereas Codename 47 had a more moody and subdued sound.

Overall, it's a fantastic sequel, improving upon every single aspect of the first game and putting the Hitman franchise on the map, still remaining the best selling entry in the franchise - maybe except the new Hitman 3 for which we don't have definitive figures yet.

Codename 47 is the first entry in the Hitman franchise, renowned for being probably the best stealth franchise to ever exist. Does this game live up to that reputation though?

No. (lol)

It's still a fun time especially during the earlier missions and the Thermal Bath Hotel mission, which also happens to be the best in the game, however the experience is marred by inconsistent AI, noticing you from OUTSIDE OF THE DRAW DISTANCE in some missions even, like the Say Hello to My Little Friend mission and Plutonium Runs Loose (which is probably the worst mission in the entire franchise) and a lack of a limited save system within missions like future entries, forcing you to restart from the very beginning when you fail. Yes, not IF you fail... WHEN you fail, because you will. Some missions hit you with extremely punishing knowledge checks that you would've had no way of knowing on your first playthrough but the game punishes you for that regardless.

The fundamentals that the franchise was built upon are all here and this game will forever be respected for starting it, but pretty much every other game in the series is better.

The one thing that I can't criticize is the insanely atmospheric soundtrack composed by Jesper Kyd, also known for his work on some of the Assassin's Creed franchise.

Overall, it's a decent time but it has aged pretty poorly and you do have to play through the game once to be aware of all of the knowledge checks, it makes latter playthroughs much smoother and less frustrating.

Context to the review bombing.
THE GAME DOES NOT INSTALL THE EPIC GAMES LAUNCHER. This is MISINFORMATION by review bombers.

It seems everyone is pissed that the game has Epic online integration and Denuvo.
I'll play Devil's advocate and say that this is insanely overblown. Denuvo causes no performance issues to Superstars, both because the game is generally low spec and because there aren't really many Denuvo triggers put into it. It's a nothing burger of a complaint. As for the Epic integration, a bit of an inconvenience at best, you really only need to register or link your account once. It's not the only game on Steam to do have a service connected to a different client. Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity 2 OS also force you to use Larian's own launcher but this game doesn't. It's legit just a single time account link and it's all through Steam afterwards.
Is it the ''Epic = CHINA THEFT OMG'' fear mongering that's pretty much built on nothing but baseless paranoia lol.

The actual game review
Classic Sonic like always is wildly more consistent than Modern.
The controls feel really good, the soundtrack is mostly great (safe for the Jun Senoue tracks that sound a lot like Sonic 4, keep this man away from the Genesis soundfont please...) and the level design while it doesn't have the heights that the likes of Sonic 2 and 3&K have, it also doesn't have any of their lows either. Making it the most consistent 2D Sonic title as of now which definitely puts it ahead of Sonic 1 and Sonic CD for me.

The general aesthetic of the game is very pleasing and colorful, with some of the most expressive animation the series has seen in a long while, or well, since Mania.

As far as the physics go, this ain't no Sonic 4, it's very much in line with the Classic games, maybe with some microscopic differences but the controls are overall great.

A really solid pixel art hack n' slash. It can get repetitive through out but the boss battles more than make up for it and are easily the highlight of each mission.
The story follows the Mageseeker saga from the League of Legends lore, we see how Sylas came to be the leader of the rebels before going to the Frejlord. A must play if you care about LoL lore either way, the fact it's a great game even without the story is welcome though.

Only real complaint I have is that it does have some bugs here and there, though Digital Sun Games are patching them out pretty efficiently so far.

It easily became one of my favourite games of all time. It carries everything that made the first Dark Souls a great game and polishes it to perfection, with a lot of care put into the details.

The progression from area to area is definitely more linear, but a lot of people conflate that with the areas themselves, which are arguably less so or about the same.

The interconnectivity of the first game was a fine novelty but was largely irrelevant in the last 40% of DS1 anyway and you generally made use of it like once or twice per shortcut at most, so I don't really see an issue with DS3 giving you the fast travel from the getgo even if it does lessen the importance of the interconnective shortcuts that are still present here mind you, and arguably more so than DS1 if it weren't for fast travel being so convenient.

The game is a step up in every single way regarding combat, all weapons have larger move set, much more satisfying hit feedback and generally more variety, this is a trend that extends to enemy design overall, the most complex that DS1 mobs got was the Silver Knights, Black Knights and Titanite Demons as far as dealing with their movesets went. Whereas Dark Souls 3 generally has some regular enemies and mini-bosses that rival if not surpass some major DS1 bosses in that area.

The variety in builds remain, the meta has changed since - some things are weaker than they used to be, some are stronger than they were but that's to be expected in an RPG series. Can't keep making the same game after all.

Where DS3 shines compared to it's predecessors is boss design, you thought the DLC bosses in DS1 were amazing? You'd be glad to know that they applied that design philosophy to the majority of bosses here. So many memorable and challenging bosses it's insane.

I'm not trying to harp on DS1 with this review, since I am just speaking comparatively, it's still an amazing game and another one of my top 10 of all time, it's more so to emphasize how good 3 actually is, if it manages to surpass something as amazing as the original DS in my eyes.

As a whole, I am a relative newcomer to the franchise, having experienced both the first game and the third game in the span of the same month, but even then I can say that Dark Souls is a franchise that made me think about narrative told through gameplay and the world around you more than any other. There's barely and story to speak of, most of the series is lore that happens to be great enough to the point of not even necessitating any detailed story.

All in all, I'm glad I played these games after being reluctant for years... and I'm 100% going to play the rest of Miyazaki's output.

Regardless of what people tend to regurgitate, I welcome most of Sigma's changes, making the game flow more seamlessly and putting a focus on the combat itself by streamlining the boring puzzles of the original, it's a better experience through out.

Even then, the game fundamentally has aged and it shows, the camera is really janky and most of the time you'll be looking at Ryu's shiny ass and in tight rooms especially it's super prominent and just adds another hurdle to the already difficult game.
The game also does a poor job at telegraphing some enemy attacks making them feel like cheese because they're just a blatant knowledge check rather than any mechanical skill, but overall it's still a great game, with a super satisfying combat system and it made every weapon feel necessary at some point as they're better at certain types of enemies.

It's the less acknowledged fellow pioneer of the Character Action genre next to DMC but I do think it has aged a tiny bit better in comparison, granted it's also a bit newer.

For a game that has some of the strongest story beats in the series so far, should be smooth sailing right? No lol. CyberConnect2 thought it'd be a fantastic idea to have you grind your life out for Virus Cores to artificially lengthen the game to make it feel more like an ''epic finale''. Really unfun to revisit knowing what awaits you in the final stretch of the game unless you've gradually grinded the Virus Cores from the previous entries - if that's the case, it has potential to be probably the best game in the series but it's really relative on how much you grinded in the previous entries.

Ultimate Spider-Man is probably the most polished open world Spider-man title of it's era, with a box art illustration by the comic artist Mark Bagley and a cel-shaded art style in-game to match - a game that manages to have a pretty sensible story without any encounter feeling forced just for the sake of fanservice but somehow managing to fit in a roster like Venom, Wolverine, Silver Sable, Johnny Storm and Carnage alongside some recurring Spidey villains like the Rhino and Electro in one title. Some witty dialogue here and there as well.

It's interesting how early on they actually managed to nail the web swinging aspect of the series, all they needed was to start polishing it up from here but the farther ahead the games went on, the more that didn't happen until Insomniac's Spider-Man on the PS4. Webs actually attach to buildings, the game has incorporated momentum and so on. Movement as a whole feels ultra smooth and satisfying.

As for the combat... it's there? Lol.
It's serviceable enough for what the game focuses on, which is mainly it's movement, a lot of challenges, races and chase missions based on web swinging.
But it does have a degree of jank to it, and the combos are relatively uncontrollable, while I'm alternating between punches and kicks, Spidey will sometimes do a Wall bounce into a kick that does a good amount of damage, and I swear I've tried everything to do it manually, but the game just does it whenever it wants as I combo near a wall. Pretty useful when it happens though

I wish the collectibles were implemented better and weren't just random tokens spread across the city in random locations. However, the Comic tokens are pretty neat, as they unlock cover illustrations from the comics, if you like Mark Bagley's art that's one incentive.

Overall, it's a pretty enjoyable experience though with a few flaws.

The game has been surprisingly amazing so far.
JRPG inspired structure and combat, but with a western flare - which is apparent from all the Quality of Life put into the JRPG formula, as Japan stick heavily to the old traditional way, but in this case, Airship Syndicate have made everything more convenient to intake, battles have a lot of mechanics that incentivise you to plan ahead instead for just the given turn unlike most JRPGs.
Strong narrative and extremely well realized environment, also beautiful and super cinematic sound design and top notch soundtrack. It's amazing that this is a product somehow remotely connected to League.

Even if you don't like League of Legends or haven't even played it, it's a perfect standalone title and a worthwhile RPG to try.

A pretty fun Action RPG with a unique combat system, it's not an everyday thing that an on-rails shooter gets fitted into a JRPG.
The story was surprisingly a lot better than the terrible anime, attributed to the fact that it was written by Kasushige Nojima of Final Fantasy 7 fame, whereas the anime was handled by Mari Okada - the queen of non-sense melodrama.

Either way, a pretty fun experience although it does overstay it's welcome by the end of it, as the game drops more and more Extra missions on you the instant you think you've hit 100% completion.