One of the few games I've actually gone and Platinum'd cause it wasn't that hard to lmfao.

Yeah I spent plenty of time with this one and had a blast. Game's got some weird jank on the technical department at points, but it looks great. The new color grading of everything lends the game to look even more like all the Alien movies. You've got the darkness of Alien, Aliens deep Cameron blues and even Resurrections shit brown in any location with the flesh hives. It rules.

Biggest glow up in this is definitely how it feels to play compared to the original. Isaac and the framerate were fucking molasses in that game so when more than two Necromorphs were onscreen my god almighty. This one retains that 60fps in Performance Mode (how I always play games when given the option) which is such a welcome change. It also makes Impossible Mode actually a fun challenge this time around as opposed to the slog it felt like at points in the original. Saving and entering a room then clearing it and saving again if it has multiple waves the ideal strategy. If I wasn't so pussy I'd play that mode all the time.

Sound design still owns although I did notice that the sound mixing is a bit worse this time around? It feels like music and SFX get so loud at points it drowns out anything the characters are saying and it sucks cause the VA work is really good. Especially Isaac seeing as he was just making grunts and screams in the original. He gets to be an actual character this time. Honestly Isaac is like if James Sunderland wasn't so fucking pathetic. He's the PSM cover art James Sunderland in attitude.

Pretty damn good remake. Don't think it's as good as the RE ones (well it's better than RE3s remake lets not kid ourselves now...), but I do appreciate this one in a similar way to 4s remake expanding on the original and adding in new shit that's genuinely cool. Hope we get a Dead Space 2 remake. That'll be the one I'll really be looking at like a hawk to see if they fuck anything.

Pure video games. First time playing this since it came out and I'd forgotten just how much of a "video game" it is. Vanquish isn't worried about telling a story let alone a good one. Like Doom 2016 and Eternal it has plenty of modern day gaming elements like actual cutscenes, but none of that shit matters. Get out there and shoot the shit out of robots for 4 and a half hours. It does this all so right and constantly that being upset about the near nonexistent story would just be silly. Game feels great and it's fun. All I need.

Platinum's output from Madworld all the way to Bayonetta 2 is just so, so special. It's such a sadness their CEO is going to lead them to a slow bleed out from working on live service bullshit.

I'm gonna be real, I used to really love this game. Bought it on PS2 as a kid (one of the few games I actually could own and not just rent lmfao), and then played it again when the Ico collection came out on PS3. Replaying it now with this version I hate to say it, but I think I'm kind of over it. Just do not have the patience to deal with these controls anymore and I know the PS3 version was more fucky but I was also like 16 when that version came out.

Game still is a stand out of the medium as genuine art and the unique way to tell a story that only the format of video games ever could. In that regard I can't give it an outright terrible rating cause it's still an important landmark title for that, but man I really don't like playing this now. Maybe another playthrough in a few years will change that, but I'm sticking to this for now.

Also, this is probably Kow Otani's magnum opus. His Gamera and Godzilla scores plus his Gundam Wing OST (the best part of that series) were great but this, lord all mighty I'm boutta bust... I think I love his work for the music more than the game itself now. Get him to do some more video game soundtracks or work on things heavy on action please!

In conclusion... FUCK THIS GAME'S CAMERA