So, ask yourself, why are you buying this game?

Do you want a good Dragon Ball Z action game? There's plenty of fighting games out there using this brand, many even on PC, including the still actively supported Xenoverse 2 and FighterZ, both of which are far better at being action games and offer far more for that type of player.

Do you want a game that retells the story of Dragon Ball Z in a compelling way? That doesn't happen. The game will offer about a minute total per arc to scenes that actually attempt to recreate the visuals and emotions behind similar scenes in the manga or anime. The vast majority of cutscenes in this game though are flat shots where you watch the characters backs because CC2 couldn't be bothered to show their lips even moving (let alone the rest of the model, which are typically stuck with either their hands at their sides or in a default looping animation). The pacing of neither the manga or the anime is recreated, the tone isn't, the visuals fail as mentioned before, there is nothing here for a fan of either version of this stretch of Dragon Ball.

What about if you're a general RPG fan? Well, I hope you enjoy hours of cutscenes that are just what I described followed by the game telling you what to do. You have almost zero control over your party until presumably the endgame, and you will find yourself wasting wishes to Shen Long on resurrecting dead warriors, only to find out most of them want to fight Gohan who you almost never have an opportunity to play as once this becomes relevant (and when you do, the game goes "Actually, you can't go to the world map now!").

The fact that so many people herald this game as something good, like it's some great retelling of Dragon Ball Z is baffling. It fails in every regard to do that, ultimately being a cliffnotes version made by people who I honestly think don't like or outright detest Dragon Ball. No moment is given its appreciation, background characters completely change for no real reason other than, presumably, it was easier to work with a stock model (likely taken from another Dragon Ball game), and the part that made me stop and write this review was when the game had Trunks fight Perfect Cell, and it doesn't let you fight. Despite inserting meaningless fights before, fights that don't exist in any version of Dragon Ball (Goku vs Semi Perfect Cell, really?), they cut that one. And it's probably because they couldn't be bothered to do a Super Saiyajin Grade 3 Trunks.

Do you want a Dragon Ball game that loving recreates moments from the anime? Budokai on the GCN and PS2. It even has the original American opening music for English dub fans. Less lovingly is Ultimate Tenkaichi for seventh gen consoles, which redraws various anime scenes, but the game sucks.
Do you want a Dragon Ball Z RPG? Aside from the countless card battlers exclusive to Japan (many of which now have translations), there is also the Legacy of Goku trilogy for the GameBoy Advance, or Attack of the Saiyans for the Nintendo DS.
Do you just want Dragon Ball fanservice? Super Dragon Ball Z, Super Butoden, Hyper DBZ, FighterZ, Xenoverse, Dragon Ball Online, Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and 3, the list goes on.

Kakarot ultimately offers nothing. It does nothing well. Its presentation is bare, it cares little for Dragon Ball, its legacy, or how it existed (both on the screen and on the page). There is a notable Japanese commercial, showing generations of Dragon Ball fans, and how this game is comparable to the days of watching Dragon Ball Z on your TV. Ignoring everything I have said, I do not know how this game can even be compared to that when they didn't even bother recreating the anime's second opening, one which was around for nearly 100 episodes of the show's run, "We Gotta Power".

Also, they chopped off the actual ending and sold it as DLC.
Buy Xenoverse 2 instead.

I wonder how the staff pitched the rewrites, must've been a pretty great meeting.
Why don't we take Leon from a genuinely nice guy that became a cop out of the mistaken belief that cops are, you know, nice guys, and just make him like an asshole beat cop. Points his gun at everyone, obediently wags his tail when someone just goes "yeah I'm FBI", sees a guy screaming and panicking in a jail cell and goes "I have to talk to the chief" despite, you know, not even knowing if there's even any other cops alive. He's such a massive asshole in this game, they just saw "cop" and made that his whole character, like he's too deep into a LARP.

Also, you can't have both "Leon knows Ada is a spy" and the Ada kiss scene in one scenario. Those were separated in the original for a reason. Ada manipulating Leon is also dumb, even ignoring that her FBI cover seemingly only exists to fool him, a guy who showed up a week after the outbreak started, but Ada is meant to be capable. Pretty sure this game just hates women generally, since Annette went from a caring albeit absent mother to a Rick and Morty type scientist caricature, and we get new scenes of Claire getting tied up by a rapist and needed to be saved by giant monsters, when in the original she was the more capable of the two protagonists. Leon's story is supposed to be coloured by failure and growth, while Claire's is supposed to be coloured by determination and familial love. It's shocking, honestly, how they managed to take a game entirely about love, belief in humanity, so embroiled in standard mecha and toku themes that the Chinese comic had Leon fight God (and that isn't even much of a stretch when you consider his actions in the abstract, just think about him throwing away the G-Virus for a minute), and then the remake has none of that. It's a complete and abject failure in recapturing those ideas.

Maybe it's good at some new ideas, but it doesn't really have any. Well, aside from the rapist I guess, you know Irons was just a regular psychopath before that proposed interesting ideas for the player to chew on. His death in the original contains a lengthy speech about entitlement and has themes relating to desires resulting in inevitable self-destruction, which the player is then allowed to chew on as the next brief section is a jaunt through a few linear, visually interesting areas. But nah, just have him explode in your face after man handling the child, force this weird antagonistic relationship between him and Claire that goes nowhere expressly because he just explodes, and then transform the sewers into RPD2: We Ran Out of Good Ideas So Here's Brown, Green, And Grey! Why does he even want Sherry's pendant?

No, seriously, why? Does he want the G-Virus vaccine? Is Irons, notoriously spiritually weak and selfish man, going to make the long jaunt through the sewers and literal ground zero for the outbreak just to get the G-Virus for uh... uhh.... reasons? What, to sell it? To who? His benefactor just destroyed his town, who is he gonna go to?

It's a long list of unanswered questions in the remake, not even really alluding to answers. Pretty much the ethos of the whole thing, don't question all this stuff, don't think about the characters and motivations, just look at uh... this hamburger! The big one is why is Mr. X even here, where did he come from? You'll never know! Don't even mention that throwaway file Ben has, it's literally nonsense, how the hell would he know? Who told him and why? All he knows is basic conspiracy shit, "You guys have an underground lab!", how'd he find out about the seven foot tall supermodel in a trench coat and its motivations?

If Mr. X's motivations are truly to kill all survivors, why? Why be in the RPD? The RPD isn't connected to the lab entrance anymore, and almost everyone is dead. Before Claire and Leon show up, there is a grand total of 5 people there, with 3 dying for reasons completely unrelated to Mr. X! Its even worse since RE:3, which was written at the same time as this game so there is no excuse, changes the UBCS to actually be there to help, in addition to Umbrella being one of the last votes to nuke Raccoon City. If they wanted all evidence destroyed, they could've done it. Mr. X originally wanted the G-Virus which actually makes sense. Umbrella wanting it is what changed the many micro outbreaks to one big macro outbreak in Raccoon City, so of course they'd send a bunch of shit at the city to get it, especially when there are several competing forces like the Rival Company and the USA government trying to get it as well. Fucking dumb.

I could go on forever- so I will. One day I will update this review to call the game shit again. Because it is. I hate it.

The worst mainline game.

Titled "The Argument Against Porting Metal Gear Solid 4"

Written by a fan of Metal Gear Solid 4

Let's just get this out of the way. Porting games is good! Games are good! Fun, even. Games are works of art, etc. etc., all the things your parents said they weren't, you get it? I believe in porting games or remastering them, whatever.

So, of course I would be interested in the continually reoccuring topic of the Metal Gear Solid 4 plight. A game in one of the largest video game franchises ever made, what is technically the conclusion to said franchise and its leading character, in an IP owned by a still mostly-breathing publisher that loves to cash in on this IP... and it has been locked to the least popular platform of its generation for over fifteen years. Sounds tragic, right?

Honestly, I both find myself a bit miffed by the yearning desire people have for Metal Gear Solid 4 (especially so after recent events), and a bit worried. Worried in the sense that people are slowly construing a version of the game in their heads that isn't true to reality, a version of the game that isn't over 50% cutscenes and filled with purposefully awkward character beats or outright antagonistic (to the audience) narrative developments. A version of the game that's just "Woah it's Old Snake, war has changed, now he fights Liquid and Zero dies LOL" rather than the very heartfelt but also very tired soliloquy on the state of video games as a medium, the state of Metal Gear and Kojima's own ambitions, as well as the state of the fans surrounding Metal Gear.

Obviously, what I described isn't actually accurate to everyone. There's obviously people that still really don't like Metal Gear Solid 4 for perfectly valid reasons that I would never make fun of on the internet. Similarly, there's also people that fully understand what Metal Gear Solid 4 is. But, with the distance created between it and the current culture, it has achieved a status I see only in other games like it, games like Resident Evil Code Veronica.

Code Veronica has somehow succeeded into deluding people it's this integral part of the franchise. That despite Capcom already erasing it from ever happening in its current remakes, people act as if it's the very earth the rest of the franchise was built upon, when really, its most notable contribution to the core narrative was the return of Wesker (which most people accepted as a fact of life anyways). It's all headcanon and fanfiction subverting the actual significance of the game. It's a mirage, a layer of smoke that allows people to really see what they want to see.

That's the state Metal Gear Solid 4 has arrived in within the popular consensus. Now, I know, this doesn't actually address the title of the post, but I'm getting there. Metal Gear Solid 4, for a lot of people I see online, has become something it isn't. It has almost become what one would fantasize a sequel to Metal Gear Solid 2 as being, albeit with a cheat sheet laid out.

Is that a bad thing? I really don't think it is, unlike with my Code Veronica assessment, I think it's great honestly. Because it means people dedicated enough to seek out the fabled conclusion to Solid Snake and the rest of the crew will get all the bitter disappointment that was completely intended. Raiden's character moment at the end of 2 getting completely walked back, Meryl just becoming another soldier like the legendary war hero, Snake being a perverted old man, the church of Metal Gear... it's all great. And it would all be stunningly disappointing for a new fan, gaslighting themselves on what this game could be, to fully experience.

Just porting the game as is and letting it be available would completely sap that. The world would once more know- Metal Gear Solid 4 is not the grand sweeping conclusion, it was a messy game with a messy history that gives the expected in exchange for understanding. There's a blissful period where Metal Gear Solid 4 did cause people to understand Metal Gear Solid 2, to appreciate that game more because of how much 4 changed, and letting 4 remain as the mythical conclusion to 2's cliffhanger would continue that.

Or maybe I'm just coping about my five copies of the game and my three (3) PlayStation 3 systems. Honestly though, would you play Metal Gear Solid 4 without the disc swap scene?

(Konami wasn't going to port it anyways, and if they did the port would probably be RE4 Sourcenext tier lmao)

This review isn't scored because I guess the game is incomplete. It's also a free EXTREMELY high effort and long fan mod for a game where most mods are just "Play as Barry instead" or whatever.

Resident Evil Containment is a very neat game. That's the best way to describe it. It has a ton of cool connective tissue that classic RE fans like myself orgasm over- the door on the helipad gets used, there's a blackout at the mansion resulting in really cool pre-renders, you actually get to see the front of the mansion in game, you get to go outside beyond the courtyard, you get to use some unused elements of the caves, the unused elevator in the mansion is given a purpose, and the cut tower and boathouse areas are included in the game (though not in a major way, one is a relatively small area, and the other is just setdressing for the finale- still cool).

This is COOL. REALLY COOL.

It's a shame the game is plagued by AWFUL DESIGN CHOICES. That's right, choices, plural. I love my man Aydan Watkins, but this has been an issue with his more 'focused' projects, not to say that he should limit himself, rather, he should crib more from the games he's modding.

Containment is a very objective based mod. Find out what's happening, and then investigate, OH you need to upgrade you gas mask, OH you need to turn off the poison gas, OH you need to do this and that, it goes on and on. It's constant fetch quests covered in linear design that fails to hide the fact that this is fetch quests with linear design. Resident Evil 1 and CV hide this fact by just having you be able to explore so much all at once, and the game only guideposts to you by showing off the key items, and (sometimes) later showing off where you put them. Resident Evil 2 just hides this fact by making the progression be fun, you don't have someone in your ear telling you what to do the whole time.

That's the other issue, the constant chattering. Cutscene after cutscene, HUNK telling you what to do, a dying scientist telling you what to do, your girlfriend telling you what to do, the player character telling you what to do. The game is straight forward! I can figure it out!

Look to Resident Evil '96, the game this is a mod of. It doesn't tell you shit when you leave the mansion, but it guideposts you in a natural way. You get the crank and you immediately have a use for it, you get to the guardhouse and can immediately save and store items, that kind of thing. Two doors are open, one is locked, and while those two rooms you can go into are useless, the game doesn't just say "Go down the hallway adjacent to these rooms to get the room key." This is hyperbole to be fair, but it genuinely does feel like that when I'm playing Containment and it just isn't that fun, I can imagine if Aydan cut out pretty much all of the cutscenes, just had HUNK disappear immediately and leave it to the player to figure out everything, people would've progressed just fine.

Next thing on the docket- fuck stealth levels. I saw this shit on the youtube channel and went "Please just save this for a cool Metal Gear Evil mod or whatever", and then I get to the Final Chapter in Containment, and there's a fucking RE stealth level. Where getting caught is an instant game over. Where you have to do each one TWICE because the other character can't just follow you. Fuck me, I'm sorry but this shit doesn't belong in limited saves Resident Evil! It doesn't!

There's an earlier stealth section involving dogs, but thankfully you can choose to keep running even if one hit will kill you. Nice touch, adding the RE2 limp when Ghost cripples himself by the way.

Another thing! That Plant-42 boss fight is the most annoying shit on the face of the planet, and I hope to God it gets fixed. For some reason, the flamethrower wouldn't actually register against it, look up a walkthrough because I just ragequit the game when I ran out of ammo, and I see fucking Kendozone running right into the middle of it and spraying for max results. There's also zero feedback when you shoot it with a handgun, it's absurd.

Speaking of boss fights- please for the love of God, don't randomly decide the doors are locked. What's locking them? Is Wesker looking through the security cameras and going "Hmmm yes, I should bully this USS soldier", what the hell is going on? Another instance of bullshit locked doors is the sole instant kill puzzle in the game, one you can access long before actually getting the clue for it, and you will get locked in and die. Yes, it warns you that you should be careful. No, that does not justify this type of design in a limited saves Resident Evil title.

Speaking of traditional Resident Evil, I need to ask. What is the point of having limited resources, and then just taking them all away anyways. Why? Also, why does you inventory gain two slots when Ghost cripples himself, and those subsequently disappear when Trent fixes him (I actually know why, I imagine you imported RE2 Leon for that, right? And his menu stuff carried over or something dumb).

SPEAKING OF TRENT.

Man I fucking hate Trent. SD Perry is such a massive hack and Trent is emblematic of that alongside Rebecca. I mostly don't mind him being in fan games, but MAN he's just omnipresent and that carries over here. Insane shit.

Another non-RE1 addition I hate? Lisa. People talk about Lisa like she's this really deep and haunting part of the remake, she's just worse Nosferatu, all these awful melodramatic notes, tons of scenes that don't make sense, they put her into the game in the most jarring way possible (mandatory extra areas that pad the game out and kneecap the pacing), and she goes "Moooootheeeeer!" in her last scene, like I'm not supposed to laugh at how stupid it looks, the immortal tentacle monster that lives 20 feet away from the high tech super secret bio lab, leaping into the abyss. Mikami thought he was cooking with this shit.

Oh, what about Lisa in Containment? She works pretty well as a boss fight honestly, I still laughed when she did her death cry, but at least I got to kill her. Second only to Umbrella Chronicles in fulfilling this wish of mine.

Other stuff to rant about... the voice acting is actually pretty good? Yeah, I was expecting phoned in, "Hey this is my cousin Randy, he's going to read half the script in his dull tone of voice he gained from being an alcoholic", but nah, semi professional, occasionally good.

On the FINAL CHAPTER as it is called, there's a door that's supposed to lead to an alternate ending chapter, but it just said 'Coming soon' or whatever so... guess we be waiting for that. HUNK knife fight seems cool, is a bit lame. Ah well, it is done in RE1.

All in all, a very admirable project, but one with many many many many many many many many many many flaws. But also OH MY GOD IT'S THE TOWER! THE TOWER IS IN RE1! HOLY SHIT WE GET TO USE THE FIRST FLOOR ELEVATOR!! THE FRONT OF THE MANSION, WE CAN RUN AROUND IT!!!!

Real image of my ENGLISH Dragon Quest Dai stuff Collection.

Oh also

WO-OOOH
WO-OOOH
TACHIAGARERU
YOU’RE THE BRAVEST

While playing, Wesker said the line “Complete local saturation.”

I later played him in Mercenaries and was treated to the DMCification of RE.

Oh yeah, Ada was alright. Sure, Leon’s character was butchered in RE:2, but she came off pretty fine, if incredibly dumb.