My life changed when I first played this game…

I still remember it vividly…

Being in an uncle’s house for a family reunion, suddenly, my uncle offers me and my dad (who was also a gamer back when he was fun) a look at his playroom, where he kept a massive flat screen, alongside an Xbox and several games.

I was ecstatic, and immediately chose one of the games from the bunch…

Halo.

The cover, the colors, the main menu…. It all spoke to me in a way that words can not describe…
If you know the feeling, you know it, simple as that.

Then my dad and uncle both left the room to got be adults again, and left me in there, in a dark room, sitting on a fluffy cushion really close to the TV, with the muffled sounds of the outside world, to experience Halo for the first time…

And good god, was it enlightening.

Landing on the Halo ring for the first time, was literally breathtaking.

As the music softened until an eventual stop, and the air whistled through the long, alien-looking trees, and the water slowly filled the silence, first with a flowing river, then with a crashing waterfall, it captivated not my attention…… but my curiosity.

Something far more important, and difficult to achieve.

The following few hours of action, chaos and adventure forever remain sealed in my heart as one of the most iconic gaming experiences of my life, and, eventually, when I grew up…. I realized I wasn’t alone.

Almost everyone celebrated Halo as a cultural phenomenon, and immediately set it as one of THE most important gaming steppingstones of all times, wether because of its fascinating story, fun multiplayer aspect, or absolutely revolutionary gameplay advances.

Its importance can’t be denied.

And if you do, it’s nothing but mute words, as evidence firmly swipes away any attempt to reduce this game’s impact…

Halo, is one of the most important videogame releases in history… and it will always remain that way.

Playing this game, is about the craziest combination of feelings I’ve ever had while playing…

The horror, is not based on a jump scare or a cutscene….

The horror is as subtle as walking down an empty hallway with a flashlight that limits what you see in front of you, all of this while absolute silence fills the room…. Hearing every footstep, every crack and snap from the wood below, everything you touch making a loud noise that startled you over the ridiculous lack of more sound.

And then the monsters appear, and the sound is so loud, it’s overwhelming, and you’re now in panic mode trying to stay alive.

Heh, these were my initial feelings with this game when I first played it as a teenager…

But the true horror…. The true horror only comes when you’re mature enough to read through everything and slowly find out the disturbingly heartbreaking story hidden beneath a “simple horror game”.

This game is a masterpiece.

A gem, one that exists only once in a lifetime.

And one that, will change you after playing it.

There was a version of me before and after I played Silent Hill, and once you start, you can never stop…. The whole franchise becomes extremely enticing, and addictive.

I’m so lucky to have had the privilege of experiencing something as good and complex as this game.

Funny enough, the rest of the franchise would become the definition of insanity itself…

But this one though…

This one, is the best example of a great game, well written, extremely well made, BUT…. Riddled with classic questionable Ubisoft decisions that could have destroyed it, had it not been for one… tiny, little, detail…..

Vaas Montenegro.

One of the best written, acted, and developed characters of videogame history.
Mixed with one of the best protagonists as well.

Jason Brody being a mirror of Vaas’s tragic story, is the fuel that keeps this game burning even so long after its release.

Had it not been for Hoyt’s final island that takes up half of the game, everyone would agree this game was a 10/10…. It is to me, but, I understand why it isn’t to many.

This game marked history as the creator of the best open world formula of it’s time, that slowly became more and more cursed due to it being overused in every single Ubisoft game even to this day.

It is a great, memorable experience that has the staying power of any of the ultimate classics of videogame history like Bioshock and Spec Ops: The Line.
(But… not 100% as great as those of course)

So…

To end this review, I ask you….

Did I ever tell you the definition…. Of insanity?

This game made me a fan of the FPS genre, and I absolutely adore it even to this day.

While simple in execution, and definitely a piece of its time, Turok 2 still manages to feel like an extremely exciting, and brutal experience.

Every new weapon providing you with a new ungodly amount of power to massacre your foes, and these foes slowly increasing in both difficulty and complexity.

This is 100% nostalgia talking, and I know the game is far from perfect.

But it’s still a game I will replay over and over again to this day, and I hope more people would just experience the absolute madness it has to offer.

A steppingstone in videogame history.

This game not only reinforced the power of videogames as a proper blockbuster machine of an industry, but it also presented one of the best conclusions to a trilogy since Return of the Jedi.

Brimmed with detail, heart, and action.

A story so vast and exciting, that knew exactly when and where to play with the player.

A graphical engine that stunned players of its time, as well as shocked them with all of its physics mechanics like gravity objects and interaction with things like water.

And of course… the absolutely robust Multiplayer suite that rocked, and I do mean ROCKED Xbox Live for so many years, perfected the matchmaking system, added character and calling card customization, as well as provided stable map packs to increasingly populate its multiplayer roster.

Everything this game did, became as much of a legend as Master chief himself, and fans were so in love with it, that of course, seeing some of its multiplayer offerings come back for the Collection completely restored, only went on to show the absolute power this game carried.

It’s still revered as one of the best games ever, one of the best of its franchise, and part of one of the best trilogies in gaming history.

Those are medals that are extremely hard to claim…. But that this game waves around proudly as time goes on.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better…

No wonder Romero loved it and even directed one of its TV ads…

Resident Evil 2 lives rent free in my childhood nightmares, for it was the very first RE game I ever played.

The creepy CG opening cutscenes of both Leon and Claire gave me nightmares for MONTHS, but somehow only pushed me to play the game even further.

The opening streets of Raccoon City give off a vibe, completely unmatched to this day, even with the Remakes, and the following claustrophobic sections in the police station, sewers, and labs, only further increase the tension in a game that is so excellently paced and thought out.

This is the game that opened my 7 or 8 year old mind (give or take) into further exploring the Survival Horror genre, and created in me a long lasting impact that stands strong to this very day at my almost 30 years of age.

What a masterpiece of a game, and, a turning point in the gaming industry that allowed the games of today to be what they are.

Impeccable.

Screw you Aspyr

You really.... you.... you f**ked the pooch on this one.....

What an absolute disappointment, I feel so damn betrayed like, riddle me this, HOW DO YOU MAKE A COMPLETE SET OF OLD GAMES, INCOMPLETE, ON THEIR DIRECT PORT TO NEW CONSOLES???

.... at least the GTA Trilogy had the decency to slightly improve the graphics, models and textures....

First PlayStation game I've ever refunded.... absolutely ridiculous

This game is far from perfect.

Typical wave shooter, left 4 dead-style, with limited roster of levels, and very little variety.

Then…. Why do I rate it that high?.

Because, as both an Alien fan, and a gamer, this game did to me, what Aliens: Colonial Marines only managed to promise.

If you’re on auto pilot, playing a game just to play it, expecting it to have so much crap to do and unlock, that you can stay busy for the rest of your life, of course you’re gonna hate it.

But if you slow down, put your “Alien fan” hat on, and play it on your own terms, you’ll find the awesome game hidden beneath.

The story is fascinating as an Alien fan, taking place much much farther into the future of the franchise, avoiding to destroy canon in any way, and telling a story new, but familiar.

The environments take you through almost all of the most memorable Alien locations, from mining ships like the Nostromo, to Engineer ruins like Prometheus, and Alien forests like Covenant, always hiding secrets and unlockables that add to the ever expanding lore.

And then, the gameplay.
Fast paced third person shooting, frenzy on your own, tactical as a squad.
Unlocking and customizing your weapons is addictive, as well as playing with each of the classes and maxing out their specs.

And finally, the music.
The soundtrack is downright perfect.
An excellent mix of classic Alien themes, and new music that fits perfectly with the franchise.

It’s more than likely that I’m looking at this game from a place of zero constructive analysis.

But I’m an alien fan, who loves crazy fun shooters, with tons of stuff to unlock and customize.

So it feels like this game was hand made for me.

I get it if you don’t like it, but if any or all of the details I spoke of before apply to you, then perhaps you should consider giving it a try.

It’s a game I never tire of playing.

The perfect Skateboarding playground.

This game, everything about it, is completely and utterly nostalgic to me.

Being a huge fan of skateboarding games (since I can’t do it in real life myself), no other game made me feel quite this way before.

The extreme freedom, the lively and colorful open world, the character customization, the fun characters and challenging activities, all of this, topped perfectly by THE skateboarding controls.

There’ll be no better Skateboarding controls ever again, it’s like the Halo/COD formula that perfected FPS playing on console, these controls are so intuitive, so responsive, and so well implemented, that borders between the realm of simulation and arcade fun, mostly leaning towards simulation, they’re so good, and so much fun to play around with in the rest of this lush package of extreme fun.

While of course the game has no major, emotional story for its campaign, it absolutely reaches legendary status on its fun factor alone, and this game to me, is the absolute best implementation of what the skate franchise has to offer.

Who would’ve thought… one of the entries for the “sequels better than the original” list, would be a skateboarding game…

I can’t believe what I’m about to write…

But bare with me, there is an honest to god opinion behind them 5 stars….
(Nobody’s paying me worth of sh XD)

So, I’m a Dino Crisis fan…
Wanna see just how much?
Check my profile….
I adore those games.
All of them, even Dino Stalker and Dino Crisis 3
It’s my…. Gaming bible i call it.
The one game I can never get tired of replaying over and over again, and always end up teary eyed when the credits play.
I just…
I respond to games with heart, and good balance of fun and emotion.
That’s what I love so much about gaming, and lord knows I wasn’t expecting that here…

In my YouTube channel, I ALWAYS reacted poorly to the trailers for this game.
Angered by Capcom pushing Dino Crisis aside just to feed the current trope of multiplayer only, battle pass-infested games…
I even got depressed at one point, ngl…
The thought of… waiting all these years… just to see Dino Crisis get replaced in front of my face…. It burn my soul.

I originally wasn’t going to get it.

A friend of mine basically dared me to get it, and I did, with one condition: no online purchase, and if the game annoyed me or poked fun at the live wound of Dino Crisis, I would sell that mf faster than Ezra Miller’s flash would commit yet another felony….. (joke seemed like it fit, sorry)

So, there I was, on Friday.

Got the game, installed it, my expectations were NONEXISTENT.
But, heh, the hub music was a banger… okay, started off with the right foot.
Battle pass…. Ugh
Yet, no microtransactions…
And just like with modern RE games, the DLC’s were just shortcuts for stuff that was already in the game, unlockable through experience…
Plus the war chests, were not random, didn’t have duplicates, and couldn’t be bought….

Huh….

Okay, let’s try the tutorial.

Game looked good, hell the scenarios look BEAUTIFUL, exactly what I always dreamed of a proper dinosaur action game.
The dinosaurs looked great in action, and while they’re as realistic as a fckng Digimon, they at least looked the part and were fun to fight.

Aight aight, doing good…

The rigs were questionable at first, I was fearing an Overwatch effect (expect this term to resurface several times in the review) what I mean by that is that, some would be more fun than others AND toxic players would immediately corner you into picking exactly the one that’s always missing in the team (go medics), however…. This wasn’t the case…
All the rigs were fun to use…
Their abilities all were game changing if used right….
Even the medics, hell, I’ve played in lobbies where there’s at least 3 consecutive medics….
This was perfectly balanced, and an eye opener to me….

Alright, it’s picking up….

Now at first I thought the game was lacking in content.
What, ONE MODE???? AND NO OFFLINE BOTS???? Pfffff bullshit.

But as the game progressed, I found out, with each new mission I did, a new game mode unlocked… or a new variety of a previous game mode….
And while there’s only 5 different scenarios, the maps are huge and are always played in different order, causing the game to not feel repetitive at all (trust me, I’m 30 hours deep in this bitch)

The modes divided in: completing objectives, which usually means killing lots of Dinos and sometimes even pursuing one big Dino throughout the map, protecting a generator, which had you defending a total of 3 generators throughout the length of the match, escort, which is Overwatch…. Escorting a package throughout the map until a certain point where both your team and the enemy team collide, making it a mixture of fighting Dino a.i and real players, and then there’s the competitive modes, which were basically collecting nodes faster than the enemy team (with some similarities to kill confirmed), and capturing command posts through the map (similar to conquest in battlefield) and one mode where players need to recharge a hammer to break through 2 walls, fencing off dinosaurs, only for the third wall to be a full on 4v4 to see who breaks the last wall with the hammer (also super satisfying).
THEN, there’s a last type of match, which is for the story driven missions, most of those become full-on PVE, merging both enemy and friendly teams in one massive fight against Dinos and bosses (I absolutely adored those)
And, for the final boss (no story spoilers) the battle consisted in ALL THE MODES combining for one, last, bombastic finale (soooo good)

So don’t be fooled…. Reviewers may say it has no variety at quick glance….. but as the game progresses, you find out it has so much more to offer.

Now, on to the story.

Story for a multiplayer game was often a big ick for me…
Either it was Halo 4 and they were all grunts in training simulations with some narrative going on in the back.
Or it was Overwatch, with a lot of lore for each character, side, and enemy type, yet later you found widowmaker and mercy teaming up with Winston and tracer during a same match versus their evil clones.
Or it was Fortnite and Destiny, and the lore only existed during specific “Game changing” events that started the next season.
OR the game was an MMO and the story was go here, kill this, thousands of people show up to kill one boss, yet the story only shows one, and sometimes a cutscene, sometimes just a dialogue, and off to grind some more.

Yeah, not a big fan of story in multiplayer games…

I never felt like either one of them stuck the landing, and I certainly didn’t think Exoprimal would either….

Boy was I wrong…

I thought the characters would be annoying, paper cutouts of stereotypes, with annoying in-game radio chatter that would force you to like them or something…
But…
No…

The game starts out strong with a really well made cutscene that establishes the basic problem: plane go boom in Dino-infested world, kill to survive.
But as the game progresses, the mystery of the island starts to unveil, and it shows a much larger picture that slowly involves every character around you, including you, AND including all the thousand other players also fighting with you or against you…. The plot found a really smart way of making every match work with the story.
Now, with every match you play, you get two files that slowly build your database, these are not just text or poorly implemented AND voice acted extras that the player isn’t motivated to check out, no these are proper stories that slowly tell you more about the lore, the mysterious island, the conflict, and every character around you (including a particularly quirky story about a screwdriver that I absolutely loved), all of this further building your love for each of the main characters.
Then, as you play more matches, the counter for a next story driven cutscene goes down, until you finally reach it, and unlock not only the next fully animated, voiced and acted cutscene (eat a dick Redfall) but also the next batch of modes, scenarios, Dino varieties, and boss battles.
By the time the last battle hits, which has the characters rallying up you and the thousand other players across different timelines fighting one last battle to save the earth, you are fully immersed in the story, the characters, the journey, and you celebrate with them and every player you play with, that last, beautiful victory before the credits roll (and oh boy do they roll, the music is fire, capcom better release the soundtrack because IT’S GODLY)

Now, I do have some gripes with the game, and it’s my constant gripe with multiplayer-only experiences nowadays….. lack of game preservation.

The game offers no offline modes (even though the tutorial is a regular mode with friendly bots and shows that that could totally work if they added it).
Plus, while the idea behind the story mode and multiplayer being one, is done beautifully, and absolutely BETTER than any game I’ve played before, they should’ve added a map and mode selector EVEN IF only after beating the main story, because it is a bit jarring at first, especially for newcomers who have no idea what they’re getting into.

Y’know how it feels like?, it feels like the first TitanFall…. They had something EPIC there, but couldn’t fully expand on it, but hopefully, with next updates or even a sequel, they can go down in glory just like TitanFall 2 did.

Now, my rating stands even after those complaints, because really, the game is absolutely fun, ridiculously well balanced, superficially shallow, but in reality it’s packed with content, and it tells a story that I personally resonated with, and adored even to the very, last, minute.

Plus I’m a sucker for dinosaurs and destroyed cities reclaimed by nature, so, SUE ME.

Now, I actually did finish the game in 3 days after playing it non stop.
Got to level 58, I’m 70% done with the trophies, and I am still glued to this game, hoping to max out every aspect of it just because of how much I loved the experience.
Hell I even bought the battle pass, I RARELY BUY BATTLE PASSES, didn’t do it for street fighter, didn’t do it for REverse, didn’t do it for battlefield, COD, ETC…. I never get them.
But I did with this.

Not because any of the content is particularly world changing (I mean the skins are awesome, but, that’s it).
Nah
I got it, because I want to support the game, and the developers…
Because even though it’s not Dino Crisis…..
I Can still feel the love and attention that the developers put into every aspect of this game.
I mean it runs beautifully at 60 fps, hasn’t had a single bug or crash, and it’s a complete experience from start to finish that I thoroughly enjoyed and can’t wait for more ❤️
YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW RARE THAT IS NOWADAYS????

If you were hesitant of playing this game, or the trailers didn’t sell it to you (like they almost didn’t to me) I hope this review helped paint a different picture of what this game really is about.

I hope capcom reads this somehow, so they see what I think could help the game improve, but so they also see, that this old, grumpy, Dino Crisis loyalist, that was 100% against this game….. ended up loving it.
And would gladly have it share shelves next to Dino Crisis 1 and 2 any day.
It was THAT good for me…. And I can’t wait to see what else it has to offer ^~^

Try it out…. You might just end up agreeing with me that, Exoprimal, is definitely, an immediate, cult classic in videogame history.

…

…

(NOW USE THIS TO RELEASE A DINO CRISIS 1 AND 2 REMAKE CAPCOM PLEEEEEAAAASEEE!!!!!)

(Thank you….)

Not for the faint of heart…

EDIT*
After I wrote this I started having some game breaking bugs, buttons stopped working, game wouldn’t launch, and the worst one, game wouldn’t save past a save file from yesterday (curiously after the game not launching bug)
So I was forced to restart my run on story mode, and my review went from 5 stars to this.
Don’t get me wrong, everything I said stands.
But it demands too much precision and difficulty, yet glitches out like crazy.
Until they fix it, this will be the final rating.
I love this game and what I makes me feel, but I hate how it was released (how typical)
Now
Do read my former review before I got glitches:


Aliens: Dark Descent was a bit of a mixed bag when initially revealed, I first thought it was gonna be a Diablo-styled dungeon crawler, then it was revealed to be a top down rts game, and that it would be kind of an indie release rather than a big budget game, with a price point of $40.
This could either be great news, or terrible news…

And now, after playing it for a while, I can safely say:

This is doing for Aliens, what Isolation did for Alien.

Every mechanic fits so well with the classic Alien mythos.

From deploying from badass transports, to slowly exploring the big, open areas you’re deployed in, quietly making your way through destroyed and desolate corridors, listening to the stress inducing motion tracker (THAT FINALLY WORKS AS IT DOES IN THE FILM) and finally, to engaging in desperate combat with xenos.

This game hits every mark of the classic Aliens film, and it FINALLY makes you feel like you’re actually in the world (Even if a part of me still wishes for another go at an immersive FPS)

Now, just like in the film, every decision counts…
Your marines and their mental health and literal health depend sorely on how YOU work as a commanding officer, meaning, depending on how you play, you can become Burke, Gorman, or in the best case possible…. Hicks.
It all depends on how you play and how you care for your marines.

Now, as the game progresses, things get tougher and tougher, some might say, relentlessly tough, but you do get a warning about this in the opening level.
The difficulty of your progress depends solely on how well you’ve managed to lead your squad in each mission, meaning, if you’re deep in shit by the first few hours, it’s on you buddy…. Not the game.

Stealth, knowing when to retreat, taking good care of your squad, and making the best possible decisions under a lot of constant stress are the best ways to push through the game.

Now, as for the story, even though the facial animations look, stiff… I’m actually quite surprised at the level of narrative this game has.

The cutscenes are a thousand times better produced than Redfall’s, being extremely well directed, voice acted, and with not visual stuttering, I was actually extremely impressed by them, and ended up being completely immersed in the story.

Now, it does have some negatives, I’ve heard of some people having lots of bugs (not xenos) however, I haven’t encountered a single one, so, I don’t know what that depends on, as said, the difficulty spike is INTENSE halfway through, and a lot of the times, the marines are often exaggeratedly voice acted, reminding me of the voice acting in Colonial Marines, and can sometimes break immersion when slowly making your way through creepy, desolate hallways.

It’s not that much actually, and I’m in fact extremely surprised at how well this genre works with Aliens when done right.

Maybe a future sequel that combines RTS with Shoulder Perspective TPS or straight up FPS would be my dream Aliens game, but, for the time being, I can only say I’m deeply surprised by this game, and it will definitely become my next, big, addiction after Aliens Fireteam Elite.

Aliens fans….. don’t sleep on this one.

It’s state of the bad ass art.

Time to take a jazz-riddled trip through a desolated, war-torn city at night….

To many, Halo ODST wasn’t a good game.

They said it was unnecessary, and a cheap way to squeeze full price out of the fan base, while offering very little in return.

The fact that it came packed with Halo 3’s multiplayer offering didn’t help at all either.

However…. All of those people can go feet first into hell, and back again.

Because god do I love this game…

What all of those people failed to address, were the immense overhauls to the classic Halo formula, that haven’t been done again since…

A full open World, filled with detail and explorable interiors, plagued with both enemies constantly patrolling the empty city of New Mombasa, and secrets, telling you the true nature of what hides beneath the city itself.

The game is not as shoot shoot- bang bang as its predecessors (at least not all the time)
Instead focusing on a very relaxed, dare I say romantic, experience, filled with astonishing ambiance and perhaps Marty O’Donnell’s best music of the bunch, that begs you to slowly explore its large and detailed city of death, with small skirmishes sprinkled here and there for effect.

Still, outside it’s open world, the game tells an anthology story, slowly piecing together the mystery of your lost squad, and eventually leading to a conclusion, now in real time, that further leads into the events of the main game of its title: Halo 3.

On top of that, while the game didn’t add any new competitive offerings for multiplayer, it did however add a fan favorite horde mode called Firefight.

As always, full of deep player customization, rewards, and enough variety to keep its players interested for a long time, and eventually rising to franchise staple, as future games continued to add this mode as part of the whole multiplayer offering.

This game was criminally avoided by many during its release, however, as expected… eventually grew a strong cult following that marked this game as one of the most beloved Halo experiences of the bunch.

I personally believe it is the best Halo game of the bunch because it speaks to me on many levels, its story and the ODST’s became my absolute favorite and encouraged me to become a more hardcore fan of the franchise after playing the game, down to collecting toys and memorabilia, as well as reading the halo books, all of this well before 343 came around.

It was also the very first Halo game I beat on Legendary, and got all the achievements for.

The importance of this game in my life can not be understated….

I might be a little too non-critical in my analysis of this game, but it is after all a personal review, and all things said and done, it is still without a doubt the one game I love the most out of the whole franchise.

Also the live action trailer for this game was IMMACULATE….. ABSOLUTE PERFECTION.

GOD I LOVE THIS GAME.

…..ehemm, forgive me…

I do love this game though.

Without a doubt, some of the most fun I’ve ever had with Battlefield.

This game rocked my teenage years, playing with a full squad of friends online, taking objectives left and right, and showing off my helicopter piloting skills that would inevitably land me dead at some cliff.

Bad Company 2 started the revolution of Battlefield.

Improving a lot on map size, environmental destruction, weapon variety and customization, and adding a fun, charismatic single player campaign, the game gave gamers from every walk of earth a little something to latch onto, and created within them everlasting memories of action and chaos that are even revered today, as both 2042 references maps and guns from the game, and as players desperately ask for a part 3 of the crazy stories of Battlefield’s own A-Team, the Bad Company.

No one knows if we’ll ever see a third part, but I can tell you this….

Part 2 is still called one of the best games in the franchise by many of its fans and for good reason.

Also long live the X-M8 Assault rifle, not enough games feature that majestic piece of deadly machinery.

Playing this game was a one in a lifetime experience, and it’s one I will never forget…

I remember when it first came out, seeing the absolutely insane reaction in every magazine, review show, and game store, everyone was talking about it.

I myself always wanted the chainsaw controller edition that released later on.

However, I never really got to play it.

All I could do was, watch all the images, read all the walkthroughs, and watch as many videos as I could find.

It wasn’t up until I was already a working adult, that I was able to buy my own GameCube, and a copy of this game.

And boy oh boy, was the experience exhilarating…

Just entering the game for the first time, watching the classic, gritty textures, and listening to the desolate ambiance was already thrilling, but then you’re welcomed by the most anxiety inducing opening level in any game, fighting off dozens of plagas AND the chainsaw dude, safe to say, I was already sold on it, but as the experience kept going, it kept getting better and better for the most part.

By the end you do see a few levels that were a bit too much, and just the level of insanity that the story has, but for some unknown reason, it all works out perfectly together in the end.

This is perhaps one of my most replayed games ever as well, and the one I own the most I think, coming down to Cube, IOS, Xbox 360, PS4, PC and now the remake.

While not perfect when fully analyzing every level and mechanic in detail, it definitely works all together as one of the most epic and memorable Survival Horror Action experiences out there.