Bogger_T
Alan Wake's American Nightmare is a good game that improves a lot of the original Alan Wake's gameplay problems as well as adding much more variety and content at the expense of having a boring and underwhelming story with an ending that's lacklustre.
In the game, we play again as the writer Alan Wake as he arrives in a desert town that has been taken control by the darkness with Alan's evil doppelganger Mr Scartch. Mr Scratch is probably one of the highlights with TVs with recordings showing what this evil maniac has been doing with him taunting Alan, most of the time while committing acts of murder. The villain is charismatic, funny and an absolute psycho which made me of course absolutely adore every time he was on screen. Besides that, the story is well boring. You finish a checklist of pretty easy tasks over and over blasting enemies along the way.
The gameplay is improved from the previous Alan Wake with the same flashlight and dodge mechanics making a return. The movement is somewhat improved feeling smoother and the game adds a plethora of new guns, a welcome change from the limited arsenal of the original. New enemies also come in spades with the same enemies making a return as well as a few new faces like a hulking hillbilly behemoth and vampire-like enemies that can transform from human to a flock of birds allowing them to land behind you and sneak attack you if you don't keep an eye on them. The game itself isn't really that hard though and although there were a few areas I died at I never found myself feeling too challenged.
The game also comes with an arcade mode which although I didn't really touch seems like a nice edition for knocking a few hours into.
Sadly the game's variety stops with the guns and enemies with the total levels being 3. Although each time is made quicker I still found myself rushing through these levels to get to the ending after halfway through the second loop.
Overall I did enjoy the game and although I don't think its the best Alan Wake game Mr Scratch himself would make me play it, which is an ode to the actor Ilkka Villi and the great performance he puts on. I just wish we could have gotten him in this more charming goofy form in another game, but here's for the future.
In the game, we play again as the writer Alan Wake as he arrives in a desert town that has been taken control by the darkness with Alan's evil doppelganger Mr Scartch. Mr Scratch is probably one of the highlights with TVs with recordings showing what this evil maniac has been doing with him taunting Alan, most of the time while committing acts of murder. The villain is charismatic, funny and an absolute psycho which made me of course absolutely adore every time he was on screen. Besides that, the story is well boring. You finish a checklist of pretty easy tasks over and over blasting enemies along the way.
The gameplay is improved from the previous Alan Wake with the same flashlight and dodge mechanics making a return. The movement is somewhat improved feeling smoother and the game adds a plethora of new guns, a welcome change from the limited arsenal of the original. New enemies also come in spades with the same enemies making a return as well as a few new faces like a hulking hillbilly behemoth and vampire-like enemies that can transform from human to a flock of birds allowing them to land behind you and sneak attack you if you don't keep an eye on them. The game itself isn't really that hard though and although there were a few areas I died at I never found myself feeling too challenged.
The game also comes with an arcade mode which although I didn't really touch seems like a nice edition for knocking a few hours into.
Sadly the game's variety stops with the guns and enemies with the total levels being 3. Although each time is made quicker I still found myself rushing through these levels to get to the ending after halfway through the second loop.
Overall I did enjoy the game and although I don't think its the best Alan Wake game Mr Scratch himself would make me play it, which is an ode to the actor Ilkka Villi and the great performance he puts on. I just wish we could have gotten him in this more charming goofy form in another game, but here's for the future.
2015
For a phone game fallout shelter is great. I'm more surprised I didn't have to pour money into it. It does get pretty boring and repetitive as you go on though.
2010
For the past maybe two months I've been exposed to enough Fallout to kill a person, with the TV show coming out in tandem with my playthrough of New Vegas. So I was relieved to finish the game once I reached its climax. However, don't let that downplay how great this game is.
Fallout New Vegas is one of the best RPGs to come out. The game writing and story are second to none and the plethora of choices, side content and routes make each journey truly unique. As well as this the story makes you question what's best for the wasteland with each of the factions you can side with having both pros and cons. Fallout New Vegas has proven even through time that it still stands above many modern-day releases. However, with time Fallout has begun to show its age terribly. At the time of New Vegas's release, it was already pretty dated compared to other games coming and with the abundance of bugs, glitches and crashes that do still follow the game it makes an experience that would be fun, overly frustrating. Although some of these issues can be fixed with mods the real problem comes down to the engine, a problem that cannot be fixed unless we get a remake or remaster which as well would hopefully fix the clunky combat and movement. Lastly, I want to touch on New Vegas's DLCs. New Vegas has 4 main story DLCs all of which follow the trend of having spectacular writing, however, when playing these DLCs I found that there was a lack of content. Take for example Broken Heart. The game adds a new location, a few new side quests and a few new weapons. However, these additions are quite minuscule with the few weapons added being quite uninteresting and the lack of new enemies besides the yoa guai that's ported from Fallout 3 leaves much to be desired. Besides that the DLCs are great with my favourite being Old World Blues.
Overall Fallout New Vegas is a brilliant game that is sadly bogged down by an engine that even at the time was crirised. To say I enjoyed my time with Fallout New Vegas would be an understatement. I've put past 100 hours into this game and yet I know I still haven't scratched the surface of what this game offers.
Fallout New Vegas is one of the best RPGs to come out. The game writing and story are second to none and the plethora of choices, side content and routes make each journey truly unique. As well as this the story makes you question what's best for the wasteland with each of the factions you can side with having both pros and cons. Fallout New Vegas has proven even through time that it still stands above many modern-day releases. However, with time Fallout has begun to show its age terribly. At the time of New Vegas's release, it was already pretty dated compared to other games coming and with the abundance of bugs, glitches and crashes that do still follow the game it makes an experience that would be fun, overly frustrating. Although some of these issues can be fixed with mods the real problem comes down to the engine, a problem that cannot be fixed unless we get a remake or remaster which as well would hopefully fix the clunky combat and movement. Lastly, I want to touch on New Vegas's DLCs. New Vegas has 4 main story DLCs all of which follow the trend of having spectacular writing, however, when playing these DLCs I found that there was a lack of content. Take for example Broken Heart. The game adds a new location, a few new side quests and a few new weapons. However, these additions are quite minuscule with the few weapons added being quite uninteresting and the lack of new enemies besides the yoa guai that's ported from Fallout 3 leaves much to be desired. Besides that the DLCs are great with my favourite being Old World Blues.
Overall Fallout New Vegas is a brilliant game that is sadly bogged down by an engine that even at the time was crirised. To say I enjoyed my time with Fallout New Vegas would be an understatement. I've put past 100 hours into this game and yet I know I still haven't scratched the surface of what this game offers.
Overall this review is more of Halo CE compared to a individual review of anniversary. However I do want to say that as a product anniversary provides. It's new graphics and cutscenes are not the best in fact there outright ugly most of the time. However because of the option to just switch to the old graphics its really not a huge problem.
Halo CE was a genre defining game that has only been matched by its two sequels. Because of its age and its overshadowing you'd think that Halo CE might pale in comparison, however CE to me is the most memorable of the 3 games. It's story is fun, movement is fun and floaty, and its weapons, enemies, levels and multiplayer all holdup extremely well. The overpowered pistols, the introduction of the flood and the less serious aura compared to its newer counterparts. Halo CE is a great game and its co-op campaign and multiplayer are still great by all means and is definitely worth replaying
Halo CE was a genre defining game that has only been matched by its two sequels. Because of its age and its overshadowing you'd think that Halo CE might pale in comparison, however CE to me is the most memorable of the 3 games. It's story is fun, movement is fun and floaty, and its weapons, enemies, levels and multiplayer all holdup extremely well. The overpowered pistols, the introduction of the flood and the less serious aura compared to its newer counterparts. Halo CE is a great game and its co-op campaign and multiplayer are still great by all means and is definitely worth replaying
2022
It's ok. Rental is a small and cute indie horror game with a cool idea of a dimension-bending house. The game is really short but free and the PS2 style and animal characters are pretty neat. It's nothing really special, although I enjoyed my little time with it.
2001
Max Payne is a great game that even over 20 years later feels not only great but fresh compared to a lot of other games released today. From its gritty New York setting to its over-the-top characters and unique comic book presentation, there are still no real games that pair up with the originality of this game. Not only that but being the original game to introduce bullet time is the cherry on top and diving around through doors or out of cover while shooting at enemies is about as badass as it sounds. But that's what makes the criticisms of this game even sadder. I played on the standard "Fugitive" difficulty and even then I found myself dying continuously to what felt like most of the time unfair means, Max doesn't have a lot of health and due to this, the gameplay suffers. It's hard to feel like a badass when you're the equivalent of a glass cannon. This paired with sometimes just cruel enemy placement can make it really demeaning to keep going. Another aspect that suffers is weapon balance. Throughout the game you get a pretty wide variety of weapons which is great except that there are only a select few that are really viable. Most weapons are ok and some I can even see were intended for either closer-range or longer-range fights, but the shotguns are pretty much coinflips unless you're touching the skin with your enemy. These aspects really dampened my enjoyment of the game, to say they ruined it however would be a plain lie. I loved this game for a lot of reasons but I think one thing this game really accomplished is charm. You can feel the love, fun and effort put into this game and I think that's what really makes it feel so fresh.
max paynis lmao
max paynis lmao
2010
Alan Wake was a game that I loved when I played it despite its flaws. It was a game I was able to absorb myself in due to its unique setting, greatly detailed level design and story, inspired very obviously by Twin Peaks and Steven King novels, even acknowledging the author in its opening cutscene. However, I'd have to be in denial to say it doesn't have its issues, from its clunky movement, limited enemies and basic combat with a gimmick that even though I would say I favoured a lot more than some can sometimes be infuriating. However, this doesn't take away from it's ultimately great high points and quirkiness that I've only been able to find in Remedy games. Now all I have to do is buy a supercomputer so I can play Alan Wake 2.
2021
Co-op games I find are always fun even if they are badly made, being able to laugh and share the experience with a friend is what makes these games so special. For It Takes Two though this experience is elevated so much by fluid gameplay, an interesting, engaging and quite emotional story and a huge amount of content that this game packs into its runtime.
Finding a place to start is hard but I guess a good place would be the story. I don't want to spoil too much but the basic rundown is two parents whose marriage has gone bitter plan to divorce and their child who wishes that they'd love each other again accidentally uses some sort of magic that turns them into dolls. They now have to work together to try to return to their real bodies and hopefully, throughout the journey repair their broken marriage. I've seen a lot of people say they hate the story for the relationship between the two parents as well as its apparent anti-divorce sentiment however I would disagree. To dive into why I don't think this game holds that stance would make this review a few too many pages long so I'll just say that I found the journey and story to be quite organic and investing. There are some story choices I could criticise but these choices don't detract from the body of the experience that being the gameplay.
It Takes Two pack so much into its gameplay that to cover everything would be next to impossible, however for the main runtime of the game you can expect a third person cooperative platformer with action elements. This changes throughout the experience to where you'll be playing a naval battle sequence and then after be playing a top-down action ability segment, this game's ability to switch genres is incredible and adds so much to the variety and uniqueness of the experience. As well as this, the number of mini-games scattered throughout the game is jaw-dropping. These add a moment where you can stop what you're doing and mess around for a bit before heading off. the fact that they also change drastically from one to another made it encouraged to look around for these minigames and when me and my girlfriend finished the game and saw there was more minigames that I had missed made me realise just how much content this game packs in.
Finally, the level design of this game is spectacular with each location looking drastically different from the other. Not only this but around the maps are locations with interactable entities like in your daughter's room where you can play with toys scattered about or a full-blown spa in the outdoor garden level. These cool little interactable sections made me want to explore every corner of a map and with the number of levels, I'm sure I probably missed some.
In conclusion, It Takes Two is probably the best Co-op game to be made not only within recent years but in my opinion, the best Co-op game made so far. The amount of features and content this game has is inspiring and I think anyone would find it hard to find a Co-op experience that matches this game in almost any merit. The fact as well that only one person has to own this game for two to play makes this a must-play for anyone who has the itch for a Co-op experience. I saw on steam that it's going for 10 euro for the spring sale and honestly, you'd be studied not to at least give it a try at that price.
Finding a place to start is hard but I guess a good place would be the story. I don't want to spoil too much but the basic rundown is two parents whose marriage has gone bitter plan to divorce and their child who wishes that they'd love each other again accidentally uses some sort of magic that turns them into dolls. They now have to work together to try to return to their real bodies and hopefully, throughout the journey repair their broken marriage. I've seen a lot of people say they hate the story for the relationship between the two parents as well as its apparent anti-divorce sentiment however I would disagree. To dive into why I don't think this game holds that stance would make this review a few too many pages long so I'll just say that I found the journey and story to be quite organic and investing. There are some story choices I could criticise but these choices don't detract from the body of the experience that being the gameplay.
It Takes Two pack so much into its gameplay that to cover everything would be next to impossible, however for the main runtime of the game you can expect a third person cooperative platformer with action elements. This changes throughout the experience to where you'll be playing a naval battle sequence and then after be playing a top-down action ability segment, this game's ability to switch genres is incredible and adds so much to the variety and uniqueness of the experience. As well as this, the number of mini-games scattered throughout the game is jaw-dropping. These add a moment where you can stop what you're doing and mess around for a bit before heading off. the fact that they also change drastically from one to another made it encouraged to look around for these minigames and when me and my girlfriend finished the game and saw there was more minigames that I had missed made me realise just how much content this game packs in.
Finally, the level design of this game is spectacular with each location looking drastically different from the other. Not only this but around the maps are locations with interactable entities like in your daughter's room where you can play with toys scattered about or a full-blown spa in the outdoor garden level. These cool little interactable sections made me want to explore every corner of a map and with the number of levels, I'm sure I probably missed some.
In conclusion, It Takes Two is probably the best Co-op game to be made not only within recent years but in my opinion, the best Co-op game made so far. The amount of features and content this game has is inspiring and I think anyone would find it hard to find a Co-op experience that matches this game in almost any merit. The fact as well that only one person has to own this game for two to play makes this a must-play for anyone who has the itch for a Co-op experience. I saw on steam that it's going for 10 euro for the spring sale and honestly, you'd be studied not to at least give it a try at that price.
2017
This review contains spoilers
After I finished 'Night In The Woods' my reaction was "Oh that's it?". I thought maybe I'd played the game wrong somehow, how could this be so widely praised? I didn't get it at all and I still don't. That doesn't mean this game doesn't have its high points though and I would like to highlight them. (Spoilers past this)
Starting with the pros I found the setting of possum springs fascinating. An old rust belt town that has fallen from its former glory with a long history of capitalistic greed and tragedy. The writing is charming as well and I found myself laughing at a lot of the dry humour, paired with a lot of the decently written characters made the interactions something to look forward to (at least most of the time). Finally, the soundtrack is great and fits the unique look and style of the game. Alec Holowka (R.I.P) made a soundtrack that is so vast and memorable that it follows you after the experience. I'll probably go back through and listen to a lot of the songs. I also loved the change in tone in the latter half of the story. Seeing all your friends trying to stay distracted in light of the uncertainty of their friend's condition and what they witnessed really makes the weight of the situation felt.
Sadly through my playthrough, I found the bad outweighed the good in many instances, starting with the main character. Mae is a flawed character and that's part of the story, she suffers heavily from dissociation, is continuously childish despite how she wants to be seen as an adult and lashes out at people a fair few times throughout the story. These characteristics aren't inherently bad and if written into the story correctly can be an interesting character study, but this isn't the case, I chose to hang out with Bae more through my story and I'm her route we see Mae continuously wrong her with once instance at the college party coming to mind. Not only that but after these events Mae faces next to no consequences and is just forgiven a lot of the time for these wrongs. I don't think that forgiving is wrong but for things to pretty much go on as normal after to me is daft, there are no lasting effects to what Mae does. One of the common praises I see is that the characters come off as human yet when these events happen I'm suddenly dragged out of the experience. Not only that but in the end Mae doesn't change, and maybe that's the point, but for me, it was really unsatisfying to see that after all that happened in this game and the hours I sunk in I find myself saying "Well what was the point of that". Adding to this frustration is the gameplay and slow story. I don't mind long games with simple gameplay in fact some of my favourite games are pretty much walking simulators, but the amount of time it takes to walk around Possum Springs, checking every place to see if anyone around different areas was mind-numbing to me, paired with the snails pace of the story made it so it seemed like next to nothing was happening and really impacted my experience with the game.
In conclusion, I don't think I got Night In The Woods. Leaving this game I have a lot of scenes and events I found cool and memorable but after finishing it I felt mostly relief, which is a shame. I'll probably come back to this game after a while and hopefully, then something will click but for now, I'm left mostly confused and disappointed.
Starting with the pros I found the setting of possum springs fascinating. An old rust belt town that has fallen from its former glory with a long history of capitalistic greed and tragedy. The writing is charming as well and I found myself laughing at a lot of the dry humour, paired with a lot of the decently written characters made the interactions something to look forward to (at least most of the time). Finally, the soundtrack is great and fits the unique look and style of the game. Alec Holowka (R.I.P) made a soundtrack that is so vast and memorable that it follows you after the experience. I'll probably go back through and listen to a lot of the songs. I also loved the change in tone in the latter half of the story. Seeing all your friends trying to stay distracted in light of the uncertainty of their friend's condition and what they witnessed really makes the weight of the situation felt.
Sadly through my playthrough, I found the bad outweighed the good in many instances, starting with the main character. Mae is a flawed character and that's part of the story, she suffers heavily from dissociation, is continuously childish despite how she wants to be seen as an adult and lashes out at people a fair few times throughout the story. These characteristics aren't inherently bad and if written into the story correctly can be an interesting character study, but this isn't the case, I chose to hang out with Bae more through my story and I'm her route we see Mae continuously wrong her with once instance at the college party coming to mind. Not only that but after these events Mae faces next to no consequences and is just forgiven a lot of the time for these wrongs. I don't think that forgiving is wrong but for things to pretty much go on as normal after to me is daft, there are no lasting effects to what Mae does. One of the common praises I see is that the characters come off as human yet when these events happen I'm suddenly dragged out of the experience. Not only that but in the end Mae doesn't change, and maybe that's the point, but for me, it was really unsatisfying to see that after all that happened in this game and the hours I sunk in I find myself saying "Well what was the point of that". Adding to this frustration is the gameplay and slow story. I don't mind long games with simple gameplay in fact some of my favourite games are pretty much walking simulators, but the amount of time it takes to walk around Possum Springs, checking every place to see if anyone around different areas was mind-numbing to me, paired with the snails pace of the story made it so it seemed like next to nothing was happening and really impacted my experience with the game.
In conclusion, I don't think I got Night In The Woods. Leaving this game I have a lot of scenes and events I found cool and memorable but after finishing it I felt mostly relief, which is a shame. I'll probably come back to this game after a while and hopefully, then something will click but for now, I'm left mostly confused and disappointed.
2015
Hylics is a weird psychedelic RPG maker game with some of the most unique-looking visuals I've seen due to Mason Lindroth's mind-bending clay sculpting. Even battles are a joy most of the time due to the unique items and fighting animations. Sadly besides that, it's a pretty basic RPG-maker title. This game oozes character but because of its limitation, doesn't expand in terms of gameplay. I'd recommend it if you want a small cool rpg to play however if you're looking for more substance Hylics 2 overshadows Hylics in almost every way.
2015
I played the Beginner's Guide around the end of 2023 after seeing screenshots of its unique-looking levels on its store page. I went in pretty much completely blind and I've never been happier that I did. I don't want to spoil the game, so all I'll say is although its price may seem steep for a one-and-a-half to two-hour game, it has become one of my favorite games and I would spend it again and have spent on it to share the experience. Give it a shot.
2022
Lunacid harks back to old fromsoft games like Kingsfeild and does so greatly while also having its own aesthetic with a cool lofi wavy style.
I finished the game while it was in early access and found it really interesting and beautiful, Akuma Kira's style oozes through with both the amazing soundtrack and glamorous visuals, particular highlights were the library and forest level. as well as the amount of unique weapons and spells allow you to explore freely and play the game how you want.
There were some things I found that did hinder the experience. The combat for example is pretty bland however having to use different weapons in order to defeat certain enemies faster was nice and allowed for a bit of variety the actual combat was more just stepping back and forth until the enemy falls. Also there is some grind to the game which i don't think is bad, however when you are killing slugs for a fair while can be a little boring.
This doesn't detract too much from the game though as once you gain some momentum you keep it and the fun of exploring the variety of locations in the pit becomes a cool adventure. I'd definitely recommend this game, especially for its price.
I finished the game while it was in early access and found it really interesting and beautiful, Akuma Kira's style oozes through with both the amazing soundtrack and glamorous visuals, particular highlights were the library and forest level. as well as the amount of unique weapons and spells allow you to explore freely and play the game how you want.
There were some things I found that did hinder the experience. The combat for example is pretty bland however having to use different weapons in order to defeat certain enemies faster was nice and allowed for a bit of variety the actual combat was more just stepping back and forth until the enemy falls. Also there is some grind to the game which i don't think is bad, however when you are killing slugs for a fair while can be a little boring.
This doesn't detract too much from the game though as once you gain some momentum you keep it and the fun of exploring the variety of locations in the pit becomes a cool adventure. I'd definitely recommend this game, especially for its price.
Great Game that's a breath of fresh air from the more recent superhero games both good and bad. Batman Arkham Knight's open-world Gotham is jaw-dropping with how beautiful it looks and how lively it feels with thugs, cops, and events littering the streets as well as the beautiful visuals which even today look both stylistically and graphically hold up against many games today. I played this on Game Pass Cloud streaming and it looked great.
The performances are great as well by the main cast with me only having a few moments of thinking some lines came off as a little goofy, mostly coming from the Arkham Knights delivery. However, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill are as iconic as ever in their performances with Hamill's Joker being the perfect mix of both insanely terrifying and insanely unique and lovable.
The gameplay as well as what you've come to expect with Arkham however with the addition of the Batmobile combat which although quite contested I thought overall was fun and engaging most of the time with some annoyance with how much a spotlight is put on it in some missions, especially with how it pales to Arkham knights batman combat which is mostly the same but with small changes to enemy variety and gadgets.
Overall I think this game is great. Its story is good however I felt it sometimes suffered severity due to its open world and wealth of content. I do genuinely believe that Batman Arkham Knight is still one of the best superhero games of this generation.
The performances are great as well by the main cast with me only having a few moments of thinking some lines came off as a little goofy, mostly coming from the Arkham Knights delivery. However, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill are as iconic as ever in their performances with Hamill's Joker being the perfect mix of both insanely terrifying and insanely unique and lovable.
The gameplay as well as what you've come to expect with Arkham however with the addition of the Batmobile combat which although quite contested I thought overall was fun and engaging most of the time with some annoyance with how much a spotlight is put on it in some missions, especially with how it pales to Arkham knights batman combat which is mostly the same but with small changes to enemy variety and gadgets.
Overall I think this game is great. Its story is good however I felt it sometimes suffered severity due to its open world and wealth of content. I do genuinely believe that Batman Arkham Knight is still one of the best superhero games of this generation.