Casinocaster
2022
The soundtrack is a blast, and the entire experience fits a very specific and incredibly relaxing spot that I didn't know I craved for.
The only problem is the levels often look like an invitation to rearrange stuff in your own style, when in reality they are a puzzle with a single (and arbitrary?) solution. But as long as you are ok with that you will have a very pleasant time.
Also worth noting this is an extremely rare case of developers actually removing achievements from their game after realising they go against its own philosophy. Super cool move.
The only problem is the levels often look like an invitation to rearrange stuff in your own style, when in reality they are a puzzle with a single (and arbitrary?) solution. But as long as you are ok with that you will have a very pleasant time.
Also worth noting this is an extremely rare case of developers actually removing achievements from their game after realising they go against its own philosophy. Super cool move.
The writing presents a collection of mental images that work very well as the main source of horror (blood and rust into pigs and manure into carnage and class struggle, nice) - things like jump scares and loud chases are out of the question in this game, and that is totally fine; in that sense @ciswoman's amazing review is on point. That one painting with the smiling woman which is reused as an asset here and there is disturbing enough for me. Also the soundtrack is fantastic and elevates the ending to a level that is certainly not kept during the rest of the game.
My main problem with AMfP is that having grunts and stealth levels "but just a bit" really brought me down. They looked out of place and theme, and almost ridiculous. I wonder if they never commited to scaling down to just a horror walking simulator because the success of The Dark Descent was too big to ignore.
My main problem with AMfP is that having grunts and stealth levels "but just a bit" really brought me down. They looked out of place and theme, and almost ridiculous. I wonder if they never commited to scaling down to just a horror walking simulator because the success of The Dark Descent was too big to ignore.
2012
It took me a while to get used to the artstyle and the game loop, in fact I got stuck very soon because I hadn't even realised the Crispin order mechanic was there; but soon I was hooked. I am only sad that I beat it so fast the first time, the game and the world it presents deserve to be enjoyed little by little. Music, pixel art, voiceovers and specially the writing are superb. Sierra games and other traditional graphic adventure games would benefit from something like Crispin's hints.
2022
Adding achievements ruined it.
A short and very heartwarming game made by people who clearly have great memories about their childhood summers in the Valencian coast. Super suitable for younger players if you are looking for something optimistic and constructive for them.
The Firaxis effect is strong with this one: its incredibly addictive gameloop worked perfectly with me, quenching my thirst for both turn-based strategy and Marvel quality content. It made me forget about the disappointment of Ultimate Alliance 3 and could easily be my favorite Marvel game ever.
The amazingly well polished design, the high levels of production and the faithful depiction of characters (all hail our new fan-favorite queen Magik) make Midnight Suns one of my favorite games of 2022. A delightful surprise!
The amazingly well polished design, the high levels of production and the faithful depiction of characters (all hail our new fan-favorite queen Magik) make Midnight Suns one of my favorite games of 2022. A delightful surprise!
2012
Far surpasses later generations of videogames in terms of elegance and atmosphere. Playing this today, in the Death Stranding era, is a truly rewarding experience; an excellent execution of the intentions in the design, as opposed to recent "auteurs" who focus less on the approach and more on the marketing. I really should have tried Ueda's games earlier.
2022
My full review of Pokémon Scarlet would share the main points with what I said about Legends Arceus earlier this year: new, fun content in a good direction completely hindered by the fact that they still want to crunch one (now two!) Pokémon games per year. Please stop, please take longer to make these games.
The internet is already full of memes a la Cyberpunk 2077 about all the bugs and technical limitations of this shabby looking game, but it's not only weak in performance: world design leaves much to be desired, with an open world map that doesn't work at all with the Pokémon premise, and new systems are implemented with a high degree of complexity to eventually turn out to be... meaningless. I haven't made a single sandwich - it's easy to speculate this game is full of food because some key people in Game Freak came to Spain for a holiday trip and liked the tapas so much they wanted to put them in a Pokémon game even if it made no sense.
There is a lot that I honestly think could be incredibly more effective if they invested more time on it: the missing voice acting, the now ruined concept of gyms, the animations (some are cool, they clearly can make great ones!), the laggy combat... Also I hate raids, I find them overwhelmingly boring - the simultaneous, non-turn based system is a good idea but it seems like they didn't really know how to implement it. Sadly the latest record sales should make us unhopeful about all this changing in the near future.
The worst or best thing of all is that the game is actually fun: I had a great time setting my own challenges and getting to know the many new Pokémon and moves. Characters are more charismatic than usual, the PokeHogwarts theme fits the adventure perfectly and the plot develops and concludes in a warm, wholesome way. There are huge advances in quality of life that the franchise desperately needed and now sit well. The way they broke up with mechanics that were considered immovable tradition makes me wish they do this more and more in future entries. But please, later than next year.
The internet is already full of memes a la Cyberpunk 2077 about all the bugs and technical limitations of this shabby looking game, but it's not only weak in performance: world design leaves much to be desired, with an open world map that doesn't work at all with the Pokémon premise, and new systems are implemented with a high degree of complexity to eventually turn out to be... meaningless. I haven't made a single sandwich - it's easy to speculate this game is full of food because some key people in Game Freak came to Spain for a holiday trip and liked the tapas so much they wanted to put them in a Pokémon game even if it made no sense.
There is a lot that I honestly think could be incredibly more effective if they invested more time on it: the missing voice acting, the now ruined concept of gyms, the animations (some are cool, they clearly can make great ones!), the laggy combat... Also I hate raids, I find them overwhelmingly boring - the simultaneous, non-turn based system is a good idea but it seems like they didn't really know how to implement it. Sadly the latest record sales should make us unhopeful about all this changing in the near future.
The worst or best thing of all is that the game is actually fun: I had a great time setting my own challenges and getting to know the many new Pokémon and moves. Characters are more charismatic than usual, the PokeHogwarts theme fits the adventure perfectly and the plot develops and concludes in a warm, wholesome way. There are huge advances in quality of life that the franchise desperately needed and now sit well. The way they broke up with mechanics that were considered immovable tradition makes me wish they do this more and more in future entries. But please, later than next year.
2005
I'm surprised about how well this game aged. Good level design, incredible amount of charm and personality, flavorful voice acting and really neat, effective tricks in the implementation of some levels and mechanics (the milkman conspiracy, the Waterloo level, wow!). I am grateful that the final section got smoothed out for the Steam release, I read how the circus level used to work and it sounds maddening. Honestly, for me the game could be up there with the big platformer franchises (Crash, Rayman, Nintendo) if I had known about it when I was young. I have to add, though, that its first act is quite confusing, and it's probably not appealing at all if you can't stomach that early-2000s trend of intentionally hideous art styles.
Great fun taking a walk down memory lane. Outperforms the Spyro Reignited Trilogy by far, which oddly was released later; although I couldn't say for sure if this is because it is a better port or because the originals are more solid. My experience with remasters is always dependant on how much outdated, unenjoyable stuff is left intact for the sake of staying true to the original content - Spyro failed horribly on that, but here it wasn't so decisive (it is true there is some wacky stuff going on with hitboxes and jumps in Crash 1).
The N. Sane Trilogy is a good choice if you aim to focus on level design which was already good for its time, specially for games 2 and 3, with an updated gleaming Unreal Engine-ish look.
The N. Sane Trilogy is a good choice if you aim to focus on level design which was already good for its time, specially for games 2 and 3, with an updated gleaming Unreal Engine-ish look.
2012
This is very hard to rate for me. It's intentionally not a fun game, it's exhausting and it makes you feel worse and worse. It's an incredibly interesting analysis on violence in and out of games, and on how we ingest it. My problem was that I clearly sucked at it: my struggle with the last levels and my attempts to get 100% of the achievements (the game is probably trying to convince you not to want to do that) really distracted me from enjoying properly the provocations of its narrative.
2020
Great use of a powerful soundtrack (the concert scene is amazing) and a tear-jerking story that treats elegantly very tough matters. My memories of my time in Ireland definitely affected my experience possitively - Is fearr Gaeilge briste na Bearla cliste.
It's a delicious last course 🎵
Just a tiny bit too bullet-hellish for me, more than the original. But I completed the expansion and got all the achievements because its art is as impressive, charming and unique as in the base game.
Just a tiny bit too bullet-hellish for me, more than the original. But I completed the expansion and got all the achievements because its art is as impressive, charming and unique as in the base game.
It was going to be hard not to compare this to Stardew Valley, but soon I realised this game is actually This war of mine with many layers of cute.
Spiritfarer is incredibly beautiful and that's what I'll remember the most. Art, music and animations resonate with the themes of the game: sprites are drawn out carefully, with relaxing colors and lines, and the slow animations set up a very therapeutic mood. Often I would stop moving and remain idle just to enjoy the neat animations of Stella and her cat knocking around.
As in all management games, I think the key is making all repeatable actions enjoyable, and they mastered that in Spiritfarer. Small, short actions that you will have to perform a thousand times, such as fishing our taking vegetables out of the ground, simply sound and look so good. The game is undoubtedly grindy, which might be an issue for many; even when the endgame approaches you still get new buildings to work in and new tiers of items to process, maybe unnecessarily. In any case, moving around with your boat (and specially customising it! it was surprisingly entertaining to rearrange all houses and buildings a la Townscaper) feels relaxing until the end.
I won't cover much of the plot here, but it does have room for subverting expectations. Soon you get to know the game loop of meeting cute animal spirits, taking care of them and eventually releasing them to the Everdoor; but, as the story unrolls and the world widens, characters start deviating from that process. Some might not be as adorable as you'd expect or demand you to tend for them in different ways. This has a big impact in the player and ensures the spiritfaring process remains fresh until the end. Cool.
Not much to criticise other than the extension of the game, the grinding required and the fact that I got stuck hard at one point with nothing really pointing out where to go. UI is awful at times, looking for autosaves in the main menu was a total nightmare. And then there's Alex, of course.
Spiritfarer is incredibly beautiful and that's what I'll remember the most. Art, music and animations resonate with the themes of the game: sprites are drawn out carefully, with relaxing colors and lines, and the slow animations set up a very therapeutic mood. Often I would stop moving and remain idle just to enjoy the neat animations of Stella and her cat knocking around.
As in all management games, I think the key is making all repeatable actions enjoyable, and they mastered that in Spiritfarer. Small, short actions that you will have to perform a thousand times, such as fishing our taking vegetables out of the ground, simply sound and look so good. The game is undoubtedly grindy, which might be an issue for many; even when the endgame approaches you still get new buildings to work in and new tiers of items to process, maybe unnecessarily. In any case, moving around with your boat (and specially customising it! it was surprisingly entertaining to rearrange all houses and buildings a la Townscaper) feels relaxing until the end.
I won't cover much of the plot here, but it does have room for subverting expectations. Soon you get to know the game loop of meeting cute animal spirits, taking care of them and eventually releasing them to the Everdoor; but, as the story unrolls and the world widens, characters start deviating from that process. Some might not be as adorable as you'd expect or demand you to tend for them in different ways. This has a big impact in the player and ensures the spiritfaring process remains fresh until the end. Cool.
Not much to criticise other than the extension of the game, the grinding required and the fact that I got stuck hard at one point with nothing really pointing out where to go. UI is awful at times, looking for autosaves in the main menu was a total nightmare. And then there's Alex, of course.
2016
Smooth soundtrack, 10/10 would expose Kurt Snark again