A very silly novelty that kind of wears thin after an hour or so. The comparisons to Lethal Company are obvious, but I think the true appeal is actually more in line with a Jackbox game. A lot of the fun and entertainment will come from how much your friends can improv and make up goofy shit on the fly even in the face of direct danger, which is a very different appeal from Lethal Company’s more trial and error goal focused rogue-lite appeal. Content Warning’s peak of comedy comes from the end result of your misadventures in that Jackbox fashion, getting a conclusion that everybody gets to laugh about and share on a Discord server to be forever memorialized, whereas Lethal Company is more laughing at your friends’ misery and terror as an onlooker who just suffered the same fate moments ago.

My problem with Content Warning is more just the longevity of it is clearly a lot shorter than its inspirations. The later game upgrades and unlockables don’t have enough of an appeal to keep pushing on for the money that nets you them, even if it is nice that the money economy is a lot more forgiving on player deaths and screwups. Content Warning feels like recording a haunted house with your friends, while Lethal Company feels like walking into the IKEA SCP with your friends and making the best of a bad situation. Different appeals and goals, but one of them has more of a lasting impression than the other does.

For $20 dollars for those who upgraded from the PS4 version? Yeah I dunno. Square's always been pretty bad with their DLC prices and this does feel too short even if you go out of your way to do the side content. I feel like I also would've appreciated Intermission a lot more if I played it right after finishing the base game but with my luck, I held off until beyond the last minute when Rebirth is now out and I'm in a hurry to catch up so the combat system and locations aren't quite as fresh in my mind. Some fights feel a bit overtuned and punish you for not quite getting how to build Yuffie and Sonon to be their most effective right at the very end of the game. I might have more appreciation for the updated mechanics and play style if I ever go back to replay Remake itself, but as it stands it's just fine.

I have a lot more appreciation for Intermission story-wise; Yuffie never really was a favorite of mine because aloof loud rambunctious characters aren't my thing as well as her limited role within the story of the original FF7 due to technically being an optional party member. Intermission (and very likely Rebirth from the looks of things) aims to fix this by incorporating her into the main plot events much earlier. Her personality is still aloof as ever, but there's more depth and background added beneath the poppy attitude alongside the addition of Sonon. There's some very good interplay with the war between Wutai and Shinra as well as implied bad blood between a split branch of Avalanche and Wutai, and watching Yuffie having to face the reality of the situation at hand and realizing that it's not as surface-level as she initially believed is one of the best parts of telling this new story with the opportunity that the remake trilogy is giving with this cast and world. I do think a certain reveal right at the very end will throw people off who haven't played some of the spin-off entries in FF7's universe and not quite get all the fuss that it builds up, but knowing Nomura and the overall vision with what Remake is going for, I don't really mind and am just here for the ride.

It's a good extra story chapter or two that's worthwhile to play, but mostly if it came with your copy with Intergrade on PC or PS5. If you upgraded from the PS4 version, the regular $20 dollar asking price is steep as per Square Enix usual and I don't know quite how essential it really is at that point. Wait for a sale if you're stuck in that position.

Very happy that we're back to pretty solid groundwork here after how bad the last two Chapter 4 seasons were, but I also don't think this first version of the new map is as good as what Chapter 4 started with. There's not enough distinct points of interests on this new map and the biomes feel very samey, especially when at some point they melted away a part of the snow area only serving to further make the map feel more bland visually. Making the train a focal point is incredibly strange when it really doesn't add much outside of some obnoxious weekly quests that Epic would later replace because of how frustrating they were. Thankfully I can at least expect the map to only get better from here with more variety on later seasons.

Talking about Chapter 5's first season can't really be limited to just Battle Royale changes though because this new chapter (or just overall upcoming year) marks the point of Epic trying even harder to expand Fortnite to something beyond just a shooter and something more expansive, playing more into the "metaverse" idea that they've been marketing harder towards. I have more extensive thoughts for each gamemode but honestly the most I can say for them overall is that they're pretty basic starts that I expected a fair bit more of for how much they were trying to push them as entire new "games" inside of Fortnite. They aren't. At least not yet. Time will only tell how much of this endeavor is going to pay off or not, but Epic really needs to step it up if it's ever going to. Festival is my favorite of the three modes, but there's absolutely a personal bias for how much I like Guitar Hero/Rock Band as well as how much Harmonix has publicly stated their future plans for the mode (namely actual proper guitar controller support), unlike Lego Fortnite or Rocket Racing which I have very little idea of where their primary goals or roadmap really looks like.

The shop was a mess this whole season because of how much having to support Lego Fortnite skin comparability butchered what Epic could have available. Good for my wallet, probably not great for the thousands of players who were used to the pretty regular rotation of old and new skins that were normally available. The TMNT pass had a really cool Shredder skin that I sadly gave into, but I feel gross for paying that much for it alongside the rest of the skins that were overpriced in the shop for the crossover. All cosmetics for the new gamemodes are even worse in pricing and I will genuinely be in shock if Epic keeps them like that next season.

A pretty good start for another year of the game. I'm probably placing more faith in later seasons doing more interesting things than I probably should be, but here's hoping that we get something as good as the MEGA season from Chapter 4 maybe.