After playing 2, this game just feels like a standard affair with nothing really making it unique other than Rush being fully introduced as the items, the introduction to Proto Man and the sliding mechanic which are all decent additions. The stages weren't really impressive compared and the weapons weren't as fun other than the Magnet and the Shadow Blade (which works similarly to the metal blades from Mega Man 2). The Doc Robot section felt cool in concept but I felt like it just padded the game more than it needed to be while the Wily Stages were just okay and easier than 2's stages. With that said, this is really "a megaman game" and I don't think you can't go wrong with playing it since it serves its purpose of being a megaman game.

Complete destruction, utter annihilation and satirical violence

In the middle 2000s must have been when every developer wanted to make something dark and edgy in the broadest way I can describe it that I wouldn't even say that they're really edgy but more of a tonal shift than the developer intended. Naughty Dog with Jak X, most of Square's game during that time, Shadow the Hedgehog and Insomniac with Ratchet Deadlocked. In wanting to test something, I ended up replaying Ratchet Deadlocked again and beating it in one sitting. Ratchet Deadlocked brings some of the best third person gunplay the PlayStation 2 has to offer with the wit and humor the series has been known for at this point. Inspired by Halo and sadly looked down by the developers themselves, Deadlocked is extremely different from the original PlayStation 2 trilogy. Clank is gone from the title, a much darker, only a bit edgier honestly, and removed most of the unique platforming challenges in lieu of arena, obstacle courses and makes the journey a true fight for survival compared to the exploratory flow of the last games. Why I keep coming back to it is the infectious and high paced gunplay that I haven't managed to find anywhere else along with the weapon customization and how each weapon really feels powerful to use.

The premise of the story is fairly simple, Ratchet and his crew get kidnapped and forced to compete in DreadZone, an extremely violent and deadly game show where heroes are pitted against each other to death by Gleeman Vox, owner of Vox Industries and Vox News, Vox Sports and so forth. Even with the constant character assassination from Vox News (yeah you can guess where they got the name Vox from), Ratchet ends up being popular despite the marketing campaign against him. I would say the premise is darker but the humor that the series is known for is still here and honestly hits harder for me.

The visual and audio aspect of Deadlocked is something I've come to really appreciate too with how moody and atmospheric some of these worlds and tracks are. From the brooding metropolis of Kronos with its dark cathedral to the sleek, tall and apocalyptic view of Stygia, these planets aren't tourist destinations and always have danger looming in every corner. The soundtrack is even better especially hearing this after entering the smog and trash ridden planet of Orxon again. Even then the final levels are some of my favorite in these regards but as much I want to gush about them, I rather people experience it themselves.

The sound of metal scraping from the barrel as you launch a bomb onto something while trying to dodge beam attacks that can two shot on the four star difficulty (Hero) difficulty is pretty tough. It's extremely hard to find anything adrenaline fueled and visceral as Ratchet Deadlocked's gunplay especially for the console it was on. Only ten weapons in this iteration but they're the most customizable and useful they have ever been with no useless weapons barring maybe the shield launcher unless you're playing on higher difficulties where you will truly need it. Each gun feels good to use and you can tell they put a lot of work into this aspect of the game. They default you to lock strafe controls from the bat compared to third person from before and it plays so much better. From machine pistols, rail guns, rocket launchers to a explosive flail that shakes the fuck out of your camera when you use it, every weapon legit feels feels powerful. Customization comes from adding mods that can increase the fire rate, ammo count, impact of the shot to increasing the area of effect of the shot with one tier of modding to customizing the element to the other tier. Make your dual pistols fire faster and provide arcing shock lightning around enemies to quickly kill smaller enemies in numbers or do what I did and make every single explosive weapon you own explode into mini bombs that just lag the hell out of your game like THE BOUNCER from the second game. The weapon leveling and health progression is back and even more ridiculous than ever as weapons go up to level 99 in this one. I feel like it's a real quality vs quantity approach here for the weapon design. Something to mention is how you also have to dodge like a manic on a substance on higher difficulties where everything two shots you no matter how much health you have in the higher difficulties. Ratchet doesn't have Clank here so he's just limited to double jumping for aerial movement but it feels more in control and allows better timing for jumps.

Can't be a Halo inspired game without vehicular combat and Deadlocked has that too in addition to the gunplay. Four playable vehicles are used from the fast and light hoverbike, the warthog inspired Puma, the quadrupedal tank Landstalker and the aerial Hovership itself for aerial combat. I think the vehicles are generally fun to use overall and can cause just as much carnage as you can especially later on. I also forgot to mention you're actually part of a team, you're accompanied by two bots that essentially do all of the menial stuff for you which I think is a smart inclusion as it gives you more chance to actually play the game. Eventually you'll have to do side missions to continue on the campaign which I feel pads the game a bit but fortunately those missions are short and actually pretty fun so it's not the worst thing. An average playthrough is five to seven hours so the game never really overstays its welcome and offers a ton of replayability with challenge mode.

Hard to believe I beat this game five times and never got bored especially with the weapon variety to keep in mind. Deadlocked is just a short, funny and visceral romp from start to finish. It's not a perfect game by any means but it's one of the few games that gets the brain cells flowing as explosions fly and the PlayStation 2 lags out because I spammed mini bomb mines against ten zombies again. If you played the original PS2 trilogy and haven't played this yet, you already know what I'm gonna say.

The game does excel in telling you that you're in a depressing as fuck world with characters that are awful human beings along with the overall mood it brings. I think I was expecting a bit too much with the story although the story does get crazy at times.

But holy shit man, the gameplay and music literally gave me a migraine 2 hours in. Only thing that stopped me from enjoying the dragon segments were the inverted controls.

The game is very unique and I thought it was cool but I'm probably never gonna play this game again. Also wishing it wasn't too hard to get most of the proper endings.

This is probably the only game I sorta liked and can't really easily recommend people at all. Know what you're getting into before starting and finishing this game.

A very faithful musou spin off to Persona 5 that manages to keep the roots of what made the original title this spinoff was based on very alive here. Introduces some interesting characters and probably one of the best party members in a Persona game in a long time.

Gameplay can be a bit dull around bosses from having to spam SP moves since these bosses were just HP sponges from playing on Hard mode but the game works really well for it with how it integrates the original mechanics of the JRPG with being able to fuse your own demon and using your own abilities. Only a few jails here really match up with the quality of some of the palaces but they still each provide their own theme and gimmicks.

Music here might retread with some remixes from Persona 5 but there are definitely some new songs here that really knock it out of the park.

I would say it's a must play for any Persona 5 fan as it also gives you more scenes that flesh out the characters with some characters needing it more than others while also being a nice virtual road trip around Japan.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is definitely a RPG worth its salt albeit forever marred by the unfortunate development history of this game and numerous bugs and jank that still plagues this game almost 17 years later.

If I could describe this game's mood and atmosphere in a way, it would be Deus Ex but you're in an eternal early 2000's halloween party. The different creatures of the night and their lore are really fleshed out here. I would also say the soundtrack here is overall great here with some of the later districts theme being very atmospheric in selling you the fantasy that you yourself are a creature of the night. Character building here is unique with sub skills that build towards the overall skills that your character use in the game (Ex. You would need points in the Dexterity sub skill and the Security sub skill to enhance your Lockpicking skill). Probably one of the main praise for the game is the difference when you replay it since each clan plays almost completely different (especially 2 of the clans which aren't recommended for a first playthrough) which really gives the game a lot of value and wondering what you can do in another cycle.

I would say what stops me from really praising the game more though is the overall jank and bugs that plagued my playthrough. It is really easy to get stuck on something or crash even with the unofficial patch I played on. I also won't say too much about the last fifth of the game but it was too much combat-oriented for what players might have specialized in. Combat overall was okay and the gunplay here is something you might expect in Deus Ex so I was mostly alright with it.

In conclusion, I really do recommend giving this game a try and I feel like I might have enjoyed this game better if I played it during halloween or something, I'm not huge into Vampires but I can safely say this is the best Vampire game I've played yet.

Wipeout 2048 was a launch title for the Playstation Vita back in 2012 that feels like a tech demo with the overall performance of the game suffering yet the graphics here looks extremely good for a game almost 10 years ago on a handheld.

I can really say all in all that this is WipeOut, what I felt like was Sony's version of FZero albeit with several key differences. The game is definitely gorgeous here on the handheld that really show what the system could do in 2012 albeit at the cost of 30 fps which I sorta wish it was 60 fps for a game like this.

Well sadly there isn't much here in terms of content anymore as if you owned a used copy, you'd only be regulated into buying an online voucher in the year 2021 is not worth your money at all. There is only really a campaign that only has a few races in each speed tier and some race challenges.

All in all, the experience overall was alright but with not much to do in terms of content, the fact you have to spend money to even go online and frame drops in certain times during a race but happen more often in the combat events really doesn't leave me with much reason to even return to this title.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game has developed a cult following and an interesting history with the game being delisted for several years and now finally returning to every modern console available including PC. Haven't played it in years, I'm glad to say the game is just as good as I remembered it.

The levels here are surprisingly varied here with beginning in a snowy part of Toronto to a Zen garden of sorts. The soundtrack here done by Anamanaguchi is probably the best "8-bit" soundtrack I've heard in recent memory along with Loop Hero. Best of all, the game is just fun to play, you can do coop attacks with your friends and there's a lot of interactivity with them when you can literally pick up your fallen friend and use them as a weapon.

Only complaint is probably having to use a Ubisoft account to even play online on Switch which I feel is an odd decision. The online itself can be pretty buggy which kinda sucks because I think this game is at itS best when playing with someone.

If you're a fan of the source material here or just looking for a cool beat-em-up with an incredible soundtrack, you really can't go wrong with Scott Pilgrim.