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"Alan Wake 2 is a game that shows what videogames are capable of"

Well, I imagine that a large number of people, when reading this highlighted phrase, will imagine a game that demonstrates cutting-edge technology, photo-realistic visuals, or even surprising performance. But definitely not the case where I wanted to refer to that kind of thing.

Alan Wake 2 tries to push the limits of what is possible to present and (only) achieve through a game. Using different multimedia formats to convey a plot, whether through meta commentary, live action cinematic cutscenes, different forms of interaction in the environment and fourth wall breaks, may not be a new thing. But it is certainly the game that comes closest to what was idealized by Sam Lake throughout his career, by playing with these elements in a coherent way, and delivering an experience that is unlike ANY other game I have seen playing videogames for more than 20 years.

And speaking of which, I believe that the most important thing in a game is the experience it gives you, and without a doubt, Alan Wake 2 is a game that cannot be explained. I could say that it is one of the best survival horror titles of recent decades, going head to head with classics like Silent Hill 2 or the original Resident Evil, or I could even say that it has one of the best and most ingenious plots and ways of tell a story that you can find in any medium. But it doesn't make sense, nothing I can say could do him justice.

Alan Wake 2 is a game that needs to be experienced above all else, and I hope everyone can give it a chance someday.

Vamo combinar, era impossível um jogo que os criadores agradecem Marx e Engels quando são premiados por ele não ser 5 estrelas né? Que storytelling fantástico, que política viva

A masterpiece in every sense of the word, Larian have really outdone themselves with Baldur's Gate 3. Rooted firmly in DnD game systems and lore, it is a spectacular adventure from start to finish. The level of character expression through character progression/creation, dialogue choices, exploration, and combat is something that I haven't really encountered since well, Divinity Original Sin 2.

My playthrough was as a high-elf bard with a criminal background, and so as a result I ended up being a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. I could pass all persuasion/deception checks, a large pool of spells to utilize in and out of battle, and proficient with rapiers and crossbows as well. For your companions, each and every one of them has a compelling story arc (if they choose to stick around and you don't get them killed in battle). They may approve or disapprove of your actions throughout the game, but with all the variation of events there is high replay value even at ~100 hours in length.

This variation however can be hit or miss. While I have no doubt there are plenty of events I did not see throughout the game due to my choices (cool), there are some objectives that feel pretty obtuse. Either far out of the way, or requiring specific NPCs to talk to, needing to be done in a specific order, or just time sensitive. Some hidden stuff is all well and good, but some things almost feel like they require a guide to know how to do "properly". A fine line had to be walked for balancing long rests (which pass time in the world, but also restore all your character's health, spells, and trigger certain events).

Baldur's Gate 3 is a long adventure, but not a moment feels wasted. Each area is tightly designed and sprinkled with enough fast travel points and events where the player spends very little time just running around wasting time. Though the final act has its fair share of bugs, it is still a well crafted game that encompasses everything an RPG should be. The voice acting, the high-fantasy music, the atmosphere, the character and creature designs, the writing - BG3 is a treat that may just inspire me to give DnD yet another shot. In a year of plenty of tremendous video games, this is almost certainly going to be my game of the year.

As always, with a narrative heavy game like this it's tough for me to talk more in depths about the nuances of the story without getting into spoilers but I am going to do my best here as Alan Wake II has a lot to unpack. What I can absolutely say is this: Remedy continue to be masters of style, atmosphere, and story telling.

Alan Wake II is a massive departure from the first game in terms of how it looks, plays, and just generally feels. It is much more of a survival horror game this time around with proper grid-based, Resident Evil-ass inventory management. Enemies feel to be more of a threat, and in general we have a much darker and more terrifying tone than the first game.
Dark areas are dark and your flashlight feels more important than ever, as infrequent uses of street lights, safe rooms, and neon provide some semblance of relief among the atmosphere. For fans of the previous game Control, a lot of impressive visual tricks to mess with the player are used in this game, but do be warned that there is a liberal usage of old-fashioned hard-cut jump scares as well.

The game features two playable protagonists, Saga and Alan. Once both are properly introduced, the player can freely hop between them in safe rooms and play their stories in whatever order they wish. I could certainly see different players coming away with wholly different experiences depending on if they choose to prioritize one over the other, or keep an even balance throughout. Both characters have their own collectibles, with Saga pinning hers up on a corkboard and Alan using them to strengthen various gameplay abilities.

As for the narrative, it is a wild ride from start to finish. I can certainly see it being divisive (in full honesty, I am still not totally settled on this score) and at times it feels fairly cyclical. There were a couple of moments that I felt like Remedy was more "checking a box" for a thing that has to be in Remedy games now, but it all still serves a meaningful purpose for either the story or the player, and is executed well. Saga is a fantastic new character with her own quirks and struggles, and she had me every bit as invested as Alan himself. Overall, I am excited to see what the Final Draft and the DLC will bring, and what ultimately will be next in line from Remedy.

Alan Wake 2 is a work of art. It is bold, cryptic, and does not compromise on its own weirdness nor the messages it wishes to convey. It is definitely rough in some areas but still manages to be a charming package overall. I don't think I have played a AAA game so uncompromising since Death Stranding, and I hope we continue to get more crazy off-the-wall shit like this.

As strange as it is to say about a game that ends with space oddity, I think that this Alan Wake might have been a little too subtle for gamers. Reading the reviews, they all say things like "This game is just a Stephen King rip off" but that's kind of the point. Wake is a writer that has had his career made from one series, focused on one singular character, this character almost becoming interchangeable with Wake himself. In his interview when he announces that the book he had just written will conclude that series, the audience acts as if he has retired from writing. Wake feels trapped in the shadow of his past work and because of that is unable to write. The reason that this whole game reads as one big homage, is because that is all Wake knows. Even his best friend Barry constantly taunts him with his own cardboard cutout, holding up the image that Wake so desperately wants to get away from. There are many other themes of creative interference throughout the story. Almost all of the antagonists are people that want to control creatives. They take Wake's, and other creator's stories and try to use them for their own goals, be it fame, or ending the world. The problem with any game that attempts to have themes as "deep" as these is that gamers don't care. Ironically the "we want to treat games as art" crowd never truly does.

Esse jogo é uma obra prima, um dos melhores da gen retrasada mesmo depois de 11 anos os graficos continuam ok as vezes é ate bonito a gameplay é boa pra krl uma das coisas que mais gostei.
E o Alan Wake é top 5 protagonistas dos games facil

It should not be possible for a platform-defining AAA game in 2022 to have writing this good. Everything I know about the material realities of game production make me believe that anything this nuanced, this heartfelt, this willing to sacrifice "gaminess" in exchange for a truer and deeper story, should crumple like cardboard under the sheer size of teams needed to coordinate a game of this size and expense. And yet: here it is. A top notch example of writing not just for games but for storytelling as a whole, not just sitting in an 80 hour video game but earning the time it asks you to spend on it.

The writing is easily enough to make this game worth playing, but the rest of it is certainly solid enough not to turn a player away. The core combat systems are very strong, but they're hampered by the fact that the encounter design doesn't seem to know quite what to do with it. The player's moveset is built around a Dark Souls-style framework of asking the player to understand and commit to the wind-ups of their attacks in order to land powerful hits, but the battles don't seem to understand this. Enemies will teleport around the arena and only stagger unpredictably as though they're meant for a style of game much more like the original God of War series, effectively punishing the player at random for trying to reason through combat like the system seems to demand.

The encounters also lean heavily on fights with multiple enemies to dial up the difficulty. Although there are a fair number of (delightful!) fights with particularly tricky single enemies, the more challenging fights involving groups almost uniformly suck. Again, the combat system doesn't seem to be designed for this: enemies can freely attack even when they're offscreen, meaning that any commitment the player makes to attack the enemy they're focused on can just get broken by a projectile or mob slamming in from nowhere.

The right hand doesn't seem to know what the left hand is doing, which is honestly what I expect everywhere in a game this size. The fact that the combat works as well as it does given that is still impressive, and the fact that the writing is straight up excellent is nothing short of a miracle.

"Hoje seremos melhores"

God of War Ragnarok, uma sequencia fantastica que além de melhorar tudo que ja era bom em seu antecessor, traz coisas novas que funcionam perfeitamente e ainda por cima entrega o melhor jogo da franquia, com uma das cargas mais emocionais que ja vi na mídia gamer (com uma historia, narrativa e PRINCIPALMENTE os seus personagens incríveis e bem desenvolvidos) uma obra prima, facilmente segundo melhor jogo do playstation e o verdadeiro GOTY 2022.

GOTY OF WAR !!
Gráficos
⬜140p
⬜Aceitável
⬜Bom
⬜Ótimo
✔️Perfeição
⬜Cada frame foi pintado por Da Vinci

História
⬜Historia?
⬜Historia MEEH
⬜Uma história legalzinha
✔️Uma história digna de prestar atenção
⬜Melhor que a vida real
⬜Feita pra arrancar lagrimas ( HISTORIA LINDA )

Jogabilidade
⬜Injogável
⬜Ruim
⬜Aceitável
⬜Jogabilidade bacana
✔️Jogabilidade excelente

Complexidade
⬜Jogos da galinha pintadinha são mais complicados
✔️Fácil de entender
⬜Fácil de aprender, difícil de dominar
⬜É daqueles jogos que as pessoas ficam estudando
⬜Precisa de, no mínimo, 2 doutorados

Dificuldade
✔️Você Escolhe.
⬜Da pra zerar dormindo
⬜Fácil
⬜Médio
⬜Jogando sozinho é quase um Darksouls, mas em grupo se torna muito mais tranquilo
⬜ Difícil
⬜Você vai precisar de 8 mãos pra jogar isso

Tempo de jogo
⬜Jogo pequeno
⬜5h
⬜10h
✔️30h
⬜60h
⬜ 100h+
⬜Você começa, seu neto termina
⬜Sem tempo determinado.

Áudio, músicas
⬜É melhor jogar no mudo
⬜Aceitável
⬜Muito boa
✔️Épica
⬜Mozart escreveu junto com Beethoven

Bugs
✔️Nunca vi nenhum
⬜Pequenos bugs (Quase nada)
⬜Pode ficar irritante
⬜Jogo parece que foi feito pela Bugsoft

Publico
✔️ Crianças
✔️ Adolescentes
✔️ Adultos

Compensa Comprar?
⬜ IT'S FREE
⬜ Preço justo
⬜ Compre se tiver dinheiro sobrando
✔️Espere uma promoção
⬜ Caro demais não recomendo
⬜ Mais fácil você queimar seu dinheiro

Pay to win?
⬜ Armas coloridas dão um dano consideravelmente maior
⬜ Apenas cosméticos
✔️ Sem microtransações
⬜ PAYTOWIN

This review contains spoilers

The first two thirds of Elden Ring is masterful and would have easily earned five stars if it stood on its own. While it has flaws here and there, it's a downright brilliant integration of the logic of a Souls game into an open world that feels like it's bursting with life and fascination at every turn. The game shows you the most badass thing you've ever seen in your life, over and over again, hour after hour, then periodically breaks your heart for good measure. It takes all the cool build customization stuff from Dark Souls 2 and 3 and makes them even cooler, overflowing with exciting combinations of weapons and spells.

Everything beyond the capitol, though, feels half-baked. While a few of the endgame bosses are exciting in the way FromSoft fans have come to expect, many more feel like they lean into an aspect of Dark Souls 2 that was better left behind: difficulty for its own sake. The joy of FromSoft games is the curve from a challenge feeling impossible to the achievement of mastery over it, and that curve seems direly mistuned for many of the later bosses.

This isn't merely sour grapes: in other games, I came to to adore the very bosses I struggled most with. In Elden Ring, although I did eventually beat every boss, the lategame ones that posed the most challenge left a bitter taste in my mouth rather than the rush of victory I'd hoped for. Every win felt like I'd just rolled the dice enough times to avoid this or that unanswerable attack or camera hazard.

There is a challenge, I think, in designing bosses that remain engaging even for players who have explored everything in the game and are at an arbitrarily high level, not to mention players who have six previous FromSoft games under their belt. One approach for these fights is to throw out moves that require reading hundred-millisecond tells or executing frame-perfect dodges, but in leaning so heavily on the execution of the fight it minimizes the reward for learning it.

That's why I play these games: to learn to speak the language of a boss and to end up engaged in a dance that, by the end, feels almost cooperative. While there were fights in the latter third of Elden Ring that felt that way, they were few and far between, outnumbered by the fights that visibly could have been so much more fun than they were.

This game very clearly came in hot, and could have used a bit more time in development. Patches are already landing, and it leads me to wonder if the final portion maybe didn't get the attention it normally would have and if perhaps it may yet be improved. I hope it will, because I would love to feel the unmitigated love for this game that I do for other FromSoft titles.