GeneralTraag
5 reviews liked by GeneralTraag
This review contains spoilers
This is an awesome Call of Duty game who's problems make it drop below it's previous modern competition.
The Story is that you follow a man who was kidnapped by Russians during a mission to kill Fidel Castro, who have a secret plan to wipe out America with a secret Bio-chemical weapon. This is a great story for the series. It's engaging, has a number of interesting events that all fit together, and the best twist in the franchise. But I will mention that some moments in the game make me question parts of it. Like why doesn't the C.I.A reveal who they are to Mason at the beginning? Why does Mason tell them all they want to know without knowing who they are yet? How did Clarke get shot, but not Hudson or Weaver? How did Mason know which chamber the bullet was in? because if it was luck then that is not a good way for our heroes to get out of there. When Hudson said "We wanted steiner alive" revealing the interrogator to be C.I.A, why didn't Mason looked shocked by this? I personally didn't like how they reveal Steiner's death before the first part of the mission started when a few word changes could have hidden that.
The Characters are great, likeable, and different personalities. The main villain Dragovich is very interesting. The other villains work well too, and the way the characters are done makes them more memorable than other characters who might be in the same positions. The only character I didn't think got enough time to shine for me was Weaver, who only comes off as Hudson's helper "with one eye".
The Graphics are great for their time. Details show in the facial expressions, textures look stylish, and not overboard. The cutscenes are fun to watch on their own let alone as part of the game.
The Gameplay has you first person shoot through enemies, while completing tasks for the C.I.A, Army, and Viktor Reznov. This is still great gameplay "for the most part" with suspenseful moments to look at. The classified style of text at the beginning was a lovely touch of character for the game. The Locations give off different types of battles that don't feel the same. The levels are varied, and all have a point to them. But some problems I had with the game include, "my biggest problem with the game" The AI isn't as well designed as previous modern games. Sometimes they fail to kill all enemies before advancing, taking too long to take out enemies, or even the enemy AI during the tunnel popping out of the holes early enough for you to shoot them, despite them killing your ally when they would have no time to react. Also there are no quotes after death again. Why was one random Vietnamese soldier shot in slow-motion? How does the fire on your boat in Vietnam go away after a task? and why didn't that one agent in the mountains open his parachute when he fell? if you are dropping to your death, there is no reason to not try and open it. Multiplayer is still great, perticularly now that you can play during the Cold War, giving the option a reason to exist. But I didn't care for the COD point system. RC cars are awesome though, as well as new abilities thanks to it being in the campaign first. The option to edit the games you do in multiplayer is fun and creative. Zombies return, and is even more atmospheric than World at War's version. Also the new addition of Co-op playing with an AI although not as interesting as the rest of the ideas in the game, is still a nice extra.
The Music is awesome, the tracks are really tense foreach scene, and the copyrighted tracks during the Vietnam war, and the ending give off good feels of "The idea of fighting in the war started off awesome, but devolved into horror" and "We are going to dominate this war". But I will still say that the tracks are slightly inferior to Modern Warfare 1+2, World at War, and Call of Duty 1+ Finest Hour.
Call of Duty: World at War 2: Black Ops 1 shows why it is important to give it your all when gaming games, cause of how one or two problems can make it far inferior to the rest.
The Story is that you follow a man who was kidnapped by Russians during a mission to kill Fidel Castro, who have a secret plan to wipe out America with a secret Bio-chemical weapon. This is a great story for the series. It's engaging, has a number of interesting events that all fit together, and the best twist in the franchise. But I will mention that some moments in the game make me question parts of it. Like why doesn't the C.I.A reveal who they are to Mason at the beginning? Why does Mason tell them all they want to know without knowing who they are yet? How did Clarke get shot, but not Hudson or Weaver? How did Mason know which chamber the bullet was in? because if it was luck then that is not a good way for our heroes to get out of there. When Hudson said "We wanted steiner alive" revealing the interrogator to be C.I.A, why didn't Mason looked shocked by this? I personally didn't like how they reveal Steiner's death before the first part of the mission started when a few word changes could have hidden that.
The Characters are great, likeable, and different personalities. The main villain Dragovich is very interesting. The other villains work well too, and the way the characters are done makes them more memorable than other characters who might be in the same positions. The only character I didn't think got enough time to shine for me was Weaver, who only comes off as Hudson's helper "with one eye".
The Graphics are great for their time. Details show in the facial expressions, textures look stylish, and not overboard. The cutscenes are fun to watch on their own let alone as part of the game.
The Gameplay has you first person shoot through enemies, while completing tasks for the C.I.A, Army, and Viktor Reznov. This is still great gameplay "for the most part" with suspenseful moments to look at. The classified style of text at the beginning was a lovely touch of character for the game. The Locations give off different types of battles that don't feel the same. The levels are varied, and all have a point to them. But some problems I had with the game include, "my biggest problem with the game" The AI isn't as well designed as previous modern games. Sometimes they fail to kill all enemies before advancing, taking too long to take out enemies, or even the enemy AI during the tunnel popping out of the holes early enough for you to shoot them, despite them killing your ally when they would have no time to react. Also there are no quotes after death again. Why was one random Vietnamese soldier shot in slow-motion? How does the fire on your boat in Vietnam go away after a task? and why didn't that one agent in the mountains open his parachute when he fell? if you are dropping to your death, there is no reason to not try and open it. Multiplayer is still great, perticularly now that you can play during the Cold War, giving the option a reason to exist. But I didn't care for the COD point system. RC cars are awesome though, as well as new abilities thanks to it being in the campaign first. The option to edit the games you do in multiplayer is fun and creative. Zombies return, and is even more atmospheric than World at War's version. Also the new addition of Co-op playing with an AI although not as interesting as the rest of the ideas in the game, is still a nice extra.
The Music is awesome, the tracks are really tense foreach scene, and the copyrighted tracks during the Vietnam war, and the ending give off good feels of "The idea of fighting in the war started off awesome, but devolved into horror" and "We are going to dominate this war". But I will still say that the tracks are slightly inferior to Modern Warfare 1+2, World at War, and Call of Duty 1+ Finest Hour.
Call of Duty: World at War 2: Black Ops 1 shows why it is important to give it your all when gaming games, cause of how one or two problems can make it far inferior to the rest.
This mod has really come full circle as one of the best Smash bros mods created. So many new stages and improvements making Smash 64 into a much more robust game.
Banjo and Dragon King are great final additions that really reflects this as a celebration of the N64 and Smash Bros as a whole.
Banjo and Dragon King are great final additions that really reflects this as a celebration of the N64 and Smash Bros as a whole.
This was my first real Atelier game and I am really glad I finally got to give the series a try. It's a very cozy game that can be as easy or hard as you want it to be. The graphics and art style are beautiful and it is something I have wanted to play for a long time but the collection can be quite pricey, Koei Tecmo only runs a sale on the Atelier games once or twice a year.
The time management is probably the biggest hurdle as synthesizing and traveling around the world map eats up time but I never found any objectives too hard, I usually completed the objective very early on and had a lot of time to level up in combat and collect material. The last few areas in the game get quite hard but you can ignore them for the most part if you want to.
It has a nice cast of charming characters and feels like something out of a storybook. I would like to come back eventually and get the true end but I want to try the two other games in the Arland trilogy.
The time management is probably the biggest hurdle as synthesizing and traveling around the world map eats up time but I never found any objectives too hard, I usually completed the objective very early on and had a lot of time to level up in combat and collect material. The last few areas in the game get quite hard but you can ignore them for the most part if you want to.
It has a nice cast of charming characters and feels like something out of a storybook. I would like to come back eventually and get the true end but I want to try the two other games in the Arland trilogy.
Last year I played Battle Mania for the Mega Drive and I really liked it even though it feels like a lot of people aren’t the biggest fans of it. I liked it so much I went and dived into the sequel immediately after. I loved the sequel so much, being one of my favorite games of that year. Now I’ll be honest. I said in my Sailor Moon Mega Drive review that “To this day it is still my favorite Mega Drive game and I expect it to stay that way.” and that was a goddamn lie because this game is my favorite! I really don’t know how I didn’t give this a 10/10 last year.
This game is a shmup where you control a girl named Mania. You can shoot forward or back depending on the direction you’re facing and you can even fire in 8 directions if you choose to do that setting. You also got your partner Maria who will either shoot the other way or the same way with you depending on your settings. Never worry about her getting hit or anything as she can’t get hurt. Unlike most shmups, you have HP and can have as much as you want as you can collect hearts for more of it and getting 20,000 points gives you 1 HP. You will go through 9 stages in this one filled with lots of action and nonsensical wonders.
Mania also has access to 4 different special weapons. Sure you got your normal default weapon that can be powered up by collecting P icons but you also can choose a special weapon at the beginning of most stages. The first is Neo-Thunder which will send two powerful bolts of lightning to hurt enemies. Second is Eraser which has two lasers with one above and one below Mania as they shoot horizontally. Third is Chainsaw which has two chainsaw blades that extend vertically. Lastly there is the Benten Bomb which will have explosions happen around you. All of these moves can be used as long as they are charged up. Keep in mind the less you use them, the more points and higher rank you get.
Now the stages is where this game hits its strides. There’s so much variety to the levels and aesthetics and it’s all top notch. I adore all the levels so much and there isn’t a single bad one in the game. I really like the level where you’re driving in your car and it’s also the only time you’re forced to use an 8 way shot. I should point out that a lot of people say this game is easy and they would be right but I could care less because my god I have so much fun playing them. There’s never a dull moment and they all look really nice. The enemy variety in them is also amazing and the patterns to follow never feel too repetitive or uninteresting. It’s all just amazing and I have no complaints here.
Bosses in this game are plentiful with the likes of stuff like a robot playing basketball, a crane machine with toys that will shoot at you, and even a clone of Mania. There’s not really any bosses that cause me too much problem as they are once again pretty easy. There are a few that got a hit or two on me. If there is one gripe I have is I don’t like how the final boss can crush you giving you an instant game over, I never understood why crushing does that anyway, feels awfully harsh. You know this game will leave a good first impression when beating the first main boss in stage 1 has it ending with Maria crashing into the boss from a building with her damn car, it’s so badass!
The presentation in this game is Ultimate A material! You get this high pumping intro with an awesome looking title screen. This game even tries to do fake anime eyecatches for two of the game’s cutscenes. The story is pretty nonsensical but the presentation is pretty good minus the underwhelming font. All the characters and enemies look great and are a big upgrade from the previous game. Even the options screen is amazing having a bunch of chibi Maria’s playing to the beat of each sound channel for every song. I could gush way more about it but I don’t want to bore anyone. The music is also really great taking advantage of the Mega Drive’s excellent bass sound. So many songs sound so rockin it’s banger after banger. A lot of effort was put into all this stuff and even the few voice samples are nice. It’s hard to resist me shouting “POWER UP!” or “SPEED UP!” or “Thank you!” god, I love so much about this game.
I know I probably could have written more but I think this does a decent job of explaining my love for this game. I know it’s a boring opinion to list this shmup high on the console but idc because this is my favorite game on the console and I love it so much. I recommend trying this game if you don’t mind using an emulator. This game was given a low print run back in the day and copies now go for over $1,000. Sadly it seems due to Vic Tokai now not being a video game developer, we will probably never see this game ported. M2 did try to get it for the Mega Drive Mini but it didn’t happen. A US version of this game was also meant to be released under the name Trouble Shooter Vintage but never came out. There was also a sequel planned for the Dreamcast but was sadly canceled and didn’t really go anywhere. I love this game like I’ve said many times already so I hope you also enjoy it if you haven’t tried it yet. I wanna say this game is obscure but I’m not really sure tbh, still JUST PLAY IT ALREADY!
This game is a shmup where you control a girl named Mania. You can shoot forward or back depending on the direction you’re facing and you can even fire in 8 directions if you choose to do that setting. You also got your partner Maria who will either shoot the other way or the same way with you depending on your settings. Never worry about her getting hit or anything as she can’t get hurt. Unlike most shmups, you have HP and can have as much as you want as you can collect hearts for more of it and getting 20,000 points gives you 1 HP. You will go through 9 stages in this one filled with lots of action and nonsensical wonders.
Mania also has access to 4 different special weapons. Sure you got your normal default weapon that can be powered up by collecting P icons but you also can choose a special weapon at the beginning of most stages. The first is Neo-Thunder which will send two powerful bolts of lightning to hurt enemies. Second is Eraser which has two lasers with one above and one below Mania as they shoot horizontally. Third is Chainsaw which has two chainsaw blades that extend vertically. Lastly there is the Benten Bomb which will have explosions happen around you. All of these moves can be used as long as they are charged up. Keep in mind the less you use them, the more points and higher rank you get.
Now the stages is where this game hits its strides. There’s so much variety to the levels and aesthetics and it’s all top notch. I adore all the levels so much and there isn’t a single bad one in the game. I really like the level where you’re driving in your car and it’s also the only time you’re forced to use an 8 way shot. I should point out that a lot of people say this game is easy and they would be right but I could care less because my god I have so much fun playing them. There’s never a dull moment and they all look really nice. The enemy variety in them is also amazing and the patterns to follow never feel too repetitive or uninteresting. It’s all just amazing and I have no complaints here.
Bosses in this game are plentiful with the likes of stuff like a robot playing basketball, a crane machine with toys that will shoot at you, and even a clone of Mania. There’s not really any bosses that cause me too much problem as they are once again pretty easy. There are a few that got a hit or two on me. If there is one gripe I have is I don’t like how the final boss can crush you giving you an instant game over, I never understood why crushing does that anyway, feels awfully harsh. You know this game will leave a good first impression when beating the first main boss in stage 1 has it ending with Maria crashing into the boss from a building with her damn car, it’s so badass!
The presentation in this game is Ultimate A material! You get this high pumping intro with an awesome looking title screen. This game even tries to do fake anime eyecatches for two of the game’s cutscenes. The story is pretty nonsensical but the presentation is pretty good minus the underwhelming font. All the characters and enemies look great and are a big upgrade from the previous game. Even the options screen is amazing having a bunch of chibi Maria’s playing to the beat of each sound channel for every song. I could gush way more about it but I don’t want to bore anyone. The music is also really great taking advantage of the Mega Drive’s excellent bass sound. So many songs sound so rockin it’s banger after banger. A lot of effort was put into all this stuff and even the few voice samples are nice. It’s hard to resist me shouting “POWER UP!” or “SPEED UP!” or “Thank you!” god, I love so much about this game.
I know I probably could have written more but I think this does a decent job of explaining my love for this game. I know it’s a boring opinion to list this shmup high on the console but idc because this is my favorite game on the console and I love it so much. I recommend trying this game if you don’t mind using an emulator. This game was given a low print run back in the day and copies now go for over $1,000. Sadly it seems due to Vic Tokai now not being a video game developer, we will probably never see this game ported. M2 did try to get it for the Mega Drive Mini but it didn’t happen. A US version of this game was also meant to be released under the name Trouble Shooter Vintage but never came out. There was also a sequel planned for the Dreamcast but was sadly canceled and didn’t really go anywhere. I love this game like I’ve said many times already so I hope you also enjoy it if you haven’t tried it yet. I wanna say this game is obscure but I’m not really sure tbh, still JUST PLAY IT ALREADY!
Final Fantasy XVI
2023
Final Fantasy XVI was a really great time, its definitely a step in the right direction on where the series should go in the future. The combat and story are the highlights of the game. Although the sidequests can be overwhelming and sometimes monotonous at times, they really flesh out the world and characters, you learn a lot about the world that you wouldn't get just going to the next objective immediately. The music in the game is top notch and always has throwbacks to the old games.
I am happy the PS5 finally got its big third party exclusive and it really gives the system a defining game. The cutscenes and action in the game take full advantage of the system and make it a must buy for the console.
I am happy the PS5 finally got its big third party exclusive and it really gives the system a defining game. The cutscenes and action in the game take full advantage of the system and make it a must buy for the console.
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