Quake Champions is a game with a core that feels mostly solid by way of it being Quake, but also one that feels like all parties involved just sort of gave up on halfway through.

Gimmicky champions and guest characters flirt with tapping into the hero shooter trend of the late 2010's, but without offering compelling character design updates to chase that same demographic or a business model that enables each champion to really distinguish themselves in any meaningful way, and stylistic modernizations don't land half as effectively as the rest of id Software's 8th Gen retro-revivals.

No sense of on-boarding mechanically and the lack of an immediately generous character roster makes the attempted modernization of Quake here feel like a disingenuous half-step made out of obligation that doesn't feel particularly charged to appeal to either purists or newcomers; Unless you're a greater Bethesda super-fan or an invested advocate for classic style Arena FPS games on the whole, this is simply a barebones shooter with all the appeal of Cliff Blezinsky's LawBreakers, and I still can barely tell if this thing is in open beta or not.

A remake of the original Metroid that looks pretty, sounds mediocre, and controls like an actual video game this time around.

I completed Zero Mission almost on accident; A quick peek at the game for me turned into commiting to a complete run after being surprised at how quickly I had already progressed compared to something like Super Metroid.

Zero Mission, being a Metroid game still does have its crypticisms, but refreshingly feels like a tight experience that doesn't waste too much of your time. Finally! A Metroid that's straight to the point.

Some of this is probably due to the waypoint system, but even that doesn't give the player all the answers. Likely, the scale of the original NES title is just not as daunting when its actually fun to play, and so committing to exploring new chunks of map is an easy pill to swallow. (Not to mention, much more reasonably challenging task.)

Zero Mission's weaker points seem to stem from being a remake - None of the music reaches the heights of Super Metroid, and the NES tracks translated into the GBA's signature crunchy sound is underwhelming at best, and grating at worst. A lot of the game's map also doesn't do a good job at making themselves feel distinguished: You can feel the effort put into the different environment tile sets and music, and there are noble efforts like duct taping new gimmicks in a few pockets of the different zones, but it could have gone further.

The game's stronger points for the most part trended towards being the highlight - New cutscenes and the aforementioned "pocket gimmicks" were all very nice, but the biggest addition to the game was the game's Epilogue.

After making my Zebes escape, my impression of the game was that it was a super tight Metroid experience with some signature cryptic annoyances, but otherwise had excellent presentation and great control, resulting in the best Metroid I had played yet.

The epilogue's presentation is also still on point here and could have been something really special - The first half of the epilogue feels just a tad too gimmicky, and way too trial-and-error for my tastes, but it wouldn't be so bad if the second half's map didn't feel like it was purposefully designed to waste my time and be irritating to traverse through - Which by the end of the game, it clearly is.

So the end product is something that while I think is pretty close to surpassing Super Metroid, it doesn't quite stick the landing on everything it does. If nothing else, Space Jumping in this game isn't a nightmare, so it's a solid enough recommendation.

Doom is pure, distilled, fun. Fueled by video game composer Mick Gordon, this reboot takes queues from the original game, Quake, and Halo to whip up one of the best, if not the best, first person shooter campaigns, period.

Long load times, and a handful of unfun enemy types sully an otherwise near perfect experience. Played on Ultra-Violence.


Personal Accolades - Golden Haro 2k18 4th Place Winner

Metroid Fusion offers some gorgeous visuals and the best Samus design yet, but feels compromised in perhaps every other way.

At this point, Fusion doesn't offer too much new in the way of gameplay - A few gimmicks in the way enemies respawn, some weapon behaviors slightly changed, that kind of stuff. While there are some control adjustments that are certainly welcome, Fusion somewhat disappointingly aims to innovate in the series not through core gameplay, but by a more streamlined sense of progression, and an emphasis on in-game storytelling.

In addition to just not feeling as satisfying as the sprawling open ended-ness of Super Metroid, this approach just feels sort of half-baked, and doesn't push far enough or executes well enough on the distance it does go.

Most of the new things Fusion aims to do, Zero Mission just does better. And most of the old things it tries to do again, Super Metroid has it beat by a country mile.

As unconvinced I am of the original Quake's take on gothic lovecraft stuffs, it doesn't take a genius to see just how much less personality Quake II has in comparison.

The weapons are a tad more generic, but are mostly satisfying to use. The interactivity in each level gives off the feeling of a gimmicky tech demo, even without the RTX implementation, but in a fun way that I don't hate. Enemies are boring, both in theme and behavior, and can often feel overly spongey.

The music of Quake II isn't great, but modern releases excluding it altogether is a strict no-no.

The RTX implementation is mostly quite good, but the lack of muzzle flashes on weapons you fire yourself seems like a glaring omission that would have enhanced the overall experience and weapon feedback.

Like the original Quake, some things begin to click a bit more in multiplayer deathmatch, but an increasingly useless starting weapon and the lack of modern on-boarding features as seen in the 2021 Quake remaster keep the barrier of entry to that experience as high as it's always been.

Splitgate undoubtedly wears its Halo inspiration on its sleeve, and the emphasis on its Portal mechanics are just subtle enough to combine into something very clever and satisfying, in spite of the eSports-vomit aesthetic.

Splitgate's modes are almost verbatim the same as Halo's suite, and its best maps are all remixes of famous Halo maps like Midship and Sanctuary. Shooting is crunchy and responsive, if not super in-depth.

A good time for anyone craving a gamepad optimized Arena shooter, though the experience varies wildly based on the quality of whichever map you happen to be playing on.