November, 2023

17

Finished

Perfectly enjoyable. Gets undercut by its seams too often for me to be wowed, but I had fun.

Finished

11

Ahhhhh- this is good. It is. But it's missing something that keeps it from connecting fully for me. The gameplay is a little sparse. And there's technical cruft that just needed to be ironed out.

It's nearly there. Almost.
The most I've enjoyed Call of Duty since the first MW, but the level design in these games is so structurally flawed that it's hard for me to sustain that enjoyment. I just don't find corridor shooters any fun.

Started / Finished

Finished

I am fundamentally incapable of understanding people who liked the epilogue. The notion that you'd need or want an explicit bridge to the first game is genuinely unfathomable to me. Even if the idea was sound, the execution outside of a couple moments was awful. The game should've ended when Arthur died.

Finished

03

Finished

I wish the writing was of the same caliber as the presentation. It's not bad, not at all, but it's the weak link in what is otherwise an incredible game.

There's a brief flourish of voice acting that I want to note. It's almost trivial in the full scope of the game, but when you first grab a pebble and it starts crawling up the wall, the protagonist lets out this spontaneous laugh of delight, and it struck me as one of the most authentic depictions of an emotional reaction I've ever seen in a video game.

My only other nitpick is the climbing gear. The rope physically interacts with the environment, but not the character's body. Same goes for the poncho and how it clips through their waist. It kinda betrays a lack of polish that most of the rest of the game definitely doesn't have. Minor quibble, and probably too costly a technical challenge.

Fully my surprise game of the year.

Finished

02

The traversal stutter went away? Really interesting development. I assumed it would be a permanent fixture, but now the game's more or less buttery smooth.

I'm not complaining. And it remains a stunning game. UE5's global illumination is genuinely exciting. Hoping we get more indie games that are able to take advantage of it like this.

October, 2023

31

Started

Damn, if the UE team can figure out the stuttering, we could be heading into a real golden age of video game graphics. Certainly employed really well here with Jusant's art direction.

At least there's no shader compilation garbage, but the not uncommon loading stutter is unfortunate. Tolerable, though.

Started

27

Finished

Really fun. I will always want Nintendo to take more risks, but I had a great time playing the new Mario game.

Finished

been a grip. put some hours in over the last few years, and finally finished out the main story. epilogue territory

it's honestly staggering how much less invested i am now. didn't think i was, but the pivot sapped almost all my motivation to continue

it's not that i dislike John Marston. i've just already played as him. i already know what happens. i don't understand the need to fill in the blanks of this miserable part of his life

Finished

it's a mess. just about every part of it. but you install a mod that lets you skip cutscenes, and another that amps up your bullet time juice, it's considerably more palatable

and the shooting remains great. hell of a soundtrack, too

Finished

September, 2023

30

Finished

It's good. A little longer than it needs to be, and the enemy behavior and variety is the weakest part, but it makes up for it in style. Great presentation, all around.

The story doesn't fully nail the landing, not for me anyway. I didn't dislike any of it, though, and it takes some risks that I appreciate.

We need more diving and shooting in video games.

Finished

26

Started

Oh boy... We sure do need more games inspired by Max Payne. At least one or two more.

This rules.

Started

24

Finished

First impression didn't persist, at least not visually. Had fun throughout, great level design, but it fell back a little too hard on the medieval fantasy aesthetic that I don't find especially compelling as presented through Quake.

Finished

22

Started

https://www.slipseer.com/index.php?resources/epochs-of-enmity.67/

Hey, this seems really good. Difficulty selection map and intro sequence make a phenomenal first impression.

It's clearly more vanilla+ than the experimental shit I'd normally go for, but when the production levels are this good, I'm inclined to stick around.

Started

21

Finished

Only really finished a minority of the maps. The ones I ditched were generally good, but I'd rather play a bad map that tries something different than a map that hews too close to the spirit of the original game. I've played Quake, what I actually want is cool, surprising shit that just happens to run in the Quake engine.

And a few too many of them don't feature any daylight, which tragically obviates any need for the iconic sunscreen featured in the start map.

Standouts include radiatoryang's Breakfast Under The Balloons, Trashbang's Amid A Fresh Carcass, and Fairweather's SCVMFVCK II: FVCKED HARDER.

Finished