Kremdanieko
1999
Straight miserable.
Tears of the Kingdom improves on Breath of the wild on most fronts. The world feels fresh in spite of a reused map, the NPCs feel more alive than they ever did in BOTW, and the dungeon selection this time around is more fitting of that title, although still not perfect.
Link's new toolkit is more interesting and creative than the one in BOTW could ever hope to be and results in some simple but satisfying puzzles. As well as the creative freedom within the puzzle solving that Breath of the Wild was celebrated for.
Without delving into spoiler territory I also found the narrative told to actually be fairly engaging this time around. There was enough ties between the events in the past and present to make me invested in what was going to happen, even if it's still a fairly conventional beat ganon narrative.
This title won't convince anyone that didn't much care for Breath of the Wild, but as a huge Zelda fan that enjoyed that game, Tears of the Kingdom is what I truly wanted from the first title 6 years ago.
Link's new toolkit is more interesting and creative than the one in BOTW could ever hope to be and results in some simple but satisfying puzzles. As well as the creative freedom within the puzzle solving that Breath of the Wild was celebrated for.
Without delving into spoiler territory I also found the narrative told to actually be fairly engaging this time around. There was enough ties between the events in the past and present to make me invested in what was going to happen, even if it's still a fairly conventional beat ganon narrative.
This title won't convince anyone that didn't much care for Breath of the Wild, but as a huge Zelda fan that enjoyed that game, Tears of the Kingdom is what I truly wanted from the first title 6 years ago.
Hiding behind 500 layers of irony and a strange false premise of being a game a guy made when he was 16, Slayers X is a fairly decent first person shooter.
Level design is nothing to write home about and enemy variety is limited, but what elevates the game is a fairly unique arsenal of weapons. A melee weapon that doubles as a short range but strong projectile when you have close to max "hackblood", a shotgun that recontextualizes how you view the environment, as glass shards are ammo, and a grenade launcher that spawns swarms of rats, the weapons mix things up from the usual shooter fare.
Unfortunately fairly unfunny, crass toilet humour rears its ugly head with monsters made of poo, constant jokes about banging moms, and intentional misspellings and irony-laden one liners. It's also short, but at the very least it never overstays its welcome. Although even in this short runtime I had one crash and a consistent bug with dead enemies making constant noise.
It's only after playing this game that I discover it's some sequel or spinoff to Hypnospace Outlaw. A game I haven't played. Maybe playing that beforehand would've elevated my opinion of this game, but as it stands I found Slayers X to be a decent romp, but not worth running out and playing before any other classic shooter or modern classic style game.
Level design is nothing to write home about and enemy variety is limited, but what elevates the game is a fairly unique arsenal of weapons. A melee weapon that doubles as a short range but strong projectile when you have close to max "hackblood", a shotgun that recontextualizes how you view the environment, as glass shards are ammo, and a grenade launcher that spawns swarms of rats, the weapons mix things up from the usual shooter fare.
Unfortunately fairly unfunny, crass toilet humour rears its ugly head with monsters made of poo, constant jokes about banging moms, and intentional misspellings and irony-laden one liners. It's also short, but at the very least it never overstays its welcome. Although even in this short runtime I had one crash and a consistent bug with dead enemies making constant noise.
It's only after playing this game that I discover it's some sequel or spinoff to Hypnospace Outlaw. A game I haven't played. Maybe playing that beforehand would've elevated my opinion of this game, but as it stands I found Slayers X to be a decent romp, but not worth running out and playing before any other classic shooter or modern classic style game.
Played this for some reason.
If I was a little girl I would feel ripped off.
If I was a little girl I would feel ripped off.
Ratchet and Clank is finally on PC, and being a longtime fan of the series, I'm glad I can play this without shelling out for a PS5.
Rift Apart is a very solid game. Maybe I have to ruminate on this longer, but I prefer it over any of the ones on PS3. However, as someone that played the PS3 titles, seeing certain sections of levels lifted straight from Tools of Destruction and a suite of enemies that barely feel different from their incarnations in the PS3 games, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Bosses are also mostly absent. There are a few unique ones, but most of them are reused minibosses constantly thrown in to cap off sections, and it gets old.
Narratively, Rift Apart is just okay. A few jokes made me smile a little but a majority fell flat. Certain characters were charming, but I quickly got tired of every protagonist being self doubting and lacking in self confidence. Maybe this was just the vibe at Insomniac during development. Dr. Nefarious still feels a bit empty without Lawrence, but he's a welcome change of pace from all the sadsacks you play as.
The PC port is mostly solid, running okay on my old 1050 TI and with swift load times for being put on a HDD over an SSD. However I did experience several crashes and a lot of dropped frames.
The M&KB controls feel fantastic and I would love to play more of these games with them if they were ever to port more.
Overall, I'm happy with the game. It's one of the best post PS2 Ratchet titles and I look forward to playing it again in the future on a stronger PC.
Rift Apart is a very solid game. Maybe I have to ruminate on this longer, but I prefer it over any of the ones on PS3. However, as someone that played the PS3 titles, seeing certain sections of levels lifted straight from Tools of Destruction and a suite of enemies that barely feel different from their incarnations in the PS3 games, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Bosses are also mostly absent. There are a few unique ones, but most of them are reused minibosses constantly thrown in to cap off sections, and it gets old.
Narratively, Rift Apart is just okay. A few jokes made me smile a little but a majority fell flat. Certain characters were charming, but I quickly got tired of every protagonist being self doubting and lacking in self confidence. Maybe this was just the vibe at Insomniac during development. Dr. Nefarious still feels a bit empty without Lawrence, but he's a welcome change of pace from all the sadsacks you play as.
The PC port is mostly solid, running okay on my old 1050 TI and with swift load times for being put on a HDD over an SSD. However I did experience several crashes and a lot of dropped frames.
The M&KB controls feel fantastic and I would love to play more of these games with them if they were ever to port more.
Overall, I'm happy with the game. It's one of the best post PS2 Ratchet titles and I look forward to playing it again in the future on a stronger PC.
2008
All the flaws of Size Matters with none of the positives. Soundtrack is just really samey and every part of this game feels half baked and dull at the best of times.
There's a distinct lack of focus and none of the mechanics feel like they got polished enough to stand out as the highlight.
The final boss is actually kind of fun but I wouldn't play the game for that. Everything else drags the experience down too much for it to be worth trying unless you need to beat every game in the series.
There's a distinct lack of focus and none of the mechanics feel like they got polished enough to stand out as the highlight.
The final boss is actually kind of fun but I wouldn't play the game for that. Everything else drags the experience down too much for it to be worth trying unless you need to beat every game in the series.
Style over substance with mandatory grinding to get the most basic of beat em up moves.
If my friend hadn't told me about the infinite money exploit I wouldn't have bothered.
If my friend hadn't told me about the infinite money exploit I wouldn't have bothered.
2003
In recent times, the only memory people seem to put into this game is the ability to piss and shit on command and the bizarrely dark plot, however Dog's Life is more than just these elements.
There was clearly care put into making sure Jake's movements look natural when making turns or going up and down slopes. His legs will move in a believable enough way and his body will rotate accordingly. It's a shockingly good looking system considering the rest of the game. However this makes the platforming frustrating, seeing as he will refuse to make a jump unless it seems feasible and would look natural. I can appreciate the effort put into this in spite of how it makes the game feel to actually play.
The music is wonderful and compliments each area really well. It's a lot of peaceful and relaxing tracks, with a few high tempo ones that are catchy and fun for the appropriate sections they play in.
However, visually, the game is a mess. Human models are gross and low poly and all the textures are muddy even for PS2 standards. The dogs were clearly the main attraction for the developers, but some of them still look just off, like the doberman.
Strangely enough, Jake has a dirt system where the more you run around the more mud gets onto his coat, albeit far too quickly, and you need to clean it off if you want to be presentable to random people.
On Jake's quest, he will need to collect enough bones to get past the dog catchers doberman. To do this, you will need to talk to NPCs and do tasks for them, collect certain scents, and even take control of other dogs. To do this, you need to collect one of two types of scents in the area that has a minigame attached. These range from marking territory, races, tag, and more. Once you complete one of these tasks you get to control the dog whenever you want, however there's a time limit related to how difficult or far away the task is. Completing the second minigame after this gives you a bone. There's actually a shocking amount of bones in the game, and you'll need 90 to get into the finale.
There's enough variation in the tasks, and each NPC adds a little extra spice, so even some mediocre tasks have enough going on to keep me invested until the end.
Ultimately, I think the game is worth playing for anyone into dogs or collectathons. Or just oddities on the PS2 in general. I played it as a very small child so my opinion may be clouded, but I think it's worth remembering past the toilet humour present.
Also there's rampant pedigree advertisement in it.
There was clearly care put into making sure Jake's movements look natural when making turns or going up and down slopes. His legs will move in a believable enough way and his body will rotate accordingly. It's a shockingly good looking system considering the rest of the game. However this makes the platforming frustrating, seeing as he will refuse to make a jump unless it seems feasible and would look natural. I can appreciate the effort put into this in spite of how it makes the game feel to actually play.
The music is wonderful and compliments each area really well. It's a lot of peaceful and relaxing tracks, with a few high tempo ones that are catchy and fun for the appropriate sections they play in.
However, visually, the game is a mess. Human models are gross and low poly and all the textures are muddy even for PS2 standards. The dogs were clearly the main attraction for the developers, but some of them still look just off, like the doberman.
Strangely enough, Jake has a dirt system where the more you run around the more mud gets onto his coat, albeit far too quickly, and you need to clean it off if you want to be presentable to random people.
On Jake's quest, he will need to collect enough bones to get past the dog catchers doberman. To do this, you will need to talk to NPCs and do tasks for them, collect certain scents, and even take control of other dogs. To do this, you need to collect one of two types of scents in the area that has a minigame attached. These range from marking territory, races, tag, and more. Once you complete one of these tasks you get to control the dog whenever you want, however there's a time limit related to how difficult or far away the task is. Completing the second minigame after this gives you a bone. There's actually a shocking amount of bones in the game, and you'll need 90 to get into the finale.
There's enough variation in the tasks, and each NPC adds a little extra spice, so even some mediocre tasks have enough going on to keep me invested until the end.
Ultimately, I think the game is worth playing for anyone into dogs or collectathons. Or just oddities on the PS2 in general. I played it as a very small child so my opinion may be clouded, but I think it's worth remembering past the toilet humour present.
Also there's rampant pedigree advertisement in it.
2012
Pretty blatantly style over substance game with some rather frustrating sections and somewhat wonky controls. Akira Yamaoka's soundtrack is solid, and the licensed tracks are fun and appropriate when used.
Suda's name is plastered everywhere as creative director, but the actual director Tomo Ikeda is buried in the generic credits, which is kind of sad.
I wonder how the remake is gonna hold up in comparison.
Suda's name is plastered everywhere as creative director, but the actual director Tomo Ikeda is buried in the generic credits, which is kind of sad.
I wonder how the remake is gonna hold up in comparison.
2023
Short and fun, but the combat was pretty mediocre and I'm not sure it needed to have metroidvania conventions.
2022
This review contains spoilers
Reviewed on version 0.6.2.
Seeing as the game isn't complete, this will be more of a stream of conscious review rather than one with much thought put into how to articulate myself.
Voices of the Void is a spiritual successor to Signal simulator with its own twists on the gameplay and atmosphere. Using source engine sound effects with ps1 styled blocky textures, unreal engine lighting, and models too high definition but too janky to fit neatly into any category, VoTV has a bit of an identity crisis aesthetically.
In spite of these issues the game manages to craft a decent atmosphere, letting the player sink into the workplace and loop of finding signals, writing down hash codes, and fixing up servers and transformers. The game features a myriad of upgrades and items to help smooth out this process, however an issue arises where things go too smoothly. Once you buy kerfur, upgrade the stability, and get any useful upgrades to improve the speed at which you can acquire and process signals, the game becomes rote and formulaic. You'll rarely need to leave the base to fix up the transformers and write down hash codes, but these are quick and easy. There's exploration to be done, but by the point I was getting bored of the core loop, the main alien entities started spawning in. Ones that can actually kill you.
The suns floating around, the occasional ariral bully arriving, and a few events that either just give a visual change or shake your base are all to keep you entertained as you reach into the late 30s all the way until the demo is completed on day 44. There's potential here, but unless there's more to do in the base than decorate while you're trying not to get killed, I don't think the final hours of the game will be worth replaying by the time the game is complete.
Seeing as the game isn't complete, this will be more of a stream of conscious review rather than one with much thought put into how to articulate myself.
Voices of the Void is a spiritual successor to Signal simulator with its own twists on the gameplay and atmosphere. Using source engine sound effects with ps1 styled blocky textures, unreal engine lighting, and models too high definition but too janky to fit neatly into any category, VoTV has a bit of an identity crisis aesthetically.
In spite of these issues the game manages to craft a decent atmosphere, letting the player sink into the workplace and loop of finding signals, writing down hash codes, and fixing up servers and transformers. The game features a myriad of upgrades and items to help smooth out this process, however an issue arises where things go too smoothly. Once you buy kerfur, upgrade the stability, and get any useful upgrades to improve the speed at which you can acquire and process signals, the game becomes rote and formulaic. You'll rarely need to leave the base to fix up the transformers and write down hash codes, but these are quick and easy. There's exploration to be done, but by the point I was getting bored of the core loop, the main alien entities started spawning in. Ones that can actually kill you.
The suns floating around, the occasional ariral bully arriving, and a few events that either just give a visual change or shake your base are all to keep you entertained as you reach into the late 30s all the way until the demo is completed on day 44. There's potential here, but unless there's more to do in the base than decorate while you're trying not to get killed, I don't think the final hours of the game will be worth replaying by the time the game is complete.
2023
Of the many indie 3D platformers with "retro" visuals I've played so far, Corn Kidz gets the closest to nailing the aesthetic down. With cute and appealing character designs, authentically muddy textures, and very low poly side-characters, the visuals could have come straight from the console it takes its subtitle from. The main characters animations are extremely bouncy, with a hefty amount of squash and stretch that reminded me of Jak & Daxter's wonderful use of the technique.
The soundtrack is alright. It has a few decent songs but the one you'll be hearing the longest is grating, repetitive, and loves to abuse the cowbell.
Unfortunately the gameplay doesn't quite live up to the level of the visuals. The developer decided it would be wise to add 4 separate buttons to activate different camera angles. You need to constantly hold the right stick in a certain direction to keep it facing that way, and this goes for the zoomed in "aiming mode". Making hitting moving targets with the timed projectiles a pain, especially since the projectiles are in the way on screen.
Levels are also fairly spacious, and the game has no fast movement option. The headbutt attack has a delay before and after using it which makes long distance movement with it feel awful. The lockon feature with it also feels like it sometimes has a mind of its own, and during the final level I fell into a pit during a certain section several times with no idea why Seve didn't do his wallrun instead.
The game is fairly short, but as with every one of these games, it is also fairly cheap. It's worth the asking price, but don't go in expecting a masterpiece.
The soundtrack is alright. It has a few decent songs but the one you'll be hearing the longest is grating, repetitive, and loves to abuse the cowbell.
Unfortunately the gameplay doesn't quite live up to the level of the visuals. The developer decided it would be wise to add 4 separate buttons to activate different camera angles. You need to constantly hold the right stick in a certain direction to keep it facing that way, and this goes for the zoomed in "aiming mode". Making hitting moving targets with the timed projectiles a pain, especially since the projectiles are in the way on screen.
Levels are also fairly spacious, and the game has no fast movement option. The headbutt attack has a delay before and after using it which makes long distance movement with it feel awful. The lockon feature with it also feels like it sometimes has a mind of its own, and during the final level I fell into a pit during a certain section several times with no idea why Seve didn't do his wallrun instead.
The game is fairly short, but as with every one of these games, it is also fairly cheap. It's worth the asking price, but don't go in expecting a masterpiece.
2024
For the record I only played this for 2 and a half hours.
The game is a grinding simulator and nothing about it feels good. Jumping, climbing, attacking, etc. feels like empty air, the sound effects are both bad and also don't work half the time, and the games aesthetics feel messy.
Fighting alongside your pokemon would be novel but there's nothing to it since they just do their own thing, poorly. They get stuck and sometimes disappear into the ether.
The game as a whole feels like it was made with a machine. Just a mishmash of the most popular games and genres out there at the current time. With their own original designs being random aspects of existing pokemon slapped together to create their "original" designs.
If you feel you HAVE to try it out, try it out with gamepass and play something actually good while you're subscribed.
The game is a grinding simulator and nothing about it feels good. Jumping, climbing, attacking, etc. feels like empty air, the sound effects are both bad and also don't work half the time, and the games aesthetics feel messy.
Fighting alongside your pokemon would be novel but there's nothing to it since they just do their own thing, poorly. They get stuck and sometimes disappear into the ether.
The game as a whole feels like it was made with a machine. Just a mishmash of the most popular games and genres out there at the current time. With their own original designs being random aspects of existing pokemon slapped together to create their "original" designs.
If you feel you HAVE to try it out, try it out with gamepass and play something actually good while you're subscribed.
2003
I could write many paragraphs about every little thing that annoyed me about this game. From the mediocre soundtrack where you'll mostly hear the droning alert theme, the cramped open world, or the unsatisfying and frustrating gunplay.
Instead I'm going to say that buried within the muck and filth that is this trend-chasing derivative mess, there's a Jak sequel I wish I was playing instead. The few all too short levels taking advantage of the jetboard. Mixing it in with proper platforming and reasonable enemy spawns.
If Naughty Dog had made that game I would've swallowed the weird edgelord tone no problem. Instead it's a game I never want to return to.
Instead I'm going to say that buried within the muck and filth that is this trend-chasing derivative mess, there's a Jak sequel I wish I was playing instead. The few all too short levels taking advantage of the jetboard. Mixing it in with proper platforming and reasonable enemy spawns.
If Naughty Dog had made that game I would've swallowed the weird edgelord tone no problem. Instead it's a game I never want to return to.
2004
After reaching new lows with Jak 2, I was expecting very little from Jak 3. So to my surprise, the game is a fairly solid romp despite some flaws that hold it back from being a true favourite.
The guns have been tightened up significantly thanks to the new mods, which lets them design platforming challenges around the fact you can actually deal with enemies while jumping. The jetboard is just as fun as it was in Jak 2, and the leapers taking the mechanics from the flut flut in the first game was a welcome surprise.
Spargus City is a smaller, better designed hub than Haven City. Never taking more than a minute or so to get from point A to point B. And on top of that, the developers placed mission start points where the missions actually take place most of the time.
I wish the game had a heavier emphasis on platforming, but the sections it does have are solid. The minigames are a bit of a mixed bag but I never hated dealing with any of them like I hated sections of Jak 2. And the open world wasteland isn't my favourite part of the game, but it's a fun enough diversion to drive around in.
The Jak series has had an identity crisis and a half with none of the games really sharing an exact ideology in spite of sharing the same core platforming moveset. However I'm glad the trilogy ended off with a good game instead of another Renegade.
The guns have been tightened up significantly thanks to the new mods, which lets them design platforming challenges around the fact you can actually deal with enemies while jumping. The jetboard is just as fun as it was in Jak 2, and the leapers taking the mechanics from the flut flut in the first game was a welcome surprise.
Spargus City is a smaller, better designed hub than Haven City. Never taking more than a minute or so to get from point A to point B. And on top of that, the developers placed mission start points where the missions actually take place most of the time.
I wish the game had a heavier emphasis on platforming, but the sections it does have are solid. The minigames are a bit of a mixed bag but I never hated dealing with any of them like I hated sections of Jak 2. And the open world wasteland isn't my favourite part of the game, but it's a fun enough diversion to drive around in.
The Jak series has had an identity crisis and a half with none of the games really sharing an exact ideology in spite of sharing the same core platforming moveset. However I'm glad the trilogy ended off with a good game instead of another Renegade.