Mangraz
36 reviews liked by Mangraz
Escape from Tarkov
2017
Initially, when I first picked up this game, I didn't know anything about it and stopped playing after doing 4 or so raids.
Then, for reasons I can't remember, I started to play it again with friends and couldn't stop for months. For the next two years I played the hell outta this game.
Now, I've grown tired of it. Constantly having to restart from scratch after a couple months to half a year has grown old. Doing the same exact "tasks" over and over has lost its charm. As has dealing with the updates that make the game more difficult and more tedious because the hardcore fanbase keeps leveling up too fast after each wipe. The people that live and breath this game defend it with their lives and say anything that makes it slightly easier is for pansies. The gatekeeping in this community is unreal. They claim to be welcoming but that's only if you have nothing negative to say.
The level of detail in this game is astonishing however. Customizing firearms is super fun and intricate. Very few games come close in terms of modularity with their weapons. Everything looks and feels authentic.
Just don't expect to have cool firefights that last a long time like the live action series.
Then, for reasons I can't remember, I started to play it again with friends and couldn't stop for months. For the next two years I played the hell outta this game.
Now, I've grown tired of it. Constantly having to restart from scratch after a couple months to half a year has grown old. Doing the same exact "tasks" over and over has lost its charm. As has dealing with the updates that make the game more difficult and more tedious because the hardcore fanbase keeps leveling up too fast after each wipe. The people that live and breath this game defend it with their lives and say anything that makes it slightly easier is for pansies. The gatekeeping in this community is unreal. They claim to be welcoming but that's only if you have nothing negative to say.
The level of detail in this game is astonishing however. Customizing firearms is super fun and intricate. Very few games come close in terms of modularity with their weapons. Everything looks and feels authentic.
Just don't expect to have cool firefights that last a long time like the live action series.
Breakdown
2004
The Original Soda Drinker
My man Derrick fucking loves soda. Drinking soda helps him heal after gunfights and battles with ancient warriors. While hallucinating an apocalyptic desert vista guess what this mad lad finds? A fucking soda machine. Dude can't get enough of it.
I have a lot of fondness for this game, I had an OXM demo disc with a demo and trailer for this that my sister and I were obsessed with, we thought it was the coolest game ever, and when I finally played it, it was the coolest game. I got filtered hard by the chase scene in the beginning though, and the difficulty is insane throughout. But I like fucked up difficulties and bizarre games, so this makes me think of stuff like Oni when I play it. can't recommend this to anyone though, you need a very specific taste for Breakdown.
My man Derrick fucking loves soda. Drinking soda helps him heal after gunfights and battles with ancient warriors. While hallucinating an apocalyptic desert vista guess what this mad lad finds? A fucking soda machine. Dude can't get enough of it.
I have a lot of fondness for this game, I had an OXM demo disc with a demo and trailer for this that my sister and I were obsessed with, we thought it was the coolest game ever, and when I finally played it, it was the coolest game. I got filtered hard by the chase scene in the beginning though, and the difficulty is insane throughout. But I like fucked up difficulties and bizarre games, so this makes me think of stuff like Oni when I play it. can't recommend this to anyone though, you need a very specific taste for Breakdown.
the fact that this game (being an april fools' game) was intended to never be updated, yet already has had two in its first week, says a bit about the potential. It might not be a game that you'll play consistently over a month but the gameplay loop is pretty satisfying.
at this point, the game is a bit of a novelty, with no player stats or anything of the sort available, but the exaggerated, tongue-in-cheek animations plus the absurdity of gunplay between medieval knights is just plain fun. the game deserves some respect for its map originality too; the undulating and spiraling roads not only appear unreal and highly imaginative, bringing a visceral energy into traversal, but encourage players to think more actively about navigation and staying on path in a way I haven't really experienced in another battle royale until now.
the pacing is great too. i found that road encounters between you and another duo happen fairly regularly, but not too often; plus, the added challenge of attempting to aim while zooming through the hills is tense and exciting. games are also pretty short too (10 minutes maximum), letting you get back in it quick.
if you're a fan of battle royales, give knightfall a try; it's only 6 bucks at the time of this review. it's a simple game right now, but I've seen enough streamers give it attention that I'm willing to share my thoughts if it means the developers will think more about adding the depth that this game is definitely ready to fulfill.
at this point, the game is a bit of a novelty, with no player stats or anything of the sort available, but the exaggerated, tongue-in-cheek animations plus the absurdity of gunplay between medieval knights is just plain fun. the game deserves some respect for its map originality too; the undulating and spiraling roads not only appear unreal and highly imaginative, bringing a visceral energy into traversal, but encourage players to think more actively about navigation and staying on path in a way I haven't really experienced in another battle royale until now.
the pacing is great too. i found that road encounters between you and another duo happen fairly regularly, but not too often; plus, the added challenge of attempting to aim while zooming through the hills is tense and exciting. games are also pretty short too (10 minutes maximum), letting you get back in it quick.
if you're a fan of battle royales, give knightfall a try; it's only 6 bucks at the time of this review. it's a simple game right now, but I've seen enough streamers give it attention that I'm willing to share my thoughts if it means the developers will think more about adding the depth that this game is definitely ready to fulfill.
Sad excuse of a remake/remaster/whatever it was supposed to be
Finally... the definitive Mario Party. Now all they need to do is pump it full of DLC boards. This is a collection of some of the best boards and the best minigames from the series past, and finally there's nothing here to screw it all up. Online play is finally a reality and it's here from launch.
To my own personal delight, all of the issues I had with the first game on Switch have been resolved. The boards are interesting again (because they're directly imported from better times), and most importantly, stars cost 20 coins again, and golden pipes are no longer handed out like candy. These fixes to the economy and the much needed return of Boo as a coin sink and method of counterplay mean that strategy is back on the menu, where it always should have been.
Could I ask for more? Absolutely. But other than wanting more of it, I can't find any fault with anything that's here.
To my own personal delight, all of the issues I had with the first game on Switch have been resolved. The boards are interesting again (because they're directly imported from better times), and most importantly, stars cost 20 coins again, and golden pipes are no longer handed out like candy. These fixes to the economy and the much needed return of Boo as a coin sink and method of counterplay mean that strategy is back on the menu, where it always should have been.
Could I ask for more? Absolutely. But other than wanting more of it, I can't find any fault with anything that's here.
Finally Game Freak outdid themselves. Instead of one step forward two steps back, as we are accustomed to, this time they've managed to do three steps forward and around 10 back.
Most of the good that can be said about this game is not so much about the open world or the changes in gameplay but the fluidity of it. The speed at which you can enter battles and get out of them, fight or just catch is the real breath of fresh air that differentiates this game from the rest.
Now with the bad shit, which is almost everything else.
In the graphics department, this game is completely hideous and there's no beating the bush around it. Even if the half-baked watercolor-esque artstyle tries to cover it, everything in this game looks blurry and like it was rendered at 240p, which is specially noticeable in character models up close or in any of the completely plain textures in the ground or in the walls of caves. This reaches amazing levels of amateurism when your player character is in a dark zone and you'll see little white specks around the model for some reason, or when there's a body of water behind you, the border of the model will look distorted. The only place the artstyle actually works is in the Pokémon models themselves. It also manages to, despite all of this, run pretty badly with common fps drops and an absurd amount of pop-in. This last problem specially infuriates me for two reasons that show how rushed the game was and how little player experience matters to the devs. First, there's an actual flying mount in this game, and that's pretty good. What isn't good is that flying makes the pop-in problem so apparent it hurts to the eyes, you will be flying but not see anything below until you get close because it's not loading, and if you fly low enough you can see how the world is loading as you go. The other problem is that there's a more or less important side-quest in which you collect shiny soul wisps that are scattered through the world, some more hidden, some less. What's funny about it is that most of them won't load until you get in front of where they are, making them impossible to find. All in all, things haven't changed, and every game looks worse than the last one, same as every game since after gen 5.
Let's get to the rest of it. The new catching mechanics and Strong and Agile styles are good and fun, and I'd honestly like it if they were introduced in the main series somehow or another. Also, the open world actually makes for a Pokémon game that has a real wilderness to explore. The thing is, the illusion of all these things starts to fade all too quickly. What you're left with is with a series of maps, in which some pokemon will spawn and be there. Like just exist there, doing nothing, waiting for you to get to them. When that happens, they will either attack, run away or just ignore you. There's also materials to craft (which I think is a fine enough system). Aside from that, the world is completely dead and there is no interaction at all between it and the Pokémon or with each other. There's some items to feed the Pokémon to make catching them easier or to be stealthy, but usually there's no need for that, ever.
There's also boss fights, which are in my opinion the coolest things in the game, and basically play out like boss fights in the Dark Souls series, centered about using the invincibility frames of your dodge to avoid telegraphed attacks. I don't like how the camera switches when you're attacking them and it's distracting, some of the bosses' attacks are too sudden and hard to react the first time through, and the dodge is a bit too clunky and laggy. These are things to polish and I'm ok with them for their first attempt at this kind of thing. However, what I can't really understand is why, instead of giving you a healthbar and some way of healing, you enter the fight and have a number of hits you can take, if you do, you're out. Another big thing is the way you attack, that is throwing food pouches (???) at the boss. I get that throwing is the actual main mechanic in the game, but seriously? Not only is stupid as hell, but you can't really aim in a fight like this and if you lock into them the throw still fails frequently (that happens out of boss fights too).
The classic combat is another horse entirely. One minor grip I have with it is the turn system, that though simpler and more dynamic, loses all complexity when both Pokémon don't act "at the same time" or "at the same turn", giving no room for prediction or planning, which is the base for all Pokémon battles until now. That allows you to just Agile Style paralyze the opponent and smacking him right after without any repercusions, or being done just that by the opponent. There's also barely any battles in this game and half of them are your team of 6 vs the one guy your opponent has, which makes sense from a narrative standpoint but doesn't excuse it. Add the fact that multiplayer is basically nonexistent in this game and you're left with a game about repetitively catch some guys that are roaming aimessly in a dead world to get to the next zone and do just that.
That leaves us with the "story", which is not much when talking about Pokémon. Usually I'm fine when the characters are fun and likable enough and the world is interesting enough. I'm ok for the first point, but not so much for the second, since there's only one actual city or place to hang around that makes the world seem alive, and the structure of the game makes exploring the outside world really boring and a chore from a narrative standpoint. Also, as a side note, I think the music in this game is great, but it's too subdued to be noticeable enough. It's weird because when you're exploring it'll sometimes go all out but others it's just silence or ambient, seems to be random.
TL;DR: A mediocre-bad game that'll be praised for advancing the series a little bit over a road that was crossed by other games years ago, all while ignoring in how many ways it's disappointing. The worst I can say about this game is that, opposite to all other Pokémon games (yes, including SWSH), Legends Arceus is almost unreplayable and will be forgotten to time and only remembered by the little good it did, which in time will be absorbed by the main series and become obsolete as a consequence.
Most of the good that can be said about this game is not so much about the open world or the changes in gameplay but the fluidity of it. The speed at which you can enter battles and get out of them, fight or just catch is the real breath of fresh air that differentiates this game from the rest.
Now with the bad shit, which is almost everything else.
In the graphics department, this game is completely hideous and there's no beating the bush around it. Even if the half-baked watercolor-esque artstyle tries to cover it, everything in this game looks blurry and like it was rendered at 240p, which is specially noticeable in character models up close or in any of the completely plain textures in the ground or in the walls of caves. This reaches amazing levels of amateurism when your player character is in a dark zone and you'll see little white specks around the model for some reason, or when there's a body of water behind you, the border of the model will look distorted. The only place the artstyle actually works is in the Pokémon models themselves. It also manages to, despite all of this, run pretty badly with common fps drops and an absurd amount of pop-in. This last problem specially infuriates me for two reasons that show how rushed the game was and how little player experience matters to the devs. First, there's an actual flying mount in this game, and that's pretty good. What isn't good is that flying makes the pop-in problem so apparent it hurts to the eyes, you will be flying but not see anything below until you get close because it's not loading, and if you fly low enough you can see how the world is loading as you go. The other problem is that there's a more or less important side-quest in which you collect shiny soul wisps that are scattered through the world, some more hidden, some less. What's funny about it is that most of them won't load until you get in front of where they are, making them impossible to find. All in all, things haven't changed, and every game looks worse than the last one, same as every game since after gen 5.
Let's get to the rest of it. The new catching mechanics and Strong and Agile styles are good and fun, and I'd honestly like it if they were introduced in the main series somehow or another. Also, the open world actually makes for a Pokémon game that has a real wilderness to explore. The thing is, the illusion of all these things starts to fade all too quickly. What you're left with is with a series of maps, in which some pokemon will spawn and be there. Like just exist there, doing nothing, waiting for you to get to them. When that happens, they will either attack, run away or just ignore you. There's also materials to craft (which I think is a fine enough system). Aside from that, the world is completely dead and there is no interaction at all between it and the Pokémon or with each other. There's some items to feed the Pokémon to make catching them easier or to be stealthy, but usually there's no need for that, ever.
There's also boss fights, which are in my opinion the coolest things in the game, and basically play out like boss fights in the Dark Souls series, centered about using the invincibility frames of your dodge to avoid telegraphed attacks. I don't like how the camera switches when you're attacking them and it's distracting, some of the bosses' attacks are too sudden and hard to react the first time through, and the dodge is a bit too clunky and laggy. These are things to polish and I'm ok with them for their first attempt at this kind of thing. However, what I can't really understand is why, instead of giving you a healthbar and some way of healing, you enter the fight and have a number of hits you can take, if you do, you're out. Another big thing is the way you attack, that is throwing food pouches (???) at the boss. I get that throwing is the actual main mechanic in the game, but seriously? Not only is stupid as hell, but you can't really aim in a fight like this and if you lock into them the throw still fails frequently (that happens out of boss fights too).
The classic combat is another horse entirely. One minor grip I have with it is the turn system, that though simpler and more dynamic, loses all complexity when both Pokémon don't act "at the same time" or "at the same turn", giving no room for prediction or planning, which is the base for all Pokémon battles until now. That allows you to just Agile Style paralyze the opponent and smacking him right after without any repercusions, or being done just that by the opponent. There's also barely any battles in this game and half of them are your team of 6 vs the one guy your opponent has, which makes sense from a narrative standpoint but doesn't excuse it. Add the fact that multiplayer is basically nonexistent in this game and you're left with a game about repetitively catch some guys that are roaming aimessly in a dead world to get to the next zone and do just that.
That leaves us with the "story", which is not much when talking about Pokémon. Usually I'm fine when the characters are fun and likable enough and the world is interesting enough. I'm ok for the first point, but not so much for the second, since there's only one actual city or place to hang around that makes the world seem alive, and the structure of the game makes exploring the outside world really boring and a chore from a narrative standpoint. Also, as a side note, I think the music in this game is great, but it's too subdued to be noticeable enough. It's weird because when you're exploring it'll sometimes go all out but others it's just silence or ambient, seems to be random.
TL;DR: A mediocre-bad game that'll be praised for advancing the series a little bit over a road that was crossed by other games years ago, all while ignoring in how many ways it's disappointing. The worst I can say about this game is that, opposite to all other Pokémon games (yes, including SWSH), Legends Arceus is almost unreplayable and will be forgotten to time and only remembered by the little good it did, which in time will be absorbed by the main series and become obsolete as a consequence.
>Removed all Platinum content (Trainer teams, Gym layouts, Pokémon variety, E4 Rematch, Battle Frontier, Distortion World, Map/Puzzles, Villa, Improved narrative)
>Removed Secret Base customization
>Removed Game Corner
>Removed 2/3 Contest minigames
>Removed numerous Online Features (GTS, Draw, Egg Spin, Mix Battle, and Platinum’s poffin cook, minigames, WiFi Plaza, and WiFi Club)
>Removed GBA-insert Pokémon encounters
>TMs are finite, but EXP Share is forced, PC is now portable, and HMs are removed
>Level curve is FUCKED as a result of forced EXP share https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tUdDSA11xo
>Following Pokémon receive affection buff (increased EXP, dodge chance, crit chance, attack, remove status conditions, and ability to survive moves that would faint you)
>Game is poorly optimized and crashes at random https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=320&v=308IkypGo9A&feature=youtu.be
>Horrendous presentation, trainer models just snap in place
>Music is STILL trash midi, the trailers were doctored
>Copy and pasted animations from XY/SS that aren’t faithful to the DPPt animations
>Non-existent Pokémon scaling
>No Ranked Battles, no new battle modes
>No real new content like FRLG, HGSS, and even ORAS all got
>$60 game (DPPt was $40)
>$50 online (DPPt’s was free)
It’s over. This is the worst mainline Pokémon game ever released.
>Removed Secret Base customization
>Removed Game Corner
>Removed 2/3 Contest minigames
>Removed numerous Online Features (GTS, Draw, Egg Spin, Mix Battle, and Platinum’s poffin cook, minigames, WiFi Plaza, and WiFi Club)
>Removed GBA-insert Pokémon encounters
>TMs are finite, but EXP Share is forced, PC is now portable, and HMs are removed
>Level curve is FUCKED as a result of forced EXP share https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tUdDSA11xo
>Following Pokémon receive affection buff (increased EXP, dodge chance, crit chance, attack, remove status conditions, and ability to survive moves that would faint you)
>Game is poorly optimized and crashes at random https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=320&v=308IkypGo9A&feature=youtu.be
>Horrendous presentation, trainer models just snap in place
>Music is STILL trash midi, the trailers were doctored
>Copy and pasted animations from XY/SS that aren’t faithful to the DPPt animations
>Non-existent Pokémon scaling
>No Ranked Battles, no new battle modes
>No real new content like FRLG, HGSS, and even ORAS all got
>$60 game (DPPt was $40)
>$50 online (DPPt’s was free)
It’s over. This is the worst mainline Pokémon game ever released.
The Sims 3
2009
I have no earthly clue how I racked as many hours as I did on the various platforms I've played this on. Conceptually it feels like it should be an almost maddeningly boring game but it has a certain way of sucking you into the benign world of your Sims that I can't really articulate.
Battlefield V
2018
Not too much to say here other than as a first time Battlefield experience, it's pretty fun.
Shooting feels great here and the audio and graphics department works well here to give each battle feel like well a warzone. I also like the semblance of teamwork here when it works, the usual good feeling when picking a role your team needs and it paying off for everyone.
That said, people tend to rarely work as a team as it is which sorta plagues most first person shooters that utilizes team play elements. Cheaters are uncommon enough that it doesn't completely ruin the experience but it's still there. Not too much the usual stuff with EA games being monetization and the process of getting things.
That said, I picked this game up for 5 bucks and got a good 10 hours out of it. I don't really recommend spending 10 bucks max on that if you want something that scratched the WW2 FPS itch that it did for me and there's probably way better games in this genre but the shooting was good, what can I say?
Shooting feels great here and the audio and graphics department works well here to give each battle feel like well a warzone. I also like the semblance of teamwork here when it works, the usual good feeling when picking a role your team needs and it paying off for everyone.
That said, people tend to rarely work as a team as it is which sorta plagues most first person shooters that utilizes team play elements. Cheaters are uncommon enough that it doesn't completely ruin the experience but it's still there. Not too much the usual stuff with EA games being monetization and the process of getting things.
That said, I picked this game up for 5 bucks and got a good 10 hours out of it. I don't really recommend spending 10 bucks max on that if you want something that scratched the WW2 FPS itch that it did for me and there's probably way better games in this genre but the shooting was good, what can I say?
Ring Fit Adventure
2019
I love, love, LOVE Ring Fit Adventure! When it was first revealed, I tossed it aside as another Nintendo gimmick that would be supported for less than a year and trashed (a la Nintendo Labo). After reviews came out, I figured it would be worth a shot to stay in shape during the height of the 2020 pandemic.
This game kicked my ass, big time! The tension ring combined with the leg strap will really get your blood pumping in all the ways you want it to. Customizable movesets (I chose mostly legs, abs, and yoga) allow for a very personalized experience - it felt like Nintendo themselves were my personal trainers! All you need is a 30-45 minute play session every day to see results, and I ended up seeing them much faster than I expected!
As for the game design, it's perfectly tailored to make the exercise you do feel like it's worth it in-game. Better technique and stronger reps help you do more damage to enemies and complete levels with a higher score. Collecting fruits and other food materials to make smoothies can boost your stats, which is especially helpful for boss fights.
Ring Fit is very much a slow-burn game - being around 30 hours, playing around half an hour a day will ensure you can enjoy the game to the fullest. Even when you do finish the campaign, you can use your unlocked skills/exercises to make personalized workout routines, or even choose one of the stages to go on a leisurely jog. I also really liked the idea of being able to do reps with the screen off, having the joycons in the ring let you know when you've successfully done 100 reps while you can watch something on TV.
Ring Fit is the perfect game for anyone who is lacking the motivation to exercise, but not lacking the motivation to game. A perfect mix of RPG elements and exercise-based combat will really beat you up and not just burn a few calories, but actually really get you in shape!
This game kicked my ass, big time! The tension ring combined with the leg strap will really get your blood pumping in all the ways you want it to. Customizable movesets (I chose mostly legs, abs, and yoga) allow for a very personalized experience - it felt like Nintendo themselves were my personal trainers! All you need is a 30-45 minute play session every day to see results, and I ended up seeing them much faster than I expected!
As for the game design, it's perfectly tailored to make the exercise you do feel like it's worth it in-game. Better technique and stronger reps help you do more damage to enemies and complete levels with a higher score. Collecting fruits and other food materials to make smoothies can boost your stats, which is especially helpful for boss fights.
Ring Fit is very much a slow-burn game - being around 30 hours, playing around half an hour a day will ensure you can enjoy the game to the fullest. Even when you do finish the campaign, you can use your unlocked skills/exercises to make personalized workout routines, or even choose one of the stages to go on a leisurely jog. I also really liked the idea of being able to do reps with the screen off, having the joycons in the ring let you know when you've successfully done 100 reps while you can watch something on TV.
Ring Fit is the perfect game for anyone who is lacking the motivation to exercise, but not lacking the motivation to game. A perfect mix of RPG elements and exercise-based combat will really beat you up and not just burn a few calories, but actually really get you in shape!