Dead Rising 3 lost pretty much everything that was good about the series to begin with. Lots of people never understood the appeal, but it was always about time management, familiarizing with the environment, goofy humour and exploration.

This game just throws all of that out of the window. The time is ridiculously generous to the point where I wasn't even sure there was a timer running for most of the game and barely mattered. I fucked around a lot and still did every single sidequest without really trying too hard. It felt like I was working off a list instead of frantically trying to rescue as many people as possible.

The game also just throws items, combo cards and even cars at you. While in the other games it was a powerful moment to get permanent access to a car, they're now everywhere and readily available. Even combo cars that wreck a whole district worth of zombies.

It also doesn't help that every single collectible is shown on the map. Just randomly entering buildings and stores feels like a waste of time since you can tell where the next item is lying anyway. Fun and random side activities like the casino are also gone. The game still has it's funny moments, but they're so far and few between that they feel even more out of place than before. Also really wasn't a fan of the soundtrack in this game. The psychopath themes and mall music were always a real delight to listen to and here there's just nothing.

Still, the controls of the game are an improvement and the A.I. is less frustrating to deal with (for better and worse). I like how you can pick up items in the middle of running and throw them without going into aiming mode. The new weapon combinations are also really creative and fun to use. Just wish the items weren't lying right next to each other ALL the time. The skill system is an okay idea if you're not into the randomness of the previous games, but at the same time just feels uninteresting. This might be a preference thing though, I like to be surprised.

Dead Rising 3 is fine if you're just in the mood of randomly fucking up zombies, wreck stuff with a whole gang of companions or coop partners and play around with creative weapons. The storyline was fine, but even that was done better before and the ending feels extremely rushed.

Desperately wanted to like this one, but the high encounter rate mixed with the extremely slow animations and loading times makes me feel miserable. Not sure why it bothers me so much here because normally I can stomach this kind of stuff well.

Also doesn't help that the system with the different masters and the acquiring of new skills is extremely unintuitive ... And almost feels pointless given how you can just auto battle through everything. At least in the first 10 hours.

A shame, because the music and artstyle is great and I enjoyed the characters. Maybe I should just watch an LP on the side or something.

What a fucking game.

Yeah, it's obviously not perfect. The open world has some busy work, the ending will be controversial and leaves mixed feelings and it still has plenty of "hold the stick forward" moments, but it all doesn't subtract from the amazing package we've got.

I expected Square to go crazy when the Remake project reaches the open world portion. The original game always had tons of mini games and silly interactive moments but instead of getting rid of those they really went ALL IN. If something was a little mini game in the original that took a minute, it is now a full blown minigame with high scores and mechanics.

You can tell that they tried their utmost to please fans and not skip anything. And the things that are skipped will surely be in the final game, I'm absolutely confident nothing will be missing in the end.

The combat system feels even better than before, with aerial combat being improved for Cloud in particular and the added synergy attacks add a nice layer of strategy. The new controllable characters are really well integrated and I ended up using Red XIII for the majority of my playthrough.

The gigantic soundtrack is utterly ridiculous. The amount of remixes of classic titles kept throwing me off-guard and most of them are great! When the OST is uploaded on YT I'll definitely grind away at it.

Rebirth will certainly not be for everyone. People who are tired of big worlds and don't enjoy engaging with side activities will probably be annoyed and just want to get back to the main action. Which luckily are the best parts of the game at least.

Not 100% sure if the 5 stars will stick or if I'll go down to 4.5 later down the road, but in any case, this was an amazing time and the wait for Part 3 will be painful. Now excuse me, I still got some card games to play, arenas to beat and hard mode to tackle.

Replayed the game in preparation for Rebirth. This time on PS5 for the first time and finally got to play the DLC.

My overall opinion on the game hasn't really changed. I love the foundation they built. The ingredients are all amazing: The way it looks, the character models, the voices, the characterization, the battle system, the materia system, the music ... It's utterly amazing.

The unthankful thing about the first part of the Remake trilogy is having such a small part of the original game to adapt. Stretching out the Midgar portion to an entire game is bound to lead to some filler content and while they really did their best to include meaningful content, there is plenty of downtime where you're squeezing through tight spaces, balancing over bars, slowly climbing around and having some unnecessary detours that are fun on a gameplay level but pretty bad for the pacing of the story.

I still think it's the best thing they could have done, because judging from the original there isn't really a better way to stop the first part for quite some time.

Nevertheless, the linear structure of the game, the lack of freedom and the amount of times you're left with only a few party members takes away lots of freedom in player agency. It only really opens up in the last stretch of the game and at that point you don't really have much content left to explore.

This might sound negative, but what I'm really trying to say is that it's sequel has ridiculous potential as far as I'm concerned. If they take what's in Part 1, add more to it and give the player some real freedom it could turn out to be a real masterpiece. I can't wait to explore Gaia, level my materia and experiment with all the characters.

The story of the remake is intriguing. I still find it fascinating how they're handling this remaking of FF7 and so far it hasn't disappointed. I really hope it won't blow up in our faces, but considering how on point the writing is so far I got no reason to be worried.

The Intermission DLC was a really great addition. Yuffie controls wonderfully, making aerial combat actually fun and her toolkit is pretty fun to play around with. I also really liked the Sector 7 bit with it's Fort Condor minigame, little cameos and turtle shop sidequest.

The additional bosses (which include one for the base game!) turned out to be a bit frustrating for me, but I ended up feeling rewarded after overcoming them. I think superbosses should be handled a bit better, but I'm glad they're here in the first place.

As for Yuffies characterization ... I love that they're giving her a serious side and that she ceases to be a comic relief character exclusively. Her backstory adds a nice layer to her behaviour and I'm even more curious about the Wutai part of the game. It's great how they're taking the optional parts of the original and expand them in a meaningful way.

The ending cutscenes just added to my hypelevel and at this point I really can't wait to play the sequel. It's so close!

Glad to say that Ubisoft Montpellier delivered. After resurrecting the Rayman franchise in a spectacular fashion and then being stuck with working on Beyond Good & Evil 2 for years, they came back swing and revived another beloved franchise and ended up creating what I now consider my favorite Prince of Persia game.

The Lost Crown is a visually stunning game that manages to tell a compelling story. The whole gang surrounding main character Sargon consists of fun characters and especially for a metroidvania, a genre that isn't particularly known for good stories, it's really well done.

It seems like the developers tried to rethink some of the genre conventions and focused a lot on quality of life improvements. For example checkpoints are heavily hinted at with a golden glimmer, indicating which direction you need to go for a safe haven and there's the option to instantly restart bossfights if you end up losing, saving you potentially multiple trips.

My favorite mechanic however are the memory shards. I can't count the amount of times I was stuck in a metroidvania game and totally forgot which paths on the map needed a specific ability. In PoP you can just press a button and create a screenshot that shows exactly what 'problem' stopped your progress in an area, making it very easy to check back where to go with your new unlocked ability or gadget.

The abilities are mostly your typical stuff like a double jump and dash but there are also some creative skills that lead to interesting puzzle solving and even found their way into combat. None of the abilities feel restrictive or forced.

Which leads me to the combat, which is ridiculously in-depth for a 2D game. We're talking multiple combos, launchers, sweeps, chargables, animation cancelling, parries ... all that good stuff. There's even a training area that lets you practice combos and tutorials which reveal combat possibilities I myself have not thought of until that point.

Bosses are not always launchable and therefore it's harder to style on them, but due to the fast pacing of combat you barely have any downtime and are able to keep attacking. There are rarely phases where you need to constantly dodge to then get one or two hits in, which I was thankful for. Unlockable super attacks added a nice touch, especially since trying to fill the gauge leads to more tactical risk/reward aspects. Like parrying an attack is harder than simply dodging, but it also fills up your 'Athra' by a decent amount. But getting hit also lets you lose some of it.

The platforming passages feel very fluid and provided a nice challenge. There is even an equivalent to Celestes strawberries in the form of coins you can only collect by safely returning to a safe zone landing on your feet. The platforming might even be my favorite aspect of the game, even though the fights, puzzles and exploration are also great.

I have very little critcism about the game. I think the RPG elements, like upgrading your weapons and amulets (which are just straight-up the charms of Hollow Knight) are not really needed and maybe it could need some more bosses, but it never really bothered me much. Even the length of the game felt fine because I kept unlocking new abilities and areas feel very much different from each other. They knew how to mix things up over the 20+ hours it took me to beat the game. The side quests are also a nice touch that manage to tell some nice stories and are never forced on you.

The worst I can say about the game is probably that it feels like a "best of Metroidvania". There aren't many original aspects to the game and they happily helped themselves to mechanics of other popular games. However, it's all executed very well and never feels shoehorned in.

The 50 bucks feel like a fair price considering the quality and length of the game and it would be nice seeing this game succeed because having Ubisoft develop more AA singleplayer experiences like this would be great.

Expected a little more from this one ... The close camera doesn't really mesh well with Astros agility, the skill system is extremely unbalanced and only punishes you if you go for the wrong stats and the level design is super linear and boring.

It does have it's good points, though. I like the idea of the combat more or less revolving around filling your energy bar to constantly use special attacks. It leads to using your strongest attacks in a efficient way while forcing you to use your basic moveset as well.

I also enjoy the look of the game and most bosses were quite decent. Didn't care for some of the enemy designs, but maybe they just adapted the manga/anime. I'm not familiar with it, so I can only guess.

It's a decent time but going back and replaying the whole thing for a different ending doesn't sit right with me, which is why I quit after the first credits rolled.

Classic example of an arcade game that's designed to drain your money. Your moveset is actually pretty fun to use and has some stuff going for it. Plenty of combos, juggling, special attacks, charge attacks, grabs, multiple characters that play differently ... That part is great. However there aren't really any defensive options to speak off.

There is no real dodge move and you can't block attacks, so when an enemy spontaneously decides to become invicible in the middle of your combo you can't really do much about it. Add hordes of enemies in the middle of tough boss fights and you got a combat system you're bound to die a lot in.

Infinite continues make this pretty much a non-issue, but it's still not really fun to get your ass beaten and just occasionally get a few hits in or spamming your special attacks.

Also the walking animation of the female character is just ridiculous.

Like with most games I think there are two ways to look at Control. And in this case it's interesting because that's exactly what I did. Once in 2019 and today in 2024.

Back when I first played it I was basically expecting a super creative and wild shooter with supernatural elements, and in a way that's exactly what it is, but the shooting or rather the entire combat let me down quite a bit.

It certainly did not help that I first played it on a base PS4 that had some serious performance issues but that wasn't really the main issue. I wanted to shoot things, fly around, explore and use crazy powers and the game turned out to not be that fun.

Combat in Control is pretty broken honestly. I instantly figured out that the Launch ability is the way to go after seeing that every new unlocked skill gives it another insane damage boost. I one-shotted most of the enemies and the ones that survived simply got hit with another Launch attack. It made large amounts of the game very trivial. Even enemies that dodge your launch can just be hit with another one right after. And when your ability gauge is empty you can just shoot enemies with the pretty powerful Pierce weapon and you're probably already full again.

It's okay for the game not to be hard and nobody forced me to use the dominant strategy. I did mix it up a lot and tried to build an army with the seize ability in some fights. I also used the shield more often, but realistically these are just options that drag out fights and there are tons of them. Later on they get a little more crazy and you get to fly around a lot mid-battle and it's a layer of the combat I really enjoyed but after a while even that gets a little stale when you're still just launching items around and effectively make yourself a bigger target.

The skill tree and the mod system are things that make some sense in a longer and open game like this, but I don't think it really added much to the game since most skills simply are not interesting. 90% of it boils down to raising percentages. Ideally in a skilltree you're making some tough decisions to decide what character you're going for, but Control does not really have that.

You can't really be a specific version of Jesse Faden, you're always playing roughly the same. The whole combat system revolves around launching things and every point you're not putting into that effectively means you could be stronger. Putting some points into your energy and health is a given. Everything else is just a bonus. There are some cool perks you can acquire but most of them are in the Launch tree anyway ... I got the ground slam since that's a fun one, but it's the second thing you can unlock for levitation and you get it so late into the game that your character is mostly set anyway, so it's once again not really an interesting choice to make.

The mod system is similar. I'm not even gonna get into the inventory for it being too small, the whole thing is just there. I don't really want to repeat what I said above, so I'm making it short: It's another aspect of the game where you're just going to focus on damage and health. If you happen to get those drops anyway. Otherwise you'll just take more ammo or recharge or whatever. And even if you're trying to get some more niché stuff like more damage after a melee attack or less ammo consumption while levitating ... It changes up your playstyle very little. It's a system that's there for the player to have something to collect in chests and given as quest rewards, but barely adds anything to the gameplay.

The other part of the gameplay is exploration. I constantly read that the map is terrible and I can only agree. It barely helps you getting somewhere specific and mainly acts to show you where you haven't been. On paper it's an interesting concept to have this huge open place that opens up gradually, but aside from the levitation and the dash there's nothing that opens up to the player naturally. Most of the stuff is locked by keys and story progression ... Which is a shame, because it had the potential for a 3D metroidvania structure, which is very rare to begin with. I get that the storyline demands linear progression but there was definitely some opportunities to do some missions in a different order. Basically what I'm saying is that I never actually went back through that building to hunt for new areas, to look around for items or anything. There is lore scattered about in the game, but unless you care about literally every single bit of written text I don't think it's worth it.

And that was pretty much the criticism I had in 2019 and I feel like it all holds up. I wasn't really there for the story and it all flew over my head anyway, so that aspect did not really do much for me.

So here comes the "two ways to look at a game" part into play. Because this time I wasn't here for the gameplay. I just recently finished Alan Wake for the first time and I'm pretty excited to play the second one since it looks great. So when I replayed Control I was more interested in the story and lore because this whole Remedy universe is something fairly unique that I'm curious about.

On my second run I tried to view the game as more of an experience. Try to immerse myself in the setting, reading every paper, try to comprehend the story ... and it was pretty fun! The beginning is already amazing and there are some really great ideas here. The whole 'Oldest House' setting is fantastic and the visuals in this game are simply great. I'm not a person who does screenshot in video games, but here I couldn't help but take some. It might be a bit of bias since I love colored light (I love the aesthetic of Winding Refn movies) but the surreal parts of the world also manage to impress.

This time I tried to empathize more with Jesse as a character and tried to view the combat as more of a power trip than an actual challenge to overcome. It turned out to be a little more fun that way, but ultimately combat will never be the thing I play this game for and that's fine.

In the end it finally made me appreciate the game. I would say that I like it quite a lot now! But unfortunately even the story part does have it's problems. The countless texts that are scattered about do sometimes have interesting information but there is simply so much of it that it becomes a chore to read after a while. And lots of it is also just meaningless fluff.

The actual main story is engaging. Jesse, her brother, Polaris, the previous director, the board, the janitor ... There are lots of interesting characters here and the idea that Jesse is looking for her brother at this crazy place and ends up in this inescapable scenario is cool. I even like the fact she takes it all so well because it's the thing she was looking for all her life and supernatural stuff isn't exactly new to her.

The ashtray maze is something everybody mentions and for good reason, it's an amazing section. But I also like the Overlook hotel bit that makes me uncomfortable everytime, the section with the clocks, the flamingo bit and several other setpieces that simply look cool. The game offers some highlights but they are far and few between. The Objects of Power bit was the perfect opportunity to really go into some insane directions but often it just didn't. Like following a letter that teleports around and then doing the same thing with a rubber duck that also randomly changes places isn't really on the same level as some of the psychedelic stuff other objects make you go through.

And since this is getting way too long, I'm getting to the main story ... It ended on a somewhat disappointing note? I'm not spoiling it, but aside from setting up a sequel, which is fine, I think the antagonistic force did not turn out to be fit for an interesting finale. What one can consider the 'final boss fight' is a serious let down and even though the actual finale is pretty cool, I think it should have ended with a bigger bang.

Control is more of a worldbuilding game than a storyline game I would say. The world is fascinating to explore, but I wish it would have more character moments.

I'm not gonna get into the DLC too much, just wanna say that they're a nice addition overall. The Foundation adds some needed challenge to the game and the bit with the 'tunnel' (if you know, you know) was amazing. Definitely do the object of power quest in this one. The AWE DLC is a nice way to lead into Alan Wake 2. The added light mechanic wasn't all that interesting, but I liked the antagonist in this one. Curious how they pick this one up in AW2 and if Jesse will play a role there.

Despite all of my criticism ... I now like this game. I do think this universe is really cool and I'm actually excited for the sequel. I just hope they give Jesse some more powers to play around with and make her go through more wacky shit. Add some more character moments to the story and it'll probably be a real highlight. Fingers crossed!

Luckily I realized halfway through that this game is spiking it difficulty pretty fast, because I restarted on easy after two stages and it was definitely the right decision. The game was still fairly challenging and getting to know the levels feels important to get through the higher ones. Especially since you lose your power-ups after a few hits.

The game looks amazing, the OST is very nice and it has a coop mode which I couldn't try. It doesn't have much variety in terms of power-ups and both characters play exactly the same, but the challenge makes up for it. Might go back and try to beat in on normal sometime.

One of these games that has a fantastic foundation due to it's movement and gamefeel but suffers from structural issues.

There not being a map seems like a mistake. It doesn't even need to be a very detailed one, but just roughly seeing where each of the different areas are in relation to the others would've gone a long way.

I feel like some of the later areas could've benefitted from more challenging jumping passages or even an optional area akin to the Path of Pain in Hollow Knight, but overall the game offers enough opportunities to use your entire moveset on. The "shot" ability just seemed pointless to me. It just blocked my progress arbitrarily at one point and doesn't get much use otherwise.

Would love for this to get a sequel that expands on what is there. The moveset is fantastic already, so getting to use it on even cooler levels without the confusing progression would be amazing.

I could also mention the combat, but it's just ... there. It didn't bother me but it lacks complexity.

Would definitely recommend it since 3D Metroidvanias are super rare and this one does a good job.