As a kid, I had a weird relationship with games. For a while in the early 90s, we had a SNES and my parents were totally cool with me playing Mortal Kombat. Then a few months later, they'd decide that games were the devil and take away everything for a few months until switching their stance again. It was during one of those dark periods when I really fell in love with the original Command and Conquer Red Alert. I didn't have any consoles, but I did inexplicably have a physical copy of this game that would run on my grandmother's computer.
Decades later, here I am again playing this classic RTS with some pretty substantial upgrades. The graphics have been completely redrawn, and the iconic FMV cutscenes, while still looking pretty crappy, have been lovingly reinserted with some smoothing and filters to make them display a bit better on modern screens. Playing brought back a lot of memories, especially when hearing the same soundbytes and the ripping soundtrack that I loved as a kid.
Of course, it's not without its flaws. This being a super old RTS, a lot of the shortcuts and ease of use features that you may be used to now are nowhere to be seen. In the same way that the rerelease of Starcraft and to a lesser extent Age of Empires 2 showed, the genre has come a long way. This is especially apparent when trying to play with a friend online. I don't know what the original game was like, but the system in place in this 2020 game is pretty barebones. In my brief match or two, I couldn't find a way to make the game private or set up any of the other variables of the map. Also, I think the new graphics look like they were made for a free to play mobile game, but you can fortunately toggle between the old and new styles when you're playing through the campaign.
It's not going to rock the world or become the next big competitive esport, but as a nostalgic revisit to one of my favorite PC games, it works pretty well.

Carrion makes one of the most captivating first impressions a game can make with its "The Thing"-esque monster slithering around and chomping down on various dudes with beautifully disgusting animated gore. At first glance, this game looked like something I absolutely had to play. I imagined slinking around through vents, oozing down slowly into a group of oblivious scientists and biting all their heads off before they could react. And to the game's credit, you can very well do just that. But unfortunately, that's about all you do. The encounters get more complicated in some ways, sure, like when the guys get special electric shields and flamethrowers and stuff, but they really just serve to throw frustrating wrinkles into the gameplay rather than an interesting challenge.
As the creature, you do unlock some more mobility options and a handful of powers but it never felt like a full on cohesive metroid type, as you only really have to use each power in areas specifically designed for it.
But, the game doesn't really overstay its welcome and if you're like me, you can just play it free on Gamepass. It's not aggressively bad, and I didn't hate my afternoon spent playing it. And it does have sick ass animations.

In 2017, Sniper Elite 4 was released and there was something about it that quickly escalated it into the upper levels of my favorite "B-tier" games. Actually, I know exactly what that "something" was. It was a combination of the sound-based stealth mechanics, co-op open map exploration, and of course, the Mortal Kombat levels of gruesome x-ray violence. Hunting down squads of shithead nazi soldiers was cathartic and nailing a headshot (or spleen shot, or nutsack shot) felt extremely gratifying.
Fast forward a couple of years and the expected zobmie skinned spin-off is back with similar mechanics and features. This being the first time I've played one of these in full co-op from the outset, I enjoyed my time for the first hour or two. My friend and I started competing to see who could get the most over-the-top chain of headshots and explosions on the hordes of reanimated corpses.
But for me, it quickly grew pretty thin, and by the 50th time my camera control was violently yanked out of my hands to zoom in on a zombie rib cage being blasted inside out, I'd had my fill. In the main game, each big kill-cam felt earned and the enemies could put up a real fight if you were spotted. But in this one, the enemies by nature just kind of able toward you and wait in neat lines for you to get sick combos on them. Now of course you can turn down the frequency of the kill cams and maybe I should have, but they were so exhilarating in Sniper Elite 4 and I really wanted to recapture some of that glory.
There are some cool rpg type upgrades and there's certainly fun to be had here, but ultimately, it just made me want to revisit the dlc for the main game.