I think this game pulls off something insane for a puzzle game, that being that it maintains a sense of surprise and problem solving even after a replay. I feel like I go back to Portal 1 and 2 and everything is so simple to remember how to complete, but something about how simplistic all of the clues are and how they're represented makes them easy to forget in hindsight, giving the player a situation where they basically have their memory wiped after a couple of months away from the game. Also, anyone who's played the game can appreciate what starting from square one does in regards to a fresh perspective. Johnathon Blow did a damn good job with his team in directing this game, and besides a couple painful puzzles like the shipwreck door and the sun smeared panels, it's basically a must play for any puzzle game respecter.

Willing to give this game another look after playing on mouse and keyboard, but ultimately it's just not on the same level as every other game in the franchise. Which is crazy because the production values for things like facial animations, motion capture, voice acting, and overall cutscene direction are really damn good, not really feeling dated in the slightest since it's release. The game is just a little frustrating in how much it does LESS satisfying than it's predecessor. This game did NOT live up to it's full potential.

The campaign for this wasn't nearly as offensively skint as some people have made it out to me as. I think there is definitely a clash of design ideals though, with the best moments being the classically styled missions where setpieces are happening and the implications are big. The open ended missions are a novel idea but aren't done in the same quality that they were in MW1 or MW2, and tying in the Warzone elements to them kind of eliminates immersion a fair deal. Plus, this game loves to jump between perspectives. I believe by the end of the game you wind up having played 6 or 7 characters, where I feel like maintaining a minimum amount of perspectives makes for a stronger CoD campaign.
Multiplayer is great. I love CoD multiplayer and I'm not apologizing it. There could be something to be said about the laziness of just reincorporating maps from an earlier game as the primary pool, but I'll take anything over some of the godawful maps from MW2-2022 like Border or that Raceway. Since all the current map designers suck I'm happy to play what's proven. Also I can't comment on the gameplay on too granular of a level because I don't dive into meta or technique like that but it feels very top notch regarding animations and feel. The new loadout system is pretty neato as well, with the perks feeling a lot more controllable while at the same time making you feel more specialized
Zombies is fun. It can be stressful if you want it to be, or a simple, carefree timekiller if you decide to forgo the difficult stuff. Progression is basic, the missions aren't mentally draining, and it's just the kind of peak ADHD simulator I can lose a couple of hours on with a couple of friends
I suck at Warzone

A fantastic remake that is insanely hard not to recommend over the original release. A shortlist of downgrades would be the overall difficulty being pretty easy, the camera angles of the interior and city scenes being pretty same-y and boring for the most part in comparison to some of the wild forced perspectives from the original, and a couple of tracks feeling decidedly weaker than their PS1 counterparts. That being said, the positives are far outweighing my complaints. Most songs are redone fantastically, giving a bit extra weight to the more emotional tunes. The combat overall is way more usable, allowing you to stop time with the hold of a trigger to determine your targets a little more decisively rather than just mashing to victory (when the game is still a little difficult at least). Ally spells are much quicker to watch through, putting more time and focus on the actual action of the combat and maintaining control of the player. Elements of the leveling and crafting systems are much less abstracted giving the player an actual idea of what they're doing from the outset of the game instead of having it be a sorta mess that'll make players feel alienated with missed opportunities and accidental skill allocations. Load times (on my PC) were non-existent. The new fast traveling is as fast as it gets with the player assuming control before the screen fully fades from black. I hadn't played the PSP version but I really like the audio track from it and am shocked that characters like Leon (a whiny 12 year old cat boy) managed to have a non-cringe performance. There's a lot to love in this remake, again with most asides just being a push for modernity getting in the way of that classic feel. What I will say distinctively as a negative is that the four fields segment later in the game feels way weaker, and each of the fields' gimmicks were replaced in favor of a much less impressive gimmick. It's a headscratcher why I'm just hunting enemies instead of having a unique battle style where I'm trying to prevent them from pulling a giant lever, and another field where the gimmick is LITERALLY to just walk in a straight line. NO idea why there was a switchup, but fortunately the gimmicks in the 2 following dungeons are definitely more pronounced and well thought out than in the original.
I'll say they had the opportunity to improve the story and they didn't. This goes two ways; is it better to stay faithful to the original idea as a testament to being a note for note remake, and be a lamer narrative, or should they take the opportunity of returning to a beloved game 25 years later to deliver a more satisfying story? Who knows. I understand their direction but can't help but imagine some sort of alternative ending where there's actually a little more intrigue in the assault on Phynal.
I'm not much of a JRPG buff but The Second Story was always my favorite growing up. I'm glad to say that this remake does it justice and I can fully recommend it over the original product, AND I can actually play it natively on my PC. I think Gemdrops did a fantastic job and I think I might be more swayed to play more of the franchise just riding off the high of my enjoyment of this game. Solid work.

A personal blast from my past that doesn’t hold up as well without my rose tinted glasses. The things it does right in terms of overall presentation and providing an illusion of depth in the systems quickly gets overturned by some unfortunately inconsistent pacing for the story and a combat system that really doesn’t feel like it’s to be mastered, in favor of simply being brute forced. The character interactions, music and visuals all have a lot of quality and charm to them, but there’s distinct elements that take me out of the experience. Spells casted by party members completely break the flow of combat by forcing the player to watch the whole spell cast, interrupting whatever momentum or groove they could have been getting into. The skill system is half cooked, with a lot of solid consideration but also skills that are such no brainers (like Perserverence) that they should just be removed entirely because every player with a brain is gonna go for them. As well as skills like Flip actively ruining the combat (fortunately it can be manually disabled, but it’s just lame to have something so useless and situational). Finally the story ramps up in the transition from the first to second disc, and provides a lot of really interesting story a la Star Ocean 1, but unlike 1, The Second Story ends with a pretty straightforward, un-twisty conclusion that is literally described to the player by an NPC earlier with not divergence from the plan. Plus, while the 4 locations you visit to get the stones necessary to invade Fienal are super unique and pretty, it is ultimately a macguffin hunt with little actual story beats occuring, and the final attack on Fienal feels like it was in dire need of some form of story shakeup mid way to keep it engaging, instead of just being a final zone to slay some bosses and grind for levels in between. That all being said, it’s an absolute vibe of a game, and has a lot of odd quality of life features that seem well ahead of their time. It’s trope-y, it’s repetitive and a little frustrating to play but it’s ultimately worth a go-through as it’s still a nifty package with a lot of heart. But I ultimately expect to be returning to Backloggd in a week or so to completely decry this version of the game in favor of the remake.

A very good platformer with excellent music and personality seeping out of every pore. The gameplay is really tight and the badge mechanics are well fleshed out the entirety of the game. The biggest issues for me is that the game's final challenges don't really feel as monumentally brutal as others in recent Mario games, almost feeling like a cakewalk for seasoned gamers. Also, the Wonder Flower sequences are good, but they never really hit the same highs that are represented in the second level. Plus, the level design, while good, lacks a little something when looking at the bigger picture. I do truly recommend this game though, and give a huge commendation to it's integration of it's online features. Trying to impromptu cooperate with random players ghosts gave me a sense of community that was unprecedented, especially with how well it worked from an infrastructure standpoint. Really give this a play as early as you can, because no one can tell when the online playerbase will fizzle out