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

I've always associated this game with it's gameplay from what I heard about it. While it's third-person, always aiming shooting is pretty fun, the narrative and feel of the game really stitched the package together. Albeit, the game does feel a little too easy on the default difficulty, so this rating shouldn't be taken as an end all. But man, Fugitive mode sure is easy-peasy. Given that I played on that difficulty, a big complaint I have is that I never really felt incentivized to explore the weapon-set besides out of self-obligation. Ammo was plenty and enemies were made of glass. I really feel that my only difficulty was with one combat encounter near the end, and a couple of trip mines and bottomless pit deaths that claimed me very handily. I will say regarding the story, I didn't know just how confident Max was in this game. He's a really cool character to see in action, I love his cock-sure, can-win attitude even if it is stained with depression and regret. A fun dynamic that's done extremely well, because Sam Lake is that dude

While some things are definitely more snappy or streamlined compared to the first Dead Space, DS2 feels a little too unfocused for me to consider a worthy successor. There’s plenty of elements that might be considered a step forward from a gameplay perspective, like the speed of aiming, melee attacking and actions like kinesis and stasis, but in doing that it does start to sacrifice the original game’s sense of identity. Add to that the lack of a really strong setting like the Ishimura, and instead a cityscape where you’re just kind of bumbling through vents, elevator shafts and getting whipped by monsters or debris a dozen blocks away. The events that link different environments together don’t feel very well considered, and even then, the variety of environmental design through most of the game is rather lacking. Ultimately it’s a really well made game with lots of (insane) eye candy particularly towards the end of the game, but the experience just doesn’t live up as a whole to the first. Maybe with a remake they could MAKE IT WHOLE. eh?

For a 2008 game the quality level of so many aspects of it are really well done, almost ahead of the curve in relation to plenty of other developers of the time. I really like the character performances in the voice and their body animations. The world itself is super cool, with the environments and mechanical aspects of everything having a fresh and consistent look for the most part. It's a really lived in world that feels like it's oozing with unspoken lore. I'd say there's a couple of missteps with this game, like being just a little too damn easy (even on Hard mode!) and some of the middle chapters feeling a little meandering. That's okay, for all the setbacks that'd make me consider giving this game a 4 or lower, it's also a PC game from 2008 that I had to do no fiddling with at all to get working on my modern rig, ran at 1440p 144hz with no issue AND didn't crash on me when I alt-tabbed. It's definitely more of a console or controller game but as a diehard keyboard and mouse user I didn't feel like I was under-considered, save for some mildly clunky menu management. This is by no means an all-time favorite for me but it's just a super well put together package that I can't help but root for

This game’s sense of visual direction should be noted by lots of non-rhythm game developers. It has a really strong sense of color, sensible usage of post processing and great camera angles. My biggest complaints about the visual experience is that the members of the Beatles are basically always some level of smiling, and that for 3 chapters you’re playing in Abbey Road. Both of those complaints are probably counterintuitive considering it’s trying its best to be accurate to reality, and the Abbey Road sessions still give way to some of the most imaginative sequences in the game.
Personally this is my favorite UI design in any of the Rock Band games. The overall look of the gameplay elements like the highway and score counter really compliment the on screen visuals super well with their understated colors.
I think my favorite moment is the haziness applied to the visuals with the I Want You So Bad/She’s So Heavy outro. The hard-boiled look perfectly matches the song’s sound and the combination of sight and sound hits a truly perfect combination that almost gives the player a contact high. Slamming the door shut with a hard cut to black and kicking you to the results screen is pretty damn cool.
Lots of moments can be brought up similarly to the one mentioned, but simply put this is peak presentation in all of rhythm games. Harmonix was on top of their game and looked like they had a blank check from EA to pursue their vision, which was met damn near flawlessly. The only problem this game has is one outside of its preset restrictions, being that it’s all Beatles songs. Thats great from a hardcore Beatles fan and music enthusiast perspective, but their library lacks in the technical ability that some other bands that are prominently featured in the Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises bring to the table. Literally the only reason I’m not giving this Beatles themed video game a 5 out of 5 is that it’s too good at being only Beatles themed. Crazy, right?

A great game to appreciate from the confirmed perspective of a small dev trying to get his creative nut off. Mouse and keyboard focused platforming is executed really well and the time trial challenges really gave me an appreciation for the tight but reliable movement mechanics. The biggest problem this game has is simply being too short, and the overall level design not compensating for the lack of limits the gameplay incorporates for your character. But it's cheap too, easily within it's punching weight for the asking price. Pick it up, support the dev, and pray that you seem him working on even more great stuff in the future

Just a really great puzzle game. Definitely a little too RNG heavy if you're going for good scores, but the strategies to ensure survival and higher level play are fun to discover and experiment with along the way. The whole aesthetic is extremely consistent and the soundtrack is effortlessly going to be burned in my mind until they put me in the ground. I love puzzle games at their conceptual limit, and Bejewled, albeit simple, definitely feels like it rounds out it's concepts to a great extent.

This game has a huge list of annoyances and oversights that seriously irk me. No ability to equip armor as a set, meaning I constantly have to re-equip it all every time I enter an in-climate area? Having throw weapon be the default for the R button, when throwing materials sis something you're going to be doing way more often in this game with bombs and lightseeds? Not being able to fuse from inventory, or not being able to replace a fusion while using Fuse, and instead having to go into inventory to destroy the fused material and then return to the game to do so? Then there's the fact that basically half of the shrines wind up being the same Rauru's Blessing templates, alongside the Proving Grounds shrines being applied a little sloppily in my opinion. I think I have a mental list of like 50 annoying things that Tears does that holds it back from being a better game.
However, Tears of the Kingdom, in it's sheer spite of my displeasure, manages to overcome that laundry list with just being a really damn good product. The kind that comes around very infrequently. Temples and their according run-ups completely bury the Divine Beast quests from Breath of the Wild, relying a lot more on somewhat of a classic design seen in games like Ocarina. Hell, the Lightning temple with it's focus on light-guiding puzzles quite literally feels like an homage to the light temple from Ocarina.
I think the biggest overall issue with my playthrough is I spent the majority of it after clearing all the temples and shrines. My current impressions of this game are marred with me becoming a sociopath who only breathes and eats to ensure I can keep finding caves and wells and sky-islands with treasure chests.

Pretty uninspired all things considered. Does every game with combat need a floor-by-floor combat test? It was cool how it made you appreciate cooking more and using Lizalfos and Wizzrobe's elemental weaknesses, but it's either too easy or really frustrating when your 28-heart-having Link gets one-shot by a right Moblin clubbing. Also, the Master Sword doesn't actually get any sort of visual upgrade, just a stronger glow! They missed a perfect opportunity to give it a nod to Wind Waker's Master Sword quest and they blew it

A great game though a tad undercooked in areas like how the Rito questline gets the short end of the stick and an over-reliance on the "Minor/Modest/Major Test of Strength" shrines. Wound up shedding a lot of my prior hangups on this playthrough. I also had the pleasure of really treating this like a Nintendo Switch game with plenty of time spent home and at work sinking into this game, and it was a real joy to fully utilize the console in such a way I haven't done since Mario Odyssey. Why am I only finishing this now? Ending could have been done better. The final boss is very easy! But maybe that's best to be appreciated in a less completionist run

The remake of Resident Evil 3 had me a little concerned that Capcom might have rushed their attempt on doing the same for RE4. I sometimes hate being wrong but this is not such an occasion. This is an absolutely massive undertaking that oozes quality all the way through. The visuals are great especially with how the play around with the sky lighting for different times of day, the music is super inspired, with a lot of weird decisions for instrumentation that somehow winds up working, and a lot of the story beats that have been tweaked or added were actually in solid service of the story, especially when looking at the chemistry between Leon and characters like Ashley and Luis. Nothing felt phoned in, and the side quest system I heard a lot about prior to it's release was a lot less lame than I anticipated (actually kind of cool!) A rare case of a game where I can't really point out the bad in it.

While this game plays just about as fun as the previous 3, it absolutely does not understand scenario design in the same way as the PS1 classics. Long stretches of no combat engagements while running back and forth to simply unlock doors, boss fights being absolute jokes (like the electric thing swimming in the pool) and the story setup being a poor attempt at paying off where the end of 2 left off. Also, besides getting mogged by some unfortunate stun lock combos, this game is probably the easiest so far. Ammo was in ridiculous supply as well as recovery items. I just thank god that I managed not to get softlocked on my playthrough