I have some conflicting thoughts on this game, but for the most part i did really enjoy it. The story in this might just be one of the best stories ever told in gaming. It’s silly, emotional, and brilliant. As for the gameplay though, i truly believe it hasn’t aged well in the slightest. Combat feels like a chore once there’s more than 2 enemies shooting at you, and some of the later boss fights can just straight up feel unfair due to some of the main combat mechanics. I will say that the stealth has aged flawlessly though, figuring out strategic ways to sneak past enemies and take them out silently was lots of fun. I also loved the CODEC system, the fact that the conversations you can have with your allies depends purely on the exact situation you’re in, it adds a lot of immersion. While certain aspects of this game haven’t aged the best, there’s still plenty of fun to be had in Hideo Kojima’s original masterpiece, for its time i have no issue believing that this was revolutionary at the time, for reasons like it’s phenomenal voice acting and stunning 3d graphics.

finally got around to playing this before rebirth releases and yep this is a good game. very good prequel to ff7 giving context to how cloud got to be a soldier and gives an early look of sephiroth’s motivations. sometimes the plot got pretty confusing (mostly because of genesis) but i was still very interested throughout the duration of the game. music was banging as always, and the combat was very fun. the DMW provides a unique way to give the player unique abilities to quickly change the outlook of a battle. the character cast is wonderful as always, seeing characters like cloud, tifa, aerith, yuffie, and the turks before the events of ff7 was absolutely wonderful.

I’ve played about ~25ish hours of this so far so I think that’s a fair amount to make a (at least temporary) review.

Believe the hype, Helldivers II is fucking rad. It’s no secret that i’m not much of a multiplayer gamer nowadays aside from the occasional fortnite match, but after i saw clips of Helldivers i just knew i had to cave in and see what the deal was, and god I wasn’t disappointed. The missions in this title are so chaotic and unbelievably fun, and the game is so inherently goofy that it’s hard to go 5 minutes without laughing so hard that you’re gasping for air. There’s no better feeling than queuing up with a buddy and taking down some bugs or robots. The core gameplay is really great too, i really love the movement (minus the sprint toggle because 50% of the time when i try to sprint my character just doesn’t wanna) and the gunplay. I was really torn between giving this a 4.5/5 or a 5/5 but i think the game really just needs some more enemy and mission variety as well as transportation methods like buggies for larger missions like ICBM’s, but apparently those are all coming in future updates so expect my rating to change in the future.

In short, Helldivers II is fucking amazing and is only looking to get even better in the future. Without a doubt well worth the $40 price tag.

survival horror masterclass. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is a horrifying, yet insanely fun experience that begs to be played in the darkest room in your home.

I played Resident Evil Village years ago, but for whatever reason I never actually finished this game. Going back and finally completing it made me regret my decision of not playing this sooner. By far the greatest thing about RE7 is it’s atmosphere, wandering the halls of the Baker house constantly kept me on the edge of my seat like no other game has before (except for The Dark Place in Alan Wake 2), i was absolutely bewildered by the fact that every time i thought i was about to reach the end of the house, somehow there was 2 houses worth of more land. While the story may be short, I still found it to be phenomenal. The franchises new protagonist, Ethan Winters, is just a regular joe-shmoe who wants to find his wife Mia, and somehow goes to every extent to save her. The Bakers are amazing characters as well, even if their actions in the game arent of their own will, they still manage to be compelling characters and terrifying antagonists. The main antagonist, Evelyn, doesn’t get too much screen time, but is instead built up through the files scattered around the home and the surrounding areas, creating a unique antagonist with a unique end goal of wanting a family. Over the years i’ve managed to become very desensitized to horror, especially horror of this type. But RE7 still managed to scare the shit out of me in ways that almost made me scream.

In short, not only is RE7 one of the greatest RE games i’ve ever played, it’s very likely one of the greatest survival horror games i’ve ever played, and maybe even one of the greatest games i’ve played in general.

games like this are so hard to review because if i say ANYTHING about this game it will ruin the experience for you. you just gotta trust my word on this when i say this game is fucking incredible. easily the best card game i’ve ever played. inscryption has an amazing plot, an absolutely gorgeous art style, a surprisingly phenomenal soundtrack, and some of the most unique mechanics and plot twists i’ve ever seen. easily the best $20 i’ve ever spent, play this damn game and go into it as blind as possible i’m so serious.

"The hardest battles are fought in the mind, not the sword."

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a uniquely horrifying game in which you play as Senua, a Celtic warrior with Psychosis who goes on a journey to save the soul of her deceased lover Dillion from the Goddess Hela. Throughout this journey Senua must endure death and the challenges her condition places in front of her so she may be reunited with her lover.

Where Hellblade excels most is within its sound design and atmosphere. From the very beginning the game tells you to play with headphones, and for good reason, as throughout the games nearly 8 hour long story you are placed within Senua's head and get to hear the voices in her head as they surround your ears to either act as her guide or tormentor. The atmosphere is brilliantly designed as well, each surface is filled to the brim with detail, and does a phenomenal job at setting the tone, especially in areas like the labyrinths and villages.

While the combat in Hellblade does certainly take a backseat for most of the game, it is by far one of the most fun and satisfying combat systems I've had the pleasure of experiencing. While being very simple and only consisting of light attacks, heavy attacks, and a punch/kick attack used for breaking shields, achieving combos and hitting a perfect parry feels unbelievably good. The combat especially becomes even more fun and rewarding as you develop the "Focus" meter, in which time slows down for your enemies and you get to go nuts and beat the hell out of every enemy in your sight.

Hellblade's narrative is an exceptional one. As stated previously you play as Senua who must face the challenges her Psychosis throws at her as well as challenge the Gods as she aims to save the soul of her lover. From the very beginning you realize that YOU are now one of the voices in Senua's head, as the voice that acts as the narrator begins to speak to you, and even in some cases Senua herself will talk directly to you. The stakes are immediately raised for the player after the combat tutorial ends, in which we are told that if Senua is killed too many times, the curse of darkness she possesses will spread to her head and we will be forced to restart the entire game. This threat however is empty, or at least I believe it is, as in most cases in the game it's harder to die in a battle than it is to win it, which I won't complain about. As the story progresses however, I felt as if it began to lose itself as it tries to confuse the player more than explain itself. I especially began to feel more iffy on the plot as I reached the ending, which felt very anticlimactic and felt to be a huge and sudden 180 from the tone the rest of the story had.

A few other minor gripes I had were with the puzzles and the backtracking. In Hellblade, the puzzles typically consist of finding a locked door with runes on it, and to unlock the doors you must find the listed rune within your environment. I will give credit where credit is due, a good many of these puzzles have very unique solutions in which you have to line up two objects in the horizon perfectly to create the rune, which was very cool to me. However the awe I felt from these unique solutions faded quickly due to the repetitive nature of these puzzles, especially toward the end of the game I found myself asking "Why can't I just keep going through instead of having to solve these puzzles after every little bit of progression?". The backtracking this game throws at you can also at times be completely absurd, especially in the beginning of the game. After defeating bosses like Valravyn and Surtr, you have to then go ALL the way back to the beginning room, which can take several minutes, and when every path looks identical it can be very hard to tell if you are going the right way, ESPECIALLY due to the lack of a map.

Overall, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice provides a unique look at how Psychosis affects the minds of those who have it and the obstacles they face, while also providing fun combat, a banging OST, outstanding sound design and atmosphere, and intriguing characters. However these positives come at the cost of repetitive puzzles, unenjoyable backtracking, and sometimes a less than satisfying narrative, with incredibly high highs, and low lows. I'm eagerly awaiting Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 now, and with better puzzle design, less backtracking, and a more stable narrative, I could easily see the sequel becoming an all time great.

I mean this in the best way possible when I say this feels like one of those games you'd play at a McDonald's game kiosk as a kid.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was my first outing with this legendary series, and I can already tell this will become one of my favorite game franchises of all time. I had an absolute blast with this game, got the platinum trophy and everything, I only have a few minor nitpicks.

To start, the characters are all memorable and enjoyable to see. Sly and the deuteragonists Bentley and Murray especially are just so damn lovable and sweet. The ost is banging, especially during boss fights. The art style is so gorgeous its unreal, clearly taking inspiration from comic books, it adds so much personality to the overall look and vibe this game gives. At its core, the gameplay loop is satisfying and addicting as well. Swinging from hooks immediately into walking on ropes and shit was so cool and the stealth was super fun too, even if for a good amount of the game I charged head first into every enemy.

My complaints with this game are very few, pretty much just minor nitpicks. It's pretty much just a cost of being an early PS2 3D platforming game, but god sometimes the gameplay was not doing it for me. Unless you get a lucky charm, Sly dies in one hit, and Sly's hitbox can be so absurd at times that even if his pinky toe or hat touches something your immediately sent back to the last checkpoint. Maybe this issue was just caused by the fact that I played this game on PS3 streaming on my PS5, but I swear sometimes inputs just do not register. Sometimes when I would go to grapple onto a hook or jump onto a rail the input just would not register and I would be sent falling to my death.

In short, Sly Cooper is a hella great 3D platformer that hopefully Sony will eventually remember the existence of, because a new one of these using modern tech would go so hard. The game features lovable characters, a gorgeous art style, a fantastic soundtrack, and a good core gameplay loop. This game is only held back by shitty 1-hit deaths and occasionally poor boss fights.

Rollerdrome is a short and sweet experience that can best be described as a love child between Jet Set Radio and Max Payne.

Rollerdrome’s bread and butter is easily its gameplay. Rolling through the skating rinks at max speeds and jumping across roofs is unbelievably fun, and it becomes even more fun when you throw in the combat. The flashiness of the combat adds to the quality of the gameplay, doing tricks and taking advantage of bullet time to get more points and defeat enemies with precision was just so damn fun. I also found myself falling in love with this games gorgeous art style. Clearly inspired by Saturday morning cartoons through the use of vibrant colors and environments that look as if they were illustrated on paper.

The story takes a huge back seat in this game, but there are sections where you’re put into first person perspective and can read up on the overarching plot through newspapers, letters, computer emails, etc. In the year 2030, corporations such as megacorp Matterhorn rule the world and have set up sporting events to distract the public from the harsh environments created by corporations. One of these sporting events, Rollerdrome, is an essential event in which people get hired by Matterhorn to be contestants or a house player as a way to get life benefits for their families such as better insurance. We play as Kara Hassan, a rookie to Rollerdrome who aims to become the champion of the Rollerdrome tournament, it will not be easy for her whatsoever as she will have to face several enemies at once all while rolling through the arena on skates.

The only things I think this game could’ve used is a larger variety of weapons, considering the length of the game it’s understandable why we only got pistols, a shotgun, a grenade launcher, and a laser rifle, but god i would’ve loved automatic weapons like SMGs or an AR. I also think this game could’ve used better boss variety, there’s only two boss fights, but it’s the same boss both times just with added enemies surrounding it the second time. Not a huge deal though, it just makes me think of what could’ve been.

Hearing what happened to the studio that created this game is so damn sad. I’d easily be willing to play at LEAST 7 more of these, but unfortunately it just won’t happen. Take-Two is a BITCH for that.

Give this game a shot if you like games with fast paced combat and gorgeous environments, especially if you like games that are pretty much all just shooty shooty. It’s only about 3-5 hours long and i loved every second of it.

Not anywhere near as great as I’d hoped this game would be, but it’s also nowhere near as bad as a lot of people would make you think.

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League feels like a true Rocksteady game, held back by corporate greed and a shitty live service model. Just about everything you love about the Arkham games can be found here (spare a few things but I’ll get into that later). The graphics are absolutely gorgeous, especially during cutscenes where the character models can especially be shown off, and the detail on them is just phenomenal. While obviously a step down from the masterful combat of the Arkham series, SSKTJL still has great gameplay, it’s a lot of shooty shooty stuff which i enjoy, and the fast paced manner of it only makes it better.

SSKTJL has a story I’m very conflicted on. The first 3/4 were surprisingly great to me, getting introduced to the Justice League was great (even if we have to kill them which was a bummer) and their boss fights were surprisingly really fun and unique. Getting to see Kevin Conroy in the Batman role once more was just great, I’ve been a fan of his performances as Batman ever since i was a kid, and it warmed my heart to get to hear him again. Nolan North as Superman was surprisingly amazing, as much as i know it’ll never happen, if we ever get a Superman game in the future i’d love to see him back in the role.

Mission design in this game is unfortunately really repetitive, for most of the game i didn’t mind but looking back it was genuinely a drag sometimes. 97% of the missions, if not 100%, are just “run there and shoot those guys so you can shoot giant purple thing and go over there to do it again!” or the occasional “escort the payload!!” mission. The plot toward the end really got bumpy for me, the ending especially felt very abrupt and forced. All of the problems this game faces are unfortunately due to the live service model, the game sacrifices a fully coherent plot as a means to try to get players to continue playing for as long as possible over the course of years and of course spend money on the battle passes, if you take a look at any statistic it’s easy to tell that it isn’t exactly going well for this game. Corporate greed ruined this game, which as a result tanked the games player count and ruined its full potential, hopefully Rocksteady will get to move on from this game and continue making great single player games.

In short, SSKTJL is a good game that unfortunately gets brought down as a result of a forced live service model which was very likely forced upon Rocksteady by Warner Bros. Playing most of this game with my friend was an absolute blast as we laughed together at the high points of the story and enjoyed the shooting.