You can really see the DNA for future Kojima games in Snatcher. The art is gorgeous in any version and I loved the sci-fi weirdness.

The game is at its best, narratively, when it's explaining some detail about the world or technology in front of you. Unfortunately, though, I couldn't get past the constant cheap jokes and shallow characters.

It's still a worthy time capsule with vivid art. You just have to connect with the history a bit on this one.

people aren't far off the mark with calling this a glorified demo but i still think it's the best game in the series behind only the original.

the smaller setting in Still Creek was both unique for the series at the time but also draws comparisons to the mall in the original before the series started to get bloated (with the oversized Fortune City of 2 and even further with the open world mess of 3/4). it feels like there's actual design to things here and not space just to pad things out while increasing the size.

the short length doesn't allow with too much experimentation with the timer and doing things in different orders but that's to be expected. with Dead Rising 2 playing very much as a "Dead Rising but make it almost universally worse" type thing for me, i'll happily take this as a diversion with more of its own identity.

less is more and all that.

Twisted Metal 4 is the second game from 989 Studios and I'm probably gonna get sacked for rating this as good as TM1.

It feels like the guys behind this game heard my complaints from 20 years in the future about the gameplay of TM3 and actually improved a ton of things. They made it a lot faster, going upside down no longer makes you vulnerable and just instantly puts you rightside up, cars are a lot looser, etc. Some could argue the cars feel a bit too loose, but I think it's amazing. They also thankfully brought back the shield advanced technique from the SingleTrac games, and also added a "hyperspace" move that teleports you to a point on the map to save yourself from a hairy situation or falling into a pit.

Unfortunately despite these improvements there is some really bad slowdown at times when a lot of stuff goes on either onscreen or just nearby, it's particularly bad on the Oil Rig. For maximum powerpoint presentation level slowdown, put yourself as Sweet Tooth and fight five other Sweet Tooths on Oil Rig. The playable non-boss roster is also filled with incredibly bad new characters and "revisions" of past characters that have been made cheesier like Mr. Grimm suddenly becoming a pirate for some reason and losing his motorcycle gimmick(giving it to Quattro who's a hoverbike user) and Warthog now gives up his armored truck/hummer for a WWI tank that actually makes him less unique since Minion is in this game. Orbital and Quattro I guess are okay, but Orbital is quite literally just James Bond in everything but the stuff that would be copyright infringing which is an automatic disqualification at least from me.

On the flipside there is now a boss on every stage, which I think is actually pretty cool. It just sucks that they proceeded to put characters from past games as the bosses. They're "stronger" now in a way, but it also denies them a bio/ending which kinda sucks. The boss characters who aren't past characters are also super faceless with very generic sounding names like "Crusher" and "RC Car", though they're still a ton cooler than the non-boss new characters.

There's a really weird "create-a-car" mode which is just as limited as you'd expect it to be from a PS1 era game, with it basically just being a selection of nine car models to choose from and picking a pre-set paintjob for them and only four specials. You can make a "Hammerhead" or "Crimson Fury" for this game, but you're not gonna be able to crush cars with Hammerhead like in the old games which just makes you go "what's even the point then?".

It's a shame it suffers from the slowdown and terrible playable cast the way it does, because I think if those were fixed it'd be an amazing Twisted Metal entry in its own right since I think it's really fun to play and thus it's just "good". Sweet Tooth usurping Calypso as the runner of Twisted Metal is actually kinda cool imo and it's a nice apology for how bad he played in 3.

Absolutely worth the 3-year wait. Adds a lot of interesting elements to the established gameplay formula, and there isn't a single character that gets left behind in terms of development (Susie in particular is now one of my favorites). The new setting is also as imaginative as you'd expect, and is probably the best and longest joke about the Internet ever. That's really all I can say without spoiling anything, so I'll just finish by saying that once again, Toby has proven that he really is just That Good.

This game plays like a dream, it has some really great climbing mechanics that put Uncharted to shame, in the same vein, this game plays like an Uncharted "clone" were the shooting mechanics are actually good and the climbing is fun to do instead of a chore.

But...

The writing is atrociously bad, like laugh out loud terrible, I sincerely hope whoever wrote this game does some self-reflexion and improves, this game's writing is just embarrassing.

So yeah, pretty fun game to play.

When fans have proclaimed that this was the best Final Fantasy game I figured it was all just exaggeration seeing as the same fandom has a lot of fans praising Final Fantasy VII as the best Final Fantasy game. I can attest that these claims for FFIX are not off-base or exaggerated.

The combat of Final Fantasy IX, as with pretty much everything else in this game, is a callback to the early days of Final Fantasy before its modern era which I'm sure those reading this have heard time and time again. Very simple turn based combat with nothing special other than like a super Saiyan mode when your ATB meter is filled. I feel like this game is one of the first 3D Final Fantasy games that also properly does open world exploration right. A lot of FFVII "open world" aspects still felt very linear and small, and FFVIII wasn't much of an improvement either. FFIX on the other hand feels just about right. It still has a linear approach to open world maps, but the areas you explore feel far more explorable and massive than the last two games had. Also, the environments also just look really well made!

The story for FFIX is truly one of the most charming and endearing stories I've had the pleasure to witness in a Final Fantasy game. It has a children's fairytale story to it that I'm also sure the people reading this have heard about it as well. The characters themselves are all memorable and lovable to the very end. I think this is also one of the few Final Fantasy games where I actually don't have a problem with the characters. The story and characters have this symbiotic relationship where they both improve each other after each event taking place, or in other words, the game's story and characters are really well written.

There's just a lot about this game that you cannot go wrong with and that is a good entry for a Final Fantasy fan who wants to experience the older titles, but has neither the means or confidence to do so. This game is definitive Final Fantasy experience for sure.

I'd highly recommend this for the following:
-JRPG fans
-Incoming or relatively new Final Fantasy fans
-a low poly enthusiast
-looking for a wonderfully written cast and story in a video game
-loves video games in high fantasy settings

"A Worthy Expansion To A Classic FPS"

Half Life: Opposing Force does what many expansion packs fail to do - it provides meaningful and fun content that actually "expands" and pushes forward the original game's experience. By taking control of Adrian Shepard, a member of the military group sent in to kill Gordan Freeman, you get to see the game's original story from a different angle. The level design is improved, the arsenal of weaponry is refined and expanded, and there are new enemies to fight along the way, culminating in a successful expansion of the Half-Life formula!

The levels in Half Life: Opposing Force provide new sections of the Black Mesa research facility to play through. These areas include new tram levels, sewer levels, and even more encounters with the Pit Monster from the original title. The jumps and landscape are smoothed a bit better, leading to less instances of falling to your death or getting caught on the environment and staying stuck (although it still happened multiple times). While buggy, the levels look interesting, and play just as well as the original titles.

There are also new additions to Shepard's arsenal, such as an LMG, Transporter gun, Electric Shock Rifle, Heavy Pistol, and a grappling hook. This adds new ways to approach combat, as well as get around the environment, something that still occurred in the base game but at a much less frequent rate. Enemies also pack these weapons as well, so the ability to take and deal a lot of damage is enticing.

Lastly, new enemy types are introduced. All seem to be dangerous, ranging from Shock Troopers to Voltigores, to even an encounter with a helicopter like in the base game. These enemies introduce a new level of difficulty to the title, and cause the player to have to approach each section with care and awareness. I did feel that some sections of the game where multiple Voltigores would spawn were a too difficult, but I have to give Gearbox credit for adding something different to the Half-Life experience.

All in all, this was a fun expansion to play through, and I Recommend it to any fans of the original game or FPS games in general. There was enough new content, enemies, and locations to run through, despite it still being a retelling of the base game from a different perspective a la Half Life: Blue Shift . Unlike that expansion, Half Life: Opposing Force serves as a fun change of pace for the original game, which is good enough for myself!

Final Verdict: 8/10 (Great)