PinkCheese
Probably the best shooter on the GameCube and one of the best shooters of the sixth gen. It was so good that I sat down and shotgunned it in one sitting.
2020
Cyberpunk’s writing is incredible. I found myself getting really attached to basically all of the characters. V and Johnny’s dynamic is great. I’m surprised how well they used Keanu here, he plays the standoffish anarchistic rocker really well. Jackie is also another highlight, they actually managed to get me really attached to him, so much so that I teared up at the E3 trailer moment. The entire voice cast is great and they do a stellar job of bringing the writing to life, even if the slang can be a bit much to get used to.
Night City feels alive and it’s a wonder to behold. The amount of detail in every corner is astonishing and it does wonders for the atmosphere. More games need to let me walk down neon soaked streets at night in the rain. Now that it’s on consoles that can handle it, it looks immaculate and runs really well too.
The gameplay is also better than I was expecting. The guns themselves feel pretty good and the variety in weapons is also good. The game honestly feels more like the modern Deus Ex games than a standard open world game. It feels like if you took Mankind Divided’s Prague and spread it over an entire city. The driving is the only part I’d call rough, but it’s not bad enough to bring down the overall experience for me.
Speaking of things that are rough, I didn’t run into that many bugs. Of course I had a few and a couple required reloading a save, but it didn’t happen often enough over my 50 hours with the game that it became a problem.
I didn’t go into Cyberpunk expecting too much, but I came out genuinely in love with it. I spent literally 20 hours just doing side quests at the end of the game just so I didn’t have to finish the story and have it be over.
Night City feels alive and it’s a wonder to behold. The amount of detail in every corner is astonishing and it does wonders for the atmosphere. More games need to let me walk down neon soaked streets at night in the rain. Now that it’s on consoles that can handle it, it looks immaculate and runs really well too.
The gameplay is also better than I was expecting. The guns themselves feel pretty good and the variety in weapons is also good. The game honestly feels more like the modern Deus Ex games than a standard open world game. It feels like if you took Mankind Divided’s Prague and spread it over an entire city. The driving is the only part I’d call rough, but it’s not bad enough to bring down the overall experience for me.
Speaking of things that are rough, I didn’t run into that many bugs. Of course I had a few and a couple required reloading a save, but it didn’t happen often enough over my 50 hours with the game that it became a problem.
I didn’t go into Cyberpunk expecting too much, but I came out genuinely in love with it. I spent literally 20 hours just doing side quests at the end of the game just so I didn’t have to finish the story and have it be over.
There’s something really special here. The gameplay is alright. It’s really simple but is also frenetic and breezy enough to be enjoyable. But the real draw here is the characters and the writing. This game is impeccably written and acted. The way the team grows together and becomes a family by the end is so well done. This is one of those adaptations where you can feel the writers’ love for the source material. I’m not gonna act like I know a lot about the comics, and I haven’t seen the movies because fuck Chris Pratt, but even as someone with little to no background with this series I absolutely loved these characters.
gimme a new deus ex tho
gimme a new deus ex tho
2002
I understand why people don't like this as much as previous games, but I really enjoyed it. It probably shouldn't have been so linear but it didn't bother me too much. There were moments where I got a little annoyed at a few enemies, but overall I had a lot of fun. I liked the bigger focus on the story, even if some things about it felt off. Something felt weird about the way Samus idolizes Adam, I understand what they were going for, it just felt like it was kinda hamfisted. The focus on the horror side of Metroid was really nice to see. There were a few things that were genuinely creepy. I'm kinda surprised this got away with an E, some of the monsters felt like they should have gotten this something higher.
Well, I did it. I've finally beaten ARR. It was about 100 hours, but I've done it. I think when most people say ARR is bad, what they mean is its not as good as the later expansions that they've been playing for years. ARR has plenty of problems and there are plenty of times when I got tired of the fetch quests and MMO filler, but the high points are pretty high. When the story gets going it's really good. Finishing the patch quests has me really excited for Heavensward because what they left us with is really good. I played all of the base game as a warrior and loved it, but I got hit with tank anxiety pretty bad in the patches for some reason so I fucked off and leveled dragoon to 50 and I don't regret it dragoons are cool as shit. Excited to hear the new voice acting, I've heard its a lot better.
2010
INSANELY well written and well acted story that hit some emotional highs I never could have expected.
2006
This was a really fun way to kill a couple hours, even if my hand hurts now. Some of the covers didn't hit but overall they were fine. The stories that are told with each song are cute, except for the one really weird turn into a somber story about this girl's father dying for some reason. I'll probably chip away at the higher difficulties over time, it seems like it could be a fun time.
2021
The only good things I’ll say about it are the performances and the premise. I like time loop stuff and was interested in it but having played it now I’m just upset. The story is kinda cool at first but the ending just threw that right out the window. It’s just bad. You could maybe make a good story with that twist but this sure as hell wasn’t it.
This is the most poorly written Sony first party game I’ve ever played. Even it’s basic concept is completely inept in a way that a AAA game shouldn’t be. All but maybe one or two guns feel terrible, the level design is terrible, and the drone is useless for 95% of the game. It’s pretty, but it’s art style is infinitely worse than the earlier games in the series.
1994
I really like King's Field 2, but I just wasn't feeling this one for most of the game. By the time I got to floor 4 I was feeling it a little more but not as much as 2. Wasn't exactly a big fan of having to grind just to damage the final boss at all. That slap bass on floor 4 go kinda hard tho.
Really great western shooter.
SPACE
This review contains spoilers
I’d like to start off by saying I was not a huge fan of Zero Dawn. The gameplay bored the hell out of me and I didn’t care much about the story. Now having said that, I came away kind of impressed with Forbidden West in a weird way. Not impressed at how much it improved, but how much it’s story felt like it was handled by people who were so good at ideas but couldn’t handle the execution, yet still managed to work on one of Sony’s premier exclusives.
I’ll start off being nice. I enjoyed the gameplay a lot more this time around. Everything felt snappier and more fluid while still greatly expanding some areas like the melee combat. The melee feels a lot better this time around. They clearly spent a lot of time refining it and even gave it its own skill tree this time around. The only major change they need is a lock on. Trying to keep track of fast moving enemies while also dodging and attacking is just too much.
One thing I really can’t complain about is the presentation. The graphics are stellar and are a good showcase for the PS5, even if I think Rift Apart still impressed me more. Seeing a game that looks this good in this large of an open world run at 60fps is frankly insane. The soundtrack is nice but not groundbreaking imo.
The characters this time felt much more fleshed out and like real people. All of the main cast members were well written… with one major exception that I’ll get to later. I genuinely really loved Beta, Alva and Kotallo, they were all great characters that felt fully fleshed out. Erend went through his character arc last time, but they did a much better job with Varl this time. He was a really great companion. Seeing him and Aloy grow together throughout the game was really great. I liked Zo too but… I’ll get there.
Now before I get to the bad, I would like to say that even if Beta isn’t meant to be neurodivergent, I think they did a really great job of creating a ND character that doesn’t make it seem like it’s a bad thing. She’s accepted by her friends despite that and it made me happy to see that kind of representation even if it wasn’t on purpose.
Now, I need to talk about this writing. Guerrilla does a great job making interesting characters and coming up with good ideas, BUT they cannot execute on those ideas. They fumbled the ball every chance they could. The Zeniths are maybe the best example of this. They start off interesting, but it doesn’t take long before they get hilariously stupid. The reveal that these aren’t descendants of Far Zenith, but are ACTUALLY THE ORIGINAL FAR ZENITH was incredibly dumb and immediately made me dislike them. It serves no purpose other than for a reason for Tilda to try to kidnap Aloy because she left Elisabet on Earth 1000 years ago. Her reasoning that leads to her being the final boss felt flimsy at best.
The final reveal of Nemesis made me fucking scoff. The sudden escalation doesn’t feel earned and comes off as a cheap way to add a sequel hook because Sony wanted a trilogy.
Now, the thing that genuinely made me stop respecting Guerrilla’s writers was Varl’s death and how they treated Zo afterwards. Varl’s death is the same level of contrived at Joel in TLOU2. They are both examples of writers needing a driving force in their story, but being unable to come up with a natural way to do it, so they make the character uncharacteristically stupid. Varl is smart. He’s a warrior that knows how to think on his feet. He saw what happened when Aloy fought the Zeniths before. He would not stand there and try to stand up to them. He would have tried to get Beta out as soon as he dropped the Machine on Erik. Instead they decided he needed to stand there and stare while he climbed out from under it and then started swinging at him so Erik could kill him so Guerrilla could have their driving force for the team going into act 3. It does a disservice to Varl’s character and makes the writing team looks like hacks. They also decided that after he died they should reveal that Zo is pregnant because that’s the only way to use a female love interest in a story like this right? It feels so hackish and not like something that should be coming out of one of Sony’s premier devs. It’s a cheap attempt at making the player sad and only leads to frustration.
Forbidden West has lots of highs and some very low lows. I enjoyed the gameplay and the most of the characters were really well done, but the lows the writing reaches are unacceptable for a AAA game. On gameplay alone this could easily be an 8 or 9. The story on the other hand is maybe a 5. So I’ll split the difference and give it a 7/10 I guess.
I’ll start off being nice. I enjoyed the gameplay a lot more this time around. Everything felt snappier and more fluid while still greatly expanding some areas like the melee combat. The melee feels a lot better this time around. They clearly spent a lot of time refining it and even gave it its own skill tree this time around. The only major change they need is a lock on. Trying to keep track of fast moving enemies while also dodging and attacking is just too much.
One thing I really can’t complain about is the presentation. The graphics are stellar and are a good showcase for the PS5, even if I think Rift Apart still impressed me more. Seeing a game that looks this good in this large of an open world run at 60fps is frankly insane. The soundtrack is nice but not groundbreaking imo.
The characters this time felt much more fleshed out and like real people. All of the main cast members were well written… with one major exception that I’ll get to later. I genuinely really loved Beta, Alva and Kotallo, they were all great characters that felt fully fleshed out. Erend went through his character arc last time, but they did a much better job with Varl this time. He was a really great companion. Seeing him and Aloy grow together throughout the game was really great. I liked Zo too but… I’ll get there.
Now before I get to the bad, I would like to say that even if Beta isn’t meant to be neurodivergent, I think they did a really great job of creating a ND character that doesn’t make it seem like it’s a bad thing. She’s accepted by her friends despite that and it made me happy to see that kind of representation even if it wasn’t on purpose.
Now, I need to talk about this writing. Guerrilla does a great job making interesting characters and coming up with good ideas, BUT they cannot execute on those ideas. They fumbled the ball every chance they could. The Zeniths are maybe the best example of this. They start off interesting, but it doesn’t take long before they get hilariously stupid. The reveal that these aren’t descendants of Far Zenith, but are ACTUALLY THE ORIGINAL FAR ZENITH was incredibly dumb and immediately made me dislike them. It serves no purpose other than for a reason for Tilda to try to kidnap Aloy because she left Elisabet on Earth 1000 years ago. Her reasoning that leads to her being the final boss felt flimsy at best.
The final reveal of Nemesis made me fucking scoff. The sudden escalation doesn’t feel earned and comes off as a cheap way to add a sequel hook because Sony wanted a trilogy.
Now, the thing that genuinely made me stop respecting Guerrilla’s writers was Varl’s death and how they treated Zo afterwards. Varl’s death is the same level of contrived at Joel in TLOU2. They are both examples of writers needing a driving force in their story, but being unable to come up with a natural way to do it, so they make the character uncharacteristically stupid. Varl is smart. He’s a warrior that knows how to think on his feet. He saw what happened when Aloy fought the Zeniths before. He would not stand there and try to stand up to them. He would have tried to get Beta out as soon as he dropped the Machine on Erik. Instead they decided he needed to stand there and stare while he climbed out from under it and then started swinging at him so Erik could kill him so Guerrilla could have their driving force for the team going into act 3. It does a disservice to Varl’s character and makes the writing team looks like hacks. They also decided that after he died they should reveal that Zo is pregnant because that’s the only way to use a female love interest in a story like this right? It feels so hackish and not like something that should be coming out of one of Sony’s premier devs. It’s a cheap attempt at making the player sad and only leads to frustration.
Forbidden West has lots of highs and some very low lows. I enjoyed the gameplay and the most of the characters were really well done, but the lows the writing reaches are unacceptable for a AAA game. On gameplay alone this could easily be an 8 or 9. The story on the other hand is maybe a 5. So I’ll split the difference and give it a 7/10 I guess.
2021
This is a really gorgeous game that has a gameplay loop that really clicked with me and a story that had me interested until they fumbled it at the end.
It’s also incredibly janky. I had many bugs and a few freezes in my playthrough, with a crash or two sprinkled on top. Most animations are bad and the human characters just look terrible (which is why they all have their face covered). The localization is also full of typos and poor grammar, not to mention having a different voice actor voice at least one line by the main character that you are going to hear multiple times in a playthrough. But none of it was bad enough that it took me out of the experience, I usually just chuckled and moved on.
I really like the snappiness and immediacy of the combat. It’s very quick and brutal like a real gunfight would be. Everyone (including you) dies in a matter of one or two hits from most weapons. The weapons also just feel really good, especially the shotgun.
The survival elements had me on my toes for maybe the first five hours but it didn’t take long for me to get things to a point where I didn’t need to worry about it anymore. At the beginning I had to make a couple tough choices but it didn’t extend much past that.
What really surprised me were how effective the horror elements were. There were quite a few moments where I was genuinely on edge and scared during my playthrough. The monsters are suitably creepy and the music works with the visuals so well that some parts of the game are surprisingly scary.
The story has some really neat things in it and had me interested until the end. I love the setting and I enjoyed going through each character’s story and having to make those hard decisions and sometimes make calls I really don’t want to. The ending was pretty bad though. The lead up to it is pretty cool and I liked the heist a lot but after that it’s just a twist that ruined a pretty interesting villain and a Fallout-esque slideshow telling you what happened to all the people you met along the way. It just left me feeling empty.
Overall, as much as I don’t like the ending, it didn’t hurt the whole experience enough that I wouldn’t recommend it. I genuinely enjoyed much of my time with it despite it being a janky and buggy mess.
It’s also incredibly janky. I had many bugs and a few freezes in my playthrough, with a crash or two sprinkled on top. Most animations are bad and the human characters just look terrible (which is why they all have their face covered). The localization is also full of typos and poor grammar, not to mention having a different voice actor voice at least one line by the main character that you are going to hear multiple times in a playthrough. But none of it was bad enough that it took me out of the experience, I usually just chuckled and moved on.
I really like the snappiness and immediacy of the combat. It’s very quick and brutal like a real gunfight would be. Everyone (including you) dies in a matter of one or two hits from most weapons. The weapons also just feel really good, especially the shotgun.
The survival elements had me on my toes for maybe the first five hours but it didn’t take long for me to get things to a point where I didn’t need to worry about it anymore. At the beginning I had to make a couple tough choices but it didn’t extend much past that.
What really surprised me were how effective the horror elements were. There were quite a few moments where I was genuinely on edge and scared during my playthrough. The monsters are suitably creepy and the music works with the visuals so well that some parts of the game are surprisingly scary.
The story has some really neat things in it and had me interested until the end. I love the setting and I enjoyed going through each character’s story and having to make those hard decisions and sometimes make calls I really don’t want to. The ending was pretty bad though. The lead up to it is pretty cool and I liked the heist a lot but after that it’s just a twist that ruined a pretty interesting villain and a Fallout-esque slideshow telling you what happened to all the people you met along the way. It just left me feeling empty.
Overall, as much as I don’t like the ending, it didn’t hurt the whole experience enough that I wouldn’t recommend it. I genuinely enjoyed much of my time with it despite it being a janky and buggy mess.
RE8 has the scariest segment to ever be in the series and that alone makes me rank it so highly. The Beneviento Estate is a highlight of the series as a whole and was genuinely terrifying for a first time play through.
Village also has my favorite story of the series as a whole and maybe the first genuinely great story in the series that isn't just a very basic A to B plot held up by its characters. This game cemented Ethan as one of the best protagonists in the series and really made me love its villains. Starting with the obvious, Lady Dimitrescu is great (horny not included). Her trying to keep her composure and keep up her "ladylike" facade while chasing you down is fantastic. Heisenberg is probably my favorite of the bunch just because his dialog is fantastically written and his VA pulls it off in stride. His boss fight is also my favorite in the game.
The gameplay is a more polished version of RE7 with some added touches that just make it the better game. The combat is more satisfying simply due to the increase in animation and sound quality while the exploration is more rewarding due to the amount of collectables and treasures to find and the larger amount of puzzles which RE7 sadly lacked in.
Village also has my favorite story of the series as a whole and maybe the first genuinely great story in the series that isn't just a very basic A to B plot held up by its characters. This game cemented Ethan as one of the best protagonists in the series and really made me love its villains. Starting with the obvious, Lady Dimitrescu is great (horny not included). Her trying to keep her composure and keep up her "ladylike" facade while chasing you down is fantastic. Heisenberg is probably my favorite of the bunch just because his dialog is fantastically written and his VA pulls it off in stride. His boss fight is also my favorite in the game.
The gameplay is a more polished version of RE7 with some added touches that just make it the better game. The combat is more satisfying simply due to the increase in animation and sound quality while the exploration is more rewarding due to the amount of collectables and treasures to find and the larger amount of puzzles which RE7 sadly lacked in.