PortalZeus
Oh man, where did the soul go? Besides the graphical fidelity and camera angles while the ball is flying, I think this game is a step down. Presentation feels very sterile… really lacking in the wackiness of the previous games. You could argue that from HSG3, the wackiness has been going down, but we’re at the bottom with this game. Also, caddies have almost no presence in this game! It was fun watching your caddy sprint towards the ball, or you move your camera to them and they wave. Hell, in HSG4, if the ball is headed towards them on a drive, they would say something funny and duck to dodge it. Where’s all that personality? Greg would tear Marta to shreds sorry for speaking the truth.
The control is great, but not as tuned as previous entries are. The ball rolls WAY too much making gauging your shot feels more imprecise. The marker is not where your ball is projected to land anymore (give or take 10 yards) but instead is where it’s gonna roll (give or take 30 – 50 yards). Also, they got rid of the contour lines during your shot so you have little to no idea what the terrain elevation is from where you’re hitting and where you want your ball to go. Sounds like a small change, but on more difficult maps… god. UH ALSO THE JAPANESE VERSION HAS KIRYU I WISH WE GOT THAT!
The control is great, but not as tuned as previous entries are. The ball rolls WAY too much making gauging your shot feels more imprecise. The marker is not where your ball is projected to land anymore (give or take 10 yards) but instead is where it’s gonna roll (give or take 30 – 50 yards). Also, they got rid of the contour lines during your shot so you have little to no idea what the terrain elevation is from where you’re hitting and where you want your ball to go. Sounds like a small change, but on more difficult maps… god. UH ALSO THE JAPANESE VERSION HAS KIRYU I WISH WE GOT THAT!
This review contains spoilers
"Maybe, even if it's at the expense of brevity, and perhaps even logic, some part of you knows that you'd be happier if you knew that old fuck got to walk away and relax for a little while." - Steak Bentley
Fantastic LaD/Yakuza game. Well done RGG. Combat improvements were so good.
Fantastic LaD/Yakuza game. Well done RGG. Combat improvements were so good.
2000
The many ways this game spells anime:
AnimMac
AnimMoby
Eliseanime
Kaori-animai
Jurganim
JP Ego-anim
Zoanim
Hiranimo
Still a lot of fun after all these years. I've also never played Tricky.
AnimMac
AnimMoby
Eliseanime
Kaori-animai
Jurganim
JP Ego-anim
Zoanim
Hiranimo
Still a lot of fun after all these years. I've also never played Tricky.
2019
Sometimes I felt compelled to make ape noises while playing this gem of a video game. The ape in me wanted out!
2022
o7
Being able to change the language of the talking flowers whenever you want is wonderful
I have nothing against Ichiban or turn based gameplay, but man did it feel so good to back as Kiryu. Playing as Kiryu feels so goddamn good. You’re like a powerhouse that can obliterate anything in its path. And the combat is SO much better than 6 like goddamn. Gameplay wise, this is what 6 WANTED to be. All of the little callbacks were funny, and bringing back Pocket Circuit was good fun again! The Colosseum is at its best here, even if it’s at its most ridiculous. The “Castle” made me SO happy. The characters are well written and there are lots of highlights with them. Akame 10/10!! And the ending of this game is everything. It was all handled so well. I cried! A lot!
Happy 25th Warped! Rest in Peace Brendan O'Brien. This game is everything to me.
2018
All hail Koro-Nyan!!
2003
This review contains spoilers
Been on the bucket list for a long time. Hated it back then, hate it now, but for different reasons this time! I think Jak II has a better identity than the first game, Josh Mancell is incredible like always, the writing is REALLY funny this time around, the 4 guns you get are versatile (even if the final boss was “use the yellow gun” and the peacemaker comes in too late), and cutscenes look incredible. Jak telling Daxter he did a good job in the race was my favorite moment. But I still hate this game. No fast travel across a terrible city, vehicle controls are dogshit, bad checkpoints, shit story, just so much bad! Congrats Jak; you got an identity at the cost of gameplay that aged. Also Erol was a jobber that made no sense and the intro to this game is great because it tears out my heart each time as I think of the crushing disappointment I felt as a kid.
2009
So muck jank... but like a Saints Row 2 kind of jank. It's like an endearing kind of jank.
2019
A really unique puzzle game under the guise of some wacky Atlus stuff. A wolf in sheep's clothing... to reference the ramblings of a certain someone.
Climbing a mountain and flying off to who knows where never got old.
This review contains spoilers
There are two MGS4s to me: the legend of MGS4; what my expectations as a kid were, and the real MGS4; a sloppy mess of a game. I saw this game on EB Games store shelves as a kid and thought the cover art meant that this was the most mature looking game, it had to be cool, but I had never seen a game that looked like that. The game was an anomaly to me. I watched the epilogue on YouTube as a kid many times, I’m not sure why, but I did. And those parts have such a different sentimental value to me compared to the rest of this game. It’s weird how that naturally kicked in at during the epilogue. Just thinking of how it’s almost been 15 years since I saw it in stores. Just how far I’ve come from a 10 year old to a 25 year old. I loved a lot of this game but it also felt like a lot of the choices it made were total garbage. It’s just a total mess with fantastic highs and crushing lows. But no matter what, it will always be special to me because much like Snake, it’s a living legend. But also like Snake, once you get to know it, you realize that it’s not a hero. It never was, and never will be.
This review contains spoilers
Dropped when the game told me to "play everything again except you can't use the main mechanic as a crutch and you have to collect the memory fragments to complete the game".