Asymmetric knocked it out of the park. Reckonin’ at gun manor is a true masterpiece of quest design. When I played the base game, it was clear to me that taking something like the circus quest and expanding it with a better emotional hook could make for something truly special. Gun manor creates an intricate puzzle box quest with a four floor mansion turned museum and surrounding grounds. The way each area builds upon the previous as you slowly uncover solutions to each ghost’s unfinished business is a blast to play. The writing is top notch understanding when to use humor and when to let something serious stay serious. The prosecutor ghost has you act out an entire courtroom scene, and the pay off is just wonderful. There’s also another reason this expansion is so much fun to play. There’s only three required battles. The battle system is not a strong part of west of loathing and this dlc thankfully relegates it to be secondary to the dialogue trees. This more disco elysium like approach to gameplay just fits west of loathing much better. The ending of this dlc also rewards you for participating in all the optional content with a gratifying death for the surprise villain. I can only hope shadow of loathing takes the right lessons from this DLC.

As an extra note, the soundtrack is top notch for the DLC far surpassing the base game.

My expectations were very low for this game. I saw a steam review describe it as a new Vegas sequel. And I like that take. The writing is shockingly sharp and funny. I took Doc Alice as my partner and her deep sadness and passion to kill off the necromancer really carried the game. The main plot not so much. As funny as the spitoons are, I wish more parts of the actual main plot got the level of dialogue that the demon circus and ghost bureaucrat town got.

The combat was lame. I spammed the same beanslinger moves the whole game.

Being able to watch the final cutscene early was lame. I really didn’t think the theater would actually show you the final cutscene. The game could’ve stood to have a more final way to end it.

Pros:
- it’s a sequel to breath of the wild
- ultra hand is amazing
Cons:
- it’s a sequel to breath of the wild
- the story is rather drab

Ultra hand was a blast the whole game. I loved the ways it increased my interaction with the game world. From the start of just helping keep signs up, to the end where I was crafting fantastical vehicles, ultra hand carries this game. The story is just an overall disappointment and worse than breath of the wild, which already had a weak story. The plot starts off promising and never really goes anywhere. The tarrey town quests about sending off Hudson’s daughter is the most interesting plot followed by the Hateno mayor quest line. I rolled my eyes when Zelda came back unharmed and link got his arm back. At the least the plot had the teeth to pose that A Zelda effectively died and B link lost his arm. But they had to walk it back last second.

For better or worse, this is a breath of the wild sequel. The things I would’ve preferred not come back like koroks and boring side quests came back. Seeing how the world had developed since BOTW was a treat though. The game ultimately disappointed me in its final hours. I was disappointed to find that the game has a similar grind at the end like breath of the wild. I grew tired of breath of the wild by the end. Going to fight ganon felt like releasing myself from being stuck playing the game as opposed to a triumphant end. It was the same here. I did all the main quests. I did all the shrines. I did all the wells. I looked at how much I had left to do to 100% the game and called it quits. I understand Nintendo’s aim to have a giant playground where every player has their own experiences. But it doesn’t work for me as well as something like a Bethesda or even Ubisoft style take on 100%. With Bethesda games it never feels like you’re working towards a percentage counter. With Ubisoft style games at least the percentage counter is reasonable to complete (at least their older games). With botw like games, it just becomes a drag.

I’m not sure what I expected from hopoo here. I’ve always been interested in checking out their single non risk of rain game. Overall it was good. The music was sick as always. The gameplay was decent. Having to aim to shoot was tedious. The game boiled down to save scumming most areas until done. For the most part it was well balanced. There should’ve been more gimmicks introduced throughout. It’s nice to see a non rogue like from this team. I’d be interested to see a sequel to this or something else from the team rather than another risk of rain title. I was not a fan of the story for the most part. It tackled rather serious topics without much respect. The zombies and vampires seem to be manipulated by the skeletons and devils yet we ruthlessly murder them until the end even during the credits! The cassette tapes are all fairly gruesome and paint a picture of drug addiction for these groups yet we see no remorse taken. I also find the very brief mention of suicide not particularly tasteful. The Skelton group is essentially made up of humans who committed suicide. This doesn’t add to the plot in anyway nor is it really touched upon outside of a single mention. It’s really respectful of hopoo to put a trigger warning for this topic being in the game. However if they were aware of the need for such a warning yet didn’t really make use of the topic why include it? Nevertheless deadbolt is a fun time and only should take a skilled player a few hours or a less skilled one 10. I played a third of this game on my steam deck and mostly regret it. This game needs a keyboard and mouse.

I tried to play this campaign and it crashed on me halfway through during the mission where Soap is disarmed and left for dead. I really wanted to enjoy this campaign. It had a lot of cool moments especially the Uncharted like caravan level. But the constant crashing turned me off. The multiplayer is alright. I just don't fully get into those these days. Also the Call of Duty marvel style intro added post launch is the stupidest thing ever. Ultimately what I played of the campaign, I really enjoyed.

This game kinda sucks? It’s more of an art piece than anything. I adore the art style. I played the game on a steam deck docked at 1080p upscaled from a much lower res using FSR. It still looked stunning. The Giger inspired style truly shines for the entire journey. But what exactly was the journey? This game was ultimately 5 mazes with four or so puzzles and a bad boss fight. The enemy designs are awesome. The combat not so much. There’s this strange incessant desire by the devs to have call of duty-esque animations accompanying rather mediocre combat. If this was a SOMA style game with no combat and simply avoiding the monsters, it would’ve been better. Heck even point and click would’ve been better gameplay wise. The ending is also rather mediocre, but this was much more of a journey through a foreign world as opposed to a thrilling story. I cannot wait to see what this dev team does next. In a world of battle royales and completely broken $70 shooters, scorn is a breath of fresh air and one of my favorite experiences of 2022.

Other than the two stealth missions with Price this wasn’t a particularly interesting campaign for Call Of Duty. The story was boring. The twist with Hadir and lack of commitment to said twist was lame. There were a shocking number of hide from the turret sections for such a short story mode as well. I never played the multiplayer so no comments there. I think it’s sad how hard it is to actually play the story mode now because the game is buried underneath all the battle royale stuff from warzone. The original Modern Warfare trilogy was filled with amazing Uncharted-like set pieces. I was expecting that here, but it’s clear the new series has more stealth set pieces instead. Why they even bothered to include a lackluster bombastic mission at the end was strange then. Farah was a neat addition to the main cast.