Top down two player sports title that is an update of the 94' Neo Geo classic, this sequel adding new characters, stage options, and gameplay mechanics. Each player takes one half of a court and must throw a frisbee into their opponents goals or cause them to miss a dropped shot on their side. Points can be earned from one to eight based on the arena and scoring location and most matches are played with the winner needing to win two sets and a set being won at 15 points.

Fun, fast paced, and good looking game with more strategy than you might originally think. You can rotate your movement stick to curve your throws, jump to slam down shots, perform drop shots, flip the frisbee up to allow for charged shots if you hit the throw button right before you would have caught it, do a melee like attack to hit the frisbee back quickly, and you can perform quick short range dashes. When the frisbee is up in the air getting under it allows you to charge up shots with the effects being different for each character or you can perform a charged drop shot that lands the frisbee on its side quickly propelling it forward to the goal. Frisbees bounce of the arena's walls and as you throw you build up a meter for a super shot that can be used offensively or defensively as using it when you aren't shooting can cause the frisbee to bounce up into the air saving you from missing opponents shots.

You have 11 characters to choose from with each having a different amount of speed and power and each with their own special charged throws. 10 different stages are available with each having a different look, zones worth different amounts of points, size, or possibly obstacles in the center that can give your frisbee more to bounce off of gives you more options for more interesting matches.

The only problems are that there really isn't much to the arcade mode, you are just playing one on one vs the computer or one on one vs friends or online opponents. There's no team games, story mode with a plot or interesting mechanics, there is a tutorial you can read that does a poor job getting you ready to play the game, and the only modifiers are just changing the number of sets to win or the number of points to win a set.

What is there is well worth it if you have friends to play with or a desire to play online.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1485032477315907585
Online Matches: https://youtu.be/EaInjfnCXD4

I can't believe it's taken this long for Western AAA to learn what a time loop is. Majora's Mask came out in 2000. Moon was 1997. Fuck, Groundhog Day was 1993!

I'm glad the eventual result was turned out so well, though. Deathloop is so smart in so many ways. The interweaving of cause and effect, setting up dominoes and watching them fall, that forms the core of the main plot is as meticulously precise as one would hope. (To be honest, if you can't execute on that well you have no business making a time loop game in the first place.)

Even more impressive is the way it exists in dialog with modern game conventions: it has DNA from roguelikes, soulslikes, shooters, and of course Arkane's hallmark immersive sims (which feel almost like practice runs for this game). Plenty of games throw in the latest trendy mechanic, but what sets Deathloop apart is how integral they all feel--again, how smartly the game takes exactly what it needs from each genre and fits it into an incredibly cohesive whole.

Rented this one from Gamefly thinking I would just mess around with it a bit and send it back. Ended up buying it because it is actually a really good game.

The setting is neat, I'm all for Greek mythology, and I really like that the story is presented in a humorous way, which is something I didn't realize before I started playing. I expected something super serious and I was pleasantly surprised. The humor is a little off at times, but it kind of reminded me of Fable, or at least what I remember of Fable (it has been quite a while since I've played those games).

It is, of course, similar to Breath of the Wild, and as a fan of botw, I think I prefer this one. It felt like there was more to do in Fenyx Rising, and that could be because the map was a little smaller and the activities were less spread out. Everywhere I looked, there was something to do. The puzzles and vaults of tartaros (which are the equivalent of botw's shrines) were fun and satisfying to complete. The collectibles were fun to... collect. I liked the combat which was made more fun through upgrades which also made me feel more powerful. There are a decent amount of weapons and armor to find and upgrade.

The story ended up being interesting. The platinum was fun to earn. I'm looking forward to playing a NG+ on a harder difficulty.

I decided to go play Haven on Game Pass after how much fun I had with Furi. Unfortunately, it looks like The Game Bakers completely forgot how to make a fun game and did practically everything that was the opposite of their previous work.

The controls are kind of bad. The main characters walk at basically a crawl, but when you accelerate/dash, you actually go so fast that it's super hard to turn and at times control your distance. This leads to a classic case of "I want to travel to this place in my immediate vicinity, but if I dash, then I'll probably overshoot, and if I walk, it'll take an eternity and a half". They do have drifting (and make sure to really shove it in your face in case you try and play the game like old school Superman 64) but even the drifting felt imprecise at times to me, and this did lead to quite a few cases of falling off cliffs or off of strings that I needed to trace to get to higher locations. And speaking of which, did I mention it's super easy to fall out cliffs and strings, and if you do, you have to backtrack all the way back up to the location of the strings to get back up those higher ledges that are only accessible via strings because they decided not to include a simple jump function for smaller ledges?

Now the part that actually ruined Haven for me was the combat. For first half of the game, the combat was inoffensive. Nothing special, but it wasn't so blatantly bad as to aggravate me. Around the end stretch of the game however, the combat's flaws start really exposing themselves. Firstly, you can't manually target enemies; it's all auto-aim. During the early game, this isn't an issue since the enemies will melt quickly enough, but near the end, when you have to deal with multiple enemies that can block certain types of attacks (or are only vulnerable after their attacks, requiring timing), autoaim will invalidate so many of your attacks. Also, near the end of the game, there are quite a few enemies that focus on healing themselves/others or summoning infinite other enemies for you to deal with. Sure would be nice to single those enemies out so I don't have to deal with their effects but nope, auto-aim makes sure I deal with the cronies first.

Combat essentially devolves into a battle of attrition; you have to kill the enemy before it kills you. This happens because:

1. There is no way to prevent damage altogether via dodging and most fights (even many fights where you start with an advantage) will last long enough to where you have to take damage regardless. You can only mitigate damage, and mitigation of damage usually takes away from offense that could be used to finish the fight faster.

2. You can't manually aim as mentioned above, so enemies that infinitely spawn other enemies or heal turn fights into absolute slogs.

Now, this actually wouldn't have been such a big deal if healing were easier. But the best healing items (food and dedicated medicine) can't be used in the field or in battle. Nope, you can only use heal capsules that heal 80 HP in the field and in battle. So as a result, since almost every successful battle will require you to take some form of damage, you will need to heal. A lot. And since the most efficient way of healing is via campsites and going back to the nest, you will be backtracking and/or using up tons of food (for fast travel) to make this happen. A lot. Or you could just try and use the 80 HP capsules, but those have a max held cap of 5 and also require rust that could be used for repairs and offensive capsules, not to mention you can only build those at the Nest, so you will be wasting resources and backtracking anyways. A lot. Oh, and did I mention that every section in the overworld has its own loading zone? You'll often have to go back several zones just to get to a camping site or a fast travel site, so get used to seeing that loading screen. A lot.

Other things I want to nitpick that really annoyed me:

1. You can easily exploit the XP/leveling/relationship system for boosts by eating something, going to sleep, and then eating something as soon as you wake up at the Nest to level up really quickly. So in my case, I was maxed out 2/3rds of the way into the game. Eating food and viewing events gives way, way, more XP than any amount of combat in the same span of time. And once you cap out your level, you obviously don't gain any more XP, so there's even less incentive to engage in combat; the only incentives you get are Rust (which are very easy to obtain in the overworld) and making sure the aggressive enemy isn't present on the overworld. Except...

2. You're often encouraged to use your field burst to knock down enemies in range, and this stops them from aggroing on you and engaging you in combat. The only problem is, this stops them from engaging you in combat altogether; you can't walk up to the knocked up enemy and start the battle with an advantage, like how every other RPG does it. So you either have to move on and deal with the enemy again when traversing that part of the overworld, or you have to wait for the enemy to get up and then approach it from behind to gain an advantage state just so you can wipe it from the map. How did the game developers mess this up?

3. Oh yeah, did I mention you can't run away from battles? So not only is there very little incentive to engage in combat (since it uses up precious resources that require backtracking to replenish, you gain little XP anyways and even that is invalidated once you hit max level, and you only gain Rust for most general fights), you can't even run away from fights if you accidentally get involved. You might be here for a while.

4. Some of the fights include fighting against robots that can bind one of your guys so they can't do anything, and then you have to spend your time with your other guy unbinding your friend and taking more damage. This is especially annoying because the robots can only be permanently disabled when you have a duo overload... which can get suddenly interrupted by asshole AI that choose to bind one of your guys, and then the robot gets up and proceeds to heal. Oh, and during one of the fights, the robots have attacks that can knock one of your guys out of the screen, so you have to waste time waiting for your guy to return to the screen while your combo attack/disable was interrupted. Yeah, it's not a good time.

5. This could have just been a bug with the specific version I played, but there were a ton of instances where after my action was fully loaded from holding down the button, the action would fail to materialize. So not only did I fail the action, I wasted time trying to materialize the action. It speaks volumes that somehow the bug wasn't even the part that annoyed me the most.

A lot of people have written about how the dialogue was extremely stilted and strange, but honestly, I thought most of it was fine. Not incredible, moving dialogue like I've encountered in other games, but for the most part, it held up just fine. I especially resonated with some of the daily life interactions and events I got at the Nest as part of the experience and bonding gain. Don't get me wrong, I can see why people could be turned off by the dialogue since a ton of the dialogue focuses on their love for one another and tends to touch upon very little else found in relationships, but the dialogue was definitely not the weakest part of the game. The narrative was just okay though, I didn't experience much of an emotional reaction from the ending or from most of the characters' struggles.

At least the game is aesthetically pleasing and has a pleasant soundtrack from Danger. The main characters are fine too, I didn't really mind them much. Unfortunately, everything else is so much worse than Furi, especially the combat. I really hope The Game Bakers take the feedback from Haven seriously, because I could definitely see the potential from the game's ideas. But the execution was extremely sloppy and in fact very anti-fun, and at times I felt that there was a significant lack of focus from what they were trying to create. All in all, one of the most disappointing experiences I've had after one of the most pleasantly surprising experiences I've had.

I played most of it earlier this year. And I mean I was close to the end and I don't think I'll return to it

This game has a fascinating story with incredible concepts taken from basically every sci-fi story ever written. But the character story structure mixed with the destruction sections that gate your story progression make the pacing a terrible slog. I'm sorry, I think I'd try to finish this game if it wasn't structured like this, or if the destruction sections were just gone because they're really fucking bad even on easy.

I give it a positive score because I genuinely like what the story was doing, I don't dislike this game, far from it but those things I mentioned make it really hard to get the motivation to actually play it. Also the artstyle is impeccable.

PSN: ArcherAguilar

Platinum #42 Hades (PS5)

Completion time: Completion time: 6 days, 4 hours, 11mins (WITHOUT God Mode, because of my Gamer pride 😅)
Difficulty: 7/10 (imo lang kasi I already had a lot of practice on the PC and NSwitch)
Grind: 10/10 (better pray to RNGesus for this hahah also there's a trophy that requires you to max out all keepsakes and that roughly equates to 1875 encounters)
Fun: 💯🔥🔥🔥

Halata ba masyado yung love ko para sa game na ito? Hahahah my 2020 GOTY pick kaya I had no problems replaying this for the 3rd time even though I already have 200+ clears on the Nswitch version (I supplied my screenshot along with my Plat screenshot if that's alright with the group po).

Now to review the game, for me the trophy list is very accessible. Medge ma grind lang pero ang saya naman every run so it doesn't feel like a chore. For example in game you can add more difficulty through the "Heat" in the Pact of Punishment to make your runs more challenging. It can vary from more expensive Charon wares, more life for the enemy or less life for you etc. In game there's a reward for a 32 Heat clear but as for the trophies you only need to accomplish a 16 Heat run. This reminds me of trophies like in R&C Rift Apart that you only need to get 5 gold bolts instead of the total 25. But don't get me wrong, 16 heat is still brutal and it's nothing to scoff at. Also something to note is that the game can be easier with God Mode, since it doesn't affect trophy progress. I personally didn't use God Mode but no to God Mode shaming! You do youuuu, with that said go try out this wonderful game ❤

I have a very minor complaint though that is in no way the dev's fault but the PS5 controller hurts hahaha. I'm a girl and I have tiny hands so that's probably why. On the Switch Lite I was able to do my 32 heat run but on the PS5 I super struggled with it.

Now for my closing remarks (luh ano yan speech???), joke lang. Last na promise. When I first tried out Hades tbh rogue like games aren't really my cup of tea but damn this game is so gorgeous, addictive, and fun. Also it doesn't hurt that I'm a huge fan of Greek Mythology 😆🤷‍♀️
Separate ba trophy list ng Hades ps4 and ps5? Pwede ba istack? kasi lalaruin ko ulit HAHAHAHA dapat pala inuna ko ps4 para ma check kung auto pop yung trophies 😅
Happy Gaming everyone! Sabi nga ni Zagreus: No escape.

TL;DR:
a solid foundation that could have been fleshed out just a little more.

the lack of story, world building, and a deeper pool of visually distinct assets prevents me from feeling too strongly about this game. at the same time, it is innovative and meaty with satisfyingly designed dungeon layouts and monster interaction.

good 1 - an emphasis on boss fights and strategy for them. invulnerability phases, rage phases, add phases, narrow attack windows, damage type skews, really quite a large array of focus and none of it coming off gimmicky. more, they fully broadcast to you ahead of time what the party level average / boss kill turn number will net you a S rank. i think this is really refreshing. it presents a gentle alternative to the super bosses that you would find in a Dungeon Travelers game, which tend to be strongly bottle-necked by grind and gear. that said, i didn't have that hard of a time getting S rank on every boss.

good 2 - there are level caps and you determine when to level and de-level a character. leveling a character does not take long, and i rarely went over 1.5 hrs of dedicated grinding in a single dungeon. levels determine general stats as well as what skills you have access to. early on this limitations will cause you to potentially skew your levels towards one character just to access their skills for a boss fight.
independent to character levels are skill point accumulation and gear upgrades. every piece of a gear has an EXP bar and will automatically upgrade itself until it reaches that levels max rank. skill points are not capped in any form and will be slowly accrued over the course of the game. all this means that even if you are fiddling with the limitations in pursuit of the S rank evaluation, you can still be progressing in other ways.

good 3 - classes feel more individualized and interesting than they did in Undernauts. instead of subclasses you have alt classes that you can freely swap between. 'order' is focused strongly on the class (black mage for example) whereas the 'chaos' variant can pull from a variety of class skills (support mage w/hunter skills etc). inside of a dungeon you can freely respec your characters skill points and swap between these alt classes. however, you can only change profession back at base.
as much as i like the former freedom, i think you might as well go all the way and let us become FF14. allow me to have every hero be able to freely swap between every class, with gear load-outs saved and loaded in. if this were the case, they could focus even harder on the strategy side of things when it comes to boss fights.

good 4 - an interesting hedge on 'blind' dungeoning. every dungeon you start out in you don't have a map to. the map can be found eventually, or you can wuss out and permanently change to a mode where the map is always accessible. i personally used a third party program to map things out but at the end of the day i don't think it was necessary and probably would have been more fun without (i was expecting Dungeon Travelers-tier depravity).

good 5 - all the amenities of modern crawler: fast menuing, cursor memory, repeat inputs, auto-map movement that lets you quicksnap to exits and move across multiple floors and even through teleporters.

good 6 - delightful art style and animations. it's always pleasant to look at (even if i would have liked more monster variety)

medium 1 - as the game gets later the pool of available items expands making it more difficult to find relevant gear for your characters. i think this is where they could have benefited from the gem system that Demon Gaze uses, allowing you to specify what item bases will drop on the encounter to narrow your selections. but, at the same time you can stick with a lower tier piece of gear long enough it will have upgraded to the point that it is basically on par with stuff you are finding anyway.

medium 2 - dungeon hazards are underplayed to accommodate this emphasis on FOE movement and blindness. traditionally there are warping puzzles, one way doors, conveyor movement, spell restricted zones switch puzzles etc. by the end of the game i think i miss these qualities but at the same time the blind dungeon exploration was wholly unique that it almost balances out.

medium 3 - some text input puzzles, but they are very simple and just involve referencing documents you pick up.

flaw 1 - the dungeon biomes are not visually distinct enough. walls and tiles are essentially repainted or given a very slight flourish, and instead they opt for things like global tint or adding haze or lowering field of vision to change the mood, but Undernauts was much better in this regard.

flaw 2 - story and world-building is significantly weaker compared to Undernauts. there's a mimic you can talk to in every dungeon and a couple people in town you can chat up but there isn't much in the way of story here.
this could be a medium though since i think this appeals to the EO crowd who prefers games light on story but strong in every other area.

flaw 3 - a title this long with this kind of aesthetic evokes a plethora of off-the-wall comedy or rom/com animes that this game is very much not. and while the title an serve as a friendly reminder of how to approach playing the game, it is not emphasized of made meaningful by means of the game itself.
you boot up the game, and a mature female voice very patiently says the entire thing. it is not hammed up or made absurd. it is simply a few lines of dialogue that are said to you at one point early on.
ultimately, i'm not sure what their goal was with this title other than generating media buzz and i think this will only serve to cheapen its value over time.

I first played the Mass Effect trilogy when I was 14 years old and it changed my little life. It was the first time I got to witness gay romance on an epic scale. It was responsible for a lot of the early friendships I made as a kid and in a lot of ways, it helped me survive an abusive household.

I’ve revisited the trilogy many times since first completing it, designing all kinds of Shepards tailor made for certain decisions. The last time I properly revisited it and played through the entire trilogy was the summer of 2015; I was fresh out of my abusive home and going into my senior year. Appropriate that the remaster would release the year I’m moving into my first apartment under my own name and living alone for the first time. Major life changes and this series always seem to come hand in hand.

Despite all the bitterness I still feel for the ending and the bungling of Andromeda, my love for this series remains. There’s a magic to it, a magic that’s propelled me to pour thousands of hours into it and shed countless of tears. Nothing I’ve ever played has come close to capturing the love this series has running through it’s veins. Even now, as an adult, and after 6 weeks and 135 hours, I’m still just as in love with it as I was when I first finished it all those years ago.

There’s nothing I can even say, really, that hasn’t already been said. Mass Effect is just an impecable series and one that will follow me all my life. I’m so grateful to get to experience every bit of it again, to discover parts of the game I somehow hadn’t seen, and to share it with people who otherwise would’ve have been able to experience it.

It’s been a great ride.

I played this game for 4 levels for free and I feel ripped off.

Still more time spent playing than the play testers did I gues because WOW was this a buggy, boring, monotonous experience with friends.

And when you're ALONE its an absolutely punishing, poorly balanced mess with subzero enjoyment to be had.

How we got a game this year worse than Balan Wonderworld will always allude me, but at least you don't have to waste $60 on it if you have game pass and either an Xbox or a decent pc.