...did we all play the same game?

'cause generic soundtrack aside, i don't even need to hesitate - this is superior to quake ii in just about every way. sure, there's no rocket jumping, but that hardly matters in a corridor shooter; what's important is gunplay and Q2 wishes it had weapons half as good as these. the shotgun? nailgun? the fucking bfg that shoots black holes? get the hell out of town and don't let me see you here again

...that praise being said, i'll be damned if it doesn't put its shakiest leg first

unlike quake ii, the start here isn't slow because of its shooting - that feels fantastic from the get go - instead it's the aggressively invasive 'story' that's constantly trying to pull you from the action. let me shoot. the fucking. aliens! that's all i wanna do, man!!

"nah nah - i hear you", calls tim willits, newly appointed president of the Carmack Fan Club, "here, you can shoot again - in a turret section! and after that, ohoho, mission briefing!! and then - two more vehicle segments!!!"

with one swift motion i knock that shit out of his fucking hands. then i scream, "I JUST WANT TO SHOOT THE STROGG WITH MY SHOTGUN. THAT'S LITERALLY ALL I WANT TO DO. I DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR SET PIECES (besides the mech one - that was pretty cool) OR YOUR SPACE MARINE STORY - I DON'T EVEN CARE THAT I COULD PERSONALLY WALK FASTER THAN MY CHARACTER WITH WEIGHTS STRAPPED TO MY LEGS. THE GUNS FEEL GOOD, TIM. PLEASE JUST LET ME USE THE FUCKING GUNS!!!!"

i think he took that bit about space marines harshly given the events that transpired shortly after, but all of my prayers had been answered nonetheless! no longer was i walking back and forth through areas i'd already visited just to report to some dumbass military man that the elevator got unjammed or steve blum #3 successfully completed filing his tax returns; i was actually playing the game - uninterrupted

when quake 4 gets its shit fully together after the first 1/3 or so, it shifts from stop-and-go into maximum overdrive. there's zero bad weapons, enemy types continue to vary enough (not to mention there's actually a couple decent bosses - a rarity for shooters) and ironically even the mission objectives become significantly more engaging when they're things you're doing and not just details off sgt. pvt. blum's shopping list

environments start looking a lot cooler too. Q2 toyed with body horror in small doses, but ravensoft went all-in here. call me simple, edgy, whatever - i think giant entrails breaching through space corridors and limbless (but still alive and wiggling) bodies being used as power supplies are pretty fucking rad. say what you will about id tech 4 - doom 3 looks fantastic and this is no different. hands down the most underrated shooter engine

misguided start aside, this is the best fps (barring quake 1, obviously) that i've played in a considerably long time. can't wait to receive matthew kane's next orders in quake 5!

wait fuck

I had no sword at all for two and a half hours.

I eventually found Biggoron's Sword on sale for 15 Rupees in the Goron City shop as Adult Link. However, as an incredibly frustrated young Alex learned in 1999, you cannot defeat Ganon in Ocarina of Time with the Biggoron Sword. In order to finish the game, the final blow must come from the Master Sword.

During my first playthrough of this (or any) randomizer, the Master Sword was the very last item that I found. This is what it took for me to find it:

• Both the Master Sword and the Kokiri Sword were in the Fire Temple in optional chests, with the Master Sword's chest requiring the Scarecrow Song to reach it. But I couldn't get to either of those without access to the Megaton Hammer, as the room to the left where you encounter Darunia had no keys in it. (The key to the door on the right side of the entry hall turned out to be in the Boss Key chest)

• The Hammer was in the Gerudo Training Grounds, so I was ultimately gated by my lack of Hover Boots.

• The Hover Boots were in Jabu-Jabu's belly, in place of the Zora's Sapphire. But I couldn't complete that section without the Boomerang.

• The Boomerang was in the moat in place of the Ocarina of Time, but I needed the 3 Spiritual Stones before Zelda would chuck it in there.

• The Kokiri Emerald was in one of the Gibdo coffins in the Bottom of the Well, so I needed the Lens of Truth to discover that.

• And the Lens of Truth was sold by a Business Scrub in Dodongo's Cavern. I got a good deal though, it was only 10 rupees.

Obviously, I had no idea where the Master Sword would be, so this wasn't a plan or a list of instructions I followed, it's just how things shook out. And I had a great time! I used Ship of Harkinian's randomizer, and there are some fantastic options that made the constant back-and-forth scouring of Hyrule more feasible. The most useful ones were unbreakable Deku Sticks (absolutely critical since I didn't find a sword for a while), changing Link's age with the Song of Time, Bunny Hood increasing speed like in Majora's Mask, and ageless items (allowing Young Link to use the Hookshot, for example). I was incredibly impressed with Ship of Harkinian though, and will definitely put more playthroughs into that, randomized or not.

Damn this game could have been so much more. Just like Ryse: Son of Rome, from a graphical standpoint, the game looks amazing, better than most games today.
The Order: 1886 is set in an alternative Victorian 1886 with retro-futuristic steampunk atmosphere and fantasy/horror elements like Werewolves, Lycans and Vampires.
The story was good, i liked the Knights of the round table stuff and i liked Sir Galahad. The gameplay was also good, i liked the shooting and the futuristic weapons. Overall, the game geels great and the story does its job, I dont have many bad things to talk about The Order but... why the hell is it so short? It takes like 6 hours to finish it and that's not enough for this kind of game with such a good potential, also they charged a lot for this one, the price was unjustified and wasn't worth it.
Maybe if there was a sequel, I would overlook the length of the game and it wouldn't be a problem anymore, but i wanted to see more of The Order. Its a shame really.
This is one of the games that had potential but it was never fulfilled. I would sacrifice franchises like idk Horizon or a new Uncharted for a new The Order but that's just me:))) i find The Order more interesting, more of 'my cup of tea'.

v weird and jarring seeing this game actively fight against itself every minute of its playtime. it’s trying to appeal to fans of action games of the early 2010s while also trying to make sure classic sh (silent hill AND survival horror) fans still fuck w it. third person standard fare controllable camera that occasionally switched to fixed camera angles + classic sh item pick up noise that sounds strange coming from this game. and that works well enough for me tbh. can’t lie I did play the majority of this w v low audio on bc what I did gleam from the story was insanely boring not to mention its depictions of black/hispanic/native american peoples is like uhhh iffy and stereotypical. so I didn’t bother w the side quests bc why are there side quests in a survivalhorror game + if that’s the writing they’re leading w and isn’t optional I can’t imagine the writing for the optional side quests is at all good. rlly rlly cool and beautiful and very creative set pieces and how the game fucks w ur perspective idk I rlly do like this game visually.

idk good silent hill is like a rlly good horror movie and downpour is like a fun but shoddily/hurriedly made haunted house. it’s a vague impression and idea of sh and that’s good enough w me lol idk though ill prob rlly like the sh2 remake so yknow w/e

why did I spend sixty dollars on a kind of mid ancient game that sat below my tv for like six months

Love Will Tear Us Apart, again

No More Heroes III is a very strange game. It's more No More Heroes people long yearned and waited for. What? Was it 11 years since No More Heroes 2? Do not try to look it that way, rather it was just 3 years after Travis Strikes Back in case you are really into Grasshopper and Suda51. This is not an easy game to talk about, at least for me as I have very conflicting feelings towards it.

It takes the best aspects of No More Heroes, with the overall improvements found in No More Heroes 2 combat and the Death Glove's abilities added from Travis Strikes Back. So, this is for me the most fun combat No More Heroes ever had and probably one of the core aspects the team at Grasshopper focused on during it's development. It is really fun on a fundamental level, never gets old on sequential playthroughs or any combat sequence that is. But this is just the combat, aspects such as the open world and the mini-game do not hold much of the importance as they once had in the first game. It is sparse, messy, unorganized but the open world is somehow still beautiful underneath it's ugly appereance. As while it doesn't convey exactly what it wants to communicate, it's clumsiness and overall silly, empty yet full of personallity appereance makes it seem like an honest to heart attempt at making an open world. Ambition when the budget is not high, in a console that isn't particulary made to handle a load this heavy. A recipe for disaster that to some extent was fixed in the prior home-console release.

As a tradition in Grasshopper titles, the presentation is as distinctive as it is very in line with Grasshopper. It is bold, rash but most importantly confident of itself and knows were to go regardless what throws at you. It is not afraid to surprise you, nor afraid to show it's true intentions. There is passion plastered all around it. To me, this is a direct contrast to Grasshopper's "Dark Age" as while their signature style was still there, it was afraid to be seen, didn't hold enough meaning or was totally turned down in favor of cohesion with the base game visuals. No More Heroes III embraces it's wacky but endearing presentation with open arms and runs with it, as far as possible without looking back.

As far as the story goes, it's a direct contrast to Travis Strikes Back seemingly confined but personal adventure. This time is an over the top alien invasion over not just Santa Destroy but the world itself. Sets the tone perfectly, and doesn't get much deeper than that. As usual in Grasshoppers work, there are undertones that don't get explored directly but are hidden and left for interpretation. And this is exactly why I love talking about Grasshopper titles so much. It is not without it's flaws though, or rather bits that seem unfinished or aren't fleshed out for the most part. Things that flat out doesn't get explained and appear out of thin air, expecting you to care or have previous knowledge of it. Midori, Kamui, Blackhole, Bishop's brother know Travis, but he doesn't know any of them. So it comes out a bit akward, extending some of that fanservice Travis Strikes Back lefts us. It's like being in a party up late at night, most people left but you are left with a couple of strangers and old friends to share drinks with. What is important is the narrative that unfolds all the way to the end, and there is a lot to unpack there just as No More Heroes did back then. In No More Heroes the rank, and the assasins were and work around Travis arrival. It was the sign of his future, or what he could be in that world of assasins but in No More Heroes III everything works for FU, as everything centers around him. See the contrast? FU is number one on his very own rank on a contest he suddenly came up with while invading earth. FU is Travis if he never had fight to make it to the top, because he was aready up there from the beginning. The assasins bend their knee to FU for different reasons that get explored as the story goes on. In fact, Travis goes for FU not only becuase he's annoying but as an act of revenge. It is close enough of what No More Heroes 2 did back in the day. Simple, but it works at the end of the day. Travis Strikes Back already stablished "most" of the principals that would mold No More Heroes III story, go play it if you haven't.

Suda51 and the No More Heroes series go a long way, and the games made him more known here in the west. It was this sucess that leaded into giving this franchise a try once again with No More Heroes 2, and serve his reflection in Travis Strikes Back. No More Heroes is Suda51's son or the embodiment of everything he likes mashed into one product. This is the end of the series, one that was never meant to be more than a one-off job but ultimately grow bigger as we know now. And it is strange because every single game from this franchise feels different from each other with something that makes them unique and standout from each other and don't pile up as "This, but better" as most franchise tend to do. III's wacky ending doesn't tell me that this is specifically the end, but the start of something different. A new era of sorts. It's like sending your kid to college on another city far off were you live from, making sure as a father that everything would be ok before his eventual departure. Over the top, as high as it can be to make sure all of what the team wanted is fullfiled as ridiculous as it might sound.

Go out with a bang!