SoupPlate
2024
Fairly repetitive (if extremely satisfying) gunplay kept fresh with a very exciting, engaging approach to live service gaming that resembles a 500k man RPG session. The story-related slow drip of content with story arcs and community engagement is the real winner here
2011
Shame manifests in many ways, but inside of a rotting GiS shell is an ARPG that takes actual skill to play amen
2019
One of like the 10 games ever thats actually written well and also uses the medium as part of the storytelling. When my complaints boil down to actually interesting quibbles with narrative signposting or whatever we’re in rare air
2023
The well runs dry a little fast to be much more generous than this, but just hilarious in a surprising way
Another character in the books and honestly you just don’t get a core this good in other MMOs even with the idiotic amounts of bloat. It’s the most diverse and interesting character customization/build system to see the light of day ever, you just need someone to help sift through the 20 years of stuff that probably shouldn’t exist anymore
2016
Replayed after 5 years and now having played the rest of the souls lineup. The highs in boss design and gameplay feel are quite high, but frankly it’s just the least interesting world From has shipped a game with in the modern era. The most interesting area is tucked away in the DLC, but the hub and connectivity has just never been this mediocre.
It’s a souls game and I love it, but I think it’s just not at the level of the better games in the lineage
It’s a souls game and I love it, but I think it’s just not at the level of the better games in the lineage
2023
The pacing is a little uneven and I’d say its too easy, but ultimately one of the rare RPGs that comes along and is just all gas without all the genre baggage.
The combat system is pretty simple, but a satisfying enough little optimization puzzle that the bosses still felt like I was playing the game and not just hitting A. The Skill progression being milestone based with some branching paths available was really neat, and cutting out grinding entirely for a game that wants you to be in set-pieces was the right choice.
The narrative itself borrows themes from a lot of places, but iterative real themes is still a healthy step ahead of most games writing. The writing is humorous with occasionally brilliant moments, at least enough to not ever make me wish I could skip past it.
To bury and unbury the lede deep in, the game looks absolutely gorgeous and cozy. It’s how I imagined GBA games in my dreams. It brought me back to a different era of my life in some really cozy ways, and the personal attachment is what art is all about
The combat system is pretty simple, but a satisfying enough little optimization puzzle that the bosses still felt like I was playing the game and not just hitting A. The Skill progression being milestone based with some branching paths available was really neat, and cutting out grinding entirely for a game that wants you to be in set-pieces was the right choice.
The narrative itself borrows themes from a lot of places, but iterative real themes is still a healthy step ahead of most games writing. The writing is humorous with occasionally brilliant moments, at least enough to not ever make me wish I could skip past it.
To bury and unbury the lede deep in, the game looks absolutely gorgeous and cozy. It’s how I imagined GBA games in my dreams. It brought me back to a different era of my life in some really cozy ways, and the personal attachment is what art is all about
Ultimately the combat didn’t justify all the bloat, and I had pretty significant technical issues
2023
It really doesn’t vary itself mechanically very much so later stages are just combining previous gimmicks, but a sold (2P) time
2023
Between Halo Infinite and this, Microsoft really needed that Blizzard Activision deal to go through.
2020
Final boss is El Sicko. Otherwise pretty good!
2017
Perhaps one of the lower grades I'll give to a game I finished without much hesitation, but man the wind kinda got taken out of my sails by the end. The combat (interacting with enemies at all, really) was the worst part of the game, and the increased emphasis in the closing hours just felt real bad.
Actually exploring and getting powerups was fun for a while though
Actually exploring and getting powerups was fun for a while though
2016
Fine time killer
Enough quirks and rough edges to not be a revolution for me as a vanilla experience. Still the best elder scrolls
2022
Botched monetization on a fun game