A sad part of getting old is realizing how much of a shallow money-suck arcade games were - especially beat 'em ups of this ilk. It's so cheap and at the same time so easily brute-forced if you just spend enough money (or press select enough times on MAME) that it just reminds you arcades were just casinos for kids to a certain point.

Not that these games don't still deserve reverence in their own way, obviously. The art here is cool and that end credits song?! My god. Incredible. But yeah, gameplay wise it's extremely basic and frustrating.

As a filthy casual who isn't very good at fighting games, I loved Tekken 8. It looks, sounds, and FEELS tremendous. Easy to pick up, tough to master, with plenty of tools to help you get there, and a bevy of weird and wonderful characters to mess around with.

The suite of single player modes for casuals like me is really impressive. Arcade Quest is a solid tutorial, and Character Stories streamline the arcade mode and allow you to quickly see those great, great, great endings. Unfortunately, I found the main MK-style story mode to be pretty tortuous. Lots of boring yapping with uninteresting characters. These stories are better conveyed in the stylized, often quite short arcade endings - stretching them out with a full story mode didn't help them, and you're often listening to minutes upon minutes of waffling before you get to a single fight, which is quickly followed by more waffle.

[Steam Deck notes: temper your expectations, set it at approx 50% internal resolution, and you can have a great time]

A wonderful, accessible but still challenging Soulslike.

The love this team has for the source material (for lack of a better term) is evident not only in the combat but the world building. It has a charming, Disney-ish presentation that will definitely entice younger players - but it still has that sense of exploration, wonder, fear, and spectacle that is From's hallmark. Their climate-doom story gives the story a grim, at times nihilistic edge -- there's really creative character designs featuring oceanlife twisted and mutated by plastics that feels like a Pixar spin on a corrupted, rotting former king in Elden Ring or Bloodborne.

A few rough edges here or there can frustrated; I clipped through the world (or was attacked my something that has clipped through the world) more than a few times, but it didn't dampen the experience too much

They absolutely nailed the visceral, violently satisfying combat - this is the ultimate Wolverine experience in a video game as of this writing in 2024.

This has the pitfalls you would expect; some repetitive levels and sub-bosses, and ho-hum objectives - especially in the first half. But there's a lot of fun set pieces in the second half and overall you can tell they really tried to make this a rip-roaring campaign despite time and money constraints; with mostly great results!

[Steam Deck notes: some hoops need to be jumped through, but once up and running this is an excellent Deck game]

Well, the season one patch killed this game on Steam Deck, so I guess it's time to call it a day!

The positives first; I think this a nice looking game with some genuinely fun traversal and combat. While the characters feel relatively samey, they are nonetheless enjoyable to use. Zipping around with the various traversal methods, sniping, melee'ing - it's all good.

But that's pretty much it.

I don't want to just go for the low hanging fruit and say 'it's bad because live service' because live service games can be awesome. I and many others are loving Helldivers 2 right now. People can try and act like HD2 isn't one of those but I'm not hearing it. The point is that SS:KTJL is just not a very good one these. It's a grindy, boring, repetitive shooter with lame, unremarkable enemies and AI that feels like you've seen everything they have to offer after the first two hours of combat encounters. Despite this game's lengthy road to release, and the polish you see in some areas, the fights are just not dynamic at all and feel very rushed. The core mechanics are fun, but the scenarios you use them in are not, if that makes sense. And to top it all off; you play these endless dry encounters to earn a largely identical gun that does... Fuckin... +2.3% frost damage or whatever. Who could possibly care?

The story takes everything Rocksteady were bad at, like comedy, and focuses on it entirely. I always found Arkham Harley Quinn to be kind of grating, but in the broader context of those Batman games it was fine. And the rest of the writing in those games was pretty neat! In Suicide Squad however, the brooding, gothic vibes are swapped for sub-MCU banter and needle drops. The comedy is wince-inducing and ten years past its sell by date. Two characters doing the 'Im sooooooo crazay' shtick, two doing the dead pan routine. Snore.

I was going to soldier through and see the story to its completion because I was at least interested in the Justice League stuff, but I was already struggling to stay invested and then, as mentioned, the latest patch did something to the games Anti-Cheat that made it unplayable on Steam Deck. A fitting end!

I'm writing this on the eve of the launch of the second round of battle passes for this game - so I suppose we can call this the 'launch window' review for Helldivers 2. I'll probably log another one later this year with more thoughts on it, and weigh in on its post release content.

Anyway; this thing is incredible. One of the most manically fun shooters in years, and a live-service format that would actually make you believe that such a structure could be the future of games.

The chaotic, orbital striking, friendly-firing nature of Helldivers 2's gameplay is super addictive. It certainly seems as though there is a Left 4 Dead style 'director' working behind the curtain of the game - as each round takes familiar elements and makes them feel totally unique. No two games are the same. Each victory feels hard fought, each defeat is... well, usually hilarious. The options at your disposal, even now before they roll out more, are all really exciting. You can play a number of different ways, and despite some players griping about metas, there is plenty of valid approaches and a bundle of weapons to experiment with.

The tug-of-war world map that updates daily is such a clever implementation of the live service format; it really makes the game feel reactive and gives the community a sense of cohesion. People despair at lost territory, and celebrate when updates like fuckin' MECH WALKERS! are earned by liberating planets in the game.

On top of all that; it's a wonderful AAA-type presentation for a $40USD game. Fire, water, fog, smoke, spark effects are beautifully rendered and create a cinematic vibe, while the music is quite underrated amidst all the praise the game is getting.

The only thing holding it back right now is the server issues. It was understandable at launch; this game took even the devs by surprise. But even after things were 'fixed,' issues have persisted - especially around events like the launching of mechs, as players rabidly jump online at once to test things out. Again; its a game that has way over-achieved, and they're doing their best to deal with it. But I can't say that there hasn't been a decent share of frustration.