TheBarrylad
2021
Janky, chaotic, unbalanced -- and kind of charming, as a result. While this is obviously trying to target the Call of Duty audience, it also reminds me of a lot of mid-2000s online shooters in its endearingly unpolished manner. There's rampant camping, weapons don't feel balanced, the environments look like they could be from 20 years ago -- and it's still kind of fun!
The fake-COD feel is very well captured; movement is quick, weapons are snappy, time-to-kill is in the right ballpark.
As a free-to-play alternative, and one that works on Steam Deck, this is an okay time-killer.
The fake-COD feel is very well captured; movement is quick, weapons are snappy, time-to-kill is in the right ballpark.
As a free-to-play alternative, and one that works on Steam Deck, this is an okay time-killer.
2023
The charming, other-worldly vibes of Cassette Beasts hooked me very quickly. Sadly, a Pokémon-style RPG just isn't my bag - so I bounced off soon after. But anyone looking for a game in that ballpark would do well to check this out.
2022
SUPER TURBO ULTIMATE COSY GAME EX SPECIAL EDITION.
2005
Cool, stylish, and with the outline of a much better story than most Spider-Man games of this era. The story content is just too minimal for me to throw too many roses in that regard. It feels like there's about five minutes of combined cutscene in this game - and characters just sort of... Show up.
Gameplay wise it has the same highs and lows of all early 2000s Spidey games. Fun swinging, repetitive missions, and janky camera in closed settings.
Steam Deck notes: PC version runs beautifully with widescreen and 60fps fan patches.
Gameplay wise it has the same highs and lows of all early 2000s Spidey games. Fun swinging, repetitive missions, and janky camera in closed settings.
Steam Deck notes: PC version runs beautifully with widescreen and 60fps fan patches.
2023
Despite this genre of character-action not really being my type of thing, this is a thoroughly excellent game in almost every way. Innovative music-fused combat, wonderful soundtrack, gorgeous visuals, and a surprisingly heartfelt story. For such a departure form what Tango typically does, this seems like the type of thing they were formed to make.
Cute! Fun! I'll be back to it. Maybe.
2010
Another imperfect Remedy gem, although... uh, a lot more imperfect than the others!
The combat is just not satisfying enough, and they throw so dang much of it at you. Alan Wake feels like a real product of its time; this game needed to be shorter and have the combat be rarer, almost like a set-piece. But 2010 was perhaps still a smidge too early for that. Games were still judged harshly for "skimping" that way, and it just wasn't the done thing. But if I've sleepily shot my way through one section of forest, I've done it two dozen times.
Outside of all that; the Remedy charm is there. It's eery and camp, without truly descending into unserious territory. The story is intriguing, with good voice acting, and a fabulous soundtrack. The only letdown in this department is the lip sync, which is comically bad. This wasn't a great era for that in general, but even so this is poor.
Steam Deck notes: ran like a dream!
The combat is just not satisfying enough, and they throw so dang much of it at you. Alan Wake feels like a real product of its time; this game needed to be shorter and have the combat be rarer, almost like a set-piece. But 2010 was perhaps still a smidge too early for that. Games were still judged harshly for "skimping" that way, and it just wasn't the done thing. But if I've sleepily shot my way through one section of forest, I've done it two dozen times.
Outside of all that; the Remedy charm is there. It's eery and camp, without truly descending into unserious territory. The story is intriguing, with good voice acting, and a fabulous soundtrack. The only letdown in this department is the lip sync, which is comically bad. This wasn't a great era for that in general, but even so this is poor.
Steam Deck notes: ran like a dream!
1999
An absolute gem. Incredibly atmospheric, mysterious, and weirdly funny. Some of the puzzles feel like they were designed to sell magazines or guides as they are completely inscrutable to the average gaming ape like me - but beyond that it's tremendous in almost every way.
The music especially deserves to be celebrated. Instantly shoots into my list of top ten most memorable game soundtracks.
The music especially deserves to be celebrated. Instantly shoots into my list of top ten most memorable game soundtracks.
2019
Revisiting this and playing Aftermath for the first time, ahead of MK1.
Aftermath is a total blast. It is ultimately inconsequential and you sort of end up right back where the main game ends, but that's fine -- they have a lot of fun character moments along the way.
Overall the game is still great fun, although I'd forgotten how rotten with microtransactions WB games are. Is the splash screen telling you to preorder MK1 REALLY necessary? And A, the default prompt for most actions, being the button that takes you to the preorder screen rather than acknowledging and dismissing the message? Come on now.
Steam Deck notes: online multiplayer is completely unusable, so don't bother if that's what you're interested in. Other than that, and some very, very mild chugging in story mode as it segues from cutscene to gameplay -- this is perfectly playable.
Aftermath is a total blast. It is ultimately inconsequential and you sort of end up right back where the main game ends, but that's fine -- they have a lot of fun character moments along the way.
Overall the game is still great fun, although I'd forgotten how rotten with microtransactions WB games are. Is the splash screen telling you to preorder MK1 REALLY necessary? And A, the default prompt for most actions, being the button that takes you to the preorder screen rather than acknowledging and dismissing the message? Come on now.
Steam Deck notes: online multiplayer is completely unusable, so don't bother if that's what you're interested in. Other than that, and some very, very mild chugging in story mode as it segues from cutscene to gameplay -- this is perfectly playable.
2023
Okay!
2003
If you have nostalgia for this game, as I did, lock it away in your heart and cherish it forever. Don't taint it by revisiting with 2023 eyes.
Playing through this today, it felt like all the negatives of the classic AKI games, with all the positives sanded away. The speed of the game is cranked up, which is fine, but all the balance seems to have flown out the window as a result.
The punishing ease with which AI can reverse you, a facet of many AKI games, is even worse here. It's magnified by the lack of a real 'momentum' system; which sort of defines the classic N64 games. Building your meter just brings you closer to your finisher but doesn't actually change the momentum of the match.
Coupled with limited movesets, and a super underwhelming player character for the story - and this is one I won't be keen to revisit again. Fight For New York forever!!!!
Playing through this today, it felt like all the negatives of the classic AKI games, with all the positives sanded away. The speed of the game is cranked up, which is fine, but all the balance seems to have flown out the window as a result.
The punishing ease with which AI can reverse you, a facet of many AKI games, is even worse here. It's magnified by the lack of a real 'momentum' system; which sort of defines the classic N64 games. Building your meter just brings you closer to your finisher but doesn't actually change the momentum of the match.
Coupled with limited movesets, and a super underwhelming player character for the story - and this is one I won't be keen to revisit again. Fight For New York forever!!!!
It is with a heavy heart that I also slap an 'ABANDONED' on the PC version of Splinter Cell 2. While functionally much, much better than the PS2 version, my first two hours with it were pretty dull -- feeling like a samey retread of the first game, but with much less interesting level design.
A cardinal sin came for me at the end of the Paris level. You crawl through an air vent, into a locked room some enemies are trying to get into. After some brief story dialogue, you see enemies priming a bomb to open the locked room. I died on my escape (they heard me trying to crawl through the vent), so I quick loaded and had an idea! Before entering the room, I dropped a smoke grenade from the vent to the floor below! So the enemies trying to break into the room passed out, and were no longer a threat! I played through the same dialogue as before, but this time there was no bomb-prep cutscene because I had dispatched the enemies.
HOWEVER! The level is unfinishable without the bomb. You need the bomb to blow open the door to allow you to extract. And I had already used up my one quick save slot after taking out those enemies, so my only other option was to REPLAY THE ENTIRE LEVEL AGAIN, AND NOT BE AS CLEVER! Why the enemies are killable when they are needed for story progress I do not know, AND the game doesn't even give you a proper 'hey you messed up, here's a checkpoint' fail state. It's insane that innovative play like that in a stealth game just lets you fuck yourself in that manner.
Anyway, I have no desire to replay the entire level, so we're calling it quits here.
A cardinal sin came for me at the end of the Paris level. You crawl through an air vent, into a locked room some enemies are trying to get into. After some brief story dialogue, you see enemies priming a bomb to open the locked room. I died on my escape (they heard me trying to crawl through the vent), so I quick loaded and had an idea! Before entering the room, I dropped a smoke grenade from the vent to the floor below! So the enemies trying to break into the room passed out, and were no longer a threat! I played through the same dialogue as before, but this time there was no bomb-prep cutscene because I had dispatched the enemies.
HOWEVER! The level is unfinishable without the bomb. You need the bomb to blow open the door to allow you to extract. And I had already used up my one quick save slot after taking out those enemies, so my only other option was to REPLAY THE ENTIRE LEVEL AGAIN, AND NOT BE AS CLEVER! Why the enemies are killable when they are needed for story progress I do not know, AND the game doesn't even give you a proper 'hey you messed up, here's a checkpoint' fail state. It's insane that innovative play like that in a stealth game just lets you fuck yourself in that manner.
Anyway, I have no desire to replay the entire level, so we're calling it quits here.
Seems like a solid one of these, but a few hours in I found myself struggling to come back to it. The presentation is obviously very lacking and the story is just there. Naturally that isn't a big deal if the combat at the core of Wo Long was something special, but I didn't find that to be the case. Pretty good! But not special.
Just a note on the PS2 version of Pandora Tomorrow: this is a deeply cursed way to play this video game. The PC version was infamously on fire at launch, and I didn't feel like installing any mods to fix it (you also can't actually buy it digitally on any real storefront) - so I decided to try the PS2 version.
This game has maybe the worst loading I've ever experienced in a game. Almost every area is bookmarked by a load or a save; and saving isn't some quick thing with a little spinning icon on the bottom of the screen. You walk through a door, they throw a menu at you, you pick a memory card, you say 'yes I wish to save' and you sit there and watch it work. Then you walk into the next area and there's a load - and the loads are long.
Obviously some compromises were needed to get the beefy PC/XB version on PS2 but this is a bridge too far, to me. Especially having played the original game on PC and finding it to be a sleek, relatively modern experience despite its age.
Retiring this version forever, and I've decided I will jump through the hoops needed for PC because I don't want to skip this game outright.
This game has maybe the worst loading I've ever experienced in a game. Almost every area is bookmarked by a load or a save; and saving isn't some quick thing with a little spinning icon on the bottom of the screen. You walk through a door, they throw a menu at you, you pick a memory card, you say 'yes I wish to save' and you sit there and watch it work. Then you walk into the next area and there's a load - and the loads are long.
Obviously some compromises were needed to get the beefy PC/XB version on PS2 but this is a bridge too far, to me. Especially having played the original game on PC and finding it to be a sleek, relatively modern experience despite its age.
Retiring this version forever, and I've decided I will jump through the hoops needed for PC because I don't want to skip this game outright.
Spent a few hours with the Remastered Project on PC, and it's a really great piece of work. A vibrant update with beautiful new textures, full HD support, widescreen fixes, modern controls, and great performance on even a modest desktop. A top notch way to revisit (or maybe play for the first time) a gem of a B-game. I don't see myself finishing the game again as it's quite grindy, but I'll definitely keep this installed for an occasional Miami rampage when the mood hits.
Side note: don't bother trying to get this going on Steam Deck. I spent a lot of time tinkering with it and it never came close. The modded version is a no-go, but the vanilla PC version is unplayable without mods. A tonne of reddit threads are out there saying the same thing, and it's not something the mod team are actively working on. So save yourself some time and go straight to a Windows device.
Side note: don't bother trying to get this going on Steam Deck. I spent a lot of time tinkering with it and it never came close. The modded version is a no-go, but the vanilla PC version is unplayable without mods. A tonne of reddit threads are out there saying the same thing, and it's not something the mod team are actively working on. So save yourself some time and go straight to a Windows device.