I generally don’t like console FPS games, but this was pretty fun. This was the debut of DICE’s Frostbite engine, which offers impressive destructible terrain. It makes for some interesting battle dynamics, and effectively imparts the pants-shitting fear of sitting in a building that’s getting shelled, and seeing the walls just fall down around you.

Released in 2008 only on PS3/X360 (no PC version) , the graphics are obviously dated now, and it suffers from that era of muddy textures where everything is grayish brown and foggy. The gamepad controls are also unusual and took some getting used to.

The single-player campaign is short, but it’s a hoot. You play in a 4-man squad with Sarge Redford, Haggard, and Sweetwater, and although they’re all stock characters (particularly Haggard), the dialogue is consistently funny. It’s not your typical war game, as you end up accidentally invading a neutral nation, decide to go AWOL in pursuit of a huge cache of gold held by a mercenary army, then forced by the US Gov to keep going as an unofficial operation.

I've never played a PS1 game in my life that wasn't just something that was on a collection like the Mega Man X Legacy Collection. So this was the first game I chose because well IDK actually. I guess I just felt like it.

Now I'll go out and say this, this is not a good game but I like it for some reason. There's just something about it that feels fun to me despite how slow and floaty it feels. I'm not sure if I have played a weapon fighter before but it was interesting.

This game is just your typical fighting game as it doesn't really have much outside of the usual VS mode and 1 player mode. If anyone wonders who I mained, it was Sofia. I really like her whip attacks and plus she's got the laugh I love so much.

In the end I'm not sure if it's really worth going back to for any fighting professionals out there but for casuals like me, I enjoyed it even if it isn't good. I wouldn't mind trying out the sequels sometime, hopefully Sofia is in those too. Hopefully this is a sign I'll play more PS1 games too but we'll see.

this is a really weird game to me. i think this game has some of the most fun space combat and flying mechanics of any space game but even the best of the genre can get pretty repetitive. all of the rites were pretty cool and fun. some felt a bit useless (like the grab ships one) but otherwise i was excited to get a new one. the gameplay was good enough that i finished it, but it was a bit too long. this game needed like 2/3 hours cut off of it or at least for the missions to feel more grand and different. there were 2 big exciting missions that were like a 4.5 star game while the rest of the game is like a 3. i feel like the game could have benefited from less filler/side missions and try to fit in 1 or 2 more big boss missions. i also think the story was a little too edgy/generally uninteresting. i ended up skipping most cutscenes because i was just bored. nara and forsaken had a nice little dynamic but it wasn't enough for me to particularly care.

tl;dr: it's fun but is a bit repetitive and goes on a bit too long.

Reviewed on 06/17/21

Maybe the greatest example of a "good in the moment" game that I'll forget in a week or so. The gameplay is fine, but I certainly couldn't imagine playing this solo. However, there are much better co-op shooters on the market to play, with many of them being free, so I can't really recommend this to anyone.

Rating: 4/10
Platinum Difficulty: 4/10
Platinum #170

This enters the hall of fame of indie games with great concepts in great trailers that failed to disclose the trailer had the one good execution of that great concept. If another team took a crack at this game’s recursive level puzzle concept, we’d have a 3D contender for brain-melting goodness on par with Baba is You. For now, we have this tosh.

Maquette’s base concept of recursive level design feels like it could be as good as thinking with Portals. Every level has a diorama of the level within it, and any object you place within the model is moved proportionally outside of it. This means you can change the size of objects by moving them between recursions, or explore at different senses of scale by venturing forward yourself. The same physical key can be shrunk to unlock a door within the diorama, or enlarged to be used as a bridge. I normally maintain we, as a species, have met our quota of Alice in Wonderland themed media, but I would allow an exception in this case.

Unfortunately, not every level uses this recursion mechanic properly, and others are bloated with vaguely-related but still generic puzzle solving. The proper levels still limit the number of objects used to one or two at a time, and there’s severe gatekeeping to guide the player towards what part of the diorama to examine next. There just isn’t the complexity present promised by the premise. The genuinely brilliant puzzle solutions were so distended by mush I discounted them as possibilities because my opinion of the game’s creativity sank so low in the valleys between the modest highs.

What cratered the game for me from “disappointing” to “bad enough to derisively mock with my friends” was the truly atrocious unrelated romance story that serves as the “reward” for advancing the levels. The writing is the most twee, saccharine, vapid, shallow, privileged, infuriatingly juvenile “romance” story I have encountered in an indie game yet. To call it pretentious does not convey nearly enough contempt. It is so bad and played so completely straight my brain implodes trying to imagine what kind of person thought this would be of interest to anyone, much less relatable, much less of any emotional worth, enough to record multiple minutes worth of spoken dialog. If there are real people in California like this, I hope they die before I meet them.

In my rating system, 2 stars represents an average, C rank game. Between Maquette’s highs and lows, no other rating feels more correct, even though this one doesn’t feel correct, either. If anything, the game feels incomplete, like brilliance was stumbled upon by people who can’t design puzzles. If this was a single dungeon within a mediocre Legend of Zelda game, that game would win game of the year a decade ago.

Reviewed on 03/14/21

I’m constantly on the lookout for the puzzle game high that Portal 2 and The Talos Principle gave me, and while there are a few clever puzzles here and there, Maquette doesn’t quite deliver. This focuses more on open-ended problems rather than specific “puzzle chambers”, but some puzzles were way too open-ended, while others were much too obvious, leading to an uneven experience overall. And while I appreciate that the story didn’t just try to do a straight rip of Portal’s tone (a problem plaguing many puzzle games), its focus on the dissolution of a relationship felt a bit too familiar, with no real hooks or twists on the formula to speak of. However, seeing as this is the first game from Graceful Decay, I can see enough promise here to keep up on whatever they’re up to next.

Rating: 6/10
Platinum Difficulty: 2/10
Platinum #160

On paper, the idea of using the concept of recursion in a puzzle game is a unique idea. I loved playing around with object sizing and world manipulation, and these solutions are some of the smartest designs I've seen in quite a while.

My only gripe with this game is the love story it tries to attach to it. It wasn't a great fit imo, and it's getting a bit tiring to see Annapurna Interactive always publishing games with similar, predictable love stories. Had this been a different kind of plot (like sci-fi or something), I'd be all over it. Otherwise, it's a decent indie. Nice soundtrack.

This game is FIRE. A great basketball game that’s fun for people who don’t even like the sport. It’s easy and simple to pick up but fun enough you last you a while.

It’s interesting to note that this isn’t a basketball simulation game. It rather takes the goal and concept of basketball but twist it into a more simplied and more arcade like experience of the sport. I think this was overall the best call as I believe simulation sports games are quick to be outdated as the tech gets better, just look at other simulation sport games of the time. It wasn’t until the early 2000s and arguably late 90s until we have simulation sports titles that STILL hold up to this day. Yet NBA JAM has aged super well offering a accessible and addicting verison of basketball anybody can get into.

The gameplay has the same core concept of basketball yet is able to bring it down to a smaller cort, only four players and a simple control set up. Also It has short matches and requires quick descision making. It all still feels like basketball but it’s able to simplify the sport in a away that doesn’t detract from the quality and still keeps the entertainment high. I also like how the license is used offering real teams and players. It’s the type of game that can appeal to sports fans and people who don’t even watch sports.

Solid 4/5. Tons of different ways to play this game but I chose genesis because it just feels like it fits the system the most with its 3 button controller and a focus on sports games in general.