This is 100% a vibes game that either will work for you or won't. For me, everything just worked. The world is incredibly interesting, the characters you meet along the way are all interesting, the music is great, the feel and look are all top notch.

The gameplay is pretty nonexistent. You will find yourself walking, biking, recording audio, taking pictures, and filling out a scrapbook so again, feelings will carry you through this or this stuff will probably not work for you.

The game is a little buggy, traveling around on your bike can sometimes lead to some weird hiccups with hit detection and the camera but the game does feature an unstuck option if you do get stuck (I only had to do it once so it's not frequently bugging out but it's nice to have as an option) along with the ability for your bike to be transporter to you wherever you find yourself which is super helpful.

Again, this game is a vibe check that either will work for you or doesn't, for me it worked to near perfection with only a few rough parts to deter me a bit

A decent snowboarding game that just didn't quite vibe with me.

It feels like the foundations of what could be a solid snowboard franchise but the controls were something I just couldn't wrap my head around completely and there just wasn't enough interesting variety to keep me interested in trying to get better.

The music is quite nice and helps put you in the right vibe for what you'd want from a snowboarding game but the lacking game play just eventually pushes those good vibes out the way.

The game does feature some boarder customizations but your character is more avatar than anything, sporting no face whatsoever using goggles, a hat and other gear to hide where the face should be. The clothing though is all so bare bones that the clear generic NPC avatar you are controlling sticks out even further.

There are other characters and what seems like a semblance of a story or a point to the characters and what you're doing but it too is so bland and generic that I was quickly skipping these cutscenes rather early into my play through.

Overall, Shredders might vibe with you if you're looking for a more realistic snowboard game. It's on game pass as of Sep. 2022 so if you are looking for some time to kill before bed or something, maybe give the game a shot. Hopefully the game can eventually get a sequel, there is an interesting core in this game in a market that isn't exactly seeing a ton of activity in it.

Borderlands for me has always been carried by its really great gameplay. Tiny Tina is really no different as, despite the DnD format, this is just another Borderlands game in the franchise with very little different.

Some of the DnD aspects for me just fell short of being all that interesting. It feels like nothing more than a coat of paint of the format with very little additions to differentiate it in a fun or interesting way.

On top of that, the gameplay itself just doesn't feel as good in this. Some of the mechanics just feel off while others are starting to feel a bit dated.

The game is also a lot buggier from my experience than previous games. I game crashes that was definitely in the double digits by the time I finished the game, this is with me playing the game Dec 2022, many months after the original launch.

The only thing that feels the same, unfortunately, is the writing. Borderlands writing is back, and if you don't like it, you won't like it here.

Usually the gameplay is more than enough to make up for the bad writing but unfortunately, with that being a few steps below what it was in Borderlands 3, the flaws are that much more apparent in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. The bells and whistles are just not enough of a distraction either. If the gameplay has worn thin and the writing is enough to turn you away from previous Borderlands games, this one won't change your mind in either department.

A short but slick action shooter that feels like a toned down version of Hotline Miami in many ways. My Friend Pedro does a lot of cooooool things with it, the gameplay is easy to pickup, difficult to master but fairly addicting, the music is thumping, and it's all in a package that's around 3-5 hours (Beat it in around 3 but I could see it being a little longer on higher difficulty settings).

The look of the game is kinda interesting at first, nothing too crazy and over the top visually though and it does all feel kinda samesy and repetitive from that perspective as you progress through the various levels. The levels and look never change up all that much, enemies pretty much look the same, areas kinda all feel the same as well, so any interesting look does quickly fade into the background as you progress.

The gameplay is fun though. You're just looking to blast your way through these areas and build up your chain of cool shit (not sure what it's actually called but the chain combos continue to increase the more you're flowing through the various areas and as you chain together your kills).

The game does offer a bit of variety in the ways you can go about killing people, so you don't have to just bulletstorm your way through it all, but it's mostly going to be tied to that aspect either way. Whether that's ricocheting your shots off of things in order to hit guys, or going up or down ropes while shooting and taking guys out. You'll even at times be able to throw items up into the air and use it to your advantage, such as throwing a frying pan into the air and shooting it to have your bullets ricochet off of it and at enemies. You can kick people to death though, you can blow them up of course, you can hit them with barrels so there is minor things you can do to change it up slightly, though obviously the game's focus is on shooting things.

You'll be given a variety of weapons, starting with unlimited ammo handguns but you'll get the obvious things like SMGs, shotguns, even a sniper rifle and assault rifle. The guns are pretty by the book and you'll need to find ammo for them to consistently use them so you'll have to swap in between things as you go from area to area.

Swapping out isn't too bad, a simple press of the d pad left or right will change these up. The only issue is that you will have to scroll passed some of these if you're trying to get to a specific weapon. This on its own isn't a hard/bad thing, but when the game focuses a lot on frenetic, quick action and trying to rack up a massive action chain, slowing down to focus on the exact weapon you're trying to swap to does stick out a lot more.

As you progress too, the game does implement a few platform aspects to the game, simple puzzles you'll have to do in order to get to the next room. These are relatively easy but these actions are definitely not the games strong suit. They just feel a bit off and not as tight as I'd like.

Overall though, for a game this short, it's hard to find massive faults. If you like stylish arcadey action games, My Friend Pedro is a solid single playthrough experience.

Sifu is cool. A martial arts revenge story where your character ages as they die is a dope idea on paper and, for the most part, Slocap is able to make a fun and interesting game.

At the same time, Sifu doesn't feel like a game that reaches its full potential. While Sifu is good for the most part, camera issues, a lack of enemy diversity, and difficulty that will turn many away leaves the experience a bit of a disappointment, despite some of the fun I had with it.

While luckily after some patches, the difficulty issues aren't as bad as they were at launch, it is still a game that is a chore to get through at times. For me, the enemies all felt like damage sponges. Even as you die and reach ages where you're supposed to be stronger, it never really feels like that much of a difference.

The camera also didn't help with this. I constantly found myself in a position where the camera was cutting off my full vision of whomever I was fighting, unable to fully see if they were attacking. For a game with difficulty like Sifu's, having these technical issues possibly be the thing that causes me to die or shift the fight to where I'm suddenly on the ropes or near death is super frustrating.

I also had some issues with the auto targeting from time to time where I'd go to attack someone, only for the game to try and attack someone nearby instead. Normally these would be smaller issues but since the game is asking for near flawlessness in order to survive, these things can shift your playthrough in seconds and turn a solid run into something where you're now having to restart completely.

Luckily, one of the things this game does provide is level shortcuts that you can unlock by exploring areas and finding keys to help unlock alternate paths. Once you find these keys, they stay with you forever, so if you've beaten a level but want to lower your age, you can restart with the items you've obtained and cut through some of the enemies. I wish some of these short cuts were more even though as some will push you right to the boss of a level while others will leave you having to push through a decent amount of enemies still before arriving to the boss.

The story, while really solid at first, tends to fade into the background pretty quickly. It makes sticking with it, through the constant trial and error, that much more difficult when the things you're learning and the story unfolding isn't all that interesting.

Despite all of my complaints though, when the gameplay lines up and you get a little luck on your side or you learn the trick to giving yourself the advantage against a boss or a stage area, the game play can get really satisfying and cool. It's those moments though that make the grind and frustrating parts that much more frustrating because they can flip in an instant.

If you enjoy a tough game, Sifu might be just for you. The game can be incredibly satisfying. For me though, those frustrations just held back the incredible potential this game possesses.

A wildly creative Pokemon clone with some great ideas but the overall gameplay I never found very rewarding and at times, found to be pretty frustrating.

Some platform-y world discovery that is also not very rewarding and at times, fairly frustrating.

Overall, I found Cassette Beasts a game I really hoped to like more. I think it has some great foundational pieces that, with a sequel and additional development of some of the platforming aspects, combat, and quality of life additions, could be a legit alternative to Pokemon. If you're a big fan of games like that and have been frustrated with clones that just don't work, this could be a surprise, albeit one that still has some issues.

There is something very zen and tranquil about PowerWash Simulator. It's very, very easy to get lost in the wash and spend hours cleaning the most pointless or silly things. It's pretty impressive given what this game is about, AKA, power washing things.

Its got problems for sure, controls aren't as tight as I'd like, the game story mode wise is probably a little too long, not to mention some of the requirements to completing the items/levels can get fairly tedious when the game says you still need to clean off portions of a wall before it's deemed to be "complete" and you're having to find the littlest specks of dirt remaining. But at its core, the general components to it are just a vibe that just worked to a surprising degree. Play it as a chill, post-work game, play it with a friend, it's worth a try at the very least either way, even if these types of sim games aren't usually your thing. They aren't for me usually but this one hit for whatever reason. All hail the power washer

A God of War game in physical form but missing the spirit and scale that God of War impresses in usually.

The first entry on the PSP released between the second and third, Chains of Olympus covers part of the time Kratos was in the service of the Gods. Chains of Olympus features a lot of the same with Kratos having to take on large creatures and a few Gods that dare to step up to the God of War.

Repetitive aspects of combat and enemies are not entirely new with these games so more of the same was to be expected. What usually sets these games apart is the various new weapons/items you collect that aid you in battle, the over-the-top gruesome brutality, and the simple scope that some of the set pieces feature, with the large scale scope always increasing game after game.

For a game that was released between God of War II and III, the scale is definitely lesser here than it is in III and it would be unfair for me to judge it based on the then-impressive PS3 hardware.

However, this game feels like a step down from God of War II in scope and over-the-top brutality. It's perfectly adequate but instead of feeling like it is a bit of a step up, it feels closer to what was found in the original.

Practically all locations you visit and all areas of combat feel completely underwhelming. There are no "holy #!$%" type set pieces, no wicked, insanely/absurd boss battles. No interesting weapons or tools to really fiddle around with.

It's just a paint by number God of War game. At it's foundation, that's not a terrible game, the core gameplay has always been fun, chaining together massive combos with the tools you're provided is still neat. It just feels like a game more so on auto pilot than one that has its foot firmly planted on the accelerator.

If you're a die hard God of War fan and want more Kratos and his story, Chains of Olympus is short and more of the same. If you just like these games getting bigger, more violent and love the big action set pieces, you may be a bit disappointed with this one and it might not be worth your time, although the overall time it takes to play this is relatively short.

PoPoLoCrois is considered a bit of a RPG hidden gem and while I personally might not completely agree with that label after playing it, I do see some very positive things about this somewhat obscure PSP game.

You play as a young prince named Pietro whose mother has fallen into a deep, unwakeable sleep. The journey begins this way but PoPoLoCrois' story is a bit different from the typical RPG.

The main story that starts the game is not the only "main" story that unfolds in this game. Once you figure out the reason behind your mother's sleep, the characters and area are returned in game a few years later with a new conflict popping up around the kingdom.

An over-arcing story does start to emerge as you progress through a few of these stories but the general setup is pretty interesting. Being able to see minor improvements around the cities, like an Inn going through renovations or a forest losing trees as the town chops more down are very minor but very great additions that really make the world and cities feel real and organic. That applies to Pietro and the various party members you'll meet in this game as well, though because of the graphics these changes are fairly minor.

Because of this multi-story format that takes place over the course of multiple years though, the party members you get for each of these chapters will vary. Since the party members you can use aren't just living in the main city of PoPoLoCrois, they won't always be free or aware of the conflict going on. Characters you can control almost always return at some point so you won't really lose anyone forever but it's another minor touch to help introduce new playable characters that changes up strategy in battle, which is needed.

The game's biggest flaw really is its battle system and overall gameplay and because the story and characters are so good, this makes these flaws that much more disappointing.

The actual battling isn't bad on its own, it's just incredibly bland and fairly basic no matter whose in the party. The game uses some turn based things and some tactics things for its battle system. Each character has a meter that charges up, the more agile your character is, the faster it charges. Once that meter charges, that character's turn starts. All battles take place on a grid map though that you have to move around on. So, once your turn begins, you'll have some options in terms of where your character moves, who they attack, or what you setup for them to do.

The biggest downside to this system is because battles just pop up at random, they begin wherever your character was on the map when the battle begins, so you really can't plan that much in advance to help make character movement easier/quicker. So if you have a slower knight that can't move around as fast but is a prominent attacker, you'll be wasting time getting them up to the heat of battle. This extends these bland battles out longer than they probably should be.

On top of that, the random encounters happen way too frequently. It felt like every five-six seconds I was running into another battle. That many battles over and over and over and over of a fairly bland battle system just makes it a chore the more I played, especially if I played over long periods.

Luckily you can run away without issue. Unfortunately, if you decide to run away from any battle, you are punished by having your gold go down. Given the frequency of battles, this can quickly add up. It just adds to the tiresome nature of the battles in this game since it kinda forces you to do it or risk losing out on money for upgrades/items.

Overall, PoPoLoCrois does some really interesting things with its storytelling and has some great characters and world to explore. Unfortunately, it just gets bogged down in some very bland fighting mechanics that pop up far too frequently and take away from the big positives this game possesses. I'd still recommend playing this since the story is so good. It's not too long by RPG standards and maybe the fighting won't bother you as much as it did for me.

The violent culmination of the original series doesn't disappoint. God of War III builds off of all the things that have made this series entertaining and pumps it to the extreme, while mostly improving things that have always been so so with the series.

Kratos is back bby and things start off immediately where things left off in GoW 2 and it fits pretty perfectly with this series story. The God of War story has always been pretty good for a game that's so violent and action heavy and God of War 3 does a good job of wrapping things up for the most part.

It's maybe a bit too longwinded near the end where it feels like the final stretch goes on for a while and less focused than the bulk of the start. There's a decent chunk of backtracking as well so even from a location standpoint it just gets a little repetitive.

That being said, the set pieces in this game are pretty impressive. Very big, very epic, very bloody. After two of these games still pretty fresh in my head, both with large scale action parts to them, God of War 3 surpasses all of them easily.

This game definitely takes advantage of the system shift to PS3 with its scale and action. Climbing up Gaia, fending off enemies and all the insanity going on around you is easily the best of the franchise up to this point and might be one of my favorite set pieces for an action/adventure game. The remaster of this version to the PS4 just adds to the impressive scale, scope and look too.

Gameplay wise it's pretty much what you remember from this franchise but much tighter and improved on for the most part. More weapons, easier to transition between them all and enemies overall feel more designed where certain weapons are almost a requirement in order to get rid of them. It keeps the game play fresh, especially when the game starts to mix and match some of those bad guys together, making you swap between weapons on a dime to quickly stomp everyone out.

The weapons and tools you get to help you cause mass murder are all pretty fun to use and all feel quite different from one another. Whether it's your tried and true double blades, or two closer range weapons, or a more ride range weapon you get near the end of the game. All differentiate themselves not just on a range standpoint but just in a use and attack pattern setting.

These weapons will also change your secondary/magic attack, all with their own advantages depending on the situation. I did find myself drawing to a favorite amongst the weapons I had but when you have to swap to take advantage of an enemy weakness, they never feel bad to use or tough to figure out even if it had been a while since I used it. Since you can swap so fluidly and seamlessly, you're never far from your favorite once you want to go back to it, the control swap is very responsive

The controls overall are quite responsive, about the only consistent issue I ran into was the game not really recognizing the double jump if you waited a bit in your second jump press.

Since we are on the subject of negatives with this game, there were also some camera and aiming issues I ran into with some consistency.

The game does get a bit creative with how it uses the camera and for the most part, these shifts work quite well but because its a fixed camera where you can't move it around, there are a few times where the camera is just not placed well.

Sometimes the camera makes judging gaps and distance a bit of a pain. There were a handful of times when I was trying to make a jump where I thought I had cleared it but it turned out, I hadn't and I'd fall to my death.

There are times during battle too where enemies just felt a bit off camera and hard to find while taking damage.

Since the aiming with some of your tools auto aim, trying to take them down and stop taking arrows to the face would be a bit of a pain since sometimes you can't see if the aim circle is over them. Other times the game will auto aim you on other enemies and trying to move away from them and onto the target you are trying to specify can be really challenging. It even felt like at times like the game would only auto aim on the exact opposite range I was trying to get. If I needed to hit someone from far away, I'd only get guys right next to me, if I needed to hit some enemies from close range, I'd only get bad guys from far away showing up. This by no means happened every time but it did pop up a bit too much for my liking, enough for me to notice.

Some of the quick time events can be tough to follow as well. Though they are much more responsive than the previous two (though this could've easily been a streaming issue on my end), they've setup the QTE's to have the button you need to press appear on the screen where that button is in relation to the controller. The X button appears on the bottom part of the screen, the Triangle in the top part of the screen, so on and so forth. Because the screen can be quite busy at times, it's sometimes hard to tell when the button shows up because so many things are showing up in the various quadrants of the screen.

That's really the only major issues I had though with this game. It pretty much nails and improves on everything across the board which was already pretty solid from top to bottom to begin with. Tighter controls, better, more engaging gameplay, better set pieces, and somehow even more violent. With the bar already pretty high, it just makes everything that much more impressive.

Infernax is a modern attempt at a Castlevania-like style game, (brutal difficulty and all) with some newer game play sensibilities thrown in that make the game pretty interesting.

A great evil has spread across the land and you play, of course, as the only man who can save the day.......or not. The game features a pretty by-the-book story but with multiple endings that can make multiple play throughs a somewhat different experience.

The game in total features nine different endings depending on the choices you make. They range from playing the game as the good, fearless leader, an evil maniac, or less serious ones like playing like an absolute coward or a very, very lazy individual. Some of these are a little harder to obtain (the Internet is your friend) but the various options are a welcomed addition.

These multiple endings don't change much, a few of course will be tied to achievements/trophies and some will require a whole new play through (while others can be done by simply loading up your old save and doing things a bit differently) but they all unlock cheat codes for the game.

One of the retro additions to this game is a game genie-like cheat code area that you can find in your exploration. Infinite mana, unlimited money, more gore (this game is already pretty gory), or even paintball mode are just some of the cheat codes you can enter in this section and add a bit of uniqueness to the overall experience, though obviously don't change a ton in the core gameplay.

On the gameplay front, like I said previously, the game is a flashback to the NES games of old, AKA, brutal difficulty.

The game is hard but not impossible. Infernax has done a good job of making it a challenge without feeling too cheap. The old NES/Ninja Gaiden style damage take system is in place which is unfortunate, where your character when hit by an enemy will push backwards when hit, which of course can lead to you falling into a pit of fire/water/acid/death and having to start all over again.

Luckily if hard difficulty isn't your thing, the game does have easier settings that provide you with more saves, you keeping the exp and gold you've picked up and a few other bonuses that you don't normally get from the classic/brutal setting. Every time you die you have the option to change it up to the easier setting, though I don't think you can go back up to the more brutal setting once you've raised the white flag.

The brutal difficulty did have me take dungeons on verry carefully and very slowly. Luckily there is a save location right outside of each dungeon, so if you completely botch the beginning of a dungeon and want to give it a second shot without death being the reason, you can traverse back to the save spot, heal yourself and save, which will then finalize and have you keep any gold and exp that you've picked up to that point.

The experience can be used at these save points as well to upgrade your power, health or mana, so you can theoretically farm exp and improve your stats this way to help make things a bit easier if you are too stubborn to give in and drop to an easier difficulty setting.

The gold will also come in handy at various towns you visit, as you can use that to upgrade your armor, your weapon, purchase new spells, or purchase flasks that can be used to store health or mana potions. These things will also help make the game a lot easier as you progress. For instance, one of the various things you can buy are permanent continues.

On the regular classic difficulty setting, once you die, whether from too many hits or dropping into a death pit, you will start outside of the dungeon or your last save point, regardless of how far you've gotten into the dungeon. Did you die at the dungeon boss with one health bar remaining? Guess what, back to the beginning. Luckily, with these purchasable continues, if you were to die at a boss or at a section of the dungeon, you will start back up at the start of that section but once those are gone, they are gone until you get back to a save point where they will once again return.

When you do use a continue, your health and mana will start completely full again so it makes using mana in dungeons to try and extend how far you get.

Really the only game play flaw in these dungeons sections is the platforming aspects of it. For me, if a game is super challenging, I expect some pretty on point controls and mechanics to help make the game a bit easier or at least make it feel like your death wasn't the game's fault and purely on me the player. Unfortunately in Infernax, there are a few platforming sections that are just not good at all.

You'll have to make some pretty large jumps which you can make thanks to a charge attack you eventually will get in the game. Unfortunately, this charge attack can't be stopped once you're using it, so if you use it to go over a large gap but you're now coming up to a new gap or a pit of death and need to stop, you can't and you may end up dying from overshooting your target.

It's tough at times to predict just how much space you have for some of these jumps since you can't move the camera over to see if there are any surprises waiting for you.

There's also a rising attack that's used to help reach higher areas that a normal jump can't reach but you'll also need to use it in some platforming to jump down and around walls or sections in order to reach a new platform. The controls are just not responsive enough though for these areas and even after kinda getting the hang of it, the skills and controls just never felt good to do. It always felt like I was just making it by the skin of my teeth and was more lucky than getting good.

Bosses in these dungeons, while difficult, do have pretty easy to pick up on patterns that didn't require a ton of replays to pick up on. Mostly learning when/where/how to attack these bosses was the extent of having to figure things out.

You'll have to defeat five of these dungeon bosses in order to get to the end game boss. Each dungeon will have at least one spell or skill that will usually help you outside of those dungeons to help traverse new areas or help you complete side quests that you may choose to do.

These side quests are definitely not a requirement but do add to the fun exploration aspects of the game. Doing some of these quests will change what kind of ending you'll get as well so sometimes not doing some of these things is actually more beneficial depending on your personal goals.

Some quests feature fairly obvious morality options like choosing to help a guy destroy a dam or choosing to burn down all towns. Others will have more world changing effects that don't seem as obvious right away.

For instance, after agreeing to help a wizard get rid of a few randoms that decided to setup camp right outside his store, you can choose to stand firm and threaten them or choose to join them for a drink and hang out with them instead.

I chose to be righteous and demand they leave, which they did without much issue. However, after returning to one of the towns and being asked to help a potion seller bring his wares into town, the man was attacked and killed by those vagrants I chose to threaten. I took them down with ease from there but that town became the only one where I was unable to restock on health potions because of the man's death.

Overall, Infernax is a good time if you don't mind a challenge. It's got a great look, the music is pretty solid, it's got some replay value and the game isn't too brutal and frustrating, outside of some clunky controls on some of the platforming aspects of the game. It's not too long with the difficulty being the main thing that could extend the game out longer. Infernax is definitely worth at least one playthrough if retro feeling games or challenging games are something you enjoy.

There are just enough minor annoyances that keep this game from hitting 5/5 for me, but overall, the return of Kratos in 2018 is outstanding. The combat feels great, the story hits hard (especially for someone like myself who took 2022 to playthrough every GoW game and had a lot of familiarity to the Kratos arc up to this point), it still looks outstanding, still sounds great. There are just a few gripes.

Our fair boy is just a bit too annoying at times, especially the middle parts of this game, the main map is a pain in the ass to use, the story and the combat does take some warming up to as well and there are some enemies that are just entirely annoying to deal with. There are a few other minor nitpicks too but ultimately, this game is basically a 4.89/5, ever so close. This game is well worth the praise it has received and it is well worth your time overall, it's pretty incredible what this team was able to do with Kratos and how they've transformed this franchise.