Dotemu does it again with another really well made beat em up. It looks great, it plays great, it sounds even better. It's definitely more fun with friends but even solo is a pretty fun time.

Really, it's only flaw is it really isn't all that deep of an experience and some of the older game mechanic frustrations are still there with trying to attack in-air enemies and getting pinned down and taking multiple hits just because of poor enemy attack timing. Besides that though, there is very little to complain about with this game.

There's very little going on from a gameplay standard, but Stray does a great job of world building and makes for a place that I never really got tired of getting lost in.

The story is decent at best but it does a good job of telling it and with the wonderful soundtrack and, again, world building, by the end of this game had me pretty invested in everything. Though it was definitely a simmering effect that eventually boiled over by the end.

Definitely won't be for everyone given the very light gameplay of it all, but Stray does a lot of good vibey things to make up for that, if vibey-type games are usually your thing.

A solid choice based narrative game that at times is incredibly interesting, engaging, with a great art style but other times, the game is the exact opposite.

As Dusk Falls tells the story of a family trip gone awry and the grey areas that lead up to this situation. The choose your own nature of it isn't that different but the choices you make in the game do feel like they hold weight and can wildly change the story and events that will follow.

I also like that the game is willing to explore the events before and after, especially the after. You get a really good idea as to how your choices have effected the characters when you can see them over a decade after the main portion of the game.

The flashbacks and flash forwards though aren't all great so they at times feel like padding more so than anything worthwhile.

The art style is also very hit or miss, as is the voice acting. Sometimes, these are great, other times, they are a bad distraction.

Overall, As Dusk Falls is an inconsistent but enjoyable game. If you like these kinds of games, there are a ton of choices to explore and a lot that change things up so you'll get a lot of play out of this if you want to check out every option and how it changes things.

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.

Yep, it's an FMV game alright. Square-Enix made one and honestly, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. The story is alright, though obviously, since this is an FMV game, opinions will vary.

On top of it, the gameplay aspects of this are bare bones minimum. It's not great! Put tiles on clues to get more possible info and that's about it. Moving around the board is not the best but it's not too bad.

There's not much to this overall, guessing wrong is kind of fun since the reactions are pretty random so if you are a fan of FMV games and can get this for cheap, it could be worth the price.

Sam Barlow's Immortality doesn't fully gel with me from a story or game mechanic perspective but overall, this FMV game is a pretty good and interesting experience.

Immortality has you sift through the three films of former actress Marissa Marcel. These movies never saw the light of day and you will sift through these clips to figure out just what happened to Marissa and why these movies never came out.

You'll jump in between these clips by clicking faces/things in these things which will then take you to another scene that has that person/object in common. For instance, clicking on a microphone in one scene will direct you to another scene in one of the films that features a microphone. You can then play that clip where it starts or rewind/fast forward to the start finish. The game let's you go about it however you want.

Overall, this method of learning and exploring works, though it makes for the info you gain a bit random and can definitely lead to a mixed experience depending on how much sifting you're doing before getting any worthwhile info.

This method of exploring though near the end, when you are trying to locate the last remaining scenes or info can lead to constantly clicking and clicking and clicking since the jumping to random scenes is random. Click on a knife in the same scene and each time, it'll take you to a random other scene with a knife/blade/etc, so if you are looking for a specific thing, it's not a guarantee that you will get there.

The overall menus and layout of the game itself is a bit clunky as well so if you are a bit of an achievement hunter or looking to complete the whole thing, it can get a little annoying from that aspect. There are secrets amongst the clips as well and even where those are is a bit random so overall, the ease of the experience as you progress, does get increasingly tedious.

To add to that increased tedious nature, the secrets amongst the clips that you can discover aren't unlocked with much ease. Sometimes you can find stuff by rewinding through the clips to uncover other things but sometimes getting those secrets to play out takes some finagling. At times, these play out with ease, other times you have to keep going back and forth to get it to start playing out.

Outside of that and a few crashes here and there though, I don't have a ton of issues with this game. The story is pretty interesting, even if it doesn't completely connect and the way the story unfolds is done in a satisfying way, though results may vary on that aspect as well. It's worth giving a shot at the very least.

There are moments in Midnight Fight Express where the fighting is kinetic, the action is high paced and the chains of your combos are racking up as you bounce between guys, picking up whatever you can where everything feels so damn good and the experience is surreal.

Unfortunately, those moments are not consistent, and when this isn't happening, the game is fairly bland and a bit of a chore to get through. It's a bit of a bummer because those moments of bliss hit and I just found myself thinking, "if this game was this more often, it could be pretty damn fun." There just aren't enough of those moments to really recommend this game.

The game has its own sense of style and doesn't take itself too seriously with how it functions and the story its telling. That being said, some of the offbeat humor and moments just didn't work for me. The general story itself is also pretty forgettable, which certainly doesn't help with the game's general "washes over you like nothing" vibe.

The style is attempting a more simplistic presentation so there's not a lot that really will impress you there either.

The controls though are solid and on top of those moments of bliss, once you become fully skilled up, the sense of strength and growth from what you're upgrading is noticeable. There are some very satisfying kills despite the basic look and style.

It's still not enough to recommend though, as the game also feels quite long. It's a bummer more than anything since there are moments of greatness that really make this game feel cool. This being the work of one person seemingly is also quite the feat despite its shortcomings.

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.

It's got a pretty addictive gameplay loop but not so addictive that the flaws and annoyances are easy to ignore. The biggest annoyance is the campaign map, which becomes an eventual annoyance when traversing, trying to find new stage areas to go to. Eventually trying to look for new levels becomes enough of a chore that the harder stages become less interesting to tackle. Worth a play through though if you are looking to get lost in a solid arcade style game.

Came back to this after writing out this first portion. Still an addicting loop, still got some frustrations to the gameplay that make the minor collecting/perfecting stuff something I'm not interested in.