Didn't grow up with the Ratchet & Clank games the same way I did the other two major platforming icons of the Playstation 2 era as I was growing up. I've always respected the franchise, there is obviously a reason it had the most staying power of those other series, but I never felt super compelled to get my hands deep into the series until my friend gave me an excuse to do so.

Having played this one now in 2022, with a lot of platformers under their belt, you can see the growing pains of a new franchise getting its right footing. It is a clunky game, and unfortunately, even as someone who has grown to like clunk, I feel its in determent of the ideas it wants to bring to the table. The main gameplay draw of having these absurd and creative weapons to blast through enemies is really undermined by both a very poor camera system, and the glaring omission of a proper lock on. I think this does a lot to make the guns feel really unsatisfying to use in this game, and its a huge shame when there is such a huge toolbox at your fingertips that just never feels fun to use unless you're in a situation where you need to. Couple that with some early platforming bullshit with a pretty strict checkpoint system, and it can make it a bit frustrating to get into.

Obviously though, in spite of its glaring faults, there is more than enough to appreciate about this humble little start. For one, it is hard to understate what a fun duo these two are. Ratchet is an unhinged fairly selfish asshole in this entry, going the entire adventure essentially never changing from his grubby engineering clothes, and bickering along the way. Pair that with Clank, a very honest to a fault little robot, and you have the recipe for your standard buddy cop story, but it just works so very nicely for a platformer like this. Also, it cannot be understated how weird it is a now ginormous triple A franchise representing the Playstation brand, started out as this blunt anti-capitalist satire. The game isn't scathing per say, but the jabs they do make are just something you wouldn't expect from a series with this caliber now, certainly not with future entries in this series from what I am told. A huge shame because that part easily is my favourite thing about it. I got a huge chuckle anytime I got to see a new infomercial about Drek's increased colonization of the galaxy you travel.

And on a technical level, I think that galaxy in question is the most impressive thing on display here. All good platformers thrive on good gameplay and levels, and while I didn't enjoy the gunplay, controlling Ratchet is still very fun. Upgrading Clank with little gizmos is very cute, and hitting things with your oversized wrench is insanely satisfying. More importantly, I was very impressed with just how many levels, and big levels at that, were able to be put into this game. You do revisit some, but there are still around twenty unique planets, each with more than a fair share of tasks to do and secrets to discover, and I really enjoyed knowing the little ins and outs of each planet's little conundrums. It is the little things like that, that can make a platformer special, and I think this game does it very well.

Overall, a cute little romp. I think if I gotten the opportunity to have grown up with it the same way I did Jak or Sly, I would've loved it, but as an adult now, I enjoyed it. It is a clunky but cute little romp, and its anti-capitalist edge and snark give it a personality that I can still admire. Maybe someday I'll play the later PS2 sequels which I hear are special in their own little ways, or even some of the more modern entries.

FYI still the best og GoW game, the best combat with the best weapon variety and upgrade system. The most well-designed bosses, the best scope and pure spectacle and the most entertaining characters across the entire franchise.


If I feel a bit more cynical I would criticize the story for lacking any and all subtetly and for being dumb as a rock generally speaking but fuck it, Hermes singing to Kratos about his family being dead is the most hysterical shit I've ever seen. This game is all balls-to-the-walls style, low subtance but subtance is overrated anyways.

Tips for any new players: make note of all IPCA Techs you grab if you're going for completionism. These unlock a special weapon in the postgame but there's no way to track which ones you already grabbed.

Anyway, I really enjoyed my time with this game. The gameplay is pretty fun, with nice gun play that's decently visceral (though not at the level of something like RDR2 at all, but better than Far Cry for example). Playing on Survival I, the early game is particularly fun to me as I was forced to use stealth and every trick I had to kill my enemies. For example, drawing a nearby horde to an enemy camp and making the Freakers and marauders kill each other while I watch. It's a bit less interesting later on though, as I became so powerful that I just ran around shooting everyone and everything, but it's still fun. Enemy AI for humans is particularly fun to mess with, but they're not as smart as they try to appear. The bike is great though it starts out rough, fun progression there. Not much I can complain about other than wishing the game went harder on survival elements than it does.

The open world is perhaps where I have the most issues with the game, when it comes to gameplay. It's a great map with lots of unique locations and jack shit to do in them other than scavenge and kill Freakers and hostile humans. And you don't even need to scavenge much, because it takes a while to get good crafting recipes for pipe bombs and shit. Then you also have a small inventory space for each material, so I just barely bothered to scavenge. Oh and I should be clear, you only ever find materials. There's no meaningful weapons to find, only breakable melee ones. All guns and the like are unlocked through camps and story progression. There's also very few events in the world, so there just isn't much going on other than riding from point A to point B. Survival removes fast travel too, so I did a lot of riding. Shame because the map itself really is great and also looks fantastic.

Speaking of looks, the game just looks amazing, specially the lighting and faces (except Tucker and Rikki). Not much more to say there.

Now, story. I found it surpeisingly good, having expected an excuse plot at first. The characters are great and believable and Deacon is a great protagonist. He's such an ass for so long that it really made me enjoy seeing his character development. The third act and finale of the game are particularly amazing, though the cliffhanger post-game stuff is sad since a sequel was rejected by Sony. I would really enjoy seeing a sequel that irons out the kinks like the empty open world and continues the story.

There are some interesting aspect to the main story, but it rarely goes into enough depth or complexity to make it worth trudging through the rest of the game.

Fallout 1 has aged terribly in almost every respect. The combat is awkward and unwieldy, the graphics and UI are hideous, and bugs and errors (oftentimes game-breaking) are incredibly common (I even got softlocked along the main quest, only escaping thanks to reliance on glitches).

The story may have been good by 90s standards, but playing it for the first time 25 years later, it leaves a lot to be desired. My expectations may have been set too high by the comparisons to New Vegas, but I don't think my disappointment can be explained through overinflated expectations alone.

Ultimately, I wouldn't recommend Fallout 1. It has some redeeming aspects, but the flaws run deep and the strengths aren't enough to compensate. If you do play, please be sure to consult a guide (especially for character building), crank the difficulty to easy, and turn your expectations down a few notches. With the right mindset, you may be able to enjoy it more than I did, but even that isn't a guarantee.

Played this around 2014-ish. It holds up well and is still a really well made campaign. There's an excellent sense of forward momentum, variety, and top tier stuff with Ravenholm and the gravity gun. The characters and world never quite drew me in, its good but lacks that special something for me. But the headcrabs and monsters are great, and the game is well worth experiencing. I'm quite glad this game has yet to be remade, as its well worth going back to the original and seeing what the fuss was about.

I may revisit these Arkham games sometime soon. I played these way back around 2013 on my Xbox 360, and I have nothing but good memories regarding it. The big thing I remember thinking back then is how tight the experience felt- every action, every collectible, every gadget made sense.

The combat was satisfying and simple, with a big emphasis on building up combos. There was creative implementation of the gadgets here as well, with certain enemies requiring you to break their guard with something like a batarang or a stungun. Animation and sound quality is something that stuck with me here, everything had a very satisfying thunk to it. Stealth, too, was wonderfully implemented. There was a system in place where, the more you pick off thugs, the more panicked they become. It all felt very diegetic and satisfying.

I never was big on collectibles in games, but I think Arkham Asylum put a clever twist on these by having a majority of them actually be riddles strewn out in the world. I remember some of these being pretty clever and, again, making use of everything the player has. This actually made the collectibles feel like content rather than additional bloat or time wasters.

The voice acting and presentation was a big highlight too, they brought in all the big actors from the old animated series and they killed it. The constant night and moody atmosphere of the game really felt like peak noire Batman stuff.

Again, I'd like to revisit these games some time to see how well they hold up.

I've actually started FEAR about 4 times before - including this session - but this is the first time I've actually finished it. Always had a bad habit of putting things I'm going through, especially if I'm enjoying it, in a limbo state, but I figured now's as good as time as any to settle this since it's October. There's no beating around the bush for this one, I know it, you know it, your long distance family member you probably had no idea existed knows it, FEAR kicks a lot of ass even today.

Actually quite surreal how this game's sound design is still top of the line when it came out in 2005, to the point even some modern shooters sound rather pitiful by comparison. No more is this evident, than the famous shotgun. Just listen as to how this thing reverbs and echoes around the area as it lays waste to mooks in 1-3 shots, sometimes dismembering or even gibbing them into nothing but red mist. or the Type-7 Particle Weapon as it whirrs and deliciously evaporates any enemy you aim it towards. I could go on and on, especially with the pistol of all shooter weapons, but you get the point: The sound design is excellent even nowadays, topped off with a great, atmospheric OST that knows how to create the mood and tension.

That's another thing I really like about FEAR, the tension. I would definitely be lying if I said it was a consistently scary game, but the way the cramped, almost claustrophobic design of offices, warehouses, and factories create such memorable and integral experiences within the gunfights and even walking around doing the objectives, makes it so that some of the haunts have some amount of impact like when enemies pop out of nowhere or catching a glimmer of Alma from the corner of your eye, even amongst the really silly and cheap jumpscares like "OOOOOOOOOO SPOOKY SKELLY JUMPING OUT OF THE BLOOD POOL" or Alma's spider walk. People say that the marketing focused more on the horror than the action bits, and while there's some truth to that considering well, the boxart, as well as a laundry list of East Asian Horror influences the team at Monolith have talked about before (there is quite a number, but let's stick with the obvious ones being The Grudge and Ringu), I also feel like they very much wanted emphasize the very clear Matrix and John Woo action setpieces and particle detail being the main draw here.

Well, they aren't wrong, it's pretty much the main spotlight of this game. Despite the majority of enemies being the same looking Replicas, the way their AI and, again, level design of the environments make it so that each encounter can become distinct from one another, is the stuff of legends. I'd be repeating a lot of what's been said, but the main point is that the AI isn't that advanced truthfully, but with how they interact with each other, you, and move and bob around during the firefights gives them an edge not many shooters these days have. Just quicksaving before the start of an encounter - of which I did A LOT - can have so many different variations and outcomes depending on what happens. Maybe a Replica will create cover by shoving objects down. Maybe one will just dive through a window to flank you. Maybe the squad will lay down suppressing fire, requiring you to time the grenade and slo-mo just right to create an explosive distraction. So on and so forth. It's by and large a game I heavily urge people to play on the higher difficulties (Hard or Extreme) to get the full benefit, cause without it you lose out on all sense of appeal and satisfaction the game has going for you.

Really, my only issues is that the pacing, while great, can slow to a crawl on occasion. Sometimes it's just hard to not know where you're going, and some levels just drag on (the offices mainly). Also, like I said, some of the scares can just be lame and cheap, which do admittedly hamper the enjoyment just a fair bit. I haven't even mentioned the story just now cause like, it isn't BAD and has some neat stuff in it, but I also can't really say I care that much about what's happening (which, to be clear, isn't necessarily a bad thing, this is far from the first game I love that I care more about the gameplay than the storytelling). Above all else though, FEAR is still an essential FPS experience, and if you haven't played it yet for whatever reason, you're pretty much doing a disservice. It even has an Easter egg of one of Monolith's previous titles that's one of the greatest 7/10s in existence for crying out loud!

Also uh, if you're gonna buy this for the first time, get it on GOG. Steam STILL has the game and its expansions locked behind a complete pack that goes for 55 USD which is just, insane. Over at GOG, you get just the game and its two expansions for 10 USD, which is more than fair. Then go over to the PCGamingWiki page for some touchups on modern systems, and you're good to go.