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.

I've never played Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon. I was still jobless due to being a teen, and by the time I could afford it, I simply forgot about its existence. Numerous people have said this was one of the better Ubi games during their transition phrase from what they were doing in 7th Gen to now, and even a select few say it's not only better than the main game, but it's the best Far Cry game period.

I'm not gonna mince words here: This is one of the most agonizing and grueling games I've touched for the first time this year, and if I didn't play Dark Castle a little over a week ago, I would easily say it is the worst thing I've experienced for the first time this year. Very, very bold words, I know, but not only is that how I genuinely feel, and as much as I try to get a bead on the appeal factor, I struggle to see whatever it is that made people like this.

Jeffrey Yohalem isn't the leading writer this time around, it's being done by Lucien Soulban who was one of the story designers, and after this would get major roles for writing FC4 and Watch Dogs 2. I haven't touched those and I barely remember seeing the beggining portion of them, so I don't know if this is indicative of his overall quality or if someone else on the team was adding bad mixes, but regardless the dialog is horrendous. This isn't a loving tribute to 80s blockbusters or culture, it's an unfunny "parody" that never uses the aesthetics and/or tone of its throwback to full advantage, instead stuffing it with the worst, most obnoxious jokes and quips possible. What is the point of having a forced, overly long tutorial section that not even the base Far Cry 3, and even the tutorial I played for FC2, managed to do? To have the MC, Rex Power Colt, bitch and moan about how forced and long tutorials have become, clearly being about the gaming culture at the time (and now, even)? That's not genius satire, that's just being the same obnoxious tool under the veil of "awareness" and "irony" in the hopes of getting cheap laughs. What's the point of having Rex spout one-liners even the MCU writers would cringe over, when he scores special marks like a takedown, shotgun kill, or a headshot? I suppose it's viewed as doing the same cheesy shtick from action flicks, but not only is that a gross overview from someone dabbling into that form, considering how piss easy this expansion is, it's something that got old incredibly fast anyway. In one case where the game did manage to get a chuckle out of me, it then segued into a stupid ass tangent about videogames and how they don't cause violence, and those that think so are "fucking idiots", like seriously? Why? The 80s stuff it does do are basic as hell, like wow nice Thriller and The Touch references bro, I haven't seen anyone do that a billion times already, same with the obligatory Mortal Kombat arena.

I don't mind media that are clearly more about the spectacle and over-the-top action than about the writing - Redline and Dead Leaves are two anime I saw this year that can be described as such and I fucking love those two - but in this case, it's so incredibly trite, artificial, and post-ironic about it that I'd genuinely prefer if it, quite frankly, never bothered in the first place, especially if its final act is gonna use a meme that was old even by the time the expansion first released. The only times the game got a chuckle out of me was when one side mission was an obvious spoof of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and this line of dialog about how Winners Don't Use Drugs, other than that I was completely stonefaced. It's no wonder this was one of the most commonly cited criticisms back when it released. ADDENDUM: I forgot to mention this when writing the review out, but even with the foresight and knowledge that this released before the overused and eyerolls of 80s Throwback really kickstarted, it doesn't really change how cheap and superficial it is regardless, feeling nothing more than brownie points for doing Recognizable Things, especially since it mixes in modern jokes and topics so haphazardly that it clashes with these aesthetics even more.

Related to side missions, I'm quite frankly appalled as to how much of a step down the combat is compared to the base game. I played this on hard, yet I constantly questioned if I was cause the AI are some of the stupidest I've encountered in all my times playing a shooter. Multiple times I've just stood in place and shot them where they were standing and prevailed, multiple times they've just beelined towards my position in a single file line and thus making for a perfect mow-down with my guns, and multiple times did I get the button prompt to use the knife takedown despite the enemy in question being full aware of my presence, staring at my face, and generally not at all being in a stealth-related environment. I seriously wonder what the hell happened between the release of FC3 and this, cause even with the knowledge of decreased budget in mind, this is outstandingly bad, to the point I actually dropped the need of healing syringes since using the default healing animation was effective this time around. As for the guns, they're either painfully undercooked or are souped-up to such a degree they're now overwhelmingly overpowered (save for the last weapon you get near the end, the Killstar, since that one's supposed to be like that). I struggle to find a use for the pistol since it recoils hard and does pitiful damage, yet have found multiple situations where pulling out the Shotgun or Assault Rifle was viable even when it didn't seem like it cause they were pretty much the best cases in all regards, joining up with the Sniper since that's still as good as ever. The main four can also get upgrades once again, and those two in particular can get special rounds that're incendiary, laser, and explosive respectively, and once you get one, two, or even all three of them, you pretty much just won the game since nothing else is ever gonna touch you. The aspect of being this superpowered cyborg that's near-untouchable is cool as shit, so it sucks majorly that I can't even experience that due to these issues severely getting in the way.

If there's one thing I will concede, it's that the open world loop is intact. I do question this weird and rather arbitrary nature of having to level up here this time around, especially since actions like Chain Takedowns and Knife (or Shuriken, as this game calls it) Throws are now innate abilities, yet I have to relearn Heavy Takedown and Running Reload, but considering how much XP you get from loot collecting, stronghold obtaining, and doing the two refurbished board activities (you still have Human/Animal Bounties but now you have a mission where you have to save a hostage 'stealthily', and by that I mean just make sure he doesn't die and you're fine), it becomes a moot point. But like... at that point I'd rather just play the base Far Cry 3 again. Or hell, continue playing 2 since it seems very promising so far. Or just literally any other decent-good open world game. I'd suggest just watching any 80s action movie instead, neon-dripped or otherwise, if you want some fun. You've ever seen Lethal Weapon? Or how about Wheels On Meals? Try those out if you haven't already, and see it again if you have, they're classics.

How do you even review a game like Elden Ring? A collaboration by Hidetaka Miyazaki of FromSoft fame and one of the biggest and best High Fantasy novelists since Tolkien AKA George R.R. Martin known for his world famous A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones series in the form of a massive open-world action RPG? No amount of words or arbitrary scores and ratings will ever do this game justice. Elden Ring is the kind of game that comes around once in a generation. A rare game that has an immense amount of hype and expectations behind it and yet lives up to and even exceeds everything it promises, this must be a dream right? How is this game even real? I truly believe people will be playing and talking about this game for years to come.

The story premise is simple and very much in line with other works from Miyazaki. Elden Ring takes place in a world known as the Lands Between sometime after the Elden Ring has been shattered, there are various demigods, the children of Queen Marika the Eternal who each hold a piece of the shattered Elden Ring in the form of Great Runes that taint and corrupts them. All these demigods are locked in a constant struggle to take all the shards of the Ring so they can reforge it and become the next Elden Lord. The player character, the Tarnished are exiles from the Lands Between who lost the Ring's grace, but are summoned back after the Shattering and now hope to claim the Great Runes, repair the Ring and become Elden Lord themselves.

Simple story premise aside what makes the Lands Between so special and unique, much like any other Souls is the world-building, character back-stories and lore itself. This is where George R.R. Martin's influence in the game shines. The Souls games have always had great detailed world-building if you dig into it by reading weapon descriptions, wikis and videos on YouTube. Elden Ring however is a bit more straightforward and easier to connect with for the average player and I can only imagine that was partially due to GRRM's involvement. NPC dialogue tells more about an NPC and their personality than ever before, item descriptions aren't nearly as vague and even some cut-scenes are much more descriptive now. The Lands Between is dense when it comes to lore, maybe even more so than any past Souls game and despite being less vague than past Souls games, there is still a lot of mystery to it still. This world is also an incredibly unique combination of various mythologies and legends like Celtic, Arthurian and Norse alongside obvious influence from Martin's own A Song of Ice and Fire series, Eastern mysticism and some Lovecraftian themes of occultism and cosmicism especially how the concept of sorcery fits into the world. The Lands Between is one of the most creative and immersive worlds I've had the pleasure of exploring in years and I just can't get enough of it.

Speaking of the world, let's talk about the actual open world design and levels now because Elden Ring is already being called one of the greatest open world games of all time and I have to say I agree wholeheartedly. The sheer sense of adventure and exploration Elden Ring gives is simply unparalleled. The entire game feels like one grand, epic fantastical journey that takes you all over an amazing, detailed world with so much gorgeous (and sometimes grotesque) scenery. Every single one of Elden Ring's 13 different regions from the grassy fields of Limgrave to the swamps of Liurnia or the volcanic rocky mountains of Mt Gelmir feels completely unique and distinct from the rest so they're all an absolute joy to explore and never feel boring. Elden Ring is open world in the purest sense, much like Breath of the Wild (Though I think Elden Ring is even better personally) as soon as you get out of the tutorial you can go anywhere and do anything you want to do. There's no map markers until you start discovering Lost Grace Sites (the Bonfires of this game) and dungeons. The game let's you discover things at your own pace and it feels so natural and authentic unlike most open world games which tend to overwhelm with map markers and make you feel like you're just checking things off a list. Elden Ring also has an insane amount of side content from optional dungeons (that remind me of Bloodborne's Chalice Dungeons, but even better), NPC quest-lines which you'll randomly stumble across in the open world in true Dark Souls fashion and whole secret areas with plenty of optional side bosses. I would honestly say 80-90% of Elden Ring IS optional content. You can explore as little or as much as you want, but I would recommend exploring as much because you get rewarded for it since some of the best content in the game is optional or hidden in secret areas. I also can't praise the topography of the map enough, the way it plays with elevation is unlike anything I can recall seeing in a video game before and there are areas that are obviously designed that way because the developers gave the player a horse that has the ability to double jump and they want you to utilize the feature. Elden Ring is the new benchmark standard for open world games as far as I'm concerned and I truly hope more games follow suit with its design philosophy because we need more Elden Ring's and less of the typical Ubisoft formula.

However the open world isn't all Elden Ring is. No, there's plenty of secular levels which are called 'Legacy Dungeons'. These are in the form of castles, ruins, cities etc. These are smaller more intimate areas us Souls fans have grown to love over the past decade which typically lead to a main story boss and right alongside the open world, these Legacy Dungeons are also some of the best levels FromSoft has ever designed and how all of these flawlessly connect to the open world is simply a master-class in level design. What makes Elden Ring's design philosophy work so well is because it never compromises what the Souls games have always done. Excellent handcrafted levels with tons of hidden secrets and items to find. This is just now done on a much bigger scale than ever before. I like to think of Elden Ring as a bunch of little Dark Souls areas that combine to make one massive Dark Souls area. Oh and if you're worried there isn't a hub area like our Firelink Shrine or Nexus of the past, there is one and you can upgrade weapons and talk to various NPCs there as well. This game legit has everything.

I could talk about the lore and world for days, but let's be honest, Souls fans are mainly here for one thing and that's the combat. So let's talk about the meat of the game and boy is it meaty. This is the culmination of everything FromSoft has learned in the past decade. This is the absolute best Souls combat has ever been. The pacing of the game is in a sweet spot between Bloodborne and Dark Souls III. Not quite as fast as Bloodborne, but not as slow as Dark Souls III either. You have your ol' reliable light attack and heavy attack as always, but now there's new mechanics like Sekiro's stealth and jump attacks (which deal heavy poise damage and help break your enemy's stance quicker) and the Elden Ring specific guard counter (immediately after blocking you hit the heavy attack button for an instant counter attack which makes defensive play styles more viable than ever) and of course even mounted combat. All these features add so much more depth and flexibility than you'd ever imagine. There's a joke that the Souls fan's favorite button is R1 because we tend to just spam and rely on the light attack as it's the most useful option, but there was a point in Elden Ring where I realized I was just naturally always using my entire moveset because the game is designed to make you do so, nothing feels like a useless addition and to make matters even better Weapon Arts which were powerful skills from Dark Souls III come back in the form of Ashes of War, but now these can be changed and experimented on with new weapons whenever you want and they can even change your weapon's status effect too. This isn't even mentioning how many cool and fun spells and incantations there are for magic or faith users to use, the insane variety of weapons and armor or the return of dual wielding power stances from Dark Souls II. Elden Ring is without a doubt the pinnacle of Souls style combat with the most variety in build options and playstyles than any other Souls style game and since you unlock a way to respec your character fairly early on (you can do this multiple times just in one playthrough too) and you find ample materials to upgrade weapons, the game encourages you to experiment and try new weapons and builds.

Difficulty will always be a major talking point when it comes to Souls games and Elden Ring is no exception. Here's my take on it. Elden Ring is simultaneously one of the hardest and most punishing FromSoft games, but also one of the most forgiving and newcomer friendly. How could that be you might ask? It's because of the open world. All other Souls games are linear. If you want to get past a specific area and progress you either have to 'git gud' or farm/grind in the same spot to level up more. Elden Ring isn't like this though because if you're having trouble in a specific area or find a boss you aren't strong enough for yet, just come back to it later. Go explore some more, get new gear, maybe level up a bit and you'll find that the boss won't be nearly as impossible. If you're a Souls veteran you probably won't have to do this as often, however the game does expect you to do this and certain areas are naturally going to have stronger enemies and bosses so you could get punished a bit for lack of exploration. This isn't Dark Souls 4, so don't play it like it is. Elden Ring also gives Spirit Ashes which are helpful NPC summons you can call on for boss fights even when in single player mode. This could range from a pack of wolves to a jellyfish or even a dragon knight, these help a LOT. There are definitely areas of the game that were designed with this mechanic in mind and if you don't utilize it, that's not the game designer's fault or poor balance. There is also a very useful quality of life feature called 'Stakes of Marika' which act as spawn points before boss fog gates. Some people might say this makes the game more 'causalized', but let's be honest here, speaking as a decade long FromSoft fan spending 3 minutes running back to the boss was never a highlight of these games. Having spawn points incentivizes trying things you might not have before and gets you to fighting the boss quicker which makes it more fun than ever before. You've been given all the tools necessary to succeed, you need only use them to overcome your adversaries now.

Another very crucial aspect of Souls games is the bosses themselves. Demons Souls, Dark Souls I-III, Bloodborne and Sekiro all have some of my absolute favorite boss fights in all of gaming and now I happily add Elden Ring to that list as well. Due to the sheer size and scope of the game Elden Ring has the most bosses of any Souls game yet with a whopping 80+ bosses. Yeah there's a handful that are reused, but I feel some people make that seem like a bigger deal than it actually is because the fights are still fun and with a game this size I can't fault them for reusing a handful of bosses. I'd say at least 50 of those bosses are still unique encounters, that's still more than any other Souls game yet none of them feel forgettable, even mini-bosses in dungeons are awesome. They're all incredibly designed with amazing move-sets, designs and memorable locations you fight them in too, as always you feel rewarded for your patience and determination to win when you memorize a bosses move set through trial and error and beat them afterwards. A few bosses also have fun puzzle/gimmicks as well which really make the fights stand out even more. The end-game areas especially have some of the absolute coolest and most fun bosses FromSoft have ever made in my opinion.

I have to mention that I'm hardly a graphics guy, but there were multiple times my jaw dropped because of the indescribable beauty of Elden Ring. I was playing on PS5 and this has to be one of the best looking games I've ever played. I think that's due to two reasons, 1), FromSoft stepping the graphical quality up a good bit because they didn't want to be outdone by the Demons Souls Remake and 2), an absolutely impeccable art design. This game truly shows how far an amazing art design can go to improving the visual look of a game. Every single area of the open world, the characters, the dungeons, the weapons and armor and most importantly the enemies and bosses, it is all peak art design. This is the absolute best visualized dark high fantasy game setting I've ever seen bar none.

Last but not least I have to mention the immaculate OST by master composer Yuka Kitamura. She helped compose the OST for both Bloodborne and Dark Souls III alongside Motoi Sakuraba and she composed the Sekiro OST by herself. However Elden Ring might be her best work yet. From the calm ambient tracks which add to the atmosphere of the open world to the various distinct bombastic epic orchestral boss themes Elden Ring's OST is a treat to the ears and one you'll remember and still be hearing melodies from long after your playthrough.

All in all Elden Ring deserves every single bit of praise its gotten, it has fully lived up to the hype and even far exceeded my astronomically high expectations in every way possible. I never could've imagined I would end up loving it nearly as much as I did or that it would become my all time favorite game. Whether it be masterclass level design and the greatest open world ever made with an unfathomable amount of side content, the pinnacle of Souls style combat, the most build variety and options yet, a one-of-a-kind and unique world and lore, cool, creative and memorable boss fights, some of the best art design and graphical capabilities in gaming or masterfully composed OST, Elden Ring truly has it all. I struggle to find a flaw in the game because it is as close to a flawless, perfect game as you can possibly get aside from some minor performance issues that I'm sure will get patched anyways. Simply put Elden Ring is the culmination of everything FromSoft has done since Demons Souls, it is FromSoft and Miyazaki's magnum opus, a true evolution of the Souls formula, a groundbreaking, genre-defining masterpiece that everyone deserves to experience in their lifetime.

Eh? I don't think the ideas this tackles are interesting or even really well explored (gaming as an art form really needs to move beyond the idea of interrogating the player's role in a game's story, what that means for agency for the player and characters, etc. Metal Gear Solid 2 already explored those ideas sufficiently while also tying those ideas to the emotional intentions of the narrative, which this fails to do). This is mostly a self-congratulatory critique of the medium that feels like it's pushing toward something bigger but never truly delivers (almost like how I feel about og Ghost in the Shell, now that I think about it). Feel like this follows in the same vein of modern horror movies whose director's create them because they want to make more "mature" genre fare when a lot of earlier works are far more interesting and mature than their creations. And this is coming from someone who's only played a bit of Higurashi and Tsukuhime but those are clearly superior works in terms of conveying the horror and off-kilter emotions attempted here.

It's attempting to deliver on the same dreamlike, in-between state of being that, say, the ending of Mulholland Drive delivers. And this is not to say that it really even compares to that, but its intentions are similar and the little mechanical/visual tricks it pulls to sell that narrative descent are genuinely neat, if surface level. But perhaps I'm just easily amused by those sorts of things, I love amorphous narrative modes; starting as one thing and then becoming another, which is something that I think should be explored mechanically more in games. Why not have a visual novel abruptly turn into a first-person adventure game in the middle to sell a certain emotion? But that's a difficult shift to achieve and would require someone of far more interesting thematic and mechanical sensibilities to be making games. Doki Doki Literature Club is child's play compared to whatever that would result in.

i'd wager there are many who try to undertake a more fair critical analysis when writing about this game. for the sake of transparency, let's just say i can't. this isn't about a stringent inability to separate art from the artist, this is about my inability to separate art from its era.
- it is emblematic of a dark period in capcoms oeuvre, in which they repeatedly made awful creative and financial decisions in an attempt to both maximize revenue and appeal to western markets
- it is easily one of the most repugnant, misogynistic games ive ever played; it possesses some of the worst writing ive ever seen in a game while still supposedly aspiring to shakespearean greatness. none of its musings on society ever come together nor can it be enjoyed as a charming romp when so little of its characterization is either endearing or palatable
- the calvacade of capital G Gamers who were thoroughly unimpressed by this title inspired a desperate and petty form of tribalism from the likes of varying industry figures that continues to resurface to this day...
- ...which, inadvertently, largely reminds of a kind of rampant xenophobia that existed in the seventh generation of games, a quiet dismissal of anything japanese in the medium and a refusal to engage with their works on sincere grounds (look no further than the original niers critical admonishment). ninja theory felt completely comfortable disparaging and blaspheming the original franchise that they now held the keys to in an era where inescapable indie 'beloveds' like jonathan blow and phil fish rallied to antagonize an entire country's output to the medium
- ninja theory had zero right to patronize or criticize, by the way, given that itsuno had to babysit them to teach them anything at all about proper enemy design, combat design, and so on and so forth. their action game couldn't even be considered average until the release of the special edition
- honestly think the games environments look like dogshit, considering it's the one thing everyone is unanimous in praise of. 2000s movie poster type bullshit

a stark reminder of an awful time to be a participant in the medium and the sole reason i refuse to be accessory to ninja theory in any financial capacity. sacrilege if im being real. hilarious that dmc5 reconciles with this games western sensibilities to often brilliant effect by comparison