2019
No. :)
Fatal Frame 3 probably has the best narrative in the series, and it has a lot of cool ideas going for it, but is stretched way too thin for it's own good, with the back half feeling really tired. Five-to-eight hours is sorta the golden ratio in terms of length for most classic horror games of this ilk, but this clocks in at around 15 hours, and unlike it's sequel which was about the same length, does very little to warrant that runtime (or whatever the GAMER™ equivalent to that word is).
That being said, it's totally worth enduring the slog for an ending that emotionally hits way harder than a Fatal Frame game aught to.
That being said, it's totally worth enduring the slog for an ending that emotionally hits way harder than a Fatal Frame game aught to.
IMHO this is the peak of golden-age classic survival horror games. It's certainly not perfect by any means, and is pretty easy overall, but MAN it just nails the atmosphere and gameplay (and unlike most Fatal Frame games that would proceed it, IT KNOWS WHEN TO END)! Minakami Village is such a perfect location to set a horror game too, as it breaks up the chapters and gameplay beats into these neat small chapter packages in a cool organic way. Each house in the village is it's own little puzzle box you gotta solve, making backtracking rare when comparing it to it's contemporaries.
Shit's good. I'd give it a big thumb. Just a really large thumb.
Shit's good. I'd give it a big thumb. Just a really large thumb.
A source port that runs the game on Nightdive's KEX Engine which makes it look really crisp and sharp, and features some much-appreciated quality of life changes (like addressing the original's lack of mouse-look). These little tweaks are minor, but really show off how forward-thinking the rest of this game was all the way back in 1994.
Despite nearly being 30 years old, System Shock's overall design feels rather contemporary. It's world, while still very garish in it's design thanks to DOS limitations, feels a lot more organic and real than anything present in it's FPS contemporaries, Marathon and DooM. In a lot of ways, System Shock feels like it could fit in neatly with a lot of Immersive Sims released today... and it kinda sorta is.
I have no idea how the Nightdive's remake will turn out. It has been in development since 2015, and has seen multiple revisions and delays since it's announcement. But now that it's NEARLY here, I really don't think it'd have to update much outside of visuals to be a classic in it's own right, because System Shock's foundation was already THAT GOOD in '94. It's crazy! Video games are cool sometimes!
Despite nearly being 30 years old, System Shock's overall design feels rather contemporary. It's world, while still very garish in it's design thanks to DOS limitations, feels a lot more organic and real than anything present in it's FPS contemporaries, Marathon and DooM. In a lot of ways, System Shock feels like it could fit in neatly with a lot of Immersive Sims released today... and it kinda sorta is.
I have no idea how the Nightdive's remake will turn out. It has been in development since 2015, and has seen multiple revisions and delays since it's announcement. But now that it's NEARLY here, I really don't think it'd have to update much outside of visuals to be a classic in it's own right, because System Shock's foundation was already THAT GOOD in '94. It's crazy! Video games are cool sometimes!
2022
Playing this game with some friends before Konami shuts the servers down and this game gets sent to the void (only a little over year after this game came out, might I add). When we played it, we checked the Steam stats and we saw that we were the only people IN THE WORLD actually playing it.
This game is fine. It is totally okay. It's not really all that notable outside of some decent tracks in the OST and some pretty cool character designs. With that being said, it's sad to see something that a fair few people probably had to spend hundreds of hours working on just get shut down, with no one ever getting the chance to play it from now on.
That shit really sucks.
This game is fine. It is totally okay. It's not really all that notable outside of some decent tracks in the OST and some pretty cool character designs. With that being said, it's sad to see something that a fair few people probably had to spend hundreds of hours working on just get shut down, with no one ever getting the chance to play it from now on.
That shit really sucks.
2005
Anyone who unironically calls a game or movie "kino" should be skinned alive on national tv, but Killer7 is pretty fucking rad!
2023
About 2/3rds of the way through so I'm abstaining from giving a definitive score.
I'll get this out of the way now, the game is fun and is pretty good. But that's because a lot of what works for this remake was also worked for the original, to the point where I am still wondering "Who was really asking for this?"
In terms of remakes, RE4make is closer to the original REmake than it is to the remakes of RE2 or 3. It isn't trying adapt something that is considered "old and outdated", but rather it's a sort of revision of something that is still fairly cotemporary. But unlike RE1, which had aged considerably in the six years between the original release and the GameCube remake, the original RE4 has faired incredibly well in the 18 years (holy shit) since it released.
Because of this, many of the changes thrown into this remake feel, well, thrown in. Like, oh wow you can walk and shoot now, crazy, but the original wasn't at all hampered by Leon's lack of mobility. Enemies would start to slow down as they got close, giving you a chance to get a last minute shot in. Was it realistic, no, but if you're coming to Resident Evil for realism... uh... what's wrong with you?
In order to mitigate Leon's new found mobility, enemies in REmake take bullets like champs and only sometimes get staggered. In the original, you were rewarded for landing proper shots, but here it seems so inconsistent as to when an enemy might be stunned that you pray that the RNG rolls the dice in your favor. I could handle this in RE2make as they were slow zombies and the game was a sort of puzzle-box which was more about knowing when or if you should dispatch enemies rather than finding some way to navigate around them. In both RE4s, the answer is always "KILL", but when your damage output feels so inconsistent, I get to wondering why they went about it this way.
The other new addition is the parry mechanic, which is cool but to dampen the fun that comes with it, they added a durability meter to it. I'd just rather have the windows be less forgiving (they are very forgiving in this) than to constantly have to just dump money into upgrading and repairing this thing. This is only a real nuisance at for the first third, because by the halfway point, you've sunken so much money into the thing that it rarely breaks so why did they add even add this durability mechanic in there?
Stealth is included. I don't care for it's inclusion because it really seems antithetical to what the original was going for and only serves to put the breaks on this game's gameplay pacing, but whatever. It isn't in so much of the game to be that noteworthy.
The changes to story (outside of Luis) don't add much substantively to the game. You're basically getting a slightly remixed plot with less charm and cheese. There are attempts to be campy, but it's balancing act of seriousness (Leon is supposed to be suffering from survivor's guilt, but that's not really touched on much at all, even when it probably should at a certain plot point involving Ashley) makes it all feel really wonky.
RE4make is essentially like someone trying to remake Pink Flamingos with a concerted effort to make it less queer. The original RE4 isn't just good because of it's mechanic's, because RE4 wouldn't be half the game it was if it wasn't for it's camp, atmosphere and style. It'd end up being Cold Fear otherwise. Which makes these changes presented in this remake feel all the more misguided (and at worst cynical).
I can't speak much on the new music because it has the same problem as RE2make where it's largely forgettable. It's not nearly as bad as it was in RE2make's case, because comparatively RE4 already had a more understated OST compared to it's predecessors, but it still comes off as pretty bland. Adding in live musical arrangements doesn't make an OST better, just look at how botched the Demon's Souls OST is as proof.
I want to clarify that I do like this game, a lot even, and if the Dead Space Remake showed me anything it's that there is probably some worth going back and remaking titles that aren't "out-of-date", but RE4make somehow adds very little to properly flesh out or expand on the original in any meaningful way, and instead just makes odd sidesteps that original never called for in terms of gameplay, and straight up trips over it's shoelaces with the plot and atmosphere.
RE4make is good and I'm glad so many people absolutely adore it, and it's bringing new people folks to the series like original did 18 years ago. I just sadly don't vibe with it as most folks are, and unless it somehow drastically changes in it's last third, I'd struggle to give this anything higher than a solid B.
I'll get this out of the way now, the game is fun and is pretty good. But that's because a lot of what works for this remake was also worked for the original, to the point where I am still wondering "Who was really asking for this?"
In terms of remakes, RE4make is closer to the original REmake than it is to the remakes of RE2 or 3. It isn't trying adapt something that is considered "old and outdated", but rather it's a sort of revision of something that is still fairly cotemporary. But unlike RE1, which had aged considerably in the six years between the original release and the GameCube remake, the original RE4 has faired incredibly well in the 18 years (holy shit) since it released.
Because of this, many of the changes thrown into this remake feel, well, thrown in. Like, oh wow you can walk and shoot now, crazy, but the original wasn't at all hampered by Leon's lack of mobility. Enemies would start to slow down as they got close, giving you a chance to get a last minute shot in. Was it realistic, no, but if you're coming to Resident Evil for realism... uh... what's wrong with you?
In order to mitigate Leon's new found mobility, enemies in REmake take bullets like champs and only sometimes get staggered. In the original, you were rewarded for landing proper shots, but here it seems so inconsistent as to when an enemy might be stunned that you pray that the RNG rolls the dice in your favor. I could handle this in RE2make as they were slow zombies and the game was a sort of puzzle-box which was more about knowing when or if you should dispatch enemies rather than finding some way to navigate around them. In both RE4s, the answer is always "KILL", but when your damage output feels so inconsistent, I get to wondering why they went about it this way.
The other new addition is the parry mechanic, which is cool but to dampen the fun that comes with it, they added a durability meter to it. I'd just rather have the windows be less forgiving (they are very forgiving in this) than to constantly have to just dump money into upgrading and repairing this thing. This is only a real nuisance at for the first third, because by the halfway point, you've sunken so much money into the thing that it rarely breaks so why did they add even add this durability mechanic in there?
Stealth is included. I don't care for it's inclusion because it really seems antithetical to what the original was going for and only serves to put the breaks on this game's gameplay pacing, but whatever. It isn't in so much of the game to be that noteworthy.
The changes to story (outside of Luis) don't add much substantively to the game. You're basically getting a slightly remixed plot with less charm and cheese. There are attempts to be campy, but it's balancing act of seriousness (Leon is supposed to be suffering from survivor's guilt, but that's not really touched on much at all, even when it probably should at a certain plot point involving Ashley) makes it all feel really wonky.
RE4make is essentially like someone trying to remake Pink Flamingos with a concerted effort to make it less queer. The original RE4 isn't just good because of it's mechanic's, because RE4 wouldn't be half the game it was if it wasn't for it's camp, atmosphere and style. It'd end up being Cold Fear otherwise. Which makes these changes presented in this remake feel all the more misguided (and at worst cynical).
I can't speak much on the new music because it has the same problem as RE2make where it's largely forgettable. It's not nearly as bad as it was in RE2make's case, because comparatively RE4 already had a more understated OST compared to it's predecessors, but it still comes off as pretty bland. Adding in live musical arrangements doesn't make an OST better, just look at how botched the Demon's Souls OST is as proof.
I want to clarify that I do like this game, a lot even, and if the Dead Space Remake showed me anything it's that there is probably some worth going back and remaking titles that aren't "out-of-date", but RE4make somehow adds very little to properly flesh out or expand on the original in any meaningful way, and instead just makes odd sidesteps that original never called for in terms of gameplay, and straight up trips over it's shoelaces with the plot and atmosphere.
RE4make is good and I'm glad so many people absolutely adore it, and it's bringing new people folks to the series like original did 18 years ago. I just sadly don't vibe with it as most folks are, and unless it somehow drastically changes in it's last third, I'd struggle to give this anything higher than a solid B.
2015
I liked it enough to platinum it and 100%'ed it's DLC. Overall, a really solid game, but it's terrible framerate, samey washed-out environments and it's admittedly lacking gameplay (Soulsborne fans refuse to admit this shit is just Z targeting but faster) keep me from calling it a masterpiece.
Also, the PVP sucks ass even when it wasn't dead. A lot of the issues involved with the netcode were fixed in DS2 (which itself wasn't perfect), among other things. Why Miyazaki refuses to just be normal and not make multiplayer suck ass is beyond me.
Also, the PVP sucks ass even when it wasn't dead. A lot of the issues involved with the netcode were fixed in DS2 (which itself wasn't perfect), among other things. Why Miyazaki refuses to just be normal and not make multiplayer suck ass is beyond me.
2023
I almost hate that I love this as much as I do...
I'm sure that like a lot of other people, the announcement of a Dead Space remake during this period where it seems every company is preforming necromancy on their franchise's earlier entries really rubbed me the wrong way. We were not that far removed from EA's gutting of Visceral Games, and seeing this was being made by some other in-house EA dev team that few had ever really heard of seemed particularly skeezy and cynical. I didn't really pay attention to game and was instead hyped for The Callisto Protocol, which was being made by some ex-Visceral guys.
Unfortunately, The Callisto Protocol (while by no means as bad as a lot of people made it out to be) wasn't quite the Dead Space successor I was hoping for. So, I gave in and snagged this game because I am a piece of shit worm... and I really dug it!
I still think Dead Space 2 is the best game in the franchise (and really just one of the best Third Person Shooters out there, honestly) thanks to it's immaculate pacing, fantastic level design and quicker gunplay which make for an overall tighter game than this one imho. But with that being said, this remake has really made the original 2008 Dead Space (a game that I thought and still think has aged really well) a much less essential experience, which I believe is the best thing a remake can do.
Good job, Motive! While I hope y'all decide to do DS4 instead of another remake, I wouldn't be too upset seeing what ya' pull off for DS2!
I'm sure that like a lot of other people, the announcement of a Dead Space remake during this period where it seems every company is preforming necromancy on their franchise's earlier entries really rubbed me the wrong way. We were not that far removed from EA's gutting of Visceral Games, and seeing this was being made by some other in-house EA dev team that few had ever really heard of seemed particularly skeezy and cynical. I didn't really pay attention to game and was instead hyped for The Callisto Protocol, which was being made by some ex-Visceral guys.
Unfortunately, The Callisto Protocol (while by no means as bad as a lot of people made it out to be) wasn't quite the Dead Space successor I was hoping for. So, I gave in and snagged this game because I am a piece of shit worm... and I really dug it!
I still think Dead Space 2 is the best game in the franchise (and really just one of the best Third Person Shooters out there, honestly) thanks to it's immaculate pacing, fantastic level design and quicker gunplay which make for an overall tighter game than this one imho. But with that being said, this remake has really made the original 2008 Dead Space (a game that I thought and still think has aged really well) a much less essential experience, which I believe is the best thing a remake can do.
Good job, Motive! While I hope y'all decide to do DS4 instead of another remake, I wouldn't be too upset seeing what ya' pull off for DS2!
2004
NINJA GAIDEN DEEZ FUCKIN NUTS DOWN YOUR THROAT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
2016
Quite possibly the most "fine" game I have ever played.
Gameplay was fine.
Story was fine.
Writing was fine (I usually enjoy Sam Lake's stuff).
Graphics were exceptional (this was actually my introductory game to the 8th generation of consoles, and on that front it delivers).
I don't really feel anything towards this game. I neither like it nor dislike it. It just simply is...
Gameplay was fine.
Story was fine.
Writing was fine (I usually enjoy Sam Lake's stuff).
Graphics were exceptional (this was actually my introductory game to the 8th generation of consoles, and on that front it delivers).
I don't really feel anything towards this game. I neither like it nor dislike it. It just simply is...
2017
As a lover of the System Shock Duology, Deus Ex and other immersive sims, it really saddens me that this one just doesn't click with me. I hope that like The Evil Within 2, I just was playing it at the wrong time and I'll come back to it later and really love it, but for now it just kinda bounced off me.
2005
So when a bunch of pigs pepper spray an old hag in her home, it's fine, but when I do it, I'm called "Super Hot" and "Insanely Fuckable."
Where is the justice in that?
Where is the justice in that?
2011
Holy shit, I fucking LOVE murder!
I was thoroughly charmed, and had a stupid grin on my face the entire time.
P.S. This game's OST is actually really fucking good, like way better than this game actually deserves. It features a lot of notable alternative artists from the early-to-mid 2000s (Death Cab for Cutie, Cake, Rouge Wave, Flaming Lips etc) doing modern takes on songs from the 1950s and 60s and it slaps hard. I hate saying that I listen to game OSTs because I have sex and a normal social life (trust me, these facets of character surprise me just as much as they do you), but I relistened to this OST more times than I have seen my own brother.
P.S. This game's OST is actually really fucking good, like way better than this game actually deserves. It features a lot of notable alternative artists from the early-to-mid 2000s (Death Cab for Cutie, Cake, Rouge Wave, Flaming Lips etc) doing modern takes on songs from the 1950s and 60s and it slaps hard. I hate saying that I listen to game OSTs because I have sex and a normal social life (trust me, these facets of character surprise me just as much as they do you), but I relistened to this OST more times than I have seen my own brother.