Iconic. Insane. Incredible. Insurmountable. That is what Portal is. When I was young, I watched my sister play bits and pieces of it. Now its my turn. >:)

Brief Description

You are Chell, a woman who randomly wakes up in Aperture Science Laboratories. A robotic voice, named GLaDOS, talks to you on the speaker system and instructs you to go through each room-- each with a different puzzle to solve to proceed. You, throughout the game obtain a portal gun, which allows you to place blue and orange ovals. They act as a door, once connected, to get you to places that you are unable to reach otherwise.

Pros
-I love the writing. The script is overall so charming and I love listening to the line delivery each time.
-The whole concept really is unique and lovable. A puzzle game where you are making your way out as a lab rat, in a quirky and charm and, weirdly at the same time, soul-less setting. I love it.
-The concept and execution of the "portal" in this game is so cool. To essentially teleport a player is an awesome concept and crazy thing to code, I'd imagine. It blew my 7-8 year old mind when I first heard about it.
-There's endgame content, like harder difficulty levels and time trials. I believe there is also a production narrative mode where one of the developers talks about the level designs one by one as you walk through the game. I opened it for a millisecond but need to check it out later.
-There is definitely lore linked to Valve's "Half Life" series. I just need to play Half Life-- but I appreciate the references!

Cons
-I did get a little bored at some points. Not sure if that is the inevitable after playing a puzzle game for 2 straight hours, but I wish it held my attention at the slow parts.

This game is great. Absolutely amazing for what it was when it came out. I really am excited to see the endgame content, see further into the development of it, and play it in RTX (? even though it has mixed reviews lol). Also makes me eager to play Portal 2-- I love it! :)

This is the best implementation of mid-00's aesthetic - that mix of gritty, earthy, dark greens/blues/oranges and steel-neon cities out of a frutiger aero background. It whizzes by at 700 MPH, and it feels like it. It goes for pseudo-realism and it still looks good two decades later. How does it do it? The story mode is balls-disgusting hard, but with such quick hooks objectives and ever-teasing, escalating difficulties - you can't get through that door? that one boulder is gonna make you stop playing? - it dangles the carrot so well. Great fuckin soundtrack, and there's more than one person I know who got into electronic or ambient music from this. The characters are so distinctly goofy sci-fi, and they don't need to be there or fleshed out like they are, yet they are! And then there's the astronomically-high skill ceiling that's fun to watch, and fun to just graze every now and then with an absolutely perfect slide or snake before you absolutely eat shit off the track like Icarus. Anyone of any skill level can at least enjoy it.

I've been trying to stick all my five star rated games with some kinda commentary, but what is there to add here? Go play it! It speaks for itself. It's so effortlessly cool, such a tightly built game with grand feel, few flaws, and zero friction between it and its experience - just a raw test of skill, and people still keep pushing its limits year by year.

I was doing that one campaign mission where you have to do the race against Evil Captain Falcon and Eviler Captain Falcon, and I kept on losing by like half a second over and over. Probably an hour into trying it I was once again about to come in 3rd, when the spirit of Captain Falcon himself took over my body. I swerved and slammed directly into a mine that was near the end of the track, which ricocheted me into another mine, which then blasted me over the finish line in a clear first place. You remember that Nascar guy that rode the wall and won the race?

I felt that rush.

It took a bootleg Switch port with 60 fps framerate and camera control for me to stop worrying and love Mario 64. This game is a hood classic for a reason.

It's the non-handholdy nature that's missing in later Nintendo games. M64 isn't afraid to leave you one-on-one with the world that doesn't have a defined easily predictable structure and layout. It will cleverly nudge you in the right direction, but this never feels condescending. There is a confidence and trust in the player that they will come in grips with controls and figure out what's required out of them on every stage of the game. The learning curve of controls is also something entirely unique to this era of gaming, Physical and weighty player characters in games is something I find a lot of enjoyment in so Mario where every move has to be a commitment is something right up my alley.

It's the level design that holds it back in my opinion with most levels falling in just kinda ok category. Though there are great exploration stages (hazy maze cave, cool cool mountain, tiny huge island wet dry world) and linear platforming gauntlets (tick tock clock, all bowser stages) amongst levels that don't have much in the way of interesting platforming or problem solving.There are a few stages which are just generally tedious to clear with rainbow ride being the biggest offender here. Also I understand that N64 cards had limited storage, but the lack of variety in music really started to irritate me when I heard Slider for the 50th time.

Overall tho I'm glad that I familizarized myself with one of the gaming touchstones and had a good time while doing so. It's a good game.

I got 82% through a full completion and my character select option locked with Rey and BB8. I've tried searching online and there is absolutely no way to fix it without starting a new game which I am not doing after 70+ hours dedicated to a game had I completed been 2 ½ - 3 stars.

The game looks incredible and had so much potential but the time crunch and studio cynicism I can just feel leaking through nearly every aspect of the game. Gameplay is pretty standard, you really have seen everything by the time you are 10% through the game. Combat is mere button mashing, and it has one of the most simplistic combo system I've seen. Unfortunately the puzzles are no different. This game has about 10 puzzles and 5 mission types that they repeat on 20+ planets, so the idea of completing grew to be a chore. The missions where you would have to go on a fetch quest to multiple planets is the biggest perpetrator of this flaw.

For positives, I did like the class system of characters. In the original star wars games they flirted with this idea bug I think this game realizes it in a much fuller fashion. As stated prior the visuals are fantastic, it's amazing how a game made of bricks can create atmospheres that feel so alive and lived-in. I feel a baseline love for the Star Wars franchise, as there are a number of references to the more niche contents of the franchise which I'm sure will keep fans giddy.

It just really missed the mark overall, which is so unfortunate as it seems like for lego star wars this is the game Traveller's is putting all of their ideas into. With more time spent diversifying the gameplay and cutting out bloat, this game could've been defining for the series, but unfortunately it's representative of Star Wars in its current state. A mixed bag of ideas with no ambition to create a fulfilling final product.

2/10

I suck at platformers, but they are very fun. With that being said, I had fun playing this with friends (who are good at these types of games). I was carried 100%, but this experience has peaked my interest in replaying and completing more content of the game that we have not finished.

Brief Description
Cuphead is a very hard platformer. It can be played either in singleplayer or in coop, but I imagine it is funner and more intended for coop play. You control Cuphead and Mugman, who are trying to break their deal with the devil. There are three main regions with a mix of stages. There are run and gun stages (which help you get coins to buy items in the shop), mosoleums (where you unlock supers/ultimates), and the main aspect of the game, which are boss fights (beating all in a region allows you to progress the game).


Pros
-Everything about the art design and style of the game is fabulous. It is unique, and as my friend put it, a homage to old timey vintage American cartoons. The UI, character designs, animations, sound design, and overall look of the game is an S++ from me.
-The level design is really fun. I have no expert level critiques to say other than they are all unique and it is really satisfying to get farther and farther with each attempt at a level until you complete the stage.
-I love the overall juxtaposition of the cheerful design of the characters in the game with the dark undertones of the fights and the plot of the game. The sentiment of "Don't make a deal with the devil." is in it of itself really damn cool.
-I think they make it very playable for casual players considering that there is an easy mode. I have not tried it because my friend carried me, but I like that it opens to a broader audience with that.
-The variety of weapons and items that really make it fun to play the game how you want. You can beat stages in a variety of ways to challenge yourself.
-Mechanically the game is fun. The movement is fluid and the parry/dash system is fun.

Cons
-I am not going to lie-- I cannot think if a single valid con. I guess it can suck if you hate repeating levels over and over and are not particularly good at platformers, but the difficulty is a main attraction of the game because you can feel yourself getting better throughout the boss fight as you remember it's attack patterns. So, in my head, that is a plus. But I can understand the thing that this might drive people away, as I felt demotivated after I lost to a level like 50 times.

I definitely will go back to this game to try to do better at the levels and also complete the content we have not finished in the hopefully near future. It is extremely fun and I reckon that everyone should give it a try!

Maliciously designed to kill you.
It's banking on you to beat it out of spite. "Oh you just teleported chaingunners behind me after picking up this inconspicuous gun? Well now I'm ready next time, asshole!" It really wants to make you hate these demons with a burning passion. If Doom II was built any easier or laxer then these enemies wouldn't be much of a threat alone, and therefore less memorable. The level design accentuates the demons as scheming yet merciless. This isn't some honorable battle between warriors, this is a hunt for flesh. And there can only be one winner here.

More than many action games is Doom II a test on your memory, reactivity, and resource management. This game is straight up unfair, so you need to keep in mind what gun your currently holding before triggering the trap that killed you earlier. Demons have various levels of health, damage, and mobility; thus misusing and wasting your more powerful weapons will leave you vulnerable for when you really need that rocket launcher or B.F.G. against that Archvile. Sound cues are vital to knowing if a enemy has spotted you, or if a off-screen projectile is flying towards you. The player at least has the newly added super shotgun, though while a extremely powerful gun with good ammo efficiency, can be easy to over rely on. Definitely had times where the intervals between reloading the shotgun got me killed, when I should've attacked more from a distance with the chaingun or stunlocked with the plasma rifle.

But even with the generous usage of quicksaves, this game can get exhausting for a new player. Sometimes you get tired of being made a fool of yourself when the game teleports you into a tiny room with four imps on every side, which then proceed to tear you to shreds. Literally no way to know that was going to happen. The more bullshit people will encounter, the less willing they'll be able to continue with your game. Of course that isn't a universal rule, but there's a fine line between "Fck you, let's try that again!" and "Fck you, I quit!" For better or worse, games just don't do this kind of evil, unscrupulous design anymore.
Like Doom Eternal, I had to take breaks in the middle of levels. But unlike Eternal, it was because I couldn't be bothered at points to drudge through yet another elevator that takes me right into a horde of chaingunners that eat away at my health before I can even see where they are. It's funny how some of the earliest demons, the chaingunners, I find to be more annoying then even the Pain Elementals or Archviles.

Though with that in mind, playing Doom II showed me why this game has remained popular to this day. The enemies with their particular and variable roles, and the weapons with their satisfying designs and function, makes for near-infinite mod level packs with fresh feeling gameplay. Whether you want to have the player cleave through hordes of fodder demons with the B.F.G., or starve them for ammo as they have to whittle down a towering Cyberdemon, modding Doom II levels will live on well-passed any live service game that shuts down (six months after release).

Don't know if I played a good version of Doom II though. I'll be honest when I look up stuff for classic Doom, I get pretty intimidated by the number of ports and re-releases of the game, plus all the hard-core fans mentioning which ports are better then others. I played the standalone release from Steam on my Steam Deck, not sure what people in the community would call that port. I just took the path of least resistance to play the game, so hopefully that version won't make a Doom fan too upset at me. Did come across a few bugs, namely to do with a elevator not triggering and I had to reload my save to get it working again. Also I don't know if this is just a normal Doom thing, but sometimes it can feel pretty stingy when auto-aim will work if you're trying to hit a demon from a large elevation difference. Hard to get into a precise location to hit them when they can attack with their hitscans from wherever they want off-screen. This version of Doom 2 at least had that reticle to light up red if the next shot will hit a target, but it still doesn't change the fact how awkward "aiming" can be in this game.

And lastly, why did 'Into Sandy's City' only play in one level when it's easily the best song in the entire game?

This game is amazing.

I can't fully express how impressive and vast the options are in this game. I don't want to give a full breakdown with my experience in this game, as it would take far too long. Instead, I will simply add that I beat the game, have a couple runs going, and I disliked Halsin.

I had essentially no issues with the game, but I still find difficulty in whether it deserves a 5⭐ rating. For me, I think I burned out a bit playing this. Enough that I feel secure giving it a 4.5. I would still 100% agree with a 5.

The effort put into this game is on another level.