Nioh 2 + All 3 DLCs

Before I say anything even remotely positive, let me preface this by saying that the first 60% of this game is irredeemably bad with contrived artificial difficulty that mostly stems from the fact that you're deprived off rudimentary abilities of your overall kit while simultaneously put up against incompetently designed boss encounters that don't take all the handicaps into account and can often lead to a one/two shot. But once you're past the pit of garbage that is the early to mid game you'll find one of the best souls-likes ever made with a quite solid boss roster (except for the deluge of NPC fights) that rivals even DS3

- Combat -

Compared to other Team Ninja titles (FF Origins and Wo Long) I've played combat here is far more polished and balanced out which is tied to the fact that the enemies were designed with the stamina/ki depleting system in mind unlike in the other games where they just slapped Nioh enemies in a deflection based combat
Also for the longest time I held quite the negative preconceived notion about this game's combat system because of the stance mechanic but after finally playing through the entirety of the game the stance switching aspect of it sold the combat to me since the weapon of choice for me was the Switch Glaive. I've messed around with the other weapons a bit at the start but stance switching feels gimmicky at best unless you're using the weapon the mechanic was intended for. Switching between stances here is quite seamless and there's a practicality to the whole thing instead of just being meant for meaningless style points like in DMC
But there's a massive caveat to ALL of this. That is, by the point you get to the actual meaty part of the game's combat system you'll quite literally be done with the game. By the time the combat clicked with me (I unlocked the mystic arts for my main weapon) I was well into the DLCs. And that is all because of the gazillion different skill trees that take FOREVER to progress

- Skill Trees -

The skill trees are one of the major contributors as to why early to mid game feels like absolute torture to sit through. So you get 4 different main skill trees and each for the 11 different weapon types which houses significant gameplay and QoL improvements. So, without those you're handicapped to the point most of the early content becomes exasperated to sit through. To make things even worse the more useful upgrades are intentionally hidden behind dozens of utterly useless ones. So basically without prior knowledge about the skill trees it can take a huge chunk of your playtime to the point you'd unlock the ones that are actually useful.

- Levels -

The areas are all extremely one note to the point all of them look and play out exactly the same. It's always either a forest or a city ruins that loops back to the checkpoints through ladders or doors. Visually and Mechanically the level designs are as repetitive as they come. Definitely one of the worst aspects of the game

- Bosses -

If there's ever an incentive to come back to this game or play through the NG+ cycles it's because of the boss fights. Even though a huge chunk of the bosses are human-type punching bags that you can stunlock into oblivion the boss roster houses some extremely fun fights such as Otakemaru, Shibata Katsuie, Ushiwakamaru, Raikou and Tate Eboshi. And Tate Eboshi single handedly being one of the best bosses ever made, genuinely had the time of my life mastering the fight

- Music -

The music in this game is surprisingly strong. It's consistently good and keeps getting progressively better and better. Some tracks like Raikou/Ushiwakamaru, Otakemaru, Azai Nagamasa and Tate Eboshi's themes are consistently on loop for me these days. The metric I use to judge video game music is that if I listen to the tracks outside of the game they're good if I don't they're garbage and Nioh 2 definitely falls into the former category

Closing thoughts:

If you're into soulslikes Nioh 2 is a game that will give you the highest of highs while simultaneously giving you lowest of lows leaving you conflicted on whether you even like the game or not

2/5

Donde Sorcery! ofrece la ilusión de una aventura que se siente tan urgente como apurada, en la que el nivel de tu heroísmo se marca más por tu astucia que por tu fuerza bruta o acumulación de cachivaches, Sorcery! 2 retoma un poco del modelo encorsetado y formulaico de los módulos tradicionales. La buena impresión dejada por tu incursión inicial por Kharé, una ciudad que se siente habitada en extremo, acaba convirtiéndose en un tedioso ejercicio de agotar opciones hasta encontrar las líneas necesarias que te permiten cruzar la puerta final. Es una verdadera lástima que un lugar tan interesante, tan repleto de ideas originales y con un ingenio y caracterización que ni Bioware ni Obsidian son capaces de alcanzar ni en sus mejores momentos, se vea mancillado por esta visión tan conservadora de diseño.

Si, aún así, eres capaz de superar la decepción que supone darse cuenta de cómo está montado, Sorcery! 2 continúa exactamente donde el juego original lo dejó en cuanto a plantearte un mundo en el que tu presencia cuenta y se valora, pero al mismo tiempo es capaz de continuar existiendo sin tí.

Una cosa más: Swindlestones es mejor que Gwen.

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Where Sorcery! offers the illusion of an adventure that feels as urgent and tense, in which heroism isn't found in brute force of gadget accumulation but your cunning alone, Sorcery! 2 takes up a step back towards a formulaic and traditional model of module dungeon. Your very good impressions left after your first foray through Kharé wind up to a tedious exercise of option exhaust and item collecting. It's a real shame that such an interesting city, one that feels so lived and full of so many colorful characters that Bioware and Obsidian would never be able to conjure, is tainted by such conservative design.

If you're somehow able to get past the initial disappointment, Sorcery! 2 will pick you up exactly where the original entry left off, and will convince that your choices matter insofar as this city and its inhabitants will be able to live without you just fine.

One more thing: Swindlestones is better than Gwent.

This game is absolute trash even for its measly 3 hours playtime

First off metal plus rhythm game is inherently such an awful match since the genre itself is extremely syncopated in nature which leads to the actual rhythm getting muddied by the loud instruments. Even though the game did try to rectify the issue by throwing in a crap ton of visual cues but it only adds to unnecessary visual clutter and in turn making the gameplay far less intuitive. But that's not the only issue the game has it also suffers from contradictory mechanics, cheap vfx and the environment/enemies around you barely reacting to the overall rhythm and yes that includes the bosses as well

Ultimately if you strip down the rhythmic nature (which it barely capitalizes on) of the game it just feels like a clunky clone of Doom Eternal

So fun and engaging playing something that is not an obvious straight line, that asks you to read, investigate and not take anything for granted, and the coolest part, is that the game encouraged me to do it, "here is the problem, here is some knowledge, lets go you can do it!" very motivating.

I ended up surrendering and looking up a few few things on the net towards the end of the game: most the fairies stuff, that was really tedious and I coudnt bother, one "fuck me i didnt see it", one "fuck you that's cheap" AND the 9 thing, if you know you know.

This is like the best a modern game design philosophy (GMTK and stuff like that) can achieve

Just not good... I think part of it is that I much prefer Horizon to Motorsport because it's just more my type of racing game, but this game is also so poorly optimized for pc. The framerate is never stable, and the textures look bad even when I am on high settings. I don't usually love to focus on graphics but when this is a genre where graphics greatly improve the experience, I want them to be good. I don't really care about car customization and didn't get far enough in to give it more of a try, but I get why people complain about it. Anyway, definitely one to skip out on until performance is better, but I think I'll stick with Horizon 5.

In short: An arcade racer vastly outclassed by its flashier sibling, playing at being a sim without any apparent attempt at improving its core issues.

Something feels off about Forza Motorsport. Somewhere between the inexplicably unruly vehicles and curiously small track selection, is a void that shouldn't exist in a game that's spent the last half decade and change supposedly attempting to find itself, and returned with a branding reset that suggests a fresh start.

Forza Motorsport is a game that has no identity. The cover art featuring Cadillac's Le Mans Hypercar, selection of tracks, and game progression's commitment to upgrades and setups, suggest it wants to be a sim. The swimmy car physics' persistent power slides, inconsistent feedback, and still woeful racing wheel experience suggest the opposite.

The result is a game that feels worse as a sim than its primary competitor, Gran Turismo 7, and fails to match the casual fun or flair of its sibling, Forza Horizon - despite offering blessed freedom from that series' profoundly grating festival shtick. The same over-wrought self-seriousness tempered by GT7's general mechanical competence becomes positively abrasive in a game where even slow cars regularly feel like an unpredictable handful. Absent Horizon's more engaging structure, and menagerie of vehicular monstrosities, every vehicle being as likely to break loose mid corner as wallow off into the trackside mud like a two ton pig transforms from slight annoyance into glaring frustration.

Pair all of this with a game that feels like a yearly sports title's annual refresh, rife with performance issues and lacking any obvious refinement in the execution of its foundational elements beyond fine, if underwhelmingly thin, alterations of its single player offering and you're left with a game that fills no niche.

It doesn't play in the same league, mechanics wise, as Sony's hallmark racer. It's not a good enough racing game, or a fun enough single player experience, to elevate itself above Horizon as a destination casual racing game.

Of the racing games you could play, this is certainly one. Beyond that there's little to say.

I think the best way to sum up Bethesda's effort with Starfield (other than just calling it “Fallout 4 in space”, which it is, but that's far from original at this point and I need to ramble) is to just look at the Red Mile quest.
In a space bar that's too dim yet hurts your eyes no matter where you look, a woman named Mei promises you certain death in “The Red Mile”; some challenge you won't remotely begin to fear because even at a measly level 12, you're slaughtering anything stupid enough to fight you. You follow her to the hype platform (which looks like the galaxy's cheapest VIP section), each step taking you closer to the annoying, looping music's source. It gets louder and louder and when Mei finally speaks into the microphone, she's almost fully drowned out by the shitty tune.
The gathering to see you off on this edge of your seat adventure is... four NPCs. When Mei is done riling up this “crowd” - who could fit in a Mini Cooper - three of them clap soundlessly. You can't even bet on yourself because that's just obviously free money. One patron goes to longingly gaze out the window, but it only reflects the room's interior. The reflection is missing almost all of the assets that should be there, including you and the would-be gazer himself. He doesn't seem to care.
The Red Mile itself is infested with the worst bulletsponge enemies you've seen yet and they'll concuss you with insta-explosion, toxic shit-bombs. They'll give a tease of experience per ammo-wasting kill. And you can get stunned really easily now! That was a smart choice for combat flow.
When I completed the “impossible” task of flipping a switch then running away from this horrid mess, Mei met with me in the world of blistering snow and no atmosphere to congratulate me while she wore no spacesuit. None of this surprises me, but people thinking highly of this absolutely blows my mind. The “I built a computer/bought a Series X for Starfield!” crowd almost disgusts me. Maybe Todd Howard is right, though, and all of this is my fault for not having a 4090 because I'm a dirt-coated peasant.

Bethesda knows how to make a video game, and you know this because they've made that same video game like four times now, and yet people still seem to clamor for more of the stale, sloppy mess. If this was your first ever Bethesda game, I could see someone enjoying this played out, buggy ride. I have friends who fall into this category, they'll get many hours out of Starfield. If you're familiar with Bethesda's work, though, you may say Starfield feels like one step forward and several steps back.

Is Starfield a bad game? Kind of, but I've played much worse. I wish I hadn't ever played Fallout 4 and had played this instead, but I can't go back and undo the hours which lead to the feeling of repetition. It is, beyond a doubt, comically sterile. “Space” doesn't really feel like space when it's just broken up into rooms, same as the Capital Wasteland or Skyrim. Whiterun was just a room and so is Mars, it's just a slightly nicer looking one. The trade for this visual upgrade is traveling anywhere is a bigger pain than ever before. “Space” is just a series of loading screens and animations you'll get sick of seeing immediately (thank god for mods).
The fact that you can see out of your ship's window is impressive to me, considering what they're working with. Just like I was “impressed” by Fallout 4 having real-time elevators (no longer in Starfield, and actually a good call as this saves you time). Modders, of course, swooped in immediately to fix stuff Bethesda should have already dealt with. How low is the bar for the multi-billion dollar company? The Ryujin "stealth" missions feel a college student's experiment, not "one of the most important RPGs ever made." (Xbox made this claim, not me.)

The best thing about Starfield is the return of the Adoring Fan. I cannot believe I just said that, but he rules and I'll stand by that forever. He has gifted me a plushie and a coffee mug and they're perfect. His voice actor still has it 100% down, each line brings me back to the fever-dream theater of Oblivion. If I can't have any innovation, I may as well at least get nostalgia. “My respect for you grows by the kilogram!” – This game's saving grace.

I do not recommend Starfield.

I played hi-fi rush early in the year and upon a replay 8 months or so later, I think its now definitive that this is my game of the year and any very minor flaws I once saw in it have been whisked away. I really thought Baldurs' Gate 3 could take it and as a technical and storytelling marvel, it cannot be understated just how good that game is - but the thing is, personally, I just adore hi-fi rush so much and I think it has to be 5 stars.

Stylistically and in a sense of pure enjoyment, I just think this game nails it, its like being thrust into a living, breathing comic book and is the kind of game that 12 year old me would have dreamed about while playing ratchet & clank 2 and jamming out to the planet boldan music. I always love syncing up the stuff I do in a game to the beat/drops of the music and they turned that singular idea into a game of its own - not only that, they take that idea and commit to it so hard that it honestly deserves more appreciation, I can't fault one bit of it and feel 100% satisfied, its practically flawless.

In a previous review I mentioned stinginess of in-game currency (gears) but as it happens I didn't realise you can get tons of them by completing and collecting from challenges and on a replay, I explored levels even more than I did originally, finding all manner of secrets and bonus items/currency that I never realised were there and its frankly excellent level design. I also find the frantic visuals and short cooldowns to be in its favour in a way I didn't as much before, once you practice and get the core gameplay down, that stuff just feels like the cherry on top.

The fact this was shadow-dropped out of nowhere is ridiculous especially when you consider that its a totally new IP from the people that made the evil within, like this couldn't have been any more different. Its a real one of a kind game that demanded a replay from me and it probably won't be the last time, I would also be shocked if this never got a sequel or spin-off of any kind because it seems to just beg to have one. Game devs need to take notes from this one because its a game that really does what it says it does, but more than that, its an insane amount of fun. Ikr, games can be fun!

¿Cómo de irónico es que, tras más de 10 años intentando crear un estilo propio, Uncharted acabó su andadura pareciéndose a Tomb Raider más que los Tomb Raider de ahora?

Al margen de esta take, no hay mucho que decir de Lost Legacy que no se aplicara ya en Thief's End. El estilo de juego está más pulido que nunca, y la capacidad de saltar entre modo sigilo y modo acción se siente completamente implementada. Por desgracia, tu Chloe Frazer parece más susceptible que nunca a ir por donde no quieres que vaya. Una consecuencia inevitable de hacer tus juegos más "realistas", pero no más interactivos. El ritmo de juego, aunque un poco comprimido para mi gusto, mantiene una intensidad correcta todo el tiempo, y sus puntos álgidos parecen la conclusión más lógica de lo que Naughty Dog venía haciendo, a nivel de mapeado, desde Last of Us. El hecho de que se haga corto tal vez sea un punto a su favor.

No tengo mucho que decir con respecto a la historia. Como ya pasara con Uncharted 4, hay mucha promesa de profundidad temática, pero muy poca exploración genuina. Lost Legacy se sale con la suya un poco porque cuenta con personajes ya establecidos para contar su historia, pero me cuesta imaginarme a nadie sintiendo nada por Chloe y Nadine si no las conocieran de antemano. Sin ese soporte, lo único que tienes es una historia de acción competente con vagas aspiraciones a relato de empoderamiento femenino de etiqueta.

Con todo, se siente que hemos llegado al final de un camino aquí. Mi más sincera enhorabuena a Naughty Dog por alcánzar el cénit de su aspiración artística: parecer una película de Marvel.

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How ironic is it that, after more than 10 years of trying to create its own style, Uncharted ended up resembling more Tomb Raider than Tomb Raider today?

Aside from this take, there's not much to say about Lost Legacy that doesn't apply to Thief's End. The gameplay is more polished than ever, and the ability to jump between stealth and action mode feels fully streamlined. Unfortunately, Chloe Frazer is very susceptible to getting where you never want to, a sad consequence of making your games more "realistic" but not more interactive. The pacing of the game, while a bit too compressed for my taste, maintains its intensity throughout, and its climaxes seem like logical endpoints to what Naughty Dog had been doing, map-wise, since Last of Us. The fact that it's short is perhaps a point in its favor also.

I don't have much to say about the story. As with U4, there's a promise of thematic exploration, but very little of it. Lost Legacy gets away with it by using already established characters, but I have a hard time imagining anyone feeling anything for Chloe and Nadine if they didn't know them beforehand. Without that, all you have is a competent action story with vague aspirations of female empowerment.

Despite that, it's truly like we reached the end of a road here. My sincere congratulations to Naughty Dog for reaching the zenith of their artistic aspiration: looking like a Marvel movie.

Outer Wilds is the perfect example of why you should always approach games that are considered "All time classics"/"Masterpieces" with a shit load of skepticism because despite all of the praises I hear about this game I can't for the love of god even bring myself to say anything remotely positive about it

First off, who thought putting a time restriction in an exploration focused game was a good idea? The amount of backtracking you need to do because of the supernova that triggers every 20 minutes coupled with the amount of annoying unforeseeable traps that also lead to your death is absolutely ridiculous, which was also the main motivator behind killing my intrigue to explore somewhat of a cohesive world with neat ideas and puzzles.
Now onto the elephant in the room, the controls are fucking abysmal which makes simply moving around quite annoying and they had the gall to design multiple segments that revolve solely around controlling your spaceship, which I can only describe as janky. Most of the deaths in this game either happen due to poor controls, random traps that you cant see coming & of course the stupid supernova which is basically the game's way of saying "Uh oh you couldn't explore everything within the measly 20 minutes we gave you? Time to send you back to the very beginning of the game with no way to fast travel" And I have a massive bone to pick with incompetent game devs that don't respect the player's time.
The story here is also quite non-existent and the people who insist otherwise are just plain out wrong because gathering wiki articles and putting them together does not make up for a very cohesive narrative that suck you into the experience, it's jarring if anything. I also don't see the appeal of the tracks here either, they don't fit the tone of the game at all but honestly speaking they're simply just lame.

Whoever thinks Outer Wilds is a masterpiece or a timeless classic, stop lying to yourself
This game sucks