Playing on Atari 50, my goal with this one was to be decent enough to hit extended play. That turned out to be a tough task! I would have pumped plenty of quarters into this one in the attempt and probably would never make it with the intended 2-player co-op.

Once again, I can see this as a potential inspiration for many games to come. The graphical detail is also a leap forward from the likes of, say, Sprint 8. But it seems to me to be missing one obvious component: there's no firefighting elements, at all. Might as well call it "runaway tractor-trailer." I guess it might have been beyond the capabilities of the time to have a water hose effect, let alone fires to put out.

A game that excels at delivering the unexpected. It's a shoot 'em up crossed with a twin stick shooter with a focus on puzzles over reflexes. Mechanics change often - often within the same level - and I think there's thirty-five levels and seven boss fights. I delighted in how these changes were visually communicated and how tightly designed they were. There's often just enough time to react, then work things out, then embrace the new structure, and then bam it's time to adapt again.

While its mechanics are inspired, the music and art aren't worth much mention. Anything that could be mentioned as plot is nonsensical. Oddly, my thoughts on those things don't matter much to me. Playing Eigengrau is more about having fun and basking in varied and well-executed game mechanics than anything else.

I gave this one a quick spin a couple years ago. It didn't grab me at the time, but I gave it another shot last night and I'm glad that I did. There's some fun stuff going on here with diegetic visual indicators and scale. The core idea of a little dude who uses in-game buttons to pilot a land boat is a fun one. The score and sound effects shine, from the hiss of steam to the use of plucked strings to convey traveling through hail.

It's a good thing that its charm carries it, though, because it's a little nonsensical with a moment's thought. Those visual indicators that are helpful to the player don't make much sense in the setting and neither do the big orange buttons that control everything. The components to solve puzzles are usually inside of the screen in which your land boat is halted by an obstacle. In some ways, all of that is good: it would be a less pleasant game if I was held up by searching the screen for interactive elements. But I think it also limits the narrative potential of the game, leaving Far: Lone Sails as simply a fun and often pretty journey. My motivation in playing, really, was to keep crossing to see what was on the other side.

I was intrigued enough to give this a spin based on its Amiga inspiration, but soon deleted it. I think the designers had ideas about updating this into more of an action game, but they don't work in a fun way. Mashing a QTE every time I wanted to heal one point of health is not great and there isn't enough variety in moves or animation to make the encounters interesting. Neither is the level design, which feels like a string of ideas put together without consideration for the floaty movement. After I accidentally executed a leaping attack and fell to my death, only to see that there are no checkpoints and that, as such, I would have to replay the whole level, I decided not to give this one any more of my time.

The setting for this game is its finest quality. Plenty of level designers take inspiration from theme parks , but I like how Alan Wake has to move through a forest park. The early episodes that focus on that are mostly fun to play and it makes sense as a setting in which characters are dependent on flashlights and generators. I also enjoyed how the game eventually made good on providing the town of Bright Falls as a level. But man, even with plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor about it, Alan Wake the character is a hack. Part of the horror here is the thought of being trapped in such a badly-written story.

Armored Core VI is a thrilling and captivating game. It can also be a frustrating and poorly balanced one, but that's par for the course for this series. I would have liked the arena fights to be more challenging and would also have preferred that some of the big boss fights be more symmetrical to the abilities and constraints provided to the player. That said, I love playing this game. The implementation of the garage and parts store is fantastic. That is complimented by checkpoints that are, for the most part, well-placed. It's a very good thing that the team at From wanted to give players the option to tinker, adjust, and warehouse different builds for different opponents and styles of play.

The story also turned out to be above-average and the English localization and VO help that along. In particular, I think that there are surprisingly robust themes around identity, selfhood, and choice. While Armored Core may not be the first place that people look for consonance between narrative and gameplay, the team behind this one has some good ideas about the deeper symbolism that can be derived from smashing together combat machines that are the size of small apartment buildings.

From the CG intro to the bright yellow menus to Kohta Takahashi's outstanding OST, this is a time capsule of the aesthetics of 1998. The racing is classic arcade-style and, in my opinion, that makes manual transmission the only option. Courses and events are varied, for what's here, and the GP story frames are fun. The downsides are the small number of tracks and events. With the exception of some story, players will have seen most of what there is to see after a single trip through GP mode. Then again, what's here can be replayed endlessly. This game is so polished, and its presentation is so pleasant, that I know I'll keep coming back.