13 reviews liked by eltortoise95


Fixed the tedium overflowing in the first one with smarter traversal, purpose to mechanics that lacked previously, and removal of the time filler. People complaining too short, probably forgot how many hours were spent redoing stealth missions because they were spotted once, missions where MJ/Miles play walking sims, or the taskmaster challenges that were more frustrating than fun most of the time.

This isn't even getting to the story, which unlike the first game, is truly a world unto itself. The first was really just a rehash of various brand new day stories with one or two twists. Spider-man 2 really plays with pieces and becomes a breath of fresh air for the franchise in much the same way that Ultimate Spider-man (the comic) was in 2000.

This is barely a knock and truly didn't change the rating, but Venom is as fun to play as here as he was in 2005 (not) and if they really want to make a spinoff featuring him, they need to COMPLETELY fix that.

I am glad this game ends where it does, because that's how far I got in the original. Can't wait to play Part 2

A game about what happens when you watch too much [adult swim].

A solid JRPG at the end of the day. Was probably a mistake to play this right after Persona 5 Royal. Gameplay was definitely more basic by comparison, story is good but I don't know if I'd call it stronger. P5R benefitted from the life sim portion always keeping pace with when the action would start up again. P4G runs into pacing issues in the life sim part because it literally is structured without urgency much of the time. You'll beat a boss or a cutscene will happen and then it prompts you with "welp, guess we'll just have to wait and see until something happens again". Leaving you to just mindlessly get through days until said event occurs on whatever given date.

Unlike P5R the Velvet Room and Igor are just kinda...there? I did follow the romance path with Marie and it was interesting but it didn't amount to much in the main plot. I will admit I did get an "early bad ending", so I'll see if I can pick up at a reasonable point to see how and if Velvet Room stuff unfolds.

Also, lite homophobia/heteronormalization was an issue in P5R but I feel like it might be worse here? Kanji is closeted-coded and like it's cool that he gets to be a main protag in the group but the way everyone else always seems to make fun of him (for likely being gay) is kinda lame.

This was so conflicting of a game for me that's released this year. I have already marked the Resident Evil 4 Remake as my GOTY as of this review, it may remain that way (Baldur's Gat3 is a bigger contender). TOTK is a sequel that fixed the main issues I had with BOTW: much better dungeon design, shrines that are a little more diverse in challenge, and there are actually caves to explore in the overworld (something not many people pointed out). The new abilities are also better implemented, especially the Fuse ability. Combining materials to make new weapons reduces the lack of weapon durability, at least in a small margin. The Sages that you save, while useful, really distracted if you have them available on the field.
However, 50 hours in (which was how long it took me to beat BOTW), I was exhausted. Open-worlded out after playing this, and Elden Ring, now Starfield is coming soon, I wanted it to end, which is not a good lasting impression I want to have for any game, especially a Zelda game. Hyrule Castle helped push forward a bit, it was an amazing dungeon once again. However, the last 'gloomy' trek towards the final boss, on top of dealing with an enemy gauntlet, and no way of saving my progress after that gauntlet, caused me to grind more for another hour, when I thought I was ending it.
I can't blame the game for tiring me out, yet it felt too familiar to BOTW in some instances. It felt like I didn't put down its predecessor to begin with. At the end, I would still say it's better than BOTW, mostly because I find little reason to go back. TOTK has a larger world that I preferred exploring in regards to the Sky and Underground. Next time I would play this, it would just be to explore more. But now, I kinda want the Zelda franchise to take a break from this Open-World style, and go back to traditional Zelda progression for their next NEW game, but better.

I wasn't sure how much I liked this game at first. I think I did a pretty good job divorcing myself from a lot of the online discourse by the time I finally sat down and played it. At the time it was more like a 7/10 because I often found the story so painful to watch play out that it wasn't fun. That said, still a 10/10 on the memorable scale. Like, I will legit never forget I played this game.

I've come around to it a lot more since. I gotta give the creators a lot of points for not trying to pander to their audience in any way, shape, or form. This is a brutal game that explores the consequences of violence in such an unrelenting way that for two months I became so much more sensitized to violence in video games and could only play Rocket League.

(There is ONE moment in this whole game that keeps this at a 9 out of 10 for me. It was just such a huge suspension of disbelief and maybe I'll edit this later and tag a spoiler).

A remarkably ambitious game with a compelling world and excellent quest variety. Even quests that at first seem periphery often lead to creative, thought-provoking, and emotionally resonant scenarios that really take advantage of the cyberpunk setting.

The game clearly loves and understands its world, immersing you in this late-stage capitalist dystopia not too far removed from our own world. Commercials and news serve as the only content on TV, and billboards assault you with exploitative sexuality. Violence and death are fetishized. Beggars wander the streets in the shadow of glimmering corporate megastructures while police harass civilians with impunity. Politicians' minds are controlled from the shadows. This is a very politically engaged game, and it compels you to explore every inch of this world.

Yet Cyberpunk 2077 is hampered by lingering technical issues and gameplay that proves more shallow the longer you play. The initial lifepaths serve as little more than flavor text for interactions throughout the game, and the combat systems, while fun and varied, don't expand as they should in a game that touts itself as a deep RPG. It's easy to settle into a groove and avoid experimentation, especially since the quests are designed to be achieved by anyone regardless of playstyle.

The game begs to be compared to Deus Ex, the gold-standard cyberpunk RPG, but really it's more Grand Theft Auto meets Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I enjoyed my time with it, but the game clearly wanted to be more and sadly doesn't live up to its potential. Ambition only takes you so far.

I have never cried so much at the end of a video game since Sonic Forces. I was soo happy to be done with Sonic Forces, tears of relief

Ghost of Tsushima is like most of your modern open-world action games. It suffers from content bloat in a largely lifeless world. It features repetitive gameplay and a story about as deep and winding as a straight line drawn in the sand. Despite all this, the best way I could describe this game is: "comfy." The combat was exhilarating during each and every encounter. The story executed all the necessary beats and was presented beautifully. And clearing the checklist of pointless side activities was a priority of mine because it meant I could keep experiencing this stunningly serene world. I didn't binge this game, but I enjoyed it every time I picked it back up. Ghost of Tsushima proves that it isn't the formula that makes a game good, it's the execution.

Upon beating the original version of this game, I gave it a strong 9/10 because it slipped up in a few ways in my eyes. But upon beating this version, I can safely say that this version fixes almost every single issue that I originally had.
The music is the best in the series, the art style is fantastic, the menus are cooler than I’ll ever be, the story is engaging, and the characters are even better than I thought they were.
Mementos is better, the restrictions are toned down significantly, and I was able to achieve way more with my time than I ever did in the base version.
Truly unforgettable, undoubtedly a masterpiece.

The thing about Assassin's Creed is that each game is only good if you played the previous game and thus have something stale to compare it to (and even that's not always true). Each one wears out its welcome in due course, but this one stands out because I still tell people proudly about the time I stun-locked the Pope while he was expositing at me about Ancient Aliens.