So after I found out what lies beyond heretic, I wanted to know more, and here I am, looking at Hexen 2, totally dumbfounded because I have very mixed feelings. Hexen 2 while seemingly improves upon the formula of Hexen, it still suffers from the overly complicated designs of the first one, offering very frustrating sessions, where you need to take a break from simply playing the game, because of how unfair it is.

Graphically, we are talking about a huge upgrade here, as the game uses the Quake 1 engine, looking very good for it's time even though Quake 2 released in the same year. The game offers wider variety too as it now features 4 classes, instead of 3, and they are more thematically diversed. The Crusader, Paladin, Necromancer and Assassin are very unique (I went with the Necromancer), and the game even offers class specific upgrades, as it features a leveling system.

What simply drags this unique game down are those damn puzzles, very bad enemy designs and uninteresting boss battles, which look and sound varied but they are basically all the same, and they go down very easily. The road to these battles are more challenging, than the bosses themselves, which is a capital error in my views.

So what remains for this forsaken franchise? Well, Heretic 2, which is unfortunately not available for purchase for some reason, and I rather wait for a more polished GOG release to be honest.

So you liked Heretic, huh? Well, let me tell you that this game has very little to do with Heretic, despite being a sequel. One of gaming's greatest developers (Raven Software) called upon an entity beyond human comprehension to make a game so difficult to enjoy, yet so satisfying to play that anyone would either absolutely love it or hate it with passion.

It looks like Heretic (a "doom clone"), it even feels like Heretic, but you are so wrong when you are expecting the same insane combat and wacky levels. No, you see in Hexen, you will suffer. A lot. The map design is brutal, and you need to search every little inch of a room just to be 100% sure that nothing is there, because if you miss a switch, you will be searching for it for hours on end. This is not a problem on the first hub level (yes, this game has hubs), but after that, the true nightmare begins.

Just to be a bit positive about it, the game offers a small selection of classes to play, namely a fighter, a cleric and a mage. They all have different stats and weapons from each other, and their weapon animations are obviously beautiful, we are talking about Raven Software here!

Hexen has a cult following, and I get it, I absolutely do. This game is insanely rewarding when you catch it's flow. If you really want to know what lies beyond heretic, seek out Hexen and find out yourself, because this game is an experience for sure. While I did not have the greatest time ever, I suggest anyone who is interested in gaming to play this game and it's sequel. Yes. This game has a sequel...

The Last of Us really grew on me, as I was thinking about it more and more as time went on, and when I was playing through Uncharted 4, I finally snapped, and wanted to replay again. It is weird, because this is probably the first game that lives in my mind as a movie, not a game and I sort of had the same feeling when I want to rewatch an older movie that I liked.

To be fair, I still do not like some of the elements of the gameplay. There are way too many swimming parts where you need to find something for Ellie to hop on, and I really did not "click" with the clicker stealth sections. They are not bad, they are just pretty cheap insta death enemies, that are only countered by an upgrade that I am sure some players will miss and never use. The combat against humans though? Stellar, absolutely fantastic, and I like every bit of those parts where you are fighting against other survivors.

So without further ado, here is my proper opinion about the story and the "chapters" aka the seasons:

Summer:
This season is the longest, and the least challenging as the game throws in it's initial mechanics. Here, we learn everything about the combat and the "puzzles" that are going to be featured for the whole duration of the game. This season has by far the best combat sections in the game for Joel (see what I did there?), and the overall pace is just perfect.

Fall:
I had problems with this season, especially how short it is, and how you instantly start at Tommy's dam. However, it is undeniable that some of the most important character moments happen here, but this chapter features some of the worst videogame tropes as well. It is really a mixed bag actually.

Winter:
The best season out of the four, without a question. The Ellie section is the highest point of the game, and her combat encounters are just great, filled with rage and anger.

Spring:
Again, short and it features two encounters with clickers and humans, where the game tries to test your combat skills. The ending is great, the combat parts are not so much, especially how easily they can be outmaneuvered if you at least tried this once.

Overall, I really missed this game, and while I see it's faults, (even more actually) I think it is a great game, and much more than that actually. The characters are written so well, that they will certainly stick around in your head after you finished the game. I would highly advise though to stick with the game, and stay away from the series.

As the first entry in a series, Heretic is the coolest "Doom clone" out there, featuring amazing weapons, wicked monster designs and great levels throughout 3 episodes (+2 with the expansion) with a very simple story where you need to kill one of the Serpent Riders.

I am not gonna lie, Heretic is as simple as it gets, even with the added features such as an inventory for items. It has magical weapons, staffs and artifacts but they are pretty much identical to the weapons in Doom, so anyone can find their favorite in no time. What makes this game unique is the levels themselves, offering great visuals with challenging designs. The enemies are fun and unique, and the whole game does not need to be called a "Doom clone" as the game has a lot to offer on it's own.

If you never played Heretic before, I would recommend it, especially if you are interested in Hexen.

I remember when I first played with Diablo 3 and looked in shock to found a vastly different game from what I heard about this franchise. It looked like the game changed drastically from what others had told me at that point, and I was very skeptical when I played this game as my first Diablo experience. Yes, I never played the previous 2 entries until recently, and I had to say, that probably the power of Diablo corrupted my soul, and made me hate the previous games. Yes, I agree, that it is a much more casual friendly experience, featuring many things that people hate in it, but oh how much I love it.

First off, let me tell you that this game has lots of content, and lots of classes, with very varied skills that look insanely good when you use them with the right runes. Every class supports different kind of playstyles and EVERY build you do is valiable, which makes me really grateful for the devs going this route instead of the "you put your skill points into the wrong skill? sorry pal, you will be useless until you redo them". I believe that ARPG's should support every trashy and non viable builds so at least you can finish the story mode with them.

Diablo 3's campaign consists of 4 acts + 1 bonus act which comes with this collection. The 4 main acts are great, I disliked the second act a bit, because I hate the Zoltun Kulle quests, but that is on me. The first one is probably the one that sticks with you the most, featuring very memorable bosses, that will hook you in until the end, because let me tell you, despite what others have told you, this game has a great art design. Every single person will moan about how it is cartoony and the fact that it has "colors", but have you ever looked at this game? Some of the scenery is gorgeous, the characters look great and I especially adore the enemy designs.

Sadly the Reaper of Souls act was not to my liking, as I found it very reminiscent to Diablo 2's level design, and even there is a section that is clearly inspired by a smaller section from that game.

If you ever wanted to give it a try, do it! You will 100% hooked if you do not listen to those, who hate this game for it's visuals only.

It makes you truly wonder what made the Uncharted trilogy great, when the send off of Nathan Drake becomes such a mess when it comes to understanding your own IP.

Naughty Dog did a phenomenal job when they wanted to create their own take on Indiana Jones with the gameplay of Tomb Raider sparkled in, and when I played those games, I slowly began to realize, that despite being an action-adventure title, they were always about mystery and wonder, the discovery of ancient things. These games were gradiually becoming more and more action oriented, but they always had these subtle moments where characters needed to understand each other more, in order to progress forward as a team. Drake and Sully, or even Drake and Elena both had great dialogue, and the fact that they even Chloe as a mainstay was awesome. In fact, both of the girls were greatly written, and had really enjoyable character arcs.

So, here comes Uncharted 4, three years after The Last of Us and sadly, it shows how much of an influence that game was for Uncharted, as the writing gets so incredibly frustrating without any reason, that I cannot believe some people state, that this is the best game in the franchise.

Just to show the earliest example: The game opens with a flashforward, only to continue with a flashback, to show an another flashback, and then it is almost in chronological order. Do not even start with Sam, the most idiotically written character for this franchise, as the just comes out of nowhere, never mentioned before (for story reasons), and when he comes back, he seems like the guy who actually made Nathan the way he is. Every major thing is thrown out of the window, to tell a tale, that is not suited for this franchise, and needed probably it's own separate thing to begin with. There is nothing wrong with introducing the style of the Last of Us, that game is really good (I am replaying it currently), but the Uncharted games needs to show an alternative option for raiding tombs, fighting against mythological creatures and being in a whimsical adventure.

The gameplay also suffers a lot, because of the change in writing. They needed to implement overly long sections of climbing where the characters talk about nothing, they just yapping about stuff, and almost every one of them is the same characterwise, while Nathan is the one that sticks out. Weird.

Let me tell you though, this game has some decently made, even great sequences that I really enjoyed. Weirdly, I found the convoy section a bit janky, the game made me redo it 2 times because Nathan got stuck. What I liked the most was the driving section in Madagascar, simply because the driving was fun and engaging, and some of the setpieces were okay and that is it.

Still, my rating reflects my respect towards Naughty Dog, because I really like their games, I really do, just please, if you revisit Uncharted again, do the things that made him famous in the first place.

This might be a very controversial opinion but I think Diablo II aged just a tiny bit better than the original, and I started to even hate the gameplay of it by the end.

Diablo II was the game that pretty much streamlined what an ARPG can be, and upgraded upon everything from the original. It has a wide class selection, big maps, many monsters and demons to slay, good loot and the list goes on.
However, every change was mostly good for it's own time, and today, the game itself is just tedious to play, starting from the very limited customization (you can build your character differently, but some builds just not worth it at all), the geniusly boring dungeon designs and the bosses that are just so damn powerful, that if you do not build your character in a certain way, they will kill you in seconds.

This results in a brutal frustration where the player tries to enjoy the gameplay loop, but the game constantly reminds the player of it's age, despite the remastered graphics, and becomes this nightmare to enjoy. The remaster is gorgeous, it looks really good, but it is literally the old game, with a new coat of paint.

This game needed a remake, not a remaster, as the foundations are great, and for it's time, it was a masterpiece, but you cannot enjoy it today without nostalgia goggles, and sadly, I do not have those when I need them the most.

The original Diablo was without a doubt an amazing experience at the time when it was released, as the game was the grandfather of the ARPG genre, that is still dominated by Diablo even today.

Sadly, the very first game of this franchise aged rather poorly, making it a very hard game to enjoy these days. On the positive side, the game is rather short, featuring 16 levels and 3 classes (without the Hellfire expansion) making it kind of diversed. However, these 3 classes are very simplistic, and almost play similarly with very tiny differences between them. The bosses are rather poorly made, they are just spongy versions of other mobs, even the infamous Butcher boss feels really cheap, despite how much of a cult following this character has these days.

Overall, I simply cannot recommend the original Diablo to any newcomer to this franchise, as it is a rather rough experience and not very welcoming.

(I played the Taco Mia To Go! version)

Taco Mia is a great entry in the Papa's franchise, with great additions like holidays, seasons, minigames, a deeper customization system and special dishes that grant you bonuses.

In Taco Mia, (similarly to Pizzeria and Burgeria) you need to manage a restaurant, where you need to serve main dishes with sides (first game that features side dishes), making this game a little bit more varied in terms of food.

I unlocked every customer, almost upgraded them to gold and played through every season. While I have little to no experience with tacos, I enjoyed making them, but the main "cooking" aspect got a bit samey by the end. Despite this, a great entry, and and awesome sequel!

Papa's Burgeria is seemingly an upgrade from the previous entry, but it is a somewhat frustrating game, knowing how much love is put into the sequels.

The formula is simple, yet very addicting:
You need to manage a restaurant on your own, this time, a burger place where everyone orders giant burgers without any fries or fizzy drinks (I know, right?).

Let me tell you, the game tries to feel like Pizzeria, even though it lacks the customization that was implemented into Pizzeria, and features a much simpler "building mechanic" where you need to carefully "build" a burger in order to gain bigger scores from customers.

What I did not like, is that the game is just way too simple, especially if you know what the other games offer. Pizzeria had a certain charm and snappy nature to it, but Burgeria is just slow and very tedious. Despite these, I cannot give it a lower score, because I just love this franchise, and even the weaker games are very enjoyable compared to other cooking games.

The only competition that the Cooking Mama franchise has ever faced was the Papa's franchise, with it's amazing selection of restaurant manager games, where you need to cook, decorate and manage the place yourself, as the only staff member.

Papa's Pizzeria was the first game in the franchise, and while it is charming, and improved by the "to Go!" verison, it feels like the first entry of a franchise. It is rather barebones, features some of the newer elements, but not all of them, and very grindy in terms of customers. However, it is charming, and undeniably a great start!

You cannot say anything about cooking in video games without mentioning the Cooking Mama franchise, which was undoubtedly grew much larger than it had any right to do so.

These series of cooking, gardening and crafting games are essentially minigame collections similar to Warioware, with the difference being the fact, that the games here are tied to a dish, and if you fail one minigame, you need to start the whole dish all over again. This exciting gimmick is the main reason why I am seriously addicted to the charming graphics and gameplay loop of Cooking Mama, and the third entry brings enough new stuff to the table to make me feel entertained.

Shop & Chop features a new mode, where you can essentially shop around, collecting ingredients for Mama, while avoiding certain people at the shop. This little mode features new minigames, 4 levels, and I found it a bit gimmicky, but overall, it became a nice addition.

I really liked the customization, and that after a few dishes, you can essentially unlock new hats, clothes, and stuff by an another minigame, which is luck based, but fun.

Overall, Cooking Mama 3 is the ultimate Cooking Mama game on the DS, the literal last of it's kind, as the other games for the system were not centered around cooking. If you enjoy Warioware, or just silly minigames, check this one out! Who knows, you might be even better than mama!

I just replayed this wonderful game again, because I want to play with the sequel. What can I say? This is my third time playing it, and I still find it utterly addicting.

The gameplay loop is very simple: Gear up, mine resources, come back and repeat. It is such a charming game, with an amazing atmosphere and smooth animations.

If you want to play something casual, yet challenging, do not miss this one out!