garie
153 reviews liked by garie
Bog-standard Fortnite.
A couple cool new skins, more very okay skins. Two new, pretty POIs. Medallions got fleshed out or ruined depending on who you ask. And that's... about it.
Oh, they also removed cosmetic item rarities to obfuscate the pricing scale and locked Aang behind a terrible mini-pass to make him more expensive. I guess the machine printing their unlimited money wasn't printing fast enough.
A couple cool new skins, more very okay skins. Two new, pretty POIs. Medallions got fleshed out or ruined depending on who you ask. And that's... about it.
Oh, they also removed cosmetic item rarities to obfuscate the pricing scale and locked Aang behind a terrible mini-pass to make him more expensive. I guess the machine printing their unlimited money wasn't printing fast enough.
Nothing else like it. Still chasing that same high looking for a combat system that'll hook me as much as this did. What a game.
CRPG developers, D&D GM's, crime novelists, screenwriters, and Christopher Nolan all fall asleep and dream of making something like Disco Elysium.
Outer Wilds
2019
Man there's so much to love about Outer Wilds. All the moments of insight, discovery, and mystery, the exploration, the visuals, the creative puzzle-solving, the world-building, the gameplay, story, sounds, songs, how it's all laid out, how it all pays off, everything, it's perfect top to bottom. 10/10. One of those rare, expertly crafted, beautifully designed games you just have to dive into fearlessly on your own and experience for yourself. Play this and then tell your friends to play it, too.
I don't know what happened after Xianzhou Snooze-fu's epilogue that made John Hoyo say "I have to lock in." but I am so here for it dude.
Don't really know what to think of this quite frankly.
Visuals are real cute and nice.
Game as a whole feels kind of... edgy? And it's not an unrealistic portrayal of internet-addicted mentally ill teenage girls, not at all. It's shockingly realistic in that sense, even the comments on KAngel's streams and Twitter are.
But I think the game goes by so quickly and the endings are - with only one exception - so brief that the impact to me is dulled. I don't think this is inherently a bad game, I can see why people enjoy it? But personally it felt like a lot of work to get all (most of) those endings (I gave up for the ones that needed 1m followers) that don't amount to.... anything.
Visuals are real cute and nice.
Game as a whole feels kind of... edgy? And it's not an unrealistic portrayal of internet-addicted mentally ill teenage girls, not at all. It's shockingly realistic in that sense, even the comments on KAngel's streams and Twitter are.
But I think the game goes by so quickly and the endings are - with only one exception - so brief that the impact to me is dulled. I don't think this is inherently a bad game, I can see why people enjoy it? But personally it felt like a lot of work to get all (most of) those endings (I gave up for the ones that needed 1m followers) that don't amount to.... anything.
this game is so bad idk where to start
weird slow pacing
mysteries that feel so unsatisfying
character arcs having the worst conclusions
amame doi is this games saving grace
weird slow pacing
mysteries that feel so unsatisfying
character arcs having the worst conclusions
amame doi is this games saving grace
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox
2019
It takes a little while to get the ball rolling with this game because it gets stuck on a focus of introducing it's cast members in it's first half while being a bit too mysterious for it's own good IMO - but man, when it picks up it picks UP. It's got an absolutely amazing story filled with some surprisingly fantastic fanservice for anyone who's played any previous Ys games.
Taking as long as it did sure was worth it though, because the cast is great and the combat's fantastic, the worldbuilding is surprisingly enticing and the movement options that slowly open up as you add more members to your party feel SO good.
I have also joined the ranks of the Adol understanders now. Sure, the whole "silent MC because he's retelling the story without painting it with his own perspective" thing is admittedly interesting but still does exactly that; not really make him stand out as a character.
Until this game, that is! Oh man, its plans for him intrigue you as soon as the intro, and I'm proud to announce they didn't fumble that one bit. He's so good.
So yeah, despite the meat of the story taking it's sweet time - it's just a fantastic game on all fronts honestly! It more than makes up for that despite my doubts about halfway through. I had a great time with it.
Never thought a game would make me yell "YOOO IT'S THE FUCKIN BAT FROM YS 1" in the middle of a boss battle but here we are!
What a ridiculously charming experience it was.
Taking as long as it did sure was worth it though, because the cast is great and the combat's fantastic, the worldbuilding is surprisingly enticing and the movement options that slowly open up as you add more members to your party feel SO good.
I have also joined the ranks of the Adol understanders now. Sure, the whole "silent MC because he's retelling the story without painting it with his own perspective" thing is admittedly interesting but still does exactly that; not really make him stand out as a character.
Until this game, that is! Oh man, its plans for him intrigue you as soon as the intro, and I'm proud to announce they didn't fumble that one bit. He's so good.
So yeah, despite the meat of the story taking it's sweet time - it's just a fantastic game on all fronts honestly! It more than makes up for that despite my doubts about halfway through. I had a great time with it.
Never thought a game would make me yell "YOOO IT'S THE FUCKIN BAT FROM YS 1" in the middle of a boss battle but here we are!
What a ridiculously charming experience it was.
This review contains spoilers
As seems to be the trend with Life is Strange games, this had compelling characters, an engaging plot, and a bomb-ass soundtrack that all built up to a less-than-satisfying climax.
With all the build-up to this secret Typhon is hiding, I have to admit, I was expecting way bigger than "so it turns out this one guy didn't actually save all those miners years ago." The only thing that saved that reveal from being a total fucking letdown was the personal connection to Alex- that her dad was one of the miners who died. Despite that, I really enjoyed the character development in this game. Unlike the first Life is Strange, which seemed to focus more on Chloe as a possible love interest while Warren is effectively sidelined, both love interests felt like realistic, fleshed-out characters, and both of them genuinely felt like good choices for Alex. Sure, Ryan could've used a little more development, but maybe I just missed all the scenes that give him more depth by not romancing him. That seems like a backwards way of doing things, but whatever. One thing I'm not happy with the way Ryan is characterized, though, is that he won't believe Alex when she reveals Jed's secret. It's understandable that he'd be shocked to hear someone accuse his dad of that, but what I don't like about the game's handling of this is the fact that, in the very end, if you check your phone, you'll see that Ryan texted Alex an apology, and Alex didn't respond. Seems kinda fucked up to give the player the option to forgive Jed for trying to kill her, but not Ryan for taking a few days to come around to the fact that his father is a murderer. For all its faults, though, overall, I really liked this game.
With all the build-up to this secret Typhon is hiding, I have to admit, I was expecting way bigger than "so it turns out this one guy didn't actually save all those miners years ago." The only thing that saved that reveal from being a total fucking letdown was the personal connection to Alex- that her dad was one of the miners who died. Despite that, I really enjoyed the character development in this game. Unlike the first Life is Strange, which seemed to focus more on Chloe as a possible love interest while Warren is effectively sidelined, both love interests felt like realistic, fleshed-out characters, and both of them genuinely felt like good choices for Alex. Sure, Ryan could've used a little more development, but maybe I just missed all the scenes that give him more depth by not romancing him. That seems like a backwards way of doing things, but whatever. One thing I'm not happy with the way Ryan is characterized, though, is that he won't believe Alex when she reveals Jed's secret. It's understandable that he'd be shocked to hear someone accuse his dad of that, but what I don't like about the game's handling of this is the fact that, in the very end, if you check your phone, you'll see that Ryan texted Alex an apology, and Alex didn't respond. Seems kinda fucked up to give the player the option to forgive Jed for trying to kill her, but not Ryan for taking a few days to come around to the fact that his father is a murderer. For all its faults, though, overall, I really liked this game.
It was cozy, if nothing else.
The pacing was weird and each chapter could be summarized in a single sentence. A lot of stuff was optional, which would have been fine if the main story had more meat. For a mystery there are only really 3 steps to uncovering the truth.
What stood out was how Alex's empathy superpower is so underbaked. She can only sense four emotions, and the game never puts her in a position where she needed to have literal superpowers instead of regular human empathy. One scene really stood out to me where Steph looks at a bottle labelled "Foosball Champion" and becomes visibly upset. Alex uses her superpower to investigate, then asks Steph for a match of foosball to cheer her up. Steph asks "How'd you know I liked foosball?" What do you mean "How'd you know I liked foosball?" That kind of thing happens every single time. Maybe I'm just gifted in emotional intelligence and empathy, but it never felt like superpowers were at all necessary and were only added because that's the Life is Strange gimmick.
I had fun, I'm glad I played it, and it was a nice change of pace. But it didn't leave a strong impression and I probably won't think about it a week from now. It's just... okay.
The pacing was weird and each chapter could be summarized in a single sentence. A lot of stuff was optional, which would have been fine if the main story had more meat. For a mystery there are only really 3 steps to uncovering the truth.
What stood out was how Alex's empathy superpower is so underbaked. She can only sense four emotions, and the game never puts her in a position where she needed to have literal superpowers instead of regular human empathy. One scene really stood out to me where Steph looks at a bottle labelled "Foosball Champion" and becomes visibly upset. Alex uses her superpower to investigate, then asks Steph for a match of foosball to cheer her up. Steph asks "How'd you know I liked foosball?" What do you mean "How'd you know I liked foosball?" That kind of thing happens every single time. Maybe I'm just gifted in emotional intelligence and empathy, but it never felt like superpowers were at all necessary and were only added because that's the Life is Strange gimmick.
I had fun, I'm glad I played it, and it was a nice change of pace. But it didn't leave a strong impression and I probably won't think about it a week from now. It's just... okay.
