Yet another game to add to my list of favorites and best ever. This case is kind of strange because this game really isn't perfect, the stealth barely works (it's luckily optional, different focus) and the VR missions are probably just really unnecessary to the game, but the joy you get when playing through it is simply worth it.

The QTEs are prominent but never annoying, they're actually satisfying and I think this game should be the example for it instead of RE4, and the cutting mechanic has many uses during combat alongside your combos that you can always strive to get better at it.

The music pumps, you learn to get more efficient while playing, you become faster and then by the time you realize it you're playing the game again. It is very short, about 5 to 6 hours, but they can be played again with satisfaction many times.

The story is actually clever, I have issues with Raiden's character and some of the dialogue, but following up on MGS4 and not being a mess is definitely more than an accomplishment. Not to mention, the villains you fight are all written really well for what they are, you can extrapolate a lot of their ideas if you look beyond the memes.

I was led to believe the final boss would be a festival of QTEs and cutscenes but it ended up mixing in gameplay very well and it forced me to do better combos, the finale was just extremely satisfying and I'm on my way to do it again just because it's fun.

Really I could go on all day about how the combat works, but it's better if you just play it, do it if you haven't.

I've always had fun with the Far Cry games I got (2, 3 and 4) but 3 and 4's formula in particular have always had issues I couldn't shake off. The AI is extremely dumb, the activities you get are made to waste your time, the stories are very mediocre at best when you look past their good acting and the games are just too long, with mechanics that stop being fun before I am close to finishing the game.

However Blood Dragon has a leg over those games because of one simple thing: It wasn't made to waste your time, it's a small and focused game. There's 13 outposts, less than 100 collectibles and just a handful of missions, I can get my fix of open world junk food without playing for 20+ hours. It is a small 4 to 5 hour experience and it doesn't need to be more than that.

Outside of that it's nothing special, there's not any boss fights or hugely developing narrative and the humor rarely lands, but because the game doesn't take itself seriously none of the dullness you'd have otherwise turns into a big issue, it's a decent budget game.

I'm not sure of what to think of this game exactly, on many aspects it surpasses Asylum but also isn't necessarily better on others.

The presentation and map are things I'm mixed on, I like the atmosphere of Arkham City but it feels both too big and small at the same time, gliding around the map is cool but still feels like a chore and collectibles are much less natural to connect. The open world design is also something I'm not necessarily a fan of, the more Metroidvania adjacent style of Asylum made me feel more excited, but this is probably subjective and the side missions are nice.

On the good though, the combat has been polished up and feels much snappier, combos are way more satisfying and you fight more enemies on average alongside having a couple of new enemy types that are sadly rare. Your gadgets start off mostly like what they are in Asylum and you get new ones, with the gadgets overall also integrating better into combat and navigation.

The bosses are more varied and while they're not particularly challenging, I prefer them to Asylum's idea of mostly making them big brutes. They also contribute more to the pacing of the missions.

The story has way more going on and a couple of surprisingly amazing moments coupled with a very powerful ending that hit me hard. Sadly, the GOTY Edition takes away from this by integrating Catwoman's missions into the main game, and they feel awkwardly placed disrupting the pace and even taking away from the ending, I think this could have been handled better because it's nice to switch up the gameplay but it feels like an interruption.

Overall the design of the game map and progression has me mixed, I prefer Asylum but this game is still a great sequel and maybe does deserve its place alongside its predecessor. Play both of them.

I knew this game had a lot of hype behind it but I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. On first glance it looks just decent, the combat seems simpler than Assasin's Creed's and the environments and stealth don't look that special.

However the game is always making you fight against groups, turning the timing of every punch, kick, parry and takedown into something important you have to strategize with. Enemies can bring in guns or other weapons and you must know when to target them. Stealth is actually really fun even if not that deep because you can play with your enemies by doing noise, hanging bodies and dropping them and just generally scare them. The enviroments have a good amount of variety, visiting different parts of Arkham Island that have a diferent atmosphere and even having the island change some atmosphere over the course of the game.

I didn't expect this game to have a metroidvania type progression but I'm glad it does, and very well designed too, you keep unlocking more gadgets to access new areas or get more effective in combat and all of it, even collectibles that I usually wouldn't take time to grab in a lesser game, comes pretty naturally throughout the game until the end, it's very satisfying.

The characters are all well realized, you unlock audio logs that actually are fun to seek out and have illustrations with great bios to get to know them more. The story in general wasn't amazing but it was more than good enough to keep the ball rolling.

Only part where I stood disappointed was with the bosses, only a couple of them felt notable while most are just the big brute that charges at you type, and the final boss also has a very simple strategy that doesn't feel like it amps the stakes up.

But still, I had way more fun with this than I expected and I see why people consider it one of the best games there are. Don't sleep on it like I did.

This is full on the best Telltale Games has put out. They finally pushed their formula forward by having choices that leads to different paths and it was great to do 2 playthroughs of this.

Many choices you make on your first go will be difficult to pick, and despite already knowing what I was doing on my second run I still felt guilty over many of them. John's character is extremely well realized and you'll sympathize with him regardless of the path you choose. This really is some of the most enthralling writing I've seen in a game.

I'm rating it a 5/5 because it pushed the envelope forward, I finally felt emotionally invested in a Telltale story and it did everything right with John who really is the highlight. Not enough people talk about this one, please try it out.

Surprisingly competent demake out of the original game, it translates over the bullet time, cutscenes, atmosphere and levels to a recognizable shape that still fits inside your 2003 pocket like it belonged there all along.

It's amusing to play after playing the original, with it lacking some levels and parts of the story, but still being Max Payne from beginning to end. I'd recommend it to fans of the game rather than anyone that didn't play it before. Also to be honest, lacking the nightmare sequences is a positive.

This is really just more Saints Row IV in a smaller map, but some of the powers are new as well as replacing the super jump with wings that allow you to fly as well. The flying is really good and is definitely the fastest way to traverse an open world map I've seen, kinda wish I could use it in IV as well.

For some reason the main story is not only short but also mostly on a timer, so you'll barely do a few missions before it forces you onto progressing, then that repeats a couple of times and it's done. It feels like there are too many side activities for a game that doesn't seem to want to give you breathing room to do them. Still what little story is there is even more insane than in the previous game and I'm into it to be honest.

Overall though I enjoy it because SRIV is fun for me, but if you're not into it you might just not want to touch this either. The biggest problem really is that it got released as standalone pack when it would have done way better as DLC, I feel like the expectation it sets itself on by being released as a full game really works against it when it comes to its audience, who mostly already weren't into IV to begin with.

Those endings though... Yeah the story wasn't going to recover without a retcon and I understand that bothers a lot of people.

I'm gonna be honest, out of the endless sea of open world games that we got nowadays, this one gave me the most fun there is.

From the impressions I've got of seeing this game series in passing, they were competitors to the GTA games with a slightly more unhinged tone, possibly jankier as well. This game is just completely bonkers, the story and characters constantly going off the rails and the setting being inside an alien crafted simulation to have an excuse for the chaos.

What makes it fun though? Superpowers, already starting the game off you'll only have a super speed and jump power, but trust me this helps so much into how fun it is to navigate around the map and get to your tasks. The speed at which you can go feels amazing, and once you get more powers and upgrades to help in combat you'll WANT to go through all the side missions and sometimes rampage about.

I did all the side missions because of how simply fun it is to play through this game and the setting actually helps the jankiness of the experience, as it is all happening in a shoddy simulation anyway and everything goes. The main story was just kinda weird for someone that hasn't played the other games, as callbacks to them are of course made, but I ended up enjoying the character interactions nonetheless.

Really this game is the definition of simple fun and I wouldn't have it any other way, it feels like Volition made it with that vision without much regard for how different it would feel. I understand why people that come from the previous entries wouldn't be into it, but I really think they're just closing themselves off to a very fun time. It makes me sad that the reception this game got pretty much ensures nothing like it will get made again, as it could still be better, but I'll take what I can get.

I possibly wouldn't rate this game this high if there were other games that could compete with it but there really aren't, Prototype and Infamous feel nothing like this.

Took me just 4 hours and 44 minutes but damn was it some of the best time I had playing games.

Everything is perfect, the art, the humor, the controls.

Sonic ain't fast, in Sonic you get punished for going too fast as you'll just get hit. In this game, you are encouraged to master the controls and routes to chain up combos as you go full speed towards the exit.

I kinda don't really have too many words about it, it's just a great platformer that does everything right and I loved every second, please buy it. If you think it's too short then trust me you're underestimating the game, it is a must play for platformer fans.

This is a great pirate game: upgrading up your ship, assaulting ships or strongholds, sailing while your crew sings, switching up your weaponry, boarding... somehow no other pirate game has as much to do as this one despite it not being fleshed out that much.

The only issue really is that it's still an Assasisn's Creed game, where you're taken out for present day sections or have to land into cities to do collectathons and barebones missions. It's not that there's no fun to be had in that, but it's something that you really have enough of pretty quickly and we already had a few games full of it before this one, it's not exactly exciting.

Kenway is an interesting protagonist but he can't carry the mediocre gameplay on his own, so instead of focusing on going through the story I'll only pick this game up for piracy shenanigans and I'll have my fun with that. Nobody else seems interested in using this game's sailing and pirate mechanics so it'll probably be as good as it gets.

After playing and feeling disappointed by Curse of the Moon 2 I moved onto this game to see if Inti Creates had done any better.

Generally it has the same core formula as Curse of the Moon, but instead of controlling a variety of characters you unlock throughout a few levels you start with 2 characters to use until the end, with the unlocks being new subweapons that are always available in your inventory to quickly switch through.

The level design is smaller, but offers some more compelling alternate paths upon revisiting as well as giving you more freedom to backtrack, the game focuses more on choosing the right subweapon in the moment rather than picking up individual ones trying to predict when you'll need them.

The game is easier than both CotM games for the most part as if one of your characters dies, you can go reach their corpse after respawning and resuscitate them to continue, preventing you from losing a life unless both characters die. The levels are also less punishing for the most part, feels like there's a lot more healing, and also less opportunities for knockback to kill you, but I honestly didn't mind this especially after CotM 2.

What keeps me from giving a higher rating is 2 issues I have with the game, for one while the game generally being easier didn't bother me I wished the bosses had some more challenge to them, still prefer easier bosses over health taxes like there is in CotM 2. The other issue is that unbeknownst to me at first, this is a Gal Gun spin-off, the game doesn't lean into this until after you do the second playthrough for the real ending but I found it to just be weird, I guess they're playing into their audience but I really don't think it fits a Castlevania-like and I would have rather the game kept on with the slightly more serious tone of the first run.

Overall though if they make another Curse of the Moon game, I hope it's like this one, using more focused level design and balancing as well as 16-bit style visuals, because I think the first game already perfected the NES style.