The original Quake II is a bit of a divisive game, often compared to its older Quake sibling and regarded as not nearly as impressive, varied or fun. If you think of the original game like this then the remaster may help you finally like it.

Presentation-wise, this remaster was done by porting the game over to a specialized KEX Engine, expanding the level of detail possible in lighting and models along the way. The new lighting and shadow effects are really good and they manage to keep the original atmosphere without being nearly as dull. Audio has been greatly enhanced as well, with footsteps taking into account the material you're on and rooms having reverb for better immersion.

In terms of gameplay, this is where the remaster adds the most to the game. Weapons now have near instant switching, muzzle flashes, and small rebalances like removing the recoil mechanic from the machinegun, gunplay is leagues more satisfying as a result. They have gone back and added cut content to the levels and enemies, updating the AI (which had already been updated with an expansion) to make it smarter and give enemies a wider variety of behaviors and attacks based on unfinished code. Enemies can now follow you by jumping and what were previously very harmless enemies like the common grunts or the Berserker are now a force to be reckoned with when you're not paying attention. The Berserker probably has the most notorious change, having a charged jump attack that can send you flying.

The smarter and more aggressive enemy AI completely changes the game, as you are now strategizing way more to avoid being damaged and probably getting forced into using your items and different guns more often. Unlike my previous playthroughs, I no longer spent a lot of time just shooting the super shotgun while hiding behind walls, as that strategy has become nearly useless. This is a good bump in difficulty that actually makes the game way more engaging and I welcome this change completely.

Some smaller gameplay changes include an item and weapon wheel, with the item wheel in particular making inventory management much better, a compass that helps with navigation by giving you a waypoint and drawing a path on the floor, as well as making the Nightmare difficulty official and accessible on a new game.

Add onto everything that you get all expansions, a new one, and the Nintendo 64 levels, alongside a much more convenient multiplayer setup with official co-op support, plus an extras menu full of development content and playable demos, extensive accessibility options, and we got the best possible remaster this game could have gotten. Everything that was added wasn't necessary at all to do, but they did it, and they worked even harder for a game that people often dismiss when compared to its predecessors. My only nitpick is that I wish I could toggle the gameplay changes back, mainly the machinegun recoil, but I can't complain about the changes being bad at all and the original isn't going anywhere either.

This is the definitive Quake II experience and I'd definitely recommend reading this blog post on Bethesda's site where they explain the engine changes in more detail just to appreciate how much work went into this, because it's a lot, and very much worth playing the game for.

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.

Among the best games I played, I went in just expecting to have a quick game to play and ended up so incredibly attached to it. It looks beautiful, gameplay is perfect and the story surprised me.

The gameplay ties in perfectly with the music, nailing the techniques for running fast while deflecting bullets and slashing enemies, all while a soundtrack that brings me back to how pumped Hotline Miami made me feel plays, is awesome. There's some simple platforming sections that rely less on just jumping and more on how to deal with the enemies and hazards around you is great, every room is an engaging violent puzzle to go through.

The story was surprisingly developed, I didn't know that much about the game and ended up loving every character and story bit. At first I was scared the story would kill the pace of the gameplay but it is luckily also extremely engaging.

This is a new favorite for me and I'd recommend it to everyone, true that the game is short but it is not any shorter than it should be, well worth it.

Some boys kiss me, some boys hug me
I think they're OK
If they don't give me proper credit, I just walk away
They can beg and they can plead
But they can't see the light (that's right, that's right)
'Cause the boy with the cold hard cash is always Mister Right

'Cause we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl

Some boys romance, some boys slow dance
That's all right with me
If they can't raise my interest, then I have to let them be
Some boys try, and some boys lie
But I don't let them play (no way, no way)
Only boys that save their pennies make my rainy day

'Cause we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl

Living in a material world
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl

Living in a material world (material)
Living in a material world
Living in a material world (material)
Living in a material world

Boys may come, and boys may go
And that's all right, you see
Experience has made me rich, and now they're after me

'Cause everybody's living in a material world
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl

Living in a material world
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl

A material, a material, a material, a material world

Living in a material world (material)
Living in a material world
Living in a material world (material)
Living in a material world

Living in a material world (material)
Living in a material world
Living in a material world (material)
Living in a material world

The order in which I've been playing the Spider-Man games is certainly strange, but I'm actually glad I didn't play this one first because it may have made a couple others more difficult to enjoy.

It has a surprising amount of things going on for it. The web swinging is difficult at first, because it is the most physics based, which means you must really take into account your speed, mass and angle at all times to be fast. There's a learning curve when it comes to getting good at it, but it's extremely satisfying to pull off stylish and difficult maneuvers, definitely the most immersed I've felt when webbing through everything as bug boy.

The combat is dead simple at its core, but you get to unlock a bunch of different moves that can be used to get more effective at it and, while I was lazy and stuck to whatever easy move got me through the fight easier and faster, there's definitely space to learn some combos and make your playstyle flashy during combat as well.

You'll usually jump into combat with side activities when not in a mission, and hell, there's a really good variety of those for a game that's 4-6 hours long. Carjackings, chases, gunfights or just being jumped by goons are what you spend time on the most. There's also simpler stuff, like small random events of someone needing to be rushed to the hospital or catching a child's lost balloon, as nothing is too small for Spider-Man to save.

The main missions are probably the most unremarkable part of the game, a few of them follow the movie its based on loosely, while others tell their own story, but there's still a decent amount of variety in the activities you do in them so that it doesn't feel like a chore. A couple of the boss fights may drag, but you'll find that there's usually a simple strategy waiting for you.

The city map is way bigger than I expected and more than makes up for the lackluster visuals, having to change your swinging strategy to adjust to different building and road sizes as well as less populated areas is great, but despite the big size it still never felt like anything took too long to do.

This game may not be my favorite or the most polished but it cemented the formula many Spider-Man games would follow and got the best web swinging while at it. It's definitely harder to get into, but well worth it if you don't mind the more dated aspects. This game and Treyarch deserve a lot of respect for how much of a technical achievement it is to capture what makes playing as Spider-Man so great all the way back in 2004.

I'm already at full health!

This is a good game with some issues, it has a janky camera that follows the view of your character but only when standing still, combat controls that don't feel as responsive as they should and pretty much faked dualshock support. However, the game has interesting and some surprisingly big levels, boss fights with iconic villains that can be a little odd but fun nonetheless, writing that reminded me of watching the cartoons as a kid and it doesn't overstay its welcome. As a bonus, the levels have many secrets with unlockable extras, mostly for viewing galleries with some art and character bios but also alternate costumes!

The soundtrack is pretty funky, certainly something that you would only get on games from its time and I really like it, there's also cameos from a bunch of different Marvel heroes which are all just there to be silly, puts a smile on you. Voice acting is of mostly average quality but they really nailed it with Spider-Man and Venom, enjoyed listening to them the most along with Stan Lee as the narrator, he's not heard often but it's always a joy.

I can very much see why people enjoyed this game so much back then, especially as children, it has the right vibe for someone that likes the silly of Spider-Man and is still pretty playable once you get used to the controls, it's fun.

This is so close to being a decent game. So so close.

It starts the story awkwardly by showing Uncle Ben's death scene following how it was in the previous movie, then doing a time skip over some time after the previous game. Spider-Man starts out chasing after the mugger that shot Uncle Ben, again awkwardly mirroring the previous movie, but it ties into interrogating a soon to be Shocker who reveals a gang war, in combination with a serial killer that murders criminals, has all of them on edge and constantly struggling to get firepower on a level over the other gangs. Soon after, The Kingpin starts an agreement with Harry Osborn to create a new military police task force to keep crime in check, however this is obviously a plan by the Kingpin to prevent other gangs from having too much influence and keep his illegal business at the top, what's more, they also constantly pursue Spider-Man from this point on, using Jameson's narrative of the menace.

Spider-Man needs to learn how to better deal with these criminals, and Kraven the hunter takes an interest in training him. This story is initially set up at this point in an interesting way, but it seems like Sony and Activision weren't gonna let Beenox avoid adapting the movie this time and the movie plot points get thrown in. Meeting Max and Harry is done so awkwardly and their characters barely develop. There's a dialogue system that lets you choose question to ask characters during some cutscenes, but they don't really change anything and just boil down to if you want all the dialogue or not.

As the story progresses the game keeps shuffling between trying to follow the movie and its own ideas, which ends up in the story threads either being rushed or leading nowhere, including the Beenox standard of fighting Black Cat to pad out some extra story. While the story in the first Amazing Spider-Man game was pretty average it at least followed its own thread and wasn't held down by limitations imposed from the movie, except for some basic concepts, I'm wishing Beenox had been allowed to follow their own ideas again as they had potential but ultimately don't amount to much as is.

Now for the gameplay... I'm very mixed on the combat, different suits will boost different stats but they don't feel like they matter, the upgrades also barely feel like they make a difference and the combo system feels strange. While it may seem more polished, the actual combat just feels less satisfying to me and it's just diet Arkham but you can mash buttons and win 9/10 times. Boss fights are mostly average and they're usually the most interesting with their QTEs, just like the previous game. People say stealth is better in this game but I found it less satisfying too.

On the other hand web swinging is improved over Amazing Spider-Man 1, now you actually need to be aware of if there's something to swing off of, the camera will give you more space so you don't get nauseous and you have to swing each arm with a separate button, it's fun to get into a rhythm using both arms and it's also useful to focus on one arm while turning, combining all this with the Web Rush mechanic that lets you aim at a point so Spider-Man can rush over it, you can go really fast and it's really fun to swing around the city like this. Unfortunately the story missions still use the Spider-Man 2000 cloud swinging mechanic like in the previous game, except worse because many of them take place outdoors as well, so it feels very limiting.

The biggest problem though is what everyone talks about, the crime events, small crimes occur all the time during freeroam gameplay, they all have a time limit and a short cutscene upon completion which makes it feel like an even bigger waste of your time. The crimes you stop will boost your reputation positively, giving you a hero status, but if you don't stop them you'll reputation will keep dropping and you'll be considered a menace, which will give Kingpin's corrupt task force an excuse to try to take you down. The task force will install electric shields and automatic turrets, as well as send out drones and patrols against you, this makes the freeroam part of the game a constant race to keep your reputation up just so they don't attack you all the time AND it also doesn't stop even in the post game after you beat all the missions.

Overall while the core mechanics usually don't feel as satisfying, I think the enhanced controls could have made this game more fun than its predecessor but the crime and reputation system completely sour them as they're constantly taking your attention, it sucks that I actually like the visuals and unlockables in this game more but actually playing it is such a stress, if you're hurting for more Spider-Man then you could do worse but I wouldn't recommend seeking it out specifically. It saddens me how much potential Beenox's Spider-Man games had that was never fully realized due to their circumstances.

UPDATE: After going through Insomniac's first Spider-Man game and remembering what I liked about this one, I think even I was harsh on it. The combat simply isn't as flashy as I would have hoped but it is decently paced and serviceable, but generally the open world ideas are usually great despite the menace system being executed so obnoxiously. In the end, I do prefer this over the first Amazing game and even Insomniac's offering, mainly due to it having good ideas that Insomniac barely improved on, or even downgraded.

It's good, actually.

I'm someone that got really disappointed, frustrated and baffled with Wolfenstein II, and even though this game is still not what I wanted, I was able to really enjoy it for what it is.

Playing with my bestie, and even doing some offline play, there was a good amount of fun to be had. The level design was handled by Arkane and as such we have very open ended, but not outright open world, levels, with lots of shortcuts, items to find and different encounters to get into.

Most of the game will be spent doing side content instead of the 5 story missions at hand, but I really didn't mind cause that's where the strenght is this time instead of the story. The gunplay is nearly identical to Wolfenstein II except now placed in levels that aren't frustratingly small or unfair, and while you can't dual wield as many guns, the upgrade system (which isn't actually grindy) can make any gun very reliable, especially the machinepistol and shotgun, so that it isn't missed at all.

The RPG mechanics in this game aren't actually that deep. Some enemies will not scale to your level from below so you need to get some level ups before getting to certain encounters, but you always have the option of finding an alternative route or taking them down with some more challenge. Leveling up actually doesn't take much effort, and even just running around shooting anything will net you some good XP. The guns are upgraded with currency you find or get from completing missions and you get more than enough to have a decent arsenal in the first couple of hours. What's most important is getting your skill points and weapon upgrade coins spent, you don't even have to think too much about it, just look at what you like and get it. As long as you actually upgrade whatever, enemies will not become bullet sponges and the game actually remains fairly balanced.

Something very worth noting is that everything scales for each player independently, both on their level and difficulty setting, so asides from those few encounters with enemies that have set levels, playing with someone that's not on your same level will not drag you down, this feature is actually extremely well implemented and I'm surprised it's never mentioned.

The big thing where this game fails in comparison to other Wolfenstein games as of late is story, but really not due to "cringy" protagonists (I really thought they were fine, and way less annoying than any real teenager I'm likely to find), but simply due to it being a very straightforward and short plot. That's really my only big complaint, the story could have been better, but it's not nearly as terrible as Wolfenstein II's (seriously, THAT should be your example of tone inconsistency making things hard to take seriously).

I guess I should mention the microtransactions too, and I'll just say, they're so easy to forget while you're just playing and are never in your face. Very few select items are tied to it, none of them relevant to progression. CAPCOM has been doing way worse on their singeplayer games for years, so if they can do that I just find this case very inoffensive.

I quite enjoyed playing this, both with a friend and alone, and certainly think it's worth at least a run on especially with how cheap it usually goes for on sales now. I think people are too harsh on it because it's not Wolfenstein III, but it's at least way more consistent than II with decent level design, an actual final boss, and characters that aren't pissing on New Order with their writing. I actually hope Wolfenstein III adopts the more open ended design and considers a lighter tone like found here if they're still gonna go with what II was doing. Either way, please chill, this game wasn't made to replace Wolfenstein III and it's not the future of the series like many wanted to assume it was just to be angrier at it.

My favorite racing game, its got everything that I want from it: nice track and car variety, charming visuals that make it a joy to go through the races, amazing soundtrack and great modding support.

The community is still very much alive and there's a community maintained port of the game called RVGL which is definitely the best way to play, it enables better hardware compatibility, expands modding capability and improves multiplayer. Either way this game is worth playing through any of the PC releases, be it the original 1999 one or the new patched release.

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. After playing Origins though, I think you really should play that too, it's City but more focused!

I find it strange how easily dismissed this version of the game is due to the controls. It's true, it's not the same to use the d-pad instead of an analogue stick but after adjusting for a few minutes, maybe a couple of stages, I was playing this game all well and good.

They improved the camera controls, graphics are way more lively with better textures and updated character designs, the extra levels are nice (except for Mario's unlock stage) and switching characters is actually far from annoying thanks to being able to pick up their caps and transform into them, usually near where you need them.

I just had a lot of fun playing this version for the first time even while being very nostalgic for the original. The mix of nostalgia and also surprise at whatever was new makes my brain happy, and even though they could be more distinct, playing as different characters still helps make this game even more lively.

Just as much as this was a technical showcase of the N64, it proves to be a technical showcase of the DS as well. The textures and models are heavily improved, with levels even being given some more detail while at it. I honestly always hated the look of filtered N64 games, even when I was playing them constantly, and luckily this version of the game gives me something my eyes like a lot more despite being on a smaller screen.

I think this is definitely better than the original game and I wish it got a new release, with analogue controls, so more people could come around to it. Sadly, just as with the original I find that the best stages happen early on in the game, with the later ones even often being annoying to play that I just want to tap out. By the time I get to the stages near the infinite staircase I just get tired of going through them, so I'm happy just getting enough stars to beat Bowser and leaving the game there. If it wasn't for this issue mostly being unaddressed I'd rate this even higher.

REKKR as a game had the goal to be a game that could potentially launch in 1996, as shown by its website used for the original release, stylized as if it comes from the time in which web browsers barely had features and could only load things very slowly, As such, this game is NOT built on GZDoom tech at its core, rather using its features as optional extras, but uses the old DEHACKED for the vanilla 1993 DOOM release. The original DOOM engine is way more limited than most think, and DEHACKED only allows you to basically swap values around without being able to really add anything new.

As such, it is amazing that this game feels like more than a DOOM reskin or clone. Things certainly play into the DOOM archetypes but many clever design choices like having the punch be a combo, the axe be a powerful swing, the rune launcher be like a mine launcher, enemies being less about hitscan and more about quick projectiles, really makes it feel like something that was more inspired by DOOM rather than something simply built on it.

The maps are a great part of what makes this game more unique, they have tons of variety and detail that you didn't see in DOOM, but without breaking the limits of its engine, sometimes to the point of it being unbelievable. Levels are usually designed really well, with tons to explore and wrapping around into themselves, maybe even mixing themes and always having enemies push you around, all this being especially true on the Sunken Land episode. The game overall has an artstyle that's inspired by norse-celtic fantasy while still having many unique characteristics, and takes advantage of how much this theme can be pushed as you progress. When paired with the fitting soundtrack, the game gets an unique feel that you don't find in anything else.

My only complaints would be that a late stretch of episode 1 and then a bit of episode 2 drag on, but also that this release uses GZDoom. It actually uses the engine well for what is packaging a game that wasn't primarily built for it, being given a bunch of graphical presets that take you from and in between the extremes of vanilla doom and modern GZDoom with extra effects, also being able to tweak it if you prefer. My problem with this release is that it turned the game files into a PWAD unless using GZDoom, meaning to play on any other port takes a fair bit more work and requires the use of DOOM as a base, losing the stand-alone aspect. This engine package also seems to create expectations that the game will have the advanced features of many GZD contemporaries which may lead to disappointment. Regardless, I can't complain about how the game is packaged otherwise and the new episode, being the most polished while being 3 hours of game when only being 1/4th of the package, is worth the price alone.

This game delivers on its premise of bringing an unique experience that could have been created in the years where this genre was getting the motion for mainstream success while also not feeling like a simple clone of whatever was done in that era, it makes its limitations work in its favor and gives you something that you'll really only appreciate if you know how these games function, I really wish we could get more of this kind of game.

This was a surprising game for me in many ways. The game starts out in a decently atmospheric intro level where you find yourself escaping a crashed prison spaceship, lacking weapons, can read logs and notes from all the dead people and abandoned computers around you and get the chance to pick up the pieces to get some context for the story. Eventually when stepping out into the planet, the gigantic scale of the map, the ambient sounds coming from the animals and environment and the sense of exploration were incredible.

Many maps in this game have an incredible scale for 1998, and even when things are crude, a lot of thought goes into the world building be it through readable logs or simply environmental details. You could call the visuals outdated, but I find that they're artistically used very well to convey the environment so that I could keep myself immersed even when details are lacking, especially thanks to some great use of lighting effects. Some of the scenes visible in this game are simply unbelievable to me and I can't imagine what seeing them in a period accurate PC at the time would have been like.

Combat is certainly an aspect that will put a lot of people off, they focused on building an AI system that would give enemies the ability to navigate maps extensively, dodge your attacks and even have some types use a variety of weapons. I'm guessing that due to optimization, they kept combat spaces to very few enemies at a time which does mean enemies are designed around being a bit tanky so you often have a dynamic 1v1 encounter. When it works it's pretty fine, if a bit slower paced than other games in the genre at the time, but when it doesn't work it feels like enemies are either always dodging or getting lost, with the level design in later areas not helping much as it gets more mazey.

And this is where the game fell out of legendary status for me, the jank felt pretty justifiable given its age and how much it accomplished at the time a mere 5 months after Quake II had tried to do a lot of it and didn't quite reach, but the final 2 chapters are extremely tedious. Level design goes from trying to immerse into big open maps that lead you to smaller places you can explore to being very mazey and in some cases a messy kind of symmetrical, with very strange design choices like waiting for 2 enemies to constantly spawn after being killed until they spawn behind a door, with no indication, so that door finally opens and you can proceed. Already I felt like the game was simply stretching thin before this as it ran out of weapons and enemies to introduce, but the final chapter had me WISHING the game ended in every single map I had to go through. It didn't help that boss fights are the typical FPS trope of shoot at it until it dies.

I don't mind Half-Life Xen as much as other people do, I find it kinda boring but not frustrating. The final chapter of Unreal was frustating for me, not because it had weird gravity gimmicks or because I died much or anything of the sort, but because the levels and enemy encounters were really unengaging and uninteresting at that point. As even story logs became rare, I felt like the game should have ended 2 or 3 hours ago already. I do not think getting bang for your buck in game length is worth it if the game isn't offering more fun, just more filler. At the very least Xen was filled with interesting ideas and Half-Life wasn't as long.

Still with the problems I had at the end I'm very glad I played this, I still find it an impressive title full of memorable places to explore and a surprisingly thought out world. I just wish it wasn't stretched so much at the end, but regardless, it is a good game and it's a shame that Epic cannot see it for what it is and would rather delist it because they refuse to provide support the community is more than happy to do for them, even while being unpaid.

Another remarkable remaster from Nightdive, but I really want to commend NewBlood for their contributions as well. NewBlood focused on restoring the cut enemies, putting together the new episode and working on QoL features like the extra HUD, which really elevates this remaster as an ultimate edition.

The new episode is great if you're into ROTT's brand of level design and uses some more advanced features as well as taking advantage of the verticality that's possible with the jump pads and platforms of the game. I am surprised at how flexible KEX is sometimes, everything in this feels right, from the rendering to the movement. I don't love ROTT nearly as much as other people do but asides from a near complete overhaul like the Quake II remaster, which I feel like would just mess up the personality of this game, there's nothing more I could ask from this.

It's true that nobody loves ROTT more than NewBlood and Nightdive and I'm really glad they're the ones who got their hands on this after it got taken away from 3DR, if you're a fan you can't miss this release. Not completed cause I'm not playing Extreme ROTT.