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.

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.

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'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.

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 not too annoying, they're usually satisfying and I think this game should be the example for it instead of RE4, except for those QTEs where you wiggle the stick left and right because they're the most inconsistent. Also, the cutting mechanic has many uses during combat alongside your combos so 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.

This is a bit of a disappointing game. It looks pretty fine at surface level, there's the bloody presentation, a charming Terror Mask and you gotta go save your girlfriend from this house of horror. However, the presentation is a bit odd to me. We got the gratuitous amount of blood and gore, but we don't really have the clear homages to the slasher films that Splaterrhouse started with in the arcade, there's a bunch of meh licensed music and the framerate is constantly dipping. That said, they really tried to make a complete story for this game and the characters have great voice acting with Jim Cummings as the Mask being the highlight, but I really appreciate Josh Keaton's Rick too.

The gameplay starts out HORRIBLE. The start of the game is probably the least polished, poor performance combined with mechanics that are explained well after you need the explanation really sour the beginning of the game, it takes like an hour to really pick up. However, when you figure out how to make combos and guarantee your glory kills it becomes pretty fun!

You get upgrades to expand your moveset and get more health or better weapons, which does help the game keep the fun alongside the introductions to new environments and enemies, but that really slows down when you're around the middle of the game and there's barely much of it by the end.

You'll get thrown into areas with unexplained mechanics or forced platforming without warning and probably die because you don't know what you're doing, then wait for loading screens that can take entire minutes to finish, and the game starts to become a chore. The final stage has a horrible objective that I had to do by turning the game down to easy to tolerate it and I was just tired. This is one of those games that really needed some more polish and time and maybe it would have been great, but as it is, its saving grace is that it's short enough for the flaws to not accumulate so much that you REALLY want to quit, and I still felt like quitting when there was just a few minutes of game left.

I really want something that can follow up on what Splatterhouse was doing in the 80s-90s, a homage to some horror and slasher classics, but without the average game design and unfair difficulty. This game isn't quite there, but it gets close to having the right attitude at points, and I still had fun through most of it but really wish another chance for something like this could still happen. If you do play this, please set it to easy during phase 11 or 12, but also look into its development and cut content. Some of the cut dialogue is great, and it helps contextualize where this game was on the right track but why it didn't get there. I really do recommend it if you're interested, but it won't win you over if you have no tolerance for the issues I brought up.

Talk about underrated, I feel like this game doesn't get enough credit for what it does right. First off, the voice actors for Batman and Joker are different but they fit their roles and know how to play them. The story and characters, while different to the other Arkham games in tone, I'd say are better adaptations of Batman than both Asylum and City before it. Everyone knows of Deathstroke and Deadshot being "cool" but there are other highlights. The character designs are honestly better, Bruce and Alfred actually have a relationship and some character development, and Bane actually had real personality plus intelligence besides being a big brute which is not what he's supposed to be. This game also serves as the origin story for Batman and Joker's rivalry, which is pretty well handled while keeping it simple.

Combat takes a lot from Arkham City, although I'd say is snappier, but adds the B.A.T. mode mechanic from City's Armored Edition in the late game. You get the gloves to build up kinetic energy and then activate them to boost your damage, instantly dropping enemies, it definitely makes the game easier but honestly the way you can keep up combos with it when the heavier enemies appear is really satisfying. Alongside the general fighting, the bosses are actually really good and decently challenging, well designed final boss and all, probably better in this department than both its predecessors.

The open world is kinda pointlessly bigger, mainly thanks to the bridge, but the side activities felt more focused, less frustrating and we even got fast travel to alleviate running to objectives on the other side of the map. The snowy Christmas setting is pretty chill, and I think it actually is a nice mood for a Christmas game with violence and everything.

There are some things I dislike, the hook that previously could be attached to walls can now only be used on designated spots or connecting enemies, and the crime investigations are a little too basic. Investigating is fun at first but soon you'll realize that Batman always knows the next step and you just follow along, clicking on the single clue that appears after the last one. However I honestly found this game to have better pacing, as well as be less frustrating and more enjoyable than City. While I still miss the metroidvania-lite structure of Asylum, only thing I can knock against Origins is that it doesn't innovate as much as City did, but considering the enjoyment I got out of it I can't hate it for that at all.

I usually don't talk much about DLC but this one was very very neat when it comes to Arkham games.

We get a simple premise: an origin story, this time for Mr Freeze, which gives way to new mechanics related to ice and heat. You'll have to learn to deal with enemies that share his freezing ray as you explore a city that has been ravaged by it, creating a very awesome atmosphere. You get all upgrades but unfortunately Batman's new suit doesn't spice up gameplay that much, still it looks good and allows you to break icy formations which are useful in stealth for example, like dropping icicles on enemies.

There's not much to do in the open world and you'll likely be done with the story in a couple of hours, but what's here is very fun and focused. Unfortunately you can kinda feel how empty the world is and how crunched and rushed this was, even the pre-rendered cutscenes don't look as good.

A friend showed me the steam page and this trailer and not even halfway through it I stopped watching it, just to jump directly into the demo before dropping that soon to just play the full game. Everything I saw seemed perfect for me, the character designs, animation, voice acting, silly humor, chill but atmospheric music and fun puzzles.

The mystery in this story has a simple premise but it has more layers than you might expect, and the design of Tangle Tower makes it really fun to look at everything you find as you talk to the characters and collect your evidence.

The puzzles always have pretty simple logic to them, but after the first couple you'll likely find yourself having to think a decent bit without losing your sanity, very well balanced for a short game.

The story maybe falls a little short by the end, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the ride nonetheless. Besides, there's a lot going on if you just pay attention to the characters when they simply talk about seemingly inconsequential things, so maybe I missed something.

This game is very short but meaty throughout, if I had played it in 2019 it'd be in my top 3 of the year. It may not be perfect or for everyone, but I am giving it all 5 stars because it didn't drag and I loved going through it. Looking at the trailer should actually be enough to know if you'd love this as much as I did.

This is one of those small, dead simple, but robust games that you can quickly put on and have some good fun with to kill time.

Aliens come, you build sentry guns to protect yourself from them, get points, take care of having more by the time they break or to contain the growing horde and go as long as you can without dying.

For a game that got made in 48 hours it's very sound at its core, had it been an old arcade or flash game it'd probably be remembered as a classic now. I am rating it high simply because it does what it sets out to do really well and it's free, so go try it!

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.