jlbotbyl
2012
Massive respect for any shooter willing to be a full on retelling of Heart of Darkness while relentlessly mocking gamers' bootlicking of American imperialism.
2018
This was pitched to me as "an RTS for beginners" and while that isn't an inaccurate descriptor I do think it does the game a disservice. It's obviously not as complex as some of the more famed entries in the genre, but it is a really fun entry point and something I enjoyed a lot more than I expected as someone who has played a decent number of RTS games.
2018
In a lot of wats Life is Strange 2 is an improvement over the original game. The writing clearly matured a lot, and is way more confident in its social commentary. Still, it didn't hit for me as hard as the original did--definitely a time/place thing (I was in the middle of experiencing something very similar to Max when the game came out). LiS 2 is still really emotionally resonant, all the big character beats work and it sticks the landing brilliantly. Also somehow makes its time skips really work, which is often a tough line to walk. Like when I finished the original LiS it made me really look forward to the studio's next project and like LiS 2 I'm taking my sweet time getting around to Tell Me Why!
2007
The more time I put between now and when I was an Assassin's Creed fan, the more bummed I get the franchise abandoned a lot of what made the original game special. It's incredibly repetitive, of course, but I would loved to have seen the sense of atmosphere and slow pace of missions maintained over leaning further and further in the action RPG route.
Uniquely disappointing because it shows moments of brilliance (last half of episode one, Tempest sequence in episode two) but doesn't make them the focus of the game!!! Honestly would have been preferable if the plot had just been Chloe and Rachel falling in love, because those are the best parts and the only times it feels like the writers actually have a handle on the characters and why they're compelling. The rest of the game just feels like background noise and it doesn't even have decent puzzles like the first game to break it up.
Genuinely my favorite walking sim. The different mechanical gimmicks in each vignette all work really well, none of them overstay their welcome and each of those smaller stories really makes for an incredibly resonant overarching story.
2017
Got old sooner than I would have liked but the hours I did get out of it were a lot of fun. I just wound up feeling like I'd crafted a single strategy that worked every time. Maybe if I went back to it now some of the updates would make it feel fresh again, but I did really love my time with it, it has a great sense of atmosphere and the sci-fi setting is excellently crafted.
2017
Really bummed this game didn't have the same moment as Gone Home, because it is an improvement in almost every way. The Fullbright folks really know how to make environmental exploration games and they have the writing chops to really back it up.
2013
Really the first pure exploration game I ever played and so it felt (and still feels) revolutionary to me. Obviously that has lots to do with it having a big breakout moment back when it came out, but what can I say? I was incredibly ignorant at the time! And even knowing it's not the first game of it's kind or anything it's still a wonder of exploration design, has some brilliant genre subversion, and is still one of the best stories ever told in a video game.
2014
Like with CE I never played the original Halo 2, and also like CE didn't land the same way as it did for most people who played it way back in 2004. But hey, still a great game!
2020
Really wish I could have actually gotten into this game but I played the campaign and a couple hours of multiplayer and just never clicked with it. Partially my fault because I'm really bad at flight sims! But also partially the devs fault because the campaign is honestly pretty boring--level design is just "destroy x enemy fighters, blow up bigger target, rinse and repeat" and the writing isn't great. I do love that this game exists though, I think weirder Star Wars games is the right way to go and even if I'm bad at it I cannot deny how cool it feels to pilot an X-Wing. When everything lines up I did have really great moments with this thing and I bet people more into flight sims than I am probably really dig it. Classic case of "really cool, wish I was into, but ultimately not for me."
2012
I remember being super stoked for this game when it came out, got it the day it came out but wasn't allowed to play video games on school nights and had to wait until the weekend to start it. Genuinely one of the most painful things 15 year old me had experienced! One of my best high school memories is still having my friends over that weekend and passing the controller around as we played through the campaign, and even though the years in between have tarnished my opinion of the game I'll always have that. And I genuinely do think the part where you actually play the campaign is pretty good! The narrative choices are bad and the multiplayer is a big letdown but it was a solid first outing for 343 when it comes to level design and iterating on a classic franchise while still making it feel like Halo.
2014
Sometimes games are just fun! And very few of them are as fun as Luftrausers, it's become my go-to reinstall whenever I just need something to take the edge off.
2017
It's been months since I last touched Dead Cells so I'm not sure what state it's in right now, but I still feel pretty confident saying this is one of the best rogue-likes/lites of all time. The combat is so fluid and all of the loadouts feel good to play and unique, learning this game inside and out was one of the most joyful experiences not only in gaming but in general in the last couple years.
Still haven't played the original Combat Evolved outside of what's in this version, which just doesn't resonate with me in the way future games did. It's still a really great campaign, just doesn't hold a candle to Reach/ODST (which I played before I ever got around to this) so doesn't have the same spot atop the video game pedestal it does for a lot of people my age/a bit older.