jlbotbyl
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.
Real bummer the squad shooter genre has fallen by the wayside, because Republic Commando does a ton of cool stuff and I would love to see a real version of it (even without the Star Wars trappings) in 2020 with better allied AI and years of level design innovation in the intervening years. Still, other than visually I think this game really does hold up as a rock solid fps campaign and I wish the multiplayer was still playable.
2016
Superhot came out at a time when I was really bored of fps games and honestly most video games. Then I got a review code for Superhot, which really reignited my interest in the medium. I spent the whole time playing it going "damn, games can be fun?? And interesting?? And make me feel really fucking cool??" Anyway Superhot is all of those things and has a boatload of s t y l e to boot. Brilliant game.
2014
Sometimes this game makes me feel like the dumbest, lowest IQ person alive and others it makes me feel like the last stage of the galaxy brain meme. In more concise terms: a brilliant puzzle game.
2017
I've been more and more turned off by PUBG since it's initial release, and have more or less reached the conclusion what I liked about the game was all unintentional. The sense of tension, total jank of the equipment, running halfway across the map every game are all things that have sort of been phased out with time. Obviously can't take away all the time I spent learning everything I could and enjoying myself when the game first came out, and my rating reflects that. Accidentally one of the coolest games of the 2010's and I would love to see someone actually set out with real intent to make summer 2018 PUBG.
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.
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.
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
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!
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.
2007
Lots of nostalgia for this one since it was the first Halo game I ever played and one of the first fps games I ever really got into. Just blew my mind at the time and no amount of replays will ever take that away, I still remember the first time I saw a Scarab and just lost my mind. "How am I supposed to kill that???" Really launched my love for Halo, both in terms of playing the games and getting way too deep into the lore.
2010
For as solid as the campaign is, it's still disappointing to me as a follow up to ODST. Which maybe comes off as more negative than I mean it to be, because I do think Reach is one of the better games in the franchise. By far my favorite multiplayer--really strong maps and even now the armor abilities are a good compromise between traditional Halo gameplay and Reach's military shooter contemporaries. And despite what I said the campaign is still really fun to play and definitely has one of the better narratives in the series. Bungie was really firing on all cylinders by the end of their time on Halo and it shows with Reach and ODST.
2009
Currently doing a long awaited co-op replay of the game with my best friend from high school on PC, and so far most of what I remember liking about it holds up really well. The writing is painfully 2009 dude-bro dogshit but it's the only Halo game to have such an amazing sense of atmosphere, and the music is easily the best in the franchise. Genuinely justifies itself as a spinoff because it doesn't just play like the mainline Master Chief games--if anything I wish they'd taken some of the stealth/open world ideas present here a little bit further, either in this game or a future one. Unfortunately it was just never meant to be and ODST remains the weirdest and most experimental the Halo franchise ever got and it's better for it.
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.
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.