Wow.

No idea how I missed this but in the age of ChatGPT and LLM's, Eliza asked important and thought provoking questions of the player's own views of the technology, the collection of private intimate data of everyday people and how that can be used to help or hinder humans efforts for a better world rather than a thicker bottom line.

I played it start to finish on Steam Deck, took me 7 hours and would highly recommend.

Spent $43.49 on this stupid meme (because I am a stupid man) that I will use to torture as many friends as I can trick into playing this with me until the end of time. First showing/play through involved my roommate who had no idea what this was (it's now his very favorite game, of course) and our one friend who, like myself, is well versed in the early years of the Angry Video Game Nerd, who's video on this "game" gave it a new life and eventually led to this Definitive Edition (I imagine this is his Oppenheimer moment/legacy). Good trash, sure, that I'm surprised didn't bore me/us more. Unlike actual passionate works with the mostly dreaded/misused "so bad it's good" title this is just really embarrassing/worrisome when you think about it's inception. Still, I look forward to torturing many more friends with a prime example of something that should've been left in the past.

1 star, obviously, but should be zero stars because of, you know, everything along with the addition of how much Limited Run Games sucks. Especially because of their added Plumb the Depths section, a bizarre, intentionally poor Doom(ish) knockoff used to unlock bonus content that should normally already be available once you complete the story but they needed to pad this thing out more given how short it is, which is maybe the stupidest thing I've ever seen in a "videogame". Looking forward to the day someone breaks into my apartment and as they're going through my physical Nintendo Switch collection they see Mario, Metroid, WarioWare, Tetris, Plumbers Don't Wear Ties. Can't wait to give this Best Narrative during Backloggd's Best of 2024 awards at the end of the year.

Far and away the most egregiously misguided attempt at myth-making in games history. This isn't the worst game ever. It's not the weirdest game ever. It is not the 'first American produced visual novel.' Limited Run Games seems content to simply upend truth and provenance to push a valueless narrative. The 'so bad it's good' shtick serves only to lessen the importance of early multimedia CD-ROM software, and drenching it in WordArt and clip art imparts the notion that this digital heritage was low class, low brow, low effort, and altogether primitive.

This repackaging of an overlong workplace sexual harassment/rape joke is altogether uncomfortable at best. Further problematising this, accompanying merch is resplendent with Edward J. Fasulo's bare chest despite him seemingly wanting nothing to do with the project. We've got industry veterans and games historians talking up the importance of digital detritus alongside YouTubers and LRG employees, the latter making the former less credible. We've got a novelisation by Twitter 'comedian' Mike Drucker. We've got skate decks and body pillows and more heaps of plastic garbage for video game 'collectors' to shove on a dusty shelf next to their four colour variants of Jay and Silent Bob Mall Brawl on NES, cum-encrusted Shantae statue, and countless other bits of mass-produced waste that belongs in a landfill. Utterly shameful how we engage with the past.

Bonus Definitive Edition content:
Limited Run Games is genuinely one of the most poorly managed companies on earth and I will never forgive them for giving me a PS5 copy of Cthulhu Saves Christmas instead of what I had actually ordered, a System Shock boxart poster. They also keep sending me extra copies of Jeremy Parish's books. Please, I do not need three copies of Virtual Boy Works.

Refunded it when I saw the negative impressions.
Bought it again to see for myself.
Immediately refunded again.

Man, what the hell. Xbox quick match multiplayer seems to keep routing me private matches that require a passcode. When I started my own match I found that the aiming is totally borked with a weird acceleration not present in the old version. And no one joined. Just a bummer.

This port is so bad.

It's already bad enough the file size for the collection is 60 gigs because of the uncompressed ai upscaled textures but the multiplayer barely works at all.

Instantly there's already audio bugs with BF2 being much quieter than 1 even at max volume settings as well as the loading screen sound from BF1 when loading into a map being incorrect (which is a sin.)

First few experiences of me playing this game started with me in BF1 doing quick join and joining a server requiring a password, next match directly after that has me join a match and the game instantly crashes.

Then I try BF2 quick match and end up on a match in Utapau on Conquest. The hit reg is terrible despite having my ping only being around 40 on the server and there was a glitch that me and several other people in the server experienced where when we on a respawn timer, it would just be stuck at 1 and never would go down.

The new textures and graphical changes don't look very bad and I like the upscaled hud and everything but the background cut scenes on Battlefront 2's menu that are upscaled look so horrible.

It's so disappointing because I love these two games but I'm gonna have to refund it because this is ridiculous for a +$30 dollar collection that really doesn't have anything better than the original games on PC. I'll probably only pick it up again on discount if the biggest issues are fixed.

How in the HELL did this release in the state it did when we have perfectly functional ports already available on PC? You are essentially paying $30 for a "fresher" online community and Xbox DLC you could have modded in, yourself.

Netcode is terrible, hits do not register as they should. PTP servers do not work. Aspyr's servers crash all the time. No online support for split-screen modes and lacking crossplay when these games and community really needed it. Utter trash and I would have this refunded in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the fact this was a birthday gift from a friend and he has to authorize the refund.

First Impressions: Online multiplayer is unplayable day one, but the singleplayer is as fun as I remember. These games have never looked so good either! Here's hoping they iron things out on the multiplayer front following such a rocky launch. Will update my rating based on those efforts.

Final Impressions: Look, I love the original Star Wars Battlefront games. If you're just trying to hop into Instant Action for a couple matches, play through the campaigns, or enjoy some classic local split screen multiplayer (a rarity nowadays), this collection might just be worth it, at least for us console players. It really is the most convenient way for me to enjoy what I love most about these classic games. As far as the online multiplayer, god, don't even bother. It's a disaster. I don't even bother, and you know what, for the reasons I listed prior, it doesn't bother me. I never really wanted to play these games online to begin with. But hey, if that was the main selling point for you, save your money. Hell, go buy both games individually on Steam. They're actually functional and it'll be cheaper too. For sake of fairness, regardless of my personal enjoyment of this title as a singleplayer experience, I gotta rate it with all of it's issues in mind. It's got the good, it's got the bad, and, dammit, does it have the ugly.