HBO Presents: Half Life 2 - Episode 1 (FakeFactory Cinematic Mod).

While both games are surely quite good, I'm still unconvinced by The Last of Us. There's REALLY nothing I can add on top of Pansy's wonderful review.
What mostly struck me was how sanded down much of the theming of this really was, the way the second half of the game begs you to find endearment in Abby and her family struck as cartoonish in the already well-trodden realm of player implicating. What I did find assuring was how much I agreed with the game's own assessment of Joel, despite eroding the ambiguity that gave the ending any kick to begin with. Considering how much the game caters itself to low common denoms, I'm glad it didn't take the easy way out and venerate him, making Ellie's Quest 4 Revenge as dicey as it needed to be. I genuinely only wish this wasn't a roving epic where 13 hours of playtime are dedicated to hugging walls, opening shelves and picking up scraps of metal. The developers dying at their desks for this game feels uniquely frustrating to me because of how... unambitious it felt despite dizzyingly high production values?? The whole thing is enemy chokeholds in dense concrete jungles separated w/ scripted segments where someone grapples you from offscreen for going through a door. Very brave, Druckmann.

even if you get past the insidious and varied transmisogyny, the fact that the main character is a sexual predator and one of his close friends is The Pervert(tm), the infantilization of one of its female leads and the cardboard cutout tsundere archetype of the other one, the racism of having the only black men in the game be aggressive and violent thugs who do immoral things, the fact that this is a very loosely concealed harem game with a fast and loose interpretation of science and physics, the fact that the main character is braindead and cannot engage in basic rationalization to predict one of the most obvious plot twists in any video game ever...

even if you can get past all of that, this game is just fucking bad and sucks big shit lol

To me Contra Hard Corps represents the Sega Genesis perfectly. It's action-packed, full of attitude, and loud noises. This instance here where one guy in a jet pack is defeated with the result being the most massive explosion ever that lasts five seconds is peak Genesis.

Multiple characters with multiple weapons, and multiple paths with multiple endings including a joke ending and one for joining the bad guy is a crapton of replay value. It really makes you wonder why they went out of their way to make it so hard in the western versions. Oh right, it's Konami. They hate westerners, same shit they've been doing since Bayou Billy. Actually, I do feel it's debatable whether traditional one-hit kills or three hits per life is better, but one thing I absolutely detest no matter what is limited continues. To hell with that, either play the JP version or use the HP restoration patch. Crank the lives to ten in that if you must, because this game is fantastic and should be played by everyone regardless of skill level. Potentially a top three Genesis title for me, at the very least right now while I'm on my Hard Corps high. Konami seriously had their shit together on the Genesis.

I also just learned they gave the PAL version one less continue to work with than the NA version. They had life hard enough with the dopey changes you made to the sprites and 50hz displays, you really gotta kick'em while they're down like that?

Put Brad Fang in Smash Bros. Such skill to drive a motorcycle one-handed.

the story, art direction, and atmosphere are impressive for the time but the gameplay leaves so much to be desired.

in a vacuum, the weighty driving mechanics are fine but when adding in things like needing to move your ass when a timer is involved or you're being chased/doing some chasing it all goes to hell. elsewhere there's interesting moments with missions being surprisingly open ended in approach options but as things progress it just ends up being shootout after shootout with the less than stellar combat.

the cops being up your ass if you so much breathe when within 200 feet of them is obnoxious and doesn't serve any purpose other than annoyance? if you pull over and get a ticket, it gets paid off with no loss (there's no money mechanic to worry about?) and if you decide to try to take off you better hope you escape fast or you're back to dealing with the rancid driving AI.

as an almost crime/mob base immersive sim of sorts this is fascinating but it feels like it came years too soon in terms of design ideas and polish. if i wasn't worried about the supposed plot changes and cuts made to the missions i'd say that i expect the remake to be an all around improvement.

i guess i'll see when i get to it.

Genuinely was not expecting to enjoy this game by the end. Sincerely doubted it, had to shelve it a few times to keep the strongest sense of charity going. And to be fair to part of Y0, I certainly was uncharitable towards that spirit at many points. Granted, Yakuza 0 really did not do me many favors.

Still, I do walk out of the end amazed by the final steps of the journey, where the game ultimately ties back to that central theme of becoming like a dragon in many many ways. Defining, redefining, and creating character rationale for that "way of the yakuza". Majima especially was the heart of the game that I centered myself around, being the particular character exploration that I found interesting. There's so many wonderful boys rock moments that I had to get in the jive for, as well as a few rare, but excellent energized and choreographed scenes. Presentation in general for Yakuza does not pull punches.

But god it was GRUELING for me to get that far. The ending gates of "holy shit it's finally coming together" is barred by actually just awful awful combat, so dysfunctional and a complete mess to try to take seriously that you might as well put it on Easy and chug health potions. And also some of the worst pacing I've had to set myself up to, and I've been playing some long rpgs lately!!! The beginning chapters, especially with Kiryu, are actual chores in setup and production, and even in the more well put together back half, there'll still be extraordinarily dumb moments because they simply did not know how to deal with a lot of the characters they just threw at you.

And to make matters worse for me, the game's more problematic elements were more than just sour points. Y0 will bend itself over backwards to force you into some substories and a lot of the humor blew right past me but the required ones had some deeply disgusting elements. I don't think a lot of it, or really any, could be said as malicious, but it's certainly very Japan culture to have the one black person you ever see for example be the 'mass murderer' in an underground fighting ring.

I lay this out on the table though, mostly because most people don't (yakuza twitter is a menace), but also because I do think the journey is worth trudging through. It should also be noted I came with my own biases too, because I'm just tired of years being near fratty bro culture (college years i was stuck with a lot of frat roommates) and as I transition I just am kind of averse to bro vibes first. So knowing that, and the fact that I still thought the last few hours were unparalled fucking A energy, I think people should at least give this one a shot.

Do actually like, skip the substories if the humor doesn't work for you like I did.

More misc thoughts:
-Kiryu extremely a hottie, made my SO swoon every time he was on camera. Still team majima though!!
-I really really liked the majima minigame. That was some seriously good down to earth dialogue with the girls and is maybe the only time Y0 has an even somewhat pleasant lens on women in the game. Emphasis on somewhat there's like 5 asterisks there.
-What is this game's obsession with <5f reactable tracking moves on bosses lol. I just laughed every time I found one and there were more than 5!

I don’t understand why some players complain that RE Village is campy and has a lot of shooting. Like RE Village isn’t a true RE game. Or why someone is bashing Mikami for the pacing in Evil Within 2?
RE4 is an action game in the first place, and only then it’s a horror (?).


It's hard to judge the game since it's been almost 20 years (!!!) since its release. I can see if I had played this game when I was back in school - I would love it.
Now, after many other RE games behind - it's hard to distinguish this one from others.
The only thing that stands out is the overall game design which is still in use in many other games. 3rd person camera from a shoulder + save points + pacing + horror. The blueprint has been used a lot since then. So from the pure anthropological perspective - it was an interesting experience.
And I'm still convinced that The Evil Within 2 is the best Mikami game since RE4.