pea_txt
BACKER
2002
The 2nd best Fall Out game.
2004
i never got past the 2nd stage on this lol
2016
This game had the possibility of aging so badly from when I first played it back in 2004. Fortunately, it still holds up somewhat. Of course, the writing suffers from "Anime Aughts-itis", a terrible condition I've just coined. A lot of segments in the writing have not aged well at all, and obviously, that's to be expected for this kind of game. Everything else about this game feels barebones from its successors, but that's just how it goes for a series, does it not?
It's weird to go back to this game and see how thoroughly it preaches a message about morality and humanity, and then you get a bad sex joke to break the mood.
It's weird to go back to this game and see how thoroughly it preaches a message about morality and humanity, and then you get a bad sex joke to break the mood.
2005
It all went downhill after this one.
2010
Only posting this review to tell you that peak mid is back on GOG. Go play it.
2023
A wonderful sequel that not only gives us even more breathtaking sights, but also overall improved gameplay from its predecessor. If you can believe it, annihilators are balanced now.
Gracing us with themed chapters is this wad's biggest strength once more. Every level is crafted with such meticulousness that it makes me wonder how the creators didn't lose their minds making a single one of them. Doom has been around for 30 years, of course, so with that time spent, come its most dedicated fans, ready to rip you a new one. A primitive engine that dates from the 90s, and yet they crafted some of the most beautiful scenery I've seen in a while. The art direction is, simply put, spot on.
Music this time around is sublime as well! I'm happy to state that I've got some new memorable songs that can be stuck in my head whenever I want to. A team of 4 people (from what I can see in the credits) worked to make 36 original tracks and they all fucking slap.
Map design is also a big improvement! I can still name a couple of maps that soured the experience, but they've only soured it a bit. Most notably, however, and I'm gonna make this one personal: Map28 could definitely have done without those white cacos flying way too high up in the air. Not cool. However, I can give props for making properly difficult maps, like the jaw dropping map36. Holy hell, that one's just one of the best maps ever made.
This was overall a much better experience than the first Eviternity, and the first one was already really good. Highly recommend this wad for any DOOM fan, as well as for the people who are dipping their toes into more difficult experiences. Considering this was a stealth drop, of all things, I've gotta give it to the team for not leaking a single thing, they must have been bursting a vein or two, wanting to share their work to the world as soon as possible.
Played on Ultra-Violence. Timer says 14 hours, but you could probably add 1 or 2 hours in there with my save reloading. I tried to not save scum too much, with a decent degree of success.
DOOM forever.
Gracing us with themed chapters is this wad's biggest strength once more. Every level is crafted with such meticulousness that it makes me wonder how the creators didn't lose their minds making a single one of them. Doom has been around for 30 years, of course, so with that time spent, come its most dedicated fans, ready to rip you a new one. A primitive engine that dates from the 90s, and yet they crafted some of the most beautiful scenery I've seen in a while. The art direction is, simply put, spot on.
Music this time around is sublime as well! I'm happy to state that I've got some new memorable songs that can be stuck in my head whenever I want to. A team of 4 people (from what I can see in the credits) worked to make 36 original tracks and they all fucking slap.
Map design is also a big improvement! I can still name a couple of maps that soured the experience, but they've only soured it a bit. Most notably, however, and I'm gonna make this one personal: Map28 could definitely have done without those white cacos flying way too high up in the air. Not cool. However, I can give props for making properly difficult maps, like the jaw dropping map36. Holy hell, that one's just one of the best maps ever made.
This was overall a much better experience than the first Eviternity, and the first one was already really good. Highly recommend this wad for any DOOM fan, as well as for the people who are dipping their toes into more difficult experiences. Considering this was a stealth drop, of all things, I've gotta give it to the team for not leaking a single thing, they must have been bursting a vein or two, wanting to share their work to the world as soon as possible.
Played on Ultra-Violence. Timer says 14 hours, but you could probably add 1 or 2 hours in there with my save reloading. I tried to not save scum too much, with a decent degree of success.
DOOM forever.
2018
This review contains spoilers
An intermissive for the series: Kiryu's Great Vacation.
The stakes are arguably much lower in this game, leaving place for Kiryu to finally have a bit of a break. Of course, he never catches a break, but for the first time, we get to see him do something he likes doing.
The story focuses a lot on the orphanage, just as much as whatever's happening in the criminal world. If anything, Kiryu wants to deal with the kids much more than with the Yakuza, and for good reasons. So the game does that. Unfortunately, taking care of kids isn't what the average yakuza fan wants (and they're wrong). They want Kiryu kicking ass, not be a super cool guy. Thankfully, I get to see Kiryu be a super cool guy, so this is right up my alley.
Giving a spotlight to every child in the orphanage throughout the story was very heartwarming. I got to enjoy a casual lifestyle, while helping kids stray away from a life that the main character went for. It's a sort of atonement for Kiryu, and so his goals and actions end up being more cathartic than you'd might think. People hate this about Yakuza 3, for some reason, but again, they just want to mash Square in front of a dude blocking every attack.
Unfortunately, the story's not all sunshine and rainbows, or all good writing, for that matter. Should Rikiya, a new character in the series have any fate, perhaps giving him the one we had to witness shouldn't be as infuriating as it is, to say the least. Bonus points for dragging on his death with sappy music and, for the first time, Kiryu pouring his heart and soul for a friend he just made. I just sat there, waiting for the scene to end. In the end, Rikiya dying didn't even mean anything: There was no rhyme or reason for him to keel over, not even a motivator to keep things going. The writer(s) decided to just write off a character whom I loved from first meeting, because... ???
Yakuza 3 is also, yet again, a case of not really knowing how I should be rating an installment of a multi-part series. Combat felt watered down and kind of frustrating for different reasons from the other games: Enemies block WAY too much. You have a semi-solution to it (don't button mash). I still enjoyed it for what it was, at least... I feel like that's it. This really was an intermission for the next game, although I can't imagine someone's reaction to the ending of this game after what happens right before the credits. That'd be a right-A dick move, if nothing happened after the credits.
I also spoiled this game to someone unknowingly so I'm gonna go kick my own ass to oblivion. Be right back.
The stakes are arguably much lower in this game, leaving place for Kiryu to finally have a bit of a break. Of course, he never catches a break, but for the first time, we get to see him do something he likes doing.
The story focuses a lot on the orphanage, just as much as whatever's happening in the criminal world. If anything, Kiryu wants to deal with the kids much more than with the Yakuza, and for good reasons. So the game does that. Unfortunately, taking care of kids isn't what the average yakuza fan wants (and they're wrong). They want Kiryu kicking ass, not be a super cool guy. Thankfully, I get to see Kiryu be a super cool guy, so this is right up my alley.
Giving a spotlight to every child in the orphanage throughout the story was very heartwarming. I got to enjoy a casual lifestyle, while helping kids stray away from a life that the main character went for. It's a sort of atonement for Kiryu, and so his goals and actions end up being more cathartic than you'd might think. People hate this about Yakuza 3, for some reason, but again, they just want to mash Square in front of a dude blocking every attack.
Unfortunately, the story's not all sunshine and rainbows, or all good writing, for that matter. Should Rikiya, a new character in the series have any fate, perhaps giving him the one we had to witness shouldn't be as infuriating as it is, to say the least. Bonus points for dragging on his death with sappy music and, for the first time, Kiryu pouring his heart and soul for a friend he just made. I just sat there, waiting for the scene to end. In the end, Rikiya dying didn't even mean anything: There was no rhyme or reason for him to keel over, not even a motivator to keep things going. The writer(s) decided to just write off a character whom I loved from first meeting, because... ???
Yakuza 3 is also, yet again, a case of not really knowing how I should be rating an installment of a multi-part series. Combat felt watered down and kind of frustrating for different reasons from the other games: Enemies block WAY too much. You have a semi-solution to it (don't button mash). I still enjoyed it for what it was, at least... I feel like that's it. This really was an intermission for the next game, although I can't imagine someone's reaction to the ending of this game after what happens right before the credits. That'd be a right-A dick move, if nothing happened after the credits.
I also spoiled this game to someone unknowingly so I'm gonna go kick my own ass to oblivion. Be right back.
2002
This is the only version of Getting Over It worth playing.
2014
I've had a dream recently. I was driving around my neighborhood, but it was different. Vastly different. I wasn't looking at houses, I was looking at abandoned buildings. The more I explored the neighborhood, the more decrepit it became: Houses became remains of a destroyed, rotting victorian era building; establishments that were nothing but wood and the occasional gothic imagery; memories that never were, would manifest in the form of ones you would never know its full history.
Dark Souls II is exactly that dream.
Drangleic is a world that once was. You just happen to explore its end. People fight for scraps of its memories, as if there's something to salvage from what calamity has already claimed. A demented kingdom is all you will find. I fear the concept of dementia, but I'm also morbidly curious by it, much so the concept of death itself. Exploring it for the first time, I've never really realized how much these morbid curiosities are why I've enjoyed Drangleic as much as I have. I just thought it was a cool world. It's crazy how stories can be told mainly through visuals and you could totally ignore the meat of it and still get the message.
Dark Souls, as a series, explores death in different ways. Where the first one's thematic is death and how we cling on to life (perhaps a bit too much), Dark Souls 2 gives us death, and how it will eventually make us all forgotten. To me, death only comes once you're no longer remembered. In other words, you cling on to those memories, no matter how much they're degrading.
Oh, right, this is a video game. Oops.
Dark Souls 2 is also my first souls-like game. It's a game that formed me as a souls-like enjoyer. I'll always tell people to start with 2 with a win-win situation of "If you liked the others better, then at least you started with the worst and built it up. If you loved this game from the get-go, then you got a new favorite in your hands". Balance is weird in this game: it throws many bones at the player. It's much easier to get a hang of the game and breeze through it, unlike 1 and 3, and Elden Ring. But that's why it's so much fun. I get to play without stressing too much, I allow myself to get hit more often due to the existence of lifegems, and so on. It feels so much more dynamic and I got to play this game multiple times, with different play styles each time.
I've never played the Scholar of the First Sin edition, and from what I've heard, it's even more of a "gank squad central" game than before. I never had an issue with enemy placement in the original, but if it's accentuated in the new version, then I'd hate to try it out, lest it ruins my perception of this game being the best one of the series.
I'm not here to start wars about which Dark Souls is better, but I will say this: Don't trust a person who will go out of their way to tell you unprompted that Dark Souls 1 is the best one. They probably only play it for the PvP.
Dark Souls II is exactly that dream.
Drangleic is a world that once was. You just happen to explore its end. People fight for scraps of its memories, as if there's something to salvage from what calamity has already claimed. A demented kingdom is all you will find. I fear the concept of dementia, but I'm also morbidly curious by it, much so the concept of death itself. Exploring it for the first time, I've never really realized how much these morbid curiosities are why I've enjoyed Drangleic as much as I have. I just thought it was a cool world. It's crazy how stories can be told mainly through visuals and you could totally ignore the meat of it and still get the message.
Dark Souls, as a series, explores death in different ways. Where the first one's thematic is death and how we cling on to life (perhaps a bit too much), Dark Souls 2 gives us death, and how it will eventually make us all forgotten. To me, death only comes once you're no longer remembered. In other words, you cling on to those memories, no matter how much they're degrading.
Oh, right, this is a video game. Oops.
Dark Souls 2 is also my first souls-like game. It's a game that formed me as a souls-like enjoyer. I'll always tell people to start with 2 with a win-win situation of "If you liked the others better, then at least you started with the worst and built it up. If you loved this game from the get-go, then you got a new favorite in your hands". Balance is weird in this game: it throws many bones at the player. It's much easier to get a hang of the game and breeze through it, unlike 1 and 3, and Elden Ring. But that's why it's so much fun. I get to play without stressing too much, I allow myself to get hit more often due to the existence of lifegems, and so on. It feels so much more dynamic and I got to play this game multiple times, with different play styles each time.
I've never played the Scholar of the First Sin edition, and from what I've heard, it's even more of a "gank squad central" game than before. I never had an issue with enemy placement in the original, but if it's accentuated in the new version, then I'd hate to try it out, lest it ruins my perception of this game being the best one of the series.
I'm not here to start wars about which Dark Souls is better, but I will say this: Don't trust a person who will go out of their way to tell you unprompted that Dark Souls 1 is the best one. They probably only play it for the PvP.
the songs are STUCK IN MY HEAD
2023
In a world where big publishers are currently competing to make the biggest disappointment in the gaming industry, Activision/Blizzard are far and beyond the winners of this race. What could have been a jewel of competitive gaming history, became the catalyst for the shitshow that is any single multiplayer game out there. The legacy this series has left us has poisoned the well for most likely all eternity. We gotta owe it to Overwatch for ruining not only competitive video games, but how multiplayer video games are designed.
When we say a game is an "X killer", like world of warcraft and all that, Overwatch became the Team Fortress 2 killer, but not for the right reasons. That's right, I'm blaming this game/series for enticing TF2 to make that god forsaken lobby update. It's that bad.
I'm sorry, Jeff. This probably wasn't your fault, but god damn.
When we say a game is an "X killer", like world of warcraft and all that, Overwatch became the Team Fortress 2 killer, but not for the right reasons. That's right, I'm blaming this game/series for enticing TF2 to make that god forsaken lobby update. It's that bad.
I'm sorry, Jeff. This probably wasn't your fault, but god damn.
2003
I mean c'mon.
2021
Square Enix has been smoking a lot of something these past years. They've released a lot of schlock, to say the least. Outriders, I think, was the telling sign.
I actually bothered beating this with a friend in co-op. Mechanically speaking, it's a game that tries very hard to be dynamic, despite its cover shooter aesthetics. In fact, cover shooting in this game is discouraged. Enemies can easily wipe you if you don't keep moving and gunning. It kind of reminds me of Bulletstorm- Now wait a minute, who made this game?
The problem with this game, if I were to actually compare it with Bulletstorm, is that it's a god damn RPG. An RPG shooting game is bad news: Enemies are insane bullet sponges, and with the dynamic difficulty mechanics in place, you're going to take way too much time to gun down your enemies. The final boss fight took me and my friend over 30 minutes to beat because of how many bullets it took us to just whittle down the boss' HP. I've never seen anything like it, and I played Borderlands enough to know what I'm saying. At least, with Bulletstorm, you could just kick an enemy to a spiky wall and be done with it. Fast, easy and satisfying is nothing that this game has to offer, unfortunately.
So we beat the final boss and stopped there. This is the kind of game that wants you to keep on grinding, however. My patience, on the other hand, was eyeing elsewhere. Make a compelling plot for once, and maybe I'll care about playing your game some more. As it is with Outriders, it's all secondary thoughts.
They made a DLC at some point, too. Good on People Can Fly for trying, but, like, you had to deal with Square Enix, as well. It just wasn't meant to be, after all.
I actually bothered beating this with a friend in co-op. Mechanically speaking, it's a game that tries very hard to be dynamic, despite its cover shooter aesthetics. In fact, cover shooting in this game is discouraged. Enemies can easily wipe you if you don't keep moving and gunning. It kind of reminds me of Bulletstorm- Now wait a minute, who made this game?
The problem with this game, if I were to actually compare it with Bulletstorm, is that it's a god damn RPG. An RPG shooting game is bad news: Enemies are insane bullet sponges, and with the dynamic difficulty mechanics in place, you're going to take way too much time to gun down your enemies. The final boss fight took me and my friend over 30 minutes to beat because of how many bullets it took us to just whittle down the boss' HP. I've never seen anything like it, and I played Borderlands enough to know what I'm saying. At least, with Bulletstorm, you could just kick an enemy to a spiky wall and be done with it. Fast, easy and satisfying is nothing that this game has to offer, unfortunately.
So we beat the final boss and stopped there. This is the kind of game that wants you to keep on grinding, however. My patience, on the other hand, was eyeing elsewhere. Make a compelling plot for once, and maybe I'll care about playing your game some more. As it is with Outriders, it's all secondary thoughts.
They made a DLC at some point, too. Good on People Can Fly for trying, but, like, you had to deal with Square Enix, as well. It just wasn't meant to be, after all.
2004
My mom bought me this game unprompted one day. Said she got suggested this by the store clerk.
Whoever you are, you managed to make a kid very happy.
Katamari Damacy is such a unique game. Uniqueness is Keita's middle name but this game goes beyond it all: Unique controls, unique artstyle, unique story, unique music, everything about this screams creativity and, to this day, no game has been as positively quirky as this one.
A gameloop as simple as "roll over objects, become bigger" becomes this journey to find all the funny gags around the world as you make your next stellar object. Everything about the direction of this game just blends so well with its core, that I might as well call it a miracle that it works so well. A few little problems here and there (controls are great, but not the tightest) thankfully do not hamper the experience at all. If you want to check it out, there's also the steam version that works very well.
It's never too late to play Katamari Damacy.
Whoever you are, you managed to make a kid very happy.
Katamari Damacy is such a unique game. Uniqueness is Keita's middle name but this game goes beyond it all: Unique controls, unique artstyle, unique story, unique music, everything about this screams creativity and, to this day, no game has been as positively quirky as this one.
A gameloop as simple as "roll over objects, become bigger" becomes this journey to find all the funny gags around the world as you make your next stellar object. Everything about the direction of this game just blends so well with its core, that I might as well call it a miracle that it works so well. A few little problems here and there (controls are great, but not the tightest) thankfully do not hamper the experience at all. If you want to check it out, there's also the steam version that works very well.
It's never too late to play Katamari Damacy.