I’m very much a stranger to dating sims. I went into this one attracted mostly by my fascination upon hearing that the characters were actually good, and that some dating sims are weirdly complex.

Love Plus isn’t really complex, but the first chunk of the game presents you with just enough mechanically; for better or worse, it won’t turn your brain into mush. And the characters are indeed quite well-developed, especially for something that could be interpreted as bait for desperate nerds.

I actually enjoyed that ‘first half’ of the game. Building your stats by planning out your day, and divvying up your time with each girl to learn more about them was a lot of fun. Once you finally do start dating one of the girls, however, I quickly lost interest, primarily because the game no longer gave me a clear goal to work towards—I like at least a little bit of railroading in more laid-back games like this.

This opinion may lead to some worrying implications about how I behave in relationships, but I swear I don’t feel this way in real life. You have to believe me.

Neat game. Not really for me. I may return to it someday. Who knows?

I'm not really into arena PVP or hero shooter games but it's free and I like Star Wars (in theory) so I tried it out on Switch. I expected to play a couple rounds and uninstall but surprisingly I enjoyed it and played for a couple hours. Matches are short and character abilities are simple, in a good way. These two factors allows you to easily jump into another game and give a low barrier to entry. My assumption is that this simplicity will get boring over time but perhaps the progressive unlocking of characters will make that better. Currently there are only 13 characters but I'm sure they'll add more. You start with 2 unlocked and can unlock more by playing (or paying money of course). In the 2 hours that I played I unlocked two additional characters.

I might pick it up again sometime when I don't have the time to commit to a full gaming session of the other "legit" games I'm currently in the middle of. I doubt I'll play it again for any extended duration like I did the first time.
It's a fun time for as long as it keeps your attention but, unfortunately for the devs, it's not really worth spending money on.

This is an amazing DLC campaign.

It's not quite as good as the main Halo trilogy, but it is solid. And stands alone with its unique identity.

That being said this is really short, some of the level design is just blatant copy paste, on a much larger scale than even Combat Evolved. And it was sold at full price initially, which it does not deserve. It also has no multiplayer component of its own, which while I don't play, is something I'll consider.

Nowadays its fine, its included in MCC or 10$ for a physical 360 copy, but remains that since this is something that should be considered. Still solid Halo, as always.

Weird genre mashup, this game. Like a story heavy walking simulator mixed with a hack and slash game. I had it described to me as "indie God of War" and got a chuckle out of that. It's not far off honestly.

So Hellblade has you play as a deeply troubled girl named Senua. We're talking heavy psychosis and hearing voices while dealing with immense trauma. The devs of the game even consulted psych experts to try and convey the mental trauma in an impactful way. The most effective of which comes in the form of the voices Senua, and by extension you, hear as you go through the journey. The game encourages you to play with headphones and I think this is the primary reason why. With headphones, you can hear the voices she hears but also distinct directions they come from making for a more scattered feel. It's chaotic and immersive.

Senua is on a quest to save her beloved's soul from Hel. She journeys the lands with his head in tow hoping to find someway to get Hela to bring him back to her. You quickly find the gate to Hel but you first have to unlock it by facing two different trials. It's also at this time you're informed that if you die too many times you'll just lose all your progress in the game. I dunno if this is true or not and never heard it actually happen to anyone but it's a ballsy thing to present people with and an effective way to instill anxiety. Bit detrimental as a player adjusts to a learning curve but whatever.

So most of the game consists of two types of gameplay loops. First is solving puzzles involving runes. Senua will come up to literal road blocks in the form of big closed doors with runes on them. She focuses on them and then as she finds the same shapes in like debris or parts of the world, the symbols of the rune on the door glows white and as she finds them all she can go through the door. It's this that I find to be the most well thought out and engaging gameplay mechanic as it ties into her psychosis and finding meaning in things despite what they aren't. It all plays very well with the theme of the game. You also get some puzzle solving with perspective puzzles bringing things into view and working with illusions at one point but the real meat of it is these rune puzzles.

On the other hand, you have the combat. This for me is the weakest part of the game. It honestly feels like they tacked on the combat last minute to make it feel like more of a traditional game and I think it really suffers for it. The combat here is box standard light attack, heavy attack, parry, dodge combat salsa. You fight against viking looking spectres that just come out of nowhere to impede progress and every one of them is just so spongey that you can just swim in the tedium. Mash heavy attack button, parry parry-able moves, dodge otherwise, repeat.

It sucks and it just takes me out of the game so hard for what is otherwise an immersive story experience. You could argue the combat in this game is because they point out her being a warrior and being strong but honestly I think it plays against what they're going for when you just mash the same attack and makes her look like more of a savage than any sort of skilled warrior. I legit think they could have just done without having the warrior aspect at all and still portrayed her as strong enough to face her inner demons. Oh well.

Ultimately you're able to experience Senua's troubles and backstory through this journey. The voices nipping at her the whole time along with some flashback sequences do a good job conveying how tortured she is. There are also lorestones where Senua recalls stories told to her by a man in her life that seems to take on a sort of mentor role and they characterize him well. His stories I think also give players insight into how Senuas perceptions of the world and herself are shaped. I think the lover she's out to save comes off a bit flat but it serves as a good enough motivator to go on and her struggles handling that make for a decent core to move things along.

Hellblade is a solid story heavy walking sim marred by tedious boring combat. It all looks very pretty in its foul way and does a good job sucking you in. Even the combat doesn't come off as too detrimental as the whole game isn't too long and you aren't in it for too long. Overall I recommend the game for people who like interactive storytelling even though it's a bit on the nose. Solid ending too. So much so that I can't imagine what the sequel could be about? but yeah good experience mostly. Just wish it was a little tighter.

I don't normally like commenting on this kind of thing but there's a fascinating consensus that I've noticed when it comes to opinions on this game. It's slow, tedious, repetitive and looks like crap. But that's not what you really play it for, right?

Well, in a lot of ways it really is what you play it for. I think one of the most interesting parts of FSR to me is how it utilizes those long stretches of walking. I found myself thinking of every step, watching Sumio creep closer and closer to another inane goal. My eyes fixated on the surroundings, taking in the quickly familiar fuzzy landscapes of Lospass Island. I wasn't paying attention out of any sense of danger or obstacles popping up, and it wasn't even because I expected some great payoff at the end. It was because I had fallen under its spell. Sumio walked, and so did I.

Of course part of what makes it so great is how it bathes in the atmosphere of the island at every moment. I've seen it compared to a horror movie before, with the sense of eerie claustrophobia that comes from running through the same environment over and over again. But it's also something that becomes intimate, just part of the routine after a while. None of it is reinforced better than through Sumio's odd interactions with each character. He's given a nonsense task, he completes it because, well, of course he does. It's who he is, and who we become.

It's hard to properly explain why I love FSR's writing, but the character interactions make for both absurd and heartwarming moments. Suda51's tonal balance here is absolutely immaculate. The endings to each chapter shift from ridiculous punchlines to fantastic punctuations of a huge story moment, sometimes both at once. Also some of the rare metacommentary that is actually funny. Thank you Suda.

I've seen people also talk about how this game becomes slowly more hostile to Sumio over time. It's true, more and more as time goes on he is called a "pawn". But even at his most derided, it feels like there's a genuine appreciation for him by the end. Lospass Island really embodies a feeling of "paradise" that I haven't seen before. I left it not with feelings of discomfort, but a vague sense of warmth. The one thing about paradise is that it can't last forever, and eventually Sumio and the player have to go. But you can always take back souvenirs.

I don't really know what I'm talking about anymore but I love this game. KILL THE PAST

You guys were right. She didn't expect the Spanish inquisition. But at what cost...? Give her enough time to be a paying customer and she's the one giving a hell of a show. That whole industry is cooked. Speaking of cooking: she can cook a mean cake doe, who said that part sucks? Opinion rights revoked (I love u guys)! Toadsworth was indeed caught after bouts of hate speech in 2011. That's a sign of growth for Peach: the situation goes haywire and you think that of me?? No... I am the one who advises! Please note that not requiring all collectibles this time was also her idea. YES QUEEN 🙌

She's like "Go girl give us nothing 🥰" bruh nah BRUUUUH FR AINT NO WAY BLBLBL but come on it's a perfectly competent platformer 🤓 you are not in complete control of the theater kid for she of royal descent has to capture the audience's smiles. There is always something memorable to look forward to in every level! Like the full-scale offensive in Vietnam, and- oh good heavens, she got the quiet kid's favorite subjects. Still, she is pretty good at stopping what's usually grand theft and mass kidnapping. They're always taking her lightly... jokes on them, she will become Light itself if unsupervised and have a Kirby 64 ahh final battle (that was like, evangelion level of crazy oh my days i am shaking rn)

Peach is the true embodiment of Barbie's ethics. She has 10 part-time jobs and 0 exes. Good for her! The early spotlight is shed on her swordmaster gig, and she really mastered it for sure it almost feels like she's running on auto-pilot! As she craves more violence, we have other versions of her like kung-fu and power ranger where she shows what a white woman is made of when the new Animal Crossing resident is ugly. While one is the powerscaling to end all powerscaling, the other has overly simplified QTEs. Cowgirl Peach, however, is a whole nother Peach. That horse kinda overshadows her tbh but then she becomes a ninja and we cheered. She can either sneak around or find out... your choice.

Apart from Thief Peach, who's kinda swagging that british energy the rest are more laidback. Detective Peach also sports that british attire, I noticed a few unique ideas but overall not my thing. Ice skater and mermaid kind of fall into the same umbrella as she's girlpowering her way to stardom. Now, in most situations, there's one type of enemies and they're free kills to add to Peach's prison sentence. The bosses are cool however, some are really easy but they've got good gimmicks (albeit could be sped up a bit I ain't got all day). Nobody looked better than my Peach with the special dress, matching with my little pet star, we are being so dazzling on main.