I can never really say I was a Sonic fan. I enjoyed the Sonic X anime, I loved to death Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for the GameCube, and even saw the diamond in the rough that existed beneath Shadow the Hedgehog. But something changed after that. What happened? Well, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) was released, and it was such a heaping pile of trash at release, that I've pretty much steered clear of the Sonic franchise since. Now that I'm older, I've gotten my hands on a copy of Sonic 06 and wanted to give it a fair shake. I was soon to realize my mistake.

The first thing that hits you in the face like a truck is the tonal shift from the opening cutscene, to the Soleanna hub world. Like a complete 180 in tone, it's actually baffling. But that's not all, since this area has a couple issues. First and foremost, when you begin your journey, you're hit with about 4 loading screens all for the same hub world. And they're not short loading screens either, and this is installed onto the Xbox 360 hard drive. I trudged through, completing the pointless ring gathering to get my first 1000 rings, to spend on a Light Dash, to be able to access the first stage.

My god, this game controls like total ass. Sonic is sluggish, and the camera is actively trying to kill you at every turn, especially when you get to the Tails portion of the level, and have to somehow navigate to the hidden switch to complete the objective. This is a terrible introduction to the game, and it honestly confuses me why the first stage in the game doesn't have the tiniest bit more polish. You would think that this would be the most polished, mechanically sound stage in the entire game. Look at Sonic Adventure 2 for comparison, Escape from the City is one of the best levels in the entire 3D Sonic era. It's a fantastic level, and an amazing introduction to the game. Sonic 06 does not have that going for it at all.

First boss battle is not much better. Once again, the camera is actively harming you the entire time and the responsiveness of the controls just aren't what they should be. The next stage isn't any better. I honestly thought that there was just a hole in the geometry causing me to fall out of bounds, but no it's an intended gimmick mechanic.

Now we get to the Silver boss battle. Once again, the camera gets you killed, and this time it's actually required to be able to see where Silver is the entire time, since he can sneak up behind you and use his psychic power to toss you around the arena like a doll. Better yet, if you get caught while in the air, Silver will just juggle you until you're dead. The only coins that spawn in the arena are ones that are directly in front of Silver and a single bubble worth 5 hidden off to the right. I assume you're supposed to hit him when he's doing his little psychic thing holding up random objects, but it's not obvious when he does it, and it's not like the camera will work with you to keep both Sonic and Silver in frame so you can actually plan around this. I don't even really have a problem with Silver's mechanics, it's the fact that I can't ever see him because the camera actively fights against me the entire time. I'm really not sure what the devs were thinking, this god awful camera has hindered me at every step and they never bothered to fix it?! A flagship Sega franchise and no one bothered to even attempt to fix some of the shortcomings with the game?

I'm sorry but I can't do this. I really did want to try to play through this start to finish, but I cannot stand the camera. I was able to finish Kane & Lynch and that wasn't a very good game either. But Sonic 06 crosses a threshold I can't tolerate, and unfortunately I'm going to have to abandon the game.

Long ago when I was but a wee teenager, around the time of the 7th console generation, I distinctly remember a friend of mine telling me about how Kane & Lynch: Dead Men was a good game. My recollection is hazy, but I believe this was around the time that the sequel, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, had released. As soon as I find out who it was, I'm going to tear them a new one.

My problems with Kane & Lynch: Dead Men begin with the story. It's actually not a bad concept, although something I think was better explored in Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto V, in that you are a criminal trying to fix your life up for the better, but get reluctantly dragged into some bad stuff with some bad dudes. In this instance, you are broken out of jail during a prisoner transport, and forced to work for your former employers, the criminal syndicate known as The 7. Not sure why it's called that since you only ever see like 4 of them max, but that's besides the point. You're tasked with retrieving some macguffin that you stashed away before going to prison, or else they'll kill you and your estranged family. You're given a week to do it, and a handler; enter Lynch. The both of you (this is a co-op game after all) then travel across the world hunting down the suitcase that contains the mysterious macguffin, and then halfway through to exact your revenge.

I don't hate the story's core themes or concept, I just think it was poorly executed. The character models look like Play-Doh (which was par for the day), and the voice acting fairly low on the quality spectrum (also par for the day). It's a shame the movie adaptation got stuck in development hell and never went anywhere, because I think it would actually do well as a movie with wide audience appeal.

But then we have to talk about the combat in this game, and boy is it a doozey. The combat mechanics are all out of whack. The bullets barely go where you want them to, and grenades bounce around like they're made of rubber. The frag grenades are barely worth using, and the tear gas grenades literally useless. Just an excruciating time trying to actually play the game. If I went to the range and the guns shot like they do in this game, I'd never go back to that range again because clearly they're not taking proper care of the guns and I don't want to get my head blown off from a malfunction.

So, the shooting is bad, but the aiming is worse. It's like Kane dipped his arms in molasses and then jammed them into a blender. The aiming in this game is dog ass slow as all hell, even with the sensitivity and acceleration cranked to their max values. Good luck with the on-rails sections towards the end. It also feels like this game has whatever the opposite of aim-assist is. Just an absolute miserable experience overall. I am glad that stealth is optional, that would have certainly gotten the game some points back in the day, but it doesn't do it any favors looking back.

There's not really much else to say, it's a short romp of a game with bad shooting, bad aiming, bad voice acting, poor writing, bad graphics, etc. etc. I imagine it's fun to play and complain about with a friend while drunk or high, but otherwise I cannot recommend enough that you absolutely avoid playing this game today. It has not aged well at all, and I am obliged to say this: Jeff Gerstmann did not deserve to get fired over his review.

I've finally gotten around to experiencing Lethal Company with friends, and I am thoroughly enjoying what I've played so far. While content is a bit on the thin side, there's a lot to unpack with what is available.

Lethal Company, for those who don't know, is a co-operative horror game made by indie developer Zeekerss. The game has genuinely frightening moments, but also genuinely hilarious ones too, sometimes at the same time. The proximity chat means it's easy to get lost and separated from the group, and not being able to communicate while dead turns your death into a mystery for the group to solve: What creature did this? And is it still around to get us?

The wide variety of enemies truly makes the game what it is. There's no worse feeling than being ambushed by a spider, and no better feeling than outsmarting a Bracken when you've been cornered, riding that high all the way to bank. Enemy design is very good, and well thought out. Nothing feels cheap, nothing feels completely unfair, if you can't get away from an enemy, it's probably a skill issue.

The moons are designed well. It takes a few runs to get the feel of them; a couple of the moons feel like they blend together a bit. Overall the outside areas are varied enough to keep things interesting from run to run, while allowing experienced players a sense of mastery with knowing where the main entrances and fire exits are located for each map.

Inside the building however, is another story. Each building draws from a limited pool of tile sets, and randomly generates a labyrinth of rooms, traps, and enemies for you to navigate, similar to how Warframe generates its maps. While it can be frustrating to wander a maze to only reach a dead end (or worse, to use up a precious key to find out on the other side of that door was just a wall), it adds to the tension and urgency of the gameplay, driving home the fact that you don't have time to sit around and collect everything, you gotta go.

This is further compounded by the quota system. There seems to be two main strategies to make it through the game: Either you sell everything at the end of the quota period, allowing for nice juicy overtime bonuses, or you save some items, scraping by the quota just enough to make the next round easier if you have unfortunate accidents.

I'm exciting to see where the game goes. The game is Early Access, so hopefully that means more content is on the horizon, and with the modding community flocking to this game, there won't be any shortage of content for weeks, months, and hopefully years to come. I highly recommend everyone try this game out, and have fun with your friends.