Showing 1-10 of 25 items
NSW: A metroidvania set in the prince of persia universe. The overall story is about time travel, princes, and who should lead. The gameplay is mostly platforming, some combat, and a few puzzles. Overall, i enjoyed the game, but it did some design things that just annoyed me. Lucky, it also had some great accessibility options that made the game a lot easier. In the end, i wanted to like this game, more than I did. Completed: The game. On the plus side, it had great movement controls (mostly), deep combat, and a good story. The visuals and audio were good too. On the negative side, it comes down to three things that really annoyed me. First, the default action for the dash, is to do a backward dash. You have to be pushing forward, for it to do a forward dash. This default, got me killed, so, so many times. Second, the game is filled with instant kill objects. Well, they kill the character, but just reset him back to the last solid ground he was on (usually, sometimes it puts you back much further). And these instant kill objects are everywhere. Third, and the big reason why i rated the game as i did. The overall level design seems to be focus on exact platforming. And it does this a lot. Some metroidvania focus on combat, others exploring, some on puzzles, this one, is a platformer, and that becomes a chore, quickly, and than a complete annoyance soon afterwards. It isn't like it is hard to figure out what they want you to do, it just doing so is the problem, and once you get past once annoying part, there another one behind that, and then another one, and so forth. Overall, the balancing or pacing, whatever you want to call it, was off, and that hurt the game. Overall I like the game, but if there weren't accessibility options to make the game easier, i don't think i would have completed it.
NSW: A top down adventure action game where you play as Zelda. Who doesn't usually directly fight enemies (there a power that allows you to do so, for a limited time, but it isn't the main fighting system). Instead, you summon enemies and objects and use them to fight. Sometimes this means summoning 6 boomrang bogoblins, and sometimes it means summoning a stone so that a rushing enemy will run into it, and stun themselves. Overall there like a hundred summons, pretty much any non-boss enemy can be summon, and any interactable object (including tables and beds). Also, all of these react to the environment (they burn, or get blown by the wind). The overall world design is good, and encourages exploration, there are side quests all over the place, and they are fun. Visual the game looks good, and the sound is good too. Overall the game is great. On the other hand, the negatives for the game are few, but major. First, the performance. For me, on my original switch that was docked, I got some slow down (FPS) in the open world now and then. It didn't bother me, and I didn't think it was that big of a deal. But listening to anyone else (the GB staff) talk about it, and it seems like they thought it was massive. The other negative issue, is the UI. And on this, I agree with all the negative feedback people have. There are so many echoes and the UI system is just not setup right to display them. I found going to the pause menu help, since it list them in a grid, but that shouldn't be the way I (or anyone) has to play the game. They completely missed the ball on the UI, and it hurts the game. Completed: The game, got all the heart pieces, stamps (Stamp Rally forever), 100+ powerup piece thingys, fully completed most of the mini-games (missing like 2 for the sleep combat stuff).
XSX: A FPS game with covert ops/spy/special ops vibes. Surprisingly, this game is good. The last few CoDs have been dull, with either, no story, or some generic story. But this time, the campaign is rather good. Good level designs, good variety between levels, some meta game upgrade stuff, enjoyable story, great visuals and audio, and the pacing was well done. Overall, I really enjoyed the single player campaign. The MP on the other hand, is just normal FPS, CoD, stuff. It isn't my cup of tea. I played two matches, and than uninstalled. So yeah... I would have prefer a much bigger scale MP maps, like from CoD 2... from like 15 years ago. I don't enjoy the small scale maps at all. Completed: The campaign, got most of the upgrades, a few of the side objectives, 8/9 safes, and talk to the squad a few times between missions.
XSX: A first person, stealth, adventure game where you play Indy on his quest to figure out what the great circle is, find the parts to it, stop the bad guys, and collect everything that isn't nail down. To do this, Indy sneaks a lot, picks up random objects like hammers, fans, bottles, brooms, or whatever else he can get his hands on, to smack the bad guys in the back of the head, to knock them out. There are guns, and you can go in guns a blazing, but the game isn't design for that, so you'll often get overwhelmed, and it won't work out for you. There are some puzzles, and they are decent, most of the time. The story is pretty good too, and the presentation, visual and audio are great. The game is about 25 hours long (depending on how much you feel you need to do/collect) and is fun through out most of it. On the other hand, Indy's stick of being a bumbling dude, gets old quickly, and in some cases, pissed me off. Since it is one of those gameplay things where in the level, I defeat like 30 enemies as Indy, but in the cut scene, 1 enemy takes him out, in what they try to present as a comical scene. Also, the constant enemy around every corner, gets tiring quickly. There are ways to get around them, and they don't provide much trouble, but it still feels a bit chore-ish. There were also some puzzles / level designs that didn't make any sense, which resulted in me dying a dozen times, until i figured out that the game would allow me to do something, unique in the area, that wasn't in any other part of the game, but didn't directly tell me that this new ability was a thing in any way. The big negative factor to this game are the bugs. There aren't many, but the ones i ran into, were progression blockers. I had to re-load an old save, and lose 25 minutes of gameplay where I spent going around to the different maps, collecting things I had missed. And well... I didn't re-do any of that when I re-load the old save. I just b-line it to the end. It was only 2 blockers, but they were both near the end of the game, and put me in a foul mood so i stop playing the game for a few days. I check on their discord, and there were others with the exact same issue (they are aware of it, and will probably patch it out at some point) Overall, I enjoyed the game a lot, but the blockers really did ruin my mood and my impression of the game. And they happen near the very end of the game, so, they left a lasting impression. Still.. i do recall enjoying the parts before it, and the ending itself was okay. So, i think the game is still worth it, and hopefully not too many others run into the same bugs.
XSX: A good mech combat game (so a shooter, that has body part damage, weapon loadouts, and customization of the playable character) with an okay story that last too long and has too much filler. My game time is 20h 32m, and I feel like it would have been much better at about 12. Like there are so, so many filler missions that it really drags down the game. Also, the story has the problem of, in the missions you and your squad (who are suppose to be rookies, learning the ropes, and not a group of super soldiers) of 5, take out about 50+ enemies each mission. But when the story happen, your side is mostly losing or getting tricked somehow into losing. And that feels disconnected and annoying. The best missions are the ones that have friendly NPCs in them, and try to portray a big combat event in a war. However, about half the missions in the game are just you and your squad, going from point to point, taking out 50+ enemies, one group at a time. With that all being said, I did still enjoy my time with the game. The overall story beats were fine (though, the main cast VO was horrible, felt like a bunch of people reading 1 line at a time, without knowing why they were saying stuff) the gameplay itself was good, and its been a while since I have played a mech game, so this was an interesting experience. Completed: The campaign, I went with the Erza ending.
XSX: A small scale, open world game, where you are a cat, who goes around town, trying to get back home, so you need to collect some special items to upgrade yourself. Along the way, there are a ton of side quests, and collectibles, but they are all optional. The controls are decent, the visuals aren't good, nor is the audio, the story is okay, and the variety in gameplay is good. Completed: The game, got back home, and it was a fun enough time. I enjoy my time with this game, but I know i wouldn't have bother with it, if it wasn't on gamepass.
PC: A city builder that takes place during an ice age (during the 1900s). Kind of Steam Punk-ish, but with more Ice theme, hence the name. Anywho, the this sequel adds a few features, like voting, and changes how you place buildings (mostly districts, and hubs. With special buildings being added to districts (which have a limit of 2 for them)). Beside that, you explore the over world map to find resources, and other locations to start towns at. The main thing is to keep getting resources, monitor your people's needs (so that they don't have too much sickness, and have food, and other stuff like that), and deal with the constant political bickering between the factions. There a story mode and a free play mode. But they both are kind of the same thing. The major differences is that the Story mode has a plan story, so it goes in an order, and the free play allows you to settle a lot more settlements and change coarse. That last part is important, and is a big reason why this game isn't rated higher. The story mode locks you into some critical choices early on before you fully know what you want, and doesn't allow you to change your mind later. And there isn't a good reason for it to do so, since, in the free play, you can. So the ability to do so, is in the game, just not the story mode. So yeah... the game has some charm, and i did enjoy it for a few days. But, there is little replay value in it, a few annoying bugs, and really bad design decisions, and overall... it gives the feeling that this has been done before (it is not the exact same as the first one. But it isn't different enough). Completed: The main story, and started a free play for a few hours. In total 19.1 hours. Which is a lot longer than the 10-15 it says it would take.
PC, DLC 2024: Well, since DLC seems to be okay to put on GoTY (well, it always was, but it seems like it acceptable now on the main gaming awards) and I want more items on my list in the good column, am going to add Vampire Survivor since it had Contra (Operation Gun) and Castlevania (Ode to Castlevania) DLC this year. The Contra DLC was okay, but didn't do much. Some new characters and weapons, like usual, and 2 new stages. Overall it was okay, but it didn't feel like much. I had some fun with it, but was able to get through it without much effort. The Castlevania was fun, it only had 1 stage, but it is a big stage that has teleporters since it is that big. Also like 30 bosses, 60+ characters, i think 30 weapons... though, that's a guess. In any case, it is a lot. And it was fun to get through. With that being said, neither of the DLCs fix any of the existing issues, like weapon effects overwhelming the visuals, and blocking out the gaming environment. No in game tracking of personal 'quests' (to unlock stuff). And so forth. Still, i had a fun time with Vampire Survivor, and it seems like i just can't quit coming back to the game.
iPad: A puzzle, mystery book-ish game where you are given a scene and you have to figure out what happen by filling in... kind of a mad lips thingy where a lot of words are missing, and you select words from a list of words (which you find while going over the scene) that fit into the empty spots. The words are sorted into different groups, so it isn't just 1 long list, its about 4 groups of words, and each spot has a color that corresponds to one of the groups... usually, sometimes you are just putting people's pictures next to their finger prints or something like that. Overall the main puzzles are great. However, at the end of each chapter, there a chapter puzzle that needs to be done, to tie up everything you found in that chapter. And this would be good too, if it wasn't for the horrible design of the game, and its broken UI. Well, on the iPad, it is broken. From the screen shots of the PC version, those look stable. But on the iPad, you get about 60 words, in semi-random order, and you cannot sort them. Well, you can try, but if you go to a puzzle, to look something up, the list re-sorts itself to its original semi-random order, and all you work sorting is lost... (update, this also happens in regular puzzles too, and it is annoying there too) And yeah... that happen to me, and it pissed me off so much i threw my iPad across the room. Lucky it didn't break, but the fact that happen, made me sour on this game greatly. And I decided to skip trying to do the end of chapter puzzles, and just look up those answers. They aren't worth the time or effort in their dysfunctional state. If the UI wasn't horrible on the iPad, this would be higher on my list, but it is, and that damages the game's experience massively since the UI is critical to this game. Completed: The game, and it didn't improve my opinion on it by the end. The UI continue to be an annoyance, but beyond that, the game lost a lot of its charm by the fact it is just more of the same. At first, I was having fun doing that, but after a few puzzles, the lack of anything really new, made the game feel meh-ish. Plus the story was kind of bad. And I found myself not caring about what was happening, and only about solving the puzzle. Overall, it was still a decent experience, but it was no where near as good as the first one.
PC A collection of 3 of the DS castlevania games, and one of the earlier ones that never came out in the U.S. Dawn of Sorrow: The oldest of the DS games, and a sequel to Aria of Sorrow from the GBA. And similar to that one, this one is a metroidvania in 1 location, where enemies have a chance to drop their souls when you kill them. These souls have powers, and you can equip a red (projectile/attack), blue (aura/ability), and yellow (passive ability) one. The story is about how some no good cultist are trying to bring back Dracula, again, and they mess with you... uhh... shoot, i don't recall the PC's name. Anywho, you follow them to a castle (not Dracula castle, just a normal, evil, castle / village / sewer / clock tower / portal to hell) and do the normal metroidvania stuff. I guess the gimmick in this one was the touch screen, as one of your powers lets you break ice blocks on screen. And the other has you drawing symbols when you defeat a boss... and yeah, that's about it. Its a decent game, but it does feel average. Portrait of Ruin: The second game in the collection, this time they embraced the concept of the DS, by having two characters, instead of having touch control gimmick. Beside that, they also change it so that the player no longer got souls from every enemy. Instead, you got 'skills' from a few of them (or bought/found them). And the more you used these skills (up + attack, consuming mana, like older castlevania titles) the more exp you got with them, until you master them, when they would change into their stronger state (bigger attack area, and/or more damage). The lead male, Jothanthan, was the fighter, and had weapon sub-skills, and the lead female, Charolette, was the mage, and had spells as sub skills (some attack, some summons, some healing or transformation). The story was another, in Dracula castle, but he isn't around, its another person trying to take his power. This time it is a WW1 vet who lost his daughters, so he kidnap a hunter's daughters and brain wash them into semi-vampire daughter thingys. He is also a painter, which is what gives him his power, he creates realms inside his paintings. And the player has to enter them, and kill the boss in them, to counter him. Its really just an excuse to have different looking levels. Overall, the game was better than the last, with good level designs that made sense and were easy to navigate. However, the visuals, while graphically better, were much harder to read, and I often walk into walls or didn't see doorways between rooms. So that a big problem. Overall, I enjoyed this one, it does some stuff technically well, but it gets the style, and feel wrong. Order of Eecelisa (however you spell it): The final/latest game in the collection. In this one, they went back to the souls getting system for abilities, but with some changes. First, you had to actively absorb them. Which was a hassle, but did open up a cool mechanic where some enemies magic attacks used souls, so you could absorb it, and get their power. Oh, most enemies didn't have soul abilities. Lastly, there were a lot of these abilities just in the gaming world. Overall, i found this to be a better system than the powers only being a drop item from enemies. Beside this, they change the game's pacing and world, from 1 large castle, to a dozen small areas plus one medium castle (for the end game area). Which I enjoyed, it gave it more of a sense of exploring. Lastly, they a village (hub area) which had villagers you had to find and rescue, who would in turn give you quests, which would unlock items or money. Overall, the game felt like an adventure metroidvania game. And it was the best one out of the 3 games. Haunted Castle Revisited: I believe this was an arcade version of Castlevania that wasn't release in the US before. It is an old school castlevania, moving from one side to the screen to the other. Lots of enemies, and such. I tried it, with some cheats, and got about half way before it crashed. It was an old school castlevania, which... i don't like anymore. If you want to play a piece of history, than maybe this game is for you, but as something for enjoyment, it isn't.