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87 public reviews

The views here are this user’s only and are not representative of Giant Bomb's thoughts and opinions on the discussed video game. GB's official reviews reside at giantbomb.com/reviews.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots2008

4 out of 5 stars

(Played as part of Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 2 on Switch in English. 14 hours 28 minutes and 43 seconds to reach Kill Screen on Solid Normal difficulty.) After a long, long time, 2008’s Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of Patriots had finally dropped its PS3 exclusivity and went onto all Big 3’s active platforms in summer, 2026. In theory, more can now see the definitive ending Hideo Kojima and crew duly cooked…

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Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance2013

4.5 out of 5 stars

“Letting player live in a world they saved” is a demand made on Waypoint Radio quite frequently. Yours truly usually replied “For the love of God, do not give those corporate bastards that idea! They are doomed to fuck it up!” Ironically, 2013’s Metal Gear Rising Revengeance (“MGRR” for short) granted such wish well given the game’s troubled development circle. Sons of Liberty 3: Electric Boogaloo The year was 2018…

Read the full review Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Metal Gear Solid1998

4.5 out of 5 stars

(Played Metal Gear Solid Integral, part of Master Collection Vol 1 on Switch, with English voice-over plus subtitle and Japanese interface. This version’s original release allows owners of Japanese PS1 to play in Japanese text while listen to English voice-over. “Kill screen” says 8 hours and 47 minutes on Easy, or the default for the Japanese release.) Xbox’s so-called “reset” under Asha Shrama involes massive…

Read the full review Metal Gear Solid

Trepang22023

4 out of 5 stars

(Played on Steam Deck.) There can be a mystery in how to pronounce the title 2023’s Trepang2. “Trepang Two”? “Trepang Square”? The most likely one is “Trepang Studio’s Second Project”. A solo dev did put out a game titled Trepang back 2011 for a game jam before they started a 4 people studio named after said game. Though this pixel game starring a sea cucumber takes up the quality of creepypasta now as people just…

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007 First Light2026

4.5 out of 5 stars

(Played on Steam Deck. The Steam clock said 15 hours after credits roll on the lowest difficulty aptly called Novic, for this is the first James Bond game I ever booted up.) I consider myself a James Bond aficionado. The mixed bag of 25 movies across 6 decades is just basic, for yours truly read everything Ian Fleming himself wrote on the character, novels and all. On top of that, I quite enjoyed Carte Blanche, the…

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Far Cry

4 out of 5 stars

(Played on PC with mouse and keyboard. Original published as a Steam user review. Now with 2 links added.) The year 2004 was a time when computers were computers, consoles were consoles and ports between those took time mostly as technological necessity. Sometimes, as in the case of Far Cry, “the PC original” and so-called console version are 2 completely different games. I never played Far Cry Instinct, partially…

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Severed Steel2021

4.5 out of 5 stars

(Played on Steam. Steam clock says 2.3 hours after I saw credits roll during the first sitting.) Greylock is certainly a bona fide independent game developer, as in they only make a new title when there are new combination of mechanics they want to play with. While their first 2 outings by 2026 can be both called “first-person shooters”, 2021’s Severed Steel is a very different beast from 2024’s Echo Point Nova. The…

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Echo Point Nova2024

5 out of 5 stars

(Played on Steam Deck.) Despite its marketing usually focusing on the so-called cinematic flairs nowadays, a video game still has to live and die by its interactivity and interactivity is all about how many variables a player is willing to tackle by the end of the day. 2017’s Breath of the Wild to me just has more variables than I want to play with while 2025’s Bananza has too few for me to open my wallet for a…

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Pragmata

4.5 out of 5 stars

(Played in Japanese on the Steam Deck. Play time on “kill screen” save file says “10:26:02” while the Steam clock says "13.3 hours". As I checked back with NG+, cut scenes do not count into the play time on save files.) In contrast to the industry as a whole, Capcom seems to have a better time in the roaring twenties than they had in the previous decade. Deep Down, the game announced along side 2013 with PS4, is…

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OPUS: Prism Peak2025

4 out of 5 stars

(Played on Steam Deck with Traditional Chinese text and Japanese voice-over. 7.6 hours to see the actual credits roll according to the Steam clock.) Sigonos’ OPUS series grew in production value by installment. After the Mass Effect 2 planet scanning minigame as the whole short game, a top-down adventure akin to SNES titles and a side-scroller with “PS1 graphic”, Prism Peak jumped right into the that gap between PS2…

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Titanfall 22016

4.5 out of 5 stars

(5 hours to see through on Regular difficulty. Played in English on Steam Deck.) The universe has a wicked sense of humor for people willing to, well, humor it. When Highguard shut down on March, 12th, 2026, Titanfall 2 was on a dirt-cheap Steam sale until the 20th. The ill-fated live service raid shooter “from the makers of Apex Legend, Titanfall” was put down after it shone very briefly but not so brightly, thus…

Read the full review Titanfall 2

Homura Hime

3.5 out of 5 stars

(12 hours to see credits roll on the lowest difficulty the game calls Observer. Played on Steam Deck in Japanese.) Nintendo’s Indie World showcases can be very different animals across languages. Take the one in early March, 2026 for example. While English one ended with the great news of Blue Prince coming to Switch 2, the Japanese book end simply reminded yours truly of this review’s subject matter. Homura Hime…

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Shadow Complex2009

4 out of 5 stars

(Played on Steam Deck with the remastered version. 6 hours to see the credits roll on Normal.) When then Epic Game Employee Cliffy B walked on the Microsoft’s E3 2009 Press Conference stage, I for one thought “Isn’t it bit too early for Gears of War 3? Two came out merely months ago after all.” Turns out, what’s announced then would be more influential and arguably better. Its title is Shadow Complex. The Metrovania…

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Nine Sols2024

4.5 out of 5 stars

(Played on Steam Deck in Traditional Chinese. 25 hours to see the True Ending in Story Mode.) To Red Candle Games, Nine Sols is both their most ambitious project to date and the one they played the safest among their first 3 outings. In comparison to their previous 2 horror-themed point & click adventure games, this action rpg is long and gamey. After 2019’s Devotion brought the wrath of Beijing on them, the Chinese…

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Hades II

5 out of 5 stars

(128 hours spent through 170 Nights with the Steam Deck. Played since Early Acess.) By the time I felt satisfied with Hade II’s 1.0 release back in early October, 2025, I had already spent more than 110 hours on almost 150 runs. By “satisfied”, I mean seen the end credits roll, reached what the game calls its epilogue and then had a feeling of “This game sure lifted a lot from Stone Ocean (aka JoJo Part 6), huh?”…

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Sifu2022

5 out of 5 stars

(Double dipped on both Epic Game Store and Steam. This review is based on a playthrough on Steam Deck.) Sloclap’s Sifu sold itself on the idea of faithfully presenting the Chinese material arts discipline known as Pak Mei. Developed to mimic the movements of tigers, the discipline was picked up by a young Jackie Chan when surviving mean streets was his life priority. The game first came on February, 8 th , 2022…

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Skin Deep2025

4 out of 5 stars

(Played on Steam Deck with English text. Simply another case of podcast featuring the creator sold me on the game...) Calling Skin Deep “Die Hard in space” can be somewhat misleading. The game is not exactly a one-location action thrill ride for starter, it is composed of more than a dozen levels. While the 1988 summer blockbuster was seen as anti-Thetis to James Bond, the 2025 game embrace the camp of that…

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Bulletstorm2011

3 out of 5 stars

(Played on Steam Deck, chose the Xbox One release just for button display reason. About 6 hours to see credits on Normal) 2011’s Bulletstorm is a game at war with itself in almost every aspect. Co-developed by Epic Games from USA and People Can People of Poland, this game sure mixes blockbuster atheistic and Eastern Block jank into a bloody mess. While Gearbox’s shady remaster did address issues like a lack of New…

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Hades2020

5 out of 5 stars

(142 runs on Switch with the party already thrown for Olympians back in Fall 2020. The following review is written through a mind refreshed by 27 runs on Steam Deck.) By the look and sound of things, Hades is quite a departure from past Supergiant endeavors. The game has a look closer to digitally colored Comic Books rather than that Water Color style the San Fransico based studio is known for. With the game being…

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Transistor2014

5 out of 5 stars

(The Deck run this review is based on took me 3.3 hours to see credits roll according to Steam Clock.) For San Fransico based developer Supergiant Games, one should not say “And the rest is history” Bastion. Instead, the release of Transistor is more fitting for the expression. While Bastion had a process of ex-EA employees came up with the concept then their friends polished it up, Transistor was an idea cooked up…

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Sonic X Shadow Generations2024

4 out of 5 stars

(This review will focus on Shadow Generations and its differences when compared to 2011’s Sonic Generations, since my thoughts on the latter is here and Wikipedia considers the former as a video game on its own . 5 hours, 27 minutes and 46 seconds to see the credits roll on Shadow Generations according to the save file. Played on Steam Deck with Japanese text and voice-over. Chose XONE as the hardware platform just…

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Sonic Generations2011

4 out of 5 stars

(Played as part of Sonic X Shadow Generations on Steam Deck, with both Japanese text and voice, aka “Sonic Generations White Space” rather than 3DS’ very own “Sonic Generations Blue Adventure” 5 hours, 37 minutes and 16 seconds to see credits roll according to save file.) If yours truly is asked to choose between Mario and Sonic, I would go with the latter every day of the week. Nintendo’s Italian plumber just was…

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Bastion2011

4 out of 5 stars

(Seen the credits roll 5 times. This review is based on a Switch playthrough.) In Supergiant Games’ Greek myth themed Hades, myth making is done through gods bullshitting their peers. It’s hard not to see it as the studio doing some self-reflection. The small studio can be seen as one of few success stories among game developers who used to work for EA, but the selling points of their games were contributed by their…

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Portal 22011

5 out of 5 stars

I paid for Portal 2 three times on three different platforms. First one disc for Xbox 360, then Steam and finally Switch, Compared to 2007’s Portal, this sequel is a very different animal. For starter, it’s much longer. This “I know what to do” Switch run for Portal took me about 73 minutes (The save file says “1 hours and 3 minutes” when I checked it just after credits roll. I looked at my watch and knew that 10…

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Portal2007

5 out of 5 stars

I paid for Portal 4 times across 3 platforms. The first 2 were on Xbox 360: Orange Box disc and the digital release subtitled Still Alive, the first game I got all the Xbox achievements for. Then I got a Steam account and buying Valve games seemed like a no-brainer. Finally, seeing Portal Companion Collection for Switch dirt cheap during a sale, I got curious about whether this port comes with the…

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Half-Life 22004

5 out of 5 stars

“One of the Greatest Video Games Ever Made” is almost a 50/50 with yours truly. Lucky for both Half-Life 2 and me, I do agree with it being on such lists. The game usually takes a dozen hours to see through yet I put almost 52 hours into its Steam version alone. That’s not counting the time I spent with Orange Box on Xbox 360 and listening to fan commentary in 2015’s Update mod. Valve was very ambitious with their…

Read the full review Half-Life 2

Half-Life1998

4 out of 5 stars

(At least my fifth time through this game. Easy on the Deck, 10.3 hours to see the credits according to the “time played in the last 2 weeks” Steam Clock) It was a night in October, 2009, neither too warm nor too cool. The only freshman in my college dorm room of mostly sophomores was playing Half-Life 2. The laptop I used at that time could not even handle the then-soon-to-be-five game, so seeing the other playing…

Read the full review Half-Life

Resident Evil 42005

5 out of 5 stars

(With Biohazard 4 on Switch. Kill screens: 13 hours 57 minutes and 23 seconds to get through the main campaign; 3 hours 13 minutes and 7 seconds to get through Another Order/Separate Ways.) It’s said that when you were younger, time past slower for you. My time with both 2005’s and 2023’s Resident Evil 4 sure made me believe that. Back when I was only 16, several weekends were spent on a borrowed PS2 to play…

Read the full review Resident Evil 4

Tokyo Xanadu2015

5 out of 5 stars

(Played on Steam Deck and a Window gaming tablet with Japanese vocal and text. 44 hours, 42 minutes and 42 seconds to unlock New Game Plus according to save file.) September, 30th, 2015 was a very interesting for Tokyo Xanadu to be released in Japan. A couple of weeks before, Atlus gave people a good look of Persona 5 along with some audio elements for the first time. As an owner of Playstation Vita, yours truly…

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Metaphor: ReFantazio

4 out of 5 stars

(Played in Japanese on Steam Deck. Mostly on Beginner difficulty, dropped to Storyteller for the final boss just so I don’t have to replay a significant chunk of the game. Save file to import says 59 hours and 20 minutes.) In many ways, Metaphor: Refantasio feels like a reverse of Persona 5. For starters, while your truly found the latter’s long-ass prologue nearly unbearable to continue, the former’s long-winded…

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Tactical Breach Wizards2024

4 out of 5 stars

(17.3 hours to see credit roll and unlock all maps according to Steam Clock.) I didn’t hear about Tactical Breach Wizards until the June before its launch. Being someone quite enjoyed 2013’s Gunpoint, I am bound to like this puzzle game with turn-based tactical game appearance. The game’s best moments are about physical comedy, the kind at least enhanced by interaction. But there are times in this game when math and…

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Dust: An Elysian Tail2012

5 out of 5 stars

(About 14 hours to see credits roll on Normal. Played on Switch in English.) By now, I have seen credits roll on Dust An Elysian Tail twice. The first time was in November,2013 with the then 6 months old Steam port. This review is about the almost 6 years old Switch port and portion of it was played on the twelfth anniversary of this game’s Xbox 360 launch. This game still impresses after more than a decade worth of…

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Sakuna: Of Rice And Ruin2020

4 out of 5 stars

(Played on Steam Deck with Japanese voice and text. “35.6 hours” to see the credits roll according to the Steam clock.) Yours truly personally do not think highly of “video game adaption”. I mean without interaction, almost no game’s story holds up. But they seem to be earning their keeps in 2024 by bring more to the games they are based on, like Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. This “cozy farming sim” became the base of a…

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Opus: Echo of Starsong2021

5 out of 5 stars

(20.2 hours in total according to Steam Clock. This review is based plying Full Bloom edition on Steam Deck with Traditional Chinese text and Japanese voice-over. 10.1 hours to get through.) Water Margin, Romance of Three Kingdom, Journey to the West and Dream of Red Chamber are the so-called Four Great Chinese Novels. The first 3 of those had given gifts to video game industry: “water margin” is pretty much the…

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Pyre2017

4 out of 5 stars

(This review is based on 3 full playthroughs of the campaign with all 7 Liberation Rites completed. The first 2 occurred back in 2022 before Steam Deck launch. The third one took place on a Deck in June, 2024.) By May, 2024, indie studio Supergiant Games had released 5 games. Pyre, their third game, can be seen as a middle point. One rather stands out, I might add. With Dareen Corb’s music, Jen Zee’s striking 2D art…

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Bayonetta 22014

5 out of 5 stars

(Save files says 6 hours 28 minutes and 41 seconds after the credits roll. Played on Switch in handheld mode with Japanese voice and text.) In some ways, SEGA published 2 Alien games in the spooky season of 2014. Alien Isolation is the obvious one with official license in which players play hide and seek with the iconic dickhead monster among other threats. The co-publishing deal with Nintendo on Bayonetta 2 is a…

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Bayonetta2009

4 out of 5 stars

(8 hours, 52 minutes and 38 seconds on the save file for New Game Plus, many Verses missed of course. Played on Switch in handheld mode with Japanese voice and text.) Allow me to lead with a secret of mine: I haven’t never played Devil May Cry, neither that “ground-breaker” of 2001 nor any other installment in the franchise. Dante simply is not on my Mount Rushmore of the character action, while the polygonal Ninja…

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Astral Chain2019

2 out of 5 stars

(Save file clocked at 20 hours, 38 minutes and 11 seconds after the end credits rolled. In handheld mode with Japanese voice and text. Played as a lad.) Playing Astral Chain made me think about why Hideki Kamiya left Platinum Games. My current conclusion, which has no basis other than how much I dislike this AC game, is that the more experiment-encouraging co-founder was let go by investors for several failed…

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NieR:Automata2017

3 out of 5 stars

(Played in Japanese on Steam Deck. 36 hours, 59 minutes and 24 seconds to get Ending E on Normal at level 61 with 95% Quest done.) By the time I beat the closest thing NieR Automata has to a “final boss” (Game’s full end credit moving backwards and shooting at me), in April, 2024, I had put 36 seconds short of 37 hours into the game. The first 16 hours were spent with an almost always under-leveled lass known as 2B.…

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Scarlet Nexus2021

4 out of 5 stars

The title screen of Scarlet Nexus featuring player characters Yuito Sumeragi and Kasane Randall, from left to right. I would only refer to them as “sitting lad” and “standing lass” respectively below. (The following is based on a save file of 62 hours, 20 minutes and 9 seconds. Played with Steam Deck in Japanese on Easy.) Back in the summer days of 2021, Scarlet Nexus seemed like the poster child for Steam Deck.…

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Persona 3 Reload2024

5 out of 5 stars

(74 hours and 29 minutes to beat on Easy, the counterpart to old Doom games’ “Hey, not too rough” difficulty, with Japanese text and voice on Steam Deck.) This is not a review standing on its own, but the fifth and final chapter of a long journey. Here are chapters 1 , 2 , 3 and 4 . Just got to put up a number by the end. I would have loved to say “spoiler warning” but I’m a firm believer in “if foreknowledge can…

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Vanquish2010

3 out of 5 stars

(Almost a dozen playthroughs on both Xbox 360 and PC before this Deck run, including 2 on Hard, the second highest difficulty. 3 hours, 4 minutes and 9 seconds to get through on Causal, the second lowest difficulty, according to kill screen.) Poor Golden Gate Bridge. After the awful event on September, 11 th , 2001, it seems like every Tom, Dick, Harry and their non-male counterparts have to move their “destroying…

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F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon2005

4 out of 5 stars

(Played on Steam Deck. About 8 hours to see credits roll on Easy. Again, the game was obviously designed for mouse and keyboard while yours truly was the stubborn ass trying to play with a controller like setting.) The goofily titled F.E.A.R: First Encounter Assault Recon was among the last of its kind when it came out in 2005. So much so that not even its sequels followed its footstep. The sea change brought in by…

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Persona 5 Royal2019

4 out of 5 stars

(Played on Switch with Japanese voice-over and text. 93 hours to see credits roll on Easy according to save file without that “Link’s Awakening” third semester. Look, yours truly got cocky with Persona 4 Golden on Vita. Selected Normal then got chewed out by that first proper dungeon and never went back. So cut me some slack for selecting Easy with Royal.) Combing the playing of Tokyo Mirage Sessions (“TMS” for…

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Persona 5 Tactica2023

5 out of 5 stars

(Played on Switch with both Japanese track and text. 35 hours to beat on Normal estimated from the save file. The direct-to-new-game-plus file does not show playtime for some reason.) Allow me to lead with the following fact: I had never beaten Persona 5 as the time of writing this, not vanilla nor Royal. It’s not due to lack of trying. I started it as early as September, 2016 when the bloody thing just came out in…

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Policenauts1994

3 out of 5 stars

(Played as Playstation Classic on PS Vita in Japanese. About 12 hours to go through according to the save file.) The 25 th anniversary of Metal Gear Solid’s launch on Playstation in English speaking region is approaching. So why not celebrate it with reviewing Policenauts, the first product ever sold as “A Hideo Kojima Game” that never saw an official English release. The 8 kanjis read “Ko Jima Hide O Kan Doku Saku…

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Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon2023

5 out of 5 stars

(About one 37 hours long single playthrough to get the “Liberator of Rubicon” ending on Steam Deck with Japanese text and voice-over. I just got to play a “nut job” who listened to a voice in their head when that voice was provided by this game’s top billing anime usual suspect at her most stoic yet soothing…) “Clunky” said Jeff Grestmann to Drew Scanlon when the latter inquired about From Software’s King’s Field on…

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Quake II1997

5 out of 5 stars

(Played as part of the 2023 remaster on Steam Deck. 5 hours to see credits on Easy. I was playing a game designed for mouse and keyboard with twin stick gamepad set-up, so of course I went for the lowest difficulty.) Out of id Software’s Quake trilogy, 1997’s Quake II was something I did not get around to play until 2023. Quake III Arena was something I played a lot on PCs not at my home in 2000. I also ran through…

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