FlyingPiloswine

The art is gorgeous, but it definitely hinders gameplay at times because a lot of important features do not read well. The most egregious example of this is in the winter area's arcane tower. The mechanics of the gravity orb just do not get illustrated properly, and the art depicts things incorrectly. The escape sequences are pure frustration and not fun at all, again because there is no clear depiction of how to solve some platforming areas, and the art actively tricks you. In addition, the right trigger does WAY too much work. Glide mechanic, wall cling mechanic, pick up items mechanic... misclicks galore. Put that stuff on different buttons. Make wall cling left trigger at least.

This game is really well designed. Each part of the gameplay is rewarding and exciting. The only downside is that the game overstays its welcome. I am about 60 - 70 hours into the campaign and am well into "Act 2" of the game, and its starting to feel like a slog. A lot of overworld content is reused, but it fails to strike the same sense of awe and change that Ocarina of Time achieved. You do revisit an area or two that changed drastically, but the vast majority of areas are exactly the same your second time around. The game kept me heartily entertained for about 70 hours, though, so Id recommend it. Unfortunately, I dont think I will see the story to its thrilling conclusion.

The problem with the Witness is that it has such a simple and pure gameplay mechanic, that there is no margin for error. This is true for both the player and the developer. And while the developer expects perfection from the player--the developer has made glaring errors in judgement and some absolute garbage puzzles. These puzzles come up randomly, and they ruin the experience. I am going to break down one of these puzzles below so that you know exactly how much thought I've put into this. The game uses nothing but the simple mechanic of drawing lines as both the entire gameplay loop and as the method for communicating how the mechanic works. The first couple dozen puzzles are magical discovery in this regard. You learn the rules through deduction and careful attention. However, the problem occurs when the developers intentionally breaks more than 1 existing rule at a time, and they do so without warning. Gameplay Spoiler Below: For example, in the Marsh area, inside the light blue staircase, you are introduced to a somewhat new mechanic: 4 blue squares grouped into a larger square. So far, the rules for the tetris square puzzles are such: -you must draw the outline of all yellow shapes depicted -the yellow tetris blocks must be inside the outline that represents that shape. -You can fuse the outline of two shapes together so they create one large shape, as long as all the contributing yellow blocks are included inside the larger outline. -You cannot "morph" the shape of any depicted tetris block. If its a long skinny block, you can't rearrange the squares so that it is an "L" shaped block. -You cannot overlap any same-colored squares while fusing shapes. They must fit like a puzzle. Then we are introduced to Blue squares. Blue squares are never depicted as tetris blocks, (until the fateful and horribly designed puzzle.) These are the rules: -A blue square can be used to delete a yellow square. The blue square must be included in an outline with a yellow tetris image in order for it to delete part of that tetris shape. You can delete any square you like. -If all yellow squares are deleted by blue squares, you can create any shape at all, as long as all the necessary blocks are included in the shape to produce "nothing". If the entire set of squares produces nothing, outline no shapes and proceed directly to the goal. We have seen some blue "tetris" blocks, in which I mean that two or more blue squares form a larger shape. Example: **** All of the solutions to these fulfill the rule of "you cannot morph shapes made form 2 or more colored squares". As such, the player MUST assume, if they are to beat the game as the developers have taught us, that the rule stating you cannot "morph" the shape of any depicted tetris block applies to both yellow and blue. At no point in any of the previous puzzles are we given an easy to solve puzzle which communicates the idea that blue squares are allowed to be morphed. Through logical deduction, the player is forced to make an incorrect conclusion ABOUT MULTIPLE RULES, which I will detail below. Then, the developers give you this utterly horrible, completely illogical, red-herring infested trash pile of a puzzle. Second puzzle in from the right, with the group of 4 blue squares: **** Look at the solution. You are meant to split the 4 blue squares into singletons and then apply them to individual pieces of two different yellow tetris blocks, and after you do that, THEN you place the augmented yellow blocks on the bottom row. Or perhaps, you OVERLAP the two L shapes so the tall parts meet in the middle, then split the blue shape in half, and delete the short-side of each L shape. Any way you try to think about it, this puzzle follows none of the established rules, and to make matters worse, it is only ever used once during this entire set of puzzles. A complete logical fallacy that breaks mutliple rules in the midst of a series. These types of infuriating and utterly senseless roadblocks make the game an absolute chore to play. There can be no enjoyment while I constantly wonder whether the developer is being a total jerk to me or not. I am so glad I got this game for free. This is definitely not worth $40. It has not been peer-reviewed.

i really, really wanted to like this game. The traversal mechanic is super fun and unique. The powerups also build up on the core mechanic in interesting ways. The problem is the extreme amount of irritation and frustration that you feel as you reach the mid-to-late game. The challenges approach bullet-hell levels of density, and there just isn't enough control over the jump mechanic to make these encounters feel rewarding to accomplish, let alone survive. You have to keep track of 3 different markers to move around: (1) points where Dandara is considering jumping, (2) points where you are actually pointing the thumbstick (because if you point at the ground, it "reflects" and changes (1)'s angle ), and (3) Where Dandara will actually jump too, if (1) is pointing at a surface that is too far away. This information overload is simply too much to make smart snap decisions, and there isnt enough chance to master this demanding amount of info by the time you reach mid-to-late game just 4 hours later. When I die, it usually feels extremely unfair because the game requires super-precision jumps, while you track 5+ enemies jerky and sudden movements. This gets compounded by the unique requirements of each confrontation. You might need to shoot your gun (which requires standing perfectly still to charge each extremely short-range bullet), or take literally no damage in order to unlock a door, or beat a timer. The part where I gave up entirely was in The Masquerade, where you need to jump through a hallway riddled with opposite-direction moving energy waves, while being chased by a fast moving laser wall without taking a single point of damage. You need to achieve a perfect run. This is all about 10 rooms away from the most recent save point, and so if you die or run low on health, you are forced to back track. That is a chore to me. I was having a good time for a while, but the way the developers decided to increase the difficulty does not complement the game mechanic. The most enjoyable parts of the game are when I felt the "flow" of the warping mechanic. Making perfectly timed jumps, winning tight-but-fair combat encounters, and solving the super interesting multi-dimensional puzzles were all amazing in the first three dungeons. Unfortunately, that is all over with. I have reached a part where all you do is jump-scare bullet-hell encounters that do multiple punishments for a single mistake. Even with cheat codes, the type of gameplay absolutely does not allow for the "flow" I described. They should have emphasized the "free running" feel and given you power ups that reduce your bullet charge time. THAT would have been fun as hell.

Excellent Metroidvania with a unique set of upgrades and weapons. I played on hard mode and, as someone who hates dark souls, found it to be challenging but fair. Music is great, and bosses will definitely require some effort. The music in Zi will be stuck in your head forever...

This game is DIFFICULT. Most of the hate this game gets is from people who think that it is a "troll" game or that certain levels are impossible. But that is the beauty of this game. Some levels just feel impossible, and you have to keep trying new and wild concepts. When all else fails, experimentation will show you something that you had no idea could happen. Then all of a sudden, your mind is flooded with new ideas to try. If you don't mind getting stumped, then definitely give this game a try. I still can't believe I finally beat "Heist." That level blows my mind. I thought I was going crazy, but what I did actually worked after a solid half hour.

I am a single player that does not have to share an island, and who sees online interactions as a small quirk instead of a needed feature. This game is amazing for me. However, I am 100% in support of the anger and frustration my fellow users who have to share an island are experiencing. If I had to share with a sibling or my wife, I would be extremely angry. It just isn't fair that you don't get your own save file and agency. We all can't afford multiple game consoles for the sole purpose of having a unique save file. That is downright preposterous, and I am certain it was some big wig exec who decided that.

So we are going to recreate real war crimes in the context of the real world, and then assign blame to the Russians about it? Sounds like a great reason to receive a **** score! Details: ****/2019/10/30/20938550/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-highway-of-death-controversy

This game just keeps on giving. I am routinely blown away by every aspect of this experience: the size of the world, the refined, frenetic grit of the combat (played on hard mode), the visual beauty and polish of every single location and character, the great voice acting and story pacing, the pacing and diversity of enemy encounters, the amount of side quest content. I am at least 20 hours in and I have less than half of the map completed. There are dozens of "undiscovered" event types on my map still. I just got a new skill tree. I cannot believe how fun, huge, and long this thing is. That's what she said.

1) The quest marker to start the quest is woefully incorrect. Bethesda couldn't muster up the tiniest amount of willpower to fix the location of the objective marker. The marker is SOUTH EAST of Stendarr's Marker and the cave is NORTH WEST. Literally opposite directions. 2) EVERY guide on the internet says the location of Dawnspring Canyon is NORTH EAST of the Stendarr's Beacon. This is stupidly and belligerently incorrect. It is north WEST. ok? North. Freakin', West. How tragically dumb does the entire internet have to be in order for this to happen? 3) The cave entrance is absolutely tiny and nondescript. What a horrible, not fun user experience of trying to start the damn DLC, let alone play it.

Its Death by a Thousand Cuts in this entry. That is to say, although I do feel the original magic of Pokemon in this entry, it is marred by an endless slog of annoying and downirght insulting design choices. I am going to just cut right to the chase: -If your pokemon are even 1 level lower than the wild pokemon, it's catch rate artificially plummets. It will cost you 8-10 pokeballs to catch a level 18 with red HP and a status condition if all your pokemon are level 17. If that same pokemon was level 16, it would take 1-2 pokeballs. This has been confirmed by a few online news outlets, as well as my own experience. -The route design is absolute garbage. Its just straight alleyways with some scenery. There is no exploration. Even fan-made games have more complex and interesting level design (*cough* Prism *cough*). -EXP Share is impossible to turn off. You can use one pokemon the whole time, and all your pokemon will level up at practically the same rate. There is no incentive to train any of them individually. -Dynamax offers no strategic value. Your pokemon becomes so OP that it basically guarantees you 3 KO's on the enemy team. (one for each turn of Dynamax) -There is no GTS. The online trading functionality is utterly broken. The only way to trade is to: know someone personally; contact them through call or text; somehow decide which pokemon to trade without being able to share your collections or your intentions in-game;schedule an exact time to trade;share a 4 digit password with eachother, which someone could accidentally use as well because its only 4 digits long. -The characters and story is a total bore. I was excited at first because it has some My Hero Academia vibes, but there is no depth. The rival has two lines that he repeats ad nauseum: "I want to be the best, and type matchups." -Your rival picks the TYPE DISADVANTAGE POKEMON. Which means you will just steam roll him without even trying. I picked Grass, he picked Water. What an absolute joke. -The wild area has multiple forms of "invisible walls". You just literally are not allowed to throw a pokeball at certain levels of pokemon, and you are not allowed to cross a bridge until you have X number of badges. -There is no fast travel cutscene. You don't need HMs anymore, but the replacement for "fly" doesn't even have the courtesy of showing you a tiny cutscene like literally every pokemon game since the dawn of time. -You are still wearing ridiculous safety gear when you ride a bike even though thousands of games rated E for Everyone never do this. -You can't wear hats with certain haristyles, even though there are only about 10 hairstyles in the entire game. I am a game developer. I know how easy and simple this is to do. Its just a mesh variant. Completely asinine how I can't wear a hat with medium length hair. There are plenty other small gripes and things that made me sad throughout my time. I played about 10 hours until all of this together made enjoying the game too difficult. Its a dang shame because the world is awesome, and so are most of the pokemon designs. Its just all of these things that come together to show that Gamefreak doesnt really care about players who want even the tiniest fraction of challenge in their experience.

The exciting, deeply American, and surprisingly relevant story cannot save the unsatisfying and inconsequential combat. The fantastic music cannot save the combat. The absolutely wonderful art and technical art achievements on the PS3 that hold up to next gen consoles cannot save the combat. The combat is fun in the early levels, but devolves into unfair, one-shot kills from enemies that are impossible to see in the gorgeous vistas. The levels were not really designed with cover in mind, and the enemies dont care about your attempts to hide either. But if you mae even one step out into the open, you are murdered instantly. The worst part about this is that there is basically no consequence of death. Enemies you killed stay dead after you rez, and you lose some money. As long as you keep buying updates and dont hoard money, the punishment is neglible. Man, this game is a work of art. I just wish the combat left me feeling like my choices mattered more.

In my eyes, the absolute best part of Monkeyball is it's flexibility. Back on the gamecube, you could play any mode with any number of players. Play by yourself for some casual fun, or get some friends over and bust open some beers. The difficulty had all sorts of features. Some levels were easy. Some had a secret trick. Some were just brutally hard to the point that it was hilarious. Others, like Monkey Target, were very skill based and separated the pros from the rookies. This game has none of those things and for no good reason. You cannot play the story mode levels as multiplayer like you could on the Gamecube, and you cannot play party games alone, like you could on the gamecube. Monkey Target is no longer physics based. And the story levels are so easy that my wife beat half the game in one night. The reason this is a 0/10 is because I feel that the things I have mentioned ARE the Monkeyball brand. They are the reason people with such different tastes, like me and my wife, consistently play the gamecube version still. Who in their right mind would expect a home console version of Monkeyball to not have multiplayer options that existed in the past? I feel like I was tricked with a bait-and-switch. Especially because I know how easy it is to implement the features that I so sorely miss from a programming standpoint.