FogCityRoller

Very good remaster. It isn't perfect as some of the pathing bugs associated with squad mates weren't ironed out (they were present in the original, too) and it still has the bug were planet-side message windows will pop up and go away in literally fractions of a second if you are moving--rendering them impossible to read or ever see again. ME1 certainly benefits the most from a remaster. Playing this game with updated graphics is a dream come true. It was as distant from the rest of the trilogy as The Witcher 1 is from 2 & 3. It was always playable, but in the back of my mind I couldn't wait to get to the other games with much better graphics. The Citadel is gorgeous, combat is fluid and not clunky in that 2000s-era Bioware way, and the textures are awesome (alexvl has a crappy computer or needs to adjust their settings). Touching down on planets and driving the Mako isn't just tolerable, it's actually fun. One of the better remasters in recent memory, right up there with Crash Bandicoot and Spyro. The price point for all three games is great. Anyone who says otherwise has some major entitlement issues. Thank you Bioware for not screwing this up!

Overall the gameplay is even more fun than the originals and I'm so glad they added the manual to THPS1. They added multiplayer, new era skaters, and ranked leagues too. I really, really, really, really, really hope they remaster THPS4 because that is my favorite game in the series but I still love the first two. THPS3 is good too but I loved when they opened up the career mode to untimed parks and just let you do each task in a quest NPC sort of style. The soundtracks in all the games are incredible. Super nostalgic. It's technically not a perfect game because there's bugs with the camera and sometimes the loading screen takes longer than normal, but I won't dock it a point, it's more like a 9.5/10. I hope they fix them though.

Prior to writing this review I felt it was important to revisit the original game, something I have not done in many years. The motivation for this is to check the validity of the claims from the brigade of angry gamers who want to accuse any game developer not named CDPR of engaging in money grabs. I cleared the city of Midgar in the original FF7 in under 5 hours while engaging literally every NPC, collecting every item, and never once running from a battle--that's with several instances of backtracking. If I had perfect recall on everything (train graveyard navigation, Shinra building puzzles, where to buy key items) I could have done it in just over 4. I'm far from a speed runner. I know when I played this as a kid it took me days to get out of Midgar because I was even more clueless and spent hours aimlessly wandering around until I found the NPC that had the wig, the batteries, or the dress. I didn't have reference magazines and didn't even care. I was a kid exploring this new amazing 3D world. That's not the case for most of us now. We're adults, we read text dialogue, we can follow a story, and we can go from point A to point B without getting distracted. The FF7 Remake Pt. 1 is more linear, has quest markers, and (eventually) fast travel. All of those QoL additions and it's still (being generous) a 35-hour minimum to get through the story on your first go, unless you're playing on Easy and just hack-and-slashing your way through everything. I'll wager it will take the average gamer 40-45 hours to finish the story and 50+ for platinum hunters/completionists, and double that to complete Hard Mode (bosses have completely different mechanics for HM so it's legitimately different and a step above NG+). Any AAA game with this length and this level of quality put into the soundtrack, graphics, and considerably more detailed story is absolutely worth $60. People claiming this is 1/3 **** that originally retailed at $50 23 years ago are participating in one of the most absurd examples of a false equivalency in recent memory. This is not a remaster, it is a remake. It's a completely new game built from the ground up. It doesn't matter if the characters already existed, if the basic structure of the narrative was already written, or whatever. It's. a. new. game. There are a dozen character arcs and additional sequences that were never in the original game. Many of our memories of the original game are heavily muddled by hours and hours of grinding and just wasting time having fun with that. The problem is that's not an actual component of the game's length, it was entirely optional, and it certainly was not a priority in the first disc of the game that dealt with Midgar. The vast majority of people didn't bother grinding until we reached the world map. I understand some players' frustrations that they don't get to play a remade version of the entire game in one go, but if you look at the level of quality they put into the first installment it seems pretty clear why they are taking this route. Calling this a money grab is being toxic just for the sake of being toxic. This is not a buggy, half-asked mess of a title released to capitalize on some trend and I never saw a single shred of evidence that they cut corners on any aspect of the game's design. This remake has been carefully planned for years and Square should be proud of themselves. This first chapter with Midgar absolutely exceeds the original in depth and quality and, this will be a hard-to-swallow pill, but you're the absolutely worse type of fanboy if you think otherwise.

Literally the best turn-based strategy game ever made. It's only been expanded upon by a fantastic community dedicated to modding and adding content. I have easily, without exaggeration, dumped over 10,000 hours into this game in the last 21 years. It is THAT good.

I'm going to preface this by saying Runner 2 is one of my favorite side-scrolling games of all time, and easily the best auto-runner. I was not happy about the Switch exclusive console release of this game and thus completely forgot about it until I saw it on sale recently. This game is such a fall from grace, I am stunned. If you've seen the RedLetterMedia reviews of the Star Wars prequels, there is a segment where they go into detail about how Lucas' love for CGI utterly destroyed the original trilogy in the release of the "special edition". That feels exactly like what happened with Runner 3. The game looks a lot more polished, but they just throw crap in front of your character and clutter the screen with complete nonsense. As if the levels aren't hard enough already. Is this a joke? Then there are parts of levels where they completely shift the camera view in the most disorienting manner imaginable including ZOOMING IN, come on!! I cannot recommend this game to anyone, and certainly not to fans of Runner 2. This is NOTHING like that game aside from the characters and the moves you use. The user friendliness has gone out the window too, so I can't even recommend this to beginners. The difficulty curve is too insane.

Jeeze, I honestly couldn't imagine them topping the first game but they did. They added so much depth to the combat system. They did just enough to keep it familiar looking while adding side quests, lovable NPCs, and fantastic puzzles. This game is a total blast and it was well worth the 5 year wait between titles. Moon Studios is a goldmine.

Anyone who rates this game a 10 is a brain-dead fanboy pure and simple. This game is a joke compared to KOTOR 1. It had two years of hardware and tech improvements to utilize and they somehow released a game that looks exactly the same as the original and made no improvements to it whatsoever aside from the crafting system. Uninspired sound design, absolutely buggy beyond belief, nonsensical story with plot holes all over the place, absurdly rushed ending. If this game were released today it would be slaughtered by users and critics alike for being a reskin of the original with all the interesting elements suddenly gone. Crashes during cutscenes, horribly coded pathing, no improvements to combat whatsoever. You want to know how buggy this game is? There's a massive overhaul mod that fixes a large percentage of the original bugs and there are STILL bugs that they can't even fix. The QA department must have been nonexistent when they made this game and I worked in QA for a large developer during the years this game was in development. Completely inexcusable this was released in this state. This game is lauded for no reason other than a lot of people loved KOTOR and didn't mind playing the exact same thing all over again, even if it's objectively worse in so many areas. Nihilus, Sion and Traya are cool potential characters that were done a complete disservice by how rushed and sloppy this title is.

Unfortunately it's not a perfect game but I'm not going to fault Respawn for having a publisher with crappy operating procedures. They were very likely given a rigid deadline to do this game and what they managed to do is fun and extremely engaging. Hopefully some updates can address the fps drops and clunkiness that results from not being allowed to polish this game over another couple months. It's still the best single-player Star Wars game we've seen since KOTOR II (if you think Force Unleashed is better than this you're insane). If I had one minor nitpick its the lack of quick transport, which makes backtracking arduous considering its mandatory if you want to 100% the game. I understand not having "mysterious teleportation" fast travel like we've seen in most recent adventure games and RPGs but there are all sorts of vehicles in the Star Wars universe that could have been used for this purpose.

These people saying "choices don't matter" must be high. One hour into the game I shot a quest NPC and was KOS at a main quest hub permanently. If you decide to be a sarcastic or dismissive **** to everyone you meet, watch companions leave you and the path to completing objectives become more complicated. You can personalize your character interactions however you want. Honestly, what kind of choices do you expect to matter more than that? I guarantee I can pin down how these "choices don't matter" clowns are playing the game. They're linearly going down the dialogue trees, exhausting all options, without realizing in the process they're eliminating a lot of them--because once you commit to a dialogue tree that is at least semi-diplomatic, a lot of the negative options disappear (which are often towards the bottom). I've reloaded dozens of saves because I couldn't get back to a different outcome that I saw the first time I interacted with an NPC. These are the players that pride themselves on being completionists, because any white unclicked text just triggers their OCD. That is not how you play these types of games. As for my personal review of the game. I'm not a fan of the Fallout games at all. I could never manage to get very far in them as I'm not a big fan of the brown/olive green washed out palette. The Outer Worlds on the other hand **** me in right away. While the facial animations aren't spectacular, the writing and character design is. It takes very few lines of dialogue for me to decide if I really like or hate a character, if I think they're full of **** or if I want to assist in their plight. That takes solid writing to pull off, especially with side quest NPCs. Side quests at this point in my life are often meandering distractions that have little payoff and make the game take longer unnecessarily. I probably won't do all of the side quests in this game, but the few that I have done I actually enjoyed and felt like I was accomplishing something meaningful. I love the art direction and think every place I've visited so far is engaging and spectacular. The graphics not being God of War tier does not detract from the art direction. The combat does need work. This is one valid complaint that most people can agree on, and my guess is Obsidian thought this was more about the story and relationships with characters than a gunplay theme park. You should still try to make the combat as fun as possible. I hope they can work on this in updates.

There are various levels of sheer awesomeness that exist in the world. These levels exist on a scale from baby pink socks to Keanu Reeves using two great white sharks as skis while shooting **** with machine guns and backed by a soundtrack made up of 80s hair metal. Keanu should feel honored to relinquish his throne to this game.

This is an outstanding remaster in the same vein as Crash Bandicoot. It stays true to the originals with only the major graphic overhaul and some minor improvements in other areas (mostly menu related). The controls are fluid and responsive, nothing feels stiff at all. The price for all three games is damn good. Spyro was the first Playstation game I got back in the 90s and I loved it then, and it was strange realizing how dated the polygons looked when I tried revisiting it a few years ago. The dragons look fantastic. Being able to play this is a dream come true. These games aren't difficult by any means nor are they terribly long. If you played the Crash Bandicoot remaster then know this follows a similar formula as do most PS1 platformers. The flight levels could give some people trouble but that's about it. You have to be perfect with some objectives. These games are remembered for their fantastical elements and whimsy, not brutal difficulty. Most people would probably rate this an 8-9, but I give it a 10 based purely on my own nostalgia of the franchise and how grateful I am that we got an honest remaster without bloating the game with extra content to make it seem relevant. It knows what it is and doesn't try to be anything more.

This game was a blast to play. New York was done so well and Spider-man's movements were fluid and enjoyable. Act 2 was the weakest link of the storyline, but man they went out with a bang. The final boss fights were so cool. There is not much negative to say about this game except that when you push 100% completion it tends to get a little repetitive. The crimes deserved a lot more diversity. The base layouts were too similar, it kinda became a chore. Loading times were a bit long for quests that required the city to be in a certain phase. Overall I would definitely New Game+ this title, but not 100% again.

20 hours played thus far. I was super hyped for this game. Full disclosure: the atmosphere is fantastic & definitely among this generation's elite. The gameplay itself isn't at the level I expected it to be. Movement is so stiff it gives me anxiety. The story pacing is slow and at times tedious. Tutorial info is flashed at you too quickly and at the worst moments, except for info relating to firearms and horses since you learn those while actually using them. Little else is explained when it matters. To clarify: in the middle of a riding segment when I'm trying to focus on what people are saying or doing, and watching where I am going, suddenly up in the top left corner of the screen a tip flashes in small font and last like 2 seconds. Something about medicine that I have no use for right now, what the hell did it say? I was too busy choosing dialogue options and avoiding running my wagon off the path to see it in time. This is NOT how you go about teaching people about mechanics. The gunplay is a joke. -If you're in cover you auto-aim perfectly every time you exit. You just popped out your head to see your target and are shooting at odd angles. Huh? -Out of cover you fight this bizarre jerky movement of the crosshair like your character has Parkinson's, despite standing still and shooting at a flat angle to your target. Huh? -Anyone who thinks aim will be better with an upward/downward trajectory than a sight line perpendicular to the line of gravity knows nothing about ballistics or optics. How does any of this make sense at all? It's like they got their notes backwards. You have to exert so much effort to get off a clean shot when actually aiming than just leaving cover and mashing the fire button. This garbage makes no sense. I wouldn't be irritated if this game didn't espouse realism on mundane details like a horse's junk changing size based on temperature. But they couldn't do ballistics accurately? Now I'll get over the crappy gunplay because I still love the setting, the voice acting, and storyline events like gang fights and train robberies. I will wander around this world aimlessly for hours before finishing the storyline. The game truly is beautiful. That don't mean I think it is 10/10 or GOTY material. -Hair does not look great in this game and pales in comparison to the rest of the graphics. -The human models overall aren't great unless it is a cutscene. -Most of the game's graphics are 12/10, then there are the few aspects that are 5/10. It should not be this inconsistent. The first time I shot a deer and stowed the corpse on my horse, my jaw dropped at how realistic the dangling body looked. Then there's the hair graphics, worse than The Witcher 3...a game that is over 3 years old. I have a love/hate relationship with Rockstar Games. They always get 95+ from major critic$ despite not being at that level at all just because of the developer's name. Then you have PC gamers who haven't even touched the game rating it a 0 because they can't play it. Both of these groups should be fired out of a cannon and into the sun. I do like Red Dead Redemption 2. It just isn't the GOTY trendsetter I hoped it would be. It seems to be doing too much following, not enough leading, and in some ways it's too far behind. It's a solid 8/10. God of War is the closest thing to a perfect game that we saw this year and the clear winner of GOTY.

My original review is 2 years old and based off the disastrous release this game had. I am impressed by how steadfast Hello Games has stuck to a title that was so mercilessly critiqued as No Man's Sky. They have continued to improve the game, add substantial content that players actually wanted, and released it all for free. It's admirable in that respect. I have played it since then and found it vastly more enjoyable than the first iteration. I still think it has some of the same flaws centered around procedural generation, but I consider those realities of technological limitations rather than a failure on Hello Games' part. The lesson to be learned here is do not boast about a technology before realizing it's pitfalls. Procedural generation is not an engine for creativity.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Phenomenal game. It's obvious CDPR are fans of the Heroes of Might and Magic series (the entries prior to Ubisoft destroying the franchise). If you love HOMM, I think you will love Thronebreaker. Top-down exploration on a map with resources, buildings to upgrade in your camp, quests, treasure to uncover via maps, all meshing together with a fantastic art style, great music and voice acting, and story. I will be ecstatic if CDPR allocates a team to continue developing games in this iteration for the future.

Sad to see this title get rating bombed. This is a top 10 PS4 title without a doubt. The art style is fantastic. I even give it an edge over Ni No Kuni and Breath of the Wild, which have art styles that are somewhat similar. The gameplay is intuitive. Whenever necessary mechanics will be explained as you progress. When you load a save it gives you a briefing about where you are at in the storyline, which as an older gamer with a not-so-perfect memory I friggin' love that they did this. It is classic JRPG structure at its best. Movement is fluid and responsive. For those familiar with JRPGs I will summarize what they have changed that I think are MAJOR bonuses: -Being able to customize hardmode difficulties without some blanket configuration that leaves you guessing what they changed. -No more random battles. YAY! You can see enemies on the screen and running away from them is extremely easy. The worst part of old school JRPGs was being out of items and MP and praying you get back into town in time before losing hours of progress. -Fast travel via spells including dungeons. Ropes were expensive and annoying to manage. Not anymore. 8) -Save points have all sorts of services including ailment curing and resurrections (downside: they cost currency) The combat is SO good. It has incredible depth and rewards strategy. The one downside is you don't get to truly experience how great it can be without going into hardmode settings, because the base version of the game is a bit too easy to fully flesh this out. The story isn't original by any means and Norse mythology is getting played out very quickly, but the characters are hilarious even if the way they get introduced makes them seem a bit irritating initially. The accents are all over the place and even mismatched with vernacular but I find this gives it a campy feeling that I personally love. The game is almost fully voiced except for the mute protagonist, non-storyline characters, and some minor dialogue. The mute protagonist is not unusual for JRPGs but it's an "immersion" technique that has not aged well at all. I really wish RPG developers would stop doing this. My primary complaint is the button mapping cannot be changed except for camera movement (ironic since the camera defaults are the only mappings that feel natural). The mapping is easy to get used to but initially counterintuitive by modern standards, and at times utterly baffling. Accessing the map is bound to square instead of the touchpad, and the options button toggles autorun (wtf?). L2 & R2 can skip/progress dialogue which is a real pain for anyone who puts the controller down. It's EXTREMELY sensitive too. The most minimal contact with L2/R2 can skip an entire screen's worth of dialogue. I know JRPGs are more popular with older gamers, especially those of us who grew up on the SNES and PS1/2. That said, many of the traditional JRPG elements might not bode well with younger gamers. The repetitive MIDI music, the grinding (necessary for harder modes, not necessary at all for the base gameplay), the "princess is in another castle" plot device, the intentionally cheesy dialogue. Many of us love this stuff though because it's familiar. It will be divisive but these aspects being present are not objectively negative.

God of War is the perfect example for why games don't need to be open-world. It employs the wide linear style to maintain the pace of the story, something open world games simply cannot do. Graphically it is the best game of the generation so far, with stunning visuals and superb facial animations. The game is a complete package, and does not string along players for DLC, paywalls, and microtransactions. It may not be bloated with content and side quests like The Witcher 3 but it has an incredible amount of content that will have your hands full for upwards of 100 hours if you want to complete everything in the game. Anyone complaining about the combat being simple are flat out lying. There are literally dozens of button combinations, combo strings, and chargeable abilities for Kratos alone. That isn't even considering Atreus' gamut of support abilities which are also controllable by the player. Playing on the easiest setting you can hack and slash through the game, but that is exactly what easy difficulty settings are for. You absolutely cannot play that way on the two highest settings without dying literally hundreds of times. If you want to challenge yourself in this game with higher difficulties, you absolutely must master parrying, shield play, spatial awareness, and crowd control. The vast majority of 0 reviews here are the typical troll fare that can be expected on Metacritic. None of them have actually played the game and are salty Xbox and Nintendo fanboys that have nothing better to do since their consoles only have a handful of decent games. Comparisons to the Last of Us? Are you serious? God of War is nothing like the Last of Us, except for the fact that it has an adult and a child as the two main characters. That's some cutting edge analysis right there.

I'm absolutely blown away by how incredible this game is. It is unreal how robust the isometric RPG genre has been the last few years. Between this, Grim Dawn, Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, and hopefully an equally outstanding Pillars of Eternity sequel next month, I can die a happy man. What is even more insane is that despite those other games being incredible, Divinity: Original Sin II is clearly the best game of them all. It is THAT good. The environments are lush and detailed. The story is gripping from the very start of the game. The character development isn't a slog, so you actually feel a connection to each of them from the moment you hear their stories. Then as the game continues, you develop even deeper emotional connections. That makes the choices you make and their outcomes so impactful. Everything to be said about this game has been said a million times, and with good reason. It deserves all the praise. I just want to give it my 10.

It's a shame that Metacritic user reviews have lost their way and resorted to "its an ok game but rating it 1 to counter all the 10s I disagree with" so lame. You kids need to grow up and stop using this site. Axiom Verge is a beautifully crafted game that any true Metroid fan should fully enjoy. It has a great assortment of weapons and power-ups, hidden areas that require some diligence to discover, and fantastic level and character/creature design. It's a blast to play from beginning to end. My only complaint, and the reason I am not giving it a perfect 10, is that the bosses aren't challenging enough (even though their designs are fantastic). If you go in blindly and don't sit back and strategize then you might find them difficult, but almost every boss has some way to basically cheese the fight. I'm not going to say no skill, because it takes some skill to strategize, but there's far too many safe spots. Most of the enemies you encounter elsewhere in the game are far more annoying.

Okay, as much as it pains me to give Ubisoft a glowing review about anything, holy god did they hit it out of the park with this game! COTP was a stunning denouement for AC Origins. While the main game and THO have a more down-to-earth feel (as much as an AC game can anyway...stop thinking about the Trials bosses, I said stop it!), COTP is a beautiful dose of dark fantasy and surrealism that juxtaposes the main game and first DLC nicely. It adds even more depth to an already wonderful game. The one criticism I've heard is that AC Origins wishes it was the Witcher 3. Well, The Witcher 3 is probably my favorite game of all time. When it came out we saw article after article about how it was becoming the gold standard for open world adventure games. Why shouldn't AC Origins have taken notes and followed a similar formula? That's what a standard means. I think it worked out fantastically too. Honestly, I couldn't give a rat's behind if we saw more open world adventure games done in this style. I'll never get tired of them so long as the story is compelling and the content is rich. Check and check.

It's a very fun game. I didn't like it as much as the first game though. Some of the story elements are a bit amateurish but nothing that is a major deal, and besides it is the gameplay mechanics and art style that really make this franchise. I always liked the changing chat dialogue pictures that are reminiscent of older anime. The biggest downside of this game by a mile is the voice acting. It is super, super cheesy. This is evident from the very beginning of the game, but I assume their budget was eaten up on everything else and they had to compromise here. Everything else is pretty well done though so if you can get past the voices you'll have fun with this game.

This game was crazy underrated for its time and easily one of the most underrated franchises of all time. Not only is this game fantastic but the PS1 and Wii games are incredible as well. I played the first game on PS 1 and as a hormonal teenager found it to be too "childish" even though the levels were really fun. My friends and I were very disinterested in the PS2 sequel because it was basically a side-scrolling platformer (2.5D) during an era where most of us kids wanted the most advanced 3D games possible. I finally had a chance to give this game the treatment it deserves and good god it is amazing. The art style is magnificent and very Miyazaki-esque with a wide array of gameplay mechanics. The way they mix up the level design is a testament to their creativity. The first level alone has segments of platforming, flying, and auto-running. I really hope they decide to make another Klonoa title or at the very least remaster the old games because I think they would be far more popular the next time around.

The "professional critic" reviews for this trilogy are appalling. This remaster is absolutely beautiful and Vicarious Visions stayed true to the original games, which is absolutely what you should do when a game and its characters aren't your original creation. It's a proper way to show respect. While I would love a new Crash game, this will sate my appetite for the time being. They really did these games justice. Yes, the platforming can be a little stiff but I did play the original on PS1 and can say it isn't any different. This isn't a forgiving platformer like the Mario games were you can correct easily in midair, many times your jumps need to be perfect. I can't get over how breathtaking the textures look. This is a dream come true. If Spyro, Croc, and Gex could be redone like this I would be in heaven.

I have played this game extensively for five years but I was inspired to write a review based on some odd negative opinions about this first game. As someone who couldn't get into this game the first 3-4 times I tried to play it, I think I can offer some words of motivation. One of the most off-putting features of this game are the combat mechanics. They take some getting used to, and you may have to force yourself, but eventually you get the hang of it and learn that this game is not about the combat so much as it is the story and character interactions. The combat in this game is definitely secondary, which can be a strange feeling for most gamers. The graphics can look dated now, but the Enhanced Edition with some texture mods will quickly get this game up to speed. The biggest issue is Geralt, as no amount of mods will fix his odd gelfling appearance. However it does a lot for other character models and the environs. The views from the Dike across the water are positively stunning at times and some areas like Lakeside are very quaint. The biggest flaw in this game (adjusted for inflation) are the side quests. I really think this game overdid it on the side quests--mostly meaningless fetch quests and inconsequential tedium--and CPR certainly acknowledged this as they wound back the quantity of them in the next game. The game doesn't really have a devoted crafting system. It's present, but it's fairly useless even on high difficulties. You can get by with sharpening tools that you can apply to your swords on your own. The weirdest thing about this game is the fact that the first boss you encounter is BY FAR the most difficult. The Beast for some reason was a force to be reckoned with on my first playthrough. Yet the bosses become more and more of a joke as the game progresses. I have mixed feelings about the ending. On one hand, I felt the ending did wonders for the story. Everything was wrapped up quite well. On the other hand all that tension was pissed all over by a very weak end encounter that didn't require me to be geared, skilled, or prepared. Protip: don't spec uber-Igni if you want ANY feeling of difficulty in this game. Igni is hax.

I was late to the party on the Mass Effect series. I'm currently drilling the trilogy before Andromeda launches tomorrow. Mass Effect 2 was absolutely incredible. I can't in good conscience give it anything less than a 10 although there are some changes from the first ME game that I think went in the wrong direction. The character profiles are top notch. I had fairly strong emotions towards each member of my team throughout the game, even the DLC characters. Even a character like Miranda, who thoroughly annoyed me for the entire game, at least had a genuine sincerity about her beliefs. Joker & EDI combined for an amazing comedic relief duo. There were multiple scenes that had me busting a gut. The side missions did not become overbearing and extremely tedious like they were in ME1, in fact the stories behind many of them were very interesting (I loved the marooned freighter where the survivors turned feral because of the toxic flora). There were significantly less sidequests than ME1, but they were higher quality, which I thought was a great adjustment. The main story followed a familiar course from the first game, and while there weren't many plot twists or major surprises, I thought it flowed very well and at least kept me motivated towards the goal. Now for the aspects of the game that I kinda bugged me (but not enough to drop this game's 10 ranking): -Money. I did absolutely everything that wasn't DLC-related and still did not have enough credits to purchase every upgrade from the shops, because unlike ME1, there's nothing you can sell in this game. Everything is purchase and upgrade. I had to leave a couple upgrades behind on Tachanka. This was irritating. -The probing for metals got old quickly. Thankfully I used probes like crazy in the early game and amassed enough to get me through every upgrade and multiple respecs with plenty to spare. They elimination of planet exploration is a mixed blessing. In ME1 roving around those boring planets was a mind-numbing experience combined with the goofy physics of the vehicle. I was hoping for improved controls and physics in this game but they just removed it completely (if you don't count the Firewalker DLC) -The loading times are kinda long, even on a great modern computer. -I see why some games now give you clear notification that you are reaching a point of no return. Realizing I couldn't wrap up other quests without it having dire consequences was a bit of a buzzkill. Overall this game is an absolute must-play for anyone who is a science fiction fan. The amount of detail they go into with planetary science and astronomy is typically unheard of, and it makes you realize how much thought they put into this. Can't wait to break into ME3!

FFXV is a much better game than most of the detractors here are implying, but it does have some glaring issues. I think normally this game would have been a 7 or 8, but I'm docking it for a major issue that I cover at the end of this review. They have released updates that at least hint at the fact that they are interested in improving the game, but I don't know if my primary concern is fixable. I think the story is fairly straight forward, but it is a bit weak. There isn't anything particularly gripping about it, which makes it easy to go off doing side quests. I think this is a testament to how lackluster the story is, because a good story should make you WANT to find out what happens next. With FFXV, I kinda feel like I'll get around to it whenever I run out of side quests that are level appropriate. The graphics are stunning and the cities are beautiful. The voice acting is well done but the main problem is they have a limited amount of lines, so in a relatively short time frame you will find yourself becoming annoyed by them. I don't think these are aspects of the game that are much debated, so I'll leave it at that. The soundtrack could have used a more vast arrangement of original music, but I think adding all the old FF soundtracks to the car radio is amazing (and NieR: Automata) so by that merit alone I consider the music to be a great success. The environmental music when it comes to encountering and exiting battles follows a simple formula that has been familiar to FF fans for two decades and I'm glad they didn't mess with it. The Ascension system is very cool and has the right balance of complication without being overly confusing. Elemancy, gearing, upgrading methods, car customization, and professions are either sufficient or great. The main problem I have with the game after ~30 hours played is that their attempts at implementing QoL features is hindered by horrible loading times. Yes, in theory it is great to finish a measly side quest and zip back to the car and then zip back to the quest NPC. BUT, a fast travel feature is diminished when you have to face two loading screens with the loading screens for longer distance traveling taking upwards of an entire minute. In a 30 minute time span I can spend upwards of 10 minutes on loading screens alone. That's absolutely absurd. This is the single greatest factor making me struggle to play the game for extended periods of time. Quest hubs really don't exist, because a quest hub is supposed to offer a number of quests that can be completed in a given area and turned in at another area. Lestallum will give you a bunch of quests but every damn one is 10 minutes away from each other, and it's usually some banal task like "go pick a single bean sprout from this farm in the middle of nowhere" WHAT THE **** IS THIS?! I really don't care about the way the characters look, as a lifelong FF player that is the least of my concerns at this point. The loading times and insane amounts of wild goose chases are unbelievably bad.

My original review of this game was almost 3 years ago, and I was far too nice to it but in my defense the game was in its infancy and it was a much better game than it is now. That review was pre-GvG. Ever since the release of GvG, Hearthstone has continued on a downward spiral to its current state of being a glorified slot machine mobile app. The levels of RNG added to the cards is inexcusable for any game that tries to pass itself off as being skill-based. They have completely destroyed arena, which has turned into a game of "who can get luckier while curving out" because reactionary play has been mitigated to the extreme. The only thing I can say about this game is that Whispers of the Old Gods was actually a really fun, innovative expansion. However that did not last, and every one since then has been a disaster. Even with sets rotating out, they leave a mark that is terrible from a business point of view. *GvG=permanently destroyed constructed play by making it COMPLETELY about RNG. *The Grand Tournament=managed to be worse than GvG and single-handedly destroyed **** a million years I didn't think this would have been possible. *Whispers=as I said, the only great one and probably forever. *Mean Streets=reintroduced unbelievably broken 1-drops that made constructed AND arena intolerable. Blizzard is one **** company these days, it's actually depressing because I grew up obsessed with their classics. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

The story grips you right out of the gate. Storylines have always been convoluted in open world games because of how sidetracked the player can get with other tasks and side quests. While this does have side quests, they can be resolved relatively quickly (though at the expense of character depth in side quest givers, but that's not necessarily a bad thing). There isn't much that can be said about the graphics that haven't been said already. This is probably the only game out so far that makes me want a PS4 Pro, but it isn't necessary either. The graphics on a normal PS4 are still stunning. The environments are incredibly detailed and the lighting is outstanding. What really makes this game stand out above many others in its genre is the crafting system. I am tired of crafting systems that feel like a chore, to where it's impossible to craft something useful without going well out of your way to gather the components. It turns crafting into some side quest time sink. Horizon eliminates all of that. I've continued to be able to craft anything I need with just items I collect on my routes through the story. No hours spent farming materials just so I don't run short on supplies further along, THIS IS WHAT QUALITY OF LIFE IS ABOUT FOLKS! It's still a diverse crafting system with many options. The UI is crystal clear, the menu system is perfectly organized, and everything seems to have just the right depth. I'm convinced that Horizon was the product of meticulously analyzing its predecessors and pinpointing what works really well and what didn't work so well, and perfecting everything. Anyone saying this is just another Far Cry Primal has the analytical abilities of a toddler. This is more like Witcher 3's kid sister, and she is a total badass.

This game might be interesting if you are a 12 year old who likes spawn camping. This game is complete trash. More like Call of Doodie: Infinite Wetfarts.

This is obviously a PC version-only review. I realize this game will get higher reviews for the console plebs, but this release is underwhelming for the time being on PC. The only thing that will make this game amazing will be the future 64 bit mods that can make use of the capabilities. Thank god this game was free to those of us who already own the original game and all the DLCs. Yes, it looks better....than vanilla Skyrim with no mods installed. There's a lot that they barely touched though. The character models still don't look amazing and the hair physics are pathetic. Witcher 3 had better hair physics and that game is now 2 years old. They really could have done a lot more, but this was obviously a cash grab. Modders, please save us. You're our only hope.

I don't actually believe this game deserves a 10 but the fanboys of CoD are obviously bombing this game with 0 ratings so on principal I will do the opposite. Legitimate review: -It doesn't quite have the same feel as the first Titanfall. The maps don't feel as lively but they will be releasing more maps, and for free which is something no other major title does. -Titans aren't as OP as they were in the first game but I actually think that's a good thing. The worst part of the first TF (besides the horrible loading issues) was dreading the pilot phase because you felt so underpowered and hopeless. You still feel powerful as a Titan, but there's a better sense of balance in my opinion. -The loadouts are a little imbalanced right now. Grapple hooks are terrible compared to Stim or Cloak and there's no logical reason to use it. Cloak is just ridiculously OP on some maps where backgrounds can give the cloak animation practical invisibility to pilots and the speed boost from Stim needs to be taken down a few pegs. -They fixed the obnoxious three sequence loading from the first game, thank god. -The campaign was nice but it was pretty short. -It feels slightly overpriced for the amount of content offered at launch, BUT this can be forgiven when all future content will be free. Unfortunately, this game's lifespan on PC is on the brink because of so much negativity surrounding the game so I'd recommend getting it on console since the populations on the dedicated servers will be more robust over the long term. Overall this game is a solid 8/10, but like I said, 10/10 to counter the trolls.

It's a shame that being linear is somehow a bad quality for a game these days. It seems most of the negative reviews here are from people who had no idea what to expect and instead are lambasting a game for not living up to their unrealistic expectations. Uncharted 4 is solid proof that strong writing can make a 4th installment just as strong as the original. These are not open world games where you just go off and do whatever you please. Not every game has to be like that. The pacing is on point, the characters are well-developed, the plot twists are fully engaging, and the mechanics have been finely tuned to where they aren't frustrating like some of the previous games. Some of the shootout scenes could be a tad shorter but aside from that, this game is perfect. The main story by itself is worth a 9 and the multiplayer and other features give it a solid 10. Naughty Dog has been adamant about this being the denouement of Nathan Drake's story so Uncharted should easily carry the title of best quadrilogy in gaming.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Even with some of the minor issues in the game, there is no possible way it can get less than 10/10. The characters are well-written, the story is amazing with considerable depth, the difficulty can be excruciating at higher settings (and there's 4 difficulty settings, how often do you see that?), the exploration is endless, the interface and opportunities for character optimization are top notch, and the graphics...well, you don't need a review to tell you how incredible the graphics are. This isn't just GOTY, this is Game of the Last 15 Years. The only RPGs you can't rightfully place this above are classics like Planescape, Fallout 2, and Baldur's Gate. The people complaining about the combat system are probably used to simpler combat mechanics and crutches like auto-adjust cameras and action bars. This isn't 2005 anymore kiddies, time to improve your dexterity. The minor issues that can be annoying are the loading times (which seem short compared to games like Bloodborne but still noticeably long, especially if you're playing on Death March difficulty and die frequently), there's some pathing issues with the auto-run feature while riding Roach, the quest paths can bug out on the map overlay, and being a horse Roach should not have the hurdling issues that he does with some basic obstacles like rocks and felled trees. Regardless of these, the game is as close to perfect as you'll ever see. This game will be the measuring stick for RPGs for years to come.

Charming and addictive in the purest possible way. The no scope MLG kiddies might not care much for the graphics and assume the game **** because of that, but that just means they are missing out. This game is the best $15 you could possibly spend since Rocket League's debut.

I'm changing my rating from 2 to 0, as someone who is a lifelong fan of the HOMM series and realizes what a turd this is. I've been playing this series for over 20 years now and consider myself as much of an authority as anyone. Let's quickly get the few improvements out of the way. They stopped grouping all the tertiary resources into one (blood crystal) and diversified them back again. Thank you for acknowledging we have resource management skills above that of a toddler. Yippee. Letting us pick kingdoms and creatures during the beta was nice, but it was this false sense of we the community thinking we could have a noticeable impact on this game. In reality, this impact is minimal at best. Ubisoft insisted on leaving all the horrendously messed up decisions to themselves. The development flaws are just inexcusable for a game released in this era. Why Ubisoft was allowed to sully this great franchise with their touch of death is beyond me. I've only played through a few campaigns so far, but the problems are readily visible. Yes many bugs were fixed, but new bugs have taken their place. Some spells still don't work as their tooltips claim and when a game revolves entirely around battle strategy, this is inexcusable. My biggest disappointment is the recycled content and complete and utter laziness from the story writing and animation teams. The character's do not move in cutscenes at all, and their mouths are stuck open like they're trying to catch flies. What in the hell is this all about? It looks so lazy and stupid. This is executed so poorly that I am simply at a loss for words. The storylines are derivative and obscenely boring. I've skipped almost every conversation and cutscene because after 2 full campaigns it showed no signs of improvement. They also completely ripped off characters from George R.R. Martin's fictional universe and Warcraft. An orc named Thrall? Tell me you're joking. Now, those of you who played HOMM II might say "but wait, they had a map in the second game back in 1996 that was based **** of Thrones, what's the big deal?" Well, that was one customized map not connected to a campaign at all. It was clearly a homage to a great book, put into the game by one of 3DO's developers who was geeking out about a book he read that year, since none of the other books were written yet. They clearly weren't trying to gain any favor by leeching off a successful series. In Heroes 7, these are recurring characters in the CAMPAIGN STORYLINE aka the lore. You know, the part of the game that is supposed to be written exclusively for this game. In Heroes VII there is a character used in the first set of cutscenes for the Haven campaign that is a blatant ripoff of Tywin Lannister. It might as well be an actual photo of him with an Instagram filter. Then later in the first segment of the Sylvan campaign there is an elven princess named "Danan" and guess who she is coincidentally a carbon copy of? Yep, a certain Targaryen lady perhaps? Everything from the silvery hair with pinned back braids, side curls, and her backstory of being far from home. But Daenarys Targaryen was a dragon lady, oh wait Sylvan's do get dragons. Nah, I guess it's just another "coincidence." The utter lack of originality and insipid storyline themes make this one for the preschool nursery. Ubisoft is one sad group of idiots. I can't wait for the campaign story involving a prince with a physical deformity, shunned by his family for the mother's death birthing him, and who later is blamed for the assassination of his reigning nephew. Why are so many assets recycled? Why can't you guys write original characters and stories? What the hell did you spend your money on Ubisoft!!!! Please sell this to someone like Paradox who can actually do something really good with the game.

This game is almost perfect. I think there are a couple of things that could have been done differently to make this game more visible to the gaming community, as well as presentable as a finished product. It seems like it was rushed and released a couple weeks too soon. Pros: -Devs active in the community and they release patches, hooray! -Art design is beautiful. -Underlying mythology (Slavic) seems new and unexplored in the realm of English video games. Education and gaming is the ultimate nerd boner. -Interface and game intricacies are delightfully complex. This is one of the few games I would say is not for a casual gamer. You will have to relearn everything if you put it down for a few days and pick it back up. -The card game is rad. -It's on sale on Steam right now. -No shortage of party customization. -Enough micro-managing to satisfy the compulsive micromanager in all of us, which I feel is necessary for a 4X game that requires this much attention to get a good grasp on the gameplay mechanics. It has an interface design that reminds me a lot of the Heroes of Might and Magic series, party maintenance of a classic RPG, overhead map interaction similar to a Civilization game, and a card game that is a more serious version of Gwent from The Witcher 3. Needless to say, this game has some absolutely delightful influences. Cons: -Came out a bit prematurely in mid-November when everyone was still creaming their jeans over Fallout 4 and Battlefront. It's hardly been noticed as a result and has enough areas requiring polish to where this wasn't necessary. -Endless supply of grammatical and punctuation errors. For a game with so much effort put into it, you do not want to see these so frequently. The fact that they put no spaces between exclamation marks and the next word is something I didn't even know would drive me up the wall eventually!Seriously. :P -Random starting gods. I wish it would let you choose the 1-2 gods you want to start with, and then unlock the rest later. I just hate being forced into playing a starting character that is not required by everyone and is simply random. -Fight strategies can become predictable with experience. This is probably the biggest downside so far, but very fixable. -Early bosses sometimes fall into the category of "cruel and unusual punishment". Kind of like getting hit the 10,000 needles attack in Final Fantasy when you haven't saved your game in the last four hours and having no warning whatsoever that this one battle is going to destroy an entire evening's worth of work. Yeah...those ****. :(

Basically a joke of a Final Fantasy game. It should have been released as an expansion to a Mary Kate & Ashley adventure series. xxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooo

It's really, REALLY difficult saying this but...this might just be the best Mario Kart game ever made. I'm an '80s and '90s kid, so I actually grew up on the original on SNES. In fact, the very first time I stayed up all night was the Christmas my parents got us Mario Kart. It feels wrong to buck the original from the top of the rankings in favor of the most recent title but this is really a spectacular game. I'm not here to post my rankings where each Mario Kart title stands, but I just grinned like an idiot for hours while playing this one and the online play is pretty amazing. To make it even better, the DLC for Mario Kart is probably a contender for the best DLC ever released for a game. I know the DLC has its own rating page, but the fact that it wasn't overpriced serves as another bonus point for the main title.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

What do you know, a AAA title that was grossly overhyped and underperformed. Why do I keep setting myself up for disappointment by buying into this garbage? I actually thought Fallout 4 would be "the one" to actually live up to the hype, but holy lol. The graphics are inexcusably dated and gross, the interface is awful, the story is boring. I can't believe people think the graphics are acceptable, it's on the Creation engine from LAST GEN. Seriously wtf?? That's the same engine they used for Skyrim! Just marginally improved. The fact that they try to call it "a next gen version of last gen's engine" is pathetic and sad. How fanboys defend this crap is beyond me.

I'm going to revise my launch review from a 9 to a 10. My main quibble back in July was that the AI was terrible, because I was sort of expecting solo play along the lines of Tecmo Super Bowl or something, and that was a bit presumptuous and misguided. Yes, the AI is garbage, but who cares? This might just be the most fun and addictive multiplayer game of the year, and probably the last X years. I can get burnt out on it and take two weeks off, then come back and spend another week's worth of free time playing the hell out of it. Even better, aside from DLC stuff (which is completely optional and not required by any means) there is no need to put more money in the game and still get full enjoyment out of it. It's actually depressing how that is a highlight in this age of gaming, but there ya go. More recently they launched a new series of game modes, with some taken from the first battle cars game, that really added a sufficient amount of variety to the game and is heavily utilized by the player base. The only downside is the mode is completely random. I'm not a big fan of the low gravity mode but the big ball and cube ball modes are insanely fun. Yes the player base has dropped quite a bit. You won't see 50K players online at low peak times anymore and sometimes you can wait 5 minutes late at night (PST) for a 4v4 game with only 150+ players hanging out in that lobby, but going on six months of life there's still no shortage of games and no game modes that are abandoned. Probably the only downside of Rocket League is being a west coast US nocturnal player (9pm-4am PST), which unfortunately I am. This is easily the best $20 you will ever spend. When it goes on sale, it's an absolute steal.

This is without a doubt the best expansion to The Old Republic to date. It's not some flawless contender for GOTY, but I'm rating it as an expansion. Expansions have been a dime a dozen for the last decade. Even worse, most of the time they're hauled off as DLCs with exorbitant price tags that bully devoted players into paying more money. Some of the better highlights outside of the gameplay itself: -If you had an active game subscription for a period of time leading up to its release, you got it for free. -The development team was very interactive with the community regarding concerns about some of the strategies they wanted to employ (cartel market, companion usage) -Additional perks for subscribes based on how many months of active subscription prior to the release of the xpac. -Removed the long and unforgiving cartel pack cycling process, which helped alleviate very problematic inflation issues in the economy. I haven't even begun to tackle multiple class missions yet, but I'll just say that I have absolutely loved what I have seen so far. As someone who was a launch player, and left the game with my tail between my legs due to utter disappointment, this is such a breath of fresh air. I came back about six months ago and was already impressed with the improvements they made but this expansion was just a nice validation that they plan to continue putting effort into what could have been the MMO of the decade. It will never attain that prestige at this point, because when you screw up a launch you basically write your title's tombstone, but this is the best possible recover you could expect from a game, even though it literally took years.

The thing about games like these (idle clicker games) is that they cater to a very specific niche of gamers. They're also incredibly misunderstood. On the surface it just looks like you click a bunch of crap until your resources run out or you have to AFK farm to generate more resources. Yes, this is what these games are to people who don't care about the math and just want to beat the game. While there is that aspect of the game, these games are in reality porn for math nerds. These aren't like modern games where multiple strategies exist that compete with one another. With Adventure Capitalist, you take the numbers given to you and figure out the optimal strategy to accelerate quickly through each run (this is the same strategy repeated BUT at certain milestones your strategies may require a shift in focus on another resource or what-have-you). Even though we effectively come to similar conclusions, many of us have spreadsheets with the same mess of columns and $/s calculations. These games aren't for everyone, and I'll never try to convince anyone to play this game unless I'm confident they have an interest in the genre. It's very fringe (I know Clicker Heroes is/was very popular and similar in terms of genre but definitely more complex than AC is) and probably a waste of time for anyone who just copies the work of others to get from point A to point B. This game is for flexing a little grey matter while requiring that you don't expect to play it whenever you want (some locations require days of non-interactive farming).

While the combat seems interesting at first, it can get repetitive and the WASD movement in combat is a failed attempt at spicing up multi-targeting. The dialogue in this game is SO boring and dragged out with very childish attempts at 'adult' humor. The art is nothing to write home about. What a way to get started on an adventure by having the protagonist come off as a lazy jerk. This game is only for most diehard JRPG fans with low standards for humor. The only reason I am giving it any points is because the soundtrack is rather nice.

I was so excited for this on PC because I don't have an Apple phone. What a huge disappointment so far. Where to begin... 1. Unless I somehow missed it, there is no way to skip the tutorial. This is incredibly annoying for anyone with even a basic knowledge of how MTG is played. You have to play it in order to unlock other parts of the game. It's sooo slow. 2. The cutscenes are a complete joke, with graphics straight out of the year 2000. I can't believe a company that makes millions of dollars a year like Wizards can't afford to hire better animators. 3. The interface is incredibly dated. There is no thrill added by implementing a 3D game board. It is completely unnecessary. 4. Tapping mana is far more tedious and complicated than it needs to be. Why can't we just click on the lands we want to use? Why is a keybind attached to the most basic concept of the game? What the hell were they thinking? 5. It's pretty obvious they copied the "let's be cheap with cards in boosters" design from Hearthstone. 6 cards, seriously? Did you really have to soak your customers for more money by reducing the number of cards that have been in boosters for two decades? 6. Bugs everywhere. The only positive things I can muster so far about this game is that it's great for teaching people completely new to MTG how to play the game and the lore was pretty cool. I quit MTG long before the Planeswalker cards were ever a thing, so getting some backstory on them was nice. The tutorial is incredibly thorough, but again it should not be mandatory for anyone who has played the game before. I pray to god they fix this dumpster fire before its too late, I can't properly put into words how utterly disappointed I am. :[

Crysis 3 is a perfect example of great graphics not making a great video game. This game is so boring I can hardly put it into words. Graphics: 10/10. Everything else: -11/10. I can't give this pile of dump a negative score so it gets a 0. More functional as a screen saver.

In a world where people rate actually rate the graphics of games based on what they are instead of what they are not, Shovel Knight is everything it is supposed to be. From a gameplay perspective it is a stellar nod to the 8-bit icons of the past. It excels everywhere from story to mechanics to screen design.

I love the artwork in this game and it's pretty fun but considering the hype I heard about it, I was expecting more--a lot more. I found the mechanics in Transistor to be more engrossing and I'm only making the comparison because they are from the same developer. The one thing that really stands out to me about Bastion is that it looks like a mobile game. This is probably my favorite genre in all gaming so I'm struggling to pinpoint why I don't find this to be spectacular and all I can think is that the story isn't very thrilling (this genre is driven by story-telling). I've struggled to put more than an hour or two into Bastion at a time because once I have my fun with the gameplay mechanics, that's about all that keeps me interested.