Promotheus

I loved Shovel Knight and its DLCs, I 100 percented the base game and really liked playing it through again. So my expectations for Mina were high, but sadly the game did not live up to them. On a cursory glance, when only looking at the graphics, the game promises to be a Zelda: Link's Awakening-homage, just like Shovel Knight was a celebration of Mega Man and Duck Tales. Once you play the game you quickly realize that this is not the case though. The game has a heavy focus on platforming, which is a really bad idea. This sort of top-down perspective lends itself very poorly to platforming, there is almost no platforming in the top-down 2D Zelda games. To add to this, you very often have to fight enemies while engaging with this platforming which makes it even worse. The absolute worst part of the game are the bosses though. They are extremely unfair and cheap, obviously inspired by the Dark Souls games. Many bosses give you only a very small window where you can attack them, so you have to spend most of the time just dodging their attacks, which all have huge hitboxes. The bosses telegraph their attacks, but since it takes more than a second for Mina to enter the burrow state where you are safe from most attacks, you still have to almost anticipate the attacks to not get hit. The leveling system barely helps, a higher health level will maybe buy you another hit, but since you take so much damage from each hit it barely matters. The hard bosses will be hard even if you have a high level. All of this makes it an awful experience, and also nothing like anything in a retro game. Why all games have to be Dark Souls is so strange. I wonder who playtested this game, if anyone playtested it at all. There were multiple delays which are not hard to understand when playing the final product. The only way to fix the game I think is to overhaul it from the beginning and scrap all of the level design, but instead they opted for the modifications which is a cop-out to me. I finished the game in 23 hours without any modifications, but I suspect a majority of players will either not finish the game or do so with modifications like infinite health, which is a shame. A note on the story and graphics: Most characters are cute anthromorphic animals, while the bosses are realistic-looking gruesome monsters. It's such a strange mix, which lends me to believe it was made as a reference to Little Samson, otherwise it makes no sense. The cute style also clashes with the very serious and downbeat story, again such a strange departure from the light-hearted humor in Shovel Knight.

Absolutely blown away by Resident Evil Requiem, I can't remember the last time I had so much fun with a video game. Grace's segment in the care center is exquisite Resident Evil gameplay, up there with the remakes of Resident Evil 1 and 2, if not even better. It takes the macro and micro-strategic elements of RE, the resource management and the execution to a whole new level. Is it worth going to this room? What enemies will I encounter? What resources are available there? The first person perspective heightens the horror aspect, in conjunction with the excellent voice acting for Grace and all other characters as well. Grace is probably the first character in an RE game that actually reacts to the horrific situation that she's in in a realistic way. Another stroke of genius is to make the zombies in the first part of the game retain some of what defined them as humans. In a sort of Bub from Day of the Dead-like way they can talk, which makes them much scarier. Leon's segment is really fun too, but of course not horror but action. It lives somewhere between RE4 OG and the remake, which I think is a perfect place to be. Not as clunky as the remake of 4, while not as arcady as RE4 original. Raccoon city is a great setting and it looks so good, which the game in general does as well. The art direction for Rhodes Hill is awesome. I found even Standard (Classic) to be a bit on the easy and forgiving side as a longtime player of the franchise. Thankfully Insanity is here to make up for that. That difficulty is aptly named, and I strongly recommend to play it as Capcom wants you to, with the unlockable bonus weapons (and possibly the advanced tuning too, I didn't use that though). If some kind of speedrunner or influencer tells you to do it without those weapons, that is a fine challenge to set for yourself, but it's not what the devs intended. In one boss fight I executed the fight perfectly but was still softlocked since I ran out of ammo, when not using bonus weapons. I love the story and the characters, even smaller characters like Emily (no pun intended), and Gideon is a great villain. I have 100-percented the game but still want to play it more!

Slightly better than the atrocity that is MP2, but not very good. Puzzles have taken a step back from MP2 thank heavens, but at least one very frustrating puzzle remains. The obligatory fetch quest at the end of MP2 was the worst, but somehow they decided to keep it in this one, although not as extremely frustrating and cryptic (minus one of them as mentioned). The gimicky Wii motion controls are not very good, but not as bad as they could've been, also interesting that the controls in MP4 are not much better. The game is a lot more linear than MP2 which is a good thing. All in all I think this one just doesn't improve or try to do much different than the first game which doesn't really warrant its existence. The best thing anyone can do is play through Metroid Prime 1 which is a great Metroid game, and just not bother with the rest, including part 4. There is a really cool sequence in the beginning with a returning boss which I loved, certainly the high point of the game, but also a sequence that has little to do with Metroid as it was mostly an action set piece.

Overall a fine game, but falls short of its potential, especially as a Battlefield game. Because of the map design and how the weapons work you are so often killed from the back unable to react, and everytime that happens it feels so bad and you kind of gradually lose interest in the game. I have been playing since BF1942 and I’ve never experienced this in an earlier BF title. In earlier entries this was counteracted by a front forming, which never happens in BF6. It also **** that the weapons are not class limited, there is no reason to play for example Assault instead of Support, since ressing your teammates is so much more powerful than anything the Assault class can do. To add to this, assault rifles are now only good at some range, even if you get the drop on someone at close range and start shooting before them, they will kill you if they have an SMG. This was not the case in earlier BFs, there the SMG was a downgrade to balance the classes. And it is so unrealistic. The maps are fine except for Empire State which is awful and does not belong in a BF game. Unlocking takes way too long, 300 kills to unlock ONE weapon is ridiculous. The vast majority of players are not going to grind to unlock most of the stuff, while in BF 1 and V I unlocked everything. The campaign I give 4/10, some cool moments but the story is incredibly stupid.

The strong points of Silent Hill f are the graphics and the Japanese setting. They really nailed that. Like others have pointed out, the combat leaves a lot to be desired. I played through the entire game without doing a ”parry” attack even once. I don’t even know what the indicator looks like. In 2025 I will never understand why every game has to be Dark Souls. The story is ok, but a bit too cryptic even for Silent Hill. It feels a bit pretentious. The focus on children makes me sort of zone out. A good game should tell its story without multiple endings. I enjoy body horror and gore, but I felt that the more extreme stuff here was gratitious. I spent 9 hours ok myplaythrough, the game is not good enough for another playthrough. The price: way too high. I paid 900 SEK for this, that is not ok. It’s not worth that. It’s the most I’ve ever paid for an AAA game. Some issues with inputs getting dropped especially in combat is damning, hope they can fix that with patches. ”Quality”-mode graphics have a fine fps, but bad compared to a good computer. Silent Hill 2 Remake is better than this. Played on X-box series X.

I really liked Doom 2016, it was retaining the legacy of the earlier Doom games, while still innovating and keeping it up to date. I really hated Doom Eternal. The Dark Ages winds up somewhere inbetween. My biggest gripe with the two last Doom entries is that they are too marred by AAA-game mechanics. Doom is supposed to be about skill in dodging and using your resources to beat the enemies and progress. Eternal and TDA are just about doing the AAA-game gimmicks in sequence over and over again, rinse and repeat until the next encounter. It's fun for a couple of hours, but it gets real old real quick. I guess in this one they got rid of the cooldowns at least, which made Eternal a **** story is presented in a really bad way, you're just thrown into it, but the thing with that is that you have to explain it at some point which they never do. I just skipped the cutscenes after a while. 80 euros for this is a robbery in broad daylight. Do not buy the game at that price, it's worth 30-40 at most. The game very much overstays its welcome, meaning it's padded to motivate the ludicrous price. After the midway point there is nothing new, you're just doing the same encounters and looking for secrets the same way as you have been doing up until that point.I will be giving the next Doom game a miss. Id Software became the very thing they at one point set out to beat: A soulless AAA-company that exploits their fan base.

I have been playing Magic since '94 and have been on a long hiatus but started playing again for Bloomburrow. I mostly do the ranked premier drafts. The client has a flashy and relatively intuitive UI which is fine to use. Once you reach the higher ranks, diamond and mythic, it becomes clear that your opponents are all using the tools that help with drafting by ranking the cards for you as you draft. This is the definition of cheating and it **** so much to play against. Even some streamers use these programs, but I suppose mostly for advertisement purposes. I get it that people want to win, but when a program is drafting for you, what's the point? You are first paying for the gems to be able to play, then you pay for the cheating tool. And of course the only real way to combat this is to use a program like this yourself, but I refuse. Wizards need to come down on these tools and ban whoever uses them, but it seems like they do not give a damn. Ranked draft seems like a good idea on paper, but in reality it's not the best. You will reach your threshhold rank and then it will be like banging your head against the wall. This is nothing like going to your LGS to play, where you might meet a noob, someone of intermediate skill and a try-hard like an 1800's ELO rank drafter. It will be a nice and relaxing event where you have the chance to win the draft. But on Arena the experience will eventually really ****. Again, I think this goes back to the previous problem of people using drafting tools to cheat. Everyone uses exactly the same cards in the same type of decks, at the time of writing this it's three days after the release of Duskmourn, and people are already locked in to the most optimal deck using the drafting program. People can be REALLY toxic using the emotes as well. The sad part is what is even the point of getting to mythic by cheating when you barely get anything for it? Sure you can play best-of-3, but I feel that there is not much to play for when there is no ranking system.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

SMBW is obviously targeted at children and as such it is way too easy for the adult demographic. The New Super Mario Bros games were not nearly this easy, and actually provided a challenge. The level design is very samey and devoid of originality. I was hoping for a Yoshi's Island type of game design with all the new enemies, but alas. The wonder flower mechanic is gimicky and loses its novelty quickly. I hope this lack of a challenge will not continue going forward.

I have finished act 3 and am debating whether to continue or not. The game just is a slog and not really fun. The story is unengaging, lacks emotion and has no sense of urgency. I hate the fact that all enemies level up with you, it is lazy game design and makes you never feel stronger or more powerful, the reason for a leveling system in the first place. I hope the people who thought D3 was too colorful got what they wanted now, because the game looks so bland and boring I don’t know where to go. Everything is just the same dark color. A swing and a miss.

I started out really enjoying TotK, in the beginning it more or less felt like reliving playing BotW again for the first time. The developers really put a lot of effort making the initial sky island a nice experience. Sadly after that the innovations stop and the more you play the more everything starts feeling like a chore and burnout sets in at an exponential rate. The new build mechanics are innovative, but are they ”fun”? I would argue no. In BotW I gladly seeked out all shrines because the puzzles were challenging, but here most of the puzzles are very samey and a little too easy. The counter doesn’t update for me but a rough estimate is I’m 40 hours into the game and frankly I just want to beat it and be done with it now. No other Zelda game has ever made me feel like that. There is undoubtly a lot of content here, but when it just feels like going through the motions there is no motivation for doing it. A bummer I really wanted to like this game more, but Nintendo played it too safe this time around.

Basicly, for better and for worse, Capcom took RE4 in a completely different direction with this "remake". This is a Frankensteinian mix of og RE4's action gameplay, and the survival horror of RE7-8. If you enjoyed RE4 (2005), play this one on Standard difficulty, and never touch the other difficulties. Hardcore is already much harder than Pro on OG RE4, and Professional is stupid I think. If you play Professional and think it's fun, all power to you. You do you. Capcom obviously hit the mark then. But I can't for the life of me find any enjoyment in it, and I was also already highly frustrated by my Hardcore run that I did finish. I love hard games, but this type of frustration and over-reliance on the awful parry mechanic is not my cup of tea. Apparently parrying is a thing now in many AAA-games? I couldn't tell. I usually avoid AAA games like the (las) plagas. Regardless, Capcom should've been the bigger person and just not put that junk in the game. And don't get me started on the introduction of stealth.

I regret getting the physical version of this game, if not for the fact I have given money to some of the people behind RCG (which is great). The gameplay is antiquated and more akin to an 8-bit game, for example there is a max of 2 enemies on screen at a time. The game does not take advantage of the SNES’s 16-bit processor to any extent other than more colors on the sprites. It is not a mystery why this game was not ported to western markets. The greatest SNES games have aged well and can still be enjoyed, RCGZ not so much. It’s not that the gameplay is bad per se, it’s just clunky and slow for no reason. Its time has come and passed. Also I find the story ridiculous to be honest, it’s like it was written by a child. The creators seemed to be wanting to make an RPG judging by the endless walls of text. Emulate this one and play RCG 1 and 2 instead.

I thought the first game was awesome and a breath of fresh air. I’m not a big beat ’em up-fan, but RCG reinvented the genre and made it much less repetitive. Part Deux as it were is more than anything more of the same, which is fine. I feel generally that the quality is less inspired than in the first one over the board. The biggest problems are the much lower framerate and the long loading times. Going from a smooth 60 fps to 30 is a considerable downgrade. I can’t for the life of me understand why this was done though, this is a pixel art game, same goes for the loading times. I seriously doubt this is something a patch can fix. Highly suspect it’s poor optimization which would be tied to the source code. Here are some other improvements I’d like to see: * A reworked map. You have to look at the map a lot, there really should be a mini map on the HUD. And often the map does not correspond to how the game works. There will be an exit to the side when it’s actually on top etc. * A cancel button. When doing the ”combos” by repeatedly pressing punch, you can often tell that you are going to get hit long before it happens. I loved the music in the first game and listened to it long after I had stopped playing the game. There is nothing wrong with the music in RCG 2, but it doesn’t have the banger factor that the first one had. It’s nice with new characters, but I would’ve liked at least one more womanly character. The ones we got now are both butch. Bosses are fine but they are more about dodging and getting your pot shots in, than a straight up fist fight. If you liked the first one definitely check RCG 2 out.

A perfectly fine entry in the Metroid series but it has some serious drawbacks. The EMMI encounters are very annoying, and I can’t for the life of me understand how they could think that they were a good idea. I absolutely hate stealth sections in games, especially when you shoehorn them in a genre such as an action-adventure game. They should be skippable but are not and just become more and more frustrating as the game progresses. The SA-X that they obviously were inspired by was scary and much more sparsely inserted in the game. The EMMI seem friendly with their Portal 2-look and feel. The next major drawback is the controls. There are just too many buttons and too many combinations to remember. It’s unintuitive and clunky. I think the game is a little too hand-holdy in its design, but it is by and large the old Metroid formula that provides a few hours of fun, minus the EMMI-parts. I had no problem with the trial-and-error difficulty. Graphics are not that good, but the Switch is getting old and really underspecced now.

I like the Fire Emblem franchise so I decided to give this one a try out of sheer covid boredom. If you do not like anime aesthetics, or tropes when it comes to story telling and characters, give this one a pass. I understand that they are going for a Harry Potter thing with the three houses and all. But it makes zero sense to send young literally children out into war to be killed (not to mention everyone being so casual about it). The characters are very stereotypical and predictable, you have your awkward shy emo girl who self quarantines even though there’s no pandemic and so on. The male characters are pretty much all this Japanese male ideal of being very thin and effeminate, which is fine it’s just a bit jarring as a westener. If you are Gen Z, and/or a weeb, you will love this game. Otherwise you will probably hate it like I do. It’s sad because the standard Fire Emblem tactical gameplay is fine, if only you didn’t have to deal with the chore of the dating sim/visual novel **** John Carmack said it best: ”Video games need a story just as much as a porn movie does”. I wish I could refund this but alas.

I'm not sure what this is, but it certainly is not Doom. There is so much gimicky AAA-game garbage in this thing I don't even know where to begin. The fights feel like they are not about shooting and dodging, it's about quick time eventing your way through and using the weapons that you are supposed to use instead of finding your own strategy. Doom 2016 was something different from the original Doom formula, but it still was a good and entertaining game. The last stages of this game are soooo boring and you are so over the whole thing by the time you get there it's not even funny. I can't remember the last time I played a game this repetitive and uninspired. Instead of the near future-aesthetic of Doom 2016, we are now suddenly in some sort of Warhammer 40K-universe with knights and castles... Where did this come from? John Carmack said stories in games are pointless, but here we are dealt this clichéd and tripe garbage of ancient demons and artifacts, who gives a **** about this except a 13-year old who still will just play Fortnite anyway? I guess the worst part is that I've never felt this old when playing a game before. I feel as ancient as the Khan Maykr, and my torment when playing through this was worse than being in hell. This is what we get now. Doom was about using your wits and dodging the enemies. Now you have to push the R to make Doomguy flamethrower the demons and then kiill them so you get the armor shards.

A good metroidvania game which you will like if you enjoy Symphony of the Night, and/or any of the GBA or Nintendo DS Castlevanias. UI and play experience has been streamlined from those games which is nice. The game looks really nice in 4K, if a bit bland when it comes to the backgrounds and color schemes in some areas. A few of the puzzles required to progress are a bit far-fetched and would have been better if they at least had an option to give you more hints if you as a player wanted it. The game overstays its welcome a bit towards the end: As fun as finding new areas to explore is, it tends to get a bit repetitive, especially since you often are underleveled and underequipped when you enter them. Some game-breaking bugs, so save often! Also some nice post-release additions to the map. Story is so-so, but who cares, nobody plays these games for the story. I for one welcome our new Igavania overlords!

I bought this having played the first one and expecting something similar. I guess it is similar but certainly not the same kind of game. I really liked Rage 1, and the way that it was structured that it was mostly story missions. Most of all the game had a really nice atmosphere and post apocalyptic feel to it. The problem with Rage 2 is that it makes the open world experience the main game. Except for grinding the encounters found in the open world, there are only a few story missions. That's really lazy game development especially since the open world experience is so dull here. In order for an open world game to work you need it to be "fun" to explore the world and find things, like in Zelda BoTW and the GTA games. Avalanche Studios claim to be experts on open world, but this game certainly isn't a good example. I would've preferred a more story-driven game, the story that is in there now is very forgettable and tedious, thank heavens that you can skip it though which I found myself doing often. Like everyone is saying, the gun play *is* good, but even that gets repetitive towards the end of the game since there aren't that many different enemies and the game is not hard even on the difficulty with that name. It's sad to have this missed opportunity considering the amount of money and man hours that went into making this game. At the end of the day, people play computer games to have fun and escape, a game can't just be "go there, kill those enemies, collect that", rinse and repeat.

I thought the first The Division game was a breath of fresh air. It was a decent way to pass some time. Most of all, it had a really nice atmosphere. Walking through the desolate streets of a snowy NY really hit the mark with that post-apocalyptic feeling. The Division 2 is another story completely though: - The mood of the first game is 100 percent gone. Washington DC in the middle of the summer just isn't the same thing. - The game is super laggy on X-Box One. If your game can't run 60 fps in 4K, it shouldn't have 4K at all - Aiming absolutely **** compared to PC. Combined with the lagginess it makes the game barely playable. The small autoaim they've put in there is really random and stupid - Graphics look like garbage. They are detailed, but they look like last gen compared to a game like RE2. - Tried refunding but I've played barely more than 2 hours, and there is of course no way checking my in game play time. - There is barely any story at all compared to the first game. Super lazy for an AAA game. Where there was so much character and backstory in the first game that played in to the atmosphere, there is almost none here? Makes the game feel more like an expansion of the first one. If you have to play this game, buy it for PC and play it on a good gaming rig. Edit: Go in and look at the user profiles of the people who have posted positive reviews here. They have either no other reviews or only 10's for Ubisoft games. What a joke.

I like the game, I'd rate it a 3/5 so a 6 is not meant to be an inflated IGN-type scoring where everything below 8 is garbage. The platforming is spot on, once you get used to the controls they feel very intuitive and fluid. The game obviously is very similar to Super Meat Boy, but I think I prefer tEiN, for one you can't hold on to any wall which I think makes the platforming here more interesting. You can only grab onto ledges and certain hooks which is a better way to go in my opinion. The vector graphics look remarkably nice and fluid in hi-def. The post-apocalyptic theme is very nicely executed and has a lot of appeal and charm. I'm torn on the music. The pieces that work are really good and you don't even recognize them as primarily remixed classical tunes. Some pieces though tend to get very repetitive and/or very out of tune with the theme for the world, to jolly for example. So I found myself turning off the music from time to time. If you are more of a casual gamer you probably wont like this one though The game is incredibly hard and you are intended to die many times. Even though this is intended game design I also think it is questionable, because the valuing of lives is so engrained in me having played platformers since the NES days. Grinding the stages and getting better at them is rewarding, particularily when it comes to the even harder cartridge stages, but it definitely comes at the price of a big chunk of frustration. The PR campaign for the game promised a more adventure game-style as opposed to the arcade SMB one, but the game certainly falls short there. A more metroidvania approach would've been cool here with upgrades and stuff, even SMB had characters that behaved differently. One of my absolute faves is The Binding of Isaac, and getting items and stuff would've been cool here I think (and I'm not saying this out of the blue, the developers promised a mix of tBoI in the game as well).

UPDATE to my old review. Now the game runs a lot smoother. Maybe my console was overheated? I've had it since launch and that has never happened before. Or maybe the update (which I 100 percent downloaded before starting the game) did not get applied properly. I did not "cover the vents" on my Wii U or anything, I'm not ****, there is plenty of space around it. In any case, the game still has a lower frame rate than PC, and suffers from frame drops. But it is playable in its current state. I would advise getting the PC version if at all possible, or the XBone/PS4 one I suppose. The game itself is not very impressive. It would never live up to the hype, but to me the biggest shortcoming is the level design, it's just not where it needs to be. A platformer like this lives and dies with the level design. If instead of spending all that time with online mode, voice acting (which still turned out horrible) and God knows what other useless crap, they instead would've focused on level design I think this would've turned out a lot better. This is very much an IntiCreates game, and as per usual the levels rely way too much on "spikes" and various instant death setups. It's half assed, and does not come close to for example the Mega Man ZX-games. I would rate this worse than most Mega Man-games except possibly for X4-X6, but not by much.

I was very sceptical towards this new Doom after having seen footage of it, but I was bored and decided to give it a go anyway. It's actually a lot better than I expected but still not awesome or anything. It's a somewhat entertaining FPS in a sci-fi setting, not a classic like the old Doom. To me it plays a lot more like Quake 2, with Quake 3 jump mechanics and weapons if that makes any sense. Which in itself isn't necessary a bad thing. I would've wanted something more akin to the old Doom, but I guess considering how much an AAA game costs to develop these days they just can't do anything risky like that and have to cater to the current FPS target demographic. Graphics are really nice, art direction on the other hand could use a bit of work. The Mars environments remind a lot about Doom 3's environments actually, although a lot brighter of course. The enemy design feels a bit "safe" to me. They don't look gruesome enough, more like they were out of Halo or something (point in case - the enemy with the silly energy shield). Hell looks a bit boring too. They should've gone full Cannibal Corpse instead, which of course they would never do because of the whole lowest common denominator reason again. The worst and truly most terrifying enemy you'll encounter is the level design itself. More often than not I found myself dying because of the small enclosed spaces rather than the enemies themselves. Which feels a bit cheap. Not a huge fan of the combat arena mechanic either. This certainly feels very un-Doomlike since in Doom you can always back off into a safe area and win a fight no matter how low health you are on. Not possible here once you find yourself in a place where demons keep teleporting in and make your life miserable. Since they will always surround you and flank you. I believe the IGN review touched upon this as well. I don't mind the glory kills in and of themselves, they are really quick and feel satisfying. But they are this game's regenerating health in disguise. As long as there are enemies you can always get more health and the game is designed with this in mind. Which is 100 percent NOT how it was done in old school games such as Doom. I played through the game on Ultra Violence which felt very easy. Tried the first two stages on Nightmare and yes it felt hard, but in a cheap kind of way. You get killed in one or two hits, and it is very hard to keep track of where all enemies are at all times since they blend in to the environment and/or are very small (such as the imps). Also most of the enemies and/or their projectiles are very fast, which yet again is not how the old Doom handled it. If you like FPS games you'll probably like this one, but it certainly doesn't feel like Doom at all I'd say. I prefer Doom 3 to this since it tried to go a new direction and it had a lot of atmosphere and suspense that this game lacks.

I'm a fan of retro games so Shovel Knight is right up my alley. It's a nice charming celebration of older games, but I still think there is a lot of room for improvement. First of all: this game would never be able to look like this on a true 8-bit system. NES-games were not widescreen, could never have this many sprites nor colors on screen at a time, the animations had much fewer frames etc etc. I understand that if they would follow all the limitations properly a lot of people would complain, and the younger audience can't tell the difference, but at the same time why not make the entire game with new graphics then? It kind of defeats its purpose. The level design is nice and player friendly, but I find it a tad uninspired. All of the 8-bit Mega Man-games had better level design than this. Some of the backgrounds look not so good. The upgrades are a bit useless except for the Fireball one. You definitely should not have access to two "sub-tanks" per se that early on. They make the bosses very easy to beat. Also they should've had a life system instead of the Super Meat Boy approach. If nothing else it would've extended the playtime a bit. I like the game, but it ultimately proves to be a footnote in gaming history, not a classic. I find the current price tag of €15 slightly high for a game this short (I finished it in around 3.5 hours). Pricing on indie games is extremely narrow now. Note that 6/10 for me is 3 out of 5, so it's good/ok.

A bad God of War-clone which to me has no justification for existing. It has extremely little to do with the other Castlevania-games, except for the look of a few items and some names. The story to me is very unintriguing and slow-paced. I found myself skipping the cutscenes early on. The main character is stupid-looking, poorly voiced and unlikeable. The scenery is pretty nice, at least it must have been back in 2010, but it also feels uninspired and clichéd. It's the same grey-and-brown color scale every damn modern game has to have today. Gameplay is repetitive and tedious, remembering the combos is a chore, so in the end you just mash the attack button even though you unlock a million different other attacks. The climbing parts are entirely unnecessary and there are A LOT of them. There is no gameplay to them since you can't fail unless you really want to. You literally just go through the motions. Most of the boss fights are exactly the same kind of game of doding their attacks and then attacking. And there are a lot of boss fights too. Some of the worst QTE's I've seen in a game are here as well (the timing ones with the shrinking circle). Once you have completed the dumb QTE's at the end of a battle and think it's over, out of the blue another QTE comes up and if you fail you have to start the fight over again. QTE's to me are the final evidence that AAA-developers have completely lost touch with their audience. I have never in my life heard anyone stating they even remotely like them, still modern games are absolutely filled with QTE's. Apparently Konami are going all-mobile now which for Castlevania I think might be a good thing. It's time to let the vampire sleep in his coffin so to speak if this is the best they can come up with. In all honestly, the first Castlevania game is light-years better than this game, an almost 30 year old game and that says a lot. Dante's Inferno is also a God of War-clone but it was much more interesting both theme and story-wise, as well as the gameplay.

I rented this from the library and played it with my gf. The game looks nice and I've always been a Disney fan, but the gameplay is terrible. It's always very unclear what you are supposed to do, the controls are confusing and the camera never points in the direction you want it too. For some reason they've decided to split the screen VERTICALLY which works horribly. I can come up with a few easy improvements, like adding a map so you see where the other player is, but I still don't think it would make EM2 a good game.

An OK expansion as far as the gameplay goes, but it's way too short. I finished it in just a few hours and I've already ground the main game so much I don't feel like doing it again. Already when playing through this expansion, even though the setting and graphics are kind of different, you find yourself not attacking the monsters and just walking past them because it's tiresome and just not that fun anymore. For this price tag I expect much more content, honestly unless you feel like you have to buy this, wait for the price to drop or give this one a miss! Last time I paid good money for a short expansion like this was for Half Life: Blue Shift, which was good but too short as well and the reviews made a point of that! It baffles me that RoS gets such good reviews.

I was a bit dissapointed with this game at first, because I was expecting something else entirely and the game was rather confusing. But once I got the hang of it Titanfall grew on me. Playing as a Titan felt a bit underpowered at first compared to say driving in a vehicle in Battlefield 4, since all classes have an anti-titan weapon. But once you learn how to dodge and seek out targets it's fine. Where BF is kinda stuck in a more hardcore, tactical, clunky and "realistic" approach, Titanfall is more focused on fun which I think is a good thing. Also unlocking everything via playing is doable unlike BF where you pretty much have to buy DLC to get all of the stuff. The sci-fi setting is nice. What I like less is that players can sometimes be very hard to shoot since they move extraordinarily fast which I think is annoying in an FPS. Also for example hardpoint capture mode is a bit counterintuitive since you can't capture most of the hardpoints while in a Titan. A real single player campaign would have been nice, but I don't regret my purchase. And I bought it at european pricing which is 55€, $76.

I was really looking forward to this since I enjoyed playing its predecessor Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii a lot. The only thing really holding DKCR back was the gimmicky waggle controls, which are not present in this game so it had every chance to turn out an even better game. Sadly I feel that DKC:TF misses the mark a bit, and having finished it today I don't really feel like going back and getting all the extras like I did right away for DKCR. I think the level design leaves a lot to be desired, there is way too much trial-and-error which is the completely wrong way to go about difficulty in games. I find it curious since DKCR had very little of trial-and-error in it's design. It's virtually impossible to finish some levels on your first try since some obstacles seemingly appear right out of nowhere and there is not enough time for the player to react. The developers seem to have gone for a Super Meat Boy approach where extra lives are expendable, but I feel that doesn't suit this kind of game really, and neither the original DKC nor DKCR intend you to play the game like this. Additionally the controls take a while getting used to. Retro Studios have a track record for overcomplicating controls going back the Metroid Prime games, but there is no excuse for making them this complicated for a simple platformer. DKC had two action buttons and there was no need for more. The boss battles are a bit tedious since they aren't really that hard but take a long time to finish because you can only damage the bosses for a short window of time, then their animation begins and you have to wait for a very long time to hit them again, turning these battles into kind of a drag, especially if you happen to die while in a boss battle. On the plus side the graphics are absolutely stunning, but I understand why they pushed the release date back. The general approach to difficulty and level design in this game could've used even more work.

Dust: An Elysian Tail is about some fox samurai/ninja dude who is resurrected and goes on some quest or other that involves killing a lot of monsters. The positive: I really liked the game. The controls are good and the (in-game) graphics are outstanding, to think that one person did all of this is mind boggling. One of my favorite Wii games is Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and this game reminds a lot about that one. With the main difference being that this is a metroidvania-style game whereas Muramasa is more about swordplay and combat moves with a tiny bit of RPG thrown in for good measure. The less good things: The story is beyond horrific and thank heavens you can just skip 99 percent of it which was what I did. The character models look awful in the dialogue scenes, and the voice acting leaves very much to be desired. In my opinion, if the characters were humans instead of grown-up gumbi bears, I would've liked the game even more. Worst of all is your companion Fidget which is more annoying than words can describe and voiced as a stereotypical gamer grrrrrrl.