Snodog

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Despite playing Borderlands 1, 2, and Pre-Sequal multiple times, I played Borderlands 3 once and never picked it up again. It was a jankey, buggy mess upon release, but that isn't what the real problem is. Nope, what really craps all over this game is the writing. Instead of just doing what they've done for multiple games and just try and be witty and clever, they tried to pander to the lowest common denominator with political correctness dripping from every orifice. Be careful guys, 3 whole people might get offended that there are too many **** and not enough **** in this game. Gotta make the whole thing a YouTube vlog so the kiddies will totally relate. Gotta **** on every established character and elevate anyone new with a **** to godhood. Lilith doesn't count, cause we actually like Lilith. Honestly, who thought it was a good idea to hire fresh out of collage writers who don't care about consistancy or respect for established lore and only care about making sure no one is offended? Because they should be fired... out of a cannon, into the sun. I respected Gearbox for telling an engaging story that made sense, with a villian that can be considered one of the best in all of gaming. To go from that to the entitled, insufferable, ****ty Hot Topic employee wannabe brats is actually impressive in its incompetence. Oh, but how can we forget the equally entitled, unworthy, insufferable, disrespectful, undignified little **** that pops up half way through the game and gets everyone she cares about killed. Only to be rewarded with God-like power and undue respect from broken, striped down, disrespected characters we have grown with and loved? I'm utterly impressed with the absolute heel turn Borderlands 3 is from Borderlands 2. I didn't know it was possible to screw things up that badly. My only hope is that the people in charge of these absolute braindead decisions at Gearbox reads every one of these 0 to 1 star reviews so they can feel a fraction of the disappointment they have bequeathed to their fandom with what can only be adequately described as Satan's **** ****. Fire whoever was responsible for this waste of space in my gaming library and go back to respecting your story and your fans. Or you can sit in a circle with J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson with your fingers in your ears so you can't hear how you took a media Titan and crumbled it into what is akin to a steaming pile of dog vomit.

Hollow Knight was better than I expected. However, I don't think it's perfect, or even one of the "best" games I've ever played. It's good, and there's fun to he had, but it has its flaws. 10/10 ratings are just disingenuous and I'll go over why. I like to start with the cons to get them out of the way first. Cons - Difficult, and not always in a good way. Some of the bosses are really fun and will have you on the edge of your seat. Others, however, will just leave you frustrated with cheap mechanics that turn the fight from a skill based dance into a luck base dodge fest. Some boss encounters will randomly spawn additional enemies with no pattern or indication. In fact, one boss is a constant trial of constantly spawning hazards that you have to contend with as you're fighting the boss. There is no way to recognize when or where they will spawn so you may be doing great, only to jump straight into one and it throws your whole tempo off and ramping up the frustration factor. Again, it turns the battle from one of skill into one of luck. Cross your fingers for a good spawning pattern. - The lack of respawn points will ensure that the trek back to some bosses is almost as difficult as the boss itself. There are one to two safe areas per zone, give or take, and maybe it will be close to the boss, or maybe it will be through 5 rooms, two of which will have difficult enemies you have to dispatch first. Along with the "fast travel" system being only one per zone, if even that, you'll find yourself.mapping out any journey you take, and you must return to zones multiple times to complete certain tasks. If the map wasn't such a maze with corridors that end and hallways that might not connect, you may find that your mapped out route is blocked and have to find another. With the complexity of the map, the fast travel system could be a bit more robust. - I personally enjoy the way they told the story in the game, but your goals are very arbitrary and a lot of people may not know where to go next. As a Dark Souls veteran, im used to finding the path I need to take, but it's not spelled out and very easy to lose your way. With the vast, complex map, it's going to be a lot for people who aren't good with their sense of direction. The game does a pretty good job in herding the player into the right direction. Basically if you haven't been somewhere, try to go. If you still can't get there, try somewhere else until you can. Which is great, but there is a lot of content that isn't explained and only vaguely hinted at. You'll find yourself just randomly going places and trying things until something eventually works. Pros - Controls are tight. - Music is grandiose. - Atmosphere is deep and changes frequently. - Traversal methods unlock and you will eventually be almost flying from one place to another. - Platforming challenges really teach you your potential and your limitations. They test your ability. - Fun characters and interactions. - Most boss fights are fun and engaging. - The game looks phenomenal. - It's an explorers dream. Fundamentally, Hollow Knight is a very solid title and overall worth the price. I absolutely recommend it. However, it has some glaring flaws that reduce the experience.

Honestly? It's not terrible. All the 0 reviews are from pissed off children who don't like the girls over their big beefcake B.J. Blaskowitz, which is totally fair. You can absolutely hate the characters, but that doesn't make the entire game awful. Yes, the girls are annoying. No, the story is nowhere near as good as the previous titles. It's kinda **** but the gameplay is fun. You can customize your weapons and character. GASP! RPG ELEMENTS IN MY FPS! CRAP! ZERO! GARBAGE! STUPID GAME!... Kidding, of course... I picked this game up in a Wolfenstein collection pack that was on sale, and it's fine for what it is. So they totally bombed their target audience, the twelve-year-olds who think jokes about banging your mom are the most hilarious thing on the planet, and previous fans of the series. Major fail there, but I'm not a huge fan of the series. I've played through The New Order and The New Colossus and had fun with them, but Youngblood is a total left turn. I've completely ignored the micro-transactions and haven't had any detrimental effects to my game. People are just complaining that it's there. So what? It literally does nothing gameplay wise. Yeah, it's a bit scummy, but every game in 2019 had them. Literally every single one. It was just the trend. Youngblood is NOT great, but it is okay. If it's on sale and you don't fantasize about B.J. Blaskowitz bathing in **** blood on the daily, pick it up and give it a playthrough. I do recommend turning the voices all the way down and turning captions on. The girls constantly throw out cringe inducing lines. Keep the captions on for the important stuff and ignore the rest. I would say to spend no more than $15 on it, and if you can get it cheap, it's a pretty nice little title with **** shooting fun with some upgrading and customizing your character. It absolutely doesn't deserve a fat ZERO, but its strongly in the middle of the road. There's just a lot that the established fan base is going to hate and they'll flock to any forum to tell everyone how mad they are that it stars teenage girls. But if you want to get your girlfriend/daughter into FPS games or something, this is a good option. If you're looking for real thrills in a decent FPS that is fast paced and makes you think, pick up DOOM Eternal and call it a night. If you're bored out of your skull after playing all your games and Youngblood is sitting in your library, like I was, pick it up and give it a whirl. Don't expect a lot, but it's **** killing with a bit of strategy and RPG elements. It's absolutely nothing near the greatest game I've played, but it kept me entertained for a few hours at least. It's better than Halo: Infinite, that's for sure. Just go into it with zero expectations and you'll find things that are enjoyable. You'll also find things that are pretty dumb, but you could say that about a lot of games. The story for Kingdom Hearts is an absolute mess of retcons and contrivance, but people still love it. Yeah, the premis and story are definitely lacking, but a lot of the gameplay is solid. At the end of the day, you're mowing **** with advanced tech for the time. I just can't state enough how woefully average this game is.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Piece of **** People can buy characters that are stronger than base characters, keep you in chains you can't get out of, and it doesn't match you with anyone at your skill level. Unless you're playing for story mode, which is bland and cleche with a bunch of cringe diologue, stay away. The first game I wanted to PvP with and it's terrible for anyone who can't string chains that will empty a full life bar in just a few hits. At least Xenoverse had enemy reading and viable ways to counter your opponant if you read them correctly... you know... skill. This is just a spam buttons until you start a combo and then don't let them out. There's no "mid combo" break. If you're in a chain... you're in, you CANT get out until they're done or your life bar is gone, and with some of the animations, they take forever. So you're sitting there, watching your character get the snot beaten out of them and then they switch characters and do it again, and you just sit and watch because there is quite literally nothing you can do. Sure, if you can pull it off it's cool for you, but I don't like being a cheap little **** who relies on one button spamming to victory. I actually want to learn intricacies of the mechanics and rely on my skill... not my ability to hit a button over and over again.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Don't listen to the QQ fanbois of Diablo 1 and 2. What they fail to realize is... and I know this is a shocker but... Diablo 3 is a different game than the first two! *GASP* I KNOW! They don't like that it's just NOT Diablo 2. Then they should go play Diablo 2. The game is fun and the later updates have really helped with the randomness of the loot drops. They've taken out the AH and they actively listen to player feedback. It's not perfect, but it is worth buying and playing. It honestly astounds me how many cry babies there are that it's not like the older ones. Get over it and enjoy it for what it is . Go back and play D2 if thats what you want to play.

I dont understand everyone’s love for this game. The story is told with convenience and contrivance, not cause and effect. Things just… happen and characters just… .do things whether its within their character or not. It seems like it was a stop gap game they made to introduce World of Warcraft instead of a well thought out and executed game itself. You run around with only a few troops so its like you’re in a party or a platoon at maximum, not an army. The “Horde” is made up of like… 9 orcs and 4 trolls. Buildings are so big, stacking defensive structures takes up half of the screen. With other RTS’s that had been released before this, like Red Alert 1, 2, Tiberium Sun, StarCraft, and many many more, its a wonder they botched it up so bad. Honestly, when I look at it, it see a failed attempt at making World of Warcraft before getting it right with the actual World of Warcraft. Damage is slow and arbitrary. 5 guys can be pounding on 1 peon and it will take him forever to die. When you’re escaping the prison as Keal’Thazad, you have to “stop them” from getting to the alarms, but the slow damage means you just have to kill him before his weak swings destroy whatever asset they used as the alarms. Skip this and play WoW as this just seems to be a crappy attempt at it first.

The game is very good. A great addition to the Kingdom Hearts Franchise. Even a good enough ending if they choose to make it that way. I had a great time playing the game, and it was well worth my money. If you’re a fan, it does a good enough job with the plot threads. With a story this convoluted and full, you’re not going to make it perfect. My major gripe with the game is that they just kept going and going. It’s not bad if the content isn’t the same stuff over and over again. Hearts, friends, darkness, light, Sora, Riku, Kairi, etc etc. There’s nothing that made me go “Wow, that was unexpected!”. It’s grand, its epic, its heart warming, and all that good stuff. What I’m saying is its solid and what I say next are just things that bug me personally. So lets get to it. Sora is such a **** in this game. He dies like 3 times (who knows its hard to keep track). He can do absolutely NOTHING on his own. Sora was chosen to wield the keyblade because he was optimistic and always knew there was hope. If it wasn’t for half of the cast, it would be a completely different story that ended much sooner. Sora was a badass in Kingdom Hearts 2. He kicked the **** out of the head honcho of the Organization, and when he and Riku were fighting Xehonort, it was Sora leading the charge. The story could have been about any one of a number of people. He isn’t the badass that had the confidence to take on anyone who threatened his friends. Like, why is he crying? Why is he pleading with people? Why is he so reliant on the people around him? I get that this story is about friendship and hearts and yada yada but Sora wasn’t such a whiny wuss in the other ones. He was always up for the challenge. It’s annoying, i dont want to play as the crybaby of the group. I would have much rather been Aqua in this game. Next, they just love stacking despair at the end of the game. Oh no, sora is dead and all the bad guys are strong. Oh no, they took Kairi. Oh no the odds are 2 against 1. Oh no they killed Kairi. Oh no kingdom hearts is open. Oh no the bad guys win. Oh no the bad guy is 13 bad guys. Like, quit having me overcome the odds that Sora was ready to give up on 3 hours ago. It was just boring by the end. Other than that, spot on and a great addition to the Kingdom Hearts Collection.

There are a lot of better games out there. Borderlands series, Fallout series, Batman: Arkham Knight, etc. which all have the same feel to them. I never played the first Rage but the second is a compitant game for anyone who wants a post-apocalyptic shoot out game. The story is only average with average characters, but the game is more about upgrading shooting, and combat. Unless you're a fan, I would definitely wait for a sale to pick it up. If you're going to throw $60 at a game, buy one of the ones I listed above, but a good purchase for 25-50% off.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

After reading both the positive and negative reviews, I can honestly say that the bad reviewers have some real issues that range from tiny to huge depending on the player. That being said, I find the game challenging, unique, and enthralling. Whenever I put it down, it’s only a few hours later I say to myself “Maybe I can get a little further in Sekiro.” and plop down in front of it again. I find the combat enjoyable, but I can see where people may not enjoy certain aspects of it. All in all, if you enjoy faster paced combat that has focused mechanics with minor tweaks here and there to optimize, you’ll enjoy Sekiro. The Good: - Level design is top notch. A lot of inter connectivity between zones and a lot of hidden goodies. Multiple ways to approach an encounter or the entire zone. - The story is far more fleshed out and enjoyable in Sekiro compared to other From games. I at least knew my main objectives and didn’t have vague directions. - Enemies are well placed and thought out for different approaches and attacks. - Combat can be tricky to learn and has a high risk high reward aspect. A lot of the bosses have gimmicks to help which also teaches you about different aspects of combat. - The entire feel of the game. I feel like I am a Shinobi assessing and approaching in stealth. Finding weaknesses to exploit and holes in patrol patterns. The Bad: (They are a bit more in depth, but that’s because they’re a bit more specific.) -The combat is built around blocking, parrying, and attacking till you either break their stance or lower their health. A lot of DkS players may find it repetitive. I’ve heard it akin to Simon Says, where the enemy does something and you do your inputs to counter, and that is very true. Every boss can potentially be beaten if you played the fight perfectly. However, playing a fight perfectly is no easy feat. It takes a lot of practice, but if your reflexes are good you can absolutely learn every fight and play it perfectly. - No variety. You ARE Sekiro and Sekiro IS a shinobi. There is no magic, there is no shield. Your sword is your only reliable offense and defense. Stealth can be difficult to utilize but is required, so if you mess up you’re either dead or running back to reset the zone to try again. Even the boss fights are a mash up of block, parry, or dodge, it’s just learning what to do when. - Inconsistent rules between players and NPCs. Every boss has a huge health bar that barely moves when you hit them, but Sekiro can die from a strong breeze. Now this is a bit normal in From games, but never to this extent. There are bosses where health damage is next to impossible so you’re forced to break their stance. Sekiros stance gets broken often, but if you break an opponents, it’s an instant kill. - No I-Frames. Now I don’t necessarily agree with this aspect. As if it’s normal to be immune to damage just because you’re rolling or dodging, but it was a staple of From games and a lot of players found it an unwelcome addition. Again, I don’t particularly agree with some of those criticisms but none the less, there will be people who find them pretty challenging to look around. I personally have a blast when playing Sekiro. I think it’s a welcome addition to the SoulsBorne series and enjoy the changes they made. Other From games are more about the player projecting themselves onto the player character. This game wants you to feel like Sekiro, a stealth Shinobi completing tasks for his master. I feel like I earned the power the game gives you. You start with nothing but your sword and a rope. Eventually you’re spitting fire to ignite your blade to pull off attacks that annihilate groups of enemies in 1 hit. I feel like I’ve really helped this character grow to be a god-like swordsman from starting with a simple slash attack. You really feel a shinobi starting with basic sword training who has difficulty with ordinary enemies and progressing up to killing dragon gods. There’s a lot to do in this game and just going back and replaying a section with a different approach is very entertaining. For some, I can absolutely see why it’s a perfect game.

ME:A is a great addition to the ME series. It had the right amount of changes and they were done well. I've been looking forward to an open world ME game since ME1. Don't get me wrong, the ME series will go down in history as one of my favorite series. ME:A is probably on the bottom of the list as far as ME games go but that doesn't mean it's not a bad game in the slightest. It has a very interesting story line, amazing combat, a decent if not steep learning curve, and your character is customizable to the littlest detail. I have had discussions about ME:A with many people who have given it a bad score a lot of people give me the same reason; Bio got rid of everything about the old ME games. That is a problem... if you EXPECT this game to be anything like the old ones. I came into this game expecting something different. A different style, a different story, a different everything. The only thing tying the old ME games with ME:A is the fact that they are in the same universe. This is key. People come into ME:A expecting something like the old ME games and you cannot. This is it's own entity in its own right and if you go into it expecting the old ME experience, of course you're going to be disappointed. If you view the game as it's own entity with the only connection to the old games is the name, then you go into it with the proper amount of expectation. Taking that into consideration, there were a few quests that were very boring and could be taken out and they could have put a lot more effort into crew quests and nexus quests. I feel if they make an addition to ME:A and they fix some of these minor issues with game play then they will have another title that I will put on the shelves with ME1,2, and 3.

I'll be fair, this game has a truly amazing world, huge in scale and scope. Different paths can lead to different areas where you've never been and exploring and finding new things is amazing. The RPG element is solid, a solid level up system with your choice of stats and how you want to build your character. There are a staggering amount of items and some do hidden things that you must discover by yourself. This game is hard. It takes me back to the SNES days of Super Ghosts n' Ghouls difficulty. The game and all of its bosses are very beatable, even if you're the worst possible build for it. However, that is also it's downfall. While the world is expansive, I've put upwards of 40 hours in this game and have only seen maybe a third of it. The co-op element is a joke, I couldn't find anyone to play with or help me out of those especially tough situations that maybe my build just wasn't right for. If you watch the speed runners of this game, you'll notice that they all have one thing in common, they skip the exploration, they skip massive amounts of game play and they all have the boss mechanics down to the letter. This game punishes you for trying to figure out its secrets and the rewards are very little to none. Amazing sets of armor are left just lying around with no one guarding them and the item behind the 15 boss clones are usually worthless. The story is tough to figure out too, you're spending so much time grinding souls and avoiding the harder areas of the game that you forget what your goal was in the first place. NPC's are scattered around and some seem to have little purpose until a very specific trigger is met. In short, if you're looking for a game to test you, this is it. If you're looking for a game to escape and relax, this is far from it. I do find the fact that you are not, by any means, powerful enough to kill everything by spamming the attack button like in a typical hack and slash refreshing. However, being the ant on the receiving end of a boot gets very old after a while as well. I, unfortunately, gave up on this game when I got to a point where one of the bosses has mini clones guarding absolutely nothing and got stuck behind them when I kindled the fire. I already killed this guy and he was tough enough, now I have to kill 5 for absolutely no reason? I gave it a fair shot, I farmed, I killed probably the first 1/3 of the bosses, and it just got old and boring after a while. I couldn't hoof the long haul but if you feel like you're up to the challenge, prepare for a time sink and grind fest.

Come on guys, I really understand that a lot of you LOVE this game, but everyone giving it a 10 is just unrealistic. I generally give this game an 8. It was a very good game to me. It does what it sets out to do and that is to give players a worth while first person shooter experience with a comic side to it. I have mixed feelings about the cell shading. On one side of the coin, it gives the game that "comic book" feel and makes it more fictional and really sets the environment up, On the other side, its a "been there, done that" easy way to texture. I really wish someone would come up with a new way to sell comic book style games without using cell shading, its quite predictable.. On another negative note, the game was sorely repetitive. Go here, kill that, loot this, get reward, rinse and repeat. Now that i got all the negative out of the way, this game was a wonderful time waster. When I was bored I knew i could turn on BL2 and have a good, ol' fashioned killing spree and be rewarded for it. The main story line was good, not great, but good enough that I wanted to complete it. They expanded on the dialogue from the first game in a comically gritty way and in more than one occasion I would burst out laughing at a funny quip or witty sentence. I also really liked how they made the bad guy believe he was the good guy. A good reversal complex on the bad guy added to his anger when you succeed because according to him "bad guys are supposed to lose". One thing I would have love to see added to the game is a romance section. While I know this sounds a little ridiculous to some, I think it would have given the main character a little more drive to complete his goal other than "Just because he/she's a vault hunter". Please don't confuse "romance" with "interactive romance" for I know that wouldn't fit into the genre. A scripted romance would have gone a long way in giving me more motive in my humble opinion.