TrueOptimist

Another fun Metroidvania from Kyle Thompson. If you played Islets, you know exactly what you are in store for in this game. It is an upgrade to that game in every way. It is incredibly fun to play, even just jumping and sliding around is fluid and fun. The story and bosses are also great, a nice dark story book vibe, especially in the stories you collect along the way. The collectables and challenge areas are fun to do and satisfying. Good system as well for finding missing collectables and it is pretty easy to teleport around and pick up what you missed, that is always a must for me in these kinds of games. The only downside is the game might be a tad easy. I don’t mind an easy metroidvania now and then, especially when it is as fun as Well Dweller. But, once you get a lot of good trinkets, some of the bosses you can just stand there and tank damage and kill them before they kill you. That part doesn’t feel great. The bosses are really good and creepy looking and it would have been nice to steamroll through them, as most of my first attempts getting hit a lot, I was still able to kill most of them pretty easily. But overall the game is super fun. If you have Gamepass, definitely check it out. Even if you don’t, $20 is well worth it. It took me about 11 hours to 100% and I had a blast the entire time.

While this isn’t the polished title we were hoping for after the Spider-Man games, it still delivers an enjoyable experience that grows on you the more you play. At first (and through a lot of the game honestly) I had some issues with the combat. I still do not think it plays quite how you want it to. It just feels off. Once you get more and more abilities, it gets better for sure, but never quite solves the problem. Also, fighting a ton of dudes at once gets overwhelming fast. You cannot dodge or parry everything and can get killed pretty easily. The parrying (a mechanic I like in most every other game that has it) feels out of place here. It just doesn’t feel like a Wolverine thing to do, it just seems like it was put in the game because games like this have parries. The abilities are also a bit lacking. I would have liked to see either more of them or just reworks of the current ones. Some just do no damage or just used to take out 1 guy and on long cooldowns. There needed to be more AoE here. Like I said though, over time, when you got the hang of things, it did feel good to leap from guy to guy, parry back bullets, rip dudes apart. It also looks great as well, ripping into enemies. I just wish it was a bit more varied from, mash square for a while then hit triangle finisher, leap to the next guy, do it again. While you can change that up a bit more, that is the majority of combat. On to the story, while I think everyone was expecting something more mainstream, what they did works really well. I mean, who didn’t want to see Professor X and the X Mansion along with other X-Men running around? While that is a setting we see Logan in a ton and would have been neat to see in a game this big, sadly we do not get any of that. The story they do tell is still really well done and probably more interesting if they went with the predictable path. Diving into characters like Mystique and Sabertooth is also cool. Are you getting the B-Class character roster here? Sure, but when it is well done, you don’t particularly mind it. Just like Spider-Man, the acting and voice work is top notch and these characters look great. There are just some huge fantastic looking scenes that are just fun to play and look at. You are here for that theme park ride, so it’s nice to have those grand set pieces that only AAA games have the budget to produce. There are a few scenes people are not caring for, specifically the bike scenes, as they kind of auto-play to some degree. Look, this isn’t a racing game, While these scenes don’t particularly control well, it’s just neat to have the spectacle of them. Road Rash-ing guys in the Japan bike level is still pretty fun. I do think these needed more polish, but there is nothing egregious about them. Also, you do it twice for like 2-3 minutes total in a 15 hour game, relax. The boss fights; generally like them, but they last a little too long on the same mechanic. It just feels like you are doing no damage a lot of the time. It’s hard to balance a crazy strong character like Wolverine who should rip everything to shreds in one hit into a video game though. You get a lot of killing and brutal scenes, which again, we have not really gotten in Video game format ever. That itself is worth the price of admission. For the collectables, while I really liked the selection of suits and claws available, going around and collecting the whiskey bottles and material caches were not particularly engaging. The Nightmare doors and challenges were a fun little aside, I didn’t mind those. Overall, I think I might have talked myself down a bit after writing this review. While I knew it had problems, I was still prepared to give it a 9, for how much I did end up enjoying it. But, it is more of a low 8. I just can’t ignore some of those legit grips I have with the game. That being said, I still really enjoyed the ride. I was really hoping for a sequel and hope the negative reviews don’t impact that chance. 8.3/10

An Unpacking-like that feels ok. This has some charm, but overall feels a bit lacking. I just wanted a bit more. The mechanics are finicky at times. Completing a room also never feels as satisfying as some similar games, even going back in and making it look nicer, I never felt like “This all looks perfectly how I want it to”. Sometimes you are given just one too many items or not enough to fill the space you want. It gives you room to play around, but sometimes you just want the tight experience of, “this goes here, period.” I still enjoyed it and it is still a fun one of those types of games.

Nox is a extremely unique ARPG that delivers in several ways. While it is still of it's time, it still holds up and has a ton of charm and features we have been missing from this genre. Starting off with the story, this is probably the weakest point. While it is a isekai, the main story cut-scenes, which there are only 2 of (beginning and end) are pretty lame. The rest of the story is fairly boilerplate, but gets the job done. I do like that every line of dialog, even from NPC's is voice acted, not something you see in a lot of games like this, especially at this time. Another feature of Nox that ARPG's never do is physics. Everything is controlled by touching or running into it. Walking into doors and opening them and feeling the wait of other objects you push and pull is awesome. The items and loot you collect are also objects in the environment and act as such. For instance, dropping a piece of armor on a pressure plate to open a door. This combined with the line of sight and fog of war your have, makes the world feel more real. The fog of war is especially cool because it makes certain aspect feel great along with the physics. For instance, looking into windows and seeing a angle of room before you go into it, going to the door and opening it slightly to throw in a spell that bounces around the room to kill the enemies inside is really neat. Speaking of spells, I am not usually a caster in games like this, I tend to stick to melee. However, the wizard is extremely fun in this game. You get a ton of spells and they vary from straight damage, to invisibility, to lockpicking, to traps, to shields, teleportation and health regen. Casting spells is also really satisfying as your character does Naruto-esque hand signs cast them, the better the spell, the more signs and time it takes to complete. Mana regen is smartly done by adding Mana Stones throughout the levels you can stand by the regen. There are times where it can be annoying, but having limited mana and only so many potions to hold would be worse, especially as a wizard. The spells all look great and super satisfying to use, although sometimes the aiming with them can be finicky. Time for some Diablo II comparisons. This was released a few months before and while I prefer Nox over D2, I concede that D2 does have more going on. The multiplayer for instance in Nox is way undercooked, comparatively. While it is there and has a decent amount of modes, D2 does things it just can't. The gear system is also much better in D2. The gear in Nox is fine what it is, but there are not a lot of pieces and the differences are slight. You also get a weapon in Nox that upgrades itself during your main quest and the one you are probably stuck with for almost the entire last half of the game. This is also a very strictly story based single player experience, that you finish and then stop as there is no end game like D2, so it doesn't really need that kind of same gear, but it would have been cool. The game is just simply fun though. I would recommend it to anyone that is a fan of these older ARPG's like D2 and it 100% holds up in 2026.

Onimusha is a really good game that gets in its own way more than it needs to. Let’s start off with the positives. The combat is fantastic. All the ways you can fight, defend and retaliate are super fun and satisfying to pull off. The parry animations from every pose you are in look great and the fact that you can parry every attack in the game, no matter how big, feels really good. The characters are another strong suit, all of them look great and have fun personalities. The cutscenes are also really well done and there is just some sick cool ass samurai/demon stuff happening all the time. All of that stuff is top notch and right up there with the best games you will play all year. However, the structure of the game doesn’t feel quite right. The major loop is to go on a mission in a level that is a fairly linear path, kill a boss then return to your place. While you are back you can explore the village and do some side missions. These are largely nothing. I usually love doing side missions and all the extra collectable stuff in games like this and they just were not compelling here. None of those stories were very interesting, unfortunately. The collectables (little dogs that showed up a few at a time after every mission) were even worse. They are just in areas you have already been and you have to back track through the levels and just click on them. They are not hidden and easy to find using the map, it is just wasting your time pretty much. Another thing that bothered me was the repeat bosses. All the bosses are pretty rad, really fun to fight. However, there are times where a lot of the minor ones show up quite a lot. You might fight some of those 5-7 times throughout the game. Combine that with the training room where you get to refight all the bosses. Yes, you can ignore that, but as a completionist, there are reasons to do every boss again there. Add on the semi-boss rush they have in the main story, it becomes a bit much. It just seems the game keeps you there longer than it really needs to. Not that I didn’t like being in that world longer, just a lot of the extra stuff seemed unnecessary to the experience, as it just artificially lengthens the game. So that stuff does leave a bad taste in your mouth for sure, but then you remember the cool ass bosses, extremely tight combat and realize no, this is still a very good game still. I just think it could have been better if they tightened up the in-between parts. This is still a solid 8.5-8.8 out of 10.

This was one I was looking forward to playing as I am a big fan of games like this and just British comedy in general. Mr. Bean, Peep Show, UK Office, Any of the Simon Pegg and Nick Frost shows, Monty Python, the list goes on. This game suffers from a few different things, one being that it just isn’t that fun to play. Even for the little over 2 hour run time, running around smacking things gets old fast, especially when most things don’t react in interesting ways. The game is also one big loop, as you are entering and exiting these 4-5 areas over and over again but they change each time you advance the story. This is ok, as there are some decent gags along the way, but nothing here is laugh out loud funny. That is really my big complaint. I kept hearing how hilarious this game was and outside of a few decent bits and gags, I just expected more. I was able to play this on PlayStation + Premium, but had been wanting to pick it up for awhile. My biggest problem with that was the price. $20 for a 2 hour game was a hard pill to swallow. After waiting and playing it with the PS+ service, I am glad I didn’t go in even on sale.

Like the first one, it comes with a solid concept that I do not think it executes very well. The campaign for one, while I am glad it is there, it is a 2 hour snooze fest. Not much of note there and the CPUs can be super annoying. But, my main complaint is the mechanics. The techniques it shows you in advanced tutorials specifically are not fun to use. The baseline stuff, like grappling for momentum is fun, but that is about it. The little bunny hops + slide + jump stuff, is not fun to do. But if you play online, you have to do this to compete. Also, the whole same screen aspect I do not like. The main elimination mode sets you all on one course, one screen. If you fall behind and get out of frame or if the first place person gets out of frame in front, last place is out. Then it squeezes the screen tighter and tighter until just one person is left. In concept this is fine, but in practice is a nightmare. You basically have to memorize all the tracks, as being in first place is incredibly frustrating. You have no screen ahead to look out so you have to remember the track and what was ahead like a jump wall or boxes, etc. I get that it is made intentionally this way to slow that person down and let others catch up, but it is not a fun mechanic. Playing online is more fun since there is human error, unlike the CPU, but all the mechanics that are no fun are still there too.

While this is a lot different **** than the previous Plague tale entries, it is thoroughly enjoyable and fits perfectly into that universe. The story is particularly great and the way it cuts in two well written stories at once is fantastic. The combat is super solid and the parrying feels real good as well as the critical strike move. But, this is still a heavy puzzle game and they feel a lot better here than they have in the past. Some are a bit similar, but there are sections in this that feel like Indiana Jones, where you are using your notebook to see where to go and what to look out for. It is very clever and works really well as a gameplay mechanic and a story telling device. The visuals are also outstanding. Not only does it look good, but the framing of the scenes is really well done and there are a handful of really cool looking shots that are just presented super well. If you were thrown off in the past by the slow nature of the past games, this is the one for you. You also do not have to have any knowledge of the previous games. It does help connect some stories, but totally optional to enjoy this one.

Star Wars X-Com, what’s not to like? A slam dunk concept from the start for sure, but this game doesn’t stop there. It has a lot of great characters, dialog, great Star Wars fan service, and just a good overall story as well. The gameplay is the star here and if you have played X-Com before, you know what you are getting into. This setting is perfect for a game like this and even more so than your typical X-Com games. Missing shots in this game is the norm and with how inaccurate blasters are in the Star Wars universe, it makes more sense than X-Com guys missing. I do think the game is a bit easy on Normal. I had no issues at all, hardly anyone even got downed, never mind straight up dying. I think they give you one too many tools that make it a bit easy, but it is more fun this way, so I am ok with it. On the other hand, a lot of the stuff they give you seems pretty worthless. The base upgrades for instance, there are a lot of them that just do not seem worth it at all. Maybe if you were on a higher difficulty they would mean more, but I had trouble thinking when some would ever be helpful. They let you recruit a ton of different people and you can expand your roster slots by a ton, but I really only used the main crew, plus 1-2 others (and that was only for 1-2 missions). Besides doing missions you also have Operations. You can use the intel you collect to do a few of these before a mission to get some rewards. There is some ok flavor dialog with some of the Operations, but they are kind of nothing in the grand scheme of things. There are times when you have to select what members go on an operation and you would think this locks them out of the next mission, but it does not. If it did, it would make more sense and give you a reason to expand your roster.I do think the story and cut-scenes in the game are great. A lot of good dialog. There are a few cameos and missions that Star Wars fans (especially Clone Wars fans) will enjoy. All of the characters in your crew are pretty interesting and have decent stories attached that you can play out through specific side missions. They are all worth doing. The one thing I wish was better about this game was the running around in base and in the few missions that let you go 3rd person. In the missions you look around a bit and collect intel from certain points, but they are all on a very linear path. Exploring does nothing for you here, which is a letdown. The base is also a bit of a letdown if you are a fan of Marvel's Midnight Suns. Exploring the Abbey in Midnight Suns was great and it had a lot of mystery and things to unlock and discover. This game does none of that. It doesn't necessarily need to, but it would have been really cool. All that being said, the core gameplay is still super solid and a blast to play. I just wish the base and exploration parts were fleshed out a bit more.

While this is a neat game, it is not really a good game. The hour long run time is certainly the biggest negative here. If you pick The gameplay is fine for an on rails shooter. The muiti-lock mechanic feels good when you lock on to multiple targets and take them all down at once. The story is kind of nothing though as there is barely anything there. If this had more lore and exposition between levels along with at least twice the amount of levels, it would be a pretty cool game. Alas, this game just comes up pretty short.

While this game plays it very safe, it is still a decent time. If you are looking for something fresh or new, this isn’t where you will find it. Very basic story with very basic characters. They are well voiced and acted, but that is the standard we expect. The gameplay is very basic to a degree. You have a melee combat system with basic moves and parrying and some telekinetic magic you can throw in. It works fine, but is a little stale if anything. There are some fun combos to perform, using different moves together in an effective way, but nothing crazy. There is also a lot of puzzle solving and some puzzle platforming stuff. It gets a bit more complicated later on, but nothing that will seriously stump you. The areas look ok, I did stream it from my PS Portal, so it didn’t look as good as it could have, so I don’t hold that against it. At the end of the day, it is a fairly basic game, with linear levels, decent combat, ok exploration, some basic puzzles and a story that doesn’t really stand out. In fact, nothing really stands out in this one, but it is well made that there are not a ton of flaws. This game is just ok.

A great sequel which improves on most everything from the first game. The only disappointing part was how many bugs there were. I had started playing this game when it came out (Day one GamePass) in early February, but didn’t get around to finishing it until late August. I stopped and came back a few times, hoping they would fix a lot of the bugs with the game. On PC, this runs poorly. Not exactly sure what this issue is, but I finally found some settings that worked (for the most part), unfortunately, it did lower the graphical quality of the game by a great deal, as turning them up with some different settings made the game glitch out hard. Other people had the same issues, not sure if they will ever fix it, so it’s sad to see it is still a problem out there. There are also a few gameplay bugs that make you reload your last save to get rid of them which are also annoying. However, the actual game is great. The dialog is fantastic and there are so many hours of recorded dialog, it’s kind of nuts. Like the first one, it has a movie theater with full length movies in them, as well as in your base. Lots of cool extra stuff that is genuinely entertaining and fun to listen to. While the humor might turn some people off, I really enjoyed it. In general, it is really hard to make a legit funny game, I think they nail it again. A lot of the jokes land and that has to do with the great voice acting from a superb cast. The combat is also much improved this time around with the addition of the skateboard. This makes combat so much faster paced and the flow of it is just really fun. This is accompanied by a great lineup of fun to use weapons as well. Every new weapon I got kept becoming my new favorite to use. The boss fights were kind of hit or miss however. Some were really creative and fun, but a lot of them dragged on a little too long. There is some really creative stuff in here though. As for the last boss, while it is a decent fight, the lead up to it is probably the worst part of the game as it drags on forever and while there is lots of dialogue, it is probably the most stale in the game as well. So ending on a bit of a low point was kind of a bummer. Overall though, this is a great feeling FPS with a lot of great humor and bits scattered through its weird world. I just wish the bugs were not so prevalent as it hurts it for sure. Still a super solid game that is an easy recommendation for anyone a fan of the first game or just wacky first person shooters.

This game is fine. The best parts of this game are definitely the combat. Once you get those parries in there, it can feel really good. Combine that with Koo’s abilities that you can use the more you parry and your sword effects that activate when you parry, it all comes together really nicely. However, playing on normal, once you get the parrying down (which isn’t that hard) the game isn’t much of a challenge. Which is fine, not every game needs to be a difficulty fest. But, this game seems to make things a bit too simple. There are so many things in the game I didn’t use or utilized and still felt super overpowered. For instance, certain combos could take down 40-50% of a boss's health at times. So the balancing in the game just seems to need some work. You get stronger earlier if you explore more, but honestly, they give you too much. If you like to explore as much as you can in an area, you will find tons of materials. A lot of these are garbage that you will never use or find a need for. There is so much wasted bulk that you pick up that I never even knew what it was for. One item you can get are these colored skulls that increase your level in 3 different things. The important one is for leveling your sword to the max. If you explore, you can easily do this within the first 5-6 acts, less than half way through the game. After that, not much really matters but leveling your character (which you do naturally) and putting points into a few key things. There are many talents that are just so unnecessary. This game just seems to give you a ton of stuff when your pockets are already full of stuff and none of it is helpful after awhile.That stuff aside, the weakest part of the game is the characters, story and dialog. That is a big problem since it is a 20 hour game and you spend a lot of time with these characters. I liked exploring and fighting, but the cut-scenes were painful. A lot of repetitive stuff, dry deliveries and just uninteresting conversations. The plot gets somewhat interesting by the end, but it is not presented particularly well and by then you are just no longer that interested. I would also say one bummer is that none of the specific boss fights really stand out, they are all just fine. A few are better than others, but none of them were like, “damn, that was a good boss fight”. The last boss is also goofy as hell looking. Overall this game could have been so much more. It seems Game Freak tried a little too much of everything here and kind of swung and missed a lot. The combat is the saving grace of this game. If I didn’t have fun with that, this game could have easily been a 5-6, but the combat does save it. I’d like to see a sequel or something, just to see them refine the formula a bit. Until then, we get this, which is just…ok.

Giant Squid’s best work to date. While all their games have a similar feel; stunning vistas, great art and fast movement, this game really takes all of that to the next level. It’s also part Tony Hawk, which is really fun. It is just a joy to play and float around on the hover sword. The visuals also cannot be understated. Every new area is just a visual feast for the eyes. I really recommend it.

As a fairly casual fighting game fan, I really am enjoying this game. I do wish the story mode was a bit better. There are technically 5 campaigns, all just different versions of the same story depending on which team you pick. Some are better than others. I do Champion is a lame last boss and him as the main villain makes the story super generic, but that is not really why you are **** fighting is top notch, which is saying a lot since I am usually not a fan of Arc System Works games. I think this one and DragonBall Fighterz are the only two that I have had a good time with. The roster is solid a while all the auto special combos feel the same on every character, they do each have unique moves of course. This makes it so you do not have to worry too much when switching around characters as you can get the feel for trying a new one pretty quickly. Also, why you build a roster of 4, you can just stick with 1 guy out and primarily fight as them, so if you don’t want it to be a tag game, it doesn’t have to be. You might not be able to climb in ranked matches forever doing that, but you can still have a good time. I also like there is a decent amount of modes as well. Very solid game.

A chill repair game centered around older game consoles and handhelds. It does scratch that itch and is a step above some of the other games that fall into the same category. It also has the Atari license so you get some official Atari systems in there like the 2600 and the Lynx. The story and dialog with the characters/customers you meet is fine, but it isn’t going to make or break you on buying this game. I finished the story in about 9 hours. There is bit more to do after if you want to clean up some achievements, but it starts to feel a bit tedious around then, as 10 hours seem to be as much as I wanted to play.

This might have been ok if the combat system was more robust, but what you get is just another poorly executed PvPvE game.

If you are a fan of puzzle games, look elsewhere, as this is not a puzzle game. The fun in this game is strictly co-op shenanigans. It’s not total friend slop or anything, the concept of the game is sound, but I do not believe they really execute what they are going for. Let’s break the game down a bit. Big map to explore with friends and solve “puzzles” to get a widget, put those widgets in a thing, unlock stuff. Exploration is a big part of the game obviously, but soon after you finish the first tower, a lot of that exploration mystery is gone because of the red tower unlocks. I am not really looking to spoil things too much, so I will not say directly what that unlocks. But, after each tower you finish, you unlock more and more rewards and those rewards essentially allow you to traverse and navigate the world easier. To finish these towers you need 5 widgets, each from a different “puzzle” on the island. As I said before, my biggest issue is the “puzzles”, because they just aren’t. There are probably only 3-4 “puzzle” types in the game and the others are a variation on that type. I played 2 player co-op and almost all of the “puzzles” (I am just going to call them tasks from now on) are just about communicating or finding ways to communicate. The thing is, none of the tasks in the game are difficult at all. You almost always know what to do right away, you just have to do the busy work to complete it. Most of the time it is just tedious and not really fun. At the most, the most satisfied you will be at the end of a “puzzle” will be like, “Yea, that was alright.”. The majority of the other ones you might just let out a sarcastic “yeah, we did it” in a monotone voice. There are also some really bad tasks, such as waiting in a room for 5 minutes or holding a button until your co-op buddy goes 5 minutes away to open a thing. Again, boring and tedious. I have to restate this, if you want a puzzle game, this is not the game for you. Here is an example of almost every task. Person A and B are locked in different rooms. Person A sees a thing, has to communicate to Person B in some way what to do in another room. You can do this by holding up objects, using your arms and body movements. There is really nothing more to this game than that. Communicating in tasks is one thing, but communicating across the land is also something they cared a lot about. You can get lost or separated from your group and there are things around the island that make it easier to get back in touch with them, however none of them are really necessary if you just talk things out before you head out. Have a goal, stick together, that is the game. Got lost? Well, you should have an idea where to go and meet up. If not, are you just lost forever? No, there are ways to meet back up, but a lot just waste time. I assume most people will cheat and talk over Discord or something. You can do that to make it easier for moments like that, or waste 10+ minutes regrouping back at base. Again, just the game wasting your time really. It is pretty easy to stick together and not get lost though, so they kind of go overboard on giving you tools to communicate. We did play legit and didn’t cheat out on stuff like that, but I don’t blame people that do for regrouping. On the other hand, what is good about this game? Well, it is a co-op game you play with friends, that is inherently fun. There is proximity chat and that is also a staple of some of these kinds of games, that adds some “fun co-op juice” to it. You do feel you are accomplishing things, as there are clear goals and finishing a tower and seeing your reward is nice. There is also just a sense of being a completionist, as you want to solve all the tasks in the game. There is also some mystery in what certain things are, unfortunately, that never pays off. Overall, this is just not what people are making of it. This is just a game about communication. That is really all it is. Finding ways to communicate with your allies, finding ways to solve these tasks, it is all just communication. Even in the ending, they act like this is a big last series of “puzzles” to solve, use all your gained knowledge to solve these, but they are just the same thing. Not difficult, not challenging. You and your co-op partner just nod at each other as you do the same things you have done the entire game. It is kind of the same way I feel about their other game (Untitled Goose Game), good idea, but in reality super boring. That is not to say there is no fun to be had with friends in this game, but if you are wanting to solve puzzles with them…look elsewhere.

Some things are best left to the past. Not to say Halo is a bad game or anything, as it is an enjoyable co-op campaign. This remaster is fine in terms of quality. However, the subject matter is just a bit simple. You forget how simple the level design and story was in the first game. We have come a long way since 2001. I remember playing this for the first time in 2001 and not really being too impressed either, so take that how you will. If you have 6-7 hours, looking for a fun little co-op game and have GamePass, that might be the only way I'd recommend this. You are either a Halo nut and have played these recently or again in the Master Chief Collection or like me not a Halo guy, but thought the game was ok in 2001 and still just ok in 2026. There is not a ton of nuance here, you know what you are getting if you are a fan of the series. Newcomers, if you are interested in finally seeing the original Halo, you might be pretty disappointed. The main thing that does not hold up is the level design. It is a lot of running through corridors. A lot of the enemies in the game you can just ignore and run past to your next marker. The big battlefield stuff with the cross faction fighting is kind of neat, but again, you can just run or ride right past most of it without engaging. The gunplay is pretty solid though, the weapons feel pretty good. Another thing is the vehicles, true to form, they still do not handle well (or at least handle how I remember them handling). Purist probably don’t want those physics touched, but people that want a polished video game might. For the Co-op campaign (the only way I recommend playing through this) there are also a few issues. The host screen (about 3-4 times during the campaign) completely froze and as a co-op partner you are just stuck for a minute or so just waiting to come back like nothing happened. It happened more than a few times that it seemed like a bug, not an issue with the host. The continuation of the campaign after stopping was also not great. Instead of a continue campaign button, you just have to start a new game and then level select. There are a few quality of life or UI issues like that, that just don’t make much sense. The best part might be the newly added 3 levels of content have you visiting some of the best looking zones the game has to offer, as they are not hamstrung by the original level design, although they still fall into that from time to time. Overall, the game is fine. Co-op is the way to go as you might be bored to tears alone out there. But with this not having multiplayer and just the first game, The Master Chief Collection seems like the much better value and buy. This just seemed…unnecessary.

A fun co-op game, but comes with a bit of jank. Some times it is fun, funny jank. Other times, it can explode your RV in 2 seconds getting stuck on something tiny. One is fun, the other can be very frustrating. The physics of everything though you get use to and it is extremely satisfying getting through when you get through an area cleanly. Certain areas are also a bit more fun than others to get through. For instance, the swamp area, if you don't cheese it, can be very annoying to get through, especially with just 2 people. Overall though, it is still a really fun game with some cool mechanics. The checkpoints and supply points are generous enough that the game is never that hard if you don't drive reckless and take your time.

This is a rare game indeed. A modern game with something so truly awful at almost every level, with a huge studio backing it. Square Enix should be embarrassed to have their name on this. Now look, I knew what I was getting into when I played this, I had watched a playthrough when this came out before and knew it was terrible, but also unintentionally hilarious. This was the first time seeing the extra stuff after credits though, as that was not in at launch, but really it adds nothing to the experience. Like I said before, this game really fails in all aspects. Let’s dive into that a bit more. First, the gameplay. It is the most jank, stiff combat system you will find in a highly produced modern game. This feels like a BAD PS2 game. The enemy AI is braindead for the first 3/4ths of the game as well, which doesn’t help. The punch and kick animations can pick enemies back up off the ground if they are starting to get up and you can essentially lock them into an infinite combo. There also is no variety in this game. It puts you in a room, you kill 3-6 dudes, load you in another room, repeat, 5 minute cutscene. That is basically the entire game, doing that loop over and over for 3 hours. No exploration, no collectables, nothing of interest to look at or find in the environment. It looks and feels bad to play, there is not much more to it than that. Second, the graphics. The Quiet Man is cut into two looks. The FMV cutscenes and the in engine fighting/running around. The FMV is what you would expect. It looks like a bad TV series from the early 2000s, something along the lines of Dark Angel. The acting is bad and the dialog…well, I’ll get to that later. The FMV cutscenes in general are just too long. You might watch a 5-10 minute video and then get 3-5 minutes of fighting in. So, you get bad gameplay or a boring FMV, pick your poison. Now the in game graphics are embarrassing. It looks like a PS3 game, something from 10 years ago, at least. Also, there are maybe 5-6 different enemy guys you fight, outside of the bosses (which are really bad). Sometimes in a room, you might be fighting 2-3 of the same exact guy. Just unacceptable stuff. Third, sound design. Now, this is the game’s gimmick. The entire premise of this game is that your character is deaf, so you also cannot hear anything. You just get a little bit of reverb or bass that represent different sounds in the world, like he would perceive it as such. It makes those long cutscenes even more boring that you can’t hear anything that is being said. The big problem here is this. YOUR CHARACTER KNOWS WHAT IS BEING SAID! He can read lips. He has full conversations with people, talking and signing, so he can fully understand them, but we are left in the dark. It is a huge problem with the game, not that if this was fixed it would mean anything for the garbage gameplay. This just makes a bad game worse. Now, there is a 2nd play through mode that adds dialog. The entire point is to play it again to see all the context you missed. But with the 1st playthrough being so bad, why would a 2nd one be worth your time? It’s insulting to make you play through that trash again. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is a really funny game to laugh at for how bad it is. Getting a guy in a hold and punching him endlessly is really good. Too bad none of the humor is on purpose. If you have never played this game, after seeing the extremely negative scores you might pass, but if you don’t know what you are getting into and are curious about bad games just for the laughs? You could spend 3 hours on worse games for sure. There is an entertainment value in laughing about how awful this game is. Play it with some friends or something, pass the controller around and experience the awfulness that is The Quiet Man. That being said, it is still truly an awful game.

This game had me from the moment I saw it in action. I am a big fan of the Ys games (specially Origin, Oath and Ark) and this looked very similar. After playing it, it does feel a lot like those games, but also a lot like a Zelda game as well, with the trials, dungeons, specific weapons, etc. I really enjoyed my time with it, but I still can’t help but feel they dropped the ball a bit. You see, this game fights against itself A LOT. For instance, the narrative is very good and the main story and sub-story quests are fantastic. But ,it is delivered in the way that is meant for a child it seems. Even when you are just playing, your companion (even with the chatter turned down) does not stop talking about what to do. “Oh, move the pillar to the glowing spot on the ground? Place a bomb on the obviously cracked wall?” We get it! No one needs this kind of hand holding. People complain about this in other games that I have played (Like God of War 2018) but, rarely I notice those and had no issues. But, this game tells you solutions the second you walk into a room (no joke). That is just bad design. And this is when the option is turned DOWN. It defaulted to max and it is crazy, like who thought that would be a good idea. Anyway, that is an annoyance for sure and it does happen throughout the entire game. If you are not cool with that, you probably won’t have a good time. It is a shame because a lot of the story and side quests are genuinely really good. The main story keeps going and going (in a good way) further you you expect at first, all the way up to the satisfying conclusion. Everything in the world comes together very well. However, that writing is on the wall, about 10 hours before you might actually finish the game (at least if you are 100%ing it.) So, the characters might act a bit slow to things you figured out hours ago. But, again, I did really enjoy the overall story. My main issue was just how they told it It's just like they were telling it to a 10 year old. That is kind of the theme here. Good story, really good characters, but presented for young kids, which works against it. The game is fairly long as well, it took almost 35 hours to 100% everything, which was fun. Clearing the map is genuinely fun and the compass pointers do a good job pointing you to all the collectables, making it not a pain to hunt things down. One thing I haven’t talked about yet is the time travel mechanic. It is another thing this game does that just could have been better. There are multiple ages you can travel to and explore the world, the problem is, there isn’t a whole lot changed between ages. The only main difference is the main towns and the stories of the people there, that is all done very well. But, the enemies, lands and dungeons are too similar though. I do like that in big dungeons, there is one age that has the main one that is full with a boss, etc., but then the other ages have a cut down version that might just have a chest or two. I am ok with that to an extent. But exploring the entire overworld map, that doesn’t change that much, FOUR times, is a bit much. I would have liked to see more variety here. This game also has that satisfying loot drop from mobs like there is in Ys, where enemies explode into a group of gems, etc. Although, that was kind of another issue for me, as in those Ys games, drops get you more than just money, they also get you materials of different rarities you are constantly using. This game just has money, health, and ammo drops. Nothing too exciting. Even the chests, it is fun to get to new areas and collect them all, but the rewards are underwhelming. 98% of the time, it is a heart piece (which is nice) or just a weapon magicite (used to slot in weapons to make them stronger) that you already had a better version of. So that system of drops and chests could have been much better as well. I still really liked the game, but I think if they cut a lot of the companion chatter, didn’t present story and dialog almost like a child’s game, and fixed some loot drops/chests to make it more interesting…you then almost have a 10/10 game. I know those are no small issues, which is why I give the game an 8, it is still very fun, but works against itself just a little too much.

Very fun co-op brawler/beat ‘em up. The 4 characters are all pretty fun to play as well. The game looks great and I love the art style. I do wish there was a bit better dodge/block mechanics. There are times when you feel you have it down, but either super wide arcing attacks will still hit. And sometimes the screen is so full of effects, abilities going off and enemies, that it is almost impossible to see what is going on. That is my main issue with the game. But, if it was refined more with making it easier to see things and easier to parry/dodge, the game would be a little too easy. I think though, I rather have the difficulty ramped up, but make those dodge/block mechanics work more reliably.

I really wanted to like this game more. I think the aesthetic and gameplay is really good. My problem mainly comes from the story and how it is structured. Now, granted, I only played 2 hours of the first game (back in 2021 and do not remember anything from it), but heard you did not need to in order to play this one. That being said, I feel like I am missing a ton of context here. Everything in the story seems really disjointed and comes together too quickly. The ending chapter is just a boss run with not much story or fanfare, just boss after boss. That chapter just seems rushed. I do like some of the story of the other chapters though, some seem more complete than others. One reason I say I am missing context is all these characters are so different (humans, aliens, squids, zombies, dogs, etc.) and then they all come together and no one questions anything, like why is there person a zombie?Another thing I didn’t quite care for was the card system and mainly just putting a deck together. I mean, I didn’t mind doing that in general, it was ok putting together something that worked well. But they give you so many cards for no reason. There is a ton of bloat that you will just never use. The combat itself is good, but a bit simple. It has the active defense QTE, but not one for attacking, exactly for one chapter with 2 characters you use for like 10 minutes. That is just odd, I feel like it was meant for more characters and then they just left that out for some reason. The QTE defense prompt is also boring, as is the same every time. There is no timing to it, to block more damage, you either block it or you don’t. It looks like it should be more if you do it at the right time and maybe it was slightly, but there is no indication it does block more or a que that you did it perfectly. It also is the same everytime, just a single block QTE, no combo blocking or time with their attacks, etc.That is why I am a bit disappointed, because it feels like it could have been a lot better with a few tweaks. All the characters have different moves that combo well and you can have fun making that work. But, the story isn’t where you want it to be and the combat can get a bit boring, even in the short 6 hour campaign. I’d like to see a more realized project that just makes a campaign that is not based in chapters like this one is and just tells a better overall story that isn’t rushed. 6.5/10

[Review from a Solo mode only perspective on the Free Weekend event] Marathon is a free experience wrapped up in a $40 shell. The actual substance of this game is very thin. This is a coherent shooter (gunplay wise) but that only goes so far. First off, it’s just an extraction shooter. These are very shallow in the first place, so for a $40 price tag, I feel like you need something a bit more. I mean some people don’t, but I do and I think more people should expect more. Unfortunately, the “other stuff” in this game isn’t that great. This isn’t even as good as the extraction mode in Division 2 and that was kind of just a bonus mode for a game that had so much more going on. The main thing in this game that tries to make it more than just an extraction shooter is the objectives. You get missions from various corporations in the world and they all want you to do something for them. That something varies depending on the corporation, like one might want data or another might want you to hack something. Too bad 90% of the objects are the same thing. Go into a zone, go to a specific area, click a thing or two. There are a couple factions that just want you to cause mayhem or kill other players, but that’s the extent of the missions from what I saw. After doing a dozen or so missions, it was already stale. The zones themselves are not great either. There are some cool buildings and weird tech stuff you might want to look at, but none of it is interactable or of importance. After a few runs it’s just, again…stale. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t look nice, because I do like the aesthetic of the game a lot. There are some cool things here, but you rarely get to interact with it how you want to. The weapons also look neat, but really are all the same. With the season pass (sigh) and unlocks you can unlock (skins and guns) I never cared about any of them. Most similar games have really cool skins and stuff to go for, but here, yea they look cool, but it just looks like more of the same you already have on. There is nothing crazy worthy of an “epic” skin or anything, like you would get in Overwatch, Diablo IV, League, etc. Something like, “Clearly this thing is a nicer skin I unlocked.” You don’t get that here. There is also a ton of lore, which is kind of what I want, I just hate the way it is presented. I like talking to the faction leaders, but all the other lore is just unlocked codex entries with walls of text. That isn’t compelling. I also don’t like the entire heat system and how unnecessary that is. I should just be able to sprint, not super speed or anything, just sprint endlessly. Let the heat build if I do the extra movement like the dash. Even in the rain, where it cools you down, the heat is still too much and just not fun, plain and simple. Another issue is the loot. I don’t care that you drop all your stuff if you don’t extract, that is fine, that is what these games are. My problem is the readability of the items. On a run, you are picking up TONS of stuff. It all has a paragraph of text I am not reading out in the field. I try to read it in the vault, but a lot of it is just garbage. Tiny little perks that are very specific and usually not going to help on your run or miscellaneous materials that are used for random upgrades or just convert them to credits or xp. A lot of these games have this and I know over time you learn that stuff, but it is still just a mess early on. This stuff needs to be way more simple and easy to ID when you pick it up. This game is just kind of a bummer. I would be down if they just made a single player game set in this universe. The aesthetics are cool and the faction stuff is neat, there is just barely a game around it and that is the main issue. Having talking heads that slightly move, talk to you in between runs is not enough. This is for a specific kind of crowd and I am clearly not in the group, nor do I want to be. I am glad I checked it out, but this game is just not for me, but I wish it was. 6.5/10

When this was announced, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I love IOI, as those Hitman games are incredible, but the worst part of those games is the shooting. I was worried that the gunplay wouldn’t be great here as well as the hand to hand stuff, as Hitman doesn’t really deal with that in a significant way. But, after seeing gameplay a few months before release, I was sold. And after playing it, I am not sure what I was worried about in the first place. These guys just know how to make great games. You get all that great Hitman DNA into a spy thriller and it is hitting on all cylinders. The combat is super fun, the animations on everything is top notch, the environments are a step above even the great Hitman stages. The characters and dialog is also pretty great, it looks and sounds exactly how you want it, like a Bond movie. From the score to the locations to the wardrobe, it is all **** even have vehicle segments, which are a must have if you want to be like the films. Now, after playing a lot of Forza Horizon 6, the cars here don’t feel as good (obviously), but for the small sections you have them, they control fine. The endgame Tactical Sim stuff is also really cool and that stuff is just straight up Hitman style. Although, it would be cool if they opened up some of their bigger levels for these modes as well. It looks like they will be supporting that mode for a long time, so more stuff with existing assets should be coming. It also really nails what it is going for and I am 100% there for the next one as well. This is far and away the best 007 game ever made and it isn’t even close. I mean, I know they haven’t made one in quite awhile, but this is still on top even the nostalgia people still have for the overrated N64 title. I will say the one questionable part of this game is the story. The overall story is good, but there are a few plot points it just completely ignores that you never get closure on and that really ****. It took me a day or two after finishing it to realize it as well, like “Oh, yea what ever happened to that guy?, etc.”. I still highly recommend it.

The standard for all racing games is back again and just as fun as you remember it from 5 years ago. This time you explore Japan in a beautiful open world that is designed with exploration in mind and offers tons to do and see. Lots of events as well from standard races to drift, time trials, speed traps, off road challenges, etc. There is something for all types of cars, which is nice, because there are a lot of them, yet again. They don’t keep a lot of these locked away for long either, as just by playing and exploring you will start to unlock tons of different vehicles for free without spending your race winnings. There are also tons of collectibles in the open world and events that will keep you busy for quite a while. If you have played any of the other Horizon games, you know what you are in store for and everything is here that you want. Including an estate mode that lets you edit your house property. This seems kind of whatever at first, but then you realize your first house has a huge backyard and you can place your own tracks, sculptures, etc. to turn your property into your own personalized racing theme park. The only downside in this game compared to the last few entries is to 100% the map only takes about 30-40 hours where the last games could take 3x that. But, that isn’t a bad thing, a lot of those hours in the other games was very tedious and this cuts a lot of that out. You can get lost for hours in this game just trying to complete map objectives and filling out roads and running over mascot collectables. The soundtrack is also top notch, as a lot of other games seem to fail at putting together licensed soundtracks, the Forza people put together a perfect one that also fits perfect for the Japan setting as well. Highly recommended and it doesn’t hurt that it is also included with GamePass of course. 9.5/10

A really interesting bullet hell FPS that has fun and interesting environments to traverse. It also has a cast of interesting and weird looking characters that look like they are right out of a Tim Burton fever dream. The gameplay is super fast and feels good. The movement abilities you gain throughout the game build well on one another and by the end you are really having fun figuring out each jump puzzle to the next area while looking at the weird (in a good way) environments to kill the next messed up looking boss. The bosses are really fun as well and a great challenge. The game’s combat flow is set up where once your weapons overheat, you can just switch to another gun, causing you to enter this flow state of unloaded, rotating weapons, unloading, etc. It feels really good, especially in larger enemy rooms and boss fights. The story is also pretty good. It starts a bit slow, but there are some really good plot points later on. The visuals are really stunning, not necessarily fidelity wise, but just the scope/size/look of everything is really cool to look out. Great enemy and boss designs as well that are all pretty unique. It’s a mix of some Cthulhu horror, Doom, Expedition 33 and NieR all wrapped up in some crazy looking dudes. Can’t go wrong giving it a try on Gamepass, I really enjoyed my time with it. It only took 7 hours to complete which was a solid length for this type of game. Highly recommended. 8.5/10

An interesting little game for sure. A dystopian world filled with sentient construction equipment that you slice apart with your chainsaw sword. Pretty rad. There is also a lot of wall running and environmental climbing in between. It’s mainly that. Rarely are you doing combat actually. Then, at the end of a floor, you face a huge boss. A giant crane, excavator, etc. You can use the chainsaw sword to grip the sides and ride up or around buildings and larger enemies. It’s a pretty cool mechanic. It does work for the most part, but can be finicky at times, especially when you are switching directions while doing it. Precision platforming is also a bit odd as you have a long jump, but can’t really do small jumps, so it can be weird at times. Most of the time you want to long jump anyway, so it’s not a huge deal, but it can be annoying in a few spots. There is also a bit of dialog P (the main character) has with Orbie (the orb camera that follows her around, aka you). You can also do these little dialog scenes where she talks to Orbie and you can respond with really horny responses for some reason. It’s just kind of a bit odd they made this game horny for no reason really. I didn’t hate it or anything, it just felt a bit out of place.Overall though, the game was just a blast to play. Early on I was gathering every orb, which are the hidden collectables that are in hard to get spots in the world. It was fun at first, but further into the game, the harder they got to get and it just got a bit annoying, so I stopped going for them. I ended up only getting 86 orbs, but there are 250 total, so I was glad I stopped getting them after a while. Especially since there is only 1 achievement for them and it’s only for getting 30. It just gets tedious. Also, it took just under 9 hours to complete the game, which is a good length for this type of game. Anyway, nice little addition to gamepass and glad I checked it out.

A nice little slice of life game. Just very chill and satisfying to fill the shelves and rearrange items. It is fairly simple, but still satisfying. It does get confusing at times, as an American at least, as a lot of the foods you might not have heard of, so you do have to read the descriptions to find where they go at times. Eventually you learn it though. That’s also not a huge deal, as there is no fail state or anything like that. This is not one of those supermarket simulator type games, it focuses mainly on story. I do wish there were a few more characters, outside of your aunt that calls you everyday, there are only 4 customers that come in and out during the 6 days that you run the store. I liked getting to know their stories and whatnot, but it would have been nice to have a few other random no name customers as well, just to make it seem a bit busier. I also think voice acting would have gone a long way as well, it would have definitely added to the experience, but as a smaller team, I understand why that probably was not an option for them. Still a fun little 6 hour game that doesn’t overstay its welcome. If you are into slice of life style anime, or just a relaxing game filling up stock in a convenient store, this is for you.

A game that should definitely be my jam, but just doesn’t quite pull me in all the way. I was looking forward to this one for a little while as the game just looked fantastic from the first preview. The look of the game is definitely its strongest suit. The combat is also pretty fun, even if it’s just 2D Arkham combat. It still gets the job done. There are some good animations and combat executions. There are some good story scenes and the game is very cinematic at times. So why is this game a 7 out of a 10?Well for one, it just doesn’t feel great to play. There is a bit of input lag on the movement and I wish it was just a bit tighter. The platforming puzzles are also a bit boring, nothing too interesting here. The story is also quite boring through most of the game. It picks up in the last 3rd of the game, even if I did want a little bit more out of the ending. There are also some bad platforming and checkpoint issues. Some visibility issues that make some background/foreground stuff hard to see so it’s awkward to see what you might do at times and just have to rely on a bit of trial and error. Overall this game was just ok, I think the shortcomings in the gameplay department would be fixed if the story was stronger. It is just kind of boring, that’s its biggest problem. There are long sections that are just super boring. It’s also a bit long for a game of this type, as it is a little over 10 hours. If they tightened up the story and gameplay, made it about 4-5 hours, this would be a really killer game, instead it is kind of just a slog with some cool stuff thrown in every so often.

DON’T NOD has a serious hit or miss reputation, it's usually a hard swing one way or another. This is unfortunately another miss. While the gameplay is ledge climbing for the most part with a fairly simple story, it really doesn’t nail either of these. The characters for one are not particularly likeable and make bad decisions as astronauts and scientists. The world looks ok, but is fairly one note, and that note is ice. There are some mysteries early on that are a bit intriguing, but none of them have a big payoff in the end. This game was cruising along at about a 6-7 for me most of the way. Not great, but nothing offensively bad. Then we got to chapters 10 and 11, the end of the game. This game basically fell apart. The mechanics seemed broken, my controls seemed broken, the level design wasn’t fun. It mainly has to do with an emphasis on these stealth sections, which was already the weakest part of the game. But, the last chapter is almost all stealth unfortunately. Some bad and broken checkpointing caused me to lose a lot of time and almost made me quit minutes before I got credits. Frustrating to say the least. The control issue was also a problem, breaking your stealth with the left thumbstick, easy, but getting back into stealth, not so much. Thankfully the keyboard control worked, because it almost broke my game (and no, it wasn’t a controller issue, it works fine in other games and in that game for other functions!) Even if the game didn’t literally unveil at the seams (as far as controls and mechanics go) at the end, it wasn’t particularly going to be great anyway, it just made the situation and my feelings towards it 10x worse. Overall this is unfortunately another miss for DON’T NOD. I can really get into story based games like this and while some mysteries intrigued me a little early on, all of that fizzled out and mediocre story on top of a bad ending with broken and jank controls/player movement. That is a recipe for disaster.

Mixtape is an odd game, or I should say, I have odd feelings about it. First off, this game is fine, it’s not “crazy good” or “crazy bad”. It does a bit more than your standard walk and talk story game with teens in it. It’s no Life is Strange, but a lot better than, say, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. Also, if you played this studio’s other game, The Artful Escape, there is not a ton new here in terms of tone and feel. The main character, Stacy, is a typical California stoner with the stereotypical voice “brah”, and “like don’t harsh her mellow, because she will like, cut you, man”. It’s a lot of that, not just from her but from her friend Van, stereotypical as well. They want this game to play out like a movie, which it does and there are some really cinematic scenes which are cool, but their flair does not stick throughout the game. Stacy’s other friend is Cass and she has one of the worst origin stories I have ever seen as far as how she became friends with the other two. She basically said her dad was a cop and she wanted to rebel and these two losers looked like they could change her. First off, besides how lame that is and NOT how you make friends, Stacy and Van would have told her to F off after knowing the stuff they get up to and that her dad is a cop, it just didn’t make sense at all. None of the characters are unlikeable really, but they are not people I would have hung out with in high school. Let’s get to the main thing in the game, the music. That is the big selling point, hell, it’s the name of the game. What is the mixtape/soundtrack of this game going to be? Well, it’s better than I thought it was going to be and some of the score really went with the scene playing out, even if it wasn't a song I’d normally listen to. But, there is some bad music here and no great tracks I’m itching to relisten to (except for like 1 I already liked in the first place). A big issue is also the authenticity of the music and time period. They never say what year the game takes place in, but we have good clues. There is a recent softball trophy that says 92-93 season. We do have CD burner tech, which was like 91-92 when they cost like $10k and in the game they said the school had one that cost $30k. In the late 90s they were standard, so it’s not late 90s. But, we have a 1995 Smashing Pumpkins song labeled *new*, the only one in the game labeled like that., but we also have a Silverchair song from 1997? And then the pause screen has a sticker saying 1999. But, The game should only take place as early as 95, I think that’s the safest assumption. But, then that leaves a lot of tech talk, and that Silverchair song not from that time. Not sure why, but that really bugged me. I think because they were going so authentic with the time period stuff, that this just seemed all out of place. Never mind an 18 year old knowing about BJ Thomas from the 70s and even more older and obscure songs. I think there was one “hit” song out of every song in the game, everything is B-sides. Nothing gets more annoying then a music nerd **** on your music and bringing in their obscure B-sides saying. For instance, Stacy calling Pearl Jam and Green Day “meathead music” was so stupid and just not accurate at all. I didn’t even mention the actual gameplay as it is just going around and clicking on things in a room listening to conversations along with a series of odd mini games. Entertaining to a degree and they do mesh with the story nicely, but by themselves are nothing special. I don’t have a problem with these kinds of games, but some people do. I don’t hold it against it. I do admit, after seeing all the positive reviews (even though I was already going to play it after seeing it was coming to gamepass months ago) I was thinking I wasn’t going to like it. But, I did end up liking it more than I thought I would. That being said, as I go over some of the cringe and eye roll moments and mediocre B-sides, was it that good ****? It’s odd. I could totally see someone giving the game a really high score, if it clicks with you, it REALLY clicks with you. Same goes for the exact opposite. I’m still somewhere in the middle. Also, (just throwing this in there) I didn't really care for the ending. I was expecting much more and even like an Animal House style, "where are they now" kind of thing and we didn't get any of that. I still think this is a perfectly good, 7.5 out of 10 game. If you like to see an obnoxious music nerd, a stoner kid and a wannabe rebel in a 90’s version of SuperBad, you might really enjoy Mixtape.

A short little murder mystery that takes place in a small house. It's a perfect little hour long detective game that has you finding clues around the house and mainly on the computer using keywords. I enjoy the story they told and they even expand upon it a bit with another computer journal for one of the characters on the main menu once you beat the game, which is nice. It's simple, but effective story telling. If you're into detective style games like Golden Idol and Her Story, then this one is well worth your time for less than 5 bucks.

So far, so good with Midnight. Obviously we are going to have a similar style as War Within which really worked for me. I like that I can get all my weekly stuff done in a few hours and focus on other stuff. One of the main things here is the long awaited housing content. They really knocked it out of the park with the housing too. It is super robust and you can scale stuff up and down and move it just how you want it and people have been making amazing homes and decor. The new rehauled look of Silvermoon is also great and the zones have all been really fun. They also added hunts which give another way on top of delves to get loot for solo players. This also is nice since doing those gets you credit for the Tier 8 vault equipment and you don’t have to do delves now or as many as you did before so they will not get too stale as fast. The story so far is also pretty good and advancing nicely, always curious to see what they do next, especially with this 3 expansion Worldsoul saga. There is still a lot of content left to come with this expansion, but I am really enjoying it so far.

War Within does a lot of the right things that the last few expansions just have not done. First, as someone that has a lot of other games they want to play as well, this does not **** up your time at all. You have your weekly quests and delves to do then you are good for the week. You could get it all done easily in an afternoon, sometimes just in a couple hours depending on how much you wanted to upgrade your vault rewards. Speaking of delves, these are new here and a super welcome addition for someone that does not raid anymore and wants more single player or 2-3 man content. I was happy I could easily farm all Hero tier gear by myself or with a friend, just doing delves and didn’t have to do any raiding, it felt good. They also started their 3 expansion “Worldsoul Saga” which doesn’t do much here as it just gets into it, but hoping for bigger payoffs down the line. Also, with the smaller zones the dragonriding felt better as well and you didn't run out of charges as fast since stuff wasn’t 1000 miles up in the air like in Dragonflight. Some of the zones are also really cool, like Hallowfall which has a giant crystal in the sky that will change color and the tone of the entire zone. The Goblin zone is also pretty unique and fun. For someone playing mainly solo or with a friend, they are really in the zone here and give us more to do for end game progression and I appreciate that. The end of a lot of severe daily stuff also gave me time to go back to older expansions and finish off stuff I never got the chance to do. Looking forward to seeing where this story goes and the conclusion of it with “The Last Titan” expansion after Midnight.

Retrospective Review: Shadowlands is too much. There are a lot of cool things they added in this expansion, but man is it just all too much. For instance one new thing is Torghast, these roguelike dungeons you could solo or group up for and they were really unique and fun. But, you had to do them ALOT and there were so many of them you could do. They were also not very quick, as some could last up to an hour +. You stack that upon the top of all your other world quests and whatnot, it takes awhile to do everything and quickly starts to feel like Mists all over again. The story people didn’t care for with the Jailer and that whole thing, but I did like the characters and Sylvanas ’ arc. This expansion also seemed to go on forever and they kept adding zones like Zereth Mortis, which seemed unnecessary. I did like the raids, they were cool, but very long and if you were in a legit raid group, doing those all had to be brutal as far as just a time sync, even if you had the bosses on lock. The Maw stuff was another thing that was there and since you could never mount up there until very late in the expansion, it was just slow and a bit boring. They also added covenants which were a cool idea, but I didn’t like how much farming and stuff it required to just max out a single covenant for all the rewards. These were fun to go back to later on in future expansions and max out much faster. They definitely went overboard with content in a few places here, but it still had lots to do if this was the only game you were playing.

Retrospective Review: After one of the best expansions in the series in Legion we now fall to one of the worst. This was a never ending expansion. It seemed to go on forever for one. They seemed to add little things here and there, like every expansion, but this time none of it was very interesting. We still got some decent raids like always, but nothing else really stood out and was another expansion I quit early on. The story was also a bit lackluster and so was all the Azerite stuff they were going for. I just never was a great system. It was just a fairly boring expansion overall, but while I say that, you still are playing new content, new bosses, new raids and if you were a fan of WoW, you get all that, so it’s hard to get a score lower than 7 for any of these expansions.

Retrospective Review: With the release of Legion, WoW finally got some of its mojo back. Legion introduced a slew of new things, including the long awaited Demon Hunter class and mythic dungeons. It also gave every class a class hall to go to and explore with fellow players of the same class. All the class halls were super unique and themed specifically for them. This also all tied into the Artifact weapons they gave us and the questlines that went along with it. The questlines for each artifact weapon were unique and interesting with loads of lore attached. It was the first expansion I really wanted to (and did!) level every class and see their specific weapon quests and class hall. All that felt so good. The Demon Hunter class also turned out to be another really fun class and an instant favorite among fans. The movement and style of play was unique and just a blast to play and move around. There were also several really great raids and raid bosses as well. WoW was back in top form after releasing Legion, my personal favorite expansion, just barely beating out Wrath and BC.

Retrospective Review: Warlords is an interesting expansion. This was the first instance of some personal “housing” we got with garrisons. Garrisons were pretty cool and it was fun to semi-customize it for your own liking, even if there were not too many options. Sending npcs out on missions from your garrison was also a good idea and a concept they brought into future expansions as well. We also got mythic raid difficulty which added a new layer to the endgame if you wanted to push for it. It started with some mediocre raids, but the last couple were quite good, even if they were a bit long. There is still daily quest fatigue here, but it’s not nearly as bad as Mists as they did dial it back quite a bit. The PvP zone they added was a bit of a bummer, it was not very engaging and did not add anything meaningful to the battleground rotation of maps. This expansion was fine, but did not really wow anyone to the degree the other expansions were offering and after this and Mists, WoW was in a slump for sure.

Retrospective Review: Oh Mists of Pandaria…how I do not miss grinding in this expansion. This expansion really was the end of grinding for me. It was the first time since playing in the beta of the original game that I had fallen off before the last patch. I played casually from time to time, but the grinding requirements got too unruly here to justify playing. The raids were also weaker, so the incentive to grind to gear up for them didn’t feel like something I wanted to do at the time. This expansion ruined daily quests, as it was just hours of the same thing every day, it was the breaking point for me. There were some good things though. The land itself was beautiful. I think it has some of the best scenery of any of the expansions still to this day in some zones. We also got the Monk class which was really fun and of course both factions could be Pandaren now as well. While a lot of people dismissed this expansion early, making fun of the Pandaren and doing the “Kung Fu Panda” comparisons, it did add some cool stuff. You had your own farm that you could grow crops and tend to them everyday. That stuff was cool. But add that on top of all the other daily quests you had to do and it just got to be too much and the raid content wasn’t quite good enough, especially the early 2-3 raids that were just not up to the WoW standard. We also got pet battles and that was a great mini-game that added even more stuff to do that wasn't just grinding daily quests. I had a lot of fun initially with their “Pokémon” in game equivalent and it added even more depth to a deep game. But, the daily grind was still so prevalent in this expansion it really killed a lot of joy for people. It was starting to get out of hand in Cataclysm, but Mists really went overboard and took it too far.

Retrospective Review: While Cataclysm was a bit of a downgrade to what we got with BC and Wrath, it still delivered a cool villain, good raid content and great world building. My favorite part of this expansion isn’t talked about much, but it was the total rehauling of the old zones. It was a JOY to go back and complete each zone as it had new and improved story that revolved around the goings on of that zone or the terror Deathwing was causing as he flew through and caused an uproar. It truly felt like the entire game had been revamped and every zone fleshed out perfectly. I ended up going back and doing every zone again just to see all the different story beats and it really added a lot of value for me, well worth doing. The raids were also fairly solid, but a bit of a downgrade to what we had been used to. More races in Goblins and Worgens which were unique, but a lot of people were so ingrained into their main character, it wasn’t something many people explored except for alts. This expansion was still really fun and had loads of content, but we felt like we might be at the edge here and they might have been losing traction soon. However, the revamp of all the old zones for me, really brings this expansion up a lot for me.

Retrospective Review: Burning Crusade was one of the best expansions they ever made, but Wrath was truly the greatest. New class (Death Knight), new zone (Northrend), new tech and story (Lich King saga) that people had been wanting since Warcraft III: Frozen Throne. Everything was here. They also added little things, like different tech for vehicles and questing that no one else was even sniffing at in the MMO space. You also got the 10 and 25 man groups for each raid, not just 1 or the other. You had great rep grinds and token vendors that gave you so many reasons to do content and gear up. It really had it all. It also added achievements which also gave you a lot of reasons to go back and do some old world content and collect certain things. It was a time when it felt like you could actually get every achievement (to a degree), not like today where there are just a billion achievements for everything and if you missed out on a later part of an expansion, you are just too far behind to catch up. But, that achievement completionist thing is a different kind of thing, so I digress. The raids in Wrath were again, a notch above the previous expansion. So many iconic places like Naxxramas (upgraded and revamped. Also people actually saw it unlike in Original WoW where it was just experienced by a small number of players.), Uldaur and of course, Icecrown Citadel. Much like fighting Illidan in Black Temple, fighting Arthas in Icecrown felt like a perfect end to the expansion.

Retrospective Review: While Original WoW so highly touted, Burning Crusade delivered on the expectations of expanding this universe and gameplay. Now when we get a new WoW expansion, it doesn’t quite feel as special. Sure you have new places to go and new raids to conquer, but it didn’t bring in revolutionary features like the first few WoW expansions. Burning Crusade added so much and they refined the design on gameplay loops to make everything a better experience. While the raids in the original game were good, they finally hit everything perfect here. Raids are still largely modeled off of the strides they made in BC. From the tight corridors of Karazhan to the massive Black Temple, it all looked and felt so good. You also had a new land to explore in the Outlands along with flying mounts which were a game changer. There were also a lot of good goals to place for yourself. With the great rewards you got from PvP, to grinding reps to doing raids, there was something for everyone. Each faction also got a new race and technically a new class, allowing Alliance to play as Shaman and The Horde to play as Paladins. This was very welcome and something the player base wanted for a long time. They also added Arena PvP, which was really fun with a group of friends and became the new real competitive way to PvP. Everything they added felt better and more refined in BC. Getting gear and raiding felt better than ever and that sense of wonder was still in the air, even if we were getting into the era of everything being posted online (builds, guides, etc.) It was still one of the best expansions they had ever made.

Retrospective Review: It’s hard to write about a game where everything that could be said, has been said. But, it’s still hard to understate how revolutionary this game was at the time. As someone who played in the beta and all the way through the release, it was something special. Everything not only felt new, it felt good. If you go back and try some older MMOs back in this time period, they hadn’t figured it out, at all. They all felt so stiff and lifeless to a degree. The world, the locations, the characters, the creatures, the players, the dungeons, the raids, everything here looked so good and felt like a proper video game that didn’t get held back by the MMO tag like its predecessors. The main 2 things that separated this from other MMO’s at the time was how good it felt to play and the world you played in and the secrets it held. That last one is really key. It’s hard to imagine nowadays, but we did not have the internet resources like we did then for WoW. While we did have websites like “Thottbot” that helped out on quests and items, it was not as expansive or explanatory as things are today, not by a longshot. There was mystery, there was discovery. Something almost no games have now unless it was just released and even then there are guides and video aplenty after a week on every aspect of those games. Not here. You were just in this world discovering everything along with other players.Builds for instance, they were not set. You could come up with your own. It could be good or not so good, it was hard to tell as damage meters were not a thing yet, you had to go by feel. There were no websites telling you “This is the best DPS spec, do this.” Sure people were discussing that online, but new builds were discovered all the time and breakthroughs in what rotations to use or best armor were not set in stone. Playing as a warrior, I remember PvPing with a fellow warrior that was just destroying everything. I checked out his gear, as it looked odd (not plate) and saw he was mainly using leather pieces, something no one else was doing at the time. But, the leather pieces all had crit on them and with 2-handed warrior Arms build, this guy was just criting players to bits and that slowly became the meta for warriors. Armor was also something special in a different way and that was the look. The armor sets in original WoW looked so good and since there was no transmog, you knew exactly what another player had one, just by looking at them. It was the ultimate status symbol. You felt the presence of a massive Tauren warrior in Tier 2 gear while you were running around in dungeon rare equipment. The look was all super unique and once you got a piece you have been waiting for, you really got stoked for it, which is a feeling long gone from the game it is today. It’s fun to reminisce about original WoW, but it’s also kind of a bummer that the world will probably never see a game or experience anything quite like it ever again, largely thanks to the internet. Guides, tier lists, etc have really taken the mystery and discovery away from a lot of players and while you don’t necessarily have to use those things, you feel like you are behind or hurting yourself if you do not a lot of the time. Vanilla WoW servers try to recreate the magic, but it does not feel close to being the same and will probably never be recreated ever again.

The game was much different from the beginning until just before Lord of Hatred launched. They added a lot of key things that really improved the game and helped you build your character in the season faster and more efficiently. The things the seasons brought, hordes, pits, bosses, all very good and built on a game that was getting better with every season (even if a particular season didn’t quite hit). The story however was the downside of this one. It was very forgettable and more to set the stage for the Lord of Hatred expansion. They also don’t require you to get this expansion, so the seasonal activities are in the zones, but also mirrored in the original zones as well, and these never really got touched. It always felt empty down there. For instance hell tide events, everyone just did the ones above, not in the new lands for the expansion. Same with the bosses, when it came time to farm them for gear, the ones here did not have unique loot, you could just farm the original bosses instead and never touch them. The Undercity was the one thing that was fairly unique, but you could easily ignore it if you wanted to. I was also disappointed that they never added another world boss, so you were stuck with the original 3 still. They did also add that MMO type raid thing for multiple players to go to and it was actually pretty cool the first few times. I liked the concept and the bosses had cool mechanics. However, it was short lived as it was hard to find a group for as the rewards were super underwhelming for how much you had to invest into it. As for the new class, the Spiritborn is super fun to play and has a few really cool builds that feel great. When playing seasonal characters only, it was nice to have another class to rotate to after playing all the other classes so many times. Also, at the end of this expansion, they changed the battlepasses and they were even worse than before. I hate battlepasses anyway, but these truly became gross. The cash shop is also disgustingly priced with $28 skins that are only usable on a single class. Do they look cool? Oh, yea, best skins in the game, by far. Which is another issue. One reason I am not a fan of cash shops is that all the really cool stuff they think of will not naturally be in the game to be earned, they save it all for the cash shop. And even the battlepass skins, they look better than what is in the base game, but still not even close to a skin that is almost the same price as the game itself. Even if I play hundreds of hours for Diablo, I just can never justify spending that much on a single skin (especially in a non-F2P game)

While Reaper of Souls didn’t hit with me the way the original game did, it still was a blast to play and added a lot of cool new things. The crusader class was another really fun playing class that the game needed, especially after spending so much time with all of the other ones, it felt fresh. This also added a fifth act, which was great, and Rifts, which were super fun and the new way to gear, along with adventure mode. They fixed a lot of look issues and made it make more sense, which was great, but maybe this could have been a hotfix beforehand. It still offered the same great gameplay and revitalized the game for a bit. Honestly, thinking back, both of these are firmly merged together in my head as one game now, so it’s a bit hard to separate the two. But, I do remember how much the loot system changed and how much better it made the game in general. Even if spamming Rifts could get a bit tedious, that is why you were there, for the grind. It also improved a lot of builds and gear and farming those set pieces was really fun. Your character felt completely different and way more powerful after getting your build’s set pieces and that was super rewarding. It might be a bit simple by today’s standards, but, I bet Reaper of Souls still holds up.

I was pretty excited in 2012 going into D3, as I liked everything I had seen from preview coverage and so forth. I had not played D2 at the time, but always heard great things. My ARPGs at the time were Nox, Titan Quest, Dungeon Siege 1 and 2, and Torchlight. All great games. However, none of them quite compared to D3. It was just doing everything so great. It was fun to play every class and grind and explore alone or with friends. Fantastic characters and enemies. The great locations that looked amazing at the time. Even in the very beginning, where the difficulty in the end game was brutal, when a buddy and I 2 manned Diablo on the hardest difficulty, it felt really good. Even the auction house they had, I didn't mind it. I didn’t buy anything, but it was a unique idea and I made like $300 on some very mediocre items so that was pretty rad. But, more than all of that, it was just fun. The characters, the builds, the world. It was so well designed, top to bottom. I still refer to D3, to this day, as my favorite ARPG and while I might be a bit scared to go back now after all these years, fearing it might not have aged well…I still hold it in high regard.

A perfect sequel to Vampire Survivors. If they did the same thing again, I wouldn't have hit as hard. This is a great feeling card dungeon crawler with super satisfying combos. The evolution in gameplay from just doing a 2-4 card combo in the beginning runs to 10-20+ combos later feels real good. There is a nice curve in unlocks they dull out and once you beat the last level and get your hand on some gold using that last unlock, you can modify your cards to the max to really go nuts with it. The game is just super smart with how it works and it was a joy throughout. It does only take about 20 hours or so to 100% all achievements which is a lot less than Survivors, but that's ok for now. If it is anything like its predecessor, then free DLC/support could be on the way. Not that I EXPECT that, but I could see them supporting this for awhile.

Pragmata is a fantasticly unique game. It’s not just that mixes third person shooting and hacking in a perfect blend of satisfying gameplay, but it also brings a great story along as well. This game could have been very gimmicky with the hacking/gunplay combat, but it pulls it off so well. What other game dedicates ALL of the face buttons of the controller just for hacking in a third person action shooter? The combat is the highlight of the game for sure, but a close 2nd is the characters and the story. Again, this is another time where they could have really dropped the ball. Having a little kid character in a game is poison sometimes. Are they going to be annoying? Are they going to be a pain to escort throughout the game? None of that here. Diana is a very companion on your space mission and endearing at every turn. I really enjoyed working my way through the moon base and collecting every single item in the game along the way. The red challenge rooms were also a nice spike in difficulty, but nothing too crazy. I did have some issues with the training rooms, as the first 20 or so are pretty fun and provide a good challenge. The last 10 however, were not. The one thing I hated about them was it being very limited to what kit you had going in. I’m fine with weapons/modes they pick, but it takes away all of your other upgrades as well. The main one being movement. By the time you get those last few training levels you are mostly through the game and have been moving around quickly and dashing everywhere with your big boost meter, but these challenges take all of that away and you feel sluggish. It’s hard to dial back in for the movement style courses that speed and boost meter when you are so used to what you are using in the main game, it just feels bad. But those early training missions I did have a lot of fun with and added a lot of content to the game. That might be my only complaint however, which is nice since those training missions are completely optional (although they have nice reward materials.) Everything else is superb. I do wish the story stuck the landing a bit better. I am not saying the ending was bad by any means, because it wasn’t, but I think I would have liked it to have been a bit less predictable and maybe explored a different ending (especially in the Unknown Signal true ending.) Also, for the gunplay, there is no manually reloaded for the main weapon, you have to wait while it slowly charges. This can get really annoying at times, but the more you play, you get other tools and mods that make this not feel as bad. (especially the mod that auto reloads it once you do another hack.)Overall, this is some great 3rd person shootin’ and hackin’. Diana is fun to talk to and surprisingly not annoying. I recommend giving it a try. I wouldn't say it's GOTY or anything like that, but it will probably end up on most top 10 lists this year for sure.