armada91

This game is aggressively "just alright". There are story beats that go no where, very same-y combat all over, and you never really feel any impact. The lack of expression on your character was funny in 2D but in 3D it feels very much like you're just missing animations. I give this a 6 due to the fact that beating the ~5 hour campaign does unlock more roguelike content, like new infernal pacts and further procedural sections on each chapter. That said, chapters feel like they take forever because combat is thrown at you left and right, and it's never really fun to get through. It's a cheap game, and an easy platinum trophy, so as a big fan of the series, I'm not mad about it, but it certainly doesn't take the Helldivers approach of a "cheap, full game, with interesting live service additions". Instead, this is feels like a licensed amateur project designed around what we thought live service would be 15 years ago. I'd have rather a remake of the PS1/N64 game, but it's still not the worst thing I've played. Turn your brain off, enjoy the world (environment art is the best part of this one), and go in with no-to-low expectations and you'll also see the "okay"ness of it all.

I really and truly enjoyed this game. When I first started playing it, I was convinced this might be my favorite FF of all time. That said, the more I played it, the less convinced I was. The story is easily the best FF has ever been. It drives you forward at every point, proving gripping over and over again with interesting characters and larger-than-life fights. The fighting is awesome, coming together really cleanly when you get the accessories/abilities you want all synergizing perfectly. That said, the RPG mechanics in this game are super light. Looking at FFVIIR, it IS possible for FF to have both action and in-depth RPG systems. FF16 is largely missing the min-max concepts that made those other FF games really stand out. The crafting also feels excessively tacked-on. In addition, as great as some of the score is, it's disingenuous to say it is all incredible, in addition to the timing of some of it actually taking away from big moments versus adding to them. A particularly emotionally impactful scene loses most of it's punch when a character theme is played over something more aware of the scenario. Even the songs that pack a huge punch have weird valleys that cut through it's peaks. Some of them hit like any you'd ever heard, but few are memorable enough to hum throughout a day like you would To Zanarkand, Aerith's Song, or Fisherman's Horizon. I even still find myself humming Blinding Light but it's hard for me to recount any in FF16 at all unless I'm actively listening to it. The NG+ mode, in my opinion, cements how powerful the story is, as the game itself feels tough to get through again. Now that I know what happens, I'm that much less influenced to complete another playthrough, since that was what got me through most of the initial run. This game ultimately feels like a single-player version of FF14, which is great in some respects, but if you don't think 14 is the best thing since sliced bread, you may feel less inclined than to platinum this one or finish all that it has to offer. Someone once said "this is the greatest 8.5 game I've ever played" and I think that's a really astute analysis.

This game is great. Truly a hidden gem. It starts off a little slow and doesn't do a great job at telling you from the jump that the more you play, the more you CAN play, but it's still fantastic. The game itself is simple enough and easy to jump in and out of. It's one of those games that, especially when you're burnt out on the min-maxing of Diablo, finishing the story of FF16, or getting a little tired of your typical shooter, this one is a great alternative to play until your next big title. You really have to give this game a little bit of time to flesh itself out. That isn't to say "you have to play for the game to get good" because I don't agree with that method. This game is intentionally staggering how much you have access to early on as a sort of easing-in of the mechanics and systems you'll run into the more you play. There is a firm "play this many games" system that unlocks further maps, dinosaurs, and mods for each exosuit that is intended to serve as a sort of tutorial of the game. It's well worth the time and becomes easily addicting. All that said, the story is fairly interesting but isn't really necessary to follow. It's all about playing the game and enjoying the minute-to-minute.

No part of my fancies myself a cat person, and yet playing this game, I didn't ever really notice I WAS a cat. I found myself constantly looking forward, peering down alleys, looking out for new things to climb on to, trying to find answers to puzzles and how to get from A to B in the most efficient way. Sure, these are inherently cat things that I'm doing, but I was so engrossed in the world that I could hardly notice. The lore and world building is impeccably done. The puzzles are head scratchers at best, but that's the best kind. Especially for a game of this length. You don't spend longer trying to solve puzzles than you do exploring the world, and everything seems purposeful. Found a cool collectible? It solves a puzzle - now to find who takes ****. This game was just under 100% complete for me in 5h45m and I'm not at all bummed to go back for the Platinum. Really a delight ****, and a perfect length.

I often times will defend a developer based on the sole fact that I know the devs are usually just following orders and it isn't really their fault. In this case, while I feel the same, I think it is a known issue with DICE and EA that the development staff is not properly heard when it comes to the state of the game. There has never been a more understandable time to delay a product. Companies have been trying to so hard to feign ignorance of that and claim that the game will come out right when everyone first thought it would and that just isn't the case anymore. This game needed another 6 months, easy. A year would've made this THE Battlefield to beat. More playtesting. More network/beta tests. Halo is raising the bar for what is expected and what CAN BE DONE when you give the game time to blossom. To corroborate my experience: some games I can't start (Breakthrough, mainly) because it just doesn't load the game. Often times my customizations for my character will be wiped when a game starts and all of my loadout options are blank. I try to hold RB to access my radial menu and it flickers before turning off. 50% of the time I can't revive someone as no prompt is shown. The hit registration might as well not exist, and some weapons are just clearly imbalanced. As I said, this would have been a perfect experience in a years time. I can't recommend this right now. For the first time in a very, very long time, I genuinely felt cheated by buying into this game. By the time it is worth the money I invested in it, it will be 1/4 of the price. I'm definitely salty.

This is a game that simply oozes style. The controls are tight, there are very few bugs (none of which are truly game breaking), and the foundation for a great live service title is here. The game is billed as a high-intensity multiplayer destruction derby with hero characters, and it is exactly that. The characters all feel different, and look even more so. Each character has their own "thing", and when you get used to the different game modes, you'll find just how much some of them shine in certain arenas versus others (if you don't try Blue Fang in Mayhem, you're messin' up). Every unlockable in this game is cosmetic, most of which can be purchased with the in-game grindable currency, of which you you earn 1000 every time you level up. There are purchasable coins, however, with a direct translation of $1 = 100 points. Interestingly, there is no "+ X" for purchasing greater amounts, so spending the max of $20 at a time simply gets you 2000 coins. These coins can be used to purchase specific cosmetics, though normally as an alternative to spending the in-game currency. The only exception here is through Challenger Series games. These are 7 challenges based on a specific All-Star, which range from free to $4. Each completion grants you a new cosmetic for that All-Star, and earning every star gets you a unique skin for the player itself. As of right now, these are the only points of entry into a "story" for this game, though it is told in a before-and-after cutscene scenario of about 30 seconds each. All in all, if you decide not to purchase any, you're not missing out on much, though they are very low points of entry if you do decide to invest. I'll be interested to see if they keep this method up, but in total, especially for a free game, I would happily give them a few more dollars for putting together such an enjoyable title (and giving it away). This game deserves an 8. At it's worst, maybe a 7 - speaking objectively. There is more I'd like to see from the game, and a few bugs I'd like to see ironed out, but subjectivity aside, this is a great game.

So I've been playing this game for a few hours and at its core, it is definitely a fun game. It exudes charm, and those who have been looking to jump back into the Fat Princess universe, solely for the universe, will find tons to appreciate here. This, however, is a perfect example of beauty being skin deep. This game plays very much like a Diablo-esc style game, in which you are trying to gather new gear dropped from "Elite" enemies and found in chests. You can upgrade that gear, though I have found that at lower levels, it feels almost like a waste of money to even try, as your gear will be no-doubt trumped when you enter the following chapter. To be fair, I am only in chapter 3, and have only played alone, so I cannot attest for the multiplayer, but the game as a whole just feels empty. You will encounter a ton of houses and caves that make you say, "I wonder what's in there?" only to find out that you can't actually go in, even if the cave mouth is gigantic and has nothing blocking its entrance. It's fun to play for a few hours, though if you're a trophy hunter, this game will certainly take many, many more hours than just a few. If you have a friend to play it with, check it out, but I would say it's worth closer to $10 than $20. It's funny and cute, but when you start hearing the same one-liners 30 times in as many minutes, you kind of just want to turn off the dialogue (which you can't do unless you mute dialogue as a whole, which hurts whatever story you are trying to pull from this). Graphics: 8/10 Sound: 6/10 Replayability: 6/10 Overall: 6/10

It's a port, not a remaster. While Dishonored still holds up as a fun, albeit pretty straight-forward stealth game, it seems almost identical to the PS3 version. The plus side was that, having downloaded Dishonored for free on my PS3 from PS+, I was able to get the digital game for $19.99. THAT is the best deal you can get. It does come with all of the DLC, which is a good touch for the price tag, especially considering how much else they didn't do with the game. If you never got a chance to play through Dishonored on your PS3 backlog, now is the time. Even though it's basically just a PS3 game, the DLC added and the gameplay itself is worth purchasing it if you never got around to finishing it before. Otherwise, save your money for the bigger titles this Fall.

To begin, this is an okay game. At best. If you're a Transformers fan from the War for Cybertron series by High Moon Studios, you may feel compelled to purchase this, as it is seemingly the same style. First and foremost, it is not done by the same studio, rather, Edge of Reality was in charge, with High Moon not attached whatsoever. To get to the grit of the review, this game was lacking in all aspects. The story was short, boring, and felt much more like a chore than something truly worth playing. The story was cut up multiple times to tell the paths of both the Decepticons and Autobots while they fought on Cybertron and subsequently, on Earth. It was convoluted and dull to boot, giving you no real attachment to their plight, or really anything at all. As you could tell from the cover of the game, Michael Bay's universe inspires the Earth versions of the Transformers, with Grimlock of the Dinobots stealing the show and having the most truly joyful section of the game, albeit it was only 20 minutes long, tops. The graphics were something you'd expect from an early PS3 release (circa 10 years ago), aside from the top notch character models they took from High Moons work. The Earth levels were unbelievably barren, with noticeable lack of any real substance to the world around the corridors the game was forcing you in. You wanted to explore, given that there are collectibles, but the game was very adamant about pointing you in a direction and sticking you to it. The boring gameplay, on top of the almost jarring difficulty spikes, made the single-player very passable. However, the semi-redeeming factor to this game was the return of the co-op mode, Escalation. In this mode, you fight up to 15 waves of enemies, getting progressively harder, though consistently showing less and less balance and substance to the mode. Enemies would spawn in droves from one location across the map, only to be split up once you arrived to somewhere else. You unlock Gear Boxes as you play in Escalation, as well as campaign, to which you unlock different characters to play as in Escalation, new guns, upgrades, H.A.C.K.s (difficulty settings that altered specific game mechanics in exchange for an experience boost), and Techs (smaller, less powerful abilities that could help you out of a pinch in battle or even offer you up to 6x multiplier on experience), all used to increase the customization of your experience throughout single and multiplayer. While the collection aspect is fun at first, it quickly becomes frustrating after receiving dozens of duplicates, while coming to terms that your favorite Transformer is near crippled in Escalation if it cannot fly, given that you have the option to be whomever you wish. Trophy wise, I could give it a 3/10 difficulty, and as a game I would say it's about a 6.2. Nothing really pops out story wise, and the graphics leave much to be desired, but my nostalgia as a Transformers fan helped me enjoy the sheer site of these beasts back in action, as well as the arsenal from the Cybertron series coming back in full force to blast the enemy to scrap. Verdict: wait for pre-owned.

This game is a lot of fun. I am not normally into games like these, or really most co-op games like this (borderlands is my other example), but so far, I am really enjoying myself. The graphics are up to par with WoW and the story is thoughtful and interesting. It is very straight forward, with no character customization outside of gender and class, and the class abilities are more based on play style rather than WoW's ability to give you dozens of abilities for a wide array of play options. That being said, someone looking for a hardcore game like the older Diablo or vanilla WoW should more so veer away from this title, however, those more casual and looking for a fun game to play with friends or even just a challenging world to explore at your leisure, will find endless hours of **** fun. I give this game a 9 out of 10, being that it has proven to me that a co-op loot-grabbing game can be just as fun as anything else when put together in a way that cuts down the elitists and allows casual players to enjoy without feeling like lesser gamers. My only gripe is probably the graphics being sub-par to most games in this era, outside of Blizzard's famous CGI cut scenes, which would make anyone interested in a movie of anything Blizzard makes full of hope. Very enjoyable, with minor cosmetic short-comings. (And for those of you pulling a CoD on reviews for this game, try to review it as Diablo 3 and not say things like, "This game isn't Diablo 2 and I hate it!". The story is a sequel to the D2, and that is what sequel means, not that it is an exact copy.)