This is an incredible game. I don’t mean mechanically or technically. Hell, it’s not even innovative (it’s just Ingress, an arguably worse version, with Pokemon). But the other day, 3 of my news app's 4 top gaming stories were about Pokemon Go, and a couple of those made the Top Stories section. Last week, the game had more active users than Twitter and people spent more time on Pokemon Go than on Facebook. Both presidential candidates have talked about it. There’s already a divide on the Internet about whether the game is a complete time waster (“people finding Pokemon when they should be finding jobs”) or a miracle game that’s pushed more unhealthy people off their couches than anything in recent memory. A friend of mine convinced her manager to let her expense Pokemon lures to attract people to their store. All this despite the fact that the game constantly froze and crashed for the first week of release because the servers were swamped (not just for me but for everyone, if the memes are to be believed). Wow. If you don’t know the premise, it’s a GPS-based game. When you boot it up, you’re told to physically walk around trying to catch Pokemon and visit Pokestops, real-world landmarks that give you in-game items like Pokeballs if you’re close enough to them. Bigger landmarks are called “gyms” where you can battle Pokemon that some other player left there. Camping out in front **** or Pokestop isn’t going to help you the most though: the Pokemon eggs you collect won’t hatch unless you’ve walked some number of kilometers. Almost every mechanic in the game is designed to get you off your couch. As is typical game fare, the goal of the game is to make numbers go up. Get more Pokemon, give those Pokemon higher numbers, level up so you can have a higher number yourself, get medals for having high numbers, etc. The mechanics aren’t great. Keeping your Pokemon at a manageable number is tedious since you can have duplicates and you have to release Pokemon you don’t want manually. I’ve stopped walking just to give myself time to sort through my Pokemon. I don’t think that’s in anyone’s best interests. Oh and a server call is made every time you release a Pokemon, so if it’s a bad day for the servers then good luck doing that in a reasonable amount of time. In fact, every action in the game requires a network call. Patience is a virtue, and one required to make the most of Pokemon Go. But despite all that, people still play this game. I still play this game. Why? Maybe it’s pure nostalgia. It could be that exercising and getting fresh air has never been more enjoyable. Maybe it’s because this is a way for people to socialize with others without getting too far out of their comfort zones. Or perhaps it’s nice to believe that there’s a little magic in the world; a Charizard sitting on your table if you only were looking closely.
I bought Mini Metro after demoing it at PAX. I figured I'd play through it on a sleepless night and never pick it up again. How wrong I was! It actually got my heart pumping a few times before I figured out you could pause the game to move the tracks around. This game's a lot of fun! So why only an 8? Well first off, it didn't blow my mind. There are other charming minimalist games out there. I also noticed a few bugs, like trains getting stuck for a few seconds at stations, or not picking up passengers when a station is about to [riot? explode?]. They're rare, but when they result in a loss, it can be frustrating. To be fair though, the game is still in early access. All in all, I recommend Mini Metro if you want a quick game you can come back to again and again.
It's impossible to explain this game at all without spoiling it, since it's only about 15 minutes long. That said, Thirty Flights of Loving helped me truly understand the idiom "read between the lines": Almost all the interesting bits happen off-screen. You are shown the bare minimum you need to figure out what happened. And you won't figure it out right away either. I had to play it twice and sleep on it before I crafted the whole story in my mind, or at least my version of it. Like all stories, this one would be boring if told incorrectly. Thankfully, it is not.
This game is 90% dialogue, and I wouldn't mind except that the dialogue is really terrible. The story is not terrible, thankfully. And yes, in case you're wondering, those are two separate things: the story is being told and the dialogue is what's used to tell it. If Charles **** tells a boring story, you're not bored reading it because Charles **** can write. But the people who made 999 most definitely are not on par with Charles ****: they cannot write. Okay, I'm done bashing the writing. Here's why I hate this game: it EXPECTS you to replay it. And that's fine if you can skip all the dialogue you've heard and the puzzles you've solved on the second play through. But instead, you can make the dialogue pass by quickly (but not instantly) and you have to redo all the puzzles. I put the game down the moment it told me to re-solve a puzzle. Who in the world would make a design decision like that??? Not Charles ****, that's who.
Reus is such a well-designed game! There are three tutorials which go by quickly, teach you everything you need to know about the game without being heavy handed, and are quite fun. Then you're launched into the real game. At first, you can only play 30-minute sessions, but as you play, you unlock the ability to play 60-minute, then 120-minute sessions. Even after the tutorials, there are loads of things to unlock (which you unlock by trying different styles of play) and tons of things to learn. The game is very good about encouraging experimentation. Even the tutorials will say things like, "Experiment with X," so you learn without losing any sense of exploration or control. The in-game achievements each correspond to a Steam achievement, and they all encourage different play styles. One might be, "End an era with only one village," and another might be, "End the game with six co-existant villages." If you get both of these achievements, you have played two very different games. It's hard to explain what makes the game so fun. However, I know half the fun is in learning the game for yourself, so I won't try to spoil that for you. If you're looking for a short-ish game with infinite replay value, Reus is for you.
I am writing this review in 2013. I just played God of War for the first time, 8 years after its initial release. God of War is probably the most immature critically-acclaimed game I've ever played. Early on I noticed a pattern. If I see a man, he will soon die a bloody death in front of me. If I see a woman, and she has a shirt on, she will soon die a bloody death in front of me. If I see a woman and she does not have a shirt, she might make multiple appearances throughout the game (each time, with no shirt, for why else would a recurring female character exist in a testosterone-dominated game like this?) but she almost certainly will not die. If I see a monster approximately my size, I will kill it within seconds. And if I see a monster 100X my size, I will kill it, but only after a long, epic boss battle. Don't get me wrong, I understand the appeal of all of this to an extent. 300 is one of my guilty-pleasure movies, and there are certainly a lot of comparisons to be made between God of War and 300. These are unfair comparisons, of course, because GoW was released prior to 300. While I'm making unfair comparisons, I'd like to say that I didn't find the gameplay of God of War all that appealing, because I just kept thinking, "The combat in Arkham Asylum is so much better." And of course, while the visuals in God of War were no doubt epic for their time, they don't compare at all to the likes of, say, Uncharted or Bioshock Infinite. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that God of War did not age well, in my humble opinion. In fact, it may have pulled a Benjamin Button, because it seems very immature from where I'm sitting, in my post-Spec Ops: The Line, post-Flower, and post-Gone Home world. That sounded really pretentious, let's try again. God of War was no doubt great for its time, but as time marches on, it becomes clear that God of War, like the rest of us, is merely mortal.
All That Remains is a solid start to a new season. Many new characters were introduced, and I know enough about each one to start forming opinions. I was forced to make decisions that will no doubt affect chapters to come. The episode didn't wow me with anything in particular, but it kept the quality bar steady. I'm looking forward to future episodes.
No one can write a proper review of Gone Home without spoiling everything, but I'll try. Every review you read should tell you that the narrative in this game is incredible and moving. But this is an example of a story that couldn't be told as well using any other medium. The year is 1995. The player plays as Katie, who comes home from a trip across Europe to discover that no one else is home. As Katie, you search your house in an attempt to discover where your sister Sam went. Sam left clues for you, scattered throughout the house. As I played, I really felt as if I had come home to my (creepy) house and was trying to solve a mystery that my sister had left for me. And as time went on, I got more comfortable with the house. As the story picked up, I found myself unable to stop playing. I'm so impressed that this was made by only a few people. I'll definitely pick up whatever they release next. P.S. Many people are complaining, "It's only a few hours long and it costs $20!" But the length is exactly what it needs to be. There's no useless padding like there is in most games. If you value your time, you will appreciate the length.
I was pleasantly surprised with this DLC. It lives up to the original game, which is hard to do with a brand new cast of characters. At the beginning, there are five stories that you can play through in any order, and each of them are very well made. The only non-story-related thing this DLC adds that wasn't in the original game is the inclusion of missable achievements. In my opinion, this does not add to the game, since the game should be about making your own choices without worrying about whether your choice will make you miss an achievement. But I did not let that detract from my overall score. All things said, this is excellent DLC! I highly recommend it.
I bought this game because it had a phenomenal Metascore, and the last iPhone game I bought for that reason was the incredible Year Walk. Well, Ridiculous Fishing is no Year Walk. It's disappointing. It feels like a flash game and nothing more. I can't believe I actually spent money on it. It's repetitive, and the main mechanic is a flash game staple: upgrades. If it ever becomes free, you should pick it up, but otherwise, just go to Kongregate and save your money.
The gameplay in this game is genuinely good, and actually does a pretty good job of making the repetitive tasks, like activating radio towers and liberating outposts, seem new and fresh with each new area. I enjoyed playing the game, though I never felt that it did anything particularly new or innovative. The story, however, is complete rubbish. The writer of the game claims that it was supposed to satirize the stereotypes abundant in other games, but that doesn't come through at all. I suspect the writer said this to keep away the criticism that the game's story is racist and offensive. So if you're looking to play a fun game that involves killing hundreds of people and animals while roaming a large open world, this is your game. If you're looking for a game that has an intelligent story that satirizes the problems in modern games, play Spec Ops: The Line.
This is such a good game! I completely agree with the reviewer who urged against reading walkthroughs or guides before getting the game. Here's what I suggest: download the free companion app and read through the Swedish folklore. If you're intrigued after that, buy the game and enjoy the short, immersive, unforgettable experience.
Bioshock 2 is clearly a game made to make money. The only significant gameplay change between Bioshock and Bioshock 2 is the new Little Sister mechanic (and the related Big Sister attacks). For those who don't know, this mechanic means that now, whenever you find a Little Sister and kill the Big Daddy, you can take the sister with you to collect Adam from corpses while you get hit by waves of enemies (that smell you collecting Adam?). It's a very frustrating mechanic, and tends to ruin pacing. The rest of the gameplay is copy/paste from the original Bioshock. The story is simultaneously a sequel and a prequel. You are playing in a time after the events of Bioshock, but all the diaries you find are from a time before the events of Bioshock. These diaries feature Andrew Ryan, Frank Fontaine, and many of the other old characters. The new diaries establish a whole new issue that Ryan was apparently worried about around the time Fontaine was becoming a problem. It seems very much like it was tacked on just to be able to include Ryan in the story. In fact, the whole game just seems like it was tacked on to the old Bioshock to make money. Is it a good game? Well, Bioshock was a great game, and this copies that, so sure. Is it original? No. Is it as great as it was to visit Rapture for the first time? Of course not. But if you're having trouble finding other good games to play, this one won't disappoint you too much.
Originally I gave this game a 9 due to the terrible ending, but the new (free) DLC has made the ending bearable. I'll admit, this game suffers what many of its kind due in that the gameplay is totally separate from the story, rather than an integral part of it (like Spec Ops: The Line or Flower), but I think it deserves a 10 because the story and gameplay are both great by themselves. If you liked Mass Effect 2, you'll like Mass Effect 3. If you haven't played Mass Effect 2, go play Mass Effect 2.
This is a game everyone should play. It's also a game that everyone CAN play since the controls are simple and intuitive. Some might find Flower boring and short, but the rest will find it relaxing and wonderful. One could beat the game in a couple hours, but I find it has excellent replay value when you just need to relax and take your mind off something. The music is beautiful and changes with your surroundings, and the graphics are incredible as well. You can't compare Flower to any other game, and in my mind, that alone makes it worth buying.
If you finish Spec Ops: The Line without learning anything about yourself; without ever feeling genuine anger, sadness, or regret; without truly examining where the line is drawn between right and wrong; then you played it wrong.
I originally gave this game a 9, but now that the DLC is out that fixed the endings, I have to change my score! In my opinion, this is the best game ever made. The characters are all well developed, the music helps immerse you in the game, the story's themes run deep, and the gameplay is fun and perfectly balanced between combat, side quests, and RPG-type talking and such. The Mass Effect series is a crowning achievement of gaming. It lets the player choose how the main character acts, so they can fully put themselves in his or her shoes. All of this without sacrificing gameplay or story. This is the most immersive game I've ever played. I hope this game influences the gaming industry for years to come.
