muzmuz

Elden Ring is easily the best entry to the souls/like genre for players that do not usually play games like it. The exploration and build variety in this game is top notch, there is no doubt it is an insanely replayable game. Unfortunately Elden Ring is riddled with a lot of technical issues like 60fps lock or no ultrawide and questionable design decisions, like, although controversial, missable content and non-existent story presentation.

The game feels like a puzzle-exploration interactive movie, and I am all for it. Amazing acting, fantastic story presentation and great visual and audio design. Unfortunately, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle as a video game is more of the same in your first few hours versus your 10th plus hours. The game is incredibly repetitive and the open world feels like junk content to me.

The characters are uninteresting, the story is a boring lore dump, equipment, exploration and looting is very shallow. The combat and overall gameplay is serviceable but nothing that blows your mind or keeps you playing constantly. There is barely any real role playing in this game. It's just a bunch of different dialogue choices that do not result in a real consequences. Your character origin does not really change anything except a dialogue or two. Like another person said, Avowed is junk food RPG with a 70 dollar price tag

"Hellblade 2 is too short to feel too long" - these are the exact words that perfectly describe this game. The awaited sequel to the renown Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a very short but extremely padded linear single player action game. It has a lot of walking sections to lengthen the game and offer some modicum of narrative, which all feel extremely boring to go through. The puzzles are an afterthought, while the combat may feel great and look fun at first glance, but it is quite shallow and honestly far too few in between. A walking and ASMR simulator with a little combat sprinkled on the side.

Tear through the extremely various and well designed 3 enemy types for the entire game as you endlessly smash your buttons in this boring slogfest, experiencing its mediocre story, nonsensical plot, pretentious poorly executed "genre-mash" gameplay, and uninteresting characters and villains. Whose idea was it to make sure you need to play the game more than once to experience the full story? You have to play the perspective of the another character, who was practically with you the whole time you first played the game, who by the way has even worse gameplay than the first protagonist. I have no idea why people think this game is even good, or a masterpiece.

Starfield is a highly ambitious space RPG; unfortunately it achieved being more of an annoying fast travel simulator, talk to John Doe, fumble around the UI, get tired running from objective to objective party, with a little bit of actual combat or exploration shaved on top. It didn't help that it has a janky controls, toy gun gunplay, non-existent cinematics, dull acting and the flattest AAA game first impression packaged with one of the most abysmal performance in the PC gaming space this year. Thankfully, some of its side content are actually fun and engaging, but I couldn't say the same for its main story that tries to even further expand Starfield's storytelling by including multiverse and time travel shenanigans, which let's be honest most people don't really enjoy. Starfield is Bethesda trying to squeeze one last penny from their obsolete game engine because they know fans will gobble it up.

Tales of Arise starts as a simple but enjoyable action game set in a world of oppression, slavery and racial conflicts. It doesn't have any sophisticated JRPG elements gameplay-wise, but the story, the cinematography and the fun in short bursts hack and slash gameplay has made this an enjoyable trek. Unfortunately it decided to be an overwritten, overly padded, incomprehensible slogfest in the last third of the game -- throwing the biggest lore dump you've seen in any video game in a short amount of time, in attempts to emulate an epic story when it's really just a confusing unnecessarily long torturefest, making the game extremely repetitive as well. Don't get me started with the skits that don't help further the story, or the extremely damage spongey enemies even in the easiest setting. Get only on sale, but be warned, Tales of Arise is a boring, extremely padded game down the line.

Phantom Liberty continues the seat-gripping, action-packed story and gameplay that Cyberpunk 2077 is known for. It is not just a new set of quests though; as this expansion adds a completely new setting, new skill tree, and more goodies than any ordinary "DLC" from other game makers.

Despite the lack of enemy types, weapon types or combos, Scarlet Nexus' combat manages to be satisfying enough with its synergies and special effects when paired with other characters, which properly distracts me from its terrible writing, boring manga panel presentation, laughable plot twists and shallow characters. Not representative of its full AAA price.

A decently launched PC port with some nitpicky technical issues, but nothing that breaks experience. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered is an iteration of the high-quality, open-world, action-packed and content-heavy superhero game we came to love since its launch in the PS4 back in 2018. It offers immersive and fun game play loop with an interesting albeit emotional story line whose Spider-Man is pit against several villains. The game basically feels like experiencing five movies' worth of story, and that's not including the DLC that came with this PC port! A guaranteed enjoyment out of this title and a recommend even at 60 dollars; if you haven't played it beforehand. People who have played this on their PlayStation consoles might feel differently.

As a non-enjoyer of souls-like games like myself, I'd say Code Vein is a pretty welcome entry into that world. There's a lot of elements in this game that casuals would be pretty happy about. Hard in some parts but manageable overall (can even turn a little casual with a partner AI or not), great deal of customization and character building, different combat play styles, lots of enemy types. The level design unfortunately can be poorly made especially with the infamous cathedral map. The presentation of the story through slow, sluggish memory sequences, how you have to collect memory fragments to unlock them and how these are tied to the four different endings is definitely something that felt extremely tedious and badly designed to me. Overall a fun souls-game, just don't expect a great narrative experience. Fortunately I came here for the gameplay and not so much for the story.

Story and writing is all over the place, feels quite random in fact, but the gameplay itself definitely aged well.

Slow paced, uneventful, linear storyline (with the illusion of choice) structured with forced side quests and crafted with highly repetitive and shallow gameplay and boring puzzles. There is nothing inherently wrong with the story itself, but the way it is presented in the game makes the experience feel like a lengthy, monotonous trek. There's a lot of major core issues with Hogwarts Legacy on top of its terrible performance in PC; if you think it'll get better as you progress, prepare to be disappointed.

Midnight Fight Express is a John Wick-esque, top down, beat em up game. If you liked how Sifu plays, this one is definitely a must try, except it has a better level design. Besides the forgettable, incoherent story and the more than infrequent artificial difficulty in some levels, I couldn't find a reason to not give this one an almost perfect score in the arcade-y mindless fun category. Addictive, adrenaline-filled action-packed dopamine hit, especially in shorter bursts.

Extremely optimized PC port of the Uncharted 4 and its DLC story. Both amazing, engaging, action-packed, adventure-filled with stories that definitely keep on you on the edge of your seat. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and Lost Legacy are two of the best single player gaming experiences of this era.

Forgettable story and a ridiculous aging mechanic adding artificial difficulty. Sifu sports one of the best combat I've seen in a video game to date but it's sad that the game has no real normal mode, as easy being ridiculously easy and the rest just being as frustrating as any other Souls-like there is. Proceed with caution, the game is not for the casual player.

Evil West manages to replicate some form of God of War's combat and progression with a bit of something something from themselves. This game is quite fun in short bursts and had a, nothing mind-blowing, but just works linear level design. Admittedly it got a little too exhausting mid-way and should've been shorter than it is, but I can appreciate the effort and creativity done for this one.

Badly optimized, clunktown of an action game with ludicrously terrible acting and unengaging gameplay.

Short and too expensive on PC, but Spider-Man: Miles Morales brings in the quality of the original 2018 Spider-Man game with a bit more goodies sprinkled on top with Miles' new abilities and therefore a fresher take on the combat.

Clunky combat, underwhelming character progression and spells, horrible dialogue, bad story and bad endings with its bad plot twists, very repetitive gameplay. All it had going for it was the pretty graphics and you know that gets old quick. I did appreciate the variety of puzzles it had but those door locks got real old halfway through. Don't get me started with the terrible open world that had no business being added to the game.

One of the better and more unique platformer-puzzle games out there with an interesting world building, emotional storyline, satisfying gameplay, simple but fun puzzle and chase/stealth levels, and to top that off it has good graphics, music and sound effects. If not for the bittersweet slightly open-ended conclusion, I would've given this a perfect 10.

A complex, high-quality, content-packed ARPG fans of its genre absolutely don't want to miss.

A fun and quality game exceling in many fronts such as beautiful music video backdrops, optimization, core gameplay and UI/UX design. Sadly, its lack of decent content and progression made it feel like a cheap, mobile game instead of a complex, AAA one.

As interesting the story everyone thinks it has, the pacing is heavily crippled by mind-bogglingly slow text animations and transitions, making Sega's cutscene-focused narrative-heavy crime-drama a sluggish almost agonizing experience. Unfortunately, the horrendous level design, janky gameplay, annoying saving mechanics and inconsistent cutscenes didn't help compensate for that. No matter how great people think the story is, this is a video game, not a movie.

Decent stealth gameplay, fun level design, acceptable graphics and a good degree of replayability. Sniper Elite 5 isn't a groundbreaking game, but it certainly is an enjoyable one.

Far Cry 6 is the biggest, most unique, creative, and content-packed Far Cry yet. Ubisoft has found the perfect mix between a fast paced shooter and an RPG compared to their little experiment in Far Cry New Dawn. Unfortunately, being the villain-focused franchise; the villain has about zero exposure in the gameplay, making Giancarlo Esposito's dictator more of a novelty character.

Trek To Yomi offers simple but still fun and challenging side scrolling combat in front of a beautiful backdrop; crafted alongside full voice acting and enjoyable linear level design.

Twelve Minutes is a short but unique and engaging narrative experience carried by 3 amazing cast, unfortunately, even for its really interesting writing the game itself has not a lot of game in it, which was further embittered by unsatisfying endings.

An interesting approach in a Dishonored-like first person/stealth shooter with a unique time loop gameplay with in fact quite an enjoyable and fluid combat. Unfortunately, it can either be a hit or miss. In my opinion it was a miss due to the annoying amount of backtracking and grinding required while the player is given a poor sense of progression due to lack of inventory, skills, equipment and level permanence. Deathloop is difficult to describe for someone that never played the game; it is not an open world game, a linear game or a sandbox game. It is a grindy rouge-like shooter where levels are revisited in order to gather more clues and progress the story while you avoid getting reset on the time loop as you grind a resource that you need to improve your character and keep your progression. Unique. But unique isn't always good. And the technical issues definitely did not help.

An incredible top down fantasy-wild west hybrid game with some serious RPG elements, non-linear gameplay and unique world design. The theme of the story itself is pretty dark and mature, which adds to the charm. The progression may be a little outlandish, as you play a total of 5 characters each with their own progression system and stories so you almost start from scratch as the game goes by. But it is interesting to see how these 5 arcs work together to make a bigger story and world building for Weird West.

Ghostwire: Tokyo possesses beautiful graphics, visual effects and map design that is sadly experienced in a horrible story, eye-rollingly cringe acting, repetitive gameplay, tedious open world activities and uneventful questlines.

Well-crafted combat, great acting, decent story, enjoyable level design and fresh environments per chapter, good chemistry and character development, acceptable cinematics, interesting gameplay and progression -- Square Enix' take on the Guardians of the Galaxy has it all, game-wise and story-wise. There are some minor bugs here and there, but this is still one of the best single player experiences I've had in recent time.

Low quality, boring and repetitive level design that drag on too long, underwhelming combat system, slow story pacing, immersion-breaking inconsistency in the cinematography, slow pacing. There's a lot to pick on about Final Fantasy VII: Remake especially in its AAA status; but really, it's pretty barebones for a game. Its extremely formulaic, dull, repetitive corridor level design really does hurt the gameplay. Square Enix did not give enough thought in designing this game at all. And I can't say there's any difference with the amount of effort used in the writing either. FF7 Remake might as well be the best representation of a beautiful disappointment in the video game industry in recent time.

Greediest company in the planet, the biggest game with the worst microtransactions in the video game industry even beyond the mobile platform I have seen in my life. Don't get me started with cosmetics locked behind rigged gambling mechanics that ends up being a 100-300 dollar expense. It's a fun, quick mobile moba game. But the business model is borderline illegal and a very dark moral grey area.

Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 has one of the worst pre-rendered cutscenes I've seen in my life, and in fact one of the worst character modeling for a game in its era. Graphics doesn't look that good either compared to games released around the same timeframe. But the funny thing is the cutscenes look ten times worse than game itself, which really makes me scratch my head why they went along with this. It's so bad it takes me out of the immersion. But I guess it doesn't matter when you're getting this game in its ridiculous 90% sales discount. For a game I got less than 2 dollars for the gunplay and sniping is great and the gameplay loop is actually enjoyable.

A notch above its predecessor across the board, but still the spirit of the Forza Horizon we know with next level graphics. Not a lot of new things but sometimes you don't have to innovate, you just have to deliver a product with the formula that was already battle tested. Too bad the lack of regional pricing was a punch in the gut, but for solid and financially capable fans it's something you can't miss out. If you aren't or you expect this installment to offer fresh and creative improvements over the last one I'd say just stick with 4.

Biomutant has some of the better loot, crafting and character progression systems I've experienced in recent time, if not overall. This is surprising because this level of depth is pretty much AAA level, despite not being an AAA title. The game could use some improvements on the controls, it is fluid, but the animations and feedback could be better. Meanwhile the audio design for this game is abysmal, the cinematics are comically bad, but the graphics is good and the open world design (including the explorations, side quests, collectibles) is fantastic. Unfortunately, the developers somehow thought cheaping out on the voice acting and using a narrator for the entire game's storytelling was a good idea. News flash; it's not. In fact, even the writing for the narration wasn't good either. Turning it off in the settings just removes the auditory annoyance, but doesn't fix anything about the presentation of the story at all. I can't say I can fully recommend this game, as it has some quirks that mainstream players may not like (especially those that are used to the polish on AAA games). But in a larger sense, it is worth a try if you're buying it for less than half its ridiculous price tag.

As a first impression, I found We Happy Few to be a fun mish mash of sandbox, stealth, survival, RPG elements presented in a somehow unique mixture of eerie, comedic and joyful atmospheres all wonderfully accompanied by its good acting ensemble. Oh how I love the acting in this game, or maybe I just like British performances. Unfortunately after a few more hours I start to realize the monotony of the game and its seemingly endless, boring fetch quests accompanied by anticlimactic storylines. We Happy Few could've went for a linear structure instead of this sad excuse of an open world RPG format. Can I say this game is still a must try? No. But in its ridiculous -90% sales discount you won't lose much, but if you like it this might be the hidden gem for you.

The buggy and new map is a bold attempt to deviate from Dying Light's original cramped level design and parkour gameplay. But the annoying, endless need to drive in The Following's flat open world and its repetitive, uneventful fetch quests while each quest marker are light years from each other killed the game for me. The game started to feel like a chore, so I left it unopened for a few months before I uninstalled it, essentially *driving* me to watch the endings on YouTube. If you liked the core game, it's hard to guarantee the same for this one.

House Flipper is surprisingly addictive, relaxing and fulfilling while packed with a commendable amount of content, but even more so with Steam Workshop mods.

Not a good superhero game, not a good Avengers game, not even a good looter game nor does it have a good single player campaign. Square Enix's GaaS product, Marvel's Avengers, fails so bad at all fronts it is embarrassing. Piss poor enemy variations, depthless loot system, extremely repetitive quests, uninteresting storyline, lack of content, what else? I don't even want to finish this review.

A beautiful puzzle-platformer game made in a kid's animated movie art style. But you wouldn't expect it to be a difficult souls-like game. The combat gameplay has a ridiculous configuration where easy mode is extremely unchallenging and normal mode is too brutal and hardcore for the average casual gamer. While I found the puzzles, platforming mechanics and exploration to be a fun activity to go through, the combat difficulty settings **** a big portion of the fun in this game. If you don't like hardcore souls-like games and don't like playing extremely easy ones either, then this is not for you for its lack of in-between, no matter how good I think the rest of the game is.

Interesting and unique concept with its semi real time turn-based action sequences, I know that doesn't make sense but it is how the core game feels. I like it and think this can be improved upon, but unfortunately it all ends at that. John Wick Hex is sadly too shallow and repetitive for a strategy game with too few gameplay mechanics. On top of that, the awkward animations and audio desync make the experience worse.

I can't believe I was late to experience one of the best games I've played in my life. The Mass Effect trilogy sports some of the best writing, character development and choices matter mechanic I've seen to date, and that's on a decade old trilogy. To add to that, combat gameplay itself is aging pretty well, being just as fun as any modern cover shooter in the industry. The game could've used QoL improvements in this edition though, but I guess that was not part of their plan. Most importantly, the three-part game can easily contend in the best level of camaraderie between characters; I find myself caring so much for a lot of these fictional characters, which is a rarity.

Fantastic execution of this title's superpower; creative and artistic. On top of that, Life is Strange: True Colors is indeed a next-gen title in the franchise, with all the technical improvements especially in the graphics and animation. But really, that's all there is to it. Short, dull, boring and most importantly devoid of gameplay makes this feel like a tech demo than a true Life is Strange game. The power, like I said, was amazing; but it didn't offer much in the way of gameplay. The scenes were dragged on too slow to stretch the playtime while keeping the story too on-rails for a "choices matter" game, then ending in a flat, disappointing conclusion. Don't get me started with the 60-dollar AAA price tag of this game. Horrendous for the type of game itself, and even worse for the quality of the gameplay/writing you're getting.

Senseless story and repetitive level design, still, a fun adrenaline-pumping run and gun shooter; nicely packaged with good graphics, amazing soundtrack, decent customization and upgrades, acceptable exploration mechanics, and a lot of demons to kill.

Despite having amazing controls and shooting mechanics that can rival even the best titles on the genre, Wolfenstein: Youngblood has a disappointing RPG gameplay structure that feels tedious and monotonous due to its rather cramped map design, high TTK, respawning enemies that you need to kill over and over again, quest structure and the pace-breaking need to grind side-quests instead of enjoying a straightforward storyline. Don't get me started on the microtransactions that doesn't belong anywhere in this title. An unwelcomed, poorly-executed, greedy take on the Wolfenstein franchise.

Four years later and this game still looks beautiful. The New Colossus is an unquestionable next-gen sequel coming from The New Order and Old Blood, made with better graphics, gunplay, sound effects and complementary gameplay mechanics across the board. The level design and story structure is a good mix between the previous two titles, combining the adrenaline-filled pacing of TNO and the map traversal of TOB. Unfortunately the ending did kinda disappoint, but the experience getting there was fun.

Story took a step down, but the entirety of the game is a notch above the preceding title. Less focus on the writing and more emphasis on the traversal and gameplay is the direction taken in the Old Blood; making this title a little bit different on the level design. The theme of the game also took a detour, as it went away from its purely sci fi theme fitting supernatural elements in the story, which I believe is their attempt on recreating Return to Castle Wolfenstein's plot, as Old Blood seeks to remake it and fit it on to the narrative set by the previous title. Nevertheless, the game is still very similar to The New Order, and even quicker to finish, which got me thinking that this should have been a DLC for it, while its technical improvements applied as an update instead.

Not the sandbox-y and sci-fi/fantasy game I'm used to back in the Return to the Castle: Wolfenstein days of my childhood, but this is a welcome change in the franchise. Each level is short and mostly linear, but it leaves more room for variation and decent pacing. Unfortunately, the sound design in this game is almost abysmal, where guns sound like spoons hitting each other and explosions that feel like it happened miles away. To add to that, for a 2014 game made by an AAA studio, the controls has a bit of jank to it and the graphics less competitive compared to games released around the same timeframe.