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A disappointment compared to Innocence. The sequel is naturally more advanced technologically and graphically - some of the environments are really stunning and lifelike - but felt forced in many ways. The first game felt story-driven, while here I often felt like the story was serving the gameplay mechanics that the devs came up with (some of which were plain stupid - looking at you prism). Difficult not to spoil anything, so I'll just say it didn't feel as inspired. Still, it wasn't a bad game, and if you enjoyed the premise and environments of Innocence, you'll probably enjoy Requiem too.

Claptastic Voyage is a really worthwhile continuation of TPS, with a fun (though overexploited) premise and some truly fantastic level design, gorgeous aesthetics, some fun new combat mechanics, and a really sick final boss fight.

As far as combat arena DLCs go, The Holodome Onslaught is pretty decent, as the map is large and diverse enough, making it an enjoyable experience. What it could really use though is some customisability, along the lines of the Citadel arena from Mass Effect 3.

Shock Drop Slaughter Pit is a short and plain combat arena experience, taking between 30min and an hour to complete, and should really be a part of the main game. Not worth the full price, maybe a buck.

The Pre-Sequel is essentially a glorified expansion to Borderlands 2, because the foundation of the game (the interface and most of the gameplay mechanics) is the same. That said, I think I enjoyed it the most of all Borderlands so far, having played through 1 and 2 and all their DLCs - I don't consider myself a fan of the franchise, but I found TPS the least annoying and the most pleasurable. Storywise it complements B2 really well, but it diverges stylistically quite a bit, to look and feel more like a space adventure than B2 (the action taking place on the moon and all). The world design is fantastic, combat is reasonably fun, and though a lot of the dialogues are still lazy and unfunny and the omnipresent garbage loot is still an issue, a quick autoloot mod takes care of the later issue quite well (I wish I used it for B2!). If you really enjoyed B2 then definitely pick this up as well, but it's not a good entry point into the franchise, because its story depends too much on what you know from B2.

While in my view not one particular thing stands out as exceptional in A Plague Tale: Innocence, the game puts together lots of well-designed pieces to deliver an exceptional experience. A satisfying mixture of stealth and combat gameplay, beautifully designed locations, great narrative and its pacing, fantastic voice acting (french recommended for immersion) and perfectly fitting minimalistic music contribute to intriguing, engaging and immersive storytelling. Impressive execution for such a small studio. Minor drawbacks include a lack of native ultrawide support (which can be enabled by hexediting, but remains slightly buggy - not really acceptable for a 2019 game), and a few bugs that actually prevent progression (some related to FPS/vsync). That certainly broke the immersion a bit, so -1 to the rating.

The Mass Effect trilogy is an absolute sci-fi classic, must-play for any fan of sci-fi, or of great stories in general. The Legendary Edition brings it all together into one package with vast improvements, in particular in the first two games. The visual upgrades make the games look beautiful and pleasant without them losing the vibes of their specific eras, and the various quality-of-life updates make them less tedious and more fun to play. Unmissable!

It may be fan service and it may've been created for the wrong reasons, but if you're playing the Mass Effect trilogy for the first time now, it's an absolute joy. The main missions are fun, the plentiful interactions with past and present squad members are wholesome as f*ck, and the simulated combat arena is well designed and provides a fantastic opportunity to delve deeper into the combat system in an arcade setting. Don't miss it, and crucially, play it right before the final missions.

The set of missions to retake Omega from Cerberus is well-designed and fun to play, while not being essential to the main plot - as should be the case with DLCs.

Leviathan is a really interesting series of quests, which culminates in one of the most fascinating pieces of lore in the trilogy. It's a shame it wasn't part of the main game - it's so essential to the story.

The content of this expansion is definitely worthwhile, but the fact that it was not part of the main game is a travesty. It would've been a 7 otherwise.

The final installment of the trilogy is in my view a perfect sequel and brings the Shepard saga to a wholesome closure. The writing is once again top notch, the plot feels driven, and the events we partake in feel significant and very engaging emotionally and intellectually. The environments are stunning visually and interesting to play through, combat is truly fun for the first time in the trilogy, and it has probably the fewest tedious mechanics of the three games. I might've wished for more squadmates to choose from, but I don't really have any serious complaints about the entirety of the game. I assume the ending was unsatisfying in the original release, but with the Extended Cut included (also in the Legendary Edition), I find it provides good closure to the whole trilogy, which had me tremendously invested. I only wish the ending was more a result of the choices made throughout the trilogy than an A-B-C choice right at the end, but we can make that decision based on our earlier actions, so I don't find it that much of a big deal. All in all, if you played and enjoyed ME (and ME2), then absolutely play this too, because it's a thoroughly great game.

The story of Arrival is engaging and the quests are fun to play, but -1 for this being a DLC rather than a part of the main game (the events are essential for ME3!), and -1 for the game not telling me that it's supposed to be played after the main story!!!

The premise and concept of Project Overlord are interesting and tie really well with ME3. The implementation, however, is not the most engaging, with some fairly uninteresting exploration and largely uninspired combat. Play it, but don't expect a masterpiece.

Easily the worst expansion for ME2. The new exploratory quests are dull and repetitive and feel largely pointless. It's not horrible, I'd say it's still worth playing for the bit of extra lore, but it's undoubtedly a weak point of the franchise.

Zaeed is alright, but the quest, for me, was one of the most dull of all the expansions, and the ending was very unsatisfying and forced.

A reasonably strong expansion, with an interesting new character and location, fairly fun quests, and quirky lore. Nothing special, but worthwhile.

A very well-designed expansion with tons of new lore, some great combat, and a really really cool ship.

A pleasant nostalgic throwback, but there's not much to it, except for walking around every corner of the map for pointless collectibles.

Mass Effect 2 is a fantastic continuation of the original game, and it would be a crime to abandon the series without playing it. The galactic world continues to mesmerise, old characters remain engaging and some truly fantastic new ones are introduced (Mordin <333), and the visuals are improved significantly. However, personally, I found the combat maybe the most tedious of the whole trilogy, and the idea of having no choice but to work for Cerberus for the whole game is frustrating to say the least. Yet I think my biggest complaint towards this game is the plot structure. There are only a handful of main story missions, which could be roughly divided into intro missions and end-game missions, and the several dozen hours in-between are filled primarily with assembling your team. The squadmates are all fantastic guys and gals and their respective quests are well-designed, but this results in a lack of urgency that severely weakens the story line's impact. Still, an all-time classic along with the rest of the trilogy - don't miss it.

A decent and worthwhile addition to the game, but doesn't stand out from the rest of the side missions in the game enough to deserve a higher rating.

Despite being a long-time fan of both shooters/RPGs and sci-fi in any format, this was my first forray into the Mass Effect universe, and woah... I'm actually conflicted a bit, because while some aspects of this game are absolute masterclass, others **** surprisingly hard. By far the strongest point is the world and character design, which enabled it to become an all-time classic. The concept of the galactic community with the mass relays, the Citadel, the various sapient species, each with their own fascinating history, are rich, coherent and convincing. The characters and their dialogues are so engaging that just walking around the ship and talking to your squadmates is pure entertainment, and some of them quickly feel like true friends. The codex explaining the science of it all is a great addition for science/lore nerds like me, and the visual design of the various planets and stars (and the Citadel!) is appealing at worst, and stunning at best. However, there are a number of technical and gameplay shortcomings that prevent this game from being an all-round masterpiece in my view. The combat is OK, but tends to be very repetitive and static. Weapon upgrade management is tedious and uninteresting. Some asset design is blatantly lazy (the exact same bunkers and mines appearing on almost every discoverable planet/moon/asteroid), and some visuals feel more like 2002 than 2007. Yet, despite those shortcomings, Mass Effect was a fantastic experience, and I can't wait for the rest of the trilogy.

I know most people adore this game and a bunch of people hate it, but I'm kind of in the middle. It's abundantly clear that it was crafted with a lot of passion and an insane amount of creativity, but it didn't really draw me in as much as I expected or hoped. It probably doesn't help that I'm more into action RPGs than tabletop RPGs, but... The writing is mostly top-notch, with really convincing and original dialogues, and a decent amount of positive wackiness. The dialogues between personality traits were a great addition too, both amusing and insightful. Above all, the huge number of dialogue options means that we can craft our relationships with other people in very specific ways, and every choice matters and has consequences. However, there is a strange emphasis on (fictional, though based on parallels to real-world) politics. This is fine by itself, but most of the time dialogue options are either very radical or completely ambivalent ("I have no opinion"), with nothing moderate. This broke immersion for me, because aside from my own rather moderate political opinions, I also feel like an amnesiac rediscovering the world wouldn't form radical opinions straight away. The personality/skill system was well-written, but to be fair was one of the main reasons why I couldn't really get into the game. Firstly, I constantly felt like the character *would* have some personality traits still inside him despite the amnesia, which he'd gradually rediscover, instead of going in a completely new direction, which to an extent broke the immersion for me as well. Secondly, the dice-based system meant that it was possible to pass almost every check if we tinker around with clothing and wait with levelling up skills until they're needed. This made it in my view neither realistic nor particularly engaging. Really pleasant and original visual design and fantastic story design, but the implementation isn't perfect. The game actually feels like it should be really inaccessible to a lot of people, so I find it puzzling that it's consistently rated as one of the top games of all time. I really tried, but I just can't see why.

I know most people adore this game and a bunch of people hate it, but I'm kind of in the middle. It's abundantly clear that it was crafted with a lot of passion and an insane amount of creativity, but it didn't really draw me in as much as I expected or hoped. It probably doesn't help that I'm more into action RPGs than tabletop RPGs, but... The writing is mostly top-notch, with really convincing and original dialogues, and a decent amount of positive wackiness. The dialogues between personality traits were a great addition too, both amusing and insightful. Above all, the huge number of dialogue options means that we can craft our relationships with other people in very specific ways, and every choice matters and has consequences. However, there is a strange emphasis on (fictional, though based on parallels to real-world) politics. This is fine by itself, but most of the time dialogue options are either very radical or completely ambivalent ("I have no opinion"), with nothing moderate. This broke immersion for me, because aside from my own rather moderate political opinions, I also feel like an amnesiac rediscovering the world wouldn't form radical opinions straight away. The personality/skill system was well-written, but to be fair was one of the main reasons why I couldn't really get into the game. Firstly, I constantly felt like the character *would* have some personality traits still inside him despite the amnesia, which he'd gradually rediscover, instead of going in a completely new direction, which to an extent broke the immersion for me as well. Secondly, the dice-based system meant that it was possible to pass almost every check if we tinker around with clothing and wait with levelling up skills until they're needed. This made it in my view neither realistic nor particularly engaging. Really pleasant and original visual design and fantastic story design, but the implementation isn't perfect. The game actually feels like it should be really inaccessible to a lot of people, so I find it puzzling that it's consistently rated as one of the top games of all time. I really tried, but I just can't see why.

A similar environment to the main game, but with a very different vibe - closer to a psychological horror, but not quite there, so it doesn't get too stressful. Some enjoyable sections and interesting lore connecting Control to Alan Wake. Overall very similar level of enjoyment to the main game, so the rating stays the same.

More of the same as in the main game, with quite a bit of additional lore and some extra mods (with no extra space for them...), but with very lazy level design - the majority of the map are just rock tunnels that all look and feel the same, hence the -1 to the rating.

Intriguing and mysterious sci-fi action game, but it's nowhere as groundbreaking as it's trying to appear. The environment is well designed and immersive, but the concept of building shifts had way more potential than what was utilised. Combat is frequent and rather enjoyable thanks to well-implemented mechanics (throwing objects, levitating, dashing, etc), but doesn't really go beyond the fairly typical. The writing is mostly stiff, and named/interactable NPCs are scarce, making the majority of the world rather bland, though I really enjoyed the occasional Finnish jokes. Visually it's beautiful, but again, nothing out of the ordinary. A good game overall, but don't expect to be blown away.

I'm surprised to be rating it both so low and so high. The good? The environments are wonderfully crafted, beautiful visually and very immersive. This is a huge part of the game, and makes it enjoyable to just *be* in the world. It also feels authentic (both geographically and historically), but I have no way of telling if it actually is - I hope they've done their research). The level design, in tombs especially, is also very impressive, as is the design of people (not just Lara). The bad? Stiff writing (some of the dialogues made me roll my eyes hard), scarce and boring combat (don't really need to use your brain even at the hard difficulty level), weak puzzles, and most importantly, boring and annoying terrain traversal/climbing. It's so "cinematic" that you barely have to do anything other than holding W/A/S/D and occasionally mashing E. The camera always shows you where to go, there's usually just one path, and almost all of the movement is automatic. The game demands no skill - I guess to be suitable for couch gamers. Overall a pleasant enough experience thanks to the gorgeous and immersive world, but it doesn't do a good job as either a puzzle game or a skill/agility-based game.

Well, it's Portal with ray tracing slapped onto it. The game feels as great as ever and looks pretty amazing, but 30fps on a 9070 XT with low settings and maximum upscaling, which actually makes it look worse than the original, and 15fps at any reasonable settings? I know it's a free tech demo by Nvidia, but that doesn't make me accept that. And screw Nvidia anyway for all their **** practices.

Weeeell... I guess: meh? Pretty and soothing meditation for 2-3, but I don't get the hype around it. I don't mind a quiet and simple game (I really enjoyed Dear Esther for example), but this one didn't really have anything to keep my interest. Engaging or emotional story? Nope. Interesting gameplay mechanics? Nope. Fun world exploration? Nope. Just keep going forward, look at kinda pretty but fairly monotonous and repetitive sceneries, find some collectibles, done. Maybe I'm not sophisticated enough, but totally skippable in my view. GRIS, for one, was a lot more fun (and a lot more beautiful) with a kinda similar premise.

A worthy sequel to the original Battlefront. The highlight for me is definitely the story told from the perspective of a Clone division, who then become Stormtroopers. A unique perspective, and very well narrated. The missions, having more of a plot than in BF1, were somewhat more interesting, but at the cost of intensity of the battles.

A classic that, in my view, has aged really well. There are obvious issues of the good old times, like incredibly clunky/inaccurate hitboxes or buggy NPC AI, but the graphics still look impressive for the time, and the complexity, variety and SW feel of the battlefields makes the gameplay thoroughly enjoyable.

It's a cool idea to bridge BL2 with BL3 with a late DLC, and the main story does a good job at that. The new maps and enemies are mostly well-designed and fun to play, but unfortunately the writing and side quest design (errands forcing you to run back and forth across maps) are on par with the main game - mostly mediocre at best.

Fun and wholesome addition to the main game. Nicely designed map with some new mechanics and quests.

Fun and wholesome addition to the main game. Nicely designed map with some new mechanics and quests.

Fun and wholesome addition to the main game. Nicely designed map with some new mechanics and quests.

Fun and wholesome addition to the main game. Nicely designed map with some new mechanics and quests.

Fun and wholesome addition to the main game. Nicely designed map with some new mechanics and quests.

Wow, finally something different! The best writing I've seen in the Borderlands series by miles, with a genuinely fun campaign, a sizeable and actually fun new world, and lots of new enemy types that force you to readjust your tactics. And for the first time in the series, it felt like the characters were actual people with actual personalities. Clearly a labour of love, I wish the whole series felt like this!

Basically just more of Borderlands 2, with no particularly interesting new mechanics or weapons. A few decent locations, a couple of decent characters, a bunch more errands.

A short campaign focused on arena fights and a few other quests and errands, all of it quite typical for Borderlands 2. Mr Torgue's voice acting did make it more fun though.

Basically just more of Borderlands 2, with no particularly interesting new mechanics or weapons. A few decent locations, a few decent characters, a bunch more errands.

Very bitter-sweet, similar to BL1. The world is vast and diverse, but exploration is made very dull by omnipresent garbage loot, very few interesting NPCs, and repetitive (and respawning) enemies. Regrettably, the game doesn't do much to engage the player emotionally with its main protagonists either, and it took me almost until the end of the game to actually start to care about them. Still, the world is beautifully designed and combat is reasonably fun, so it wasn't too bad an experience.

Gorgeous RPG but with poor RPG elements...? + Really beautiful world and decent music, which makes exploration very pleasant; outstanding design of machines, and decent variety (although they get a bit repetitive later on); some decent character design. - Very poor writing (both quests and dialogues); horribly broken lip sync (which is particularly annoying given the amount of face close-ups during dialogues); combat that gets rather tedious with time (some weapons and combos are obviously superior for particular machines). The Frozen Wilds adds some more variety, a gorgeous soundtrack and some interesting lore. The writing is improved too, but combat gets tedious after a while once again.

Fantastic world design, maintaining the level seen in the Dishonored series. The design of the entire space station, all its interiors and its exterior, is breathtaking, and at times made me feel like in a space station sim. The concept of the story is fascinating too, and the design of the aliens is interesting, if not terribly original. However, the combat felt a bit monotonous and repetitive by design, with all encounters looking similar - you enter a room, find an alien in it, and kill it. No real ambushes, chases, reinforcements, or anything else that would make the combat experience more engaging. I also dislike the decision to make the playable character mute throughout the game, even though all interactions are scripted, and the character is voiced (as evident by recordings). This, together with lacklustre behaviour of NPCs, made interactions with other living inhabitants of the station rather unengaging emotionally, and made me not really care about what happens on the station. Other mechanics, such as researching the aliens or the neuromods, were well implemented and made the experience diverse enough, but unfortunately it remained rather unengaging till the end. And the ending(s) was lazy to the point of being insulting, with some of the endings composed of nothing more than a cheap 3-second cut-scene. A weird imbalance, compared to the meticulous attention to detail of the station design!

Damn near perfect. Incredibly beautiful and fascinating world design complemented by gorgeous music, diversity of creatures that keeps surprising, and snappy and well-designed combat make the exploration experience truly unforgettable. The amount of hidden stuff, from barely hidden to almost impossible to find or notice, is mind-boggling - the game really rewards attentiveness, not just with extra loot but with whole new environments! The difficulty curve is demanding, but seems perfect - the game forces you to try, and try, and keep trying, until you learn your capabilities, and your enemies, sufficiently to progress. My only complaint is the lack of a strong story driving the exploration, and as a result, for the most part, a lack of emotional engagement (although the lore is fascinating), but the whole experience is fascinating enough to make up for it.

The feel in this expansion is decent, but really it's some mechanics and a map very heavily inspired by other game series, and the core gameplay is the same repetitive grind as in the main game (and its predecessor). Take over 5 outposts, and then a fortress. The main difference? Once you die you start from scratch (retaining only the rather unconvincing story quests, and some - but not all - upgrades).

Some new potentially fun mechanics, but very imbalanced, with most of combat becoming laughably easy, and some fights (notably against Talion) becoming horrible repetitive grinds. The story was alright, but still kinda forced and unimmersive.

An even greater disappointment than the predecessor. Most of the strong (and weak points) of Shadow of Mordor were retained, with some mechanics and game elements were expanded. The combat still works well, but somehow the story felt even less engaging than in Shadow of Mordor, and the world felt even more lifeless and contrived. Still mostly empty spaces, with infinitely respawning Uruks (sometimes spawning or de-spawning in front of your eyes). And, in my view, the game is even more grindy and repetitive than the first one. Oh, and I guess they decided that the world from Shadow of Mordor was a bit too bland (being Mordor and all), and apparently thought it was legit to add an ice region, a lava region, a desert region, and a forest region, all within Mordor. And I'm supposed to feel immersed??

A decent continuation of Blades of the Shogun, despite the lack of new mechanics. The extra maps (three major ones) are well designed and interesting, and the mechanics from the main game were in such a sweet spot that nothing more was really needed. It's not groundbreaking - just more of the same good old stuff.