psylife

Thoughtful, original, and satisfying combat mechanics. Story telling, characters, and writing are just so very bad. Even the soundtrack is stupid.

There is a fundamental lack of creativity and risk taking here. The game is disappointing, not because it fails at materializing its vision, but because of how poor the vision is in the first place. Technically speaking, there is no space exploration to be found anywhere, rather an endless concatenation of ad nauseum loading screen, and fetch quests. Bethesda has a problem, where are the talents ? Where are the visionaries and innovators ?

There is a fundamental lack of creativity and risk taking here. The game is disappointing, not because it fails at materializing its vision, but because of how poor the vision is in the first place. Technically speaking, there is no space exploration to be found anywhere, rather an endless concatenation of ad nauseum loading screen, and fetch quests. Bethesda has a problem, where are the talents ? Where are the visionaries and innovators ?

I would strongly recommend game designers to play this game in order to learn how NOT to make a puzzle game. In fact how not to make a game, period. Antichamber is a RELATIVELY interesting experimental project that suffers from a severe lack of awareness of the most basic design concepts. Simply put, bumping into every wall while being continuously confused and frustrated about your actual location and what it is you are supposed to do or solve, is not fun nor clever. It's just bad design. Not only that, but the designer thought judicious to let the player run in circles, and get stuck on - what may or may not be? - a puzzle, only for the player to realize that this particular puzzle - which may or may not be an actual puzzle - is not currently solvable ! If at least the solutions to the puzzles offered a satisfying payoff... At the risk of sounding too negative, the visuals hurt my eyes. Play Stanley parable, Talos, or Portal instead.

This is very much a gallery shooter and the near complete lack of player agency keeps the player on a tight leash. You will never get to decide when and in what manner you wish to engage the enemy, rather, you will be forced into doing precisely what the game wants you to do at any given time. That said, the guns are varied, creative, and fun to use. The shooting is quite good, and the game feels good to play ; because ultimately, The Order plays well, and is successful in achieving what it sets out to do. Also, the game does have some fun and novel game mechanics, and it is therefore a shame that it never truly expanded on them, nor leveraged them in any significant way. Audio-visuals wise, it has very few equals, and its cinematographic qualities are of the highest order. The story is well told, the cut-scenes are directed well, and the acting is top notch. Overall, I found myself immersed and engaged in the story it was telling, which is not something that can be said about most games. Furthermore and perhaps more surprisingly - after playing it on hard and taking my time with it - I have found the game to be of reasonable length - say 10h - and I honestly have no complaint in that department. In the light of my experience with the game, the sabotaging campaign this game was victim of at release is truly disgraceful. And at this point in the review, I feel I should open a parenthesis and point out the degree to which the gaming press is inconsistent in its treatment of game releases. Suffice to think of the critical reception that shallow and repetitive games such as 'Hellblade' and 'Quantum break' enjoyed to illustrate my point. Why is one of the worst torture sessions I have ever had to endure - 'What happened to Edith Finch' - held as a masterpiece then, when all you do is walk around someone's house and interact with a bunch of boring and telegraphed toddler rated mini-games? What obscure set of criteria makes or breaks a game in terms of critical reception in this industry ? I guess, the logical conclusion is that game ratings and reception are much more effective at revealing something about the critical landscape, than a meaningful measure **** merit, and well... this ****. End of the tangent. In the end, when it is all said and done, I had a fairly good time with "The order: 1886" and despite the limited scope of its gameplay, I find myself glad I played it. Simply put, if you feel like shooting stuff, and If the world, lore, and overall creative design find grace in your eyes - like they did in mine - go right ahead, you won't regret it.

Let me give you a valuable piece of advice : Grab yourself a copy of both Deus Ex: Human revolution and Mankind divided at a bargain price. Put on a good pair of headphones, and immerse yourself in the definitive dystopian, noir, sci-fi thriller RPG. Just do it.

The combat has weight and managing the stamina adds a welcome tactical layer to the experience ; that said the game knows only to challenge you by spawning a stupid amount of enemies. Button mashing is often necessary and interior combat is as bad as it gets, which is a situation the game puts you in often. The magic signs have their importance but you will be spending most of your time recharging your shield which essentially confines your magic abilities to boosting your armor. The perks, abilities, and weapon upgrades are mechanically useful yet they fail to excite beyond their functionality. Dialogue wise, the genealogy of answers is quite shallow and deprived of branching - Suffice to experience Deus ex: Human revolution's dialogue system to understand what I mean by that. There is no "Game" to be found in the dialogue mechanics. The characters are inanimate dolls and the choices on offer are nothing more than a bunch of glorified playback buttons. Exploration wise, I think the game does a descent job in terms of environmental story telling, but nothing that is worth the praises beyond the best the competition has to offer. Shenmue 2 does much more in my opinion and the game came out nearly 20 years ago. The investigative phases are a real joke too, where you are mindlessly following red marks - yet another example of shallow, unaccomplished mechanic. The pacing is a real problem too ; During the first half of the game (10hrs), the story literally stalls. The game becomes more engaging once you reach the second half, but it feels too little too late. The characters are likable and by the end of the game I did feel some attachment towards some of them. The difficulty is also an issue, where the beginning happens to be much harder than the end; I beat the final bosses on my first attempts while being vastly under-leveled. The visuals are fairly bland retrospectively ; For instance, I find the sunsets particularly vulgar and over-saturated . The towns also, lack authenticity in their structure and layout, and that is particularly jarring if you compare it to the original Assassin's creed's urban layout, which feel substantially more authentic and researched. To conclude, I'd say that the disproportionate success and admiration this game has generated, comes from the fascination that the average nerd historically hold toward medieval sword and shields ; It's the "game of thrones" generation that has brought Wild hunt to the pinnacle. Wild hunt is not a bad game, it's just so far from being this timeless masterpiece

Deus Ex is remarkably modern in terms of game design, yet it is so archaic both in terms of interface, combat, and graphics. This was true back in 2000's, and it is that much more relevant today. The modulable quests design and freedom of approach are two of the most refreshing aspects of the game and ahead of most modern videogame productions. Unfortunately, as an action RPG, Deus Ex can only hope to be as good as its combat mechanics, and that's precisely where the game misses the mark. If it is true that Human revolution and Mankind divided owe everything to the original Deus ex, it is also true that both these games are far superior to the original release. Deus Ex remains an important game, a remarkable and influential game, yet a game that is also mediocre in more ways than one.

Gameplay wise, you are looking at a competent stealth action game, but that did nothing new to advance the genre. Let's be clear, as far as stealth options are concerned, you get to chose between throwing a brick, or a bottle, that's it. There are no exciting environmental opportunities to leverage, no interesting situational obstacles to deal with, and boredom sets in as, you deal with fairly identical situations, over, and over. Think of Uncharted, with extra boring interruptions, walking sections, and with the fun action bits removed. They also got rid of the puzzles too since you now get to play with bricks and ladders. The crafting and looting is competently handled, but there is really nothing in terms of gadgets or skill tree worth praising above and beyond the competition. And that's my problem, in the light of all of these observations, it is difficult for me to accept the praise the game has garnered. Maybe an exceptional scenario and plot could have justified the praises, but considering how cliche and predictable the story is, it is that much more difficult to reconcile myself with its critical success. Yes, the acting, music, presentation and production value was a cut above the competition, but as far as 2013 release games, I can think of so many games that easily outclass The last of us in terms of game and level design, pacing, mechanics, and player agency. Games such as Tomb raider, Blacklist, GTAV, not only did more, but they did it better - and if we wanted to draw a comparison with a game that more closely resembles the last of us, Spec ops: The line was the more successful of the two in realizing its story-telling ambitions. The last of us remains a moderately enjoyable game, it does have a few saving graces in terms of scenario and game-play (like the hunting sandbox at the beginning of the winter chapter), but it is far too repetitive and limited in scope to be considered anything above the best the competition has to offer. It is also worth noting that 2 of Resident evil 4's most memorable, fun, and iconic game-play moments were "borrowed" by Naughty dog, though not as well executed as in Capcom's masterwork. As a videogame, The last of us only truly excels at mimicking what has previously been done better on film and TV, yet does very little in terms of intelligent design, and interactive story telling

The game throws the player in a maze-like underground facility that will have to be navigated by means of poorly implemented controls and excruciatingly frustrating platforming. Most problematic I think, is the manner in which the developers conceived the notion of 'challenge'. Most of the difficulty the player deals with comes from tedium. In that sense, the game was somewhat immature and outdated - if not **** - even by 1998 standards. For instance, enemies absorb bullets like you wouldn't believe, and some creatures - like the crab-crawlers - perfectly illustrate the tedium based design philosophy of the game . Hazards are also intentionally placed around tight corners and hardly visible areas, so as to procure as much grief to the player as possible. It doesn't help that Half-life is a pretty bad looking game, and I think it is fair to say that the game was and remains artistically illiterate. (Keep in mind that Metal Gear Solid was already 2 months old by the time Half-life hit the shelves) Some set-piece moments centered around gameplay and the environmental puzzles were somewhat enjoyable, yet the broken platforming and tedious progression firmly cement Half-life into mediocrity.

Imagine playing a puzzle game where the puzzles were already solved for you, and all you had to do was robotically follow a series of neatly telegraphed steps, thus depriving the player from any sense of agency and accomplishment he might have had - should his wits and ingenuity had been actually solicited. The fundamental problem with this game is that the way the game wants to be played also happen to be the least interesting and boring way to play it - that is by staying silent and follow the telegraphed steps. In other words the core design of the game is at odds with its core ambition, which is to have the player become the architect of his own assassinations by strictly relying on his wits, observation skills, and mastery of the game mechanics. This is a shame because the audio-visual presentation is great and the environments are as immersive as they get. I think the developer needs to rethink the formula at its core by embracing a more systemic approach which will give rise to a more spontaneous, satisfying, and ultimately meaningful gameplay experience.

Imagine playing a puzzle game where the puzzles were already solved for you, and all you had to do was robotically follow a series of neatly telegraphed steps, thus depriving the player from any sense of agency and accomplishment he might have had - should his wits and ingenuity had been actually solicited. The fundamental problem with this game is that the way the game wants to be played also happen to be the least interesting and boring way to play it - that is by staying silent and follow the telegraphed steps. In other words the core design of the game is at odds with its core ambition, which is to have the player become the architect of his own assassinations by strictly relying on his wits, observation skills, and mastery of the game mechanics. This is a shame because the audio-visual presentation is great and the environments are as immersive as they get. I think the developer needs to rethink the formula at its core by embracing a more systemic approach which will give rise to a more spontaneous, satisfying, and ultimately meaningful gameplay experience.

Imagine playing a puzzle game where the puzzles were already solved for you, and all you had to do was robotically follow a series of neatly telegraphed steps, thus depriving the player from any sense of agency and accomplishment he might have had - should his wits and ingenuity had been actually solicited. The fundamental problem with this game is that the way the game wants to be played also happen to be the least interesting and boring way to play it - that is by staying silent and follow the telegraphed steps. In other words the core design of the game is at odds with its core ambition, which is to have the player become the architect of his own assassinations by strictly relying on his wits, observation skills, and mastery of the game mechanics. This is a shame because the audio-visual presentation is great and the environments are as immersive as they get. I think the developer needs to rethink the formula at its core by embracing a more systemic approach which will give rise to a more spontaneous, satisfying, and ultimately meaningful gameplay experience.

I have to thank From software for making this game and making everybody realize and admit that this series has always been extremely overhyped. It took you guys 10 years, but you finally got there. Beating bosses is just a matter of memorizing patterns, while dodging endlessly. That's always been the case. There is no interesting tactics to beating a boss, it's highly repetitive, boring, and frustrating. Story telling is non-existent. And yes, it's always been the case with this series. It's called cutting costs. Performance and graphics are garbage, despite the strong and inspired art direction. That's also always been true with this series. RPG aspect is actually shallow, again, that's also always been true. Open-world is just there to reveal to many of you what this game series has always been : Cheap, mediocre, served through inspired lore and visuals.

Blacklist blends action and stealth, and does so without sacrificing the tactical foundations that is so core to its gameplay. As a result, the experience retains most of the cerebral aspect of the original trilogy but also gains in action and momentum. The level design is as always, the star of the show and is both varied and challenging. The optional objectives add thrill and the different mission approaches such as Panther and Ghost add a satisfying level of incentive and reward. Gadgets and character customization are both fun and mechanically relevant. The production value is as good as ever and the visual presentation is good. That said, it is unfortunate that the game lost so much of its flair and sense of style; The minimalist, noir/Clancy ambiance was sacrificed in exchange for a cheap B television drama look and feel. The replacement of Micheal Ironside from the cast, straight-up destroyed the character of Sam Fisher and all the charisma that went with it. Black list is a good game, it is a competent game, but in some fundamental way, it is not the Splinter cell we all come to know and love.

You know, I think a lot has been said about Neil Druckmann, the Israeli born director who gets to lecture you about equality in America, all the while his countrymen keep on with the relentless oppression of indigenous men, women and children, and do so in perfect impunity. What has been systematically downplayed however, is how boring and repetitive this game is. It drags, it drags like a snail on tarmac, to the point that it will make you question your infatuation for videogames. There is no pay off, no meaning, you will just be left empty, knowing that you wasted yet another 25 hours of your life. Controls are good, movements are fluid, but the AI is disappointing and the lack of innovative gameplay features, mechanics, and intelligent level design, unequivocally clues the player in as to the misguided priorities of this creative endeavor. To think that all of these resources, human labor, and skills, were put to the exclusive service of such a mediocre - dare I say, incompetent - director, and game designer, puts into question the reality of the meritocratic nature of this industry.

The gameplay is all about swiftly concatenating together grapples, dashes, and double jumps, while occasionally spamming the attack button in order to dispense with the foes sprinkled around the levels. The boss fights and chase sequences bring nothing in the way of clever level design and puzzle solving. There is perhaps nothing fundamentally wrong with that, but the result is a rather boring, repetitive and slightly tedious game that quickly outlasts its welcome, despite the constant stream of new mechanics being introduced throughout the adventure. What I found most problematic however, was the amount of time that I have spent bouncing all four corners of the map, trying to figure out where to go next. I too often found myself navigating a set of challenging platforming section, only to realize that I had spent the last 10 minutes burying myself deep in the wrong direction. It doesn't help that the audio-visual presentation, for all its beauty and polish, lacks variety, originality, dare I say, identity. This is a critique that very well extends to the story and characters. Play Guacamelee instead.

This game is a genuine chore to play. Sluggish, repetitive, and ultimately tedious, the game essentially consists of an endless concatenation of Ad nauseam back and forth trips to various shoot-out locations, intertwined with shallow mini-games and telegraphed action prompts. The cowboy simulator aspect is superficial and redundant since it is not required in order to survive or progress the story. On a more positive note the game is gorgeous - perhaps the best looking game of the generation - and the care and attention to detail must be praised. Characters, scenario, and overall immersion are above and beyond anything I have played in a long time ; but when it is all said and done, I have found that for all of its greatest aspects, it was never enough in redeeming the mediocrity, boredom, and tedium I had to endure in order to reach the end credits.

This game is a genuine chore to play. Sluggish, repetitive, and ultimately tedious, the game essentially consists of an endless concatenation of Ad nauseam back and forth trips to various shoot-out locations, intertwined with shallow mini-games and telegraphed action prompts. The cowboy simulator aspect is superficial and redundant since it is not required in order to survive or progress the story. On a more positive note the game is gorgeous - perhaps the best looking game of the generation - and the care and attention to detail must be praised. Characters, scenario, and overall immersion are above and beyond anything I have played in a long time ; but when it is all said and done, I have found that for all of its greatest aspects, it was never enough in redeeming the mediocrity, boredom, and tedium I had to endure in order to reach the end credits.

TLG is a repetitive and slightly tedious platformer, intertwined with lackluster puzzle design. The camera is at times indeed problematic, the frame rate is bad, and the controls leave a lot to be desired. Yet, and perhaps more importantly, as an adventure, it is unique, memorable, and enchanting. The dreamworld visuals are truly awe inspiring, the animations are some of the greatest and most expressive I have yet to see, and the physics impress. The unscripted, procedural nature of your interaction with the guardian is remarkably successful, and as piece of gaming concept, it is the most refreshing, and intelligent leverage of the video-game medium I have had the pleasure to experience in a long long time - Indeed, your interaction with the guardian seamlessly serve both the story and game-play needs. At no point have I felt I was dealing with an AI, but rather a genuine living creature - This achievement alone must be celebrated. TLG is not a very good game then, but it offers something novel to experience. and will leave you with a cherished memory of your time with it. Play it.

The first thing to note is that the game is surprinsingly short (Hard playthrough) - The absence of uniquely crafted set pieces points towards the fact that the game might have had a lower budget than previous naughty dog productions. Gameplay wise, you are looking at a competent stealth action game, but that does nothing new to advance the genre. Let's be clear, as far as stealth options are concerned, you get to chose between throwing a brick, or a bottle, that's it. There are no exciting environmental opportunities to leverage, no interesting situational obstacles to deal with, and boredom sets in as, you deal with fairly identical situations, over, and over. Think of Uncharted, with extra boring interruptions, walking sections, and with the fun action bits removed. They also got rid of the puzzles too since you now get to play with bricks and ladders. The crafting and looting is competently handled, but there is really nothing in terms of gadgets or skill tree worth praising above and beyond the competition. And that's my problem, in the light of all of these observations, it is difficult for me to accept the praise the game has garnered. Maybe an exceptional scenario and plot could have justified the praises, but considering how cliche and predictable the story is, it is that much more difficult to reconcile myself with its critical success. Yes, the acting, music, presentation and production value is a cut above the competition, but as far as 2013 release games, I can think of so many games that easily outclass The last of us in terms of game and level design, pacing, mechanics, and player agency. Games such as Tomb raider, Blacklist, GTAV, not only do more, but they do it better - and if we wanted to draw a comparison with a game that more closely resembles the last of us, Spec ops: The line is the more successful of the two in realizing both its game-play and story-telling ambitions. The last of us remains a moderately enjoyable game, it does have a few saving graces in terms of scenario and game-play (like the hunting sandbox at the beginning of the winter chapter), but it is far too repetitive and limited in scope to be considered anything above the best the competition has to offer. It is also worth noting that 2 of Resident evil 4's most memorable, fun, and iconic game-play moments were "borrowed" by Naughty dog, though not as well executed as in Capcom's masterwork. As a videogame, The last of us only truly excels at mimicking what has previously been done better on film and TV, yet does very little in terms of intelligent design, and interactive story telling.

The first thing to note is that the game is surprinsingly short (Hard playthrough) - The absence of uniquely crafted set pieces points towards the fact that the game might have had a lower budget than previous naughty dog productions. Gameplay wise, you are looking at a competent stealth action game, but that does nothing new to advance the genre. Let's be clear, as far as stealth options are concerned, you get to chose between throwing a brick, or a bottle, that's it. There are no exciting environmental opportunities to leverage, no interesting situational obstacles to deal with, and boredom sets in as, you deal with fairly identical situations, over, and over. Think of Uncharted, with extra boring interruptions, walking sections, and with the fun action bits removed. They also got rid of the puzzles too since you now get to play with bricks and ladders. The crafting and looting is competently handled, but there is really nothing in terms of gadgets or skill tree worth praising above and beyond the competition. And that's my problem, in the light of all of these observations, it is difficult for me to accept the praise the game has garnered. Maybe an exceptional scenario and plot could have justified the praises, but considering how cliche and predictable the story is, it is that much more difficult to reconcile myself with its critical success. Yes, the acting, music, presentation and production value is a cut above the competition, but as far as 2013 release games, I can think of so many games that easily outclass The last of us in terms of game and level design, pacing, mechanics, and player agency. Games such as Tomb raider, Blacklist, GTAV, not only do more, but they do it better - and if we wanted to draw a comparison with a game that more closely resembles the last of us, Spec ops: The line is the more successful of the two in realizing both its game-play and story-telling ambitions. The last of us remains a moderately enjoyable game, it does have a few saving graces in terms of scenario and game-play (like the hunting sandbox at the beginning of the winter chapter), but it is far too repetitive and limited in scope to be considered anything above the best the competition has to offer. It is also worth noting that 2 of Resident evil 4's most memorable, fun, and iconic game-play moments were "borrowed" by Naughty dog, though not as well executed as in Capcom's masterwork. As a videogame, The last of us only truly excels at mimicking what has previously been done better on film and TV, yet does very little in terms of intelligent design, and interactive story telling.

The game looks good, but nothing groundbreaking or up to the standards some have been advertising. Truth be told I find the material authoring and asset definition around the environment quite average, if not below expectation. Gameplay is pretty much the same as it has always been. There is really not much to say here unfortunately. Get it on game pass, play it and move on. Collapse

The game looks good, but nothing groundbreaking or up to the standards some have been advertising. Truth be told I find the material authoring and asset definition around the environment quite average, if not below expectation. Gameplay is pretty much the same as it has always been. There is really not much to say here unfortunately. Get it on game pass, play it and move on.

Unfortunately, the puzzles, which mainly consists of revealing runes hidden throughout the environment and navigating your way through a maze-like sandbox, are boring, repetitive, and ultimately tedious. Because most of the game consists of solving these elementary puzzles, the game ends up feeling, well.. like tedium. The combat is surprisingly gratifying. Executing timed parries, dodges, and combos charges a special ability that allows you to slow down time, which is vital when outnumbered. The animations and combos look good, and the combat has a nice up and personal feel to it. Enemy variety is poor, yet there is a descent eco-system of foes with strength and weaknesses to exploit and play with. The combat is by far Hellblade's strongest aspect, yet it will all come down to button mashing and mindlessly abusing the dodge button in order to overcome the ridiculous number of enemies the game will throw at you towards the end. The movement of the character outside of combat is sluggish, and the camera is too rigidly attached to the character on screen. In fact the whole game feels slow and sluggish. The walking sessions, establishing shots, and cut-scenes drag and yet tell very little story. If I wanted to be mean, I'd say the game is just full of itself. Half-way through the game I started having major frame rate issues, and no amount of low-settings could even remedy the problem. The environments don't look that great, though the game definitely has its moments. Towards the end, there was a strange after taste of instanced assets and botched job. Hellblade is an average to mediocre game, that is not without good ideas and potential, yet succumbs to its misguided priorities. I'd be willing to give it a pass if it was only capable of telling a compelling story - and no, the bitter-sweet ending and tear-jerking score in the end will not make me forget all the mediocrity I had to endure in order to get to that point.

This game suffers from a general lack of polish, including in the presentation. The lousy and buggy 'level design', combined with what is possibly the worst AI in the history of modern video games, firmly cements Syndicate in mediocrity. The various assassination scenarios for instance, are poorly executed as they lack proper dedicated code and scene direction. This instancing and spamming of the various mechanics and scenarios across the open-world is disappointing. This is made that much more evident when compared against Unity, which boasts far superior level design, controls, story, pacing, and overall polish. Yes, Unity was buggy, and yes it still has frame-rate issues, but underneath all that there is a good game made with a lot of care and attention. Go play that instead.

You will be spending your time solving kindergarten level 'puzzles' served through an intentionally convoluted and obtuse interface as to create the illusion of challenge. That is if you consider challenging, the idea of bumping into every wall in search of some interactive pop-up. Tedious, boring, and repetitive, this is an experience that relies heavily on its audio-visual presentation in order to entertain. Intriguing and immersive, the game is heavily inspired by classics such as 2001: A space odyssey and interstellar, while never succeeding in offering a respectable narrative pay off. Observation is a genuinely mediocre game and a concrete example of what happens when the artistic and directorial aspirations of a developer takes precedence over genuinely fun, clever, and engaging design and mechanics.

You will be spending your time solving kindergarten level 'puzzles' served through an intentionally convoluted and obtuse interface as to create the illusion of challenge. That is if you consider challenging, the idea of bumping into every wall in search of some interactive pop-up. Tedious, boring, and repetitive, this is an experience that relies heavily on its audio-visual presentation in order to entertain. Intriguing and immersive, the game is heavily inspired by classics such as 2001: A space odyssey and interstellar, while never succeeding in offering a respectable narrative pay off. Observation is a genuinely mediocre game and a concrete example of what happens when the artistic and directorial aspirations of a developer takes precedence over genuinely fun, clever, and engaging design and mechanics.

The interplay between the various environmental contraptions, the mechanics, the design, all great.. But after a while I couldn't stand the hacking anymore, which forced me to ignore it, which forced me die more than I should have. The FOV in this game is criminal, and the challenge essentially comes from the communion of a **** field of view and a constant stream of aggression from the game. The pacing of the story is also all over the place. There is actually almost no plot development until you reach Ryan, which is 80% into the game. Perhaps more generally, the game just became more and more repetitive as the developer failed to create new, refreshing, dare I say, fun situation for the player to deal with. The game went from thoughtful and satisfying in its first half to chaotic and frustrating in its second half. The story and lore is interesting, but how can it be considered a masterpiece, is one of the great mysteries of the gaming world ; Then again, Infinite is considered great, even though it doesn't even have any of the redeeming qualities of Bioshock, as if the developer had no idea what were Bioshock's strength in the first place ; Talking about a lack of talent there. It's a frustrating state of affair, because these mechanics deserved to be served and delivered through better level design and pacing.

The combat has weight and managing the stamina adds a welcome tactical layer to the experience ; that said the game knows only to challenge you by spawning a stupid amount of enemies. Button mashing is often necessary and interior combat is as bad as it gets, which is a situation the game puts you in often. The magic signs have their importance but you will be spending most of your time recharging your shield which essentially confines your magic abilities to boosting your armor. The perks, abilities, and weapon upgrades are mechanically useful yet they fail to excite beyond their functionality. Dialogue wise, the genealogy of answers is quite shallow and deprived of branching - Suffice to experience Deus ex: Human revolution's dialogue system to understand what I mean by that. There is no "Game" to be found in the dialogue mechanics. The characters are inanimate dolls and the choices on offer are nothing more than a bunch of glorified playback buttons. Exploration wise, I think the game does a descent job in terms of environmental story telling, but nothing that is worth the praises beyond the best the competition has to offer. Shenmue 2 does much more in my opinion and the game came out nearly 20 years ago. The investigative phases are a real joke too, where you are mindlessly following red marks - yet another example of shallow, unaccomplished mechanic. The pacing is a real problem too ; During the first half of the game (10hrs), the story literally stalls. The game becomes more engaging once you reach the second half, but it feels too little too late. The characters are likable and by the end of the game I did feel some attachment towards some of them. The difficulty is also an issue, where the beginning happens to be much harder than the end; I beat the final bosses on my first attempts while being vastly under-leveled. The visuals are fairly bland retrospectively ; For instance, I find the sunsets particularly vulgar and over-saturated . The towns also, lack authenticity in their structure and layout, and that is particularly jarring if you compare it to the original Assassin's creed's urban layout, which feel substantially more authentic and researched. To conclude, I'd say that the disproportionate success and admiration this game has generated, comes from the fascination that the average nerd historically hold toward medieval sword and shields ; It's the "game of thrones" generation that has brought Wild hunt to the pinnacle. Wild hunt is not a bad game, it's just so far from being this timeless masterpiece.

The combat has weight and managing the stamina adds a welcome tactical layer to the experience ; that said the game knows only to challenge you by spawning a stupid amount of enemies. Button mashing is often necessary and interior combat is as bad as it gets, which is a situation the game puts you in often. The magic signs have their importance but you will be spending most of your time recharging your shield which essentially confines your magic abilities to boosting your armor. The perks, abilities, and weapon upgrades are mechanically useful yet they fail to excite beyond their functionality. Dialogue wise, the genealogy of answers is quite shallow and deprived of branching - Suffice to experience Deus ex: Human revolution's dialogue system to understand what I mean by that. There is no "Game" to be found in the dialogue mechanics. The characters are inanimate dolls and the choices on offer are nothing more than a bunch of glorified playback buttons. Exploration wise, I think the game does a descent job in terms of environmental story telling, but nothing that is worth the praises beyond the best the competition has to offer. Shenmue 2 does much more in my opinion and the game came out nearly 20 years ago. The investigative phases are a real joke too, where you are mindlessly following red marks - yet another example of shallow, unaccomplished mechanic. The pacing is a real problem too ; During the first half of the game (10hrs), the story literally stalls. The game becomes more engaging once you reach the second half, but it feels too little too late. The characters are likable and by the end of the game I did feel some attachment towards some of them. The difficulty is also an issue, where the beginning happens to be much harder than the end; I beat the final bosses on my first attempts while being vastly under-leveled. The visuals are fairly bland retrospectively ; For instance, I find the sunsets particularly vulgar and over-saturated . The towns also, lack authenticity in their structure and layout, and that is particularly jarring if you compare it to the original Assassin's creed's urban layout, which feel substantially more authentic and researched. To conclude, I'd say that the disproportionate success and admiration this game has generated, comes from the fascination that the average nerd historically hold toward medieval sword and shields ; It's the "game of thrones" generation that has brought Wild hunt to the pinnacle. Wild hunt is not a bad game, it's just so far from being this timeless masterpiece.

An educational puzzle-action game about WW1. The sketchy artwork, flash animations, and colors articulate together to generate a credible and atmospheric world, that is worth immersing yourself in for a while. The various scenarios are well-scripted and the characters are like-able. This is a heart-warming story that will inevitably move you by the time the end credits roll. The game-play is enjoyable yet the puzzles and overall challenge suffer from the fact that the game is clearly geared towards children. Adults will still get something out of it but its over-simplistic nature severely limits its reach.

The combat mechanics are centered around the interaction between elemental magics and environmental opportunities; Cast a thundering bolt on a puddle of water and all the enemies that happen to be standing there will get electrocuted and eventually end-up losing their turn because of that specific status effect. The turn-based system gives you the time to reflect upon your next move and plot tactics. Each characters possess two types of armor; One armor protects from 'magic and elemental' damage and the other protects from 'physical' damage; This system is interesting in the sense that it forces the player to balance its party between characters that deal elemental damage and the ones that specialize in dealing damage to the physical armor. Unfortunately, none of that ever amounts to a truly satisfying combat experience, since the sheer chaos and unpredictability of the various situations means that nothing really ever goes according to plan. There is also a lot of redundancy across the various abilities, and a general sense that there is just too much on offer for the player to develop a proper level of confidence within a single play-through. It doesn't help, that across my play-through, every enemy I have encountered happened to be systematically 3-4 levels above mine and could eliminate my party members in a single shot. This has been a real source of frustration. The fact of the matter is that it just never really felt about smart tactical decisions, but more about mastering the art of save scumming, circumventing, and grinding. The game has fairly unoriginal story, and uninteresting characters. The audio-visuals are repetitive and ultimately uninspiring. For all its many merits, this is a definite let down. Play Darkest Dungeon instead.

This game is essentially an endless concatenation of cliches, that are used to propel forward what is at its core an incoherent plot-line deprived of creativity. David Cage is an incompetent writer, that has somehow developed a taste for the worst that the american TV industry has to offer. What a damn waste of potential, skill, and effort this is. Detroit is a mediocre game with fantastic production values.

Some good ideas, if nothing truly new or refreshing. The puzzles lack depth and ultimately fail to satisfy. Running around the mansion becomes annoying and repetitive. Like many indie productions unfortunately, this is yet another case of style over substance. It is not a completely bad game, just a mediocre game, with solid mechanics, that never delivers on its potential.

A slow and boring interactive story, where the user walks around a house as the narrator delivers on the grotesquely absurd tragic demise of the Finch family. There is absolutely no point to the story, there is no interesting or thought provoking ending that might justify the pain of having to sit through it. You just finish the game with the sensation that you just wasted 3 hours of your time walking painfully slowly through someone's house. I found FIrewatch far more interesting, and I would easily recommend it above and beyond this game. This is a truly laughable, pointless, time-wasting experience, that tries hard to tear jerk you and eventually fails even at that.

A slow and boring interactive story, where the user walks around a house as the narrator delivers on the grotesquely absurd tragic demise of the Finch family. There is absolutely no point to the story, there is no interesting or thought provoking ending that might justify the pain of having to sit through it. You just finish the game with the sensation that you just wasted 3 hours of your time walking painfully slowly through someone's house. I found FIrewatch far more interesting, and I would easily recommend it above and beyond this game. This is a truly laughable, pointless, time-wasting experience, that tries hard to tear jerk you and eventually fails even at that.

A well-paced piece of Zionist propaganda. Despite being cheesy, cliche, and misleading in its depiction of the events, it still manages to delight thanks to solid and varied game-play mechanics and an expertly designed single player campaign.

Alright - I will be perfectly honest. This game has barely evolved since the days of the 360. The sentiment here is that they keep on repackaging the same product with some minor improvements and gimmicky implementations that do little in the way of advancing the genre. Weather and time of day are partial and nothing on the level of what has been done in the past by other franchises. Micro-transactions are aggressive and game-play is drifting always further away from its sim-like pretensions. The visuals have always looked synthetic to me, and I can't say that this is doing much to improve my past impressions in this department - Cars and track are ok, but don't hold well to scrutiny. I wouldn't recommend this game if you own the previous ones - I would instead wait for the studio to take steps to show us some true generational improvements over its older entries.

Alright - I will be perfectly honest. This game has barely evolved since the days of the 360. The sentiment here is that they keep on repackaging the same product with some minor improvements and gimmicky implementations that do little in the way of advancing the genre. Weather and time of day are partial and nothing on the level of what has been done in the past by other franchises. Micro-transactions are aggressive and game-play is drifting always further away from its sim-like pretensions. The visuals have always looked synthetic to me, and I can't say that this is doing much to improve my past impressions in this department - Cars and track are ok, but don't hold well to scrutiny. I wouldn't recommend this game if you own the previous ones - I would instead wait for the studio to take steps to show us some true generational improvements over its older entries.

There is nothing about this game's mechanics that remotely resembles an actual Turing-like test. Furthermore, there is nothing in here that games like "Portal" and "The Talos Principles" haven't done better a few years prior. I feel the name of the game is misleading, in which it seems to imply that the game mechanics are cleverly designed as to have the player experience an intelligent set of 'Man" vs "Machines" differentiation tests while in reality the game consists of a series of relatively easy yet slightly convoluted puzzles, that are fundamentally uninspiring and repetitive. This is not a bad game, it's just a monotonous game, a descent pass-time, that is hard to recommend above and beyond far superior games in the genre,

This game is reminiscent of older puzzle-platformers such as Little big adventure and Abe's Odyssey. The puzzles are well designed, but lack a bit in creativity and challenge. The story is virtually non-existent and this is something that is hard to overlook. The lore is indeed intriguing, and the atmosphere is quite immersive, but that alone cannot make up for its lack of narrative ; This is very much a case of the author, trying too hard to achieve intellectual appeal through sheer abstraction. That said, this game must be commended for its fantastic visual design as well as its top of the class animations. The visual locations do become repetitive, and a times the walking sequences stretch for a little long. The action and game-play flows very nicely, and the game runs quite smoothly. Inside is a very competent game, an exquisite piece of interactive design, that ultimately fails at telling a compelling story while challenging the player in fun creative ways

Fresh and fun mechanics that revolve around managing time as it relates to your movements in space. The game is structured in a sequence of action set pieces that are in their essence, dynamic puzzles that can be solved in a variety of ways. Chaining gun and combat actions with fluidity is entertaining and very satisfying. Can be beaten in about two hours, recommended at a bargain price.

The harmonious blend of platforming and fighting mechanics is absolutely brilliant and unique. Special combos and abilities are expertly introduced and keep the experience fresh and enticing throughout ; These amphibious game-play mechanics means that most of the special moves and combos used in combat articulate with the platforming elements to form an ultra-fluid action experience ; Brilliant. The controls are ultra-responsive and are a joy to interact with. The pacing is superb and the levels are both, clever, challenging and action packed. The audio-visual presentation is both lovely and immersive. Simply put, this is one of the most ingenious and brilliant platforming experience to grace this medium.

This game follows the trail left by Allied Assault while successfully bringing the formula to the next level.This is a masterclass in single player campaign pacing and scenario. Expert and respectful checkpoint placement means that you will never redo a section previously beaten twice. Playing on hard is highly recommended as the various mechanics and level design will be more thoroughly experienced. The shooting is both varied and weighty. The levels are designed in such a way as to hint the player towards multiple possible tactical approaches ; Choosing to storm the inside of a building is as challenging as it should and might reward you with a unique vantage point. The various set pieces are seamlessly integrated and never feel odd or disconnected from the main mechanics. The voice acting is great and the minimalist story telling keeps the scenario engaging and fairly credible. That said, the game is clearly part of a sophisticated war propaganda machine and is likely indirectly responsible for the death of many young testosterone filled adolescents in need of adventure ; I believe this will be rightly regarded as a historical piece of Zionist propaganda down the line. The main villain's name is even named after the current president of Syria, whom the Zionists are currently trying to actively murder ; Russian patriots are also antagonized. The visuals, animations and lighting hold surprisingly well, and thoroughly immerse . Modern warfare is not only a good shooter, it is simply one of the best FPS experience of all time and deserves to be celebrated as such.

This game follows the trail left by Allied Assault while successfully bringing the formula to the next level.This is a masterclass in single player campaign pacing and scenario. Expert and respectful checkpoint placement means that you will never redo a section previously beaten twice. Playing on hard is highly recommended as the various mechanics and level design will be more thoroughly experienced. The shooting is both varied and weighty. The levels are designed in such a way as to hint the player towards multiple possible tactical approaches ; Choosing to storm the inside of a building is as challenging as it should and might reward you with a unique vantage point. The various set pieces are seamlessly integrated and never feel odd or disconnected from the main mechanics. The voice acting is great and the minimalist story telling keeps the scenario engaging and fairly credible. That said, the game is clearly part of a sophisticated war propaganda machine and is likely indirectly responsible for the death of many young testosterone filled adolescents in need of adventure ; I believe this will be rightly regarded as a historical piece of Zionist propaganda down the line. The main villain's name is even named after the current president of Syria, whom the Zionists are currently trying to actively murder ; Russian patriots are also antagonized. The visuals, animations and lighting hold surprisingly well, and thoroughly immerse . Modern warfare is not only a good shooter, it is simply one of the best FPS experience of all time and deserves to be celebrated as such.

Despite the plethora of enemies and bosses on offer, this is a highly repetitive experience. Incredibly, you are not allowed to restart a boss fight, instead, the game will force you to run back from the last checkpoint over and over in a mind numbing cycle of frustration and despair ; This is a seldom seen time waster in games. This pathetic design choice is most likely there to artificially extend the game-play time. About 50% OF THE GAME-PLAY TIME had me run back to the boss fight location so as to get a shot at the actual challenge ; THIS IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION, you will fight bosses as much as you will run back to them. This design choice alone has me resent the developer profoundly. Past the built-in time wasters, the game is surprisingly not that challenging and the whole design structure encourages you to use exploits in conjunction with Exp grinds. The combat has plenty of nuance, yet it all comes down to rolling, slashing and dying until the end credits. The plethora of enemies on offer are fantastic to look at (as are the worlds), but ultimately fail to add a satisfying level of variety to the combat, as I said, this is very much a one note experience, roll, slash until you reach the end. Dark souls is fundamentally and structurally not a good game, and should be severely reprimanded for some of its design choices. There is something clearly addictive and the world design, lore and detailed visuals must be commended for there exceptional quality. The frame rate is all over the place and bugs abound. Unless you are a nerd with literally no life, or you simply can't resist the lore and visuals, I advise you stay away ; What is good and exceptional about this game cannot be reached other than through the sadistic prism of frustration and a massive amount of time waste. You've been warned.

Despite the plethora of enemies and bosses on offer, this is a highly repetitive experience. Incredibly, you are not allowed to restart a boss fight, instead, the game will force you to run back from the last checkpoint over and over in a mind numbing cycle of frustration and despair ; This is a seldom seen time waster in games. This pathetic design choice is most likely there to artificially extend the game-play time. About 50% OF THE GAME-PLAY TIME had me run back to the boss fight location so as to get a shot at the actual challenge ; THIS IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION, you will fight bosses as much as you will run back to them. This design choice alone has me resent the developer profoundly. Past the built-in time wasters, the game is surprisingly not that challenging and the whole design structure encourages you to use exploits in conjunction with Exp grinds. The combat has plenty of nuance, yet it all comes down to rolling, slashing and dying until the end credits. The plethora of enemies on offer are fantastic to look at (as are the worlds), but ultimately fail to add a satisfying level of variety to the combat, as I said, this is very much a one note experience, roll, slash until you reach the end. Dark souls is fundamentally and structurally not a good game, and should be severely reprimanded for some of its design choices. There is something clearly addictive and the world design, lore and detailed visuals must be commended for there exceptional quality. The frame rate is all over the place and bugs abound. Unless you are a nerd with literally no life, or you simply can't resist the lore and visuals, I advise you stay away ; What is good and exceptional about this game cannot be reached other than through the sadistic prism of frustration and a massive amount of time waste. You've been warned.

The shooting mechanics are tight, responsive and **** cover system is fluid and the variety of scenarios keep the action fun and engaging. The vehicle physics have great weight and the driving is good. This is very much a driving game first and foremost; 50% of the time is spent driving from one end of the map to the other, which is not really a problem if you enjoy the drive, but it is quite revealing of what the experience really amounts to. Once you arrive at your destination you will likely be asked to drive somewhere else; This is not an oversimplification. The characters are cliche yet entertaining and the many story exposition sections were mostly fun to watch and interact with. Heist missions make up the core of the campaign and allows the player to choose from different tactical approaches at the onset of the mission; It's a welcome addition but ultimately fails to add a satisfying level of strategy to the experience. Character wise, the agenda is palpable; The white southerner is a depraved murderous maniac, The italian-american is a mobster, and the black kid is a walking vegetable. Overall, the game promotes amorality, pornography, violence by the truckloads. In fact, I'd be curious to research on the ethnic/religious background of the writers and producers. As it is the case with agenda products, the game is very well produced, and the audio-visual realization is great; The world feels alive. This is a casual game that manages to entertain beyond its shallow mechanics.

The game borrows heavily from Resident Evil 4 in both pacing and game structure. The cover based combat works fairly well and the interactive weapon reloads adds a nice touch. Movement controls are rigid and a little clunky. Your squad-mates have no proper AI and the weapons, while interesting, lack weight. At first, the game puts you in a variety of interesting situations and the environmental brain-teases are fun. The enemies are absolute bullet sponge. When behind cover, you are virtually invincible which encourages you to coward behind and shoot from afar; This goes against the grain of the experience in terms of dynamism and pace. The difficulty spikes and the battles become repetitive and start to drag halfway through; This is likely a budgeted attempt to make up for the lack of interesting new set pieces and design scenarios. The hit detection system is unreliable, especially in third person mode, often leading to unfair deaths. The checkpoint system is questionable since it will have you often replay through entire sections previously beaten, artificially lengthening the game time. The story and characters are comically bad; This is very much a product of its time, likely designed to encourage young Americans to go in Irak. The environment and overall graphics are very detailed and aged quite well; That said, the game is visually monotonous, and the locations are quite repetitive and lifeless. GOW is not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, I had a descent time with it, and there are some commendable design choices and game-play innovations. In Co-op, this game must have been quite fun.