ragethorn

Before reading this review, you need to know where I am coming from. I started clubbing heavily in 99-2012ish? I love House, Techno, Trance, Dance Music in general, Euro music from the 90's, you name it, love it. I played DJ Hero 1 & 2 to death and still have both, along with 2 turntables. I got super excited to hear a new rhythm game was coming out from Harmonix. COVID took a toll on everyone in 2020. I haven't played a rhythm based game since DJ Hero 2, Rock Band 2. It's been a while. Be very careful; this is not a video game as much as it's a tool to create your own megamix/music. The Campaign acts as a long Tutorial to show you everything you're able to do with the game, which gave more direction and a drive to collect 5 stars on each set. Other than Campaign, there's a freestyle mode where you could play to your hearts content. However, once you beat Campaign, you've pretty much heard the same songs over and over and over again. Battle Mode is really iffy and I still don't full understand it. It's multiplayer so I can't really comment. Social is where Harmonix will implement weekly challenges and you have to try and reach a top 25 in the leaderboard to unlock new aesthetics, clothing, designs, etc. When this game works, it works REALLY well. For me, hearing Paul Van Dyk - For An Angel kick in during the end of a set reminds me of the wee hours of the morning, finally leaving a club after a rave. Part nostalgia but the other part is missing. The game falls flat to me when it comes to replay value. I was hoping for more modes, couch co-op, more challenges, more direction? I'm not sure, since I'm not a developer. I spent around $90 CAD and bought the VIP version when it was on sale, wish I didn't because you can easily pick the songs YOU want through a DLC. Am I playing this game everyday? No. I walk away and walk back in randomly here and there. Guilty as charged, I'll buy some DLC here and there when a song drops that I need in my crate like Tiesto, David Guetta or Darude. I wish there was a leaderboard of some sort to fight for? It's just missing something to keep wanting to play it other than just creating your own megamixes. I love my dance music and I love the fair share of 80's tunes too as those grew on me in my later years but this new hip hop and pop music is brutal to my ears. If you like the tracklist, it could be for you but for me, it's fun at times.

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. First, if you haven't played INSIDE, play it NOW! Second, I beat the game 7 times in a matter of a week. I can't stop thinking about it. If you like subtle storytelling, this is for you. Takes an hour and a half to beat if you've played it before but your first time will take double that. Clever and dark, this is my Last of Us for this year. I didn't think playdead would be able to make a better game than Limbo. I was wrong.

I bought Asemblance for $6.99 during the Halloween sale in the PS Store. I only spent maybe 2 hours on it and beat it twice so far. At the moment, I'm just trying to unlock some hidden trophies. I liked the experience. It's short, creepy, atmospheric which is the type of indie games I love playing. There are only 3 buttons. X is to interact with an object only if it has a giant X hovering below the screen, meaning you can. L1 is to sprint, but doesn't feel like that much of a difference compared to walking. R2 is to zoom in and that's basically how to progress through the world. You zoom in on certain objects to cause a rift that progressing you through time and space to your next task at hand. I think $10 for Asemblance is fair. We see movies for more in theaters. This does feel more like a tv show experience if you ask me, so you might want to buy it on sale too if you're unsure.

Just 100%'d Emily Wants to Play on the PS4. Before I begin, I love horror games and whenever there's a horror game on sale or naturally cheap, it's worth trying out in my opinion. Emily Wants to Play is naturally $7 bucks. Immediately, it warrants a play considering most indie games are $20+ nowadays. Even if the game **** for me, it's only $7. I can live with that. You play a pizza delivery boy who was called to deliver some goodies at 11pm at night and end up being terrorized by a little girl and her 3 creepy dolls. The goal of the game is to last the entire night until 6AM. Every hour poses a new challenge and it's mostly a new character/doll terrorizing you for that entire house and each one of them have a weakness you have to figure out in order to help you last the hour. When you die, and you will; A LOT, you begin from the beginning of the hour. Consider the top of the hour your save point. The hour in reality lasts only 5 minutes in real-time, which makes it able to complete the game in less than an hour. The graphics are extremely dated. You can tell no money was spent on the making of this game. It seems like it was only made for a dev's portfolio. The controls are frustrating as they can make or break your hour. The buttons include run, use and flashlight on/off as well as zoom. Zoom does nothing. Might help you out only in levels where you have no choice but to be in the dark and need help seeing without getting too close. I wouldn't say it's a complete knock off of Five Nights At Freddy's because the only thing it knocked off are the different types of dolls and jump scares when they get you. Overall, it's a challenging little horror game. I spent about 2-3 hours on it and would've spent more on figuring out what every dolls weaknesses are but I checked online and cheated only to realize there's a room in the house that holds a clue for you to figure out how to get by the hour. If you can get by the graphics, control issues and cheap deaths at times, it's $7 well spent. It's short, sweet, creepy and goofy. I'll be nice and give it an average score of 6.

Before I continue, I am NOT a fan of racing games. My favorite racing game before the DIRT franchise was Need for Speed : Porsche Unleashed. Yes, I'm old. I could care less about cars or racing games in general. Consider that before hearing my opinion. With that being said, I love the DIRT franchise. It's fast, fun and dirty. I enjoy Rally racing and there's nothing like the feeling of finishing a round with no accidents. Nothing but smooth riding, quick turns and drifting a tough corner. DIRT 3 was IMO, the best of the series. Lots of modes, lots of fun things to do and the graphics, oh the graphics. One of the biggest reasons I love DIRT (don't hate me, even if it sounds petty) is the in-car camera view. I cannot for the life of me play a video racing game using a 3rd person cam view, except for GTA but is that really a racing game? First thing you have to acknowledge is the time and patience needed to succeed in DIRT Rally. It's tough. It's very hard. No hand holding allowed. You're just going to have to figure it out. It took me a good 4-5 hours to get the hang of the first available cars on snowy, muddy or gravel roads. I can see a lot of people giving up within the first 5 hours. One of my biggest complaints this time around are the graphics. I'm playing it on the PS4. Inside the car looks great. I love all the details depending on the car. Outside the windshield? So so. I've come across situations or particular sections where shadows are pixelated and ugly compared to everything else. Even when watching the replays of the race you just finished used to be one of my favorite things to do but there's a ton of glitches, like shrubs and weeds disappearing and then re-appearing. I'm not 100% sure on this but I'd imagine games like GT & Forza have more modes than DIRT RALLY. All you get here is career, custom events and online. Not bad but it could've featured more modes, cars and options. Overall, DIRT Rally is up my alley because I like a good challenge and I prefer rally racing over GT. Considering the rewind feature has been removed this time around, it might be too difficult for some. I bought it on sale for $40 and there's a bunch of new games coming out now since it's almost October so I don't see myself playing this or being addicted to it like I would be if it was June.

I'm a huge fan of Gone Home, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Slenderman, and a bunch of these so-called "walking simulators". Gone Home was great. It was filled with mystery, atmosphere and dread. Every clue you find puts another bad thought in your head. I was hoping Dear Esther, would be the same. It wasn't. Gone Home is a different breed. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is developed by the same guys who made Dear Esther. It wasn't my favorite game but it was creepy and huge. The town looked like it was filled with secrets. I enjoyed it but I wouldn't replay it. Dear Esther isn't even that. I love shorts games but only if it does its job. The Park did its job. It's an interactive, hour long horror movie where you play the protagonist. Dear Esther is about an hour long, maybe 90 mins. You walk around an island triggering talking points to let you know you're going into the right direction. The graphics are sub-par but that's expected since it's an indie game. Controls are simple. There's only walk and zoom. Zoom doesn't seem to do anything. You don't bump into anyone or anything. It's just dull. The best moments of the game come when you enter a broken down cabin and your flashlight comes on. It reminded me of 11th Hour, an old PC CD-ROM game from the 90's. This game isn't for me. I need purpose in my short indie video games. Gone Home hit me hard. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture got emotional towards the end. Slender-Man terrified me, even with it's technical issues. Dear Esther isn't even interactive. I paid $11 to walk around a generic island for an hour and that's not fair.

LIMBO is simply the best game you can buy for $15 this generation bar none. You play a boy who wakes up in the woods trying to escape. The puzzles are clever, it's short and ends before it gets repetitive. It's art direction is haunting. The music or lack thereof is creepy and Nolanesque. I can't praise PlayDead enough.