Skyward Sword Remastered (40/60$)

The frustrating thing about Skyward Sword is that it is a good game.  But only a good game and when you are a Zelda game, good just doesn’t cut it.  There is nothing groundbreaking or game changing about this game.  The developers planned on the motion controls being revolutionary, using the wii motion plus, but I don’t want to have to play a video game standing up unless it’s in VR.  The motion controls quickly become a ball and chain for the game.  The Nintendo Switch HD remaster frees itself from that weight by allowing for the joystick to function as Link's Sword, but that causes the several gameplay mechanics built around these gimmicky controls to lack punch, in particular the combat is way easier.  The other frustrating thing is that it is missing the movement and exploration of the old games.  The islands you visit don’t have the same impact as the ones in windwaker.  The ground level is nowhere near as open as Twilight Princess.  And as a personal gripe, the fact that the sail cloth does not let you glide feels horrible.  

That is not to say that the game is “Bad,” in any real way.  The level of polish, creative puzzles, and pacing has the player constantly in motion and these activities have a steady flow of rewards that encourage players to go back and solve puzzles they couldn’t before.  It feels like Zelda at it’s best in that sense, something that Breath of the Wild lacked for me and it was refreshing, but I never got lost in it like I did other Zelda games.  I never spent 10 hours trying to upgrade my bomb bags, playing a mini, or doing a side quest.  Which is a shame because the few that I did in the skyloft were great fun.  The problem is that the skyloft is tiny, and there really aren’t other cities or villages to find more quests at.  What this really does is greatly hamper replayability.  If the world is supposed to be one giant puzzle, once you know how to do it, it gets boring.  Regardless of how much fun you had solving it the first time.  Whereas with other Zelda games I want to replay them as I write this so that I can just go fishing in Twilight Princess and listen to the nice fishing music. That is not to say that the soundtrack is lacking, in fact it is the best part about the game's aesthetic. But everything else just does not hit as hard.  I felt sympathy for Navi, Minda, and the Red Lion.  I feel nothing for Fi.  Same with the bird, the connection that is built between Link and Epona in Twilight Princess is far greater than the one in Skyward Sword. Even the mechanics of flying do not feel as good as sailing.  With your bird lacking the gadetry and upgrades that the Red Lion had.

But it is good here.  A few of the characters like Groose and the fellow Sky knights are good fun. The dungeons are the perfect mix of complex without being frustrating.  Getting a new item feels as good as it does in past Zeldas, and items like the whip and the airbag are some of the best in the Zelda series.  The boss fights while easy, are far more inventive than Breath of the Wilds.  If you are looking for a game to scratch your Zelda itch, and you can get it on sale.  Skyward Sword is worth a pick up (40$/60).

Hunt: Showdown (30/20$)

The hunt showdown doesn’t do anything particularly new, but it does nearly everything right.  It has an interesting gameplay loop that consists of hunters tracking down a ghoulish monster, killing it, and collecting it’s bounty.  Once the monster is slain and the bounty collected, the player now must face off against every other hunter alive on the map as they race to the exit point.  It’s an exciting concept that pulls bits from the various battle royal shooters along with player versus environment games like Destiny.  What it does better than any other online shooter in its genre it’s design.  Every mechanic feels like it is meant to enhance every other mechanic.  Matches are short, but a player wants to play it slowly and methodically by laying traps and waiting, they have the tools to do it.  If they want to run and gun with six shooters modded 32 round bandoliers, they have the tools to do that too.

At the start of the game the player is warned to put in headphones to fully utilize the 3D sound system in the game which is one of the best I’ve enjoyed.  The maps in The Hunt Showdown are set up like the house in home alone but instead of booby traps there are sound traps that feel at home in the decrepit antebellum south where the game takes place.  Half eaten horses give their last whines when you get too close.  Forgotten hounds bark at the player as the past by.  Chains rattle, broken glass crunches underfoot, and gunshots can be heard from far away.  The difference between life and death can be noticing the sound of ducks flying off from a pond that a player mistakenly spooked as they are sneaking up to shoot you in the back.  But a smart and sneaky player will avoid the ducks, knife the horse before it whines, and creep around the chains and bottles that will give away their position.  

Sound design is only a portion of the smart choices the developers have made.  The map and buildings itself blow other battle royales like fortnite and Warzone out of the water.  There is always an option to evade zombies or break the line of sight from a sniper in the distance.  Nearly every building and room has multiple entrances, with most offering rooftop entrances or basement escape tuned.  Players who choose to camp will need to watch their exits, set traps, and never be too careful as most walls can be shot through.  Or even peered through the gaps between the shack walls.  Smart players can turn campers' bunkers into swiss cheese and cut off their escape with traps of their own.  No gun feels greatly overpowered compared to others, and every gun has some drawback that makes it feel balanced. For example, the bandolier modded pistol doesn’t have nearly the rate of fire as the classic six shooter. I personally love that you can reload while running as it makes chases intense, and health packs are plentiful which makes the short time to kill far more tolerable than games like Call of Duty.  Which is crucial, because the game features permadeath.  Normally a feature I hate and I can see how it would turn players off. Losing a character they have taken through multiple hunts and spent hours of time gearing up hurts.  Especially when getting snipped by some no named loser.  

This goes doubly so for the people that opt to spend real money on their hunters, as the game does feature a currency system that sadly comes standard with games these days.  At first it seems a bit pay to win and grindy, however the devs included a more basic battle royal mode which gives the player a free hunter to keep, if they can win the match.  Not only that, but the better you do in the battle royal, the more points and gear the player will be rewarded with.  If you lose, there is no penalty..  But it still fills every match with the intensity that only games with permadeath can give.  

I strongly recommend this game.  Most battle royales aren’t my thing, but the PvEvP breakdown of the matches takes the pressure off being hunted 24/7 (even though you technically are).  It is so refreshing to have a game that feels so fair to the players, that feels fresh compared to other battle royale type games, and still offers the intensity found in games like Escape from Tarkov without the cruel punishment of overly complex systems.  It takes the best part of every shooter that has come out in the past few years and merges them into one great game with a great aesthetic.  I spent 20$ on the game on sale and got 24 hours out of it without any signs of stopping soon (30/20$). 

ASTRONEER (10/30$)

This the type of drawing that makes me want to go back to square one and kms.

Astroneer has a great set of bones and makes interesting design choices that help it stand out, but don’t make it a great game.  From the start I admired this games level of polish that so many survival games lack.  The UI feels incredibly clean to use, but offers a surprising amount of creativity within the building mechanic.  I could see someone sinking dozens of hours into this game, instead of my 15.  But what this game has in polish and design, it lacks creativity within the worlds that makes its moment to moment basic gameplay, a lackluster event.  And its aesthetic seems too familiar despite being very well done.  

I went into Astroneers looking for a co-op title that I could play slowly, over long stretches, with a dedicated group of friends.  This game is half of that.  The missions take a long time to complete and there is Co-Op, but this game feels better played in a short bursts. With the exception of the creative mode for players that just want to spend their time building and not worrying about breathable air.  You crash into your role as the sole survivor (unless you are playing with your buddies) the first world is magical and feel great to explore, but after that the game starts to lose me..  The big gimmick of this game is the need for air and terra forming and while the latter feels great, the need for air felt more like a boundary to block progress rather than an obstacle to overcome.  I’m sure there will be players out there that enjoy the challenge of counting your every breath as you run risk reward scenarios to get rare materials.  I got bored when I realized I wasn’t building toward anything.  The harder things to craft don’t feel like gaining an item, but more of completing a puzzle you already completed several times.  The best part of the game is the terraforming mechanic, sucking up earth and spitting it back out is incredibly fun when manipulating the planet's features.  I wasn’t even building anything, just creating random foam formations and towers. 

The novelty quickly faded when I had to deal with the terrible inventory management system.  It seems like the type of system that is perfect for seasoned players, but is entirely off putting for new comers and what’s more, is unclear about how it works to begin with.  The whole game is designed around this frustrating backpack, and it was demoralizing to see that I dropped rare materials thinking I was setting things up to print out of the backpacks printer, because the UI is so not clear.  I’ve messed around a bit and have built some pretty cool things, but it was always with the environment gun as opposed to crafting systems.  Despite the system allowing for the creation of some helpful and cool items like planetary rovers.  As I progressed in the game I lost the desire to build for new items since those cool items are few and far between In other crafting games, you make things that directly affect how you play, in this game there is building for storing building materials used for more building.  That’s it.  

The game does shine when you play it with friends, cause that lets you mess around with the rovers/terrain gun and the aesthetic is nice.  But at the end of the day, I got bored of the cool systems since they never changed.  Over several hours the worlds were forgettable and lacked variance.  This is going to need more content and cleaner systems before it truly takes off  (10/30$).

The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners (60/40$)

This is the worst I’ve done

But it was a speed drawing in 30 minutes. I tried to add a limiter to myself to see how good my skills are…. They are not good.

I fell in love with VR at first sight, and I went out and got the cheapest headset I could find.  Hated just about everything on the app store.  That was around 4 years ago, and with this year's launch of Half Life Alex, it seems the games went from “shit” to “must have.”  Oculus Quest 2 launched in October at a price point that finally made sense and I have no regrets in my thanks to games like Saints and Sinners.  Golly gee this game is freaking amazing.  At a price point of 40$, it might just be my game of the year.

The Walking Dead franchise started it’s video game career off strong with it’s story based point and click adventure games made by Telltale.  As time went on, and Telltale got complacent, the franchise suffered from lack of innovation and vision across all of it’s numerous games  This is best seen in Saints and Sinners fellow VR game; The Walking Dead Onslaught.  Onslaught is a first person gallery shooter that scraped its co-op features, was basically as good as a flash game, a riddle with technical issues.Nor did it feel good to play until the massive update they just launched a few days ago. Yet, the game still lacks some of the basic features that Saints and Sinners offers players, like dual wielding weapons.  Which is why Saints and Sinners is so great, it has thought of just about everything the player would want to do, and allows them to do it. 

The game opens with a nice tutorial section that shows the player how to survive in the world of the Walking Dead and I spent around 30 minutes killing the tutorial guide and exploring the weapon physics because they feel great to use.  Swinging an axe feels heavy compared to knives which feel quick and light.  The tutorial teaches the player how to manage their inventory, which has been tuned for VR perfectly.  Resources are scarce and get harder to find as the game goes on.  So when you have to manage your inventory space, when your gun jams, or when you have to choose between weapons to keep due to the lack of space there is a feeling of real pressure.  This is not because of tedium either. The controls to store items, find your objectives, and holster your weapons feel good to use because they don’t try to be too realistic or do too much.  The game is built around ease for the player.  You can accidentally drop weapons, but it will be your fault you didn’t do the proper holstering motion and it never feels buggy or unfair.  The player will catch themselves making rookie mistakes in the first few hours of play, which they will look back on in contempt as they cut their teeth on the streets of New Orleans which is fantastically designed.  The game opts for a similar look and feel to the telltale series, which is a smart choice since realistic games don’t look good in VR.  It still is scary too, the environments look great and the lighting is so well done that your palms will sweat as you slowly creep through the mostly abandoned city. What few inhabitants that are left are locked in a conflict the player will find themselves in the middle of, but the story is not as cliche as it sounds.  Or rather it is, but the voice acting and back stories around the characters flesh the generic story out and draw the player further into the missions.  Plus there is player choice, which adds to replay value.  There are multiple endings, but since they are the endings the player won't care much about them. Instead the missions that play out will have the player make tough calls about who to save or how much to tell.  One of the first missions in the game is a request from a former mother and wife, who lost their children to zombies and couldn’t bring herself to kill her husband as he turned.  She asks for you to dispatch him, and bring back his wedding band.  It’s a cliche story line across zombie media, but then you learn the father had to kill their two children to prevent them from turning (and there is some ambiguity on whether they were going to turn at all).  So you are faced with a choice of telling the woman, letting her live in peace with her happy memories, or killing her and taking her quest reward.  Only be sure to shoot an NPC’s you kill in the head, or they will be back as Walkers.  Thankfully the Walkers themselves are a delight to kill, stabbing into their heads feels great and snapping off your blade feels brutal.  Taking off heads with a shotgun blast feels just as satisfying as you might expect.  

I didn’t love the crafting system, as the game really forces the player to craft rather than scavenge.  Yet, the system is simple enough that the player will never really struggle with it.  It’s just sad that you can’t keep some of the weapons you find in the game.  As you progress through the game, the NPC’s get meaner, and your weapons get radder.  To include a spiked baseball bat of walking dead fame and a pistol that shoots shotgun shells.  But no matter what, the later stages of the game become too hard to conquer and the player will have to pick and end.  Which did not wow me, but serves as a good reason to restart the 15-20 hour campaign.   

VR gives Saints and Sinners an unfair advantage over other games, and the brilliant game design makes the most of that advantage.  Earning its place amongst legends like Half Life: Alex, which I stopped playing because Saints and Sinners kept me coming back.  I wish the story was longer, and there was more to-do, but only because I wanted more.  Not because I feel like I wasted my money.  There is a horde mode of sorts, but it doesn’t play nearly as good as the main story with it’s great characters and voice acting.  “Fuck you,” is almost always an option in dailog and it’s great.  The cajun accents are well done, and so are the others.  If they released a DLC for this game, it would be a day one buy.  But seeing as there are multiple endings and even better moment to moment choices to make.  Secrets to find hidden in the world, and collectables that unlock new badass weapons, it already gives a player a reason to come back.  Plus it’s not like it has much competition in the VR space.  The Walking Dead Saints and Sinners is truly in contention for my game of the year and I hope they make a non VR version of the game so everyone can see the best zombie game ever made (60/40$).

The Forrest (25/20$)

This is a regression

The shading is fine, but I think it’s time I work on really learning to draw. Instead of basing off pictures. Like the whole make a person out of more concrete shapes or whatever the fuck idk.

The Forest was first released as an early access title in 2014.  It was a time when the words early access and survival horror lived in infamy, as there were so many games coming out that tried to explore all the possibilities that genre offered, but very few did even scratched the surface.  Subnautica is one of those success stories and so is The Forest. After four years of early access.  The game blows competitors out of the water with an intense intro sequence that clearly establishes the game's story. Every survival game has its niche, but most don’t try to include a story, opting to let the players create their own through interactions with the world and/or other players.  The Forest includes a well done co-op mode that provides a great feeling of exploring the unknown together, but simple inclusion of game generated to-do list keeps players from wondering “now what?”

With it’s premise established, the game offers the player a survival guide that functions as a construction menu, quest book, and general information that is a god send for new players.  Not only does it give you tasks that will have the player meeting their survival needs, but by seeing the more complex build recipes the player wants to continue building after the basic objectives are done.  Compare this to other games which hide the more complex crafting recipes around levels, exploration, or time played.  The combination of these player chosen projects and story goals make the game stay on target throughout your entire playthrough. Plus the story gets good, I’m not going to spoil it, but the game offers multiple endings and generally intriguing plot lines throughout making replaying worth it.  If a player focuses solely on the story, they can complete the game in around 15 hours.  But thankfully the inhabitants on the island offer an intriguing and lethal distraction that can give players hundreds of hours of content.  The enemy design is some of the best I’ve seen.  At first they gather and watch the player.  Running away from the player as you approach them.  Then night falls, and the player is hunted ruthlessly by not just the human natives, but the other inhabitants of the island. Again, The Forest features some of the most intriguing monsters I have ever faced across any video game.. Things unlike anything else i've seen.  If you do want to spoil it, look them up and then try not to buy the game.  

Where the game is weak is in it’s jank.  For some reason, early access games rarely get the level of polish that a completed game should expect.  Combat can feel floaty, clipping issues are rampant and can greatly hinder base building and resource gathering. Watching a tree you just chopped fall through the ground stinks. Not everything is destructible, which is a pretty big let down during the late game when the player goes from the hunted to the hunter. Especially since the natives actively destroy your encampments. But the base building at higher levels helps build the feeling of becoming a conqueror, rather than simply a survivor.  

The game earns bonus points through it’s co-op and more importantly native VR support.  There are not many good VR games out there.  There are even fewer that don’t require a separate purchase, and even less that let someone in VR play with players on their normal PCs. Yet, The Forest offers all these features. It shows the devs care about the game, even if it is still lacking a level of polish that should be a requirement in modern releases.  But for 20$, a 15 hour story, and great gameplay, this game easily is worth the money.  (25/20$)

Hades (40/25$)

this drawing is eh

I wish every game had the synergies of this game. It should be regarded as a model of game design, and puts most AAA games to shame.

Hades is one of the tightest games I have ever played.  Developer Supergiant games has found the perfect form factor for it’s signature combat and story skills by making Hades a rougelite.  It has been increasingly common for game developers to treat death as a game mechanic, and Hades takes it a step further by making it a key story mechanic.  You are the son of Hades and you are trying to break your way out of the underworld and make it to mount Olympus to live as your godly right.  Your father forbids this for a reason unknown to the player.  They take control of a young god on his first break out of the underworld, but as the player fights through the dangerous halls of the underworld they will be killed.  Which sends them back to their father and his staff of spirits and monsters that help him manage the underworld.  Rinse and repeat.

Where the game gets genius is how the story builds around the number of times you try to escape.  Each time your underworld home there is new, incredibly well acted, dailog to listen to.  Not an overwhelming amount, but enough to make you want to check in with the characters that make up the underworlds staff.  The spirit of Achilles, Nyx the embodiment of night, Cerberus the incredibly cute yet vicious three headed dog, and the fury sisters.  But the list goes on to hit on an incredibly large amount of greek myths that increased my interest in learning about these greek figures, much like the God of War series does.  Where Hades sets itself apart is in the tone of the game, and how silly it can be.  There are fourth wall breaks, witty banter between rival gods, conversations with non speaking entities like Cerburs or Charon that are still so well written you’ll want to listen to them.  And all Charion does is groan..  Built into all these characters are rep systems that change based on who many gifts are given each character, who then give items to the player, which helps the player power up between escape attempts.  This is crucial to Hades enjoyment because dying doesn’t feel pointless. In games like Enter the Gungeon, Risk of Rain 2, Dead Cells, etc. there is no real forward progression between runs and the result is feeling like you wasted time playing.  Sure there are characters to unlock and maybe some skills, but nearly all of Hades systems are improved upon the more runs you do and the systems synergize together so well.  It removes the tedium of rouglites, and makes Hades easy to pick back up after a failed run.  The runs themselves always feel fresh through the large amount of powers granted by the gods of Olympus.  There are so many combinations that work differently with each of the weapons that it feels great to use.  Plus these powers have visible effects.  

Hades is missing multiplayer.  Which is a small complaint to have, because it’s merely a wish. If Hades offered co-op then everyone I know should buy it.  They still should buy but it's a slightly harder sell when compared to the similarly stunning Risk of Rain 2 that features all the greatness of Hades, notable lack of progression/content to keep single player as fresh as Hades.  

That fresh feeling never fades. There is such a large amount of post game content that makes beating the game again, fun.  Not to mention there is always the possibility of additional DLC or updates like Supergiant games have gotten in the past.  But you don’t need another reason to buy this game.  It took me 15 hours to beat once, yet the true ending has you beat the game 9 times and I can’t wait to get after it.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance (45/30$)

This is Par.

Kingdom Come Deliverance has rough edges that are going to turn people off in the first few hours. Yet, if the player can get to the point where the world opens up to them, they will have some of the most engaging gameplay experiences of all time. KC: Deliverance captures a feeling of freedom that is lacking from modern RPG’s, and I think that to have that freedom produces rough edges.  The game will allow you to straight up break some quests, or simply stand on top of a high rock and shoot at enemies who can’t hurt you.  More than likely the enemies will run out of range and wait, or pick up a bow themselves, but the game does not punish the player for doing things like this and that feels great.  The whole game feels great after a while. 

KC:D wouldn’t win any awards for performance or graphics, but it does a great job bringing the player into the mindset of being in medieval Europe.  Which is important because there are no fantasy elements to this game.  Instead, the game hooks the player with time period appropriate stories and quests. One of the first quests is getting payment for tools Henry’s dad sold. Only the guy doesn’t want to pay.  So you can try and beat him in a fight one on one, you can help your boys who then help you beat him, you can talk him into it, or steal it.  As the game progresses the options get more nuanced and varied.  The best part is the world reacts to your actions in a meaningful way.  If you cheat on your girlfriend she can find out.  If you kill people after they give up, people will call you mean and your honor falls.  These aren’t new concepts, but they are implemented so much better than other modern RPGs.  The story itself is not bad, but the side stories are great.  You’ll seek out the advice of wise monks and stalk marauders through the forest at night.  These quests really come alive through the cohesion of the world.  You might be infiltrating a monastery to find a murderer, but it never feels ridiculous when you are plaything through it.  Owed largely impart to the small scale of the story and goal of trying to be historically accurate.

The problem is life wasn’t fun back then.  KC:D does a good job of striking a balance between realistic detail and unfun gameplay factors.  But there are definitely systems that feel clunky and unfair.  Fighting is not fast and fluid as in other first person sword fighting games.  The player will have to think of their angle, timing, and power of their strikes as they face off against the various bandits and brigands found in KCD.  It’s hard and feels bad at first.  But the fluidity of the system reveals itself as Henry (and by extension the player) learns the ins and outs of the systems as they fight more.  Same with horseback riding, same with brewing, same with blacksmithing, it all takes time and effort on the players part to get better.  Which might slow pacing for players compared to other games that evenly round out a players all skills as they level.  This can feel awful, and makes quick runs through the game hard to enjoy.  Despite there being loads of replay value.

So the real issue with the game is the slog of learning how to play the game.  Yet, as the player learns the game they get this feeling of mastery over systems the world around them.  It’s not all doom and gloom, there are many laughs to be had on this adventure and it helps keep the player engaged through the slow start.  Yet, when you get your horse, a good set of armour, a sword, and finally learn some of the mechanics to combat. You start to feel like a knight, not some mythical badass, but a normal night and that feels so refreshing compared to every game about a perfect “chosen one” with magical powers..  Then you couple that with the fact that it is historically accurate (to the extent that anything is) with locations based on real world parts of Europe and great DLC content that are worth their price.  Coming from an independent studio, this game feels as good as anything Bethesda has done in the past 5 years.  It has main plot of 40 hours replay value through choices and playstyles, and feels so different to play, which can not be undervalued (45/30$).

Sleeping Dogs (30/60$)

Sleeping Dogs is a good game for its current price, albeit a lackluster value when it was released.  Personally this game scores extra well with me as it reminds me of a Jon Woo movie.  The player takes the role Wei Shen. An undercover cop raised partially in America giving him a 100% american voice, and sent to clean up the streets that addicted his sister to drugs.  A typical maverick-esque bad boy, Shen eventually meets up with his childhood friend and joins the triads with the goal of taking it down from the inside out. Launching into a wonderful story that has emotion, makes sense, and is incredibly well acted, especially from the voice actors.  The amount of talent that went into these performances can’t be understated, which makes one wish that had the graphics to match.  Still it is enjoyable enough to be a fun ride the whole way down which takes around 15 hours.  

Within that time the player is able to explore Hong Kong that feels great to walk and fight in.  Fighting itself takes a front and center role with the majority of the game play focusing on a decent melee combat system stylized after games like Batman Arkham series or Assassins Creed.  Only Sleeping Dogs feels much better to play than those games because the kung fu moves are way more fun visually.  The martial arts moves pull from styles used by kung fu icons like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.  The combo system is simple to pick up and rewarding to use.  The environmental takedowns are a joy to pull off even if they are slightly repetitive.  The movement through the world also feels great, you might not be able to parkour, but sliding through a street vendor's stall and hearing the crashes of dishe taking down the guy you're chasing is fantastic.  Even better when you finish him off with a drop kick to the face.  The gun play is serviceable and luckily the game typically has you shooting through set piece filled galleries that help mask the lackluster aiming.  The world itself has some minigames to partake in.  Which can help past time.

However, they don’t feel as good to play as GTA’s or Yakuza’s activities.  You have to drive these games to use them and the driving in this game is comically bad.  Which is especially odd since the studio has worked on the Just Cause series which features significantly better driving mechanics on the same engine.  This is actually a massive negative in the game because Hong Kong is huge, and offers side quests that are interesting and rewards for exploring it.  But you’ll never want to because the driving just doesn’t feel good.  The missions where you are forced to drive are the most painful, even the racing specific ones.  

The downloadable content for this game was a gold standard for what DLC should be and I recommend anyone look into them.  Nightmare in North Point is my absolute favorite and actually goes into some Chinese folklore and the Year of the Snake DLC adds fun abilities to arrest people and more content to play through.  These great DLC also suffer from the same short length as the main story, and only bring the total content up to around 25 hours.  Fortunately they are now bundled with the new edition of the game.  That being said, I encourage people to check out this game when it is on sale.  Especially if you are itching for an chinese action flick (30/60$). 

Golf Story (25/15$)

(25/15$)*

Do you have a soft spot in your heart for nostalgic gameboy games? Are seeking something fleshed out, complex, and easy to pick up?  Or do you like good games in general?  If so, you should buy Golf Story 25/15$.  Golf Story is a sports game that truly makes a game out of the sport.  Everything you encounter is golf oriented, but not just playing golf on a course. It plays out like a classic game boy RPG but instantly establishes itself as unique by giving the player a golf ball to throw and to hit anytime they wish.  The first few hours of my play through were spent simply hurling golf balls at the supporting characters, hearing their reactions, and watching them wince.  Followed by performing trick shots, trying to sink the ball into trash cans or other holes.  The best part is the secrets that can be found by hitting your golf ball at things.  Golf Story encourages exploration better than most AAA RPGS. It is so delightful to have a game where walking around is fun. 

Now the core mechanics are simple to pick up but take a while to truly master.  The quests of the game will have the player doing golfing related challenges but offer an incredible amount to what you do with your golfing skills.  Sometimes it will be hitting crabs on the beach, which helps the player practice aiming and sand traps.  Other times it will be flying a drone or sinking puts, but 90% of the time you are golfing.  It’s through introduction of things like the digging wedge, that allows the player to dig up items in the overworld, or the frisbee that lets the player strike up a game of disc golf that flesh out the game and show the level of care that went into making it.  The player gets these items by playing through the cliche story that serves as a perfect backdrop for the cast of campy characters.  It plays out more like a sports anime than a sports drama and that is so refreshing compared to other AAA sports games. 

The problem is that Golf can be a very frustrating game and it is easy to get stuck on a challenge. No one likes repeating a challenge they can’t get 20 times.  The obvious answer is to get good, but some of the challenges feel a bit more like luck than like skill.  There will be moments when you skip through the dialog as well. Like an anime most dialog is jokes in between the action.  You’ll skip through it because you just want to play more golf.  

Luckily the game also features a delightful two player mode that lets players face off against each other, so you can always have a standard match if you have a friend.  In fact, most of my time spent with this game has been spent playing matches against my friends.  The golf gameplay is so simple and charming that it is hard not to get caught up in the match.  It’s a feeling that is worth its weight in gold.  So for Golf Story to have 20 hours of story, 2 player co-op, and only a 15$ price tag? It makes it an incredible value and must have it for the switch.  One of the few games that can feel good to play with one joy con in tablet mode (25/15$).

Monster Hunter World (75/60$)

I can’t tell if this is improvement or regression

Monster Hunter World is an underwater tunnel full of treasures.  For some reason people like comparing video games with large bodies of water.  A common critique of many games claims they are, “as wide as an ocean but as shallow as a puddle.”  It implies that the scope of a game may be great, but the mechanics of the game are not intricate enough and therefore lack the depth to offer new refreshing experiences..  Although, you can have a lot of fun in a puddle. The problem is that most games take this approach to their design. Monster Hunter World is not such a game.  The game is an abyss of mechanics that offer incredible depth at the risk of frustrating and overwhelming the player.  The feeling of mastering the mechanics over time feels like learning a language and martial art at once, and will change the standard for large boss fights in your mind.

First impressions of the game's combat might feel clunky when compared to other 3rd person action games, but the game will entice you to play more and more by teasing large and dangerous monsters,and then giving you other monsters needed to take down in order to be strong enough to reach the big boss. The story is not important, but the challenge of losing a hunt to a new monster will keep the player coming back.  With each hunt the preparation coutine grows, until before every hunt you complete a checklist as if you are leaving for a camping trip.    The environments on each map are varied and fun to learn and traverse, yet each map is different enough that if you ever want a change there are always options.  The fights themselves are grueling 20-45 minute slugfests between a man and monster 4x their size.  The player needs to monitor health, stamina, ammo, potions, weapon sharpness, environmental hazards, traps, and other monsters on the map in order to take down just one of these mythic beats.  The feeling of winning a tough fight is rightly rewarding, especially after 45 minutes filled with close calls and strategy.  If you get bored just change a weapon, change your strategy, and hop back in the hunt.  

But that is all you will do.  Hunt monsters.  There are resupply systems such as raiding parties and herb gardens to manage, as well as variation of the standard hunting quests,  but there is nothing else in this game.  The story serves as a relatively pointless backdrop with well designed, but ultimately incredibly forgettable characters.  The grind of the game can get repetitive, especially when stuck on a challenging monster, although those with online access can always find people to help, but then it’s rarely a challenge at all.  The real issue with the game is it’s complicated menus and systems being incredibly overwhelming. This is always the compromise a developer makes when they opt for deeper games.  The real issue is that mastery of these systems is needed during challenging hunts.  More complete and interactive tutorials have always been lacking from the series.

Thankfully there is a large Monster Hunter community full of guides and people wanting to play.  That is where this game truly shines.  Soon you will be reading through wikis and manuals learning the ins and outs of the games systems.  You hear legends of challenging monsters from past regions. All while creating new strategies to tackle the new monsters.  It’s the type of community that creates momentum for the game, and it’s the type of game that capitalizes on it’s old content and always builds itself better.  Playing Monster Hunter 3 and then Monster Hunter World feels like the perfect jump to next gen. The game offers around 50 hours of base game content, with free updates added post launch that easily adds another 10 hours.  It’s pretty, fun, and you can play with your friends.  If you like killing Monsters, this might be the only game you need (75/60$).

Pokemon Shield (15$/60$)

This post is out of order, one of the first things I drew,

Very easy to draw, makes me feel good

I started playing video games very early in life. Sometimes I forget this fact resulting in two negative things.  The first is that I assume everyone I talk to has an APM on my skill level and is a top tier gamer.  The second is that sometimes my favorite games are old games.  When in reality old games don’t stand the test of time well.  Piece of shit games that come out in 2020 are going to be better than the piece of shit games that came out in 2006 and that is okay.  It doesn’t take away my time enjoying those games.  But it also doesn’t make Goblin Commander for the Nintendo gamecube one of the best games ever made.  That’s OK.  The problem is when people say these old games are God tier, then they replay those old games and they are dog shit tier.  You remember Goldeneye?  Call of Duty is better.  You remember Glover?  A hat in time is much better.  Was Mercenaries 2 fun?  Sure but Just Cause 4 is just a better version of that game, and Just Cause 2 is better than 4.  It’s the odd thing about video games, because they get shitty with time and that shit is hard to appreciate.  You can understand that Citizen Kane is a dope movie despite being black and white because it is a true classic.  Most games aren't classics.  But there are some such as Mario 64, Metal Gear Solid 3, and a few other masterpieces. Some people put Pokemon on that list.  But to be honest, the last three games have sucked salt water. This made me think that maybe I was wrong in my love for the series.  That I was just a stupid kid who liked Pokemon.  But nope, Pokemon Ruby is just as fun today, and Pokemon HeartGold and Soulsilver make the new games look so bad that you wish they would just take a fucking break. Go back to the drawing board, and give the Switch the Pokemon game it deserves. Poke Sword and Shield get 15$/60$.  

I have to give Game Freak credit where credit is due.  This is the most they have ever changed a pokemon game.  The exclusion of Pokemon was a controversial choice to make, and fans made it seem like the biggest dick move in the entire world.  But I get it. If you had told me that the sequel to the Ocarina of Time would have a timer you had to beat the game, I would have hated that information just as much.  And Majora's Mask is one of the best Zelda’s in existence, and featured that mechanic.  But they did nothing with the changes. It really just was to make the game balanced and less overwhelming.  The next change they made was bringing over the visible encounter system that I hated to see on Let’s Go Pikachu and dreaded playing a mainline game with it.  I was a fool.  The Pokemon appearing in the overworld is definitely one of the best features.  Getting chased down by some pissed off bear Pokemon in the wild area feels intense, even if your weakest Pokemon will wipe the floor with the bear.  Seeing the Pokemon built into environments on the different routes into town is also great. I can not wait to see how they push the system in future games, and I love it as much as I did the Pokewalker.  As for the gameplay, I didn’t care much for the gimmick of making biggie Pokemon.  But it didn’t suck, felt better than Z-moves, and was nice that every Pokemon could do it unlike Mega Evolutions. That being said I’m pretty sure you could go the entire game without ever using the biggie Pokemon move, because this game is so fucking easy it is comical.

In past Pokemon games, when you saw your rival waiting for you in tall grass, you knew shit was about to go down.  You walked back to the Poke center.  Healed up, bought items, and then saved right before the battle because you knew that despite your preparations, this bitch was going to be slinging some seriously fuego Pokemon fully capable of lighting your ass up.  Same with all of the gym leaders. However, in the new games there is a plot point based around how much better you are then your rival.  But you're not just better than him.  You're better than every other trainer in the region to a historical level.  The result is that you will never need to grind when playing this game.  But not all grinds are bad.  Lacking grinds in a Pokemon game hurts the game because it gives you less of a reason to explore the world.  In past Pokemon games, the game put up confusing and difficult walls to get the player to look for help in the areas they had gone to in the past.  Maybe you picked Bayleaf in HeartGold and you're getting stomped by the first flying gym because nearly every Pokemon available before then is grass, bug, or normal type.  So you catch one of those shit tier bellsprouts and trade it for the Onix with rock moves that will take down the gym with ease.  If you can just beat the gym your first try, you don’t get the Onix and you don’t explore the town to find the secrets and helpful design choices the developers put into the game. When you don’t explore, the world feels empty, sad, and the setting seems shittier than the past games.  I think this is the result of not including the metroidvania style HM system of the older games.  Those alone encouraged the player to explore and to backtrack to previously closed off areas.  It’s a damn shame it’s gone.

The other problem is that the world doesn’t just seem shitter, it is shitter.  If you enjoyed Pokemon for the charm of it’s towns.  The small stories that would play out in them, or the history behind them.  Too bad so sad this game will make you mad.  It’s not that there isn’t a story, wait no there isn’t a story. As in there is no conflict.  No antagonist.  No bad guy or true rival that will piss you off and push you to be the best.  Instead, it feels like an on the rails anime ride at Pokemon theme park.  A ride that makes one think the developers dreamt to it be fully voiced with handcrafted cinematics, but quickly realized they lack the budget or skill or time needed to add such features.  Confronted with this problem, the developers decided to do the bare minimum..  In past Pokemon games they leave things to the unknown. Like Mariage Island in Ruby.  Abandoned power plants in Fire Red.  Or the dragon cave in Diamond and Pearl.  They are all there, have optional lore to learn, and play a part in the story but do not require an in depth explanation by characters who simply pop up out of nowhere and mime out actions in cutscenes that scream for voiced characters..  That is not to say the world is visually boring.  The graphics have never been better but every cool location is hollow with no purpose..  

Now to go onto the online features, which are the worst they could possibly be.  The whole entire game they tease you with a pseudo MMO feel to include seeing other players in the wild area and multiplayer raids.  If only you were able to interact with these other players outside of these systems.  Or maybe they could just make it easy to invite your friends to a raid, instead of playing a game wifi whack a mole trying to join the right raid at the right time as your friend hosts.  To get four players all synced up is almost impossible, and once you finish the raid you need to jump through all of those hoops yet again.  Also the legendaries suck this time around which comes into play during the end game.  Because there isn’t any endgame without more to do in the world, and no cool legendaries to hunt or puzzles to solve.  All of the dungeons that were complex, difficult, and well themed exploration heavens have been removed from the game along with the legendaries they housed.  The game in total only takes 30 hours to beat going at a leisurely pace.  That is not worth 60$.  Coupled with the forgettable world and poorly designed progression drops the game’s value to 15$.  And that 15$ is only propped up by the fact that battling is still fun.  Watching your cute boys turn into bad boys is an experience that can’t be rivaled... For now.  The sad part is, the old games really are amazing.  They stand the test of time and they still make me hope that one day Pokemon gets it’s next generation upgrade like Zelda did with Breath of the Wild and Mario did with Odyssey.  Don’t buy this game until it is so cheap it’s basically free, because that is how it feels to play it  15$/60$.

Fractured But Whole (28/60$)

I think next one is just going to be a lot of focus on letters

I love Southpark more then I like to play Southpark the Fractured but whole, all in all it offers enough funny content and acceptable gameplay that it will make your time with the game memorable, especially if you are an avid fan of Southpark. The amount of detail that has gone into the world really adds to the show in a meaningful way. Just as watching the show and knowing the references adds parts to this game that might be missed by someone unfamiliar with the franchise.  It is funny without the references, but it is a far better experience if you already know the world and are looking to dive in deeper. 

The game wastes no time throwing the player into the town of Southpark, offering a quick recap of the previous game, Stick of Truth,  including letting the player make character decisions in the past story, which is always appreciated in a role playing game.  Even if it doesn’t change much in the Fracture but Whole.  Jokes can be found in every piece of game-play including fart powers and choosing pronouns, but it is impressive how much these jokes effect and intertwine themselves within game-play.  A good example of this is how you can pause combat to check microaggressions said by enemies. Or who certain players special abilities change to be stronger and funnier as you complete their background quests.  Said quests are always incredibly well written and varied, sometimes its a fight or sometimes its simply talking things out between two people. Almost always the player is rewarded with something that positively effects game-play in a way that isn’t simply a new item.  Save for the notable exception of Kyle’s cousin Kyle who shows up and then does absolutely nothing because he is bad at playing heroes.  It’s a small addition that adds a level of care and detail that you really don’t see in modern games anymore. It’s also hilarious. I really think that playing this game is worth it for the story and writing if you are Southpark fan. If you aren’t it will be a shallow RPG. 

The combat is taxing after a while.  The fights do vary and the boss fights are fun, but something about the way the game plays just does not feel smooth.  I think this is due to the snow drop engine that it is running on, and perhaps an better system would give a better experience than the Nintendo Switch, but this just isn’t a great combat system and the game relies on it a bit to much. If this team made combat a backup feature, and simply made a point and click adventure game. It might be the best one ever made. The combat is an improvement over the Stick of Truth, but not by much.  I don’t know what I would do to make it better but the story will push you through the fighting, if you find Southpark funny.  

That is how you should judge this game, if you are a Southpark fan, then it is a must have and you will enjoy all the content including the DLC.  Yet, for the amount of content, 20hrs for me, (not including DLC), the lackluster combat really keeps this game from being a AAA experience and it does not warrant a AAA price. Yet, it didn’t charge a AAA price being set at 50$ on launch and offered the first game as an early bird bonus that easily gives another 20 hours of great story.  Fractured but whole can now be bought for 30$ on some sales, with the DLC.  Which in my opinion is a close to perfect price to provide you with enough content to keep you entertained in between seasons, establish despite it’s dragging combat. (28/50$)

Jedi Academy (15/20$)

I thought he would be bigger

Most Starwars games are bad.  Or they offer a completely different experience than what the series is about. Good vs Evil with wizards that have laser swords capable of cutting flesh like butter.  Star Wars Rouge squadron is a good game but Starwars is not about being a pilot.  Starwars galactic conquest is a good game, but Star Wars is not about commanding the battle, rather fighting in it.  That is why games like Battlefront, Force Unleashed, and Jedi Fallen Order all shine above the other games in the property.  These games put the player in the shoes of the characters/situations they fell in love with and they are praised for it.  Yet, no game has nailed the feeling of being a jedi more so than Jedi Academy series.  

Originally released in 2003, the remaster for Nintendo Switch launched this year.  Only it is not a remaster.  It is a port of the PC version, but the gameplay is still so smooth.  The lightsabers are the best part of this game and the game brings the sabers to the forefront of combat.  Weaker enemies fall in a single swing collapsing to the ground while their arms fly through the air.  Stronger enemies engage you in fierce duels where each side can only weather several blows before being cut down.  There are several fighting styles with their own saber types and stances, creating an elaborate ecosystem of moves that counter one another.  Truly good players will be able to switch on the fly and take down their enemies with ease.  The story serves a serviceable backdrop for slicing and dicing, but occasionally serves up memorable missions such as a level based around not being able to touch the ground or being chased by a Rancor.

The problem is that most missions boil down to mindless hacking and slashing.  There are some classic movie locations, as well as appearances from fan favorite characters.  But you will spend the majority of your time taking out the same storm troopers and sith apprentices.  The game is short, and the story/gameplay does not change regardless of your choices outside of simple good or bad endings.  Couple this with a autosave feature and generally buggy game, and you are left with a game that is a good lightsaber dueling game, but a lukewarm overall game.  

Jedi Academy features an incredibly active online community that bolsters it’s forgettable story. If you go on the PC version of this game and download a few mods,, the game opens up to several new dimensions of play.  Modders have put movie locations and assets into the game.  This includes new models, new force powers, and new saber styles.  There is no better lightsaber experience, even with poor graphics, it beats out modern games like Fallen Order or Battlefront 2.  Yet, the online is brutal because everyone left playing is basically a real life jedi by this point, and will mercilessly slaughter you.  Jedi Academy makes you want to take it’s great lightsaber combat and attach it to a modern online system, not a 14 hour long story.  A co-op mode with friends would be amazing and outclass nearly every other melee game on the market, but for now it remains a good for jedi fans and nostalgia chasers (15/20$). 

40k: Space Marine (09/60$)

It is not the worst thing I have ever done.

Space Marine is a game.  That is all I can say about the 2011 3rd person shooter.  If you are expecting a grand piece of art that moves you and changes the way you see the world, this is not it.  The plot runs about 9 hours and wastes no time moving the player from challenge to challenge. Giving a large amount of ways to fight the enemy hordes.  Centered in the Warhammer 40k universe, the game makes relatively good use of the lore and is a fun rump for a few hours, but this is nothing groundbreaking on any front.  

So the best part about the game is how it captures the feeling of being a badass space marine.  A space marine is the combination of the integrity and genetics of Captain America, the strength of the Hulk with the cunning of Bruce Banner, and all wrapped in Iron Man armour. The game sends you into combat as soon as you touch down on a completely man made and metallic planet..  You will be swinging chainsaw swords and power axes into seemingly endless swarms of greenskins that will explode into a red mist that will stain your armour in time. The weapons pack a punch that can be felt by the player.  Which is important because the thesis of this game is to feel badass.  The game treats you like a badass as well.  The imperial guardsmen will cheer when they see you helping. The combat encourages this over the top badassery by healing the player after completing gruesome executions that feel like DOOM 2016’s glory kill system. Yet, at the end of all this badassery, you are left with a shallow game that is unable to truly differentiate itself from in the sea of beat em ups and third person shooters.  

In fact, it feels like this game is simply taking parts from various other games and putting them together under the Warhammer 40,000 banner.  But it is not enough. The physical environment that the character plays through is so incredibly boring that it is barely worth talking about.  Throughout the 9 hours story there was no change in scenery, just grey backdrop after grey backdrop.  Occasionally there would be an object of interest in the background that helped provide a sense of scale to the world, but even those were not terribly interesting.  The combat is fun, but there is not enough variation to keep fights feeling fresh despite the game constantly providing new weaponry. The story is incredibly weak.  Every moment that I thought was memorable had it’s concept ripped from games like Gears of War or God of War.  Which is a shame, because a Gears of War meets God of War hybrid would make an incredible game.  Space Marine could have been an incredible game.  It has great bones to build off, but lacks substance.

There are parts of this game that I loved.  The times when you get the jumpack, and the world opens up to the player vertically feels great.  I think this is because a space marine game needs a massive world to explore.  It does not have to be an open world.  But there just needs to be more variance in the game atmosphere.  The game does offer multiplayer horde modes and missions that are a ton of fun to play with friends, but will soon have you wondering the point of playing the game since there are no real goals within the multiplayer.  In 2011, this game would have been everything I hated in a game.  Being able to look back on it 9 years later, and buying it for 2$.  I feel I got my money's worth.  But if I spent anymore I’d be chived.  (09/60$)    

GTA 5 (85/60$)

I can’t tell if this is better or worse.

Grand Theft Auto 5 set a gold standard for video games.  Despite criticism levied Rockstar and 2K Games, it is impossible to overlook just how amazing Grand Theft Auto 5 is in every aspect.  Originally released in 2013, this game looks comparable to nearly every other major release 7 years later  The map is huge and varied.  The driving feels as good as a high end racing game while giving satisfying destruction and damage.  There is something about having your character launch through the windshield of a car that just feels so good, despite technically failing the mission.  These moments give GTA a staying power that,can not be beat. Couple this with an online experience that is just as good as the offline portion, albeit with long load times, and you have a game so good it makes sense that it is still amongst the top games sold every month, despite releasing in 2011. GTA 5 is a worthwhile investment for anyone, even if you don’t like video games.  

The story of GTA 5 is solid, verging on great. Tt’s only error is being slightly too outrageous.  If GTA 4 was a Soccersse movie, then GTA 5 is a Micheal Bay movie, and it’s one of his best.  You’ll be stealing planes, jumping out of moving cars, repelling down government buildings, and much more before the game finishes it’s 35 hour long story.  Yet, the story content is just the tip of the iceberg when exploring Los Santos, as there are numerous side missions and activities like Tennis and Golf that offer good simulations of these sports while still being fun to play.  GTA 5 does not need these minigames to hold it’s value either, simply driving around the city with their finely tuned cars is enough to enjoy yourself. These drives are set to one of the best soundtracks in gaming, from classical music, to certified ghetto anthems, this game’s original tracks and radio stations sound better than anything in real life.  The three main characters are all incredibly well acted both in motion capture and in voice.  It all comes together in a story that serves as a perfect vehicle to whisk the player from outrageous situation to outrageous situation.  

Which is good, because underneath the show are weaker plot bones.  The characters are well written, but since they are satirical they always go with the most outrageous option.  A lot of fun to play, less fun to think about.  Other lows of this game are when it takes simulation too far and has you stack crates at the cargo port or mop a floor pretending to be a janitor.  At first it is novel and cute, 15 minutes later it feels like a chore.  Same thing with some of the car rides that are longer, but that is why it pays to have a plane, or steal one. .

These low points do not detract from the quality of this game.  Most hate for the game comes from it’s online features. GTA Online is essestianitlly a whole game by itself.  It is so massive, Rockstar dropped planned single player content in favor of making more online content, which has received large updates that are free and hard to be mad at. It is pay to win/have the coolest stuff.  But it is still fun without the bells and whistles and some pretty nice extensive forge tools on PC and is still incredibly popular and fun to play. It is the reason that Rockstar has stopped making new games, and I can’t say I blame them.  Driving around Los Santos racing cars and blowing each other up has never been more fun and more worth the price, even if you normally hate video games (85/60$).

Hitman 2 (27/60$)

This is what regression looks like

The Hitman franchise has some of the best gameplay of any stealth game, and Hitman 2 follows that trend.  My only issue with this game is that I wanted more.  Which is an unfortunately large issue with this game.  The Hitman franchise received a reboot with Hitman 2’s predecessor.  The developer, IO Interactive, Hitman rebooted the series by offering the players the option to buy episodes of the story.  Each of these episodes cost around 10$ and gives the player one map to learn the ins and outs of. Hitman 2 broke this release format and was 60$ at lunch for 8 levels. The goal in each map is to assassinate a target, and the levels are always incredibly detailed interactive jumbles of small stories and plot lines.  It is an achievement to include so much content in one map. It is impossible to see it all in one playthrough. The game is built around this idea.  The player must choose to follow the roundabout path in order to get the full experience out of this series.  You have to want to explore.  Most games, the main content is king, in Hitman 2, the world round the player tells the most gripping stories, and the overall plot is actually pretty shitty.    

At first I found the missions in Hitman 2 to be a little boring.  I would watch the targets programmed behavior, and then knock out their guards slowly before killing them.  I did not bother with the side quests because they seemed inefficient.  One mission I decided to be inefficient and kill everyone on the map, except for the targets.  The game opened up to me and I began to have so much fun hiding bodies, throwing screwdrivers and strangling people with piano wire.  This was because Hitman 2 is a game that only shines when you decide to roll play along with the game.  The player needs to have an interest in following the different story lines across the map, and stick to using them to kill the targets.  When you follow these stories you will instantly feel the time and care that the developers put into these worlds.  Every room, every person, and every item is placed purposefully.  The result is a map that has a direct cause and effect to the players actions.  In my playthroughs this led to a rube goldberg chain reactions that varied according to which path through the level I chose.  It truly is unlike any game out there, and I really think people should play this game to see how a developer can pull off a fun, challenging, and intuitive stealth game.  

That being said there are only 8 chapters to play through the game. After completing a hit, the game will prompt the player to “replan” their assassination using the newly earned set pieces unlocked by completing a certain kind of play through.  They typically offer three different methods of replaning, but there are often more stories to uncover than listed in the menus.  The problem is, some of the side stories fall flat on the writing and the execution.  It almost feels too scripted, and is jarring to see in such a reactive world.  I think these are good ideas, but it would be better to include more of them with more interesting characters.  There are a lot of options already, and a lot of them are fun, but it does not offer enough content to keep a player coming back to those same 8 levels, unless they are into speedruns.  

IO interactive tries to fill this content gap with online updates such as designated targets that are added into the pre existing levels.  These targets are often fun cameos from other games or even real life movie stars.  But they can only be killed once, so this extra content dries up quickly, and does not boost Hitman’s replayability.  As far as stealth games go, Hitman 2 is in a league shared only by Metal Gear Solid series.  Yet, it is an awful investment if you get bored playing the same mission multiple times (27/60$).

Greedfall (35/50$)

The release of french developer Spiders’ new RPG was a win for gaming even if it failed. The game stands in a league of it’s own because it did not market itself as a AAA title and therefore did not have a AAA price tag.  Nor was it an indy release.  Greedfall is a AA game that knows exactly what it’s fans want and deliver on that want, with the only downside being a lack of frills that come with AAA games.  Yet, Greedfall does not need those thrills because this is not a boundary pushing game nor is this a genre defining game, but it is one of the best RPGs I have played in recent years.  It may be AA but it completely outclasses the failed AAA RPG’s that have been released, and just about every other game with bad writing writing. 

Greedfall is cliche, you play as the chosen one.  A hero with a mysterious past who meets up with a colorful cast of characters from the rival factions found in the world.  You are given the choice to save the world or rule, and throughout your adventure you can heal divides or make them worse.  Yet, it doesn’t feel cliche to play because the characters are so well written. They also interact and affect the gameplay itself.  With the right companion at the right time, you can avoid fights and cut missions all together.  Or you could piss that companion off through a situation that you did not have direct control over.  This establishes these characters better than any game I have played this year.  It makes you want to go back and try a quest again.  Playing in a style that ensures you don’t get jumped and maybe you wouldn’t offend the character you are trying to build a relationship with by killing their friends. Which is helpful because these characters give substantial bonuses to talent points that impact how you will solve problems in this game.  It is so refreshing to have a game give you useful tools based on how you build your character and the world around you, compared to just random stat increases.  The world is incredibly creative from a lore standpoint.  The main story wastes no time showing the player how the world is divided not by ethnicity or geography, but by guild.  There are the Nauts that rule the seas.  Taking children who are born on voyages and using secret sciences to navigate the globe.  There are the Theologians who worship this universes representation of christiananity, but with an intense inquisition vibe, the bridge alliance filled with engineers who value progress over everything, the merchants who act as a go between for all factions, and the natives who wield powerful magic.  I write them all out because they are incredibly well written and fun to learn about.  The game is so good it makes you want to talk to other people about the world.  More importantly the relationships between the people within these communities actually affect how you play through the story.  Tribe leaders you helped will remember and trust you in ways that will alter main story events.  Guards who you screwed over will screw you back. These seem like simple steps other games have made before, but Greedfall does them so well it will take you back to the classic RPGS of the 3rd console generations.  The game also plays like them.  

The combat is serviceable, but feels like a mix between The Witcher and Assassins Creed.  It feels fine to duel people, but the enemy creatures take a large amount of time. This could be due to my play style, but it was not a hard game.  It was more tedious than challenging since every enemy is stacked with armour and uses poison. Infact, every animal has an incredibly similar look to them that blends into one uninspired four legged creature.  Humans are more fun to fight, but again, there is no variation in combat except for the guardians who are well designed, but only feature 4 different models.  Their animations also feel stiff, even the cutscenes just don’t have the quality of other games.  The overworld also looks bland. There are no cool locations to explore outside of the occasional ritual area, but those are few and far between.  The player is not able to interact with the world around them either.  A story quest may open a new shop, but that is about it.  These sound harsh, but are the same complaints that so many other AAA games struggle despite this game being AA.

Greedfall is a 35 hour long game that doesn’t have a high amount of replay value, most likely offering one evil and one good play through, and that is if you love the game enough to go back to see how the factions would change which they do story wise, but outside of the writing, the world will remain the same.  If this was a 60$ AAA game I would be mad.  It plays like a game from 2015, It is not for everyone.  If you don’t like fantasy and don’t like hardcore RPG’s than stay away, you will hate the game. But if you do like I do.  You will love playing through this game.  It will feel familiar and be incredibly satisfying to play through.  The story is so good it makes me wish they would expand the universe into a lore.  If you are that kind of nerd.  Look past all of the aged yet serviceable gameplay and give Greedfall a shot.  Especially since it will go on sale, and soon have a base price close to its offered hours of gameplay.  If you want to escape to a world slightly less crazy than our own, then wait for a small sale and buy Greedfall.  I got it for 30$ and I could not be happier. 

Mount and Blade Bannerlord (60/30$)

snake eyes

make me crys

Full disclosure, I have not beaten Mount and Blade: Bannerlord.  I have logged over 60 hours of the game, and still feel like I’m just getting started.  Mount and Blade Bannerlord is the third game in the franchise and the first release in over 10 years.  It can best be described as a medieval battle simulator meets a tabletop RPG.  The game sets itself apart by focusing on a physics based combat simulator and removing the fantasy from knights and castles.   Yet, you will spend most of your time out of combat.  Traveling from cities to villages plundering, politicking, and gathering butter for your army to eat.  Battles typically only last a few minutes, but they offer enough action to satisfy your blade's lust for blood in an extremely satisfying way.  I can not overstate how good it feels to fight in this game.  You will develop such a lust with how satisfying it feels to make a connection with your bastard sword from atop your charging horse.  It is not an easy game either.  Making those moments of battle feel earned, as opposed to just button mashing in other games.

Instead of random attributes such as damage or durability, this game uses weight and top speed.  You combine this speed with the speed of your horse and suddenly you are a one hit kill machine, that can not be stopped, until you are..  This focus on physics makes bad weapons and armour feel great, providing enjoyable gameplay the second you start.  It is clear that the developers have spent the last ten years polishing this system to a T.  With the refined combat mechanics comes a smarter and cunning AI. This was something lacking from the last entry into the series.  When you are going head to head with an army of similar size, the enemy will wait for you to make the first move.  They will split up their units from one another and devise flanking maneuvers.  In fairness, there was a bit of this when facing large sized armys and highly skill lords in the old games.  However, even simple caravans will no longer charge mindlessly into your much stronger force.  It forces the player to think much more tactically than simply taking the high ground and letting your archers pick apart the armies around them.  Bannerlord also features larger army sizes than its predecessors.  The feeling of charging your 800 person army into another 800 person army is unlike any other game I have played.  It feels like the famous battle of the bastards or the parlor fields, only you are leading the charge and fighting for your life.  

The issues with the game mainly come from lackluster modernization.  The graphics are a step up from Bannerlord, but nowhere comparable to other modern games.  The systems and menus are better than the titles before it, but it still lacks simple quality of life features that would navigate the overworld annoying. Sieges still are not great.  There is an odd defense and offense management system that is built around creating siege weapons to either defend your city or plunder it.  Yet, the defender's weapons work solely in the overworld, and not in the simulation.  The attackers weapons are a requirement to take a castle in the combat simulator..  The result is that sieges can take even longer now, and still don’t feel nearly as good as open field combat. It’s a step up, and the game is still in early access, but it is disheartening to spend an hour trying to siege a castle without even getting into the simulation portion of the fight.  

The game is also brutal to losers.  When you lose a fight you will lose 100% of your army that you have spent the last few hours training.  Luckily Bannerlod makes it easier to resemble a skill force, but it is still enough of a punishment to make you consider every move.  You will be forced to start from square one from time to time.  That is when you will stop playing this game.  But the next time you log on you realize that your square one has moved up since you first began, and soon you have another force ready to conquer the land.  Which is basically impossible to do.  I have spent 60 hours and I barely have a kingdom to call my own.  It is an endless game with a one time fee and the promise of an active developer and a thriving mod community.  This game is fun right now, but when people begin to create mods with better features and in the worlds of popular series like Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings, then this game will be worth its weight in gold (60/30$).

C&C: Remastered (20/20$)

It could be worse

Shit took me like a full hour

Command and Conquer has been a dead franchise since 2007. It is a series that is built on 90's ideals.  Soviets in space, cornball live action cutscenes, and synthesizer tracks that you can’t stop listening to. These are what make a C&C game, and Command & Conquer Remastered is a perfect love letter to 90’s gaming. The modern updates they made solve just enough quality of life problems that plagued the 90’s release. Yet, C&C Remastered keeps some annoying systems that the game wouldn’t be the same without.  Not everyone is going to like this game.  When stacked against modern games of the same genre C&C Remastered will feel choppy and almost incomplete.  It is important to understand that this game is not trying to compete with modern RTS games.  In Fact, This game was released with the sole purpose of capturing the feeling of playing the first games, both good and bad. 

The evidence of this is the care they put into ensuring this was a remaster and not a remake.  The game opens by “running tests,” on your PC and then determining that it is able to access a secret file, found within the old game, that contains the remastered features.  It’s a small note that adds to the time warp experience of playing C&C. There are two games within the Remastered, C&C + C&C:Red Alert. Both games have multiple campaigns filled with different missions, some of which are optional, some of which can be played on different maps, and some are unique events like only controlling one unit.  With such a wide range of single player missions, the game easily offers over 20 hours of gameplay.  This is all before the multiplayer which is the real meat of these games. The multiplayer has benefitted from the years of strageies developed by the hard core 90’s community.  All with the new quality of life features that make playing this game so much easier when compared to the original release.  Which a player will greatly appreciate as this game is hard. The people playing multiplayer will stop you. They did not tone the AI down either.  The A.I. is the classic 90’s made A.I. that literally cheats to beat you.  Beating a mission on the hardest difficulty with be a slug fest that puts your skills to the test but is frankly less fun and more of a pain.

  Especially since the developers kept the old code for the game, including the unit pathing.  The pathing is so bad in these games that it will lose you a game at some point.  This is where the game falls short of modern RTS games like Company of Heroes 2, Starcraft 2, and the various Total War games. However, I am biased when looking at this pathing, I think it’s shittiness is beautiful and in line with playing a 90’s RTS.  Yes, you will lose a 50 minute long match because your harvesters have entered into a logic loop, but if you git gud then maybe you would have noticed them not mining and fixed it.  This is because all these shortcomings can be navigated around if you are hyper aware, yet sometimes you don’t want to have to play like a pro to feel like a pro.

So Command & Conquer Remastered is in this weird league of games where it can be compared to games that wouldn’t have existed without it.  That alone proves how good of a game this is.  Add in the fact that it is technically two games in one, plus handful logistical changes that make the frustrations of the OG AI tolerable, and you see that it is completely worth the money.  Which is even more admirable when compared to the incredibly lackluster remasters of Starcraft, and even Warcraft III.  It feels great to play a game that has been made by people who love the original image more than modern ideals of gaming.  If you like RTS games, buy it now (20/20$).  If you are unsure, it will be on sale in the blink of an eye and will remain played as the defacto version of the game. 

The Last of Us 2 (50/60$)

This is okay, the 3d is hard AF

I still can’t write bubble letters

The Last of Us 2 is a legendary game no matter what you may think of the story.  The level of precision and detail that went into creating the world and the gameplay  is incredible.  Shooting a bow in a post-apocalyptic setting has never felt so good. Which is saying something, because just about every other game now includes stealth and bow and arrows.  Stabbing someone to death has never felt so wrong but it is done so that you want to watch each time the knife rips their flesh.  If you have seen any gameplay trailers to this game, and thought that the animations were scripted because they looked too smooth and too adapted to the world.  You are wrong.  This game is an absolute joy to watch and to play.  Couple that with the incredible dialog and masterfully done story, you are left with an engrossing and emotional experience that will keep you locked in for hours and hours, just falling a little short on length (50/60$).  

The story picks up shortly after the ending of the original game, and is serviceable enough.  The well written dialog between characters will occupy you as you play through the first portions of the game.  The vast majority of which is spent in stealth combat.  Which is some of the best stealth sections I have ever played. Most stealth systems are very binary in the sense that they are seen and unseen.  TLOU2 sets itself apart by focusing on the searching in between those phases.Which allows the player to slip back out of sight much more easily than most games, but never to the point where the enemy completely forgets about you also unlike most games.  The whole system functions how you think these situations would go down in real life.  Last of Us II lives in this realism.  You feel bad for the characters that you burtally murder because it highlights the brutality of that murder. With your controller pulsing every time you make contact with their flesh.  It then carries that feeling into the story.  At first glance the writing might feel short and stunted, but as you play the game you begin to appreciate the fact that every character you meet talks like a human being and not like a character.  Even when compared to other well written games like God of War or Disco Elysium, TLOU2 shines above them because of how the aseptic and realism complement the story.  They don’t need paragraphs to explain things, they just show you first hand.  Even the main plot grapples with the negative effects of mental illness and revenge in a way that is unfair, real, and refreshing for video games.  

Now some people hate it.  They don’t like some of the twists and turns that it takes you on.  Which I understand completely.  Video games and other mediums are often seen as escapes from stress and from pressure, but the TLOU2 lives through those feelings and wants the player to confront them in all of their ugliness.  At one point a character suffers from PTSD, which has been done in other games.  However, the majority of those games use cliche to have the heroes overcome their own mental health.  The Last of Us Shows that there is a cost in defeating your demons.  It shows how rational can turn to irrational and unstoppable.  It shows that there are no heroes, only humans.  Which is so refreshing in a medium that is full of them. flourish and I do not blame them for that. One could make the argument that the characters in the story behave out of character and therefore are written poorly.  It is a valid criticism.  However, I think that it just highlights the overall stories theme of there being no heroes so well.  

The game took me 30 hours to beat and truly has no bad parts.  It is one of the few pure single player and story based games left around, and it is done so damn well that it easily adds more than 20$ of value.  There is a crazy amount of tech, care, and passion that Naughty Dog poured into this game. I personally have no problem paying full price for this game since I got the first one on sale and it was also amazing.  However, 30 hours is a little short for a 60$ game in my opinion and there is no multiplayer unlike past Naughty Dog titles which hurts replayability. The result is that there is little reason to play this game outside of completion of it’s story.  If you liked the TLOU and are itching to play this game, buy it for the 60$ and you won’t be mad.  That being said, you will be a lot happier if you wait till the holidays and buy it for 50$ (50/60$).