Even the most ardent puritan would struggle to argue that the original version of Dead Space is superior to this utterly sterling remake. Dead Space (2023) improves on the 2008 original in every conceivable way. Though hardly a major overhaul, it tinkers with the original in many small, often subtle ways. Giving Isaac a (literal) voice and more agency, secondary weapon actions, a slightly reworked story that covers up a major plotline, so on and so forth; it all adds up to a notably improved experience. I honestly kinda shrugged when EA announced this was how they were bringing back the Dead Space franchise, but having played this, I'm now praying EA Motive are put to work on a Dead Space 2 remake next.

I really wish I liked this more than I did. It has a terrific Mega Man Legends-esque aesthetic that lends it a lot of visual charm, but once you start properly playing the game, you quickly realise that its charm can only get it so far.

Dr. Slump is essentially a series of vignettes, I assume taken directly from the manga. Lots of random shit happens. Very random. And it all feels very disconnected. Maybe that structure works better in manga form, but here, you get a very fragmented story that features a lot of humour that doesn't land. The adventure-type moments aren't too bad. Bland but inoffensive. You run around, talk to supporting characters, sometimes engage in minigames, etc. They're kinda bleh. But then you get to the more action-focused segments that are centered around platforming, and oof, let me tell you, those are a chore. Mechanically they're just no good. Like a far lesser Ape Escape. And they become more frequent the further you progress.

I always feel bad when a translation team puts in the hard work to make something like this available to a wider audience. Hilltop does fantastic work, there's no doubt about it. But it sucks when you play one of these formerly Japan-only releases and it becomes obvious why it was never localised in the first place. Dr. Slump is such a game.

Wow. That may well have been the longest video game I've ever played in my life. Now that I'm watching the end credits scroll up, I feel like I've closed the chapter on a part of my life. It's going to be weird not playing Baldur's Gate 3 anymore.

I'll keep this review brief, because if I don't, I'll be up all night writing some lengthy treatise instead, when all I want to do is move on to the next game in my backlog and play something different! Does Baldur's Gate 3 deserve its surprise reputation as 2023's best game? After all, up until August, we all expected Tears of the Kingdom to be a shoe-in for the title. In my opinion, yes. It is a game of almost awe-inspiring scope and ambition. The amount of customisation is astonishing, as are the myriad of different narrative threads and outcomes. There are so many varying ways the story can go, and yet it always manages to be tethered by phenomenal writing, no matter dialogue option you choose. The game also serves as a reminder of how thrilling turn-based combat can be. In an industry where turn-based is seen as outdated and real-time combat is the more viable way to go in the AAA realm, Larian have nailed how gripping, brain-teasing and downright rewarding a slower method of combat is when game designers bring their A-game. I hope big publishers take notice of BG3's monumental success and maybe reconsider that not all AAA RPGs in this day and age have to play like something designed for a teenager afflicted with ADHD.

The reason I didn't give Baldur's Gate 3 a perfect score is that it felt like it was starting to come apart at the seams by Act 3. I was encountering a fair few bugs at that point. Performance was taking a dip, texture pop in kept rearing its ugly head, the inventory would lag something awful, so on and so forth. Act 3 was such a huge part of the game, and it felt like the team had maybe bit off more than it could chew with that portion of the game. As such, my playthrough did feel like it went on a bit longer than was necessary.

But I digress. For the absurd amount of hours I put into Baldur's Gate 3 and the relief I feel now that it's over, the truth is that some part of me will miss it. I put in a lot of effort to ensure I would get the best ending for everyone. And why? Ultimately because I cared. I loved my companions and truly wanted the best for them. Hence why I did every side quest that was available to me, obsessed over passing ability checks and scoured every square inch of the maps. And when you're that invested in the events of a video game... what higher praise can you offer?

Contender for most polarising video game ever made? I know plenty of people who hate Jak II for the drastic changes it made from the first game. Me? I love it. Yes, there are some cruel difficulty spikes, and there's some obnoxious checkpoint placement during missions, and there are some downright dubious game design decisions in general. But Jak II is a Saturday morning cartoon that's crammed with humour, ambition and a wide array of different gameplay styles and minigames. It's like GTA, but every mission has you doing something different, whether it's platforming, shooting, racing, skating, escort missions, so on and so forth. Again, people hate this game because it took a departure from the 3D platforming-centric antics of the first game, and I get that, but I like variety that's rampant in Jak II.

Also, it's nowhere near as dark and edgy as some like to make out. It's a very funny and cartoonish game that happens to have some PG-13 rated moments.

A Kojima game that showcases like no other how awful of a writer he is, mostly because Policenauts is a visual novel with little actual gameplay to fall back on. The story, which appears to have been written during a late-night bender after Koj stumbled upon Lethal Weapon while channel surfing, is super predictable in places and features his usual expository tangents that obliterate any sense of pacing. There's also the well-known misogyny that's rampant in the game. Players can sexually assault most of the female characters in the game while casually talking to them, and it's played either for laughs or to titillate. I know we're all extra sensitive to this sort of thing now, but it's hard to see how it was ever acceptable even back in 1994.

Some nice visuals, some nice music, yadda yadda yadda. Little else going for it.

Man, that last case is some bullshit. I pieced together the story events and understood what was going on easily enough, but putting the right words in the right spaces proved troublesome. I don't think the game is succeeding in the intended way if the real challenge is found in using trial and error to get the exact wording down when formulating a sentence. There were just too many potential variations with the noun selections. It didn't feel fair to me. And the hint system was useless because it was telling me things I already knew, so in the end I had to resort to an online guide. Yes, my pride took a major beating as a result.

Otherwise, business as usual. A really intriguing story told via only brief cutscene snippets and dialogue exchanges. Golden Idol does so much with so little. Analysing a scene, taking note of character interactions/visual cues and paying attention to all the minute details makes one feel like a true detective. I think the main game comfortably surpasses the DLC though, because it has plenty of those "Eureka!" moments, and when they come, piecing together the sentences in the Thinking screen usually goes smoothly. Also, I prefer the smaller-scale cases of the main campaign compared to the fewer-in-quantity-but-much-broader-in-scope cases of the DLC.

It's called Resident Evil 0, because it's zero fun to play! Ba dum tsh.

This is my first rodeo through Resident Evil 0. Its reputation precedes it, so I knew going in that I was in for a lesser experience, but even with expectations set accordingly, it still managed to disappoint. What can one say about this game's fundamental flaws that haven't been said a million times already. I've nothing new to contribute. The inventory management is as clumsy, time-consuming and burdensome as everyone says. It's a pain in the fucking arse is what it is! Classic Resi had a good thing going with the item box system, but some bright spark at Capcom thought it would be a good idea to force the player to constantly run back and forth picking up items that they had to leave in some room thirty loading screens away, because of annoyingly restrictive inventory space. And because the player is forced to constantly abandon weapons/ammo/items, the backtracking as a result renders this game insufferable at times. Exchanging items between Billy and Rebecca just further exacerbates all this finicky nonsense. So much time is spent arranging items to be where you want them to be that it obliterates any sense of tight pacing in the overall campaign. The game feels way longer to get through than it should.

It's a shame, because at the core there's a good Resi experience in the classic vein to be found here. The graphics actually hold up beautifully. This game is a case in point of why pre-rendered environments are a truly lost art. There's atmosphere in spades, particularly in the early train section (easily the highlight of the entire campaign). But some baffling design choices, not to mention an incoherent and just plain risible story, mean that 0 is destined to find itself near the bottom of every Resident Evil TierMaker list.

If you've not played Resident Evil 0 yet, be kind to yourself and continue ignoring it.

These indie games that are high on style and low on substance can be really hit and miss with me (but mostly miss). Thankfully, Dordogne refuses to join the ranks of Kentucky Fried Zero, Gris and Rime through sheer merit of not being pretentious twaddle and instead being sincere in its efforts to tell a straightforward coming-of-age story, even if that story does succumb to some rushed pacing towards the last couple of chapters. The ending itself, though too brief, does manage a sufficiently emotional payoff fortunately.

Of course, if we're talking about style, it doesn't hurt that Dordogne also happens to be one of the most gorgeous games I've ever laid eyes on, while also being a serious contender for soundtrack of the year. Every location is almost like a diorama, and these sets are adorned with lush watercolours and deliberate lighting, giving every environment visited a warm nostalgic hue and a strong sense of place. Supernaive's spacey ambient score works in perfect tandem with the dreamlike atmosphere and greatly enhances the overall experience. It is a phenomenal OST.

The gameplay itself is very basic, and it's best to treat Dordogne as an interactive movie than anything else. But if the idea of Studio Ghibli's Only Yesterday meets Another Code/Trace Memory with a pinch of Shenmue thrown in for good measure sounds appealing to you, then be sure to give it a try. Hell, play it for the music alone.

7.75 outta 10.

I remember vividly this being my next game after completing Duke Nukem Forever. I was so burnt by what a steaming piece of crap that game was that I was borderline anxious about buying this game day one that also had middling (albeit still much more positive than DNF!) reviews. Turns out my fears were misplaced and the critics got it wrong - Alice: Madness Returns was ace. Maybe a bit stagnant in the gameplay department, but the amount of twisted imagination that went into the story, characters, environments and lore enraptured me and made the game well worth playing through. Deeply unsettling in places. Wish we got a new one.