In this more gritty and realistic take on superheros, you play as Cole McGrath, a bike messenger who opened a package containing a device called the Ray Sphere that gave him lightning superpowers, however the sphere blew up and destroyed one of the districts in Empire City, and the whole city is put on lockdown with criminals rising up and taking over

You decide whether Cole becomes the savior they need, or the villain they frame you as

The most notable gameplay feature is the karma system, certain actions you do throughout the story will give you good or bad karma, which affects your powers by having different upgrades and effects for both paths

This gritty power fantasy allows players to run wild with their powers and experience what its like for an average joe to be superpowered

Side content is plenty too, although myself I found most of it a bit boring to do, you can find crystals called blast shards located around the world to increase your energy, missions that when completed will make its area safe and enemies can't return, or missions exclusive to good and evil paths

Overall, a pretty unique take on superheroes in the form of a power fantasy where you choose to the path of good or evil and a pretty decent if not good story for an original game inspired by comic book characters

However there are a few issues I had with the game overall, notably that the story seems over the place at times and rushing certain events in a effort to keep the flow going, while the game doesn't lack in challenge, enemies aren't designed the best as you can't walk 5 feet without getting shot at by some random enemy on a rooftop, you can be one shotted without warning and you might find yourself hiding behind cover alot to fire back with lightning most of the time since it can be risky just rushing in

Despite these flaws however, I cannot recommend this game enough if you have the ability to play, a game and its sequels that have been sadly overlooked by its parent company today

Absolute perfection. Monolith Soft have perfected the Xenoblade franchise with Future Redeemed. Everything has been building to this moment, and it's one hell of a send-off for my favorite trilogy in gaming.

The combat was expertly refined from XB3; Mitsuda's music is, as always, flawless; and the story was so fucking good, I can't even begin to put it into words. Future Redeemed manages to connect all 3 games together in the perfect package with so many amazing call-backs and references to the previous games.

The high quality bar that Takahashi and the rest of the folks at Monolith Soft have kept up over the years is astounding. They keep outdoing themselves with every release, and Future Redeemed is the pinnacle of them at their craft. I can't wait to see what their next Xeno project will be (although I wouldn't mind a Xenoblade Chronicles X Switch port since I never got to play it).

Wife’s Reaction:
“Do you really need the volume this loud? Oh. Okay then. My bad.”

An Eikon by Any Other Name:
Five months have passed since I beat Final Fantasy XVI. I didn’t think my hype for it died down at all since, but playing this DLC was a perfect reminder of just how much the game resonated with me. Echoes of the Fallen is maybe a tad small for $10, but its final battle more than makes up for the other shortcomings.

I enjoyed Spider-Man 2 considerably more than the first Spider-Man and only slightly more than Miles Morales. While I did have some gripes with it here and there, I think it's a really fun game with a surprisingly emotional story.

The traversal is once again top tier, and with some of the added abilities it makes this game's movement that much better. I challenged myself to never use the fast travel function in this game and I'm happy to say that I never even felt the need to - moving around this world is some of the best I've played in any video game.

The combat was fun enough, but I was a bit disappointed that it didn't really open up completely until the end of the game. There are some insane abilities that are great for crowd control but you get them in the last few hours of the story which is a bit of a bummer. The combat is fast and frenetic and it really forced me to get good with dodge and parry windows.

I think the story is where this game truly shines. This is the best story of the 3 games by a long-shot and I loved the way we were able to switch between Peter and Mile's perspectives. The boss fights were much better done this time around (although some of them definitely overstayed their welcome with a few too many multi-phase fights) and the introduction of Kraven and Venom was just awesome. I've never read the comics so I can't compare this game to those but I thought their characterization was really well done and are some of the stronger gaming antagonists I've seen in a while.

I'm glad I was able to sneak this in before the end of the year. I still have some side content to mop up but this was a really solid gaming experience. I don't think this moved the needle as much as it could've compared to its predecessors but it felt more polished in a lot of areas in comparison. Excited to see how Insomniac continues this story (and maybe connect in the Wolverine game they're working on?).

A good start to an iconic series.. its definitely aged in some areas with lack of strafing and such compared to its sequels
Having played the reboot and A Crack in Time first, it shows

However, the writing and humor is good, such as the titular duos growing friendship throughout the game and many funny lines

The soundtrack and atmosphere is quite good and seems unmatched in future games

All in all, a classic PS2 platformer that is very much worth playing even today

Wife’s Reaction:
“Kiryu’s basically the Yakuza version of Superman. Powerful, ripped, quippy, and he uses glasses to hide his identity.”

Sometimes You Wanna Go Where Everybody Knows Your Name:
If I had played Yakuza 6 in 2016, I’d be going crazy over having Kiryu back in action. This short romp was a nice bridge between my first (Y7) and last (Y6) Yakuza games, but a couple of things like the Agent style felt at odds with what has come before.

I know a lot of people were kinda soft on it but I really loved the story mode for the base game so I found this DLC to be a bit frustrating. Its good, expected comic book-y stuff like the rest of Mortal Kombat but I don't know. My favorite part of the base game was the mom-daughter stuff with Cassie and Sonya. So of course this DLC focused a lot on the worst mother character of all time, Sindel. It does make for an interesting contrast and the focus on villains is cool but I just am not sure the ending is satisfying enough to make up for how it felt like all my favorite characters got done dirty. The most frustrating aspect of this DLC is that my opinion on it entirely depends on what happens in the next two Mortal Kombat games lol.

Other than that I like the three new characters (Fujin the most) and having Robocop is sweet but I already had my mains so wasn't too interested in trying them out.

Overall Mortal Kombat 11 Aftermath is a pretty solid expansion with a good if somewhat frustrating conclusion to the story and good new character additions. I do think the original 40 dollar price tag for it is positively ridiculous but thankfully you can get it for much cheaper on sale. Its a solid add-on to my favorite fighting game and I can't ask for too much more than that.

Just wanted to leave this little mini review. I also recently got the platinum for both the PS4 and PS5 version of the basegame if that doesn't tell you how much I enjoyed it. I currently have MK1 installed and I def need a bit of a fighting game break but I am very eager to play it nonetheless, will definitely be reviewing that as well 😌

-----TLDR----
+ Good new additions to the roster
+ Interesting set up for the future of MK
- Too many of my characters got disrespected in story mode lol

Nancymeter - 70/100
Trophy Completion - N/A
Time Played: 2-4 hours
DLC Completion #2 of November
DLC Completion #35 of 2023

Wife’s Reaction:
“The game is cute as hell. Except that little worm who gaslights you into doing all the work and he takes all the credit. Typical man.”

It’s-A Wonderful Life:
Mario Wonder is a jamboree of a 2D platformer that falls a little short. The unexpected becomes predictable. It’s a little too easy. And there are other knocks, yet Wonder delights with all of its charm and sharp controls. Any fan of Mario has to play Wonder.

Devil May Cry 2 was a bit of a letdown for me. The plot felt weak, the combat got tiresome, especially when bosses pushed me to rely heavily on ranged weapons. Dante, who was so cool in the first game, felt kinda bland this time around. It's not all bad – I did have some fun playing as Lucia and tackling missions felt pretty rewarding. Yet, I can't help but feel they missed the mark with her character. The potential was there, but the execution fell short, leaving me wanting a deeper exploration of her story and capabilities. It's a missed opportunity that adds to my overall disappointment of the game. Looking forward to the other games in the series.

I loved Spider-Man and Spider-Man Miles Morales so I was stoked for Spider-Man 2 yet it still blew away all my expectations.

The gameplay was more of the same from the previous games but with slightly more moves and upgrades. Story wise I will say the first half of the game is nothing to write home about but from mid point on the story is nothing but exceptional. Insomniacs vision and twist on Venom, Kraven, and for spoiler reasons I’ll just say the fire cult leader were fantastic. I’m so excited to see where the story goes next from here between what happens in the ending and spoiler mentioned above. If the story wasn’t so average the first half this game would have been a bonafide masterpiece. The second half is just simply a masterclass of the medium. Maybe the biggest upgrade to the game is that you can now fast travel anywhere and the load times for it are almost non existent and are seamless transitions making traversing so much quicker.

If you enjoyed yourself playing the two Spider-Man games you owe it to your self to play this game ASAP.