Noticeably bloated and senselessly cruel, showing this to a newcomer pretty much requires the disclaimer that "you will die a lot, just try to use all of your bombs before that happens." If this were a slightly neater package; less repetitious segments, and perhaps updated to facilitate a health system rather than one of chugging endless coins in the virtual cabinet, it'd feel less like you're just being strung along for the ride. On the plus side, it's a fucking great ride - an avalanche of spectacle propped up with just about the right amount of feedback to tell you that you're the one controlling it. The final chapter is Thrillhouse incarnate.

For a game about perspectives, its chic wordless storytelling fails to interrogate its cast or themes and leaves Moncage as simply a short puzzle box tightly wound with ingenious mechanics and gorgeous visuals. This is one of the most well-designed nifty tactile puzzle games I've played in a long time, frankly blowing games like Monument Valley and Assemble With Care out of the water - I only wish it sealed the deal by nailing the emotional impact it clearly sprang for, but it only opted in using well-worn symbols. We've all seen the Up intro please move on.

Dedicated a hundred or so painstaking hours to trying to understand this hulking monolith of MMO Discourse. Nigh impossible to believe a newcomer attuned to the niceties of FFXIV can find any enjoyment in this hamster wheel of hideous, thankless design, and bear asses. Either this is a piece of transgressive art I'm simply too stupid to appreciate, or just a radiant entry in a then budding 3D MMORPG genre with growing pains as noticeable as its ambitions. Thanks for paving the way for other, better games. Maybe in retail WoW they actually remembered to put the story IN the game.

Ultimately, a middling Source engine mod that came out at a time when there were a thousand other, better ones of its kind. Hard to beat the aesthetic, a wonderfully gritty sci-fi """cyberpunk??"" setting that if anything still feels fresh. Enjoyed skulking around empty servers and soaking in the unparalleled atmosphere. The maps genuinely feel haunted, detailed and littered with props and history; like teleporting into a forgotten world plagued by untold stories. Whatever sickness that once resided behind these metal walls managed to remove all life therein. I genuinely implore anyone to give this mod a shot just to create a solo server and explore the maps and soak in the vibes.

The game's biggest sin is commissioning Ed Harrison to create one of the best soundtracks ever, and then proceeds to just.... not use it natively? Servers outright had to enable a radio plugin to play the songs that were dormant in the directory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPUp2PiCYBY

A very short puzzle game with a quaint little story. It's cute! My biggest take away from Builder's Journey is complete and utter amazement at how stunningly rendered these Lego bricks are. Like looking at an actual, physical diorama - the bricks that compose every stage have their own imperfections and reflective qualities that make the game look completely Real, made even better when stages animate with brick-style liquid physics. Maybe the first actual case I've seen where Raytracing doesn't look like complete dog shit.

My experience with this game seems to have been very different from everyone else's, and I would definitely like to set up the disclaimer to disregard this write-up if you found yourself genuinely enjoying this game. My time with Alyx was coloured by the fact that VR makes me drastically motion sick after even a few moments of playing, I finally completed this game after about five months of short intermittent sessions. I ABSOLUTELY would not have even bothered if this didn't just so happen to be a mainline Half Life entry, a series I love.

Compliments to the chefs, the game is stunning looking. I'm sure they used every trick under the sun to get this game running smoothly while looking great on my ageing pc (which I'm sure plays a part in how VR affects me). The sheer level of mechanical detail, the variety in the pieces of graphic design illustrations throughout the city lending every area its own sense of lived-in plausability. Oo mama the posters and stuff around the zoo. Much of the stuff I love Half Life for is here and urbex is alive and well.

The problems for me really do arise around the fact that the act of playing the game was akin to strapping a microwave to my face and having my eyeballs burst like blueberries under the scorching tropical sun. I simply don't believe it's worth the strain, because the game itself is a fairly standard rail shooter affair. Once the fully-realised vr simulation euphoria disappeared I realised I was just walking from one gunfight to the next with alarmingly few tools to actually play with. I put up with this and even enjoyed it in Half Life 2, because my movement felt unrestricted. If Alyx is as good as VR games are at right now, I'm happy to just. Hibernate on the shit.

As a kid I always wanted to touch a Combine forcefield and this game let me carry out my dream, thamks valve

I can't help but feel as though I owe a lot to the first PixelJunk Eden game. In 2008, it was the first arthouse title I'd ever bought; it played no small part in easing me into becoming more adventurous with the games I try - and what better game to do that than one where a goblin cultivates and expands their worldview to reach new heights.
This sequel doesn't do a lot to shake up the original formula, but features a greatly improved control scheme that allows the greenthumb audiovisual serenity to take centre stage, where it would originally fall victim to frustrations and lost progress. It has been pretty emotional skipping through these floating lantana fields while hearing familiar remixes to tunes I consider formative!
My sticking point would be my suspicion that this is essentially just a repackaging of the mobile game Eden Obscura, which brings to the forefront far too familiar to the mobile territory progression systems and clunky UIs. Where there was once a central hub that grew around you to connect to new garden zones is now a Level Select filled with gems and exp and skins and uuuuugh. It doesn't ruin anything of course, the encroaching shadow of The Phone consumes the best of us.

First Sega CD game I've ever played! I'm hardly familiar with the hardware or the CD expansion, but I'm still absolutely blown away by the production quality of the cutscenes in this. Fully thoughtful employment of a limited colour palette that never feels restrictive. I have a soft spot for 90's fantasy OVAs and Popful Mail is essentially a playable one of those. Which is to say, it's not GREAT, but charming and short enough to never outstay their welcome. Respect the absolute fucking nerve to just not bother with invincibility frames if nothing else. Can't sing praises for what feels a little too bog-standard as sidescrolling action, but I'm always here for a goofy powerhouse of production talent making something that feels uncompromisingly corny.

If u like Popful mail check out these OVAs if you haven't already!!;
-Mahou Gakuen Lunar! Aoi Ryuu no Himitsu
-Ruin Explorers
-Armored Dragon Legend Villgust
-Record of Lodoss War
-Dragon Half
-Ozanari Dungeon

Played this for a few minutes on a complete whim because I was in the mood for a humble vidcon about a simulated aminal. Nothing mindblowing, but surprisingly cute! Pet games are essentially desktop toys where you throw objects into the digital pet's playpen as you watch them react with canned animations and stat ups. Dogz gba seems to revolve more around the player character living their life while a new pet has been introduced to their family, so you're doing daily child chores while balancing dog duties. This level of context to the game does wonders, and as a dogless child, I'd probably be all over it for the placebo effect tbh. Also, the sprites are adorable. I aww'd at every little thing my character did as I excitedly explored the house looking for interactibles.
Hand on heart believe that this game's exact formula but gr8ly expanded could be the next halo killer.

Giving the player the opportunity to control a terrifying and foreboding fleshy monstrosity, picking off your targets with the animalistic brutality of a pack of hungry lions - much akin to the thing from 'The Thing' or the alien from 'Alien' - Carrion has a fairly unique premise that made me eager to play the game from the day I'd heard of it. Sadly, fails to fully capitalise on the idea's potential.

I feel your mileage for this game will hinge almost entirely on how gratifying you find mindless violence and gore. Personally, I stopped playing with my food barely an hour into the game, when I realised that the enemies are little more than screaming health kits. There is no lore, no dialogue, no justification behind what is happening in this game, outside a handful of "memory" sequences, which were similarly plot anaemic. Novelty can wear thin, and there wasn't a shred of it left come the time the credits to Carrion finally rolled. Encounters and gauntlets quickly become a mere routine that no amount of upgrades could obfuscate. There's only so many times you can hit the same pinata before every last piece of candy has fallen out.

With each level being a samey-looking environment with little to no unique identifying landmarks, and no map to speak of, I found myself completely lost for progress for much of my playthrough. The spritework is stunningly detailed, but none of it clicked with me to a point where I was in awe with what I was looking at. It mostly blurred together as a grossly busy pastiche of repeating assets, vents and corridors. I don't think I ever found myself sure of my place on the map, convincing myself that any step forward I manage to make is by complete coincidence.

The puzzles in this game are impressive, but I can't help but find the size requirements to most of them to be a complete hindrance to the pacing. Pacing back and forward, to and from a blood pool to shrink yourself down so you can use a different set of abilities, then doing the same to size back up. I'm amazed I had the patience.

I can't exactly place why, but Carrion reminds me so much of the PS1 Oddworld games to the point where I wish I was playing those instead. Slig Barracks music played in my head throughout the armory section.