Wanted: Dead is as befuddling as it is bloody. Players will find the plot of Soliel's slasher/shooter hybrid varying levels of coherent depending on their interpretation. What's undeniable is the fun to be had in its streamlined slaughter. Come for the demanding and gory action gameplay, and stay for the odd voice performances, anime flashbacks, and karaoke with Stefanie Joosten. It's sometimes frustrating, often satisfying, and almost always janky and weird; I can't stop thinking about it.

Full review: https://finalweapon.net/2023/02/19/wanted-dead-review/

Dead Space rigorously reanimates gaming's best sci-fi horror game. It's clear EA Motive looked at the original title both through the lens of adoring fans as well as talented developers. They keep what worked, morph what didn't, and unlike the game's protagonist, cut off almost nothing. The USG Ishimura has never been more immersive. Only minor missteps keep it from perfection, but not from being an absolutely stunning makeover, and a must-play experience.

Full review: https://finalweapon.net/2023/02/01/dead-space-remake-review/

No doubt about it, Splatter is worth a play. Original and fresh, it's a wild ride with engaging combat throughout. Especially as a debut game from a team of seven, this slime-soaked shooter impresses. Xenial it's not, despite its collage of familiar sights and sounds from internet culture. It blasts players with pulse-pounding music and psychedelic visuals until they've had their fill. The only way out is through.

Full review: https://finalweapon.net/2022/12/17/splatter-review-style-substance-and-sartre/

Ragnarok is excellent, with top-of-the-line visuals, sound, and combat. Cumbersome menus, a superfluous equipment system, and a couple of less thrilling chapters do little to dull the shine of an otherwise spectacular action-adventure experience. Playing much like its predecessor, the shape this new title takes doesn’t subvert expectations, but exceeds them. When originally shown, some gamers remarked that Ragnarok looked like DLC. In hindsight, the beloved God of War (2018) now feels like a demo for this jampacked feast of a game.

Full review: https://finalweapon.net/2022/11/23/god-of-war-ragnarok-review/

Not usually a fan of Battle Royale games (or multiplayer in general, really), but this has me hooked.

Normal battle royale staples like gunplay and navigating the map are already good here but are then elevated by the incredible mobility of the vampire races (scaling buildings, sliding, huge leaps, wall jumping) and their unique abilities for combat and movement.

Vampire the Masquerade doesn't just serve as the game's skeleton, its lore is incorporated stem to stern and there's a menu full of information that gets filled as you play the game and fulfill combat challenges and fetch quests during multiplayer for NPCs in a central hub. You can also give yourself heals and buffs by drinking the blood of humans mid-match and performing a finisher on other players isn't just for style: "diableries" from VtM are how you end the lives of other vampires, powering you up with another slot for blood buffs. Outside of ranked play you can also store up to two "lives", and when you're down to your last chance, you can carefully skulk the streets to regain a life by finding the right human to drink.

The game looks ridiculously good for a 40 player multiplayer game with a huge map, and runs great on PS5 (60FPS/1440p or 30FPS/4K) and is optimized well for PC. Right now at launch there's certainly an advantage to PC players who can use mouse and keyboard at 144FPS against 60FPS controller users (with minimal aim assist), but 120FPS is something they want to add to PS5, and they're looking at aim correction balance as well. I've still managed to win many times on PS5 though 🤷

Overall I'm incredibly impressed with this game; it's one that I'd completely written off because of Battle Royale stigma and the dire state of Bloodlines 2 development, but I'm really glad I gave this a chance

A pleasing art style that shines as you progress to different levels and the locales drastically change, great animation work, well-designed combat, and an awesome difficulty curve that weaves in ways that you can make the game easier, but never allows any of them to become sturdy enough of a crutch that you can see the game through (and through again for secret content) without actually increasing your skill as a player.

Learning Sifu's combat feels like learning an actual skillset. I began the game wondering if I'd ever beat the second level, and by the time I ended it, I was spending precious special attack meter on a move that gently smacks enemies on the back of the head as a taunt. It's a wonderful feeling.

I rented this game when I was maybe 7 years old, and despite the kind of blah visuals (for its time and now), and its quest based structure not providing much grand motivation compared to the sweeping stories of RPGs like FF that I was used to, it's stuck with me.

Played it recently, and it's still very interesting and very charming despite being janky, slow, and not telling you a whole lot. Maybe it's Mitsuda's soundtrack, maybe it's the Legend of Dragoon-ish combat, maybe it's that the game is about helping people: I'm not sure, but there's something here.