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.

An absolutely incredible survival-horror/action blend. A bunch of unique and interesting monstrous enemies, weapons that feel great to shoot, unique locations with lots of bespoke geometry, gorgeous and realistic visuals (especially with ray tracing turned on), mysteries that kept me hooked throughout the plot, and interesting connections and delightful references to previous RE titles. Every boss fight in this game feels like it would be the over-the-top FINAL boss fight in a lesser game.

There's plenty to unlock after you've finished it, four difficulty modes in case you want either an easier or more challenging time, new game plus, and Mercenaries Mode, an arcade-y score-attack combat extravaganza after you've completed the story.

Resident Evil Village is a game that feels like it had love and effort put into it, and was given the development time it needed. I'm enamored with it.

I kept thinking while I was playing this:

"This is a game-ass game."

I don't mind when games lean into what they are (dialogue in tutorials where characters literally state what buttons do what, Resident Evil 4's arcade-y light trails indicating ammo and money pick-ups, Deadly Premonition having collectables visible in cut-scenes) and I don't mind when games try to hide their "game-ness" for the sake of being cinematic (skipping title-screens and booting straight into game with SH2 or GTA, minimal UI, cutscenes blending straight into gameplay), but I think this is a case of a title trying to do the latter and not knowing how. Horizon seems like it wants to be scifi Uncharted, but feels more like PlayStation's own Ubisoft game (a formula Ghost of Tsushima would later perfect) and the facial animation and dialogue outside of mocapped cut-scenes really cements this. Mechanics and tasks stack in a perfectly reasonable way, but I just didn't feel that motivated to engage with them.

Beautiful to look at, pretty fun traversal, and the combat is interesting and the enemies are unique, but overall the game just felt kind of tedious to me.

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/

Characters created by the character designer of Cowboy Bebop, music from the sound designer/score composer of Killer 7, some of the funniest bad voice acting outside of Chaos Wars, and an inventive control scheme and scenario that has you controlling a human in third-person and then switching to their first-person viewpoint to look at and control your mech with stuff as wild as alternating the shoulder buttons to take giant steps and swinging the analog sticks to throw punches with your Meganite.

Definitely worth trying!

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/

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/

How am I the only person in America that's played this game? The cover-art is sick, c'mon.

A simplistic, fairly low-budget turn-based JRPG made special by its setting, aesthetic, artwork, enemy designs, job system, and the uniqueness and depth of tank customization.

Using your characters' special on-foot abilities vs attacking with one of your stronger tank cannons that has limited use vs attacking with less powerful weapons that hit enemies' weaknesses and may break their shield vs grinding to build 5 incredible machine-guns (which have unlimited uses) and equipping them on a tank along with a chip you found while exploring an obscure part of the map that allows for all machine-guns to be fired in a single turn and raining hellfire on enemies makes for interesting decisions both before and during combat. I'm 3/4 through the game so far and I'm reallllly enjoying that last option.