puts max payne to shame with how explosive 9mm bullets are in this game. bullets leave craters in walls, bodies turn into red mist, the least powerful electronics burst into miniature lightning storms. that's f.e.a.r. for you, baby, slow-mo destructive theatrics accompanied by some fantastic horror atmosphere. for a game with such a reputation, what else can i say about its cathartically obliterating combat and the gorgeous lighting? as many a f.e.a.r. fan will tell you: the lighting still holds up. it's better indoors, where it can showcase great dramatic shadows to not only make rooms visually impressive but also heighten tension. outdoors the lighting can be pretty flat, f.e.a.r.'s engine wasn't made for large outdoor environments. the other selling point of the lighting is how dynamic it is. there are so many hanging lights in this game that the room will turn into a dance floor when they get shot or shaken by explosions. the hanging lights become strobe lights with how they flicker from combat, making the scenes more hectic. one of my favorite instances of the lighting was a working projector that would have the image it's projecting move if you slapped the thing. replaying f.e.a.r. had me thinking about one thing: how the hell do AAA games today not manage to have good lighting? somehow the industry nailed good lighting already with f.e.a.r., obviously, and doom 3. the only recent AAA game i can think of where the lighting was insanely good (and wasnt some rtx gimmick farce) was alien isolation.

tangent aside: it's f.e.a.r. it's awesome. it's REALLY awesome. go play it if you havent and if youre into fps games, especially ones that are similar to half-life.

Replayed this a few times to obtain the platinum trophy.

RE3 is one of the coolest presenting games out there. Jill and Carlos are awesome and the game plays out like Zombie Die Hard. It has so much cool imagery and all of the locations are really fun. RE3 also looks phenomenal. It's maybe still the best looking RE game for me.

Replaying this really made RE3's flaws more apparent to me. I always scoffed at the criticism of the game being short because short games are still dope. The length of a game should never equate to it's quality.

But I think in RE3's case, the length is indicative of a very tangible lack of depth. Especially when compared to RE2. The game's linearity robs the player of almost any meaningful decision-making. And that kind of decision making (should I try to go back to the save room? or push through this new area with my limited ammo?) is what makes RE games so special.

So yeah. Still really good but not as great as it could be.

I can't believe it. Turns out that the solution to open-world fatigue is playing a very good open world game.

What From did here is nothing short of masterful. The sense of discovery I got from exploring every nook and cranny is incredible. It's also worth mentioning that I'm not a fan of souls games, or at least, I thought I wasn't. Elden Ring is so good that it's making me re-assess my relationship with From's games. I cannot wait to play their entire catalogue tbh.

Elden Ring isn't perfect though. There's definitely padding in the open world not every moment is great. It's an open world game that subverts so many open world tropes but not all of them. And some of the areas (especially catacombs) are reflective of this.

I'm giving this a 5/5 for now because I truly feel this is a masterpiece despite it's shortcomings. It's an experience I cherish and the 130 hours I invested flew by.