Mass Effect 3 feels like a frustrated writer spitting on the previous games in the series because he had to work on a sequel to someone else's work.

Mass Effect 2 is a darker game than Mass Effect 1, but both games are "Space Opera" adventures. Mass Effect 3 is not a Space Opera, it is a war story begrudgingly told in space. It's not impossible to do a genre pivot like that well, but Mass Effect 3 doesn't do that well. Mass Effect 3 feels like the (new for this game) writer's gritty unrelated war story wearing the skin of the Mass Effect series grotesquely stretched over it's face because it's not the project the writer actually wanted to be working on. Plot hooks and intrigue as to the true motives behind the Reapers and overarching narratives from past games are completely thrown out for derivative and uninspired motivations delivered by ridiculous deus ex machinas that weaken the past games and their stories by association and retrospective context. While there are some nice character moments with companions from the previous games if you import a save file, the game at time feels outright contemptuous of being part of an ongoing story and like any "happy outcomes" made possible or easier through past decisions are handed over with a scowl like the writer's hand is being forced. Shepard no longer feels like your character and simply the writer's pre-written protagonist, any pro or anti Alliance, Council or Cerberus sentiments you pushed in past games thrown of the window for the pre-assigned ideals and beliefs of the new writer's ideal player character.

The gameplay can't even save Mass Effect 3 if you enjoy playing the series on a higher difficulty. Sure, the gunplay and usable powers are some of the most fun they've been in the series, but the enemy and encounter design comparative to previous games is a tedious, unfun slog of drawn out encounters that take the weakest points of Mass Effect 2, the various arenas of wave survival into bullet-sponge bosses like on Horizon, and seem to base every other combat encounter on the same template.

The only things that come close to saving Mass Effect 3 are two truly incredible DLC in the forms of the Omega and Citadel DLCs, which are easily two of the highest points in the series, but even if you save them for last to end on a high note you're still going to have your spirits dampened by the infamously terrible ending that throws away three entire games worth of decision making for a choice between three pre-canned endings.

The multiplayer used to be fun for a laugh with friends, if not particularly deep or fleshed out, but it's been over a decade since the original version of ME3 released and LE3 removed the feature entirely so it's difficult to enjoy now.

Mass Effect 3 is overall an insult to the two games that came before it, only worth trudging through if you're commited to seeing your Shepard's story through to the end.

Mass Effect 2 is incredible, a sci-fi adventure masterpiece that should sit alongside the likes of Star Wars as one of the genre greats.

There are some pitfalls here and there, such as concessions made to the RPG aspects of the game in favour of smoothing the clunkier gameplay of the original release of Mass Effect or a variety of content cut short or left unfinished due to either development time limits, console hardware limits (such as DVD size limits on the Xbox 360), or publisher backlash fears (such as Bioware cutting down on the freedom of available companion romance options), but even with all the wondering of what could have been put aside Mass Effect 2 is still a must-play for any fans of sci-fi or RPGs.

Mass Effect 2 is incredible, a sci-fi adventure masterpiece that should sit alongside the likes of Star Wars as one of the genre greats.

There are some pitfalls here and there, such as concessions made to the RPG aspects of the game in favour of smoothing the clunkier gameplay of the original release of Mass Effect or a variety of content cut short or left unfinished due to either development time limits, console hardware limits (such as DVD size limits on the Xbox 360), or publisher backlash fears (such as Bioware cutting down on the freedom of available companion romance options), but even with all the wondering of what could have been put aside Mass Effect 2 is still a must-play for any fans of sci-fi or RPGs.

Devil May Cry 2 gets joked about a lot for how bad it is, but I feel like all the jokes give the wrong impression as to how the game is bad. The truth of the matter is that it isn't funny-bad, it's just boring-bad. It's an incredibly tedious and boring game with a bland barely present story and snooze-inducing gameplay.

The graphics are technically actually very nice! ...but the art direction is terrible and most of the game is just a boring sea of brown.
The gameplay introduces a lot of moves and concepts that will stick around and become integral to later games in the series! A lot of Trickster and Gunslingers abilities from DMC3 are here! ...but they're slow and clunky and most of them aren't worth using.

A word of warning: If you do decide to play this game, don't fall into the traps the memes might lead you into of doing nothing but shooting. Yes the gun-stagger means you can beat the entire game with ease by just holding down the shoot button, but this is also a very slow way to beat the game and you're making an already boring game even more boring for yourself. Try to learn the sword combos, at least try to squeeze whatever fun you can out of the game if you're going to play it.

Just a very tedious game. Honestly still probably better than a lot of it's competition of the time in the young character action genre, but really just leagues below every other game in the series. Lucia deserves a second chance in a better game.

The first Devil May Cry hasn't aged as gracefully as you might hope, the camera is in places awful and the controls often feel strange and stiff, but it's still a fantastic game.

The Resident Evil DNA left over in the game give it an incredible unsettling atmosphere and the hints of puzzle-exploration left over give it a very different vibe to later games in the series which is still worth experiencing today, and the action gameplay is still fun enough even if very primitive compared to later games in the series.

I don't know what possessed them to make Sonic Labyrinth 2. Jokes aside Sonic 3D just isn't great no matter what version you play, not awful but decidedly below average. Sonic is strange and unweildly to control with a wide turning circle and a lot of difficulty judging depth or positioning from the isometric view, in the original versions he's slow and slugging and in the Director's Cut the increase to his speed makes him twitchy and uncontrollable whenever precision is called for. Huting down and gathering Flickies feels like a chore that just slows the game down, no different than looking for keys in Labyrinth. The game is both comically easy and frustrating at the same time, avoiding getting hit is a nightmare because of the difficulty in controlling Sonic and judging depth/distance, but there are few threats in the game that will ever actually kill you, just toss your rings and Flickies everywhere. Both soundtracks are great, but while the MegaDrive has higher highs the Saturn has fewer lows. Visually the game is a an oddity, the Saturn version is the nicer looking game but incredibly unimpressive for the console and with poor presentation and menus that resemble stock MS Office 2000 presets where the MegaDrive version is at least somewhat impressive for the hardware. Neither console version seems to run completely smoothly with occasional frame drops, doubly shameful on the Saturn hardware. The PC version, a port of the Saturn version, on a good PC it at least runs great but the sprites/textures are half the resolution of the Saturn and the special stage is outright terrible.

I don't know what possessed them to make Sonic Labyrinth 2. Jokes aside Sonic 3D just isn't great no matter what version you play, not awful but decidedly below average. Sonic is strange and unweildly to control with a wide turning circle and a lot of difficulty judging depth or positioning from the isometric view, in the original versions he's slow and slugging and in the Director's Cut the increase to his speed makes him twitchy and uncontrollable whenever precision is called for. Huting down and gathering Flickies feels like a chore that just slows the game down, no different than looking for keys in Labyrinth. The game is both comically easy and frustrating at the same time, avoiding getting hit is a nightmare because of the difficulty in controlling Sonic and judging depth/distance, but there are few threats in the game that will ever actually kill you, just toss your rings and Flickies everywhere. Both soundtracks are great, but while the MegaDrive has higher highs the Saturn has fewer lows. Visually the game is a an oddity, the Saturn version is the nicer looking game but incredibly unimpressive for the console and with poor presentation and menus that resemble stock MS Office 2000 presets where the MegaDrive version is at least somewhat impressive for the hardware. Neither console version seems to run completely smoothly with occasional frame drops, doubly shameful on the Saturn hardware. The PC version, a port of the Saturn version, on a good PC it at least runs great but the sprites/textures are half the resolution of the Saturn and the special stage is outright terrible.

I don't know what possessed them to make Sonic Labyrinth 2. Jokes aside Sonic 3D just isn't great no matter what version you play, not awful but decidedly below average. Sonic is strange and unweildly to control with a wide turning circle and a lot of difficulty judging depth or positioning from the isometric view, in the original versions he's slow and slugging and in the Director's Cut the increase to his speed makes him twitchy and uncontrollable whenever precision is called for. Huting down and gathering Flickies feels like a chore that just slows the game down, no different than looking for keys in Labyrinth. The game is both comically easy and frustrating at the same time, avoiding getting hit is a nightmare because of the difficulty in controlling Sonic and judging depth/distance, but there are few threats in the game that will ever actually kill you, just toss your rings and Flickies everywhere. Both soundtracks are great, but while the MegaDrive has higher highs the Saturn has fewer lows. Visually the game is a an oddity, the Saturn version is the nicer looking game but incredibly unimpressive for the console and with poor presentation and menus that resemble stock MS Office 2000 presets where the MegaDrive version is at least somewhat impressive for the hardware. Neither console version seems to run completely smoothly with occasional frame drops, doubly shameful on the Saturn hardware. The PC version, a port of the Saturn version, on a good PC it at least runs great but the sprites/textures are half the resolution of the Saturn and the special stage is outright terrible.