After beating it, I’m starting to think this game is a little overhated. Biggest issues are low VR interactivity (you can’t grab random objects) and it definitely could’ve gone further with the stealth mechanics or dinosaur types you run from. But besides that, it was good. Also I actually really liked the art style, it doesn’t take away from the tension.

Only way I could see this game being bad is if you played the flatscreen Switch version, but who would be dumb enough to do that?

7/10

It's a very good game with some strange problems. Especially because it is a ''Playstation Studio'' product. It's not a first party, but has some help from sony. And even with help from sony the game has huuuge graphics and performance problems. There are a huge amount of slowdowns and drop frames.

But even with these problems, the game has a very good combat system. Its reminds me of Sekiro. It's very parry focused and with some very good movements.

In the end of the day looks like a game with a ''feeling'' of PS3-era, with some good story but heavly focus on the combat.

Plats in about 40 hours

One of the most fun games I've played. Each class is really unique and the interactions between each's abilities and the items found in the game create a unique experience with each run. The game balances chaos and control in a way that I've never seen in any other game; each run feels like it's in your own hands no matter how crazy it gets on screen.

Bonus points for some of the most fun multiplayer with friends I've experienced. I have 1400 hours on the game and half of it is probably playing multiplayer.

i havent beaten this yet as of writing this but i think this game is definitely one of my favorite games of all time. i love this game so so much i could gush about it for like an hour. this games soundtrack alone is great and ive been actively listening to multiple songs off of it cause its so good. the way this game controls was not at all what i was expecting when i first started playing it but its very nice. the way this game looks also is very nice, i love how the world and characters looks a lot. the prince has a very simple but good design i love him. i'll probably do another review once i beat the game. i love you katamari damacy<3

Well. It's... passable, I guess. There's certainly worse things you could be playing at an arcade, but there are CERTAINLY better things you can be playing.

It's a pretty cool concept at first; a Halo arcade cabinet where you get to use a replica of the Assault Rifle? Fuck yeah! It'd be pretty hard to fuck up shooting in a HALO game, right?

...

They fucked up shooting in a Halo game.
I'll give a run-down on each of the guns to explain how they fucked it up.
Assault Rifle – This one is probably one of the only guns that actually feels faithful to it's OG counterpart. It functions just like the game, you hold down the trigger to spray bullets and you pump the gun to reload. It feels pretty damn satisfying to use, which can't be said for the next few guns.
Shotgun – The treatment they gave to the shotgun is downright criminal. You'd expect the shotgun to be pretty simple, you pull down the trigger then a big blast comes out, right? No! Instead it's just this puny spread shot gun that fires full auto. I'm using a SHOTGUN, not a Cerberus+1! Having to dump 5 shots into an Elite to kill them is absolutely criminal. It's actually disgusting.
Magnum – Being a precision weapon, you'd think the game would reward you for hitting headshots, right? Well, the thing about Fireteam Raven is that I legitimately do not think headshots are a thing in this game.
Plasma Pistol – The good old Plasma Pistol. You hold down the trigger and you can charge a big powerful shot– Oh wait, you CAN'T CHARGE THE PLASMA PISTOL. What were they thinking?! So now that you can't charge the Plasma Pistol, it just becomes so unbearably bad to use that it feels like a worse Magnum. And get this: you have to reload the Plasma Pistol. You have. To reload. The PLASMA PISTOL. Did the devs even PLAY a Halo game before making this? Judging by what I'm seeing, I'm convinced they didn't.
Plasma Rifle – The Plasma Rifle has the SAME issues at the Plasma Pistol. Did you like the fast firerate of the Plasma Rifle that you had to balance with trying to not overheat? Well too bad, you're stuck dealing with this piece of shit that fires too slow and you gotta reload. What a joke.
Rocket Launcher – Probably the only fun weapon to use after the Assault Rifle. I would be shocked if they messed up an infinite use Rocket Launcher, so it's good to know they didn't.

There's also the turrets, but they all pretty much function like Assault Rifles or Plasma Rifles so there's not much point in covering them.

So, let's get to how the game mostly functions. The game's missions mostly consist of you moving screen to screen, shooting enemies that typically show up in groups of 4 that are conveniently segmented for everyone to shoot at; this is something I don't really like about most of the gameplay sections. It feels like you have this big massive screen, but most of the time you're stuck shooting in your own quadrant because you're going to die otherwise. That's another thing I don't like about this game; it is what you would call a notorious quarter-muncher. I would say I spent about roughly... 40 dollars to get to the fifth mission? Do you know how many better games you can get for that price? It's egregious how, no matter how good you play, you're going to inevitably take damage and lose because your shields don't ever regen.

I think the biggest issue I have with this game is that it doesn't really feel responsive. For most of the game, you're just fighting a bunch of Banshees that do a lot of damage and are a pain in the ass to destroy because they take a ton of hits and you have to guide your shots to hit them. If shooting isn't fun in the arcade shooter, you know you fucked up somewhere.

Overall, it's a decent enough arcade game, but it doesn't feel like Halo. This is a game I'd only suggest playing if you have some spare credits and you've played everything else you want.

Colorblindness Rating: B
The color reticles indicate which ODST you're playing as, and they picked some really crummy colors. Blue and Purple, Red and Green; these are colors that are easy to get mixed up if you're all aiming at the same target, especially with how weird the perspective can be with the warped screen. This can thankfully be mitigated by making some slight vertical swaying motions to keep track of your reticle, but it's still annoying that you have to do it.

The quest to find colorblind-friendly Bust-A-Move games continues on to Bust-a-Move '99. What happened to Bust-A-Move 5-98? I dunno.
Also... Bust-a-Move '99... I swear Taito's doing this on purpose.

Anyway, this is literally just... Bust-A-Move 3. I have NO clue why they labeled this one Bust-a-Move '99; this game didn't even come out in 1999 for crying out loud.

Well, anyways. Since this is basically a port, all my complaints and the Colorblindness Rating of D- remain. You can read the Bust-A-Move 3 review here.

it pains me to give this 4 stars because I really love this game. for context I had beaten about halfway through last year but stopped cuz I got a job. I had no time to get back to this, so I shelved it. I thought by then ill get a ps5 and replay it with a better frame rate, but atm I cant afford it so fuck it. if its playable then thats all that matters eh?

Going back to this I noticed that this game may be a bit longer than it needs to be (could just be a weird feeling). Do I need to state the obvious? The presentation is at the very least something to admire. I felt the warmth and brightness of the sun, and the hot concrete this game is decorated in.

I was rarely annoyed by trico or the boy (Well, because im a cat owner, i had the patience for trico wandering about and not doing what he was supposed to be doing. Not trying to sound like an artsy fartsy dude, but its immersive. And you’ve got to have an open mind playing this, otherwise you’ll just have a bad time). One negative I will mention is that it does feel like a mouthful to maneuver your character and camera back and forth

Gen Design crafted a magnificent and heart-warming story. I loved the last guardian a whole lot. There were even moments where I cried ;_;

This game is damn near amazing, only hampered down a bit from gameplay. if I played on ps5 or pro this would be an easy 9. This review sounds monotone but i wanna make it clear that this is a stunning work of art thats worth a shot

So this is it, huh? The game that made everyone hate Bloober Team…

A limited time exclusive launch window title for the Xbox Series X/S, this was essentially the Polish studio’s big mainstream breakthrough moment. Unfortunately, despite receiving mostly solid critical reception upon release it wasn’t long before The Medium earned them the ire of the internet due to how certain elements of its story were perceived. Altogether turning the devs into the vilest villains of the horror gaming scene in the eyes of the public, while also damning their follow-up remake of the legendary Silent Hill 2 to the sad fate of everyone acting as if it’s a forgone conclusion that it will be terrible and likely being the highly probable victim of review bombing regardless of its actual quality when it does finally come out. Let’s not forget the additional shade that now gets thrown at their previous efforts as well.

Is all the anger and outrage justified though? Well, after having at last gotten to play and finish this for myself, it is in my personal opinion that the answer to that question is a resounding NO, not even remotely. From my perspective the experience has been the unquestionable subject of severe misinterpretation that’s gotten regurgitated to such a degree that the fallacies surrounding it are treated as legitimate fact by those too worried about being labeled insensitive online to look into the controversies for themselves. Nowhere to me is this more evident than in the bold accusation that the writers try to make you feel sorry for and sympathize with a pedophile child molester. Yes, they show the perpetrator did have a traumatic past, but not as a means of excusing him for his abhorrent actions. The proof of this is in how the protagonist still rightfully berates and condemns him after learning his history, as well as the chapter itself rewarding the player with a trophy dubbing the fiend “Unforgiven” upon completion.

The other main point of contention, the ending which supposedly tells people suffering from mental illness that they can’t get better and should just kill themselves, I also believe is a portion of the package’s narrative that’s been taken wildly out of context. It’s a standard trope of this genre in any format for its tales to be concluded with these type of overly bleak, “Kobayashi Maru” scenarios. I can’t begin to tell you the amount of otherwise great horror novels that have left me deflated for this very reason. Plus, I simply find it ironic that the same people who will often in the same breath criticize the storytelling here for lacking depth and being entirely surface-level to act like this particular sequence of events suddenly starts using heavy symbolism to deliver a harmful message, but if y’all really are determined to go down that route then let me provide another possible meaning. Maybe the moral is instead that they CAN be saved, but sometimes it takes individuals willing to shoulder a chunk of their burden to help them escape to the lives of freedom they deserve. That they’re worth rescuing even at personal cost. Nevertheless, I continue to feel there is no underlying deeper intent to this moment and that it should be viewed in the identical face value manner as everything beforehand for the Stephen King-esque “screw you, morbid wrap up” that it is.

Now, this may seem like a lot of talk dedicated solely to discussing aspects of the plot, but the dark story that isn’t afraid to venture into truly mature content does definitely serve as the primary driving force. The gameplay, which gives the initial impression of a PS2 era throwback due to the fixed camera angles, is competent yet largely nothing terribly exciting. For one, it’s linear to the degree of almost being on-rails outside of the final location set inside an underground fallout shelter that is a little bit more open-ended. Walking in two different planes of existence at once via the split-screen mechanic is a neat visual trick, although that’s all it ultimately amounts to because there’s no puzzle or action segment that ever utilizes it in a deep or intriguing way. Meanwhile, the abandoned vacation resort of Niwa is an undeniably fascinating and beautiful place to explore featuring stunning outdoor environments that called to mind the wonderful natural splendor of various state parks I’ve visited in real life, however it is utterly devoid of terror. This is a remarkably scare-free adventure thanks to Bloober falling into the old pitfall of confining enemy encounters exclusively to scripted chase and poorly explained stealth sequences, leading to an overall flaccid atmosphere completely bereft of tension since you always know precisely when you’re in danger or not.

Overall, these shortcomings do cause The Medium to seem it would be more accurately called The Middling at points. Regardless, I’d say it’s still worth a look for those who find the concept compelling, and not only for the vague Silent Hill flavored vibes that include Akira Yamaoka helping with the soundtrack and bringing Mary Elizabeth McGlynn along for another selection of those stellar haunting vocal tracks she’s the queen of either. When the credits began to roll I was left with the unmistakable impression that the most common grievances leveled against this are the result of theories spouted by some YouTuber, social media influencer, or popular gaming journalist whose views were far too readily embraced by their followers. Thus, while I am totally willing to admit my takes might be exactly as wrong as I view theirs to be, my goal with this review is to with any luck convince others to not merely side with the general consensus because of super vocal X/Twitter users or gaming media sites. It irks me to constantly see so many adopt a lemming mentality and automatically jump onto slander bandwagons without checking things out for themselves beforehand or because they went into them with the preconceived notion that they already knew what the creator’s were trying to impart. In conclusion, I urge you to not be sheep and blindly follow the herd. What I’ve hopefully been able to show is that in instances such as this there’s a high chance they aren’t grazing in the right pasture.

7/10

The announcement of Astro Bot was a really weird way for me to find out that there was a whole ass 3D platformer sitting on my PS5. He waited all this time to teach me about the wonders of the almighty DualSense Wireless Controller®, which I find kind of funny. Every PS5 exclusive that I’ve played still feels like it’s tech demoing the thing and yet this goofy robot game is the only one that’s used it in a way that doesn’t make me feel like a total jackass while whipping the controller around.

Each level is designed rather tightly, enough to blast through it without feeling too overly gimmicky or that they’re overstaying their welcome. There is just about everything you’d see in a platformer from icy terrain to space ship traversal and most of them beautifully transition right into the next. There’s a section per level that is dedicated entirely to a different part of the controller, whether it’s tilting motion controls or swiping the touchpad that I always forget is there. Personally, I think the biggest pain in the ass was the monkey section but none of them were awfully terrible to play through. Genuinely, most of my deaths were caused by some really brave attempts at gathering coins stuffed in tricky locations but it was worth it to play Playstation gacha in the hub world and point at the old references that I actually understand for once.

I didn’t really play on Nintendo consoles growing up, it was mainly Playstation and Xbox 360. So yeah, the reference fest was hitting my core memory CPU. I think what they were going for here was for my version of whenever they announce a new Glup Shitto for Smash, and it admittedly worked. It’s been many moons since I’ve heard the PS2 start-up sound and hearing it again after clearing its level was like tickling my funny bone. Seeing the PS3 menu consume the world’s skybox was like the most mundane shit I’ve ever pogged at. Stuff like that is all over the place throughout the demo, but none of it feels crammed into your face. The character references are just little robot guys in the background that kinda stand around, but they don’t take up any of the spotlight. It’s more of a neat way of saying, “Look at all this stuff we did together over the years'', then gives you the opportunity to slap the shit out of the robot meant to signify Heavy Rain.

Overall, it is a very nice tech demo that you might as well play if you own a PS5, but whether or not you vibe with its nostalgia bait will depend on the person. Even without all of that though, it’s still really fun to play. I genuinely got a lot more enjoyment out of this than some of the other games I’ve played this year.