For a long time there has been a void in the demolition car racing subgenre, but that has ended with the arrival of Wreckfest. The physics of the maneuvers and crashes have been tremendously polished, allowing you to see the process of dismantling a vehicle throughout a race that leaves the circuit full of bodywork at the end.
The cars are literally turned into scrap in a very careful game experience, from the sound section to the progression system, without forgetting the multiplayer, where you really take advantage of it.

It's a pretty standard horror situation. Enter a room. Doors close behind you. Biohazard detected - and you're locked in with it. If you counted the amount of times this sort of thing happened in the dead space series you'd probably need a calculator. But this time, in the medical bay of the USG Ishimura in 2023 it's different. The lights are out. Necromorphs fall from the ceiling, lit up for frames by the impeccably timed remnants of environmental lighting that persists. I pull out the ripper - a buzzsaw launcher essentially - and start just going wild. Flesh squelches, sparks fly off the blade, giving tiny glimpses of the other assailants that threaten Isaac clarke. 30 seconds of near invisible ultraviolence later, and the lights turn on. But I'm still stomping, smashing R2 until the flesh has been pounded to sludge.

And in that moment I wonder. Why couldn't Demons Souls 2020 have been like this?

The ultimate strength of Dead Space '23 is it's willingness to change whilst having immense respect for the source material. Where other developers just lie and tell you that a remake is from the ground up, Dead Space truly is. The layout of the ishimura is changed, the story is vastly expanded, the combat takes a lot of new elements from 2/3, Zero g sections are basically all brand new and there's countless other things. It is in so many ways, nigh unrecognisable. I went back just now to watch some footage of the original and wow, it looks both like ass and almost fundementally different - and yet, DS23 feels unflinchingly faithful to it simultaneously.

The biggest change in aesthetic is the lighting and general ambiance. Whilst scenes like the one mentioned above are standouts, the whole game is far, far darker and more claustrophobic than the original. You're commonly stuck in areas with thick volumetric fogs and gasses, and relying on your torch to see. You will get ambushed more and jumpscared more, no doubt. But the general higher level of focus on this sort of thing feels very "right". The sheer level off fidelity in the game means everything that needs to be legible remains so.

Probably the biggest change overall though is the expansion of the story, particularly with regards to Isaac being a much more active character and actually having a voice, which is a particularly excellent performance from Gunner Wright. Again, it's measured, but goes a long way. The new side stuff is nice too, particularly the hunter sideplot, and just what generally feels like a good second pass on story elements. There's just a whole bunch of little changes that feel like "oh yeah that makes that moment work a bit better" which add up to a pretty hefty improvement. Great stuff!

And it gives me so much pleasure to say it's all just like that. The new layout of the ishimura is spot on, giving it a better sense of space as you can now move inbetween the tram hubs through passageways, and the locations themselves are now more differentiated in aesthetic whilst still clearly all being of the same ishimura "vibe".

I do have some issues with the remake - I do seriously think cutting maybe one or two chapters would improve the game a lot overall as there is a real sense that Isaac is just running errands for like 2/3 of the game and then the plot starts - but I understand that's probably a step too far for many and I get it. It is also a little bit buggy - not bad by any means but when everything is so polished otherwise a few AI quirks and weird effects do stand out a bit - but in the time ive been writing this up a patch has already gone out to fix a fair amount of it.

It's a fantastic remake. On a very similar level to Residen Evil 2's and i think it would be fair to say in many regards it exceeds it. It makes me appreciate that original game more too - a game which packaged together the right bunch of Gen 7 tropes, obvious sci fi horror influences, and cults to put together something that stood out, and for a while the series absolutely gave it's era of Resident Evil a run for it's money.

It really feels like Dead Space has found it's new steward in EA Motive (who have previously only made bad star wars games what the hell) - and I think it speaks to the regard i hold in this remake in that if they go on to make a new Dead Space - i'd be more than good with it.

Still, would have been nice if EA didn't murder this series and Visceral in the first place.

I spitefully resisted for eons but. Shit. What do you want me to say? Fate is good! I admit it! Its really good! I like Saber a lot, maybe one of my favorite characters ever! Shirou has endless bounds of depth and nuance and one of the most psychologically damaged characters I've ever seen. Rin's story is introduced from her perspective, immediately cutting me off from being able to just dismiss her as a normal tsundere archetype. The narrative gives every character different tragedy and dynamics across 40 + hours of story. The beloved huge anime franchise I've intentionally avoided for years is good! I was wrong! Fuck!

You know, I honestly kind of hate the term "flawed masterpiece". It's extremely overused, and often times people don't even really use it correctly.

Truth be told, there's only one game I can confidently hand this fabled accolade to. Trails in the Sky SC.

Sky SC has an extremely strong foundation, beginning right after FC's devastating cliffhanger. And while the prologue to this game is extremely good, what ensuses after well... isn't. See, Sky SC might have one of the most repetitive and mind numbing first halves I've seen in a videogame. It almost entirely consists of investigating odd occurrences throughout Liberl, and finding out who's behind them. It's pretty cool the first like, two times, but it gets old really fucking fast. It's not without its pros though, as there's some really good sequences and character moments interspersed throughout the tedium. On top of that, you have consitent qualities such as the stellar world building, dialogue, combat, and music.

However, when you board The Glorious near the mid point of this game, EVERYTHING changes. Sky SC goes from being pretty okay, to literally being one of the best games ever made. The game kicks into high gear, and pays off everything both it and the previous game set up. At a certain beach scene I thought to myself "Yeah this might be one of the best scenes I've ever seen in a videogame." and then I went on to see this moment get trumped MULTIPLE TIMES during the final act of the game. All of this concludes with an ending that's just like... what the hell do you even want me to say? The back half of this game is legendary, and it blew me away in every aspect.

It's so easy for me to downtalk this game by talking about its first half, which admittedly isn't even as bad as I painted it out to be. However, I can just as easily prop this up as being one of the greatest games ever made by talking about its masterful back half. While I can't just ignore this game's issues, in the end I choose to love and embrace this game for everything it is and what it stands for.

"That's love and peace, baby."

I think this is my nominee for Average Game of the Year for 2019.

Things I loved:

+ The backgrounds are great to look at, especially further along in the game.
+ SOME bosses are interesting enough

...and that's really it.

There's a lot of stuff it does fine, but it also flubs things a bit because I feel like it's trying to be both a Metroidvania and a Soulslike game without really being strongly in either camp in a good way. I could write a long diatribe about prevailing issues with the game, but for how very average it felt, I feel like I'd rather just go play something else now, instead.