12 years on from the strange, incomplete original, DD2 is more of the same, uneasily sitting between the uncompromising Souls series & more conventional narrative ARPGs. At times evoking a desolate offline MMO, DD2 is at its best when out in the wilds, the sun setting at your back & two or more beasts landing on the path ahead, all Arising out of dynamic systems.

The main questline unfortunately does not play to these strengths, with much of Act I confined to the capital & some really dull writing. Fortunately, writing does not maketh a game, and side-quests that take you out into the unreasonably huge map are much more interesting, and really need to be sought out in the crowds and corners of the world. Keeping track of these with the bizarre quest tracker is uneven and obtuse: you’re either reading the landscape and tracing clues or just beating your head against a wall figuring out what the game requires of you.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is singular, not quite fully realised, a beautifully rendered physics-heavy oddity. The art direction is profoundly generic, but so deceptively understated it at times resembles a Ray Harryhausen film, full of weight, movement and character. DD2 makes you feel like you have friends, albeit stupid friends, who'd throw themselves off a cliff for a view of yonder.

Graphically, it's stunning, the environments are just beautiful and colorful throughout. The machine designs are still just as good and the characters in particular are really well animated.

Gameplay wise, it works well, but has some issues. The roll is a bit weak in favor of a clunky to use slide, and the machines track your movements very strongly. This is usually fine when fighting a single machine, but makes encounters against multiple (especially multiple big ones) an unfun mess, particularly at the beginning where you feel quite weak. Otherwise the general loop of exploiting elemental weaknesses and tearing off parts is still very fun.

The upgrade also systems take a bit too much resources, especially in the late game, but this is mitigated by the fact that generally weapons are still usable even if not fully upgraded.

The open world is fun enough to explore, though it feels like it has a bit too much to do. The game definitely has a bit of needless bloat, though fortunately a lot of it isn't required for all achievements, which is quite enjoyable to pursue.

I enjoyed the story quite a bit, it's not quite as strong and felt like a fair bit more cliché than zero dawn (the evil bad guys are very evil), but still entertaining. The DLC story in particular is very campy, in both good and bad ways, but has some great spectacle.

Overall, I had a very good time with this game, will probably go for a NG+ playthrough after a break.

OOPS it kinda went and DESTROYED any goodwill I felt back for the original release. hard to still appreciate those glimmers of 'PROMISE' and ''''POTENTIAL'''' that maybe shined through before when on this big chance at a do-over they give us that same unpolished, dlc typical "the game, but worse!!!" treatment (in this case tho - A LOT WORSE!!!! :O ).

Even that ever potent Sonic "SOUL" factor you'd wanna see manifest DOESN'T HIT thanks to all the plot happenings looking like shit and coming off so RANDOM and abrupt in delivery. Not a very cool time!!

we cannot trust these old names to carry on the will of our beloved memories! their time has come and gone!!

I don't have the right words to describe my feelings towards LISA: The Painful. It's impacted me on such a deep level that I don't know how to formulate the right sentences in the right order to explain it. It's a deeply personal game to me, a game that feels like only I and a niche of others could love. It's as if on some level, it understands me. And yet, it challenges my own beliefs. My own morality. It's one of those pieces of media that leaves me reflecting with questions of, "what would I have done? What could have happened to prevent all this?". It's one of the rare few video games that's left me reflecting like this — a sign of a great work.

And this is coming from a game with a fucking talking fish lawyer. This game is stupid, it is SO STUPID—

I really don't think I could do it justice here in this format, so I'll keep this brief. LISA: The Painful is a gift. It's simultaneously one of the most soul crushing and gut-bustingly hilarious games I've ever played. It has some of the craziest, coolest, absolutely bonkers music in a video game. It's a nightmare, it's a trip, it's an must-have experience. Not everyone will love it. Some may find it annoying. But with all my heart, I love it. You might love it too. Go play it and find out for yourself.

I think a lot of the changes the ‘Definitive Edition’ makes end up laying the lore and themes of the game on a bit too heavy-handedly when the narrative structure of the original still blows my mind to this day at how delicately it’s all written; it’s one of the greatest and most sensitive stories about breaking the cycle of abuse ever to use and deconstruct the RPG medium, balancing on a proverbial metatextual tightrope.

This means that when there’s campfire conversations that explicitly mention crucial character connections that the player was best off figuring out for themselves, I can’t help but wonder if this is really the best way for a new player to experience the story of LISA (the truth is that it’s best experienced by streaming it in a discord call with your friend who knows the ins and outs of the game far better than you ever will, gently nudging you in the right directions to experience everything you should experience.)

However, I am not a new player, I am the hyperfan you stream the game to on a discord call, and the character exploration provided with the Definitive Edition hits the empty spots in my soul just right. It’s pure indulgence, but it’s my indulgence. That’s also how I feel about the secret boss, which I wish I could talk about, where 3 hours of tearing down the brick walls of LISA’s thematic and visual cohesion Gorbachev-style culminates in some of the most beautiful, gut-wrenching cutscenes I never even thought the game was capable of dishing out. It heaves under its own weight, nearly to the point of collapse, but just when you think you’ve reached some golden shining core at the centre of the story about the beauty of the world and the people within it, LISA rips you back to reality and dumps you back in Olathe, and you think to yourself: “I need a fucking cigarette right now.”

I thought LISA: The Painful had bared its soul to me and shown me everything it had, and I’d nearly finally chewed on it enough to let it out of my system, but Definitive Edition brought it back to make me cry one last time for good measure. Forever the best RPG ever made.

I can't believe how well Samus controls in this game.

There is such a satisfying flow and speed to Samus's movements as you're tearing through gorgeous levels and stringing together attacks from Dread's useful, varied move pool. Gone is the charcuterie board of useless alternate weapons which bogged down other games in the franchise, every single weapon and ability in this game is intuitive, useful in its own right, and satisfying to use(except one, but I'll discuss it in a second)

The strong level design, enemy variety, and sense of progression kept the experience consistently rewarding throughout my 10-hour playthrough, and I'll happily be going back for hard mode some day soon. This may actually be the only Metroid game I've ever played where the huge supply of missiles proved useful. The tense E.M.M.I. encounters and phenomenal, cinematic boss fights will stick with me for a long time.

Sadly, there were a few issues that took away from the experience at points. Ironically, Dread has a noticeably thinner atmosphere than previous Metroid games; I very rarely felt immersed in the world or frightened by the monsters. The story is also rather clumsily-told, opting to use long, dialogue-heavy cutscenes which clash heavily with the game's otherwise brisk pace and environmental storytelling. Oh, and the speed booster sucks balls. It is so clunky and frustrating to use I cannot believe the same people who programmed it programed the rest of Samus's move set, and the places where you need to use it are consistently the worst parts of the game.

As long as I'm not speed boosting or watching an expository cutscene, this game is awesome. It doesn't matter if you're a diehard Metroid fan, haven't played one in a while, or a newcomer: I'll recommend Metroid Dread all the same.

It's too easy. Just right out the gate: They made a Pikmin game that's entirely too afraid of losing its audience, where every possible edge has been sanded off in case you'd be too scared by it. It's like they weren't sure what part of Pikmin was too hard for people so they made every aspect of it the easiest it's ever been. The time limit? Gone. Afraid the gimmick of a dungeon will take you by surprise? They spoil every dungeon's every surprise and gimmick in its description, so you always know which Pikmin to take. Scared of losing your PIkmin in a battle? You can rewind at your heart's content and save scum your way through the game. Suck at aiming? The game has an auto lock on feature you cannot turn off, so you're in luck! No aiming required! Having trouble learning when's the right time to throw Pikmin at a boss? Oatchi's charge attack will stun any big boy, letting your Pikmin kill many big enemies before they even have a chance to retaliate. Hazards keeping you down? There's a gear system that lets you upgrade your adventurer and Oatchi to nullify elemental hazards.

And speaking of Oatchi, well, that boy isn't just your second in command, he's also... just the best PIkmin? By the end of the game you'll upgrade Oatchi to: carry the weight of 100 Pikmin, dig faster than yellow Pikmin, swim better than blue Pikmin, muscle through any environmental hazard, and fight better than even a horde of Pikmin could manage. Oatchi's the default best option. The omega. Forgot to bring blue Pikmin? He'll ferry your horde across any lake, transport any item across any water mass, anything. Forgot fire Pikmin? He'll take care of that fire hazard. Nothing matters; Oatchi can always back you up.

And yet I loved it? It's probably the best the series has ever controlled. It's definitely the best it's ever looked. The overworld levels are massive and fun to explore and solve their little puzzles. They're like blown out, massive versions of Pikmin 1's design ethos.

And the dungeons? Buddy, I do NOT like Pikmin 2, but the caves here are the absolute perfect execution of that concept. They fix every issue of P2: the caves are unique, hand designed levels full of actual puzzles to solve. They bring everything good about Pikmin's feeling of exploration and outsmarting its design into these compact bite sized bits.

It's just a joy to play, even if it is is too easy and it lacks the more strategic-minded design of Pikmin 1 and 3 (still my two favorites in the series). Somehow, in spite of it all, I dropped like 40 hours into the game and not only did it only get better as it went, but I ended it still wanting more.

I love Pikmin.

certainly there are things conventional pokemon could stand to learn from this one like yeahyeahyeah the faster pacing of general progression and menu-ing are OBVIOUS pluses whogivesashit.

Fact is though! I can't STAND playing these compulsive fucking open-world adhd ass adventure games too long at a time......... I'm never THINKING when I play this type of shit, and they always just devolve into stupid loops of me desperately pocketing one meaningless trinket after another or spending HOURS fulfilling some bogus checklists! I just ain't got the time!!!

And when this game's core mission they ask of you is ENTIRELY based around fulfilling another dumb checklist in a giant field somewhere - we've got a problem!

I'm sick of things being so big and aimless! I hate it here! I must get free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!