If ever there was a game that needed a remaster.

A game where you play god and have a little jesus animal who you teach to do what you want on paper sounds far too ambitious for 2001. And in some places it is, in others it creates a comfort game where you can sink hundreds of hours into.

Sure nostalgia effects my rating here a lot, and its literally unplayable at the moment on modern PCs. But this game is absolutely fantastic and I wish more people got to experience it.

This game was a huge part of my childhood right here. When it comes to God games, Black&White is where it's at.

This game was very innovative and is one of the more ambitious titles of Peter Molyneux at the time. Albeit being a Molyneux title, it has a lot of missing content and flaws, because of his annoying bad habit of over promising during game announcements.

Nevertheless, this game still has a lot to offer and excels at making you play and FEEL like a God. The main selling point of this game was the possibility for the player to act either as a Benevolent, Neutral or Diabolical God. Your actions and choices have lasting consequences on the world and your overall divine appearance and environments will visually reflect your alignment (similarly to FABLE, another one of Molyneux's games).

Again, it is a Molyneux title, therefore it has a lot of interesting, and sometimes questionable elements. However, it was made in an era of experiments in gaming. An era full of interesting concepts and ideas to be tried and released on the market.

It's a game from a golden time in gaming, a time that many of us miss dearly. I definitely recommend trying it out at least if you like exploring retro gaming in general.

This game used to be sold on GOG, but was then removed a couple years ago because of disputes on Lionhead's rights being owned by EA. So unfortunately there is no official way to acquire this game as of 2024. You can either buy a copy from Ebay or download the full thing here on Abandonware.com and find a fanmade patch to make the game work on modern systems:

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/black-white-a33
https://forum.bwgame.net/downloads/

I played with the Hard Mode Mod (personally tweaked to be less insane), so I won't talk much about the combat other than saying it's pretty solid when enemies aren't instantly dying... though the mod has its own issues (it's a band-aid fix). My only real issue with combat was the camera and some jank (characters positioning weirdly with Blindside Links mostly), ain't nothing fixing that.

Kinda mixed on the game overall besides that, though. Like, I really like the open world and exploring it and shit, but it's relatively empty and has a lot of downtime (those Auto trips on the Regalia while the bros don't say anything are a waste of time). But I do like the overall road trip vibe, because when it hits it hits.

I could say the same for the story. It gets somewhat messy and seems kinda clumsy, but it has some great highs. So, when it hits it hits, again! Great cast of characters though, I liked the main 4 way more than I thought I would, especially Noctis. Considering the game's development, I'm actually surprised it was good at all, though I know there were some reworked bits. Like the entirety of Chapter 14, for example, I sure as hell was thrown for a loop going into it after seeing estimates of how long it took to beat, without realizing they meant the OG version.

Haven't played the DLC Episodes other than Gladio's yet tho, will get on that shortly.

OST is banging, not much to say there. Though the third region (IIRC) battle theme sounds like it should be for a final boss or some shit, it's so dramatic, but it's great.

Also, I originally planned to get 100% achievements on Steam but I saw that you gotta do Comrades which is apparently a massive grind, so lol. Lmao even. Fuck Steam for mixing in DLC achievements with the base game, man... though on that note, there's a lot of post-game content apparently, which I can't be assed to do either simply because I wanna play other games. That just how it be!

Criterion are back after their work on ‘Most Wanted (2012) to give us ‘Need For Speed: Unbound’, yet again another refresh of the series. Unbound takes the framework of the previous game ‘Heat’ and improves on a few things as well as a dash of features from ‘Most Wanted (2012)’. I had my doubts about this game from the footage I saw prior to playing, but I ended up not hating it as much as I thought I would.

The gameplay centres around your character trying to trace down their stolen cars from their garage by winning weekly races. There are 4 weeks in total, 6 racing days a week, twice daily and then one big race day at the end of the week. You need to cough up a large sum of money to do the end of each week’s race and if you don’t have the cash you’re given the opportunity to grind the prior day until you do. By the end of week 4 you need to have at least 1 car of each class apart from class B. This structure added stress as I felt as though I was preparing for an exam and having the anxiety of “what if it comes to the last race, I have shit cars and no money?” If you’re reading this before playing the game then don’t worry too much. Play 2-3 races a day as well as the car drop off missions and you’ll have more than enough. I know that there will be seasoned players out there who could probably do this game on 1 race per week. Each race also lets you gamble some of your money depending on where you think you will place in the race.

I like how this game starts off with getting you to work up the ranks and places in the race rather than making you be 1st every time. People have commented on the unfair AI of the opposing cars but I would only sometimes see this when you’d be first and at the last checkpoint another car would rocket out of nowhere and pass you at 500 mph and win the race. If, like me, you're coming from the previous game ‘Heat’ where almost everything is destructible, well you’re going to be in for a big surprise because not everything is destructible here. This will become apparent when you will crash through one barrier but crash into another. In the heat of a chase or a race it is hard to distinguish what you can and cannot crash through so you will find yourself crashing a lot.

There is a huge car selection available and I was fortunate enough to get bonus cars from the EA play membership although I only used the “Fairlady” car. Once again you’re doing loads of customisations to maximise each class of car and get the best performance out of it. If you’re thinking of using Google/Reddit to decide on what best cars to have, take what they say with a pinch of salt. Either no one agrees on the same cars or they will recommend cars only available after completing the game.

A graphical change again for the NFS series with cell shaded characters and realistic backgrounds. As you don’t often see them side-by-side it’s not that jarring. One thing that I was unsure about at first was the animations coming out of your car and its tires as you drift or hit nitros but then I accepted it as a nice visual flare. It’s very much inspired by the new animated Spider-Man films.The realistic backgrounds look great as well as the raindrops on the cars.

One thing that has not changed throughout the NFS series is the writing. Oh god is it bad here. The problem is, it doesn’t seem self aware. It’s not deliberately cheesy, it's as if a middle aged person wrote a bunch of young people based on their interpretation of how they think they speak. The “trash talk” and patter in the game is absolutely dire. It’s the first time in the whole series I considered muting the voice acting volume. One time I was forced to hear a whole spiel from one of the characters before I could enter my garage. Before they could finish I was chased by the cops so had to then deal with a chase on top of the terrible dialogue. The game includes the real life rapper A$AP Rocky. He appears in the game as a character and his music is heavily featured on the soundtrack. One mission you need to drive him and his car from point A to point B twice. The worst part of this mission is having to hear him waffle shite for about 10 minutes.

The soundtrack is ok, a few classics and decent tunes in there but nothing with much energy that makes you think “fuck yeah” while battering through the streets at 200 mph.

Unlike in ‘Heat’ the cops are much easier to escape from and don’t have that bullshit busted gauge. Surprisingly I was never actually busted in my whole playthrough despite numerous prolonged chases. I absolutely hate the heat system in this game, I would have enjoyed it a lot more if the police were just confined to the races rather than when you’re traversing the open world. I know that this opinion may be controversial as one of IGN’s negatives in their review was that the cops were not featured in the online mode. I would get so frustrated shaking the cops and trying to stay out of their line of sight that I wanted to give up the game so badly. What was salt in the wound as well was that after a certain amount of time, if you cannot shake that one cop a timer will appear that once depleted will spawn 4-5 new cops around you. I feel like this is an absolute dick move from the game. I would also get frustrated at cops spawning right next to you in the open world and initiating a chase.

With all of the above, you may ask “so is this game worth it then for all of those niggles?” No, in my opinion it is not. There is a lot of work and stress for very little reward. Everything given to you for winning races is required for completing the main storyline. It feels like being paid in bricks to build a house rather than being given cool features to build a house. You can unlock some cool cars such as the BMW M3 from ‘Most Wanted (2015)’ which makes cameo appearances in most of the NFS games like Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars TV shows. This game marks the end of me playing all the Need For Speed game post ‘Underground’ for my article and let me tell you thank god I’m done. I’ve had ups and downs throughout the series and what a disappointing way to end my journey than with Unbound. This game would be vastly improved in my opinion of the writing was better and the cops weren’t so frustrating to manage.The only way I could recommend this game to someone would be if they have not played any of the other games but even then I’d recommend another such as ‘Payback'

Unbound just feels like a stylistic but worse overall version of Heat, with frustrating chase mechanics and an aggravating leveling system that just hates the player making progress.

It is mechanically worse than Heat in every possible manner, with the night time risk reward mechanic even making a return from Heat but just feeling dull and poorly thought out as if they tried fitting it in after the game had already been made.

The whole experience is just frustrating and never feels like it picks up. The whole stylistic choice this game markets as its focal point just end up feel like zaney little touches that ultimately add nothing to the racing with these effects eventually blending into the background with the rest of the game.

Need For Speed: Style Over Substance.

10 hours of a game pass trial is a very generous offer considering you need exactly 5 minutes hands-on to realize there's just not much to experience here. A street racing game that leans heavily into hip-hop culture would be a treat but instead it immediately commits Forza Horizon 5's cardinal sin of having a person constantly talk in your ears establishing how relatable and hip they are, while the painter tag SFX gimmick is exactly that — a gimmick, and could as well be a mutator in virtually anything else.

What's left? The most cookie cutter seventh gen open world racer you've seen. Doesn't feel good ripping it a new one considering the car handling is competent enough and there are at least glints of fresh appearance, but if you're a regular on this website you definitely played this game already.

the "friction" in this game is hotly debated but i think a lot of it stems from this fact that this game is pretty fundamentally flawed on a structural level. the insanely stunted fast travel is done entirely on purpose not to instill a sense of adventure in the player, but because walking across dirt roads and fighting the same three enemies is literally the meat of the game. that is the gameplay, and if you don't REALLY fuck with it then you have my pass to give up on it without feeling like you're losing out on your gamer badge of honor. fighting guys does feel really good but its hard not to feel like -- yet again -- im just playing the demo for the actual dragons dogma.

cant say that i or anybody else should be disappointed because a lotta folks are gonna come to find out thats just what dragons dogma is, but if this game is going to continue that tradition then i gotta come to the same conclusion i think a lot of people come to: dragons dogma is really just ok

There was a time I recognized Glover immediately because of its water texture. There was another time where I guessed L.A. Noire because I knew what kind of greens Rockstar liked to use on the Xbox 360, which disturbed me because I played that game entirely in black and white. I guess what I'm saying is that this is fun and occasionally it makes me really sad. I've never missed a game, and it's starting to feel like I'm a gunman begging to die in some old western.

UPDATE: My streak ended at #399.

So damn addicting, Every puzzle is just NEURON ACTIVATION.
So many games I've never played but know by their vibe.
TRUST YOUR FUCKING INSTINCTS. I've failed so many cause I just didn't guess the 'complete stretch' that was totally right all along.

go get addicted.

Listen, I was a long time Vanillaware ride-or-die fan, but even I couldnt have anticipated the narrative hydrogen bomb they were cooking up in their basement. They pulled what I could only call a “trope blitz” to craft one of the most confusing (compliment) multithreaded narratives Ive ever seen in video games - and while this came at the expense of the actual gameplay, the inoffensive RTS systems are fun enough to toy around with that I didnt mind much.

I would have maybe appreciated a format where you actually get to see the mechs tho; the very distant, sterile treatment makes combat feel very alienated from the rest of the game. Vanillawares usual cheeky depiction of women gets a lil weird here as well when most of the cast is underage (not the best look)