This is one of the most thouroughly addictive games I've played in 2023.

Dave the Diver really gets bloated towards the end as it's a game that keeps adding mechanics and systems until the very end of its runtime. They're all fun enough, but it loses its balance a bit when you get 20 things to juggle at once. It also gets very grindy and has a couple of systems of navigation that are just slow enough to become an important nuisance as time goes on.

I'll say though, the variety in gameplay is truly impressive here! It reminded me of the best flash games that were on Newgrounds in the mid-2000s all rolled into one giant package of fish-hunting.

I had a great time with Dave the Diver, it sunk its hooks in me way more than I care to admit even if it was a bit longer than it probably needed to be.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder was a delight !

I'm really glad a necessary shakeup was done to the 2D Mario formula. The art direction in general was stunning and magical, and the gameplay ideas very inspired and fun. It truly felt like a big amusement park ride with a bunch of little weird moments every time you pick up a wonder flower. You never know what you're going to get, which makes each one feel special. Ideas aren't always fully developed, but they went for more quantity (with quality) then depth here.

The talking flowers were surprisingly funny to me. Also, put em' in Canadian French and they become 100 times better.

I was really pleasantly surprised by this game since I'd heard a lot of critiques. I generally thought it was a win for Nintendo and this franchise even if it's not the most innovative or memorable of all the Mario games. It was an extremely polished, simple and very enjoyable romp in the Flower Kingdom either way.

After playing more than half of Prey, I feel like it's and overrated underrated game.

I was sold at first on its immersive sim premise. It was supposed to be a mechanically rich game, where every system connects with another in order to give the player a huge breadth of choice in how they approach every situation.

While there was this feeling of systemic combat/puzzle-solving, the main thing that kept bugging me down is how stiff and inelegant everything feels. Maybe playing this on the PS4 didn't help, but framerate and loading times were terrible and really discouraged exploring the station. Opening a door to another level afforded me about enough time to go make myself a coffee.

The gameplay on its own was so cluncky that it got me killed up to 10 times in certain encounters. I'm not expecting Call of Duty levels of flow in the first-person shooting here, but being able to escape enemy attacks would have been appreciated. The player's health drains at such a speed that one hit K.O.s are frequent, and it never gets out of that rhythm. You either throw everything you have at enemies to annihilate them, or die trying to be more cautious with your resources.

The story is not much to write home about either. It starts off with an amazing premise, then forgets to elaborate on it while making you go on various fetch quests until the end reveals a quite cliché twist to top everything off.

In the end, I wasn't charmed that much by Prey. I did love the enemy design and the mimic's mechanic of hiding as plain objects. I liked the promise of systemic gameplay that could be felt in the multi-use weapons and powers you were given. I still could never get into the game that much. Constantly getting killed for no reason and waiting in interminable loading screens did Prey in for me.

What a delight to discover this now !

This might've been one of the toughest rhythm games I ever played, mostly in terms of how it just slaps you in the face right at the start and doesn't let up.

My fingers hurt now that I've finished it, and that feeling of mashing your controller frenetically really fit it with the idea of «musical combat» in the game.

I felt like my life was on the line.

And then there's the visual style (which is lovely) and the music (which kicks ass) that totally make this great little game.

Although it's a bit short and simplistic story-wise, it has a distinct personality as a rhythm game which I can't say I've seen before. I love it for that.

I've been listening to a podcast called «Something Rotten» a lot lately in which the hosts talk about how video game writing is often time much poorer than other mediums by comparison. It feels like video game writers only consume game writing, and don't take the time to learn from all the richness cinema and novels have to offer for example.

I'd posit Silent Hill: The Short Message as a prime example of this problem.

From my point of view, the love for this franchise comes from rich stories of trauma told in oblique, yet thoughtful ways.

The Short Message in contrast hits you with its themes like a hammer to the face. It's so on the nose and badly written it's hard to believe. Everytime someone screamed «DUMB» as a bullying slur, I rolled my eyes. It works when written on post-its on the wall, but good god, less is more when it comes to voicing lines of dialogue.

It has a fair level of polish in its aesthetic and some interesting chase scene ideas (although they are more tedious than fully realized), but when a narrative experience leans on a script so appalingly poor in subtelty and subtext, the whole thing falls apart.

This was a great game marred by a lot of presentation issues.

The game feel and level design was so, so good ! Finally a win for Ubisoft.

A lot of visual things kind of annoyed me though. The animation is very appealing most of the time, but then completely lacking in even basic lip syncing. A lot of visual glitches pop up in spots as well. I also felt the character designs left a lot to be desired at times.

The music was just flat out bad, or felt entirely missing most of the time. The last boss fight is almost done in complete silence which is so awkward and jarring.

Finally, the story did nothing for me. There's a reason why Metroid chooses super simple premises and focuses almost exclusively on gameplay.

A very fun surprise from Ubisoft in the end, and a good way to revitalize the Prince of Persia franchise. It just lacked a polish I hope a future title will bring !

This is a big disappointment.

I really tried to get through it but couldn't endure it any more.

Penny's Big Breakaway has some fun ideas, but is mostly a tedious, repetitive and quite cheap-looking and feeling platformer.

Going off the back of something as stellar as Sonic Mania, I really expected at least an interesting game from this team's next effort. But this got mindless and boring way too fast... It asks you to go reallt fast to keep up a combo, but also to slow down and find secrets at the same time. The cutscenes and bosses have a really B-tier feel to them that I really didn't expect.

Anyways, you can still see a uniqueness in the ideas presented and the Dreamcast-era visual style. They just really need to focus the work on making a better designed game next time around. I just hope this game's shortcomings will serve as stepping stones for that.

I'm dehydrated now from how much my hand sweat I lost playing this.

The Kidnap has very uneven game design, and maybe too many jump scares. Apart from that, a lot of moments are genuinely fucked up and terrifying, even while using very rudimentary building blocks (simple 3D art and sound design abound).

I had a great time going through this with friends on Discord, and I'll remember it fondly even if it is somewhat corny in the end.

Ghost Trick is one of the best visual novels I've played.

I loved it because it has gameplay. It doesn't simply ask you to mash the action button to skip text.

Everything relating to the Ghost Trick mechanic was great, although a little too intense on the "trial and error" at times.

The story is a tad overdrawn, but it still rules. The twists hit like a ton of bricks and it kept me on my toes the whole time. It's a really tightly knit story that's worth seeing through to the end.

A weird, unique and wholly realized game of top notch quality.

Well, the first hour didn't sell me on it at all.

I have never been one to note that a console "holds back" a game with technical limitations... But it is very much the case here. This game is STRUGGLING to run and look like anything at all.

I'm really not feeling it.

Still a lot of fun to play with friends on Discord.

It's so fucking long, and hilarious how the game expects you to wait all this time playing mini-games for 2 year olds before jerking your willy. I don't get how this can be used for anything except for laughing at it.

Hilarious though, don't get me wrong.