So I was originally planning on playing this right after the new game plus update was released, but I had my hands full with FF7 Rebirth.

Even with the new mechanics and tweaks, the gameplay is still very similar to the two previous Spider-Man games. Swinging doesn't really feel all that different, though I ended up using the web wings WAY more than I expected. Combat gives you a lot more tools to deal with enemies, though I'm disappointed that the gadgets from the first game have all been replaced with new gadgets that I barely used across my whole playthrough.

I do like how the game encourages you to explore. Your entire map isn't flooded by tiny icons this time around, the map icons only appear after you swing by their location. You get the ability to fast travel to a district if make enough progress in that district.

Pretty much all of the side content is good. Nothing feels too long or tedious to do. It's a big improvement from the side content in the 2018 game.

Honestly, I have a lot of problems with the story, but I can't go into detail without mentioning any spoilers. All the pieces are in place, though the big dramatic moments don't have enough impact cause there isn't a ton of setup. The third act in particular feels especially rushed. Another draft (or two) could’ve ironed out these issues with the writing.

This next part of the review isn't really a critique (I guess it kinda is considering the pacing is severely affected), but I thought I'd bring it up regardless. This game was clearly rushed. Even if you ignore the cut content that people 'found', the game itself just feels cut kinda short. For example: look at the amount of main missions in the game. The first act has 15 main missions, the second act has 10, and the third act has 6. When almost half of the main missions are in the first act alone, that's definitely gonna mess with the pacing of the story. It wouldn't surprise me if the third act was meant to have more meat on its bones, but it had to be trimmed down for time.

The fact that stuff like the ability to replay missions and the option to change the time of day took months to be added to the game (not to mention the bugs) only make it seem more likely that Sony rushed Insomniac to get this game out before the 2023 holiday season. Obviously this is all just speculation, but this kind of crap ain't exactly new to most big gaming publishers. I lost faith in the Triple-A games industry a long time ago.

Hopefully Insomniac has learned from this experience and takes their time with Wolverine (and any unannounced games) so that it can be the best game it can be.

Also I expected nineteen inches of Venom and yet he's barely in the game. We need more Venom!

Ok, listen. As an adult lesbian, I was genuinely excited when I heard about this VN, mainly because the Yuri genre tends to be saturated with innocent and wholesome schoolgirl fluff, and honestly, I'm just tired of it. I was thrilled to see someone finally tackling the relatively unexplored realm of Yuri omegaverse. Unlike the hugely popular BL omegaverse genre, larger-scale Yuri omegaverse projects are practically non-existent.

But the VN left me with mixed feelings - it was both disappointing and great at the same time. The pacing was breakneck, rushing to introduce players to its vision of an omegaverse setting, which felt pretty basic compared to other omegaverse works. It seemed like ideas were thrown around and plot points were set up, only to either remain unresolved or fall flat upon execution. Despite this, the writing was still very enjoyable and refreshing.

However, the biggest letdown was the VN's length. It was incredibly short, much shorter than their previous games. I finished it in about 1.5h, leaving me feeling like the game ended just as it was getting started. Which is frustrating, because I really liked the relationship between the two leads.

Overall, it's a great Yuri VN with excellent artwork and character design that tries to stand out from generic schoolgirl-themed ones, but is soured by its short length.

Let me start by saying that my initial experience with the game was soured by the motion sickness I endured for the first 1-2 hours of gameplay due to the lack of an option to disable motion blur. I almost dropped the game because of that, but thanks to modders, I was able to overcome this annoying issue and immerse myself fully into the game.

Alan Wake's soundtrack, atmosphere, and story are incredibly captivating. From the depths of dense forests to the eerie solitude of abandoned cabins, every location feels thoroughly designed to immerse you in its haunting atmosphere, creating a sense of constant unease.

Sadly, the game's greatest weakness is its gameplay. While the gameplay is well thought out, it became too repetitive rather quickly. And goddamn, Alan needs some cardio training because this man can't run 5 meters without getting out of breath. Seriously, the stamina could as well have been non-existent. I also feel like some set pieces have overstayed their welcome, making me wish they would just end already so that the plot I was really engaged in can go on. All of this dragged the pacing and overall flow of the story down for me.

At its heart, Alan Wake shines through its fantastic storytelling and engrossing plot. As someone who truly enjoys narrative-driven games, I had a good and unique experience. However, the repetitive and somewhat dull gameplay, specifically shooting down the Taken, diminished my overall enjoyment.

Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke o: Kuchibiru to Kiss de Tsubuyaite or translated A Kiss for the Petals: A Kiss Whispered to the Lips is the sixth Japanese adult yuri visual novel in the series. It was released by the Doujin group Fuguriya in 2008. on PC.

We are following the same two students from the first title (Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo). Still, now Nanami Oda's love affair with one of the school's idols, Yuna Matsubara, remains a secret. However, both of them are having trouble concealing their true feelings from everyone and some untrust starts to accumulate between Nanami and Yuna.
The visual novel overall uses the same art style (which I liked) from the first game. This time the writers showed that they have much more experience in writing (since this is the sixth title in the series) which is why I felt that the "interactions" were built around the story, not the way around how I felt in the first one.
The visual novel is fully voice-acted with many "interaction" scenes, which can be later revisited in the extras section in the main menu.
There are also some dialogue options, which only affect a few dialogue lines, but the outcome isn't affected.

All in all, a full voice-acted visual novel where the dialogue options don't affect the main story. Overall I liked the art design and the story was more enjoyable, there was more variety and more ideas implemented making the story far better than the first title.

Ghostwire: Tokyo is an action-adventure, open-world game released by Bethesda Softworks in 2022.

You're playing Akito Izuki, a boy living only with his sister Mari since their parents died. Before the main event occurs, Mari finishes in hospital after a fire strikes their house and Mari doesn't leave it in time.
After she ended up in the hospital, Akito was driving towards it, when a mysterious fog spread all over Tokyo. Before the fog engulfed him, the spirit of KK possessed him, saving him from the effects of the fog. The fog turned everyone except Akito from their physical form into a spirit. Behind all that fog was a man in a Hannya mask, who wanted to use Mari as a vessel to connect the world of the living and the underworld.
Your job is to save Mari and defeat the Hannya. Fortunately, even if the world feels lonely since you're the only one alive, KK will always be with you (KK was part of a team of investigators who tried to stop Hannya but failed). The reason why you survived the fog is because of KK's special powers that use ether found around to create spells. You can use three elements, both of them have a light, heavy and special attack. There are also talismans that you buy along the way and they are similar to element attacks. You also have a bow to use, which is quite helpful and strong, which I ended up discovering too late in the game. I recommend playing this on harder difficulty, it's much more enjoyable, especially later in the game, when, after unlocking many skills, you will be powerful enough to defeat all enemy types without any problems.
Along your journey, you will be able to help spirits that didn't yet pass on. Those side quests aren't long and even though they all have different ideas and background stories, they just feel repetitive sometimes. Fortunately, Spyder's Thread update not only gave us a new rogue-lite mode (which I didn't try since I was satisfied with the main game enough) but also new side quests and new enemy types. The best side quest is "Fear for the Children", which is also the scariest one. The game isn't scary, you will probably have a few small jumpscares at the beginning when you end up encountering a new enemy type, but after that, only the already mentioned side quest will be scary.
I loved the graphics, and the colours they used to represent how colourful Tokyo was before the fog. The rain that falls most of the time. The yokai found all over the city, where each type of yokai will give you a different and short side activity to complete to absorb their power.

All in all, I loved almost everything in this game. The only thing that bothers me, apart from the sometimes repetitive side content, is that we didn't end up getting an output of what we achieved after we cleared the fog, The game doesn't show you what you've achieved. We got the credits too soon, in my opinion. I also didn't enjoy how the story ended, but not every story must have a happy ending.

It's nice to see games inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos, without drawing from the overly circumscribed Arkham canon. Here, it's more about cosmic horror against unspeakable creatures, rather than an endless slaughter of cultists. While the premise and atmosphere are pleasing, with sound and visual work to be commended, Sundered's wanderings are attributable to its gameplay. In particular, the battles seem pointless, insofar as defeating endless hordes never really provides satisfaction – at most some relief. Don't get me wrong; I'm a devotee of the Mythos and I can see the point of creating despair within the gameplay. However, it seems to me that the title also has to deal with the fact that it is a video game and this must force it to create some fun, even if it is mixed with anguish. Fundamental Metroidvania titles, such as Super Metroid or Axiom Verge, achieve this. Here, Eshe is confronted with an unspeakable antagonism that doesn't want to say its name, breaking the mise en abyme: thus, elements such as the ultimate sacrifice lose their original power and the meaning it could have had in Lovecraft – not that he considered the idea of heroic sacrifice, though. Finally, it's a shame that the game only takes off during the third section, where movement becomes much more enjoyable (triple jump, dash, grapple). This also has to do with the much more understandable design of the Cathedral, unlike the first two thirds of the title, where the procedural creation of the rooms forces you to constantly look at your map: again, this is an idea that makes sense a priori, but it detracts from the fluidity of the experience. All of these little flaws undermine the potential of the game, which is sublime in its attempt. The efforts are really noticeable and one can only hope that the next game has learned from past mistakes.