It's a fun time. A very Uncharted inspired game.

They made Lara very dirty on this one. She gets smacked on everything. But still manages survives every single time.

Poor Lara.

It's Yakuza. And a JRPG.

It's RGG first attempt at an JRPG. It's execution could greatly improve but, for what it is it's an incredible transition to the real time combat of the Yakuza series to basically an JRPG through and trough.

A lot of interactivity between combats too. Kind of like the Mario's RPG. Hit an attack at the right time to hit even harder, it never gets old.

It has the good things from Yakuza like the silly activities, the serious crime story. The Job System which is basically a class system it's very good too, giving more depth to this game.

As someone that likes both Yakuza and JRPG it's a very good title. But it has some caveats, the possition where you hit the attacks it's important and the characters move around automatically while on combat. It leads to some hilarious moments and some frustrating ones. Specially Street Battles. Oh and the ending is weird and a bit anticlimatic? I was like: "Uh, sure. That happened".

Ichiban as a character is just amazing man. Like a big buff manchild but with a heart of gold. I still think Kiryu is better though, but we'll have to see in the next game.

In short, it's a great game.

I love this game and it's atmosphere. Altrough the map feels very hollow in reality, Rockstar mannage to make a beliveable city in it's first jump to HD consoles. (PS3 was subpart HD though, can it still be consider HD? SD).

The story was great. Gritty, depressing and a bit dark. Remember, this was after San Andreas a game all about fun, progression. We get very little of that here. I don't think is that fun of a game, compared to San Andreas. But I love for what it is, a very realistic aproach to the Grand Theft Auto Series.

Compared to V, it has some difference. But GTA IV still stands tall against his famous little brother.

Don't try to complete all the achievements for this game. I did and I'm broken inside. It doesn't get any better, in fact it gets worse. It's a big waste of time. But, if you are up to it. I wish you luck, brave warrior.

If the PC Port wasn't so bad I would've ranked higher.

How much is enough?

I love 3D platformers, specially movement based ones like Super Mario 64. The freedom of using the level design to your advantage is always awesome if done right. Much like 64 and Sunshine this game is a collectathon, were the main objective is to get to the end while trying to collect various items along the way. It's not Donkey Kong 64 or Banjo Kazooie levels of insane collection were there are trillions of different objects to grab, instead most of what we collect is optional. Batteries are like the Stars or Jiggies in this game, end a level and you get one automatically. The candies are the equivalent to your coins, rings, music notes you name it. Can be traded to skip levels on a certain shop in the hub area. Then you have the cakes which can be your Red Coins or Jinjos. The cakes as well as the candies are optional and don't grant you a Battery.

As I said before this game is focused on movement, trying to not play by the rules and getting your own path is really rewarding. Level design is made with this in mind and wants you to use the most out of your moveset. One thing I can say though is that most levels, specially in the "Return Levels" felt more like simple obstacle courses and weren't as imaginative as I wanted them to be. Return Levels are like more difficult versions of past stages, every main level has one of those. They aren't required to beat the game but as the normal stages, it rewards you with a Battery by the end of the level.

It's somewhat difficult to put into words how varied the movement is in this game. Go check out Nitro Rad's video, he gets more in depth about it. I can only say it's simple and really intuitive.

There is combat in this game as well, and unfortunately it is the weakest part of it. You don't directly damage the enemies, you push them to something that can damage them instead. It can be a spike or directly shove them to the void. That very same aspect gets tiring after a while, enemies get tougher to push thus requiring you to get close to assert a more precise punch. You'll need to dodge what enemies are throwing to you as well so more often than not it gets frustrating.

One thing that this game made me fall in love with it's the checkpoint system. It is not marked on the map in a sort of safe zone. Instead, you put your own. Up to 3 flags you can just put at any point of a level and that's it. It entices you to get risky and try the level as much as you want from a point you decide is the most suitable. The levels ain't really that long to begin with, so it comes more as a plus rather than a ncessity you need to rely on all the time.

Few bad things I can say about this game. The music is well, there. It's mostly background music and doesn't do much beyond that. Shame because the fast movement and the dynanism of the level design can be open up to some fire tracks that can go alongside the stages. Talking about levels, the variety isn't as original as I hoped it to be, why? They are thematic stages. You have you snowy world, your lava world, beach world and so on. It feels specially worse in the "Return Levels" that don't try to spin the wheel that much. Thus resulting in a very repetitive and same-y feeling.

The last thing I want to talk about are the different abilities you can obtain after defeating the bosses. They are great, but I wished we could change them on the fly. Using the D-Pad for instant changes would have been the perfect outcome.

So in short. A cool indie platformer with great ideas with an execution that could've been a bit better.

You are Empty is one of those games that always has intrigued me. Hell, old easterm europe PC Games have always been interesting to me.

It's a FPS set in the old Stallingrad era with an ambiguous story to tell. It really pays homeage to the Half Life series, specially Half Life 2. The inspiration is clear. The level design is linear, no word is said outside cutscenes or key moments in the game. Though, there are notes you can read that can help you progress through the game and also give a glimpse of the overall story this game has to tell.

Talking about the level design, is surprisingly good. As I said, taking inspiration from Half Life 2 structure they did a great job not making it just a flat linear grandious setpiece, but giving a lot of live to the shooting encounter. There is a lot of backtracking and this is the moment I felt a sprint button was needed. But the levels never got boring for me.

For what I can understand in the story: The Sovier Union is going to a secret war. So they are using people to be artificially superior physically with the power of strange circular metal device implantlented device in their back. Reminds me a lot of what the concept of "Übermensch" or Superman. Specially considering the era.

The gameplay is weird. It's not "Eurojank" but it will probably be something that you are not use to. The main character run like he's in space, really slow. Not to mention there's no sprint key. Yes, you can't sprint or run faster. The levels are linear though, so it comes across as a decent balance.

The weapons are nice, they are based on real life guns like the MouserC96 and PPSh-41 (also being one of the best in the game). The shooting itself feels oddly basic, there isn't any kind of recoil or extra feed that makes you believe those guns are powerful.

What does sell the game in my opinion is it's oppressive atmosphere. Gray skies , abandoned cities, the posters scattered through the city, the architecture, radio propaganda. Everything adds to the experience. The soundtrack is also nice, they are only present in some action scenes and it fits decent enough. Most of the game is silent.
There are cutscenes after you finish a chapter, they don't tell you directly what is happening through exposition. In fact, is very vague and worse if you don't understand much Russian, only for the details. An english dub is present to accomodate people overseas like me. And god it is awful.
English isn't my first language, so it was a hard time listening to these dudes talking a nonsense script in a strange accent. But I won't be harsh with the dub, since it was probably made by a pair of friends with a very limited budget.

Technical wise is uninmpressive, but not a disaster. It lacks dynamic lighting, and some components that games were starting to use. One thing I can say is that they really, really wanted to emphatize on the physics of the objects. Specially at the start of the game.
I've been playing this game with a fairly old PC, from 2013 to be exact running Windows 10. Not what could consider "High-end" or anything. But the game never gave me any technical related problems outside of crashing when I either quit the game or wait to much on the menu.

The best way to play it in my opinion is the build from abandonware: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/you-are-empty-f1j. It includes a couple of patches and removes the infamous Starforce DRM. That set DRM can screw your PC badly, so don't try installing it if you have a physical copy or something.

There is also a 16:9 that fixes the cutscenes and the UI elements. You can find it at https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/You_Are_Empty

So, in short. It's a decent time, lasting about 4 hours to complete. Ain't awful by any means but it's nothing impressive outside of the atmosphere and cutscenes.

The hardest one in the series

First, why is this game on the Super Famicom and not on the Playstation? Simple, more Japanese people had more Super Famicoms compared to Playstations at home during 1998. Capcom just decided to make a game for the console that was more avaible at the time, re-using most of Mega Man 8 content while at it. Inafune said it himself.

This game is also secretly considered "Mega Man 8.5" kind of how Super Mario Galaxy 2 is secretly known as "Super Mario Galaxy MORE".

It's also considered a different continuation of the Classic Mega Man mainline series. Take the Mega Man games for the Game Boy for example. Which means the events of this game don't affect the overall timeline of the mainline series. It's canon then? Who knows! Nor the Mega Man Legacy Collections or Mega Man Anniverssary Collection include this game, excluded for all of them. Which probably means Capcom wanted just to do a one-side game for the Super Famicom in 1998, and just call it a day.

After getting that out of the way let's talk about the game itself. As the title suggest we can take control of either Mega Man or Bass. Mega Man can slide and charge his shots just like in the previous games while Bass can dash, double jump and rapid-fire. Bass is the safer option for beginners since his platforming skills greatly surprass Mega Man, combine that with the infamous level design.

The boss selection still stands at eight, 2 bosses from Mega Man 8 are present here: Astro Man and Tengu Man. 6 being original bosses exclusive to this game just like any other Classic Mega Man game. It uses a different system to progress the stage selection, where as Mega Man 1-6 used the classic 8 bosses selection, Mega Man 7 and 8 used the four and four system this one uses a more linear progressive system. Let me explain. After finishing the opening the game let's you pick 3 Robot Masters at first. Top, Center and Bottom. If you decide to go for the top, the next levels will be unlocked inmediatily, 2 in this case. A weird selection system that was never brought again. Needlessly convoluted if you ask me.

Let's talk about the infamous Level Design. The definition of bullshit should be erased from dictionaries and replaced with this game cover. It's very close to the old Mega Man 1 level design, yes the oldest one of the bunch. And that game is still easier than Mega Man & Bass with enough patience. This game takes patience, skill and memorization. Compared to past games, no rush adaptors or special weapons. Mega Man is totally screwed. Bass at least has a Dash and a Double Jump to compensate most of his glaring issues which is that he barely does damage to bosses. It's one way or another, you either suffer at the start or suffer by the end. Oh-ho boy don't get me started at the castle levels. But why it is bullshit then? Insta-kill spikes, botomless pits and bullshit enemy spawns are plastered everywhere. As a word of advice pick Bass in your first playthrough. I didn't.

In short, it's hard Mega Man game. A mean one at that. Forgotten by most but an interesting title nonetheless. Give it a shot if you want a challenge. I still like it more than Mega Man 8.

Now I get it...

It was something special for sure. I did finished the game 2 days ago, just without the "whole" content if you know what I mean.

Wrote a review 2 days ago, and I just called it nothing special, but a pleasent time and surprise for the ones that liked the concept. It speaks beyond that now that I experienced the full story.

I mean, it's still short. But that made me realize that I actually cared to complete it as a whole, even if I was frustrated not knowing how. That made me kind of hate it at first, seeing it was something beyond what I was used to do in games, looking at My Documents? My Games? Why? I dug deeper and discovered how to trigger this "secret".

It was a great feeling. Then I kept going and discovered a what the base game didn't did. Make sense. It builts around it, expands it beyond what I could've imagine and ever though.

Don't threat this just as a game, threat it as a unique experience. It sounds cliché but it really is one of a kind.

I'm being totally ambiguous just because for anyone that wants to play the game for the first, don't get their experiences ruined while speaking to someone that may had a similar experience to mines.

The ones that actually know what I'm talking about will probably agree.

Do it.

This is what should've been from the start.

Ground Zeroes started as a demo for Phantom Pain. It features signature Big Boss as he inflitratres Camp Omega to rescue Paz and Chico, the ones from Peace Walker. It's short, about 1 or 2 hours of length. Maybe 10 minutes if you know what to do.

It's just one mission. That's the entire Demo? Not exactly. The game canonically ends there, the events and the story itself that connects with Phantom Pain are all in one mission. But you still have plenty of missions to explore and complete besides the main one. These objectives are as varied as in the ones from Phantom Pain. Rescue this guy, destroy that, find intel. You name it.

The main star here is Camp Omega, an American base located on Cuba. A big base that is reminicent of the big outposts we see in Phantom Pain, but expanded and that being the whole map. I love it, the complexity in it's layout leaves your imagination to go wild and start making tactics to complete the objective the way you see feet, just like in Phantom Pain.

It's contained, it doesn't have the open world of the final game. And that's a good thing. But, this game is just a prologue for Phantom Pain. Nothing more than that storywise. The rest of the missions can be considered filler or extras, fun nonetheless.

In short, if you were tired of Phantom Pain's empty open world but loved the stealth mission were you go to a certain outpost. This is the game for you.

Buy it at a disscount though or in the Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Edition which includes this game too.

An excersice in frustration.

Run and Jump game, speedy platformer. It's a bit frustrating becauese of the physics and the overall movement of the character which is very floaty and slippery.

Once you get the hang of it, it's still hard.

My favorite of the bunch.

It's easier than the first, but that doesn't mean it's automatically a easy platforming game far from it.

It's also much better than the first one in my opinion, but I think the remake kills some of the physics compared to the classics. Dunno what can be but it does feel differet. Call me biased but I liked the old ones.

Outside of that, it's the same original game. Relics added for completionists like me and the dash from Crash Warped. Jetpack level sucks, that's pretty much it.

Be prepared if you want to go for the completionist route, it can be tricky more than the first game. But it ain't that hard if you find something strange in a level and want to explore that single odd thing that can lead you to something you were looking for.

In short, better than the first in almost every way. More variety could've worked but I'm glad it's still keeping the platforming goodness intact.