this game is a pretty generic third person shooter for the most part with a very generic art style but it has some genuinelly really good ideas buried inside.

the transforming mechanics are criminally underutilized but switching from the slow and lumbering mech form for offense to the quick cars or especially planes for defense was extremely engaging. some arenas felt amazing to run around in due to large scale and it felt very dynamic going from a shootout to jumping off an edge and turning into a plane to run away adn find health or reload.

not a great game, but one with a lot of potential that can sometimes reach a level above itself

no, yeah, its actually as bad as everyone says

a barren overworld with frustrating survival mechanics and strangely sloppy controls despite coming from the same engine as the extremely tight controls of MGSV

a repetitive gameplay loop featuring scavenging to engage in an all too familiar crafting system and account for the tactless progression structure of getting higher numbers to poke enemies with sticks

a story literally nobody in the world cares about that at the very least has the good sense to disassociate with the rest of the franchise. seriously, when MGSV has consistently better and more quotable writing than your game, something has gone wrong during development

the most boring, bland art direction and sound design that drones deeper and deeper until eventually it alongside everything else blends into itself creating a brown and gray migraine of a world with no consequence

Metal Gear Survive (which unfortunately shares the acronym MGS) is an offense as a video game and as a part of video game history, deciding that it deserves to exist alongside the rest of the MGS franchise - that time and time again has redefined the medium - despite having nothing to add to this franchise, or to games whatsoever.

i dont blame the people involved. i really dont. i blame konami for their shitty practices and forcing poor, quite possibly very talented people to create a sealed product that falls in line with open world tropes as opposed to creating distinct, provocative art that pushes video games forward like all the other MGS games did. im very glad i got this game for free but honestly i should have been paid compensation for this.

kind of hard to rate, but despite its huge following i feel like this game still isnt appreciated enough. sure its an online shooter but not only is it an innovater of its own genre, but its an excellent piece of art in its own right.

the gameplay has been analyzed up and down by much more eloquent than i, but the art design is iconic, the sound design is phenomenal, and it was written when valve was at the top of their game (meaning it was dry, witty, hilarious, and generally incredible)

and the voice acting. god damn. the voice acting elevates this game to another level. from Grant Goodeve's work as the laid-back Engineer, John Patrick Lowrie as the respectful Australian Sniper, Gary Schwartz for his iconic yells, and of course the late but still great Rick May for his performance as the ever-wonderful Soldier. god bless all these men for their work on an iconic, game-changing work of art that will forever be in the hearts of so many people.

is it simple? yeah, duh, obviously, of course, but therein lies its greatness

Devil Daggers is a game that makes a lot with a little. the second to second gameplay is immediate and engaging, but from it stems an understated but thick atmosphere

there is no foreplay here, you open up the game and hit start and you're in a low-res world surrounded by thick, dense nothingness. equipped with nothing but your right hand you can hardly walk a step before you hear low, bit-crushed gurgling getting louder as a wave of skulls fly towards you. there is no music, instead the soundtrack of this game is the aforementioned gurgling of skulls and crinkling of spider's legs and roars of flying worms

Devil Daggers has a dummy thick atmosphere that strongly elevates the arcadey, quake-esque combat revolving around zooming across the ground and rapid-firing weird gem things at the lovecraftian horrors in front of you. there is constantly something to be looking out for and there is little more engaging than it

if you need anything to play for 10 minutes or 10 hours, this is it. playing further and further and longer and longer to unveil what horrible nightmares lurk as time goes on is immediately and consistently engaging, and its a game i appreciate a lot

i remember why we were so harsh on the xbox one launch now

a monotonous, boring, piss-easy game with absolutely nothing going for it. every level plays identical to the last, every enemy can be beaten with the same combo string, every interesting boss fight is undercut by the awful story surrounding it.

Ryse: Son of Rome is an empty, artless, soulless piece of dumbo dookey and deserves every bit of criticism it got upon release.

its a humbling feeling to find a game that feels bigger than you

i dont even know where to start describing it. at its core, its a game about not understanding. the gameplay revolves around trying in vain to learn about your surroundings - to piece it all together and find a solution to a problem - only to die not because of a lack of trying, but because we just dont have the time.

the beauty of Outer Wilds lies right there. its galaxy is small, yet feels huge and only gets bigger the more you dig. by all means it should feel like a hopeless venture to continue exploring, but its too engaging not to. there is no end goal, and it makes no promises other than the fact you will die.

and the magic is that we did anyway. even if i didnt know what for, i kept exploring its planets to find its secrets. i felt giddiness meeting every character and hearing their stories. i pat myself on the back after solving puzzles once i asked the guy at the starting campfire how to.

Outer Wilds - despite playing as an alien - is a deeply human game. a journey about facing adversity through sheer willpower despite not having all the answers, and knowing youre not alone in that.

i cant do this game a service with my $5 speak and someone else could do a much better job, and thats ok. because like i said, this game - like its setting - is big. theres so much to talk about, yet its message is so precise. its mysteries are so complex, yet so simple in retrospect. games like these remind me how special this industry is, and what kind of art it can produce. Outer Wilds is a profound experience i likely wont forget for a very long time.

this is gonna be one people debate endlessly about

is it better than 2016, is it the right direction for doom, is that really the ending they went with, all these questions that may never get answered except for that last one

as im sure you know by now, this is very different from 2016 which is the absolute best thing for it. going from a game about being the autarch of destruction to a first person shooter with immense depth in its mechanics is a uncharacteristically subtle change that makes a world of difference, which is exactly what a sequel needs

doom eternal is hard as shit but its tacticality in how you "rip" and "tear" as one might say makes every shootout engaging as hell. some fights are a bit reliant on having enemies with too much health or just spawning a bunch of them, but despite that minority of lame fights the combat itself is inherently extremely engaging.

theres a lot more to this game that i could get into, but the core loop itself is so great that you have to play this game simply for that.

My Friend Pedro is exactly what it looks like: a short game about doing flips and shootin' stuff.

its sold entirely by its super solid gameplay that more than carries it for its brief 4-5 hour runtime. backflipping off a skateboard and shooting two guys in the face simultaneously is obviously crazy fun, and it remains that way to the end

this game's strong lack of a story would be fine since it bases the rest of itself on comedy, but its unfortunately one of the least funny games i have ever played. thankfully, all dialogue is brief and skippable, and theres no voice acting to cover up the incredible soundtrack that accompanies this game

this game doesnt pretend to be anything its not, which can be more of a downside for some than others. i for one appreciate this game for existing without shame, and hope more games like it can exist