Yeah you read that right, I bought this game on switch. My laptop aint made for gaming and at the time getting a PS5 wasn't something I thought possible. But I really wanted to play this so....

One of the main draws for this game is the graphics and while I dont think it terrible, the downscaling to get this to run on switch is tremendous. Its probably not as noticeable handheld but playing this handheld is not something I'd recommend either. The game is also pretty short, and my clear time for it was just under two hours. That's not a negative for me but I figured its worth mentioning. Despite all that, I'd say Bright Memory Infinite is a really fun time. Its got a lot of fun gameplay mechanics between all your different weapons and movement abilities. Slashing people with the sword is awesome and a lot of the upgrades you get are fun. There is a grappling hook but unfortunately you cant use it in combat but its still cool. There's also some entertaining setpieces like fighting on top of a plane. There is a lot of fun ideas put into its short runtime and it really does feel like a tech demo of sorts. I really dont have much to say about it. It's not a must play and certainly not on switch, but if its on sale I think it's entertaining enough to be deserve a shot.

This has been a Nancyfly mini review. Next u[p is ummmm, I have no idea :p
Thanks for reading <3

Nancymeter - 66/100
Time Played - 1 hours 50 minutes
Game Completion #143 of 2022
Game Completion #9 of November

Nancymeter - 80/100

Oftentimes im not really a fan of puzzles in games. They're usually either from an indie game just based around one gimmick or shoehorned into a bigger game that do nothing but slow the pacing to the speed of a dead snail, becoming nothing more than a pain in the ass. There are a few instances where the indie game gimmick is just really cool (looking at you, Superliminal) or the puzzles in a bigger game feel like a fun extension to the gameplay instead of a roadblock (and you, Ratchet & Clank: A Crack In Time) that really get to me and are a lot of fun. I'm happy to say Escape Academy is one of them.

Now the "gimmick" here are escape rooms. But none of these feel the same. They all have their own unique theme and feel to them and It never feels repetitive or like it's wasting your time. The variety in mechanics and settings was a treat. Escape rooms are a big part of another series, Zero Escape and I always loved the idea of them but most of them were just way too complicated for me to wrap my head around. Escape Academy on the other hand isn't a super challenging game, but it hit the perfect balance for me. I didn't feel like I was getting bullied but never babied either, and It was a really rewarding experience. I did resort to looking things up once or twice because I'm a filthy cheater but the game does have an in game hint system. It usually doesnt hold your hand but it points you in the right direction which Is appreciative. There's also a bit of a story to it. As its quite a short game there isnt a lot to it. The ending is a bit abrupt. But whats there was a pretty fun little story to accompany you along your journey. The cast is colorful even though they dont get much time to shine either. It's a really good vibe, as little as there is. I can see myself trying out the dlc in the future, its a world I wanna see more of.

This has been a Nancyfly mini review. Thanks for reading <3
Next up is um - we'll have to see! Fire Emblem... Bayonetta 2....Modern warfare 2? Pokemon?? We'll have to see :p

Trophy Completion - 81% (22/28)
Time Played - 5 hours 57 minutes
Game Completion #142 of 2022
Game Completion #8 of November

Nancymeter - 87/100

Bayonetta is both one of the most sexy/stylish games and characters ever. The cutscene near the very start in the graveyard immediately hooked me. An incredible display of joyous insanity and honestly that cutscene alone guaranteed this game would never drop below a 4/5. But because this game is awesome half the cutscenes carry on the same batshit over the top style and I feel like you have to be really uptight to not appreciate the absurdity. Anyways now that I've said every adjective I can think of I'm ready for the real review.

The two most important things about an action game is the combat and the protagonist. As I'm sure everyone knows Bayonetta is great. She exudes confidence both in and out of battles and just has a really fun full of sarcasm attitude. Even after only one game with her I'd put her in my top five gaming protags ever no question. Shes also a really good example of an empowered sexy as hell woman without it feeling demeaning (thanks in part to her character designer being a woman) and I'm super here for it. I am glad they fought to keep her glasses. And then there's the combat. Which is fun and flashy but also fucking hard man. I ain't good at games that arent shooters and this has a difficulty spike within the first 5 or so chapters that just is pretty brutal lol, especially how frail Bayo is it just didnt feel particularly balanced for me. I had no shame eventually switching to easy difficulty at around the halfway point. Unfortunately the automatic setting is a bit much. I'm not complaining that easy difficulty is easy but considering theres even a Very Easy difficulty too I just wish the gap between easy and normal wasnt so huge. That being said, this game is a lot of fun. Im just here to have a good time and being a complete and utter badass destroying everything is perfect for me. There is something to be said about it being a deeper and more rewarding experience playing it on a harder difficulty but I simply don't enjoy getting my ass kicked (In video games anyways) so at least this way I still had my fun. There is multiple unique weapons with their own combos and shit and with the shop system and the rankings you get after each combat encounter encourage multiple playthroughs which for a short game means you will get a lot out of it and thats always a good thing. The animations are really lovely too and its got a fun amount of blood. Enemy and boss designs are all unique and cool while fitting with the setting very well. My only real issue with the combat is that a lot of the bosses suck. They're just not designed well and some of them throw in pretty awful platforming and except for the one on one battles with Jeanne they just kinda suck - but they do make up for it with spectacle.

Aside from your standard combat this is a game from the 7th console generation which of course means there are a few mandatory on the rails sections. These are fun for breaking up the pace but they all go on for just a little bit longer than they're actually fun for. Another side effect of the times is the color pallet. The art style is really good but all the colors are really muted and it just makes the game kinda ugly to look at which is a really widespread and unfortunate issue with this generation that I will always bring up in a review for any game that suffers from it because I hate it. Another thing to nitpick with the visuals is definitely a sign of low budget - some cutscenes are still images with a roll of film filter over them. It fits with the vibe of the game but theres a few instances its used for rather big plot points and idk its not really great but hey what can you do. At least this leads us into our next segment.

very smol spoilers incoming

The story of Bayonetta is... well I don't really know? We've established Bayonetta is an awesome character. The supporting cast is really good. Little Cereza is adorable, Jeanne is a cool rival, Rodan is badass (i love hearing Dave Fennoy's voice) and Luka is a loveable dumbass. But the story itself was really hard to follow. I got the slight jist of it but most of it went way over my head. Fortunately it doesnt matter much but it was kinda hard to get invested when I had no idea what was going on even with all the exposition dumps. I could of course watch a video explaining it but I dont wanna get spoilers for the sequels and that won't really change the initial impression. Despite all of that the game does a great job at showing the scale of your journey through different locations of increasing intrigue and the grand finale being in fucking space is a perfect culmination for such an adventure. I had moments where stupid platforming sections or the confusing narrative made me wonder how much I really liked this game but then it pulls out some beyond my imagination cutscene or throwing in a fucking dance scene (whenever a piece of media throws in one of those it steals my heart) and I remember how much of a treat this game really is. It does fall a bit short of being a true 9/10 for me but I've heard some really great things about the sequel and I'm very excited to see how this series evolves.

I've restarted this review quite a few times over the past few days and i'm still not entirely happy with it but I think I've gotten just about all my thoughts out for this game and I'm ready to move on and see what's ahead of me. Thanks for reading <3
Next up is Escape Academy - and after that maybe Fire Emblem Three Houses. We'll see.

Trophy Completion - 38% (25/51)
Time Played - N/A
Game Completion #139 of 2022
November Completion #5

Nancymeter - 72/100

I'm not sure how it took me as long to beat this as it did, but now that I've finally decommissioned my ps4 I'm trying to shift more focus back onto the switch i've been so undeservedly ignoring. Call of Duty Juarez Gunslinger was the first game I decided to finish.

Funnily enough, I feel like a lot of my complaints about this are just from the fact that its on switch. It runs perfectly fine but being an fps game, playing it handheld is absolutely an awful experience. My days of playing Modern Warfare for the fucking DS did not prepare me for this experience. There's motion controls as well which thank god can be turned off. But if im being honest, playing this docked didnt feel much better. I don't particularly like the pro controller to begin with but the game felt kinda finnicky to play at times with shots seemingly missing for no reason. I am not sure how much the game is at fault for that and how much its just me/personal taste so im not really knocking it against it but felt like I should share for transparency. If you get this on switch, just know you're getting an FPS on a console not really made for them.

Anyways the game itself is pretty fun. I do not like cel-shaded graphics very much but it works fine for this game. Some levels have fun locations but for the most part its very linear. I love linear games but this one felt just a bit too restrictive. Nothing is more annoying than when games throw on the "you're straying too far from the mission area" shit and that happened a few times in this. The shooting is solid, feels a little stiff at times but it properly weighty. There's only like four types of weapons but duel wielding pistols the entire time is the correct way to play it. The shotgun is basically useless. There is also no gore pretty much whatsoever but its quite bloody at least so the carnage while limited from its fullest potential is still lovely.

The story definitely tries but it fell a little flat for me. It has a pretty fun unreliable narrator angle which got a laugh or two out of me but kinda wore its welcome near the end. The ending twist was neat tho and overall for a fps game its solid. This game does another thing I hate where boss fights are just normal guys that unexplicably have massive amounts of HP. I get its a game and kinda hard to implement but Its another thing that irked me. You'll do a lot of one on one duels that are a little unclear in their explanations but are kinda fun and fit the theme. There is a few sections in this game where you have to fight Native Americans and while it is technically time period accurate (in the sense that a washed up morally grey gunslinger would maybe make up a story about fighting them) it just felt kinda gross to me and I really did not enjoy having to shoot through those sections. That's really the only thing i'd say is downright bad about the game. The rest of it is a really solid experience that is never anything more and will not blow your socks off - but if you love western stuff like I do you'll probably have a good time.

This was meant to be another "Nancyfly Mini Review" but i talk too fucking much. Thanks for reading <3
Next up is Bayonetta - and after that Balan Wonderworld :p

Time Played - 5 hours or more (according to switch)
Game Completion #141 of 2022
November Completion #7

Fast paced first person shooters are some of the most fun types of games out there and Severed Steel even with its low budget capitalizes on all the fun very well. Genuinely every game with destructible environments and parkour is cooler for it. If this game went for the trifecta and added a grappling hook I believe It would of made me go into cardiac arrest. The weapons themselves are mostly forgettable (the shotguns and flamethrower being the most fun) and the levels while actually having some good and more than expected variance in their look do feel a bit repetitive (especially considering the objectives) but for such a short gameplay experience and with such a fun mishmash of random stuff + just that little bit of indie jank to hold everything together this game is great and a big recommend. There is some semblance of a story but not really and who cares anyways. But the fact you are playing as a girl does automatically elevate it. Sorry, I make the rules. I think a higher budget sequel with a voiced protag, a little more story and perhaps a bit more level variation while obviously not needed is like, an award winning please inject it directly into my tits kinda formula. I just want more destructible fps games there is no reason F.E.A.R. shouldn't of been more influential. But that's just me daydreaming. Don't go into this wishing what it could be and just let it take you on the ride of what it is. You won't regret it. Unless you're really lame.

This has been a Nancyfly mini review, thanks for reading <3
Up Next: Call of Juarez Gunslinger, and after that - Bayonetta

Nancymeter - 77/100
Game Completion #140 of 2022
November Completion #6

I'm not generally big into fighting games but I got to admit the hype around Street Fighter 6 got to me and if the news about the more casual friendly experience and focus on making a compelling story mode is true, i'd say its among my top ten most anticipated games for next year. Street Fighter is a very popular franchise so of course I've had opportunities to play it a little in the past but I wanted to be a bit more familiar with the series before potentially trying to get into it next year.

Street Fighter V did not really help with that at all lmao. Thankfully the next entry just looks that damn good but this game honestly didn't do a whole lot to impress. It was useful for familiarizing me with some characters but just so much of this game feels kinda generic and a bit uninspired. The story mode was okay, not being knowledgeable on the series definitely hurt my enjoyment of it but there is also a bit of convoluted anime bullshit thrown in for good measure. Most of the battles are pretty easy however there's a few that randomly spike in difficulty. You can actually skip any of the fights you want though, I'm not ashamed to say I skipped 2 or 3 of the more annoying ones. I dont have much to say about the combat itself, Im not good at remembering combos so to me its just like any other fighting game. It didn't feel sluggish so that makes it good in my book.

If one thing did stand out about this game for me, it was the characters. Despite some truly awful ones like F.A.N.G and Birdie, the flashy roster of characters kept me interested. Cammy and Guile and Chun Li and Rashid and Vega and Juri and Nash and idk, there's just a lot of very interesting characters and especially during the side stories (mini arcade mode with some story basically) I really enjoyed my time with a lot of the cast. Since fighting games usually dont put much work into their story (if they even have any) and I am not a multiplayer fan at all, the characters are usually a big selling point for me which I think makes this stand out over other games ive played, like Tekken 7, where the only memorable characters are the outlandish ones.

In the end, thats kinda all there is to say about Street Fighter V. I wish i had more to add but if you've ever played a fighting game before you've probably already experienced everything this one has to offer. I'm glad to of been introduced to some characters returning for the sequel, but this isn't gonna be one I'll look back on on its own.

Nancymeter - 64/100
Game Completion #138 of 2022
November Completion #4

Platinum games have a certain prestige to them. Almost universally renowned for their gameplay. Vanquish is often pointed out as one of their more underrated titles. But I have to be honest, I really don't get it and I wish I did.

Originally i gave this a 5/10 and shelved it, saying I had already seen everything the game had to offer in the first two acts and wanted to focus on other games at the time. Well now that Im trying to empty my backlog and raise my trophy completion I decided to come back to this. I do admit my initial score was a bit too harsh but for the most part my feelings remain the same.

The gameplay in Vanquish is good. Sliding and boosting is fun and there are a solid amount of unique weapons. I appreciate how it can be a cover shooter but you're rewarded for not doing that. It also has a pretty interesting upgrade system. If you pick up the same type of weapon with full ammo you'll get parts towards an upgrade. This is a pretty nice idea even if it did mean more often than not i tried not to use a weapon so i'd always have enough ammo to upgrade. But the shooting is just, fine? it doesnt really feel spectacular and a lot of the guns are pretty weightless. Boosting is fun but you don't really have much energy anyways. I don't know. Its an absolutely solid gameplay system but when I think about my favorite combat systems in games this one just didn't really blow me out of the water.

The story is also really bad. Not in the fun and cheesy way like Bayonetta, its just terribly dull. None of the characters or dialogue are all that likeable. Sam as a protag is pretty empty but he has one or two cool moments. I do appreciate that the story all takes place during the course of one mission, I think thats pretty cool honestly and would like to see more "military" games try that approach. But the level variety is very lacking. If im being honest the game looks really ugly. It has that annoying "everything should be greyed out because its a 7th gen shooter" thing going for it and it just is really unpleasant too look at. Some boss designs are cool but theyre reused multiple times as well so even they feel samey. The game also lacks a proper conclusion. Its not as bad as like Call of Duty Ghosts but it definitely feels like sequel bait and when the story is already so undercooked as it is, it left me with a very unsatisfying experience.

I think Vanquish isnt a bad game, its just a pretty okay one. Its short and the fast paced combat is nice so its definitely worth a play but I can't say this is a game i'll look back on fondly, or even really remember at all.

I wish I felt differently but hey, at least im digging the other platinum game im playing. Sorry so many of my reviews lately have been like 2.5s or 3/5s lol I dont like to be so negative but I like to think I give everything a fair shot at the least. Thanks for reading everyone <3

Trophy Completion - 54% (35/51)
Time Played: 7 hours 47 minutes (save file says 3 hours 25)
Nancymeter - 61/100
Game Completion #136 of 2022
November Completion #2

Valkyrie Elysium has a certain charm to it. Like a game you'd get on the ps3 during a sale for 9.99 or something thrown on Games With Gold you'd randomly play over the weekend. Its a game that very much feels like it's a generation (or maybe even two) too late. In that sense it made me feel a little nostalgic for simpler times and has a bit of a cozy vibe. But the faux nostalgia isnt a half measure, this game comes with all the cons that have been ironed out in the years since those "simpler times" and it drags the game down a lot. This may very well be one of the most 3/5 games you'll ever play - but that isn't a bad thing.

Valkyrie Elysium's combat is the highlight. Its got lots of spells, elemental teammates you can summon and a decent if small amount of weapons with their own movesets at your disposal. It also has a grappling hook of sorts and lets be honest basically every game that adds one of those gets a free ticket to being awesome. In the rough sea of questionable design that makes up Valkyrie Elysium, its combat is a lovely little island in the center. But as the game goes on, its sands begin to erode.

It took me roughly 23 hours to beat Valkyrie Elysium. This is having done all 9 main quests as well as all 36 subquests. The combat keeps things together but quite frankly everything else is falling apart. The boss designs are dope but most of the normal enemies you'll encounter are the same few fellas with elemental reskins. The locations, while sometimes visually unique from eachother, still feel and play the same. There is nothing else to this game but the combat and slight exploration. There are a few so called puzzles but theyre really just summoning one of your party members to do something for you. That means the vast majority of this game you'll be fighting the same bundle of dull enemies through very familiar feeling levels over and over and over and over again. This does give this game a mindless nature to it, I was able to catch up on a lot of youtube. It was a good time to just turn my brain off and relax. But a great combat system can only take you so far. I believe even if you didnt go for every sub quest like I did - if you dont have something else on while you play this you'd probably get bored before the end.

There's also the story. Well, kinda. They try at some points. I think all of the characters are interesting but its all surface level, even during their quests they dont really get fleshed out very well. I got the true ending which was quite lengthy but honestly pretty satisfying. I never particularly cared for what was going on in this game but theres an interesting twist and idk, even if its forgettable and hardly existent at least it didnt have a shitty ending. There are actually four endings but seeing as you have to fight all the bosses for the true ending I didn't really feel the need to. Actually thats not entirely true. I did go back to attempt the others for trophies, but one of the bosses has four fucking phases and so when I died on the last one I decided nevermind and promptly deleted the game. That leads us to our next segment.

Playing on normal wasnt particularly hard. You are given a lot to work with its kinda hard to fail, but when the game wants to be challenging it does it in the unfun way. High HP enemies that do an annoying amount of damage. This wasnt too bad as it wasnt an often occurrence but thats just one of many small things that hold the game back even beyond its bland level and enemy design. It actually in fact has a pretty good and well spaced upgrade system but honestly thats the only other thing this does well. You gain proficiency with weapons the more you use them but I never noticed if it actually affected anything. Its a very slow grind to max proficiency too, when you've done everything the game has to offer but not everything fully upgraded is a pretty eye rolling experience. There is a hub area between levels but its entirely useless except for accepting a few quests, saving and starting said quests. Theres not even an item shop. If you want to get items you have to jump into a level and hope you find what you want in a chest. The problem is, you have to fully complete a level to keep any progress made. And if you wanna get some lost collectibles or find quests in the main levels, thats right. You have to replay them in their entirety. And most of the main missions are dragged out to at least an hour. I had to replay far more of the game than I would of liked simply because I missed a subquest at the very beginning of a level. This kind of design even seeps into its trophy lists. There are plenty of trophies that wont unlock until you beat the level. Even a few that if you get inbetween levels, you have to go enter one and beat that for it to unlock. And even better, the difficulty trophies dont stack. So if your first playthrough is on hard you're gonna have to play it again on normal. Whats better is there is no new game plus so you'll have to start from scratch is well. Theres so many little things like that in the game that really put into perspective the low budget and general unfinished feeling of the game.

In the end, Valkyrie is a mixed bag. Its perfectly average, in some ways a devolution but its saved by its really fun core combat. In nearly every way possible, Valkyrie Elysium is not a good game. But I'm okay with that. Sometimes you just need a mediocre experience to get you through the day. Keep your mind of things. Thats exactly what this was for me. I wouldnt recommend this for full price like I bought it, but if you see it on sale and need some downtime, I think this is a pretty perfect game for that.

Thanks for reading everyone <3

Trophy Completion - 77% (37/46)
Time Played: 23 hours roughly
Nancymeter - 62/100
Game Completion #135 of 2022
November Completion #1

Borderlands has always been a franchise I was pretty fond of. Many playthroughs of 1&2 were a core part of my gaming childhood and while I've played those so much that the thought of doing them again is dreadful I will always appreciate my time with them. Later entries have previously gotten weaker and weaker but still pretty good by my book. Seeing a new direction for the series sounded like a great idea, and Tiny Tina of course is one of the better characters. So I was very hopeful for this. Unfortunately I believe Tiny Tina's Wonderlands the weakest yet.

The premise of this is great. Borderlands 2 had some awesome dlcs and Bunkers & Badasses was the pretty clear standout. I have never had any interest in tabletop games but the way they try to translate it to the game is fun and a good expansion on the original dlc. The overworld is the biggest divergence from mainline and for the most part its a neat way to get across the map. A lot of optional dungeons you can do for loot or to collect shrine pieces which if you find all the pieces for a certain shrine will give you a nice bonus. But this overworld has a critical flaw with how it spawns enemies. You can punch them and they'll vanish but if you're distracted (they usually spawn really close) You'll get sucked into an entire combat arena with multiple enemies and no chance to escape. None of these fights are hard or worth the exp though so it is just a forced waste of time. This is especially annoying in co-op. They pop up so often that halfway through the game it had completely soured me on the concept of the overworld.

Speaking of co-op, oof man. I played the entirety of this in co-op with my boyfriend and I think the game would of been very boring without that but jesus christ I am not even exagerating when I said this game crashed on me probably at least fifty separate times over our playthrough. Nearly all of these crashes were upon me opening my menu. I'll tell you, playing an rpg and being too scared to open your fucking inventory was very annoying. I'm not sure what caused this but it definitely dropped my enjoyment considerably. Although, I can't really say Id have much better thoughts about it otherwise.

The combat in this is fine, it's mostly standard borderlands. Melee weapons get to be improved a little and now you can combine two classes of your choosing but I didn't get much use out of either. When battles are hectic and you have the right gear its a good gameplay loop, but thats typical for the series. You use spells instead of grenades which can be fun as well but its really a mix bag. There is a staggering amount of loot dropped in this game but basically all of it is useless. You can find die across the levels to supposedly increase your luck but these were almost always worthless as well. We got some pretty strong weapons now and then but everything is basically junk and only worth selling. But the prices for inventory upgrades and spacing out of vending machines just makes everything feel like a really unnecessary hassle. Combine that with levels and sidequests that just drag on and on, this was an experience that was pretty dull for most of its run time. What makes all of that infinitely worse though is that strangely so much of this game has like absolutely zero music? The bgm is just straight up non existent except for the same handful of songs in battles or towns now and then. It's really damn noticeable. Of course there is a bigger reason why all of these feel as long as they are.

The story sucks. Tina is great obviously and there's some fun performances from Andy Samberg and Will Arnett but wow man. There is basically a new character introduced every mission and all of them are very forgettable. The game did make me laugh out loud a few times but so much of it had me stonefaced. The humor of the first few games was dumb but it was the right kind of dumb and now with this and Borderlands 3 it just feels painful. The bigger this franchise has become (and especially in this with the absence of Anthony Burch), the writing quality has dropped significantly and his absence is incredibly noticeable. The side quests arent much better. Some are fun concepts like exploring a house while shrunken but most of them are just glorified fetch quests with you guessed it, more annoying and forgettable characters guiding you through. One saving grace though is that the levels from an aesthetic standpoint are really great, especially the dried out deep trenches - most locations look really pretty and fits the setting quite well.

In the end, I have a lot of negative opinions on this game, probably more than the positive ones so maybe my rating feels a bit generous, but idk. I can feel that they really wanted to try with this. There is some passion in there its not all just gearbox greed. That's what I want to believe, at least. There's a message from the devs in the credits that talks about tough development because of COVID. The message kinda reads like a copout, a little pleading face emoji to say please forgive us for not making a good game. I want to believe its genuine. Apparently this game sold well enough that its gonna become its own franchise. I guess we'll have to see.

Borderlands was a series that me and my dad played together a lot, and I have good memories of the times with him. We're not on speaking terms at the moment and quite frankly I doubt we'll ever be. In a way that sours all my memories, makes me sad to look back on them and know its never gonna be like that again. It can't be. Playing this with @Assenemy helped with that a lot I think. Despite the crashes and the dragged out levels and the dead silent bgm, I had a really good time playing this even if we had to make our own fun by making fun of what was happening or doing silly things like cancelling fast travel or going up an elevator without the other person. I will always be appreciative of this game for that. I look forward to the future of this series and making new Borderlands memories, as silly as it or they may be.

Thanks for reading <3

Trophy Completion - 79% (35/39)
Time Played: 36 hours 9 minutes
Nancymeter - 64/100
Game Completion #132 of 2022
October Completion #9

To preface this review: I'm not really an avid racing game player nor have I ever even heard of this series beyond mindlessly scrolling past it on the storefront. This is from the perspective of a complete noob. When I play racing games I usually go for the more arcade-y stuff like Burnout or Split/Second and the Need for Speed Games. Basically the less focused it is on being a simulator the more fun I have. Driving around is always my favorite part in open world games and so nothing bores me more than a dozen mechanics and driving around some sterile track. That seems to be a lot of racing games these days though and so I usually avoid them. Much like fighting games they're a genre I don't particularly like but every now and then I just randomly decide to play one and get hooked on it and too addicted to play anything else until I get tired of it. I was starting to crave that for a racing game and then as I was scrolling through all the games that came out this year I saw this! Something that came and went this year seemingly without much buzz or recognition and didn't get many good reviews, but had a short story mode. It was perfect.

I do need to confess to a terrible thing I had to do to play this though. I wasn't just gonna pay its full price for a game I knew very little about so I had to make a deal with the devil. Don't condemn me, I feel bad about it enough. But I bought a month of EA Play. A terrible, horrible thing. I tried to justify it saying "ill use it to get a discount on the Dead Space remake or Need for Speed Unbound" but the truth is I just really fucking wanted to try this random ass racing game because it would make me feel better about not beating enough 2022 games this year. And what I got was well, pretty surprising.

This game actually has a very interesting mix between the two different types of racing games. On one hand its a very forgiving game not muddled with a bunch of different mechanics, but still gives you a bit of a challenge in the way you control your vehicle and that classic organized racing kind of vibe. It's not particularly what I like but if you're someone who loves the feeling of being in big (mostly) formal races without a whole lot of technical junk thrown at you you might get a good kick out of this one. I did find the lack of explanations for a lot of its mechanics to be a little frustrating but as mentioned the game is still pretty forgiving. A sort of easy to learn hard to master kinda deal.

The story, for a racing game, was enjoyable. Obviously things are really limited when its a game you are entirely restricted to your car in but what it does is nice. It uses live action scenes (much more effectively than a certain other series, thank god for the rebranding with Unbound) in a documentary like way. A tv crew is filming the characters. It's pretty nice actually. The acting is solid for the most part and some of the characters are pretty enjoyable, particularly Valentin. The actual story itself is basically nothing and the
"villains" are weaksauce however they do succeed at being extremely unlikeable. Legends does actually have a certain bit of charm to it however and Id say I liked it. Where the story fails however is that it has a really huge disconnect from the gameplay itself. Let me explain.

Difficulty balancing in racing games has always been a bit of an issue for me. Rubberbanding when used right can make every race feel tight and like a close one but more often than not it just makes the game feel cheap and unfair. Conversely if the game is too easy it becomes far more boring at a really rapid pace, which is a huge issue for this game. Most of the difficulty comes from navigating the tracks themselves and getting used to the different type of vehicles you drive. The AI is total garbage and you'll likely pass each and every one of them with relative ease. This means a lot of the game didn't feel like a racing game at all and more just a driving game where you try to turn tight corners all sad and alone. This is amplified even more when some races decide they want to be an agonizing 4 to 6 laps long and sometimes upwards of 10 minute levels that just feel like they're stretching the campaign length as much as they can. Where this comes into the story is that even for a shitty driver who bumps into everything like I, I basically never once lost a race. But the story doesnt change at all with that. So there were multiple cutscenes where despite the player character absolutely crushing everyone in every single match, you have a teammate bragging about being the number one of your crew or the villain characters saying they've been slam dick dunkin' all year and aren't worried about any competition. You could count this as arrogance but even in some scenes the sportscasters announce all the villains win yet again or how your character apparently had a crash inbetween levels. Its basically the racing game equivalent of whittling the boss down to 1HP like a pro and then the cutscene after showing your whole party crying half dead on the floor. I'm not gonna pretend to know jack fuck about game development but considering all the cutscenes are on the same small handful of steps surely it would be worth filming at the bare minimum slightly alternate scenes to reflect how well you're actually doing in the story mode. As is I really wanted to enjoy the story for what it was but stuff like that made it very hard to take seriously or get invested in.

Overall, I'd feel bad for giving GRID Legends a harsh score. While its true that its underwhelming and too easy to be exciting, It was the perfect little distraction to hold me over for a few hours and I really appreciate the attempt at making a hybrid of the two big racing game subgenres. Maybe next time guys. If you like this type of game, it's worth your time. Just get it at a steep discount and definitely not from EA Play lol. Thanks for reading <3

Trophy Completion - played on alt account huehue
Nancymeter - 55/100
Game Completion #134 of 2022
October Completion #11

Didn't get to play this much because my internet is horse cock but like, what were they even thinking? How did this game get delayed for over a year and STILL only release with TWO maps and some of the most unbalanced gameplay of all time!?!?! Even their roadmap only confirms one more map is coming. How do you expect to gain traction for your live service game when it takes an additional 18 months to come out past the game it was bundled with yet remains nearly identical to the beta! It's just baffling. A multiplayer RE game could be really fun but capcom just keeps fucking it up and yet still trying while learning almost nothing please just stop i'm begging you it's hurting.

I want to personally have a private conversation with the person who decided in a game where everything is an overpowered glass cannon that Jill Valentine should have one of the lowest health stats.

Nancymeter - finish it first/100

It's been quite a while since I've written a review, been a bit burnt out from this site. But Dying Light 2 felt like a good game to come back from. In a year where I've tried to buy every single big release, this was one of the ones I was perhaps the most excited for. I really enjoyed my time with the first game. How long this spent in development was a little worrying but the new features they promised sounded enticing and I was sure they would do a good job if they just focused on improving what they had accomplished already.

The launch of Dying Light 2 was a mess. I remember a twitter post promising "500 hours of content" and was Immediately a bit worried but still hopeful. And then launch happened. My initial impression was a bit mixed and as I played the bugs started to show more and more. I lost a lot of progress because things wouldnt load properly. Some scenes would be without dialogue, some missions wouldnt start. I ended up taking a really big break until I decided to try and finish it a month or so ago. I can say the state of this game has been improved a lot. It still lacks a lot of polish in some areas, especially with character models loading in with textures and the occasional no audio but it didnt feel like a chore to play anymore and I could focus on the good stuff.

For one, the parkour excellent. Im not really a fan of the upgrade system but all the moves you can do make things feel really amazing. The grappling hook is very limited but fun. Only issue is that everything costs a lot of stamina so if you wanna use stuff like the glider it limits a lot of creativity. I do recommend turning off the auto ledge grab setting as well as it makes the gameplay a lot smoother. The combat is okay. Enemies block a lot and the sound effects are really bad, but the gore is great and it is always satisfying to dropkick someone off a building. There is an interesting concept with the main character being infected and there's some scenes where that turns into really fun stuff. This is all limited to story though and tbf it would be very overpowered but to not even have it as a mechanic post game feels like a missed opportunity. Biggest gameplay disappointment for me though was the nighttime chases. Night time in the first game was downright scary but it felt really lackluster in this one. I had to run around in circles purposefully to try to get level 4 and it still took ages. The actual open world itself also feels okay. It gets a lot more interesting in the second area when more traversal options open up. The enemy density has been improved since release but at launch it felt like a ghost town. The side content is all kinda standard for the genre but its stll enjoyable and fits within the context of the game. I didnt get much out of the siding factions deal. I was gonna do cleanup but be warned that the game decides there should be a difficulty spike where it scales all enemies up a few levels if you decide to play postgame. This made things a bit more annoying for basically no reason so I decided to move on to other games.

Then there is the story. A lot of people say its terrible but to me it really wasn't. A large part of that is because I have been in love with Rosario Dawson ever since Men In Black II but also Idk, I enjoyed it? I thought the stuff with Frank and Hakkon and nightrunners was pretty interesting. It has some really good music in a few moments and I was quite pleased with the ending I got. The protag is kinda blank and I dont even remember his name but it didnt bother me much. I also liked the story in the first game which was also shat on though so take my thoughts with however much salt you'd like.

In the end, Dying Light 2 is a mess of a game. Its unpolished, had a middling launch, is definitely not gonna take 500 hours of your time even if you're diehard ... but still in the end I had a positive experience from it. I liked the characters and the parkour is as fun as ever. I know just about everyone is kinda over them but I will never not love zombie games. It should of been delayed but I'm glad it wasn't abandoned. I'm hopeful techland can make up for this with Dead Island 2 next year. Im not quite sure if its pre order worthy yet but I'll keep a close eye on it for next time.

Thanks for reading everyone. Up next I have some reviews for things like Rollerdrome, Bugsnax, Balan Wonderworld, Marvel's Avengers and Stray I've been neglecting. But we'll see how it goes, hopefully it doesnt take another month for y'all to hear from me lol. I appreciate your support < 3

Trophy Completion - 55% (33/58)
Time Played: 43 hours 35 minutes
Nancymeter - 73/100
Game Completion #131 of 2022
October Completion #8
Spooktober 2022 Game #5

After working my ass off, getting lucky and buying that unloved and unwanted Horizon Forbidden West bundle even though I already owned the game digital - the coveted Playstation 5 is finally mine. Nearly 600 dollars tax and shipping included, but it was mine. I bought a few games to go with it like Ratchet & Clank or Demons Souls, but the game I was actually the most excited for was Astros Playroom. I had heard many great things about the dualsense and its capabilities and that this game was a surprisingly baller tech demo. Well, thats pretty true.

The PS5 as a console kinda sucks, If im being honest. The silence compared to the PS4 is worth praying over, but it just seems to be missing a lot of features already on PS4 and I've already had my fair share of annoyances with it. But of course I bought it for the games and those have been great so far. The one thing that has not been disappointing in anyway tho is the new controller. The dualsense is dope. The haptic feedback vibrations are not game changing but they are a nice addition but the adaptive triggers are cool as shit and I love them. Astros Playroom was made specifically to show off what the controller is capable of and it does that in strides. It may very well be the greatest tech demo of all time for probably the greatest new console gimmick of all time.

The game is more than just that though. Sure its short, but in that few hour runtime there is so much creativity and joy put into it and I felt it at every moment. It is a love letter to Playstation as a whole. By far my favorite part of the game was finding all the easter eggs and references to past exclusives and IPs. All the artifact collectibles are old consoles and accessories that you can interact with. Even the trophy list is filled with references, and Its probably one of the most fun platinums i've ever got. The game also shows off how great the trophy hint feature can be and made getting all the collectibles really enjoyable. Plus there are a large number of miscellaneous trophies and I loved just doing something thinking "I wonder if Id get a trophy for this" and it actually being the case.

I don't really have a reason for not giving this a full five stars. I want it to be longer but not because its not long enough, just because I enjoyed it so much. There is even a bonus time trials thing thats thankfully mini challenge levels instead of just repeating the main missions on a timer. You can compete on the leaderboards so thats pretty fun, and of course you can just interact with all the things youve collected on the way in the hub and vibe with the game. I think I'm just worried that this is game will take the haptics as far as they go. First party developers are gonna be implementing this a lot which is great, but I just hope plenty of third party developers are able to push the dualsense to its full potential too.

I don't think I'll uninstall this game, its just too joyful.

Trophy Completion - 100% (Platinum #220)
Time Played: 7 hours 23 minutes
Nancymeter - 93/100
Game Completion #121 of 2022
September Completion #11

I hate the ocean. I also love the ocean. Mostly because of sharks. I love and hate those too. So a game where I can play as the shark safely from my "own home" was very nice. Maneater is a game with repetitive collectibles, repetitive objectives and very repetitive combat but somehow even with all of that it still just works. Its goddamn fun to be a shark and eat things.

The game starts off a bit frustrating. Everything is aggressive, you have barely any health or upgrades. Its a mess. I was having a pretty bad time the first one or two hours I played this. But the game has a good sense of progression as you evolve and get new abilities, it becomes a lot easier. Maybe a bit too easy, but you're a fuckin shark everything should be easy for you. You really start feeling like the apex predator of the sea. When the game opens up a little to deeper waters in the Sapphire Bay area, especially if you're swimming at night the sense of atmosphere is impeccable. Like you are the monster in horror b-movie. I love it.

The game is setup like you're in a nature documentary tv show, and I bet a lot of people probably didnt like this angle but I think it adds a lot of character to the game. The narrator is great and hes usually pretty funny. He also has a lot of lines, so he won't really be repeating stuff as much as you'd assume - unless you're getting the cache collectibles which there are like a hundred of - thats the only time he bothered me. Definitely helps the game a lot and adds to the not quite so serious tone you can see from the numerous easter eggs and visual gags under the waters surface.

The story is just a tale of revenge from two sides. You want to eat Scaly Pete because he killed your mother and he wants to kill you because you bit off his arm. Its obviously not riveting but it fits the game well and gives you something to work towards. Most of the objectives just have you going around either eating groups of humans or specific fish, or hunting targets and other apex predators of their specific locations, slowly getting stronger until you finish the missions in an area and move on to the next or unlock the next story event. You definitely are gonna want to seek out the collectibles as they give you nutrients and such needed to upgrades as well as unlock the upgrades themselves. Theres three main evolution lines you can follow, and you can mix and match the different parts yourself to create the ultimate maneater of your desires. Its not super in depth but as it changes the visuals of your shark as well as bonuses its a good mechanic.

I only really have two complaints with this game. Sure its a bit repetitive but that never bothered me as it was still always fun to collect and eat everything. I just feel like more mission types would of benefited a lot. Stuff like races even would've gone a long way. I am not sure what the DLC adds but I am definitely gonna get it in the future, but I also wish there was just more in general. The Gulf and Sapphire Bay areas are the largest and just swimming in the open water was so cool. I really wish there were more areas like that to explore. The ocean has so many cool creatures and even biomes in of itself that I would just love to swim around in. This game does have good variety - things from orcas to sperm whales to hammerheads to alligators, but I still feel like theres just so much more out there that could be featured in a game like this as well. A deep trenches location would be like the coolest shit ever. Like I said at the start of this review. I hate the ocean. It scares the shit out of me. But thats also why Im so fascinated by it. Thats why I hope this game gets a sequel that gives us even more to explore. Id pre order the fuck out of that.

In the end, Maneater may not be a game that lived up to its full potential, but I took the bait and it got me hooked. With this and things even like Stray, I am very hopeful for more animal games lol. I honestly can see myself even replaying this on the side with the ps5 version because its just that fundamentally awesome to be a shark.

Trophy Completion - 100% (Platinum #217)
Time Played: 11 hours 51 minutes
Nancymeter - 79/100
Game Completion #119 of 2022
September Completion #9