Shotgun King's concept is so clever and genuinely feels fresh. A chess game where you play as a piece wielding a shotgun is just such a ridiculous concept and I love it so much.

I had a lot of fun with it. I beat it 6-7 times, I think? I think it's great but the novelty of it's premise lost it's luster quicker than I had expected. Eventually the runs feel same-y. I found it especially frustrating how often I would die because I killed a piece that was in front of a Rook or a Bishop. Seriously, it just kept happening. That's probably a skill issue but it annoyed me enough nonetheless.

So yeah, Shotgun King is a very fresh Roguelike to spend a couple of hours with. I don't think it has lasting power but I also think that's fine. Not every game needs to be replayed forever.

Spider-Man 2 is better than the prior two games in every way imaginable. Just about everything is improved, it's unreal. The combat, the narrative, mission variety, traversal. It's all better. And don't even get me started on the animation quality. The way things look in motion, wether it be swinging through New York or kicking an enemy against a wall, is frankly industry-best shit. I was often in awe of the visual spectacle from start to finish. It's so great.

I do have a few gripes that are holdovers from the prior games. First, the combat just isn't up to snuff with the quality of everything else. I was playing on the hardest difficulty the entire game and it was a cakewalk as soon as it's clear that I just had to wait for gadget and ability cooldowns to recharge and spam those. There's really not much to it and it's a bummer. It doesn't bring the game down per se, but there's so much of it that it's very much worth mentioning. Also, and this is way more nitpicky, the character models for most characters except for Miles, just look off. They're a hybrid between realistic and stylized and they just come off as very uncanny valley to me. This was an issue in the other games and it still is in this one, for me anyways.

So yeah, this was a pretty awesome Spider-Man game. I can't wait to see what they do next.

A fresh and unique puzzle game where the main puzzle mechanic involves deciphering different languages.

I'm always looking for puzzle games, despite not always being the best at them. Sennnaar is full of those "Ah ha!" moments that genuinely felt like I was figuring shit out on my own. It's good stuff.

It's very evocative of games I've played before. Aesthetically, the artstyle is quite striking and reminds me of Journey (even the OST has hints of this - not a bad thing!). A friend of mine also mentioned Obra Dinn as a similar game and I agree. I feels like a simpler, more linear take on that "figure this shit out on your own" puzzle design philosophy.

At it's best, Chants of Sennaar made me feel like the smartest man alive. Near the end though, I had to resort to a guide more times than I'd like to admit due to a late game difficulty spike. I understand what they were going for with the way the endgame is approached, but some of it just felt bad to figure out. I'll also mention that I dig what the narrative stuff is going for. The hook is interesting throughout and felt like a compelling enough carrot on a stick to keep me interested.

I also think that not all the areas are created equally. The second area in particular is one I didn't quite vibe with. Actually, in general, one of my main issues with the game is the size of the levels. Seriously, so many of the areas require back and forth between the various segments yet the running speed isn't fast enough to make this feel convenient or interesting. Had the areas been constructed in a more compact way, I think the game would have really benefitted from it.

Overall, I still really enjoyed my time with Chants of Sennaar. Late game difficulty spikes and slow travel time are really what bring it down a bit for me. It's still an easy puzzle game to recommend to anyone adventurous enough to try new things.

I didn't grow up with an Xbox 360. I had a PS3 and a Wii, so naturally I didn't have access to play Alan Wake. But I remember this one being one of the few 360 games I really wanted to play. I can now say that I finally know what all the fuss was about.

Alan Wake almost immediately sets a strong tone that really struck me. It's grounded in a way that most games aren't. It reminded me of Life is Strange in how it captures small town America. This world just felt so well realized. Despite the cheesiness, I also thought the plot was quite captivating. Alan and Barry make a fun duo and their dialogue was a highlight.

It's scope also feels massive at times. The forests littered throughout the game feel larger than life. I was often getting lost in them. I'm sure in reality, the spaces aren't that big but they certainly FEEL big. That really helped sell how dire some of the situations Alan often found himself were. Also, bonus points for meaningful collectibles! The manuscripts littered throughout the game make sense narratively. This is a nice touch.

The use of light throughout the game is quite clever, especially in how light sources point the player to the correct direction. The flashlight combat is pretty novel at first but wears thin a little faster than I'd have liked. Likewise, the game has a lot of janky 7th gen-ness to it. The sprint and dodge being mapped to the same button is absurd. Speaking of the sprint, it's way too short. Alan runs out of breath almost right away. This makes sense from a character POV. I mean, Alan isn't meant to be an athletic guy. But from a gameplay perspective, it sucks because the game loves to launch poltergeist items in your direction. It's just annoying.

The game gets pretty out there near the end with where it goes story-wise. I'll admit, I didn't understand all of it but it sure was a fun ride. If the gameplay held up better, I'd have definitely rated this higher. Overall though, I had a really good time and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the sequel picks up from this.

Finally got around to finishing these.

I had zero exposure to Klonoa before playing these and I was shocked at just how Kirby-coded they are. From enemy to level design, it really feels like the developers wanted to make their own take on that kind of game. And for the most part, it works.

The barebones nature of the first game was way less appealing than the jam packed variety in the second game. It really is a case, in my opinion, where the sequel is just a fully realized version of the first game. Can't see how anyone would prefer the first game tbh.

So yeah, I had fun with these. Much more so with the second game.

Housemarque just gets it.

A Roguelike third person shooter with bullet hell enemies sounds like something that should have been done a million times but it hasn't. Especially not to this level of competence.

The shooting mechanics are pitch perfect here with a ton of weapons that just feel awesome to handle. On PS5, the game has an excellent implementation of haptics that just make every weapon FEEL strong. There's a weight and tightness to everything here and it's great. I also LOVE how the game includes the Gears of War reloading minigame too. More games should.

Narratively, Returnal is interesting enough but it definitely falls into the Souls/Hollow Knight form of storytelling where everything feels somewhat abstract in an effort to have the player extrapolate their own conclusions. I'm frankly getting a little worn down by that type of storytelling. Not that it matters much here since the gameplay is the star.

Another nitpick I have is that some of the roguelike elements aren't the strongest. Runs start to feel quite samey after a while. This makes Returnal have a definite shelf life of roughly 30 hours for me. Although, I'll likely keep revisiting the game to get the remaining RNG collectibles I missed.

Although I sounded a little negative near the end, I still feel strongly that Returnal is GREAT. And with a few tweaks for a sequel, we could be in for something even more special.

I went in with an open mind and Saints Row 2022 still managed to be worse than anything I could have expected.

The narrative isn't silly enough to justify how nonsensical a lot of the characters and world stuff are. It's also not grounded enough for me to care about the stakes it puts it's characters through. I never once cared for the dialogue spouted by the Ryan Reynolds wanabe protagonist. It's so so dull.

The gameplay is just tired third person shooter stuff, but it can't even get that right. Since SR 2022 feels notably worse than 10 year old games. Nothing much of value here.

I haven't even mentioned bugs yet. I'm usually someone who is very generous for bugs and glitches because they're so often either funny or non-intrusive. The bugs in Saints Row just mean core things like opening car doors won't work until you reboot your console. FUN STUFF.

I played 50 hours of this in coop only to have a trophy glitch on me. Dogshit game.