I think this is my favorite fps rougelike ever LOL.

This game's just so goddamn fun. The whole way through. It's even got a great balance between having reason to revisit it while also feeling conclusive if you're one of those people who just wants to pick up a game, finish and be done with it (an issue I had with some games like Deadlink).

The art and general vibe is so fucking good. I bought the artbook once I was done with my playthrough because it's that cool to look at. Music is amazing too. I also kind of liked how, even despite it really not going as deep or as far as it should imho, this game's general message about never giving up with your work even in an age like this where techbros want AI to replace creatives is really nice and honestly needed in a time like this imo, especially as more and more layoffs happen and executives make more dogshit decisions that fuck over the people on the front lines. Again, I don't think it went as far as I think it should've (granted I don't think they wanted it to overshine the goofy premise, which is fine), but again, it felt oddly comforting.

Gameplay is so good too. I was a bit worried from playing the demo that it would be easy the whole way through on average skills, as I only really died on the harder ones in the demo, but that's not the case at all. Challenging (intended dev difficulty) puts up a challenge all the way through, and shows that it's more then just rushing to the end. It's a big part of it sure, but if an enemy hits you, that's at least 1-2 seconds being cut off of your 10 second timer, and you gotta make some fun split-second decisions depending on your environment in order to compensate, on top of using your upgrades wisely and the environment to your advantage. And that's not even mentioning the enemies that get introduced in later chapters, requiring certain solutions or ways to deal with them that are different from others. It's just so engaging and fun the entire run.

I think my only real first issue is with the bosses, they feel way easier then they should be. Most of my deaths came from mastering the combat loop from floor to floor, I think I died to a boss once in total lol. Doesn't help either that particularly after the second half, they like to throw in some joke/"non-bosses" which, while cute as a one-time gag, feel ultimately really anticlimatic and like untapped potential. Which again, really stinks when the basically the rest of the game is consistently challenging and really fun.

That, and I kind of wish the "choose your last permanent upgrade to keep after death" perma-perk was locked off from you keeping your weapon, because for me it was all I ever used it for and in turn I was under the impression that the rest of the weapons save for the shotgun either ranged from okay to worthless, when that definitely isn't the case especially when doing harder difficulties or endless mode. Like by the time I got a level 2 shotgun it was all I ever used it for and I never touched any other weapons after that. That and there's a few upgrades period that feel pretty useless (what's the point of the one that shows you the exit?? there's only one in each level lol). Other then that awesome game.

This was my first video game ever.

I have a very vague memory of going to the local mall, and the GameStop inside, and picking this game out on the shelf. It was probably like 2004..maybe 2003? So it was right in the middle of the GameCube/PS2 era and they still had plenty of gen 5 games. Besides that, I have some nice memories of playing this with my dad and asking him to help me with levels I was stuck on at the time. I can still picture the final boss level select screen on our old living room TV in my head, I remember thinking it was crazy we had finally gotten to the end of the game together. Sadly, I was never able to get 100% and beat every level back then but when I eventually got back into Playstation gaming, Croc was the first game I decided to play and yeah I was able to finally achieve 100% after all those years. I also did so last year as it had been 7 years since I played it at that point. Croc is not perfect, god knows this site definitely thinks it isn't with that 2.9 average, but I can't help but love Croc and I do think it is somewhat underrated.

The story consists of an opening cutscene and then some small ones before bosses and then the ending cutscene or two. The opening cutscene has the tribe of creatures called Gobbos, finding baby croc in a basket floating down a stream. They decide to take him in, train him to fight and eventually he becomes fully grown. Not long after, the evil Baron Dante appears with his minions and kidnaps all the Gobbos. It's then up to Croc to save them all and defeat Baron Dante. Incredibly simple plot but an effective one due to the cutscenes being very charming.

The general gameplay is where people have issue with the game. Croc can jump, butt stomp, swipe his tail as an attack along with other more situational moves like climbing monkey bars and swimming. That's all fine and dandy, but the issue people have with all this is the fact this game uses tank controls. Tank controls in a 3D platformer sounds super bad but I think Croc's levels generally accommodate for this. The game requires more thought to be put into your platforming due to these controls rather than just jumping and not even thinking about it once like other games. With how the platforming generally is in the first couple worlds, I think the game does this well. It relies on slower more methodical platforming which does the games controls justice. That and you can switch to analog which makes Croc's move set just smoother in my eyes. It's a bit easier to trip up your movement with analog but I also just find it to be more fun. The first two worlds are really good about this slow and methodical philosophy. I also like them more because I'm more nostalgic for them and because I like the music that plays in them more. The latter two tho aren't quite as good. I still like them overall, the desert more than the castle, but a couple of times they can rely on some really tight jumps that are almost unreasonably hard to pull off and they generally have the worst moments in the game.

Actually talking about what the levels are like, it's basically a very linear level-based 3D platformer. The levels are broken up into rooms and along the way, there are collectables to get. The aforementioned Gobbos are in each level, 6 in total to save however you can only get 5 unless you also collect 5 colored crystals and open the door at the end to get the 6th gobbo. Other than that, you can also collect white crystals as well. These act like rings from Sonic, you get hit you lose them and can get some of them back. If you get hit without having any, you die. You can also collect red hearts which are the lives in this game. They're usually very scarce unless you find the various bonus rooms in the game. If you see a little thing of sparkles on the ground, or a random floating platform in a bottomless pit, you might want to check them out as they always give you a lot of lives. I definitely don't know how to get to every single one, I honestly never tried to look them all up, but I had great joy as a child discovering these for myself. I still remember being blown away somehow finding the secret in the first screen of the game you can unlock by butt stomping on a specific platform three times.

The game is very colorful and nice to look at, though it's also a victim to texture warping. Honestly, I never really thought about it much back then, just thought that's how PS1 games all looked but yeah it can be pretty rough in this game. It doesn't bother me too much tho as the general vibe is what sells this games aesthetics for me. This game is THE reason I love the liminal space like atmosphere you see in a lot of early 3D games. The skyboxes are just wonderful in this game, sometimes I just stop playing and look around to see what my environment looks like in the level I'm playing. Even on this most recent playthrough, I was still doing it. The Ice Island, besides just having the best level design I'd say, is my favorite aesthetically. Some of my favorite snow/ice level aesthetics ever are from this game.

The bosses are another low point in this game. They just honestly suck, like all of them. Every single one just has you waiting for a boss to do a move, and then attacking when they're tired or just open to being attacked. The first boss in the castle island I'll give props to because you must have the little guys it throws walk on these platforms that send them back to the boss. The 2nd ice island boss I also like just because the arena is really nice to look at. If there's anything I'll give the bosses, it's the fact their actual designs and the arenas they're in all feels very different from each other. That I can appreciate at least. But then there's something like Neptuna, the Neptune fish boss that you must defeat while underwater and the swimming was not made for a boss fight so it's just awful lol. So yeah, overall, the bosses do kind of suck, but I only really hate Neptuna. The others are just easy and that's it really.

If there's any aspect you should play Croc for however, it's the soundtrack. It's all good, tho my favorites are mostly in the first two worlds. I will say tho, Desert Island 1 was always a banger to me as a kid and nowadays I really love the first 20 seconds of Baron Dante 3 a ton, even if the boss is dummy easy. Outside of that however, a song I really love nowadays is Cave 1 just because it's so goddamn catchy and feels like the perfect song to play outside of your house on Halloween. I also just really love the first island's themes cuz they're so nostalgic to me and my entire family. If I played one of those songs around my parents, they'd instantly know it's from Croc lol. However, I think nowadays my favorite song overall is Snow Island 3 and it's all because of how atmospheric it is. Idk man, it's hard to be objective with even this game's soundtrack just because it's burned into my mind lol.

Maybe a 7 is too high for Croc, or maybe I'm actually underselling my own feelings because it's closer to an 8 for me. I'll give it a 7 for now tho I may bump it up in the future. Either way, idk if I'd even be on this website and a fan of video games if it wasn't for Croc. It means the world to me even if it's not perfect. I do recommend people at least give this game a try despite the low rating on here. Who knows, you may actually see some good in it like I have lol.

Stalker's world is very atmospheric and is excellently designed to feel a lot bigger and more complicated than it actually is. I think I missed a lot of content in the game, which seems somehwhat deliberate as the game does a great job of crafting a world that appears as though it does not care about the player. It is easy to make a game that feels like it hates the player, or one the revolves entirely around the player, but one that acts like it truely does not care whether the player achieves their goals or not is impressive.

The last few hours of the game are terrible, up untill this point the game had been challenging but fair and allowed for careful planning and rewarded a slow and tactical style of play. However the final sequence of the game forces you to play more aggresively as you're either being chased by helicopters or slowly losing health due to radiation. This seems like a massive design flaw and leaves the game on a downer note.

Fire Emblem Engage was a welcome surprise for me. On one hand, it has arguably the best gameplay in the entire series, but to balance this, it probably has one of the most cliche and basic stories in the entire series.

To begin with, the story isn’t that good. It’s a bunch of tropes meshed into one and it’s just really boring. It’s not bad, just not good either. There’s really not much else to say without getting spoilery but that’s my thoughts on the story.

I enjoyed a lot of the cast. Yes, a few of them can be annoying at times like Clanne, Framme, and Alfred, but some were pleasantly enjoyable. I didn’t expect to enjoy Goldmary as much as I did, and her support conversations with various units (including Ike) just made me laugh. I also enjoyed Kagetsu, Ivy, Fogado, and Timerra. I liked how units also had support conversations with the different emblems, and you got some pretty funny lines from certain conversations, and some callbacks from others.

In contrast to the story, the gameplay is kind of peak. Emblem rings, engaging, and the break system are all welcome additions to the series (albeit some of these things are kind of busted). Having the weapon triangle back in the form of the break system is great and it honestly makes gameplay a lot more strategical to prevent enemies from being able to counterattack. Like Three Houses, the game is more lenient with class variation, but it is just more worth it to stay in their base class, or one with a similar role (unless your Anna). I find using Backup units hilarious, seeing the battle menu say that 6 allies will do 4 damage to the enemy, a really great addition imo, even though it sounds and plays really stupidly because you can just make an entire army of backup units. Emblem abilities are kinda bonkers and can really turn the tide of battle into your favour, and I love how enemy units can also use these emblem abilities, and you need to find the correct strategy to neutralise them as quickly as possible, with as little damage as possible. One great thing about emblem rings was that you’re able to pass down special abilities to any unit. You can essentially have your entire army, including your mages and your dancer, have Canter, allowing them to retreat after initiating combat. Overall, I had a lot of fun with the gameplay in this game, and probably one of my most enjoyable fire emblem experiences.

However, I am kind of tired of a main hub. The Somniel is as tedious as the Monastery (I probably enjoyed the Monastery more because I liked it conceptually). The Somniel just seemed out of place and was only made because Three Houses did so well? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy both Three Houses and Engage, and I don’t mind either the Somniel or the Monastery, but having to go through so much after each chapter, especially on a replay is sort of tiring. At least this game has dogs that you can get silver ingots from.

Being able to explore each map after a battle and pick up items and adopt pets was something I also enjoyed. Though it did start to get boring when some characters started having the same dialogue in different maps.

I played the game on Hard difficulty until the very end of the game, where I switched it to normal because of never-ending reinforcements (definitely a skill issue and me turtling too much). The maps in general were really enjoyable (Chapter 13 and 17 made me want to cry though because of how many resets I did, I think Chapter 13 took an entire day because I was making so many stupid mistakes). Albeit, this was my first FE game on a higher difficulty than the lowest. Chapters 17 (despite how painful), and 11 were probably my favourite maps because of the retreat condition and the amount of bosses present that just felt really really epic. I also really enjoyed the Paralogues being a callback to the emblem rings original games. You get maps like Arena Ferox and the Plains of Hoshido that are iconic to their respective games (they did Lyn dirty giving her a map that wasn’t even from her original game). These were a lot of fun of challenge, especially the Sigurd one with all of the units that appear in the end.

The music in this game slapped, especially the Solm music, it just slapped harder on a different level compared to the rest of the game. The art style is also great, but I will say some character designs are extremely questionable. Why did we need Colgate-kun as the protagonist, or for Celine to have a macaron for a dress. But other characters had some pretty killer designs like Ivy and Timerra.

Overall, a great game that you should only play for the gameplay and not the story.

Also, please save me from all of the marriage and divorce puns, I’m so done with them.

One of the sadder things I’ve realised recently is that the original Fallout may not be as influential as much as it’s made it out to be, at least when it comes down to its mechanics. But I’m no real historian, and it may very well have changed the world of RPGs forever. Still, I don’t think it really matters because at the end of the day this is still a damn good game.

Four years ago I played this game for the first time and finished it in one sitting, and recently I ventured out to the wasteland once again. Shining blue spandex, bright hot sun, searching for a water chip; it all feels too familiar. Ah, that control scheme…it feels clunky but once you get the hang of its fits this game like a glove. Fast and snappy, perfect for that retro-future aesthetic. Still, I can’t deny I’ve ever particularly liked how this game’s combat is. Nothing horribly wrong with it, but often times it feels too static, like I’m playing a board game with a computer that’s determined to kill me. Probably what they were going for too.

Stopped by Shady Sands, and gave birth to a nation there. Went to Vault 15, and I saw ruins. Ran into the Khans, and slaughtered them all. Headed to Necropolis to give the mutants dirt naps, and saved my vault. Strolled into Junktown for the casino and killed the owner; I left as quietly as I came. Stopped by The Hub for the water, and stayed to help uncover the disgusting truth behind both the missing caravans and those delicious Iguana Bits. Ran into The Brotherhood of Steel; they told me to fuck off. I saved Los Angeles for last, and it was as much a shithole as I had expected.

After you get the water chip, the last half is really unsettling. You feel that there’s an imminent evil heading into this world as you encounter these monsters more and more. As you spend hours upon hours searching for a man you assume to be the devil himself, you grow accustomed to the hell that is this world. Despite being coddled at birth, you make this wasteland yours. And by the time meet the creator of this madness, it really just does feel like a Wednesday in this irradiated world. This game is absurdly funny, not only with its writing and critiques of American culture but right down to the game design itself with the funniest bit being that the thing you spent the last half searching for is just straight left. Haha, all that work for something so simple.

I hated the Overseer four years ago. Really thought of him as nothing more than an ungrateful speck of a man. But today, as I blew up that evil lair and saw everything that my actions wrought and how I changed this world forever, I stood in front of that cold metal door wearing dark green combat armor and a rocket launcher in hand. There, I saw myself. I saw a man in shining blue spandex walking up to someone he just doesn’t recognize anymore. He is confused now as I was in the beginning, he just doesn’t understand and I now realize where he’s coming from. I could hear the fear in his voice, fear of this horrible world that just sucks.


What if we ARE the only safe place in the world? You just gave us back all these lives…I can’t take the chance of losing them.

I’m sorry. You’re a hero…and you have to leave.


You walk alone. Into this heartless, cruel, unforgiving world. Shining blue spandex, bright hot sun, searching for a purpose. You found it one day, but long after your death, another evil arose. Don’t worry, another hero just like you saved us again.