I was kinda excited to finally play and finish this game. I have played SH3 before, but only finished the Mall portion. Now that I have it for the first time, I feel rather conflicted. Mainly because I feel that the game was rushed. I can assume this mainly due to how the game is structured. At the same time though, I like what SH3's brings graphically, musically and somewhat narratively. It's a really mixed bag overall because there's some things I dislike as well aside. So, let's get into it, I guess.

To start with positives, I really, really like Heather. Easily the best Silent Hill protagonist for us to play as. She captures that angsty teenage mood and she's pretty expressive in regard to the environment around her. Unlike SH1 or SH2, I would examine almost anything in every room just to see what comments Heather has to make. It adds a whole layer of personality that Harry and James somewhat lacked. In regard to the supporting cast, I don't think they're nearly as good as SH2's and maybe even SH1. Vincent is the only character that pulls through for me to enjoy, but that only comes when the game is almost over as his manipulative nature is shown through dialogue, files and the recording. Everyone else is kinda whatever, but I feel that's mostly because we're exploring Cult stuff again. Unlike in SH1, where it the Cult stuff interested me, I don't really feel that same sentiment here because i feel that its one-note this time around. However, when disregarding the whole Cult stuff, I appreciate how Heather grows as a character when the plot advances because it's really the only thing I care about when it comes to the plot. The themes of identity, adolescence and independency are conveyed rather well.

Now as for the gameplay, I do feel that it's a step-up from SH2, but also a step-down. Firstly, I think the controls are better here than in SH2. I don't know how much of a difference it is, but it felt better to control Heather than James. I do appreciate that SH3 went back to a more metal-ish environment and sound akin to SH1. It's more sound and visually interesting to me when compared to the drabness that was SH2. The Amusement Park and Nightmare areas were nice to see as well as each of those areas having have their own moment or setpiece. SH3 also has better bosses than SH1 & 2, but that's not really saying a lot in the grand scheme of things. Lastly, I want to talk about the puzzles. There's only 5 here, 1 less than SH1, and I really only got satisfaction from 2 of the 5 puzzles. I was somewhat disappointed because SH1 & 2 had either good or decent puzzles all around. In the case of SH1 hard, but with SH3 its underwhelming. The tarot card puzzle was cool and it reminded me a lot of SH1. The other one which I believe was the Keypad was nice to solve as well. The other 3 puzzles were simply braindead easy. But yeah, enough of my puzzle tangent.

Now for the bad things about the gameplay. Just like SH1 & 2, the game is easy. Mainly because you're still getting drowned with a bunch of healing items and bullets. Although, I do applaud that SH3 gives you fewer resources, I think. Pretty sure I only say that because it just felt that way to me when playing. The enemies of SH3 are completely fine except for the slurpers. They're extremely annoying to deal with and it's just frustrating when they're around. I guess another side thing to note with enemies is that sometimes they can block your pathway. This happened to me twice in the Nightmare Hospital and Church respectively. It can be a nuisance if it does happen because you can't run around them due to these situations mostly happening in tight corridors. As with SH2, I don't find Silent Hill 3 to be particularly scary. I said before that I was happy that SH3 went back to a more metal feel like SH1, but it didn't hit the same. I still felt some moments of tense, but it wasn't as much (like my experience with SH2). Last but not least, I feel that SH3 was rushed. You can mostly tell based on how the game is designed structurally and how the pace can feels somewhat fast. One of the major signs is when SH3 reuses Brookhaven Hospital. Granted, you do things somewhat differently than 2, but you're reusing the same location. Another thing is that areas such as the Underpass, Subway Station and the Construction Site just feel one-note in terms of design and progression because you won't be in those areas for long. In general, Silent Hill 3 is just really short. I reached the halfway point 2hrs in and finished the game a hour later. I will give the game this though, it easily makes it the most replayable entry so far for being short and I can see myself coming back to this game over 1 & 2. (off-topic, but this is the reason why I love RE3: Nemesis and maybe the same will apply here. both feel rushed and reuse stuff, so maybe it ain't all that bad.)

As an overall experience, I feel that SH3 is the weakest of the trilogy, but I'd say that all three games are good. I still think that original Silent Hill is the best game so far, but I think Silent Hill 3 was my favorite one to play through (prob because of Heather). I have no idea when I'll play Silent Hill 4 because a part of me is very skeptical of wanting to even try it.

RE4R set a high standard for being a remake of a cult classic (and a remake no one asked for). I'm happy to say that RE4R is a FANTASTIC remake and perhaps surpasses the original. At no point did I ever feel that game disappointed or even lacked faithfulness like RE3R. Everything feels perfect from combat to the environments to the atmosphere. This is the total package and seeing Resident Evil 4 become a two-hit wonder is amazing. I'm very happy with how this remake turned out to be and it felt good to re-experience RE4 again in a different light. I love Resident Evil so much!

Note: The only bad thing I can note is the game crashing twice on me. The first crash literally restarted my entire PC while the second crash simply closed the game. Definitely a PC issue. Oh and Ada's VA is bad lol

Code Veronica is quite an interesting entry for Resident Evil. It's not a numbered title, yet it's a mainline game that's pretty important to the series. Despite that though, Code Veronica is rather a mixed bag in the content it offers. I thoroughly enjoyed what I played, but at the same time I was constantly being annoyed by this game's progression and questionable logic.

Gameplay wise, Code Veronica wasn't really hard that most made it out to be. You're given plenty of ammo and weapons throughout the course of the game that you'll most likely will never be low on resources. The knife is pretty busted in this game too, but I was annoyed a bit whenever it collided with a wall. There also aren't that many required boss fights either as you can run away and not engage them. So yeah, standard classic RE gameplay but what's the problem? The answer? BACKTRACKING. The amount of backtracking you have to do in Code Veronica is way too much. Grabbing maybe 1-2 key items, then having to run all the way back to a previous area isn't exactly fun. Tedious would be the proper term for this because you'll be doing this quite often. Not just in Claire's section, but in Chris's section too. I know backtracking is a staple for RE, but this is just too much and it leads towards an annoying experience (sometimes confusing too).

Another aspect I don't really like is this game's logic when you eventually swap over to Chris. Now thankfully this didn't happen to me because I knew beforehand, but not informing the player that weapons and items you leave in the box as Claire. Chris can use them during his section. So imagine doing a blind playthrough and not knowing this. This in turn makes Chris's section a whole lot harder if you didn't know this factoid. I just find it really stupid to be quite honest and I believe this could've been resolved if there was a prompt for point of no return when picking up the rifle. There's also a potential issue if you forgot to pick up/or stash the empty fire extinguisher (you need it later for Chris to get the magnum). Another issue is the potential case of being soft-locked or straight up gatekeeping. Claire's 2nd section (also has the item box stupidity) has the Steve runaway section and you can literally be screwed if you didn't bring any healing items. I would also mention the Tyrant plane fight, but I found that fight to be easy. I can see why people would bring it up though. It's also weird that Code Veronica still has you pressing a button to go up and down stairs when RE3 didn't have that. But anyways, some really poor game design all around.

I guess the last thing to talk about is the narrative, music and environment. Narratively speaking, Code Veronica is fine. A bunch of corny dialogue, but that's kind of expected for this franchise. It genuinely only gets bad when Steve is on-screen. Alfred and Alexia are truly the standout characters though. I found their backstory and on-screen appearance to be weird and creepy. The laugh they do is rather funny though. Anyways, this game's OST is pretty good for the most part. Not something I would personally listen to outside of A Moment of Relief (prob the best save theme in the series). Finally, visually speaking, Code Veronica looks pretty good for a Dreamcast title. I do find it odd that Capcom would go back to using pre-rendered backgrounds for RE1R and RE0 instead of using fully 3D environments. Just a weird thought.

Thinking back on my time with Code Veronica and writing all this down, I get such mixed feelings for this game. CV isn't a bad game, but it isn't great either. I will say that it's a decently good game as a whole. It's just plagued with questionable game design. If the backtracking wasn't nearly as much (really my only gripe), then I'd probably see Code Veronica in a much better light. But as a whole, definitely one of the weaker mainline RE games (still somewhat enjoyed it). I honestly do hope that Code Veronica gets a remake one day because CV has some untapped potential imo.

I want to get this out of the way, but I find Silent Hill 2 to be a somewhat overrated game (this isn't a bad thing btw). With that out of the way, I found SH2 to be quite an enjoyable game. In some aspects, I found it to be better than the first Silent Hill. However, on the other hand, I don't think that's its better than SH1. But overall, my outlook on SH2 is quite positive and I will go deeper into my thoughts with the game. (btw i played the PC version via the Enhanced Edition. I did not use quick save.)

SH2 has a very good story and one that I can find relatable. Seeing the town of Silent Hill through the lens of James's guilt is quite interesting and watching this mysterious ordeal unfold for him is great. I was very invested to see where James's psyche was at various points in the game. Seeing the environments, additions of monsters or even his interactions with people like Angela showcases where his state of mind currently is. I felt a bit disturbed and intrigued by the imagery and actions as well. There's a lot to analyze with what the meaning of X thing(s) means to the overall narrative. I really like this aspect of SH2 and it's definitely the reason why the game is remembered so fondly. A vast improvement in terms of psychological horror.

Now if we were to look outside SH2's outstanding story. We're left with its very easy gameplay. I played on normal, and the game was rather easy. At no point in the game did I ever feel the need of having to take a slow approach like in SH1. Being littered with a ton of items took some of the horror away for me personally. But you can honestly vouch the same for SH1, so what's the difference? Well, more on that later. Moving on, I think the some of the puzzles were interesting. The music box, coins and grandfather clock puzzles come to mind. The best puzzle, imo, is easily freeing the innocent man. The logic behind the puzzle is setup so well and having to carefully read the poem for an answer was done well. It reminded me a bit of the Piano puzzle from SH1. The last thing I want to mention before moving on is the camera. The camera in this game is not that good. I don't like that it can get stuck on walls when trying to get a better LOS. Plus, trying to get the camera behind James (when it can) at times can prove to be quite finicky. It's the only annoying that I have with SH2, but it doesn't completely drag the experience down.
(Forgot to mention controls, they're not bad)

Remember how I said SH2 didn't scare me because of easy difficulty? Well, let's talk about that. SH2's audio and environments are not stronger than 1's. SH1 legitimately made me nervous throughout the entire game solely based on its metal sound and aesthetic. SH2 somewhat drove away from that approach by taking a more atmospheric or cinematic approach to its audio and design. This isn't a bad thing because what we hear and see is nice, but that fear is toned down if we were to compare it to the first game. I will note that I felt a little unease at some points during my playthrough of SH2, but that unease wasn't frequent. Now what about that difficulty part? Well, I think the best way to put it is that being loaded with a bunch of items subdues the fear of having to limit yourself in terms of using ammo or health items. Reminds me a lot of Resident Evil in a way. But even so, why do I give SH1 the pass even if the game can be easy? Well, it backtracks back to the game's audio and environmental design. I just find it a whole lot stronger (+ scarier) than what's present in SH2. Even if I were to take the difficulty aspect away, I'd still find SH1 to be more mentally draining than 2 in terms of having to explore areas. Honestly, I think SH2 being easy was probably done on purpose. Maybe what I'm saying here is objectively stupid, but my thoughts led to this.
I will say though that the most scary thing about Silent Hill 2 is the game's story and imagery.

So after all this writing, jotting my thoughts down. Do I think Silent Hill 2 is a good game? Yes, absolutely. But is it better than the first game? In my opinion, no. SH2's story triumphs over 1's story in almost every possible way. James's journey is just more interesting than whatever the Cult has going on. I will remember and cherish SH2 for its story, themes and imagery. But based on my experience and personal preferences, I find SH1 to be the better overall game. Just my opinion btw.
Now onto Silent Hill 3 and see what that game brings to the table.

I have been intrigued by Neon White's existence for quite a while since I've heard it was one of the best games of 2022. After sitting down and playing through the whole game, it genuinely was one of the greatest games to come out of 2022. Mainly for its fantastic gameplay because I love the speedunning nature that Neon White provides. Each level, including the side quests, are genuinely super fun to blast through for best times. The soundtrack is awesome as well. The only downside to the game would probably be its corny narrative and characterization. The best way for me to describe it would be what if you blended your basic anime tropes with modern internet meme culture. I remember a line with Yellow saying something about John Cena or whenever you finish a level White will sometimes say, "No scoped it". Kinda corny and cringe, but I think that aspect somewhat gives Neon White some charm if that makes any sense. So yeah, fun addictive gameplay, an amazing soundtrack, and questionably cringe dialogue. Definitely one of the most games ever.

A month ago I finished Metroid Prime for the first time and I loved. When thinking about and going into Prime 2, I thought I would be in a world of mixed emotions based on what I've heard of Echoes. However, my expectations were relieved because Metroid Prime 2 is actually pretty good. Just like with Prime, I'm playing this via PrimeHack.

Every time I hear about Prime 2, the first thing I always hear about the game is that it's hard. To me, I didn't find the game to be hard like most people make it out to be. It's definitely more challenging than the first game, but it certainly isn't hard. In fact, the only hard thing I experienced when playing Prime 2 was having to adjust to the light & dark mechanic for exploration & progression. I was very confused at times because I didn't know where to go to. This confusion mostly peaked when exploring the Sanctuary Fortress/Ing Hive due to the nature of the area being more vertical than previous areas. However, once I got ahold of how traversing each area along with their dark world counterparts. I ended up having a much better experience with what Prime 2 had to offer map-wise. Speaking of traversing and just with the first game, I didn't find backtracking to be annoying. This sentiment even extends to the Sky Temple keys. The only exception to that though is when you have to go and get the Power Bomb.

On the gameplay side of things, Prime 2 has a bunch of improvements over the first game. For starters, each location of the game are connected to each other. So, there's no longer a need of having to travel back to one specific area just to reach another. Prime 1 had this issue of always needing to come back to Magmoor along with some areas only linking to one or two other locations. It's a great change and it alleviates backtracking issues. Another things I like about Prime 2 are the bosses. The bosses in this game are a huge step-up from Prime 1. Every boss feels fleshed out and the approach to handle each boss felt genuinely thought out. My favorite boss in this game and the perfect example of this case is Chykka. The fight against Chykka starts off in a slow larva, then transitions into its adult form where you stragetically have to use your seeker missiles and grapple beam. It's a fantastic fight, but this sentiment applies to most of the bosses in Echoes.

The biggest gimmick of Prime 2 are the dark variants of each area. To be quite honest, I didn't find this overall mechanic to hamper gameplay. This is mainly because you'll find a bunch of light nodes you can shot to recover health and that alone makes the dark worlds feel easy. Traveling in the darkness becomes even easier once you obtain the Dark Suit because at that point, you're slightly taking damage from the dark atmosphere. I think the only other thing to really touch up on are this game's visors and beams. The echo and dark visors are great. I wish you got the echo visor earlier in the game because the concept of sonic signals and seeing exoskeletons is an amazing idea. As for the beams, they're alright. The only beam I really liked was the annihilator simply because it's strong and it works in tandem with the echo visor to solve sonic puzzles. As much as I don't care for the dark or light beams, the darkburst was awesome despite how little I used it. Having limited ammo for these weapons is just funny. The concept of having limited ammo could've worked if the game encouraged you to use said beams more often. You really only need to use the beams to open doors and access certain areas. Every enemy and boss, except for Emperor Ing?, can be taken down by the power beam. Perhaps they wanted to add strategy and fear by limiting the uses of the beams, but I don't feel like it works. The idea becomes more baffling when you find beam ammo expansions. Overall, the idea of limiting ammo doesn't work in my opinion.

The last thing I really want to mention is the game's aesthetic, tone and music. This game is quite dark and you'll come to realize that once you scan for lore. When compared to Prime 1, I don't think Prime 2's areas are nearly as memorable. I find the Temple Grounds and Agon Wastes to be rather meh. However, I think Prime 2 has the best area in the form of the Sanctuary Fortress. This place is so visually pleasing to look at. I like how futuristic it looks too. Torvus Bog is another strong area in Prime 2 and the music in Torvus is sooooo good. The whole soundtrack as a whole is quite good. My favorite song in the whole game is the Dark Trooper theme and it sucks that you don't hear often outside of the beginning area of the Temple Grounds.

Despite Prime 2 somewhat frustrating me, I can acknowledge that as a sequel it's great. If you were to ask me which game I preferred, Prime 1 or Echoes, I would humbly say Prime 1. That doesn't take away the greatness Prime 2 has to offer. It's just more of a preference/opinion. Maybe it's because I prefer Prime 1's easier learning curve as opposed to Prime 2's. Perhaps that opinion will change in the future, but I'm glad my overall experience with Prime 2 was great. I don't know what Prime 3 holds, but I have a feeling that it's not going to be as good as 1 or 2. We'll see though.

My first actual complete playthrough of Metroid Prime (100%). I have played Prime before and always enjoyed the time I had with it, but I never fully finished/completed the game on any of those attempts. So, I decided to give Prime another shot curiosity of Primehack and I have to say that this game is awesome start to finish.

The gameplay translation from 2D to 3D is done really well here. The music, the atmosphere, the environments and exploration are quite exceptional. I was fully immersed when playing and it felt incredible. The mystery of checking every nook and cranny along with waiting for what's to come next was great. I think all of it clicked to me once I reached the Crashed Frigate. It was like the perfect atmosphere, and I love the song that plays here. All and all, Metroid Prime's mysterious atmospheric tone is great and I'm sure this applies to all of Metroid in general.

Now gameplay wise, I don't really have any negative things to say minus one minor complaint. After you're done in Phazon Mines, you pretty have to backtrack to find the rest of the Chozo Artifacts and however many upgrades left remaining. Now, I thoroughly enjoyed finding the rest of the Artifacts (I found about half of them after exiting Phazon) and upgrades. My issue here is traveling back & forth between each area. Magmoor is essentially the middle ground that connects each area together and it was honestly tiring having to travel back there just to get to another area. I somewhat wish that maybe each area could've linked together in some form, but this is my only real complaint, and it honestly isn't that big of a deal to me outside of being a minor annoyance of back & forth.

I believe Prime is going to be one of those game that I look back on fondly. Seriously, this is a great game and I'm honestly happy that I finally decided to give Prime my full attention and time. Will definitely give Prime 2 a shot later and see what that game has to offer.

Crisis Core is an interesting game within FF7's compilation. It serves as a prequel entry to FF7 and I feel as if somewhat gets the job done. This is my first-time experiencing CC and I'm kind of glad I waited to play this remaster instead of the original (which I own). So here are my thoughts:

The story in itself is definitely something. For the most part, the overall narrative is completely bonkers, and I mean that in both a good & bad way. I like the interactions between Zack and Angeal because it adds to Zack's growth as a character. "Embrace your dreams" is something that I can get behind. I also liked the stuff between the Turks. Although, I wouldn't say it's all sunshine and rainbow despite liking the interactions. At points, it feels like somewhere within the script that the balled was dropped or things could've played out much smoothly. Things like more time spent between Zack & Cloud could've been nice to actually showcase that they're friends to make the ending feel more impactful. However, when it comes to questionable writing look no further than with Genesis. The whole game kind of revolves around him and I didn't really like his cryptic Loveless stuff. To be honest, I feel like CC could've ditched Genesis & Angeal for a much better overall story. However, what we have here is quite a serviceable story even if it's quite dumb.

The gameplay here is cool. Reminds me a lot of FF7 Remake in a way. Although, that's probably because of having an actual attack button and a moveable camera. Which to my knowledge weren't present in the original PSP version. I enjoyed the DMW mechanic quite a bit honestly. Just a little roulette that does its thing. However, I don't really like the fact that leveling and materia growth is locked behind this gameplay mechanic as its totally random. I didn't really realize that factor until halfway through the game. It does get better once you have access to Lucky Stars and Moogle Power, but still a flaw. At times when playing through CC, I could feel that it was still a PSP game. I feel that you'll mostly feel this way when doing the horrid side missions. The side missions are completely boring and I finished more than half of them. At first, I didn't really mind them as I played a few missions in intervals between chapters, but once I reached the end of the game. It became a total chore when I decided that I wanted to tackle them. Every mission features the same maps, X amount of chests to open, fighting reskinned enemies, rinse and repeat. I kept spamming Energy and Costly Punch for roughly ~20% of those missions that I did. Very boring and honestly it somewhat killed a bit of the fun that I had with Crisis Core. I don't think I could bare to do all 300. However, if we simply ignored doing all those missions and only doing a few, then it's a pretty solid experience. Should note though that doing these missions net you valuable shops and materia.

I suppose the last thing to talk about is the presentation. As a remaster, it's pretty darn good. I like how Reunion looks visually and the music solid. Huge fan of Aerith's theme in this game and the battle/boss themes are great too. Also, maybe a hot take, but I do not mind the new voice cast at all whatsoever. Perhaps, this is due to me not having nostalgia nor bias for the old cast, but from what I've heard in Reunion. I thought everyone did a solid job. So, yeah.
Overall, neat entry within the FF7 compilation despite its glaring issues. Next thing we need now is a Dirge of Cerberus remaster. #RemasterDoC

An all-time classic on the PS1 and one of the greatest games ever made. My only issues with MGS1 is, of course, the backtracking and skipping codec calls on repeat playthroughs. If we didn’t have to backtrack for the PSG1 or PAL Key temperature, then this game would be flawless in my opinion. Mashing through the codec calls is slightly annoying because I’m used to text skipping automatically in future entries. Genuinely though, those are my only annoyances with MGS1. Nowadays, I would go to Twin Snakes if I want to replay MGS1 since those issues are remedied. However, I should mention that the original MGS1 is a better overall tonal experience than its remake counterpart. Anyways, MGS1 = goated.

This game is really short, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Strider 2 is really…satisfying gameplay wise. The speed and movement of Strider traveling throughout the levels is really good! Even the action too as rapidly attacking just feels great. However, the only downsides I have with the game is that it’s rather easy and can feel a tad mindless. You can simply breeze through levels without having to engage in combat outside of mandatory bosses. But besides that, Strider 2 is a game you can have fun with if you’re looking for something that’s short. I’d even say that this game is heavily replayable because of that factor. Solid game overall!

Obscure PS1 puzzle game that has quite the charm. Memorization is pretty much key when learning where to drop domino tiles, so they all line up and knock each other over. I had no idea that the red transparent squares lead for domino combos (would've made the game a whole lot easier if I knew earlier). I also didn't know you could hold the action button down, so dominos auto drop. That problem is more of a me issue lmao. All the levels except the last one is fair for the most part. The last level of the game can be quite strict in terms of timing and honestly it can be hard if you don't know what you're doing. The controls are an issue I have with this game. Mostly when it comes to moving left and right. It feels somewhat clunky at times and to me, it felt like my inputs wouldn't register. Despite some of the gripes I have with Mr. Domino, I think it's a good game. It's a short game and can be fun gameplay. So yeah, Mr. Domino is creative, have somewhat unresponsive controls and can be a bit challenging if you don't know what you're doing.