absolutely jarring to me how this is not sitting in the best of bests zelda games altar but I'm also knowledgeable about the fact that every single zelda game is a banger so its pretty hard to make a top currently for me since as of yet nothing came close to the almighty twilight princess i love that game to death its fucking unreal and only because theres furry wolf link and hes kinda hot

minish cap gets back to the usual 2D formula and thats mainly why I made this big of a leap forward in time in the marathon because I just wanted to explore the 2D topdown games before getting into lush 3D beauty that will inexorably make me play skyward sword which is weird because everyone hates it but some close friends say its good so i dont know what do think5

for a game that mainly feels like a classic zelda it's incredible how much innovation can be done with just ONE additional mechanic (ok maybe 2 but we are not gonna talk about the multiplying link aspect here) like the very simple aspect of allowing link to shrink to millimeters can release a lot of possibilities for the game designers to exploit and thats so fucking genius

mostly I'd like to talk about something else first the art design of this game is absolutely unmatched the pixel art is incredible and jaw dropping to the point that I can say that its one of the most beautiful games I've seen in the GBA hardware and maybe in terms of pixel art one of the sickest to ever be made its absurd every single frame of the game can be screencapped printed and hung to a wall in a national gallery and people would say “oui oui i love this Monet” like every single environment is full of details here and there the main places you will traverse have a vibrancy and an attention to color and hue that its honestly just honey for your eyes theres absolutely no way that somebody will play this game WITHOUT tearing their hair off at how splendid all of this is it doesnt make sense how jaw dropping it is now the animations of the characters are full of life and thats true but i found pretty weird that some characters have some black outlines and others just bland with the environments behind them which is kind of a weird contrast but i didnt mind it that much because again the eye candy is real like look at this

that being said i wont just be all the day here telling you how great the art direction is because i got other things to do even though thats hard to believe

gameplay is usual zelda i wont give you the basic notions BUT somehow i must say that all the items are some of my favorite ones till now theyre really cool and make for a great arsenal of tools every time i say arsenal i think about ratchet and clank up your arsenal which i just realised it means up your ass im so quirky teehee

the dungeons are really interesting in this one because theyre arguably less than the usual number of dungeons in other games but literally EVERYTHING you do in this game is a puzzle literally you will just walk around the overworld and theres always something blocking your way its unreal and also theres something that i call the pre dungeons areas which also do act a bit as dungeons themselves like youre gonna get inside a dungeon and youll feel like all youve been doing is being in a dungeon and solving puzzle and that should be ideally a problem for me since i hate puzzles but its really a good fuel for my adhd since youre just gonna be occupied with a puzzle during the entire playthrough but whatever yeah and the main dungeons are good i guess i mean none of them are the ice palace of alttp so i can say that theyre really good maybe sometimes they will become a bit confusing or too long in general but whatever its not like the other games are better

something that was really weird is that since the overworld is pretty small compared to other games due to the gba factor they put a lot of shit to discover and to discover even MORE stuff theres a mechanic called fusion which was really weird every time i used it since i always thought about sex ??? idk im going crazy dont talk to me so whatever using some stones you will find throughout the game you can fuse them with stones that other characters have and make some stuff appear into the world idk how this works but it works and its just gonna fill the game with even more stuff its unreal

the story is also pretty simple and straightforward but i really loved how the town is brimming with charming characters the little hat is super charismatic and has an interesting backstory and relationship with link and i love links little hair in this one hes so fucking cute what the HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLL so anyway zelda is also extra charismatic and possibly my favorite iteration of the character till now shes so cute and just wants to be freed from her princess duties and dance in the matsuri also am i the only one or the beginning of the game feels exactly like the first 20 minutes of chrono trigger maybe im going crazy

so umh yeah the music is good as always i cannot really say anything in particular since this is just usual the legend of zelda music with new arrangements and OF COURSE its gonna be good like theres nothing quite like zelda music we already know that

yeah mmmmmmmmmmm idk i forgot what else i wanted to say but basically i love every single part of this game to death and the minish are the cutest zelda race till now if it werent for rito being super fuckable i want to suck every rito ever off its unreal umh sorry i meant this game is really good play it teehee

also upgrading your moveset is rad

We're at a point where people are finishing their full playthroughs for Lies of P and leaving proper reviews instead of just giving it 1 star calling it trash because they can't get past the first few bosses.

Lies of P is so close to being a perfect game yet so far, there are many flaws with this game that have stopped this from being a 5/5 for me so I'm just gonna get them out of the way

-Rolling and jumping isn't the best
-90% of enemies are complete damage sponges
-Unrewarding guard breaks
-Weight system is heavily flawed
-Half of the bosses have awful move sets and don't feel like they belong at all (other half are amazing)
-Voice acting could be better

I'm not really gonna develop on these flaws, if you've played the game for long enough you will understand exactly what I'm talking about.
The combat does feel a tad bit stiff sometimes but lets be real... we are playing as a puppet.

Luckily the positive outweigh the flaws by miles, there's too many to list but here's a few of my personal favourite features from the game.

-Amazing story that will honestly suck you in and make the journey interesting enough to disregard the flaws
-Atmosphere that is better than most souls games imo. Often found myself stopping to just observe my surroundings
-Customisation of weapons, clothing, body modifications, etc. This is perfect, the team honestly nailed this part of the game.
-Side characters, some better than others but you end up caring about them more than you had expected.
-Boss design, again some better than others but the good ones are gooooood.

A few extra comments:
One thing I cant overlook is how you're really pushed to make use of consumables and throwables in this game rather than just have it stack up in your inventory, I really did enjoy this and often went to visit merchants to stock up before bosses.
The parry window is very small which can be good depending on who you ask, personally I didn't mind it as it felt really rewarding guarding them super fast hits.

So yeah, Lies of P is amazing. If you've been put off by some fromsoft dick rider do ignore them and give it a shot, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Played on Xbox gamepass.
37 hours total, explored everything.

I don't think I'm going to forget this game for a very long time. If at all.

As someone who's never really played CRPGs this game was barely on my radar right up to its release. I kept forgetting what it was and innately rejecting it as something that would be too hard to get into and demand so much time that I'd never get around to finishing it. I don't remember exactly what it was that finally sold me on trying it, but once my interest was piqued I was thoroughly "in" - (honestly, might've been an interview with the Larian head in the FPS Podcast)

I want to keep this one "short" so I won't be going into much detail, but this game is insane. The fact every conversation is mocapped adds so much to the immersion, and the writing and performances are thoroughly excellent to boot. The world designs and mechanics allow for heaps of creative freedom, so much so that the previous "obvious" GOTY contender for this year has (imo) been given a run for its money. Tears of the Kingdom looked to have it on lock, in large part due to it's player freedom... I can't believe Larian came along in the same year to one-up them in this regard, but perhaps the coveted title isn't as in-the-bag as once thought. [Especially considering the slew of flaws TOTK brought with it from BOTW... hell I still haven't finished it lol]

Anyway! I adore this game, it's been forever since I got so lost that 12-15 hours could pass without me noticing, and that's what this game has been giving me almost every day for around a month now. I'm already excited to replay it and take different paths because - while I did follow every quest as far as I could without committing to conflicting ones - I know damn well there are countless hours of content, encounters and characters that I didn't see. I'm also eager to play with a controller and see how different the third person perspective is.

To include a gripe, the biggest downside of the game is either the combat being pretty brutal at times if you're not prepared or familiar with strategies that can be game-changing (protip: you can heal multiple people with splashed potions, and if you stand on fire all you have to do is drop the pot, it's free!) In spite of this, the combat was still one of my favourite parts because there's always so much you can do and once you find your method, it's amazing.

Second point: Silent protagonist.. The narrator is amazing and I love her, and the custom MC's voicelines for certain things are a nice touch, but there are some conversations that feel kinda weird having your response just be clicking the line without audio, or watching yourself pull a face instead of saying anything. Small issue that I got used to quickly but yeah, kinda weird. I wonder if playing as the Legacy characters negates this 🤔

That's it! I've rambled enough, if you're interested please give this game a shot, yes it's long but the majority of it is also optional and you could always do things the quick and easy way if you prefer. If you can't tell this is my current GOTY, which is insane because I'll have gotten a Final Fantasy, a Resident Evil and Alan Wake 2 this year (jury's still out on that last one 👀)

Hope you've all been well, quick shoutout to Paranormasight while I'm here. Idk if I'll bother reviewing but play it blind, it's really good! Have a good September folks, next review will be God knows what. I'm onto Sea of Stars and Starfield next. Thanks for reading!😌

P.S. Quick addendum I've heard people say Act 3 is bloated but I think it's just more dense and has a lot of quest conclusions and bigger encounters and all that. Also heard people say the ending is sudden but they must've gotten less satisfying ones because mine felt very well paced. The only things it didn't immediately address either aren't important or could easily be DLC follow-ups.

Gears 5 is the best looking, best playing, most compelling game with the best story in the series to date.

Growing up, I was an Xbox gamer. Sure I had a DS and my family had a Wii because so did everyone, but the majority of my gaming time was spent on Xbox. Naturally because of this I ended up playing a good amount of the Gears series. Despite that, I actually never beat a single one of them. Eventually I moved on to Playstation and hadn't looked back since. That was, until this year. Seeing the great value of gamepass and how the future of exclusives was really starting to look up (barring the Redfall setback), I decided it was finally time to return to my gaming roots. As much as I was excited to be able to play things like Hi Fi Rush or Starfield, honestly one of the biggest incentives to get one was to play a series I had always liked but never given the treatment it deserved.

And that brings us here, now. A few days past a month of owning an Xbox, and I have played through all 5 numbered entries and Judgement. The original trilogy is not without its flaws but were all a very fun time, with 3 feeling like a fitting conclusion. Of course its a mega popular series though, so obviously things weren't gonna end there. First was Judgement which, well, its not very good. Its not bad either, I liked it. But... the gameplay changes are very clearly a step down from the trilogy and the story wasn't particularly interesting at all. As a spinoff being developed with a different studio, it was understandable that it was significantly weaker than the main games. The new control scheme meant to be more like Call of Duty didn't help.

But then there was 4. Looking amazing, feeling great to play, absolutely awesome set-pieces. But wow. As a setup for the future of the series, it does a piss poor job. The story feels both padded and incomplete. There's a long stretch in the middle that feels entirely designed to make the game longer, but my jaw dropped when the credits rolled because it felt like half a game worth of plot. It introduces three new main characters in JD, Kait and Del but does barely anything with JD and Del is literally a nothing burger of a character. Combined with how the new characters in 3 and Judgement are treated (Jace, the most useless man to ever exist?), the series seemed to have a serious issue with providing anything interesting for the characters beyond the core 4 (That being Marcus, Dom, Baird and Cole). I still enjoyed 4 but it was hard to feel anything but disappointed coming off from the end.

Now its finally time to talk about the actual one that I'm reviewing! Gears 5 fixed just about every issue I had with the series. JD's character is genuinely interesting, Del turned from a complete nobody to such a bro that he's top 3 characters in the series for me. They finally start to treat their female characters with a little more respect by not killing them offscreen or doing nothing with them by putting Kait front in center as the new protagonist. They finally make the gameplay more interesting by having two big areas with optional objectives, as well as upgrades you can work for. The open areas are really great, and even if the side locations aren't anything amazing what they do do is give great room for character development and by the end of the game I really liked and cared for the whole cast, something that hadn't happened for me since 2. Another thing I really liked was the game letting you make a story effecting choice near the end. It doesn't really effect things much for now as obviously by that point the game is almost over, but assuming Gears 6 doesn't discard this altogether - it really makes me even more excited to see how the series continues to evolve with more choice and options.

All this is to say is that Gears 5 is by far the best in the series, and after Judgement and 4 I'm very happy that my binge has ended on a high note. This year is absolutely stacked so I need to focus on other things for now, but I do look forward to trying out Tactics in the future. Gears 6 can take all the time it needs, but I'm more excited for it than just about any other Xbox property. Not to mention finally being able to play a multiplayer mode that isnt completely dead <3

Also, couldn't figure out where to fit his in my review but even though all games in the series have plenty of funny moments, this made me laugh out loud several times without betraying the darker tone and I really appreciated that.

Nancymeter - 90/100
Achievement Completion - 8% (20/181 - ffs lol)
Time Played - 12-13 hours
Completion #29 of August
Completion #161 of 2023

A real-time tactics game set in World War 2.

Commandos 3 is a game from 2003, it’s a different type of game where you move multiple characters around and take out enemies. Gameplay has you choosing a character, setting up actions, and usually hoping the enemy doesn’t see you as your characters are squishy. There are a lot of different missions, such as a sniping mission or stealth, but ultimately the goal is to kill nazis.

This is a remaster, but the gameplay here just doesn’t feel that exciting, and most of the game seems to be focused on saving, trying something, and then loading when it fails. There’s good interesting combat, but even in the Real Time Tactics genre, there are better games like Desperados 3, which is better constructed and paced.

Pick this up if you are a fan of the original Commandos 3, and want a better-looking version, however not all fans of this game are happy. There are noticeable changes to the formula, and this has a lot of stuff that can be nitpicked. If you’re a fan of real-time tactic games, there are better choices.

If you want to see more from me: Check out my video on this last month of Game Pass games: https://youtu.be/5_7MTcN1-Ac

The single-player first-person shooter has become somewhat of a lost art. Risky trends have pushed the genre into multiplayer territory where they all fight to the death to be the last one standing. It's a battle royale of battle royales. Bethesda Softworks has been almost the sole arbiter of the bigger budget solo shooter, a club that Ascendant Studios is joining with its first title, Immortals of Aveum. Trading AK-47s for mystical gauntlets has not forfeited its identity as a first-person shooter, as this clever swap has allowed it to become one of the freshest debuts the genre has seen.

Read the full review here:
https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/review/889984-immortals-of-aveum-review-ps5-worth-buying/