This game on pc was good, loved how we could switch from tanky controls to modern controls since tanky controls I never liked too confusing.

I loved all 3 but Tomb Raider 2 was my favourite outta the 3.

2024 Games Ranked:
https://www.backloggd.com/u/RavenTargaryen/list/2024-video-games-ranked/

This game is such genius of a kind that is honestly unmatched. It's also hard to really describe what makes it truly genius without spoiling it so I'll instead focus on how I love the fact that narrator takes such a forceful hand over what the player is allowed to do from the very start.

The game deals with a lot. It deals with struggles to find an identity, struggles to be seen vs desires to be left alone, desires to create for creation's sake vs struggles to be recognised as valuable.

Throughout the game it's not clear what you should read as literal, metaphorical or unrealiable and it helps tell a truly amazing story that Ican't recommend enough to anyone who likes games.

Dredge is a neat game.

It starts so well with a cozy horror atmosphere that I really wanted to see expanded on. Vibes were somewhere between Subnautica and Sunless Sea with more personality.

The way that you are dripfed the setting details at a reasonable pace gives it a really nice cosmic horror atmosphere that isn't yelling in your face about it. You're starting out in that stage where it's all still just a little eerie. Something is clearly wrong but no one is quite sure what to do about it. Different people have found different ways to deal with it. Some ignore it completely, some acknowledge that something is wrong but don't think about it, some are clearly driving themselves insane by trying to understand it.

The combination of the fairy wholesome fishing loop along with the genuinely interesting NPCs that you meet at the start set the stage for a really promising adventure where you are going to slowly discover what's wrong alongside the townsfolk that you meet. You are encouraged to go to new locations that to start feels rather daunting but as you upgrade your engines you are able to zoom over vast sections of ocean in no time at all. You meet new characters, find out what their problems are and try to find solutions.

In my opionion, this all should have coalesced in a story where your ability to interact with people on the far sides of the map could have been used to further the plot lines of the various NPCs that you meet. There was real potential to put the human element front and centre which I think would have made for a much stronger endgame overall.

Instead, the game focuses on expanding on the fishing game loop. You get more locations, more fishing gear and more species to catch. None of this ever gets bad per se, but once you've exhausted all the dialogue, researched all the gear and find that you still probably have half the game left to do... It all feels a lot more hollow. That human element that was set up so beautifully at the start is gone completely by the point you're exploring the final area and as a result I kind of wondered why I should even finish the game.

The plot twist is okay. The endings both feel pretty weak.

Critically, I respect how much time and energy went into making all the locations, the boat physics, the enemy encounters, the fishing minigames... however those weren't what made the early game feel so perfect. Without the secondary characters there to carry your character motivation, the final decision carries almost no weight. The game ideally needed more story resources, or it needed to cut down on its overall scope in order for me to consider it truly great as a whole.

It's kind of a shame to see because those early hours really are that stellar so I can recommend this game on that basis alone. I just wish that they managed to keep up that initial human investment throughout the whole experience.

Thematically, if the first game is about original sin and its consequences, this game is about the virgin birth of Jesus Christ and the promise of eternal life with god. This is reflected across the game and it's neat to see where they go with it. As a story overall it's fine. It's not so inscrutible as the first one but also feels a lot simpler as a result.

Gameplay-wise I have to call it pretty much a strict improvement over the first one in every sense. Having multiple weapons does a lot for tactical evaluation, enemy encounters are overall more interesting and the spells feel way better to use. Exploration feels more compelling, the pick-ups feel more interesting and you get the ability to teleport around earlier.

Finally: the bosses in this one are pretty much stellar throughout. The final boss is probably the least interesting one but other than that I enjoyed literally every boss moveset in the game. I've heard complaints that they are too easy but that's what new game plus is for. Playing through the game will give you boss movesets that are beatable by most players but will still make you feel like you need to play to their rhythms. Overall though, these are some of the best boss fights of the metroidvania genre so I highly recommend the game for those alone.

By the end the game does feel like a little bit of a chore as you teleport around to finish every last side quest but up until then this was a genuinely fun game that I enjoyed immensely.

Solid, short puzzle game that explores its design space well. The aesthetic is really impressively put together, sound and visuals both really selling the setting. It feels like it takes some definite cues from Killer 7, which is an aesthetic that I feel has been getting picked up more often of late.

WARNING for anyone considering it:
Other than the heavy themes of family death, violence, cult indoctrination and sexual abuse that you might expect... this is a PUZZLE GAME. If you go into it expecting it to be sniper elite, you may very well be disappointed.

I feel like the title might be a reference to an old Rage Against the Machine song. Which is an odd choice, if so. The song is about the indigenous liberation movement of Chiapas so equating the subject matter with a cult might not have been the best choice! I highly doubt this was intentional by the dev however, so it's mostly an academic observation.

Overall, I can recommend giving this game a go. It wasn't terribly expensive, the game has a very unique vibe that really works for it and I've played anything quite like it in terms of mechanics. It feels a little like if you were to cross together Killer 7, Sniper Elite and Superhot, yet still kept it all your own in terms of mechanics and aesthetic. Definitely a game that's worth your time.

After the release of Castlevania Rondo of Blood it would be logical to think that Symphony of the Night came next, however, two other games with the classic formula were made before, being these Castlevania Bloodlines for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and Dracula X for SNES, being the first of these 2 the one I will talk about in this occasion.

This game is a bit strange compared to the past 10 titles, as both the visual aspect and the setting are quite different. This time the story is set in the 20th century, a more contemporary era. We take the role of Jhon Morris and Eric Lecarde, two vampire hunters who, in the absence of the Belmont family, have the role of stopping Dracula and his servants. Dracula as such has not yet been resurrected, however his niece, Elizabeth Bartley, plans to bring him back to plunge the world into darkness.

So yes, this game gives us the possibility to play it with two different characters. John Morris has the Vampire Killer whip, so his gameplay is based on the classic gameplay of all the previous Castlevanias, albeit with some nice additions like being able to swing with the whip by hanging from any surface. Another day we'll talk about what happens when someone other than a Belmont uses the whip. And we also have Eric Lecarde, someone who fights using a spear made by Alucard, who can attack in several directions similar to Simon Belmont in Castlevania IV, but with a more limited speed and range, and we can also do a super jump if we crouch for a moment and then jump (reference to SMB2?).

This game was clearly developed by a different team than previous Castlevania games (the Contra team, I suspect) and may have been devised for Western audiences primarily. The game has virtually no religious references, for example, the crosses were changed to a common boomerang. The hearts were replaced by symbols with the letter “C” and blue orbs. The whip upgrades are now represented with an eagle (like the weapon upgrades in the Contra games) and the enemy design is a bit strange. It looks as if the monster designs are straight out of an 80s western cartoon... and it certainly doesn't look very “Castlevania”, it clashes quite a bit with the designs seen in both past and future installments of the series. However, where this game totally hits the nail on the head is in the environments, as they totally capture that gothic and grim setting of the series, but what makes it more impressive to me is that many of the locations in this game are based on real life locations, which also makes the set of levels feel more varied from the typical Castlevania game. Although truth be told, the game graphically doesn't look as good as the previous 3 installments either, it still remains one of the best looking games of the 16-bit era, even displaying a lot of graphical effects that I never imagined the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive would be capable of. There is also a continues system, so if you lose all of them you will have to start from the beginning of the game... well, this is actually a lie, as the continues become totally trivial if we take into account that this game also features a password system, so you will actually only have to start the level from the beginning and not the whole game as such.

Moving on to talk about the gameplay, Bloodlines decides to take an even more classic scheme that Rondo of Blood had already taken, and to be honest, I'm a bit disappointed, because it doesn't feel nearly as polished or satisfying to play. Controlling John feels very clunky due to how limited his mobility is and also how weird his jumping and walking animations are, you can only attack forwards, downwards and diagonally upwards (which I imagine was only implemented because of the swinging mechanics), and in this game you can't instantly jump down stairs either, I dare say it feels like a complete downgrade from Super Castlevania IV and Rondo of Blood, I'd go as far as to say that Simon in the remake for Sharp X68000 computers feels even better to control. It's not too bad, as it plays similar to the NES Castlevania and those still have fun gameplay, but it does feel like a step backwards coming from games that had presented more fun propositions.

Even so, it's not all bad, because this Castlevania does have some good new mechanics that are pretty cool. For starters, the swinging mechanic that I mentioned before is really fun to use, because while swinging you inflict damage to the enemies you touch and you are invincible, plus swinging can also reach more places. Another addition that I also like is the new maximum level of the whip, which is like a super powerful blue whip of energy that destroys all enemies very easily, the disadvantage, you can lose this upgrade just by receiving a hit, so it is something that ironically will only be useful when you have enough experience in the game, as a way to reward the player's skill. And finally, we can power up all the sub-weapons using ↑+C, which is pretty cool.

Ironically, one aspect where this game does feel very Castlevania is in its music. This was the first Castlevania game to feature the compositions of Michiru Yamane (the composer of Symphony of the Night and subsequent games), and for her first soundtrack in the franchise it was a very good one indeed. Her style completely nails the Castlevania setting; they have that touch of classical style music combined with that moving and catchy touch.

Conclusion
Although in some ways it feels like a step backwards for the franchise, making it the weakest of the good Castlevania games for me, it's still a very solid game, and still an interesting take on the classic Castlevania formula.

I enjoyed the first and second games well enough, but that third game really soured my experience.

This collection definitely shows the cracks that happen from an annual development crunch. Very few things to really make the games feel fresh, but they do feel distinct.

As it stands I liked each game significantly less than the last one.

i don't really enjoy cars, i don't think i understand them. i don't get the excitement, i don't get the aesthetics, i can find beauty in a car design, but i don't get a rush out of it. simply put, i'm not a part of its culture

i am, however, gonna dig any car that has "DRUAGA" written in big bold letters on top of it's paint an immense amount. i'm sure this game is better for people who actually do like these machines, but i was genuinely content playing it. listen, Namco was king once. way before Atlus could start to even concede it's proven true red and black combo. this here is elegant, provocative and powerful, masterclass in design, really, in every way. nothing else was doing it like videogames were and much less like Namco was.

i honestly love how this game controls, i love how there's only two (three technically) different locations with tons of variations on how they're raced, i love the soundtrack, i love picking colors for my car, love the duel system, love the obnoxious DJ, i especially love driving at night it feels like everything to me. winning feels good, this game will make you tense and it will also make you relaxed because believe it or not there is enough time to appreciate the scenery.

i don't like cars but maybe if i had ridge racer v during my formative years i would have played racing games other than mario kart. or at the very least more ridge racer