chemergency
Even in spite of its technical disadvantages to Doom, its limited arsenal, and cheap, bullet-spongy enemies, Rise of the Triad is a scrappy little classic FPS that gets by on some strong level design, a slammin' OST, and a disarming sense of humor.
2019
A bland and sterile spiritual successor to Fallout: New Vegas that lacks any of the qualities or substance that made its predecessor so memorable and replayable, with virtually no modding support being the final nail in the coffin.
1995
A very stylish and creative beat 'em up that puts-up one Hell of a challenge not to be taken lightly. One of the most overlooked games for the Genesis.
2023
A disappointingly-barebones port that also frustratingly can't be purchased separately from the digital version of Rare Replay or an Xbox Game Pass subscription. A game this legendary deserved better.
A fun, breezy, and surprisingly-gory hack-and-slash romp that's objectively superior to the mediocre movie it's based-on.
2013
In-retrospect, it's a lot easier to look-past a lot of DmC's faults when Capcom has since picked the series back up and gave it the continuation it deserves. It's a dumb, goofy, but ironically-enjoyable weird take on an iconic franchise from an outsider's perspective... I'm just glad it was a one-off thing and not representative of the series' direction from that point going forward.
1996
A difficult and often inconsistent, but highly-original platformer adventure game with a well-deserved cult following.
With some of the most difficult, absurd, outlandish, and flat-out insane level design ever seen in the FPS genre, Extreme ROTT certainly lives-up to its name. Only hardcore fans of the base game need apply here, otherwise you're not getting far in these experimental rat mazes. Imagine if Nintendo sold one of those insanely-hard Super Mario World hacks designed to show-off TAS's as an expansion to the game itself and you'll get a general idea of what this is like.
While it is competently made compared to some other games in this series, there's not a lot on offer here to keep you coming back, let alone even finishing the game. We live in a pretty awful timeline if Bubsy can get a reboot no one asked for while F-Zero languishes without a new game for over 20 years.
While the game has some big name Hollywood talent attached to its voice cast and the game design has some interesting ideas borrowing elements from GTA, Far Cry, Payday, Kane & Lynch, and even X-COM of all things, it's just far too janky and unpolished (especially in the overall map and mission designs) to make for a particularly cohesive or enjoyable experience.
2023
Though I was decidedly skeptical about the whole idea of a remake to RE4- a game that still feels reasonably modern and accessible even by today's standards, I'm very happy with the way this turned-out. RE4make is an evolved-yet-faithful remake that honors the brilliant combat sandbox of the original with some smartly-redesigned levels, awesome-feeling guns, tons of unlockables, and excellent enemy AI that puts most other modern games to shame. They even managed to uphold a lot of the original game's campy, humorous tone in the second half and with Leon's one-liners. Even if you don't care for some of the other differences here and there, I'd argue this is a great new companion piece to one of the best games ever made at the very least.
An awesome remaster of an awesome game with excellent control options, sharp new lighting, texture, and model work, and a discounted price! An absolute no-brainer to pick up for the Switch if you've never played this masterpiece before.
In spite of its lack of variety or what magazine review scores from back then would have you believe, running around blasting the shit out of a gazillion giant bugs with a bazooka is great, mindless arcadey fun, and it holds-up as a great purchase for either the Xbox 360 or the PS Vita.
2023
The Black Knight with Martin Lawrence of video games.
2023
A remarkable surprise dropping out of nowhere at the Xbox's darkest hour. While Hi-Fi Rush may not be what saves the Xbox Series X's sales, it is a really fun rhythm-based brawler loaded with personality, great visuals, and an incredible soundtrack elevated by sound editing the likes of which I haven't seen in any other game before.