certainly very enamored with residence evil: remade (two). the shooting & looting is very fun by itself, but they throw a bouncy ball in with Mr X's random appearances, changing how you think about pathing and planning. i enjoyed the game enough to play as both characters and finish all the side modes, which is not really something i often do so that's got 2 say something.

i did find the "Leon" character's personal playthrough to be quite weak in comparison to Claire's though. he feels somewhat limp, has very little chemistry with Ada, and despite his more frequent appearances, the delightful mr X felt relegated to the role of gimmick, as he spends too much time chasing you in scripted set piece sequences rather than dynamically roaming around the environment, jumping you at unpredictable intervals. yet it was still good fun, so all complaining is basically meaningless! gonna play this one again some day for sure

the demos were great and left me excited to see how they would further expand the gameplay and aesthetics in the final release. and then they just kind of didn't. the final game was just the demo but bigger, with more cards and jokers and shit to gather in your runs. more Numbers. more Gaming. not to say there isn't artistry creating and uncovering that strategizing, calculating, number crunching gameplay loop, but i think i'm kind of done with endless, repetitive games that have nothing to offer you beyond the pursuit of landing bigger and bigger numbers. a disappointment, but i had a some fun

blood... is good... (wait that doesnt rhyme like how i thought it would)

doom uses it's garish colours and primitive but expressive graphics to create a world that feels alien and martian in so many ways. it's stylish, but it never fully worked for me. blood - with its trimmed down colour palette and more familiar spaces - goes the opposite direction, creating this 19th century sci-fi horror setting that still looks incredible all these years later.

game still plays damn well too, and still feels so unique for how it eschews the archetypal fps arsenal in favour of its own set of weapons. sure there are some classics like shotgun, machine gun and rocket launcher, but then there's the handgun being replaced by a flare gun which can kill in a single shot but takes time and can damage you, the voodoo doll which can hitscan enemies but damages you if you miss your shot with it, and the delightful, wonderful dynamite sticks, which graciously remain viable - no, essential for almost the entire playthrough. their mere existence shifts the whole dynamic of the game from boomer shooter run and gun to a more tactical style of play, something which i feel suits it much better.

"I live.. again..."

the sourceports for this game are pretty nice (i tried one way back) but the fresh supply remaster by nightdive studios is the way to go. on top of being far more convenient for most players it adds new difficulty options that allow you to customize the way the game is played to better suit you. which is very handy because the basic cultists can be disproportionately difficult compared to other enemies on the vanilla difficulties, something that the remaster explicitly recognises and gives you the option to turn down their range and damage. this is how i played most of the game while cranking up other stuff like enemy density and i think it was a good decision overall

where the game does begin to stumble a bit is with the level design. mind you it started off great! episode 1 and 2 have many baller levels between them, and while some of the later levels in both episodes felt a bit meandering and languid, i felt like that vibe was always leveraged in a way that felt appropriate to the tone of those levels. episode 3 struggled a bit but had a great aesthetic and used the city theming with its levels very well. episode 4 was a disorganized mess all the way through, and was the hardest to slog through. the farting demon intestines level was a low, low point for the game. if one is to play this game i'd say there's no shame in stopping at episode 3.

despite that i thought that this shit very much ruled, and it's a game that still feels so modern, both graphically and gameplay wise. i would definitely be pointing anyone who wants to try out a boomer shooter in Blood: Fresh Supply's direction