Hey gamers


For the first 75% of this game, I has having a blast. The soundtrack is beautiful, perfectly capturing a haunting yet wonderous tone. The art direction and character design are amazing. Gaining new abilities and feeling more confident in my combat abilities was a satisfying progression. Some of the boss fights were really fun.


However, I started enjoying it less and less these past few hours. The game becomes very repetitive and predictable, it takes ages to get from point A to point B, and, much like Bloodborne, I don't like stories that are kept so vague that it gives me nothing to attach myself to or hardly any motivation to push myself into the world. I think all I have left is a few bosses, and I can't beat any of them, even after several attempts. I routinely get hit by no fault of my own (projectiles spawning offscreen, attacks blending into the background, the controls, etc.), and I don't have the energy to push through and get them done. Maybe someday, but not now.

Hey gamers


I don't have much to say about this one. While I appreciate its greatly reduced length after the slog that was Valhalla, the gorgeous city of Baghdad, and the return to the focus on parkour, stealth, and the Creed, Mirage still feels half baked in its story, characters, structure, combat, and progression. The best thing I can say about Mirage is the historical sites. I imagine, due to its initial development as a DLC to Valhalla, they weren't planning to do a Discovery Tour for Mirage like they did for the prior three AC games, so they put their historical research notes into the game itself. This was a great move, allowing me to absorb myself into the setting even more as I played instead of appreciating the the world after I had already played the game. For real though, If you own Origins, Odyssey, and/or Valhalla and haven't checked out their respective Discovery Tours, I implore you to; well, at least the first two (Valhalla's DT structure is really strange and has some awful text-to-speech dialogue).

Hey gamers


Having completed a full playthrough on drums, two playthroughs on guitar, and a full game FC on bass, I still believe that Guitar Hero: Van Halen is one of the best in the series. I think Van Halen is the quintessential band for the band-centric Guitar Hero games. Eddie's riffs are super fun to play, and so are the drums and bass. I had a blast running through the setlist on each instrument.


The charts are solid for the most part. Most of them, especially VH's songs, are enjoyable, regardless of the instrument. My only gripes are that they tend to go overboard with slides by charting them with tap notes, and a few of the songs with in a triplet swing (Beautiful Girls, Ice Cream Man) are charted as straight 8th/16th notes for drums and bass.


The only other issue I have with this game is the guest act selections. In the other two band-centric Guitar Hero games, the guest acts were artists that inspired the band, were inspired by the band, or just fit the general vibe of the setlist. For example, GH: Aerosmith included The Black Crowes, Cheap Trick, Joan Jett, The Cult, Ted Nugent, etc. GH: Metallica included Motorhead, Slayer, System of a Down, Judas Priest, Alice in Chains, etc. In GH: Van Halen, the guest acts here are just baffling. A few feel like they belong, but 75% of them have no business being here - Weezer, Blink-182, Yellowcard, Killswitch Engage, Fountains of Wayne, Jimmy Eat World, The Offspring, Queens of the Stone Age, Alter Bridge. That being said, the Van Halen setlist is so good that it outshines these other bands.


I'm going to do another full guitar playthrough soon and scrounge up some FCs that I didn't bother with last time. I think that's about it. Great game.


Favourite songs:

- Atomic Punk - Van Halen
- Beautiful Girls - Van Halen
- Double Vision - Foreigner
- Eruption - Van Halen
- Hot for Teacher - Van Halen
- I'm the One - Van Halen
- Ice Cream Man - Van Halen
- Mean Street - Van Halen
- Painkiller - Judas Priest
- Panama - Van Halen
- Runnin' with the Devil - Van Halen
- Semi-Charmed Life - Third Eye Blind
- Somebody Get Me a Doctor - Van Halen
- Space Truckin' - Deep Purple
- Spanish Fly - Van Halen
- You Really Got Me - Van Halen