konoyola
1999
LIGHT SPOILERS.
presenting an anxiety-inducing hauntological dreamscape, silent hill has made me feel the most anxious a video game has ever made me feel. from the get go, the imagery of silent hill is inescapable and haunting, every other frame an emotionally loaded memory that eventually feels like one's own, rather than Harry's, the protagonist. an unreliable narrator and a uniquely oppressive and instable world contribute to an experience that leaves no doubt as to how this game became a cult classic.
why the four stars? my boyfriend and i didn't go into this game expecting perfection. i was lucky enough to ride shotgun on our adventure through silent hill, not having to deal with the badly aged controls, worsened by the emulation on a modern controller. i was therefore spared the many frustrating "achs" and "oughs" my boyfriend emitted whenever the controls would jank into an incontrollable mess. however, i did not have to play through the awful boss fights to experience exactly how terrible they were. only watching from the sidelines made me irritated, and made me think their respective designs sucked ass, even for a 1999 game.
luckily, of these sections there were few, and they didn't end up taking away too much from the overall game experience. even if this might be a four star rating, i'd still surmise that silent hill is one of the best horror games ever made, and a classic that is well deserving of its title.
presenting an anxiety-inducing hauntological dreamscape, silent hill has made me feel the most anxious a video game has ever made me feel. from the get go, the imagery of silent hill is inescapable and haunting, every other frame an emotionally loaded memory that eventually feels like one's own, rather than Harry's, the protagonist. an unreliable narrator and a uniquely oppressive and instable world contribute to an experience that leaves no doubt as to how this game became a cult classic.
why the four stars? my boyfriend and i didn't go into this game expecting perfection. i was lucky enough to ride shotgun on our adventure through silent hill, not having to deal with the badly aged controls, worsened by the emulation on a modern controller. i was therefore spared the many frustrating "achs" and "oughs" my boyfriend emitted whenever the controls would jank into an incontrollable mess. however, i did not have to play through the awful boss fights to experience exactly how terrible they were. only watching from the sidelines made me irritated, and made me think their respective designs sucked ass, even for a 1999 game.
luckily, of these sections there were few, and they didn't end up taking away too much from the overall game experience. even if this might be a four star rating, i'd still surmise that silent hill is one of the best horror games ever made, and a classic that is well deserving of its title.
2014
okay. first of all: yes, i have played this game to oblivion and back. yes, i have had a lot of fun with it. yes, i consume lots of secondary media on the game, like youtube videos and streams. however: in reviewing and criticising the game, i have to abandon all of that and be brutally honest.
the sims 4 is the franchise that exemplifies everything that's wrong with EA and the modern video game market in general.
if it were the year 2015 i'd have to give the game a 1 star rating. they did fix a lot of the issues on release and in the last couple years vastly improved on the expansion packs.
however, that's barely a great achievement considering the game has been out for almost 9 years. and the most egregious fact is that the game still feels incomplete if you don't buy at least some additional content. it's outright predatory and ethically even worse than EAs famous Star Wars - slipup. yes, i know, expansion packs have been a staple in all previous sims games. but i remember owning sims 3 without any packs for years and still not getting tired of it, still finding new content and ways to play.
the sims 4 is the stripped down, wrapped-in-cotton-candy sister of the older instalments: graphics that are more pleasing to the eye but lack any sort of personality, gameplay that's buggy, repetitive and focused solely on the millenial american lifestyle, and worldbuilding that... idk, doesn't really exist. the addition of NPC lore in the year 2021 with cottage living is more embarrassing than welcome, since NPC backstories were an essential part of the sims 2 and continued to be executed well in sims 3, and 4 had been out for 7 years(!!) at that point.
this is just one example of the shitty practices that contribute to the game being the worst entry in the series and one of the biggest disappointments in casual gaming.
so why do i still play this game? very simple: the build mode is great. i've been using the game as a simplified 3D sketching software for my architectural ideas, and i gotta admit it's fun this way.
and judging by the last teaser/announcement for what most consider to be the next sims title, we're gonna get a lot more of that and a lot less of all the things that used to make the sims great.
the sims 4 is the franchise that exemplifies everything that's wrong with EA and the modern video game market in general.
if it were the year 2015 i'd have to give the game a 1 star rating. they did fix a lot of the issues on release and in the last couple years vastly improved on the expansion packs.
however, that's barely a great achievement considering the game has been out for almost 9 years. and the most egregious fact is that the game still feels incomplete if you don't buy at least some additional content. it's outright predatory and ethically even worse than EAs famous Star Wars - slipup. yes, i know, expansion packs have been a staple in all previous sims games. but i remember owning sims 3 without any packs for years and still not getting tired of it, still finding new content and ways to play.
the sims 4 is the stripped down, wrapped-in-cotton-candy sister of the older instalments: graphics that are more pleasing to the eye but lack any sort of personality, gameplay that's buggy, repetitive and focused solely on the millenial american lifestyle, and worldbuilding that... idk, doesn't really exist. the addition of NPC lore in the year 2021 with cottage living is more embarrassing than welcome, since NPC backstories were an essential part of the sims 2 and continued to be executed well in sims 3, and 4 had been out for 7 years(!!) at that point.
this is just one example of the shitty practices that contribute to the game being the worst entry in the series and one of the biggest disappointments in casual gaming.
so why do i still play this game? very simple: the build mode is great. i've been using the game as a simplified 3D sketching software for my architectural ideas, and i gotta admit it's fun this way.
and judging by the last teaser/announcement for what most consider to be the next sims title, we're gonna get a lot more of that and a lot less of all the things that used to make the sims great.
2015
kick ass game !!! i seriously wouldn't know what to criticise – it's the whole package. fun and engaging gameplay, adorable art, great worldbuilding and a well structured narrative. i even got close to crying at times.
even tho my first playthrough only took me about 7hrs, these hours were so packed and well paced that it didn't matter. and there are lots of incentives to replay.
even tho my first playthrough only took me about 7hrs, these hours were so packed and well paced that it didn't matter. and there are lots of incentives to replay.
2021
the game, for me, has several good, some great aspects, and a single but (sadly) very apparent bad one.
i loved the art direction. the gameplay was a lot of fun and right up my alley. the attention to detail is meticulous and adorable. the strongest aspect of Unpacking is its ability to tell a story excusively through objects and their placements.
so why only 2.5 stars? it's pretty simple: the game is too short. there's barely enough content for 3-4 hours of gameplay. yes, there are incentives to replay, but these don't do it for me. if Unpacking came with several different storylines or a different game mode, i'd totally rank it higher and i'd be able to underline the strengths of the game. but as it is now, it's not much more than a very polished mobile game. for 20 bucks, my expectations were higher. and i'm sad to admit that, because i really want to love this game.
i loved the art direction. the gameplay was a lot of fun and right up my alley. the attention to detail is meticulous and adorable. the strongest aspect of Unpacking is its ability to tell a story excusively through objects and their placements.
so why only 2.5 stars? it's pretty simple: the game is too short. there's barely enough content for 3-4 hours of gameplay. yes, there are incentives to replay, but these don't do it for me. if Unpacking came with several different storylines or a different game mode, i'd totally rank it higher and i'd be able to underline the strengths of the game. but as it is now, it's not much more than a very polished mobile game. for 20 bucks, my expectations were higher. and i'm sad to admit that, because i really want to love this game.
2021
please go and play this game. don't even bother with the four star review. just go play.
the time of its release couldn't have been better. it was so perfect, in fact, that i'm starting to suspect nintendo's involvement in the spread of COVID-19 might be a hot lead.
no, i'm kidding. but the saddest, and very real, part was the months and years following the release. it was a tough fall from grace for the title, and its inferiority when compared to older instalments, like wild world and new leaf, became apparent.
obviously, my hour count is in the 400s. i would be lying if i said "i didn't like the game!". i do recommend playing some of the older titles, rather than this one, if you get the chance. but eh, if you're a fan of ac, might as well play new horizons. it will, guaranteed, give you a cosy dopamine spike every now and then.
no, i'm kidding. but the saddest, and very real, part was the months and years following the release. it was a tough fall from grace for the title, and its inferiority when compared to older instalments, like wild world and new leaf, became apparent.
obviously, my hour count is in the 400s. i would be lying if i said "i didn't like the game!". i do recommend playing some of the older titles, rather than this one, if you get the chance. but eh, if you're a fan of ac, might as well play new horizons. it will, guaranteed, give you a cosy dopamine spike every now and then.
what a sad, thrilling, all-encompassing joyride! what kick-ass, never-seen-before worldbuilding! what a brutal story by a narrator so unreliable – simply because he's just like me! i did cry in the end. the ugly sobbing kind of cry. the game truly feels like it was made by people who think like me, for me. thank you to the creators. (NOT the ones publishing it right now. fuck them.)
look, man, i don't even know what to say that hasn't been said about this game. yes, there are flaws (apparent ones, too!). the game still comes as close to a perfect experience as no open world game has before. it's the game that sparked my interest in video games, the first one for me to occupy my thoughts for months on end, the first game that i ever played for more than 100 hours. (okay, that might be a lie. my sims 3 and 4 hours easily surpass the 500 mark.)
i love it to the bottom of my heart, and i'm incredibly excited for the sequel.
i love it to the bottom of my heart, and i'm incredibly excited for the sequel.