I'm gonna write a proper review of this after I replay it again, but I want to get my thoughts out there on all of the people moaning "ohhhh the strafing there's no strafing how do I fight the bad guys if I can't strafe waaaaaa"

R&C1 isn't built around strafing. As such, you can't approach it like the later Ratchet games where you can fight most encounters with most weapons and just switch between your favorites each time you run out of ammo. The weapons here each serve a particular purpose and deciding which one is best for each encounter is part of the challenge. So is not being able to move in one direction while shooting in another. If you come back to this from the later Ratchet games, you need to shift your combat mindset from "go go go shoot shoot shoot" to "I need to make a plan for this fight given the tools I have and execute that plan." Once you make peace with the controls, once you meet them on their own terms, you'll find that the combat here is fun in its own way, different from the rest of the series.

And I'm not saying this to shit on the later Ratchet games! I love Deadlocked and that one is like 85% strafe shooting. But I don't think people will be able to fully appreciate this game if that playstyle is all they associate R&C's combat with.

You have to be a masochist to enjoy playing survivor. Once the initial thrill of "oh shit I'm so scared there's a big guy and he's trying to kill me" wears off -- which it will, quickly -- you're left with gameplay that frequently waffles between boring (sitting on a generator wondering if the killer will ever come near you) and frustrating (being "tunneled" by the killer or otherwise dealing with annoying perks/abilities, being screwed over by clueless teammates). There is fun to be had in trying different perks and items, playing with a squad who knows what they're doing, and improving at evading and outwitting killers, but it's wild to me that there are people out there who sink hundreds of hours into survivor, because even at its best I wouldn't call it great. Not to mention that survivors absolutely get the short end of the stick content-wise; how has this game been out for 8 years and there are still only six survivor items, of which just three are consistently useful? The only regular additions to survivors' tools are perks, many of which are so situational and/or unimpactful that they aren't worth using.

Playing killer, on the other hand, is consistently much more fun. There are currently 36 playable killers, each with their own abilities and traits. They vary in how unique, interesting, and fun they are, but there are almost guaranteed to be a few that appeal to you. The playstyles vary impressively between them; even the "basic" ones like Trapper still feel distinct, and some of the more out-there ones -- like Nurse, who walks slower than survivors but can teleport large distances -- can turn entire mechanics upside down. Each killer has its own addons, which are sometimes just percentage buffs but often have unique effects (a personal favorite of mine gives the Huntress only one throwing-axe but that axe instantly downs survivors). There's a nice pool of perks to choose from too; some are duds but overall I'd say the selection is better than the survivors'.

All of this services core gameplay that is generally pretty good. Slicing up and hooking survivors is satisfying by default, but even more so when you feel like you've really earned it through skilled and smart play. DBD isn't an incredibly deep game, but there is still a lot to chew on here, and some of the killers themselves are also particularly complex and hard to master. Once you start to get the hang of chasing survivors and locking down areas, once you get into that killer mindset, you really start to feel powerful and ruthless. You're a twisted fucking cycle path hunting down your prey.

Being killer is also by nature less frustrating than being a survivor, because you are relying only on yourself, and even if you lose you're more likely to have a good time. Every once in a while you'll be up against the fucking Navy SEALs and feel like you're drowning, but that's still way better than being tunneled and not actually getting a chance to play the game.

I think BHVR has handled this game a bit poorly, prioritizing new DLC packs and content too strongly over improving what's already in the game (the fact that survivors still can't see their teammates' perks and addons in the lobby is insane, especially considering that fucking DBD Mobile has had that for years). The monetization is reasonable if you play killer, but asking survivors to pay the same price each chapter for a few new perks and cosmetics is complete robbery. The balance is pretty goofy, but I would argue that unless you're a high-level player it won't affect you very heavily.

Despite DBD's issues, the core experience (of playing killer) is very enjoyable and varied. It's not a game I'd play for hundreds of hours, but it's stolen several dozen from me and I wouldn't be surprised if it grabs a couple more.

I really tried to give Skyrim a chance. Over the past 10+ years, I've started somewhere between five and ten playthroughs of this game across three platforms. I don't think any have lasted more than ten hours (most have been much shorter than that). Even as a bright-eyed youngster surrounded by people and press telling me this was a masterpiece, I didn't enjoy it.

I'll concede that I think Skyrim's environments and visuals are very well done. There is a wonderfully unique and cozy vibe to this game, and my favorite parts were when I felt immersed in that. I would imagine that, for some people, that vibe is enough to pretty much carry the entire game for them.

But, overall, the actual gameplay of Skyrim just isn't enjoyable to me. My biggest issue is that the combat -- one of the game's core mechanics and something you'll spend a huge amount of time doing and preparing for -- is simple, boring, and unfun. Neither does it start out cool and get boring once you're used to it, nor start boring but become meaningfully more complex and thoughtful as the game progresses. It feels like they roughed it out in pre-alpha and no one went back to make it better.

I honestly could forgive the combat if the stuff surrounding it kept my interest; there are a number of games I love that have mediocre/repetitive combat but make up for it in other ways. Skyrim doesn't do that. The stories, quests, characters, gear, alchemy, skill trees, none of it was good enough to keep me going; it just felt like a smorgasbord of mediocrity. As mentioned before, the world is impressive, and exploring it is probably the most entertaining part of the game, but almost everything you find in it will invite you back into the lukewarm soup of boring, uninspired game mechanics. I get why people love Skyrim, but I've come to accept that it just doesn't appeal to me.

One of my favorite multiplayer shooters ever. Some rebalances to the vehicles (particularly the heavy bomber and arty truck) would make this as close to flawless as Battlefield can get. At any time I can boot up some Conquest Large, start capping dudes with the Selbstlader, and be almost guaranteed to have fun. Get a nice album or playlist going in the background and you've got yourself a bonafide neuron firing festival.

I love that there's such a strong emphasis placed on positioning and smart movement in this game. Being aware of your environment, carefully traversing it, and getting the drop on enemies is just as important as aim and reflexes, if not more so.

It's also amazing that this looks so good yet runs so well. The fact that there's so much modern UE5 stuff that runs at a quarter of this eight-year-old game's framerate while looking maybe marginally better is the strongest piece of evidence to me that stuff like raytracing is largely a scam to sell more graphics cards.

Janky, silly, but altogether fun if you have a good crew and/or friend(s) to play with. Working together with potentially 12 other players to destroy enemy ships while taking care of your own is cool any way you slice it. The gun and melee combat don't feel great but I still think they're enjoyable. I like the focus on one hit kills followed by long reloads, it makes every shot feel important.

My best experiences here have been in meeting interesting randos. Two of these include an extremely drunk captain who led us to victory with his excellent piloting and communication, and a guy taking things super seriously who was too funny to even be annoying (I stole his Steam profile summary about how he's "not here to be your friend".)

This is one of those games that is really keenly designed to mash your dopamine receptors and make you keep playing it, except if you step back and squint you realize that it's doing very little beyond that.

After getting a solid grasp on the mechanics I never felt accomplished when I won or at fault when I lost. It felt like luck was the primary factor in how well my runs went. I'm sure that if I played longer and gained a deeper understanding of the deck-building, battle strategy, etc. I could more consistently have good runs, but I just don't feel any desire to do that. Going from "I'm guessing the best option" to "I usually know the best option" doesn't seem like much of an upgrade to me. It seems like making a game that started feeling boring a few hours in even more so.

I wrote a long review here but it sucked. Here’s a pros and cons list instead:

+ The story has some high highs and low lows, but it’s overall good. I like it better than Asylum’s but not City’s.
+ Predator is polished, mechanically complex, and incentivizes the use of strategies beyond “drop on guy + get silent takedown + swing to gargoyle + repeat”
+ Looks very pretty (rainy Gotham is impressive even today)
+ Really makes you [REDACTED] like [REDACTED]

- Combat is barely different from City. Series vets (i.e. me) will be able to autopilot through most encounters.
- You get three new gadgets (except it’s more like 1.5 or 2) and they aren’t great. Bafflingly, none of them have utility in combat.
- The Batmobile (especially the tank form) is so over-utilized in the story missions that it harms the experience significantly. By the back third of the campaign I was actively avoiding the car when and where I could, and dreading the sections that forced its use.
- Far less time is spent in interesting indoor environments/levels (largely to accommodate the Batmobile).
- In general, Knight is often boring, or at least not particularly stimulating.