January 2026
In Progress:
FFXI
FFXIV (DT Updates)
Dropped:
Darkest Dungeon DLCs
If Super Mario World was turned into a time trial racing game (not like Mario Kart). Each stage you platform across and finish laps before other delivery workers while avoiding various hazards and collecting powerups. There are multiple “endings” with only one ending being available at the start before allowing you to branch off to other stages.
I say “endings” but they really aren’t much of anything other than the true end. Also, this game is brutal. It’s timer is very unforgiving and many maps will have exceedingly difficult setups including dead ends you wouldn’t know about until you get there. You can’t go backwards really because it’s autoscrolling and though you do have a dash power to go through some objects it does need to charge up so you can easily become in a bad spot in a bad way. This is not to mention that some have ridiculous challenges that require you to collect all the gems which can easily be lost with damage and thus making the run of that stage an easy fail. Some of your contenders will have crazy advantages too including just being much faster and you gotta rely on their poor pathing to stand a chance. Since multiple endings have you go through some of the same stages, you’ll be replaying them a lot including if you need the true ending which requires, the later unlocked, collectibles.
I originally became so frustrated that I was gonna get the first ending and call it, but I for whatever masochistic reason decided to press on and eventually got the true ending… though I dare not even try to get the completion as it will require multiple players.
Recommend? Not in the slightest. It’s difficulty alone and wonky setups is agitating to say the least.
Beyond Divinity
Captured by a Demon Lord, you are bound to a Death Knight who you must work with to escape their clutches. This is to say you no longer control just the single character like in Divine Divinity, but both yourself and the Death Knight. This is a bit challenging at first, especially since you start out in a very long dungeon with no genuine shops or ways to farm. Instead you are pitted against unseemly traps and hordes of monsters. If you do somehow manage to get through enough you’ll unlock the Battlefield which will act as sort of a leveling and shop hub. These Battlefields reset every chapter and must find keys to unlock. The combat is a standard CRPG and you can invest skill points to add skills and stats to your class. However, not all skills are readily available and either must be found or bought. At the very least if you did invest in a skill that doesn’t turn out to be what you need or no longer need, you can reset the points… at a cost of gold depending on your level. Though you would have two inventories, the Death Knight requires very little equipment as their death armor is permanently bound.
Story wise, the game is… okay. It tries to incorporate some of the humor from the first but often returns to the same jokes (if I have to hear another moment about the Death Knight and rats…). The twists and progressions also aren’t very interesting and trying to progress quests is a pain since there are no markers and identifying different NPCs can be difficult. I found the maps to often be way to big as you’ll navigate quite a bit and find very little other than enemies. Performance wise, the game can be a bit buggy. Loading screens have color issues, alt tabbing can cause the game to shrink and maybe even crash. Even with certain afflictions cast upon you, the game could crash. This happened to me when trying to level for the final battle so much that I had to ignore the remaining Battlefield dungeon areas. This sucked because the final battle is absolutely brutal.
Recommend? It just feels kinda like a mess and though I’m not a huge CRPG player… this definitely is one of the less interesting ones.
Body Pay "OMG! The girl with the big titties is too hitting on me!"
New characters, similar situation. You work a store that allows the use of a body pay app. Though this game tries to create a more cohesive overall story (rather than the individual scenarios of the first), it is definitely an after thought as characters have very little relevance considering the situations they find themselves in. The scenes themselves are a bit awkward too as a lot of the actions were either not my thing or roughly animated. Despite the streamlined progression, it felt like there were far less scenes at that.
Puzzles are no longer the rhythm like game from last, but instead a match-2 where each girl will have a unique ability to help you win. Often stressful as you must careful remove the remaining tiles without putting yourself in a spot where you can no longer proceed. So, more difficult but far less enjoyable. In the main story the match-2 allows you to rotate and let the pieces fall into place better. These can very much feel impossible to predict as planning for multiple columns and rows can be a bit much. This is especially true for the puzzle mode which has you go through the same 20 puzzles with one of the 3 girls as a partner. These puzzles not only do not allow rotation, but get incredibly difficult for literally no reward despite the stage selection having color coded tiles that would make you think otherwise.
Recommend? This lacks the endorphin pumping puzzle action of the first game while providing less enjoyable scenes and a pointless puzzle mode that only makes you suffer the feeling of defusing a bomb.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
Though in a lot of ways it’s just more of the first game (well that can be a problem in it’s own ways) it often fails to capture the same magic. No real improvements gameplay wise. Some nice variety in level aesthetics but some get to be really short and often don’t feel different in terms of approach. AI can get pretty weird and will go out of their ways to find a body that they should have no clue about. As for plot I wasn’t nearly as engaged or interested and a lot of dialogue isn’t nearly as entertaining. Sadly still no real controller support (though that appears to be with this series of ports). The second to last mission is far more interesting than the actual final.
Recommend? It’s alright but easily the weakest. Especially at the time, games need to improve upon the last and this was more of the same.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
So, this is the MGS3 (both in number and quality). Massive improvements to stealth, gameplay, and mechanics. A gripping story with a great blend of seriousness and humor. Fantastic level designs, interesting mission objectives, and it even has bonus objectives (though that only appears to affect ranking which offers little else than to stroke your ego). We also get loadout options (though it’s mostly assault vs stealth) to give a greater variety to playstyles. There are more than a few times I had to question how the game expected me to proceed with me and some wonky alarm triggers. You will also have to do a lot of patching to get the game to run well on modern setups and the NVG always bugs out until you alt tab a few times (at least until the next mission or opening the game again).
Recommend? Very much so, I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t get better than this for the Splinter Cell series.
Revisit
Happened upon this game so long ago by recommendation of a video rental place after it’s release. This would be my first Suda51/Grasshopper Manufacture game and it is simply to say… I loved it. It’s a lot of dumb fun with pop and zombie references galore. The main character is similar to that of Legally Blonde, seemingly ditzy and questionable focus but instead of progressing towards becoming a well-achieved Law School graduate, she instead is a kickass Zombie Hunter (among other things) and cheerleader.
This game is chock full of charm that the remake misses out a bit on. It’s chock full of colorful and creative visuals, an absolutely loaded soundtrack, great character themes, and a pretty decent hack-slash combat game. The combat can be a bit clunky and trying to get multiple decapitations (incentivized by the fact that this is how you get the better currency) is often difficult due to a lack of health bars and the inability to space well. Bosses are generally well designed with interesting arenas and mechanics and generally work well with the overall theme. There’s quite a few unique mini-games, and though not always well implemented they can be a nice change of pace. Tip: Turn off the auto aim (it absolutely works against you). The game also features unlockable skills, costumes, a customizable playlist, and allows you to submit your scores for ranking.
Recommend? Gonna be really hard to find and frankly I can’t speak for the remake (it ran poorly on my PC and GM is not known for good ports and is definitely missing a lot of the soundtrack and collabs). HOWEVER, this game is an actual gem and I’ll never let it escape my clutches again. Play it anyway you can.
Silent Hill F 
0
0
0
21
Preface: I played this on hard combat and hard puzzle, so this may affect my review of the game and you may not have the same experience.
Background and Visuals Many were quick to criticize this game due to it’s change of locale. A change very much welcomed considering how many times we have dredged over the same town and really this wouldn’t be the first game to go outside of the town of Silent Hill anyways. What matters to me is that it has the general atmosphere, feel, and story elements that any great Silent Hill has. For the most part, it does lean in that direction… but it does have issues. The general premise is that you are a high school student in the 1960s that is suddenly overrun by monsters. Between surviving and shifting between worlds, you’ll need to do your best to figure out exactly what is going on. The general atmosphere is great, It’s still very much a fog filled town colored washed in despair. Though there will be a bit of grey, a recurring red color will really help abstract from an otherwise washed out world. The otherworld is a bit darker but at least does feature prominent Japanese mythology and cultural foundations to give a lot of character to your exploration. Though I have yet to play with a headset, I do find the audio design doesn’t quite compete with that of the SH2 Remake or the older Silent Hills in general.
Story: Story and combat is where the fundamentals begin to shake a bit. Admittedly the story is very much the abstract experience you can get from other SH games like SH2. You’ll often be wondering up till the very end (and even after) what is really going on and what do various things mean. The game does give you a lot of clues and you can get some sort of idea on the various themes and happenings. HOWEVER, the full story is hidden by multiple endings, which requires multiple playthroughs, and then you can get the true ending… similar to that of Nier (more like original/Replicant than Automata as the future playthroughs will have very little difference in the actual progression for most). This is a bit annoying as this effectively means you are a bit locked and will have to do a lot of replaying to get the full picture. For some games, this might not be so bad… but the combat in this game is a mixed bag.
Combat: First and foremost, combat is entirely melee. Not a terrible thing, we’ve seen this in games like SH: Origins and quite a few more incentivize melee… but the system in place is very rough. First, enemies won’t stagger unless you counter specifically counterable moves (shown by a certain effect). In fact, this is a primary way to deal reliable damager without trading. The problem with this is that some enemies have only one, if two, counterable moves while the non counterables could be fast attacks you won’t have much time to react to if you are looking for that one counter. Second, is that MELEE WEAPONS DEGRADE and you can only carry 3 at a time. Oddly enough it never became a huge issue as I was always willing to trade out weapons when needed or had repair kits but it’s always a frustrating experience. Third, is that enemy grabs must only be dodged (despite most areas being fairly combined) but they can not be resisted or reduced in damage… and believe me… they do a lot of damage. Fourth, is that your attacks will sometimes home in while other times you’ll just be smacking the ground… even after well timed dodges or blocks. Fifth, a lot of enemies just suck to deal with and often feel like they lack the intended engagement. The final issue is the inventory. SH has never been known for a strict inventory system like Resident Evil. This however is EXTREMELY limited which sucks due to the different number of items you can pick up and health is an extremely necessary resource.
Puzzles: Puzzles are fairly complex and often require some knowledge of Japanese mythology and old customs to excel (particularly with later difficulties). There is one particular puzzle in the field that I did not enjoy though this is more due to the punishment you get for failing rather than the puzzle itself… though the ability to misinterpret could have a bit of a marginal error.
Recommend? It’s tough, I do enjoy the new scenery and think there’s a lot of potential here. We get a very Silent Hill like story, great characters, genuine themes, good bosses, and some enjoyable encounters. However, the enemy design feels bad, the combat is inconsistent, and the required multiple playthroughs (especially due to the game progression not changing in between) the game is a bit grating.
I’m hoping my future playthroughs on easier difficulties (though I still have to do the hardest at some point) will make a much more enjoyable experience but combat wise I doubt it’ll change much.