Bangledeschlers Completion Addiction. Bangledeschler’s profile
I’ve always been a completionist, and that remains true to this day. Amassing a large mountain of backlog to defeat I shall witness everything, save for the end…
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July It’s good for him. It’s important to know how to… Hm. How to be alone. -Kentucky Route Zero
Oh man… I don’t think the challenge of taking on 31+ games in 31 days is nearly as bad as having to write reviews for all of them in just a few. You can bet there are likely all sorts of spelling and grammar errors along with an extra dose of inconsistencies between reviews.
Action adventure that focuses on elements of horror as a young boy deals with the mysteries of his house and various other situations in his life. It transitions between a sidescrolling puzzle game that focuses on the kids life and into action platforming video game levels. More than anything, I would say the story is likely very influenced by the creators own life and tries to tell their story through this medium with a heavy dose of artistic freedom. Unfortunately, it sort of gets too surrealistic and artsy that it almost tries to force thought provoking that really felt out of place towards the end.
Lewd? Nothing to see here.
Recommend? No, gameplay and puzzles really were not overly enjoyable, and the story was not quite so engaging to create interest.
I certainly remember enjoying this game back in the day, but it doesn’t hold up entirely well. You are a detective who investigates serial killers in a world that is spinning out of control. Crime rate and murders are up 25% and show no sign of stopping as addicts and riots run the streets. As you track down the killer, you will face all sorts of dangerous criminals and will have to primarily use melee-based combat to defend yourself.
The graphics are fine enough, certainly dated, but in a game that is set to be dark, spooky, and very much rundown which works relatively well. The combat is both simple yet challenging as you will need to time blocking without falling for fake-out attacks or ambushes. You also get the chance to do actual detective work as you find crime scenes, take pictures, analyze blood work and prints along with various other tasks. Generally, not to in depth as all you really have to do is pull out the tool and scan the location that it requires.
This game is still good enough, but having played this recently helped me notice a lot more flaws. The combat is still a bit clunky. What looks like a swing that would miss ends up hitting you at certain ranges or blocking that doesn’t always seem to be effective. The inability to carry more than one weapon (like you can’t tuck a pistol you found? As a detective? Who probably owns a holster?) is still as tiresome as I remember. Certain doors and locks require certain weapons, so unless you want to backtrack to find the axe or sledgehammer on the ground despite finding a shotgun or preferred weapon (or backtrack to get these after opening the door) then get used to giving those items up frequently. The sound and visuals can be a bit much or a lack thereof. The lighting and filter they use in certain sequences were far too bright. Not like lighting up the room bright, but lighting up that specific cone was like looking into the sun. There were also plenty of moments where sound didn’t seem to exist, like it was meant that way, despite there being actions that obviously produce sound or voice. The story as a whole is still enjoyable. I can’t help but enjoy the idea of chasing down a twisted serial killer, finding clues in all of his deranged crimes that have a certain MO. Unfortunately, everything else surrounding that story kind of felt… wrong. And the over arcing plot just kind of falls through taking away from what could have been.
Lewd? Not quite
Recommend? Yeah, spooky game for spooky people.
Despite still having a showcase, Devolver Digital once again goes above and beyond as they continue to satire the gaming industry and culture alike with a free game. You are exploring a empty convention showcase for Devolver. You must venture through this almost barren center as you avoid security bots or stun them with a T-Shirt gun. Your goal? Find each appropriately themed booth for the game it showcases and witness the trailers of games yet to come out that you should buy. Despite being a sort of giant digitally interactive showcase, it is actually kinda enjoyable playing this and if you are interested in anything Devolver, then you will likely want to see what they have to show. Also be on the lookout for collectibles to get some information on secret game releases.
Lewd? Not a chance.
Recommend? Yes. Sooner the better as the data will get stale, but still a decent bit of fun.
Not going to lie, I was expecting this to be a Visual Novel. Instead, it was a First Person with light puzzle solving and interactive environment that focuses on depression, the weight of expectations, and the fragility of ones dreams. Furthermore, it focuses on one individual in particular that is dealing with these situations, a young Chinese girl who experiences both reality and dream. As a sort of “spiritual mentor” you try to help this girl get through this hardship.
The game overall is decent enough and handles the issue of depression relatively well. Unfortunately, it has it’s share of issues as well. The camera can be a little much to deal with and may make you feel sick. As well, for a sort of walking sim, it is way too open in later levels. There should be some level of exploration, but not so much that it takes me 10 minutes to get back on path. It gets even worse in the final level where environmental areas such as rock clip into each other or have empty spots that you can just walk through. There were even issues where some of the game triggers were surprisingly easy to miss. This wouldn’t be so bad if I hadn’t found a hole in the invisible wall and ended up exploring a generally empty, but unnecessarily big area and getting quite lost.
Lewd? Not here.
Recommend? Generally, yes. The touchy subject and quite complicated issue of depression is well presented considering the impossibility of ever getting it quite right. I’m not quite so sure I would pay the $3.99 it is priced at, but perhaps at Free and up to $1.99 I can see better value.
Man… I was recommended this way way back and kind of just passed it off to do later. Now that I have finally played it… well… it really got to me. Color me more surprised when I found out this was also the team that worked on Bioshock 2’s DLC, Minerva’s Den, which in my eyes did quite a great job story wise. Walking Sim with Puzzle and Mystery caked in. You are a young woman who just took a year abroad sometime after finishing High School, instead of finding your family home waiting for you it’s dark and empty. Explore the house, find clues, and figure out just what has happened in your absence.
This game really did everything right. Exploring the empty house felt all too familiar. It perfectly captures the creeping fear of being in a house alone on a stormy night as you explore. Feeling as if the shadows may come to life with any creak of the boards, flash of lightning, darkness around the corner and the uncertainty of what should be familiar surroundings. Yet it never gets in the way of the mystery, as you cannot quite be sure what will happen next, but each piece of the puzzle pulls you a little bit further baiting you to find more.
Oh man and the voice acting… the voice acting was absolutely brilliant. I’m not sure if I have ever heard better voice acting in a game if I am honest. I really felt for the character speaking, connected with her, remembered what it felt like in those situations, and was so entirely relatable at least for me at one point in time. Despite the ending it left me melancholic. There was good in the ending, but couldn’t help but feel a little sad. The story and immersion really just dug into me deep and affected me more than I would have ever expected.
Lewd? Y’know there may be a few things that inspire lewdness, but not quite so lewd.
Recommend? SO VERY MUCH YES. Absolutely, 100%. Great Story, Amazing Voice Acting, and great levels of interactivity really REALLY require me to recommend this to just about anybody.
A senior high school girl, Yuka, just finished her final exams and must prepare herself for the future that awaits. But first, she must make it through the last days of Spring as the school’s tradition to meet at the Beach is coming up and quite the tradition it is for high school crushes to finally hook up.
Gotta say, Visual Novels that have drawn characters, but real stock photo backgrounds that don’t quite interact with each other lacks quite a bit of appeal for me. The drawings themselves are a unique style that I haven’t really scene, but still branches off the usual Japanese Anime influence. Dialogue and story were not really my thing either. The dialogue just kind of felt off. There was some personality and character in it but didn’t quite feel right. It’s not to say I don’t appreciate love stories, particularly in the VN format, but this again didn’t quite inspire anything. To make matters worse, each ending just kind of felt… abrupt. There was no reason to really go half the routes as there was no real build up. Everything just kind of happened, and you were missing out on a lot of relationship building with most of the characters. Even then, the payoff was still weak regardless.
Lewd? Not a dime.
Recommend? No. Short and unsatisfying story that did not do anything for my interests.
Puzzle platformer with a sort of cute robot that must make it’s way through an alien planet that your “creator” has ventured into. You will find various logs left by your creator that really gives the feeling of a proper father/kid relationship. Animation and puzzle platforming are incredibly smooth and gave a lot of similarities to the mix of innocence traveling through darkness that LIMBO had, only this had quite a bit more color palate and silliness to it (there’s a dance button). Various obstacles and creatures provided a healthy challenge, but nothing that really seemed too out of reason for most people who may try this. There was maybe one or two where interactions were not quite clear.
Lewd? Not a chance.
Recommend? Yes, fun and cute platformer with a touch of heart-warming dialogue to fend off the dark outcomes surrounding you.
Furries are not the fursuit culture you may or may not know of, but instead a hairy race of creatures that are simply trying to survive. You will do this as you take a wide view of the area and set up safe passage from traps, environment, and creatures alike as they attempt to make their way to safety. Every action is in real time, so you will need to be aware of actions, and know how to handle the physics of the various mechanics in the game. Each level you are able to get three stars depending on how many points you get, furries you save, and time it took.
All in all, this game just wasn’t for me. The physics generally felt off and the visuals/theme just was far too child oriented for me to enjoy or get into. Not to mention, this reeks of being a mobile phone game as it carries a lot of similar characteristics and feel that I generally dislike.
Lewd? Nope.
Recommend? Really can’t.
The Trine is back at it again as it ropes the three heroes (Knight, Wizard, and Thief) into another adventure. This time it’s a little bit different as the Trine suffers an unusual effect. The only thing more unusual about this is that the game is no longer the side scroller it was, but adds an uncomfortable third dimension for you to travel and fight. This does not particularly translate well into the physic-based platformer as aiming, and generally physics become quite unstable and many of the obstacles/mechanics broke. Luckily, there is quite a bit of unusual and very not intended ways to proceed through the levels, but the clunky physics and mechanics can no way be ignored. The story was kind of okay, but the greater part of it was how short it was. I do not mean this in a bad way, just that I found most of the Trine games too long. I enjoy them for a bit, but end up getting tired of the game and simply want it to end. This simply didn’t have that issue and was the exact length I enjoyed it to be.
Lewd? Not once, not twice, not Trine.
Recommend? Kinda? It’s not necessarily bad, and possibly of interest for those who enjoyed the previous installments, but it is also very skippable as the story has no relevance to the rest of the games and may as well be retconned.
A sort of Alpha/Beta of a game that will likely never be released as it is no longer on the Steam store and have not seen much of any updates. You seem to be abducted, but you have this living alien technology that is attached. You will use this to both talk, analyze, and go into a sort of spiritual mode to gain access to new locations. Meeting other aliens and creatures you attempt to gain freedom only finding out that death is not the end.
Starting the game, it felt kind of generic. It was very obviously undone and had plenty of bugs and issues. For instance, reloading a checkpoint can have you spawn in an offset location and kill you, thus causing you to repeatedly die (permanently). However, as you progress, there were some interesting pieces that could have almost been a good start for a potentially decent game as you find knew areas and abilities. That being said, it really didn’t know what to do with any of it as there were frequent issues with having any sense of direction or real purpose. The game has an ending of sorts, but then also continues for what seems to be an indefinite and unfinished area.
Lewd? Not at this time.
Recommend? Not only do I not recommend this currently, but if it is ever complete I can’t imagine it will fix and focus any of the issues and potential that it had.
Mysterious alien white blob falls to the Earth quickly befriending a young boy. By using various beans the blob can transform into various objects to help the boy traverse the various platforms and past evil blobs. I was quite surprised how enjoyable transforming and using the blob to progress and fight bosses. Unfortunately, the game gets a bit clunky trying to get the blob in the right direction. A very annoying addition is that you must call your blob to you. Not just to revert his form, but also it frequently falls behind and gets stuck. Constantly calling this blob and having it to do it repeatedly to get the whistle so the Blob can pass through objects is very uneasy on the ears and a one way ticket to a headache.
Lewd? No
Recommend? Generally yes, most of the levels are decent enough and the boss battles are well constructed.
Already reviewed this once before for the console, so I really won’t get into it much here. Only going to say that it is the same gameplay overall, but much faster load times and potentially better graphics. The villains really aren’t as bad as I remember (or as people say), but their greatest downfall is having to follow the role of antagonist after Handsome Jack who is by far the most loved of all the series by most.
Lewd? Noooope.
Recommend? Yes
Bullet hell twin stick shooter that is very recommended to play with others. Play as a multitude of characters with weapons unique to them as you destroy varying robots and bosses that mean to destroy you. Weapons can be upgraded through energy crystals, but shooting the weapon causes your energy to go down as well.
This game does what it needs to do as far as the genre goes. However, it gets to be entirely repetitive and far too generic to really engage an interest or fun in the game. Furthermore, you are limited to only a few characters and modes at the start, but no clear way to unlock more.
Lewd? Nein (No).
Recommend? The lack of interesting boss battles is unable to redeem the repetitive generic and boring gameplay.
Multi-character steampunk platformer that doesn’t quite get anything right. The platforming is weak as the difference between foreground platforms and background scenery is hardly noticeable. Some characters struggle, if at all possible, to beat their specifically designed levels. Music is quite off and almost out of place. Some levels have issues that can cause your character to teleport into death.
Lewd? Not a chance.
Recommend? All in all, no. This game is below sub par and belongs in a trash bin.
Halo 3
It’s time to finish this fight… for now. Once again take the role of Master Chief and fight the Covenant and the Flood alike to save humanity from the destructive force of Halo. Gameplay and story are pretty consistent with the rest of the series, though I believe it to not be nearly as good as Halo 2. It particularly shines in the multiplayer as it seems to have the fewest issues while still providing enjoyable matchmaking and Forge. Forge now allows user created maps and game modes that will really stretch the limits of Halo 3’s gameplay. Despite the rest of the games in the collection working relatively fine, Halo 3 has a major issue that I have seen no solution or attempt at a solution. That issue is trying to co-op the campaign of Halo 3 causes frequent disconnects between players, kicking everyone out of the lobby. This is a serious issue as part of Halo 3, and more importantly, it’s campaign is being able to play with up to 4 friends. The other issue is one I had forgotten and it’s the constant slowdown of the Campaign by experiencing weird visions of Cortana and Gravemind that cause your character to slow down. This interruption of gameplay really should have been fixed.
Lewd? Chief and Arbiter may be THICC, but no lewd here.
Recommend? A classic FPS and considered one of the best in the series is a definite recommend.
Halo goes RTS. This simplified RTS takes the lore and characters of Halo and creates it’s own story. Still fighting the Covenant and Flood, you will need to figure out why the alien menace is searching for artifacts and what kind of power they seek to possess.
As previously stated, this game is wildly simplified compared to more RTS which is kind of nice. Far less micromanaging your assets and resources, easy upgrades and paths, as well as combat potential welcome newcomers of RTS to this change of gameplay from the rest of the series. That being said the campaign still provides a challenge and playing friends is always interesting.
Lewd? The Great Journey needs no lewd.
Recommend? Yes
Well… my brain is officially friend and deflated, but it is done. I have created countless and overly complex factories to build the creations that will serve the machinations of the alien lords and the resistance that seeks to oppose them. There were plenty of times I gave up, and plenty more I thought of it, but I pushed on and finally did it… Use various conveyor belts, sensors that can connect to pushers/blockers as well as various other resources that can be used to create your own solution. There is no one way to create the required product only that you need to be able to reproduce it up to 10 times (a challenge that is harder than one might think). There have been some insane solutions that I know I could never have thought up, but the potential is there.
Lewd? Not quite.
Recommend? The challenge of the game created a lot of thought-provoking moments where even out of game I was thinking of various solutions. This game is a great challenge to those who want to test the limits of their imagination and logic.
Tower defense and a third person shooter set in an alternate universe where trench warfare is now mobile. Not only that, but your enemies are TV monsters set to destroy your resistance. The setting is a bit over the top which pairs well with the comically absurd story. Setting up and upgrading towers is pretty standard to the genre and customizing your trench mech is relatively straight forward. My only real issue with the game is that you don’t know what the correct turrets and mech gear to bring down your enemy is until you are facing them. Since you can’t swap out equipped turrets and gear if you have a completely wrong set up then you will have to fail and retry which is fairly annoying. Destroying tube monsters have them drop resources, but the amount of time between waves and the travel ability of your mech are far too short and weak so collecting this currency is quite more of a pain. Especially if they die so early from your solid setup which can affect you in the later waves dramatically.
Lewd? Not once.
Recommend? Yeah, fairly enjoyable experience to be had as you gun down monsters.
Ever wonder what it was like to play a supernaturally strong Lumber Jack who has it out for trees after a particularly menacing Pine Tree falls onto your deal old grandmother? Well play Jack Lumber where you will have to cut trees in a particular way at great speed to take down that Pine menace. Each level you are scored on your points which is deduced by how fast and well you cut the trees, avoid making mistakes and hitting woodland creatures. Definitely a mobile game and shares similar gameplay to that of Fruit Ninja, but still relatively enjoyable as it introduces new obstacles and ways of chopping wood.
Lewd? No
Recommend? Eh, can go either way with leaning more towards a positive recommendation.
So… Chapter 5 took quite a long time to release since I had finished Chapter 4. By the time it did I had to replay the story once more to remember what even happened due to forgetting also the newly added achievements didn’t trigger despite my previous progress. I appreciate the sort of slow moving artsy experience and narrative this game has going for it. However, having to go through 80% of it again was not something I wanted to do. It really is something you have to take slow, but not so slow that you forget what happens as it can get pretty abstract and not so linear.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Truly an artistic piece, but requires a lot of reading and someone able to find interest in the slow and mundane. Not something that I can recommend so freely.
Side scroller skateboarding game that has a focus on wild settings, dangerous obstacles, and boosting your score by trick combo. Very much improved from the first entry. Visuals, though still pixels, looks much smoother along with the animations. There are far more tricks now along with ways of combing them to maximize your score. Now, what it doesn’t do well is some general level design. There were some cases where you could take a path that would end in your death, but you wouldn’t know it until you passed the point of being unable to alter your path which isn’t something I remember being in the first game. That aside the game is still enjoyable with fitting soundtrack that doesn’t depend on licensed or big-name artists.
Lewd? iie (no)
Recommend? Sure, decent score based skateboarding game that doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.
Overcooked 2 brings the same chaotic kitchen gameplay as the original and adds new throwing mechanic, new recipes, enhanced graphics, and (most importantly) online multiplayer. New and interesting maps and crazy situations.
Lewd? Nothing but these hot buns.
Recommend? Yeah, only if you can get a few friends together as the fun of this game thrives with others.
Vehicle based twin stick shooter with a story that’s straight out of 80’s action hero movie that is complete with cheesy lines. Destroy the enemy, pick up extra weapons, level up your character, and complete various objectives. Both ridiculous story as you are sort of the rejects of GI Joe facing what is very much like COBRA. Vehicles seem to only enhance the twin stick scene as it feels more fast paced and action oriented when you are zooming down roads and off road in your murder machine. I only wish there were more variations in the weapons you could get or more upgrade slots to really feel like a death machine.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Fast action fun, yes.
A game that doesn’t play or look like Resident Evil, but has the characters and monsters of Resident Evil. I didn’t really like it back when I played it on console, but thought I would give it another chance. Verdict… I still don’t like it. The game tries to be ambitious as it adds new mechanics of upgrading weapons with mods along with a new scanner tool. Scanning enemies yields up to 5 total herbs at once and scan your surroundings for hidden items. The fault is not as much in the gameplay itself. There is a decent action horror game in there somewhere. It’s the fact the Resident Evil name is attached. Every character design or personality do not fit the RE series whatsoever. The gameplay and story, though similar, simply are far too apart. The episodic inclusion does not help it whatsoever. It really feels like two different games mashed into one and they are as obvious as oil to water. Another disappointment is the inclusion of the new tool. The scanner, though was nice it provided health, but it could have been so much better. Only being able to hold 5 herbs with and without the scanner is far too low in a game that deals heavily with bullet sponges and far too narrow of hallways. Furthermore, it should have had so much more application. For example, scanning enemies could have provided more information on them and/or weak spots/damage increase.
Lewd? Nothing past the skintight scuba suits.
Recommend? Meh, fairly passible in the iconic series despite having a fairly decent final boss.
Taking the role of Sisyphus who is known in the Greek mythology of the man punished by being forced to roll a boulder to the top of the hill but always being stopped just before getting to the peak. Thus, he has to constantly start over for eternity. Eventually, getting sick of this repetition, he uses the boulder to break out of Hades and rolls through the ages defeating famous historical figures, myths, and legends by breaking down their doors and squishing them before they can do it to him.
Instead of controlling Sisyphus directly, you are actually controlling the direction and jump of the boulder itself as you have to avoid obstacles, both natural and left by your enemy, lest you risk breaking your own boulder down. The gameplay is neat and enjoyable as you also must manage resources used to create your own defenses and upgrade your rock temporarily.
The comedy is very Monty Python feeling (particularly Holy Grail, both visually and general content) and was fairly comical. However, the game really fails the boss levels. They mostly feel awkward and slow for the most part. Not much you can do with limited mechanics, but lackluster none the less.
Lewd? Not so much.
Recommend? Yeah, a unique game that provides a good laugh.
Side scroller where your character must always be moving at a minimum set speed or they blow up. A sort of on foot variation of the movie Speed or a punishment for the Flash set on a normal person. There is more as you are given two abilities (that can change between challenges or at checkpoints in Endless Run) and must use them to either get past various obstacles. There doesn’t seem much story past the premise of it, but the gameplay keeps it simple and generally challenging to not need much.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Sure. The game is alright enough, but really could go with or without it.
FPS Rouge-like (Rouge-lite?) that has various classes and turret-based enemies. The story seems to be sort of randomly generated, with the only consistency that you must climb the Tower of Guns. The game does what it needs to do enough, but I’m generally not that into these sorts of games with exceptions. Each class has their own abilities (both advantageous and negative) and can pick weapons separate of the class. These weapons upgrade as you play and pick up resources, but also can downgrade from taking damage.
Lewd? Nope.
Recommend? Again, it’s not really my sort of genre and it doesn’t feel particularly special in any form other than the FPS perspective. Not likely.
Probably the best Trine so far. Great levels that offer a multitude of ways to platform and get through obstacles. Interesting abilities for each character only create more opportunities for more solutions and a decent story to back it up.
Lewd? Still no.
Recommend? The beautiful scenery, interesting level design/puzzles and platforming make this game easily the best in the series amongst the first three. Recommended.
Simple game with simple graphics and mechanics. You are a space captain where your ship takes an unexpected anomaly. You have the ability to switch your gravity up or down as you move and must use it to rescue the rest of your crew. The game does well on focusing on this mechanic and provides well designed and interesting levels for you to overcome.
Lewd? Not a chance.
Recommend? Yes, simple and quick game that does well both on computer and mobile.
Can’t say this was much of a game. You are a child scared in his bed as you must click on various shadows of the night before the creep into your bed with increasing difficulty between waves. The gameplay leaves much to be desired and the challenge is far more frustrating than it could ever be exciting (if at all). Ended up getting to frustrated and dislike of this game to really finish the final hour. Perhaps return to it at some point.
Lewd? No
Recommend? Absolutely not.
This game does not have a campaign as it is entirely multiplayer and very, almost exactly, like Unreal Tournament. Even the cinematic backstory feels almost word for word for Quake III Team Arena. Little to no one’s surprise this game has no player base. For good reason too as it lags and freezes terribly before a match can even start… if it ever does. As far as I have seen from reviews, this does not stop during the match either.
Lewd? Who knows? But doubtful.
Recommend? Unplayable nor any reason to play, no.
Various challenges the revolve around gravity and momentum/inertia based physics. Player controls a sort of liquid bubble that expels it’s mass behind it in order to propel it in the direction it desires, but you need to be a bigger mass than your surrounding bubbles to absorb them. The game is alright for a while, but found a few of the last levels of a tree to be far too patient based and seemingly luck based on how well the level is generated. If one thing goes wrong then you are likely losing the level and 20 minutes of time if not more. I simply could not go on as I attempted this countless times and found no great solution.
Lewd? Nothing to lewd here
Recommend? No, later levels are far too frustrating to justify the build up to them.
Not sure if this was supposed to be a remake of an older game that ended up actually being a fake? Or something? I’m not really sure what this was. A platformer that seemed geared towards kids with the cartoon style and silly basis where your whole goal is to collect food or poop jokes, but then has a random guy in the bush flash you. I actually ended up starting this game a few times because I could just not get into it. This only seems justified as it not only does not get any better, but then gets to a moment where it freezes and can no longer play.
Lewd? A man from a bush flashes you, which is creepy, but you don’t see anything so not so lewd.
Recommend? Most definitely not, not that I know of a place you can get this game anymore as it is removed from Steam.
I tried to get through as much of this game as I can, but it really feels like a bit of a grind fest to get your tank upgraded along with your various shell abilities. At some point in the challenges it requires a pinpoint accuracy and a bit of RNG almost to have the enemy tanks to move in a particular way that serves your shots for the best. This got to be too much for me in the late game as it gets to be particularly bad and I simply cannot see what kind of arc and power combo I need to achieve what it requires. At best I get one lucky shot and have to somehow reproduce that three more times. Likely the meat of this game is multiplayer combat which also just not for me.
Lewd? Not quite.
Recommend? Maybe has a game to play with some friends, but I found it dies out quick much like my ambition to beat the challenges of this game.
Non Steam Games
Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
What seems to be a sort of remake of A Link to the Past with a couple new mechanics including wall based movement and a new tool renting system. The game plays like an old LoZ game (top down) and does it generally well. The new wall movement mechanic is neat, but kind of fall flat to most of the other unique mechanics in other LoZ games. The item/tool/weapon renting system seemed weird at first, but honestly I didn’t really feel affected much by it. You only return the weapons if you die (unless you unlock the ability to straight by them) which only really happened once. As well, I often found in most LoZ games that I always had too many rupees with no real reason to spend them. This was a sort of solution to that.
Lewd? No
Recommend? A Link to the Past is likely a better game, but this one is still quite enjoyable for a more classic LoZ feel.
Pokemon Shield
New Region, New Pokémon, same old game. Why change it? Honestly the formula works and still enjoyed this new adventure just as much as most others. The big open area was really neat and cool that I think Pokémon really needed to implement as well as seeing Pokémon visually in the wild before getting into a battle was refreshing. Gym battles were relatively standard though they seemed to give a reason why you go through them in a specific order. Though I particularly enjoyed the new style of gym challenges. The new Dynamax ability for Pokémon is neat. I definitely liked the appeal more as a raid boss than a singular battle. Giant kaijus fighting is cool, but greater when the enemy has monumental power. My greatest issue with this gen is that trading Pokémon with randoms is way worse than it has ever been. Prior there was the GTS where you could leave a Pokémon for trade and request a specific Pokémon or find one someone has posted and trade them what they had requested. Instead this time you both must provide a Pokémon simultaneously and agree that the trade is fair. Not knowing before hand what kind of Pokémon they own or what either side wants as there seems to be no way of communicating this.
The music is really great, camping is an interesting idea, but feel as though there could have been more to it. I really enjoyed the punk theme of Team Yell despite them not really being villainous as much as they were obnoxious. All in all, another great entry in one of the biggest franchises out there.
Lewd? Not here.
Recommend? Absolutely, take on new Pokemon and new challenges in this new region and tale.
June 2020
You got your soul back! You feel relieved, energised, and just the usual amount of empty!
Much like Bioshock 1 Remastered, this game is a mess of a port. Crashes seemed more frequent and once more for not that much of a benefit as graphics didn’t look great enough. Other terrible experiences included items falling through the floor, weird ragdoll physics, among other things.
Talking about Bioshock 2 itself… the story falls flat, particularly compared to the first. However, the combat is much improved as you get more interesting weapons/plasmids and are able to wield both of them simultaneously. You play as an outdated Big Daddy, Subject Delta, who is trying to find his particular little sister. This comes with a bunch of perks as you are a bit of a powerhouse and you can adopt other little sisters to gain more adam (power juice). This game really tried to push moral dilemmas that have affected your character in the past, however it doesn’t really have any substance as your bond with your or those who may have wronged you just isn’t that strong. In essence, you have no real reason to kill or spare anyone. It’s just a more obvious low/high road.
If you are a bit disappointed in the fact the story isn’t great, but still want a reason to get this game. Well aside from the great combat, the Minerva’s Den DLC has a pretty decent story and new combat abilities to boot.
Lewd? No.
Recommend? Not this version, play the original Bioshock 2, it works fine.
In my VN history, I have dated AI Waifus, Grim Reapers, The Mascot of a Chicken Restaurant, and even Birds. So, I thought, “Why not? What could be so bad about dating a bug.” It was worse than I can imagine. Don’t get me wrong, I have seen all sorts of things, but this being in a VN like this… egh. You are what seems like a regular boy in a world filled with a variety of anthromorphic (or not so) animals. Your sister is just a straight bat, your best friend is a skeleton thing, and your childhood friend and crush is a… grasshopper. This wouldn’t be nearly as bad if it wasn’t for a few things. One is some of the individuals are hard to look at in some scenes. I didn’t want to see what it would look like if a Grasshopper tried to kiss. Two is that it reads out (for the most part) as a regular VN. This game doesn’t take advantage of the characters animal status or even try to make it silly at the very least. It could have just been regular old humans, no need for the humanoid animals/creatures. Third… man… that bad ending. The sound effects of the grasshopper girl going crazy was quite unsettling, particularly that it kept going until your ultimate demise.
Lewd? Some risqué scenes, but not much worse than the disappointment you may receive from your friends and loved ones when they see you playing this game.
Recommend? No. Despite my lack of preference towards bug waifus, this game really didn’t take advantage of the creature world it presented. Adding it as much only made it worse in that regards.
Quite a bit of a gag gift from a friend. You are, in essence, a muscle head, a chad, a bro whose only goal is to get swole/ripped/buff/strong/etc. go to other gyms and beat their leader in various exercise routines. If this much doesn’t alarm you to how terrible this is, then don’t worry… it gets worse. Say goodbye to your “up” key as all exercises require for you to mash that button as fast as you can. Not good enough? Don’t worry you can grind the same exercises at your own gym to get low amounts of stat ups. But hey, heard that’s not enough, so you’ll also have to grind these gyms for money, so you can buy a sword and armor to compete in very underwhelming battle gyms. The combat has just about much depth as the rest of this game does, not much. The menus are horrendous, keys are poorly bound, and I’m not quite sure what that terrible self-inserted music is playing at each gym. Now, if you are smart and able (and prefer not to destroy your keys), macro your up button as it doesn’t really affect much else, buy various supplements as they temporarily double your stats, and just let your character play itself. Once you beat all the gyms, you get a grand prize of… money… in game currency money. Also, beating them all gives you the ability to go to very empty islands such as Zombie Island and Maze Island. Both of which give you low tier gear… which you barely need at this point.
Lewd? Not even a little, what’s the point of a muscle building game if you can’t even flex shirtless to the only girl they programmed at the bar.
Recommend? An even smarter tip… don’t buy this game or play it for that matter.
Gag gift number 2.
Previously I was given a Freddy Fish game, now this. At least it isn’t an RNG maze. Now, I know this is a young kids game. They don’t need much, but structurally… it’s not great. The most ideal state for a game with this target audience is to be in some way educational (either in academics or morals/societal standards) and fun. This, if anything, was just flashy. You click some part of the screen, and an animation will occur and that’s about it. I was actually surprised at the difficulty I had to get the story to progress in the first place. Who would have though clicking every bit of the screen would eventually kick it off. Like I said, it may be a game for young kids, but all I’m asking is for a bit more logic in the actions they take to continue on.
Lewd? I hope not.
Recommend? Surely there is a better series for your tyke.
June Challenge Me #3 SG Win
Cannot deny that I wasn’t originally interested in this because it was an anime style fighter with cute girls. Despite expectations the game had a bit of a fleshed out story. Only a shame that the fighting was kind of skimpy, much like some of the clothing options, in comparison. There was a repetition of being torn if I would have rather just it have been straight versus the bosses (other fighters) and leave out all the mob battles as the really long linear paths never felt satisfying. While in the circle arena areas I found it generally enjoyable to combo large groups of enemies. There also didn’t seem to be much reason to swap out to more than a couple combos which gave more of a stale feeling. Still was able to find good aspects about it and surprisingly like the story for the lawful good team which is out of character for me as it seemed they had the most character development.
Also noticed quite a bit of lag on the Beach levels and game mode where you collect undies.
Lewd? Yes, pulling off combos causes the other person clothes to rip off until… 0///0 along with lewd connotations.
Recommend? Eh. It’s alright, so it leans to yes, but wouldn’t pay anything high for it.
June Challenge Me #1 SG Win
I originally expected this to be quite puzzle heavy when it was more of a game where you can choose to experience the happenings of the space station or just complete your objective. Still decently enjoyable enough and neat little interactive objects to find. Generally lax as you can rewind and replay conversations in each room that were made by the previous inhabitants of this space station.
Lewd? Not a bit.
Recommend? Yeah, A neat story with relaxed gameplay. Maybe for a $5 price.
Had this been my first TellTale game, I would have been fairly impressed. Since this is about the 5th Telltale game I have played… I’m still fairly impressed. Despite not knowing much about The Walking Dead show/comic I was able to enjoy this original story and each of the characters along the way. All were relatively well written and new pieces of story were never totally expected, though somewhat predicted. Clementine, in particular, is absolutely the sweetest little girl in the world and really felt like I wanted to take care of her in these dangerous times. To do my best as a pseudo father to protect and teach her survival and morals. Unfortunately, it wasn’t without faults, had characters become invisible, causing me to get soft locked, along with some characters just being unacceptably irredeemable.
The 400 Days DLC was kind of meh and didn’t really care for it. Might be setting up Season 2.
Lewd? Not for a second.
Recommend? Yes, if there was a TellTale game to play, it is this one.
Already Reviewed.
Status Changed: Beaten > Completed
Honestly, this game never really caught my eye until the Nyakuza Metro as before it never really seemed to have anything interesting. This is the very reason I couldn’t believe how much I actually liked the base game with the kind of sassy, but cute, little girl in the hat. Interactions between various enemies, bosses, and the world was just kind of heartwarming and fun as well as generally solid game play. I did feel the air attack was a bit wonky and that most of the worlds should have been more free roam instead of ending once you get your time piece. The Nyakuza Metro is definitely my favorite part of the game and outfit to customize with. Plan to play more once I have a little less backlog to tackle (or in needing to warm the heart). Probably my favorite game out of this challenge.
Lewd? It sure isn’t.
Recommend? Yes! It could have been a little better, but still a great time and an enjoyable adventure with girl in the hat.
A classic arcade game where your goal is to deliver people to their destinations as fast, wildly, and dangerous as possible without actually hitting any other cars and objects. Surprisingly difficult, though it doesn’t quite teach you half of all the techniques either, annoyingly enough. I had heard this was a classic game before and that it was good, but for some reason no one talks about how great the soundtrack is. I did not, for one second, to have so many decent songs listed with a variety of genres.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Yes
The Live Action trailers for this game had me hyped for this game and was the main reason to start this series. It’s only a shame it turned out to be so underwhelming. I was already prepared as I heard all of the bad things about it. The gameplay in general was good, but didn’t really get a good enough chance to use them. The world somehow felt more shallow and constantly travelling to other sectors felt like a bit of a pain. The story is incredibly short, and is only lengthened if you do side missions which don’t always add a whole lot. To step up the fact that some of the DLC could have just been part of the story, but whatever. The ending in general just didn’t feel like it resolved anything or satisfying.
Lewd? Not that I remember.
Recommend? Listen… it’s not terrible, but it doesn’t hold much of a candle to Human Revolution. So, at a discount it can be some worth to those who like the newer portions of the series. But can’t recommend at regular price for sure.
Easily one of the great modern 2D fighters at present. The combat is great, an ever growing (pay for) roster, visually appealing, and it doesn’t hurt if you are a DBZ fan either. I have already reviewed the PS4 version, so I won’t go into much detail. The PC port seems to work fine and have no issues with online play. My only gripes are personal as I have no rival to face and just don’t get the joy of facing randoms.
Lewd? Nope!
Recommend? Absolutely. Marvel Vs Capcom had their chance, but DBFighterZ just did it better.
Halo 2
We finally got here, to easily my favorite entry in the Halo series. True enough my bias is that it was the first I have played in the series, but the level design was truly amazing, great dialogue, and overcoming the ever so difficult feats. Legendary truly made you feel as much. Now the issues start falling with much of the issues of the MCC… the fact that they didn’t really fix any problems in this port of MCC. I.e. Issues with teleporting rockets and grenades into friendlies being the bigger one, as well as no real improvements for some of the designs.
This was however my first time playing through the Anniversary version of the game and it was amazing to see a classic modernized into beautiful landscapes, designs, and cutscenes. The only issue is the gameplay for the multiplayer was changed to be more like the modern Halos which are, in my opinion, subpar and far too similar to other shooters.
Lewd? Cortana is a cute naked-ish(?) AI, but nothing lewd past that.
Recommend? Yes, absolutely yes. Great campaign and fun multiplayer. Only wish the difference between controllers and Keboard/Mouse wasn’t so great.
June Challenge Me #4
One of those games that I held some interest when it first came out and never got the chance to play it. Luckily it rolled it’s way onto Steam.. and well here we are. I specifically remember seeing old shows about gaming review this game and it was every bit as weird as they explained it. A sort of classic Japanese weird with both the game, story, and art. I did expect it to have more challenging gameplay, but a pleasant surprise as it was more… relaxing to just roll around as you slowly make your ball bigger to ridiculous proportions. Something else that took me by surprise was the great soundtrack that I feel know one has ever mentioned. Perhaps not enough people played it, but excellent music to go along with this chill adventure.
Your dad, the King of the Cosmos, gets a little to “crazy” during one of his self only space party and destroys every heckin’ star in the system. So he makes it your job to roll up objects from the Earth to recreate all the stars.
Lewd? No lewd, just chill.
Recommend? Yes, a nice break from all that hard backlog killing to a more chill kill.
May Challenge Me #4
Convoluted and crazy story lines are really my thing as a fan of both Kingdom Hearts and Metal Gear Solid. It brings to question why I’ve been putting off MGSV and Ground Zeroes for so long. Still, your challenge put it right in front of me and my craving for it only grew. It felt a little weird being back, especially since there was the slow-mo save for yourself. Even not having David Hayter being Snake just felt downright weird. Even so, I quite enjoyed another Tactical Espionage experience and will move onto Phantom Pain once I get through the side missions among other goals.
Lewd? Nope, except maybe Snake’s butt ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Recommend? Kind of short story-wise as it is only one mission. However there are all sorts of scenarios to play which can provide more gameplay and fun. Hopefully, it doesn’t cost too much to buy as it is more of a prologue to Phantom Pain.
May Challenge Me #3
Metroidvanias will always be a favorite genre, particularly because then tend to be pretty great. This one is no exception, though I don’t hold it as highly as others have made it up to be. Solid game play and beautiful environment with fitting music makes this a success. However, I wasn’t the greatest fan of dealing with an escape level every time a temple was completed or the abrupt ending after the third temple. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a bad ending. It just didn’t really present itself as the final level, otherwise I would have done more exploring. My preferences may go towards darker metroidvanias like Hollow Knight, Castelvania, and Metroid, but I will certainly look into getting into the sequel game once time allots.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Generally yes, not so combat heavy, but solid platforming and level design.
June Challenge Me #2
“Everything is terrible” the Game… or at least for a good portion of it as I tried to survive my way down this not-so-lazy river. Often found myself going onto an island only to have three wolves tell me I came into the wrong neighborhood. There isn’t a whole lot of direction (aside from the path of the river) of what you can or should do. Which, fair enough, one trying to survive is not going to inherently know what to do, how to treat, or how to build necessarily, so it only built the immersion despite it feeling a little rough. Yet, when I did finally survive enough days and get myself by a little easier, there was a form of gratification. Like an accomplishment feeling for not only surviving, but starting to do well and gather necessary gear/raft modifications. Something I didn’t really expect to like. It also did some great pairing of music to what was a southern U.S. survival adventure down a mighty river. There is definitely a strong chance I will do some more survival runs on this game, but sometime in the future. A great, but struggling, time.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Yes, for those who want a challenge in a survival setting. The sense of overcoming the odds truly makes the obstacles along the way worth it.
May Challenge Me #5
This game combines magic and machine as you are tasked with stealing a powerful relic for a mysterious stranger. You will face things such as guards and locks to zombies and magical traps. It doesn’t really matter how you get through most of them so long as you complete your objectives. Though, much like Dishonored, it is beneficial to be as sneaky as you can.
Every series has it’s first. This one was completely and %100 okay. Like a straight 5 or 6/10. It’s greatest downfall is time. It’s age and just stealth games were pretty rough at the time it came out. For it’s time it was great as it incorporated interesting mechanics. Still, I found the stealth quite inconsistent and at time frustratingly difficult. The story was alright, but the cutscenes never appeared for me so I was missing very important and interesting pieces of story other than what the objectives would give me.
Lewd? Nope.
Recommend? Not really, kind of outdated.
Usually I am pretty excited to try new, weird, and niche fighting games, but this… this was just downright unenjoyable. Maybe there is a good game underneath it all, but it does not convey the move list, controls, or even a decent practice mode. Instead you have to figure out how to get to the local pvp mode and then figure out how to activate the second person.
Past that, it seems various women who like to wear risqué clothing develop powerful abilities after a catastrophic event by some powerful witch-like being. They are also granted these little girl sidekicks that fight by their side behind them. This causes issues as their attacks intercept your 2D character to cause confusion with so many bodies in this 2D fighter. I couldn’t even tell what was going on in characters stories as they did not stand out or make much sense.
Lewd? Very revealing clothing that only gets worse as they make actions. Yes.
Recommend? Sadly, no. I really root for all sorts of Fighting games, but this isn’t one of them.
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Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land- GBA
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land The first Kirby game I have played since Kirby’s Dreamland 2. It employs to what seems a solid formula of linear gameplay, rhythmic bosses, enchanting worlds, and lovable Kirby scenes. Only real issue is that it was maybe too easy, but this probably wasn’t targeted towards me either. Lewd? Kirby may be soft, round, and squish, but not lewd. Let’s keep it that way folks. Recommend? Absolutely yes, and very much more than the Magic Mirror (which I may or may not be playing currently).
May 2020 Hey! Listen!
I really gotta start writing these out a head of times. My reviews and writing deteriorate when I leave it to last minute… wait haven’t I said this before… have I gone back in time or am I doomed to repeat it? I suppose I have enough time to speculate that, so onto the progress!
It seems the Spring Cleaning event wanted me to return to Rapture (what is this the 10th time?), but this time Remastered \o/ … A shame remastered only really means a buggy mess that likes to crash, but hey we got a few puzzle levels to play with and a documentary that no one asked for :shrug:. Yup, you have plenty of chances of having this game to crash on startup, on save, on load (I lost an hour’s worth of playtime due to not separating my saves more), on death, and pretty much whenever it feels like (spoilers: it feels like it a lot). Still, I do always like a good excuse to return to what I would say is an iconic and well made game. I don’t really know if there were any real improvements otherwise, nothing that noticeable anyways. The puzzle levels were neat as they were less focused on combat and more about using what you have to get to your goal.
Lewd? A splicer complains about there being semen on everything, but other than that… nope. ^_^
Recommend? Not this variation, now would you kindly go play the original over the remaster?
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. What I thought to be just a regular side story branching off of Human Revolution turned out to be a money grabbing mobile phone game now on PC. I remember when these sorts of games first started coming out (DMC4 for instance) in droves once we started approaching smart phones and oh how I hate them then and hate them now. You can feel the presence of the microtransactions and how they meant to take every dime they could as you would have ended up buying guns, ammunition, and consumables through the online store.
You play a sort of non-important middle man that once worked for the bad guys of Human Revolution. After breaking free from your previous employer, you seek to bring justice and find a way to survive. Stealth, action, and augments are still the core gameplay along with choices.
Onto the actual game, well… it’s certainly limited by the target platform. The graphics were jarring between how great Human Revolution was and this game, gameplay having a very similar issue. Largely it was dumbed down, passable, but not overly engaging. To boot, it doesn’t even finish its own story as they likely counted on releasing future episodes. Can only wonder why that didn’t happen.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Not really, as I mentioned it is unfinished from a story point and doesn’t offer much into the actual world building.
Though I have beaten this game prior, Spring Cleaning event brought me back to do more fist punching. A beat-em-up with a little bit more silly take as you can play and unlock a plethora of weird characters (including Dr. Karate and even a Robot Unicorn [might be DLC]) as you face your greatest enemy… the milkman. The game is fine enough if not feeling a little grindy as you have to beat up enough enemies to level up without getting two shot by the level boss. Achievements were pretty easy as most are either complete levels, find ‘x’ things, or use ‘x’ character’s ‘y’ ability ‘z’ times.
Lewd? You can end up fighting nudists or play a character that controls enemies by kissing them… but it’s all mosaic so not so lewd.
Recommend? For a cheap price you can get some cheap fun, yes
I had just finished a couple decent of Winged Cloud’s Sakura games that were actually above decent… until I came to this. This mess of a story is about what I would normally expect coming from their studio. Low effort, cheap story, with generally bad dialogue. Randomly having your character break the 4th wall just isn’t amusing unless the character has an actual premise for it.
Anyways, you play a foxgirl who wants to interact with human society instead of being locked in the mountains with her teacher. However, humans don’t take too kindly to outsiders and she finds herself at their mercy except for a valiant knight who knows honor rather than hate. Either way, booby anime with uninteresting story.
Lewd? As one expects, yes, entirely girl’s love based.
Recommend? No, not really.
I think I generally enjoy Sakura Gamer installments better because it feels like there is a semblance of writing ability and substance put in. Maybe it’s because it seems to reflect their own visual novel process and interactions with consumers. You continue where you left off in the previous installment where you successfully made your lewdy VN and not only working on a sequel, but must sell your product at a market convention. However, being a developer is not how it’s all cracked up to be as your character focuses on the negative comments of a game and a particular person that defames your stall.
Again, it really seemed to have genuine writing as your character must face thought provoking comments about the relationship between a business and it’s consumers. How one grows as an artist and learns to continue on.
Lewd? Yes, entirely girl’s love based.
Recommend? Genuinely yes, it’s not the best work out there, but decent enough and certainly better than it’s prequel.
Back at it again with a completely subpar VN. Though there are some okay-lessons/themes in this, it just generally brings about an uninteresting tale. It starts out talking about this legendary knight that basically saved the world until she finally sets down… that isn’t you. Instead you are the daughter of this great knight who only wishes to become a great knight like her mother… only she hasn’t done much and will do very little to actually become one. Taking your mother’s sword you go on your adventure only to be tricked by a thief and your whole goal is to catch them.
As mentioned, the story is just not great, the pacing and climax just are not consistent. Furthermore, the characters feel the particular blandness that Winged Cloud is known for.
Lewd? Staying true to a lewdy booby VN, yes. Girl romance options only.
Recommend? No
Interestingly enough, they improved on the first Sakura MMO. The particular nowhere-ness the first plot had in its isekai adventure, the second totally fixed. It was a relatively self-contained plot, that still allowed an overarching plot to be present while not overtaking the tale. You are once again Viola, a once normal Japanese woman now transported into the game where she was a powerful and sadistic dark witch. Unlike the previous game she sticks with her character a bit better as an all powerful character along with her allies. In an attempt to figure out the mystery of her transportation to the game she finds herself enveloped in a quest to solve a mystery thief of a precious soon to be wedding jewelry.
This was surprisingly decent and almost seemed to take some pointers. It may have inconsistencies between writing in art, but none the above average.
Lewd? Sure enough, yes. Female romance routes only.
Recommend? A genuine yes.
Once again following the Sakura MMO series, you are reaching the end of the mystery behind your transportation to the world. The story has a mix of action, drama, and character development that I would almost congratulate the developers for. It truly embraces its potential in the fantasy game universe it holds itself in, though I believe it could have used a little more variety in attacks/abilities thrown by your squad.
Lewd? You know it, once again you have potential female only romance routes.
Recommend? I would say the second game is generally better, but the is a close 2nd. Yes, recommend.
Well, you certainly don’t play these games for the story and it is especially true of this one. It’s not particularly exciting as you play a regular dude who works as a cameraman. A failure to capture images of the latest idol, an awkward accident, and a broken camera and you suddenly find your average life thrown into a wild ride as you learn the existence of succubus. Not only that, but take a particular interest in you. Still, I was relatively impressed with some of the art as it was a higher quality. It even had a few decent scenes and jokes thrown in.
Lewd? Very much so and by far the lewdest Winged Cloud game of all.
Recommend? If you are into this sort of thing, then yes.
I’ve already reviewed this game before when beaten, so I’ll focus more on the DLC and completion aspects. This… took longer than I would have preferred. Sure enough there were side collectibles to find and challenges. However, since I had originally beaten this game on it’s hardest difficulty… I was stuck on it in order to achieve the rest and the DLC tombs. This wouldn’t be so much of an issue if dying didn’t mean restarting at the last fire you sat at or entry to a tomb. Not to mention you have to beat each DLC tomb three times by doing the time attack, score attack, and story completion. Sure the tombs were decent enough, but maybe not at the price they were selling them at. It also seemed the new gear/abilities you gained didn’t really do much, particularly at the post game I was at.
Challenge Me #2, SGWIN Beaten: End of May, Completed: Beginning of June
My first impressions of this was that it had an Alan Wake sort of feel as far as narrative goes. Much to my surprise it the developers were actually the ones who made Alan Wake. It certainly felt much the same playing. Basically swap out a flashlight with time manipulation powers and it’s pretty darn close. That isn’t a bad thing either. The bad thing is the buggy and lag present in this game. It’s just one of those triple AAA titles you would make fun of for releasing in such a state as an elevator button vibrates intensely, AI can move and look funny, among other odd aesthetics.
The greatest and most aggravating issue of this game is that despite the game telling you to look and explore for clues that may affect the timeline and world build it is constantly reminding you about your task and where you should be heading. This certainly doesn’t help when there is another game I played along side it with a similar issue. Seriously though, every few seconds I was getting nagged at by an NPC or my character to go to target destination or complete objective. I understand the story has pressing matters, but part of the perks of a game is to be able to dilate your time a bit with exploration instead of hearing “Hey, Over here. What are you doing over there? Just be here. You’re trying to get that collectible? No! F*** that collectible, look at me and do this thing, screw what we said about exploration, do this thing, hurry, listen!”.
The very cool thing about this game (a personal favorite of mine) is that it features FMV cutscenes. However, not like your traditional FMV game since it still has in game cutscenes, but instead has FMV episodes that cater to your choices made prior. It’s completely segmented in a sense that you play your chapter of gameplay, then you have a junction for a major decision and then an episode to end that Act. Now the interesting thing is that the major choices that affect the game are not made by the protagonist, but instead you take control of the enemy during the junction and make decisions for them. This puts the player in an uncomfortable position as it would be intended that you think of the best possible move for them instead of your protagonist. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for playing chess with myself. Although, to have to forget knowledge that your protagonist knows and the antagonist wouldn’t can be difficult when making these decisions. Regardless, I enjoyed the story (ignore my loved bias of FMV), though it wasn’t award winning, and the gameplay was competent enough. The guns were kind of bland, but the time manipulation powers made up for it as your tools to use, but not so much depend on.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? It may be a buggy mess, but an enjoyable ride none the less.
Challenge Me #1
I certainly appreciate getting challenged to a SuperGiant game as experience (Pyre) has shown that they know how to develop a game. The music, the art, the gameplay, and the story were all outstanding and proves this developer knows what they are doing. You play a used to be Singer and now mute who carries around a talking sword after an assassination attempt in a dystopian cyber world that is falling to ruin under attack by these robotic creatures. The gameplay is a mix between action and turn based as you combine the skills you earn in any manner and strategize your attacks. The music is probably the best part of this games as it is melancholic, serene, and simply mesmerizing (I listed to the ost before I played this game, and will listen to it well after). Same too could be said about the art as it mixes a level of detail, artistic style, and color that really bring this world alive.
Lewd? Hm… no.
Recommend? Very much so, truly a great game. Though the combat may not pique everyone’s interests, I have yet to hear of someone who didn’t like some aspect of this game.
Now this… this is the cyber futurist game I was looking for. It had so much more of a Ghost In the Shell feel with both it’s surroundings, graphics, and gameplay. Graphics may not be everything, but when creating a cyber futurist setting it certainly helps, especially when being put in a city. Much like rest of the series, you get to choose between stealthy and action approach, as well as varying augments and weapons to aid you on your path to vengeance. The world is open, not so much so that there is a lot of empty space, but enough to where there are plenty of side quests and interesting places to explore. The story and world building around you held a bunch of ethical and moral questions in regards to Cyber implementation of humans (much like Ghost in the Shell) while still keeping you towards your own goal on taking the lives that took yours (in a manner of speaking). There was a slight pacing issue near the end of the game, but enjoyed it none the less.
Lewd? Not a chance.
Recommend? I would highly recommend one this out of the rest of the series, particularly if you are into cybernetic games.
This certainly was an interesting trip. It kind of felt like a more ridiculous Baldur’s gate where you are in a typical CRPG setting where you can either be a rogue, warrior, or mage (though realistically you can assign your points as you want) and adventure off as the chosen one to defeat the great evil. The silliness comes in a lot of the encounters where you find a random cart crash between a dwarf and human bickering or skeletons dying by having existential thoughts. The game itself is pretty old school hard, particularly as a mage (as you don’t regenerate mana naturally unless you sleep, and buying mana potions or creating them can be expensive). The enemies too can be pretty brutal as even with some of the best stats and skills may not be enough to easily best many late game enemies. Fairly voice acted and decent art give this game a passing score on overall aesthetics. I would say my main issues were along the lines of ridiculously difficult rooms and final level where you fight many waves of enemies or the fact that you can’t reuse bottles after emptying them (in order to create potions you have to have an empty bottle, but whenever you drink one you seem to throw the bottle away… not very recycle friendly it seems).
Lewd? Not quite.
Recommend? Honestly, this game just doesn’t age well, and can’t really recommend it to the general public. Answer: No.
As a fan of Suda51, and even before then, I have always wanted to get my hands on this game. Even until up to the last minute of gameplay I did not know what to expect. You play as 7 killers from the group of assassins known as Killer7. This isn’t a regular group as they are basically different personas that you can change on the fly, level up, and resurrect. Each persona has their own weapon of choice and abilities to traverse the world around you.
The actual gameplay of this has you transition from third person movement to first person (albeit somewhat clunky i.e. turning your aim is not as accurate one might prefer.) shooter to destroy these explosion creatures known as Heaven’s Smile that stand in the way of you and your targets. Each chapter has you finding and facing off against wildly different targets that have their own theme and goals, but in the end manipulated and twisted by Heaven’s Smile. The game is as weird and don’t care attitude as most of the Suda51 games are known for. All in all it was enjoyable for at least a 1 time around, though I am unsure if I will ever go through it again.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? It’s always hard to recommend a Suda51 game as they tend to be weird and niche. I suggest a sale or a demo if able.
Kind of a generic puzzle game that just doesn’t give any satisfaction for completing a level. Move a block to capture up to three stars and the goal all the while avoiding snakes that track you. Generally pretty easy, but it seemed like some of the later levels were simply impossible to 3 star later on.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Also No.
Rhythm game with an intensity that I have never experienced before. You are a creature going very fast down a lane towards your ever evolving enemy and must use the beat to survive. You will need to hit notes, shield bars, make sharp turns among other movements to get across obstacles. The music itself is pretty ambient and fueled by the sounds made by your interactions with obstacles, a sort of dark and heavy sound. I did find some of the visuals a little too intense at times where it blinded me slightly from imminent dangers. Something that can be overcome with a little replaying, foresight, and hindsight, but still is a bit distracting. Generally an enjoyable challenge, have yet to try it out in VR, but imagine it might be a little much and likely to cause motion sickness.
Lewd? No Lewd, only beats.
Recommend? Yes, an intense challenge that targets your reflexes, adaptability, and ability to see patterns.
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Persona- PS1
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Persona
A friend has been hounding to play Persona 5, and so in response I told him I would… after I play through the rest of the series. As opposed to the stylish aura the 5th installment gets, this one leans far more heavily on horror aspects as the world is being invaded by demonic forces. It still remains some silliness as you can contact enemies in order to give you their ever so valuable spell cards (needed to create more Personas) including but not limiting to dancing or flirting them to your side. You will not only be leveling up your characters, but leveling up your personas as well.
Synopsis: After a seemingly harmless game to summon Personas (sort of a spirit that has power in reflection of your personality [is this a stand attack?]) lightning strikes you and your fellow high school classmates. For the most part things are okay besides some hospital visit until the world is distorted and demons begin attacking you. Use your personas, guns, and melee to defeat these demons, create new personas, and destroy the person inviting these demons to this world.
The greater crime of this game is that it is poorly translated and explained. Most abilities don’t have explanations of what they do until you already obtain them. This becomes more of a problem when you need to sacrifice your hard-obtained spirit cards into personas who you wouldn’t know were decent or not unless you get a guide. Even then, most guides seem to be inconsistent at best. This holds true to knowing all the element types, contact successes with demons, and general path finding, and teammate recruiting (unlike most JRPGs, you can only recruit if you have room in your party, so if you already accepted everyone that came to you so far, you become out of luck and miss out on some greater allies). Still, as a JRPG it felt different from the rest with a great soundtrack.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? I’d maybe check out the re release that was put on the PSP (if able) as I assume it addresses most of my concerns. So, a solid maybe.
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Hyaaa! Another generation of Link and easily the most important as it is the splitting point of the two major timelines. Even after all these years, there were still plenty twists and turns that kept me surprised and engaged. It was particularly interesting all the ways you got information or equipment in unique and unusual ways. You get your typical LoZ combat system and dungeon crawling progression.
This game certainly is a great entry in the series, but couldn’t help but feel the faults the lie in the game. Let’s get the meme and most well known issue out of the way… Navi. This wasn’t helped by the fact that a game I played alongside this had a similar issue. You’d almost constantly hear this fairy annoyance saying “Hey, Listen! Watch Out!” quite frequently and flash it’s name in your face. This was probably to help guide the player, but I don’t need this every five seconds while I’m trying to fight an enemy or make my way through the area that it’s telling me to go. 9/10 times it didn’t even give any helpful information. My other issue with this game is that some things that are required for you to get don’t seem like they are. I.E. Gaining a particular spell to enter a tomb, meant going to what would have otherwise seemed as a random exploration rather than a semi guided passage. This occurs in various other ways as far as solutions to puzzles or general combat. Otherwise the difficulty in this game is pretty tame and just sets up for an enjoyable experience.
Lewd? No, but everyone seems to want Link.
Recommend? Hyaa! (Yes)
April 2020
Nailed it, I know. Thank you. Moving on.
Thanks to the Challenge Me this month to help expand my backlog assassinations.
Description:
Dating VN with mechs. What could have been great was squandered with the typical poor writing/visuals of Dharker Studios.
Synopsis:
You are a new student at a mech combat school where wars are decided through a mech competition amongst countries. You find out that you have an unusual talent for syncing with your mech and assigned three female co-pilots that you must choose to train and interact with to assist in your battles.
Review:
My immediate issue with this game was the formatting of the template and words. The font and background for the words displayed looked as if they were meant to give the feeling of a grade school rather than a privileged and high-end combat school it sets itself out to be. The key to success in this game is finding out the personality type of each of your copilots, so that when you take that person into battle, you know what actions to take. Instead of slowly learning what kind of person each girl is and taking the time to know them, you are immediately told which on likes to get up close, which one likes to be tactics, and which one likes to decide as they go. This removes any sort of real development between you and the other characters. The one plus that this did have, albeit minor, is that the fights got more interesting as you met new ones. However, in the end it wasn’t much or enough to really make this a particularly great or good game.
Recommendation:
Not particularly
Lewd?
Yes, potential lewdie nudie scenes available, though mostly nudie with some lewdie text. 😉
Challenge Me #4
A series I was also tempted to take on, but never took the time. A dark cybernetic future where you play JC Denton a cybernetic secret agent of sorts working to take on those who would terrorize the government. It’s not as black and white as conspiracies arise and these terrorists believe the government is responsible for the shortage of treatment for this illness. What is right, what is wrong? This is for you to decide as you must also make the decision on stealthy or action approach, lethal or non-lethal, and what upgrades and augmentations to assist you in your actions.
Generally, I enjoyed the game. It felt much like System Shock and appealed to my interest in this sort of cyber futuristic setting. Unfortunately, it has not aged all that well. It’s overly dark settings, plain scenery, and general lack of directions made it easy to get lost in this semi open environment. A particular dislike of the game was the general uselessness of tranquilizers as it was a over time effect rather than immediate, regardless of where it hit the enemy. This made stealth much more annoying. Certain augments/abilities could only be gained if you found the correct item. This potentially means you could go a whole game without a certain ability because you missed the specific item rather than letting you get points to distribute as such. The story was pretty decent despite these issues and each choice in the end had enough weight to consider what action JC should take.
Recommend?
Yes with a grain of salt. As mentioned, it is an older game and it shows. However, it’s gameplay and overall is good enough to suggest to those who enjoy the theme and willing to overcome an older game.
Lewd?
No, through you can hire a working girl… just don’t’ forget the soy.
A sequel to the original and instead of following a specific ending to the first it sort of combines all of them and puts it into the plot and setting of this. Instead of following JC, you are some sort of augmented trainee who is now put into service after an attack at your academy. You now face dilemmas between the World Health Organization and a radical church meant to free humans from bionic enhancements… among other factions living in this society.
I would easily say this was the worst installation in the series. On the up note, augments/abilities can use generally any upgrade item (aside from black market canisters) and your only real limit is your choice. You do however run into many of these and quickly find yourself with very little reason to do side quests that offer them as their value quickly drops. The combat is decent enough, and direction is generally clear.
On the worse note, this game is just generally a mess. This game spawned during a very awkward plastic-like time for gaming. It’s overall graphics were not good, permanently changes screen resolution without returning it to your preferred setting, and would mini crash you to the desktop on it’s very frequent loading screens (You would know this if you are a friend on Steam, as you would get a notification I was playing the game during my loading screens.). It also removes the ability to upgrade skills (hacking, lockpicking, etc.) which oversimplified the game a little bit and loses some of its interest. It does keep the multiple ending aspect of the series, but the choices that lead to those endings were all pretty terrible as were the endings themselves.
Recommend?
Absolutely not?
Lewd? Not even once.
I had previously beaten this game a while back, but spent just about the same time it took to beat the game added to complete it. At first look it seemed to be more lenient in it’s completion standards compared to it’s previous installment. This quickly changed when going into the gacha game known as figure battles that nearly require a fully upgraded meta team and on top of that a side quest that requires you to do nearly 90 replays in order to fully finish it. Still, it is done, dusted, and forever completed.
Challenge Me #2
A visually beautiful puzzle game that gives you perception and movement as your tools in order to solve these obstacles. It provides a relaxing setting with generally enjoyable challenges. I’m not too much of a fan of the narration your character does throughout the game.
Recommendation?
Yes, Short, Sweet, Challenging.
Lewd? Lewd is just a perspective, one that is not seen here. After all what does a god need with lewds.
Challenge Me #1
I took quite a prolonged break from the base game, but was dragged back into thanks to the Challenge Me challenge this month. The extra plus side to this particular one is that you do only have the one map so this game doesn’t end up feeling like the job it can be if you play enough of it. It does have the same task as the original, cleanup a bloody mess, but adds new challenges to face such as disposing of the ever-problematic dynamite. A great change of pace to my usual games.
Recommendation?
Yeah, though must be able to stand blood and all sorts of dismembered limbs.
Lewd?
Santa baby, the only thing coming down that chimney tonight is viscera.
Challenge Me #5
Rhythm based roguelike that requires both practice and groove to feel the rhythm of the game and your enemies. Despite my greater regret, I’m not very good at rhythm games and thus took some time for me to get good enough to actually beat it. Still, very enjoyable with a neat little story. I really enjoyed the fact that you do get to unlock more characters that jam to their own beat, something I would like to see in more games today. It also has a great soundtrack, which is often a very make or break for games of this caliber.
Recommend?
Very much yes.
Lewd?
You get your fair share of bones and beats, but nothing in the sheets. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) (That means no).
Puzzles! And a lot of them. Had to define what “beating” this game meant as completing a pack of puzzles, but in a game with thousands of achievements will certainly take time to complete. Floating pieces on the side of the board to pick from so they don’t become stagnant, a tray to organize pieces better, and various tools that provide general quality of life. This includes all variations of Pixel Puzzles games to buy, and if you already own a variation it should be automatically updated into the Ultimate game itself. With it being digital, you also do not worry about taking your masterpiece apart and cleaning up either.
Recommend?
Like puzzles, then this is the game for you.
Lewd?
You may be putting two perfect pieces together, but nothing that leads to lewds or nudes.
A highly anticipated remake as I had my fair share of issues with the original (mostly the final fight). Though it was a little bit shorter than I would have liked, I still absolutely loved the gameplay and new designs of all the characters. Nemesis was just as aggressive and scary this time around as his pursuit was just as vicious as his last. The new dodge ability, although a bit strong, required great timing and knowledge of your enemies. Even in later runs I still didn’t have it down perfectly, but was useful against the larger horde of enemies and the ever dangerous Nemesis himself. Again, I wish there was more content, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay that was there and think it was well worth the price. Further emphasis were put onto characters as Carlos gets a more consistent in interesting role as well as his own ability opposed to Jill’s dodge mechanic (a solid right hook 😉)
Recommendation?
Absolutely, a more focused and modernized version of a RE classic should be great for both new and old fans. Though there was some cut content, so for those who loved the original may find issues with that. I wasn’t so hung up, personally.
Lewd? Nope.
Proof that Resident Evil Multiplayer games in the age where multiplayer is so much more prominent always fail. In what could have been just another installment of RE: Outbreak (a survival multiplayer game that held various scenarios, but released in a time when multiplayer gameplay wasn’t so viable) series was turned into a poorly made 4 v 1 game that only wishes it could be Dead by Daylight. You either pick Mastermind or Survivor to play in each match and goes through up to three rounds. Each round must complete objectives (first: puzzle pieces, second: security override, thirds bio research destruction and escape) while the mastermind uses a deck of spawns to delay and efficiently kill the survivors. It is purely time based, any damage or death loses the survivors time, while killing enemies and completing objectives granting time. Survivors can respawn. The Survivors have a base set of skills and inventory space to loadout at shops. Masterminds have decks of spawns as well as unique summons to them (various bio weapons unique to them).
The greater issue to this game is the inequality of the game. Survivors have a huge advantage as the mastermind cannot customize their deck until having leveled up considerably, furthermore you have to level up a mastermind to unlock the next, so for the first x hours you will be stuck with Annette Birkins with a default deck before you can get the next. You’ll have to play many more hours before you even have a chance to provide a challenge to even base survivors. With all these issues you can figure that the game is relatively dead despite their promise to continually update it with new characters and maps.
Recommendation?
Not a chance. Really a waste of what could have been when they could have used the time to improve R3make or even introduce another Outbreak game. Guess it shows another reason they ended up including it “free” with R3make.
Lewd?
Nope.
Challenge Me #3
Certainly in the same vein of the rest of the serious at it continues to grow exponentially sillier or more chaotic. I definitely appreciated it’s relative shortness as it can get quite stale, particularly noticing it when I was attempting to complete it. I wouldn’t go as far to say it was my favorite of the series, but definitely an enjoyable ride… plus you get to play as Gat.
Recommendation?
Yes. Saints Row craziness in a fun bite sized adventure.
Lewd?
Not a chance in hell.
A Rogue-like Dungeon Crawler that draws much inspiration from older Legend of Zelda games amongst the rest. This game was recommended by a friend and at first I enjoyed the Zelda like adventure. However, the realization of the rogue-like aspects eventually diluted its potential and felt like another run of the mill game. Had it been more of a scripted and beginning to end game rather than just a continuously reincarnating character, it might have had more significance and impact.
Recommend?
It’s decent enough, but not particularly special. I can’t really recommend it, but not enough to say it’s bad.
Lewd?
Plunge your swords, but no lewds.
A weird Point and Click adventure that follows a fairly fantasy adventure in a world based from a book. You are a prisoner of Carthage sentenced to die, until you escape and set to seek revenge and freedom from the capital city. As most Point and Click adventures I have played so far, the solutions to various puzzles and progressions can be unclear or down right bizarre. Unfortunately, I ran into a problem with travel on a map where after selecting the destination it would not progress. Occasionally Alt+Tab would make it move a small amount, but was inconsistent at best. As I could not progress with no solution in sight, this somewhat charming game had to be dropped.
Recommend?
Not in this state.
Lewd? Skimpy clothing, but nothing more.
Steam R18 Mentions
Cockwork Industries: Complete
I felt this was too lewd to actually generate a panel to even link this game and feared it might even break some rules set by BLAEO. It was more lewd than your typical VN, and suppose you might even get that form the main title. The main character wins a Willy Wonka like adventure with a company that focuses its effort on enhancing sexual adventures. To very little surprise you get your own escapade in this game in a very cheesy story line. The characters have their own personalities and routes that have not much more depth than the clothing they where. Generally decent.
Non-Steam Games
2
41Certainly a long anticipated game for many including me, despite only having actually beaten the original somewhat recently. FF7 is beautiful! In terms of graphics it truly is a marvel. Since it only sets in Midgar (in the original that was only about an hour or two of the gameplay) a lot of the story gets fleshed out. I was particularly happy to see members of Avalanche actually have some character story and development to them, but I wasn’t always pleased with all of the voice acting (only Wedge really).
Getting to re meet Aeris/Aerith, Tifa, Barrett, and everybody else again felt so fresh and amazing. Lack of surprise encounters means you don’t have to deal with excess battles you don’t want to fight, and the action jrpg aspects mixed with some ATB aspects flowed well. The game does have a slightly more serious tone, but still keeps quite a lot of the silly charm the original had.
My greater issue with this game is the robot hand section did not need to be fleshed out above all things. Merely an annoyance that last too long. As well, the addition of these a new plot device was introduced. Whispers, which was sort of talked about in the original. They seek to correct any changes they attempt to do. It sort of feels like a cop out, to make the viewers believe they are changing the story, but actually not. SPOILERS: As well in the end, it gives the sense that there will be major changes down the road, but it’s hard to say at this time. Either way, it gives a sense of unease. Not a major issue here, but Sephiroth is just about every where in this game instead of making an eventual dramatic entry. The plus side to this is You actually get to fight Sephiroth for the first time in FF7 (human form). Still, they are getting a tad bit over excited and teasing us a little too much.
All in all, I loved this game and can’t wait for the announcement of the next episode. Though I do have some concerns how they will handle a more open world, I will put my hopes into the future of FF7 Remake.
Recommend?
So much yes.
Lewd?
I mean drag Cloud is cute along with Aerith and Tifa, but nothing too lewd… unless they chop it off. 😉
There was a bit of a rollercoaster ride with this game. I love the premise of being a member of Organization XIII #13 Roxas (which Organization #13 is probably my favorite part/group/plot) of the series. Working for the bad guys and finding out what kind of nobody you really are. As opposed to the rest of the series, the inventory/skill system is once again revamped to panel management where you are essentially playing tetris to fit everything you can. As well, the story is now mission based where you complete various objectives per mission. This was a bit off setting, but not so bad until you get an excess of the ever so terrible investigation missions. These missions involved you looking for small differences or unique pixels in the worlds you visit in order to determine the situation there. Unfortunately, it can be hard to figure out what exactly needs to be investigated and the end results of your investigation can be minimal and slow paced. Past those the combat is still solid and the boss fights are rather enjoyable. Story wise, getting to see Roxas, Axel, and Xion enjoy ice cream on the ledge of a tower created quite an enamoring set of halcyon days to follow.
Recommend?
Yes to fan favorites of the series, but nothing to go out of your way for.
Lewd?
Nope, got it memorized?
March 2020 Business as Usual
Not a particularly great VN, but it is relatively simple and short with a small twist at the end. You are typical otaku who quit school after a “harsh” rejection. One day after buying your favorite lewdy video game, you run into a naked girl who is in panic by the fact that she is naked. You eventually take her in and a relationship of sorts (depending on your choices) forms.
…It really is that basic and with its relatively uninspiring story and premise, I would have thought this was free to play. Perhaps it’s the potential lewd content that we are paying for? Hm… meh.
As I said, it’s not bad, just not particularly interesting or innovative.
Recommendation? Not really, maybe for the equivalent of $1.
Lewd? Kinda. A lot more implying lewd than actual lewd besides a few basic nudie scenes.
The long-anticipated sequel that reinvented and modernized RIP AND TEAR! The latest installment in the DOOM series not only confirms that it is connected and a continuation of all the previous games, but also improves on everything that came before it.
Movement has not only become essential, but amazing as you now have the ability to dash twice (either ground or air) and can now leap from bars to increase your mobility while destroying the demons in your path. A lower ammunition count has you utilizing your full arsenal giving the game a decent difficulty increase without particularly going down the path of making bullet sponge enemies. This also forced the need to use the chainsaw in order to refuel ammo supplies. I didn’t mind this too much other than having to deal with a specific enemy, and I will get to that in a second. As well, each weapon has its own particular perk against certain enemies. For example, you can now throw grenades into the mouth of a Cacodemon and it will automatically stagger (unfortunately it has a cartoony ‘gulp’ sound effect) or to more easily destroy a part on an enemy.
Enemies as a whole were enjoyable and recreating enemies from DOOM II were generally given abilities for the better. Its where new enemies came in that there were particular issues. Tentacles that pop out of select areas on the ground require a face (imagine the tentacle having a face) full of buck and only pop out when you are within range with barely amount of time to dash away (if the surrounding area allots that). The Marauder came out to be this badass enemy, that very quickly turned into an annoying fight as he has a impenetrable shield and the only real way to deal consistent damage is by attacking him during a very specific windup. This not only interrupts the natural flow of the games fast pace freedom and is generally unenjoyable. Other than that, most enemies had their own interesting play to add to the various arenas, with the slight downside of some of them not being as intimidating as they once were.
The Soundtrack is great as always and provided suitable and fitting background music to your environment and obstacles.
The story has quite a bit more lore as it is firmly and officially inserting itself and it’s prequel into the DOOM timeline. The biggest problem with story is that it skips several years between DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal where much has changed and they don’t really explain what happens between then and now. You can find some documentation of events that have happened during that time, but it doesn’t seem satisfying. On the other hand, it is a fact you can get over quickly as you get into the action.
Recommendation? Overall Yes, the fast-paced shooter with a good balance of difficulty and badassery give a great thrill. This is particularly great if you are a fan of the series, FPS, and don’t mind the limited ammo count (which seems to be the more common issue that people have with the game).
Lewd? No, no need for lewd. Only Rip… and Tear.
There isn’t too much to play of this currently as there is no single play, limited player base, and matches you join will often require you to download an excessive amount of assets to download.
A sort of cut episode and justly so as having it integrated seemed out of place and kind of random at that. Essentially the combine has a constant artillery strike against a town on the coast. Your task is to stop the artillery fire before you can move on with your mission. There isn’t too much to say about this other than that it is short and generally more Half Life 2 without really adding a whole lot. There is a commentary mode, where you can activate commentary icons to find out what they have to say about this level and generally making the game. I wasn’t particularly interested, nor did I feel like standing around to listen to some small random fact about this whatever of a level.
Recommendation? I mean… I’m pretty sure it just comes with Half Life 2, so I can’t really recommend against it as it is just more Half Life 2.
Lewd? Nothing past some nude headcrabs ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
A surprisingly decent VN coming from Dharker studios. The writing was decent with good visuals and a not entirely terrible premise that they often run themselves into. You are a woman manager who runs a lingerie shop. Due to a recent event you need to hire help to run it. Enter the three, potential, love interests. Three beautiful women who, for one reason or another, wish to apply for the job. The issue comes that you can only choose one, and depending on how you communicate with them decides how well the worker you chose fits the position. This is also one of the few Dharker studios games where someone (either you or your “party”) are actively trying to get in your pants. To put it better, you are generally just getting to know these girls as you make decisions on what to say and have them do at their job. True enough you have temptation thoughts, but that isn’t entirely out of reason for your average person in this situation. Not to mention even the protagonist tries to wipe away such thoughts, fully knowing her professional role and social standards. Overall, I was kind of impressed with this game and its writing and visuals.
Recommendation? Yes, it may not have the most exciting story, but it was one where I didn’t feel the want to skip through it all as soon as possible.
Lewd? Very much so. A fair bit of lewdy, strictly, women scenes and variety.
Biolapse Map
Alright, so despite getting all the achievements prior, Tripwire studio decided to release another bit of content to make me get just a few more. Biolapse is another map where it’s a bunch of small maps that you travel randomly between once you complete a wave. The bigger issue is the fact that it consists of mostly one to two small rooms. This never seems to be enjoyable and adds an uninteresting amount of difficulty as you don’t have much option for movement.
Either way, it is done and dusted and %100 again. Hopefully it stays that way.
Recommended? Not this map in particular.
Lewd? Nyet.
Side scrolling, Rogue-lite, SoulsBorne inspired game. You make your way through a series of levels that are generated differently every time with various drops and weapons/abilities/items to switch out to better your journey to face the king. As you defeat enemies and quickly make your way through levels you gain a special currency to use towards items/abilities to be added to the pool of drops and shops. Mastering the dodge, weapons, as well as combinations of abilities and items will help you as you will face relatively difficult enemies and boss battles. Once done with the main line, you are able to adjust the difficulty to not only do it again, but to face greater challenges ahead. The most offsetting bit of this game is the sort of humor that kind of just gets thrown in there. It doesn’t fit very well and seems a bit forced. A lot of the humor is interaction based, so you won’t have to face it more than you choose to.
Recommendation? Yes, fans of rogue-lite and Souls/Borne game will feel familiar settings and gameplay.
Lewd? Not even once.
To be honest… I didn’t think I would actually beat this game. A simple concept of going down a well proved challenging as you have a gun strapped to your boot and must destroy or avoid enemies on your way down. You have the option of stomping on them if they are safe to touch, which in return restores your ammo, or destroy them with your shooty booty. Either way, doing so will increase your combo counter until you touch a solid surface. A higher combo means better rewards, being more money, bigger ammo capacity, and health. This not only promotes strategy of when and how long to hold a combo, but also getting good enough to do this as you are falling through the various enemies and traps that lay below. There are 4 main areas in total, excluding the final fight, each have their own distinguished design, music, and enemy types that lay in your path. The transition between levels give you a randomized pool of upgrades to choose from which can make or break your run depending on your level of skill. As well as you go down, there are time stop rooms that will not interrupt your combo for landing, stops all enemies in their tracks, and either provides a money crystal or change in gun type with a health or capacity bonus for the rest of the run.
With all that information, this is actually quite a difficult game, and after many (many) runs only beat the game once.
Recommendation? Not for everyone as it can prove to be frustrating and maybe a little too simple in concept. However I do recommend it for a healthy challenge.
Lewd? Though you appear to be naked as you are all one color, there doesn’t seem to be anything past that. At least you have boots on.
FINALLY! After many years and several playthroughs of losing data on memory cards, not having a memory card at all, or having my PS2 laser die on me… I have finally been able to beat this game. Despite having to replay the beginning several times without actually making progress… it was worth it. I thoroughly enjoyed the story as well as all the characters that I had learned about by playing every other spin off Final Fantasy VII game besides the original (You are my boy, Zack). Though a major plot twist was already spoiled to me long ago, I was still surprised about all the other ones I found along the way. I also liked the combination of serious story telling while still being able to ease in the potential of silly dialogue or events. kiss King Dragon.
The combat holds pretty well for JRPG standards and most of the cast is likable and had to decide who to use as my main team. Though I started with Cloud, Aeris, and Tifa, my team eventually changed to gun only partners with Cloud, Barret, and Vincent.
The greater downsides to the game are more due to its age, among a few underwhelming or boring characters. Firstly, yes, the graphics are old and as about polygon as they get without being straight colorless shapes. Second, trying to pace the last point of no return was difficult as I got carried away with the story and wasn’t able to grind out in order to face the more difficult side quests. Though doing so would cause an issue of making the final boss far too easy considering how powerful you must be to face the Weapons. Third, grinding is a thing, and it’s not particularly been smoothed out at that day and age, nor is there a way to continue the world after or reset to a safe point without an alternate save.
Another downside is that some of your cast… just isn’t that interesting or good. Vincent for example has terrible Limit Breaks (ultimate attacks/forms) which render him uncontrollable once you use them. This goes for a few other characters, or their character just isn’t interesting as a whole.
I do plan to play through the game again and again with an ever changing main team and finally breed the ultimate chocobo, buuuuuuut FFVII Remake comes out soon and that will likely hold my attention for a while.
Recommendation? The graphics and battle system are a bit dated, but anyone able to get past that will be able to enjoy an iconic story and game in RPG history. I don’t believe it to be the best, but pretty damn good.
Lewd? Hmmm, maybe for trap Cloud and a tub full of muscle men ;3
With Half Life: Alyx having released that month, I decided to take some time to actually play the sequel to the beloved PC game Half Life. I had my issues with Half Life 1 and was hoping to see some improvements… and I did… I also saw some issues as well.
Overall, it takes place after Half Life 1 and you find yourself in quite the dystopia with the Combine controlling humanity. Though your efforts were not in vain and you are revered as a savior, Gordon Freeman. Combat is still fairly consistent, as well as general level design (if not better)… until you get to the ever so long airboat section. Still ever level felt generally necessary and never had the feeling “is this over yet?” (again omitting the airboat). Though I did have some issue where every chapter felt like, “Hey here’s this new mechanic/weapon/mission type. Do this for every encounter and then never again after that”.
The story telling has improved greatly, and the dialogue is great. The great downside for me (omitting the airboat) was character… more specifically Alyx. They really forced her in as a love interest, and she’s alright, but she doesn’t really do anything other than serve as a way to tell the story since we play the ever mute Gordan Freeman. Even the actions she does, likely could have been handled by our smart crowbar-wielding scientist. My dislike of her only grew in Episode 1, but we’ll get to that in the right place at the wrong time.
Recommendation? Yes! Quite enjoyable, and still stands pretty well compared it it’s prequel.
Lewd? Nope, but watch out for that crowbar flying at you from down the hall…
It’s more Half Life 2, but this time you are handcuffed to Alyx who insists on believing she is helping all the while being in constant danger to the world around you. Probably my least favorite entry to the Half Life 2: Episodes as it just doesn’t feel all that great and levels are not terribly interesting.
Recommendation? I mean yes, only to proceed to the much better episode.
Lewd? Not a once.
More Half Life 2… but we are finally free of Alyx. What’s better? We get a kick ass Vortigaunt sidekick for quite a bit of it as well. The levels were interesting, challenging enemies, and a thrilling final fight. Can’t say much more than a great Episode for the second installment of the series.
Recommendation? Very much yes.
Lewd? Nope, but protect your gnome
After so many years, there is finally another Half Life game. This time you are Alyx Vance, my previously detested character of the series and it’s in VR. Certainly a bold move to go to a technology that is still very much in it’s infancy (it also questions if this is something they plan to continue supporting), but they handled it quite well and showed how VR technology could be a little bit more matured and smooth. Being able to draw on surfaces, gravity pull items from the ground, and a mix of enjoyable gunplay and reloading made for a rather pleasant experience. Unlike most VR games, this was actually quite long. I believe my initial run took me about 9ish hours when most other VR give me 1 or 2.
I’ll have to admit, Alyx grew on me a little more this time around. Maybe it’s because I was in control of her actions and so it felt like she did more than be a potential mission failure was nice. Her dialogue was also fitting of the Half Life universe and her character.
Recommendation? I wouldn’t necessarily go out and buy a VR just for this game, but if you already have one, definitely a worthy title to add to your VR collection.
Lewd? Nothing outside of the combination of a marker, a flat glass surface, and your imagination.
Halo Combat Evolved
We are back, but this time outside of reach. Halo Combat Evolved is the original Halo that started it all. As it being the first, it has many issues. The campaign is easily one of my least favorite of the series as most of the levels re use rooms and hallways to an excessive extent. This gets to the point where the only way you can tell you are going the right way is by the either still living enemies or the corpses you use to to breadcrumb your way through. The level design in general isn’t great. Often you find yourself in an open hallway, no cover and a pack of enemies waiting for you. This might not be an issue on most difficulties but does not provide much strategic play.
The more unique thing with this game is that at a push of a button, you can switch between the original graphics as well as the remastered. Using remastered graphics can cause issues as objects that have bigger more shapely sizes in the original can block shots in what appears to be the open spaces in the remastered. As well, remastered option gives you the ability to find these terminals that give cinematic lore snippets. This does have a downside as it does not pause the game, and enemies can still kill you while you are watching.
The multiplayer aspect leaves a weird taste in the mouth. As it was the first multiplayer of the series, it undoubtedly had kinks. Boy… is it bad, but it’s the sort of bad that made it fun. Fun, because it didn’t really feel bad if you did poorly, because it just didn’t feel it mattered as much.
Recommendation? Overall yes, the game set what is known to be a great and unique series, highly revered to this day.
Lewd? Aside from the snarky data covered nude AI you carry in your head for most of the game… nope.
Puzzle game that throws you into the objective of saving the suns. You must collect solar energy orbs and shoot them into the nearby sun(s). Doing that all the while trying not to run out of fuel, heat shield, or being blown up by various objects. Each mission gives a potential three stars, though it is quite difficult as you need to meet either a time, fuel usage, or shield consumption criteria which knowledge of the map and the ability to use precise movements with the games physics in order to get the three star.
Recommendation? Eh, the game is okay, but never really felt satisfied by completing any of the levels. So… a hard maybe.
Lewd? It may get hot, but not lewd.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
I finally took the time to get back into this game, beat the final main dungeon and face off against Calamity Ganon. This game receives a lot of praise, and I’ll admit I did enjoy it. It is solid. However, I don’t believe it to be as great as many pushes it to be. Yes, it is very open, being able to climb everything is interesting, and the wide variety of weapons that can break provides a situation we don’t’ really face quite the same in the previous entries. However, just because it is big doesn’t mean it didn’t feel empty. Finding 900 pinecones (korok seeds) doesn’t warrant all the empty space that I felt was there. The large number of small shrines doesn’t warrant the main dungeons lack of substance. Further the combat system doesn’t warrant the absolute bore of boss battles that the game provided. The boss battles felt they required very little skill and were barely unique besides the one element they reside with. Furthermore, the last boss battle is a joke if you complete the story as you are supposed to, as it reduces his health by half and provides just as much difficulty as the bosses before him. This makes me feel like I should just run up to the final fight (which you can) from the start of the game and fight him then to at least enjoy the fight a little more. Again, it is a good game, but as far as my rating is concerned it does not meet the hype and praise that people give it.
Recommendation? Yes
Lewd? No, but Zelda does ask you to eat her frog. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
December, January, and February
So… I definitely have been putting off my monthly updates for a while. So much so that I ended up writing up my reviews/thoughts all in one night at the last minute. Thus, this is going to be a bit of a mess and maybe not completely coherent or grammar correct. Luckily, for better or for worse, I haven’t actually had time to play games a whole lot due to having a vacation, getting sick on vacation, going to conventions, starting a 7 day work week schedule, etc. It has been hectic and busy to say the least. Anyways, away we go.
January
Supposedly a must have for VR, but not one that I would recommend. Moving around by swinging arms made motion unpleasant. The combat could have been great as it was a gladiator game, but ruined by the weapons being made of rubber. Instead of going for a somewhat realistic and satisfying victories, your weapons just flop around and most of your attacks are better of you wiggling around a bunch. To access different levels, menus and settings were a pain and clunky. Overall this game was kind of a gimmick that only really tested the fields of VR and lost upon a bunch of potential in my eyes.
Hack the planet. Okay not actually, but a surprisingly good hacking game that employs a lite version of actual hacking. It favors people who have some semblance of hacking or coding, but is simplified enough and even provides a visual UI with buttons that makes it even easier if you so choose. Overall, really enjoyed this and looking to get the DLC when my budget allots.
A wonderful gift by the most secret-est of santas. Always a game I was tempted to get every sale and regretted not getting each time. To be honest when I started playing I was slightly worried I wasn’t going to like it as it was a little slow and not as metroidvania as I thought. However, as you progress the game slowly becomes a little more complex, with beautiful visuals and music. Although it wasn’t the metroidvania that I thought it was going to be, it was still a great journey and recommend to any.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection – Halo Reach
It is time to finish the fight again, as we continue the great journey. It was great coming back to Halo despite it not being an overly favorite series of mine. Reach itself is one of my top Halo games next to Halo 2. The campaign is great as always, very engaging and enjoyable levels. The multiplayer however generally solid has a real bad case of a handicap for those with controllers. Eventually I learned to stop caring as controllers had the immediate advantage, but for a while… it felt bad being a keyboard and mouse user. I would have liked to see a wider variety of maps, but
Ever wanted to work in border control? Probably not, but this game has you do just that and at least provides a more interesting scenario with a country in conflict with itself and those around it. The game starts out simple enough with a set of rules, but as the game progresses and letting people in can become more complicated requiring them and you to follow an ever changing entry criteria that can have you make a mistake and let the wrong person in or send an honest person away. It doesn’t really stop there as there are multiple points where the story can end, and you have to do well enough to keep your family in good health. Enjoyable, but takes a lot of concentration and time with a little bit of a slower pace to it.
A lot of anticipation for the reboot of my favorite entry of one of my favorite series in gaming and… it did not disappoint. Though it adopted the point and shoot system introduced in Resident Evil 4, it still had a solid element of survival horror and strategy. Rationing ammo and herbs, solving puzzles, and having to really look and listen to the world around you to decide whether you engage, or run was generally well crafted. Generally, this was a great game, but it did have it’s faults. The boss battles as a whole just felt really lack luster and spongey. Though the previous entries didn’t involve a huge amount of in battle strategy, they at least felt like a bit of a fair challenge rather than annoying wide area tracking moves. Not to say it’s difficult battles just… annoying.
If the old RE games weren’t your cup of tea, this will be a good RE-introduction to the series. A solid meld of old meets new.
Annnnnnnd, we’re back in the past with an older game, but follows Leon after the events of RE2. You are now super cool secret agent tasked with a mission to save the president’s daughter in another country. That’s right, it sounds like a plot straight out of an 80’s action movie, and its dialogue and gameplay follow through. It has some elements of horror and helplessness early on for newcomers, but very quickly thrown out the window as you run, gun, and can never quite get enough inventory space to fit your boxes of ammo. Though it may not quite put the survival (or horror) for that matter that the series is known for, the game still follows the general plot line of the series with enjoyable gameplay. The bigger issue is that despite it runs smoothly throughout the game at 60 fps, the quick time of events (which there are many) do not run at the same frames. So much so, that in some parts you have to exit to the menu to switch to a very ugly 30 fps to actually do them successfully. Though I’ve only really felt that in one or two of these events. So if the old RE games weren’t your style, and the reboots 2 meld of new and old aren’t quite your taste, play 4 where it is just pure action.
I didn’t play much of this due to it only having multiplayer and I don’t have any friends that can stick to one game without going back to the same two… unenjoyable games… that I didn’t quite get to play too many matches. Generally RTS is pretty mixed for me, but I enjoyed this quite a bit. Having small sets of areas around the planets that you have to jump to gave a sense of ease rather than the rush down strategies that some others employ. Though not quite as laid back where it takes 500 years for anything to happen or develop. It was a nice middle ground for pacing. Unfortunately, I don’t have too much else to say about it other than that if you enjoy RTS, you will probably enjoy this.
Generally good fighting game, though I feel having all sorts of mechanics revolving around specials/ultimates can kinda take away from that. There is generally no main story, with a heavy amount of time spent into a sort of choose your own adventure game that I kinda just fell out of. Outside of that the characters play relatively well. I haven’t really done any online so that’s where this review left off. Not the best fighting game, but an enjoyable one.
The Jackbox Party Pack 2
I finally got a chance to play this after using the remote play (even though we realized streaming the screen was just the better solution) to get all my distant friends to gather around and have essentially self-provided fun. Not every game is made equal as every game just about heavily relies on the crew you are bringing into the match and your degree of joke capacity. My particular favorites of this batch of games was Quiplash XL (create interesting responses to situations or phrases and match them against another person. The rest of the players vote to which one they like the best) and Fibbage 2 (a sort of trivia where the players must create a convincing answer in order to fool the others to thinking theirs is the right one).
Because you don’t just stop at one Jackbox pack (see Jackbox Party Pack 2 for the general idea of the packs). Favorites on this one includes
Trivia Murder Party (trivia with a twist, if you fail the answer you must play in a minigame with the other failed players and win to live. It doesn’t stop there though, even if one player is left alive they must contest with a series of multiple answer questions to keep their body to the goal, lest a ghost steals their body [and potentially the victory])
Tee K.O (create designs and slogans that other players must decide between to create weird or cool shirts that will be judged by the whole. An even more interesting twist is that after the game ends you have the ability to buy these shirts).
And it continues… Favorites:
Patently Stupid (Create two problems that pools together and randomized for the other players and yourself to solve. Then you must draw a product, give it a name, and slogan to then present and convince the other players to invest in. The biggest problem with this game is it can require some thought and creative juices that we all eventually lost after a fair amount of plays)
Mad Verse City (A personal favorite. One on One rap battles, four lines per match. Don’t worry the first and third line are mostly written and unknown until you fill it’s adlib criteria (noun, place, things, animal, verb, etc.) and then create your own line to follow each one up. Create the dopest rhymes and the sickest burns to earn the votes of the player audience.)
Lastly… Favorites:
Trivia Murder Party 2 (More of the first entry (see Jackbox Party Pack 3) but with new trivia, minigames, and setting)
Joke Boat (Alright, I am now decided this isn’t great, only because I think it takes a very particular group to make this game mode successful. You write a bunch of words that players must insert into templates of jokes that they then must follow up with a good punch line. Their have only been a few successful creations, but the only real joy was following up with a partially made catch phrase)
Push the Button (A decent game that has the potential to be great. Depending on the size of the party at least 2 players are secretly an alien. Each round a player is rotated in as the captain to test at least 2 players with some minigame that has a prompt. The twist is that the aliens receive a different prompt from the humans. However, aliens can hack themselves to get the right prompt or others to give them an alien prompt. An investigation must happen in order to figure out friend verse foe and push the button to elect and eject the aliens. My issue with the game? It’s an all or nothing for the humans. This means if you don’t get both aliens when you decide humans will automatically lose and with bigger games it is really hard to tell who exactly the aliens are.)
After playing the final mix version of this game, I wanted to see how it faired on it’s original release console. Though it is still fundamentally the same game, it is far better suited on a console with a variety of buttons rather than the very limited Game Boy Advanced. It’s 2.5 D graphics are nice, but figuring out which layer of the floor you are on along with the enemy can be unclear. As well the limited amount of buttons means actions are mapped to very similar button combinations. For example to swap through your cards is left and right trigger, but to add cards to a combo you must press right trigger plus A (or something like that) which means if you are off slightly by a press you can not only swap the card you were on, but add the wrong card to your combo. Effectively this messes up the combo system which drives the combat of the game. Avoid this form of the game, and go for the remix/final mix.
The story in this game may not connect very well into the main series, but it serves as a decent run through the main story of KH1 and Chain of Memories while still providing its own continuation. Better yet it has a good thematic of pain, how one processes it, how we can deal with it, and what exactly pain means when it comes from others. Generally it’s good as it offers a varied customization level up system (similar to FFX), but then gets weird with its boss battles as most of them turn into weird mini games as opposed to the original style form the first game. Relatively to the rest of the entries, it’s okay and only recommended to die hard fans of the series.
January
Taking a second to switch it up with a fighting game. A typical 2D fighting game that has a combo heavy system but is more forgiving to players who mash and spam. Generally it’s very simple, following quarter circles that do a various versions of the same special. With this being a first entry of the series it faces a serious issue with far better characters than others, so if you are on a basic level, spam with Noelle with Jin and in higher tiers play Jin. Though I can only vaguely say of skill levels since I am 10 years too late to this series and even if online was a capability, I would be sorely mistaken in even trying to face another. The story is interesting, but following each character route can be annoying, confusing, or seemingly pointless plot wise. To add to any confusion each character has split routes that cause all sorts of mess and to truly get 100% you have to lose once in every battle to get every last bit of dialogue.
Free, a VN, and generally an advertisement. Despite two out of three of the above cases, it was an enjoyable and wild ride. Attend a cooking school along side a very beautiful and hunky Colonol Sanders as you not only try to win a cooking competition, but his heart. Though it’s not all about cooking as it follows very wacky anime/VN tropes, while still slipping in food art that will look better than any bucket of KFC could ever appear in real life. Meeting the man behind the VN was interesting and if things go well for him, I would look forward to seeing more of his and his teams games like this.
Always interested in this game, never got around to getting it until now. A puzzle based platformer where you must use blocks to climb the tower (lest you fall or something worse comes along) as each layer below you falls. It has a lot of interesting mechanics as far as moving and stacking these blocks as well as strategies to climb the various obstacles and tools at your feet. The story itself tells of a man, Vincent unsure about where he is at in life and more importantly his love life with long time girlfriend Katherine who wants to settle down. This is where Catherine comes in who only cares about the spur of the moment and living a free life, taking an interest in Vincent with an undeniable attraction towards her. But, while in the middle of this triangle, men are mysteriously dying in their sleep where they dream they are sheep who must climb for their lives. It deals with a delicate situation, and tests the morals of the player as they face moral questions and compares them to the rest of the player base as well as affecting the ending. Really enjoyed the game and story alike, where it’s replayability comes from the want to master the ways of the block strategies and climbing to get better scores for each floor/level.
Totally recommend (Despite the fact that while having the flu I had a really bad fever and couldn’t stop dreaming of solving and climbing block scenarios. Oddly enough, the fever disappeared after that night, though still going through the rest of the symptoms.)
February
If there is one particular developer I’m a fan of it is Suda51/Grasshopper Manufacture. The punk-style of gaming and full tilt wild action and weird just fit so well together, added to being exclusive to the ever weird console (the wii) fully utilizes its motion control capabilities for the better. Play Travis Touchdown a complete weird Otaku who also happens to be an Assassin set to be Numero Uno. He must climb the Assassin ranks in One on One fights as each Assassin is more different and bizarre than the rest. The worst part of this game is essentially its open world to accept missions, as well as needing to do side missions to even play the story mission, let alone buy new weapons, clothes, etc. The better part of this game involves the unique boss and memorable boss battles and it’s no care unrefined and comedic dialogue. It also offers a healthy challenge throughout the game. Challenging the player as they go making sure you aren’t too overpowered and become better as a player, but just enough where you never feel like you hit a wall that you can’t climb.
This sequel provides a lot of good and some bad from the previous entry. The good: No more open world, no more money requirements to play the next story mission, very direct with the boss battles which is my favorite part of the gameplay, the music, and the final boss fitting so well with the left field style of the game. The bad: The normal difficulty has been toned down greatly from the game where most bosses offer little to no challenge. It’s not until you beat the game and unlock the next difficulty where the bosses get a nice complexity them akin to the original game. Though most of the levels quickly progress to the boss fight, some levels take quite some time to get there and drag on for no real reason. Still love the game to death and looking forward to the third entry later this year.
KH3 Re-Mind DLC
Though I paid for this DLC without a second thought, there isn’t a doubt in my mind that this should have just been in the main game from the start. Not only does it provide much more needed context and background info, but has more of what was teased throughout the game and in the effectively Alpha version of the game, Fragmentary Passage. Still I enjoyed it greatly, and finally being able to face each member of the Real Organization XIII with challenging replica fights was refreshing.
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne DLC
A bold expansion to the base game which effectively adds an entire games worth of content (with an entire game’s worth of price for it). New area, new monsters, new variations of old monsters, new mechanics, new moves for each weapon, and new climate with the plus of additional monsters added later for no additional cost. The only crime this game pays is that after a little bit you don’t really visit the new ice map much, and to fight a specific monster you have to increase your hunter rank all the way to 200. Still a lot of fun, refreshing, and a lot of content to sift through, despite it still being a little grindy.
November Insert line here
Overall, I was impressed with this game. It’s consistant with the writing and stuck with it’s theme what those who lost their parents are left with, and how powerful that motivation can drive them. As a fan of Batman, I was mildly impressed by recreating interesting characters, while still pulling twists. However, perhaps it’s because it’s a Telltale game (choose your dialogue), but Bruce Wayne didn’t quite feel like Bruce Wayne. Just slightly off and closer to Rhys (Tales of the Borderlands, half-confident)
Recommend? Yes
Normally, I am into weird quirky games with odd mechanics (Deadly Premonitions, Killer 7, etc.), but this one is an exception. This just felt a terrible game all around that could have almost been good. Like if M. Night Shyamalan made a game. It’s story is bizarre, forced interests, and very much inconsistent. The gameplay is horrid as it the main meat of the game is a quick time events with a “Simon Says” aesthetic, with some alternating mashing of buttons, and small cases of investigating. I probably could have enjoyed this more if they cut all of the gameplay out of it and just made it straight into a movie.
Recommend? Nope, not looking forward to what other surprises David Cage (Director) has to offer)
Oh, FMV. Your charm is all to effective with me. This game is actually a part of an older Tex Murphy series that had Noir and FMV as their main tags. Despite being connected to previous entries, it doesn’t require any knowledge of them to understand the current narrative. The game itself is the standard detective game (find clues, use them to solve puzzles, question suspects/witnesses), but the real charm comes from the noir set in a future setting and more importantly from the actors themselves. As many FMV games go, the quality of acting can be all over the place. In that way it is kind of why I like it, but also for those whose acting just works. In particular Tex’s (main character) interactions and lines are done well and is a person you want to hear what they say or do in response to others.
Recommend? Yes. Must love FMV.
Your ship won’t stop accelerating and is out of control. You must shoot obstacles and enemies out of your way to stop yourself from crashing or it’s game over. The game is simple and easy to understand while providing challenging modes and later difficulties. Overall, nothing to special other than a quick time killer.
Recommend? Yeah, I guess.
Just want to start out that I experienced this game through VR, and so may differ from the non-VR version.
Play three different characters as you find information and choose your way to report it. Your dialogue and reports effect those you meet later on.
Having to decide styles of reporting (each character embodies a different form of reporting blogging, newspaper articles, and insurance claims) each style being cautious, edgy, and inflammatory. Each one determines the severity of social casualties to those around you and whether your boss is happy with your article or not. These decisions kind of felt to be a pain, and just wanted to near the end of what it was building up to. When you finally reach the end I could only say “That’s it?” as there didn’t feel to be any resolution and wanted to know what happened after the events.
As far as VR goes setting up the game as a play was interesting a good way to go about it, but also done unwell. There were times where dialogue choices hid behind obstacles, the camera would have trouble getting to the correct point of focus, and the characters will experience a similar issue where they can end up walking in circles (sometimes through objects) instead of going on their designed paths.
Recommend? No
Doom II is easily my favorite of the early Doom series, so when I found a new level pack in my library I was excited and expected more greatness. That didn’t quite pan out as I found most of the levels to be too big, confusing, and just generally unenjoyable.
Recommend? Not really…
Postal 2 generally fixed what I didn’t like about the first. The second game is far more comical and gives a better escape feeling than the first. The gameplay becoming first person and offering more interesting interactions just increased the quality tenfold. It still offers a bit of a messed up premise, but all in all a game is a game and does it the best way it can.
Recommend? Yes, just be okay with violence.
A mix between Super Smash Bros mechanics, a Street Fighter feel, and Mega Man styled characters/surroundings. It doesn’t’ particularly do all well and one of its main mechanics where parrying will cause the opponent to be stunned and will almost always cost them a life felt too easy to do and thus frustrating. The stories that follow each character also felt very bare, and had you do fights in between sentences of conversation where no fight would have happened up until you face the final fight, your rival.
Recommend? Maybe, but signs point to no.
The palate cleanser of my library as of late. Something about getting to escape real life being able to complete goals that roll into each day, whether it be farming, mining, slaying monsters, fishing, or just giving gifts and talking to your neighbors. Things I wouldn’t normally want to do in real life, but somehow satisfying in the virtual world. Though the game never truly ends, you do get to reach milestones and a sort of ultimate milestone to test how many accomplishments you can achieve.
Recommend? So much yes, Even as a person who wouldn’t normally be into this sort of chill sort of game.
October 2019 This… has turned into a spooky situation
This month both exceeded and failed expectations. On one hand, a lot of progress on the backlog and horror themed games are done and dusted. On the other hand I had planned to finally getting around to getting the last achievement for Evil Within 2 and playing Alien Isolation. I just couldn’t get myself to consistently play them, and remained oddly uninterested. Though I largely blame Alien Isolation for having such a long and slow beginning as well as annoying human encounters. Evil Within 2 on the other hand requires a lot of commitment and long bursts of playtime that I just don’t have in me right now. Onto other good news I caught myself up with all the achievements for Killing Floor 2 (all the available ones anyways), and now get to wait for their next updates to release more content and achievements… they will stop updating eventually right (I want that completion!)? Despite it being the season, I didn’t feel the Halloween vibe that I normally do, despite getting to see some classic horror films in theaters. Hopefully you all had a fun, festive, and more importantly spooky Spooktober! Anyways onto the summary!
Thanks to the monthly theme, I decided to go for the last few achievements of this game and mark it complete. It was still a bit of a slog to get through, and still don’t particularly recommend this game when there are much better point-and-click games with odd solutions.
Lewd? No
Recommend? Nope.
Easily the worst Dharker Studios game I have played. Way too long, boring premise, story that kind of is everywhere, and just so much nothing. You are stuck in the woods with three girls where you were supposed to be taken to an army camp. It takes too long, so you decide to move out and find your way back to civilization. Weird things happen in the woods, and certain situations can mean life or death. The three girls are pretty uninteresting and lack any character, two of them are pretty close to the same, while the other is a sex crazed stoner. I just wanted the game to be over, and it took way longer than I would have liked. Only to have to run through it all again to get every ending and achievement.
Lewd? Yeah, lots of scenes, some even slightly animated (patch only).
Recommend? No, literally even if you are going in it for the adult content, it’s not worth it.
Pretty sure I got this game for free, or really cheap. Either way, I was pretty unimpressed by it. The horror aspect of the game relies heavily on its grainy filter and grotesque imagery mixed with its blocky aesthetic. The story itself is very in your face with its theme on how doing anything to get yourself ahead of your job at others expense can haunt and destroy you. Fitting as you are a person who has to tell people they are being evicted form their houses because a bunch of greedy men want their way. However, it is generally just an uninteresting and maybe little too obvious of a story. The ending itself felt forced and maybe could have had a slight twist of letting you make at least one meaningful choice.
Lewd? Noop.
Recommend? Not really.
Now that Remote Play on Steam is a thing, decided to download a bunch of couch co-op games, such as this one, and clean up what achievements I could.
Lewd? Very, the whole game is about walking genitalia penetrating other walking genitalia.
Recommend? Maybe not so much for the story, but the mini games could be good with some friends for like… five minutes.
It was very surprising to find this to be the most optimized of the three seasons Sam and Max had to offer. I was actually able to get it to look like a more recent game and run smoothly too. This season had more of a conspiracy/horror/supernatural feel to it than the others, and quickly became my favorite of the three. Quality jokes, decent puzzles, and okay story made for another great Sam and Max episodic adventure. As per usual it centers around weird puzzles with even more bizarre solutions, and of course I would be lying if I didn’t need a guide once or twice to get me through them.
Lewd? Nope.
Recommend? Yes, especially for fans of the Sam & Max series, Grim Fandango, and other bizarre point-and-click adventures.
I never thought to combine a story involving Dodgeball and Nordic countries together, but in this game… it’s okay. In the story, you follow Bjorn and Jerome who go to save the enemy dodgeball team from the devil despite their coaches wish to get a gold trophy again. This sets you on a bizarre adventure that will have you settle many disputes the only way you know how… by throwing a dodgeball at them. This isn’t your average dodgeball game though, as many hazards can knock you or your enemy team out as well. The gameplay itself had its own set of skills, but didn’t feel particularly special. I found myself exploiting the AI more than actually calculating trajectories and what not, or utilizing the partner system in any way. Oddly enough, the better parts of the game came from its odd humor.
Lewd? No.
Recommend? Maybe, like if it was on sale and you had some friends to couch co-op with.
Trover got yet another update, perhaps so it will be in my posts for three consecutive months. Luckily this update actually had content with a whole new and very small map to explore now with no beat-em up action. The Important Cosmic Jobs DLC update has you go around Trover’s work building and office to find more power babies, play okay mini games, and do not much else but to listen to the excessive amounts of the ad lib script. At this point I’m pretty over this game and style of comedy and can only hope no more free updates (with achievements) are planned for the future.
Lewd? Still not really.
Recommend? I mean the Update itself is free, so… I guess, unless you don’t have the game… then ya know… maybe not.
It’s hard to review this game, because it really didn’t feel like much to it. You slowly make your way through each level because your partner walks far slower than you. You collect food and health, but since the game is pretty linear with very little action (up until one part) that it seems excessive. The story is very poorly written (maybe in part due to translation), and it just felt like such a slog to get through.
Setting: Post-apocalyptic Russia destroyed by disease as you make your way (somewhere?) that isn’t clearly explained until you actually get their (and poorly at that). The instructions are poorly formatted and just over all felt like it could have been a 30 min. indie movie rather than the time I wasted on it.
Recommend? No.
Lewd? No
A friend (can I really call them that after this?) gifted me this game after I beat their previously gifted game, Bad Rats. Like Bad Rats this is a game about mutilating cats with traps. Unlike Bad Rats, you are the cat trying to make your way through diabolical levels that require high skill and precise inputs. Overall the game isn’t bad, just soul crushing. Tired of the going these stressful levels alone? Multiplayer is available so you can then scream at a friend for killing you before you get to the end (friends not included). Either way, this game isn’t about the fun of playing as much as it is about the satisfaction of overcoming and overwhelming challenge. Whoo boy was it a challenge, but I somehow managed to get through it all, kicking and screaming (mostly screaming).
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Yes, to all those who wish to test their mettle.
A classic among shooters that I have enjoyed over the years. Now it was time for the Steam version and I decided to crank up the difficulty a notch… it was rough. It seems there were a lot of maps I must have repressed in my previous playthroughs because I simply did not remember how much I hated some of them. particularly the one where you walk on a tight rope throughout the whole map, or the one with mancubus and spiderbots all over it. Overall it holds up pretty well to this day, so long as you can adapt to the controls.
Lewd? No.
Recommend? Yes! Particularly those who favorite classic shooters like Quake.
What a long journey both playing this game and inside of it. Four guys in a car have it rough, but build strong bonds to get their main man married. Naturally things go awry and you embark on fantasy journey that will test every single characters resolve in their potentially final adventure. Face fearsome obstacles such as monsters, fishing, chocobos, fishing, cooking, photography, fishing, and an enemy empire (but also fishing). All the characters were relatively likeable or well written and those that weren’t grew on me. I was also a bit surprised on how fast the story could accelerate. I took a bunch of time to do side quests before hand, but left a few thinking “Oh, after this next story quest I should be able to go back and finish it” Three hours later “Welp, looks like I passed the point of no return and beat the game.”
That being said the game does let you get back to those places one way or another, so even past the point of no return, not all is lost. There is still a lot left to do, many more pictures to take, dishes to cook, land to explore and fishes to… fish. There are also the DLC episodes (3 out of 4 come with the Windows Edition) that follow each of the characters own adventures that I plan to get to at a later time after a short break. The game also lets you jam out to all sorts of soundtracks from previous games in the series and other franchises while you and the boys ride around in the Regalia or some Chocobos (never thought I’d have such a good experiencing watching them drive anywhere). Still, a lot of great memories were had, tears were spilled, and just overall a great experience.
Really it’s hard to get to everything about this game, because there just felt like so much.
Lewd? Nope.
Recommend? Very much so.
A quick entry on the night of Halloween. You play a spooky ghost (though you don’t seem so spooky) and you’ve got a job. Spook the ever living hecks out of every darn person there. Though you can let a very unspooky “ooooo” your main tools are what’s around the house/train. Possess each and every object and put fear into the people that dare trespass. The more fear that goes around the more actions you can do with an object. If you haven’t guessed by my choice of words right now, this isn’t a very scary game as it is cute and comical. Though the people you are trying to scare don’t see it this way. It’s actually a pretty chill game as you don’t really have any timer, just try to get all the people out at your leisure and method. Though I found the game can get aggravating when you get to the last few people and despite them running around screaming, they absolutely refuse to go out the doors or windows. Rather they would run up and down the same stairs.
Lewd? No way.
Recommend? Mostly yes.
After playing the previous Mahjong Pretty Girls Battle game, I thought I knew how to play. Then I had to reteach myself seven more times. Now I mostly know how to play… I think. Definitely a lot more confident though, and enjoy the game itself, but there are still a few things about this version of Mahjong that don’t line up with the tutorials I have followed. Still enough to get by. Overall the Mahjong part of the game is decent, everything else is fairly annoying and generally whatever. I often get annoyed by seeing the overly buxom girls and hearing their dumb voices as they once again pull a win from right out of my feet when I was sure I had everything I needed. C’est la vie.
Lewd? Kinda, just kind of generally overly sexualized girls really.
Recommend? Meh, maybe if you like Mahjong, but there has to be a better version out there for it… right?
If you are like me and are too stiff to keep up with Dance Dance Revolution (except maybe Beat Saber… but maybe that has more to do with the saber than anything…), but still enjoy rhythm games then this might be a game for you. Despite relying only on two buttons, the later difficulties can get pretty challenging onto borderline impossible to get a perfect. I guess even my fingers eventually get two stiff to rapidly click as they need. The game itself has a lot of decent content and songs that work well for the rhythm game genre. All more focused on the anime aspect of it. You also eventually unlock more characters/costume and sidekicks both of which give you different bonuses and skills for songs. If you played enough of the base game songs, you get a weekly rotated song from the DLC music packs AND if you want it all. You get a one time payment to unlock all current and future DLC songs. So that’s neat.
Lewd? Some of the costumes are risqué, but otherwise no.
Recommend? Yes!
Pretty mixed on this game. On one hand you have to remember games are just virtual interactions for us to get away from society and let off some steam. On the other hand this has you play as a psychopath bent on kill every armed and unarmed civilian around him. At first, it isn’t that bad, until I heard the things the victims were saying, in particular, “I can’t breathe.” It took sort of a step into realism and just felt messed up. Still I pressed on, particularly enjoying the achievement references. Overall the game didn’t really do anything for me, it was just kind of an outdated toppish view shooter. Enemies were easy to lose behind buildings because of the view point which could get annoying for most maps. It wasn’t particularly difficult, even on the hard settings, and you can get away with killing most with your standard starter weapon.
Lewd? I mean… there are pixelated nude people later on, but… not really lewd.
Recommend? Can’t really recommend this.
A short and terribly written horror story that has elements from Outlast (hide and seek, using night vision camera to see in the dark) with some basic combat. The game itself doesn’t know if it wants to be a zombie creature outbreak, or a supernatural force controlled epidemic. Get far enough in the story and you’ll realize it doesn’t care because the story itself is half baked with terrible voice acting. It’s biggest scares rely on jump scares, and the game itself handles terribly. Only glad that it was over before I knew it, what I wasn’t happy about is that only about two achievements will ever register for the game.
Lewd? Not unless you find skinless zombies hot.
Recommend? Most definitely not.
I am having trouble getting myself to get through this game. This twin stick shooter has a bigger problem with bullet sponge enemies and very little ways to deal with most else. This game was heavily pitched as a multiplayer game, so maybe its not optimized for the single player experience. As it stands, it doesn’t really seem like a game I will beat without other players, and just generally less interested.
Lewd? Probably not.
Recommend. Not really.
September Lost in the Borderlands…
Another high concentrate month for me in gaming. I have spent many hours into FFXV (and still haven’t gotten close to beating it [definitely not too busy fishing and hanging with the boys]), and many into Borderlands 3 (and many more), so my actual progress is rather small, but managed to squeeze a few in between release dates. Not sure I have a whole lot to say this month, so let’s get to it!
After playing hours on hours of FFXV, I think I got a weird craving for a fishing mini game that brought me to this. I’m not really sure how to feel about this game other than it was kinda weird. Understandably, it is a fishing arcade game, so it’s not really up my alley, but trying to figure out how to use each lure felt a lot more challenging and difficult than it was probably meant to be. That and it hasn’t particularly aged gracefully. Pick a lure, each lure has a depth strength, figure out its unique quirk, utilize it, and try to catch quantity and quality fish. The bigger the fish, the more points, and more is better as you are always on a timer, and each fish will give you very little bonus time.
Recommend? Probably not.
In a day of modern games and 3-D gameplay, I was feeling something a little more… classic. Which led me to Sonic CD. Generally I was fairly confused and conflicted with this game. I always play in a way of a collector and completionist. Yet the goal of the game is to go fast, where I would want to get all of the rings, find all of the hidden objects, and to make matters worse, you could go to the past or future versions of each level to find these hidden objects, but either future or past wasn’t certain. To give me more conflict, premise-wise I wasn’t really sure what was going on, only that Eggman had a giant metal planet, a metal sonic, and a few annoying bits that got me killed all too frequently. Yet, when I started getting into the flow I did start to enjoy the “gotta go fast” style and killer soundtrack. Apparently there are also multiple endings, things I would not get without a guide, and you can beat the game as tails after your first playthrough.
Recommend? Sure, if you can get into more classic fast paced and challenging 2D platformers.
Not sure if Zen is the state you reach once you finally get through all this game, but the only state I reached was a state of rage as I slowly began to lose the ability to get 99% - 100%. The objective of the game is to bind a wooden figure/statue with string which will apply paint via the string or paint balls on the string that explode on contact, until you either paint the statue or run out of string and tie it off at a designated location. The idea is to be “zen” and go with an intuitive flow, as you rhythmically tie the string around without stressing too much. Except I experienced a lot of stress as trying to rotate the statue could cause your rope to slip (in a way that wouldn’t happen had this not been on a digital format), or somehow gets bugged to go through the statue and compromise my ability to complete it. I’m not sure what I got from this game, but Zen sure wasn’t it.
Recommend? Hmmmm… NO.
Gears 5 Status: Beaten
Gears 5 is in now way the best, but it is definitely a step in the right direction after the disaster of Gears 4 and Gears of War: Judgement. It’s story has a little more substance than the last, and its gameplay throughout the story felt a little more like the old gears game while still adding in new interesting mechanics to make it its own. It now sports a new playable character, a flying robot that can be used or commanded to do upgradeable special attacks including blinding opponents, bringing up shields, and more. Another change, that I’m a little more mixed about, is the new open world aspect they added to the game. Although I enjoyed riding out on the skiff, the open world did not particularly benefit or take away from the game. It only seemed to try to capitalize on the trend of games becoming open world, the only other purpose is to find unique upgrades for your bot, and legendary guns that you can’t really store anywhere. The campaign and general level designs made for enjoyable battles. My biggest qualms with the game come from an unfulfilling forced decision the game brings you to and a little too open of an ending.
Multiplayer was a bit weird as it is now more of a basic loadout (some pistol variation, with a non-lethal grenade variation) and as you get kills and kill assists you can unlock a set of available weapons. It took a second to get used to, but after the first match was able to get MVP every match after. The horde mode is relatively standard to the series, however has an annoying leaderboard hub after every round that prevents you from doing anything in between majority of the free time of the round. “Escape” is a new mode that has you and other players race against a threat to get outside of a Swarm hive. Using what you can find and your players power, you can assist or leave behind your fellow players in an attempt to escape. I don’t really see much replay ability of this mode unless you squad with some good friend, it just felt too underwhelming as a whole.
I don’t know if the Gears series will ever truly reclaim its glory from 1 – 3, but it just might get close. I’d more recommend this to fans of the series who need some more, but willing to accept the current faults/lowering their standards for a moment.
Borderlands 3 Status: Completed
Long anticipated and my new favorite entry of the series. Several years after Borderlands 2 you play as four new vault hunters, all with interesting new skills that are quite customizable. The skill trees were all so interesting, that I wasn’t always sure which one I wanted to focus, which is a first for me. The new guns and gun mechanics are a lot of fun, with the Jakobs being my new favorite manufacturer. Though the writing can be a little everywhere and the villains were not as cool as I had originally hoped, the story is still an enjoyable ride, with a bunch of great areas to fight your way through, and great new characters to meet. I absolutely love a lot of the new looks for characters, particularly Maya, and generally fun/unique interactions with enemies, objects, quests, etc. This is still very much Borderlands (particularly Borderlands 2 and that is not a bad thing) with a bunch of quality of life changes, including the ability to fast travel to a point from anywhere, buying ammo by pressing a button near a vending machine and more. The game is littered with bugs however, mostly non game-breaking, repeating audios, laggy multiplayer, and the occasional enemy getting stuck in a while (mostly during waves of enemies missions, particularly the most frustrating). Still, the game is nothing short of amazing, and only a shame they made Epic exclusivity for PC (definitely buying again for the inevitable Steam release).
Recommend? Oh yes, 8.75 out of 10 (-.25 for cheeky and terrible ending song not fitting the Borderlands indie/alternative theme.)
August Carry On…
Agh, I meant to take more time in writing my reviews, and organize my thoughts, but I ended up rushing it again… it’ll have to be next month. At the very least in my backlog I used the monthly theme to focus my attention a bit more to make decent progress.
| Name | Achievements obtained | Achievements This Month | Playtime (Before Month - End of Month) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divine Divinity | NA | NA | (7h - 25h) | unfinished |
| Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 | 34/61 | 24 | (8h - 25h) | Finished |
| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | 28/75 | 6 | (59h - 67h) | Finished |
| Final Fantasy VII | 3/35 | 0 | (32m - NA) | unfinished |
| Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 | NA | NA | (37m - 11h) | Finished |
| Trine | 15/33 | 2 | (3h - 4h) | Finished |
| TOTAL: | 80/204 | 32 | 54.5h | 0/4/2/0 |
And even made some time to focus in other areas as well. Still it feels like I am getting a lot of nowhere, though at least its consistent with the real world. Despite these feelings I, and hopefully you all as well, can carry on…
I needed a break from my current set of backlog goals, and to play a decent shooter which gave me an excuse to take care of F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin on Steam and it’s DLC Reborn. Not as great as the original F.E.A.R., but still a decent shorter entry if not a little annoying due to the power armor sections.
Reborn I’m not even sure how to go about this DLC, it was absolutely terrible. Very short, very poor quality in levels, story, and cinematics. It almost looks like a PS2 alpha. The only purpose this DLC seems to serve is to sort of help set up the secondary character in F.E.A.R. 3 and to be a clear sign of how terrible it will be.
Recommend? Sure for the base game, DLC… not so much.
Your typical Arena shooter with the Half-Life flavor. There isn’t any campaign or anything like that. Just pure PVP… which is mostly dead. Though to my surprise I found a few matches. Naturally most of the people left are quite skilled and know the quirks of the game.
Recommendation? Probably not due to the lack of player base.
This game seemed to have such high praise, and the reason to get VR… I just don’t get it other than maybe a streamers hunting grounds for some quick views. The jokes are kind of bland, and the tasks are just as fun as a menial job can get. Each job has you set in one spot and complete each tasks. The game doesn’t offer much else after the job, other than to do small combinations/customizations that don’t amount to much.
Recommend? Not really.
The freelance police are here to save the day or something like that. Akin to the point-and-click adventure with weird antics/solutions that you would find in Grim Fandango offer a humerous adventure so long as you can figure out the solutions. Admittedly, I wouldn’t have been able to get through it if I didn’t have to look up a guide every now and then and can only wonder how others got through it without guides.
Recommend? Like weird humor with unorthodox problems/solutions.
Much like the Beginners Guide this game served as a sort of way to break the fourth wall of playing a game and into the life of developing it. Though this has a slight more interesting concept of stripping away pieces of the scenery or enemies and filling it into others. The game itself is under a problem of never being finished due to various issues coming from the developers (Constantly changing scripts, game flow, gameplay, changing the game entirely), so you and an impatient AI in the game task you with ending the cycle once and for all, revealing the developers for what they are and creating the game yourself.
It’s neat and in a way more art than a game, (much like A Beginners Guide), but still an interesting take on the development aspect as well as what can happen to those who succeed and how easy it is to fail.
Recommend? Yeah
This is back again, only due to the free update Joppo Saves the Universe in which you can now make Trover into a Yellow normal eyed Joppo and that all the script is replaced with Joppo where an annoyingly high pitched Joppo comes out of everyones mouth when saying that name, as well as an achievement. It’s complicated when complaining about a free update, because despite this being free it was still somehow disappointing. It just didn’t do anything for me, like was this the joke? That people expected something and instead got a skin that didn’t do anything? It’s not even aesthetically pleasing or anything, it simply exists. I’d rather they just didn’t add anything at all at that point.
This platform side-scroller caught my eye way back with its general aesthetics and potential gameplay and I wasn’t particularly disappointed on these fronts. The game generally looks good and once you get used to the awkward gameplay and clunky controls this game was enjoyable for a while. You eventually get to play up to three characters all have abilities to unlock as you progress, and you can capture enemies to transform as the enemy at will until that form or you are defeated. This game can be a little difficult at times, but fear not as being defeated does not mean you are done. You will take control of a fearless soldier to find a resurrection shrine to bring you back… if you make it there that is. It does offer multiplayer co-op and versus, but as you might imagine it is quite dead.
I did generally enjoy this game, but due to the clunky controls and the repetitive gameplay (the game revolves around procedurally generated levels as you make your way to the same final boss) I can’t recommend it for everyone.
A sort of fast based western shoot-em up bullet hell like game that hosts a wide variety of characters with various weapons/abilities that individualize how you play them. You must travel X amount of screens before you get to the boss of the act and until then try to get as much gold, upgrades, maybe a horse, and generally try to survive as most hits will kill you in one shot/melee.
The game has some interesting concepts enough, but once I finally got around to beating it… I wasn’t very interested in playing it again after that. It just generally wasn’t that enjoyable, most of the characters seemed unusable, and this game just isn’t that replayable.
Can I recommend this game? Not really.
Thanks to the monthly theme, I finally sat down and focused on the main story quests of this game.
Although this is very much a sequel with some small tie ins to the first Xenoverse it is more like a well polished and well made version of the first. Overall (as usual), you will be fighting through the DBZ history with some added twists, get most of the usual parallel quests (side quests) with a wider roster of characters being added in. What really makes this game shine compared to the first is it’s much better and potentially more technical fighting system now with more fighting mechanics and control over the battle. Furthermore, the depressing drop rates of skills/abilities/clothes seem to be not nearly as abysmal from the first one, meaning much less of a painful grind. As well when you actually unlock the criteria for an ultimate finish, there isn’t just a chance that it will activate anymore, rather that it WILL activate.
I was a little sad to learn that despite being able to port over your character from the first that you can’t actually play them. The cool part about that is that when you do, you still get whatever abilities/clothes they had, and they are revered as the hero of the city and occasionally meet them. Importing your save however is problematic, and I had to physically move it into the DBX2 save area for it to work.
Even though this game has been out for a while and future DB games have been released this game is still getting content and has an active player base to battle and co-op with on various missions.
Recommendation? Do you like generally simple to understand, but harder to master fighters and DBZ? Then yes!
Seeing the tag Lovecraftian I thought I might enjoy this game, but as I played and found the look and gameplay to be more like Minecraft, that this game was more something I wouldn’t love. A rogue-like that causes you to go through portals to themed areas to capture an artifact. You can carry up to two weapons as well as an ability that help you get through the blocky horrors til you get to the next trap door. Getting all three artifacts lets you into the final teleporter that combines all the areas themes and monster to prepare your endgame difficulty and challenge. Overall though it isn’t too hard and very easy to speed through.
Recommendation? Nah… or at the very least it wasn’t for me.
Another stand-alone side story of the original half-life as you once again take control of another character that isn’t Gordon Freeman. Instead of being an enemy, you are a random Security Guard just trying to have a normal shift at Black Mesa. This, of course turns sour as various soldiers and otherworldly creatures invade the facility and you must escape.
I generally liked this one more than opposing forces. It was fast, it didn’t have outrageously difficult enemies, and most of the puzzles made sense.
Recommend? Yeah.
I first started this game years ago with a friend that wanted to co-op with me. …This quickly ended as she grew frustrated with my sometimes competitive gaming nature where I tend to collect all the things, and explore areas while she felt left behind and lego-less. She also refuses to finish anything, so perhaps for the best. Thanks to monthly theme, I had a reason to play again! For better or worse, I actually finished it. However, this has easily been my least enjoyable lego experience so far. Though it was nice most levels didn’t need to be replayed due to not having the right character equipped (most characters eventually learn the same spells and thus have the same abilities to unlock areas) the game itself felt so disjointed, the lego building just wasn’t so enjoyable, and the bosses were very similar to combat. I’m mostly just glad they wrapped up four books/years/movies into one so that I would not have to play through them all singularly and extend my lack of joy.
Recommend? Not really, unless you are a big fan of Lego and Harry Potter.
Savoring this game, I finally gave in and finally played it. What a solid entry to the series and is easily in competition to be my favorite of the rebooted series. It does everything the reboots have done and better… well at least for the most part. Lara Croft, now in the South American jungle environment is at her best as she becomes a combination of Rambo, Predator, and generally a terror towards her enemies. Her goal this time round? Oh not much, just to prevent a Mayan apocalypse.
The graphics in this game are stunning as you can see the slightest facial changes and expressions in characters truly bringing forth their emotion. The gameplay? Solid, as I have encounter some of the best stealth in gaming I have probably seen so far (When Lara is hidden, even I had trouble seeing her at first, and this is not a bad thing as I can actually believe the enemies can’t see her, and otherwise hard to lose track of your own character), the puzzles felt challenging, plenty of tombs to explore, and a lot of the platforming felt exciting. The story itself is interesting enough, but the more interesting is to see Lara Croft realize her own weaknesses, that she is capable of failing and making poor choices, and of course for her to further ascend into badasshood and hones her tomb raiding legacy.
There are some qualms though, such as using the grappling hook as you jump which I have noticed missed most times, with a very small timing window. Other than that everything was great! There are a number of DLC that offer short tombs, but I think I will wait for a sale before I inevitably play them.
Recommend? So very much, yes!
If not for the “Unfinished Business” theme this month I would probably continue to on/off play this game only to continue the seemingly endless side missions, and of course the mountains of modding. The game resisted though as I tried to make progress, I encountered ye olde Bethesda bugs that tried to prevent that. As I had remembered though, the main questline isn’t so interesting and already found myself wanting to finish the various guilds and eventually touch the DLC.
Recommendation? Yeah probably.
An interesting game that requires you to switch between three different characters (mage, thief, soldier) in order to overcome enemies, obstacles and puzzles in this fantasy setting. Each character is wildly different with their own strengths and weaknesses. The game is only made better when you co-op with a friend who can take control of the characters (ideally 1 person per character). Each character also has their own upgrade tree to further individualize and boost their abilities.
Recommend? Sure
No longer following BJ Blaskowicz, but instead his two daughters in a game set long after the events of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. The strong point of the game is the same strongpoint of this revamped series with its gunplay now mixed into a co-op setting. Of course if you are playing this solo you lose much of the intended enjoyment, luckily if you bought the deluxe edition you got a Buddy Pass that allowed you to invite any friend who has the demo version. This is probably the most exciting idea behind the game, the idea that one person can buy the game, but still play with others that don’t sort of like couch-play, but over the internet. It does sort of take a weird turn with enemies with certain armor require specific guns in order to deal damage, but it at least makes each gun more useful rather than me just using one or two guns in the previous games. The bigger beef is the random difficulty up, particularly with the final boss, that seems a little over the top to fight.
I generally enjoyed the relationship between the two sisters, and their young quirky selves starting from their first kill all the way through their hardened experiences throughout the game.
Recommend? Kind of, but only with a friend.
| 1262 | games |
| 47% | never played |
| 6% | unfinished |
| 23% | beaten |
| 22% | completed |
| 2% | won't play |