52 Games. 1 Year. 2021.

KtotheRoc · May 11, 2021

27: New Pokémon Snap. End: 5/11/2021. (3.5 out of 5)

The long awaited follow-up to Pokémon Snap is here. And it is just oozing with charm. The narrative surrounding the game is actually much beefier than one would expect, but the short bursts of gameplay still works well. The issue is how often you may find yourself repeating courses in order to unlock the next course. The game's Illumina Pokémon encounters (one on one encounters with a specific Pokémon) are the equivalent of boss battles, but having so many ends up weakening the uniqueness of the experience.

Fun times, and its charm certainly helps carry it, but it is not without its flaws.

FallenGrace · May 11, 2021

21. Ara Fell.
- Loved this little retro RPG. took me over 40 hours but it was just charming the whole way through. Really glad I played it and looking forward to their next tile. Hope it eventually comes to consoles.

22. EDF 4.1
- Finished my first playthrough with friends just as a Ranger on easy. Good mindless fun but trophy hunting is going to take a lot of playthroughs... probably half my completion list this year will be various runs of this as different classes in different difficulties....

Tiny Hawk · May 12, 2021

32. Rock Band 4 (PS4) - 13.5hrs | 3.5/5
I was gonna come back to Rock Band 4 at some point, but that final We Be Drummin' stream pushed me to get back to it. Going through the campaign with my new band, Rock and the Band, was a good time. The overall gameplay is still super solid, though I feel like I was definitely off for most of the time either due to input lag or my controller acting up. They added a new feature for freestyle guitar solos. Instead of playing the original chart and solo, you can now just make up your own on the go! It's a great concept on paper that definitely works, but it sounds absolutely terrible.

Not much of a fan of the track list for this one. I dig the how varied the tracks are, however they just left a lot to be desired. Though, I suppose if there's something you really want to play, there's a good chance it might be DLC already? I have the RB3 export and a few DLC tracks, so adding them into the mix definitely helped make the experience way more enjoyable.

Tizoc · May 12, 2021

56. Treasures of Montezuma 5

The treasures of Montezuma are a series of match puzzle games published by Alawar games. As in past games, the game is divided into levels and your goal is to match 3 or more colored stones in order to complete an objective. In majority of levels, it is to get gems from some of the colored stones. Once you've collected the required amount in the level, it'll end and you'll be able to proceed to the next level.
This game changes things up a bit from its predecessors in that special abilities attained from matching 2 sets of colors of the same kind, among other power ups, are not attained early, instead you get a single upgrade as you clear every 5 levels. This was an unfortunate change to me as I was used to having majority of power ups available before halfway through the game.
Non the less I still enjoy my time with the game and it sated my match 3 addiction. For now.

57. Zup! 4

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A puzzle game about pushing a blue marble into a green platform. This is done by manipulating the yellow and red blocks. Red Blocks explode giving momentum to yellow blocks, and in turn the momentum of the yellow blocks impacts the momentum of the blue marble.
The game has over 50 puzzles and while I got stumped at a few, I was pleasantly surprised and entertained with this simple indie puzzle game.

Whimsicalish · May 12, 2021

18 | Endless Fables 2: Frozen Path
PC | May 11 | 4 hrs | 2/5

This was a disappointing entry for hidden object games. I am still surprised that was released in 2017. Honestly I would have guessed it was older. The animations just speaking to NPCs was bad. They looked like paper doll figures: stiff, lifeless, and unnatural. I did not care for the interactions instead of actually finding hidden object in scenes. It's fine if you want to try something new or different, but this happened a lot. I picked a HO game because I thought that's what I was going to be playing; not the interactions sequences.

The story was incredibly lazy and almost word for word ripped from Norse mythology. No creativity of any kind.

The bonus stage was nonsensical. It randomly dropped you getting attacked by...zombies? I have no idea why this was included.

There was on scene you're fighting a snake with a sword. You never use it again lol.

Avoid this one.

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19 | Endless Fables 4: Shadow Within
PC | May 11 | 3.7 hrs | 4/5

This one improved many of my issues from the previous game. I did skip 3 since I don't own it. It doesn't seem like the games have anything connecting them together. More hidden object games, better animations, and creative story. The soundtrack is fun and the hint for collectibles was super helpful! I hope that's something they continue to do instead of searching in the complete dark.

The writer(s) had more creativity during this story. It felt original instead of ripping it from myth. I was more connected to the characters and the world. I had fun in the abstract, colorful scenes they created for the dream creatures.

Two minor things they could have improved: some voice acting and a few mini games had no explanation to solve. But this was still MUCH improved from the previous game.

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20 | Lord of the Rings Online
PC | May 11 | 38 hrs | 3.5/5

Played with Lobotomaxx through the starting zone for Humans and the two free zones after. We completed those zones and a free event (we got a mount!) close to 40 hours. The game has charm and you are encouraged to read every quest you pick up. The game doesn't hold you hand to every objective so it's easy to get lost. I don't think that's a negative. I enjoyed the world building from the NCPs. I can look past the silly animations and aged graphics. Again, not a negative for me.

The game could use updating the bread crumb quests. We would complete a questline for an NCP but miss the initial quest to meet them. Later we would have a different NCP ask us to go see that quest giver for a dead end. It created unnecessary backtracking. (You have to run everywhere before you pay for a mount.) There is a lot of quests that request you to go back and forth; it's so much walking.

The LOTR store is extremely confusing to a newbie. We would look at player's suggestions because there is too much in the store. I do appreciate all characters share points to spend, but not everyone gets the upgrade. I would say not super alt friendly in that aspect.

We may play more in the future! There's just too much to play right now for us.

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nacimento · May 13, 2021

10. Hades (Switch) | 11th May - 35hrs | ★★★★★

I never really liked roguelikes and I dropped Bastion years ago, quite disappointed by the game. For that reason I took some time until I decided to try Hades, even with all the glowing praise thrown in its direction. And it truly is an exceptional game. It gives a huge "one more chamber" vibe, the gameplay is terrific and both art and characters are great. The Greek mythology backdrop is awesome as well. Even after the true ending I am still doing runs and will probably pick the game up from time to time in the future. It is also a perfect game for the Switch. I am happy I got it there instead than on PC, since it is made for short bursts and breaks. I therefore also played it entirely in handheld mode. After playing it, I don't really feel the rush to play another roguelike, but I do have an interest in other Supergiant games and certainly in a sequel of sorts, if there ever is one (even though I know it doesn't seem to be Supergiant's modus operandi).

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Woylie · May 13, 2021

New to this thread, but I've been working through my backlog all of this year (and last, with the pandemic and everything keeping me inside most of the time). I've been tracking everything as I go using an app on my phone, and thought I'd finally check in here. Thanks for this thread! It's nice having an extra motivation to make it through my backlog and create some sense of community around it.

The journey so far:

Completed So Far (54/52):

Now Playing:

The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve

Banjo-Kazooie

Blindy · May 13, 2021

18) Jazz Jackrabbit 2(PC) 4/4-4/5

I beat the vanilla game of Jazz Jackrabbit 2, took only like 3.5 hours! I can already see why everyone is saying the game is flat out better than the 1st, for one having use of a controller is a game changer! You also get 3 characters in the version I got vs just 1 and each has a different ability and offer up different versatility with the main character having the best rate of fire on his gun to the 2nd character(Spaz?) having a double jump to the female bunny whose name crosses my mind having a Dixie Kong ripoff hair spin albeit not as good(You know I picked her for this). This just feels much better, but Holiday Hare just lets this game down IMO. Even watching a lets play on the end section, I still struggled to figure out a way to fully make a high jump to complete it and thus just gave up. Secret files came and went quick and I tried 1-2 user made levels which involved a very contrived gimmick that I didn't care to look up on how to do it(Why should you even have to?!!!!!) and I think the vanilla game is good but the additional content is best left unplayed. As a sequel, it is just better than JJ1 which is all I can ask for. So glad, so so glad I got to play this on a controller.

19) Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction(PS3) APRIL
(Unable to track the time, even with a PS3 system/trophy sync, I just know it was bits and pieces of April!)

As I progress down the path of going through the mainline Ratchet and Clank games in pure preparation for R&C Rift Apart in Mid June 2021, the month of April had me tackle the first of the 3 major PS3 games of the series, R&C: Tools of Destruction........one word to describe my time with this game, glitchy. There were more glitches I encountered in this game than I did in the previous 3 PS2 games combine! I get ToD is an early PS3 title but man, the game design behind putting little creases between a platform and the actual spot to land on was maddening, I swear I fell to my death going under them quite a few times. This game is even more cruel with the checkpoints because the stages are naturally longer, especially for boss fights, where if you don't beat a boss, the game says start the segment prior to the boss all over again. The one that jumped out at me was the rail riding segment which is normally fun except it's a 2-3 minute slog that is mandatory each time that has 1 trollish jump and then you have to beat a boss that is littered with enemies. The game froze on me a couple of times which did not help my take on the game. Mercifully, the game has a recommended PS3 Gyro motion control for some of the weapons/movements but Insomniac thought better and made it optional so getting to play and experience this game on my PS4 is appreciated. The final boss is a mess, it is a damage sponge in itself and given (IMO) the weapons you get throughout the journey minus grinding for a RYNO(Rip Ya a New One) aren't the best for combat from afar which is ideal to face this boss due to the damage output upclose, when you ran out of ammo in what was essentially a 2 phase boss, you are left scrambling for thinking outside the box. After a few attempts and fails which were frustrating, I cheesed him last form which is basically him spamming the floor with missiles that are nigh fully impossible to dodge, I used this game's version of the Visibomb and basically used the mini drone to shoot the enemy which surely did the trick(Despite Ratchet standing in plain sight LOL, you are given invincibility practically with this unlike the Visibomb which you lose control of if Ratchet is hit while controlling it).

The story was all over the place for me, I didn't connect with this story at all and it was easily the worst of the 4, way too contrived and it randomly took the Lombax race(Ratchet's race) and brought up just random nonsense to justify why the antagonist hates Ratchet. Add Clank has some sort of little robot guru followers and it's like "WTF is this going from R&C 3 to this!". I get there were spinoffs in between but I doubt they tie up the loose threads here.

The weapon variety wasn't all that impressive but it still had knockoff weapons of the previous entries so you still had your blaster inspired starter weapon, this game's equivalent to the Disc Blade gun, this game has a Suck Cannon like weapon too.

Don't get me wrong, the game is still core R&C so if you like the series, you can definitely have a lot of fun with it but I do think out of the main 4 series games, it's the weakest for me. I will say there were more platforming going on here versus Up Your Arsenal which is appreciated and some of the special effects shown throughout the game are still impressive, even 13-14 years later! Not sure the ideas thrown in this one after they were 3/3 with this series. Have heard the following PS3 exclusive entry, A Crack in Time is far better so I have a little bit higher hopes with that one.

20) Monster Boy & The Cursed Kingdom(PS5) 4/26-5/10

Monster Boy & The Cursed Kingdom, it plays like a typical Metroidvania and the game runs you 15+ hours on a semi-completionst run so there's definitely meat on the bone with this game. It plays so much like Shantae with 5 different beast transformations from a pig to snake to frog to lion to dragon to your human form late game where all are needed to progress throughout dungeons and to uncover secrets(Health/armor pickups/items etc.). Story is simple enough that everyone's been transformed into an animal-like creature and they need to get to the bottom of how to fix everything. Few anime-ish cutscenes littered in between but it's easily 90% gameplay and 10% story so if you want a game that gets you right into the thick of things, this is it. I do feel some of the late game dungeons drag on a little too much for my liking but the puzzles are decent enough for it's genre. I can't say enough how much Shantae vibes I get out of this so it's an easy recommendation for the crew who dig those games. Game has the right amount of challenge and the checkpoints are very forgiving so very rarely can I say the game drove me nuts. Few very minor gripes that I feel I was pressing something only to not get the prompt I thought I would get but you get right back into things and the game is great that all of the progress you did is saved so you don't have to do every little thing again along the way! The warp points makes life so much easier and you are given a weapon that can serve as this later on so you aren't scrambling for the warps to get around the world!

Not a game that etches itself into the Metroidvania with uniqueness and maybe not something I will remember fully well like say a year from now but for what it was, I enjoyed the 15-20 hours I had with the game so for a game that's cheap, I liked it. Def. will check out the couple of other game in this series in the future.

21) Returnal(PS5) 5/4-5/11

At a loss of words of Returnal, finished it just now and it was great for 5/6 of the way through but what a way to spoil your game at the end. 5/6 of the way through of the game? Excellence, gameplay is Doom like frantic type of fun, story is bizarre fun, the depth of the gunplay is superb, the challenge is fair but tough, so much clicked. So much. But the final 1/6? Nope I am sorry, my mouth was left with such a bad taste in my mouth. I vented a little in the main Returnal thread but here goes...........

Returnal, a PS5 exclusive bullet hell rogue like game by the makers of Resogun & Nex Machina, Housemarque. Having a lot of fun with it but it's not a game for everyone. The combat is insane fun and the story is interesting but if your "run" dies you start all the way back to

Biome 1 or 4 if you get to the 2nd half of the game

. Game is really hard, it's the epitome of a third person bullet hell SHump. This game makes you cherish resources like health, weapons, weapon experience and other consistent items littered around. Each time you start a new run, the game changes up in typical Rogue like fashion and your stripped of mostly everything except Ether(AKA rare currency) and your story locked progression items like the ability to go underwater or grapple onto ledges.

The boss fights are insane, one of the bosses looks and feels like something straight out of Furi! At least two of the 4 bosses I beat I was cutting it close, on legit 1-2 final hits before my run ended. All the bosses have 3 healthbars and thus phases so these are all out wars and you have to build your health by clutch green health pickups and be good on the items/buffs you do get. A game that makes everything little thing you pick up matter.

The best way to describe this game is modern DOOM but as a roguelike. The combat is so inspired by modern Doom, you are consistently on the move and running and gunning from countless swarms/waves of enemies and the pickups throughout the area are beneficial to save a run or going back to the start with nothing. Infinite ammo unlike Doom but the frantic pace is insane.

So that's the good explained...........now the bad

What ruined the game for me was the final boss, I encountered a glitch that ended my chance of fighting it and I was taken to the ending, completely screwed over of fighting the boss on a 2nd try. In the video, this is what happened to me:

(Watch mainly the first 2 minutes to avoid any dialogue spoilers)

The boss was meant to show up as you land down but it didn't, add the sound glitch that I had for much of the final run for me and in fact, I think the latest patch of the game made this worse as I had ZERO glitches lately. I think I found another glitch unknowingly that also screwed my run 2 nights ago where I died to the aforementioned OP miniboss, you put in 6 ether/rare currency to make a resurrection save where if you die, you get brought back to life in a capsule instead of having to start all the way back from the ship. It saves your progress, all the enemies killed etc. Turns out when I did it, the game did not bring me back to where I thought I would be which I didn't think was a glitch but I later found out it was the case. Lost my astronaut AKA my item that saves me from death(Think the fairy from Zelda series) due to lasers coming from an invisible enemy which turns out isn't an actual enemy type which had me shaking my head in disbelief and on my feet over not seeing what's hitting me(Not marked as a red arrow on the map so this isn't an enemy that you can do anything about). Still...........still not game breaking.

However, what I posted up above was the EXACT same thing that happened to me. Inexcusable, I did not get a proper final boss fight and unknowingly went down a hole and spent 3-5 minutes trying to trigger a boss, with the other alternative turning the game off and having to restart everything from Biome/level 4 and having to waste 2 hours rebuilding everything that I earned. I got one shot at the boss that I died in the 2nd phase but I used the 6 ethers to save the run and get another crack at this boss but it seems this may be glitched in itself as the person in the video did the same exact thing I did. You are meant to shoot those lights to open up the weak points of the final boss but as you can see in the video above, the boss did not fully animate and no matter what your doing, you cannot trigger the fight.

What a way to ruin such a great experience, the patches Housemarque put forth spoiled what was a fine experience. Def. a game when the price lowers and it's fully fixed, is something people will love because the combat is fantastic, the story is interesting, the game looks beautiful and the roguelike elements are interesting and create a challenging game. The glitches though, hell no. Not even Cyberpunk 2077 messed up a final boss the way Returnal did. What a damn shame.

Maybe something I would replay out of the respect of the gameplay but I don't trust the game on a 2nd run with the glitches I experienced my final two days of playing. I cannot do that to myself, not on a game that pulls zero punches and is difficult. Would have been high for my GOTY but the end really shot that dream down for me. When the price is lowered and the big time glitches are etched out, I can say buy this but it sucks yet another game is taken out of the oven too soon. Damn shame.

22) Ratchet and Clank 2015(PS5) 5/12-5/13

Beat it in 2 days(!) which caught me by surprise, it has a lot of R&C 1's influence so having played that like 2 months ago, much of the game was familiar though it cut off some parts like the desert. Gone are mandatory payouts with bolts to progress the story for necessary items, game feels sorta "dumbed down" in some regards like it throwing you bolts left and right and the game up until endgame is rather easy(Though I put it on Normal mode) but overall, I still think this is either the 1st or 2nd best game of the series of the mass amount that I have played and while I was trying to hold off on this till Rift Apart is near in Mid June, I feel less than a month away that it was good to get this one out of the way. Just a really solid entry, would not mind at all if a lot of Rift Apart borrows combat wise from this game. The combat feels silky smooth on the PS5, and it's a simple story and the charm that Insomniac always puts in this series is second to none. I know what I am getting whenever I jump into the R&C series and maybe it's not the most innovative series of gaming but I pay for some fun gun play and platforming, and I get it. Not too much else can I ask for.

I am pleasantly surprised to down the game in 2 days but I admittedly did not get the RYNO but I didn't need it. The core weapons like the MEGA BOUNCER, Rocket Launcher & Blade gun carried me on the way through. The 8 bit gun and Groovitron are some neat introduction guns, I can't wait to see what Rift Apart throws that's brand new to the series. Game doesn't stay too on point with the story of R&C 1 and it goes for a crazy twist end game but I can def. see the influence of the (failed) movie that came out the same time of this game, I heard the cutscenes are all pulled from the movie.

nacimento · May 14, 2021

11. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd (PC GOG) | 14th May - 52hrs | ★★★★

After a long delay I finally played the third Trails in the Sky. I started it back in 2017 after storming through the first to games, but dropped it after some four hours. After playing the first two Cold Steel games last year I decided to give it another go. And it really engrossed me this time. The gameplay is tight, the battles are fun and the magic doors have some interesting story and character snippets, even though their level of interest is uneven. And obviously the cast is a delight and their interactions are gold as expected from a Trails game. Nevertheless, it is the weakest Trails I played. It almost feels like a spin-off and I didn't enjoy its dungeon-crawler style as much as the grand adventure styles from the other Trails games. The main plot also felt inconsequential and Kevin is a below average Trails character. In a way, this game feels a little like Yakuza 3 to me. A great game in its own right, but the weak link in an exceptional series, even though the distance from this game to the other Trails is farther than the one between the Yakuzas.

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Tizoc · May 14, 2021

58. Zup! Zero 2

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59. Zup! 6

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Much like the previous Zup! game I played, it features different puzzles to be solved in the form of a ruben goldberg machine, using physics and explosions.
Really enjoyed them even though I got stumped at one or two puzzles, but I strongly recommend them for anyone wanting a light puzzle gaming experience.

InquisitorAles · May 15, 2021

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7. Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife - 11 hours
It's by far the worst Luxor iteration I've played yet. The classic gameplay was ruined by a half-assed open-world that artificially extends the playtime and turns this game into an unbearable slog. Just play Luxor 3 instead.

Azriell · May 15, 2021

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10. Shadow Man Remastered | ★★★★☆

Note: Shadow Man is based off of a comic. In the comic, his name is spelled Shadowman. The game is listed as Shadow Man Remastered on Steam. In official art it is stylized as ShadowMan. So who fucking knows how it should be written, but I'm going with the official release spelling of the title.

I bought Shadow Man on N64 back in '99, but I never stood a chance. As a 13 year old, there was no way I was ever going to be able to wrap my head around the winding, sprawling tunnels of Dead Side or the mazelike corridors of the Asylum. But I've always been somewhat fascinated by Shadow Man, and I've always wanted to go back and beat it. Needless to say, I was ecstatic to learn that they were remastering Shadow Man and beating it after all these years is truly a great feeling.

All of that having been said, Shadow Man is far from a perfect game. It's old and has a lot of dated design choices. It's a game begging for a map, and yet the only one that exists is an abstracted map that's only useful for navigating the games overworld area. The mouse controls the camera, but aiming is loose and auto-aim is used generously, like Goldeneye or Perfect Dark. There are only a handful of enemy types, they all either charge straight at you or shoot easily avoidable bullets, and almost all of them are bullet sponges.

I can overlook all of that, because they don't make games like this anymore. The closest thing I can think to compare it to is Legacy of Kain. These are games with cool, original stories that are ultimately all about exploring massive, labyrinthine worlds. The path forward is, more often than not, an uncertainty, but you have to just accept that and press on.

Shadow Man is about a force of evil, Legion, that is working to bring about the end of the world. As predicted by prophecy, Legion has dispatched five serial killers back to Earth with the power of the dark souls. The Five, in turn, have constructed portals back to Dead Side, the world of the dead where Legion resides, so that the denizens of Dead Side can be unleashed upon the mortal world. You are the Shadow Man, a voodoo legend who is immortal and able to traverse both Dead Side and Live Side. Using your Shadow Gun and various other voodoo powers and tools, it is up to you to stop the Five and destroy Legion once and for all.

Shadow Man Remastered walks the line of cheesy and incredible for me. It's the power of voodoo versus the evil of serial killers. Incredible! The animations in the cutscenes are awkward and hilarious, but the weight of the situation is not lost on me. When you enter a new area, Shadow Man always waxes on in a melodramatic yet poetic way, explaining the horrific wonder of the Asylum or the incredible power of the Shadow Man. I love all of this, but it's obviously a little corny and I can't say for certain how much the average person would enjoy it all. For me, it was a pretty damn good time and I'm so thankful that after 22 years I finally got the chance to play and beat this hidden gem.

Whimsicalish · May 15, 2021

21 | Beyond Blue

PC | May 15 | 6 hrs | 4/5

I loved this underwater experience. It's a mix between a documentary and a walking sim (only you're swimming). This is a great tool to share awareness of the changes happening in our oceans RIGHT NOW. I'm a bit sad to see some of the negative reviews on Steam of people complaining there wasn't enough in this game. Maybe I came in knowing Beyond Blue was inspired by documentaries about our planet and it's an educational/awareness tool. I definitely wasn't disappointed. There are some very memorable moments in this game; not every game needs to be a survival or violent show.

The designers did a fantastic job on every creature animation and model. Everything looks alive in the game. The different ecosystems/environments were fantastic to explore. You can view the in-game's iPad and watch the animations. There's real interviews you can watch about a handful of scientists trying to save our oceans. I do wish there was more information about each creature in the game. Maybe how they live and how they're affected by the climate.

I would like to see more call-to-action in the game. You can visit the game's official website and visit their partners page. But I would like to have see something in the game about what can we do in our daily lives or what some of these organizations do to help.

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KtotheRoc · May 16, 2021

28: Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir. End: 5/15/2021. (3.5 out of 5)

A long lost piece of Nintendo history finally sees the light of day, along with a fresh coat of paint. They also didn't update the archaic mechanics like they should have. A few updates to the QoL would have gone a long way. Still, an otherwise satisfying mystery game that actually holds up reasonably well, all things considered.

Azriell · May 16, 2021

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11. Observation | ★★★★☆

A bit of an odd one. In Observation, shit has gone awry on your space station. A crew member, Emma, is trying to figure out the problems and get everything operational again. She calls on you, an AI named SAM to perform various duties for her, from locating other crew members to fixing borked systems. The catch is that you can only see through the world through the various cameras on board. You have to zap around the space station between the cameras, zooming and panning to find the various computers and documents needed to assist Emma. Along the way, you find out some strange shit has been going on (the station, which is a low orbital space station, has somehow found its way out to Saturn), and you unravel some of the mysteries while trying to save yourself and the crew.

It's a pretty cool game. It gets a little frustrating at times, mostly due to the fact that the game does a good job of simulating the scenario fully. When you control cameras, they are slow and stiff like a real security camera would be. When you need a password to log onto a computer, you might have to inspect the room from several angles before finding a scrap of note left behind. The game doesn't highlight things for you or even always clearly explain how to perform a task. When you need to use an unfamiliar system, you click on the computer and read the instructions that were written for a crew member. At one point I needed to identify three modules off of a list of 4 options, and there was no clear way to do that. It was only when I took another look through the cameras that I realized they had stickers on the side that stated their ID numbers, much as it would be in real life.

And that is one of Observation's greatest strengths: the environment. This is a game that takes place on a space station. It looks like the artists went to an actual space station, took pictures, and then recreated every element. This isn't a typical neat and tidy future ship. If you've ever seen pictures from inside the ISS, you know what to expect. Every surface serves a purpose, whether it be a computer, a research area, a control panel, or just storage. It's disorienting moving through the station, because there is no clean floor or bare ceiling to orientate yourself with. Components are crammed together every which way, and it feels incredibly authentic to what I would imagine space station life is like.

I don't want to say much about the story, but I liked it. The game has a great mystery at its core. At times it elicited strong emotions from me, including a feeling of guilt that no other game has ever made me feel so strongly before.

Observation was a surprise for me. I had never heard of it before, but I'm glad I found it and gave it a chance. It is truly a unique experience.

LinguisticGoblin · May 16, 2021

May
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27. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope
This was about what I expected after the last one. The detail put into character models and their facial animation is impressive, the environments look good, and both the atmosphere and writing fails to really hook me at all. As a horror game it isn't scary and sort of loses steam once you get out of the burning house sequence in the intro, from there on it's got far too much downtime between the scare sequences for any tension to really build and the main narrative hook - the visions of the past the cast keep experiencing - is more frustrating than anything because you're kind of forced into an observer role as the player when, at least to me and my friends, we all felt pretty strongly like we wanted the characters to actually do something besides talk and gape in horror at what the witch hunt was like.

Like you know that feeling in a horror film where you can 100% see exactly what is about to happen coming and it is blindingly obvious but the characters are made deliberately stupid so that they'll fail to avoid it? Or are just bizarrely hesitant to try avert what they know is coming for no real reason? Turns out that is a thousand times more frustrating when you are nominally "in control" during those moments and the game railroads you into not being able to do anything or by only giving you passive choices. I think the strongest emotions the game itself actually elicited from me were annoyance during those sort of scenes. Well, that and a couple moments where the monster designs looked genuinely really cool - I geeked out a bit about them with another friend whose similarly really into horror monster designs while we played.

None of it being real and it all being some kind of PTSD-induced hallucination for the one survivor of the fire from the intro was a slightly annoying twist but I didn't care enough about the characters by that point to really feel anything about it. I just hope they drop the "it was fake all along!" shtick for the next game because after two in a row it's just predictable and would be lazy.

That said these continue to be good fodder for playing with friends thanks to the movie night mode + Steam remote play together and I did enjoy getting to rag on it with them, so it was a good time. Just don't expect it to be a good game.

28. Portal Stories: Mel
I'm seriously impressed by the efforts the Portal fanbase has put out now. Another total conversion mod that builds out a full-length game in its own right ala Portal: Reloaded, PS:M seriously impressed me with its own sheer size as well as the level of effort that clearly went into it. The original art assets and voice acting definitely aren't as polished as what you'd find in a Valve made new Portal game (but are also totally fine for a free passion project, and the latter is definitely miles above what I've heard in other mods before) but the scope of the game including a full intro sequence, cutscenes, multiple voiced characters, a coherent progression in environments through the subterranean ruins up through the entire facility, and a final boss sequence honestly impressed the heck out of me. Like they really did try to make essentially Portal 3 on a probably near-0 budget and for that the team did really well overall.

I do think that it has issues, of course. The puzzles feel like they're designed more for someone who has beaten 1/2 already and is familiar with the mechanics instead of trying to ease you into concepts, and some of them have weird little idiosyncrasies where the designers want you to catch onto a neat little interaction that isn't fully intuitive on its own so you can solve them. It also sort of carries the Portal 2 level design mentality of limiting the amount of surfaces you can put Portals on and sort of forcing you to think using relatively set points of the map as your positions for them which is something I've never liked quite as much as Portal 1 method where you're given a lot more space to work with usually.

However, quibbles with difficulty and certain design decisions aside, it does push the boundaries with the design for them in a way that I found really interesting at points; a personal favourite being a section where you have to clear the same semi-completed chamber multiple times while obstacles, hazards, and the layout itself are all changed around so that each go at it requires you to solve a new problem using what you already did previously as a foundation for it. I think I'm kind of burned out on thinking with Portals at the moment but between this and Reloaded I'm excited to try more mods I've found that are apparently similar in scope to these two.

29. Resident Evil: Village
Second RE game I've played, and I liked it a lot more than 7 overall. I'm a big fan of how varied the gameplay is between "levels" since it sort of gives you a little, concentrated burst of a lot of different styles of horror without any of it ever getting the chance to overstay its welcome. While I'm not so sure all of it would hold up well on a replay (and given the unlock system, multiple difficulties, etc. its definitely meant to be replayed) but for a first run through the way the game freely swaps between tense action setpieces, puzzle-focused survival horror, exploration, and some genuinely fun bossfights worked for me and kept me engaged pretty much the whole way through (minus one section where for about 15-25 minutes right before the last boss)

Ethan had some more personality this time around too and I actually sort of like him now. He's not really got depth and doesn't have much of an arc, but I enjoyed his shitty one liners and the way the game just loves to heap abuse on him while he (appropriately) screams and then (inexplicably) patches himself up with random bottles of medicine and starts shooting werewolves and vampires in the face again. Also, the enemy designs? Really strong, much better than 7 - and way more varied too. I enjoyed how at points the tight hallways and shambling mold-piles made Biohazard feel sort of like an arcade shooter but opening up the environments a bit and giving you much more varied stuff to fire at is a big improvement.

Looking forward to the DLC now, since I assume its getting some like 7, and I'm gonna keep an eye out for sales on the remakes of 1 through 3 too to dive into the older games next I think.

30. Overwatch
This feels like kind of a weird one to say I've "beat" in under 15 hours, but I've played the game for a triple digit total already between PS4 + PC and this is more me feeling like I've seen enough of the Switch port to say I've got a full grasp on it now. I picked it up on sale to do the PvE events with some friends who aren't able to play it on PC or playstation with me and it was fun while that lasted, but now that's done and I've tooled around with the quickplay I think I'm shelving it outside the odd session where one of them asks me if I'm up for it.

I fundamentally just don't mesh well with how Overwatch executes on being a class-based FPS. The balance between most of the Offense heroes is really lopsided and about half of them just feel kind of useless, I'm not really a big fan of tanks and how the general bulkiness of teams between them and the healers means that a lot of the time games are decided by whether your team can use its Ultimates better than theirs can, and I'm not a fan of how specific soft/hard-counters tend to be in the game and the way it leads to really polarizing matchups where sometimes you just get stomped on and there's nothing you can do because your two offense players refused to pick anyone but Junkrat & Genji and got slaughtered by their Pharah and her pocket Mercy.

It can be fun in PvE with friends still though. Working together to support eachother and making solid team comps to tackle the challenge missions and so on actually lets a lot of the cast shine in a way they just don't in the major competitive modes. But there's only three maps for it, it's a time limited event, and it doesn't exactly have a lot of depth and replay value as a result. The 3v3 deathmatch is a good side-mode that's fun too, I especially like how your team has heroes locked out as you win rounds since it makes matches more varied and forces you out of your comfort zone sometimes to try stuff you normally wouldn't. I think I'll still probably get OW2 even if I'm not interested in playing it solo so long as the promise PvE content looks good, because the foundation is there for it to be fun.

31. Mass Effect (Legendary Edition Remaster)
This was an odd one to revisit after so many years. I've long held ME1 as my personal favourite in the trilogy because its what ignited my interest in the setting and was the one that came closest to the tone/subject matter I was looking for in a Space Opera game - there's something about the way it splits the focus between dangerous SpecOps missions dealing with terrorists and mercenaries, galaxy spanning mega corporations and politics, and the Reaper threat which edges slightly into cosmic horror that got me hooked back when I played it for the first time in 2009. 2 focuses much more on organized crime and the seedier side of the galaxy with the Collectors/Harbinger giving off different vibes to Saren and Sovereign for me, and then 3 is a war story for the most part that shits the bed in half its major storylines. ME1 just hits the right mix to excite my imagination.

So it was kind of a wake up call remembering how much of it suuuuuuuuuuucks compared to later games, god. Your squadmates have barely any dialogue on the Normandy compared to 2 and especially 3, the side-missions on Uncharted worlds are boring as shit to navigate to and almost all of them take place in the same copypasted pair of buildings, the hubworld structure for main missions is conceptually sound but Noveria's port building is the only time it really works after the Citadel, and the writing has issues with constantly contradicting its own positive messages or themes and doesn't even seem aware of it at times. Like that last point especially was not something I expected but playing through it with fresh eyes the Council really is historically both completely useless and responsible for some of the most heinous shit in the lore, and Ashley is genuinely right to worry about human/alien relations and having non-Alliance aliens on the ship given the fact two of them could justifiably be blown out an airlock (Garrus/Wrex) for the shit they admit to and the way humanity gets treated by the galactic community (and some of the grudges against it which it has deservedly earned for some shit behavior).

Beyond that there's stuff to genuinely like - Ashley is still one of the better companions in the trilogy despite the bare minimum characterization given to her (and everyone in ME1 tbf), I think the powers and weapon mods are fun to play around with and doing stuff like having my Sentinel have a shotgun built purely to knock bigger enemies like Krogans/Geth Primes over when they charge or an Assault Rifle just for spraying ammo to debuff stuff with an accuracy penalty before going back to his pistol/sniper rifle combo was neat, the setting is still really interesting even if the ways you can see it are more limited than I recalled, and the actual main plotline with Saren is still totally fine and the through-line of Virmire -> Ilos -> Citadel for the climax of the game feels very well paced and exciting still.

My only quibbles about the remaster process is they didn't do enough to the UI since the inventory is still a chore to navigate and I really wish they'd finally fixed the issue with Saren where he only has one model throughout the game where he's already deeply modded by Sovereign so him never being asked about it at the start and later talking about his transformation comes across as weird.

Rhaknar · May 17, 2021

Big update since I haven't done one in awhile, but I've finally been playing (and finishing) some games so:

Game #20 - Monster Hunter Rise
Time: Ongoing
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★★★

Still going strong with this one, and as long as Capcom keeps pumping out the monthly updates, I'll keep going back. A natural progression from World, keeping all of it's quality of life changes and introducing the wirebug mehcanic, which gives unprecedented movement options (to the point its actually hard to go back to previous games), Rise is a full fledged sequel on a much weaker hardward (until the PC version that is), but somehow still having gorgeous visuals, fantastic gameplay and a ton of monsters to hunt (and more added all the time). Kudos for "transmog" or layered armors being added much sooner this time around too.

Game #21 - Resident Evil 8
Time: 11 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★★

Fantastic sequel (direct sequel at that) to RE7, picking up Ethan's story years later and ramping up the craziness to 11. The first person gameplay still works shockingly well, it's a bigger game than 7, both in size and scope, and the story really goes crazy (in a good way in my opinion), making this one a easy winner in the franchise, with an ending that introduces some real "break from the past" scenarios for future games (except of course when they just remake old ones for nostalgia *cough*RE4*cought*). Perfect length, perfect pacing, great locations, fantastic cast of weirdos and the usual RE puzzles and action you expect, I love this and can't wait to see what they do next.

Game #22 - The Medium
Time: 8 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★★

Bloober is back with another horror game, this time a third person adventure very inspired by more old school fixed camera games like Silent Hill or the first few Resident Evils. It's big gimmick, that you play in two realities at the same time (thus making it impossible for older consoles to handle it), ended up being just that, a gimmick, but it still has some cool puzzles around that, especially when it just becomes a normal game where you interact with both realities seperately and solve puzzles in one that affect the other. Visuals are gorgeous at times (and quite past-gen at other times) and I liked the story, even tho it doesnt necesarily land every dramatic beat, I like how hard Bloober goes in their narratives, so I respect it. I really liked it but can just as easily see people not enjoy the old school camera and lack of action.

Game #23 - Blair Witch
Time: 5 hours
Platform: Xbox Series X
Rating: ★★★

Another Bloober joint, this is another cool horror game by the studio, although it never fulfills on all it's promises. One thing I do like about Bloober games is that they always have a different feel to them, with unique mechanics, and this one is no different rellying heavily on a dog (who is a very good boy) who accompanies you on your mind fucky journey and you can command. Unfortunately they never do much with this system, and at just around 4-5 hours long, it ends being a very lienar horror experience, but it does some great psychological stuff during it, and tells a cool story (as usual, Bloober goes hard on the themes they choose, for better or worse). I think it's better than Layers of Fear but I prefer The Medium overall (I haven't played Observer).

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Azriell · May 17, 2021

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12. Risk of Rain 2 | ★★★★★

Risk of Rain 2 is my kind of game. The action is top notch, and manages to walk the line of being insane and hectic without being unintelligible. The roster is sizable, and each character is distinctly unique far beyond a simple gun swap. It's difficult but fair and a constant push/pull of risk vs reward. It's a game that understands that story is not point here, and as such does not let story get in the way, even though there's enough there to give context and mystery. And, of course, there are secrets. A lot of secrets. A lot of challenges. A lot of things to unlock. Always another reason to give it another spin. It's the perfect embodiment of "one more turn."

And it's great in single player, or with two players, or with four. Maybe what's most impressive to me is that it's got my friends to enjoy a roguelike even though the genre flies in the face of most of their sensibilities.

In nearly 30 hours of gameplay, I've unlocked approximately half of the characters and very few pieces of their loadouts. I've tackled a bunch of challenges, but not nearly enough. I've made it to the last level twice, once on normal (solo) and once on easy (4p co-op), and I've only beaten the game once, on easy. My time with Risk of Rain 2 is not over. I want all the characters. I want to complete the loadouts of at least one or two of my favorite characters. I want to figure out what some of the secret things I've stumbled across in some of the levels are for. And I want to beat the game on normal difficulty. I'm not sure if that will take another 30 hours if it will take even more, but I'm eager to find out.

KtotheRoc · May 17, 2021

29: Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind. End: 5/17/2021. (3.5 out of 5)

While it doesn't have any real QoL improvements just like its companion piece, this experience feels a bit more streamlined, and I spent a bit less time fiddling through the menus trying to get the next story beat to trigger (although I still did that a few times). This has been an interesting experience.

Lobotomaxx · May 19, 2021

3/52

Lord of the Rings Online | Steam | 3/5 | 39 hours | played with Whimsicalish

This game has aged. We were looking for something to screw around with for awhile and played through the free-to-play zones in this game. The graphics are definitely old (at least character models) but the environments didn't look too bad. While you can theoretically play this full game for free, the amount of grinding you would need to do would make the game not very fun. You can get these LOTRO points for doing deeds (achievements) in zones and they're per account. So you could just clear out the free opening zones, get all the deeds for the points, delete your character and start again. The points can be used to buy zones which will give you access to the quests and deeds there. There's a main "epic" story to follow which you CAN play in the zones you don't own, you just won't be able to do anything else.

There were also far too many skills. I'm too old to be remembering what skill does what or where I put it on my bar. Just give me like 4 or 5 like WoW does so I can just turn my brain off. Unsure if we'll get back to this as later this year there is a FF14 expansion (still need to play Shadowbringers patches!) as well as a Guild Wars 2 expansion, so this may fall by the wayside.

4/52

American Fugitive | Steam | 2/5 | 7 hours

Man, I don't know. The game wasn't really BAD, I just couldn't get into it. It is basically an old school top down GTA game. I quickly remembered my issue with those types of games. I just want to play the story and will accidentally get wanted and not be able to do anything and get killed all the time. If I'm looking to do something like that, that's fine but I just sort of got frustrated with this game. Multiple missions would just start you wanted or you would become wanted and I just didn't have the patience to get away from the cops. The music is real good though!

5/52

Mass Effect Legendary Edition: Mass Effect 1 | Steam | 4/5 | 33 hours | played with Whimsicalish

Gonna be a lot of Mass Effect stuff here in my beaten games soon, all from the Legendary edition. I played these games initially probably 10 years ago on PC and I remember a decent amount of the "big" decisions that are made, a lot of this I don't fully remember. You play a space man or woman trying to stop a maniac trying to end the galaxy. This game is an RPG 3rd person shooter that is heavier in the RPG elements and future games lean more into the shooter side of things.

Cover works by just walking up next to something and your Shepard will duck or lean against stuff, allowing you to shoot guys or use biotics (space magic) to kill guys. Excellent world building (read the codex!) and the story isn't too bad either. While I know some of the combat stuff has been changed a little from the original release, it has been so long since I played it, it could've been completely different and I wouldn't have remembered. Most of the big changes were graphical in nature to make this game not look like it 15 years old or whatever.

There's a Paragon/Renegade system (good guy/bad guy) that you can follow which is the basis for your decisions. I ended up making a Paragon Shepard and he's the biggest nerd in the galaxy and maybe too naive to live.

6/52

Mass Effect: Bring Down the Sky | Steam | 2/5 | 1 hour

Yeah, I'm counting the DLC's separate so what? I'd be unhappy if I spent money on this. It wasn't very long and it didn't really add anything huge to the story. Some space terrorists (seen above) hijack an asteroid and try to crash it into a planet. It was fine, I was hoping for more. The DLC packs are worked into the Legendary edition naturally, so instead of waiting to beat the game to access them, you can just play them whenever. We saved this particular mission until right before the end of the game.

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Azriell · May 20, 2021

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15. Doki Doki Literature Club | ★★★★★

Amazing. I'm so glad I finally got around to playing this. One of the most unique games I've ever played.

Whimsicalish · May 20, 2021

22 | Mass Effect Legendary Edition (1)
PC | May 16 | 33 hrs | 4.5/5

Amazing game. I haven't fully played the original so I'm not comparing the two. This was a fantastic experience. I loved the RPG elements: leveling, classes with unique skills, exploration, etc. You have multiple teammates you can get to know and have them fight with you. Loved the fact there's no bullet count (already in the second game so I know this is changed...no need to add salt into my wounds). I felt like I could enjoy my class (Vanguard) more since I'm close range. Run in and blast away with shotguns is excellent.

The story was exciting to play. Missions with consequences are stressful AND fun to play. I even didn't mind the Mako; only wish there was less mountain climbing. Everything I enjoy in this game....is pretty much gone or reduced in the second. /Sigh

There were a few bugs, like my keys not responding. A quick save and load would fix it but pretty annoying. Lobotomaxx had more trouble than I did. Overall though, really solid game. I'm happy I got to experience this one.

23 | Detective Grimoire

PC | May 18 | 2.8 hrs | 4/5

Adorable game with simplistic gameplay. It's really good for what it is; don't expect challenging mini games. The animations and the characters are incredibly charming. They did such a great job that it's fun talking with everyone. The soundtrack is fun and feels a part of the game's setting and tone.

You play as a detective that travels to a swamp for a murder. There's no gore; this is a very tame game. There are a few mini games like "solving" a locked door or matching colors. The majority of the game is finding clues and speaking with your suspects; you can ask about clues you find or other suspects. You have a book that tracks everything you find and shows what you're missing. Super helpful! Later there are interactions to put two connecting thoughts together to get a new clue.

It is short but I did enjoy my time. Never felt like the game was dragging. It feels like there's an overarching story; I'm interested to see how that plays out. Only real negative. The game looks to be set up for a phone or tablet. The game did appear somewhat pixelated on my PC monitor. Maybe from the size? Not a deal breaker but it's noticeable.

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Neil98 · May 21, 2021

18. NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... PS4
19. LocoRoco Remastered PS4

Tizoc · May 21, 2021

60. Jenny LeClue Detectivu

61. Metal Slug XX

62. Dirt 3

nacimento · May 21, 2021

12. Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia (PC/Steam) | 20th May - 26.5hrs | ★★★½

After reading the fourth Last Kingdom book I had a strong urge to finally get Thrones of Britannia, one of my last blind spots in the Total War series. Total War is funny for me; I don't really care about the real time battles (even though I love the RTS genre), but I like the campaigns well enough to make it one of my favorite gaming series. Thrones of Britannia itself is a solid Total War, but the reduced scope is palpable. It is a great experience, but it cannot compare to the highs of the series. Still, I had a lot of fun with my two campaigns with Dyflin and Northymbre. It also gave me the Uthred feeling I was looking for. What I did dislike where the completely defenseless villages, since it forces you to be playing chase that one soldier army far too often. All in all it is a good game, but if someone told me "recommend me a Total War", there are several others I would recommend first (except if they tell me "recommend me a Total War which makes me feel like in Last Kingdom", of course).

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Bosh · May 22, 2021

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COMPLETED | 35

Quick Update

Replay for Crisis Core. I remember liking it when it first came out. While the actual gameplay does not live up to what I remember, I still enjoyed the game overall and glad I replayed it.
Catherine Full Body - Definitive version of Catherine and adds overall great new character (Well besides bonkers true ending) and further hashing out previous characters
Streets of Rage 4 - Replay. First time through I played it solo. This time I played it start to finish in Co-Op. Still a fantastic game
Parasite Eve - It has a unique concept blending a few different genres, but I think it really works and I think the game holds up well to 2021.
Binding of Isaac Repentance - Started a new save file, got all endings, as well as few full cards. I am not going to stop playing this game. While I am sad this is the final DLC, it adds a ton of new content and will keep me coming back for a very long time.

Blindy · May 22, 2021

23) Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty(PS3) 5/15

Ratchet & Clank: Quest For Booty, which comes after Tools of Destruction but before A Crack in Time and sets up the latter. Well the name doesn't lie, Insomniac certain were on a quest to make a booty type of game because boy this game was bad. I hope this is the final taste in my mouth of Tools of Destruction and that this isn't any precursor of what CIT will be for me. The frame dip when a decent number of enemies appear, the lack of Clank which means your maneuverability is limited AKA one of the most fun parts of the series, taking your weapons randomly away from you for near 1/3 of the game(Who the hell plays this series with the lack of weapons?), the same 3 level designs that you go to twice in what is a 3 hour game. The one good thing this game does is unlike in TOD, the checkpoint system is very fair in this, you aren't forced to do an entire boss battle over but lord if they aren't bullet sponges, the final boss was so convoluted for it's own good that I even wanted it to end. The story consists of a clique pirate hunt for a rare artifact that the game was linking it to finding Clank after what happened at the end of Tools of Destruction which re-introduced two very forgettable characters as the main antagonists of the game so yeah the story was pretty bad. Just feels like a demo of R&C only just not very good or fun at all.

What makes this series so good are the weapons and interaction of the two main character of the entire series and you take 1 of them and your weapons(They give you two weapons at a time to use and you get a grand total of like 8 weapons the entire run, this is fresh off of having like 15 weapons that half are randomly stripped away from you for reasons) away and it's like what is this game trying to be? This game incorporated this new wrench pull mechanic that was mandatory in pulling objects and platforms to allow you to progress which sounds cool on paper............except it was unresponsive as all hell and I had to crouch down towards the near edge or routinely chuck my wrench into one of the platforms to get it to cooperate, this is maddening with respawning enemies appearing that come from behind to push me off the ledge or take HP off. Cool mechanic in theory, execution not so much.

It didn't help I made the mistake of taking this on HARD mode from the get go because you die to most things in 2 hits. Thank goodness for some weapons like the wasp turret & power bomb glove that willed my way especially the the last 2 bosses which basically had me running for ammo, abusing the turret and some bomb shots and trying to run away from the enemies in what felt like 15 FPS(Or maybe less) during these combat sequences.

The presentation and voice acting are always great with these games, just can't carry the gameplay.

24) Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time(PS3) 5/17-5/21

With Crack in Time, I can easily see why this is so beloved. This might actually have been the best game in the series, purely off of what it tried to accomplish. They tried very hard and IMO accomplished itself in making it as non-linear of a game in the series as it possibly could, which is tough given this is easily one of the most linear series ever(Not that it's a bad thing). You get total freedom with the spaceship parts that feel very Star Fox like with the combat sequences(Minus the teammates) but you get to do so much, from optional missions for Zoni(The protagonists who help Clank throughout Tools of Destruction) or golden bolts(That are staples in the series) to going and meeting side characters like Smuggler(Who has been in all the future games) who give you missions with your spaceship that are cool if your looking for extra content. Game has a pretty cool story that has you doing the typical Ratchet run and gun platforming but Clank has his own platform puzzle sections in the game that offer up a very nice change of variety sake and doesn't overstay it's welcome(You can skip them entirely but I guess you miss out on a bolt reward that is vital to buy weapons, armor etc.). Puzzles mainly are time sequences where you have to hit switches or stand on buttons to progress and have to do 2-4 time trips into doing so, it makes it where your every move matters and you have to plan one step ahead where Red Clank stands on a button to let Yellow Clank progress who has to return the favor so Red Clank can move on and then Blue Clank can advance on through, really neat puzzles. A lot of cool characters are in this one, led by the best villain of the series Dr. Nefarious who is absolutely diabolical! Story of the game really goes to show you just how tight Ratchet & Clank are and why they are one of the best tag teams in all of gaming history, they got each other's back!

The gameplay is pretty bread and butter R&C but I will say outside of the noticeable 30 FPS which does damper the gun play a little, the game has some really cool mechanics like the hoverboots that offer up a very fast pseudo-racing experience and the different sets of liquids you must absorb with the Omnisoaker that range from water(That must cool down molten hot platforms) to honey(For the evil bugs that can eat you in seconds!) to green ooze that erases nasty mud that halts switches. The weapons borrow from previous games but man how do you get better than Mr Zurkon. Crates? Crates? Mr Zurkon does not want to be wasted on crates! His currency isn't bolts but PAIN! The buzz blades as usual wreck shit in this series, especially when they become ricochet blades and just bounce all over enemies to no end. The game yet again has a weapon profriency gimmick that encourages players to not crutch on the same 1-2 weapons every time in the hopes of making stronger weapons due to level up from usage. A lot of cool weapons get introduced here like the Rift Inducer that summons a giant no faced tentacle monster from a black hole that snatches nearby enemies and strips them until they get eaten alive(Don't worry most enemies are robots!). The Groovitron is absolutely hilarious and I forgot this was introduced in Tools of Destruction but I can't imagine a Ratchet game without it. Seeing the final boss accidentally get caught in the weapon's range dance to it when he's working with you is LOL.

Game has good length to it, feels like a little bit longer experience R&C game of like 12-15 hours with side content to do like collecting all of the RYNO parts(Best weapon ever) and getting all 40 Zoni to forever take down a side antagonist in this game. I didn't do all of this but that's okay because I got so much content out of this game to say this is 1 if not 2 for R&C games I played in this revisit here in 2021.

I knew going in this was well heralded and this game hit the expectation and then some, really enjoyed myself with this one.

25) Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus(PS3) 5/22

As for Into the Nexus, yeah the game will take up 5-6 hours, depending on if your willing to go the extra mile for all the RYNO blueprints, gold bolts, and do all the Colosseum fights but the game really plays like a R&C trilogy rather than a R&C Future entry despite the game being the finale of the latter. There is no traverse with spaceships and there's only 5 planets that you can go to so it does feel like a budget R&C game but again this game was sold for $30 bucks at this time so the game isn't meant to be a full fledged entry. The 5 planets however small that amount is, are jammed pack with about an hour's worth of content in each so to me, it felt like this game had planets really etched out on what to do in them. Typical gameplay won't get too much more into that though Clank does have a pretty cool(Though the final part drove me a little upset, it's like why take me out of the final boss finale twice to do this?!) side scroller that involves him playing with gravity & going up and down to reach the objectives safely that has a little bit of puzzle in it that's sprinkled in there. The big drawback I have with the game is the FPS, this really felt 15 FPS and was borderline running in slo-mo at times, especially when there are a huge amount of enemies on screen and you use certain weapons like the bomb weapon that ends up evolving into a bouncer type of weapon which sorta sucked but by no means a deal breaker. Story has antagonists that are introduced, do something pretty vile and one of the two are just chatting with you (somehow) on voice speaker throughout you venturing a level so they are somewhat dropoffs from say Dr. Nefarious, add the fact you only fight one of them and yeah they are just there as antagonists. Story is fine in itself but the thing again is the game is so short that the story just comes and goes. The gameplay is what carries this game and makes it worth your while. Game plays like a half cooked R&C which still isn't all that bad but by no means is it a truly memorable entry from this series. Worth your time to play, however long it is. Game does offer up challenge mode, which I did take on as this was a revisit for me and what's cool with this is I got trophies and items I didn't get previous due to bolt cost like the final suit of armor for Ratchet or maxing out some LEVEL 6 golden weapons courtesy of the golden bolts collected on my 1st run ages ago. So Into the Nexus does offer up some replayability though you feel more satisfied going through this game once.

The graphics look really nifty here, especially for some of the Nether parts and the upside down elements are still really freaking cool in 2021! The final boss has some really epicness attached to it, the problem is it's just such a damn bullet sponge that it becomes more a war of nutrition on Challenge Mode more than anything else and given so much bullet hell is on the screen(Mostly from you), it was a nightmare, especially with the aforementioned frame dips. Some really cool platforming sequences and new mechanics that are introduced in this one.

How I rank them thus far:

R&C: A Crack in Time
R&C: Going Commando
R&C: Up Your Arsenal
R&C 2015
R&C 2002
R&C: Into the Nexus
R&C: Tools of Destruction
R&C: Quest for Booty

How I rank em. Hoping Rift Apart which is coming out in like 3 weeks tops this, so much expectation, this can be my GOTY!

Azriell · May 23, 2021

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14. Her Story | ★★★☆☆

Her Story has a wonderful concept: Using an old police database of interview footage, watch a bunch of unordered clips from several interviews to unravel the truth. The game doesn't explicitly state your goal, but since the search bar has the word MURDER filled in when you first log on, you have a good since of what you're doing right away. The catch is that that search bar is the only way to access the interview clips. There is no list to browse. The best they do is give you a sort of checklist that indicates how many videos you've seen.

It's extremely interesting to try to piece together this story that's being told in such a jumbled way, and with clips that mostly last fewer than 10 seconds. There are a few twists along the way that can be pretty confusing or eye opening, depending on when you come across them and in what order. By the end I had two sheets of paper for notes. I was writing down important words I wanted to search, the dates of the different interviews, the appearance of the interviewee, and even the time codes in an effort to keep it all straight.

I think anyone who is interested in video games as more than just simple entertainment should play Her Story. It's so simple in premise and execution that I'm amazed it took until 2015 for something like this to come along. But that having been said, I'm not crazy about some of the design decisions the creators made. There isn't really a goal here, besides viewing enough of the clips to figure out the truth. There is an end point where a sequence of events you take triggers a brief conclusion and then a credit roll, but there isn't any sort of finality or closure. It's more like real life, which makes sense since it emulates real life in so many other ways. I'm sure for a lot of people, Her Story's open-ended nature is exactly what they want, but for me I'd rather have just a smidge more game-y-ness in my video games.

Memory Pak · May 23, 2021

28. One Piece: Unlimited World Red (2014, Wii U) ★☆☆☆☆
Deeply disappointing how Ganbarion have slid back into licensed game hell after the flawed but ambitious Pandora's Tower. Checked this out on the merits of that game, and there are structural similarities: you leave a home base to beat up punks in bespoke levels, gain spoils, and use those for base improvement. As a non-fan, there's very little to latch onto: it feels like a greatest hits filler arc. There are obviously pre-existing relationships with various antagonists, but barring two serviceable late-game bossfights, the stakes aren't personal enough to make anything feel consequential. Characterisation seems shallow too: the women in particular are just walking cleavages for Sanji to drool over. Perhaps fans will be won over by the decent presentation (including original voice cast). There are lots of things to grind for, but unfortunately this episodic beat 'em up with boring combat doesn't make a strong enough case to warrant doing so.

29. Undertale (2018, Switch) ★★☆☆☆
A game I admire, but don't really like. Perhaps due to inflated expectations, I initially found the visuals quite soulless, and dismissed the humour as kooky 2010s Internet randomness. I've since come around on those early impressions: some areas feature genuinely beautiful bioluminescence, and there are tender moments behind its mask of irony. Unfortunately such interactions were too fleeting for me to connect with most characters, which are meant to be the highlights amongst its otherwise (intentionally) predictable A-plot.
Despite the game's brevity, its script tested my patience with its constant interruptions, the purposefully undercutting of potentially poignant moments, and by doubling down on long-winded anti-jokes. My impatience with the writing also extends to the broader meta-structure of the game: there's a clear emphasis on (not) doing multiple runs to discover its deconstructionist underpinnings. Turns out I almost reached the pacifist ending, but would have to replay the whole game because I missed one piece of sidequesting..
I expect to appreciate Undertale more in retrospect: it made me smile at times, has a varied soundtrack, and the bullet hell aspects of the combat are a personal highlight. It's also admirable how it delivers a compelling message of non-violence to a wide audience, while daring them to stray from that path and critically examine their relationship to video games.

30. Return of the Obra Dinn (2019, Switch) ★★★★☆
A master class in designing around limitations, Obra Dinn feels action-packed despite presenting still dioramas. You move through the remains of a doomed East India Company ship and try to ascertain the fate of everyone listed in the manifest. Aided with a mysterious artifact you see the moments when people perish, but putting names to faces requires more sleuthing. Clearly this draws on pulp adventure stories which saw the Far East as exotic. There is some mild critique here (the high-ranked officers are the greedy aggressors), and it goes to lengths to represent different languages and cultures, but the story does not escape reproduction of some dated Asian mysticism tropes.
It's rewarding to trace crewmembers' movements through the timeline, but depending on how adept you are at reasoning by elimination, the game's epiphanies are quite front-loaded. You discover new information for 3 hours, but may spend another 6 to 9 re-examining the same intel. Thus, the density of new insights stretches thinner the further you become removed from the initial one-more-discovery rush. I suspect this complaint will fade with time, but in the moment the game can drag towards the end. Very impressive production relative to its budget though; lots of different voice actors were needed to condense 60 interlocking murder mysteries to a ~10 hour game.

djinn · May 25, 2021

15. Digimon World Dawn
A sad disappointment. Not much story to tell and gameplay is bogged down by a huge amount of grinding. It takes a lot of effort to have fun with this game and even as a massive Digimon fan I struggled to enjoy this.

sosadtoday · May 25, 2021

1. Rainy Season - PC - 1.4 Hours - 4.5/5
This game has a very cozy atmosphere. It has some technical issues here and there but there is not much gameplay so it didn't bother me that much.

2. Celeste - PC -5.5 Hours - 4.5/5
Played with the assist mode on because this game was super hard for me. Beautiful story and soundtrack. Felt a little repetitive.

3. Donut County - PC - 3 Hours - 4/5
Fun game. Lovely dialogues. But that's all.

4. Her Story - PC - 6.2 Hours - 5/5
It was beautiful and creative. Enjoyed it a lot.

5. Astro's Playroom - PS5 - 4 Hours - 5/5
My first game on PS5! Love it.

6. Life is Strange: Before the Storm - PC - 13 Hours - 5/5
I've avoided this one for such a long time but damn, this was heartbreaking.

7. Control - PS5 - Around 15 Hours - 5/5
Perfect attention to detail. Lovely map design.

djinn · May 26, 2021

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16. Ocean's Heart
Can I please start playing good games again?? Another disappointment from yet another game I was looking forward to. Feels like it's only had rudimentary play-testing and probably by its one developer. Story is fine (with perhaps the most anticlimactic ending I've ever seen), dialogue is nice and music and art are pretty. But gameplay consists of mostly bum-rushing enemies, tanking damage and spamming attack. It's a pretty poor example of a Zelda clone with the developer apparently not interested in improving his work.

Valkerion · May 27, 2021

21. Resident Evil Village - (9/10) 5/9/2021
Video Review Written version~
Great addition to the franchise. Fixed a lot of the issues I had with 7's combat. The opening was a touch weak imo but I enjoyed it to the end more than 7. Liked how complete the story and what not felt too.

22. Monster Hunter Rise - (8/10) 5/17/2021
Still got a lot to do but I hit credits at least. Was a short ride to them but was glad to see extra cutscenes continuing the story while playing online. I'll keep this in my rotation for a while for sure.

23. New Pokemon Snap - (9/10) 5/22/2021
Video Review! Written version~
New comer to this series but I was a bit apprehensive before jumping in. Loved it personally. Had a lot of my favorite pokemon in it too which is great. I do think it feels a bit too grindy for my taste but I might give it more time. There is definitely more to see after credits.

24. Nex Machina - (7/10) 5/22/2021
Had this on my PC for years and never played it. Was an interesting bullet hell game but I found the extra weapons underwhelming. Eventually turned on a trainer to see what the stages and bosses were. Pretty neat stuff in the game and I liked the challenge but once again the weapons were just not as cool as the rest of the package. Might have given this more time/better personal score if they were.

BPHusker · May 27, 2021

22. Final Fantasy XIV: Patch 5.5: Death Unto Dawn | 4/23/21 | 4 hrs | 4/5
After almost a month of not completing anything, I finally got around to playing and completing something. You can finally tell they are starting to ramp up in preparation for Endwalker. While this patch wasn't as great as the previous few, it was still good and planted seeds for what is coming soon. The dungeons and raids are pretty fun and I enjoyed the various bosses throughout that content. I can't wait to see what's next!

23. Street Fighter Alpha 2 (SNES) | 5/20/2021 | 20 mins | 4/5
I decided to give SFA2 a try on SNES after playing the Saturn version a few month ago. All I have to say is WOW, how did they fit this game onto a SNES cart. Other than the short pauses before fights and static backgrounds, it plays just like the original.

24. Street Fighter II (SNES) | 5/25/2021 | 30 mins | 3.5/5
I last beat this in the 90s and I decided to replay it to see how it aged. Overall it was great, music and sound effects sounded great and the graphics were impressive for a 1992 SNES game. There's not much else to say - its the first Street Fighter 2 for home consoles and a lot of fun.. until you get to Vega... The difficulty spike is hilarious and almost made me punch the eject button and launch the game into the air.

25. Street Fighter II Turbo (SNES) | 5/25/2021 | 20 mins | 4/5
Next I moved to SF2T, which is an improvement over the original in pretty much every way. This is the first time you can play as bosses and use the Turbo mode, which makes a huge difference in the gameplay. While the original felt like you were in quicksand, the gameplay is fast and its much more fun. I'd skip the original SF2 if you have Turbo.

26. Super Street Fighter II (SNES) | 5/25/2021 | 30 mins | 3.5/5
I rounded out the SNES Street Fighter collection with SSF2. While some cool new characters were added, this is an unfortunate downgrade because it is so slow. Capcom removed Turbo from Super and the game suffers for it. Sadly SSF2T never came out on the SNES and I wish it would have, because it would have been a lot more fun.

27. Street Fighter Alpha (GBC) | 5/25/2021 | 15 mins | 4/5
Staying on a Street Fighter kick, I got through SFA on GBC. Let me just say that like the SNES port of SFA2, this port is even more incredible. Unlike the GB version of Street Fighter 2 that is extremely clunky, the gameplay is smooth even though the graphics are highly downgraded. It feels great, even though it is difficult to do some of the special moves because of the 2 buttons of the GBC. Great port to very underpowered hardware.

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Deleted member 85465 · May 29, 2021

The games are all out of order, so far I have finished (All ratings are subjective):

1) Halo 5: Enjoyed the gameplay feel of this game way too much 8/10. (first time).

2) Halo 4: Can´t help it, it just felt like a phony Halo in regards to the game feel, the story is cool though. 7/10 (replay).

3) Halo Reach: Still the king, the best Halo by far in my opinion. 10/10 (replay).

4) The medium: Though it has some problematic story beats, the overall game was enjoyable, the artstyle was pretty good. 7/10. (first time)

5) Call of Duty: Infinite warfare: it got me on some parts, the missions are really spectacularly cool, but after doing a thread with my extended thought, can´t help but think that its effective military propaganda, its still a pretty good game. 8/10. (first time).

6) River city girls: this game just hooked me, from beginning to end it felt addictive. 8/10 (first time).

7) Final Fantasy VII (og): I just felt like a tourist on a really great vacation playing this game, would take screen shots every 3 minutes hahaha, enjoyed this game immensely, it has some really great crazy imagery, the gameplay felt good, though a little slow at times, but the pacing of the story is some resident evil 4 level of good, it never felt stagnant and something new was always happening. 9/10 (first time).

8) Final Fantasy VIII: posted my extended thoughts on the "what jrpg are you playing" thread, it felt uneven, some cool ideas, but Squall carries this game on his back. 6/10 (first time).

9) Final Fantasy IX: same as VIII extended thoughts on that thread, hated Zidane, opposite to Squall he brought down the game with him, creepy undertones overall, though there is also some really enjoyable stuff. 5/10 (first time).

10) Bioshock Infinite: Even with all its narrative problems, some muddled and sometimes bad messaging (it has some both sides bad stuff), the pacing, gameplay, characters and art style of this game is still way too good, now replaying at 4k with hdr I was just hypnotized playing it. 9/10 (replay).

11) Bioshock: I noticed some weird undertones, it has the both sides stuff even more emphasized than infinite, but also race too, its weird, overall tough it still has the strengths of Infinite, but with arguably a more coherent plot. 8/10 (replay).

12) The Conduit: This is the groundbreaking Wii exclusive I have always wanted to play, and it did not disappoint, Wii remotes are the best way to play First person shooters in my personal preference, the story tries to be "serious" but ends up feeling cheesy, lovely game, though if you want to be harsh with it you can end up saying its bad, not in my case though. 7/10. (first time).

13) Genesis Noir: Possibly my game of the year, enjoyed it so much that I treated it as a series, trying to take my time with it the most I could, the art style is some next level stuff and with HDR it the best a game has looked on my Series X, loved it. 10/10 (first time).

14) Sea of solitude: an enjoyable little game, it has some themes that resonated a lot with me, its art style is beautiful too. 7/10 (first time).

15) Crash 1: After hearing forever about this franchise, I could finally try it out, and it was fun, but also a little frustrating, the level design felt sometimes like the designer hated humanity and was just taking it all on the player hahaha (hyperbole), it was enjoyable though. 6/10. (first time).

16) Crash 2: Now this is what I thought Crash was gonna be, the level design finally feels fair, crash´s movement feels 10 times more responsive and I had pure joy playing it, finished it really fast. 8/10. (first time).

17) Crash 3: Its worst sin is that it introduces mediocre water levels, that and it feels that the developer was bored of making crash games, there is so many "special" levels that are really not crash at all, I just wanted more platforming levels. 6/10. (first time).

18) Gears 5 Hivebusters: I was entertained, that's all I have to say lol. 7/10. (first time).

19) Injustice 2: Batman and Superman are such dorks in this game, the "serious" tone fell flat and I ended seeing the story as cheese with more cheese, still enjoyable though. 7/10. (first time).

(Update)

20) Batman Arkaham knight: had dropped this game like 3 years ago after disliking the batmobile, started a new playthrough because of a Microsoft Reward quest and only did the main story, ignored everything else this time, I have to say, there are way less batmobile encounters in the main path, and it feels kinda balanced, I only leveled up the batmobile so I never struggled with those sections and ended up kind of enjoying it, the story is a mess but the presentation is so high that it was entertaining most of the time. 7/10 (first time).

21) Mass Effect 1 (remaster): the greatest game of all time for me, this remaster just cemented that 1000/10 (replay).

22) Guitar Hero: World Tour (Wii): After finding almost all the Guitar Hero games super cheap, I was finally able to start playing the sequels, since I only had Guitar Hero III back in the day. Cleaned my 13+ years old guitar and played through the whole game, 60% hard 40% expert, I remember the finger pain back in the day but this time felt a lot worse on the first days of playing, it was a lot of fun, the production values of this game are way better than III, there are so many cameos, a lot of nostalgia with some of the artists that made cameos and most of the soundtrack was really good. 8/10 (first time).

23) Celeste: After a long time of hearing how great this game is I have to say its true, the game feel, mechanics, platforming design, artstyle are all great, it even has a touching story that elevated the game, dunno if I would replay it, but its possible. 9/10 (first time).

24) Tomb Raider (2013): Played half of it years ago, but dropped it because reasons I don´t remember, starting a new playthrough on Series X was really great, the pacing of this game is incredible there is barely any breathing room in the story, the game feel and set pieces are better than any of the first 3 Uncharted games for me, actually if story or good writing are not an important element for you I would recommend playing this game instead of the original Uncharted trilogy, since this game feels like a refined Uncharted game, the only problems it has are that the writing is really bad and it has some gruesome cut scenes in case Lara dies. 8/10 (first time).

25) Apex Legends S7: The new map is incredible, the first time I played it I was in awe, enjoy a lot how different each map feels and looks, the battle pass was a breeze. 9/10 (live game).

26) Apex Legends S8: The map changes where ok, Fuse is alright, pretty ok season in general, kinda struggled to complete the battle pass. 8/10. (live game).

27) Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus: Since it came back to game pass I decided to finish the playthrough I had started back in 2019 on PC, I had 1 and 1/4 level left, this game is a mixed bag, the story and characters are great, the game sets an incredible tone, honestly some of the best writing in videogames to me, but the game runs out of steam halfway through.

28) Metroid: Zero Mission: Seeing as the mythic Dread is coming out, I decided to play the 2D Metroid games I was missing (not touching og Metroid though), freaking love how tight Samus controls in this game, the level design is great, though some might not like the "linearity" of this game, its optional at the end of the day, ended up sequence breaking the game once by complete accident lol, really fun. 9/10 (first time.)

29) Guilty Gear: Strive: If I am not able to complete this challenge it will be because of this game lol, it completely consumed me, and I am loving it, watched Woolie VS videos to caught up with the lore, its pretty crazy hahaha, I like the melodramaticness of this franchise, its like a WWE soap opera mixed with the craziest anime you can think of, though the female character designs are getting better, they still have some awkward sexualization for my tastes, what its more awkward though its the idle battle poses of some of then, it has some "We have to show both the ass and boobs" syndrome. The gameplay its simple (relatively compared to other fighting games) and fun, the online is the real mvp of this game, ROLL BACK is amazing. 9/10 (first time.)

30) Persona 3: Dancing on Moonlight: This game made my cry with nostalgia at like the second song, it felt so wholesome to give this characters a breather, because of the og game "remember you will die" oppressing theme. Its the wholesome media reunion I didn't knew I wanted. Though this is also a problem in the original game, some of the female outfits are really bad, to the point where even the character tells you that the outfit is bad, it feels creepy. The soundtrack is amazing, but the gameplay is really unforgiving, I have never played a rhythm game were you can complete the song, but also fail it lmao, you can maybe have like 7 mistakes in some 800 hundred notes soundtracks to have the minimum rate to pass, its insane lmao, I was able to technically 100% since I thought female MC would be unlockable if I unlocked everything but nope, it was a fan mod what I saw on the internet lol. 8/10 (first time.)

Tizoc · May 29, 2021

63. 1943

Replaying this as part of the Capcom Arcade Museum and this game gets brutal really fast. The game's visuals and music show their age and it's hard to recommend nowadays IMO esp. as it is 16 stages long, with eachs tage taking up to 5 minutes to complete. I took 3 days to beat it as I paced how I progressed through the levels due to their difficulty.

64. Aerial_Knight's Never Yield

An auto-runner where you must dodge obstacles by pressing 4 buttons that each are respective actions: Red is High Jump, Yellow is a short hop, Purple is a Slide and (light) Blue is speeding up.
Being an indie game it has its shortcomings but the dev did a nice job with the tools they had. Each level takes about 5 mins. or so to complete and their are 3 difficulty levels to play the game to one's preference, such as having some slowdown at an obstacle, or no slowdown to test one's skills.
The game has a great soundtrack too which really got me 'in the zone' when I was playing through it. If there is one thing at least I'd like to see improved, it'd be the animations during cutscenes; I know what they were going for but some of the actions Wally does during the cutscenes look pretty awkward and funny.
Pretty solid game overall and I'd be down for some more if there is a future dlc or such.

sosadtoday · May 29, 2021

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4. Her Story - PC - 6.2 Hours - 5/5

It was beautiful and creative. Enjoyed it a lot.

AniHawk · May 29, 2021

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Shantae ★★½☆☆ (5 hours) (NSW)
Shantae and the Seven Sirens ★★★½☆ (6 hours) (NSW)
Tomba! ★½☆☆☆ (7 hours) (PS Vita TV)
Tomba! 2 ★★★½☆ (10 hours) (PS Vita TV)
R-Type Final 2 ★★★☆☆ (2 hours) (NSW)
Fez ★★★★☆ (5 hours) (NSW)
Rime ★★★½☆ (6 hours) (NSW)
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory ★★★☆☆ (7.5 hours) (NSW)
BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL! ★★★½☆ (9 hours) (NSW)
Toki Tori ★★★☆☆ (4 hours) (NSW)
Toki Tori 2+ ★★★½☆ (10 hours) (NSW)

i don't think i'll be clearing another game in may. but with toki tori 2+, i have hit the 52 games in 52 weeks... way ahead of schedule. considering how quarantine is coming to an end and that i'll also be playing longer games as i clear out my backlog, this will likely be a 2021 experience only.

got into a rhythm of playing series or similar style games. there's a couple one-offs in there. shantae was a nice surprise as i'd never played the gbc original it's a very ambitious for the hardware. it's too bad that it was made for gbc originally however, as the extra buttons from the gba would have made a lot of the gameplay much simpler. this was readily apparent when i was playing seven sirens immediately afterwards. almost three decades of a hardware boost was certainly appreciated.

after hearing so much about the games, and having panic-bought a bunch of psn games, i finally tried out tomba and tomba 2. they're both pretty charming 2d platformers in a 3d platformer world. both games made me realize i might actually hate the playstation. it was shocking to play a game from 1999 that did not have analog controls. but outside of that utter madness, tomba! 2 is a great sequel and improves on the original in every which way. i think i even prefer the more expressive, blocky polygons to the 2d spritework of the original.

r-type final 2 was my first r-type game. i'm not a shooter fan but i do like taking a stab at it every now and again (like the castle shikigami games and ikaruga).

rime is a great action-adventure game that feels like a mix of ico and legend of zelda. i docked it half a point due to the end of the story, which felt like it was sincerely made, but also felt incongruous with the gameplay. if the gameplay was a metaphor for what the characters were going through, then it did not work for me.

kingdom hearts: melody of memories is now the third kingdom hearts game i've completed after kh and kh ii. some of it was familiar and most of it was not. the core gameplay is a lot of fun - i have faith in the theatrhythm team to turn out something good. unfortunately the music just isn't that great, and brings the experience down. this would have been more fun with a bigger focus on disney music instead of weird kh lore.

boxboy + boxgirl was the first in the series i've played, and it was a fun little 2d puzzle platformer. i wound up playing all three main story modes. it certainly felt like a game made by the kirby folks.

after almost a decade of hearing great things about toki tori 2, i bit the bullet and checked it out - but not before noticing the first toki tori was also on switch. both games are fun, but i was not expecting the genre switch. the first game is a puzzle platformer in the style of crazy castle, but the second is a metroidvania.

RaySpace · May 30, 2021

All completions!

(PS3) Jan. 10th | Catherine | ★★★★★
(PS3) Jan. 13th | Demon's Souls | ★★★★★
(PS3) Jan. 14th | Max Payne 3 | ★★★★★
(PS4) Jan. 18th | Wreckfest | ★★★★☆
(PS3) Jan. 19th | Silent Hill | ★★★★★
(PC) Jan. 22nd | Tangram Deluxe | ★★★☆☆
(PC) Jan. 23rd | Into The Bridge | ★★★★★
(PC) Feb. 9th | A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build | ★★★★☆
(PC) Feb. 11th | Diablo 2 | ★★★☆☆
(PS3) Mar. 3rd | Batman: Arkham Origins | ★★★★★
(PS4) Mar. 3rd | SUPERHOT | ★★★★★
(PS4) Mar. 12th | Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown | ★★★★★
(PS3) Mar. 14th | LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues | ★★★★★
(PS3) Mar. 20th | God of War: Ascension | ★★☆☆☆
(PS4) Mar. 22nd | Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons | ★★★★☆
(PC) Apr. 6th | Watch_Dogs | ★★★☆☆
(PC) Apr. 8th | Highway Blossoms | ★★★★★
(PS4) Apr. 24th | Fat Princess Adventures | ★★☆☆☆
(PC) May 6th | Portal | ★★★★★
(PS4) May 9th | Concrete Genie | ★★★★☆
(PC) May 16th | Donut County | ★★★★★
(PC) May 17th | Detention | ★★★★☆
(PS3) May 19th | Syberia | ★★★☆☆
(PS3) May 25th | Eat Them! | ★★★★★

Saphirax · May 30, 2021

15/16. Black Mirror 2 & 3 (PC)

With all the QoL features that weren't in the first game, BM 2 & 3 felt much better to play. Luckily the third game had an option to skip puzzles since you cannot complete one of them due to a bug. I've enjoyed solving the overall mystery and getting most of the answers. It's unfortunate that some of it only got mentioned in passing.

17. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PS4)

I've played this when it came out, but decided for a new playthrough since I never touched the expansions (which I ironically still haven't gotten around to). There are a few interesting sidequests and some story beats, but most of it is your cookie cutter fantasy stuff with a slightly different flavour. The female characters could've been better written and some of the open world bloat could've been reduced. Gameplay was as stiff as always, but even playing on the hardest difficulty wasn't tough.

18. The Colonel's Bequest (PC)

I've played this game around two decades ago and I'm glad I did. It had a huge influence on my childhood. I kept replaying the game over and over. Always with different outcomes until I managed to get the true ending and even witness an easter egg without using a guide. It's somewhat of an open ended game. It's also a typical old Sierra game where it's easy to mess up and even die. The game will always be special to me, but upon playing it again after all these years I could see all the cracks. There simply isn't a lot to do and the conversations you can have with others are so barebones you could easily remove them and not miss out on much. It definitely doesn't hold up well, but again, it was an extremely influential game to me and I'll always treasure it.

19. Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139... (PS4)

I've played the original Nier a year or two after it came out and loved it. It was an ugly game made on a budget, but I fell in love with the world and the characters. I only ever finished two endings and with the remaster/remake coming out I made sure to 100% the game. The remaster looks better, but it's still very obvious that its roots stem from a low budget game - there's a lot of backtracking and not a lot of areas. The new stuff that has been added is great. Still including a speed run trophy from the original isn't. Oh, and could've done without that one particularly gross trophy too. Overall, Nier is still a great game with great music. Wish we could've gotten even more content.

20. Resident Evil Village (PS4)

The first part of Resident Evil Village is enjoyable, the rest went from 'meh' to 'oh god why' fast. I prefer the third person Resi games, but I'm not averse to first person either. I think Capcom tried doing too much with Village. Lady Dimitrescu could've and should've been a memorable villain, but you visit her castle first and she has no time to shine. The villains do not get enough screen time and Ethan still isn't an interesting protagonist. I hope the next RE game dials up the horror.

21. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV (PS4)

Bloat. So much bloat and harem bullshit. Way too many characters and some nonsensical, often grating, writing. There aren't a lot of RPGs that have a fully realized world that continues to get fleshed out in the sequels. It's a shame because the quality of Falcom's writing keeps dropping. Hajimari seemingly improves some stuff so I'm looking forward to it. And if Kuro can deliver as well...

LonestarZues · May 30, 2021

Don't think I'll be finishing any other games this month so below is my May update and here is my Master Post.

27. Dragon Age 2 - I have an unpopular opinion on this game. I love it. Sure there are those areas that all look alike, but despite it and all its faults I love it. It has some of the best characters in the series and introduces us to the GOAT Varric. The music is so good as well, but really that's all Dragon Age games.

28. Disco Elysium - What a ride. Had a roller coaster ride for the 30+ hours it took me to finish it. Was high on it then low then I was extremely high on it by the end. With the exception of 2 characters I really thought it was a very well written game with a lot of nuanced characters. Soundtrack was a banger as well.

29. Resident Evil 8 - What a great game. Took me around 12 hours to complete and enjoyed most of that time. Had 1 of my favorite sections in any Resident Evil game and I do think it's the most well told RE story as well.

30. Mortal Kombat 11 - Despite the BS last boss really enjoyed my time overall with the game. NetherRealm continues to make my favorite fighting game stories, despite how batshit insane they can get. Next up is the expansion Aftermath.

31. Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath - Not quite as enjoyable as the main campaign, but did like the ending. Tempted to see what the other ending would be, but I'll watch it on YouTube later.

32. Bright Memory - Debated counting this one, but since I paid money for it I'll count it. Nothing really to say because it's so short, but it's a game.

chrominance · May 31, 2021

Gonna call May done since I have nothing else in the pipeline I'm likely to finish in a day.

12. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered: The Heist (PS5, 2020) - 2:56 - May 1
13. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered: Turf Wars (PS5, 2020) - 1:58 - May 2
14. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered: Silver Lining (PS5, 2020) - 2:13 - May 3
15. New Pokemon Snap (Switch, 2021) - 10:41 - May 16
16. Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS5, 2020) - 12:26 - May 27
17. Monster Hunter Rise (Switch, 2021) - 17:54 - May 30

Reasonably productive month, though that's partially thanks to cleaning up Spider-Man DLC episodes. As you might have guessed, I dug Spider-Man quite a bit, so add the first game to the "why didn't I play this sooner" list of Sony exclusives. New Pokemon Snap and Monster Hunter Rise both had some great moments as well, but were maybe a touch too grindy for me personally.

Hoping to finally get to A-Train in June to see if the magic from its 3DS predecessor is still there. FF7R Intergrade and Ratchet & Clank drop this month, and I'll probably end up getting both. Besides that, I'm honestly not sure; I've hit a bit of a gaming lull where many of the games I have on the go or have set aside in the last few months aren't really calling out to me very much (sorry Persona 5 games). I might take this time to ease up on the games, give myself a break, and see where I stand in a few weeks. My goal was to try and hit one game every two weeks this year, and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to accomplish that at least, so even if I don't make it to 52 this year I think I'm okay.

rahji · May 31, 2021

Haven't posted in this thread, so here we go:

Cuphead in January: 15+ hours with some fine music. Listend to the soundtrack a lof of times after beating it. I would buy the DLC if it ever releases. I really liked that game because it is so unique. It is really hard but in the end it would there would be not enough content if the bosses were pushovers. Writing about that game made me listening to the OST again.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider in January: Played the 2 other games in the trilogy and so I thought why not. Thinking back, it hasn't left a lasting impression. It was by no means bad, the setpieces were great but it was not earth shattering for me. The story was whatever, I can't remember the details.
Guacamelee 2 in January: A great game for couch coop! We played that quite often until we beat it. Compared to the first game, there are no major overhauls but that is ok because the first game was already good.
Little Nightmares in January: Atmospheric platformer which was a bit hard in some parts. I liked it.
Hitman 1 in January: Made a playthrough in preparation for Hitman 3. Still a good game. Except that Bangkok level, I don't like it.
Hitman 2 in January: That game has some great maps in it. Mumbai is one of my favorites.
Concrete Genie in February: It was ok I guess. In hindsight it was quite relaxing with all the drawing.
Control in February: If I had known that I would get a PS5 later in February I would have postponed my playthrough to this point. The performance of this game was really rough on my base PS4, but I had fun with this unique X-Files inspired game. I even went for the platinum.
Hitman 3 in February: Great game which I play every time a new elusive target or a new escalation gets released. It never gets old. It is a solid finish for the trilogy and so far one of the best games this year.
Maquette in March: I liked the story quite a bit despite being predictable like cheese. Some puzzles were a bit buggy and I even had to reload one time because I locked myself in a situation where I couldn't progress anymore. The game has great potential but utilizes only a fraction of it.
Abzu in March: This game is great for relaxation. Played it on two evenings and it was great.
Astro's Playroom in March: I am not sure if the term tech demo is accurate for this game. It felt like Mario 64 playing this game, the first time playing through I chuckled quite a lot. If I had to spend money on this one, I honestly don't know if I had purchased this one. And I would have missed one of the first great PS5 games! I am glad that I played it.
It takes Two in April: The perfect couch coop game! I wish more of these games exist. For me it is a contender for game of the year along with Hitman 3.
Until Dawn in April: From the PS Plus collection. It was great for playing together with someone. Only negative point I have is that it always throwed an error that my console is not connected to the internet to show me global stats. That was annoying as hell and immediately put me out of the game. Otherwise, solid game.
AC Valhalla in April: Bundled with my PS5, that one was great. From a gameplay perspective, the best entry of the recent trilogy. It looks gorgeous and plays like a dream in 60 fps. The main quest was engaging, but too long and it felt like a TV series, which is great! Some day I will return to tackle the DLC.
Bugsnax in April: It had some lovely writing and it is a game for chilling on a Sunday afternoon. I am not sure if I would have payed money for it though. It was ok.
Oddworld: Soulstorm in May: Played that one on and off for some time and eventually I beat it. I can see what the vision for this game was but it falls short. The cutscenes were really great though and you should watch them if you are interested in this game.
RE: Village in May I liked it quite a lot. The action focus is great, the story is mostly great but the mercenaries mode sucks to be honest. I will wait some time for my second playthrough because I want to relive this on a harder difficulty.
Dirt 5 in May: Got this one as a gift and initially I was sceptic but this game is really good. Really good. The sounddesign is great, the haptic feedback is something I haven't experienced yet and in general it just plays great. The campaign is a bit barebones and there is a heavy focus on microtransactions but if you ignore that this is a next gen racing game. I like to start the game play some races and then come back next week. That feels perfect for that game.
Enter the gungeon in May: As someone who completed everything for Isaac back then, I gave this one a shot and after ~10 runs I was a bit disappointed. I tough it was too hard, I died often and early, the game mechanics were mysterious and I was not having a good time. Searching for tips on youtube and in the wiki openend my eyes. You really have to get involved with this game and research everything to make the best decisions on your run. That was the point when it clicked for me. After 30+ hours I beat the game only twice. I am still not sure if it is better than Isaac but it is a very good game.

Illusionary · May 31, 2021

Some really enjoyable diversity from my games of May, with six beaten taking me up to a total of 38 for the year.

Master post here.

33. Immortals: Fenyx Rising (PS5) | 1 May 2021
Platinum trophy earned. This was really great - despite very clearly borrowing mechanics from Breath of the Wild, Immortals: Fenyx Rising brings a enjoyably light-hearted approach to the more typical open-world exploration. With a variety of mechanical puzzles peppered throughout the island world, alongside roughly 60 larger 'vault' puzzle environments, there's a huge amount to do, with a consistently well-pitched level of difficulty that ensures a sense of satisfaction. Combat is the other core element to the gameplay, with a varied set of attacks ensuring that even standard encounters can be enjoyable - though ultimately, if played on a low difficulty setting you can get by with just the basic light and heavy attacks.

The underlying story is a fairly light and straightforward tale of restoring four Greek gods to power in the face of a Titan, but it's told with a great sense of humour through occasional voiceover from a supposed exchange between Zeus and Prometheus that again promotes the sense of fun that pervades the game. With a season pass available to offer more from the game, I look forward to a discount on that to give me an excuse to return!

34. RYB (PC - itch.io) | 3 May 2021
All puzzles completed. A clever and enjoyable logic puzzle game, RYB's puzzles present players with a pattern of interlocking shapes and the challenge to assign appropriate colours based on clues from adjacent shapes (e.g., one blue and two yellow circles indicating three neighbours with those colours). These start off very simple but eventually become quite challenging at times, with puzzles grouped into sets that generally each introduce a specific new mechanic, neatly introduced, wordlessly, through some initial examples. RYB gets a recommendation from me as a slow-paced, relaxing and satisfying experience.

35. Disco Elysium - The Final Cut (PS5) | 17 May 2021
Complete playthrough. One of the finest CRPGs in while, Disco Elysium sees the player taking control of a *disaster* of a police detective who, after waking up in a hotel room following a heavily drunken episode, finds that he has nevertheless been tasked with investigating a recent killing in a run-down district of the game's world. Meeting up with his assigned partner, Kim, as the investigation proceeds Disco presents a intelligently interweaved picture of life and story events of the area's various characters. The game achieves this primarily through its writing, of which there's an awful lot - so it's clearly a good thing that that writing is uniformly excellent, and made all the more approachable by the complete voice-acting that's now included in this Final Cut of the game.

Besides the writing, particularly notable here is the unusual skills system on which the gameplay is based. Divided between four attributes - intellect, psyche, phsyique and motorics - each skill is presented as a character in its own right, with its own personality. This is to the extent that extensive 'conversations' between skills form a key part of much of the dialogue (in the protagonist's head, of course), with the points invested in skills determining the influence that each has. There's (almost) no combat here in the traditional sense, but instead, skill checks take place as dice rolls within conversations. Again, while an esoteric approach, couple with the high-quality writing this works fantastically well.

All taken together, provided that you're prepared to invest yourself in the game and the amount of writing isn't a turn-off (which it really shouldn't be, certainly for anyone with experience of CRPGs), there's very little to fault here.

36. The Last Campfire (Switch) | 17 May 2021
Completed with 100% of 'forgotten things' collected. A relatively short, delightfully presented puzzle-focused game, The Last Campfire casts players as a lost 'ember' on a journey, searching for a way home, while along the way rescuing a number of similarly lost travellers. All themed around a message of hope, gameplay is a mix of exploration interspersed with puzzle scenarios, each of which is rarely all that difficult but well-judged, ensuring that solving them brings that crucial sense of satisfaction.

37. Mushroom Savior (Switch) | 23 May 2021
All levels completed. The sequel to Mushroom Quest, Mushroom Savior is a Sokoban-style puzzle game with a few embellishments (teleporters, ice tiles, etc.). It's perfectly competent at what it does and puzzle difficulty is well-judged, but ultimately doesn't have the scope to be anything particularly memorable. That said, it's enjoyable and satisfying while it lasts.

38. Rain on Your Parade (Xbox One - Game Pass) | 31 May 2021
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G). I wasn't expecting all that much coming to Rain on Your Parade, but trying in on a whim, I actually had a lot of fun with this. It has a vibe quite similar to the likes of Donut County and Katamari, filled with slapstick fun, with the player taking control of a cloud, out to joyfully ruin everyone's day. Now, that might start with simply raining on all 'hoo-mans' in a level, but objectives rapidly become a lot more diverse - you might need to corrode all vehicles on a farm with acid rain or spread fire with well-placed lightning.... and then the game finds a way to include tower defence, Metal Gear Solid-style stealth, an interpretation of Arkanoid, and even a rudimentary FPS. It's all wonderfully silly, but at times still somewhat challenging, with each level feeling like its own puzzle sandbox. With 50 levels, this will last a good handful of hours if you aim to achieve all bonus objectives, and then there's a New Game Plus mode that adds even more.

His Majesty · May 31, 2021

6. Donut County - 8/10

Donut County is a very short game but the ideal game to try out on a service like Game Pass. It never outstayed its welcome, meaning that its rather simplistic gameplay mechanics never ended up too boring or annoying. Combined with a good dose of well executed humour this makes for a very entertaining 2 hours or so.

7. Tell Me Why - 5/10

While the overarching fairy-tale like presentation in Tell Me Why is cute and gives us some puzzles and reading moments, the main attraction of what defines a good Dontnod game for me is absent. I didn't really mesh with any of the characters and while I was invested in the central mystery of the game, the road to solving that mystery is sadly full with a lot of useless exposition and poorly written dialogues. Also I think it's a bit of a shame the game decided to abandon the focus on the twin's relationship in the latter half of the game in favour of introducing a (predictable) villain.

Lord Fanny · May 31, 2021

So May is done and gone. Main post with all months here.

Lord Fanny said:
May:
27. Nier Replicant - Xbox Series X - 20 hours, 51 minutes
28. Resident Evil Village - PS5 - 8 hours, 31 minutes
29. Rain on Your Parade - Xbox Series X - 2 hours, 27 minutes
30. Superhot VR - Oculus Quest 2 - 2 hours

Much like I anticipated, in the second half of the year, my output has gone way done overall, but I'm still over halfway there. This month I started multiple games that I just couldn't get into for whatever reason such as Returnal, Ratchet and Clank 2016, The Wild at Heart and Tonight We Riot. Plus I replayed through Village a lot. I'm kind of surprised I finished the games I did. I'll see what June holds.

Completed Games (37/52)

June
31. Mundaun - PC - 5 hours, 8 minutes
32. Luigi's Mansion 3 - Switch - 10 hours
33. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart - PS5 - 14 hours
34. Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade Intermission Episode - PS5 - 3 hours, 17 minutes
35. Before Your Eyes - PC - 1 hour, 47 minutes
36. Ninja Gaiden Sigma - Xbox Series X - 10 hours, 11 minutes
37. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 - Xbox Series X - 9 hours, 40 minutes

Clive · Jun 1, 2021

24. ACA NEOGEO: Blue's Journey | May 1 - 2 hrs | ★★★
Colorful platformer with some well hidden secrets and good ideas but the controls feel a bit stiff and the game is just too hard. Thankfully you could pop in quarters freely with the RB button on the controller in this re-release.

25. Trover Saves the Universe | May 8 - 6-10 hrs | ★★★½
Surprisingly funny even if the tone got a bit old towards the end and well designed around VR. The charm and protagonist is what made the game worthwhile to play while the gameplay itself was pretty mediocre.

26. ACA NEOGEO: Burning Fight | May 23 - 1-2 hrs | ★★★
Enjoyable but unremarkable side scrolling beat 'em up. Not particularly good looking compared to 16-bit contemporaries like Final Fight and Streets of Rage and with worse controls. I had a good time though.

27. ACA NEOGEO: Samurai Shodown IV | May 24 - 1-2 hrs | ★★★★
Holy crap at that localization, something that to be fair is common in NeoGeo titles but this one took the cake. Literally "Victoly!" after beating opponents and "abuot" spelled like that twice in the same ending. The game? I honestly thought it introduced some really neat mechanics for the franchise and it looked and played like a dream.

27. ACA NEOGEO: Ninja Master's | May 24 - 1-2 hrs | ★★★★
Speaking of bad localizations here is one in the title itself, and the game of course. "Oh my load" it was bad. The game itself feels a bit like a hidden gem though and I loved the gameplay and characters. A solid challenge to beat in High Score Mode too.

28. ACA NEOGEO: Over Top | May 26 - 1-2 hrs | ★★★½
Really satisfying racing game to git gud at and learning all the shortcuts was essential for earning all achievements. Once you have done that though there isn't really much of a game in there. It has a grand total of one track that takes about 5 minutes to race through. I did it multiple times and can now comfortably beat what seemed almost impossible the first few tries. Not a looker but gameplay was tight.

Cipher Peon · Jun 1, 2021

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My May update

May became Resident Evil month for me! To prepare for Village, I finally played through Resi 7 and had a BLAST. Got super into the series again. Might pick up Resi 4 from where I quit, too. Unfortunately I thought Village was pretty mediocre, but hey I platinumed 7 so I got something out of it.

Quick thoughts

Va-11 Hall-a

I thought Va-11 Hall-a absolutely RULED. Loved everything about it, was totally gripped by the story, art, music, and characters. Definitely playing it again.

New Pokemon Snap

A very smart successor to one of the greatest games of all time. Lived up to an impossible legacy. Def think it's too bloated tho

Resident Evil VII: Biohazard

My second favorite Resident Evil game after the original. Ever since playing the original on PS1, Resi 7 is the game I always wanted the franchise to become. Incredibly paced, both scary and fun, and a revelation in VR. Loved it.

Overcooked

Beat this with my best friend. Really fun co-op game with intelligent level design, but with punishing star requirements means beating it was asking too much from players. Also the final boss being such a difficult commitment with an unskippable cutscene before it... not ideal.

Yu-gi-oh: Dark Duel Stories

I had a retro kick, and decided to beat one of my childhood games that I was at the 90% mark. Dark Duel Stories is a weirdo and ancient take on a card game I played when I was young, and I still think it's kinda cute. Definitely liked it over Eternal Duelist Soul.

Nier: Replicant

A promising start that fizzled out into an absolute slog. As someone who *hated* Route B in Nier: Automata and thought it almost ruined the game, Nier Replicant is a game that is almost entirely a Route B. By the time I got to Part 2 of Route A, I was already clocked out, so you can imagine how I felt after Route E.

Resident Evil: Village

I hate action Resi and love horror Resi, so this game was a wild ride. A very uneasy start led to an okay first dungeon and then peaked with an INCREDIBLE second dungeon. It was all downhill from there, leading to a noisy, repetitive, and unfun slog. At least there weren't any oneliners about bingo.

The Pathless

A simple yet effective game. Great movement mechanics and solid puzzles led to an experience I'm kinda upset I put off. Enjoyed it.

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

I streamed beating this game to a friend of mine and it was an absolute blast. I LOVED the first game, and while I think the second game is easier and less scary, I am still heavily engrossed in this world, story, and gameplay. Can't wait to start up FNAF 3.

Whimsicalish · Jun 1, 2021

24 | The Letter
PC | June 01 | 66 hrs | 4/5

I had fun playing this one. I don't have a lot of visual novel experience, especially one in the horror genre. This VN is heavy on the novel side. The first run took me roughly 14 hours. This is one of the few games I have ever played that felt like my choices really mattered. You could make a small decision that later on a different character will comment on it.

The art is fantastic. The animations are awesome and make it less static. (Minus the weird boob physics...come on.) Special kudos to all the voice actors. Everyone's voice and speech felt like that character. Overall, it's high quality VN. I did have an issue with crashing on certain paths. It would break when I tried to instantly skip the dialogue, but I could pass that by the classic "fast-forward" skip. That was unfortunate since I had to sit and wait. One reason I have so much time logged into this game.

The downside to all those different choices: there are MANY, MANY different paths and nodes in the flowchart. My time is so bloated because I convinced myself to get every achievement. There are achievements to unlock every choice in all seven chapters. It was so much work. But it did make the first handful of runs unique.

The game does need hints or text on the in-game's flowchart to help you remember what to unlock. There's seven characters and many different combos you can't possibly remember. I did feel a bit disappointed in the true ending. There's a ton of content throughout the game and I was hoping for more focus on the horror part.

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nacimento · Jun 1, 2021

13. Astrobot: Astro's Playroom (PS5) | 30th May - 5hrs | ★★★★

This game truly is a bundle full of charm. It's a solid platformer, looks really cute and plays great. An outstanding pack-in. I got the Platinum trophy since it was so fun to keep playing it. Not all of the different suits you could use were equally good however. While I enjoyed the ball, the monkey and the spacecraft were only okay. And the frog was terrible. But the game itself is really fun and just a joy to play. The idea with playing "inside" the PlayStation 5 was quite awesome as well. While I do not have a particular nostalgia for the PlayStation line, the voyage through its history nevertheless felt just right. And the music is exceptional, with "I'm your GPU" being a legit banger.

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52 Games. 1 Year. 2021.

One Winged Slayer

One Winged Slayer

One Winged Slayer

User-requested account closure

No Fear, Only Math

Sky Van Gogh

One Winged Slayer