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Patapon 2 Remastered fails to compensate for the fact that the Sony PSP was a very different device from the PlayStation 4, and in the end, controller latency sinks this classic game adaptation. If the game had compensated for the particulars of its new home, it may have been immensely enjoyable – the core of a great game is intact. But as it stands, Patapon 2 is frustrating and unfun.
While interesting on paper, The Church in the Darkness is mostly just a collection of anti-capitalist audio logs blaring over harder-than-it-needs-to-be stealth gameplay. There's no love lost in this place.
Rudimentary in visuals, content and gameplay, Boxing Champs barely qualifies as a free phone game, much less a 15 dollar eShop title.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood takes one of my favorite FPS series and ruins it with repetitive grind, bloated FPS mechanics, a broken, mandatory co-op system and a frankly insulting story. Don't touch this one with a ten foot pole.
Dream Alone has a tired story, clunky controls, and flawed mechanics, and most of its problems can be traced to the near-fundamental incompatibility of this type of horror with this type of platforming. Its most promising aspect—multiple dimensions—is by far the creepiest part, which is enjoyable, but it seems to sabotage itself with a few key flaws that impact the entire game's playability.
There is no doubt that Yet Another Zombie Defense HD is more crisp and graphically pleasing than the first, but where the game could have had more distinct zombies, different backgrounds, and more customization, it stayed with the same ole' boring. For four bucks you can have a decent time with the game, just don't expect it to be a regular pull on game night.
Jurassic World: Evolution is an island-making sim where frustration and wait-times are scarier than any of the dinosaurs. The idea of creating 40 dinosaurs and their enclosures sounds like a real treat, but in this case, I'm sure Dr. Grant would have stayed at his dig site.
If Rick & Morty: Virtual Rick-ality were a discount title, I would say "Take a look, but keep your expectations in check." However, this is one of the more expensive VR titles, and the brevity of the story combined with the frustration of some broken mechanics make this a mixed bag. The game is fun when it is working correctly, and the world building and writing are top notch, but don't expect to spend more than a couple of hours in Rick's garage, with some of that time spent wrestling with broken mechanics.
If Rick & Morty: Virtual Rick-ality were a discount title, I would say "Take a look, but keep your expectations in check." However, this is one of the more expensive VR titles, and the brevity of the story combined with the frustration of some broken mechanics make this a mixed bag. The game is fun when it is working correctly, and the world building and writing are top notch, but don't expect to spend more than a couple of hours in Rick's garage, with some of that time spent wrestling with broken mechanics.
Taxi Life: A City Driving Simulator proves that not every occupation can become a worthwhile video game simulation. It's infested with bugs and soulless gameplay, making it more of a mundane taxi than a crazy one.
D-Day Enhanced offers fun gunplay that only sporadically functions 100% correctly, in addition to myriad bugs and a paltry player base. The bugs can be squashed in the weeks ahead, but the lack of players and subsequently poor AI make this one a tough sell.
Despite its flaws, Gothic II remains a fascinating relic, a testament to the ambition and innovation of early open-world RPGs. While its clunky controls, outdated mechanics, and fetch-quest-heavy narrative might not resonate with modern players, its intricate world-building, hidden secrets, and surprisingly complex player agency shine through even today. It's a game that demands patience, but rewards exploration with a sense of discovery and genuine joy in overcoming its challenges. Ultimately, Gothic II's legacy lies not in its polish but in its pioneering spirit. It helped lay the groundwork for the genre we know and love, and for that, it deserves our respect, even if I ultimately choose to leave its clunky controls and endless errands in the past.
Code Name S.T.E.A.M. has an interesting premise and an initially appealing aesthetic. But then the gameplay comes along and teams up with a crushing difficulty to deflate what should have been a great piece of hokey Americana.
There's really a lot to like with Monster Hunter 4, but the great aspects of the game are crushed beneath the monumental weight of it's frustrating gameplay. While some of this pain is eased by the multiplayer, it isn't enough to make up for the fact that the game just shouldn't have been released on the 3DS. This is a console game trapped in a handheld body, and it's really a shame that a game with so much potential is limited by such small but ever-so-important design problems.
Good track design and a blistering sense of speed are not enough to compensate for relatively mindless racing. Horizon Chase 2 serves as an ode to arcade racing classics that reminds us just how far the genre has come.
I would love to say that I loved South Park: Snow Day. But the shallow combat, light story, and general lack of depth made me feel like this game was just scraping the surface of what it could have been. Grab it on sale to play with buddies, but beyond that, stick with the classics.
While I eventually began having fun with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, the game was a very difficult nut to crack. Rather than being open to the way I wanted to play it, Avatar pushed me to find the way it wanted to be played, and then kinda punished me for doing so. Frontiers of Pandora should feel free and flowing, but I've found a lot of the experience to be restrictive and near-punitive. Once I pushed through the game's many barriers to entry, I started having a good time, but don't expect to just jump in and have fun. Like Jake Sully, it's going to take a while to find your Avatar-legs.
Can torturing prisoners in a secret underground laboratory be kinda boring? The Kindeman Remedy shows that it can. Essentially a time management game, The Kindeman Remedy has players putting an evil doctor and his nun assistant through the paces of dark experiments in a way that ends up feeling a lot like a repetitive day of work. Some cheap kicks to be had from the not-so-violent violence, but the shock value is short-lived. Not a prison I would want to spend any significant amount of time in.
If you want the best experience possible with MythForce, play with friends. If you don't have friends, then play by yourself. If you hate yourself, then try playing with strangers. Visually, style-wise, I love MythForce. While there isn't enough dialogue what is there can be amusing the first couple of times. Combat takes some getting used to, but once you have the hang of that the game gets better. I love roguelike elements, I just need more randomness. With the exception of MythForce's style everything falls flat after a few hours. Buy this on sale and convince a few buddies to do the same and you won't be upset you did it.
Gloomhaven as a video game is a faithful recreation of the board game into the digital world. This is both commendable and detrimental. It is a good game, but there is also a reason no one sits around a table and plays by themselves and this is pretty much it.