Happy about: GRIS

GRIS is a wonderful example of when a game doesn’t do anything extraordinary or anything new, yet what it does it does really well. It looked so “seen it all before” in trailers and bits of gameplay, that I didn’t consider playing it myself. And now that I have played, it’s not like my expectations were completely off. Yet, I enjoyed this game quite a lot.

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Happy about: NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…

I’ve tried playing NieR (Gestalt) when it first came out years ago, but just like it happened with Drakengard even earlier, I got bored with the game. So it wasn’t until slightly later that I’ve learned about how inventive the storytelling in NieR becomes, how the game twists your perceptions with the second playthrough and just how intentional a lot of the boredom I’ve felt was. Years later, NieR: Automata came out and was absolutely fantastic, doing a lot of the same concepts, but in a much more fun way. And given its success, I expected that it was only a matter of time NieR will get a modern re-release. NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… turned out to be much more than a simple re-release.

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Thoughts on: The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope

With the first game in the Anthology out of the way, I was curious if Little Hope is going to be any better. I still liked the concept, after all, and the fact that every story can be completely separate was promising. Overall, I liked Little Hope far more. Yet, I feel, not everyone will feel the same.

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Happy about: Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (Singleplayer)

Unlike the rest of the sub-series in Call of Duty, Black Ops entries have been the most creative in terms of gameplay over the past 10 years. Original Black Ops had some curious gameplay ideas to enhance the narrative, the sequel is probably still the most choice/consequence heavy entry in the franchise and even the third game had some curious ideas, including the fact that your player character was fully customizable. So after the pretty and curious, but rather uneventful Modern Warfare (2019), I expected the singleplayer of Black Ops Cold War to be more exciting. And even more stupid. It delivered on both.

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Disapprove: Need for Speed Payback (and few words on Heat)

After having a blast replaying Hot Pursuit (2010) in its Remastered version, I’ve decided to check what the series have actually been up to in the latest entries. First one up was Need for Speed Payback and I gotta say, the first impressions were very poor. Yet, I did get through the entire game, having played most of the events, so there is something good to it as well. Not much, but it’s not an entirely unfun experience.

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Quick thoughts on: The Shapeshifting Detective

What I usually want from an FMV adventure game is either fun quick paced “interactive movie” experience, where every choice I make leads to a new interesting possibility, or a solid adventure game where the FMV is just a visual style. The Shapeshifting Detective is neither.

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Thoughts on: The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan

I’ve heard a lot of good things about the previous titles from Supermassive Games (which I haven’t played yet due to their PS4 exclusivity), yet all of the reviews I’ve seen of this Dark Pictures Anthology project were mediocre at best. So it took me a while before I decided to check them out, starting chronologically with the Man of Medan. And, well, it’s not terrible.

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Thoughts on: Critters for Sale

Though not many of them are being sold, there are countless of “weird games” out there. And quite of a few of them got really popular at least in certain circles. From Revenge of the Sunfish, to Space Funeral or Goblet Grotto they tend to get people intrigued, whenever they could be considered “good” or “bad”. They’re just fascinating and it’s interesting to ponder their existence if not always play. Critters for Sale is something like that. It’s not particularly fun to play, but it is certainly fascinating.

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