Sometimes some crimes small games get a lot of buzz happening around them, praising the storytelling or the mood of the game or what not. Adios was one of these games for me as since its release a couple of months ago, I’ve heard a lot of good things about the game, with lots of “even if it’s 90 minutes long”. And I like short and succinct story driven games, as they are a rarity and are very hard to do well. Having played the game, I must say that while I can understand someone liking it, it didn’t really do it for me.
Tag: game review
Happy about: Fable Anniversary
Many many years ago, in 2005 to be precise, I’ve played Fable: The Lost Chapters on PC and enjoyed it quite a bit. It didn’t exactly wow me, because of how intentionally primitive the storytelling was, but it was full of curious ideas. And from what I’ve seen and heard, all those ideas were developed and expanded upon in the highly praised sequel that still remains exclusive to Xbox 360 and thus, I’ve never given it a proper playthrough. I’ve not checked Fable III either, since the PC port of that game wasn’t particularly great and was tied into the terrible GFWL service, which was apparently the main reason the game was pulled from sales pretty soon after and remains not available for PC since then.
In 2014 an Unreal Engine 3 driven remake/remaster was released, called Fable Anniversary, which was basically exactly the same game as The Lost Chapters, but with many little tweaks and changes and with better support for modern hardware. And for the longest time I’ve not planned to ever play it. I thought that I will find Fable too simplistic and boring and not worth revisiting. Yet a discussion with friends prompted me to reconsider and give this game a go. I’m glad I did that.
Thoughts on: Yakuza 3 Remastered
Every since finally starting my journey through the Yakuza series with 0 three years ago, it’s been very interesting to see series evolve… yet also see that in an “incorrect” way. I mean, sure now I’m fully familiar with Y1 and 2 first hand, but those were the recent Kiwami remakes, not the originals. And even 0 itself was one of the newest developed entries in the series. In fact, Yakuza 3, even in its remastered format, is now the oldest made game in the series I’ve played. This age shows not in the most flattering way.
In love with: Mundaun
I rarely stumble upon praising reviews for a niche game I’ve never heard before, play it and end up liking it a lot. Usually the game turns out to be not some amazing surprise like Sylvio, but rather just a nice but forgettable experience. I am not forgetting Mundaun.
Thoughts on: Resident Evil Village
Four new mainline Resident Evil games in just 4 years… Even during the heyday of the series in the late 90s it didn’t happen quite as often. After trying to recapture the essence of the classic survival horror with flawed but wonderful Resident Evil 7 we got not less wonderful reimagining of Resident Evil 2, both of which managed to recapture the glory of the genre, while attempting new things. Then last year we had a disappointing attempt at a remake, but a very solid and fun linear survival action Resident Evil 3. And this year we get an attempt to mix 7 with 4, in Village (or as they stylize it VII.l.age, to show that it’s RE8). And it’s a really good, really well put together game. That I struggle to care much about.
In love with: Cyberpunk 2077
Years after its announcement and months since its release I’ve decided to give Cyberpunk 2077 a go. Despite owning the game, I didn’t play it not for the obvious reasons of it being horribly buggy at the moment, but out of my usual principle of not playing story-driven games that have DLCs announced for it until said DLCs are out. I don’t like playing story-driven games until they’re “done” and I was willing to wait a year or more, just like I did with The Witcher 3 and it’s DLCs and expansions or recently with The Outer Worlds. But after almost half a year of CDPR spending all of their efforts on patches instead of additional content, I figured that the wait might be a bit too long for my liking and played the game in its 1.21 patch version. What an experience it has been.
Revisiting Tomb Raider: Underworld
Finishing up my revisit of the Legend timeline, I was most curious about what I would think of Underworld. When it was just released, the reception to the game everywhere was rather positive, but somewhat mediocre, yet to me it seemed like a really good game. And since unlike Anniversary I did not revisit this game since launch, I was afraid that my memories of this entry were a bit more rose-tinted than I was willing to accept.
Well, time to accept it now. It’s still a good TR title, but a lot of it doesn’t work all that well.
O tempora: Tomb Raider: Anniversary
O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
I’ve already revisited Tomb Raider: Anniversary several times before. In fact, it’s been one of my favorite entries in the series, up there with The Last Revelation. But it’s been a while and the game has never been perfect in the first place. I was somewhat worried that it has aged more poorly than I’d expect.
Nah, it’s still great.
Revisiting Tomb Raider: Legend
After several years of writing about Tomb Raider games that are disappointing, I decided that it’s time to finally revisit mainline games from the franchise that I’ve liked. And started with Tomb Raider: Legend which I originally disliked. Oh boy.
But you know what? What if 15 years later I can enjoy Legend much more than I did when it launched? It surprised even me.
Revisiting Batman: Arkham Origins
Of all the Batman: Arkham games, I was most curious about revisiting Origins as I originally had rather poor experience with the game due to its numerous bugs on release, yet despite that remembered enjoying the game nonetheless. Developed by WB Games Montréal, the title was clearly designed to be a filler entry in the series to bring WB more cash before Arkham Knight can be released. And it has since been often ignored in the overall Batman: Arkham re-releases structure (along with the Arkham Origins Blackgate sidescrolling spin-off which wasn’t good). To the point where the upcoming Gotham Knights title from the same studio, despite clearly looking like a continuation of the side character stories from Batman: Arkham series, is marketed as a completely standalone title.
And it’s all a shame because Arkham Origins is almost a very good game. And I wish I could like it more than I do.