Tag: game review

Quick thoughts on: Resident Evil: Revelations

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rerev

Revelations is a rather interesting part of the Resident Evil series. On one hand, it does feel like a side-story, not part of the main series. On the other, it often plays more like what Resident Evil used to be, than the newest entries. It feels like a more focused and better put together game, than Resident Evil 6 (released same year). But at the same time, doesn’t evoke the same feelings, RE6 does, feels like designers lacked confidence and built the game by the checklist, not by their inner desires.
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Tomb Raider. Third birthday

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Almost exactly 10 years ago Tomb Raider series was meant to be “refreshed”. Add characters, make it more story-driven, include RPG elements and make it about Lara Croft learning to become Lara Croft (again). It was called Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness and it failed miserably. It became the last title from the original TR developers Core Design and the studio was closed soon after. And the main reason for the failure was brutally simple – the game was only about 60% finished on release and played horribly. Ten years later, the new development studio currently responsible for the series Crystal Dynamics (a studio I admire a lot) approached the “refresh” in a very similar way. Except, this time they had a chance to finish the game before releasing it. Happy birthday yet again, Lara.

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DmC: Devil May Cry. Anger versus cockiness

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When I first heard about Capcom developing a game based on Divine Comedy where Dante Alighieri is making mincemeat out of demons I rolled my eyes. “This is so stupid, why would anyone want this?” Then the demo of this weird game that was to be called Devil May Cry was added as a bonus to the PS2 release of the new entry in the super popular (and much loved by me) Resident Evil series – the Code Veronica X. I still remember the longstanding joke that most people who got that version spent more time playing the DMC demo than RE: CVX itself. The game became a forerunner for a new genre of action.

When DmC: Devil May Cry was announced people started rolling their eyes and hitting tables with their heads for more or less similar reasons. And yet, just like the last time, the results are pleasantly surprising.

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Thoughts on: To the Moon

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To the Moon, review, обзор

This indie project To the Moon, developed on the lately popular for creation of story-driven and lacking any sort of RPG elements game tool RPG Maker, was released about a year ago and praised by everyone and their cats. For the past year I was constantly hearing about how To the Moon is “the game that will make you cry”. Well, I’ve played it myself now and while I haven’t shed a drop, can confirm that the game is indeed good.

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Quick thoughts on: Thirty Flights of Loving

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Trailer to this tiny game uses a quote from PC Gamer: “Tells a better story in 13 minutes than most games do in 13 hours.” And yeah, this game will take about 10-13 minutes to complete total. It’s a very short story, with broken chronology of events, weird style, emulation of the movies from the 60s (especially the spy and caper movies) and it uses the old Quake 2 engine. It’s a continuation of the Citizen Abel project that already saw a release of a similar in style and background, yet completely free, title called Gravity Bone.

As with Dear Esther, or a better comparison here would be The Graveyard or Fatale, only the customer can decide if they want to pay for this kind of experience. Talking about titles like this is actually quite difficult, so I’d rather say that – I really liked Thirty Flights of Loving, yet I don’t feel like it had any lasting impression on me. Though, the soundtrack here is really good.

Happy about: Max Payne 3

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Max Payne 3 has looked like a controversial game ever since the announcement. From the start, it had people who refused to believe in a game with Max without NYC and Remedy. It was clear that this franchise, that originally taught early 00s gamers the word “noir” (without explaining what it meant), was to become something else entirely. But change is never just bad or just good.

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O tempora: Zork: Grand Inquisitor

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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 never played Zork games. Neither did I ever like Myst-like adventures. Yet, Zork: Grand Inquisitor is one of the best adventure titles I’ve ever played. If this sounds familiar you may have read this wonderful retrospective by Richard Cobbett last year. I’ve decided to give this game a go specifically due to that retrospective. And I’m very glad that I have.

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Ugly duckling: Martian Gothic: Unification

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Ugly duckling is a series of posts talking about games that could’ve been great, but were not.

I’ve talked about my love for Dead Space many times. When it was released in 2008, lots of people were excited about the first [RE-like] survival horror in space. But that’s not true. Dead Space was the first good (I’d say great) RE-like survival horror in space. 8 years before it, though, another survival horror in space was released, first on PC, then on PS1. It was called Martian Gothic: Unification, and it was, unless I’m mistaken, the first. Curiously, Dead Space even shares some concepts with this game. But the main difference between them is that unlike with Dead Space, it’s playing Martian Gothic isn’t that fun.

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O tempora: Dino Crisis series

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O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

The Dino Crisis franchise has a weird spot in Capcom catalog. On one hand, the first two games were really popular and apparently sold well. On the other, the company has been obviously unsure about making a new title, especially after the failed experiment with the third game. And besides, if they do make a new game, what type of game would it be? All three games in the series were so different.

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Ugly duckling: T.R.A.G.

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Ugly duckling is a series of posts talking about games that could’ve been great, but were not.

You probably never heard of T.R.A.G. (T.R.A.G.: Tactical Rescue Assault Group – Mission of Mercy or Hard Edge) until seeing this post or, at least, until listening to the collections of top worst videogame voice acting. But hey, since you’re here, check this: T.R.A.G. is a bizarre mix of survival horror, jRPG, beat em up/slasher/fighting and lots and lots of stupidest anime tropes imaginable. I mean, even if its most likely stupid, at least it sounds intriguing, right?

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