Remedy Entertainment are well known for their cinematic action titles. But ever since Max Payne was released almost 16 years ago, they could never really recapture the fantastic balance between the amazing cinematic storytelling and fun gameplay that went so well in their classic. Max Payne 2 felt a bit too boring to play, Alan Wake was really boring to play with it’s spin-off semi-sequel being slightly more fun. So, where does this leave Quantum Break?
Tag: Not recommended
Disapprove: DreadOut and Keepers of the Dark
Ever since the original teaser demo in 2013, I consciously avoided DreadOut. Back then it felt like an unoptimized complete lack of understanding of what actually made Fatal Frame an interesting game, an attempt to cash in with the jump scare linear horror-themed titles that got extremely popular back then due to the scarecam craze. But recently, I decided to give it, and it’s standalone DLC Keepers of the Dark, a try. I mean. What if I was wrong?
I wasn’t.
STASIS. A drug induced coma
STASIS is one of those Kickstarter projects that went for the nostalgic feeling. The ones that usually get most attention and love, because they promise a return of something that wasn’t done in quite a while. Some perform way above expectations (Pillars of Eternity). Some are better than nothing. And STASIS? Well, it does deliver on a lot of it’s promises and is certainly better than nothing. But by how much?
Revisiting Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut
It’s been a while since I’ve played Deadly Premonition. Funny story – I was actually one of the seemingly few, who were waiting for the game to get released way before it was named Deadly Premonition. Originally it was announced as “Rainy Woods” in 2007, was even more Twin Peaks influenced and for me, a huge survival horror fan with soft spot for that David Lynch series, it was enough to get excited. But then the game just kinda dropped off my radar until suddenly popping up in a Destructoid review by Jim Sterling in early 2010, who loved the hell out of it. I didn’t even recognize the game back that from the start, since it has changed the title and even the looks (and name) of the main protagonist (the original name went to the next Swery’s game – D4). But when I finally did I knew – I need this game in my life. I never had an Xbox 360, but my friend did, so he grabbed the game, lent me the console for few weeks and I found a new game to put in the list of absolute favorites. But it was flawed. It needed a remaster. Is The Director’s Cut here to do the job? I’m going to spoil it right away – it isn’t in the slightest.
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Quick thoughts on: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2
Well, this was quite a waste of potential. Dracula vs Satan in the fantastic/futuristic modern day setting among the apocalypse – sounds exciting. Plays boring.
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Quick thoughts on: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Ultimate Edition
This game took me 19 hours to complete. And I felt every last second of that.
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Quick thoughts on: Aliens vs Predator (2010)
The whole AvP franchise has a long history in gaming. Alien vs. Predator was a classic arcade beat’em up from Capcom. Rebellion tried their hand at turning it into an asymmetrical FPS on the Atari Jaguar and later gained a bigger recognition with the Aliens versus Predator from 99 (currently sold as Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000). Then we got an amazing Aliens versus Predator 2 from Monolith Productions which is unfortunately not sold anywhere digitally. And it still remains one of the definitive titles in the franchise (or both Alien and Predator franchises, really), nailing the horror and heroics of the Colonial Marines campaign, the mystery and the hunt of the Predator campaign and the quick, heavily movement based nature of the Alien campaign. Even more amazingly, it was one of the still incredibly few games to have one general storyline that is seen from 3 distinct perspectives depending on the campaign you play, complimenting and not contradicting itself.
And then we got this game.