Recommended – Page 11

O tempora: Final Fantasy III (Pixel Remaster)

18/12/2021 18/12/2021

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

Of the three NES Final Fantasy titles that I tried playing years ago, FF3 was the one that get me hooked. I still dropped it at around a quarter of the story in, but I was planning to return someday. I even gave the 3D Remake version of the game a chance, even though I really disliked the style and approach to those DS Remakes. But it wasn’t until now that I’ve finally finished Final Fantasy III. And I really liked it.

Happy about: TOEM

25/11/2021 25/11/2021

TOEM appeared out of nowhere for me and as someone who likes photography, I couldn’t help but get interested. And it turned out to be a curious and sweet little game.

Happy about: The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

08/11/2021 08/11/2021

After the first two entries in The Dark Pictures Anthology I was skeptical, but still hopeful about the whole concept. Sure, I don’t particularly like games which heavily rely on QTEs, but that wasn’t my problem with the first games. Rather, they suffered from poor narrative and storytelling decisions, which is pretty important in an “interactive movie”-type game. I’m happy to say that third time’s a charm and House of Ashes is a genuinely entertaining horror themed interactive story.

Happy about: Battlefield 1 and V Story Campaigns (and a few words on Battlefield 4)

04/11/2021 04/11/2021

As someone who almost never plays multiplayer, I’ve barely ever played a Battlefield title. There have been story-driven singleplayer campaigns since Battlefield 3, but I’ve played that one and it was a really generic “modern military shooter”, so I’ve ignored them since then. However, I’ve heard good things about the stories in Battlefield 1 and have been meaning to check them some day. Now that I’ve played them in 1 and V, I have to say that they are indeed very good. I’ve also made a mistake to check Battlefield 4, so I’ll write a few words on it as well.

Happy about: Lucifer Within Us

28/10/2021 28/10/2021

Probably, the last time I’ve seen a tech demo/pitch project turned into a commercial release was in 2007 when wonderful Penumbra: Overture got released. It was an unfinished and relatively short adventure with lots of promise, and Frictional Games have gotten a chance to deliver on that promise later with their future titles. I can only hope that, Lucifer Within Us, that is also for all intents and purposes a proof of concept turned commercial game project, will be a sign of things to come. Because despite its short length and and abrupt story, it shows a lot of promise.

Happy about: GRIS

24/10/2021 24/10/2021

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.

Happy about: NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…

12/10/2021 12/10/2021

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.

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

01/10/2021 01/10/2021

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.

Happy about: Tormented Souls

05/09/2021 05/09/2021

Over the years I’ve seen so many attempts to make a survival horror game I stopped counting or caring. Mostly because vast majority of these titles, even back from the time the genre was still relevant, were crap. And as often because they weren’t actually “survival horror”, as in a genre and not a meaningless moniker given to any horror game. Tormented Souls didn’t look great, but I was willing to give it a chance. It turned out to be enjoyable.

Read more“Happy about: Tormented Souls”

Happy about: The Forgotten City

22/08/2021 22/08/2021

I’ve never heard of The Forgotten City until it came out and everyone was talking about it. But apparently, originally this title has been a mod for Skyrim. As a mod, this sure would be amazing. As a standalone title, though? Yeah, it’s pretty good.