Posts made by Phbz

The Shadowrun series was remastered and came to GamePass. So far no technical issues although I've heard bad things like crashes and severe stuttering. But so far I had no issues and I'm loving it.

@jdincinerator Yeah there's a weird stiffness to movement that I don't know if is a legacy thing or just bad. It's a cool game, just not that great for what the genre has to offer.

btw, I need a new Golden Axe!!

TMNT Shredder's Revenge

I never liked the turtles so there's no nostalgia added value for me. It's a fun game, I enjoyed the short levels and how quickly you can go through them. There's a lot of replay value too, as obviously you have several base characters, plus unlocks. But when it comes to this type of game TMNT isn't great.

I don't know exactly if it's fully intentional for nostalgia reasons but the art style is disappointing and sound sample quality is sufferable. Then gameplay isn't exactly great, for instance the timing from a normal strike to connect with, let's say, jumping is too sluggish. While fine there's little annoyances like this that make it less of a game. Enemy types aren't great either.

Maybe some decisions are legacy driven but as someone with no affinity with the franchise, those decisions just make it less enjoyable as a game. Although I can see those with an emotional connection enjoying more.

6.5

Trek to Yomi

It's not an exaggeration to say that the visual and sound presentation will most probably be my favourite in 2022. Within the budget limitations this game punches above its weight artistically speaking.

It also delivers an entertaining narrative with all the expected gravitas of a classic samurai movie. And level design is good and clever in the way that rewards exploration while also serving the carefully planned aesthetics.

Unfortunately combat falls very short to the detriment of the whole product. Lacks balance, responsiveness and impact and being most of what you do in this game it's a critical flaw. You can still have some enjoyment from your encounters but even at the best of times it still lacks. What a shame!

6.5

Great show overall, lots of cool stuff coming to Game Pass in the next 12 months.

Redfall surprised me tbh. I was very skeptical about it but the presentation gave me some hope. Still not sold on its world.

Starfield is a guaranteed success for me. I love both ES and Fallout so I'm pretty sure I'll like it too.

Diablo IV looks fantastic. I hope they don't find a way to ruin it. I'm not a big fan of Diablo but enjoyed the vibes on this one.

Wo Long will probably be a masterpiece.

Silksong is a sequel to one of my goats. Still no release date but the 12 month target makes me happy.

Scorn might be a 6/10 game. But being a slow paced 1st person shooter, with a great art style and soundtrack by Lustmord makes it one of my most anticipated games.

High on Life was a cool surprise, I'm all in.

New Plague Tale, they don't even need to improve much on the original. Well, they shou improve it but even with its flaws I loved the original.

Forza I need a new game in the series badly! It's my racing sim of choice, not because it's the best I just don't want to commit to more than one racing game. This looks really good and it looks like they'll address several issues.

Persona I'll finally have and excuse to play 5. Probably will give up in it but I feel like I have to give this game a chance.

Then there's stuff like Cocoon and Pentiment that look like are going to be "surprise" hits.

Honestly, as a Game Pass subscriber the next months look awesome.

Silt

As someone who loves Limbo and has diving as a hobby I was really hyped on this game. But this was really disappointing and more so because sound design and art work are stunning.

Level design has very little to it, but the worst sin are the puzzles which for the most part are over simplistic and do nothing for world building. This feels like a prototype of a cool game that needed some serious game design to be implemented on top the great atmosphere which the sound and visuals already provide.

Fortunately it's short enough to avoid frustration.

6/10

A Memoir Blue - A Journey Into the Depths of Memory

Not really a game, more like an interactive animation.

It's a short experience that you'll go through in one sitting. Well paced, visually appealing, with a good soundtrack to go along.

It's a touching emotional story, that is easy for one to identify with. Yet it lacks something to really elevate the whole package.

If you have Game Pass don't miss it, otherwise I don't think it's worth it unless it's really cheap.

7/10

Umurangi Generation

This game has 84 on Metacritic and I honestly don't get it.

The concept is interesting enough, you are a photographer during war but for the most part what you do is taking photos to people living their lives. Which could be great.

The graphics are PSX style and although too rough I like the style. Not incredibly well executed but fine.

Music is great. The only great thing about this game.

Level design is terrible. Movement feels horrible. The tasks in each level are not great. Every thing is so amateur and underdeveloped, it's a mystery how this is so highly rated.

3/10

Shadow of Colossus I've only played the PS4 remake, so it might be unfair but I imagine apart from the performance it should be about the same, if not better. For instance I prefer the original "dirty" visuals. It's one of the greatest games ever made. If I had played it at release it would had blown my mind, for sure.

Resident Evil 4 I played very little of, and just in the last couple of years. Played it for a while and quickly dropped it. Honestly disliked everything about it.

The original Psychonauts deserves a proper remake. That same exact game executed to the level of Psychonauts 2 would be amazing.

Tunic

Kinda mandatory to say it... Dark Souls meets Zelda, not an unfair comparison tbh.

My main complaint is that it could be a bit longer. Character design isn't great either. Combat is fine but it could be better, it SHOULD be better actually, because level design and how the in-game game manual works are stellar.

Level design is what you imagine a mix of isometric Zelda and Dark Souls should be. But the coolest thing really is that many shortcuts are not locked, they're hidden in plain sight and often you feel "stupid" for missing them (in a good way).

Then you have the manual. The game gives you very little info and while you explore you find its pages that give you hints about controls, lore and puzzles. A really good idea, very well executed.

For sure it will be on my top of 2022.

9/10

Now I want to use the term "DoomStein".

Disco Elysium

We need more games like this. Games that don't use combat as a gameplay loop/hook and touch interesting mature topics with depth.

My main issues are that level design and path implementation have some issues and some dialogue bugs that should have been solved on this Final Cut version.

Aside from those issues what an incredible game. So well written, be it in its prose, characters or world. The way as your attributes shape your perception of the world is a brilliant mechanic I want this team to expand upon in future projects. It's the kind of game that by the end I wish I could still continue playing it. No seriously, I need more!

Beautiful art and music too.

9/10

I'm fine with any year, just maybe publish a top15 or 10 to avoid the popular uproar.

Wait, what? It's all happening so fast! Oh my!

I get annoyed when along with criticism comes the judgement of those who enjoy it.

Stuff like, this game is bad because "you can't even shoot lamps" or "women can have muscles" I honestly live for that. It's hilariously dumb.

The nostalgia thing is annoying, but whatever. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Kind of irrelevant. It does annoy me when it's like a 2003 game I've just played for the first time and the person still insists is nostalgia.

People who never played a game, say that game is trash, then use its metacritic/open critic score as an argument and then, on top of that, the score is actually a 70 or an 80 as if anything under a 90 isn't even worth existing.

btw Dishonored's Death of the Outsider connects both universes. It's good on its own but Prey fans will take a bit more out of it.

@ringedwithtile If anything the BioShock series is an over simplification and derivative of the immersive sim genre, genre which Prey fully embraces.

I honestly see no significant contact point between both but I would like to know why you have that opinion.

@DIPSET Oh lord, do play it!!! Just make sure you do it on PC or Series X.

@mbun I just played sunshine for the first time when All Stars came out. Was definitely worst then what I expecting and I went for it with low expectations.

It's fine but it's the only Mario game I don't love. Some truly bad designed levels and sub par controls makes it impossible for me to put it above any 3D Mario. That's not to say that there isn't anything good about it, I still enjoyed it and it says a lot about a series when what I consider the worst game is still better than most in the genre.

It's a great game to get high and just enjoy how creative it is. Looks, controls and sounds great. Don't have any real complaints about it. The worst 3D Mario for me is Sunshine and this is significantly better.