Incredibly comprehensive video review of everything Alan Wake that came before Alan Wake 2, from American Nightmare to Control to Quantum Break https://youtu.be/A7r2s-mUZ94 Just an incredibly paced, deeply reverential but also original take on so many great horror tropes that would explode into a whole universe of ideas eventually.
Video Review: https://youtu.be/rqXekH7r0AA You'd have to have a sixth sense to make much sense of this story and it's purely because of the delivery. It's not simple enough for this wordless, breathlessly paced format of cutting between scenes and light little inputs needed here and there to shake the game loose to start cutscening you again.
Video review: https://youtu.be/uMgkTdPFotA Welcome to me revisiting one of the most important but untapped games of my youth: Myst by Cyan Worlds, spearheaded by Rand and Robyn Miller. This game was the highest selling PC game of the 90s and reinvented the point and click adventure genre. But has it Aged gracefully or is it a relic? And can I respect a game's greatness even if I often struggle to enjoy actually playing?
Video review: https://youtu.be/VXJf-2ptmO4 Mad Max somehow has only had 2 licensed games ever made in its history, and plenty of failed attempts. Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios took their open world chops to the Angry Australian's road raging apocalyptic nightmare with...middling reception. But as we'll hear from me as well as guest stars @Gggmanlives @HeyBlondieGamer @Deadforge (thanks so much, guys!) was the game actually underrated and just swept away in the incredible open world frenzy of games like Batman: Arkham Knight, Witcher 3, and Metal Gear Solid V especially, which released on the same day? Or is it truly just a game that fans will mostly appreciate for its heartfelt attempt to adapt the material but which wears out its welcome through tedious busywork and an underwhelming story?
Video review: https://youtu.be/B9JUGdkGuxY Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is upon us, but where did Senua start? Why, with Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, of course. Developer Ninja Theory released their ambitious and risky take on the cinematic 3rd person action adventure game with a focus on how people deal with psychotic symptoms, weaving in tales of the Norse gods in Senua's quest to avenge her lover's death and hopefully resurrecting, till we don't know what's real anymore. It's truly an epic, exciting adventure, if not a little overly linear and full of ledge shimmying, crawling under things, and all the rest of the Sony exclusive tropes,
Video review: https://youtu.be/EibcbeyRUts Puzzle platformers are not usually my jam but 2010's Limbo by Playdead woke something in me. But no puzzle platformer since has struck a chord with me, at least not until the Little Nightmares series by Tarsier Studios. 2.5D horror games with physics based puzzles is a weird genre subset, but it's MY genre subset and I'm here to stay. It took awhile for Little Nightmares to get to me though, as I dabbled with it, and didn't run into it again until 2023 when @Deadforge suggested reviewing its soundtrack. But the hooks were in and it was only a matter of time before I played one of the best sets of games I've played in recent memory. So how did Little Nightmares win me over? Let's get stuck in and find out, hopefully enduring my dodgy audio and creative mispronunciation of Tarsier because the internet can't give me a straight answer!
Video Review: https://youtu.be/EibcbeyRUts Little Nightmares 2 improves nearly everything the first game did, from controls to storytelling to visuals, you name it. Somehow one of the best puzzle platformers series in recent memory just got better.
Video review: https://youtu.be/EibcbeyRUts Little Nightmares II improves on everything it's predecessor did, from much smoother controls, more fair encounter design with less trial and error, even more consistent art design, terrifying music, and a better story this time around.
Video Review: https://youtu.be/QV_nOpQG0gg Sable is an open world exploration and puzzle game developed by Shedworks and published by Raw Fury and released in 2021. It also recently left Gamepass where I spent my time on it. That same time I was working a demanding job after being out of work for 2.5 months, and this new job felt like a rehash of all the things I hated from my previous three jobs. It didn't go well but Sable swooped in like a hoverbike and put the final nail in the coffin, teaching me the value of work and a couple other lessons too. Check it out!
Incredibly comprehensive video review: https://youtu.be/tLQCkGDtWnM Well, peeps, it's about time I revisit the series that kind of put my channel on the map, isn't it? Alone in the Dark, developed by Pieces Interactive and published by THQ Nordic/Embracer Group, is a passion project 5 years in the making that sees Soma and Amnesia: the Dark Descent writer Mikael Hedberg as creative director, masterfully recapturing the magic of Frederick Raynal's original and the subsequent sequels. Alone in the Dark's fixed camera angles, 2D static backgrounds, resource management, and more became the inspiration for Shinji Mikami's first Resident Evil game, setting the tone for survival horror genre thereafter. But after 6 games in the series, Alone in the Dark had fallen from grace fast and completely of its own inability to understand what it brough to the genre. So does Pieces Interactive have what it takes to bring this series out of the dark and earn back the spotlight yet again?
