In my experience, Tim Schafer works better in a team, because neither Grim Fandango or this one are really enjoyable to me. The setting is amazing and the main character is well defined in his tropes, but I don't like most of the puzzles, the huge amount of backtracking, the lack of signposts when they are needed (mostly when a puzzle seems to have several solutions but in the end it's only one, like the dog one), and the way that, for once in Lucasarts, the puzzles go on one way and the story goes on another. The remaster is also... I only like the Grim Fandango remaster as a remaster to be honest. There is a very simple filter applied in here and some of the new graphics lose that Mad Max-y look to be a bit more cartoon, an ugly cartoon, so I prefer the old filter (why cannot we chose old graphics with new sound?)
It's funny how much this game shares with the Larry games: same as those, the sexualised content is icky, the dad jokes are cringe but warm, but the puzzle design is stellar. Legend Entertainment began with big experienced names in text adventures (Bob Bates and Steve Merezky) and both designed the best set of puzzles they were able to after so much experience in the game. But in Legend these text adventures were way more approachable (of course there is no tutorial, read the manual folks, that is wha you are supposed to do in most games). As in most of the Legend text or graphic adventures, many puzzles depend on timing, or "on turns" so to say. But they are fair, and surprisingly you can find several paths to some in SP101. What I love is the use of spells as puzzles, something that Infocom already did in some of its games and that Legend would repeat in Death Gate.
C2077 is basically the distillation of many open world games and open world rpgs during these years, taking a bit from everything and presenting it in the most polished manner (at least gameplay-wise). The beginning, as usual on these games, is overwhelming and clunky, but once the city opens everything starts to look clear, the gameplay loops are fun and the RPG skill tree makes your gameplay slowly change, keeping everything fresh. Most impressively, there is an incredible amount of text and detail which add to the world building. Some parts are still a bit janky, or a bit off. Romance and sex scenes are as awkward as they can be (though I adore Kerry), some quests are way better designed than others, and the Deus Ex parts where you can approach a mission in different ways are not as abundant as I wish. But there is so much of everything! Driving the city brings back the best of GTA4 (many maps are reminiscent of that game), and the racing is very fun. The art direction is incredible. the city comes alive, and I just find CPR finding the sweetest spot between the euro crpg like the Piranha Bytes games, the immersive sim, the Bethesda RPG and the Rockstar open world. Plus, bonus points for being sci-fi. Yeah, the end drags on, and for such a long game not having a happy ending is not satisfactory, but it has so many memorable moments (the survival horror mission in Phantom Liberty is out of this world). It also looks way better than any game in the market (despite z-buffer bugs) and will do for several years. An incredible effort, one of my favourite games.
I have a love/hate relationship with open world games, that genre that blended the freeform/mercenary life of, say, Elite, the missions based of, say, a Wing Commander game and the optional RPG elements (this one has them), mostly because they are games that are very grinding and you end up distracted most of the times. Well, I think it is very difficult to design one as polished as Cyberpunk 2077 in the state that it is now. It does remind, a lot, of GTA4, but it also reminds of every Ubi Soft attempt at this kind of design. And it makes it better. It is still grinding, and maybe overlong, but it is better. It is full of detail, full of throwaway details, full of a plot that intersects everywhere. It is incredibly ambitious and, unfortunately, one of a kind. The gunplay works really well, the rpg elements work well enough, and the hacking/cyberpunk stuff works very well when the game allows it to enter (fantastic in combat, repetitive in hacking, memorable in some story missions). I just wish, sometimes, that it had done some things differently. That one of the better characters did not leave that soon. That the cyber missions were more present. That it was less of a GTA. But still, it is the best you can do with it. And it looks, sounds, and plays incredible.
I have a huge problem with the modern survival and choices matter games, where all of them are just a set of grandiloquent trolley problems that, more than being as subtle emotionally as poking your eye to make you cry, are pure power fantasies, God fantasies, so your actions directly cause deaths for the sake of other actions. It is a kind of game that works for many others, who love how a story develops, but I dislike this kind of narrative manipulation even before it became so popular thanks to that zombie game where kids die. It's like a dungeon master presenting you a framework where everything you do is wrong because "that is real life", which I always found very dishonest. Having said that, I like how it sounds, how it looks, the humour in it.
No Man's Sky was a game I bought after seeing 65daysofstatic presenting the soundtrack in a Sonar Festival years ago, as it looked so epic. And since it was released my main problem with the game is that I am totally misaligned with the majority taste regarding what makes a game appealing, and I really dislike the gameplay loops in here. What did I expect? I expected Starflight, Star Control 2, Captain Commando, and yes, there are bits from those games, but the main gameplay loop is resource gathering and base building. I expected that those were add ons and there was a main campaign that was a bit linear, signposting you to different planets, but the random generation was so powerful that it over. And that's great for most of the people, who love that loop of getting out, gather, go back, etc, but I am more interested in character writing, not a beautiful reskin of the good old Noctis. I see there are many exploration multiplayer campaigns, but again I don't like multiplayer as I don't like to play with random people and I don't like to allocate a specific time for gaming (I have to clean the house, do laundry, go to the gym, cook and in general have an adult life sorry). So... it was not the game for me. But people love it. Aesthetically it's awesome, some of the exploration parts make me want to roleplay hard and get lost in the world, but as soon as I see the mechanics to progress I feel kicked out of that fantasy and just see mechanics and bytes. Absolutely not the game for me, but read the rest of the positive reviews because maybe it is for you.
As easy as its first part, which makes it casual to the point of being able to play it as you watch something on the tv, but also as wholesome and cute. And now with dogs. Still very fun.
I like the games. I liked the Raiden saga before (I played them at the arcades) and the Raiden Fighter games are tight and furious. But what kind of port this is? How come you need a mouse to browse through the menus? How come all the menus show a lag of 5 seconds or more when going to any different option, either game or "options" or "exit"? I respect dotemu a lot and I thank them for bringing back many weird things and all the Silmarils games, but this is the worst port of Raiden I have played in the many, many different ports I have tried. Stay away, not even on sale. I would say that this should not even be sold, at all.
Everspace is a bit hard to define, because it puts a spin on the classic space combat game making it random with persistent upgrades like in Rogue Legacy. That works mostly, as the gameplay is varied and you will never really know what to expect, but the mid game grind gets really really tiresome, as you cannot really speedrun (you really need fuel) so it takes almost an hour to get to the first guardian.
I would gave Riven a 2.5/5 stars. Among the Myst like games it is one of the strongest - the environments look awesome, the sound design is great and the puzzles are as complicated as it says on the tin. Thing is... it is not a kind of game that I like, because I dislike backtracking and all the Myst games consist on backtracking via clicking and clicking and clicking and clicking more to relate some clues to puzzles. There is lot of trial and error, there are many instances of pixel hunting, and in general it consists of puzzles that can be resolved via an algorithm, and if a puzzle can be resolved via algorithm I rather have machines do that puzzle or be paid to code that algorithm. Reviews are generally positive as very few people who disliked Myst got to play Riven, so you know what you get in here. Personally I am more fond of some less ambitious clones like Rhem.
