52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

[marvelvscapcom2]

12. Life Is Strange: Double Exposure || PlayStation 5 || 02.27.25



Before writing my final thoughts for Life Is Strange: Double Exposure, I referred to my notes about my time playing the previous series entry. My closing statement then was that future entries needed better grounding to be successful, and I think that the game's writers may have understood that too. As a result, the latest game serves as a formal sequel to the very first, which a majority of series veterans consider to be the best.

Set ten years after the events of Life Is Strange, Double Exposures features Max Caulfield who reprises her role as the game's protagonist. Having been scarred from that time, she's departed her home and has since traveled the country on her own. But in recent months, she's settled down on the opposite side of the country where she now acts as some sort of faculty figure on a college campus to teach photography. For a while, it seems as if Max has largely been able to overcome her past trauma while maintaining a more ordinary lifestyle, yet this positive growth fully backtracks as, just like in the first game, she's forced to grapple with the murder of someone close to her. With all this said, it would be in players' best interest to play the preceding entry prior to Double Exposure, as there are numerous plot references and general character development that relies upon the player's knowledge of such context; nevertheless, players can choose to begin with this sequel entry, but they will naturally miss out on a more comprehensive experience.

Moving forward, Max is not your average person as she's able to control time in various capacities. However, unlike her previous ordeal where Max was able to manipulate time by rewinding it, her powers have since changed, much to her surprise. Now, Max has become able to shift between two distinct timelines—one with the murder having happened and the other without—after creating a rift in reality. Additionally, these newfound powers grant her the ability to have a sort of preview sense of what's happening in the other timeline. Despite there being only one difference in how time has moved forward in each timeline, the murder serves as the catalyst, which means that the events following such moment in time vary significantly. With the goal of trying to solve who her friend's murderer is while simultaneously working toward prevent it from happening in this altered timeline, Max freely moves between the two. For much of the game, players will need to gather information in each of the two timelines to solve the mystery. While prioritizing story-focused gameplay that features choice-based outcomes, Double Exposure also incorporates light puzzle and even stealth sections to achieve goals.

Presented as a murder mystery of sorts, there is unexpectedly a lot of information to sift through, and much of it feels superfluous. To the game's credit, though, a high percentage of the game's dialogue and written text is optional as it serves world-building and character development purposes. Nevertheless, there are way too many things connected to Max's phone which serves as the information hub to the point where it obtrusively feels like micromanaging. With nearly every action taken—no matter how inconsequential it may be—some social media post, text message, journal entry, or character profile is being updated. And, to make things worse, the information is nearly doubled as those first two items are unique to each timeline. Apart from information directly related to characters, there is also a high number of items to observe and comment on during any given moment. Again, it's entirely optional, but I imagine many players fond of these types of games will want to seek out as much written dialogue there is. As somewhat of an aside, I also routinely found Max to be annoying. Despite being ten years older than she was previously shown in the first game, there doesn't seem to be much character growth by way of personality. In many circumstances, she comes across as a self-justified and nosy Nancy Drew type character as she decides to delve into the secrets of people's personal lives.

To be upfront, Double Exposure will not appeal to everyone, including those who are more drawn to this kind of story-driven adventure game. The game clearly has its own audience that it's written for, and that fact permeates all throughout the gameplay experience. Perhaps because of the game's setting of a college campus and that the majority of the game's cast are still relatively young, there seldom is a conversation where some sort of romantic issue isn't being mentioned. Alongside this fact also lies the level of writing which, in truth, was regularly cringey and especially so when dialogue concerns personal lives and not the overarching plot itself. Apart from these subjective aspects, vocal performances are generally okay. For some reason, there is a lot of auditory interruptions to be experienced, and it's made worse by just how much plays automatically while wandering about even when wanting to interact directly with something else. At the same time, there are some minor visual issues such as assets not loading in correctly, but these were few and far between.

Ultimately, Life Is Strange: Double Exposure is a game that will immediately alienate many potential players due to its content, themes, and tone, but I think this enables it to be the kind of game it's wanting to be without shame while better attracting more of that niche demographic. It is not without its faults on a more objective level, but I did find it to be one of the more successful entries within the series. The direction that's being taken for the series seems to now be fully grounded in Max's story with this latest entry, and I think that may have been the best decision for it in some time. I'm not particularly interested in extended series with one direct sequel following another, but I am curious to see what the follow-up game will be like, and hopefully this specific story can reach its close then.

All the things you listed as things that may potentially alienate people are like a flame attracting me as the moth lol. I love romantic novels centered around coming of age emotions. Soap operas. 90210 and such. I do suggest a free game on PS Plus called Lost Records: Bloom and Rage.  It's well written if you havent tried it. It centers around 4 millenial adult girls in 2022 piecing together their teen memories going through the tumultuous experience of just growing up. And its filmed in a sorta sci fi psychological horror angle. Its neat.

I definitely gotta check out life is strange because I love telltale style games.  Do you reckon you can play double exposure without playing the other entries first? Or do you suggest playing in order?

[bikingjahuty]

23. Battle Garegga (PS4)

About a week ago I realized just how long its been since I played some of the best games I've ever played. In short, way too much time has passed since I've played some of my favorite games, as in the better part of a decade for most titles. One of those games was unfortunately Battle Garegga. i decided to do something about it this evening, and boy, am I glad I did!


It's funny how you don't remember how amazing a game really was until you're sitting down and playing it again. That was exactly my experience while playing Garegga tonight. Even blasting my way through the first level, this game's brilliance and specialness became immediately evident. Battle Garegga is simply one of the best, if not the best SHMUP ever made, depending on who you ask of course. I'm of the mind that it's among the best, as its gameplay is nearly unmatched in terms of how smooth and precise Garegga controls. Not only that, but the gameplay depth related to the game's scoring and ranking systems are nearly second to none. Combine this with excellent gameplay balancing and you have a recipe for one of the best playing, most enjoyable shooters ever conceived. But gameplay is only one piece of the puzzle that makes Battle Garegga nearly perfect.


Garegga is virtually flawless when it comes to its visuals and audio, even to this day. Yep, nearly 30 years after this game originally came out and Garegga still outshines SHMUPs released just in the past few years with just how detailed and gorgeous its sprites are, not to mention how awesome many of its bosses are. The only thing that competes with Garegga's visuals is its OST which doesn't possess a single bad track. In fact, the tracks are all amazing; I actually have the entire soundtrack on my phone and its a regular companion of mine in the car or wherever I happen to be listening to music.


It's hard to fault Battle Garegga in any way, but for what it lacks, which isn't a whole lot, it makes up for it in all the ways that truly matter. There was a time when I found myself playing Garegga almost weekly. It almost served as a palate cleanser after playing various mediocre or even bad shmups when I was heavily diving into the genre nearly a decade ago. While it's been quite a while since that time, I'm at least happy I went back and played Garegga again as its one of the best game's I've ever played, and second only to Radiant Silvergun as my own personal best SHMUP of all time. (3/3/25) [44/50]

[bikingjahuty]

24. Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 (PS4)

The Guilty Gear series, as well as most ArcSys games, is one I should absolutely love, at least on paper. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts for over 15 years, I have found practically every Guilty Gear game very hard to engage with even though I consider myself a massive fan of fighting games. I can never 100% put my finger on it, but I think it mostly has to do with all the Guilty Gear games I've played (and most other Arc Systems Works developed games) being mostly flash with little substance. I know there are very dedicated and vibrant competitive scenes for most Guilty Gear games, and I'm certain there's an ocean of complexity that I never even came close to fully understanding, but when I play these games, I'm mostly always waiting for that moment where the series just clicks with me, but unfortunately that has yet to happen. This was the case with Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 as well.


First and foremost, REV 2 is an absolutely stunning looking fighting game. The in game, cutscene, and character intro visuals are about as crisp, vibrant, and detailed as you could ever want. The stages, of which there are a commendable amount, are among the most interesting and beautiful I've seen in any modern fighting game. I find it very hard to fault anything about the visuals of REV 2, and I tip my hat to the artists who worked on this game. The audio, while not as good or memorable as the visuals, is also pretty good and gives you a nice, healthy variety of music to listen to whole up against the games' impressive roster of characters. Unfortunately the gameplay just isn't up to the same standard as both these more superficial attributes.


Guilty Gear's gameplay mostly feels like all flash with very little substance. That's not to say this game isn't enjoyable to play, because it is for the most part, however the two modes of play you're given either make the game way to easy and almost feel like the game is playing itself as it assists you with crazy combos and special moves, or the mode where you do have full control over your fighter makes it difficult to pull of some of the more advanced special moves, counters, and combos. I certainly preferred to have full control over my character while playing, but honestly it was still easy enough to just mindlessly button mash my way to victory as it was to play more deliberately. The end result of all this was a game I tried to get excited about or at least have some fun with for several hours, but I literally began to fall asleep while playing this game nearly 2 hours into playing its various modes. And look, I will once again admit that Guilty Gear isn't necessarily my cup of tea, but I at least wanted to try and understand why some absolutely adore this series, but once again, I'm feeling like I must be missing something when I'm still just as uninspired and kinda bored with these games as I was in the late 2000s when I first started playing Guilty Gear. Unfortunately, REV 2 didn't do anything to make me more of a fan of this series. (3/3/25) [33/50]

[kashell]

25. Ys Memoire: The Oath of Felghana - Normal

I was having an absolute blast with this until the very, very end. It's not because the game got difficult or anything. It was because I somehow missed a treasure chest or two along the way. I mean, I have to do multiple play throughs to get all the trophies but still. WTF?! I was so thorough. Anyways - this is the style of Ys I prefer. I had a lot of fun and if the first run was anything to go by, then the other ones will be swift and speedy.

EDIT: Found the treasure I was missing! Trophy acquired!

[dhaabi]

12. Life Is Strange: Double Exposure || PlayStation 5 || 02.27.25

Ultimately, Life Is Strange: Double Exposure is a game that will immediately alienate many potential players due to its content, themes, and tone, but I think this enables it to be the kind of game it's wanting to be without shame while better attracting more of that niche demographic.

All the things you listed as things that may potentially alienate people are like a flame attracting me as the moth lol. I love romantic novels centered around coming of age emotions. Soap operas. 90210 and such. I do suggest a free game on PS Plus called Lost Records: Bloom and Rage.  It's well written if you havent tried it. It centers around 4 millenial adult girls in 2022 piecing together their teen memories going through the tumultuous experience of just growing up. And its filmed in a sorta sci fi psychological horror angle. Its neat.

I definitely gotta check out life is strange because I love telltale style games.  Do you reckon you can play double exposure without playing the other entries first? Or do you suggest playing in order?

I actually didn't go into depth about any of Life Is Strange: Double Exposure's themes and tone, but perhaps you may like it. At the very least, you would likely enjoy earlier Life Is Strange titles since they were developed by Dontnod who also developed Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. From what I've seen in trailers, Lost Records seems like a better follow-up the to Life Is Strange series as far as presenting more adult writing. I'm looking forward to play it, though I'm waiting until its second act releases in April to play it all at once.

Like I mentioned, I would highly suggest to not play Double Exposure first. If this specific game interests you, you should begin by playing Life Is Strange. There is also a prequel entry titled Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, but it's not imperative to play. Additionally, there are also two other entries in the Life Is Strange series titled Life Is Strange 2 and Life Is Strange: True Colors, but they both tell standalone stories. Both are currently available to play from the PS Plus Extra catalog, though they're being removed later this month. And if for some reason you decide to play Life Is Strange 2 first, there is also a free demo episode that's worth playing first since it directly ties into the main game's narrative titled The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit.

[dhaabi]

13. Transform || Browser || 03.03.25



When looking through my timeline of previously played games, I was a little surprised that nearly two years had past since I last played an Eyemaze game. After going through some of them, I came across another one that I hadn't yet played before, Transform.

In short, Transform is a puzzle-action game that plays step-by-step animations which must be completed in one specific sequence. By moving the cursor, players must discover on their own where to click next. It's mostly straightforward, but there are moments when multiple selections must be activated at once as their conditions are dependent on each other to progress forward. As far as the game's premise, it revolves around an alien-like antelope that slowly transforms into something else entirely to evade the attack from an encroaching lion.

As players work toward solving the puzzle, a stopwatch timer times each playthrough. While there isn't any penalty for lengthy playthroughs, the game presents an optional ending which does incentivize players to play numerous times in order to achieve a higher ranking score. Since the puzzle mostly never changes, it becomes a task of memorizing the sequence of clickable points and acting speedily. I say "mostly" because there is one small aspect involving the order and presence of a series of shapes that is randomized with each playthrough. As higher ranks are achieved, an additional small piece of a post-game scene becomes available to interact with. After about ten attempts, my fastest time was 01:18:99 which did grant me Rank A, but Rank S also exists. I doubt I'd ever be able to achieve it, though, since I'd need to be six seconds faster from what I've read which seems far more trouble than its worth. While playing, it quickly became evident how all the tiny pauses, miss-clicks, and general forgetfulness adds to the total time, and there is little if any time for error to be awarded with Rank S. Once achieving that lofty goal, a new mode which has the entire game upside-down becomes available to play and master too.

By all accounts, Transform tests the player's reflexes and memory, and it's a fun game when wanting something brief to play. It's another one of the shorter games the developer's made, but it does offer some replay value for those wanting to see just how quickly they can finish the game.

[kashell]

26. Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana - Very Easy

This playthrough was done to max out my equipment and Adol's level. Thanks to 2X speed mode, it didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. Up next, Inferno Mode!

[bikingjahuty]

25. Half Life: Opposing Force (PC)

While I really, really like the first Half Life game, I'm not necessarily one of those people that worships it and acts like it's the greatest FPS ever made. Because of this, I've been slow to play its acclaimed expansion, Opposing Force as well as Blue Shift. Well, I finally got around to playing the better regarded of the two and I'm here to say, yeah, it's pretty freakin good!


While I didn't enjoy Opposing Force as much as the core Half Life game (I'm not sure there are many that do), I will say that in terms of visuals and sound, it's right up there with the game its based on. Half life and by extension Opposing Force were some of the best looking video games out at the time, period. It's still impressive how much detail and love went into crafting the various diverse areas of Black Mesa, and it definitely keeps the game fresh and interesting throughout. Audio, the voice acting is actually slightly better than it was in the original, but where Opposing Force lacks over core Half Life is the OST. It's not dramatically worse, but just a tiny bit less memorable as that game's soundtrack. The real tie breaker that makes core Half Life better than this expansion is the gameplay. There definitely seemed to be a lot more thought and effort put into stage design in the original Half Life, and there was almost always an intuitive sense of where you were supposed to go and what you were supposed to do. Opposing Force is a lot more stop, go, stop, go, in the sense that you'll struggle to figure out what to do or where to go, finally figure it out or look up a walkthrough, get a little further, and then be forced to do it again. This is pretty much the pacing of Opposing Force, and it wouldn't be as big a of deal if the game didn't have you doing things in one part to progress that you never had to do previous or again later on. And often, these ways of progressing involved some poorly laid out platforming, toggling the jump and crouch buttons to get up on ledges that you aren't able to get on, just by jumping (which is how it should be), or doing some other nonsense that has you fighting against the limitations of the controls and gameplay. This definitely lowered my enjoyment of Opposing Force ever so slightly compared to the first Half Life, but other than that I enjoyed all the same things that made the core game great, while being annoyed or frustrated with the things about the core game that weren't that great as well. One other thing of note when comparing the original game with Opposing Force is the latter game is several degrees more challenging, which core Half Life was no slouch in the difficulty department. Get ready to save scum a lot because you will likely die way more than you did in the original Half Life.


More or less, if you love Half Life, you're almost guaranteed to love Opposing Force. Beyond everything I mentioned above, Opposing Force dives deeper into the Black Mesa facility and what the researchers were really up to, and allows you to explore new areas, as well as some familiar ones too. The game certainly delivers on the Half Life mythos and lore, which was a big part of why I found the game fairly addicting as I played though its five or six hour campaign. Now, just need to play Blue Shift at some point so I can consider myself a REAL Half Life fan lol. (3/7/25) [38/50]

[kamikazekeeg]

7 - Monster Hunter Wilds (PC 2025) - BEAT - While the release of the game was abit tarnished by performance problems, the game mostly ran well for me.  I could like 70 to 90fps at 1080, no DLSS, but I locked it at 60 to keep it more steady and it runs great like that.  I have only beaten the story itself, which is functionally like "Part 1" of the game, "Part 2" being high rank fights and such, where you put the real work into a Monster Hunter game.  I've seen people rag on the story also, but I think it's one of the better stories compared to Wild and Rise, at least in the way that it has a specific through line with a main cast that goes on a journey, compared to just being kind of a collection of events linked together with a pretty barebones plot.  It's not executed the best as there's a lot of on rails walk and talk and it kinda feels like you are stuck on easy mode for awhile until you get through the story, but it is generally better.

Actual gameplay stuff is great, I like the zones, there's a good amount to explore, lots of customization now that both male/female armor can be used by either gender, I'm enjoying myself.  Definitely more than Rise at the moment, which wasn't a bad game, but after playing a lot of World, Rise never did it the same for me, compared to Wilds, which is very much the World sequel proper.  Can't wait to jump into the tougher fights now and get to the grind unlocking gear.

[dhaabi]

14. Pac-Man World Re-Pac || PlayStation 5 || 03.03.25



For the last few months while looking at my shelves of games, I had considered playing through Pac-Man World 2 but eventually decided on other games to play. After realizing that I could play the recent remake of the first game titled Pac-Man World Re-Pac, though, I decided to do that instead.

Before the main screen loads, an introductory scene plays out involving Pac-Man's birthday celebration alongside family and friends, but it does not take long for ghosts to kidnap everyone else but him before he actually arrives. Apart from this small setup, there isn't any narrative to follow until the game's conclusion which is fine considering the scope and focus of the game and its genre. Nevertheless, the game's events revolve around the player acting as Pac-Man to reclaim his loved ones one-by-one after venturing to save them from Ghost Island and its various themed areas.

To carry out his goals, Pac-Man must overcome all sorts of platforming trials across a 3D plane while obtaining collectibles and using his abilities to access new areas to finally reach where each of the captives are held. More than I would have expected, stages are designed with backtracking in mind. This is mostly in regards to optional collectibles, but there are still plenty of instances where one must move forward to find a required item functioning as a key only to move backward again. As a result, I often found myself wondering if I was missing certain collectibles, as the game makes it clear when certain types are missed. Since there are so many side paths to follow which are either hidden or locked—and especially so in the game's later stages—it is easy to overlook these items. That being said, most collectibles can be ignored should the player choose to do so, but then the issue of some pick-ups, which players aren't able to discern in the moment and especially so when hurrying, being required to find becomes problematic. In the end, it's just easier to seek out everything, which I think many players would naturally do, given the game's genre and its focus on collecting.

Generally speaking, stages are more lengthy than I had expected, although part of the reason for this is due to the aforementioned backtracking for collectibles. Even so, traversal is fluid and simple enough, but I did find myself dying repeatedly to certain platforming segments. Notably, this problem was with the ramps which Pac-Man is required to roll off of to land across a pitfall. These aren't uncommon, and I rarely landed without dying at least once. Dying isn't much of an issue, though, as player lives are plentiful and especially so when taking the time to be thorough with gaining collectibles. Additionally, there is a slot machine game that's present at the end of stages which is easy to exploit if taking the time to memorize the order of reels since they don't change. At the same time, players may freely select Easy Mode at any time, and the game's liberal checkpoint system is a welcome feature too.

Apart from platforming, there are also optional maze sections to play with traditional top-down gameplay. These stages also vary in design, and their difficulty scales with the the difficulty of main stages. While early courses are simple, later ones introduce various hazards such as falling debris and wall traps. Players are given three player lives to overcome these side stages, which is usually more than enough for players to win. At any time, players can revisit this mode from the world hub too. And, once the main campaign is completed, the original Pac-Man arcade game also becomes available to play.

I haven't played any of the Pac-Man World games before, so how this remake varies from the original game or expands upon it is something I can't comment on. Regardless, I'm left with the impression that it honors the source material well enough as its core gameplay and design are exceptional, albeit simple and unobtrusive that's perfect for younger players or those new to the genre. After reading some discussion online, it seems like much of the differences Pac-Man World Re-Pac introduces are in its visual presentation which some will prefer while others won't. These types of modern remakes are the kind I generally avoid, but this was the easiest means of access for me to play the game in some form.

[bikingjahuty]

We're not even 3 full months into the year and I'm already halfway to 52 and over a quarter the way to my personal goal of 100 games beat in 2025! I'm doing my best to maintain this pace, not that I'm complaining about getting to play some damn good games or anything lol.


26. Half Life: Blue Shift (PC)

I wasn't planning on playing Blue Shift immediately after beating Opposing Force, but I enjoyed that game so much I just didn't feel like I had enough of the Half Life franchise so I decided to jump into the good, bet less loved Blue Shift. This was my first time ever playing or beating Blue Shift and while overall I really enjoyed it, I definitely agree with the popular sentiment that Opposing Force is the better of the two Half Life expansions. What did surprise me, however, is that there are things about Blue Shift I actually liked more than Opposing Force, which definitely increased my enjoyment of this game.


Starting off, Blue Shift doesn't look or sound as good as Opposing Force. While everything more or less looks the same between both games, as well as core Half Life, both Opposing Force and the main game have way more diverse, interesting environments to explore. In Blue Shift you're mostly wandering through the same similar dingy maintenance tunnels, with brief periods of being on the surface. This is in contrast to how much of Black Mesa you see in the main game and Opposing Force. It's not a major point of contention, but it's still something I felt worth mentioning when describing why Half Life: Blue Shift is inferior to those two games. As for the audio, the voice acting and sound effects definitely have the same degree of quality found in the other two Half Life games, however where Blue shift does fall short is its OST which offers few memorable tracks. However, one area that surprised me where I can say Blue Shift has a slight edge on Opposing Force at least is its gameplay.


This might be a bit of a controversial statement, but I found the progression in Blue Shift to be more intuitive and therefore more enjoyable than in Opposing Force. It definitely had the same mostly intuitive level design found in core Half Life, albeit shrunk down into a much shorter game. I did lament the smaller arsenal and enemy variety, as well as the complete absence of any bosses, but in terms of pacing and flow, Blue Shift has a very small edge over Opposing Force in my book. For better or worse, depending on your perspective, Blue Shift is way easier than both the main game and Opposing Force. There is a much greater abundance of health hits and charging stations, armor, and ammo pickups through the game. I played both Opposing Force and Blue Shift on normal difficulty and I died probably 80% less in Blue Shift. I appreciated the challenge present in Opposing Force, but I suppose it was nice being able to take. stroll through Black Mesa without feeling like death awaited me around ever corner.


One final thing I wanted to touch on before wrapping this up is there is far more foreshadowing of what was to come in Half Life 2 present in Blue Shift, beyond the obvious reason which is you literally play as one of the main characters in Half Life 2 in Blue Shift, you are also introduced to the actual Dr. Kleiner and not just one of a 100 scientist models that look like him throughout all three of the original Half Life games. There is also more discussion on the less fantastical used of the teleportation tech, which we see in Half Life 2. It was also interesting to see how Barnie and Dr. Kleiner ended up escaping Black Mesa together, which sets up the two of them being together in Half Life 2.


Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Half Life: Blue Shift, even if it is undoubtedly the inferior Half Life expansion. That shouldn't sway you from trying it out if you love Opposing Force or the main Half Life game since it carries over all the thigs that made those two games great as well. It's also a short and sweet game that you can get through in an evening. In other words, there's no reason not to at least try it out, which you should since a great game awaits you. (3/8/25) [36/50]

[marvelvscapcom2]

14. Life Is Strange: True Colors [PS5] Finished - March 8th, 2025 (Platty)



GUYS MY FIRST PLATTY OF THE YEAR!! Woot woot. What can be said, oh wowie Howie. Since Dhaabi said this was a stand alone game I chose it as my first experience into the franchise and boy am I glad I did. As a fan of telltale games since I was a teenager. This may the best sheer audible storyline I've experienced in one. It trounces.



Here we meet Alex Chen, Alex Chen is a empath and a former juvenile product of foster care system neglect but above all she is a girl entrapped in whirlwinds of conspiracy, betrayal and death. I wont spoil anything which is hard with a game based so much on plot. But the town of Haven just feels so ALIVE.  Like a crow feather falling among a sandy beach filled with doves. It's so fascinating how the game captures the community of small town bonding in such a medium sized run time. And how darkness can consume small town with quickness. The ins and outs of peoples trials and tribulations.

By the end of it. You know your fellow neighbor on a personal level. It feels like each individual is fully fleshed out. Even NPC feel like they have journeys, backlogs and conversations bleed authenticity.


Steph and Ryan are intelligently designed.  Gabe is presented in a way that you can just feel how cool people think he is.


The ability to essentially read peoples auras gives the dialogue an elemental layer because you can talk to people without having to talk and learn their intentions beyond what is spoken. Think 6th sense. The color concept of emotion is very disney inside out meets matrix. It's wildly imaginative.

The collectibles, stores.  From a little pot dispensary to a record store. It's really glorious. The interactions tackle themes of grief, coping, emotion and trauma. And it made me cry numerous times. Albiet that I am a big babbling baby with telltale games anyhow lol.




The plot twists are bountiful, the environment is exploration within reason and never feels mundane or overdone. It feels like an episode of like cold case mixed with super hero psychology doctor strange stuff. Its got it all. The town is the sell. Theirs so much to see and interact with. And if thats any testament to the devs. This franchise I want to explore more.


 Alex as a protagonist is well written and believable.  Because so many times characters in these things dont feel like someone you could meet at whole foods or something. They feel almost analytical. But Alex is human experience characterized in a game. Games where the characters thoughts are audible add a level of connection.  Its a testaament to the devs really knocking it out of the park as a protagonist with depth and relatable. And in turn its easy for a player to be like "I get it" about the experiences conveyed. Writing for characters has come so far in video games.




Steph probably has as much depth but wont share for spoiler purposes. 


With that said lol.  Not to go full geek. But also. This game is a massively fledged out playable movie. Feels sorta like an hbo max series in a way. And if you like action blended with romance. I highly reccomend it.


Rating - 99/100

[bikingjahuty]

27. Nidhogg (PC)

Nidhogg certainly isn't the type of game I typically buy or play, but years ago I found myself watching some sort of gaming commentary video where the narrator was talking about something completely unrelated to this game while playing it in the background. I found the super stylized, yet fairly primitive 2600ish graphics to be very appealing, as did its basic, but still very fun looking fencing gameplay. It left enough of an impression on me to where I bought the game during one of Steam's sales and its since remained in my library unplayed all these years. I decided to give the game a go tonight and while I did find Nidhogg somewhat enjoyable, it's very basic presentation and gameplay is what inevitably had me wanting to do something else not long into playing it. Essentially you're a little blocky pixel man fighting an opposing blocky pixel man, and all you have is a fencing sword and your feet and fists if you so choose to use them (I wouldn't advise it). You have a variety of other abilities such a jumping and wall grappling as well, but they do little to make this game any more dynamic and enjoyable to play past a half an hour or so. Your objective is to get to the other side of the screen, requiring you to kill or dodge enough of your opponents attacks to do so. Both of you have unlimited lives and continually respawn until one of you reaches the opposing side of the screen. The actual combat is fun, but once again, its very limited and basic nature make it only a briefly enjoyable experience before boredom starts to set in. I really liked the presentation other than the fact that it only has a handful of stages that will be recycled over and over again as you progress through Nidhogg. Perhaps Nidhogg's best quality was its music. Even though there are only a few tracks, I really liked how lowfi and gritty they sounded and somehow they complemented the rest of the game and its art style very well. The reason I said this isn't the type of game i typically play or buy earlier is because this game seems to be made for streaming; it's shallow, yet captivating and unique enough to get people's attention, as it did with me. But actually playing it yields a relatively unremarkable experience as most will probably forget all about Nidhogg shortly after turning it off. Still, an interesting game to try out for a few minutes, however basic it may be. (3/8/25) [31/50]

[kashell]

27. Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana - Inferno

Thanks to all my maxed out equipment and Adol's max level, this was done in a flash. Still, I'm finding myself getting a little burned out with the game. I started up the Nightmare level playthrough and while I don't doubt it will take long, I think I need to find something else to play quickly to cleanse the palette.

[bikingjahuty]

28. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (Wii)

I actually had fairly high hopes for RE: The Umbrella Chronicles. Being a big fan of lightgun games and the Resident Evil franchise, I figured it was almost a sure bet I'd love this game. I would also like to add that I conveniently forgot how bad or mediocre Capcom's other attempts at RE lightgun games have been in the past. Well, blind optimism unfortunately ended up biting me in the ass as The Umbrella Chronicles is just as underwhelming, if not outright bad as the other RE lightgun games.


For starters, not all of The Umbrella Chronicles is bad. In fact, the game's graphics and visuals presentation are pretty good for the most part. Character models of the main RE cast look noticeably worse than other contemporary iterations of them, but especially the stage and monster graphics show off a surprising amount of detail for a Wii game released in 2007. It was fun exploring those old RE environments in first person and seeing details of what they'd look like in the eyes of the main protagonists. The audio of RE: The Umbrella Chronicles is decent, bordering good. Sound effects are great, voice acting is predictably cheesy, but competent, however the OST is remarkably blade which did drag this game down audiowise overall. Unfortunately, that about where my praise ends for this game as we get into what really drags Umbrella Chronicles down, its gameplay.


All Capcom had to do was try and emulate the pacing and action of games like House of the Dead or Time Crisis, but instead the game is more or less a slow paced stroll through various iconic RE settings from RE0, RE1, and RE3, where you round a corner, encounter 3 to 6 zombies, blast them all away, round another corner or go into another room and run into something like a zombie dog or Hunter, and that's it. There is no suspense, no real sense of action, and it gets just as boring as it sounds after an hour or so into the game. However, the worst part of The Umbrella Chronicles is its piss poor controls and bullet sponge enemies and bosses. Beyond just shooting the various monsters you run into, you'll also have to perform QTE button presses to evade attacks or go into a certain area before something bad happens to you. The QTE's are fairly unresponsive and clunky as there were times were I was repeatedly pressing the button command and nothing happened, resulting in me taking damage. This wouldn't be as big of a deal if you weren't unloading an entire clip of ammo into a single zombie with your handgun while several others were waiting to take a bite out of you. The game does have stronger weapons like rifles, shotguns, and machine guns, but ammo for these is limited, meaning you have to be very selective when you use them. Unfortunately, they to feel very underpowered so it's easy to run out of ammo for these stronger weapons by the time you need them the most during boss fights. The boss fights mostly revolve around you shooting a specific weak spot over and over again. Unfortunately, you can be shooting that spot dead on, but sometimes it still isn't enough and the boss will deal damage to you anyways. All of this is as frustrating and annoying as it sounds, and made getting through half this game an absolute chore.


I didn't completely hate RE: The Umbrella Chronicles. If not for its graphics and taking place in one of my favorite video game universes, I'd have likely abandoned this game well before even getting through a quarter of it. But for what it's worth, it's a game I still struggle to recommend to even the most hardcore RE fans as it's just not a very good game overall. I guess play this one at your own risk. (3/9/25) [26/50]