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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: November 12, 2025, 01:39:54 am »

108. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth (PS5)

Whenever I beat a game, the most common emotions I typically feel are satisfied, bored, relieved, or happy, depending on the game of course. One emotion I typically don't feel after beating a game is genuine anger, bordering rage. I play a lot of challenging games and while there are a handful of these really hard games that had my blood pressure through the roof and ready to hurl my controller through my TV by the time I beat them, it's typically games that screw with me in some other way that makes me feel genuine anger upon beating them. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is one of those games.


Going into Rebirth, I was pretty optimistic and excited. For one, I really enjoyed its predecessor, Remake, and have very find memories of playing through it during the early days of the COVID lockdowns. While there were some very noteworthy differences between Remake and the original game on the PS1, the game really took nearly everything that made the original a certified classic and just fleshed things out even more. The end result was one of the better JRPGs I've ever played and a game I found deeply enjoyable and satisfying for the most part. I expected more of the same going into Rebirth, knowing full well that there would be changes, likely some being dramatic compared to the original game, but I was ready and excited to see what those were. What I didn't expect was the story to take a hard left turn into WTF is even going on territory and for characters to be downgraded compared to their original game counterparts.


While I'm not going to spoil anything, I will say that Tetsuya Nomura is a troll and a piece of shit. Instead of giving us something definitive at certain very important junctures in Remake, he instead puts you on a fence and doesn't let you have the closure or payoff of what you've worked so hard for in the game. I know that might sound confusing to anyone who hasn't played Remake, but trust me when I say, you will be led to believe something is one way, but also completely the opposite as well, with no clear resolution as to which is actually happening. This is massive problem with stories that use some sort of multiverse plot mechanic, which more often than not just removes all stakes and anything is possible and nothing is definitive. Everything can be undone, changed, or redefined and it cheapens the story heavily. FF7 Rebirth does this while simultaneously ruining characters and making characters act unlike themselves or just plain stupid when the writers need them to be. But more than anything, Nomura and other writers that worked on this game refusing to give you a straight answer and instead flip flopping between events and then at the end giving you a softball conclusion with more questions than answers remaining is just shitty.


Fortunately, there are elements of the story that are pretty good, and these often coincide with parts of the game that stay more faithful to the original while attempting to flesh those parts out more. Speaking of fleshing things out, certain characters are done way better than others in terms of giving them way more depth than was possible on the now ancient PS1 hardware. Unfortunately, sticking close to the events of the original game didn't completely go towards making thIs game better.  Rebirth has some terrible pacing issues at certain sections of the game, mostly starting around the time you reach Costa Del Sol. The game then puts you on an up and down rollercoaster of becoming very engaging and interesting, but then dropping you back into another part of the main game that's dull and tedious. Luckily, I'd say most of the game remains interesting despite the last 10th of the game really dropping the ball and undoing so much of what you may have enjoyed prior to it.


FF7 Rebirth's gameplay is a brighter spot than it's story, albeit it isn't perfect either. The core gameplay which revolves around exploration and combat is mostly pretty fun and well implemented. This is especially true of the combat which is fun, fast, and engaging, but also strategic as well. Anyone who played Remake will be at home with Rebirth's combat system, and outside a few poorly designed boss fights, the combat system is a major contributing factor to Rebirth's overall fun factor. Exploration is also pretty good. There are a several regions you'll be exploring in Rebirth, all of which take the form of large open world maps that have a lot of interesting areas to explore. All regions are also filled with objectives, quests, and landmarks to explore, all of which grant you experience as well as fill out the world of FF7 way more than the original ever could. Unfortunately, a lot of the side tasks and missions in this game take the form of fetch questions and other tedious errands what can really feel more grindy than fun. I found myself enjoying Rebirth the most when I stuck to the main story mostly, but I also spent a fair amount of the game working on side missions and tasks as well, but some of my least favorite parts of Rebirth's gameplay were admittedly doing the latter.


One other aspect of FF7 Rebirth's gameplay that has to be mentioned is the INSANE amount of mini games this game has. When I say insane, I mean there are dozens upon dozens of vastly different mini games present in Rebirth. I was literally discovering new mini games I'd never played nearly 50 hours into my playthrough. It's ridiculous! Unfortunately, Rebirth's mini games are more about quantity than quality. There are a few really good mini games, chief among them is the excellent and addictive card game, Queen's Blood. However, most other mini games are simply just okay, and a few are downright crap. Participating in mini games is a huge part of the side missions and quests I described earlier, as well as an essential part of raising Cloud's affinity with specific characters. Unfortunately because most of the side quests are meh at best, it'll feel like a chore if you want to go for a more completionist run or max out your affinity with specific characters. I can safely say you're enjoyment with this game will greatly depend on not just what mini games you decide to play, but how many of them too.


Finally, there's Rebirth's presentation. Visually, Rebirth is a very good looking game! Nearly everything in this game looks stellar, both during exploration and battles, but also during the games many cutscenes too. The only real gripe I have with the way this game looks are some of the environments can look a bit on the flat side, and certain objects like furniture and large rocks can almost have a weightlessness too them that looks really goofy. As for Rebirth's audio, it too is excellent. The OST is the stuff of legends, with a few noteworthy bad tracks thrown in; I'm looking at you Gongoga jungle music. On top of that, certain voice acting decisions and changes didn't sit right with me and even semi ruined one specific character for me. Other than that, I really enjoyed the audio in Rebirth, but it's still not perfect.


Before reaching the last 5 hours or so of Rebirth, I was ready to give this game around a 40/50, which in my book is the mark of an incredible game. But what really killed not only the story, but also my personal enjoyment of this game, was how shitty the writing was towards the end and how disrespectful it was to the people that spent the last 50+ hours playing through it. It almost makes it worse that the story was decent to pretty good throughout the rest of the game prior because I had to get all the way to the end to find out how much it screwed the rest of what happens leading to that. Now, my final score is bordering a 30/50, which is in that realm between "okay, that was a pretty good game I guess." and "wow, glad that's over despite it having some decent qualities." I'm just so annoyed and pissed off right now fresh off of beating FF7 Rebirth to where I barely care for what happens next in the remake games. I guess time will tell if I end up playing the third part in the FF7 Remake games, but I can safely say there will be no hype or excitement like there was going into Rebirth. Again, Tetsuya Nomura can go to hell. (11/11/25) [31/50]

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General / Re: November 2025 - Recently added to collection/recently purchased

« on: November 01, 2025, 10:40:34 am »

My wife an I have exchanged Christmas gift lists for years and unfortunately for the past 5 or 6 years I've struggled to fill it with games I would actually get excited about if I received them as gifts. Part of this is because I have most of what I want, but the other part is I often just buy games I really want throughout the year, leaving few games for birthdays and Christmas for me to get excited about. This year has been different however. There are a ton of games I currently want to get and have decided for one reason or another to hold off on getting them. I believe there are currently about 20 games on my Christmas list and that number is growing as I dive deeper into games I may have missed out on or forgot even came out. Of course, whatever she ends up getting me won't show up until December's thread, but at least there are some excellent games on the horizon for me to receive!

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: October 31, 2025, 06:47:44 pm »

107. SNK vs Capcom: SVC Chaos (PS4)

With how much of a SNK fanboy I am, I'm a little surprised I've never played SNK vs Capcom: SVC Chaos. I adore SNK, especially most of their classic fighting games released on the NEO GEO. I also love most of the Capcom VS games released during the late 90s and early 2000s as well. Not knowing any better, I thought SVC Chaos was going to be an alternate version of Capcom vs SNK or something, not realizing that SVC Chaos is definitely an SNK game, whereas the other mentioned title was almost entirely a Capcom developed project. At first, I was pleasantly surprised by this realization. It was awesome seeing Capcom characters like Ryo and Chun Li done up fully by SNK pixel artists, making them look like they'd always belonged in the KOF series. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for SVC Chaos was short lived and began to dim more and more as I played this game.


An SNK developed crossover fighting game with Capcom should have been an easy home run in 2003 when this game first came out. With the exception of KOF 2001, SNK was releasing hit after hit with its KOF series and it seems like they would have applied that here. Unfortunately, the game they ended up releases looks almost as ugly as KOF 2001, but sadly plays even worse than that game. SNK uses a fighting gameplay system similar to what is found in most KOF games releases in the early 2000s, minus stuff like the striker or tag system. You're given a power up gauge that charges as you attack your opponent and filling it up allows you to unleash a variety of supers upon your opponent. Sadly, the balancing and fight mechanics in SVC Chaos feel half baked and inferior to most KOF and Samsho games released up until that point. There is also some pretty terrible character balancing, with some characters being far worse than others. This isn't the type of game where you can be mostly competitive with the majority of the roster. While I'd say the gameplay is the worst part of SVC Chaos, the game's troubles don't end there.


As mentioned, SVC Chaos is a pretty visually unappealing game. I will give credit to SNK for the excellent character sprites for both SNK and Capcom characters. It would have been nice to get more characters than just mostly KOF, Samsho, and Street Fighter, but for what the roster is, it's not bad. What is bad is how most of the stages in the game give KOF 2001 a run for its money with how bland and unappealing they look. I'm convinced the art team behind this game forgot that colors existed at times while creating the stage art. Not to mention, there is far less interesting things going on in the stages compared to even SNK games released nearly a decade before SVC Chaos. Even when compared to KOF 2002 or 2003 which would have been in development around the same time as SVC Chaos, the level design just looks terrible by comparison.


Finally, the audio in SVC Chaos is also nothing special. Tracks all sound appropriately SNKish, but they definitely don't stand out nearly as well as they do in many other SNK fighting titles. On top of that, character voice acting and sound clips are just ripped directly from other SNK titles for the most part, with the exception of the Capcom character voices of course. It's not bad, but it's not great either. It's just sort of servicable and does nothing to elevate SVC Chaos beyond its borderline bad gameplay and unappealing visuals.


Having waited this long to play SVC Chaos, I can't say there is any remorse or lost love in it taking me until 2025 to play it. I was hoping for way more out of this game, and sadly i feel like it wasn't unreasonable of me to feel this way given what SNK was making around the same time this game came out. At the very least, I can write this game off as a bit of a dud and one I doubt I'll ever pick back up again. (10/31/25) [27/50]

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Modern Video Games / Re: Limited Run Games Showcase 2025 discussion/predictions/wishes

« on: October 30, 2025, 04:15:26 pm »

Cool to get Little Samson finally, I played it once years ago at someones house for a real short bit and it seemed fun, but was crazy how stupidly expensive of a game it was lol

My initial reaction to the Little Samson reveal was excitement, however I then remembered I have this game on my NES flashcart. It's a fun game, no question, but I don't know if I like it enough to buy it separately for $40+. No way in hell I'd be one of those crazy people paying $1000+ for an original cartridge, but that's collectorism for you.

might wanna consider the pall version then card only is like 130 bucks

I'm not nearly a big enough NES collector to even consider wanting to get an authentic cart of Little Samson from any region. In fact, I'm not really an NES collector anymore at all. I appreciate a lot of game on the console, but in terms of my personal interest in collecting for it, I have all the games I've ever wanted for it. Whatever I don't have have, I'm fine just emulating or playing on on modern ports.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Limited Run Games Showcase 2025 discussion/predictions/wishes

« on: October 30, 2025, 04:03:29 pm »

Cool to get Little Samson finally, I played it once years ago at someones house for a real short bit and it seemed fun, but was crazy how stupidly expensive of a game it was lol

My initial reaction to the Little Samson reveal was excitement, however I then remembered I have this game on my NES flashcart. It's a fun game, no question, but I don't know if I like it enough to buy it separately for $40+. No way in hell I'd be one of those crazy people paying $1000+ for an original cartridge, but that's collectorism for you.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Limited Run Games Showcase 2025 discussion/predictions/wishes

« on: October 30, 2025, 04:01:46 pm »

maybe iron meat since I missed that one and fuga. I had the japanese versions but sold them due to having important patches.  depends on the price though.

I like some of the retro games but not enough to pay like 50 bucks or mroe for them with shipping and everything.

also wtf was the point in saying they where working on a new shantae game? I mean

I KNEW it is oblius its their biggest franchise.

and that ending 1 mroe thing only to show an 1 second immage of a game.

yeah this was relay disapooining nothing I realy wanted the avgn game seems the bets of all of them and frnakly I am not sure if i want it it looks way worse then the last one

I heard the reason the showcase was moved back to October instead of doing it around Summer Game Fest like they usually do was because they barely had anything to announce. Honestly, there wasn't that much even several months later. It makes me hope they have more good stuff planned next year they didn't get to during the showcase. They typically do.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: October 29, 2025, 11:18:03 pm »

106. Earthion (Switch)

When it comes to retro throwback games, I am often fully aware that I'm playing a more modern game rather than a game from the time period the developer was trying to emulate. Even if they get the art style, the pixels, the sound, and various other things right, there's always little artifacts here and there, and sometimes all over the place that really give the game away as a modern game in retro clothing. Sometimes it can even be the game trying really hard to be a game it took tons of inspiration from and maybe playing certain things up too much and overcompensating with too much nostalgia bait in the process. Sadly, this pretty much describes like 98% of all retro style and retro inspired games I've ever seen or played. However, there are those rare examples where I genuinely can't believe I'm playing a modern game.


Earthion is absolutely one of those rare gems that I'm partially convinced was developed back in 1992 for the Sega Genesis, stuffed in a drawer for three decades, and just recently unearthed. Too my surprise (or maybe not) the developer, Ancient is a pretty old Japanese game studio that did some of their most well known work back in the 16-bit era and has been around since 1990. This adds even more credibility to my theory that this game was actually developed back in in the early 90s and just recently completed. Regardless, I am practically stupefied the people at Ancient somehow embodied the look, sound, feel, and just zeitgeist of early 90s shmup action and distilled it into a game released this year (2025)! There are small hints this game isn't an actual Sega Genesis game, however with Ancient's plans of porting this to an actual Genesis cartridge and releasing them sometime next year, I guess maybe it is really a Genesis game released in our modern year? But regardless, I will say Earthion is one of the best new shmups I've played in a very long time!


The presentation in this game is unbelievable! Everything from the art, the visuals effects of the many weapons you can obtain, the variety of enemies, the amazing looking stages, GOD DAMN! I mean like nearly everything in this game looks outstanding and top notch! My only complaints visually have to do with some projectiles blending in too much with the backgrounds or there being just a little too much going on for you to track everything the game throws your way. There is a bit of slowdown too in a few stages which does hamper the visuals and gameplay, but luckily the amount of times this happens were few. Other than that, this game is amazing sprite work done by masters of their craft and maybe most impressive of all is how it looks so genuine. Again, I almost can't believe this game was recently developed given how flawlessly it looks like an old Genesis game, down to every detail. It really does need to be seen to be believed!


The audio is also outstanding in Earthion. The game has constant high energy tunes blasting through what sounds like a Genesis FX sound chip. That almost grainy, midi sounding Genesis sound is in every track and sound, including the voices in the game that call out when you collect a power up, are close to dying, or sometimes when something is occurring on screen. Of course there are also a nice array of explosion and weapon noises too, which all sound exactly as they should with this going for the look and feel of a Genesis game.


While still pretty excellent for the most part, the weakest part of Earthion is actually its gameplay. Before I get into the gameplay, I will say that Earthion thankfully plays way better than a lot of old school Genesis shmups. The fact that Earthion's devs clearly too many inovations and gameplay improvements found in more contemporary shmups and placed this in this game does somewhat tell me this game wasn't actually developed in the early 90s originally, but the game is much better for it. Make no mistake, this game is still HARD AS HELL! Especially in the later few stages, things get unbelievably hard. Luckily, Earthion has a leveling/progression system that allows you to maintain your progress even after a game over with a very well implemented password system. I mean, it wouldn't be a Genesis throwback if it didn't have a password system! But you'll be able to level you ship up with more slots of your shield and weapon power ups. Speaking of shields and power ups, the systems for these make the game way more fun and more accessible. Your shields allow you to take damage and will regenerate if you don't get hit again within a few seconds before they have a chance to charge. As for your weapons, they are charged up and become more powerful when you collect little green gems that look like they were pulled from Columns. Getting hit by an enemy projectile also drains your weapons power as well and unlike the shield which recharges automatically, you'll need to collect more green gems from fallen enemies to recharge your weapons to max strength.


In addition to your basic fire mode, there are an impressive amount of collectable secondary weapons that you'll be relying on heavily to get through Earthion. You can have multiple secondary weapons at the same time and freely switch between them to deal with a specific sirtuation better, however, there are some secondary weapons that are far more useful throughout the game than others. I actually went out of my way to avoid most power ups while playing through Earthion and stuck with the same three or so secondary weapons. Unfortunately getting hit too much can make you lose these secondary weapons, at times power up marooning you, which was a staple of most classic pre-32 bit shmups. Luckily you aren't as handicapped as you are in most of these classic shmups, but against bosses this can mean your assured death. Speaing of death, luckily this game doesn't have dumb, arbitrary stage checkpoints like a lot of retro shmups, but does make you restart a stage over if you have to use a continue, which is fair in my opinion.


Other than what was already mentioned, the main demerits to Earthion's gameplay are how imbalanced some sections and levels can be, and how some of them could have benefited from a little more thought and planing. Still, these more annoying sections are a small minority of of sections within a few select stages and do little to distract from what it otherwise a truly enjoyable and very fun game.


After beating Earthion I felt so satisfied and inspired. It gave me hope that there are people out there that know how to capture the spirit of retro games and not just give modern gamers something that looks and plays like the games they remember from their youth, but rather give them something that's original, authentic, and very fun to play. Sure, there are a ton of horizontal shmups out there, and it's undeniable Earthion does take inspiration from games like Thunder Force IV and Layer Section, but it does enough of its own thing to make it truly feel unique and a standout title from all angles. Whether you're a huge Genesis fan, a shmup enthusiast, a person who loves 16-bit retro style games, or all of these above, please, PLEASE play Earthion! As someone who adores SHMUPs and has literally beat hundreds of them, Earthion is one of the best and has to be experienced to truly see how remarkable it is. (10/29/25) [40/50]

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Modern Video Games / Re: Limited Run Games Showcase 2025 discussion/predictions/wishes

« on: October 29, 2025, 01:18:53 pm »

This was pretty meh compared to previous years. Oddly enough, there are a few indie titles that are getting physical releases that have me the most interested. I always get excited for modern ports of retro games and there are a few I may pick up. I guess my main issue this year is there are still so many series I'd love to see modern ports of that LRG hasn't gone after yet despite it seeming relatively easy for them to get licensing for them. All well, there's still a decent chunk of games I'll probably be getting from them this next year.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Limited Run Games Showcase 2025 discussion/predictions/wishes

« on: October 28, 2025, 05:41:26 pm »

I know im realy late asking this but I tought it would be easy to find

what time will this be tmorrow? I cnat find an time anywhere

9am Pacific, 12pm Eastern

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: October 27, 2025, 11:01:30 am »

105. Jurassic World Evolution 3 (PS5)

I have been a huge fan of dinosaurs and park sim games since I was a young kid. Our classroom computer when I was in 4th grade had the original Dinosaur Park Tycoon installed on it and I used to pray for a rainy, snowy, or bitter cold day so I could stay inside during recess just to play it. For whatever reason the combo of micromanaging my very own dinosaur park was something I deeply enjoyed and even with the game's fairly cartoony graphics, I still had a blast with it during the relatively brief time I was able to play it as a 4th grader. Many, many years later, a game that would have made 9 year old me scream with excitement while doing multiple backflips would come out in the form of Jurassic World Evolution.


I loved the first Evolution game and played it extensively on both PS4 and PC. JW Evolution 2 had some noteworthy improvements, but was a bit of a letdown, mostly due to its mediocre campaign. However, I am thrilled to say that Jurassic World Evolution 3 is the best game in the series without question and one I throughly enjoyed playing through.


One nice thing about Evolution 3 is its familiarity; if you played either JW Evolution 2, the UI, basic park building mechanics, dinosaur management and features, and just overall presentation are mostly the same. Where they aren't the same, however, are some noteworthy improvements that make playing Evolution 3 not only more fun and less tedious, but also give you more control over what you're doing. There are multiple ways of minimizing busy work like maintenancing buildings and checking dino feeders, and giving you more time to plan your park out and deal with the mountain of other tasks like deciding what dinosaurs you want to breed next or track down their fossils so you can eventually add them to your park. It's really the little things they added in JW Evolution 3 that make it a lot more enjoyable to play. There are also quite a few new dinosaur species that you can add to your park as well as returning fan favorites. Beyond just dinosaurs, the game also allows for greater customization when it comes to buildings and structures, landscapes, dino enclosures, and so much else. Unfortunately, there are some minor gameplay gripes such as vehicle controls being worse for some reason and also a variety of other annoyances I haven't been able to determine if they're glitches or just poorly implemented gameplay elements. Either way, these are all relatively minor gripes in what is otherwise one of the best park management sims I've had the pleasure of playing.


One major area the gameplay improved from JW Evolution 3 is the campaign mode. While campaign mode in the first game was pretty good, it took a noticeable dive in quality in Evolution 2. Fortunately Evolution 3's campaign is not just better than what was found in 2, but is the best campaign yet in the series. While the game does offer a sandbox mode that allows you to build and do whatever you want, I'd strongly recommend campaign mode, not just because how fun it is, but also it acting as a tutorial for all the game's mechanics and elements, which will really help aid you in making your dream park in Sandbox Box mode, should you choose to play that mode.


One other things I wanted to mention was how you decide to play this game. I wanted a physical copy of this game so I opted for the PS5 version, however I will be the first to admit, park sim games are absolutely meant to be played on a PC. Some of my issues with playing this game had more to do with playing it with a controller rather than a mouse and keyboard, but even with the limitations of using a game controller with limited buttons on it, the devs did a greatt job of making this game highly playable and enjoyable on consoles too. But yeah, play this game on PC if you have the option; I know once this game drops in price quite a bit and eventually has most of the DLC included with it on Steam, I'm going to replay it on the PC again someday.


Presentation wise, Evolution 3 is slightly better looking than its predecessors, mostly as a result of the more customizable and varied landscapes and structures. There are also more pre canned landscapes and structure elements as well in case you don't like making your own, which really allow you to make the park of your dreams down to a fairly fine level of granularity. Dinosaurs look about the same and all look nearly as lifelike as they do in the movies. However, like the landscapes and structures, their are more of them, which instantly makes Evolution 3 the goto entry in this series.


The only part of this game where I feel like there wasn't any improvement was the game's audio. The soundtrack is mostly relaxing music that plays as you're building your park. That is of course a dinosaur isn't on a rampage eating guests. Dinosaurs also all roar and make other noises depending on what their doing as well. However, probably the most noteworthy audio aspect in JW Evolution 3 is the various characters that speak to you throughout the game. These characters act as guides and in some cases antagonists as you're building your park and completing the various objectives in Campaign mode. Probably most noteworthy is Jeff Goldblum reprising his role as Dr. Malcom. Unfortunately none of the other actors from the movies return, but for better or worse, pretty much most of the main characters from the previous games do return and deliver their performances with a decent amount of believability and likability.


Whether you're a park sim fan, a dinosaur or Jurassic series fan, or all of the above, it's hard not to recommend JW Evolution 3. The game is without a doubt the best in the Evolution series and as far as I'm concerned the essential dinosaur park management experience. It's not a perfect game and your mileage will vary depending on what platform you play it on, but no matter what, you're bound to have an excellent time with this one. (10/27/25) [39/50]

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General / Re: Halo is going multiplat...end of an era

« on: October 25, 2025, 10:54:22 am »

Ideally I would want to see lots of smaller indie devs occupy the vacuum left by the downfall of most of the big AAA studios. While there would undoubtedly be a lot of poorly made indie games in this space, I'd also imagine new, good, exciting franchises would emerge and hopefully become the new face of gaming. I just feel like the industry needs a hard reset. I still enjoy some new games that get released, but I'd rather see something much better rise from the ashes of the old industry rather than get scraps here and there while the overall landscape of gaming continued to rapidly decay under its own greed and ineptitude. 

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: October 25, 2025, 02:44:51 am »

104. Resident Evil 0 (PS4)

One of the fastest ways to get me to face palm and roll my eyes is when an older games goes through a pretentious internet revisionism phase. For those who don't know what this is, it's when a game released decades ago and was either well received or poorly received upon released, but at some point the internet decides the game was actually the opposite of what people generally thought about it during its initial release. Sometimes the source of this internet revisionism is a specific forum, a Youtuber, or some other fairly prominent place online, but other times it just seems to come out of nowhere. Give it enough time and suddenly you have tons of people online adopting that same revisionist opinion regardless of whether or not they actually played the game. Despite how annoying and bandwagonny I find internet revisionism around games to be, there are instances when it's not wrong. Case in point, Resident Evil 0.

Funny enough, I actually had a hard time remembering when I last played and beat Resident Evil 0. All I know is that it wasn't any more recent than the mid 2000s. I remember very little about my experience with RE0 other than I didn't like it as much as REmake on the Gamecube, but still remembering enjoying it for the most part. This is why I often wrote off the hoards of hate this game gets in various corners of the internet. My assertion that RE0 was a good game was supported even further by most of the reviews at the time this game first came out being pretty positive. However, replaying RE0 probably 20 years after I last did, I can't for the life of me understand how I ever thought I liked this game, and if I did, I genuinely question my taste in games growing up.

RE0 is kind of mess of a game. Perhaps the only thing I can heavily praise are its visuals which are not as good as REmakes, but still some of the best on the Gamecube and of the 6th console generation. Audio is also not as good as it was in REmake, but still decent enough, if not pretty good. Where RE0 really falters is its poorly implemented gameplay and overall game design.

RE0's core mechanic is its partner system which has you controlling one of two characters. Most of the time, the two characters, Rebecca and Billy, work together to take down zombies and other monsters. Each character has their own strengths, weaknesses, and abilities which makes one of them more ideal depending on the situation or puzzle. The character you aren't controlling is controlled by the game's AI, but still gives you control over whether the character you aren't controlling attacks when enemies are close or stays put if you need to go solo for a puzzle or other reason. This might sound all fine and dandy, but its actual implementation leaves a lot to be desired.

There is so much thrown at you in this game that you'll often be progressing through constant trial and error of accidentally equipping the wrong items at the wrong times, or running into enemies with one character that you aren't well equipped to handle. Speaking of enemies, RE0 has some of the most annoying and also the most challenging enemies and bosses in the series. I have to give a special shout out to the monkeys which I can say with a fairly high degree of confidence are the worst basic enemy type in the entire franchise. But yeah, dying over and over again because you didn't use the right character or have the right weapon equipped to handle a slug man or some hunters gets really old after a while. But sadly, it actually gets worse.

Aside from a generous amount of ink ribbons and type writers to save, you will constantly be on the edge of soft locking yourself in this game. While I only came close to running out of ammo a handful of times, I felt like I was constantly out of health regeneration items, or on the verge of death by the time I found more to heal myself. I know this goes along with the survival horror aspect of this game, but it's still several magnitudes more difficult than any other game in the RE franchise, save maybe Code Veronica. Unlike Code Veronica however, this difficulty is for mostly the wrong reasons rather than it being a well implemented and balanced part of the gameplay. many rooms and corridors make it impossible to avoid confrontations, there are quite a lot of enemies to contend with, certain enemies can relentlessly attack you in a way that makes it very difficult to avoid them or break your stagger to attack back or flee. The sum of all this is a game that will undoubtedly annoy and frustrate most people who play this game.

Sadly, this might all be forgivable if RE0 actually had a great story and interesting characters, but it doesn't. Billy Cohen is your stereotypical early 2000s misunderstood video game  tough guy, Rebecca is okay, Wesker is even more comically campy in this game than he is in OG Resident Evil and especially the REmake, and another character who I won't spoil, is one of the dumbest antagonists in the entire franchise. The plot and even some of the settings really try and rehash what RE1 did way better too, which will give you a sense of deja vu, but not in a good way. More or less, you'll just wish you were playing REmake instead.

As much as I don't want to, I full heartedly agree with most modern RE fans in saying RE0 is kinda a bottom of the barrel entry in the series, especially when stacked against the other mainline games. It does have some things going for it, but overall it's just a cumbersome, poorly balanced, poorly designed mess with a few good aspects and an excellent presentation. Given the story of this game isn't super critical to the overall RE narrative, I'd say give this game a hard pass unless you just really want to play all the RE games, or really like your games frustrating and tedious. (10/25/25) [28/50]

13

General / Re: Halo is going multiplat...end of an era

« on: October 24, 2025, 10:10:56 pm »

Following me discovering Halo was coming to PS5, I did some more research on what's been going on with Microsoft and the XBOX brand over the last year, and good lord does it seem dire! This all definitely looks self inflicted via a combo of extreme greed, woeful mismanagement, incompetence from the top down, and a lack of understanding when it comes to the modern gaming landscape. I said, this was the end of an era in the thread title, but I'm starting to realize just how right I was about this. If XBOX actually does make a console next gen that isn't a 1500+ gaming PC I was be completely shocked. It looks like Microsoft is betting everything on Gamepass being the future of XBOX, and if this Halo news is anything to go off of, it's maybe not working out the way they thought it would.

14

General / Re: Halo is going multiplat...end of an era

« on: October 24, 2025, 10:05:59 pm »

I fondly, to this day, remember a conversation I had at 16 with a Game Crazy employee. I read in OPM a rumor that Halo was coming to PS3 (this was all around the mysterious PS3 pre-launch window) and he got pretty heated (remember I'm just a kid and this is a grown man) saying Halo will NEVER come to PlayStation. It literally can't. Microsoft owns it and would NEVER allow it in a million years.

People have been crying out to end the console wars, but competition breeds innovation. Without competition everyone will stagnate. I honestly just want the industry to crash. Every major AAA studio to fold, get gutted, and sadly the cycle will start all over again. Smaller to medium size indie studios will buy up franchises and start out small and form more major corporations.

It's not like buying the physical discs means anything anymore

I'm not sure what you mean. I had my internet go out for 3 days about a year ago. I bought a 2TB SSD for my PS5 and every disc installed offline. Sure, we won't get patches when the service goes down one day, but everything installed off the disc. I installed probably 30 games both PS4 and PS5.

Most disc based games are glorified CD keys now. They possess a relatively small amount of data on disc, while the majority of the game requires a 20+ GB download. I've played a few games this year that were a 100GB+ download just to play the game. The PS4/XBONE suffered from this also, but not to this extent. It's not a problem now (other than constantly having to manage internal storage space just to play a new game), but it will be when Sony and Microsoft inevitably shut down their content servers on these systems. It essentially takes ownership away from you and either forces you to buy the game again on a newer, supported platform or accept that you now have a PS5 or series X/S collection that are more or less unplayable paperweights.


I'm with you on wanting the industry to crash, and I mean crash hard! I want pretty much all AAA studios to go bankrupt and the industry to become mostly unprofitable so big money interests, investors, and large corporations remove their claws from it since it will no longer be a source they can use to fuel their never ending greed. I realize this isn't likely going to happen, but you have to figure something has got to give. It really feels like we're coming up on a major crossroads in video game history, if we're not already there. One of the big three console makers unofficially conceding to their competition could certainly be a catalyst for something much bigger down the road. But if it ever gets better again, it will first have to become way, WAY worse. Or things will just get worse and worse until most of us have moved on from modern gaming. Who knows.

15

General / Re: Halo is going multiplat...end of an era

« on: October 24, 2025, 08:02:02 pm »

For sure it's the end of Xbox, which has been dead to me since the start of this gen.

Xbox has struggled to establish trust and true brand dependability since the very beginning, the closest they ever came to a success was Xbox 360 - affordable hardware, solid ports, decent exclusives, XBOX Live was very influential in that era.

But now we're in the 9th gen, also known as "hell", where corporate greed and boardroom idiocy reigns and destroys everything in sight, and that goes for Sony and Nintendo too. All of these companies are subject to enshitification, which boils down to individuals with too much money and authority over a company not being restrained at all whenever they come up with a dumb, hair-brained idea, and then it tanks the company / makes the product or service objectively worse as they continuously gas-light the public and tell us that it's actually so much better than ever.

Everything Xbox has done since 2020, I would argue is bad not only for Xbox but for console gaming, including Game Pass, the purchase of a bunch of important studious, the release of physical games with no media on them, underwhelming multiplayer trend chasing first party titles, continuous price hikes, etc. I might be sad if they hadn't turned into such bottom-feeding garbo in the past 5 years, but alas. They were always looking for the next big thing. Break into console gaming, but then spend 15 years trying to eclipse console gaming and move beyond it because the profit isn't good enough.

I'll never own a Series X, probably never own another so-called Nintendo console, and I've made peace with that. Console gaming as we knew it is going downhill fast, and we're just dinosaurs not realizing that the comets are already hitting, and it's over. The modern gaming market, save for indie gaming, is totally enshitified and begging for it's own destruction. Halo 1 the remake, just the game that everyone was clamoring for, and that's how you know it's the 2020s. I'm so excited. 

I mostly agree with all of this. This generation has been absolute trash. Aside from the convenience of being able to play games on a console, I've more or less regretted buying a PS5 since the first year I bought it. The only bright spots have been playing Gran Turismo 7 (which is for reasons a live service game...*sigh*) and the handful of multiplats I've enjoyed on it, but could have easily enjoyed on my PC. It's not like buying the physical discs means anything anymore, but I'm a creature of habit I guess. I honestly thought Nintendo was going to save physical media, but instead used it to manipulate people into thinking they owned something when it fact it was just an extra, unnecessary step to playing the game they just purchased (ie. key cards). If anything, Nintendo has just hastened the demise of gaming even more.


As for XBOX, I honestly forget the Series X/S even exists. To my knowledge there have been no exclusive games on it, which isn't much better than the PS5, but at least the PS5 still has some brand identity and reason to buy it over the other two consoles. I didn't care for the XBOX One and only recently bought one for $50 so I could play the maybe 10 exclusive games on it that appealed to me. I liked the 360 and the OG XBOX though, and it does make me sad to see Xbox more or less confirming their demise as a console making with this news.


Having just Nintendo and Sony means even less effort will likely go into getting consumers to go with one console or the other. Sony will just become the defacto platform for PC ports that someone who doesn't want to tinker around with PC games will go to, and Nintendo will just continue to be Nintendo for better or worse. Either way, I think console gaming is dying and that's not just my opinion. Mobile and PC gaming sales are going up more and more each year whole console gaming has been stagnant at best, if not going down more and more. I really hate the direction gaming is going in general. If not for the few bright spots that appear on modern gaming platforms each year, I'd likely go 100% retro. Needless to say, bikingjahuty in 2015 could have never imagined things becoming this dismal in just 10 short years.