Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

@Jackpaza0508 Oh, that's really helpful to know about Sackboy, cheers!

And thanks for adding to my Miles Morales hype! Every time I walk past my copy, still sitting sealed on its shelf, I get a little more impatient for my PS5. Short, but oh-so-sweet!

I have some other games on PS5 like The pathless and Immortals Fenyx Rising but I haven't finished them yet so I'm gonna review them as soon as I'm done with them. So far, Pathless gets an 9/10 and immortals gets a 8/10.

The year is 1999 and Resident Evil is dominating Capcom's development studios.

A title that was originally intended as a spinoff is upgraded to mainline series status and is released in Japan and the US (with Europe having to wait til the following year).

This... is Resident Evil 3.

A prototype is being worked on for the Nintendo 64 with a character swapping mechanic and the ability to drop and retrieve said items... Though the team is struggling thanks to hardware limitations it'll see the light of day on nintendo's next gen console a few years later.

This, eventually, is Resident Evil 0.

A game oft considered to be the "true" Resident Evil 3 is being toiled away on the dreamcast after an initial failed port of Resident Evil 2 to the Sega Saturn.

This... is Resident Evil: Code Veronica.

And finally Hideki Kamiya, after the success of Resident Evil 2, is starting to work on Resident Evil 4 for the upcoming Playstation 2.

Except... He isn't.

This game revolves a man named "Tony" with an indestrucable body & trying to unravel the mystery behind it, dealing with the occult. Kamiya describes it as instense "Cool Action" game... But Shinji Mikami considers it far too outlandish for the series and instead an entirely different game series is born.

This is not Resident Evil 4.

This is

Devil May Cry
Version played: PS4 (Part of the HD Collection)
Also available on: PS2 & Nintendo Switch (by itself) PC, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 (as part of the HD collection)
Completion Time: 3:30 hours to beat the game on Normal and 3:04 for Hard (Though I reloaded stages a fair number of times and spent like a good extra 2/3 hours or so just getting through the latter half of the game at this difficulty).
Dante Must Die difficulty wasn't attempted.
Six secret missions were beat.

Yes, if you weren't already aware, Devil May Cry (DMC from here on in) actually started out it's life with the intentions of it being the next mainline Resident Evil game with a very unique and very different premise compared to what we got with Leon's escapades in remote Spanish villages.

So... what's the actual premise of DMC you might ask?

You play as Dante, son of the legendary Dark Knight Sparda (A demon who rebelled against the underworld, sealing it away whom then later married a human who gave birth to twin sons), who owns the shop "Devil May Cry" that takes on the more... peculiar odd jobs oft dealing with the occult.

A woman, Trish as we later find out, crashes through his store on a motorbike (Which Dante treats like this happens once a week with his rather blasé reaction), whom then talks for a bit before electrocuting him, stabbing him with his own sword and hurling the motorbike she was riding at him.

Let's Rock!

For a normal human (even in the DMC universe) this would be lights out for them. But whilst Dante isn't like his previous incarnation of Tony with a fully indestructable body. He IS part demon.

Getting up to deliver the final blow to this mystery woman Trish removes her sunglasses to reveal that she's a dead ringer for Dante's passed away mother and wants to hire him for a job which Dante readily agrees to.

Yeah...

If you were thinking Capcom had finally shed the absolutely dreadful translation/localisation phase they had with their previous masterpieces that were the PS1 Resident Evil games or MegaMan... Oh boy they really REALLY hadn't.

Hell (Pun intended) upon replaying this I found it so bad that instead of becoming kinda good (Like the aforementioned Resi titles) this kinda wrapped right around back to bad territory again.

There's only one scene I feel that's truly so bad it's good and DMC fans will already know what I'm talking about. No review would be complete without showing DMC's true splendor.

Annnnnnnywho thankfully we aren't really here for DMC's story or characters (At least for this one as there's barely anything here) we're here for that cool action Kamiya promised and DMC delivers rather well for a title well over 20 years old!

Despite the movement and attacks at times feeling a bit slow and clunky for today's standards, Dante is rather versatile thanks to the use of both directional inputs & delayed inputs for melee attacks. Plus there's a number of moves that are available for purchase to pump up/grant additional combos you can pull off.

Now Dante's melee weapons aren't called "Devil Arms" just because it sounds cool. The weapons Alastor and Ifrit allow Dante to activate a mode called "Devil Trigger". We've already established Dante IS only half human after all.

Devil Trigger awakens Dante's Devil form which enhances his physical strength, mobility and cause him to slowly regenerate health too. Very handy in a pinch and especially useful against the numerous bosses (or even some of the tougher mooks) in the game. On Hard difficulty Devil Trigger is required to be used in order to deal decent damage against the bosses!

My attempts at capturing an in game depiction of Devil Trigger came out rather poor... so take this, not that much better, CG shot instead!

Alastor's devil form is much more nimble then Ifrit and even gets the power to fly, shooting lightning bolts and double jump in the air (as long as you've purchased the recquired abilities) whilst Ifrit focuses on pure desctruction with much much harder hitting combo strings giving the two weapons very different feels.

Of course you can't just use Devil Trigger willy nilly though. You bulld up the Devil Trigger bar/DT gauge (Or symbols in this case) by attacking enemies, getting hit or by using a Devil Star item.

You start out with a limit of 3 symbols (And you NEED at least three banked to trigger the transformation) but can get a maximum of ten by buying a Devil Orb item at the shop which'll upgrade the bar by a single symbol each time.

... You're also no doubt aware of the stylish rank the DMC games have during combat, grading you on how well you're doing?

This game using Dull, Cool, Bravo, Absolute (Awesome In the US release) & Stylish to denote your battling prowess.

In the later games this is supposed to keep you on your toes & make combat encounters fresh by having you use dfferent weapons, combos etc ... But it's not very well implimented in this first game.

These Giant possessed marionettes are very easy to kill, so building your stylish rank with these is hard work

A single second and a half of you not attacking an enemy and your rank completely disappears regardless of how high it is and whilst there is an option to switch between Ifrit and Alastor without going into the menu... It takes like a good three seconds to switch weapons (And I had no idea it existed until going back in the game today to rustle up better screenshots!).

On the upside though compared to later titles you can just keep attacking an enemy with the same combos over and over and you'll increase your rank regardless. Seeing as the game only judges your mission rank by the number of orbs you have and the time it took to do the mission... it's not as important though compared to later games (Though your style ranking will make enemies drop more orbs).

I haven't played the PS2 version of DMC since 2005 (my last proper DMC game being the 4th back in 2009/2010?) so... I've been away from the series for a good while and it did take a bit of getting used to DMC but by the end of things I was back on, relative, form.

The game, and the series in fact, isn't a walk in the park and can be quite challenging...

... But the first few rooms of Mallet Island have no enemies whatsoever and one of the first things you have to do is go round a fairly open room and collect all 45 red orbs that lie within (to open a locked door) which wordlessly teaches you about the various traversal mechanics like wall jumping and your first combat encounter is against a rather small 2-3 enemies.

So whilst it can be difficult (Mission 3 and Phantom being the wake up call moment for a lot of new, or returning after a fairly long leave of absence, players) it does ease you into the game ok enough I feel?

Rather then a shot of lava spider/scorpion boss Phantom... Have this nice snap of a painting instead!

It helps that the game is divided into missions with each mission screen clearly telling you your next objective and a good half of the 23 missions can be completed in little under 5 minutes (One mission can be done in as little as 40 seconds) so even if you do end up dying and having to continue, or worse have to reload your save, you'll never have to take too long to get back to where you were.

Plus Mallet Island isn't all that big either. The game's Resident Evil roots are on show with the fixed camera angles (Though they do sometimes sweep and follow Dante), needing to get certain items to unlock certain doors or interact with to progress.

Unlike any other title in the series (I think?) you can even interact with most the objects around the castle and it's grounds to get a snippet of information or a comment from Dante.

Nothing ominous here at this castle at all!

There's... not all that much more to say really about the first adventure involving our red jacket wearing demon slayer to be honest.

There is only 5 unique bosses in the game so you do have to fight the same bosses over again at least 2/3 times over the course of the adventure.

They do get new moves each time and progressively get more challenging... But Nightmare in particular is a pain with his gimmick and Griffin (A giant electricity spewing eagle) flies. The final boss is... Ok. So only two of the bosses felt particularly good to fight to me.

The music of the game is also... fine? There's some nice ambient tracks walking round the island and the music that plays during combat encounters/bosses is more energetic to get the blood pumping.

It's nowhere near as memorable to me as the later games, though it suits the game and it's gothic stylings just fine.

I will say I found the audio mix is horrendous for the voice acting though with Phantom in particular being pretyy much impossible to understand at times thanks to the effects done to his voice (so you might wanna stick the subtitles on).

The character and enemy designs hold up fairly well I feel with a nice range from demonic bugs, giant eagles, lizard men and the likes. Especially for a game that's rather early on in the PS2's cycle.

The HD collection makes things look a fair bit clearer thanks to a resolution bump (Though the CG cutscenes are really quite grainy)... But other then a gallery added for each game and a number of music tracks for each title too there's not much has been done to the base game at all as far as I can tell?

To end off this review here's a nice illustration from the new art gallery added the HD collection (Which includes a number of references to Resident Evil and Dante's initial incarnation of Tony!).

When all's said and done Devil May Cry 1 is a solid foundation for future games in the series to build upon (Which they mostly do rather nicely) and thankfully the story and character elements introduced from this point on are much greater then the bit of a mess we have here.

At least... I recall they are... They're more fun at least. We'll see when I eventually get round to them

Devil May Cry 1 gets a "low" 7/10 from me.
Objectively? I'd give it the exact same "low" 7/10.

Thanks for reading my first review of 2021! It's been nearly four months since my last review with Genshin Impact (Which I think was much better written then this if I'm being completely honest). The start of the year just seems to be where I lose my reviewing mojo as the same happened to me last year but hopefully it'll come back to me sooner rather then later 😅

Going forward (and I've already updated my previous reviews a number of weeks ago) I'm changing how I score titles slightly so instead of .5's I'm going to have whole numbers and adhere to how Push Square handles it's review scores but add my own little high or low to give it a little extra bit of scaling and make my reviews a bit more unique alongside the "Objective" scores I already do.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Awesome write-up, Foxy! Loved the historical context to open with; I knew that Devil May Cry had some kind of connection to Resident Evil, but never realised its place in such a crowded and productive timeline (although given how revolutionary Resi 4 ended up being, I'm not surprised it started with some very outside-the-box thinking).

Hilarious localisation failures aside, I'm glad you found that the gameplay still holds up (after... wait, how long ago did this come out?! Christ, I feel old). That style system makes me think of the Arkham games and the freeflow bonuses you'd get for keeping a combo going. I'm also reminded of your Soul Reaver review as well, so I'm guessing this kinda subject matter is really in your wheelhouse, because it comes through in your writing, which is just as witty, well-flowing and informative as ever, if not moreso. Will you be cracking on with the rest of the HD Collection right away, or taking a break?

Also, a note of personal thanks, for swapping out the shot of a spider-scorpion for a nice painting!

Aww thanks @RogerRoger, glad you liked it!

I did take slight creative liberties with the opening, with it being pieced together from various sources as Capcom is fairly tight lipped with how they develop their games (As we'll find out when Devil May Cry 2 comes around).

Yeah it made me feel quite old upon the realisation of how old the game is as well... Especially with me turning 40 39 again next month 😂

I'm a little surprised to hear it reminds you of my Soul Reaver review Rog but I quite liked that one and again I'm pleased to hear you think it flows alright. Yours and Ral's latest efforts gave me the kick up the backside I needed to finish this one off as I've had it lingering in my notepad app for weeks!

And you're welcome! Phantom's quite... chunky I think is the best word and rather fantastical with the whole lava coursing through him so he doesn't quite bother me as much but I knew you'd be giving it a read Rog so I swapped him out.

Plus when will I get the chance to show such a nice gothic painting ever again? 😄

As for your question... I did give DMC 2 a little go not long after I'd beaten DMC 1 a couple of weeks ago but I'll wait a bit longer before playing it in earnest.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy, spot on review of DMC. I played it for the first time ever (on Switch for me), and I'd say my experience was similar to yours. A bit rough in spots today, but still pretty fun with nice atmosphere. I hated that dark blob boss too, which I assume is the "Nightmare" you spoke of.

@Jackpaza0508, nice series of reviews! I honestly don't get the appeal of Bugsnax at all (seems like it's only getting hype as one of the few true PS5 exclusives currently out), but Astro's Playroom, Sackboy, & Miles are all games I'm looking forward to when I get a PS5!

@Ralizah, I think I remember hearing about Puzzle Agent back in the day (probably in Nintendo Power or Game Informer, as I didn't frequent forums back then), but that's the extent of my knowledge. Sorry to hear it didn't live up to your expectations (the gum thing sounds like it'd absolutely gross me out, lol).

@RogerRoger, cool review of Everything or Nothing. Don't think I played too many licensed games on GBA, but it looks pretty cool.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I actually learned quite a bit from your review, it’s been a while since I played the first DMC! Griffon, Shadow and Nightmare actually come back as playable characters in 5 which makes a lot of sense once the main twists roll around! Really great review and fair, the game is great but also pretty hokey in places due to its age.

Super Mario 3D World (Switch)

Another past gen port to Nintendo's hybrid hit, and my first experience with it. This also comes with the new Bowser's Fury game, which I'll be reviewing seperately.

Gameplay:

• It takes the classic 2D style Mario platforming of running and jumping through mostly linear obstacle courses under a time limit and adapts it to 3D space. In addition to Mario (who's an all 'rounder), you can play as Luigi (slippery but can jump high), a Blue Toad (Runs super fast but has a low jump), and even Princess Peach herself (slow movement but has long floaty jumps). There's also an unlockable secret character.
• As extra objectives each level holds 3 collectable Green Stars as well as one Stamp in hidden/hard to reach locations, as well as the incentive to hit the top of the end level Flag Pole. There are some levels along the way that are locked until you have a certain number of Green Stars, the Stamps can be used to decorate photos (it has a photo mode), and collecting all Green Stars, Stamps, & Flag Pole tops is necessary to access some of the penultimate post game challenges.
• Powerups come in two flavors. First you have the "transforming" types (of which you can only have one active at a time, and can be taken from level to level) such as the Super Mushroom (makes small Mario big), Fire Flower (throw fireballs), Tanooki Suit (float & tail swipe attack), Boomerang Suit (throw boomerangs that can grab items), and the all new Cat Suit (climb walls & claw attack). Then you have the "wearable" types (these can stack on top of whatever "transforming" powerup you have, and even on top of each other in some instances, though can only be used within the level found) such as the Starman (brief invincibility), Propeller Box (massive jumps with slow descent), Coin Box (coins with every step), Boom Box (fires cannon balls), and the all new Goomba Mask (enemies won't attack), Goomba's Skate (better control on ice & can cross spikes), and Double Cherry (multiplies your character up to five at once). In a class of it's own you also have the Mega Mushroom (temporarily become an invincible terrain smashing giant, though this overrides and erases any other powerups you have). Needless to say, there are lots of options at play.
• Just like the 2D games the levels are accessed via a world map, though you're not locked to the yellow path and can run around the little environments. Nothing near the scope of the hub worlds of traditional 3D Mario games, but these do hold the occasional small secret here & there.
  
  Like the rest of the game, the world map is very aesthetically pleasing.
• In addition to traditional levels, each world also houses either a Mystery House or Captain Toad level. Mystery Houses string together (usually 10) small timed challenges back to back to back (earning you a Green Star for each challenge completed), while Captain Toad levels are the real standout (as you can guess getting it's own spinoff, also on Switch). In Captain Toad levels you have to guide the little guy around little dioramic levels trying to grab 5 Green Stars. You can move the levels around to get a better look at all their secrets, but the Captain himself lacks the ability to jump.
  
  A different perspective on gameplay.
• I also wanted to give a shout-out to the boss lineup, which came as a nice surprise. I wasn't sure what to expect going in as 3D Land (the preceding 3DS title) had a pretty lackluster slate of bosses, but the roster has been expanded & what's here is pretty good.
  
  If there's such a thing as a good clown, I haven't found it.
• All in all, there isn't a whole lot to complain about, gameplay is quick, fluid, instantly fun, and while Mario's moveset isn't quite as diverse as it is in other 3D titles, there's so much diversity thanks to all the power ups, other playable characters, and other level gimmicks (like levels/sections where you ride Plessie, the aquatic equivalent of Yoshi, through obstacle courses) it never gets boring. Some may complain that the semi-fixed/isometric camera angles can interfere with the platforming, but that's honestly a nitpick from my experience. Sure I've had a death or two I blame on it, but if you just pick one of the more janky scenarios in 64 or Sunshine (and let's be honest, each game has at least a few), that in itself will lead to more grief than 3D World's camera will during an entire playthrough.
• It also features both local & online multiplayer, though I didn't get a chance to check this out. Another common complaint related to this is that "the environments are too large to really enjoy in single player", but I honestly don't see it. The Savannah level is the only one that came close enough for me to wonder if I'd be able to fully explore it within the time limit, while on the other hand there are multiple levels I can think of that I'd imagine would be very cramped with multiple players, particularly the later ones.

Visual/Audio:

• It's a very colorful game, in some places I'd even say impressive (I liked the rain effects), and it's a super, super smooth experience. There are tons of different environments, from themes that repeat a few times like grasslands, Bowser's castle levels, & snowy areas, to largely one off treats such as a Japanese castle, Mario Kart themed level, or a haunted shipwreck.
  
  
  
  
  There are varied locales, including a pretty suggestive looking bridge (seriously, look at that last shot again, lol).
• Something else that has proved somewhat divisive is the lack of coherent theming. At first glance it would seem that each world has a specific theme going for it (look at the cloudy theme of the World 6 map I posted earlier), however in practice only one or two levels within the world actually match up with said theme (usually just the first level in a world), and it's much more content to experiment & jump around with theme level by level. It's largely neither here nor there for me (and if levels did stick thematically closer to their associated world, we'd probably get calls of "cliche!"), but I generally like the surprise. I would have liked World 8 to have more coherent level theming though, as the theme given off by the world map itself here is anything but generic for the series. Oddly enough World 7 stands out as the only one where it's levels largely did stick to theme, which was a nice change of pace.
• the Mario series has always been one with a lot of catchy music to bop along to, and 3D World is no exception. Things get really good in post game where a larger share of tunes from past games comes into play, and I particularly liked the return of some great Galaxy music.

Story:

• There's nothing much to say here other than the fact that it drops the "damsel in distress" bit and Peach joins the Bros. on their adventure. This time Bowser has invaded the Sprixie Kingdom (which looks a lot like the Mushroom Kingdom, but with the appearance of clear pipes & purple crystalline block bricks), and kidnapped the Sprixies, but other than that things play out as you'd expect.
  
  I hope this nice walk isn't interrupted by anything.
• I do like the tiny bit of worldbuilding connecting it to a past game in the series. Particularly the appearance of a past hub world appearing at the end of the credits, forshadowing the theme the post game will adopt (at least for it's world map, if not most of the levels themselves, as has been the case for this game).

Conclusion:

• It may not be as grand in scope & theming as past 3D titles (though a nice step up from the similarly structured 3D Land in this regard), but it's an absolute masterclass in platforming mechanics that makes it an absolute joy to play around in. Definitely don't sleep on it if you have a Switch & haven't played it on Wii U.
  
  "It's Meow, Mario!"

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Well, I must admit that it reminded me of your Soul Reaver review insofar as this being another game which deals with devils, demons and a general gothic vibe! Since such things aren't exactly my specialty, they all kinda blend together in my brain (although I'm hoping to fix that soon, as Soul Reaver is slowly creeping up my backlog's running order).

It's a very nice gothic painting. I appreciate the thought, thank you!

Really great to see you contributing to the topic again. You're kind to give my recent reviews a nod, but you haven't missed a step, missing mojo or otherwise! Sometimes things just take as long as they take, so here's to whenever you write up your DMC 2 playthrough!

Oh, and congratulations on nearly reaching such an unimportant, pretty standard birthday milestone which totally doesn't mean anything, you young whipper-snapper, you!

***

@RR529 Thanks for reading my Everything or Nothing GBA review! Glad you enjoyed it!

Your piece on Super Mario 3D World is up to your usual high standard; real pleased to hear your first experience with it turned out so positive! My partner has given it a tentative start in my absence, but it sounds like I'll be playing most of it for him when I next visit. As somebody who isn't hugely familiar with Mario's back-catalogue, I'm real grateful for the detailed breakdown of the game's mechanics. There's a lot to remember, but I'll give it a shot! Especially reading this after Ral's recent review, because this might be the first time I'm actually excited to play a Mario game!

Great screenshots, as well (although I cannot for the life of me see what you mean about that apparently "suggestive" bridge... honest... ahem, yes, well... moving swiftly on)!

BLAKE STONE: ALIENS OF GOLD
Platform: Mac OS and PC
Release Date: December 3, 1993

During the early 90s, the first-person shooter genre was in its infancy. The seminal Wolfenstein 3D had successfully whetted the appetites of a hungry audience, and every game(r) in town wanted a piece of the action. When its developers, id Software, began to licence the Wolfenstein 3D engine to others, it sparked a wave of derivative "Wolf Clones" which flooded the market and soon became a dime a dozen. Wading through all of these cheap, rushed releases is ill-advised unless you know where to look... but, for my money, Blake Stone is at least worth a passing glance.

It's the year 2140. The maniacal Dr. Pyrus Goldfire is the CEO of a genetics research company called S.T.A.R. Labs (and moonlights as a John Lithgow lookalike, if his in-game sprite is anything to go by). Using his company's resources to conduct unethical biological experiments, Goldfire has drawn the attention of British Intelligence, and must be stopped. As our titular hero (full name, Robert Willis Stone III) you're tasked with investigating several S.T.A.R. Labs buildings floor by floor, shooting any security and destroying any alien mutants you may encounter on your way to confronting Goldfire himself. Such writing isn't gonna win any awards, but it drags things away from the contemporary, and into a setting where brightly-coloured pixel art makes a little more sense. It's proper justification for some repetitive action against a selection of imaginative enemies, using a variety of flashy, futuristic weapons.

Slime Time: Chaps like this would show up everywhere in the 90s, so it's oddly refreshing to find somebody trying to give him a little context, at least.

Whilst many other "Wolf Clones" were happy to maintain the simplistic point-to-point, run-and-gun formula of the source code, Blake Stone makes a concerted effort to craft its own identity in the gameplay department, as well. There are so many small, unique twists which make for welcome surprises as you explore those first few floors. For starters, you're not looking for the exit; there's only one elevator, and it's always your starting point. You just need to fetch a red keycard in order to get it moving again. This makes the maze-like level design pleasingly cyclical, and somewhat of a puzzle in and of itself, with some doors only opening from a certain side to prevent backtracking, and others locked down with different colours of keycards. Sometimes you can find the red keycard real quick, and only end up exploring 40% of a particular floor (the elevator's console provides completion stats whenever you move on, something which became a bit of a cruel taunt to my OCD whenever I thought I'd seen everything there was to see; the game is apparently packed with secret areas).

Also knowing that I had to loop back around on myself made later floors quite tense. At one point, ammunition (which you obtain via universal charge packs) became scarce and I decided to leave some enemies standing, before I suddenly realised that they'd then be blocking my return trip. Blake does come equipped with an auto-charge pistol, so he's never unarmed, but it barely packs a punch; it's more useful on account of its silence, because guards can react to localised gunfire and will deviate from their scripted paths to investigate (they'll even open doors to do so). There's also a specific enemy type, one of the humans, who'll take a bloodless dive after a couple of shots, faking their death until you turn your back on them. Sometimes they'll stay down for mere seconds, but other times they'll remain motionless for minutes, obviously wanting to spring the trap on your way back.

And then there are the scientists. They slowly plod around, minding their own business, and won't react to you unless you approach them and tap the spacebar... at which point you've got a 50/50 chance of being treated or tricked. Some are informants who'll give you charge packs, tokens for the food dispensers, and an occasional gameplay hint, but others are loyal to Goldfire and will therefore say something like, "I wonder if I can get blood from a Stone?!" before suddenly becoming belligerent. You're docked a substantial amount of points if you kill an informant (accidentally or otherwise) and that end-of-level elevator stat screen tracks how many informants you kept alive, as well, so it's a neat extra feature that demands caution from an otherwise gung-ho genre.

Every Little Helps: Well, I said they provide an occasional gameplay hint, but I don't think this one's exactly blowing my mind with this particular revelation.

There are some annoyances, not least of which are plasma aliens which, in some areas, repeatedly spawn from indestructible emitters. These wouldn't be so bad if they weren't the most lethal weapon in Goldfire's arsenal, capable of resetting your health percentage to zero in a single hit, and so the need to sprint through these rooms can create some trial-and-error bottlenecks. There's also a heck of a lot of game here, which is a criticism when so much of it is comprised of the same copy-and-paste elements. You ascend nine floors (ten if you manage to find a secret teleporter) and fight Goldfire, who always beams away at the last moment, leaving behind a keycard which grants access to that building's guardian boss; defeat that, and Blake runs aboard a shuttlecraft to escape. Rinse and repeat six times and you've got yourself a game. Which ends on a cliffhanger, because Goldfire gets away. Again.

But such was the nature of these shareware titles. The reason I've been replaying this recently is because I have a fair bit of nostalgia for the game's first nine floors, as they were included on a shareware disc that came with our family PC in the mid-90s. Every time I beat them, I'd stare at a congratulatory advertisement packed with terrifying new monsters, and dream of how cool the other five buildings must've been. Flash forward to January 2021 and I'm gleefully whizzing through the familiar, eager to see those dreams realised... and then along came the reality of playing a "Wolf Clone" to dash them. None of it was a disaster, not by any definition; it's just that I can count all of the fresh content I found with one hand, s'all. It's a salutary lesson on the power of marketing, I suppose.

I'll Be (Partly) Back: This robot body makes another appearance later on, only with a dog's head in place of its pickled brain, so clearly some limits were reached.

There are also only six tracks of background music, one of which is shared with the main menu. This is a particularly heinous crime when you consider the number of floors in each S.T.A.R. Labs building to begin with, leading to an incredibly rare example of me turning off a game's soundtrack and playing my own music over the top of it. Left the sound effects on, though. The weapons (all five of them) make punchy pew-pew noises and there's a lot of retro charm in the myriad of interaction jingles and treasure pick-up pings. It's important to keep an ear out for enemy reactions, too, as they can often spot you before you spot them, and solid stereo support helps give away their position when they do.

In other words, despite a few issues, there is a lot of good in Blake Stone. Its minor tweaks to the Wolfenstein 3D blueprint add up to some major differences, and it's a memorable experience as a result. Its schlocky premise fit right in alongside the general tone of the era's other games. Critics gave it a warm reception, praising its innovations and overall quality... so why haven't we been subjected to various sequels and reboots in the many decades since?

Because timing is everything. Blake Stone was released seven days before DOOM.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Y'all coordinate a review party? Lots of good stuff to dig into today.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Nice to see you contributing again!

I appreciate the historical/development history component of the piece. I've avoided the Devil May Cry until now thanks to my dislike of most of the character action games I have played (mostly developed by PlatinumGames), but the creepier setting and mild similarities to RE have made me wonder on one occasion or another if the first one might be worth getting into. I don't like that there's such a small window of time in which to keep up combos, but it sounds like the scoring system in the game is more about finishing quickly and less about pulling off "stylish" combos, at least. I like the music as well.

@RR529 Nice SM3DW piece! I agree that the boss lineup in this is surprisingly strong. At least on par with Galaxy, although under Odyssey, which has the best boss gallery in the series to date. Lots of decent power-ups as well. Even if it lacks the more ambitious scope of certain other 3D Mario games, I feel like it took the sort of gameplay seen in the 2D entries and pretty much perfected it.

How far did you get into the post-game content?

@RogerRoger You know, I've never heard of this game, Rog! It sounds fun, though (rooms where attacks instantly kill you aside), and I like the personal history element you've woven in here. Releasing a Wolfenstein clone (if it can even be called that) a week before the revelatory DOOM is, indeed, quite rotten luck.

This is going into my Steam wishlist, where it definitely won't rot for another decade because I already own way too many games on this service.

Thanks guys for all the responses! I appreciate you all taking the time to read of it!

I haven't played DMC5 yet @nessisonett but I know a fair few things about it and I'm kinda surprised Phantom didn't make a return in that compared to Griffon or the bloody Panther enemy. I always thought he was the most memorable boss from the first game (Even with him popping up in the second game for no reason if I recall correctly).

Very nice piece on Super Mario 3D world @RR529! Despite it's slight obsession with cats there's just something about 3D World even when it was released on Wii U that just appealed to me for some reason.

It's good to see it getting new life and appreciation on the switch now. I'll sure I'll get round to trying it sometime in the future as what I've seen and now read looks like a really fun little jaunt.

And yes Nightmare is the blob monster like boss in DMC 1 and boy is he a right pain in the arse on Hard! He was where most of those extra unclocked hours of beating that difficulty went!

No promises or resolutions but hopefully I can contribute the topic in a much more timely fashion @Ralizah from this point onwards 😅

Yeah like I said compared to the rest of the Devil May Cry series the result screen for the first when finishing a mission only grades your on your "Time" and "Number of Red Orbs Collected".

I typically found that as long as you beat the boss of a mission with a high style rank you'll generally be given enough orbs from it (As of course the higher the style rank when you kill an enemy, the more orbs they leave) that you'll land somewhere within an B-S range without having to worry about the more generic enemies littering the levels in the slightest.

With you having to fight the 4 main bosses throughout the game 3 times each (And the final boss is in two missions) that's 14 missions you can do fairly easily.

On my hard difficulty playthrough (Which actually unlocks something upon completion besides Dante Must Die difficulty The ability to play a new game as Sparda), I only got to "Stylish" nine times throughout that playthrough and still got like 3/4 S ranks.

The fact that the mission ranks don't really bother me in the slightest might also help there (And I don't think there's anything unlockable tied to them either)!

Oh! I feel stupid now @RogerRoger for not realising you just meant the gothic tone of Soul Reaver's vampire fueled world and DMC's more demonic setting! I'd be lying if I said I didn't spend some of my youth as a goth and I do quite like those supernatural settings and plot points!

Thanks again for the compliments of the review too... I did spend quite a lot of time agonising over it the past few days with editing out whole chunks and rewriting other sections so I'm pleased to hear it turned out alright.

DMC2 will be interesting to write about as I'll have even more to say it's development and I do feel it has a bit of a bad rep (Even if it is undeniably the worst in the series).

There's still quite a few write ups I could do for a bunch of games I've recently beat... Whether I have anything unique to say (Yakuza 0) or approach it's subject matter deftly enough (Ultra Despair Girls) I'm not too sure of. I still wanna get down a Code Vein review though at the very least. I have all those photo mode screenshots still sitting on my PS4 for one and it could do with some love.

Nice writeup on Blake Stone by the way! Never heard of it in the slightest but it sounds like a fun little experience. A shame it seems to have got completely overlooked over the passage of time thanks to DOOM releasing only a week later as it does seem to do some interesting things!

@Ralizah, I got to World 👑 and completed it's Captain Toad level, but haven't completed Champion's Road or that super long Mystery House.

@RogerRoger, Blake Stone looks like a fairly interesting change of pace for shooters of it's era thanks to it's bright colors. Not an area of gaming I have any expertise in, but I think a cereal brand (I think Chex?) even released either a Wolfenstein or Doom clone, that was entirely kid friendly.

@RR529 Chex Quest!!! It’s so good 😂😂

@Ralizah Thank you! Just a heads-up if you do go looking on Steam: you'll find it as part of the Apogee Throwback Pack, included alongside Rise of the Triad and, amazingly, a Blake Stone sequel which I was similarly oblivious to (and from what I gather, I think was greenlit out of pity). It cost me pennies, not pounds, so it's definitely worth adding, and I'd be interested on your take, knowing your appreciation for the DOOM series and its ilk.

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@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Not stupid at all; happens to me all the time, when people tell me that a certain spy movie reminds them of James Bond, or when a sci-fi flick reminds them of Star Wars, and I wheel around aghast because I think they're nothing alike. A fan always knows!

Well, the agony certainly paid off, although I'm sorry to hear that you experienced it at all. When I recently wrote that longer Bond piece over several days, I certainly got myself stuck in a few endless editing loops, and it served as a potent reminder of why I tend to one-shot my reviews whenever possible (because without that instantaneous point of no return, I probably wouldn't post anything at all). I have huge respect, and a little jealousy, for people who take time to properly craft their pieces!

As a fan of underdogs and a defender of the maligned, I look forward to your DMC 2 review! And your Code Vein piece, and any other review you feel like writing, whether you reckon you've got anything unique to say or not. If the mood takes you and you can find the words, it doesn't matter if you're just reinforcing the status quo; at least you're having your say, right?

And thanks for reading! DOOM did push the envelope, but I find going back to the original Wolfenstein 3D a little too simplistic nowadays, so it's nice to have a kinda middle option.

@RR529 Thanks for reading and yes, @nessisonett is right, it was Chex Quest, I believe! The one that makes me laugh the most is Super 3D Noah's Ark, developed by a biblical game producer. You run around Noah's Ark shooting food laced with sleeping drugs at angry goats. It's been a while since I read the Good Book, but I'm pretty sure I must've skipped over that chapter and verse!

So I managed to play and finish Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I was originally intending to write a full review (I might drop one later on), but tbh I'm quite exhausted with the series at this point so could do with a break!

Some quick thoughts generally:

• The game started off really strong. The strengths of this game are its setting (South America's jungle and villages are much more interesting than the barren Siberia of Rise) and its improved mechanics (pretty much every mechanic is improved, especially exploration and stealth; the swimming is perhaps the best I've seen in any game).
• This is the closest the reboot trilogy has come to feeling like the Core Design games, with a focus on exploration and, unlike Rise, an environment I want to explore. The crypts and tombs are generally quite interesting.
• That said, a lot of the puzzles were very tedious. Moreover, I encountered two puzzle-breaking glitches in my playthrough on PC (one fixed by simply resetting, the other resulted in me completely abandoning a sidequest). This really discouraged me and made me develop a distrust for the puzzle mechanics within the game.
• Although discovering new villages (e.g. Kuwaq Yaku, Paititi) was interesting at first (and also a first for the series - we'd never really seen much civilisation in previous entries), the overabundance of sidequests really put the game to a halt - affecting the pacing in a manner similar to Rise (and arguably worse - although fortunately this is all optional).
• The story again was fairly cliche and bland. I wasn't really sure, nor did I care, what the villain was trying to achieve, and the final few acts seemed a bit rushed. I did like the inner conflict of Lara having caused the natural disasters - but this was only sporadically brought up, and feel her inner turmoil was resolved too quickly.
• Similarly, the character development could've been better. This is the best relationship building that we've seen between Lara and Jonah, but Jonah again sat only the sidelines for most of the game. Other characters don't get much development or memorable moments.

Overall, a lot of issues I had with Rise carry over into this title, however I think the new setting and the improved mechanics go a long way to making me prefer this title overall. I feel that Shadow is the best realisation of classic Tomb Raider in the reboot setting. However, as a game, I feel that 2013 is most memorable to me and is the one I'd most likely go back to.

If I were to grade them:
2013 - B+
Rise - B-
Shadow - B

The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine DLC
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Completion Status: All main story missions completed; several side missions completed; roughly 30 hours of playtime

So, I've been sitting on this DLC expansion for a while. Unlike the first DLC expansion, Hearts of Stone, Blood and Wine is big enough to count as its own separate game, and gives you a large-ish separate region to explore. I didn't really want to go through the trouble of setting up Witcher 3 on my new PC, so I decided to get my money's worth out of the Switch version I bought for a while back and played sporadically. How would this DLC expansion fare on this generation's equivalent of the Game Boy?

Blood and Wine is canonically set after the events of the main game (and presumably the other DLC campaign as well), although, aside from some light references, it really functions as its own sort of thing. Geralt is summoned to the duchy of Toussaint, an idyllic region of the world that resembles classical imagery of medieval Europe, complete with virtuous knights pledging to defend the chivalric virtues. Something is amiss in paradise, however. A beast is terrorizing the land, and Geralt of Rivia is tasked by Duchess Anna Henrietta to find and stop the murders, which leads him directly into conflict with a mysterious and powerful Elder Vampire.

The name "Blood and Wine" communicates more than you'd think. Besides the vampiric connection, the land of Toussaint's primary export is wine, and much of the game's content involves settling land disputes over vineyards, dealing with wine theft, and even helping to restore a run-down vineyard and estate that has been pledged to you by the Duchess, where you'll eventually be able to grow additional herbs and display sets of armor and weapons. Otherwise, the gameplay loop will be familiar to veterans of the main game, as you travel around Toussaint and engage with fairly formulaic side content. None of the money/XP balancing issues from the main game have been addressed in this expansion, so your willingness to engage with everything this expansion has to offer comes down to personal enjoyment. With that said, I'm going to come down a little harder on how uninspired a lot of the side-content is in this DLC, because Toussaint isn't nearly as large as the wider Witcher 3 world, and more care should have been taken to furnish it with unique content.

Unfortunately, a lot of the visual splendor and charm of Toussaint were lost in the process of converting this game to the Switch. Granted, the entire game is here: there are no cut corners to speak of, and it runs surprisingly well on increasingly aged mobile technology, but the often pretty dramatic dips in resolution, texture quality, etc. are far more evident in this DLC than they were in the base game. Perhaps that has something to do with the art direction: Velen, Novigrad, etc. are generally pretty grim, dark, atmospheric places, but Toussaint is full of sunlit environs, and that clarity highlights the limitations of the technology all the more. I suppose it goes without saying: when people tout the impressiveness of the game running well on the console at all, that should probably tell you something about the capabilities of the hardware. Even as someone who often downplays the sacrifices needed to get home console-scale games running on this device (as they often aren't any more severe than similar cuts that are made to PS4 versions of games in comparison to their PC counterparts, while, IMO, the device itself offers much more in return for those sacrifices through the freedom offered by its hybrid form factor), I'd definitely say that playing Blood and Wine on the Switch should be a last resort.

Of course, there are ways to improve the experience via the options menu, which adds a suite of PC game-esque features to customize. First off, if you hadn't already, you'll want to turn off the anti-aliasing, which, as with the base game, makes the image appear uncomfortably fuzzy. Raw pixels aren't attractive, but it still results in a noticeably crisper image overall. Especially if played on the diminutive Switch Lite. The prospective player will also want to turn off "bloom" ASAP. I don't know what this DLC looks like with bloom enabled on other platforms, but on Switch it drowns the image in this horrible yellow tint.

I mentioned playing on a Lite, and that ends up being the best way to minimize the effects of the visual downgrade on one's experience with the game. The base version of TW3 looked better in handheld mode, of course, but it didn't look hideous when blown up on the TV most of the time. The same can't be said for this DLC, though. I remember docking it at one point when there were a lot of characters on-screen and then audibly gasping at how terrible the image quality was on my TV. It was... bad. Everything is so small on a Switch Lite screen that you can kind of fool yourself into thinking it looks better than it actually does, but put it on even a small monitor and you'll be faced with a game that, frankly, looks as bad as the most unattractive PS3/Xbox 360 titles.

But I won't keep ragging on the visuals. They're clearly not the result of laziness or a lack of effort. Saber Interactive, the company that ported this game to the Switch, did an amazing job stuffing a square peg into a round hole. If nothing else, this version of Blood and Wine still embarrasses existing home console ports of CDPR's embarrassingly unfinished sci-fi epic, Cyberpunk 2077.

The highest compliment I can pay to this version of Blood and Wine is that, more often than not, I was so fully engrossed in the story that I didn't even think about how basic everything looked. While I wasn't terribly engaged with the exploration (partly because of the lack of visual flair, and partially because, like the base game, TW3's open worldy aspects are half-baked: the side-quests are still unrewarding, it's still filled with unnecessary systems and mechanics, and its environments, while well-realized, have no interactivity or sense of mystery to them), the story in this DLC is surprisingly excellent. While the main game suffered from 'road trip syndrome' and featured a frankly pretty underwhelming main plotline, Blood and Wine's narrative is much more focused and immediately gripping, and the player will be thrown into a nuanced, tragic conflict that will have them sympathizing with everyone involved. A variety of memorable and mostly likable characters are introduced throughout. The smaller settings and narratives explored throughout are also compelling, in addition to the larger narrative. Blood and Wine weaves together a number of smaller stories and setpieces — freeing a woman afflicted with a terrible curse, infiltrating a swanky party to investigate a lead, exploring an ancient vampire castle — to great effect.

One area where the main game lacked a bit was in boss quality and variety. The Hearts of Stone expansion addressed this with some excellent boss encounters, but Blood and Wine's boss game isn't terribly impressive, although the final boss of the expansion is admittedly pretty challenging. Still, Toussaint would have fared even better with a collection of intimidating enemies to face.

For a DLC, though, this is still a pretty meaty, satisfying affair. I said it took me roughly 30 hours to get through, but that was just the main story and several side-quests. There was actually a lot of side-content I didn't engage with, and if someone felt like doing everything in Blood and Wine was worthwhile, they could probably get 40 - 50 hours total out of this campaign. I ignored a number of smaller side-quests, most of the unexplored map markers, almost all of the treasure hunts for special Witcher gear, etc. How much any of this content is actually worth engaging with is an open question, but its pure potential as a time-waster is impressive. And, you know, maybe I'll do that one day if I revisit the game on a different platform. I had a lot of fun with the PC version of the game just roaming around, soaking in the atmosphere, and, frankly, Toussaint is probably even better for that with its lush, technicolor environments.

I enjoyed my return trip to the world of The Witcher 3, even if the Switch port has a face only a mother could love. The storytelling in this DLC is the highlight of the package, and it highlights CDPR's strength when it comes to character writing and story-driven setpieces. I would love to one day see a Witcher game with more elegant gameplay, meaningfully streamlined mechanics, and balanced dolling out of rewards to the player to incentivize engagement with the (usually) well-written side-content. As usual, the art design and music are top-notch as well. I'm going to give the Switch version of Blood and Wine a 6/10. Tack on a point if you're playing any other version, but the image quality deficits here are too severe to ignore.

@timleon Nice impressions on Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Glitched puzzles sound... worrisome, though. Especially given puzzles are often required to complete if you wish to advance in a game.

The complaint about pace-destroying side-content definitely rings true. A lot of modern AAA games seem to suffer from design bloat, where the developers almost seem to feel the need to stuff extra quests and collectibles and whatnot in the game to pad it out.

[Insert obligatory 'I really need to play these games' comment]

Thanks!

Yeah the glitched puzzles really soured what was overall a good experience. Luckily the first was easily overcome by reloading my checkpoint, but I was almost afraid that the second had completely broken the game for me (long story short - I was only able to continue by reloading an old save - luckily the game keeps your latest save at a campsite to help prevent you from getting trapped in difficult areas).

With the pace-breaking...as mentioned, this at least is optional. Unfortunately I go in with an "all-or-nothing" mindset, and once I start chasing sidequest markers...I start trying to go for them all. I definitely don't recommend that in this game - maybe choose one or two sidequests to get a feel for them, and quickly move on. Otherwise the entire game becomes a bunch of fetch quests for villagers, distracting you from the main experience.

@timleon Great points made about Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and about the reboot trilogy as a whole. I can't fault anything you've said up there (you're right, the game's first third is its strongest, and everything slams into a brick wall as soon as Lara arrives in Paititi) and am sorry to hear you encountered some game-breaking bugs on PC, because I never had any issues on PS4. It's definitely the closest to capturing the spirit of the Core Design originals, but there's still some fine-tuning to be done. Fingers crossed for a game that nails the balance soon. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

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@Ralizah Well, at least you got some graphics options to fiddle with, in terms of making Blood & Wine look a little better suited to your preferences... but still, the fact that the Switch is running any of The Witcher III to begin with is a pretty impressive achievement, no matter the shape of the peg and / or hole (nice analogy). I'm glad to hear that the visual shortcomings and general design frustrations didn't detract from your enjoyment of the DLC's story, and a six (or seven) is still the right side of average. Given the wider praise of this game in general, it obviously does a lot of things right but, to echo myself from a half-dozen lines written above this one, here's hoping for a better balance next time around (providing the developers survive the current Cyberpunk 2077 debacle, of course).