In Sound Mind Review

This is a really underrated "survival horror game" and this is coming from someone who is not a big fan of the genre, but this game feels like Resident Evil 7 but with a trippy "psychological" twist and I do enjoy RE7 so this is a good thing. It has the puzzle solving, the shooting and the gooey enemies of RE7, the only difference is that there is no item managment but there is enough similarities to warrant me to compare the two.

The game also generally handles "stalker" enemies well and this is a trope I am generally not a big fan of in games unless if it's scripted sequences but the "stalkers" in this game never stick around for so long to the point where they wear out their welcome. That and you get time to look around and solve puzzles.

The story and voice acting is pretty solid too. 

My only big gripes is that the combat isn't that great since enemies can get spongey or take a few hits depending on how well you aim for their weak spot and it can get cumbersume considering they run at you constantly and combat revolves around sprinting backwards and hoping you can line up your shots. The Factory level is also kind of boring since I don't like the asthesthic really much and there are a couple of cheap deaths here and there particularly by the stalker enemy of Lucas during the chase scenes.

But overall, if you want a more "psychological" take on what Resident Evil 7 did, then this is a good time.

Dino Crisis 1 Thoughts

After playing a couple of hours of Dino Crisis 1, I think I am stopping out of boredom. The game is just so underwhelming in every respect. It's hard to really put my finger around it but the best way of describing this game is basically Resident Evil but if it was nothing but running away, puzzles and backtracking. The dinosaurs hardly ever show up and when they do it's just a game of running away to the next door or laser grid. Fighting them is frustrating since you hardly get any ammo and the dinos barely react to your pistol. And I am now understanding why older RE games had combat to begin with. It's to reward you for all the exploring you did. You found a crapload of ammo for your pistol, shotgun and heavy weapons? Well fire away on the enemies for your reward and see the enemies fall to your power.

There was a sense of satisfaction and empowerment which Dino Crisis 1 lacks. It's just non stop running away backtracking and puzzles, and it starts to lose steam very quickly. You can argue that running away from enemies is "scary" but I argue it starts to get boring when doing it for 2-3 hours and especially when it's your only option since you get little ammo and guns feel so awful. Also the inventory management is weird, you get no item box but instead a plug box that is scattered super far and is grating to manage your stuff since inventory is management is kind of like Silent Hill 4 where ammo doesn't stack. And it can lead to situations where you need ammo for stronger guns and you have no choice but to waste ammo in order to make room. I do think Regina herself is a decent and entertaining character, but everything surronding the game is so dull.

The map also really sucks and making backtracking a chore since the rooms are never named on the map so when you want to backtrack, it's often a guessing game, a walkthrough can fix this but I find playing games excessively using walkthroughs to be boring.

I can see why this game had lukewarm reception even at the time, it's just not that great of a game compared to Resident Evil.

Batman Begins Game Review

This game was rather a surprise for me, I am not even kidding, it feels surprisingly accomplished for a movie licensed game and coming from a guy who has been lukewarm and outright apathetic towards the Batman character and IP in recent years, I really am shocked by how much I enjoyed the game, it feels a lot more accomplished than a lot of Marvel's movie tie in games and it pains me to say since I am a Marvel apologist of sorts. This game is much better than a lot of Marvel's movie tie in games especially those based on the Phase 1 MCU movies.

Introductions out of the way, the first thing I will comment on are the visuals and they look incredible for a movie tie in game even to this day. It almost looks like an early 7th gen game at times. The art style and the design of the enviroments really nail the atmosphere the movie was going for and the training missions really nails the atmosphere too with how tranquil and quiet everything feels and I also like how insync the player and Bruce Wayne are in how they are learning the gameplay mechanics at the same time. It's a nice attention to detail for a movie licensed games. I normally don't comment on visuals but I found this game to really stand out in that regard.

Now the gameplay is where it might divide people especially if they played the Arkham games. The thing with the gameplay in Batman Begins is that it's scripted, very scripted. You have to do platforming, combat as well as various traversal and enviromental puzzles. A lot of it is very trial and error much like the early Splinter Cell games in some ways. But I personally found at least the "fear" puzzle aspect very engaging. The game isn't really much of a stealth game as it is using Batman's method of guerilla warfare of "scaring" enemies first and then beating them up afterwards. A lot of the game when you are not hand to hand fighting is solving these enviromental, traversal and "fear" puzzles of sorts and while it can be offputting compared how the Arkham games can allow for more player expression, I do think this style of scripted Batman gameplay did grab me. I always felt the scenery destruction and the expressions enemies make when scared is a reward for solving the puzzle. It can be satisfying solving these challenges in one go. There isn't much of any actual stealth gameplay here, you will only be watching for guard patrols occasionally.

The combat however, isn't good. It's not terrible but it feels very unrefined and you have to fight a lot of the time, I did start to get used to the combat more when I used the multi purposed button of area of effect kicks, ground attacks, guard breaks and finishers but at the same time, camera zoomed in too close on Bruce and the enemy he is facing which can lead to disorientation, and trying to hit the enemy you want to hit can be cumbersome, and also due to the camera placement, enemies can hit you off screen a lot. There is flashbangs and smoke bombs but I used them on occasion and their contextual use made even more bothersome to use. Combat isn't super great but I do think it's enjoyable in tandem with the fear puzzles.

This is such a small part of the game but I wished there was more of is the Batmobile. Where it was dull in Arkham Knight, here it's honestly a blast, it's essentially Burnout with a Batman skin, controlling the car feels fast, smooth and responsive, and it has the vehicle "takedown" that the Burnout series features. It actually really works for this game since the Batmobile is supposed to feel like an unstoppable car and borrowing from Burnout was a smart thing the devs did. I wished there were more of these sections since "fear puzzles", automated platforming, traversal and combat did start wear thin at times. It even features improvements over Burnout regarding the takedown cam giving you an easier view of where your vehicle is relative to the destroyed ones AND you can control during the takedown cam.

Overall, coming from someone who is getting apathetic of the character of Batman day by day, this game feels really accomplished for a movie licensed game. The Arkham games are better, but this is a take on Batman that is worth checking out if you don't mind the overly scripted nature of the game.

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One Review

It certainly feels like CoD2 for what was basically "last gen" consoles at the time. While this game is better than United Offensive and CoD3, I can't help but feel this game felt like it was rethreading old ground that Infinity Ward already did in the first game. The weapon feel and damage animations feel like the first CoD, and I really got the feeling of "been there done that" when shooting down planes with a flak cannon, planting charges, blowing up tanks, and breaching through doors. I can see why CoD eventually changed to Modern Warfare and why Treyarch later for World at War made the game much darker, and had more mature content considering there were already at least around 5 games using the WW2 subset that IW did when they made the first CoD.

Not terrible and I would rather take this game over United Offensive anyday of the week, the whole game just feels like traditional CoD single player tropes with how scripted it is, nothing in the game ever happens or moves unless you the player does something.

The music is decent and the character interactions are okay, the gameplay feels fine and I also like and is also weird how it's the only CoD game ever made where you can geniunely use hip fire due to having a dedicated aiming reticle, so it gives this game some merit. I prefer the 7th gen CoD2 over this game, but as far as "spin offs" are concerned, this is a decent time, if by the numbers.

Resident Evil Dead Aim Review

Playing this game now considering how apathetic I am towards this franchise nowadays was a rather peculiar experience for me.

In many ways, while being a spin off, the game feels like a weird transitional period between old school RE and RE4. The game has the backtracking(no item management but you pick up items like RE4), health management, and going through and unlocking areas in somewhat interconnected maps, but it also has the emphasis on shooting, the lack of puzzles, the use of quick turning, and the awkward movement that RE4 would later have.

The action gameplay while "fine" for the most part and the weapon feel and headshots being satisfying, it can be rather jarring to switch from third person to move around and then first person to shoot. In fact, first person aiming makes the game feel like it's light gun origin with how much the reticle keeps tracking the enemies when close. It's not bad and is serviceable for the most part but it really is easy to see why RE4 would later have over the shoulder aiming. It just leads to less disorientation when lots of enemies are on screen and you have to aim at lots of enemies. Plus enemies get super damge spongey later but more on that later.

The old school aspects of this game while at first can be pretty charming in that it predates RE Revelations in how it emulates the older games style of backing tracking in one location, the ship section is not that long and the game becomes much linear later, so that inital charm slowly starts to go away. All though to this game's credit, this is the only game in the RE series I played where the tactic of running away from enemies actually felt reliable to me since enemies get so damage spongey later, I often had to run away and it worked well, since I don't have to worry about manveuring with the tank controls liked in the fixed camera angle games and have to worry about the zombies' unpredictable movement. This game also doesn't suffer from the same issues of REmakes 2 and 3 where the camera shakes so much to the point when a zombie grabs you, I lose my sense of direction and alignment every time I break out of the grab. In this game, I get grabbed and the camera never shakes.

Overall, my apathy towards Resident Evil and it's fans increase day by day, but this game was a surprisingly decent time.

FEAR 3 Review

Overall, I give this game a 6 if you play as Point Man but as Fettel, FEAR 3 feels like a completely different game. It's crazy. Where Point Man feels like an awkward FEAR 1 and 2, Fettel is like Point Man's gameplay except now it's about possesing enemies as a ghost rather than Bullet Time. When playing as Fettel, you can't use guns and in order to use firearms you have to possess an enemy, and when you do, you have to collect hearts to keep your "psychic link" with the enemy. It adds a lot more depth than you might think since using guns is something you have to obtain and maintain since you are a ghost.

My only issues that prevent me from calling this system great is that possesions are on a cooldown that you can't speed up by killing enemies and you have to wait adding boring gameplay when that involves hiding behind cover and the regen health is still there when possesing soldiers and enemies, so you can't kill enemies and gain health, you also have to regen your health too which I feel was a waste since it would make this game less cover based. This system even has more depth where you can control even non gun wielding enemies too. That and enemy holds up tend to be pretty OP at times, you can do it for a few seconds and then you can hold it back again and keep blasting them. This is an effective tactic on Phase Commanders, but you can possess them which is cool. Honestly, I was expecting Fettel to feel tacked on but he is worth playing the game again as to experience the better and more deeper parts of FEAR 3's combat.

They should've dropped Point Man and just have FEAR 3 be, "the Fettel game".

Twisted Metal Black Review

Despite me playing with cheats and I have managed to beat this game without them, I still really enjoy this game to this day. While it is really challenging and I get the appeal after all I get the idea of memorizing a stage layout, remembering every health recharge station, pick ups, and being careful when to attack and to avoid enemies, but at the same time, I just want to shoot and drive and do some serious vehicular carnage and cheats provide that.

And how is the vehicular carnage? It's the best it's ever been, no TM game or even car combat game really comes close to capturing the atmosphere and game feel that this game does. Shooting and blowing up other vehicles has never felt as good as it does here. The feedback you get is unmatched. What also put this game above the rest is how the story is handled, for a car combat game, the individual character stories are pretty engaging and the characters showing their thoughts during load times gives the player something to do and gives the battles more context without getting in the way of the gameplay. There is just enough story here for each main character to keep the player engaged with different kinds of plots from revenge, amnesia thrillers and redemption to name a few. The stories for all the characters do a good job at building intrigue and paying it off with the mid movies and endings.

Overall, this is the ultimate pick up and play game on the PS2 easily and is the best car combat and Twisted Metal game ever made. My only issues are that playing the same stages 10 times with mostly similar maps can start wear thin after a while and some characters like Shadow are not very enjoyable to play as, that and the levels with endless pits can get annoying and the final boss can be a pain in the ass with characters whose Specials don't home in on the enemy since you are fighting a helicoptor at an elevated position where the rest of the enemies in the game are at ground level. Still, must play and I surprisingly enjoyed playing the game 10 times, and I don't do that often.