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Absolutely pure bliss. Blade Chimera is a game that clearly wears its inspiration proudly and confidently, while still being quite different than its influences. It's a mouthful, but I would call this game cyberpunk Japanese mythology Castlevania: Symphony of the Night! One of my favorite games from the past is alive and well in modern indie games such as Blade Chimera.

Stunning pixel art and animations are a feast for your eyes as you explore legitimately cool, beautiful locations with an excellent theme. I've always been a fan of Japanese mythology, and most if not all foes you face are from Japanese myth. Funny enough, I recognize a few demons, or oni if you're a weeb, just because I played Ghostwire: Tokyo all the way through just a year or two ago. They are all varied and have different abilities to contend with.

You can wield two weapons at once. It's recommended to have a melee weapon and a ranged weapon, although dual wielding one-handed melee weapons might speed up melee attacks greatly at the cost of being able to fight at range. There's a really cool phantom sword companion that's VERY Rune Blade from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, it's main thrust attack is reminiscent of it and I feel like it's on purpose that it behaves like the Rune Blade from SOTN. You can enhance your combat abilities with a skill tree, and even abilities that help you access new areas. This is quite a unique way of handling progression gating, most of the actual progression being tied to keycards and locked doors you open with terminals.

There's side missions, and they are sometimes interesting. They don't take too much time to do at all, which makes them more satisfying to do. It's definitely a good excuse to explore. You can find hidden green puzzle piece items, these will unlock side areas. There are classic Metroidvania secrets, if you see cracks in a wall just bust it open and you'll find hidden items, such as HP or MP upgrades, gear, and items.

Blade Chimera is something truly special, and it reminds me why I love this genre as much as I do!

This is sublime. The story, the music, and the gameplay are excellent.

The visuals are... quite blurry and have performance problems ( especially the 30 FPS locked cutscenes ), but these graphics still look really nice. Especially in terms of foliage, geometry, and terrain. The textures look like absolute garbage and very dated on multiple surfaces. Characters look dated in some instances, except on the main characters who are pretty detailed.

You'll need to fiddle with your settings, and if you're an RTX 4070 12GB user like me then get NVIDIA FrameView to see your framerate. Use FrameView to benchmark a demanding area of the game you encounter performance problems in, and any settings you'll land on that yield optimal performance will work great for the rest of the game. I have a Ryzen 7700X 4.5GHz processor, and 32GB 4800MHz RAM. So, your mileage may vary. I managed to get excellent performance by turning NPC Quantity to "Low", Graphical Fidelity to "Low", and Shadow Quality to "Mid". Everything else is on high with DLSS 3, and it looks pretty good!

This is the best looking Final Fantasy to date ( if you compare specific details to past games, such as the foliage or terrain ), but it still suffers engine problems that hurt the otherwise beautiful, yet dark, art.

I've been a longtime fan of Final Fantasy since I was just a wee dragon- I mean human kid. Final Fantasy 16, even if it's quite a departure with more of a focus on individual battles and story, has everything an excellent Final Fantasy game needs. I was invested in the story since the beginning, more so than other Final Fantasy games somehow, and the darker more mature themes make this a Final Fantasy for those of us who have grown up with the series. Combat is satisfying, rewarding, and fun. Bosses are fantastic and keep up the tension with dynamic mechanics. As always, you can level up and you can freely respec a skill tree of gamechanging skills. You can upgrade your equipment, and buy items too.

The game does feel a bit too much like it's railroading you, since the game is linear, but you will get sidequests to do that make it feel more open ended. Some of the sidequests have a meaningful storyline that add to the overall narrative and the themes, others feel a bit like padding.

There are some dark themes here. There's slavery, there's fascist imperialist kingdoms, there's dehumanization of people just because of who they are, wealth inequality, and greed at the expense of the world. There's cussing and sex. It's really the most mature Final Fantasy to date.

The star of the show here is Eikon combat, and Eikons in general. These are basically Espers or summons, but I love how there are people who can just BECOME these amazing creatures, called "Dominants". There is definitely a more personal feeling to this, like a person IS this creature rather than just a human. Square has really come a long way from the cinematic summoning scenes from past games, and allowing us to basically play entire fight sequences with these amazing beings!

I do miss the turn taking combat of past games. I always have missed it, but I am open to the action combat of recent games too. I do miss the roots of the series, I really do. But I like that Square is willing to take some risks, especially with a game like Final Fantasy 16. This is truly a sublime JRPG, even if it's a departure!

Marvel Rivals does a lot of things right despite its absolutely CHAOTIC balance. It's fun, easy to jump into, and most of the heroes are intuitive to play even the ones who are "high difficulty". This is one of the instances where Unreal Engine 5 is put to good use to produce stunning visuals full of style AND fidelity. The only other issue is whether or not you like the Marvel Cinematic Universe like I do, or if you like superhero media in general. I'd still argue that superheroes are like a modern mythology, and that in itself is really awesome.

Marvel Rivals is probably the "least bad" monetization I've seen in a free-to-play game. In fact, this is probably one of the better battlepass systems available. It's only 5$ for the base "Luxury Battlepass", and it NEVER EXPIRES. That's right, there is no FOMO here and you don't feel rushed to unlock anything. Once a season is underway, that battlepass will always be available to you via the "Nexus". It's up to you whether you want to pay for the luxury version of these battlepasses. You can also unlock items in any order you want, although the one problem is that the main showcase skin of each rung of a battlepass requires you to unlock every other item in that rung. The rungs are basically just "pages".

Despite that, the mission structure is suspect. Battlepass progress is tied almost entirely to missions and the currency you get from them. Missions are fun and all, but they encourage you to play heroes you might not be so good at, to the detriment of your team compositions. Profile leveling also seems to do absolutely nothing, it's just a bar to increase with a number, which is okay I guess but we need some kind of reward from it. The match XP you earn does not go towards the battlepass, since the battlepass relies on missions and their currency. Having to wait for missions to refresh after finishing them is annoying, but at least there is no sense of FOMO so you don't feel rushed. Remember, battlepasses NEVER expire, you can just access them via the Nexus. That is BRILLIANT regardless of the missions structure, and I WISH more games did this!

I mentioned that character balance is chaotic earlier. It's true. It feels like ultimate abilities happen WAY TOO FAST and WAY TOO OFTEN. Some heroes, it feels like I die way too quickly as them. A few of the ultimates are way too strong, while some are way too weak. Some of the heroes are pretty obscene in their strength. For example, Hela is extremely powerful, Hawkeye is absurd, and so is Iron Fist, all three whom absolutely wreck your collective faces. Mantis and Luna Snow, both who I really enjoy despite my main being Rocket Racoon, are serious problems among the healers ensuring the 3 problem DPS heroes I mentioned stay in the fight indefinitely. I can't think of any tank heroes who are a problem, at least not yet, they all seem somewhat balanced to me, besides maybe Peni Parker with those insufferable spider bots that also collectively wreck your faces and too many people ignore the nests that spawn them. But with the issue of balance lies another problem for THIS specific game. The thing is, any serious nerfs would ruin the superhero fantasy and make the game less fun. We are supposed to feel powerful here. So balance is going to be one hell of a thing to try to achieve in Marvel Rivals, and I wish the best of luck to the devs. They'll need it!

Anyway, Marvel Rivals is great, and I'm willing to commit my limited time on this weird planet of ours to this game!

You know what, now feels like a good time to recommend VRChat! After 250 hours, now's the time to speak about this game, even if just a little. Or, is it really even a "game" in the traditional sense? It kind of is, but it's also a social experience as much as it is a game.

Let's just say that VRChat is what that whole dumb "Metaverse" thing WISHED it actually was. This is truly just "Ready Player One", but actually good and not insanely dystopian. The community is filled to the brim with people of all kinds, including from my community the furry fandom, and so many of them are talented beyond measure. These talented people make avatars you can embody, worlds to explore, and even really amazing minigames such as Terrors of Nowhere. Or, if you prefer not to get chased by terrifying monsters, you can always just sit and chill by yourself, or with friends, watching silly YouTube videos at Popcorn Palace. Whatever it is you want, you can experience it among hundreds of different worlds! If you want a custom avatar, there are people who legit SELL their services as avatar creators and it's truly a thing of beauty. The possibilities are quite frankly endless.

Just, make sure you have AT LEAST an Oculus Quest 2 for a good experience, with the Meta Quest Link App... it's kind of buggy and inconsistent, but it makes for a solid budget way to be fully immersed in VRChat. You can play in desktop mode if you want and still voicechat with a mic, but I feel like it's not nearly as good as embodying a character, like me embodying my fursona, it is kind of a... life changing experience! <3

Amber Isle is truly something special, and you don't even have to be a furry like me to enjoy it! LOL!

Don't get me wrong, it's a janky and buggy game, a stuttery mess with poor optimization... as per Unity and its issues. ( 32GB 4800mhz RAM, RTX 4070 12GB GPU, and Ryzen 7 7700X 4.5GHz CPU. Yeah there is no reason for it to run this badly. Rely on G-Sync, Fast Vertical Sync, or other NVIDIA options to help, perhaps FreeSync if you have an AMD GPU. Heck, I found out that Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling really works, especially for games like this with stuttering problems. )

It's adorable, satisfying, rewarding, and addictive. It's basically just Animal Crossing, but you get to be a critter yourself while everyone around you is a critter, and you get to manage a shop. You collect a variety of resources around the island to craft items, then you get to learn new items to craft and then sell. You steadily upgrade your harvesting tools over time, and it's a pretty satisfying mechanic. Some areas of the island can't be accessed until you can remove a particular resource node blocking your way, and you'll need these upgraded tools to do it.

You can use the money you earn to then invite one of MANY ABSURDLY WONDERFUL CHARACTERS ( huggable and kissable too... well no you can't do that in the game sadly, let alone date them ). Let's just say Marnie and Pepper are my favorite girls. These characters are a masterclass in design, you can tell who they are and what they like to do just at a glance. Once you invite someone to live on your island, you build their unique house in their preferred biome. You can build friendships, unlock quests to do for them, and just hangout with these impossibly adorable darlings.

Another use for money is customizing the island. You can place many items, with more you can unlock over time, and make it look better and better. I like to enhance what the devs already have and make it vanilla-friendly as possible, but you can probably go hogwild. You can even place the items you craft in your shop just out there all over the island, for some reason! You can customize your shop with the money you earn too.

Amber Isle, despite it's rough edges, is a cute delight that you'll struggle to put down. One of THE ultimate cozy games!

Dragon Age: The Veilguard starts off rather slow and linear, but then steadily opens up with gorgeous places you can freely explore and tons of decent sidequests. Some of it can be a slog and it's quite simplified compared to other RPGs, but it's enjoyable.

This is the best the series has ever looked and the character designs are great. I love the fidelity and color, creating a marriage of visual quality with style. It's definitely strayed from the dark realistic fantasy of the first game, which may or may not appeal to you. There are, however, dark and violent themes despite the visual style.

The combat has more depth than it seems with charge attacks, ability synergies ( like detonate ), and a big skill tree where you can experiment FREELY with builds. You can respec at any time. You must pay attention to item and ability descriptions to have the most fun with theorycrafting builds. You can't just level up or equip items willy-nilly and then complain the game has "no depth".

The game is semi-open, some of the main story missions are linear, but there are "exploration" areas which are fun to explore with solid puzzles to do, loot to find, enemies to fight, and paths you need to return to with certain party members to open. You can access locked paths without these party members once that party member is recruited.

The loot system is fun, I always enjoyed loot like this in games. Sure, maybe it's getting tired thanks to live service games ruining loot as a mechanic, but finding items has always been a core part of RPGs since Diablo or Baldur's Gate. The only major problem is that your gear doesn't change appearance as you increase the rarity level of them by finding duplicates, it makes upgrading your gear not as satisfying as it should be.

The story isn't going to be everybody's cup of tea, it's basically just The Avengers except a fantasy setting. It's even worse that none of the choices you made in the past games are carried over. The Veilguard feels disconnected from the other games in terms of story, but I personally enjoy the story here. I don't know, maybe it's just nice to be heroes going up against such odds?

As for The Discourse (TM). The Dragon Age series, and Mass Effect, has always had queer romances in them. This time around we get more powerful themes of identity which you can CHOOSE NOT TO DO. But apparently simply having the option to be transgender is too much for some people.

Is the combat and gameplay boring? No. I mean, maybe the combat is boring in the first 2 hours before you even get to the meat of the game and start experimenting with builds, character/item/ability synergies, and exploring places. The combat can get repetitive later on, and the enemy variety isn't exactly as good as it should be. The game reuses the same elite enemies way too often.

Is the writing and story bad? I mean, I don't know. I feel like I've heard this kind of dialogue and writing before in plenty of other games. The characters are just as varied and great as you'd expect from Bioware.

Is the game "woke"? I mean, sure it is, this is the most queer game in the series. If you play as a man or a woman, you have two or more options of people to romance of the same gender. I personally find this cool and unique.

Do your choices matter? I mean, the fact that a NPC literally told me that I'll be judged for being Qunari means there is reactive dialogue. There are some gameplay, character, and level alterations that can occur from your choices. These changes don't affect TOO MUCH, but it's more than I was expecting and I'm actually kind of impressed.

I love video games, period, and whether or not it's woke doesn't matter to me. Just make decent games like this one, the queer elements are just a nice and welcome bonus.

In my restless dreams, I see that town... Silent Hill!

A faithful remake of a classic I played to death when I was younger. I'm still partial to Silent Hill 3, which is my favorite one, but Silent Hill 2 is amazing.

This remake IMPROVES many things from the original. Here's a list of all the improvements over the original:

+ Stunning graphics! You'll need beefy hardware to run this, so be careful! This makes sense, because Silent Hill 2 on the PS2 pushed that hardware to its limit.

+ Vastly improved combat without making James feel like a commando. Simply press melee attack to use melee, and hold aim to pull out your gun. Dodging is fun, and enemies are designed nicely around evasion.

+ Better bossfights with more mechanics.

+ Levels improved with new mechanics, some new enemies, and slightly changed layouts. Mostly the same, but different enough. New locations are such a nice touch and make the replayability kind of high.

+ VASTLY improved voice performances! Holy crap!

Now, here's the flaws:

- Game is too generous with health items. I ended up with 15 Health Drinks and 15 Syringes at the final boss. Not sure if this gets better on higher combat difficulty. Maybe.

- Game spams the creepy mannequin enemy to an ungodly degree, to the point it gets ridiculous.

- Performance is highly variable on PC. Be wary if you have a high refresh rate monitor and are trying to go for higher than 60 frames. Use G-Sync or FreeSync and turn V-Sync off to get a good experience if you have a "RTX 4070 12GB/AMD Ryzen 7700X 4.50GHz/32GB RAM 4800Mhz" equivalent hardware. This is the hardware I have. Be prepared for massive frame drops in oddly specific locations, and amazing framerates in some areas if you have hardware like mine.

That's it. What else can I say? It's amazing and a lot of fun, and the kind of comeback Bloober Team needed!

Sonic Generations is as delightful as it was when it first launched, this is just a minor remaster of the game but at least it runs great and looks fine. I still don't like this insistence on 60 frames being the limit for so many games, but there's likely engine limitations with Sonic Generations preventing it from achieving frames as gloriously fast as our favorite blue blur. If you have a high refresh rate monitor that is G-Sync or FreeSync compatible, make sure it is on and the game will look and feel just fine at 60, turn off v-sync of course.

The addition of an entirely new campaign with Shadow is impressive and has much better PC options, it makes this a solid package. The Shadow campaign is next level in quality and fun. It makes me wonder why we can't just get more new Sonic games just like it.

One of my favorite things about Sonic Generations is just how addictive and fun it is to try to perfect all the challenge missions. Then there's the tight controls and exquisite level design. The levels have brisk pacing and you can't go wrong with that.

I was trying to figure out what was wrong with some other recent 3D Sonic games, like Sonic Colors, which I really disliked, and it was just floaty bad controls and bland level design that overstayed its welcome. Sonic is at its best when the levels are carefully crafted to reward speed, reaction time, and have great setpieces. The same for any 2D Sonic game, and the same for any 3D Sonic game.

Sonic is back and letting us know that... hey, he did, can, and will have good games!

Beyond Hanwell is an action horror FPS with a solid foundation. You get to explore an open world, search optional locations, and find hidden blueprints to craft cool weapons or items. The combat is quite fun, and it's the primary focus of the game rather than just traditional horror or tension. You get to fight a veritable carnival of wonderful horror tropes, from giant spiders, flesh abominations, to frickin' killer animatronics. This visually stunning game rich with ambience is VERY JANKY but ambitious and full of a clear love for horror tropes.

Now, I like this game as a casual fan of Warhammer 40K and I think it's great in a few ways. Visually stunning, visceral, authentic, and pretty satisfying when it needs to be. But there is something about it I really dislike. It feels very dated, like it's a game that came from the 2010-2012 period. Heck, it's definitely very faithful to the design of the original game which I also enjoyed... when I played it MANY years ago. But sadly it feels like I've grown out of this type of game, and I would rather play Rogue Trader or other more replayable games. I rather play Boltgun as a fan of boomer shooters or Doom 2016.

It's extremely linear, has no secrets and no exploration, with some annoying enemies. The main thing I enjoy about this game are the varied combat mechanics and the gunplay. But as you go on, it just starts becoming a slog that feels decidedly dated, and relies too heavily on the co-op or multiplayer carrying the game... for me, a person who prefers singleplayer games, I really don't care about co-op or multiplayer. I already have games I play for multiplayer. The game feels strange in singleplayer, because you have two bots constantly following you and it just reminds you that the game seems meant for multiplayer and designed around it. As I just said, I already have other games I play for multiplayer.

Hey, you don't need to listen to me if you disagree. If I could rate this game "meh" or "slightly above average" I would do that, it's not really a "bad" game in the slightest, it just feels too dated and I've grown passed this kind of game design. I definitely seem to be a fan of RPG mechanics, exploration, and open ended levels. The action in Space Marine 2 is top notch and is the strongest part of it, but it's not enough for me to recommend this game.