Recent reviews by crater

Granted, this version isn't available anymore, but DSFix is REQUIRED for this. 30 FPS cap and not even a stable 30 FPS without it.

I've got a lot of issues with it. It's clunky, no omni-directional rolling, hitboxes are pretty bad a lot of the time, the final half/third of the base game was super rushed leading to some pretty awful design decisions, and a lot of the bosses are either bad or very mishandled. But past all that, this game is incredibly influential for its design philosophy and storytelling, has excellent level design for that first half and the DLC, the handful of good bosses are head and shoulders above the rest, music is great throughout, and the environmental detail is incredible.

I'm definitely a boss fight/gameplay guy, so DS3 will likely remain my favourite in the series, especially with this game's latter half, but bosses like those in the Artorias of the Abyss DLC and Ornstein & Smough stand out as signs of what's to come, and they work very well within the limits of the game.

Incredible. Difficulty that surpasses everything From's pulled off, but incredible. Music, sound, and art are standouts as always, level design is superb, especially in the legacy dungeons, the lore is deep, exploration is just as good if not better than the base game, and the bosses and enemy designs are unbelievably good, taking the best aspects of Elden Ring's combat design and honing it to its absolute limit across the whole roster of new foes.

It is weird that there's no DLC achievements though, didn't even realize that they didn't add them for DSIII either. Odd.

I would love to give this game a recommendation.

The gameplay is so much fun, amazing with friends, and is quite possibly the best live service experience out there.
The art direction is beautiful, the sound design is impeccable, and the music is all the heroic fanfare you'd expect.
The developers very clearly have a massive passion for this project and the skill to execute their vision flawlessly. They've built up a fanbase that is just as passionate and have proved themselves worthy of all the goodwill they've received since launch.

*However*, Sony just took all of that and flushed it by enabling mandatory PSN logins for "security" reasons. PSN, the infamously frequent victim of massive data breaches. Right...
As of today, 177 countries lost access to this achievement in video games. One-hundred and seventy-seven countries. This game that friends enjoyed together, regardless of borders, uniting people across the world, even purely from a business statistics point of view, losing 177 countries worth of players is an insane trade-off for bumping up PSN user counts. Sony deserves every single negative review and should issue a formal apology to Arrowhead for taking their incredible game and destroying its reputation in a few days with a decision that could've easily been avoided.

This review will stay negative until this ridiculous decision is revoked, and I seriously hope it is and they don't just double down on it. Great job Sony, you took the single most universally acclaimed game of 2024 and killed it.

Update: Victory. Sony sucks and this shall remain the review to remind Sony of their sins against Arrowhead and the players. FOR SUPER EARTH

A ton of fun, easy to pick up and play, quick 15 minute sessions make it more digestible than its contemporaries like Vampire Survivors. Upgrades and decor for the frog house make for a great incentive for progression, as well as unlocking new parts of the house and more importantly: other playable frogs. There are dozens in the game right now, each with a different way you need to approach the run, with the increasing difficulty making sure you know how to play the way your frog should be played. I really look forward to where this goes in the future with additional content updates and more playtime.

Great game, extremely fun and easy to lose time in. Can't wait to play the full release!

The zenith of Soulslike game design that From has been honing since 2009's Demon's Souls.

Elden Ring perfects the combat, continues and expands on the intricately woven levels the series gained praise for, has all of the challenge these games are known for, and provides one of the greatest world-focused narratives in gaming, with the sheer amount and depth of environmental storytelling being something to behold. Your sense of scale is pushed, particularly in the first 10 or so hours of the game, as you realize just how big this game is. The exploration, world design, and design of the legacy dungeons calls to mind some of the greatest level design feats I've seen, with areas like Stormveil Castle, Volcano Manor, and possibly the magnus opus of the game's areas, Leyndell, the Royal Capital in particular providing such intertwined layouts and phenomenally efficient use of space gives these areas a ridiculous amount of discovery in gameplay. Exploration in Elden Ring is exciting even after 280 hours, and in my latest playthrough I'm still discovering new things.

Enemy variety is frankly ridiculous with hundreds and hundreds of unique enemies throughout the game with different movesets, weapons, status effects, and more. The same applies to bosses, with dozens of unique bosses throughout the game. The only real problem with this is that even relatively early on in the game, you'll start to notice bosses and certain enemies repeating, which can unfortunately lead to a bit of repetition.

To speedrun the rest of this, weapon and spell variety is fantastic, Ashes of War are a great addition and expansion on Dark Souls III's weapon arts, dual wielding weapon types is a great time, sound design and music is sublime as always, as is the incredible art direction of everything in the Lands Between. The lore and story told throughout Elden Ring is some of From Soft's best, which is definitely saying something.

Long story short, this game's phenomenal and is absolutely worthy of being titled one of the best games ever made.

Having no prior experience with mech games and only really being familiar with From's run over the last decade, I knew that I could trust that this would be an incredibly finely crafted game. I knew I shouldn't expect Elden Ring or Sekiro but with mechs, and I knew I'd be going into this with a lot of learning ahead of me. Now, after hitting 100% completion with all achievements, I can confidently say that this is a phenomenal action game in every sense of the word and deserves to stand among the titles releasing this year that could bear the title of game of the year, and absolutely could be called the best action game of the year.

Your AC controls like a dream for the things it's designed to do. Turn speeds aren't as slow as I've seen in previous games, but it's nowhere near as fast as the fourth gen titles. Despite that, when you're kitted out properly and understand your build properly you can zoom around ridiculously fast, and that also goes for how much firepower you can dish out, how effectively you can avoid damage, etc. Customizing the aesthetic of your AC is also one of if not the single best aesthetic customization systems in a game I've seen. The amount of options for colouring different parts, making emblems, and everything else you can do to make it your own. The combat loop in this game shines when fighting the game's many bosses or AC encounters in the arena, and once again demonstrates that From Software are masters of their craft, especially with combat design. Level design and mission design is extremely varied, with every level having its own feel and way to play, which for over 50 missions is impressive. The variety of weapons to use is also fantastic, with virtually everything being viable and usable, but maybe not in all situations.

AC6 is an incredible game and a phenomenal action game, and I really hope that this leads to a sequel/spin-off or even a boost to the development of games in the mech genre. This game hooked me, From Soft did it again.

This game took me a long time to come around to after I got it, but once I focused in on it and really worked to learn it, that's when it clicked. This game's power set is, as expected by Arkane, super interesting and plays off of the great level design at play here, and playing it again on Original Game+ using Blink, Dark Vision, and Domino really emphasizes how strong the level design is.

That was a super bleak vision of the future that gives a lot of good existential horror.

Sad as all hell.

I'm a huge fan of Steven Wilson's work, so a game inspired by Drive Home featuring his music was something I knew would get me right in the emotions. And it did. Story with the music accompanying it is beautiful and tragic. My biggest and really only criticism is that it doesn't let you replay sections. I missed 2 collectables during my playthrough, and there's no way for me to get them without altering my save or doing another run of the full game.