Recent reviews by diffusionx

A short, cute game that is a nice showcase for VR. You take control of a little mouse, named Quill, as she navigates through environments that are reminiscent of human ones (mines, gardens, castles) but are cutely scaled down to mouse sized. Meanwhile, you use your controller to manipulate the environment to help her out. The gameplay is mostly simple environmental puzzles with some simple combat that can admittedly be annoying but is not anything too taxing or stressful. The game is short and fairly easy but it looks great with some nice environments and lighting, but where it really shines is Quill's animation. She's super expressive and it really adds a lot of charm to the game. Recommended.

I was very skeptical about Marvel's Midnight Suns, as the combination of a superhero card game with life sim/relationship elements just sounded really dumb. I'm not a comic or comic movie fan at all. I should have had more faith in Firaxis as this game is just excellent. The battle system is really well done and it makes sense in the superhero context more than an XCOM-style %-to-hit turn-based system would. There is a huge variety of playable characters and a wide variety of skills that make each combat encounter unique. As fun as the combat is, I find it equally fun to navigate and learn about the world and interact with the different characters. Firaxis put an awful lot of work into making these characters unique and, I suppose, true to the comics. The depth it gets into is actually pretty surprising, telling lots of stories both large and small, and it is paced out very well. Highly recommended.

Brigador is the sort of game that I could see myself buying in 1996, spending $49.99 at the store for a giant box with a CD and a huge manual full of lore. I mean this in the best way. This game is amazing. It looks amazing, some of the best and most detailed 2D artwork I have seen in a very long time. It sounds amazing, with crisp sound effects and some of the best synthwave/techno music out there. It plays amazing, with tons of variety and tons of content. It has a campaign that acts as a tutorial of sorts, ramping up over time, but the real meat of the game is a freeform mode that lets you tackle objectives with all sorts of weapons, modifiers, and maps.

The most surprising thing when I sat down and played it is that it is far more tactical and strategic than it first appears. Going through each map presents different challenges and opportunities. Every vehicle plays differently and the game is flexible enough to allow for lots of strategies and tactics. There is just a ton to love here and it is just a brilliant PC exclusive. Get it!

Cool game. I like the story and I like the combat. The setting is also really interesting. It is a genuinely fun game to explore, and when I entered a new area I always got excited because it is a new area to explore and learn about. The DLC is also mostly excellent and presents two long, interesting areas to go through. They are also well integrated into the game and add new features/weapons. That said a lot of the boss fights are just really bad, the combat breaks down and the fights just turn out too messy and random to be fun or have a sense of satisfaction upon completion. The DLC is really guilty of this more so than the base game. The mod system is also way too fussy for a game like this, ultimately this is a straightforward third person action game and having to spend time in the menus comparing random icons for stat percentage boosts do not belong here.

Overall though I do recommend this, especially for people who liked Remedy's old titles.

WH40K: Space Marine is freaking awesome. I played through it on my Steam Deck on Hard, it looked and ran great. The game looks a LOT like Gears of War but it is much more action-oriented, with no cover system and a focus on mowing down waves on enemies. It plays great and is a ton of fun. Now, keep in mind it is pretty short (around 8 hours) and I wish it had more variety. It is also disappointing that there is a giant mech you do not control. Overall though it is a blast. The story is also surprisingly good for a game in this genre (and also, it must be said, it is structured similarly to the original Gears). I can say without a doubt I have never felt more like a space marine than I did in this game, highly recommended. I just wish the multiplayer was still alive because I want to keep playing it!

I somehow missed out on this series my entire life, but was happy to give this a play on Steam. It is fun and weird, maybe the original meme game. It has some hidden depth that modern meme games (I am mostly thinking of Untitled Goose Game) do not. It is somewhat frustrating at times but really satisfying to play. The built-in mechanic of building up your katamari and obliterating stuff that got in the way in the beginning never stops being fun. The story is also goofy fun but take it or leave it. It has some elements to encourage replay but this is still a relatively short and light game. Unfortunately it also once it really starts to get going. Apparently the sequels pick up where this one leaves off but, well, they are not on Steam or any other modern system. I think the price is a bit high for a pretty barebones PS2 port, but I can say with total confidence that Katamari is a totally unique experience you cannot get outside this series.

I can see what Runic was going for with this game, it is an action-adventure like Zelda but heavily influenced by Team ICO games like Shadow of the Colossus and ICO. There are no dungeons or bosses but large puzzles in the world and a mysterious story told mostly through the environment. It is an okay game, but I found it to be aimless, and going through the puzzles lacks the satisfaction of the games I mentioned above. The control and combat are both pretty sloppy, leading to lots of missed platform jumps and combat that doesn’t connect or play out consistently. The camera also has a tendency to do weird things that lead to quick deaths. The game quickly got repetitive and frustrating to play and I was happy to be done with it, and unlike Team ICO’s masterpieces, I felt no connection to the world or a desire to learn about it or see the story to the end. Overall, it is an okay but disappointing game that ultimately falls far short.

Saints Row IV turns this series, inexplicably, into a superhero game, like Crackdown. Without giving away the story (which is a lot better than one would expect - but this series has always done plot and character well), you are inside a simulation that you hack to level up and can fly, shoot, stomp, and use telekinesis to lay waste to the environment. It's a lot of fun, and the game has a wide range of activities and things to do. The combat is a lot of fun and the game has a lot of surprises in terms of content, parodies, and so forth.

I loved Saints Row 1/2 on Xbox 360, but I really, really did not like Saints Row 3 - so the fact that this game takes place in the same dull and nondescript city, with the same ever-present night, is a bit of a drag, but this is still a really fun game to play and worth checking out.

MGS5 is the end result of the design that Kojima was fooling around with starting with Portable Ops on PSP, continuing through Peace Walker and Ground Zeroes. It's a game built around assembling a team, taking on missions, and growing your influence - a prominent part of the storyline of the series.

I really love this game. It's a lot of fun to explore, take on missions, experiment with the different weapons and tools, and make it your own. There are a ton of different ways to approach each mission and the game actively encourages you to do so - of course the scoring system emphasizes stealth but that is only one way. The base building is a lot of fun and very addictive. It's easy to lose hour upon hour into this game. Most stealth in videogames has moments that feel arbitrary and frustrating, but MGS5, like the older titles, has an AI that follows a defined logic that is easy to understand and makes the game very transparent and logical.

Hardcore MGS fans didn't like this title and I understand why. The story is rather threadbare and for some reason Snake barely speaks. It's incredibly weird by the standards of this series. Most of the story is delivered on optional cassettes from your underlings. The bad guys in the game are weird and don't make a lot of sense, and the main story missions (which pop up every 6-7 main missions, and are the ones tied to achievements) are far less fun than the other ones in my opinion. However, in spite of this, it's most definitely a MGS game and full of the characters, moments, and level of detail that are part of the series.

I think MGS5 is a far more approachable and accessible game for a broader audience - it's probably the only title in the series I can say that about, except for the first title arguably. I think it's easy for a newcomer to pop in and pick things up. The game also runs great - it isn't the most advanced title graphically, seeing as it was designed to run on an Xbox 360, and scales really well - I have a powerful PC and can play it at 4K and 60fps maxed without any problems. There's a ton of content, it's a lot of fun, and it plays great - an easy recommend. Give it a try!

The 2016 version of Doom has everything this boomer wants in the genre. Well, so did the 1993 version, but that's the point. Imagine if the genre continued to evolve on the Doom/Blood/Quake/Duke style instead of taking this huge left turn into cramped, linear hallways and overdramatic storytelling. What would you end up with? Fast paced action, huge levels that encourage and reward exploration, beautiful graphics, super sharp mechanics, and tons of kickass weapons. Doom has all of this. The combat mechanics encourage constant movement, use of all weapons, mixing up-close and far away combat depending on who you are fighting, and quick thinking to manage your health - this is top notch stuff and a masterclass of FPS design.

Now, the storytelling is there but mostly in the background to be ignored if you want (although it's actually pretty good IMO). Doom 2016 also has an upgrade system to augment weapons and suit characteristics, and it works pretty well especially how it ties into the exploration of the levels. The entire game just plays like it was designed by people who love the genre and wanted to deliver a kickass game. They did, this is one of the FPS games ever.