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Audiosurf 2, speaking objectively, sucks. Plain and simple. Ever since it was released, it's had a "tech demo" feel to it. Everything *technically* works, most of the time, but there's no polish to it whatsoever. Every facet of the game screams "minimum viable product", which makes it grating to engage with for any meaningful duration.

The mode that everyone plays (i.e. the default mode, the one that has any volume of scores on the leaderboards, the only one of the preinstalled modes to include the word "competitive" in its description) is RNG-based. While the ordering of the "notes" in any given song is always fixed, RNG is used to determine which "lane" to place them in. Since a full grid is worth far more points than three grids with only one lane filled (despite both requiring the same amount of notes to achieve) the maximum achievable score will always change from one run of a given song to the next. This is... dubiously a positive for replayability ("i could run this song back and maybe get more points if the notes are laid out more favorably") but it's completely antithetical to having meaningful leaderboards. Even top players can get an unfavorable layout that makes it impossible to place highly. Even with perfect play, placing on the leaderboards still requires an element of grinding for well-balanced note placements, which are **not** common.

Hilariously, this also means that as a given track becomes more competitive (more people playing it) its leaderboards will become **more** dependent on RNG, rather than less. This is because more people playing a track --> more people willing to grind and grind harder for better scores (nb, I am not exempt from this categorization) --> more random rolls of the same map --> more chances for a roll of the same map that has nearly-optimal scoring potential out of all random rolls --> more and higher scores on the leaderboards --> greater difficulty in placing on the leaderboards with a low-scoring-potential roll. This is the diametric opposite to most other games that claim to be "competitive" and place leaderboards front-and-center in the experience, as Audiosurf 2 does. In other games with these qualities, any RNG present in the game tends to become less and less relevant as the game becomes more competitive, since top players tend to be talented enough to work around most bad RNG outcomes. No such recourse is present in Audiosurf 2.

If that wasn't bad enough, the note orderings that the game generates for a given song are completely dependent on the input audio file. No attempt is made to canonicalize the note placements in the generated levels across users. This means that different encodings of the *same song* can and will generate different levels, sometimes with different scoring potentials. Two people playing the *same song* will thus be unable to achieve the same scores, solely because one is using f.e. a FLAC copy and the other a 320kbps MP3. (Yes, such canonicalization is a hard problem. Yes, it probably requires the server to store the canonicalized copy, and for the game to attempt to retrieve the canonicalized copy before being able to attempt to place on the leaderboards for a song. Yes, this is potentially problematic due to first-mover issues, and probably requires some sort of invalidation system to allow players to flag canonicalized levels that are wrong, which is a mess all of its own. No, there is no excuse for not having this feature for as many years as the game's been out, especially with how well the game is able to canonicalize the leaderboards of songs so that it's possible for FLAC owners to play against 320MP3 owners at all.)

EDIT: Major correction, the note orderings that the game generates for a given song are *supposed to be* completely dependent on the input audio file, but apparently that isn't even fully deterministic.

And this is a minor gripe, but Audiosurf's skill ceiling is frankly not that high. I can't complain too much, as it allows me to place globally on popular songs by simply having the reading comprehension to understand the ~ten sentences of strategy that appear on the loading screen of each song. However, it doesn't really feel like I've *earned* the ability to do so - I'm not *that* good at rhythm games.

I've still sunk a massive amount of time into it, solely because of its one redeeming feature: you can toss absolutely any song at it, and it'll do a halfway-decent job of creating a level for it. No need to worry about someone having created a level for that one song you like. This is the only reason to purchase Audiosurf 2, IMO. If this doesn't sell you on the game, you should leave now and play anything else.

An amazing, surreal experience.

The original QUBE was compelling because of the air of mystery surrounding every element of the game. You're trapped in a decaying spaceship with no explanation for what has happened, other than what you can glean from the environment. The puzzles were satisfying, if not particularly challenging, but there was plenty of variety to make it worth seeing through.

QUBE: Director's Cut bolts a trite, pedestrian story onto the original QUBE. The terrible writing and acting detract massively from the original experience. All of the charm of the world is sucked out by the characters' exposition, which paints a far less engaging picture than what the player would come up with if left to their imagination. As an aside, the Director's Cut variant is now the only variant on Steam, and I don't recommend purchasing it for that reason.

QUBE 2's innovation is to force the writing from the Director's Cut to center stage. It builds the experience around the story, ensuring that nothing is left to the imagination (this is a bad thing) while presenting puzzles that are less varied and interesting than the original QUBE.

QUBE 2 is certainly not worth its price. At best, it's a tedious time-killer, and that's after turning off the dialogue.

EXAPUNKS features the most useful, intuitive, informative, and responsive debugging experience I've ever seen when programming.

EXAPUNKS also features a language syntax which leads to the most obtuse, confusing, indecipherable, write-only code I've ever seen when programming. You're gonna need that debugger.

Hopoo Games have managed to make the jump from 2D to 3D and stick the landing with ease. There's so much to do in this game and it's so easily replayable that it's worth every penny and more, especially if you have a group of friends to play it with.

Due to the way that it's best enjoyed - in small amounts, two or perhaps three runs in a sitting - Gungeon has kept me coming back for probably over a year now. It's one of the few roguelikes where you still haven't necessarily seen quite everything after 200 hours.

Celeste perfectly epitomizes exactly what excellent platforming is about, and tells a damn good story backed by a gorgeous soundtrack to boot. GOTY 2018.

Hollow Knight is, through and through, an excellent game. It takes an unusual setting and executes it exceptionally well, with an amazing artistic style, unintrusive yet expressive storytelling, a wonderfully atmospheric soundtrack, and tuned-to-perfection gameplay. It's very doable for a more casual/inexperienced player to enjoy & traverse the world of Hallownest*, while still burying plenty of challenge & depth below the surface for those who would seek it out. Well done Team Cherry.

* excepting, of course, the Watcher Knights and the Pantheon of Hallownest

This game is what happens if you tell a philosophy professor to write a video game with a prompt of "Portal meets The Matrix."

Both an absolutely fantastic game and an absolutely fantastic way to give yourself carpal tunnel syndrome. 10/10.