Nylige anmeldelser av SubrosianDimitri

CLANNAD is probably one of the best visual novels I've ever played, maybe even the best, and this is coming from someone who went in knowing very little about it (I knew of one spoilery plot point and that it was apparently scientifically designed to make you come down with a bad case of the feels).

I will not include any spoilers in this review, as this game is best going in completely blind (not that spoilers will ruin the emotions, but avoiding them is best regardless), so you can rest easy.

The story is about a delinquent high schooler named Tomoya Okazaki, who has a really crappy life. He has no mother, his father is an alcoholic, and every day is miserable for him. His only friend is an annoying idiot, and he's constantly late to school. Despite all this, he still lends a helping hand to those who need it, and never expects anything in return. That all begins to change when he meets a girl named Nagisa, which kickstarts a bunch of changes in his life that (depending on the player's choices) proceed to lead him to blooming relationships with old friends, new faces, and help the people around him achieve happiness.

The other main part of the story is the "Illusionary World" which is sometimes an intermission between certain dates in the story. The Illusionary World segments focus on two characters, a single girl and a doll made out of junk, and it takes a long time (read: a lot of reading) to figure out who they are. Not every route goes through the whole thing, and some stop earlier than others.

What really drew me into this story was its world and characters. Everyone in this game feels like a real person, with very strong characterization and development. As Tomoya (and by extension the player) grows to know these people, I wanted to help them with their problems, I wanted to see them get their happy endings and overcome their hardships. The only exception to this rule is Tomoya's best friend, Sunohara. I generally found him grating, and had the serious urge to skip through most of his dialogue (which I couldn't resist doing at quite a few instances). But even Sunohara, annoying as he is, still has a lot of depth and tons of great moments.

And it's not just the story and characters that drew me into this game's world, the music and voices were a huge help to the experience. This game's soundtrack is simply phenomenal, from the calming title screen music, to the somber pieces during the emotional scenes, and the upbeat sounds of the silly scenes. The music perfectly fits whatever is happening, and I wish I had the money to buy the soundtrack, it really is that fantastic. The voices are all perfectly delivered. Everyone sounds the way they look (if that makes any sense), and they make the emotional scenes all the more powerful. The voices are only in Japanese though, but that isn't too much of a detriment, and I'm a dub person.

The visuals are okay, I wouldn't say they're anything spectacular, and it might take some time to get used to everyone's eyes being so freaking far apart. Some of the CGs also look a bit weird, especially the first one you see, but it isn't too detrimental. It can also be annoying to some that the game isn't in widescreen, but it seems every visual novel has that "problem."

Another nice feature is the Dangopedia, which is basically a helpful tool for people who don't know all the culture differences and references, which is really helpful. However...

As much as I recommend this story to people, I don't think this is a beginner's VN, especially for its price. $50 (or equivalents) is a really steep price for a game that is essentially nothing but reading with the occasional choice (Some routes have more than others) to see how the story plays out. I'd recommend trying out a freeware or at least very cheap VN (like Katawa Shoujo) to see if this kind of game is for you before considering buying this.

Granted, this is well mitigated because assuming you don't skip anything, this game is about 80-100 hours of reading, and it's a really good read.

I spent 48 on this game during the holiday sale last year, and I have no regrets about it. It may not be for everyone, but if you want a truly emotional and touching tale, then you can't do much better than CLANNAD

planetarian is an emotional piece of work, and one I didn't know what to expect from.

The story is very basic, a scavenger who the game calls the Junker ends up in an abandoned city destroyed by a huge war that decimated most of the planet to look for supplies. In this city he ends up inside an abandoned Planetarium, where he meets a robot named Yumemi. She offers a projection for him of the night sky, something he has never had the chance to see, and agrees to fix the broken projector in order to get that reward.

That's all the story summary I'll give, but suffice to say, it is quite good. However, I didn't really get very emotional until the last half-hour or so, but by then, I was most certainly bawling my eyes out. The main meat of the story is just the building relationship between the Junker and Yumemi, which is the only reason it works at all.

In terms of graphics and sound, the game is fine. I wouldn't really say the music is anything too special, especially not compared to Key's other Visual Novels, but it gives just the right atmosphere and mood for each scene, so that it's not really that much of a problem. Yumemi and the backgrounds are fairly well drawn and detailed, and the game is fully voiced (Japanese only).

The only big turn-off this game has is in it's length and asking price. As much as I recommend this story, $10 is a really steep price for something that lasts all of 3-5 hours with very little replay value. Granted, I'm the kind of guy who can read stuff like this multiple times, but I can't speak for others. I'd recommend waiting for a sale on this one, but whether you pay full-price or discounted, this experience is well worth it.

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder how the ♥♥♥♥ the tits on half of these girls don't just fall right out of their tops (I'm looking at you Cerebella).

Skullgirls is a fighting game when you take control of 8 girls (along with another 4 and 2 guys as DLC characters) who beat the ever-loving chocolate syrup out of each other in order to acquire/destroy/wish on an artifact called the Skull Heart. Or if you don't care about story mode (because you're not really playing this game for a story anyway), you can just play arcade mode instead and deal with your typical fighting game flair in that department.

In terms of actual gameplay, it's just what you'd expect from a fighting game. There are six attack buttons, the usual punch and kick buttons along with silky smooth control and overly flashy special moves that are just as entertaining as they are damaging (which is a lot, by the way). All of the characters have vastly different fighting styles (with the exception of ♥♥♥♥♥, but there's a reason for it), and there's an anti-infinite system in place to keep infinites from happening...in theory anyway.

The anti-infinite system is a fantastic idea, I can't even begin to count the sheer number of times I ended up stuck against a wall in almost every tournament fighter I've ever played. The problem is that, to put it simply...it doesn't work. The system only registers certain kinds of combos as infinites, and the system is so damn easy to exploit and sidestep that it's borderline pointless. Now, this is only a real problem online, where everyone can do it except you, and the game doesn't match you based on MMR or anything, you just get pitted against a random person who is more likely than not far better than you.

However, other than the worthless anti-infinite system and rage enducing online play, this game is fantastic. I just recommend playing it with a controller. I have a USB SNES controller which works perfectly, but you're probably going to be using an Xbox or PS3/PS4 controller.

So, what are you waiting for? Get this titilating fighter right now, or wait till a sale, your decision. Just remember not to play it when your parents are around.

Let's get the important things out of the way right here at the start:

Is One Way Heroics a good game? Yes.
Is it fun? Yes.
Should you buy it? Yes, especially when on sale.
Is the OWH+ DLC worth it? Yes, every steam penny you spend on it.

Now for the unnecessarily long analysis portion:

One Way Heroics is a Roguelike with large amounts of Turn-Based RPG elements. Your character grows stronger as they defeat enemies, you can equip a variety of different weapons, there are multiple character classes, and there are even quests in the game which require recruiting certain characters or speaking with a specific person (OWH+ has quests to unlock extra character classes and a quest to return a little girl to her father).

Some other mechanics the game runs on include:

- Everything moves on a grid
- You have a stamina bar that allows you to climb mountains, swim in water, and use special attacks
- You also have an energy meter which is refilled by eating food, it also provides energy for force attacks
- Every recruitable character has affinity that goes up as you travel with them or do specific things on the way such as eat a specific kind of food or kill enemies
- The recruitable characters can also be levelled up
- Weapons can be given extra attributes via scrolls or other such objects
- Most items have weight (arrows and gemstones don't) and if you exceed the weight limit, you can't move
- You can unlock various perks that help you along the way
- You can find goddess statues throughout the world which give you special boosts for the cost of levels
- The Awakening ability, which allows you to take five consecutive actions without anything else moving
- The Dimensional Vault which lets you store items from a run and take them out again for a different run
- Your weapons and armor will break after a certain number of hits, given or recieved

Mechanics specific to OWH+

- Food can go bad as time goes on
- You level up upon reaching a new area
- You can add extra parts to the starting castle with Dimensional Gold Coins you find in each run, you can also place special NPCs in these extra parts
- Extra perks that make the game harder but greatly improve your rank and score
- Tons of extra items that aren't in the regular version

The biggest and most important game mechanic however, is the darkness. The darkness is always on the left side of the screen, and if you get swallowed by it, you die. Every time you do something, be it moving, attacking, equipping an item, or even talking to someone, the darkness moves forward. This means that ever action has to count, and you have to really think of possible risk vs. reward of doing specific things. Because if you go into a dungeon and can't get back out in time, you will be consumed and that'll be it. You can use the Awakening ability to get away, but it only has five uses per run, and the world goes on for a long way (10,000 km if I recall correctly).

Overall, a really good experience, and one I highly recommend.

There are certain companies in the gaming world that dominate a specific genre of games. In TellTale's case, it would be point-and-click adventure games. These people know how to make a fantastic adventure game with wonderfully designed puzzes and great story execution.

SBCG4AP is based off Homestar Runner, a long running and very entertaining flash cartoon website with a fantastic cast of diverse and easily recognizabe characters. As such, being a fan of Homestar Runner is definitely reccommended for full enjoyment of this game, otherwise you'll probably have no idea what's going on, and in the case of a few of the puzzles where a bit of knowledge about the characters really helps, you might find yourself having a lot of issues.

As for the puzzles themselves, they seem vary in difficulty from episode to episode. I feel like episode 4 is the easiest, but I don't really know which episode I should consider the hardest. Puzzles in just one episode can also have varied difficulty, meaning they don't just increase in difficulty as the episode goes on. And since this is a Point-and-Click Adventure, that of course means that getting stuck will probably lead to the age old method of trying everything with everything. However, you can turn hints on if you have too much trouble, or if you want to hear additional funny dialogue, whichever works.

The control is as simple as you would expect in a game like this, point to where you want to go, and click to move there. Hold the mouse to move faster, and while I know you can run, I'm not entirely sure how to get it to work, I think you double-click, but it doesn't always work. Moving to where you want to go can be a bit finicky though when you're on the grassy roundabout for a majority of the game's locations (Bubs' Concession Stand, The Stick, Strong Badia, The Cool Car, The Whale and the like). Your inventory is easy to find and navigate and talking to the other inhabitants of Free Country, USA is as simple as clicking on them and choosing an image from a little chat bubble for your response. Saving your game is easy and in general the game is very streamlined to make playing it simpler and removing a lot of needless menu navigation.

In terms of the graphics, voice acting and sound, they're all pretty darn good. The character models look like the characters' 2D flash puppets were just taken and rendered into 3D. All of the locations that Homestar Runner fans recognize are here and accounted for, and there are even other references like the Geddup Noise, that painting of a demon holding a torch (why is he holding that torch?), and there's even a minigame in one episode where you can make a Teen Girl Squad comic. The voices are done by The Brothers Chaps and Missy themselves, and they deliver the characters just as they would in the cartoons. And the music is perfectly like the cartoons, and some are just taken directly from them (One for example is specifically taken from "Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoon"). Essentially, they feel like you're playing an hour or so long Homestar Runner cartoon, and it's a joy from beginning to end.

Overall, a fantastic buy for Point-and-Click enthusiasts, especially those who are fans of Homestar Runner, but you might be able to enjoy it just fine even if you aren't a fan.

Playing Racist Music Over the Mic: The Game

There are 3 kinds of Dota players:

Russians, Peruvians, and Everyone Else.

And you know what, they're all terrible people!

Do you like classic Sonic games? If the answer is yes, then this game is for you. If the answer is no, well, I'd still say give it a shot anyway.

I was looking forward to this game as soon as I looked at it on Steam Greenlight, I love Sonic 2 and this game is clearly heavily inspired by the Sonic games on the Genesis. Though I do think this game isn't as much about speed as Sonic the Hedgehog is. There are plenty of times where you'll be doing less running and more puzzle solving, combat or platforming.

The keyboard controls are fine as far as I can tell, and they can be customized to your liking. If you think a game like this should be played with a controller, then there's that option too.

Graphically speaking, the game has gorgeously done spritework with really expressive characters and fantastic animations, the environments are really nice too. And with better processing available, even more impressive stuff can be done with the sprites and could ever be done if this were a Genesis game. The music is also quite good and really reflects the world you're travelling through.

There are some negatives which I'll list quickly:

1. Some stages feel like they go on for a few minutes longer than they should, mainly on the first playthrough.
2. There are some times where it's virtually impossible not to take damage from an enemy attack, luckily you have a pretty substantial life bar and healing items are fairly abundant.
3. I'm not a fan of limited lives, but getting extra ones is pretty easy since you only need 200 gems for an extra life, and gems are really easy to get a lot of.
4. The story can be kind of annoying to skip through if you stop playing in the middle of a stage and come back, though you can skip them and there is an option to play the game without the story.

Other than those nitpicks, this game is really good, and I have no regrets purchasing it.

I had this game on CD-rom when I was a kid, and it still works on my old computer, but now that it's on steam, I can play it much easier and have just as much fun as I did when I was younger.

The point of the game is to create amusment parks and build rides to complete a specific goal, if you don't your park gets shut down. It's not something you think would be fun to play, but it is. You get to completely customize how your rides are built, you decide where people can walk, whether your guests live or drown in the nearest pool of water, you can even create a park designed to make your guests suffer an untimely demise. All that with the ability to create your own parks with their own objectives, there's plenty to keep you entertained.

The game isn't perfect though, removing unneeded footpaths can be slightly annoying due to the isometric camera angle and somewhat picky programming, but it's nothing that makes the game even slightly less fun.

If you haven't experienced this game yet, pick it up, you'll surely enjoy yourself. After all, what other game lets you build your own six flags parks, or build parks on volcanoes or prison islands?

I haven't even played this game for ten hours and I'm already hooked. Despite not actually being pornography (though that word in the title is what initially caught my attention), this game is a solid title that any fan of bullet hell should pick up.

The basic gameplay is that you have a jetpack and a gun, the goal in each stage is to either get a certain number of points or destroy one or more titans, which usually has a time limit. My only issue with the control is that when on the ground it's hard to change direction while moving and the jump has a lot of up, but not a lot of over.

Some would say it's too easy once you've destroyed a titan's weapons (no ♥♥♥♥ sherlock), but that doesn't take into account the fact that there's almost always something shooting at you, not just the titan.

My only real problem comes about ten or so stages in, the game starts off easy with a slow and steady difficulty curve, then the difficulty suddenly spiked and then went back to a steady rise from where it jumped to, nothing to really break the experience. You can just play on the easy setting if you can't handle it, and you won't have to start over for each difficulty you play, which I like.

One last thing to mention, the music. While I wouldn't say the songs get stuck in my head, they are pretty darn enjoyable and sound like something you'd hear in a bar.

Definitely a game you should get, assuming you don't mind dying a lot.