Recent reviews by funewchie

This is a very streamlined version of the game, and is actually fun to play.
I also recommend the DLC Season Pass if you like a nice change of venue, but the game is still perfectly functional (i.e. complete) without it.

The clue sheet is very nice and easy to work with, and will assist you in marking off players who don't have a card. Doesn't sound like much, but it's a tremendous help in longer sessions. Yet, you can still make adjustments manually as you wish.
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Now, to address something from the perspective of someone who hadn't played Clue in many years: I had absolutely no idea the actual board game had changed it's rules in recent years to speed up the game and make sessions better paced.
I'll admit, I very much like this new change.
(And yes, this version of the board game uses the new design and rules)

No more "Roll one dice per turn. Takes at least 2-4 turns just to reach one room. Don't bother going to the Kitchen or Study, you'll never make it".
There are now two dice, and the map is designed to be more compact. Almost every turn you'll make it to a room (maybe not the one you want for that turn, but a room nonetheless).

The game still has all the mystery elements that make it fun, but now there's noticeably a lot less time wasted in the outside corridors trying to get to a room to make one guess. (Though this can still rarely happen from time to time with a bad roll)

Much less frustration and dependency on luck. You now can focus more on the strategy side of things, of deducing clues (not always having to depend on someone showing you a card).

This makes the game much quicker and more fun.
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Overall, this adaptation is a fun game.
It offers online multiplayer, either against random players (quite fun and challenging), or in a private match with your friends.
Do your friends not have a copy?
No problem, as host you can set this up to be played in the style of Jackbox Party games, on one screen. You and your friends use the free companion app to control your character and cluesheets via tablets or smartphones.

Overall, if you like Clue (Cluedo), this is an excellent version of it.
I'd say go for it!
(I also suggest, if you get the game and you like it, you might consider getting the Season Pass. The extra content is not required, but is rather nice)

The legendary Sonic game, the one that fans still speak highly of.
The one that set the benchmark for 3D Sonic games.

This game is still indeed a fun challenge to play.
Yes, it's true the graphics haven't aged well (though it's a game made in 2001), the camera will sometimes fight with you, and if you're used to the newer Sonic games (e.g. Sonic Generations), then the Homing Attack will feel clunky and odd, as it's lock-on is a bit sketchy at times.

Considering other's reviews of the stages: Myself, I had zero issues with Knuckles/Rouge's treasure hunting stages (which are usually the first I all A-rank).
Tails/Eggman's shooter stages can be a bit more of a grind, though it feels more like they require you to simply pay attention to your surroundings.
And Sonic/Shadow's stages are, of course, the gold standard for this game. Often being the part most fondly remembered.
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Still, despite the above, the game feels nice, years later. The extra missions are challenging, you're not going to just walk through the game effortlessly.
(Though the Story missions are easy enough, as you'd expect.
But each stage has 5 missions each to work through, and some can be quite brutal (...such as Radical Highway's 4th mission). But they do make for good tests of your skill.)
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And of course, this was the last game to feature the beloved Chao Gardens.
The adorable virtual pets you raise and train. Often, one may spend hours just enjoying watching these little pets playing and living.
There's a good reason why 19 years later (as of this review), people still request Sega bring back the Chao Garden system.

This is a huge piece of Sonic's history, and overall a fine addition to his series.
This was the game that future games built off of.
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Should you get this game? Well...

Do you like Sonic and want to enjoy a piece of his history?
Do you like a test of your skills?
Do you enjoy playing with virtual pets?
Do you like 3D platformers with cool stunt opportunities, occasional death-defying moments (sometimes in part due to the camera issues), awesome music, and a story... that can get surprisingly dark at times?

If your answer to any of these is "Yes": Then sure, go for it!

A really relaxing type of music.
Well suited for those who want to feel like they're on a tropical island.

The blend of jazz and bossanova sounds soothing, and the faint singing in some of the tracks just gives that warmth you just don't get with some soundtracks.

(On a side note, I've had a few games that I've had this playing in the background. It does tend to fit in well with game you want to relax in)
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Songs in this collection I especially enjoyed were "Sereng!" (a fiesty beat, good for a battle theme); "Terlahir Dari Lautan ~ Night" (that singing was so relaxing and soothing); and "Nyanian Pulau" (the sounds of water crashing make that tune work so well).

(Some of the songs are named in English, and some are named in Indonesian.
(The three I named above translate as "Attack!", "Born from the ocean", and "Island Song", respectively)

This game is the classic park building sim, coupled with growing dinosaurs and keeping them in good shape.
("We have all the problems of a major theme park and a zoo." -Ray Arnold, Jurassic Park)

The game's premise is simple: Since Jurassic Park and Jurassic World both failed miserably, can YOU do it right, player?

This is not the most intricate park tycoon game around, by any stretch, but it is still quite enjoyable. The most involved thing you will face is the dinosaurs' health and happiness.
If a dino gets upset, they will either die or (more likely) break out of their pens and attack guests.

If a breakout does happen (and, spoiler alert: it WILL. (...come on, it's Jurassic Park, you didn't think it'd be that easy did you?)... no worries, the game provides you with things to help.
Emergency shelters for guests to flee to, ACU units to tranq and contain rogue dinos, and rangers to repair fences and medicate the dinos
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But overall, watch what you're doing, and you'll have few issues.
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That said... this game has QUITE the learning curve.
You will need to learn the ins and outs of managing your money, what buildings to build (and when), which dinos to put together and what they need, etc.

And you'll need to learn on the fly, as this game has NO PAUSING! (Besides the main menu)
No pausing time to manage your park, player. Hope you're good at working under pressure.

If you have some time to kill while waiting on that fossil DNA extraction or expedition to return with valuable fossils, then you can take control of a Ranger jeep or ACU helicopter and take care of the tasks yourself.

Not enough of a challenge for you, you say?
No problem, this game also comes with a "Challenge Mode", where the game takes the kid gloves off and gets mean and brutal. Not for the faint of heart.
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Sure, this isn't Planet Zoo or a zoo tycoon game. But this IS Jurassic Park/World, and is quite fun.
I'd say: If you like Jurassic Park/World, then go for this, you'll love it! If you just like tycoon sim games, I think you'll still enjoy this, too.

This game is constantly being modified.
Even if your specs are good enough to play this now, they devs will soon make it so nothing short of a $2,000 PC can play it (which in time, even that PC would not be powerful enough to run it).

The devs seem to have this idea that people love spending money to buy a game... that after a short time they cannot play any longer, due to their PC somehow now not being strong enough to run it.
And then feel people will happily spend a thousand dollars or more to buy a new PC strong enough to run the updated copy.

Unacceptable business practice, and possibly could be considered illegal in some schools of thought.
I was able to obtain a refund, thankfully.

I cannot overstate this: Do NOT buy this game!

This is a very underrated gem of a game.
It's actually pretty cool, and deserves more appreciation.

You play as 14-year-old Sean, who by chance lives in a town... that's about to be destroyed by a falling meteorite. With the one and only road out of town destroyed by a fragment of the meteor, Sean is stuck.

...However, in the classic "Groundhog's Day" trope, Sean keeps re-living the 12 minutes before the meteorite crash. With 15 possible endings, it's up to you to piece together the secrets of the town, and find a way to save Sean (and preferably his crush, Laura, too).

I won't lie, this game doesn't joke around with the puzzles. You have to really pay attention to the environment, looking for anything that seems odd. You may need to think outside the box to figure out things like passwords.
Fortunately, Sean remembers clues, which you can bring up at any time.

Additionally, as a time-saver, once you've completed certain objectives once, upon re-starting a loop, the game offers to let you auto-complete that objective instantly, in exchange for a little time off the 12-minute time limit.

I'd love to go on in more detail, but honestly, it'd be going into spoiler territory, which would just kill the fun for you.

Suffice to say: For it's price of $3, or if you like thinking games, then yes, I'd definitely recommend trying this game.

This is very fun game.
Done in the style of a daughter raising sim... well, let's be real, it's impossible to mention the genre without saying "Princess Maker", so let's just get it out of the way: Yes, this is like a Princess Maker game.
(Though a lot, LOT less creepy than that series)

As you progress through the game, raising 10-year-old Ciel (a survivor of a destroyed floating city) for 10 years, you'll influence her path in life.
Depending on how you guide her, she could try her hand at being an actress, a soldier, an archaeologist, a ballet dancer, a language teacher, a spiritual guru, an I/K/J-pop singer, or about a couple dozen other roles.

You also help her to make friends who will give her bonuses and abilities.

I will say, this game does take a while to play through. You're definitely not blasting through this in a day.
But it's chock-full of story and events, and backstory.

Monster Hunter has always been a fun series, full of excitement, exotic locations, and amazingly smart creatures to fight.
And the gameplay itself is very fun.

UPDATE: Okay... after being absent for a year, I found out recently that Capcom fixed a number of big issues.
Playing it, I now see that the horrifying lag issue is finally fixed.
I still question Capcom's PC programming ability, but at least the game is now playable, even on a lower end system.
(AMD FX-6300 6-core CPU, 16GB RAM, and a GTX 750 Ti card... with graphics set to lowest, the game runs fine for me)

Time will tell if I forgive Capcom.
But to their credit (and to my surprise), Capcom did indeed come through by fixing the game.
As such, I can no longer hold that against this game.

So, I'll now revise this review (and change it to Positive).

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Monster Hunter has to me always been defined as "Jurassic Park: The Hunting grounds".
As a hunter, you face large dinosaurs and/or dragons, armed with seemingly primitive weapons, like swords, lances, axes, bows, and/or crude firearms.

Slaying these monsters allows you to carve them up, and use those parts to create better weapons and armor, increasing your capabilities.

Which you're going to need, as these monsters don't play around.
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What makes this series shine, is it's multiplayer.
Hunting with friends can make for interesting challenges.

Don't have friends (or at least want to play alone)?
No problem, the game scales the monster to the number of players. So solo playthroughs are perfectly fine.
(In multiplayer, the game compensates by upping the monster's HP and durability, to compensate for the extra help you're getting, and to keep it fair.)

Personally, I generally play solo, and I can tell you it works perfectly fine.
(...admittedly, that one quest with a monster called Diablos was testing my patience, though. But I won after a couple tries. Now with my better weapons, it goes down much easier)

Each monster has it's own tells, so you'll want to pay attention, and learn it's patterns. And to master the art of crafting items, such as explosives and medicines.
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This is a tricky series, but having played it for years, I can tell you: It's a blast!

Is it worth the cost?
Well... it is now, I'd say.

A surprisingly good simulator for stealing/burglary.
You play as a thief, and the world is your oyster...well, when you unlock skills for it, that is.

Your character starts off as little more than a smash and grab thug.
As he accomplishes tasks and robs houses (preferably without being detected), he gains experience and unlocks new skills; including lockpicking, car hotwiring, athleticism, and computer hacking/smart device unlocking, to name a few.

While the game would appear to be a homeowner's nightmare fuel... mercifully, no one can be harmed in this game at all.
Even in worse-case scenario, with a homeowner seeing you and screaming, even if you were mean enough to swing a crowbar at them...no injuries at all.
Your character is the only person who can be harmed, generally by a police officer's taser.

That said, the stealth is surprisingly good. Very heart-pounding.
The A.I. generally seems to obey the rules of stealth. If you're behind a wall, they don't magically see you through solid matter. If you're crouch-walking, they won't hear you unless you're right next to them.

Although...the A.I. is also not stupid. If an NPC walks by and you make a suspicious noise, they will turn around and spot you. If you park your car on the sidewalk, they will notice it. They may or may not call the cops immediately (depending on the neighborhood's level of alert) but they will notice suspicious things or activities.

So yes, if you like a simulator, with skill progression, and enjoy stealth done right, then yeah, I recommend this game.

This is a surprisingly realistic hunting simulator.
The animals behave just about as cunning (and skittish) as their real-life counterparts.

If you make a loud noise, they will know danger is near. If you're upwind of them, they will smell you and know you're there. If you're too exposed, they will see you and react.
If the animals know you're there, they will run away (or for predators, run away or attack you... their choice)

This game encourages being aware of your surroundings (the wind direction, places you can stand to reduce visibility, how fast your moving (and how much noise you make), etc).
You also will be listening intently for any noise, as you'll likely hear the animal(s) long before you can see them.
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The game also encourages being an honorable hunter.
Using the correct weapon and ammo for the correct target.
(Such as: Using powerful rifle ammo meant for black bears on a little jackrabbit would be disgraceful. (In real-life, the poor thing would practically explode when shot))

If you don't do it correctly, you will be penalized in score (and EXP gain and payment).

This honor system also includes keeping the kill shot clean (ideally, you want to down it with one shot to its lung or heart, so it dies almost instantly.)
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The game also has multiplayer, encouraging you and your friends to work together while hunting. Though hunting with friends is fun, solo players can get just as much fun out this, too.

Overall, this is a very peaceful hunting game, the suspense feels nice, and the animals act about the same as they do in real-life.
I'd say this feels about as close to hunting as you can get without going out and hunting in real-life.